Beasts of the East | Ringer NBA Show

It's a special edition of the Ring or NBA show we are checking in reporting to you live from our respective locations both East Coast

I can kind of mingle and go wherever I want but you're I mean you get comments I guess living in New York

there it's a hodgepodge or probably not really if you were in Boston I don't think that would fly

Yeah, yeah, I you know I I'm struck by the versatility of this hat and the

preponderance of outfits I can wear it with which is why I'm a big fan and also my wife is from

Michigan so you got a lot up there. Yeah, you got a lot out. So you got a lot out. Yeah, Tyler Parker

and I were talking about the other day the piston's hat I think it's just the the the calligraphy kind of

thing. I don't know what style you would call that but you know I'm a I'm a dilla fan so there's

also that going on you know I go there you go beautiful. Dilla's the great big guy that's that's

probably at the heart of why I wear it anyway guys it's a slow time of the year. We were talking about

what's going on news wise. You know, Jaylen Brown has a presser today and I was asking Pino is

like is it because he's he's announced that he's open to love that was the biggest story just to

to speak to how slow it is. We got some outstanding signings that haven't happened but he finally

goes on record and outs himself as a six or now that the dust has settled but other than that it's

been what I mean have you been crunching tape what are you doing with your with your slow time Pino

you being a father what's up. I am being a father that's a good call have two small children

so that is taking up a lot of time reading books books are a huge part of my life in August so I try

to absorb as much information that is non NBA related as I can in this in this brief little window

of the calendar we have here where the schedule is nice and and slow but besides that yeah it's

it's just easy living. Yeah easy living right now. Yeah my son started kindergarten this morning

and I will move on from family stuff because I know people are their eyes are glazing over but way

harder than I thought I'm just going to say any parents that are approaching that that that I

look took some footage of it and started to review it a little bit and I was just like nope

can't watch that absolutely not yeah now that yeah that was that was rough it was it was tough so

what we're going to be doing today is we're going to be doing some power ranking you know this is

a very ringer thing that we love to power rank. What's the essence of the power rank versus the rank

I don't it's not results based right you can like skirt results in the power rank you can just say

this is the vibe you can kind of like just ascribe any kind of quality to your methodology that you

want right you can it's it's it's alchemy versus science wouldn't you say I think that's right a lot

of vibe influence we're basically going off of like no data or information here because we are

projecting exactly and the what we are power ranking the the Eastern conference is highly volatile

and super unpredictable right now so we're just kind of flying by the seat of our pants on this

bud. What did this when you sat down initially to look at this group of teams I mean I kind of you

know did the first step of like let's just see the results from last year in general that do you

think that this is going to be like a normal year to year like board shuffle compare like the way

that this based on your own expectations because I sat down and I was you know last year I kept

calling last year the bowgumpt season because all the other boats had sunk so basically there we

got some results that we had crazy injuries you know y'allness mis time obviously we had you know

Tatum mis time Halliburton's out for the whole season we're not talking about you know small

small potatoes players who are missing time these are guys that really really affect the results

I mean when you when you sat down to kind of look at what it looked like last year to what it

looked like this year just as a as a teaser before we get going were you surprised at how how much

movement there was you said volatile yeah I mean we're gonna go through this and I think that some

of the teams where I put them on my list will surprise people because I think that there's just a

lot of really good quality basketball teams and I'm really interested to see how these new pieces

fit and there's just so much talent and a lot of big names moved east and we should say that we

are going to be ranking these teams under the assumption that koai Leonard is going to be on the

Toronto Raptors this season hope to God that is the case and the big detail yeah no small detail

that hurt the gut yeah so there's just a lot of talent in the east and everybody's like healthy

as you said like the tyris halibutans back Jason tatem's back and we have the champion or the

New York nicks and they basically kept their team together so it's just going to be a lot of fun I

think very surprising yeah yeah yeah we get you know when you said superstars obviously the headline

there is Julius Randall comes to the to the Brooklyn S2 are you know they're the he's the main

guy that migrated I just wanted to point that out let's get well that's a good segue in so let's

start at number 15 um who's your who's your number 15 team Mike I have the Milwaukee bucks

okay okay yeah I think this team is uh I think Zach or Rob said um earlier this year that this

roster was just a lot of dudes and I haven't been able to get that description out of my head it's

perfect there's like a decent amount of actual talent here um not one but two former six men of

the year award winners and Tyler hero and Jaime hakez um I like Taylor Jenkins as a head coach and

he will do his best to win basketball games and implement a a cogent style of play but I it's just

some arrests I just don't um who's handling the ball on this team on a consistent basis how is

their defense going to function what is the depth they just lost y'all in a sentence a couple it's

like yeah so replacing that is it's just gonna be it's gonna be a tough year yeah it's pretty

existential in the in the looking in the broader sense for them just kind of zooming forward and seeing

where they're going like where what direction is this headed and usually that's dictated by the

things you're talking about like the you they didn't get a primary back that moved the needle like

y'all know so they don't so they don't and the the assets you know brain buries had a good

summer league and things like that but I was looking at this roster and I was just like who's

starting at one I mean I assume Ryan Rollins is gonna move to the bench I mean I I could see

buries moving up in the rotation um at the three you just zoom it be hakez Kaleuweer miles turn

to could play together potentially you weren't initially a Kaleuweer fan right did you come around

on him at all out there I want to spend a ton of time on Kaleuweer he's he's okay um definitely not

the like prize in a y'allness trade good I don't see that um in his future I don't think he'll make

any all-star teams or anything like that but I guess like just from an intrigue standpoint yeah

watching him potentially share the floor with miles turner is two three point shooting pseudo three

point shooting big men who can also protect the rim like that's that could be something I guess

I will watch and laugh I'm trying to I'm trying to think of like big guy combos across the

league because it isn't typically you don't typically see for as much as we talk about like room

protectors that can shoot threes there really aren't a ton of them and it's like I'm trying to

think of guys who for true because turner obviously is not the room protector that he was but what

wear is kind of they're similar archetypical players right I think I think we're in turn or are

and that that like when they're younger they're had a lot of upside promise as room protectors I don't

know that there's a player combination like that I'm trying to think across the league is there a

a tandem that's similar to those two dudes because neither one of them being superstars but both

are pretty good it's like a high reasonably good floor not super high ceiling combo but there aren't

there aren't a ton of tenem's out there like those two guys I don't think no I'm trying like

scouring the league in my head and I I have I've got nothing um like a star actually would be

another one similar one I guess right yeah if AD could shoot that could be something uh so yeah

it's it's it's tricky I mean yeah there's really it's very unique it's a singular combination

I don't even think they'll play I can't really actually see them playing together a ton but who knows

they yeah it's it's it's also a situation where I put them at the bottom because a lot of teams

are trying to win obviously because we change the incentive with the lottery but this team is in

a situation where they should still be just selling off parts and I don't believe that they

have access to their traffic anyway so it doesn't matter so um yeah I think they'll be very bad

for each team I wanted to do something where we do I wanted to say year to year movement which

is basically just like stock up stock down or push I would you say this is uh this where would you

say their stock went year to year the box before we move on uh they were terrible last year um

and I would still say stock down I think that this is just like the most one of the more depressing

situations in the league right now yeah it's it is pretty rough we should also note you know that

they they got Casper as Yacchonis and that deal they drafted Nate Aement who it's it's a lot of

hypothetical it's funny that you said it's funny that you you you like that description of there

it's a bunch of dudes but no dudes you know it's like yeah exactly in fastest of the dude really makes

a big difference there uh I didn't have them at the at 15 I actually had the Brooklyn nets at at 15

because it's you might be you might be correct and ahead of me on this when you're thinking

or just more dialed in because when I was looking at them I was just I don't really know where

the direction is here I could see the Yegor Mikel Brown combo being fun but I could also see

it being an absolute disaster I could see Julius Randall and Michael Porter Jr being one of the more

just maddening forward combinations in the league like individually you can kind of tolerate

them it's first granted Porter played pretty well this past year I don't want to get too far ahead

of myself here uh who uh where do you have the nets are they where who's who's your 14 we'll just do

that I well I have the nets do you want me to tell you where the nets well just tell me who your

14 is let's just follow your okay okay okay 14 I have the chic I have the Chicago Bulls okay me

too I do too um I may be naive it feels like the dawn of a new day in Chicago uh it has a new

general manager and Bryson Graham it has a new franchise player hopefully um and guiding light

in Caleb Wilson and I you know I like some of the talent here in terms of just how it compliments

itself uh more so this year than last year uh norm powell is awesome and if he's still on the team

for the whole year that would be cool uh Nick claxson I I think is a okay player if surrounded by the

right type of ball handling and playmaking um and I think Josh Gidey can can provide some of that

and I think buzelis kind of shifting down into like you can be like our one B or number two

franchise player where I think there was a little bit too much on him last season uh it's kind

of perfect for him so fun team and brighter future much brighter future than I thought I would be

saying uh this time last year uh but still gonna be pretty bad yeah pretty fun balance of I think

this is going to be one of the most like lanky explosive teams in the east also could be one of

the most like really really crazily spatially challenged teams in the east if uh if you consider

I was gonna ask you you you mentioned norm powell um I mean Josh Gidey was obviously a big move

that they went and made and you know sending out out screws so they go get Josh Gidey um do you

think is is powell the the biggest candidate on this team to not be on the team at the deadline

or do you think that there's a chance that Gidey could be a guy that they pivot away from

I think norm powell's contract was like signed to trade that was the intent he makes no sense in

Chicago by their own admission they're at the bottom of a rebuild exorcisms take time uh so

if I was him if if I was him I would you know I my intent was to sign this and get minutes

get a lot of shots I made the all-star team last year if I'm norm powell that's great and you

know lead the team in scoring probably and then move on to greener pastures at the trade deadline

I think that that is in everybody's best interest I wonder is the is the east the most likely the

most likely bedfellow for a trade like that do you think that there's a team that that is I'm

trying to think of scoring punch because I thought Detroit was the team that made the most sense

I know we'll get to Detroit in terms of the board shifting they're one of the more interesting

teams for this exercise but I'm trying to think of the the most alluring candidates that could use

a norm powell who at this point I mean how would you describe his game I mean it's it's kind of

he's sort of like an overqualified bucket getter who I'm not going to like depend on to run offense

but he's also credible you know because he's not in that six-man category where it's like you're

pursuit of your own offense is so constant that it's destructive you know he still has that

credibility 100 percent we can lean on this guy he's a guy whose game to me scales up scales down

don't have to run any actions for him but we can and we'll get good stuff out of it like just

run him out of the corner off a screen into a dribble handoff and he's going to make a play at the

rim or he can pull up and he's one of the better movement shooters in the league so I think he's

just really beneficial and and portable and easy to fit anywhere and I don't I don't know he's kind

of been banged up a little bit the past couple years and he's getting up there in age so that could

be a little bit of a concern but the contract is is perfectly digestible for whoever wants to take

him on so I just yeah I think he could get traded to any contender pseudo contender aspiring contender

and fit right in you know what's interesting is looking at I mean honestly the heat could have

used him but I guess they have like a pretty poor person we have him in Tim Bordeaux but

but the an interesting one would be a return to the Raptors because I I could see him helping them

that's it's we can get into their their needs and things like that but just looking down through

here the teams that are close I mean that could could use some of what he provides you have the

pistons I could see the Raptors the two main ones that that kind of jumped to mind if he stays in

the east yeah I mean everybody needs shooting and everybody needs players who don't need the ball

but can still impact the game positively without it so those two teams are are great candidates to

take him on and anyone who again is willing to pay that what is he 21 and a half million dollars

or something but it's like a team option in the second year great contract the Bruce Brown Jr.

special um any team would would would be happy to have him like the Pacers he'd be a great fit

on the Pacers too yeah yeah yeah well um in summer league I mean was that your first exposure to

the Caleb Wilson experience did you have YouTube diving going going in or what was your what was your

reaction to him my first reaction was when he was on UNC because someone told me he was

like Kevin Garnett who is my favorite player of all time and so I was like okay cool let's check

this out I thought it was he was fun I big long cares about defense energetic that was great and then

seeing him go what was it seven for eleven in that summer league game and I was like okay this is

this is good stuff uh so I I I would not have taken him like first overall or anything

but he was my like favorite player coming into this draft yeah that I was I was definitely more in

the in the Garnettie kind of kimp like that right that area where the the ball skills are are there

in like very controlled doses like if he's in that you know said these things on draft related

shows over the course of the year but just if he's in a one to two dribble situation from the mid-range

it's like he can do some incredible stuff but if he gets to the point where he's in the teeth of

the defense and he's having to like make a decision and see more than one defender at a time it's

like I'm we're not quite ready for that so like watching him and some really it's like I think we're

gonna see a lot of highs and lows like if they hypothetically do get off of giddy or they and they

start to lean on him or just lean into being bad you know I think the ups and the downs of him being

absolutely unbelievable athletic can do all these different things and then a total disaster on

some nights where he had he's gonna have some nights where he has like eight turnovers and you know

goes over six from three and stuff like I think that stuff's gonna happen but yeah they are still

gonna be it's funny because it's like you you go into this season as the as the bulls in the

in the past knowing the history of their front office and stuff just the being bad was a lot less

digestible because you you're like you don't trust the people who are laying down the the train

tracks in front of you and yeah it's kind of it's it's a refresh to the point where if they're bad

this year it's gonna be like a lot more carefree than in the past and it was never their intent to be

bad which was always the worst question when you're knowing yeah it's like it's amperesties like

we're gonna be bad you're like okay and then they got out of it but that was you know that was a

little bit different with the yeah exactly administration yeah all right who's your who's your

number 13 team uh this may surprise you um I have the Washington Wizards at 13 okay okay um yeah go

ahead I you know we're talking about vibes right um I see the talent here of course uh I just have

a hard time disentangling that talent from just how stupid it's been compiled you don't even like I

think that this I have no idea what this team is doing I have no idea how many voices are in the

front office it seems like there's 35 people and they're all screaming and just yelling out names

and we're gonna offer this guy like like why is Chris Middleton here I don't I don't get it I don't

I don't I don't understand um I never got the Anthony Davis trade in the first place and I I

bet if you gave truth serum to people in that organization they would say we would not have done

that if we knew we were getting the number one overall pick um and then you have tray young is here

who got the worst contract in the summer from Washington is absolutely mind numbingly dumb and

so I have a just a hard time separating like how everything came together with what this will

actually look as a basketball team and I might be selling them short to be fair because of just how

upsetting they are it's funny because like I've written down I didn't do it for all the

teams but I kind of wrote down I've tears of the of each team and you know this is my first team

that I was like they would beat so we have like title contenders conference contenders scrappy in a

series those are the tears and then I made a tear just for the wizards that would be called

tickled to just be in a series that's their team drop that they're in and one of the one of the

questions that I well I'll do I wrote down a synopsis for them and on paper tiger of a roster with

a cross section of promising prospects parentheses including the recent number one pick and transient

distressed high level stars that could converge into something entertaining or dangerous uh yes and

then my first question that I was going to ask you you already answered which is why is Chris Middleton

here uh so we were on the same we were saying we were the same lockstep there um it's I kind of

worry about this because you're right like if the games were just being played on paper if we

were displaying NBA live or NBA 2k whatever it is and we were going out there with just the talent

we were controlling the brain and the spirit of this team yeah you would think you'd be able to

take it somewhere good but it's like you look at the way that AJ DeBonza projects to develop it's

a little different than Caleb where I kind of feel like he's going to really want to be the high

primary high usage player in your one and I think he deserves to have that runway as a player

just throwing him in there with and and I think it expands beyond AJ because you've had guys like

Bob you've had guys like you know Keishan George I think it's shown a lot of promise and when you're

projecting their starting lineup and when I was like doing their depth chart I was like man a lot

of these guys got pushed back in a way in a way where it's like they've imported veteran voices

you know tray trays coming in and I know he's eager to be you know he's calling guys on draft night

he's you know wanting to be the the mentor and things like that if you look at tray's history

I know you've been a big tray fan in the past I don't we haven't done a status report on that

in a while but several years you it's gonna say you used to really love to joke with me about him

spanking Darius Garland but because I was a big Garland fan but I'm I'm just kind of wonder about

how eager these guys are to be pupils to Anthony Davis and Trey Young because as successful as

80 has been not doesn't have a history of like I don't know how are you feeling about that convergence

of the youth movement on this team and these and these guys that are coming in none of it makes sense

man it just doesn't make sense like Trey Johnson is another really interesting for I mean I

thought he was in what I saw in Summer League took a notable step forward and I don't know in his

you know development since the first time I saw him play basketball in the NBA um such as another

guy but yeah there's a lot of there's not a lot of minutes going around for I know Sarbrook is

foot so then they get Deandre Aiton in another name who's just here that's we haven't even mentioned

that's another that that will be a voice would you want him to be he's gonna be a voice in the

lot 100% 100% he's playing for a new contract so it's like I don't even think about that that's

an added force it's it's a true headache and so I I just think that this could be a nightmare and I

could see Trey getting hurt I could see definitely a D getting hurt and then what you have is a very

young team that's like supposed to be bad in an organic way that is fine and I just think they tried

to unnaturally rush the process here in terms of building something with their core and

if they again if they would have known that they had the number one pick which I don't know like

they did lose like every game on purpose so it was their intent down the stretch to get the number

one pick um but I think if they knew that they that they had been rewarded with it that they

would have never made these trades that just don't make a lot of sense and eight out and it up

eating up all their cap space this summer as well yeah I was thinking one one advantage that

they do have is because saw in 80 like neither one of them want to play center they could just lie

and say the other person is playing center so they could just kind of do a little feedback loop of

of deception yeah yeah I it would it would have been more fun to just watch this team be organically

at just adding AJ to this group I think it was interesting enough on its own you know I guess

you're hedging or you're just sort of like being a weighing station for these these contracts but

um I don't know maybe maybe they'll prove us wrong and they'll be their year to year movement I

head down as better um but will it will the other question I had is will their starting lineup be

their best lineup was another question that I asked there I don't I don't know if it

hypothetically it is the idea of AD and tray is sort of an NBA jam you know template is fun yeah but

they they do they will have a lot of kind of secondary lineups they're going to be I thought

will Riley I've kind of touted him here and there too I know we're lingering the wizards here but I

think he's shown a lot of promise you said tray tray handled as business at summer league in a way

where it's just like bup bup got in got out did well um but I like Riley um yeah the the it's just

it's a weird veteran convergence with the with the ascending talent that they have so yeah I'm

looking at the depth chart I couldn't tell you what their starting lineup is going to be I I

think it's that's a tough one to kind of project um I just see it's key Sean and

Trey and then the bonds at the three and then Sard Davis I would assume but they I guess they

I would assume stars are going to start yeah maybe I that your spacing is like kind of F'd if you

with that look but um again like I don't know what the stakes are here I don't really understand

why there's such a a pressure to um win right now and be relevant and I just

think that if they were a little bit more patient things would have kind of worked out for them

finally which they kind of never have for the Washington Wizards but getting to Bonsa is amazing so

yeah uh yeah Bonsa Bonsa gives me big Tatum kind of vibes I said that to Bill recently I just kind

of think people like when they were thinking about his comp I was like I feel like we might just

be overthinking it it's like guy that has playmaking development that he needs to do but he's kind of

a born score or he's not he's a up and down shooter things like that anyway reminds me of Tatum uh

so I think that leaves us at number 12 I had the Wizards at 12 okay who do you have it who do you

have at number 12 I have the nets okay um I actually higher than the Wizards is pretty interesting

you really think that's going to be a disaster that's having the nets here really compounds it yeah

I think the nets I I think Jordy Fernandez is like my dark dark dark dark dark horse head coach of the

year candidate um I think the expectations for this team are obviously like they will be the worst

team in the Eastern conference or one of uh I thought that what he did last year with Michael

Porter Jr. turning him into someone who should have made the all-star team was a kind of amazing

um without like bending MPJ's game in any way just kind of accentuating him in a way that was

like really beneficial to the team as well um and I think that Julius Randall who I would have

not traded for Julius Randall if I was the Brooklyn nets and doing so really confused me but

he's kind of like in a perfect space he's like the primary score on a spunky but

fatally flawed team like that's his basketball destiny to me like I know the fact that he was on

the Minnesota timber wolves um just never never sat right with me I think that there's like a cap

on how good you can be if he is taking a lot of shots and getting a lot of touches in your offense

so I think for a team that has no stakes whatsoever that no one thinks can do anything um he's kind

of perfect uh and I am also a Yegor Jemmian believer and he's just okay yeah I think last year like

the way he was able to play off the ball and really show he could shoot was huge for how they view

him and um his career frankly because I don't know if he's ever going to be like a primary

on ball playmaker uh at a high usage so having him you know they ran stuff for him also

um because he's got really good size they ran a ton of stuff for him you know uh off ball actions

just to try to get shots up and it worked for the most part I mean he had a stretch where he was

like historically great behind the three-point line as a rookie so I I think there's like young

interesting talent here and I just have a lot of respect for the coaching staff I think that

Jordy Fernandez is incredible um so so yeah that's you know 12th in the east good stuff yeah

I had them at the bottom but I mean I do have some guys that I like I mean yeah like you said uh

obviously the staff is good I mean they they went out and they you know they add Michael Brown we

should mention that that was there that was their big haul in the in the draft you were not that

was not your guy right from what it's been listening to it's it's one of those I like him but not

at a certain spot I've questions about him being efficient just his I wondered about

the bookings of his game I've brought up I've brought up Kianta George and Anthony Simon's

granted Kianta's kind of started to answer some of those questions in terms of his paint production

which really unlocked a lot of things if Michael starts to you know answer those questions about

his like poise in the within the teeth of the defense and you know getting the line and things

like that like that'll open up his game and he'll put me wrong in short order which had

happened in the past but I think Yegore Yegore had similar problems like I think you you pointed it

out where um coming in it was like Yegore could just he was one of the most brilliant like basketball

minds in that class in terms of as a processor like he reads were just like yon boring to him because

he could he could just do it all um yeah but it was a quite he he still has to answer the questions of

if he's not has to answer the questions of like room pressure and can he get to the basket and

things like that can he score then the conversation will really change for him if he does start to do

that but the shooting was huge like you said um and for for now that's enough for him to kind of ride

and be like he's probably I've compared him to like Sean Livingston in the past like where it's

like this guy's probably not going to be our high high usage guy that we like run everything through

but he's so smart that we can put him next to a star player yeah maybe that's my kill maybe

you know for if you have guys like Julius Randall and Michael Porter Jr. on your team and you want

to outsource some of the thinking and like we'll run actions that are kind of the schemeed creation

to get the else guys shots like Yegore is is a really smart player um they also got uh Josh

Jefferson in the draft they added Mo Bogner uh year to year improvement I mean I'd say this was

I had down that this was a push do you think that they got demonstrably better yeah I did I mean

they were so bad last year so yeah they they definitely they shut everybody down it was such a

it was it was a disaster um yeah I would I would definitely say that they got better yeah yeah uh

the tear that I had this team in was participation trophy because I don't see them in the in the

playoffs who is your number uh 11 team all right here's where we're gonna get we're gonna get

spicy I told you we're gonna get spicy Kyle let me let me preface for you go into this Mike and

I were texting before and I was like dude this I think I started this tier at five to 11 I was

like this is one of the crazier five to elevens in the east I don't I forget our age range here

but I mean I've been following the NBA like closely probably since for a while I mean I remember

when Jason kid migrated to the west the east like that was kind of the starting port where it was like

all right the east is bad yeah it's so dense and like the the ranking these teams and your

spiciness I guess is a is a response to that so I just wanted to say that as a lead and this is

going to get crazy uh so warning to listener buckle up um my number 11 is the Miami Heat

holy fuck sorry okay I did not expect that wow when you said spicy I had other teams in mind but the

heat were not who I thought I mean I said yeah just I'll start I mean I sat down I was looking at

their starting lineup and I was tempted you know you're doing the thing where you're just kind of

moving it around and just seeing how you feel I know with draft boards I do that a lot you do

that with top 100 where I sometimes I'll make a move and just be like just to make myself feel

something because I'm dead inside but when I was looking at their lineup and I'm like okay BAM

and Yannis I can kind of I can kind of assume where you're going with this off where you're

where you're thinking the depth is the main thing for me even if you believe in their starting lineup

it's like how are they going to answer these depth questions in addition to even if you believe in

Spulstra one of the best basketball minds in the world there's the questions start to stack up to the

point where it's just like this is he would have to be a basketball who Dini to get out of some

of the constraints that he's going to have with this group but go ahead Mike tell us why you have him

I think I think offensively there's just so many questions that I have that aren't great in

terms of three-point shooting spacing offensive creativity it reminds me a lot of like

well I want to say it like reminds me of the books last year and just like trying to but it like

doesn't actually at all remind me of the books last year just in terms of how we're going to build

around Yannis and they I thought how they tried like what their strategy was last year in Milwaukee

made some sense to me but it just isn't how you win basketball games and in in this era of the NBA

and in 2025-2026 and and going forward and what the heat of done is like I don't know what the

strategy is they got Yannis they gave up like all their depth are like really key depth pieces

that actually like let that offense function and how they played last year which was like super fast

you know maker myths were taken the ball and were sprinting up the court and were making like maybe

one or two passes and then we're going to the rim and seeing what happens and like Jaime Haka's

was a huge part of that Tyler here was eventually a big part of that Norm Powell was a part of that

and so I just don't like they have one movement shooter Tim Hardaway Jr who had the best three-point

shooting season of his career last year you know Nicole Yokic was his teammate

Nicole Yokic is not on this team so I just you know if he shoots 34 35% from behind the three-point

it's the wheels could just like fall off on this offense and then when you look at like the names

and the fact that there's no backup center and the fact that like I cracked this joke that got me

banned from the rights for Ricky Sanchez podcast about Simone Fontechio. Go ahead.

It's like Simone Fontechio is like on the team and he's going to be in the rotation and he's

like they need stuff from him. I just I think that this is like a not a disaster by any measure but

like when Pat Riley said we don't need shooting we need another ball handler like we need more

playmaking and trying to learn LeBron to Miami I was thinking to myself like what? What do you

you don't believe that? Like what are you talking about? That's like like so I'm not even saying

they don't need that because they do but they also need shooting like Janis and Bam together is

in Congress to the point of me putting them at the 11 seed and I know we haven't talked about

the defense yet and I think the defense will be really good and there's potential there but I

just think offensively and credit to all the rest of the teams in the Eastern Conference which I

think a lot of teams have leveled up or gotten healthy and what we've talked about so it's also a

byproduct of that but I just think they they'll really struggle to score the basketball this season

in the half-court. Yeah yeah the the depth chart is tough I mean if you're looking down through here

I mean Portis Portis adds just kind of a dissonant quality to what you were talking about I mean

they they have a history of mining these dudes or just finding these guys who are on the fringes

of the top 450 players in the world and like leaning into their good at sourcing dudes who can like

volume shoot who need to be sort of harangued into doing it more aggressively like they've had

a lot of success with finding those guys I will say that Ryan Conwell is a guy that you know he

I played pretty well it's over league but is a great movement shooter they're so desperate to

for guys like that that he might just get a chance to do to play so I don't know if you know a ton

about him but Fonteque though you mentioned as another guy I mean yeah it might be the case that

their needs are so strong that he just gets sort of vacuumed up into the rotation he's I like

Fonteque I think you could add some stuff to them me too yeah yeah it's like should should Tim

Hardaway Jr. be starting on this team though if they're gonna have a chance to like continue even

contend in the east I mean they could start pedal arson instead you know yeah so it might have

given yeah yeah and you know Drew Smith is still on the team I kind of like him when he I just like

his utility but these are names that we're saying that are just like like come on like if you look

at some of the rosters that we're going to be talking about later on like I just don't think that

they compare and also is how many games of John is gonna play you know like that's also a question

that I'm trying to factor in here a little bit because he is perennially perennially banged up

or has a calf thing or whatever so I'm kind of baking that in also because if he goes down I think

that it's the wheels completely come off and it's just it's a total train wreck but like are you

expecting like Nikola Yovic to bounce back and make good on the contract like because I'm not I

just there's not a lot of redeeming qualities here and to your point like I do not know Ryan

Conwell's game I am unfamiliar with it but like if you're telling me he's gonna be Duncan Robinson or

Max Truce level type of contributor I'll change my tune but I'll believe that when I see it I don't

know about that but I think that he'll definitely win some fans I think in terms of he's just like a

stalky really smart cutter like like a stalky not like in George Costanza way but just like sort of a

sort of a sort of a bane build he's got he's just a beefy sort of but he's quick can really shoot

it off movement at high volume he he seems like a classic heat guy to me and he may get chances but

contributing on that level you talk about Yana's I mean the Yana's like potential fallout thing is

like such a source subject and it's been interesting to watch it migrate from Milwaukee it's not

their problem anymore to be like be concerned about that Lord knows they have other problems now but like

the idea of like Yana's aging because I know like Bill and I've talked about this a lot it's like

we have these archetypes of career the flows of careers where we're like this usually we start

you know what happened to watch me like this typically starts to happen at this age you know

some of the classic ones are like small scoring guard like around this time you know you're you

know your advantages start to fall off it's like Yana's isn't is a unique case though just because

he doesn't play like a typical a guy his size typically does I said on a pod recently like I think

he's probably the best driving handling big ever and yeah heard that those that aging curve for a

player like that I don't really know what to compare it to because I know people have said he's

like modern shacks like shacked it and those clips of like shacked dribbling and transition are novel

like what Yana's does in transition is his games that's his game it's like it's model it's

ideal it's like all the time and it's like a guy that has to move like that and take punishment like

that it's and just the way that he moves laterally when he's coming downhill to like the big steps

it just makes you wonder like how his lower body is going to handle it because this past year I mean

you know only play 36 games 29 minutes per game the production was still really good um

even though you know I'd say per 100 possessions he's probably the same player even though his

minutes were like slightly down from from normal 27 and a half points for for game you know about 10

rebounds about five and a half assists so it's like he's the same dude but I don't know the the

combination of the spatial challenges that you mentioned that they're not going to have as much

when you think about the wear and tear that could befall him this coming season if if his curve does

start to kind of become a actor here and you weigh that with the spatial stuff that could be a problem

I do worry I don't have him as low as you do but I do worry about those two things

you know working together to kind of make a exacerbate the concerns

like he needs spacing it's never been a situation in his life or since he's been like a

if you know first team all NBA type of player where he didn't have a brick Lopez spacing the floor

at the five they you know the bucks like ruin their organization by trading for Miles Turner

there was like a real active desperation that showed Yannis's limitations I think are just the way

Yannis needs to play to be at his best and to maximize him because if you have like if you're

just packing the paint which teams will do on the Miami Heat this year and they will not really care

about BAM out of bios three point shooting and I know he's you know ticked up in volume and accuracy

a little bit but he's not like he's not spacing the floor for anybody so I

there's just a lot of things you have to do with Yannis there are rules and the Miami Heat

aren't built to really follow them and I think that it it's not great like I think that this

this first season will be bad and then I think that they will have time to kind of restructure their

roster a little bit in a better better way next summer and then the heat can be a little bit more

formidable but right now I just I don't I don't see it at all yeah and like we're saying like

that it's it's not like we have a lot of like padded years of youth to just like throw out the

window like that like you were saying it's like go to that effort to you know the mice synopsis

that I wrote for this to you a big big game hunters empty their clip to haul in the most powerful

and impactful prize on the market but do they have enough remaining balancing pieces to make

their efforts worth it and that's ultimately going to be even more critical in year two where yeah

like you're saying it's like we don't really have a lot of just extra Yannis years to the throw away

I'm sure we'll hear from Miami fans about that but Yannis's longevity is just going to be it's going

to be an interesting case study I think for the future grandadard there aren't many if any cases

like Yannis so at the 10 spot like I said team by team this is going to be I did not have Miami

there I'd mind me it's six maybe we'll split the difference and that's where they're done okay but

we'll see yeah I just think granted there's some like things that they could go and do I guess if

they go and make a move or and I do think that they're gonna like pose interesting problems like if

you think about like the softness yeah Billy is gonna have at the four or five spot if they choose

start LeBron and and and in Bede it's like those two dudes I think are younger and healthier than

then granted LeBron's and great shape for his age but I think they they just have an interesting

juxtaposition of like I do think that they could cause some tease problems but they're also

going to have their own problems anyway so number 10 who do you have I have the the Charlotte Hornets

okay I admit eleven yeah I I fell in love with this

team last year and they obviously lost two starters from like the best starting five in the

history of the NBA with Lamello and Miles Bridges I still look at them and I'm like they have

so much three point shooting they have a style of play that I don't think can like I think that it's

replicable even without Lamello next year and if you look at some of the numbers with Kobe White

on the floor there's like the on off numbers with Lamello were amazing he was incredibly valuable

once they got Kobe White like when Kobe White was on the floor without Lamello they're often

still hummed and they had a great net rating that was in the double digits in a in a obviously a

smaller sample size but I think that that will carry over and I just think like the gravity that

they have with you know adding grace and Alan obviously conca nipple taking another step forward

and whatever his development path looks like I'm just a big fan of the core Brandon Miller

getting even better and potentially getting to an all star level is is possible I'm not saying

that that will happen but it's it's a possibility and then adding Nas Reed who's an awesome basketball

player and can space at the five and and I think Charles Lee will do a lot of creative things with him

and some of the other names that I've already mentioned they just have a lot of shooting and I think

shooting is you know that's that's what matters in the NBA right now and they have a ton of it

so yeah yeah you mentioned so this exciting young team with an identity built upon kinetic ball

movement and dynamic shooting makes a pivot that was either wisely timed or harmfully premature

is what I have so we will see but year to year do you think this team got better worse or is it a push

that's a great question I'm going I'll say push but I also think that the Lamello ball trade was

was wise and I think that the Miles Bridges trade was like if I can grand slam

had to happen yeah that was that was a good one so they they add Christian Anderson who really

absolutely fits their I've concerns about him being small and defending but I don't have

concerns about him shooting the ball like he's just he's a crazy great pull-up shooter they had

Nas Reed as you you mentioned the five spots going to be interesting I mean I would assume that

Diabata holds that down and then maybe time buck grows into it but Diabata is just was a revelation

last year I mean one of the really cool stories just him his role within that offense and has really

mature it's been fun to watch him go from this dude who was like a fringe roster guy with the

Clippers and it was sort of a hypothetical maybe this will be something someday into this guy who

was central integral to them so I but you know Steinbach is he fits in interfaces with their

personality really really great I don't know how much you know about him but he's he was just like

a generational rebounding prospect at the college level so he's going to be he's going to be great

for them in that sense and just kind of shore up they're not going to get bullied as much I feel

like that was kind of the big thing you know that playing game was really revealing where it's just

they got stuffed in a locker and they you'll win out we're just like we can't do this again

I mean that I feel like that was the big question but overall as I'm reading it from your

perspective I mean it's just sort of a bet on Khan and Brandon yeah some of the oxygen that

Lamello isn't going to be taking up anymore because he's not there yeah I'm interested to see

how kind of that flows and I I thought Khan Knapples like the best off ball player in the entire NBA

last season and that's crazy yeah and I want to see what he does with it in his hands a little bit

more and he's showing he can do stuff like he's he is a truly special player so I just want to see

kind of the the step for I know development is not always linear but I want to see kind of what he

can do with more responsibility in this offense I had some times last year and when I was I remember

when I was like riding out his profile just trying to decide what what what images what what sort of

silhouettes kind of match the way that he plays I think the strongest one that I had that I kind of

took a step back from was Devon Booker or I was like this dude plays like Devon booker and I'm like

do you think that that's wild is that I mean what would stop him from becoming a Devon Booker

level production level player if he could you know because Devon Booker obviously first however many

years of his career it was like the balls in your hands and he had to develop as a playmaker and

you know run a ton of pick and roll and read the floor and I think that obviously con is in a

way different more beneficial situation for him just a better environment but if he were if he

were ever able to handle that type of usage in in the same manner and like not I mean Devon Booker's

struggled a little bit with efficiency and you know the advanced numbers have not always smiled

on him for some of those reasons but I think if if con were able to be as advanced of a playmaker

the sky is the limit for him I because he can shoot the shit out of the ball in off any type of

action and yeah so I and the range is ridiculous so I just I just love Conniple maybe I'm like

I'm overdoing it there but he's he's really good and I just I'm so excited for his sophomore season

yeah you mentioned quickly before move on here I mean just another I had this pulled up because I

thought this was so impressive like his three main modes of production you know spotting up and

transition and picking roll he's over 42% on pretty great volume in all three I mean he shot two

over 250 spot up threes this past year and he was at 43.4% so this dude's already one of the best

shooters in the war not in the league in the world I mean yeah great if you're one of the best in the

NBA you're one of the best in the world so yeah the Hornets yeah I had them at 11 okay who's

your number 19 I have the Pacers interesting okay okay outside of the playoffs yeah yeah it's

this was I think this was the I don't know about you this was the hardest team for me to

to figure out because like are they just gonna be the team we remember are you just gonna like

throw Halliburton in and they're gonna you know because in the that magical playoff run like

everybody made every shot which I think people might forget like they shot the crap out of the ball

in a timely fashion so that like was that lightning in a bottle or are they just going to be a buzz

and I think obviously like they have a lot of the same parts you have a really interesting change

at center with Miles Turner going out and Zubat's coming in and I think Zubat's is a better player

um I am pretty bullish on him being also a better fit but I just want to see what it looks like

um and and yeah uh then health is obviously a factor and I don't know if they have the most

depth on this team um because guys are just kind of getting older uh but Ricardo is a great coach

and I just I don't know like what what were you thinking when you looked at the Indiana Pacers

they were one of the toughest ones because like you said I ended up having them at seven actually

there's another team that I think has is potentially gonna have even more interesting movement than

the the Pacers obviously year over year better um this is probably the nerdiest one that I wrote down

you can judge me if you want I said the Pacers are mid mid 60s Bob Dylan they stole the thorny crown

in the east and then they immediately sat on the sidelines in a cast so there's a lot of like

it's the fucking door case they don't allow uh an American pie reference in the NBA thanks god bless you

if Halliburton comes back and it physically seems a step slow it could be an adjustment year before

they're back you know a year from now and if he's himself they'll be as annoying as they were

or nearly as annoying as they were in 2425 the shooting variance thing is really true I mean that

was I don't know but like it's like getting the getting hot like what what types of getting hot are

credible and which ones aren't because they get to the finals they almost do it if he didn't get hurt

what would be if he didn't get hurt what would be the difference between looking at them and then

looking at what the nicks just did because it's like you know are we gonna are we gonna ding the nicks

and say well they got they got hot granted their best player hasn't sat out for a year I'm just

trying to compare like the the the credibility of being hot at the right time is it the same because

it's like is it dismissive did you say it was just shooting variance because their style of play

they're intellect that they know no no it wasn't that they were just making crazy contested shots

it was like buying it was yeah the full court pressure and nemhard was phenomenal the way he

guarded J and the finals was like transcendent no I think there's a lot of different factors

they were so disciplined low turnovers playing at a fast pace they were just really they were

a constant curveball I felt like for other teams that couldn't really go with their speed and

their intensity so in addition to hitting shots like a lot of them were open threes you know that

they're created by Halliburton by T.G. McConnell who was just fantastic in that run obviously

but yeah they they the buy like a lot of different factors that that really endeared me to that

team but I just think like we're we're like a year removed and we're we're in a killi's injury to

a torna killi's to our franchise player removed so I just there's just like natural questions that I

want to just see on the court you know and like how would Pascal kind of fit in not that I have

questions about Pascal but just like I don't know like it's just it's just a really weird situation

I don't know what to compare this to so I just want to I just want to kind of see how it plays out

Halliburton is like more than a lot more than gosh I guess anytime you have a team built around a

superstar like granted their style of play is going to dictate your decisions and everything but

it's like Halliburton's he's like a cult of personality in a way that's like really unique and

I was thinking about this when we were comparing him to Anthony Edwards and it's like if you're

if you're entire premise for your team is built around as this guy goes his brain is like the

thing that feeds our style and like his his his point five superstar mentality is the thing that

dictates the way that we play it's like if he's a step slow it doesn't feel like it'd be the same

as if like Luca had torn as a killi's like knock on sorry just to use him any player as an example

in that but like it just doesn't feel the same because like Halliburton isn't a pure like

a helio offensive player where where whether we score is dictated by by whether or not he can

get his own because he can score but in comparing him to like Anthony Edwards as we did like a

couple weeks ago it was like the wolves are driven by like if ain't can go out and in the

picking roll look for his and then you know get off the ball it's like Halliburton is an

inversion of that idea where it's like he gets off the ball so readily so it makes me wonder if

he is a unique case where when he comes back I hope this makes sense what I'm saying when he comes back

his like I got you back in is gonna like maybe not be the same as like other superstar players because

he's such a great pastor his brain knows when to get off the ball in a way that like so few

superstars do in the NBA it kind of makes me wonder I wanted to ask you one thing for me move on

like where do you see the Zubat's being a better fifth and Turner specifically since he's not a

floor spacer in the way Turner was yeah I think that Zubat's making decisions out of the short

role he's always been really good at that and so just as a picking roll partner someone who can

put more pressure on the rim I think that you know if you sign with Hardin it was like that was

one of the it was just a beautiful picking roll he's got great hands great touch around the basket

super physical I think he's a better rebounder than Turner on both sides of the ball and I think he's

a better defender just overall than Miles Turner and can do different things and would not necessarily

get played off the floor like Turner did in stretches of that run to the finals okay who did who did

I had the I had the Pacers at seven who did you have at number eight I have the Orlando Magic okay

I had them at 10 I think that this just kind of when I was looking at them I had I had to I'll say

I initially had them even higher than this when I you know did the first run through I'm just a

believer maybe stubbornly in in just like the core talent like Paulo Franz Suggs I like that trio a lot

the idyllic version of them I feel like is is just extremely good and then I also think that

Desmond Bain had a really good year last year and in a kind of an uncomfortable situation

where he's basically the only guy who didn't get hurt and wasn't used maybe in the best way off

offensively and so what makes it really curious to me about the like the number one thing that's

really curious to me about this team is basically no personnel changes from last year and last year

was like a noted disaster so there's just a lot on Sean Sweeney coming in as that a first year head

coach and I don't know you know he's obviously known in the defensive end I'm not saying he can't

do things offensively offense was their primary issue just a total lack of creativity very predictable

it's how it's been it's been going on since the since Aaron Gordon was there it's just like yeah

yeah so I think that the other thing that Sweeney can do which matters is like it sounds really

stupid and reductive but like get his players to try hard again and if you watched the Orlando

magic two years ago versus last year like their defensive intensity is just not even close to the

same level and that is a non-negotiable for this roster based on the offensive issues that they will

naturally run up against so I think that they can have it once again a top five top three defense

and we'll kind of see what goes from there but the fact that they made no changes to the person

now is like what what what what's going on guys what's what what are we doing I had a key

departure to Jonathan Isaac key additions John Sweeney it's year to year I said they're

they're team wise they're pushed they have to be because they didn't do anything but you know I

said young athletic and huge team teammates possibly positive coaching change coming out of

their ascendant honeymoon phase as the team after some playoff flame outs and looming questions

about not only the compatible of their two perceived stars but also their individual ceilings

yeah I had the magic at 10 well to keep keep it moving here but I do I do agree with you it's

just like it seems like whenever there's like a malaise of this isn't working like inevitably the

effort just gets affected because players can just choose to try harder and I the the magic are an

interesting team man where it's like it feels like we're coming we're coming to a head in a way

here it's like I don't know how much runway these two stars together have you know I blast

you a polo guy are you what do you what do you what do you what are you thoughts right now where are

we at with palo he's not my favorite I mean I it's I would I wouldn't say I wouldn't say I'm like

over the moon in love with palo's game like his inefficiencies like have just kind of and he's not

I just wanted him to kind of like become a little bit more flexible in his style because he was

on the path to becoming a Julius Randall type guy and that kind of concerned me even though I think

he's got a lot to say a lot of stress yeah so that's that's tough all right so who's who's your

number 17 the Philadelphia 76ers okay well you kind of like hinted at this with your pod with

CR Zach Lowe yes you have yeah you have some skit I have six years it too to okay explain yourself

peanut all right I've got I made a list of pros and cons my pros here for the Philadelphia 76ers are

Jalen Brown LeBron James Tyrese Maxie Jorland beat and VJ Edge Comar on the team that's that's

fantastic love that talent I think that there will be a real fit adjustment I think everyone all

the names I listed need to find a find a new role then they played last season and they need to

sacrifice to various degrees I wonder how many games those five players I just mentioned will

suit up in the starting lineup together that's another huge quagmire here LeBron James

the over under on that like 20 because of in B because in B didn't also like dude like okay

okay a couple of things LeBron's about to turn 42 years old like you know like I I'm not

going to be smirch the run he's amazing I just but it's just like I'm getting killed even in

like our comments right now with our we can't even get out of the pot in our chat is literally a fire

but it's on fire I think that uh you know so so health reliability um durability defense are they

gonna have a top 10 defense um that's a question mark for me do they have enough shooting do they

have enough depth you have Dean Wade and Anthony Simon's are kind of like the sixth and seventh

men and then I just not a believer and I don't know the the rookie coming in you may be able to speak

more to that and yeah and like maybe he's a rotation player who can impact winning right away I don't

know I'm I'm discounting it because I've never seen him play basketball but I could have to save

your own island okay go get through whatever yeah um I think there's a chance I'm not going to say

they're they're one to one in terms of like the exact way that they play but Phylon could end up

having some like mid two thousand like Rajon Rondo e vibes the way that he functioned with those

Celtics teams okay well you're touching my heart there so he's that type of precocious like he's

not the same playmaker passer that Rondo is or processor it's just like how many point guards

really are but he he's a guy that I think could like sneak in there and become a fan favorite and

like run with the with these older lineups and and make it make an impact because he's he can

just he just fits which what's that fish that grows into the size of whatever tank that might

even be not even a real thing but I just think he's you know I just like bulk lore I'm higher on

than than than you are I think Wade is a real like a real credible role player granted that

I'm gonna get a ton out of KCP bone of energy just jump in there I think offensively there are enough

weapons and there's enough credibility like LeBron's presence I think should be enough to

put things where they need to go because he he's the most valuable superstar probably of all time

and I I think that he will get people to buy in because he just has a history of doing that

and I would you know that he talked to Jalen Brown before I mean like they had a conversation

it's not like I'm sure that Jalen Brown did like see his phone and just like think shit and scream

and throw his phone like I I'm a little more optimistic than you granted you know I had I had

the sixers at two um who do you have at six two is very high I just like two is high I'm just

gonna say I you just don't think they're gonna be better than the Celtics is your thing

I don't but you know this is what people are gonna say to you so just you I know you're ready

yeah we'll get to it um okay six uh I'm going at Lanna Hawks okay just

I'm at nine okay yeah they were a tough one I was moving them up and down similar to the magic

and the Pacers and just had a difficult time really figuring it out but when I when I looked at

this team um I just like their I thought that their offseason has been really shrewd I thought they

brought in uh you know in Aaron Wiggins and Lou doored two guys from one of the better cultures um

in the NBA and two players who while we know kind of who Lou doored is uh and what he can do which

is very helpful to winning I think Aaron Wiggins can actually like impact their rotation in a positive

way because I mean this is a guy two years ago in the finals had like 21 22 points in a game

that they won I think game two he's got like 22 points like he's a real player um who then he

barely played the spasters exactly true yeah but just like willing to do whatever I just like

players like that and I think that they'll like generally benefit just like the holistic vibes of

the Atlanta Hawks which has not been great um for some time uh I I acknowledge that this isn't maybe

the biggest uh front court um but I I think they have great positional size across the board I think

defensively you know they were they're the second best defense in the NBA after the all-star break

which you can you know take that seriously I don't take it necessarily super seriously because

no one was trying to win basketball games last year but you add Lou doored to a Dyson Daniels

Nikkei Alexander Walker trio and I just think the perimeter defense is just going to be hellacious

and um I'm not that worried about the spacing until the playoffs and this isn't really like a

playoff exercise I think that the Hawks are more built to um like be a total bitch to play against

in the regular season on a night to night basis and I haven't even said Jaylen Johnson's name yet

and this guy just like gets better and better every single season and the last we remember of him

he was really bad against the nicks in that series I thought um but I expect more from him and

another all-star caliber season so I I just like the depth there I like the athleticism I like

they have a quite a bit of shooting actually um a decent amount um yeah so what what what your thoughts

on the Hawks they're they're they're they're an interesting team yeah they they definitely I mean

the bitch defensively is just adding door to Daniels and a kung fu is you know they didn't go out

and answer a lot of people thought that they were gonna go try to answer the room protection question

I thought that they might try to do that in the draft with their two picks that they had um I

noted this in in the draft coverage that they went and basically every guy that they were one of the

worst like in the playoffs they had one like the lowest assists rates like they were near the

bottom and a lot of those stats so it's just like they needed uh ways to generate good looks

a key thing here a question that I had is you know they you know they you know they add

Kingston flimmings they add to be edge four and they add in Reves are flimmings could flimmings

start for this team he was one of the most impressive guards I thought in summer league I just

think in terms of adding lubrication to the to getting these big long athletes wow uh wow um

pause getting these athletes in transition just getting them easier looks um I think that he

could help in that front but CJ still uh I don't know I don't know who's gonna get to starting not

at the at the one for the Hawks I don't think they'll have a point guard they also added Devon Carter

from it's true Sacramento and Ryan Nemhard in the um the door Zachary Risa Shea thing that they did um

so I don't I don't know I think they have like some options at backup point guard and then

I would like to see Kingston flimmings being their rotation that would be great I think they're

starting five that they had you know rolling over from last year was really good and like hummed

down the stretch and so I I don't think Quinn Smiders gonna to to shake that up particularly

of Dyson Daniels can like shoot better than two for 20 every time he takes 20 30 winners

but no I think that that group kind of coalesced really well and um and Kingston flimmings is a really

cool player who I'm intrigued by and he did not shoot the ball well at summer league I don't care

I think his playmaking his vision just like his instincts he seems like he's gonna be an awesome NBA

player yeah yeah uh it's it's just again man I mean this group like the the five through 11

group it's like you you circle back and you're like they're not gonna miss the playoffs are they

it's like a lot of these somebody somebody is gonna be the odd man out in a way yeah that is

surprising um who's your number five team uh Toronto Raptors that's who I the finally we're

we're on the same page yes that's who I have this is the this is the first time we had the same

team on the same number it's yeah I mean it's not chalk man I mean it's like it's not

obvious like uh let me see uh for the Raptors year to year obviously better um I think the the

overall gist you know the synopsis that I wrote for this team is in all caps koai Leonard is still

very good uh and that was it uh koai one of the most effective on ball players in the NBA last

season uh he is let's see it's uh in in pick and roll and transition in ISO and in the post uh he

was like 90th percentile or higher um you added a guy who has insane he he can turn bad

possessions into offense um he's developed over a path as a passer over his career um the trio

of defensively that they're gonna have now they got rid of Brandon Ingram that's also a big

all caps you be exclamation point um where do you feel about the I the Raptors of the team that

I thought you were gonna come with a curve ball just be like their number two because I know you

love koai I do love koai I thought about it I and maybe that it'll happen I don't know I am you

know living on planet earth and I am aware that he may not play a ton of games this season like I'm

aware that the Toronto Raptor they have like an infrastructure of like uh you know they defend

like they like holaciously I use that word already to describe the the Lennon Hawks but they defend

their asses off and they share the ball in offense and they play fast and they get back in transition

and they do like really smart things um so I feel like they could tread water and like not baby

koai um but maybe I just I have a hard time seeing koai play as many games as he did last year let's

just say um and maybe he will but he's also like playing for money um so that's a question mark in

the air but I think like for me one of the big things one of the big revelations from the playoffs

that we don't talk about it all because it happened in round one with Scotty Barnes and he was just

my god like total man's man 24.6 boards 8.6 assists per game really efficient for him and

generally true shooting above league average got to the free throw line for like the first time

really in his career at a consistent basis um and like one of the bigger stats I'll just throw at you

not to get too nerdy but like 60% of his baskets in the regular season were assisted in that

number drop to 37% in the playoffs which is like you know what that basically says to me is like

I'm gonna take the ball and do stuff with it and I don't need what's the efficiency from what to

what with his assisted on a system like how did his true shooting or do you have that in front of

you like did I have the general true shooting went up above 60% which it like never has before

for him um any one basically yeah that's I mean that's like I think his his it's not like the reason

why they traded for Kauai but I feel like they were way more emboldened to give up the draft

compensation because of what they saw at a Scotty I think like he really showed out in that series

that they could have won and probably should have if Emmanuel quickly didn't miss like they have

near the whole thing so yeah we haven't even said Colin Murray bro oils I just I have I like I like

a lot about this team I think defensively they'll be awesome and hopefully they're healthier than

they were last year as well yeah I was gonna say Scotty also you know obviously one of the best defensive

players and leading the most versatile and he took on top of assignments it played for the first

time Minnes career took on a bigger 8% 8% of his minutes were at the five this past year so

be interesting if you continue to kind of explore that frontier um you mentioned quickly coming back

which I'll help because you know I had down for them spacing handling and pull up shooting um

were some of the bigger things that I thought could help them um they also added Alan Graves in the

offseason um this seems gonna be a pain in the ass man I mean just that combination of Barnes

and C&B and Kauai together you mentioned like it's just it's a big wow I'm gonna enjoy the

rafters this year uh and number four who's your team Cleveland Cavaliers same all right okay

we're locking it we know we're not the same on sixers but uh talk to me about the cast uh we

are assuming that James Hardin will be on the team um he is currently unsigned as we record this

but I think that this is maybe the best this could be like a totally blasphemous and correct

statement that I haven't thought too deeply about but maybe the best offensive back court in the NBA um

depending on like positionally what you think about the Lakers like I you know Donovan Mitchell

and James Hardin are just like really good together and Kenny Atkinson is able to stagger them

in ways that they were really productive last year um and this team also didn't have like a great

runway uh in terms of just getting all the everybody on the same page before they went into the

playoffs where it was not the prettiest run to the Eastern Conference Finals I've ever seen

um I'm still an Evan Mobley person I think he's awesome and I think trading him would have probably

been a major mistake uh it's good that they did not do that and this team just always has shooting

and Kenny's a really good coach they move the ball uh losing Dean Wade and Keon Ellis who

came out us wasn't really in their playoff rotation but I think he's like really good and um

so I think losing those two could hurt a little bit um but generally speaking I I like the

core here I like the talent level I like the possibility of Mobley getting even better offensively

and yeah I don't know like it just they they feel like too good to

be worse than fourth is kind of where I landed with them I think that's true but I also just

feel this like underlying inescapable dread with them where you ran it back with you know I wrote

down the year to year it's a push I think in terms of the roster but that's not that doesn't totally

cover it just because you know streuse missed a ton of time and basically just you know was he was

like uh Michael McDonald and that's in that uh in that sketch where he's like running into the studio

and getting on the mic like he got back just in time to uh you know that's my second random old

music reference on this pod but I wrote down a team with two all NBA guards who showed up effectively

and two elite biggs that got humiliated in the conference finals decided that they just want to

straight up run it back without one of their most important perimeter defenders in Dean Wade uh

don't feel like the common person realizes how important he was to them on that front they add

Malik Thomas who's just a pure specular bucket getter like he's gonna be a pat him on the head

young guy who's gonna be a disaster at times and make bad bad but he can score like he can score

these shit out of the ball but uh it's like kind of JR Smith energy my big thing is that

James Harden absolutely shat the bed in the Nick series uh they get swept um he went five for

28 from three he took twice as many many dribble threes as he did catching shoots in the playoffs

I'm just kind of like I feel like this team is the ultimate you know they run it back and I just kind

of feel like they are the embodied I feel like the response to them should be um the are you sure

about that meme you know like are you sure about that I just don't like we're just keeping it going

with Harden and I just don't know man um I do have them as high as you do but I'm just I don't

have a ton of faith in that who do you have a number three number three I have the Detroit

pistons I did not have the number three they slid the most for me and we can talk about it but go

ahead okay so this team really interesting offseason in the sense that they change their identity

like they went from like bullies to a team that can actually like shoot

this is an optimistic kind of I'm not gonna say it's hot it might just be insightful really

honestly because I haven't heard people talk about a ton of people talk about this because

that the view has been like oh they didn't or they just did the wrong things like this isn't

continuing with the momentum that they have but you think this is a pivot that's going to be

healthy for them yeah I think that um like they were doing 80s era bad boys like pistiche and

despite the results that they had last year number one seed I think that there's like a clear

ceiling on that homage and what it can accomplish in today's league and I would have and maybe

they still will be more aggressive in going out and getting I don't know I feel like they're waiting

for Kyrie Irving to be honest with you and that's who they're like they're holding all their

that's interesting yeah yeah I think like it's a Kyrie or I've said Trey Murphy a ton he's just like

the invoke kind of do your name that everyone throws around but he would also make a lot of sense

here um Kyrie more so in terms of this they need like if I'm looking for a issue with the pistons

it's that they did not solve the secondary one B high usage playmaker scorer guy we can throw

the ball to and Kate is not in the game or when we need when Kate doesn't have it going or whatever

but I just I I like the Isaiah Joe like taking Isaiah Stewart and making him Isaiah Joe that's like the

the symbolism there for me and like I like that I think that that is like that functionally changes

your identity a little bit and your personality as a basketball team and I think they needed more

of of what Isaiah Joe can do and sort of like the the the ghost screens and all the stuff that he did

with Oklahoma City that really shook things loose for Shay in a lot of ways and Shay was she she

she's amazing regardless he doesn't need Isaiah Joe but when those two shared the floor like you saw

some of the the stuff the actions that they ran together were just like it's impossible to stop

and I think that whether he's setting like a back screen on a spain pick and roll or whatever

Isaiah is Joe's doing he will make others better when he's on the floor so I just I just I like this

team I think they're still tough for sure they still have a Sar Thompson they still have Jalen Duran

who I will he's not signed but we're going to assume that he's going to be resigned at some point

as a restricted free agent but I just I like this team I think that you know they they brought back

Kevin Herder who ideally or theoretically can shoot and JB Picker Steph is like not as much of a

fan of him as as the front offices but we'll see and it's just like we're not as dependent on

Duncan Robinson as being our guy is is what I like and and the last thing I'll say is I think this

might be like a this is like the hot take I guess but I think John Collins is just like a better

player let alone a better fit than Tobias Harris for this team interesting yeah I I don't know

that I trust him as much in the the lit like scaled down like creating you know

the sort of like inside the art creation kind of stuff that Tobias added but I like definitely

you can't do that yeah I was gonna say it's different he's different um but he is sort of the

prototypical like 4.5 that fits next to a player like Cade you know I kind of saw I love the Isaiah

Joe ad I kind of thought it was underrated honestly but I thought he was more kind of fortifying if

Kevin Herder doesn't give us as much because I'm I'm a little more with Picker Steph on Herder I'm

like I I like Herder but it's just he's he wasn't delivering enough I one of the questions that

I the big questions I had for Detroit there you're to your movement I had them as worse it sounds

like you have them as better which I I think is a unique take across the landscape or or if I'm

reading this right um I think I I my my qualified as a push I think they're just different and I

think that Sam Presty said this sort of believes this or I I've maybe I'm misinterpreting it to him

but you need to like shake up your identity in the NBA even if you've had success with what you're

doing because you the league is gonna adapt and prepare better and so I think that if they were to

just run it back as like we're gonna beat you up and dominate the glass and try to score in transition

and and create all these turnovers like I I don't know if that would work this season so I like that

they changed things up on the fly um before that could happen yeah um the question I had for them was

year to year I think one of the big things here is we talked about how last year there were so

many guys out it was like they had this great year where they seized to the you know they

seized an opportunity with so many depleted teams and it's like with Halibart and Zubach didn't

play Tatum Wagner Bencaro Yannis it's like if they run it back and they don't have the same level

of success in terms of wins and losses it's like a wonder if we end up in a situation where people

see the record and they just think oh took a step back this year but really it was just a function

of like everybody's back and it kind of makes me and so they did you know the wins and losses don't

kind of pile as high or the wins don't pile as high it makes me wonder if they slide a little bit

but that's it I think your read is the Optimus read we'll see with the optimistic read um talk

to me about the Celtics you're the you're the foremost I assume this is a bet on Tatum being back

I saw that you're you're take about him being a Dark Horse MVP oh god candidate um cook

oh i mean i go i mean this is a team that won 56 games last year top four offense top four

defense um they're essentially the way i'll like reduce it is they're essentially exchanging

jaylen brown and nekola vusavitch for jason tatum paul george and michael robinson and a lot of

the players who contributed last year who were like unsung and unknown and you know one of the

reasons why i i thought that the Celtics would be absolutely terrible last season like those guys

were actually good and winning players and all super young and getting better and they have one

of the best coaches in the league they have a style of play that i think that that's one of the

interesting things about um the Celtics is how dogmatic will they be this year about three point

shooting i'm interested to see if they are as they have been i think that paul george is

really i mean he's kind of just become like really underrated uh he's a better shooter than jaylen

brown and he makes a lot of sense on this team um obviously health is a factor for him health is

a factor for tatum health is a factor for michael robinson have you heard me like are like

doing these for ants about jaylen brown versus paul george have you caught wind of any of this

i i did some there yeah i i was arguing with some folks about paul george i feel like overall

he's underrated in its career but i'm with you i interrupted you but go ahead no yeah i just think like

i've said this before um this is where like uh cliff is just gonna like stop the recording and murder me

in my home but like what when you really break it down okay like i hope you can understand what i'm

saying kyle but like what does jaylen brown do at basketball that's definitively better than what

paul george does it best i'm with you i'm with you i'm with you i think people are

unbelievably disrespectful to paul george i think he's been a better and more versatile defender

high five team way great way better picking role processor he's a better shooter i don't even think

it's fucking close got uh very quick stories i know we're going long i was in a bar with some

frid's watching the playoffs this is probably a 2018 maybe but there was a dude there who was a

pacer's fan and i guess he just had paul george i don't know why i don't know what pacer's fans would

have dislike paul he gave them so much anyway but uh i forget how he left it might have been on bad

terms but he was just like heckling paul george to no one it like kept going on and we were out in

this patio station he's like paul george sucks and it went on for like a long time and i was sitting

there with my buddies and i was like i'm gonna say some of these guys my friends were going please don't

don't don't do it they're like begging me and it just went on and on and on and i finally stood

up and i went paul george is awesome i was like what the fuck are you talking about he's amazing

and i just like rattled off all this stuff and he was like couldn't believe i did a stranger step

to him about paul george on a patio i just had had enough respect i'm with i'm with good i think

he's a he's a great he's had his bad playoff moments but he's a brilliant player i think he's more

of a stretch for now than he was like he's kind of he's kind of in a full body cast downhill

compared to what he was in the past but 100% don't disagree with that i just think like the way

Boston plays they don't need a lot out of him they don't need him to be like who jaylin brown was if

that makes any sense and yeah i just think like there's a lot of infrastructure still here that

is successful like payton pritchard's really good at his role in noses role he's amazing

um that's a key payton pritchard step up is is a is a very serious it's going to be 29 years old how

much every time he's been given more leash he's produced efficiently do you think he has a leap

yeah um i don't know how high that is but even if it isn't anything like that's great um what he

does is awesome and i think Derek white shooting will come back a little bit this year and i do too

i think like instead of him being like the number two option um he's not that because

Paul George will be on the team and Jason Tate of his back so um throw in Mitchell Robinson who is

like i think like a super underrated signing and really um we'll just you know Boston's all about

possession the possession game all smart teams are about the possession game the nicks were really

successful at that because of the second chance opportunities Mitchell Robinson creates

grabbing offensive rebounds kicking them out to open three point shooters that is

i can guarantee that's why he was so attractive to them and uh that is a humongous signing for Boston

so yeah i just think the Celtics are going to be like really really good um and i didn't even say

ugo yet i didn't say ugo ugo you didn't do the Celtics cliche say ugo um yeah um

yeah this team is good they're starting five it's going to be like an elite kitchen shoot unit

like i'm with you that our guy is a Blakely i don't want to call him out but uh he's pretty down

some of the off i don't want to i don't want to hear dirty laundry here but he's been pretty down

on our guy Derek Derek white i was oh god sometimes if you're rooting for a team you can be too

close to it i think you can get like i do this sometimes where it's like you just

i'm not saying i say a lost perspective but i had to kind of be like i think it ain't that bad i be

i don't know if anybody calls it might be i'll do it from now on uh so i think uh i think the most

boring one in this whole order is the nicks i mean they ran it back they've got a core that i

mentioned on this show that uh they are all kind of like walking into their primes together which

is super unique they have a chemistry that i suspect will continue they unlock something that

i expect will continue uh in terms of like notable losses visual rovincent obviously is a big one

and he's pretty key to them maybe yeah i mean how key i guess is the question how much do we think

because the drumman for for for for for Mitch it's a different player type it's a different thing

how big and how how consequential would that be because you know we we talked about the the

pistons you know reckoning with we expect them to reckon with a in east that's going to be healthy

the nicks will do we think that they're going to be that what they discovered was it substantial

enough that they're just going to be able to run it back people are coming for them now yeah but

we i still expect them to be at the top of the conference wouldn't surprise me at all if they were

number one um i just think that they obviously discovered something about themselves in winning the

championship and showing that they are easily the most mentally tough basketball team in the NBA

there's really no debating that um and i think that if they are serious about uh i guess like

this is kind of more like a vibes thing for me like are you how serious are you about

the regular season and how serious are you about protecting your championship every single night

and everyone coming at you uh just what do you do you care are you like let's whatever doesn't

matter what seed we are we're gonna get to the playoffs as long as we're healthy like i just want

to know what their their their mentality is because this has been like an epic deserved but epic

victory lap for the New York mix i live in New York City it i still can never go anywhere without

anyone talking about them um so i just wonder like how what what their mental approaches as a

collective as we head into next season but they have like all the pieces obviously and all the talent

and they've found this beautiful alchemy under mic brown and can that carry over for six months we'll

see but yeah they deserve to be number one because it would be frankly disrespectful not to have them

number one right now absolutely yeah and i mean they didn't just sort of uh seek by in a

ended up lead at east i mean they absolutely stomped the mud hole in in an east the eastern

conference in the playoffs yeah very very impressive um i'll say i'm not as impressed with uh you know

get the bag OG but OG is like sketchers shoes i was saying that's gotta be the test the ultimate

test of like championship energy is do you see many New Yorkers wearing the OG sketchers shoes

i will say i was walking out of msg i will never forget this after the tip

in game like the comeback in uh was it game four yeah game four and i was walking home you know

going through Penn station and i saw a giant OG and a nobi sketchers advertisement on the wall

like a giant poster and i was like you were like here like in terms of like human beings on the planet

and just me seeing that like we dropped it like at least two maybe three inches i was

disgusted by that um but no he he rules and uh that will be like that's like the greatest thing

i've ever seen in the basketball court so yeah man what a what a time this is uh it's it's

it's wild you know i consider myself an eastern person uh you know i guess i don't

can't talk nobody really claims us everybody the south doesn't want us the midwest doesn't want us

obviously the north doesn't want us nobody wants us peanut but this uh in my in my time in the

eastern time zone like see watching eastern conference basketball i don't know that i can remember

it looking the way that it looks right now so it's gonna be it's gonna be a heck of a season so um

what do you got come at you working on anything big in the offseason here during your quiet time

or you just reading non or reading fiction you know what's going on yeah a lot of reading uh still um

but in terms of work yeah in terms of work uh for people who uh are paying me my salary i am

you know i'm make something up make something up this is yeah we're pseudo crushing tape we're

preparing for podcasts like this uh yeah so it's it's a lot of fun August is we're sweating bullets

here getting ready for the season yeah yeah i've got some of video stuff coming uh but yeah check out

the side we've got uh i don't know this is uh i always kind of dial into the the movie podcast more

this time of year i get to like really breathe and enjoy them i miss so much of like the big picture

and ringer burst during the season and i get to like circle back and all absolutely text jomi hey i'm

finally listening to you yes apologies doll our entertainment shows but check all that stuff out uh

yeah and uh other than that so yeah we'll be back at you sporadically i know we're going to be

kind of ramping back up into our regular schedule and the ringer mba feed uh with our shows and

we'll be coming back so uh but pina good to see you good to hear from you love you guys i'll claim

you kyle by the way i got you i my god i appreciate that thank you

um