Wosny Lambre
Appearances
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
You are 100,000, 50 million percent the only one. And I'm not buying this reverse jinx crap. I'm not reverse jinxing anything. I'm not doing that. We knew you were going to do this reverse jinx. Look. The Celtics went out to a 25-3 lead. I think that's for a reason.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
I think they are just a nightmare matchup for Cleveland because they get Cleveland out of their base offense, which is ball movement, quick hitting, all of that stuff. The Celtics being so switch heavy, it's just like, no, like Garland, you got to beat somebody.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
you know uh donovan mitchell you gotta prove that you're an all nba caliber shot creator finisher you gotta beat somebody you know it's gonna be drew holiday it's gonna be tatum it's gonna be brown like they're gonna force these guys to play in the one-on-one and i think they're gonna be fine like honestly it all depends on the health of the celtics when those two teams get together yes that will be it that's the most important thing for that matchup two things health
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
He's an on-ball menace. He plays his ass off on defense. This guy really tries. He takes his matchup personal every single night. Obviously, he's a yapper and gets under the skin of every single one of his opponents. Sometimes he's on teammates too, but that's neither here nor there. I just think he's a gamer, man. Me too.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
Every now and again, he'll get you some buckets, blow by guys, driving kick guy. He'll make his threes every night. I've always been a shooter guy.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
is he on your radar yet yeah he's a little runner testy he's he's on my radar uh obviously freaking stewart beef stew like number one now pretty much ready to rumble no matter who the opponent is the guy almost murdered lebron james two years ago uh but yeah ron holland is fun i like that he's i like that they haven't been afraid to throw him on the deep end man and just let him
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
sort of figure it out. I think coming into last year's draft, people saw him as like kind of the most, you know, sort of physically athletically gifted of the bunch, if not, you know, the most skilled and crafty. But I like what I've seen from him so far. I like how he's coaching these guys up. I really do.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
I'll go first. It's all good. It's so obvious. It's almost like a ceremonial first pick in the sense that we all know what the outcome is going to be, and it's got to be Bradley Beal of the Phoenix Suns. Wow.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
That was not who I had on my board. Waz, I have him fourth. No shot. And the reason why is we just went through this exercise. The Suns were desperate to move this guy. They did all kinds of tactics. They tried to bench him to get him to remove his no trick. They tried everything. to get this man off of their team. They had Jimmy Butler on hold, ready to go, locked and loaded.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
They were going to improve their roster. They called everyone. It was not possible. This is an immovable... It literally can't be moved.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
So from a worse contract, you can't trade it. I don't know. He's winning me over house. You can't, not only can you not trade him. Okay. And like, there was this sort of like, I did it. Well, Bradley bill still, you know, a decent contributing play. Like the other night, the, you know, KD and bud game, they completely took off after Bradley bill's ass went to the bench and
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
So he's getting $50 million this year, $53 million next year, and then $57 million. Well, he has got a player option.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
I wonder if he's going to take his player option.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
His player option is $57 million in 26-27, all while holding a no trade clause, which means he basically has the franchise by the barrel. OK, to me, this is still because of the two extra years, still the worst deal in the NBA. And I get it. There's other guys here that I'm like, wow, this is tough. But Bradley Beal to me is the worst.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
House would know this way better than me.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
There you go.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
And I got to say, going through this list, there's just not as many horrific, scary contracts.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
Most of these contracts are like, eh. Not that terrible. Some of them you could be like, oh, it's kind of risky. But most of these deals, like even if a guy is slightly overpaid, it's not a franchise killer the way this Bradley Beal thing is. And I'm sure I'm pretty sure I know your next pick is going to be. But, yeah, it's tough.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
It's tough. I got to say, I've been one of the biggest like, look, elements of wanting to move on from Luca were justifiable people in the media. Right. Like there are elements to it where I'm like, I understand why a team would say, you know what, man, this guy is going to be problematic after we give him three hundred fifty million dollars. The bottom line is trading for A.D.,
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
Just it's just you just you just had to do something more or better.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
Yeah. And and then A.D. goes. It's just like the way he framed it in the media was about availability. Yeah. A.D. goes down immediately. The first game he plays and Kyrie's gone. He's gone.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
Oh, Ben Simmons, Bradley Beal. I think those are the creme de la creme, specifically because Ben Simmons got a max contract and then never played. And when he did play, he didn't want to take layups. So, yeah, those two are the ones that immediately come to mind. Obviously, there are legacy deals like John Wall out there. Like, there's a few other doozies.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
I think they did it because it's like before he went down last year, he was basically averaging 35 points. He was having the best scoring season since Michael Jordan, literally, in like 1988, right? And so the idea being like, look, when this guy was on the floor for us, he was amazing. And, you know, even in his limited capacity against the Knicks, he was pretty good.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
So the idea is like, oh, he's going to get back to that form before he went down midway through the season. I think the problem for me and what makes this a justifiable pick is that, you know, guys go down and it's like, all right, he's got an ACL. He's got a PCL. He's got a broken fibula. He's got whatever, ankle, whatever. This is the problem. This is the procedure we're going to do.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
This is how long it's going to take for him to come back. It's going to be fine. They can't even tell us. what is wrong with his knee and what they're going to do. People are throwing out micro fracture surgery. Do they even still do that? Dude, that's how dumbfounded they are by what they can do to address the problem in his knee. And it feels like there's nothing left to fix.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
Uh, it's a devastating, devastating contract. Um, let's just say, presumably he plays three more years on this knee in 28, 29, he's going to be owed basically $70 million. Um, That's tough.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
In his age, 30, what will that be?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
He's making it.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
He's not going to retire before this contract is up. He can't. His accountant will not allow it.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
So 20 games a season out of him for the Sixers. Hey, it is whatever I got to do to make it to the finish line. And listen, look, I think Joel Embiid is a bit of a tragic figure.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
And he seems to want it really badly. It's just his body just straight up has not cooperated. And that sucks. But at the end of the day, he's going to have like $600 million in career earnings. And I don't feel that bad for the guy, you know?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
This is the last obvious, this is just horrible, contract, in my opinion, left in the league. There's other ones that are like, all right, this is pretty bad, but this is like... Horrific. And it's Joel Embiid's teammate, Paul George.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
No, easily. I think so. I think you can make arguments for both.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
Player option in 27, 28 for 56 mil. Probably opting into that one. Not retiring.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
So bad. And this is the thing. I think we got to give cut Darrell a break here a little bit in the sense that last year on the Clippers, Paul George was an all NBA performer. He was the Clippers on off numbers with Paul George on both offense and defense. He was he was their best player last year.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
He was a bona fide star NBA player last year, and he's coming to the 76ers environment, just turned into a pumpkin. Like, I don't think we could have foreseen this.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
Yeah, I mean, I think the Luka trade definitely took this thing into a whole different gear. Obviously, we spent a lot of time talking about what happened, why it happened, how it happened. But the actual basketball, to watch Luka kind of just...
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
Yeah, and I got yelled at a few years ago because I implied that he wasn't the next Kawhi Leonard. People thought I was insane and kept saying, look at his rookie stats compared to Kawhi's. I'm like, guys, this is not – I think Scottie Barnes is a really good player. Me too. I don't think he's anybody's idea.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
I don't think he's anybody's idea of a number one option. I think around the right circumstance where he would be de-emphasized and just kind of just solely allowed to focus on his strengths and not, you know, firing up threes on a regular basis.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
Hey, he made the all-star team last year, House. He's an NBA all-star. All-star. So he's knocking on the door theoretically. On All-NBA, I've never been the biggest Scottie Barnes person, but I don't see his contract as like, you know, some kind of death knell to Toronto's future.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
I think some of the team building they've, you know, taken, the actions they've taken in that direction, I think are highly problematic, right? Um, but I don't think Scotty Barnes is like, I'm horribly over.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
pretty much automatically be embraced by the crowd at crypto yeah where he is just playing to the crowd and just straight up he's in it and it's kind of amazing that it's come together in nine freaking games this way yeah it's well it's even more amazing that some people were saying i don't know i don't know how those guys are gonna play together two ball dominant guys it's like what
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
So here's what I compare Scottie Barnes to. I compare it to the deal that Wiggins got off of his rookie extension. Where Glenn Taylor said that... Well, Andrew Wiggins promised me that he was going to work his ass off in the offseason, and so I gave him the max contract extension. He hasn't put it on the court that he's worth that, but he promised me. He gave me his word.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
I think if Scott – I look at his deal like that. You look at the talent, where they drafted him, the idea that they're just not going to give him a max extension I think would have been problematic for their management. And I'm like, in a few years, can Scottie Barnes be the finishing piece
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
Even at a slightly inflated or vastly inflated, according to Joe Howe's contract, could he help a winner elevate their situation the way Wiggins did for the Warriors? I think he could, potentially. That's why I'm not so, so down on the deal. When he's a fourth banana. Okay, I'll keep my eye on it. A $50 million fourth banana.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
Hey, man, I just came back from the grocery store. It's not that far off, I'll tell you that much.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
What is happening? You know what's so funny, Bill, is that when I looked, I looked at Kawhi's contract, but I looked at it next to Paul George's, and I was like, yeah. Not so bad. And plus, like, he's been playing so well recently. I'm like, ah. But you're right, though. It is.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
He just straight up does not play. And that's what makes the deal.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
He looked better than Paul George.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
My next contract is like this. I feel like this contract goes under the radar because this franchise is just known for ineptitude, basically. But it doesn't get talked about enough. And to me, this contract just signals like everything this franchise is about. And it's Patrick Williams of the Bulls.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
Like this dude is going to make $18 million per year until 2029. And like, he's never been good. He's not good now. And like what, there was no reason to do this.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
Everything about this guy has been theoretical. It's like, oh, look at the body and the 3ND, and it's just never, ever materialized. And it's just what the Bulls do. Nothing they've done. Aside from finally, thankfully, moving on from Zach Levine makes any sense whatsoever. But are we even sure that they're even going down the rebuilding? you know, path.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
We don't even know if that's the case, man. But like the, the Patrick, as soon as they inked this, it was like, what are they doing? Like, why would you do this?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
Dude, for the season, he's shooting 37.5%. He can't shoot. From the field, guys. He's 6'8".
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
He was a good player. I thought Miami made a great pickup.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
He's 31 on St. Patrick's day.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
Wait, is this for the extension that Nico Harrison is going to eventually give him this summer?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
Next season is done.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
And again, I think Dallas was good. They were basically going to be over a barrel this summer. Oh, they would have maxed him. They would have maxed him a max extension for four years, which would have been kind of insane.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
But now they could probably wheeze a lot of that. And so maybe that'll be a mitigating factor in the next deal. But yeah, he's not playing next year.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
He said he wanted them to exhibit the work habits of one Shaquille O'Neal. That was tough. Am I up now?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
This is kind of easy for me, to be honest. And it's Brandon Ingram. Another guy who nobody... They tried to trade this guy for two straight years. Basically, David Griffin was like, bro, we're not paying you a penny over your current salary. Like, it's not going to happen. They fought and they fought and fought. Nobody would take this guy. Golden State needed a forward. It wouldn't take him.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
It was like, no, thank you. Everybody said, no, thank you. And then, of course, like... The Raptors, for reasons I still don't understand, traded for the guy, gave him the extension, three years, $140 million. And then, you know, right after, my guy Jake Fisher is like, yo, they're probably going to trade RJ Barrett next summer. Like, what was the point of this? I don't get it.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
He's not a fit next to Scottie Barnes. He never plays any defense despite, you know, the physical tools and the profile. He's always just been a kind of like, give me the ball, let me cook, and not going to elevate a single thing around me. Hates taking spot up threes. I don't understand the trade. I don't understand this deal. I don't understand what Masai Ujiri has done basically since 2019.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
120, sorry, not 40.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
Whoa, whoa, whoa. Jackson Hayes dropped 20 points in the first half.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
You have to pay the money. You have to. He definitely made my list, but it's like, you're the Nuggets. This guy's been a part of the greatest team in the history of your franchise. You drafted the guy. They love the guy. If the Nuggets make another finals run or two, I think this is completely justified to keep the era going and all of that.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
I'm not going to lie, House. Some of these Jamal Murray box scores to start the season, definitely my eyebrow was raised for a while. The performance with Team Canada in the goddamn Olympics, that was scary stuff for me. But as of lately, he's dropping 50 on guys. He's looking spry. I love it. I'm feeling more confident. But yeah, it's scary when you think about his injury history.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
I don't think so. I don't think that's a fair characterization.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
Yes, 100%. I think so. I think Rudy was the anchor of by far the league's best defense last year. he was key to beating Joker in the playoffs.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
I mean, it was a trio, but Rudy played a major part in sort of like keeping Joker contained. They win that in a dogfight, you know, seven game series.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
They justify it by saying, look, $35 million, that's probably the going rate for starting centers. This guy's always been an Ironman in terms of playing. Takes his conditioning and his body really super seriously to stay on the court. I understand the pick, Bill.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
I think Rudy's going to stick around. The idea that they had a three-center rotation last year is just an anomaly. Like, you can't keep three centers who are basically paid their market value on your roster when all of them are basically kind of starter caliber. So... I don't know. I think they figure out how to make the Nas Reid thing work. I'm just not as disgusted by the Rudy deal.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
And I guess I've kind of become a Rudy convert, man. I just think a lot of this stuff does get a little bit underrated.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
He's expensive, but I'm not.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
Another one I take no joy from this, but DeJounte Murray, after this year, he's got three years at about 32 per. Coming off of an Achilles injury, and it's just, it's tough. You tear your Achilles... Yeah, guard. And you're like one of your main strengths is basically your athleticism, your shiftiness. Yeah, I'm not seeing it for him. And the deal is tough.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
I think this is going to end up being a bad deal for New Orleans, man.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
That's the new duo though. But no, LeBron seems to have a pep in his step. He had a chase down block the other day where I'm just like, this guy's now back to chase down blocking people. I loved it. They smartly decided that, no, Luka Doncic is the point guard, the orchestrator. We'll just work around, I don't know, one of the three best players in the NBA. And they've been rewarded for that.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
Well, he's on the opposite of a bad contract. That's an amazing contract they got for Peyton Pritchard right now.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
This is pretty easy for me, and it sucks, but it's Grant Williams. This guy has three for 41. Yeah, and he's just not an NBA player anymore. Straight up. Doesn't play. He's just done.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
Next year, even when he was playing and he was getting ticked this season, it was pretty disastrous. He was another Nico Harrison sort of unearthing. Just never, never panned out. Yeah, Grant Williams. I think he's done.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
And the J.J. Redick stuff is absolutely working. Every time the Lakers social media account posts one of his post-game speeches, I know it's bullshit, but I'm bought in. I'm like, I'm ready to run through a wall for this guy. It's amazing to watch what the Lakers have been doing.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
I don't want to draw the ire of this fan base, but for me, it's the minus, the bonus.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
You do this every year. This guy is just overpaying. You do it every year. Like, I think the team's limitations are based on their commitment to this dude playing center, where just, like, straight up, you cannot guard the paint. Shout out to Doug Christie. He's changed up the game plan to make it just straight up. Everybody just packs the paint, and we allow teams to shoot threes now. That's it.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
We cannot guard the paint with DeMondis and Sabonis at center. And they just committed to it, and I get it. He gets rebounds. He's a great guy. I get it, all of that. But, like, this guy is just not worth what they're paying him.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
If you're another team and you've identified Sabonis as somebody you want, why? Why do you want him at that number?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
Okay. Thank you.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
He's like the center version of Ben Simmons would have panned out.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
You're going to regret this in the playoffs.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
It's been a rough year in Orlando, man.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
Come on, man.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
Not what he was brought in to do.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
Great locker room guy.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
Ah, man, now I'm starting to get into guys that I really actually like as players.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
This is tough. I think the Jalen Green deal is a tough one. Just the up and down, inconsistent nature of his game, man. Two weeks, he's up. Three weeks, he's down.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
Yep, with a play option at the end of it.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
Yeah, we try to get them a superstar.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
And I think the ultimate indictment of Jalen Green and the deal is that Fred Van Vliet goes down and the offense just goes into the tank because they don't have a creator. Yeah. who can effectively get them into decent offense. And it's like Jalen Green, like you're right here. Like you should be stepping up here.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
I really like Jalen Green.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
Stop it. Get the hell out of here.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
They're conserving his body for the postseason, folks. Chill.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
Okay. Not mad at it.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
This hurts me because he's one of my favorite players in the league, but it's OG Ananobi.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
It's a huge deal with a guy who has an extensive injury history, especially muscle injuries, which tend to happen with a lot of overusage, which... Newsflash, he plays for Tom Thibodeau. Ask Luol Deng about that. Love OG. I love watching OG play. I love his approach to the game. But this is so much money for a guy who doesn't create his own shot ever. He's not some great distributor.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
It's like, man, this is a lot.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
Literally a hill of beans.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
Yeah, he should be. Zach Collins definitely should be.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
Drew Holiday 4 for 134 I thought about it and another guy that's got like a fucked up finger that I thought about is Bam Adebayo he's having a horrible season everybody thought this was going to be a breakout year particularly on offense that just straight up has not happened he's got a sterling reputation amongst people in our profession so he won't get killed in like the media but like he's been a disappointment well we've hit the end
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
Probably Sacramento.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
You lit a fire in the ass.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
Vitamin D. He's going to be getting a Hailey Bieber from Erdogan. Is that what you're saying?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
This is why I disagree with you, House, is when's the last time Katie was happy somewhere?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
So, like, the guy's just been, you know, perpetually unhappy. Like, everybody remembers that last year in Golden State. Like, people think this Budenholzer thing is, like, out of left field. It's like, go look at the last year in Golden State. Like, this guy was miserable. A lot of people described it as morose. for an entire season, for the best team in the league by far, right?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
Obviously, the Brooklyn thing blew up. And look, I've kind of defended what Jimmy did because it's just like, look, you guys don't want to pay me. After I basically overachieved my entire tenure here, I'm blowing this thing up. Like, it was ugly, but he got the right outcome for himself and his career. He got his money in Golden State, and now he's on a team that I think is as scary as anyone.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
And it's specifically because they got Jimmy Butler. The defense is taking another step. And Jimmy is just seamlessly fitting to the offense, which I kind of thought would be the case because he played in a similar offense in Miami around, you know, Tyler here on Duncan Robinson getting free on the three point line. Now it's Steph Curry.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
Is destruction, you know, a ninth seed in the play-in or potentially an eighth? Is that destruction?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
Would you agree with that? I would say the Spurs are the first ones out, for sure.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
And I will probably go Sacramento, but I understand the Suns skepticism for sure.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
I think the theory that you replace Luka's production or lack of production because he's not on the floor with AD, who's like, you know, played at an all-star starter level damn near the whole year and you become this defensive juggernaut. I think the theory is sound there, specifically in the regular season. If they're just like, you know, a really hard nose, like we grind out games defensively.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
Team in the regular season. That, I don't buy it as a playoff proposition. They did get the better Martin, brother. Yeah. They won something. Unfortunately, Boston doesn't play in this conference, so I don't know how good Caleb Martin can be. I just think... Not what they needed, by the way.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
I just think a motivated Jimmy actually fitting a Golden State need, meaning somebody who can do something off the dribble that isn't Steph Curry and, you know, can play defense, even though he's not what he used to be at all. He used to be an ace defender. He's not that, but he's way more than competent. And just the motivational factor.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
I think the FU Jimmy factor is going to be at a very high level. And, you know, Draymond, super competitive guy. I understand why the odds are such.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
A couple of things that I love about the deal. One, it pays deference to the end of the Steph era. So Jimmy's deal basically coincides with... you know, Steph Steele to Jimmy Butler is a maniac. He's going to be extremely motivated and he's an upgrade to what Andrew, you can say whatever you want. He is a clear talent upgrade to Andrew Wiggins sort of Sometimes here, sometimes there, whatever.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
And then third, I like that it just clarifies the Kaminga stuff because with these young guys, we see it all the time. When they're in these trade rumors for an entire season, it's like, all right, that's now been clarified. You're going to be here. This is what the team looks like. Let's go. I'm really high on this for Golden State.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
He can't put a team on his back. No, it's not. 2022 final, Steph is not.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
We just turned Jimmy Butler into Andrew Wiggins. I mean, how do you... It's like if you're playing a game of chicken against a guy who's willing to die, like, how do you win? Right? Like, I just don't know... He's Dom Toretto in every Fast and Furious movie. He's not going to flinch. I'm coming right at you. He's willing to do it. So, like, how do you win versus that? And...
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
And again, I personally wouldn't have carried it the way Jimmy did. The way he's obviously looking at it is like this is literally his last payday ever in the NBA, major payday. And he's looking at it like, I have to do whatever I have to do to make sure I secure that win. And unfortunately, it got ugly. And I can understand feeling entitled. It got ugly. It was like got disfigured.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
Yeah, it was bad. It was like Vanilla Sky, Tom Cruise face level ugly. And I've been carrying Jimmy Water just in the sense that he's overachieved. He was an A-plus player for Miami for what they did when they got him, what the expectation was and what he actually delivered.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
And for him to feel like, yo, why won't you place faith in me that I'm going to over-deliver again as I've done my entire tenure year? Yeah. Like him being like, yo, this is a slap in the face.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
Ware's been good for like a month.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
Ware is very good.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
There's definitely going to be an annoying team to play against. I just think this version of Boston is just too... Oh, I'm not worried about them for Boston.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
They definitely have a bunch of solid rotation guys. It's just like, who individually are you scared of in a series? What do you think Terry Rozier would bet on?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
He hasn't played on an actual NBA team for five years. This is year five in NBA Siberia. He had his choice. That was his choice. He had options to leave and play for competitive teams, for example.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
Maybe he was looking out for a better championship situation. I just think in 2020 on the Lakers, he was the ultimate role guy.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
Yes. It's 2020. He was the ultimate role guy. Again, the last two good players he played with were Brad Bill and who? Is this... Bob Carrington?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
Listen, it's a defensive Kyle Kuzma monologue. Great cutter. Great cutter. Not a great shooter, but can make open shots when called upon. Okay? How about terrible shooter? He's shooting like 27% for free this year. I would say his shot quality has been horrible on a team that's going nowhere. He has shown no professional pride whatsoever this season.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
He looks like... He looks like he is on autopilot. I just think it's different when you play on a team that's actually playing for something.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
The Wizards basketball situation is hell. It's bad. It's hard.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
Move. But that bad. He's got two bad ankles.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
But was there a Chris Middleton-esque guy out there?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
Chris Middleton this year, guys, has been a non-entity.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
Kuzma can play four for these guys next to Giannis or next to Brooke if you need him to. And again, like, I think that role play junkyard dog guy is still in there.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
One last thing, because I think the Kuzma thing is going to work. When Team USA was assembled last summer, Kuzma, who's like an outspoken Twitter guy, he's like, yo, these guys are big NBA players and names, but somebody's going to have to fill a role. Somebody's going to have to do these dirty work things. And Devin Booker famously said, I will, or whatever, quote, or whatever.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
This is Kuzma explains to you, I understand what it means to be on a team that's trying to do something meaningful. It was five years ago.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
Look, Rashawn Rondo is on that team. COVID, COVID, it just happened. I think, I think Doc as a coach. Joe Biden was alive. Is the kind of guy who will curse you out for not doing the right thing in terms of playing your role, playing next to Giannis. I'll go the other way.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
And in three, four weeks when this thing is actually working. So we disagree.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
So is Jordan Poole an Orlando Magic candidate?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
And GMs, you know they fall in love with their young guys. So it's not that surprising that they still think, you know, all of these guys are going to come through in a major way. Jalen Suggs going down, I think, is just underrated in how... It's really hurt them a lot.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
Who knew?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
It's two things. It's two things. It's terrible. So nobody's going to convince me that this doesn't cost players money. People say, well, no, the basketball revenue is guaranteed and teams have to spend to a floor.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
Yeah, no, that's cool. But like teams going beyond above and beyond.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
What is called for is more money in the player pool. And now teams will just say we don't have that option because of these things. And the reason why the players agree to it is that the new CBA kicked in and they 2X the money. So when you're making all this money, it's like, why are we going to bat for this?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
We're richer than we've ever been by two and a half times X. And so that situation converged to let the owners get this. And it's literally so that Joe Lacob could forever just be like, you know, his first five, six years just always spending way over the cap and always going into the luxury tax. Now he could go to his fan base without any retribution and say, guys, Second apron out.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
The owner is just literally like, oh, God, we're never going to have to do this again. Oh, my goodness.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
And nobody can explain to me what problem it was solving. What was solved by this in terms of selling it?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
That's one of your surrogate teams. Yeah, for sure. Especially when Jalen Johnson wasn't injured. But Hunter, I think this year has most often looked like the version of him that's been sold to us basically since he's been drafted, right?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
Look, first week of the season, the Strother talk, even the Christian Brown stuff. I was like, Zeke Najee. I was like, Zeke Najee made a couple of threes the other day. And I was like, what the hell is going on? I was just like, guys, I get it. You love your young guys and whatever.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
So maybe they will be vindicated, but you're right, Bill. I would have loved to see them do something like a bogey thing. I was excited when they were in the Zach Levine sweepstakes, allegedly.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
Like this big physical guy who, you know, is really toolsy, but every now and again will make a shot and even create his own shot, which, you know, takes him past the three and D sort of element. The D has been hit or miss his whole career. And even his shooting has been sort of hit and miss. But this year, he's actually making shots. 39% from three.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
Back when I was just, again, applauding everything the Nuggets did, I just swore Bones was going to be a person.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
He was complaining that he wasn't getting enough tick on a team that had Nikoli Okic.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
Tough. And now he's about to be on his third team.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
Yeah, I get the idea that they're not keeping their pick. It's like, why are you losing and giving them a better pick? It's like, that's gone. It's out the door. We got to do what's right for our team.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
I, it's tough. I remember when Masai was, you know, he was like a GM free agent and it was like, is he going to New York? Is he going to this? And, you know, there was rumors that he got equity in the Raptors and all of this stuff. And like to use all of that cachet and literal equity and goodwill to do this with the Raptors since he re-signed with them. It's just so rudderless and directionless.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
That's what I think attracted him to the Cavaliers. Did you guys see the Cavs sell out the game the other night?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
And I get it. Brandon Ingram's a good player. I understand why you would want him on his team. But like, what is the idea or the theory of the Raptors?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
That's not Brandon Ingram.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
So here's the... It's like, you know, Brandon Ingram is going to feel a way about New Orleans not paying him because he feels like he's accomplished stuff there. And there's like so much stuff. There's a sort of entitlement there. But then, you know, you go a whole year and a half basically where nobody wants you.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
I think he comes into that contract negotiation with the Raptors with a little bit more humility. I'm sure that's probably what they're banking on where he doesn't think he's a five year maximum contract player.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
It'll probably be like a three year.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
Does his space.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
Which the Raptors need.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
The talent doesn't fit at all. But, you know, again, another lanky, rangy guy who they love, but he's never used his tools for good. It's fake size, and he doesn't guard.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
He absolutely is ball stopper-ative. He's ball stoppiest.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
That's brutal.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
This is the first year that it's felt like a great deal. That's the crazy thing.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
I mentioned this because none of those guys are on the team. Yes. That's the thing. None of them. I just, and I've said this a couple of times. I remember it's being at summer league in 2019 after they traded AD draft Zion, who looks like he's going to be the next LeBron James. Yeah. And I remember seeing Griff at summer league and there was an aura emanating from him.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
Everybody wanted to bend this guy's ears like, my God, Griff, he's done it. They are on their way. They got all these picks and their young guys are cost control and blah and this and there's so much versatility and oh my, New Orleans is it. And what's come of this AD trade? One frisky first round series.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
Yeah, I think Hunter's another one of those guys like like Rui who looks the part where it's like, oh, he's this big physical guy and we could get him to guard Tatum and Brown. But like in practice, he's just an offensive player. He's never been a defensive force at any point, maybe in moments and possessions at a time. You'd be like, wow, if he could just tap into that always.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
And then the perils of the max contract era is that when you have your own guy and he's clearly one of your best players, there's a pressure to pay him a max deal, which he'll be in the same pay grade as guys that are just clearly much better. Bonafide All-Stars and Ingram and even Siakam, like these are high quality players. Are they max players? But the way the system is set up, like you...
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
have to pay these guys in accordance to this freaking pay scale. Well, think about this.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
We thought they were clearly going to be above playing range. Like they'd be in the six, maybe even five range. Their over-under was like 45 and a half. Yeah. So it is lower now. Like it is idiots on New Orleans coming into this year.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
And so that's why I feel like he's available for, you know, a Karis Levert and second round picks were famously, you know,
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
And it doesn't fit because it would have made sense basketball wise, which is just generally not what KD does. He doesn't do the basketball thing except for Golden State. Like that's been the only time that he put the thing on the floor first. And he didn't really care for the results in terms of his own personal happiness, as he said earlier.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
This crazy owner, no picks. It's almost you fit the thing like a glove. Obviously, KD's good enough to do all the ball movement stuff, but that's not what Golden State would be asking him to do. They'd be asking him to be KD. Again, just get the ball and cook people, and Steph and everybody else will work around it.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
But again, I can understand not wanting to go back and do the same thing and wanting to maybe – If Phoenix isn't what you ultimately end up doing in terms of signing an extension with, exploring some different option that makes you a lot happier. And I think Phoenix's whole thing has always been with trading all these picks and this and the future's done.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
If we want to, we'll do a fire sale for KD and Booker, try to get a bunch of picks back and just move on with our lives. That's what it feels like the Phoenix thing is.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
Yeah. People don't remember this, Bill. That's why you're Bill Simmons. I'm not Bill Simmons. I'm Conspiracy Bill.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
People don't remember. And I was like at the time, there was a bit of a whisper campaign of what's up with KD? What's taking him so long? He should be back already. Like he looks good when we see him in practice, when we see him in the gym, blah, blah, blah. He's going to be a free agent. He doesn't want to risk it. And it was a whisper campaign. He came back.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
And then Torres freaking Achilles and Bob Myers is crying at the news conference and all of that. And I always thought that was like, man, damn, we did kind of say he was, you know, loafing and taking too long. Another great appearance from Conspiracy Bill. That was great. What a cameo by him. There's something to it.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
I'm sure you've gotten a few of the conspiracies with the Luka situation.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
I mean, the Fox thing, I think, was cool in a couple of ways because a lot of people felt like the Spurs should hold out for a better superstar. But and I said this on our podcast, it's almost like your friend who like is addicted to Tinder and is like a nice girl who wants him and wants to settle with him.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
But he's like, yeah, but I got these five other hot chicks on Tinder that might want to mess with me. It's like, no, get with the girl that's like a nice girl. Good looking girl wants to be with you. Settle up with that one.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
You're very buttoned up today. You got the cardigan going. The Spurs knocking in on not just De'Aaron Fox as a talent, but like temperamentally. He's a Spurs kind of player in terms of his headspace, his approach to the game. He's just not an NBA diva. He's about the right things. And I thought they were smart to just be like, you know what? It's not going to cost us a ton to bring this guy in.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
Yes, some people might look at the extension like, you're going to pay him $48 million? I would. I think he's a top 30 guy.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
To me, I'm okay. Also, he wanted to be in a small market Texas team, which is pretty rare. Go get him. And I'm happy they did that.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
I mean, their owner just doesn't like... The idea of a complete teardown and rebuild. And so other people might have been like, look, Fox has been our franchise player for how long? We built everything around him. We moved Halliburton out of here because of him and our belief in him. And he no longer wants to be here. All right, let's start all over. See if we can get some bonus offers out there.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
Let's start all over. Do something different.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
And Sabonis, like, who trades for Sabonis? I feel like he's way more valuable to them than he would be to some other team. That could be true. That could be true.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
I was literally about to scream it, Bill. That's what it looks like.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
Is there a team that you are surprised hasn't done anything yet? Definitely the Magic, most surprised, because they're so rudderless right now. And the idea that you wouldn't try to spruce that thing up is tough. I think the Knicks are really counting on Mitchell Robinson coming back and being that anchor. They really need him.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
Why is nobody going to scoop Clint Capella? Is this an injury history thing?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
Yeah, Magic should have probably tried to do something. I get it. They can be patient. Their guys are still young and all of that stuff, and they feel like they're building towards something. But the Magic should have done something. I'm always going to think the Denver Nuggets should have upgraded.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
Something like that? I think it's the... So is the tank in motion now, Wes? Of course. I think the tank has been in motion once they decided that, like,
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
And he's already $30. I think he's on trade about that number. It's one of those things where guys on bad teams, I feel like you get in the right situation that's actually playing for something. You can change the contours of what you do on a night-to-night basis if it's for some greater good.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
He's definitely one of the greatest heat ever.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
That's a different thing. The Bulls basically had... What was it, 30 games in Lonzo's first year?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
And Sacramento's been that good. Capella's not, I don't know. Like, if you need big man help.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
If you need big man help, why are you breaking the bank to me? And I know we're saving it for the second half for Mark Williams. Save it for the second half. Where you could do something for Clint Capella just for this year.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
Katie to the Grizzlies is a Katie move.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
Katie to the Grizzlies is a Katie move. Because they have the stars already, so he won't feel like the burden is all on him.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
For the season. And Hunter's been there for so long. He's been there long enough to get a rookie extension. He's not new. So in a certain sense, he's a known commodity for them. So I can understand him being like, look, this thing has run its course. Let's get at least something out of this. And we're not the type of team where...
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
I thought you were a cop of any of it. I was like, I was confused. No, he's going to recognize the burden will not be all on him. And so he can go in and just do KD things. Just come in. Plus he can take over the offense.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
Listen, it also would be very bittersweet. Ja's just trying to save himself for the playoffs. Has Ja played four games in a row? I don't think so yet.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
This is the perfect compliment I could play to Grizzlies and I get it. I'm in the tank for them. Even when John's not playing, I still want to watch that team. The Jaron Jackson Jr.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
But if it was like... Damn, who's playing point guard for them?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
Also, if you're going to do that, man, get somebody who's in their twenties, even if it's their late twenties, get somebody in there. Don't get a 38 year old, man.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
He's really good. Because his stats. Oh, his stats are insane.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
where we're winning so much and he helps as this sort of ancillary part that will, you know, help us out, fill in the blanks rotation-wise. It's just like, let's get something for him. We're going into this mega youth movement or whatever.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
only thing he doesn't do anymore is turn the corner on guys he's not getting to the cup the way like prime KD like that was what made it unstoppable but he still gets to the cup and he can elevate hey we have a trade sir Shams yet again Shams just dancing in Woj's wake just having a great time
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
And then you have to calm yourself down. No, he gets to the basket, man. He has moments where he looks like an above average NBA athlete. Like where it's like, man, this guy has some physical gifts in terms of quickness and all of that.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
Next year is his last year. $21 million. $21 million for Marcus Smart. So...
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
And it was like, holy shit. Two zipped to the nuggets and came back and tied the series up.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
Yeah, and to what end, right? Like, I guess, yeah, the Hawks pick is definitely valuable. Like, I could see it landing, what are they, probably like in the 10 range or something like that. Which, you know, of course is a valuable pick.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
But at the same time, when the guy says that he wants to go to San Antonio, San Antonio is clearly positioned to sign the guy outright if and when they need to or have to. And it's like... The closer he gets to his free agency, the less valuable he becomes. I do wonder how much leverage they have in a situation to be like, screw that, you're giving me this. Because the Spurs season was going fine.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
Like, they could make the argument that, like, look, we don't need to bring Fox in right now. We like the way our young guys are coalescing around Wemby. The Chris Paul thing is worked out. Knock on wood, he hasn't even been hurt. And so there's no rush on our end. So they definitely could credibly say we could walk away from the table.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
Yeah.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
It was worthy until Saturday happened. I think without Saturday, we'd definitely treat it as a monumental trade. Jimmy Butler's teaming up with Steph Curry and Draymond. That whole saga ends. It's a story. It's a jolt to the Warrior season. It's just after Luka Doncic. We're broken. We're broken.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
Is that worth it?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
So here's the thing.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
So here's the thing. The sons had agreed in principle to give him two extra years on top of what he already had in the bank. That would be tampering if they did that. What do you mean?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
Well, all of these reports about tell Golden State no or tell this person to go away or whatever, it's like holding out hope that Phoenix could somehow, by some miracle, get Bradley Beal out of there so they could bring Jimmy in and actually give him that extra year. Once that became... Not a possibility. It's like, all right, cool. We'll settle for Golden State.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
I want to get the hell out of Miami. It's only one year added. My agent's framing it as 120. It's really like 111. But whatever. You know, I think he was just really holding out for that extra year that Phoenix had promised him.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
Bradley Beal, it's just like at a certain point, Jimmy, it's worth it to take this to the summer. If Bradley Beal, who has a no trade clause, okay? It's not even just like, all right, we get Bradley Beal. It's like if something comes up, we could use this guy to move or whatever. He's still a good player.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
He's not worth the fifth highest salary in the NBA, but he's still somebody who can play, who can help a team. It's not the end of the world. Bradley Beal, where he gets to dictate terms... to the team that he gets traded to, it just makes absolutely no sense.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
You literally can't trade him.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: NBA Trade Deadline Reactions With Rob Mahoney and Wosny Lambre
No, he's still somebody who contributes. And I would say he could contribute to winning. It's just when you're paying somebody like that, you would hope he's like your on-ball guy, your shot creator.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Is the NBA Too Afraid of Football? Plus, Jets Dysfunction and Million-Dollar Picks With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Peter Schrager
I mean, that was just misery in terms of selling this product and being like, these are compelling guys, interesting people, great athletes. This man went up there and said he loves his mom, his son, and he hoops really hard. Like, It's just not going to work. And, you know, again, and I'll say this again, their most popular young guy was who? Ja Morant. Right, yeah, we talked about all this.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Is the NBA Too Afraid of Football? Plus, Jets Dysfunction and Million-Dollar Picks With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Peter Schrager
And bottom line is Nike and them did not get their hooks into him and turn him into a corporate product since he was 12 years old like they have the rest of these guys. These dudes are so anodyne. They don't say or do or look – Nothing is interesting about these guys. I enjoy watching them hoop. As people, I'm completely uninspired. There's just nothing there.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Is the NBA Too Afraid of Football? Plus, Jets Dysfunction and Million-Dollar Picks With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Peter Schrager
And, you know, again, the guys who are willing to be a little bit out there and different don't comport with how the league sees itself. Like how's this guy Kyle Kuzma? Hey, Kyle Kuzma is willing to say stuff in public. That's what I like that about Kuzma. He's willing to say shit. These other guys, like, I don't know, man. They're just so afraid. There's too much money at stake. Any backlash.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Is the NBA Too Afraid of Football? Plus, Jets Dysfunction and Million-Dollar Picks With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Peter Schrager
Yeah. They don't want to jeopardize it.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Is the NBA Too Afraid of Football? Plus, Jets Dysfunction and Million-Dollar Picks With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Peter Schrager
Yeah, the thing about more cup games, it will make it so that it makes it easier for the best teams to actually play in the further rounds to actually advance. And so you probably wouldn't get an Atlanta in there, although I love watching Atlanta.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Is the NBA Too Afraid of Football? Plus, Jets Dysfunction and Million-Dollar Picks With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Peter Schrager
Hey, that's fair. And yeah, again, I do think... you know, fixing the window that they put it in. But to me, it's like, it's a promotion issue. Like Adam Silver needs to get his Don King hat on. Like this guy's just not a promoter. He does not know. They just don't know. And maybe it's the networks. I don't know. You know what I mean? They don't know how to eventize these products.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Is the NBA Too Afraid of Football? Plus, Jets Dysfunction and Million-Dollar Picks With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Peter Schrager
And that to me is the main issue. People don't see these things as essential viewing. They know the season is 82 games long. They know that effectively a loss in January is just like ho-hum. Who cares? Every single game doesn't matter. And the league just needs to be better, more effective at promoting their product, getting people to feel like this is essential.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Is the NBA Too Afraid of Football? Plus, Jets Dysfunction and Million-Dollar Picks With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Peter Schrager
Because the idea that people aren't interested in the NBA, I think, is BS. I think plenty of people are still interested. Obviously, like the highlights, the recaps, they do numbers online. People still want to know about the results and all of that stuff. It's just the NBA needs to impress upon people that these games are worthy of their time, worthy of their commitment.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Is the NBA Too Afraid of Football? Plus, Jets Dysfunction and Million-Dollar Picks With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Peter Schrager
I kind of do at this point. He's got a Dyson Daniels bedspread. So I'm also like a bit of a radical thinker on the schedule and stuff. One, I think, I don't even think 70 is enough of a cut. I think it should be literally round robin. You play each team one time at home, one time away, two times a week. So like 60.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Is the NBA Too Afraid of Football? Plus, Jets Dysfunction and Million-Dollar Picks With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Peter Schrager
That's it. One in one.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Is the NBA Too Afraid of Football? Plus, Jets Dysfunction and Million-Dollar Picks With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Peter Schrager
And that's the point. All of these owners who were told are the most visionary business people ever because they ran some hedge fund, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. They can't figure out how...
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Is the NBA Too Afraid of Football? Plus, Jets Dysfunction and Million-Dollar Picks With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Peter Schrager
this extra shortfall in money that they got from this big, big ass 11 year contract from all of these networks, as house mentioned, how reducing inventory and making it more scarce, they can't figure out a way to monetize that. I find that to be just, just baffling. It does.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Is the NBA Too Afraid of Football? Plus, Jets Dysfunction and Million-Dollar Picks With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Peter Schrager
And also I'm a bit radical on league pads. I think we should abolish it.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Is the NBA Too Afraid of Football? Plus, Jets Dysfunction and Million-Dollar Picks With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Peter Schrager
I haven't heard this. Look, if you have to watch the NBA for work, if people say, oh, that's self-serving for you, Woz, whatever. I'm just saying, if people have to watch it for work, all right, we'll give you League Pass. If you want access to it, we're charging you a crazy premium, which to me, that means like whenever people want to watch the NBA, they got to watch it with the league's partners.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Is the NBA Too Afraid of Football? Plus, Jets Dysfunction and Million-Dollar Picks With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Peter Schrager
I like I don't see what's so bad about that as an idea, because, again, I grew up in a context of no league pass and was completely fine with Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and NBA on NBC. Like, I don't know.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Is the NBA Too Afraid of Football? Plus, Jets Dysfunction and Million-Dollar Picks With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Peter Schrager
Yeah, you get your own team in your market. Yeah, just like how the Jets and Giants got forced down my throat when I was living in New York.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Is the NBA Too Afraid of Football? Plus, Jets Dysfunction and Million-Dollar Picks With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Peter Schrager
Bill, no, we're not giving them three other teams. So that's it. You're going hardcore. You watch your local team and you watch your national team. Okay? There's two days a week that NBA games are on.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Is the NBA Too Afraid of Football? Plus, Jets Dysfunction and Million-Dollar Picks With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Peter Schrager
Yeah, that's it. That's it. That's it. And also... They do need to do something about the bootlegs. I was talking to somebody who works in this sort of area in terms of how young people consume sports, specifically the NBA. Like, how it was explained to me, it's like how people of my age viewed Napster.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Is the NBA Too Afraid of Football? Plus, Jets Dysfunction and Million-Dollar Picks With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Peter Schrager
Where it's just like, once we found Napster and LimeWire and all this other stuff, we literally stopped believing in the concept that we would go to Sam Goody and buy a CD. It's like, no, I get this for free. I'm not paying for it. I don't have an ESPN subscription. I damn sure don't want a discovery. I am just pilfering an illegal stream. They need to find something to do about that.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Is the NBA Too Afraid of Football? Plus, Jets Dysfunction and Million-Dollar Picks With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Peter Schrager
And I know I can hear people right now saying, how many people could possibly be streaming stuff this way? I'm telling you, it's a sizable amount of folks.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Is the NBA Too Afraid of Football? Plus, Jets Dysfunction and Million-Dollar Picks With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Peter Schrager
Dude, and Doc said this in the pregame availability. He said one of the cooler things about this is we had time to prepare for our opponent. Almost like a playoff game. Again, everything gets better when we're not stuffing all of these freaking games together, playing three games in five nights in three cities. This is a no-brainer schedule. It's a no-brainer.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Is the NBA Too Afraid of Football? Plus, Jets Dysfunction and Million-Dollar Picks With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Peter Schrager
Everything would be better with less games. So maybe they'll give some of the money back.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Is the NBA Too Afraid of Football? Plus, Jets Dysfunction and Million-Dollar Picks With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Peter Schrager
Wow.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Is the NBA Too Afraid of Football? Plus, Jets Dysfunction and Million-Dollar Picks With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Peter Schrager
His dog's teams just don't practice generally.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Is the NBA Too Afraid of Football? Plus, Jets Dysfunction and Million-Dollar Picks With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Peter Schrager
I'm fine with Vegas, but they need to figure out a mechanism by which they can get the fans of the actual teams in those buildings. I don't know. I haven't really put too much thought as to how they would go about doing this. Again, I'm biased like you guys. I love Vegas. So I think it's a great place to host something like this past weekend. It was also the freaking rodeo championships.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Is the NBA Too Afraid of Football? Plus, Jets Dysfunction and Million-Dollar Picks With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Peter Schrager
Shania Twain had a concert. There were cowboy hats. Entertainment! It's just a great place to host an event.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Is the NBA Too Afraid of Football? Plus, Jets Dysfunction and Million-Dollar Picks With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Peter Schrager
Yeah, and we can make the tweak be, if we're going to spread it out, we can make the tweak be the semis end up being home arenas. And then the final, you know, you make it, not only do you make it, you know, the destination or whatever it is, there's enough space. Because I don't know why the semis and the finals have to be so freaking close to each other.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Is the NBA Too Afraid of Football? Plus, Jets Dysfunction and Million-Dollar Picks With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Peter Schrager
Like, they don't do that in the Champions League.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Is the NBA Too Afraid of Football? Plus, Jets Dysfunction and Million-Dollar Picks With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Peter Schrager
The PJs.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Is the NBA Too Afraid of Football? Plus, Jets Dysfunction and Million-Dollar Picks With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Peter Schrager
There is no trade deadline that's relevant anymore.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Is the NBA Too Afraid of Football? Plus, Jets Dysfunction and Million-Dollar Picks With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Peter Schrager
Again, I feel like I'm always bashing Adam Silver. Like, the guy did a good job. He went and enriched the players and the owners with this new TV deal. He is an absolute magnet for corporate money. Like, they invented the NBA Cup. The next year, they're like, oh, we got the Emirates. The Emiratis are paying for it. Like, he is a master at that. But this whole thing about...
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Is the NBA Too Afraid of Football? Plus, Jets Dysfunction and Million-Dollar Picks With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Peter Schrager
We want to be like football and have parity. And so let's make it impossible for good teams to stack talent. And trade's just an impossibility now. This was a mistake, guys. It was a mistake.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Is the NBA Too Afraid of Football? Plus, Jets Dysfunction and Million-Dollar Picks With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Peter Schrager
I picked the Dallas Mavericks before the season. I don't know if I've unleashed this take on you. I saw the Celtics as the 2016 Warriors, coming off a championship, smoking everybody all regular season, faced the Cavs in the finals the year before, just like the Mavericks. I think the Mavericks and the Celtics are going to rematch.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Is the NBA Too Afraid of Football? Plus, Jets Dysfunction and Million-Dollar Picks With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Peter Schrager
in the finals, and Luka Doncic, like LeBron before him, is going to find a way to win his first NBA championship, y'all.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Is the NBA Too Afraid of Football? Plus, Jets Dysfunction and Million-Dollar Picks With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Peter Schrager
I love it.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Is the NBA Too Afraid of Football? Plus, Jets Dysfunction and Million-Dollar Picks With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Peter Schrager
I need to see the first SGA moment.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Is the NBA Too Afraid of Football? Plus, Jets Dysfunction and Million-Dollar Picks With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Peter Schrager
I mean, I was only there for the semifinals. I got back on Sunday. But it's done. The Bucs, I heard the Bucs won in Giannis. Played well.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Is the NBA Too Afraid of Football? Plus, Jets Dysfunction and Million-Dollar Picks With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Peter Schrager
I think I like the idea of having two games in one location, sort of an all day kind of basketball extravaganza. Like I personally enjoyed that aspect of it. The arena is, you know, pretty much up to snuff in terms of any normal NBA arena. So like just the, the kind of logistics of how it works as a basketball venue is completely fine. Um,
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Is the NBA Too Afraid of Football? Plus, Jets Dysfunction and Million-Dollar Picks With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Peter Schrager
I thought that was great. I think, you know, what it reminded me of, honestly, especially early on in these games as they're sort of getting going, was being at the dunk contest and the three-point contest in Indianapolis last year. It's like... I'm here to watch, but it feels like nobody there is very impassioned. It's like neutral observers, basically.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Is the NBA Too Afraid of Football? Plus, Jets Dysfunction and Million-Dollar Picks With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Peter Schrager
But as the games get going and the result gets closer to being finalized, people got into it. It's just because there's not a lot of partisans there, Um, that's, that's the, that's what the atmosphere felt like. It felt like, you know, when I was watching the three point contest last year, until Steph and INS school got to the finals, there wasn't that much juice watching it.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Is the NBA Too Afraid of Football? Plus, Jets Dysfunction and Million-Dollar Picks With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Peter Schrager
But like once it's like, whoa. Steph might lose to a WNBA player. The energy sort of got ratcheted up. And I think that's kind of what it felt like being in Vegas is like early on in the game. The crowd is like everybody's sort of getting settled in. And then when you notice that, like, all right, the game's in the balance, people were really into it.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Is the NBA Too Afraid of Football? Plus, Jets Dysfunction and Million-Dollar Picks With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Peter Schrager
Fair.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Is the NBA Too Afraid of Football? Plus, Jets Dysfunction and Million-Dollar Picks With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Peter Schrager
Yeah.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Is the NBA Too Afraid of Football? Plus, Jets Dysfunction and Million-Dollar Picks With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Peter Schrager
Part of it for me is like, you know, I I've read and I've heard all of the hand wringing. Like the bottom line is if the Nixon warriors were in this final, they would have been an atmosphere. It would have been, you know, a huge deal, but we didn't get that. We got the bucks. And OKC, these are not two national brands.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Is the NBA Too Afraid of Football? Plus, Jets Dysfunction and Million-Dollar Picks With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Peter Schrager
These are not two, you know, fan bases that have massive like fan bases all over the country. The way the Knicks and the Lakers do like, you know, if you've ever been to a Hawks game when the Knicks are playing them. It's half Knick fans in there. Yeah. Same when you go to when the Lakers play in places like Phoenix and Denver. It's like a bunch of Laker fans there. Right.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Is the NBA Too Afraid of Football? Plus, Jets Dysfunction and Million-Dollar Picks With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Peter Schrager
And so, you know, the two teams in there, I think, was problematic for me personally. And I'm not somebody who's ever like, you know, given Adam Silver his props. I think the teams played hard. The teams played like as if there were stakes. All the ancillary stuff I think needs to be figured out.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Is the NBA Too Afraid of Football? Plus, Jets Dysfunction and Million-Dollar Picks With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Peter Schrager
But the most important thing that the players cared and tried their best, I think that's the biggest sort of takeaway for me.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Is the NBA Too Afraid of Football? Plus, Jets Dysfunction and Million-Dollar Picks With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Peter Schrager
Well, you know, that's a great question. Honestly, I think part of the thinking is like we want to really juice and goose attention on very early NBA games, which traditionally people just didn't, you know, gravitate towards because obviously and like people need to understand that like no matter what the NBA Cup does or is, it's not going to be as popular as football.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Is the NBA Too Afraid of Football? Plus, Jets Dysfunction and Million-Dollar Picks With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Peter Schrager
We need to let go of that as even a concept or an idea. Americans love football more than they do basketball. And that's okay. A lot more. A lot more. And that's okay. I just think it's about... One, the Giannis and Shay thing, and I've talked about this on group chat. I think David Stern's dream of these hyper-corporatized, you know, focus group to death athletes.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Is the NBA Too Afraid of Football? Plus, Jets Dysfunction and Million-Dollar Picks With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Peter Schrager
You know, they don't get busted for weed. They don't scare corporate America. They are the perfect corporate automatons. But guess what? People are not attracted to that. They're not compelling figures. Even Nike and Giannis, like selling Giannis as this cute, cuddly teddy bear, that's just a mistake. Nobody knows a single thing about Shea Gildress Alexander except that he wears funny clothes.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Is the NBA Too Afraid of Football? Plus, Jets Dysfunction and Million-Dollar Picks With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Peter Schrager
That's it. Nobody knows anything about these guys.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Is the NBA Too Afraid of Football? Plus, Jets Dysfunction and Million-Dollar Picks With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Peter Schrager
Yeah, look, I agree with you on the Netflix front. Look, sorry, Bill, but Jason Tatum went on that damn show and said he loves his mom, he loves his son.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
I mean, I would say the Cavs by far. The Boston Celtics aren't missing two all-NBA caliber players, right? And another guy who they've seen as their key deadline deal in DeAndre Hunter. So, like, I think Mobley's going to come back from his injury. He'll probably be a little limited. It's an ankle. People come back from those and, you know, just gut it out. Garland isn't coming back.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
All indications are that that toe injury is horrible. And coming into the series, I kind of felt like they could win the series even without Garland. I did think they were that much better than Indy, but now you're down 0-2 and the guy who at many points of the season has been your best player is severely limited and hampered. They got a whale...
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
of, you know, basically of a job to do to win four out of five games against this Pacers team that is just, they're clicking, man. Well, you know who agrees with you?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
Especially not a current athlete or a current player. I know Kevin Durant is famously known for being in his mentions, reading everything that's written about him in the media and what people are saying on social. But most people try to present a face of like, I'm above the fray.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
Um, and Halliburton coming out and just being like, nah, man, like I'm reading all these horrible things that are being said about me and it's bumming me the hell out. And then it's actually was having an impact on my game. That is unique. Most times, like, again, like active players don't like to show, you know, present themselves as having flaws or weaknesses or whatever the case may be.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
And so, yeah, I mean, I think it's dope that he talked about it. And I think it's even better that he's sending a message that like, you need to block that out. The Internet has, you know, many great things about it. You know, in many ways, we owe our careers to the Internet. But God damn, is it negative and just nasty as hell.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
And so, man, it's just a smart thing for him to do to just lock in with your people and be a great pacer. And look at these guys. They're up 2-0, you know, against the number one team in the East this season.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
For sure. I think Ant sometimes gets to that level, especially against the Lakers. He was just controlling and dominating play in that series. But yeah, I would say Steph, SGA.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
Question, Bill. Of all of those guys, and there's 12 seconds left on the clock, the Celtics are down one. Or whoever is down one. Would you trust Tatum over any of the guys that you just previously mentioned?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
A lot of martinis for the big guy.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
I mean, it's crazy for me because I feel like I was one of the most vocal Tatum's skeptics in the media. And I thought I kind of had a turnaround on the guy. I thought he got kind of a bad rap. Yes, he didn't make shots in the playoffs last year, but he was incredible on defense. He was their best, basically, initiator, setting up other guys because they don't have a real point guard on the team.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
Like, Best rebounder. Best rebounder. Like, he was the engine of what won that championship last year, especially against Dallas, too. Obviously, he couldn't make a shot in the Olympics.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
But then this year, I'm like, look, man, all the stuff we used to complain about, his tunnel vision, his refusal to get off the ball sometimes, the bad long contested twos, his refusal to get to the free throw line when he has smaller guys on him. He was executing everything. All of that stuff perfectly, clearly playing the best ball of his life.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
Ah, yes.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
And then game two was literally the encapsulation of everything negative people have ever had to say about Tatum. He embodied it in that game. And I just, I can't believe that Jason Tatum is actually the player that we saw in game two. I can't believe that.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
It's really crazy because their offense isn't elite when Steph is there. It's like he's propping up a bunch of mediocrity. And to see him not be there, Jimmy on half an ass cheek. It's just pedestrian. That's just what it is. It's just a pedestrian offense. And Minnesota is one of the best defenses in the league. So I'm not surprised that they kind of grinded the Dubs offense into dust.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
be as complimentary as they possibly can. They're not asked to drive any actions. J-Dub at times is like, all right, you're going to have the ball. You're going to create, you're going to be a one-on-one initiating kind of guy. Um, Aaron Gordon's just asked to fill in the blanks around Jokic and Murray and all the things that those guys are doing.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
I think Murray, I've been pretty disappointed by his overall playoff so far. He's been so up and down and inconsistent. And when it looks good, it's like, damn, Denver could win the championship this year. And then when it looks like how it's looked in, you know, so many, too many of these games, it's been a bit disappointing.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
So physical, guards the hell out of people. The jump shot, it was the first thing I noted watching Denver coming into this season was he was just taking threes with so much more confidence, man. Like, there was no hesitation. Like, no, this is a shot I should be taking because I'm going to make it, which just hasn't...
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
been the case throughout his career at all in fact that was like one of the major knocks of him in Orlando it's like yo this guy can't shoot you know they kind of had him in the Paolo role they were like trying to the same things that Paolo's doing they try to sort of cast Aaron Gordon as the kind of guy that could do that and he so clearly wasn't you know he gets traded to Denver and it's almost like he was born to play with Nikola Jokic the way that marriage and that synergy has worked he's yeah definitely one of my favorite guys to watch
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
That's part of it too.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
Draymond tried to get himself kicked out. That also happened, which is a tradition like none other.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
Yeah, I mean, he's shooting 30% from three when, you know, the jumper has been incredible all season long. And for him to be shooting 30 in the playoffs, you know, that's Tony Allen territory, if we're being honest there. I just, to me, what I want to see from Tatum and Brown, who we know is dealing with a bum knee right now, is when Josh Hart... Or, and Josh Hart's a great defender.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
You know, he's a gamer. Or Jalen Brunson, a guard of you guys. You have five inches on these dudes, man. In a big situation, in a situation where it feels like New York is chipping into your lead and things are snowballing, like, you should be able to take these guys to the basket and generate a shot at the basket or get fouled. Or a kick out.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
Yeah, for some extreme level of help and get New York in rotation and doing your Boston Celtics thing. The entire offense is designed in order to create these driving lanes for these guys. And the idea that you have all these shooters around you And some dude that's 6'2 starts guarding you, you settle for a fadeaway from 13 feet out. That is just unacceptable to me.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
And, you know, I just have no reason to believe that that won't change. But I think the problem for Boston is like, yes... To me, they've clearly been the better team. But I think New York has an opportunity to play better. I don't think they've played their best. And yet they're up 2-0 in the series.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
85 offensive rating in the half court. That is putrid.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
It was five minutes. I checked the timestamp.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
My guy Moe Dock Hill called it hubris, and I agree with him. It's like OKC came out as if their season was on the line. Like, if we lose this game, our season is over. They treated it like a damn near game seven. I can't say that about Boston. It's not that they didn't play hard. Yeah, they're up 20. But, like, you're shooting jump shots in the fourth quarter, and you got guys like...
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
Carl Anthony Towns and Jalen Brunson on the court. Yeah. You're not attacking these matchups as if your life, it just feels like they didn't feel like their life depended on it. Yeah, I agree.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
Somebody's got to dig up the footage of Tatum's Last game at Madison Square Garden. It was the last Knicks and Celtics matchup of the season. I get it. It's regular season. But I know for a fact that Knicks desperately wanted to win that game because they had gotten their butts kicked all season long. The crowd in the garden was losing their minds. Desperately wanted to win that.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
Tatum was sublime, dude. That move that he put on OG Ananobi to get the game-winning shot was... I was like, this guy is at the peak of his powers. I've never seen Tatum be this incredible. And OG Ananobi has traditionally been a bugger boo for him. He's obviously one of the best isolation defenders in the league. I don't expect you to go out and just make OG Ananobi look like a scrub.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
I'm not saying that. But, like, he just has to be more methodical. He has to be smarter about, you know, how he attacks this Nick defense. Because I do think there are other places to attack.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
Yeah.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
Like a lot of people exaggerate contact, but nobody routinely connects with the head of the guy that's guarding them as consistently or the nuts as consistently as Draymond Green.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
and i think the joe maz piece has to matter here too like i get it the we do what we do the math is the math we're gonna shoot 63s no matter what the situation is like just context doesn't matter if we get a three we're gonna shoot it i get that but there needs to be some level of adjustment to the realities on the ground yeah attack it attack carl anthony towns He's right there. Just go at him.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
He wants to foul. Everybody on the court.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
Let Kat foul. And guess who else likes fouling people? Mitchell Robinson. Yes. That was crazy. That's another thing. And I mentioned this on group chat. The whole... We got to get Mitchell Robinson off the floor. I know. As if he's Hakeem Olajuwon or Shaq. That is crazy. Like, that was just crazy to me. And Joe Maddon, the press conference was like, yeah, guy was plus 22. He was killing us.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
Yeah, I wanted him off the floor. It's like, bro.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
Definitely that's the last time. True, crazy, Nick excitement. But in terms of... Like, after a Knicks playoff victory, like, I'm telling you, the last time this felt like this was the LJ four-point play. That was the last time, like, coming off of a Knicks victory, it was like, oh, my God, I can't believe this is happening.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
And that sent them into the finals, whereas this is just like, you know, giving them a two-game advantage over the world champs. But it's, you know, it's hard to underestimate. Bill said it's going to be the craziest ticket at MSG in years, and that's true. Like, it's... They're going to be ready to blow the roof off. Not even a 3.30 local time is going to stop it. It doesn't matter.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
These people are going to be rabid.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
The extender. The extender, that's right.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
Not really. But I think what people should be looking for is the tightness of the whistle. If the refs allow OKC to be physical, meaning allow them to foul Denver, they're going to be able to guard them quite competently like we saw last night. If any of these crews are just like actually calling fouls, that's when they're going to run into some issues.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
I still haven't figured out what distinction they're making on the tech and the flagrant to, like... Yeah. There's no rhyme or reason, it feels like. It feels like they're cutting the guy a break as to not get him kicked out of the game for the crazy stuff that he's doing. But, like... Their explanation leaves me wanting like pretty much every single time.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
So that's what I'm really going to be watching for, because they can't physically none of the big men can physically match up with Jokic, not Chet, not Jalen Williams, not even Hartenstein. Right.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
But, you know, if they're allowed to sort of gumming up and hold and, you know, keep their hands on guys coming off the screens, like if they're allowed to play as physical as they typically do, then they got a great shot at defending Denver and they're well on their way to the conference finals.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
For me, Jokic, offensively, I know he has his defensive limitations and that matters, is as good as prime Steph, prime LeBron in terms of his impact on the court. Like, again, like, I love Jamal Murray. The guy is very inconsistent offensively. It's Stefan LeBron level elevating every single thing that's next to them, you know, in those two guys' primes.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
And so, yeah, Jokic, man, I got too much love and respect for what he does out there.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
Look, man, James Harden. The only thing I'll say, James Harden is 35 now. He like the time that he played well in that series were way beyond anything that I could have reasonably expected. I thought it was going to be a face plant. For the entire time. He had moments where he legit looked really freaking good.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
But my God, dude, like that's really going on your resume. The amount of times in the closing games of playoff series when your team absolutely needed you for you to just come up, you know, look, just becoming a pumpkin. It's tough. It's tough for James Harden.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
Very early on, I would say I was definitely like, look, this guy is athletic. He plays with a motor. He's huge. Like this is an exciting kind of young guy that, you know, within Steve Kerr's system would be fun if he would develop. But I would say beginning last year where it's just like it's obvious. First of all, he went to the press.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
Absolutely. You hear that, Waz? Yeah, absolutely. And I get it. And you know what? Restart your campaign when the playoffs are over. I don't know. Like, I just can't. They just show the same commercial. And I'm over the OKC commercial, too. I know Jacoby did a big rant about that. Yeah, Jacoby did a whole thing. I was proud of Jacoby. That was good. It's very cringe.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
complaining about steve kerr steve kerr was like all right whatever f it we're gonna put this guy in um but it's obvious you're not like that by the way i don't think steve kerr was a huge fan i would imagine basically going over my head he's not some creator right like he's just not and he's just refused to make himself into just a great role player just to Dare I say it, GP too.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
Like, look at what this guy does. Great cutter, great rebounder, great defender. Just shoots open shots when it's swung to him. Like, hits the break. Like, he uses his tools to the best of his ability to fit into what Golden State's trying to do. Kaminga basically does none of that and thinks that he's Kobe. And it's just like, eh, I don't know why I should still be excited about him.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
Yeah, I mean, you mean pre-injury? Yeah. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Just because the Wolves are just collectively not the most highly executing team, right? And the Dubs are the opposite. These guys are... veterans with insane playoff know-how collectively, and they have a great coach.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
And so I was just like, just based off of that alone, I thought the Dubs would give them a great series and definitely had a chance. I'm not going to say I thought they were going to win. I just assumed Minnesota's size would eventually end up being too much. And Anthony Edwards, playing more like he did in the second half of Game 1,
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
throughout the series, I just assume Minnesota would eventually wear these guys down. But now it's hard to see it. And, you know, I know they said they're going to reevaluate in a week. That's not how hamstrings work. This guy's not coming back in a week.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
But then, you know, I was talking to some warriors friends and they brought up something that I thought was kind of pretty, you know, head, head on. Um, The Dubs came into the season thinking these young guys were somehow going to be competent enough to make this thing work. You're talking about like Pods and Kaminga. Yeah. And they make this trade for Jimmy Butler.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
Finally, they get Steph some help. Only they have to treat the last like 25 games basically like playoff games. So they've been going all out essentially since February. And it's hard for me not to believe that that didn't play a role in why Jimmy, I mean, excuse me, why Steph ends up straining his hammy because he's been going pedal to the metal for months now. Shouts to Joe House, man.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
Welcome to the BS podcast, brother.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
First red flag is that terrible number. Why? I'm sure it's some tribute probably to a late family member or something like that. I'm sure there's something heartwarming to it, but bro... Get a real jersey number, first of all. And yeah, he's clearly, you know, he's out there in the Bay Area with those folks. I wouldn't be surprised if he's micro-dosed some shrooms, you know, every now and again.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
That would not shock me. That's what the facial and the hair is giving for me.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
I see it a little bit differently. I think Minnesota is the kind of team that really does play up or down to their competition. You know, they beat Denver like five times this season. You know, all of their OKC games, for the most part, have been fun. Um... And Edwards is just a hyper-competitive guy that way.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
And so I'm not surprised, you know, Steph goes down and they're kind of just dilly-dallying and aren't giving it their best effort. But there were times today where you saw the team that we saw in moments against the Lakers. And so... I think they will give anybody a run for their money. I'm talking about from the best teams left in the playoffs.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
But they do have moments of just boneheaded basketball. And it's been like this basically for three, four years now.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Best NBA Playoff Guys, Curry’s Value, and the Perplexing Celtics Meltdown With Wosny Lambre, Joe House, and Bill’s Dad
I don't even think Draymond's deep-seated and rooted hatred for Rudy Gobert is even going to be enough. They just can't do it without 30.
The Rewatchables
‘Disclosure’ With Bill Simmons, Van Lathan, and Wosny Lambre
I said to get a nice Chardonnay. I remembered that Tom liked white wine.
The Rewatchables
‘Disclosure’ With Bill Simmons, Van Lathan, and Wosny Lambre
I assume that she got it from the liquor store down the street.
The Rewatchables
‘Disclosure’ With Bill Simmons, Van Lathan, and Wosny Lambre
I have no idea where she got the bottle of wine.
The Rewatchables
‘Disclosure’ With Bill Simmons, Van Lathan, and Wosny Lambre
Well, when he really wanted to stop, he didn't seem to have any problems doing it, did he? And that's when you got angry. Of course I got angry. So would anyone. Don't we tell women that they can stop at any point? Haven't you ever said no and meant yes, Mrs. Alvarez?
The Rewatchables
‘Disclosure’ With Bill Simmons, Van Lathan, and Wosny Lambre
You want to put me on trial here, let's at least be honest about what it's for. I am a sexually aggressive woman. I like it. Tom knew it and you can't handle it. It is the same damn thing since the beginning of time. Veil it, hide it, lock it up, and throw away the key.
The Rewatchables
‘Disclosure’ With Bill Simmons, Van Lathan, and Wosny Lambre
We expect a woman to do a man's job, make a man's money, and then walk around with a parasol and lie down for a man to fuck her like it was still a hundred years ago? Well, no thank you.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
Yeah, the Bucs, and it has to be said, and people are going to say I'm damning with fame praise, but this was their best two-game stretch of defense since the Drew Holiday trade. This game and the one against the Hawks. And I thought the difference for Shea, as opposed to the Rockets' one, your team didn't start the game three for 25 or whatever it was from three.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
And so there was just less oxygen in this game. And... The Bucks did a good job of just throwing waves of bodies at him in his freaking vision. Some of the guys that they put on him weren't huge guys. Sometimes it would be Gary Trent guarding him. But when he started his drive, he'd run into a Giannis. He'd run into a Bobby Portis. He'd run into a Brook Lopez.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
And the space was just way more constricted because his team wasn't hitting last night. That's what I thought for Shea. He couldn't get into his mid-range bag because he was basically able to operate in isolation without a lot of hassle from the rest of the Rockets when he had his takeover moment on, what day was that? Saturday.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
Saturday.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
Bro-los, I like that.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
I can do all things through Giannis Antetokounmpo who strengthens me.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
Love that. Love that. Yeah, career high at mid-range shutting me the hell up. I'll say that. Career high by far. I dare to even say it's become an efficient shot.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
Yeah, and we got to give it up to my man Dame, who looked pretty young last night. Really good. It was kind of breezed over during the telecast, but they mentioned that he was dealing with a calf issue, which I guess they didn't publicize because OKC would have been like, all right, let's make our game plan, destroying the guy.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
with a messed up calf, but I just thought he looked, you know, he looked decisive, man. He was getting by guys, making quick passes. Dame's only like 6'1", so a lot of times, man, with these rangy athletic types, they end up tipping a lot of his passes, but I thought he kept that a little bit down last night. He just looked good, man. And when he had to be, he kept the ball moving.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
Like, when it came to him, he could just... you know, be a connector and a conductor. I thought Dame just looked good. And that's the version that they need from him, man. Like the quick, quick hitting guys. Of course, the three-point threat makes every defense nervous.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
But yeah, the Bucs are finally, you know, rounding into the shape of something close to what we believe they could be, you know, when this all started, you know, damn near 18 months ago.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
My guy Rob was having a 2016 moment about the Bucs.
The Ringer NBA Show
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Crisis of identity. Well, here's the thing for me, because I just hadn't seen it, I don't think, one time. To see these guys be capable of playing good, consistent defense, where it's just not a parade to the damn basket and in transition against an elite opponent... is important. And I think the way that it happens
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unsurprisingly, is, like, you can't... Like, y'all can't just roll out of bed and do this. You got to focus. You got to try consistently. You got to get the hell back. You got to sprint the hell back. You can't do cool guy routine in order for this group to play good defense. Like, y'all just not... Young... Like, y'all can't roll out of bed and be a good defensive team.
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You got to be focused and... Again, people can say whatever the hell they want about the Cup. Like, these teams are playing really hard. Like, they're trying really hard. And the effort is there. And, you know, it's just not the same as, like, I've been watching NBA, going to enough NBA games for long enough to be like, yo, sometimes, bro, these guys are going through the motions.
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That was just not the case here. And to see them be able to achieve this in that context is huge. So do I think differently about the Bucs? Yes, slightly. I think, like, okay, these guys are capable of playing consistent, sound defense, which is very important. The Thunder, not really, man. I think, like... This was a bad shooting game.
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The way these guys swarm, even last night, is kind of impressive. The way they stick to defenders, the way they get deflections, the effort level. Their defense is still just amazing to me when you consider the component parts. It shouldn't be this good on paper. when Isaiah Joe was out. Like, it just shouldn't work like that. But the way they play defense is still impressive.
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I do think, yeah, there is a physicality gap with the biggest, baddest teams. And maybe they'll need to address it. But maybe Chet will come back. Maybe Jason Williams will come back. Excuse me, Jalen Williams will come back and it'll be straight.
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Nah, chill. I was talking about Christ the King, baby. You know, New Jersey Nets, East Rutherford, New Jersey style, baby.
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Rob, Rob. All you're saying in so many words is pack his ass up. But for what? Get him out of here.
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I don't know. Figure it out, John Horst. Get to work. They pay you a lot of money. Figure it out. Because my Lord and my word has he looked God awful. And whatever. Guy was sick. Couldn't make it last night. The team, as Justin said, looked better for it. I would just love to see just more youth and athleticism and just dynamism, man, in the spot. And I get it.
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Middleton is really good at setting Giannis up. Like, he has a chemistry with Giannis that basically doesn't exist with any other player on the team. Dane Lillard, obviously, included in that. And I do think there's a value to that. Obviously, the guy can shoot. There's a value to that. But on defense, whoo! Good God almighty. It is just treacherous for him right now.
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And I think that's where the Bucs become their most fully formed self is when they aren't like some horrible defense. When they're good enough and then they can rely on the dominance of their freaking elite offensive players to carry them through.
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Bobby Mark's over here.
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Touch screen. All I ever hear about these GMs and how genius they are, Rob, is they got all of these different scenarios in this and they can move this piece around. And they're so brilliant, these guys, these GM types. Figure it out. Figure it out. No excuses. Play like a champion, GM. GM like a champion. Yes.
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And Darvin Ham's just having an incredible few weeks. The Bucs have finally turned the corner. His old job is looking like a hot mess. Shouts to him. Doc Rivers clearly, like, believes in what he does. Like, when you watch the Bucs up close, like, Darvin Hamm is prominently involved in what they're doing, bro. So, shouts to him. I'm happy for him.
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I'm against it. I'm of the baseball and W.W. The NCAA rivalry. We're like when we win the division, when we win our conference on record, celebrate it. We win the conference tournament, celebrate it.
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Let's go celebrate every single accomplishment, guys.
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Justin, when three guys put us on their Spotify rap, had us on their Spotify rap, I celebrated. Okay? Everything's a celebration.
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That's for sure. No, they would never do that.
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100%.
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Yeah, I tend to agree with that. I think for a neutral site thing to work, I think it would just need more lead up time and hype and build up. And it's hard to do that when the turnaround time is two days of when we know who the matchups are going to be. It's just hard to promote and build anticipation and and that quicker turnaround.
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Yeah, so many takeaways from this game for me. One, this is the first time to me OKC this year looked like OKC last year. In two terms, one, they just got out-physicaled, out-muscled. We talked about this ad nauseum. Bill talked about it on his show, Damn Near Weekly, about, hey, man, the Thunder need to get more size. They need to get another center.
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So it's hard to create that sense of urgency within the building. I definitely agree with that. Again, I wonder, why can't the NBA figure out how to get people to Las Vegas and have a rabid crowd? Maybe I'm just underestimating how hard it is to create that kind of thing. Shit, Steve Ballmer had to create the goddamn wall. to do it for the Clippers, right? Like, at his own home arena.
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So I guess it isn't as easy as it is. Like, not everything's going to be Chase Center or a Laker game or the freaking Guard. Like, not everything can be that. Or even OKC home games, right? Like, not everything can be that. But I do wonder if there's something to just goosing the hype and anticipation so that people want to go no matter who the matchup is.
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And maybe that's just unrealistic that the NBA is going going to ultimately be a matchup-based business. And the bottom line is, if the Knicks and the Warriors were in this final, there would have been a shit ton of buzz in that arena, period.
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If you can believe it, you can achieve it.
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By the way, very quickly, I would like to shout out a lovely couple that I met on my Alaska Airlines flight out of Las Vegas into Los Angeles. I was just sitting in my seat and they were like, we're listening to your podcast right now.
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No, no, no. I think they were just individually doing it because my man had on the AirPods.
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yeah and and yeah two individual streams that's right um and i didn't get their names but they were very nice very lovely please reach out to us um let let us know who you were uh because we chatted up about the games and our enjoyment of you know just the general uh semi-finals uh product and situation and i was it was it was just a nice feeling you know you just you know you're
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I thought this game was the first time that was very pronounced. They played the entire game without a power forward. Or even if you want to call Kenrich Williams a power forward, when he was in the game, he was playing center.
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you know, like slightly groggy, just ready to get back to LA. And somebody's like, yo, I love what you guys do on the podcast. And I immediately text you guys. So shouts to that lovely couple. You know who you are. Reach out to us so we could figure out who you guys are.
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The couple that group chats together stays together.
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Yeah, he was a center.
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So they played the entire game without a power forward. And when you're playing against Giannis and Brook Lopez, like...
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Lorne Michaels over here, the ultimate judge of funny over here. This guy.
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My guys, Tony Jones and Sam Amig of The Athletic, put out a report, a story, whatever we're calling it, about the Nuggets basically conceding that they have to hit the trade market quite vigorously. And specifically, they'd like to add some level of shot creation to this team so that what I would assume that it's just taking pressure off of Jokic.
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I think so. Here's the thing, though. I think for the Thunder, why their defense has been so successful. They have big wings, right? Like J-Dub is a big wing. You know, Alex Caruso is considered a big wing. But you guys are big wings. Giannis is a big, big.
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Like, this idea that he should play an entire season, where he is the Venus, the Mercury, the sun of every single Nuggets possession on offense, they feel like is unsustainable. And they want to get a guy in, which I thought, you know, I thought before the Warriors got Dennis Schroeder, I love Dennis Schroeder for the Nuggets for that very same reason.
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And they put out a list of guys that they said they've looked into recently. Jordan Poole, Jordan Clarkson, DeAndre Hunter, Cam Johnson, and Jonas Valanciunas, guys that they looked into in the past, but now that they've zeroed in on this shot creation situation, they've zeroed in on Zach Levine.
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And I'm just looking, you know, as the year sort of winds down and looking to the horizon of next year of things to look forward to, I just want to see Denver resolve what they see as their biggest roster issue. I want to see how they ultimately resolve that because quite frankly, that's been their opposite approach for two years now, right? Lose Bruce Brown. instrumental to their championship.
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Ah, don't worry. We got young guys to fill in and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Lose KCP. Another guy, instrumental to what they did for the championship. Nah, no problem. We got young guys. We're going to plug them in. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. We need Westbrook in. Blah, blah, blah.
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So they've taken a sort of hands-off approach the last two off seasons, but it seems now, you know, 25 games into the season that they've realized the error of their ways and they're changing course. So I got my eye towards that for sure.
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Put that next to Nikola Jokic, Rob. That might look nice.
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You know, so, like, it's... You put Caruso and J-Dub and all these little... Like, it's not... It's just not going to work. And the problem for them, too, is when they try to put those guys on Brook Lopez... the Bucs just weren't allowing it. They were making just incredible interior passes.
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Yeah, obviously this would not be a perfect trade by any means. Look, if you're being charitable to this idea, if you look at their offense when Jokic isn't on the floor, it's absolutely atrocious. Yes, you can say they don't need offense when Jokic is playing.
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when he's playing, they play offense at the level of the best offense in the NBA, which is quite impressive when you consider how these other guys have played. However, when he's resting, they're god-awful. It's unwatchable. It's terrible.
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And so if the idea is like, yo, we get another guy in there who's of a high quality, and then when he is playing with Jokic, you know, we take it from, you know, better than the league's best offense to, like, The league's best offense by leaps and bounds because this guy is so much more dynamic than Porter Jr. I get it. But, yeah, defensively, you know, when Porter Jr.
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is right on defense, he is adding a size component. When you add that to Aaron Gordon, like, that, you know, has been very effective in the past in big moments. Zach Levine notoriously just – Bad on defense. Just not a good defender. And, yeah, like you guys said, the injury component.
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They got so many looks at the cup today, which like, and again, I know I've been banging this get off my lawn drum all season, but the Bucs looked big, played big last night. And I thought that was a major key. And I thought the other part, where OKC looked like themselves last year again is, like the series against the Mavs, they couldn't make a shot.
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And then, of course, because this is Denver and we always have to consider the financial implications, you know, 43 mil this year. 46 mil next. And then what is that? 48.9 player option, which I can break the suspense for you guys, folks. He's going to exercise that player option. Yeah, so it's tough. 50 million basically each season after this one. Yeah, it's a lot.
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So here's where, you know, I always compare this Jokic to LeBron. And when I think about Jordan Poole or Jordan Clarkson, what comes to mind is Boobie Gibson, Delonte West.
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Late career Richard Jefferson. Iman Shumpert.
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Tristan Thompson.
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I don't think he's Antoine Jamison.
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I don't think he's that. I just think there are guys who in a context near a generational player just end up looking better, just end up playing better, just start making more sense.
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And this game, and they've had bad shooting games before, but this game was the first time it felt like, hmm, maybe this shooting thing that we thought was great, the 45 threes from these guys, again, we thought was great.
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um in that context and i do think yokich is one of those guys maybe i just have the ultimate belief in yokich and prime lebron but i do think so you think you think zach levine is closer to cleveland shack no no no i'm just i'm just trying to extend your metaphor if anything you know what i think zach levine is a little bit he's dexter pitman no no no he wishes
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He's never been as good as standing tall and talented.
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Maybe, you know, when there's a little bit of tension and people can make all the jokes that they want, when there's some actual stakes involved, this, like, let the threes fly, you know, the booty gets a little bit more clenched. In these situations, guys, we've seen it time and time again in big spots.
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At a certain point, you just got to log off of Synergy, Rob.
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That's insane.
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Yeah, it is a KD thing. They do look so as well-balanced as they've looked in the KD era when he's on the court in terms of offense and defense, in terms of how they attack people. It's like, oh, man, this team has a sensibility to it that – you know, feels real, feels dangerous, feels like can even be, dare I say, elite at times. But KD is 35, 36, whatever the hell he is these days.
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And, you know, that's precarious. And since the Achilles... You know, his injury situation has been kind of touch and go. He hasn't had the catastrophic thing again, thankfully. But it has been a touch and go situation. But like, yeah, I think when they're right, when KD's around, when they have their full complement of players, they could talk themselves into going to the NBA finals.
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I really do feel like that. But when KD's not right or, you know, God forbid he's not even playing, that's when things, you know, get a little bit more, it's tougher to see a way out for them.
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I can't believe you're saying this. I told myself I wouldn't. This is insane.
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This is insane. This is pookie with the crack pipe. This is what this is. Like, this guy.
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can't stay away from this team it's insane and like yes they're 15 and 12 they're playing sort of above their heads you know they're giving an incredible effort every single night they've shown that they're one of the best defensive teams in the league and all of that is nice and it's cute Kawhi Leonard's knees are shot guys he's not going to play guys he came off of last year Full off season.
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Did not start this season. Not playing, he couldn't play.
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He didn't have prescriptions for the, oh my God. He's even got ideas about how to manage Kawhi's legs now.
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But you know what? This is nuts. This is all they got. Absolutely insane.
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The fact that he said, yeah, you know, he was doing the back-to-backs this year. He's keeping them out of back-to-backs and just using them sparingly. Okay, so what kind of team is that? With a guy who plays every third game? What is that?
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How do you have an identity with that? And especially he's not the he's not a role guy. When he comes, they're going to feature him.
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Yeah, the game that comes to mind immediately, uh... for me with this group is last year they played the Nuggets fairly early on in the season and they were already flying high at that point last year. And the Nuggets just destroyed them like on the interior. It wasn't just Jokic, it was Aaron Gordon too. They just beat them up like it was nasty.
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Jokic was just banging into – just banging this kid and just bruising him. And I was like, God, this is mean what these guys are doing to these young guys. That game always stuck in my head as like, man, they're going to have problems problems when they deal with size and physicality. And I think, you know, when Chet comes... Chet didn't play.
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That would have freed him up to maybe even roam while guarding Brooke and doing different things. They didn't have their full big man allotment, and that just completely killed them last night. And I think we'll see what happens when J. Will comes back, when Cech comes back, and they now have a big man rotation that's closer to what we expect from a real championship outfit. But...
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Yeah, just barely. It was two days. You know what's funny? Friday night, we took it easy because I was like, well, I actually have to work all day on Saturday. So let's take it easy tonight. Taking it easy in Vegas was like three bottles of wine going to your room at 1.30. That's light work for you, Waz.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
At the same time, man, that's going to cramp their spacing majorly. And so these are the kind of push and pulls that every team goes through, you know, and it's going to be exciting to see how OKC manages with that, you know, those personnel sort of problems, if you will.
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Dude, first of all, like, Haberstroh pointed this out to me, like, a day or two ago, where it's like, Brook Lopez started his career, he was drafted to be a back-to-the-basket big. Like, that was his destiny when he got drafted. That's what everybody assumed. Like, nobody could ever fathom that this guy shoots threes out to 28 feet now. Oh, yeah. It's insane how deep his three-point shots get.
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But he started his career as that player. That guy is still in there. It's just a matter of tapping into it more. And like I said, I think Jan is figuring out What version of himself is going to maximize, you know, this version of the Bucs? And I think the Brook Lopez interior passing is there. I thought last night he did a great job of spraying out the shooters.
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Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
When they just... The thunder was just loading up on him. And he was doing one dribble, draw the defender, shoot out to the... Spray out to the corner. I thought that was incredible. But defensively, like, the highlights were crazy. He had a bunch of... The Hartenstein where he just... That was nasty. Where Hartenstein offensive fouled him and he still blocked his ass.
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Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
The Caruso, he smacked it off his face and his chest. I was like, Jesus, this is just mean.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
I know. That's about as easy as it goes. Waz was just starting.
The Ringer NBA Show
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That's as easy as it goes in Las Vegas.
The Ringer NBA Show
Giannis Trounces OKC to Win the NBA Cup. Plus, Denver’s Hail Mary to Help Jokic and More Post-Cup Story Lines We’re Watching. | Group Chat
Yeah, yeah. My flight was at 3P. Yes, sir.
The Ringer NBA Show
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And I think Houston just has a more... I guess it's more spread out, the talent amongst his players, than, you know, a generational big. But, like, you might almost want to play on a more well-rounded organization. I just think, you know, the Sacramento thing has run its course.
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Unless something drastic happens, I don't see how they avoid this guy leveraging his free agency to do something that he thinks is just better. For his overall career.
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No.
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You need to get on the phone with... with Jeremy Lamb and figure out some Sacramento real estate ASAP. Sorry, Harry Barnes is going to hook him up?
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You know, I was asked this, but I was like, is it Justin Italian? He has to be Luigi. I think so. I mean, it goes without saying, you know. Plus, you know, according to Hinge and Raya, he's the most handsome of the crew. So we got to give him that Luigi moniker, Rob.
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Tar Eason, Jalen Green, some sweeteners.
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Everyone could, but... That's what they think Keon is giving them.
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Oh, God. It seems like every week this podcast just turns into how did Adam Silver piss Woz off again this week? And I got to say, man, this all-star thing, like, I basically... I ignored it for as long as I could. I was like, wait, what? The multiple teams and the blah, blah, blah. And then, you know, inevitably Silver goes on his PR tour. Oh, I talked to Steph.
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I talked to different guys about how to goose it. So they're picking three teams or is it?
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Sorry, four teams. It starts in the semifinals. A mini tournament. Four teams. Mini tournament. Then a final. Kenny, Shaq, and Chuck pick a team as well.
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Just why? Just why? We know what the problem is. These dudes refuse to play harder. It's not because of format, Elam ending, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. These guys just don't want to try during the All-Star game. This isn't going to save it. At the very least, just hit me with the East-West. Throw the balls out there. Pray that some pride kicks in. Let's go. And I get it.
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A lot of it is, well, if you're not trying, if you're not tinkering, then you're not doing... Bruh, stop. We've done the tinkering already. We've done enough of this. It's over. Just... Back to what it was, East-West. Let these dudes figure it out. Hopefully John Moran has pissed off enough people. Well, in this case, it'd be his own teammates. But you know what I mean?
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Somebody just please make it end with this all-star fixes and tinkering and, you know, silver. Damn, they're being brought to tears at the trophy giveaway at the end of last year's. It's just like, stop it, guys. Just get back to normal, back to basics. Figure out a way to get these dudes to care about hooping, which is what they've been doing their entire freaking lives.
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Well, that and, you know, as Christopher Walken said in True Romance, the Moors once invaded Sicily. So there's that component as well.
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Listen, Adam is good at getting a bag. I heard the Saudis have a sovereign wealth fund. We already got the Emiratis involved with the cup. Sure. The Saudis got some change that they look into unload. Let's get them involved with the all-star game. And put some money up.
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It works for our government all the time. Why can't it work for the NBA?
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Yeah, I think the key is just somebody, something within the players themselves infusing some level of a competitive spirit. For whatever reason, man, these guys try their damnness at the cup. Maybe it is the money. Maybe it is getting their guys at the end of the bench. You know, in certain cases, three-fourths of their damn salary is Add it on top, you know, maybe it is just that.
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It's probably the best scene in the movie, but no, we don't need to rehash that here. That's okay.
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But, yeah, to me it's just – this is basketball, guys. It ain't that complicated. You're supposed to want to cook the guy in front of you and not do a glorified layup line for 48 minutes. That's another thing. I'd probably like to see this thing get turned to eight-minute quarters. Like it would just get us closer to the end of the game. Morning clock.
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Um, faster, but you know, with the sponsors and they got to milk every single dollar out of every single thing, the freaking TV partners. And so, you know, I know that's, that's going to be a tough sell, but yeah, this, this all-star thing is just God, it's annoying me.
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I don't even think they played a Pro Bowl.
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I think so too, but again, traditionally it was a showcase for younger talent, right? It's like, I turn on my all-star game. I know who Karl Malone and Stockton are. I know who Gary Payton and Sean Kemp are. Whoa, KG, like I heard of him. But this guy is like something new, something different, something exciting. Oh, this Kobe Bryant kid. Oh, Grant Hill.
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It was like a learning experience about these new guys in the context of something that resembled actual NBA basketball. You know, the best players in the world in the showcase for these new guys. And, you know, had they arrived yet? And now that basically everybody's just like, no, I'm not even going to. Like, I did it.
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NBA basketball players, again, these guys have been playing basketball their whole lives. This is their entire identity that, like, it's just impossible that they would show up and hoop. It's just nuts to me. it's where Jordan took off.
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And also, I think another thing that It avoids, like players want to avoid this because they have their own egos. Like this concept of a pecking order. Like some of y'all, and we had to do it in the Olympics because... In the Olympics, it's like we can't lose to Jokic and a bunch of mechanics, right? We can't let Wenbin Yama and these cats embarrass us.
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The pecking order getting established is ruthless. It's like Jason Tatum, MVP candidate, is just not going to play. We need to bring that energy to the all-star game. I'm sorry. Like there needs to be this concept of like this. Some of y'all might show up and not play. Some of y'all might get a quick hook.
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We're trying to display the best that our sport has to offer because newsflash y'all was selling a freaking product to the public.
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Um, let's try to embarrassing people.
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I'm sick of this. Oh, the feelings and the fee fees and the sensitivity. You guys are getting paid more than anybody ever. Sorry, if you get embarrassed every now and again, get over it. Cry into your riches.
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That's not a joke. And if LeBron was completely stinking it up, then it'd be kind of funny. See, I interpret the Warriors tweet, and this is just like a Rorschach test. I interpret it as Kirk Lakob dissing. You know what I mean?
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Oh, is that a joke about the Kendall Roy's running the Warriors? But no, it's not. It's just me projecting.
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So this is another thing we inherited from the, you know, 2012, 2013, 2014 era NBA media coverage of the goddamn San Antonio Spurs and everything they doing. They did being genius and smart and. Load management was one. It was so genius. Oh, pop is the best. And then everybody adopted it and fucking ruined the product.
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And this injury report chicanery is another one of their inventions that everybody has sort of taken up this like, you know, playing around with like, who's injured? Who's going to play? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like this fake competitive advantage shit. Or just like, just a sort of,
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You know, just a general media omerta where we don't give him, you know, like Marky Mark said, feed him shit and keep him in the dark, treat him like mushrooms or whatever. What was the basis for that Marky Mark quote? He said that's his theory on the feds and the departed. Oh, okay, okay. Feed him shit and keep him in the dark.
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Yeah, well, that's Marky Mark in the depart of his theory of the feds and apparently the Spurs theory of the media and the public. And everybody adopted it because guess what? Oh, Pop and RC, they're so genius. Everything they've ever done is the smartest basketball thing ever. And now everybody does it and it's stupid. It's damaging to the game.
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The communication was trash.
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It's just the dark arts. Completely.
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I don't get it. Big red nose.
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Again, something we touched upon briefly, but it's come in a stark focus the past couple of weeks. And that's this this freaking second apron crap that nobody needed or asked for. Essentially, Adam decided that the NBA should be more like the NFL. And there should be more parody. Funny, there's more parody now, but whatever. That's a story for another day. But...
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It was a solution in search of a problem that just didn't exist. Like, who were these teams? Again, post KD and the Warriors, which I think was a legitimate problem. But it's the only time it's ever really actually happened.
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Yes, that created it. Who were these teams that were just stacking talent that just seemed unbeatable? I remember when, you know, my guy Wendy was like, oh, there's people calling Golden State Championship in 22 a checkbook championship because they had Andrew Wiggins and LeBron. Like, some decent role players. It was absolutely absurd at the time.
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And the idea was that we need to prevent a 22 Warriors from ever happening again. Like, this was some insanely dominant, crazy advantage team. It was nuts. It was an ownership group that was willing to spend. That's it. That's all it was. And, you know, this fake problem that we created. And, like, I become frustrated with it.
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the past couple of weeks because of the Jimmy Butler thing where it's just like I think Jimmy Butler would make a team that's trying to win meaningfully you know wait like like tangibly better you know like this would be a more fun more interesting and on the court a better team better product more fun to watch and it's like it's impossible to get a freaking deal stitch a deal together and
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Because of these new ridiculous rules. And it's never really been pointed out who actually wanted this. And I have a sneaky suspicion we know why. It's all the owners you expect. Yeah, it's the owners. It's Cleveland. They just love the idea that no fan base could ever pressure them into dipping into their freaking profits again to keep a winner on the floor. And it's just bullshit.
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Nobody needed this. Nobody actually wanted this. It's awful.
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You do nothing else. You have no other tangible contribution. Nothing. You add nothing but the money.
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Yeah, I'm definitely going to be channeling my inner George Costanza today. And it won't be very hard to be quite honest.
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By the way, libertarian as fuck, not to put my, you know, political cap on, but most of these motherfuckers are the most despicable disingenuous, libertarian. Oh, everybody should be able to do what they want, how they want. What do we need the rules and the constraints for? Oh, the market is just the answer to every single question we've ever had in the history of humanity.
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But then they add shit like this. Of course.
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God, these freaking owners disgust me.
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Yeah, we need a more neoliberal, deregulatory environment in the NBA. Y'all can clip that. Y'all can put that wherever y'all want. That's what we need in the NBA. Bring it back because this is just nuts. And also, like... I do wonder if maybe there are fans who are just like the it's like Sabonis pointed out that the Kings are still three games, 54 games left.
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They're three games out of fifth place or whatever. Right.
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This sort of eternally optimistic environment. Maybe that stokes more enthusiasm for the fans. I haven't seen any proof of that. It feels like most people are just like, oh, all these teams seem like they're middling. But maybe I'm wrong.
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It'd be tough to have a team anymore. Milwaukee. You just have five teams in New York.
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People don't want to go to things. Just the idea that we snatched the team out of Seattle to throw them in Oklahoma. Sorry, Tyler Parker, I love you, is nuts. But whatever. That's neither here nor there.
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I want to maximize NBA enthusiasm. I don't give a shit what they're doing on the money side. That's their business. But like, golly, let's maximize some level of freaking excitement about what we're doing here.
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Get rid of the challenge just generally.
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Not a single person has ever been like, oh, thank God we've got instant replay now. Oh my goodness.
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What did we do before this? Oh my God. This is so great. Watching the, looking at your TV, staring at refs, staring at monitors, like looking confused. Like this is just great for the game. Everybody loves this.
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There is none.
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Sometimes you just get screwed. Exactly. You have to move on with your life. That's a life lesson right there.
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Sometimes you'll have a hot tub in your building that's out of service for months. And nobody even explains it to you, building management, nobody, as to why this amenity isn't even available. And it's been months, and nobody said anything. That may or may not be a personal issue that I'm experiencing, but that's life.
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Here's the thing, too. And again, I get it. The NFL has way more leeway to piss people off and get on people's nerves than the NBA or anything in the history of life does. But like if you follow the NFL even a little bit, you know that the Kansas City Chiefs and the refs,
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being like in cahoots is like it's more than a meme it's like this is a thing oh my god it's it's nuts you can't really see any fan generated chiefs content that doesn't make reference to like you know like pat mahomes sending them gift baskets and shit like that and everybody just has fun with it it's hilarious
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Yeah, also, like, I don't... Like, if the... Why shouldn't the Bucks extra wins...
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in the cup not count towards their winning percentage for the season i don't care if the celtics end up playing less games or whatever the hell it is or whatever well not even the celtics they're probably not going to catch the celtics or the calves but like somebody else who wasn't in the cup it's like bro i played really good teams to earn these freaking wins like what are you talking about oh because lebron cares about the records books a lot and talks about it constantly
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That's so silly because everybody doesn't, like nobody's going to play more than 82 games this year. Maybe Mikel Bridges will. I shouldn't say that because he seems to play every single year. But like nobody's going to play more than the maximum allowable games per season. Here's the thing, too. What are we doing?
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I don't see what's so bad about it. I don't know.
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And the idea that the NBA's all-time records have some sanctity to those records. And I'm a LeBron guy, but the fact that... Remember when they were counting his double digits point streak and pretending like the Mavs game never happened in the finals? That got on my nerves. I was like, well, guys... It was a pretty important game where he didn't drop double figures, but whatever.
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That's neither here nor there. But yeah, the OT thing, Justin, is funny because Jokic played 43 minutes last night. Like... So what if it was OT? Josh Hart does that every single regular game. So like, you know what I mean?
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Yeah, the big JNCO jeans is back. Yeah, it's nasty work.
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You're going to regret this.
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Because he's not wearing any, ladies and gentlemen.
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Early 2000s, early to mid-2000s for me, high school, early college was... Three to four XYTs. Headbands when you weren't playing basketball. Just recreational headbands. Just recreationally wearing a headband. Just horrible, horrible looks for all of us. These jabot jeans that had all kinds of straps and letters on them. It was a disgusting era for...
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for clothing but you know we lived we learned we survived it this is what every generation goes through though the look of disgust we've we talked about the jerseys obviously we need to get back to home whites obviously we need to half the amount of alternate jerseys that exist obviously you know special occasions like christmas and shit like that lines of demarcation cool whatever
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Another thing that I don't think it's discussed, the sneaker situation. We used to be stricter about the actual colors of sneakers that people could wear in game. That shit clashes and looks nasty on my TV, too. Let's get back to being more strict about the actual colorways of the sneakers that guys could wear. Let's get back to that. Resurrect David Stern from the freaking grave for it, please.
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For the love of God.
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Your description of communists is just so just Western propagandized.
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Justin, the war on Kwanzaa needs to stop, please. Oh, I love Kwanzaa. Happy Kwanzaa to those who celebrate. I know my brother Zay does.
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Yeah, I feel like it's middle of the road for me, just because... You know, shouts to Slater and Amick, my guys at The Athletic. Two guys that are super duper plugged into what's happening.
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Amick is the GOAT. Love Amick. I didn't run into Tony Slater, but always love seeing him. But those guys are super plugged into what's happening with the Kings. And so if they're writing this article, it's not like there's smoke here.
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Turned down the extension, exactly. You know, but what I will say, just... Yes, the team is having its shortcomings. I think the difference between a couple of the guys that they mentioned in the article, Anthony Davis and Luka Doncic, these are guys who had previously played at MVP levels before AD ultimately forced his way out.
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And Luka Doncic ended up staying because they put together a nice core team. Ended up making a finals run. They look really elite again this year. Fox has just not been that level of player. So to lose him would sting. But it's just not the same as losing Luka Doncic. I guess I'm not rocket science for figuring that out. But that's why I'm not so like, oh, woe is me for the freaking Kings.
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That being said... You know, they had that magical run the first year of Like the Beam, and they've regressed both years since. And if you're a guy... who finally got his taste of real postseason basketball, that stage and that magnitude and that level of hoop, and all you've done is see your team get worse successively, why wouldn't you be like, yo, that's where I see my career.
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NBA Festivus! Plus, Is De’Aaron Fox Planning an Exit from Sac-Town? | Group Chat
Ultimately, I want to be on a winning team. I want to be playing in the most competitive games at the end of the year. This team doesn't seem to be headed in that direction. You know, this is probably the last time he'll ever be able to wield this level of influence in his career. He's turning 27 years old, y'all. Like, he's no spring chicken. This guy's been around for eight years now.
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NBA Festivus! Plus, Is De’Aaron Fox Planning an Exit from Sac-Town? | Group Chat
So, you know, I understand the saber rattling. And, yeah, it would suck for the Kings. But at the same time, you know, worse rebuilds have had to happen. Yeah.
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NBA Festivus! Plus, Is De’Aaron Fox Planning an Exit from Sac-Town? | Group Chat
Yeah, also eight years is a long time, guys.
The Ringer NBA Show
NBA Festivus! Plus, Is De’Aaron Fox Planning an Exit from Sac-Town? | Group Chat
Like eight years in Sacramento, many of those years in the wilderness or with weird ownership situations or just like just the precarity of being up there. It hasn't been some like smooth sailing great time over there. That being said, obviously the fans are incredible and there's major support for the team, but You know, and I've spent a decent amount of time.
The Ringer NBA Show
NBA Festivus! Plus, Is De’Aaron Fox Planning an Exit from Sac-Town? | Group Chat
I shouldn't say decent amount, a little bit of time talking to De'Aaron Fox before. And this kid is like really sharp and really perceptive and self-aware and like in a way that's not common for NBA players. And. You know, it's not shocking that he could take a look at the landscape of the NBA and be like, this ain't it.
The Ringer NBA Show
NBA Festivus! Plus, Is De’Aaron Fox Planning an Exit from Sac-Town? | Group Chat
And this is not something I want to be attached to necessarily as I'm reaching literally the entirety of my prime here. This next contract is going to encompass the rest of his prime. And so, yeah, I understand. I understand why the alarm bells are going up right now.
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NBA Festivus! Plus, Is De’Aaron Fox Planning an Exit from Sac-Town? | Group Chat
Ho, ho, ho, bitches.
The Ringer NBA Show
NBA Festivus! Plus, Is De’Aaron Fox Planning an Exit from Sac-Town? | Group Chat
Oh, my God. Or human sex trafficking. Well, I didn't want to touch the other two. God almighty.
The Ringer NBA Show
NBA Festivus! Plus, Is De’Aaron Fox Planning an Exit from Sac-Town? | Group Chat
Yeah, I think Houston makes a lot of sense. The Spurs, for obvious reasons, because... The past few years, he's played in such a system that highlights the skills of the big men. And so De'Aaron Fox playing off of a big is not hard. He already knows how to do it. Even if they want to feature Wemba Yama even more than they do now, De'Aaron Fox is going to get hit. He's going to eat no matter what.