Hottest Takes With Jason Concepcion | Real Ones

what's popping real ones here live in los angeles i am logan murdoch that is howard motherfucking beck this is jason you want motherfucking sure yeah jason motherfucking concepcion nicks or chamois i think i've deserved i think i deserve it yeah you can call yourself whatever you want that's right you do um we are here for the hottest takes pre-season version um i'm very glad that we have jason here because i'm not sure we're gonna get out of howard maybe more measured takes we're here to fuck around so let's see how we can do this are you excited about this i'm excited i can't wait how are your takes are you are you i hope they're i hope they're i hope they're pushing the envelope okay um we'll see we'll see we will find out we will discover what they are so beck on the way here from you're gonna tell the story again i'm going to tell the story again this is a new audience and beck on the way here um from new york was texting me on the plane asking me what kind of takes you should get so i don't know what to expect inaccurate i'm pretty scared about what's going on so we'll see what happens first team on the docket the boston celtics jason oh boston celtics um boston celtics very exciting um of course big trade big trade big news you know what boston celtics finish above the philadelphia seven oh oh that's all right okay explain the take i just think jason tatum hasn't been this inspired or angry since uh you realize the savings he could have when he moved to new york and he's like i don't know what to expect i don't know what to his money over from a checking account to a to an actual savings account and i think that that the the sight of jalen brown in another jersey talking shit to him is going to awaken he can finally like show his true feelings on the situation it's finally gonna come out that anger that that real like fuck this guy kind of feeling and i think everybody's gonna fall in line behind him not to mention i think i think philly i think philly there's i think there's certain structural and emotional obstacles and i think this is a all the moves they made are trades for next year not this year i think it's going to take time to gel and i think if you look at the history of lebron changing teams in big ways it's always kind of disappointing that first year so i think it's going to be i'm going to over index on the disappointment boston celtics finish you're banking on the fact that because jason tatum is finally going to be interesting yes and he's going to have a feel finally show some feeling on the basketball are we sure tatum that is going capable of anger and vengeance is that going to be that's going to be the reason why the celtics have a better record than the 76ers and paul george is going to play is going to play 63 game holy shit that might be the that might be hotter than the first take it's scorching in here in this cold it's somehow it's scorching in this cold ass studio i'm very scared right now because now it's his turn to have a take and i don't know what's going to happen it might be very lukewarm it could be the hottest thing ever this episode is brought to you by sony pictures classics a perfect crime film says the daily beast john taturo gives a career best performance don't miss the acclaimed new thriller the only living pickpocket in new york taturo stars as an aging master pickpocket whose latest score puts him in the crosshairs of a ruthless crime family also starring giancarlo and steve buscemi see the film that the la times calls instantly classic the only living pickpocket in new york opens only in theaters october 23rd in new york and los angeles nationwide october 30th this episode is brought to you by google chrome you think you know a browser but gemini and chrome that's new it can help you with practically anything on the web like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50 page restoration block or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks gemini and chrome is here for it ready to go to make anything online make sense there's no place like chrome check responses set up required compatibility and availability varies 18 plus you know it could be fresno in july would at least warm us up a little bit because it's freezing in here this is a great segue actually off of off of jason's take because it is a paul george take which is that paul george he's going to be a seamless fit so much so that celtics fans are going to claim victory in the trade okay okay okay in fact on top of that let's just get geeky here and yeah please let's just let's veer into bobby mark's territory paul george is going to have better on off stats than jaylen brown the advanced stats oh okay all right okay all right all right all right that's a low bar all right kenny atkinson relax jesus christ i think that that's probably going to be the case and uh i'm excited for that discourse because i think jaylen love that yeah oh yeah i i think that i don't i have no i don't have high expectations for this team i don't think all right okay i think it's it's just really hard at this particular moment to convince me that is jason tatum going to play a full season is mitchell robinson who i know has given you nightmares as much as he's given you very great dreams um are you looking forward to mike brown intentionally fouling mitchell robinson to put him at the line embarrassing him it's going to be cute it's going to be funny and i think mitchell robinson for the very first time in his entire career is going to be mostly kind of healthy this season that's a hot take i think that's a hot take okay i think okay at the at the risk of getting fired from this this great place i think the ceiling for this team is a six seat let's move on let's move on oh damn to the new york knicks coming in hot you thought you had time didn't you you thought you had time do you want howard to go first i should maybe i should go first anyway because i think i'm going to have this may set jason up okay um the knicks will not repeat okay and it won't fucking matter because jason and all the other knicks fans are like we're good we're set for life it's fine we would like them to repeat it would be nice to repeat but if they don't we're good we're good forever we have og and nobody's tipping for the rest of time we have jalen brunson being the most popular new yorker of all time everything is fine like they're they're there's not like the subways are just beautiful now are they every everything is beautiful yeah because it's just it's knicks colored glasses everything is orange and blue everything is fine um it doesn't matter if they ever win again listen i don't quite believe that but i will give that to the expert on the on these matters i do think okay so if you guys are like 500 and teetering on 500 in january are you guys going to still be happy no here's i didn't say 500 i just ended up repeating let's be clear um we say that we will be but we won't yeah yes it's very easy to say now like good wait i have a question following up to that one right sure so you guys have celebrated a lot there's been weddings there's been there's been a lot going on you guys have turned a little hollywood right like like a tiny bit hollywood i don't think like a tiny bit hollywood i don't think jalen brunson's capable of going full hollywood but okay is this you guys had a fucking malibu wedding that you guys all went to it's it's very much hollywood wasn't that always happening wasn't that happening every off all right okay the question i'm going to ask you before i get to your take was in the back of your mind and the cynical nicks fan are you like what the fuck are they doing man we got to lock in for next season what would be what under what circumstances will fat joe take back the terror squad chain off of the neck of mike brown what is it what has to happen it would have to be a complete and total collapse with multiple seemingly personal feuds bursting into the open with you know uh disagreements about role disagreements about uh defense and offensive systems all of that stuff that seemed like it was bubbling underneath even up even throughout a lot of last season yeah would have to burst open and they'd have to be shitty yeah um i don't see that i don't see that part happening i don't see that happening i did now my original hot take was this night but i did toy with you with the idea that i think they will be better have a stronger regular season this year and then not win the final that's actually not that's pretty luke that's pretty luke warm fuck it we repeating let's go come on where's this camera is your camera right ahead say it right now go right now two for two let's go first repeat of the parody era there we go adam silver you can't stop us you can't keep us down like this mark tatum you can't stop us okay okay so what about when the cat is uh what about what cat is defensively he's a like uh and someone just sees him on this on the pick and roll and they just see him and they see him as food because mitchell robinson is no longer there he is the only right you're talking about the foul issue it's gonna be a problem yeah it's gonna be a problem but cat was good defensively minus the fouls can we say that is that yeah sure take away the fouls i think he was a very solid defensive player especially during the playoffs he was good flat out and I think with a proof of concept in the bank, we understand this works, and with the captain as hungry as ever, Mikhail, Bridge is going viral. I just think let's do it again. Okay. Four seed. Okay. Four seed. That's okay. Let's go over the Bridge. Let's go to Brooklyn. The Brooklyn Nets right in your backyard. Brooklyn Nets hottest take Howard motherfucking Beck. Julius Randle's going to post career bests in scoring and usage and still won't make the All-Star game because the Nets are going to be so horrid. And no one in New York is going to see it. No one's even going to know because nobody really covers them. That's not true. They are covered, but they are not let's just say that they're not exactly stealing back page headlines for good or bad from the Knicks or the Yankees or anybody else anytime soon. But like, what a bittersweet thing for Julius Randle, right? Probably didn't want to leave New York in the first place. Gets to come back but it's on the other side of the river at a time that his old team just won the championship without him for the guy with the guy who he was traded for. Yeah, this is like purgatory at this point. And it's like a wrestling match between him and Michael Porter Jr. for like who's going to jack up the most shots. That'll be fun. Jacking. My hot take is Michael Porter Jr. will average 25. 25 podcasts a week or 25 points for games? 25 points and 25 podcasts. Okay. And by mid-December he will be openly discussing should I quit and just be a podcaster for the year? Yeah. He'll be talking about it. I think Jordy Fernandez is going to be like, you know what, go do your podcast by January. I think my hot take is that Jordy Fernandez is going to get minutes this season. He's actually going to suit up. I think he's going to suit up. I think he's going to suit up for one game. And he's going to score like five, seven points, something like that because they're going to need him. I think that's my hot take. I think that's going to happen. He's going to be the first player coach since Bill Russell. And he's going to lead. You know, Bill Russell led them to a championship. He's going to lead them into the lottery. They need somebody to pass the ball, I will say because even their I mean, you know, their legendary five rookie draft. Five rookies who all need the ball, none of whom want to pass. I just think it's he should think about it. Jordy should think about it. Not the worst option. Goddamn, they're a money pit, man. You see how great their facilities look with nothing to show for it. It's really nice. Really nice. Great view from the top of their training center. Amazing view. Not only that, but my friends who have kids in school, in New York City schools, have been sending me texts that are like some variation of my child told me that when they called on this one kid in class today, no matter what the question was, he just answered Jalen Brunson. I thought I was just going to say Nixon 5. That's what's happening in New York City schools right now. This is what I'm saying. They don't have to ever win again. It's that Nixon 5 will be the answer to every question. We say that and I. We say that now. We say that now, but it would be nice to get an owner. Dolan is still the owner. Right? Yeah. You try to forget that, don't you, Jason? I do. Although I will say some other owners have been making it easy. We'll get to that in a second. He's falling down the list a little bit. Philadelphia 76ers. Hottest take. Who wants to take this on? You want to go first, Jason? I may have. I have a hot take. LeBron James might. Did he should go off the bench? Sixth man of the year, LeBron James. Think about it. Hear me out. It's not going to happen. Think about it, though. Boom. You put LeBron James. You play him 25 minutes a game. You play him with the second unit. He is the sixth man of the year. You add that to the trophy collection. You keep him fresh until the postseason. And if he buys into this role, it allows him to be great in his role against second unit teams. And then it helps out with all the plethora of scoring options in the starting line. Dean Wade is starting in LeBron's place? Why not? Let's get freaky. This is the hottest takes, right? Is this not the hottest takes? That was hot. I guess my hot take would be LeBron and Embiid. They've been under the court for less than 500 minutes. Which is not a lot. I'm trying to do the math in my head of how many games is that. That's not great. And I think over the course of that season, does LeBron like playing with Embiid? Will be a thing that he will be asked. Is that going to be manufactured by LeBron? Or is it also. I'm manufacturing. No, no, no. Is that going to be the storyline mid-season through back channels of what LeBron wants? Do you think that one is? Is that your prediction? Yes. In fact, it's going to be so manufactured that to cover the tracks, they'll get Max to ask it. Alright, see you later, guys. Oh, shit. So before we get to. Before we get to Howard's pick. Before we get to Howard's pick, I don't know where to go from here. I did 500 divided by 82, and that is six minutes per game together. An average of six minutes per game together with Embiid and LeBron. It might be a little low. I might bump it up to 800. It's going to be concentrated among 40 games. That's right. Howard, I don't know how you. How are you going to add on that one, baby? You might need a lukewarm take after these last two. Oh. I'm not recovering from that anytime soon. My take is LeBron-oriented, though. Okay. LeBron's going to average double-digit assists for the second time in his career. Last time was 2019-20 with the Lakers. Yep. Why would he do anything but this? He might lead the league in assists this season. He doesn't need to score. He could roll out of bed and score 18-20 without even trying. He doesn't need to try to score at age 42. He's got Maxie and Edgecombe and Jalen Brown and Joel Alvarez. He's got Joel Alvarez. He's got Joel Embiid and apparently starter Dean Wade. So he entered the league with the quote he was going to be. Not his quote. Other people were saying he would be more magic than Michael. Turns out he was both those guys rolled into one in the body of Karl Malone. But he's shown already. First of all, early in his career, he was going to be all about the team. He showed last season, I can set up Luka and Austin Reeves. I can play off them at this stage of my career. I don't need all the wear and tear and all the effort to try to do everything in every possession. He'll be fine with doing that. And so he'll want to conserve himself. And he almost has to too. Like if this shit's going to work with so many mouths to feed, someone has to be the one to decide I want all these guys to thrive. And he's the most likely candidate, the best candidate to do it. I like it. I like that as well. I like it. That was very mature of you, Howard. We have recovered. I think we're going to be good. I think we're going to be okay. You think we're going to be okay? I think we're fine now. Everybody doing all right? All right, cool. The Toronto Raptors, Howard Beck. Oh, man. And also as of recording now, Kawhi Leonard is officially a Toronto Raptor. So go ahead. Waved that tree. Waved that tree. Waved it. Not by choice. Had to, according to Bobby Marks, for it to fit under the aprons because they were hard capped. So it wasn't like some magnanimous gesture by him. Let's be clear. No one told Danilo Gallinari that he didn't. Hey, listen, he'll plant a few trees. He'll be fine. You know, he'll make up the difference. Cool. Here's the thing. It's a good take, and it is about Kawhi. Okay. Kawhi's return to Toronto is going to be the weirdest, least satisfying homecoming we've ever seen. I like it. Toronto, happy to have him back, and they should be. But let's remember, he was the first player in our lifetimes, maybe the history of sports, to lead a team to a championship, be the finals MVP, and then say, like, I'm good. See y'all later. Goodbye. He spurned them, and he's coming back seven years later, seven years older, all the wear and tear, and also now with the cloud of this scandal hanging over him. Toronto doesn't care because that's on the Clippers. That's a whole other country. That's what they don't know. Shit. But for them, it's okay. But for all the rest of the world, we're all looking at him a little differently. Like, you brought all this on that other organization. The Rackers don't care. I kind of push back on that. Also, by the way, not the warmest, fuzziest personality in the first place, right? So this is not some warm and fuzzy homecoming. I know that's a hot take. I know I'm out on a limb here. It's going to be fine. They will win a lot of games. It's just not going to be all that like. Because it was cool when we saw LeBron go back. So other homecomings we've seen have been kind of like fun. There's nothing fun about this. I think homecomings are defined by the reaction of the home. And I think the reaction of the home, in this case, Toronto, they're going to love them. We're going to see that on TV. You don't think they're going to be a little bit like, oh, we're happy to have you for the talent, and you're going to elevate us again. But you did spurn us seven years. You talk to people, and Toronto, they don't give a fuck about that. All they care about is that they got a ring. He was probably going to get his jersey retired, no matter what, no matter if he came back or not. I think that they're going to love it. I think we're going to probably. Well, you are going to be weirded out about it. I'm going to be like, well. I'm just saying it's not going to be that emotionally resonant. I don't know. I think Drake is going to cry in the courtside seats on opening night scene. Do we care what Drake does? It's not about we. It's about them. It is about Toronto. What's your. After. Thank you. Uncle Dennis's mid-season arrest at the border crossing. Kawhi Leonard renounces his American citizenship, goes full Mark Carney pro-Canada, anti-USA, and honestly, power to him. Fair. Wait, but how does he. He becomes a Canadian hero. Well, he's already a Canadian hero, but yes. No, but like for the full Canada, for the entire from sea to shining sea, whatever they say up there. Yeah, from like Alberta to fucking Nova Scotia. From British Columbia to the other one on the border. That other one, yeah, yeah. Nova Scotia. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly. Okay, I get that. So Uncle Dennis is going to get arrested. That's what I got as the hottest take. I think they're going to seize him at the border. You know what? That's fair. That's what should happen. That's better than anything the NBA did. The NBA like left, like, oh, they banned for life a guy who has no representation of anybody. My question. Wait, wait, wait, excuse me. A five-year ban, five years only for a guy who has no other representation of the NBA anybody. Also, he's like, cool. I did what I did. I did my job. Let me just say this about Uncle Dennis. Everybody's shitting on Uncle Dennis. He asked for this. He asked for that. Why wouldn't you? Of course. You don't have to give it to him. Yeah. First of all, like, of course, you asked for stuff. I can ask for this building. Spotify is going to be like, fuck off. Don't give it to him. And then second of all, and this is the thing that really gets in my craw, that people don't talk about enough. The NBA looked all over that. Uncle Dennis asking this and that from the Raptors, from the late, from everybody. Spurs and everybody. And they found nothing to it. They found nothing there. Until Pablo Torre found out. And now all of a sudden they're like, whoa, holy shit. So one thing that I would love Pablo or anybody else to look into is how exactly the NBA. The NBA looked at all the stuff that Uncle Dennis was doing and said, it's fine. Let him keep going. And now it's a problem. The NBA has a habit of reacting when other entities report out this stuff, right? Like, Robert Sarver's fine until Baxter Holmes exposes him for being a complete creep. And then we got to chase him out of the league. Like, nothing happens until somebody else figures it out. The NBA knows what's going on. And they're just kind of like, as long as nobody finds out. Yeah, it sounds like a professional sports league. Yeah, that's how it works. That sounds like the going rate for a professional sports league. I don't know. If I have a take on this one, I'm sorry, guys. What? Nobody else you want to have arrested at the border? I didn't want him arrested. I don't want a black man to be arrested at any border or anything. I'm not saying that. I'm just. That was his take. That was not mine. I think that this goes. The Raptors thing has a great variance in that they can go to the finals. They can also be a playing team if shit goes bad. You know? Sure. That's my take. They're going to miss Grady Day. Is what you're saying. They're going to miss the jersey swaps, for sure. We all are. Okay. All right. The Chicago Bulls. Hot take for you. Josh Giddey averages a triple-double. Whoa. The Chicago Bulls end up having their fourth front office by next off. Okay. Clear house. Again. Why are you firing Bryson Graham? What did he do? What's wrong? It just didn't work out. It just didn't work. Same as usual. Okay. Why are we. You know, why are we. Just. You know. Why are we still suck? Why is it going this badly? But then the rhinos are after you have to pay him not to work, and they don't really like spending money. True. Yeah. But I still think they'll do it. All right. Awesome. It is awesome. It's awesome. He really. He researched and went hard for that one. That take. It's hard. The Bulls are boring. Jesus. This is not even that hot of a take. It's just the only thing I. Like, the Bulls are so uninteresting in general. This is about the best I can come up with. I'm sorry. This is the Bulls' fault, not mine. They're going to flip Norm Powell by the deadline. Yeah. Possibly back to Miami because Miami needs him more than they do. And, like, what is he even doing here? He's getting paid. You got. You got. Two years, 44 million. You got. What's not to like? Yeah, but no, it's a very movable contract. Second year's team option. It was made to be moved, basically. But, like, what's he doing here? Nice little condo, you know, in Chicago for three months. You know, not bad. I got another one. They're going to open. Let's go. They're going to open 10-3. One of those fake good starts. Tiago Splitter, coach of the month. Ooh. All right. Is he going to get the Avery Johnson special? They win less than 35 games. Okay. That's brutal. I'm going to add to that. Okay. I said, Tiago, 11-2. Okay. What is this? The price is right. And they win 27 games. That would be incredible. I could see it. Oh, man. Okay. Let's go to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. I think. This is my take. I think in order to optimize James Harden and get the best out of him, they were going to build a club in the middle of downtown Cleveland. I thought you were saying in the middle of Quicken Arena. That's going to be the greatest. Honestly, they're going to build a new forum club specifically for James Harden. Just to optimize performance. You know how people need cold tubs and stuff. No, they're going to just have a club for him with all the accoutrements that he loves. He's going to have a career year. Why not? Why not? It's best I could come up with. What's your hot take? Cavs have already peaked. Yeah. It's done. This is it, man. Like, this is the least convincing on-paper contender. And it's always an on-paper contender, right? They're the least convincing on-paper contender in recent memory. Two years ago, they won 64 games out in the second round. Last season, we finally made it to the Eastern Conference Finals. And we can't hold like a 38, 40, 50 point, whatever the hell that lead was against the Knicks. They get absolutely smoked. Harden is 37. Hold on really quickly. I want to know. I haven't had your take. What was that like for you? To just see James Harden turn into a human cone? I mean, it's not anything we haven't seen before. I honestly. I will say I knew that. We were good on a level that I have not experienced before in my life. Because I was actually like, we kind of got. I think we got. Even down 23 or whatever it was. I don't think I've ever seen a quicker or more dramatic atmosphere change. I was in the building that night. And the crowd was done. They were just like, well, I guess we're losing game one of the series. That's fine. We'll come back. Whatever. And then it was like, ooh, a little bit louder. A little bit louder. And all of a sudden, the place is fucking exploding. And the Cavaliers are just wilting. I've never seen anything like it. It was nice. But yeah, they're done. They've already. The Cavs have already peaked. This edition of them is done. And it's going to be the worst kind of done, Howard. Because they're still going to have massive contracts from people. And they're just going to. They're not going to have. Not to say they're not going to have expectations. But they're going to be a team in purgatory with old guys that are getting older and getting paid a lot. Three years, $96 million for James Harden. Hey, man. A promise is a promise. Okay? A promise is a fucking promise. Are you sub-tweeting a former GM somewhere? Oh, no. He mad at me right now. Yeah, it's true. Let's see. I don't know. Yeah. When the Cavaliers return to Madison Square Garden November 11th, Kenny Atkinson will explode when the local beat writers inundate him with multiple analytically we won the series reference to the point that Kenny has to be. Mark Berman has retired, so. He will come out of retirement from the Catskills or wherever the fuck he's at. He's in Florida. He will fly up, head shining. This is a struggle. A struggle all right here. This is all a struggle. This was a perfect Mark Berman question, too. A couple of die-coats in. He does need to un-retire just for this. Just to ask this. No, no. You know what's going to happen? There's going to be, at the end of the pregame presser, there's going to be a Nick Staffer out of nowhere saying, okay, we have one last one in the Zoom league. Where's the Zoom for Mark? And Atkinson will need to be restrained. Oh my God. I love this. Oh my God. This is too good. Okay. All right. All right. We still have the rest of the league to talk about. Let's go with the Detroit Pistons. It's got sad. It's got sad. I struggle with this one. All I could come up with is. Hold on. Is Jalen Dern going to sign with the Pistons only to get traded for Sabonis at the trade deadline? This is the last thing we're waiting for, right? As we record this, we should once again note, because we don't know if he's going to sign, is he going to sign with the Pistons only to get traded for Sabonis at the trade deadline? As we record this, we should once again note, because we don't know. By the time this comes out, we don't know where Jalen Dern will be. But as of now, I don't have much on the Pistons other than this. If Asar Thompson makes the leap and we're getting the Instagram videos of like, "Oh, the jump shot looks better," or whatever. The Ben Simmons special? Look at that. The Mitch Robinson special. If Asar Thompson, already an outstanding defensive player, if he makes the leap offensively, they win the East. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Is this even that hot? Jalen Dern will sign a contract. A contract. He's not going to take the qualifying. Stop it. Oh, yeah. No, that's great. Yeah, come on. Stop it. Yeah, that's posture. You're not going to fucking do that. Don't do that. Hey, yo, yo, listen, man. Don't do that. Don't do that. That's absurd. Don't do that. Don't. Bad idea. Okay. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. I don't know. Ready for this? fan he's gonna win mvp they're gonna have a great season mvp mvp of the national basketball and not you don't mean on the ballot you don't mean he's gonna he's not gonna make some votes he's not gonna get votes oh shit you know how you know how fickle these writers are careful right we're like it's like oh you're talking to the president of the pbw right here and yokich is we're gonna do this again and like wemby of course he's gonna win a million of them and then he's gonna come out hot they're gonna be good it's the chemistry is just waiting for the addition of him back into the mix and he is going to be the straw that stirs the drink no health issues and the thought is going to be we're going to get a second chance give iris halliburton an mvp and he's going to win i'm going to add to that he's going to win the mvp and he's going to eliminate the knicks i mean it might happen listen again pacers and knicks fans will say it's fine because we already won the championship and it's true are you guys gonna are you guys gonna clap and be like god damn it i would i i mean this completely sincerely i i think it would be cool if they if the pacers won a champion yo man i i think it'd be cool listen man i can't believe this shit from you new yorkers right now man i can't believe how nice you guys are now i can't believe how nice you guys i can believe it with you because you've got you've been california for a while since whenever new yorkers come to california they get a little they get a little easier around the edges right but like new yorkers who used to just be assholes in a loving way you guys are so nice now and just so accommodating i don't know how to feel jalen brunson changed the world on its axis when i see tyrese halliburton doing the doing the you know the joke sign it was a little bit like he could have come up with his own but it was cool i feel no pain in my body it's crazy you know i feel like i've been reborn i feel nothing okay i don't think tyrese halliburton's ever received a single vote on an mvp ballot i was just trying to check real quick hey howard howard don't be a killjoy don't be a killjoy do not be we do love listen to jason's point while overstated we do love a good feel-good story it's gonna be feeling real but but mvps also have to put up like gaudy numbers and he's not really a gaudy numbers kind of guy he's so so okay so so what it has to be 1915 and like but you don't think like 19 19 10 to 11 he has to be like oh five nash i was gonna say nash yeah he's got to be like nash like and it's and it's and one of those things where he misses six games they lose all six but also they gotta win like 60 or something they gotta have the best record in the east for him to even get into this conversation like 61 games and he will win the mvp that's a hot take that's good it's a very hot i like that one okay um i'm calling the pacers the sleepiest sleeper that ever slept or that was slept on i guess because jason's take on on halliburton aside they're never talked about right now it's like we're all fixated on lebron and jaylen brown in philly and are the knicks gonna repeat and are the celtics gonna be back in the mix with jason tatum healthy again and the pistons won 60 games last year and the cavaliers or whatever the cavaliers are but everybody's talking about everybody except the pacer we completely forget to put them back in this conversation and we absolutely should be because they made the finals a year and a half ago um the miles turner is gone but zubach is in his place everybody else is still there nemhardt and knee smith and t.j mcconnell and like rick carlisle is is still a freaking genius of a coach like they they really didn't lose anybody of note i mean all due respect to benedict mathurin they brought in kelly uberay like we're not giving them enough respect they need to be talked about in the mix to win these i fully respect iris halliburton okay um the atlanta hawks i'll go first i think that little boozy is gonna finally like tears his hamstring i think this is the year he does it i think this is the year he finally does it he that's all i have for you i think he's gonna do it's either gonna be what he does the the the the timeout uh thing where he jumps i think he's gonna i think he's gonna tear i think his whole right leg is just gonna just just shatter and for half the season is gonna be in a cast okay i think that's about all i got um you want to do one do you even know who little boozy is he's the guy who did the thing in the video and the yeah um no i saw i saw something happen during the playoffs and i went i don't know why the camera is on this guy so there you go there's your answer um is this even is this hot like jalen johnson's the best player in the division in the division in the division now you're making i don't think that's a hot take you're making us think about nba divisions it's either it's you saying it's between him and yannis i think he'll be better than you i think he will put up better numbers than yannis all right that is a hot take yeah huh i can see that i can see that does that make them does that take them the next step into the upper echelon of the eastern conference because i don't think so no i don't think so no i think they're like in the i think they're in the uh the six seed ish range six five seed range were six last year i think they're probably six again like that's i mean that's where my take was in this anyway with his like the all of my lukewarm takes this will be the lukewarmest like i love what they're doing and i don't know where it leads like i love them going and getting getting uh i love the nikhil alexander walker pickup i love the cj mccollum pickup last season like it's all good like they're making good fundamentally sound moves here to build this team but unless jalen johnson turns into a true number one like like i and by that i mean he's not just putting up great numbers right he can win a playoff series for you and and we saw this against your knicks right he just wasn't ready for the moment and so until he either becomes that guy or they find that guy elsewhere i'm just not sure where all this goes let's go with the milwaukee bucks oh boy just to be sad for a minute um oh boy yeah um you asking me i i hate to do this this will be as downerish as i get uh they're going to set a new franchise record for losses that record being held by the 2013 14 bucks who went 15 and 67 a record that landed them who in the lottery that year jabari parker listen this starting five i think this is actually the worst starting five in the nba it depends on who you're plugging in here like is it ryan rollins or kevin porter jr tyler hero hakez who i like kuzma miles turner like i don't know how any of these guys fit together i don't know what this team actually is going to accomplish on the court i don't know how these guys are going to even like be there the whole season like this is a team that is primed to just be like oh somebody else could use miles turner like a three-point shooting big who can block shots boom um tyler hero you know some some team needs a shot creator boom like they should be trading these guys as soon as they can because they're going nowhere fast with this group anyway and yeah i think they break the franchise record of uh 67 losses in 2013 um what's the one you think about it's very really tough um yeah i don't know mine is that between the start of the season and the end of this doc rivers world 23 podcasts and television appearances in which he so is he going to break uh michael porter jr's record yeah he's gonna do this he's gonna go on michael porter jr's podcast various podcast appearances um and tv spots in which he in a chagrined manner talks about the bucks while also clearly being delighted at how bad they are and that 23 appearances is going to be more wins than the bucks will not the good that's a good one that's a good one i like what you did there how many of those appearances are on the ringer podcast network 21 at least eight all right hottest take charlotte hornets okay i think this lamello trade is gonna backfire really okay the reason why i think that is they have he his departure really takes down the ceiling team i am not like i get con connect we'll had a really good rookie season brandon miller is a guy but i think he pushes their ceiling up he also pushes their floor down but i do think that i think that this is gonna come back to haunt them just a purgatory team there's a team that's gonna perpetually be in purgatory with this roster i don't have any belief in this it looks like a flash in the pan and i think they're gonna somehow just kind of regret leaving all that scoring on the table okay interesting i disagree it's a hot take it's what it is it's a hot take i will my hottest my hot take is like a haircut on your tape i think they will start hot 15 and 8 and then i think they end up where do you found out i think that we'll get found out and end up 500 but that the stuff that they're seeing and that we are seeing are so positive overall and the team is so young that it will be a good story overall so i don't think they've committed themselves to mediocrity because that happens when you over invest in like a lamello ball like somebody who is like you've already learned all like the highs and the lows and you pay him just because he's your star you do it reflexively and you're like oh my god i'm gonna be like oh my god i'm gonna be like oh my you do it because you think you're supposed to and the next thing you know you are capped out and you're stuck in the middle instead they're pivoting to their younger guys to brandon miller and con canipple and whoever else may come along they brought a naz read a great character guy so my take on them was almost like the inverse of yours which is like i thought the lamello trade was gutsy as hell and the right move uh they moved him out they moved miles bridges out they are obviously concentrating on character and guys that they truly believe in yeah in the couple of years like since uh rick schnall and that group bought the team they've changed gm they brought jeff peterson he brought in charles lee they've turned over effectively the entire roster so like this is a team like i like a team with conviction yeah no and listen listen you're right also it's charlotte it's really hard to get a hot take there you're right but i will say this what you are them trading away lamello after they've seen him this whole time and getting what they got from him is you know they got a naz read they got a rotation player out of it you know they got him off of the payroll it's a good move you know but in the end they're like oh my god i'm gonna get him out of the payroll and they're like oh my they're gonna get him out of the payroll and they're like oh my god i'm gonna get him out of the payroll i just i know they're a little less interesting they're a little less interesting right yeah yes that's that they are a little less interesting but more so like i i think the bigger point that i wanted to make was i'm just not as impressed with the blue chip guys that they think yeah i have to see it in this new context ceiling on brandon miller that you're like yeah i'm like i don't know like i don't know if they're the guys to bet on necessarily right um and i get lamello isn't necessarily listen as howard knows i have not been a lamello ball i've been to say that i'm a skeptic would be very very nice but um i'm just not i'm not convinced by those two guys it's like the guys are going to lead you into the next iteration i don't disagree i think they end up being very very solid players that are capable of contributing very very good teams yeah and that we will be talking about next few seasons that all they need is that one yeah but i think that those young guys are good just not like top of the mountain that's a fair point but then it's like that's the thing about the nba right you have to pivot so much right if your guys aren't guys and you identify that early enough you have to move up off of them before you have to pay them that is the new nba yes and they only have a finite amount of time and i think it's clear at this point that these at least to me it's clear and this is my opinion that these two guys just aren't the guys that i feel like you can build sustaining like franchise cornerstone and i couldn't shoot they could probably prove me wrong at this point but i think that's the thing that's the thing that's the thing that's the thing that's but like to get to the upper echelon of the eastern conference when you're competing against a sixers team or you're trying to compete against the knicks i just don't think that they these are the guys to be able to do that they've given them room selves room to keep adding maybe i should have just said that you know what the the lamella ball thing was a little too much maybe i should i'm almost it's still a hot take but i don't believe in brandon miller and conca nipple as the franchise cornerstones that is my take um okay the miami heat i have one all right can i go far away can i go first and this will also kind of contradict the best case and worst case scenario but hot take though man and it's i'm just gonna say it i think they go to the finals whoa i think they can go to i think they can go to the finals wait did you just go from will to can i think they can five seconds i think they can go to the final now this is as constituted or do they bring stuff in oh they bring stuff in they have a they they um they have a good trade deadline and they figure some things out they get some pieces involved but i just really trust eric's bolster your filipino brother in christ yeah i mean listen i think i'm putting a lot on eric's bolster to figure this out can i and the heat infrastructure to play to get the most out of them and get the most out of players that you wouldn't otherwise see that in this scenario to what degree do they punt the regularcy they like win 50 games yeah and they figure their shit out right and then and then you get a reincarnate of andrew wiggins like 2020 and then you get a reincarnate of andrew wiggins like 2020 and then you get a reincarnate of andrew wiggins like 2020 and then you get a reincarnate of andrew wiggins like 2020 and then you get a reincarnate of andrew wiggins like 2022 because this is the infrastructure that just allows for that to happen right it's like cocoon him and clay like there's there is no other plausible explanation that i could even have other than vibes for them to get to the finals okay you know vibes and great coaching and infrastructure that is what's leading me to think that i'll say this like clay's never had water like this for a boat no he hasn't and he he historically does great when he is in water i said this and i said this on on the last pot and i said this when he got traded there's it's a landlocked place he's gonna be miserable yeah listen he was cold as shit in the bay area on that on that boat and had great times middle of you know middle of january on that san francisco bay it might as well be antarctica and he was having a blast yeah this is other type of water yeah this is this has real healing properties yeah um what's your i take for the heat i think i might have burned the studio down that is uh my hot take for the heat is um thanasis costas and alex cancel their contracts with i believe it's aris thessaloniki in greece to join what will be a march to the finals wait no no no no no as as just members of the organization but you just said you just so just just fried me for even even saying that they you're agreeing with me that they're gonna go to the stretch run you're buying what i'm selling i'm buying into this alternate reality okay i kind of like it okay wouldn't that be so fun wouldn't that be so fun if this wound up happening i i think it would be miami in the finals is always fun it will be and you know pat riley's gonna be in fucking insufferable bro his pat riley's denzel walk the denzel walk going into the fucking arena bro are you serious he's gonna be fucking insufferable if that what's gonna be better the the denzel walk and man on fire or the pat riley walk into the finals of 2027 yeah it's gonna be it's gonna be insane if that happens they're gonna just need to like take that you know that the thing that they shoot the wings of the airplane with like to cool it down or whatever they're gonna need to do that to him as he comes off like the presser like table they're gonna steal the university of miami's like fucking the the smoke from that and every game of the finals pat riley's gonna come out alone just walking out to his seat talking so much bullshit if that happens it will be insane beck are you okay are you gonna are you still gonna be here for the rest of the show did we break you finally i am trying to recover i had like this great optimistic take i was a lot of people i think that i think the consensus opinion is that the heat are not even a solid playoff team like they may have to be a played team and you just put them in the fucking finals there's i've got even worse i somehow convinced him like i'm in on it i'm in on it you know how is clay by the way is he probably hired somebody to like take the boat down from the bay through the panama canal like somehow yeah like no they just put it on a trailer and like really just drive it across the country we don't got money like i don't understand i don't have nautical experience like that it's not that big of a boat okay oh okay okay he's gonna also we're under us he could buy another fucking boat that is an option that is an hour what is your i can't top that so i'm just gonna i'm going off i'm going off the top of my dome now final fuck it uh as long as they're going to the finals clay thompson hits more threes than steph curry oh oh shit that was somehow a hotter take that was somehow a hotter take just let you do that i can't i gotta go somewhere else with it whoa steph i know you watch this fucking show take that personally take it personally right now hey and also beck said it beck said it so next time don't give him shit when you see him he said that stuff he said that um are we gonna get through this show i don't know all right uh the orlando magic this is on you i don't even know i don't even know with this all right i got this one thank you please this isn't even that hard i don't even think this should be considered a hot take but it will be in some corners they need to trade one of their two boats and they're going to two best players period right now palo or wagner one of those guys is out the door this is not working it hasn't been working stop doing this thing orlando every year where you're just like oh we'll just run it back and we'll change coaches and maybe we'll get a different outcome your personnel don't fit it's time to wake up and recognize what you got and what you don't have they're suffering more than anything else from institutional complacency and a lack of vision they could learn something from charlotte minnesota who were partners in that very gutsy swap of i think they're i think a prominent player on that team is going to quit just quit just walk off the court mid-game and just be like just like that's enough it's it's it's a tuesday of december and somebody's gonna be like you know what jaylen jaylen sugs is just gone done um i mean i i think it's frank harris 31 or something 30 free and not happening and it's unclear what role he plays he the word josh smith has been thrown around in other circles i haven't done that but that's been you've heard that and i do think it is well past time yeah especially with how unhappy he really did seem the way things were going in his role and the mediocrity that is the orlando magic um i i think i think that i don't even that's hot it's hard to come up with a hot take bad they're just they're a frustrating team like the talent is there again on paper you look at it they play really hard they play defense but then they quit at the end of the season they just can't generate often period at all ever at all maybe go find a playmaker go like swap this is what you have two stars swap one of them for somebody who can do something with the ball in their hands and set up other guys let's go with the Washington Wizards play in let's go play in for the Washington Wizards alright but they are are they in the top half of the playing bracket or the bottom okay they're 9-10 okay DeBonsa averages 19 Trae Young and Anthony Davis appear in 30 games together back to doing the math how many minutes did that work out to but I think I think DeBonsa will be a revelation and Washington Wizards fans will have something to hear about for the first time in a little bit I love that take it's wrong but I love it because my take is that the reality check after everybody's getting so giddy about the Wizards is they're still a bad team they're still a bad team let me tell you who they're not better than in the Eastern Conference they're not better than the Knicks the Celtics the Pistons the Cavs the Sixers the Pacers the Hawks the Raptors the Magic the Hornets or the Heat they're not better than any of those teams they definitely are not better than any of those teams you know what that makes them? a lottery team still Trey Young not an all-star anymore still doesn't play D doesn't make his teammates better Anthony Davis the last five years has averaged 49 games I'm not sure if he and he and Alex Saar even fit together they don't but that's okay A.J. DeBance is not gonna average 19 points a game he's gonna average 19 furrowed looks per game when Trey doesn't pass him the ball Trey is gonna be on his best behavior because of all the shit that people have been talking about him since the Atlanta Hawks were clearly and markedly better without him on the floor that was yeah that was tough and so he's going to be like watch this you jerks I'm gonna be everything that people have wanted me to be he's gonna be moving the ball especially with these young guys he's been saying all the right things he's really been saying like I can't wait to get these guys the best shots they've ever gotten in their lives and Anthony Davis is good when he plays when he plays and I suppose I would presuppose what if he plays a lot it is contract year it is time to get that that last contract last bag gotta get that last bag so some of those aches and pains are gonna have to get ibuprofened over I'm gonna have to get that money plus he's being pressed from behind by DeAndre Ayton so that'll put a lot of pressure on him oh gosh I think that might lead to my odd take yeah okay DeAndre Ayton DeAndre Ayton takes the ball takes Anthony Davis' spot by the end of the season wait a healthy Anthony Davis takes a healthy Anthony Davis' spot when's the last time he's been healthy no but I'm saying if he's not on the if he's not available of course like Ayton's gonna be playing more and and I think I think Ayton takes uh John Wall's spot at the Rose uh at the Rose Bar Lounge interesting in DC okay what about this that's where he takes it he's like he's gonna take on the mantle of John Wall in DC Nightlife more dunks okay more what is what is gonna be larger AJ season turnover average versus dunks from DeAndre Ayton total yeah I'm gonna go with Ayton okay I'm gonna go with Ayton I'm just really annoyed by this team right now man because the clear thing that's going on that you need to do is just put the build a team around DeBanza bro trade everybody why the fuck did you trade for Trae Young and Anthony Davis in the first place what are we doing and extend Trae Young and extend Trae Young I don't know DeBanza could have DC by his fingertips and he can't even do that because that's the sheer of the spotlight with you know two older guys that are just barely gonna get them to the plan I kind of see the vision squinting is that true that's a hot take right there my wife my wife is Wizards fan so I watch a lot of Wizards I think the idea is we got this incredible young team and we need some older guys to show them how to win now I think there were other things in there like we also have to tank if you're gonna tank though thank you for your service this is the best way to tank you make the appearance you trade for two guys that are like kind of over the hill like for cover and then they don't play one doesn't play and then the other one like just takes up the salad cap there was no cover because he immediately mothballed them hey man I'm trying I'm trying really hard I'm trying really hard but I think it's gonna I think it's kind of gonna cook a little bit I think it's gonna come together in some weird way to Bonsai I like everything I've seen from him I would love to see it happen I'm not I'm not hating on him it would be wonderful to see it I just don't believe I'm a believer I'm a believer in those Washington Wizards Wolf Blitzer we're here we come maybe the post season here we come do you know he's on the scoreboard there at timeouts I know coming from the situation room and then like giving Wizards updates there is nobody more dedicated than him there literally isn't if we had more dedication if we had more dedication in DC then BC would be a better place it's him and like amen Timothy Chalamet in Homeland remember that never mind didn't see that one okay let's you wanna go would you like to go to the Western Conference let's go I would love to the Denver Nuggets Howard motherfucking Beck I hate that we have to begin here I hate that I have to say this we are witnessing a historic squandering of an all-time great we just are since winning the championship in 2023 the Nuggets have lost or traded four key pieces of that team including Michael Porter Jr. and Katavius Caldwell-Pope who were both starters on that team lost one of their most promising prospects Peyton Watson bye bye see you in Cleveland done nothing to replenish any of this via free agency or trade they experimented with Westbrook before now it's DeRozan also by the way Marvin Bagley and Lonnie Walker the fourth hell yeah hell yeah yo that's a wild 2k team I mean they might not win the championship in real life but on 2k they would go hard needless to say Nikola Jokic deserves better than this and it is kind of sad to see this just like slow erosion around him and every year that goes by thinking like the window's not closed yet but I'm not sure how they're gonna get out of this spiral and how they're gonna overcome the thunder or the spurs like it's just it ain't looking great I so I have a really hot I think it's gonna be like a week like a week and a half 10 day strength for DeMar DeRozan just like on like a random heater and we're gonna get the DeMar DeRozan like blog boy post that is like oh he's back and then then he's gonna trail off and he's gonna hit a game winner in one playoff game just one alright it could be a play-in game it's just in the it's after any game after the actual regular season he's gonna he's gonna have he's gonna have a moment um Jokic will average near career highs he will refuse to discuss his contracts and in fact discouraged frustrated even infuriated by the historic bag fumbling that has gone on around him he will completely shut down interacting with anyone is he gonna be Kevin Durant? he's just it's gonna be not quite as like depressed as that but he's just gonna be like his English will fall off he's gonna stop he completely complain recently that people ask him for photographs he's just gonna walk on by now is he gonna retire after the season? is he just going back to the horses? is he done? he's gonna give single word responses in press conferences wow he's gonna hear it in English and then talk in his native language he's not even and he will come as close as he could come to forcing a trade and in fact I believe his brothers will be the ones to really be loud about but it won't happen alright damn I thought I was you just went like hold on you went around this studio through that door and then all the come way right back here to be like everything's gonna be fine I mean it's not gonna be fine because they're just gonna be in this same kind of he's gonna be you know what he's gonna be treading water situation he's gonna be like Steph that's gonna be the trajectory of his last few years I don't see I don't think so like Steph can be Steph because it's like I've won four I'm good but one in Denver is like yeah but I don't I think I think Jokic has like this kind of quiet burning competitive fire that he does he doesn't get enough credit for because it looks so casual out there but like at some point he is gonna get fed up and maybe it's coming sooner than later and maybe he is sending word through his brothers who are just gonna go like rough up ownership physically rough up ownership while demanding a trade they're gonna go full suge and vanilla ice at some point he'll lose his patients. Okay. Um. Oh God. This is what this, this next team is what dreams are made of. And also the reason why we're doing this particular podcast, the Minnesota Timberwolves. This is why you clicked it. This is going to be on the, uh, the whole hashtag, not the hashtag. This is going to be on what's the thing that we have? No, no, no. The thing that we have, the, the, the clip art or whatever the hell we have to promote this episode. It's going to be a mellow and Anthony. This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think, you know, a browser, but Gemini and Chrome, that's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50 page restoration block, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online. Makes sense. There's no place like Chrome. Check responses, set up required compatibility and availability. Various 18 plus. Want to be the one who's always in the know about the game, the scores, the plays. Here's a tip. The Apple sports app. Just pick your favorite teams and get automatic live updates without even knowing their schedules. And when your team scores, it shows up right on your iPhone lock screen, making it easy to check in anytime. So rule the group chat and download Apple sports for free on the app store or find it on your new iPhone. $5 drinks, 10 for $10 wings every Sunday, Monday, and Thursday, only at Dave and Buster's. Now this is football. Other restrictions may apply. Visit Dave and Buster's dot com for full terms and conditions. What is your hot take? I mean, this is Lamella will lead the league in assists by a lot. By a lot. By three assists. It's going to average 15? Yes. Okay. Wow. How many turnovers? 14? Like five point something. Okay. And almost 300 degrees. Two hundred and seventy three. I think the Minnesota Timberwolves are from half court at least not that many, really, but but like 15% of them are from half court and 35% on around one foot falling out of bounds. Yeah, I think in the Minnesota Timberwolves is my take. They're going to just be like, you know what? Around February, they're going to be like, you know what? Nasri, we're just going to trade you guys back straight back up. You guys go figure it out. I alluded to this earlier. So this is more of an organizational take. I think the Wolves are the boldest team in the NBA and they should be praised for it. No matter what happens next. I have no idea if this labello thing is going to work out for them. I don't know what's going to happen when you've like dumped your entire front court rotation aside from Rudy Gobert. But look at what they've done the last few years. Like they traded a zillion picks for Rudy Gobert. Everybody thought they were bonkers. I thought they were. I thought that was stupid. And maybe they overpaid. But the results to back to back conference finals for the first time in franchise history. You got what you wanted. Twenty twenty four. They make the Western Conference finals. And then they trade. Carl Anthony Towns. Now it was cap driven, apron driven, all that shit. But they still they did it. And now they've traded the guy that they got for him in Randall. They've had their best consecutive seasons of franchise history. And they're still like we think what as constituted, we're still not going to get where we need to go. So we're just going to keep fucking moving shit around until we get it. And we're like the strength of their convictions. The clarity is, I think, admirable. It may not work, but at least they're trying. Unlike certain franchises we've already covered who were just sitting around hoping for something better. I think by the end of this run, whatever it is, if Anthony Edwards is on the team in five years or not, I think it's going to be the equivalent of that Clay Thompson meme where he's on the bench and he went like, oh, for 11. And he's smiling like, yeah. Yeah. I mean, what a run. This is this was this was this was it. You know, this has been the best period of Minnesota Timberwolves basketball. Yeah. Yeah. And I think you could argue. Health. Like they came within. A bulky knee and some other things from really like. Making a run to the final. I have I have I have a hot take. I think that we when we don't do this is actually my real hot take. Not great. This is utterly stupid. But I think that we need to start looking at Anthony Edwards in the same way that we look at Luca in the same way that we look at Jokic in the same way that we look at stars that are one man type of stars that are the top five players that can galvanize the team. It's kind of like. Denzel and bad movies, you know, where he can always make a bad movie look really, really good. And he can raise your ceiling. We don't look at Anthony Edwards in that way. We're not holding him accountable after you're saying. No, no, no, no, no, no. We're not holding him to where we're not seeing him in the way that like, oh, because he's on the team, they are earmarked to go this far. Because no matter we've talked about this over the last few years, where no matter how the roster has been, the only constant is Anthony Edwards and him getting better and his team's overachieving in a way that. That other team in a way that they're not supposed to because he is strictly on the team and he is that good. And I know that that does come with the caveat that like, if you look at his playoff numbers, they're probably not as good as they should be when you look at them from a game to game basis. But his presence alone, I think he raises the floor of a team. And I don't think he's looked at in that way. All they've been needing is consistent playmaking. Yeah. Not from a elderly player. Not from Mike Conley. And much respect to him. Could not. You know, they couldn't give them everything they needed. Yeah. And I think this Lomelo thing. It's it's high risk, high reward. Yeah. But I love the rewards. I really do. I think I'm going to be watching everyone. Yeah. When they're on, I'm just going to I think they are they are the they are the league past team of this season. Right. And what I mean by that, you know, we talked about last year, me, Howard and Raja about with Wimby, where he's one of those guys where it's like, man, whenever he's on a heater, you have to put on because you have to see him. I think as a team, Minnesota, when they're on a heater, bad or good, you have to see what happens because you literally are not going to know on a game to game basis what identity they are going to have, who is going to go off. They have two players that can now go off and in more entertaining fashion. And when they come to your city, you have to be. I think they're they're going to be one of the most exciting. I think I say all that, you know, I don't know how good they are going to be, but it's good for the league that these two guys are on the same same team as each other. Yeah. OK, the next team that we have is the Oklahoma City Thunder. Hottest take. Jason. You know, their greatness is so boring at this point. It really is. But. I think they I think they go to the conference finals again against the Spurs. I'll just say this. Chet Holmgren bounced back here. I think Chet Holmgren approaches. Too often in this era, we're like that guy had a bad playoffs. Get rid of him. Chet had a nightmare playoffs against the San Antonio. But I think he's I think he's a dog. And I think he will come back. I think the way the Knicks handled Wemby just like forget. Blocks forget getting blocked by him. We just have to get in his shit. Just run at him. Run at him. Run at him. Run at him. Chet. Has better endurance. I think than Wemby right now. Like can play more minutes. Can just if you just run at him, he will get tired and he will make mistakes. And the other thing is Chet doesn't have to do it on the other end. He doesn't have to. Whenever he plays Wemby, he could just focus. I'm going to kick this shit out. Just beat the shit out of him. You know, it is also it reminds me of that. I think it's going to be a bounce back here. It was like 09 Powell vibes. Yeah. 09 Powell vibes where he just got put through the basket on every play. And he said, you know what? I'm just not going to be a punk. I just fuck that. I didn't like that. I didn't like how cagey just took my lunch every game. And I'm going to I'm going to defend myself. I hope that that's the case. Howard, what's your hottest take? It's really hard to come up with a hot take about a team that we feel like we know so well and it's already so accomplished and they're a championship team and we expect them to be in the running for many years to come here. So I think as much as I've as all of that is true, this is the year we're actually going to learn something about them. Yeah. Because of Chet, because of Jalen Williams missing most of a season due to injury. Because of them losing to the Spurs, they're kind of co-favorites, but still like they just lost like, oh, they're so deep. They're so deep. Well, now Dort's gone and Wiggins and Isaiah Joe. OK, cool. Backfill with Cason Wallace and AJ Mitchell and all these guys like all these guys that they just like out different places that are good. It's ridiculous. It's incredible. But still, but like those guys, those guys are in new roles. So now we're going to see was the depth really all we all cracked it up to be like we're just we are about to learn a bunch about them for a team that we feel like we've already had. Yeah. A ton of exposure to that's about as hot as I can get. I have a hotter day and it's going to build on your take. This team has the chance to be America's team. America's team. OK, hear me out. Hear me out. Chet and like say, OK, this is this is the scenario in which they become America's team. Chet, all four matchups against the San Antonio Spurs. He just fucking bodies. OK, he just says, fuck it. And they just beat the shit out of the Spurs. Right. J-Dub is at the top. He's at the top of his game. Balls out. Show some personality. Shea says, fuck this league. Fuck all of you guys. Right. Is he actually going to say this into a microphone? Yes. It'll be the most interesting thing he's ever said. Yes. Yes. Then they just they said, you know, it's the revenge year. Then they just go pile on throughout the postseason in the Western Conference and they win the fucking title and they sweep. OK. Then they become America's team. OK. Because they think about the thing. Huh? They swept the heat. They swept the heat. I said the heat. We're going to the finals. I didn't say. I didn't say. I'm just checking. Well, yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. But they're going to become America's team. That'd be a nice payback for when the Heat beat up the Thunder. Exactly. And when they do go to Miami, no one's going to go to the club. See, the thing that happened last time is, you know, some of the Thunder were out and about in Miami and it kind of, you know, messed up their flow. These guys are going to be, they're going to be fucking playing Pokemon. You know, they're going to, whatever the hell they do, they're going to be playing what PC game is out there. They're going to just be in the hotel, you know, figure it out. Then they become Oklahoma City Thunder, America's team. Okay. Next, the next, next team is the Portland Trail Blazers, Howard Beck. I know you got one here. I know you have one. The Blazers just make me sad. That's my take. They make me sad. Damian Lillard and Portland fans deserve better than what's going on right now. And this is not just about Tom Dundon's slashing and burning and alienating of various city officials and implied threats to possibly move the team and all this. He's been quiet. He's been very quiet. Almost too quiet. Yeah. It does seem directionless, right? Like Dame is on this like pseudo farewell tour post Achilles. Like, oh, I got to come home and it's great. Like, I love that he's back there and like, we're going to finally see him on the court again in a Blazers uniform. That's cool. But like, that's overshadowed now by them acquiring Ja Morant for some reason. So now Ja and Dame Lillard have to share a backcourt and like Drew and Holiday and Scoot Henderson have to fit in this somewhere. And like Denny Avdia, who just had this like breakout season as the primary ball handler and offensive creator is now going to have to. How does all this? All fit together. None of this makes any sense to me. I think they are. They're less than the sum of their parts now because they got too many of the same of either same guys or guys who are going to bump into each other. Yeah, I just they just they make me sad all around. Damian Lillard, six man. Wow. How long does it take? Tell me how this happens. He comes back December ish. Huge ovations. Crowd's going crazy. So wait, he gets it. He gets it. He shoots 42% from three for six weeks, six, seven weeks. So in 55 games of work, he can't. I don't even know if he can win it with the games limit. How many legends have we relegated to sixth man today? LeBron, Dame. Yeah. Outright wins them like six games. Okay. Straight up like at the buzz. He makes the NBA change the rules for him. Yeah. Because he's so good. Portland wins. 40 games. And it's an incredible feel good story. Okay. The only maybe feel good story around the Portland. And it ends by it's the last game in Portland history. It's the last game at the Moda Center ever. Yes. Bleak. That's the that's the Alonzo morning meme. I was going to top that by saying how job might celebrate the moment, but I'm not going to go there. Oh, God. Moving on. The Utah Jazz. Ooh. Ooh. You got one? I got something. I do go. You go. You go ahead. Oh, you. I'm like LeBron. I'm just saying. Utah Jazz top 10 defense. Top 10. Top 10 defense. Going to the to the. I got it. I got a try. Jay. Try. Jay gives them a lot and it comes together. And they give you a top 10 defense in the league. They were 29th last. I think they make a leap. Okay. How about this one for his eyes? Probably not going to happen, but we'll see. So they get so good. They exceed expectations to the point where Carl Malone and John Stockton sit courtside and it completely fucks up the season. And they sit across from each other courtside and we discover they actually hate each other. This destroys. It destroys basketball in Utah. And even Darren Peele. And even Peterson's rookie of the year campaign does not put the pieces together. Wow. That's pretty good. That's on brand. I can't. I can't top that. Do you guys remember? Logan won't remember this. Jason might. On the David Letterman show, they used to have this thing where people would come out and do. This is not stupid pet tricks or stupid human tricks. This was another bit where we just people would come out, just do random weird things. Yeah. And the title of this particular bit was, is this anything? Yeah. That's the Utah. Jazz this year. I don't know if this is anything. Are they, are they a dark horse playoff team? Are they a lottery team? Are they talent? They're talented and good, but are they, are they talented and, and just maybe not fitting? Like we don't know how Larry Markin and Jaron Jackson Jr. Actually fit together. We know that Walker Kessler's gone and Yusuf Nurkic and his wonderful new nose that he got mid season last year are going to be plugged in there. There's Darren Peterson, who's going to come in with all the hype and all the expectations of the world. How is he fitting with Keontae George? Who had just had this. And Larry Markin and who's their most accomplished star. Isaiah Collier is their best passer, but it's kind of hard to figure out where he's going to actually fit in with the rest of these guys who all want the ball. Like, where is Ace Bailey and all this? So like, I love everything that they have now assembled. I'm not sure what they are. It just, I'm, I'm just sitting here going, is this anything? That was a lot. That was way more measured. We kind of needed that. We needed that for this one. We did need that. I mean, I think that they, I think that that's probably, it's a bunch of unproven stuff. It's a bunch of unproven stuff. I mean, to your point, Larry Markin and being their, their most accomplished player, can we hang the banner for that one? I think, no, but here's the thing. Utah Jazz banner. But like, you know, I've gotten to the point with Larry and the Utah Jazz where I'm like, does this guy like love losing? Does he just like love it? Yeah. Cause he never asked out. He was just like, and he's like, oh, you want to shut me down? Oh, you want to make up injuries for me? That's fine. That's fine. I'm good. I just love scoring like 26 a game and losing all the time. I'm doing it for years and years and years. Whatever. My name included in various trade proposals to good teams. Who wants that? I love losing. Yeah. And so I just wonder, like, does he love losing? That's the thing that, that Roger used to say last year, right? Where it was like, why he doesn't like the tanking that's going on in Utah because it builds habits like that. And those are hard to undo, you know? And that's, that's something that is going to, oh, wait, I can play the fourth quarter. Right. I can keep going. Laurie Markin is like this, like six minutes left. We're just like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You're back in there. You're staying in there. No. So we'll see. Let's move on. Um, the Golden State Warriors. I'll, I'll start. I think the, uh, I think the Bay Area is going to revolt on them by about December. I think it's going to be a full out revolt. I think it's, it's teetering. I think Warriors Twitter's already there. I see you guys. I see it. I think Steph's going to, hopefully it's not going to be an injury or anything. But they're just not going to be playing up to snuff. It's going to be like, it's going to be like Marvin Gaye on his last tour. You know, he's a legend, but it's just not quite, you know, it's not, it's not hidden right. Right. You know what I mean? It's going to be a full out revolt by the Bay Area. Right. And that's, it's not going to do well for the bottom line of Joe Lacob. Um, I think there's going to be an implosion all around because fan sentiment is now going to eke into front office sentiment and everyone's getting paid. It's a blank check for everyone, but that's not going to be. It's not going to be enough because these are all competitors. And I think the floor is finally going to fall. I don't know what it's going to look like, but I think the floor is going to fall from underneath them and it's not going to be pretty. Um, I agree with everything you said. Plus this, Steph Curry's text messages to Yoke. They're going to get leaked. On Draymond's show? On Draymond's show where, and, and in them, Steph is like, you fucking suck. Go ass. Don't come here. Don't come here. Maybe I'll go there. And this will, I don't know. Have many effects. One of them will be Mike Dunleavy and Joe Lacob coming to blows on the sideline. The other thing that's a blowout to the Sacramento Kings. And we're going to have a Ben's. That's going to be a Ben Simmons legacy game. Let's not get crazy now. You know, the other thing that isn't really talked about is that Mike Dunleavy isn't very well known. He's been elected to the Bay Area already coming into this GM role in the assistant GM role because he wasn't very liked as a player. So you have that coming in to what is going on now. It's really not a good time for him in the Bay right now. It's going to be bad. It does seem as if he has very little juice in his own. They could have used Bob. Bob Myers could have really helped. Yeah. Bob Myers has too much hair. Now he does. His hair is black now. Hold on to that. He's not good. Oh man. How did Bob Howard Beck. I have to go here. I have to go here for no other reason than to just balance out. Oh God. Oh God. It's just, it's too soon for Requiem's and Steph trade proposals and fake trades and all that shit. Like he's not, no, he's not going anywhere, but like he's going to, he's going to feel this pain. Even, even the franchise obits and everything like just slow down. Like we can at least see where this season goes. Let's like, Steph is still doing Steph things. He can't do it night in, night out at this age, or it's too much to expect. And it's too much to put on him. Yes. But like Steph and Draymond still pretty fucking good when they're at their peak. It's just everything around them. Right. But there's a version of this team where like, Hey, Porzingis is the perfect center for this team. He just has to stay on the court. How was the Porzingis experience? As a Nick, you mean? How was it? I enjoyed him. I was sad that they let him. I thought it was a, I thought it was a sadly trademark way for a good player to exit the New Eric Nix at that particular time. and I really enjoyed his time with the Knicks. I thought he was at least a piece you could have built on if, you know, obviously not the top-level guy, but I think if you got two other guys around him who were really good, better than him, or in that range, you could make some noise, and that's, at the time, all I wanted. But he fits. He fits with what the Warriors are trying to do. What does that mean? Does that mean, like, does that mean four seed? No, I'm making no predictions about where they actually finish this season or that they're going to, like, storm the West. I just think, like, it's too soon to write it off when we have to at least see, can they get through this season long enough for Jimmy Butler to get back? They were great before he went down. There is some semblance of a solid team there still. They do have all these picks that they either are reluctant to part with because Joe Lacob is still doing that thing where it's like, I'm trying to protect our post-Steph future. He's playing double-dutch. But, like, if they truly have the flexibility to do that, the freedom to move any of those picks, to supplement what they have now, to try to maximize the last couple years of this, then let's see. But it's too soon for us to write off now. Let's keep the picks. Like, he has a pristine draft record. I have one more. You know what? I'm going to build off yours. Oh, you still, yeah. I thought you. Mike Dunleavy will be fired. Oh, okay. In the form of the fisticuffs on the sideline of the game between him and Joe Lacob. And Joe will feel confident doing this because he has a lot of time and he has been developing with Anthropic a GM AI that is fully ready to take over. Oh, my. It's going to be called I think their jersey patches are a new AI company, so I think that might be a thing. It's going to be called Claw GM. They're going to put it inside of a little robot that walks around. Okay, so I have a question for you. I'm looking at the schedule right now. We have seen worse GMs in this game. I'm looking at it right now. So you said, like, this Kings game is going to happen, right? It's going to be during the Kings game. So they play the Kings October 10th. I think it's a little too early. Then they play the Kings. Hold on. Then they play the Kings November 25th. Trying to identify which Kings game this is. But I think this is the Kings game. Honestly, I think this is the Kings game. They play them January 12th on NBC. Yeah. I think that might be the game. That's going to be the game. Is that the game? Okay. Okay. All right. All right. Let's go to the Los Angeles Lakers. Now, I am the minority on this, one of the few minorities in the building. Um, I think that they could go to the conference finals, man. I think that they can make a run. I really do. I think that they're the perfect right side of the bracket team. And I think that this team is built around Luka. It's Luka and a bunch of dudes. And I think that Luka, it's fit Luka. Fat Luka got the Mavericks. He looks incredible now. He looks incredible. He looks amazing. He looks better than when he first came in the league. And he looked great then. But didn't we say this? You were going, he's doing like the men's health. No, but he looks different. This is different, bro. He looks, the men's health, first of all, if you really like AB, him live walking around, and the men's health, the men's health, they were using like a wide lens and shooting him at this weird angle. No, no. And the Jim in Slovenia, he looks great. Like, they're straight on to him. He's looking great. He looks, I haven't seen him look like this. He looks good. He looks really legit. Also, to be fair, when he was a rookie, he was like 19-year-old fat, right? Like, you look skinny on the, but you got a little chub-chub. Now he's like, dude, he's like six-pack. He looks like Miles Garrett. He looks really good. All right. Is that your hot take? No, my hot take is Luka will average 35, but lose the MVP to Tyrese Alliby. Who averages 18 points. Yeah, who did it 18 to 12. It'll be like Kobe versus Nash all over again. I'm going right off of this because it's about Luka, but like he's about to face the most pressure he's ever had in the NBA. He gets to Dallas. Oh, he's like just Dirk's understudy for a little while. And then like they're winning a bunch of games. He's putting up, you know, just ridiculous numbers. He's hitting game-winning shots from all over the place. Everything was just a joyride in Dallas. He gets them to the finals when they're not even expecting to. Any of their stumbles could be forgiven. Any of the things that he doesn't do, defense, could be forgiven. Like, nothing mattered. But the late game, he was like, oh, my God. The Lakers are a championship or bust organization with championship or bust fans. And guess who's not there to absorb all that anymore? LeBron James. Guess who else may not be there to absorb all that anymore? The Bust family. All of them. They're gone through ownership changes. They got weird vibes going on. They might have another ownership change. Who owns the team? We don't know. Yeah, no idea. If they win the championship, who's putting up the trophy? Who's the one that's going to get it? Various people fighting for it. GD Bust is going to come out of the stands with the Bust. Without a governor's. It's like, move! So this is it. This is the most pressure that's ever been on Luka. It's firmly his franchise now, and that's different than co-sharing with LeBron for a while. I think that's right. And so everything is going to be enhanced. Everything is going to be amplified, good or bad. And again, I do think, because nobody really cares about who owns a team, except when it's been one family for, like, fucking 50 years and they've won all these championships under them. It matters that they're shaking hands. And they held that for years. A family not for nothing helped change the league as we see it right now. This league isn't what it is without that family. Laker fans need to feel good about things again. They need to feel some stability. And so everything is riding on Luka now. I completely agree with that. But I really think the shape that he appears to be in. And the fact that he's like, you know what, I never do this, but let's work out in the summertime. Wait, do you have a little crush on Luka right now? I'm just saying, when he's like, let's go to everybody, all the whites in L.A. Lakers uniforms, come to Slovenia. You're going to be very. Everybody in Huntington Beach, just come on over. You're going to be very comfortable around all the white people in Slovenia. Okay? I'm in great shape. And I think he understands. I think also, this might be a career year for Bronny too. We didn't really talk about this. He's still there. He's having a good. He had a good summer too. Did you see Bronny on the soccer pitch? Yeah. He looked decent. Yeah. Like not real tricky, but like he seemed like he understood the game. I was talking to one of my like, one of my parents, he used to play for Marcus Peters. I was talking to my homie Marcus Peters. He was playing, he used to play for a corner for the Ravens, the Rams, he used to play cornerback. And we were talking about like, man, if he would have played another sport, right? What other sport would have been great for him? His is what I think was swimming. I think about that with some athletes that don't necessarily work out in one sport, what they could do on another sport. I think Bronny probably missed his calling because of all this pressure. He looks really fucking good. Yeah. Looks really fucking good. I'm scared of this one, the L.A. Clippers. Ooh. Oh, I got, I got one. All right. In a Bobby Valentine type incident. Yes. Steve Vollmer will be videoed wearing. He's going to be in the wall. A full like fake silicone mask and beard inside the arena. And it will be, and it will be a problem. Adam Silver will want to do something about it. And, but ultimately we'll decide like, let's just make this happen. Let's just make this go away and we'll not do anything about it. The NBA will cover it up, but the pictures will linger. I like that. Pablo Torre will find out. And we, you know, we'll discover, perhaps he will discover, but I think Steve Ballmer will attend. How many games before he gets caught? I think it'll be a number of games before he gets caught because I think like he can control the security system. He could just like. But I don't think that he could control himself. And what I mean by that, no matter what the disguise is, he steals Steve Ballmer when he's excited. He's going to take, he's going to take the most high-tech beta blockers that we've ever seen any human being take. And so he's going to have very little for Steve Ballmer, actual physical reaction to what's going on in the court. And again, he's going to look like a complete. And he's also going to somehow hack the Amazon Prime cameras. Yeah, right. So they look at everybody else, but they don't look at him. He will never appear on a camera and it will only be a blurry. It's going to be like Bigfoot. iPhone photo from across the thing. They'll be like, is that Steve Ballmer? You know what I think? I think that's a good one. I think that they're going to, at the end of the season, they're going to retire Bradley Bill's number three jersey out of spite. They're going to put it at the top. They'd do it. That's going to be the first. Is that the first retired jersey in Clippers history? It would be. Okay. Yeah. It's going to be Bradley Bill. I got three words about the Clippers. Uh-oh. Free Ty Lue. Free him. Free him. He's put up with enough. Six seasons with the Clippers. They've been in the playoffs four times. They made the Western Conference Finals. Once. They won 50-plus. Twice. Even in the seasons where Kawhi's out for three months. Now Paul George is there. I have a hot take for you on that one. What if he turns like Brandon Ingram into like Kawhi? Like Brian Kawhi? That'd be incredible. Because he's a hell of a fucking coach. He has done. Matt, James Harden came and went. Russell Westbrook came and went. Paul George and Kawhi Leonard, they're here. They're not here. One's in. One's out. They have perennially overachieved. I know that they've underachieved to the extent that they've overachieved to the extent that this era was supposed to be about more. But in the regular season, they're constantly doing better than we think they should given who's available at any given time. Now they're screwed for the next decade. Ty Lue's one of the best coaches in the NBA. He just deserves better. Let him out of his contract. Let him go take over when I don't want to speculate on who's getting fired next. But there will be some good jobs open within the next, say, six to 12 months. Okay. Okay. All right. Let's go. That was fun. Planted seeds in that one. Yeah. a lot of seeds on that one. phoenix suns this is depressing really just depressing we can skip this if you want i think that you have one do you have one i really struggled with this one to be honest with you uh are they going to be the first uh team in nba history to be relegated we have other teams but i'm just saying you know no um i'll just start they're heading for an implosion let's be clear this this is going nowhere good mark williams is already out oh surgery for the what a what a shocker the center that uh another team failed on his physical and negated a trade rescinded a trade uh is now out for months um miles bridges empty calorie scorer who wants to shoot all the time jalen green wants to shoot all the time dylan brooks wants to shoot all the time devin booker needs to shoot all the time could they be fun could that be fun like a fun 21 team no probably 35 it's gonna be depressing 35 there's there's no elite playmaker here to kind of like galvanize this there's no there's the center position's a mess whatever you've got miles bridges is past bringing bad vibes mad ishbia's off-court financial picture bringing bad vibes like i just all the signs here i think are just very bad how's that for dower i think that that's probably right and the worst part about it is booker can't even ask for a trade he's making so much money they gave him so much money they gave him so much they gave him so much money to basically just not ask for a trade what's his comp career career comp like for a guy who's been as good as he's been and made a finals and made a finals yeah let me check let me see let me see he's i was gonna say like rip hamilton but he's better than rip hamilton he's better than um but rip also won a championship yeah i was gonna say clyde but i'll clyde drexler drexler but clyde won a championship too wait no one just one he won the one shit and the blazers were really good at it and they were really good at it and they were during that period when he was there yeah yeah and and the thing with the suns is they had really one great season it was and it was because chris paul came in like that is not to disrespect booker who was very important and integral to that team but like they would they were nothing before chris paul got there and they haven't really been that much since he left so yeah i mean it might be more fun to wonder if ishbia has money i think pablo's gonna find out about that one um sacramento kings this is what no this is what dreams are made of again no jason conception what is your hot take about the sacramento king i think it's time finally time for saponis to be traded some will be traded this season uh don't ask me to where but it is and funnily enough the sacramento kings will believe that this is the one answer to all of their problems this trade of davante saponis and it will it will not be the highlight of their season will however be a blowout of the golden state warriors in which joe lakob and mike dunleavy come to blows on the sideline as ben simmons oh that's you know what ben simmons will play center this season for the wow you know what i'm gonna add on to your hot take i have a hot take so um my hot take is after this blowout when at chase center in which a fight happens and some another suspension probably for a his gm and firing him on national television somehow ben simmons is gonna have like an injury maybe an ankle injury keep him out two weeks and he's gonna sit next to vivek and he is going to orchestrate the trade to get sabonis out of town what do you think about that one i i really like that one is ben simmons better or worse as a gm than the claude virtual ai gm i think claude virtual ai gm is probably better but that's just because i had you haven't seen his work i haven't i've seen the problem with the ai gm is that all ai is just scraping everything else that's ever happened like what if it scrapes like david khan and like no but i'll know that that didn't work will it i don't know i don't know dude it comes up with some like crazy ass stuff what i like ask every so often like you know gemini is telling me like lebron james was not drafted by the cavaliers i don't by the that move google gemini also was like the the the uh brain power behind uh the scammer for the niners that's right that also happened so um what were you saying i'm sorry i got you no that's it i was just i like the idea of beck being like in a rasputin like situation cast under the charm of ben simmons who orchestrates various moves through vivek are we sure he's charming um yeah i also had some bonus out i said i said this is the year that he has to demand a trade and they should grant it like they have no other path forward it's not they like they're gonna be in this for years like there is really no clear path out of this because in another era you would be like oh you know what um trade levine somebody will take look nobody's taking zach levine in his contract now like we're in two the the nba economy is like too suffocated by they've been trying they've been trying there's you can't even give a guy away now so you're just stuck you just have to wait for everybody to come off the books and the one guy you have who's got some value is a bonus and like you you you have to start unpacking this thing at some point if you're going to start building up again so um he's a great number two or number three he's not a number one so send him somewhere where he can be that great complimentary okay that's good that's good that's sensible after you know we talked about ben simmons on a one-year minimum contract i didn't say that ben simmons for the team why not the king The Kings have seen crazier. I do think he will play some center, like maybe a significant. I just, I can't, I can't get over the fact that Ben Simmons has been in the, in the NBA orbit for a minute now, right? Every summer of his career, he has either put out a story or put out an Instagram post talking about how this is the best he's ever felt. And he's shooting three pointers. Why in the hell did it work this time at this stage of his career while he was out of the league? Is it strictly the Kings? I mean, because apparently he had other interests somewhere, including your Knicks, which. I mean, if you, if you're the Kings, why not? Right. Why not? Why not? Like legitimately, why not? That's actually their slogan this season. The Kings. Why not? Why not? Oh, after they, uh, they, that's, that's poetic after Russell Westbrook said, nah, I'm good. I'm good. Actually, I don't want to do this anymore. Yeah. Um, okay. The Dallas Mavericks. Hot take. Oy, oy, oy. Um. Cooper Flagg, all-star team. That's like, not that hot of a take. I think. That's really all I got. I don't think they're going to be that good, but I think they're going to be a very middling slash bubble team. But I think Flagg is going to be awesome. Like, undeniably awesome. Yeah. Um, like 29 points a game. 10. Five. Third in MVP. Voting behind Tyrese and Luca. Yes. Right up there. All right. I like it. Um, he's going to need to do that because, uh, my take is they need to trade Kyrie. The second you see like a couple of good weeks of Kyrie where the value is up and it's proven he's like, he's overcome the ACL. He's fine. Like, what are we doing? He's turning 35 next spring. Uh, he's 18 months removed from this ACL tear. Like, like, I don't know what his lifespan is left in the NBA as a high level player, but whatever it is, it should be somewhere else. What if it, what if, what if that trade is, and just, this is, might not happen. We're just fucking around here, but what if that trade is like to Minnesota, right? At the end, we're like, Minnesota, Minnesota is like this Lamella thing just isn't working and they wanted to get Kyrie over the summer and they're like doing just enough, like ants doing great, but it's like this Lamella thing just isn't working. That would be unbelievable. But also I could see the vision, honestly. I mean, if the Lamella thing is so bad, so bad. And then the underlying like advanced numbers are like, Jesus Christ. And Kyrie is there. Why not? Wait, but Masai Ujiri is going to acquire Lamella. See, that's where, that's the biggest roadblock. That's not happening. I like Kyrie to like, like Miami, like Miami needs a ball handling guard at a high level. That's what I was saying. That's how they're going to get to the finals. There you go. All right. The Houston Rockets. How would you go first? I'm going to immediately. I'm going to immediately infuriate Logan because we've already had one discussion today about this person and Logan's already like completely underplayed him. Fred Van Vliet, not an MVP, but the Rockets MVP. For sure. For sure. The talent is there to contend. And like somebody has to stabilize this group. Somebody has to prevent these stupid fourth quarter and last two minute meltdowns and throwing the ball off people's heads when they're not looking on an inbounds play. Like they haven't had Fred Van Vliet and Kevin Durant together yet. Durant arrived. Van Vliet bowed out with the injury. Is he good? Is he good enough to not have get off my dickers and reactivate the burn? Like, is that, is that, is he that good enough of a leader? Yeah, I think he is. I think, listen, Fred Van Vliet had the respect of, you know, Kawhi and Kyle Lowry, Pascal Siakam, these guys. He had the respect of the young guys in Houston from the moment he arrived. I think they overachieved his first season there. And then he got hurt just as KD was arriving. So, um. I think Katie respects other guys who have a high basketball IQ and love the game. And Fred VanVleet is that. And he's also a great communicator. There's a reason he's president of the Players Association. For sure. So he's the grown-up in the room that that team needs. I want to add on to that. And I think this is my hot take. I think KD's going to have a moment. A good moment. I think he's going to have one that is befitting of his legend. Where I don't know if it's a big scoring game, but I just think that when you see your basketball mortality in front of your face, it makes you make decisions. In his case, positive decisions that you wouldn't otherwise make. And I think that that's going to happen. I think he's going to have a moment. He hasn't had a playoff moment in a really long time. It's just 2021. I think that's on the table here. And I think that someone of his caliber, I think that he deserves that. And I don't want. I don't want KD to go out in the way. I think that's bad for the game for him to go out in the way that he did. Like the last playoff. League DMs and. League DMs and then getting embarrassed in the postseason like that. That's not befitting of a star. And also just not a star of his caliber, but also like a figure of his caliber. I don't want to see him go out that way. He won 52 games last season. Got eliminated by Luke Kennard and LeBron James. Just trying to cobble together, playmaking from various sources. I think that they're. I think they finished third in the West. Okay. Ooh. Thunder. No, sorry. Spurs, Thunder, Rockets. That's not. That's not crazy. It's not crazy. Because like that whole like Denver, Rockets, Lakers, Wolves cluster is really hard to figure out. I mean, it's going to be like one. It's going to be one game separating them. So it's not crazy. But yes, I think they're going to be. Yeah. I think they're going to be. Three to four wins better this season. Five wins better. I hope so, man. Be good for the game. Like, you know. I love Van Vliet. He's played hard. Never makes mistakes. For sure. And a guy that can win you games in postseason, like as a singular person. Now, I just. I really want our men to take the leap. Like, I think that that's good. What does that mean? I think what it means is. And on Real Ones, we talked about this with. With Raja after the first game of the season. And when he was just. When it felt like he was just in the corner and he just gave up on possessions. Taking the next step for him is being a willing participant when the ball's not in your hands and not being afraid of the moment and not being afraid to shoot. Shoot confidently and also just be. You are paid like a franchise star. Take that on the chin and be that, right? Like, this is all set up for you to be a star. Go be that. And that's what. That's what I would like to see out of Ahmed. And I think all of the. The reservations we have subside if he is the man. And I think that that's there for him for the taking. But we'll see what happens. Memphis Grizzlies. I don't know. Caden Boozer and Cameron switch places for one game. When Caden expresses his desire to find out what the NBA life's like, Cameron lets him. They're immediately caught. Because they don't look that much alike. They don't. Isn't there also like a five-inch difference there? They do it with lifts. One of them. And the other one just kind of punches. And it only burnishes the Boozer brand. Hold that. As guys who are like, do everything. They want to share the wealth. They want to make their team better. It's going to be portrayed. Cameron Boozer just wanted his brother to understand this is what the next level is like. And it's going to be a marketing bonanza for the Boozers. Will Adam Silver notice this or will he have to wait until Pablo is reported? He will notice it. And he will build an entire marketing campaign around it. It's going to be like the Jordan Band sneaker. Yes. Except Adam Silver's doing it. Yeah. It's going to be. It's going to be like the State Farm commercial. Adam Silver appears. Oh, my God. Shout out, Jake. I don't have. Do you have any hot take? I don't remember any building team. I was very creative. This is just going to be a very nice take. I think they are quietly building something special. There we go. Yeah. You know who's not? This next team on there. The New Orleans Pelicans. Not building anything special. Not quietly anything. What's hotter? Your take or the humidity in New Orleans around this time? Around this team? I mean. I'm going to choose to believe the best in the Pelicans. That Zion Williamson will play a career-high 67 games. Okay. I don't know why I'm already laughing. I just hear. Zion's going to play a career-high and I'm just. It's like a mid-60s to a high-60s. And. And that's. That's it. And then they will look good when he's on the court. But that no one will care. No. No one will care. He played 70 games in 2023-24. Oh, did he? How's that possible? Oh, shit. Oh, wait. Okay. So he will play 70. I'm sorry to fact-check in the middle of a podcast. He will play 71 games. Excuse me. How about 70.5? 70.5 games. Oh, Jesus. He's not going to do that because my hot take is that they should trade Zion, but they should have traded him last year, the year before, the year before that. Just trade him. Just. Like, I'm done being an optimist about this team. Is that the Sacramento Kings music that I hear? Yes, it is. Is he going to get traded for Sabonis? I mean. I mean, who trades for Zion at this point? I think it's. You'd have to have an immense appetite for risk. Yeah. With at least a kind of. Okay. Okay, what about. Easy outline of reward there. Maybe you just need a distraction. L.A. Clippers. Maybe you just need some. My thing is this, though. What if. And you call this a conspiracy. I think this is. There's something to this. Like, I just said in the previous episode about the Nike influence in Portland. What if they're just like, you know, hey, man, Zion's wilding. Let's just bring him to Portland. It's going to be okay. Right. He lives at the Nike offices. Yes. Where we can watch him 24 hours a day, feed him salads. Yes. Keep him out of trouble. I just. I'm just done trying to talk myself into this team. Like, you look at them on paper and it's like, oh, I like Trey Murphy. I like Herb Jones. I like. No, you like them on other teams. Yeah. I would like them scattered about the league in better places. Okay. Where does Trey Murphy end up this season? After we've traded every single member of the Pelicans and they've been disbanded. Trey Murphy. Where do we send Trey Murphy? I mean, he's the guy the Warriors should have gotten. Yeah. Should have drafted. Yeah. Well, that too. But maybe they still can do it with all that draft capital that Joe Lacob doesn't want to give away. I like it. I don't want that for Trey Murphy. Denver? Denver would be good. Yeah. Denver would be great. San Antonio Spurs to round this out. Hottest take, Howard Beck. It's not even hot. It's impossible to have a hot take about a team that is this good. They're going to win it all this season. This is their year. They're winning the championship. That five-game series against the Knicks was, I think, the closest five-game series. Finals or otherwise I've ever seen where, no, like, they won the one game. And the four games that they lost. That's one game. They had a lead in every single one of them. But. And they. But if I'm. But if I have a lead. I will say this, though. Wimby does have the sense of a show guard. Every single one of those games was decided in the last two minutes. I get it. But if we're. And they were young and they were, like, they just kind of fell apart. If we're doing, like, a 5K race and I have the lead 2K into the race every single time, you know, it's like I still lost. And the Knicks winning the exact same way. I mean, it was not as close as people put it. But I do agree that this is the exact thing that they needed to become, like, a Death Star type. Yeah. Killing machine. Yeah. You need that early scar. How do you. What. How much stock do you take in? Because. Because Tyler Parker, your co-host, did not believe in this. But how much stock do you take into the Paris offseason trip for. For Team Camaraderie? I don't. I don't. But I don't put much into it. No air conditioning and just the smell of keys. Like, what's that doing for you? A wedding in Malibu does way better than for Team Camaraderie then, right? No, but I think, you know, I. I think this is going to be. I think. I kind of agree with Howard, though. I think they're going to be just like. Yeah. Like. You would agree. However, you want to see the five game series. But like, they lost due to their own mistakes. So are they the ones that are going to beat the Heat? Hold on. Hold on. They lost due to Jalen Brunson being awesome. But they. There was so much of just like. Wemby's missing free throws. Wemby is committing stupid fouls at inopportune times. There was a fatigue factor. They weren't ready for this moment. And they're going to be ready the next time. And Wemby's only getting better. And Dylan Harper's going to be a freaking star. They added Tobias Harris and lost like nobody. Yeah. They're going to be really good. They're going to be like. They're going to win the championship. That's like that. We're not doing a predictions episode. We will get to that at some point. But like, it just. What do we say? What do we say if in the. Western Conference Finals, when we miss it. another two crucial free throws. Is this now going to become a thing? Yeah. At what point, what do we say then if that happens? I wonder. That said, here's my take. Here's my hot take. Wemby will be cited backstage at a James Tallarico event before the midterms. It will become a major story in Texas. He will try to say, that's not me. That's not me. I love how you say cited like he's not 7'10". Well, that's what I mean. He'll be wearing a hoodie. He's going to be in the Steve Ballmer disguise. Right. He'll have a hoodie and he'll be clutching some fantasy paperback. They won't get a clear shot at him, but he will be 7'3". Hey, he's going to leave a shoe behind a big Nike alien shoe. And it will become a major, major story in the state. And what is the result of that? What happens after that? Do they revolt on him? I have nothing to say. It's all going to be fine because Tallarico is winning the race and then everything, there's nothing to be mad about at that point. It's Texas, man. It's still Texas, man. I don't know. I don't think they can win the title. Here's the thing though. Victor has a lot to prove still, man. I think that that's. Is that. I think we've gassed him up too much. We have. And I think there was a little. Even after the finals, he's going to be back. I think he's believing the gas. I don't know. We'll see. Well, like he has. I will say this to your point and to my point about just him messing up when it counts the most. We now have a bit of a track record. Right? Like, you know, didn't beat the Avengers Team USA, right? Then comes back, doesn't. messes up when it matters most in key playoff possessions. Like, you know what I mean? Lost that game to Chet. Lost that game. In the under-21s. Right? And he's been paying his ass back ever since. Listen, Michael Jordan, got his ass kicked for how many years before he won a championship? Seven years. Kobe had the air balls against Utah. Like, this is just the stuff that these guys go through. This happens. Hey, listen, man. We're looking. Finding flaws in the Mona Lisa. Yeah, yeah. Okay? We're doing our best here. We're trying to do great for the show. I mean, honestly, the Mona Lisa, kind of overrated. I've never been. I can't say. Seen her a couple times. It's fine. Look at these flexes. It's shitting on Paris. It's poo-pooing on Paris. Not Paris. It's a beautiful scene. One of the best scenes. No, no. You said the air conditioning thing in cheese, okay? There is no air conditioning in any of Europe. That is a true thing. And with global warming, it's fucked up. They gotta get it. It's really good. But that is a fact. That is a fact. It's a fact. All right. That's been dope, man. We'll see you next year for Hottest Takes. That has been, you know, the first edition of Hottest Takes, Real One's edition. That's a lot of editions. I am Logan Murdoch. That is Howard motherfucking Beck. That is Jason motherfucking Concepcion. We'll see you guys soon. Ah, ah, all the shits. 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