NBA Award Predictions (MVP, Rookie, DPOY, Etc.) | 2025-26 NBA Season Preview - No Dunks

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Morning Sweeper and welcome to the Not Dunks Podcast Monday,
October thirteenth, twenty twenty five on j skis here in
the Classic Factory and alongside me as always.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Task melis Happy week before the NBA regular season.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
Everybody next to him, it's my top shot Boyay, Trey Kirby,
hey oh hey, and over Yonder making the magic happen.
Super producer jd It's a whole new setup.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Yeah yeah yeah.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
Before we get into it, I have three bird related
questions slash comments. First, one, Happy Thanksgiving to all of
our Canadian friends and family. I hope that turkeys, the
turkey leftovers I assume at this point are hitting most
people do Thanksgiving. I feel like on Sunday, not Monday, totally. Yeah.
Oh yeah, I didn't know that, at least in our family. Yeah,

(00:55):
so enjoy your leftover turkey. Two, what do you think
of the Blue Jays loss last night? We're gonna bounce
back here down one the Mariners.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Yes, yes, yes, I because I'm always positive. I flashback
to the nineteen ninety two World Series. We saw one
home run in that game by Damon berry Hill, a
three run jack for the Atlanta Braves. Catcher. They lost
three to one. I think so it was a similar game,
low scoring one ding dong like yesterday, or Kevin Gossman
giving out Dad, Get up to the big dunker. What

(01:27):
a weird nickname?

Speaker 1 (01:28):
Dumper?

Speaker 3 (01:28):
Yeah, yeah, sorry, I'm in a basketball fitting. If you
look at him, I guess he's got a big dumper.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
Yeah big. They'll be back game too, Okay today? Don't
they play at like four o'clock today? Four? Yeah? Man,
a baseball games on today. Stuff like that.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
That's strange.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
And then the third bird related question, how was Harry
the Hawk? Oh yeah, Pride parade. Harry was great.

Speaker 3 (01:53):
Always love to see Harry. The Hawks always show up
for the Pride parade. Some years Harry will have like
a rainbow plume on his head, went with the standard
black and red skin look, or I guess red feathers look.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
But uh yeah, you know, Harry saw me. I saw him.
We started pointing at each other. Oh nice.

Speaker 3 (02:12):
Even executed a high five, which I thought was pretty impressive.
Since Harry was riding around on a bird scooter, I
was a little worried for him.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
Oh geez, yeah, he's on a bird scooter today. On
it all right?

Speaker 3 (02:24):
That was a big feat for a scooter too, right, Yeah, impressive. Look,
when you're a mascot, it's risky. Yeah, you might get
hitting the nuts when you're out there in the environment.
You got to be able to balance on a scooter
just like that. People going crazy for you. But yeah,
hit me with a thumbs up. Thumbs up to you,
Harry Nice. So I like the photo. Good stuff.

Speaker 1 (02:42):
All right, Well, let's get into the reason we're here today,
continuing our NBA season previews. We've done the East and
West Over Under podcast, we did the first time All
Star Draft. Hey, Boozella's looking really good. Oh yeah, there's
a lot of Boozellis buzz right out here in the preseason.
But on today's show, we're doing our NBA Award predictions.

(03:03):
This is always one of my favorite pods we did
all season long, seeing how what we think of who's
gonna win these awards and some dark horse picks and
all that talk it through. So let's start with the
big one. Let's get right into it. Twenty twenty five,
twenty six MVP. Now these odds coming by way a
fan duel. All of our odds are the favorite right now,
Shay Gilges Alexander plus one sixty, and you got Jokich

(03:24):
plus three hundred, Luca plus four hundred, Jannis plus twelve hundred,
same with Wemby and then Anthony Edwards rounding at our
MVP table. I guess you know we always have six
at the table plus twenty five hundred. So who do
you like going into twenty five twenty six here? And
then again we can later on get into some like
dark horse picks, and unless maybe a dark horse pick.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
Is your guy, No, I'm picking Luka Doncic, who is
a a dark horse. I would say not as far
as the odds go. But everyone taking Shay or Yokic
or Janis I suppose. But Luka Doncic I think has
things to prove this season. I think a lot of
things are gonna have to go right for the Lakers.
It'll start because he's going to score a lot. With

(04:07):
Lebron James out. The last year, Luca didn't receive one
MVP vote, and I think he's going to be focused
on that. Five years straight before last season he received
MVP votes. Now, I think he's the healthiest he's been
in his NBA career. I think last year playing beside
Lebron James plays a factor in that this guy who's

(04:27):
going to be forty one, is going to play in
the most games in NBA history.

Speaker 1 (04:31):
Is a bigger factor than me.

Speaker 2 (04:34):
For me, then seeing Luca on the front of a
men's health magazine looking fit, I think just being beside
Lebron James, learning that having that pride will help him out.
That being said, they're gonna have to win fifty games,
so things are going to have to go right defensively
around him. But I'm buying in I'm buying into Jared Vanderbilt,
I'm buying into Marcus Smart and buying into a bigger
man playing center and DeAndre Aiden. So there's those factors.

(04:56):
But I think what we saw from Luca, just as
far a zero basket in the summer and as far
as leading his Lakers teammates in these these team.

Speaker 1 (05:07):
Excursion scursis cool.

Speaker 3 (05:09):
If he practiced, he's practicing, he's not playing, I'm doing.

Speaker 1 (05:13):
Anything in preseason Luca and Lebron. Yeah, is that going
to be a factor? I think, No, I don't care
about that.

Speaker 2 (05:19):
No, there's one there's one guy you know can carry
the ball and carry out the offense over and over
and over again. He doesn't need to play in games.
He has to be healthy, and he is healthy. They're
just not putting him into games, and so he ain't
playing it with Lebron. But other guys are being around him,
and I think they just need that camaraderie and there's
I think there's a recipe. There's the recipe for like

(05:40):
what he did with the MAVs. But I think he's
even healthier. To be honest, this is me looking in.

Speaker 1 (05:47):
Just feels like it. He feels like he's ready to go.

Speaker 3 (05:49):
Yeah, it was his first not healthy season last year,
only fifty games, so he didn't qualify for awards, which
is why he didn't get any votes. But I think
Luca has maybe the most interesting case of the top
three guys because he as the worst team between the Thunder,
the Nuggets, and the Lakers. Everybody has the Lakers behind
Denver and OKC. Yoka's team got better, in particular, their

(06:10):
backup center slot got better, so the on off numbers
maybe don't look quite as jarring when you do it.
Shake goes Alexander just won every award last season. We
could see Jalen Williams take a step forward. We could
see chet Holmgren take a step forward and a little uncertainty.
I think about how into the regular season the Thunder
are going to be this year. It kind of feels

(06:30):
like Shae would need to win seventy games to win
a back to burn of MVP, which is kind of tough.
So I understand why you're going with Luca, But I've
gotten burned so many times this kind of win MVP.
He's always getting the votes, but he hasn't been able
to go over the top. I think we talked about
it on our over underpod, Like Lucas teams barely win
fifty games during a season. He's not a big regular

(06:51):
season guy, but he's gonna win an MVP at some
point in his career, so we always want to be
the first year he plays with LA and gets the
media buzz behind it as well.

Speaker 1 (06:59):
He is a perennial preseason MVP favorite. As we do
this exercise every fricking year, I feel like some one
of us, Yeah, maybe it's Trey, Usually now it's you.
One of us takes Luca. We're like, oh, it's got
to be there. I did a couple of years ago
for sure. Yeah. I back to back then at one
point for sure. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (07:16):
And you've got the little negatives against other guys that
I think that is part of it. The Jokic side
going to the bench and his team falling off, I
think helped him. But I think being that his bench
is better, his numbers, sheer numbers, won't be as good.
He won't have to do as much, you won't have
to shoot as much. He won't have this thirty point
triple double. I don't think he's gonna play as many

(07:37):
minutes his career high in minutes last year. So there's that.
The Shay thing with the wins total is is important.
I think he's gonna there's gonna be some sort of
drop up, but you could easily vote Shay again.

Speaker 1 (07:47):
They're gonna be the number one seed probably, yes, yeah, yeah,
So who are you going with ultimately here, I'll take Yokich. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (07:54):
I kind of feel like we just every year, is
it gonna be Yokic? Is it going to be somebody else?
Give it to somebody else who's deserving, then go back
to Jokis that happened with Embiid? Then Jokic won one
happened with Shay last year, when it easily could have
been Jokic. The guy did average a thirty point triple
double while shooting almost sixty percent from the field and
forty percent from three. If he approaches those numbers, like,

(08:14):
he's gonna be double digit rebounds and assists for sure.
But if he drops off the twenty seven points per game,
is it that.

Speaker 1 (08:20):
That big of a deal.

Speaker 3 (08:21):
Everybody agrees he's at worst the one and a half
best player in the league.

Speaker 1 (08:25):
He actually is the best player if you ask me. So.

Speaker 3 (08:28):
I think if you can look at him on the
odds boards and he's not number one, why not?

Speaker 1 (08:33):
Right, here's a question for you, And I heard the
you know ball guy sort of debate this. Do you
feel like voters are itching to give Jokic a fourth
MVP or the opposite? And it's like less likely because
then you're going into rarefied air with sort of a
fourth one. I can't decide. I love that debate. I'm like,
on one hand, maybe like you're saying, Trey, it's always

(08:54):
like this bounce back and everybody's like he's the best
player in the world. I mean, yeah, he's always in
the mix. Maybe they flirt with fifty five to sixty
wins or is that part of the equation as well,
maybe they're the number one seed. Probably not, I would
go with okay, see or is the opposite. It's like no, no, no,
we're not doing that because voters get like scared for
some reason that he's like on this short list. What
do you think?

Speaker 3 (09:14):
I think it's a good way to anoint somebody the
best player of their generation because when you go and
look at the people who have won four plus MVPs,
it's the best players of their generation and we haven't
had a guy do it since Lebron. Jokic is the
best player since Lebron, so I kind of think it
would be a way to give him history going forward.
So maybe that bolster's my case. And you know the
fact that he didn't win it last year. People don't

(09:35):
like the all in.

Speaker 1 (09:37):
A row MVPs. That's why they change it up for
some reason. And that's not an issue for Jokic this season.

Speaker 2 (09:42):
What do you think, Yeah, there's the multiple factors. They
got to be good. They have to improve. Number one.
Second thing, it would help him if he had a
second title. I suppose to be able to give him
four MVPs. There's that part, but he's He's freaking Jokic.
So yeah, the fact that he didn't win lifelast year,
he gives voters, I think a little reason to vote

(10:04):
for this guy. But she could easily win this thing off.

Speaker 1 (10:06):
So yeah, the GM survey which we just got last
week late last week from our guy John Schumann at
NBA dot com, the GMS picked Jokic to win his
fourth MVP award this coming season. So they're along this
line of like, yeah, maybe just to give it back
to him again. The numbers with all these guys in
theory are going to be there, like they're unreal. What
these four guys, if we include Giannis quite frankly in

(10:28):
the midst it's hard to pick anyone else besides one
of these four guys winning this thing just with the
stats they put up on the good teams, I mean
Giannis and the Bucks, Like he would have a case
if they surprise because you said the Lakers are below
the Nuggets and the thunder, Well, the Bucks are way
below those other three teams, so you know it would
have to be honest carrying them with his crazy stat line.

(10:50):
It's possible. I think I see some people sort of
backing him for another third MVP that would be for
him after he went back to back in the day.
So I just struggled to find anyone else having a
real chance at this right in today's NBA because these
four guys are elite.

Speaker 2 (11:03):
Yeah, yeah, thiss numbers are are ridiculous. I think maybe
they're too too involved for people like thirty twelve and
sixty percent. Maybe sixty percent is just too much of
a stat I mean for people to get. Really, it's
not it's not a good enough stat. It's not a
point better than Joki. Yeah, Yokich will be interesting considering

(11:23):
his heaves won't even factor into his stats.

Speaker 1 (11:25):
Oh for Sena just going up?

Speaker 2 (11:27):
Did you jump up a couple? It literally had been
two points higher in the three point percentage. But yeah,
the other guys, it is difficult. I totally agree. When
we had our conversation about who's at that MVP table,
I threw in Jalen Brunson because I think the Knicks
are just going to be really good in the Eastern Conference.
Donovan Mitchell, that's why he's here on on the odds
board as well. Strict numbers, they're gonna win, right, So.

Speaker 3 (11:51):
Yeah, yeah, I think I think both Mitchell and to
a lesser extent, Brunts and but definitely Mitchell, like his
best chance was last year they won sixty four games.
He took a step back, which kind of hurt his
counting numbers, but he was a better player in the
Cabs were such a good team. I think the Knicks
would have to approach sixty wins for Bronson be the guy,
and he would have to do clutch Player of the
Year stuff again, which will get into maybe he will.

(12:12):
He'll still have the opportunities for sure, but last year
seemed like a good chance for both of those guys.

Speaker 1 (12:18):
Totally.

Speaker 2 (12:18):
I think the number that the Lakers have to get
to is fifty wins for Luca to be involved. What
is it for Yannis? For the Bucks? How many wins
did they have to have they have to be significant?
Probably it's probably fifty, I think, Oh.

Speaker 1 (12:29):
At least I think I almost think at this point
with the talent like we went through here of these
elite guys, like you have to be a top three seed,
it feels like, so what in your conference? At the
very least, so that's you're getting into the fifty to
sixty win work somewhere in there. But he'd have the honest,
would have that narrative like everybody's like this team sucks,
like he could again in sort of a weekend East,

(12:52):
like he could carry them to a lot of wins.
I think they're going to hit the over. They were
one of my teams, one of my locks in fact,
to hit whatever they're you know, mid four what he
sort of line was there from Vegas. I think they're
going to eclipse that if he plays. That's what you said, Trey.
You know he's got to play once Honest has removed
from that lineup. Oh my god, Like I don't think.
I don't think who's is gonna be able to carry it?
You know, I'll try his best, Gary Trent Junior and

(13:15):
Kevin Porter. Oh yeah, for the record, I'm going with you, Okitch,
I'm with you, Trey. I think he's going to get
his fourth here because they should be a good team
and obviously he's gonna have the stats. My dark horse
pick sort of like off the board we showed you
kid Cunningham at plus what five hundred fifteen? Excuse me,
more than that? Fifteen is he fifteen hundred.

Speaker 3 (13:36):
He no, he was five thousand to one, thank you
plus five thous twenty thousand.

Speaker 1 (13:41):
I wrote it in my notes wrong. I'm like, he's
not plus five hundred plus five thousand. For Kate Cunningham,
that's my dark horse because he ever was twenty six,
nine and six and seventy games last year. There are
still rooms for improvement in his game. I saw Danny
Green calling him Kid the SGA of the Eastern Conference.
WHOA I sort of get The companies say like they're

(14:03):
both like mid range assassins, but Kid's got to get
a little bit better, a little more average with a
three punt shot, and better at finishing out the rim.
He just needs to get more free throws as well,
get some easy points that way. The point is, if
the Pistons jumped up another level, he's gonna warrant MVP
votes like he did last year. He got a few
ends of the ballot votes, so he's a dark horse

(14:24):
pick in this anyone else.

Speaker 3 (14:26):
He was the best off the board pick, I thought,
because I think the Pistons, compared to a guy like
Paulo Boncaro, has a little bit better odds than Kaid does.
I think the Pistons have just a little bit less
talent on their team, so you're looking at Kaid more
so as the number one guy, Whereas when you're talking
about the Magic it's is it Polo?

Speaker 1 (14:42):
Is it Franz?

Speaker 3 (14:43):
They at least have a chance at two All Stars,
and that's not the case for Detroit.

Speaker 1 (14:48):
And then why not Victor wemin Yama? Why not here
in your three?

Speaker 3 (14:53):
The only reason his wins like this, the Spurs would
have to win fifty games. He's gonna be We're gonna
get the Defensive Player of the year if he gets
the sixty five game, So he's going to win Defensive
Player of the Year.

Speaker 1 (15:02):
He's the best defensive player in the league.

Speaker 3 (15:03):
So can he average twenty eight points per game and
shoot forty percent from three? It's possible, and I think
if that's the case, people will vote him MVP. As
long as the Spurs are winning.

Speaker 1 (15:13):
Lebron finish number two in MVP voting in his third season,
we had Derrick Rose. I think wes Unseld at twenty
two years old, win MVP. That's where Webbinama will be
at the end of the season. So it's like, if
you're building the case, and now you're just like it,
think it's onebi time now, Yeah, but you're right. The
wins are the wins going to be there for san
Antonio at that's got to probably be around that fifty

(15:34):
win mark, at least in the Western Conference because then
you're you're the top.

Speaker 2 (15:38):
Yes, and will he play the sixty five games? And
that's the questions boring question, but that's a part of it. Yeah,
they got to win, and we'll get to the guys
playing around him. When it comes to Defensive Player of
the Year, that is a factor, So we'll get to that.

Speaker 1 (15:52):
All right. So you have Luca, we have Jolkic for
the record. Play along here in the stream. Team let's
hear your picks. Let us know in the YouTube comments.
Tweet at us at no dunk think all right, next
one here, let's go most Improved. I'm in Thompson the
favorite right now plus nine fifty. Danny Avdia of the Blazers,
Andrew Nemhart, Benedict Mathrin, Asar Thompson and Mates Bozelis are

(16:16):
all plus sixteen hundred. This is one of these awards
that even fan duel and all the odds makers, they're like,
I don't know, not really sure. Put two brothers and
two pacers on there. Yeah, that's right, so two white guys.
What do you think? Trey again is a difficult one
to predict. But where are you leaning? Well, you know
who I'm leaning towards. Oh, but I'm not gonna say it.

Speaker 3 (16:36):
I'm just happy that Bozellis made the board one better
odds than Josh Getty, who was eighteen to one.

Speaker 1 (16:41):
Yeah, I think that was kind of funny. My picked
is not on the board. Victor ie Baniyama Most Improved Player,
Oh boy, here we go. Yeah, I lovest to one.
You're like, that's crazy.

Speaker 3 (16:50):
There's no way he could be an MVP candidate and
also win Most Improved Player. Look at Jahn Morant twenty
one twenty two season one Most Improved Player finished seventh
in MVP voting. You're telling me that's not reasonable for
Victor webbin Yama, who has zero accolades in his career
so far, only because he didn't play enough games last season.
But it means he's available to be voted for on

(17:11):
all of this kind of stuff, especially Most Improved Player.
It's kind of at times been a junior MVP vote. Like,
we see you coming next, so let's get out ahead
of things. I think he will be on actual MVP
ballots by the end of the season.

Speaker 1 (17:26):
He'll get some fifth.

Speaker 3 (17:27):
Place votes, maybe some fourth place votes, depending on how
much the voters favored defense. So it's way down there
on the odds, but I'll take Wemby.

Speaker 1 (17:34):
Yeah. It's interesting because last year's MIP winner, Dyson Daniels,
that was sort of like a throwback most Improved winner
that way, because like you said, Trey, we've had a
lot of winners like John Morant, Julius Randall, Tyrese Maxi,
guys that already scored twenty points per game like in
seasons prior. But then we're like this coronation of sorts like, oh,
you've really leveled up to All Star All MBA. Yeah,

(17:56):
I get the case for Wemby for MIP. I think
it's a good.

Speaker 2 (17:59):
Back, Okay, especially because it's a it's an open board,
it's pretty open. But we know Wenby is going to
take that next step and if he doesn't win MVP,
then voters will say, okay, well we got to click
check him for something.

Speaker 3 (18:12):
Now.

Speaker 2 (18:12):
The Defensive Player of the Year is a part of it.
But to me, this could easily be the Wemby year. Yeah,
the coronation. It reminds me of the Juniston Goupo. It
was year four for Yannis when he won Most Improved Player,
And I do think it was after year three where
we're on NBA TV and I called him the most
overrated player going onto year four, and that's when he

(18:35):
did it because people were saying he was already annointed,
he was already the All Star and I found the stats.
You can't, you can't do that. I was a little
stat oriented. He hadn't taken that next step. Wemby could
be taking that next step. It could be the Wemby pick.
I don't say what.

Speaker 1 (18:49):
Already averages, Like what is he twenty four eleven and
four or something like that. Yeah, so he can't improve
enough of yourself? Always been training with Matt Bonner.

Speaker 3 (18:58):
I I.

Speaker 1 (19:00):
Mean, yeah, like you said, is he going to average
twenty eight thirteen?

Speaker 4 (19:05):
You know three blocks plus? Yeah, go get that quad doubles.
He'll be the only the fifth player to get a
quadruple double. If you want to get into stats, Yeah,
it could happen.

Speaker 1 (19:16):
So you're picking Wemby as well. No, oh no, it's
a great, great one. It's a great pick.

Speaker 2 (19:21):
I find the board is hilarious because, as you said,
two pacers, two brothers, two white guys. I mean really,
it's really the most improved player. I like the Asar
Thompson pick because I think he's going to play way more.
He was in these three to four minute spurts last
year because of the blood cloude issue, so it wasn't
playing a ton for JB.

Speaker 1 (19:40):
Bickerstaff.

Speaker 2 (19:41):
I think J. B. Bickerstaff will and has to buy
into Sar Thompson more. He didn't do that enough last year.
He just did not. I think it's his time. He's
gonna be given the leash, especially with this new Pistons
team with Leak Beasley gone, they need somebody out there
to make place. Now j and Ivy coming back as well,
They're going to feel it out. I don't know who

(20:01):
Malik Beasley's betting on, if he still bets, but he
should bet on Asar Thompson.

Speaker 1 (20:09):
That is such a strange scenario.

Speaker 2 (20:10):
The guy will probably be playing basketball this season TVD.
But yeah, it's hard to pick from that board. That's
why Wemby's a good one. Even if you want to
go deeper like the Nembharden one. I mean, it's it's
fun because he's a guy who gets better in the playoffs,
and we've most recently seen him take that step from

(20:31):
regular season to playoffs. They're awesome. Now is it is
it his time to take over for Tyre's Hilliburton as
the guy? Now, these are kind of like if if
you want to write the narrative, these are kind of
like his playoffs. You've got to go in and you've
got to be the guy. But history says that's not true.
His regular seasons just aren't that good in comparison to

(20:53):
the playoffs, so I can't I can't get behind it.
But he obviously is that talented.

Speaker 1 (20:59):
There are like two bucks. I think for most improved,
there are candidates who just get increased opportunity. These guys
are saying Andrew Emhart, Benedict Mathrin. I think a lot
of Celtics guys would fall into this sort of bucket,
maybe Derek White, Peyton Pritchard, Sam Hauser, stuff like that.
Michael Porter Junior new role in Brooklyn. Now you need
usually some wins with MIP. I get that, But then

(21:19):
there's the whole other side of just like these guys
that are like breakout stars, like these prospects they on
men Thompson. I think Brandon Miller could maybe be on
this list the Boozellises of the world. A guy, I'm
gonna pick Shandon Sharp. I'll go with Shade Sharp as
a not even I mean, he's off the board here,
but I don't think he's super far down there. He's
probably plus twenty five hundred. So I'll go Sharp as mip.

Speaker 2 (21:42):
That's a good one.

Speaker 1 (21:43):
Now, I'm like, obviously I'm looking in what happened at
the end of last season when nobody cares. At the
end of the regular season, he went, he was having
some monster like thirty point point per game scoring games.
There's no Scoot sort of in the mix right now.
He's like turning into sort of a lead guy there
a little bit. I'll go with him. They need offense.

Speaker 2 (22:02):
He's going to put up numbers.

Speaker 1 (22:03):
A great note I saw in doing little research for
this from Xandrik Ellison what a Name on NBA Reddit.
He noted that the Most Improved Player Trophy may need
to be renamed the player who happened to get hot
from three trophy because he went back and looked. In
many cases, the winner was a player who just shot
well above their career average from three that particular season
and then immediately dropped down back to their normal averages.

(22:25):
So the premise here is that most Improved is a
bit of a funky trophy. It's tough to predict this one.
That's why Wemby again, like you said, like with crazy
long odds, like maybe he does shoot forty percent from three,
and that would obviously that'll get you from twenty four
points per game to twenty eight to twenty something like that.
But I'm going sharp, you are going Wemby Wemby, and
ultimately you're going.

Speaker 2 (22:46):
I'm going in Starr Thompson, although the Ben Matherns Austin
super fun as well, especially with Halbert. Note who's going
to score? But he's coming off the bench last year.
Is he just going to be pushed in to what
is is his contract year? So and increased three point
percentage would be the time to do it, That would
be I don't know. That's why all these guys are questions.

Speaker 3 (23:07):
I think I would favor Nemhard over Matherin just because
Benedict Matherne scored sixteen a game last year as the
main option for the Pacers off the bench, whereas Nemhard
was ten points per game.

Speaker 1 (23:16):
He's going to improve on that.

Speaker 3 (23:17):
For sure, just with more opportunity playing a bigger role
on the offensive end. If you're choosing a pacer for me,
it's nem Hard, Yeah, you're If you're talking about a
guy that needs to overperform three point shooting, Asar Thompson
is easily the pick here.

Speaker 1 (23:28):
He shot twenty two percent from three. If he shoots
thirty percent, we're like, wha, Yeah, he's a marksman. Dale
ellis out there. He's still improved. Yeah, yeah. Any other
dark horse picks you want to show some love to, No,
most improved anyone?

Speaker 3 (23:41):
Jayalen Johnson fifty to one, Wow, wasn't eligible for an
award last year. Had a massive improvement, it would have
been an All Star, but only played what thirty games.
I think for the Hawks. If he stays healthy, he's
awesome and he's going to have a huge role for
Atlanta this year. Jovic, I think at twenty five to
one is interesting. Reed Shepherd thirty to one didn't play
hardly at all and now is going to be a

(24:01):
massive piece for the Rockets.

Speaker 1 (24:04):
It's interesting no one is picking the favorite here Amen Thompson.
A lot more talk about Asar Thompson. I just like
I'm interested by that, Like have we over index? I
mean we as in the internet and all the other
media members on Like, is Amen Thompson suddenly almost overrated
because we're so excited for him and he's so fun
to watch and the potential we see there, But maybe

(24:24):
slow down on it. He was a breakout star last year.

Speaker 3 (24:27):
I think is the problem for me a'ment Thompson more
so than a SAR who was kind of lost in
the shuffle because he started the season on the injured
reserve list, came back and like Tasa saying, kind of
was in and out of the lineup. I think that
it's more enticing to look at Asar, especially because you
figure the Pistons are going to need one of their
young guys to pop this year.

Speaker 2 (24:47):
So many headlines for Amn Thompson last year in comparison
to a star, Thompson's probably like ninety to ten percent.

Speaker 1 (24:54):
A SAAR wasn't talked about it a lot.

Speaker 2 (24:57):
The Jalen Johnson one also interesting because he could be
anointed as a most improved player, breakout player number one
because he plays a number two. If he doesn't make
the All Star team, you got to give you kind
of give him something, you know. But his numbers were
really good. It is a little like Shaden Sharp. They
both average between eighteen and a half and nineteen points
per game. Good numbers. So how much are they going

(25:20):
to improve from that? Yeah, I could see Shandon Sharp
doing it without Anthony Simons there. They literally need somebody
to score a ton, so he could.

Speaker 1 (25:29):
Yeah, that's why, like when you're picking between two pacers
to win MIP, like you were saying, Trey, it's like
you almost have to add like it feels like a
seven to eight point per game increase. So it's like
more likely that Nemhart is maybe seventeen eighteen points per
game then maybe Benedict Mathrin, who already averaged sixteen points
per game up to you know, twenty three, twenty four.
It's still possible he's only going to get better as

(25:53):
a player. But yeah, that's that's maybe the issue with Sharp.
I guess I'm banking on he is sort of flirting around,
let's call it, twenty points per game. Really good season,
and obviously the Blazers have to surprise and you have
to sort of like be the lead guy. The only
other name I have. I'm just interested to see Cam
Whitmore after two sort of disappointing seasons with the Houston Rockets,
obviously caught up in the shuffle of so many guys

(26:15):
there and on the bench. Now he goes to Washington
just to remind everyone that's where Cam Whitmore is, so
he gets a second chance here. I think he could
double his point per game total just with opportunities. So
that's like a narrative that he's like, whoa man. Guy
is obviously really good. I think he's at plus four thousand,
So that's my dark horse pick. Let's go to Rookie
of the Year. Anybody taking anyone besides Cooper Flag who's

(26:40):
the odds on favorite minus one ninety five by way
of FanDuel. And then you do have a bunch of
other guys at plus one thousand and vj Edgecombe, Ace Bailey,
Trey Johnson, and you got Dylan Harper plus fourteen hundred,
Canipple plus eighteen hundred. I will say from the time
I've made this board now, at least the last I

(27:01):
checked FanDuel's even changed a little bit. Flag is now
minus two twenty to win Rookie of the Year. Trey
Johnson remains at plus one thousand, Ace Bailey Edgecombe, they've
dropped to plus eleven hundred. Harper dropped a little bit too.
But gonna start a here, TK. You know, I assume
you're taking Cooper Flag, but maybe then who you have
second on your list?

Speaker 3 (27:21):
I do think Flag is the favorite here for a reason.
And I don't know exactly when you made the board,
but he played against the Hornets and looked awesome, So
I was like, Okay, this guy is going to do it,
especially when you factor in he's got the rare chance
as a rookie to have great production as a rookie
and be on a team that's pretty decent. Like he's
going to be a key piece to a MAVs team
that's at least hoping to make the playoffs in the

(27:43):
Western Conference, if not go farther. So I think him
playing on both sides of the ball, being a do
it all kind of guy, defense, playmaking, scoring, Like he
looks like he's going to be unstoppable in transition already.
That's why he's the favorite, so heavily for a second
favorite guy, I think Ace Bailey. I think he's probably
going to lead all rookies in scoring. There's a ton
of opportunity on the Jazz. He looks like a taller,

(28:06):
skinnier Carmelo Anthony out there in preseason, and the shots
are going to be there. He looks more comfortable as
an NBA player than he probably did as a college player.
So I think Will Hardy's excited to have this guy.
You see pictures of him and he's just like hugging
and smiling, like, how do we get as Bailey at
number five?

Speaker 1 (28:24):
So I think if he.

Speaker 3 (28:25):
Leads the draft class in scoring, he's going to get
a ton of votes.

Speaker 2 (28:28):
Yeah, it's a good pick because Rookie of the Year
quite often goes to the guy who has a lot
of opportunity. Larry Markinen will be allowing Ace Bayley to
do whatever the heck he wants on that team as
well Will Hardy, so he'll have plenty of shots. It's
definitely going to be Cooper Fly who wins it because
he's going to have plenty of opportunity because they need
some guard play. So I think Jason kid's going to
give him the ball a ton You want to make

(28:49):
some narratives. Wow, he's a point guard. He's a point
forward type of thing. That could happen. He's going to
have the highlights both offensively and as he said, defensively.
He'll cover everybody. He'll track three point line to the
rim over and over.

Speaker 1 (29:01):
He wants it.

Speaker 2 (29:02):
It seems like he's got that dog in him, So
I think it's it's his It's hard to go down
the board. Ace Billy is a good pick. I think
v Jadge gumb Is is a decent pick because y'all
have opportunity with Willie. I think if Edgicum is playing again,
that's a that's another question. But he should he should be, Yeah,
I think. I mean it's going to take who's going
to take the.

Speaker 1 (29:22):
Well, they have a lot of cards when they're all
when they're all healthy. I mean, you got Maxie, you
got McCain, the guy who was probably going to win
rookie year last year until he got hurt. Yeah, Clinton Grimes,
Yeah McCain.

Speaker 2 (29:32):
I see a little bit here, but yeah, we'll see.

Speaker 1 (29:35):
Then again, their guys are always injured, so maybe.

Speaker 3 (29:38):
Yeah, exactly right. If he's the one that stays healthy.
I think Jedge cumb could have the best highlights.

Speaker 1 (29:41):
Of any rookie. Oh yeah, yes for sure. A few
things to remember when you are making your Rookie of
the Year picks. First off, no sixty five game minimum
for Rookie of the Year eligibility. So I was going
to ask you, guys, how many games does us Cooper
Flag have to play to sort of lock up Rookie
of the Year fIF half the season? You know, I

(30:02):
wonder what that is. I know it depends on how
the other guys are doing behind them. But you know,
Patrick Ewing won this thing with fifty games played way
back in the day. Brandon roy have only played fifty seven.
I think Embid played thirty one, and hence Malcolm Brogden
ended up getting that one. But look, you get far
more flexibility when it comes to this award when it

(30:22):
comes to injuries. Team performance doesn't matter, So you can
be on the worst team and you can be a
you could be a Concini and counting stats tend to
play an outsized role when it comes to Rookie of
the Year, like whoever has sort of the most points, rebounds,
the Cysts sort of at them all up. You have
a really good chance, especially points. We've never had a
Rookie of the Year Winter average single digits in points,

(30:45):
and in the past two decades. I'm glad to hear
that in the past two decades. There's a little trivia
question for you. In past two decades, only two guys
were below fifteen points per game that won Rookie of
the Year broad enough course, because it got hurt No. Eighteen,
it's uh, it's last year. Oh Castle, Yeah, Stephen Castle,

(31:06):
you know, somewhat of a weak class, I guess, but
he got it done. Michael Carter Williams almost seventeen points
per game. There you go, all right, So everybody's taking
Cooper flag and sounds like Ace Bailey a bit of
a favorite for maybe runner up.

Speaker 2 (31:18):
There will be some con canimple headlines. I think. I
think he is a guy who gets after it, can
score Arlamello. Theyre they gonna give theim the ball, Brandon Miller,
they gonna give him the ball. Enough is the question
for him to put out points, But he's he's got it.
And maybe Flamelo misses games, then conk Nipple gets more
opportunity you can score, That's for sure.

Speaker 1 (31:35):
He looks savvy.

Speaker 3 (31:35):
I was trying to think of like a Conka Nipple
Halloween costume, because I mean, the guy's got the name.

Speaker 1 (31:41):
The word nipple in his names, like Chili con caa nipple.
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (31:45):
It sounds more like a fantasy name theaker come up with.
But I'll like a like a Nacho hat and the
Hornets jersey or something like that. Still got enough time
to brainstorm ideas Chili two.

Speaker 1 (31:58):
Other Rookie of the Year super dark Horse picks. What
about young Hanson? He just had a great third quarter.

Speaker 2 (32:04):
Oh man.

Speaker 1 (32:05):
I mean, now he's sort of a guy too. There's
a lot of bigs. I think he's gonna play. I
think the Portland trailer is gonna play him a little bit.
But they have some bigs there in the rotation. Clinging
of course, I mean time lord when he plays and
he's still in the roster, but you could see him
having He's gonna have like a monster month, like probably March.
It's like, well, the numbers this guy is putting up

(32:27):
and he'll like get in the conversation and a monster
highlight reel. People he's got some great dimes. For sure.

Speaker 2 (32:31):
The NBA YouTube page will be putting together some big clips,
and not only for for Asia, just for us to watch.

Speaker 1 (32:40):
He's fun to watch.

Speaker 2 (32:41):
As Danny Avdia said that give and go with me
and him, it's gonna work. You're gonna see some beautiful
passes the clips. I'm already seeing him just driving by
centers in preseason, in practice, in his own practice, where
he just goes by.

Speaker 1 (32:55):
Like he can go buy them. I'm getting sucked in.

Speaker 2 (33:00):
I was trying to name the name, but he is
just he's a camp invite, so I forget.

Speaker 1 (33:05):
He's the awe center.

Speaker 2 (33:07):
He can spin from the mid range and go buy
anybody and then and then he hangs at the rim.
He's freaking a big boy.

Speaker 1 (33:15):
Oh he is going to be. He's going to be
on Rookie of the Year ladder lists on NBA dot
com or the Athletic or ESPN guaranteed at some point.
I'm telling you it's going to be like probably in
March that he'll like sneak onto these lists. I'm pretty
confident about that. The only other guy in all honesty
again dark horse pick because Cooper's gonna win this. But
heat rookie Yakochons. The GM survey voted him the biggest

(33:40):
steal of the draft, so there are fans of him.
I think he's gonna have a bigger opportunity now that
Tyler hero is out, at least to start this season.
Spolster's talking him up. He said, quote he has a
Kamikazi element to him. He's like jet fuel. Just immediately
feel his energy and his speed end quote on there.
So I think he could get some stats. You might

(34:01):
get it, might get a.

Speaker 2 (34:02):
Chance, at least as far as I got sucked in
during Summer Lake, I did.

Speaker 1 (34:07):
He's very good.

Speaker 2 (34:08):
Uh. And since we're naming great names like that, the
son of Sirunus Marshalis is in the NBA Augustus.

Speaker 1 (34:17):
Augustus for the chocolate factory Chocolate River, but the factory instead,
he sucked up the tube in the river, didn't he Augustus? Yeah,

(34:38):
I didn't know he was in the lake. He's on
the Lakers.

Speaker 2 (34:40):
I think he may be a two way guy, so
you know, yeah, he's on an Exhibit ten contract with
the Lakers, but.

Speaker 1 (34:48):
For the chocolate chocolate factory. All right, lots more awards
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I might go upside inside out and live Levita.

Speaker 1 (36:14):
Yoga The Cup of Life. That was another Ricky Martin song.
I think right, Not sure, hard to remember the second single.
Yeah he said some apparently enough for an entire yoga class. Yeah,
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Speaker 1 (37:00):
Gustus Kloop could have used the Peloton tubby Little Guy.
All right, let's keep it going here doing our NBA
Award predictions. If you're just joining us live on YouTube,
hit the like button, subscribe, share the show, podcast listeners,
five star ratings and reviews. Task I'm gonna start with
you on this one sixth Man of the Year odds.
Again by way of fan duel got seven names on

(37:23):
this list because we got sort of a tie at
the bottom, but Nasried and DeAndre Hunter are the favorites
at plus one thousand, Josh Hart with the Knicks plus
eleven hundred, ty Jerome with the Grizzlies plus fourteen hundred,
and then three guys at the bottom there, John Collins,
Jordan Clarkson, and Anthony Simons all at plus fifteen hundred.
I find this one difficult as well. Tasks it is,

(37:45):
where are you going?

Speaker 2 (37:45):
Some of those guys are going to be starting, I
would say.

Speaker 1 (37:48):
Yeah, yeah, I agree. And some of those guys are
not even like six men, like they're gonna be like seventh, eighth,
right men, two knicks on there, yeah right right, yeah,
And Deuce McBride might be also great choice sixth man.

Speaker 2 (38:02):
Yeah, So I'm going way off the board. I'm going
with Dante de Vincenzo in Minnesota. I think he's gonna
have an increased role in Nikhil Alexander Walker, Gun Mike
Conley getting a little bit older, and he was part
of the Karl Anthony Towns. Julius Randall trade where if
they get dealt on October second, they weren't ready for
the regular season. You could see he wasn't ready, He

(38:23):
wasn't into it, he wasn't himself. Started this season slowly,
but after the All Star break, like Julius Randall, they
picked it up a notch. He shot forty four point
seven from three after the All Star break, you know,
going thirty seven percent before the All Star break. You
don't often see that unless it's these games that don't

(38:44):
mean anything for a lot of these teams where a
guy gets way better. Those games did mean something for
the Minnesota Timberwolves. I think de Vincenzo's gonna have a
lot bigger role like the year before with the Knicks,
where we all were thinking, WHOA, they're getting a really
good guy here from the Knicks. He was fifteen and
a half, almost forces, almost three rebounds, near sixty percent
true shooting percentage forty percent from three. So the numbers

(39:05):
will be like that. He'll put forth some good numbers.
Will this team be good enough? I think that that
plays a part here in six man. Not all the time,
but I think it'll help the Timberwolves that they got
this guy who's going to play a ton.

Speaker 1 (39:19):
So you're taking him over Nasrit Yeah, who obviously has
already won one of these.

Speaker 2 (39:22):
Yeah. Yeah, he's going to score more. I think Deeven
Times could score a good him out.

Speaker 1 (39:26):
Where are you going with this one? TK, I'm taking
a nick.

Speaker 3 (39:29):
I like Josh Hart ook for sixth Man of the
Year because he's technically the sixth man right now, but
he's just a sixth starter, so there are going to
be times when he's starting, and he's definitely going to
close games depending on the personnel for the other teams,
you know, Mitchell Robinson, foul trouble or availability. I think
is good news for Josh Hart. Last year he led
the league in minutes per game, finished second in total minutes.

(39:52):
That's not going to happen again because he's going to
be starting off the bench at least, but he's still
going to play a ton.

Speaker 1 (39:57):
He's still going to produce a ton. Last year nine doubles.

Speaker 3 (40:00):
He just fills up the box score, and I think
that that's something that's important when it comes to sixth man.
Like you do want to see high scoring totals, which
is why Devincenzo nas Reed are really good picks, but
I think Josh Hart's kind of do it all in
this puts him over the top for me.

Speaker 1 (40:15):
Yeah, DeAndrea Hunter, he probably will be starting right to
start with s truce out and then and then the
Celtics guys. I wish I knew who was coming off
the bench and who has really started, Like is it
Simon's and Pritchard howser, It's like they all. I would
have a case if I felt confident that they're coming
off the bench, but I'm not entirely sure, and I
think I'm not even sure Missoula is. At least in

(40:36):
preseason we've seen some sort of mix in a match
in here. I love the hard pick, but I'm actually
gonna go way off the board here and I'm gonna
go with khalil Ware. Wow. Yeah, Now is he starting
or not? Like he's not starting in the preseason here
besides Bam unless Bam wasn't playing, he started that game,
so he refuses to start him. He's been he looked

(40:58):
really good in preseason. This is the guy's numbers I
was looking at every season before we started the show. Guys,
tell me about his rebounding numbers. I know he got better.

Speaker 3 (41:05):
I saw out of Miami heat tweet that said khalil
Ware has improved rebounding. It was just a rebound highlight.
He didn't do anything else, just grabbed a defensive rebound.
That looks awesome.

Speaker 1 (41:13):
Well, he's averaging twenty and eleven in these four preseason
games that he's played. He's hitting three pointers. He's hit
like two per game in these games. Like, he does
look good. I'm like not joking here. I think he
should be starting, but for some reason Spoe wants to
like go smaller. So eleven off the bench. Jesus, Yeah,
pretty good. Yeah, and he came off the bench like

(41:34):
nearly fifty percent of the time last year. I don't know.
He could be starting, and this could look very foolish.
So I guess my other pick. I like the Josh Hart.
I like a Nick winning this. I think if I
ranked them, I would go I'd probably go Josh Hart,
that McBride, then Clarkson. I'm a little surprised Clarkson is
this high with these odds, but I'll go khalil where
just to keep things interesting.

Speaker 2 (41:55):
Yeah, it kind of makes sense that he's coming off
the bench in that they want to allow Nikola Yova
to play, but also Jimi Hawkas has been starting alongside
Norman Powell, because maybe you want a guy who's really
good offensively to come off the bench. You know that
either going to give the ball to and do something,
So maybe you're throwing Hawkes into the starting lineup. So

(42:15):
it's a decent one.

Speaker 1 (42:16):
Plus twenty seven hundred I believe for where again dark
horse six Man of the Year pick. But let's hear
from you guys. This is a tough one because even
like ty Jerome, I think a lot of people would
be backing that. But we have the Ja Morant injury already.
Maybe he's back, maybe he's not early to start the season.
He gets slotted in there.

Speaker 2 (42:33):
Who's starting on these teams Like Tary Easton I think
should be a factor here. Yeah he's a great player
for the Rockets, but there will be times where he starts,
but it's probably going to go to Jabari Smith Junior. Yeah,
I think so, and so Tyson will come off the
bench and that guy can shoot it.

Speaker 3 (42:49):
I'm seeing Alan you here in the stream team saying
I'm taking PJ. Washington for six End of the year.
Dallas is another who's starting for this team. I think
he's twenty five to one right now and.

Speaker 1 (42:59):
Still with us. Just could it be RJ. Barrett if
he doesn't get traded. I guess it could be some numbers.

Speaker 2 (43:08):
Or what team? Is he gonna be the six man
for the Toronto Raptors. Nah, don't you think.

Speaker 1 (43:14):
He's gonna start the whole year? Yeah, it's tough. One's tough, man.
You gotta figure out what the lineups are. Yeah, and
then of course injuries come into play and guys get
slotted up and all that. That's why the nas Reid
one is probably the safest like sort of bet, Like
nas Reid is going to very likely just come off
the bench for eighty games. Yeah, right, have some monster games,

(43:34):
like you said, I'll have a couple thirty point games
here and there. Hit some big shots late, So that's
like the safe bet. But uh, you know, he just won.
Did he win last?

Speaker 4 (43:42):
No?

Speaker 1 (43:43):
He won two years ago, right, two years last. Yeah,
all right, let's go to Defensive Player of the Year
Victor Wemenyama the favorite minus won eighty five odds on
favorite and you got chet holmrid plus six fifty. I'm
and Thompson plus sixteen hundred, same with Anthony Davis and
then Dyson Daniels at plus two thousand. No Mobly on

(44:05):
this list, which is a little interesting. He won Defensive
Player of the Year las year. I don't think the
Cavs are going to fall off a cliff defensively, but Trey,
get it started where you going and then we can
get dark horse pack. That's Wenby.

Speaker 3 (44:13):
The only question is if he hits the requirements on
games played. Last year, he led the league with one
hundred and seventy six blocks. He played forty six games.
According to crazy Stats on Twitter, that is the fewest
games in NBA history to lead a major category points, rebounds, assists, steals,
and blocks played half the season led the league in blocks.
He's clearly the best defensive player in the league. He's

(44:35):
Dion sanders Esk and that he takes up half of
the court, and unfortunately for the offensive team, it is
the half underneath the basket. People are scared to attack
him in half court, people are scared to go against
him in fast break scenarios, and he can block three
pointers as well. So the only way Wemby doesn't win
Defensive Player of the Year until he's thirty years old.

Speaker 1 (44:54):
Is if he doesn't play sixty five games.

Speaker 2 (44:56):
This is an war that usually goes to a big guy.
Give it to the biggest game. This is his award
to lose if he doesn't reach that sixty five games
played number. Gosh hate talking about numbers so much, and
that's why this is maybe something that the NBA gets
rid of at some point. Do we have to play
sixty five games? Or maybe it's just at some point here,

(45:16):
especially since they signed this new TV deal, or maybe
everyone is a little less worried about tanking. Maybe just
get rid of it, because that's the whole reason for it.
But it was I do think Mitch Johnson, the head
coach of the Spurs, will allow him to do whatever
he wants. And Miss Johnson getting a training camp here
I think will help him with Wemby because they have

(45:37):
to be good defensively.

Speaker 1 (45:39):
I was going to ask that. I was like, this
is the one fascinating part with the Webbinyama as Defensive
Player of Year pick, Like what if they are still
defensively as a team, you know, bottom third. I guess
they're this twenty seven defense that won't happen. They were
top five in defense when he plays. Yeah, yeah, okay,
but even then, like I think they could be, like

(45:59):
they could middle of the pack as a team, the
defensive stats and the metrics and all that and just
the highlights. Of course, guys are just terrified to shoot,
like don't try and shoot like an up and under
against him, like he gobbles it up on the other
side of the rim because his arms are so damn long. Yeah,
but I was going to ask that, like how bad
could he they still be as a team for him

(46:20):
to win.

Speaker 2 (46:20):
Yeah, his first year, they're a twenty second team ranking,
and so that was my reason. You can't give it
to this guy. Last year he had top five when
he played. They were twentieth before he got injured, so
they were really bad when he went to the bench.
That being said, they should be way better with Louke
Cornett being behind.

Speaker 1 (46:39):
French Vanilla and Cornet together French Vanilla, it's not bad. Really. Yeah,
I forgot who came up with. That's the Internet for you.

Speaker 2 (46:49):
Yeah, yeah, no, they're going to be way better. Some
people said, well, does that actually hurt Wemby's case for
Defensive Player of the Year because Blue Cornett beside you
just just the fact that somebody comes off the bench,
you can play defense, and so there's not the drop off.
But I don't yeah, I don't get that. I mean, yeah,
the team has to be good enough. The defenders around him.

(47:10):
Maybe you can you can poke some holes. We'll see
what Darion Fox can do out there. Devin Bissell has
never been that steady Hairson Barnes is getting older. But
you throw out Jeremy Sohan, you throw out Carter Bryant's
gonna play at some point. He's freaking good. Nah, it's
just about sixty five GP. Sixty five games played.

Speaker 3 (47:30):
The only number that matters for this one led the league,
Blocks would have finished top fifty and steals and top
five in defensive rebounds.

Speaker 1 (47:37):
What else do you want?

Speaker 2 (47:38):
Yeah, French vanilla. And when he goes to the bench,
they gotta sit down Bumbo. If they need a third guy,
this mac Bambo can get a mode.

Speaker 3 (47:51):
See Bismack Bambo has the worst plus minus in NBA
history since he came into the NBA.

Speaker 1 (47:55):
I saw this. He's been on a lot of bad teams,
that seems. I saw you. Sure though there was a
lot of bulls names. Who was it Levine. I forget that.
The other was definitely Levine two All Stars. Why Vernie
Mode does he say.

Speaker 3 (48:14):
When when Bambo was with the Raptors there he was
convinced that song was sit down beyondb.

Speaker 1 (48:22):
Wow. You don't even know you're referencing.

Speaker 3 (48:26):
It's just.

Speaker 1 (48:28):
So Webby's winning this. But my dark horse pick is
a guy that I sort of threw in there to
start this conversation. It's Mobley. I mean, the guy did
win last year. He was on the eighth ranked best
defense in the league. They could be better. And this
is the type of award we've seen overtime, at least
where guys can like repeat three peat when four of

(48:52):
these things in the past thirty years we had four
separate guys Matumbo, Ben Wallace, Dwight Howard and Rudy Gobert
win the award at least three times. So reputation matters
when it comes with the DPOY at twenty five to
one odds for a guy that just won the award,
that's only going to get better and should still be
on a good defense, I don't think it's that far fetched.
If Webby doesn't hit sixty five, I think that's a
great thing, right right, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (49:13):
There's a little dabble in there for Anthony Davis, who's
never won one. It's a narrative like maybe he can
depending what Dallas is. That all depends what Dallas is.
But yes, if the voters come down to let's look
at the top defensive teams, AD may receive some votes.

Speaker 1 (49:29):
Well that's interesting you bring that up, because again this
is considering or hypothetically saying Wemby doesn't play sixty five
and win this thing. Could the Miami Heat have a
top five defense? I think maybe would Bam warrant some
votes as sort of the lead guy there. Could the
Magic have a top five defense? Yeah, they probably will.
They probably will have the top defense. Who gets the
accolade there? If it's like this idea of a team award,

(49:51):
maybe Gellen sucks. Maybe that would sort of be like
Dyson Daniels like I guess in that regard. And then
my dark horse pick pick would be if the Clippers
have a top five defense. Again, Avitza Zubots could warrant
some some votes and he's like at plus ten thousand
on this board here for sure, Defensive Player of the

(50:11):
Year he had he had like basically the exact same
defensive rating as Wemby last year, So he's really good
on that end. It's not as sexy as Wemby highlights
that we see defensively, but he is solid, very solid. Now.
The concern is that the Clippers might lean towards more
offensive centric players this year, and they have a lot
more of them. But if Zoo keeps that defense in

(50:32):
the top five, I think he could warrant some votes
at the very least coach of the year. Let's do it.
Moseley with the Magic plus six hundred, Snyder here in
the Hawks, Peca plus six fifty, bicker Staff with the
Pistons plus one thousand, same with Mike Brown with the Knicks,
and then Ime Udoka plus thirteen hundred.

Speaker 2 (50:52):
Who wants to get a start question about Jamal more
Moseley's zip up here that we see on the graphic.
If we're looking at why all the specs all the time.

Speaker 1 (51:01):
It needs a lint roller. Yeah, tolerate Drake the lint roller.

Speaker 2 (51:06):
Good one. Uh back to because we have the Kendrick
Lamar in there. Sit down beyond bo you're giving our
friend Movernie the credit for coming up with sit down.

Speaker 1 (51:17):
Got into your brain. I'm sure you read it somebody. Yeah,
I didn't. Well, I'm not from over any you know
Overnie came up with it. No way. Okay, cool.

Speaker 2 (51:28):
People, I know I read it for sure from most
Now somebody else, somebody.

Speaker 1 (51:33):
Else, mo yambo, What you got for Coach of the Year,
None of those guys. Okay.

Speaker 3 (51:39):
Too many teams with expectations on there. You need the
Magic to exceed expectations for Jamal Mostley to win. You
need the Hawks to do it, you need the Detroit
Pistons to do it. Of those three, those are kind
of like the odds are saying, which Eastern Conference team
do you think is going to overperform? I would take
Quinn Snyder of the top three, but I'm going off
the board for this. I think it's between Joe Mazzula
and Rick Carlisle. ULA's fifteen to one, Carlisle is twenty

(52:02):
five to one. Rick Carlisle hasn't won it since two
thousand and two, and everybody agrees, Hall of Fame coach,
one of the best in the league. Nobody expecting anything
from the Pacers this year. They were one of my overs.
I think they could exceed very low expectations. But Joe
Mizula is officially my pick at fifteen to one plus
fifteen hundred. If the Celtics aren't bad, it's gonna because

(52:23):
be because they run up and down the court and
chuck threes. Yeah, and that's basically Joe Missoula ball. The
guy also gives crazy press conferences. You know he's going
to be hilarious with the media, and he will get
a lot of credit for getting the most out of
a team that took a real step back losing four
of basically their top six players.

Speaker 1 (52:42):
Yeah. If you look back at the previous Coach of
the Year winners, there's three trends. It's either coach of
the best team, which happens from time to time. Obviously,
just like an elite team win sixty five plus games,
give it to that coach coach with the biggest turnaround.
That's usually first year coaches like slotted into a new opportunity.
So maybe break Mike Brown with the Knicks, but they'd
have to win a lot more games and then where
you're going tray sort of this idea of like the

(53:04):
coach with the biggest over achievement based on preseason expectations
the Celtics, the Pacers because of injuries to their star guys,
they're like sort of down in the Eastern Conference, and
maybe they shock a lot of people and can get
it done. Those are they They make sense both those
picks to play that last trend. Oh, everybody thought they
weren't going to be good and they're still good. That's

(53:24):
great coaching.

Speaker 2 (53:25):
Yeah, I like the Missoula pick. I can see the
narrative for it for sure. Also, Jaylen Brown is saying,
we're tired, we're running so much right now, and so
he's trying he's trying to get these guys to work harder.
As his assistant coach Sam Cassel said, it's the hardest
training camp I've ever seen.

Speaker 3 (53:47):
It.

Speaker 1 (53:47):
Will it resonate?

Speaker 2 (53:49):
I think they have so many scores, there's a possibility that, yeah,
they could put up a lot of points. I'll lean
towards the board here for guys that are expected to
owe over produce, and it's Quinn Snyder for me for
the Atlanta Hawks. He's an innovative coach. I think you'll
see Kristaps Porzingis in that slot. I think there'll be
lots of methods that will get good storylines for him.

(54:11):
And he's also been voted second and third in Coach
of the Year voting before it maybe finally gets one here,
so he is appreciated.

Speaker 1 (54:20):
Yeah, it does feel a little bit like who wins
the East right because or at least top two, let's say,
because the Magic to get up there in the top two,
they're winning probably ten to twelve more games. And last year,
same with the Hawks. You know, the Pistons obviously maybe
make that jump. And those are the three favorites right here.
When it comes to this award, I'll go Moseley. I

(54:42):
think we're getting to like, yeah, who do you sort
of trust more? Is it going to be the Hawks
or the Magic to win ten to twelve more games
and sort of go up a level. I'll go Moseley
as the favorite plus what six hundred? Yeah, not too
bad either in terms of value.

Speaker 2 (54:58):
I think Mitch Johnson for the Spurs will get some votes.
He's appreciated. This guy was just thrown into the fire
last year. Hey, you're replacing Pop all of a sudden.
This year he's got a training camp and if they're good,
then he gets the votes for sure. I wonder if
Tyler will ever win one. He's a great coach, he's
never won one.

Speaker 1 (55:16):
No, Eric Spolster still has never won one. But yeah,
maybe this is the year if it's open and they
shock a lot of people. He's up plus two thousand
with body candidates. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (55:27):
Roberto Aguilar saying here in the stream team, if anyone
outside of okay See wins the West, they should probably
win Coach of the Year.

Speaker 1 (55:34):
That's not bad, right, Battleman, Yeah yeah, Finchinchy yeah yeah, yeah,
maybe it's the Maybe it's Reddick with the Lakers. I guess, sure,
a little far fetched. Maybe TYLERU. Yeah, that's good way
to put outside the yep.

Speaker 3 (55:50):
Basically, one guy's not gonna win it. Kenny Atkinson Yeah yeah,
because no one's ever gone back to back. He has
the same odds as the Nets Bowls, JAZ and Wizards coach. Yeah,
even though yeah, obviously the Caves are gonna be good.
Repeat winners do not happening, coach.

Speaker 1 (56:06):
Right, No, No, I mean even Mark Dagnoll was a
great example of that. They won sixty eight games last year.
We're setting records left in right, missing key guys obviously
just showing off. Incredible depth all that, and it's like, no,
you can't win again. They were already good. We already
gave him Coach of the Year two years ago. Can't
do it too again. It's a great point. Can you
be in solo? All right? Our final award here, I

(56:27):
guess it's a part of the major awards now, Clutch
Player of the Year blessings. Yes, that's right, Brunson is
your favorite. Plus eight fifty Anthony Edwards plus nine hundred
Sam with Durant and you got Luca and Jokic rounding
out our list here by way of FanDuel plus one thousand.
This is this is so, he's a funny award to

(56:49):
try and predict. Who do you think is going to
do well in the clutch? Do you think's it'd be
awesome in the last two minutes of a game? Who's
won this thing? We started with Fox, we had Korean
and then we had Brunson. Last year three Clutch Player
of the Year winners. Okay, so can Brunson make history
back to that for the first time ever? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (57:06):
What do you think he's got a chance? I'm taking
Trey Young plus fifteen hundred and fifteen to one Odds
finished fourth and Clutch Player of the Year voting. Last season,
the Hawks went twenty one and twenty twenty one and
twenty in the clutch. Believe it or not, they were
five hundred in the clutch. Still, that's the eighth most
wins in the clutch last season. I think they got
a better team this year. Therefore, they will have more wins.

(57:29):
And I still think Trey will be the main guy
when it comes clutch time handling the ball. Making plays
are more likely pulling it from thirty feet, hitting the
cool game winners that make their way around.

Speaker 1 (57:40):
The highlight factories. So yeah, Trey Young for me a
little bit off the board.

Speaker 3 (57:45):
But the guy's a clutch player and he's going to
have the opportunity to show his stuff this year with
the Hawks taking a step forward.

Speaker 1 (57:52):
I'll take Steph Curray. He's clutch. Yeah, he's good, a
good pick.

Speaker 2 (57:56):
Yeah. I think they'll get to the last few minutes
and they'll give him the ball. We'll see a lot
of Al Horford passing to Steph Currey to shoot that thing.
They got to win games, and I think Steph is
gonna put it on his shoulders to score on this team.
He just already wanted you forget about that. I forget
about I.

Speaker 1 (58:14):
Just forget about Yeah, I forget about this award. Yeah yeah, Yeah, that's.

Speaker 2 (58:17):
Funny how we go through it. But yeah, Steph's if
there's anybody who should win it multiple times, no disrespect
to dearon Fox and Jalen Brunson. It's Steph.

Speaker 3 (58:28):
So survey, I think you got the most votes for
who you want with the ball at the end of
the game.

Speaker 1 (58:32):
Right, it's a good pick.

Speaker 2 (58:33):
It's a good one.

Speaker 1 (58:34):
I can't I can't wait for this award, Like how
long will it take? I don't know, maybe five or
six more seasons, where then we'll have debates like can
you believe so and so has never won clutch Player
the Leader? How does Yolk never had a clutch player there?
How is SGA never had? You know, for example, it's
gonna happen my pick purely because of narrative reasons. Give

(58:54):
me Kevin Durant, and they basically went and got this
guy for this reason. Hey, we need clutch shot. I
believe he can still hit those shots because he's unstoppable
getting to his spot rising up. So, yeah, Katie, I
think the rockets are gonna win a lot of games.
He just needs a couple of game winners under his belt. Obviously,
the stats and the opportunity, that's a part of it.
I guess that's why, like maybe Sja is not even

(59:15):
on this list, maybe even Jokic lower. It's like you
do have to be in like close games like to
give yourself a chance to help your stats. Right, So yeah,
I'll go. I'll go Katie though.

Speaker 2 (59:26):
Okay, so he didn't have those last year, No, no,
couldn't join the fun.

Speaker 1 (59:32):
All right, those are our picks for the seven awards.
Let's hear from you guys, your main picks and then
your dark horse picks and all that fun. Got a
little bit of new Yeah, I love for the Hustle Award.
The best player of the Heir Award is ridiculous. How
about the Hustle Award? Yeah? Can you bet on the
Hustle Award? I didn't see it.

Speaker 3 (59:49):
Yeah, do you know who the defending Hustle Award winner of.

Speaker 1 (59:54):
The Erayson Daniels. It's not.

Speaker 3 (59:57):
I'm surprised because of course, as everybody knows, the ward
has decided using a metric known as Hustle Stats, which
tracks defensive and offensive efforts such as diving for loose balls,
taking chargers, deflections, setting screens, and contesting.

Speaker 1 (01:00:08):
Everybody knows that. Everybody knows that Marcus Smart has won
a couple of these. He's a three times Okay, he's
coming back this year. He hasn't played a lot. Yes, sure,
ears Draymond Green one. Draymond is the is the raining
defend me? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:00:25):
All that diving he was doing last year, really about
diving Daniels.

Speaker 1 (01:00:29):
Maybe he'll be the guy. Get your picks in. If
this I had to pick, Yeah, I take Daniels. I'm
in Thompson maybe. Okay, deflections I'm going on. Oh that's
what Dyson Daniels did last king everybody, Yeah, man, what
are these stats? Do we have more stats coming? I
saw stats. I saw my first dunk school raft Johnny Fury.

(01:00:54):
Oh that was nice. Seven anything over one hundred year
living the life. That was a big est good Yeah
that guy. Get f man.

Speaker 3 (01:01:02):
All right.

Speaker 1 (01:01:03):
We got a little bit of news before we wrap
this up. Unfortunate news for Kings fans, Rinse and repeat.
Kings forward Keegan Murray sidelined for more than a month
after injuring his left thumb In a preseason game, the
team said Murray will be reevaluated in four to six weeks.
Task is not a good start to the second mount

(01:01:23):
of King Seon. They do not have a lot of
power forwards or like forwards in general here to sort
of slot in here. I can't wait to see what
Doug Christy decides on. But this sucks especially we all
have the over for Sacramento. Yeah, may want to take
what's the worst that could happen?

Speaker 3 (01:01:38):
Well, a guy got hurt right away at the most
irreplaceable position.

Speaker 1 (01:01:41):
Yeah, and maybe they're I mean, I know kelan Ellis
is good, but King Murray is probably their best defensive
player in terms of like you are putting them on
wing guys god size. He can shoot too. He's trying
to get a contract. That's another part of this whole thing.
His rookie extension. Bad timing for him, bad time for
the Kings.

Speaker 2 (01:01:57):
Anyway, what do you think it's terrible that they don't
have a big wing to replace him?

Speaker 1 (01:02:02):
Really?

Speaker 2 (01:02:03):
Are we going to see some Dario sarch minutes out there?

Speaker 1 (01:02:05):
Are they going to go?

Speaker 2 (01:02:06):
I know, I know it's slow. It's an option, Drew
you banks if they want to go huge because they
don't have they don't have height. But I think it
is Nieck Clifford time.

Speaker 1 (01:02:18):
Oh you think so?

Speaker 2 (01:02:19):
Yeah, now doesn't really have the height for that big
of a spot. They're going to be a little undersized,
Like three four will be him and DeRozan h if
he's out there, but he's an older rookie, you know,
five year college player. He's got the wingspan. I think
he just he gets after it from what I've watched
in any minute, so I think he would be the

(01:02:39):
guy you can stretch the floor a little bit. But
it is terrible news around We're gonna are we going
to see a guy that we watched last year in
G League basketball here in Atlanta and then with the
Atlanta Hawks Daikon Plowden get minutes. I mean they are
They're desperate. They're desperate for a lock in guy. And
that's why I think nee Clifford are twenty three years
old FI year players probably the guy to do it.

Speaker 1 (01:02:59):
It's it's possibility. Their four starters are shrewder Levine, DeRozan,
and Sibonis. And then the options here Trey are like, yeah,
do you size up, you go big or do you
go try and just play super sort of fast and small,
and maybe that's maybe that's even Malik Munk or Keon
Ellis or maybe Clifford. What do you think, Doug Christina
the Kings will do here?

Speaker 3 (01:03:21):
I think they should start their other rookie, Maxine Reino.
Yeah he's like seven feet tall.

Speaker 1 (01:03:25):
Yeah he got a chance. I think he's been wearing
the starter's jersey.

Speaker 3 (01:03:29):
That's right, that's right, and the other guys haven't. What
I think they will probably do is go with Kean Ellis,
get a little defense in there, even if it is
perimeter defense, to make it tougher supposedly for teams to
score on Sibonis inside. But this is just a disaster
for the Kings. Losing Keegan Murray is like the one
spot they couldn't lose. He may be their best wing defender,

(01:03:52):
and he's just an okay wing defender. He hasn't even
shot it all that well. Like you said, he's got
his extension coming up. The deadline is October twentieth. Who
knows how this affects that, but not good and definitely
not good for over thirty four and a half wins.

Speaker 1 (01:04:05):
This should be a sign for the Kings. It's time
to blow it up.

Speaker 3 (01:04:09):
We should trade de Rosen, we should try and trade Sabonis.
Good luck with Levigne. I don't know if that could happen,
but that's not really been the King's mo in the
past couple of seasons, so I don't think that that's
what they'll do.

Speaker 2 (01:04:20):
Yeah. Yeah, Keegan was thrown in there as a rook
so that's why I think Nie Cleffer could just imitate.

Speaker 1 (01:04:25):
That is amazing as a rookie. Yeah, shut the lights,
and didn't he set the record of three and down,
down down downtown ever since?

Speaker 2 (01:04:36):
And Yeah, it is all about how much he'll miss here,
because it's even four to six weeks, and it's he'll
be reevaluated in four to six weeks with the UCL injury.

Speaker 1 (01:04:46):
So if it's short, that's all right.

Speaker 2 (01:04:48):
But if it is six weeks, you miss three games
against ok see three games against Denver when you don't
have a big defender and Sabonis who isn't a rim
defender at the five, maybe they go Rao, just have
a lot of height. Yeah, becaus Clifford is only sixty five.

Speaker 1 (01:05:04):
Yeah, my league Monk is tiny. Ken Elis is probably
six four six five. He's a dog. Yeah, sorry, no,
thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:05:12):
I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 (01:05:13):
They wish they had Trey Lyles still on the roster,
that's right, but he's in I think he's in Barcelona, Madrid, Madrid,
a lot of.

Speaker 3 (01:05:21):
Ben Simmons give him a call. I think you would
want to play in Sacramento to Westbrook, yeah time. Yeah,
I mean they still do want Westbrook, but unfortunately a
guard as well.

Speaker 1 (01:05:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:05:31):
Doug McDermott, he's on this team. Yeah, first time with
the Kings.

Speaker 1 (01:05:35):
Seems like he's been a King is life? Yeah, weird.

Speaker 2 (01:05:39):
I thought this would be a second time around.

Speaker 1 (01:05:41):
I heard Deuce and Mo obviously a great Kings podcast.
They were mentioning the tough schedule for the Kings to
start this season. You sort of alluded to it. They
have nine games combined against the Thunder, the Nuggets, and
the Timberwolves before American Thanksgiving, So like maybe the you know,
no disrespect of the Rockets and other teams that could

(01:06:02):
get in the mix. Those are three of the best
teams in the league. Okay, see Denver and Minnesota, and
they play them nine combined times before the end of November.
That's nuts.

Speaker 3 (01:06:12):
Yeah, I mean that sucks, but you're probably picking those
teams over the Kings even if Murray's healthy.

Speaker 1 (01:06:17):
Yeah, absolutely, it's gonna be It's gonna be one. Yeah,
it would be the problem. Yeah. Not a great start
here for Kings fans. But hey, anyoney want to change
their over underpick It doesn't look good. You can't autographic
has an emoji by it. What was the line? Thirty

(01:06:39):
four and four and a half. Don't worry, they can
It'll be nice. He'll be healthy come March. That's the time.
That's March. That's right. Okay, we're gonna call it their
fun show again, one of my favorites. We do all
season long, making our NBA war predictions, hit the Like Fund, subscribe,
five star ratings and reviews. Plan is for us to
be back on Wednesday. We're gonna do some NBA team

(01:07:02):
tier ranking. I'm gonna slot all the teams in here,
slot them in, get into a little bit of debate
of who's the best of the best, and go all
the way down the line. That'll be on Wednesday at
ten am Eastern. Hope to see you then till then,
Clipper bros. You heard it here first. Have a great time.
Turn up love you guys. Awesome, thanks for joining us.

Speaker 2 (01:07:21):
And remember, Executive of the Year is an award that
goes to one person we didn't predict. I think I
gotta scrap it. It's a team, it's a front office award.
They gotta do multiple guys. It should just be Executives
of the Year.

Speaker 1 (01:07:38):
Okay, who you're picking? I'm picking You're picking the Nuggets.
Oh yeah, I thought you were going Atlanta.

Speaker 2 (01:07:43):
Okay, yeah, thanks a slight respect. Yeah that I think
for him, he'd probably be a solo guy. But I
think it's gonna go to the Nuggets. Ben Tanzer, I'm saying,
is right, name right? And Jonathan Wallace.

Speaker 1 (01:07:56):
John Wallace, he's playing for the Raptors.

Speaker 3 (01:07:57):
He is an.

Speaker 1 (01:07:58):
Autograph right was his an?

Speaker 2 (01:08:02):
I thought it was Vince Garnis. Yeah, I was told
this was Vince. What a weird story that trade?

Speaker 1 (01:08:07):
Who you taking for Executives the year?

Speaker 3 (01:08:09):
Tourist Carnists brought back Gideon Future, m v P, Matus
Boozellisacort Brace

Speaker 1 (01:08:18):
The Name People,

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