Speaker 1: So I made a short cut on my mom's phone,
Speaker 1: so every time she types dirty clothes, it says acid.
Speaker 1: Do you have any acid? Acid?
Speaker 2: Acid?
Speaker 1: Acid? Acid? Mom? Acid. I'm not meaning to say acid.
Speaker 1: I mean acid. No, not acid, acid acid, Mackenzie, I'm
Speaker 1: not meaning to say acid, I mean acid. What the
Speaker 1: hell athid? Mom, Mackenzie acid. Come here and help me
Speaker 1: figure out why it's saying acid. I'm trying to say acid,
Speaker 1: but it's saying apid.
Speaker 3: Good morning, Sweel and welcome to the Nodong's podcast on
Speaker 3: the Athletic Network. It's Tuesday, October seventeenth, twenty twenty three.
Speaker 3: I'm Jisk. It's here in the class Factory, and to
Speaker 3: my left it's the Bearded one Matatsha hop boy, Trey
Speaker 3: Kirby el Hey over yonder the man making the magic happens,
Speaker 3: super producer GD there is and here we are. Shout
Speaker 3: out to the stream team joining us live right now
Speaker 3: on YouTube. Smash that like button and make sure you
Speaker 3: subscribe as we slowly inch our way to one hundred
Speaker 3: thousand subs. After you're done with today's classic, make sure
Speaker 3: you fire up yesterday's Eastern Conference over under Podcasts, where
Speaker 3: Trey and I went through all fifteen Eastern Conference team,
Speaker 3: looked at their overwind totals and locked in a few
Speaker 3: of our favorite bets.
Speaker 2: You're gretting anything from yesterday, every single one nice all of.
Speaker 3: Today's win totals just like yesterday by way of bet MGM.
Speaker 3: Before we get into it, Hollinger had an article up
Speaker 3: on The Athletic Go to the Athletic dot com slash
Speaker 3: nod Downes, get yourself a subscription. He made a good
Speaker 3: point about the Western Conference. He said, quote, there are
Speaker 3: at least eleven teams legitimately aspiring to make the playoffs
Speaker 3: this year. Three of them are gonna end up in
Speaker 3: the draft lottery, and even the bottom looked stronger. Last season.
Speaker 3: Houston and San Antonio both lost sixty games, but the
Speaker 3: Rockets completely overhauled their roster and the Spurs got Wemby.
Speaker 3: There's a lot of truth to that, because I looked
Speaker 3: at the lines here. There are nine teams in the
Speaker 3: Western Conference that have over underlines between forty four and
Speaker 3: a half wins and forty eight and a half wins.
Speaker 3: That's a four win window. That's crazy. Nine of the
Speaker 3: fifteen teams are all bunched up like that, which I
Speaker 3: think is gonna make this maybe the more difficult conference
Speaker 3: to decide whether they're over or under.
Speaker 2: We were doing the Eastern Conference yesterday and at one
Speaker 2: point I was in my brainstorm, Sash, I was thinking,
Speaker 2: I gotta get some unders in here. I'm being a
Speaker 2: little bit too positive. I felt almost a complete opposite
Speaker 2: for the Western Conference today because I'm like, how is
Speaker 2: any team gonna win a lot of games this season?
Speaker 2: Because every team is competing. I guess you would maybe
Speaker 2: say that Portland isn't sending their best considering the past
Speaker 2: couple of seasons. But even they have like NBA veteran
Speaker 2: talent who is gonna be on their team. So yeah,
Speaker 2: the Western Conference, it's gonna be tough. A four win
Speaker 2: window we call win Butler, that's right, it's the four
Speaker 2: win window here.
Speaker 3: Okay, We're gonna go through every team and at the
Speaker 3: end we will make some of our favorites our locks
Speaker 3: here in the West. But let's start with the Pacific Division.
Speaker 3: JD all over the graphics once again. Golden State forty
Speaker 3: eight and a half wins, the Clippers forty six and
Speaker 3: a half wins, the Lakers forty seven and a half wins,
Speaker 3: the Suns fifty one and a half, and then the
Speaker 3: King's forty four and a half. There's that window I
Speaker 3: was talking about.
Speaker 2: This is a sick division.
Speaker 3: These are all similar lines. The Golden State Warriors last
Speaker 3: October a year ago, you know, close to the day
Speaker 3: Draymond Green's fist connected with Jordan Poole's jaw during training
Speaker 3: camp and sort of just like that, the Warriors repeat quests.
Speaker 3: It was on the mat for a ten count that
Speaker 3: was only a year ago. I like a little bit
Speaker 3: more than a year ago. That sounds weird to.
Speaker 2: Me, right, that's very, very weird. And then in our
Speaker 2: preseason podcast last year, it was like, ah, don't even
Speaker 2: worry about it. Teammates punch each other in the face
Speaker 2: all the time. There should be no repercussions for this, right,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna start twenty and five. Guess what rap percussions
Speaker 2: the entire season to the point they ship Jordan Poole
Speaker 2: out said go to Washington as far away as possible.
Speaker 3: Yep, Jordan Pool is gone, Dante de Vincenzo is gone.
Speaker 3: And the big addition is Chris Paul. Chris Paul on
Speaker 3: the Warriors. I will admit that one looks the weirdest
Speaker 3: to me of any of the new guys or the
Speaker 3: guys in New Jerseys. And I know he's played for
Speaker 3: a lot of teams, so it shouldn't be that perplexing,
Speaker 3: but it just looks odd putting, like a future Hall
Speaker 3: of Famer with the you know, the three stars there
Speaker 3: older stars in Golden State. I don't know if your
Speaker 3: thoughts are the same.
Speaker 2: Well, it's not just that Chris Paul, as an older guy,
Speaker 2: is hopping on trying to get a ring at the
Speaker 2: end of his career. He's been like an antag for
Speaker 2: specifically the Golden State Warriors for almost ten seasons. The
Speaker 2: Clippers at one point in time were the last team
Speaker 2: to beat the Warriors before they went on their championship
Speaker 2: run there. So from Los Angeles to Phoenix, he was
Speaker 2: like a thorn in the side of Steph Curry and
Speaker 2: the Warriors. I mean just the thorn, you know. I
Speaker 2: guess that they were the rose bush all things considered.
Speaker 2: But yeah, Chris Paul plays a pretty specific style of basketball.
Speaker 2: He plays a lot slower than the Warriors do. There's
Speaker 2: always question marks of is it gonna work, is it
Speaker 2: gonna fit. Is there gonna be enough basketballs? There always
Speaker 2: seems to be enough basketballs when it comes to Chris Paul,
Speaker 2: and it always seems to work when he joins with
Speaker 2: the team, just because he's such a smart player. We
Speaker 2: saw I don't know, I got hyped off a stupid
Speaker 2: Instagram video of Chris Paul and Steph Curry running a
Speaker 2: pick and roll together. But guess what. They each passed
Speaker 2: to each other and hit the three. It's practice, they
Speaker 2: should make it, but you can see the outline of
Speaker 2: how it's actually gonna work out.
Speaker 3: So forty eight and a half do you think bet
Speaker 3: MGM slash Vegas sort of have this line in the
Speaker 3: right spot. Did you struggle with this one? And ultimately
Speaker 3: where are you leaning?
Speaker 2: I didn't struggle with this one too much. I think
Speaker 2: this number is too high. Forty nine wins for the
Speaker 2: Warriors seems like too many because they are one of
Speaker 2: many teams I'm gonna call the heat wave, just like
Speaker 2: the Miami Heat. They prioritize the postseason, so maybe the
Speaker 2: regular season they're gonna be watching their health. They're gonna
Speaker 2: be obviously trying to figure out the chemistry between Chris
Speaker 2: Paul and the rest of the Warriors who have been
Speaker 2: there for a while. They want to be at their
Speaker 2: best in April and May, which means I'm going under
Speaker 2: here just because I think the Western Conference is tough
Speaker 2: to stack up a ton of wins. There will probably
Speaker 2: only be two fifty win teams even if we get
Speaker 2: to that many. And secondly, they just want to be
Speaker 2: in the top six. They don't want to have to
Speaker 2: go through the play in tournament. But they're not gonna
Speaker 2: care too much about seating.
Speaker 3: Yeah, They're also probably gonna continue to focus on I
Speaker 3: know they've shipped out some of the young guys, Jordan Poole,
Speaker 3: James Wiseman, you know last year he was gone, but
Speaker 3: they do have some still in Kaminga who has looked
Speaker 3: great here in preseason action, and then Moody. I think
Speaker 3: that's going to be a vital part of their playoff success.
Speaker 3: I need that one or both of those guys to
Speaker 3: like sort of catch up to the stars on this
Speaker 3: team again, the elder stars. And then Andrew Wiggins. I
Speaker 3: like the game he's talking too. He's talking like, Hey,
Speaker 3: I want to be an all Star game. I want
Speaker 3: to be all defensive minded guy. And in the running
Speaker 3: for some of those awards and accolades. He's talking about
Speaker 3: playing for Team Canada in Paris, so that's great stuff
Speaker 3: to hear. But yeah, this this feels like a perfect line.
Speaker 3: I'm with you. I'm like, I'm like, forty six, forty seven,
Speaker 3: forty eight. Could they win forty to fifty? Of course
Speaker 3: they could. But the health with the older guys is
Speaker 3: a bit of an issue, be it Curry, Clay or Draymond, Like,
Speaker 3: how many combined games will they play and will they
Speaker 3: even care to play as long as they're in and
Speaker 3: out of a play in situation, which is you're right.
Speaker 3: I mean, all these teams with aspirations to go far,
Speaker 3: you don't want to be in that. Even if we
Speaker 3: saw the heat get out of it and go to
Speaker 3: the fine you don't want to be in that type
Speaker 3: of heat wave. But yeah, it's very risky, So good
Speaker 3: line here. But I'm gonna lean with you. It's not
Speaker 3: gonna be a lock by any means, but I would
Speaker 3: lean like a little.
Speaker 2: Under Yeah, I said, I think there's only going to
Speaker 2: probably be two fifty win teams in the Western Conference.
Speaker 2: But when you look at the actual personnel and the talent,
Speaker 2: on these teams and how they're probably gonna play in
Speaker 2: the postseason. It's like the Warriors are a fifty win
Speaker 2: team easily with the personnel that they have around. The
Speaker 2: Lakers as well, the Clippers, if things are perfect, sure
Speaker 2: the sons of things are perfect, they're winning fifty plus games,
Speaker 2: the Pelicans. There are so many teams. I think that
Speaker 2: in a regular like you know, ten years ago, if
Speaker 2: you're trying to be the team that finishes on top
Speaker 2: of the standings, they could easily get there. I don't
Speaker 2: know if that's the case anymore. And maybe the player
Speaker 2: participation policies and program it's program, player participation program. No jeez, yeah,
Speaker 2: I'll lock this in before the season starts here because
Speaker 2: it's gonna come up. But I just think that teams,
Speaker 2: these older teams don't care as much about the regular
Speaker 2: season as long as they can win in the playoffs.
Speaker 2: That's obviously the goal for most of these older squads.
Speaker 3: All right, let's move to the Los Angeles Clippers forty
Speaker 3: six and a half wins. Besides bringing Russell Westbrook back
Speaker 3: on a two year deal, most of the Clippers' summer
Speaker 3: activity was fairly minor. I guess they re signed backup
Speaker 3: center Mason Plumley, they traded for kJ Martin, they drafted
Speaker 3: Kobe Brown with the number thirty pick, and then they're
Speaker 3: waiting I guess to see if they're trading for James Harden.
Speaker 3: But otherwise, yeah, yeah, not a whole lot. My issue
Speaker 3: with this line, just like it was last year, is
Speaker 3: how do you handicap a team whose stars have played
Speaker 3: one hundred and forty two games together since they became
Speaker 3: teammates Kawhi and PG. It's been four seasons of them
Speaker 3: being teammates here. Really, they're ninety six and forty six
Speaker 3: when they play, they're very very good. They're eighty six
Speaker 3: and eighty when one or both of them are out.
Speaker 3: Sean Pewell at NBA dot Com NBA dot Com he
Speaker 3: labeled them the brittle brothers. I've never heard that. I've
Speaker 3: never seen that.
Speaker 2: I was like, damn, Sean Bell believe it.
Speaker 3: But it is difficult to obviously get a read on
Speaker 3: this team. But maybe maybe now like their their win
Speaker 3: totals have been higher over previous years. Yep, and this
Speaker 3: one is I actually think it might be the lowest
Speaker 3: or tied for the lowest in the Kawhi pg Era,
Speaker 3: So maybe that has you leaning over.
Speaker 2: I don't know, what do you think, Well, forty four
Speaker 2: wins for the Clippers last season, and that's what the
Speaker 2: Brittle Brothers plague. That's an amazing nickname. Fifty six games
Speaker 2: last season though for Paul George, fifty for Kawhi Leonard. Like,
Speaker 2: if you're getting almost sixty games from Paul George and
Speaker 2: fifty from Kawhi, that's about what you should expect. They
Speaker 2: had barely a positive point differential, which tells you they
Speaker 2: were pretty successful in clutch games last year, which kind
Speaker 2: of tipped their win total a little bit over that
Speaker 2: five hundred mark, which you would expect it at. I
Speaker 2: don't know. It's just so hard to go over on
Speaker 2: a Clipper team because you're expecting their guys not to play.
Speaker 2: But the talent is there and that's why they're also
Speaker 2: the Brittle Brothers. Just like it's hard to get Peanut
Speaker 2: Brittel out of your teeth, it's hard to get the
Speaker 2: best of Kawhi Leonard and the best of Paul George
Speaker 2: out of your mind. Yeah, because when you see Kawhi
Speaker 2: playing at his peak, the guy looks like a top
Speaker 2: five NBA player. Still, do you remember what he was
Speaker 2: doing against the Suns unbelieving in the playoffs? His stat
Speaker 2: lines were insane only well, he only played two games
Speaker 2: in the end. Yeah, and Paul George missed the series.
Speaker 3: Like, yeah, if they're out there, sure, yeah, you can
Speaker 3: even still convince me they're a championship contender. But come on,
Speaker 3: they're never out there. They're never out there, So this
Speaker 3: will be the season they're coming in healthy. I guess
Speaker 3: that's good better than the other way. Yeah, right, right,
Speaker 3: that's exactly right. So you're gonna go under over here
Speaker 3: or which way are you leaning? There's no way of
Speaker 3: touching this one as a lock.
Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely not a lock on this one, but I'm under.
Speaker 2: But I still think the Clippers are gonna be a
Speaker 2: pretty solid team. They could get back to forty four
Speaker 2: wins or you know, be in the forty one to
Speaker 2: forty five range. I suppose they're kind of like Noah's Ark.
Speaker 2: They got two of everything. They got two star wings
Speaker 2: who are hurt a lot, and Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.
Speaker 2: They got two really wild point guards in Russell Westbrook
Speaker 2: and Bones Highland. They got two versable stretch forwards who
Speaker 2: are pretty old Nick batoum Robert Covington, and they got
Speaker 2: two big old white centers and.
Speaker 3: It beats the zoo and.
Speaker 2: Get on the arc boys and a clipper. You know what,
Speaker 2: it's a ship, as is the arc. This is good.
Speaker 3: Did you see their leaked new jerseys too? Clips the
Speaker 3: little basketball.
Speaker 2: I did, the little basketball on the eye. It's like
Speaker 2: putting a heart on your eye when you're writing a
Speaker 2: note to a potential paramore. So you're leaning, I'm under here,
Speaker 2: I'm under yeah.
Speaker 3: Ooh, forty six and a half. It feels like they're
Speaker 3: gonna win forty six games, So I guess I'll go
Speaker 3: just under that. One's a tough one. That is a toughy, toughy,
Speaker 3: tough The other team in LA, the Lakers forty seven
Speaker 3: and a half. Let me go through what they did.
Speaker 3: Contract extensions for Austin Reeves, Rui Hachimura, D'Angelo Russell. They
Speaker 3: added Gabe Vincent, they added Christian Wood, Jackson Hayes, Torrian Prince.
Speaker 3: I think Cam Ruddish is a Laker. They lost in
Speaker 3: a shrewder Malik Beasley, and they drafted combo guard Jalen
Speaker 3: Hood Schapino. He was taken I believe, seventeenth overall in
Speaker 3: the first round. He's gonna probably not be cracking any
Speaker 3: of the rotation here. They got a lot of guys.
Speaker 3: He'll probably be stashed sort of away as player development,
Speaker 3: but that was their pick. So they did a lot.
Speaker 3: Have they done enough to convince you that they are
Speaker 3: forty eight win plus team?
Speaker 2: Well, that's interesting. Like I said, I think they are
Speaker 2: a forty eight plus win team. I think the talent
Speaker 2: is there. I think the continuity is pretty good. They
Speaker 2: did a lot this offseason, but they also basically brought
Speaker 2: everybody back after the trade last trade deadline. They've got
Speaker 2: better depth, no doubt this season. Guys like Jackson Hayes,
Speaker 2: Christian Wood, Torrian Prince probably show their shortcomings come playoff time,
Speaker 2: but in the regular season it's all about getting wins.
Speaker 2: You look at their record last season forty three and
Speaker 2: thirty nine, sixteen and seven post All Star when they
Speaker 2: were really hitting the gas, making sure that they can
Speaker 2: make it to the play in tournament, try and scratch
Speaker 2: their way out of it, which didn't happen. They're not
Speaker 2: going to be battling against Russell Westbrook in the locker room.
Speaker 2: They don't have to worry about Lebron trying to set
Speaker 2: the scoring record through the first half of this season.
Speaker 2: But they also were really good in the in the
Speaker 2: second half of last year because they had to be.
Speaker 2: They had to like be ten games over five hundred
Speaker 2: over the last twenty five because that's how they got
Speaker 2: into the playoffs. So I think this is another team
Speaker 2: that's part of the heat wave. They will be better
Speaker 2: in the playoffs. I'm going under for the regular season,
Speaker 2: so I think they could easily be one of the
Speaker 2: top three teams in the Western Coast.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's why I am going to lean towards a
Speaker 3: slight over. I think forty eight to forty nine, maybe
Speaker 3: even that magical fifty could be in play with this team. Now, look, Lebron,
Speaker 3: he's going to miss games, as he should. What's he
Speaker 3: in his twenty first season. Yes, Like it's unreal. When
Speaker 3: he's been with the Lakers, he's played fifty five games,
Speaker 3: sixty seven games, forty five games, fifty six games and
Speaker 3: fifty five games last year. Came off the bench in
Speaker 3: a game last year. I'd forgotten about that. Weird little
Speaker 3: it is weird. So just one game, So yeah, you'll
Speaker 3: probably put him down for about that as well, unless
Speaker 3: he's really well taking you know, these all NBA selections. Still,
Speaker 3: if he's gonna get one of those, you're gonna have
Speaker 3: to play more than that. Who knows if the chairs
Speaker 3: at all about that, that's it the top guy I
Speaker 3: would care.
Speaker 2: I mean, I assume Lebron has been All NBA since
Speaker 2: his second season in the league. I haven't. I don't
Speaker 2: know off the top of my head, but it's gotta be.
Speaker 2: But he also hasn't played sixty five or more games
Speaker 2: since the nineteen twenty season. That's the number you got
Speaker 2: to get to, so he'll probably get to exactly sixty
Speaker 2: seven games somehow.
Speaker 3: Wow. Yeah, I hadn't really thought about this until right
Speaker 3: the second. He's a nineteen time All NBA player.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it didn't make it as rookie year. That makes sense.
Speaker 3: So he's going to keep that. He wants to keep
Speaker 3: that going, So he has to play what'd you say
Speaker 3: it is?
Speaker 2: Sixty seven?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah? Wow?
Speaker 2: Fifty five games last year, fifty six the year prior to,
Speaker 2: forty five the year prior to that.
Speaker 3: That's something to watch here. Okay like that? Okay, talking
Speaker 3: this out, I'm even more confident with the over. Lebron's
Speaker 3: gonna have to play more games to hit this, sort
Speaker 3: of like baseline Mark. Obviously, Anthony Davis, you're gonna hope
Speaker 3: he's healthy. There's a lot of talk on the idea
Speaker 3: that this guy could be, you know, in the MVP conversation.
Speaker 3: He should be. That's the thing. If he if he
Speaker 3: plays and puts up the numbers he can and they win. Yeah,
Speaker 3: he would be in the running, though always difficult if
Speaker 3: Lebron is on your team. It's that weird sort of
Speaker 3: you know, interesting, is a little set up there with
Speaker 3: this squad. But I'm going over.
Speaker 2: What'd you think of Darvin ham saying he wants Anthony
Speaker 2: Davis to take six threes a game.
Speaker 3: Honestly, I don't mind it.
Speaker 2: Get inside, buddy, I mean, well, well, well, that's the thing.
Speaker 3: We get a window where he could shoot threes. There
Speaker 3: was a small, small window. Now you're right, he's not
Speaker 3: Jokic from three. I feel a lot more confidence in
Speaker 3: and he's not taking that many. I also, I'm not
Speaker 3: the biggest Christian Wood fan in the world. I don't
Speaker 3: know if there's anyone out there that is uh so
Speaker 3: defensively in I mean, if Ad goes down, that'll be Yeah,
Speaker 3: that'll be tough. But you know they're hoping they get
Speaker 3: some minutes SOPs up, some minutes from Wood and Hayes
Speaker 3: and these guys that they're big. But I'll go just
Speaker 3: over Phoenix Sun's fifty one and a half, the biggest
Speaker 3: over underwin total here in the Pacific Division. They came
Speaker 3: within two wins of a title in twenty twenty one.
Speaker 3: They stumbled in twenty twenty two again last season despite
Speaker 3: bringing in Kevin Durant. So they got this newest sh owner,
Speaker 3: Matt Ishpia. He has pledged basically to do whatever he
Speaker 3: can to keep the Suns in contention. So they stayed
Speaker 3: busy in the offseason. First off, they fired Monty Williams.
Speaker 3: They brought in defensive minded Frank Vogel to lead this
Speaker 3: overhauled roster. And what I mean overhauled. Wow, Bradley Bel's in,
Speaker 3: Eric Gordon, Nurkic Grayson Allen, Jordan Goodwin, Drew you Banks,
Speaker 3: Bull Bull Watanabe. There's a few other names that may
Speaker 3: or may not hit. Chris Paul, Out, DeAndre eight and
Speaker 3: out Shaman out Paying out, Jocklandale out, so outside of
Speaker 3: Kadian Booker, I mean this is like it really is
Speaker 3: a complete overhaul.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Kadie's like a long tenured player at this point.
Speaker 2: He played eight regular season games last year. Really for
Speaker 2: the Suns.
Speaker 3: That's crazy. Ah, So fifty one and a half. How
Speaker 3: do you feel about this? Is this one of the
Speaker 3: teams that you think is the fifty plus win team
Speaker 3: in the conference.
Speaker 2: This is a fifty plus win team for me. I'm
Speaker 2: going over for the Phoenix Suns only forty five and
Speaker 2: thirty seven last year, but it's like throw out the
Speaker 2: last two seasons. Really for the Suns. They're completely different.
Speaker 2: They are so top heavy that it's concerning. But I
Speaker 2: think that can be I don't know if beneficial is
Speaker 2: the right word, but I think it can work out
Speaker 2: okay for the Suns because even if Devin Booker misses time,
Speaker 2: even if Bradley Beal misses his time, even if Kevin
Speaker 2: Durant miss his time, as long as it's only one
Speaker 2: of them, they're gonna have two thirty point per game
Speaker 2: scorers out there. And then they've got all their role
Speaker 2: guys who were hoping some of them hit during the
Speaker 2: regular season. It's more likely that that's the case playoffs.
Speaker 2: Who knows who actually holds up, but that's a long
Speaker 2: time from now. There are significant depth concerns though for
Speaker 2: the Suns because Booker's miss time. We know that Kad
Speaker 2: and Beale have missed time recently. Nurkic is a guy
Speaker 2: who has had trouble stand on the court recently. Eric
Speaker 2: Gordon is old, Grayson Allen will get suspended for a
Speaker 2: game here and there. There's just lots of guys who
Speaker 2: do miss time. But that's why they had to get,
Speaker 2: you know, ten minimum contracts because they know that not
Speaker 2: all of them are going to be great players this season.
Speaker 2: They know that they're gonna need a lot of depth
Speaker 2: and a lot of the options at the very least.
Speaker 2: So I'm going over here. But you know, if it
Speaker 2: turns out that two of their top three go down
Speaker 2: at the same time, then probably in trouble from that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm betting on health here and I'm with you.
Speaker 3: I am. I'm actually probably locking this one in over
Speaker 3: fifty one and a half. I mean, the way they look,
Speaker 3: I know it's preseason again, it means basically nothing. Holy crap, though,
Speaker 3: have you seen these guys play in the limited minutes
Speaker 3: they have, like it's like seventy points and a half.
Speaker 3: No problem with the scoring is unreal. It already was
Speaker 3: with Katie and Booker, two of the best scorers in
Speaker 3: the league. And you've had a third one in Bradley Beal,
Speaker 3: who guy who's like sort of obviously austin the wilderness
Speaker 3: of Washington, who did have seasons where he was scoring thirty. Like,
Speaker 3: he's got to be, you know, revitalized. Here he is
Speaker 3: with a team that has aspirations to go far. I
Speaker 3: think they look, when we get to the playoffs, that'll
Speaker 3: be a whole other story. Can you take things away
Speaker 3: from them? Can they get stops? Regular season? Almost nobody
Speaker 3: plays defense. I mean, that's the honest truth.
Speaker 2: The majority of the games.
Speaker 3: I think they're gonna easily go over fifty one and
Speaker 3: a half. I actually I couldn't. I was sort of
Speaker 3: shocked how low this was actually, but I think speaks
Speaker 3: to how talented and top heavy they are and how
Speaker 3: loaded the West is. But I like that one all right.
Speaker 3: Final team in the Pacific Division, the Sacramento Kings forty
Speaker 3: four and a half wins. They won forty eight games,
Speaker 3: last year they made the playoffs for the first time
Speaker 3: in seventeen seasons. They had the beam being lit forty
Speaker 3: eight times at least in the regular season, sometimes in
Speaker 3: the playoffs. They had two All NBA players, They had
Speaker 3: the coach of the Year. They added some more guys
Speaker 3: to this squad, but Zenkoff is the big name the
Speaker 3: euro League MVP six nine sharpshooter, so pairing him with
Speaker 3: Monk and Herder to hopefully, you know, keep the three
Speaker 3: pointers reigning. They got a bar and still they got Mitchell,
Speaker 3: Still Trey Lyles in the rotation. They had a JaVale
Speaker 3: McGee and christ Warte. Okay, they probably won't mean much,
Speaker 3: but is this King and Murray is probably gonna break
Speaker 3: out more? Is this disrespectful to the sacrament of Kings
Speaker 3: forty four and a half wins? Because I feel like
Speaker 3: it is disrespectful. Yeah, no, this is not disrespectful to
Speaker 3: the Kings. This is a King's team who has had
Speaker 3: one good season. So them getting predicted to have forty
Speaker 3: five wins after the previous two decades, I think.
Speaker 2: Is still respectful.
Speaker 3: Okay, do you like the over Yeah?
Speaker 2: I like the over there you go, Yeah, they won
Speaker 2: forty eight games last year. They brought everybody back. I
Speaker 2: don't think they're gonna be as good as they were
Speaker 2: last season, just because it's unlikely that they have two
Speaker 2: All NBA players and the Coach of the Year. They
Speaker 2: probably don't finish as the third seed in the Western Conference.
Speaker 2: That would be a surprise once again. But they're betting
Speaker 2: on continuity. They had great health last season, but they're
Speaker 2: also a pretty young team. Young guys tend to stay healthier.
Speaker 2: I think they are I prove it in the playoffs team.
Speaker 2: But I think this is an easy over. They are
Speaker 2: definitely not the worst team in this division, but they're
Speaker 2: in a tough division. They gotta play all these other
Speaker 2: teams four times, which, yeah, is why the number is
Speaker 2: probably so low.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's fair. I'm with you. I'm going over. Forty
Speaker 3: four and a half feels way too low. I think
Speaker 3: everybody keeps bringing up this idea. Well, look how healthy
Speaker 3: they were last year. They were one of the healthiest
Speaker 3: teams in the league, and that was true. Though, you know,
Speaker 3: everyone seems to forget Sabonis did basically break his damn
Speaker 3: hand or his finger or whatever it was. His thumb
Speaker 3: continued to play through it the ox that he is.
Speaker 3: So I get that. You're like, well, you know, there
Speaker 3: could be a bad injury to one of their key
Speaker 3: players and that suddenly changes the dynamic of the team. Yeah,
Speaker 3: but they are a young team. It's I would have
Speaker 3: a lot less confidence in some of these other teams
Speaker 3: we've just talked about, obviously, the Clippers, the Lakers with
Speaker 3: Lebron and Ad, the Warriors with the age on that team.
Speaker 3: I have a lot less confident in those guys staying
Speaker 3: healthy than I would this fairly young Kings team. So
Speaker 3: I don't see like why it's like out of the
Speaker 3: realm of possible that they do not run back a
Speaker 3: fairly healthy season. Again, I know people can twist ankles
Speaker 3: and hurt knees and like just weird fluke accidents, but
Speaker 3: I'm going over on this.
Speaker 2: I don't factor in that kind of stuff. Seat's not
Speaker 2: freak accidents. Like a guy like like Kawhi Leonard and
Speaker 2: Paul George. That's a different case than Demonta Sabonis and
Speaker 2: dearon Fox. They could easily tear their acl and start
Speaker 2: being guys that have knee problems going throughout their career.
Speaker 2: But they're not those guys yet, so I don't I mean, yeah,
Speaker 2: that could happen, but I'm an optimist at heart, skeets,
Speaker 2: so I ain't worried about that kind of stuff. They're
Speaker 2: gonna be unstoppable on offense once again. You know, they
Speaker 2: were the best offense in the league last season. Maybe
Speaker 2: they're not the best offense in the league this season
Speaker 2: because the Bucks look like they're gonna be tough. The
Speaker 2: Celtics are gonna be really tough. We know the Nuggets
Speaker 2: are gonna be able to score points as well. So exactly,
Speaker 2: they could finish fifth and still, you know, I'll have
Speaker 2: a better offense than they had the previous season. But yeah,
Speaker 2: I think this Kings is an easy over to me.
Speaker 3: All right, let's hear from everybody in the stream. Team.
Speaker 3: You guys are already chiming in for every team.
Speaker 2: Go through.
Speaker 3: Love to see that podcast listeners, tweet at us at
Speaker 3: No Dunk Sinc. Or everybody jump over to YouTube and
Speaker 3: leave your thoughts in the comments. We're gonna take our
Speaker 3: first break and when we come back, it's the Northwest Division.
Speaker 3: Don't go anywhere, all right, Still here in the classic factory,
Speaker 3: smash that like button make sure you subscribe as we
Speaker 3: get ready for the NBA season one week today. Real basketball, baby,
Speaker 3: right around the corner, you pumped.
Speaker 2: I'm very excited, so am I Basketball is my favorite sport.
Speaker 3: Good m hm. That's why you get paid it to
Speaker 3: a podcast about it. That's right, Uh, Northwest Division, let's
Speaker 3: get into it here. It is the Joker's ready.
Speaker 2: He looks fired up.
Speaker 3: Tiger Woods fist pumped there, Nuggets fifty two and a half,
Speaker 3: Wolves forty four and a half, Thunder forty four and
Speaker 3: a half, Blazers twenty eight and a half, and the
Speaker 3: Jazz thirty five and a half. Denver Nuggets fifty two
Speaker 3: and a half, Jamal Jokic leading the way. They looked
Speaker 3: primed again to battle for a championship. Why wouldn't they be?
Speaker 3: That said, their deaths took a little bit of a hit, right.
Speaker 3: They lost two guys who ranked sixth and seventh on
Speaker 3: the team in total playoff minutes. I'm talking about Bruce
Speaker 3: Brown who left for Indiana. Jeff Green, he left for Houston.
Speaker 3: Got some decent money there. So Denver turned to the
Speaker 3: draft to get guys that they thought they could that
Speaker 3: are ready to play. I should say They acquired college
Speaker 3: junior wing Julian Strather, who looks great in preseason guys
Speaker 3: a bucket right now, and then they got two seniors,
Speaker 3: Jill and Pickett, and then Hunter Tyson. They also brought
Speaker 3: in Justin Holiday for some wing minutes possibly so the
Speaker 3: Nuggets fifty two and a half. I believe it is
Speaker 3: the highest here in the Western Conference. That's right, just
Speaker 3: a little bit higher than the Suns that we talked
Speaker 3: about at fifty one and a half. What do you
Speaker 3: do with this team?
Speaker 2: I think I'm going to be on the minority in
Speaker 2: this one's skeets. I see ninety one percent of the tickets,
Speaker 2: ninety eight percent of the handle or hitting the under
Speaker 2: for the Denver Knights. Not me, No, I think it's
Speaker 2: an over here. They finished fifty three and twenty nine
Speaker 2: last season. That includes going nine to ten in the
Speaker 2: months of March and April. They basically locked up the
Speaker 2: number one seed in the Western Conference, shut it down
Speaker 2: and went into chill mode, got healthy for the playoffs,
Speaker 2: and allowed Nikoleyokich to bow out of the MVP race
Speaker 2: during the last half of the season. I don't think
Speaker 2: they'll have that luxury this season. The Western Conference is
Speaker 2: going to be really competitive. I think teams are going
Speaker 2: to be vying for the top spot because nobody wants
Speaker 2: to have to go into Denver and try to win
Speaker 2: on the road. Meanwhile, they have a great home court advantage,
Speaker 2: so yeah, they're relying on youth this season. They definitely
Speaker 2: lost some veteranship, which I think as another part of
Speaker 2: the reason that Justin Holliday comes to town. Reggie Jackson
Speaker 2: I think has to have a better season this year
Speaker 2: than he did for the Clippers, and then with the
Speaker 2: Nuggets just because they need somebody else to be handling
Speaker 2: the ball off the bench with the loss of Bruce Brown,
Speaker 2: but basically the last for the last five seasons, Jamal
Speaker 2: Murray has been healthy, and when he's been healthy, the
Speaker 2: Nuggets winned a fifty three win pace. So as long
Speaker 2: as he stays on the court alongside Jokich, this team
Speaker 2: is going to pile up wins.
Speaker 3: Saw Schumann point out in one of his articles on
Speaker 3: NBA dot Com the Nuggets were the one seed in
Speaker 3: the West despite having the league's twenty ninth rank bench
Speaker 3: last season, but after a long playoff run, Shoe notes
Speaker 3: it would be nice if they could keep their starters
Speaker 3: a little more fresh. So you know Christian Brown is
Speaker 3: going to get an opportunity. But who are those rotation
Speaker 3: pieces seven through ten? You slipped in some names? You know,
Speaker 3: Reggie Jackson should be Peyton Watson. They're very high on
Speaker 3: Calvin Booth. Is at least are you know you brought
Speaker 3: the vibes calculation yesterday? I'm curious if if you had
Speaker 3: to do any last minute tinkering with your ViBe's valuation
Speaker 3: with the Nuggets after hearing these Kelvin Booth comments where
Speaker 3: and I'm paraphrasing here, he's sort of shipped on Michael
Speaker 3: Porter Junior in saying, well, we couldn't have two sort
Speaker 3: of boneheaded me first guys in Bones Hiland and Michael
Speaker 3: Porter Junior. So he shipped out Bones, but we still
Speaker 3: got one. But it's okay, we won a championship. Is
Speaker 3: that rock the boat at all to you in your
Speaker 3: ViBe's calculation? Kelvin Booth just being too damn real the
Speaker 3: v for vibes. No, I'm not factoring it in. Okay,
Speaker 3: he's not on the team, he's the GM.
Speaker 2: Doesn't matter. Okay, that's fine.
Speaker 3: The only thing harder than winning a title in the
Speaker 3: NBA is repeating the next season, so I'm excited to
Speaker 3: see how they tackle it, because like the way I
Speaker 3: look at this championship teams, they generally faced three challenges
Speaker 3: the following season. One inflated egos. I don't think that's
Speaker 3: gonna be a concern here because you're you're following after
Speaker 3: your superstar. Jokic doesn't even want to be here. I
Speaker 3: was just thinking of horses all day long, So I
Speaker 3: don't see that being a concern. Maybe maybe with a
Speaker 3: guy like Michael Portergut, I possibly, but I don't even
Speaker 3: see it there. Potential fatigue. Sure, that's why we're talking
Speaker 3: about this fifty two and a half win line. You
Speaker 3: said it. They shut it down at the end of
Speaker 3: last year. That could happen again. They could get up
Speaker 3: to a big lead, have a nice gap, and then
Speaker 3: you know it worked last year, Why wouldn't we do
Speaker 3: the same thing. And maybe that ends in, you know whatever,
Speaker 3: fifty one to fifty two wins. And then the other
Speaker 3: thing is filling holes, rotation spots left by guys who
Speaker 3: who went and got a bank, they cashed in on
Speaker 3: their great play on a championship team. Again, we're talking
Speaker 3: about Brown and Jeff Green, and they need to find
Speaker 3: those guys. But there they think they have them. I
Speaker 3: think in some of these guys in Strathor and Watson
Speaker 3: and Brown and who else and who knows? Who else?
Speaker 3: You know who hits litt.
Speaker 2: Who else? Do you know exactly? It doesn't matter. Man,
Speaker 2: Jeff Green was he was their seventh man. He was
Speaker 2: great in the playoffs when his veteranship showed up. He
Speaker 2: also averaged eight points a game and shot twenty eight
Speaker 2: percent from three last year. These are regular season win totals.
Speaker 2: Things are different on the playoffs, and then Nuggets could
Speaker 2: easily find a random vet come February. So yeah, that'll
Speaker 2: be a question for another time. But I think they're
Speaker 2: gonna do okay with these collection of young guys and
Speaker 2: you know, a couple of old these hanging out as well.
Speaker 3: All right, I'm leaning over just over Minnesota Timberwolves forty
Speaker 3: four and a half. They are running back this year
Speaker 3: with largely the same roster. I mean, Shake Milton is
Speaker 3: now here, Troy Brown Junior, I guess Tory and Prince
Speaker 3: is out. But they are hoping better health with Karl
Speaker 3: Anthony Towns that this team can finish higher in the West.
Speaker 3: The line is only forty four and a half where
Speaker 3: you lean in with this one.
Speaker 2: This one was tough for me because I use two
Speaker 2: factor authentication with regards to my over under picks skeets.
Speaker 2: The night before I go through and I just try
Speaker 2: and catch a feeling on a team. If I think
Speaker 2: they're gonna go over under, you know. Yeah, the next
Speaker 2: morning I look at it in the lighted day and say,
Speaker 2: what was I cooking? And I don't know about these
Speaker 2: Minnesota Timberwolves. I went over last night. I was like,
Speaker 2: Anthony Edwards is good. They're gonna get more games out
Speaker 2: of Karl Anthony Towns this season, a second year with
Speaker 2: a real training camp with Rudy Gobert. They're gonna be
Speaker 2: able to figure things out. But then you're also like,
Speaker 2: they won forty two games last season, Anthony Edwards already
Speaker 2: averaged twenty five a game. They had Mike Conley for
Speaker 2: twenty four games. They were mid twelve and twelve when
Speaker 2: Karl Anthony Towns played fifteen and fourteen. Every stat you
Speaker 2: look at for them, they're finishing right in the middle.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So I didn't really know.
Speaker 2: What to do with them. I'm going over. I'm going
Speaker 2: just a tiny bit over.
Speaker 3: Okay, I'm going over.
Speaker 2: I'm not feeling good about it, and I'm honestly you
Speaker 2: could easily talk me out of it in the next
Speaker 2: three minutes.
Speaker 3: You got three players making max money. You better be
Speaker 3: better than forty two and forty Yes, I mean you
Speaker 3: better be better than you know, forty four wins. Were saying
Speaker 3: you gotta be you would open your around the fifty
Speaker 3: win mark with three max contracts in in Edwards, in
Speaker 3: Town's and go bear. But like I'm with you, this
Speaker 3: is a tough one because you gotta be like a
Speaker 3: lot of things sort of gotta go right here. Yeah,
Speaker 3: for them to be flirting with the forty five to
Speaker 3: fifty win window, first off, we gotta we gotta figure
Speaker 3: out really if Cat and Gobert do work and mesh
Speaker 3: well together. Also, there is nasried they got another big
Speaker 3: that they paid, there was an extension. There's that Anthony
Speaker 3: Edwards is he going to another level? Is he going
Speaker 3: to be an all NBA guy? You know, fresh off
Speaker 3: the run with tm USA where he took them to
Speaker 3: an incredible fourth place finish. I'm not so sure. I
Speaker 3: think he Well, yeah, I mean, he's gonna get better
Speaker 3: because he's younger, But how high Jane McDaniels, Nikhil Alexander Walker,
Speaker 3: who I am high on? I mean, are there games
Speaker 3: gonna grow? Maybe? And Mike Conley he's thirty six, Like,
Speaker 3: is he gonna stay healthy? What type of Conley are
Speaker 3: you getting? They like, I feel like all of that
Speaker 3: has to work together at the exact same time, and
Speaker 3: then yeah, then you've got a really good team. But
Speaker 3: two or three of those things falter decline don't work.
Speaker 3: In the case of Cat and go Bear not matching,
Speaker 3: that's an issue. So I don't know what to do
Speaker 3: with it.
Speaker 2: That's what It's tough. They were like fighting on the
Speaker 2: bench last year, right, you know, as you're like, oh,
Speaker 2: they're bringing back everybody. Wait a second, they're bringing back everybody,
Speaker 2: the people that were punching each other.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 2: This is a This will be a stressful one if
Speaker 2: you're a Timberwolves fan.
Speaker 3: So you're going just over.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll go exactly forty five wins. I'm
Speaker 2: not feeling great about it. But another part of my
Speaker 2: figuring out over unders here is I want to have
Speaker 2: exactly fifteen overs and exactly fifteen hunders and it worked out.
Speaker 2: So I can't change it. I can't do it. Well.
Speaker 3: I was wondering if you will also have this team
Speaker 3: in the Northwest Division over or under, because I feel
Speaker 3: like some people you almost have to pick which one
Speaker 3: with the same line. I'm talking about the Thunder forty
Speaker 3: four and a half, the exact same line as the Wolves.
Speaker 3: They took a great step last year in their rebuilt
Speaker 3: finished forty and forty two, so the flip record of
Speaker 3: the Wolves. They just missed out on the actual playoffs.
Speaker 3: They beat the Pelicans and then lost to the Wolves
Speaker 3: in the play in tournament. Shay Gildos Alexander turned into
Speaker 3: an All NBA player. They saw growth from Giddy Jail
Speaker 3: and Williams. J Dubb Isaiah Joe was good LOUDRT at times,
Speaker 3: among many others. So what are they doing here? While
Speaker 3: they're bringing back the number two overall pick from two
Speaker 3: years ago, Chet Holmgren from a foot injury that kept
Speaker 3: him out all last season, they got Cason Wallace, who
Speaker 3: they traded up in the draft to get at number ten.
Speaker 3: I believe the Tuckey combo guard. They signed Vasilia Michic
Speaker 3: a two time year league MVP. He's there now in
Speaker 3: a three year deal and they use cap space to
Speaker 3: add like some really to get picks. But we're talking
Speaker 3: Rudy Gay Davis Berton's OLA depot. So okay, See, they
Speaker 3: seem to be the hipster pick here coming into the
Speaker 3: season of like, ooh yeah, forty four and a half.
Speaker 3: They could go way higher than that. What says you?
Speaker 2: I got a little nervous when I was reading Kevin
Speaker 2: Pelton's preseason projections and he mentioned the plexiglass principal. A
Speaker 2: team that has a big improvement in one year often
Speaker 2: has a small improvement the next. So that could easily
Speaker 2: be the Thunder. And I was definitely thinking of one
Speaker 2: of Minnesota and Oklahoma City. Once should go over, one
Speaker 2: should go under. Yeah, I went over with the Thunder
Speaker 2: or with the with the Timberwolves. Yeah, I'm going over
Speaker 2: with the Thunder.
Speaker 3: Oh We're doing both.
Speaker 2: And I don't feel as confident about this, just like
Speaker 2: I don't feel confident about the Minnesota Timberwolves. But I'm
Speaker 2: a big chet fan. I think he gives the Thunder
Speaker 2: exactly what they were missing last season rim protection, defensively,
Speaker 2: rebounding and a little bit of pressure at the rim.
Speaker 2: I think there are another trade potential team just because
Speaker 2: they have so many picks around that if they wanted
Speaker 2: to acquire a veteran and try and get in the
Speaker 2: top six, they could easily do it. The biggest loss
Speaker 2: for the Thunder I think this season is the surprise factor.
Speaker 2: Ain't nobody going to be taking them easily during this
Speaker 2: season after Shae Gil, just Alexander's All NBA season and
Speaker 2: the fact that they're just a competitive team. This is definitely,
Speaker 2: to me, not the season for the Thunder to really
Speaker 2: take a step forward and be a competitor in the
Speaker 2: Western Conference. This is more of a figure out what
Speaker 2: works season. You gotta see how Chet fits with everybody
Speaker 2: and if playing a five out style is going to
Speaker 2: be effective for this team. You gotta see just how
Speaker 2: Shay Gil's, Just Alexander and Josh Giddy can work together,
Speaker 2: you know, since both of them are best with the
Speaker 2: ball in their hands and Giddy isn't necessarily a great
Speaker 2: off ball player. I think you're trying to figure out
Speaker 2: if lou Dord is really a long term starter. Yeah
Speaker 2: here as well, so some thing to figure out, But
Speaker 2: I'm feeling too good about the Thunder right now forty
Speaker 2: five wins.
Speaker 3: I'm with you. I want to slow play this team.
Speaker 3: I don't want to get ahead of ourselves with them.
Speaker 3: But man, then I see them in like even preseason,
Speaker 3: and just like you see what you see Giddy and
Speaker 3: why wouldn't he improve Jalen Williams. I mean, I'm starting
Speaker 3: to convince myself this guy is gonna be another star
Speaker 3: like in this league on the wing position. What he
Speaker 3: can do obviously SGA. He's probably not gonna score thirty
Speaker 3: a game. Again, I don't think he will because of
Speaker 3: chat there and maybe even Jalen and some of these
Speaker 3: other guys getting more opportunity and more shots. But that's okay.
Speaker 3: I mean, he ain't goot a care if he's winning,
Speaker 3: you know, more than forty five games. So I'm gonna
Speaker 3: go just over too, because this the talent, the vibes
Speaker 3: to use your calculation there, they feel good and they
Speaker 3: could you never know. You never know when Presty's gonna
Speaker 3: like push all those draft picks in because of disgruntled
Speaker 3: superstar that wants out, and man, then suddenly you plug
Speaker 3: like another guy into this roster and it could be
Speaker 3: like Holy crap, they could be good. I'm not sure
Speaker 3: that will happen because, I mean, this guy notoriously takes
Speaker 3: his but forty four and a half. It's a good line.
Speaker 2: It's a good line.
Speaker 3: I like that. Bet MGM knows they're a good team.
Speaker 3: But just how good they are they I'm gonna go
Speaker 3: just over, man. I can't wait to watch them, though.
Speaker 3: I'm very excited about the squad. Portland Trailblazers twenty eight
Speaker 3: and a half. What's new for Portland? They got Scoot
Speaker 3: Henderson at number three in the draft. They also took
Speaker 3: Chris Murray, Keegan Murray's brother, the twenty third pick. They
Speaker 3: re signed two forwards, Jeremy Grant one hundred and sixty
Speaker 3: million over five years, Matisse Thibel, and in two trades
Speaker 3: involving three other teams, they got DeAndre Ayton, Brogden, still Kamara,
Speaker 3: time Lord, some picks, some swaps, all of that really
Speaker 3: For Damian Lillard twenty eight and a half, you already
Speaker 3: said it off the top, you think this is going
Speaker 3: to be still one of the bad teams in the
Speaker 3: Western Conference. So I guess you're going under.
Speaker 2: I think I'm going under. But basically, just because some
Speaker 2: teams in the Western Conference have to lose, like not
Speaker 2: every team can possibly be good. It's kind of a
Speaker 2: weird team though, now for Portland, because they feel like
Speaker 2: a rebuilding team obviously now the Damian Lillard is gone.
Speaker 2: They've got a ton of young guys, but they also
Speaker 2: have a ton of veterans who are all not that
Speaker 2: old as well. Like their oldest guy is Malcolm Brogden,
Speaker 2: the only guy on the team who is thirty thirty
Speaker 2: years old. And then you've got like anthrety Simon's he's
Speaker 2: a VET, he's been around for a few seasons, but
Speaker 2: he's still really young. Ayton is a young VET, as
Speaker 2: are Jeremy Grant time Lord as well. So they have
Speaker 2: a good team around Scoot Henderson I think, so that
Speaker 2: he's not going to just be completely floundering out there.
Speaker 2: They definitely have trade potential with Brogden and Jeremy Grant
Speaker 2: and Robert Williams, all of whom could be moved at
Speaker 2: some point during the season, which would hurt their projected
Speaker 2: win total. I assume one of those, if not too,
Speaker 2: will happen eventually. The Portland OH Chicago at top fourteen
Speaker 2: protected draft pick so tank away Boys is kind of
Speaker 2: how it plays out to me. I'm going under here,
Speaker 2: though I don't think they'll be super far under twenty
Speaker 2: eight wins.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think you're right. I'm also going under. I'm
Speaker 3: leaning that way. I love like what they have going here.
Speaker 3: I mean, you traded away your franchise guy, one of
Speaker 3: your greatest players in the history of your team, and
Speaker 3: Damian Lillard and you Usually when that happens, you're left
Speaker 3: going Jesus like you're just looking at the rubble. You're like, oh,
Speaker 3: this is gonna be rough. It don't look that way.
Speaker 3: I mean, Scoot eight and time, Lord Sharp and Simons.
Speaker 3: That's an intriguing set of young players. There's still Jeremy Grant.
Speaker 3: Maybe they look to move him and get more picks
Speaker 3: or more young players in return. But then you go,
Speaker 3: when was the last time a team that's made up
Speaker 3: of all guys that are basically twenty five and under right,
Speaker 3: I mean Brogden's probably gonna get moved to without an
Speaker 3: All star in the bunch, When did they do really
Speaker 3: anything special? I mean, and those type of teams they
Speaker 3: generally struggle to defend too, which I think is going
Speaker 3: to be an issue here. I think they're gonna be entertaining.
Speaker 3: I think they're going to lose a lot of games
Speaker 3: sort of in the fourth quarter and in second halfs
Speaker 3: So I go under. But uh, fun players on this team.
Speaker 3: The highlights from you know, Sharp alone and some of
Speaker 3: these lobs maybe to uh to time, Lord and Neaton
Speaker 3: could be fun. Blazers asked a great question too. I
Speaker 3: thought it was well, that was one of their questions. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and we'll find out. You're right. Can Chauncey Billups coach?
Speaker 2: He hasn't really had to.
Speaker 3: Well, look at he's hired back in twenty twenty one.
Speaker 3: He comes into the league with zero head coaching experience.
Speaker 3: He is tasked with growing a playoff contender around of course,
Speaker 3: now the departed Lillard, the Blazer's got two trips to
Speaker 3: the lottery instead. And so now, as we said, this
Speaker 3: roster is basically all under the age of twenty five,
Speaker 3: Like his mission is now completely switched, right, it's like
Speaker 3: player development around Scoot and these young guys. I mean,
Speaker 3: maybe he'll be better at that than the prior plan
Speaker 3: of like win and like try and get dem into
Speaker 3: some playoffs success, But maybe not. Maybe he's just not
Speaker 3: a good coach. So I think he could be on
Speaker 3: the I think he could be on a hot seat
Speaker 3: here if they got off to a really really bad start.
Speaker 3: I mean what, like, what would be the reason to
Speaker 3: keep him?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're probably right that he's on the hot seat,
Speaker 2: But also what would be the point in getting rid
Speaker 2: of your coach when you're not really expected to win?
Speaker 2: I guess that Portland, if they're looking for a model
Speaker 2: for how to have a successful season, it is going
Speaker 2: to be last year as Utah Jazz, they traded away
Speaker 2: two of their best players in Mitchell and Gobert. Had
Speaker 2: the remnants from those trades all kind of decent NBA
Speaker 2: players who were established and kind of caught the league
Speaker 2: by surprise by having a system that caught everybody off guard.
Speaker 2: They didn't play any defense, like you're saying a young team,
Speaker 2: they played no defense, but playing that five out style,
Speaker 2: they were able to stack up a bunch of wins
Speaker 2: until they started trading. The be's a way again. So
Speaker 2: we'll see. Is Chauncey Billips as good of a coach
Speaker 2: as Will Hardy. He has not been through one season
Speaker 2: Will Hardy's career. But like you're saying he has gotten
Speaker 2: some pretty solid development. I think out of anfrety Simons,
Speaker 2: he's become a real player with Damian Lillard resting quite
Speaker 2: a bit during the past couple of seasons, so Phillips
Speaker 2: has been good for Simons's growth. And I suppose if
Speaker 2: you have a franchise point guard coming in in Scoot Henderson,
Speaker 2: good to learn from an established NBA point guard in
Speaker 2: Chauncey Bill.
Speaker 3: I think you're in for quite the roller coaster season
Speaker 3: from Scoot, where the highs are high forty point games,
Speaker 3: he pops off whatever, and then the lows or lows
Speaker 3: like there's going to be some rough shooting nights, you
Speaker 3: know where he struggles from philp And that's okay. And
Speaker 3: he's coming in being asked to play the toughest really
Speaker 3: maybe position in the NBA, at least the one position
Speaker 3: that takes the longest to sort of get comfortable with.
Speaker 3: But that's a good point about Billups obviously being a
Speaker 3: former point guard and future Hall of Famer, probably that
Speaker 3: he is going to learn from utadj Us. You slipped
Speaker 3: it in there thirty five and a half getting a
Speaker 3: little more respect. They were a pleasant surprise last season.
Speaker 3: They got off to a ten and three start, remember that,
Speaker 3: and they I think they had surpassed their win total
Speaker 3: before the All Star break last year because they they
Speaker 3: were Yeah, they were pegged to be one of the
Speaker 3: worst teams in the league. I was wrong about them.
Speaker 3: I thought they were going to be. They finished in
Speaker 3: the end thirty seven and forty five. So what did
Speaker 3: they do? They added Hawks forward John Collins. He is there.
Speaker 3: They used their first round picks on Taylor Hendricks and
Speaker 3: Kyante George, who they are very high on. He could
Speaker 3: be maybe starting soon for this team at the guard position,
Speaker 3: and Jordan Clarkson decided to sign a three year contract
Speaker 3: extension rather than test the free agent waters. Thirty five
Speaker 3: and a half is the line I said for Utah Jazz.
Speaker 3: What do you think.
Speaker 2: I think that's a tiny line. That's the thing that
Speaker 2: sticks out of me. Thirty five and a half. That's
Speaker 2: pretty low. This team won thirty seven games last year,
Speaker 2: but they fell off hard eight and fourteen after the
Speaker 2: All Star break when they had traded away, you know,
Speaker 2: some of their established veterans. I think they're back to
Speaker 2: development mode, like you're mentioning. They had two first round
Speaker 2: picks this year. And one of them might end up
Speaker 2: starting Kiante George. That tells me you're not pushing all
Speaker 2: in trying to win this season. I still think there
Speaker 2: is a baseline of talent here. I think the system
Speaker 2: works in the regular season just because you don't see
Speaker 2: a team that's playing shooters at the four and five
Speaker 2: all that often playing that five out style, So they
Speaker 2: probably are going to be successful again. The offensive rebound
Speaker 2: like crazy. I guess maybe the offense takes a little
Speaker 2: bit of a step back if we're getting more Walker Kessler,
Speaker 2: just because you know, a Lennux a more versatile offensive
Speaker 2: player at the very least. So I'm going over here,
Speaker 2: but barely. I think they could get back to thirty
Speaker 2: seven wins. The Jazz could, but I could definitely see
Speaker 2: this one going under.
Speaker 3: How do you feel about John Collins here in Utah? Like?
Speaker 3: Is he going to have a lowry market in like resurgence?
Speaker 3: Can will Hardy do it again?
Speaker 2: Well? I don't know. We used to talk about John
Speaker 2: Collins as a potential All Star, yeah, early in his
Speaker 2: career in Atlanta or you know the path, Yeah, and
Speaker 2: having the space that the Jazz system creates would definitely
Speaker 2: be helpful for him. But if they are planning on
Speaker 2: running a lineup out there of market In Kessler and
Speaker 2: John Collins, that doesn't bode well to me for Collins
Speaker 2: becoming an All Star. I'll probably have better seasons than
Speaker 2: he did at the end of his Atlanta career, where
Speaker 2: he just felt like he was kind of standing out
Speaker 2: there waiting to catch wide open three pointers. But I
Speaker 2: think he helps on the rebounding at the very least,
Speaker 2: and as an older guy, I think it's good to
Speaker 2: get one of those vets back after they shipped everybody
Speaker 2: out at the trade deadline last year.
Speaker 3: I would say for the most part, the stream team
Speaker 3: seems to be leaning towards over for the Jazz, and
Speaker 3: people are liking the idea of them at least replicating
Speaker 3: the thirty seven win season though they had last year.
Speaker 3: Though I don't see them probably starting ten to three
Speaker 3: and I did sort of forget about that. That's a
Speaker 3: hell of a hot start there, and then they sort
Speaker 3: of obviously pivoted with their organizational sort of game plan
Speaker 3: moving forward, but they got a lot of talent. I
Speaker 3: guess I would lean just over as well. You talk
Speaker 3: me until that thirty six thirty seven win season something
Speaker 3: like that, hopefully playing or having hopes to get into
Speaker 3: like a play in position in the final three weeks
Speaker 3: of the season. Maybe they're in the running. Put me
Speaker 3: down for the Utah Jazz being one of the fantastic
Speaker 3: teams in the in season tournament for no reason. Okay,
Speaker 3: you heard it here first. I like the Jazz in
Speaker 3: the in season tournament. All right, we gotta take one
Speaker 3: more break and when we come back, the Southwest Division.
Speaker 3: Don't go anywhere. Okay, our final division it's the Southwest Division. Yeah,
Speaker 3: Texas JD. Show me that sexy graphic that you put together. Oh,
Speaker 3: Wemby makes it. We got Dallas forty five and a half,
Speaker 3: Houston thirty one and a half, Memphis is Memphis in
Speaker 3: Texas kidding forty five and a half. New Orleans forty
Speaker 3: four and a half. In San Antonio twenty eight and
Speaker 3: a half. We start with Dallas. Safe to say they
Speaker 3: were a major disappointment last season. They finished thirty eight
Speaker 3: and forty four. They missed the play in let alone
Speaker 3: the playoffs. That's why they got busy this offseason. They
Speaker 3: re signed Kyrie Irving to a three year, one hundred
Speaker 3: and twenty six million dollars deal. They signed White Powell
Speaker 3: to a lot less than that. They traded for Grant
Speaker 3: Williams and Rashaun Holmes. They drafted athletic big man Derek
Speaker 3: Lively the second and potential three and d Guy Omax prosper.
Speaker 3: They signed Derek Jones, Junior, Dante Exhem Seth Curry, who's
Speaker 3: back for the third time. I think with the Dallas Mavericks.
Speaker 3: Oh wow, yeah, somebody fact checked me on that, but
Speaker 3: that's really what they did. Have they done enough to
Speaker 3: win over I guess forty six wins or more?
Speaker 2: Wow, Seth Curry, that is right three times? This is
Speaker 2: the Stavericks. Yeah, they're like me when it comes to
Speaker 2: NBA two K. I'm always getting Seth Curry. I like
Speaker 2: that guy's gonna be helpful. Yeah, exactly. In NBA two
Speaker 2: K he's awesome, man, because like he shoots forty five
Speaker 2: percent from three. Uh, and you don't really care about
Speaker 2: his defense because you're just simming through these It's like, yeah,
Speaker 2: I'll take Seth Curry. I kick it, Steph. Why not
Speaker 2: thirty eight and forty four last season but barely a
Speaker 2: positive point differential. They had a lot of losses in
Speaker 2: the clutch, especially especially when they trade him for Kyrie
Speaker 2: Irving and it was like Luca, you could see them
Speaker 2: trying to figure out who should have the ball, How
Speaker 2: are we getting the best out of each other? They
Speaker 2: couldn't figure it out. I think they'll be better in
Speaker 2: the clutch in year two with Kyrie and Luca, just
Speaker 2: because they will have a longer time to try and
Speaker 2: figure it out. I think the team makes a lot
Speaker 2: more sense this season than it does after the trade
Speaker 2: for Kyrie. They've improved their personnel. But also when you're
Speaker 2: reading through the names, I'm like, okay, okay, okay, Grant Williams.
Speaker 2: He's probably the only guy that really helps here. So
Speaker 2: I'm going under just because I don't think they were
Speaker 2: really a thirty eight win team last year. Obviously we
Speaker 2: know about them tanking at the end of the season,
Speaker 2: but I also don't think that they are going to
Speaker 2: be eight wins better this season to get up to
Speaker 2: forty six wins. So I think they will improve. I
Speaker 2: think they'll be in like the forty one to forty
Speaker 2: four range, So that still leaves me with an under.
Speaker 3: I like that they are at least in the offseason
Speaker 3: tried to address their defense. You know, Grant Williams is
Speaker 3: a good defensive player. I'm not sure I want Grant
Speaker 3: Williams to be possibly the third best player on my team,
Speaker 3: which I think when you'll look at the roster he
Speaker 3: might be. So there's that issue. But anyway, he plays defense. Obviously,
Speaker 3: Derek Lively the second the idea. You know, a big athletic,
Speaker 3: maybe defensive minded guy. Oh Max prosper As I said,
Speaker 3: you know, even Andante xem and Derek Jones, like those
Speaker 3: guys are like more known for their defense than it
Speaker 3: is for their offense. So I like that because they
Speaker 3: were garbage last year on defense, excuse me, which was
Speaker 3: weird because the year before that, first year Jason Kidd bumped,
Speaker 3: they were the fifth ranked defense in the twenty one
Speaker 3: to twenty two season. Last year they fell to twenty
Speaker 3: fifth in the league. So they got to be better
Speaker 3: on that end, and they're hoping some of the personnel helps.
Speaker 3: Because when Kyrie and Luke were on the floor, they
Speaker 3: had like a one hundred and nineteen point two offensive rating.
Speaker 3: I mean, that's not really the issue. They gotta gets
Speaker 3: around those guys. This is a good line. It feels
Speaker 3: exactly where they'll be. I was down on the Mavericks
Speaker 3: last year, you might remember in our preseason shows. I'm
Speaker 3: not as down as much because this line feels, you know,
Speaker 3: more in tune with what they'll be. Oh my god,
Speaker 3: it's a flip a coin. They're gonna be right there, truthfully,
Speaker 3: like it's gonna be there, so good at this it's
Speaker 3: gonna be forty four, forty five and forty six wins.
Speaker 3: I know it, I know it, So I guess. I mean,
Speaker 3: I don't have a coin on me, because who carries
Speaker 3: money any nowadays?
Speaker 2: You know, like coins, coins?
Speaker 3: Was the last time you held a coin?
Speaker 2: The last time I held a coin? Yeah, I was
Speaker 2: probably given one by a kid, but like pocket full
Speaker 2: of change? Never probably not in the twenty twenty.
Speaker 3: Do you have coins in your car? Even?
Speaker 2: I do? Interesting? Interesting? Maybe maybe thirty five cents total.
Speaker 3: Really, you think it's so oh you think it's like
Speaker 3: buried in the car's in another relic of forgotten time,
Speaker 3: the cigarette ashtray.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, you know it's like the car makers after
Speaker 2: like after the twenty tens, they didn't know what to
Speaker 2: do with the space that they would put an ashtray.
Speaker 3: They're like, just put a hole. Yeah, put a hole.
Speaker 2: What are you gonna put in there? Coins? Nobody uses coins.
Speaker 2: Pretty soon we're not gonna have any holes in our cars.
Speaker 2: A good point over underund the number of years before
Speaker 2: there are no trays in your car.
Speaker 3: I actually prefer that because I just cleaned my car.
Speaker 3: Flat surfaces a little bit, because I just cleaned my
Speaker 3: car not that long ago, and those are the most
Speaker 3: annoying places to clean, all these crevices, like you said,
Speaker 3: in the door, to hold things that I never put
Speaker 3: in there, just dust and dirt. So yeah, flat interior,
Speaker 3: all right, that's what we want.
Speaker 2: Tweet had us pictures of coins in your car.
Speaker 3: Get that. Oh yeah, coins in the car. I'm gonna
Speaker 3: find one later. I'm gonna flip it, but right now
Speaker 3: I'm going under. I will do it nice. I'll post it.
Speaker 3: I got Mavericks just under, though I don't believe that
Speaker 3: much in the defense being too too much better.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 3: Houston Rockets thirty one and a half. What did they do?
Speaker 3: Your Doka is in he's a coach. They did a lot.
Speaker 3: They drafted Iman Thompson and Cam Whitmore, who was the
Speaker 3: summer League MVP. Uh. He was a projected top five pick,
Speaker 3: dropped all the way to twenty because of medical and
Speaker 3: or personality issues. Did you see his dunk? That wasn't
Speaker 3: a dunk in preseason last night? Sorry he flew and
Speaker 3: we got an other charge. Oh my god. They gave
Speaker 3: Fred van Vlid a bag. They signed Dylan Brooks, Jock Landell,
Speaker 3: Jeff Green, Aaron Holliday, Reggie Bullock in free agency. Seven
Speaker 3: guys are out. I mean, there's a different team here.
Speaker 3: Besides like you're the Jalen Green and Shehnghun and stuff
Speaker 3: like that. They finished twenty two and sixty last year,
Speaker 3: so this line thirty one and a half. That's a
Speaker 3: it's a heck of a jump. You know, we're looking
Speaker 3: at a ten win improvement here. Do you think the
Speaker 3: Rockets have it in them?
Speaker 2: I don't think they have a ten win improvement in them,
Speaker 2: but I think they are gonna feel like they're ten
Speaker 2: wins better because this now seems like a professional team
Speaker 2: to me. Bringing an email Udoka as the coach, and
Speaker 2: all of the veterans who are at least going to
Speaker 2: be giving effort defensively right and helping these teams or
Speaker 2: helping the Rockets learn how to win. Kelly Eco just
Speaker 2: had a great column on the Athletic he can subscribe
Speaker 2: at the Athletic dot com slash no Dunks, and he
Speaker 2: was asking all of these players on the Rockets, and
Speaker 2: I believe on the Pacers as well, what's the best
Speaker 2: advice you got as a rookie? And all of the
Speaker 2: Rockets were like, I didn't get any good advice. Everybody
Speaker 2: was my same age. I'm not taking advice from somebody
Speaker 2: who's my age, which fair enough, that's a hard thing.
Speaker 3: Like Jabari Smith Junior is not turning towards Jayalen Green
Speaker 3: and saying, give me some advice.
Speaker 2: And what was it like for you playing that one
Speaker 2: extra season?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 2: Like what's uh, what's ty Ty Washington gonna teach Tarry
Speaker 2: Eason right now?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Right?
Speaker 2: Those are the things that keep me up with n
Speaker 2: So I think they had better advice in the locker room.
Speaker 2: Maybe maybe from Eudoka who knows at least basketball wise.
Speaker 2: Freend van Vliet I think is going to be a
Speaker 2: good guy to have around, as are Dylan, as is
Speaker 2: Dylan Brooks. Guys who were like not hyped prospects, right,
Speaker 2: guys who have made their name in the NBA by
Speaker 2: giving effort and by doing the little things, even if
Speaker 2: sometimes the little things is a little tapping up the
Speaker 2: Rockies from Dylan Brooks. I can't believe this guy's hitting
Speaker 2: nuts in the preseason Skeets wild stuff, but that's why
Speaker 2: you bring in them in. I still think they're under
Speaker 2: but this is just another bet of somebody has to
Speaker 2: lose in the West, and the Rockets are not very
Speaker 2: flower along and they're rebuilt.
Speaker 3: Yeah, ten feels like a lot, like I said twenty
Speaker 3: two to thirty two to hit the over. They're gonna
Speaker 3: be better because of all the reasons you just went through,
Speaker 3: and even just coaching alone. I think Udoka is a
Speaker 3: more capable coach than Steven Silas is and was. And
Speaker 3: they spent money on upgrading the roster, and they got
Speaker 3: some of these guys in where they overpaid. Maybe, but
Speaker 3: if it helps you win games, which is the point here,
Speaker 3: then that's great. I wonder of their young guys, who's
Speaker 3: gonna really pop up, Who's gonna who's gonna like I
Speaker 3: don't know in playing alongside Vets, Who's that gonna help more?
Speaker 2: Is it?
Speaker 3: Jamari Smith Junior is it Jalen Green, is it Sheng Gun,
Speaker 3: is it Tarry Easton? I mean they're gonna pray it's
Speaker 3: three of those four guys, like they take a bit
Speaker 3: of a leap, and it could be because they showed promises.
Speaker 3: Oh yeahsh yeah. But it's you know, it's the consistency
Speaker 3: of stringing it all together throughout a game and then
Speaker 3: a season. But that's where the Vets come in. I
Speaker 3: like them to be. I like the honestly flirting with
Speaker 3: this over under. I think they'll be knocking on the door.
Speaker 3: But I think I should go just under because we
Speaker 3: do need some bad teams in this yas Miss Conference,
Speaker 3: so some teams not winning, you know, some thirty games,
Speaker 3: I guess.
Speaker 2: Ask for your question of who thrives playing next to
Speaker 2: the Vets, I think Jabari Smith is the answer for me,
Speaker 2: just because it feels like his game will improve if
Speaker 2: he's playing alongside creators who are playmakers. I don't know.
Speaker 2: Fred van Vliet is a great playmaker in the realm
Speaker 2: of the NBA, but compared to what the Rockets have
Speaker 2: had for last season, Jalen Green is a good shot
Speaker 2: creator for Jalen Green, but he's not necessarily getting great
Speaker 2: looks for Jabari Smith. I think playing alongside an established
Speaker 2: point guard will be great for Smith because he's a
Speaker 2: good catch and shoot player, and as we saw in
Speaker 2: Summer League, he's added to his game as well. Yeah,
Speaker 2: from a scoring perspective, so I think he should have
Speaker 2: a little bit of a breakout second season.
Speaker 3: No good here in the Stream team asked me, are
Speaker 3: you rooting for Fred van Vliet to have success in
Speaker 3: Houston or are you on the not on my team anymore? Bye? No,
Speaker 3: absolutely not. I'm I would love nothing more than to
Speaker 3: see VanVleet come in here and get this team like
Speaker 3: maybe they're like the surprise like Utah Jazz last year
Speaker 3: and off to a hot start and all the young
Speaker 3: talents clicking and those guys, especially Brooks and Van Vleet
Speaker 3: helping them get there.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: No, I am rooting. I'm rooting for Fred VanVleet. Why not.
Speaker 3: He's a good guy.
Speaker 2: He's a good guy, an Illinois boy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so good luck. We all bet on Fred. That's right,
Speaker 3: says Pierre. They're in the stream team. Okay, a few
Speaker 3: more teams. The Memphis Grizzlies forty five and a half wins,
Speaker 3: It is easy to forget thanks to guns on Instagram,
Speaker 3: but the Grizzlies have won fifty one plus games in
Speaker 3: each of the past two seasons. They're the only team
Speaker 3: in the conference to do that. They were the number
Speaker 3: two seed in the West both years. But we obviously
Speaker 3: know In June Adam Silver announcing a twenty five game
Speaker 3: suspension to start this season for John Morant. They let
Speaker 3: Dylan Brooks their defensive stoppers slash headache I guess walking
Speaker 3: free agency, though they did trade for defensive Player of
Speaker 3: the Year winner from a few years ago, Marcus Smart.
Speaker 3: They lost Tys Jones in that deal, though, and they
Speaker 3: added Derek Rose. They also gave Desmond Ban a five year,
Speaker 3: two hundred and seven million dollar extension, the richest in
Speaker 3: team history. What do you think, Memphis Grizzlies forty five
Speaker 3: and a half off feels like another tough one obviously
Speaker 3: with the especially with the John Morant being out twenty
Speaker 3: five games.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's definitely the thing that gives you pause. On
Speaker 2: the total twenty five games, that's a lot of games.
Speaker 2: So for him to really for the Grizzlies to really
Speaker 2: go over, like John's got to play the other fifty
Speaker 2: seven basically right, and he has missed some time in
Speaker 2: his career with various injuries. But if he's able to
Speaker 2: stay on the court for the other fifty seven games.
Speaker 2: You look at last year's team fifty one wins. They're
Speaker 2: the only team in the Western Conference coming off back
Speaker 2: to back fifty win seasons. John only played sixty one
Speaker 2: games last year. Jared Jackson Junior played sixty three games,
Speaker 2: Steven Adams forty two, Brandon Clark fifty six. This is
Speaker 2: a team that is used to their players missing time
Speaker 2: and kind of not taking a step back. They're still
Speaker 2: very young as a team. A lot of their rotation
Speaker 2: once you get past the starters as guys on their
Speaker 2: rookie contracts, which you know can be harrow income playoff time,
Speaker 2: but also in the regular season, you're getting a lot
Speaker 2: of looks at different people. Here, they are a prove
Speaker 2: it in the playoffs team because the Grizzlies have not
Speaker 2: looked as good in the postseason as they have during
Speaker 2: the regular season. But I think the number got too
Speaker 2: small here. I saw that the Grizzlies were number one
Speaker 2: in Kevin Pelton's math projections. Here I'm going over I
Speaker 2: think they could challenge for fifty wins. Again, forty five
Speaker 2: is just too small of a number for me.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that makes some sense. I'm excited to see the
Speaker 3: numbers that Desmond made, butts up. I think here in
Speaker 3: the first couple months of the season he could be
Speaker 3: flirting with an All Star selection that could be in play.
Speaker 3: I saw somebody in the stream team say, well, the
Speaker 3: Grizzlies have been good in years prior without John Morant. Yes,
Speaker 3: this is true, but I slipped it in there. A
Speaker 3: big part of that was Tys Jones as probably the
Speaker 3: best backup point guard in the league, sort of taking
Speaker 3: over the reins and continuing to run that team. He's
Speaker 3: not there now, so that sort of falls down to
Speaker 3: other guys on this roster. Their bench is Luke Cannard.
Speaker 3: You know, Derrick Rose is there, David the Body, Roddy
Speaker 3: Santi al Dama, say, you're Williams, Xavier Tillman. Brandon Clark
Speaker 3: is there, but he's out I think for the first
Speaker 3: half of the season still due to a torn achilles.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Does that? Yeah, Like I just read that bench. How
Speaker 3: do you confidence in that squad? Some players there no
Speaker 3: problems at least again, this whole thing of the first
Speaker 3: twenty five games. It's a different team without your superstar.
Speaker 2: One of the Grizzlies young role players ever been bad.
Speaker 2: They're always good, That's true. Last year, coming into the season,
Speaker 2: I was like, I don't know if it's a great
Speaker 2: idea letting d Anthony Melton and Kyle Anderson go to
Speaker 2: their various teams. They didn't miss a step. Yeah, the
Speaker 2: Grizzlies have a great development project program. They really value
Speaker 2: their draft picks, which is why they don't make a
Speaker 2: ton of trades for players, and they always feel like
Speaker 2: they can get people later in the first round or
Speaker 2: in the second round. So I think they'll still be good. Though.
Speaker 2: I did see that Kenneth Afton Jr. Came in over
Speaker 2: three hundred pounds. We might have a new Oliver Miller
Speaker 2: on our hands.
Speaker 3: Yes, that's exciting. I forgot he was on this squad.
Speaker 3: And look the defense. I know Dylan Brooks goes and
Speaker 3: he was a great defensive wing stopper. But you do
Speaker 3: have Jaron Jackson Jr. Who just won the Defensive Player
Speaker 3: of the Year and Marcus Smart who won't you two
Speaker 3: years prior, and obviously we know what he can do
Speaker 3: on the perimeter. That's why I think I lean over.
Speaker 3: I also think, I mean John Moran is getting to
Speaker 3: be around the team. He's getting to like be at practices,
Speaker 3: he said. I mean, I don't know if he's going
Speaker 3: to be traveling on the road with the team. I
Speaker 3: assume he will be.
Speaker 2: I think he goes to Denver.
Speaker 3: I wasn't gonna say it. He is gonna come out Gangbusters?
Speaker 3: Is he not? When do you get poor choice awards?
Speaker 3: He's a fake gangster. Anyway, he's gonna come out. He
Speaker 3: should come out firing with something to prove he'll be
Speaker 3: on target.
Speaker 2: I think he is.
Speaker 3: He should be, and he also should go on the
Speaker 3: Dunk Contest when that should be his apology. You know,
Speaker 3: a part of his apology, he's like, you know, his
Speaker 3: little olive branch to all of us NBA fans. That's right,
Speaker 3: like missing twenty five games. Hey, okay, I screwed up.
Speaker 2: I've learned.
Speaker 3: I've moved on. Let's go in the dunk contest. Put
Speaker 3: on a show for you. Come on, do that, Joe.
Speaker 3: But I'm gonna go over with you. I do like it. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Two teams left New Orleans Pelicans forty four and a half.
Speaker 3: To quote Sean Powell at NBA dot Com, Zion Williamson
Speaker 3: could make it through the season. That's your recap of
Speaker 3: the twenty two to twenty three Repelicans, right there. A
Speaker 3: lot of truth to that. They stayed relatively quiet in
Speaker 3: the offseason. They drafted Jordan Hawkins, they signed Cody Zeller,
Speaker 3: and they brought back Herb Jones on a new deal.
Speaker 3: They did not do a whole lot of other things.
Speaker 3: He only played twenty nine games Ion last year. You
Speaker 3: know you're praying that he plays more. Where do you
Speaker 3: go with this team? Do you believe in them just
Speaker 3: staying healthy enough? Forty four and a half wins?
Speaker 2: I don't believe in them staying healthy enough. It's just
Speaker 2: how can you how can you bet on this like this?
Speaker 3: To me, it's off to a bad start.
Speaker 2: It ain't gonna be a lock for anybody. Yeah, exactly right.
Speaker 2: Tray Murphy the third already out. Brandon Ingram has had
Speaker 2: missed time basically every season since he's come to New Orleans.
Speaker 2: Larry nance Junior a surprisingly important player for them. I
Speaker 2: feel like he misses a little bit of time here
Speaker 2: and there, and then Zion obviously is the huge question
Speaker 2: mark seventeen to twelve in his twenty nine games. Last season,
Speaker 2: they were in first place for a chunk of the
Speaker 2: season in the Western Conference. There so this is a
Speaker 2: team that could finish the one seed in the Western
Speaker 2: Conference and the twelve seed in the Western Conference. I'm
Speaker 2: going under just because that feels like the right thing
Speaker 2: to do when you're uncertain about who's actually going to
Speaker 2: be playing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, John Hollinger agrees with you. There are no bad
Speaker 3: predictions when it comes to this year's Pelicans. You could
Speaker 3: convince me of basically anything like you said, Zion in
Speaker 3: the running for MVP and they're near the top of
Speaker 3: the West, or yeah, they finish to quote John Hollinger,
Speaker 3: eight and seventy four. Because every single player on the
Speaker 3: team had a season ending injury. Not going to rule
Speaker 3: that one out either. Trey Murphy the third meniscus injury.
Speaker 3: He's out probably to start this year. Jose Alvarado, he's
Speaker 3: got an ankle injury during the offseason. They're hoping he
Speaker 3: is back and healthy for Game one of the regular season,
Speaker 3: but that's an issue. And then over the weekend, the
Speaker 3: Pelicans said Naji Marshall has been diagnosed with a bone
Speaker 3: bruise in his knee after undergoing an MRI. He's going
Speaker 3: to be reevaluated in two weeks, so maybe he's not
Speaker 3: there to start like the already and then yeah, the superstars.
Speaker 3: I mean, Zion has what missed more than sixty percent
Speaker 3: of his team's total games toot his career. Tough to
Speaker 3: bet on this team and this stat I said it
Speaker 3: last year. I think it still blows my mind. The
Speaker 3: Pelicans brought in CJ McCollum at the twenty two trade
Speaker 3: deadline twenty two trade deadline. He has played a total
Speaker 3: of ten games with Zion and Brandon Ingram, the three
Speaker 3: of them out there. Yeah, like they're three best players,
Speaker 3: three really good players, but we've never seen them play basically,
Speaker 3: So I am going under.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, because when you're looking at like the games
Speaker 2: played from this team last year, it's like your best
Speaker 2: two players are CJ. McCollum and Yonis Valanciunas for the
Speaker 2: majority of the season. Because those guys are reliable, but
Speaker 2: they ain't carrying you to a lot of wins. So yeah,
Speaker 2: I gotta go under. But man, if they if you
Speaker 2: told me you could get eighty two games out of
Speaker 2: every player on the roster for every team in the NBA,
Speaker 2: you would still be talking about the Pelicans as like
Speaker 2: maybe they could finish third in the Western Conference. They
Speaker 2: play everybody.
Speaker 3: Yep, Final one here, San Antonio Spurs twenty eight and
Speaker 3: a half women. Yama arrived in San Antonio as the
Speaker 3: league's most anticipated prospect since Lebron. He's looked great in
Speaker 3: his preseason action, doing some wild things. Because of this,
Speaker 3: probably Pop signed a five year extension to keep him
Speaker 3: there with the organization for at least a little while.
Speaker 3: They also signed Devin Vessel not that long ago to
Speaker 3: a multi year contract extension. It's a young, young roster,
Speaker 3: but do you believe in them? You know, flirting around
Speaker 3: the third you win mark or are you going to
Speaker 3: be going under?
Speaker 2: I'm gonna be going under. This is another somebody has
Speaker 2: to lose team, and I think it will be the
Speaker 2: San Antonio Spurs. They were really bad last season. You know,
Speaker 2: they didn't finish with the worst record in the NBA,
Speaker 2: but it kind of obscured the fact that they were
Speaker 2: twenty ninth in offense thirtieth in defense last season. I'm
Speaker 2: guessing they're in the teens at the very least defensively
Speaker 2: this year. Theoretically, they will get more games from Devin Vessel,
Speaker 2: and then Victor should be an impact player defensively right away.
Speaker 2: He's going to be Deon Sanders except for the half
Speaker 2: of the Corties taking away as the half underneath the basket.
Speaker 2: It's going to be amazing just watching this guy play offensively.
Speaker 2: I think it'll be a little bit more of a
Speaker 2: struggle for him once he gets going into the NBA
Speaker 2: and has to deal with stronger guys who know all
Speaker 2: the NBA tricks. If they're able to get into the
Speaker 2: top twenties in offense and the teams in defense, I
Speaker 2: think they can challenge the over But I'm going under here.
Speaker 2: I think they'll be careful with wemby rookie centers, they
Speaker 2: don't necessarily have a huge impact. This isn't the usual
Speaker 2: rookie center.
Speaker 3: No.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I don't know. This will be maybe the
Speaker 2: most watched bad team in NBA history. WHOA at least
Speaker 2: since like Lebron's rookie season with the Cavs.
Speaker 3: Well, I just went and checked. I was like, I
Speaker 3: know they didn't make the playoffs, but how many wins.
Speaker 3: Did Lebron's rookie Calves team rack up? They got to
Speaker 3: thirty five and forty seven? Not bad, really not bad.
Speaker 3: You know, obviously would hit the over here. We're talking
Speaker 3: Lebron playing with big Z, Ricky Davis, Carlos Boozer, Ma
Speaker 3: Teen Cleeves, Jeff McInnis, you know, high renewable, crazy man jop.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean it was not a great team, but rookie
Speaker 3: Lebron even got them to thirty five wins. I mean,
Speaker 3: is that where Victor is? Is he going to just
Speaker 3: be automatically coming in here and and takes you to
Speaker 3: a thirty plus win team what you've seen so far,
Speaker 3: you could you understand why that it's a possibility. But
Speaker 3: this is the Spurs too.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 3: They don't they don't really, they don't rush anything.
Speaker 2: They don't rush, they don't.
Speaker 3: They don't. They're smart about it. So hmm. It pains
Speaker 3: me to take the under on this one. I feel
Speaker 3: like I'm gonna regret this one, but I think I
Speaker 3: would just just take the under. Too young. They're just
Speaker 3: so so so young. All right, we've gone through every team.
Speaker 3: Let's hear your three Western Conference over under locks. Do
Speaker 3: you have all three this morning, because when we were
Speaker 3: doing the East, you had two locks and then we
Speaker 3: sort of had to find a third that you felt
Speaker 3: good about. Oh I you got three.
Speaker 2: Okay, I'm firing here. Memphis over forty five and a half, Okay,
Speaker 2: the Grizzlies are good. They're a regular season wins machine.
Speaker 2: They've got a system. Taylor Jenkins pulls guys out of
Speaker 2: the woodwork, So I think, like Santiel Damas, like who
Speaker 2: is this guy? And he's legitimately a rotation player. John
Speaker 2: Conchard the same thing, just legitimately a rotation player. So
Speaker 2: I think some of those guys will hit, and then
Speaker 2: who knows, maybe Zier Williams actually takes a step forward.
Speaker 2: I remember they traded up to get him back in
Speaker 2: the day, so his development would be big. To go
Speaker 2: in the Clippers under forty six and a half. Who knows,
Speaker 2: but I feel confident going under on a Clippers team
Speaker 2: just because they are the Clippers. And then my probably
Speaker 2: my riskiest one is Denver over fifty two and a half.
Speaker 2: I still think they're gonna be awesome, but they definitely
Speaker 2: lost some depth. They're relying on younger guys this season.
Speaker 2: But I think they're gonna have to play out the
Speaker 2: whole year and not have as much of a chance
Speaker 2: to chill in the late part of the season. And
Speaker 2: of course they've still got the best home court advantage
Speaker 2: and the best player in basketball. So I'm going over
Speaker 2: fifty two and a half for them.
Speaker 3: Okay, I like those my three locks. I'm gonna take
Speaker 3: two teams in the Pacific Division and hit the over
Speaker 3: the Kings forty four and a half, disrespectful. Come on,
Speaker 3: they're gonna win forty five games once again. They're gonna
Speaker 3: be flirting with that fifty win mark. I actually believe.
Speaker 3: So I'm going Sacramento over. I'm going Suns over. I'm
Speaker 3: not gonna overthink it. Fifty one and a half. I
Speaker 3: know maybe they are shawl. I think they'll have enough
Speaker 3: guys contributing to their big three. I just think they're
Speaker 3: gonna be an offense. It's a juggernaut. I mean, surprise
Speaker 3: surprise like that on many nights is gonna be unstoppable.
Speaker 3: And then you even get to the end of games,
Speaker 3: and you've got three options to hit game winners and
Speaker 3: to run plays for and a runoff ball action, and
Speaker 3: we gotta focus on kd o Gez, there's Booker, Oh
Speaker 3: my god. Then there's Bill that is a nightmare. I
Speaker 3: think they win fifty two games, and then I'm gonna
Speaker 3: go Pelicans under forty four and a half. We just
Speaker 3: talked about it. They're already coming in banged up. I'm
Speaker 3: not banking on a Zion Williamson playing, you know, seventy
Speaker 3: games by any means, and even some of their other guys.
Speaker 3: I just think I think all these teams, like we said,
Speaker 3: there's so many teams bunched up anywhere from forty four
Speaker 3: to forty nine wins. Of that group of let's say
Speaker 3: nine teams, one if not two are probably gonna fall
Speaker 3: out and maybe have to pivot their season around a
Speaker 3: trade deadline or stuff like that just because they're too
Speaker 3: far back. So I guess I'll bank on the Pelicans
Speaker 3: being that I'm going under.
Speaker 2: Gonna be a lot of jockey game for position. I
Speaker 2: do believe at the end of the season.
Speaker 3: It's just perked up.
Speaker 2: He loves it. He's like, wait, call me when we're jockey.
Speaker 3: That's what they should tell of night one. We are
Speaker 3: jockeying for positions.
Speaker 2: He's like, oh, goes out.
Speaker 3: Puts up forties and twenties.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, but it does feel like we're gonna have
Speaker 2: so many teams that are like forty five to forty wins.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there could be ten teams in that right, Yeah,
Speaker 3: absolutely should be a great, great season there in the
Speaker 3: Western Conference. All right, there it is. We've done the East,
Speaker 3: We've now done the West. I know you agree with
Speaker 3: some of our picks. I know you disagree with some
Speaker 3: of the other ones. We love to hear your input.
Speaker 3: Leave your comments in the YouTube section, tweet at us
Speaker 3: at No dunks Ink. Make sure you like the show,
Speaker 3: make sure you subscribe. We're back tomorrow with some NBA
Speaker 3: award predictions. I think we'll do the key ones, of course,
Speaker 3: I'm talking MVPs, Rookie of the Years and stuff like that.
Speaker 3: We'll show you the odds on all that stuff as well.
Speaker 3: Maybe pick our favorites, maybe give you a dark horse pick,
Speaker 3: and then maybe we can come up with some like
Speaker 3: silly awards. Cool, you know, some made up No dunks awards.
Speaker 2: I love it.
Speaker 3: I think that's the plan for tomorrow. Join us Wednesday,
Speaker 3: ten am Eastern. I'll also be doing No Bunts with
Speaker 3: my guy Joel in Taiwan over at the Athletic Baseball
Speaker 3: Show feed that's early early tomorrow morning. Did you watch
Speaker 3: any baseball here of these championship series? Does? Phillies? Man,
Speaker 3: they can't stop socking Dingers.
Speaker 2: Man, I don't know if I should be rooting for
Speaker 2: these guys. They knocked at Lann out of the playoffs
Speaker 2: back to back seasons.
Speaker 3: They got that dog? Yeah you like it? They do?
Speaker 3: I do.
Speaker 2: I love their scumbag energy clevades their team.
Speaker 3: Right now it's at least looking like Rangers Phillies. But
Speaker 3: a lot of baseball still to be played. So anyway,
Speaker 3: I'll be alive with Joel at about eight to fifteen
Speaker 3: tomorrow the Athletic Baseball Show, and then we'll be here
Speaker 3: at No Dunks at ten am. All right till then,
Speaker 3: Clipper bros.
Speaker 2: You heard it here first, have a great time, turn up.
Speaker 2: Love you guys, awesome, Thanks for joining us. And remember
Speaker 2: the next big advance in automotive technology is completely flat interiors.
Speaker 3: Brace the day of people