What We Think We Know About the 2026-27 NBA Season | Group Chat

Hello and welcome back to group chat I am Justin Verrier and joining me will not as always but back in the mix Rob Mahoney J Kyle man the boys are back in town you're in rare form today I know you have the chorus in you but do you always have the solo in you that's the next level JV that the people have been waiting for and frankly expecting have you ever looked at the lyrics to that song no what's going on that is no I don't know who the boys are and it just seems like they're just hanging out like a fight breaks out of certain point they're just like hey that girl she's cool looks nice okay not all anybody wants we're hanging out that girl looks nice I mean that's what what percentage of life is that it a certain age it's like 80% right we're hanging out that girl looks nice it's a whole lifestyle and for very relatable continues to pace you know yeah so we're back after a prolonged break this probably might be the longest break we've had and by the wild maybe historic maybe of all time um how's everyone been doing I have to say at this point in the offseason I'm like really yearning for the NBA news I'm like hanging on the Jonathan Cummings updates with baited breath just trying to get little morsels out of here which I think means I'm just like ready for preseason and training camp I'm feeling refreshed I'm feeling rebooted you know we we needed to just like shuffle the deck chairs of the league around a little bit in order to feel fully energized and engage and just like right I mean really ready to get right back to it yeah I I mean I shift into offseason project mode so it's a I'm working on longer you know big it's it's it's spinning a lot of plates for things that are going to begin well you know it's just different types of projects it's suddenly when you have a little more creative oxygen from away from the new cycle I kind of dig in on those things so that's hopeful hopefully things to talk about soon so there we go speaking of said projects Justin it was not lost on me that you started posting tomato thirst traps we need a crucial garden update we need to know what's going on what is the bounty right now so I'll say just to start most of the garden did just okay right like I tried new things cucumbers little corn action carrots right from sewing directly into the soil those did fine corn very difficult it turns out I think a listener previously had alluded to that that guy is right the tomatoes on the other hand are fucking rocking right now I'm eating a bagel tomato thing pretty much every day yeah I was really in it gym wise like I feel like I was in the best shape of my life probably at least as an adult until about last week where I'm averaging 1.5 bagels now and I'm just completely full of glutenants in my bloodstream those tomatoes I don't know if you saw them as big as my hand it's like a like breast and Norway what is happening there's a pretty highest on average in the world what was because say I don't know if you have baby hands that we've never gone we've never gone palm to palm but so so I don't that reference point I don't know if that works from you're not but it's interesting because I feel like I'm going to have to figure out where I fit on the posting food spectrum because raw posts like Michelin star fine dining like oh I found this incredible like crape that's exclusive to this I don't even know where you were what you were eating and then Justin's like here's a raw tomato that looks beautiful so I'm still finding myself on the spectrum of posting about food or I may just you know abstain courteously from it from it all where do you want to be like what is the ideal Kyle man sweet spot on that spectrum I think I have no choice were I think the middle point would just be kind of unrefined garbage which I think you know it's my brand also but relatable you know if you're just posting but relatable yeah triple dippers from chilies every week I'm going to I would be incredibly jealous stop stop drilling you hit you hit oil Rob there we go that's what I need to be doing I think you're selling yourself short because one of my favorite things of the off season was pulling up a Kyle man social media post because you never know what you're going to get into I remember at one point I pulled it up there's like caterpillars or something and it was like an exotic caterpillar I was sitting on my back our porch is just a fucking wild animal kingdom you never know what I'll sit out there at night sometimes and they're just sounds of the of the night of animals it's crazy real place yeah Louisville very green city but I was like sitting on my back porch and I just looked to my right and it was it's called a katalpha spinks spinks oh caterpillar and this thing was like I swear to God it was like six seven inches long I mean I may be exaggerating a little bit but it was so it was so gigantic my dog noticed it and he was just watching it I don't know man it was it like made the stick bend when I'd like tried to move it it was so heavy so can I just say I missed you guys I missed the floor on the fauna apparently I missed every bit of this I think I know we are not fully back to our regularly seasoned group chat schedule just yet but it's nice to be back for this one at least. This does remind me though of a situation where I feel like something major happened with the pelicans while I was on that beat I think it was like maybe they signed Solomon Hill or something like huge like that huge at the time right and Anthony Davis was on Snapchat as people were at the time snapping lizards fighting and so like as his team was being built he was doing the real work you know that's what I'm like posting videos of it or he he had direct access to lizards fighting and was just recording it. Are you breaking that Anthony Davis was running a lizard fighting ring is that what's happening right now? No I think he was he was just a you know he was like the Steve Irwin of NBA Snapchat. The state of nature really capturing it in its element yeah yeah I don't know if we know the schedule from here on out definitely doing power rankings at the end of next month going into the season but I think we'll be touching go they haven't really told us just kind of seems like whenever we're available and I figured Rob was just on a walk about for about a month after the Phoebe Bridges album came out just wondering he saw kill me the song what could this be about I can tell you what it's about you know what you're not wrong the timing was not coincidental it was all lined up just perfectly for me and right now we're in the sweet spot host album pre-concert I just have a lot of time to sit and stew in my feelings before having the cathartic experience with our our fellow sad boys and girls in L.A. So I really think I'm thriving is what I'm getting at were you were you dabbing away tears at that light light night performance where she had the kids in the band and then the old people in the band was that was that moving was that moving for you Rob be honest. If it was moving but it was you know it raised my spirits you know it brought some joy to my heart I'm like I'm happy to see it among her popular entry so not a time to be sad. Well last thing before we get to actual basketball because I've been hearing about this regularly both from you guys hearing from other people also people reaching out to me directly do we have any update on the one on one matchup that could potentially tear this podcast apart. We do not have an update there is no scheduled one-on-one game which means to this date I remain undefeated right same yeah we'll both just point out to the listeners there is an offer for an NBA from an NBA team to host you guys having this matchup that is true and the excuses that came off. I would say okay. Where has Justin won't even be on camera playing basketball I don't even hear it. Tell you can party up. I would be providing the broadcast for it. I would be walking the listener through it as you guys potentially embarrass yourself in front of a real live NBA player. Well we can't all would all be like pampered media members Justin some of us are finally tuned athletes and we have to go out there and perform and perform to our standards and I have to say look sometimes the schedule doesn't line up that's just the reality of life in the big leagues. Rob's famous now. I keep saying that he's like he's not as banded so much with the with the prestige and stuff he has barely has any time for us Justin I think we've noticed this too right. I don't know if you hold on. I don't know if you listen to the beginning of the watchables this week. Yeah he's on the watchables this guy's on the big brands. Wait what was on the watch. I don't even remember what happened. Yeah because you probably recorded like a month ago. Bill was like oh if you had to drop either Joanna or Kyle and Justin we know who you'd pick and I was honestly surprised that he stopped at us like he didn't put like the guy that lets him into the building over us the intern who's just getting him his coffees every day. Yeah there are no set interns. Look look this is this is my place this is my family you say I'm expanding my constituency Kyle like I have a demographic of one group and it is people who understand the magnitude of the Pelican signing solid. Man that's all I mean look this is who we got the these are our listeners. You really kicked a door down to another demographic women yeah by going over to the TV show. I guess that is I commend you for that. Yeah look many women watch the NBA some of those women may even listen to this podcast. I'm not privy to that data but I'm sure there is at least singles or perhaps dozens of them out there. Definitely not trying to overlook the women that do listen we appreciate them. Yes all for we appreciate that. We also need to get the t-shirt bet settled. We never really. I know that one's on you though. That's been sitting on your desk for a long time. It's just this is a lot of work. You know, that's got to come up with the image. You got to come up with a slogan. Is that sounds blazers? What was that bet? That bet? Yeah. Yeah. The result of the mid off is yeah, I have to wear a t-shirt of Justin's choosing effectively. It was supposed to be for an entire week, but we might have to figure that out. Maybe during the power rankings? I don't. I assume there's like some light vetoing that's possible here. Like you can't put me in a shirt that says like racial spread a file up here with an arrow pointing out. It can't be bad, right? It was going to be me like my face in some capacity with a slogan. 100%. For the record, what about it more in it anyway? So I'm happy to pay the bet. Okay, great. All right. Should we get to the topic at hand here? Please. So obviously not a ton happening. Although like the past week or so, there's been like a little bit of news that's been circulating here. A lot of leftover stuff still to come here. We are going to talk about what we think we know about next season. And now we're at the stage where it's like we're starting to formulate our opinions. We're really like trying things out. And so this is really like a test run for what we are going to ultimately say leading into the season. But like I'm starting to get strong inclination. I don't know how you guys feel. Like are you starting like the process to it? Or do you feel like you have a strong read on the season based off of everything that happened in the last season? I feel like the field, especially in the east is so deep. It's hard to have like a really firm read on basically anything. But to the strength of your inclination is just and I feel like I am I'm I'm ruminating, right? Like we've had the initial take. We've had the revised take. We've had the like you talk to your friends or co-workers. Oh now let me let me adjust my expectations here in this way because they swayed me on this thing or that. Like we've had the full period of stabilization and adjustment to kind of start to understand what we might be looking at. And that's what we might think. But like I think maybe by preseason power ranking time is when we're a little more dedicated in firm and what those ideas actually are. And right now we're just like, okay, what can we pin down that's on the board? I mean as much as you want to feel you're saying you have inclinations, which I guess are you have opinions that you feel pretty strongly about. I at this point coming in, I think this is a unique offseason where we had such carnage in terms of major major players being out in the east and then combine that with the turnover and roster shakeup that we had across the league. I think those two things together combine with we have a sending teams that have a lot of levels to go like the spurs, you know, like I think it makes it a little tricky, you know, the Lakers who we're going to talk about shake shook it up, the wolves shook it up. I as excited as I am like Rob was saying, like I am ruminating with ideas and visions of what could be. I don't totally feel confident about what's going to happen just because of those the combination of those two things, which doesn't make it daunting. It makes it pretty fun. Like I'm pretty I'm pretty amped to see how this is going to shake out. What's going to happen? Who's going to be owning these teams? How many of the owners just view their teams as an opportunity for tax abatement? Yeah, no, it's a lot is in the air right now. If you put the three of us stacked on top of each other in a giant power suit, I think we could convincingly buy an NBA team at this point. Like anyone can do it and where the backing money comes from. I don't know, seems to not really matter so much anymore. Who's on the bottom? I think Rob obviously is on the bottom. Justin's probably on the top. I would imagine, right? I don't think you want me trying to talk to people. No, kind of coax them into giving us. I didn't even think about that. Who's going to be the most who's going to be able to work the room, but also not make us fall over. It's a tricky scenario. We got here. So Justin's our steady core Kyle man, the folks in this up top really really bringing the people together. Folks in this up top, you think I could shoot the ship with some billionaires in a league office there? I sure hope so. Oh, yeah, you get the twang going. They'll be like, this guy's into oil. He knows what's going on or at least caterpillars, you know, one of the two. Yeah. So we just brought two team situation. Whatever you guys want to talk about that you feel like you think you know going into the season at this stage. Let's start kind of with one of mine because that goes off. We're just talking out here, which is the Los Angeles Lakers who you thought had the busiest off season after they got done with their actual business on the court and building a roster around Luca after LeBron. They said goodbye to then it just got crazier and crazier from there practically every couple of weeks. We're now in like chapter 27 of the bus succession sort of prestige drama. I have to say just just briefly here as a result of all of this. I didn't realize it. Not only is there a genie bus, but there's also a genie bus. So a genie and then minus the e. There is a genie. Like I didn't how many buses are there? And why do they all have the same first letter in their name? People who do that and they have like six kids. They're fucking psychopaths. I'm sorry. There's something wrong with you. See, are they psychopaths or are they challenging themselves? Are they challenging themselves as parents in their advancing ages to be like, okay, we got to pick out the genies from the genies of the bunch. You know, and I think at some point we all lose that particular rope, but I'm with you that the naming scheme is like it's a little much for most families unless maybe you're a succession Shakespearean level feuding family. Maybe there's like a nominative deterministic thing where it's like if you put all of your kids into this similarly named bucket, they're just bound to fight with one another at some point. It reminds me a lot of like if you like one shirt that you have or you constantly are wearing the same thing, people are going to notice like it's fine if you do it like once or twice in a week. That's nice. I get it. You like, well, it looks like if you want to buy the same shirt in a different like color, that's fine. But when you're on like five, six, seven days, then it starts getting weird. I mean, I've known full-blown uniform people who like black t-shirt, black pants, white shoes, and it's kind of like it's kind of I envy it in a way. I could see a lot, a lot fewer. In those people, it's it's not that they're wearing the same thing over and over again. They kind of come off. They they look clean because they're wearing it. It's just it simplifies your life in a way. And I'm kind of like it just looks it looks manicured because it's a conscious choice rather than the lack of a choice where a lazy person will wear the same thing over and over. On the name thing, we granted we just have the one kid. We did the K-Middle initial. That's about as far as we took it. Like we get Julian a K-Middle initial just because Megan and I both had it. But right, going to I know families who have like same full initial setup and I don't know. It doesn't bother me though. I don't know that I would go to full psychopath level. It just seems like it's a cute branding for your family. Both of you hate it. This is interesting. It's it's it's a lot. And I see this like I have a similar one at least. My brother share a first initial. But like if it's a whole family thing, I think that's you know, parents on down. It's just a lot. It's just a lot. My dad is a twin and his it's Gary and his brother. My dad's name is Gary. Tell me it's not Jerry. My dad's name is Gary Dean and his identical twin brother's name is Barry Jean. Oh no. He's going to kill me for that. Well, I'm probably not. It's pretty good. Yeah. I have a cousin that like got into the A range and I got a certain point. There was an addler and I was like brother. Let's just give it up. Anyway, so you got the you got the real J's who are who are infighting yet again in order to just like the last piece that they have the Lakers is now for for debate here as Mark Walter Bales in order to try to preserve whatever he has left of his reputation. But in the midst of all that Luca Doncic hot yet again. We got was it last year? The men's health cover. And now we got the photos circulating with the team all out there and I believe Croatia, Slovenia, somewhere in the Balkans. Slovenia just just like the divorce dad bod. We haven't seen since like Princess Dye. He's really going how long is his hair? It was like shoulder length. I didn't know if that was real. I saw one where he looks fucking man go a guy haircut and he's just ready to go for and for that reason. Like I'm starting to believe. But last year we said the same things. I know. Didn't really work out for him and he does has has a habit almost like Dirk's hair where he would get a haircut before the season. Then never get another one. I do wonder if Luca gets really toned going into the season then all of a sudden he stops hitting the treadmill. And so I'm trying to to brace myself here with the Lucas situation because I've fallen for that before. Having said that, I have seen some of the photos of like the team hanging out with Luca and like everyone seems like they're having a good time. Okay. And it just reminded me last season. I thought if they just got to the playoffs that Luca and the Bronn together could probably solve some things at such a high level that anything could probably happen. They ultimately ended up getting to the second round with the Bronn doing just that by himself kind of cutting up a much more talented Houston Rockets team. Fortunately they faced the thunder in the next round. But like Thunder didn't have J. W. If they had Luca in there. Who knows what would have happened at that point. This team is a little bit more different. It's a little bit simpler, a little bit more easy put together specifically around Luca. And I got to say like I think we forget how much just like weirdness it must have been with the Bronn being there while still pivoting over to the Luca generation. Like what do you think about Austin Reeves? Like Austin Reeves starts hanging out with Luca more. Do you think like the Bronn was going to feel a certain way about that? And so like the cleanness of the fit of what's going on at the Lakers. I'm starting to have more hope than I thought after the team they put together considering that it seems like kind of the same sort of team ceiling wise as they were the year before. Let's look. Yeah, I think the ceiling is a little different. And maybe, frankly, a little lower than it could have been, right? Like the best version of a team with Reeves and Luca and LeBron. That was something we barely ever got a glimpse of. And so we never got to see everything that it could manifest. Everything that LeBron could have been as that kind of like tertiary creator he was settling into before Luca got hurt. This is, as you said, JV, like a simpler construction. Something we kind of have seen before that we understand. You can see like, okay, you got Matisse Thiebel in there now to kind of plug in as a wing defender. You have Quint Grimes to add as a shooter. It's like a lot of turnover for the team, but turnover in a way that feels recognizable and understandable. So it's like, I look at this group, I see the cohesive whole. I see how everyone fits into it. It's just something you can get on paper and can get behind. Will it be enough to challenge any of the elite teams in the West specifically San Antonio and OKC? I would say there's probably not really a chance of that at all. But to be firmly in the next group is no short shrift to anybody. And this is a good quality team with a superstar who could be poised. I say yet again, even as someone who is legally barred from choosing Luca Donchich as a preseason of VP, except tried to do it so many times and failed, could be poised for the best season of his career potentially. Yeah, there was an off. I wanted to pull this up. Maybe it's from Slovenia, but there was an offseason photo of them at a dinner where it's blanking Luca at the table. It kind of, it kind of sobered me up to what this is going to be like, kind of putting me where you were, what you ended up describing just now Rob Ware. And I'll send this in the chat where it's Dalton Connect, Zaire Williams, Brony, Aduthi Aero, Matisse Thibal and Jared Vanderbilt around him. And I originally thought it was Kevin O'Connor with them at the table, but it's Jake Laravia. I was sitting there looking at it, though, and I was just like, Luca, you poor bastard. Like it's just, it sucks that we saw the highest version of before he got, you know, booted inexplicably from Dallas. We saw the highest version of what like an optimized Luca Doncha's team looks like. It's like, this is an optimized version of what a, and that's, that's a nice thing about having a Lucas. He creates, he's a band leader that creates very clear jobs. It's like, we know that Luca writes the songs and we need a guy who can play a solo when it comes to that part of the song. We need a, you know, a keyboard player. He just, he kind of creates answers for questions. There's not a lot of guessing, but my thing is, if you're gonna lean on an optimized roster around Luca, you want to at least have some outs in case you have to pivot because what teams start to do inevitably is load up. I don't see any pivoting strategy away unless, 'cause we saw what like load-bearing Austin Reeves look like. Granted, he was coming back from an injury, you know, with, okay, see, I just don't see what the, what the pivot moves are for this team. If, if they do come up against a good, let's assume that they get into a playoff series. It just seems like it's pretty limited and there's still some, some things to, some questions to be answered about who they're gonna, how they're gonna level up to compete with the rest of the West. - Yeah, I don't know if I, I haven't really ranked the, the West or the League overall. I don't know if I would change where I'd put the Lakers, but it just feels like there's more of a breath of fresh air and you're starting to appreciate things a little bit more. I just like, it just must have sucked to, for both LeBron and Luca, both guys who want things their specific way. Don't must not have friction, but like, they're definitely like stepping on toes that they're not used to doing, and I have to imagine that just like compounded, and I think just having that release will make it easier, because like, they made it very clear from the jump that they were pivoting to a Luca-centric world view. LeBron was pretty outspoken in his own sort of like, behind closed doors sort of way about like, that sucked, he wanted to be appreciated. It seemed like that was the one thing, in addition to oil and hanging out with clutch players, he wanted for his next destination. And so I have to, I just feel like renewed with the Lakers, and I wonder if that has a compounding effect that may overcome sort of the same sort of issues that we're gonna talk about with them, the defensive concerns, the lack of depth, the lack of defense outside of Walker Kessler, if he does get hurt. And so I'm starting to feel good. Also, I was just looking up all NBA stuff the other day for some complete other reason. Just know that Luca not only has six all NBA nods, and I believe his eight seasons, the two times he didn't make it were a rookie year, and then the season he got traded, they're all first team. He has never not made the first team when he's made all, that's wild. He's a fucking ace, and every six months for some reason, people either decide to forget that, or get pulled into some weird debate about like his weight, or his injuries, or like, who isn't happy playing alongside him. He's one of the best players in the world. He's been one of the best players in the world in the second he stepped on NBA court, and frankly, maybe even before that. And so getting to see what this version of the Lakers can finally be, I mean, I think what we're talking about and dancing around is like, this is really the first version of the Lakers that is actually built around Luca, that is built with him and his strengths in mind. It has been a gradual shift in that direction. But I think what I'm gathering, JV, from what you're laying out here, is like the biggest addition of their off season, is not even Walker Kessler, is not even any of these guys, you know, Sandra Mamukhila's Villier, whoever else they brought in, it's just like the breath of fresh air of getting the final turning of the page that this group actually needed. And that is no small thing. Like that can be a really powerful transitional force for a lot of people, not just on the court, but in the organization more broadly. Like the LeBron era had run its course. That's not to say he wasn't still really effective, even at the very end of it. It's not to say that team couldn't have done something. They had their time, they won a championship, everyone is moving on. And moving on is probably healthy and happy for everybody here. - You, like, would you say, how many of the past, I was gonna say the past five years, you were talking about him being the best player in the world and people like tending to like, ebb and flow and remembering or forgetting about that. It's like, you could honestly, with a straight face, I'm not saying that I would reach this conclusion myself, just because there's some pretty strong candidates for this, but you could make a pretty straight-faced argument that he's the best offensive player in the world, I would say in the past. - Yeah. - Three, four, five years. I mean, he has, he's just had such an odd go of it recently that I think it causes people to forget that. And his region style of play can kind of has, it didn't sour people in the beginning. You could kind of start to feel that creeping in as we win. It's like is this ultimately gonna always hit a wall because of the way that he insists on playing, but I think he has that, he has a case for that even now as the best offensive player in the world. Just to be clear, that insistence to play a certain way is a flaw. And that's something that he has had to overcome and teams building around him had to overcome. He kind of had a child star sort of trajectory where he immediately was successful and then all of a sudden had things built around him. And I think he started to lean into that with how he expected things to be built around him. And that's something you have to contend with your team. Also, we should mention the fact that there's a new ownership coming in after he just got adapted to the new ownership. We don't even know the people that they just hired are gonna stay there. So that's like an unknown. And so we'll see if that stability is there, but it seems like team wise, there's the very least a clear vision for what's going on. - I'm happy to see it. I'm eager to see how this group kind of comes together. I share some of your concerns just about like the balance of the defense about, and I think some of what Kyle laid out too in terms of, I wouldn't will say it's not that the roster is like optimized around Luca, but maybe streamlined around Luca. Like everything is very simple in terms of, as you said, what they're being asked to do, but there isn't that like variable pop. There isn't like the young star here who's just like waiting for their opportunity. It's like Luca and secondarily Austin Reeves, and then we'll wait and see. I think they're still gonna be a really high level offensive team, but they're gonna be maybe even better than that to overcome some of the challenges they're gonna have on defense. - All right, do you guys want to do one of yours? - I would love to do one of mine, 'cause it's been rattling around my brain in light of current events. I think, I think I know, or really in this case, I would say I worry that the Minnesota or Timberwolves might be flying a little too close to the sun right now. They have signed Jonathan Kominga as Sean Strionnier reported. Look, on its own, no harm, no foul. Like two-year deal player options, $6 million in salary, like that's a rounding error in NBA terms. If you can get a talented player for $6 million, you should probably do it. He's apparently gonna be starting for this Timberwolves team. And I have many thoughts about that. My first thought is you never really wanna put your roster or your team in a position where you need Jonathan Kominga to start for it. I think that's probably like a bad premise from the jump. But if you're gonna be in that position, it's better to have the guy who can play plausibly good forward minutes than just have a roster that doesn't have enough forwards on it. And so the Wolves needed to do something. They needed some kind of filler. They needed some kind of stopgap. Post-Juleus Randall, Post-Noss Reed, like the whole front court has been remade in a dramatically different image. I just like, I was very on board for the energy surrounding the lamella ball deal. And now I'm sitting around looking at this team. And I'm like, the enthusiasm is still there. They're probably gonna be one of my most watch teams over the course of the season. They're gonna be like, top five on my league pass dial for a lot of very obvious reasons. But having to talk myself into Jonathan Kominga impact power forward is just, it's not something I wanted to do. - So what you, what it was that you're saying that you think you know which specific thing that it's a problem from the jump to have him in that situation, that's what you think you know. - I'm saying what I think I know is that stacking chaos on chaos by bringing lamella in in the first place and then bringing Jonathan Kominga in to play a critical role for your team might be like a little too much wild energy even for me. - I can understand it if you're the Wolves. 'Cause you know at this stage of my life, If I'm getting deeper and deeper into my dating life, you know, I've used a lot of you are all resources. You've been I pretty deep Well, it keeps getting better I've you went from what depth to what that snorkel scuba. Yeah, I've I've used all of the resources available to me I've really just left with what I have on like the options that are so few especially up here at Borland And I've exhausted all your resources And I look at it. It's usually down to a steady vet at this point. Yeah, or Someone that you really have to take a flyer on and I can understand considering where the wolves were That maybe they needed to go and get Garrett Temple out of retirement because they just needed a steady vet Someone you could build into something else. You know you see who is a steady. Are you like dating like a lady with with kids? Or like what oh, and then yeah, like you're talking about you're like I'm just trying to hold your woman who has a life together But yeah, maybe come out out of a divorce, you know, just like There's a lot of baggage. You have to work through but you can count on them to do all the the base level Yeah, please tell me we've had Justin Vair your meeting divorce kids Please tell me I just want to yeah, I would pay money. How have we not talked about can you please wear some Rayban glasses so that we can I would those numbers would be off the charts I just want to see Justin Vair in the Social media video me meeting children now if anything I've tried to avoid those situations I definitely have seen people with kids, but I've known in the back of my mind that there is a time limit to this because there's no fucking way that Kid wants anything to do with me so what you're saying is you're skewing away from the vets in favor of the projects is what I'm here, right? Well, sometimes it depends on on the week or the month, but I can understand the world's perspective Trying to reach especially if you saw something in Kaminga to begin with and it seems like a lot of teams have that where it's like Coming out of the draft like oh if we just got our hands on this guy we could bring out X Y and Z Kaminga seems like the clear cut case of that. I don't get it as well I would have leaned to the Garrett temple type even though I know he's on an assistant coaching bench at this point, but like I could see where they led them to that because the options were so few considering what they had on it. Yeah When I was kind of brainstorming on this The question that I kind of kept circling back to like a drain was a Simple one, and that is what do we think that Jonathan Kaminga is coming into this situation assuming? Oh, yes What clearly he's assuming he's going to start based on the reporting Clearly by the length of his contract and he turned down Reportedly a three-year 36 million dollar deal offer from the Lakers to also start for them So it's the one plus one player option flexibility of like not only does he want to play he wants to play and prove it immediately And if we've learned anything about Jonathan Kaminga over the course of his career It's that this dude is just like jumping out of planes and trying to negotiate a parachute on the way down every single time Good It hasn't gone great to the point that I'm curious if you guys have seen this quote from From his agent that's been going around this is a quote from the San Francisco standard This was after the last round of negotiations with the warriors fell apart last year in which he was offered What was that uh three-year 75 million Jonathan Kaminga turned down with the warriors and this was the quote from his agent where his agent said Hold on did I fumble something because fumbling would mean like next year if JK is making 10 million dollars a year You could say I fumbled by not taking the three years for 75 But you can't say I fumbled fumbled because I haven't fumbled anything yet end quote Um Very like what are you going to do stab me energy Coming out of the the post Jonathan Kaminga. It's a very will fearless George Bush like quote None to do it. I will yeah I mean this and this is reaching down to shooter levels of like contract management But at the same time like I don't care how much he makes and so if he would prefer to bet on himself sure Like I get it it is probably one of the worst fumbles of doing so in recent NBA history I get it I ultimately don't think he matters much in terms of the wolves because at this stage like I think I would just do move probably gonna close if not just start or so plant him in the starting lineup And then when Dante DeFengenzo comes back if he comes back I think he's gonna play a major role. That's a big deal though He's definitely heavy on two or three's rather than someone of Kaminga's type And especially if you don't want to wear Jayden McDaniel's down over the course of the season I can see where you can lead to Kaminga But I just don't think he's gonna matter because every stop of the way he really hasn't mattered to high level basketball and so For the wolves themselves. It's whatever for him. It's just unfortunate But this is his career you do whatever he wants. I just think he's gonna end up playing by process of elimination Whether to soon finish his game or games or not and I suspect you will like to soon Was just gonna be a better option and a lot on a lot of nights But this was a team that even when they were playing big was not a very good rebounding team And so it's like they keep really can't afford to play so many guards all the time and expect to get away from it Lamello can actually help a little bit there like a pretty good defensive rebounder for a guard if nothing else So you know, they're gonna try to plug holes as they can but I would be very surprised if Jonathan Kaminga whether he Starts by the end of the season but it's coming off the bench by the end of the season whatever his role might be Like he's gonna be a critical part of what the wolves are doing And that makes me nervous as someone who's just like trying to chart Where the wolves are going from here the I know you're saying that he ultimately is gonna be immaterial or you expect that I just kind of see that and I'm weighing that against the unstoppable force of his expectations for himself and You know talking about making big bets on himself. I just think In order for these bets to pay off I think he's gonna be trying to fulfill some vision of who he thinks he is to try to get that money back where he thinks it should be and to me that just When I'm wondering about what he assumes if he looks around that locker room I think there could be a key point of conflict if he thinks that he's better than Jayden McDaniels You know Jayden had a huge you know uptick last year in terms of creating for himself I do that's a guy who has really has a lot of sweat equity in the way that this team has been built I know that the wolves coaching staff their fan base that city adores him I don't see him being pushed to the side. I just could see that being Interesting and and I you know, it's obviously ants team They bring in Lamello to kind of take the pressure off of like okay. We can't load up on ant anymore I just think that If he sees himself as earlier in that pecking order than than the rest of the team does I just could see that being a problem where maybe they're forced to kind of remove him and make him immaterial yeah because he's gonna Yeah, just the way he's wired and the way he plays He's gonna just kind of paddle in that direction. I think yeah, sure ultimately his contract being so low Doesn't really give him much say and I think that happens and so if they have to move along Just like trade him or whatever. It does become easier after that. Yeah. Um Kyle. Do you want to do one of yours? Um, what one thing that I think I know is that I think the Cooper flag is gonna be an all-star this season I like this Uh this past year I was kind of going through and looking I think we all knew that with the absence of Capable ball handlers on that team This team was long and athletic and electric and they're one of the best transition teams They are they could they could run and jump and dunk with the best of them But when they had to sort of navigate space and create scoring shooting gravity It was just a lot He played point guard and 26% of his reps this past season in his minutes were at point guard He's better probably as a three who can sort of moonlight and toggle into that pick and roll kind of situation He also shot an unbelievable. Let's see at 44% of Cooper's field goals were jumpers and 41% of those were dribble pull ups just for comparison He's it was very lopsided towards pull up three said duke he shot 32 dribble threes and 100 catching shoots So what I'm seeing is I'm seeing a low three point percentage I'm seeing that affecting the way that he was guarded I think that with another ball handler Kyrie's brilliant. He's gonna come in Create a few more I expect that percentage to come up. I expect him to be in the elbow isolating more I think his game is gonna and gonna Find equilibrium and I think that he's gonna just explode because I think he's a driven fucker And I think he's gonna he's gonna be out for blood and I think he's gonna be an all star I'm I'm a really similar mind like whether he makes it or not. I think he's gonna have an all-star caliber all-star-ish kind of season It's just like so many parts of his game Draft off of other talent like if you have other good players if you have ball handlers Is they're saying Kyle it will create open shots for him and better opportunities if you have any kind of backline defense How competitive he is in like staying down and contesting people is gonna pay off that much more if you have any real offensive threats around him He wants to connect those dots and get those guys involved. These are really good facilitating passer And so it's like I think throughout his career He's always going to be the kind of guy who is additive to other talent if you have the baseline if you have even an okay roster It's gonna amplify what a lot of guys do well and this is kind of the start of that for the maps is having a real deal creator and Kyrie as you alluded to But also just like hopefully a healthier season with a like a rounder team overall and lineup around him. Yeah, I mean, they removed a lot of the friction that existed from the remnants of whatever was left from the Luke Dongecher and obviously getting rid of Clay recently kind of was like the last door to close outside of Kairina seems like at the very least they want to keep him around only to see what these guys look like together. I doubt he'll last the entire season there, if not like the entire year there. Honestly, I was wondering if you were going to say instead of ball star all NBA because I think like that's in play. I was looking at this historically. It's definitely rare, but it has happened with players of Cooper's caliber. It's a lot of like Tim Duncan, like guys who are successful would probably be the one sticking point, although there are a lot of like outliers in there too. LaTrol Spreewall apparently did it in his second year in the league when he was in Golden State. And I was like, I don't remember that at all. And so on the one hand, I think he'll have the opportunity to put up the numbers that would put him in contention for both of these honors. All NBA typically leads more toward team success. Like if you have to start from a place of being in a playoff team typically, but I don't know. I think at the very least he's going to be in the running for perhaps both of these things. Well, the maps are going to be fine. I would think they're going to be kind of like in the mix in the play in bubble group. But the West is not as stacked as you might expect based on the strength of that upper most tier. The rest of those teams are not that far separated. You know, the Lakers and the Wolves, the nuggets who have lost paid Watson. Like the maps are a little cut below them, but they're right there with, you know, the Blazers and the Sons. And you know, we'll see kind of what the Grizzlies are capable of or how good the jazz are exactly this season. But if those are your peers, if that's your competitive group, why not the maps? And so I think the question for all NBA is you're as you're talking about Justin's like, how high would they have to climb? How good would the team have to be to justify that kind of candidacy or to really just like propel that kind of candidacy? I don't think they're quite there, but I don't know. It's not impossible that the maps could end up with the sixth best record in the Western Conference. Like that's not outside the realm of possibility. It seems a little strong for me, but I mean, they're definitely going to be you're talking about streamlining with the Lakers. They definitely did streamline with their moves. But it's interesting. You said Latrelle Spreewell in his second year, Latrelle played some college, but I just looked it up on sat head here at seasons, stopping at age 20 who did all NBA. It's only three guys. LeBron did it no 405. Luca did it in 1920 and then Kobe Bryant did it in 98.99. So that's a pretty, that's a pretty elite group of guys. But I think what we're ultimately saying is lag has suggested that he might be on this level. We might be talking about a historic guy. And I think this is the year that we'll probably find out for sure, because the first year is usually the plurped pridelude. The second year is usually they get enough underneath them that they can kind of hit the ground running and do all the boxes that they need to in order to get into awards consideration. All right. Do you want to do another one here? Yeah, what you got? I think I'm up. Okay. So the Cavs obviously made a pretty big trade here. Honestly, this whole Peyton Watton's situation, the big takeaway I have from it is the Cavs behaved like the team that the Denver Nuggets should have. And especially in this time, where as I alluded to before, teams are treating their rosters and their constructions more about assets for their future earnings or whatever it might be. It was very nice to see the Cavs go out and spend whatever they had to do in terms of assets in order to build the appropriate team to really hit the ground running this year. It really reminded me of how you could hold two ideas about one thing or one person, because I think nobody really like threads the needle more than Dan Gilbert, who on the one hand, just writing like hate screed about a player. It's like, let's put that in the not great category when Ron leaves. What about the predatory lending practices? Like where did those fall for you? Well, apparently, that's part for the course. I don't know if you're a liar in that regard. But routinely, he has been willing to spend first LeBron era going out and getting a guy practically every season. It didn't work because it usually was like past his prime Anton Jamison or like JJ Hickson, but he was at the very least willing to spend in that regard. They went over the second apron more recently. And now, yet again, dealing a 2031 pick in order to get Peyton Watson. And we could talk about like where they are in the East as a result of that, how the Fed is all that other stuff. But just the move to go and do that. I love it. Like this is how NBA teams should behave. And yet we have all of these rules that are suppressing this very thing. The Cavs went out and did the exact thing that Denver should have done with with Yokech on the last year of his deal, needing to go into this offseason, make a big splash. And so we should be applauding. We absolutely should be applauding it. I would say more than anything, because Peyton Watson is a bit of an unknown, because this is not like someone that everyone in the league fully understands where his talent has been maxed out. And you can put a very clean number on what you think he does on a basketball court. There's a lot of disagreement among basketball people, among just on what Peyton Watson might become and how good he might ultimately be. And for the nuggets, a team that is desperate for that kind of upside, desperate for just like anyone on the roster who could over achieve beyond their role in circumstances to to bulk financially at paying admittedly deep into the second apron and tax and hamstring themselves in all those ways, while the Cavs take on some version of that same risk admittedly at their lower tier in terms of the aprons and all that. I'm with you, Justin. Like this, this is exactly the kind of gamble you want a team like Cleveland to take, especially because they have so many things nailed down. Like the other four guys who are starting, we know who they are. We have seen so many wings cycle through here at this point in various iterations. None of it has quite worked. None of it has quite clicked. I don't think Peyton Watson is an airtight fit by any means, but he's exactly the kind of interesting fit I want to see if he has a shot to pull this team together and give them some new life. Yeah, for the nuggets, it's really an undermining of the miraculous nature, the miraculous circumstances that caused them to get one of the best players of all time. And for them to not, you know, honor that miracle that they were gifted by, you know, spending, choosing sort of like an aggressive mindset to sort of help him. Yeah, it does suck and it makes you wonder if the the basketball gods are going to strike them with lightning at some point and make them pay for that. Maybe they already have with just the what's coming up. But in terms of Peyton Watson for the Cavs, they are in a position here where if you're going to build your team around, you know, Donovan Mitchell and James Harden, you're asking a whole lot of the three spot with the way that this team has been built. You know, you need the guy, you need whoever your three is to be able to slide down and guard ones and twos like beyond the ball a lot. You also need to be somebody that can create some for yourself, hit open shots. It's just you start to, when you start to check filters, I don't know, it's like you're on Zillow and you're just like, okay, I want a 3000 square foot house for this amount of money. And it needs these amount. And you just kind of watch the map. Go down. I'm just that square footage. All right. I'm just saying you start to just watch the dots on the map. Go away. And it's like, okay, we've we've created a market for ourselves or circumstance for ourselves to to succeed. That is just very, very tricky and good for them. It's a coup that they could get a guy that not only kind of could I agree with you that the jury is very much out in terms of like he did show some things in terms of some on ball creation that I raised a lot of eyebrows, a lot of like hitting threes, hitting pull up threes, being like in Cindy area, athletically, all those things are awesome. We want to see more proof of that. But for the calves to put themselves in the position to be the beneficiary of, okay, if this next iteration of Peyton Watson does turn out to be a superstar like the concerning the circumstances that they're in is a pretty big is a coup for the calf. So definitely even though it might not go great, but for them to have the opportunity to see if it's going to go great is a huge huge win for them. Yeah, considering the way he's been talked about on podcast, you would think that Peyton Watson has been a five time all star. He really has 54 games. If that like really the second half of that before he got injured, where he just looked lights out. And so we'll see how much he needs to tap into that, but I think he fills that void in a way that the calves have been searching for practically since they got done of in Mitchell. We were saying that before where it's like, oh, they have these four guys before it was Garland before harden, where you just needed a three type in order to thread the needle. He seems to fill that if he's just the defender that he has proven to be and he adds all that other offensive stuff as a bonus. If you want to explore the studio space, I think he just fits great. There's like shooting concerns overall because you're expecting between Watson Allen and Moby, like, is there enough shooting there to conflict there? But like, I do think you have insulated and provided the best possible support system if your team is hard in Mitchell. Ultimately, if you were to say like, where do I think the calves will finish in the east? I still am dubious because of the hardened situation. It is unfortunate that they did that because it seemed like it also prevented them perhaps from getting in LeBron, Derby and Ernest, but this is what they had available to them. And I think Watson is the absolute like best case scenario that they could come up with. I could also say the same things about the Denver Nuggets. They need that defense and just the stability. They're especially with all the concerns that we have about Aaron Gordon, like, the teams that are like split between front court and guards. A lot of teams ended up doing like, they need to have this exact type of player. The calves have him and they were willing to spend to get him. That's, that's incredible. Like, this, this is exactly what teams should be doing. Yeah. Especially to try to pack all of Peyton Watson's talent between those bookends of the guards and the biggs. And it can be narrow. It can be defined in some ways. I'm with you. They're like, who Peyton Watson is as a defender or at least has shown to be? I believe in that player, but as Kyle kind of brought up, I'm curious about not is he a good defender, but is he good at the defensive assignments that the calves need him to take? Specifically that like switching over to defend guards. And the other part of this that we're not really talking about yet is making this addition is not only a swing for the kind of wing that the Cavaliers need, but it's a move that keeps the door open if they ever want to more dramatically change the shape of their front court. Like this is this Peyton Watson could be a full-time starting power forward for the pleading Cavaliers in two years. That could be a thing that they, you know, explore down the line if the need to sit like if that need arises. It's just nice to have a move that is like a big financial investment, a swing on talent that doesn't, you know, pull up the ladder behind you in terms of your ability to have some kind of escape plan from this thing if it doesn't work out. It just feels like a well considered move all around at a cost of the 2031 pick. But like that's that's what you do when you're a good teen that's on the verge of contention and been knocking on the door and trying to break through is you trade your picks for good players and hope for the best. Yeah. I think the hinging on like what he could be if they choose to make a move a grain of he's going to have to prove some things, I guess, to instill confidence that like, okay, we can go ahead and move a deer down and we can kind of move, Peyton into this role. I wanted to pose a question to you guys because I was thinking about the superstar orbiting kind of thing that's gone on in his career. It's going to be very different in terms of the touch time sort of the way that you exist in the flow of an offense with Nicole Yokech as opposed to a James Harden, they're just very different. Like James is going to linger on it a little bit more and a lot of his game is predicated on, you know, my will run as we kind of do our our check downs of like, can I score as the initial check down for James Harden, Yokech is not always the case. I'm just kind of wondering how much do we think that played a role in Peyton thriving granted his picking role numbers, his catch and shoes were amazing, 161 attempts at 46%. I expect those things to translate. I just kind of wonder what his offensive life, assuming the defensive stuff will work. I wonder what his offensive life is going to be like next compared, next to these two guys compared to Yokech. I think it's going to be pretty streamlined because the Cavs offense off, like often functions that way, whether it's starting with Harden or Mitchell, and Harden I will say over time has tilted a little more. He's always been a perfectly willing playmaker, a really prolific passer to say the least, but like he can't get to the rim the way he used to. So it's not always like, can I dribble, penetrate anymore? It's just like, let me bail out of this at the first sign of any advantage. And if that ball swings to Peyton Watson in the corner, all the better, like to me, it's not about the creativity of the touch time for Watson so much as like how real was his like somewhat low volume three point shooting last season that was excellent. Like is he going to be a 42% three point shooter or a 3435% three point shooter? Because it's one of the most unstable stats anywhere in the NBA guys very wild these season to season who who Peyton Watson is as a shooter is not nailed down yet. And so if he can be someone who actually is a threat, who actually is drawing defensive attention while playing a pretty simplified role operating out of the corners on a lot of possessions, like I think that's I think that's well within what he seems to be capable of. Yeah. I also wonder if it's a regular season versus postseason sort of thing. Like if you have someone at the advanced stage of the career like Harden, are you selling Peyton Watson on the opportunity to have these sort of reps over the course of the regular season, where you're not necessarily stepping on him. It's more like letting Peyton watch and explore and then we get to the playoffs and you're playing a more streamlined role. And then when Harden kind of advances out in mid to retired or whatever happens like Watson becomes more of an essential player down road sort of thing because he does need more time. Well, and as as a bit of a personality counterbalance to Evan Mobley as well, right? Like I think the cats have been hoping that over time Mobley would be more and more aggressive offensively that he would impose himself more and more. We see flashes of that. We see moments of it, but it kind of comes and goes Peyton wants to want to shoot like he wants to be the guy who as we saw last season could just like light it up from mid range in a given game. It's not consistent enough yet. It's not the baseline of what he's giving you from game to game. But when you get into those bench lineups, when you get into those like, you know, mid-second quarter, late third quarter kind of situations, I think he's going to want to take some of that authorship in a way that the process with Mobley, which has been promising at times, has just been more touch and go. I was going to say if we think back about like the Donovan era, the Donovan Mitchell era builds that the calves have had, I mean, he's probably the most upset creator upside like three that they've had. I think unless I'm forgetting, if you look back, I mean, Acoro obviously was just like, you know, shitness pants, hope if the ball was smaller, it's like my life is I'm living or dying based on these catch at you threes, I just don't think he was nearly as dynamic as Watson. And I think you're right, Rob where it's like, as you wait for Mobley to essentially be somebody he's not. I know he's in the garnet body and everybody wants him to be personality is just such a huge part of the way that these things play out and temperament and things like that. And it's like Watson gives them a little bit more of that unbridled, wild and woolly confidence that maybe maybe we'll push its boundaries and have to be like a chill a little bit kind of, but I think they need somebody that is willing to kind of walk up to those boundaries and on a given night, if somebody doesn't have it going, you know, Watson could give you 30, could give you 35, good, you know, I'm not saying consistently, but I definitely think that he's probably the best prospect that they've had in that spot in this era for the calves. I mean, while the nuggets have a de Marta Rosen, so that should be fun. Go on, great. All right, Rob, do you want to do yours? I would love to. I think I know who the pistons are because their roster is very similar to what it was last year. Caviat. Jalen Durin is just sitting out there without a contract right now. That's just dragging on and on. This happens sometimes for agency like everyone is doing what they're supposed to do. I get why Jalen Durin is holding out for the biggest deal he can possibly get. I get why the market forces allowed the pistons to squeeze in just this way and kind of weighed out the offer or, you know, the ultimately middle ground that they might want after the kind of play off the Jalen Durin had. But anytime this stuff gets into like September, October territory where they're restricted for agent, I just think you run a lot of risks like relationships, fracture feelings get hurt. Like there are cases where everything goes fine from this point. But I think part of the reason I am concerned and sort of circling the Jalen Durin situation is not because like Penn hasn't been put to paper yet on this particular deal. And what that means for tomorrow, but the fact that Penn hasn't been put to paper is like emblematic to me of the larger issues within the pistons of like you have this very promising young player who just had an absolute nightmare postseason in which he not only had some limitations as all young players do, but didn't do the things he's supposed to do well, well against basically any of their opponents or any matchups like that's a red flag. But he's 22 and so it's like you can talk yourself into that. But then you look down the roster and there is a also very good 23 year old to Sar Thompson on this team. And the playoff track record says every second that those guys are on the floor together, you have to solve a puzzle. And at what point is that financially not viable for the pistons anymore? What point is that more trouble than it's worth for the pistons? These are problems that are like down the road. But a huge reason why we are here and Jalen Durin does that have a contract is because of that like fundamental thing within Detroit's roster. And I don't know how to make sense of it just yet. Yeah. I think one thing that the Lakers did in addition to every other thing that they've been doing this off season is completely fuck the center market because Jalen Durin is probably arguing credibly his agent that we should be paid more and Walker Kessler who had not proven virtually anything for as opposed to Jalen Durin who's a 22 year old coming off of an all NBA season, but the pistons rightly so are saying, look at the fucking post season that you just had. We cannot give you that. And so I understand why this has become the new like just dug in all out war in terms of restricted free agency. This is dragging past even like Josh Giddy territory from before. I have to imagine that they will eventually come to terms because both sides need each other. But you're right. I don't know then all of a sudden this is going to be lingering over the season. And I just I just been really disappointed with the pistons did. They did get a lot of new names in there, but functionally just to replace similar roles that they had before. There's no like added spice to this dish anymore like maybe they use a saw in different ways. Maybe John Collins being able to flex for five like it gives him some versatility. I don't know. But I just it just doesn't really move me in a way and like listen, they won 60 games with what they had before. Maybe like a personality switch will just like get them past that like little bit of a hump they needed to not stretch out a first round series with the magic to seven games. I don't see it. I don't feel much optimism for them. And if they don't get this darn thing settled and he's playing on a one year make good deal, that's just going to completely corrupt them to the point where I would be worried about them, even get out of the first round. You raised an interesting point for me, Justin, a question that I had not considered until now, which is what spice is John Collins? What spice does he bring to the table? I'm tempted. Well, I think that you might be too robust. I think he might be like a margarine or something. Wait, what was that? Margarine. Margarine. Okay. I don't know. Margarine. Yeah. It's like floral-ish. Okay. - Okay. - Kind of bland, to be, it's like, if you, wherever like a college student or a young adult who got like the pre-assembled spice rack or whatever, it's the spice you never, ever use under basically any circumstances, 'cause it's a little conditional, never really seems like the right time. And yet here it is. It's just there and available, and I guess gonna be a prominent part of this particular distance to you. - I was revisiting some of Durance playoff exploits. - Exploit is probably too robust a word for his playoff, for his playoff, but just looking at the things that he did during the regular season, it was just like, it seemed like the moment that he wasn't against like playoff, like league average biggs doing the things that he did during the regular season. He just had trouble. Much as I was kind of teasing Evan Mobyley's personality, Evan Moby flat out punked him any time, any time that Durance was like, I'm gonna go create something for myself here, here Mobyley was just like, absolutely not. That's not gonna happen. And those are the inevitable sort of steps that they're gonna have to take if they wanna improve or even recreate the success they had last year. The East is gonna be better. And I think if you look at him, I know that we're saying, we always kinda reiterate with his age, we're like he's 22, he's 22, but the reality is that we wanna have the patience of the RC Bufered Popovich Spurs and say like, don't panic, let's not, even though he had a bit, teams will panic and get off of something that could improve, but the league's just different now in terms of the timetables and how much, how much time they're gonna have and how much runway they're gonna have to figure this out. And another thing I wanted to say is whenever you hear, I think the kind of thing in the air that is gonna hurt is that you didn't want me. It's just, there's a total lack of trust that's gonna hang over in the air. I wanted to note though, people whenever they talk about this, they always say you can't put the toothpaste back into the tube, you absolutely can. I just wanted to say, if you had the right syringe, like the pressure, I've seen this because I had a situation where you were going to a Mexican restaurant and you're like, how did they get the sauce? Like the sauce is always at the top of them. Like how did they do that? And I sat and watched this dude with a syringe, put the sauce back into the thing so that they were level at the end of the night overnight. All I'm saying is that it can be done, that's all. - Can I chart where we were just where? So we're talking about Jalen Durin. People, I don't know who are talking about two things. - No people would say the toothpaste is out of the tube but Durin, it's like there's no going back. You haven't used that expression with the Durin situation? - I've heard the phrase. - Yeah. - I just wanted to be clear that you can. You can put the toothpaste back. - From Durin, you have to be psychotic and not to put it in a syringe. - There is not a syringe that's taking on the consistency of toothpaste. It's like glopping that shit up. That's not a syringe. - That's not true. You could do it. It could be done. - What are you using a baser? What are you doing? - We have caulk guns that can push like you could do it. - So you want to use the intake of a caulk gun to like reverse pull up the toothpaste to then shoot into a tube? - I think that we could use if it was the right type of syringe. All you need is the tube, the pressurized tube to pull it up into it and you could get it back into the tooth. I'm just saying it could be done. This is like tech bro level innovation. You're like, I've reinvented toothpaste by putting the toothpaste back into the tube and it can't be done. - The question for the pistons is, what is their version of the syringe that could fix this? - Yes. - I don't really know what it is. I don't really know what skill development is gonna be required for them to solve this problem 'cause the clock's ticking and I'm really, really dubious. - You identified, I think the key thing is, it feels like this year, despite the fact that they still won 60 games last year. Like this is where the page turns on them being the precocious upstarts who have the world in front of them. A lot of the recent draft picks are starting to get big boy money. Like I believe a star is still up for an extension. Duran obviously has this contract situation. We'll see what like Ron Holland is after two seasons. I still don't really have a true sense of what's going on there. If anything, he feels like a second draft candidate where he'll probably have to figure himself out. I don't know another team because the pistons are at a certain level and he needs a little bit more rearing. But it does feel like things are starting to cement themselves and I am worried because on the one hand, you could make the devil's argument. Devil's argument. - The devil. - I like that. - The devil's argument. - The devil's duel. - You know what the devil's argument is? That you can put toothpaste back in the tooth. Don't listen to the demon on your shoulder, telling you that it can be done. - Well, this is a wrench. We're not into the training camp yet. I haven't got my idioms down yet. The devil's argument this fall on O.A.N. starring Kevin Spacey. - You can make the case that if the right move wasn't available to them, they still have their powder in order to go and do that, right? But time is kind of ticking. I would like them to make that by the middle of the season. - That's what I said. - Wait, don't meet it. Time is ticking. - Did you? - I got that. - Around the salsa. - You're rubbing your temples too hard. - No, look, the time is clearly ticking. On this, we all agree. There's just a lot of really good teams in the East. And the idea that the pistons are gonna roll out with a version of the same roster, plus John Collins and Isaiah Joe here or there. And win 60 games again. Not only is not a foregone conclusion, I would say is actively unlikely to happen. This is gonna be a team that's quite good that I expect to be right there. And you know, the 50, the 50s somewhere, I don't know exactly where, but they have to prove they're better than the next. They're gonna have to prove that they can beat a veteran team like the Sixers now. They're gonna have to prove they can beat the comebacks of Jason Tatum and Tyrie's Halibur and things they didn't really have to contend with on a regular basis all throughout last season. And so the standards are constantly rising. The expectations are rising. And if Jaylen Durin goes through another playoff in which he does that again, where he is not a defensive factor, where the physicality isn't really a part of his game, where he's getting beat on the glass by other good, but not exactly like superstar, like the window Carter juniors of the league, those red flags are gonna amount to a point where you are limited in your options as far as what you can do. And so everyone here has a lot to prove. I think the pistons have a burden of proof as far as like putting a roster together here that can feel balanced and make sense, given the limitations of their very talented young core. And certainly, Jaylen Durin has a lot to prove to validate really whatever contract he signs. If it is of any length of any substantial amount, like he needs to prove that all NBA appearance is not a fluke that this is something that can be sustainable, that I don't even care if he ever has a corner three or whatever, I just wanted to play like a big. I wanted to be a rolling factor in an actual playoff series. And we have yet to see that. - All right, Kyle, we wanted to hear your last one. - Yes, I do. This one would seem, I don't know how hot this is, but I think I know that the spurs are gonna win between 65 and 70 games this year. - 65 and 70. So your take is that the team that won the West is good. - I just think that they are going, I think that they're gonna have a season akin to the one that the Thunder had a couple of years ago, where they went nuts. I think we're on the verge because they answered a lot of questions. I think their second unit is not gonna be, it was interesting too to revisit some of the final stuff where you would go through and be like, "Man, the spurs are kickin' ass right now." And just the ups and the downs of their deaths, the death would just kind of like put them in a hole that they had to climb out of. I just think that they have so, you know, adding to bias Harris, which, you know, spring boards off of the Piston's conversation we were having, you know, they keep Harrison Barnes around, they add Terrace Reed, still have Carter Bryant who has upside. I think the Dylan Harper thing is, my God, I just, I went through, I was just for the pure fun of it as a basketball fan. I was like, I just wanna watch a bunch of Dylan Harper drives from the finals and I just was like, we did not over, we did not overreact to that at all. I was like, geez, I was Christ, he was just, they had no answer for him. I guess a big question here is just gonna be, is the Fox, you know, the Fox Harper thing is gonna have to find a better balance, I think, but I think this is a team that could potentially have the best record in the league. This season like that, I think they could have a pretty special season. - You know, as I'm just like scrolling through NBA player photos and like catching up with what they're doing in the off season, kind of figure out the spurs first, kind of like catch my eye every so often. It's all wimpy, like looking a little bit more tone and I was like, yeah, that's good. Love to see that he's in the gym, especially after last off season where he didn't get to do that. That's a one positive case for Kyle's whole theory here. The next one, all those guys show up to France and it's not just like some of the team, it's like most of the team including Deer and Fox and this is really what sold it on me. So seven of his teammates, including Kelly O'Linnick, not even on an NBA roster showed up. Love that. Seven of his teammates show up to a gym in Nantia French. Definitely got that right. - Which is where wimpy caught brawl for a while. - Yeah. - Yeah, so here are the names, Carter Bryant, Deer and Fox, already off to a great start. Fox is involved, love to see that. Dylan Harper, Stefan Castle, Harrison Barnes, free agent signing to bias Harris, new guy already in the mix and Jordan McLaughlin. Who knows how to take care of the little guys. He's like Rob with the interns. He knows that it's a collective effort and I appreciate that about Wimpy. He just has things dialed in. I don't know why he- He gave up a lot of money in order to build out the rest of his team. But sure as hell is going to help them continue to have this depth. If you want to spend some time drawing McLaughlin, that's fine. But the fact that he appreciates that 12th guy, that matters. So I'm high on this verse as well. It does matter. I'm glad they all got together. I'm sure it was very hard for all of them to justify taking a trip to France. This seems very tough. You know? Well, Kea is not just a typical destination. Okay. I probably have to take a plane to get to France and say the place again, say it one more out of here. Just once off the top. Okay. You have to probably take two flights just to get to France. And then you're what? Taking a bus? A subway? You're going through a lot of effort in order to get to Nantia. I'm just telling you. Look, I appreciate anyone who crosses time zones, certainly an ocean for the sake of basketball. Let's do it. I'm glad they all got out there. Clearly, this team is going to be awesome. I think the question is, like, after they have gone on a trip to the finals, do they have any more or less reason to approach, like, how does that shift how they approach the regular season? Where Wembe is playing 29 minutes of game as a baseline already. Yes, you have a lot and you need to figure out. You want to get your core guys on the floor as much as possible together. You want to work to buy his hairs into the mix, but you also want to find time for Carter Bryant to expand his role. You want to find like, is Jaden Quentin going to be a part of this rotation in any meaningful way? I think they're rostering like three or four rookies. Well, either of those guys on two ways, find their way into the rotation at any point. It is such a broad democratic operation in a way in the regular season where I could see us having an OKC type of conversation by the end of the year about, like, oh, look at these developmental success stories with the spurs, but that might mean that they win 62 games as opposed to 68 games. Yeah, I think the other thing in play here is that they're, we as the ringer are obligated to point this out whenever it's true, whenever it's potentially happened. And that is FU energy. I think they're going to be pissed off about that finals, even though though they. The next one for one and they were brilliant and they were the more mature team and they executed and they punished the spurs every single time they made a mistake. But they probably saw a lot of just like lost opportunity from that finals, I think, granted they're younger. So that doesn't sting as bad. But I think they're going to have a lot of FU energy. So I think the Wimbee MVP, I mean, I think that could be him hitting the sort of games and minutes, threshold could be another question because they do have to take him slowly. But he has that personality. And if they are a cult of personality that is driven by Wimbee, he is a big FU guy. That's just kind of why I feel like I could see them having a historic season. I would be surprised if they weren't the batting odds favorite, the team that gets picked the most to be the title winner next year that Wimbee is the front runner for MVP. I also think like they're probably best insulated to withstand injuries to anyone outside of their top player, but we just assume every team probably can't win the title without their best player. I think they could withstand a number two, number three injury in the way that even like, OK, C's clearly couldn't. They just have so much death and it seems like every Wimbee can cover up for so much that as long as he's there, like I believe they can do it. I was kind of struck by that. We talked about with the guards all the time, you know, Harper and Castle and Fox and kind of how they interchange and work together or don't, but even just looking at that front court rotation where it's like the Devon Vaselle, or I guess if you include the Wings, like Devon Vaselle, Carter Bryant into, you know, now Tobias, Julian Champagne, I would guess is going to come off the bench or maybe they'll bring Tobias off the bench who knows. Um, and Harrison Barnes just chilling. Harrison Barnes who had given them some good minutes last season and still can in spots here and there. It's like, that's just a formidable, really stable group. It's not, it was clearly wasn't enough to withstand everything that the next throughout them in the finals. You saw the limitations, I would think of Champagne in particular in that kind of spot. But if Tobias Harris is anything resembling the guy he was for the pistons, that's going to be such a great stabilizer for them in terms of some of their half court operations. I think what's interesting is like Tobias is going to be sort of ported into a situation that is going to be less demanding of him to like be an overly aggressive score. I think it's going to be, I don't know, it's like stunt casting on a, on a like bit part on a show. It's like this guy's overqualified to be like a background character in this situation, but that might be the right thing for him at this stage. It's like we're in this situation where the offense didn't the scheme or whatever normal flow or methodology we have of trying to score didn't yield a good look in the situation to bias in these situations create for yourself. And I think that could, that could sort of elevate the efficiency of what they do overall. All right. Why don't we wrap it there guys, great to be back. Yeah. So what's the export capability of your tomato farming right now? Is this like a thing that you can ship? Is this a thing you could put on a plane or a train? Can I come get some in some way? Are you responsible for cyclospora or whatever it's called? I imagine I can transport it, but I would need like one of those little dog carriers. And I would have to put it underneath my seat. And I'd have to consider it my one bag allowance and then I'd need all my stuff, you know. You do. It might be tough. Look, for those preseason power rinking pods, we're going to need some fresh produce. That's all I'm saying. Like if I don't have a Justin Barrier grown carrot or cucumber or head of lettuce, I'm just going to be a little miffed about it. You're going to try to make a nice like Caprese salad for us that is that what you're, is that your plan Rob like with that with adjusted barrier tomato? I think it pairs beautifully with a bunch of like, here's our conversation about the Milwaukee bucks, you know, I see, I'll do my best, but we're a month out from power rinking seasons. So I don't know what the yield will be at that point. Although I specifically trim the bottoms to create airflow so that there would be more later in the season. And it has worked out because you see those big ins, my boy, those things are big and juicy. I do see, I do see the bounty, but like, that sounds like pseudoscience what you just said. I don't believe a single word of what you just laid out, but I'm not the expert. Rob has no belief in it. He has no vision for for us, Justin, we're just, we're visionaries. We think toothpaste can get put back into tubes. We think that airflow helps big ins and maters get juicy and squeezable. And Rob is just a small minded. Let's just facts. Yeah. Fact face person. Yeah. Thank you to Cliff on production for filling in here. Thank you to Victoria Valencia. We'll be back. I'm not sure. Probably one more time before power rinking seasons, but we'll talk to you then.