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10 MOST INTERESTING Teams This Offseason · Small Ball with Kenny Beecham

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome back to another episode of Small Ball with Kenny Beacham.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_01: I am filming this maybe 12 hours after game three of the NBA Finals wrapped up.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_01: And here's what I want to say.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not going to spend a ton of time on game three of the finals because I feel like when you're watching this, we're getting ready for game number four, and nobody cares about game number three.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_01: And also in the last 12 hours, I've done a TV show.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_01: I've done a different podcast.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_01: I've done a recap video.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: I'm kind of, I'm kind of all out of takes about game number three.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: All I can say is that the Pacers have been really fun.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: So fun that I was watching this game, and like I'm in the middle of this game, or actually it's halftime, and me and the guys are watching it at the studio together.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: We're, you know, having a good time and all.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm thinking to myself, who are my favorite teams to ever make the finals?
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: Not just the winners of the finals, not just the NBA champions, but how high does this rank, this Pacers team rank on my favorite finals runs ever?
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: So I made a list.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: Leave a like on the episode, subscribe to the channel, go check out T Double Pierre and Dreesson, of course, smallball Kenny Beachum and numbers on the board.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_01: Four numbers on the board, we are.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: I don't even know if I'm supposed to be saying this, but damn it, I'm gonna say it.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: Anyway, we're flying to Bristol, Connecticut.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: We're doing an NBA draft show, so be on the lookout for that.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: I need to completely, completely lock you into this draft because it's 13 days away, but it's hard for me to spend a ton of time on the draft because the findings have been so damn good.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: But we're doing um a live stream live show for that.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: So be on the lookout.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so I'm watching the Spacer team go up 2-1 on you know a regular season juggernaut OKC Thunder team.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: And when I was watching this game, there's a couple different things that was going through my mind.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_01: It also was a big reminder of how little I actually know about basketball in comparison to like Rick Carlisle or Mark Dayton all.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: Because I made my preview episode when I'm like telling you the things that I think the Pacers have to do in order to potentially win this series.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's a long shot, but it could happen if they do this, this, and this, and this.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: And a lot of the things that I've mentioned in that video, the Pacers haven't been doing.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: And they're still up two-one.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: I'm thinking to myself, how could this team make an adjustment?
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: Right in my mind, the Denver Nuggets laid some level of blueprint of like, you know, you can push the OKC Thunder to the brink of ending it all.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: If you just run some zone, wait on shooting variants for them to be a bad three-point shooting team, yada yada yada, play that zone, make them other people do certain things.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm thinking Rick Carlisle, he's such a great coach, he's such a smart coach.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: Hell, back in 2011 when they won a championship, they ran good amount of zone.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_01: He don't really run zone with the spaces team, but at least he's got experience doing it.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: So in this series, Rick Carlisle must run some zone.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: Nah, I think we've got like two possessions total in this whole damn series of them running zone.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_01: So for them to just play straight up, or not straight up, but play man coverage against this OKC team and have Shay have one of his worst performances of the entire year, including postseason and regular season, just again shows you how little that we we know behind the scenes.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: You know, them guys are just savants.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: In order to be an NBA coach, in order to be hell in the NBA as a player, you just have to know and just be better.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_01: Anyway, back to my favorite teams to ever make an NBA Finals run.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_01: I'm thinking about it, and I'm like, damn, this Pacer team is really high.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_01: Regardless of the outcome of the series, whether they win or lose, whatever, regardless of the outcome of the series, this team is number one.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: I think this has been my favorite finals team of my life.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm looking at it from the perspective of a fan, forget the analytic analytics, forget the analysis, forget about who was the best.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: But just as an NBA fan, as a basketball fan, who have I enjoyed their run the most?
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: It's easily them.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: Like, you know, I try to do my job and give analysis based on the things that I've seen, make predictions on the games, things that I've seen.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: And we had this whole conversation a few weeks ago talking about when you make predictions, do you make them from the heart or do you make them from the mind?
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_01: And a lot of the times I go from the mind, right?
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: I'm thinking about the greatest defense.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: How many times do I want to say that?
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, a lot.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_01: The greatest defense relative to the rest of the league ever, uh the MVP of the league, the scoring title, MVP of the league, and like, yeah, that team is gonna win the series.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: That team is just the better team.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_01: That's my brain speaking.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_01: But my heart is like this Pacer team is just different.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: They're just more, more polished than pretty much any team that the OKC Thunder have seen so far.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: They have one of the better coaches in just the history of the sport, and they have just a bunch of gamers.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: I know that's surface level, but they just have a bunch of gamers in their team and they play to the end of the whistle.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: They play through all of this, and they're my favorite team.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: My second on the list is another big underdog team.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe I'm a Rick Carlisle fan because of the 2011 um Dallas Mavericks.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: Part of this is Dirk is one of my three favorite players to ever pick up a basketball.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_01: I loved his entire career.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: And also, this is the beginning of my high school.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: I hated LeBron James.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: I hated the Miami Heat.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: And that sucked because before that happened, Dwayne Wade was one of my favorite players.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: But I hated that team so much to watch the Dallas Mavericks go against that team and win after they was talking trash about Dirk having a flu.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_01: Come on, man.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: Not a lot better.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_01: And I was around, I was young, but I was around for the conversations surrounding Dirk and international players before he won his championship.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: Fluky MVP losing the first round to the we believe Warriors a few years before that.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: Can a European guy um lead an NBA team to a final?
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: Like those are real conversations that were happening before 2011.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: I remember those.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: I was there.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: I was turning on Sports Center and all the other talking uh head shows back then, and that was real conversations.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_01: Then they won.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_01: Should I all lay up, bet up, and Dirk is forever a legend because of it.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: My next one, damn, maybe I really hated the Miami Heat, huh?
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: Because my next one is a 2012 OKC Thunder.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: Super young team.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, ended up having three MVPs between Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harder.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: But it was something about that team them being so young, going against a juggernaut who, again, just the previous year, that Miami Heat team ended up losing to Dallas or their Alpha Blood.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: They don't want to take no games off, so on and so forth.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_01: LeBron James in his MVP form, maybe the best version of LeBron James ever, and that's saying something.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, this OKC Thunder team ended up losing that series.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_01: But I think I shared that same sentiment that everybody had at the time.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, this young team, they will be back.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, this might be the Miami Heat year, but next year, maybe it's different.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_01: Two years from now, maybe it's different.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: Russell Westbrook was good here.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_01: Kevin Arant was doing this thing, so on and so forth.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: And obviously, they never went back.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: They made a big time legendary fumble of a trade, trading away James Harden shortly after that.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_01: But that team was so damn fun to watch to see the Slim Reaper do his part and young Russell Westbrook, where he was rocking, rocking not a baldy, but a ball fade.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: His hair was so damn low.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and they were wearing the 3D glasses.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: My number four and my number five are intertwined because both of these teams come from the same finals.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: It was a weird finals for me.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: And this was like during the era of me doing this for media, right?
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: 2011, I wasn't doing it.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_01: 2012 I wasn't doing this, but like the 2021 NBA Finals, I loved both of those teams.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: My number four on the list will be the Suns because Chris Paul is my favorite player of all time.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_01: And they had a, I don't know, a cohesion about them that was just so fun, whether it be preseason, um, them dancing with the fan corset to Nevada by NBA Youngboy, um, when they were doing social media stuff and their FaceTime, and it just felt like a team.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_01: And Finana basically come out of nowhere when you think about it.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: You know, um, right before this, they go to the bubble and they end up going undefeated in the bubble, but it still wasn't enough.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: And then they trade for my goat Chris Paul, and boom, just like that.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: This team is a title contender.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: Devin Booker is in the NBA Finals.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_01: Are you kidding me?
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: Devin Booker just spent the first six years of his career doing nothing.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, not himself, but on shitty teams.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: Marquise Chris.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: So who else?
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_01: Marquise Chris, um, Dragon Bender.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_01: Like they're just wasting draft pick after draft pick behind Devin Booker.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: And then they finally put some things together.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they drafted Aiden over other guys like Luka Donchis, but damn it, it didn't matter in that moment in time because DeAndre Aiden had head a series where he was ridiculous.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_01: And we were talking about him being the top five center in basketball for a month straight.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: Come a very long way since then.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_01: Mikhail Bridges, one of my guys, all defensive team, getting over screens like crazy, hitting his corner shots.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_01: Cam Johnson, when they drafted him, I remember articles were giving his draft pick a like a D plus because he was an older guy and wasn't projected to go that high.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: And Kobe White has his, you know, reaction to him going that high.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: But this team was just so damn fun.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_01: And it just added to the legacy of Chris Paul.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_01: Just add to the legacy of Chris Paul with my goal.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: And then they were going against in that year the Milwaukee Bucks, a team that ended up winning it.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I guess one consensus about all of this, except for that 2012 OKC team.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: There was somebody on all of my favorite teams that ended up being my favorite players.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_01: You know, like Halliburton is one of my three favorite players in the league.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_01: That was before this run, by the way.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: Don't think that I just jumped on the bandwagon.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_01: Shout out to my boy Halley.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_01: I mentioned to you how much Dirk matters to me.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_01: Chris Paul is my GOAT, and Giannis has been one of my guys for a very, very long time.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_01: And for him to get one for Milwaukee was was so dope.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it was bittersweet because my GOAT, my actual GOAT, Chris Paul, ended up losing that series.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: But I had so much love for that team.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: It felt like they caught lightning in the bottle.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: You know, Drew Holiday comes over there, he makes a huge impact.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_01: And then Giannis's closeout game is one of my favorite finals performances ever as well.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_01: So those were my five favorite finals teams ever.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_01: My number six, the tough cut, was the first 2020.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry, 2015 Golden State Warriors.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_01: You know, that's like babyface assassin Steph Curry.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_01: That shit was so fun to watch, man.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_01: That was like so dope.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_01: And I think by betting odds, um, they were the most surprised championship championship in the modern era.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: Like if you think about where they were preseason and what people in gambling on, uh, they were pretty damn low, the lowest of this era.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_01: Now, if the Pacers end up winning this series, then they become that team.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_01: But that Warriors team, I know we look at it now, it's like, oh, they're a dynasty, they won so many championships, yada, yada, yada.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_01: But before 2015, they weren't really looked at that and looked like that.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_01: And here we are.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: I say all of that to say, this 2025 Pacer team has been a team of destiny.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_01: This team has been so damn fun.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it just when you're in the NBA Finals and you only have at the max seven games left, to have a performance like Ben Matherin had the 27 points, to have the TJ McConnell 10 points, five assists, five re five steals, all of those performances are just so important.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_01: You know, that one game, game three, is like the second most bottled I've ever seen.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_01: Shea Gibbs Alexander.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: The other game was the one game against the Minnesota Timberwolves, game three, I want to say.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe it was game three where he had like 14 total points.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um, this game, the Pacers did not go to, like I mentioned, a zone like some of these other teams ended up doing.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: They just sent a bunch of help at the right times, made him think.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I thought that Shea did an amazing job at game number two, you know, thinking and making the right decisions.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: But whether it be Nimhar, whether it be Ben Shepard, whether it be even Matherin, who's not necessarily known as a great defensive player, ended up having possessions on Shay, and just I feel like they they one thing that the Pace have done well this whole playoff run is getting that star player and putting so much pressure on him for the first 44 minutes that when we get down to the last couple minutes of the game, it feels like those guys no longer have their legs.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: And as we were watching this game together in studio, my boy Derek says, OK C got to pull out and end up being up by 10 with so-and-so minutes left because if this is a close game, they don't want to see this Pacer team.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: And that's that's kind of how I feel as well.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_01: In a close game, the Pacers are rare in the sense that they don't get away from the thing that has been working for the first 40-some minutes.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_01: They are they're gonna always still run their sets.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't just boil down to isolation ball like some of these other teams, like, hey, give the ball to our best player, let them cook out.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: No, the pace are gonna continue to run their things.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_01: The defense was great.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, the the Thunder tried to go at Halley as much as they could.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_01: And in space, Halley is still struggling, if you will.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_01: But as a help defender, hitting passing lanes, um, getting weak side help and weak side blocks, I think Halliburton has done a really damn good job.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_01: And he's looked like the star player.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I still don't really love the conversation that was happening around my boy's name, mostly because nothing that he has done in the first two games was really different than who he is as a player.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_01: He's a guy that averages less than 20 points in a regular season as well.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_01: Like, you know, that's not his role on this team.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_01: He is one of the premier, I don't know, um, bus drivers in basketball.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_01: When he is on the court, the team is better.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: And this is one of the few times throughout this playoffs or this series where Halliburton went to the bench and things didn't collapse.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_01: It happened in game number two.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: You know, they're down by three when Halliburton checks out the game in the first quarter.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_01: By the time he comes back in, the game feels like it's out of reach.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_01: Well, whether it be TJ McConnell's spurt at the beginning of that second quarter or Benedict Mathrin's 14 or so points in the second quarter.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_01: It's one of the few times where Halley left the floor and the team was decent.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_01: And if they can replicate that a couple more times, whoo.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: All right, before we get on to what today's episode really is about, because you know, the offseason is around a corner, right?
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_01: We mentioned draft a little bit earlier, you know, between the Wind Horses and the Charanias, getting our expectations high, it got me thinking about what this offseason could look like.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna give you the 10 most intriguing teams this offseason.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_01: But I'm gonna talk about game number four.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: If you go to FanDuel Sportsbook, I did have a little same game parlay.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_01: I will tell you right now, you can tail the parlay or you can create your own.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_01: So far in the finals, I'm one and one when it comes to my parlays.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_01: One of them hit a little four-legger for plus 450 hit, and then my last one missed by one Ludor three and one.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_01: No, Pascal got a rebound.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_01: It was one Ludor three, I think, was the last thing we missed.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: So maybe game number four is better.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: Again, you make that decision.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_01: We got Jalen Williams for 20 plus points.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: We got Tarys Halliburton double double.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: I kind of like this play because Halley has done a pretty decent job on the glass, defensive glass specifically, but he also can get the assists as well.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: So it's like double edge.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_01: He was one rebound away from a triple-double last night.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_01: So we've seen him have games with double-digit rebounds.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_01: We know for sure he could get those double-digit assists.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_01: So you can kind of play one of the two ways.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_01: We got Aaron Smith with his two made threes.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_01: And then lastly, Chen Homegrown with a three.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_01: He was 0 for 6 in game two or game three.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_01: I figured that he'll bounce back and at least hit one.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_01: Hell, it ain't gonna be for the lack of trying.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_01: The man is getting his shots up.
• 14:37
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• 15:08
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• 15:12
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• 16:03
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_01: Off season time.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: 10 most intriguing teams come off season.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_01: I'm going bottom up, starting at number 10, to kind of work my way to the team that I feel to be most intriguing.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_01: Number 10 on my list.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: It's actually really tough because I really had eight teams in this, so I had to kind of force these last two.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_01: I ain't gonna lie.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_01: The internet likes round numbers.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_01: You feel me?
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_01: The internet loves a good round number.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_01: Number 10 on my list is a team that maybe nobody's really thought about this offseason.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_01: It's uh the Sacramento Kings.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_01: Kenny, why the Sacramento Kings one of the most intriguing teams this offseason?
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: Because I just don't know how you get out of the mess.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_01: Their cat book is way worse than I even imagined.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_01: Starting next season, you got Zach Levine at$47 million with a player option the year after that for$48 million.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: He's probably gonna pick that up because I don't see a market for him to make$50 plus million dollars after next season.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe he does, maybe it does, but I just don't really see that.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: DeMontis Sabonis just signed his extension.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_01: He's got 42, 45, 48.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_01: DeMarta Rose has got 40, I'm sorry, 24 and 25.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_01: Malik Muk signed an extension.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_01: He's got 18, he's got 20, he's got a player option for 21.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_01: Even Valentinounas, who they traded for at the deadline, still has two years, 20 million left.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like, how do you get out of the muck?
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_01: There's rumors.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_01: Listen to these rumors.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, there's gonna be a lot of rumors talk on today's episode because that's all we really got for the offseason.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_01: There's rumors that the Sacramento Kings are interested in Trey Young and Darius Garland because they really want point guard play.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_01: The Sacramento Kings, who had the guy that's the best team on the team that's leading the finals right now.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_01: They just had him three years ago.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_01: A team that had De'Aaron Fox.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_01: Now I'm gonna give them a pass on De'Arn Fox.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_01: De'Aaron Fox requested out for all we know.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm saying?
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_01: So it's not it's not their fault that De'Arn Fox wanted to go to the Spurs.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_01: But this team has had two all-star, all NBA point guards on the roster, traded them away for a high volume score, no point guards on the roster said, you know what, we kind of do need a point guard.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_01: How?
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: How do they make the necessary decisions to get back to the life of being Kings?
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_01: Or is that dead?
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_01: Is that completely dead and they should go the opposite direction?
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_01: Well, actually, I do I do know what they should do.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_01: I just don't know what they will do, right?
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: I think the smart thing to do is to recognize that this era died when De'Aaron Fox decided that it died.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I mean, actually, it died before that, because even with De'Aaron Fox on the team, we didn't see them being a three-seed again, right?
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_01: That team was pretty much over with.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_01: We had seen the great season that it was, and it continuously have gone down since then.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_01: They also have to figure out what the hell they're gonna do with Keegan Murray's contract.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_01: So that's another thing on the books.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_01: But in my opinion, they should go the opposite direction and try to find some homes for DeMar DeRozes for DeMontis Abonises and just say, hey man, you know, in this newer regime, we've been better drafting than like our previous regime.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_01: We're not gonna have uh Jimmer for Deck, you know, George Papayannis, who else was in um Willie Cauley Stein.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_01: We're not gonna have that level of drafting, right?
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna hit, we're gonna find some Keon Ellis's on the back end, even Keegan Murray, even though he's got feels like progressively worse to our NBA career so far, solid draft pick.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_01: We've done okay there.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_01: So maybe we just hit the full reset or try to.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_01: But the problem is some of the contracts they have are just hard to move.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_01: Like Sabonis is an amazing player for what he does.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_01: He is a really good, really good floor raiser.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: I struggle to feel as though that level of production translates postseason.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_01: Now we don't have a ton of postseason um series under his belt.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_01: He's got one, and damn it, if he don't get his chest stumped on, and if De'Aaron Fox don't break his hand or whatever, or finger, then maybe they beat their Warriors team in seven, but Steph Curry gave him 50.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_01: I remember, oof, what a game.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um but I don't know if you're you're asking me, if I am a team that's trying to compete, would I take Sabonis as 42, 45, 46, or would I go a different direction of a player that maybe not as good as Sabonis, player to player, but might be a better fit for another team.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_01: I might go the other direction.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, it's not an untradeable contract.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_01: Hell, somebody traded for Zach Levine.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_01: Oh no, that was you.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_01: Will somebody else trade for Zach Levine?
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_01: DeMarty Rosen, I feel like, wouldn't be too hard to move.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_01: The$24 million, I feel like that's good market value for DeMardi Rose.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: And hey, I saw rumors that the Miami Heat might be interested.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: Malik Monk, 18 million.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_01: That won't be hard to move if you decide to do that.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_01: And even Jonas Valentunas with two years left,$10 million, is not a bad contract because I think part of that um isn't even completely guaranteed.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_01: But I'm curious to see how exactly they get out of this or if they decide, hey, we're good enough to be a 10th seed every year, a ninth seed every season, and maybe we catch lightning in the bottle and boom, we have a playoff series again.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_01: But Kings fans, it sucks for somebody to give you to give you a taste of waggle steak for a season.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_01: Just just straight up light the beam.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's boom, boom, boom.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: We're great, we're fun.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_01: And for them to take that off the off the table and replace it with it's like some dog food.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like that's what the Kings fans are going through.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_01: We got a little taste of what it means to be good and oh my god, we're back at the Kings in it.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um Marvin Bagley was drafted before Luka Doncic, too.
• 21:11
  unknown: Damn.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_01: Uh number nine team is the Denver Nuggets.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_01: As of right now, they have one tradable first-round pick.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_01: They have a team with the best player in the world.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_01: They have a team that pushed that OKC team to seven, man.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_01: Don't forget.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of people are going back and saying, man, maybe that Denver Nuggets team was better than we anticipated because they are one of the few teams to make the OKC team look normal.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, maybe that does end up being the case in a week from now, but as of right now, they're the only team that make them look normal for a full seven-game series.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_01: So maybe we're not as far away as we think.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe this new GM, who they still haven't figured out who that is just yet, this new GM can make small moves around the edges and boom, we're right back to being in contention.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: One tradable first round pick makes me think about what you know.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_01: Matt Ispi and them have done some really ridiculous stuff over the last couple of years.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_01: I'll say that, or since he's taken office.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but one thing.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: I really like that they did was that they traded one of their good first round picks for like three lesser to bad first round picks.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_01: And I think there's something that can be done there for the Denver Nuggets.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know who that's to.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if we just call up OKC and say, give me your three words, we'll give you this one for 20.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_01: I don't remember if it's 2029 or 2031, but hey, oh, you could convince yourself, you OKC that that's a flyer to take.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_01: And now we got three tradable first-round picks, even if they're aren't good.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_01: And now we can divvy those up to say, hey, MPJ, if we're moving you away, if we attach a first-round pick, two first-round picks to you, then maybe we could get some more depth.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe we could get this, maybe we could get that.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_01: And then the problem is trying to figure out exactly what that trade looks like, the archetype of players that you want to go after.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_01: I feel pretty solid about their top three guys, even though Jamal Murray feels like he's unhealthy or not healthy every time we get to when it really matters.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_01: But you know Joke is there, you know Jamal is there, and you know Aaron Gordon, Mr.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_01: Nugget is gonna be there, everything else.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_01: And I guess I'm actually adding Christian Brown to that conversation too.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_01: Nah, he's not he's not an untouchable, don't get me wrong.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_01: But I feel as though in order for them to trade him, they would have to have a something really special lined up to throw him in a trade.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna add those four guys.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: So we really have like Zeke Nagy's contract, uh, we really got Michael Porter Jr.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_01: Ugh.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_01: And and like maybe Peyton Watson, maybe you know, Pickett or some of the younger dudes that they've recently drafted in in these trades, and boom, we can make a move here to get slightly better, or maybe slightly better is all we really need to win a game seven against OKC.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_01: But it's not an easy job, man.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_01: It's not gonna be an easy job for the new general manager to figure out because there's obvious it's obvious that there's still a bit of way, but maybe just not too much.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: And my my fear is when you you add somebody new to front office and they they take on a roster that someone else built, they're always gonna try to do the things to give that new roster their own little boom.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_01: You know, this is my team now.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_01: I don't care what what the hell he built or he built or Connolly built or or Booth built over the last seven or ten years.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_01: I need it to look like my version of this team.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_01: So because of that, I'm gonna do this trade, even if it's an unpopular trade.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna do this trade.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_01: And maybe that's not what they need, but maybe that is what they need.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_01: Some of these guys are really difficult to figure out the value of.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_01: Because for what MPJ does, he's so damn good.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_01: But also, when he's not doing that thing, it can get rough.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna tip my cap to him because he played through that big ass shoulder injury.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_01: So maybe he just could have been better if he wasn't injured.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_01: Whatever.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_01: Number eight on my list is the Orlando Magic.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_01: I can't help but to look at the Orlando Magic and think if I am a part of that front office and a part of that team or even in that fan base, I'm looking at what the hell is going on in the Eastern Conference and saying to myself, we ain't that far away.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_01: We're just not that far away.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_01: No, we're not gonna be the Pacers.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_01: We're not gonna surprise them teams and make it to the finals, more likely than not.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_01: But we were what, the 4-5 seed just the previous year before we dealt with all these injuries.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_01: The Boston Celtics may be down for the count for the next season.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_01: The Cavaliers, as good as they were, obviously, this ain't no super juggernaut that they're unbeatable.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_01: So where do we fit in here?
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_01: We could fit in towards the top if we do the necessary things.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm so tired of us NBA fans mocking the same type of player to this team.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_01: We know that they need a ball-handling shot creator and shot maker.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_01: It whether it be Simons, whether it be Kobe White, maybe it'd be a higher level of that of Darius Garland, everybody knows what type of player that they should be going after.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_01: And they haven't done it just yet.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_01: Earlier this week, there was a rumor that they would be willing to package Cole Anthony John Isaac in their one of their picks this year in order to make a sizable upgrade.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's interesting.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_01: Jorlendo Magic haven't been a team that's done a ton of trades over the last couple seasons.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_01: So it looks like they're being aggressive.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that level of aggression can be beneficial to this team because those two Fords, I love them.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um, some one of them more than the other one.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna let you decide which one it is based on what you know about me.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but they are just overtaxed, they're just overtaxed as the creators, they're overtaxed as the initiators, they're overtaxed, overtaxed, and they just needed something else.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_01: And Jalen Suggs coming back from his injury could be big from that.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_01: But hell, based on what type of trades they could do, I've been seeing a lot of Jalen Suggs get moved out in order to bring the next guy in.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't know where their priorities lie.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_01: But every time I see, even just yesterday when we were watching this game, we were talking about the magic, and Jordan Poole popped up.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_01: I guess there were some rumors yesterday about Jordan Poole being on the block, and now everybody's mocking.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, Jordan Poole to the Timberwolves, Jordan Poole to this team.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_01: And he came up to the Orlando Magic, and I was just thinking to myself, if I'm gonna go out and get Jordan Poole, why not just take the bigger swing?
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_01: Jordan Poole's a really good player.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_01: Do not get me wrong, I really love the season that he put together after his first year in Washington not being great.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_01: I thought he was more poised.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_01: I thought, I thought he was less selfish.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_01: I thought he played better on both ends of the floor in year number two in Washington.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_01: But if I'm gonna swing for Jordan Poole on a big contract, why not just go in and go get a star?
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_01: Kenny, ain't nobody available.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_01: Nobody's available until you make them available.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_01: This Orlando Magic team have all their own first round picks plus some more.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_01: So call some phones, pick up some phones and say, hey man, I know that y'all got some big decisions to make.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_01: Team in Ohio.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_01: Is he available?
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_01: What if I gave you this?
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_01: Is he available now?
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_01: Because I think some conversations around the calves team is like that front that backcourt, do they really fit alongside each other?
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_01: Are they just making it work?
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_01: Could it be better if there was a different guy?
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_01: Because so on and so forth.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna talk about them because you know they're on this list.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_01: So maybe you make somebody become available.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_01: Why take a why take a B minus fit when an A minus fit, an A plus fit is not that far out of reach, is the way I kind of feel about it.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um the East is open.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_01: And the infrastructure, you know, I've been seeing a lot of things, and I don't know if it's Trey Young.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_01: I doubt it's Trey Young, actually, based on some of the stuff that's going on in Atlanta right now.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um people are afraid to trade for somebody for the Orlando Magic if the guy isn't average to above average defensively.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_01: But I feel like what we've seen is that they have the infrastructure to kind of cover up, and I'm just using Trey Young as an example.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_01: They have the infrastructure to cover up a Trey Young type of defensive player, in my opinion.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_01: So that shouldn't even be the thing we're talking about.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_01: This team hasn't been good offensively in 20 years.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_01: If you go from the third best defense to the sixth best defense, but your offense jumps up to good, win.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_01: When, if you ask me.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you got you can't keep this same team together and think that they're gonna be able to put it together.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_01: That's my opinion about it.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_01: If they don't make any trades and just use their draft picks and so on and so forth, I just don't think that this team is gonna be able to get to the next level of a team without one of the initiating shot creators, shot makers that I mentioned earlier.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_01: Number seven on this list is a San Antonio Spurs.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_01: They have the second overall pick.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_01: So many Kevin Arrant rumors to them.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_01: I saw some Jalen Brown rumors.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_01: Again, these are rumors.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_01: Jalen Brown rumors, I think the Giannis thing is dead.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_01: Also, I am doing all of this list with the assumption that Giannis is staying in Milwaukee, so you will not hear the Bucks on this list because Giannis is staying, right?
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_01: I hope so.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um so the Spurs having the second overall pick.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_01: I think what makes them intriguing is because they they basically are at a crossroads right now.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_01: Path left, path left, the left path is we stand put with the core that we have right now, the young guys of Castle, Harper, who are you're gonna draft, Wimby, Sohan, Vassale, the older De'Aaron Fox, but still young De'Aaron Fox.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_01: If we play the course and we continue down this road of you know development within, and we just let it run its course that way.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_01: The right path, and I don't mean right as in correct, but I mean right isn't left, right.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_01: The right path is trading pick two or trading some of their other capital or trading a Denver Sale or trading a Kelden Johnson plus this guy to go get somebody that makes them at least in the conversations today.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't know, as somebody that has watched a ton of Spurs because Chris Paul played for the team.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_01: Shout out to Chris Paul.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_01: I don't even know what the right path should be.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_01: I don't have a preferable path, is what I'm saying.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you add Kevin Durant to this team, you really think about it being like, okay, they're not the OKC Thunder, I don't think, but they're in the conversations with some of the better teams in the Western Conference.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_01: But also, Kevin Durant is 37, 38 years old, coming up for a new contract.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_01: Do we trade away all of this stuff if that means that the the window that we have with Kevin being a great player is one or two years?
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_01: Will it be worth if we get just the second round of the playoffs with them as a team, get to the conference finals with them as a team?
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_01: But if Kevin Durant has retired, now we're Wimby, De'Aaron Fox, and you know, we stay the course, and I don't know how the hell Dylan Harper feels about potentially being a second overall pick with this team full of good guards.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_01: But from everything, the footage that I've seen and the things that I've read from people that are very knowledgeable, Dylan Harper is one of them boys.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_01: So do we just stick that path and say, hey man, um we're just gonna do it the young way and do it the organic way.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_01: You know, is there ceiling with Wimby being a monk and Wimby being just a fan favorite in San Antonio that him being a top 10 player and next year potentially being higher than that is enough for us to just make the postseason that way.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we're only talking about year number two of Wimby.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_01: If they make the postseason next year, that's a win.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_01: And maybe the year after that, they do the above and beyond stuff.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know which way they should go.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_01: And they have never been.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, actually, them pulling off of De'Aaron Fox in the middle of the season may be an indication of a turn in their management because it had never been a team that has made a big time trade at the deadline.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_01: You know, there have been many deadlines where we've been covering it and we're like, the Spurs gonna do something?
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_01: Nah, they cool.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_01: They they eye, they ain't gonna do nothing.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_01: But them making a big time swing for De'Aaron Fox, even though it didn't cost them that much other than some first-round picks they didn't care about anyway, that may show a shift in like the way they see their team's direction.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's amazing to move up to the second overall pick.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_01: And also it's kind of like a curse at the same time.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_01: And I won't go deeper into that.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_01: Number six on the list is the New York Knicks.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_01: They deserve to be higher.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_01: But the fact that they've called up every team that has a B to A plus coach so far and said, can we talk to him?
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_01: And everybody has said no, is giving me flashbacks to pre-Leon Rose.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_01: They've done everything right, it feels like, over the last couple years.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_01: And now them firing a good to great coach in Tom Thou.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_01: If you want to say there's a ceiling on the Tom Debido thing, I'm not gonna argue um with you.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_01: But fire a good to great NBA coach with no real plan in mind post that is just not the same Knicks team that we've seen over the last five or so years.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_01: It's really reminiscent of the previous regime.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_01: We we filmed our show yesterday.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_01: Here's a peek behind the curtain.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_01: We filmed our 30-minute TV show with ESPN last night.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_01: We came into the office right before game three of the NBA Finals.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_01: It's a 30-minute show.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_01: We filmed the B block and the C block, the B block and the C block, right?
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_01: And then we watch the game, and then the A block is reacting to the game that we just watched.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_01: In it, we're talking in the B block, we're talking about the New York Knicks.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm making jokes about them calling up for E May, for them calling for Jason Kidd, for them calling for Quentin Snyder.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_01: And I say, hey man, why don't that why are they stopping there?
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_01: There's only a few Hall of Fame coaches in the NBA right now.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_01: Why don't they call up the Bulls for Billy Donovan?
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_01: And we ha ha ha ha, that's funny, Kenny.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_01: Ten minutes after we filmed that segment, the report came out they called the Bulls about Billy Donovan.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_01: What is happening?
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_01: What is happening?
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_01: I I don't know.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_01: But them not having a coach or not having a real direction of what they want with the coach, other than them saying that they want somebody that's been around for some time.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you got like Mike Brown available, I guess, or Taylor Jenkins available, or Mike Malone available, but I mentioned before that Mike Malone and Tom Thibodeau feel like not too far apart as coaching styles and so on and so forth.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_01: I just don't know.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_01: I just don't know what they do there.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_01: And also they got, you know, big Kevin Durant rumors.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_01: They got, you know, things what they want to do with Carnthony Towns.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_01: Does it fit to have Carnthony Towns on this team if Jalen Brunson is going to be the point of attack as well?
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um, do you find a way to play Carthony Towns at the four full time, just like he played the four when he played in Minnesota?
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of questions for a team that just went to the conference finals.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_01: Not like this team was dog shit or anything.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_01: They were actually really good, but a team that went to the conference finals.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_01: And part of me is trying to figure out if I am Leon Rose and the part of the New York Knicks organization, how much do I trust our last run?
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_01: Do I think we really are two games away from being in the NBA finals?
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_01: Or did we just get some form of, I don't want to say luck because it's a lot of basketball to be played to win a two seven-game series.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_01: But did we end up in the right place at the right time?
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_01: You know, Jalen Brunson's crossover and the Sartre Thompson is gonna be one of my favorite moments of all time.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_01: You know, them missing the foul on Tim Hardaway Jr., them that young Detroit Pistons team taking you as far as they did.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_01: And you end the postseason, a team that went to the conference finals ended the postseason with a net rating of zero.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_01: You know how hard that is to do?
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_01: So you have to answer are we really close?
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_01: And if we are, how close are we?
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_01: Are we just a new coach away from being in the finals right now?
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_01: The Eastern Conference is wide open, as we continue to say.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_01: So with them having to ask themselves that and come up with those decisions, make me think that they should be on this list at number six.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_01: Number five is going to be the LA Lakers.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, they have LeBron James and now Luka Doncic.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, we saw them go to the postseason against the Minnesota Timberwolves and get outworked.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_01: They were smaller.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_01: And everybody's talking about the center position for them.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_01: Jackson Hayes can't get it done.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_01: Chrisy Kaloco can't get it done.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_01: Trey Jemison can't get it done.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_01: They need to go get somebody that fits the type of center that Luca likes.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_01: You know, like there are going to be a lot of centers on the market this offseason.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of them don't fit with what they want to do.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_01: It's easy to call here's two second-round picks in Jared Vanderbilt and Gabe Vincent for Vusevich.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_01: That don't fix the Lakers.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_01: That's not the type of player that they need.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_01: They need somebody that will be a rim runner, somebody that will protect the paint.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_01: And there's only a few guys available on the free agency market.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_01: My boy DeMils keeps bringing up Klink Capella, but I truly do believe that Klink Capella is on the downturn of his NBA career.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_01: I just don't think it was a good year for him this year.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_01: And I mean, for his sake, I hope that whatever teams he ends up with next, he has a resurgence.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_01: But I wouldn't, if they add, if the Lakers added Clink Capella, I'm not looking at them like, yep, here they go.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_01: I just feel like they're he's not the answer.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_01: But you do have other guys, right?
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you can call back up Nico Harrison for one of their centers.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_01: You can call up the Brooklyn Nets for a Claxton and so on and so forth.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of different centers out there that could be available.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_01: It's just a matter of what you give up.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_01: And if that guy really fits, they deserve to be on this list because they have Luca with a team right now that's not built for Luka.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_01: As good as they looked at the end of the regular season, this team is still not built around Luka.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't know if they go just full-on coals in the fire this offseason in order to mold the team to look like a Luca team, or will it take one, two years, three years to finally put together that Luca looking team?
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_01: I know for sure that center is the number one thing on that priority list.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_01: And with Braun being 40, could they somehow compete this year?
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_01: Because I don't know.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_01: Braun has been doing this media thing, this podcast thing, and it's been looking pretty damn good.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm saying?
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't know if Braun is ready to go full on to the other part of his career.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_01: He ain't gonna do it.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_01: Never mind.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_01: Number four on my list is the Philadelphia 76ers.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_01: Talk about a crossroads.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you jump up into the lottery, which is amazing.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_01: You jump up to, you know, end up having a top pick in this year's draft.
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_01: You've already done so good when it comes to drafting between Maxie, between McCain, even like Justin Edwards, who played a lot last season, and probably a lot of people aren't really recognizing because the team wasn't very good.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_01: He is a real NBA player, right?
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_01: So they've done such a good job on drafting that they have a pretty fun young core right now.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_01: But at the top of that, they have former MVP Jordan Bede and former MB MVP G13 on the team as well, making a ton of money.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_01: Jordan Bede just signed an extension just last season.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_01: And they have a real decision to make.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_01: The first decision is if they draft with that pick, do they take, I mean, if they draft it all, do they take Ace Bailey?
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_01: Do they take it whatever, whatever?
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_01: The second thing is, yeah, if they do end up using that pick, do they go with the high upside and Ace Bailey?
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_01: Do they go with more of a fit to what they're trying to do this season?
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_01: You know, when you are a team trying to compete for a championship, and that's what the Seven Hicks are doing, at least as of today, yeah, do you go with a guy that may not be able to contribute to a championship level team immediately, but might in three years down the line be one of the better players in the league?
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_01: Or do you draft based on the Joel Embiid timeline?
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_01: Do you draft, you do you trade down in the draft and go get some one of the upperclassmen that fit what Joel Embiid wants to do or Paul George wants to do?
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_01: Do you trade out completely and say, man, this 200 million that we gave Paul George is insane.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_01: So we're gonna attach that with the third overall pick in order to trade for somebody else that fits better with Joel Embiid.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_01: They got a lot of questions.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_01: And I can't wait to see how to answer.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_01: Even this morning, I saw a report that there, that somebody was trying to move up to number three.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_01: I saw that the you the the Brooklyn Nets are in factuated pick number three.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_01: I saw that um, it was one other team, I forget off the top of my mind, really interested in pick three.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_01: So it's like, okay, Brooklyn, what can we do?
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_01: Can we can we trade down to pick seven, right?
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_01: Brooklyn has pick seven, if I'm not mistaken.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_01: You give us Cam Johnson and maybe another rotational player who fit who fits along with that team really well.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_01: And now we can still have pick seven and we can draft somebody, one of the upperclassmen that might be able to contribute right now.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_01: There's so many different directions for this team.
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_01: There's also the direction that will never happen, I don't think, that it's like actually, we really do like our young guys.
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_01: We like them a lot.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_01: Joel B is available.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_01: I again, I highly doubt that's the way they're gonna do it.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_01: I think they're gonna arrive with Joel and B till the wheels fall off.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_01: But there's so many different ways Daryl Mori can go.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_01: And Daryl Mori is not afraid to take a swing.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_01: He is not afraid to do a big trade.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_01: You know, he's gonna be calling.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_01: I remember when they when they were making some big decisions years ago when he was still in Houston, some of the trades that were rumored that he offered were nuts.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_01: Like nobody will ever accept that trade.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_01: And then in 2025, I don't know if y'all remember in February 2025, a crazy trade happened where like nobody would ever accept that trade.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_01: It was a Luca trade.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_01: So now I kind of love when GS pick up the phone and say, hey, you want um you want Damian Lillard, then give us Bam Adabayo then.
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_01: Knowing damn well they want to pair Damian Lillard with Bam Adabayo, but you don't know how desperate they are.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_01: So keep offering those stupid ass trades because you never know who's gonna accept.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_01: Number three on my list is the Cleveland Cavaliers.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_01: We mentioned them just a little bit earlier.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um, an amazing team.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_01: Whether if they bring all four of their core four back, even though Dear Scarlett's gonna be out for the beginning of the season, if they bring all four of their core back, they're gonna be a 50-plus one team.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_01: They're gonna be really good in the regular season.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_01: The question now is always gonna be how could they raise it to the next level?
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_01: This is such a great year, and you know, they lose to the Indiana Pacers, right?
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_01: I think, and everybody else is thinking that maybe they make some big moves, right?
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_01: You know for sure that Evan Mobley and Donovan Mitchell are cavaliers.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I don't know if you remember before last season, there were rumors that Darius Garland was going to request a trade.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_01: They shut that down like a couple days after, but there is real conversation about will DG to PG end up getting moved.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_01: He didn't.
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_01: He had a great bounce back season.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_01: He was amazing last year.
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_01: Unfortunately, for another year, he gets injured at the end of the season, and now he's going into the postseason trying to play through injury or not playing through injury.
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, Jared Allen, as good as he has been in the regular season, we've now had the last three years, they lost to what, the Knicks in the first round when the lights are too bright.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_01: They take the young Orlando Magic team to seven and lose in the second round there.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_01: So it's just like we haven't seen really good playoff runs from Jared Allen.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_01: And I think a lot of people kind of feel as though the ceiling of Evan Mobley is probably more at the five man as he continues to fill out.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe that is the next year.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_01: They are teams that are interested in his exact um attributes as a player.
• 43:14
  SPEAKER_01: We're talking about Jared Allen here.
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_01: So maybe Jared Allen is the guy that's moved.
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_01: But my question when I when I see a lot of these things is if he is being moved, what is he getting moved for?
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_01: Like what type of players are we adding to this team?
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_01: If we're saying that Don Vimitsu is our 1A, our ball handler, not our point guard necessarily, but our ball handler, the guy making a lot of decisions.
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_01: We know who Evan Mobley is on the defensive side of the floor and continues to get better offensively, even though I felt like in this playoff run, he should have had the ball way more.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_01: He would go possessions looking great, and then possessions where he didn't touch the ball at all.
• 43:45
  SPEAKER_01: So if he's gonna move over, what type of player are we getting to return?
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_01: This is one of the rare we could trade away an all star caliber player or maybe two all star caliber players, but we're not looking to get draft capital.
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_01: We don't really care about getting on players.
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_01: We want to compete right now.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_01: So, what do you have that you Get me to compete, but also if you're trading for Jared Allen, you want to compete as well.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_01: So it's one of those super rare trades.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_01: And that's why the Jalen Suggs Darius Garland thing is so interesting to me.
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_01: Now, if you are the Cavs, you have to ask yourself which version of Jalen Suggs is really him?
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_01: Is he the guy that got him paid all that money?
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_01: The year before he was eligible for an extension, he shot a career high from three.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_01: Let me get these numbers up.
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_01: You know, last year he shot almost 40% or five three-point attempts.
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_01: That was the year that he made all defensive second team.
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_01: He got the extension at 22 years old.
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_01: But the year before that, he was a 32% three-point shooter.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_01: The year before that, he shot 21%.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_01: And in the 35 games he played this year, he only shot 31%.
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_01: So is that 22-year-old year the outlier, or do we feel as though he can still be that level of shooter?
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_01: We know what the defense is.
• 44:53
  SPEAKER_01: The defense is always going to be there.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_01: Even throughout his injured, injured riddle season, we know defensively is going to be good.
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_01: But do we trust that his individual creation and his catch and shoot are real from just two years ago?
• 45:06
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 45:07
  SPEAKER_01: But you talk about the fit alongside uh uh Donovan Mitchell, I like that.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_01: Talk about Dear Res Garden's fit alongside Palo and Franz.
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_01: I like that.
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_01: Now, obviously, there's probably more to be thrown into the trade from either side, but I like if you can convince yourself that Suggs could be a 38 to 40% three-point shooter, again, I kind of like that swap.
• 45:33
  SPEAKER_01: I kind of like that swap.
• 45:34
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, last couple teams here.
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, number two on the list is the Boston Celtics.
• 45:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the Boston Celtics have some big ass decisions to make, man.
• 45:41
  SPEAKER_01: You know, this is a super expensive team.
• 45:43
  SPEAKER_01: We all knew even before the season started that whatever happens this year, whether they raised Hilario B for a second time in a row or they didn't make the playoffs at all, we knew that they had some big financial decisions to make.
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_01: We know, well, maybe we don't know.
• 45:55
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, we do know.
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_01: Jason Tatum's gonna be on this team next season.
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_01: Everything else got in the air.
• 46:01
  SPEAKER_01: We I feel pretty good to say that Jalen Brown will be, but I can't say for sure.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_01: Porzingis, Drew Holiday, I mean, even Derek White, I feel pretty good about saying he'll be on the team next year, but I can't say for sure this team kind of holds the keys to a lot of this offseason right now.
• 46:17
  SPEAKER_01: They hold the keys to a lot of the offseason because even though Drew Holiday didn't have his best season, there are going to be teams that will be interested in him.
• 46:23
  SPEAKER_01: I just don't know what the value necessarily is.
• 46:25
  SPEAKER_01: We were talking about yesterday, like the Clippers have pick number 29.
• 46:28
  SPEAKER_01: The Boston Celtics are rumored to won a first-round pick in order to give up Drew Holiday.
• 46:32
  SPEAKER_01: Pick number 29 is literally a first overall, a first round pick.
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_01: There we go.
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_01: And some stuff can be a move there and get below their second apron, and yada yada yada.
• 46:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um there might be other teams too.
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_01: Derrick White, rumored.
• 46:45
  SPEAKER_01: Warriors love him.
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_01: Guess what?
• 46:48
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody loves Derek White right now.
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_01: What could they do to get Derek White there?
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_01: I have no, I literally don't know.
• 46:53
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, a three team sign and Trey Kaminga goes here and then the Celtics get some stuff, Kaminga goes there, and then I just don't see it happen.
• 47:01
  SPEAKER_01: But they hold the keys to a lot of different things.
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_01: It's rare that we see a team this talented, this good, have to blow it up.
• 47:08
  SPEAKER_01: Not because they want to and they think it's time, oh, we haven't been successful in four years, but because they're financially obligated.
• 47:14
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, they kind of have to do it.
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_01: It's a maybe the first real time we're seeing it in the second apron era, right?
• 47:21
  SPEAKER_01: So, what does that look like?
• 47:22
  SPEAKER_01: How do they retool this team for Tatum when he'll come back?
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_01: Hopefully, next season, doubt it though.
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_01: Two years from now, how do they retool this team to be back into contention once Jason Tatum's um healed from his Achilles?
• 47:33
  SPEAKER_01: So many questions.
• 47:34
  SPEAKER_01: And then the number one team, when it comes to this postseason, with them holding the keys is the Minnesota Timberwolves, in my opinion.
• 47:41
  SPEAKER_01: They have Nas Reed, Nikki Alitano Walker up for new contracts.
• 47:45
  SPEAKER_01: You got Jugas Randle with a player option.
• 47:47
  SPEAKER_01: Will he be accepting at?
• 47:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um they got Uncle Mike in year 33 in the NBA, at least that's what it feels like.
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_01: What type of production can you give them next season?
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_01: I know they've done the last couple of years of conference finals appearances for Mike, but hey, if the right package came around, would they trade Mike?
• 48:02
  SPEAKER_01: If the best player that they want, if Kevin O'Reilly is available to them, would they throw Rob in that trade?
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_01: Do they go trade for Kevin?
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_01: You know, like there's so many questions with this Timbulls team, a team that has made the conference finals back-to-back seasons.
• 48:14
  SPEAKER_01: They could go a bunch of different, like the real title of this episode are the 10 teams at a crossroads, because that's what they're at as well.
• 48:23
  SPEAKER_01: You know, they make the Carnival Towns trade for Julius Randle, Nantes DiVincenzo for their financial flexibility.
• 48:29
  SPEAKER_01: And now they're in a spot now where we get to see exactly what that looks like.
• 48:32
  SPEAKER_01: Does that mean trading for a real star alongside Anthony Edwards?
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_01: Does that mean just genuinely cleaning up their books?
• 48:39
  SPEAKER_01: Which I would hate.
• 48:40
  SPEAKER_01: I would hate that that's what it means, but it's possible.
• 48:42
  SPEAKER_01: It's a new regime, new ownership, new everything.
• 48:45
  SPEAKER_01: So I think, again, just like the Boston Celtics, this could be a team that does a ton this offseason and they hold the cards.
• 48:51
  SPEAKER_01: Those are my 10 most intriguing teams.
• 48:53
  SPEAKER_01: We had some tough cuts for sure.
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um like the Chicago Bulls.
• 48:58
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 48:58
  SPEAKER_01: The Toronto Raptors are trying to be an every single rumor.
• 49:01
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's fun.
• 49:02
  SPEAKER_01: The Miami Heat are always in every single rumor.
• 49:04
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's fun.
• 49:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um, the Clippers are trying to continue to buy.
• 49:07
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's funny.
• 49:08
  SPEAKER_01: Houston Rockets have a ton of young players and young assets.
• 49:10
  SPEAKER_01: Something about them makes me feel like they're not gonna do a big time swing.
• 49:13
  SPEAKER_01: So that's why I didn't add them in my top 10.
• 49:22
  SPEAKER_01: Before we get out of here, let's do a little bit of Ask KB.
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_01: All you gotta do is hit up us on Twitter or Instagram.
• 49:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um, enjoy smallball, I think, is the ad.
• 49:31
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe not.
• 49:32
  SPEAKER_01: Who knows?
• 49:32
  SPEAKER_01: You know, go check it out.
• 49:33
  SPEAKER_01: It's probably in the description.
• 49:34
  SPEAKER_01: The first one comes from Sext and Season.
• 49:37
  SPEAKER_01: Golly.
• 49:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I thought the season's era was done on Twitter, but nope, Colin Sexton still got super fans out there, which he should.
• 49:44
  SPEAKER_01: Shout out to Colin Sexton, shout out to the young boy.
• 49:46
  SPEAKER_01: What team would win a 5v5?
• 49:49
  SPEAKER_01: A team with one LeBron and four Mike Hurts, or a team with one MJ and four D Mills?
• 49:57
  SPEAKER_01: What a question.
• 49:59
  SPEAKER_01: You know my question, you know, Mike, Mike's best attribute as a basketball player is his tough shot making.
• 50:10
  SPEAKER_01: You know, if I had to compare to an NBA player, and the highest end is be like his gameplay is similar to the Jordan Clarksons of the world, the monks of the world, forget about the bounce.
• 50:20
  SPEAKER_01: He ain't got no bounce.
• 50:21
  SPEAKER_01: The monks of the world, even like a high-level CJ McCollum, tough shot maker, tough shot taker.
• 50:26
  SPEAKER_01: But also, you go to the gym with Mike on the wrong day, he's 0 for 7.
• 50:31
  SPEAKER_01: He ain't gonna stop shooting, but he's 0 for 7.
• 50:33
  SPEAKER_01: But the one thing, Mike is a bigger body, so he uses that body pretty well.
• 50:36
  SPEAKER_01: But in this matchup, he's going against D Mills, a bigger body as well.
• 50:41
  SPEAKER_01: The question that I have about the D Mills and MJ Comp is which version of D Mills do we get?
• 50:47
  SPEAKER_01: Do we get 2025 version of Mills?
• 50:49
  SPEAKER_01: Or do we get 20?
• 50:51
  SPEAKER_01: No, let's go back even further than that.
• 50:53
  SPEAKER_01: Do we get 2017 D Mills?
• 50:57
  SPEAKER_01: Because 2017 D Mills has dropped all his weight.
• 50:59
  SPEAKER_01: He's the most athletic guy in the gym, bar none.
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_01: But now he's a dad.
• 51:04
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm telling you, I ain't got a dad bar just yet, but damn it, I'm trying to.
• 51:08
  SPEAKER_01: That dad bar really hits you.
• 51:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um, especially if your job is to sit on your ass and watch basketball.
• 51:14
  SPEAKER_01: I think let's go peak for peak on all of these players, right?
• 51:21
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not asking 60-year-old MJ and 40-year-old Braun.
• 51:23
  SPEAKER_01: So peak for peak on all these players.
• 51:26
  SPEAKER_01: I think MJ and 4D Mills wins, man.
• 51:30
  SPEAKER_01: I think MJ and 4D Mills wins.
• 51:32
  SPEAKER_01: Because I think D Mills's peak is just better than Mike's.
• 51:38
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe this game is really just LeBron versus MJ by themselves because they don't can't, the other guys are gonna cancel each other out.
• 51:43
  SPEAKER_01: But D Mills's peak and his size might matter.
• 51:46
  SPEAKER_01: Like, yeah, D Mills is not stopping LeBron James on a switch, but he is 6'4.
• 51:53
  SPEAKER_01: That's better than MJ getting a switch with Mike Hurd, who's 5'10.
• 51:58
  SPEAKER_01: That's Cook Sash.
• 51:59
  SPEAKER_01: Actually, it's both Cook Sash.
• 52:00
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna go with D.
• 52:01
  SPEAKER_01: Mills and MJ.
• 52:02
  SPEAKER_01: My two favorite players in basketball history, Michael Jordan and D Mills.
• 52:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, next one comes from Shame.
• 52:08
  SPEAKER_01: Which, if any, NBA team are prime for a surprise season next year?
• 52:13
  SPEAKER_01: Example being the Cavs being the one seed this year instead of being a normal playoff team.
• 52:17
  SPEAKER_01: I thought about this a lot.
• 52:19
  SPEAKER_01: And this is this is why I need to say off social media because I saw a clip the other day of um Professor Professor Zach Lowe talking about how much he loves the Atlanta Hawks next season.
• 52:30
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, I can't do it again, right?
• 52:34
  SPEAKER_01: Three of the last four years, I've come on this show and then numbers on the board and through the wire before that saying this is gonna be the year for the Hawks.
• 52:40
  SPEAKER_01: Basically, since they went to the conference finals in 2021, I've been saying, like, yeah, man, this seems gonna be good.
• 52:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, man, it seems gonna be good.
• 52:46
  SPEAKER_01: And like, I kind of like the clip that I saw.
• 52:49
  SPEAKER_01: It's like Zach Lowe convinced me a little bit that, yeah, it could be their, it could be their time.
• 52:54
  SPEAKER_01: It could be their time.
• 52:56
  SPEAKER_01: I also um I think the easy one would be like the Spurs.
• 53:00
  SPEAKER_01: Regardless of what they do with number two, if they make a big trade, just Wimby himself might be enough for them to like be a 50-win team next season.
• 53:07
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, a 50-win team next season gets you what?
• 53:10
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know, it could be a playing team in the Western Conference, but I'm thinking about them like that.
• 53:14
  SPEAKER_01: And then it's not many other teams out there.
• 53:17
  SPEAKER_01: Like if you look at the central division, the Cavs are already good, the pace are already good, the Bucks won't have Damian Little next season.
• 53:22
  SPEAKER_01: The Pistons already made their jump.
• 53:23
  SPEAKER_01: Are we asking them to jump up to 60 wins?
• 53:25
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think that's happening.
• 53:26
  SPEAKER_01: And the Bulls aren't gonna happen.
• 53:28
  SPEAKER_01: The Magic are maybe another good team, depending on what this offseason looks like.
• 53:31
  SPEAKER_01: They get completely healthy, but they had already done their jump last year before this, where they were the fourth seed.
• 53:35
  SPEAKER_01: The Hawks, the Heat, the Hornets, the Wizards all are candidates, but not really.
• 53:39
  SPEAKER_01: I don't expect the goddamn Hornets to do anything.
• 53:42
  SPEAKER_01: You know?
• 53:44
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, the Blazers.
• 53:48
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna stop there.
• 53:49
  SPEAKER_01: It's the Blazers.
• 53:49
  SPEAKER_01: Again, they won't be the one seed like your example Cavs, but they were a 36-win team last season.
• 53:54
  SPEAKER_01: I could see them being a 48-win team if everything breaks right in this offseason.
• 53:59
  SPEAKER_01: What did I say?
• 54:00
  SPEAKER_01: Oh no, that's a stretch.
• 54:01
  SPEAKER_01: Hell no, I take that back.
• 54:03
  SPEAKER_01: No, I don't.
• 54:04
  SPEAKER_01: I'm saying I'm putting it into the world.
• 54:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, the next one comes from Jack.
• 54:08
  SPEAKER_01: What is the last movie that left you uh left an impact on you slash change the way you see the world?
• 54:13
  SPEAKER_01: Here's the thing about me, Jack.
• 54:15
  SPEAKER_01: I don't watch movies anymore.
• 54:19
  SPEAKER_01: I don't watch TV anymore.
• 54:21
  SPEAKER_01: I I really don't do anything.
• 54:26
  SPEAKER_01: And it's probably a problem.
• 54:27
  SPEAKER_01: Let's talk about it.
• 54:28
  SPEAKER_01: That's probably a problem that I have not consumed any media.
• 54:31
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you hear about the severances of the world, you hear about the centers movie, you hear about all of these great pieces of media that are out there right now.
• 54:39
  SPEAKER_01: And I have never even been interested enough to tune into any of them.
• 54:43
  SPEAKER_01: As great as people, everybody in my my life around me, my family, not necessarily my friend group, but people outside my friend group will be like, man, you got Apple TV?
• 54:51
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, yeah, I got Apple TV because once upon a time I cared about the MLS and I'm too lazy to cancel the subscription.
• 54:56
  SPEAKER_01: You gotta watch Severance.
• 54:58
  SPEAKER_01: It's the best show on television.
• 55:00
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, I bet.
• 55:02
  SPEAKER_01: Never have.
• 55:03
  SPEAKER_01: Don't even notice about.
• 55:04
  SPEAKER_01: I still don't know this about.
• 55:05
  SPEAKER_01: I think Greg gave me a one-sentence of synopsis like three months ago, and I was like, I'm gonna watch it.
• 55:09
  SPEAKER_01: Greg never went to watch it.
• 55:11
  SPEAKER_01: Same thing goes for movies as well.
• 55:13
  SPEAKER_01: This is how crazy I am about movies.
• 55:15
  SPEAKER_01: The movies that I've watched recently are all animated kids movies because my daughter.
• 55:20
  SPEAKER_01: I have not watched a movie because of me in a long time.
• 55:23
  SPEAKER_01: So to answer your question, the last movie that left an impact on me was um Up?
• 55:33
  SPEAKER_01: Up, maybe?
• 55:34
  SPEAKER_01: Listen, Up came out in what, like 2008?
• 55:37
  SPEAKER_01: When did Up come out?
• 55:38
  SPEAKER_01: Up came out in 2009.
• 55:40
  SPEAKER_01: Whew.
• 55:40
  SPEAKER_01: So I was a kid when Up came out, and I didn't watch it until like two months ago.
• 55:45
  SPEAKER_01: So maybe it is up.
• 55:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, maybe it's up.
• 55:50
  SPEAKER_01: What about the maybe because I'm more of a gamer.
• 55:53
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna say the game that has had a last impact on me.
• 55:56
  SPEAKER_01: It's Expedition 33.
• 55:57
  SPEAKER_01: It's a game about um grief, it's a game about a lot of different things.
• 56:01
  SPEAKER_01: So that's that's the thing that's had the impact on me.
• 56:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yo, what's good, Kenny?
• 56:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, in the past you've done 2K simulations where you would remove all of the all-stars from everyone's roster.
• 56:12
  SPEAKER_00: If we did that in real life, who do you think would immediately emerge as a contender?
• 56:17
  SPEAKER_00: And do you see any teams that could like drastically change for the better if we were to do that?
• 56:25
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so removing all the all-stars, um, so my question, and I'm I'm gonna go this way: move all the current all-stars, right?
• 56:35
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna remove DeAndre Jordan because he made an all-star game in the 2010s, but just like the current day all-stars.
• 56:41
  SPEAKER_01: I think that if you remove Tatum and Brown away from them, I think that Derek White, again, assuming that everybody else lost their all-stars as well, Derek White, Drew Holiday, and Porzingis, and Al Hofer, and Peyton Pritchard, and Sam Hauser, like that team is still pretty damn good.
• 56:56
  SPEAKER_01: You remove the all-stars from the Knicks, not so much.
• 56:58
  SPEAKER_01: Some of these teams have no all-stars.
• 57:00
  SPEAKER_01: So it's like they're just the same team that they were yesterday.
• 57:03
  SPEAKER_01: But because the other teams remove their all-stars and they just get higher on the list, um, I think this is a series where my Chicago Bulls, man, they're making some noise now.
• 57:14
  SPEAKER_01: We have zero all-stars.
• 57:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, let's go.
• 57:17
  SPEAKER_01: We have zero all-stars.
• 57:18
  SPEAKER_01: Josh Giddy, MVP, Kobe White, clutch player of the year, as he always does.
• 57:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I think about the Houston Rockets as well, because they really just have Alprent Shangoon, right?
• 57:30
  SPEAKER_01: Sh'un gets replaced by so-and-so.
• 57:31
  SPEAKER_01: You have young Amin Thompson and some of those other guys over there.
• 57:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um I'm gonna bring the Blazers up again because they don't have any all-stars.
• 57:40
  SPEAKER_01: They won 36 games without any all-stars in the Western Conference.
• 57:43
  SPEAKER_01: They keep the same team, but everybody else loses their stars.
• 57:45
  SPEAKER_01: They still feel pretty good.
• 57:47
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna go see here are my here's my list.
• 57:49
  SPEAKER_01: Celtics still are great.
• 57:52
  SPEAKER_01: Bulls, baby, we're back.
• 57:55
  SPEAKER_01: Portland Trail Blazers as well.
• 57:57
  SPEAKER_01: And Houston Rockets.
• 57:57
  SPEAKER_01: Those are my four teams.
• 57:59
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much for watching or listening to this episode of Smallball.
• 58:02
  SPEAKER_01: If you did enjoy it, be sure to leave a like.
• 58:05
  SPEAKER_01: Let me know the 10 most intriguing.
• 58:06
  SPEAKER_01: Oh no, that's that's like a homework assignment.
• 58:08
  SPEAKER_01: Let me know your top 10.
• 58:09
  SPEAKER_01: No, you let me know the team that you believe is the most intriguing for this offseason.
• 58:13
  SPEAKER_01: You can hit hit us up on Twitter, on Instagram, or leave them in the comment section here on YouTube or Spotify.
• 58:18
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate y'all.
• 58:19
  SPEAKER_01: And the next time we talk, oh, next next time I film an episode, could the finals be over?
• 58:26
  SPEAKER_01: Game four is tomorrow.
• 58:29
  SPEAKER_01: The five, I guess, literally, yeah, the finals could be over next time I feel film.
• 58:34
  SPEAKER_01: No, it won't be though.
• 58:36
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 58:37
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 58:38
  SPEAKER_01: Leave a like, subscribe.
• 58:39
  SPEAKER_01: I'll see y'all next time.