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Speaker 1: responsible gambling resources. All right, welcome to hoopsinight here at

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Speaker 1: the volume. Happy Friday, everybody. Hope all you guys had

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Speaker 1: an incredible week. Here's a quick breakdown of how this

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Speaker 1: weekend is going to go, because as you know, I'm

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Speaker 1: leaving to go to Breckenridge tomorrow and I'm not getting

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Speaker 1: back till Wednesday. Today's show is just going to be

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Speaker 1: our MVP rankings. Then later this afternoon, I'm recording with

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Speaker 1: the Nerd Sash guys. We picked eleven teams that are

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Speaker 1: my top tier contenders, plus some of the teams that

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Speaker 1: are kind of on the fringe. We're gonna play a

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Speaker 1: game of higher or lower, whether or not we're higher

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Speaker 1: on the team than we were to start the season

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Speaker 1: or lower on the team than we were to start

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Speaker 1: the season. We're recording that today that'll be released over

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Speaker 1: the course of the time while I'm gone, and then

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Speaker 1: I'm also recording the mail Bag today that'll be running

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Speaker 1: while I'm out of town. So Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,

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Speaker 1: we'll have lots of mail Bag content and we're gonna

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Speaker 1: be doing a check in basically a mid season check

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Speaker 1: in on all of the contenders with the Nerd Sash guys,

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Speaker 1: but in this episode just covering our MVP rankings. You

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Speaker 1: guys know the Joe before we get started. Subscribe to

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Speaker 1: our brand new YouTube channel so you don't miss any

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Speaker 1: more of our videos. Would mean a lot to me

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Speaker 1: if you guys woul take a second to scroll down

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Speaker 1: and hit subscribe. Don't forget about our podcast feed. If

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Speaker 1: you're more into that format, you can find that wherever

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Speaker 1: you get your podcast under Hoops Tonight. Follow me on

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Speaker 1: Twitter at underscore JSNLT so you guys don't miss show

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Speaker 1: announcements as well as the film threads that I do

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Speaker 1: in the morning and the last but not leaves. Keep

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Speaker 1: dropping back questions in the YouTube comments so we can

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Speaker 1: hit them throughout this season. All right, let's talk some basketball.

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Speaker 1: So I'm dropping three guys out from our list two

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Speaker 1: weeks ago Dearn Fox because the Kings are on a

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Speaker 1: four game slide. Things are looking really bleak out there

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Speaker 1: in Sacramento, Tyrese Haliburton, just because he's injured, and so

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Speaker 1: I want to use this list to kind of highlight

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Speaker 1: other players. Obviously, if he comes back, he'll rejoin the list.

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Speaker 1: And with Pascal Siakam here in Indy, I shouldn't say

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Speaker 1: here there in Indy, I would expect him to be

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Speaker 1: back on the list before too long. And then lastly,

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Speaker 1: Kawhi Leonard. I'm dropping out not because Kawhi is not

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Speaker 1: doing very well, but simply because Paul George has been

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Speaker 1: the Clipper's best player for the last few weeks, and

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Speaker 1: so I just want to highlight him specifically. Obviously, I

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Speaker 1: still view Kawhi as an MVP candidate, but for the

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Speaker 1: purpose of this list, I want to highlight Paul George today.

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Speaker 1: All right, let's get started. Number ten, Donovan Mitchell. The

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Speaker 1: Cavs are red hot. They've won eleven of their last

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Speaker 1: fourteen games. Donovan Mitchell in that span thirty points, five rebounds,

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Speaker 1: and seven assists per game on forty nine percent from

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Speaker 1: the field thirty seven percent from three to eighty eight

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Speaker 1: percent from the line. But it's the defensive end that

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Speaker 1: I want to highlight in this particular segment. That's where

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Speaker 1: I've been most impressed by him this season. He's having

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Speaker 1: the best defensive season of his career in my opinion.

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Speaker 1: His speed makes them really useful, especially in helping recover situations.

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Speaker 1: Obviously they're using Isaac Gacoro more on the ball, but

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Speaker 1: what Donovan Mitchell can do is he can dig down

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Speaker 1: on a post player, dig down into a driving lane,

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Speaker 1: while also having the speed to chase shooters off the line.

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Speaker 1: It's made him really useful. And here's the thing. The

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Speaker 1: Cavs have lost two of their top four players, and

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Speaker 1: they've been trucking right along, and that mostly has to

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Speaker 1: do with Donovan Mitchell all right, Number nine, Jalen Brunson.

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Speaker 1: The Knicks have won eight out of their last ten games,

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Speaker 1: and some quality wins in there. They beat the Minnesota Timberwolves.

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Speaker 1: They also beat the Philadelphia seventy six ers with Joel

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Speaker 1: Embiid in the lineup, and Jalen bruns has just been

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Speaker 1: a steady force for them all season twenty eight points

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Speaker 1: per game, four rebounds, and eight assists. In this ten

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Speaker 1: game span on fifty nine percent true shooting. Here's a

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Speaker 1: crazy stat for you guys, Jalen Brunson has a seventy

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Speaker 1: six percent effective field goal percentage on unguarded catch and

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Speaker 1: shoot jump shots this season. We always think about him

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Speaker 1: on the ball, but he's been one of the best

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Speaker 1: off ball players in the league this year. In fact,

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Speaker 1: he's been the very best spot up player in the league.

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Speaker 1: Minimum one hundred possessions. He's converting spot up possessions at

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Speaker 1: one point five points per possession, Absolutely insane. He is

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Speaker 1: the best player on a team winning sixty percent of

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Speaker 1: their games in an NBA, that's not easy to win

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Speaker 1: sixty percent of your games. In number eight, Luka Doncic,

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Speaker 1: He's played in just three games in the last fourteen

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Speaker 1: days as he works his way back from this ankle injury,

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Speaker 1: and the MAVs have lost three out of five, So

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Speaker 1: I'm dropping him down to eight just for right this moment.

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Speaker 1: Number seven Anthony Edwards really starting to cook. He averaged

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Speaker 1: just twenty three point six points per game in his

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Speaker 1: first twenty games this season on forty four percent shooting

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Speaker 1: and thirty seven percent from three. In his last eighteen games,

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Speaker 1: twenty nine points per game, forty nine percent from the

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Speaker 1: field in thirty nine percent from three, and most importantly

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Speaker 1: just in terms of his attitude in the way he

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Speaker 1: carries himself on the court. He's really starting to feel

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Speaker 1: like an alpha dog in this league. We kind of

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Speaker 1: saw this at first to Team USA, right where he

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Speaker 1: just kind of ascended above the group, not just in

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Speaker 1: the way he played, but in the way he carried himself.

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Speaker 1: But that was mostly B list NBA stars. Right now

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Speaker 1: we're starting to see that against the best players in

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Speaker 1: the league, like all of that span, that last eighteen

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Speaker 1: games that encompasses that stretch where the Wolves played awesome

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Speaker 1: teams every single night, and he's been insanely good in

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Speaker 1: that stretch, going toe to toe with the best players

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Speaker 1: in the league. They're outscoring opponents by seven points per

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Speaker 1: one hundred possessions in this span with him on the floor.

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Speaker 1: They have a one twenty offensive rating with him on

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Speaker 1: the floor, all against quality opponents, right, sixty two percent

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Speaker 1: true shooting, so and it's super efficient at that position,

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Speaker 1: which is had an issue for him in the past,

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Speaker 1: and again all against the gauntlet of insanely good opponents.

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Speaker 1: The rise of Anthony Edwards that we predicted on this

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Speaker 1: show before the season is happening right before our eyes.

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Speaker 1: Number six, Paul George really gone up in aggressiveness since

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Speaker 1: the new year. In his last eight games, twenty eight

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Speaker 1: points per game to go with five rebounds and six

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Speaker 1: assists on sixty nine percent true shooting. He's been the

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Speaker 1: best player on his team in the last month or so,

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Speaker 1: dominating on and off the ball. The shot creation stats

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Speaker 1: are insane, and Paul George's post up has been worth

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Speaker 1: one point three to five points per possession. That is

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Speaker 1: the third best mark in the league minimum fifty possessions,

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Speaker 1: so lower volume than the normal list that I pull

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Speaker 1: for all the big you know centers that run hundreds

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Speaker 1: of post ups every single year, but for like the

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Speaker 1: relatively low volume guys minimum fifty possessions. That's third best

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Speaker 1: in the league. By the way, for those of you

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Speaker 1: who are curious, number two Heimee Hokz Junior on that list,

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Speaker 1: and krisops porzingis at number one. He's at almost a

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Speaker 1: point and a half. Chris tops has just been insane,

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Speaker 1: just like he was last year, beating switches in the post.

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Speaker 1: Paul George is also getting one point one to two

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Speaker 1: points per ISO that's sixth out of eighteen players to

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Speaker 1: run at least one hundred and fifty, So he's been

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Speaker 1: one of the best high volume ISO players in the

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Speaker 1: league this year. And then really good pick and roll

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Speaker 1: player two one point zero three points per pick and

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Speaker 1: roll including passes. That's twenty seventh out of sixty five

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Speaker 1: players to run at least two hundred and fifty. So

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Speaker 1: been one of the best on ball guys in the league.

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Speaker 1: But he's also been one of the best off ball

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Speaker 1: guys in the league. Is you know, one of the

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Speaker 1: beautiful things about bringing James Harden on board is he's

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Speaker 1: just getting a lot of advantage situations where a guy's

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Speaker 1: closing out at him. It's funny when I work with

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Speaker 1: my young kids, the high school kids that I coach,

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Speaker 1: we always work on king of the court, but from

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Speaker 1: the standpoint of attacking closeouts, because you know, it's not

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Speaker 1: that you don't want to work on one on one stuff,

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Speaker 1: but primarily at that high school level, I think one

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Speaker 1: of the most important development aspects for a young player,

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Speaker 1: especially if you want to play at the next level,

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Speaker 1: because most college coaches they're not just gonna let a

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Speaker 1: dude cooking io all night long. Right, Like, they're running

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Speaker 1: an offense and they're trying to generate advantages so that

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Speaker 1: a guy can play. And that's a huge play with

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Speaker 1: an advantage. And that's a huge element to what makes

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Speaker 1: a scorer a good score is you get twenty shots

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Speaker 1: in a game for a top tier score. And we

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Speaker 1: always think about post ups, ISOs and pick and rolls,

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Speaker 1: but a real good offense has flow. You're playing with

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Speaker 1: five other players and the ability to attack with an

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Speaker 1: advantage is so important. And so I set up these

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Speaker 1: kids with like you know, they're throwing the ball out

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Speaker 1: and closing out, so they're still playing king of the court,

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Speaker 1: but they're working on offense, on individual moves that you'll

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Speaker 1: actually use in a real basketball game more frequently than not. Right,

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Speaker 1: And this is a this is an interesting stat for you.

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Speaker 1: One point twenty nine points per spot up possession from

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Speaker 1: Paul George, fourth out of forty five players to run

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Speaker 1: at least one hundred and fifty. So he's been one

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Speaker 1: of the very best spot up players in the league

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Speaker 1: this year. You give Paul George a defender sprinting at him,

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Speaker 1: he's going to knock down the catch and shoot the

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Speaker 1: shot if you close out short, and if you close

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Speaker 1: out hard on him. He's got all of those close

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Speaker 1: out attacking moves, that high level ISO attack with the

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Speaker 1: defender sprinting at him, which just makes him such a

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Speaker 1: useful player on a team that has Kawhi Leonard and

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Speaker 1: James Harden. If they need him to initiate offense, he

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Speaker 1: can do so. But when he's off the ball, well,

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Speaker 1: Kawhi has it, while Russ has it, while James Harden

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Speaker 1: has it. He's one of the best offensive players in

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Speaker 1: the league in that type of setting, which has made

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Speaker 1: him super, super useful and valuable on the Clippers. He's

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Speaker 1: been the best player on that team for the last

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Speaker 1: month or so. Number five Jason Tatum. When he's missing

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Speaker 1: his pull up three, he's kind of like just below

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Speaker 1: that top tier of superstars, right just because he hunts

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Speaker 1: that shot so much. It's like a third of his offense, right.

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Speaker 1: But when he's making it, he looks like one of

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Speaker 1: the best players in the league, and he is making

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Speaker 1: it right now. In the Boston Celtics last ten games,

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Speaker 1: Jason Tatum has made twenty two out of his forty

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Speaker 1: five pull up threes. That's one point four to seven

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Speaker 1: points per shot. His effective field goal percentage on pull

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Speaker 1: up shooting has been ticking up all season, and he's

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Speaker 1: up to forty six percent in effective field goal percentage

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Speaker 1: on the season. Now clearly views that shot as his

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Speaker 1: go to move. He actively hunts it. We saw that

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Speaker 1: in the Minnesota timber Wolves game the other night. He

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Speaker 1: gets Carl Towns on a switch and he's not looking

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Speaker 1: to drive past him. He's looking to set him up

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Speaker 1: for a pull up three, and if he can make

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Speaker 1: it and anything close to that clip when they get

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Speaker 1: to the playoffs, just forget about anything else. They're just

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Speaker 1: gonna win the title. Like if Tatum's making forty percent

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Speaker 1: of his pull up threes in the playoffs, the Celtics

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Speaker 1: are winning the title. That's just what's going to happen.

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Speaker 1: Number four Nikola Jokis. The numbers aren't super impressive by

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Speaker 1: Jokic's standards since our last list, twenty three points, eleven rebounds,

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Speaker 1: and nine assists per game, but he's shooting seventy percent

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Speaker 1: from the field, and quite frankly, he doesn't really seem

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Speaker 1: all that interested in winning MVP. In fact, I would

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Speaker 1: argue you probably would I bet you if we could

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Speaker 1: give him some truth here, he'd be like, I'd prefer

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Speaker 1: not to right. He took twelve shots total in the

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Speaker 1: back to back in two games against the Jazz and

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Speaker 1: Pistons last week. Like, those are games where embiids trying

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Speaker 1: to score, trying to score, trying to score, and he's getting,

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Speaker 1: you know, forty points, right, Nicole Jokic is like, oh,

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Speaker 1: it's the Pistons. I'm just not going to shoot this game,

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Speaker 1: and I'm just going to pass the ball around, right,

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Speaker 1: you know. So But even with that, he's just too

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Speaker 1: good at basketball to not be high on this list.

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Speaker 1: So I still have him at number four, even if

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Speaker 1: he's not necessarily going after the award Number three. Janis

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Speaker 1: and Tena Kompo basically the one big bright spot with

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Speaker 1: the Bucks this year. The Bucks are weird. They're twenty

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Speaker 1: eight and thirteen, which is the third best record in

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Speaker 1: the league, albeit they've played a super easy schedule. They've

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Speaker 1: had the third easiest schedule in the league so far

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Speaker 1: and they have the eighth toughest remaining schedule, so we'll

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Speaker 1: learn more about them in the long run. But they've

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Speaker 1: had these like super ugly, like lifeless losses, and their

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Speaker 1: defense can be downright embarrassing at times, Like imagine being

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Speaker 1: the third best record in the league and you're a

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Speaker 1: bottom ten defense, Like that's not something you see very

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Speaker 1: often in the NBA. But Yannis is the reason they're

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Speaker 1: twenty eight and thirteen. He's a nightly, regular season wrecking ball, right,

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Speaker 1: and he carries them through most of their issues. How

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Speaker 1: about thirty one points, twelve and seven assists on sixty

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Speaker 1: percent shooting. Since our last MVP list two weeks ago,

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Speaker 1: Number two Shake Gills was Alexander. I made my first

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Speaker 1: regular season NBA bet in a while last night. I

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Speaker 1: love to bet the NBA playoffs, but I dislike betting.

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Speaker 1: I only place a handful of bets during the regular

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Speaker 1: season because the wild swings and effort from every team

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Speaker 1: from night to night between travel and who knows what

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Speaker 1: they did last night if it was one of their

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Speaker 1: teammates birthday parties and they all went out, or if

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Speaker 1: they met with a friend in a city or something

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Speaker 1: like that's just really difficult to to kind of predict

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Speaker 1: that kind of stuff, and those swings are much more

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Speaker 1: easy to predict in the playoffs. So I love betting

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Speaker 1: the NBA when we get in the playoffs. But I

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Speaker 1: placed a bet on an NBA regular season game last

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Speaker 1: night and it was the Oklahoma City a Thunder on

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Speaker 1: the road in Utah. I have this theory about the

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Speaker 1: NBA regular season that really young and fast teams that

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Speaker 1: play hard every night just will rack up wins. Like

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Speaker 1: we're literally seeing this with the Calves as they're down

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Speaker 1: a bunch of talent, but they're just young and they're right,

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Speaker 1: like Donovan Mitchell and Isaac Korro just bring this crazy

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Speaker 1: straight line speed on both ends of the floor. We're

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Speaker 1: seeing it with the Utah Jazz right now. Well, the

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Speaker 1: Yoklahoma City Thunder are the best version of that. The

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Speaker 1: Jazz were fifteen and five going into that game last

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Speaker 1: night at home. They had won nine in a row.

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Speaker 1: But I just had a feeling like, yeah, but you're

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Speaker 1: playing the Thunder. They're also young, they also play hard

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Speaker 1: every night, they're also super fast, and they're just better

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Speaker 1: at it than the Utah Jazz. And ended up being

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Speaker 1: a little bit close because every single time the Thunder

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Speaker 1: ended up going up by ten, twelve points, the Jazz

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Speaker 1: would just kind of battle back and chip away. But

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Speaker 1: I ended up winning that one regular season bet. I

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Speaker 1: just thought it was an interesting, kind of like example

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Speaker 1: of that regular season dynamic that I'm talking about. But

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Speaker 1: Shakovis Alexander has gone for thirty plus in twenty nine

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Speaker 1: of his forty games this season. He shot over fifty

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Speaker 1: percent from the field in twenty six of his forty

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Speaker 1: games this season. He's only shot below forty percent from

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Speaker 1: the field in three games this year. Year. He is

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Speaker 1: one of the most consistently productive and efficient scoring guards

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Speaker 1: we've ever seen, and if it wasn't for Joel Embiid,

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Speaker 1: he'd be winning the MVP this year. But we have

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Speaker 1: a clear number one. Joel Embiid straight up snatched the

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Speaker 1: soul of the Denver Nuggets the other night. He's the

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Speaker 1: first guy I've seen in years single handedly discombobulate the

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Speaker 1: Nuggets offense, specifically at the end of a game, just

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Speaker 1: by bullying Jokic off his spots and denying him the basketball.

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Speaker 1: He's the only guy in the league big and strong

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Speaker 1: enough to do it. We talked so much about his offense,

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Speaker 1: but it was the defensive end where he blew up

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Speaker 1: the Nuggets in that particular game. On the offensive side

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Speaker 1: of things, though, here's an absolutely crazy Joel Embiid stat

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Speaker 1: for you guys to close the show out today. It

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Speaker 1: is more likely that Joel Embiid scores forty in a

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Speaker 1: game than it is that he scores less than thirty.

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Speaker 1: He has eight forty point games this year, including two

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Speaker 1: fifty pointers. He has just five games below thirty points

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Speaker 1: this season. He's a runaway MVP in my opinion, halfway

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Speaker 1: through the season. It's kind of bizarre because I was

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Speaker 1: looking at DraftKings this morning and they have Jokic at

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Speaker 1: plus two forty and Embiid at plus two fifty. I

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Speaker 1: was surprised by that. Like, I think Embiid is clearly

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Speaker 1: the better MVP candidate right now, clearly wants it. More like,

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Speaker 1: I just think it's very very obvious that Joel Embiid

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Speaker 1: is kind of headed in a freight train in that direction.

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Speaker 1: If it's not for an injury, I think Joel Embid's

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Speaker 1: gonna win the MVP this year. I think he's one

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Speaker 1: of the most clear cut number ones we've had midway

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Speaker 1: through the season in a long time. So shout out

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Speaker 1: to Joel Embiid. All right, guys, that is all I

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Speaker 1: have for this particular episode. Like I said, recording a

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Speaker 1: bunch of stuff the rest of today that we're gonna

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Speaker 1: run throughout the weekend. As always, I appreciate you guys,

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Speaker 1: and I look forward to seeing you with the Nerd

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Speaker 1: Sash guys here in a little bit the volume