Nerd Sesh - Atlantic Division Predictions

Published Sep 20, 2024, 9:13 PM

The NBA season is closer than you think and the nerds are here to get you ready by previewing the Atlantic Division! They discuss how Jayson Tatum has to improve to bring the Boston Celtics another title, whether Jalen Brunson can bring the New York Knicks a championship, and if Paul George’s addition can help Joel Embiid take the Philadelphia 76ers all the way. They also dive into the outlook for Scottie Barnes and the Toronto Raptors and whether the Brooklyn Nets have anything to be excited about.

Timestamps

00:00:23 - Boston Celtics

00:18:23 - New York Knicks

00:44:46 - Philadelphia 76ers

01:04:03 - Toronto Raptors

01:20:38 - Brooklyn Nets

#Volume

The volume. No, Oh my god, how could he do that?

By go don't.

What Charles Darwin. The nerves is where it's at.

Welcome everybody back into Nerd Sash as always, I'm Carson Greveren. Alongside me is Logan Camden, and folks, if you can believe it or not, we are starting our NBA season preview content today. We've got all this great NFL stuff going on, so we got to spread out the NBA content before the season gets started. And I am already disgustingly excited for that NBA start date just about a month out. Today, we're going to be breaking down the Atlantic Division, and that of course starts Logan with the reigning NBA champion Boston Celtics. How well equipped you feel like this Boston team is toll upon what they did last year and maybe repeat as champs.

At this point, obviously the season hasn't started. I mean I'd be surprised if the Celtics didn't win the championship again. I mean, they just have an embarrassment of riches here in Boston and they decimated everybody in the playoffs. This was a dominant team last year. They won sixty four games, they were number one in offensive rating and net rating. They were the number two defense in terms of net rating, and just in looking at the playoff run, they had the tied sixth best net rating in a playoff run by a champion since two thousand. So, I mean, this is one of the best champions in this century. And when I think you look at the variables in their playoff run and what went wrong, I think it's a very replicable formula. I mean, Jason Tatum couldn't make a jump shot in the NBA Finals and it really didn't matter whatsoever. Now, I don't think the Dallas Mavericks were the best team in the West last season. I still think it was Denver, right. I think that maybe that would have come back to bite them against a better opponent. And I don't want to take anything away from the Mavericks for getting to the finals. It was very impressive that they were able to do so. But I think Minnesota would have been a little bit more well equipped to slow down Boston offensively, and I think Denver probably would have been a better opponent in terms of matching them consistently night to night on the offensive end. But again, Jason Tatum this team's best player, in my opinion, didn't have a great finals run, and it didn't really matter. This team still has an all star starting five at full health. My only concern with this team, and really whether they're gonna be my favorite or not, is when it comes playoff time, if k Porzingis is healthy and available, it's gonna be really hard for me to pick any other team not named the Celtics to dethrow them. If that's the case, if they are at full strength, if they are fully healthy, I'm definitely gonna pick this team to repeat his champions again this year.

It's a bit surprising to me, Logan that you say that you would be surprised if they didn't win it, just because I think that the league as a whole is much stronger this year. You look at OKC out they got significantly better. Some of the strongest competition out East, all of the strongest competition really Philly, New York, who we're gonna talk about today, Milwaukee, all of those teams got better. So for those reasons, I do think that Boston doesn't have nearly the same margin it did last year, when like some of the key components for them could go wrong, and they were still just that much more talented than the field that they were able to come through. But I do still think that they're very well positioned to defend their title, and they are on paper the presumptive favorite. I just don't think it's necessarily by a massive margin. But they're in for great things. Again. I don't think this will be as dominant a regular season though, for a couple of reasons. Last year was incredible. They were a sixty four win team. They were top five all time in terms of net rating in the regular season. But this year you're dealing with the Porzingis injury. He'll be out for the first one to two months, and realistically, at some point down the stretch, we'll probably get banged up again, so you're gonna miss him for a more significant portion of the season. And also, I do think the championship malaise is just a very inherent thing for teams that are trying to run it back. You have to respect the quote from Joe Mizzula, the defending champions, that's a very passive phrase. We got to go out there and attack. That's cool, that's good stuff. Maybe that does mean that they will be foot on the gas. But I just think it's natural to expect a little bit of a drop off from teams. They just aren't as motivated to prove everybody in the world wrong when they've already climbed the mountain. That being said, this team retains every key piece. They still have five top fifty ish players when they're at full strength. They have the most aggregate shot creation and shooting in the league. All of this perimeter skill, it's just overwhelming. They have an elite defense with extremely versatile personnel. Those are all things that made them the champions last year, and I do think that their depth is better. Lonnie Walker is a good addition in my opinion. Thirty eight percent three point shooter, good athlete, six ' ten wingspan. He's inconsistent on both sides of the ball. His defensive engagement is where you'd really like to see Ken Boston make the most out of him, because that could make him more of a solid, consistent rotation guy. But at the very least, like you've added a dude who is more talented than the minimum contract that you've given him. That's a good pickup. Baylor Sierman, who they had in the draft, is a dude who can play right away. He's twenty three. He's an absurd shooter of the basketball. He was a ninety eighth percentile pick and roll creator in college. He's got really good, feel good size as a playmaker. Two, he's an awesome rebounder positionally and always not the best athlete. He's a capable defender, very sound, positionally, high effort, just like a perfect fit for the Celtics identity, an immediate, high floor impact, versatile offensive guy. I think he should be able to play this year. So the bench was really one of the major questions about this team throughout the regular season, and it ended up being that the bench played pretty well and also like Boston starting five was just that much better than everybody else, that they got the job done. But I do feel better about the bench. So this team is just going to be an absolute powerhouse. There's no question about that. Logan. There's been a lot of discourse about Jason Tatum throughout the offseason because even though the Celtics won the title, he was not given Finals MVP. He wasn't even given Eastern Conference Finals MVP. You mention some of the shooting and scoring issues that he had. What's your outlook on him as a player, what are your expectations for him this season? And what do you think he needs to do to earn that more universal respect.

Hit a jumper, I mean, just hit a jump. He like, I think the discourse has gotten really out of hand with Jason Tatum, and I hate being like the flag bearer, the guy that's always protecting Jason Tatum in these conversations. But I feel like I.

Certainly not a reputation you've historically.

Had, no but I feel like I have to go to the bat. I have to go to bat for the guy just because of how far everyone else has, you know, towed the line, how far we've gone in the other direction, you know, saying that Jaylen Brown is a better player, which I think on a game to game basis sure, I think Jaylen Brown can and outperform and outproduce Jason Tatum in individual basketball games. But I think over a large sample size in eighty two game season, a playoff run, I think Jason Tatum's just a better player. It sucks, man, He's so polarizing because you'll have these Boston Celtics fans that say he's the MVP of the league. He's the best player on the best team, so he's top five, which I think is too far in that direction. Then you have the other people that say Jylen Brown is the better player. This guy isn't top ten, he's not top twenty. He's just not that kind of offensive player. And I'm somewhere in the middle of those two parties. That's where I am. But I just don't think he gets enough credit. I don't think Jason Tatum is the scorer the caliber of these elite, elite guys that you see Sga Luka, Doncic, Nikola Jokic, Joel Embiid. I don't think Tatum's a scorer like that. I don't think he's a playmaker the like of a Jokic or a Luka. But I also don't think that Jason Tatum's full value shows up in the box score. And that's what a lot of people base their opinions off of, with the prevalent of gambling and just not watching basketball, just basing it off of statistical performances. I don't think a lot of what Tatum does pops up the way that he blows stuff up on the back end. Defensively being in the right spot at the right time, making timely plays, being able to defend one through five on that end, and then offensively creating initial pressures that create these easy swing three opportunities for the Celtics. It's just frustrating, man. I think that some people give Tatum too much credit. I think that some people don't give Tatum enough credit. I think Tatum's a top ten player on the planet with all the things that he can do at a really high level, getting to the rim, creating rim pressure where he's gotten better, He's gotten stronger. He is a good jump shooter. I still believe that. I know that he's had his low from the playoff run last year into the Olympics, and that is concerning, but I still think he's a high level jump shooter. His postgame has gotten so much better over the past year. I think he's improved as a ball handler and a playmaker. That was my biggest concern with Tatum in his game, dating back to the finals run against the Warriors where they lose. Tatum wasn't that level of ball handler and playmaker. He's made real strides there. He's one of the best defensive rebounders at his position and such a great defender like he does so many things at such a high level. I think he has to be top ten. And it was an underwhelming scoring and playmaking run. But this team, the reality of the Boston Celtics is they're so talented they can withstand Jason Tatum not being that level of scoring playmaker, and so I still think he's a really great player. But I think that people want him to be this top five talent and they're underwhelmed. And don't get me wrong, I'm underwhelmed in that respect. The reality is the Celtics just don't need him to play at that level to win basketball games, and I think that can be true again this year. Can I think he do? I think he can be as bad as he was scoring the basketball in the finals and still win. Probably not, But can he have some off nights and they survive. Yes, wholeheartedly. The Boston Celtics are the most talented team still in basketball. In my opinion, he does.

I have to be better offensively though, and especially as a scorer, because I appreciate you doing some Tatum defending. I've been doing that as well throughout the offseason, which is funny because last year, I don't think that either of us were the biggest Tatum advocates defenders throughout the regular season. But then, as you say, you just see things go too far in the negative direction because of people solely looking at the scoring and not appreciating all the other things he's doing at a very high level to drive a title run. He was clearly, to me, their best player throughout the postseason. He just wasn't their best pure scorer. And that's kind of what the evaluation ended up becoming. And that's why Jalen Brown ended up racking up a couple of awards and recognition, and we restart this discourse about who's their best player when it's obviously Tatum. So I appreciate that. There's no question he's a top ten player. I think he's higher than that. I think he's clearly like a top seven guy at this stage. You could argue it, but I would have him in the top seven. But that being said, twenty eight percent from deep in the playoffs like last year is just not going to cut it this time around, under fifty five percent true shooting, that efficiency not gonna cut it. I do think that that jump shot is going to swing back in the positive direction because the irony of this all is that in the home stretch of the regular season he was as good a pull up shooter as he's ever been. He was red hot, and then he went ice cold at a very untimely moment, and the team was able to survive it. But I don't think you can afford that sort of jump shooting from Tatum again this year. And I think that, as I said, the level of competition is just higher. If you're gonna take down OKC in the finals with a top five player with all the shot creation they have, with all the athleticism they have, with all the defensive personnel that they have, their offensive skill, their ability to play with pace like that is an awesome loaded basketball team. It is going to require Tatum more so going head to head with whoever the opposing team's one A level guy is. Offensively, he doesn't have to be better than them, but I think that he has to be more of an approximation than he was in this past run. Like I just think the level of competition is so high that that is going to be expected and required of him this year. It can't just be nailing all the little things, and those little things make a big impact. Right, When you can guard centers in the NBA Finals and you can switch one through five, that was a huge component in shutting down the Dallas offense. And when you can just get by your man, when you can target Luka Doncics off switches and create dribble penetration over and over again and just make these driving kick passes like that is going to have a pronounced offensive impact. He had a really pronounced impact on the NBA Finals, on the playoffs as a whole, without scoring very well. But there comes a point where it's just got to be the big thing too, Right, If you're going to take twenty shots a game, you have to be efficient, You have to have some of those takeover scoring performances when the competition level is what I expected to be this year. So that's one key that stands out to me in Boston's title defense, the one thing that maybe could stand in their way if Tatum doesn't get to that level offensively, although I do certainly expect him to be better than he was this past year. The other key is the big depth, and this is the irony. Right, Boston was just so much better than everybody else. Last year that like the two red flags for them went in the wrong direction. Tatum was bad as a scorer and christophs Porzingis got hurt, so their big death was tested and they still won the title. But this year, expecting better competition, KP's gonna miss time. As we've said, he's already gonna miss a month or two to start the season. You need a third big who can play if you're Boston, ideally better than Cornett or Tilman. But you don't have that, So I shouldn't say that you need a third big. I would certainly like to have one, though, And it's just a lot on thirty eight year old Al Horford's shoulders to ask him to carry the load of being a starter for the stretch of the season and ultimately being your second big. And he was very good in the finals. Like I want to give him props. I thought that defensively, his switch ability was fantastic. He shot the ball decently well. I was a little concerned about him in the early rounds of the playoffs, but he really did his job in the finals. But it's just completely different what Christops porzingis brings to the game. Al is going to be another year older, and they survived. Man, they survived. Their biggest concern actually being their reality with porzingis going down. But I just think it's gonna be tougher this year. The East should be healthier, they should be better, And as you said, Dallas just wasn't a team with the top to bottom talent to beat Boston. So Boston is a clear favorite in the East. I do think that okac is the most talented challenger in the West. I do think experience is a factor in Boston's favor in that matchup, though I still think Denver is underrated as a threat. I get the concern over losing cacp all of their depth, like their roster is certainly flawed, but the Jokic factor is tough. He is really an unstoppable problem for Boston. I do not think that they have the answers for him defensively, and so even though Boston clearly as the better roster, like that one overwhelming player factor is real, and the entire East is definitely stronger. So all of that makes it to me a more interesting race for this year's title probably, But also, like you, can't underestimate how lethal they are with the healthy christopsworzingis. This dude is one of the best pure rim protectors in basketball. He was the most effective post player in basketball. He's one of the best picking pop bigs in basketball. And they didn't have him last year and they still won the title.

And the formula is just so good. Like on a broader level, winning defensively with one of the best transition scorers in all of basketball, because that's how Boston was able to withstand Jason Tatum's offensive struggles. And that's where I want to give Jaylen brown An a mins amount of credit. His ability to just take the ball, say get the f out of my way. I'm getting to the other side of the court and getting a bucket. It's huge, and that's a huge strength for Boston. It's win defensively, get out on the break, get Jayalen the ball, let him go to work. And that's a scary thing about playing this team is not only can they do that, they also have one of the most volable offenses in all of basketball with all of this floor spacing and shooting with a forty percent catching shooter and Derek White, who when you look into the advanced numbers, Derek White is shooting thirty nine to forty percent consistently from deep on tough shots with guys in his face closing out like That's the other scary thing about playing this team is not only can they muck it up and play this grimy brand of defensive basketball, they can also barraze you with three after three after three and create these insurmountable leads in individual games where you just can't come back from it. The Celtics can win in a lot of ways. I still think they're the most talented team in basketball, and so it's interesting you think they're gonna have a little bit of a championship hangover, and I understand it. Maybe you come out a little flat. Porzingis isn't gonna be out there, will likely miss a little bit more time, even, you know, more so than the first two months. I think they're still gonna win sixty games. I have this team going sixty to twenty two. So it's a little bit of a step back from last year. But again, man, I just believe in the talent, the coaching on this team and their formula so much. Yeah, yeah, the ball, the Celtics right now are still my title front runner.

And I think they've earned that. And you have them winning sixty games. I mean, obviously that's not a big difference between us, but that totally could happen even in the absence of KP. They were seventeen and four without him in the regular season last year. They were seven and one without Jason Tatum in the regular season last year. Logan like, this is just a team that is loaded in a truly historically special way. You mentioned the shooting ceiling that make two more threes per game than anybody else in the league last year. Their offensive rating is two points better than anybody else, Like there was a gap in terms of their explosiveness their ceiling. You pair that shooting with the fact that they're so big and physical, and they have forwards in an extremely skilled center who can just mismatch attack like crazy and create advantages, and then they have crazy shooting around them. And Drew Holiday and Derek White are your fourth and fifth options. Derek White was awesome offensively in the playoffs, Like most teams would kill to have him as a third option. For sure, he'd be a legitimate second option on top of all that he does defensively as a playmaker. It's just insane. It is insane how good this team is. And there's no question that it's title or bust expectations for them, because last year they had every piece in place. This year they have every piece in place. They're a phenomenal, phenomenal basketball team. But Logan, I do think that the competition within their division and the league, but specifically their division, is going to be better this year. So I'm very interested between New York and Philly. Who do you have finishing second in the Atlantic this year?

I have New York and I only have two games separating both of these teams. I think it's going to be very, very close. And I want to start with New York with just how great their playoff run was last year. And I know they don't get to the conference finals, they underachieve a little bit, but considering the circumstances, I think it was really impressive. And not only do I think the Knicks pose the biggest threat to Boston in the Eastern Conference, I think this team has a chance to be the best Knicks team in a very long time. Oh, just with the talent level and you look back to their playoff run. The Knicks recipe is so so interesting. It's not gonna be pretty, but they're gonna make you work for every possession. They're gonna grind you out, and they're just gonna outwork you. I mean, there's so many games where they're down a guy and they just make them work. I always think back to that Philadelphia game where they just steal it right at the buzz or Philadelphia is in control of that basketball game and New York steals it. And you gotta give a ton of credit to Jalen Brunson. I mean, he had a truly heroic playoff run. He's one of four players in NBA history to average thirty two points per game and seven assists per game over multiple playoff rounds. That list includes Lebron, who did it three times, which is just ridiculous. Man. See the other guys on this list, Michael Jordan and Devin Booker. Now, I do think when I read off a stat like that, I think it's very important emphasize with Brunson, by farhead the least efficient run of any of those guys. All of those guys are above sixty percent through shooting. So they're giving you elite production with elite efficiency. Brunson did that on fifty three point six percent through shooting. So I just want to emphasize here it's very impressive that he did that. It was a little bit inefficient, but I think it shows that he is capable of taking on that kind of workload in just producing in the raw that in a playoff setting, in a rock fight, in a grimy ass game. Jalen Brunson can still do that for you. And what I think is very encouraging about that is that he's probably not going to have to take on that kind of load this playoff run. The Nick should not only be better defensively, they should have more help offensively. You added macal Bridges. I think him and ogn Andobi formed the best wing tandem in the league. You've got some really good shooters around him and Dante DiVincenzo. Bridges and Ogna and Ob aren't bad shooters either. My one concern I have two concern about this next team when it comes to playoff team, because I think they are more talented. Right, You're gonna have Josh Hart who can start for un a pinch who's gonna come off the bench. I love Deuce McBride. I think that guy is phenomenal. The two X factor swing factors that are gonna either make or break the next season. It starts with Julius Randall in way we do this feel every time with the Knicks. Yeah, how does he mesh with this unit? It feels like he is the odd man out of this group for a few reasons. One, I just think Bridges and Ananobe have way more seamless. This includes Steven Chenzo and Josh Hart way more seamless off ball. You know, skill sets where they can just play off ball better. They can do little things that compliment this team and slick the wheels a little bit more. And I think it can work. I think Randall can work here. But it's gonna take a real commitment of Randall committing to a role and doing little things and imposing himself less on the game. And I'm not saying Julia shouldn't attack in isolation, or he shouldn't get to his mid range pull ups, or he shouldn't try to barrel himself down hole but downhill, excuse me, but it's gonna take him doing less of that and not being this kind of black hole that we know Julius Randold can be. Again, He's had two of the most disastrous playoff runs I've seen from a borderline star level player against the Hawks, you know, where he's basically the only guy on the team, and I cut him slack with that playoff run. But last playoff for he gets binged, right. I mean, it's one of the worst performances I've seen from a guy like that. The other component and Carson, I think I'm more concerned about this component for the Knicks than I am with Julius Randall, and that's saying something. I think Mitchell Robinson has to stay healthy, and when you look at his career, twenty twenty two is the loan close to fully healthy we've seen from Mitchell Robinson where he's consistently starting. And I can't overstate the loss of Isaiah Hartenstein in free agency to the Oklahoma City Thunder. That is a massive, massive loss for the Knicks. Not only what he does on the court, he had the fifth best defensive field goal percentage inside six feet that's minimum six defensive field goal attents per game. He was just one of the most the elite rim protectors in all the basketball last season. You think about what he did during the playoff run, the float to range shot making you saw from him and Brunson. Where this offense is grinded to a standstill, they can't get anything going offensively, that little two man game with Hartenstein got them some tough clutch buckets. You think about the screen setting that he provide you. And then again just as a replacement for Mitchell Robinson when Robinson isn't healthy, or when Robinson fouls out early in a game and you need this guy to come in and step in. It's an invaluable role in Isaiah Hartenstein, I think is really underrated still. I know that people give him his flowers. He's a damn good center. And now the luxury for Oklahoma City having a guy that they can start alongside chet holmger and have an elite tandem of rim protectors on the court at the same time, but also having a replacement level big where if you need Holmgren off the court, give him a break. Hartenstein can hold down that five spot really really well. And so you look at the guys behind Mitchell Robinson. Now in this depth chart, it's up to precious the Chiewan Jericho Simms to step into that role. I don't think Jericho Sims can do it. He's undersized, Sure, he's athletic, he doesn't have that kind of room protection ceiling. I think he's not as skilled as Hartenstein. He's just not the same kind of caliber of player in a chi Wa. I've been very critical of a chi Wa in the past. I thought he had a good playoff run. I'll give him his props. When he was on the floor, I thought he did his job at a high level. But again, there's levels to this. You're going from an upper echelon starter level player in Isaiah Hartenstein to a serviceable backup big and if Mitchell hart excuse me, if Mitchell Robinson goes down, I'm really worried about this team because they don't have that kind of depth that can just step in there. And he is a meaningful difference, right, And so I question, do the Knicks go to like small ball five where you're running Randall at the where you're running og and Anobie at the five. That might be a better answer on both sides of the floor, But the bottom line is you just don't have that luxury of having Isaiah Hardenstein able to plug in and play whenever you need him, and that's a meaningful loss to me for the Knicks. So the two biggest swing factors, Julius Randall has got to figure out his role on this team and has to commit to playing that role, and Mitchell Robinson has to stay healthy. And those aren't just things that you can sweep under the rug. Those are very very big concerns for this Knicks team. And what I think are title level expectations, Carson. I think this is a team that expects to be in the championship race at the end of this season. It's not gonna be like championship or bust the way it was for Boston last season, but it's like Eastern Conference title run or bust. And again, I think Robinson and Randall are two very big concerns that in that recipe.

I'm with you one hundred percent. I think of these are far and away the two most crucial elements that have to go right for the Knicks, and unfortunately, they are two elements that concern me. I don't trust Julius Randall his playoff career man seventeen points per game on forty six percent true shooting. His playmaking has been atrocious. He has been incapable of handling doubles. He's been a turnover machine, and his jump shot has just completely failed him. And he's a very hot and cold player. He is streaky, but you have gotten the very bad end of that. You have gotten straight cold. In the playoffs, he has the worst efficiency of any fifteen point per game playoff scorer in the NBA since two thousand man and that's not relative to the league like currently that year, that is just overall, if you're not aware, true shooting percentage league wide has jumped like five six percent since the early two thousands, and he's still the least efficient. And as you say, there are just some fit questions. He is a high volume ball stopping player. And that's why I think the Knicks are so talented. Their depth is so impressive that if Randall is off offensively, if he's taking you out of rhythm and he's ice cold, or if he's getting destroyed in a matchup, probably defensively, where it's a little bit trickier to find a spot for him because he's a little bit more slow footed. He's not always the most engaged defensively, then I would just be willing to bench him for extended stretches. I think you can go Brunson, Dante, Michel og Mitch and then that's a really good lineup. You have more shooting, you're quicker, you have, as you say, more intuitive off ball fits around Brunson, where it's still different from last year because even though he'd be creating a ton in that lineup, like there's just more skilled, there's more shot making, there's more athleticism around him, and that group is probably better defensively. You're losing stuff. Of course, you're losing out on the rebounding that Randal provides at the four, which is huge. It does put more of a burden on Brunson because Randal does provide an aspect of just star shot creation, shot making when he's on his ability to bully do it's at his size and at times put on these tough shot making displays and at times create shots for his teammates because he's drawing extra defensive attention. That's something nobody else on this roster can replicate. I just think you have to be flexible with Randal. You cannot just be married to the idea that Okay, he's our second best player. He is out there on the floor no matter what, because I'm still not one hundred percent convinced that he's part of this team's long term future. I mean I'm not one hundred percent convinced at all, dude. I think this is very much a make or break year for him, and this is his last season under contract. Then he has a player option, it's only thirty million. I don't think that he'll take that. And so if you're the Knicks, I think you're evaluating this closely. Like if you don't like the fit, if you think it is clunky with him and Og and mkel. Some people think that that lineup is going to be too big. I don't think so, because I love how mcel guards guards, I love how Og guards wings, and then Randall brings that elite rebounding at the four, where mckel and Og are not great positional rebounders if you scale them up to being the three in the four. Like, I'm not as worried about it as some in that respect, But if you just think, Okay, he's not working here, he regresses again in the playoffs, I'd be very willing to move off of him, because I think you have such a great foundation with all of these dudes, with Brunson, shot creation, with these awesome, awesome superstar role players is what I would call them. And then you can maybe try to find somebody at the four who isn't nearly as high usage a player, but is a better fit defensively, has more of a simple role offensively, and you could probably still be really really good with that formula. But if Randall is good, if he holds up in this playoff run, then great, that gives this team a real title ceiling. So we'll see. That is absolutely, to me a major key that you're tracking. But the other is losing Hertenstein, both because he's awesome and also because of the pressure that it puts on Mitchell Robinson to stay healthy. He's never played more than twenty seven minutes per game in a season. Mitch has not, and in the last four years he's missed forty percent of New York's games. That puts pressure on Precious that I don't like. And if Mitchell gets hurt, like that's the thing, it's not just Precious having to play, you know, eighteen minutes a night. As a backup Prostam. He plays hard. He's very undersized for being a five. He still has these moments where he thinks he's more skilled than he is. Like Prostam, dude, he left it all out there in the playoffs. I don't really like him as a backup center, and if he's gonna go out there and have to be my starting center for any stretches, then I'm with you, dude. I would consider going small with Randall at the five. Even though defensively Randall at the five is is not pretty, You're just so much better offensively. He can still hold down the glass at that five spot. At least he does not nearly bring the rim protection but precious starting to me is tough when you just have such superior players who are just more perimeter oriented. I'd rather have those dudes on the floor if it comes down to it. I also think Mitch quietly needs to be a better rim protector, though I thought that in the playoffs he did a very good job guarding EMBD, just in mansiit situations. He's so big and strong and he has good hands. I think that he's continued to improve in that respect. I thought that he was able to offer more individual resistance than Hartenstein. But Hartenstein is the better overall defender because he is so much more effective guarding in space, and also because he was such a superior rim protector last year, like Mitch allowed opposing players to shoot seventy percent at the rim when he was the primary defender in the regular season. That's horrible, and in the playoffs they still shot slightly better than average. His block rate was down from about seven percent in his career to just four percent last season, and the Knicks defense was about six points per one hundred posessions worse with Mitch on the floor. So I think he's a better defender than that indicates. I think he's a better rimp protector. It's just concerning because we did see some regression in the regular season compared to the previous standard. I'm not super worried about that because I thought he was pretty good in the playoffs. But Hernstein was the better defender overall, And now Mitch has got to be awesome because he doesn't have twenty five minutes a game of Hartenstein when he's off, like he has to carry the center spot defensively for the Knicks, and also as you mentioned Hartenstein was a way better offensive player who was vital running handoffs, which that touch finishing in the paint. Both of them are great offensive rebounders, but he was really vital to securing extra possessions as well, Like just his touch is playmaking. Adds a completely different dynamic to this Knicks offense that I think overall is going to be very comparable to last year because they have more talent on the perimeter you had Mchel. You should have a full season hopefully of Og and Randall healthy, which they didn't have last year, so that to me makes up for it. Like this team is more talented overall. I want to be clear, I have higher expectations for them than last year, but the Hartenstein loss hurts its concerning It puts a lot of pressure on Mitchell Robinson to both be damn good and to be consistently healthy in a way that he just hasn't unfortunately.

Yeah. Uh, And I like their death more too, just because now you're switching the roles from Devincenzo and hard Instead of starting during the playoff run, you shuffle them to the bench. But it gives them more lineup versatility, which I really like. Right in the playoffs come time, if guys aren't hitting their shots, you swap them out. If you like these guys in a certain matchup more than the other ones, you know you can do a full platoon swap. Almost my thing with Randall. Just to circle back. The final point I'll make on that is, I do wonder if you know the Knicks should be shopping him throughout the you know, start of this season until the trade deadline. And the reason I say that is I think Randall is what puts them over the top. But if it's not a great fit, this is still a pretty movable contract right now. Right if Randall does want to get paid, I don't know how many teams are lining up to pay Julius Randall, Like what do you think he demands? Like forty million? Like like what is he?

I think, even with all his flaws. And that's my concern is in terms of trading, in terms of giving up assets for a dude you know you're gonna have to pay after this year, Like I don't think there's a line out the door for that. But money is just growing so rapidly around the league that I think Randall will look at himself and he'll say thirty million. Isaya Hartenstein just got thirty million, And I damn near would rather have Hartenstein on my team, just because I know he's gonna accel in his role. But I don't think Julius Randall will view it that way. And I think there will be a team who is gonna say, all right, with your volume, Yeah we'll pay you forty million.

Yeah. I mean the Nets could probably use a guy like Julius Randall. Yeah. I guess that's the double edged sword man. Is he gives them this highest, this really high ceiling when it comes playoff time if he figures it out because of his skill set. But like you said, I don't know if you're gonna recoup enough value in a trade because his trade value is pretty low right now. Like, yeah, he is gonna hit the open market. It's tough, man. My gut is probably saying that the nixt are gonna hold on to him and see what happens during playoff time and and see if it works.

But and I don't think that is the wrong decision. You would have to get back a comparable talent at the position, because I think you would probably need to address the four spot, like I'm not as high you get him as your four time four.

Yeah, neither of mi. But but the other alternative would be to get another backup big maybe for Mitchell Robinson, and then you move everybody down and slot into Evencenz over hard at the two spot and move everybody down a positions.

Yeah, but you're not getting a backup big back as the centerpiece of a Randall deal, No chance. The upside is just too great with him on the floor. If he plays very well, get you'd.

Get a backup big and then you'd get a pick or something like that. But yeah, I don't think that's.

Picks matter to the next though. They just gave away all their picks for Michel, Like, I just don't think that there's a deal on the table. You know, if it were like, oh my god, last year, what if we could just swap him for lowry market and it's like, yeah, of course you would do something like that. That's not gonna happen. There's not a comparable player who is coming available for Julius Randall, just with the baggage, the fact that you'll have to pay him, all those factors.

True, But on a large scale, I do think the Knicks pose the biggest threat to the Celtics in the Eastern Conference. I think they're jumbo size, They're huge. Again, this is assuming both teams are at full health. They match up within it the Celtics physically, which is something that's just really hard to do. Nobody in the Celtics starting lineup is smaller than six foot four, right, and so Brunson is the odd man out there, but he's not small. He's six foot two. Everybody else in the next lineup, Bridges is, you know, six ' six oh g Ananobi is six foot seven, Randalls six foot eight. Robinson's over seven feet tall, and so they're strong. They match up physically with Boston. I think they probably have the best defense. Again, at full strength, they could match up with Boston out East. I think they pose the biggest threat. But it is it's gonna come down to those two things that we've mentioned. Robinson's got to be healthy, available throughout the playoff run and in that series. And Randal has to be good, which is concerning, and he also has to play his role to a high level. But all that being said, even with those question marks, I still think the Knicks pose the biggest threat to Boston in the Eastern Conference.

It's close to me between them in Philly in terms of who poses the biggest threat. I think it's a very interesting matchup for New York because I think that they have put together the best defensive wing tandem in basketball with McKellan og and I think that those two are very well equipped to take on the Jays. The problem there is just what do you do with the Julius Randall defensively in that series? Like that's what's so hard about playing the Celtics. You can't hide people in the way that you can in other matchups because whoever they're guarding is going to be an extremely skilled offensive player. And also they will be relentless in hunting those switches and trying to get the matchup that they want for their best players. So I'm not saying that Randa is a disastrous defensive player, he's just not a good one. And Brunson is smart, he's competitive, but he is small, and there's just nobody better at exploiting those guys than the Boston Celtics. If it were just, hey, we have two man defenders who match up really well against their two great players. Well, then the Knicks would have it solved, because I think that they have that. But it's just much more complicated than that. But they do have enough combinations. But I think that they can find a decent enough solution in that matchup. Right, if it is trying to hide Randall Andrew, if it is saying, all right, Julius, you're also playing poorly offensively, we can't have you out there right now. We want Devincenzo in. He's a quicker, more competitive perimeter defender, and let's just go with this quicker, dynamic shooting lineup. We like how we match up defensively, like they do have options, and also they're set up well to guard a lot of the best teams in the East. You think about Philly, You've got damn good options for Maxie. You put mckel on him, one of the best defenders for a Maxie archetype in basketball, with his length, his quickness, presuming that he fully locks in defensively, which he will, that's his role here. And then you have a great option for PG with OG. You have a good option for Embiid with Mitchell Robinson. Right, Obviously, Embiid is a monster who you can't really contain if he's gonna play his best, but like Mitch is a pretty good option to throw at him. Milwaukee, you have a Dame option with mkel, You have Jannis options Og. You might put Mitch on him for stretches. Indiana you have a Haliburton option with mckel. You have a Siakham option with Og. Like I really like the fact that they have put together these two wings, but one of them is capable of guarding bigger wings. In mikel not like true fours, but he can guard most wings, and he's excellent at defending guards. And then you have Og, who is awesome defending wings, can defend some guards, but that also really can defend those bigger forwards, can even defend certain centers at least for little stretches. We saw him take on the MBI matchup for a little bit in their series last year. I really like this team, man, I think they should be a top ten sort of defense. Offensively, Brunson is just absurd. Last year they were a ninety fifth percentile offense with him on the floor. After the Randall injury, they were still the number six offense in basketball. And now you should be healthier. You should be more skilled, and it just doesn't get better for dudes like mckel and og to just say, Okay, we need you to cut, we need you to knock down threes, and we need you to defend your asses off like that is what those two dudes do just about as well as anybody on the planet. And when the expectations in terms of shot creation are limited, it's just okay, you're our third option, you're our fourth option. I think it's an ideal environment for those guys to thrive. And the depth is insane, as you mentioned, like Dante Hart Duce, those guys being your sixth through eighth men is absurd, don't that Even cenz Are just averaged eighteen points per game on forty three percent from deep in a thirteen game playoff run. Josh Hart averaged fourteen and a half eleven and a half in four and a half. Like those dudes were by the end of it, the third and fourth best players on a team they very nearly went to the Eastern Conference Finals. Now they're coming off the bench. It's just a huge advantage to have that sort of lineup versatility, to have the ability to bring a dude off your bench, like that and have him swing a game. And the one last depth piece who I want to mention, who I want to shout out. I think Tyler Kohleik is really good. I thought that was an amazing pick at number thirty four. He's twenty three, he's extremely pro ready, he can really shoot, but above all else, he's a super shifty, crafty driver, always plays at his own pace, and a very smart point guard, very good passer who just commands the game. So if you were going to say, hey, I need somebody who can really command my second unit, which I love Deuce, that's not his skill set. He's not that sort of playmaker defensively dog, very good shooter, but somebody who can just set the tempo right control the game. I think that that's what Colic could do from day one. I think he's a better bench ball handler than Duce, and I think you can play them together. Deuce is such a dog defensively that you've been able to play him alongside Brunson two small guard lineups. I think against bench units you could do the same with him and Colick. So I'm excited, dude, this team is going to be awesome. And on top of all this talent and this depth, and the fact that they have Brunson, who was, you know, a very legit offensive number one. They just play so hard and last year they played so together, and I hope that they maintain that. I don't think they would lose that. The only thing that could kind of stand in the way of that, to me is Brunson. But I still think those are qualities that make this team really, really awesome. So I have them winning fifty three games. I have them as my two seed in the East.

I have them winning fifty two games, just one behind you. I don't have the seating here yet. I'll wait until we get to completing the Eastern Conference. But you do have them second in this division though, as well.

I have them second in this division. I think it's a very interesting conversation with Philly though. I think that these two teams are neck and neck, and honestly, there are certain components that make me think I favor New York in this context, certain things that make me think I favor Philly. There's a floor versus ceiling aspect there, Td Tuddy taking it to the house in for six whatever you call a touchdown. One thing's for sure touchdowns matter more at DraftKings Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NFL.

On the ground, in the air, from the special teams or the defense, we don't care how they score them. We want to bet on touchdowns, and Drafting sports Book is delivering ready to place your first bet. Try betting on something simple like picking a player to score a touchdown or how many tds will be in a game. Go to the Drafting sports Book app and make your pick.

Ready to do a touchdown dance of your own. New DraftKings customers bet five dollars to get two hundred dollars in bonus bets. Instantly score big with DraftKings Sportsbook, the number one place to bet touchdowns. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use code nerds. That's code nerds for new customers to get two hundred dollars in bonus bets when you bet just five bucks only on DraftKings. The crown is yours. And let's get into all of that. So what are you expecting from the Sixers this year? Logan?

So I don't have these teams separated by a ton record wise, I have the Philadelphia seventy six ers winning fifty games. I have the Knicks winning fifty two, So it's very, very slim margins. The biggest difference to me and why I'm a little bit more confident in the Knicks being better in the regular season in the playoffs is the continuity aspect and the fact that you know, we've just seen it before. There's a lot of moving parts here in Philadelphia, right They bring in Eric Gordon, they bring in Paul George, they bring in Caleb Martin, they bring in kJ Martin, they bring in Andre Drummond, Reggie Jackson. There's just a lot of new toys here in Philadelphia, and so I just wonder if it's gonna take a little bit for them to gael together. What I want to start with, we already know who three of the starters are gonna be, MAXI, PG, MBI, Carson. Who do you think flank's the other two? Because I think there are some different lineup combinations that you could go with. Who do you starts at the two in the four for this team.

I think it's Hubra and Caleb Martin. I think PG is actually probably effectively your four. I just think you have the dynamic between Caleb and Eric Gordon. I think there's no question the Dubray is going to start. I mean just with what he brings defensively and athletically. If he shoots better than last year, that's just a really good basketball player. And the SHOT's a big question. So maybe he won't, but I just think he's earned a starting spot. Gordon versus Martin. Eric Gordon is the more dynamic offensive talent, right, I mean, the shooting ability, the range. He's still a bulldog as a driver. I just think that Caleb is probably sort of a more seamless fit as a low usage player, still attack closeouts, decent shooter, not the same offensive player, but then defensively is just going to be an absolute hound, crazy high effort player. I'd probably rather have him, and you get a little bit more size, you get a little bit more rebounding with him. I think that gives you a very switchable, versatile defensive wing grouping of two through four, where those guys are kind of interchangeable.

Positionally, I agree with that assessment, and I also think Eric Gordon can just be a little bit more frustrating in terms of how he over imposes himself as a game. I think you saw that last year in Phoenix where and you know it's not every game, but there's just spots like Layden games where it's positional to thirty feet and he likes to bring the ball up the floor and it would just be a bad turnover. And it's like, Bro, you have Bradley Beal, Kevin Durant and Devin Booker on your team, like, get the ball out. You're Eric Gordon. Like, I'm not trying to mean bro, but you're Eric Gordon, Man, get the ball out of your hands. So I just think it's better for him if he's off the bench, commanding the bench unit a little bit, and that's where he can, I think, thrive in a role like that where he doesn't have to worry about doing too much. Another final reason before I get into my X factors for Philadelphia, another reason why I also prefer the Knicks. I like their bench a little bit more too. I just gave more quality bench players in Philadelphia, and that matters to me. The biggest X factor and we all know this. It's all about how healthy and available Joel Embiid can be come playoff time and how he performs. Now, I thought this last playoff run twenty twenty four the most encouraging playoff showing of his career. He gives you fifty points at basically seventy percent dealing with Bell's palsy, like could have been less than that. He's just so clearly far away from at his best. I thought he dealt with double teams better. I thought he was more efficient like. I just thought it was a cleaner playoff run from him. But I still do have my concerns. I do think this is the best team Embiid has ever had around him, But you know, I'm worried about him stagnating this offense in the way that Embiid does. Guys not moving off ball, Embiid just sitting there at the elbow pulling a jumper. I don't think it's the most conducive to winning offense. I worry about his conditioning come playoff time.

Again.

I think it's included with his health. But if he could just be out there and be eighty to one hundred percent, which at this point, Carson, I think it's harder for me to expect Himbiid to be fully healthy and available at this point, he just hasn't done it, so for me to expect this year to be different, I think is insanity. It just is like Embiid has shown us who he is time and time again, So for me to expect this to be a different year is rose tinted glasses. But I'm hopeful. I hope that this can be the year. And if that means Embiid exerting himself less than the regular season and playing less, I think that's what the Sixers have to do, playing Drummond more, and I think that's a luxury that Embiide hasn't had, having a backup center that can actually play real minutes. Drummond's not some superstar at this point in his career, but he can give you a solid twenty a night and rebound the ball. And so my other two components here. If Tyrese Maxi continues to ascend, now, I happen to think that he's close to his full potential or reaching there. I mean, I thought last year was really impressive considering that Embiid is out for a big stretch of the regular season and Max he really had to run the show. Now, I think you see some of his limitations as a number one guy in that sense, but I think it was helpful for him, Right, You're just going to naturally improve having to do more, and I think it did. He twenty five points per game, six assists per game, fifty seven percent truth, shooting the kids blind and quick. He's got phenomenal change in pace. He's an elite shooter, and he's a flamethrower. I mean this playoff run, especially as a number two, Like, I really trust Maxi is a number two scorer, especially when you have such complimentary players around him in EMBIID an awesome pick and roll partner, and now Paul George as a tertiary guy. I really like the situation for him, and I think Maxi is gonna thrive is the number two guy. Like I think he's improved as a playmaker. My favorite thing about him though, is probably just his efficiency. Like Maxi doesn't turn the ball over, he makes good decisions, he makes smart passes. He's so freakishly efficient, Like I know I'm getting that every single game with Maxie. And then you introduce Paul George. I think this is a better situation for him too. We talked about this a lot last season, Carson, but him being tasked with being the number two guy, and then in the run having to step up and be you know, almost a number one guy. You're just asking PG to do too much and him being the de facto number three here, really good play, high defense, Uh, knock down a high percentage of your catch and shoot looks. He was near forty percent off the catch last season. He's gonna thrive in that role. And then you know, pick his spots in certain spots when you need to step up as a ball handler, as a playmaker and take on possessions. It's just a luxury Philadelphia hasn't had. I think this is the best roster that Joel Embiid has ever had here in Philadelphia. I think that they're set to contend in a way that they haven't in previous years. And again, I think some of the Sixers playoff shortcomings definitely falls on Mbiid's shoulders. But I think this is the best team he's ever had around him, and that's why I'm encouraged that this could be a different year. All three of the best teams, in my opinion, are in the Atlantic Division to compete for the title. It's out of the East. Excuse me, it's it's Boston. It's New York and then it's Philadelphia. In the origins between New York and Philadelphia are really close to me, So I expect the team representing the East to come out of this division, and Philadelphia is on that short list of real deal contenders in the Eastern Conference. To me, the reason that I have the Knicks and Celtics higher than them and the reason that I'm more confident is I believe in their depth, I believe in their top end talent, and I'm just skeptical about Joel Embiid's propositions is being healthy and being the player he needs to be in the playoffs.

I do think that this is one of the best versions of the sixers that we've seen under Embid. I would say the second best. I think that the twenty nineteen team, when you have Jimmy playing at that level, you have Ben Simmons as good as he ever was. JJ is one of the best spot up shooters in basketball. Tobias Harris like that was a really, really strong starting five in a team that obviously lost at the very last moment to the eventual champs in Toronto. But I'm super high on a lot of aspects of this team. I love the Paul George fit. I think he is still an awesome player. I think he is an awesome fit in several ways. He had a career best season last year. His efficiency was the best it's ever been. He's an elite spot up shooter, and you mentioned logan that he can pick his spots more as a creator because he is your third option now in terms of volume. But he was a ninetieth percentile efficiency in an eightieth percentile efficiency isolation creator last year, ninetieth percentile pick and roll eightieth percentile isolation. So as an on ball creator, like he still has juice and he's super versatile on both sides of the ball. I think that he is just like the ideal third star. I think he's an awesome fit here. I think he compliments their star duo that was already in place very nicely and Max. He was outstanding in the playoffs, dude, I mean, he basically gives you thirty a night on sixty percent true shooting. The key for him is going to be his consistency as a pull up shooter this season, because his growth as a shooter overall since he was a prospect has been really, really impressive from being on the arc. But last year, out of the twenty five guys to attempt the most pull up jumpers, he was tied with Ant for being last in pull up efficiency. He's a better shooter than that we've seen it, but that was the reality of his efficiency last year. So if that pull up jumper is more consistently dialed, when he pairs that with his speed, his ability to attack the paint, and he has Joelle Embiid alongside him, because that's another reason that Maxi's efficiency went down last year. He was just far less efficient without and beat on the floor. The Maxi is damn you're unguardable, dude. He's not just great out of pick and roll. I mean he's got a beautiful floater game as well. And you mentioned the change in pace, but in transition he's phenomenal with that full court speed spotting up. He's a ridiculous catch and shoot guy. Like he's just such a good fit with other stars. He has such a blend of that on ball and off ball value. And I do think he'll be more efficient this year because mb should be healthier, and I think he'll only continue to improve. Like as I said, he can have a better pull up shooting season, he can keep getting better as a playmaker. He's never going to be elite there, but you already see the leap that he took last year just by the nature of having a ball in his hands so much more Like, I don't know why he wouldn't marginally improve again this year. He's still young, he's still growing in terms of taking on those responsibilities, and he could reach that, like legit all NBA level this season. So those are pretty amazing dudes to be your second and third options. And then Embiid is just obviously an utterly dominant regular season for us. He was having one of the best regular seasons we've seen before he got hurt last year. Over the last four years, Philly plays at a fifty eight win pace when he's on the floor, and I do think he's the best that he's ever been. You can talk about some of the same issues that came up in the playoffs, but his jumper held up better, his playmaking was better than it's been for him. Everything is ultimately going to be about the postseason, but I think I can say that this is the best version of Embiid that we've seen, So this should absolutely be the best big three in basketball. And that is the top end talent that makes this team very, very intriguing, because outside of that, the rest of this roster is largely new, and you know, some of these guys they had to kind of pick up on real value ads find them off the scrap people a little bit. I don't mind Martin and ubray Is starting on the wings. They are both questionable shooters, but they're long, they're athletic, they're versatile defensively. You do have the lack of a true four here in Philly. That's not a huge concern to me, though. I think that PG can check most power forwards, and I think if they have enough rebounding in the aggregate from the two through four spots with Uber and Martin and PG to hold up there. You know, it's a little bit of a thing against like a real big powerful for Julius Randal honestly being an interesting example, but I think the PG would do would do fine in that matchup, and I like a couple of their guys off the bench. Drummond is a good backup center, obviously wildly over rated at his prime, but as a backup center. I like him. Gordon still brings that shooting and driving ability. Jared McCain's shooting I think should make him playable. I don't think that he'll take Lowry's minutes initially, just because Lowry still shoots the ball at a really high level and he just has such competitive instincts in such a high IQ like you don't want him starting. But I think as just a fifteen minute a game guy off the bench, you know, he just has a veteran sense for the game that McCain can't have yet. So there's a lot that I do like with this Philly team. The bench is not comparable to New York's, the talent around their big three is not comparable to New York's, but that big three is ridiculous, and I do like how they built out this roster considering what was available to them. I have the winning fifty two games because I expect Embiid to miss twenty to thirty games. PG was very healthy last year, but just based on the recent track record, he'll probably miss twenty or so games. So I think that the Knicks will be healthier and even if they do sustain an injury outside of Robinson, or obviously like Bronson like, they just have so many quality players that they should be able to hold up pretty okay. But this Philly team has the potential to be dominant man. And when you do compare them to New York, they have easily three of the top four dudes in that series. Like no question, there is a tier gap between PG ERMAXI and Randall and OG. I do think that their team fit is very clean. I think it's very intuitive. They added a great third star, they added this sort of personnel around their two offensive fulcrumbs, where all those dudes just fitting away from the ball and they're athletic, And yes, I wish that Uber and Martin were a little bit more consistent to shooters, but they're the right sort of player. I also trust their stars more. And Beid, of course has his issues, and I do not trust his health whatsoever, and he has regressed in the playoffs every year of his career, so I'm not bailing him out. What I'm saying is it's not comparable to Randall, who has literally melted, it'd crumbled, been an awful basketball player. Embiid is still so valuable defensively, he still demands so much offensive attention. He's just in a completely different stratosphere as a player, and he has the potential to just run over the entire league in a playoff run. And I trust MAXI I know some people don't trust PG as a third option. Absolutely I trust him. He's not going to be expected to score twenty five points per game. He's a damn good third option. So when I think about what an NBA champion looks like, it's actually a bit easier for me to see it with Philly right now than it is with New York. And the reason for that is that they just have the sort of overwhelming talent at the top with the right combination of skill sets where you think about, if things go right, like who has the ceiling to just look multiple powerhouses in the eyes in a row and outclass them. I think it's Philly by a tad. I think it is the team with the best player, the dude who has the potential to just go complete supernova outplay the best players in the world. That's embiid Love Brunson. Brunson doesn't have that potential. It's the second option who I believe can give you an efficient twenty eight a night from the perimeter. It's the third option as the perfect skill set like those sort of weapons give you a hell of a ceiling. The thing is these teams are very close. I think that Philly does have that higher ceiling, but I do think New York has the higher floor because who do I trust more to be healthy? Who just has more quality players who I know will do their job right. Who has the right identity as a basketball team that they've proven time and again. All of those things go in favor of the Knicks. I can talk about how intriguing this Philly team is because boy are they talented at the top of this roster. It's just hard to fully trust them. And you can just see the world where it's like, all right, well, Embiid is seventy percent. He plays in the playoffs. His playmaking is not good enough, he doesn't have his lift, he can't rely on his face up jumper. That fails him, and like that's it. That's it for the team right there. They don't have a Dante ve Ncenzo who can come in and save the day. They don't have a Josh Hard who can come in and save the day, much less than og and and Obia macal Bridges, And that's where I think that I slightly prefer New York. But it's really really close, man, It's really close, because Philly can be a problem. If everything goes right, they are a problem. But again, it's hard to completely trust that that is the version that we're gonna see.

I mean, I don't trust Philadelphia whatsoever. I don't trust Joel Embiid whatsoever. I don't know if I trust PG at this point in.

His career as a third option.

I mean, like I trust him to an extent. I also know that PG could poop his pants like he's prone to do in the playoffs.

I mean, that's I think that's so overstated, dude.

Those aren't my biggest issues with Philadelphia, though. My biggest issues are I wonder about their size concerns against these other big physical teams in the East. How they physically match up with New York at full strength and they physically match up with Boston in full strength. And then it is that shooting around them. I trust Maxie and PG to hit shot.

They physically match up with Boston. I don't think that they.

Go Boston and position. And then my last concern, my watch.

Where is the where is the glaring? I mean Philly's got athletic wings, They've got length.

Yeah, amplastic, Tatum stronger, Jalen Brown is stronger. KP is huge like.

But not by a greater margin than like other teams in the East, like Philly.

I mean Boston. Boston and New York are better rebounding teams. They're definitely like. That's where I worry about them, and then shooting. I'd worry if Kelly Ubray and Caleb Martin. I get that they can get hot and ever in the moments, I worry about their shooting ceiling. And then they just don't have guys that you can turn to on the bench that fix those holes right that you know where if you were struggling that you could put somebody like that in. If the Knicks are struggling to shoot, they put in you know, Dante DiVincenzo. If they need the energizer Bunny, they put in Josh Hart. So it's all those components. I'm not I look at the Sixers like the Dallas Cowboys. Man, you've burnt me so many times. I need to see it before I buy in, and I just haven't seen it.

Yeah, I get it, and that's why I slightly prefer the Knicks as well. And I want to be clear, like, I think the Knicks do have the ceiling to knock out some heavyweights, but it's just gonna be more of a grind. Like Philly just has the raw ability with their stars to outclass these teams in a way that is really really impressive. But I'm with you, if mb't had a track record of being the same player, it would be different. And as I said, I like what they've done with the depth, but it's just not comparable to what New York has. There's still just question marks with the dudes around the Big three. So do I think this is a better season for Philly? Yes, But could I see them losing in the second round again? Absolutely, I think that that is very very very possible. And also the East is just better, right, I mean, only one of New York or Philly can even go to the conference finals if we're presuming that Boston is going to be the other team there. All right, Logan, now we take a good old fashioned leap into a well here because we are going down multiple levels. Who do you have next? In this division?

I've got the Toronto Raptors. And yeah, I mean my expectations are not very high for Toronto. I think this is a it's another evaluating year. You know, you just look at the young guys and see how much better they can get. You know, you take inventory and take stock of your assets. The guy that I'm definitely pointing the finger at is Scottie Barnes, who last year had a really solid season, was an All Star, put up twenty eight and six on fifty seven percent true shooting. The guy's an elite athlete. I think we saw him grow offensively. He's nowhere near as janky as he was, Like, he just looks smoother handling the basketball and playmaking. And I also think there's another level that this guy can reach defensively. He was near one and a half steels per dame and one and a half blocks per game, and he's got one hell of a highlight reel. But I think he can be even more consistent and engaged on that end. Now it's hard for me really imagining that, like if Toronto was as bad as they were last year, Like, is Scotty gonna make that kind of commitment because they're not competitive. I don't know that's gonna be remained to be seen. And this is not me hating on Scotty, but I do think he got maybe a little overrated last year. I was really excited out of the gates in the first month. In first two months of the season, he was on a crazy shooting run. His pull up jump shooting was phenomenal. He was I think over forty percent from behind the arc, and you know, We're all sitting there kind of going, wow, is this permanent? Is this the version of Scotty that we're gonna get? Jump shooting? It turned out to kind of be a little bit of fool's gold. Scotty shot seventy percent in the restricted area, was really good there, But he shot thirty seven percent on all shots outside of the restricted area. And that's where I'm really looking for Scotty to make this leap offensively. How consistent of an outside the pay shot maker is he going to be now? Again, he made strides there last year. He looked way more comfortable in better shooting the ball in a way that I've never seen from Scotty. But again, it's the consistency of that leap. How often on a game to game basis, is he going to be lights out from there that I'm still a little skeptical. So Scotty's the first guy, and then it's RJ Barrett. I mean, RJ was phenomenal in Toronto. He was twenty two point six boards, four assist on sixty two percent for shooting. He was fifty five percent in the field, thirty nine percent from deep. He looks more comfortable, he looks happier in this role, and I think for RJ to reach his ceiling, he needed to be in a situation like this. The fit in New York just wasn't ideal. You know, they wanted him to go spot up in the corner, attack closeouts, play more off ball, and I think RJ is a guy that to reach his full potential, needed the opportunity in a spot here where he could, you know, make mistakes and go out there and play a little more freely. And I think he was able to do that here. He looked better. But I mean, when you're looking at this team, I think the ceiling for them is like knocking on the door of a play in. You know, that's like the best I could see this team and at worst, you know, you're in the mid twenties of wins. I have this team winning thirty two games, going thirty two and fifty. I like the talent here. There's a lot of young guys that I like, Scottie RJ, Grady Dick, Emmanuel Quickly. I'm intrigued by Agbaji and Jacobi Walter off the bench. But this is a young, improving roster. They's just nowhere near to contention. This isn't gonna be an elite offense. I think the offense is probably gonna be a little bit ugly. It's just a little clunky right now. With the shooting of Barns, of RJ of Yakob Pertle, it's just gonna be a little janky in that regard. And then defensively, I don't see them being, you know, a top half the league defense. This is a team that was bottom seven in offensive rating, defensive rating, and rating. Last season. Yeah again, they had an overhaul at the trade deadline, so this is going to look like a different team again this year. It's just hard for me to envision this team being above average on either side of the ball. And so again, if they hit their peak, if we see massive improvements from all these young guys. I can see them being a feisty contender in the play in but that's about it. And yeah, it's about what you get out of the young guys. The one young guy that I'm very intrigued by is Grady Dick. I like Grady Dick a lot just because of how good of a shooter he is. I don't ever see him being this kind of elite playmaker, but I think he's a special shooter man. He was over forty percent in one of the quarters, he was over fifty percent in the other corner. I think we're going to need to see growth from him on above the breakthreees where he was just thirty percent last year, but he was a thirty nine percent mid range shooter as a rookie. He has got a butter smooth, wonderable pull up game. I like Grady Dick a lot, and I think with their spacing concerns, he brings an element that this team desperately needs as a consistent floor spacer and off ball shooter. So yeah, I like a lot of the young guys here. I just think they're a young team, they're improving, and they're really really far away from contention right now.

And you've always liked Dick a lot. I think that he's an interest.

My god, bro, Oh my god, what.

What did I say? You've always been a big fan of Grady Dick as a prospect, and by the show, I liked him as a prospect too. He's solid. I think that he is good feel. I think he's a very good shooter. Unsurprisingly, had a bad defensive season as a rookie. The one thing that I would like to see more from him. We saw zero self creation out of him last year. And at Kansas he was not a high volume on ball player, but he was a very efficient one. He was something like a ninety eighth percentile pick and roll creator. And what I really did like was his playmaking. I thought he had very good feel. I thought he was a high Q playmaker, and he just hasn't had the ball in his hands, hasn't shown that at the NBA level, So that to me makes him a much more appealing offensive player. Because pure spot up shooting, yeah, man, it's good, but when you can't defend, it's not that rare a combination at all. But if you add a little bit of playmaking juice there just a bit then that changes who you are as a player. So that's what I would like to see out of Grady this year. But this is a really interesting young team because there are so many players who had fascinating seasons. You start with Scotty. I'm with you. I think people are a little high on Scotty right now, and I think he does a lot of things at a high level, But there's just the fundamental concern for him that's always been insane in my eyes, which is just his lack of skill as a self creator. He's still a forty ninth percentile pick and roll score, forty fourth percentile post up score, and eighteenth percentile isolation scorer, so all of the avenues to self created offense. He's below average efficiency, and he could take another shooting leap. I'm not expecting that this season. I honest think you just want him to maintain his percentages from last year, because, as you mentioned, they really did trend down as the season progressed, and so until that aspect of his game improves. Because you mentioned, yes, I think that he improved in those respects last year. He was smoother, He's still fundamentally sort of a clunky, weird on ball player who lacks the skill, who lacks the touch outside the restricted area, and until he improves there, I won't see him as one of those elite talents. When you're comparing him to number one options around the league, he will remain one of the weakest in basketball. He's a very good all around player. His playmaking is really impressive for a dude of his age. In his eyes, it's just very good, period, point blank. And as you mentioned, he has the tools to reach another level defensively, just with more effort. His defense was his number one trait as a prospect. I don't see why he won't be an awesome defender in this league. He's already a good one. It's just situation and age. I would say that's kept him from maximizing his potential. But yeah, there are people who want to say he's better than Paalo, and I'm not even high on Palo. That's just an example of a conversation that I see a lot. I just think there's the gap in the shot creation skill set there that Scotty doesn't offset even with his defensive ability. But we'll see how he progresses this year. I'm not necessarily expecting a ton of improvement. To me, probably the most interesting guy though, is not their number one. It's not Scotty, it is RJ Barrett, because what we saw from him in Toronto last year was a different player than we saw in New York. In New York last season, RJ was averaging eighteen four and two and a half on fifty three and a half percent true shooting. In Toronto he averaged twenty two six and a half and four on sixty one and a half percent true shooting. So improvement across the board, insane leap and scoring efficiency and a big leap in volume. His driving and finishing was absurd. In Toronto he shot seventy two percent in the restricted area a guard for a wing, that is an unreal number, especially in contrast to what it was in New York, which was fifty seven percent. I mean, that is a monumental improvement within the season. Also, forty three percent of his shots came inside three feet in Toronto. That was compared to under twenty eight percent in New York. Forty three percent again for a guard from a perimeter player, he's obscene. That's like close to Yannis numbers just in terms of the percentage of your shots coming at the rim and listen. I thought it was impressive driving. I really liked his pace. I did think his finishing touch, his ability to use his length and finish off the glass with finase, it was really impressive. I also loved his cutting. I thought that he did a really nice job of tapping into his athleticism off ball cutting at a rate that we hadn't seen in New York. And he also shot thirty nine percent from deep. Now, if I'm assessing which of these numbers do I buy, what improvement do I buy? The shooting is the one that I'm most skeptical of that I don't necessarily buy, just because we've seen the three point shot, EBB and flow with RJ before. Right, we saw him shoot forty percent from deep in his second year, then we saw him regress to thirty one percent in the twenty twenty three season. I think that he is a mediocre shooter of the basketball, and thirty good games of shooting doesn't change that. But I am impressed by the driving stuff in the finishing. I do think he's improved. I do not think he's gonna produce like we saw down the stretch. I do think you have to be weary of post All Star game basketball on a bad team. I will say rewatching a lot of this stuff. You're not exactly getting the peak defensive versions of all these teams. Once you're talking about April basketball. You know, we just see this every year where certain dudes emerge with late season offensive production that is exceeding what they've done previously, and then it's not necessarily the most legitimate. So if you're expecting RJ to be twenty two points per game on sixty percent for your shooting, good luck to you. I don't think that's happening. But I I do think that he improved last year. And the other intriguing guy Logan is IQ your boy, of course, who they also bring over from the Knicks. He gave you nineteen and seven on fifty six and a half percent true shooting last year. I think he can sustain something close to that. He brings the pull up shooting, he brings the floater game. His playmaking was solid. He's limited athletically, He's going to struggle to get to and finish around the rim, and he's not gonna be a high level playmaker. I'm not really expecting improvement from IQ. I think he basically is who he is at this point. But you know, his solid starting point guard.

Yeah, that's what I was going to say. Is I mean at this point he's just a good starting point guard. I think he really is limited by the lack of rim pressure, like quickly never gets fully downhill. But the beauty is that he's got such a leaf floater touch with either hands. I mean, he can get off any shot. And I think he's a good stabilizer for this young group. Like he's experienced. He's high, IQ, Yeah, was not intentional, thank you, thank you. He's a good scorer of the basketball. And he's an insane shooter man, Like sometimes you'll see some like not the most consistently, but he'll pull with range sometimes man off the dribble, he'll catch his streaks. Man, he's yeah, he can get hot. I like a lot of the young talent here, man, And it's intriguing to me what they're building towards. Do you see a much higher ceiling with any of these guys, Like, do you see any of these guys breaking through to a different stratosphere, a different level, different caliber of player.

No, I don't, definitely not this year. Scotty is the one who has the tools because he does so much well around his scoring. I just still worry about the scoring. I worry about the on ball stuff. I worry about the shooting. I worry about his efficiency as a scorer. RJ. I just touched on. I think he's better. I don't think he's the dude who we saw in terms of his production down the home stretch. Grady Dick, I would like to see a little bit more out of But no, that's the thing. I think that you can expect marginal improvement from most of these guys. Right Greedy Dick's going into his second year. He will get better at basketball in all likelihood. But am I seeing the sort of needle moving improvement this year where I'm like, yeah, Toronto is going to be a playoff team. No, I'm not. I can't rule it out, but I don't think it's likely. The league is just too good. And you mentioned we're seeing the new team right because they blew things up midseason. But at the same time, they were twelve and twenty six with IQ last year, they were eleven and twenty one with RJ and Scotty misses some games in there, but with either of those guys on the floor with Scotty, they're winning like a third of their games. You know, this team just still has a long way to go. I do like the fact they got a couple of respectable veteran bigs with a Link and Pearl. Those are just dudes who do their job. You can bank on. Pearl's gonna protect the rim, bring touch, finishing a Linux, gonna be a bit of a passing hub. He'll he'll bring his shooting a bill. Just a smart, high effort player. Those are two of Toronto's five best players. They just won't start together because Toronto's gonna want to start Grady Dick. They want to play fast. They don't want two bigs out there. They want more spacing for Scotty and RJ. These dudes who you know, can struggle shooting the ball a little bit and would be better served by more spaced out environments. Like I get all that. I just worry about how small this team is because they are small Logan and they really struggle defensively. Last year they were twenty fifth. We could see some improvement there because you have Perle and you have Scotty, but their backcourt is very limited, very small limited athletically after the trades, they were twenty ninth in rebound rate man and then on top of that, they just don't have seamless offensive creation. Like you can praise IQ and RJ relative to expectations, but most teams in the league today they have an offensive engine dude. They have a dude who is going to manufacture high percentage looks. I just don't think that there is that guy in Toronto. And the shooting is still below average. They were twenty sixth and threes made last year twenty seventh and three point percentage. Still have questions about Scotti and Pearl and RJ. So yeah, I think there we'll see marginal improvement because this team is young and so that means that they should improve. But THEMBA is just really talented. It's just hard to win games these days. The one last dude I do want to talk about quickly is Jacoby Walter, who they bring in at pick nineteen. Thought it was a fine pick. He's got good defensive tools, he's got good length, he's a good shooter off the catch, really struggles to finish at the Rim. I think he was like forty six percent at the RIM last year. He's a limited on ball creator overall. He's got some playmaking feel, but not something you can really bank on and say, I want to put the ball in his hands. So not a guy I would expect to have a particularly impactful rookie year. If you're looking at other dudes who could change the outlook for this Toronto team.

Yeah, I like Jacoby. I think he could be a really good three and D wing. Like he's got tools right now, He's just really really young, and considering the other wing depth on this team, I don't know how much burn he's gonna get immediately. Anyways, but Jacoby was a solid pick. I liked him a little bit. He's just got physical tools that other guys don't, and he is a good shooter of the basketball. I think he was a little bit overtasked at Baylor in terms of his role.

For sure. I definitely asked to be a real lead guy. Maybe couldn't fully tap into all of his defensive tools there. I do think that the best version of him is just a three and D guy at this level. We got a shout out out try Logan who you mentioned just for being one of the most handsome dudes in the NBA. Let's talk about the Nets logan. The Brooklyn Nets are in yet another rebuild now mikel is gone, of course, traded to their division rival and city rival, the New York Knicks. What are you looking for out of Brooklyn this year?

At least they recoup some assets though, right, I mean they could have been just in the gutter after the hard and Kyrie.

Yeah, a great haul.

Credit to them for bringing back in some picks and finally choosing to go in this direction. It's been looming over their head for quite some time now. I think they're gonna go twenty three and fifty nine. That's my official record prediction. It could be worse than that. They're out with Jock Vaughn, in with Jordy Fernandez now as the head coach, and it's just a flawed roster. Like there are guys that I like here. I like Nick Claxton, like honestly do. I like their entire starting five in different context. I like Dennis Schroeder is a role playing point guard. I like Cam Thomas as a sixth man. I like Cam Johnson as a and dfs as rotation wings. I like Nick Claxton as a defensive big, but it's like these are all their starters. There's no star. There's no guy that's gonna manufacture easy offense for anybody. And Nick Claxon's a good defensive big, but he's not the kind of like defensive anchor that is going to elevate you to being an elite defense. I think that's probably their strength, but there's only such a there's only so high you can climb in terms of a defensive ceiling with a defensive back court of Dennis Schroeder and Cam Thomas, and so I think the spacing is probably gonna be bad with Schroeder and Claxton, and you know Cam Thomas. Camp Thomas is a good shooter of the basketball, but like he's way more of an isolation great for himself. So I think the offense is probably gonna be ugly, and I don't think the defense is going to be that good. The one thing that cracks me up that I think we have to get out of the way the Ben Simmons offseason workout tape is circulating once again. Carson, he's making his return. He's gonna average thirty points, ten boards, and tennis sis again this season. Man, he's back over under thirteen and a half games played for Ben Simmons.

That's a good line, dude. Also, here's here's the one thing that I will say about Simmons. He is the dude who literally nobody buys in when you see this like offseason training stuff, like, oh my god, he's making jumpers. People hate Ben Simmons so much. I think it's gone much too far for a dude who ultimately just hasn't been available. Yes, dude, people hate Ben Simmons. Yeah, this is how I feel whenever there's somebody who everybody just lashes out on and makes the punching bag of the league. Like everybody is gonna hate Rudy Gobert, all right, can we appreciate what he does? Well, everybody is gonna hate Ben Simmons. Why he doesn't even play?

I mean, Ben Simmons sucks. I mean, I think it's the fact that he got paid all this money and just isn't available.

So is it all resentment? Logan? Is it all about the bag? Is that what it's all about?

Well, I mean I think it's the fact that he hasn't earned any of it. The fact that he got paid.

He god, he was damn good. He damn good, and then his body broke.

Well, I mean, are we sure it's just a body, because a lot of.

It's his mind is now broken too.

He was gonna say, a lot of this seems like a mental component. That's where I think people are just mad that Simmons doesn't have an incentive to play basketball anymore because he's gotten paid, and I think that's where it comes from. I agree. I think a component of it is his back issues and stuff like this, but I'm not I don't. I dislike Ben Simmons a lot, so like, I'm not gonna defend the guy. I don't like the guy either.

I don't like Ben Simmons. I don't expect him to have any impact, but I certainly don't hate him. I don't know. It's just weird to me that it's like he's still one of the biggest punching backs. It's like, guys, he's hardly an NBA player, you know, the dude doesn't play. It's just a little bit much for me that Shack Shacks Stilly go bar and Ben Simmons the two worst players in NBA history, which is just absurd. First of all, did you ever watch Darius Johnson odum?

You know that's a crazy, that's a crazy. I'm sorry, Darius.

I'm sorry too. Maybe he should have made a shot in the NBA he literally didn't.

But honestly, dude, I can't help but feeling I can't help but feel like Ben Simmons does this to himself.

I know, I get it.

It's like, dude, just stop, just stop putting them out there, stop teasing us and acting like you're gonna play this year, and when you do play, you're gonna put up four points, three rebounds, five assists on you know, fifty three percent true shooting. It's just like, I just wish Ben wouldn't. Don't even put anything out there, man, go grind in silence and then play your seventeen games or whatever it's gonna be this year.

Yeah, I get it. Although who knows is he actually saying put this out there? Is some trainer just filming that stuff.

Who knows? I would I would actively tell if someone's dude, please don't post this, please just leave me out of it.

Yeah. The annoying thing, I guess finally on Ben Simmons before we move on, is just it feels like people have retroactively undone how good he was, which is crazy because at the time I was somebody who was like, guys, Ben Simmons is a little bit overrated because he's insanely limited in the half court. But now it's just like, oh, he sucks. He's always sucked, and we ignore the fact that he was one of the three to four best defenders on the planet for a time and an amazing transition player who always had his limitations but was like, clearly an all star level dude, lived up to the number one pick when he was healthy and mentally well. And now it's just cheap. It's just cheap to punch down on the guy, in my opinion. But anyways, the Nets are weird, man, They're weird. It feels like you don't see teams built like this anymore, where they just sort of have a hodgepodge of unimpressive veterans and they don't have any flagship young talent. Basically every team in the league in the NBA these days you look at and you say, okay, well they're in a hard rebuild. These are the young dudes they're excited about or they're trying to win now, and it's like, yeah, that's a legit playoff caliber roster. The Nets are not that. Unfortunately, there's no one who I'd be really excited about if I were a NETS fan. Cam Thomas is fun. I've been a huge Cam Thomas fan at times when he was in the draft. When he got picked twenty seventh, I said that he was the steel of the draft. I made a whole YouTube video on it because he was such a talented scoring prospects. But that's within the context of him being the twenty seventh pick in the draft, right, I mean, most of the dudes who are picked that late, it's a success if they become capable rotation players. So Cam has overachieved where he was drafted. But as impressive as his scoring skill set is, and he's truly one of the craftiest scorers on the planet, I mean, he is a jittery mover. His ability to cover ground with his step back is absurd, Like he is just constantly deceptive and crafty with his movements. And he's a tough shot maker, but he basically only takes tough shots and one of his elite traits in college and early in his NBA career, and we just see him come in in stints. Was he was a foul drawing machine, but he didn't do that last year. He didn't get to the line at nearly the same rate. So at the end of the day, you got a guy who's scoring a couple points below league average true shooting in the on ball play types, pick and roll isolation, he created with basically average efficiency. So yes, he can eat up volume as a score and it's going to be fun to watch, But is he gonna do it efficiently? No? Is he going to create easy stuff for himself even no? And then he's a bad playmaker and a bad defender, so he can drop fifty. He could easily have a fifty piece this year. But like, there's a reason the team was seven points per one hundred worse with him on the floor last year. The other Cam Johnson, I think just is who he is, and I think he's somebody who people got too high on. Like he's been treated as this exciting young player. He turns twenty nine years.

I mean, this dude came out like in the draft he was twenty.

Seven when he came out of the draft. Yeah, he's actually been de aging and he's improved. He has consistently improved in the league. I want to give him props. He's an awesome shooter and a capable defender, and that's what he is. He's a fine pick and roll ball handler in small doses, but he's an average athlete. He's a below average ball handler. He's not a playmaker. Defensively, he's not quick enough to like really take on high level wings. He's not strong enough to guard really good fours like. He's just fine. And he's a really good shooter. He's a solid basketball player. He's not somebody who you should look at a future centerpiece, especially considering he's sixty two years old. Simmons doesn't factor into things for me. I never even answered, you're over under thirteen and a half. I'm gonna take the over, but not by mind.

I'll take the under. I'll take it all right.

All right. I'll say that he probably plays twenty, but even in those twenty I just think he's broken. I think he's broken physically. I think he's broken mentally. He's not nearly the same defender. He's incapable as a scorer. Now, I just think it's over for him. Unfortunately, as an impactful basketball player, yad Zaire Williams from Memphis, He's got solid playmaking feel for his size and his age, but because of limitations with his quickness and his strength, he gets forced into a lot of tough shots. A lot of times where he initiates a drive but then he just can't get all the way downhill and he's forced to settle. And he's been a bad shooter in the league, dude, thirty percent from deep, twenty nine percent on all two outside the restricted area. So not feeling the young talent When you're gonna be as bad as the nets aart, you'd like to be optimistic about that. And I don't see anybody here who I look at and I say, yeah, that guy's a real building block.

Yeah, neither do I. And it sucks being in no man's land. Man. It especially makes it worse when you're in no man's land with no real prospects to bank on. And there are young guys that like I like hear a small amount. I like Dareek Whitehead out of the draft. I think he could carve himself out a role as a you know, as a bench guard. I think Noah Clowney can get rotational minutes in the front court. Like these are two guys that I think could be rotation guys, but there's nobody like Zire Williams I liked coming out of the draft. Again, he could be a rotation guy. But there's nobody that screams this guy's gonna be a stud to me. And I'm glad that they brought back Dennis Schroeder because the little experiment where Cam Thomas had the ball in his hands a lot and was like almost a de facto point guard that's just never gonna work. Like I like Cam Thomas, He's a lot, lot of fun, like you said, but you need a guy that can actually, you know, create offense for you. Dennis Schroeder is just so he's such a good veteran presence, you know, to have at this time in his career where yeah, he's gonna make good decisions, he's gonna move the rock, he's gonna create downhill pressure, he's gonna shoot, you know, with decent efficiency, Like Schroeder is a good stabilizer to have here. But that's the reality, man, is when you're a team like this with no real bankable talent, you got to bottom out at some point, and I think this is probably the year. So twenty three might be a little bit low. It's not that I thought about going a little bit. I thought about going a little bit higher with them, but this feels right like they have enough talent here where I don't think they're gonna be at the Cellar of the East. I think that's probably designated for the Wizards. But they're not gonna be good. They're definitely not gonna be good, and I think they're gonna be a step down even from where they were last year, because at least you had mccal bridges. And I don't think maccow bridge some superstar, but he's like a tier two kind of guy. There's nobody like that on this roster. Man. This team is a hot take. They're not going to be good.

No, they do have some solid vets though, like Claxton, he's only twenty five, so if you're talking about young guys age wise, he factors into those conversations. He's just so clearly what he is and very established just as a high level rim protector, a good rim finisher. He'll do his job. DFS can guard and hit thirty five percent of his threes. We'll see if he remains on this roster. I think that he's a real, real trade candidate because he's just going to be more valuable in another situation. They add Boion, he'll hit forty percent of his threes. He's a good offensive player. I know he looked bad in New York, but he's definitely better than he was in that stretch. He was actually quite an efficient pick and roll scorer and creator in Detroit and a dire offensive situation. So he's a guy who will bring offensive value. Shrewder brings point of attack defense and quickness and some playmaking and sometime shooting, but overall he's always quite an inefficient scorer. You don't want him to be the dude running your offense, so you just look all around. Should be a below average defense. They got some good personnel. I do think Shrewder is good at the point of attack. I do think Claxton will do his job. I do think DFS is a good wing defender. But then there's just some clear holes around those guys, and they're not going to be incentivized to play their asses. Off and then he got a bad offense. So one of the major things I'd be monitoring if I'm the Nets fan is just Hou's Jordi Fernandez as a head coach, highly regarded assistants. He could be a factor who motivates them to a few extra wins that maybe we aren't predicting. Ultimately, all of the outlook for this team should be about the future. Right You got four first round picks this year, that's phenomenal, and then you have another five first incoming from other teams through twenty thirty one. And as you mentioned, you can see, is Derek Whitehead a rotation guy? Is Noah Clowney a rotation guy? Clowney mobile big, some floor spacing potential. Whitehead wasn't my favorite prospects, but he was a really awesome shooter. He couldn't get on the floor at all last year, and.

He was also recovering from a little bit of an injury too.

From true true, so we'll see. I don't think he's a dude with a particularly high ceiling, but that shot alone should give him some value, So we'll see. It's not really about this year. If you're the Nets, it's already looking forward to the draft sweepstakes, in my opinion, and hopefully having the right coach and building something from there.

Do you think if they do get offers for any of these guys, because I do think that's where the net season is a little bit more intriguing. If they get offers for some of these guys from other teams, do you think they should just bite the bullet and go ahead and let some of these vets walk for future assets?

Why not? I mean, who is the dude who you would hold on to? I think Dfs it's very likely that he gets moved just because he's in such a prototype that's valued around on the league, especially you know when he's shooting well, because he's a damn good defender. And Claxton, I don't know, like I like Claxton. He's a dude who I would like to have on my team. I wouldn't be rushed to move off of him because of his age and they paid him actually, so they won't be able to trade him at least for a portion of the season, and I don't think that they will. If somebody came to me with a great offer, then yeah, I would consider it. But you know, they just committed four years, one hundred million to him, and he's a relatively young player. So I think DFS is the guy. I don't know, Boyon's not really drawing a haul. Shrewder not drawing a haul. I don't think people who are trying to contend will want him to be their starter. I think he's just, you know, like a really good bench guard who brings in an influx of energy defensively and some quickness. It's really Dfs who I'd be looking at if I'm the Nets.

Yeah, Claxton's kind of the only guy that I'd want to hold on to, just because I think Claxton you need to really pull some assets together. But everybody else I'd be willing to move off of. Man, Like you said, this isn't the timeline and it's sad, dude, because the Nets are. It's a tragedy, man, their franchise history, going from the disaster that was the KG and Paul Pierce and Darren Williams teams to now you know, the Kyrie KD. Harden era. They've got to find their identity and it's gonna be through the draft. Man. I'm hopeful that the Nets can hit on some of these draft picks and get their superstar of the future. Man.

Yeah, top division to compete in. Man, you got a lot of the top dogs here right now. So this is a fun one to start the NBA season preview content with Logan. I am just oozing with excitement. Man, I'm so so happy to just be talking about current basketball. Oh, I cannot wait. Football is amazing, but when they're both going on, just nothing beats it. So keep locked in, everybody, stay dialed in. We've got more football content coming. Of course, Sunday, we'll be back reacting to all of those games at night. We'll have Monday Night football reactions, and we'll be bringing more NFL and NBA contents throughout the next several months, of course, but especially leading up to the NBA season. You can find all of our content across all platforms. You can find all the full shows on YouTube. You can also find some of our video essays, video breakdowns. I did a video last week on the best Defender Ever for every NBA team. Logan did an awesome video breaking down bo Nix's film, something we'd like to do more of. I thought Logan did a great job with it. So if you guys are interested in that sort of quarterback breakdown stuff, check that out on our YouTube channel. You can listen to the show across all audio platforms where you get your pods. You can follow us across social TikTok, Instagram at nerd Sessh, Twitter at nerd underscore Sessh to see clips from the show, graphics from the show, and all of our short form trivia contents, and you can join our discord. The link to that is at the link tree across our social media bios. So with that, as always appreciates you guys. I've been Carson Rabber

I have been loging Camden and this was nerd Sack