LeBron James is a Philadelphia 76er! Plus, Could Embiid Be Traded?

"Very good?" "Very good, very good." "That's a lot." "That's true."

"It's a long-term test computer build for Cosmoney,

"chip, finance, tips, and so on." "Mega, but that's the same thing." "Nö, just one step ahead of the car and make it." "Very good, very good." "Very good, very good."

"Very good, very good, very good." "It's the 31st of July, to give it to you." Coming up on this Acklo show, it's Friday afternoon, but you're probably gonna be listening to this Sunday morning. LeBron James just signed with the Philadelphia 76ers

about five and a half hours ago. I already taped an emergency Bill Simmons podcast with Bill Simmons. This is the deeper dive with Chris Ryan, Philly's own and Michael Pena to do the X's and O's and where to the sixers stack up in the Eastern Conference

and all that good stuff. Just tons of stuff on, like, how is Chris feeling about LeBron James being a sixer? Feels weird, feels weird to say it out loud, feels weird to look at him in the sixers jersey.

How is this gonna work offensively? How to jail him, Brown, Tyreys, Maxi, Vijay, Edgcom, Juelin, Beat and LeBron, Freaking James, all share the ball on offense. What are the rotations look like?

“Are we overlooking some potential defensive concerns?”

With the sixers try to trade Juelin Beat, is that actually the smart thing for them to do? Is he completely untradable? What trades even makes sense? Where do they rank in the Eastern Conference,

which has at least 11 pretty solid to very good teams? Is this the best starting five in the NBA? Is LeBron a ring chaser? We get into that and does this feel at peace with the rest of his career?

Is this an outlier move? Just all the LeBron stuff again, you're listening to the Sunday morning 'cause we're giving it a little lag time from the Bill Pot, but these are more or less

our semi-instant reactions intel up and on the phone, all afternoon, what do teams know? When did they know what is, how are the teams gonna pivot? So we'll talk a little bit about that. I'll come it up on the Zach Low Show.

(upbeat music) Welcome to the Zach Low Show. You will be hearing this early Sunday morning but we are recording it at exactly 4 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday because we're varying scheduling conflicts

over the weekend in the aftermath of LeBron James. Signing, what he said will be his last decision, signing with the Philadelphia 76ers. Look, if something happens between now and when this post, I will try to my best to hop on and do a solo thing.

I think we're gonna see like Dreyman, Green, James, Harden potentially. Jonathan Kominga, the Cavs like him. We'll see, Dymar Duros in Brad, the Bill, co-y Leonard thing who knows,

like all of this stuff is in play, but we gotta start, LeBron James is a sixer. And I got a lot of topics to hit. I got a lot of thoughts. I got a lot of thoughts on the Eastern Conference,

“but I think it's important in these moments”

to just step back for a second and say the words again.

LeBron James, the all-time leading score in the NBA, are you believe the greatest player of all time? He's a member, not of the Cleveland Cavaliers, not of the Miami Heat, not of the Los Angeles Lakers, not with his buddy Steph and Golden State

of the Star Cross, Philadelphia 76ers. He's going to be wearing a sixer's jersey that I don't know. I was going to have to pick a jersey number that's available. I guess 23 and six are just six probably as an available. I don't know Chris Ryan, he's a sixer.

How can you say one more time? LeBron James, LeBron James. And maybe someday, Bronnie James, but currently LeBron James is a member of the Philadelphia 76ers with Joel and bead, Tyreys Maxi, B.J. Edgecomb, Dean Wade,

Anthony Simonz, and Jalen Brown. I mean, you're an NBA diehard like the rest of us. You've our lives, our age, our age range. We perfectly align with LeBron's age range and career. Like, are you just still floored?

What's happening in your life? Total shock, a very, very classic, like looked at my phone in 830 and had 75 text messages. This feels better than not getting LeBron James. I'll see. (laughs)

Which has happened a couple of times over the course of LeBron's career, where the Philly has been like this outsider candidate to land him.

Probably always used for leverage, never realistic destination.

I have no idea like how this happened. I mean, there have been like these little rumors and Josh Harris is talking about fanatics fest and Maxi and V.J. and Jalen and Peter all lobbying him and all this stuff.

But I was doing the crazy like where could, where could his kids go to school?

“Like what would be how would this work for him like functionally?”

Like I actually got, I went down the rabbit hole

Like this is wild for the first time.

This is like, you get through this tracking private flights business and you find out like he's coming here. And yes, it's the last decision. It's a different version of LeBron probably than we could have had various other stops in his career.

But this is really cool, man. This is a really cool feeling. They're partying and margate. Apparently they're already airplanes flying over the Jersey Shore with LeBron banners, people are flipping out.

It's really awesome. I mean, LeBron has not, it is various stops. It's not really cross paths with the sixers in a high stakes playoff series many times. If any, really, I mean, it's happened,

but not really in high stakes series. There was a heat sixers at one point. And but like we've all had our ups and downs with LeBron. He engenders a lot of emotions. Like how do you feel like your emotional relationship

is with LeBron? Was there ever a point of time where you were sick of him tired of him, he's a phony, I hate him, I hate the heat. Like how are you, how have you been

“and how are you back in signalling that with today?”

I seek to, what I really love about this was that I was there for the third game, the first fully game of the Nick series. And when I was there, this last one, this last one, this was the most recent playoff series. And it's impossible to overstate how humiliating and depressing

that was to have the building full of Nick's fans, to have the bathroom full of Nick's fans, to have Nick's fans on the concourse. And it honestly, even though I really enjoyed like elements of that team and VJ's story

and the first season that he had, it just felt like something of a low,

like this is always gonna be what it is.

And so this summer has just felt so revitalizing, and it's felt like this infusion of new and old blood. So any like animus that I've ever had about LeBron is out the window. And also, you know, it kind of makes me feel a little bit,

like, if he can do for Philly, this is gonna sound so stupid, please don't clip this. If he can do for Philly, what messy did for Argentina, like that's enough. Like if he can just walk through parts of the season,

make people around him better, you know, like provide us with a few moments of absolute brilliance and be there for the playoffs. Like this is just such a great ride. Like I am, I'm gonna have to like,

now look into the long term stage in Philly. - Now Simmons, I already did Simmons emergency podcast. He's already, I mean, you know, Billy, his brain is firing in three different directions. So he opened the podcast with like,

I wonder if LeBron's gonna play till he's 45 and he's gonna go to Cleveland after the two years with Philly and I was like, Bill, he just signed with Philly 45 seconds ago.

“- I think he's gonna retire, if I'm taking his Twitter post”

at his word, that this is his last decision. That means he'd retire a Philadelphia 76er, which is okay. - I feel like they're full of food. I feel like they're a whole rest of the pod

could just be like us just making faces and staring into the abyss of like, what just happened? Michael Pena is here, Michael, how are you? - I'm doing wonderful, not as well as Chris, but I'm doing wonderful.

- Well, you already wrote a column that, you know, just poke the air right out of the balloon for poor friends. - I am. - On the ringer.com about how Philly is not even guaranteed

to be a top six seed in this beefed-up Eastern conference. So we're gonna get there, we're gonna go through the east. But I wanna use that column is just again, Chris emotionally. It's been a strange 15 years for the Philadelphia 76ers. Every moment of hope has been punctuated

by a gut punch of inexplicable despair, off organizational incompetence, absurdist comedy. I mean, just the worst possible like pivots. Are you allowing yourself to feel like legitimate? Hey, we might actually have a championship team here hope

or is this just like, let's just have fun at what happens happens? - It's got in the latter, like it's kinda like, I, you know, one of the sensations that I often have had over the last five or so seasons,

post-Chimmie Butler probably is six or seven eliminated if they make the playoffs,

they get eliminated in the second round or whatever.

And then I watched the rest of the playoffs and I'm like, we're not even playing the same sport. Like, when you see the teams in the final four and then the finals and you see like the level that they're playing it, you're like,

we're not on Denver's level that year, we're not on Oklahoma City's level, we're not on San Antonio New York's level. Like, this isn't even the same league. And so, it remains to be seen whether or not

an older gentleman, like can refuse this team with the kind of athleticism and versatility

“that you need to compete in today's NBA,”

but what I really just can't wait is just to see these guys all floor together.

I'm gonna lose my mind.

- Pina, you are correct to identify the East

as a very strong collection of teams. They think they're 11 legit, good to pretty good teams in the Eastern Conference. A top six seed is, you know, it's gonna require a pretty goddamn good regular season.

I do think the sixers by adding just another top 20, top 25 where you're in a classified LeBron talent and one who means offense, ball handling, shock creation have kind of insulated their, so I have hired, have raised their floor

in the regular season for like, and beads out what's our team look like, LeBron's resting, but in bead tells you what's our team look like.

“I think they're pretty well positioned to navigate”

the 82 in a way that gets them into the top six, but I generally would put it like this.

The East is better than the West, top to bottom,

but LeBron I think is correct to identify the path to the finals as being easier out of the East, even if it is the superior conference, top to bottom, because no matter where you go in the West in Golden State was really the only one in it,

I think, the idea of beating both San Antonio and Oklahoma City and the playoffs is kind of ludicrous, and now you at least set yourself up, the path to the finals might be more difficult, but we only got to beat one of those teams.

But like, here's how I would summarize the East. I wonder what you think of this, 'cause I agree with you that I think in the euphoria over this decision, over it being done, over the newness of LeBron, on the sixers,

over and bead has this running made in jail and Brown, just got here what the hell is going on, what is this team? I do think, like, the East is going to be hard, and if you told me this sense of being the fourth seed or the fifth seed, I wouldn't be surprised.

But on the other hand, I will say, how many teams in the East do you look at right now as of today, and again, we haven't seen hard and we haven't seen what the cab do, whatever, how many teams in the East do you look at

“as being definitively better than the Philadelphia 76ers?”

And which teams are they? - Well, that's a great question. I mean, to start, I would not bet my life that the sixers will not finish in the top six. I would think that they will, I think they obviously

have a ton of talent in that starting five, 'cause I wrote, is extremely scary, and I cannot, echoing with Christians that they cannot wait to watch them play basketball. I mean, I think the New York Nix

are probably definitively better, just they just won the title, and they have a style of play that is clearly winning basketball, and, I mean, they lost one player from that team who's very important,

but I'm expecting the New York Nix to be awesome. Next season, definitively better, it's tough to answer. I mean, I think to your point that the Western Conference has the Oklahoma City Thunder and the San Antonio Spirits at the top is obviously correct,

and in the East it's just more of like, hey, there's a lot of really good teams, and which team is healthiest, which team is clicking at the right time in the right spot, will win the conference, I feel like. So it's tough to definitively stay,

especially with all the change that we've seen in the conference from the Raptors, Celtics, Cleveland Cavaliers, unsettled Detroit pistons.

Their big move is getting John Collins basically as the one seed.

So it's difficult to say, I just have a lot of questions about the Sixers team, I'm super excited to watch them play.

“I think LeBron is kind of a brilliant fit”

and is ability to be a connective tissue, and we know that he's willing to take a back seat in a lot of different ways, but I don't know, I guess like the big question for me when I look at this team is Joel and Beat,

and we haven't really mentioned him yet, but he is the shadow hanging over all of this, and his health is just this massive question that we don't, we won't have an answer to until they play basketball on the spring.

- I will answer my own question, but Chris, do you have any thoughts? - I don't want to get to over my skis, I think the nicks are better, I think that. I respect what Cleveland has done over multiple regular seasons,

so I'm gonna at least like allow for the possibility that they're coat hearings and their stability. And if you call what they have stability, like I'm sure they will be a very good regular season team. - And politically, they will be quite good.

- Yes, you can go do that. - The Miami thing, I don't really see it yet, but I think that they'll be, like this is the thing that's really wild, is like the east is now like the blockbuster conference.

The east is every night, Trey Young and AD might play against LeBron and Maxi, and Jalen and Pete, or Haliburton is back,

against a presumably quiet and Toronto.

Like that is a very different scenario than the one that we've probably spent, most of our professional lives covering of east coast hours are kind of like pretty grim after a while.

“So like, I think this is all gonna come down to”

true tries hardest and is healthiest during the regular season, but I could see the team that comes in to Pete's point, the sixth seed of these turn conference might be the most dangerous team in these turn conference. - I would say it might be a 50-win team,

except I think with no one outright tanking this year or no one incentivizes to do it at least. I mean, this year the sixth seed was a 46-win team. These teams are just gonna beat up on each other all year, so I don't, but it will qualitatively I think,

regardless of the record is be a team of that quality. And by the way, you mentioned Washington, Washington was not even among the 11 teams that I mentioned

that are good to pretty good.

It may could be decent. They're over under 34 and a half that feels about right to me, but Detroit is gonna win a ton of games regardless of what you think of their all season. Boston is gonna win a lot of games.

Let me be now the ton, but there'll be a 50-ish win team despite what you think of their all season and it has not gone great. The calves are the calves, they'll pivot a little bit here. Toronto, presumably will get collide.

The Hawks are still good. Orlando's solid, Charlotte, solid by Amy Guy Yanis. I mean, on and on and on. Indiana's back or semi back, at least. The answer to my own question, though,

and in defense of LeBron, sort of mid. 'Cause I've already heard from front office executives who think LeBron made to take out all the other variables. Just for winning, some say he made the right perfect decision. Others have already, you know, text called and said,

"Well, this is a really bad decision." But it's just one ball, all these guys are gonna, it's gonna be clunky, they all need the ball. It's not gonna work, they're gonna be chemistry. I lean more toward the former pool,

where I think this is gonna be a good team. I think this is a perfectly reasonable decision to win. And the only team that I would say, the only one in the east that I can say right now today, I think is better than the sixers is the next.

That's it, that's the end of my list. Everyone else has questions, including the sixers. Look, it is as simple as in beat, right? I mean, I don't know what else to say. I don't think this team is a championship team

with hook-porting as the starting center. If it beats out in the finals or the conference finals or a demo bonus or whoever it is, I think they're going to need Joel and Beat to be healthy through three or to win the title

for playoff series, which is never done.

I'm on record as saying, I don't think it will ever happen. And so I don't really know what to make of this, how to put those thoughts together. Bill and I were talking about how you very smartly for it's during the next series, was it a game one or game one?

“I think you should just bench and be right where we should,”

we should basically be playing him on his own schedule rather than the NBA's. We're out of gas after seven games against Boston, our only shot, steal one of these games, rest in beat. At the very least, if you get through the first

82 of them, beat healthy, and that may involve him playing 45 games, whatever it is, just get him healthy, get to the playoffs as healthy as you can get him. That may be the, like, you may have to try stuff like that. Like, hey, you know, we're up to oh in this series,

we're just going to rest Joelle in game three. And now you at least have a blueprint to like, can you play LeBron at the five a little bit in like these wing heavy power forward heavy lineups? Can you play a demo on up for 15 minutes

and hook 40 for 15 minutes, sign a ring chasing center somewhere? And like steal a win, we've seen them steal wins without Joelle before, including in these playoffs, that may be the only way to get them across the finish line.

But like, I don't think you can't do much better than they did in this off season.

“And I think this team, we can talk about stylistically”

how it's going to work, but I think it's going to, I think it's going to work. I think you should be optimistic. Yeah, you know, when Jalen Brown got traded to the sixers, I was a little bit like, this is pretty funny

on like a content level and then just in a sort of like, you know, the arc of the universe bending away or towards Bill, depending on how you want to look at it. But I was really concerned, whereas like these guys kind of liked to operate

in similar fashion, some beat and Jalen Brown, like to have the ball in their hands in and around of nail around the mid court, they like to take their time and draw doubles and do all these things. And what I am choosing to believe in now,

now that this team has been assembled, is the optionality of it all. And on certain nights, you know, they're going to, are we going to get a VJ game again? I don't know if there's enough ball to go around for that.

But, you know, they're going to need horses and they're going to need Maxi and Vijayan Jalen to carry this team when and beats out for two weeks or LeBron is going to do a rest night or whatever it is. And also just culturally in like, in terms of chemistry,

it's like, this is going to be like a pretty significant uptick and scrutiny for these guys that I don't think they've ever experienced before.

national media attention on a night-to-night basis that,

“you know, I think people got kind of like bored”

with the lake or show and I think it's kind of, the sixers index is going to be a boy, all the way. Be popping, you know. We can, we'll get into the X's and I was a bit. But, Pena, outline your concerns for us about what other

than M.B. health. Actually, I'll lead you this way. I do think there's going to be some systemic like issues to work out on offense defensively. I mean, people overlook that end of the floor.

I think they should be okay defensively. M.B. is still a decent rim protector when he's healthy.

I mean, the shots at the rim go down,

opponent's union percentage at the rim goes down. Like, those are real things. You still a big enormous impediment. But, you know, I have to work some things out there, too. But, the big question me is like,

what is M.B. doing on offense now?

“Like, literally in the most literal sense, where is he?”

Because I'm not sure if you have this collection of guys on the floor and you can stagger minutes all you want and they will. Like, they'll stagger as strictly as you can. They'll find this pairing works and that pairing works. They'll do all that.

But, like, I'm not sure you can just dump the ball to Joel and B. In the post with all these guys around him. He's not a good enough three point shooter to be super dangerous in that sense in less, in less he rebounds to where he was shooting 37, 38% now. And then, and that would really change everything for this team.

He doesn't really want to roll hard to the basket. And so he'll be at the nail a lot. I think is the answer. He'll be at the nail in the floor, like catching it on the pick and roll with the defensive motion, making reads.

He'll be holding the ball there. And then around that, they just have to figure it out. But, I assume your concerns are partly offensive fit,

“partly hey, defensively, how is this going to work and do they have enough depth?”

Yeah, you nailed it. I think offensively, just the fact, I'll start with Jalen kind of coming in here, because he's coming up a season where he was, you know, top five in usage, had every opportunity to shoot and score and have the ball on his hands. When he wanted on that self-esteem, called it the best season or favorite season of his career.

And the fact that he was traded from a situation like that to one where, you know, see, are you just mentioned like DJ Edge Company will have nights? And it's like, Jalen, I don't think Jalen ran once that. I think that's not really good. You would know better than me.

I thought about this a lot. Yeah, I think that if he is to be super happy and play for this extension that he's eligible for, I just think that guy was like going from the mentality of, I have my own team to, okay, I'm going to be the fourth option tonight or I'm going to go six, seven straight possessions where I don't even touch the ball maybe.

So I just have, I'm not saying like it won't work at all. I'm just curious to see where the pieces are, what the offense looks like. As you said, like playing through Joelle and beat, I think those days might be over. I have no concerns about LeBron James obviously fitting in offensively. He'll figure it out.

But I think just satisfying everyone who is extremely high usage on this team and in the past and getting them to all buy in and sacrifice, touch his shots, minutes. I just think it's really interesting and a huge hurdle for knickers to solve. So that's offensively the deal. Everyone's super smart, they have a ton of force, a ton of power, speed.

I think they'll play faster than we think. You know, LeBron James finished first and fast-free points, last season, Jalen Brown obviously wants to play fast, Tyrese Maxis on the team, he's like the fastest player in the world. DJ Edge gone as well.

So they'll, I think they'll play faster than people might be anticipating. But like, when I think about the NBA right now and what it takes to win, I pivot immediately to the depth. And I just think that this is like a seven-man roster. Yes. And then it just kind of falls off a cliff a little bit.

And that's being generous to, like, I'm not a huge employee Simon's fan at all.

He's never played in the playoffs.

So I have questions there and like, I think that on paper, the starting five and probably the closing five is demolition derby and they'll be awesome. I think that it's worth pointing out some spacing questions. And if you have someone loud, not saying like take Jalen Brown and put him on the bench,

but I am saying when you have someone like Dean Wade who you brought in, his like best attribute is his ability to knock down open corner in the threes and defend the other team's best player. So I just, I have so many questions.

It's like, it is wild. So I don't mean to puncture the balloon and be like a negative

“Nancy here, but I just, I think there are a lot of questions that need to be answered,”

and it's going to just be a fascinating team to watch play every single night all season long. Zach, how did Gainesy do this? How did, like, what happens? I mean, when he jinxed the note hitter in the Philly Stadium, whatever it's called, like, and you got a lot of maybe that maybe some some magical thing happened from the heavens after ever since that moment. Maybe he did exactly what he should have done, and now the baseball

gods and basketball gods are all warning. I don't know, Dean Wade says guy, he knows LeBron really well, they played high school basketball, like in the same area when they were, when they were kids,

it's kind of crazy. But yeah, he's done it. He's done a great job. And I think, you know,

Bill mentioned Darrell Morris, one of the big sort of losers of all of this, of this transaction along with the calves and the warriors and the heat and all the teams he didn't go to, we'll get to all of them. But yeah, Gainesy is a winner. And it's an interesting character. Factual does this happen if Darrell Morris, the GM of the team, because LeBron and Mori have obviously kind of gone head to head on a couple of things, including the infamous Hong Kong tweet that Darrell

that Darrell had. And all that, all right, let's say quick break. And I'm going to tell you why I think this is actually going to work on offense. All right, Pino, you mentioned the depth issue. And I do think there's some reality to that. The sixth and seventh guys are Simon's in Wade.

I mentioned the backup centers. I like Jebari Walker fine. I like Justin Edwards fine. I

“think though, I like Barlow fine. I think they'll find enough minutes from those guys. But I think”

they could use another quality guy. Offensively, look, the combined usage rate of this starting five is like 140%. So is it unprecedented almost? Like, it might, like, there's not even like a Mario Chomers. I mean, I, the DJ, I just want to like the closest thing in the starting line up to like the Mario Chomers, Norris Kool guy. It might be pretty close to unprecedented. Here are the workarounds. Number one, Pino mentioned pace. I think this team is going to play

super fast and to just, and if they have to leave and beat in the dust now and then to do it, that's fine. The other four guys are built to play fast. That's the way Edge Koma is going to run into points that maybe won't be there for him as much in the half court. Number two, Tyre's Maxi shot 43% on catching shoot threes less season and VG Edge Koma shot 39%. Those guys are fine playing off the ball. Maxi is not like a pound it pounded style point guard.

He'll get off it. He'll cut. He'll attack close out. He'll attack diagonal gaps. Like, I don't worry about him at all. Jalen Brown has been actually kind of an average to below average catching shoot three point shooter. He's going to have to shoot better there. And that's where the work the work is, right? It's like, you know, Brown and Tadam would occasionally run two main game together. If one of them had a small guy on a bigger guy on him and they could

get a switch and a mismatch and attack it that way. You can do that with LeBron and Jalen Brown. You can use Maxi as a screener or Edge Koma as a screener. Whoever has the little list week is defender on him for any of these guys and sort of hunt that way and then you just have to figure out what's in be doing is in the dunkers spot trying to get offensive rebounds as you're facing the floor. Like almost every really great team has some version of this problem and you just have to

figure it out and minute staggering as part of it and creative coaching as part of it and sacrifice as part of it. And I do think they'll run into occasional issues like that and growing pains and all that. But I mean, what was the alternative? Not signing LeBron James and not trading for Jalen Brown. Like this seems like a really good place for them to end up. I'm actually a little bit more concerned about the defense than I am about the offense. Not that it's going to be bad or anything but

Bill and I were having this debate. I mean, Bill, Bill's take all along was the calves with LeBron were going to be a paper tiger that they're they're defensively they were going to be too limited because of Hardin and Mitchell and LeBron's old and you have the who has the ball problem with these three ball dominant perimeter guys and this defense problem with the two small guards and Hardin is you know, on again, off again, a save. And I said to him, like, I'm not, is this are we sure this

is like a better defensive environment for LeBron than that Cleveland team because you do have two small, small-ish guards in Edgecom and Max, you know, they both try really, really hard and Max made huge strides defensively and Edgecom is probably a plus for his position. LeBron is still 41 years old. Jalen Brown's okay to good and beat is like maybe available, maybe not, maybe super engaged, maybe not, and like Cleveland would have had this double big thing of mobility and Allen to

“at least put out some fires. Like I think they're going to have some work to do to be a top 10”

12 defensive team. I don't, maybe I'm too pessimistic. I don't know. What do you think Chris? I do not see, I do not see this team being like a defensive stalwart. And if there's

their careers to figure out the offense, but the defense is going to really rely on like,

can you preserve and beat? And you know, for me, I was actually wondering like,

“are we going to see something like and beat an end LeBron plan around 28 minutes a game?”

You know what I mean? Like where they are, we should. You know where they are, they've got and beat on a Wemby plan and where they've got LeBron, like sure, like, you know, you come and you start and you get announced last and everything, but like you're going to probably play less than 30 minutes most nights. And if you're doing that and you've got, you know, Simon's out there. That's a that's a small and and and and not particularly like staunch team. So yeah, I'm worried

about it. I'm worried about it because of the reasons I just said, which is like I just watched

Castle and Harper and the Kale Bridges and Josh Hart play like Wolverines. You know, I got the deep fence upside of the ball. That seems how you win the championship now. And we don't read it. This is just don't really have that kind of identity. Peanut. Yeah, I'll just say, I'll just say real quick, size is going to be an issue. I think for

“sure, and I think I keep going back to this, but I just think Dean Wade is a really important player”

on this team. And teams will go at Joel and beat in the pick and roll of ton. He's a solid rim protector still, but I think you'll make him move quite a bit. And you know, I feel like going back to jail and brown on offense if he's unhappy. Like, I just think about that series against the Celtics six or series where he's getting back cut over an overridden by Kaleo Bridge Jr. And that's just kind of who he is off ball defensively. He's kind of a lot

of for his on ball tenacity. And in the finals versus Luca, people talk about all the time. But I kind of weigh him out as an average defensive player because of just the spacingist that he's still has this lateness career as a help defender. So I think that there's definitely a lot of intelligence for sure. And Maxi's gotten better and he maximizes his size. And I like love edge

“comb defensively. And I think he'll continue to to make strides there. LeBron is super smart”

and he's always in the right spot. And he's a brilliant communicator. But I think that it's okay

to be a little cynical about this team defensively. And if you were to put them on a like a minute's plan, that's when I go back to okay. So who is playing those minutes? And you know, when in the game and is it who is it against? And I just I'm by questions. I have questions. I like it like I said, if this team's the fourth or the fifth seed, no one should be all that surprising, I don't even think they would really care as long as they got into the top stage

where we're healthy. And we're healthy. You know, I don't know if I want to go here yet, but I will. The M.B. question is really interesting because he's meant a lot to fill the fans. Yeah, I think they still mostly love them. There's been some ups and downs. Bill right away on his pod on the pod we did was already pitching. He was already pursuing. He was already pursuing. And B. France and he Davis, M.B. for Daniel Gaffard, PJ Washington and Clay Thompson

with the Sixers Kicking in draft compensation. And I proved him because I was like, can we just sit here for a minute? He just like he just blabron just went to the Sixers. I don't know if I should of, I don't know if I should have put him that strongly. I just I'll have my antenna up for Joell and B. trade noise during the summer, during the season. I'm just I'm on alert. I don't really know that he's tradable without the Sixers kicking me and all the draft assets they had that

they have given that he's got three years left on this monster contract. But they're not polyano about it. They know that they're not going to be able to rely on him to stay healthy and that he is a it's a it's a the team is completely changed around him on both ends of the floor. I wouldn't I wouldn't just dismiss it as an impossibility. I guess is what I'm saying. Can I jump in quick question? What is wrong with the from Philly's perspective? The ADMB trade. And I

understand the MB it's contract and saying it's untradable and everything but trading for AD is I have to extend AD so there's the downside there and you'd kind of be doing Washington a little bit of a favor and I'm sure that they would be the ones receiving draft compensation there. So I just I that seems like a win not a win win but something that Philly would like behind the scenes aggressively pursue it just makes it ton of sense for them particularly if LeBron puts his finger on

Iverson and Iverson got traded so like anything is possible. The MB and body in this era so

“specifically calling himself the process like being like the sort of mascot of this”

multi-GM multi phase effort to rebuild a team that was like fine when they started rebuilding it. It's he's so ingrained with Philly basketball culture at this point even though he has plenty of people who were like I can't anymore with this with you know this injury or that injury or this weird cryptic statement or you don't seem like you want to play but the idea of getting LeBron James and then trading Joel and beat if Gansy does that he should start in the next John Wick movie.

If Gansy, if Mike Gansy is like the plan has come together and now I'm going to get PJ Washington and Daniel Gaffer and Clay Thompson then like it's it's end of Godfather type stuff and I think Philly would have just you know I think they would they would they would still go to games but I

think that the idea of finally like having this assemblage of talent or within beat if not around him

and then be like have fun in detail. When he when he pitched the Dallas one to me and other people pitched a milestone or version to me where I don't know what the forget what the bucks are doing with Joel and beat and how sad that would be. My initial response to those was like just we've we've all invested too much together can we give it a shot can we just give it I we know like he's going to play 45 games and he's probably going to get hurt in a second round of the playoffs

it could we could we just see can we just give it a shot which is naive and dumb which is what of cheering for like following sports and cheering for a team is to say what if he doesn't like

“what if he doesn't get hurt exactly what if what if somehow like you have to believe in these things”

I know what the history tells us and I know what the dispatch does but like I don't think look I've been worried or would like noticing that they have not done a jail and brown press conference since the straight like there was not a welcome jail into the team I thought that was weird I thought maybe it was because there was other moves coming I had no idea it was something like this but they didn't want jail and to walk out on the desk and say like well I can't wait to play

with this guy and then this guy gets traded or you know make some sort of statement about how he's going to take over like leadership here and you know bring Maxi and VJ along or whatever it is so I think it's been noticed by many people that jail and brown has not been introduced as a six or yet and I was worried that it actually had something to do with inbeat I was worried that they didn't want him to have to go out there and be like you know I just can't

wait to play with Joelle it's been a lifelong dream mine whatever and then the next day they fit some crazy deal happens but I don't know I don't I don't know in in in my gansies like Batman chamber like what's the order of operations and what's his order of preferences Pino and like do you think that that's too sentimental on my part to be like you know like not without Joelle no no I mean I'll tell you well we won't leave you behind I will find you no man like I totally

get used to him yeah and you know that's that is why you watch sports for sure I I also look at it you know flipping it around from the Celtics perspective and seeing all the Celtics fan kids crying when they joined jail and brown never won MVP and he's not that pedigree he did win a fine finals MVP and was there for like a decade and was so embedded in the community and beloved in Boston and for them to just trade him for Paul George and two picks obviously the

PR situation was a the backlash was a total nightmare so I mean it does it does happen in the end this is the NBA and so like you're not you're not incorrect to feel that way for sure I just wouldn't

“be surprised at all if the sixers did it and I think that they are motivated to do it and I think”

the thing that surprised me the most about LeBron picking the sixers was the NBA question mark

because he is brilliant and he knows that Joelle and be has never been out of the second round of the

playoffs and he knows that his body is his body I mean he played it in the Olympics with him and he could barely get up and down the court for stretches it was a miracle in the Serbia game so I just I just wouldn't be surprised almost to the point where I'm expecting a trade at this point which is kind of wild to say here's I am not a sixers fan I do love the city of Philadelphia it is the most underrated city in America it's not even underrated anymore I think it's been

it people now appreciate it for what it is thank you Zach and I love Philly fans I went to World

you have you have you've gone through a lot together with Joelle and be fan to player

a lot of ups a lot of downs a lot of emotions last set back so a lot of pain Bell's palsy was involved at one point it's one thing to kick that to the curb for Daniel Gaffard and PJ Washington or Miles Turner like I could see like as a fan I just like God that sucks like these guys are so fucking boring like I can I rather watch Joelle and be limp up and down the court on the off chance that maybe he's not limping in June by so

miracle didn't be like Miles Turner's pick it up hop free as pretty a messing pretty well with Tybury some actually these days but we have to be the most processed thing you know PJ Washington's coming from the dunker spot is quite underrated on this team is a great new character Zach

“I think you do a lot more of this but that that's the thing from like Anthony Davis is pretty”

fucking awesome and if I were the sixers I would actually be trying to do that and it wouldn't

shock me if it comes out in two months that the two teams talked to some degree now the whizz have said all the things about how they want Anthony Davis on their team they want Troy young and Anthony Davis to play together they want to chase a play in spot maybe and be competitive nice new well you can't tank anymore you know all that stuff and so what the draft composition would be what but we feel it doesn't have that much draft compensation left because of

the jail and brown trade but that to me is at least like as a fan you could be like at least this is exciting like this is a top 75 all-time player who does he will roll to the rim he is a more mobile and and well rounded defender than jolly and bead he does not need the ball as much and sort of kind of fits this team a little bit better the shooting downgrades a bit of a concern but at least there's a fan you could be like at least this guy's awesome yet it's really sad

I mean jolly and bead and street clothes at a washing and wizards home game is one of the more depressing images that I have conjured in a long time but is affiliate fan at least AD's exciting at least I've traded this guy that I've lived in died with for a decade plus for something exciting not like in this collection of role players no comment like you know what I mean like it's like yes I understand exactly what you're saying is is Davis how much more durable is Davis than

jolly okay so that's an important question because a lot of AD's injuries are the sort of random like shoulder my finger thumb in a jersey and in bead has also had a lot of like freakish injuries in the playoff spells palsy siakum elbowing him in the face and breaking his orbital bone and on and on but the new thing is now kind of officially a chronic thing with the comming of falling on him being the event that that seemed to exacerbated and make it worse and even when he comes back

“he seems kind of trepidations a little bit to start going full strength again and that's what's”

distinct that that is where I've crossed the rubicon of like I just don't have any faith that he's going to be able to stay healthy for any prolonged period of time so yes AD just equally undurable almost but in a way that I don't have the same like lack of hope does that make any sense? Sure but again also pre-existing chemistry with LeBron James and they wanted a championship together that should also be thrown in there. Before we take a break I do think that's important

to note because there was all this murmuring of like you know Cleveland is now left no one is left in the merch like LeBron made a choice and all these teams knew that they were you know there were a number of other places he might go and that they were likely to not get him but there was all this stuff about how you know does clutch want golden state to get Anthony Davis tab any shot at LeBron James or rumblings like just Cleveland need to go get

Kyrie Irving to get LeBron James like I may just speaking for myself and the calls and text

“I've made over the last month I haven't really heard any of that I don't think like I think”

AD may have been floated like tentatively very early in the process to maybe one team and that's it and I don't think there were any talks about it at all any substantive trade talks I don't think you know Sean's reported a couple days ago that there's no other Domino's here in LeBron's out waiting for any other Domino's I think that was true and I think that's actually been true for quite a while and I just wanted to like make sure that I mentioned that now who knows what

will happen between now that all right I have a couple other I have a couple other general takes

to throw two guys let's say a quick break first okay here are some thoughts slash takes slash

scorchers I've seen going around the internet since LeBron signed with the sixers today and I want to bounce them off of you take number one and this was like almost a pre take like Brian Winhorse said this on TV and Howard Beck said it on my podcast take number one it just feels weird

agreed disagree what's the price I assure you it's not for me my peanut maybe maybe a

less by source Michael Pina I mean you you've got the greatest career in the history of the NBA almost in arguably going to one of the most dysfunctional at times laughable organizations in a decade and I just think that just one call this is just like right hey yeah yeah come from your best

“I just so I think that that in congruence is pretty it's pretty interesting”

I think that the I don't I don't think that this was among the top 10 reasons that he joined the team but historically the sixers are very important franchise in NBA history and in the whole district great NBA players I'm on the right side of history of this because when Howard Howard said

this on my podcast when I was in Vegas so a couple weeks ago whenever that was right after

Wendy had said something to the effect of the vibes would just feel off and I get why he's saying that it's like we started the podcast with like I'm looking right now I did image of him in a sixers jersey with number 23 like that's just fucking weird I can't believe this is happening it's 20 it's 20 26 guys still playing and he's gonna play for the 76ers but I said this to Howard people can have any opinion they want about LeBron and this and that whatever it is

he has done his whole career his way and not adhering to anything any traditional conception of what a superstar career is supposed to be so he's not a one-team guy in fact not only is he not a one-team guy he leaves his hometown team in the most destructive infuriating way possible in the decision to go to the Miami heat with his buddies he wins two championships there he then leaves his buddies in Miami to go back to Cleveland he then wins a championship there

and goes to Los Angeles why because he wants to be a branded in-room in Lanzo ball and Josh Hart and all of those it no he just was like I want to go to Los Angeles maybe we'll get into the Davis maybe we'll want to be an entertainment mogul I want to go to LA this kind of fits with his I'm gonna do things my way because I am the game I am the sport I can do whatever I want I'm

“either the greater subscribers player of all time I think it'd be kind of cool to go to Philadelphia”

play with a young player who's represented by my agency who already have a good relationship with who I think is one of the next great stewards of the NBA and Tariys Maxi play for a franchise that is Chris said is historically really significant in the NBA but has not quite been able to get out of its own way in the last 10 years 15 years whatever try to bring some stability play with some players you respect and likes I think I think this is in keeping with LeBron's career and does

not feel that weird to me okay take number two are you ready Chris Ryan? Sure this is from and you've seen this all around the internet this is the one that happened to cut my eye from a guy named Mark Shankowski who's an anchor covering the bulls in Chicago he used to do Stacey King's podcast with Stacey Delay Grace Stacey King and he retweets the shams tweet about the signing it says the king of ring chasing is added again teaming up look three other all

teaming up with three other all stars in Philly in a desperate attempt to get a fifth championship and make his resume look better next to Jordan's girlfriend man that would suggest that there

“are some rings here other than my wedding ring there's no rings what Michael Pena is no I think that”

this is like one of the I wrote this this is like one of the more challenging uphill battle situations he could have possibly landed in so I don't I don't think he's ring chasing at all no if you think about like look there there's an era of LeBron's career the legion the like everything is is a chess game that clutch is you surfing the NBA power base to maneuver personnel around for him I think he might have just been like I think I want to play in Philly like it sometimes

life's not that much more complicated than that and like you said Zach like I don't think I think he was like let's see if it works it's it's four mill a year like we can we could all walk away stay friends if we want to like if if LeBron's like it turns out I don't want to do this in January

and retires like is that any more surprising than signing with Philly in the first place like I think

that there's a little bit of like let's see what happens to this this is not ring chasing and even if it were I don't even think it's possible to be a ring chaser when you're almost 42 years old I think that you're upright and playing quality and be a vessel I'm gonna do whatever hell you want he's got four championship and these chasing a ring the other thing is what then what would have gone going to Cleveland have been is that just is it because it's home but it's not

going to Golden State would have been like the biggest blockbuster ticket the NBA had had but

they were speaking of depth problems those guys would have been like they would have been like panting for air like that's not like like they wouldn't have been able to put together a great team with LeBron Golden State was dead on arrival two old two injured now they're really dead on arrival

“with I think some significant downside risk built into this particular team which I think they know”

I expect dream on we'll come back it's again Friday at 450 he may come back by the time you listen to this I would my guess is it I wouldn't be surprised if we were a one-year deal with the same amount that he just opted out for but they're not going anywhere and they know that yeah so land-up or gold awesome and uh and certainly that's great but my point is like Cleveland you could

literally rewrite that same tweet about playing with three all stars and it would apply to the

Cavaliers except it's home so it's home the heat he'd be going with Bam and Yannis is that ring chasing or is that just going to the heat like I don't understand the difference is just the location and the fact that he's played there before and he can chase rings if he wants to he's he's earned he's earned the right okay take three is this the best starting five in the NBA and I will give you the other candidates and maybe I've missed one uh Oklahoma City I have put in

just for now Shay Cason Wallace J. Dubbed Chet Holmgren Isaiah Hardenstein San Antonio Dearen Fox Devon Vessel Julian Champenney Steph Castle Victor Wimbini out but twice Harris could slide in there that's been an unlike a little bit of an untold thing anything with Wemby's got to be in there didn't kill an harbour bitch yeah still I don't understand still there Denver Jamal Murray Christian Brown Cam Johnson Aaron Gordon Nicole Yoke it's maybe Peyton Watson takes a spot

the nicks they're starting five just one dmb a championship with some of the most beautiful

“basketball you'll see that lineup is heading up and down history actually but I think the playoffs”

they just destroyed everybody Cleveland down of the Mitchell James Harden either Max Rooster J. Elantison Evan Mowbley Jared Allen um Houston I put in just to be you know just to be a complete as Fred Vambley

Amen Thompson Kevin Durant, Jabari Smith Jr. Alperon Shen Goon and then I think that that basically

I guess you could do shed throw in Boston just to round out the jail and brown trade Peyton Richard Derek White Jason Tate and Paul George Mitchell Robinson since the best starting five in the NBA Philadelphia's no it's not I can't I can't say that it's the best starting five after the nicks just won the championship the thunder of them what they've done and the spurs look the way they looked and have improved so

no I don't think so and and I just you know there's just too many question marks to make great in pocket proclamations like that for me also the the pistons just at a John Collins so what's the starting into like a John Collins you know what I love John Collins I love it doesn't

“seem like it okay I like I think John Collins I think the pistons had a better off season than”

people are given the credit for and they're gonna win a lot of games assuming Jell and Durant is back up to some of the things that Bill said about Caleb Wilson yesterday we sure were counting out the bulls too easily look I was driving in my talk about a no comment right there I was driving in my car and I was listening to the podcast and thank God I turned it on after I dropped my daughter and her friends office were in practice so that they didn't hear about

how we'd have no sperm left if you were a bulls fan and there would just be a jackillet everywhere imagine if one of my daughter's friends went back to her parents was like hey mommy I'm just going to load was like listening to this thing in the car where somebody was talking what's sperm like it just got it's going to ruin my whole life I don't keep that guy probably would have the dad probably would have been like he was she was just listening to Bill's pod

it's a big deal I think I think I'd go Oklahoma City and the next starting 5's over filly a couple spurs I guess versus spurs yeah spurs I get yeah I did I mean we did everyone just did finish a month of shitting on the air and fox it's worth noting right if we're going to talk about the spurs 35 but yeah there it should be in there a quick note another thing that I was going through like all the reasons why this could be a maybe not quite as difficult day there's only

one ball thing on offense I don't know if this is health if this is career evolution if this is whatever but I looked this up during the season and I refreshed my memory today and beat post ups down to 7.9 per 100 possessions last year that's the lowest number of his career and it is MVP years it was up at like 15 year is MVP calibre years it was up to 15 or 16 per 100 possessions and I remember looking that up late in the season because I was like man it feels

like they're just not throwing it to him as much and I don't really know why that is other than obviously

possibility of a slightly revamped identity for what he does on offense I just don't know

what that endpoint looks like in terms of you know he's just not a good enough jump shooter to evolve into he's just a space around the perimeter now so but I thought that was notable

“one of the big things that I think will be interesting is to see how contagious LeBron's”

general like ball finds energy kind of like let's move this thing around offensive identity is and you know and beat for several years like the six or sort of go to offensive set was throw it down to a beat and wait for a double and see if he can make the right pass and make it fast enough and is he gonna be seeing that many doubles like I mean I mean you double in and beat when LeBron and jailing Brown and and Tyre's Maxie are out there to to

to that point I was having a conversation about the sixes before LeBron shows them and

if my defense strategy against this team would be to never double anybody because I don't

want them to pass I would love a bunch of one-on-one isolation basketball and I wonder if that is how teams will approach guarding them this year but no that's yeah that's great point because that's interesting because you know I mean they'll find the weakest matchup

“then if you want to play them that way and and they will run a pick and roll and try to exploit it”

which is fine they can do that LeBron is obviously a bulldozer in the post jail and Brown can be too and it's just it speaks to the the NBA is the ultimate wildcard in the NBA because for the weak he was healthy against Boston he just like that third quarter of whatever game that was in Boston when he just woke up and was like oh I'll just put Niemia's Keta and Luca Garza and the Colo Luchovich in the basket over his game again and it was like holy yeah I remember I remember

this guy and he just can't last that way but it was a reminder like that's like we talked about not doubling in bead that's what used to happen when you didn't double in bead unless you had like Mitchell Robinson or you know is there anyone else really that belongs on that list that's what happened he would just back you into the basket and you'd fall them or he'd dunk and it was like a little shaky in that way where there was just nothing you could do

with prime shack so I look I wouldn't mind throwing it to him and if you do double them they have brilliant cutters, passers, shooters all over the floor but yeah to your point Michael I don't I don't know if he merits that but for a weak against Boston he certainly did because he just beat the shit out of everyone they had but don't play bully ball they'll find ways they'll run in for to pick and rules and all that I don't think offense I don't know I might be being

naive a jail and brown might go there and be like this this sucks I wanted to be the number one option and now like while Vijay had 25 tonight so I was like the fifth option for six minutes I don't know but this is what I want to ask you guys because you've probably spent more time around the Celtics obviously than I have but over the many people and you have covered the broad more closely over the years and are more familiar with like how things work on his teams do you think that

these guys are going to get along in a basketball sense like Michael obviously like suggested like Jalen wanted to go to his own team and initially here within bead kind of like a halftime player Jalen gets like two really feisty fun guards and is is given this sort of like open campus and we'll bronch complicates that but like personality wise do you think there's a mess here do you think Nick nurses particular coaching style meshes with these guys like beyond the X's and O's it's almost

“like do you think there's emotional chemistry I think that will take time to build and”

there's a world where it doesn't it doesn't like I someone another someone in the league with another team is just as everyone was Vegas with sort of spitball in the hay where you think the best fit is the worst fit where you think he's going to go and I don't really I don't think there's a great great answer to the like there's not an A plot other than like Minnesota which was

Taylor made and he was never going to do that and I remember getting to filly and I was like you know

I just I don't know how he's going to love playing with Jalen Brown or Joel and bead if that if that's going to be like his easiest as so I defaulted to Cleveland be like imperfect everything imperfect I'll default to go in home and having the home coming so I do think there's there's there's something to that and everyone is going to have to sacrifice and you hope that A Nick nurses in a league coach and B just the rigors of the regular season and tonight this guy sits

in tonight that guy sits kind of eases their way into the playoffs and they have a you know I mean I said this with Bill like the Nick's is recently as January and February we're like an unhappy frustrated internal internal crisis kind of game and then they just like won the championship so you just don't know how these things are going to work yeah and the spurs were like the feel good story of the year and that it was just like doing harbour once the start you know like

this or LeBron's like that when you're playing with him and like we'll see I mean like it's any professional environment but LeBron's in his 40s you know like I wonder if he's like this isn't about making a sub tweet about getting a shooter you know this is I mean it's how it goes and you know look it was it wasn't a huge sample but the way he's actually bought in he didn't play pay lip service to it and then do something different for 25 30 games whatever it was he bought

in to being the third option around Luca and Austin Reeves and became like the apex version of

that kind of player that's proof of concept to me that he can do it and that he's willing to do it

“and he understands that in order to win he might have to do it and I think the same applies here”

I don't know Michael if you're more optimistic less optimistic I think offensively it'll be fine but they're good even the ego thing is going to be there I think I don't disagree the LeBron can make it work if he wants to I'm just interested because you know comparing it to Luca is fascinating because Luca is you know he is this prodigious talent who when he has the ball in his hands he is elite offense unto himself and he makes every he can see every read he makes all the right passes

it's just a completely different level of offensive player than Jalen Brown and I wonder I'm not saying it can't work of course I think it sure very well may and I would bet that it will but I just you know Jalen Brown is like I'm going to dribble like eight times and take this contested fall away and if it doesn't go in the next time down the court I'm going to try the same exact thing so I just I wonder how that is going to play out if he if he is stubborn in his in his

“ways against again single coverage and I think that that is something like I always go back to with Jalen Brown”

Eric Spulstra putting in the 2024 playoffs in the first round put a gametabio on Jason Tatum and he

put Tyler hero on Jalen Brown and the whole thing was like I want Jalen Brown to like go off do what you want to do take as many shots as you want because you will disrupt that team's offense and so I just I'm just so curious to see how it all plays out and the degree to which Jalen is willing to taper his game at this point in his career coming off a season where he's like I should win MVP is going to be really fast like him averaging like you know 16 points a game is just really

hard to to fathom well so it'll be it's not but it is an exaggeration but like the the there will be sacrifice for sure like his usage rate is not going to be 33 you know so I just think it'll be it'll be an interesting situation in the two years before this one the average 22 and 22.2 and 23 points again that feels realistic guess what he made the All-Star team both years like you're going to get recognized for all this but is it I remember Spot trying to bathe him like that in that

playoff series there was also the famous game where the warriors put Dramon Green on him and just didn't guard him at all and just dared him treated him like he was Andre Robertson in the corner and it's like let's just mess with his way it's interesting yeah it's like it's like the Celtics on that game by like 16 points or something yeah and they beat the heat quite easily in the

“playoff so after the first game I think it is interesting how he's been the the target of some”

mind games like that a couple other final thoughts on this we've talked about the East and the East beefing up in Kawai probably coming East Yannis staying East Lebron now coming East and although there we could you know a lot of the East teams have kind of stood still they haven't necessarily gotten worse the Pacers are going to be back as a as a real team again it just struck me like

we could see Lebron play the calves in the playoffs it's never happened before didn't happen when

he was on Miami and he only played the heat once and it was in the bubble when he was with the lakeers in the finals so like I think we deserve we deserve as basketball fans like real Lebron rivalry with one of his past teams playoff series and it's it's in play magic like Lebron against the heat with Yannis and Bam or Lebron going back to Cleveland after spurning them again like this would be awesome theater Zach who is the Christmas day opponent for the six years and

yeah I'm so relieved for Adam silver that they can make the schedule now do you think they said Lebron to Cleveland on Christmas day it's not it's got to be I think it's still got to be Boston I think Philly Boston well you know what it's Lebron you're right you can't my amy is not I don't think my amy has the emotional head yeah I don't I'm sure there are heat fans who feel otherwise but I don't I saw when Pat Riley did the the band the Bam and Yannis press conference

that's that's where he wanted to go if you wanted to go there it was like plenty of time to make that

“decision I I think that it beyond even like the Lebron where does Lebron wind up like what what”

rivalry games is Lebron playing in the more you talk about these to cover some more I'm like every single night there is going to be an incredible storyline like whether it's a great young player that you want to watch or tracking the Pacers trying to get back to what they had two years ago or these new situations for Yannis and Lebron and whether or not the pistons I'm not a don't where where is Jalen during now like like like well how many more like what is his physical

location current like where is his contract status is he at pistons player still yes he's a restricted region so I would be absolutely blown away if he was not a piston next year you know the shots we need effect on a Orlando today become a little bit more dangerous the Charlotte is there like you in theory with Le'Melo like I think yeah it's going to be exciting almost every single night and there's a lot of trade stuff still to happen yeah to me like pre Lebron Boston Filly was like the

no brand or christmas game because of the jail and brown trade and the resulting animus and all that I just they are division rivals the game is if you could somehow not have Filly and Boston play until christmas which is hard because they play four times a year and then back load the schedule and have that beat the first Jalen Brown versus Boston game and it's Lebron and it's Lebron versus

“the Celtics who's his old nemesis I think that's still the game other Lebron at Cleveland would”

be a lot of fun too any final thoughts on this guy's anything we didn't hit it's worth it in the eye of the storm it's very I mean like for for 15 years like I think there's six years have been the the kind of object of fascination of like real NBA heads because it's like is this going to work

and the controversy over the process and obviously like calendulo and there's always just been this

kind of comic tragedy to the way the team has been operating and you know our buddies at the right Syriki Sanchez or just kind of like chronicling this multiple times a week and it's just like is the cyscifician tasks are kind of cheer for this team and have the same result in the same round of the playoffs and so to be or and just be like somebody chose us somebody wants to be a part of this is just really like mind-hultering so I'm going to enjoy a while at last until the first sort of

like are we sure this is worth it more likely that they lose in the first round or win the championship win the championship okay peanut more like wow okay I gotta go with that was in the first round more likely but I would too sorry this doesn't necessarily mean they have an aimed in the right direction that's just to be true the Eastern Conference they're more likely to win the championship than they were before yeah by the way you're wearing a philly sack can I just tell you one of my

one of the things I've learned in my return to baseball the last few years I don't mean this in

the true sense of the word hate it's more respect and fear if I never see college for a bad

against the meds again that'll be fucking fine with me it seems like he hits a home run every single time and then I look at his stats it's like oh yeah he has 9000 home runs and 9 like does he he's just incredible every time they play the meds what even the outs are like warning tracks I can't even watch when he's up I have seen the philly's multiple times this summer in other stadiums other than Philadelphia and they've lost every game in Schwarber is like barely made contact and so

it's just been this this surreal experience of every time I check it it's like I hit two dinners today so I'm glad I'm I'm glad that he's he's hurting you Zach I'm sorry you're my 11 year old daughter is like there's that Schwarber with his beard again this is bad news for us and like it is all right Michael Peter you already wrote a column on the ringer dot com about LeBron we'll have a lot more offseason content there's not much offseason left to go Chris Ryan you are everywhere

what was the latest thing you've done and what do you what do we should look out for early next week

“well tomorrow we are doing I think I think we tweeted this out we are doing obsession”

live on Netflix on the rewatchables so 2026 movie and very excited and some might say that I made a wish that came true today is that is that the fastest rewatchables turn around and rewatchable no we did top gunmapper I think well it was still in theaters I thought it was a top gunmapper yeah God bless you guys I cannot wait to see that that it's gonna be nice thanks guys all right thank you guys for circling the wagons on Friday enjoy the weekend enjoy the show tomorrow Chris and we'll see you guys soon all right that's it for

today's edition of the Zach low show thank you to Chris Ryan thank you to Michael Pina for scrambling

and getting on the show today thanks is always to Mike Billy and Jonathan on production it thanks to

some more stuff happens in the NBA before we all leave for a well deserved vacation thank you all for listening

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