20 Burst results for "Rob Mahoney"
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A highlight from A 72-Hour NBA Binge With Rob Mahoney, Searching for an NFL Alpha Dog With Peter Schrager, Plus Million-Dollar Picks
"Coming up, basketball, football, million dollar picks. Oh yeah, it's Thursday. Next. It's the Bill Simmons Podcast presented by FanDuel. It's the best time of the year with football in full swing and basketball returning soon. FanDuel, the best place to bet on the action. The app is safe, secure, and easy to use. And when you win, you get paid instantly. Get exclusive offers every day. Jump into the action at any time during the game with quick bets and take home a fast W. Plus check out the explore page for the simplest way to start betting. Download the app today. Bet with America's number one sports book. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Visit theringer .com slash RG to learn more about the resources and help lines available and listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Must be 21 plus and present in select states. Gambling problem, call 1 -800 -GAMBLER or visit theringer .com slash RG. This episode is brought to you by Michelob Ultra. Listen, you work hard. You probably have a job at a house that you have to keep clean and maybe kids and parents you're taking care of. You go to the gym, you play pickup. You still have to mow the lawn. You deserve some time to crack a Michelob Ultra, sit on the couch, and watch some hoops. Hoops is coming back, end of October. You know, come back, long day. Maybe get a little exercise in. Walk around the block a few times. Maybe go to the gym, come back, watch some hoops. Maybe just pop open a nice, nice ice cold Michelob Ultra. Because what tastes better than a beer? Around 9 .30, 10 o 'clock, right when you're starting to get a little sleepy. It's only worth it if you enjoy it. To find out where to order Ultra near you, tap the banner or visit MichelobUltra .com and click Find Product, LDA 21 and up. We're also brought to you by The Ringer Podcast Network. I put up a new rewatchables on Monday night. Did In the Line of Fire. Have a horror movie coming on Monday for rewatchables. So stay tuned for that. Coming up, we're gonna have Rob Mahoney talking after the two Thursday night TNT NBA games. We're gonna react to basically everything we've seen for the last three days. Just things that have jumped out to us. And then Peter Schrager is gonna come on and talk about the NFL. Do we have a best team? What are we noticing through seven weeks? What can we expect in week eight that will lead to million dollar picks? And that is today's podcast. Let's bring in our friends from Pearl Jam. Here we go. All right, we're taping this. It's almost 10 o 'clock on Thursday night, Pacific time. Rob Mahoney is here from The Ringer NBA and showing TheRinger .com. We stayed up late because these were two good games. We've had three straight days of very entertaining basketball and we gotta start with the biggest story. Kelly Oubre in the Sixers. What a signing that was, he looks great. No, we just watched LeBron versus the Suns. LeBron's 29 minute limit I think is out the window. He played the whole fourth quarter. And then made the two big head down just going to the basket plays at the end. But biggest thing that's jumped out to you in the last three days is what? Lakers wise or just in general? In general. I think a lot of these teams that we expect to be really good clearly have some assembly required. And the Lakers are one of those teams. I think we saw that from the Bucks and the Sixers tonight too. We're seeing it certainly with the first days of the Victor Webinama experience. Everyone is getting up to speed into their rhythms, trying to understand how all these new pieces fit together. Not revelatory for the opening days of the season to feel that way, but I think even some of the stuff that personally I thought was going to be seamless, like the Giannis, Dame pick and roll, there's some kinks in it that they're going to have to figure out over time. Lakers I thought were the one that surprised me on that one because I thought they were one of the teams that were going to have the advantage coming in. You think about last year's team compared to this year's team. It doesn't seem like Reeves is involved enough either game that, I don't want to say he's an afterthought, but it just felt like he was more in the mix in the playoffs last year. And I liked what Schroeder did for them last year and he was good on Toronto last night and really fit in with what they did. So they're going to have to figure out that Vincent D 'Lo thing. Wood was playing crunch time, which I was really surprised. Did you think we'd be getting this much Christian Wood? I thought that was like a flyer for them. Guarding Kevin Durant on some possessions, wild stuff. But if nothing else, we can trust that when Christian Wood is out there, he will be Christian Wood. In these uncertain times, we can always fall back on that. He certainly had his fair share of like black hole kind of possessions in this game, but he also does play into the Lakers advantages in terms of their length, right? Their size against a team like Phoenix, they're just going to be able to out muscle, get to rebounds, get to balls that they can't get to. So that part of it paid off, I thought in terms of just like having another big out there and certainly the Anthony Davis experiment continues as far as like, do you want more size with him? Do you want to play small with him? There's always that internal question because he seems a little reluctant to do it on a full -time basis, but I'm sure Christian Wood's going to get his shots. I mean, clearly Jackson Hayes is going to get some shots in the rotation to be a meaningful part of the Lakers, the mix there for the Lakers. So I don't know. I think Darvin Ham has a lot of questions to figure out, including the one you listed with Austin Reeves, which is like, who has the ball? Who's initiating for us? Who is involved on a possession to possession basis? Because this game, this was a lot of D 'Angelo Russell, and it was a lot of a better version of D 'Angelo Russell than maybe we saw the other night, but it still feels like a lot. 33 minutes for him tonight. Yeah, Reeves, seven shots, one assist. And I thought all of his usage stuff was going to go up, but it seems like it drifted Russell's way. The other thing I was surprised, I thought Rui was going to be a bigger part of this team. I only played 12 minutes, but I haven't changed my thought on them. They're just such a big, problematic team. And if you're the Suns and you're feeling good after that Warriors game, right? And the Warriors, no Draymond, they were able to overpower them a little on the boards. The two centers had 22. And then tonight you see the flip side of the use of Nurkic experience, where it's like, you're getting zero room protection and you're getting somebody who's just going to be confused anytime somebody is coming off a pick. Basically Lebron at the end of the game just said, I'm going to go attack that guy. Yeah, I'm going to go attack that guy right there. Durant was better tonight, at least for the first three quarters that he looked on Tuesday night. It was really cool just seeing those guys on a basketball court after all these years. As I get older, I'm older than you, but just think like, man, this goes way back now. We're talking mid 2000s was the first time these two guys played basketball against each other and it's still going on. So that was in a cool way kind of lingering over this game. I was enjoying that one. How do you think Durant looks in terms of being a 35 year old guy who they gave up three first rounders and two swaps and Mikhail Bridges and Cam Johnson for? It feels like a slightly loaded question. Yeah. He's looked good. And certainly as you said, the first three quarters of this game looked more than good enough. I think the problem was just like this version of the Suns like felt very James Harden is hurt and Kyrie Irving won't get the shot. Nets, you know, just like Kevin Durant and a bunch of like - I blocked that net out of my mind. I think a lot of us have tried to, but you know, him with a lot of like serviceable workaday role players can get you so far. But as you saw on this one, against a really good defensive team like the Lakers in the fourth quarter, they can just shut the water off. And this is where, you know, I'm nervous about the Suns for a variety of reasons. I think if it was just the defense or just the depth or just the injury risk of their core guys, I would feel better. But it's all of the above all the time. And that's going to put Durant in some games like this one. It's going to put Yusef Nurkic in positions like this one where all of a sudden he's triggering your offense because you don't really have a default point guard out there. And sometimes the value of having a point guard in your rotation, I don't think it's really going to matter when Beal and Booker and Durant are playing together. Those guys can all handle and play make and do everything they need to do. But in a game like this, where two of those guys are out, sometimes it helps to just be able to run some offense that doesn't have to involve Kevin Durant pounding the rock through pick and roll. Yeah, 28 shots for him today. 13 including, and then 13 free throws. He played 39 minutes and was also playing the five in stretches. And this is game two. They had to basically try to unlock 2007 Texas Longhorns Durant. That's the last guy I want to be throwing miles on, maybe in the entire league other than LeBron. Cause he's, you know. That's going to be true for Booker and Beal too, right? Like when any of these guys are out, those three, whoever's left is going to have to play huge minutes or else you get into Grayson Allen and Drew Eubanks are playing like a massive role in your rotation. And I like those guys. I like Drew Eubanks. Maybe not like tamper and lose a second round pick like Drew Eubanks, like some teams do, but. I'd lose 50K for him. Maybe not a second round pick. It's a little steep. Yeah. The other game, Milwaukee Philly. So no Harden. I wish there was a way to just mute the entire Harden story of all coverage for it. Anything online, anything on Twitter, all conversations. I just don't want to hear it anymore. And I don't think he has any interest in playing. And I just think, just tell us when he gets traded. Their best chance now, now that the, especially the Clippers last night looked great.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A highlight from The Anthony Edwards Moment, the Lions Bandwagon, and NFL Playoff Picks With Rob Mahoney and Peter Schrager
"Coming up, more football and some basketball. Wow. Okay. That's next. This episode is brought to you by our friends at Michelob Ultra. It's only worth it if you enjoy it. That's the philosophy behind Michelob Ultra. You think of some of the great players in the NBA. It's not just that they're great during the games. It's the grind. It's day after day after day after one of the best three -point shooters in the league. You got to keep cracking those three -pointers every day. Shoot a thousand. Shoot 2 ,000. Same thing for the ball -handling skills, well, for most players. Hard work doesn't mean no fun. It's about balance, like the balance and refreshing flavor of Michelob Ultra. Only 2 .6 carbs and 95 calories. Learn more at MichelobUltra .com. You must be 21 years of age. Enjoy responsibly. This episode is brought to you by Jersey Mike's Subs. Jersey Mike's uses only the highest quality meats and cheeses piled high with fresh produce. You know what I get at Jersey Mike's? I like the Buffalo Chicken Cheesesteak. Here's what it has. Frank's Red Hot Sauce, lettuce, tomatoes, white American cheese, and blue cheese dressing. I am a double cheese guy with my subs. I want things dripping all over the place. I also like the big hoon of cheesesteak, grilled onions, peppers, mushrooms, jalapenos, and extra white American cheese. Don't get a lot of awesome cheesesteak situations out here in California. Those are two of my favorites. Just place your order through the app. Their app is great. You can order ahead and pick it up, have it delivered. You can even earn free subs. I've seen it happen. Jersey Mike's, a sub above. Download the app now. We're also brought to you by the Ringer Podcast Network, where we have a slew of football pods going up. This week we have Ringer Fantasy Football Show, Ringer Gambling Show, Ryan Marsillo, Ringer NFL Show. This podcast we're also covering this season. Big preview on theringer .com. Steven Ruiz did his QB rankings. Sheil Kapadia has his trade value for the 2023 season coming out later this week. I've already gotten a couple arguments about it with him. You haven't even read it yet. We also have the Ringer Fantasy Football Guide as well, if you have some last minute drafts. Before Thursday, the big opening night, Travis Kelce, we just found out he hyperextended his knee. We talked about the Chiefs -Lions game a little bit with Peter Schrager coming up later. We didn't even know about the Kelce thing. So could this be the year from hell for the Chiefs? Bad sign, no Chris Jones? Kelce's already kind of hurt. We'll see if it means anything. So anyway, Peter Schrager coming up later, and then Rob Mahoney to lead off as we're going to talk a little World Championships. Team USA. Do people realize that USA might not win this tournament? Because that might be where we're headed. We're going to talk about all the things we learned from that team. Also, new rewatchables we put up Monday night. We did Lost in Translation, me and Amanda Dobbins. 20th anniversary of a really, really great movie. So that is what I got for you. Let's bring in Mahoney first, our friends from ProJIP.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
"rob mahoney" Discussed on The Bill Simmons Podcast
"With Davis was out, Thomas Bryant was really good. He was like a 2015 guy. And I don't blame him for being mad that he wasn't playing well. But on the other hand, you're trading for a guy who was just mad that he wasn't playing as much as he wanted to. And now he's on a team with Nikola Jokić. So what does that look like, rob? I mean, at least he's playing for something though. 15 minutes a game feels different when you're on a contender versus when you're on the Lakers wherever it is that they're going. So I do like that. I like the pickup. I like the idea of them having more options at backup center. They certainly could use the variety. It's just I look at that bench and I'm thinking like if you look flesh out their 8 man rotation. Obviously the 5 starters, rock solid, that's a great group. Then it's Bruce Brown, it's Thomas Bryant, and I guess Christian Brown. You better fucking believe it's Christian Brown, rob Mahoney. It's Christian fucking a Brown and apparently. Blue chip stock, Christian Brown. I like the way he's played. As a team that's trying to win the championship that makes me a little bit nervous. If our 7th and 8th guys are Thomas Bryant and Christian Brown. It's a buyout team. I don't think there's any question. But I do think one thing with him and again, I watched too much of the nuggets, but that guy is not afraid. He's one of those dudes that comes in and he's just like, I belong here and however many minutes you need for me to play. But I still feel like they need that TJ McConnell type of backup guard. Just somebody that can come in and ready the ship and be okay. What are they missing in your opinion? I don't know if it's a ball handler. I feel like it's redundant because you're running so much pick and roll to close games with yellow kitchen Murray. It's like, why do I want another guy to have the basketball in his hands, especially with that out there? Who's doing it then? So we're talking about like the filler minutes. Yeah. Yeah, I've like Christian Brown heater used to pass bones in the rotation. I mean, you could have KCP run some of it if you wanted to. I mean, brown's kind of a plug into any situation. And it was kind of funny he was joking the other day. It's nice that I don't know if it was the other day, but he was like, it's kind of nice to have to play center anymore. I love the Thomas Bryan pickup for them. I really like it. For whatever reason, I've had a thing for him for way too long for the most part. It's been rather disappointing. But I think there's an energy and aggressiveness with when he's feeling it and he's feeling good about himself. I'd rather have him more than bull bull, which I can't wait to get to when we do or should be not bulbul. Mo bamba. I probably would rather have bull bull instead of Obama, so I'd rank him third the guys that I just good to know. Yeah, so we'll do that when we do imagine the Lakers entree a little bit later. Yeah, it does feel a little light, Chan char has been playing the times. I know. I mean, you're rolling your eyes. You should be. I'm just naming names at this point. It would be a little nice, but I don't know if whoever they brought in is a ball handler is not going to be important enough to probably dictate where they were going as a series because we already know what they're going to do on every major possession. And it's really good. Let's take one more break and then I want to rip through some of these traits. All right, so I separated this into some categories. First one is the not sure why you did this one. Trade? Charlotte gets Reggie Jackson for mason plumlee. Charlotte has Rozier, the lamella ball, they spent what the 9th pick in the draft on book night, 18 months ago, 19 months ago? And they're like, now let's bring in Reggie Jackson. I just didn't fundamentally understand this. I know he's probably an expiring. I think they got a couple seconds out of this maybe, but just didn't understand it. There's sometimes there's trades here. I don't get it. This was that, I'll get a trade rep. Well, especially you're unloading Jalen McDaniels, you're unloading mason plumlee. You're signaling that you're probably a team that doesn't have a lot of interest in winning right now. As you mentioned, in terms of guards, like Rosie has been pretty good since lamelo got back. He's finally kind of settled back into what's a comfortable role for him. I guess you're just filling out minutes with Reggie Jackson, but I don't really see what he it's not an additive value move for them. Is it a buyout? And I just, how do they not get more for plumlee? Maybe I overvalue them because I just think that's a guy that could be in a playoff series. I didn't understand the two Charlotte moves at all, but guess what? I haven't understood 80% of the Charlotte moves since like 2005. So I don't understand any of it. I don't understand any of it. There's one thing that's been consistent this whole time. Nobody wants to talk about Jordan because it's Michael Jordan, but
The Bill Simmons Podcast
"rob mahoney" Discussed on The Bill Simmons Podcast
"Hey, the ringer dot com is covering sports pop culture, this basketball trade deadline, and has a piece for me because I came back at a retirement. It happened. I wrote a very, very, very, very long NBA trade value column. It had been a couple of years. The process took a little longer than usual. I was happy with the end result, but man, I look back in the days when I could just crank out 4000 words and four hours and I don't know what happened to that person. I mean, I could barely drive a car at this point of mold. But it was fun to throw myself back into it. It was fun to go through the editing process. The list was really, really, really, way harder to figure out than I can ever remember. And any other trade value, we have so many good players. The contracts for the most part are not really that bad anymore. So it was like putting together a big jigsaw puzzle. And then especially trying to figure out the last 12, 15, that was tougher than usual. So anyway, that's going to go up on the ringer dot com on Friday. Please check it out. It's part of our big rankings build that we did where we had the top hundred players league pass rankings, the trade value, and then I'm going to start updating this probably like every couple months, not with as many words as I wrote, but at least trying to move the list around and see who went up and who went down. Because even I started working on this, I would say November and the list just kept changing. Guys just kept all of a sudden, you know, Jade and I have a year out. See you later, or Trae Young, you were in the late teens up. You're moving backwards. So it is a living organism. It was very fun to write. Friday, the ringer dot com. Be ready. Coming up on this podcast where you're not going to talk about Tom Brady. He retired again. I'm not positive, I believe it. I think he ran out of options for now. And we'll see where it goes. But I think he was waiting to see what Sean Payton was going to do. And there was a possibility, could Sean Payton go to Carolina. Who knows? Sean Payton ended up going to Denver, who already has a very expensive quarterback, so that was that. Doesn't seem like San Francisco is that interested in the Tom Brady reunion. And then Miami was the other place that I think was a possibility. And they committed to tua. So there you go. He ran out of teams. This is how it happens. This happened to Peyton Manning. If you remember a few years ago, Peyton Manning did not want to retire. But kind of ran out of teams that wanted an aging QB and whether that just happened to Brady. I don't know. Will he pop on the Super Bowl? I don't know. But we did the last time he retired. We did a whole bunch of braided stuff. I'm not doing that again. And I don't totally trust that he's gone either. I feel like he's like a boxer. What's he going to do? It's going to be TV, like this guy's bread and built to just win football games. So we'll see. I could see him hanging around and waiting to see how this season goes staying in shape and you're always wondering drew away from being needed. So anyway, great career. Certainly the most important football player ever passed through my life, 6 super bowls, loved watching them, and I'm not positive either. Coming up on this podcast, it is a very special NBA podcast. We were doing a fake trade NBA draft to celebrate the trade deadline next week. Chris Ryan, Kevin O'Connor, rob Mahoney, the big guns are here. It's all next, first, our Friends from. Project. All right, this is the first time we've ever tried this. It is a fake trade draft. We are going to go around the horn. Rob Mahoney Kevin O'Connor, Chris Wayne. We're going to throw a fake trades. The ground rules are going to be this. So
The Bill Simmons Podcast
"rob mahoney" Discussed on The Bill Simmons Podcast
"When was the last time that the Lakers future was actually their draft picks in any way? This is not a team that drafts players and goes through the long developmental process and those are our guys. Not since Kobe effectively. That was really the standout case of that. But LeBron wanted to come here and it wasn't because the Lakers had draft picks. And AD wanted to be traded there. And it cost draft picks to do it, but ultimately the young talent is not going to stand in the way of things like that. It's not going to stand in the way of other stars right now, even with everything as they are with the Lakers, wanting to play there, wanting to be a part of that franchise. Those are the facts of life for that organization and picks mean different things to different teams. I don't think they mean that much to the Lakers, frankly. Well, you know who hopes you're right about 8 other teams in the NBA. They certainly do. Those teams. I hope rob Mahoney is right in that they're going to be dumb enough to trade those picks. And that's the thing ultimately. That's why you want to be the first mover. It's like, you want those picks. You want to be able to take advantage of the fact that that pick means more to your franchise than it ever would to the Lakers. Even if it's the number one overall pick. I just have serious questions about Davis. Sure. Being able to stay healthy for 8, 9 months a year. And you know, I know his agent was taught, he was interviewed about it and was saying, if you look at each injury, each one was a fluke, he stepped on somebody's foot or whatever, but I just think if you're relying on him the way the Lakers were lied on him to get back in the race when they were like two and ten when he went on that run. He couldn't sustain it. He got hurt. He broke down. Some guys just aren't durable. Other guys are. Giannis doesn't break down. You know? Like, Luca, as weird
The Bill Simmons Podcast
"rob mahoney" Discussed on The Bill Simmons Podcast
"Pod. First, our Friends from. Pearl jam. All right, the ringer's rob Mahoney is here. We're going to talk Cleveland Cavaliers out of all the plots that have transpired. Over the last 16 days of the NBA season, we've had a lot of soap opera stuff. I've had some semi sinister stuff. We've had some disappointments, but there's one feel good story and it's the Cleveland Cavaliers. A team that I think we all felt was going to be a playoff team. Was going to be a fringe contender, I think there were over under maybe it was 46 and a half somewhere in that range. So it was right in the ballpark of Toronto and teams like that. And maybe had the upside if it gelled with the guards. We didn't expect rob. Mitchell comes in. This is the best he's ever looked. This is scratching, not only scratching the ceiling, punching his fist through the ceiling. And then last night, in a really, really, really fascinating game against the Celtics. Him and Garland just looked really good together. Garland's out 13 minutes into the opening night. This is the first time they got to play together. They get thrown into the fire. Celtics lost them a few nights ago. They want revenge. And it just, the way it looked, I'm trying not to overreact. But it's one of the best teams I've watched this year. And I don't think that's an overreaction. I mean, if you're trying not to overreact, I fear you've invited the wrong person on this podcast because they've been such a feel good story. I'm having a hard time talking myself out
Open Floor: SI's NBA Show
"rob mahoney" Discussed on Open Floor: SI's NBA Show
"Completely shocked right now. I'm gonna send you the trailer and you're gonna be even more shocked. At how much you need to see this movie in your life immediately. Wow, well, I know exactly what I'm doing. It's 10 a.m. here on the West Coast, but I know exactly what I'm doing. Right after we wrap this podcast, wrap this podcast up. Rob, thank you so much for joining everyone. I'm sure our open floor fans are obviously familiar with your work. But if somehow you're not, make sure you check out everything rob is doing at the ringer. He's I'm surprised we were able to book him. You and sharp, like the two, you know, it's our NBA preview issues coming out soon for SI. I'm trying to get athletes to do it, but I was more confident in securing them than I was. You for this podcast. I mean, you're just a podcast star now if you don't read rob work on the ringer, you can hear them on the Bill Simmons podcast. You host one of the weekly shows, right? Like you and woz, that's a weekly thing. 'cause it pops up. It pops up in my feed, whatever every time I'm like, is this a, I don't know, I'm too old to keep track of, you know, but he hosts a weekly show, you can find it under the ringer NBA show. Exactly. Exactly. So the ringer NBA show, if you subscribe to that on podcast, you get all the ringers NBA podcasts, including rob. Rob, thank you so much, man. I appreciate your time. I appreciate you having me. It's good to be in your house doing this podcasting.
The Crossover NBA Show with Chris Mannix
"rob mahoney" Discussed on The Crossover NBA Show with Chris Mannix
"You know what I mean? It's a compelling argument. But I don't hear a lot of like why isn't Rudy Gobert on this list? You have Gobert in your top 5. Not necessarily. But look, I think let's put the older legends in their own category because I agree there's complications in reconciling George mikan with draymond green. And in all seriousness, there are a lot of players who are great players in their era and we all agree with modern whatever they probably would have greater than this one as well. So continue. The tricky part for me is Anthony Davis over draymond green. Yes. Damian Lillard over draymond green. These are not ours. These are not MVPs. These are not Andy Davis as one championship as the second best player on a team. These are not guys with long illustrious playoff histories that can not be denied. They're really good players who for significant chunks of their careers have been top ten NBA guys during their era, which is very impressive. I could understand the argument for like, if I'm draymond, I could understand being pissed off about that. If I'm clay, maybe less so. You know, if I'm clay and I'm looking at this list, like what is my model? I guess you could argue that could he have been Reggie Miller? Could he have been Ray Allen? Could he have been like that kind of player? Maybe. But I have serious doubts about what he would have been as a first option. And I think history is probably going to look on him as favorably as it could have, given the way his career has turned out. I'm like, I mean, honestly, what the hell with this list anyway? Go shine your rings. Go enjoy your life. This is not the be all end all of your NBA validation. You've got plenty to say you are. The jackets are pretty sick though. The jackets are pretty sick. It's true. Once they bust the jackets out, it is hard. It's hard to turn that down. I gotta be honest though. Dwyane Wade posted a video of him unboxing his jacket or something. And when the bulls and calves logo on there, he had to feel some type of way. Did they have to put the Cavaliers logo on it? You think there's no way that caps patch is staying on. Dwyane Wade's top 75 Jersey. Come on. Yeah, I just want to see like the Hakeem olajuwon. Oh my God. All these random logos from Lake career stops. I mean, you gotta do it.
Open Floor: SI's NBA Show
"rob mahoney" Discussed on Open Floor: SI's NBA Show
"Like really competently really sturdily. And I think the answer to that is most nights probably not. And I think that's kind of where the average playoff team is. And so when you talk about things like expansion, I think really what you're talking about is does adding two teams or does any of the other litany of changes we're talking about with the NBA in terms of potential CBA renegotiate renegotiation or whatever, will it change the dynamic of these teams enough that like three stars aren't on the same team and therefore can exploit these teams that don't necessarily have the best role players, right? I think all of these issues are kind of tied up in one another because yeah the 300th best player in the NBA and the hypothetically 400th best player in the NBA. Those guys are not that far apart. That's more of a like the needs of your team, the specifics of your tastes, but I don't know that I would say that these teams are like iron like bulletproof necessarily in their rotations in a way that they haven't been before. For sure. I think it's a couple of things. You mentioned this strategy. This strategy is so much better now. There are some players who just played off the floor. So it's interesting. It's almost like, I look at the team like the grizzlies, which I think doesn't have a conventional two star, three star that we're accustomed to top seats having. They had a lot of guys who could play on the floor in a playoff series, I think, but, you know, guys who maybe aren't moving the needle at the same time. Like, I think Danny mountain's not getting played off the floor, but he's not necessarily moving the needle for you either. So it's interesting. And in that sense, I think there's definitely, like you said, the guys across the league top to bottom are better, but you just can't play in a high level playoff game now if you can't defend. You have to be on you have to be basically James Harden offensively. I mean, who's the worst offensive player that can stay on the floor in the playoffs? Because of how bad they are on defense. I think that's an interesting question. I'm trying to think we could be. I mean, Kyrie is honestly maybe in the conversation. Because some guys are just the teams are going to go after them almost every single possession in the fourth quarter.
Open Floor: SI's NBA Show
"rob mahoney" Discussed on Open Floor: SI's NBA Show
"Welcome back to another episode of open floor filling in for your host. Michael the pod pina, I'm Rohan not joined. Today, he's a former staff writer at Sports Illustrated. He's currently a staff writer at the ringer. We don't talk about that much. Joining me on the show, he's uncomfortably tall. It's rob Mahoney rob, how's it going, buddy? It's gonna be back. But it feels like you've remodeled in here. You know, it feels a little different, a little adjacent to what I'm used to, but it's not. I like what you've done with the place as well. Thank you. It's like when they reboot a show 20 years later, it can never look exactly the same, but it looks a little bit the same. You know what I mean? Yes. Totally. I mean, I hope you're not saying like, this is like, we're not the original Ocean's Eleven. The much better sexier version. Exactly, precisely. Rob, I have a story because you made a joke once when we were coworkers, I probably thought about it a hundred times sensing probably forgotten. But we used to do a video show. We should do a video show for Switzerland called give and go that used to be hosted by Chris mannix and every now and then when I was first starting it aside, they used to let me host it. So manics used to have a line that he'd start every episode with, which was welcome back to give and go. SI's critically acclaimed web series, which I thought that was a good bit. A rare good manic bit. So one time I was hosting given go with you and I said, welcome back to open floor. The SI's critically acclaimed web series, and you said I believe it's getting less critically acclaimed with each house. I was a counselor. That's a good bit. It's a good burn, do you have? I was like, but we didn't know each other that well yet, and I knew you were joking. I understood that it was a joke. Okay, good. But I was like, damn, that was a good one. I was impressed. It probably was a little early in our relationship to drop that on you, but also I stand by it. No, it's good. Listen, it's all about pushing forward to the vulnerable moments. You know what I mean? Why exist in the weird middle area? Let's just go for it. So it's true. Let's get into the real today. Let's really dig deep into our souls with some NBA talk. Exactly, 'cause now is the time to be doing that. Absolutely. We do have a couple fun things to get to on the show today, including some emails, so please keep the emails coming, open floor mail at Gmail dot com. You guys have finally
The Bill Simmons Podcast
"rob mahoney" Discussed on The Bill Simmons Podcast
"While. But I'm really loving this series though. Like I tweeted, I was like, this is the best possible matchup that we could have gotten in my opinion. And I think these two teams have lived up to it. This is like extremely high level basketball, man. Well, I'll tell you this, guys. Giannis for two weeks was a fucking nightmare. I went to the game three and I said to my dad at one point, I was like, it's just so nice to go to Celtic playoff games and not have Giannis just kind of wandering around the court like an alien and just every fast break you're aware of him and it was just so nice to just not have him in a series then we shift immediately to Steph. It's like going from a haunted house to a haunted house. These are the two scariest guys in the league. I'm sure. As you said, I mean, part of you wants to have to hurt you, though. There's a part deep down. I wish I could agree with you on that, but I'm not rooting for him at all. And I've even been able to work up a tiny bit of antipathy for him. I got to say. Yeah. Because I do think he pushes off a little on the drives. Definitely. I do think he dives into people a tiny bit. But I mean, the rest of the guys, clay, I was surprisingly easy to root against. I find him annoying now. I just have to complete one 80 on him. It's like, who do you think you are? Klay Thompson. And then obviously draymond has been a delight as a villain. And especially like a little bit of a diminished villain. You know, it's a little like Schwarzenegger in The Batman movie. Yeah, my favorite, my favorite draymond moment of this series, and I don't know if it would be topped. It's when he used Jalen Brown as an Ottoman. And pretended he pretended like, what? Oh, I'm just putting my leg there. It's like, yo, this guy is, he's just another level of troll. That was a normal basketball move was, find a new slant. Yeah, they do it. They do have more tricks than I think they get credit for. I think they're assumed to be this classy team, but clay is really good at just shoving the guy backwards into the guy who's shooting when he's being screened and they do have some stuff. All right, we're going to wrap up was rob Mahoney. It was great to see you. I don't really like the circumstances. Two, two, headed.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
"rob mahoney" Discussed on The Bill Simmons Podcast
"As well as another new podcast for us, the town with Matt belloni. He's been just diving into Hollywood. They had a streamer's draft this week on the Monday pod, not good for peacock. Peacock, not drafted. Wow. Gotta get peacock in new GM. Those are good ones. And then from pop culture standpoint, not only the rewatchables, not only the prestige TV podcast. Not only the big picture with Sean fantasy. Not only the watch, I'm sure we have some other ones. Oh, the ringer verse. Yeah, check that one out as well. Pop culture. We're doing it the best. Name somebody who's doing it better than this. The ringer podcast network. Okay, coming up on this podcast. Rob Mahoney and I are going to talk about what happened tonight. Sixers heat, the fall of James Harden, yet again. The possible ending of Doc Rivers, yet again. And then we talked about Phoenix, Dallas as well. That's at the very top. And then, I went a little rogue. Last night's Celtics bugs game. And the fact that the Celtics in about three minutes, I think, lost the title last night. And I'm still sort of got my feelings on that. But you get to hear me sort at all my feelings. I have a couple really fun segments for you that I planned out. So that's coming up after Mahoney. Stay tuned for that. You'll like it. And even if you hate Boston fence,.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
"rob mahoney" Discussed on The Bill Simmons Podcast
"Do you have sixers Miami? 6 years in sex, at all times in every place with no doubt. One of my best buddies is a he fan. We've been talking about this for a long time. I think the sixers can beat them. I earnestly do with that said, I do love rooting for playoff Jimmy. And he has vindicated in many of his sixers opinions from years past. And so it's a win for the sixers, or it's a win for Ben solax opinions about the sixers and 2019. Well, what a night for you. It really was. The eagle sixers, it doesn't get much better than that as a Cabo. I was so grateful during that like ten, 11, 12, 13 pick, like all the trades were happening, eagles were moving up because that was like fourth quarter of the game. And if I had to be double screening, I think my head would burst. So it was very nice to just fully lock in on the trades, fully lock into the lines moving up and not have to worry about the sixers blowing a 20 point lead. So we're not at home. You only blow 26 point leads in your home. That's the thing. All right, you can read Ben solak on the ringer dot com. You can hear him on the ringer NFL show. Sometimes on the ringer gambling show as well. Good to see you as always. Thanks so much, Bill. All right, we're taping this part of the podcast. It's a little after 7 o'clock PT just had two basketball games. A third one is happening right now. The NFL Draft is happening. Now, my TVs are exploding. This is a great time. First game sucked the Philly game. We'll talk about that in a second. Second game was New Orleans. The feel good first round loser of this year. Pushing Phoenix as far as they could take them. Devin Booker even came back Phoenix barely wins in the final minute, some unbelievable Chris Paul, the pelicans go home. Rob Mahoney, what stood out to you about game 6? That's a hell of a party favor to take home if you're the pelicans. You know, I think every year there's a team that is young and kind of bad in the middle of the season and we're wondering, should they tank for a draft pick? Should they make a push for the playoffs? And I hope you remember this pelicans team when this happens next year with some other team because they're going to the next season with a lot of juice with a lot of confidence. They played a hell of a series. My friend Kevin wild's on Twitter compared it to the bubbles, the bubble suns. Two years ago. And you know, even though they didn't even make the playoffs that year, they laid some sort of a foundation that convinced them to trade for Chris Paul. And a year later they were in the finals. KSC, you see any similarities with that? Absolutely, because now they're going to be in a situation to where they're Chris Paul. You would hope is going to be Zion Williamson with him coming back if he's able to get in the big if here, but if Zion could get in the best shape of his life and return to the court to a team that has now defensive enforcers like herb Jones on that end of the floor, when is the last time we've seen a rookie play at his level on the defensive end with CJ McCollum granted it wasn't a great series for him. If you get CJ McCollum as the third option between bataan Ingram and Zion, that offense is gonna be far more significantly difficult to stop on what for defense. And so, I mean, for Zion, it all comes down to health. That goes without saying. But it seems like I'm not sure if you've heard anything about this bill, but I don't think New Orleans wanted to bring him back because they still want him to actually get back into the best shape of his life before risking further injury with a condition he's in now, but that's my impression from the people I've talked to. Well, he's not in shape. I mean, you can do it from him on the sidelines. If we're going to extend the bubble sun's comparisons, maybe he could go on a plant based diet like Chris Paul did because Chris Paul basically changed his career when he got in a crazy level of shape. Tonight was unbelievable. I mean, the stuff he's doing, I don't really even know how to have perspective on this older athlete stuff. You know, I think once Brady had the falcons come back, that was when everybody's brain just started to kind of break with this stuff. LeBron was going to win the scoring title this year for a little bit there. Brady's still winning playoff games. And it's just throwing me off, but the one thing we always kind of knew was that aging point guards, rob. Just weren't supposed to be getting better. There was a point in this game when him and 8 had made 16 of 16 shots to start the game. And at the end, he did everything. He had the alley oop, he's setting up Booker. It was just dagger after dagger. I got to say offensively, I think this is as good as he's been his whole career. I know that's a crazy thing to say. But that's how I feel. I was there for his whole career. I.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
"rob mahoney" Discussed on The Bill Simmons Podcast
"Broke down the latest episode of winning time. A show that we really like, but also we have some issues with some of the factual accuracy of some of the stuff. This is sports. This is in doing the Wii work show where you could just make up stuff. We have box scores. We have stats. We have game logs. How far can you go with this show like this? It's especially topical because it seems like Jerry West is going to get litigious about the character that they are portraying of him. On that show. Anyway, check out the prestige TV pod. We have a bunch of new shows coming up as well. They returns of Better Call Saul. Barry, the season finale. I have we crashed BMI ribbon and do that. And there you go. Speaking of me and Mali Rubin, next week, Monday, the rewatchables, we're finally doing it. We're doing one of the great baseball movies of all time. That's my hint. That's my hint. For Monday. I have a hint for my Wednesday, same game parlay on FanDuel. Every Wednesday, try to try to nail the same game partly with better than four to one odds. We're going to do a Boston one. And I don't know the specifics yet because some of the player props haven't come out yet. I'm taping this on Tuesday night. But we're going to tie in Celtics nets game too with the Red Sox Blue Jays series. The Red Sox. Somehow, want to get tonight. I don't really understand it. They have basically one and a half starting pitchers. Garrett whitlock is my God. My God of 2022. Every time he pitches, good things seem to happen. He's the MVP of the team so far. But yeah, there's going to be a Boston Boston part. Coming up on this podcast, rob Bonnie and I are going to be reacting. It's later Tuesday. I'm going to be reacting to the three Tuesday night games. And then my guy Danny Kelly is going to come on for a new segment called 50 minutes or less where he gives some draft predictions in 15 minutes or less. And then finally, our guy Jonathan sharks, we're going to talk Dallas Utah, we're going to talk 2022 NBA draft and we're going to talk about what's going on with him because we get asked about that a lot and he's somebody that is near and dear to our hearts and root for him and he can go to the end of the podcast we'll explain all about that. It is all coming up. Our Friends. From project. All right, we're taping this part of the podcast. It is 9 33 Pacific time. We were going to go after Minnesota Memphis, rob Mahoney and I were planning when we wanted to do this and I.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
"rob mahoney" Discussed on The Bill Simmons Podcast
"One 55 chargers plus two 40 Denver plus two 60 raiders 7 to one. Chargers plus two 40. I think I actually think they should be favored in that division. Because you figure staley is not going to do a dumber job coaching the team in year two. He learned at least from a couple of his mistakes. Herbert getting better, JC Jackson, they add Mac, the rams, they know they have to compete with them in LA even though nobody cares about either team in LA. I see them coming. All right, we have to go. Give me one quick prediction. As we head toward the draft and anything you're looking at, any sort of monkey wrench, you're focused on for the next couple of weeks, just like a QB, like do you feel like if the Steelers got a rookie QB who could play right away? Would you think of them differently? Anything along those lines? I would not think of them differently. I will say this, the Chargers have gone under their wind total for three straight years. Everybody loves betting overs on the Chargers. Three consecutive years they've gone under their wind total. I guess my early prediction, you kind of hinted at this. And I'm going to do a lot more with strengths of schedule over the coming weeks and we're going to do some more on the ringer gambling show, of course, talking about it. I think there is going to be a team that really surprises some people out of the NFC east. I know that team for you is the Philadelphia Eagles. I mean, you didn't even want to talk about the Giants. I'm not predicting that they're going to be that surprise team, but I'm not giving that time. They can go to hell. Year four, you're in? I'm not in on him. I'm in on the fact that that coaching staff last year was absolutely. I'm a massive day ball fan. And I think that that team from a strategic perspective is going to get so much more upside out of this roster and this offense in general and their ability to score points and their ability to not punt the football back to opponents. But I will say this. Year one play caller who is a head coach. It's a lot of burden on the head coach. That's a tough role to have. Smith last year. Saw it with Arthur Smith, Brandon staley's run into it to obviously he's on the defensive side of the football, but it's just very difficult for those offense coordinators who are then all of a sudden becoming head coaches that have to do that role. So I think it's a team that's going to give some people trouble. And what is their win total here? I think they're win total is, it was 7 and a half. It's been bent down to 7. So maybe I'm going to let you know as possible. All right, so you're going to be on the ringer game we show with Ben solak a couple times as we had told the draft because both of you love that in the draft props and then check out sharp football analysis, the big books coming out when July. Beginning of July or end of June, yeah. I'm already working on it deep into research. All right, good to see you, my friend. Thanks, Bill. All right, that's it for the podcast. Thanks to Warren Sharpe. Thanks to Jake Caspian king. Thanks to rob Mahoney, don't forget to listen to the prestige TV podcast. We have a bunch of bunch of good shows that are in the mix right now. I think I'm gonna be doing winning time next week on there for the mid season, by the way. But we crashed, dropout, super pumped, all winding down. Bridgerton, we covered on there this week and in Atlanta, rem and van are doing that. Every week. So check out the prestige TV pod. Check out the rewatchables..
The Bill Simmons Podcast
"rob mahoney" Discussed on The Bill Simmons Podcast
"All right, rob Mahoney is here from the ringer. He wrote about Giannis and tedi kupo today. Rob, I am feeling like Giannis, I don't know if he's there yet, but I think we're edging there. Is becoming the most disrespected superstar of his generation. You laid out some of the case today for why he should absolutely be thrown into the MVP race and every conversation, then it's not just jokic versus embiid, which I agree with. But just in general, I've never seen people go out of their way to look for more reasons not to declare somebody either the best player in the league or one beat a durian if we're going to do that. He answers every question we have in the finals last year. He plays hurt. He comes through on the biggest stages. He has iconic plays. He handles his business the right way. He crushes on both ends. He's the best offensive player in the league. He's averaging 30 11 and 6. He's carried a team that's had a lot of moving pieces during the year. He never really misses games or seems to get hurt. He's a true freak. He's in the prime of his career. What am I missing? Nothing, as far as I can see, but most disrespected is a big word this week when Russell Westbrook is getting laughed out of buildings, basically. So the threshold has changed a little bit. But he's earned the disrespect in a lot of ways and also absolutely. When you talk a lot of shit and you carry yourself a certain way and then you're on your way down. Everybody lines up to get their punches in, right? With Giannis, it's like people are like begrudgingly, respectful for him. And I don't really understand it. Maybe I'm arguing with the straw man, I don't know. No, you're not. I mean, just earlier this season, I think it was Tracy mcgrady, who was saying, oh, if Yan has played in our era, he would just be another guy. He wouldn't be as effective. It's weird that you'll hear legends from previous generations say, oh, the Steph Curry's couldn't cut it, but also Yanis, the guy who lives at the rim plays completely inside, totally physical, all energy. I don't know how you can have it both ways. I don't know what they think of the sweet spot of their game was that neither of those guys could have thrived. But Yanis is one of those, one of those players who I think in any era of NBA basketball could have been amazing, but is particularly empowered by this one by putting the ball in his hands by enabling him in that way. And once you do that, I mean, there's just no turning back. That's how you get to these MVP levels, season after season after season to the point where I guess it's old hat at this point, I guess, I guess we've already hit the voter fatigue stage at I think he's 27 years old. Which is wild. But he's incredible. An incredible two way player. Well, what made you want to write this week's piece? What were you seeing that wasn't out there that you're like, I got to do this? Well, I think there's a combination of things. First, it was just the narrowing of the MVP race to jokic and embiid. When to me, it was a three man pool. It was, how are we parsing these three guys? And why is Giannis being boxed out of this conversation? But we're also at the point in terms of awards voting and consideration where it's kind of why not season. You know, like why shouldn't I vote Carl Anthony towns all NBA center third team over Rudy Gobert? Like why wouldn't I do that? And so it's like, if you're thinking about who the why not MVP pick is, I mean, I think you can make an argument for Luca with how strong he's come on over the back half of the season, but for me, it's Giannis. And you look at every advanced stat and Giannis is right there in the thick of it, usually with jokic, usually above and bead. And I mean, it's not a terribly complicated calculus that I arrived at, which is and we talked about this in the piece. If Giannis is right there in the running for the scoring title, and he might be the defensive player of the year, how is that guy not the MVP? And his stats are slightly better than embiid's. If you're just going offense off, it's weird. Look, I've been talking about this for, I feel like my whole life that I've had a platform of how the MVP becomes narratives. And people got seduced by the embiid narrative pretty early on. It doesn't mean that he's not a worthy candidate. But he has a one before. He took a step up. He's had some nationally televised games where he kicked ass. And I think people Yanis is just weird point where people kind of expect it, and it's hard for them to be impressed by him. But I'm constantly impressed by him. As I've discussed many times, I feel like the MVP is always evolving week to week, and that's why it's so dangerous to lock into anything before like the last ten games. Totally. I always felt like it was a three man race. Last week I was definitely leaning toward jokic just because I'm constantly amazed by how kind of unreliable his team is. You know? And I felt like if the records were all going to be around the same with Milwaukee and Denver and Philly, then we have to think like, all right, now.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
"rob mahoney" Discussed on The Bill Simmons Podcast
"Capture memories for hours with a long-lasting super fast charging battery. Get your Galaxy S 22 series today. At Samsung, dot com. We're also about to buy the ringer, podcast network, where we finished up ft up family February with the ice storm on Monday that gimmick is done. I had a great time. We had a lot of fun talking about some really, really, really dysfunctional movies. The ice storm podcast, I think we broke the record for longest premature ejaculation podcast. We've had on the ringer podcast network. Very proud of that. Take that record to my grave. Also in the ringer podcast network, I hope you're listening to plain English with Derek Thompson because he is absolutely been crushing it during this Ukraine conflict. I've learned a ton. You will learn a ton. He's done a great job. That is one of the best podcasts we have. Check it out. Ringer gambling show we're up in that to Tuesday, Friday with Joe house and John, justi, talking basketball, college basketball, and that is very fun to listen to as well. On this podcast, rob Mahoney from the ringer, we're going to talk about western sleepers. Denver Dallas, you like either of them? What's going on with job Moran? Is he making like the mega leap? Do we have to factor them into our finals plans? Talk about that with rob, rich football announcers, talking about that with Bryant Curtis as there has been a boom. Why is that? Why do networks feel like they have to spend a lot of money on their late answers? We're going to answer that question. We have some predictions. For the future. And then last but not least, my daughter's always cements 16 years old. Euphoria is her favorite show. The show became an absolute phenomenon this year. It's the second biggest HBO show that they've had. I think since 2004, she's going to explain why it means so much to her generation and to the college generation. And we're going to do some awards. We had a good time. She made me nervous a couple of times. I'm not going to lie. It's all next. First, our Friends from Pearl Jam. I rap Mahoney's here from the ringer podcast network in the ringer dot com. You can hear them in the ringer and be a show on Wednesdays. We're going to talk about Denver and Dallas. The west is weird. You look at it. Phoenix, we're taping this. It is ten 40 Pacific time on Tuesday morning. So some of these things are going to change. But it's basically Phoenix cruising to the one seed..
The Bill Simmons Podcast
"rob mahoney" Discussed on The Bill Simmons Podcast
"Four, last one, we're gonna do winners and losers of the trade deadline. We have already done three. We've been going at this basically for two and a half hours. We're gonna try to keep this less than an hour. Big wows is still here. Comments till their KFC is still here. Rob Mahoney has rejoined us. He floated around. He went to another ringer cocktail podcast party. The real ones, the real ones had him over for some for some champagne and some crab and some lobster and now he's back with us. It's been an eventful afternoon, but I can still fit into my cocktail dress. So we're killing it. We're keeping it going. Rob, we were talking at the last part of part three about, do we like where the league is right now with this stuff? We were calling it the merry go round era. Because was correct it made the point. Clear empowerment era is actually kind of a misnomer for some of the stuff that's going on. It's a little different. It's more like the people bouncing around era. But ultimately, do we like this? Because the key point is we were saying how Memphis Cleveland Phoenix Golden State or the teams, everyone is gravitated to this year as oh, I like these teams. And there's either distrust or antipathy or dissatisfaction or whatever with a lot of the kind of created in a Petri dish teams. Is this sustainable for the league and can they fix it? I think it's sustainable just because you have the contrast, right? You do have these cases. But then you also have some more homegrown type teams. At least homegrown type superstars and guys like Giannis, for example, who can give you a counterpoint. Even if someone like Devin Booker, who is toiled through the bad years of the sons and emerged on the other side, that's an important kind of face to have in contrast to this stuff. But I think it makes for interesting stories. I think there's something it's a little Shakespearean about giving someone like James.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
"rob mahoney" Discussed on The Bill Simmons Podcast
"I broke down episode 9 season one of yellow jackets a terrific show with Joe and Robinson and Chris Ryan, a lot of theories. A lot of theories we did on that one, but you can check out prestige for that and we did euphoria, and we have a couple other shows in there. Station 11 is going to be on there this week, so that's a very good feed. Check that out. New rewatchables went up as well as well Monday night. Did the 30th anniversary of juice me and big was and van lathan. So that happened. Fandos sports. But now legal in New York as I keep telling you, I'm going to have a same game parlay on Wednesday night that I'm going to try to steer toward the people of New York in some way. So go to FanDuel on Wednesday and they'll have it. But I don't know what it is yet. You always have to wait with this stuff until the last minute, because COVID. But that will be happening. Coming up on this podcast, I wanted to do some midseason all NBA awards. So I brought in rob Mahoney in just a barrier and we tried to figure it out. If the season ended today, who would make the three all NBA teams led to a lot of fun discussions, some fake trades in there, there's no way you won't enjoy it. Sorry. And then Matt balleny from puck, he came on and we talked about Yellowstone and how it became the most bizarre streaming story of the streaming era and just the impact of that show and how it is affecting multiple streaming services and the lessons we can learn talked about that did a little Golden Globes talked about the industry as a whole. So basketball and Hollywood for you today, it's on the next first. Pro chip. All right, Justin barrier and rob Mahoney are here. You can see them on the ringer and be a show or listen to them and you.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
What's going on with the New Orleans Pelicans?
"This year's deputy f team the new orleans pelicans. I don't know what baker this team you can catch them on any given night and it's a completely different experience than the last night. I don't know if the players make sense together. Actually i'm pretty sure they don't. I don't really know what the overall philosophy is. I don't know if they're trying to be a playoff team if they're trying to be rebuilding. I'm just constantly confused and there are some optimism because they want a couple of games around people here they go here. Zion and then they get killed last night by the bulls and have one hundred thousand breakdowns. And i guess my first question to you is the pelicans what the fuck you. How many exclamation points can we tack onto that. Wt fd think. But i was hoping you could answer this question. Because i think you're spot on in that it's so much depends your view of this team on when you catch them even just like what stage in the season. You caught them because for a minute. It looked like they were going to live up to their personnel and be a tough minded offensive team. Scrounging out offensive rebounds to get points and just kinda struggling on that in because they're spacing issues the script has completely flipped. And now this is all of a sudden very competent offense. I think park has really driven by brandon. Ingram is i ion williamson. They're making that part of it work but the defense. Jesus christ i mean it is. There is inconsistent defensively as really any team out there. Yeah i would say other than brooklyn. It's the team that's most likely to give up one hundred forty on any given night to any team. That knows what they're doing. I so if you actually look at their stats and you haven't been watching that much and you look at the stats and you look at williamson in ingram and all right. Those guys are having good years pretty efficient. And then you look at lonzo and you look at bledsoe. Lonzo shoot thirty seven percent from three so she and forty percent so going into the season like well. Their guards can't shoot. They're not going to be able to have enough space. Well their guards are actually shooting. Okay but then. When i watch everybody together. I don't have a five-man line-up that i liked like yesterday. They're playing Kyra lewis with He he got a little more run and he's really interesting. Rookies really fast. He's little darren foxy and gave them an energy that i was like. Well maybe this. Maybe i would like this version of the pelicans more. If fast you know now unleash sign a little bed. Go up and down a little bit more. But i still don't know who the other two teammates would be with cairo. Lewis design and branding. And i guess the fundamental question for me is do zion and brandon. Ingram makes sense together on a team. That's actually trying to win the title. I think they make sense on offense but the question was i on really broadly. As who are you going to put the five that's gonna make up for all. He doesn't do defensively right now. That's always been my issue with the idea of playing small and we are putting him at the five his rotations is. Aren't there really the pelicans as a team. If i were an opposing coach. I would say this is a team. We can beat him rotation every they are. Pass away from defensive breakdown every time out on the floor and keep moving the ball. You keep doing what you're supposed to do they will they will mess up in a whether it's undersized guy in the corner doesn't quite rotate over all the way. Jj radic or josh. Hart they try hard. They do what they can. But they're not equipped to be helped rotation defenders. If a guy like zion isn't going to be one so i mean i'm i'm kinda bullish on the anger rooms ion depot in general but i am really struggling to see how you put together those lineups. I can see how they kind of got into this conundrum where they clearly wanted to have some veterans early. Some veterans fell into their lap in terms of what was available and trying to get some pics and make their other moves but long term. It's a weird team to build with. And then you get lonzo into this conversation to and what they want to do with him. It's it's kind of messy.