LeBron James is a Philadelphia 76er! Plus, Could Embiid Be Traded?

Coming up on this Acklow show. It's Friday afternoon, but you're probably going to be listening to this Sunday morning. LePron James just signed with the Philadelphia 76ers about five and a half hours ago. I already taped an emergency Bill Simmons podcast with Bill Simmons. This is the deeper dive with Chris Ryan, Philly's own and Michael Pina to do the X's and where do the sixers stack up in the Eastern Conference and all that good stuff. Just tons of stuff on like, how is Chris feeling about LeBron James being a sixer? Feels weird. It feels weird to say it out loud. It feels weird to look at him in the sixers jersey. How is this going to work offensively? How do Jalen Brown, Tyrese, Maxi, B.J. Edgecomb, Joel and bead and LeBron freaking James all share the ball on offense? What do the rotations look like? Are we overlooking some potential defensive concerns? With the sixers trying to trade Joel and bead? Is that actually the smart thing for them to do? Is he completely untradable? What trades even makes sense? Where do they rank in the Eastern Conference, which has at least 11 pretty solid to very good teams? Is this the best starting five in the NBA? Is LeBron a ring chaser? We get into that. And does this feel at peace with the rest of his career? Is this an outlier move? Just all the LeBron stuff? Again, you're listening to the Sunday morning because we're giving it a little lag time from the bill pot. But these are more or less are semi instant reactions. Intel, up and on the phone, all afternoon, what the teams know? When did they know what? What is how are the teams going to pivot? So we'll talk a little bit about that. I'll come it up on the Zach Lo Show. Welcome to the Zach Lo Show. You will be hearing this early Sunday morning, but we are recording it at exactly 4 p.m. Eastern time on Friday because of our varying scheduling conflicts over the weekend in the aftermath of LeBron James signing. What he said will be his last decision, signing with the Philadelphia 76ers. Look, if something happens between now and when this post, I will try to my best to hop on and do a solo thing. I think we're going to see like Dremon green James Harden, potentially. Jonathan Caminga, the calves like him. We'll see Demard Rosen, Bradley Biel, Kawaii Leonard thing who knows like all of this stuff is in play. But we've got to start LeBron James is a sixer. And I got a lot of topics to hit. I got a lot of thoughts. Got a lot of thoughts on the Eastern Conference. But I think it's important in these moments to just step back for a second and say the words again, LeBron James, the all time leading score in the NBA. Are you believe the greatest player of all time? He's a member, not of the Cleveland Cavaliers, not of the Miami Heat, not of the Los Angeles Lakers, not with his buddy Steph and Golden State of the StarCrossed Philadelphia 76ers. He's going to be wearing a sixers jersey that I was more. He's going to have to pick a jersey number that's available. I'm not I guess 23 and six are just six probably isn't available. I don't know Chris Ryan, he's a sixer. How can you say it one more time? LeBron James LeBron James and maybe someday Brony James, but currently LeBron James is a member of the Philadelphia 76ers with Joel and bead Tyrese Max C. B.J. Edgecomb, Dean Wade, Anthony Simons and Jalen Brown. Yeah. I mean, I just need you're you're an NBA die hard like the rest of us. You've our lives, our age, our age range. We like perfectly align with LeBron's age range and career. Like, is are you just still floored? What's happening in your life? Total shock. A very, very classic like looked at my phone at 8 30 and had 75 text messages. This feels better than not getting LeBron James. Which has happened a couple of times over the course of LeBron's career, you know, where the Philly has been like this outsider candidate to to land him, probably always used for leverage never realistic destination. I have no idea like how this happened. I mean, there had been like these little rumors and, you know, Josh Harris is talking to him at fanatics fest and, you know, Maxi and V.J. and Jalen and B are all lobbying him and all this stuff. But I was doing the crazy like where could where could his kids go to school? Like what would be how would this work for him like functionally? Like I actually got I went down the rabbit hole and I found the rabbit. Like this is wild that like for the first time this is like you get through this like, you know, tracking private flights business and you find out like he's coming here and yes, it's the last decision. It's it's it's a different version of LeBron probably than, you know, we could have had various other stops in his career. But this is really cool, man, this is a really cool feeling. They're partying in Margate. Apparently they're like already airplanes flying over the Jersey shore with LeBron banners. People are flipping out. It's really awesome. I mean LeBron has not in his various stops is not really cross paths with the sixers in high stakes playoff series many times. If any really, I mean, it's happened, but not really in high stakes series. There was a heat sixers at one point. And but like, but we've all had our ups and downs with LeBron. He engenders a lot of emotions like how do you feel like your emotional relationship? What is with LeBron? Was there ever a point of time where you were sick of him tired of him? He's a phony. I hate him. I hate the heat. Like how are you? How have you been and how are you reconciling that with today? I think that what I really love about this was that I was there for the third game, the first Philly game of the Nick series. And when I was there, this last one, this last one just this most recent playoff series. And it's impossible to overstate how humiliating and depressing that was to have the building full of Nick's fans to have the bathroom full of Nick's fans to have Nick's fans on the concourse. And it honestly, even though I really enjoyed like elements of that team and VJ story in the first season that he had, it just felt like something of a low, like this is always going to be what it is. And so this this summer has just felt so revitalizing, you know, and it's felt like this infusion of new and old blood. So any like animus that I've ever had about LeBron is out the window. And also, you know, it kind of makes me feel a little bit like if he can do for Philly, this is going to sound so stupid, please don't clip this. If he can do for Philly, what Messi did for Argentina, like that's enough. Like if he can just walk through parts of the season, make people around him better, you know, like provide us with a few moments of absolute brilliance and be there for the playoffs. Like this is just such a great ride. Like I, I am, I'm going to have to like now look into the long term stays in Philly. Now Simmons, I already did Simmons emergency podcasts. He's already, I mean, you know, Bill, his brain is firing in three different directions. So he opened the podcast with like, I wonder if LeBron's going to play till he's 45 and he's going to go to Cleveland after the two years with Philly. And I was like, Bill, he just signed with Philly 45 seconds ago, I think he's going to retire. If I'm taking his Twitter post at his word, that this is his last decision. That means he'd retire. A Philadelphia 76er. I feel like they're a whole rest of the pod could just be like us just making faces and staring into the abyss of like, what just happened? Michael Pina is here. Michael, how are you? I'm doing wonderful, not as well as Chris, but I'm doing wonderful. Well, you already wrote a column that, you know, just poke, poke the air right out of the balloon for four years on the ringer.com about how Philly is not even guaranteed to be a top six seed in this beefed up Eastern conference. So we're going to get there. We're going to go through the east. But I want to use that column is, is it is just again, Chris emotionally. It's been a strange 15 years for the Philadelphia 76ers. Every moment of hope has been punctuated by a gut punch of inexplicable despair of organizational and competence, absurdist comedy. I mean, just the worst possible like pivots. Are you allowing yourself to feel like legitimate? Hey, we might actually have a championship team here. Hope or is this just like, let's just have fun at what happens happens. It's kind of the latter. Like it's kind of like I, you know, one of the sensations that I often have had over the last five, five or so seasons post Jimmy Butler probably is sixers get eliminated if they make the playoffs. They get eliminated in the second round or whatever. And then I watch the rest of the playoffs that I'm like, we're not even playing the same sport. Like when you see the teams in the final four and then the finals and you see like the level that they're playing and you're like, we're not, we're not on Denver's level that year. We're not on Oklahoma city's level. We're not on San Antonio New York's level. Like this isn't even the same league. And so it remains to be seen whether or not an older gentleman like can infuse this team with the kind of athleticism and, and versatility that you need to compete in today's NBA. But what I really just can't wait is just to see these guys on the floor together. Like the first time LeBron throws an outlet to VJ, I'm going to lose my mind. Peena, you are correct to identify the East as, as a, a very strong collection of teams. I think they're all 11 legit good to pretty good teams in the Eastern Conference. A top six seed is you know, it's going to require a pretty goddamn good regular season. I do think the Sixers by adding just another top 20, top 25 where you're in a classify LeBron talent and one who means offense, ballhandly, shock creation have kind of insulated their, them, so I've hired, I've raised their floor in the regular season for like embeds out what's our team look like. LeBron's resting, but embeds healthy, what's our team look like? I think they're pretty well positioned to navigate the 82 in a way that gets them into the top six, but I generally would put it like this. The East is, is better than the West top to bottom, but LeBron I think is correct to identify the path to the finals as being easier out of the East, even if it is the superior conference top to bottom because that, no matter where you go in the West and Golden State was really the only one in it, I think the idea of beating both San Antonio and Oklahoma City and the playoffs is kind of ludicrous, and now you at least set yourself up. The path to the finals might be more difficult, but we only got to beat one of those teams. But like, here's how I would summarize the East. I wonder what you think of this because I agree with you that I think in the euphoria over this decision, over it being done over the newness of LeBron on the Sixers, over and beat has this running made and Jalen Brown just got here. What the hell is going on? What is this team? I do think like the East is going to be hard. And if you told me this sense of being the fourth seat or the fifth seat, I wouldn't be surprised. But on the other hand, I will say, how many teams in the East do you look at right now as of today? And again, we haven't seen Harden, we haven't seen what the cab do, whatever. How many teams in the East do you look at as being definitively better than the Philadelphia 76ers? And which teams are they? Well, that's a great question. I mean, to start, I would not bet my life that the Sixers will not finish in the top six. I would think that they will. I think they obviously have a ton of talent in that starting five as I wrote is extremely scary. And I cannot, echoing with Christian said, I cannot wait to watch them play basketball. I mean, I think the New York Knicks are probably definitively better. Just they just won the title. And they have a style of play that is clearly winning basketball and I mean, they lost one player from that team who's very important. But I'm expecting the New York Knicks to be awesome. Next season, definitively better, it's tough to answer. I mean, I think to your point that the Western Conference has the Oklahoma City Thunder and the San Antonio Spurs at the top is obviously correct. And in the East, it's just more of like a, there's a lot of really good teams and which team is healthiest, which team is clicking at the right time and the right spot will win the conference, I feel like. So it's tough to definitively stay, especially with all the change that we've seen in the conference from the Raptors, Celtics, Cleveland Cavaliers, unsettled Detroit pistons. Their big move was getting John Collins, basically as the one seed. So it's difficult to say. I just have a lot of questions about the Sixers team. I'm super excited to watch them play. I think LeBron is kind of a brilliant fit in his ability to be a connective tissue. And we know that he's willing to take a back seat in a lot of different ways. But I don't know, I guess like the big question for me when I look at this team is Joel and Bede and we haven't really mentioned him yet. But he is the shadow hanging over all of this and his health is just this massive question that we don't, we won't have an answer to until they play basketball in the spring. I will answer my own question, but Chris, do you have any thoughts? I don't want to get too over my skis. I think the Knicks are better. I think that I respect what Cleveland has done over multiple regular seasons. So I'm going to at least like allow for the possibility that they're coherence and their stability. And if you call what they have stability, like I'm sure they will be a very good regular season team. And analytically they will be quite good to do that. The Miami thing, I don't really see it yet, but I think that they'll be like this is the thing that's really wild is like the East is now like the Blackbuster conference. The East is every night. Trey young and AD might play against LeBron and Maxie and Jalen and Bede or, you know, Halliburton is back and he has his retooled Pacers and they're playing against presumably Kauai and Toronto. Like that's that is a very different scenario than the one that we've probably spent most of our professional lives covering of, you know, East Coast hours are kind of like pretty, pretty grim after a while. So like I think this is all going to come down to Routri's hardest and is healthiest during the regular season. But I could see the team that comes in to Pena's point. The sixth seed of these turn conference might be the most dangerous team of these turn conference when it gets to playoffs. I would say it might be a 50 win team except I think with no one outright tanking this year or no one incentivized to do it at least. I mean, this year the sixth seed was a 46 win team. These teams are just going to beat up on each other all year. So I don't know, but it will qualitatively I think regardless of the record is be a team of that quality. And by the way, you mentioned Washington was not even among the 11 teams that I mentioned that are good to pretty good and they could be decent. They're over under 34 and a half that feels about right to me. But like Detroit is going to win a ton of games regardless of what you think of their offseason. Boston is going to win a lot of games that maybe not a ton, but they'll be a 50-ish win team despite what you think of their offseason. And it has not gone great. The calves or the calves, they'll pivot a little bit here. Toronto Presumably will get collied. The hawks are still good or land those solid charlots solid by Amy got you know, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, Indiana's back or semi back at least to the answer to my own question though. And in defense of LeBron sort of because I've already heard from front office executives who think LeBron made to take out all the other variables just for winning. Some say he made the right perfect decision. Others have already, you know, text called and it said, well, this is a really bad decision, you know, it's just one ball. All these guys are going to it's going to be clunky. They all need the ball. It's not going to work. It's going to be chemistry. I lean more toward the former pull where I think this is going to be a good team. I think this is a perfectly reasonable decision to win. And the only team that I would say the only one in the east that I can say right now today, I think is better than the sixers is the next. That's it. That's the end of my list. Everyone else has questions, including the sixers. Look, it is as simple as Embed, right? I mean, I don't know, I don't know what else to say. I don't think this team is a championship team with a hook porting as the starting center. If Embed's out in the finals or the conference finals or a Dombona or whoever it is, I think they're going to need Joel Embed to be healthy through three or to win the title for a playoff series. Which is never done. I'm on record as saying I don't think it will ever happen. And so I don't really know what to make of this, how to put those thoughts together. Bill and I were talking about how you very smartly Chris during the Nick series. It was a game one or game game one. I think you should just bench Embed. I said, we should, we should basically like be playing him on his own schedule rather than the NBA's. Yeah. And we're out of gas after seven games against Boston are only shots, steal one of these games, rest Embed. At the very least, if you conclude, if you get through the first 82 with Embed healthy, and that may involve him playing 45 games, whatever it is, just get him healthy, get to the playoffs as healthy as you can get him. That may be the, like, you may have to try stuff like that. Like, hey, you know, we're up to oh in this series. We're just going to rest Joel in game three. And now you at least have a blueprint to like, can you play LeBron at the five a little bit in like these wing heavy power forward heavy lineups? Can you play a Dombona for 15 minutes and hook 40 for 15 minutes, sign a ring chasing center somewhere and like steal a win. We've seen them steal wins without Joel before, including in these playoffs. That may be the only way to get them across the finish line. But I don't think you can't do much better than they did in this off season. And I think this team, we can talk about stylistically how it's going to work. But I think it's going to, I think it's going to work. I think you should be optimistic. Yeah. You know, I, when, when Jalen Brown got treated to the sixers, I was a little bit like, this is pretty funny on like a content level and just in a sort of like, you know, the arc of the universe bending away or towards Bill, depending on how you want to look at it. But I was really concerned was like, these guys kind of like to operate in similar fashions and beat in Jalen Brown, like to have the ball in their hands in and around the nail around the mid court. They like to take their time and draw doubles and do all these things. And what I am hope choosing to believe in now and now that this team has been assembled is the optionality of it all. And on certain nights, you know, they're going to, are we going to get a VJ game again? I don't know if there's enough ball to go around for that. But, you know, they're going to need horses and they're going to need Maxi and VJ and Jalen to carry this team when it beads out for two weeks or LeBron is going to do a rest night or whatever it is. And also just culturally, and like in terms of chemistry, it's like that this is going to be like a pretty significant uptick and scrutiny for these guys that I don't think they've ever experienced before. You know, like this is going to be like national media attention on a night to night basis that, you know, I think people got kind of like bored with the lake or show. And I think it's kind of the sixers index is going to be all boy, all boy be popping, - You know? We can we'll get into the x's and those a bit, but peanut outline your concerns for us about what other than mb's health. Actually, I'll lead you this way. I do think there's going to be some systemic like issues to work out on offense. Defensively, I mean, people overlook that end of the floor. I think they should be okay, defensively. Mb is still a decent rim protector when he's healthy. I mean, the shots at the rim go down. I'll point at you new percentage at the rim goes down like those are real things. He's still a big enormous impediment, but you know, they'll have to work some things out there too. But the big question to me is like, what is mb doing on offense now? Like literally in the most literal sense, where is he? Because I'm not sure if you have this collection of guys on the floor and you can stagger minutes all you want and they will like they'll stagger as strictly as you can. They'll find this pairing works and that pairing works. They'll do all that. But like, I'm not sure you can just dump the ball to Joel and bead in the post with all these guys around him. He's not a good enough three point shooter to be super dangerous in that sense unless he rebounds to where he was shooting 37 38% now and then and that would really change everything for this team. He doesn't really want to roll hard to the basket. And so he'll be at the nail a lot I think is the answer. He'll be at the nail in the flow like catching it on the pick and roll with the defense in motion making reads. He'll be holding the ball there. And then around that they just have to figure it out. But I assume your concerns are partly offensive fit partly. Hey, defensively, how is this going to work and do they have enough depth? Yeah, you nailed it. I think offensively just the fact I'll start with Jalen kind of coming in here because he's coming up a season where he was, you know, top five in usage had every opportunity to shoot and score and have the ball in his hands when he wanted on that Celtics team called it the best season or favorite season of his career. And the fact that he was traded from a situation like that to one where, you know, C.R. You just mentioned like DJ Edge Club will have nights and it's like Jalen, I don't think Jalen ran once that. I think that Jalen, you would know better than me. I've thought about this a lot. Yeah, I think that if he is to be super happy and play for this extension that he's eligible for, I just think the guy was like going from the mentality of I have my own team to okay, I'm going to be the fourth option tonight or I'm going to go six seven straight possessions where I don't even touch the ball maybe. So I just have I'm not saying like it won't work at all. I'm just curious to see where the pieces are. What the offense looks like as you said, like playing through Joelle and Beat, I think those days might be over. I have no concerns about LeBron James obviously fitting in offensively. He'll figure it out. But I think just satisfying everyone who is extremely high usage on this team and in the past and getting them to all buy in and sacrifice, touch his shots, minutes. I just think it's really interesting and a huge hurdle for Nick Nurse to solve. So that's that's offensively the deal. But like, everyone's super smart. They have a ton of force, a ton of power, speed. I think they'll play faster than we think. You know, LeBron James finished first in Fastbury points last season. Jalen Brown obviously wants to play fast, tibia's maxi's on the team. He's like the fastest player in the world. DJ Edge going as well. So they'll I think they'll play faster than than people might be anticipating. But like, when I think about the NBA right now and what it takes to win, I pivot immediately to the depth. And I just think that this is like a seven man roster. Yes. And then it just kind of falls off a cliff a little bit. And that's being generous to like, I'm not a huge emperor. Simon's fan at all. He's never played in the playoffs. So I have questions there. And like, I think that on paper, the starting five and probably the closing five is demolition Derby. And they'll be awesome. I think that it's worth pointing out some spacing spacing questions. And if you have someone, I'm not saying like, take Jalen Brown and put him on the bench. But I am saying when you have someone like Dean Wade who you brought in his like best attribute is his ability to knock down open corner of threes and defend the other team's best player. So I just I have so many questions. My brain is kind of like leaking out of my ears. Just trying to think about this. It's like it is wild. So I don't mean to puncture the balloon and be like a negative Nancy here. But I just I think there are a lot of questions that need to be answered. And it's it's going to just be a fascinating team to watch play every single night all season long. Exactly. How did Gancy do this? How did like what happened? I mean, when he jinxed the no hitter in the Philly stadium, whatever it's called, like, and you got a lot of maybe that maybe some some magical thing happened from the heavens after ever since that moment. Maybe he maybe he did exactly what he should have done. And now the baseball gods and basketball gods are all working. I don't know. Dean Wade's his guy. He knows LeBron really well. They played high school basketball like in the same area when they were when they were kids. It's kind of crazy. But yeah, he's done it. He's done a great job. And I think you know, Bill mentioned Darryl Moria is one of the big sort of losers of all of this of this transaction along with the calves and the warriors and the heat and all the teams he didn't go to will get to all them. But yeah, Gancy is is a winner and it's an interesting counterfactual. Does this happen if Darryl Moria is the GM of the team because LeBron and Moria have obviously kind of gone head to head on a couple of things, including the infamous Hong Kong tweet the Darryl that Darryl had. And and all that. All right, let's say a quick break and I'm going to tell you why I think this is actually going to work on offense. All right, Pino, you mentioned the depth issue. And I do think there's some reality to that the six and seven guys are Simon's and Wade. I mentioned the backup centers. I like Jabari Walker fine. I like Justin Edwards fine. I think they'll I like Barlow fine. I think they'll find enough minutes from those guys. But I think they could use another quality guy offensively. Look, the combined usage rate of this starting five is like 140%. So is it is it unprecedented? Almost like it might it like there's not even like a Mario Chalmers. I mean, the DJ Edge boom is like the closest thing in the starting line up to like the Mario Chalmers, Norris Cole guy. It might be pretty close to unprecedented. Um, here are the work around number one. Pino mentioned pace. I think this team is going to play super fast and to just and if they have to leave and beat in the dust now and then to do it, that's fine. The other four guys are built to play fast. That's the way edge comb is going to run into points that maybe won't be there for him as much in the half court. Number two, um, Tyrese maxi shot 43% on catching shoot three's last season and VJ Edge comb shot 39%. Those guys are fine playing off the ball. I the maxi is not like a pounded pounded style point guard. He'll get off it. He'll cut. He'll attack closeouts. He'll attack the diagonal gaps. Like I don't worry about him at all. Jalen brown has been actually kind of an average to below average catching shoot three point shooter. He's going to have to shoot better there. And that's where the work, the work is right is like, you know, Brown and Tatum would occasionally run two man game together. If one of them had a small guy on him or a bigger guy on him and they could get a switch and a mismatch and attack it that way. You could do that with LeBron and Jalen Brown. You can use maxi as the screener or edge comb as a screener. Whoever has the littlest week is defender on him for any of these guys and sort of hunt that way and then you just have to figure out what's mb doing is the in the dunker spot trying to get offensive rebounds as you're spacing the floor. Like almost every really great team has some version of this problem. And you just have to figure it out and minute staggering is part of it and creative coaching is part of it. And sacrifice is part of it. And I do think they'll run into occasional issues like that and growing pains and all that. But I mean, what was the alternative? Not signing LeBron James and not trading for Jalen Brown. Like this seems like a really good place for them to end up. I'm actually a little bit more concerned about the defense than I am about the offense. Not that it's going to be bad or anything. But Bill and I were having this debate. I mean, Bill, Bill's take all along was the calves with LeBron. We're going to be a paper tiger that they're defensively. They were going to be too limited because of harden and Mitchell and LeBron's old. And you have the who has the ball problem with these three ball dominant perimeter guys and this defense problem with the two small guards and harden is, you know, on again, off again a sieve. And I said to him, like, I'm not, is this, are we sure this is like a better defensive environment for LeBron than that Cleveland team because you do have two small, small-ish guards in Edgecombe and Max, you know, they both try really, really hard and Max, he made huge strides defensively and Edgecombe is probably a plus for his position. LeBron is still 41 years old. Jalen Brown's okay to good and beat is like, maybe available, maybe not, maybe super engaged, maybe not. And like, Cleveland would have had this double big thing of Moby and Allen to at least put out some fires. Like, I think they're going to have some work to do to be a top 10, 12 defensive team. I don't, maybe I'm too pessimistic. I don't know. What do you think? I do not see, I do not see this team being like a defensive stalwart. And if there's, I almost trust these guys with the combined basketball IQ with people at the various places in their careers to figure out the offense, but the defense is going to really rely on like, can you preserve and beat? And, you know, for me, I was actually wondering, like, are we going to see something like Embedent and LeBron playing around 28 minutes a game? You know what I mean? Like where they are. We should, you know, where they are, they've got Embed on a Wembee plan and where they've got LeBron, like sure, like, you know, you come and you start and you get announced last and everything. But, like, you're going to probably play less than 30 minutes most nights. And if you're doing that and you've got, you know, Simon's out there. That's a, that's a small and, and not particularly like staunch team. So, yeah, I'm worried about it. I'm worried about it because of the reasons I just said, which is like I just watched Castle and Harper and McHale Bridges and Josh Hart play like Wolverines. You know, I got the defensive side of the ball. That seems how you win the championship now. And we don't, we don't really have that kind of identity. Pena? Yeah, I'll just say, I'll just say real quick. Size is going to be an issue, I think, for sure. And I think I keep going back to this, but I just think Dean Wade is a really important player on this team. And teams will go at Joel and beat in the pick and roll a ton. He's a solid rim protector still, but I think you'll make him move quite a bit. And, you know, I feel like going back to Jalen Brown on offense, if he's unhappy, like, I just think about that series against the Celtics, uh, six or series where he's getting back cut over and over again by Kelly Ubrej Jr. And that's just kind of who he is off ball defensively. He's kind of allotted for his on ball tenacity. And in the finals versus Luke, people talk about all the time, but I kind of weigh him out as an average defensive player because of just the spacing is that he still has this latinist career, um, as a help defender. So I think that there's definitely a lot of intelligence for sure. And Maxi's gotten better and he maximizes his size. And I, I like love edge comb defensively. And I think he'll continue to, to make strides there. LeBron is super smart and he's always on the right spot. He's a brilliant communicator. But I, I think that it's okay to be a little cynical about this team defensively. And if you were to put them on a, like a minutes plan, that's when I go back to, okay, so who is playing those minutes and, you know, win in the game and is it who is it against? And I just have my questions. I have questions. I, like, like I said, if this team's the fourth or the fifth seed, no one should be all that surprise. And I don't even think they would really care as long as they got into the top stage where, and we're healthy. Um, you know, I don't know if I want to go here yet, but I will. Um, the ambide question is really interesting because he's meant a lot to fill the fans. Yeah, I think they still mostly love them. And there's been some ups and downs. Uh, Bill right away on his pod, on the pod we did was already pitching, he was already Picassoing. He was already Picassoing and bead franth and he Davis, um, oh yeah, and bead for Daniel Gafford, PJ Washington and Clay Thompson, uh, with the sixers kicking in draft compensation. And I put him because I was like, can we just, can we just sit here for him? Like for a minute, he just like, he just, LeBron just went to the sixers. I don't know if I should have, um, I don't know if I should have put him that strongly. I, I, just, I'll have my antenna up for Joel and bead trade noise, uh, during the summer, during the season. I'm just, I'm on alert. I don't really know that he's tradable. It without the sixers kicking in all the draft assets that they have, that they have given that he's got three years left on this monster contract. But, um, I, they're not polyano about it. They know that they're not going to be able to rely on him to stay healthy and that he is a, but he's just, it's a, the team has completely changed around him on both ends of the floor. Um, I don't, I wouldn't, I wouldn't just dismiss it as an impossibility. I guess is what I'm saying. Zach, can I jump in a quick question? What is wrong with the, from Philly's perspective, the AD and bead trade? And I, I understand the, um, the Mbeats contract and saying it's untradable and everything, but trading for AD is, I have to extend AD. So there's the downside there. And you'd kind of be doing Washington a little bit of a favor. And I'm sure that they would be the ones receiving draft compensation there. So I just, I, that seems like a win, not, not a win, win. Um, but something that Philly would like behind the scenes aggressively pursue. It just makes a ton of sense for them, particularly if LeBron puts his finger on the scale. Chris, would you like to address that question? The most important six are obviously since Iverson and Iverson got traded. So like anything is possible. Embed embodying this era. So specifically calling himself the process, like being like the sort of mascot of this multi GM multi phase effort to rebuild a team that was like fine when they started rebuilding it. It's, he's so ingrained with Philly basketball culture at this point, even though he has plenty of people who are like, I can't anymore with this, with, you know, this injury or that injury or this weird cryptic statement or you don't seem like you want to play. But the idea of getting LeBron James and then trading Joel and Beat if Gansy does that, he should star in the next John Wick movie. But if Gansy, if Mike Gansy is like, the plan has come together. And now I'm going to get PJ Washington and Daniel Gafford and Clay Thompson. Then like it's, it's end of Godfather type stuff. And I think Philly would adjust, you know, I think they would, they would, they would still go to games. But I think that the idea of finally, like having this assemblage of talent or with Embed if not around him and then be like, have fun indeed. Yeah. When he, when he pitched the Dallas one to me and other people have pitched a Miles Turner version to me where I don't know what the, forget what the bucks are doing with Joel and Beat and how sad that would be. My initial response to those was like, just, we've, we've all invested too much together. Can we give it a shot? Can we just give it? We know, like he's going to play 45 games and he's probably going to get hurt in a second round of the playoffs. It could be, could we just see? Can we just give it a shot, which is naive and dumb, which is what? The whole point of cheering for like following sports and cheering for a team is to say what if he doesn't? Like, what if he doesn't get hurt? Exactly. What if, what if somehow like you have to believe in these things? I know what the history tells us and I know what the stats tell us. But like, I, I don't think, look, I've been worried or like noticing that they have not done a Jalen Brown press conference since the straight. Like there was not a welcome Jalen to the team. I thought that was weird. I thought maybe it was because there was other moves coming. I had no idea it was something like this, but they didn't want Jalen to walk out on the day and say, like, well, I can't wait to play with this guy. And then this guy gets traded or, you know, make some sort of statement about how he's going to take over like leadership here and, you know, bring Maxi and VJ along or whatever it is. So I think it's been noticed by many people that Jalen Brown has not been introduced as a six or yet. And I was worried that it actually had something to do with NB. I was worried that they didn't want him to have to go out there and be like, you know, I just can't wait to play with Joelle. It's been a lifelong dream of mine or whatever. And then the next day, they fit some crazy deal happens. But I don't know, I don't know in, in, in my Gansy's like Batman chamber, like, what's the order of operations and what's his order of preferences? You know, I mean, like, do you think that that's too sentimental on my part to be like, I, you know, like, not without Joelle? No, well, no, I mean, I will talk to Joelle. No, we won't leave you behind. I will find you. No, man, like, I totally get what you're saying. And, you know, that's, that is why you watch sports for sure. I, I also look at it, you know, flipping it around from the Celtics perspective and seeing all the Celtics fan kids crying when they, and Jalen Brown never won MVP. And he's not that pedigree. He did win a finals MVP. And was there for like a decade and was so embedded in the community and beloved in Boston. And for them to just trade him for Paul George in two picks, obviously the PR situation was a, the backlash was a total nightmare. So I mean, it does, it does happen in the end. This is the NBA. And so like, you're not, you're not incorrect to feel that way, for sure. I, I just wouldn't be surprised at all if the Sixers did it. And I think that they are motivated to do it. And I think the thing that surprised me the most about LeBron picking the Sixers was the NBA question mark, because he is brilliant. And he knows that Joelle and beat has never been out of the second round of the playoffs. And he knows that his body is his body. I mean, he played it in the Olympics with him and he could barely get up and down the court for stretches. It was a miracle in the Serbia game. So I just, I just wouldn't be surprised almost to the point where I'm expecting a trade at this point, which is kind of wild to say. Here's, I am not a Sixers fan. I do love the city of Philadelphia. It is the most underrated city in America. It's not even under a daymar. I think it's been, it people now appreciate it for what it is. Um, thank you, Zach. And I love Philly fans. I went to World Cup game in Philadelphia. I had time in my life. Um, here's the emotional element to me as an outsider. You have you have you've gone through a lot together with Joel M.B. fan to player. A lot of ups, a lot of downs, a lot of motions, a lot of setbacks, a lot of pain. Bell's palsy was involved at one point. It's one thing to kick that to the curb for Daniel Gafford and PJ Washington or Miles Turner. I could see it as a fan. I just like, God, that sucks. These guys are so fucking boring. I'd rather watch Joel M.B. limp up and down the court on the off chance that maybe he's not limping in June by some miracle. Then be like, Miles Turner's picking up hot fria's pretty meshing for the world with Tyrie Smexley these days. But that'd be the most processed thing. You know, PJ Washington's coming from the dunker spot is quite underrated on this team. This is our new character's act. I think you should do a lot more of this. But that that's distinct from like Anthony Davis is pretty fucking awesome. And if I were the sixers, I would act actually be trying to do that. And it wouldn't shock me if it comes out in two months that the two teams talk to some degree. Now, the Wizards said all the things about how they want Anthony Davis on their team. They want Troy Young and Anthony Davis to play together. They want to chase a play in spot, maybe, and be competitive. Well, you can't tank anymore. You know, all that stuff. And so what the draft compensation would be, by the way, it really doesn't have that much draft compensation left because of the jail and brown trade. But that to me is at least like as a fan, you could be like, at least this is exciting. Like this is the top 75 all-time player who does he will roll to the rim. He is a more mobile and well-rounded defender than Joel and bead. He does not need the ball as much and sort of kind of fits this team a little bit better, the shooting downgrades a bit of a concern. But at least as a fan, you could be like, at least this guy's awesome. Yeah, it's really sad. I mean, Joel and bead in street clothes at a Washington Wizard's home game is one of the more depressing images that I have conjured in a long time. But as a Philly fan, at least AD is exciting. At least I've traded this guy that I've lived and died with for a decade plus for something exciting, not like in this collection of role players. No comment. Like, you know what I mean? Like, it's like, yes, I understand exactly what you're saying is Davis, how much more durable is Davis than Joel? Well, okay, so that's an important question because a lot of AD's injuries are the sort of random like shoulder rinsed, thumb and a jersey. And in bead has also had a lot of like freakish injuries in the playoffs. Bell's palsies, Ciacum elbowing him in the face and breaking his orbital bone and on and on. But the knee thing is now kind of officially a chronic thing with the Kaminga falling on him being the event that that seemed to exacerbate it and make it worse. And even when he comes back, he seems kind of trepidacious a little bit to start going full strength again. And that's what's distinct that that is where I've crossed through the kind of like, I just don't have any faith that he's going to be able to stay healthy for any prolonged period of time. So yes, AD just equally undurable almost. But in a way that I don't have the same lack of hope. Does that make any sense? Sure. But again, pre-existing chemistry with LeBron James and they wanted a championship together that should also be thrown in there. Before we take a break, I do think that's important to note because there was all this murmuring of like, you know, Cleveland is now left. No one is left in the merch like LeBron made a choice and all these teams knew that they were, you know, there were a number of other places he might go and that they were likely to not get him. But there was all this stuff about how, you know, does clutch want Golden State to get Anthony Davis to have any shot at LeBron James or rumblings like, just Cleveland need to go get Kyrie Irving to get LeBron James. Like, I may just speaking for myself and the calls and texts I've made over the last month, I haven't really heard any of that. I don't think like, I think AD may have been floated like tentatively very early in the process to maybe one team. And that's it. And I don't think there were any talks about it at all, any substantive trade talks. I don't think, you know, Sean's reported a couple days ago that there's no other dominoes here in LeBron's out waiting for any other dominoes. I think that was true. And I think that's actually been true for quite a while. And I just wanted to like make sure that I mentioned that now who knows what will happen between now and then. All right, I have a couple other, I have a couple other general takes to throw at you guys. Let's take a quick break first. Okay, here are some thoughts slash takes slash scorchers I've seen going around the internet since LeBron signed with the Sixers today. And I want to bounce them off of you. Take number one. And this was like almost a pre take like Brian Winhorse said this on TV and Howard Beck said it on my podcast. Take number one, it just feels weird to have LeBron on the Philadelphia 76ers in a way that is just somehow off putting Chris Ryan agree disagree with you. I assure you it's not off putting Michael Pena, maybe maybe a less by source, Michael Pena. I mean, you've got the greatest career in the history of the NBA almost in arguably going to one of the most dysfunctional at times laughable organizations in a decade. And I just think that that I'm called this is just like, hey, yeah, yeah, I'm called for best. So I think that that incongruence is pretty, it's pretty interesting. I think that they I don't I don't think that this was among the top 10 reasons that he joined the team, but historically the Sixers are very important franchise in NBA history. And then the whole history of the great NBA players. I'm on the right side of history of this because when Howard Howard said this on my podcast when I was in Vegas, so a couple weeks ago, whenever that was right after Wendy had said something to the effect of the vibes would just feel off. And I get why you saying that it's like we started the podcast with like I'm looking right now at an image of him and a Sixers jersey with number 23. Like that's just fucking weird. I can't believe this is happening. It's 20 it's 2026. The guy's still playing and he's going to play for the 76ers, but I said this to Howard. You at people can have any opinion they want about LeBron and this and that, whatever it is. He has done his whole career his way and not adhering to anything any traditional conception of what a superstar career is supposed to be. So he's not a one team guy. In fact, not only is he not a one team guy. He leaves his hometown team in the most destructive and furiating way possible in the decision to go to the Miami Heat with his buddies. He wins two championships there. He then leaves his buddies in Miami to go back to Cleveland. He then wins a championship there and goes to Los Angeles. Why? Because he wants to play with Brandon Ingram and Lonzo Ball and Josh Hart and all those it. No, he just was like I want to go to Los Angeles. Maybe we'll get into the Davis. Maybe we want to be an entertainment mogul. I want to go to LA. This kind of fits with his. I'm going to do things my way because I am the game. I am the sport I can do whatever I want. I'm either the greatest or second greatest player of all time. I think it'd be kind of cool to go to Philadelphia. Play with a young player who's represented by my agency who already have a good relationship with who I think is one of the next great stewards of the NBA. Entire East Maxi. Play for a franchise that is Chris said is historically really significant in the NBA, but has not quite been able to get out of its own way in the last 10 years, 15 years, whatever. Try to bring some stability. Play with some players. You respect some likes. I think I think this is in keeping with LeBron's career and does not feel that weird to me. Okay. Take number two. Are you ready, Chris Ryan? Sure. This is from and you've seen this all around the internet. This is the one that happened to cut my eye from a guy named Mark Shankowski who's an anchor covering the bulls in Chicago. He used to do Stacey King's podcast with Stacey Delay Grace. Stacey King. And he retweets the Sean's tweet about the signing and says, the king of ring chasing is added again, teaming up with three other all teaming up with three other all stars in Philly in a desperate attempt to get a fifth championship and make his resume look better next to Jordan. Chris Ryan. I would. That would that would suggest that there are some rings here other than my wedding ring. There's no rings. Come on. Michael Pena. He's no. I think that this is like one of the I wrote this. This is like one of the more challenging uphill battle situations he could have possibly landed in. So I don't I don't think he's ring chasing at all now. If you think about like look, there there's an era of LeBron's career, the legit m the like everything is is a chess game that clutch is usurping the NBA power base to maneuver personnel around for him. I think he might have just been like I think I want to play in Philly. Like it sometimes lives not that much more complicated than that. And like you said, Zach, like I don't think I think he was like, let's see if it works. It's it's four million year. Like we can we can all walk away. Stay friends if we want to like if if LeBron's like it turns out I don't want to do this in January and retired. Like is that any more surprising than signing with Philly in the first place? Like I think that there's a little bit of a like let's see what happens to this. This is not ring chasing. And even if it were, I don't even think it's possible to be a ring chaser when you're almost 42 years old. I think that you're upright and playing quality NBA basketball. Go do whatever the hell you want. He's got four championships. He's chasing a ring. The other thing is what then what would go on going to Cleveland have been? Is that just is it because it's home? It's not ring chasing. It would have been like a kind of sentimental ending to a documentary. So going to Golden State would have been like the biggest blockbuster ticket the NBA had had, but they were speaking of depth problems. Those guys would have been like, they would have been like panting for air like that's not like they wouldn't have been able to put together a great team with LeBron. Golden State was dead on arrival, too old, too injured. Now they're really dead on arrival with I think some significant downside risk built into this particular team which I think they know. I expect Dremond will come back. It's again Friday at 4.50. He may come back by the time he listened to this. I would, my guess is it, I wouldn't be surprised before a one-year deal with the same amount that he just opted out for, but they're not going anywhere and they know that Yaxal and a Berglick awesome and in summary, that's great. But my point is like Cleveland, you could literally rewrite that same tweet about playing with three all stars and it would apply to the Cavaliers except it's home. So it's home. The heat he'd be going with bam in the honest. Is that ring chasing or is that just going to the heat? Like I don't understand the difference is just the location and the fact that he's played there before. And he can chase rings if he wants to. He's earned, he's earned the right. Okay, take three. Is this the best starting five in the NBA and I will give you the other candidates and maybe I have missed one. Oklahoma City, I have put in just for now Shay, Kason Wallace, J. Dubb, Chad Holmgren, Isaiah Hardenstein, San Antonio, Dianne Fox, Devin Vissell, Julian Champani, Steph Castle, Victor Wembenia, but Tobias Harris could slide in there. That's been like a little bit of an untold thing. Anything with Wembe's got to be in there. Dylan Harper bitch, but Dylan, Dylan, Dylan, don't understand. Still there. Denver, Jamal Murray, Christian Brown, Cam Johnson, Aaron Gordon, Nicoli Oakich, maybe Peyton Watson, takes a spot. The Nix, they're starting five just won the NBA championship with some of the most beautiful basketball. You will see that line up as heading up and down history, actually, but I think the playoffs they just destroyed everybody. Cleveland, Donovan Mitchell, James Harden, either Max Rooster, Jalen Tyson, Evan Mobley, Jared Allen, Houston, I put in just to be, you know, just to be a completist, Fred Van Vliet, Omen Thompson, Kevin Durant, Jabari Smith, Jr., Alper and Shen Goon. And then I think that, that basically, I guess you get to try throwing Boston just to round out the Jalen Brown trade, Peyton, Richard Derek White, Jason Tatum, Paul George, Mitchell Robinson. Is this the best starting five in the NBA, Philadelphia's? No, it's not. I can't say that it's the best starting five after the Nix just won the championship. The thunder of what they've done and the spurs look the way they looked and have improved. So no, I don't think so. And I just, you know, there's just too many question marks to make grand proclamations like that for me. Also, the, the pistons just had a John Collins. So why is this turning into like a John Collins? You know what? I love John Collins. I love them. It doesn't seem like it. Okay. I liked, I think John, I think the pistons had a better off season that people are given the credit for and they're going to win a lot of games, assuming Jalen during his back. Give me some of the things that Bill said about Caleb Wilson yesterday. Are we sure we're counting out the bulls too easily? Look, I was driving in my car. Talk about a no comment right there. I was driving in my car. And I was listening to the podcast and thank God, I turned it on after I dropped my daughter and her friends off the swim practice so that they didn't hear about how we'd have no sperm left. If you were a bull's fin and there would just be a ejaculate everywhere. Imagine if one of my daughters friends went back to her parents was like, Hey, mommy. Mr. Low was like listening to this thing in the car where somebody was talking. What's sperm? Like it just kind of ruined my whole life. I keep that guy probably would have the dad probably would have been like he was she was just listening to Bill's pilot. It's a big deal. I think, I think I'd go Oklahoma City and the next starting fives over Philly. A couple of I get spurs. Yeah, spurs. Yeah, I did. I mean, we did everyone just did finish a month of shitting on the air and fox. It's worth noting, right? If we're going to talk about this first story. But yeah, there should be in there. A quick note, another thing that I was going through like all the reasons why this could be a maybe not quite as difficult day. There's only one ball thing on offense. I don't know if this is health, if this is career evolution, if this is whatever. But I looked this up during the season and I refresh my memory today and bead post ups down to 7.9 per 100 possessions last year. That's the lowest number of his career. And in his MVP years, it was up at like 15 year is MVP caliber years. It was up to 15 or 16 per 100 possessions. And I remember looking that up late in the season because I was like, man, it feels like they're just not throwing it to him as much. And I don't really know why that is other than obviously he was coming back from injuries and probably testing his body out. But it does speak to the possibility of a slightly revamped identity for what he does on offense. I just don't know like what that endpoint looks like in terms of, you know, he's just not a good enough jump shooter to evolve into. He's just a spacer on the perimeter now. So, but I thought that was notable. One of the big things that I think will be interesting is to see how contagious LeBron's general like ball finds energy kind of like let's move this thing around offensive identities. And, you know, and bead for several years like the sixers sort of go to offensive set was throw it down to and be waiting wait for a double and see if he can make the right pass and make it fast enough. And is he going to even be seen that many doubles? Like, I mean, you double and and bead when LeBron and Jill and Brown and and Tyrus Maxie are out there. To to to to that point, I was having a conversation about the sixers before LeBron shows them. And if my defensive strategy against this team would be to never double anybody because I don't want them to pass. I would love a bunch of one-on-one isolation basketball. And I wonder if that is how teams will approach guarding them this year. But, but no, that's that's great point. That's interesting because, you know, I mean, they'll find the weakest matchup then if you want to play them that way and and they will run a pick and roll and try to exploit it, which is fine. They can do that. LeBron is obviously a bulldozer in the post. Jill and Brown can be two. And it's just it speaks to the the NBA is the ultimate wild card in the NBA because for the weak he was healthy against Boston. He just like that third quarter of whatever game that was in Boston when he just woke up and was like, Oh, I'll just put Neemia's Cata and Luca Garza and Nicole LeBron in the basket over and over again. And it was like holy yeah, I remember I remember this guy and you just can't last that way. But it was a reminder like that's like when you talk about not doubling and bead that that's what used to happen when you didn't double and bead unless you had like Mitchell Robinson or, you know, is there anyone else really that belongs on that list? That's what happened. He would just back you into the basket and you'd foul him or he'd dunk. And it was like a little shacky in that way where there was just nothing you could do with prime shack. So I look, I wouldn't mind throwing it to him. And if you do double them, they have brilliant cutters, passers, shooters all over the floor. But yeah, to your point, Michael, I don't I don't know if he merits that. But for a week against Boston, you certainly did because he just beat the shit out of everyone they had. But don't play bully ball. They'll find ways. They'll run in for the picking rules and all that. I don't think offense. I don't know. I might be being naive. But Jalen Brown might go there and be like this sucks. I wanted to be the number one option. And now like while VJ had 25 tonight. So I was like the fifth option for six minutes. I don't know. But so this is what I wanted to ask you guys because you've probably spent more time around the Celtics, obviously, than I have. But over them, many people and you have covered the broad more closely over the years and are more familiar with like how things work on his teams. Do you think that these guys are going to get along in a basketball sense? Like Michael, obviously like suggested like Jalen wanted to go to his own team. And initially here with him, be kind of like a half-time player. Jalen gets like two really feisty fun guards and is given this sort of like open canvas. And Mulbron complicates that. But like personality-wise, do you think there's a mesh here? Do you think Nick nurses particular coaching style meshes with these guys? Like beyond the X's and O's, it's almost like do you think there's emotional chemistry? I think that will take time to build. And there's a world where it doesn't, it doesn't, like I, someone, another, someone in the league with another team was just as everyone was. Vegas was sort of spitballing the hey, what do you think the best fit is? The worst fit? Where do you think he's going to go? And I was like, I don't really look. I don't think there's a great, great answer to the, like there's not an A-plug other than like Minnesota, which was Taylor made and he was never going to do that. And I remember getting to Philly and I was like, you know, I just, I don't know how he's going to love playing with Jill and Brown or Joel and Beat, if that, if that's going to be like as easy as, as, so I defaulted to Cleveland being like imperfect, everything imperfect, I'll default to go home and having the home coming. So I do think there's, there's, there's something to that and everyone is going to have to sacrifice. And you hope that A, Nick nurses in a league coach and B, just the rigors of the regular season. And tonight, this guy sits and tonight, that guy sits kind of easy as their way into the playoffs. And they have a, you know, I mean, I said this with Bill, like the, the Nix is recently as January and February were like an unhappy, uh, frustrated internal, internal crisis kind of team. And then they just like won the championship. So you just don't know how these things are going to work. Yeah. And the spurs were like the feel good story of the year and that it was just like, I mean, Dylan Harper wants to start, you know, like, I mean, things change really quickly. I was just, you know, I hear so many stories about Jalen this or LeBrons like that when you're playing with him and like, we'll see, I mean, like it's any professional environment. But LeBrons in his 40s, you know, like, I wonder if he's like, this isn't about making a sub tweet about getting a shooter, you know, this is, I mean, it's how it goes and, you know, look, it was, it wasn't a huge sample, but the way he actually bought in, he didn't play, pay lip service to it and then do something different for 25, 30 games, whatever it was, he bought in to being the third option around Luca and Austin Reeves and became like the apex version of that kind of player. That's proof of concept to me that he can do it and that he's willing to do it and that he understands that in order to win, he might have to do it. And I think the same applies here. I don't know, Michael, if you're more optimistic, less optimistic, I think offensively it'll be fine, but there could even the ego thing is going to be there. I think I don't disagree that LeBron can make it work if he wants to. I'm just interested because, you know, comparing it to Luca is fascinating because Luca is, you know, he is this prodigious talent who, when he has the ball in his hands, he is elite offense unto himself and he makes every, he can see every read. He makes all the right passes, it's just a completely different level of offensive player than Jalen Brown. And I wonder, I'm not saying it can't work, of course, I think it sure, very well may and I would bet that it will. But I just, you know, Jalen Brown is like, I'm going to dribble like eight times and take this contested fall away. And if it doesn't go in the next time down the court, I'm going to try the same exact thing. So I just, I wonder how that is going to play out. If he is stubborn in his, in his ways against again, single coverage, and I think that that is something like I always go back to with Jalen Brown, Eric Spulstra putting in the 2024 playoffs in the first round, put the Ameta bio on Jason Tatum and he put Tyler Hiro on Jalen Brown. And the whole thing was like, I want Jalen Brown to go off, do what you want to do, take as many shots as you want, because you will disrupt that team's offense. And so I just, I'm just so curious to see how it all plays out. And the degree to which Jalen is willing to taper his game at this point in his career coming off a season where he's like, I should win MVP is going to be really, like him averaging like, you know, 16 points a game is just really hard to, to fathom, so it'll be, it's an exaggeration, but like the, the, the, the, there will be sacrifice for sure. Like his usage rate is not going to be 33, you know, so I just think it'll be, it'll be an interesting situation. Well, look, in the two years before this one, the average 22 and 22.2 and 23 points again, that feels realistic. Guess what? He made the all-star team both years, like you're going to get recognized for all this. And it is, I remember Spowe trying to bait him like that in that playoffs series. There was also the famous game where the Warriors put Dream on Green on him and just didn't guard him at all and just dared him, treated him like he was Andre Robertson in the corner. And it's like, let's just mess with his way. It's interesting. He's like, that's how that game by like a 65 points or something. And they beat the heat quite easily in the playoffs after losing the first game, I think. It is interesting how he's been the target of some mind games like that. A couple other final thoughts on this. We've talked about the East and the East beefing up and Kawaii probably coming East, Yannis staying East, LeBron now coming East. And although we could, you know, a lot of the East teams have kind of stood still. They haven't necessarily gotten worse. The Pacers are going to be back as a real team again. It just struck me like, we could see LeBron play the Cads in the playoffs. It's never happened before. It didn't happen when he was on Miami. And he only played the heat once and it was in the bubble when he was with the Lakers in the finals. So like, I think we deserve. We deserve we deserve as basketball fans like real LeBron rivalry with one of his past teams playoff series. And it's it's in play. Imagine like LeBron against the heat with Yannis and Bam or LeBron going back to Cleveland after spurning them again. Like, this would be awesome theater. Zach, who is the Christmas day opponent for the Sixers? And yeah, question to you. So I'm so relieved for Adam Silver that they can make the schedule now. Do you think they send LeBron to Cleveland on Christmas day? It's it. No, it's gotta be. I think it's still gotta be Boston. I think Philly Boston. Well, you know what? It's LeBron, you're right. You can't. Miami is not. I don't think Miami is the emotional head. Yeah, I don't. I'm sure there are heat fans who feel otherwise, but I don't. I saw when Pat Riley did the the band, the band and Yannis press conference, he was like, and we got one more out there. And I was like, I don't think so, man. Like it doesn't feel like that's, that's where you want it to go. If you wanted to go there, it was like a plenty of time to make that decision. I think that it beyond even like the LeBron, where does LeBron wind up? Like what, what rivalry games is LeBron playing in? The more you talk about these two conference, the more I'm like every single night, there's going to be an incredible storyline. Like whether it's a great young player that you want to watch or tracking the Pacers trying to get back to what they had two years ago, or these new situations for Yannis and LeBron. And whether or not the pistons, I mean, I don't, where is Jalen Duren now? Like, like, like, well, how many more don't like what is his physical location currently? Like, where, like, where is his contract status? Is he a piston's player still? Yes. He's a restrictive region, I would be absolutely blown away if he was not a piston next year. Yeah. The shot and Sweeney effect on a Orlando. Do they become a little bit more dangerous? The Charlotte, is there like you in theory with Lamello? Like, I just think, yeah, it's going to be exciting almost every single night. And there's a lot of trade stuff still to happen. Yeah, to me, like pre LeBron, Boston Philly was like the no brain or Christmas game because of the Jalen Brown trade and the resulting animus and all that, I just, they are division rivals. The game is if you could somehow not have Philly and Boston play until Christmas, which is hard because they play four times a year and then backload the schedule and have that beat the first Jalen Brown versus Boston game and it's LeBron and it's LeBron versus the Celtics who is old nemesis. I think that's still the game other than that LeBron, Cleveland would be a lot of fun too. Any final thoughts on this guys? I think we didn't hit person. It's really in the eye of the storm. It's very, I mean, like for 15 years, like, I think the sixers have been the kind of objective fascination of like real NBA heads because it's like, is this going to work and the controversy over the process and obviously like Calangelo and there's always just been this kind of comic tragedy to the way the team has been operating and, you know, our buddies at the right Sturickey Sanchez are just kind of like chronicling this multiple times a week and it's just like is this Cisophysian task to kind of cheer for this team or to have the same result in the same round of the playoffs and so to be here and just be like somebody chose us, somebody who wants to be a part of this is just really like mind altering. So I'm going to enjoy a while at last until the first sort of like, are we sure this is working? It's more likely that they lose in the first round or win the championship, win the championship. Okay. Pina. Wow. Okay. I got to go with that. I lose in the first round more likely, but I would too, but that doesn't necessarily mean that I've been aimed in the right direction. That's just a feature of the Eastern Conference. They're more likely to win the championship than they were before. By the way, you're wearing a Philly sack and I just tell you one of my, one of the things I've learned in my return to baseball the last two years, I don't mean this in the true sense of the word hate. It's more respect and fear. If I never see College for Barbat against the meds again, that'll be fucking fine with me. It seems like he hits a home run every single time. And then I look at his stats, he's like, oh, yeah, he has 9,000 home runs and 9, like, does he? He's just incredible. Every time they play the meds, even the outs are like warning tracks, I can't even watch when he's up. I have seen the Philly's multiple times this summer in other stadiums other than Philadelphia and they've lost every game in Schorber as like barely made contact. And so it's just been this, this surreal experience of every time I check it. It's like, oh, I hit two dinners today. So I'm glad that he's he is hurting you, Zach. I'm sorry. My 11 year old daughter is like, there's that Schorber with his beard again. This is bad news for us and like, that is, all right, Michael Peano, you already wrote a column on the ringer.com about LeBron will have a lot more offseason content. There's not much offseason left to go. Chris Ryan, you are everywhere. What was the latest thing you've done and what do you, what do we should look out for early next week? Well, tomorrow we are doing, I think, I think we tweeted this out. We are doing obsession live on Netflix on the relaunchables, so the 2026 movie and very excited. And some might say that I made a wish that came through today is that, is that the fastest rewatchables turn around and rewatchables history? No, we did top gun Maverick. I think while it was still in theaters, I saw the top gun memory. Yeah. God bless you guys. I cannot wait to see that. That is going to be amazing. All right. Thanks for circling the wagons on Friday, enjoy the weekend, enjoy the show tomorrow, Chris, and we'll see you guys soon. All right, that's it for today's edition of the Zach Lo Show. Thank you to Chris Ryan. Thank you. to Michael Pino for scrambling and getting on the show today. Thanks as always to Mike, Billy, and Jonathan on production. And thanks to you all for listening to Andor watching "The Zach Locial" will be back later this week. Hopefully some more stuff happens in the NBA before we all leave for a well-deserved vacation. And thank you all for listening. [MUSIC PLAYING] 21 are over. 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