One Big Question for Every Western Conference Team!

Coming up on the Zack Lowe show, Rob Mahoney is here. I mean, he's not here, but he is here. He's on the show and we're going to talk about one big question for every Western conference team like I did with Michael Pina last week on the East. We're going to go rapid firefly through all 15 teams in the West, the good teams, the bad teams, everything. We're going to start with the Utah Jazz because I've been able to talk about Kianta Georges, $5 $150 million something contract extension. So we're going to start there. We're going to go by division. Who are we higher on than consensus? Who are we lower on than consensus? One big question for every Western conference team coming up with Rob Mahoney. We finish with the Lakers and sort of embedded in this discussion that keeps coming up throughout the show is. And the discussion I've had with a lot of people out in LA about Ben here is if you had to pick a team that we get to April and we're like, okay, this team actually has more than a punctures long shot chance against the Spurs or the Thunder and a playoff series or we even get to May. And it's like, whoa, this team is 2 2 game 5 going into Oklahoma City. Which team is that? Is it the new look Wolves? Is it the Rockets with Fred Van Vlietbach? Marcus Smartonboard? Is it the Lakers rebuilt around Luka Dachich? Is it Denver? Still there? Still has Nicole Yokech and Jamal Murray. Can't count them out. Is it any other team? Which team is it? Or is it? Is the answer just like, unless there's a big injury to one or both of those teams? Is the answer just nobody? Every West team rapid fire coming up with Rob Mahoney. Welcome to the Zach Lowe show live from Los Angeles. Look who's here. Rob Mahoney fresh off being passed over for interim governor of the Lakers. I know. I thought you had a shot. They gave it to a random lawyer. No one had ever heard of it. Did you apply? Yeah, of course I did. I threw my hat in the ring. I guess, you know what? I was, I had all of, or what's the Isaiah Thomas quote? I was eligible to be picked, but was not. I'm fucking it up. I don't know. They didn't pick me for whatever reason. I joked last week that they should have to, the NBA should have made them send Chuck DeCondor as their representative at the Board of Governors meeting and it was very silly and everyone was like, you're being very silly. And I was like, yeah, I'm aware a mascot at the Board of Governors meeting is silly. They had no one there. No one. They had no one there for their official spanking in person by the NBA Chuck DeCondor could have been there in the end. What if that's the relegation punishment, you know, rather than decreasing the draft odds or whatever it's like for the next year or two, you have to send your mascot to the Board of Governors or your team governor in the mascot uniform. I think public shame goes a long way. Dennis, Wong in the mascot uniform. Okay, we're going to do one big question for every Western conference team. I did this with Michael Pena for the Eastern conference teams last week. And it was fun. We got just and as niche as you want, as big as you want, anything. And we're going to start with the Utah Jazz and we're going to go by division. I'm going to start with the jazz because I haven't really gotten a chance to talk about County. Georgia's five year, 150 something extension. What are your thoughts on that before we go dive into the jazz? I mean, it seems exceedingly reasonable for what County, George did last season. I think part of what made his season so heartening for me was you see, you know, young guards who are coming on in the league, a lot of high pick and roll, a lot of like high volume operations basketball. He was playing like all over the place dribble handoffs coming off of pendants, like a lot of really varied action in a way that tells me like he's ready not only for the very bad version of the jazz we saw last season, but this more talented, more veteran version of the jazz that we'll hopefully see this year. I have zero problem with this number. I feel like it's going to age really well for him. It's about as large as the dollar figure is. It's like 16% of the cap going forward. Totally fine. He and Jared Jackson, Jr. and marketing now combined to make about 75% of the cap once that deal kicks in. That's fine. It's probably like maybe I hear too much, but they don't have anyone else expensive. No. And then by the time Darren Peterson's deal comes up, the Jackson marketing deals are up and there might be one year of overlap. There might be two of things are going well. Totally fine. And the thing that separates Keate from some of the other guards that get paid in this range, and it feels like a little bit of a mystery box for them. And sometimes their development doesn't take off and the deal gets underwater is I just like I have a lot of confidence in him offensively. I think he's a legit like load carrying ball handler type and pretty good like pull up through point shooter decent passer. The defense has to come along, but like he's got at least that he's going to do that part of the game well. I think well enough to be a 16% of the cap. Well, especially to go from one of the least efficient high volume players in the league, basically to that. That's a trajectory. I would want to bet on if I'd the jazz as much as anything else. All right. So they are one of my most interesting teams for the season. I think they're over under 37 and a half, which is a little lower than I expected. Obviously they lose Walker Kessler. And that's going to put a little bit of difficulty in their defense. Yeah. Like they're three big vision that they really wanted to play the big together. They still have nerds and jacks and Hayes. What is your one big question for the Utah Jazz? I think my question is, is there enough high level passing here to be a good offense or a great offense or a playoff offense, even perhaps? And you look up and down this group and for everything we just said about County George, very skilled creator, very great, very good at manufacturing his own shot, working in space, a decent enough passer. But as far as like, who is a plus passer for their position on this team? I think it's like, I guess use of Nirkich. If you want to include the dribble handoff stuff, I guess I say a collier, although he's really more like open to passing than he is like, you know, the vision is really opening things up all over the floor. He's a willing passer, but not like a super talented what I wouldn't say. And so then is there enough? Like there's a lot of ball handling here, I think, but is there enough way to connect all of these various dots to make the jazz actually a threat? Yeah, that was like one of my two that I was picking from as a question. And I think County George is an underrated passer actually. He's got some like nice lefty off the dribble, kind of like eight. He's got a little bit of like, he plays with 5% off the typical rhythm, which I think helps him as a passer. I would nominate Kyle Filippowski as maybe the best passer on the team. But so I will, I will, I raised this point the last time I talked about the jazz, and I had some furious jazz fans. And they do fury as well as any fan base. They certainly do say, how can you say we're not a good passing team when we ranked second in the NBA and assist rate behind only the warriors that some check and they're right. Okay. 70%. Sure. Yeah. So how, so answer that question. Because I have it. I actually think you can be a bad passing team. All 100% have a high assist rate. Yevy Verick. I would say two relevance that's in particular total passes and assist rate can be incredibly misleading. If you don't have a lot of guys on your team who can manufacture their own shot, your sister rate is going to be through the roof. And so yeah, like for as much as I like Bryce Sensible and what he brings to this team, this is a Bryce Sensible friendly pod completely. But it's like for, you know, Ace Bailey, another great example. But it's like, these are guys who are set up within Will Hardy's offense and activated. And you do that via like baseline passing. But the chance were one of the worst offenses in the league last year. I don't know how you look at that and say, Oh, because our assist rate was high, that correlation is a good thing. I'm throwing the numbers last year out the window for obvious reasons. It is interesting that Will Hardy, I think, is a really creative coach without a doubt. He's going to take all of these, you know, when they're playing five out with triple J and Lowry is the only big on the floor. He's going to use their screening, their off-ball screen. He's going to pair them in screening action. He's going to do lots of crazy stuff with Mark and it's just all, Mark and I've said is like big man's stuff, curry almost. Like big man, diet, big man's stuff, curry with more dunks, with more dunks. Just the way they use his gravity all over the floor. It is interesting that they were 21st and 3s and 25th and shots at the rim last year. Like that actually surprised me when I saw that, even though I knew like they were tanking, there were injuries, all of that. I'm interested to see how that changes. And just like the bench makes me a little bit nervous. Yeah. Collier, Senseba, Ace Bailey, Flip, Jackson Hayes. I'm a little relieved that like a Kogi is here as like a kind of a vet who might be able to help them a little bit and Josh, and Josh Green too. I think they might need those guys so that like they'll obviously stagger minutes with the starters. I'm a little worried about the bench, but those are my Utah questions. Thumbs up on the King Out Dead George deal. By the way, fair deal for for both teams. Yeah. Okay. Ready to move on. Let's do it. The Denver Nuggets team. I have obviously talked a lot about in the offseason with Peyton Watson and a whole big back and nothing. I will, I will, can I do my big question for the Denver Nuggets? Please. Okay. They were 21st defensively last year. They were dead last and turn over, enforcing turnovers. Okay. They allowed a ton of 3s, but not very many shots at the rim. And it seemed like a schematic choice of like, we're going to sell out to protect Joker around the rim. When they did allow shots at the rim, opponents had like the second highest local percentage to batter in the league. So I look at all that together and I'm like, okay, so they're giving up a lot of 3s, probably some up by choice. When teams do get to the rim, they're shredding them. They don't force any turnovers. They're good at what they're good at. Like they're a great rebounding team. They don't foul a lot. But when you look at three point volume, shooting percentage, total lack of turnovers, my big question is like, what defensive issues are fixable for this team given the structural realities? I think not a lot of them. And some of that is like their options as far as like how you move pieces around the board are so limited. But like in theory, Aaron Gordon is one of those guys, right? You can put them on a lot of different opponents to tap into a lot of different matchups, but you want to do that less and less now because he just keeps kind of breaking down at the ends of the ends of these seasons. Christian Brown is like a decent enough on ball option, but not a one size fits all solution for everything that they need. And so it's like, those are really the load bearing pillars of your defense to say nothing about Murray and Yo Kitch and Cam Johnson. Now you're incorporating to Marta Rosen who has never ever been a good defender. Marvin Bagley, as you're back up five, I would presume who I like to pick up just fine, but asking him to paper over those sorts of problems is a huge ask. I just don't know other than like we're just going to max out Spencer Jones minutes, how you really have the tools to do much interesting tactically on defense. Yeah, when I dug into like, you know, obviously I know they're not a great defensive team last year. I understand the issues with Aaron Gordon's health. Everybody was injured for a whole stretch there for the nuggets. I understand the challenges that building a defense around Yo Kitch in the middle, brings up. They did win a title. It's worth noting. They did bring in Dave Yeager as like a lead assistant coach. This is a bright and butter, but I wanted to dig into numbers like let's see really what was going wrong. And it just felt like everything that was going wrong was just endemic to their roster. And I'm like, I'm not sure how many like you can bring Yo Kitch up to the level of the screen more like he prefers and he used to you can drop him back, you can play zone. You can try to hide him over here like they do all that stuff. I think David Adelman has done a nice job of like, we just have to figure out different ways and different matchups to move him around. I just don't know what if any of those things are solved. What was your big nuggets question? Weirdly enough, it's kind of related. My question is, can Yo Kitch have any working chemistry at DeMar de Rosen? Is there a relationship there on the floor that can help them stagger through these games and find like a real working pattern rhythm together? And I say it's related because if you're going to start changing things around defensively, a lot of it is how you're going to toggle Yo Kitch's aggressiveness. And part of the reason why you protect him, part of the reason you play him back, as opposed to playing up like you said, is just you're just trying to get him through the year in one piece. And he would he and Murray both were having to do so much by the end of last season. So DeMar de Rosen comes in, they need that kind of shot creation. That part seems like it'll be helpful. But is he going to be an appendage to their offense? Or is he going to be something that actually adds to the best things that they do well? And I I don't know like Yo Kitch is such a smart basketball player. DeMar de Rosen is a really smart basketball player, but has not been the most adaptable and necessarily. And I don't know that Yo Kitch has ever played with anyone as deliberate as DeMar in terms of the way he operates. And so how those two feel each other out in the rant, you know, the six odd second quarter minutes of every game that they played together, however the rotation shakes out, I'm really eager to see. Yeah. He's an interesting piece for them. As soon as I signed him, I kind of floated the idea on the pod about like, because you know, he needs the ball a lot. Yep. Jamal Murray also needs the ball. Yo Kitch needs the ball, but he doesn't need to hold it. But like is the Denver is always when they're functioning it up, when they're really trying. Yeah. They stagger. Yo Kitch and Murray just so one is on the floor all the time. My first very first thought was DeMar is not a great fit with Jamal Murray. And they actually lean into sitting both Murray and Yo Kitch at the same time and maximizing it. We'll just really let DeMarco and just hand those minutes to DeRosen actually do also like DeRosen plus Yo Kitch without Murray and just like played DeRosen at the point because I think it's like dribble handoff. Yeah. Bob and we view go under Yo Kitch re screens. I think that's like that can work. So all right. That's your big Denver question. I believe we're doing this correctly by division. Minnesota is next. What is your big question for the new look? Minnesota. Well leaning on the new look are the wolves an offense first team or a defense first team. Ooh, I like that. I mean, so since they traded for Rudy, they've ranked eighth, first, sixth and sixth and defense. It has been the architecture of their team is like we can hang our hat on this. We can rely on this. That can get us through some of the variants of who we are offensively and how kind of sloppy we can be at times. He's still there. Jaden is still here. That infrastructure is there, but so much has changed and the balance of the team has just shifted so considerably with with the mellow with Kaminga, even just losing Julius Randall, who even though he's not like the most rock solid defender gives you a physicality that you can lean on in that particular way. And so like where are the wolves going to be winning games is kind of what I'm going to what I'm wondering. Not because they're not going to be very good. I think they're going to be one of the better teams in the West even still. They just feel like a little bit of a mystery box in that way. So I was talking a story with a bunch of NBA people about just a question of like if you had to pick one team that by April, you're like, this team actually has somewhat of a real chance at least pushing the thunder and the spurs and a playoff series in the West. Who would you pick? And I was a little surprised how many people picked Minnesota. I think there's a lot. I'm a high in Minnesota, decently. I like Lamello, you like Lamello, I think that part of it will work. I don't think they would be my pick my answer to that question among like, you know, the popular choices are obviously going to be Minnesota, the Lakers, Denver, Houston. I will reveal my pick for that later because my my big question for Minnesota is just like how much change is too much change in one summer. And you're hitting on that too like two new starters, presumably in Lamello and Kaminga. I'm not really convinced that Kaminga fit in the starting five is going to work. I don't know how you feel about that. Yeah. I'm a little stressed about it. I think just some of the trade-offs, not just in terms of how he plays, but like what you're giving up in terms of rebounding, like how you're going to manage the wing defense and the cross matching that's going to be required, like it's just it's just going to be a little more delicate than the run and gun ease of it would probably have you believe. And the shooting, you know, the him and go bear and like Jaden has become a good shooter, but he's not guarded like a good shooter and he doesn't have the volume of a good shooter. And then like I think to Devin Shenzel thing, like Krasinski has floated like maybe he'll come back at some point during the season and maybe will who knows how good he'd be by his standards. I think that's a huge loss and their bench is like I like like I always rock solid like we know that bones was awesome for them last year with the little wavy sellie. I like Terence and a junior. He's pretty unproven when he plays he tends to play well. Baron J it's a huge jump up in responsibility and bench kind of makes me nervous. It just feels like they almost feel like a team that made a pretty big win now move with a mellow ball, but also made so many changes that they need another off season to like recalibrate their team. So I that's why and you mentioned my other one was rebounding. You mentioned rebound. They're 14th and offensive rebounding last year, 19th and defensive rebounding feels like it should they should be better than that. Absolutely, especially with leaning how big they already were before and now you're scaling even smaller, I mean, the bar is a part is exciting, but definitely nerve racking. I mean, if there's any stretch of the season where Rudy Gobert misses like 15 games, like they could be absolutely cooked during that time. Like they just don't have the depth to accommodate it anymore. Interesting. Minnesota is a weird team there. I mean, they're going to be when I do the league pass rankings, they're like a no brainer top five. Can I even even having said that though, can I voice one echoing support for the opinion you heard about, like them being a potential challenger to this person, the thunder. And by the way, my, my, I'm not dismissing them as that team. I'm not convinced any team barring an injury for Oklahoma City in San Antonio is going to emerge as like more than a puncturous chance kind of team, but, but make the argument for Minnesota. I think the argument for Minnesota is as much an argument against the other teams you mentioned, the Lakers, the rockets, the nuggets in particular, those three teams, I feel like we already have a pretty decent sense of like where they're ceiling is, how hard and imposing it sort of feels, whether because of lack of depth, the defensive issues like we talked about Denver, some of the age with some of those rosters or the newness or the kind of offense defense, toggling balance with the Lakers, it's just hard to see them kind of ascending in an explosive way versus with the wolves, like you can convince me that the lamello and thing just clicks right out of the gate. And there's just something about that that is propulsive and magical and takes them on an incredible run, like there is, there's an open endedness to this Minnesota built that I think does change a lot about the trajectory of the franchise and may change a lot about the trajectory of their season. Open endedness is a very good word and my worry is that the end of the open endedness is like two years from now and not now, but you're, but you hit on like the lamello thing is a bet on like we've just got to have something that is totally unique to us and that clicks in a magical way where it adds up to something greater than some of its parts and the lamello and offense appearing has a chance to be the kind of punched that no one else really has in the back course. So I like the bet. The Portland trailblazers, my big question for the Portland trailblazers 21st on defense 11th and offense had a nice little spunky run as the 7th seed took the game from the Spurs when when Beniammel landed on his face and had to leave the game, but be that as it may. My big question for the blazers was what does Denny obvious life look like this season after being number, I believe he eclipse Shay as number one in drives 300 possessions. He was the everything for their offense and now Dame is back, John Marant is here. They're both apparently going to start and that seems almost like. I don't know which of those two would be more difficult to say 15 games into the season. Hey, we got to bring you off the bench. I actually think it would probably be easier for them to bring marant off the bench than Dame, but we'll see. You still got scoot here. You still got Drew holiday here. I just, you know, shooting was an issue for them last year. They were one of the worst shooting teams in the league. And John Marant is a minus 3 point shooter. Scoot Henderson's three is was made great progress last year. So this is a big range game. So we'll see. I just. Does Denny. Does Denny's life get easier? Does it get more efficient? Does it get better? Does his defense improve? 'Cause the load on his offense is a little less that it's just gonna be interesting how they put all these pieces together on offense. Well, I think his defense is gonna have to improve, not 'cause it was so bad, but like he and Tomani Kamar are gonna have to carry a lot. I would think when those two guards are out there, the cross matching that's gonna be required, it's gonna be pretty heavy duty stuff. I think it will be easier in certain ways, as far as the on-core basketball part goes, but maybe harder psychologically, right? There's an ease when you get as much opportunity as he got last year. I wouldn't expect another all-star season from him, necessarily. I don't think the numbers will be there in the same way, but Denny is such a good second-side driver and he's so physical. And the gaps don't have to be full-court transition openings to get to the rim all the time. He will barrel through people and draw so much contact that I still trust in his ability to be a really impactful part of an offense, even if the ball is in his hands all the time. I just kinda want the ball in his hands a lot and I don't know that the opportunity's gonna be there. - Yeah, I just don't think the Morant Dam starting combination is gonna be playable defensively. I mean, it's not going to be playable defensively. And I was just imagining, and you have two guys on the bench who are like tailor-made to step in, particularly through holiday, who can do a little bit of everything. And I, the respective conversations, it's like Damien Lillard just greatest or second-gradest player in the history of the franchise, coming off in Achilles injury, homecoming, all of that. Tough to ask him, "Hey, can you come off the bench?" John Morant is like, "Hey, man, you just got here. If this isn't working, we're not as invested in you as the Grizzlies were." Like, maybe that's an easier conversation. - Maybe, this is actually my question. I mean, why we're here is like, what is their best back court pairing? Because if those two guys start, I'm with you. I don't think it's gonna work defensively. I don't think the offense is gonna be good enough to compensate. And so, what does Mike and Nori do with that information? When does the benching, like, one of those guys moving to the bench come? How do you do that? Does he have the political capital to do that with both of those personalities and Damien's reputation internally? As you said, like, Drew feels like he should start based off of need, but will not start apparently based off of merit and clout. Like, even though he's a champion, like, I really don't know why Drew Holiday is in here already, save for the fact that they talk themselves into both the Dame Return Gambit and the John Morant Gambit at the same time, which is just like a little too much for my blood. - And then just general, like, who are the big threes, small fours? Who are the threes and fours on this team? - Yeah. - Long-term. I mean, Denny and Kamara, Roxas. - For sure. - You need more guys in that positional range. I will say, I'm excited for Donovan Klingin. I think there's more in there offensively. I think the three-point shot was like pretty real as a medium volume option. There's more passing. I think Donovan Klingin's gonna be really good. - The duration with which he will hold that goose neck tells you that it must be real. - Okay, last team in this division, the Oklahoma City Thunder champions two seasons ago, ousted by the Spurs in seven games in the Western Conference Finals. I believe they were four and eight against the Spurs last year, a tough matchup for them. Obviously, Jay Dub was hurt in the playoffs. He will presumably be back. Chad Holmgren vanished against Victor Wimbanyama, crumpled to the floor in a pile of nothingness. Seventh in offense with the two-time MVP at the head of it. First in defense by a mile. A lot of changes, roster-wise with Dort Wiggins-Joe Gone. The rookies may have to play. Sturts in particular at Mara, we'll see. What is your big question about the Oklahoma City Thunder? - It is exactly that. Who of the second wave Thunder prospects is ready for this? And not just those guys, but like Nicola Topic or is he gonna be a real part of this rotation? Thomas Sorber, is he gonna be a part of this in a meaningful way? Like, I think the Thunder are one of the few teams in modern history I can ever remember that could just salary dump three good role players in the way you described. And you could convince me that the version that's about to take the floor is more talented for having done that because of all these guys who were either waiting in the wings or were just brought in in the drive. - And like Caruso still here, McCain is still here. - Yes. - And like, those guys off to Ben Mitchell. - Hey, Jay Mitchell will do even more. - Like a potential borderline all-star waiting in the wings. - Jaydub hopefully will play more than 33 games. So it's like, there's just like a lot here to think that the Thunder could be somehow even more capable. - Yeah, I don't really have any big question for them because I think they kind of are what they are on offense. Like, their shot selection is kind of average. Like to take a lot of mid-range jumpers, the average amount of shots at the rim, average amount of threes, but they make that work 'cause I don't really know what the, does that need to be fixed? I don't think so. Would it be optimal to take a little more efficient shot selection maybe? Defensively, they give up a ton of threes. That's all by design. They're gonna clog the paint. They're gonna contest. They're gonna fly out at you. They're gonna get deflections. They know how to do that and get away with it and have the best defense in the league. The only other thing I had left was like, you mentioned Sorber, Mara, Hardenstein, Hardenstein. Like, big Jalen Williams, who had a great playoffs. - Very good. - Is Chet at the five just like a dead thing, for when it matters. Like, we'll see it in the regular season, but they just give it up on like, Chet at the five in real games. - It feels like at this point, especially with the San Antonio matchup, this is the kind of thing that can help you easily beat lesser teams, but maybe not beat the truly elite teams. And that's a disappointing place to be, 'cause I think the hope from the thunder, certainly from people like us, is that Chet was eventually gonna be able to take on that sort of responsibility. He just doesn't seem anywhere close to it. - And Dorit was Dorit's ability to play up a position, up like three positions defensively, potentially was like a big part of those lineup's work ages. It felt disappointing to me that particularly against the Spurs, they just decided we could not play this way at all. Like, it's completely untenable. And obviously, Jaydub too can play the four, so he was out and/or not himself when he did play. So maybe that was part of it, but maybe it doesn't matter because like, their centers are all good, and they function well no matter what. It did just feel like, when I'm thinking about who I'm gonna pick to win the title this year. My initial thought has always been the thunder in a bounce back year, healthier year, presumably. I mean, obviously it all depends on health. I have to, I would like to go back and watch some of those West Finals games because in particular, Game 7, Shay had an amazing game. - Yeah. - I just couldn't shake the feeling, even while watching that, that everything was so hard for them. Like that whole series felt like scoring was really, really hard. And Jaydub solved some of that as like a second-side driver, all-star player. Does he solve enough of it? 'Cause it was just really tough sledding for them. And part of that was, if you're never gonna play a shed at the five, you're never gonna have a five-out line up that really stresses out what miñama. - I mean, 'cause that's the ease that you're hoping for, right? Is that shed at the five will give you more space, will give you more driving and passing lanes. And if you're not gonna do that, it has to be some combination of even more experience than a bulletin A.J. Mitchell with Jaydub as you said. If, if Topic can be that kind of guy, if Jared McCain-- - I'm hoping for the Topic. - I mean, I think the McCain Impact too has been pretty profound as far as like, his ability to step on the floor and make a meaningful difference without a training camp, without really any experience with these guys. And so giving him that time and their ability to work him in in a more dedicated way is not a small thing, I don't know. - Well, and I also think like he and Mitchell working off the dribble, solve some of that thing I'm talking about, of like, why does it feel so difficult? He, McCain comes in, immediately jumps Wiggins and Joe in the rotation because he can just do stuff off the dribble to puncture a defense that those other guys can't do. So maybe if they have all their ball handlers healthy and they can play three of 'em together, like three of Shay, Mitchell, Jaydub, McCain, that's enough to get the spurs moving around a little bit more. It's gonna be interesting. All right, let's take a break. We're gonna switch divisions to whatever the other division is called where the Mavericks and the Spurs and all them play. This Western Conference Big Question is brought to you by State Farm. State Farm takes the time to get to know you so they can help personalize coverage for your life and budget. Now, that's a solid game plan. The team we are doing this for, switching divisions. I think it's the Southwest division, the hallowed Southwest division. We are a favorite division, Robohoney. - And that's true. - Historically a powerhouse. Will it be this year? And kind of. - And we're gonna start with the Memphis Grizzlies. I can't believe how excited I am for the 2026, 2027 Memphis Grizzlies. Here's my question. This is my big question. I'm just gonna lead with this. Is this team just flat out a play in team if Zach Edie is healthy? Are we all sleeping on this team as like a legit? They're gonna get in the play in tournament and have a puncture's chance. I don't need to tell you what the numbers were when Zach Edie played. Plus 18 for a hundred possessions. Some of that is that team shot horribly from three. But if you look at the numbers and like tied your own barely played, they have a lot of guys. They have a lot of guys on this team. But Edie was like completely changed their team when he was on the floor. They went from a horrible rebounding team to the best rebounding team in the league. They went from a team that fouled a decent amount to a team that never fouled because everyone could just funnel things to Edie. They went from a team that allowed a high shooting percentage at the rim to a team that didn't allow shots at the rim and then none of them went in. I'm not sitting here saying Zach Edie is like a star. He has to prove a lot, including his ability to stay healthy. Is he gonna start to see his healthy? I have no idea. But I kind of think when you look at this team, they have a lot of guys. a lot of depth. I think that's important. They're not going to have to be incentivized to tank. I love Camp Booser. I love Cedric Howard. Jeremy Grant is just like here. Just around an afterthought. Like kind of a helpful player if he's not one of your three best players. Beef stew. Just hanging around. Like I'll be a backup five. Maybe I can play with Edie a little bit. Yeah. I'll create a ruckus now and then got a lot of like spunky guards who handle the ball. I kind of like this team. Wouldn't shock me if they're like 10th in the West. I mean, there's a lot to like. As far as the Edie part, I'm with you that I mean, I would say there's maybe five or six bigs in the entire league who have a truly transformative effect on the game when they play. And he's not on the level of the highest end of those guys. But he does change everything stylistically about who the grizzlies are and who their opponents are. What is capable? Like what everyone's capable of when he's on the floor. And that's something this team desperately needs because they do have a lot of good players. But camp boosters are great example. It's going to be a great floor razor. A great like tone setter for who the grizzlies want to be. But is he transformative? Like we don't really know that about him yet. And that's not really who he projects as at least by my understanding. I just like. Camp Spencer is pretty good. Oh, yeah. I think hip and junior is pretty good. Jalen Wells is solid. Yes. It's like a fifth starter type. I think Boozer is going to come out of the gate as maybe the best player on the team. Look, as an alhorfered heir apparent, like I'm very excited about who Camp Booster could could eventually become their coachy solo is good. They've got to clean up. I mean, like they were a bad team last year partly by design. But I think there's like a decent amount of talent. You're like I don't I don't like if I sat here in power ranked the West. 10th might seem a little spicy for them. But like I think there's a world where they're better than there's a world yes a world maybe not this world. But there's a world where they're better than the warriors. Oh, definitely. And if like there's a world where they're better than the Pelicans. Yep. I think we're I think we're in that world. There's a world where they're better than well the Clippers. There's a world where they're better than the Mavericks. I think these are all like plausible scenarios Cooper flag is better than anyone on the Grizzlies. Obviously we'll get to him. But what was your big question for them? I guess of all those possible worlds in the one that we're living in who here gets buried because like they're you you list it off some of the names. I'm counting they still need to cut like completely I mean they have are they like 21 guys on the roster right now. So some guys are just going to get released or moved away or play for the Julie team. But even within that I'm counting like 14 maybe 15 guys who are deserving rotation. Well, I mean like guys we didn't even mention like Omax prosper and GG Jackson juniors who were good for them at the end of last year. Like I don't know where they get minutes on the team. Like forget Delos is going to get waived out to him like Quentin Post is here for some reason. I like that was a weird one. Can we get can we play like there's been a lot of talk about playing Boos are at the three now and then he did it in summer league. How about we just go completely bananas Boos are Boos are steward post ED all on the floor at the same time. Just like let's just go but let's go crazy. I mean fuck it. Omax at point guard. Yeah. Let's just complete the set if we're going to go that route. I'm too high on the steam. I need to move on Rob. What was your what was your big way? Did you say your big question? Oh yeah, just like again, who gets buried here? Who doesn't get a chance to play because and and I guess by extension are those guys trade candidates for other teams looking to pick up rotation pieces down the line. Memphis. We I can't believe how excited. All right. That was today's western conference big question. It was brought to by state farm like a good neighbor. Stay farm is there. Let's stick in this division and go to a team that's very close to your heart. The Dallas Mavericks Kyrie Irving is back after missing all of last season. Dusty May is in as the head coach. Messiah Jerry is now running the show with my old colleague Mike Schmitz. What was your big question for the Dallas Mavericks? How will playing with an actual ball handler on lock Cooper flag? What will it bring out on him that we didn't get to see because last year. I mean to me it was all about filling voids. Like they didn't have Kyrie. They didn't have much of anyone handling the ball at a high level. And so he had to be the point guard sometimes. He had to moonlight in that role. They didn't have a dedicated wingstopper really. So he had to do that a lot. They did and because they didn't have any real flow to their offense. I would guess he took more pull-up jumpers than he's probably ever taken in his entire life. And those are all good things in terms of his long-term development. Like two years from now we'll be saying look back at that season. We started playing in some point. It really brought some things out in his game. His ability to read the floor. I'm sure. But I just want to see him with a little bit of help. I want to see the stuff that comes easy when Kyrie Irving is on the floor. Obviously the whole league is wondering about Kyrie Irving's tenure with the Mavericks and whether he fits Cooper flag's timetable and what does that mean? What happens if someone makes a good offer for him? He's still an awesome NBA player. Very much. I think we'll see. I mean that's an obvious question. The Mavericks will not close the door on trading him because no team would do that. But I think they want to see kind of how this works and whether there can be something a little interesting with this group. They did some things well last season despite the limitations of their personnel and they did some things that need to be fixed. Like they were 28th and threes. They need to shoot more threes. Kyrie would presumably help that. By the way I meant to mention this about Obdia. You mentioned pull-up jumpers from Cooper flag. One thing about Obdia and sorry I didn't mention it in the Portland section. 24% on pull-up threes. 36% on catch and shoot threes. So that's when I talk about him living a different life this year. That's kind of what I mean. But my question for the Mavericks is like they're it's not even a question. Like I don't know what you do with all these like powerful forward types. Yes. Weener forward types between Cooper flag. I mean that's basically what he is. He can do anything but that's his size. PJ Washington, Naji Marshall, Santiago, Dama, Murez Johnson who they just drafted. Probably guys I'm even forgetting. Like there's just a lot of force that they're going to have to find minutes for and figure out how to build a functional off. Like what does Murez Johnson do when he's on the floor with Gafford or I really hope Derek lively can be healthy because I was so excited about him and he was such a linchpin of their team. Like that's another big question. But it's just a weird group of guys with like not a lot of guards. Yeah. And a ton of forwards, which is fine. Like you can that's maybe that's what they want to build. It is fine or it just may lead to PJ Washington being re-homed at some point. And then you find a natural solution to some of these problems that way. Like this roster does need even a little more ball handling. I could I would say they're going to get it from Kyrie. They're going to get it from Cooper. They're going to get it some from Naji Marshall. Probably we'll fill in in that capacity again. Sergio De La Rea seems pretty exciting if he can get on the floor and stay there. We'll find out. I forgot about Risa Shea. He's like a three four. He's more of a three bit of four, but he's around, but like he's around. That's the way you can say that about Zach or Risa Shea. He's around. You can't take that away from him. The Murez Johnson piece of that I really wonder like are they going to come out. He is the definitive starter and we are leaning into our young core or is he going to be fighting for minutes behind the four capable vets you mentioned to probably deservingly have a case to play over him. Yeah. I don't I tried to game out there starting five. It's very hard. And I put lively in there just optimistically. It's obviously going to be him or Gafford. Both of them are good centers. I went Kyrie. I just put Max Christian and lack of placeholders starting to PJ Washington Cooper flag in one of the centers, but like I don't know. I don't know what you do. Like I like to the Marcus Sasser pickup. By the way, I was a sneaky. That was a sneaky nice pickup. So a lot of interesting pieces here. How old is Kyrie? Kyrie's 34. I get it. I get the thing like he's 13, 14 years older than Cooper flag, but I don't know. I like the fit. I'd like to see how it looks if I were them. Any other big questions about the Dallas Mavericks? I think I'm going to keep it moving. The San Antonio Spurs. We know what they did last year. Third in offense and third in defense. That's a whale of a season. And you just dig it underneath the hood. They're numbers. They're like good at what they're good at and they're rock solid. Like whatever they seek to be good at, they are good at. And what they're bad at are generally things that like they don't force turnovers. That's obviously a choice they've made. We're just going to play conservative defense because we have this monster waiting for you in the back. I didn't have a great big question for the Spurs. So I'll defer to you. What is your big question for the San Antonio Spurs? I think my big question for them in light of their very particular playoff feelings in which they are throwing the ball off of each other's butts in which they're kind of imploding down the stretch of some of some of these games. Not all of these games. Time and score. Maybe time and score. I mean, really fox assistant coaches everywhere are just shaking their heads watching the game tape of some of those. But like where do they find that that one more ounce of stability? And I think there's a couple of different candidates, right? Some of it is maybe Fox is even a little bit healthier, even a little bit more of a stabilizer for them. Maybe Fox gets traded into a player who could provide that role. Good see. Could Stefan Castle be 12% less wild than he currently is. I know. I want him to be just as wild. I don't want to take the wild out of him. I get what you're saying. I'm not saying we should. I'm not even saying that's the route they should go or is Dylan Harper going to kind of ascend into even more calming presence as opposed to like a weaponized flame throw or one on one kind of score that he's been or is Tobias Harris joining this team going to give them just like one more place to go when they do have those possessions that are like a little a little bit rickety a little bit like taking a little too much time off the clock in the first eight seconds. Like maybe he could in switching champagne out for him. Just give them one more avenue to actually accomplish something in a way that settles everything down, but they just need a little bit more. that and it may just come with getting older. Yeah, I don't know whether to assume one of my small questions was like, is Tobias Harris starting like are we sure that that's happening? And so champagne comes off the bench like they were awesome with champagne for sure in the starting five. But obviously Tobias Harris is a different level of player. Different pedigree bigger size and I think size on the wing was important for them. Um, I mean, if he did come off the bench, he would cement one of the best second units in the entire league. I mean, I think we'll get more time this year, but one of my small questions was, um, like for as as disappointing as Fox's season felt and as disappointing as his playoffs and finals in particular were their turnover rate when he's on the floor is like minuscule and their turnover rate when he's off the floor is like very, very high. And so one of my questions was like, can the non fox lineup settle down turnover wise? Because then that really changes the dynamic of like, how much do we really need him? What is his value to the team? Because currently his value is like his stabilizing force value was like very high for them. I wondered who's going to start and I do this is a scary one. I kind of wonder if they even have another gear on defense like because I think Brian is potentially special and might be ready to play more. It does feel like they should be able to force more turnovers if they try. They give up a lot of corner threes. I think again, that's probably somewhat by design the way they use Wembee and just have him sit up on the baseline is going to yield those, but like, can they even get a little more attentive to those shots? Like I do. I do. I actually think there are some areas where they can get better defensively. Well, I mean, especially I think the turnover is part of that is most enticing to me. Like there's so many guys in this team who are really intuitive playing passing lanes who are like, Steph Castle to me is like one of the best at navigating screens in the entire league, the chase from behind type defender. If you, I mean, it's not going to take much convincing. If you allow him to be even a little more aggressive in pursuing that stuff, I just think when you have Victor Webinyama, you should be open to those sorts of possibilities. And one of the marks of great playoff teams is not just like we come in with the way we play, but you have that full spectrum where we can, we can ratchet up our defensive precision and aggressiveness at the same time and be a totally different stylistic team, but one the teams aren't as prepared for it in that way. So we'll see if they can accomplish that. I'm, again, my, I'm going to say, I don't know, I'm actually the more I dug into the spurs, the more I was like kind of scared about how good this team could possibly be. The Houston Rockets eighth on offense didn't feel like that. Definitely didn't feel like that in the playoffs when they got run out by the Lakers. Under a hail of embarrassing turnovers in Game 3, Reed Shepard, Jabari Smith Jr., et cetera, and Bad Fouls and all of it, sixth on defense. I mentioned before the discussion about who would you pick as the team that might, by April, have like, maybe better than a punch or a chance it gets the spurs and thunder. I'm a little frightened to say that I kind of think it might be the Rockets for me, and I'm frightened for a number of reasons. I remember what happened in the playoffs. Emeo Doca's offense in the half court, not exactly inspiring in its creativity and motion and general purposefulness, unless the purpose was to miss and have Steven Adams get the offense and rebound, Steven Adams' health is a constant question. Kevin Durant's phone activity makes me nervous and chemistry and things like that. But I actually think people, because of how bad the playoffs were, because of how ugly their offense can, their first shot offense in a way can look. Because of how rattled Reed Shepard looked by the moment in the playoffs where he shot like 20-something percent, it was a complete disaster, let alone the turnover that caused them a fall from a head win in Game 3 of that series against the Lakers. I think Van Vliet coming back is like absolutely massive for this team. Durant is still awesome. I like their starting five, I like their depth well enough, particularly when you put Reed back on the bench, Marcus Smart is rock solid, presumably Steven Adams will be healthy. I just think this team is better than people are giving them credit for it. I might to say that they would lead that pack to me over Yokech, over the New Look wolves, over the Lakers is a little bit scary, but I just think if Van Vliet is healthy, he completely changes everything that was wrong with this team. I mean, they won 52 games as it was and adding Van Vliet and Adams, as you said, not just Marcus Smart, but like Bogdan Bogdanovich could be a rotation player for them. We'll see. Bruce Thorden could be a rotation player for them. I'm not sure. And so it's like they should have everything. They should be not only a 50-ish win a team again, but one that is getting back to basics as far as the execution of their offense that maintains the size and the rebounding that made them such a distinct opponent. And yet I think the thing I keep going back to and my big question is like, is Kevin Durant as hard as this is to say just too old for this now? So the Durant thing is interesting. This is as we were talking about this in a big group dinner last night. And this is when I made my Rockets case, it was generally, there was not as much optimism about the Rockets for the people around me. And part of it was like Durant as the best player on the team is now old and probably a little overtaxed. And my counter to that was like, he's the best player on the team, but there's a lot of players that he's not by far the best player on the team. There are a lot of very good players on this team. And Goon is a very good player, VanVleet, Amin Thompson who just got paid is an awesome player. Like, to me, that doesn't worry me as much as the offense and just sort of this existential question that Detroit is now dealing with, which is Thompson Twin plus center who plays in the pain. Yeah. Can you ever space the floor adequately enough to have an easy NBA offensive by easy? I mean, this is a team, they were 26 and 3.8 last season, 18th and shots at the rim. It's hard to be 18th and shots at the rim and 26 and 3.8 when you lead the lead to lead an offensive rebounding by a mile. Offensive rebounds should lead to both of those kinds of shots. And they took a ton of mid-range shots. They did not get out and transitioned at all. Their half court first shot efficiency was bad. It just has to be easier. VanVleet solves some of those issues. I'm optimistic about that. But how many? I mean, like Fred, I really like Fred. He's had some up and down efficiency seasons when he has been healthy. And that's now been a minute. He's, I mean, what, 5, 10 respectfully, and 32 years old coming off of a significant injury. It's fair. Yeah. I wonder about it. And here's the thing. I worry about a little bit in terms of the size of all these guys. You have on meant Thompson. And so it's easy to think, oh, we're just going to kind of move things around the floor. However, I mean, you need to make this work. But Fred and Reed and Marcus Smart, those guys have to play. They're going to be significant parts of everything that happens here. Are you not okay with that? I think those are all good players. No, they're all good players. But I wonder about like if you're leaning on that many smaller guards in a world where KD is older, Tari Esen gets hurt a lot. Steven Adams gets hurt quite a bit. Like Jabari Smith is big, but plays a little smaller in some ways good and some ways bad. I just wonder about like their ability to maintain the sort of muscle and advantages that they want to flex if they're also going to be leaning even smaller than they were last year. What is your take on the sort of like this existential question of a meant Thompson plus Shenguin and a Sartonson plus Jalen Dern? Yeah. What do you do in those situations? I mean, Shenguin, it's almost reversed because Shenguin was already signed. He's ahead in his career years wise, so he was already on the books, much different offensive player than Jalen Dern, who's more of a diver, has a little handoff off the dribble stuff in his game. That stuff fell apart. Shenguin is more polished as an offensive player, much less upside as a defender. Although Jalen Dern hasn't met his upside, looked like it looked for a second like Shenguin might be a capable three-point shooter earlier last season that kind of disappeared. I just don't know like what you're supposed to do in these situations and what you're feeling I talked about this because the Jalen Dern thing is really reaching like it's critical junction coming up. He would sign and trade him. That's what Bill's plan would have been. I get that and my argument is there's risk in that because, yes, look, it's not perfect, right? It's hard times in Jalen Dern. It didn't work in the playoffs. It was got very hard for him in the playoffs. They did get to Game 7 of the second round. It's not like they got waxed in the first round. They might have a Franz Wagner didn't get hurt, whatever. It's almost like, so I trade Jalen Dern and let's say I trade him to the Kings. I get subonus who I don't really want and it's not part of my long-term future. Like a couple of Kings draft picks and whatever, then I have to nail the next, I have to find the next Jalen Dern somewhere like a pick and roll partner for Cade Cunningham or recalibrate my team in the next two years and then the me time just eat a step back perhaps. That's a hard thing to do and I compared it with Bill to the Celtics trading Jalen Brown and just in the sense of like, this trade will ultimately be judged by the next move the Celtics make with the draft picks and stuff that they got from Philly. Round out their team around Tatum and that's a big risk for a front office to say we're going to bet a lot, we're going to trade a core player and the bet of the trade is not what we get in this trade necessarily directly but what we turn that stuff into in some time. I think the Jalen Dern what is particularly delicate. And some of that's like the difference to me between a sara and a man. With a men Thompson, I feel a little more confident in him on ball. Sure. And just like, you know, clearly the pull-up stuff is not there yet, but it's him operating an offense makes sense to me in a way where there's kind of one variable we have to solve. With a sara and really with Jalen Duren, it's like, if you want to replace Jalen Duren, you need not only a big who can make a sara Thompson spatially make sense, but the pick and roll partner that you mentioned for Cade, the intersection of those two skills is like three guys. Like that is Cade, Wembee, Chad, maybe there's a mystery role player I'm forgetting. But like, and I always say like, you don't get to go all-star shopping at the all-star grocery store and like just pick out your perfect all-star like you just kind of have to make do sometimes. I do think that's the right priority though. Like to me, what the Thompson's do is more singular than what either Shengu or Duren do. And that's not to say those guys are fully replaceable for exactly the reasons and the timing that you outlined. But I would bet on their transformative effect on a defense and the very unique way that they seem to cover the entire floor at once or you can stick them on particular opponents. If you need to stop or like that feels more valuable to me than a Shengu driven offense that's going to be 14th in the league pretty consistently. What was your big question about the Rockets? I think just Cade's age and some of it is not just I think you're right. To focus on the ease and how much of that he's going to be able to handle. Like they do have a pretty good team, a lot of good players. But even then I could see their offense being similarly difficult. Like a little, a little, a little more downhill, not in the transition sense, but just in terms of their execution, but Cade has to manufacture a lot in the half. Well, I mean, he still does. I like, there's a lot of, there's going to be a lot of pressure on you, Meodoka and his staff because at some point your team gets good enough that your entire identity can't be play hard and rebound. Like you need to have some creativity and organizing principle to your offense, other than we're just going to our whole identity is we're just going to defend harder than you and then rebound harder than you and figure out how to manufacture points along the way. Because yeah, I'm trying to think of when the last time it was that we saw Kevin Durant as the best player on a playoff team that got out of the first round. And he hasn't finished the last two playoff friends that he's been on. I think we're talking about the 2021 Nets where that was the case. There might be one of the Phoenix teams that got rolled by Denver in the second round. But even that it felt a little bit more like a time share with Devon Booker as far as like the leadership of that offense. And so like I'm willing to see that if you would include 2023, but two years running of this guy's putting up some of the most ridiculous stats we've ever seen for a player. His age truly preposterous regular season efficiency. But if you can't play in the playoffs and if we're talking about a team that can really challenge the best teams in the West, we're talking about a duration of playoff intensity that we just haven't seen from Kevin Durant have to do it a long time. Well, this is my this is my argument about Kauai and the Raptors. It's like as you're going to get through three playoff series. Like it's it's cool to talk about the Raptors as a sneaky finals contender. You have to talk yourself into Kauai doing something. Kauai has not finished a second round playoff series since the bubble. It's seven years ago or whatever, whatever. So like, okay, I do think the rockets have we mentioned with the wolves like the idea that if I'm going to beat these two juggernauts that are set to be juggernauts for the next five years, I just got to have something special and weird about my team. Lamello and Ann being there. I think the rockets at least with like our we're going to beat the shit out of you and be really big on the board. That's like something like it's something that they bring that is like a rare thing for them like a stylist because I don't know who would be your pick. Who of these teams like who's going to have a better than a puncher's chance? No, but I mean, the answer is probably the answer is no, honestly, no one. If these if this person thunder or healthy. Yeah. In the east, you could convince me like 10 different teams have a chance to at least get to the Eastern conference finals in the west. It really does feel like those two barring injury. If not, I might lean Denver just on the sake of like I see the path to best player in the world number one offense. And maybe that's just enough to outclass some of these other teams. But the second tier of the west, I think it's taken a pretty clear step down. I think it's just kind of come out in the wash a little bit where there's plenty of good teams, but how many are really actual challenges those two I don't really see it. And I think that's a lot about Denver because Denver has the guy that has done it. Championship, they have the two-man game. And there was always, including by me, this notion that like you just can't count out the not hits as long as they have Yoke and the surrounding talent has just taken too much of a hit. I think that it's just it's just hard for me to see them and God forbid they run into the wolves of playoffs who just really have become their kryptonite in a way that is a little bit shocking. Honestly, I mean, Jada McDaniels just came out and talked all the shit right in their fit. You're all bad defenders. You're all terrible. And then backed it all up and the nuggets like by the end of the last two wolves nugget series, it's kind of felt like the nuggets just wanted the series to be a hundred percent. Nicole Yoke just ready to go home. And like that's what the best versions of the wolves have been doing to teams. The nuggets, especially, but like they were wearing these guys out and down. And I'm not sure the wolves are those wolves anymore, but Jada McDaniels is still certainly that guy. Oh, yeah. He's not backing out from anything. All right, the last team in this division, I know that you have been excited to talk about the coherent, not strange at all, totally well built, New Orleans Pelicans. And honestly, like, I kind of look at this team and like, why, why aren't they a little better or projected to be a little better than the talent that then they are by Vegas and by us? They have real players on the team. What is your big question for the weirdo New Orleans Pelicans? I guess the question is, do any of those talented pieces fit together in any way whatsoever and to zero in on it? I'm going to say, I'm going to, I'm going to frame this as a question rather than a statement. If Zion and Derek Queen cannot play together and every bit of evidence we have suggests that they cannot, like what gives, where is the give between those two pieces? Because Zion is still the best player on this team when he plays. Derek Queen to my eye is one of the most important players in terms of the future of this team. I don't see, I don't see an outcome to this year in which playing Derek Queen, 25ish minutes a game again feels acceptable. Like that's not what they should be gunning for. It's not what the direction of this team should be. I don't think it's what Jamal Mosley was brought in to do. And so like, I really don't know how to square these like two immovable objects or at least a movable truths within who the Pelicans are right now. Well, I mean, I think we know what the endgame would be, is that they would trade Zion eventually. What would they though? Or would they bail on Derek Queen and bury him? I don't think you can bail on Derek Queen based on the trade they made to get at him. I mean, we'll see how he plays this year. Like he started off last year as like, oh my god. First team all rookie, no brainer and fell off a little bit toward the end of the season, rookie wall, all that. To me, like when I think about, like I have all this lineup did written down here. And like the big, the big question is obvious. We had the same ones. Zion and Queen because that just dead on arrival defensively. Not only that, both of them kind of work best as they have the ball in their hands as fulcrums on offense and we saw last year that Zion, although he was still super efficient, shot well at the rim, got his points, got fewer points, ran fewer picking roles, screen less often, post it up less often, all the on ball stuff, less often. And was sort of in that, like, just hanging around the baseline a lot 12 feet from the rim, waiting for dump off passes. And yeah, he can catch and finish in the blink of an eye that works. But that's like not what he is meant to be in the NBA. And like it's really there. They were minus 10 per 100 possessions or minus 11 per 100 possessions with both of them on the floor. They actually outscored opponents when Zion play without Queen and they were a minus five per 100 possessions when Queen played without Zion. Yeah, I just don't know like there's a functional and like Dejante Murray coming back was a big deal for them. Pretty good. In the last year, there's like a functional team in here with like Murray, the wing combination of Herb Jones, if he can stay healthy and tray Murphy the third and like some big man combination that actually works, I don't know if that combination exists on the team. But there will be nights where Murray, Jones, Murphy, Zion, Queen puts up like they put, they start that group and it puts up like 130 points, they score a lot of points in a game. I just don't know where it's all going to lead with those two guys. And with Murray's nearing the end of his deal, they led the league and shots at the rim last year and they were 29th and feel go percentage at the rim. That's in a lot of that was their guards. I even looked at like if you had to think about what is the future of this team, like I would zero in on Jeremiah fears, Herb Jones, Traemer for the third who may not be part of the future. There's been trade rumblings constantly and Queen, like those four guys is an interesting quartet, minus 10 per 100 possessions last year. I just, it's a puzzle, it's a puzzle very much, particularly for a defense first guy. And a puzzle where I don't want to pretend that any of these pieces are even guaranteed in the shape that they take. Like we're talking about this Queen Zion thing and like I would lean into Derek Queen to figure out who he can be, but the operative phrase there is figure out. Like he may never be a starting caliber center that can hold up a really good, like even competent playoff defense that just might not be in his future. It might not be what he's meant to do. And at the same time, like I want to see if he, if he was given that opportunity to surround him with enough space and flexibility. And maybe it's just like a little less Zion, a little more. to Deek Bay, who was just reinvested in the spot like, oh, yeah, we should talk about that. I forgot about that. Yeah. Nice little bit of business for him. But it's like, if you put enough big wings around Derek Queen with some ball handling and, you know, Dejonte Murray, as you said, kind of help them, help them along there as far as just like a veteran hand as opposed to Jeremiah fears. Is that enough to get Derek Queen on a track to becoming a really good high level center for a long time? I would prefer to find that out as opposed to anything else, but it's, it's a really big open question. I brought in Mathur into like, I guess that there are a lot of like like Mathur and I think we'll come off the bench and you've been Mathur and things. And Bay was solid for them last year, coming off an ACL tear. I'm looking at the deal now, three years, like 54, I think 55, 17, 18.5, 20, you know, 10% of the cap, shot 37% on three's last year, is only 27 years old. I can talk myself into it. I wouldn't have done it. I don't think I just think he's a little bit anachronistic as a player like he wants to hold the ball and jab step and ISO and he's like, okay, at that. I just don't, I don't know how that scales to like a team that's actually trying to accomplish something. I think I would do it if I trusted the front office. It's the kind of thing where it's like he doesn't fit exactly what this team needs right now, but he's useful enough and he's, you could convince other front offices. I think that like, hey, you need another bigger, another big wing to plug in for some flexibility. This could be your guy. I just never trust the pelicans to do the right thing at the right time. And that's, that's a tough kind of road to beyond when you're trying to keep these sorts of players around and maybe overpaying slightly for them in the process. There's also not a lot of shooting on this team other than Trey Murphy. And Herb Jones shot 31% on three's last year like that has to go back to where it was looking like. It would trend. They're also like for a team that we're talking about their big men and their physicality and queen and Zion and Misi coming off the bench. They're not a good rebounding team on either end of the floor, but particularly defensively. Like Zion's rebounding, I mean, it's been a running joke. Barkley talks about all the time, Bill talks about all the time. It's so bad that I just don't understand how he can be this bad. He doesn't box out. He doesn't like really pay attention sometimes. It's just awful. All right, let's say quick break and we'll wrap it up with the Pacific division. All right. Pacific division time. We're going out West. We will start only because their sheet is on the top of my notes. The golden state warriors. I don't know, Rob. You can you go. I'm too sad. Yeah. I think sad is the good place to start because how does this rotation last 82 games? I'm looking at this group Jimmy Butler is out. He's out. Moses Moody is TBD, I guess we'll find out out presumably maybe to start camp maybe he'll use into it. I don't know. Seth played 43 games last season. Runner's knee. Chris steps were Zingas is always sideline by something. Anthony Melton always misses time. Gary paid and always misses time. Alhorford can and will suit up, but he needs five full days of rest in between those days. So who who is playing like Brandon Pajewski? We'll be out there running around. Yaxel and Dubork. Certainly. Exciting. I'm excited for yaxel. We're just going to do lots of stuff, gearing around. I'm hoping and praying for my guy Malafa Leon's to get like continued opportunity, but I love the pronunciation. I mean, absolutely nailed that. Well, it's just. Here's the thing. If that's where we are, it's not good. And I, I don't think that this will Richard will Richard doesn't excite you. I like will Richard. Fine. But it's like this particular offseason wasn't an outright disaster, but the four year track that got us here in which this is maybe Steph's last best chance to really compete for something with this vision of the team. This is so sad. This is such a sad group of players to roll out in these circumstances. Yeah. I mean, look, they haven't found in fairness to them when Butler was healthy. Yeah. It looked like they had actually been patient and found the right formula. Yep. Obviously, they didn't get Paul. But many of guys they didn't get is very long, and I'm not sure any of those things. I've gone down to list a million times, like how many of them were actually realistic, how many were available to them. Like I don't think Markin and was ever really available to them. I don't think the Paul George thing and who knows how that would have worked out. The idea that well, if they had traded for Jalen Brown, maybe they could have got the Brown. Like I don't think I don't necessarily think those were realistic options for them. I go back to, I mean, I've done this before, but I go back to like, when the Raptors were moving Siac coming in and OB, I think that, and they were looking at both. And I think, like, in an OB, especially, I think that was a moment where maybe those two guys weren't the caliber of guys they really wanted like, we're holding out for Yonus, we're holding out for Yonus, we're holding our cap space for Yokech, whatever it is, like I don't think Yokech is leaving, but we'll see. You don't always get that guy and you got to get somebody. But look, I mean, here's the bottom line. They were plus three per hundred possessions with Steph on the floor. Their offense completely fell off without them. And with Butler and Steph on the bench, they were minus seven per one hundred possessions. And there's going to be a lot of no Steph, no Butler minutes because there is no Butler at least to start the season. And Jimmy, he was so perfect for them because everything that they don't do well, he does well. So they're a high turnover team. He's a very low turnover player. They don't get through the line a lot. He gets to the line a ton like he sort of stabilized a lot of their weak spots on both ends of the floor. And ways that are like almost hard to notice, and that's the greatness of Jimmy Butler. He sort of does all these, he's great in these like little corners of the game, where you don't necessarily notice him. And so he's gone for a while and I don't have a ton of hope for the team. My big question was actually like, does Porzingis have one like 60 game magical season in him? Because that to me is the only road map to like this team really exceeds expectations is they get a porzingis season that hasn't really existed in a while. Because he opened his, he's a high volume shooter. Horford is a medium volume shooter, but he's 40 or whatever he is. KP would actually change like the alignment of their team. If he could play 28 minutes of games 60 times, I just don't think that will happen. Yeah. The fact that 60 games is the magical outcome. Well, let's, I mean, let's look up. I think you're right to point it out. It's just, it's brutal. One of these, it's like the guys who play 80 games or 75 games or just like God, like God bless, like it's just like nobody does it any no. Porzingis played 32 games last year, 42 the year before 57 year before 65 for the wizards. I mean, the wizards, they got a great KP or they got a great, they got a great porzingis season. Just cash it in. Joe House is still talking about it to this day. How much do you love porzingis and Russell Westbrook? Yeah, I don't have a lot of big questions to the words. I'm not terribly optimistic about their team. The Phoenix Suns surprise team last year made the playoffs seven seed. Mark Williams injury. I haven't talked about that yet. That's a bummer. They have some depth at center with, with Mala watch at IGDARO. Well, those guys now have to play a lot after I didn't love Mark Williams season last year on either end of the floor. But, you know, for 18 minutes of game at what they were paying him, he would be helpful. Made a pretty risky trade for Miles Bridges in terms of the unprotected 2033 pick that they sent out along with depth pieces. And in terms of Miles Bridges, frankly, and in terms of Miles Bridges, jail and green will presumably have a healthier season. I'll let you go. What was your big question about the Suns? I'm just wondering as we're trying to figure out the middle of the West, is there more to this team than effort? Like, I think they really wrung a lot out of what they had last season. That's an incredible credit to the personnel to the players themselves. To Jordan Otto. I thought that a great job maximizing everything they possibly could. But when you overachieve like that, now you have to go out and replicate it. You have to validate it. You have to improve upon it. And I just don't see the pieces to do that at the same time when your greatest strength is playing super hard all throughout the regular season and outworking and outgrinding teams. And you start chipping away at the framework of the team you had. It's a little thing, but jail and green was 10th on the team in total minutes last season. For everything he brings to them as a creator and as a talent is not exactly a grinder in the identity of last season's Phoenix Suns. Miles Bridges less attentive on defense than the guys they're rolling out last year. Certainly than Dylan Brooks kind of like maxing into that role. Getting Royce O'Neal and Grayson Allen for I guess Luke Canard is going to fill some of that role in some of those minutes is a huge defensive downgrade. And it's like, you can chip away at this stuff. But eventually you're just going to chip a hard chip away at like what made your team stand out in the first place. I kind of wonder if we're due for a regression from the Suns in a couple of different ways, but especially that one. I do still think they have some interesting depth despite trading to good players for one in the Royce O'Neal Grayson Allen. Miles Bridges think they need to pick up Canard. I like Goodwin. I think Fleming is ready for real minutes. That'd be good. Ryan Dunn will see. Maybe I don't like their depth. But Ryan Dunn's kind of disappeared a little bit after being kind of a hot rookie for a bit. Yeah. My big questions were number one. Are we sure starting Jalen Green is a good idea? No. We're not. Okay. That question is ants. Well, but they're going to start them. I mean, they're starting five is going to be Green Booker Dylan Brooks Bridges and Mark Williams. He certainly has the pedigree and the contract with a player option next season for 36 million. I just wonder how quickly we're going to arrive at the place for them. like we kind of should start congalispeak instead of Jalen green. This is one of those like it's congalispeak a better player than Jalen green is such a thorny conversation. I don't know that I'm even willing to make that argument, but he fits with the sun's needs so much more. And he makes Devon Booker's life easier in the key ways that this team needs to make Devon Booker's life easier. And I just I just frankly don't ever want the ball in Jalen Green's hands as much as it's about to be in his hands. It just makes me really uncomfortable. Look, I am long on record as being by my own admission to enticed by Jalen green's athleticism and burst. I like as long as Jalen green is shooting and I'm looking at his numbers now 42% overall. And last year 31% on threes career 33.9% on threes and averaging two or three assists. Congalispe for what the sun's need is probably better than that version of Jalen green. Like at some point, if your whole game is have the ball a lot and shoot a lot, you just have to make more shots than you're making. Otherwise, you're just not helping the team that much. Yeah, and the other one was can you know, you mentioned like can they replicate their defense from last year? And just like the rim numbers for them 28th and shots at the rim 27th and defensive rebounding like they're not as tough as they were defensively. There's not a lot of rim presence on either end of the floor. And I'm not sure how like model watch would help that is you really ready to play 20 minutes of game 25 minutes of game 18 minutes. I don't know. I like the flashes I've seen of him for sure. I think I think I think he's going to be good for sure. And it is worth a consistent look whether Mark Williams is healthy or not. And I really like also a Dara, but he's so much more of a switch defender than he is a traditional rim protector. And so you're you're just making trade-offs across the board because you don't have that kind of interior backbone. Three teams to go, the Clippers will go now to get the Clippers out of the way. I don't like look. Do you have a question for the Clippers? I guess. Is there any hope here? And I say that in particular, I guess about the Darius Garland Keaton-Wagler pairing. Like this is a fan base that just need some reason to show up to watch the games to be interested in the fate of this team. Is this a back court of the future in any sense of that phrase? And I think there's a reason to think that they could be, but I'm almost less interested in, is that like, are they going to be capable enough defensively to hold up for who they need to be? I just like, can they be fun? Can those two be appearing that I want to turn on on the league pass? I think those two can for sure. That like that might be for as low as the bar as the season. And it isn't hell. Like it is all the way down after where things have been. There just needs to be a reason to have some energy around the Clippers. And if they can provide it, that would be such a welcome boost at this point. So my only question is like, what do you want to be about as a team? Because other than fraud. Other than fraud. I mean, maybe just, I don't know. Like, by that, I mean, are you, what do you want to try to do? Are you, are you going to try to make the play internament? As like, we're going to band together and like, through adversity, like, we have Brandon Ingram. He's a floor raser, Darius Garland. You know, we have these vets like Hachemura and Struse and Derek Jones Jr. and Chris Dunne and we get to have a tough defensive identity. I'd like, would they even start Wogler right now as, if it's a good question. I don't, like, if they're trying to win, I don't think so. I think they probably start something like Garland, Dunn, Ingram, Derek Jones or Hachemura and Brooke Lopez or something like that. But to me, like, if I'm, and I don't know what the right, they don't control their pick. So that's Oklahoma City gets to swap with them yet again somehow. But like, my goal would be, I just want to see what these young guys are. And I would, would you, would you flip all your expirings to recoup picks? Would you flip all your expirings to take on bad money, but bad money that's attached to like a good player whose team doesn't want them just because like, what else are we going to do? We like, we'll take on player X's $60 million contract. He's still pretty good. $55 million contract. Maybe you can do both at once. Maybe you get a player and picks. But like, I, what are you trying to be? Because if you're trying to be like, we're going to scrounge out 36 wins and get the 10th seed and be a play internament, it's just going to be a lot of these like vets like Derek Jones Jr. and Hachemura and Struse and, and Chris Dunne just getting steals and being a pain in the ass. If you're trying to see what Niederhauser is when he comes back healthy, and I really like him. And what Wogler is and just sort of what we have here, then you reorient your team a different way. Weirdly enough, I feel like what you described as far as like, who is the distressed vet you want to take a chance on or like where the picks are on the board that you might be able to scrounge together. It's kind of like a third rung for an office person's dream. It's like the guy in the pitch meeting who's been trying to sell everyone on the random distressed star that he loves inexplicably. This is your time. Like, if you're not taking huge semi-rational bets now, when are you going to do? I just don't know who the player is. Like, I had someone this week pitch me on like Anthony Davis to the Clippers just as just like, why not? Sure. They'll pay him. I don't know if they would, but like just why not? What else are we going to do? I'd like one of the we'll get to the Kings in a second. The Kings have many candidates or at least two for such a trade, but yeah, I just I want to see Neeter Howes or I want to see Wogler and I want to see how they pivot to a reality where their draft pickpore, extremely draft pickpore without a lot of avenues. We're going to save the Lakers for last because they're the Lakers. They deserve the anchor. Like the Sacramento Kings, your question cannot just be why, how did we get here? Why is this why just why? Yes. You actually have to have a real question about the 2026, 2027 Sacramento Kings coming off a year where they ranked 26th in offense, 28th on defense, 30th and three is taken. 29th in shots at the rim, hard to be dead last of borderline in most of those. Impressive. Allow the second most shots at the rim. So just like the complete inverse of their own horrible options. And the only team that I can remember that had a coaching blunder so bad that they were accused of tanking and their explanation was, no, we're just actually so incompetent that we made a horrible mistake in fouling Steph Curry on purpose. Was it Seth couriers? There was a egg curry with Seth Curry on purpose. But our defense is our incompetence. Is just that maybe that should be their slogan. I don't know. Is the worst part that their defense was the incompetence or that after they made it, everyone was like, oh, yeah, you're right. Yeah, everyone just accepted and we're just like we're Doug Christie. Come on down for another year. Let's see what happens. What are you, you know, obviously a cuff is the headliner and then you have the disgruntled vets in Levy and in subonus whose disgruntlement really frankly doesn't ruin me very much right now. But like what is what if anything are you interested in? So, I think we know at this point that there is not really a market for demonus subonus. He's been dangled out there for long enough. They have tried and failed to entice anyone to take a chance on him for anything of value. I think we might just need to drop the anything of value clause. And it's like, dude, do you need to make a subonus trade just for the sake of it, even accepting you're not getting really anything important back? And I say that because like if things have been so dour that if you don't do this at some point over the next two years, we're just in a consistent holding pattern paying to monosubonus $100 million over the course of that time. Like I just have a hard, I have a hard time imagining how the kings move on in any sense. Even at Derri's a cuff comes in and sets the world on fire. Even if he looks so good, the ceiling has been set in stone and the floor has been so disastrous. I just kind of want to, if I were the kings or a king's fan, I think the change for the sake of change, something I don't usually advocate for might just be compelling enough to do. You know, it reminds me of Bill Yastrey asked me a question that I frankly hadn't thought about and I wonder as a former Dallas person, you've thought about, which was why exactly did the Mavericks trade, Anthony Davis, like considering the return they got for him was like, I think they got what ended up being the 30th pick in the draft, which just got which got moved to Phoenix, even co-op Pete. And another crappy first round pick that's like top 20 protected or something like that. And like just some flots on players most of them are not even out of team anymore. And it's an interesting question like, why? And at the time it was like, oh, they got a couple assets, they were building the cover, you know, they're not great assets, but every first is an asset. And it's like this Anthony Davis thing wasn't working. It's time to turn the page. And youth you saying, should they just trade subonus to do it basically reminded me of like I actually hadn't interrogated that question of like, did they have to do that? Like, why did the Mavericks do that? Like, but they've just held on to him and traded him for more later, traded him somewhere else. I don't so, but that's the kind of deal you're I do think subonus will have. I think there will be I went through a bunch of potential subonus teams cross most of them off for various reasons, but I do like he's a good player. And I think he'll have a market just not a great one at some point among all the teams I mentioned last week. My question was just what what do we have here in Clifford, Keegan Murray, Maxine Renau, and who am I for an a cuff? I think a cuff we know what's going to happen. He's going to get the keys to the offense. It's probably going to be pretty inefficient as most rookie guards. when they're given the keys to the offense on a bad team. Yeah. But he's going to be like enticing and make a lot of mid-range jumpers and have a lot of slithery finishes. You're like, all right, I get what this is. I get what, like, I don't know what the ceiling of this is, but I get what it is. The Clifford and Keegan Murray, who they paid a lot of money to, Miss Most of Last Season, has kind of regressed since his rookie year when the Keegan Murray, what a time, by the way. Like the beam, they're inventing fun chance for individual players. They have Darren Foxx, yeah, they traded Halibur and find. Now they have just nothing. Did he set the record for like most threes ever by a rookie or something? A Keegan Murray, he's had his moments. I guess Con broke it last year, for sure. But Clifford, Keegan Murray, Reno, is there a future starter on a good team in that group somewhere? I think that's the question I want answered if I'm the Kings. I think Keegan Murray has been a starter on a good team in the past, true, he just has to rediscover what that was. And like, is there anything more there on the ball? Is there anything else in there on the ball? Reno, it's all about defense, right? And like, can he hold up defensively? And Nick Clifford is quite a clever player. I like him a lot, but that's that's my pick. If those were the candidates, I would bet dollars to donuts. Nick Clifford will be on like, if not a championship team, like a finals team at some point. Like, I don't know if it's as a starter or like a critical bench player. I just love the way he navigates the floor. Like, he's so smart in the angles, clearly like a very capable, very versatile defender. I just think he's going to have like comparing anyone to Andre Aguidala's way too strong, but like that kind of trajectory as like a connector on offense that's going to work out for him. I like him a lot too. I thought the last couple of months in the year where they really let him play. That was the other thing is like, what are you, what are we clinging to with some of the minutes distribution? Oh, no, like Devon Carter. No, Devon Carter has been waived by a couple of teams since then, but like Lottery picked for them and decided like, we just don't just not gonna play him at all. I like, I think I like Nick Clifford the best, but like those, those three, I'm interested in and just, I like to hear projecting Nick Clifford on a championship team. Someday like a role, like a real player on a championship team and my brain is immediately going to like, let's, let's try to game out how the Kings fuck it up so that that team is not the Kings. Like, well, it's not the Kings. Like, what would be very clear? What bad trade do they make where like, some smart team poaches Nick Clifford and he becomes the fifth starter on a great team and the Kings get like a second round pick and some, and like a Zach Levine type of salary that Vivek just can't resist. It's only a matter of time. Zach Levine, most more depressing current situation than Demontus Abonus, like, I just don't really, we're gonna look back at Zach Levine's career. Like, you look at his shooting percentages and it's like in 20 years someone's gonna log on to basketball reference and be like, oh my god, look at this guy. 21 a game for his career in his best seasons, 25, 27, two time all star, 47% career shooting percentage, 39% on threes, 52% on twos, they're gonna be like, he must have been a transformative offensive player and it just never leads anywhere. And some of that is on the teams that he's been on and the surrounding circumstances. Some of that is the nature of his game, but I don't remember a player, like usually the quote unquote, empty calories players are inefficient. They shoot a lot and they shoot inefficiently. Shout out to Camp Thomas who deleted his tweet, calling me out, but I checked Twitter. I don't know why someone pinged me about Camp Thomas, like, hey, dude, like, and I don't know how I still need to him. I just, I checked his Twitter. It's like, oh, he took it down. - Wow. - Like, he, Zach Levine is like, objectively efficient as a shooter. - He's nails. - And I guess it's like the passing defense reads on both ends of the floor kind of thing, but it's a very, I would like to go back and look as like, is there ever been a guy who's dissufficient on this volume and yet it feels a little hollow? Like, he's a really efficient scorer. It just doesn't lead anywhere. - I think he's one of these players who like, if someone had just sent him to a meditation retreat earlier in his career, maybe all this would have been so different. - So many thoughts bouncing around Zach Levine's head when he has the ball in his hands. And if he had just been channeled into like a clay Thompson off ball path, what things we could have accomplished? Like, we would have flying cars by now. If Zach Levine had put like a Nikola Yokech type early in his career. - Well, I mean, it's, I mean, like, I can tell you, I don't know about the current front office of Ben Tenser and John Wallace, but Denver was always a team that had half an eye on Zach Levine if he became available because exactly that, like, what if we just took the ball out of your hands? - Completely. - They just cut baseline for dunks and shot open threes. And like, we'll have to figure out the defense with you and Yokech, but like, they were always enticed by him for that reason. - He's a classic like, amazing and 2K kind of player in the same way that like JR Smith was. It's like, if you just can take control of what Zach Levine does and disregard the fact that it's like offensive and defensive awareness are 15 out of 100, then you can do some amazing things. It's just, how do you do that functionally within an offense? The Kings have not cracked that code. No team to this point has cracked that code. - You got to love basketball reference for the Thornos. First of all, they don't have any listed nicknames for Zach Levine. Oh, no, no, no, they do. Sorry. I'm wondering if you remember any of these flight eight? - That's not real. - How about Young Hollywood? I have not heard one person call Zach Levine Young. - Can I, can I be from LA or California and anyone? Is this like a key deal where I can be a basketball reference editor and just make up nicknames? They're also, but I was thinking of the Thornos, it shows his honors in each season, Hall Star, All Star. Sixth man of the year, 14th place in 2016. - Incredible. - I'm not sure we need to track people who finish outside the top 10 and six man of the year, basketball reference, but Young Hollywood was out there ballin off the bench for the 2016. - Timberwaves, okay, last, but certainly not least, the Los Angeles Lakers remade in the image of Luca Doncic, a complete makeover. Walker Kessler is the star of the show in terms of the makeover, two first round picks in a boatload of money. They now have this five out offense or four out and a roller offense around Luca, similar to how he's thriving his career. The Lakers Optimus will tell you, we were plus eight for under possessions with Doncic and Reeves and Noah LeBron on the floor. We were a terrible rim defense team that was our biggest weakness. We were a terrible offensive rebounding team. Walker Kessler solves a lot of those things and is Taylor made for Luca. We don't really know who the fifth starter is gonna be. Mamu might be the clubhouse favorite by default. Could be Laravia. I would like it not to be a Jared Vanderbilt, if possible, I don't think it will be. What's your biggest question about the Lakers? So in light of that fifth spot, and I think they're larger line up questions in general. So this is a Luca team now. Does that mean they're going to focus more on trying to amplify Luca's strengths or trying to cover for his weaknesses? 'Cause Walker Kessler's clearly a bit of a gesture in both directions, right? It's like they're betting the Walker Kessler can be a great role partner for Luca, but also the great rim protector that he needs behind him. But what you're doing is in between spots, is this gonna be more of a Quentin Grimes team or a Matisse Thibal team? What are they wanting from these wing positions and other guard positions? I've never mentioned Thibal. I felt that that acquisition went under the radar and I felt that his, because he missed so much time when he finally came back for the Blazers last year, it was like, "Oh wow." Yeah. Matisse Thibal is messing your shit up on defense again and making enough shots too. Oh, I think that making enough shots is the part that went very quietly under the radar, understandably, given how in and out of the lineup he was. But if he can shoot, and the recent evidence suggests that he can, he is a difference-making defender. And now, if he is a great defender for them, that invites, that would change their team. It would, but it invites its own Detroit problem because can you play Matisse Thibal and Walker Kessler together without other, like, I guess that four spot have to be a very good shooter if Mom moves up to that task. I don't think Sarah Williams is up to it. Can we just go, they're up to miss you about him too. Can we just go small and play Thibal at the four? I think you could. The difference is, I mean, I'm looking at his number. Look, he doesn't shoot with volume and he's not going to be guarded, no matter what the results are. I get that. 2023, 38%. 2024, 35%. The last two years combined, about 42%, but only in 45 games. Like, those are pretty decent percentage numbers. And he's unlike the Thompson's, he's not even near the caliber of the Thompson's, but you brought up the comparison. He's not, he's at least not going to be in the paint. He's going to be standing away from the paint. He's an interesting player. Yeah, I don't, I mean, I don't know the answers to these questions. And it's a lot on Walker Kessler. My big question was, for a team that should be a very good offensive team and will be, I think these teams are going to be a really good offensive team because Lucas is just that good. If you say, I need you, you do have to have like, can Luca, I was reading Michael penis column, power ranking teams yesterday, and he had the Lakers pretty high. And he had a line like, you know, Lucas perfectly set up to win his first MVP. And I'm like, I feel like I've read that line in this column and every version of it at every website for the last five years. And he just rarely gets to 65 games. But I mean, I look at the team. I was surprised to note 22nd and 3s, 21st and shots at the rim. That's just got to be better. And they shot the shit out of the balls so they had an elite offense anyway. But it feels like the whole point of having Luca. and Reeves and a rolling big man is to have a better shot diet than that. Yes, but did they have a rolling big man who was who was not Jackson Hayes, which respectfully know. And I think, I think Kessler, I think two things can be true. I think they really, I think they overpaid and or paid complete full freight for Walker Kessler in terms of it's not the, but people are like, well, the money it ranks. He's the ninth high spade center. It's the money and the picture out of picks. That's it. You gave up everything. I also think he's going to fit really well, because you look at the weak spots on their team, 24th and offensive rebounding, he is going to, like he might be top three in offensive rebounding. And to JJ Redick's credit, the guy has schemed around bad defenders really effectively and coaxed good effort out of most of his team defensively. They were, now they were 20th in defense last year, but they were 16, they, they're, they allow a decent shot diet. They were 29th in field goal percentage allowed at the rim, like Walker Kessler has to be better than that. Yeah. And it will be better than that. The question is, this is also the team that switched more than any team in the league. And although Kessler has to think more capable of that and the jazz dip their toes into letting him try that now and then, I don't think that's the way that they want to play with him. So I'm interested to see sort of how they scheme defensively with him. Do they drop, do their guards get over screens well enough? Do they try to experiment with the Wembee thing of like, maybe we'll just have him guard no one and play a zone on the baseline? Is he good enough and quick enough to the rim to play that way? I'm just the defense question is interesting to me. I think Redick's part of that is, is pretty critical because I would say there's like a four to six week stretch of both of his seasons with the Lakers where it's like, they look real on defense. Despite their personnel, despite their injuries, like they won't put it together for a concentrated period of time. And then they kind of run out of gas because of how much they're having to fly around to make that possible. You're right. I do look forward to the inevitable like December stretch where the Lakers have the number three defense for 20 games. It will have everyone. Everyone is like, look at everyone was down in the defense. It's here. It's like, remember the net's had the number one defense in the league in December last year. And I was like, no, it turns out the nets are still bad, like still bad. But that's the Walker Kessler question is like, if you have that capacity as a coaching staff and with some of this group to be active and engaged and flying around, whether it's switching or playing aggressively, and you have one of the better young rim protectors in the league, can that stabilize you enough to get through 82 and not have the massive drop drop offs that the Lakers have had over the last couple of years? And if they can address even just some of that dip, I think they're going to turn out to be a pretty decent defensive team. I just know that I'm betting on that personally. And some of that is Walker Kessler's ability to stay healthy too. I liked this team. Yeah, it should be noted, any pushback about the idea that they overpaid for Walker Kessler and Lakers fans will aggressively push back on that. That pushback should at least note, he played five games last year, dismissed the ton of games and is played zero meaningful NBA games in his entire career, having played for a team that was trying to lose. And when they would win too much at the beginning of every season, they would just pull the plug completely and drive little hearty to the brink of insanity. But I do. I like this team. I think this is going to be a really good team. I'm like sexting off the bench. I like the way they're built. The Luca Reeves combo is like a real powerhouse combo offensively. You obviously stagger them. Still ones on the floor. I think this team's going to be really good. I guess we get to the end of this. And San Antonio, Oklahoma City just feels so inevitable. And that's why I keep coming back to like, if I had to bet on one team to like, oh my god, it's too to game five in San Antonio like this team actually, like it's best of three. Who would that team be? The NBA just keeps telling us that whatever feels inevitable, since the Warriors and the Cavs were truly inevitable to meet in the finals every year, whatever feels inevitable is no longer as inevitable as you think it is. Something will happen. Somebody will get injured on one of the top teams happen. Lysha to Joe and Williams. Absolutely. These other teams will pop in a way that is totally unexpected. The seedings, excuse me, like maybe there's a world in which they're not the number one and two seeds. And so you don't have to play both of them to get out of the what I have. This is the first time in a while where I actually have a hard time envisioning anything other than the inevitable of those two teams. Like all of these teams are good teams, really good teams that just I don't know how you beat those teams four times in seven games if they're healthy. I think some of it is the specific kind of strategic needling you would need to do is like, the spurs proved to be such a great counter for the Thunder that that more than anything is the reason like Jada's injury is a huge part of it, but like their matchup flexing is what made that upset, quote unquote, if you want to call it that possible. Because the Thunder, I mean, we're having those conversations a month, two months, three months into the season about what their title probability was and it was Thunder versus the field. Yeah. The midline of debate. And so who who has or who can manufacture that kind of strategic edge against either of these opponents? Like maybe that that is the case for the right. I'll tell you what Houston has that the other teams don't are is trade assets. And that maybe is another reason why they might be my pick for the, but I just don't know like upheaval trades in the middle of the season typically don't need to you winning the championship. So a lot of recalibration that needs to happen in the off season, but you know, Minnesota is out of trade assets. The Lakers are mostly out of trade assets. Yeah. Denver is mostly out of trade assets. Although they, you know, we'll see what they do with that pick they got from Cleveland. Sure. I just think, you know, you have to use salary in those trades and I'm not sure there are a lot of their salaries that are tradable have plus value at this point. All right. Rob Mahoney. What do we got coming up from you this week? We're doing we're doing slow horses on prestige TV. Yeah. I'm so jealous of that. I mean, it's what a time to be alive. The show is really back in stride and so are we. And then we got a little group chat break right now, but we are about to come like hard with preseason power ring. I mean, I got all my notes around my all my notes. I got rotations lined out for every team hand them over. You know, I'm jealous of slow horses because I, you know, my wife was away with her family all last week. And so I indulged in my stuff, she'll never watch library. And I just like, I don't have enough time to do a show. Like I can't, there's not enough days of that to fit in a show. So I did a couple movies and said, but slow horses seems like a show I would absolutely love. I think you would love it. And I actually think she might be, it might be in her zone too. It's too violent. I watched season one. I watched season one and loved it. And I was like, yeah, she could watch it. On the other hand, the whole thing is about a kidnapping where they're going to be head this guy. Yeah. There are kidnappings. There are bomb threats. There are occasional like, you know, terrorist attacks and things like that. But when you consider that it's like British secret service services that like, they don't carry guns, you know, it's a lot of a guy going around there. It's like hitting people with fire extinguishers, you know, it's, there's creative problem solving beyond it. I think it might, I think it might be possible. But if the tolerance is that low, it's that low. You know, it's coming back up, by the way, in three days. I don't know if this, I don't, I think this, I think the prestige TV podcast to snobby for this show. Okay. I don't think it'll meet your bar. Great British Bake Off is coming back. Oh, I thought that. We used to cover it extensively here at the ringer, a podcast, I think it's called Everything Is Cake. They also covered the Great British Breaking Show. Too good for this world. Unfortunately. Maybe we should do a reboot and maybe we should do a segment every week. The problem is I have to be on it. Like I have to watch it in real time every week and not like, oh, we're five episodes behind. You can't do a podcast that way. You got to do it every time. But look, anytime Paul Hollywood's shiny blue eyes are back in my life, I'm excited about it. The season. Pro is out. I'm going to have to figure out if I like the new woman. I don't know who she is. I've been told that it's appalling that I don't know who she is. But I don't, I assume Noel and Allison are back. I believe so. But look, Paul is, I've long argued the only irreplaceable part of the Great British Bake Off is Paul. He's the Simon Cowell of the operation. You can't have the show without him. Yeah. I think you're right. What I'm hearing is we need to start a Bake Off fantasy league here at the ringer. Well, oh, what an idea. We need to start picking some favorites. We need to start. You know, I know what would happen is I would pick, I would pick, there's always the one person in the show, almost always a guy who week one is like, Oh, you were really, how did you get on the show, man? You're like, not ready for this. I'm not ready for this. And it's like, okay, I'll go home. One guy quit last season. It's just quit mid episode. That was wild. Like I too much pressure. I can't take the tent. We've actually talked about a neighborhood, Great British Bake Off, like where we all do a technical challenge and a couple of the adults you'll make a puzzle or whatever. And it would be obviously a disaster. Those, those, what do they, the show stopper? Yes. I realize that they're all very experienced bakers. I am not. If you, if I just went in cold and had to do a show stopper, they're like, you have to build a cake with four layers and a spinning mobile element and it has to evoke your childhood and it has to have 19 colors and four different sponges and all this. You have four hours. You could give me four years and I would not be able to do what they do for you. You could be, you have literally four years after a year or three, I think I just give up. The pressure cooker alone. I mean, these are elite athletes at the top of their game. You know, they're being brought up from the minor leagues of, you know, mostly home cooks and whatnot. But I think if anyone like us attempted it, we would be the James A. Caster like started it. Had a nervous breakdown. Bonapetit. If there's something here, I think we should go, the met season is about to be over. So met's corner will be over until they either have a lock out or fuck up the off season like they always do. By the way, congrats, Peter Lonzo, 40 home runs. Again, we could have used all 40 of them. It's a great, great season. Guess we just decided having good players on our team is a bad idea for the meds. I don't know it's a revolutionary strategy. Not have good players, have fewer of them. But maybe we need a bake off corner. All right, Rob Mahoney, thank you, sir. See you next time. - Thanks, Zach. - All right, that's it for today's Zach Glowshow. Rob Mahoney, thank you. He's already gone. He already left to do something else. Thanks to Mike, Billy, and Jonathan, as always, I'm production and thanks to you all for listening to and/or watching the Zach Glowshow. We'll see you again later this week, probably on Thursday. Thanks for tuning in. - 21 are over in president select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas, Starkesino, or 18 and over in president D.C. or Wyoming, gambling problem. Call 1-800-Gamber, or 1-800-MY-RESET. Call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat in Connecticut. Or is it mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland? Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-505-0 for 24/7's important Massachusetts or call 1-877-8-HOPE-NY or TEXT-HOPE-NY in New York. For Louisiana, call 1-877-770-7867.