Two Crazy Play-In Games, and 2026 NBA Awards Picks With Kirk Goldsberry and Joe House

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And this is an amazing story. I don't even know how to describe it, but I'll just say this.

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So LaGata, speaking of things I'm proud of, I got Joe House to stay up late on the East Coast

with Kurt Goldsperry down in Texas to react off the two playing games, Charlotte, Miami,

and Portland, Phoenix, and then the House left. And we go in a time machine. We go backwards in time.

Yeah, backwards in time to earlier this afternoon when Kurt Goldsperry and I did our awards pick,

including my MVP, which is at the tail end. So if you care about who I picked for MVP,

something I changed my mind on 430 times over the weekend, that is at the tail end of the

podcast, saved it for last, like a big fat dessert. So that is coming up next. We're going to take

break and then bring in Pearl Jam and then Kirk and House late night Tuesday after two play games.

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All right, we're recorded in this part of the podcast at 953 pm. It is presented by new era.

Thanks to them. Kirk Goldspare is here. He's also coming up later because we did all NBA.

Joe House staying up super late on the East Coast. I've never been proud of you. What did you have?

Like an Arby's roast beef? What happened? No, no, no, no, I don't need that. I had a little bit of

coffee, but I live on the fuel of Danny Abdea. You guys did your all NBA. I can't wait to hear it.

I'm here. Oh, wait, House. For my guy. Look, I'm in my hat right here. We're putting that man's

number in the rafters. The best Washington player in the last 15 years. Give that man his flowers.

I'll tell you this much. We aren't allowed to do this, but I'm going to do it. We argued about

the last third team spot in NBA much later in the podcast. And I said I was going to give it to

Scotty Barnes and that I couldn't quite get get there with Danny because he hadn't barely played

enough games all this stuff. But after watching tonight, Kirk, I'm just going to change my vote.

Dude, the NBA is doing this to us or for us. I'm not sure, but they've given us another set of

games to to reevaluate our choices. Yeah, to rethink things. The re-thinging. Traditionally,

votes would have been due by now. Instead, we're watching Con Caniple. We'll get to there. But yeah,

Danny, obviously playing one of the games of the year for him and making us rethink where he

should be in these awards. Unbelievable. He was awesome. It seemed like at various points, House,

the game was over headed for the Blazers. They were just going to go up by 20. Then it seemed

like the game was over with the sons that they just bully balled Portland, Portland couldn't hit a shot.

I was watching. I love Portland tonight. I was really confused because I've been watching

Portland the last couple months. It was the first time I thought they looked a little spooked.

It was kind of like, once they started really like, hey, Danny, you're not driving to the

basket anymore. We're throwing five bodies in front of you. It was like, okay, who's stepping up?

Who's going to step up on this Portland team? It turned out to be the much-maligned Jeremy

Grant, a staple of our worst contracts drafts with big wads every year. He hit a couple big

threes and then I've the head took over late. But how did you let this guy go? I still don't understand.

Well, I mean, I'm not going to go through the full recitation of what was going on. It's a true

story that his ascendance timeline wise didn't line up with the tank effort. So I understand. They

could have got more. That's the only quibble. We're not going to talk about Washington.

The most important thing setting aside the hyperbole is that for a lot of these guys, this is the

most important game they've ever played in their entire basketball lives. I defy you to find

another game for Danny Abdea that was more important for him than this game, this moment, this stage,

this franchise, his identity in this franchise, his rise right now. And the same is true of some of

those guys. You know, in Charlotte, tell me a game that Lamello Ball has played in his entire

basketball life, his whole basketball life that was more important than tonight's game.

And you know, I, it's a fair comparison to make. You had Danny with an incredibly efficient 15

of 22 for 41 points, 12 and seven. And you know, we'll get to Lamello in due time. Yeah. Yeah.

He and didn't get a couple calls to Portland, put all the hits, Kirk. They just scoot out there.

Little hope with the scoot stop there for a second. We saw some table.

We saw a little Robert Williams clinging. Center thing. I mean, big picture before we talk about

the game. Now we have San Antonio versus Portland. And if I'm saying in Tonyo, I'm beating probably

either of those teams pretty handling. I'm sure they're huge favorites. But I would have much

rather played Phoenix. Portland at least has two big centers to put on Wembee. They have a guy

who's really comfortable and really good at getting to the basket in Denny, although trying to get

to the basket against Wembee will be interesting. True how it has been there before. I don't think it's

a sweep is my point. I think Portland always make them work a little bit, right? Yeah. I'm happy

for the Portland fans to have some playoff games up there. That'll be cool. But yeah, this is the

23rd ranked offense. It's the All Star break, but it's the third ranked defense. They're going to

be tough to score on. And if one of the things I'm worried about is the Spurs guy is the ability

for these young guards to shoot their threes. We've both been really positive about them as the

season's gone on about getting better. But the playoffs have a way of making teams cool off. We

saw that with the Charlotte game tonight too. So yeah, I think that Portland defense is really,

really playoff ready. And then like we saw tonight, Denny can go out there and win a game like 41

and 12. Are you kidding me? Yeah. The Portland at that green was how many green took 29 shots house.

Yeah. What's what's the right number for Jalen Green field goal attempts in a playing game? I'm

gonna say about 17. I don't know. 15 to 17. What really kind of revealed itself is this overachieving

Sun's team. They just they have a talent deficit. And that's not a knock like this was supposed to

be kind of a transition rebuilding year. Yeah. To wash out the horrendous taste that was left in

their mouths from what they tried last year. And it turned out that like chemistry matters.

The book of basketball, the secret that I learned from the book of basketball is like chemistry

matters. Yeah. And lo and behold here, we just watched it. But you know, they couldn't

at the end of the day outscore Portland because Portland had had one guy that was unstoppable.

Yeah. And you know, they play Gillespie less because they're playing those three guards together.

I thought Brooks was pretty awesome in this game. But Phoenix had a couple. Hey, we've been in

games like this before guys who who felt like it. And from the Portland side, I was really just

Drew Holiday was the only guy who seemed like really comfortable in the game. But it's a weird

Phoenix team. And if I'm golden state, maybe less the Clippers side at the Clippers game to game

who knows. But if I'm golden state, I'm like, look, if we can get by this goofy Clippers team

tomorrow night, somehow Kirk. Yeah. We could be Phoenix too, right? We can get in the dance.

We have Steph Alhorfer's coming back. Who knows? I mean, we know we know it's going to get

to step in. You're dying to get stuff in. They're so bad. They saw.

Oh, you might have team. They suck. Get a third of the wins team in the playoffs house. That's

what we need. Steph Curry in the playoffs is something we all want. I would say whoever wins that

that at nine 10 game in the West should feel pretty good about their opponent in Phoenix.

That's a team that I thought the wrong guy took 29 shots. I would rather that than Devon Booker.

I'm fine with Jalen Green taking 29 shots in a world where Devon Booker is hurt.

But in a world where Devon Booker is fine. I wanted him to take 29 shots house.

How did you see how many he took? 10.

That's the issue. Well, no, no, Booker ended up with 17.

Oh, sorry, Dylan Brooks had 10.

That's the thing, right? Take nine of Jalen Green shots and let's have Dylan, Dylan Brooks take them.

Dylan Brooks who just goes wherever he goes. It's the way he's a winner.

His team always has a positive defensive rating. Just delivers wins anywhere that he goes.

Let that man take some shots. He's been in big games. He's also a very hard guy to

officiate. And so he ends up fouling out in the game. I think you could argue he could have

fouled out in every quarter. He had 14,000. It was tremendous. He's doing that thing on offense too

where he's just like bulldozing people with a shoulder and they're just like, wow, we didn't call

that in the first quarter. I guess we have to let that keep going now. Phoenix was, they set these

these moving picks just constantly that they are really good at getting away with. There's

a couple teams that only occurred great at that. DeCurk, did you feel like

Phoenix blew this game or Portland won it if you had to pick one of those two sides?

Well, the home team, the home team with more of the vets, the more of the playoff experience guys.

Again, I would argue coming into this game with all due respect to Denny, Devon Booker has

been to the finals. They have the home port. They have that guy. They should have won it.

And then when Portland went cold bill, I was already writing notes. Like this

offense just wasn't good enough down the stretch of Denny doesn't have it going. Nobody else could

do anything. So there was a moment early in the fourth quarter was like Phoenix is going to walk

away with this thing. We're going to start the podcast early. And then Jeremy Grant hits those

threes and then Denny gets going. Obviously fouls dealing out with that and won and here we go.

So yeah, I feel like Phoenix blew this chance to just get the 7 seed tonight.

House, which we're excited you on. I'm on the Portland took the game.

Like to come back from eight to 10 with four or five minutes left. And take the game with some big

threes, some big drives to the basket, some really good defense. I thought Kamara on Booker was

awesome down the stretch. They were doing everything they could to try to switch him off.

But I felt like Portland took the game. So how's your the tiebreaker? What do you say?

I agree with the idea that Portland took the game and they did hit that stretch in the third quarter.

When Kirk was taking his very salient notes about the ineffectiveness of their offense through

eight minutes and 30 seconds in the fourth quarter. They had 22 points in the entire second half.

Yeah.

18 through the entire third quarter and then with four points in the fourth.

But when Denny came back into the game right around that eight minute mark, eight, 15 minute mark. He came in and

immediately got an an one. Got the technical on Dylan Brooks. And that that really started tipping things.

This ever works.

You know what? We're up so like this.

When they get the seal clap for five straight seconds. That's going to get a technical.

You go through it. It's 22 minutes for Mark Williams with four points and four rebounds.

I have to say don't remember him playing right. With the out there. It's 24 minutes for Royce O'Neill with seven points.

It's 23 minutes for Oso with three points. Like this is the problem for Phoenix. They have a talent deficit.

And that's not a knock on them. It's just who they are. Jordan Goodwin 29 minutes. Like okay.

Okay. Good. Good job. Yeah.

Portland's pretty good, man. They'll be they'll be a frisky seven. So do we call them a seven seed? What's the

rule here? I guess they're a seven seed now. They're the seven seed. They're the seven seed.

They're the eight seed playing in the two seven matchup or they just now the seven seed.

They're now the seven seed. It's a little sound. Did the Erskur happen?

They earned it. Does this is this box score exists? Does Danny have these? Does his numbers go up?

What happened? Yeah. I forget. Is this a playoff game? No. They just put it over on the side. Like in

area area with the area the alien area. Area 51. Yeah. It's in there. 51 or area 51.

It's how's called in area 52. Here. Call it area 41 for Denny. There you go.

I there was like two moments in this game where I was like fucking scoop and it's gonna happen

tonight. It's happening tonight. Here we go. And it just did not happen. All right. We talked

about that game enough. Charlotte Miami. It wasn't the game of the year. It was the drunk game of the

year. This game was drunk. Amazon got drunk. Amazon started to use shots in the fourth quarter

and glitched out in OT when it was 123 to 120 and Charlotte had the ball with 30 seconds left.

And we had a soprano's moment and it just goes away. This game was full of unbelievable shots,

massive massive massive brainfarts and at the center of all of it was the Moaball who

inexplicably injured Bam out of bio and might be suspended for Friday. Like let's keep an eye on

that. He missed 14 threes Kirk. Oh my god. That's got to be at least a play in record. I don't know if

it's an NBA record, but it's at least a play in record. There's multiple times where they had a lead,

especially in OT. There are five with like two and a half minutes left and they're running basically

the four corners and then doing a grenade shot with a second left. I thought Lamello just had

some horrific moments in this game like horrific moments that make you wonder.

Is this guy just never getting it ever? Like what is up with the decision making and then what happens

after he throws the ball away to lose the lead on a foul of Tyler Harrow, which he commits for three

throws. They come out of a timeout and he makes an awesome driving layup to win the game.

How so was the player of the game and the least valuable player in the game all in the same game.

Well, I mean, it's hard to be fair with this game because of BAM going out. So like my inclination

is to give Miami flowers for just fighting their asses off all the way through. It's really

befuddling. I'd love to get inside that locker room and get some intel on when Tyler

Harrow came back. Why couldn't Tyler hero and Norm Powell be on the basketball floor together

at the same time? It was one of the worst defensive combinations over the last stretch of games.

And Miami's defensive ratings suffered mightily because of those two guys being on the floor at

the same time. I'd love to understand what was going on. But so Norm played 19 minutes tonight

and the entire second half had a look on his face. I feel like I've lost $30 million in

fridge. See just tonight. This sucks. I'm really bad. What's happening? I think it's my

agent. Yeah, it was bad because the first half of the season for Miami, he was awesome.

It was like, how could how could the clippers possibly have let him walk for so little?

Curquely. But I have to do it. Fuck it. Yeah. Eric's posture. Are we sure he's good?

Oh, no. I mean, to your first point, Bill, you nailed it. And Spowe was fired up after the game about

the play, which was just a weird play. I mean, it almost looked like Lamello hit his head.

He just grabbing. But that was the moment. That's the moment we'll remember from this game.

And I hate that I'm saying that. But it's crazy as the finish was. That's Miami's best player.

He's out. That sucked. And then you tell me that the number one and two three point shooters this

whole season are con Caniple and Lamello ball, not for Charlotte for the whole NBA. And these guys

combined to go two for 22. And you're telling me that Charlotte still's going to win that game.

That's crazy. Konga benched. Unless they didn't say he was hurt. It was just a flat out. You

don't have it tonight. You're 20 years old. The lights were a little bright. Have seat.

And Diabata too. So like I look at Charles Lee is like MVP of this game. So con Caniple is minus 20

and 34 minutes. Diabata is minus 17 in 36 minutes. Lamello ball plus 15 in 40 minutes.

I believe it's minus 14 in the 13 minutes. He sat. Yeah. I think Charles Lee finishing with

bridges, Brandon Miller, Lamello ball and Kobe White obviously. And Graham Williams. He went

a little small with G. Dubb as the fifth guy. Can I give you guys my theme of the night? Yeah.

Bad teams give away good players too soon. Kobe White, Davy on Mitchell, Denny Advia.

We're all on different teams a few years ago. They gave up on these dudes. They were the stars

tonight, right? Davy on Mitchell played incredible. He played 48 minutes. That's one of the reasons

Norman Palden see the floor. Davy on was playing electric basketball on both ends of the court.

Obviously Kobe White comes over from Chicago. Zach Loas, the great bit bill Chicago and

Sacramento should never be allowed to trade again. Well, we benefited from their trades again

tonight watching those guys play. So and then obviously Denny in the first game. But look,

Kobe White was fucking awesome, man. And I was electric watching him. And I know Lamello made

the play that sealed the game, but Kobe hit some big boy shots down the stress for Charlotte

to save their season. That was the trade of the year. They gave him some Amazon prime award.

He'd some some necklace with the plays on it. They should give him an apology for the stream going

out with it. It's giving us an apology because it was a goddamn basketball game being played in

fucking Phoenix at the same time. And they're doing necklace giving. There's a fucking basketball

that's being played points are being scored in Phoenix, Arizona.

I couldn't believe that either. The other thing with Amazon the entire year, the audio has been

a split second ahead of the video on half of the Amazon games we've watched. They can

set the three pointers halfway toward the basket. It's like, bang, it's good. You heard the crowd.

It's like the boss didn't got it yet. How did I figure this out? You guys have eight congillian

dollars. They can send a tech bro to the moon, but they can't fucking broadcast a basketball game

without technical difficulties. I haven't seen a technical difficulties slide on a basketball game.

And since I was 12 years old, bro. And this is Amazon. Come on, guys.

And they have the plan. You know, they've done a good job with the studio show. They've

rejuvenated. Staying going for me. I did not like him as an announcer in the three man booths on TNT.

And I would get bummed out if he was doing a South of the game. Like it was at that level of me.

I think he's been outstanding this season in the two men with I and Eagle. I've had it a great job

today. Laying out all the storylines. What was happening? Having a feel for even like the

Canipal thing. You know, I think at one point, he said something like, how long are you going to

stay with them? Which is like, he's the third best player in the team. And as somebody that's

watched way too many Hornets games this year, he started out so like that in games. And then he

hits one. It's a lot like Clay. He hits one three and he's fine. It's just he never hit the

three. And you can see him starting to lose the confidence. But Kobe White to Kirk's point

saved it. I have no idea how he wasn't worth the first round pick. I don't know what happened.

I don't know where the rest of the league was. He was an expiring contract making like, I don't know,

$14 million or something. He goes, goes, ends up going back home to Charlotte. Where he's from.

He went to college there. He's going to resign there. And this team, they're a big guy awayhouse.

Like you could feel it today. Like Diabate has been good in some games. Other games he looks like he

he did tonight. And they're just missing that one. It can't be Grant Williams. It's got to be

somebody better. Yeah. And we kind of had that appraisal at the beginning of the season. One of our

rare big W's was Charlotte. Our forecast for Charlotte this season was was some success. We thought

Conn was going to be helpful. And the big question mark, what's what are they going to do

at the big position? I was impressed. I will say, you know, you're looking for guys that under

the bright lights. We just gave Kobe White the flowers that he deserves. Not to me, the Kobe White

addition to that team right guy right situation, right price, right place. Everything about it

is situational for him. That success. But you look at what Miles Bridges did and you look at what

Brandon Miller did. Those three guys they combined. They were 15 for 28 from three. That freaking

Charlotte team shot 56 got three players. And those guys really saved their ass. And every time

Bridges or Miller or Kobe White touched the ball, I was like, those are the adults in the room.

And that's really to me more than anything, a testament to Brandon Miller. He's the youngest guy

in that group. And he's the guy developmentally who needs to be, you know, carrying the water there.

I don't want to talk about the mellow ball. I really, I don't there's no kind words that

I'm going to come out of my mouth. 31 Fing attempts 31 and 12 for 31, 2 for 16 from 3. And a lot of it

was clown ball. He's getting it's it's a clown car full of LeMelo balls. Look at the clown

getting out of the left side. Oh, it's LeMelo. Look at the clown climbing out of the trunk. Oh,

it's LeMelo. Look at the clown jumping through the front. Oh, that's LeMelo. Look at the three point

attempt from this inside the logo. That's the LeMelo clown climbing out of the right side of the car.

What the fuck is going on with this guy? He took like a 35 footer at one point. It's frustrating

because he's so talented. And you're the leader of the team. You're the point guard. They don't have

bam. He's out in the second half. And I felt like anytime he wanted it, just felt like he could

get to into the pain or get to the rim. Like he's think we're staying in front of him. And Kirk,

he was just settling for these step back 28 footers when none of his threes were going in. It's

like go to the rim. The one thing Miami does not want you to do is to go to the basket. And

every time you're set the reason he didn't dude. There was one big reason he didn't that was

collelware dude who was playing awesome basket ball. He had five block shots, played 42 minutes

without bam out there. He had some one of those blocks he had where he caught the ball was a

clear goal 10. The refs missed. That was pretty shocked. They missed it. But yeah, dude, I

I don't know whether to be impressed by the two of 16. The fact that he kept shooting those threes

when he obviously didn't have it. And then when he needed to drive to the basket, it's almost

more frustrating. Made the game winning drive. Like you could have done that. Like Denny did

down the stretch of this other game. But that's the lack of experience though. And that's what like

right. The older players who who know who've been in this situation. So like to me, a good example

is Jalen Brown in the Celtics. Like getting game like that, he just would have started going

in the rim. Get to the basket. Oh, where is your last center? I'm just going to start attacking him

and making him challenge me and try. They just they didn't have the wherewithal to do some of that

smart playoff team stuff because those fun guys have been in a playoff game. Great.

We have the only one. Still it, dude. Yeah. Tyler Harrow and the stole at Reggie Miller style

down the stretch with one of the great sequences. And but yeah, it doesn't it feel like both of the

inexperienced teams like when I started seeing Harrow get going at the end and spow on the

sideline and you know, Andrew Wiggins who's won NBA championship bill. I started to feel like

okay, Miami's just going to win this game. Yeah, this is an infrastructure DNA game. I was

furious. I just want them to go away. I'm just going to go that way too. I thought Phoenix had

that advantage in the other game. And we saw both sort of young, weird teams figure it out at

the last second and get over the hump. But yeah, for Charlotte, man, they got a lot of learning to

do that. Pass that Lamello threw. Oh, man, it could have ended their season in the same way that

the Duke turnover. Right. Who was that? Who shot?

Caden Booser. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The Caden Booser turnover ended that season. It was very

reminiscent of a player under pressure who hadn't been there before just making a bone headed play.

Well, we had house. We had three awards or LNBA spots that might have swung tonight.

Because there might have been somebody who was like multiple people like, I don't know who to

pick between flag and con. Yeah. Stunk tonight. Oh, screw it. I'm going to take flag. That's

diabolical. I really. I think Hawkeyes for six man in the year, which we do this later in the show.

And Kirk has Keldin Johnson, spoiler alert. And I have Hawkeyes. And now at Huckaz, who I didn't think

was very good in the game, and then had the biggest defensive fuck up at the end. He didn't.

He just let Lamello go by him. I don't know what he was doing. He wasn't playing six man.

He was being playing as a starter because BAM wasn't in the goddamn lineup. I mean,

this is the thing that I want to criticize some of the end of the game stuff for Miami. I mean,

Kirk was talking about Tyler Hero. Well, I didn't love a lot of it. It felt like the same hero ball

that we saw really at the end of games last year as well. Where this Miami team goes into now,

again, no BAM. So it's not really fair to criticize, but they get they turn one dimensional.

I didn't know you know what's fair to criticize. You know what's fair to criticize.

So they tie the Charlotte ties it on the crazy Kobe Way 3. We had two crazy threes at the end

of regulation OT one from hero and OT one from Kobe. But they tie it time out.

Miami has 13 seconds to set up a play. I think Grant Williams was the center for Charlotte Kirk.

Yeah.

So what does Miami get? Hey, let's try to get a 27 footer from from hero at the end of the end of the

like, how is that your play? That was a bad possession. Yeah. Get to the basket.

Go to the basket. There's 10 seconds left. Make one pass. Yeah.

Every fucking set of eyes on the basketball court is looking at the guy with the ball. Nobody's

eyes have to shift one time because the guy with the ball dribbles the mother of the ball the whole

time. I just can't it makes me lose my shit. Well, here's the thing. I don't feel bad for Miami

because they were the 10 seed. I didn't think they were a playoff team and they were who we

thought they were in a lot of ways. With that said, the band thing stunk. So how's we have a San Antonio

Portland line? Would you like to guess? For the series? Yeah. Oh, God. San Antonio's minus

490. Oh, no. Minus 1350. That's too much. Way too much. Yeah. Wow. What would you like to

what do you think? What do you think a spurs sweep is? Oh, I mean, that's preposterous.

You don't want to guess the spurs sweep? I don't want to guess. I can't minus 1350.

That's the one that's for the sweep, Kurt. Yeah. That's crazy. Spurs when 4 to 1 is plus 190 on Fando.

I'm betting that. The problem with 1350 is the implied concept there is that Wembee will play all

the games and that's right. That doesn't really line up with our recent experience. I would like for

him to play all the games. I want him to be healthy for all the games. It may not make sense for him

to play all the games. He may yet still need some rest. So I assume he's playing all the games.

You know who's going to be playing against him though? That I've been clinging to Robert the truth

Williams. For the guys who combined two for 12 for four points tonight. Those guys.

Klingons feisty man. He'll he he will take this personally. They only have 12 fouls. They definitely

have 12 fouls. I think Zach Low is the first person to point this out. Klingon looks exactly like

Gunther the W. C. For star. He's going to Gunther it up against Wembee. There's going to be some high

elbows and some shoves and Klingons like kind of a badass. Like he's he's going to make

through Dylan books to the TV through the groups to the ground. Not many people are brave enough

to do that. Yeah. I have I have a question that's going to send a chill down your spine.

Thought about the straighter in the Charlotte game. These young carefree,

awesome regular season teams or these stretches built around the young guys. Yeah.

Cut great. This is then the old guys and inside the NBA come on and be like I bark. Who does that?

I don't know. I don't you I want to see it in the playoffs. Um, I'm like, all right, settle down.

Their offensive rating was this blah blah blah. And then the playoffs come in the lights are nice

and hot bright. Yeah. And all of a sudden that wide open that first wide open three didn't go in.

And then your second one didn't come in. And now like you can see with con today's like

rethinking. I made 275 of these and I don't know if I want to shoot this. The spurs

have a few guys in that team that the lights might get a little bright right from 24 feet.

You thinking about that at all? 100%. I mean these guys are 21, 22, you know, in Dylan Harper's case,

19 or whatever. Like yeah, of course. You just hope that Harrison Barnes and D'Air and Fox

and Julian Champenny. Here's the guards. Here's the Barnes is my own mentalist and a world champion.

Here's a once. Yeah. So he is an NBA champion and I go, but yeah, there's some vets there.

But I think it is fair to say. And I don't think that's going to come up in a Portland series with

Denny who by the way has never seen this stuff or, you know, Drew holiday has. I'll give that to him.

But yeah, I think both of these teams, Thiago Splitter is going to be really coaching his first

play of series and so is Mitch Johnson. Yeah, I think you're worried about that. If you're a spurs

fan, we haven't seen it. And the other thing I'd say Bill Simmons is the rules change. Remember,

last year, how jarring it was once we got into the postseason, what is the contact? What are the

contacts allowances anymore? This was a foul for six months. Now it's not a foul anymore. How is

that going to be? How is that going to affect Wembee to house this point about his fragility,

his durability? And just the inexperience with that, that's kind of physicality that we're

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How so you ready for the playoffs? You got in there yet? Mentally. I'm there now. I mean,

do you have enough that for us yet? Tonight was the night. No, because the first round is not lining up.

The team that I feel like, you know, that Atlanta could give the Nick some trouble. That's the only

one where I really feel like, you know, I don't think the unless there's some miracle happening

with Lucas visit to where to go Italy. The line's kind of doing this. I don't know if you notice

the series line. It's going this way a little bit. Lakers now plus 530 or plus 590. I can't see

because one of my context is working plus 530. Houston now minus 750. They used to be minus 900.

I mean, to me, the lakers are a smash spot at that price. I'm probably not betting it.

Yeah, I don't think you're right. It's what it's the playoffs are two and a half weeks basically,

round one. Yeah. They'll stretch it out, even if it's two one after three, and then they could

potentially get Luca back for the last couple. And you know, you know, I said this to Zach

the other night, there's going to be the 55 free throw game. That's happening. Just pencil that one in.

But yeah, if they could even if they're down three, two heading into game six, but Lucas back,

I don't trust that Houston team. No, I know you guys don't trust that Houston. No, not even a little bit.

So then the other weird thing that happened, we had the 910 game before we had the 7-8 game in the

east. So we have Philly tomorrow and that line has moved. I love Philly today. Philly was like

minus one and a half today. It's up to minus two and a half. I really like Philly in that game.

Warriors Clippers just see by his well bet on two drunk guys having a fight in downtown,

no way. I have no idea what's going to happen in that game. But magic sixers, who do you think

who do you think Charlotte's rooting for in this game, Kurt Goldsbury?

Oh Orlando. I don't know if you sell the rumors on the internet today, but there's turmoil in

the magic lock. Right. Head coach Jamal Mosley, they're reevaluating his future no matter what.

No. I think your beloved Celtics bill really put them into a funk heading into these playoffs.

Without a question, I think it's got to be Charlotte Root and a sea or a land who has been a

complete mess over these last few weeks. And I just don't know if their offense can keep up

with Charlotte on an average Charlotte night. We saw Charlotte with a really below average night

tonight beat a pretty good opponent. So if they just get back to average, I don't know if Orlando

will keep up. So I would say the Orlando magic house. I don't know. The problem is how

it gets a frenic. The magic have been they are the more healthy team. For certain we don't have

any confidence whatsoever in Mosley, but the problem is in the in the bright lights, maybe

those guys all come together. Maybe they're the nobody believes in us team. They were supposed to

win 50 games this season. They grossly under achieved. But like Desmond Bain doesn't want to look

go out looking like a bitch and Pallow, Pallow wherever he ends up, whether he's on Orlando or not,

he doesn't want to go out looking like a Milwaukee or Sacramento. Yeah, I mean, I don't know,

man. So I think we never Orlando. We both bet on there was a Saturday game where Philly played

in Charlotte and really kind of buoyed them and took it to them. And if I'm Charlotte, I don't

want to play them. Yeah, I didn't like that. I didn't like how that game went for them. I thought

they were really physical with their guards. I thought they're physical with Khan, I thought they're

physical with the mellow. I just I didn't like the matchup. I want to play the magic for all the

reasons Kirk mentioned as well. Turm oil in the magic locker room. There was something this week about

a team was anxiously waiting to talk to Jamal Mosley this summer. What was that story? Who is the

team? I'm blanking. It was one of the teams that needed coach. It was like the Taipei Tigers.

The the Rio Grande Valley Vipers. Somebody was excited to talk to Oh, New Orleans. That's what it was.

New Orleans was really interested. There is difference between the teams we mentioned in New Orleans.

Those all sound like the same teams to be. If you had to pick Warriors Clippers, what would you do

as not to step on Ringer Gamling? Shoulder Murr. Take the Clippers. Kirk.

What's the Warriors injury report? We're getting porzingis and porcelain.

It seems like we're different. Curry. I'm going to this one tomorrow night.

The Clippers are interesting because when they play Garland and Kauai together, they're really good.

All of the minutes with those two guys on the floor really good. Garland's the only guy in the team

who can dribble. All you have to do when Garland's done out there is just press and trap whoever.

Just try to get the ball because they'll give it to you. They don't have a backup center.

Their swings kind of are hit or miss. The crowd's going to have a ton of Warriors fans there.

This is the always the biggest issue with Clipper Gamble. You're going to have 5,000 Warriors fans there.

And there's a real energy if Steph gets going. It's weird. I would either pick the

Warriors to win or to lose by 20. I don't think there's any in between. I think they either get

blown out or they win. I don't think it's a close game. I think they win it.

Is there any conspiracy bill? We don't want the Clippers in the playoffs.

We do want Steph Curry in the playoffs. That could be it. I'm not conspiracy bill. I'm just a guy over here.

House. I'm going to put back in conspiracy bill.

Do it.

Conspiracy bill did notice. We did not see Scott Foster today.

Now wait. On the one hand, Steph Curry on the other hand, the team that was in

broil that some sort of weird aspiration. I don't want to call it a scandal. Whatever it was

for a long time. We'll keep that to your conspiracy head on. What did we say was going to be the

funniest possible outcome of the lottery when the ping-pong ball gets dropped because

that the Clippers lose then they're in the lottery. But they don't have to pick. They don't have to

pick. Who has to pick? Okay. See has to pick. Yeah. We don't have to get it worked. So

okay see gets. Yeah. The Clippers win the lottery, but okay see gets to pick. I forgot to mention

there was another outcome in that Portland game because they made the playoffs.

They lose their pick. I think to Charlotte. So Charlotte gets to pick in the mid first round.

And if you've been following this draft at all, somebody really good is going to fall to the

middle of the first round and this NBA draft and it's going to be a point guard.

And it's going to be like the kid from Alabama who just goes 16-17 because everybody has a point

guard. Nobody need to take them. So that picks like not nothing. I think Charlotte was the one that

that has it. I am really excited for tomorrow. Zach Pupude, my love of just seeing Steph Curry playing

any sort of a game that means anything. The minute's limit is weird. The fact that the other

game is going to be the 7-8 game is also kind of weird. We'll see how it goes. House before we go,

you want to give us your MVP pick? It would be SGA for me. If I was lucky enough to have a

belt, I would vote for SGA. Who would be your number two? The Joker.

Wembee three? Wembee three. Yeah, without hesitation or reservation.

Okay. Who would be your all NBA fifth spot if Luca doesn't qualify and fails is weird appeal.

And we have the three guys we just mentioned in Jalen Brown and the fifth spot could be their

Mitchell or Brunson or somebody else. Who would you put in there? I think I would put Mitchell in

there because he kind of held that team together until Harden arrived and they made the push that

they made. And for fourth and fifth MVP, would you have Jalen Brown fourth?

Fourth seems fair, sure. With no Luca? Yeah, with no Luca for sure, absolutely.

And who would be the fifth spot for you because this is something else we argue about in the next

second. You could have Mitchell, you could have Brunson, you could have Kauai.

Kauai. Kauai. It'd probably have to be Brunson for me, honestly.

Okay. Probably Brunson. House later, we're going to send you an

a soundproof chamber and later on, you'll hear if you're picks, match the picks of me or Kurt

Goldsbury. Who do you have for Ricky of the year, by the way? Khan. It's not even close to me.

It's not even close. I mean, it's funny. House and I are aligned a lot of it.

It just cannot, cannot under any circumstance. This isn't a year where you're having to hold

your nose and choose between bad choices. Like this is not a, who is the, I'm going to use say

somebody, the killer Alexander Walker, would it handful? No, Michael Carter Williamstead.

That's the one. I think it was a different hype for a guy. Yeah. Yeah.

Like how should you against hyphen guys win in these awards? What's your problem?

I just knew there was a hyphen guy that won Ricky of the year because we couldn't come up with

the answer to who the rookie of the year should be. That's not this year. Just the Dallas is a

disaster. That was an absolute. What we're doing is saying this 19 year old did things that a

teenager shouldn't do. That's great. I don't have any issue whatsoever. Show me the winning basketball.

I need to see the winning basketball. That's the part of it that's missing.

If it's a bad rookie of the year year and we're not

comparing the winning stuff at all, then it's just like, all right, who played the best in a

shit situation? Yeah. Then you can say, okay, let's do the counting numbers. Let's do,

let's do rebounds, assists, and points. But that's not this year. And I think the force,

the force multiplier effect of Canipal on this Charlotte team, the settling effect

of his coming in and being so efficient with the threes, that to me,

flag will get his flowers. Flag deserves flowers. But how can you make any assessment of

shit numbers on a shit team? Like you're what you're saying is he is the best 19 year old.

Well, we have rankings for that. There's other ways to capture that. Not rookie of the year in the NBA.

I just like to apologize to Kathy Flagg for houses and flamatory comments. And I hope she's

still a friend of the pot. My last point before we leave. Man, I love flag. We have a lot of

point. Love that guy. I will say there's been some strange movement in these new fangled

betting markets over the last six hours on that rookie of the year thing. So we could be living

in a world where Lucas protest. Lucas, what is it called? Not a protest. It's a, a deal.

His this appeal process may have changed the outcome of this award if those market

maneuvering the movements in these markets are to be trusted. Cooper has had some positive

movement over the last six hours. Hey, last question before we go. Because Tassie didn't come on

and talk about this. Worry McElroy went back to back masters. He sure did. Man, he played the

masters two years and wrong was the best guy each time. This is a thing that happened.

Only four times in the history of the golf tournament. There's been, it's been around for 90 years.

The other three guys to do it were Tiger Woods, Jack Nicholas and Sir Nick Fowl though.

Three of the all time great Kirk. I mean, if we had started the decade,

2020 starts the decade, right? That January 1st, 2020. We start the decade and think about the

things that have happened this decade, including a pandemic and Trump winning reelection and named

17 crazy sports things. Worry winning back to back masters would have been way, way up there,

way up there. Honestly, not. I have to push back a tiny bit because back to back masters.

Well, I mean, but here's the thing. That's like, was Jack Nicholas shit. Yeah, it is that.

And he, he earlier in his career looked like that's the trajectory he was on. What truly makes him

the figure that he is in this sporting moment is that there was a 10 year gap between him

winning majors. He went on this incredible drought and the pressure built and the pressure built.

And that's why last year's masters resonated across the world in terms of sporting, you know,

golf fandom and sports fandom because he overcame something that felt insurmountable and even during

the course of the round. Yeah. Last year in 2025, he damn near-lossed three or four different ways.

So this year was like a validation of the true caliber of, you know, a legacy, a legacy kind of

mark that he put down. Kirk, the favorite part of the masters other than betting on Justin

Rose and thinking that he was going to win the masters and then he just turned into a pumpkin on the

night pole. Scotty Shephardt, he kind of sucked the whole tournament and he was like minus 11.

It was the equivalent of watching somebody put up a 35 11 and 12 not making a shot from outside

like seven feet. It was like watching Lamello Ball. Like he struggled all game and then

you got a stats was unbelievable. No, that is so disrespectful to Scotty Shephardt. No,

I'll get I can't abide it. Yeah, you can't compare it to the Mellabond.

Let me come back around Scotty Shephardt went to the University of Texas and study at this

business school that I teach and we are huge Scotty fans. I thought the same thing Bill, he is

playing terrible and that's how good he is right now. He played a terrible run by his standards.

All of his drives were crazy. Every time he needed a big shot, he hit it off into the woods.

He missed a birdie putt that would have I thought really put the pressure on. I want to say

that 12 to 13 toll and that stretch of whole house where they all gain ground. He had a chance.

Yeah. I was rooting for him the whole time. I still think he's the best golfer in the world,

but hats off the Roy. It was a great Sunday at the Masters. It was a great weekend of golf.

It was really close. I was happy to see it, but now I'm ready for the NBA playoffs, Bill.

House, I love I love watching great athletes struggle and get mostly to where they need to go anyway.

It was like my favorite Jordan game other than the the flu game and the last game of his of his

bulls career was that game seven against the Pacers when he just didn't have his legs and he's

like I got to figure this out somehow and just kind of patching together plays and stats with nothing.

Those are the best hallmark of a true champion winning with the Bb minus game.

Yeah. I mean, I maybe was closer to B plus for him for Rory. We're speaking of because of how good

his putting his short game was especially in the first two rounds, but he shot over par.

You know, on Saturday and only one under on Sunday and still Rory just basically played two awesome

backdines, right? Yeah. Where he was like one of the backdines. He was like minus six.

And then the other one was the Sunday backdine. But Shethler, I don't think put together any good

backdines. No, Shethler on the weekend was a lot. He was even par going into the weekend and then

he did not make a bogey on Saturday or Sunday. He shot 11 under par on Saturday on Sunday.

He just could not score on the back nine for five. See, only had one birdie. The entire golf

tournament and those and that was a miracle one. Yeah. That was it was a miracle.

And here was his, yeah, he saved that. You're right, KG. An incredible birdie.

Rory's second shot on 18, man. After he hit that air and drive as somebody's really

worried for Scottie. I was like, did he just do what I think? Because that was almost going to

be one of the most painful moments in golf, depending on where that ball landed, man. The

true Rory experience. That's it. That's the roller coaster running. I mean, they missed a lot of

replays and live shots, but they didn't have the perfect replay that one Murray shot.

So it seemed like it was going to ding and bounce backwards, which is usually what happens,

and it just didn't. Somebody will cobble it together. There is emerging now. Some

camera angles that that seemed like they captured it, but it would have been fun to see you in

real life. I have another thing I'm going to do as sports are. After I settle Amazon's audio

video issue, where the audio is before the video of the game, I'm watching. That's number one of my agenda.

I think the masters, and this is the only event that you should be able to do this with the

masters. They should be able to grab the best announcers from all the other networks.

Like we should just have Toreco and Van Pelt and Joe Buck should all be on hold. Van Pelt is there.

Van Pelt is there. He's beginning to be on hold. He's being on hold. I like this.

16, 16, 17. I want Van Pelt, Toreco and Joe Buck. And they're just there. We don't want

anything else. We'll fly you in, you get your own house. Just work this whole on Saturday and

Sunday. It's a two day thing and just do your thing. And let's go with the big boys.

But Toreco does the radio call. He didn't do it this year because he went to the Olympics,

but he does cover the masters. I don't listen to the masters on the fucking radio. I know,

I understand. And who would you have on the 16th hole if you could have anybody?

Bernlund Chris. Yeah, that's the answer. I burn. I won't burn for the rest forever for the rest of my life.

What hole would you put Eric Collins on? Would you put him on what would be the most exciting

Eric Collins hole? 15? A lot of big things happen on 15, maybe 12, like, 12. Yeah, yeah, 12.

The drama there, he's real catastrophe's happened on 12. Oh, gee, I'm just picking my throat.

He's in the water. That's it. There you go. Yeah, I love it. Just for those headed over the green

and then flood the chip. How would Eric Collins handle that? I'm telling you, just get all these

dudes. We just get them for two days. It's best of the best. It's like, it's like when they make

those Avengers movies for the Marvel when they put all the great actors in one movie. Let's just

stay with for the last two days. Nobody's against this. Kurt Goldsbury Pleasure to see you as always.

We look forward to your master's shot chart map that I'm sure you're working on. By the way,

that would be a good idea. Do that. I can do that. Do it right now. I'll buy one. I'll send you

the memo right now. I love your own book. Joe House. Thanks for staying up late. We appreciate it.

Seeing the ringer gambling show and I'm fairway rolling and I'll be making you pop on during

the playoffs as well. We're going to take a break coming back. Me and Kurt Goldsbury are going to go

through all the awards. Let's go. As you know, I've been doing Wednesday bets on Fandall. Actually,

won the last two. We had a big parlay on Wembee. That was like nine to one. And then Justin

Rose top five masters plus six 50. That one hit two. Almost one Justin Rose to win the masters. I

think it was 35 to one. He let me down, but he still got the top five. So let's see if we can keep

the streak going. I already jumped the gun. I did my my playing bet Tuesday night Portland.

That was my favorite bet of the four playing games, but I also really like Philly. I think

Philly beats Orlando. I love betting on the NBA and Fandall. It's a brand I trust. Easy to build

by bet. You know, you get your winnings instantly. Playing tournaments always fun. Do parlay's.

I did like a Charlotte Portland Philly parlay. That was like five to one, but I like Philly

straight up. I just think Orlando is ready for the season and they couldn't stop maxing the

regular season. I am a Philly money line. Maybe throw that in with with the calves to be Toronto

in the series. Something like that. Go nuts. Do whatever you need to do. So don't forget to check

out my middle of the week bets. Usually it'll be Wednesday, but there might be a Tuesday. I like

on Fandall using the Fandall sportsbook app. Don't forget to use your profit boost token to increase

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ringer for 20% off your first order exclusions apply. All right, we just traveled in a time machine

backwards to before the playing games when Kurt Goldberg and I banked this whole segment because

we want to talk big picture around one playoffs. I wanted to do my award picks more importantly

what an honor for you. You have a vote. I can't remember. Yeah, democracy is back in America Bill.

Have you said your vote publicly yet? No, we're going to do this right now. We'll talk about the

playoffs later. So just look at thing is so weird. Yeah, it screws up to top five MVP because he

would be fourth on my ballot if he's eligible. We don't know if he is. There's some sort of weird

appeal process we have to go through. I don't know why the NBA doesn't care about podcast content

and dumb shows like ours where we have just over the stuff and then it it screws up first

team on the air opens up a spot for somebody and it adds a spot on the third team for somebody

because everybody moves up a spot. So I want to do all NBA first. We'll finish with MVP and we'll

hit all the other categories. So I had first team Yokej, Wembee, Luca, SGA and Jalen, which I think

is chalk, right? Yeah, you had that as well. Okay. On the Luca inversion of my spreadsheet.

Now I have a Luca out version of my spreadsheet to your point. What's about that? Because that's

more interesting. So Lucas in if they do the weird ruling and they're like, oh, he flew back

for the birth of his child that somehow counts as a game. It would be funny. I've said this before

I would have silver said, you know what? We reject the appeal. He would have played 65 if he hadn't

gotten 16 technicals and maybe he'll learn his lesson now. And we just all move done.

All right. Luca out alternate first team. I have Mitchell in the Luca spot. Who do you have?

I have Kauai Leonard, which was sort of surprising as I went through this bill. But you look at

this dude's numbers and he's nearing 50, 40, 90 at 28 points a game. He's obviously a defender.

But I just couldn't justify any other pick. I know it's a controversial season for Kauai.

I know the Clippers aren't that great. But this is probably his best season as a scorer of his

career. If he's ever been first team all NBA, there's an argument that it should be this year.

So I want Kauai. I can't kill it. So he was sixth and sixth and scoring in the league this year.

You said point five net plus, put 32 minutes a game.

Career high points per game, which I couldn't believe. Yeah, I couldn't believe it either. 27,

nine. Was that it was? Yeah. Third highest year 14 points per game ever.

So of any year 14 guy, third highest we've ever had. And I think the other two were to rent Curry,

both of whom played in the 50s for games that year.

Defense was there. I think it's a good pick. I just I had a hard time putting them first team

all NBA when the team was barely 500. And he was there for a bunch of those when they started

it when they were six and I just couldn't get past that. Whereas Mitchell, you know, that that was

a top 14 the whole year. They had some injuries. I think there's some MVP conversation for him too.

And it was pretty steady for them for the most part. I thought he had I thought he had a good

year. He played over 70 games 33.5 minutes a game. Seventh points per game. He's a 28, five and six.

And yeah, I just felt like I don't really feel like either of them are first team all NBAs to be

honest, but if Lucas is going to be out, who else did we lose? We lost one more bad one.

What do you mean we lost to Ant-Man? What do you mean we lost? We lost. Ant. I think

Ant would have been the other one who could have swam in that swimming pool. Oh for sure. But

did not. Okay. So we disagree on Mitchell versus Kade. Sorry. Okay.

Kade has the other. Yeah. Kade had that spot forever and then just didn't make it. By the way,

just missed it. Yeah. Too much load management. Maybe too much a long management. I don't know what

we're going to call it this time around, but Kade cutting hand. Long travesty. Well, so what say

you could have voted 60 like, let's say 60 games and up instead of 65. Yeah.

Would Luca and Kade have made it for you? I had to put Jalen Brown in there, man.

Jalen Brown and Kade, I know other people are going to roast me for this, but I ended up with

Jalen. He reinvented his game. That team had no business going on the run that it went on. And he

was the best player on that team all year long as they went through that incredible, surprising run.

I'm not mad at anybody. I'd keep cutting him above Jalen Brown, but it would have been Luca

in Jalen for me. I feel the same way played almost 25, 100 minutes.

Everything he did peaked in his 10 season, which is just incredibly unusual for the NBA.

There's really no, I had a whole thing. I was looking up guys who made first team on

the NBA for the first time in their 10th season. John Stockton in 1994, didn't that say?

It's the only one. He had six seconds leading up to this. So you could say in some ways,

this is one of the great aberration seasons anybody has had 10 years or later in their career,

but there were reasons for it, including Tatum. Him having to take the higher usage rate.

I've made the case for Jalen over and over again. You kind of had to see the season and see how

limited the Celtics were from, can we get a reliable basket anywhere tonight? Not knowing of

Pritchard was going to be on or not. I love Pritchard, but he's a little bit on off.

White shooting was near the whole year. And it's Jalen had 30 points or more 35 times out of the

70 plus games he played. And they needed him all the time. It was just always nice to know,

whatever happens, we have somewhere to go in the fourth quarter. We have somebody we're getting,

we know we're getting 30 to 35 from this guy. We know he's going to get to the line.

On top of it was taking on defensive challenge over and over again against people like Shay and

Kauai. Anytime they needed a stopper, it seemed like he ended up on the bigger scores.

I thought from a leadership, physicality, attitude standpoint, he's the biggest reason

then 156 games by far. Yeah, and we didn't get to see what Kade would have done down the stretch.

So we were robbed of that. And that's why this is a hypothetical. If Kade had finished, I mean,

the case for Kade is the Detroit offense without Kade until he got hurt was a awful, awful

unit. And when as soon as he came in the game, everything was fine. He ran that thing as well as

John Stockton. He was like, he was the conductor of that orchestra and also just a great leader.

And so we were robbed at the end of that. But yeah, Jaylen ended up absorbing on his,

not easy bill Simmons to deal with Jason Tatum just sliding back into the fold after doing what

you do for 66 games. Now, now let's get back into the Jason Tatum and he handled that as perfectly

as anybody could have expected. I'm really glad you mentioned that because I don't know if that

would have gone the right way all the time. Like Jaylen gets credit for come on back in. Let's

figure this out how this is going to work. If Kade had played 70 games and we had Luca and I think

Luca Trump spoke those guys. Jaylen versus Kade would have been an awesome argument, but we were

sadly robbed of that opportunity. All right. Second team. If Luca's in, I am looking at

Jaylen Dern, Kawai Leonard, Donovan Mitchell, Jamal Murray, and Jaylen Brunson. Three guards which

I don't love. I, what's talked about this now, I'm just always voting a center for each team or at

least some sort of big. I want my all NBA team to look somewhat like a basketball team. I'm not

going to do like just handing out the trophies for everybody. There's what are there? 100 votes,

110 votes. I forgot how many votes there are. Everybody approaches it differently. That's the way

I approach it. I value the eight decades of history. We had centers every year for the first seven

plus decades of the league. And I'm not just going to dump that because Joelle and Beat and Yoke

had just got weird with first and second team. It got weird with Russell and Will. I've talked

about this ad nauseam. So I have Dern, Kawai, Mitchell, Murray, and Brunson. Who do you have?

So I have Kawai in this world where Luca's in, then Donovan Mitchell, Jaylen Brunson, Kevin

Durant. And I go chat. I go chat home, Grin here largely because I wanted a center in there and

because defensive conversations aren't well represented in all NBA. And he's one of the most

impactful. He's definitely the second most impactful defender in the league right now.

I battled shit first Dern, went back and forth, back and forth, back and forth on it.

Fairly similar case. Dern stats are better. Minutes are around the same. Yeah. The defensive stats

for cheddar better and chance rim protection stuff was pretty nuts. I actually, as recently as like

three, four weeks ago, I had him on the bubble because I hadn't done the deep dive on all the defensive

stats like holy shit. He's second in rim protection. They're first in defensive rating just in

general. They're 56 and 13 when he played. So 56, 36, 79 guys. So the statistical case is there.

I thought the reason I went with Dern is I just thought he meant more to that Detroit team

where him and Cade were the guys that the physicality, the competitiveness, the attitude that that

team had came from those two guys and spread down and everyone else kind of carried themselves the

same way too. And when Cade went out, I was so impressed that they kept winning and I felt like

every time I watched Dern, I'm just like, that guy's a fucking badass. So I think that's a,

you could go either way. I'm fine with it. I didn't feel 100% on it, but

28 minutes of game for him, 70 games. They're plus them. Point eight net when he played. He was

sixth in rebounds. And I thought he really grew as an offensive guy. He's going to come up in

another award. But I was really, so I didn't know he had this in him. I guess this is my bigger point.

And he was there. I mean, Jay Dub wasn't there. I thought it was a good chance for him to sort of

emerge in an offensive role, but also sort of the second banana roll. But for me ultimately,

it's like, dude, this guy is one of the big reasons they're the best defense in the NBA for the

second. You're talking about Jay. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I was talking about Jaylin before, but you're

talking about check. Yeah. Yeah. I was talking about Chad my fault. No, that's all right.

This is very confusing, by the way, for the audience to have this Luca non-Luca thing. I think

Bill and I are very, very confused. So thanks NBA. So Luca out. I have Durin, Kauai, Murray,

Brunson, and Kevin Durant. And I didn't feel great about it, but here's the case for Durant.

Second and minutes in the week, played 79 games, played 36 minutes of game. He was 26,

6 and 5. He was a 52, 41, 87 guy. That team didn't have a point guard, basically, at all.

And he carried that. And I thought, statistically, if you remove all the burners scandal stuff and

some of the weird chemistry that team has, statistically, pretty incredible season. We've only had

three guys, 37 years or older, ever averaged 25 plus points again. Him, staff, and LeBron,

seems like a fitting class. And I didn't, I had him 13 because the burners scandal really bothered

me. And the whole thing, I thought it affected the team. I thought you could see it. I don't know

how culpable he was in it, but I just didn't like it. But ultimately, like, I just, with all these

other dudes out, I think he has to nudge up. So who did you have in that, that extra spot if Luca's

out? I put Jamal Murray in my second team with Jalen Brunson, Durant, Chet, and Donovan Mitchell.

Okay. So we're basically, we're basically the same except you had Mitchell and the non-Luca

first team. Oh, I had Mitchell, but I'm Luca first team and you had Kauai and the non-Mitchell

first team. Yeah, that's exactly right. Did you think at all about Brunson 13 second team,

or were you just good to go with that? I'm so impressed by him. And maybe it's bleeding over

from the playoff run, but he's just so clutch and so important for that team and ended up earning

the three seed in the East. And, you know, frankly, the other guys on the team bill are so inconsistent

that he just has to be so high usage and so reliable as they go to score. When your best,

second best player is Kat, who I'm sure we're going to talk about here in a second. It just impresses

me. So Jalen Brunson, elevating this next team to the third seed in a world where there's so

much inconsistency around him offensively, whether we're talking about bridges or an OB or Josh

Harder, whoever else. I've always been sort of a pro-brunson guy, so I had a second team.

Yeah, if Luca, if Luca N.K. had played, I think I would have had Murray over Brunson.

Yeah. Because Murray was, he ended up playing 76 games or 75 games, who was six in minutes,

who's fourth and made threes, 25, four and seven every night. Almost, he was a 48,

48, 48, eight guy. And I just thought he had a harder job than Brunson, as

word is that sounds as good as Brunson is where that entire next team is built around Brunson.

Yeah.

The Denver, you have to figure out, Yokech has the ball at the time. He's figured out completely

how to play off Yokech, how to carry non-Yokech minutes, playing with this rotating cast of swings

that were either heard or came Johnson's not playing well. And I just thought he was so steady and

so good all season, but there was no drop-up with him month to month. I didn't look at his monthly

splits, but they couldn't have been much different every month. I thought he was just so impressive.

Anyway, he was, yeah, as best he ever, right?

Yeah, and so I was thinking like if you switch them, would the next be worse, would Denver be worse?

I think if you switch them, I think the next would be around the same. I think Murray could do a

lot of the stuff Brunson was doing for them, but I think the Nuggets would have been worse. It's a

dumb way to think about it, but I think the way Murray played, I felt like he could fit into

any team. I was just really impressed by him this year. Brunson, you know, as a crunch time guy,

the confidence that he has and the connection he has, but there's great things with him too.

A lot of good teams this year, a lot of good players this year. Okay, now we're going to get

wonky because we have a third team with some guys that I just can't believe or even in the mix.

I have for my Luca, if Luca counts, here's my five, Che.

Who you had, KD, who I had bumped up to second team without Luca, but he's third team,

if Luca's involved. Che, KD, Jalen Johnson,

Steph Castle, and Tyrese Maxson. That's my five. I did it. So where are you talking about it?

So if Luca's out, that leaves me with Che, Jalen Johnson, Castle, Maxi, and Scotty Barnes,

which I just don't feel great about, but I'll give you the Barnes case. Well, you give me years,

and then we'll talk about some of the cases here. So with Luca and I, Murray, Maxi, Jalen Durin.

Okay, there's my big Jalen Johnson and Kat. So that's why you had Kat. Okay, interesting.

I did have Kat, and then on my Luca out, I have Maxi Durin, Jalen Johnson, Kat, and then

Shengoon is the beneficiary on my ballot, if interesting. If Luca is not included. So it's

crazy. Just for the audience, this decision is going to affect two people in a grand way.

Luca Doncher, obviously, but the 16th best player in the NBA in theory is going to become

all NBA 13 or the 16th candidate. In my case, that Shengoon.

I mean, really, he's the 17th best because

he's 14th, 18th. And ants out. So I guess that was 10 to 18. I looked at Shengoon.

First of all, I didn't want to have two rockets because I've been waiting watching them.

For the most part, they drive me crazy. I had them first half of the year. I didn't love how

the second half of the year went. I thought the chemistry stuff, like, I always go down to

like how much fun would someone so be to play with with Shengoon. I'm not always positive. He'd

be the most fun to play with his teammates. And they get really frustrated with him.

So he didn't even, he wasn't. I just couldn't do two rockets. So I'll make the case for Castle

Firth because you see I had him either way. So he finished 17, 5 and 7,

47, 33, 73 on the shooting, played high 60s, played 30 minutes of game. So one of the most

impressive players I saw in person, I just couldn't believe what a badass he was on both ends of the

floor and goes after every single play. And then when you watch him on, I don't have to sell you.

You love the spurs. Just every play doesn't take off. I feel like there's more there. I felt

like he sacrificed stuff for the team. I think if he was on a shitier team, Dylan Harper was another

one that I thought sacrificed. I think if Castle was on a mediocre team or a playing team or whatever,

I think his stats could have been better. I think he kind of just, I think he's just all about

how are we winning? How are we winning? How are we winning? I think guys hate dribbling up against him.

Trying to beat him off the dribble, trying to post him up. They fucking hate playing him.

He got way better as a shooter as the year went on. That's the other thing. I care about that with

all NBA that you actually got better as the year went along. He was over 40% from three second

after the year. I thought his threes were going in when he took them during that streak.

And I just thought he was their second best player and that team won 60 plus games.

So he was their second best player. And one thing you didn't say that I think is huge with

the spurs season is he's the biggest reason Bill. I think they give the Thunder a hard time aside

from the obvious victory. I mean, Yama. Yeah. He is longer and stronger than almost any of their

guards, which is insane. It's insane to even say that. That's what the Thunder are. They're just

ferocious perimeter rounds. And he gives them a personality not only to counter that,

but to supersede it in some ways. So he's one of my favorite players. If not my favorite player

in Pro Basketball right now. I love the watch. It's a treat to go to the spurs games. He's a huge

part of their team. Ultimately, his numbers don't justify his inclusion on this for me. But I'm

happy to hear the sports guy given this dude some praise. There's one other thing with him.

And it's it's a weird. We have no stat for it. It's a you know, when you see it, he's really

malleable with their lineups. And like the best guy ever for this was John Habitchek a million

years ago. John Habitchek could be a guard or a forward depending on who else was on your team.

It's like we actually have more forwards now. You can be a guard like cool. Now we're a little

light on forwards. Can you play up? Sure. Can you guard this guy? Great. Can you guard this guy over

here? Awesome. Can you fit in? And I think that Swiss Army knife thing with swing men are really hard

to find. And one of the things I love about Castle is like he can be an any line up they have.

You want to go four guards? Cool. Play him at the fucking four. You want to play point guard for

you and handle the ball like he can do that. Like I think when you have a guy like that,

it just becomes so much easier to be good. That team is really good. But like his flexibility,

I thought was the second biggest reason that they were as good as they were.

Pick a line up. Pick a situation he could handle it. It's a great point because he can blend

scoring the ball, driving it. He's so ferocious with two feet in the paint. He's a great pastor.

He has these turnover issues that I'm sure he's going to get past because he's just so determined.

But he does have turnover red flags. The shooting has come along. But I have the stat that

Stefan Castle is the seventh player in NBA history to average 15.7 assists and five rebounds at age

21 or younger. So this might not help him for all NBA. But the guys are magic, LeBron,

Chris Paul. And then there's a couple funny ones. Ben Simmons, whatever happened to that guy.

Oh man. Luca Donchic, Lamello Ball, and then Stefan Castle. So his blending filling up the

box score as a guard with those kinds of numbers. Obviously he's physical enough to get boards,

get extra possessions. He's a big part of the Spurs culture. And I think even more so than

Wembee gives them a toughness with the other teams in the West. I adore the player. I think

that's coming through. I know Zach loves this player as much as I do and you do too.

So I hope he gets third team all NBA is a homer. But as an analyst, I ended up with a different

answer there. So Scotty Barnes, 18, 7 and 6, 50% shooting but couldn't hit three. It was down

to 30 by the end of the year. Did a lot of stuff for them. They ended up with a five seed.

Now the five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10 were all like two wins apart. And Toronto, I think,

was 500 the last 60 games. It's not like this was an awesome team. But he was the key guy in the team

did the most. Defensively, I don't know if I haven't been first team but he was right on the

fringe. I think I put him second team all day. And you know, versus putting two guys from the same

team versus having a guy who is number a number five seed who's their best player. I'm okay with it.

It's hard for me to wrap my head around him being a third team all NBA guy. But the only other

one I was looking at was Obdia. And you know, he barely hit the minimum. He's 24, 7 and 7. I just

couldn't get there with Obdia. I didn't think the team was Toronto's team was better than Portland's

team. And that's I don't know. The winning piece matters to me at least a little bit.

That's how I derived that some of these tough decisions too is, you know, show me when,

show me what you did in the standings to some extent and in the Western conference. So Shen

Goon for me is like, yeah, the West is a harder thing to win in. You know, it is really thin.

I looked at Denny too and hats off to him. What a what a what an incredible most improved player case he

has. Yeah. I did not see this coming with him as an attacker learning the dark arts of foul

baiting as well as almost any other player is age in the league. For me, just can't shoot it well

enough to justify that. I'd like to see him get Portland to a next level. And I could see him

doing that next year. Credit to him. If this continues, he's clearly gotten all NBA future.

If he continues to improve like you do this year. Yeah. The problem, I think there were two

and 16 against the top three teams in both conferences. I got to sweat by the Celtics and they got

swept by the next. That's where that's where the all NBA like voting him on. It's the one I might

change by mine. Before we have to end in the ballots, but right now that's who I have. I didn't

consider towns. I have the it's it would be funny. We're taping this before the playing game today,

but funny the playing games swung any of this stuff mentally, even though it's not supposed to.

I couldn't get there with towns. So he was 20 and 12. 50% shooting. That's good. I just I couldn't

get there because it just he's a lot. He's just a lot in the game. There's games where you're just

like, wow, what the fuck is wrong with this guy? Yeah. And I just I couldn't totally get there.

I thought about him for the for the center spot, but I just don't think he had a case against

Errin and Chet. Yeah, I put him in that sort of front court, the vague front court position.

I think what he does statistically is really impressive. I think rebounds remain one of the more

underrated metrics in this league. Yeah. And you know, yeah, well, it's true. The Celtics really

were a rebounding juggernaut this year. It's a big part of their story. And then I think what he

does on offense, we want to doesn't have the ball just stretching out the defense is so important

for Brunson and helping the next B such an effective offense. Yeah. Cats fingerprints are on that.

That put me there. But again, this is a team that's in the top half of their bracket. A third seed.

That means a lot to me. And so I had cat there. Okay.

Uh, ineligible, arcade, ant, booker and LeBron, if you wanted to get crazy.

Harden is the only one who I took a look at. When Zach does the Zach has like 48 guys.

And he's down looking at like all of the hornets and he loses his mind. I don't go that far.

Harden

that traded mid season. That's a tough one. I thought he made the calves worse defensively.

Like almost overnight. Like they just dropped down a 15th, 16th defensively. I just couldn't get

there. All right. So that's what we go. So my my all NBA right now with No Luca is Yokech,

Wembe SGA, Jalen Mitchell, Durin, Kauai, KD, Murray and Brunson. And then Chet, Jalen Johnson,

Castle, Maxi and Barnes. Um, that we didn't talk about Jalen Johnson. That was another one like

figuring out second team, third team, Maabe with me. Um, he was 23, 10 and eight. Yeah.

Ended games. I just I'm not he he's not there. And I they really kind of needed CJ to be the guy.

And then Alexander Walker when he's hot. And yeah. So it's it's almost like he's the overqualified

third banana on that team. Sometimes he's doing a lot. But I don't I didn't just didn't feel like

he was one of had a case for being one of the 10 best players in the league, even with all the

injuries seemed like a lot for him. No, if the season started in January, maybe because the

hot day would go ahead since then, but it didn't. And you're right about the CJ stuff. And,

and you know, I'm a big hawk supporter. But when they play a good team down the stretch,

it is too much CJ. And I'm worried about that in the playoffs. And that's got that's got a

day. Jalen Johnson a little bit. And then Maxi was first first a minute per game,

fifth and points, fourth and steals 28, four and seven. And if you just want to have a second

team of all guards, he makes it probably bumps. You don't want to care about a center. Okay.

Quick break. And then we'll do coach the other. Did you know about one and three people with

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is everything you need to win. Visit HubSpot.com to learn more. Coach of the year is between

Missoula and Bikerstaff. Who did you have as your third guy in this? I put Mitch Johnson right there,

maybe even with JB Bikerstaff. I'm a big believer in what Mitch and that staff was able to do this

year to help the team go from a tanking team to what was their overrunner? I mean to put your

spot 42 and a half. Yeah. 42 and a half to a 60 win team, Bill Simmons. Yeah.

We went something, again, that's one of the things that matters to me for this category coach of

the year is what did we expect from you in October and where did you end up in April? And so

Mitch Johnson has a very impressive answer to those questions. And so he's clearly in this conversation

for me. He was for me. Well, I thought there were four choices for this.

I have Mitch Johnson as well. I had Jordan out for a while. Yeah. And I feel bad. I wish I kind of

wish we could have four choices for this just in general. I don't know why they limited to three.

I think that's that's weird. You know what? That's a really good point. I never thought about

this amount coach more for the year. But it's really good coaches. If we actually go 15 deep for

Olympia and 5 deep for for rookie and and what are 10 deep for rookie. Why can't we do 5 deep for coach?

I don't know. The sun's finished 45 and 37. I thought they were very well coached.

But Mitch Johnson, I mean, they were the best team in the league for four months. Nobody saw that

coming. I thought he did a really good job managing everybody's minutes. Not playing people too much,

figuring out different lineups. So I had them third. I have Missoula first and Bicker Staff second.

And I switched on this a bunch of times and I see the case for Bicker Staff. I just thought when

when they won all those games without Cade, that was nuts. It was like, holy shit, you don't have a

single guy who I completely trust to create a shot. How are you still winning? The Missoula

things nuts. They were over under was 42 and they went 56 and 26. The team played hard. I think

they took maybe three games off out of the 82. The thing that impressed me the most is how they brought

Tatum back into it. And I think that's what pushed it for me. The fact that they won 56 games but

also brought this star back that upsetting anything that they had just built over the last four

months. I thought he had the hardest coaching job in the league of any successful team by far.

I don't think it's a question. And then ironically that game 82 was like a perfect example of why

they should win. The team is just wired a certain way. And he's the most important. It's not,

I said this on it any. It's not Jalen's team or Jason's team. It's Missoula's team. That's

everything they do is based on the fact that he's just a competitive psycho in a good way. So I

haven't first that bigger staff second. I feel bad but I just think that's the way it has to go.

I don't think it's close. I mean, I agree with what you said about bigger staff. I remember I was

on Zach show when the morning that we found out that the Cade had the lung injury. And we were like,

oh, or the Celtics going to catch him. And it was like a realistic possibility. I'm looking at

their schedule. I was like, well, if you look at these numbers without Cade, they haven't been very.

It was a really good stretch without Cade and bigger staff deserve some flowers for that. However,

this is exactly what Joe Missoula did from October to March. The whole stretch,

he did that. And he turned the main red claws into a fucking juggernaut. And it was impressive.

And like I've compared, I think on your show before it reminds me of the pop 2010 spurs when

we're load managing Manu and Tony and Kauai. And it's all of a sudden it's Boris D'Yong,

Gary Neal and Danny Green out there beating anybody. They have that Baylor Shireman who go,

that whole team has no business where they ended up. And to me, it's the most impressive coaching

job. And one other point I want to get to you, right? Nobody talks about Brad as much as they

should. But it reminds me of Brad Stevens, the Butler coach, like the mid major, the two

funier shoulder mid major guy. How he's able to turn these guys, find these guys, these,

to extend the college analogy, he takes a three star recruit and turns them into a player that

can beat Duke or North Carolina or Florida in a tournament game. That's what it feels like to me.

So like I feel like his college coaching and his player development era has come to life here.

But ultimately it is Joe Mizzoulu's job to get those lineups out there to make this a really

competent two way juggernaut with players that nobody thought could do that six months ago.

Yeah, and also losing assignments basically, it basically turns assignments in the Tatum,

but they only have two guards. And he's got to really manage those minutes. And when there's

the nights when Tatum War Brown was sitting out and then you're basically just hoping you can get

35 to 30, 35 minutes from each guard and 36 from Tatum. And then you're hoping Baylor Shireman

can run something the offense like that. Like some of the shit that was going down is crazy.

The other crazy thing about the Celtics season, I really thought they should have one more than 56

games. But if you just look at Denver was the other team like this, dumb games, you should go

50, 50 on dumb games, right? Like, whoa, that was a dumb win. I can't believe we stole that versus,

oh, I can't believe we blew that. Denver was like four and 16 in those games. Like they,

yeah, they always seem to lose games. They should have won. And the Celtics, there's a bunch of them

where there was a couple like end of the game, Rug got pulled out of them, stupid losses.

They had I think two to Philly. There was the road games against San Antonio, no KC where weird

shit happened. Both games that I felt like they could have. So anyway, I actually thought they

could have done even better than 56, which is nice. Yeah. You talk about it being a Mizzoula

team. I love that take. And to me, we talk about culture way too much now in the NBA. It's become

a cliche. Yeah. But when you look at how this story started, why your team ended up hiring

Joe Mizzoula and when and that story that turned out to be, yeah. Yeah. And now it's like,

that's the coach of the year. What a story that is. But ultimately, like I said, Bill,

this team has his personality as one of the strangest sort of most aggro, competitive,

unique personalities I've ever seen. I had coached in this league have. And it works. It is

contagious in the locker room. And my favorite moment of game 82. And you already talked about this

a little bit on your show with legs or maybe it was that, but that ATO just to drop that two for

one where it's it guards the cars are using from 27 feet. And I know that was the play. And

that's an insane play. And it works. And it was one of those guys who nobody thought would make a

meaningful shot this entire season. And it was just a great moment. And it comes from the mind

of Joe Mizzoula. Incredible coached job. And a little bit of revenge for him because I think he

was really upset with the Nick series and those two games and just, you know, I think he was

in the workshop defensive player of the year. Wemby's going to win everyone's pick.

Top five's interesting. So I'll just give you my you won't be surprised to know I am not a

I'm putting five centers on my first team defensive team. I'm just not doing that. I will do

maximum two. I still want each I still want the guards to be represented a little and a swing.

So we both had Wemby and Chad I'm guessing. Yeah. Did we both have a Sar Thompson?

No, I put both Thompson's on the second team. Okay. Alright, I'll tell you my I had Wemby and

Chad. I had a Sar Thompson. I had Castle. And I had Case on Wallace who I thought was the most

devastating defensive guard I saw all year. I could not believe what a nightmare he was.

And I actually think they're going to have to get rid of Dort so he can play more next season

would be my guess with what they're going to do. But that to me, Wallace was the best defensive guard.

I thought a Sar Thompson was the best swing and I thought Castle was the best

kind of back and forth like attitude swing and then Wemby and Chad were the two centers.

So who'd you have? Well, I have three centers. I look at it the other way.

Centers are by far the most important defenders in the sport. So I put three on here.

Three legendary defenders in my opinion. Wemby who is on another level, Chad who second best

defender in the league right now. And then Rudy Gobert who's won defensive player of the year

so many times. So you know, I know that's not the sexiest pick. But then I add two perimeter players

because I also value that. I don't want to over index on guys who just protect the rim.

I put Dyson Daniels on there who you talk about a nightmare is a walking deflection and steel.

And somebody who I bet Jalen Brunson is going to be very sick of seeing here in a couple

weeks. I can't wait to watch him in the playoffs. And then Derek White spurs great. But also single

handily one of the best shot blocking guards at that position. It always seems to be in the right

place on defense might not be the athlete. Obviously that the Thompson's or Stefan Castle.

Is but Derek is just the headiest perimeter defender and one of the most effective in the league.

So I end up Wemby, Chad, Gobert, Derek White, Dyson Daniels.

Interesting. I had white on my second team. I'd go bear on my second team. I had on

and Thompson on my second team. I have in a nobi on my second team. And I put Scotty Barnes.

I did not put bam. Bam was the toughest cut for me. And I also did not have Dyson Daniels on

either team. Only because I thought as you made the case. I also feel like teams were pretty easily

scoring on it. Land all year. And it was the same reason I left Bam off. You're one of the

10 best defensive players in the league at a key position. But everybody seems like they can go

for 130 on your team. So I have to reward that. Gobert definitely. It's just tough to not come off.

But in a nobi was the guy that I really thought was really jumped out to me a couple games this

year. There's just nobody really. Zach and I talked about him a little Sunday. His size,

physicality and just his style is so unique that if I was a six foot eight score. I think

out of anybody he'd be the guy I wouldn't want to see. He's so important for them.

You mentioned this earlier. We still have time to submit our ballots. I do not have OG. And now

I'm questioning that. So did you have for a second team? So I both Thompson bros. I do have bam.

I have your guy, Kason Wallace. And then I have Steph Castle. So that's guard heavy. I love it.

OG though. Your convincing may do. I think OG is so important to guarding the exact type of players.

Like Boston, right? Like that series last year. He's a big reason for that. He is a big reason

for the headaches that Boston they played. That's real trouble against him. He's such a big, big,

strong wing defender. Yeah. I'm trying to think if there are any other Tuppo missions for me here.

And we're good. We can move on. Rookie of the year. Oh, we're going to disagree here. I know.

I've gone. I ran in funny story. Spurs, maps game Friday night, Bill Simmons. I ran into Kelly flag.

She says hello. She says she's very interested who you're going to choose for Rookie of the year.

Did she really say that? Yeah.

It was like one of those mafia. Yeah. That's how I say, say hi to Bill for me. Yeah. Say tell Bill would. Yeah.

Listen, Kelly flag. We still love you. We still have your condo ready for 2031 when your son joins the

Celtics. I have con. And it comes down to being on a good team and all this stuff he had to do

versus flag being on a crappy team that just gave him the car keys and said make all the mistakes you want.

You're going to be awesome someday. You'll be better in game 82 than you are in game one.

Just keep plugging away and go and no mistake is bad and learn from this.

And by the end of the year, you're going to be in a good place, which he was. Yeah.

If I'm a Rookie, I would rather be in that situation.

Then the situation con was in where he was basically playing a playoff game every game from

January on because they had dug such a hole for themselves early that they, you know, they're doing

this trying to climb into the playoff picture. I think if con was on a bad team, I thought he could

have scored more than he did. And you look at the advanced metric stuff and con stuff versus flag

like flags three point shooting was bad. I think flags are better player, just like from a talent

ceiling standpoint. And I think flag has a chance to be a generational star. I don't really know

how to vote for the Rookie is my other issue with this. Am I just voting for who jumps out as

they're going to be awesome 10 years from now? Or is it am I just my just evaluate in the year?

Because if I'm evaluating the year, I've made this case a couple, a couple of pods ago, like

con had an incredible season. He led the league in threes. He rebounded, he played defense.

I felt like his gravity and all the movement he has was the key to how their offense really worked.

He played the whole year. He never got I think he played like 79 games.

And his team was, you know, we'll say we'll we're taping this before the playing game tonight. But his

team turned out to be a I thought one of the 10 best teams of the last four months of the season.

And to me, that just matters, but I'm always going to gravitate toward the winning.

Yeah, I had no idea. Khan could translate this well to the NBA let alone this well, this fast.

An incredible clay Thompson, ask catch and shoot season. And I don't say that lightly.

If you look at clay Thompson and Steph or the only people combined volume and efficiency like this.

Unlike Steph, he's doing a lot of it as a catch and shoot guy. And I'm not going to make the case

against Khan, but to context to contextualize it, I would say every opponent when they're playing

this lowly Mavericks team, their game plan was built around stopping Cooper flag.

When you played the Hornets, you have other players to deal with, specifically Lamellable.

At the end of the year, Cooper leads all rookies and scoring. He has more points for game,

more assists, more rebounds, more steals than blocks than Khan, Kanepal. He is the first rookie

Bill Simmons since Michael Jeffrey Jordan to lead his team in points, rebounds assists and steals.

He is going to be an all NBA player for an eternity. Maybe next year.

Yeah, and this shouldn't come into the discussion. But remember, this should be his freshman year

in fucking college. He reclassified. That shouldn't be a criterion. Don't get me wrong on this.

I'm fired up because I think he's just, and I appreciate how you look at the war. There is

an ambiguity here. Khan has played more meaningful minutes for a more meaningful team that I hope

makes the player higher pressure situations too is the other thing. Like we're just game to game.

He's playing teams that these are real games, whereas flags playing games are they're just

down 20 in the second quarter. Yeah. And some of its vanity. I don't want to be the guy who didn't

vote for Cooper flag in 10 years because I know where this is going to go. And so I tend to look

at it a little differently. And then the last thing I'd say is players like Wembee who are

rookie of the year were on awful teams. And we've seen this a lot. You know what I went back and

looked at that Wembee here because I remember voting for him. I went back and looked at my notes.

And he was like borderline defense of poor the year that year is looking. I had him go bear.

I had a whole thing on my notes of like it's got to be go bear. But God damn I kind of want to vote

for Wembee. And he was just way more impactful. He also average like 24, 10 and 5. And the guy

that he was competing I think he's going against chat his stats were just way better. Flagstats aren't

way better than cons. But anyway, keep going. And then Khan is is handed the ball and to 80% of his

shots are assisted right. And then for that number for for Cooper's like 45. I know, but I think

there's more there with I feel like they could have done more with Khan on that. Like I actually

kind of liked when he would get around the foul line and be physical and try to like either take

guys to the hoop or do that little pull up. I just think I just think that team had a lot of

masters to serve offensively. Whereas Dallas the bat. I respect I respect your take. And like I

said, Khan has a lot more shit to his game than I would ever expect it off the bounce,

getting rebounds, playing defense. This is not what I thought. So if you're if the award were to

find like who's the most surprising rookie. Khan's I mean, if they redraft it, Khan is probably

third. I'm still taking Dylan Harper to third or fourth. It's tough to pass Dylan Harper.

It's one of the we did this the last time you run. It's one of the great top fours we've had.

So if you switch these guys on their teams. Yeah, let's do that.

The hornets are good. That's actually like he could have fit in. It changes their style a little

bit for that not not the same kind of three point thing, but he's bringing defense rebounding.

He could probably like he'd probably phase back from the offense a little and concentrate more

in the glue guy stuff that he was so great at in his great at. And Khan would give Charles Lee like

his Jason Tatum character from his Boston era, right? Like this giant forward who can break guys

down, get you a rebound, play incredible defense. So I think and I think Khan would have had around

the same stats. I just he probably would have taken more threes. Maybe wouldn't have shot the same

percentage because they wouldn't have been as good looks most of the time. I don't I'd really hate

this because I don't even want to pick between these guys. But my my move over the years has always been

if if winning is a tiebreaker, I got to think about it. It's not a flag's fault he was on a shitty

team. But do you think we can take Michael Carter Williams rookie of the year trophy and give it to

whoever loses this year's and Tyrick Evans's that would be another one. I think VJ Edge come third.

God, I haven't even thought about that. Yes, definitely no VJ. I have to see this is the one I have

to do. Dylan Harper VJ Edge come. Have you were those the two? It's not stats wise. That's not

close. But Dylan Harper, you know, was just in a different situation. So I listened to legs on

your podcast too. I thought did a great job. But yeah, he made the point. Well, Dylan Harper's

on the Wizards or whatever. He was seeing a lot more number. Yeah. So Dylan's dropped into a really

healthy environment where he's the third guard and gets those minutes. But dude, you talk about a guy

who's getting better and better and better. The case for Dylan is he's on a team that is once 60

games. He too has become a much better shooter earlier than we thought. I kind of like the most

he's out there with Castle on the cell. Wembley and a shooter. It's not going to take long before

he's the answer. I think all rookie. I had flag con VJ Harper and I had fears as my fifth guy.

Fear's, fear's played 82 games. Fear's was there the whole time. And I thought he had a couple

games this year. We were like, wow, what's going on here? Second team, I've coward Ace,

Bryant, Queen. And I guess we'll rally. I don't know. I don't even know. I'll figure out the

10th guy. But who did you have as your fifth guy in the first team? Yeah. So I think it's like the

MVP race. There's four solid guys on the first group of five. But yeah. So we go Coup, Con,

VJ Harper. And then I threw Joe Dumar's a bone and put Derek Queen there because he gave up so

much for him. You got to give him that right. Nice. Then coward fears. Ace Bailey. Your guy Hugo

Gonzales and then will Riley. So, wow. That's what I'll put us my 10th guy. Hugo.

Great. Is it Hugo or Hugo? It's Hugo, but I really want to calm Hugo.

Clutch. Clutch. I'm going SGA, Brunson and Yokeh in that order.

I have the exact same as it's SGA and then a big gap for me.

Most improved is not a battle because it's going to be Nikhil Alexander Walker unless you

haven't been watching the season 9.4 points to 21. Got better as the year went along and is just a

complete wild card threat for the playoffs now because he's an absolute heat check. He's even more

than a heat check guy. He just kind of takes over games. So I had him first. I had Durin second.

And I put Keta third and I'll make the case for it in a second. Who'd you have for your three?

I have Nikhil by leaps and bounds and then you said Durin was second. I had Durin second.

And then I put Castler because I didn't give Castel the award. And I know some people don't like

the second team second year jump thing. You might be one of those people. I'd violently oppose.

This is my least favorite Kurt Grogg's by the moment of the podcast. He should be better this year.

It's a second year. It's the fourth pick of the draft. I'm not mad at you Bill, but that's the same

thing I'm giving Jayland Durin. Like you're a lottery pick, late lottery in his case.

You're supposed to get better as you go through everything. He was going to be a 21 and 11

dominant center. I never did. I won't say I did, but the first time I saw him in person,

it was one of those like holy shit. Look at that guy moments that you get in an NBA or

he's now out of the 1990s. He's like, he looks like he's a lawns up morning or

he looks like Ben Wallace. Yeah, Ben Wallace. He's the perfect piston. I always say he's the

perfect piston. But ultimately, I think the story here is Nikhil Alexander Walker who scored

nine points a game last year for a very good team and was a stand in the corner and don't do

anything else and we'll call you and we need a three. And then Atlanta gives him a nice deal,

comes over 21 points a game on over 60% true shooting. So one of the only times in my career

as an analyst in the NBA where I've seen somebody go from nine points a game to 20 points a game

and then their efficiency jumps to like that's crazy. And for me, this is the easiest vote on

the whole ballot except for defense of player of the year. Nikhil Alexander Walker in a walk away.

Couldn't agree more. Shout out to Atlanta. Great signing. The case for Keda, you played

he, first of all, he, this is his fifth NBA season. He'd never played more than 13 minutes

a game. Yeah. He turned this year into a 10 and 8 guy over a block of game. He's played 25 minutes

a game. He's gotten better as a year went along. There's actually a little more offense.

All the advanced metrics were in protection stuff with him is really sought. He's just a good

player now. And it's something like you would watch him come in the first hit like my daughter

always loved them. She's like, why doesn't Keda play more as like, I don't know. We would watch him

and he'd be like, there's something here. Yeah. But now this is somebody that conceivable could

be playing 25 minutes a game in the finals. This was a team before the year where we're like,

well, they're losing for Zingas and Horford. Who's going to play center? I don't know.

And Tatum's out. They have no rebounding. Yeah. I guess Garza, by the way. Yeah, we lost

Corne. It's like, I guess Garza and this member Keda, I guess he's going to be there and turned

into a real guy. And you actually, these games, I've only, there was only a couple times this year

where you kind of could feel this was a guy that was on Sacramento three years ago.

Yeah. But the most part, he was awesome for what the expectations were.

And that's the key point, dude. I remember there were, this was the second apron casualty

that they dismantled this team. I thought a year ago, I was like, okay, there goes porzingis and

Horford, Luke Cornette's cast away. Tatum's out. That's their front court. That's their championship

front court. And I remember when I was looking into the Celtic season and I'll put my hand up,

I was like, this team's not going to be able to rebound. This team is not going to be able to

protect the rim. And that's where I would say Keda deserves part of this conversation.

They are now a very good rebounding team. It's part of their signatures turning mischots into

second chance points. He's the biggest reason for that. And I did not see that coming ever for

this young man. So that's off to him. And that Celtic staff for finding him and developing him.

They also, they read did, I mean, they, they, we did some strategy stuff with them. One of them was

these little handoffs at the top of the key, which became like the bread and butter there

offense that he was just better at than porzingis and Horford. And then the offensive rebound. It

was the other thing. He's just a good offensive rebounder. He's got good hands around the rim.

So you really feel it when he's in the game. Like the best version of them usually is when he's

in the game. I'll be interested to see against the Knicks. Right. There in crunch time against

towns, whether they go smaller with Tatum, I think they're saving that. And I could see Keda getting

bounced or maybe Keda getting moved to the Mitchell Robinson portion of the game where it's like

just go toe to toe with this dude and try to hold him to the standstill. We'll see. Six man.

I have Hawk as I put Keldin Johnson second and then I have a wild card at third. Who'd you have?

I only have two. I haven't figured out the third. I'll probably just steal yours. I'm a Keldin

Johnson man. I thought I get it. Culturally, he's great. The 162, the 60 games he was in most of

those games, let all players and win shares off the bench. And again, over the Miami Hawk as God,

I just had a brain fart. The more substantial contribution in the league this year off the bench

was Keldin Johnson. I battled back and forth. I don't feel great about it. But I thought,

Hawk has has basically been 15, 5 and 5 off the bench and he can't shoot threes. But when you watch,

he's pretty impactful in an old school like 1970s, 80s. He's doing weird, like kind of half post ups

or he's trying to beat guys off and he's banging into dudes. He's one of those guys.

He's one of those guys when you're watching him, you're going, could this guy have his own team?

But obviously he can't, but he'll have moments where like man, great. He played. I remember one

that drafted him. It was all, it was, this is what we knew we were getting it and they got it.

My third pick for this category and there's a million, there's a million people. The shame of it

is Pritchard should have been a six man, but he started too many games. Yeah. I went with Mammu.

Oh wow. Yeah, I'm not stealing this. You're going to have to convince me. 22 minutes of game.

He was 11 and five. He was a 52, 39, 75 guy. His advanced stats are nuts. And I test wise,

I actually thought he probably should have played more. I feel like he would, he was one of the

only bench guys I thought this season that consistently he would come into the, their bench was

the biggest reason they started out well the first month and a half. But he would come into games

and I felt like he would take over games for like two minutes. And it's, and I think like if

you're just talking about like a pure six man coming off the bench, swing a game. He did it as

well as anyone I saw this year and I couldn't come up with a, I couldn't shake that he was the

third best guy I saw do that this year. So that's what I have. Who, who, who did you have in your

possibilities? I would reach up, reach up, word, I feel like is the choice, right? But now he started

the last 10 games. I couldn't get there because I don't feel like his coach was like, I don't know if

we should play him for six months. Well, he should be fifth man of the year to piggyback on wilds

point. Right. Why don't we just have a first man, second man, third man. Reach up or should be

fifth man of the year, email if you're listening. So me was the other one. I just couldn't get there.

I don't know. It is weird because the predicament in Houston is so weird. I mean, in a world where

Freddie Van Fleet is there and Stephen Adams is there. Reed is definitely like the heat check guy

off the bench. And they didn't figure out. I think so. Yeah. All right. I don't feel great about the

mom. But I just, I don't know, the heart wants what the heart wants. The heart wants mom. All right. MVP.

Oh boy. So we have Luca four. We both have Luca four. Yeah, I have Luca clearly four.

So Luca's bounced. I am going. It's interesting because I had Donovan Mitchell first team on NBA.

Yeah. But for MVP, I'm putting Brunson fifth and Jalen Brown fourth. That's what I have. Just because

that next team for better and worse is just built around Brunson having to put a superhero

capon for the last five minutes of every game. Whereas the calves can get, I don't know. It's just

I'm basically splitting the vote with Mitchell as first to mom. Be able Brunson in my MVP belt. So

that's what I have for four and five without Luca. I have Wembee third. I have Joker second. And I

landed on SGA first and I switched SGA and Joker all weekend and really wanted to do Joker and

ultimately like the wind difference. Yeah. And how great SGA was in the clutch. Yeah.

I just felt like as you know, I love Joker and Joker is probably my favorite non-sultic in the

league other than Curry. And I just felt like I want to do this correctly. There's too much SGA

evidence. I feel like I'm not if I do Joker, it's almost like a personal pick versus like what's

the right pick. I just couldn't 100% get there. The real problem, if Joker hadn't gotten hurt,

I think I think he gets it because not only did he miss all those games, but then he came back and

he wasn't 100% when he came back and you know. And the other thing was the clutch stuff with that

team just in general, not take care of business near the end. That's kind of his job and they weren't

good enough whereas SGA like every time last three minutes, he just took care of business. And I

think his job was easier because of that team. They're so good defensively. All he asked to

worry about is basically let me just be awesome and get to the foul line. And then the last three

minutes, I'll score every point. Not an easy job. Whereas Joker was doing everything. But to not

vote for a guy who led the league and rebounds and assists and was six than points and did all the

shit he did and had the best offensive career, I don't feel good about it. I don't think anybody's

going to do this with the respect that the task deserves is going to feel good about who's third

and earn some cases who second. This is the deepest one of these I've ever thought of. We have

three legitimate candidates for MVP. We do. And we have better numbers than ever. I'll start with

four and five. I have the same Jaylen shot up to Jaylen Rose by the way, big big year for Jaylen's

on the MVP ballot. Now we have two of them on our top five. I have Joker third, which is crazy.

But again, Bill, my ladder is going to be informed a lot by how the standing's turned out, you know?

And I think that deserves respect here. And so I have Wembee second, which was hard, by the way,

not a homer pick. I wanted to put him first. Other times I wanted to put him third. And then I also

ended up with that. She I mean, he's just the team is too good. He is on as you keep pointing out so

astutely, one of the best runs we've ever seen from a guard and the history of the sports.

Yeah. Once again, here we are with a net rating over 11.

They're just the most dominant team in the NBA and he's it.

But Joker, do let me give him some flowers. I was looking at on off splits like all the nerds do

when it's time to do this exercise. Yeah. The nuggets are minus seven in net rating when he's off the floor.

Like that's that's a lottery team, Bill. They're they're they they have the statistical profile

of the Utah Jazz. No, no Gordon half the year. Yeah.

Jam Johnson not really healthy. Most of the year you lose pay in Watson.

This was like when I was thinking this weekend, whether I was going to vote for him or not.

And I was like, I'm definitely the one thing. He played 400 more minutes in Wembee. And when

Wembee skipped the last game of the year, which I just thought was really weird. That to me,

like he he put himself in the third spot because they should have tried to win that game and

get them where the fuck out of the three seed. Like what are you guys doing?

Take them out. I'm a spurs homer. I couldn't agree more. I was proplexed. So yeah, when they played

1866 minutes to share you put 29 minutes to game and he missed. I thought a fair enough

amount of games that he probably could have showed up for the 82nd one and tried not come out.

I just I didn't like that. Joker led the league in PR for his sixth straight year.

31 plus every year. Second straight triple double season. He's with will now. As I talked about

the other day with will it was fourth, first and second and fifth, first and third. So if you add

that up less than 10, Joker was eight, one and one. So 10 offensive rating, they 126 when he played.

He let the league and rebounds the cis PR and Vorp.

10.8 net. His highest usage ever, 57% shooting. Like really one of the great offensive seasons and

somehow didn't win the MVP. I can't believe it. But their record was a good enough. SGA like,

I don't know. There was a lot of close games when he just took care of business at the end.

I think that has to matter. The consistency of it. And then from some of my MVP questions,

you know, one of them is how you remember the year. One of the ways we're going to remember this year

is, OK, see, becoming a little villainy and SGA in the foul, but he liked that was a big part of

the season. Whereas for Joker, it was another great Joker year. I don't really, you know, stats.

That was good. But we're really going to remember Wembee and SGA, I think before just it was a

typically unbelievable Joker year. It didn't really stand out from the other three, I guess.

I think that's right. And I remember you doing those questions with Leglar and he was,

his knee jerk reaction was Wembee. For me, that's it to that question.

The minute thing with Wembee is really fascinating, right? Because you and I both agree on one

big thing. There's too many games. And what the spurs have to do with this dude is try to keep

him upright and get him into the playoffs. And again, I thought Miss Johnson did a great job.

Yeah. Victor Wembee and Yama is healthy. I wish they would have played him game 82, by the way.

But healthy going into these playoffs. That's the number one job in an era of calf strains and hamstring

injuries. Like just be thankful we have Wembee. So I almost don't want to ding Victor for minutes

because that's that's what's going to happen with him is whole career in the regular season.

As long as we're playing 82 games and 16 back to backs or whatever it is and the NBA cup that they

win when and played the extra game in. Well, so SGA deserves credit for having a better record,

better statistical indicators and ultimately, like you said, just the most impressive end to end

season of a high volume player in the NBA. And not having Jada for most of the air plus 16.3 net,

9.0 free throws a game made 7.9 free throws a game. Trace first clutch points 175 points first.

59 free throws in the clutch. Shout 52% feel goal in the clutch.

There's also some games where they just killed teams and he didn't really play. Actually,

I think he could have been around 33 minutes a game if some of their games have been closer.

Last four years, he's 31 a game. Last two years,

O.K.C. is 133 and 31. I think that's correct. The 31 losses.

And he's the biggest reason by far. And you know that night after night,

your guy, it's a little it's the rich man's version of what Jayland did for the Celtics.

You know, night after night, I'm getting this from my best player. At the end of the games,

I'm getting this. And I'm just and I know I have that every game.

With you throwing the win totals and the minutes, he should he should be the MVP.

And I can't believe yogurt isn't going to win though. I just can't believe it.

I was telling my students earlier, it's like if you would have told me that somebody would have

John Stockland amount of assists in Dennis Rodman, three bounds when I was growing up.

That's insane. There's just that I have nothing in common for that. You just shouldn't lead the

league in both of those categories. In fact, they're they usually happen in different parts of the

floor. Like it's crazy that he's like, I don't think we were talking about that enough.

Yeah. This has definitely got to be the best season of anybody who's ever finished third

if he finishes third. I think he's going to finish second.

But we'll see. I mean, it's for one B bill is the defensive stuff is insane.

I get it. So the Brooklyn nets are the worst shooting team in the NBA.

Okay, they're tanking their effective field goal for a sentence is 52 30th in the NBA.

When Victor Wemanyam was on the court this year, opponents had an EFG of 48 or 49 49.7.

So he essentially turns your offense into a tanking level offense just by being on the core.

I wish we had better metrics in our discourse for evaluating defensive impacts.

Because we're always citing things like points rebounds as to this triple doubles.

And that's going to favor Joker and SGA. It's really challenging us to quantify the impact of

Victor on defense because that's going to be his case for years to come. And we have to get

better. I'll take it on on as me. I have to do better to articulate his greatness on the defensive

end of what's that commercial that are like, yep. No, that's the 40 song choices. No Bay Area.

That's a Chipotle commercial. Yeah, that always makes me think of Wembee.

When the guys do the guys driving to the basket is like, nope, just jump in a dribble back out.

Now it's gotten to the point where the guys don't even consider it.

No, they're starting to move. It's like, oh, yeah, I can't do that today because we're

playing the spurs and they're just reset. If Denver had gotten, I was trying to figure out how many

wins they would have had to have for me to flip my vote. And I think it's formed.

They're 54 and 20. I think if they got in a 58 and 24, I think I would have voted for

Yoke just dumb as that sounds. 10 wins behind OKC with the same kind of season where Aaron

Gordon's out for half the year. So is J. Dubb. Yeah. Okay, so he seems obviously better. But

I just I weirdly felt like Denver should have won more games than they did. And he's got to get

dinged on that too. They finished with a 12 game winning streak. And still were on the

54 and 28. But I know that was a run and they beat the spurs in the game in the year.

Like it was that was MVP moment when I hit that fade right over Wembee. They had a stretch.

39 game stretch where they were 19 and 20. And I think that kills him. But I can't believe he's

not going to win. We'll see if he finishes second. I think SJ is going to win.

And we'll see between Wembee and Chandler Brown. All right Kurt Goldsbury.

See you soon. What's your deal of a playoff upset?

I if I had to pick an upset, I got two candidates. It's Minnesota Denver because we've seen it before.

But I think Atlanta, New York is really interesting too. If if if Atlanta can find off

fans beyond CJ McCallum. I think Denver is going to beat Minnesota. And I actually like that so

many people including myself are scared of Minnesota in the series because they've had so much success.

Yeah. I think a fun Zag is actually Denver is going to kick their ass.

Atlanta's the one I'm looking at. I wonder is there I just wish Toronto wasn't so

lousy against basically every good team. I wish everyone's just penciling Cleveland in for

that series. And I don't trust them at all because I don't think they can. I just think they give

up points to everybody. And if Toronto the question for me is I just don't think Toronto's good enough

offensive way to haunt them. But Cleveland, if Atlanta played Cleveland, I think I would have picked

Atlanta in that series. Like for real. Atlanta is Atlanta has all the makings of a team that is,

you know, if you look at the game the way I do analytically, they look like the best statistical

profile of any team that's an underdog right now in the last three months of the season with

the exception, maybe Charlotte, who will find out shortly if they're even in the tournament.

Yeah, that'll be the top of the pot in the time machine. I think Atlanta takes the next to seven

and loses because of their bench. I don't like their bench.

I think that's what the hell of a game the other night. Yeah, their bench is like just never

known at tonight. All right, Kurt Goldsbury, Pleasure as always. Thanks to Gahau and Eduardo as well.

Don't forget about Legata, our new narrative podcast, which has cocaine and Miami and Colombia

and all kinds of great stuff. You should check it out Kurt Goldsbury. New rewatch almost coming

on Monday is going to be kindergarten cop with me and Kyle Brent. And I will see you all on Thursday.

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