Reasons For Optimism For All 30 NBA Teams

Summary

Podcast Summary: No Dunks – "Reasons For Optimism For All 30 NBA Teams"

Release Date: July 31, 2025

Hosts:

• J.E. Skeets
• Tass Mellis
• Trey Kirby
• JD (Producer)

---

Introduction and Farewell

Timestamp: [02:04] – [05:17]

In a heartfelt segment, J.E. Skeets announced that this episode marks the final day of "No Dunks" on The Athletic platform. Reflecting on a successful six-year run with 1,445 episodes, the hosts expressed gratitude towards The Athletic team and their numerous collaborators. Skeets shared, “It was a pretty epic run,” acknowledging the support from figures like Nick Adler and the entire NBA coverage team at The Athletic.

Tass Mellis added, “It was a great start and an emotional start,” highlighting the transition within The Athletic and the impending move to platforms like Apple, Spotify, and YouTube. The hosts reassured listeners that "No Dunks" is not going away, hinting at exciting future announcements.

---

Northwest Division

Denver Nuggets

Timestamp: [12:30] – [15:20]

Trey Kirby outlined three key reasons for optimism:

1. Enhanced Bench Strength: Introduction of players like Valentunas, Tim Hardaway Jr., Bruce Brown, and the return of Daron Holmes.
2. Cam Johnson’s Potential: With impressive shooting percentages last season, Johnson is poised for a "50-40-90" season alongside Nikola Jokić.
3. Nikola Jokić’s Dominance: Jokić continues to be the cornerstone, bringing unparalleled talent and leadership.

He rated his optimism as an 8.5 out of 10, noting, “This is the best Nuggets team since their title team.”

Skeets humorously referenced Jokić’s offseason activities, stating, “Jokić coming off five years of some of the greatest numbers we've ever seen.”

Minnesota Timberwolves

Timestamp: [15:23] – [19:19]

Tass Mellis highlighted:

1. Anthony Edwards’ Growth: Looking to evolve into a more playmaking role.
2. Julius Randle’s Development: Improved performance post-trade, bolstered by Chris Finch’s coaching.
3. Depth and Future Stars: Emphasis on emerging players like Rob Dillard, TJ Shannon, and Dante DiVincenzo taking on more significant roles.

Skeets added, “Anthony Edwards should keep his clothes on. You know what I'm talking about,” referencing Edwards’ focus and maturity.

Mellis humorously speculated about Rudy Gobert’s potential three-point shooting, enhancing the team’s versatility.

Overall Optimism Rating: 8.5 to 9.8 out of 10

---

Pacific Division

Golden State Warriors

Timestamp: [35:00] – [38:57]

Trey Kirby expressed optimism based on:

1. Jimmy Butler’s Full Season: Post-trade, Butler contributed significantly, especially defensively.
2. Strong Defensive Metrics: The Warriors maintained the best defense in the league during Butler’s tenure.
3. Potential for Playoff Success: If key players remain healthy, the team could perform well in the playoffs.

However, concerns were raised about the aging roster and the lack of depth:

• Tass Mellis noted, “They’re an old team,” highlighting potential injury issues with veterans like Draymond Green and Al Horford.

Optimism Rating: 6.0 out of 10

Los Angeles Clippers

Timestamp: [37:47] – [41:02]

Trey Kirby highlighted the Clippers’ depth and talent:

1. Strong Backcourt: With James Harden and Chris Paul at point guard.
2. Versatile Roster: Featuring players like Kawhi Leonard, Derrick Jones Jr., and John Collins.
3. Experience and Continuity: Maintaining a consistent lineup to manage player rotations effectively.

Mellis emphasized their sustained success with “14 straight seasons of winning records,” rating optimism at 7 out of 10. However, concerns about the team’s age and long-term viability were discussed.

Phoenix Suns

Timestamp: [84:00] – [88:18]

J.E. Skeets and Tass Mellis discussed the Suns' extensive roster overhaul:

1. New Management and Coaching: Introduction of a new GM and coach aiming for a defensive identity.
2. Youth and Potential: Incorporation of young talents like Jalen Green, Dylan Brooks, and Mark Williams.
3. Low Expectations as an Advantage: Positioned to exceed modest win total predictions through strategic growth.

Optimism Rating: 5.0 to 6.0 out of 10

---

Southwest Division

Dallas Mavericks

Timestamp: [52:38] – [56:23]

Tass Mellis believed the Mavericks are often overlooked, citing:

1. Young Talent: With rising stars like Cooper Flag and Derek Lively.
2. Balanced Roster: Strong frontcourt featuring PJ Washington and Daniel Gafford.
3. Defensive Prowess: Emphasis on hard defensive play under Coach Jason Kidd.

Optimism Rating: 8.0 out of 10

Houston Rockets

Timestamp: [56:23] – [58:03]

Trey Kirby and Mellis were bullish on the Rockets due to:

1. Strategic Acquisitions: Addition of Kevin Durant and Clint Capella.
2. Depth and Defensive Strength: Reinforcement of their defensive lineup.
3. Cap Space and Future Builds: Potential for significant roster improvements in upcoming seasons.

Optimism Rating: 7.5 out of 10

---

Central Division

Boston Celtics

Timestamp: [67:55] – [73:18]

Tass Mellis and Skeets discussed a challenging outlook:

1. Roster Changes: Loss of key centers like Porzingis and Horford.
2. Potential Lottery Picks: Possibility of obtaining top draft picks due to a weakened roster.
3. Core Players’ Development: Focus on Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown to lead the team.

Optimism Rating: 5.0 out of 10

Milwaukee Bucks

Timestamp: [73:18] – [82:22]

Trey Kirby highlighted:

1. Giannis Antetokounmpo’s Leadership: Continued dominance and MVP potential.
2. Strategic Additions: Acquisition of Miles Turner to bolster defense.
3. Guard Rotation Improvements: Addressing the lack of strong perimeter play.

Mellis noted, “He has not been asked to be traded and they're trying everything they can to still put some talent around him,” emphasizing Giannis’s pivotal role.

Optimism Rating: 7.0 out of 10

---

Southeast Division

Atlanta Hawks

Timestamp: [102:19] – [106:14]

Trey Kirby and Mellis expressed strong optimism:

1. Trae Young’s Leadership: Central to the Hawks’ offensive strategy.
2. Defensive Improvements: Building a defense around young talent and strategic acquisitions.
3. Depth and Versatility: Incorporation of players like Jalen Johnson and Zeke Zachary to enhance team dynamics.

Optimism Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Charlotte Hornets

Timestamp: [109:05] – [117:43]

Tash Mellis focused on:

1. Backcourt Synergy: Lamelo Ball and Brandon Miller playing together effectively.
2. Defensive Enhancements: Improvement under Coach Charles Lee.
3. Veteran Guidance: Addition of experienced players like Donovan Mitchell to mentor young talents.

However, concerns remain regarding injuries and the development of key players.

Optimism Rating: 6.0 out of 10

Washington Wizards

Timestamp: [120:34] – [123:56]

J.E. Skeets and Mellis discussed:

1. Youth and Potential: Young roster with high draft picks like Trey Johnson and Will Riley.
2. Cap Flexibility: Significant room to maneuver financially with numerous players on rookie deals.
3. Emerging Talents: Prospects like Bilal Koulibaly and Kam Whitmore showing promise.

Despite the youth, the Wizards face challenges with injuries and the need for player development.

Optimism Rating: 5.0 to 6.0 out of 10

---

Eastern Conference Highlights

New York Knicks

Timestamp: [77:18] – [92:33]

J.E. Skeets and Mellis discussed:

1. Coaching and Strategy: Implementation of Mike Brown’s playmaking philosophy.
2. Jalen Brunson’s Evolution: Transitioning from a primary scorer to a more playmaking role.
3. Eastern Conference Landscape: Opportunities arising from injuries and underperformance of other teams.

Mellis humorously noted, “Take the over, probably for this team.”

Optimism Rating: 7.0 out of 10

Indiana Pacers

Timestamp: [116:43] – [120:34]

J.E. Skeets highlighted:

1. Improved Player Performance: Growth of players like Andrew Nemhard and Benedict Mathurin.
2. Injury Recovery: Potential return of key players enhancing team strength.
3. Depth and Versatility: Strong roster allowing for competitive play in the Eastern Conference.

Mellis emphasized, “They have so many good guys still.”

Optimism Rating: 6.0 out of 10

---

Conclusion and Future Outlook

Timestamp: [122:03] – [123:56]

As "No Dunks" wraps up its final episode on The Athletic, the hosts reiterated their commitment to continuing the podcast on new platforms. They teased upcoming content focused on NBA optimism and hinted at exciting new projects, including a Jurassic Park movie franchise discussion. J.E. Skeets concluded, “This is our final show with The Athletic... big announcements coming,” ensuring listeners that "No Dunks" will remain a vibrant source of NBA insights.

Tass Mellis encapsulated the podcast’s ethos, stating, “It’s the summer of reinvention,” signaling a fresh chapter for the show.

---

Notable Quotes

• J.E. Skeets: “This is the best Nuggets team since their title team.” [14:51]
• Tass Mellis: “The Denver Nuggets and other teams that we'll get to...” [15:20]
• Trey Kirby: “You're not allowed to come over anymore. I can smell it in my office.” [01:45]
• Tass Mellis: “It's the summer of reinvention.” [120:45]
• J.E. Skeets: “Embrace the day, people.” [122:03]

---

Final Remarks: "No Dunks" provided a comprehensive and engaging analysis of each NBA team, offering listeners a blend of statistical insight, strategic evaluations, and candid commentary. With a focus on reasons for optimism across all 30 teams, the hosts delivered a nuanced perspective on the upcoming NBA season, making this episode a valuable resource for fans seeking informed opinions and in-depth analysis.

Transcript

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[J.E. Skeets]

Man, look at that return of that old king man.

[Tass Mellis]

Oh, wow. Emotional King of the Hill is back. They got a Bob's in the airport now. Oh, that's Boba. World has changed. Dad, Bobby wants to bring that new girl over for dinner. The Vegas. What the hell am I supposed to feed her? Can't we just put some grass in a bowl?

[J.E. Skeets]

From Mike Judge and Greg Daniels.

[Tass Mellis]

Ready to make some memories, dad? Let's freaking go.

[J.E. Skeets]

Original Series KING of the Hill season.

[Advertiser 2]

Premiere August 4th streaming on Hulu.

[Tass Mellis]

You fall in in there while you fall in. Hope you lit a match. P. You. Is that you?

[J.E. Skeets]

He stinks.

[Tass Mellis]

You're not allowed to come over anymore. I can smell it in my office. P. You. Did you fall in the toilet?

[Advertiser 2]

Maybe you should light a match.

[Tass Mellis]

I'll do it. I don't want you playing with Mag.

[J.E. Skeets]

Good morning, sweet world, and welcome to the no Dunks podcast on the Athletic Network. It's Thursday, July 31, 2025. I'm Je Skeets here in the classic factory. And alongside me as always, Tas Millis.

[Tass Mellis]

Cold open. Did it again. Got us giggling. Nice one.

[J.E. Skeets]

Next to him, it's the bearded one. My top shot, hot boy, Trey Kirby. Hey, yo. And over yonder, making the magic happen, super producer jd.

[Tass Mellis]

Yes. Hello.

[J.E. Skeets]

Hello.

[Tass Mellis]

Hello, Hello. Hi, Judy.

[Trey Kirby]

I lost my camera for a second.

[J.E. Skeets]

Here we are. Were you lighting a match over there?

[Trey Kirby]

I was.

[Advertiser 2]

You falling?

[Trey Kirby]

I don't want you guys playing matches.

[J.E. Skeets]

Thank you. Hello to everybody joining us Live. On YouTube. Hello to the podcast listeners. Everybody do your like button stuff and your subscription stuff and your five star ratings and review stuff. Got some big news here. Before we get into a very fun NBA show where we're going to share reasons for optimism for all 30 NBA teams. So this could be a long one. Yeah, got a lot of teams to talk about. But today marks no dunks, last day and podcast at the Athletic. Your boys are moving on. Safe to say it was a pretty epic run. By my count, 1,445 podcasts, no dunks episodes with the Athletic over six years. Because then there's no buffs. There were some no breaks, there's some no bunts. There were Summer of Champions. Probably some other ones I'm forgetting, but that's a whole lot of podcasts. We wanted to say big thanks to the entire team at the Athletic for helping us build this show and being such great collaborators and teammates. We had countless guests on this pod over six seasons. We owe a great deal. A great deal. Excuse me. Of gratitude to Nick Adler back in the day for believing in us in 2019 after we wrapped up at NBA TV in he was pretty instrumental in helping us convince then Athletic co founders Alex and Adam to bring us on board and to start the podcast with the Athletics. So many thanks to Nick and those guys. Our creative and audio bosses, Jesse Burton, Craig Custance, Tim McMaster. Awesome NBA. Honestly, some of the best NBA coverage in the world. Led by Rob Peterson, Sergio Gonzalez, Mike Prada. I mean, I could just keep naming names here, but you get the idea. There's a lot of people behind the scenes that helps us do the show. Adam Jones, always in our corner. A thanks mate to him. On the other side of the pond, Will Bartlett was fantastic in the early years. We made him a bamboo boy for crying. Oh yeah, we did.

[Advertiser 2]

We talked to a lot of bamboo boys over the past six years.

[J.E. Skeets]

Our guy, Jerome Chang, forever in debt to him, how much he helped us grow this show. He's obviously with the hello and welcome podcast up in Canada. Hugs and kisses to Chris Branch and Zach Harper for including us in as many newsletters as possible. I was always bothering them. Yeah, I love those two guys.

[Advertiser 2]

I do love to hug Zach.

[J.E. Skeets]

Yeah, and. And a final and really, I mean, maybe the most tearful sort of goodbye, but huge thanks to our guy, Eshua Kidd. Esh is staying on at the Athletic because he's an awesome producer. They're lucky to have him, but this will be moving on for now at least. From Ash. I Just named a bunch of people. I'm sure I missed another hundred. But six years, an end of an era here for us at the Athletic.

[Tass Mellis]

Yeah, well, you said off the beginning it was going to be long because we're going to go through all 30 NBA teams. But it might be long just because we might thank the Athletic for several years. Because you said it was a little teary for Usher. I kid. I mean, it started kind of teary in 2019. We needed someone. We needed somebody to keep this show going. And Alex Mather, Adam Hansman, they looked at us along with Nick Adler and said, those guys, bring them in. So it was. It was a great start. Also, just to be part of that transition in the Athletic, which was an incredible writing website, but turned to production of podcasts. So we were there. So it can be. It can be looked at for us as we step back as a great start, an emotional start, and then sort of this cultural transition in the Athletic to then be hired by the New York Times or purchased by the New York Times, I should say. So it is a quite a storied six years for us.

[J.E. Skeets]

I can't believe it's six years. Yeah, it sort of went by blink of an eye. I mean, we are like year 2021, whatever it is, here with this show. But six of them at the Athletic and a lot like this is the most amount of episodes we've ever done in one spot to put that in context, which is sort of mind boggling.

[Tass Mellis]

Yeah, NBA TV didn't make us work in the summer. That was nice. So that's like two months a year.

[J.E. Skeets]

No working, I should say here before, you know, get like, hear from Trey and JD on this too. As for no Dunks, you don't need to worry. Like, we have big plans coming later this summer, early fall. We can't make those announcements just quite yet, but they are coming. And fear not, no Dunks is not going anywhere. I will say though, if you are one of the people that do listen to this podcast on the Athletic platform, make sure you switch over to Apple or Spotify or YouTube, some other podcast site where you can listen and download the show. That's the one change for you people that only listen on the Athletic platform. But otherwise no Dunks is here through the summer. And then again, big announcements coming.

[Advertiser 2]

Exactly right. What'd you say about 1500 podcasts plus the other ones? It was a really fun six years for sure. We thank everybody for all of their support, their encouragement, their collaboration. It's great getting to just Like Slack with Eric Naim.

[Tass Mellis]

Right.

[Advertiser 2]

Like, guys that you love reading their writing, and they'll tell you about Doc Rivers if you want to hear about it. So it's been a rewarding six years for sure. And like you said, nothing's going to change because we were smart this time. We get to keep the name exciting. The four of us going forward. Still no dunks. Stay tuned in. Yeah. Like, this is our last day at the Athletic. Guess what? We'll be back next week doing podcasts.

[Tass Mellis]

Yeah.

[J.E. Skeets]

Yes.

[Tass Mellis]

For you out there, nothing changed all that much.

[J.E. Skeets]

It's on the back end of things. And J.D. that, like, really pertains to you more than even us.

[Tass Mellis]

Yeah.

[J.E. Skeets]

With how much you have to work with, obviously, all the people.

[Trey Kirby]

Oh, yeah. I'm going to add Schlecht to the list of names. You know, what about this guy was absolutely a joy to work with, and he was instrumental in helping us out with summer league stuff and just being around and bouncing ideas off and stuff. Another guy, Mike Smelts, he left the company about a year ago, but he was also one of our great backers. And, yeah, as you say, we not only keep the name, but we keep all of our feeds, except for the Athletic, the private feed. So go ahead and unsubscribe, I guess, is what we're saying. I'm just kidding. Enjoy the Athletic. There is no ill will here at all, where we're excited to see what they come up with down the road, and we'll just be competing directly with them, which is, let's go, let's fight, let's fight.

[J.E. Skeets]

But also, could I please still have a subscription to the Athletic? Because I really do enjoy all of the writers.

[Advertiser 2]

Same, same, same.

[Trey Kirby]

I do have a little bit of Daniel Plainview in me, though.

[Tass Mellis]

Right.

[Trey Kirby]

It's like, you know, I drink your milkshake, you know, oh, my son is going against me. Well, okay, fine, it's on.

[Tass Mellis]

Okay.

[Trey Kirby]

But, you know, it's in a friendly way and a loving way. And it was a great six years. I mean, God, like, you glossed over the pandemic.

[J.E. Skeets]

Oh, I know.

[Trey Kirby]

So there was all of that as well. So it was a tumultuous time. And our man Lee Ellis left the show, too.

[Tass Mellis]

Oh, yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

Remember him? Yeah, he left.

[Tass Mellis]

Right.

[Trey Kirby]

So, yeah, Wild times behind us. Hopefully even wilder times ahead of us.

[J.E. Skeets]

That's right.

[Trey Kirby]

Like, things are going to get maybe weird around here.

[Advertiser 2]

That's my plan.

[J.E. Skeets]

That's your plan. The goal for moving into next season. Let's get weird.

[Advertiser 2]

Let's get weird.

[J.E. Skeets]

Let's get weirder.

[Trey Kirby]

Let's get weirder.

[J.E. Skeets]

Okay. Yeah. Well, that's good. Well, if you're a fan of that, hit the like button. Subscribe five star ratings and reviews. That would be the perfect time right now throughout the summer to boost your boys and help us out there. And thanks to everybody that already has. Of course. Should we get into this, which could be still a very long podcast here.

[Advertiser 2]

We still got like 600 people at the Athletic tonight, so apologies. Come in after the Western Conference.

[J.E. Skeets]

Yeah, okay.

[Advertiser 2]

We love you, Rob Peterson.

[J.E. Skeets]

I think I said him.

[Advertiser 2]

Let me throw back to another one. We love you, Law Murray.

[J.E. Skeets]

There you go.

[Advertiser 2]

Okay, good one, Western Conference.

[J.E. Skeets]

You know who I do love? I do love a lot of these right now. We just saw him in Vegas though. Will Guillory. Oh, love. Will Guillory is one of the best. Seriously. I get excited when I see him. Like, he's just a smiley guy, man.

[Advertiser 2]

Oh, yeah, Great energy.

[J.E. Skeets]

Cool guy. Yeah.

[Tass Mellis]

He's on a new video with our man Fred Katz that we didn't even mention.

[J.E. Skeets]

Okay, okay, we gotta stop. We gotta stop.

[Tass Mellis]

Rob Peterson just went to Ireland. I want to hear about his Irish trip. Let's get him on the next podcast, just him about Ireland.

[J.E. Skeets]

Do you think he brought back some Irish soap?

[Tass Mellis]

Is that some Irish soap? Yes, absolutely.

[J.E. Skeets]

Isn't that your favorite thing about St. Patrick's Day?

[Tass Mellis]

No, you're.

[Advertiser 2]

You're reference.

[Tass Mellis]

You're referencing an email that we got from our man Jeremy Bippo, who brought up the three funniest things I've ever said to him. And when you say that we've done literally almost 3000 podcasts probably.

[J.E. Skeets]

No, of course we've done that.

[Tass Mellis]

Of course there's going to be some random things that I can say. Three funny things in 3,000 podcasts. It is possible. So yes, that's what you're.

[J.E. Skeets]

Let me just read what he wrote in the email. This is what Tass said. His favorite thing, Tas, his favorite thing about St. Patrick's Day tradition is opening a fresh box of the green Irish Spring. So far, I vaguely remember you saying.

[Tass Mellis]

Oh, man, this is so long ago.

[J.E. Skeets]

What a pull from Patrick's Day.

[Tass Mellis]

I do love St. Patrick's Day. I have to learn the Irish dances. So I think that's what Rob Peterson is going to teach us all on that new podcast next week, Ron's Pod.

[J.E. Skeets]

Oh, that's how we're going to get weird. We're going to have Rob Peterson in here to teach Tass an Irish J why not? Wrong? Why not? Okay, let's talk hoops here. We are looking at reasons for every team's fans to be optimistic about the coming year. Or maybe your reasons that you're optimistic about said team. We're going to go through all 30. We'll move with some pace. We're doing it by divisions because we're the last podcast on earth that cares about divisions. Let's start with the Northwest Division out in the west and we always will take turns sort of leading these conversations. Trey, we start with you, the Denver Nuggets what's a big reason for optimism coming into next season?

[Advertiser 2]

Easy one okay, Denver Nuggets is an easy optimism finding mission. Three reasons to me they got a new bench. New bench alert Valentunas. It looks like he's going to be a Denver Nugget after all. Not playing for Panathanikos. I think they got a large baby Thomas Bryant instead. They got Tim Hardaway Jr. They got Bruce Brown. They got Daron Holmes coming back for his Robinson real rookie season after suffering an injury during his first summer league game last year. So that alone is a reason to be optimistic if you're a Denver Nugget. They have struggled to put players outside of their starting five since winning the title back in 2023. You also got to have Cam Johnson as a reason for optimism. Was 18 points, four rebounds, three assists per game last season with the Nets. Shot 48 from the field, 39 from 389 at the line. I think he's got a pretty reasonable shot at a 50, 40, 90 season playing alongside Nikola Jokic. Because if you're putting up those percentages as the number one guy on a bad Brooklyn team, getting easier shots, playing in a better offense, being the number three, number four at times option should get some good looks. So I think that is also a reason to be optimistic. But biggest reason? You still got the best player in the world baby. Nikola Jokic, coming off five years of some of the greatest numbers we've ever seen, maybe had his best season last year and didn't even win mvp. This is the best Nuggets team since their title team. Talent wise. You might even put them ahead of that title team. We'll see how they all click because things were perfect for Denver back in the 2023 season. So I think there's a lot of reasons to be optimistic. If you're a Nuggets fan, my ranking would be an eight and a half out of ten. Optimism.

[J.E. Skeets]

Wow. And Jokic coming off a big horse race win Big horse ride. That pun intended into the season.

[Tass Mellis]

That.

[J.E. Skeets]

That high. The $3,500 he apparently won in that Serbian horse race.

[Advertiser 2]

People are like, that won't even feed a horse for a year.

[J.E. Skeets]

There's not enough for oats.

[Tass Mellis]

Yeah. I was confused by that currency. It was $3,500 followed by a dollar sign. I was confused. Is it dollars? Is it. Nobody knows Euros? I don't know.

[J.E. Skeets]

It's not a lot, I think, is what we're getting at. But he does it.

[Tass Mellis]

It was just that horse winning a quick race. I can understand why it wasn't a lot.

[J.E. Skeets]

Quick race.

[Tass Mellis]

Congratulations.

[Advertiser 2]

Think of the season that he could have. He could win the horse race. He could win Euro basket. And the Nuggets are at least going to be a title contender going into the 25, six season.

[Tass Mellis]

Yeah, absolutely. Eight and a half is low to me. I'd go 9.88. I mean, super high. I would go super high. We were sitting here last year when Boston Celtics won, thinking, oh, Boston's going to win a ton more championships. Here we are. And OKC isn't a lock to win 25, 26 because of the Denver Nuggets and other teams that we'll get to. I mean, like you said, Nikola Jokic is the best player in the freaking world. And that team got way better around him, and he's still in his prime. Very excited to see what they got this year.

[J.E. Skeets]

All right, Taz, let's move to the Minnesota Timberwolves.

[Tass Mellis]

We're starting with a couple teams here that will give OKC a run. The Minnesota Timberwolves have all the reasons to be optimism. They just went to two straight conference finals, the only Western Conference team to do that. And here we go. Anthony Edwards, year six. Can he grow a little bit more? Can he be more of a playmaker like Jayson Tatum became when they won the championship in year seven for him? So Anthony Edwards, it all starts with that guy. To come into this season after going to the conference finals with the same team around him, essentially something that they didn't do last year when they traded Carl Anthony Towns, they were still able to fight through it and get to the conference finals. So you gotta be super optimistic about that. And then it trickles down. Julius Randle, we didn't see it coming for a guy to be traded just before training camp to be the best version of himself in the postseason. There's something going on there with Chris Finch being able to get through to him. So there's that. I mean, the. The. The Questions start as you go down a little bit lower on the roster. Jay McDaniels turned in to a new player in the playoffs. Sure, Rudy Gobert, we know he's sort of at his peak, but then it goes to like the Mike Conley and the bench questions. But Mike Conley, we know it's a transition time. The Minnesota Timberwolves and I think Chris Finch are ready to say, hey, we got guys that can replace him. Essentially Rob Dillingham off the bench and TJ Shannon are sort of going to be that two headed unit where we saw TJ Shannon kind of grow into a new player in summer league where he can basically be your second point guard. With Nikhil Alexander Walker gone, there's a lot on him. There's a lot on Rob Dillingham. And I think Dante DiVincenzo getting just more reps here, having more time because he was also part of that deal is a good sign from them. Everybody for him, I should say. And everybody is I think in the franchise ready to say Mike Conley. You got to pass the torch here to that trio that I sort of mentioned, especially Rob Dillingham and TJ Shannon, but Dante DiVincenzo as well. So those are the questions. But when you're led by Ant, I think you've got an incredible team here. Great sign, great sign for them to be able to have a. Don't have to do the fresh start thing like they did with Carl Anthony Towns gone. Here we go. This is the same freaking team that they're running back.

[J.E. Skeets]

And how about Rudy Gobert working in the gym with Lethal Shooter?

[Advertiser 2]

He understands it now.

[J.E. Skeets]

He understands it now, man. He's going to be splashing threes next year.

[Advertiser 2]

Didn't Anthony Edwards once say that if Rudy Gobert takes a three pointer, he's going to take off all of his clothes? Rudy Gobert is going to shoot a three this year. He did say, I'm optimistic we're going to see a nude Anthony Edwards on the court this year.

[Tass Mellis]

He didn't take one last years.

[Advertiser 2]

Wasn't Rudy shooting like during like the run up to the Olympics last year or something like that? And Ant was obviously playing for Team USA as well. He's like, he ain't gonna be shooting threes when he comes to Minnesota, but we'll see. I mean it's good for the Timberwolves to have continuity because they really clicked last season. The second half after Randall came back, they figured out how to play alongside each other. So this year, not being thrown together at the Last second. Definitely gonna help. They need big seasons from Dilling, Ham and Shannon to kind of make up for Nikhil Alexander and Mike Conley just starting to regress a little bit. So I think that is the biggest question marks for Minnesota is their rookies from last year.

[J.E. Skeets]

I just looked it up. Rudy Gobert has Never hit a three pointer in his NBA career. He didn't even take one last year. 0 for 17 from deep in his career. 0 for 1 in the playoffs. Okay. I guess added up he's over 18 so you can keep your clothes comfortably on there and for now. But you know, again he's putting in all this work. The shirt was off in the gym. You're seeing the videos going viral. Looking good. Getting his footwork right. He understands it now, so we'll see. But yeah, okay.

[Advertiser 2]

He just says he would walk off the court. I don't.

[J.E. Skeets]

Oh, why did you add that sexy part to it?

[Tass Mellis]

I don't know.

[J.E. Skeets]

Dream it, I guess.

[Tass Mellis]

Yeah, yeah. There's clear. Yeah, there is. There's questions I guess about Ant and whether or not he'll ever take a shirt off, but also just the, the depth of this team.

[J.E. Skeets]

Anthony Edwards should keep his clothes on. You know what I'm talking about. You got enough, man. You're not even old man. All right, I love it. Let's keep it moving. OkC, you talked about those two teams. We just did. Denver, Minnesota. They'll be challenging the defending champs Oklahoma City Thunder in their quest to go back to back. And that's sort of like the reason for optimism. They have a goal here. They're going to be trying to do something that hasn't happened in a while in the NBA and that is win back to back titles. Can they snap the NBA like parody championship streak that we are sort of in a lot of, you know this for the first time in NBA history, we had seven different champions across seven different consecutive seasons. Raps in 19. Lakers in the bubble. Even though Daryl Morey says doesn't count. We had the Bucks, we had the warriors, we had the Nuggets, the Celtics and then the Thunder last year. But what I'm really optimistic about is just the continuity of this team. The defending champs are returning every key player who saw any sort of action in the 2025 playoffs in their run to the title. Everybody Supermax for SGA, no brainer. Max deals for Chet Holmgren and JDub. So things are going to get very expensive. But they know the window here is now to win as many titles as you can with this Obviously good team. They extended Jalen Williams the big one, AJ Mitchell. So they just have their whole squad here. And I guess some people are saying, what about Nikola Topic as well? I got the six, six Serbian guard. We saw him in summer league. I think he'll play a lot of time in the G League just because there's not a lot of minutes to go around unless there's like an unfortunate injury to somebody in the pecking order. So you put them in that low pressure environment in the G league and let him learn the ropes a little bit more. He's super young. I think he'll be 20 next season, but I just can't find really anything wrong with this team. I guess you just say, well now that all the guys got paid well, they take their foot off the gas. They do not seem wired to me like that. So they are the favorites in my mind. As much as you want to make a case for Denver, Minnesota, Eastern Conference teams, whatever, this is the team to beat. Everybody knows it.

[Tass Mellis]

No question. Topic might have a good Euro basket. Maybe that'll help him out. I mean there's, there's really nothing to, to poke holes and Shea, Gil just Alexander is going to take his shirt off. We know he likes to take his shirt off. Yeah. So no, there's, there's no holes. And yes, those guys are not wired like that. Jalen Williams has never been wired like that. He just had his first drink of alcohol in his life just now. I mean there's, he's just steady. They're all steady.

[J.E. Skeets]

I was going to ask like what they call. They went 68, 14 last year. Like do you think they match that? Maybe do take their foot off the gas a little bit in the regular season. You play the long game a little more. Like where do you put them in terms of win total? Just out of curiosity, next year in a very loaded still Western Conference, but are they an easy 60 win team? Are they flirting with 70 wins like they did last year? What do you think?

[Advertiser 2]

60 plus for sure, but I don't think 68. I think they'll probably be less than that. Like I think they'll play Topic like they play young guys during the regular season. AJ Mitchell is also a good player and this guy's maybe their third point guard. Topich and AJ Mitchell would be like a development piece for 20 teams and the NBA would be happy to have those guys as a young rookie second year player who they're building up, trying to figure out what they've got and they're like Maybe you can get 10 minutes a game.

[J.E. Skeets]

Yeah.

[Advertiser 2]

For this team. So.

[Tass Mellis]

Yeah. I mean.

[Advertiser 2]

Okay. See, the only way I don't see him making the conference finals is a SGA gets hurt. I think they can do it if J Dub gets hurt. I think they can do it if Check gets hurt. Like, we've seen them still be successful without those guys. The key for them is keeping Shea healthy, and that guy is pretty healthy all the time.

[J.E. Skeets]

Yeah.

[Tass Mellis]

Yeah, that's a good point about A.J. mitchell. Them. Maybe their goal, if they have any goals other than what they normally do, is to have another ball handler. I do believe so. AJ Mitchell could be that guy.

[J.E. Skeets]

But they're stacked and they can. And they are. They are one of these teams that can have an unfortunate injury to a guy or two or three, and they just have so many guys that they can slot in.

[Tass Mellis]

Like they had last year.

[J.E. Skeets]

Exactly.

[Tass Mellis]

Exactly. So Chet and Hartenstein playing a full season together will be fun. If they play together.

[J.E. Skeets]

Yeah. All right, let's keep it going. Trey, back to you. Portland Trailblazers.

[Advertiser 2]

Well, I was feeling more optimistic before we started with the Nuggets, Timberwolves and Thunder all in their same division, not just the same conference. Like, those are three conference finals slash finals slash title competitors ahead of the Trailblazers, who I'm still excited to see what they do. Like, I'm excited to see Young Hansen. I don't think he's going to play as much as we're anticipating because this should be a Donovan Clingan start. But the thing I'm most optimistic about is Scooters Tutors. Talking about Scoot Henderson going into Year three with three hall of Fame point guards to learn from.

[J.E. Skeets]

Good man.

[Tass Mellis]

I've heard him fart before.

[Advertiser 2]

Come on, can't you imagine, like, a caricature shirt that says, like, Scooters tutors. And it's got Billups, Jrue Holiday and Dame Lillard behind Scoot Henderson, like, rooting them on kind of.

[J.E. Skeets]

Oh, yeah. Or like, I see, like, they're almost like professors or something like that. He's at the chalkboard, you know, like right point guard position. I love it.

[Tass Mellis]

Yeah.

[Advertiser 2]

Yeah. So 35 on three for scoot last season on four and a half attempts. That's pretty good. Shot 47% on twos, which was an improvement, but still not very good. But it's year three for this guy. A lot of players make a leap in year three. He was comped to Derrick Rose coming into the draft. He's not the athlete that Derrick Rose was, but in year three is when Derrick Rose won mvp. He figured out how to attack the rim and use his body to draw fouls, which really helps your efficiency. I think that's something Scoot can do as well. I don't necessarily think that having a bunch of good point guards who were good 10 years ago means that Scoot is going to be good, but they're putting him in a good situation. He just needs to be the main offensive driver for this team, which maybe is a little bit more to ask from him. So I'm more of like a 6 of 10 optimistic wise for the Trailblazers. Just because they're in the Western Conference, man, and it's tough. We're just talking about their division. They got three awesome teams ahead of them. A good season for Portland this year would be to make the play in tournament, but I think they should at least make a run at the Play in tournament. I don't guarantee they're going to be there, but I like what they did the second half of last season. You know the guys that maybe were holding them back from taking a developmental leap and Anthony Simons and DeAndre and those guys are gone. It's all youth. It's all about getting better going forward. So I do like where the Blazers are at. Unfortunately they do play against a lot of really good dreams.

[J.E. Skeets]

Yeah, they won 36 games last year and I bring that up because I just looked at the their bet mgm, you know, win total prediction line heading into next season it's at 33 and a half and again I think it just speaks to the loaded Western Conference. Like they're like I don't think you think this team got worse. I don't think anyone thinks that but maybe it's a little fool's gold at the end of the year when they did sort of turn things around like they leaned into a defensive or they found a bit of a defensive identity and I think that helped them win some games again. Some of those games in March and stuff. It's like a little weird. There's injuries and all that but I.

[Tass Mellis]

Don'T know, I like ready to hit that over a little bit.

[J.E. Skeets]

A little bit. I don't see why they're much worse or at all record wise than last year. So I feel pretty. I think the competing for a play in spot is the goal and should be and I think they can be there come later part of the regular season.

[Tass Mellis]

That's the goal playing. There's so much talent on this roster and I guess that is the optimism Is that all that talent is going to be taught by great talent, you know, over the last five, six years. So they started 14 and 28 last year. So, you know, midway through the year they're on pace for about 27, 28 wins.

[J.E. Skeets]

So they played better in the second.

[Tass Mellis]

They did. They kicked ass. I mean, Danny Abdia is going to be. There's going to be a lot on him. He's going to be so good. You mentioned Clint, like they, they have a really good starting lineup. You know, even with Scoot Henderson essentially coming off the bench. Probably. They should be good. They should be.

[J.E. Skeets]

Yeah. And we've talked already a lot about like it does feel like a, a Scoot slash, sharp, like who really can level up? Can one of those, can both those guys like sort of be like, whoa, this guy's a cornerstone guy for our team moving forward. And that's where the help comes in with I guess Drew and Damien and, and Billups as your head coach being a point guard, hall of Fame point guard, like helping those guys develop.

[Tass Mellis]

Yeah. With Simon's out with and Free Simon's gone. They have time. They have time to. Opportunity for time to play anyway.

[Advertiser 2]

Do you think Jrue Holiday is going to be in the hall of Fame?

[Tass Mellis]

That's a great question.

[Advertiser 2]

I mentioned him as a Hall of Fame point guard. Two titles, one all star appearance or what? Maybe got one. Three all star appearances. He had the one with Philadelphia back then. I'm sure he made it with the Bucks as well.

[J.E. Skeets]

But two time All Star.

[Advertiser 2]

Two time All Star, six time all.

[J.E. Skeets]

Defensive player, two time champ. Two times.

[Advertiser 2]

People love this guy.

[J.E. Skeets]

Yeah.

[Tass Mellis]

Yeah. I think, I think he gets in when the voters want to have somebody in for his off the court type of contribution to the game. I think that definitely helps him.

[J.E. Skeets]

Yeah.

[Advertiser 2]

Yeah, you're probably right. Probably not a first ballot or. But during the right year he'll make it.

[J.E. Skeets]

He will. That sounds more realistic. Definitely not a first ballot hall of Famer. That, that's not even a knock on Drew hall guys like a 16 point per game scorer for his career. He played a long time though, and still playing and I don't know, is he even going to be in Portland? What are they going to do? Can anybody. Will anybody take Jeremy Grant's contract? Can they get off that? So questions there in Portland, but some optimism. Final team in the Northwest task Utah Jazz.

[Tass Mellis]

Well, it gets, it gets bleak with the Blazers now it gets real bleak with the Utah Jazz, but I'm going to be optimistic. This is, this is going to be the fifth place team in the Northwest Division. They could be as projected to be the 15th best team in the Western Conference but I think they can take that going into the season. Say we are underrated and we are better than that. Lowry Markkanen will be their leader. He'll be fresh off the Euro basket where he's leading his Finnish team and I do think the offense running through him will be optimal. I think it'll be really good. Two years ago when Will, when Larry marketing got there, Will Hardy got him to buy in into basically, you know, running around mid range and out and being a primary focus and this was a middle of the pack offense. So I think they can get closer to that with everything focused on him. Guys like Kyle Anderson coming and being those sort of the connectors to those guys. Kevin loved to teach some guys before he leaves later this season and then guys like Kyle Filipowski and Ace Bailey. I mean this team is going to be huge and I think that's optimal. They're going to shoot a ton of threes. The question is with their guard play, where are they going to get it from? I think they've got a decent amount of good bigs but Walter Clayton could be the steel of the draft. That guy looks awesome and I think he is a very talented, just talented dude. He looked like fun in summer league like he's just a smart guy and I think that's good for their offense because Walter Clayton isn't a guy who's going to try and take every single shot and that's wonderful for Will Hardy offense. I think Will Hardy will get them to buy in. Everybody flying around the three point line and they have other guys like Isaiah Collier and Keonte George to run the point. But I think Walter Clayton will be the, the sign of the the future for this team because I don't know, I buy in Will Hardy getting these guys to work and getting Larry Markkanen to to be the focus of their offense and we'll see what Ace Bailey can do around him. But they have a bunch of different guys. I, I don't know if Walker Kessler is going to be there, right? Who knows. It seems like a three, like a all five out type of team. Yusuf Nurkic is going to shoot a lot of threes. I can't believe I said use of Nurkic his name but they're going to play.

[Advertiser 2]

He's on the Jazz.

[Tass Mellis]

He's on the Jazz.

[J.E. Skeets]

I thought the key word you said there if you're a Jazz fan going into next season is hopefully fun. Is it a fun squad? Because they're going to be picked by everybody, be dead last in the Western Conference. Like I will. They even get to 20 wins at least. They've already decided heading into the season that we're sort of like, not even tanking, but, like, hey, it's the. It's the young generation here and we are just starting with that. We've traded or got rid of all of our vets. And don't worry, we won't have to, like, fake shut down guys with like, pseudo injuries to like, not win as many games because we want to help our lottery chances. Like, that's not even going to be a problem because they're just so young and they're going to see what they have there. But hopefully they're entertaining at the very least.

[Tass Mellis]

Yeah. And I like for them the fact Jordan Clarkson, Colin Sexton are gone. You don't have to shoot a lot from the back or you're going to run through things through the big men. And guys like Walter Clayton will run a good offense. I do think he's a champ. He's a Florida champ. And so let these other guys play. Let the. Let it run through the big guys. I think that's what will happen with this team.

[J.E. Skeets]

Excited to maybe talk about or watch on the Jazz.

[Advertiser 2]

Ace Bailey.

[J.E. Skeets]

Okay.

[Advertiser 2]

That's about it.

[J.E. Skeets]

Okay.

[Advertiser 2]

Yeah, I think they should. And I think they will trade Lowry, Markkanen this season. It just doesn't really make sense for him to stick around. All of their best players are like 22 and younger. It's a new front office kind of. It's like a part of the new front office's son come over. So I don't think they're necessarily tied to any of the previous draft picks like the Keonte, George, Taylor, Hendricks sort of guys. I don't think they're necessarily there, so I don't think market and sticking around makes much sense. The Jazz are still in rebuild mode, so it would make sense for them to get some more assets back for, you know, a guy who doesn't really fit their timeframe now. And the Jazz are going to be wearing completely new jerseys. They did like a half rollout last season, adding even more mountainous looks this year, and I'm optimistic that those will look good.

[J.E. Skeets]

Okay, that's nice. Good little thing to look forward to.

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[Tass Mellis]

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[J.E. Skeets]

All right, let's move to the Pacific Division. Golden State Warriors. I've got this team. Reason for optimism is a full season with Jimmy Butler. This is a bit of a no brainer here. They traded for him in February and then they finished 23 and 7 when he was playing over the final 30 games. A pretty damn good record. Now a lot of other teams in the west were putting up really good records as we headed into the playoffs as well. But over that stretch the warriors had the best defense in the league. It was a 109.0 defensive rating when you got Jimmy beside Draymond Green. Obviously Steph was playing there. They had a really good net rating over those final 30 games only behind OKC in Boston. They led the NBA in assist percentage like the ball was moving. They looked good. And then in the playoffs they got by the Rockets in seven. I forgot how important Jimmy was in that game one to set the tone in that series. 25 points, seven boards, six assists, five steals. But then he got banged up obviously as the playoffs went on, Steph Curry got taken out of the lineup. So like things sort of like derailed quickly. But if they're healthy and they have these three guys, I know they got a lot of things to figure out here. We're still with Kaminga and restricted free agency and we don't need to talk about that on today's pod. And then obviously once they do figure that out, Horford and Melton and stuff like that. But you got Jimmy here to start training camp and with this season they should be a good team. I think they're fascinating where people sort of slot them in in the Western Conference and how much faith you do have in these sort of old guys. But that's the reason Jimmy's there from the jump. And they were good when he was.

[Advertiser 2]

There, they were really good when he was there. But you look at their basketball reference page and they got 10 guys on their roster right now because they haven't been able to fill things out because of the Kaminga question. I'm more bullish on the warriors in the playoffs than I am during the regular season. I think they can still be down near the play in tournament just because Steph will miss a little bit of time. Draymond will miss a little bit of time, Jimmy will miss a little bit of time. This is an old, old team and the key will be having them healthy come April, May and June if they're fortunate. So it makes sense for them to kind of manage minutes and the load on these guys bodies going through the regular season. But once it's in the seven game series mode, I'm scared of the warriors for sure.

[Tass Mellis]

Yeah. The question is the depth that they add. Will it be younger guys? Because I would want them to play a lot of minutes in the regular season. So I don't love the idea of a injured d' Anthony Melton coming back. Although I'm a D. Anthony Melton fan. An old Al Horford coming back who.

[J.E. Skeets]

Can'T even play back the backs.

[Tass Mellis]

Yeah, he's old, he makes the team even older. Gary Payton the second coming back who's, you know, a guy who's been banged up. So I'm a little worried about the regular season, as you said, playoffs. Nobody's worried. We will see what they do. But yeah, this is, this is an old team. Draymond Green's gray beard is getting grayer. It's. It's a little bit worrisome. Him for the Warriors.

[J.E. Skeets]

LA Clippers. Trey, why are you excited?

[Advertiser 2]

I think they're going to be the best team in LA this year.

[Tass Mellis]

I believe it.

[Advertiser 2]

Both the Clippers and Lakers won 50 games last season. The Lakers did win this season series three to one. I think once we get to like preseason tiers and stuff, we'll probably have the Lakers and Clippers in the same tier. And I would have the Clippers just ahead of them because I think they probably have the best two deep in the league. At point guard, they got James Harden and Chris Paul. At shooting guard, Bradley Beale and Bogdan Bogdanovich. Four Bs, two men.

[J.E. Skeets]

Killer bees. Pretty cool.

[Advertiser 2]

Small forward Kawhi Leonard, Derrick Jones Jr. Power forward John Collins, Nick Batum, center Evita Zubots and Brook Lopez. We're talking about Derrick Jones Jr. And Chris Dunn as the 10th and 11th man on this team. That's pretty deep, though.

[J.E. Skeets]

I haven't checked every team.

[Advertiser 2]

The Clippers top 11 are all born in 1997 or earlier. They've got four guys who were born in the 80s.

[J.E. Skeets]

It's. I think the oldest are these. I thought I saw somebody say it's the oldest team ever.

[Advertiser 2]

It must be.

[J.E. Skeets]

Yeah.

[Advertiser 2]

I mean, how do you not have one guy in your rotation who was born in the 2000s? Yeah, that's. That's something to worry about.

[J.E. Skeets]

Sure.

[Advertiser 2]

But if you're gonna have all old guys, get a lot of them because eventually when they miss time, you can just slide one of these guys in. Right. Like, Chris Dunn is a pretty solid point guard. He was really good for the Clippers last year and he's basically an emergency guy or a defensive stopper guy for them. So I'm feeling optimistic about the Clippers. I'm like a 7 of 10. It's the preseason, the regular season, it's talk yourself into them time. Of course, of course. But we're being optimistic here. We're not talking about a playoff series. We all know how that's going to go. But right now things are awesome for la.

[J.E. Skeets]

Yeah, I like people comparing the Clippers to like the old team that shows up at the YMCA like the old guys. And like, you're just like, damn, why can't we beat these guys? You know, like, the kids are thinking that, like, these guys are like 20 years older than us, but like they're just. I got all the skill still. But problem with the old guys is they do get injured and get banged up and we'll see. On paper it looks awesome. But we've said that many times with the LA Clippers. But I know you're, you seem to be a fan of at least what they did in the off season, what they've added here.

[Tass Mellis]

Oh yeah, yeah. The fact that they had the same amount of wins as the Lakers last year and got better in the, in this off season. I mean that, that tells you that they're going to be good. And they've had 14 straight seasons of winning records. That's the active leader in the NBA because it's 14 freaking straight seasons. The question is when does it end? Because they are old. And that's the interesting thing to me is watching this team with such a short window. How many more years can this team stay together with all these older guys at the top? But that's what makes it fun. This year has, there, has, has chanced for them to be good. I don't know what they're going to do in the playoffs.

[Advertiser 2]

I don't. They could be incredible.

[Tass Mellis]

They could be incredible. They almost beat the Denver Nuggets. I know it's just the Denver Nuggets and the Nuggets aren't the champion, but they almost got them. So they got better. That's all.

[Advertiser 2]

That's all. It's all about matchups and health come playoff time. So we'll see what happens. But basically the clippers have a two year window this year and next year and then 2027 they've got Zubots under contract and then guys that they have recently drafted. So it's now or never for la, right?

[J.E. Skeets]

Right. The Lakers tests.

[Tass Mellis]

Oh yeah.

[J.E. Skeets]

Lucas Hot bod.

[Tass Mellis]

I would say the guy, the guy that got drafted way earlier than him is why you should be optimistic. They just have the number one pick of the 2018 draft coming on in. DeAndre. DeAndre Ayton is going into his prime. He's 27 years old. I know no one's, no one's high on him outside of la. I mean listen, the Clippers got way better in the off season. On paper, the lakers did too. Deandre Ayton will play and that's a great sign because JJ Redick is going to play him. JJ Redick did an incredible job of playing essentially LeBron at center in the playoffs. That front line of LeBron, Rui Achimura and Dorian, Finney, Smith, that's. That's who they're playing.

[Advertiser 2]

That's what they were playing.

[Tass Mellis]

And they're both playing LeBron Luca over 40 minutes. They're all playing heavy, heavy minutes. So DeAndre gets the slide in. If anyone can do something with John Drayton, can help him be who he was when they drafted him in 2018. He was talking about video games in a lot in an elevator with. With Luka Doncic. If anyone can get that from him, it's LeBron. You got a guy here in LeBron who's planning on playing 82 games last year, and. And he did obviously get hurt, but the guy just. The guy plays through everything. So if there's anybody that can get DeAndre into hustle to play on defense, hopefully it's Jihyretic, but it could be. It could be LeBron James. And so there's that exciting side of things that they got DeAndre and then there's the other side. I mean, that's what makes this potentially entertaining, is that this team, you know, it could implode. I mean, you have. You've got that. You've got.

[J.E. Skeets]

Absolutely.

[Tass Mellis]

You've got the fun part. Deandre Ayton Luca, as you said, extremely svelte. Maybe it's the photos, but whatever, he looks good. Then on the other side, I mean, things just may not go right. There's this whole LeBron is leaving type of thing. You could have like the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills type of feel in there, you know, like. Like, it just may not be all that great on the floor, but. But also they have great talent. So the scary part is they are in the Western Conference. There's a lot of great teams. And so to get them into the level of the teams of Denver, Houston, okc, Minnesota, I mean, that's going to be tough.

[J.E. Skeets]

Go back to what you said. Yeah, like, get the pole going. Clippers or Lakers, like, who do you have more faith in? Like, how do you put those two teams in order? If you have them in the same tier, sure, but where do you put them in order? You guys are leaning more towards the Clippers. Maybe in the regular season, I think I'm still more Lakers, but they did great work and they have guys that, like, it is a real. Like, they got guys like in. In the Clipper situation. Beal, of course, and then Eaton for the Lakers jumps to mind, like, guys that gotta prove something here to the rest of the league, like, have, like, sort of been cast aside or question and, like, and they're still good players and maybe in this different environment with better talent around them that they can pop. So we'll see. But you know, look, look every anybody's better than Jackson Hayes as a starting center. That's right. So you now have Ayton.

[Advertiser 2]

I've been looking at Airbnbs on 8 and Island.

[J.E. Skeets]

Oh nice.

[Advertiser 2]

I'm not gonna move there but I.

[J.E. Skeets]

Might visit my visit.

[Advertiser 2]

I think it's time for a bounce back.

[J.E. Skeets]

Okay.

[Advertiser 2]

Yeah, he's been lost in Portland. Nobody really to set him up. He's got two great setup men in Luca and LeBron, plus motivation. Plus the Lakers really need him to perform.

[Tass Mellis]

So feeling good about the so good.

[J.E. Skeets]

Phoenix Suns are our next team in the Pacific Division. The reason that I'm excited for this team, which is a little difficult if I'm being honest, is I guess just the idea of a complete transformation. Right. It is sort of a fresh start. I know Booker is their guy still. They gave them the huge extension. That's fine. But they have everything is new. New gm, new coach and basically an entire new roster. Seven guys out including Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal. Six new guys in including Jalen Green, Dylan Brooks, Mark Williams, who the Lakers, you know, obviously did have for a hot second but he's there in Phoenix now. They drafted Malawatch with the number 10 pick. They claimed Jordan Goodwin, another Lakers player, off of the waiver wire and they took some flyers here on one year deals for Jared Butler and Nigel Hayes Davis, who was like a Euroleague MVP guy. So they're completely new. They're trying to get a little defense I think out there on the floor to work around their guy in Booker. This could be a very down year, there's no doubt. But at the same time they just kept disappointing when they had all these like superstars they were paying crazy amounts of money to. So I guess I'm like excited, oddly excited for this team because they're super low expectations and maybe they do just lean into a different type of basketball around book but they're going to probably get lost in the loaded Western Conference. They'll probably be happy if they're challenging for a play in spot because I think they're like probably pegged to win 30 to 35 games, something like that. But I don't know, maybe I have a little more faith in them. But what do you think about the Suns?

[Tass Mellis]

I think a big important part of this is just how their leaders lead. Devin Booker said going into this off season when he was asked what do you got to Work on. He's basically everything. Did you see our team? And so will Devin Booker be that type of guy? And then Jaylen Green to follow him. Will he have learned a lot from being in Houston, being beside Fred Van Vliet to being those type of leaders? And Dylan Brooks comes in as well. I mean, he was.

[J.E. Skeets]

He helped form an identity in Houston. There is no doubt, love or hate Dylan Brooks, he helped.

[Tass Mellis]

Absolutely.

[J.E. Skeets]

Can you do that again in Phoenix?

[Tass Mellis]

That is a. It is a legitimate question. I just want, from my perspective, to watch a team that wants to play hard. I mean, it was tough watching this team.

[Advertiser 2]

They were a tough watch.

[J.E. Skeets]

You know what I sort of compare them to? Maybe we'll see. It's like someone that was. Was maybe like not cool in like elementary school or even, I guess, high school, if you want to use that. Like, they were sort of like, yeah, just were picked on or really didn't like, know who they were. And then you get that chance when you go to a new university or college. Like, you sort of get that fresh start because you get to leave all that behind. That's sort of what the Suns feel like to me. And maybe it works out in their favor. It's like nobody knows you were a dweeb in high school. At this new school, you get to like, re. Reinvent yourself.

[Advertiser 2]

That's exactly right. We all get to reinvent ourselves going from high school to college. Hopefully the same happens for the Suns. They got some new clothes, which I think is good. They got more youthful clothes and they got more athletic clothes and they got more defensive oriented clothes, which is all good for the regular season because I think that's where the sun season will end.

[J.E. Skeets]

Yeah. No one's picking this team to maybe even make the playoffs, let alone do anything.

[Advertiser 2]

I don't think they'll make a play.

[J.E. Skeets]

It's a reset year and it's try and like, like we said, like we just went over, like get an identity because we use our identity. Was. We just had like a black cloud hanging over our heads the last couple years.

[Advertiser 2]

Our team was literally named the Suns. It doesn't make sense.

[J.E. Skeets]

Right, Right. Get that sunshine back in your life. That's the goal. That's the optimism here. I love it.

[Tass Mellis]

It's the season of reinventing yourself. Like, no dunks. Transitioning to a new era. It's the season. It's the season.

[J.E. Skeets]

It's a perfect example. It's not like the Phoenix Suns are changing their name or their jerseys. They're still the Phoenix Sun. Like, no Ducks are still on, but there's something going to be new. I guess what we're saying is get weird. Phoenix ajd get weird. Play five centers.

[Trey Kirby]

Why not?

[J.E. Skeets]

Why not play the mascot? Gorilla's very athletic.

[Trey Kirby]

Very.

[Advertiser 2]

He's falling off, man.

[J.E. Skeets]

Play a dog.

[Tass Mellis]

He has fallen off.

[Advertiser 2]

The premier mascot.

[J.E. Skeets]

He was back in, like, the for.

[Trey Kirby]

Sure 90s, rolling out on the motorcycle.

[J.E. Skeets]

The gorilla.

[Tass Mellis]

Yeah.

[J.E. Skeets]

I don't know.

[Tass Mellis]

Did he do that?

[Trey Kirby]

I've seen. I've definitely seen him on a motor.

[J.E. Skeets]

Yeah. I mean, I think. I always think motorcycle mascot. I think of the Utah Jazz mascot. Yeah, He's a big, like, quad bike guy.

[Tass Mellis]

Yeah. Yeah.

[J.E. Skeets]

But I'm sure the gorilla's been on a motorcycle.

[Tass Mellis]

Yeah, maybe.

[Advertiser 2]

I heard if Mark Williams shoots a three, the gorilla is going to take up all.

[J.E. Skeets]

This guy's horny, man. This guy's bored. The new era is going to be horny and weird. All right, Sacramento Kings. Trey, good luck.

[Advertiser 2]

Yeah. This is my greatest challenge. We split these 30 teams up between the three of us, so we each got 10. And this is by far my toughest in the Western Conference, probably in the entire league. You know, they won 48 games as the beam team a couple of years ago. Followed that up with a decent season, 46 and then 40 last year. They lost Jonas Valentunas, they lost Jake Laravia. They brought in Dennis Schroeder, and they're trying for Jonathan Kaminga. None of this is reasons for optimism yet. They're gonna get a full season of Devin Carter.

[Tass Mellis]

I'm optimistic. Yeah.

[Advertiser 2]

Here's what's weird, though. They also drafted Nick Clifford, who I liked. He's older than Devin Carter.

[J.E. Skeets]

That's right.

[Advertiser 2]

And Devin Carter was, like, the oldest rookie in the league last year. Maybe. Outside of Terence Shannon Jr. Here's the crazy part. Both of those guys are 18 months older than Keegan Murray, who's going into his fourth season.

[J.E. Skeets]

It's wild.

[Advertiser 2]

What literally the Kings are like. We need people who can help now, and hopefully these guys can help now. So, for me, I am most optimistic. They are not going to fire a coach this year.

[J.E. Skeets]

Oh, interesting.

[Advertiser 2]

I don't think they will. Low expectations. Nobody's expecting them to make it to the playoffs. Maybe Vivek is hoping for a play in Birth or something like that. But they went 27 and 24 under Doug Christie last year. Decent record. Over.500. Better than I would have remembered, for sure. He was their 14th coach since 2000. So anytime the Kings don't fire a coach during the season, that's a good.

[J.E. Skeets]

Season, do you think because they had so much success with the beam team and that idea that like gimmick, if you want to call it that really took off and everybody was loving. Should they like come up with a new one?

[Advertiser 2]

Like shoot something else off the top like maybe.

[J.E. Skeets]

Or we like that sort of a visual thing. The beam. I don't know, like scream team. Something audio specific. Okay. The building screams after a win.

[Advertiser 2]

Like scream team. We get who. Whichever player played the best gets to get on the mic at the end of the game and yell as loud as they can.

[J.E. Skeets]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Advertiser 2]

And then the fans yell back.

[J.E. Skeets]

Free idea. Yep. Try it.

[Advertiser 2]

Scream team.

[J.E. Skeets]

What does our stream team think of the scream team for what used to be the beam Team Kings? Let us know. Any, any thoughts on Sacramento?

[Tass Mellis]

I just want to know what they're doing. I mean they have this very old side of things with, you know, Sabonis Levine and DeRozan and Malik Monk is an interesting part. I think they may trade him by all accounts. Yeah, I think they might. I think they might. Now they've got guys that work hard, as you said. Devin Carter and his haircut. Hairstyle, I guess I would call it. But that part thing has got going on with Keone Ellis. Very fun guys. The second coming of Doug Christie out there on the floor. So it's fun to watch sometimes. But in the Western Conference it's just not a recipe to win enough. This trend they are trying to transition. I think it seems like the roster but I don't know if it's. I don't know. I just don't know when it's going to number one happen and number two, how many wins this team should be. Should be pegged for. As you said, 27, 24 above 500 I think would be a good season.

[J.E. Skeets]

The line set at 37 and a half. That's where they have them at. Bet MGM for win total. The Suns, by the way, were 30 and a half. So are the King's going to be, you know, seven or eight games better than Phoenix?

[Tass Mellis]

Sort of what they think.

[J.E. Skeets]

So yeah. All right. That is the Pacific Division. Let's go to the Southwest Division in the west, the Dallas Mavericks tasks.

[Tass Mellis]

Everyone is overlooking the Dallas Mavericks and I'm not just being optimistic because it's July 31st here. Everyone is overlooking them. We can start with Cooper flag. They've got the rookie of the year. He's going to win rookie of the year. Moving down from him, you've got a bunch of really young, great Talented players like Derek Lively. Everybody forgets about him. He's 21. He's a baby. And I think great sign for them. If we're looking at the front court with Cooper Flag, who's a big dude, along with Derek Lively, I don't think Anthony Davis is going to have to play heavy, heavy minutes, which will save him for later on because they have those two and Daniel Gafford and guys like. Like Naji Marshall, who's going to play big and plays big. And let's move to the wing. I mean, that's a talented front court. Super talented front court with PJ Washington on the wing. Klay Thompson, who's having a heck of an off season. You love fishing. Clay, did you or Clay Trey. Did you see him out on a boat? He was fishing with Megan Thee Stallion.

[J.E. Skeets]

He took her fishing.

[Tass Mellis]

He took her fishing. Yeah, they loved it.

[Advertiser 2]

It's gonna be a great season for Clayton.

[Tass Mellis]

Exactly, exactly.

[Advertiser 2]

He said he's settled in Dallas now, living his best life.

[Tass Mellis]

Yeah, he is.

[Advertiser 2]

Got his boat.

[Tass Mellis]

Apparently he was trying to talk into, in real into reality that he was going to find a big fish this year. He's going to catch a big fish. Talk into existence. Maybe it'll happen. I don't know. That's all I got to say about the wings. I mean, those are super good. And then you've got d' Angelo Russell as your starting point guard. I know people may say, I know, but he was the starting point guard on a playoff team a mere two years ago. In 2324, he was the guy for the Los Angeles Lakers starting. He won't have to do that when Kyrie Irving comes back. Kyrie will be out until 2026. There's no doubt about that. But they've got him as a playoff starter. So, you know, combine those two guys, that is a decent point guard. You got a Nemhard lurking somewhere, a Ryan Nemhardt. So I think this team is just being overlooked. Obviously, health. But there's just a bunch of talented dudes and guys like Derek Lively, who I mentioned they are going to be a part of a locker room environment that can really spur things on. Defensively, this team played super hard under Jason Kidd. Defensively, even with Anthony Davis out, they will work hard. So while they have enough offensive talent, I think with Anthony Davis and Cooper Flag, they will. So this is a team that can be really good.

[J.E. Skeets]

This is a team that I guarantee TAS will be taking the over when we eventually get to over under winter.

[Tass Mellis]

What's that total to you see one.

[J.E. Skeets]

More than the kings 38 and a half, you will be pounding.

[Advertiser 2]

That's it over for sure.

[Tass Mellis]

You gotta. Yeah, people are knocking that. Yeah, they're super good team.

[J.E. Skeets]

Houston Rockets. They're a legit championship contender. That's pretty good. That's some optimism right there. I don't think any team did more to improve the roster or to to improve their chances at a title in 2026 than the Rockets just did. And they were already a really good team. They added Kevin Durant and they didn't have to sacrifice much depth. That's huge. They bring in Clint Capella as obviously a sort of a big or backup big Dorian, Finney, Smith, great defensive wing guy. They re signed Van Vliet to a really team friendly contract and then they showed some faith in Jabari Smith Jr. Giving him that five year extension. And they again, they were good. Udoka is an awesome coach and they have guys that play hard. And now the one glaring hole was like, man, who the hell scores for them when. When things get tight and you need a bucket? They went and got one of the greatest to ever do it. So if he's healthy, this should be a lights out team. Excited to see them. Pretty simple that. That's the reason to be excited. They're probably in the class that they could win it all. I think now I don't think I would. They're not at the top. There are teams above them, but they're right there. Great off season for them, no question. Done.

[Tass Mellis]

So you don't have them in the, the group below okc.

[J.E. Skeets]

Oh, that's what I meant, I guess. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes, yes. I absolutely do. And I. And like Durant, I mean he's old. Like he's got to play and he's got to be healthy at the right time. But again, you talk about when we're just doing this in, in late July and in the summer, it's like it is all about like, well, look at the team on paper. Well, man, this looks awesome. This is exactly what they needed. I'm not saying they want to win the title like it did with okc, but remember okc? They went into the playoffs. I'm talking two years ago. They saw their limitations. Oh, we need a guy that can rebound and play big. Okay, let's get Hartenstein. Oh, we need a guy that can actually, you know, shut down the best player on the other team defensively. We already have Dort. Let's double it up. We ain't got Caruso. They saw their limitations, they saw their holes, they plugged them in. They want a title. I think the Rockets are trying to replicate that. They saw what they needed. They saw the limitations and they got those pieces, I think, to help their chances to do it. So good, good off season. And Rockets fans got to be pretty excited going into next year.

[Advertiser 2]

Great off season. They traded James Harden. They went into the tank and they had various phases. They went through these second two phases pretty quickly. Phase two lasted one season of not winning a playoff series. So they beefed up to try and win a playoff series. I'm with you. I think this would probably be a Western Conference pyramid. If we're going Simmons mode here at top is the Oklahoma City Thunder by themselves. And then definitely the Rockets are in the second tier with the Nuggets and the Timberwolves. For me.

[J.E. Skeets]

Yeah.

[Advertiser 2]

And then who knows, you're probably talking about the LA teams after that. But I think Houston, they should be optimistic this year. They got to have one of the top five title odds, I'm assuming, going into next season.

[J.E. Skeets]

Yeah. And their win total for The Houston Rockets, 54 and a half.

[Tass Mellis]

Yeah.

[J.E. Skeets]

55 sounds, you know, about right amount. Let's go to the Memphis Grizzlies.

[Advertiser 2]

Trey, I think it's easy to talk yourself into the Grizzlies being pretty good last season. They finished the year top 10 on both sides of the ball. I think there were sixth in offense, 10th in defense. According to Basketball Reference. At the All Star break, they were second in the Western Conference. 36:18. Great record. Now they fell off after the All Star break. They ended up firing their coach with nine games left in the season. They did finish eighth in the west, but only two games out of third place because things were so tight in the Western Conference. As John Morant said, they had completely figured out the Oklahoma City Thunder before he got injured. But I am still optimistic for the Grizzlies because this should be Jaws first normal summer in years. In 2023 he was going to be suspended coming into the year. Last season, 2024, he was coming off surgery this year. Smart maybe of the Grizzlies to fire Taylor Jenkins last season so they could install Thomas Isalo as the guy because John Morant was pretty good after Taylor Jenkins was fired. Look, it was only 7 games but still 28 points per game, 6 assists per game, 48, 38, 75 shooting splits. All of that is above his season averages. Basically, Isolo said, go be John Moran out there. And that's what the Grizzlies need to get back to fine in the west status. I don't think they're necessarily a contender right now, but I foresee them still being competitive in the Western Conference. Reasons not for optimism Jaren Jackson Jr. Had surgery this summer immediately after he signed his extension. They don't think he's going to miss time. But still you would rather him be healthy and working out over the summer rather than recuperating from an injury. Desmond Bain is gone. Zach Edie is injured already. They didn't play their rookie. Cedric Coward, who is an older guy, didn't play him in summer league because he's dealing with recovery from surgery. So maybe I'm hurting my optimism here, but I still think the Grizzlies can be good when they have their guys on the court. It's going to look different, but I think they did a good job bringing in KCP Ty Jerome to kind of mitigate the loss of shooting from Canard leaving, from Desmond Bain leaving. So I think the Grizzlies are probably a middle of the pack team and the Western Conference. But John Morant is going to be more fun to watch this season than he was last year.

[J.E. Skeets]

He's already been pretty fun in the off season here. All these dunk videos of him, I believe in China, I think are the ones I've seen. He's overseas somewhere selling his new shoe and holy crap, some of the dunks he was throwing down or you're like, oh my God, dude, just go in the dunk contest already. But then there was one scare to go back to all these guys. You see the one where he went to go dunk over over a guy. He slips in the lane.

[Advertiser 2]

Yes.

[J.E. Skeets]

And like slides like crashes into the guy and it looks scary. For a second he seemed okay, the guy seemed okay. But it's like they must be like, okay, please don't, please no more. You got enough cool dunks from the off season. The Grizzlies front office don't get injured, man, trying to dunk over a guy.

[Tass Mellis]

But I guess that's why he said I'm not dunking anymore because he gets injured. But yeah, then he just starts dunking again. That's why I'm optimistic is that you might get a full on John Morant year. The ball is going to be given to him. That's what Thomas Isolo did, as you said.

[J.E. Skeets]

Yeah.

[Tass Mellis]

The worrisome part. Sorry to go optimism and negative in the same sentence. But yeah, The Jaren Jackson Jr thing, it's a turf toe knocks you out for three months. It's kind of weird that, that he won't be even going through a full on training camp. It doesn't seem like if I'm reading the timeline correctly, he's going to come back in October. Yeah, it's basically early October. If he's back, that's when he'll be reevaluated. So that, that, that stinks. I mean that is, that is a guy that you rely on a lot. It seems like this, on paper, this team could be good. If you have those two guys going.

[J.E. Skeets]

Though and you guys talking it out, I'm like, could John Morant lead the league in scoring next year? It's in play. I mean he's not the greatest three point shooter. It sort of knocks his like percentages down a little bit or his per game. I mean, I think he could be close. You said he was averaging 28, 29. I mean, yeah, okay, probably not, but yeah.

[Advertiser 2]

Now I think no. Shay had averaged 33 a game last year.

[J.E. Skeets]

But maybe he's like, okay, I got that. Probably not.

[Advertiser 2]

That's a lot of points.

[J.E. Skeets]

Pelicans tasks.

[Tass Mellis]

Oh yeah, baby talk to us. Here's the optimistic part. The training staff will have jobs for this entire season. They can't let go of those guys.

[J.E. Skeets]

Security.

[Tass Mellis]

Yeah, there's a lot of injuries. It's unfortunate, but it's hard to ignore the guy that they just drafted, the guy that they just traded up to drafting Derek Queen injury. He's going to miss training camp essentially. Already dejounte Murray out with an Achilles. He'll be back at some point late this season. So you know, unfortunately you got to start with that now. With Murray out, you're going to need Jordan Poole to be awesome. Jordan Pool is going to have, he's going to have the ball. He's going to have a chance here. Now, optimism.

[J.E. Skeets]

Jordan Poole lead the league in scoring.

[Tass Mellis]

Yes.

[J.E. Skeets]

Remember we were doing that when he went to Washington. He could have done it.

[Tass Mellis]

There's a chance if other guys are out because you never know. Sam may not play. But here's the optimistic thing about Jordan Poole. They went and got Kevon Looney, his Golden State warriors bud. So that is, he's there essentially to be his buddy. Smart move there by Weaver and Dumars. They do that now. They're just fun if they are playing again. Unfortunately, that's the thing. Zion Williamson is playing its center as he did. This is fun, him playing center with Trey Murphy injured, unfortunately. Herb Jones gets injured, unfortunately. But maybe those guys come back. You Know those two with a Sadiq Bay that they got. I don't know why they got him, but you know, to, to be around Zion at the center spot. They. It's fun when you look at it that way. And they do have a bunch of depth. That's the weird part about this team. They are, they are deep, but just so many of those guys just don't play, you know, so they have guys like Eve Mec and Jeremiah Fears who they got in the draft. I love a Jordan Hawkins off the bench. They have lots of good guys, but, you know, that's where we are. That's where we are with this Pelican team. Are they going to play? I named a bunch of guys. They've got a good, good unit when they are playing.

[J.E. Skeets]

Yeah.

[Tass Mellis]

And like that's the thing.

[J.E. Skeets]

Murphy III is like one of the best players like at his position in the league when he's healthy, but obviously gets banged up like. Yeah, it's like 21 per game last year, but then missed like 30 odd games because that generally is what he does. So. So yeah, this is a tough one, this. I'm glad I didn't get the Pelicans in this, in this exercise. Cause that's difficult to like convince yourself to be optimistic heading into this year at least.

[Tass Mellis]

Yeah, it was easier last year with Zion. That was the Zion year. It felt like he was. He had redesigned himself and yeah, to some degree it didn't happen. Yeah, he played 30 games last year. So what will we see this year? That's the question. But if these guys are hurt, I think they could run out another unit of coaches. They've got so many former player coaches, I didn't realize that. Corey Brewer can run out there. Jody Meeks is on this bench. Greg Monroe is a player development coach.

[Advertiser 2]

He's a coach already, huh?

[Tass Mellis]

Yeah.

[Advertiser 2]

That's crazy.

[Tass Mellis]

They got a Jaron Collins, they got Willie Green. Used to play good team.

[Advertiser 2]

Of actually every position.

[Tass Mellis]

Yeah, stacked his team.

[J.E. Skeets]

This team is stacked. And the assistant coaching position. All right, I got the Spurs. Let's wrap up the Western Conference here. We got a whole conference still to do. What a true. A true sicko might say. The reason for spurs optimism is them upgrading their front court veterans with Luke Cornett and Kelly Ol. But even I am not that much of a sicko. That's just a joke. No, the reason is Wu Tang Wemby. Come on, he's back. He's medically cleared to return to hoops after recovering from the DVT in the right Shoulder There's. He was awesome before the injury. Guy averaged 24, 11 and 4 with nearly four blocks per game and a steal. Made his first All Star game. Would have won defensive player of the year, would have likely made an all NBA team or at least been in the mix. But you know, got knocked out of there because of games played reasons. He's back and now you've got Darren Fox to start the season alongside him. He should be motivated by the way Fox, he's heading into the last year of his five year $163 million deal. He only played 17 games for San Antonio last year before he got shut down with an injury. He had a, he had a finger injury, I believe. Was it a thumb? I think he had thumb surgery and he had it all season. So like it was like a lingering injury and then he finally got it checked out and taken care of. So like a healthy Fox, he's got competition there at the guard positions with obviously Castle and Harper now as their draft pick. So people are excited. People think a lot of people will be picking the spurs to be one of those teams in the lower end of the Western Conference to make the jump up into playoffs slash play in contention. And I, you know, I believe it too. If Wemby is out there for 70 to 80 games. Absolutely guys. The real deal. And he was just out of the Shaolin Temple all summer. Yeah.

[Advertiser 2]

I can't wait to see what comrade Wemby has for us in this next season. Dear. And Fox is extension eligible. And when they did the trade I was like guaranteed they're going to pay him. And then they jumped up to number two.

[J.E. Skeets]

Yeah.

[Advertiser 2]

In the draft and drafted a guy who's a ball handler in Dylan Harper. So I still think the spurs are going to pay de' Aaron Fox, but I don't know if he's a long term guy next to Wemby because like I said when the trade happened he was not my ideal fit for a guy next to Wemby. But he was the guy who was available and it would have given him a chance to make a play in push last season. So I think that's going to be interesting to see their long term team building view of things with Fox because it's kind of makes sense for him to be good for the team and also to be good for himself. So maybe he can start looking at another place.

[J.E. Skeets]

Right. 43 and a half is the win total for the spurs according to Bed. Mgm. So they, I mean that I think even says they have them sort of in that play in contention because it's like above a lot of these other sort of teams that we talked about, the Suns, the Kings, the Pelicans, obviously the Jazz. So they have them at least a tier up. Even the grizzlies were only 40 and a half. So we'll see what we get from San Antonio. But obviously people are pretty pumped that Wemby will be back. Let's move to the East. Trey, you start us off here once again. Boston Celtics.

[Advertiser 2]

Sneaky, tough one here. Yeah, I think the Celtics are going to have their worst season since 2020. They went 36 and 36. You look at their centers. They've got Mish Keita and Luca Garza. Those are their centers. They're going to be losing their entire center rotation from last season with Porzingis going to Atlanta, Cornett going to the spurs and Horford likely warriors. Who knows where he ends up. So there's a chance the Celtics could get their first lottery pick since Aaron Neesmith. I think there is even a chance that they could get their first top 10 pick since Jason Tatum way back when. That would require like one injury to Jalen Brown and then you're looking at Derek White as the number one guy. But I am kind of excited and optimistic to see what this Celtics team looks like with everybody moving up one to three slots in the pecking order. Like Jaylen Brown, number one option. Let's see what you got. Probably something you've wanted to try out for your entire career. Derrick White moves up in the pecking order. Peyton Pritchard, awesome. Sixth man of the year season last year. He's got even more responsibility if they keep an Forney Simons. This will be the first time he's really playing games that his team is trying to win since he was, you know, early in his career with Damian Lillard. I'm even excited to see if Baylor Shireman can do anything playing in the NBA, not just a summer league sort of dude. So I will say I'm optimistic. I don't think that the Celtics are going to finish under.500 for the first time since 2014. 15.

[J.E. Skeets]

You don't think so?

[Advertiser 2]

I think they will still be 500 or better.

[J.E. Skeets]

I think you're right. I'm like would be like almost terrified if I'm the rest of the league of Joe Missoula coaching a team of like basically underdogs at this point or a team that no one thinks is going to be all that good because of the Jayson Tatum injury. He like loves that stuff, he loves it. Think of the quotes he's going to be pulling out from the town, of course. But I mean, he's going to have a lot of town quotes about like rallying, like they don't believe in us type of thing. And you still have talented guys like Jalen Brown could have a monster, monster year. But on the other side of my mouth, you could be like, maybe you'll see the limitations of Jalen Brown. Not beside a Tatum. I'm fascinated to see it, sure. Maybe, maybe not. But yeah, I'm with you. They'll be. They're not going to be like bottom of the barrel here by any means. They're still good.

[Tass Mellis]

They're still very good. Yeah, I do want to see Derek White, Peyton Pritchard bumped up a little bit and see what they can perform along with Jalen Brown, who hopefully is good physically. That was a little bit worrisome after the way he played in the playoffs and all the knee talk. And yeah, when Tatum went out, he had to step up. He did and he didn't at times. So yeah, I do want to see Jalen Brown in the, in the one spot. I'm looking forward to that.

[J.E. Skeets]

Brooklyn Nets tas.

[Tass Mellis]

Oh, baby. The Brooklyn Nets also just like the Utah Jazz, projected to be the 15th best team in the Eastern Conference. We're going all the way to the bottom. Here's what's optimistic about the Brooklyn Nets. The vets can carry this team. And those vets that I'm speaking of are Terrence man, who can, you know, be bumped up into a number one role. This is your chance. Terrence Mann. It's a contract year for him. He's got a long term contract, but it's kind of like a contract year for him. You're back, baby. Do your thing. Michael Porter Jr. And Nick Claxton, those three guys, this is up to them. I mean, they can be. Those are their top three. It's up to you how good you can be. You know, Michael Boore Jr. Probably like you just said, Trey, about Jalen Brown wanting to take a step up as a number one guy. Michael Port Jr. I'm sure wanted to as well. Here he goes. You can shoot all you want. Nick Claxton, you got to step up in that role. Terrence man, you got to step up in that role. It's also optimistic if you're an international fan of this team. They got lots of international players. Nolan Traore, that they just drafted a 19 year old Frenchman, Ben Seraf from Israel and 19 year old Igor Gman who repronounced his name. He's got the umlaut on the O, so that's cool. He's 19. So the bunch, a bunch of young international players and you can keep on going with the Youngs on that team. But they got a lot of guys you think are sort of young, but they're not, you know, like a Drew Timmy, a Jalen Wilson. They're almost 25 years.

[J.E. Skeets]

I couldn't believe when you called Terrence Mann a vet. I'm like, how old is he but 30? No, he's 28.

[Tass Mellis]

Yeah.

[J.E. Skeets]

Knocking on 29. In my head I thought he was like 24.

[Tass Mellis]

Yeah. They got old guys that aren't. You don't think are that old, but that's what their team is. I basically named them. You can try and hope Noah Clowney and Keon Johnson are really good. You, they will have their roles, but this team's going to be bad.

[J.E. Skeets]

Yeah. You said like maybe the bottom of the Eastern Conference. Do you think they'll be worse than the Washington Wizards?

[Tass Mellis]

Yeah, they do.

[J.E. Skeets]

Yeah. I mean their lines are basically similar. Nets at 21 and a half, Wizards at 20 and a half. That's where Betmg has them. Yeah. So they have the Wizards below them right now?

[Tass Mellis]

No, but that'll be a.

[J.E. Skeets]

Maybe a race there at the bottom. Yeah. Any thoughts on the Nets, TK I'm.

[Advertiser 2]

Optimistic that they'll have the best odds at the number one draft pick. They'll be one of the three worst teams in the league. I think they're definitely worse than the Wizards and I think the entire point of this net season is to have great lottery odds because next season they don't have their pick. They lose it in a swap to the Houston Rockets. They did the deal with Mikhail Bridges before last year so that they could have a chance at a high draft pick in the 25 draft. Didn't happen lottery wise. So they really need 26 to work out, which means they need to stink. They need to be the worst team in the Eastern Conference. More so even than the Wizards do, I think at this point. So I'm optimistic though that, that they will be able to pull that off. If their main guys are Terrence Mann and Michael Porter Jr. I would say it is a lock.

[J.E. Skeets]

Yeah. I also can't wait for when will it be? I guess late January. Let's call it late January. We're going to have debate on no dunks. I'm calling my shot now of who's more Deserving of an all star selection. Michael Porter Jr. Or Brandon Ingram. I can't wait to have that debate. Yes. Yes. I can't wait. You know, probably on two, no Raptors should be better than the Nets. But you get my point here. There'll be some numbers, I think from both these guys in a weekend. Maybe Eastern Conference. Though then again, I don't even know how we're doing the All Star Game next year. Are we doing world versus we are versus usa. So maybe that completely changes everything. But Anyway, Michael Porter Jr. Should put up some numbers there in Brooklyn. It's gonna be a bad team. I'm with you guys.

[Tass Mellis]

Man, look at that return of that old king, man. Oh, wow. Emotional.

[J.E. Skeets]

King of the Hill is back.

[Tass Mellis]

They got a Bob's in the airport now. Oh, that's Boba. World has changed. Dad, Bobby wants to bring that new girl over for dinner. The Vegas. What the hell am I supposed to feed her? Can't we just put some grass in a bowl?

[J.E. Skeets]

From Mike Judge and Greg Daniels.

[Tass Mellis]

Ready to make some memories, dad? Let's freaking go.

[J.E. Skeets]

A Hulu Original Series King of the Hill Season Premiere August 4th streaming on.

[JD]

Hulu hi, I'm Kristen Bell and if.

[J.E. Skeets]

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[JD]

Selling a car, not so much.

[J.E. Skeets]

We're really doing this, huh? Thankfully, Carvana makes it easy. Answer a few questions, put in your.

[Advertiser 2]

Van or license and done.

[J.E. Skeets]

We sold ours in minutes this morning and they'll come pick it up and.

[JD]

Pay us this afternoon.

[Tass Mellis]

Bye bye Truckee.

[J.E. Skeets]

Of course, we kept the favorite.

[Tass Mellis]

Hello other Truckee.

[JD]

Sell your car with Carvana today.

[J.E. Skeets]

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[JD]

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[J.E. Skeets]

The Knicks. I've got them. I mean I got two reasons. One, Knicks optimism around Mike Brown and some ball movement on this team last season. Brunson led the NBA in on ball percentage, and he just shouldered an crazy amount of workload on the offensive end. He was amazing. But the offense became pretty predictable because it was, hey, Jalen Brunson, go to work and what can you do? Hsu had a crazy note that the Knicks have ranked in the bottom seven in ball movement in each of the last five seasons. That lined up with Tibbs, and that's sort of Tibbs ball. So now Brown comes in here and at least when he was with Sacramento, I know it's completely different personnel, but they were one of the best teams in the league when it came to ball movement. And they were like one of the best offensive offensive teams we'd ever seen under Brown that one full season. So I think he's going to like, unlock some things here. And the other reason for optimism, if you're a Knicks fan, is just like, I'm sorry, but it's true. It's like, look at the Eastern Conference. Like, it's there for a few of these teams to take because the Tatum injury to the Celtics, the Halliburton injury to the Pacers, obviously the Damian Lillard situation, he's out of Milwaukee now. Sort of like probably knocks them down even a peg. It's. It's the Knicks, it's the Cavs, it's. And then maybe you're talking yourself into a magic team or something like that, but like, it's there. Like, you should be in the conference finals knocking on the door of a final. So you've got your squad. You added Yabuzele, you added Jordan Clarkson. That was good work. And here you go with a new coach to see what they can get maybe a little more defensively and then what they can change things on the offensive end and maybe lighten the offensive load of Brunson and the minutes of some of these guys to play the long game more. So a lot of optimism.

[Advertiser 2]

I think it is incumbent on Brunson to want to be a ball mover because he hasn't really showed that throughout his career. And I don't necessarily know if that's the style he plays. The Tib style is perfect for him. ISO ball, pound it. Get the best shot. Most likely for me, maybe for a teammate. I think Towns can fit into a ball movement system pretty easily. He's a really good passer, good distributor from the high post. So I wouldn't be surprised if we see some Sabonis like actions with him there. With Mike Brown bringing over. I heard Zach Lowe saying on his Podcast. He's like, if Mike Brown is the sum of all of his coaching jobs, this will be perfect for the New York Knicks. He learned how to manage egos with LeBron James when he was a defensive coach with the Cavs. He had like four games with the Lakers. So you know how it doesn't go good. And then, you know, an offensive coach after his time in Golden State and Sacramento, it's a little bit like Dewey Cox thinks about his entire life before he takes the stage every single night. I don't know if this is actually what's going to happen for Mike Brown, but I guess it was time for the Knicks to shake things up. I don't know if I totally agree with that, but whatever. They're going to be, at the very least, a good team. And I think a lot of people will favor the to make the finals out of the Eastern Conference ahead of the Cavs. Just because we've seen the Cavs come up short in the playoffs a couple of seasons, whereas the Knicks generally outperform expectations come the postseason.

[J.E. Skeets]

Yeah, their line is, I was going to say, shockingly low. In my opinion. It's only 52 and a half. They were a 51 win team last season. So it's right around the same vicinity there again with the lessened Eastern Conference. I took the Knicks. I remember last year. I took the over and it was even higher, I guess, last year because that was the big, like, oh, Towns is in here. Obviously got the bridges part of it all, but we'll see. They're going to be a good team. They should be a very good team in Eastern Conference. And it'll only matter once we get to the playoffs.

[Tass Mellis]

Yeah, yeah. So the projection. Yeah, it seems low. They won 51 games last year. It seems like they're going to be way better than that. It does. Is it as low as a ranking for Dewey Cox? I like the Dewey Cox reference there. What do you think Dewey Cox is on Rotten Tomatoes?

[Advertiser 2]

Oh, it's actually. It's got a good reputation. I Bet it's like 75 critics, 85 audience.

[Tass Mellis]

That's 74. I mean, you're bang on. I don't have both ready, but anyway.

[Advertiser 2]

Got a 74 at the top, though.

[Tass Mellis]

That's good. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Advertiser 2]

Wild Card's pretty funny. Anyway, they didn't make like a music biopic for a decade after that came out because everybody's like, oh, this is what every biopic is. They're stupid.

[Tass Mellis]

That's great. I haven't seen it so I'm gonna watch it. I'm also gonna watch this next team. I am interested to see Jalen Brunson off the ball a little bit now. Tom Thibodeau got that. That out of him a little bit in the postseason. He also had to take fewer shots this last season. He said, all right, yeah, I know. Here comes Carl. I'm gonna. I'm gonna do other things, but, yeah, can they be a Golden State Warriors? He's not Steph. He's not going to be running off the ball like that. But, yeah, can they do that? And can Mike Brown say like Steve Kerr did? I mean, we're gonna have two units out there. No more of this running Mikhail Bridges into the ground. As you just said, as you just put out the. That Mikhail Bridges is the modern day Force Gump in the NBA. Like, the guy just keeps running like there's too many. Too many minutes for him and Josh Hart and OG and everybody. So will Mike Brown be able to run two units out there? I think so. Everybody has to buy in. And Jalen Brunson, again, going back to like him running off the ball. He did show signs of growth last year to some degree where he didn't have to shoot as much after being an MVP candidate. He took that off his plate. So. So we will see what Mike Brown can do with this team.

[J.E. Skeets]

Philadelphia 76ers.

[Advertiser 2]

Trey, it can't be as bad as last year.

[J.E. Skeets]

That's the motto, right? Right, Right, right, right.

[Advertiser 2]

They had two guys play more than 60 games last season. The Philadelphia 76ers did. Can you guess either of them?

[Tass Mellis]

60. Huh?

[Advertiser 2]

60 games.

[J.E. Skeets]

60. Yeah.

[Advertiser 2]

Everybody else on their team missed at least 22 games.

[Tass Mellis]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Advertiser 2]

He's gone.

[Tass Mellis]

Is this a.

[J.E. Skeets]

It's not Ricky Counsel, It's Ricky Council.

[Advertiser 2]

Also not signed yet by the 76ers.

[Tass Mellis]

Wow.

[J.E. Skeets]

No. Yeah.

[Advertiser 2]

And look, is Joel Embiid recovering from a surgery right now? Yeah. Is Paul George recovering from a surgery right now? Yeah, he is as well. But the best time to be a 76ers fan is during the off season because they're not missing any games right now. Vijay Edgecombe looked good.

[J.E. Skeets]

He did.

[Advertiser 2]

He looked really good in both summer leagues. Looks like a super athlete at least. Will be one of the best athletes on the court. Every time he's on the court, they're going to get Jared McCain back. After a great 23 games last season, I'm still a Tyrese Maxey fan. Even though the responsibilities asked of him last year were definitely too much to be the number one guy. But those three little guards are all fun. I'm not super optimistic, man. I'm like a four of ten here. But I love the young guys on the 76ers, the old guys. Hey, what if they're all healthy come playoff time? Imagine that. Have you ever. Anybody ever said that about the 76ers? That's the only thing you can ever say about this team. But right now, I like their guards.

[J.E. Skeets]

Okay, Anything to add to that test? 43 and a half is their win total, so pretty low.

[Tass Mellis]

It's low, but it seems pretty accurate. I mean, there's. There's going to be a lot of. Again, a lot of pressure on Tyrese Maxey as the number one guy. I. I guess if the other guys are hurt. He started last year and, you know, wasn't great in that role because, you know, he shot a lot. And anyway, besides that, they were like.

[J.E. Skeets]

Hey, man, can you be Allen Iverson? He's like, I'll give it a go. And he did a try. Decent impersonation for a good stretch. But then it just catches up to you. And then obviously the game plan also catches up to you. Like, oh, just take him out. Okay.

[Tass Mellis]

Yeah. There's nothing to be said other than do you sit Joel Embiid for four months here and play him in February and see going strategy?

[Advertiser 2]

Yeah.

[Tass Mellis]

Nothing else is working.

[J.E. Skeets]

Honestly. Do it.

[Tass Mellis]

Yeah, why not?

[Advertiser 2]

Did anybody read the ESPN profile of Joel Embiid?

[J.E. Skeets]

I did.

[Advertiser 2]

Hard not to root for this guy.

[J.E. Skeets]

Yes.

[Advertiser 2]

After the way things have gone for him and throughout his career, he's like.

[J.E. Skeets]

He is really due for a nice, like, redemption arc. Right. If, like, I'm with you on that. And I'm not even a huge Embiid fan and obviously, like, Raptors obviously battles with him and got the best. Him and Marcus all shot his ass down. All that. And he's always sick and he had the runs and the poops and stuff like that. But I'm even at the point. Yeah, I sort of would love to see. It'll be cool to see, like, an Embiid bounce back here. He's still got a little left in the tank and. But I. I was. I mean, it was. I felt good for him in that article after reading it or yet rooting for him. But, like, there is, like, a little sadness to it as well. A long time. Yeah.

[Tass Mellis]

Yeah.

[J.E. Skeets]

So we'll see.

[Tass Mellis]

Well, so hold on. What was the ESPN article mainly about injuries or the bowel movements or.

[J.E. Skeets]

No, it wasn't about the bowel Movements.

[Tass Mellis]

Oh, okay.

[Advertiser 2]

The only thing he didn't touch on was the bowel.

[Tass Mellis]

Oh, she touched on everything.

[J.E. Skeets]

Pretty much everything else.

[Tass Mellis]

Yeah, yeah, from like, I mean, pre, from career.

[Advertiser 2]

Yeah, from like pre career. Like, you know, making up stories about his childhood just because he was bored to tell people and troll people early on in his career. The way he had differing opinions on his rehab from injuries and the different, you know, trainers that they brought in. I mean, I don't think Embiid comes off perfectly in this profile either because there are definitely times where he's like, yeah, I didn't think rehab was working so I stopped going. And you're like, whoa, wait a second, that doesn't make sense. Problems on both sides for sure. But at the very least you're like, man, this guy has gone through a lot. Just speaking about his body and having people come at him throughout his 10 years that we've really known about him. So he was very vulnerable and I mean, super open with the reporter at espn. So definitely worth a read if you haven't seen it.

[J.E. Skeets]

Yeah. And that's. And like they even talk about, about it in the article is like, he's usually not like this with any sort of media anymore. He's really like, shut that out. Doesn't trust people easily, you know, feels like he's been backstabbed and stuff like that. So yeah, go recommend reading it. The Toronto Raptors test. Look at this. You got the Raptors here. Sell me, baby.

[Tass Mellis]

They have many good basketball players. That's it. They're going to be good. Will they be good? Will they play? They have so many all stars. They have Scotty Barnes.

[J.E. Skeets]

So many all stars.

[Advertiser 2]

Scotty Barnes and Brandon Ingram, he was.

[J.E. Skeets]

Also a one time all star.

[Tass Mellis]

Scotty Barnes is not even in his prime. Brandon Ingram, he can drop a hundred on you. He literally could. Those are two ridiculously great offensive players to go along with. RJ Barrett, who had a really good season. And Emmanuel Quickley, if we will see him play again. That's, that's the worrisome part. Obviously Quickly's healthy. He should be playing. But that's the scary part. I say, I say it very slowly coming out of my mouth. Not all that excited to say they have many good basketball players because they do. I just mentioned four really good ones. But will they play? It's unfortunate, but that's what it comes down to. Emmanuel Quickley, even like there is a lot of pressure on him at sort of being the lead ball guard. You know, first game last year he got injured it was Darius Garland who went under him and he basically didn't play for the calendar year of 2024. He didn't play it it was 2024 was shot for him. So if quickly can't play you're getting Jamal Shed who's fun. Elijah Martin, probably some of that.

[J.E. Skeets]

So all those defensive dogs we got.

[Tass Mellis]

They did it great in summer league. They got, they fought, they played hard defensively but it's all, it's up to, to Barnes and Ingram and the chemistry up top. So I don't know. I don't know. I, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna pretend that they're gonna win 45 games even right now. Now I could, I could in on a good day, a good August day. Think, think that it's a summer thing. Will they, will they play is the question. That's it. I mean here's something else to be optimistic about. They've got the best names in the NBA hands down. Jacoby Walter Sandro, Mamu Kelish, Vili. What a name. Chucky Hepburn. No relation to Audrey Jameson Battle, Colin Double L Murray Boyles AJ I am the Lawson Jamal Shed, Jonathan Mobo, Garrett Temple Grady Dick Ochay Abaji David the Body Roddy Ora Shamshay, another two way guy. Damn those are goodness names wise they are stacked. That's it. I mean I don't, I, I. It's one of those years. It's prove it play basketball.

[J.E. Skeets]

Yeah it is and a lot of these guys are paid handsomely so you definitely want them to play basketball for sure. I positions obviously keeping Purdle open some eyes but they have him as they're sort of like rock I guess of the center. He's nothing flashy but he is a solid player. It makes sense. I you know they've added all these defensive minded guys to sort of like come in behind them. The hopefully the offensive talent in Ingram and, and Barnes and quickly and RJ still their line is 34 and a half. So I mean you saying 45 is like yeah, that would be an incredible year according to obviously the, the odds makers. But, but is it a bounce back year for the Toronto Raptors? That's where we're at because it's been some down years here. We'll see. I had no faith in the Raptors last offseason heading into that year. I have a little bit more now and I do like I jokingly said like the Brandon Ingram he. He is a completely forgotten player in this league because he didn't play at all when he got traded to them and he was in sort of the, you know, New Orleans there and they had all their issues. He is really good and it'd be really cool to remind people of how much of a bucket he is. And if he can slot beside Barnes, they can make that work. So I have more optimism than I did last year. But 40 wins would be a huge, huge, successful season in my eyes.

[Tass Mellis]

But with all that talent, it shouldn't be crazy.

[Advertiser 2]

A lot of third and fourth best.

[J.E. Skeets]

Yeah.

[Advertiser 2]

Is their whole team.

[J.E. Skeets]

Right? Right.

[Tass Mellis]

Yeah. Yeah. The hope was Scotty was going to be a number two at the worst. You know, when he won rookie he was, he was growing.

[J.E. Skeets]

Scotty Barnes is good and is still getting better. And I'm not saying like oh yeah, yeah, he can't, he can't be a winning player on a good team. No, by no means. But I think Trey's right a little bit. Some of these guys, the Quicklies and the Barrett's and, and the Ingram is the tbd. Like yeah, like you say, they're really great players but they on most teams will be the third, fourth player. This is just the truth, Scotty. I also don't know what this team is. I don't know what the identity of this team is. And they're leaning into these defensive minded guys. That's fine. But then they need to score. You do need to score in this.

[Tass Mellis]

We'll see what anger can do.

[J.E. Skeets]

Central Division, I'm going to go here and we're actually flipping two teams alphabetical wise because I want Trey to have the bull. So I'll start with the Cleveland Cavaliers. A lot of optimism similar to the Knicks. It's the Eastern Conference. Is the Cavs to lose. They were really good last year. They come in, you know, with a similar squad here. They added Lonzo Ball And Larry Nance Jr. They sort of like are trying to shore up their defense. I Schumann Wright about the Cavs needing to go from like a top 10 defense to like a top five defense to be considered a real legit title contender. So I'm just excited to see how they deal with the pressure now that everybody thinks that they're just going to maybe like walk to the Eastern Conference finals and maybe battle a Knicks team or a Magic team or something like that and go to a finals. But the truth is no one is going to care if the Cavs rip off another 15 and oh stuff start to start the season. Like that'd be cool. But no one will care because it's all Going to be one of these teams, like, show us come playoff time. So don't be amazing in October, November, don't be lights out there. Be amazing. Come like March, April, May, and then into hopefully June for these Cavs fans. But I'm excited, like, they're still damn good. And if Evan Mobley levels up, which speaks to like we talked about his Donovan Mitchell, maybe almost. Is that guy a better two? Could Mobley blossom into the one or they just go hand in hand? 1A, 1B. They're going to be good. They're going to win a lot of games, but it will just be playoff time. Yep, that's it to where we are with this team. It wasn't, wasn't a lot different than when Mitchell was with the Utah Jazz for a couple years and we were like, they're going to be a great regular season team. Show us come playoff time. Same thing with Mitchell here on the Cavs.

[Advertiser 2]

Yeah, I think that's exactly right. Last year, even, they started the season what they won their first 15 basketball games. The Utah Jazz were ripping off 18, 19, 20 game win streaks regularly during the Donovan Mitchell, Rudy Gobert era. And once it got three or four years in with the Jazz, we were kind of like, great. You're going to win 55 to 60 games in the Western Conference and we'll see what happens in the playoffs. That's going to be the Cavs this year. They could win their first 25 games to start this season and everybody's gonna be like, all right, let's see what you do in the playoffs. You got to win more than one.

[J.E. Skeets]

Series, but you know what's there. They got to have a super high. I would assume over, under win total, it is 55. 55 and a half. Oh, yeah. Okay. So yeah, maybe you feel confident about that one.

[Tass Mellis]

Yeah. It's funny because you. We mentioned the injuries to Boston and Indiana. This Cavs team should be a team that wins the east again. It should be. No, it should be that team. It's all about the playoffs and what Garland and Mobley can do because those were the guys who were banged up but couldn't step up against the Pacers.

[J.E. Skeets]

Chicago Bulls, Trey Kirby.

[Advertiser 2]

Here's what I told everybody at summer league. The Bulls have two Giannis's. They've got the American Giannis and Matas Bou. Zealous, because I remember you guys telling me some kind of story of his stats and getting drafted, like in the teens and the stats he was putting up. The only other guy who had had those kind of things in his first two years was Giannis Antetokounmpo. So he's the American Giannis, also very skinny. They also drafted the French Giannis and Noah Senge. You know, the best team in the division has one Giannis. The Bulls have two. Realistically though, I'm just hoping for a little bit of a step from Matas Bou. Zealous going into his second season. Year three should be the leap. But post All Star last year, which kind of lines up to when Zach Levine was traded to the Sacramento Kings and Bouz Ellis got a lot more time, he started playing a bunch. 27 games, 27 minutes per game, and in those minutes, 13 points per game, five rebounds, a couple a couple assists, and one block per game while shooting 47 from the field, 36 from three. I would like to see some more self creation from Matas Bouzelis getting to the basket with the ball in his hands because he does seem to have some savvy as a scorer. Good athleticism, really good length. He's got to make his three pointers like he did last season. There was that game where he was like four for four from three in one game, went 10 of 10 from the field. Next game over, four from three. You know, he found his way to 36% by being a little bit inconsistent, so the consistency would be huge. But I love that. This guy is like buddies with Caleb Williams, the quarterback from the Bears. He was a Chicago guy, so he likes being a bull. I think that's fun to watch. They're gonna stink, this team, but I think they'll be fun to watch again. Sure, that's how they were last year, at least in the second half of the year. Playing wicked fast and running up and down the court, chucking threes and losing. But Uzelis doing dunks, blocking shots, very cool. I don't know if he'll turn into Giannis Antetokounmpo, but I would be happy if he turns into Andre Kirilenko. And I think that's more reasonable.

[J.E. Skeets]

Oh, it would be great. Loved him. I love it. Let's keep moving with some pace here. Test. Detroit Pistons, you're up next.

[Tass Mellis]

Well, obviously they had a great year playing the New York Knicks, having some fricking playoff games in Detroit. That's fantastic. But besides that, I think they're ready for their second star. I think they are the Houston Rockets east in that they can make a trade if a superstar becomes available to put around Kate Cunningham, because they've got lots of depth. They're kind of like the Houston Rockets and they have just a lot of good players that they could package together. They also have the contracts, really great contracts. Besides Cade on their team, getting the max, deservedly so. Their next big contract is Tobias Harris and that comes off the books this coming year. And then you got a bunch of guys you can package together. As I mentioned, Jay Nivey coming back. Hopefully. He's great. Jalen Duran. Asar Thompson really is a Rockets East. Ron Holland, Kara Silvert, Duncan Robinson. They just signed Isaiah Stewart. Plus that Habias. Tobias Harris. Habias. That Tobias Harris deal, that's a good number. That Tobias Harris number that you can package in, I think it's 24 million. So the numbers make sense, the talent makes sense. Cade Cunningham makes sense as your lead guard. He showed he's able to do that. So it's exciting times, I think roster wise and just basketball wise in that arena. But they do need a second guy to take some of that burden off of Cade Cunningham because they went and got the shooter in Duncan Robinson. But they need a ball handler. They need one more. And now with Dennis Schroeder gone, that guy did a lot in the postseason handling the ball. So that was important to them. So they need another one of those.

[J.E. Skeets]

What will be considered a good season season for the Detroit Pistons.

[Advertiser 2]

Top four.

[J.E. Skeets]

Top four. Yeah. Or maybe even just a playoff win because I guess they made it last year. 44 wins, lose to the Knicks. Hell of a series. I mean, every game felt like super close.

[Tass Mellis]

Super close.

[J.E. Skeets]

Yeah. Is it? Yeah. So top four or to win, obviously a first round series, no matter where they're ranked, that probably is the goal. Get back in and obviously continue to build off this and just get reps for Kaden. All these young guys and the Sar, Thompson, Ron Holland second. All these guys to like get more opportunity.

[Advertiser 2]

I think it's a big season for Ivy. He needs to be their second ball handler. He went out with an injury, so he didn't really get to stay on the court with Cade Cunningham as he had a better season the year prior was Cade Cunningham who went down with an injury. So they haven't gotten their two lead ball handlers a lot of court time together. So him staying healthy and looking good, I think would be big time for Detroit.

[Tass Mellis]

Yeah. And a great. I think it's a good story for Jaden Ivey because it looked like it could be a. A bad injury with Cole Anthony undercut him. It looked like it could be gruesome, but he'll be back. I think he'll be entirely healthy, but we haven't seen in a while. We haven't seen him since the cosmopolitan pool in Las Vegas that we saw him in. He was hanging out in the pool, just chilling. Last NBA player we saw in a pool, I think. And that was.

[Advertiser 2]

That's right.

[Tass Mellis]

Years ago.

[J.E. Skeets]

I got the Indiana Pacers. I am excited to see the most improved player race between Andrew Nemhard and Benedict Matt Matheran, two guys on the same team. They have some of the best odds according to the odds makers. I think it's Denny Avdia is the favorite for MIP. And then Nemhard right there with Avdia plus 900. And then it's like Matheran next on the list at plus 1600. But. But with Halliburton's injury, both these guys are going to take on a much larger role. They're going to be expected to and I think they both can and I'm excited to see them try. Nemhard, man, he should really increase his score, scoring and his playmaking. Will we just see playoff Nemhard in the regular season in terms of his stats, I think a realistic goal for Nemhard in a regular season. Hey, man, be Derrick White. Turn into Derek White when we're looking at stats and obviously contributions and really do what you have done in postseasons for the last two runs for Indiana. He's a guy though, is now like people love him. I love him and he's a Canadian to boot. But now he's getting paid $20 million a year, right. So he's like now under contract. So now like there's. There's just a lot more to expect from a player like that. So you got to back it up. Matthew, on the other hand, playing for this, you know, obviously sort of extension and he's going to get more opportunity. So those two guys, I'm excited. I. This is going to be a. I don't know where to put the Pacers with the Halliburton injury. I don't know where to slot them in the Eastern Conference. I don't think they're terrible. I think they have so many good guys still. And like we just talked about some of these guards to pick up the slack. I don't see a conference finals, finals run in them without Albert. But could they still be a pesky team to play in the regular season? Yeah, yeah, for sure. With Siakam as your leader. So those guys battling for mip, I think they'll be in the race at Least one of them will be.

[Advertiser 2]

Yeah, probably Jay Huff will be in the race as well. Yeah, well, I mean, he's got these crazy reverse dunks that he's doing over in Spain or something like that. We're only seeing Spain pickup highlights for Jay Huff. Odd, but they exist out there. They lost two starters. I think the. The Pacers are probably a play in team. I think that'd be good for them this year. We'll see what Siakam can do as the undisputed number one guy. When he was the number one guy in Toronto, they were like a playing team.

[J.E. Skeets]

Yeah. Yeah. Milwaukee Bucks. Trey.

[Advertiser 2]

They got Giannis. He's still there. Simple 49 win pace when he played last season. Damian Lillard was still around then, but seven straight seasons, Giannis has finished in the top four in MVP voting. And during those seven seasons, 46 wins minimum for the Milwaukee Bucks. We got a week at Eastern Conference. They brought in Miles Turner, so at the very least their defense I think will be pretty solid. But they are in the mix for the worst guard rotation in the league. We're talking about Kevin Porter Jr. Cole Anthony and Ryan Rollins at the 1, Gary Trent Jr. AJ Green and Gary Harris at the 2. That is zero real starters in the perimeter for the Milwaukee Bucks. But I still think it's reasonable that they make a run at the top six in the Eastern Conference. And I think, think depending on how injuries go for some of the teams ahead of them, it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility that they are a top four team in the Eastern Conference. Giannis is that good. I love watching the guy play and you know he's going to have a chip on his shoulder. Everybody writing them off this season. He didn't write back.

[J.E. Skeets]

Hey, he could have a sneaky, like, really strong narrative to another MVP win if, like what you're saying, he carries the Bucks with this sort of like hodgepodge of a team. Now they got Turner's, that helps. But like, yeah, if he takes them to a number that's like, whoa, they got to 55 wins in Milwaukee, but like, he's always in play for MVP as it is, but maybe that really helps his case. I like that. Good reason to be optimistic. He's still there.

[Advertiser 2]

He's still there.

[J.E. Skeets]

He has not been asked to be traded and they're trying everything they can do to still put some talent around him. Again, the Turner part, the big part.

[Tass Mellis]

Yeah. You mentioned the guards. It's hilarious when you go through it. And then that Vasa Micic also left. He went and played in Europe. I think he would have added to the highlights on Giannis's MVP reel. That's basically. Yeah, the guy loves passing. Like, it's got some flair to him so much. But he went to go make some money elsewhere because, yeah, he. He just would have helped with the passing. That's what he would have been. But they. They lack a guard and so is. Giannis can be happy. The fact that Miles Turner takes a lot of pressure off him. Him defensively, that's great. That is great for him. But is he going to be happy with the guard play? What. What chance does this team have in the postseason?

[Advertiser 2]

It feels like they've lost in the first round for the past two seasons. So what's the difference? I think making it to the postseason would be good for the Bucks, but Giannis has got to be in the locker room. Look at me. I'm the point guard now. He is. He's going to handle the ball. His numbers are going to go up somehow this season.

[J.E. Skeets]

Yeah, I. They. The Milwaukee Bucks more than any other team feel like the first 25 to 30 games. Let's play. Call it. Feel so much more important than a lot of other teams. Like. Like if it starts badly and they are really bad because of maybe roster construction. Like, it's not like the Giannis. Get me out of here. Rumors are going to quiet. Like they're just going to.

[Advertiser 2]

Sharks will be circling.

[J.E. Skeets]

Yeah.

[Tass Mellis]

But you don't think. I just can't imagine a Giannis team being way below five.

[J.E. Skeets]

I know. I know.

[Tass Mellis]

Can't.

[J.E. Skeets]

You're. You're probably right. You're probably right. All right. To the Southeast Division. The Atlanta Hawks.

[Tass Mellis]

All right. There's so many positives. Trey Young and Chris Apps. Porzingis picking. Pops, baby. A great defensive team built around Trey Young. The guys with long arms and Dyson Daniels, Zachary Sachane, Jalen Johnson and Chris Apps. A secondary ball handler beside Trey Young. And Jalen Johnson is just so good at that.

[J.E. Skeets]

Let's.

[Tass Mellis]

Let's go. Keep going down the. The ball handler list. Nikhil Alexander Walker now.

[J.E. Skeets]

Now.

[Tass Mellis]

Vit Krechi. Call him the fourth ball handler. I mean, they have so many. Kobe Buffkin could be the fifth ball handler. Remember him? Hopefully he plays. Did I mention the arms? They got more arms defensively. Mo Gay and Yaka Kongwu's got some arms. Luke Canard's going to come off shooting threes off the bench. This team is deep. They've got a really deep roster that can play. You different ways Quinn Snyder can throw them out at different, different types of lineups and the future. The 26 draft day pick that they got from the Pelicans in that deal was pretty, pretty sweet. It could be a really, really good pick. So they're just lined up perfectly. They just. They're just lined up really, really well. It's a great off season, obviously.

[J.E. Skeets]

Yeah. If the Rockets are the team that did more than any other team to help their title chances in 26, the Hawks did more than any other team to help their chances to just be a playoff team and maybe one of the elite teams or top teams in the Eastern Conference. They had an awesome offseason to move.

[Tass Mellis]

Out, move out of just that mediocrity.

[J.E. Skeets]

Right.

[Tass Mellis]

Which they've been a part of for.

[J.E. Skeets]

Exactly. They are really hoping that they've done the work here now to get out of the damn play in conversation and that mediocre.500 ball and on paper it looks like they maybe have, especially in this Eastern Conference. That is like, diminished this year.

[Tass Mellis]

Yeah.

[J.E. Skeets]

Any thoughts on Atlanta?

[Advertiser 2]

More people asked me about the Hawks this summer than probably the past five years. That's how excited people are to see a Hawks team built around Trae Young. That makes the most sense of any team that's been built around Trae Young. Defense, shooting youth, size and length all around Trey Young, which is exactly what you need to put around him. So if the hawks somehow win 43 to 38 games this season, I'm going to be furious. They got to get out of the 500 range, right? Yeah, we got to get to 45 minimums.

[J.E. Skeets]

And honestly, truthfully, if you are in that range again and let's say you're fairly healthy for the most part, then maybe it is. See you later, Trey Young. And maybe you pivot from him, right, because you've done the right things, you've made the right moves here. You've got yourself out of some holes that you got yourself into with Dejounte Murray and all that. You've done great. This new front office is killing it. They're killing it. They're crushing it. So now it's Trey's like, turn here to really lead this team to. At least. We are not even saying lead them to the conference finals or fight. We were saying just lead them to out of the damn playout. Yeah, be a 46 win team. Yeah. Be a 46 to 50 win team. They should be. They should be.

[Tass Mellis]

Yeah. And the Trae Young arc is improving. We went through this obviously bowing in Madison Square Garden to a team that was tumultuous, not looking good. Is Trey Young going to be leaving to potentially. Here we go. A really good team. There's just really good players. And the. The fact is on. On paper in the future, they haven't. For the future, they haven't said, oh, Kristaps Porzingis is the guy. I mean, he is an expiring deal after this coming year because that may not go well.

[J.E. Skeets]

Right.

[Tass Mellis]

So they haven't decided that this is the team they can pivot. Anzi Satellite has done a good job of that, so there's that part. But Eurobasket's gonna be fun also. Christophs Porzingis gonna be there. Zachary Richache has been working on the muscles. He's going to be looking good. Porzingis is going to be playing against Vite Kraken, so maybe they'll get some chemistry going on there. This team is good. This team is fun.

[J.E. Skeets]

46 and a half is there over, under win total prediction. Yeah. Even Vegas is like, oh, yeah, we believe in the Hawks. I know, I know.

[Advertiser 2]

I can't confidently pick that one.

[J.E. Skeets]

That's a tough one.

[Advertiser 2]

That will not be a lock.

[J.E. Skeets]

No, I don't think so. All right, to the Charlotte Hornets we go. I'm optimistic about their backcourt, hopefully playing together. I mean, I say backcourt. Where do you put Brandon Miller? Is he a 2? Is he a 3? You get my point here. Lamelo Ball and Brandon Miller just playing together would be a start. They've barely played. And last year this team did improve defensively under Charles Lee. So that was good his first year as a head coach. But the offense was an absolute mess, especially when Lamelo was out and then obviously no Miller there for a good chunk of it. They played like 450 total minutes together over only 20 games. And in fact, I think Schumann had the stat. They've played only 800 minutes together. Ball and Miller over two seasons where Miller's been leaked like it's. We don't even know. So let's just get them out there together. I think they've done a pretty good job this offseason. I like con canipple there. The number four pick. Guys a summer league champ. And this team is. They brought in. They did bring in some vets I really think to like try and like teach some of these guys like the game and how to win and be professional maybe a little bit more. Like I'm talking like Dinwiddy and Pat Conniton and Plumley. I guess they got A plum dog. Colin Sexton, if you consider him a vet. So that's the thinking here. Those guys are not stars, but to help around the fringes and to help in the locker room, and they need to start building on this. But it just starts with LaMelo ball playing and Brandon Miller playing because they're both really good, talented players. Just love to see them together. So that's what the hope.

[Advertiser 2]

I'm still a LaMelo fan, but last year was a disgusting season from this guy. Even though he was putting up monster stats, he was not playing winning basketball at all. He was playing pickup basketball in the NBA. He was taking 30 footers with one foot. Fun to watch if you're a player, but if you're a coach, you're probably. What are you doing, man? So stay on the court and play real basketball. I would say as a goal for the Hornets this season.

[J.E. Skeets]

Did you see his new tat?

[Advertiser 2]

Is it real Hot Cheetos?

[J.E. Skeets]

Oh, I. Well, I saw. Yeah, I guess he did have the hot Cheetos toes, if that's real. He's got an entire leg sleeve. Oh, well, that's like crazy amount of detail.

[Tass Mellis]

Oh, that's probably so I assume part's real. Maybe, but he's got. Also got a Cheetos I haven't seen.

[J.E. Skeets]

I don't know if that part's real. It's like going around that his foot is, like, flaming on the ends. Like, his toes is all tatted up because he's a big Cheeto guy. I guess I assumed it was real. Knowing him, he's got some crazy tattoo, so why not?

[Tass Mellis]

Yeah.

[J.E. Skeets]

Wow.

[Advertiser 2]

Epic tattoo session with five artists.

[J.E. Skeets]

Yeah, the leg sleeve is nuts.

[Advertiser 2]

Okay, okay.

[Tass Mellis]

All right. Getting into it. Five artists working on it at the same time.

[Advertiser 2]

Too many.

[J.E. Skeets]

There's a lot of ink.

[Advertiser 2]

Too many.

[Tass Mellis]

Too much ink. Yeah, it was. You know, it's kind of downtime at times for. For sports. So what happened to go on my TV was a. A random mixed martial art. Mixed martial art fight from Poland, I think, where their. Their tattoos are just pure AI, Just plain. We're just fighting with these random. Like you'd mentioned Cheetos just ran. Just any random sponsorship. They just put them on them.

[J.E. Skeets]

Hold on, hold on. You're saying the broadcast.

[Tass Mellis]

Yeah.

[J.E. Skeets]

Like, is CGI ing on tattoos onto the fighters now?

[Tass Mellis]

Yeah, yeah. But this is. This ain't the ufc. This is just. Anyway, so I think maybe. Maybe it happens in basketball at some point.

[J.E. Skeets]

I think these are real with him.

[Tass Mellis]

Yeah.

[J.E. Skeets]

He loves getting tattooed.

[Tass Mellis]

He does. Well, hopefully he really takes care of his ankles this year because that's the important thing. I thought those ankle braces on some.

[J.E. Skeets]

Ankle braces.

[Tass Mellis]

Man, easily the real ones didn't work. Real ankle braces didn't work right. So here we go.

[J.E. Skeets]

Miami Heat. Trey. The Heat. Come on, let's go.

[Advertiser 2]

Zach Lowe thinks he'll be good. That's my reason for optimism because I can't find one on my own. I was shocked to hear both Zach and Michael Pina were pretty bullish on the Miami Heat. And I think it's the Mary J. Blige effect. No more drama. Jimmy Butler is gone. And I think the Heat are hoping that his trade request and you know, I guess it was contract request at the beginning of the season, having that not be a factor this year. The Heater hoping that they have better continuity. I do think Norm Powell is a great get for them. They need somebody who gets downhill. Norm does that. While also giving you the 40% shooting that you lost when Duncan Robinson went to the to the Pistons. So I look at the Heat, I see a lot of good players, like a lot of guys that would be in rotations for other teams, but they don't really have the ceiling. Razor. Tyler Herro had an all star season last year. He was really good. Bam. Had a bad season, but he's still a solid player. I just don't necessarily know how high they can lift a team, even in an Eastern Conference that's not going to be crazy competitive. So I think the Heat needs some good seasons from Khalil Ware, Jaime Hawkes and Nicola Jovic to reach their peak. And even their peak, I'm like 44 wins. I'm not very enthusiastic about this Miami Heat team. They just seem like they are waiting for the next big name to come around. Cause they still do need a big name. But if Zach is on board, there must be something there that's true.

[J.E. Skeets]

I mean, Zach must be hitting the over then. 37 and a half.

[Tass Mellis]

Half.

[J.E. Skeets]

Okay.

[Advertiser 2]

See, I would take the over probably.

[J.E. Skeets]

Yeah.

[Advertiser 2]

But if it was 42 and a half, I would probably take the under.

[J.E. Skeets]

Yeah, yeah. You're getting a little dicey there. Yeah, I think you're right. I think it's this idea of like back to he culture, baby. Jimmy somehow was all about he culture and then he sort of ruined it. Yep, he went against it. So now we go back to business and you're still well coached and you do have some pieces there and maybe some growth from some of these guys that we've seen for a Couple years.

[Tass Mellis]

Yeah, I think it's, I think it's easy to be optimistic because this team, even though they didn't have Jimmy Butler in the culture, was gone. They were still a top 10 defense, so that part's not going anywhere. And then you add Norman Powell. The guy is a bucket. Hopefully he stays healthy this entire year, but coming off his best season, how can you not be excited about that? Plus other offensive options. I mean, Khalil Ware has to grow. This is year two for him. So their offense should be better and their defense is going to be good. So, yeah, 37 half seems a little low for this team.

[J.E. Skeets]

Do you think the Heat will be better than the Atlanta Hawks? Do you think they'll be better than the Orlando Magic, who we'll get to in a second? They'll be better than the Milwaukee Bucks or the Philadelphia 76ers maybe, or the Pacers?

[Tass Mellis]

Yeah, I mean, yeah, yeah, those are some questionable teams. I would say. The, the first, he started with the first.

[J.E. Skeets]

Hawks.

[Tass Mellis]

Hawks, yeah. That's a no. But I go Hawks bring these teams up.

[J.E. Skeets]

Like I throw the pistons in there. It's like, like on some of those, I'm like, I almost go 50, 50 on a lot of those. That's why the Heat are tough to figure out. I'm like, I could see it than a lot of these teams I'm mentioning, but I could also see them winning 38 games and being below most of these teams. So, yeah, we'll see. We'll see what Spolster gets out of that squad there. The Orlando Magic tasks, you gotta be.

[Tass Mellis]

Excited because they brought in a ball handler. Everyone has been asking, waiting for a ball handler. Besides Paula Banchero and Franz Wagner and Jalen Suggs who's. That's not his forte. They got one in Desmond Bain, obviously he's a great three point shooter, but I think what goes under the radar is the guy can pass, averaging five assists per game the last two seasons. I think he can be a perfect on ball creator. When you get past Paula Ban Caron as your number one guy, I think he can shoot off the ball, he can attack closeouts. So when Franz Paulo get all the attention, that guy can attack. I think he can be grading, create space for Bonchero and Wagner. They need it. Obviously. I think there'll be a lot of two man games between him and Bonchero. And then you know, you do have Jalen Suggs who's, who's underrated because he's such an incredible defender. But he is A really good off the ball shooter when he doesn't have to be the lead guy. And there's some great percentages of him. Starting the season with Banchero and Franz before Banchero got hurt, he was awesome. He was really, really good. First five games he was shooting 42 from three. He was hot and you know, I think he's been pretty good on catching shoots even though his numbers dropped off. So those two guards with Banchero and Fran Wagner, you gotta be excited. I think you gotta be really excited. They needed a three point shooter, they got one. They need a ball handling, they got one. I think he fits in. I know they paid a lot, but I do think he fits in with their defense too. So I think there'll be a stacked team. I think this team should be up at 45, 46, 47. They should be, oh, easily.

[J.E. Skeets]

Vegas has them at 51 and a half.

[Tass Mellis]

Oh, I didn't know that's high but you know.

[J.E. Skeets]

Yeah, they have them at almost getting into that second tier, I guess, if you want to call it in the Eastern Conference. I was high on them last year. Heading into that season I took the over. I think it was one of my locks and it was less. It was like around probably it was 47, 48 wins, something around there. I felt great the first little bit. They looked like the real deal and then, you know, the oblique injuries got them no doubt to Banchero and Franz and Suggs is always injured, so that's a part of the equation here. But yeah, getting in Bane and then having these guys, they should be. They should be flirting with 50 wins for sure if everybody is healthy. Trey, it seems like you agree.

[Advertiser 2]

Yeah, I do agree. But we need to see better offense from the Orlando Magic. And I don't just mean the players need to be bettered though that is a huge, a huge part of it. They need some more creative offense because it's basically Paulo go one on one or Franz playing a pick and roll. And there wasn't really much else outside of that. I think. I haven't looked into who their assistant coaches are. Do they got any good basketball players there? Because I think an offensive coordinator would be huge for this team and to me, Franz is the swing player for the Magic. If they are able to reach that pretty high over, under, would you say.

[J.E. Skeets]

51 and a half?

[Advertiser 2]

Yeah, I think he is the question mark for me because either Franz or Paulo has to shoot, shoot it. Well, Paolo was at 32% last year. Franz was just a shade under 29 and a half. Paulo's going to have the ball more than Franz, so it has to be Franz. I think that really improves his three point shot. And it seemed to regress last year. Like it looks smooth at the beginning of the year. Then he had the oblique injury and he came back and it was hitch central.

[J.E. Skeets]

Yeah.

[Advertiser 2]

You know, so hopefully one of those two guys is able to figure out how to shoot.

[Tass Mellis]

Yeah. I don't know if it's ever going to be Franz, but I think it should help.

[J.E. Skeets]

Holy crap. This guy shoots a lot of threes and shoots him in a good clip.

[Tass Mellis]

Yeah, yeah.

[J.E. Skeets]

One man.

[Tass Mellis]

Unfortunately, you know, Brian Caro. I think without the injury last year was looking good before it. And hopefully the pressure off of him with ball handlers will help his three point percentage go up. But assistance. They don't look like they can ball for the Orlando Magic. Joe Prunty ain't saving this.

[J.E. Skeets]

Although.

[Tass Mellis]

Although. God. Sham. God left the Mavs to come join them. So they got a ball.

[J.E. Skeets]

Okay.

[Advertiser 2]

They got a ball handler.

[Tass Mellis]

Okay.

[J.E. Skeets]

Okay. Good stuff. All right. Our final team. We've almost made it one of our longest podcasts ever. Part of the athletic. What a fitting way to end the Washington Wizards is the squad. I guess reason for optimism is the baby boom is what I'm calling it because you're really looking at which one of these young guys could make that leap. Right. To really blossom into a superstar or maybe potential superstar. This is wild though. With their two first round picks, Trey Johnson and Will Riley, along with the additions of Cam Whitmore, Malachi Branham and Dylan Jones, the wizards now have 10 former first round picks still on their rookie deals. It's crazy. Corey Kispert is the only vet Washington has under contract for 2627. Meaning the Wizards could have $80 million in cap space after trading Jordan Poole for CJ McCollum's expiring contract. The point is there's a lot of youth on this team. There looks to be some talent there, but I think you got to start seeing then a couple of these guys sort of blossom. Alex Sar played much better after the All Star break. No one cares because it was on the Wizards on a crappy team. It's a little bit of Mickey Mouse March. But he got better. He did. The numbers jumped. Bilal Koulibaly, he looks like a great player. His sophomore season came to an end. He had the hamstring injury. But you're hoping him with a full year of health could be a two way force. And then all the guards and I'm not going to list every goddamn guy. But like it's a lot of young kids here. They're going to be bad. There's no doubt. But can they find some gems in the bunch here, maybe in the new picks or some of these guys they've picked up and inquired and given a second life to pop off here, especially Cam Whitbor, which a lot of people are pretty excited about. So yeah, that's how I guess that's where I am watching Wizards.

[Advertiser 2]

I like the Wizards. Yeah, I'm in on their rebuild.

[J.E. Skeets]

Right. Okay.

[Advertiser 2]

I still think they are the main player away, unfortunately, but I think they have basically everything else. Like if they would have hit on the lottery and gotten Cooper flag, everybody would be like look at the long the young core in Washington. So they've got all the support pieces. They still need the head of the Snake, but I think they're doing a good job getting their Ducks in a row. And this team is going to look so much different at the end of the season compared to the beginning of the season because you mentioned all the young guys.

[J.E. Skeets]

They still got all these old dudes.

[Advertiser 2]

That they're going to trade eventually. Your middletons, your McCollum, stuff like that.

[J.E. Skeets]

Yeah. So there it is, all 30 teams. Reasons to be excited on differing levels depending on the team. But hopefully we did a decent job of that. Let's hear from you guys with any of those squads in the stream team, as you are in the YouTube comments, you can tweet tweet at us as well. No Dunks Inc. Reasons for optimism for your favorite team or any of these teams that we've gone through. Maybe what did we miss? What slipped through the cracks? Let us know. This is our final show with the Athletic. So again thanks to the Athletic for the years of support and all the collaborators. We had a blast. Six years gone like that. But that doesn't mean no dunks is going anywhere. Will be back next week with some basketball content and the start at the end of the week of our Jurassic Pals, our Jurassic park movie franchise. Watch. We did it with Fast and the Furious back in the, I guess Covid days. Really we're doing it with Jurassic Park. We'll start with the classic Jurassic Park 193 banger of a movie. We'll be talking about that. That'll drop on Friday. We'll set the progress premiere on Friday and then every week a new one will drop that we'll have already in the books. So look forward to that as well. As the NBA content for the coming weeks. Anything to add, guys?

[Tass Mellis]

Well, I'll say it's the summer of reinvention. As as we've said, I thought there was a chance here as we get to a near two hour podcast that we would reinvent ourselves and say we're an hour in. Let's just do two and just drop it there, just cut it it there, say we're done. Just be this new show that can just cut in the middle and say we can make this too done.

[J.E. Skeets]

But nah, I say we keep going for an hour. People are still coming in. That's the real twist.

[Advertiser 2]

Reasons to be optimistic about every G league team this year.

[J.E. Skeets]

Okay, College Park Skyhawks. Go on.

[Advertiser 2]

Probie Buffkin.

[J.E. Skeets]

Oh, wow.

[Tass Mellis]

He's healthy.

[J.E. Skeets]

Yeah, I guess he'll still be.

[Advertiser 2]

I'll probably rehab at least.

[J.E. Skeets]

Yeah, yeah, he'll be bouncing back and forth for sure.

[Tass Mellis]

Tyson Etienne has left because he is on the Brooklyn Nets as a two way guy. That's the guy that we worked out with, Trey.

[Advertiser 2]

Yes, we did.

[Tass Mellis]

Yeah, I rewatched that video. We got it. You're already reinventing yourself, getting more fit. Because we both, we both could have taken it up a notch holding back.

[J.E. Skeets]

In the workout videos. I was.

[Tass Mellis]

No, we just weren't that. Weren't that fit. Oh, I mean, we're fit. We're fit.

[J.E. Skeets]

But you know, best shape of your life.

[Tass Mellis]

You want to get super fit. You want to get super fit with Tyson Etienne.

[J.E. Skeets]

All right, hit the like button. Subscribe podcast listeners, five star ratings and reviews. Like I said, now would be the perfect time to help out your boys in this big summer for no dunks here, big announcements coming your way. But don't you worry, the content will keep coming. Until next time. Until next week. Clipper Brown, you heard it here first. Have a great time.

[Advertiser 2]

Turn up.

[J.E. Skeets]

Love you guys.

[Advertiser 2]

Awesome.

[Tass Mellis]

Thanks for joining us. And remember, I already used it. I already used my line. It's the summer of reinvention.

[J.E. Skeets]

That's it.

[Tass Mellis]

We'll just pull it, do it again. Since the summer of reinvention. There we go.

[J.E. Skeets]

Embrace the day, people.

[JD]

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[Advertiser 2]

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[J.E. Skeets]

Five year price lock guarantee and I can't stop up high fiving people.

[Advertiser 2]

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[J.E. Skeets]

Really? That's great news.

[Advertiser 2]

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[J.E. Skeets]

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[JD]

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[J.E. Skeets]

Other restrictions apply.

[Tass Mellis]

Man, look at that return King, man. Oh wow, Emotional.

[J.E. Skeets]

King of the Hill is back.

[Tass Mellis]

They got a Bob's in the dirt, baby. Oh, that's boba. World has changed. Dad, Bobby wants to bring that new girl over for dinner. The Vegas.

[J.E. Skeets]

What the hell am I supposed to feed her?

[Tass Mellis]

Can't we just put some grass in a bowl?

[J.E. Skeets]

From Mike Judge and Greg Daniels.

[Tass Mellis]

Ready to make some memories, dad? Let's freaking go.

[J.E. Skeets]

A Hulu Original Series King of the Hill season premiere August 4th streaming on Hulu.