NBA Hot Takes, OKC’s Red Flag, and Giannis vs. Father Time With Kirk Goldsberry and Joe House

We are also brought to you by the ringer podcast that work. I put up a rewatchable as a Monday night as part of CR Month. We did the nice guys with LA confidential coming next Monday speaking of movies. I was also on the big picture this week. They did a 1988 movie draft.

Sean Amanda CR myself. We drafted all the best 1988 movies great, phenomenal year, die hard, big, midnight run. It was kind of a bloodbath, but I had to get time, I hadn't been on that one a while so you can check that out. That's on Netflix as well.

This podcast, if you forgot, was on Netflix. We're going to be live on Sunday on Netflix. I think after next thunder, so it'll probably be 7 o'clock PT range on Netflix. And then if you're not tired of me by that point, April 8th, Wednesday night. San Francisco.

Yeah. The rewatchables.

We've never been in San Francisco.

We've been talking about it for a while, we're talking about could we go to Seattle, maybe San Francisco. We're going to San Francisco. I am bringing CR with me. I am bringing Van Lath in a Mallory Ribbon with me.

And we're going to be at the ACT's Tony Remby Theatre on Wednesday, April 8th. Tickets will go on sale Wednesday, April 1st at 10 a.m. Pacific.

“All you have to do is go to the ringer dot com slash events for more information.”

And I'll tell you what movie we're doing next week, but you will definitely enjoy it. And there's going to be, there's going to be laughs. There's going to be inappropriate stuff, I can't wait.

So San Francisco, I can't believe this has never happened, but it's happening.

It's the least we can do after disappointing where you're a season. So there you go. Coming up on this podcast, Kurt Goldzberg and I are going to talk about the NBA and all the stuff that went on last night. And some subplots as we head toward the end of the season.

We brought in Joe House to join us for the tail end of that. And then we had this big longevity project we wanted to talk about with the honest. And this thing I asked Kirk to do research on. And the thesis is basically, are there historical signs that you should not trade for got us pretty fast standing stuff?

We're not saying we're not advocating one way or the other. It is just, hey, there's some stuff going on here that we should really seriously discuss. So that is the podcast. We're taking a break. We're going to bring in our friends from Pro Jam and then Kurt Goldzberg.

This episode of the Bill Summonds podcast is presented by Sam's Club. It is that time of the year when you just got to get in your car and go somewhere. Then that plenty of times of my life, no where I get you ready to go. Quite like Sam's Club snacks the gear super low prices on gas. They got a bunch of stuff that keep you in the whole crew rolling.

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or older to purchase membership of membership is subject to qualifications. Visit Sam's Club dot com slash yes and for details. All right, we are recording this. It is a little past 10 o'clock a.m. Pacific time. You're going to do a bunch of basketball, it's a great sports weekend.

Joe House is going to join us in a little bit with Kirk Goldzberg. I want to talk about, um, okay, see Boston all NBA Detroit Atlanta Houston, Minnesota. A bunch of stuff we saw last night, just because I thought big picture. It got my brain turning on some stuff. Okay, see Boston, there were some stuff with OKC that I thought, you know, I don't

want to say concerned about a team that's potentially going to win 140 games in two years when the title last year. There's a too many guys thing with them that I'm going to be really interested to see how it resolves. I am a big believer in the too many guys theory in that in the playoffs, especially

you can get away winning a title with seven. You really need eight nine is fine, but it's probably around eight, they have 11. And I thought last night, they, one of the reasons they seemed a little disjointed was because all their guys are back and you have like McCain, Joe Wallace, you've all these guys coming up the bench and you just don't need 11 guys.

Um, when you watch them, what are you looking at like when you're projected them for May June?

“It's just as they had Joe's out, McCain's out, like where do we land ultimately?”

What's their crunch time five is the other question for me?

The crunch time five and even their starting five is a fair question. Last night, I thought there was a really big red flag with them in a specific way as we look forward into the playoffs bill. And that was Jay Dubb, who is clearly their number two offensive weapon. Yeah.

And they are very deep.

“But I think one of the reasons they didn't win last night is because Jay Dubb was”

in simply at the level, we expect them to be out. I think in the playoffs last year, he played 35 minutes was 21, six and five and had like 40 point out bursts and was the best player in the game and some playoff wins. And it was in the defense too. Yeah.

And he was two and nine last night. Yeah. And that's just not going to get it done. So I wouldn't say he's like the fully they're pippin. But in an NBA playoffs, it's very unforgiving and the West, you need a clear number

two and I think one of the things with too many guys thing is like, okay, we have AJ Mitchell and McCain and that's a really nice story. But they're filling in for the shots that I would expect Jay Dubb to be taking and making and putting pressure on the defense in a really different way than Jay does. So for me, it's not just a too many guys thing.

It's too many guys trying to fill in for a clear void where Jayland Williams used to be. Right. And they're looking at, can we ramp him up over the next month? Right. Get him back to where he was last year.

“The playoffs is a little more forgiving for them because they're basically going”

to be playing probably the clippers, right? Could be could be the warriors like who knows. Whatever. They'll be able. Phoenix would probably be the friskiest.

They could play. But I assume Phoenix is going to be the seven seed. With the Williams piece. And this happened in the O.K.C. Boston game, too, which Tatum did employing in O.K.C. and then they both played last night.

I was surprised how physically, I don't want to say overwhelming, but confident Boston was with the size advantages they had. And this is two straight games now with Jayland really being able to attack Dort. And nobody really goes at Dort like that, like really like being able to bang him and have him going backwards instead of forwards.

And then when you have Tatum, too, who I thought the second quarter was his best stretch

of the year and in general, his game was really good. And that was the best Tatum and Brown together game. But the wings they had on the size they had, I thought was a real problem for O.K.C. And I thought the same thing you did. Well, if Jayland Williams is last year's Jayland Williams, now that's somebody to throw on

one of those guys. Right. And you can do Dort on the other side. But it was it was a rare game where I thought, OK, C.C.m. small and I didn't think it was good, but I just felt like they felt a little undersized against the Celtics because SGA was

really good. I mean, he, you know, he, he was magnificent. He was 10 to 12. He was he couldn't have been more efficient offensively, he's getting the shots he wanted or again to the free throw line and they still lost by double figures.

So I don't want those to be able to find them. Right.

But that's one of those games and you do all the, you always do the season ticket guy

thing. It's like you circle that game. Oh my god. O.K.C. comes the Boston once, they're the champs. We're going to see where we're at, Tatum's back.

They're finally fully healthy. That was a bigger than a normal regular season game. I think that's fair to say. And Jayland Brown. Oh my god.

OK. So there were three plays I remember, one where he took Dort on the right baseline and just hammered it down. Yeah. So in the high post, and he just spun away and hammered it on, I forget who's coming over

to help on the rim protect there. And then he got SGA with his own medicine where he had the footwork, the push off, the up, it got him in the air and then draws the contact and even SGA had to smile afterwards. But they had no answers for Jayland Brown. Like this is the best defense in the league over the last two years, Bill.

And Jayland took everything they threw at him and just was the best player. I thought in the game. That would be my question to you.

“Do you feel like Jayland Brown was the best player in that game last night?”

SGA was really good. I mean, I just thought Jayland did what he's done over and over again this season is he's matched the other best player in the game. And this is why I want to talk about him a little later, but this is why I think there's

a really strong first team all in B.A. case for him now.

He's just been really consistent in these games. I thought, well, it was interesting by last night, okay, see one of the game. They were 12 and a row, they approached it, like we're going to kick these guys ass. They came out. They were up eight, nine, ten, really furred the first quarter of the game.

They kind of went gimmicky in the first quarter, which I thought was another kind of weird sign for them. They basically said, we're going to leave has a rope and they're not going to be expecting this. And it's like, why don't you scarred the Celtics straight up, like you have the best defense

I think for the Celtics, the big picture and curging thing is that they've, they've now played San Antonio, no K.C. and have just gone at them and really gone toe to toe with

“them, athletically, and I think had a lot of confidence with them.”

I wonder the type of teams that they've struggled with are teams that play with a ton of pace, like Minnesota on Sunday without any Edwards, just going up and down. The Celtics want to play a little more deliberately and so does OKC. So those types of teams are really good matchups. I think the next will potentially fall into that, but, but last night you could see the ceiling

of the Celtics team, I think, if Tade can look like Tade him, hear that great block. But just in general, like they're going to be able to go to toe to toe with these teams. They're a guard short, I think, is the thing, like I kind of wish they had somebody like McCain. They don't have a lot of leeway with going small or if white or matured has a bad game.

You could see like Anthony Simon, somebody like Anthony Simon, well, the most interesting,

“I think single, most interesting playoff line up wrinkle, and they did it twice yesterday”

for a little burst, and in the second quarter, it really helped them.

And they've experimented with it half of the games is Tade him at the five, right? Where I think it's good for him, because it doesn't have to move around much, he can kind of save his legs, but the rebounding is there, and I think it's so nice to have the rebound in back. But when they go a little smaller with him, we're shooting, and then it kind of

fucks up the other team's center too, because now he can take the center outside or he can go in, he can defend, and I wonder if that's going to be the key wrinkle. I don't know how much Garza we're going to get in the playoffs, maybe to put it in the matchup. Kade is going to have free throw, you know, foul, foul stuff, and I wonder if that's like the ultimate destiny of this team against certain matchups.

Tade him, Brown, a shooter, white, and Richard, and it could be Charming and one that it could be Hauser, it could be Hugo, whatever, but I do wonder if that's the ultimate destiny of them in huge, huge games. They have Vuchavitch, hopefully the hand gets right, and that's another huge piece of their depth in a way they can can throw a different front court look at an opponent with a

stretch five, I think that was the plan here, and we haven't really seen that as much as I'd like to, heading into the playoffs. Kade has been absolutely magnificent as it's all of that depth that we've talked about so many times on your show, but it's really cool to see Tade him, you know, my favorite Tade him play last night was he sort of had, I think, McCain, isolated, I think, okay,

see was playing zone, and he had him isolate on the right corner, and it looked like he's going to break him down and go attack, but instead he threw a huge skip pass, like the whole ground in the corner, yeah, that was great, and it was just to me to pitomize that hey, we still have these two guys, and if you're right, and I know we'll talk about this later where Jalen Brown season lands on the awards list, two of the

top seven, eight, nine guys in the league when they're both playing really well, that's

something, and that was the first line of my notes after last night's game is like this,

this game really re-established the Boston Celtics as the best team at least in the Eastern Conference, and if you look at Fandwell or anywhere you look, it's starting to be reflected in the odds to come out of the Eastern Conference, Boston is clearly the favorite now to win the East, I know you don't want to jinx anything, but, and then if you look at the records with you and I both love to do since January 1st, they have the best record

in the East since then, so all signs are pointing to sort of the dream outcome of this Tade summer turn that we've been talking about for the whole year. It's clicked and I think they can win the East. Sunday night was a little scary because they look bad in that Minnesota game, but from what everything I heard, the travel stuff was really like once in a decade crazy, like they were just on a runway in Memphis for seven hours. That's got foster wasn't there.

“Oh my god, and I think I just think that's why they looked like they didn't have legs in”

that Sunday game. And the Tadeum, the offensive stuff with him and the rating that the team

had the first day games and it just felt, it just felt clumsy. And yesterday is the first game,

I really felt like this feels like we're back now. We're Jaylin still, the alpha in a lot of ways, but Tadeum has they can carve out enough stretches. For okay see, like if they know, well I agree with you, they don't get Jayda back the way he was last year. I think they're really vulnerable against San Antonio. I think San Antonio could absolutely beat them watching okay see last night was the first because I'm in the camp of you got to you got to get

punched in the playoffs before you can actually win in the playoffs. Yeah, I just feel like the league has shown us that for the last 70 years. Maybe not maybe when you have a seven

is not Jayda, I do think San Antonio should have a lot of confidence in that series. Yeah, they

will. I'm not sure they deserve it, but it's that typical young man's confidence that I think was a pitomized by Victor Wembignama, the press conference where he's talking about why he's the MVP and he's just talking straight trash about the thunder and how he beat. They're going to be confident. Yeah. The fun castle is confidence in human form. I think whether they deserve to be that confident is a different question. And the record for February and

March would say they deserve that confident. And they've been the best team in the league for two months now. Yeah, 22 and one in the last 23 Wembignames. So they deserve to be confident. I as much of a spurs Homer is I am the thunder deserve to be the Western Conference favors. They deserve to be the title favorites at this phase to me. But I think what change bill since December is that they look a lot more beatable than they did when we were talking about this when they were

24 and 1 or whatever they were to start the season. I think they fall in a little bit. I think the biggest question is about Jaydov, the health, the heart and sting. Some of those three points shooting, too, like because the Celtics were doing that last night. I thought that that mass was great last night.

But he did that little adjustment where they basically played a pseudo zone shaded SGA. So he

didn't have this in kind of angles he had. And they were really putting pressure on the other shooters.

“And that's why like if you're not playing Isaiah Joe and then you're just basically pulling”

out the bench and being like can you make some threes for us when he's ice cold and as I played an hour and a half. That's why that 11 person thing is so interesting. It works for the regular season. But when you're actually in a playoff series and you're down to one in a series and you're on the road and game four, like I want to know whom I seven guys are at that point, you know. It's a great point. And I think you know even door made five a nine last night and that was

huge for the thunder. In a world where door who has come back to earth is a three point shooter. It's one sort of nerdy or subplots of the thunder season. In a world where he's 33% and J. Dub is at 30%. That team's a lot easier to guard. That's a lot easier to help on SGA. Once we're talking about Karuso old school door not making threes, some kind of limited J. Dub, the defensive game plan against the thunder is a lot more confident in a world where they can't just punish you with shooters

on the edge. 12 for 37 last night. And the rebounding Sutton's rabid out rebounding, too. So we'll see. Hold the J. Dub because I want to come back with that. But I do feel like okay see feels more vulnerable than they did. The Bill Simmons podcast is brought to you by Fandole baseball fans America's pastime is a game of decisions. Fandole bringing the same strategy to you for opening week with shoes. Your own reward. Now you get to pick the promo promo you want to use

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you. Hot takes. You can you can you can rank these on a scale in one to 10. Okay.

“Cades injury was the best thing that could have happened to trade. That is a 10. That is”

because I want to see him when he's back. If he's back in a hundred percent. Well, I'm saying

Dennis Jenkins is cool man. I love this kid's game. I love this to see that they're they're

staying in games. If not winning games with him running the offense and I do think Bill that's a huge part of the playoffs is having that secondary force on the bench and I think it has given them an opportunity. Duncan Robinson is making plays that would make they've all been sort of forced to promote their level of offense in the absence of Cade Cunningham in a way that I think we'll if it all lands perfectly make them a much more complete offensive team in the playoffs.

“So that's why I phrase that that way. Okay. We got to get that guy back though, man. We got to get”

came back. I just assume he's coming back. That's why that's why I put it that way. But what it did for Jenkins. This was the team that felt so Cade Centric. Two guys really benefited from him not being there. Dernan I think has gone up a level and I already had him as an all-in-be a guy. Now it's

like, yeah, can he make second team on my ballot? Like I had a bit of... Do you see him shut down Luca

for the last shot the other night? Oh yeah. It was I had somebody at the lake or say that's the best somebody's guard at Luca on the edge all year long. And it's six 11 monster. It was crazy. The case for him is very similar the case for Jaylin for first team. It's the consistency and the kind of fuck you energy he brings game to game that doesn't change no matter what night you're watching the pistons. That guy is just an absolute bat and it's been that case from game one this year.

He's intimidating. He's he's really competitive he'll do anything that you know whatever it'll take to win the game he's going to do it. I think he's really overpowered sometimes over the course of the year. I thought he was really good last time. I mean Detroit Atlanta was they had Detroit Atlanta okay see Boston same time. It was about as good as it gets. But I think that Jenkins piece of this he was cool as a bench guy. They had some guys who was like, "Edge, I want to take green. He seems

pretty good." Jenkins seems pretty good. He's like run the team and run crunch time plays and gotten good shots. And now I feel like in the playoffs that's a legitimate six man guy that's somebody who could play with Cade in the last five minutes. I didn't feel that way three weeks ago.

“So that's why I phrased the Cade thing that way. I kept thinking man Houston could use this guy.”

He said he could he could he could start for NBA teams. I I wasn't saying that about he had a big mid-range or last night. They tried to claw back and that game just didn't have it at the end. But yeah, I've been really impressed with him in tier earlier point without that injury to Cade. We don't see that. He doesn't develop that. The team doesn't get that confidence with him in the fold. The two best guys that don't play as much as they could and would make me really wonder

like from a free agency standpoint what they're worth. Legler was on AJ Mitchell early. Like could this guy just be the best guard on a on a real team? And I actually agree. I was even scared of him last night against the Celtics. It was like shit. I hope they don't run more place for AJ Mitchell. And then Jenkins now, I think has proven that maybe he could run a team. Like he's doing this over and over again at Lanna last night. He's been playing fantastic.

Yeah. And he and I thought he did a good job with them. That leads to my next my next take. Atlanta is real enough to make you believe, but not real enough that you won't regret believing in them. That's not a hot take. I'm going to give it a three. Okay. I believe in them. Again, the way I look at the game, this stretch is a analytically very impressive for a sustained amount of time now. Yeah. And then be if you talk to people around that team bill,

the vibes are immaculate. There are people saying stuff like we haven't had a locker room like this and and and decades. I wonder what changed. I wonder what it was. I wonder what happened.

“Well, last showhouse later, what it could be, but I think the key thing is they've not only had”

this major sort of vibe renovation, but they play so hard and so well for each other on defense. This is a great defense, potentially the best defense in the East, not named Detroit. And then Jalen Johnson's allowed to be more free in a keel Alexander Walker and they love Dyson Daniels. He's an easy, easy, weird guy. Jock Laundail. Like, they've, they've put something together here

that I wouldn't want to see in the first round where I'll go to you is bill. By the way, we

should mention 14 and one in their last 15 second in that rating for plus 14.4. What were you going to ask? They moved up to the, they moved up to the five seed and this is what I'm going to ask you. Five four, this Hawks team versus that Cleveland Cavaliers team at the four. Who are you picking?

it. They're tied to losses. They have the tiebreaker. So if you want to get super nerdy, trouble on them as the tiebreaker, but these are two trains going different speeds right now. And I like that Atlanta's going to land at the five if I had to guess. So if I'm Cleveland, I can't believe this played out this way. Where the whole time you're like, this is great. We get to play Toronto. We're going to kill them. And now all of a sudden, this Atlanta team

comes shot out of a cannon. Right. Here's why I don't totally believe it in Atlanta yet. As good as they bend and I agree with the industry and the team actually makes sense. Like, when you watch them, the pieces fit together, the bench, I actually kind of like,

me moving, getting ready to trade, moving Rishishay out of real minutes, basically just change

your season plus McCollum, the problem. So when you get in a playoff series, what if you watch carefully Atlanta at the end of these games, McCollum is their guy at the end of games, right? A lot of CJ McCollum. A lot of CJ. Now, we like CJ. He just had a really good career. I'm a fan. But now I'm going to playoff series. And I'm in two point games with three four minutes left. And now I have CJ McCollum versus Donovan Mitchell. Do I like my chances? Now I have,

now I have him against Jalen Brunson. I have him against Jalen and Jason. You know, like, I just, this is the problem and the playoff. So if this is your guy and he has to match the

“best guy in the other team, you have CJ McCollum and that's spot. And that's what makes me”

nervous about them. Last night, I think he had 11 or 12 straight points down the stretch for them. Nobody else could do anything against Detroit. And now he made the shots that won the game. But yeah, I found myself wondering the same thing. Is this really what we should expect from CJ and the playoffs? Is that, can you get out of round one if you haven't hero ball with CJ McCollum? Could you take him out? Just put, like, look, we're taking him out, putting a bigger defender on him.

As much as I love Jalen Johnson, and I don't know if he's second team or 13 for me, but he's

going to be on it all in the 18. Yeah. There's still an end of the game stuff with him that I think we're two years away from, right? Completely fair, dude. Yeah, he is, is majestic in the open court. He is a beautiful basketball player, but we have yet to see. All right, dude. Go get it done and crunch time. Yeah, he's just a defender. We're, we're in the early stages of him. But, Delana, this is real. The home games there are going to be rockets. They have great playoff home crowds for

“some reason. And I think they really like this team. So that's one. Next take, Jumal Murray is”

a second team on Baga. I haven't checked in on my exact second team in a minute. I know he started Red Hot. He is had the season. We've all been waiting for him to have in the regular season. I'll throw that back to you. I don't know if that's a hot take. Do you want to make the case one

way or the other? Yes. So you'd have to basically, you would have, I'm going down to my list. So you'd

have to, uh, if you assume SGA, when we look at Yoke as in Jalen is the top five, right, and Mitchell made me in the Jalen spot depending on how we want to go. I don't know if we're going to get Kade back in time. It's going to be five out of the last ten games. Yeah. No, I don't, it does sound like he's 100% close yet. But even if he does come back, Jalen might have taken his spot regardless. Like when you think Jalen is going to be 70 plus games on a team that almost has the same record, etc.

There's seven guys for that second team that I have, Kade, Mitchell, Jalen Johnson, Jumal Murray. I have Durin because I still want to vote for centers. If I can, I still would like to preserve some semblance of the history of the league and not just vote for the top 15 guys. And then Kauai and Aunt, Kauai's up 57 games. He can only miss two more ants at 58. And I think those are the seven and some order. Kauai's going to make this really hard if he gets to 65 because it's going to be

really hard not to have him on a team on the second team. Oh, at least yeah, he's he by some metrics he's a first team on B.A. before the sheer. But he's got to get to 65. And I said this does act the other day. It's like this is so stupid. You know, the biggest thing we're watching for all MBA over the last week of the season isn't like the game, Jalen had last night. Yeah. It's who's going to fill up the games played column and basketball reference to 65.

Yeah. Well, the players did allow it. So my guess is Durin probably falls to 13 unless a couple of these guys missed a minimum. But to me, I would feel great about putting him on a second team because I think he's been the second the third best center in the league beyond Wambi

“New York. I think he's the second most important reason that team's going to be the one seed”

and he's been durable and consistent and really gives a shit night after night after night,

Durin just showing up over and over again is a lot easier than guys that can just basically

take some time off here and there and just get to like 66 games. I don't know. Yeah, the other one

“that the wildcard for 13 for me is Castle. But I want to see, you know, the best thing about”

this is we have as much time as possible so that we don't have to decide now. Okay, next take. Houston, the body language doctor is just horrified. It's bad. This is bad. There was and first of all, it's the most disconnected of all the playoff teams. There's reminiscent vibes of Phoenix last year in that game we saw in person. There's a play last night where they fuck up at the end of regulation. And Shengun has to come down and he makes this absolutely insane

block to save the game on Randall. And then this is face on the floor and it's lip's bleeding. And if you, I, I, I really, I couldn't believe it. I rebounded. I was like, oh man, the rocket's gonna run over him, right? Nope. Reach Shepherd comes over kind of like gives them a nice job buddy.

Like it's the end of the first quarter or something. Durin doesn't even acknowledge him really.

And nobody else in the rocket comes over and Shengun just walks back. This was like, you're a national TV. This was like one of the best places Shengun's career was insane. I thought it was gonna get hurt. And that team is just so, so not on the same page that it was kind of like, yeah, a good good job where to go. And then at the end of the game when they screwed up again on the imbalance, and you could just see Shengun standing near the basket like this,

which you're, you know, kept it for an extra three seconds. I don't like the vibes, something's really wrong with the rockets. Specifically the offense. So like since January 1st, I'm sort of stealing the X-point with you guys on Sunday. You know, they've ranked 22nd in the NBA in offense for half the season bill. Right. But just to put that in context, there's 10 teams that aren't trying to win. You know, and there's a team like Memphis who's nine and 30 in that

time that has a more efficient offense than the team with Kevin fucking to ran on it. Like what is going on here? How do you, how do the Memphis Grizzlies have a better offense than the

Houston rockets for essentially this second half of the season? And the vibes are off. I know

what I thought. Off is like a compliment. It's the vibes are horrible. So they're 18th and they're last 25 offense of rating. Yeah. It's not a small sample at this point. And it's the clock toilet offense personified, which we had in Boston in 22. But I just can't believe how lazy the

“offense is. But you have four good who should be impossible a guard for some bigs. You have to”

rant who is impossible a guard for virtually anybody of almond Thompson who's one of the sort attacking driving players. You have read shepherd. There should be a top 15 offense in there. Am I right? I was so they don't have offensive rebound anymore with Adams gone. Right. They don't have a point guard because shepherd just gets yanked in and out depending on how he may feeling that day. I think email, I think this has been one of the worst coaching jobs of the year. I don't see any adjustments late.

The vibes are awful. I don't think he really likes to team that much. And if you want to go full conspiracy on it, they have not looked the same since they all start breaking all the KD burners stuff. Whether that was true or not true. They've not looked the same and they don't seem connected at all. And it crossed my mind too. Every time I bring this up on a pot or when I had my column back in the

“day and it's like this, something looks off. And then I remember doing this with the clippers when”

I go to the clipper games. It's like these guys don't seem like they like each other and then they would get mad and defensive and then years pass and it's like, yeah, we didn't really like each other. Yeah, it was really, it was really not great vibes there. It's like, yeah, we could see it's basketball. It's the most naked of all the sports we have. And this Houston the vibes are off. They just are. And everyone wants to play them in the playoffs. Everybody, nobody wants to play Minnesota.

Nobody wants to play Luke and the Lakers. You want to play Houston. And I do wonder, like, are we going to have joking? You know, like, if the Lakers in Denver, if you had a chance to play Houston in this succeed, are we going to have Denver just going all out trying to get to three seed being like, we got to try to play Houston versus like, other years where we've seen teams go backwards and try to like,

tank the last two games. That is to be the opposite. I'm Denver. I'm going full force with three seed.

as much as I want to be a spurs home or that's a good deal. So getting to three in playing

“Houston at the six right now, L.A. is strongly, I would say strongly in position to hold the three”

seed. But man, I would also give us something like a LeBron KD playoffs series, which would be a

electric in the first round. But I would not feel good about Houston's offense, keeping up with the

smoke show that is the L.A. Lakers offense at the stage or Houston's chemistry. Yeah, Houston. So the easy games they have left. They have Memphis. This is Houston. They're Milwaukee. They've Utah. They have the Golden State corpses. If it Memphis again. So it's not like they're going to fall back to Phoenix. Denver on the other hand, they have Utah and Golden State as their next two. They're Utah again, San Antonio, Portland, Memphis, okay see who might not

care at that point because they might have it locked up in San Antonio who might not care because of the two seed locked up. So there's a chance they could basically run the slate. Joe has this here. He has no idea what we're talking about. Good Joe. How's my current? We're talking about the vibes on Houston and how this is not the good ship, Lollipop. Did you notice that last night on the television set? Buddy, I've been noticing it for for a minute now and you and I have

been trying to play close attention to this Houston team. I'll put it in this kind of context in the first place. You'll recall as the trade deadline approached their regular season. Season wind total was sitting at like 53 and a half. And I said when Houston doesn't do anything at the trade deadline, then I am hammering that under. I'm I'm I'm taking some portion of the mortgage and putting it on the under for this Houston team. And it's largely because of something that

we smelled out in the first half of the season. This was before the calendar flipped into 2026. They have fourth quarter scoring problems. And it looked like in the early season, we were wondering to ourselves and our text thread and otherwise. Are they experimenting? Is there a reason that

“read Shepherd isn't on the floor in the fourth quarter of these games getting getting touches?”

Is there a reason they're running offense through San Gune and then trying to get the rant to bail them out? Well, all of those things are still staring us right in the face. And it's a failure. At this point in the season, we have enough of a sample size. This version of the Houston rockets is not a serious team, not in this west to the way that it's configured with the teams that are rounding into form KGU know this. This Lakers team especially, I mean, the the west is too much.

And this Houston that it's a bummer that Steven Adams got hurt. They never came up with a replacement

for the three-point shooting absence of Dylan Brooks and Jalen Green and FVV who got hurt at the beginning before the season even started. And here we are. They are a first round exit candidate in my humble opinion. Well, on top of it, the team most likely to all go to dinner together or at least likely. When was the last time you think the team all got together and had stakes? Send this pictures if that actually happened. So how it said sounds like you would be

wagering. Fandel has this. They have those uh, what is it where we can bet on when the team gets bounced in the playoffs? Oh, right. Elimination stage or something like that? Yes, so it basically it sounds like you would bet on, so it'd be team to advance to the western semi-finals.

“You would not be betting on Houston plus 160s, but that's what it sounds like. No, and that tells”

you something that it's, you know, the implied probability of that is not in favor of them advancing. All right. We're going to take a break and we're going to talk, I have a bunch of history stuff. Kirk and I have worked on some of it. How's does know anything we have coming? We're just going

to throw it at him in one second. There's some incredible line-ups in the NBA right now, but

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as it's a crazy look where you have five guys who can make three, as you can slash, and you can

“still somehow protect the rim. So that's my most intriguing line-up heading in the playoffs.”

There's some pretty tasty line-ups out there in general, but when we're talking topping combos, Domino's best day will ever top of the week, order any pizza with any topping for 999. I am an extra cheese pepperoni world-done guy. That's it. Simple man, extra cheese pepperoni. I'm good. Get Domino's best day, however. Today, and you can get an extra cheese pepperoni. Prices hiring some locations, select this online only offer from February 23rd until April 6th,

size availability varies by cross-type max 7 topping, 6 for New York style and pancrest. Stuff-crest extra excludes excellent, especially pizzas, minimum purchase required for delivery prices, participation delivery area and charges may vary. All right, Kirk, before we do our history lesson, two more quick things. Should she be disappointed in almond Thompson? Where we are? How's made of face? Why do you say 100% Kirk?

I say, because I look at the numbers, I love almond Thompson. I think he has still has all MBA potential, but the reason specifically Bill Simmons is that he is modeling like an inferior version of himself just compared to last year. In the exact phase of his career, where he's supposed to be blossoming into an all-sorn in all MBA talent, he's actually going the other way,

“according to all the advanced stuff. If you want to bring it back to specific things,”

he's arguably the worst shooter in the NBA right now. He has the worst jump-shooting efficiency and the worst shot-making impact in the entire NBA. So, he needs to become a shooter until then defenses will be able to defend him very effectively. And I thought that was going to happen this year and in fact, he's gotten worse. I test this back in that up for me. I thought they were really

given him a chance to basically be like, maybe you could be our point card. They've given up on that

and it seems like he's lost offensive confidence house. I think house is not, so it seems like he agrees. Do you understand? Do you understand on it? Yeah, give us a step. Yeah, so 216 guys have taken at least 200 jumpers this year. He ranks 216th by a Harris County mile. I would say. He is, you know, I look at that guy for years that's been of something I looked at. I don't want him to be there. I'm not happy about this. But to Joe

House's point is like this dude should be on all NBA guy in the next few years, but that's the specific thing he's got to fix. So let me ask a question because this was the reputation coming into the NBA. The open question around the Thompson Twins, around both of them, will they be able to knock down that open jumper that the NBA reveals their athleticism gives them that space that room. Is it fair to be, I mean, the number is the number 216 out of 216 is pretty compelling.

But is it time? Is it fair? The circumstances under which he's being asked to kind of run this offense. He's not ready for it. And it's apparent and he would be so well served much better served in a version of the offense that existed last season in a version of the offense that had Steven Adams in a version of the offense with AVV V. God, I'll get that right at some point. Running running point is it, I mean, he's taking the shots, but he's not ready. That's the way that it feels to me.

Well, if you just switched on with his brother and Detroit is in a better situation. Yes. Yeah, right. It's a great one to look at him. Next topic quick MVP. So it's Thursday, still a morning Pacific time. She's down to plus to minus 700 now. Wemby's plus 650 and Lucas F. 51. If San Antonio passes OKC and gets the one seed, is there now a Wemby case for you? Because I'm not even prepared to consider it unless they're

the one seed. If they're the one seed, I'm prepared to consider it. So House, would you,

“would that change anything in your brain about the MVP and where you're landing?”

So I love that sort of phrasing of it. Will we consider it right now? We're not considering it, but we would consider it if they achieved the one seed. I think that's exactly the right way. There are two set it up. Two back from OKC. And it's desirable to be the one seed in this West. For sure, you don't want to mess with the two three is going to produce going into the

second round, but the answer to me is no still. It's still SGA to me. That's not even as well.

If Wemby gets the one seed, is that change it? Yeah, I'll already take Wemby's case. Just as the resident spurs guy, let me play the, let me make the case. Do it. The most impactful player in the NBA right now is Victor Wembyama. And he is right. Defense is half the game. And any team that puts Victor Wembyama on the basketball court immediately becomes the best paint protection team in the league. It is fair to say, like, this is an 82 game

“award. And I think Victor's best case is since January 1st since the spurs of the best record in the league.”

So I think Bill, you have a strong point there. But I don't think he's that far down on offense on the ladder of most impactful offensive players. And I think he is by far in a way the most impactful defense of player on this planet. And that's where I arrive at the place where he is the most valuable player in the NBA right now. So they played Denver two more times. And once on Saturday April 4th, and then last game in the season April 12th, which could have potentially mean something

for Denver. And if he kind of kicks Yoke and just asks in that April 4th game, I think there will

be some momentum. But we will see. Okay. Jalen Brown, how's I said? I think he has to be first team on

the NBA with 10 games left. I think he's in the spot now. He has a chance to lose it if he sucks the last time games or whatever. A couple history, Jalen thinks for you. Right now he's 28.6 points a game. 7 rebounds a game. 5.2 assists a game. So he's a 28, 7 and 5 guy, edging toward 29, 7 and 5. Let's put it 65 games. He's over 2200 minutes. Do you own the NBA history? And you try to find the 28, 7, 5 club this century. 28.7 rebounds five assists this century. It's Joker,

Janice, Luca, Westbrook, Carden, Katie, and LeBron. And that's the entire list. If you go history since 1968, basically, it's MJ Bird, Kareem, and Havlochek have done it. It's only happened 25 times since 1970, 28.5 points in above only 20 times in NBA history. And then even if you go 27, 7 and 5 with guys playing 60 games or more in their year 10 season or later, it's Havlochek, LeBron, Yoke, Janice, three times.

I don't think he's getting enough credit for the season. And I'm not saying that as like Boston Homer guy. I'm like, 'cause I'm watching a game to game when my discuss shows up every night

and what he's doing statistically. And now, I guess the first question is, is there a little bit

of a mid 90s steroids bump with some of these numbers? Are they all like 10 to 12% higher than maybe if you're comparing them to 20 years ago, 30 years ago, just because of the pace, some of the changes they've made. Is it just easier to be a 28, 7, 5 guy now? Well, we know the answer to that because we have regular games not going into over time where the teams are scoring 153 points to it. Right. So we certainly, there is plenty of evidence I think

“over the course of the season. The interesting thing to me is you have to draw a really, really,”

hard distinction between spite of Mitchell, Kate Cunningham, and Jalen, because you have three guys, I think we have three guys that we say are on first team no matter what. And that's Wambi, Joker, and SGA. I think it's on there no matter what now. I think he's grabbed the first bite. Yeah, I just think, okay. I don't see any version where he's not on first team. You agree, Curt?

Yeah, I do. And I say yes to be on that. The core four foreigners as I always call them.

Yeah, those guys, those guys are on everything now. Yeah, this is where Curt gets seen a phobic. He's like, what the fuck? But I remember it was an even harder about LA 28 guys. So if you go and Jalen versus Mitchell, offensively even. Jalen, the stuff he is doing defensively is just at a complete new level that's not even near where Mitchell is. He's guarded last time he guarded SGA for a lot of the second half. He's doing that game after game. He's choosing to guard the best guy in the other team.

And then his record's going to be better. Right? And they've had some more fun with stuff. So I just feel like he has to have an edge. Cates a tougher one because they're going to be the one seed.

“Yeah. And depending on when he can come back in time, you know, that's why this isn't a slam dunk yet.”

But when you hear like the names that Jalen's in with this season Kirk, it says it make you go, whoa, I didn't realize it was that good. I hadn't thought about it statistically because for me, it's been almost like a real primitive thing.

It's just like, oh, it's because Jalen Brown leveled up. Oh, he is a mid-range game now. He's a leader now. So for me, that's where I was. And this is the question I would ask you guys. For me, it's almost like those core four foreigners who all happen to be in the western

“conference, right? Really, the question is, who's the MVP of the eastern conference?”

And to me, it's clearly Cade or Jalen Brown. Yeah, I agree with that. And I'm going to make you mad Bill Simmons because I think if Cade gets to 65, which is a big if, I'm given it to Cade just because of what they've done, where they've come from. But also say, I'm not mad at anybody says it's Jalen Brown. Come on. I think it's fair. But you think like what the overunders were before the year, right. And the cells were what 41 and a half. And Detroit was 47 and a half.

So you're the Boston guy. I'm mad at you, by the way. How can we sit in October when we're trying to to allocate? We advocate money. Not enough. This is the point that the correct point is Joe Missoula will not permit this. It doesn't matter who's on the goddamn team. He has 12 players and he's rolling them out. And they're going to play their ass off every goddamn night. That point wasn't made forcefully enough. I feel like, well, we need to say this with Joe. And I

because Bill won't say it. But I think Brad deserves credit for building this sort of bones of this team now. It almost disperse like, which is like, oh, Tiago, Splitter and Boris, Tiago and Patty Mills are starting tonight. Yeah. Oh, they're going to win anyway. Like,

“and look, that's what's happened. I didn't think about that last year. Think the players”

they got rid of, right? And the off season, it didn't give an indication, you know, that what what they had in the pipeline wasn't jumping off the page. You weren't saying, oh, Kate is going to we're going to see him with these upper echelon, rebounding numbers and his room protection. That wasn't the conversation we were having in October. I blame Bill Simmons. That's all. I like

Kate. I never thought he would be in the running for most improved player. I mean, the odds don't

reflect it. But if, if I had said to you before this season has, here are the minutes per game for this Celtic season. I somebody gave it to me in a time machine. Kate at 25 minutes, hazard 24, Garza 15, Jordan wall 17 and Shireman 17, who goes going to play 15? We would have been like, wow, is that a 21 team? What's going on? I blame you. The Shireman thing is is, I'll tell you, I'm all in on Shireman as a playoff guy. And you saw it last night, the bigger the game is,

he kind of, he kind of rises to the occasion. It's pretty crazy. He's turning in a real asset. I would not, if I'm saying, I'd be a little worried about being in Boston next year, because same hazard makes 10, Shireman makes, you know, two. And that's, that's one where you could get a little

“creative, I think. And they approved for concept. They were like, oh, Cornette, that's going to hurt.”

No, it isn't. It's not one bit. I still wish we had Cornette. It helped over here, though, Joe

House. Yeah, I understand you. Right place, right time. I will say this, J. I've never

separate magic city. Spend a whole, spent a whole decade with Jalen did not think he had this level up. And I thought we were where we were with it. And I think it's really unusual in a year 10. There was stuff going on last night. My dad went to the game. We were talking about it. Like, Jalen had a real fuck you energy last night. And I don't think he likes SGA. And I think he was mad about the free throws the last time. And he was getting a line. There were a couple of times

when you could see him muttering under his breath. And when he would get calls like muttering or spread the SGA. And I just think in general, he's become so much more of an awful. We went to those 2,000, 22 final scams when Dreyman was really like bitching him out. And he's completely different guy at this point. Okay. So the Jalen case, I thanks for making me feel like not a homer. The

SGA, the stuff he's doing this year, where assuming is going to be first team on big and so that's

4 straight. MVP voting will be 5 to 1 and 1 assuming he gets it. Who'd be the best guard for 4 straight years. And he'll have 1 1 title on maybe 2 and he'll be at 31 points again for 4 years. 5 and 6, 53% shooting. And if you go through the best guards of all time, MJ had 7 straight first teams from 87 to 93. Mr. 3 points again. MVP was 2 1 2 3 1 1 3. 3 titles. Kobe from 0 6 to 10 was 5 straight first teams, 4 3 1 2 3 MVP.

And then magic from 83 to 90 was 9 straight first teams. Magic Johnson just lost in history now.

obviously moves in in this conversation. Even if he doesn't win the title, he might

maybe at least knocking on the door that group has. You prepared to come to grips with this. He's at least like he knows where the address is now. And he's bringing a pizza and some beers. And he's like, hey, guys, what's going on? And I can't believe it. Think about that. MJ Kobe

“magic. But what else she is doing? He's in the vicinity now. Is that fair?”

It's of course it's fair. Okay. The combination of the success, the individual accolades, but really taking the this team and letting it realize it's full potential. It's because of him. He's the accelerant here. And you know, the the Presty acquisition we will do that, how that was a slightly worse moment in the NBA. But it's set up this guy. It let us get the full reveal with this guy. And now that's a resume. If he gets another chip either this year or next,

there's no reason they couldn't next year. So I'm feeling five year younger next year, even better. Yeah,

no reason. Um, I really respect it. The first straight up in 20. Yeah. Well,

time. Yeah. I have him. I have him in the in the high 20s now. He's in like that 28. 27.

“I start getting those chips. And that's the only thing that misses is missing for that resume.”

I think that last step for the truly great ones. Like my dad went last night. And uh, if you just like, that guy's just great. Yeah. They just feel like every time, especially in the fourth quarter and a half court, getting a stop against him, you feel great about it. Right. That's like the final level. You just assume he's going to score you assume he can do it. He wants the foul banning stuff. I know we've talked about that ad nauseam

on 100 different platforms. He's just really good at it. Sometimes it's frustrating. I don't like a personally, but he's good at either getting the shot. He wants or get it to the line. In Kirk, it's it's fair to say he's in that. He's in that group now. At least knocking on the door of the group for real. If you're going to win the scoring title in 2026, you're going to be fallbating.

That's the league we built. Yeah. Okay. So that's my first point. My second point is sort of a humorous

one. My favorite punishment for the clippers for this aspiration thing is, and they just have to watch SGA like it's almost like a preemptive preemptive punishment for. Right. Yeah. It's torture. It's like you had that dude. Dude, the thing you didn't even bring up is the 20-point game streak. Now now I usually don't care about streaks like that as a stats nerd. But it really is just as a fan of the game. He hasn't had an 18-point game, a 16-point game in like two seasons. Like it's

131 games now, Bill. And it does look like Kobe. And it does look like Jordan in the mid-range, which I love as an old head. Forget the stats. Forget the analytics. But he's so talented with this footwork. I hate the fallbating. I'll complain about it. I'm sure this playoffs. But his his ability to score all three levels as a as a guard is the best in class by far of his generation at the rim in the mid-range and beyond the arc. So he's just the perfect picture of

what a great guard should look like in the mid-2020s. So back to back regular season MVP's

“13 guys have done it. Magic, Nash, Jordan, Curry. Are the only guards who have done it?”

Now you go back to back finals MVP's all time. Jordan, Hakeem, Shack, Kobe, LeBron, and Durant. And that's it. And now we didn't have this. We didn't have finals MVP for Russell's career. He would have won like 10 straight, right? But that's he's on a couple lists there that those are all the best players we've ever had in history the week. So then you combine the other stuff. And there you go. All right, we're taking a break and then we're going to throw this longevity thing

you have. The Luft in the shotland is full of things. From legend, from forgotten and seen, from a mysterious board. But the greatest experience of the shotland is the safety of his people. And your beautiful childhood experience of the youth. Write your own shotland story, with TripAdvisor and Visits Gotland. Visit TripAdvisor.de/shotland or more. All right, Kirk Goldsberg. I call you on Tuesday.

And I threw something big at you about Janice and Tettacupo. Coming off with Zach and I talked about on Sunday about how much would you give

And that was my case, to Zach that he keeps getting hurt. He's getting older. He's moving closer to

“his mid 30s. Why am I going to give up the farm? Like if I'm Miami, why am I giving up”

basically every asset I have to try to get this guy when I'm not sure he's going to play. He's

played 13 years, 895 games, 89 playoff games, he's over 29,000 minutes, plus 3000 playoff minutes. He's had one playoff when series, series one in the last five years. Some of the injuries he said house, 2021, Hyper extended me, 223 bad risk brain, 23 lower back confusion where he played hurt the whole playoffs. When we landed on his back, couple groin strains, 2024 left calf strain misplayoffs this year, two different calf strains

and a hyper extended knee with the bone bruise. Here's where I get scared and this is what I what I call Kirk about and he's going to have some stuff for us. There's two different lists here house that would terrify me if I'm trying to trade for you on us. List number one, guys year 14 of their career or later, 14th year later, how many guys do you think have averaged a 2010 in 50 plus games in a season? Year 14 or later, just 20 points, 10 rebounds of

game. How many times does it happen? Not a lot. 15 times? How about one guy ever? What? Moses Malone. He had a 2012 and 1989 and a 2011 and 1988 and it's the only time it's ever happened with the year 14 or older guy ever. I was thinking about our era and guys like Carl Malone, they played a long time, but at some point his 2010 automatic just fell off. It became like a 20 to five and nine. So that's the other list here. Age 32 or later, so he's going to be 32 next year.

How many guys have averaged a 24 and 10 worth 32 years old or older? 24 and 10. If I'm trading for you on it, I feel like it's a big decent number, like 15 guys. Same kind of answer. So if I'm

“trading on my assets for Janice, pretty fair to expect 24 and 10 for a couple of years, right?”

Set seemed like if I'm trading for first round, I'll protect the picture from him and my

expecting a 24 and 10 back. You say yes, right? Yeah. That's a hard end in the absence. Like McHale Bridges was for first. Do you expect a 24/10 to the next second? The 24/10 camera? Just 29 and 13 guy when he plays normal. So 24 and 10 seems reasonable. All right. Age 32 or later, only four guys ever have done it. Carine twice. How came twice? Carl Malone once, Elgib Beller three times. Have averaged 24 and 10 when there are 32 years older later.

It has not happened in 28 years. So if I'm betting on Janice to be close to the 29 and 13 guy that he was and I'm giving up on my assets for him. I'm banking on him bucking two pretty severe historical trends combined with him suddenly being healthy again when he is repeatedly not unhealthy the last couple of years. And if I'm in that war room, thinking about making trades, I just would say we can't. There's too much evidence that this is dangerous to do. So Kirk,

I asked you to research this. What'd you come up with? Oh, I came up with so much. But, you know, first of all, I think somebody's going to trade for him. So I want to start with that. But no question. I would I would be very cautious because one of the sort of high end things here is that one more year in this deal, as you said, he's turning 32 at the end of this calendar year. So when you're in the deal, means you're trading for him, you're giving him a three or four year extension

for like 60 million a year. So we just put in that as. And the thesis here is that history teaches

“you, you should not get involved with paying a 33 34 35 year old big man a lot of money. It's just a”

really bad idea. There's no shortage of examples. The analogy I have for you Bill as a New England guy myself, this isn't Tom Brady at 32. This is Grunk at 32, right? And it's not just the miles on the car. I sent you a fake car fax report on Janis on to come up. This isn't the old lady who just drove the car to church. And the most staggering stat I have speaks to the wear and tear on Janis's body. This is a man who needs power. In the course of the player tracking area, he's been fouled

6,500 times. Wow, he's the only player that has been fouled more than 6,000 times. I think hardness

for examples of dudes that buck the trends that you're talking about Bill, yeah, you're talking

“about guys who have a touch, a grace, a jumper, hell, even LeBron James extended his career by doing”

what? Well, it's a smartest guy, you know, of the last few years. He just figured out all the little ways to keep going. And he became like a pretty good three-point shooter. And now you see him hanging out beyond the arc. I don't see that for Janis. Janis is Christian Acoya, like I said D on the phone. Like this is a dude who is just built to collide and overpower people. So it's more a little more like Shaquille O'Neill 90s, early 2000s, kind of a little more of the brute force

than somebody like to rant who can just operate in the fringes and get to 27-game in the 37. Yeah, so I don't know if we can do this on Netflix, but I plotted out a bunch of aging for the best, the best big men. And to use a term from the rewatchables, whether we're looking at Janis, Garnet, O'Neill, Duncan, or MB, these are guys I consider the best bigs of the modern game. They all peak at 30. They all peak at 30. It's apex mountain at age 30. And not only that,

the second biggest feature of these curves is they go down fast. Even my beloved Tim Duncan,

this first did better than anybody extending this dude's career. They needed Kauai and Monu and Tony to win once that he started, he got the hashtag that apex. So I just don't see a bright future for Janis. I love the player, but as a student of history and stats, there's just not a lot of reason to believe this guy is going to play it in MBP level or in all MBA level going into his

“deep 30s. Yeah, and I think Dwight Howard's a good example of this, right? And I remember talking”

about this when it happened, like that he had that incredible Orlando run. But 2011, 12 range, his back was already starting to bother him. There were some science, like also like what it's not like he was adding anything to his game that was going to make a more special. Janis, at least like, you know, can they can do the one four offense with him and try to have him go and barreling to the basket. And maybe he could just be this incredible outlier house. Like we've

had outliers, the bronze and outlier, Tom Brady's an outlier. I guess my question is what would be the outlier function with this other than him just being somehow healthy and not having wear

and tear. Like he's not going to add a three point at this point. He's never going to be a great

free throw shooter. Could he reinvent himself as like more of a low post guy? Or is this just going to be who he is? Where he just keeps getting kind of banged up or hurt and he's 58 to 60 games every year. And that's it. What do you think? The answer to that question depends on where he lands and what they require of him. What the bucks have required of him over the last five years since they won the NBA championship is the version that we watched that has that as a feature, all of the injuries that

you just listed because it's a style of play that he is uniquely suited to be successful at. But they could not because of the way they were configured and some bad luck and maybe some bad decision making, building a team around him. They couldn't afford him to play any other way. He could only play that one way and that was true for with with Dame on board. It's been true since they won the NBA championship. I don't know if that's going to necessarily

be required of him for the if a nicks with Miami. I don't know who the candidates are. They can can pull together a package that's attractive enough. It makes no sense whatsoever for any team. That's it. That's like an rebuild mode. No, it's a desperate in which way, desperate like Cleveland

because Cleveland loses in the second round this upcoming season, desperate like, you know,

like help me understand desperate and then we can try and figure out what role he can play. It's Cleveland losing and realize that they have basically taken this Mitchell mobile way, Jared Allen, not whole nucleus as far as it can go. Should we just trade mobile belief for Janice right now with a couple other things and try to cash in on two, three years of Janice hoping he can be here. It's the next basically packaging towns and in and over together with some

“other stuff and hoping that they can get two, three years at Janice. But I think the really instructive”

one because there's been a lot of time trying to figure this out and look at his history. You think like KG when the Celtics traded for him in 0708 and then thinking with KG was can we get five years out of this guy at this level. Same type of thing with Janice. A lot of wear and terrority put a lot of games, a lot of minutes, a lot of miles. And what happened? They wanted to wait with them. He got heard in 09. 2010 made the finals, but he wasn't the same KG, like he had three

finals. So you got five years out of them, but you really only got one awesome year out of them. Right. Shacks another one with Miami. They trade for shack. I think they could have one in 05. How soon I still feel that way that if a way does get hurt, maybe they actually win the title. They do

“win in 06 and then it goes up the cliff and he's done. And I think with Janice, I think you have to”

look at it if you're trading all this stuff for him. History says it's probably one or two years that you're going to get that'll be really good and that's it, which means to me it has to be a team that's close. So I look if I'm the Warriors, I'm so happy I didn't get them. If I'd give up all my

experience and all my first round picks and like now I'm betting on injury stuff with him and

Curry, who by the way has continually got hurt and probably should be still getting hurt because he's in his late 30s. Like where was that getting me? I think it's really only like a mix or a Cleveland. I don't think San Antonio would go near him. I don't think okay see would go near him. It's not their style. I thought Houston was a great candidate for a long time and I would still have you in in the mix. But in my video case here, San Antonio with him with Van Vleet back, Bill

actually heard there's a mystery team. I called around as part of this exercise to see who were potentially desperate places for Yannis to land. And somebody who knows stuff told me that Orlando has actually been very active in and seeking out Yannis onto to COMPO services. Now,

desperation sort of sets in in the NBA win after the first round of the playoffs. So there's

16 teams that think they're in it two weeks later. There's eight teams that are out. That's where I think the Houston's who do else would be say the Orlando's next Cleveland. Cleveland, right? That's that's the group I'm looking at because somebody will talk us themselves into it and I could definitely see it being somebody like Orlando who has a player that could be appealing to send back. But unfortunately, they gave all their picks away to Memphis to get Desmond Bay and long story short

is I do think you guys are on to something. There will be a market. There will be a team that talks themselves into it whether they should or not. But the window is very short. They remember that he's going to sign a new deal in 2027 next fall. And that's going to be start when he's 34

“years old and go deep into his 30s. But I think Atlanta is in there too. However, it goes with them.”

I still feel like they have the assets to make a move for him. You could talk yourself into screw it. Let's try to, let's try to really go out of here in the Eastern Conference. They're not going to be desperate, but they might see it as an opportunity. And then the one I looked at, and the reason I wanted to do this, not just because I, oh, we should do a Janice trade thing. Because I think what happens in the playoffs is going to determine a lot of the desperation.

So as we look at like how the last two weeks of the, how the last two weeks of the playoffs are shaking our, our reggae season shaking out, who's going to potentially have a terrible playoffs then the desperation comes in. So Charlotte, I was thinking like, man, they have a couple of really good draft picks. They really like their team. And could you just turn Miles Bridges and a bunch of picks in the honest and try to make a real run at this and hope that you can get two, three, four

years out of them. I'll just tell you, if I was in that inner circle war room, I would probably be the voice saying, it makes me nervous. I don't think we should do it. Yeah. Like the worst case example this ever was the was the Lakers with Kobe when the Chris Paul trade fell through. And they went after Dwight Howard and Steve Nash, right? Two guys with bad backs. Nash was already like headed toward a decline. And then Dwight Howard, they only had

for a year when keeping his fingers crossed that he was still Dwight Howard. And then that, you know, that really set them back and that ended up, they, they tank for three years after that. So

here's what I want to ask you though, because I hit you this with, with the, with the, with the

bead last year, I'm going to give you the same question with Yannis. If we're picturing the career

“arc of Shaq in 2026, which version of Shaq is Yannis on to Kubo in in March of 2026. So I think it's”

O4 Shaq and the Lakers era right before the heat. So if that's true, then you got to give assets. Because that's a tight corner right there. Here's the difference. Crucial difference. Yannis has been an awesome shape and gives a shit over and over again. He has cared about whatever the best

in the shape during the year and O4 was not in shape at all. And when he went to Miami in O5,

it was a, I'm coming to take my corners back kind of a Kaiser so as they were, I even did the, what did I call it? The revenge scale or something like that. It had a whole page to the about Shaq and he did for those two years. He wasn't shaped and he did kick ass and he was great. Yannis is who he is. Like you're trading for the guy that he's been the last couple years. The calf strains really make me nervous. That's right. Because it's recurring. It's not like there's

been one. It feels like this is just a thing that keeps happening to him now and I don't know why that would get better. House, I was saying that the Yannis Shaq, the difference is Shaq got into

“awesome shape. Yannis is already in shape. So that would be the one, the one. The only thing I'll say”

on the calf strain point, which is concerning because we now have in this, especially this year,

the hyper focus on Achilles protection and the amount of running the guys are doing and how this version of the NBA the way it's played now at a speed and the amount of running a greatly exceeds anything in previous history. I wonder if that is a new way to conduct some load management, especially with Yannis. Like you only kind of need one in his history and then you can safely point to it anytime that you need him to not play a handful of games. There's a calf

calf tension, kind of situation. It's in his history. So Kirk, the other one that was rumored a bunch was Minnesota who seemed like they were trying to move heaven and earth to figure out how to get him, which would have involved trading half the roster to different places to get enough

assets to cut. I never landed stood it. Yeah. It seemed like it screwed them up a little bit

afterwards because basically every guy except aunt was in a trade rumour and I would assume this summer maybe it's a little easier. They still don't have the picks in the same way. So my guess is it'll be the next or Cleveland unless there's like an Orlando. It's so bad and they're just like, whoa, Palo for Yannis, let's just call it in. And especially like, who knows? There's always been rumors with, with uh, there's always been rumors like how long

will Palo stay in Orlando anyway? Who knows? You hear all this stuff about Minnesota. I've been hearing it for years with Tim Connelly and Yannis. I don't know if it's true, but then there's the rumors the Yannis had them on his preferred list that may or may not even exist. And then the other team I heard Bill is Portland in part because that would be ideal for Milwaukee to get back a lot of their own picks from previous deals. So I think there will be a huge market place for this guy.

“So I think there's really two questions with Yannis. Well that's what the question is. Should there”

be a big of a market place as you think based on the history of all this stuff? And I don't know it comes back to desperation, right? And this is a marketplace where desperate GMs and desperate ownership groups tend to do irrational things. And the market forces are controlled by desperate people in a lot of time. So I do think somebody like Miami, New York, Charlotte would be great, but will they talk themselves into that? I think they will. And that's where I'm going to land here.

I think that somebody will probably overpay for the amount of risk they'll have to absorb to add Yannis on to to come over to their roster. So the case for it is you say, look, we've had historical outliers over and over again. Kevin Durand is still scoring 26 games and shooting 50, 40, 90 splits. LeBron is at age 41, still a valuable piece on a team that has a chance to make the finals potentially. Tom Brady played to his 45. Like you would have to start looking at the

all-time outliers and asking if, what could Yannis be like that? He's been an awesome shape of a sole career. He had some bad luck with some stupid things. Some of those injuries like,

“sorry, he fell in his back. And that's why the 2023 playoffs went sideways. That's not Yannis's fault.”

The wear and tear stuff is all fixable stuff. It's not like he blew out his patel intended. Right. So if you're in one of those rooms and you start going glass half full, that's where you start talking yourself into it. And it's like Carl Anthony Downs just sucked. He's the reason we're not in the playoffs anymore. And you know, you start turning out your own guys and talking yourself into the glass half full case for somebody else. And that's how it go.

I would just, I thought it was notable that San Antonio, in okay see, we're like, we're good. Yeah. Two teams that had more than enough to trade for him. And honestly, he's didn't seem like we're good. Not the same the year for us. So the fact that three of the smartest teams in the league

I don't know what to believe with that. I think everybody at least nudged it a little. So

there you go. Yeah. Year 14 or later house, Moses Malone, your guy on the wizards. 2010. Famous Washington bullet. Moses Malone. House I got, I got a mailback question from somebody about the wizards that I was going to throw at you that I have to find. It was about the best five players of wizards history. Would they lose in a playoff series to every other teams, best five players in the history of their

franchise? It's not even close. Of course. Yeah. Oh, way, way, way, way, way, way. The best five

“players of every other franchise in NBA history. Does that include the Vancouver Grizzlies?”

You'd be the Grizzlies or maybe you wouldn't. That's like mark the saw. Yeah. That ran down

to the economy. Yeah. Grind. So Jessica, the listener was Chris Mooney. And he asked if the top five all time was Wes Uncelled, Elvin Hayes, Bradley Bill, Gilbert Arrhenis, and John Wall. The best starting five. I would throw, um, I would have dangerage in there instead of Bradley Bill. Sure. That's fine. Bill, because of the length of his career. Bill, Bill, we can't have him anyway for a hypothetical fake transition tournament. I don't want his mastery. But Bobby Dangeridge was

a playoff MVP in 1970. Yeah, we didn't have playoff MVP. Yes. So I'm looking at Big Wes, Elvin Hayes, Dandridge, Gilbert Arrhenis, and John Wall.

“I mean, you have to look at Charlottes to every of the teams. Charlotte,”

New Orleans. So Charlotte, I kind of have LJ and Alonzo morning in that. I can. You can. Yeah. And then I would probably have La Melo Khan and Brandon Miller as my other three. Oh, no, I can get bear Davis with that. No, you don't. Oh, I can have played for the mid 90s. Oh,

that was amazing. I don't know, man. We're going to do some work on this. Maybe you

wouldn't please note, I didn't hesitate. You have to go to expansion teams. You have to go to expansion teams. Teams have only been around the last, because remember, this Washington franchise hasn't won 50 games since win the last time. It's been 50 years since the last time they won 50 games, because even you would say like, Oh, the Sacramento would have to be worse than those, but it's like, no, because Sacramento has been Robinson. I get see web. I guess somebody

would be better. Yeah, I might be able to put booky cousins on that team is my center. I could have Darren Fox is my point card. Yeah, West on South, Evan Hayes, Dandridge, Uranus and Wall. That's just a weird team. I'm going to have to I may as a project that might have to go through and really try to figure out what would the Hawks team be? Oh, the Hawks would get Bob Pettett. That's the thing is like all of these other teams have a guy who would be like somewhere in the top 30.

Kirk Goldsburg, we cover everything. Yeah, dude. How are you looking at March band? Is she going to pick? How's what do you, so we're taping this Thursday. We can't really do the Thursday games, but the Friday games, um, which include our guy, Acuff. We were on that so early. How's the night? We were aligned. Yeah, we were talking about it. But we have on Friday, we have St. John's Duke, we have Albam, Michigan. Oh, Acuff's playing tonight. Yeah,

there's the night. Yeah. All right. I got a good, I got a good note on Acuff. The

“you love. First of all, I think it'd be the perfect Hawks player. Thanks to Joe DuMars. So if they”

somehow get lucky and get that. You know, McCallus is right. Yeah, be perfect, right? But after the University of Texas played Arkansas, uh, this this season, Sean Miller, our head coach of Texas, just went to the post game pressures like that's one of the best guards I've ever seen play this sport of basketball. Uh, he is, he was just like, aw, struck by how great he is. So yeah, what a player he is. There's been some terrible comparisons with him. Like Steven A was talking

about how he's like, Iverson. Like he's not like I ever said it all. Not even a little bit. It might be a virus in one way. Um, yeah. I didn't, I don't like anybody who says Derek Rose, that's particular. Uh, no, it's it's a little time. We've been a little crisp all in the game. Yeah, those three. They aimed at me. Yeah, I love when they ding them on the defense, like, like, Dame guarded anybody for 13 years and like, Kyreigh guarded anybody. Hey, what are we talking

Like, what do we, you're drafting him for his offense? Um, house tonight. I don't know where

“do you stand on Burris? Love him. I have him at minus 122 in the Fandle sports, but for at least two”

three pointers, his three point shooting over the last 13 games. He only has one game in the last 13 where he's taken less than three over that period. He shooting 26 for 53 from the field. This is not a setup. You did, you didn't tell me ahead of time that we were going to talk about this guy, but I bet on him. So I have these numbers available in this place right here. Let's go. Love him. He's going to be a good pro. This is what I worry about with our guy. Hey, cough tonight. Because this is a real big physical

hell. And another, Kurt, the secret story of the 2020s that hasn't been told as LA basketball,

the freaking Renaissance, just producing over and over again, these awesome players. And there's even

me some guys who were kind of a let down, but they've over and over again have, uh, try to get the MBAs from LA, and I don't know what you're basketball about. I should be able to keep them at home. Maybe if McCron and one such a prick, they would say and play in UCLA,

“Kurt, are you excited for your 21 and 14 Texas team in a couple of hours?”

Dude, they've over achieved in this tournament. I want to give my hats off to those guys. I'm more excited for two other things in our women's team as number one seed. They should make the final four. And my editor at theringer.com, Isaac, he's getting married this weekend in Austin, Texas. So I'd like to give him a shout out to the ringer zone, Isaac, but anyway, the long horns got to play the boilermaker's great coach, Matt Painter, great three group of seniors in Purdue, as much as I'd

love to pick the long horns, I think the boilermakers are probably safe bet tonight. How's what's your relationship with Patino? Obviously, I hate them for ruining the Celtics for four years, but you've kind of enjoyed them over the years. I feel like, well, anytime there's Italian food and sex under a table, you've got me for life. Like, that's those are two things that you, wait, wasn't on my table and that doesn't matter. 23 seconds.

Those are top 10 things on my list, my life list. So yes, Patino guy right here, but come on, what he, when he got back to St. John's and restoring that program and giving it that own, again, giving it that New York Swagger and that team taking his identity, that their defensive intensity, I love it. I love it so much. I'm here for all of it. These these games in DC are going to be outrageous. St. John's Duke and Yukon, Michigan State, how are we so lucky? I wish I could afford

to tick it. Kirk, I wish you, I wish you knew us in college when these teams, we would attach ourselves to like the Kenny Anderson Georgia Tech team. Oh, number how much we love them, oh, that was three, we loved seeing. We love Kenny Anderson so much. Yeah. That's still one of my biggest disappointments ever from college to pros is the Kenny Anderson not being like one of the 50 best quarters of all time. He had everything. Yeah, he was so special. There was just, I still don't

feel like there's anyone, I don't know if I've ever seen a point guard quite like him. It was like he had like the magic passing gene. He was lefty. He was so much fun to play with. Like he was the algorithm through me sometime in the last two weeks, that LSU Georgia Tech game, where with shack and my model. Oh, my God. Rove against Georgia Tech with Kenny Anderson cooking and Georgia Tech pulled it out right at the end with Kenny Anderson. It was like man, this was good mother

effing basketball. This was outstanding college basketball. We actually, you guys were on

“holy cross every time. Oh, yeah, two, 90 across Worcester. I think about you boys up on that”

hill watching basketball together. We had some great college basketball memories back then. Like we same Patrick's day at Holy Cross, which was like the biggest day of the year. It was the Princeton almost upside against Georgetown, which was just like, yeah, just everyone packed and like a giant place watching it. And then we also, I mean, the worst memory was the gather. That whole thing was so awful. But that was the team we liked. We really liked watching. But then we had the

Bo Kimball, the tournament run. That was amazing. And then House was graduated by the time

the Duke Kentucky game happened. But we had UNLV Duke when we were there. It was kind of the last real heyday. And then Mark and Slaw was incredible during that era. House and I might have been the first two people on these coasts to really profess our love to the fab five. I don't know. I can't verify this with anyone else. We were so in on those guys, right? We were in on that when they all decided to play together. Yeah. We were like, what's going on here? They're going to have

all the best guys to go to Michigan. But that was that whole era we loved. And we let we talked

him. One of my favorite nights ever with the sports guy was with 2014 finals. You and Jayland were

“here in Austin. And that was when we reunited the fab five jack of Ray Jackson. Ray Jackson. I was there.”

Yeah, that was was there. We came out was that was the barbecue. Yeah. Yeah, that was a pinch of

me moment because I also loved the fab five and never believed in my life. I would ever be spending

time with Ray Jackson and Jayland in and in a bar. That was awesome. It's still unbelievable to me that they'd never actually won the title with with what the embarrassment or riches they had.

“But that's how good college basketball was back then. All right. We lost house this camera at”

the tail end. Kurt Goldberg's camera is still working. So Kurt Goldberg, that was awesome. What

of sports weekend? Sweet 16 baseball starting NBA. Like a lot of playoff jacking, a lot of stuff going on. We get the NFL draft coming up. So great times all around. Thanks Kurt. Thanks to Gahau and

“Eduardo as always. Thanks to House and his camera that stopped working. And I'm going to be back”

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