10 Questions about the NBA Season + Schedule Winners and Losers

Summary

The Athletic NBA Daily – Saturday Slam n’ Jam

Episode: 10 Questions about the NBA Season + Schedule Winners and Losers
Date: August 15, 2025
Hosts: Andrew Schlecht, Alex Spears
Guest: Dave DeFore

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Episode Overview

This episode of Saturday Slam n’ Jam dives deep into the newly released 2025-26 NBA schedule, breaking down which teams are early winners and losers based on their matchups, the complications of watching NBA games in the streaming era, and bold early season predictions. The second half is a rapid-fire, engaging roundtable with Dave DeFore as the trio answer 10 provocative questions about the NBA’s upcoming season—including surprises, breakout stars, and bold statistical feats. The chemistry is high, the jokes are flying, and listeners get both sharp insights and plenty of fun speculation.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The NBA Schedule Release: Complications and Silver Linings

[04:15–06:30]

• The hosts lament the challenge for fans to watch all their favorite games with NBA broadcasts now split across multiple streaming platforms (Peacock, ABC, ESPN, Prime, local sports networks, etc.).
  • Andrew: “By the end of this season, people will be begging for just cable TV to be back. It’s just getting too complicated.”
  • Alex: “Unless you’re following the Premier League, not many reasons to have Peacock.”
• Silver lining: More broadcasts mean new announcing teams, promising fresher commentary (Blake Griffin, Dirk Nowitzki mentioned as exciting potential hires).

2. Early Predictions Based on Schedule Quirks

[06:50–21:00]

Alex ranks five “hot take” early season predictions rooted in teams’ opening schedules:

a. Spurs - Early Overachievers

• By mid-November, predicts the San Antonio Spurs will be a Top 4 seed in the West ([08:49]).
  • They face only three playoff teams in their first 10 games; “That’s a juicy early season schedule.”
• Early national TV exposure could frame perception of a tougher schedule than it is.

b. Trail Blazers - Early Struggles

• Portland’s brutal opening stretch will quickly dash preseason hopes ([11:11]). After tough matchups against the West’s top teams, recovery will be difficult in a stacked conference.

c. Orlando Magic - Surprising Top Seed Early

• Predicts Orlando will be #1 in the East and NBA overall by mid-November ([13:18]): “Their first 10 games are all against the Eastern Conference, none of whom are the Knicks or Cavs.”
• Magic get only 14 national TV games despite likely hot start—called out as “disrespect.”

d. Sacramento Kings - Trade Rumors Will Start Early

• The Kings face a punishing schedule through first 18 games ([15:57]).
  • “They go through an absolute gauntlet—OKC, Denver, Minnesota, plus more. The Kings are screwed.”

e. 76ers - Early High Hopes, But Tapering Expectations

• 19 of Philly’s first 20 games are vs. Eastern teams, many are easy matchups. By mid-November, Philly could be a Top 4 seed ([18:09]).
  • “Sixers fans will be fully sucked in again… They should be 15-5.”

Bonus: New Orleans Pelicans also called doomed, facing a tough early schedule.

3. NBA Cup Scheduling Oddities

[21:58–24:00]

• Critique that the NBA schedule hasn't adapted smoothly to incorporate the new NBA Cup.
  • Several teams could face a back-to-back immediately after the Cup final (+ long January stretches).
  • Andrew: “That’s just not good for the players or the teams…they haven’t quite figured it out.”

4. "Bucket List" NBA Games for the Upcoming Season

[24:10–27:00]

• Andrew’s pick: Knicks vs. Cavs at Madison Square Garden on Christmas Day—“a bucket list item.”
• Alex: Magic at Hawks (Nov. 4th)—looks forward to seeing two formerly “boring” teams that are now compelling.

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10 Burning NBA Season Questions with Dave DeFore

[31:10–90:23]

1. Largest Jump in Points Per Game (PPG)

[32:50–38:19]

• Dave: Andrew Nembhard (Indiana Pacers)—“Set up to maybe be a 20-point-a-game guy.”
• Andrew: Reed Sheppard (Houston); others considered: Donovan Clingan, Ben Sheppard, Modest Bouzelis.
• Alex: Notes strategic advantage in picking 2nd-year or underplayed rookies from last year.

2. Top 100 Player Breakout

[38:54–41:49]

• Andrew: Ausar Thompson (“He’ll be in everyone’s Top 100 by season’s end.”)
• Dave: Jared McCain (Sixers)—“People are going to remember he’s pretty good.”
• Alex: Opportunity + role expansion key for these leaps.

3. Craziest Statistical Game Prediction

[42:43–47:44]

• Dave: Luka Doncic scores 81+ (“This is his revenge season.”)
• Andrew: Giannis Antetokounmpo gets a 65-point triple-double—“He might have 25 games with nobody else carrying the Bucks’ offense.”

4. Biggest Name Traded In-Season

[48:06–51:59]

• Andrew: Zion Williamson—“That weird relationship with the Pelicans will finally boil over.”
• Dave: LeBron James (bold call)—cited as a possible fit for Dallas if LA moves on midseason.

5. Mini Draft: First-Time All-NBA Teamers (excluding Victor Wembanyama)

[52:11–61:15]

• Andrew: Amen Thompson, Tyrese Maxey, Alperen Sengun
• Dave: Jamal Murray (“put up or shut up time” for Denver), Paolo Banchero (“should be a lock”), Jaren Jackson Jr. (Grizzlies)—“He’s due.”

6. Player Who’ll Convince Most Doubters

[61:33–66:56]

• Dave: Trae Young—“The Hawks are finally built around him, he could have a ‘told you so’ season.”
• Andrew: Josh Giddey—“Chicago got something back for Caruso. Giddey’s going to have a stat-stuffer year.”

7. This Year’s ‘NBA Smart Guy’—Podcaster’s Obsession

[67:37–72:54]

• Andrew: Cason Wallace (Thunder)—“You’ll hear about his extension, even if no fans talk about him in real life.”
• Dave: Kyle Filipowski (Jazz)—“Checks every box: white stretch big, bad team, only discussed by NBA podcasts.”

8. Surprise 50-Point Game

[73:16–78:42]

• Dave: Tim Hardaway Jr. (“If he doesn’t get 50 playing next to Jokic and Murray, I’ll be disappointed!”)
• Andrew: Brandon Miller (Hornets)—will take enough shots to explode for a random 50.
• Shoutout: Cam Thomas (Nets) left on the board as “too obvious.”

9. Most Improved Player 'Crasher' (off betting favorite list)

[82:13–84:37]

• Andrew: Bilal Coulibaly (Wizards)—“Every opportunity on a bad team.”
• Dave: Terrence Shannon Jr. (Timberwolves)—“Breakout playoff performer, big role vacancy.”

10. Who Crashes Top 5 MVP Ballot?

[85:39–89:52]

• Dave: Kawhi Leonard (“If he can play 65 games, he’s always an MVP talent.”)
• Andrew: Evan Mobley (Cavs)—inspired by “muscle watch” workout photos, projects a KG-like prime.

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On multi-network scheduling:
  Andrew – “Can you explain to me why there’s not one way to watch my team?” [04:20]
• On Orlando’s early schedule:
  Alex – “They’re going to be the number one seed in mid-November.” [15:16]
• On Kings’ brutal start:
  Alex – “The Kings are screwed. This is like an awful opening season schedule.” [17:34]
• On NBA Cup fit:
  Andrew – “You can see the impact of the NBA Cup in every single schedule that you read. …They haven’t quite figured it out.” [23:25]
• On Luka’s big game prediction:
  Dave – “Why not score the modern record for most points in the game?... Luca has that fire in his belly right now.” [44:03–44:55]
• On the NBA Smart Guy archetype:
  Andrew – “People are going to be talking about Case and Wallace… way more on NBA podcast than in your actual real life.” [69:09]
• On Giannis:
  Andrew – “There are going to be some wild statistical nights for Giannis this year. Like, 65-point triple-double, lock it in.” [46:42]
• Muscle Watch Moment:
  – The group collectively marvels at Evan Mobley’s off-season physique on display in new social media photos, spurring late changes to predictions and lots of jokes. [79:00–81:40]
  • “He looks like he plays in the NFL!... This is one of the more amazing (photo transformations).” – Dave [79:44]

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Timestamped Highlights

| Segment | Topic | Timestamp (MM:SS) | |----------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------|------------------------| | NBA Viewing Frustrations | Scheduling + streaming complaints | 04:15–06:30 | | Early Schedule Winners/Losers | Spurs, Blazers, Magic, Kings, 76ers | 06:50–21:00 | | NBA Cup Scheduling | Cup-induced back-to-backs | 21:58–24:00 | | Dream Games to Attend | MSG at Christmas, Magic @ Hawks | 24:10–27:00 | | 10 Bold NBA Questions | See detailed list above | 31:10–90:23 | | Notable Moment | Evan Mobley “muscle watch” photo segment | 79:00–81:40 | | MVP & Most Improved ‘Crashers’ | Koulibaly, Shannon Jr., Mobley, Kawhi | 82:13–89:52 |

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Tone & Style

• Conversational, rapid-fire, and full of inside NBA humor.
• Playful “tribal knowledge” about podcast meme players, with smart but accessible stats and logic.
• Hosts’ and guest’s chemistry keeps banter lively and welcoming for hardcore and casual NBA fans alike.

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Summary Takeaway

This episode offers a blend of real analysis (schedule impact, contender breakdowns) and speculative, highly entertaining NBA nerdery (wild predictions, under-the-radar breakouts, and ‘muscle watch’ gossip). Both fun and informative, the roundtable gives listeners a head start on narratives to watch and unexpected storylines as the new season approaches.

Transcript

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[Alex]

I mean, you're, you're, you're probably right. I think, you know, the NFL did a good job of a job of priming people. Priming people for prime, but having games on prime. So I feel like people are pretty much used to that one.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Alex]

But I do think Peacock, like, unless you're following the Premier League, which I have talked for that, but unless you're doing that, like, there's really not a ton of reasons to have Peacock, in my opinion. And so a lot of people are going to have to be joining Peacock. 10.99amonth. I actually just signed up, Andrew, because I always. I always cancel in the summer, and then I sign up again when Premier League starts. So I'm kind of happy that there's something else on Peacock for me to watch. But I certainly understand that for other people, it is annoying to have to buy an entire new app.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Alex]

It's not cheap.

[Andrew]

Yeah, no, it's not.

[Alex]

That's a bummer. That's a bummer.

[Andrew]

It is. It is. You have any takeaways from the schedule, Al?

[Alex]

Well, I will say on the flip side, the one good thing about having it in so many different places is we're getting these, like, new announcing teams.

[Andrew]

True.

[Alex]

And that's, that's fun, you know, getting to potentially see Blake Griffin and Dirk Nowitzki, you know, guys like that who we just have never seen in this kind of a setting. That's exciting because, let's be honest, the options previously had gotten a little stale, I would say. I mean, I mean, we all like the TNT guys, but, you know, ESPN wasn't, you know, doing great, Andrew. I would often mute it before games and at halftime. So I'm kind of looking forward. Let's see if we can find some new talent. Some, Some. Some. Some new people that are good at this.

[Andrew]

I like that.

[Alex]

Yeah, that's something. Now, outside of that, I have come up with five predictions for the early season based solely on the early season schedules. Now, early season schedules, they can, they can, they can lie to you, Andrew. Do you remember last year how the Phoenix Suns started? Remember how the Phoenix Suns started, Andrew?

[Andrew]

Now tell me one of the.

[Alex]

You don't remember now? I'm gonna have to look it up. They were. They were the. One of the hottest teams in the NBA, Andrew. They came into the. I remember their over. Under was 48 and a half coming into the season. And I believe they started off. Yes, this is correct. They started off 8 and 1.

[Andrew]

Wow.

[Alex]

People.

[Andrew]

Impossible.

[Alex]

Nuts. Yeah, they won an overtime game against the Clippers and then they just rattled off some like you look back at some of these teams. I mean, they beat the Clippers, they beat the Lakers, they beat the Mavs. They'd be some good teams in there. They were 8 and 1. Now, the underlying data at that time was suggestive, suggesting that this wasn't like a great team and that the bottom was going to fall out eventually. And it quickly did. After an overtime loss to the Sacramento Kings, it looks like they lost. Quick math. Quick math. Seven of their next 700, next nine. So it fell apart pretty quickly. And honestly, looking at the early season schedule, I wouldn't have predicted them for a hot start, but with some of these early season schedules, I feel like you can already see what the early season narratives are going to be about some of these teams. So I've gone out of limb on some of these, Andrew, and I'm going to start with my least impressive to my most impressive, in my opinion. Okay. First prediction by mid November. And that's kind of what I did for most of these teams. I'm looking at mid November because that's about like 10 to 15 games played.

[Andrew]

Enough to have a take.

[Alex]

Yeah, enough to have a take. By mid November. The San Antonio spurs will be a top four seed in the Western Conference.

[Andrew]

Okay.

[Alex]

In their first 10 games, they play three teams that made the playoffs last season. And one of those is Miami, who were so bad in the playoffs that the Cavs now have one of like the greatest playoff net ratings ever solely based on that first round series of being Miami. I saw that on NBA Reddit. There are other games all against teams that miss the playoffs, including two against the New Orleans Pelicans. They get games against Brooklyn, Toronto, Chicago, Phoenix and Dallas. Wow, that's a juicy early season schedule for them.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Alex]

Now they do play too good. They play like the, the Lakers and the Rockets, I believe. And what's interesting about them is they do have some national TV games. So the opening game against Cooper Flag in the Dallas Mavericks, that's one of what's one of the big opening week games. Yeah, that's going to be on national tv, then they're going to play the Lakers on national tv and then I think one of the first prime games is going to be them and the Rockets. So if you're just following them along based on what's on tv, you'll think they're playing a lot of good teams. But those are like their three tough games. Everything Else is a bad team. So I think there's a really good chance that the spurs could get off to a hot start.

[Andrew]

They need to build it up as they head toward Christmas that the spurs are the fifth seed in the Western Conference against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

[Alex]

You know, get that rivalry going.

[Andrew]

Got to build it up. You know what I don't like about the spurs schedule is that they play the Thunder on Christmas, but they also play them on the 23rd of December, two days before.

[Alex]

Oh, Christmas Eve Eve.

[Andrew]

Yeah. On Eve Eve. Why are we doing that? Why do we do that?

[Alex]

Fun.

[Andrew]

Hey, why don't, why don't we. We can't even build up a narrative there. It's like we got. No, we just saw them play two days ago. Now we have to see them play again. I don't, I don't like that. NBA schedule makers. That's not my favorite thing.

[Alex]

Well, that's a bummer. My next one. Which one do I want to do next? Okay. Coming off their strong second half finish last season, preseason hopes for the Portland Trailblazers will quickly be dashed.

[Andrew]

Ooh.

[Alex]

Due to a brutal opening schedule.

[Andrew]

Oh, no. S is going to be so sad. That's his team. He declared this to be his team.

[Alex]

He should have looked at the schedule first before that claim because they. This is very unfair. Okay. They're opening seven games. Wolves, Warriors, Clippers, Lakers, Jazz, Nuggets, Lakers, Thunder. That is six, six of the seven teams that finished as top seven seeds in the Western Conference last season. Plus the Jazz. In their first 13 games, they play 11 Western Conference teams and two Eastern Conference teams. And Eastern Conference teams or are Orlando in Miami.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Alex]

And they also have a five game road trip from November 8th to the 16th where they play every other night in a different city. And playing, playing these types of teams, playing like these Western Conference teams. So it's, it's not looking good for the Blazers. Early season start. You know, this was, that was kind of the deal with the Blazers last year. Like they got off to this terrible start.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Alex]

And then somewhere around January they start turning it around and then they become this team that finishes, you know, like 500. After January, everyone's very excited. Oh, this is going to lead into next season, man. Maybe it does. But knowing how many new pieces they have, losing Simons, who was a really huge part of their offense. It could be rough early on just based on who they have to play.

[Andrew]

Yeah. And if you are that down bad in the Western Conference is really tough to fight your way back up through to Even get to the play in. It's just a rough. It's a rough spot to be. And if you're in the east, doesn't matter. Doesn't matter if you get off to a bad start. But in the west, in the West, I feel like you need to, especially if you get to, like, the trade deadline and let's say Drew Holiday has some value and you're, like, way out of it.

[Alex]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

Like, you, like, you could determine a direction, you know, by the trade deadline.

[Alex]

If you're the Blazers, this next one is a positive one, maybe the most positive one I'm going to say today. Andrew.

[Andrew]

Okay.

[Alex]

By mid November, Orlando will be the top seed in the east and have the overall best record in. In the NBA. They'll be the number one overall seed. They do not play a Western conference team until November 10th, and that team is Portland. They don't play a Western Conference team that made the playoffs last season until Nov. 16, when they face Houston. Their first 10 games are all against the Eastern Conference, none of whom are the Knicks or the Cavs. So they're playing all of these teams below them. Now, some of these teams, you know, they have, like, two games against Atlanta. You know, like, maybe Atlanta's good, but, like, two games against Boston, like, what does that mean anymore? You know, I was. I was looking at these schedules, and you see that Boston logo, and you're like, okay, that's a tough game. And then you have to remind yourself, like, no, what is Boston going to look like early in the season? You know, like, they haven't played with this roster at all. Yeah, like, they might eventually stabilize at some point, but you. You could see them having a rough start to the season just because they're trying to figure out their roster, is trying to figure out who he wants to play in these rotations. Like, the news just came out today that they're planning to start Peyton Pritchard, bring Anthony Simons off the bench. Like, they're going to be working stuff out. So I don't think those are going to. I. I'm not looking at those the same, obviously, as last year, but even as, like, compared to them, like Atlanta, Like Atlanta, I see that as, like, okay, that. That might be a tough matchup.

[Andrew]

Sure.

[Alex]

Boston, like, especially early season. I don't know.

[Andrew]

The best outcome for Boston is to get a lottery pick. That's the best outcome for them this season is to, like, build a bridge to the next era of Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown and add somebody that's good on Your way there, like that is that is their best outcome. I mean, there's no question. And they have 25 national TV games. 25. That's a lot.

[Alex]

Yeah. Meanwhile, Orlando, I believe has 14.

[Andrew]

Yeah, they have 14. The disrespect.

[Alex]

They're going to be the number one seed in mid November.

[Andrew]

The disrespect for Orlando. I don't like that. I don't like that they only have 14.

[Alex]

I know they're going to be the team this year. Where it feels dumb afterwards. Kind of like how last year with the Thunder, it was like, why didn't they get a Christmas game?

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Alex]

You know, the NBA could be a little more forward thinking on some of this stuff. And I feel like Orlando's going to be the team at the end of the year. We're like, they should be on TV more. Okay. My last two, Andrew. I'm excited about both of these. One positive, one negative. Let's start with the negative. Trade rumors are going to start early and often. Ooh, for the Sacramento Kings.

[Andrew]

Oh, no.

[Alex]

Sacramento. It starts off pretty nice. It starts off nice, Andrew. Phoenix and Utah. Okay, maybe they're two and oh, things are looking good. We're getting excited.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Alex]

From game three to 18, they go through an absolute gauntlet. In that 16 game span, they play the following teams three times each. OKC, Denver, Minnesota. Half of their first 18 games are against OKC, Denver and Minnesota. And they don't. And they don't get off easy in the other games either. They also get What? Isn't that crazy?

[Andrew]

That is, that is cruel. Honestly, games. That is cruel to the Sacramento Kings fan. Deuce and Mo don't deserve this.

[Alex]

I mean, maybe because they're playing them so much, like maybe you have actually have a better shot because you're seeing them and you can adjust. I don't know. I think it's bad.

[Andrew]

I'm not buying. I'm not buying that take.

[Alex]

They also get games against the Lakers, Grizzlies, Spurs, Warriors, Bucks and Hawks.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Alex]

And in addition, just during that 18 game span to start the season, which takes us through the first month, they have a four game road trip and an absolutely brutal five game road trip that sees them go Minnesota, San Antonio, okc, Memphis, Denver. A game every other night. Except for OKC and Memphis, which are back to back. The Kings are screwed. This is, this is like an awful opening season schedule.

[Andrew]

Yeah. And the bummer for the Kings is like they're going to be tanking with a roster that's not designed to do that, you know, that's great.

[Alex]

Hey, but they've done that. I wouldn't say well, but they've done that so many times in the past.

[Andrew]

Yeah. It's too familiar. It's way too familiar. This is them, like the Rajon Rondo, Marco Balinelli Kings, you know, like, that's. This is how it feels now. This.

[Alex]

This my final one, my final prediction. This one I am so excited about.

[Andrew]

Okay. Okay.

[Alex]

This is. This is probably, like, the most aggressive. By mid November, the Philadelphia 76ers will be a top four seed in the East.

[Andrew]

Okay.

[Alex]

Sixers fans will be fully sucked in again.

[Andrew]

Oh, no.

[Alex]

Listen to this.

[Andrew]

Oh, no.

[Alex]

They don't play a Western conference team until November 17, almost a full month into the season. They don't play a second Western conference team until December 2nd. That means that 19 of their first 20 games are against the Eastern Conference, and that includes two Wizards games, two Raptors games, two Brooklyn games, a Charlotte game. That's seven of their first 20 against the four teams in the east that missed the play in. Other than them last season, they get another three against Boston, who, as we talked about, like, they're going to be adjusting in the early season to not having good players up and down their roster.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Alex]

Like, there really is an opportunity here. I know that The. The report is out now that I think Nick Nurse said that Embiid might not be ready for training camp. Okay, fine, fine. Okay, fine. But let's say Paul George comes in healthy. Okay. Give me that. I know. He also had off season surgery. I know. But I'm just saying if they could just put a normal team.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Alex]

On the court, they have an opportunity early in the season to just stumble in to, like, a very good record.

[Andrew]

Like, if they are not a top four seed, it could be disastrous.

[Alex]

We'll be talking about their pick again.

[Andrew]

Yeah, we will.

[Alex]

Like, like, looking at their schedule, like, they should be 15 and 5. They should be 15 and 5 after those first.

[Andrew]

Wow. That would be incredible.

[Alex]

They should.

[Andrew]

That would be incredible if, like, Embiid.

[Alex]

And Paul George are out from starting from game one. I mean, you. You would hope it looks a little bit better than last season because at least they do have some new pieces.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Alex]

But I am kind of banking on at least one of those guys being ready for this to. I mean, for them to be, like a top four seed. Otherwise, they're probably going to look like some of these teams that I'm talking about them playing. But this is a gift. 19 of your first 20 games against the Eastern Conference, you don't play the second Western Conference team till December 2nd. Now obviously this means that their schedule.

[Andrew]

Gets a lot harder. I was gonna say the season goes on. It's gonna get brutal as it goes on.

[Alex]

And then a fun bonus one. I didn't say it because it just is kind of obvious, but New Orleans, bro, they're opening, they're, they're done.

[Andrew]

It's already, it's already over. It's already over before it's begun. I know.

[Alex]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

And if it felt like that even before we saw the schedule, if we're being honest, it did, it did.

[Alex]

But yeah, they just have this like they have a three game road trip early in the season. Denver Clippers, okc.

[Dave DeFore]

Brutal.

[Alex]

That's terrible. Every other night. And then, you know, they play the spurs, they play the Lakers, they play warriors, they play OKC and Denver twice in their first, like in the first month.

[Andrew]

We might be seeing a lot of Jeremiah Fears as the season goes on. Lot of Jeremiah Fears.

[Alex]

I know, I know. So, yeah, I'm interested to see how many of these actually play out. I would say the one I'm most confident on. I think the spurs are going to get off to a really hot start and I think the Magic are going to get off to a really hot start. Yeah, I could see the Magic being like having like a 15 and 2 record or something like that.

[Andrew]

That would be, that would be fun if, if a team like Orlando and then we'll be talking about their lack of national TV games. One of my, one of my big takeaways, Al, before we take a break, is it doesn't feel like the NBA schedulers have quite figured out how to fit the NBA cup into this yet. The following teams, the following teams, if they made it to the cup final, would have a back to back after the cup championship. It would have to fly from Vegas to wherever. Cleveland, Chicago, Memphis, Minnesota, L.A. clippers, Thunder, Wizards and Spurs would all have a back to back if they made it to the Emirates. NBA cup championship game like that should not be. There should not be games on Wednesday, December 17th. If the NBA cup championship is on Tuesday, December 16th. Like that to me is crazy.

[Alex]

You know, choose more teams like the Wizards. Maybe, maybe the day after the NBA cup final is like, hey, check out the young guns. It's Young Guns day. You're going to see a bunch of our young teams that we knew weren't going to win the NBA.

[Andrew]

Sure. Yes. There are six teams that you could. That it's not insane if they Made it to the Emirates NBA Cup Final.

[Alex]

Yeah, like that.

[Andrew]

That to me is just shows that, like, they have not quite figured it out. And you also, like, you look at the January schedules for a lot of these teams, like, it is brutal, the amount of games that they have to play to kind of make up for the way the schedule is. And I just think, like, that's. It's just not good for the players. It's not good for the teams. I think that they need to kind of figure out how to fit this in a little bit better. Because you can see the impact of the NBA cup in every single schedule that you read. And the fact that there is like that back to back that could be scheduled in for any of those teams is kind of nuts to me. It's crazy. Andrew.

[Alex]

Andrew. Andrew.

[Andrew]

Before.

[Alex]

Before. Favorite game. Pick a game. Okay. You can't choose a Thunder game. Okay. I know you're going to be at Thunder games.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Alex]

You can pick any other game this season to go to. Oh, so this factors in what city you want to go to and also matchup.

[Andrew]

Ooh, that's interesting. Do you have a pick?

[Alex]

No, I wish I had. Oh, should I thought about this before I said it out loud?

[Andrew]

I. I mean, what would be better than being in Madison Square Garden on Christmas Day?

[Alex]

Yeah, like, wouldn't that.

[Andrew]

I mean, honestly, that. That's kind of like a bucket list item for me to be able to like be at a noon p.m. eastern, you know, Eastern time game for Knicks Cavs. That would be really fun. And to just be in New York on Christmas Day, I mean, that's. That to me, is pretty incredible. That's. To me, that's a pretty tough one to beat. All right.

[Alex]

Andrew, My game. You're going to laugh. Okay, don't. But don't. Please don't hurt my feelings.

[Andrew]

Okay. Okay.

[Alex]

Tuesday, November 4th, NBC Peacock Magic @ Hawks. Now, why I want to go to Magic Hawks 1. I've never been to Atlanta other than the airport, and it seems like a cool city.

[Andrew]

Atlanta is nice. Yeah, I enjoy going. I like Atlanta a lot. Yeah.

[Alex]

And the no dunks guys are out there. Shout out.

[Andrew]

Shout out to no dunks.

[Alex]

But the reason why this is interesting to me is because this is like the Classic on the west coast, like the classic 4pm game that always came on. And I was like, never totally interested in watching it. And both of these teams, to their credit, have become teams that I am now, like, so interested in watching.

[Andrew]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Alex]

And this game is now something I'm going to Actively seek out on my.

[Andrew]

Television to watch your number one games. This is the game that we're playing. The end of your favorite game you're playing.

[Alex]

Okay. Okay. First of all, I didn't prepare. All right. Second of all, I want to choose some early in the season, you know, early in the season.

[Andrew]

Something to look forward to, you know.

[Alex]

Something looks forward to. Yeah, I probably. Oh, okay. Yeah. What do you want Me, I want to go to Boston. Boston Lakers? Is that what you want me to say, Andrew?

[Andrew]

Celtics? No, no, I don't, I don't have any Celtics game circled on the schedule.

[Alex]

I really want to go to Boston though.

[Andrew]

Yeah. It's just not the year. It's just not the year to go to Boston.

[Alex]

All the cities I want to go to have bad teams. Toronto.

[Andrew]

You don't want to go to LA. You want to go to LA.

[Alex]

I've been to LA. LA's cool.

[Andrew]

Okay. Yeah, that's cool.

[Alex]

It's cool.

[Andrew]

Okay. Well, you know what else is cool? Talking to Dave DeFore about 10 things that we want to know about the NBA. We'll talk about that right after this. Quick. You as a salesperson, the search for the right buyer or buying groups can feel like you're endlessly sifting through leads and hoping they're ready to buy. Thankfully, LinkedIn Sales Navigator is more than just a tool. It's your strategic sales partner. LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a sales intelligence platform that helps professionals effectively prospect and engage high value customers, drive higher revenue and increase sales performance. Sales Navigator helps you target the right buyers, surface key signals such as job changes or which accounts you should prioritize, and shows you hidden allies that you can find those buyers that are most likely to convert. Whether you're looking for new clients or strengthening relationships of current accounts, LinkedIn Sales Navigator has new AI features designed to help sellers find the right people and get right to the right conversations, all at scale. Fueled by LinkedIn's 1 billion-member platform, Sales Navigator gives you the most up to date first party data, enabling you to unlock conversations with the people that matter. Ready to get right to the right conversations? Try LinkedIn Sales Navigator now with a 60 day free trial at LinkedIn.com NBashow23 that's LinkedIn.com NBashow23 for a 60 day free trial. Terms and conditions apply. Breaking up is never easy, but saying goodbye to your old clunky work tools, well, that's easy. Just repeat after me. It's not me, it's definitely you. You rigid, unfriendly software. It's time to freshen things up with Monday.com, the first work platform you'll love to use with stunning dashboards, customizable templates, and built in AI that actually works. Switching to a new work platform has never featured felt this good. So move on to Monday.com. this is Mike. Mike's stuck in traffic. The only thing that could make this worse is if he promised to cook his date dinner at 8, which he did. But it's now 7:30 and he's still on the 5. Good thing. Mike has Grubhub plus with Prime. Zero dollar delivery fees, zero stress, zero rush. Dinner's covered and so is his reputation. Free Grubhub plus, it's on Prime. Additional terms and fees apply. And we're back from that quick break. Al. Now we get to bring in just one of the best guys, a guy that you know, a voice that you haven't heard in a while. Honestly, I just wanted to rope him in here so that we could just hear his voice again on the feed. Dave Defore here to answer 10 questions about the 25, 26 season. Alex is going to walk us through 10 questions. We're going to talk about guys you probably haven't heard a lot about on podcasts all summer long. We're going to bring up some guys. Al. What one. Dave, say something because we need to hear your voice.

[Dave DeFore]

Happy to be back. Very happy to be back. Shout out to Oscar. By the way, Oscar was asking when I was coming back to the podcast.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Dave DeFore]

And I'm back today.

[Andrew]

So welcome back.

[Dave DeFore]

Good to be back. Yeah, it's nice to be welcome back. Thinking about basketball for, you know, weeks.

[Andrew]

So it's great. It's, it's nice to have a break from the mic and then, and then you're back. And now you get to had a.

[Dave DeFore]

Three hour long conversation about rebounding strategy on shots from the corner.

[Andrew]

Wow.

[Dave DeFore]

It's a real thing that happened. Yeah. Okay, so I'm ready.

[Andrew]

I can't even imagine what that would be like. Al, help us walk through not that question, but other 10 other questions about the upcoming NBA season.

[Alex]

Yeah. The last time we were all together was in Las Vegas and we did some off season awards and the focus of that was more on the teams. You know what, what teams off seasons did we like, did we dislike going into the season? This is going to be a little different. We're doing 10 questions about the upcoming season, but all the answers are going to be players. So I'm asking you to predict which players will be the answer to the following questions. So 10 questions and we're going to have, halfway through, we're going to have a little, a mini draft which will be fun. But the first question we're going to start with is who will have the biggest jump in points per game this season? Now, last season it was Dyson Daniels who jumped from 5.8 points per game in his final season, New Orleans, to 14.1 points per game with the Atlanta Hawks. That is plus 8.3. Now, technically, Ty Jerome was the winner, but because he scored two points per game the previous season. But that was a, that was fake. He only played two games that season. So I didn't count it. And frankly, plus 0.8.3. There's been guys who've done a lot bigger than that. Last year, Cam Thomas jumped like plus 12 points. He went from 10 to 22 per game. So let's start with Dave, our guest. Dave, who would you like to go with the biggest jump in points per game this season?

[Dave DeFore]

I mean, I feel like this guy is probably pretty popular for this entire podcast, but also in general when we're thinking about next year. But Andrew Nemhardt is going to have to take a lot more shots than he took last year. Hopefully he makes more than he, than he made last year. You know, he struggled to shoot a little bit, but his points per game went up in the playoffs and that was with Halliburton out there, you know, where he was sharing the ball handling duties. I feel like they kind of developed their rhythm for how to use him as the lead creator and he was much more aggressive as he gained that confidence during the playoffs. So I, I think Nemhard's set up to, to maybe be a 20 point a game guy. Like 18, 19, 20 points a game. Well, he's going to have the opportunity, he's going to be playing more, he's going to have the ball in his hands a lot more. He's going to have to shoot. And like we know he can shoot off the dribble. So yeah, I think he's got a shot there.

[Alex]

So that's interesting because we did our first time all star draft a couple weeks ago and he was a name that I thought of because for a lot of the reasons you're talking about, but I just couldn't imagine him scoring that much. Like, do you think he can become that type of player where he's actually looking for his own shot consistently the whole game?

[Dave DeFore]

I mean, I thought, I thought that we saw him evolve into that a Little bit during the playoffs at times. Right. It wasn't seven, eight possessions in a row. He's not doing Jalen Brunson impersonation, but I mean, definitely like to start games. I mean, I thought he was extremely aggressive for them, especially in, in that OKC series. Down the stretch of that series where, you know, I mean, I remember when he sat what was like six between the leg dribble, moves into a pull up three. I mean, this is a guy who was starting to hunt for, for that, that pull up off the dribble. And I think that when you look at the position he's going to be in next year, he is their point guard next season. I think that he's going to have to take those shots. You know, it's, it's. He can't play like Halliburton. He's not that guy. I think he's going to have to shoot some off the dribble just to create stuff for other people. Well, mid range is there too, by the way, so.

[Alex]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Dave DeFore]

And he's not scared to take that.

[Alex]

If he does get up to like 18, 20 per game, like he will have a definite shot at all star because everything else is going to be there. Andrew, who did you choose?

[Andrew]

Trivia question about Andrew Nemhardt. How many times in his career has he scored 20 or more points?

[Alex]

Oh, no, Dave. Oh, no, Andrew. Why?

[Andrew]

I'm just asking questions.

[Dave DeFore]

Six.

[Alex]

Okay, I'll say. I mean, he's. This is. He's been in the league a while. That's three seasons. I bet it's double digits. I'll give him 12.

[Andrew]

It's seven and four of them were in his rookie year.

[Alex]

Now, is that include playoffs?

[Andrew]

Does not include the playoffs. That's just the regular season.

[Alex]

Oh, okay.

[Andrew]

Just the regular.

[Dave DeFore]

He's a playoff riser. Right.

[Alex]

Okay, listen to this.

[Andrew]

Andrew, without a doubt a playoff riser in the playoffs.

[Alex]

He has six games scoring 20 and he's only had 40 playoff games. Actually, 40 is a lot.

[Andrew]

40 is a lot.

[Dave DeFore]

I just think he's gonna have to, he's gonna have to play like it's playoffs to be competitive and.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Dave DeFore]

Whether he can, I mean, whether he can do it or not, I mean, we'll see, obviously. But I, I think that they're going to need him to do it. So I kind of, kind of hope he can.

[Andrew]

I think it's a great pick. I. He only did it twice last season, which was a little shocking to me.

[Dave DeFore]

Well, he had a rough time shooting last season.

[Andrew]

He did he did. That is very true. My answer. I have a few different guys that I go to, and some of these guys are like, their point totals were so low. One guy that I can't look away from that I think is going to get a shot this season is Reed shepherd, who only averaged four points per game last year. I think there's a chance that he's like the backup point guard for Houston, a guy that could average, like, if he averaged 10 points, 11 points per game. Is that crazy? Is that too much to ask for Reed Shepherd? I think that he's a guy that is. Is poised to just kind of have a breakout. What will feel like a breakout year for him because he was so buried on the bench for Houston last year. But I think they just flat out need his shooting, you know, around. Yeah, KD and those guys, like, they just need shooting. And I think he's a guy that can take and make a lot of threes. And so I think Reed shepherd is. Is the guy other guys I considered for this. Donovan Klingon is another guy that I think will play a lot for the Blazers. He averaged six and a half points per game last year. I think he's a guy that could be in double digits for them. I think you should play a lot of minutes. Another Shepherd, Ben Shepard, only averaged five points per game. I think he's gonna have to play a lot for Indiana. He's a guy they trusted in the playoffs, you know, and so I do think, like, he could, I mean, to go from 5 to 10, is that insane? Modest Bouzelis only average 8 points per game for the Bulls. I think that's another guy.

[Dave DeFore]

He's gonna get a lot of shots.

[Andrew]

So he's going to take. He's going to take a lot of shots. And then I'm still a Kobe Buffkin believer over here who, like, barely averaged anything last year. But holding on to hope for, for. For the Buffkin boys.

[Alex]

I do like your strategy of going. Recent draft guys.

[Dave DeFore]

Yeah.

[Alex]

Who maybe just didn't get a lot of minutes in their first year. Because I'm looking just at last year's draft 24 draft, and there's so many. I mean, like Ron Holland average six points per game, you know.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Alex]

Could run Holland jump up a little bit.

[Andrew]

Sure.

[Alex]

There's a bunch of guys like that, like Cody Williams even, who looked better in summer league. He averaged four points per game last year. Like, he's going to get some opportunities.

[Andrew]

Someone has to score in Utah.

[Dave DeFore]

I mean, listen, they're gonna be there's gonna be a. A lot of people trying to take shots in. In Utah this season, I think.

[Alex]

Okay, so that was your answer to question number one. Which brings us to question number two. Who is a player that won't be in anyone's top 100 preseason ranking that will be in everyone's top 100 ranking by the end of the season? So for this, I went and looked at ESPN top 100. I looked at CBS. I think there was another one. And I found a couple names from last year's preseason that are definitely in everyone's top 100 now, but were not back then. Guys like Tumani Kamara, Peyton Pritchard, Christian Brown, Tari Eason, and the aforementioned Andrew Nemhard.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Alex]

So, Andrew, who did you come up with for this question?

[Andrew]

Is a Sar Thompson. Is he. Is he in people's top one hundreds?

[Dave DeFore]

See that? This is where I've been sitting on this because I, I feel like a Sar probably is. Right.

[Alex]

I. I bet he is not.

[Andrew]

That's kind of what I thought when I was.

[Alex]

What I've been exercise. I use the ringer because, you know, they, they continually update it.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Alex]

Although it hasn't been updated recently because Shay does not have his MVP or his ring. Please include that. But Asar Thompson was not in their top 100.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Alex]

So I, I'll give that to you if that's where you want to go.

[Andrew]

Asar Thompson. Yes. I think he will undoubtedly be in people's top 100. I think that his. He missed a lot of time last year, and I do think that he is going to be thought of as a top 100 player. He's a guy that not only can be one of the best defenders in the league, but, you know, I think he can do a little bit of everything. And I think he'll be a little bit better scorer this season than he was last.

[Alex]

Yeah, I think that's a good one. And, and him missing all that time is the reason why I have a feeling he probably won't be in a lot of these top 100 lists going into the season. Just because really when people were getting excited about him was like at the very end of the regular season and then how he played in the playoffs. So who. I don't know if that'll carry over to these top 100 lists.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Alex]

Dave, what about you?

[Dave DeFore]

Oh, well, mine is another guy that's just kind of forgotten. Jared McCain. I think that what we saw to him to start the season before he got hurt, I mean, we probably all would be talking about him going into this year a little bit more if he had finished the season especially as strong as it was his start, and he's going to be on a better team. You know, Joel Embiid is probably going to play more. It looks like they're going to have just more bodies on the floor. And if he's healthy, I think he's going to. You know, he scored 15 a game while he was out there last year, and it was a weird setting where he was sometimes the best player on the court for the Sixers. I don't think he's going to be in that position a lot. So I, I think he's kind of poised to just have a really nice second season. That's going to feel like his rookie year. I think by the end of it, people are gonna be like, oh, yeah, this guy is pretty good.

[Alex]

Yeah, that, that feels like almost a lock. As long as he's healthy.

[Dave DeFore]

Exactly.

[Alex]

But also at the same time, there's no way you, it would be hard for like ESPN or one of these places to rank him in the top hundred based on him playing like 20 games.

[Dave DeFore]

Oh, I'm gaming the system here.

[Andrew]

You are.

[Dave DeFore]

This was, it was tough, you know, because the number, in my opinion, the number of guys who would have, who could make a leap, it's all about opportunity. And so if you look around and like, who is going to get hurt and, and who's going to step up and take that guy's spot is kind of what I look at. When you, when you look at a top 100 list, someone to break into that, it's a guy becoming a fifth starter or popping off as like a six man and coming out of nowhere to do that. So, I mean, McCain to me is like, yeah, I mean, he's, he was going to be a top 100 player going into this year if he had finished last year. So I'm working the system.

[Alex]

Okay, our next question. This one is tough one, I'll admit. What will be the craziest statistical game we see this season? So, for instance, last year jokic had that 60 point triple double. Wemby had his second five by five game of his career. You know, do we see someone score 70? Do we see a quadruple double? By the way, as I was looking for like crazy games, I'd forgotten that Josh Giddey was two steals away from a quadruple double. He had. He had a game with eight steals.

[Dave DeFore]

Wow.

[Alex]

Do you remember that shout out to Josh Giddy doesn't that sound not real.

[Andrew]

Set in March.

[Alex]

In fact, it sounds so not real, I'm looking it up again just to make sure I.

[Dave DeFore]

This is not an AI summary. You didn't ask.

[Alex]

Yeah, okay. Okay. This was a game. Yes, it was. Oh, it was that. No, it wasn't that game. It was a game against the Lakers, but it wasn't that game against the lakers. It was March 22. He had a 15, 10, 17 and eight game. He was two steals away from a quadruple double.

[Andrew]

Whoa.

[Dave DeFore]

What?

[Andrew]

James, Shout out to Josh Giddy. Get him in fantasy, everybody.

[Alex]

Fantasy, folks. Come on. Okay, Dave, where'd you go with this question?

[Dave DeFore]

How about. How about LUCA Going for 82?

[Alex]

82. Exactly, 82.

[Dave DeFore]

I mean, you know, 81 or more. Let's just say that. And. And maybe against the Mavericks. That's what I. That's what I'd like to see.

[Alex]

That would be the dream.

[Dave DeFore]

Skinny Luca, fit. Luca looks good in. In some of the preliminary Eurobasket friendlies that I've seen. He obviously, he looks fit. It's not just that he's wearing white T shirts and he's got a tan. Although that is a great trick. But, yeah, I think, you know, Luca is a guy. Like, we've seen him. We've seen what this guy can do when he gets hot. We've seen what this guy can do when he gets mad. And I just feel like this season is going to be his revenge season. And why not? Why not score the modern record for most points in the game? I mean, if anybody was going to do it, I think he's the guy that could. Him or him or Jokic. But I think Luca has kind of got that fire in his belly right now.

[Alex]

You know what's crazy? I was. I was going back to look at his 73 point game. Yeah, he only hit eight threes in that game. Like, he feels like the type of guy who could just have a crazy game where he hits like 11 or 12 threes.

[Dave DeFore]

Yeah.

[Alex]

Hit eight.

[Dave DeFore]

And also he goes to the line. Right, so he gets a lot of free, right?

[Alex]

Yeah, he was 15, 16 from the line in that 73 point game and was 17 of 20 from 2 point range.

[Dave DeFore]

See, now the harder thing for him to repeat, though, is the 15 of 16 from the line. I mean, the 15 or 16 from the line is tough for him. So if he can just make his free throws, I mean, the guy, he's gonna take a lot of them. But yeah, I would like to see him go for that. Like, just. Just show everyone that he could do it.

[Alex]

Andrew, what would be your craziest statistical game this upcoming season?

[Andrew]

I think Giannis is going to have a crazy statistical season and I think he could get something like a 65 point triple double, like, with that. Like that to me almost feels like a lock for him. Like, it's just, there's going to be a night, there's going to be nights for the Bucks that literally no one has it going except for Giannis. And that could be 25 games this season where it's like I have nowhere else to go and I'm going to have to do this on my own. I think there are going to be some wild statistical nights for Giannis this year. I think this is going to be a lot like Russell Westbrook's MVP season for him and that there no one, no one else here. I just have like supporting cast members, like they just signed a mere coffee. Cool. It's. It's kind of sad that like that signing could be significant for them. He could play a lot of minutes for that.

[Dave DeFore]

Oh, I think he's going to.

[Andrew]

And we're talking about a signing in the middle of August, you know, that's just kind of a footnote to the rest of the league. It's actually kind of important for Milwaukee. And so I think that Giannis is going to have to carry this team maybe more than he ever has. And I don't know who else is going to help him. And so I do think, like, he's going to have some crazy nights. So, like 65 point triple double for Giannis. Lock it in.

[Dave DeFore]

35 points a game for the season, you think?

[Andrew]

I, I, yeah, I think that that's not a crazy thought at all.

[Alex]

Yeah, I was looking at his game logs from last year and I think what is exciting about this upcoming season, which we saw towards the end of last season, is just all the additional playmaking duties he was taking on. He had a game April 3 last year against Philly. It was Philly, but 35, 17 and 20. So you could, you could imagine like he's already kind of in range of like a 40, 20, 20 game.

[Andrew]

Yeah, yeah.

[Alex]

You know that, that sound, that feels like within the realm of possibility already. So, yeah, that, that's, that's a great one. Andrew. Next up, speaking of Luca, who will be the biggest name traded in season this year? Last year, of course, I would have to say it was Luca. Would you say so?

[Andrew]

Wouldn't you say so?

[Alex]

Andrew, what. What do you think is going to be the biggest name who is going to be the biggest name traded in season.

[Andrew]

Is Zion Williamson a big enough name for you?

[Alex]

Yeah, yeah.

[Andrew]

That's a big name.

[Alex]

That's a big name. That's a big name.

[Andrew]

It's a big name for sure.

[Alex]

It's a very big name and it sounds very possible. I just saw Shamat do a post. The strength of schedule and the New Orleans Pelicans have the most difficult projected strength of schedule in the league, which makes sense because it's usually one of like the projected bad west teams because.

[Andrew]

They can't play themselves.

[Alex]

But yeah, if. If this season gets off to a rough start, which I can't imagine why it wouldn't. I. I do wonder if we start hearing those rumblings early, early and often, especially if he's playing. Yeah, that's true. We were already hearing them.

[Dave DeFore]

Joe Dumars came in and it was just like, hey, we got to trade Zion. Oops, oops, oops. Yeah, I take it back. I don't mean it.

[Andrew]

If things are going poorly enough for them, I think that it. There's always been a weird relationship between Zion and the Pelicans. It's been weird for a while. I can just see it coming to a head this season because I think this roster is not equipped to be good enough for Zion. And I know that Zion has been part of the problem, but I also just can see like Zion's camp, like being against him, being on this team and a part of this franchise. And I just think that they're like, that could all come to a head. Now. Who. Who would trade for Zion is maybe more of an interesting question. It's like, who. Who would take a shot on Zion Williamson at this point in his career? I think is a really interesting question. But I do think that things could come to a head in New Orleans and that Zion could be on his way out of town as they try to pick a direction.

[Dave DeFore]

Who. What would his value even look like?

[Andrew]

Not much. Yeah, I don't think you can get, I think, matchings. I mean, obviously you have the matching salary and then maybe a first round pick, but I don't know if you can get a whole lot more than that.

[Dave DeFore]

Like Utah should think about it. Oh, why not?

[Andrew]

Why is a better question.

[Dave DeFore]

I mean, I guess you think about whether you ever think he's going to really be an NBA player. That's. Yeah, I think that's the big question.

[Alex]

Yeah, that's. That's why. I think like the. The storm for this to happen would be them starting poorly. But Zion Being healthy and playing well, they're just, they're just not winning games. Okay, can you beat that name, Dave? I don't know a bigger name.

[Dave DeFore]

How about LeBron James? Is that big enough?

[Andrew]

Oh, why not Zion?

[Dave DeFore]

Listen, the Dallas Mavericks don't have a single person that can dribble that you trust to make decisions. And that team, I mean, it's set up. If LeBron, I mean, they can make the, the trade work, they can make the money work. They have too many bigs. So losing Derek Lively In a potential LeBron trade doesn't hurt him as much. It helps the Lakers for their longer term goal of winning a title with Luca because they're turning the page there. We've heard all this or seen all this smoke from, you know, LeBron's camp and, and people kicking the tires around the Mavericks and yeah, I think why not? And specifically that trade, I mean it would, whatever the, the math that needs to be done to get it to work out, you probably loop in a third or fourth team in it, but makes a lot of sense to me. LeBron would have a better shot of winning a title next season potentially. Just because I think, you know, you add LeBron to the Mavericks and they don't lose a lot of. And they, they get a lot better. But yeah, why not?

[Alex]

And for the Lakers getting to use that salary slot and not just bring back smaller contracts. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I would love it for the Lakers, depending on how the season goes, who knows?

[Dave DeFore]

Sure.

[Alex]

Maybe everything is hunky dory and everyone's very happy in LA and, and they're good. Okay, now it's time for our mini draft where we will be choosing players that you believe will be making their first all NBA team this season. Now last season we had three players. Evan Mobley, Kate Cunningham, Jalen Williams, who all made their very first all NBA team. I went back a decade and on average we've had three and a half first time all NBA players per season. There was a season with six. So you can get a lot depending on, you know, if you have injuries. And I feel like this number should even go up in the Future with that 65 game requirement. So the way we're going to do this is, Andrew, we'll start with you. This will be a snake draft. Snake. So Dave, you're going to get picks two and three. Andrew, you're going to choose a name and then Dave will choose two names and then Andrew will choose two names and then Dave will choose his last name. So you're both going to get three players. And you cannot pick Victor Wembanyama because I think we all assume if you play, I only.

[Dave DeFore]

Look, I only have four names, so I'm very hopeful that.

[Andrew]

Oh, no.

[Dave DeFore]

Yeah. Andrew doesn't take one of mine. So.

[Alex]

Wow, Dave's living on the edge. Andrew, who is your first?

[Dave DeFore]

But.

[Andrew]

Is it too early to take Amin Thompson?

[Alex]

No, you're allowed to take Amin Thompson.

[Andrew]

I just think that the. At the end of the day, I think that the Rockets are going to be toward the top of the league as far as record goes. I think that Kevin Durant will have a chance to not meet the 65 game mark and that they will need a representative from the Houston Rockets. Good call. And I think that voters will jump at the chance to vote for Amin Thompson, who they will think is the most important defender. He's helps put their offense together. There's a lot of things that he does on the court now statistically, like, is he going to score enough points? I don't know. But I do think that he is going to do all of the other things. And so for my first pick, I'll take Ahmed Thompson.

[Alex]

Dave, was he on your list? Was he one of your four?

[Dave DeFore]

He was not actually, but. Oh, I like, I like the pick. I, I'll be all of those things for Amen Thompson if he's. If they have the season that everybody expects. How about Jamal Murray?

[Andrew]

How about.

[Dave DeFore]

It's about time, right? It's about time. This is going to be one of the better Nuggets teams that they've had. Like, I think that we all look at what they did over the summer and they, they got so much better, so much deeper and more versatile. They finally got a backup center for Jokic so that though, you know, the middle doesn't die while he goes to the bench for eight minutes a game. And I think this is the, the time where Jamal Murray is the guy with the spotlight on him. Jokic always performs and Murray comes in every single season out of shape and tries to play his way into shape, winds up injured by the time you get to the playoffs. And we're all kind of wondering, well, where is the Jamal Murray from the title run, right? We, we heard Jamal Murray was going to be an all star. Jamal Murray was going to be all NBA, all these things. He's not done it yet. So I think this is the put up or shut up time for Jamal Murray because they need to win the title. I think next year. Like, they, this is a very important window closing moment for this team, you know, Jokic is not going to be the best player in the world forever. So, yeah, I think Jamal Murray kind of has to make all NBA. He needs to have that level of a season or, you know, maybe it's, it's time to move on from him in Denver. But if he does the stuff that he's supposed to do, I, It'll be very easy for him to waltz into an all NBA spot.

[Alex]

This is a very similar argument that I made for him as a first time all star. And I feel like if, if he gets that, then it'll, it'll make the all NBA case much easier. Okay, so who's your second pick?

[Dave DeFore]

How about Paolo Banchero? Yeah, Magic seems easy, right?

[Alex]

Easy one. Yeah.

[Dave DeFore]

Easy one, right. Magic should be better this upcoming season. He's, I guess, their best player and I think he's probably going to score more points than he did last year. I mean, this guy is, he's really good. They're going to be better. That's it. It's an easy one to me. Like, let's lock that.

[Alex]

Yeah, that does feel like a lock. I actually for some reason thought he had made one, but he had same.

[Dave DeFore]

I, I had the same feeling. I was like, yeah, it feels like an all NBA guy. Like a third teamer.

[Alex]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Dave DeFore]

Not yet.

[Alex]

All right, Andrew, who are you taking with your second pick?

[Andrew]

I'm taking a guy that, I think it, had he played enough games this pasture, he would have been considered for the third team. And Tyrese Maxi from Philadelphia 76ers. You know, he averaged 26, 3 and 6 last year with almost two steals per game. This is one of the, if not the best guard in the Eastern Conference. I'm sure that he's, he's probably a top three guard in the Eastern Conference and I think that he is going to be very good. And if the Sixers are any good at all, I think that he is going to be leading them. And so I will take Tyrese Maxi with my next pick. He just needs to play. Also, I guess it doesn't matter that he doesn't know how to use a can opener. Did you see this clip of him?

[Alex]

See that?

[Andrew]

Yes, live on Instagram. Unbelievable. I, I had written him, I had written him down, but all I can think about is a can open now. But I will take Darius Maxi despite his lack of knowledge of can openers.

[Alex]

Andrew, before your next pick, trivia time. Okay. The last four players who, when they made an all NBA team for the first time, they Made first team all NBA.

[Andrew]

Okay.

[Alex]

Their very first appearance in any all NBA team was first team Jokic, Luca, SGA and this player. These are the last four guys to.

[Andrew]

Do it all in the.

[Alex]

Any of you have a. Any guesses?

[Andrew]

I don't know.

[Alex]

Dave, any guesses?

[Andrew]

No.

[Alex]

Any guesses? The correct answer is Devin Booker, 2122 season.

[Andrew]

Wow.

[Alex]

Yeah. That's wild. Teams are really.

[Dave DeFore]

That is kind of wild. That was a good team.

[Alex]

That was a good team. Okay, Andrew, your third and final pick to make their first all NBA team this season.

[Andrew]

I'm head. I'm hedging on Houston. I'll take Alper and Schengen.

[Alex]

Oh, I thought you're gonna hedge on the Magic. Take Franz. Okay. You're going to take.

[Andrew]

I thought about. I definitely thought about Franz and the Magic could be in a similar position to the Rockets. That could happen where they're going to win 50 plus games. This is going to be a very good team ranked toward the top of the league. I just would bet on Houston for sure being there. I think that Orlando has to. Has to clear some injury hurdles in order to get there, but I think that Houston is going to get there. I think they'll have somebody on the all NBA team there. Whether it's men or if Sengun continues to lead this team, I think it's going to be probably one or the other. And so I will hedge and take Alper and Shen.

[Alex]

All right, Dave. Andrew's taking the coward's way out, trying to rack up points by hedging. What are you going to do for your final pick?

[Andrew]

How about.

[Dave DeFore]

How about a guy who just got paid but he. It's all about games played for him. Jaren Jackson Jr. I think he's. He's due.

[Alex]

Has he never made one?

[Andrew]

He never made all NBA.

[Dave DeFore]

Never made all NBA.

[Andrew]

Wow.

[Dave DeFore]

This guy. I, I just feel like when you've got that level of defense and with the offensive game that he has, it would. If John Morant is going to give them, you know, the 65, hopefully 65 games that he needs to give him. I think Jaren's gonna have a better season coming up. So, you know, if he can be healthy, we know what the defensive level is for him and, and his offensive game as it's pretty good. I think he's like one of these guys who's always on the edge of all NBA but maybe this is the year that he actually punches it in. I also thought about Desmond Bain here. So I, you know, not a hedge but Desmond Bain's. Going to get opportunity in Orlando that didn't really exist for him in Memphis, so. But I went with Jared.

[Alex]

Dave, I like your strategy of picking guys that I thought had already made it. That makes me feel like they were good picks.

[Andrew]

I would have sworn that he made it. Yeah.

[Alex]

Okay. Moving on up to question number six. Which player will convince the most doubters this season? So last season, I would say Cade Cunningham. He convinced a lot of doubters.

[Dave DeFore]

Got me.

[Alex]

Tyler Hero making his first All Star game. Feel like he convinced a lot of doubters. And then J Dub in the playoffs. Yeah, Feel like he convinced a lot of doubters. So, Dave, we'll start with you. Any names that popped up into your head for this?

[Dave DeFore]

How about Trey Young?

[Alex]

I think so. A great one.

[Dave DeFore]

Trey Young. The Hawks have kind of built the perfect team to have around. Trey Young. I love Porzingis. If he's going to be healthy, I think that that's amazing fit for Trae Young. He's going to have opportunities to play off the ball. We'll see if he does. I think that that would answer a lot of his critics, but the guy is a winner. He's proven like he, you know, he took a team to a conference finals. And say what you will about that run, I mean, he still did it. Now he's got a lot of talent around him, a lot of defensive talent that can make up for the stuff that is out of his control, which is, you know, he's small, he's a small guard, and he's on the ball almost every single possession. So I think Trey Young set up to have one of those, hey, I told you guys so sort of seasons.

[Alex]

I will say he was the name I was thinking of when I came up with this question.

[Dave DeFore]

Oh, yeah. So, Andrew, do I get points for this? I. I don't know if you guys.

[Alex]

Yeah, you're doing great.

[Dave DeFore]

Doing great.

[Alex]

They're still calculating it in the back room, but, yeah, you're doing great so far. Andrew, who do you think will convince the most doubters this season?

[Andrew]

I'm taking Josh Giddy for this one.

[Alex]

Really? Okay.

[Andrew]

Josh. Josh is somebody that when they talk about, when people talk about the Alex Caruso trade, they're like, man, Chicago got nothing back for Alex Caruso. Just nothing back. And I think Josh is going to have a really, really good statistical season this year.

[Alex]

Okay, I. I agree with you on that. But to convince his doubters, do you think that would be enough?

[Andrew]

I mean, he scored 21. He had his averages after the All Star break 21, 10 and 9. If he did anything close to that, I think people would have to talk about that trade a little bit differently. You know what I mean? Like, I just think that he is going to do something that is. I don't know that it's going to be quite that good for the whole season, but if he's like 18 points, nine boards, eight assists per game, I just think that that is undoubtedly a really good player to have on your roster. And I think that Chicago is doing just fine now. They have to build the right kind of team around him, which. When was the last time that Chicago actually built a team around somebody that was worth anything? I think that would probably be a bigger problem. But I do think that Josh, he's in, he's only 22. It's like we've already like written this guy off just because we don't like the archetype of player he is. I just think that he is going to have a really nice statistical season compared to what he did over the course of the entire season last year. He had a really rough start to the year. I think he's going to have a better start to the year. I think that the contract, they're ultimately going to get him on too. Just because the Bulls and Giddy are in a weird spot in restrictive free agency is going to prove to not be a bad one.

[Dave DeFore]

Right.

[Andrew]

And so I, I think that they'll settle on something. They'll move forward. It's going to be a, a smaller percentage of the cap than probably what he would have gotten in like past CBAs. I think that this one is going to probably, probably do a really pretty good service for the Bulls and I think that just Josh is going to have a really nice year. So I'm, I'm taking Josh Giddy. I think that he's a guy that is, is not well thought of. Across the league and across certainly NBA podcasts, you don't hear many people talking positive about Josh.

[Dave DeFore]

I mean, he's a non shooter without touch, so it's tough to envision like him being able to consistently score.

[Andrew]

He's a weird player. He is a really, really weird player. And he just doesn't fit the archetype of most players that you've watched, right? And so either, either that player is like so amazing like Jokic, where it's like, oh my gosh, okay, like, he's just the best. He's the greatest. We don't know how else to talk about except for he's the greatest or it's like Josh, and it's like he's a weird player. He's a tall point guard that doesn't do the modern things you want guys to do. And so we automatically just completely throw him out. Which I think there's something. It's somewhere in the middle with Josh. He's not going to be the greatest player, but he's not a starter performer.

[Dave DeFore]

Right. Is really what it is. Because once you get to the playoffs and it's about your weaknesses, it's a different sport, you know. But he's an effective regular season guy. I mean, he's kind of like demonic Sabonis in that sense. Very effective guy to have for 82 games. He stays healthy, you know. Yeah. And he's big. That, like, it's huge advantage just being big. So, you know, he's a player with value. Yeah, for sure.

[Alex]

Yeah. I definitely agree that he's going to have a big statistical year, I do think, without a playoff appearance and specifically, like, him. Him just being able to play in the playoffs. Because remember, most people's most recent memory of Josh Giddy in the playoffs is him getting played off the floor during that. That final Thunder season.

[Andrew]

No question.

[Alex]

A player who gets played off the playoffs, who you also have to build your entire team around. That's where people are just like, how is this. I mean, sure, he can. He can put up stats, but, like, where is this going ever?

[Andrew]

Yeah, you know, and I. And I get that. And that question may not be answered. I also know with the Thunder, he was asked to do the two things that he was worst at. It was hit standstill threes and play defense on the wing was what he was asked to do. Because the two guys that were going to have the ball were Shay and J Dub. And it's like, hey, you do the two things that you are worst at, please. And of course it's going to look bad. Like, anything, anytime anybody's being asked to do, like, the two worst things about any. Any, like, pick a job, any job, and it's like, hey, you do the two worst things. Like, yeah, you're going to look. You're not going to look so good. So I, I think that there's. There could be a better year for Josh Giddy. That's all.

[Alex]

And to his credit, I mean, those standstill threes have. He did get better at them last year compared to when he was with the Thunder. Okay, did you both give me a name? Yes. So question number seven. Who will become this year's NBA Smart Guy. Now, this is a player who is disproportionately discussed on NBA podcasts compared to how often normal people talk about this. So last season I had as an example, Luke Cornett. I feel like I know a video.

[Dave DeFore]

On the Cornet contest exactly like that.

[Alex]

That's what I'm talking about. And to be clear, NBA smart guys, they're not bad players. A lot of times they are good players.

[Andrew]

Cornett's good. He's a good player.

[Alex]

They just get talked about a lot. Like, no one in my life, like my basketball friends in Portland are ever bringing up Luke Cornett to me.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Alex]

Ever in a million years. But I hear about him a lot on podcasts. So.

[Dave DeFore]

Andrew, it's like a mere coffee signs in Milwaukee. Oh, man. Yeah, I love that.

[Andrew]

Sorry.

[Dave DeFore]

Guys.

[Alex]

Yeah, if you.

[Dave DeFore]

Man, a mere coffee is going to be so good for them.

[Andrew]

It's a game changer for the. For the Bucks.

[Alex]

The perfect time for that kind of a signing too. Like mid August.

[Andrew]

Oh, yeah.

[Alex]

You give us an Amir Coffee. Like, we. We can get 15 minutes out of that on a pie, dude.

[Andrew]

Yeah, Somebody's going to strike gold with an Amir Coffee YouTube short. It's going to just. It's going to blow up.

[Dave DeFore]

I can do five minutes on why the Clippers are really going to miss Amir Coffee.

[Andrew]

My guy, and he's already kind of become this a little bit, is Case and Wallace of the Thunder. He's a really good player, but he. He averages like eight points a game. Like, this isn't like some guy, but people are going to be talking about him and the amount that you're going to hear about and maybe have already heard about the upcoming contract extension for Case and Wallace. You're going to hear about that specifically in the NBA smart guy circles so much because, like, how are the Thunder going to afford this? How are they going to afford Case and Wallace moving forward, forward? Like, that is going to be something that is going to be talked about way more on NBA podcast than in your actual real life with people talking basketball. Case of Wallace, great player, great point of attack, defender, a monster in transition, but a guy that is a role.

[Alex]

Player for an NBA team and his teammate, Alex Crusoe. I mean, one of the classic NBA smart guys who graduated to now regular people. Everyone knows.

[Dave DeFore]

I remember being scoffed at when I said Alex Caruso should have made all NBA defensive team.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Dave DeFore]

The season.

[Andrew]

Wow.

[Dave DeFore]

Everyone caught up.

[Alex]

Jesus, that must have been so long ago because now he just feels like, really. Well, I have to talk about him.

[Dave DeFore]

You Got to.

[Alex]

Okay, Dave, who'd you come up with this?

[Dave DeFore]

Kyle Philipowski? I'm checking boxes here. All right, did you guys see that Lowry market went for 48 in a. In a Euro basket.

[Andrew]

Friendly.

[Dave DeFore]

Okay, Finland space in the floor around him. He looked awesome. All right, so Philipowski can space the floor. I actually had a nice, like, finish to the season. And he checks the boxes, right? He's a. A white stretch big that plays on a bad team. So the only people watching him are going to be NBA podcasters. Right? I. I think that he's gonna. He like Walker Kessler, where guys were like, oh, man, maybe this team could trade for Walker Kessler. No, it's going to be Filipowski. Now, of course, you got to think about why he landed in Utah and why he probably wouldn't want to leave Utah if you start finding him a new home. But that's not for this show. Check out what's. What's our other show.

[Andrew]

You'Re talking about the sports gossip show that.

[Dave DeFore]

Thank you. The sports gossip show. Great show. No, but yeah, I think Filipowski is going to be a guy. He's the new Luke Cornette. I mean, give me two photos, swap the jerseys. I might not be able to tell them apart.

[Alex]

You know, I don't know if Luke Cornette ever dominated summer league, though. Like, Kyle Filipowski just did look good.

[Dave DeFore]

Right?

[Alex]

I mean, honest question, if you were ranking Utah's young players right now, who do you have above Kyle Philipowski going into this?

[Andrew]

Man? I mean, all the young guys. Yeah. Ace. Would you put Keonte over him?

[Dave DeFore]

Maybe?

[Alex]

No, no, it's.

[Dave DeFore]

I. I don't know.

[Andrew]

Would you put Walter Clayton over him? No. Would you put a Collier over him?

[Alex]

I don't know if I'd put anyone over him as of right now. Which says a little bit about the Utah Jazz's young prospects.

[Andrew]

A healthy Taylor Hendricks. No.

[Alex]

We'll see.

[Dave DeFore]

Bryce Sensiba. Yes. But, oh, I mean, he's a Hooper.

[Alex]

He is a Hooper. He's definitely a Hooper.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Alex]

Okay, question number eight. Who will have this season surprise 50 point game? Now, last season, I forgot this. CJ McCollum scored 50 points in a game. And then I was going back through the seasons and it really is every year there's one guy like.

[Dave DeFore]

Yeah.

[Alex]

Malachi Flynn. The year before Drew Holiday. I can't believe Drew holiday had a 50 point game. I forgot about that. I do remember the Sadiq Bay game and I do remember the KPJ game. You know, usually those are the Games you remember like at the very end of the season, the bad team, the guy randomly offer 50, but do you guys have any good picks for this? And Dave, I'll start with you.

[Dave DeFore]

Remember how we were talking about the Nuggets and Jamal Murray needs to be, you know, amazing this year. You know who's going to have a great year? Tim Hardaway Jr. Is going to have an amazing season. I feel like a 50 point game from. He's a streaky shooter, but when he's hot, he is real hot. And he's gonna be playing off of Jokic and a lot with Murray out there as well. So like there's going to be guys drawing the defense away. He's really good at hitting those. Those pull up in transition like on the wing above the break threes that, that Jokic is going to feed him. I think that Tim Hardaway, if he doesn't score 50, I'm going to be disappointed. I, I think he's going to have the chance.

[Andrew]

Wow. Okay, that's a, that's a high bar for disappointment for th.

[Dave DeFore]

If he just gets hot, they're going to feed him.

[Andrew]

You know, Jim Hard is going to average like 30 points a game and he never hits 50. And Dave's gonna be like, I'm still disappointed. So disappointed in this game.

[Dave DeFore]

Awful year.

[Alex]

Okay. I do want to know.

[Andrew]

All right.

[Alex]

He's. He's going to shoot threes. We get that. So.

[Dave DeFore]

Yeah.

[Alex]

Are you predicting that? Does he need to break the single game record to do this? Because Clay, I think Clay hit 14. Like is he going to be able to score any other way in this game?

[Andrew]

THJ it's 18 threes.

[Dave DeFore]

He'll get some layups in transition, you know, some free throws.

[Alex]

Yeah, I feel like you maybe getting.

[Dave DeFore]

That Murray's out, right. Like, and, and they need hard a way to run some pick and roll or something.

[Alex]

You know, I did look it up. He has hit 10 in a game, hit 10 in a game with Dallas. So it's not that far off. Clay hit 14 and then the next number two is 13. So it's, it's. Possible not for him to hit to score 50. I still think that's impossible.

[Dave DeFore]

I think he's gonna have a chance.

[Alex]

That, that does. That's a great answer for this question though because that would definitely be surprising every single person. Okay, Andrew, who is your name?

[Andrew]

I'm going with Brandon Miller from the Hornets. Okay. I think you're just going to try and league pass one night and you're going to be like, oh my gosh, Brandon Miller has 53. What is happening? I could see that with the Charlotte Hornets. He's a guy that. The thing about Brandon is like, he will, he will shoot a ton of threes. He had a game where he took 19 threes last year. Like, he is going to. The efficiency is what needs to catch up for him to get there. Like, he just has not really been a very efficient player so far. And so if he can match with some efficiency this season and stay healthy, is. Is really the biggest thing for him. You know, he's, he's also young players, only 22 years old. I think he's going to have a really big year for the Hornets. And I think that he could pretty easily get to 50 if he's given enough opportunities. So.

[Alex]

Pretty easily.

[Dave DeFore]

What's his.

[Alex]

The way you guys talk about this, does he have a 38?

[Dave DeFore]

38. Okay. I thought he had gotten a 40, but I mean, he, he can really get hot too.

[Andrew]

Yeah. Pretty easily in that, like with this team, somebody's got to score the points.

[Dave DeFore]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

You know, you're going to average over 100 points a game. Somebody has to score them for the Charlotte Hornets. And Lamelo is going to be in and out of the lineup like he always is. And I think if Brandon can stay on the court, he's going to have a ton of opportunities to just go get buckets.

[Alex]

Now I appreciate both of you not picking Cam Thomas because I was worried that one of you would pick him.

[Andrew]

I thought, I mean, too obvious. It crosses your mind for sure.

[Alex]

The question should be how many 50 point games?

[Andrew]

Exactly, exactly.

[Dave DeFore]

How many 50 point games does he, does he have to, have to get the 40 million a year that he wants next year?

[Andrew]

Yeah, that's the question. You know, the Nets have really set up their roster for Cam Thomas because you look across the roster, who else scores on this team?

[Alex]

Oh, can I, can I ask you another trivia question? You don't tell me who the player is, but of the players from last year's Nets team who are still on the Nets, obviously Cam Thomas, he averaged the most points per game. He was at 24. Who was second? Or, or how many did, how many points did they score per game? The person who is in second on that list of players who were on the nets last year, they're still on the nets this year.

[Andrew]

Oh, that are still on the Nets.

[Alex]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

I don't know because like they lost Cam Johnson.

[Alex]

It's, it's keon Johnson at 10.8 or something. Now, they did get Michael Porter Jr. He's going to score, obviously. Terrence Mann has actually only scored double digits once in his career, averaged over. Over a season.

[Andrew]

Oh. I was like, what?

[Alex]

So, yeah, I don't know who is going to score for the Nets other than those two, because even their draft picks, like, none of those guys are projected to be big scorers out of the gate.

[Andrew]

No, none of them. And MPJ is just there to space the floor for Cam Thomas.

[Alex]

He's gonna. He's gonna have to do a lot more than that.

[Dave DeFore]

Oh, man.

[Alex]

You guys remember that preseason article? It's not a question of when Mason Plumlee will get a triple double. It's a question of how many. Remember that article. I do remember one of my favorite articles.

[Andrew]

Oh.

[Alex]

In preseason lore, that's a classic.

[Andrew]

Just a classic.

[Alex]

Okay. Who, by the way, muscle watch real quick. Y' all see Evan Mobley so jacked. Oh, my gosh. You got to look up Evan. And mobile.

[Dave DeFore]

He's got shoulders now.

[Andrew]

Yes.

[Alex]

Massive shoulders. He looks huge. I think he's on a beach.

[Dave DeFore]

As the resident body guy, I feel bad that I haven't seen him.

[Andrew]

Oh, yeah, I see. Yeah.

[Alex]

Are you impressed?

[Andrew]

Yeah, I'm impressed. Are you impressed? Yeah. Yeah. That big season incoming for Evan Mobley.

[Dave DeFore]

Watch out.

[Andrew]

Maybe he's.

[Dave DeFore]

Hang on.

[Andrew]

Whoa.

[Dave DeFore]

Hold up. Hang on.

[Alex]

What do you think? It's like.

[Andrew]

What?

[Alex]

Doesn't he look huge?

[Dave DeFore]

Yeah, he looks giant. Yeah, he looks like he plays in the NFL.

[Andrew]

What? Yeah, he does.

[Dave DeFore]

Where did this come from?

[Alex]

I.

[Dave DeFore]

Okay.

[Alex]

I don't know.

[Dave DeFore]

Okay, guys, I know NBA drug testing is not really the most stringent. We got to check this guy. This is amazing. This is one of the more amazing.

[Andrew]

That can get you. That can get you a little test, actually. This was.

[Dave DeFore]

I mean, he looks like he had a little test.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Dave DeFore]

You know, I'm just like. I mean, the veins are popping, right? He was just out of the gym, but, man, crazy shoulders.

[Alex]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

Well, two. Two summers ago, Jada posted a photo of himself, and he looked super jacked.

[Dave DeFore]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

And after that photo was posted, he had a random drug testing.

[Alex]

Oh, really?

[Andrew]

Yeah, he said it on. He said it in my preseason interview with him on down to Dunk. You can go find it on our. On the down to dunk YouTube page. But he talked about it, and he said it happened right after that picture was posted. And so, man, look.

[Alex]

Tell you guys about Evan Mobley Muscle Watch, because it was the first one I've seen this summer. I was like, oh, that looks like A different person.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Alex]

It really does look so huge.

[Dave DeFore]

He definitely. Okay, we have weight room.

[Alex]

Yes. And I did find a second confirmatory picture from a gym.

[Dave DeFore]

Okay.

[Alex]

Where he doesn't look like quite as big, but his arms are definitely.

[Dave DeFore]

Yeah. I mean, he was not like a small guy, but he definitely looks like he's put on a good five pounds.

[Andrew]

Five.

[Alex]

Five pounds?

[Dave DeFore]

Yeah. Yeah. Five pounds is much more. It's much more than, oh, pounds like five pounds. He probably put on five pounds of muscle this summer. Like legit. He looks leaner too.

[Andrew]

Wow.

[Alex]

Dava, how many pounds after two put on this summer?

[Dave DeFore]

No. Me. Zero. I lost weight.

[Alex]

Zero.

[Dave DeFore]

I'm struggling. Yeah. Yeah. I. No vacation is bad for me if I'm not in a weight room. I don't have a diet or.

[Andrew]

We gotta pump you back up.

[Dave DeFore]

I know. That's.

[Andrew]

Wow.

[Dave DeFore]

I'm wait for preseason. No, but that's good. Mo. Look, the. The Cavs just got out. Bigged two years in a row with two big.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Dave DeFore]

So he needed to get a little bit more jacked. That's good.

[Andrew]

True.

[Dave DeFore]

What is there over under.

[Andrew]

Whatever it is. I'm taking the over now.

[Dave DeFore]

Taking you over now. Yeah.

[Alex]

58 or 59 and a half easy. Yeah. Okay. Two more questions. First question, who will crash the most improved player discussion this season? What I mean by that is last season, Dyson Daniels, he was outside of the top 20 for betting odds coming into the season. And then of course, he wins. So I sent you a list of players that you cannot pick. And this is in order on from MGM Most improved player odds. Denny Abdia, Andrew Nemhard, Benedict Matheran, Jonathan Kaminga, Amin Thompson Scoot Henderson, Shaden Sharp, Jaden Ivy, Brandon Miller, Asar Thompson, Jalen Johnson, Jalen Wells, Josh Giddey, Trey Murphy, Modest Bozealous, Derek White, Chet Holmgren, Jalen Suggs, Michael Porter Jr. And Victor Wembanyama. Okay. So you cannot pick any of those players. So, Andrew, who are you going to pick?

[Andrew]

What about Bilal Koulibaly?

[Alex]

Yeah, he's crashing it. He's crashing it.

[Andrew]

He's only 21 years old. He is on a Wizards team that will be really bad this year. And I think that he is going to. He. He honestly could have been a candidate for the first question. It was like, who's going to increase their scoring average? I just think that he's going to have every opportunity this year to succeed or to fail with the Wizards. I think that they are going to give him every single opportunity. So I will. I Will go with Bilal Koulibaly.

[Alex]

Plus 5,000.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Alex]

Now get it in. Now, Dave, who did you pick for this?

[Dave DeFore]

How about Terence Shannon Jr. Oh, that's a good name. We watched, you know, we watched during the playoffs, the, the Timberwolves, they found a need for him. I mean, they had the need all year, but they discovered that he could fill it for them quite a bit in the playoffs. You know, he attacks the basket. He's big body, he can defend, he can play. With Anthony Edwards, I think that he's going to get a lot of opportunity and that's the sort of guy that, that we always wind up, you know, seeing in the, in the mix for these awards. Huge boost in minutes, probably. I'm assuming Mike Conley can't just, you know, play 80 games next season, so they're going to need more guards. I think Terence Shannon probably proved himself in the playoffs, so, yeah, I think he gets a shot at it. He's really good, too. I mean, that helps.

[Alex]

It does help. Yeah, I, I do think he was also plus 5,000. I don't think he was off the board. So I think he does have odds as well. So, yeah, that's a good name. He'll certainly have the opportunity with Nikhil Alexander Walker not being there anymore. Bringing us to our final question. Along the similar vein, who will crash the top five MVP voting? So last season, Donovan Mitchell, coming into this, the preseason 15th best odds to win MVP, he ends up being fifth in MVP voting. So I'm not asking you necessarily to pick a guy who you really think could win mvp. Yeah, just a guy who could have that type of a season. Remember Jalen Brunson? He was fifth a few years ago. Like that type of season where everyone agrees, like, okay, he's not mvp, but we've got to include him on our ballot. So the names you cannot choose. Jokic, sga, Luka Giannis, Anthony Edwards, Jalen Brunson, Cade Cunningham, Donovan Mitchell, Steph Curry, Paul Benchero, Anthony Davis, Katie Jalen Brown, and Joel Embiid. You know, don't choose Joel Embiid.

[Andrew]

You mean I can't choose Joel Embiid?

[Alex]

I'm not letting you do it. I don't care if you want to. You can't. So, Dave, who did you pick for this?

[Dave DeFore]

How about Kawhi Leonard? I want to leave.

[Alex]

Wow.

[Andrew]

Okay, that would be.

[Dave DeFore]

When he's on the court, he always looks like he's. If he's not the best player on the court, he's the second best player on the court, every single game he plays. I mean, we watched him in the playoffs. I think that obviously the 65 games is the real question mark for him. Can he play 65 games, stay healthy and be available for the playoffs? I just choose to believe that he can. And the guy is, he's got, obviously he's an MVP level player when he's on the court. And so if he plays 65 games, I think he's in the mix. Clippers are going to be good again. He's going to give them more regular season games than he gave them last year. So I think they'll have a better regular season than they had last year.

[Alex]

Yeah, Kawhi, and you hope with their depth, like maybe he could just average like around 30 minutes per game. He gives you like hyper efficiency. He, he's like a plus minus God, like he always is. You could see it. You could see it like a top four seed.

[Dave DeFore]

It would be tricky if, if his minutes are 30 a game and you know, he puts up 24 a game, it would be tricky for him to get on the MVP ballot. But the Clippers will win a lot of games if he winds up doing that. So that, that maybe brings him up. It's kind of like Donovan Mitchell, you know, if he puts up similar numbers to Donovan Mitchell and the Clippers win, you know, 53 games, I think. Okay, you start to say, oh, look, Kawhi's back.

[Alex]

Right, right, right. Okay, Andrew, who's crashing? Top five MVP voting this season.

[Andrew]

What about Evan Mobley? Muscle watch.

[Alex]

Evan Mobley now did. Was this your answer before you saw the photo that.

[Andrew]

I learned it was on my list. He was on my list. He actually wasn't going to be my answer, but he was on my list. And now I've been pushed over the edge now that I've seen him.

[Alex]

Okay, okay, okay.

[Andrew]

He was, he was 10th in MVP voting last year. He obviously won defensive player of the year. He was an all star. He was in the all NBA second team, all defense, first team. Like this is a guy that already has racked up a lot of different accolades here and I think that he's poised to have a real breakout season. I think that we could get to the, to a point at some point next season that he is thought of as like, he is clearly the best player in like the mold of like a Kevin Garnett type of game where he may not necessarily be scoring the most points for them, but you know, watching night in, night out, that Evan Mobley is clearly their most important and their best player. And so I think that they could be at the top of the east again. I think that it will be super disappointing. Certainly if they don't make the east finals, it's a disappointment. But if they don't make the finals and a season like this where the east is down, I think that will be a huge disappointment. But if they are at the top of the east at the end of the regular season, they look dominant. They look different. Like they're just able to show some different looks this next season. I think a lot of it will be because of Evan Mobley. And so I'll go with Evan Mobley. I think he's poised to have a really big season based on the muscles that I've seen.

[Alex]

Yeah, I was going to say, I believe before you were swayed, who, who was your. Who's your top choice before you were swayed by them, by the shoulders?

[Andrew]

You know, I was, I was thinking about taking another east big and taking Towns at that spot. I just think that, that he. There were times last year where Towns looked like the most important player for the Knicks. And I think Brunson, I think he is their best player. I think that he puts so, so much pressure on the defense with the way that he plays that he's going to probably continue to be the best player. But I do think that there is a world where Towns is looked at as like the key cog for the Knicks. But yeah, yeah, after seeing, after seeing those shoulders, I think that Evan Mobley is probably more ridiculous.

[Dave DeFore]

It's ridiculous.

[Alex]

All right, well, congrats to both of you.

[Dave DeFore]

Evan Mobley.

[Andrew]

Congratulations to Evan Mobley.

[Dave DeFore]

Put in the work this summer.

[Alex]

So those are our top 10 questions heading into the 20, 25, 26 season. A lot of good names. And the great thing about these questions is we can come back and find out if Andrew and Dave were right or wrong.

[Andrew]

That's true.

[Alex]

I'll save it. Maybe we'll revisit it at the end of the season.

[Andrew]

It's on the record. It's on the record here. All right, Dave, we're so glad to have you back on the mic. Thanks so much for joining us here on Slam and Jam. Please be sure to leave us a five star review and we'll read it on the show. We are getting closer, I promise, guys, we're inching closer to the regular season, but right now we're not even close to there. We'll be every other week until really around October. So look for Slam and Jam to be back in your feed regularly as we get closer to the regular season. If you're not listening to the Basketball 100 podcast, I really encourage you to do that. They're counting down the top 100 players in NBA history. It's on this feed. Would really appreciate you guys checking that out. It's a really fun show. It's based on the book written by all all of our great colleagues here at the Athletic. So if you'll support them by listening to the show and go buy go go buy the book. It's a really good book. It's a really nice resource to have too in case you maybe you don't know some of maybe you don't know Dolph Shays. Like what's up with Dolph Shayes game? You can go read about him in the basketball 100. So go check that out. Hope you guys have a great weekend and we'll talk to you guys again in two weeks. If you love to travel, Capital One.

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