NBA Drops Hammer on the Clippers. Plus, the Western Conference Hierarchy

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) - Folks, it's the Ringer NBA show. We have another off season episode for you, reprising the dynamic duo. Not very, very uncontroversial last time around. Nothing came out of that. There was nobody had anything to say about the takes that we had. Pina and I are back again together. We're gonna be running through a few different things today. We're gonna be doing some new cycle stuff. I think you know what's coming on that front. And then we're gonna continue on and do the second half of the NBA, and finish the exercise and do some more Western conference, power rankings. And we're gonna be breaking down all that stuff. Pina, first of all, how are you? Second of all, are you going to get a T-shirt that's like one of those T-shirts that lists out like the starting lineup of something? I think that, I would say, I mean, I guess the thunder could have this printed, the raptors could have this printed. You know, get the walk-tale lipped in Rosen and Katz, you know? No, the shirt I'm talking about where they list out the, it's usually a lineup of like four to five people. I've seen it with the Bab Five. I feel like that shirt would sell. I did actually, first of all, I'm doing great. And it's kind of a shame that our last episode together, you could hear a pin drop in the reaction to it, specifically on social media. So hopefully, we'll-- - Nobody said anything. Yeah, everybody's happy with us. (laughing) - But I actually did own a like 2000, 2001, 2002, Eras Sacramento Kings shirt with the starting five from those teams of the variety you're referencing. And I love that shirt dearly. And I don't know what has happened to it. So it just made me a little sad. - Yeah, well, that's just a little merch idea, I guess. And that segues into, there's not a whole lot going on. I was gonna say other than that, like in the news cycle, there's Josh Hart apparently tore up the dance floor at Carl Anthony Towns' wedding. That was the only other story that came to mind. But the big story here is, you know, the hammer comes down yesterday. Silver drops the silver hammer on the clippers, on steep bomber. Kawai somehow escapes. He has like an escape pod like in the movie, alien I've got it here. He does the escape pod and escapes the xenomorph of consequence. Has, I don't know, I guess he's taking the defense of like Uncle Dennis is swan diving onto the sword a little bit. It's like my crazy Uncle Dennis was acting independently. Kawai, assuming that that trade goes through, we can get into all that stuff because that could affect whether, you know, how some of this shakes out and how the clippers look in the West. What was your initial reaction? I mean, we've had some really granular and very detailed analysis out there. We've got lawyers all over the place weighing in on this that are way more qualified to comment on the report. But you read the report. Where was some broad takeaways for you from this from this whole clipper situation? I think generally from the top, the clippers being just beyond screwed, buried below a prison that was built underneath another prison is kind of what went to the top of my brain when I saw what the actual punishment was, which is five first round picks, 30 million dollars, a year suspension for Steve Balmer, who obviously loves to attend Los Angeles clippers games and Lord knows how the team will be able to perform without him sitting court side and expressing his histrionics and supporting the team. Beyond that, just reading through the report, I laughed out loud several times. Kyle, I'm not going to lie to you. We were texting about it before. I italicized and broke out a few just takeaways that I guess I was talking about this with my wife last night when I was explaining it to her. And it's just like, people lie so brazenly. And it's like, do you not think you're going to get caught and do you not think that you will be humiliated in public fashion at some point in the very near future? I just don't know. That's my thing to you about the people like on shows and hosts of things where you're like, I think that's a lie. And that is always my takeaway too, where there's an insulting projection from people who lie like that so easily where they honestly think that you're not going to be able to just quickly pull on the string and be like, oh, like that's not true. And that happened a lot here in this case. Yeah, I, like the fact that they have so much evidence and they have, I mean, Lauren's Frank who got six months, I should say, a six month suspension without pay instead of a year, he basically like, you know, he took notes and meetings for years and gave everything he cooperated. He was a, I think Tim McMahon from ESPN said that he sang like a canary and that is exactly how it kind of feels with Lauren's Frank, but yeah, like I don't know if we should even go through how in depth you want to go with the actual report, but everyone should go read it and it is beyond devastating for the Los Angeles Clippers. And I think like the question of what happens now to this organization is one worth, worth diving into, what was your, what was your takeaway? Okay, you as a writer, tell me if you agree with this and the way that this was written, this almost had a very low line comedic undertone to it to me. I think when I was reading this, I was like, there is definitely a pithy DNA to wait, whoever wrote this, I thought kind of knew that what they were writing was hysterical at times because you were bringing it up that we were talking about the pronunciation. I'm assuming since it's West Coast, I don't know where Miss Zucker is from, but we'll say Jillian Zucker, I pointed out to you that Gillian Welch does it with the hard G, but she did some pretty funny stuff throughout, but basically just deflected, lied, had misremembering of events and then blamed her subordinates, which was the opposite of what she said that Lauren's Frank did. I was pretty amused just at the timeline of it, it seemed like Uncle Dennis came back and was like, we need this to happen. Not only do we need it to happen, we need it to happen pronto, and then you see this chronology of her going home and lining up the deals to sort of like, you know, play Kate, Uncle Dennis, and it had a vibe to me of she goes home and is like sitting in her living room like snap at her fingers being like, who do I know, who do I know, and just to land on the comedy, there's just real inherent comedy to me in the sponsorship choices, like the idea that Dectronic would ever need to advertise, like that's a business you wanna be in, where you're essential to an industry, but you don't need to advertise ever, you know, I don't know if like other examples of this, like 3M, it's just like, now we don't need to sell ourselves, it's like everybody knows Dectronic is essential to sports. I don't know what Kawai would have gotten on a Jamba Tron and said to promote Dectronic, like the accuracy of a stopwatch, I don't know, and then Boingo, that one stood out to me because I only have negative associations with Boingo. Boingo is like to me, I don't know the wherever can in play to get a sponsorship from Boingo, but I was like, Boingo is, they're like somebody who runs a watering hole in the desert and they charge 1999 per 30 seconds, like anytime you're in a position where you're confronted with being offered Boingo, it's like, I'm on a plane, you really need something to satiate your boredom. It's like Boingo's offered to you when you're on a plane, when you're in an amusement park. I don't know if you've had this happen, you're at a game, you click on that Wi-Fi thing and it's the only thing that shows up that's unlocked is Boingo. I just found that deeply hilarious that that was one of the partners. Whenever I see Boingo, I know I'm in trouble and I like, my mood goes down. - Which the clubers should have done. They should have done the same thing. - Yeah, yeah, so there's a lot. I guess in terms of the implications for the team, I mean, five first round picks. I went through and I was the kind of, we're gonna talk more about the clippers here in a second when we get into our power rankings, but I had the thought process of like, all right, well, they tried to pivot smoothly from what they thought was gonna be the end of this whole experiment that started with them and you zoom out and you look at the totality of this, you're like, not only are they screwed beyond all belief, but oh my God, they also traded away a two-time MVP and a pick that became Jalen Williams and led to the foundation of a championship squad. I had the thought process where I was like, well, if you want to pivot your timeline and start over, you lose your picks. Okay, maybe you just tear it. If we're already under the ground, we might as well just go back to zero. Let's just start completely over. I was like, let's just try to get into some good picks. But I was looking at it, peanut, I was like, who on the roster is even worth a first in a deal? Could Garland could fetch a first, I guess? It really probably not at this point. That's, I don't, that to me is compounding it even more. I don't really know how they could pivot from here. - Yeah, that's where I wanted to, it sounds crazy. So I thought about Garland, there's the first name that popped into my mind, I was like, so he's on the trademarked, I would assume. Like, I think that people will be calling the clippers in the coming weeks to see what the deal is there. So they draft Keaton Wagler with the fifth overall pick Let's just hypothetically throw it out there. I think it would be you know unwise to move on from him at this point in his career Seems like the type of player you can correct me if I'm wrong, but the the player who he's been compared to the most that I've seen is Tyres Halliburton, and that is the exact type of player if I'm trying to maximize everyone around me and I don't have a lot of resources I need force multipliers and he seems like he could be one, right? Am I on base there? Yeah, so Let's say the Clippers are like that's cool. We would love to build around him But we don't see a possibility of even being competitive when he's like 25 26 27 years old So if his value right now is that the highest it could possibly ever be This is so many Extremely bleak. But like if they were to hypothetically throw him out there and just you know call around the league canvas the league How many first do you think you could get for a player like that like how special the prospect is he? He's a very good prospect Maybe too, I mean if you think about This upcoming draft is weaker. You could maybe do that like if Honestly, man that might not be a bad move for them, but this draft is is not great So of course we always say that and then we kind of come through It puts a lot of pressure on Wawgler. I would I would say to you to answer your question like specifically there But I probably would need to sit down and look at it a little closer because draft draft it's it can change so much But what I mean it puts a ton of pressure number one on Wawgler because the initial vision I thought just from the outside was this guy is probably tertiary to stars like he needs time to development He's not as 0.5 not he's not as like easily supplementary From the beginning the way that Halliburton was the way that I expected him to be Because he kind of sticks on the ball a little bit. He can play on and off the ball But Halliburton had proven that a whole lot more pretty was a little older when he came in It just puts a ton of pressure on Wawgler man in a way that's tough and the thing that you spelled out there was If we don't have any way to build around him. I think yeah, I think you have to trade Garland You're gonna have to figure out some way to make it a little easier because in these first four years It's gonna be extremely tough to put something around Wawgler. That's not going to stress him in a way He's a prospect that I don't think can carry that load that can carry that stress by himself Yeah way, so this is this is gonna be really tough for him The other thing quickly is we segue out of this or do you have anything else on the Wawgler thing and then we can we can Segway out nothing really nothing really on Wawgler. No, I had a question About the coach that we can discuss after you make your point if you would like But I just think there's so everything is up in the air right now with the clippers. I feel like this is just so This is just a death penalty, frankly of I don't like I remember out, you know, I was going back and reading What happened to the Minnesota Timberwolves with Joe Smith and there were columns that were like the Timberwolves need to move out of Minnesota There's like this is a wasteland and that was a situation where they had like a generational perennial MVP who hadn't even reached his prime who was expressing Loyalty he's like historically loyal and the clippers don't even have that We're talking about Keaton Wawgler's like they're like the crown jewel here So it's just even worse than that by like an epic proportion. I feel like They do have you know when this trade goes through they will have with Kauai They will presumably have two first round picks from the Raptors in 2031 and 2033 so that's something I don't know. I don't know. I don't know how you spend this positively to be honest with you Yeah, I mean, Garnett obviously a pretty different situation because when the Joe Smith thing went down and what year is that 99 Yeah, 2000 I think was when the the beginning of the 2000 2001 season I think is when the the punishment was levied Yeah, and I mean by the time Garnett was 18 everybody at the riding was very very much vividly on the wall That this guy was going to be special is flying around blocking the chemotherapy on everything I was going to say in terms of the the punishments and things like that you mentioned Lawrence Frank six months I find it kind of like the the parameters of keeping ballmer away Are kind of funny to think about to me because Yeah, you can keep him away physically, but you're talking about a franchise that has been I'm not just the league leader like an industry leader in terms of their innovation and pushing Technology like this is it this is a team that was I mean, I'm just saying like I don't know how you like keeping him away It's almost like a comedic idea to me like it's like This they were pretty instrumental in second spectrum if I'm not mistaken It's it's just kind of a and this guy he is a tech guy. He got his mid-billions off of that. I just don't know how you I was so I wrote what you're saying is that there will be somehow like a hologram of bomber in the I the war room. What do you think the rules are against having a hologram of bomber court side? Is that you think that stipulated a minute? And we'll look in the hologram sweat we could make it like sweaty I just wrote it down here too that like what would stop bomber from wearing a vision pro like in an anti-gravity chamber kind of thing You know, I know that's an apple product and I just picture him, you know ricocheting one hand off the other as like Yannick Conan Neeterhouser like spins into a stationary defender and turns it over I'm just kind of trying to imagine what the next year of Steve Balmer's life is going to look like Let's well the last question that I wanted to ask you was I Was joking the collie is probably coming or what way from this and looking at the numbers and be like yeah It's probably worth it if you're the Clippers Yes, you think about this you're looking at this window of time from You know 2019 when they decided to make this move, you know Which I think literally an earthquake happened the night that that move happened if I'm not mistaken at summer league it was Zion's introduction Really really big night in the history of the NBA ends up being the even I mean the Jesus Christ the ripples. It just continues to go. Hopefully it's gonna stop now, but If you look at this and you're the Clippers they didn't end up winning the Paul George part of this I know that we both are so affectionate about Paul George I just wanted to clarify that I'm at age by age. I think he's better than Jalen Braf This six to seven year window if you pose this to a team that had like no success like the Clippers had really I mean, I know the law of city thing happened, but What superstar do you think over time would be worth it? To invest in and cheat the way that the Clippers did because why didn't ultimately end up being worth it? Is there a superstar that you would look at and say okay? This is the punishment that's gonna come from From you know courting this guy outside the parameters of the rules because what if they had one would they have like taken down the banners? Would they I don't that's a whole other great question to be answered a question What if we had done this and they had tampered for another player that would have led to more success Who do you think would have been worth it? I think primal brawn is probably one that if you posed to me as a fan like you're gonna have You know be banished to the shadow realm, but you're gonna have six to seven windows where you go to the finals like maybe four or five times Yeah, I think that there's a few guys Who are active and like many more throughout history? I mean obviously the timbrels did that they had Kevin Garnett and we're really struggling in ways to build around him After Marbury left Yeah, Wembee obviously. I would do anything for when I throw it away for wimbee Yeah, I do it for Wembee. I would do it for for yokich Actually now that I'm thinking about it The punishment that is that has been stricken on the clippers is so devastating that it's like I mean I'm Steph Curry. I would do it for Steph Curry It is they will be so bad and so irrelevant for so long because of this that It's like you better win like you you you absolutely better win at least one championship and that is that is a bar because championships are very difficult to win and If you don't get it. I mean I just Just thinking about like all the fans that they could have had in the future This is the same thing I think about with the Brooklyn Nets where it's like you just lost so many young fans They're gonna be nix fans now so many young fans are gonna be like our fans now that could have been clipper fans I'm not saying that they definitely would have been but You just like punted on that like that's so much money and so much Cash a and it's just such a bummer such a bummer Yeah, that's that's another I haven't heard anyone make that point But those are sort of the scales the tip in the NBA that can cause, you know fans to go this or that way It's that's a really good point. I was gonna that last thing I was gonna say is in the future to sort of like prevent this from happening again If you're running a front office Megan my wife was telling me about how they did this study where if you just put you paint eyeballs up in certain areas that they'd done studies that it causes crime to potentially go down or people to behave and she had told me this story about in their office that they were somebody who wasn't washing the dishes. They would come into her part of the office and leave dirty dishes so she drew eyeballs over the sink and it stopped and I was just thinking, you know, if I'm running a front office, you know, maybe just put that eyeball on the wall to stop this from happening again. Let's take a quick break and then we will get into our Western conference power rankings in just a moment. All right, Peena, it's time to do the second half of our power rankings in the NBA. The last time around, I informally did tears. I asked you, where I think you posed to me, like maybe we should go ahead and do tears. Do you want to kind of give us before we know who's in what tier? Do you want to give us the strata as you see it in the Western conference, like what's the hierarchy here? Okay, so tier six, I've called this relegate them now and this is the Sacramento Kings, they're by themselves. They are a organization with no redeemable qualities as far as I can see. You look at the roster and there's some like decent offensive talent. Of course, like Demato Sabonis is still here and I'm not as accoladean person by any stretch, but he is, he can score and shoot and has made all star teams. Akuff is a rookie who is seemingly exciting. You can speak to his abilities better than I can. I think he shot like 18% at Summer League, but who knows? Maybe he'll have a fantastic rookie season in a wonderful career. They were 20 and 62 last season. They kept Doug Christie as their head coach for reasons that I just can't understand. When I was going through and just doing a little bit of research, cursory research about the Kings, it's been over 20 years since they've had an above average defense 20 years. Get into that. We're not going to break that streak. No, they're not. No, they are not. This could be the worst defense that they've ever had potentially. I don't know. We'll see. Let's just let's stop drilling right there. That's a good stuff. That's because I had that written down to you. I was like, I expect this to be the worst defensive team in the West and likely entire NBA. There are multiple abysmal defenders on this roster and I think a lot of them are going to play a lot. Yeah, man. This is going to be bad. I think let's just kind of go through year to year movement. We talked about that on the last one. Did you improve? Did you get worse? I put somehow worse question mark. The in and out of what's going on here is, we saw the end of the derosen, the end of the Westbrook era, which was inexplicable that it happened in the first place. I think that's inarguable. I don't even think that's arguable. Then Sabonis is still here, obviously. He should interface with A-Cuff offensively. I think he should make his life a little bit easier in terms of the things that A-Cuff does well. The key additions here, precious to Chua, A-Cuff. They drafted Alex Kareban and Emanuel Sharp. Those are two people. You probably have no clue who those guys are. Do you know anything about those two guys? I do not. Okay. Those are two winners. Those are two high care teams. Okay. I'm not even kidding. I mean, Kareban is going to figure it out. Emanuel Sharp is a very, very scrappy, high energy defender. He'll be one of their better defenders from moment one and he can shoot the ball. He's a little bit of a wild pistol shooting it, but he'll be interesting. And then they off, they send Devon Carter off. I still like, I still like Neat Clifford. I like Maxim Renaud. They're interesting players, but it's lacking core kind of foundational pieces. One of the things that I told you I wanted to do as an exercise for this, these power rankings is, I know this is super cool and trendy, but I'm going to pick a Beatles song for every team in the Western Conference because purely just because my son's really into the Beatles right now. It's just been refreshing and old love for me. The song that I chose for the Kings was Get Back, as in Get Back on Defense because this team is going to be brutal on that front. Anything else? Is there any other like optimism that you can see for the Kings at 15? I can't, but I will say that you texted me your Beatles plan and there were a few teams. I couldn't stretch it out for every team like you. I'm not that skilled, but I did have one for the Kings and it was Health, Explanation Point. That seemed very apt for what's going on in Sacramento, just terrible times. That song comes up for me as well. Moving on to number 14, who do you have at 14, Pena? So this is Tier 5, and I call this tier, Hopeless League Pass Darlings. And I have two teams here. So we'll go with 14 first and it's the Dallas Mavericks. Okay. Okay. I see a lot of positives. Obviously, I love Cooper Flag. I think that this could be an all-star caliber season from him. He'll have nights where he looks completely unstoppable. If Kyrie Irving looks like Kyrie Irving, that's obviously that elevates the whole infrastructure here and makes everyone better, makes their lives easier. He's an unbelievable talent, we'll see. And I just think that they did an okay job sort of trying to get into the post A.D. Era. The word "era" is doing a lot of work there. You get some laughing, I can't. You know, I like Sandy Aldama as a stretch vibe. I think he's complimentary to Cooper Flag. I like the Zachary Risa Shea move, just as a springy, open floor, run, dunk, knock-down corner, threes type of piece. I think that's a nice role player for them. I also just think, who is the first parts for all? I don't think that there's any fatal flaw here, I just think that when Kyrie is on a minutes restriction or is not playing back-to-backed or whatever, what have you, maybe they trade him, who is the backup point guard here, who is running offense? I think that that is a significant question, and then there's just a lot of positional overlap on the wing, and in the front court, Derek Lively, and Daniel Gafford are just like injury prone, and I can't trust them in any way, shape or form. So that's why I have Dallas down at 14. Yeah. The Beatles song that I had written down for them is long, long, long, off of the wide album, side two. There's a number of four-fives on this roster. You mentioned Flag, Risa Shay, Aldama, how much five has Aldama played? I always thought of him as more of a four, and then you still have PJ, you have Lively, you have Gafford. I feel like Gafford is going to end up on the sixers at some point in this season, wouldn't shock me. I don't know. I could see that happening. If they move, they decide to move, like Simon's or one of those handlers. Then they go and they draft Merez Johnson. You have a glut of a certain type of player. I think that they're better, barely. I don't know that they totally answered the handler question, like you were talking about. We talked about this on the last group chat episode that this team is just long and rainy and athletic, and that strain Cooper a whole lot in year one. I expect him to learn from all that stuff. I predict that I think he's going to be an all-star of this upcoming season. They also added Sergio De La Rea. That's another guy that could, I think in little fits and starts, could help them, but not tremendously. I guess it's just kind of like, is Kai re apart of this long-term, or is he going to be somebody that a team that's close is going to maybe take an interest in and decide to take him off of their hands? I'm not guaranteeing that that happens, but I can definitely see it because it just makes a ton of sense. I don't think that the Dallas Mavericks need to make the plan. I don't think that that should be a mandate this season. I think they're still in the developmental stage, and you shouldn't rush anything, particularly with the team that this organization was built around Luca to not think they were pushing chips in to make finals runs around Luca for years. They don't have a lot of draft capital, and so just trading Kai re just makes a ton of sense for the future of the organization, and I think that they could get some valuable stuff for him if he looks right, so that's another, yeah, that's just kind of a big component of putting them in here at 14. but like on our. lazy river with your feet up. Like league pass is going to be fun low stakes. There's no expectations yet. Cooper's fun. There's going to be a lot of running and jumping and dunking. There's going to be a whole lot of late clock possessions where we're like god damn we're dribbling into a crowd. Just come to expect that man. They're smart. They know they know what's going on. That's me panoring to mass fans. All right. Who is at number 13 for you, Pena? 13 is the Memphis Grizzlies. This is an interesting divergence for us because I have them much higher. Okay, so my first note on this is that I could have put them a few spots higher. It's funny when you do the tier system and you're like trying to make themes for the tiers. So I was like I can't wait to watch the Memphis Grizzlies. So they're hopeless league pass darlings to me. I will watch a ton of Memphis Grizzlies games this year. You look at the roster and some of the names range from intriguing to promising, to could be very good right away. I mean, Campbell's there seems like I think he's the favorite to win Ricky of the year and he's exactly my type of player. I'm really excited to watch him on the NBA stage and I think that just I guess like a fundamentally turning the page on the the jama rant era and everyone kind of getting a fresh start. And I think that there there's like a exhale that will happen this season. In addition to there's like real, you know, NBA role players here. There's Jeremy Grant is on the team. We'll see for how long but he's like a pretty good player for for the role that he'll be in. We'll see Cedric coward in year two. Beef stew was like an incredible rim protector last season. We'll see if Zach 80 can stay healthy. I could go on and on and just like list guys who I like. I just like so many players on the team and I think that they can play in a lot of different funky like four guard lineups or they could go jumbo sized with you know beef stew. They have Quentin post here. They have Booser. They have Edie. So it's just a really fun high variance team. I have them at 13 because their best player is probably a rookie and that's just, you know, stuff. Yeah. I mean, I think he's a special rookie. I would I would flip a little bit on the league pass. I think they're hopeful because I think they have direction now. The thing that I wrote down here the Beatles song that I picked for them was hello. Goodbye. They're saying goodbye to an era. They shook the etch of sketch and kind of, you know, and sent off John Moran, sent off Jeren Jackson, sent off Santiago Dama and even John Conchar bless his heart, you know, RIP John. And then well, RIP in the league, did anyone even pick him up because the wolves waved him, right? I don't think they even kept him. They waved him and I am I am pro John Conchar and not to be mean, but anti Cody Williams. I did not understand that one. I would. Yeah. I think Conchar is better like substantially. Yeah. I think gosh, the other Cody, we can get all that. That seems to me like a sign that the jazz were like, all right. Me and this Cody Williams thing, not not happening, but I just think that the stability, I just think that you, you know, if you listen to draft shows, if you listen to the show or some really eager videos I've made, I just think of writing, I've done. I just think Boozer is one of those guys that instantly is a cultural context in and of himself. I just think he comes in and he's going to set guys into their record groove and like, make things simpler for them in the way that he plays. He's not selfish. He gets off the ball and he's also pretty tough. I think he's a cohesive personality. And I think defensively they're going to be better than people think. I started to make like a pain in the ass, pain in the ass teams to play in the league. I was going to do top five. I only did four, but the Grizzlies were at number two. The Raptors were at number one for me, pain in the ass. It can't be daunting established teams that are like, you know, title contenders. It's got to be like, maybe this team's not going to win, but we're going to walk away like, you know, our shirt is torn. I've got someone bit me. What's that about? The Phoenix Zones are on there and then the trailblazers are also on there. Just annoying ass teams to play. That was my top four. Do you have anything in any additions to that? The first unit actually popped into my head though. Conversely, from an aesthetic point of view, it was like last year's Charlotte Hornets. It was like, yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's like, man, we got to, I can really be on point defensively and pay attention and communicate. And it's like, I don't want to do that. And I feel like that's probably like what a big key to their success during the regular season last season. Will you stop setting on weak side ghosts? What are you to stop? Yeah, stop making me talk to this person. No, I think that's, you know, key additions, like you mentioned, Boos are beef stew big time. Cream Lopez are going to bring along slowly. I think he's a little bit more of a longer term prospect. Jeremy Grant, like you said, came in. I think that another thing to, you know, KCP went out as well. I think that, you know, if Edie's healthy, there's a lot of potential for that. I know he's had, I don't even think he's had a full season at this point, but he's one of the more effective rolling players in the rim. He's like at a just really simple but devastatingly effective post-up game. I don't know. I just think that, and you mentioned Quentin Post coming in, I think that what Boos are does, he's going to have a great impact on, on Cedar Coward. I think two is another guy that we should mention here. They've got a lot of pieces here. I think this team's going to be better than people expected. It's going to be a pretty quick reset in my opinion. Yeah, I can Spencer guy too, aren't you Kyle? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, ribs that low about that when I included Cam Spencer in the sort of basic premise of who the Grizzlies are. I like Cam Spencer. He's good. He am used me in college because I was like, this guy is nuts. Like what I would watch him at Yukon, but he's my kind of nut. I'm competitive like that too. So I appreciate intensity. It's like that. Yeah, I love Cam Spencer. So wait, where did you have Memphis? I'm in Memphis at 11. They're at the top of my, I have four tiers. I have a participation trophy tier. I've scrappy in a playoff series. I have conference contender and then title contenders. I have four tiers. They were at the top of my participant. I can't say that we're a participation trophy here. All right, we're at 12. Yes, yes. There we go. So this is tier four for me. I've called this tier. You were serious about that. Number 12, we'll kick it off with the Los Angeles Clippers. The title of this tier, talking thematically, we're just detailing teams that just had in my opinion highly questionable off seasons. And there are four teams in it. Clippers were, I'm not even going to lie to you, Kyle. The Clippers were a few spots higher when I did this exercise yesterday, and I was going over it. When I saw the penalty, I was like, there's just like, we didn't even mention this before, but it's like, Tyler, Tyler's got to be like, I don't want to be here. What is going on? This is so stupid. This is pointless. And I'm just going to wait for Nick Nurse to get fired. And then I'm going to go to Philadelphia. That's probably already on his brain. So I like the, it's like, you could sell me on the roster. I'm not even going to lie. I think that they have a lot of shooting. You know, I like getting, I'm really Hachimura, I like getting Max Truce. Chris Dunn, I love, it's not a shooter, but I just love everything about Chris Dunn, even though he's a little injury prone. I just think he's just one of the better in a league that's really increasing its desire to force turnovers. He's just a pro pro at that. And one of the more tenacious on ball defenders at the same time. So I just, I love Chris Dunn. And Brad Beal is here, you know, off the bench. I don't even know what he's saying that much. He's here, technically. And then I'm more, I'm just higher on Brandon Ingram than basically everyone on the planet. I forgot Brandon Ingram was on the clip. So there's some stuff to like, but I don't know, man, I just think it's like a totally, these are already is the word hopeless, but it's a truly hopeless situation. And I think everyone is like for sale to be traded. If you're the clippers, you just have to kind of see what the market is on everyone in your roster really. And it's like, Brook Lopez is here. We'll probably be trying to trade Brook Lopez. We'll see if he's still, if he has anything left, you know, like so, I, I, this is like, I just foresee this barely looking like a basketball team in a few months. And that's yeah, it's a, it's a bummer. This is very much like the Simpsons Bart scenario where he just everything about Bart must go. Like we're selling it all off. Yeah, I was looking at Ty a 5-year deal he signed in 2024 that goes until 28. 29, yikes, this is, when I was laying out the roster, I ended up with them at 14 just because that's more of a projection of what I think will happen because if you just sit down and look at it, it's like they have too many playoff tested players to be worse than some of these teams at the bottom if they keep them. Like you mentioned Struse, that dude doesn't have any other gear than to be a maniac. You're talking about, you know, it's just a good, it's a good group on that front. They have an, and if the quiet deal didn't go through, if it doesn't go through, I mean, there's no guarantee, I guess I've seen anything today if that's come out about that. But if quiet, we're just on this team, I mean, they'd be like, I was like, what's too high? They'd be like flirting with the A/C. I mean, there's enough bad teams for them to kind of step on to get to that range. The Beatles song that I wrote down, well, year-to-year movement, they got worse, key additions, Keaton-Wogler, Max Struse, Boba Miller, I like Boba Miller and probably have no clue what that is, but he's, I think he's going to be a good player. The Beatles song that I picked for them was, there were two, it was, I should have known better, you know, that song. And then another one called, you can't do that. So those were the two, that was the side A and B that I picked for the Clippers. We talked about them enough here, they're bleak. So let's move on, moving to number 11, who do you have at 11? 11, for me, is the Portland Trailblazers sliding out of the playoffs, okay, what precipitates this slide? I'll just say my, can I tell you my Beatles song? Yes. I'm a loser. Is the name of the Beatles? Well, yeah, it applies to me personally, but I'll say the name of the. Are you a loser? You better. I. There you are, it's coming through your ass. No, I just. Sure is. Do you see him slicing those tomatoes? He has a knife, be you know? I did, those were, those were bloody tomatoes. Um, thick, CC. I. I have a lot of just like contempt for ownership here, and it's like clouding my ability to read the team. I think if you look at the team, the purported starting five for opening night of Jon Morant and Dame Lillard and Denny Abdi, it's just that, that, the starting five makes absolutely no sense to me. We'll see how long that holds, but even, even if they do kind of alter it, I just, I don't get how Jon Morant fits when you have Scoot, you have Jew holiday, you have, all these like Dame is here, and it's like the 50th anniversary of them winning the title, and it should be good vibes, but it just doesn't feel that way at all. Um, you know, there's some injury prone players that they've, that they brought back time, Lord, is kind of really important as a backup five for them, and I, I don't know, I chaed and Sharp got hurt. That's bad. He's, he could be a pretty good player for them this season and contribute a little bit of a punch off the bench. Uh, so, you know, if I'm looking at it positively, I think Scoot Henderson could be like a, either a six man of the year or like a most important player candidate. I loved what I saw from him in the playoffs against the Spurs. Um, but I just, I don't, it's just like, this is extremely vibe oriented for me, and I don't, I just, something isn't right here from the coach having the, like the team option in year two. It's just, it's not, it's not going great in Portland. It feels like to me. Yeah. I mean, it's really hard to escape the vibes, which are sub-optimal, obviously right now. Um, this was easy for me in terms of picking a song, a Beatles song. Um, you never give me your money. It's the song that from the famous Abbey Road medley. Uh, also tax man was on there too, but I prefer the first one. Uh, year-to-year movement. I said worse. I just think it turns at the co-heat, like even though you added a talent like Morant. Unquestionably. It doesn't make any sense. Like just the, just the fact, the fact that they have Dame Lillard Scoot Henderson and John Morant is just, addition is not always addition, you know, and these, these players spatially don't make a ton of sense to me. Why would you disrupt the space that Scoot has kind of earned? If you, if you're setting the table and you're like hoping and crossing your fingers that what we saw from Scoot and the playoffs was sort of a sign of what is to come, I'm not as like quick to jump on and assume that it's like implied. You know, I think we need to see some more from him. It was great that he did that in the playoffs against such a good team, but why would you come in and, and, and, and disrupt it? Because jaw is arguably, if you asked me to pick a player that would like arguably be the worst archetype of player to like be next to Scoot to take that next step, it would be John Morant. Like I, I think, you know, arguing about John Morant's ability to rehabilitate himself as a basketball player is like a separate thing almost. Like it's just not, I don't know, the taking the flyer on him in that situation, and I feel bad for Denny, man. I mean, it's like Denny has done all this work to get himself to the point where he's grown in so many different areas of his game. And he, he also escaped pods from that Washington situation to greener pastures and more wide open road. And it's like, this is the situation. Granted, there's still going to be big and rugged. Like, you know, Klingen is, is tough. Hopefully, if Tom Lord is healthy, it just, you can't help but feel like it, it was a step. It's at best a step to the side. You know, maybe Dame can come in and what do you expect from Dame in this season? I'm trying to be optimistic and I think I am. I think that like, for a team that just like could not shoot at all, adding Damien Lillard if he is healthy. One of the best three point shooters in the history of the sport will be good. But then, you know, the thing about it is just like, like so much of their identity was on defense, you know, picking up full court. Just a lot of tenacity and Damien Lillard and John Morant. It's like, you're fundamentally changing kind of what got you to be ascendant in the first place. And like you said, Scoot is like, he fits that mold. Like, he's, he's there. He's a super duper athlete and brings it on defense and talks shit. And I just loved him going at Castle and that playoff series that was like one of the coolest parts of the whole first round for me. So to not reward him with more minutes and a more firm ground to stand on with his role, it was just like a total misstep. And I don't, I don't get it. So yeah, bummer, bummer for Portland. Very much so. I had Portland a little higher. And I regret that after our conversation because I realized that that was way too high. Actually, but, but we talked about it. I mean, I said to you seven through ten through here, I know we said the same thing. We probably say the same thing every year on some front because that's just you're either, you have the got the teams that separate themselves at the top, you have the teams that suck at the bottom. And then you're annually, it's it's not like you have clear, you know, line by line distinction between these teams that are in the middle because the middle is where you don't want to be in the NBA because you're lacking direction truly. You have ideas of optimism. This, uh, who's, I, I had the blazers at seven. I think that's too high, but seven, whoa, whoa, shut up to you. I guess I was trying, I guess I was spinning forward some of the things that work for them than the playoffs. And I was being a little bit more optimistic, but the more, I guess there's a world where Jaws just not as much of a disruptive force. We're assuming that he is, everything that we're doing is like predicated on the idea that he's like definitely going to play and definitely going to have the ball in his hands. We don't know for sure. We don't know how that's going to look. We don't know how healthy they're going to be. It might be better than we think. Who do you have at 10, the Golden State Warriors? Okay. I have the Warriors at nine. Okay. Yeah. That's very fair. My Beatles song is yesterday. I think like, I have them at 10 and I'll say like the only reason I have them this high is Steph Curry and my extreme respect for him. And I think like the courage Raymond duo is still when they were on the court last year, even still positive on both sides of the ball. And still, you know, machine like and how they operate and so singular. And when Steph is right, he's still amazing. And you look at the rest of the roster and it's like, you know, they didn't really do anything dramatic in the off season. It's just, you know, I don't know. I just, I don't have a lot of, I don't think anyone does have a lot of like hope for what this team is able to accomplish, including Steph, including Steve Kerr. I think they'll obviously be, you know, high three point rate, probably maybe leave and leave the league again. And it's just like when Steph is not on the floor, their three point percentage just plummets. and their offense falls off a cliff. And so if he gets hurt again, which is definitely possible, he had the runner's knee last year, that was just like they couldn't figure out what was going on because he's run a lot and he's getting up there in age and nearing the end of his career. If that happens again, they're just, they're kind of dead in the water. And Jimmy is lingering over all of this as well. Will he still be on the team after the trade deadline? Will he come back and look like Jimmy? We're kind of waiting for the like Tibado minutes to really catch up to him. And if they have permanently, it's just like, okay, this is a super sad situation. Or will he, as one of the hardest workers, come back and look like he did pre-torn ACL when he was like playing at an all-star level? So I don't know, I'm just not, I think that this is just going to be a very ho-hum team and not too much to get excited about, what do you think about them, Kyle? I mean, they failed to make, I mean, the biggest move that I think as they did, like a timeline reset and I joked about this in a video that I made about this guy, Yaksal Lindoborg, is basically the course correction for what they hoped Jonathan Komingo would be because Yaksal can shoot threes. He's a great passer. He defends multiple positions. He's a 0.5 player. He's just, he's gonna kind of correct everything that they hope Komingo would be. He's more 0.5 in his mindset that Komingo probably ever will be. It's also older than Komingo, which is kind of hilarious. But Steph was the only shot maker on this, yeah, no, as well. On this team and they did essentially nothing other than the Yaksal thing to help that this season. So I had it written down, the two songs that I wrote down one was pretty bleak. I wrote down the end, which is at the end of every road. And then when I'm 64, was another one? (laughing) I wrote down these MFs are old AF. It's just tough, man. I mean, you mentioned runners, the man, which is Patelif, and I had to look it up, I was pretty sure it was, but Patelifemeral Syndrome, I have that. It sucks. I hope Steph figured that out. Mine's never going away though. Hopefully, this is him and Brennan paying a free of that out. Yeah, I mean, I just don't. The Jimmy thing at the deadline, I guess, is gonna give them an opportunity to move them needle a little bit, but I mean, what would even be the type of piece that would? He has a gigantic expiring. I wrote down that maybe if you're the Pelicans and you want to look at, okay, we'll take the Yantes, contract, and then we'll take, but we want Train Murphy and we give you some of those like 20/30s picks. How willing are they to sort of like send more of the future out the door to claw at a chance to get a little more out of the Stephair, which I think they've done. I think the spirit of doing right by Steph has been good and you like to see organizations do that, but I just don't really know what's left. Jimmy's huge expiring is the only thing that I could see. It could be like a trade piece. Yeah, I think there he's eligible for this extension and we'll kind of see where that shakes out. They could have a ton of cap space this summer with Jimmy's expiring coming off the books and they also have like, we haven't even mentioned Kristab's porzingus and Al Horford are still here and they were there last year, but them being healthy, we'll see. They're just, they're really old and injury prone and it'll be cool if they were able to play. I think those guys are obviously, they have championship pedigree and they can space the floor at the five, which is really interesting, but yeah, I'm not super optimistic about it and I don't know, I feel like they're the spirit. You're right, the spirit of trying to continue to win around Steph kind of like is in congruent with like their actions, I guess, but you know, neither here nor there, everything has to come to an end and it's over. - That's what I chose. The end. If I haven't mentioned Moses Moody, who they were hoping would like develop. - Brutal. - Yeah, Brutal. - Thorne Patelerton and that's one of those injuries that scares the shit out of me, man. Like, ooh, I can't imagine. All right, moving on. We are at number nine. I'm pretty positive. - Yeah. - Yep. - Yeah, you were correct. - You were correct. - How hard this is for me. Who's the number nine for you, Pena? - I have the New Orleans Pelicans. - Okay. - Another team that basically did absolutely nothing. This off season. And, you know, they signed Benedict Matherin. That's pretty much it. - So, by the way, just such a Pelicans move to sign with this guy. - I love it. Just so I'll bring it. They are themselves. - They gave him more money than coming a gut. Shout out to Aaron Turner. - There is a chance that Jamal Mosley comes in. You know, they change their head coach. He comes in. He establishes some of the winning habits that he did in Orlando. He gets everyone to play hard and particularly on defense. And they had one of, if not the worst transition defenses last season. And so, if you have a coach who really preaches that and turns that around, that is a big, like, turn for your whole organization or your team, I think from one year to another. That's like a big part of the NBA right now. If you get back, you hustle, you can win games in the regular season. The other thing that I like, the other two things I like here are, you know, I'm a sucker for continuity. I know they said it didn't make any big changes, but even though they suck last year, you have some interesting, talented pieces. You're laughing at me. And like, they had bad luck. They were 12 and 30 in crunch time with a minus 20. Maybe, maybe, maybe bad luck, isn't it? But they were 12 and 30 in crunch time with a minus 20 net rating. And that's the symptom. What's the disease? You keep, you've mentioned two symptoms and I'm like, I'm like, all right, you pointed for your doctor. We need surgery. We need something to go back. I got you something Dejante Murray. Okay, didn't have a point guard all last season really. You had Zion trying to do the point Zion thing. It's just, it was a total disaster. Fear's was playing in lineups with Derek Queen and Zion that just were atrocious. And I know it's a super small sample size, but coming back from the Achilles Murray looked like really good. And they were pretty good when he was on the floor. He shot the crap out of the ball, particularly from the mid-range, probably unsustainably so. But I think just having him as a, you know, this is someone who averaged nearly 10 assists per game for an entire season one year when he was with the Spurs. I've always been kind of a sucker for him. I like his game. I think that the Hawks thing was just like a, kind of a reputation killer that did not go well for anybody, but I like Dejante Murray. I think he's still good and, you know, still in his 20s. So yeah, if everybody stays healthy, who, I don't know. I mean, we're talking about a team going to the plan. Like it's just like that was terrible last season. So who knows? I think like the, the, the Derek Queen, Zion lineups are like a total joke and no one, I don't care who the coach is. They're, you're just not going to be able to make those work. So that's, that's an impediment that they, they'll need to overcome. Maybe those who just never play together, who knows? Yeah, net rating, as, as, as always, typing away in the bullpen over here, Williams and fears and queen on the floor together, 388 minutes net rating minus 15.1. That was worse than I expected. Yeah, not pretty, not pretty, not, not great. So yeah, you know, the crunch time thing, a little more order, getting back just like taking transition defense is a hard to play whenever you're kind of running into like a, a spatial just, I get, I get a nauseating headache every time we're on the floor together. It's just hard to like consistently buy in and sort of like try to correct bad offense with like exemplary transition defense. So hopefully, hopefully they can, you know, make some ground on that front. It's a team that's talented. I had a much lower, I had the Pelicans at 13 just because I just don't, yeah. Hey, fair, you know, totally fair. This is, this is a team that the Beatles song I picked for them was, I'm so tired. Year to year, this was a push. Overall, I feel like, you know, you mentioned, you mentioned Benedict Matherin. Colby Colby, they took some flyers here. Colby Buffkin, Malik Dia, you probably know clue who that guy is. Crafty Big makes a ton of sense through, if you got Zion and you got Derek Queen, let's go get a non-shooting crafty big. Sure, sounds good. Deandre Jordan signed to a two year deal to push in a bad way. It's a developmental bet. I mean, I assume that they think that, you know, Queen definitely had had some ups at some point where people were like, oh God, is this the next Yo-Kitch? Little premature on that one. Slightly. Had some major downs, had some tough time and fears. Oh, they're hoping, I guess, that he takes a step forward. I mean, you being on the, I think they need to make a move. I just don't think they can go another full season and not make one. They have some attractive pieces. All right, so next up is, is number eight, who's the number eight? - So this is tier three for me. And there are three teams in this tier. I've called this tier, we're workshopping titles here, but fun and feisty. Number eight for me is the Phoenix Suns. - Okay. - You know, one of the, I don't know if calling them a Cinderella story is entirely accurate, but I thought that they were going to be like a laughing stock last year. They were not. - Absolutely. - They played as, I was wrong. - Yeah, they played as hard as anybody. It led to a lot of wins and a lot of competitive basketball. They made the playoffs, which is like just stunned me. And they embraced toughness and hustle as a part of their identity successfully. So good for them, and I don't even think like Devon Booker had that great of a shooting season either. So if he were to kind of course correct a little bit, Jalen Green missed a ton of games, which to be honest, was probably one of the reasons that their defense was so good, but neither here nor there. - We're doing games. - Yeah. I don't know. The Miles Bridges trade was one of the worst transactions of the summer, too. - They clearly, yeah. They clearly took aim at that position. What's interesting is they added Kowapit from Arizona who is sort of archetypically similar to Miles Bridges. In terms of like a big mobile four, very dubious shooter Miles was a little bit ahead of him as a rookie at that point. I'm like Bridges has improved a whole lot. It like over the past season, he was 154 open catch and shoot three, as he shot almost 44% on those. So you're adding, I'm just trying to think of like, what was the, 'cause they clearly had that mindset. I think they think that Mala Watch is gonna improve, which he's impressed me at the time. - I love him. - So he's gonna be, I was probably a little low on him in that draft. I worried about his mobility skill set kind of stuff. I just thought he'd be like, you know, deer on ice skates for a lot of his career. I didn't know if it was ever gonna pan out, but it's look good. And it looks like he's gonna shoot it. But that it does seem like they took aim at that four spot. Is that just like Iga Dara was too skinny? Like are they trying to win more of the possession game? Because they were just turn over prone. Now granted, everybody's turn over prone when they play the thunder, but they just could not take care of the ball. Against the thunder, what do you think, do you think that there was like a specific reason that they targeted those fours the way that they did, or do you think, with the size? - Yeah, I mean, off-season vision. - Size was a huge issue for them. And just like, girth in the front court, absolutely. I still think that, like I think Miles Bridges, that the three point shooting number that you're kind of, that you brought up there, I think is probably a little bit of a byproduct of the system he was in. And the looks he was getting in Charlotte. And, you know, having a lot of space to operate and a brilliant passer at point, and he doesn't have those things in Phoenix. And it's just a much, I mean, Dylan Brooks is like, the blackest whole of black holes in the NBA. And it's just, it's just a different. - There we go. (laughing) - And I just think like, getting rid of, or not getting, whatever, like trading Grace Nallen and Roy Soniel to capable, spot up three point shooters. Grace Nallen, more than that, he think he's like a very good movement, three point shooter for Bridges, and then also giving up the first, which is neither here nor there, for the purpose of this conversation, but I just thought it was like an absolutely terrible, terrible trade. And the last thing I'll say is they had a really spunky defense last season, they tried really hard. I don't think they'll be catching anybody off guard this season, and they had the best three, yeah, and they had the best three point luck defensively in the league last year also. So if that reverts back to the mean, that could be trouble. So we will see with Phoenix. - For those reasons that you just stated, it was hard to pick this order, like I said, they just kind of ended up at 10 on my list. - Yeah, that's fun. - That could be wrong, we'll see. Song for them, here comes the sun. I didn't have one, I couldn't think of anything good for those like scrappy, scrappy, there's certain themes in the Beatles that just don't show up, but you just start really reaching. All right, number seven, we've been going here. Let's, we can be a little brisk. What's, who's your number seven? - So you texted me a few days ago asking me if I was gonna make anyone mad. I think this is, this might be where I make people mad. I hope not, but seven, I have the Minnesota Timberwolves. - Okay. - Okay. There's a lot of talent, obviously. Made a huge swing this off season, getting Lamello Ball in house. Pairing him with Ant, I think Ant will benefit, absolutely. I'm not a Julius Randall guy, so losing him is not like the worst thing in the world, but I do think that they're a little undersized, their front court, you know, they lose him, they lose Nasrid in the Lamello Ball trade. And there's just a lot on Rudy Gobert this season, like a lot. I've watched Lamello Ball play pick and roll defense and Rudy might murder him, we will see. There could be an attack on the court at some point this season. Those personalities together is gonna be something. And it's gonna be doing a lot of mediation this year. - Yeah, so, and so. - Yeah. So I don't know, I think the upside is obvious. Anyone can see that. There's a lot of talent, a lot of skill, a lot of shooting. I'm not a comingo person at all. And him just being plugged in at the starting power forward position and, you know, saying that he's going to be fine tapering his role and blah, blah. I just, I don't know, I don't, I think that he's, I don't know, I don't want to be like mean, but I don't see him as a winning player. I know his agent said that he was the most winning and he had the biggest winning impact on the Atlanta Hawks last season. - The Hawks have those like what is getting ready to come next. Those are the real warriors. I was like, oh my, and cited on-off numbers. And like when you dig into those on-off numbers, it's like Atlanta's offense was markedly worse when he was on the court and opponent shot like 25% from the corners on defense. And that is why his on-off numbers were so great. - You always want a triple caveat stats. I always catch that whenever I'm writing something, I'm like, I have five caveats for this. You should just have no caveats. If I'm really making a strong case, you know, I'm like, no, no, no, but if you do in third quarters on passes that were 20 feet from the opposite side, he is great. He's great. Now it's a sample size of 20, but he is great. It's all shooting luck. No, man, I mean like, he would have to go cataclysmically bad for them to be this spot in the standings, but you're, I'm just kind of, I'm doing the, I'm seeing the calculus here of what you're thinking. And it's like, yeah, Nazarid is gonna be huge loss 'cause he was a stabilizer culturally dependable, played within himself to a great efficiency. Like he expanded well and didn't overstep in a harmful way. That concerns me with Gumi and I talked about this on group chat the other day. We were saying like, what does he assume about the situation? If it were him coming in and he had, you know, a set compensation that was adequate, just the whole idea of him rehabilitating his value in the expectation that, you know, he flips it to a player option and it's like, to me that says like, I'm hoping to come away from this with a basketball image that has changed. Is he gonna have the restraint is one of the biggest qualities that a person doing anything can have, but just like restraint as a basketball player can be a really great characteristic. And I'm just wondering, like, is he gonna be able to balance pursuing proof that he is a different player than everybody thinks that he is and be able to do that with restraint? - I'm skeptical. - I don't know. - I'm skeptical. - Yeah. - But I also would go, I think I would go somewhere closer to the middle from where you are. I mean, I have them at three. I think that's also a function of, the West is just not, there are a lot of caveats in the West right now that like teams or teams have not had things go well. We'll talk more about them as we go here. It's one of those you gotta pick somebody's situations and I think that they have more, they're more guys that I believe in. You got, you got, you got, you coming back who's gonna be healthy. You got McDaniels who has improved. You got Rudy's Rudy, you know, I think DeSoon Mue will probably find his, he's gonna wiggle his way in there and play a whole lot Steven Chinto, obviously his situation sucks. I have them at three. They to me are in the conference contender. I don't think that they're gonna sit into like, title contender, but like they're scrappy. And if they if they make some kind of move, they're like a move away, I think from from being interesting, also added, you mentioned Cody Flams, Tray LaHouse's backstage side, they added Isaiah Evans, the team, the song that I picked for them. Isaiah Evans, pretty, pretty tough, tough movement shooter, decent size, Helter Scalter is the team. This team's going to be chaotic night tonight. I think they're going to be really fun to watch. We'll see if that translates to chaotic good or chaotic bad. Let's do number six. Who do you got yet? The walls at seven. Let's get interesting on the teams that are left. You got a six. I have the Utah Jazz. The first time we've aligned on one, that's interesting. Oh, love it. There we go. I wasn't sure if this was controversial, then this high in the guaranteed playoff spot realm. I just like love this team. Probably would have loved them a little bit more if they still had Walker Kessler, but I was thinking about this last night and this morning about I think, I don't know if I am, if I am overrating Lowry Market in. I think he is so good and I'm dying to see him now on a team that is committed to winning and doesn't need everything from him. He will not be the first option I don't think, but that's not really where his value is and how he impacts games and he's just so good and valuable as a seven footer who is a movement three point shooter. The assist numbers are whatever, but it's a lead offense when he's on the court and the spacing he creates, he's actually a pretty good versatile defender and I think that when they want to go big, which they can with Will Hardy, who is also a factor here, someone who I think is like, people are in the media dying to vote for him for coach of the year. I just want to push the button. Exactly. I think you have really intriguing lineups that they can play that other teams won't have an answer for because Mark and in unlocked so much and with his shooting and his size. So I'm a big fan here. Darren Peterson is my pick for Ricky of the air and I'm really looking forward to watching his first season unfold. Love Quante George, who I've compared to young Tyree's Maxi in the past. Yeah, I like to see him a lot. I think their offense can be elite defensively. There's some questions, but I'm just really high on them. Yeah, I think they're too talented to have below this spot. My thing has been when I sat down and looked at I was like, I love their first five. Their depth to me is questionable to the point where I couldn't have them above this spot because I think I have some, I have some hesitations about point of attack defense. I have some hesitation about getting downhill from the guard spot. Like it's one they have honestly kind of feel like because Ace isn't a super big driver. Quante has gotten better about getting in the paint. Peterson, I think has some questions to answer. That was one of the biggest questions about him coming into this. If he had been a consistent downhill driver in college, I think he would have been number one going away with, you know, in bold letters. Like it's no question. You know, Jaren Jackson can drive the wall a little bit. I just kind of wonder about that. They're going to be offensively really, really fun. This is the team. Yep, the song I picked for them was getting better. It's getting better all the time for them. It's going to be fun for kind of the desert. I know they, part of Utah is a desert, but they've been kind of wandering in the competitive desert for a while. I think this team's going to be a blast. So yeah, I'm with you there. You know, they Cody Williams is out the door like we talked about. Yeah, if they make one move, I know I keep saying this, but it just seems like if they can shore up some of those depth questions, it would have been nice if they could have hung on to Kessler, but I think that the jazz are going to be a very fun basketball team. Number five, I think I know who the answer here is going to be, but who do you have it? Number five. First of all, I had here comes the sun as my song for the Utah jazz, because that's really nice. You know, tranquil. Yeah, it's just so nice. Yeah, that's why that's right in there. Number five. So we're going into tier two now. I call this tier squint and you can see something special. Number five, I have the Los Angeles Lakers. It's like Salazar from Resident Evil. Fuck was that? No, I did not have the Lakers there. I have the Lakers at eight. Actually, I have them much lower than you. Why do you have the Lakers? This high. Explain this to me. You know, it's one of those things where you're like in your head, you're you're surveying and analyzing the moves that a team makes during the offseason. You're like, well, they gave up a lot for Walker Kessler. Oh, they gave Mamu like four guaranteed years. They're giving all this money. They gave way much more money than any other team in guaranteed cash. Stressing over the means, as opposed to just looking at the end. Do you think we're stressing over the means too much? Yeah, I think that as like a basketball team, and as someone who like, I just think Luca is, I feel like he's at this point a little underrated, which is so crazy to say. He is so, so good. Like, he is an unstoppable offensive player. And we get a little bit hung up. Myself included with you need to surround him with XYZ or it doesn't really, you're not really maximizing him properly. And I think that sort of does a disservice to like his true greatness. I think that when you add, I'm just like throwing this really small minor pieces who might not even be in the rotation, but like Zanya Williams and Matisse Thibal. Those are two players who are really caught my eye because it's clear to me that the Los Angeles Lakers defensively, the strategy is going to be we're going to force a lot of turnovers and just let Walker Kessler clean stuff up in the back end. And we're going to be super aggressive on the perimeter. And the whole like reason for that is like, we need just to have as many possessions. I mean, a lot of teams are doing this, of course, but we need to have as many possessions as possible for Luca. And Austin Reeves, who's also on this team, who is really, really good and efficient and gets the line and all that sort of stuff. And if you stagger those two and they're healthy, you're going to have an elite offense. You just are. So I think that the pieces that they brought in to compliment Luca actually are pretty good. And I think when the bar is championship and we have these players and they're locked in and we don't have any more draft, we don't have any more draft capital. And this is just what it is. It's, you can get a little, a little negative and cynical about what you see. But for the purpose of this exercise, I'm like, man, the Lakers are going to be good. Like Luca is amazing. And he has talent around him. So an interesting like vote of support to your line of thinking while you were talking. It's like even though the star power is not quite as, although I say that the Beatles on that I picked was two of us because it's like, it's Luca and it's Austin Reeves. Those are the two drinks, stirring, you know, creator talents on this, on this team. I was thinking back about some of those early maps teams and I was thinking about the like 2019, 2020 Dallas Mav team. They were first in the NBA in offensive rating. And you know, just rattling off, if you look down through that roster, I mean, granted for Zingas was on the team off and on. But you just had guys, it was a cast of characters that fit the Luca template of, you know, it's Max and Klaiba. It's, you know, Doren Finney Smith. It's, well, Ryan Brokoff who I saw works for an agency now that like visual of him with an agency like works a lot better. He just looks, he looks like Vince Gilligan. I don't know. Anyway, I think that kind of fits to, it fits the line of thinking that you're talking about here. It's just like if you have Luca and you have kind of the pieces, the paint by number pieces that go with him. I agree with you that at times it seems like we hum and haul about who the best players in the world are. And Luca's just kind of been quietly sitting there the whole time of, I don't know what the actor comparison of that would be. It's just like, no, I think that, you know, Daniel D'Aluis should just win the Oscar every year regardless of whether he made a movie or not. I wonder about the Lakers defensively to be a serious basketball team, but I think they're going to be a good competent basketball team on offense in the way that you're saying. It's very possible that they could be in like the top five of the league in offensive rating just because an optimized Luca team is just hardest shit to stop. I feel like that should be the expectation and the like non-negotiable character trait about them like they have to be a top five. offense, I think. And they have to be, I think like they were league average and defensive turnover rate. You have to be whether they're probably aiming to be like top 10, top eight in that category. I think that category is really important for to dictate just how successful they can be this season. So yeah, I, I'm just really high on Luca. I love Luca. I think he's great. And as do I he's got talented pieces around him. Yeah, my son when we were watching a game one time Luca like yelled or something in my debt. And my son was really little at the time. And he was like, he looks like an angry bear, daddy. I was like, yes, he does. It's really good call. I thought that was, that was a three. Number number four in the West. Who do you got? So I, first of all, before I give you my team for number four, there was a, is there a Beatles song called, you never give me your money that there's a Beatles song called that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, that is the, the Beatles song I have chosen for the Denver Nuggets. They are my number four. That was meant song for the Blazers. That was what I was saying. It's the. Oh, okay. Okay. Yeah. I was. See every road made like you know, listen to that. You seem very lukewarm when I pitch the Beatles. It's like, I know it's not cool. No, I'm all for it. But yeah, I'm all for it. I'm all for it. Yeah. So I have, I have Denver at four. Uh, man, I just wrote about them and I'm talking about. Yeah. Oh, cool. Um, and off seasons and, you know, the, the stink of kind of their off season and how they like simultaneously are cutting costs while being the only team in the second apron, which is like really hard to do and pathetic. And how there's kind of squandering. Yokech is prime. Um, the guy still is like getting better and was playing his best basketball of his life. Last year before he heard his knee. And so, look, they have Yokech. He's healthy. He's, to me, he's still the best player alive. Um, and like all things are possible with him. But you just need, I think the margin for error here is just incredibly small, uh, with regards to health and, you know, Murray staying healthy and still being like a really brilliant tough shot maker and getting back to all NBA or staying at all NBA status and making another all-star team and Aaron Gordon obviously staying healthy. Um, and just like their need to maintain, um, his body throughout the regular season and wary about it and try to keep it in tip-top shape for the playoffs. Uh, and, you know, there's bounce back seasons. I think are on the horizon for Cam Johnson and Christian Brown. I anticipate. Um, and I don't have like any, we talk about like lead offense. The Denver Nuggets have the best offense in the league last year. And I think that they will once again. And they always have the best offense in basketball. When you'll get just on the court. I don't think that'll change. I'm just like losing Peyton Watson is just so stupid to me. It's not my money, but it was stupid. And replacing him with DeMar de Rosen is like, I don't even want her in alpha Diolo. It's so tough. It's just so tough. So I would have them higher. I would have them higher. I have them at four. I would have had them at three probably if they, you know, kept Peyton Watson and had a more active offseason than what they've, what they've done here. Um, so yeah, Marvin Bagley is the backup five, man. Like that is, that is so hard to process for a team that should be really serious about contending every single season so long as they have Nikoli Oakage. Yeah. I think we have another epic plus minus season coming, like on offseason, coming for for Yokech because it's, it's rough. Uh, you mentioned the key additions. I just, there's a scene in Groundhog Day where Bill Murray said he's like, he has memorized the order of things. And he says, uh, he goes to dog barks. That's what that, that came to mind. Like a dog just barks in the distance. Whenever I think about the, who they, Nuggets added in the offseason, uh, because there's just such a reverberating absence. Um, the Rosen, we'll see. I mean, well, Yokech has a way of affecting players values. He is, we saw him for a little bit rehabilitate Russ and make him make sense for a while. Um, and like we said, Lonnie Walker, Alpha Dialle, um, key departures here Peyton Watson, Jalen Pickett and then Jonas. Um, it's just the bench is going to be pretty tough, man. Um, you mentioned the first five. Um, it's hard to imagine. Well, I'm looking at here, I'm looking here. It's like you, you obviously have the rockets pretty high. We'll get to that. But, um, yeah, I, for, for song I had helped written down because that's what Yokech is going to need if these, if these guys can't stay healthy. They're just, they're balancing so many tenuous things. And it's, it's a frustrating time. I know it'll be a, a Nuggets fan. Yeah. Yeah. The defense could be rough this year. Um, yeah. So number three, you mentioned the Houston rockets. Uh, I have them here. Uh, number three. Um, I, I think, how do you, how do you come out of that playoff series, Pena, that they lose to the Lakers without look a donchitch hampered. They lose to that team. How do you come out of that with the offseason with like no crazy upgrades that get Fred back? How do you come back with enough optimism to put them ahead of Minnesota ahead of Denver? How do you do that? I, I, I want you to answer that. Okay. Um, well, I would say in that playoff series that they didn't have Kevin Durant, who's their best player and you saw without Kevin Durant, the wheels just fall off of this basketball team. So even when Kevin Durant though, dude, they were, they're taxing him to the point of like an obvious, yeah, well, as well below playoff competency. Fair, fair. Um, but he just wasn't available, like he wasn't available in that series, really. Um, another player who is like truly, um, fundamental to how they play and their identity and their toughness as Stephen Adams, who was not available, who got hurt in January and they weren't the same basketball team post that injury. Um, so he wasn't available. Uh, so he'll be back. And I just think Fred, I think Fred Van Fleet is one of the best force multiplying point guards in the NBA. Um, you know, throughout his career, he's been, you know, 95% tile for estimated plus minus, um, every year and his teams are always better on both sides of the ball, um, with him on the court. Uh, and I just think he is like particularly with what this team has. So like mission critical in having all the pieces jilt together and not having in last year and still being what were they like, they were top five or six or whatever and net rating and they had like really good offense and, um, really good defense. Um, but you'd watch them and particularly in the fourth quarters and in crunch time. Just like, yeah, wheels fell off and they were very predictable and it was like one of some of the ugliest basketball you'll ever see at the NBA level, frankly, from a team that aspires to win at a high level. Um, and don't get me wrong. Like, I have questions about this team and you like, well, are the vibes roasted from everything that happened last year is one of them. So like, yeah, maybe. I mean, this is hopeless. Like before, yeah, before I had the inevitable churper's come and that was my intro to peanut here was rhetorical, obviously. They had a lot of shit happen. A lot of bad shit. I mean, Durant being, Durant was taxed as it was. Like I said, I had it written down here. Uh, let's see. He was a third and total minutes, I think last season. It's like, yeah, it's, it's crazy. Last season, nobody in the NBA took more heavily contested non-paint jumpers. Uh, this is not the path and he shot a lower percentage than he has in the past five years. You know, this is not a road towards helping him age gracefully. And, you know, with Freddie back, they obviously targeted some of this stuff. They lost Dodo, Durant Finney Smith. I think that's his nickname, right? Dodo, that they call him Dodo. Uh, it sure is. He gave them, he gave them absolutely nothing, but yes, they did. Yeah. It wasn't there. I think they were waiting for that to happen. It just didn't, but they obviously targeted that, like, just steadiness and now varying degrees of that with who they got, you know, they drafted Bruce Thornton, who's just this like pint size. Honestly, he's kind of visions of steady Freddie a little bit, uh, Bogdum Buck Donovitch. I don't know how much he has left in the market smart. Just dude, who can like keep the car from not running off the road. I'm not saying that we're going to be like, you know, at Le Mans, like turning corners and like we got a, we get, we got that movie on the brain to show it to my wife. Yeah. But it's going to be a little bit more, a little bit more steady. So at Steven Adams, it seems like, um, he's on track. I don't think he's ready to be back. He had a pretty serious ankle surgery, but another thing is like all the cumulative effect of these things. It helps to rant, but it also helps, um, Shingoon, who's not quite ready to be like a load bearing primary guy. We saw the limitations of his offense, which are like left shoulder, right shoulder, throw it off the back. board. Hope I get found just ugly stuff. And then, you know, that's going to help read too. So all these things addressing that need, I agree with you. I ended up with them at five. Okay. I expect the Rock is to be better. I think shooting coaches are like not wizards and I mean, literal wizards, not Washington wizards and hiring ship England. People are like, oh, ship England's here, blah, blah, blah, like, uh, almond Thompson's going to be Reggie Miller next year. Um, that's not exactly how it works. But, you know, when you do talk to people who have worked with Ship England players, um, it's, he does make some kind of a difference. And I feel like that is, that is a positive for a team that severely needs its players to be able to shoot. Um, and Thompson, who just signed right before we started recording a two five year two hundred eight million dollar, uh, contracts extension, which is really good for the rockets, being that it's sub max and really good for, um, and being that it's two hundred eight million dollars. Yeah. So I had them at five. If atoms were back for sure, I'd feel a little bit better about that. But, um, yeah, I feel like the, the luck variance there could swing and put them above. I mean, that could climb as high as three. I think that's extremely fair. Um, the, the degrees aren't, aren't major gaps between three through five for me for those teams. But the top two are pretty unquestionable. But I guess there's possibility that, you know, who, who do you have it to? Well, this is, you know, tier one, uh, heavyweight contenders, um, at two, I have the Oklahoma City Thunder. Okay. Okay. I thought there was a chance you might go with the spurs there. Oh, my, my, uh, Beatles song for the rockets was nowhere, man. I was just for gerant. By the way, that one's pretty, I could come up with anything great for that. But, um, did you consider going Thunder at one at any point? Or was it just, uh, how did you balance out the two coming out of the, I mean, you don't have to, like, you don't have to, like, sell me on the thunder. I mean, they're incredible. Uh, they have a raining two-time MVP who's the best scorer in the league. And they have one of the best defenses in NBA history. And they probably still have, uh, the best top nine man rotation in basketball, I would say it's fair. Uh, I think that when you factor in, if you, if you are really glass half full here, it's Jalen Williams, um, coming back being healthy, AJ Mitchell coming back being healthy. Those two guys were, um, in and out in the playoffs. And I think that that is a humongous reason that they lost the San Antonio spurs. Um, in seven, we should say, you know, in seven, in seven, um, the reason that, uh, really kind of pushed me to have them at second, in addition to my respect level for number one, is the fact that they lost Isaiah Joe Aaron Wiggins and Lou Dort. And those might not seem like the sexiest names, but they lost a starter in Lou Dort, who is, uh, you know, one of the best on ball defenders in the NBA. Um, Isaiah Joe was their best shooter. And I know that he doesn't, doesn't play in the postseason, as much, but is still really good. And, um, a part of their depth, why their depth is so, is so key. And Wiggins is just like a do it all, just super happy to be, uh, uh, you know, CD, uh, coaches decision, uh, DNP, um, for like five straight games, then come in and an NBA finals game and score 25 points. And like, he's just a really good pro, pro, pro, um, really good culture fit. So just, I just think losing those three guys matters. Um, and I don't think it's like the, the biggest, you know, drop in the world, but it's, they're better, or better basketball team with those three players. And they had to lose them for financial reasons. So that sucks. Um, but the thunder will still be amazing. And their defense will still dominate. And, you know, if Alex Karusso can stay healthy, uh, that's a big factor here. A swing here. I'm kind of expecting him to have like the, throughout his career because of how hard he plays. He always has these like freak injuries that keep him out for a, uh, substantial margin. And he's talked about that. I've talked to him about that. Like, can only play at one speed and it's insane. So if he can stay healthy, uh, yeah, I think that they'll be really good and really, really good and could easily win the title. Um, so yeah, I just have, I have them into, I think largely because of what I think about number one and how terrifying they are. Yeah. Uh, it's interesting, you know, that they could be this good. I had baby, you're a rich man down as, uh, as my song for Sam Presley in particular, just because the song that's at the end of the social network, uh, great song. Uh, he, he's just being met with unique problems based on the volume of great decisions that he's made over the past few years. And, um, one of those was offloading guys who were a part of their, their title that they won in 2025. And you know, door, like you mentioned him going out, you know, it's amazing that they're losing those quality of players. And it's just going to be a season of them answering new questions, uh, because, you know, AJ Mitchell is ascending. AJ Mitchell was, you know, another guy that was in addition to Jalen Williams, you know, not a part of that series. And, uh, and then you have Jared McCain coming in that they just sort of lucked into you. Yeah. A guy they always love. So I, I think the combination of that and this season, um, something to consider, you know, you mentioned, you know, back to back MVP's for Shay, um, nice move clippers, uh, the Thunder played 294 games in the past three seasons. Shay has played 3668 minutes in that time frame. Um, you almost wonder in the pursuit of answering some of those questions with highly, highly talented creator players, uh, stylistically different too. I mean, like, you know, Mitchell and McCain same size, but very different like Mitchell, ball screen operator, lean score, McCain can play almost a step style of on to off toggling, kind of movement shooting. He can, you know, play and pick a roll, get off of it, move off of some screens. I just think they have a lot of kind of things to answer. Um, in terms of their, their additions also, you know, they added a dimara. I don't expect mar to be ready this year. It's probably a longer play and the Bennett stirs, you know, take it away. Um, both of those guys, I think it's going to be a longer play, but I just, and then you also have Nicole atop it. She was had arguably the two worst first two years of any player. I mean, like, you get cancered. It's just that it's awful. So hopefully he's ready to come back. He had a back thing too, I think. Did I miss remembering that? He's had some, some biblical Joe level stuff going on. And then, uh, yeah, uh, and then Thomas Sorvers and other guys. So just they have a kind of a lot of questions they answer, but I still expect them to be good. I kind of feel like they're going to pace themselves though this year because I don't know. Or am I am I miss reading that? I mean, the way that they play defense and like the discipline that they have, uh, I think pacing yourself is kind of difficult to be honest. Like, I still like the depth. And it's like, they lost those three guys, but did you even mention case and Wallace? Like he's, yeah, I didn't. I love case and Wallace. Yeah, he was like there. I mean, he was the guy who I feel like spurs fans were most afraid of in that series. And was just, I think you shot like 50% behind a three point line. And he was just totally fearless. And um, he'll probably be in the starting lineup. I would assume replacing Lou Dorte, which is a big deal. So more minutes for him. I know they could assume more mantle. Like, you know, they've, they've got a lot of potential expansion among their guys they already have. Yeah, it's a, it's just a joke of a really good team. And again, like if they win the title, zero people will be surprised. So how could a team be ranked ahead of them? It's kind of what we would talk about. Let's, we put a bow on this. How on earth? The song that I picked for the spurs is here there and everywhere, which is just to represent Wimby Victor Wimonyama's fucking arms. He is a xenomorph. He is the freak of all freaks. I expect him to be pissed off going into this season. That's a major factor. Yeah. I think that they probably are going to come away from that finals that the Nix justifiably won. They were the better team. They punished the spurs every opportunity. But the spurs probably look at this like, man, we got some obvious questions to answer. They went and they tried to answer them. Um, how well did they answer them? How much of a developmental jumper we're going to see? To me, those are the obvious variables, because they go and add device Harris, Terrace Rige and Quain's, Malik Brown. How are they better than the, than the thunder obviously to you, Pena? Well, it starts with Wimby. Like, and you laid it out perfectly. Uh, I believe he's the favorite to win MVP this year. He is the best defensive player I've ever seen and he gets better and better. Um, pretty much every time you watch him play offensively. He, I mean, he worked with the chemilajuan. He wasn't really with monks this summer that I saw. He's actually like in the gym, uh, working on his teams of basketball, Monk. Let's be honest. Yeah. Like you should wear a robe. Yeah. So I just think like one this guy in addition to, you know, having the three-point shot. Once this guy like really is comfortable from like the elbow in and just has like his one dribble move that he'll go to and you cannot stop it, which could come this season. He's just like, he's, he'll be in the conversation for best player alive if he's not already there and a lot of people's minds and additionally, this team went to the finals. They were beat by a better team. They could reasonably look at that series as one that got away though and I think there was just a lot of like internal angst from the San Antonio Spurs this off season and like the opposite of taking their foot off the gas, as you said that the Oklahoma City Thunder might want to do. I don't think the Spurs are taking their foot off the gas. I think that they brought everybody back and added to Bias Harris, who was like the third leading scorer on the number one seed in the Eastern Conference last season and like the internal growth could just be so scary with them. Like if Dylan Harper takes a step, like none of the stuff's linear but if Dylan Harper takes a step, if Deer and Fox stays the same or even gets marginally better as an outside shooter and just like, you know, whatever figures gets better and stays healthy. Stefan Castle is, you know, two years removed from winning Rookie of the Year and could be an all star this season and it's just so awesome in so many ways. And I think that they answered a lot of questions about themselves last year. They have mental toughtists, they can play so many different styles, they have depth. Everyone is like all for one, one for all and it's like we're coming off a summer where Wembee had in some people's eyes like an embarrassing finals and then he took a pay cut. I just think like he's just going to destroy everyone this year and yeah, there's nothing anybody can do about it. I think whatever you look at the arc of superstar players, the way these things usually play out for the driven ones and just it's something I've gotten, I've been lucky to be able to do and this job is go back and chart those things and see, watch the tape and see the, you know, that's what you couldn't do. Anybody can do it. But if you look at like the LeBron's, if you look at the way of the Jordans, the just, it happens with the greatest guys is that we have this initial thrust of this guy's amazing. Oh my God, he's so crazy. He's ready for this high stage and then you get this kind of other teams that are smart that have good players. They scheme, they figure out where the vulnerabilities are, they implement them. Once you get that initial return, usually the great ones give you a just tidal wave response of like, I figured that shit out. I'm going to be very interested to see. We got a playoff, we got a long extended playoff of people scheming, smart team, smart coaches scheming against Wimby and he got that information back of just like, okay, they think this is my vulnerability defensively. You talked about him getting better and figuring things out. I'm going to be really interested to see, I talked about him being pissed off. I'm going to be interested to see how he addresses those things because Wimby being pissed off is just going to have a determination to it. And you mentioned all the other things like the developmental bets about like Stefan Castle, not going to hit the gas or not going to hit the brakes. Harper, I expect to get a whole lot better. He's going to be one of the best guard prospects in the league. I'm with you. I still have them at number one. Tobias just adds a wrinkle of, they don't have anybody that really scores in that part of the floor on their roster right now. And he's just going to give them in a more contained role. You said he was number three for the pistons. He might be you're adding that to like what your fifth spot in the hierarchy. Like we'll see how that affects champagne. But you're really showing some stuff up with by ed and Tobias. I think. Yeah. He's like the Harrison Barnes upgrade, but they kept Harrison Barnes. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, it's just when you go to the finals and you're this young and then you don't lose anybody. And there's like a real togetherness about this team. You know, they go to France. You see all the stuff on social media? Like, I, I, I love this team so much. I think they're truly special. I think the Spurs deserve all the credit in the world for how they built around Wembee so fast. And they give a lot of credit for that lottery luck. Yeah. No, they share. Like, well, yeah, for sure. But if Harper, we were talking about Castle, I said Castle could be at all start this year. Like, I think Harper will probably win six man of the year. But like, you know, he could be at all star. I don't know. Like he could be like, I'm, it's time for me to be in the starting lineup, actually, by Christmas. Like who knows? So that, I mean, that dude is just like, he's so fearless and like, unguardable. And was doing what he wanted on the biggest stage on the planet. Like, it's, he's so scary. I clipped this out. I need to tweet that. I think I maybe you mentioned this online. There was, there was a clip where I think it was at MHD where Harper had the ball isolated at the top, like out near the hash mark. Josh Hart, incredibly physical defender on ball was on him. Harper starts to go by him. Hart is fouling him basically from the hash mark almost all the way to like the foul line. OG switches on to him. And then Harper just like spins and goes through him and scores over the top of him. And it's just, I know it was so hand. It was so hand. Little bit of a difference in defenders there. This dude, he's just unbelievable man. And I'm excited to see where he's going to go from here. So that's the Western conference for you there folks. I know we went a little long, but it's the off season. We'll give you something to chew on while you're mowing the grass or doing the dishes or feeding your parakeet or whatever it is that you're doing. So we're going to be coming back soon and ramping back up as we've said with the content. We got a lot of, we had a really fun thing about one change that you would make in the NBA. That is in written form. That is in video farm form. Peanut makes an appearance in that. Tyler Parker is wearing a delightfully shitty judges robe. I love how cheap that thing don't light a match within 20 feet of that thing. I think it's going to go up in the carcinogens. I don't know where we got that. Anyway, check all that stuff out and all the content as we ramp up and we'll have more pods for you soon. Peanut, good to see you and get you guys next time. [Music]