Part 2: The 10 Players Facing the Most Pressure Next Season

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Call 1-800-526-7736 to learn more or visit TramphyaRadio.com this episode is brought to you by State Farm. Every football fan is different. Some won't wash their lucky jersey. Some insist they can't sit during third downs. Some are just here for the snacks. And you can say the same about life. We're all different. That's why State Farm gets to know your insurance needs so they can help you personalize your insurance. Create a personal price plan to help fit your life and budget today. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Coming up on the Zach Lowe Show, it's part two of the pressure rankings with Kurt Goldsberry, where we go through our 10 players facing the most pressure going into the 26-27 NBA season. We recorded this originally on July 30th with the idea of just sort of dropping it into the feed while I'm on vacation. Hopefully nothing huge has happened in the NBA to sort of make this list a little bit less relevant or orderly than it was when we first started this season. We're going to talk a little bit about the pressure rankings with Kurt Goldsberry, where we go through our 10 players facing the most pressure in the NBA this season. Time will tell. I have no idea. But this is part two where we get into our top five players facing the most pressure in the NBA this season. We talk Wizards. We talk Spurs. We talk a lot of Thunder. We talk Cavs. And we talk Sixers, among other things. Celtics come up. Just the players. This is this is the real deal. These are the players facing the absolute most pressure in our opinion. It's a fun little gimmick for a fun offseason. And we hit a lot of guys and and a lot of deep analysis on like, what exactly are the Sixers? Do we think they can make the finals? Is Giannis even on the list as an honorable mention person? If not, what does that say about him? What does it say about the Heat? Do we have multiple Thunder players in our respective top fives? We might. Is Wemba Nyama here? Jason Tatum left over the guy now in Boston again, undisputably with Jalen Brown gone. Who's higher on our rankings, Jalen Brown or Jason Tatum? All that is coming up on part two of the Zach Lowe show with Kurt Goldsberry. Hope you enjoy it. Welcome to part two of the Zach Lowe show with Zach Lowe on vacation somewhere in Europe. Kurt Goldsberry is here. It's July 30th. We are doing the NBA player pressure rankings. The 10 players, each of us pick 10. Facing the most pressure in the NBA this upcoming season. We are going in reverse order from 10 to one. We did roughly the first half in part one of this podcast and then ended with an Indiana Pacers preview and actually want to start there, Mr. Goldsberry, because our, our Tyrese Halliburton discussion got me thinking, are you ready to talk a little bit more Pacers? Oh, definitely. Let's go. You said in part one, Tyrese Halliburton could be a first team, all NBA player. Why wouldn't it? And I bet that blew some people's hair back a little bit. And I completely agree with you. Now I, I would maybe not expect it in a season where he's going to be working his way back from injury, but it brought to mind to me. I don't know if you got to listen to Bill do the 2020 redraft with Joe house and Kyle man a couple of weeks ago. That's Tyrese Halliburton's draft. And that's his draft. He went, I believe, what'd he go 12th in that draft to the Kings. Not sure whatever happened with him in Sacramento. It seems like that should have worked. Um, and Anthony Edwards went number one in the redraft. The number one pick is either Anthony Edwards or Tyrese Halliburton and bill and house just sort of like no brainer. It's Anthony Edwards. Yeah. And Kyle man was the only one of the three who was like, I don't know, like what that dude Halliburton does on offense is so next level special. And it does show off, show up in some of the advanced stats about him that I think it's closer. He's said, I think it's closer than you guys do. And look, and it's got the size, the physicality, the ability to bully his way to the rim. All that makes him a better defensive player than Halliburton is a little bit of, but he's people are going to pick on him. And he was largely up to it, frankly, in the playoff run. I think what he is on offense is so special that that's even right now, having seen Anthony Edwards put up 30 in the playoffs regularly, I think it's a close debate. And I wonder where you would fall. Like, are you closer to Kyle man or close? Closer to bill in house. I'm closer to Kyle man. And I love all those guys, but I would say like you mentioned the 2020 draft going back that way, like going back that far, the nerds in practice facilities around the league were flagging. This guy is number one, number two, and number three in the draft model. Um, his stats projected so well now that was the hardest draft of our lifetime because people weren't getting to interview. There was a short in college basketball. So it was a disaster. So nobody's getting roasted for their picks in 2020. In my opinion. Um, but I think there were signs that Halliburton was a special player going back before his time in the NBA. If you look at the game analytically, and then what I'd say is like, this dude still has the ceiling of Steve Nash, one of the best offensive players of the modern era. Uh, and I think that ceiling is still, he's what he's 26 right now, Zach. And his, his, his rise has been interrupted by this devastating injury, but I still think at his peak, he could have, you know, he could have, you know, he could have, you know, he could be this generation's Nash, just a guy who, if you have them, your offense is gonna cook. Uh, and that's really special, but it's not as, as cool as it is to watch with Ant-Man. It's not as devastating on the highlights. Um, but it's really smart. He creates shots as well as anybody in this league. He's averaged over 10 assists, two of the last three years, uh, when he's been healthy. And I expect that to just continue to get better. Um, and by the way, he's won three games in the NBA finals is the best player on his team. How many how many players from his draft class can say that he's just, uh, he's a better shooter than Anthony Edwards and his combination of just infinite range off the dribble and off the catch unpredictability and speed, like his willingness to get off the ball, move and get it back. You never know where he is or what he's going to do, but his teammates know where he is and have a sense of what he's going to do. I think it's so powerful in a way that traditional stats will just never ever, other than wins, I guess, we'll just never, ever pick up. And it's a little bit like Nash. And I don't, I don't say this sacrilegiously the, the get off the ball and move. It's right. He doesn't relocate like Steph Curry. Nobody has ever relocated like Steph Curry, but there's a, just a smidge of that. Like, wait, where is he? He's moving over here. He's cutting over here. And sometimes he cuts to pass instead of to shoot threes. He cuts into the paint in a way that you don't expect. I think all that, that whole package offensively with his next, next, next level vision, making the past that the defense doesn't see or doesn't expect him to make out thinking the defense by, you know, being ahead of their rotations by one or two passes. Basically. I think that stuff is so special that I don't know, man, I'd have to think a little harder about that choice. Okay. Let's go back to the pressure player draft. Uh, I got through, uh, we, we did our first half. Uh, I picked from 10 to six Reed Shepard, Emmanuel quickly, Paolo Bancaro, Jalen Duren, Walker Kessler. And then you uh, among your first, what five guys, uh, had Jason Tatum, Chet Holmgren and De'Aaron Fox, all of whom were in my top five. You also picked Donovan Mitchell and somebody who I am forgetting LaMelo ball, LaMelo ball, because I'm on vacation. Um, yeah. Can you believe this? Wait, quick question for the listeners on vacation. Yes. Quick question. A lot of listeners are interested in what your bathing suit choice is when you're in Europe, because there's a lot of pressure to wear sort of a more revealing look when you're on the beaches of Croatia. A lot of your listeners have been texting me and saying, is he a board shorts guy? Is he a speedo guy? What's the deal? What are, what are board shorts? Sort of like the, yeah, like the West. They almost look like basketball shorts, but they're trunks. A lot of made, made, made popular by a lot of surfers on the West coast of the United States. I'm not going to reveal any of this, but just like I wear the trunks are closer to what I wear. Unless I swim, like I swim for exercise. Uh, that's, but there's no speedo in my life. Okay. Let's just make that, let's make that clear right off the bat. Um, but I that's, that's more than anyone really wants to know, but I do swim every day in Croatia. I swim back and forth and back and forth across this bay that we, we stay on. Um, anyway, it's great. It's the best. Uh, so I don't know where you are on your list, but you picked the next guy. Well, I remember I had Walker Kessler at number five. So you're number six. Yeah. Um, so I can go to number four or we can go start with your number. Uh, why don't my number five was Jason Tatum. So it's already taken. So you go, you go, uh, number you start with your number four. I still have a few honorable mentions. I haven't mention because I think you might have them. So you go. Jalen Brown, number four. Okay, so on my honorable mentions, I just wrote Sixers because I could make a case for Vijay Edgecombe. Hey, welcome to being a fifth option sometimes. Not every time because everyone's going to sit. LeBron James, you're the new guy. Tyrese Maxey, you're the alpha kind of sometimes. Joel Embiid, can you stay healthy? But you are choosing Jalen Brown, so go ahead. Well, as we talked about on the previous version of this, I think Jalen Brown, I think your term was he was the breakout star or the star of the offseason, something like that. He's gotten a lot of attention. He talked a lot before the trade and the run up to the trade. Things he said after the season was over, didn't exactly rub everybody the right way. But ultimately, he has an incredible, I told you so opportunity. He can make advanced stats guys like me, look foolish. He can make Brad Stevens look foolish. He can look over at his old friend and comrade, Jason Tatum, and say, I told you so. You need me. I'm the finals MVP from that team. Sure. And if it doesn't work, I think there is that in reverse where all of these same communities will point it back at him. So that's where I land on him being one of the more high pressure individuals coming into this season. I think there's a lot of, I told you so potential with Jalen Brown one way or the other. It's going to be theater every night. The Sixers part of the theater is going to be opening your little play bill and seeing whose understudies are playing what understudies are in the cast today because Joel Embiid can't make it in LeBron James can't make it in whatever. But there is a puzzle to solve with all five of those mouths to feed on offense. I am on record as saying I'm a little less worried about that than most people seem to be. I think all these guys are pretty malleable and pretty smart. Yeah. Maxi is a sensational sort of hybrid sometimes on balls, sometimes off ball player. LeBron's a genius. Embiid's going to be in and out of the lineup. The whole team comes down to Embiid to me more than Jalen Brown, but he is the sort of most interesting guy. He's one of the new guys with LeBron, but he's coming from a decade basically on an arch rival team where he was either the number two or last season, number one with a bullet option. Who plays sort of a head down physical driving game, a less intuitive ball mover passer than LeBron, Maxi and even Edgecombe and is going to have to figure out how to keep that physicality in his game without playing exactly the way he did last year because he's got all this other talent around him. I think it's going to work. I think there's enough pick and roll combinations and spacing and smarts on the team to make it work. But he and Embiid are the linchpins to me for this team hitting its ceiling. But by the way, and no one's talking about their defense. I've mentioned this a lot. I think that's actually a bigger question to me than their offense, but they're not done filling out their team yet. KCP hasn't officially signed as we're recording this again on July 30th. There'll be other ring chasers that come aboard at some point, but this, this is the, this is the early favorite to when I do my league pass rankings and I do my whole formula for it. I wonder if they're going to have enough to unseed the Spurs who were the league pass rankings winners before last season. And obviously I've won. Um, I will like Philly's got Philly's got some, um, Philly's got, uh, some internal obstacles to be number one at the league pass rankings. Let's, let's put it that way. Some internal broadcast related obstacles. They will be on national TV a lot, at least. Oh, wow. As David Brinkley would say, I'll let that one hang in the air, folks. Um, I'll say this. I've talked about their defense. I think that's the reason I'm not going to pick them to even win the Eastern conference. Zach Lowe. I think their defense is a giant red flag. And I don't think that has much to do with Jalen Brown, who might be the best defender on the team, um, who guarded Luca Donchic. But here's what I would say in Jalen's defense. He's a really smart basketball player. And when he won finals MVP, that team had drew holiday, Jason Tatum, Christophs, Porzingis, occasionally Al Horford. There was talent all over the place. I don't want to misrepresent the finals run, but he has figured level and score 20 points a game surrounded by great other offensive options. I think when you look at last year, when the Celtics overperformed, he's, he completely changed what Jalen Brown meant in a really impressive way. In some ways, I think he regresses back to that when the Celtics were stacked with all that offensive firepower and one at all. I have very little concern about that. It's the off-court circus stuff with this team that I think he could get caught up in. There could be some weird vibes in Philadelphia with something with Embiid, LeBron, Jalen Brown. That's a lot of personalities in one locker room and one plane. But he has a lot of pressure because of what we just saw this summer during Bill's colonoscopy, which I was honored to be on the colonoscopy podcast, by the way. That was a great pod. Jalen Brown averaged 29. A game last year. The two seasons before that were 22 and 23. That seems like that's reasonable. That's a player who was in a second option, sometimes first option when Tatum is on the bench role. That's kind of what you end up with now. Embiid is a 30 point a game score. Max, he's almost a 30 point a game score. LeBron is still a 20 point a game score. Maybe he dips down to 15, 16, 18. You don't have a lot of teams where four guys average 20 points a game and that's before. You even get to edge comb. So is there a world where Jalen Brown averages between 19 and 21? Yeah. And to me, winning cures everything. And you get all the credit and all the publicity. If you average 21 a game, but your defense is better, your passing is better. All the love comes to you either way. But it's going to be it's just going to be an awesome, awesome experience to watch this team both figure it out. And then the times that they do, they're going to look amazing. And it's going to make. It's going to make the league pass a little bit better. Number four on my pressure player list, Anthony Davis. Yeah. On your list at all. He is definitely on my list. I forget the number. Keep going. I'll get the update. Not that anybody cares. It's easy to dismiss this pick as Anthony Davis plays for the Washington Wizards. And I don't think there's a ton of pressure on the Wizards to do much of anything this year. Maybe be competitive, fill the arena a little bit more so it's not two thirds empty and quiet. I will say, you know, this is a top 75 all time NBA player that feels in dire need of another sort of signature moment, season, whatever in his career. Anthony Davis, since the bubble has played and the bubble was a championship has played 36, 40, 56, 76, 51 and 20 games. He's been out of the first round in the playoffs three times in his entire career. 2018 when the Pelicans dismantled the Blazers and then lost in the next round. The 2020 bubble when the Lakers won the title. And 2023 when they advanced to the Western Conference Finals and got slugged by the Never Nuggets who ended up winning the title. And now he's on the Wizards after being traded weirdly to the Mavericks. We don't need to rehash that. And playing like a few games, it seems like, I mean, do you remember anything that Anthony Davis did on the Mavericks other than the first half that he played? The first half of game one. The greatest half. The greatest half in the NBA history. This is why we did the trade. Is everyone seeing this? Wait, wait till we get that back. Oh, he's on the Wizards now. It just feels like we talk about Anthony Davis like he's at the end of his career, like this is the end of the road for him. He is 32, 33 years old. There's a lot of basketball left here. He's still one of the best defensive players in the league. I don't know how this is going to work with him and Sar or whatever. Offensively, he's still very good. Not quite the sort of best defensive player. Give me the ball and let me score kind of player that people want him to be. His jumper has not his jumper. He left it in the Orlando bubble. It's never been the same. I just like, again, pressure. This may be high for him. Just feels like there's got to be a late career something here for him because this is Anthony freaking Davis, man. Like it's time. It's something, whether it's in Washington or he gets traded, there's the contract extension thing. It feels like an important year for Anthony Davis. I love this pick for you. He was honorable mention for me. I have one of his teammates. I won't spoil it, but I think I'm not sure there is a late career relevant moment for this dude. I think the combination of his availability or lack thereof in his money makes him a pretty risky acquisition in the time of the second apron and how we know what aging curves look like for old bigs with injury history. We're talking about a 33 year old big. I disagree. He's top 75 of all time. I'm just saying he was, he was on the list is all I know. Look, let's do a visual one. Not on the list. Uh, your friend and mine, uh, from Argentina. I had a ballot. Actually, I need to go back and make sure. I don't know if I, I don't want to say if money was on my ballot or not. Cause I'm not a hundred percent. Sure. He better have been. He's going to send you a mean text message. Um, I think Anthony Davis is a fascinating player to watch. I can't talk about league pass. I'm going to be watching this team all the time. I still think that could be good. If this guy-- - Let me just stop for a second. That's the first time in 15 years anyone has said anything like that about the Washington. Even Joe House wouldn't say, I'm going to be watching this team all the time. Well, I think it's going to be great. And I think there's five guys that I can't wait to watch. Their guards at Summer League who aren't A.J. DeBonsa look great. And then you had Trey Young. You had Anthony Davis. And what I was going to say about A.D. is if he's able to channel the skepticism that I'm sort of throwing at him right now, if he's able to channel the fact that he's pissed off and in Washington and wearing this Wizards jersey, he's still a very, very good player. And in a world where all of this lands, where Trey Young plays well, the Wizards could be really good with these young guys and then these vets who know how to play. So I can't wait to watch it. And, yeah, I've not watched a lot of Wizards. I've watched a lot of Wizards games on League Pass with a great deal of enthusiasm. They're usually the game that I sit down in the central time zone. It starts at 6 p.m. And I'm excited that there's a game on already. And it's the Wizards playing and then the Hornets or whatever. And I watch it. But this time I'll be like, oh, my God. Like, I get to watch the number one pick in the freaking draft and these two vets that are trying to salvage what's where they are in their career. So I have the other guy on my list. But I like this pick for you because I do think he has a lot of pressure. Yeah. I just like it can't it can't end like this for Anthony Davis. It can't end like the last two seasons have been. There needs to there needs to be something of significance. There needs to be a moment in a real playoff series where he's involved. First team All-NBA four times. Second team one time. So five times All-NBA. Ten time All-Star. Top three in MVP voting only once in 2018 when James Harden won. He was third. I just it just can't end like this. OK, make your next pick. That's I'm done with Anthony Davis. I mean, by the way, I share your excitement about about the Wizards beyond the Bansa, Trey, Trey Young and A.D. I would love to go on a Keishon, George, et cetera. A ringer field trip where Joe House takes us to a Wizards game and we, you know, celebrate this moment in Wizards history. And have a good dinner afterwards. Surely you hear that, Joe House. So what do we have? What number are we up to for you? I am on number three and it is Trey Young. So it's perfect. It's perfect. We can zoom through this because it's Trey Young. I was going to pick one of the Wizards. I didn't feel like we wanted to, but you just got dumped by the Atlanta Hawks years after you built this reputation as a postseason killer. Now you wake up in a Wizards uniform with a huge, huge four year deal hanging on your brand. For those who don't follow it as closely for your 252. Is that right, Zach? Hello. I'm not going to do the math. I'm not going to do the math right now because I'm on vacation, but kind of. I'm both working and on vacation on this podcast. It's magic, but something like that. But I would say Trey Young is a fork in the road. And look, the optimistic path here is that he works well with AD. They both lean into this. They become mentors to these young guys. It's a perfect blend. They win 49 or 50 games. Like, again, that's a ceiling. But this could be a really good story in the NBA. I can see a world where they win 27 games. Everybody's injured all the time. The vibes are awkward. And now he's the worst contract in the in the Bill Simmons, Joe House was big was big was contract. So this contract puts a lot of pressure on Trey Young. And that's why he's so high. So I said in the last episode, there's multiple kinds of pressure. I think Trey Young has a unique blend of legacy pressure right here. And this huge. Four year max contract for a player that doesn't play a lot of defense. So he has contract pressure on there, too. Zach Lowe. I mean, he was in my honorable mention because I didn't want to pick two wizards. We did it anyway. Sorry. No, that's great. I mean, it's it's. But the contract is currently not tradable. Like and I'm not talking about by the rules, which it is. I'm just talking about like no one would trade for it right now without being massively incentivized. Totally fair. Um. In extending in in re signing him to that deal. It made me wonder about Anthony Davis, who has a 63 million dollar player option for next season, which obviously gives him some amount of leverage over the Wizards. Um, you know, in terms of just like, hey, I'll either opt into that or you got to take care of me with some sort of extension. Yeah, you're not going to pay me starting at 63 million, but you know, three 150 something like that. And I just don't think the Wizards should be in a state where they're. Paying Trey Young and Anthony Davis over 100 million dollars combined. It just doesn't seem to make sense. Long term, medium term beyond this year, really for them. So it made me wonder when they signed Trey, what does that mean for Anthony Davis? Is he just not long for this team one way or another? Trey is because there's no one taking that contract right now. Um, and it's just going to be very interesting to see. You know, I, I talked about this with Bill, like Trey's kind of like talked a lot this offseason about how people don't think. I don't think I can play off the ball like I find that funny, like we just wait and watch me and I'm like, OK, I would love to. I would love to watch you because you really don't play off the ball that much. You're off the ball. Play is usually just standing around at half court and spacing the floor that way. It has value like his defenders close to him, whatever. Are you going to set some screens for AJ to banter because he needs some like he needs some reps on the ball right now? He's that good. He's that physical on the pick and roll. Are you going to move? Are you going to run around, relocate like because if we get some hybrid between. On ball, Trey Young, who is very, very good, the single most underrated passer in the NBA, but also not nearly as good of a three point shooter as he seems to think he is or his reputation is. He's fine. He takes super difficult shots. Floater is a good shot, but not a great one. The last couple of years, like it was when they got to the conference finals. Rim finishing is and defense is. And is there a hybrid version where we see that on ball force? That's still there mixed with all right. Other people can do stuff here because if so, this becomes a very watchable team. So he was he belongs in this draft. So I'm glad that you drafted him. Yeah, I'm glad I did, too. The last thing I'd add is like, I think the Atlanta surge immediately after trading him did not do a lot for his brand. So he also and I continue to hear from people I trust like you that Atlanta is getting better. Atlanta is getting better. They had another nice offseason. Yeah. And if it's true that the Hawks are going to be up there in the top half of the East for years to come, I think that's something that Trey has to answer for in this Wizards era, too. This episode is brought to you by ServiceNow. Look, I have my dream job. I get to watch basketball, think about basketball, talk about basketball. But even dream jobs have the stuff that nobody dreamed about. The busy work that gets in the way of the actual work. ServiceNow's AI specialists tackle that work. Requests handled. Cases closed. The whole thing done. So you have more time for the work you actually want to do. For me, that's. Breaking down SGA film whenever I want. And then talking about it into a microphone. To learn how to put AI to work for people, visit ServiceNow.com. This episode is brought to you by Michelob Ultra. Whether you're racing to climb the tallest mountains, seeing who can score more birdies on the green, or competing in a professional soccer match, it's always better when there's a prize on the line. Especially if it's a Michelob Ultra. Smooth, refreshing, and worth all that hard work. Superior is worth playing for. Michelob Ultra. Superior Light Beer. Enter for a chance to win superior soccer, basketball, and golf prizes at MichelobUltra.com slash Superior Access. Enjoy responsibly. Copyright 2026. Anheuser-Busch. Michelob Ultra Light Beer. St. Louis, Missouri. So I only have one guy left on my list. I only have my number one most pressure-facing player in the NBA. So why don't you go? You're your number two guy, right? So I'll just let you go. Yeah, well, I think I know that you don't have this guy. So we can zoom through it. And I think it's Joel Embiid is my number two. Woo! It's time. We've trusted the process for so many years now. And now the king has arrived in town. This is Sam Hinckley's vision. It's been realized we have Joel Embiid, Jalen Brown, Finals MVP, LeBron James, Finals MVP, Vijay Edgecombe, Tyrese Maxey, All-Star, Rising Superstar. If Joel Embiid can have a very good season, this team can win the championship. If he falls apart, I think. I think their ceiling immediately does, too. I think if there's a weakness in this team, it's in the frontcourt beyond LeBron and Joel Embiid, particularly beyond Joel Embiid. So he needs to be available. I don't think he needs to play 35 minutes a game, which is nice. I don't think he needs to play back-to-backs against Charlotte or against New Orleans. I think they can find games to rest him at. I think he can play 54 games in the regular season. I think he can miss playoff games if he needs. I think he can play 56 games, too, in the first round. But, dude, this is the moment. This is the moment for Joel Embiid to prove that he is an all-time great. This is the season. It's all laid out. Are you going to be an NBA champion or not? This is your last best chance, Joel Embiid. Wow. That was great. The miss playoff games thing is very interesting because I don't think this team is a championship team without Joel Embiid. Right. Playing most of your meaningful basketball games, and maybe that's 24 minutes instead of 36 minutes, and you go out and get a backup five who's been playing for a long time. better than what you have on the roster now somewhere somehow maybe um i do think as good as the east is i mean basketball is a weird game you can steal a game here and there you know vj has 35 you get you force 22 turnovers like there are ways to win high level playoff games without joel and bead now that you have these other four guys on the team and i just think that's what's gonna have to happen if this is a team that's actually gonna make the finals let alone win the finals is they're gonna have to win play forget the regular season we know what's gonna happen he's gonna play whatever amount of games he plays that's short of 65 for sure and they're gonna do everything to preserve his knees for the playoffs and his knees are are now sort of a chronically problematic thing and you mix those with all the freak injuries the appendicitis this time around it's like what can this guy catch a break uh forget the regular season the playoffs i've said it a million times i have no faith that he will ever be able to play every single playoff game of a three to four series playoff run it's just not going to happen i have no faith that it's going to happen you have to actually build your team as if you know let's say it takes 24 playoff games for you to win the championship you have to build your team optimistically that joel and b plays 18 of them and and just you find a way to go three and three in the six that he missed and he's going to be able to win the championship and he's going to be able to win the championship and then dominate the 18 that he plays something like that and i think this is the closest facsimile to that that there is and so yeah if you're joel and bead you have to do everything possible and there's been reporting i think uh i don't know if it was ramona shelburne or dave mcmahon forgive me whichever it was about how and be reassured lebron during the recruitment process like i will do everything i can to get in the best shape i've ever been in to give myself the best chance at going 18 out of 24 or whatever it is in the playoffs so that's part of it luck is part of it and just in those 18 games he's got to be a fucking dominant force on both ends of the floor in a way that i'm not sure he still has it in him defensively but offensively he for sure does but i will say this whole like well now's the time language like i'm looking at ramona's piece about mb in lebron from last week and here's a quote from an anonymous nba coach i don't know why we need anonymous people to say these things but we just say we do the process is over this needs to be the product it's a clever use of process product the process is over this needs to be the product they need to finish this thing the sixers have done this for a long time with the bead and it's go time you could apply that quote to like the last seven philadelphia 76ers like it's been time for a while now and i get that this team is like the latest sexiest coolest version of a team that's had jimmy butler and jj reddick and ben simmons and whatever else on the team but i agree mb belongs on this list and look when he has been at his best and i'm not i mean we even saw it for glimpses against the celtics when he just decided in a couple of games i'm gonna beat the shit out of nicola vucevic and luca garza and nimi kate i'm found you all out of the game and i'm putting you in the basket there's nothing like it in the nba there's nothing like the combination of force and touch and skill and dominance from the foul line the block there's just nothing like it footwork all of it and i just hope we get to see it again so he's number two on your list so we are down do you have any closing and bead thoughts you got to win 16 games as you just drew out there perfectly to win an nba title joel and bead has never played more than 11 postseason games in a single postseason you got to win 16 um he's played 490 games in 12 years as an nba player uh that's about 40 games per year it's just the biggest reason for it is yeah like i hate to say it but it's boring but yeah his body just breaks um and yeah the defense isn't going to be great in philadelphia especially if he's not there i think the rebounding becomes a giant red flag in a world where lebron's playing the five trying to get rebounds against jaylen duran and these types of people night in and night out i hate to say it but yeah that's there's reason for skepticism just because joel won't stay on the floor and they won't get rebounds and get stopped because of that okay we are down to our number one player on our pressure players list each of us we don't know who it is i'm gonna guess it's not the same person however i have two honorable mentions left that i haven't mentioned yet on either part one or this one out of fear that perhaps they were going to be on your list i am going to start with carl anthony towns who i don't think is number one on your list and i just want a title he he's on the list of the best players for me honorable mention only because and again we are recording this on july 30th i have no idea when it's going to post probably in the 10 days two weeks this could all be moot as of right now he has a 61 million dollar player option for 2027 28 the same year by the way the knicks have a 22 million dollar team option on josh hart uh the year before the i'm sorry the next year 28 29 is when jaylen brunson's presumed super bags kick in after the discount that he took the first time around carl anthony towns has been eligible for an extension i think for a year and there hasn't been one done and i'm sure the knicks are the knicks have major second apron concerns with brunson's deal down the line heart they're going to have to bring back one way or another i'm just very interested to see how those negotiations go and he he had an unbelievable playoff run before getting into some foul trouble against the spurs in the last few games of the final season finals but they don't win the title without him he's a legend in new york forever i'm sure he'll want to finish his career in new york i'm just interested to see how i would be optimistic that a deal gets done i'm just curious to see what the number is and when it gets done because if he goes into the season without it for better or worse that's going to be a talking point all the time so he was in my honorable mention i'll be ready for my right now can i get a riff on this just for a minute because i've been studying the apron all summer and look we're talking about a celtics team that won it all and got dismantled we're talking about sam prestey going to the microphones and being like i had to do this because of the apron sorry lou dorch sorry aaron wiggins um the new york knicks are up on on the chopping block this is what the second apron does and james dolan minutes or days after the parade in new york city said you'd have to be suicidal quote to go into the second apron in this league so i'm unfortunately the new york knicks are next up on the austerity measures uh in the nba this is congratulations you won a title now dismantle it i mean i just did for the sake of my own thought exercise projecting their books for 28 29 they should be they should be fairly safe from the second apron in 27 28 depending on what they do with josh hart and what cat's number is i just penciled in his player option number 28 29 if brunson gets the full max 35 max that's starting his salary at 66 million dollars i penciled in cat at 55 i gave josh hart a modest bump up to 25 i had og and ob turning down his player option and re-signing for three years 120 million that might be optimistic from the next perspective um and i guaranteed the full amounts for shamit alvarado and diawara who are all partially guaranteed for that year and that put them almost at 250 million dollars right at the second apron for nine players um and uh and i didn't bring back tyler kulek so it's it's gonna be the math is gonna be tough like it's just gonna be really tough starting in that season by design my other honorable mention and i wonder if he is number one on your list is janice atenta kumpo oh no he was in my honorable mentions i thought he might be uh okay so yeah no he's not on my number one it's i think we have the same player does this mean we have the same player we'll see don't don't say yet it's interesting that after all of the drama all the trade rumors all the back and forth all the boston jail and brown hugo gonzalez all of it that he's not that he's just honorable mention for both of us and not the number one most pressure player with an extension coming to him presumably in october maybe maybe that's part of the reason why we we presume he's going to get it without a fight but why do you think he's not higher for us i feel like this dude already did what he needed to do i feel he there are some finals mvp some championships that we've witnessed over the last 10 20 years doing the zach low that are just so important uh to a franchise or a community in his case to a country that he's he's sort of bad like i don't think he'll have the pressure that some of the other names on the list will ever have um because of what he did he's in the back nine of his career um i don't say he has no pressure i just think he's basking in a little bit of a finals mvp uh i've won it all in milwaukee um kind of glow for me it was a lot of pressure and i can't emphasize this enough it's july 30th by the time you listen to this maybe the heat have demar de rosen and bradley beal and clay thompson and we're all talking ourselves into those guys being meaningful contributors on a great team i don't know as of right now it was for me being honorable mention only was because of everything you just said and what he's already achieved um and honestly just looking at the heat where they are now i just don't think they're good enough and i don't have - Right. - I don't have expectations for them to make the finals uh or even maybe the conference i think there'll be a good team they're going to be a beast defensively i just don't think they have enough offensive pop right now around yannis and bam to be a true true threat to make the finals in the east that could change and by between me saying these words and when this podcast airs god only knows what will happen yeah that's just as of now so that's why he wasn't hired that's interesting if he'd gone to boston i think he would have made my list that hadn't occurred to me but i i don't have high expectations for this squad sorry miami um in a way that if he had gone to uh boston i would have been like oh okay tatum and and yannis um yannis better show up but yeah i think that's that's right it's the combination of his his achievement and then the relatively meager expectations for the miami heat okay now it's time for the reveal we both have the same we both have not revealed our number one player yet you are suspecting it's going to be the same player i'm i guess my process of elimination maybe i think so too but i'm not in time i'm gonna say it's not the same player um i assume yours is also hugo gonzalez you have number one facing the most pressure in the yeah yeah that's right it was jairus walker or hugo gonzalez now i went with a different player all right tell me who is number one on the kurt goldsberry player pressure rankings for the 26 27 nba season it's a man who hails from the same country as the tour de france winner uh luca donchic is my my selection uh for the number one first of all we don't have the same player second of all i could not name i can't name one cyclist you you this there's a cyclist from slovenia who just won the tour of france and you're aware of this yeah well i was watching it's one of the the fun things to watch in the summer in the mornings you turn it on they're racing their bikes the peloton is going through these beautiful mountain villages and uh pogacar i think is his name the slovenian cyclist who is now the most famous cyclist in the world and he's the most famous cyclist in the world the most dominant cyclist of the modern era um but shares a home country with luca donchic the slovenian mountains uh are an incredible place to learn how to ride a bike apparently but i love this pick i did not have it okay i didn't even have him in my honorable mention i had in part one we talked about walker kessler he was on both of our lists yeah yeah um i don't know why that is it's striking me and i was like i don't really have a good reason for why i didn't even consider him for this i just i mean i know what he's going to bring to the table it's going to be amazing i also know that i don't think the lakers are good enough to make the finals maybe it's a combination of that but this is a great pick and i want you to make the case the case is the the giant celestial body of the nba named lebron james has has has left los angeles obviously gone to philadelphia and that puts this out the lakers are now luca donchic's team and i think he is the face of the franchise in the nba so whoever is the center fielder of the yankees or whatever that's the equivalent in the nba you're the face of the lakers first of all that just comes with immense pressure we're talking about george mike and jerry west magic johnson kareem shack kobe like this is a big big expectation when those types of people are coming to watch your games um i think he pushed a lot for walker kessler i think he has his fingerprints on this next iteration of the lakers last year he famously played 64 games and my biggest concern for him is actually just his well-being physically being able to stay healthy he's one of the guys that we're looking at with repeated hamstring and calf injuries in the nba but if he stays healthy there's an expectation they're a top three four team in the western conference right zach and if it doesn't happen like lakers fans will get pissed off and that just carries a lot more weight when you're in los angeles as the star player than any other team in the league i do think they're a good team uh to be clear despite the fact that you know i thought the walker kessler move was an overreach i think he'll work well there we covered that in part one and in other episodes grimes mamu sexton they all fit certain roles no idea who the fifth starter is at this point but they're gonna they're gonna be an awesome offensive team reeves is back obviously without saying uh defensively i'm not really sure what their ceiling is but their offense is going to be amazing as long as luca plays a representative amount of games and i do agree with you like i think right now on paper they're a top six team in the west you could argue that the top six from last year oklahoma city san antonio denver lakers rockets wolves should again be the top six i think utah is gonna have something to say about that but i think the lakers will be a non-play in top six team which makes three four five whatever like eminently attainable for them um it's a great it's a great pick because they remade the team in his image um he is going to be a laker for the foreseeable future although he's gonna have some extension leverage fairly soon he has a player option in 28 29 uh it's gonna be it's gonna be uh interesting to see how many games he can play and and again like bill has talked about this a lot he's never finished first or second in mvp voting and it feels like he would be and he's only 27 years old so like yeah let's all chill on it but like he'd be on course to be in the conversation for best player to never win regular season mvp he's already been to the finals he's been a dominant playoff player people are scared to death to face him in the postseason he has an answer for every defense you can throw at him he's a genius um he just hasn't had like the regular season of regular seasons yet despite being multiple times the odds on favorite going into the season to win the mvp now he faces an uphill battle every year against you know shea and wemby going right at jokic so you know we'll see but i think it's a great pick i didn't i didn't think of it the last year he was healthy he won the scoring title was third in mvp voting and his team won the west like and he was 24 so i think it's fair to have high expectations for this guy to come come back and um and get something special done but like there's a lot of pressure there was always going to be pressure on luca donch at today's 27 the fact that it's happening now in los angeles in a world without lebron james makes him my highest pressure guy in the whole league this year but you obviously have a different answer zach low well first of all we are we are a year are we a year removed from the men's health cover of luca like that was a monumental moment in history and he was in better shape last year and he still missed time with like including in the playoffs and so you know just have to this was obviously the mavericks fear when they made an objectively insane this episode is brought to you by 20th century studios the dog stars now playing in theaters and imax visionary filmmaker ridley scott returns with a gripping post-apocalyptic thriller when a mysterious radio transmission shatters a lone pilot's isolated existence he embarks on a dangerous journey in search of hope starring jacob lordy josh brolin margaret qualley alice and jenny and guy pierce the dog stars now playing in theaters and imax somewhere out there is a chevy truck and the person who drives it well that's a chevy person you probably know one your buddy your sister ones who always show up they're the first to rise the last to leave they always have that little extra something and maybe you've got a two chevrolet together let's drive visit chevy.com slash trucks to explore the lineup great can you do you want i'll give you three guesses to guess who's number one on my list and it's but it's both an obvious pick and a boring not obvious pick but when you're here you're going to be like oh duh that's kind of boring but i'll give you three guesses can you pick out who it is uh it's not a sixer right we can use not a sixer um i'm not going to count that as one people on my list that i haven't encountered yet i have to start with zion williamson no evan mobley no i disqualify i've mentioned in part one that i have mobley hard and mitchell all in honorable mention so i'll give you a mulligan for that one oh my god this is embarrassing for us i think it's not embarrassing it's just you're gonna it's gonna be anticlimactic unfortunately it's not franz oh is it sga no but you have the right team i had j dub on my honorable mentions it's j dub it's jalen williams and it's a duh pick because like yeah obviously his health is a major factor for them i just like his health is this his hamstring he couldn't get over it last year he came back then he hurt his wrist and the hamstring kept flaring up over and again couldn't play till the end of the playoffs um this dude was like putting up monstrous games in the nba finals including a 40 point game i think in game five of the finals he's had some huge playoff games along the way for the thunder and now there's no dort um there is no wiggins there's no joe and his availability is now essential for them this is no longer like we can sort of try to scrounge by the game seven against the spurs with j dub not playing um he is they dort sort of leaves the small ball power forward hole behind him that now they need jalen williams to to fill that hole among others and he's just an awesome awesome player who's lost last season i thought was just almost under discussed because he's that good he was legitimate all nba player and their depth is a little not quite as a plus as it was last year they've lost some size chet we both had chet on our list he's sort of an question mark to say the least the competition around them particularly in san antonio is only going to get better they need they need not even two years ago jalen williams they need a an even better version of that like hey is this guy a top 12 player two-way player jalen williams to win the championship again and by the way those are the stakes like the thunder won one title and everybody went crazy and said the league is over they're going to dominate the league forever oh my god what is everybody going to do and it just doesn't work that way it's really hard to win a title no one has repeated in eight years uh the knicks will now be facing that challenge and the thunder like there's a universe in which this era as as well set up as it's been it's there as well constructed as any team in the history of the nba as well built as any team in the history of sports from sort of a gm perspective there's a world where they only win one title and i don't think that's the world we're going to live in i think there's more to be had here but for them to get there they need this guy to come back and play at at full ability you mentioned shea i i know what shea is she's she's a metronome he's going to be amazing in basically all he was a little up and down the conference finals and then showed out in game seven i know what the rest of these players are plus or minus like i think case and wallace probably as a leap to make the rookies we'll see i think he he was number i i contemplated not putting him in number one because it's like duh he's got to stay healthy i just think he's in he and chet together are like number one yeah i think that's right and i would say as much of a spurs guy as i am like if he were healthy the conference finals would have been a different situation he he his inability to play in those games was was huge even when he tried to play clearly wasn't himself uh i think that's a he's one of the most uh impactful sort of forks in the road of the whole western conference i think him and chet i think that is right i think calling shea and metronome by the way write that down that's beautiful perfectly said but these other two guys do you have a big three because it didn't feel like you had a big three in the western conference finals like we all thought this was going to be a big three and i think ultimately we're hovering around the same point if the thunder are going to do what they think they're going to do those two guys need to be either available or better in the case of chet when it matters most uh and they weren't this year and we saw the changing of the guard in the western conference they will open the season as betting comp uh betting favorites right to come out of the west sacklow i don't know i i think the spurs might i mean the spurs had championship odds the last time i checked really i mean it's it's a it's a dumb this is a dumb pick in the sense that he does not have the kind of like legacy pressure that we would normally that we would put on a guy like you know mb for instance who you just talked about like he's already won a championship he was the second best player on the title team he's made an all nba team he scored 40 points on 14 of 20 five shooting in game five of the nba finals to put his team up um to put his team up uh three two um he scored 34 points on 13 of 24 shooting in game four against the wolves in the conference finals to put the thunder up three one like this guy has done it uh mike is sending us finals odds right now what do we have here uh the thunder you're right r plus 230 to win the nba title i assume the spurs are plus 270 so i was wrong um they would be i've said this already they as of now they would be my pick to win the nba championship the oklahoma city thunder would be but it ain't gonna be easy and it depends on this guy being like after in games three to five of the finals 26 points on 9 of 18 27 points on 8 of 18 40 points on 14 to 25 there was like a real oh is he gonna steal finals mvp from shea kind of conversation like that's how good this dude is and and it's defense too it's size defense rebounding transition play it's all of it so in a way the pressure the traditional way we talk about pressure doesn't really apply to him because of what he's already accomplished but just the sort of pressure of this era delivering what everyone thinks it should or thought it should deliver to the thunder kind of rides on him it falls on these two guys below shea because i do think shea is is as reliable as it gets as a superstar um and to this point knock on wood he has been a very healthy uh performer in his rise to um but yeah i think the fact that the thunder are betting favorites is interesting i think baked into that is we're getting j-dub and as soon as he's out the spurs are a better pick we saw that in the western congress finals kurt goldsberry this was super fun thank you for indulging me on a super long two-part podcast recorded again on july 30th by the time you listen to this i could be swimming in the adriatic sea what one last thing give us give us what what are the two things you're most looking forward to in your career and what are the two things you're most looking forward to in your in your vacation all right let's leave croatia out of it because we i go there every year and i always there's i look forward to the same things um we're gonna we're gonna stop in estonia for a day uh in talon which i'm very excited to see and i guess um i guess i don't know i don't i don't i don't want to say too much i think i think some good restaurants how about that good we're going to a couple good good restaurant cities i don't ask for much in life uh the adriatic i mean not not counting the freaking adriatic sea which is a magical potion in the summertime i mean that's incredible it's the best i i can't wait to be swimming you know i i get to play you know my daughter and i will throw the water polo ball around uh in the water we'll we'll do all that kind of stuff i'll go to see uh there's a place they cut there's an island called shipon um which they have now nicknamed water polo island because uh croatia is one of the best water polo countries in the world and tony acevedo who's the greatest american water polo player ever and one of the best ever period played professionally in croatia he comes every year and does and hosts like an all-star camp for high school kids and uh they take like this pirate ship from dubrovnik to this island in shipon like an hour away uh and he has invited us to go in the past and it's just they play water polo the high school kids play from america play water polo against croatian sometimes adults sometimes high school kids in the open water and you can like go you can watch from a boat you can swim out and watch it's like absolutely glorious look up water polo island it's like unbelievable that sounds great enjoy it there's multiple there's like four olympians on the boat with you and they're like what what life is this like these things are freaking olympians and as we said before the podcast mario mario hizonia could be over there who knows he's available i the mario hizonia saga could still be ongoing uh as as as when i come back from vacation mr goldsberry thank you bud i will see you on the other side see you bud all right that's it for part two of this two-parter with kurt goldsberry i hope wherever you are in the world you enjoyed it i am in europe somewhere having a nice vacation hopefully nothing crazy has happened in the nba it's july 30th as i'm talking to you francisco lindor is still a met hopefully that's the case whenever you are listening to this and the mets have actually won some baseball games thanks to kurt goldsberry for for slogging through a two-parter with us thanks to billy oscar and mike on production and thanks as always to you all for listening to and or watching the zach blow show 21 or over and president select states for kansas in affiliation with kansas star casino or 18 and over in president dc kentucky or wyoming gambling problem call 1-800-GAMBLER or 1-800-MY-RESET call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in connecticut or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in maryland hope is here visit gambling helpline ma.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24-7 support in massachusetts or call 1-877-8-HOPE-NY or text hope ny in new york for louisiana call 1-877-770-7867 this episode is brought to you by whole foods who has your back to school eats sorted wow we're going back to school already they've got your fast and easy breakfast covered with frozen waffles and pancakes lunch boxes are looking tasty with organic seedless grapes and baby carrots and essentials like cheese sticks then for dinner you can build your own meal choose from a variety of entrees like chicken scallopini and two sides and 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