Drafting the Best Games Left in the NBA Season

Summary

The Zach Lowe Show — "Drafting the Best Games Left in the NBA Season"

Date: February 19, 2026
Hosts: Zach Lowe (A), Howard Beck (B)
Podcast: The Ringer

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Episode Overview

This lively episode marks Zach Lowe’s first show after the NBA’s All-Star break. With guest Howard Beck, the focus shifts away from tanking talk and toward anticipation, as the pair “draft” the ten most intriguing games left in the regular NBA season. The episode features banter about league drama, key injuries affecting playoff and award races, and a first stab at rough All-NBA and MVP ballots, all delivered in Zach and Howard’s signature insightful but wry tone.

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Key Discussion Points

1. Setting Up the Game Draft

• Rationale: Zach expresses fatigue with tanking chatter and aims to highlight the league’s best matchups down the stretch.

  "All the tanking discussion, all the focus on the poop teams... Let's focus on the heavyweight clashes that are coming." — [A] (01:00)

• Draft Rules:
  • 5 games each, teams can only be picked once per host.
  • Goal: Identify the most anticipated, competitive games left on the NBA calendar.

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2. The Draft: Most Anticipated NBA Games

Howard’s (B) Picks

(first pick, then alternating with Zach)

1. Jayson Tatum’s Return Game (Date TBD):

   • Cited as “the most fascinating or consequential late season comeback in recent history. Like no analog for this…” (B, 09:02)
   • Context: Celtics contending at the top of the East without Tatum, his chemistry upon reentry is highly anticipated.

2. Warriors @ Hawks, March 21

   • Jonathan Kuminga “revenge game,” intrigue over how Kaminga will be featured against his former team and his relationship with Steve Kerr.
   • “There’s just a lot of intrigue for a player who, yes, we have all spent way, way, way, way too much time spilling ink and digital ink on ...” (B, 20:50)

3. Thunder @ Nuggets, April 10

   • Possible MVP-deciding game between Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Nikola Jokic.
   • “This may be a final look at Shea vs. Jokic... their potentially final showdown until Western Conference finals.” (B, 25:00)

4. Mavericks @ Hornets, March 3

   • Cooper Flagg vs. Con Knueppel, Rookie of the Year race highlight.
   • “Low key, super close Rookie of the year race, I believe... Statistically, this is actually a dead heat.” (B, 32:26)

5. Cavaliers @ Grizzlies, April 6

   • Context over game: Possible Ja Morant’s last home game in Memphis.
   • “This might be John Morant’s last home game in Memphis.” (B, 40:33)

Zach’s (A) Picks

1. Knicks @ Cavaliers, February 24

   • “This is a potential conference finals game...two teams that sort of need to prove things to themselves, their fans, Detroit, everybody else.” (A, 14:15)

2. Spurs vs. Nuggets, March 12 (San Antonio)

   • Wembanyama vs. Jokic matchup, No. 2/3 seeds in the West.
   • “What else could I possibly ask for...in a League Pass or probably national TV game?” (A, 23:34)

3. Lakers @ Suns, February 26

   • Significant playoff/play-in positioning, LeBron vs. Dillon Brooks dynamic.
   • “DEFCON 1 level stakes because the Suns have been better than the Lakers... We have Jalen Green potentially being healthy...” (A, 29:15)

4. Timberwolves vs. Rockets, March 25 (Minnesota)

   • Playoff implication match for two “big, physical” teams, both with something major to prove.

5. Hornets @ Pistons, April 10

   • “Brawl rematch” after a heated previous contest, could have major playoff/play-in seeding impact.
   • “Rematch. That’s it. That’s the whole sales job. Brawl. Rematch.” (A, 47:42)

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3. Draft Debate & Notable Exchanges

• Constant needling between hosts about the “rules,” with Howard pushing for contextual or narrative picks (like Tatum’s return, Morant’s last home game), and Zach skewing more classic/competitive.
  • "Just a terrible job by you all the way around. Just an absolutely..." — [A] (40:33)
• Agreement on the health caveats that surround late-season picks—concern over resting stars, injuries, and tanking spoiling matchups.

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4. Awards Races: All-NBA and MVP Snapshots

All-NBA Ballots

Rough First Team Debate (notable for the lack of consensus after SGA, Jokic, Wemby):

• Both hosts have SGA, Jokic, Wembanyama; after that, divergence:
  • Zach: Adds Donovan Mitchell, Luka Doncic (subject to change among other elite guards)
  • Howard: Goes with Cade Cunningham, Jaylen Brown
  • Discussion centers on who’s truly deserving given statistical arguments, team impact, and the newly impactful 65-game eligibility rule.

Second/Third Team:

• Both discuss Maxey, Brunson, Anthony Edwards, Jalen Brown, Kawhi, Durant, Jamal Murray, Chet Holmgren, Jalen Johnson, James Harden, and Steph Curry.
• Actual picks revealed to be highly fluid, with Zach favoring “excellence” especially for All-NBA (even if games played are just over the minimum), and more strict for MVP.

Notable All-NBA Quotes:

• “Sga, Jokic, and Wembanyama are pretty much locked in... his per-minute impact is so large...” — (A, 55:53)
• “I just don’t really get the argument that those other guys [Cade/Jaylen Brown] are just de facto better than [Mitchell]...” — (A, 56:48)
• “We used to say... 'best 15 players'... Now, I don’t care anymore about the [positions]. They said go positionless, I’m going positionless.” — (B, 60:15)

MVP Race

• Both hosts agree:
  • 1-2: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Nikola Jokic (in that order, as of now)
  • Big Gap before 3/4/5 (mentioning Cade, Wemby, Jalen Brown, Donovan Mitchell, Anthony Edwards)
• Strong arguments about why SGA is ahead—crazy efficiency, two-way play, durability.
  • “Shea to me is the MVP...there’s just no weak spot in his game at all on either end of the floor.” — (A, 79:15)
  • “10 more games is a lot of freaking games... the value is in playing.” — (B, 79:43)
• Giannis is out of the running due to games played; heavy discussion on the impact of the 65-game rule.

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5. The State of the NBA: Crises, Scandals, and the Future

• Howard recaps his recent Ringer piece highlighting the convergence of scandals for the NBA: tanking, load management, cap circumvention, federal investigations.
  • “There have never been more ongoing crises...there’s just so much going on.” — (B, 86:43)
• Zach pushes on the league’s lack of will to shorten seasons due to financial cost—“Everyone knows the season is too long. No one is willing to make any financial sacrifice to correct that.”
• They acknowledge Adam Silver is not necessarily failing, but has never had more to juggle.

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Notable Quotes and Moments (with Timestamps)

• “[It’s] time to say the three most anticipated words in niche basketball podcasting: What up, Beck!” — [A], 02:54
• “Non denial-denial. And it would have been very easy to just say ‘this one wasn’t me’... Not very believable.” — [B], 03:41 (on Durant burner drama)
• “It’s a good pick, even though it’s a fake pick. I will allow it.” — [A], 10:27 (on Tatum’s return)
• “You got some catching up to do.” — [A], 24:19 (after Beck’s early draft choices)
• “Dylan Brooks is our best shot... LeBron turns into Isaiah Stewart for five minutes...” — [A], 31:26
• “Just a terrible job by you all the way around.” — [A], 40:33 (on Beck’s Ja Morant pick)
• “This is the most clogged All-NBA ballot I think I’ve ever done.” — [A], ~74:49
• “Please—for a seven man ballot. Baseball has...a seven or nine man ballot... gives you a chance to acknowledge more guys...” — [B], 83:26
• “You are the right kind of person to write this piece [on Silver and NBA’s crises]... put it in historical context.” — [A], 89:38

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Important Segment Timestamps

• Game Draft Rules and Set-Up: 05:16–08:48
• Howard’s “Pick” — Tatum’s Return: 08:48–10:27
• Zach’s 1st Pick (Knicks/Cavs): 10:27–14:51
• Warriors/Hawks (Kuminga): 19:54–21:08
• Spurs/Nuggets (Wemby/Jokic): 23:16–24:19
• Thunder/Nuggets (SGA/Jokic): 25:31–26:43
• Lakers/Suns: 29:53–31:26
• Rookie Race: Hornets/Mavs: 32:01–34:19
• Grizzlies/Cavs (Morant): 40:16–41:48
• Pistons/Hornets — Brawl Rematch: 47:10–47:45
• Awards Races Start: 52:22
• All-NBA Debate: 54:04–74:49
• MVP Debate: 78:14–84:40
• State of NBA/Tanking/Silver’s Challenges: 85:17–89:38

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Tone and Style

• The show is high-energy, witty, and (as always) loaded with deep NBA observations and stat references, but also self-aware and prone to brief tangents. Zach and Howard operate as frenemies during the draft, delighting in poking fun at each other’s picks and sports arguments.
• They shift naturally between granular game breakdowns and big-picture NBA business, always keeping it conversational and sprinkled with dry humor.

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Summary for New Listeners

This episode is a must-listen for listeners searching for both basketball nerdery and the “narrative” fun of NBA drama. Zach and Howard not only review the schedule’s remaining gems but also debate awards in a year where new rules, injuries, and unexpected dynamos have upended every assumption. With sharp, friendly antagonism, they guide the audience through the best remaining NBA games and lay early groundwork for where the MVP and All-NBA races are trending—while offering candid takes on the league's many controversies and Silver’s challenging moment as commissioner.

If you love a mix of deep analysis and personality, this episode is for you.

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For more, check The Ringer and tune in Tuesdays and Thursdays for new episodes of The Zach Lowe Show.

Transcript

[A]

This episode is brought to you by Claude from Anthropic. Picture this. You're still hours into trying to make the perfect trade for your fantasy team, and somehow you're still trying to narrow down your list. Classic Claude gets that. It won't hand you a neat answer, but it works with you. Until you land on one that holds up their research mode scours the web so you don't have to in Anthropic just committed to not putting ads in Claude so your conversation stays yours. Try Claude for free at Claude AI Lo and see why problem solvers choose Claude as their thinking partner. Coming up on the Zach Lowe show, it's time for the three most anticipated words in niche basketball podcasting. That's right. What up, Beck? Howard Beck is here. The NBA season restarts tonight after a long All Star break. Knicks Pistons at msg I will be going heavyweight clash in the east between the number one by far, the Pistons and the most hyped team in the east coming into the season, the Knicks. The Pistons have destroyed the Knicks twice in their only two matchups of the season. I can't wait for this game. And that got me thinking. All the tanking discussion, all the focus on the poop teams. It's totally justified. We've done a lot of it. Let's focus on the heavyweight clashes that are coming. So Howard and I are going to have a draft. Our 10 best games remaining in the NBA season. We have some rules for the draft. We can only pick each team one time apiece. So I can't pick five WEMB games. I can only have one WEMB game and we're going to end up with 10. And then I guess you guys can decide who had the better draft. And then, oh boy, it's time. Awards races. We're coming down toward the stretch here. We're going to take our first stab. Just a rough draft at the all NBA teams. All three of them. Just a rough draft. People don't get too excited. We don't even know who's going to be eligible. Steph's right on the edge. Wemby, Jokic right on the edge and maybe top five mvp, which is going to be very interesting again, depending on does Jokic miss any more games, does Wemby miss any more games, et cetera, et cetera. That's all coming up after this on the Zach Lowe show with Howard Beck. This episode of the Zach Lowe show is brought to you by State Farm. Life's better when you've got the right help. Think of that perfect pass that sets everything up. Smooth, effortless, just what your team needed. That's the kind of assist State Farm offers. Whether it's online or in person. State Farm's your teammate when you need help making your next play. State Farm with the assist. Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability and eligibility vary by state. Welcome to the Zach Lowe Show. The All Star break is over. I am heading in to Madison Square Garden for a heavyweight Clash Pistons, Knicks tonight, which gave me some ideas. All this talk about the tanking and the crap teams. Let's have a draft the best remaining games of the season. And to do that, it's time to say the three most anticipated words in niche basketball podcasting. What up, Beck7 Zach I thought the

[B]

three most important words, the most anticipated words were Kevin Durant's burner. No, we're not. We're not spending the next hour talking about burner accounts.

[A]

Hey, by the way, textbook non denial denial yesterday. I mean, that's how I interpreted his answer to the question. I'm not here to talk about Twitter nonsense, blah, blah. I mean, look, the Rockets are grappling with this. It's a. It's going to be a real thing. I guess everyone's going to have to sort of. We all pretend in life that certain things didn't happen, or we all are good at, you know, just shoving our true emotions and feelings down or maybe outputting them for the world to see on social media. But whatever. I mean, it's a real thing.

[B]

It's a real thing. It's an unfortunate thing. It feels very much like a Kevin Durant thing, unfortunately. But yeah, non denial denial. And it would have been very easy to just say, guys, you know me, I'm on there all the time. This one wasn't me. Or just say it wasn't me, period. Just to say I don't get into Twitter nonsense when you have kind of a long history of getting into Twitter nonsense is unfortunately not very believable.

[A]

But hey, man, if I'm Alper and sengun and this is like a real thing now, who knows what they're saying behind closed doors? Maybe they've hashed it out. Maybe he's denying it behind closed doors as strong terms as possible. Maybe there's even proof that he can offer that it's not him. We don't know. But if I'm Albert and Shungun and I think that it's him and like, oh, you think I can't shoot or play defense? That's kind of hurts my feelings A little bit. Now I'm a pro and it's like, you know, in baseball you say 26 players, 26 cabs, whatever. We don't all gotta be friends. But I'd like to think you don't think I suck at the thing that we do together. But anyway, Mr. Beck, before we start, I have to remind people in about a month, 3-16-16. March 16th, the Zach Lowe Show. This show, with special guests, plural, will be coming live to the Brooklyn Paramount at 8:00pm There are still a teensy number of tickets left. Just a teensy number. If you don't buy them today, there will be no teensy number and you won't be able to see basketball podcasting excellence live in front of you in person with special guests who add to the excellence. So go to theringer.com events, get the remaining tickets that are left, and have some fun with us. Okay, Howard, are you ready?

[B]

I am ready. Let's go.

[A]

So this is the idea. We're going to draft the best remaining games. This is a good way to talk about the best team instead of the poop teams, which I'm tanked out. Once I got to the papal conclave for NBA tanking, that was the official end of me discussing tanking for at least two weeks until there's news. So let's talk about the best game. So here are the rules. This was all inspired by. I just can't wait for Knicks Pistons tonight. This was a must attend for me. The Pistons beat the hell out of the Knicks twice this season and their only two matchups. Now Knicks were missing key players in both games. Be that as it may, I would hope that they are coming out fired up tonight at home at MSG to a team that's going to be missing some people, I think due to suspension. But still, it's going to be a fun game. And that inspired me. Like, what are the games I'm most excited to see? So here are the rules. We're each going to pick five games, draft format. You're going to get the first pick because I have nothing if not a benevolent host. We can each pick each team only once. So once you pick a Spurs game, you cannot pick another spurs game. Once I pick a Lakers game, I cannot pick another Lakers game. So we're going to try to spread the love. I'm going to give you the first pick. Howard Beck, you go first.

[B]

So you set some rules. And in doing this exercise yesterday, I actually encountered just a number of parameters myself that I just want to throw out. There, there's a. There's some bummers when I start thinking about what's left in the course of the season, what I was maybe looking forward to. Spurs Thunder already over. That's bummer number one. We don't get Spurs Thunder again until five of them.

[A]

That's not enough for you. How many you want?

[B]

Yo, it was, it was an exercise about the rest of the season. I'm sorry, we don't get to see them again until the playoffs. We do not get grudge games of like Anthony Davis against the Mavericks. That series was already over and he's not playing again. We don't get Jaren Jackson Jr. Against the Grizz. They're playing twice. But I guess he had season ending surgery of some sort.

[A]

If you were going to choose Jazz Grizz because of Jaren Jackson Jr. Vengeance, I think I would have just ended the draft.

[B]

The grudge matches are all just off the board is what I'm saying. No Trey versus no hard.

[A]

I got a couple, I got a couple grudge matches in my board.

[B]

I may have won. Bummer number three, Chris Paul is retired. Bummer, period. But we also don't get to see CP3 against the Clippers. And then bummer number four is this as I start looking at like April in particular, bad teams are going to have shut everybody down to be more bad and top teams are going to be resting guys for the playoffs. So we may. I don't want to spoil those, but there are a couple that I may pick anyway. But part of the NBA's problem, which maybe we'll veer into since I wrote about a lot of this yesterday, is that, you know, shutting guys down in April really kind of spoils the product. And there are games that might otherwise sound intriguing that may not be intriguing by the time we get to them. All that said. Yeah.

[A]

Howard Beck. Howard Beck. I hope, I hope you hold me in high enough esteem to assume that not only did I calculate that the last two or three games of the season, even as sexy as they may look, even if there's a head to head tiebreaker at stake, even if seeding could be at stake, there's a good chance that the seatings are going to be set and the good teams are going to sit people. Of course I calculated this and I also looked at injuries like, you know, when is. I tried to get a little intel. When is Darius Garland going to play? When is Steph going to play? Steph is out tonight in the first game after the All Star break, which connected to our next discussion puts him on the very edge of not qualifying for all NBA or mvp. One more missed game and he's out. So yeah, these are all I like. When is Evan Mobley coming back? Evan Mobley is not on the injury report for tonight. I think the Cavs play Brooklyn, so I believe that means he'll probably play. So I calc, I'm, I'm ready. I'm ready. But I'm going to give you the first pick. I'm going to see where you go.

[B]

This one is a fudgy one. You know, I'm going to throw some weird curves in here anyway, so let's just start with this. I don't know the date of this one, but it's whenever Jason Tatum returns. So Boston, you're cheating just right off the bat.

[A]

You're cheating.

[B]

I am cheating right off the bat. If you, I, I, I took this exercise as kind of the things that we're most anticipating the most looking forward to. I cannot wait to see Jayson Tatum and it's because of this step back for a second. I don't know that we've ever had anything that's followed this exact fact pattern. It's the most fascinating or most consequential late season comeback in recent history. Like no analog for this perennial MVP candidate presumed out for the season for good reason. Coming back from one of the toughest injuries there is. The team is contending without him and he's returning with 20 to 25ish games left.

[A]

And we think, we think right now there are 25ish games left. So I hope we're not getting too far, putting the cart too far ahead of the horse or whatever the phrase is.

[B]

You said this on Tuesday with, with Mahoney that, you know, look, the Celtics on the basic outline, all the data points, they're a contender, period. Even without him. And I believe that's true. And even 80% of Tatum, 90% of Tatum, 87.3% of Tatum is going to make them that much better. How does he look? How does he adapt? How does he reintegrate himself? How do they reintegrate him? I, I, I, I know I'm fudging it on, on the exactitude of, of your assignment here, but I, I just think that Jason Tatum's return among is, is, is one of the most important stories of the, of the second, not the second, the, the remaining piece of the season, which is not a half,

[A]

it's a good pick even though it's a fake pick. I will allow it you've somehow managed to pick only one team in your first Celtics versus Team X. I've talked a lot about Tatum coming back. I am less concerned than most people about whatever chemistry disruption issues somewhat be worried about there. It is inevitably some of that with any star player returning at any time. But I'm not too concerned about it. And I think they need the extra juice he provides on both ends of the floor to really, really be a finals level team, which I think they clearly can be based on A the evidence of their own play and B the state of the East. I will say someone sent me this. I don't know if it's true because God knows I assume everything is fake, but someone sent me. I am not. I have a TikTok account. I am not on TikTok. Spotify controls my TikTok account. I have no idea what's going on on TikTok. Literally, it's like the wild wild West. I have absolutely no clue. Someone sent me what appeared to be Jaylen Brown's TikTok with the caption what are they going to say now? And it was him doing cool stuff and the Celtics doing cool stuff on video. And my words and Michael Pina's words from a preseason podcast. Doubting the Celtics. Like overlaying the video of the Celtics being awesome. What am I going to say now, Jaylen Brown? What I've been saying for two months. I've never been more wrong about a team in my life than I am and was about the 2025, 6, 25, 26 Boston Celtics. Congratulations. I never saw any any of this coming. 35 and 19, second best point differential in the East. The number two offense in the entire stinking NBA without your best offensive player, a completely unproven front court rotation, center rotation until you got Vuchevich. Never saw it coming. I was dead wrong. So I already said it. You don't have to ask me. What are they going to say now? I already said it. Okay, I'm picking now. Are you ready? Howard hit me for my first pick in the big game draft. I got a lot of candidates here and I'm trying to think what are you not going to take? So I got a couple of games I really want, but I don't think you're going to take them. So I'm going to go chalk right off the bat and I am going to Go Cavs, Knicks, February 24th. I don't even know where that game is. I probably should have looked that up and made that clear in my Notes. Let me look it up right now. February 24th, that game is in Cleveland. So I will not be at that game. I just think so. It's 20 Knicks in the season series. They played on Christmas and that looked like it was going to be the Cavs rescue their season game. They're up big in Madison Square Garden and guess what? Mitchell Robinson got a million offensive rebounds like he always does against the Cavs. Don, against, against the Cavs. The Knicks offense went bananas in the fourth quarter. They come back, they steal the game. Completely demoralizing loss for the Cavs. And it just feels like this is. We get Harden is now introduced in this matchup. The Cavs have been pretty smart and targeted how they go at Cat in the pick and roll. It's a pretty challenging defensive assignment for Cat when you have all these pull up shooters. Can you even switch onto Harden ever? And you know the Cavs now are a little bit bigger without Darius Garland. So the Knicks sort of default offense against them a lot was where's Darius Garland? We're going to hunt him with Jalen Brunson. So that tools taken out of the toolbox. And just in general, two teams that came in as the east was supposedly these two teams and everybody else. And it hasn't unfolded that way. The Cavs are hot. They have Harden, he's fit, great. But they've had a sort of disappointing first 40 games until the last 10, 15 games when they've sort of found themselves and the Knicks just, it's been a roller coaster. They win the, they win the. What's it called, the Emirates Prize. Okay, congratulations. Every order. You forgot that that happened. But it did happen. They're not going to hang a banner, I don't think, which, you know, have a little fun.

[B]

Then they go during that banner that they refuse to hang. Is that just in a, like a garage somewhere in a locker pens.

[A]

I don't think there is one. There's no. If you don't make a banner, you

[B]

don't make it all.

[A]

I don't think the NBA will make you a banner. I don't think that happens. You have to take the initiative yourself, James Dolan to make the banner and then they go down the tubes and then they're back up. I just. This is a, this is a potential conference finals game. It's a two teams that sort of need to prove things to themselves, their fans, Detroit, everybody else. So I'm thinking Knicks Cavs, February 24th.

[B]

Love the pick. Did not have it on my board. Although it was on the longer list of of possibilities. It's I love that we are here, which is here being we thought these were the two clear. It was. It was those two teams and everybody else. Right. I mean, did you. I don't remember for sure. I don't want to speak for you. Last October, I think we all basically said it's the Knicks and Cavs and everyone else. Right. There was some dark horse talk about Orlando or maybe Atlanta makes a move and this kind of thing. I'm glad you brought up Detroit was being completely undersold.

[A]

So first of all, nobody and certainly not the host of this podcast ever talked up the Atlanta Hawks. I don't know what you're talking about. AI is incredibly powerful these days and can simulate people doing pretty much anything I was doing. I was low on the Hawks from the beginning. I said they're going to trade Trae Young to the Wizards and then he's not going to play. I just like all of this.

[B]

His first choice, his top choice, the Wizards.

[A]

All of this I predicted. I'm glad you brought up Orlando because one of the newsy things we should talk about is Franz Wagner, they said yesterday, is out indefinitely and with this lingering thing from the high ankle sprain that happened at Madison Square Garden looked quite scary when it happened. And I don't mean to derail us from the draft of fun. I don't know if Orlando is going to make our draft of fun, but he was slated to be one of my most intriguing players for the rest of the season because he was the hope I thought of if this team is going to snap into place and find itself, find its rhythm on offense, find its identity on defense, find a way for Franz and Paolo to coexist in a super productive way around the three guards that have been very good for them for the most part. Suggs, at least when available, if like it's always been awkward with those two on the floor together. But if they're ever going to find a formula for it to work when the stakes are high before they have to pay Anthony Black, which is extension, who's extension eligible this summer. And then the salary crunch becomes really real. These last 25 games were going to be a massively important data point for them. We don't know if we're going to get any Franz Vagarnel for the rest of the season and it just cements them as I think the disaster team of the NBA season. It's them, the Clippers, the Bucks. But to me, this was a team that traded Four first round picks for Desmond Bain who has been pretty good like he's been pretty much Desmond Bain. And they're worse this year. They have not had a weak in which they felt like they have found their identity, they have found their rhythm. It's just been a totally scattershot season and if it ends up being a lost season they have two choices. They could hang everything on health and say well we still don't know anything about our team or we could say A health continues to just be an endless thing for our team, particularly for Suggs and B. What we saw was just not good enough and and we're going to change something big and I would lean toward B. So that's my Orlando. I don't even know how we got here but you were talking about oh my fault Knicks Cavs pick and all the teams that supposedly were below them in the east hierarchy that are not so far below them or in the case of the Celtics and the Pistons above them.

[B]

Yeah we now have a very crowded and very compelling race in the Eastern Conference extra twist of James Harden now being a Cavalier and it'll be really interesting to see how that part of it fares against the Knicks. Both of these teams still have a lot to prove and you know I, I think the windows being what they are in the league now, they're always smaller, shorter than you think they are until the next blow up until the next somebody's fired and if somebody's traded whatever. I think we're going to be talking about that with Orlando to get back to the Wagner discussion. But like you know are they really is this really the best alignment going forward for with Wagner and Bankero? The Knicks are now on whatever it is year two, year three of it's only year two.

[A]

I mean that's the thing. It feels like this core because of the Nova Nick sort of hangover but it's year two for Cat and like year two in a little for Anunoby. Like it's still kind of a fresh

[B]

team but because of the Giannis thing hanging out there and other factors. Right. We don't really know how many more chances if if at all with with this core and the Knicks like the Magic did with Bane. The Knicks went all in on Mikhail Bridges and these were both like overpays on some level in draft picks but it was a in the Magic's case maybe reaching a little too far and in the Knicks case saying no final piece to make us a contender and to their credit like I they are right there but It's a more crowded race than we anticipated. And so that matchup against the Cavs is important. And then every other time, Knicks, Celtics, Knicks, Pistons, Cavs, and any of those three like that is. That feels like the group now.

[A]

Well, to your point, under the rules that I set for myself and the rules that you decided right off the bat to not follow, I am banned from picking the Cavs ever again. And there are some juicy to Detroit Cavs games on the schedule that I can no longer pick. So Howard Beck, your third pick. And can you pick an actual game this time? Okay, fine.

[B]

The rest of them are actual games with actual dates on an actual calendar, I promise. March 21, I did allude to grudge matches. Golden State at Atlanta, Jonathan Kaminga, revenge game, question mark.

[A]

Oh my God, what a terrible pick. I'm. This is going to work out so great for me. I'm going to have such a much better job. This is not even. This was not even in the universe of games I considered. Kaminga is also out at least a week, by the way.

[B]

I know. So that's. That was the question mark. He's got a knee. There's a knee thing. Is he playing by then? How much will Quinn Snyder like feature him just to troll Steve Kerr? How's he going to fit alongside Jalen Johnson, Nikhil Alexander Walker, Dyson Daniels and all these guys? Will Steve Kerr say something nice or something else mean? Will Jonathan Kuminga stare him down after dunking on Kristaps Porzingis? Will Jonathan Kaminga's agent do a pregame press conference because he seems to like to talk a lot about the things

[A]

that you're actually selling me on this a little bit.

[B]

There's just a lot of intrigue for a player who, yes, we have all spent way, way, way, way too much time spilling ink and digital link on and podcast time on over the course of the season. But still, I do find it intriguing. I want to see how he fits and I want to see how he plays against the warriors, given all the enmity built up.

[A]

So I didn't have this one. Did you mention Porzingis apparently is going to start playing soon for the Warriors? That's somewhat interesting.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

It's not a bad pick. It's not a bad pick, I don't think. I think the Hawks got Kaminga less because he fits their team because it's going to be a strange fit with him and Jalen Johnson, who are similarly position similar in terms of their positionality and Dyson Daniels, who's Become a complete zero as a shooter. Now he's had a nice season otherwise, but the spacing is what it is. I think they got Kaminga less as a as for his fit and more as a flyer slash, can we flip him again with the team option that we have this summer? That's not, it's not bad. And just broadly I have a Warriors game deep on my list that I don't think I'll end up picking. But given Butler is out for the season and Curry is dealing with this runner's knee that's about to take him out of awards consideration potentially. I do think that just mini subplot within the subplot of can you the Portland or the Clippers catch Golden state for the seventh spot. I'm sorry for the eighth spot in the play in and get into the 78 bracket and dump Golden State into the 910 bracket is kind of interesting. Like there's a Warriors Clippers game that I have circled for that reason. So that's not, it's not, it's not bad. It's not where I would have gone, but it's not bad. Okay, I get to pick now yours. I just have a proverbial plethora of. Of great options to choose from. Banking again that you're not going to take a game that I think is sneaky, really juicy. I'm going to save it. I am going to take. I'm going to take San Antonio hosting Denver on March 12th. So I get the spurs and the Nuggets and I'm out of those games. Obvious reasons. They are currently 2 and 3 in the Western Conference. Denver has to really make a run for the two seed to be a play. The spurs have opened up a four game lead in in the standings over Denver. They're only two games behind the Thunder. So maybe this game is important. Like can they actually have a shot at passing the Thunder? They've only played once so far this year. Wemby did not play in the game and I get Wemby Jokic. I mean what else could I possibly ask for in a. In a league pass or probably national TV game you get, you know, like, like Wemby probably guards Jokic to start the game because the spurs only start one big man. How did the Nuggets match up Jokic? They put him on Wemby. Do they try to hide him? Where are they going to hide him? The spurs aren't even starting Harrison Barnes anymore, which is the guy that teams would hide their centers on when they would do that when they would invert the matchups like that. Couple teams have tried it on Stefan Castle, notably Memphis with Jaren Jackson Jr. Jokic. Not that kind of mobility as a big man. I just think it's a really fun matchup between two teams who could make the finals, including one in Denver, who I think if they're healthy, is a total equal peer of Oklahoma City. If they're ever going to be healthy with Aaron Gordon is one of the biggest questions, maybe the biggest X factor of the entire season. So I get spurs Denver on March 12. I'm very happy with my pick. I have Knicks, Cavs, Spurs, Nuggets, you have Boston, nobody and Golden State Atlanta. You got some catching up to do.

[B]

We're not being like rated or like a winner declared on this, are we?

[A]

Because yes, we are. There's ag. I forgot to tell you, there's a salary bonus direct from Bill for whoever fans vote as drafted the best. Should have told you that before.

[B]

Sorry, if only I'd known you get to pick. This is a good segue actually because I did have a Nuggets game and it is a. I know I'm cringing. I've got my fingers crossed. But it is April 10, Oklahoma City at Denver. Okay, there is a decent chance that are a bunch of guys resting but there's also a decent chance given the state of things like the Thunder as we speak right now only have a three game lead on the Spurs. The Nuggets are only three and a half behind the spurs and only a game up on the Rockets. So maybe I. I'm the fingers crossed part is I hope everybody's playing in this game. The if. If we get everybody. This may be a final look at Shea vs. Jokic. Not that they're guarding each other or really competing, but they are competing for mvp. And this will be. You know, are ballots still being mulled at that point? How much are we going to be potentially influenced by anything that happens down the stretch of the season? Who knows in the last couple of weeks. But Shea versus Jokic on April 10th. The two leaders for MVP. A discussion we will have shortly. And it's their potentially final showdown until Western Conference finals. Maybe they're also playing three times in the final two months. They've only played once. The Thunder won that one on February 1, 121 to 111. But there was no J Dub in that game, no Aaron Gordon in that game, no Cam Johnson in that game. And so I am intrigued by any time these two teams are facing off the rest of the way.

[A]

It's a great pick. Other than the April 10th part you've introduced, you've introduced some, some variables out of your control. There are other two. So I have their other two games. Both are circled on my long list. They play on February 27th in Oklahoma City and March 9th in Oklahoma City. And I did not pick either of those games in fear that Jalen Williams hamstring thing that they'll take the long view on. And so he would not be in either of those games. We have no clue. I'd be very surprised if he played in the first one, maybe the second one. So I didn't want to introduce that kind of risk. It's a great pick. Oklahoma City, Denver. It's unimpeachable. They are, you know, appointment viewing. So it's a good pick. I'm not jealous of it for all the factors I just said, but it's a good pick.

[B]

Does high risk, high reward get me extra points? Like, like in the dunk contest you kind of calibrate like, okay, like that was a really ambitious dunk. We should give a little bit more leeway on the scoring.

[A]

So you're. You did not like that Jackson Hayes just did a normal dunk for his first dunk. Just like a lot of drama, just jogged up and jumped from the dotted line. Which again, I could never do in 45 lifetimes. But for the dunk contest, when you can jump like Jackson Hayes, it was like, was that the warm up or was that the actual dunk? Okay, we're halfway through the draft of 10 games, we've got five. Let's take a quick break and I will make my third pick, which I'm very excited for. This episode is brought to you by Claude from Anthropic. Picture this. You're still hours into trying to make the perfect trade for your fantasy team and somehow you're still trying to narrow down your list. Classic Claude gets that. It won't hand you a neat answer, but it works with you until you land on one that holds up their research mode. Scours the web so you don't have to in Anthropic. Just committed to not putting ads in Claude so your conversation stays yours. Try Claude for free at Claude AI Low and see why problem solvers choose Claude as their thinking partner. I've got some spicy ones that involve the league's glamour team. A glamour team that's getting healthy. That is hopefully healthy now. So we'll see LeBron, Luka and Reaves together for the first time in a while in meaningful games. I am going to have all those spicy games. I'm going to take lakers Suns on Feb. 26 because think of all the juice for this game. Howard The Lakers are 33 and 21 with a flat zero point differential. They are two games ahead of the Suns in the loss column for the to stay out of the seventh spot and out of the play in. So we've got Lakers playing DEFCON 1 level stakes because the Suns have been better than the Lakers this year. Qualitatively, the wolves who are between them I expect to ascend up the standings though every time I expect something of the wolves, they defy expectations. So we've got that. We've got Dylan Brooks vs LeBron which is theater every time they play. We have Jalen Green potentially being healthy and available for the Suns in this game along with all three of the Lakers who of course did nothing of well they got canard but nothing of meaning at the trade deadline. And like clockwork baby, because they did nothing at the trade deadline. They got their own standalone piece at ESPN about how the Lakers are saving their bullets to pursue Giannis in the off season. Just FYI, everyone is saving their bullets to pursue Giannis in the off season. And yes, that is why, as I said before the trade deadline, I didn't expect the Lakers to do anything. They could only trade one first round pick. I said they're not going to trade that pick for a marginal upgrade like DeAndre Hunter or Andrew Wiggins or whatever when they can roll into the summer with three first round picks, max level cap space and a lot of wild cards with LeBron's free agency and Reeves free agency and Giannis in Milwaukee. But they got to get in line now. Giannis will have leverage, we know that. Does he want to use the leverage to go play there on Lucas team? We'll see. But yeah, of course the Lakers are going to be interested in giannis. Lakers Suns Feb 26 these teams actually play five times this year because of the play in tournament. So it's 21 Phoenix right now. Phoenix also has an edge in the division record which would be the tiebreaker between the two teams. Could be a big game, could be a lot of juice. I'm excited for the game. There's always going to be LeBron, Dylan Brooks chest to chest LeBron. I like LeBron's reaction to Dylan Brooks trying to get under his skin is always just the perfect level of haughty arrogance of like dude you again, like you're still Doing this. Do you know who I am? Because you're not on my level. I love every bit of it. Lakers sons, that's my pick.

[B]

I love it. And you know, by the way, Dylan. Dylan Brooks, I think is like sitting tonight for a suspension on the the Tech. Too many texts. I love the fact that Dylan Brooks has just become like, featured player in Phoenix now. Right. Like, the reason we all undersold them. Hi, Matt Ashbia. The reason we underestimated them this season, I think in large part is because a lot of skepticism around Jalen Green and Fit and Jalen Green in general. And also not really anticipating that Dylan Brooks was suddenly going to become like the greatest Devin Booker wingman we've seen in some time. So he's, he's, you know, he's brought the, the offensive, you know, output to now back up a lot of the swagger that was going with his just general defensive tenacity and annoyingness and everything else. And yes, there is never a bad time to watch LeBron versus Dylan Brooks. Dylan Brooks, Lance Stevenson. Like, who else is on the Mount Rushmore of LeBron annoyers over the years? Like those two have to be.

[A]

Stevenson was so strange with it blowing in the ear in particular, that I think he actually annoyed LeBron. And I'm sure Dylan Brooks annoys LeBron. I just. Is he ever just going to snap? He's too smart and too calculated and too controlled to actually snap. But Dylan Brooks is our best shot. I think it just like all of a sudden, LeBron turns into Isaiah Stewart for five minutes, we're like, what the hell is going on? Okay, you pick your fourth game. So I left some juicy Lakers games on the table, by the way. Not to tip. Not to tip you anywhere,

[B]

many of those noted. But I'm going to go in another direction here. Once again, I was really tempted to pick a different game involving the Hornets, but I'm not. I am picking mavericks@ Hornets 3-3-Cooper flag versus con caniple part two.

[A]

So my. It was on my list. I'm. This is the first pick you've made where I'm like, I'm crossing something off my core list.

[B]

Noted low key, super close Rookie of the year race, I believe. I know everybody kind of has handed it to Cooper Flag and probably handed it to him, you know, the three seconds after he was drafted. And I get it in his draft position and just his overall body of work, I think justifies a lot of people just kind of leaning hard that way. But statistically, this is actually a Dead heat. Cooper flag averaging 20.6 rebounds, 4 assists give or take. Concanipple 19, 5 and 3 the shooting splits are obviously leaning heavily in Khan's favor, especially because of his three point shooting 43% to flags 30. They're both just doing great things. Knipple's got the better efficiency stats, the advanced stats all tend to lean Khan's way but and convuls on a team that because of his production the Hornets are now relevant. The Hornets are now fun. The Hornets are now, you know, bouncing around looking like a team that that could play spoiler in the first round or at least make things interesting in the first round. And I think that matters too. And I don't know how it's going to come down for me or anybody else when the ballots are due in mid April assuming that I that I have a ballot again. But watching these two go at it again. The first game which is just a couple of weeks ago was incredible. It goes right down to the wire. Hornets win that one 123, 121 on a couple of free throws by Con Canipple who had been fouled on a breakaway by Cooper Flag and it was after Knipple had deflected the a Cooper flag pass.

[A]

Cooper Flag One of the games in the year. That's why it's on my list. One of the one of the absol games of the year.

[B]

Cooper flag 49 points in that game conquered up with 34. He went 8 for 12 on threes. These guys have put on a show already once. I think they'll put on a show again and I very much think the rookie of the year race is up for grabs.

[A]

I do too. First 30 games was clearly con.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Last 20 games I think has probably been flag and I think his upswing has been so impressive given the context of his team bereft of proven like high level talent around a good role. Players like Najee Marshall's been unbelievable for them and just him doing everything basically starting at point guard again a lot and defensively his size and his uptick in efficiency, I think it's been so impressive that I would put him a nose ahead of Khan right now. But the whole thing is up for grabs and that was very much, very much. I have a lot of Charlotte games on my list so while I'm just

[B]

going to say while we're here Michelle, we know that you know we also have the Kyrie news right? So Mavericks related. Kyrie out for the rest of the season. You and I had texted about this. Like, I don't think anybody should be shocked by this. I was never quite convinced that there was a plan for him to come back this season anyway. And especially where they are in the standings now and given obviously tank races and control of draft pick which they have now and not in future years like it. It just makes sense. I am curious to see what happens next though. Does it make sense for Kyrie Irving to be on this roster next season? Is that something that they revisit in in the summer? What is Kyrie. I mean, it's going to have been a long time since we saw Kyrie by the time we do see him again on the court, wherever he is and you know. But yeah, kind of anticlimactic that they are saying he's. He's shut down for the season.

[A]

Yeah, not I as soon as it was clear this season was going to go in a tanky direction for the Mavs, which as wrong as I was about the Celtics, I was right about the Mavs. I took the under and I said the incentives are going to point them in this direction. That injuries and incentives did that job for, you know, they control their pick this year and basically never again. For a while I didn't expect him to play. I know Bill and I talked about it last Sunday about like if you like Kyrie and Tatum, like if you can play, if you're ready to play, what's the point of not playing? Shouldn't you get comfortable? Shouldn't you go through the sort of reintroduction process as soon as possible? And I said I get that. But given their differential records and to your point, the real question is, you know, they were. There was a part of the Mavs brass that was, you know, we still want to see Cooper in AD and Kyrie together. Well, that's obviously not possible anymore. AD is gone. He becomes. With a $39 million amount next season and $42 million player option, which is an interesting little player option in 27, 28. A pretty interesting trade candidate to me in the off season. It's a good pick. I'm going to save my Charlotte pick for my last pick. And now I've got a lot of. I've used a lot of marquee teams here. Let me think. And I do have to say. I tend to favor in intra intra conference games over inter conference games. So I thought about Detroit OKC finals preview. They still played twice. Both those games are still on the board. It's a, it's a good. Those are obviously great games. But I you know the, the likelihood of any finals matchup being the actual finals matchup is not super high. That one actually might be by typical standards pretty high given their two records. I am going to go this is a tough one. I'm going to go Minnesota Houston March 25 believe that's in Minnesota. Two like teams in the 3, 4, 5, 6 range in the Western Conference. Two teams for whom falling into the play in would be an abject disaster. One team in Minnesota that I think could actually win the west. Another team that looked like a team that could win the west in the first 20 games of the season and has not looked like that since is also dealing with a burner related controversy in the Rockets. Two teams that play big physical, you know, Shangoon, Gobert, Randall, all the size that the Rockets bring on the wing just like a fun matchup. They only play three times. It's one of the, you know sometimes you only play someone in your conference three times and I think it's one oh Houston right now so could have, you know some tiebreaker related importance. Will have some tiebreaker related importance. I'm taking them over a whole bunch of games. I thought about six or Spurs, Wemby and Bead but I already took the Spurs. I've already I've got a lot of Cleveland games on here. They have a fun schedule. I thought about Warriors Clippers on March 2 for the play in implications. Darius Garland hopefully maybe we'll see will play. I thought about Milwaukee, Atlanta. You know what I shouldn't swab. I might still pick that one. So that's my pick. Minnesota Houston March 25th.

[B]

Where's your confidence level in the Rockets right now?

[A]

To do what?

[B]

Anything to to be a serious factor

[A]

in April and May I They're going to they're a serious factor to win any one playoff round for sure because they're just so they have Kevin Dur, they have Shen Gu, they have two all star players. They're tough as hell. They defend really well. They're still top eight on both ends of the floor. Despite their uneven play. Finney Smith will presumably round into some Finney Smith ish form as the season goes on. I just think Adams sort of chipped away at one of their core ways of getting points and that's obviously the struggle for them is getting points and getting points late in games. They they just don't have. They still are a great offensive rebounding team but it's just not the same. And Nova and Vliet, I mean we'll see They've never completely shut the door on him coming back, but we'll see. I don't. They are not on my list of teams that I could see plausibly winning the Western Conference. I have four teams on that list, and it's. And they're not one of them.

[B]

Yeah, I agree. And it's kind of a bummer considering where we began this season.

[A]

Minnesota is on that list for me. But anyway, so that's my fourth pick. Give me your last pick.

[B]

My last pick. Getting a little strange creative with this one. Also, this is less about the game and more about the context, and that is April 6th, Cleveland. I have not picked a Cavs game yet. Cavs at Grizzlies. This might be John Morant's last home game in Memphis.

[A]

Just a terrible job by you all the way around. Just an absolutely.

[B]

I don't.

[A]

I don't know if you didn't understand the assignment, but. But it's possible. Go ahead.

[B]

It's possible. It's possible I misread a text. The Grizzlies have three road games to finish the season. This is their last home game. This may well be Jaws last game. Is he in street clothes? Is he even playing? If he was in street clothes, that's kind of befitting the last few years of his tenure there in the first place. If he does plays, it's a message game to the franchise, to the city. Is it emotional for him, for the fans? It's just hard to envision any scenario where he's still in Memphis starting next season. And yes, sorry, I did read. I did read your text as, like, most intriguing, as opposed to, like, I can't remember the.

[A]

Well, you can be intrigued by this. It's fine. It's somewhat intriguing. It's not unintriguing. I'd watch it. I'd watch it, but my. The bar for me is a little lower than it is for typical humans.

[B]

Yeah. No, I just. I think that this is a marker. This is a pivot point for that franchise and for his career. And yeah, it's.

[A]

It's.

[B]

It's good. It's not a game that is compelling for any basketball reasons. I admit.

[A]

It's a good way to justify a pick, by the way, in a basketball game. Draft. It's not a game that's compelling for basketball reasons. Howard Beck on his fifth pick in the draft. John Moran, by the way. What did they say? He's going to be reevaluated. And how long with this elbow thing?

[B]

Two weeks, I think.

[A]

Two weeks. Everything's two weeks. Everything is minimum. Two weeks for a tanking team. Two weeks. The weather got two. The weather got too chilly in Washington D.C. two weeks for Anthony Davis.

[B]

I love these injury updates where it's like the headline on it like or the subject line like injury update did or whatever and it's always very generic and then they back into it where it's like five sentences of like there's this thing and he had this thing and then there was some diagnostics and blah blah blah. And then finally. And he'll be reevaluated too. My favorite one, why are we taking so long to get to this?

[A]

My favorite ones are the teams that are so fucking obnoxious and I can't remember who did this once where they offer no timetable of any kind. Even if it's not like a major injury, there's just no timetable. He's. He was reevaluated and is making progress and then they end it with updates will be provided as appropriate. How about now is an appropriate time for the fans of your team who might want an update? How about like as you're hitting send on the press release can you give us something like for the people who are paying tickets to go watch your shit team play and tank their way or whoever. Ok this is a good time.

[B]

Yeah, go ahead.

[A]

It's a good time to do an injury update. So John Morant two weeks elbow Franz we did Kyrie, we did. Embiid missed a couple of games before the All Star break with knee soreness and then had something else flare up yesterday in his in his lower body and his day to day. He's out there first game and will be reevaluated after that. But look, it's no fun to say this is why I can't trust the Sixers to win three playoff rounds in the East. As great as they've looked when healthy, as insanely great as Embid has looked when healthy, just knock on wood that this really is a day to day thing that can heal and he can get back to playing at least the way that he was. And then I know you were have at least seven Kings games on your list of games that you were going to pick in the upcoming season. Zach Levine injury that I don't even remember what it was out for the season. Demonta Sabonis had surgery. He's out for the season. So it's whose team is it now? It's Nate Clifford's team now for the rest of the season. I did one of my Favorite subplots of the season has been the Kings losing so many guys that a DeMar DeRozan is. I mean, if you want to see a guy who is just. He always has a little bit of sullenness to his sort of just default expression. I just. I hope that he had. They can make up a fake injury for him because he doesn't deserve to go out this season playing like this. But the Kings losing so many guys that Doug Christie is forced to remember. Oh, Devin Carter's on the team. Like, we have a first round draft pick that everyone was kind of excited about on the team. We just decided we're never going to play him, even though we suck. And we're going to sign 9,000 veteran point guards over him while all those guys are gone or injured, except for us, is still there. Devin Carter, come on. We. You're on the team. So, yeah. Kings. Kings fans, look, if the lottery doesn't go well for you, I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna give you any advice on how to cope. I'm just gonna say if this, like, if we'd have to go back and look at it. Howard. If the Kings fall to wherever, like, the lowest they can fall, and the lottery ends up being fifth, sixth, whatever it is, is it. It might be the most depressing lottery outcome of all time for any team, because at least like the Wizards and the Jazz and the Pistons and other teams who have fallen pretty far in recent lotteries, they had interesting prospects already in hand when their real lottery heartbreak struck. Or in the Jazz's case, a veteran star like market. And they had Keonte George, too. If the Kings go through this season with this miserable group of veterans who don't fit, and everyone knew they weren't going to fit with borderline zero enticing starter level, like, high level, like, I like Nick Clifford. We'll see what he becomes. Reynaud is fine. I think he'll be a nice backup, but you know what I mean? Like, there's no Alex Saar even on this team. There's no Keyshawn George even on this team. They go into the lottery potentially with the worst record in the entire NBA, which they currently possess, and the most miserable path possible to obtaining the worst record in the entire NBA and fall to fifth and sixth. I don't know what Kings fans are going to be entitled to. Pretty much anything.

[B]

Sorry, but I was just going to say. And that would all be in the wake of just the devastation of having a very, very good team. One of the Most fun Kings teams. The most fun Kings team in 20 years ripped apart in front of them for no good reason anyway. So, yeah, major insult to injury, by the way. They're on pace the Kings for 17.5 wins. I don't think that's an actual thing. They are very close to being able to tie the franchise record for worst win total in history. They had 17 and 65.

[A]

They could go undefeated and barely, barely make their over under like they would. They would still. I think they were 35 and a half when Bill and House and I did the over unders podcast and I said I want a lot, every possible lock possible for the under. Every kind of lock from padlocks to canal locks to combination locks. They could go undefeated. They would, they would get the over. But barely. Okay, my last pick.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

I mentioned some of the teams that I was interested in. I already have a Knicks game, a Cavs game, so I've got some marquee ones. I mentioned Hawks, Bucks, March 14. Giannis will be back. Play in implications. That's a good one. Laker Warriors, Clippers, same thing I mentioned. I'm going to violate my own rule and pick a late, a very late season. Second week of April. Game April 10th. Hornets, Pistons.

[B]

Oh, yes. Brawl.

[A]

Rematch. That's it. That's the whole sales job.

[B]

Brawl.

[A]

Rematch. It probably won't matter for the Pistons because they're so far ahead in the number one seed. There's six games ahead. But you know, maybe they'll. They seem like a team that's like, no, we got to stay in rhythm. We're going to play everybody. Maybe we want to go at these guys again. And the Hornets. Look, The Hornets are ninth right now. Goal one is to get into the 78 bracket. If that's still at stake for them. If they haven't passed Miami or Orlando yet, this game could matter for them. And they've been playing at such a pace now for an extended period of time that the five game deficit, they have actually four and a half to the sixth seed. That's like one injury to the Sixers or the Raptors. One slump from one of those teams and the Hornets continuing to play not quite at this pace, but at a good pace away from being like potentially attainable for Charlotte in the last week of the season. So I'm going brawl 2.0, everybody. Extra security. First row tickets should actually, I think be discounted for that game because of the risk of someone falling into your lap and injuring you. So I'm going Brawl. Rematch. Charlotte, Detroit April 10th. That's my so my slate, aka the winning slate is Knicks, Cavs February 24th, Spurs, Nuggets, March I can't read my handwriting. Let's just say 12th Suns, Lakers February 26, Wolves, Rockets March 25 and Brawl 2.0. Howard Beck has Boston versus theoretical Team X on date X of Jayson Tatum's return. Warriors, Hawks Kaminga revenge game March 23 Oklahoma City at Denver April 10 but still, Dallas Charlotte was a good pick. That was on my list. And Cavs, Grizzlies for the drama of watching John Morant. I'm going to predict right now John Morant's not playing in that game. John Morant will be looking nice in street clothes. Team Morant will be at the game sitting across the sideline, but he will not be playing. That's my prediction. Fans can vote. And there's I think I told you, $75,000 salary bonus for whoever wins. All right, let's take a quick break and then we'll talk about our first draft. This message is brought to you by Apple Card It's a great time to apply for an Apple Card. You'll love earning unlimited daily cash on every purchase. That includes 3% daily cash when you buy the latest iPhone, AirPods and Apple Watch at Apple through this special referral offer. When you get a new Apple Card, you can earn bonus daily cash. To qualify, you must apply at Apple Co getdailycash Apple Card issue at Goldman Sachs Bank USA Salt Lake City Branch offer may not be available elsewhere. Terms limitations apply. This episode is brought to you by TaxAct. Like an expert coach, TaxAct offers step by step guidance and guaranteed accuracy when filing taxes. Get tips along the way. Add Expert Assist to talk to tax experts and let our experts do your taxes for you. With Expert full service, TaxAct helps you find the deductions and credits you deserve so you can get them over with. Visit taxact.com to learn more. Conditions apply. See taxact.com for details. Monster Energy Everybody knows White Monster Zero Ultra. That's the OG. It kicked off this whole zero sugar energy drink thing, but Ultra is a whole lineup now. You've got Strawberry Dreams, Blue Hawaiian Sunrise and Vice Guava. And they all bring the Monster Energy Punch. So if you've been living in the White can branch out. Ultra's got a flavor for every vibe and every single one is Zero Sugar. Tap the banner to learn more. All right, let's shift gears. After talking about all the good teams and very few of the poop teams other than Howard who has an obsession with some of the poop teams. And it's. We're down the stretch now, 25 games left. It's time to take a real honest look at the high profile awards. I keep a running sort of tally on things and I have like my most improved list and my six man list and I saved the big daddies for last because a, we really do have to see who's eligible. Steph Curry is out tonight. He can miss zero more games or zero games or if he misses one more, he's not eligible. Jokic, I think can miss one more game. Wembanyama can miss maybe two more games. So obviously we're talking about three of the very best players in the league in Jokic and Wemby, two first team, all NBA MVP candidates. But let's, let's still. It's time to look at it. And I took my first pass at all NBA and mvp. But I want to start with all NBA because I just think it's, there's, it's just more interesting to me so. And you did as well, right, Howard?

[B]

Yeah, this was really the first time and I, a couple months ago I had kind of like started to slap it together and then I thought I don't given the way things are going with the 65 game rule, injuries, everything else. I hadn't really attacked this again until you sent me the assignment. I did take this one very seriously, maybe more seriously than the Last1. The 65 game rule is going to come into major play potentially here and

[A]

Giannis is already out obviously.

[B]

So, so real quick, just to set the table here for everybody, you know, as for those of us who are voting or even fake voting when April comes, like it's been simplified to some extent, but also complicated by the fact that there are a lot of guys who are out or going to be out, right? So 65 game rule. We already have eliminated Giannis, LeBron, Franz Wagner, Jalen Williams, Anthony Davis, you know, in the past was a guy, was a guy. I'm just saying, like these are guys who would be in the conversation, right? Trey, Jaren, Jackson Jr. Sabonis, Embiid, Garland, Giddy, who I think would have been an interesting candidate. Jimmy Butler, Austin Reeves, like those guys are just out by 65 game rule. Whether you wanted to discuss them or not or whether fans think they were worthy or not. We also have, of course not Tatum or Halliburton and in danger right now. Brandon Miller fringes of this discussion. But whatever I put down everybody who I thought Was interesting. Steph Curry is at 16 missed. Jokic is at 16 missed. Zion for sake of discussion at 16 missed. Wemby's at 14 games missed. So he's got three more he can miss. Mobley's at 13 missed. Kawhi and Luca are, are, are down a little ways. I just guys I'm keeping an eye on. So they're just like there there's the 65 game rule could affect more guys than than than are currently already off the board.

[A]

So the way I did this was I'm going to assume even if that assumption seems wildly unlikely. Like if, if Steph is already missing the first game after all star break with runner's knee and has no more games left to miss, it seems pretty unlikely he's going to be be make the 65 game limit. Kawhi, I would just always bet against making the 65 game limit. Even though he's on pace. I think he's missed what 12 games so far this season. 13. Something like that. Just because I don't think he even cares about any of this stuff. So if there's any issue at all and the schedule allows for it, I could see them sitting him a couple games. But I assumed happy things. Everyone will make it. So I took a first pass at first, second, third team, all NBA. But I'll let you go first. You want to start with your first team or it's part of your first team or all of your first team. Whatever you want to do it put

[B]

a pin in Kawhi. Cause I have another thought on him when we get to him. If we get back to him. I assume we will.

[A]

And I want to be clear for people. This is a extremely rough draft. This is I haven't done all my advanced stats analysis yet. This is the first base level eye test pass at this. I don't even have a ballot. If I did, my ballot would probably end up looking a lot different than this. This is just for you know, what's

[B]

and giggles, quick, quick and dirty version of this. I didn't get that deep on the stats either. This was a little bit more impressionistic than statistical on this one first team. And by the way, I tried like Bill, I, I kind of really wish we were still like two guards, three, three front court or something like something more, you know, something more positionally oriented. So I, I, my goal is to try to do that at this at the outset and I know I won't actually stick to it. But first team, Shay, Gil, just Alexander, Cade, Cunningham, Jokic, Jalen Brown and Wemby and I have concerns and caveats on a couple of these. And again, it's a first draft that's

[A]

so, it's so interesting because mine is, is again, like it's alternative. But to me, sga, Jokic and Wembanyama are pretty much locked in. Now, you could make a volume argument that, you know, Wemby is like 500 minutes behind some of these other guys that we haven't mentioned. Yeah, 400, 500 minutes. But if you look at all the advanced stats and all the stuff and he's obviously the best defensive player in the league, I guess some actually argue that he's not. I think he is. His per minute impact is so large that if he stays healthy the rest of the season, he will have more of an impact overall, I think, than some of the guys that I leave off. So I have those three and then in parentheses, those last two spots are going to be pretty, pretty juicy. You have Cade and Jaylen Brown.

[B]

I think right as of this moment,

[A]

I have neither of those guys. On my first team, I went in parentheses. Donovan Mitchell, who I just think, I don't really understand why. I mean Cade, I understand he's the number one option by far and the number one team of the east. So I, I, I can't really argue too strongly against him. And again, this is a rough draft. I just think people are kind of sleeping on Donovan Mitchell's season because he's just constantly put behind Jalen Brown and behind Cade Cunningham. And he's averaging 29 points, same as Jaylen Brown. More than Cade Cunningham, six assists. More than Jalen Brown, less than Cade Cunningham, 49% from the field. Better than Jalen Brown. Better than Cade Cunningham. Where is he from 3, 38% on threes, 57% on twos. Like, I just don't really get the argument that those other guys are just de facto better than him. And I think Bill would make the argument, well, Jaylen Brown has done more with less around him and a, I'm not a, like I'm not 100%. That's probably true. But the Celtics are actually significantly better when Jaylen Brown is on the bench. I don't really don't hold that against him because a lot of that is defensive metrics and opponent shooting that I don't think has anything to do with Jaylen Brown. But they are and they're very good with Jaylen Brown on the floor. But they're blow away good with Jaylen Brown off the court, which again I don't think says anything about Jaylen Brown, but I do think it says Celtics are pretty goddamn good and not like Jaylen Brown and nothing. And the Cavs have been a complete clusterfuck around Donovan Mitchell the whole season. So I have Donovan Mitchell and then I. Until. Until further notice, I don't feel good about it. And I might yank them to second team for any number of reasons, depending on how the Lakers do. I'm in pencil. I still have Luka Doncic in the. In the last first team slot. And not only do I not have Kaden Jalen Brown, my next guys up would be Anthony Edwards and Kawhi Leonard over Cade and Jalen Brown. I just think both those guys are just objectively better than Jalen Brown and Cade. I get the first team argument for Cade. I'd have no problem with it. So that's my first team. Tentatively. Sga, Jokic, Wemby, Donovan Mitchell, Luca, you could persuade me. And over.

[B]

Over.

[A]

Donovan Mitchell answered 29 points, 4 assists, 49% shooting, 40% on threes, 56% on twos. Donna Mitchell's 58% on twos. I misread it, by the way. Outstanding and a better defender than Donovan Mitchell. So I. It's either. It's basically Mitchell Luca, ant for the last three spots, two of them TBD for me. Who's your second team one of these

[B]

days, by the way, I want to have a setup where I can turn to the side and have a second screen with all the stats on it. I have my one tiny screen here. It's very fancy.

[A]

I have a big monitor right over here. It's changed my entire life. My wife for three years was like, get a monitor. And I was like, no, I don't need a monitor. And as soon as I got it, I was like, how did I live without this? And she said, when are you going to learn? I'm just right all the time. And she is. She is right all the time.

[B]

She is. This is also part of the benefits of your nice suburban living there with all the extra space for big monitors. My second team, Donovan Mitchell and Anthony Edwards do make their appearances here along with. And this is where I start. Like now all of a sudden I'm just guard heavy. My whole thing just broke down.

[A]

Yeah. By the way, I don't care anymore about the. Like they said, go positionless. I'm going positionless.

[B]

Yeah, I just, you know, we used to colloquially say back in the day, oh, the best 15 players. And it wasn't the best 15 players, it was the best six guards, the best six forwards, and the best three centers. So it wasn't literally one through 15, and it can be now. But I find myself still feeling like we.

[A]

I don't know.

[B]

I like the old structure for other reasons. We don't need to get to it. My second team, Donovan Mitchell. Anthony Edwards, Tyrese Maxey, Luka Doncic, Kevin Durant. Again, this is more impressionistic than fundamental. And when we get down to it, in another month and a half, two months for the ballots, I will get a lot more granular.

[A]

Oh, my. Okay. My second team. So Celtics fans, get ready. Bill, get ready. If I. If I'm. Just for the sake of simplicity, I'll pencil in Mitchell, Luka, first team. Not convinced that's where I'll go and that Ant could easily get one of those spots. My second team is Ant, Cade, Jalen Brown, Kawhi Leonard, Jalen Brunson. I don't see. So Maxi was the hardest leave off here for me because he's played so many minutes and has been so good for the entire bulk of. For the entire season, really, for a team that, you know, Embiid is in and out of the lineup. Paul George has been suspended. I. I just think these five guys, I think all 10 guys, like when I do the Ringer top 100, all 10 of these guys are like Maxi's 11 basically in my ring or 100, I think. And so I just think he's played more than Kawhi. Kawhi has been either the best or second best player in the NBA since Thanksgiving and qualifies currently. He. He may not end up qualifying, but those are my. So that's where I have Jalen Brown. That's where I have Cade. If you want to flip Cade for Mitchell, flip K for Luka, even flip Kade for Wembanyama. If the minutes gap is just so enormous or someone's not eligible, that's fine. I'd promote Cade. But Brunson, Ant. Kawhi, Cade, Jalen Brown. So you have Brunson, third team. You have Kawhi, third team, I'm assuming, or do you not have Kawhi at all?

[B]

I do not have Kawhi at all. So real quick, we have a guard glutton. All these guys are great, and it's going to be really hard when we get to the real ballots in a couple of months. So just respect to all these guys. I don't know how I'll ultimately do it when we get there. So here's the.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, go ahead.

[B]

What if Kawhi gets suspended? Now that's a what if. We're, we're. I'm dealing in hypotheticals now, admittedly with, with time to go here, but as I'm sure you heard, as I heard weeks ago around the Harden trade, that maybe part of Hardin's motivation was things are about to just get really fucked up here and I just don't even need to be here for when the hammer comes down. And everyone's expecting the hammer come down because of the aspiration deal that could involve. This is very speculative. This is, this is, this is just whatever theory, let's call it theory that was going around a couple weeks ago that maybe he wanted out because of those reasons and that suspensions could be coming from all the way at the highest levels, down all the way to Kawhi Leonard himself. And it also got me thinking, Zach, as we started talking about this, when we talk about mvp, mvp, all NBA, it's not just the fact that a suspension, even a five game suspension could knock him out on the 65 game rule. It's also kind of the, we talk about that these honors are intended to, you know, honor everything you've done statistically, your impact on winning, your impact on your team. And we do start to bake in things, especially more for MVP than all NBA. But, but leadership, your overall presence, your importance, the way you've carried yourself, all of it gets baked in and there's at least some part of me for the sake of this discussion. Again folks, don't freak out. Kawhi may end up being on my ballot for all I know if he doesn't get suspended and if he does make the minimum, the game's minimum. But is it fair to discuss his role in all of this? Is it fair to bake that in? Is it fair to talk about the cloud that's been over the Clippers all season? And you could say, well yes, the Clippers are the ones who ultimately committed the crime here, the alleged crime of massive cap circumvention. But Kawhi Leonard and his, his group, his advisors, his family are very much part of this. They don't grant these things if they weren't trying to extract them. So it's on my mind at least a little bit. I've thought about it.

[A]

I think it's totally fair. It is the non basketball version of when I didn't have Kat on my all star team and I want to have Kat on my all NBA teams. When it's like when it just Feels like every discussion about your team is are they going to trade you? Can they win the whole thing with you? And even if it's slightly unfair, it's like I can, you can just take a, take all star off and same with Ban Carroll. Like you can take all star off if, if you want us to say Kawhi takes the year off from like major awards balloting because of all this. That's completely fair and I may end up there as well. So that's. And I just want to say one thing about Cade because he's. It's. It's a really tough sell for Pistons fans to not have him first team all NBA and I bet he makes it anyway. And he is a really good like he's a good defensive player. His off ball defense can wane a little bit sometimes. We even saw in the all star game the blocks, the steals, the deflections like he's part of Detroit is good, is great because they have the number two defense in the NBA and they are a top 10 offense and Cade is a big part of both those things. Like their offense falls apart without him. He's not a great shooter. He's shooting, I think 31% on threes but he is a great playmaker, great passer, great clutch player. In fact, I have the clutch stats up here. He is 37 of 75, 49% in the last five minutes of close games. Only Maxi has taken more shot attempts in the last five minutes of close games. SGA, by the way, 50% shooting and an absolutely insane 59% shooting on 71 attempts in the last five minutes of close games. I have a great clutch stat for you in a second. So like look, he's part of all of their success. If you want to put him first team all NBA, that's fine. I just think these guys have been a little more efficient. If you want to put him over Luka, by the way, that's the real interesting argument. Luka has these incredible stats. His shooting efficiency inside the arc has been outrageous all season. He still has like nine assists, nine rebounds a game. Defensively he's been pretty blah despite the fit Luca thing that started the season. Like the pretty blah is probably generous. He's been blah is the sound effect that I would use. And I've said this many times, like I just, it just doesn't look like 20, 24 playoff run Luca to me, even if the numbers say that it does, even if that guy also was bleh defensively, some of the trademark passes aren't coming as often or as effectively. Part of that is the team is not constructed around his pick and roll game. The way that Dallas team was part of it was. He does just seem like he is in an endless one on everybody battle to score as many points as possible and draw as many fouls as possible. That he's playing his own game within a game with a much more score first mentality than I've been accustomed to with him. Like even a lot of his best. His. His great passes this year seem more. My scoring options are exhausted now I'm passing and less like the blend of what he had in Dallas where these are predatory passes. Like, I'm passing early, I'm passing because I want to pass. I'm passing because this pass is going to emerge in my brain before it emerges in the brains of the defense. I'm passing ahead of the game. I just don't see that as much. And like there's a world in which he averages 33, 9 and 9, leads the league in scoring and gets bumped to second team all NBA. And there will be an outcry from team Luka, from the Lakers, from Laker fans. And I actually wouldn't be mad at it. And you've already done it. Howard, Beck.

[B]

Yeah, there was a games played part of this too. I also think there's just a weird thing hanging over the Lakers. This is just theorizing, but everything that you just said I agree with about Luka's kind of court demeanor. You know, obviously, you know, he's been in and out. Austin Reeves has been in and out. Luke LeBron has been in and out. But it's also like they're kind of marking time. Like this is a. We know this isn't our team. Right. Like, I think this is like seeping into everything right now. This is not the team. There's some new team that is on the LUCA timeline that is reconstructed around him probably this summer. And in the meantime, it's. We're running out the clock on LeBron who may or may not be back, but the general sense around the league is that he won't be.

[A]

I'm playing my. I think I've rated the three likely LeBron outcomes in order of my personal opinion likelihood before all year I've said number one, retirement tour in Cleveland, number two, retires, number three, plays for the Lakers. I'm sticking to that. I'm going to. If I had to predict, I would pick now. Again, they only have the minimum salary. It's more complicated. Maybe he Stays with the Lakers. I don't know. But anyway, go ahead.

[B]

No, I'm just saying this all feels very temporary. And if that's the case, if that's seeping into everybody's psyche, then it kind of almost seems, you know, follows that maybe you're not quite as committed to the sharpest version of yourself. And especially on the playmaking side for Luca, for any of them. Like this is all I, I, I, they, they're not making a deep playoff run or at least they're not making the finals. And you know, they're, they're running out the clock on one ERA and, and waiting to start the next one.

[A]

Honestly, you could sell me right now on I should flip Ant and Donovan Mitchell into the last two spots on first team and flip Luke out. I'd be fine with that. And by the way, word to like, I can hear Celtics fans, the real deep dive smart ones, saying, well, the Wolves are a little bit better with Anthony Edwards on the bench. They are with him on the court. That's true. I think they're like plus 4 with ant on the floor, plus 6 with ant off the floor. And you should not punish players for playing on a well balanced team. So be that as it may, that is true. And that's all defense, like the Wolves offense falls off a cliff without Ant and their defense is way better. And I just don't think that has anything to do with Anthony Edwards. I think that has to do with playing a lot of minutes without Rudy Gobert. When Gobert is on the floor and Ant is on the floor, the Wolves defense is elite, elite, elite. And when it's Ant, no Rudy, it's pretty bad. I just don't think that has a lot to do with Ant. I think he's at least as good a, he's probably about as good a defender as Jaylen Brown. They might be equal on depending on given nights, they're averaging exactly the same amount of points. Jalen is plus one assists, plus one and a half rebounds. Ant is shooting more efficiently on twos and threes. Threes by a lot gets to align a little bit more. Like you could go either way with it. But anyway, give me your third team.

[B]

So when I, when I did this exercise yesterday and again, this is quick and dirty. I did not spend hours on this. I had 11 absolute positive locks for the 15 spots and then I just kind of tried to rearrange from there. And Jalen Brunson was the only guy who I hadn't mentioned so far who was one of those locks. I tried to.

[A]

He's like, he's like your. He's like your Maxi. Like, that's like maxi's guy number 11 for me. Brunson's guy number 11 for you.

[B]

Definitely there. I'm just trying to figure out which, which spot. And, and you know, this could change 100 times between now and the end of the season. So Jalen Brunson's in, in the first slot of third team at this point, followed by Jamal Murray. And I struggled with a lot with this. I have like, I think I had like nine guys for the last four spots. It's always tough. Jamal Murray, Chet Holmgren, James Harden, Jalen Johnson.

[A]

So you, you have no. So you had Durant on your second team, correct?

[B]

Yes.

[A]

And you had Maxi on your second team?

[B]

Yes.

[A]

So my third team has those two guys, Tyrese Maxey and Kevin Durant. Jalen Johnson, I mean, the stats are just undeniable. His team is mediocre, but it's just hard to leave off like 23, 11 and 9 or 8 or whatever he's at assist wise. Jamal Murray, I think has to be on it. I think given that they not only survived, but had a winning record without Jokic, and he's having his best season of all time. Scoring efficiency, seven and a half assists a game again, a lot of that because he had to do the heavy playmaking without Jokic, but he did it. He had career high assist games like over and over again. I think he has to be on it. And I gave the last spot for now to Curry, who is about to become ineligible. He just beats out, I would say, in loose order of magnitude. I would say he just beats out James Harden, Devin Booker, Chet Holmgren, Jalen Duran, who I really wanted to find space for. And then after that, you're into the Scotty Barnes, Denny Abdia, Julius Randle group. And the reason Curry is there is because this is like every year there's a third team NBA pick for me that's like, let's be serious. Like we know that he's one of the 15 best players in the league. And yeah, he's team's not great. And he's barely made the game's threshold, if at all. It's fucking Steph Curry. He's averaging 27 and a half points a game and taking a million threes. So he gets the last spot for now. If he becomes ineligible. And he's closer than anyone else to becoming eligible, I think I would probably, as of today, put Harden in on the Last spot over Chet and Booker, but I, I haven't done the deep dive yet. You can make easy cases for all of them.

[B]

And with apologies to Steph Curry, who obviously we're both huge fans of and deserves every benefit of the doubt possible when you're doing these things. And if it's, if it's close and if he's eligible at the end, I may well have him on there. To make this easier on myself. Yesterday I did the slight cheat of assuming that he's not going to make the cut, that he's not going to make the 65 game rule.

[A]

I think that's a pretty, it's a pretty safe assumption. But as of today he makes it.

[B]

So the other guys who I did not pick, I you mentioned a bunch of them. Jalen Duran, Scotty Barnes flirted with Cat a little bit but you know, just there's so many of his numbers are down and he said such a weird up, up and down season.

[A]

He's on my omissions list.

[B]

Evan Mobley and Denny Abdia Denny Avdiya is one of four players in the league. I know we can play with Basketball Reference all we want and do these things, but Denny Abdia is one of four guys in the league averaging 25, 7 and 5 like and has made the Blazers interesting and good and competitive and fun for the first time in a few years. So just worth noting. But. And Harden I picked again, this was another Basketball Reference, you know, game here but Harden's one of four players averaging 25 with eight assists and the other guys are Jokic, Cade and Luca. And he's got, you know, you know, one of. One of the better efficiency marks there.

[A]

So anyway, I don't feel great about the last pick being hardened, but he's been very good. I Cat was on the list. Mobley not quite as high on the list. Shen Goon I think deserves a look. Abdia very well may end up being deserving. It's. It's hard to leave him off given the stats and the fact again, the Blazers are dead without him. Chet is a really interesting case. A lot of. Not a lot but I saw some all star discussion that left him off. To me he was a lock for all star. He was a lock from the very beginning when I did the process because I just think, I think, you know, the shooting efficiency 65% on twos and what he brings defensively is for the, for the best team in the league for most of the season now Detroit has passed them but whatever they are qualitatively the best team in the league I just think is unimpeachable for All Star. All NBA is a tighter fit. It's 15 players, entire league. You could make a case for him based on everything I just said. It's gotten a little tougher for me because his three ball has fallen down to 34.9% and in these games without Shay and JDub, it's a little unfair because they're not just missing their best creator, they're actually missing their three best perimeter creators with those two and AJ Mitchell, I just, he leaves me wanting a little more. Like I wish I could see him be like, you know, Tonight I'm getting 30, tonight I'm getting 25, 28. It's just, that's just not the way his game is and that's fine. And by the way, to his credit, the Thunder are outstanding when Chet plays and SGA doesn't. And a lot of their outstandingness is like Chet stuff because it's all defense. And then when you look at the data, it's all rim defense, opponents are shooting okay from three and stuff like that. It's all rim defense and rebounding, foul prevention, all the stuff that Chet's really good at. So I tend to credit him for a lot of their, their defensive excellence when Shay is up to four. But I just couldn't, I couldn't quite get there for all NBA. So MVP is almost tougher than all NBA because of the uncertainty of eligibility of some of the key guys and Giannis being ineligible. Give me your I don't even have like a best stab at a top five yet. I would just say this with assuming they both are eligible, I still think it's SGA and Jokic and just a chasm before anybody else because Wemby's. Even if Wemby makes the games limit, his minutes are going to trail those guys because he came off the bench in some games, etc. And if the games gap between SGA and Jokic remains about where it is right now, it's going to be hard not to vote for SGA. He's been just so, I mean like he's averaging 32 points a game, 55% shooting, 60% on twos, 39% on threes, six and a half assists, a steal and a block. Outstanding defensive player and he has played, you know, I think eight more games than Jokic. Their minutes are not that. He's played only about 300 more minutes than Jokic, which is not nothing. But he also gets to sit like every fourth quarter it's going to be hard to deny him. The rest of the ballot will be interesting, but I think sometimes you just get a little caught up in overthinking. Like, oh, fifth spot mvp. Like to me the first two are going to be pretty clear.

[B]

The first two are very, very clear. Tim Bontemps texted me the other day task for I'm sure that poll must be out today, maybe it must be soon. But Tim Bontems hits me up for the MVP poll and I'm always like stressing all when do you need it by? And give me some time. He's like, like don't think about it. It's like this is impressionistic. Like so I've had to like retrain myself to be quick and dirty on this thing. But later we get in the season, the more important it feels like especially because his poll ends up being a source of a lot of conversation, it has proven to be fairly determinative. And so I'm trying, I'm trying hard to get this right. But I was on the plane and so this is what I sent to him and I say that to say this is what I sent to him and I figured I'll just work off of that for our discussion. Yeah, sga. SGA first, Jokic second. And that is mostly about the fact that shai has played 10 more games than Jokic and his team has seven more wins than Jokic's team.

[A]

So yeah, so those two, all the advanced stats still favor Jokic.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Just like last year they are close enough that the minutes and team record should tilt it to Shay. Like Vorp for instance is basically a dead heat adjusted plus minus on dunks and threes actually favor Shea. Some of the other stuff like other win shares and things like that favors Jokic. But there even those ones are close enough that when you put factor in the minutes gap and then like do the multiplication for overall value, it's still Shea. So Shay to me is the MVP

[B]

deserves 10 games, is a 10, 10 more games is a lot of freaking games. And like it's most valuable. Like the value is in playing and I'm sorry he that Jokic got hurt again. This was the quick and dirty version I had Gimme 3, 4, 5. Cade 3rd Jaylen Brown 4th Wemby 5th Painful all the way down this And I just want to make clear MVP and all NBA. The difference between these two for me has always been all NBA is mostly about individual excellence, but there's some team success factored in. MVP is Very much about individual excellence backed by team success. If the team success doesn't follow, then that hurts your case in my eyes. If your, your team success, you know, is, is outstanding and you are the central reason for it, it boosts your case. Right. So Jaylen Brown's in there right now in large part because he has, he has put the Celtics in a place that none of us expected. And this isn't just about defying expectations. The stats are legitimately great. He's been legitimately great and the Celtics are great. And again, to me the outline of MVP is a great player on a great team, not a great player on a meddling team, not a great player on a fringe contender. But like seriously in the mix. And Wemby, you know, if Wemby had played more games, he's way higher. He's, he's no worse than third probably

[A]

for sure. I probably also MVP to me more than all NBA is scales more towards being a volume award than a like 65 games of like true excellence. I'm going to sort of default. That's like, like Steph would be a no brainer third team all. Not no brainer but like you just. I default more to excellence, known excellence than volume for all NBA for MVP because of the rigor of an 82 game season. The minutes in the games I think matter more for this list, but it's. I would go SGA Joker. I'd probably still have Wemby fifth for now because of the games. And then in the middle for three and four, it's two of Ant, Mitchell Cade to me. And I think given Detroit's place in the standings, I probably go Cade third and fourth. And despite Cade being on second team for me again, I think just. And I could slide Cade the first team. Actually, I don't know. I actually don't know. Maybe I put Cade fourth. But they're different awards to me with different reasoning and we could argue about them forever. But to me I didn't think too hard about spots 3, 4 and 5 because the more you look at it, as long as they're both eligible, it's SGA and it's Joker. And the bigger debate is who should win. The more important consequential historical debate is who should win. And I do think despite the fact that I think Jokic is the best player like Shay has narrowed that gap pretty significantly given his defense. And Jokic I think is backslid on defense a little bit even by his standards this year The Nuggets are 24th defensively. Which is not good enough. Shay's stats are actually, I don't want to say taken for granted because of how dominant okc is, but like 55% shooting from a guard is outrageous. 60% on twos for a guard who's not like big and powerful and just bullying people toward the rim is absolutely outrageous. He's 89% at the line on nine free throws a game. There's just no weak spot in his game at all on either end of the floor. And you know, I will always default to Jokic as the best player because I just think his offense is so otherworldly dominant and the advanced stats stats back it up. But Shea has made that a conversation and to me, he'd be the mvp.

[B]

Yeah, you're right. We should not fixate too much on the 3, 4, 5. It's the first two spots that matter most. And especially in a year like or the last several years where it's been really close races between two guys and that's what we'll keep the most attention on. The guys who I felt bad about not get, like, apologies to Anthony Edwards, who, who, yes, was, you know, one of the toughest cuts on this exercise. Luca deserves some part of this conversation. Jalen Brunson, who has been in this conversation the last couple of years, probably deserves at least some consideration. I will ask once again, plea, once again, for a seven man ballot. Uh, baseball has, I believe, a seven or nine man ballot, something like that, that it gives you a chance to like, acknowledge more guys. And what we'll have, of course, across the spread of 100 voters, is people will pick different combinations of that 3, 4, 5. Right. Almost everyone will have Jokic and Shay. And then the 3, 4, 5 will give us that spread of like 8, 9 different guys who get votes. But if we all got seven spots, you could give that extra. Because then people say, how could you leave X player off your ballot? Well, because there's only five slots. I would love to have a sixth and a seventh slot to acknowledge each of these guys on some, you know, declining level points wise.

[A]

But baseball also has an American League MVP and a National League MVP. So they have two MVPs. And obviously the Western Conference MVP would be one of the two people that we're talking about. An Eastern Conference MVP would be this rollicking race between Cade and Mitchell and who else have we talked about? Brunson and blah, blah, blah. Kind of a fun exercise. But we don't have that, so we don't get to use it.

[B]

No, but I figured I'd make that plea again, as I do about once a year. And then usually you or Rachel Nichols or somebody mocks me for wanting more ballot spots. So maybe Adam Silber could give us a fresh look. He likes giving things fresh looks.

[A]

Well, speaking of which, I want to end with this. You wrote this piece yesterday for the Ringer. I'm all tanked out. I'm all tank reformed out for now. I mean, I think it's an important discussion. I'm happy to keep having it, but I need, like, a week off, which is why this podcast has been a nice little palate cleanser for me. But you wrote this piece yesterday. The cracks in Adam Silver's NBA are spreading fast. I think everyone who's interested in the league should go read it, because it goes into the league's history and past and present and what's happening right now. And obviously, there's tanking, there's aspiration, there's load management, there's schedule questions. The season is too long. Everybody knows the season is too long. No one is willing to make any financial sacrifice to correct that. So what are we even doing? What is the driver that made you write this piece today? And what has the reaction been so far from the league office and. Or anywhere else?

[B]

Yeah, I'd been pitching a version of this to my editor, shout out to Matt Dollinger, since the fall, since we were in LA for core week for the Ringer in October. Just that there's. It feels to me as someone who's been covering the league for almost three decades now, and I think this is just objectively true. There have never been more ongoing crises. And like the crisis is a. Is a. Is a strong word. Crises, scandals, concerns, just. Just functional fixes that need to be made. Like there we had the Tim Donaghy scandal.

[A]

Right.

[B]

We've had a gambling scandal. This one, I think, is less than that, but this one's going on at the same time that we also have a cap circumvention scandal. Well, we had cap circumvention or some version of that with Joe Smith back in the day, but that was by itself. Donaghy was by itself. Lockouts were by themselves. What we have right now is a cap circumvention scandal that is seemingly coming to a head soon with some sort of ruling or conclusions from the law firm about what the Clippers did or did not do with Kawhi Leonard. And aspiration. On top of that, we have a federal investigation that we've heard nothing about. Since October. But, you know, Chauncey Billups still not coaching, Terry Rozier still indefinitely suspended. That's looming in the background. Simultaneously, those two things alone, Zachary, would be enough to fill all of your time as commissioner and the league office. And then on top of that, tanking, Adam himself just admitted it. And Saturday night, I think, was the trigger for why I finally wrote this. Now, I've been processing this for a while about how there are so many balls up in the air, so many things to try to manage or to fix right now. And then Saturday night, Adam himself says, yeah, this is his worst, the worst. We've seen it on tanking because of how brazen what the Jazz did was. And he had just fined the Jazz and the Pacers, I'm sure, hated having to do it days before a press conference that he had to hold at All Star Week in his annual address at All Star Weekend. So there's just so much going on. Yes. Length of the season, load management, which frustrates the hell out of fans, as it should, any number of versions of that, too. We talked about it earlier. We're going to see players being rested for tank reasons. We're going to see players being rested for playoff reasons. And because we're in a time of sports science, we all understand it intellectually that it makes sense to rest your guys down the stretch to make sure that they're in peak condition and not risking injury because you need them in late April, May and potentially June. But intellectually that's fine. Fundamentally, that sucks because guys just don't play as many games anymore. So there's all of these things that are on Adam Silver's plate. And the piece was not intended to say like Adam Silver is failing by any stretch, just that he's got a lot of challenges and there's a lot of stuff up in the air. And the response from the league, I'll just say I've heard through, you know, a couple different channels of people who basically said, you nailed it. And I have not heard from. We don't need to name names. You and I know who it would be. But I have not heard any of the pushback yet that I was expecting. Maybe that's still to come, but I have not gotten that yet. I have gotten people who are longtime league veterans who know the inside workings of Olympic Tower very well saying this is spot on, which I appreciated, but I don't think there was anything controversial about it. There's just a hell of a lot going on and a lot for Adam and his lieutenants to address, and the board of Governors for that matter.

[A]

There is indeed, and you are the right kind of person to write this piece because you've been around the league long enough to put it into historical context of other trouble times. And there have been many, including what happened right when Adam Silver took over as commissioner, he had to ban Donald Sterling and prevent a potential boycott of a playoff game. So go read that piece on the Ringer.com the cracks in Adam Silver's NBA are spreading fast. Group Chat. Not group chat, sorry. Group chat. Real Ones. What am I saying? Real Ones. All the Ringer NBA shows are blending into my head. Real Ones with Logan and Raja and Howard, which days a week are now. All the taping schedules are jumbled up in my brain.

[B]

They are. We are Tuesday Friday on Real Ones, which is part of the Ringer NBA Show Channel.

[A]

And we are going to be Tuesday Thursday here on out at the Zach Lowe show. And remember, March 16th, buy your tickets. Brooklyn Paramount. We're going to have some fun. Howard Beck, thanks for your time, buddy. It's always great to chop it up with you and enjoy that Cavs Grizzlies game. Mark your calendars. Enjoy that one on April 6th. Thanks.

[B]

Always a pleasure, my friend.

[A]

Thank you. All right, that's it for the Zach Lowe show this week. We'll be back on Tuesday. That's right, we are on Tuesdays now that football is over and I'm doing Bill's Pod, the Bill Simmons podcast on Sunday nights. No point in just going right back Monday morning to repetitive. We're going Tuesday Thursday. Thank you as always to Mike, Billy and Jonathan on production. Thanks to the great Howard Becky for his time and thanks to you all for listening to and or watching The Zach Lowe Show 21 or over in President select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 and over in President D.C. kentucky Air Wyoming gambling problem. Call 1-800- GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com, call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org Chattincut or is it mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland? Hope is here Victoria. Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-5050.

[B]

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[A]

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[B]

Close your eyes, exhale, feel your body relax and let go of whatever you're carrying today while I'm letting go of

[A]

the worry that I wouldn't get my new contacts in time for this class.

[B]

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[A]

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[A]

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[B]

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[A]

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