NBA Lie Detectors, Duren’s Future, Tomlin’s TV Splash, and a 2026 Sports Media Check With Kirk Goldsberry and Bryan Curtis

The Bill Simmons Podcast

Bill Simmons hosts Kirk Goldsberry and Bryan Curtis for a deep dive into the business and culture of professional sports. The episode covers

Key takeaways

• Jalen Duren's potential departure from Detroit is linked to a $200 million contract offer and the NBA's second apron constraints.
• The NBA is implementing 'points of education' to address illegal stiff arms and moving screens during drives.

Main topics

• NBA Contract Drama
• NBA Rule Changes

Notable quotes

I didn't come here to lose in the second round.

Conclusion

A comprehensive look at how economic shifts and digital media evolutio

Transcript preview

Speaker 3 (0:06) The Bill Simmons podcast brought to you by the ringer podcast network. I put up a new rewatchables on Monday. We did 13 going on 30. We also premiered a hockey podcast. We've never had a hockey podcast, not a great one, not at the ringer. Now we have one. It's the what chaos show. It's been around for a couple of years. It is the best NHL podcast. Please go check it out. The season started this week. These guys are great. They feel very ringery. And I mean that as the highest compliment I can give. I'm hopefully going on there. next week or at some point this month to, um, to talk a little puck. Cause we now have an 84 game regular season. Somebody decided the NHL season needed to be longer. Apparently, uh, WNBA playoffs in full swing. You can follow the ringer WNBA show as well. Um, we'll be covering all the stuff, including the links already out. Miles got hurt. The Liberty got healthy for a brief second. Um, I think the fact that the league stopped for three weeks probably helped. Um, but they knocked out. the links. So they're out fever beat the aces tonight. And, uh, we have a fever aces pivotal game three coming up. Um, let's see what happens. So baseball playoff started today. You heard me talk to Sal on Sunday about how I was not optimistic about the Red Sox. I think he thought I was doing like a reverse jinx thing. The Red Sox offense died at some point in August. This team peaked in July and August with that incredible win streak. They won the city back. They ended up getting the manager. He had the interim manager removed. He became the full manager, Chad Tracy. The GM, Breslow. Somehow got an extension through, he was supposed to go through 28. Now it's through 29 and 30. Still unclear why he got an extension. Because if you watch tonight, this team, Raffaella barely played in September. Contreras, who was hurt off and on and for different reasons the second half of the year and got hit in the hand two weeks ago. And he hasn't been the same. Trevor Story died five years ago. Gasper. Carried the offense for two, three weeks there. And then got hurt, of course, right before the playoffs. So he's nowhere to be seen. Roman Anthony, who was hurt all year, came back, was house fire for a week. Didn't look terrible. Started to show signs of life here down the stretch this final week. And apparently got hurt again because he left halfway through the game symbolically. But the game was already over because the Yankees had already scored two runs. there was no way the Red Sox were going to score three against Schlittler in the Yankee bullpen. Look, this was a pretty limited Red Sox team that couldn't score. And their only chance in this series were one, nothing, two to one, those type of games. And once the Yankees Speaker 2 (2:56) were able to put more Speaker 3 (2:59) runs than that, that was it. I did not agree with the Peyton Tolley decision and take them out in the fifth inning and bring in Miller who has not pitched well all month. I don't know why they did that. I thought totally, especially in Yankee Stadium in a big spot, I just trusted him to come through. I thought he was going to come through and pitch at least six innings tonight. But Schlittler was amazing. The two best pitchers that I saw this year were him and Cease on the Blue Jays. But Schlittler did everything he had to do. Ben Rice, who has turned into a Red Sox killer. They talked about it during the game. He's from Cohasset. Somehow he's a Yankee fan. Seems like he hits the hell out of the Red Sox all the time. So anyway, they won game one. They were supposed to win game one. I have no idea why they were only, I think like minus one 70 favorites for the series, because, um, again, the Red Sox offense is effectively dead, especially a Bray who I didn't even mention who hasn't hit for a month either. So I don't know where the runs are supposed to come from. I said to Sal on Sunday, I probably trusted Anthony and so guard the most of anyone in the lineup and Anthony is now gone. And, uh, I do not have high hopes for the rest of this, but the good news is the Patriots are disaster. Um, Yeah, if you're doing the Boston sports, what team do I feel best about? I think it's the Celtics. Then we had the Pats playing in Buffalo this weekend. You're not going to feel bad for me. I don't expect your sympathy. But this was not a great Boston sports stretch, especially when you think Anthony and Drake May and Tatum were supposed to be the three people basically carrying those three teams. Speaker 3 (4:35) Young superstars, all under 30. Anthony May, even younger than that. And now I have serious concerns about two of them. Can Anthony stay on the field? Is Drake May, where is he mentally? I was driving around, my daughter had a game yesterday and I was driving, I was listening to WEI and they had their weekly Drake May interview, which for some reason he decided to do. I guess he had to contractually. And they asked him about his shoulder and... He just gave a non-answer. And then they were like, hey, can you answer this? And pivoted back and he just didn't answer it. So it doesn't seem like he's healthy. I've narrowed it down to his shoulder and his head are the two things to be concerned about here. And I don't feel great about either. They play Buffalo this weekend. We will talk about it on the podcast on Thursday. Coming up on this podcast, we're going to talk to Kurt Goldsberry about a bunch of NBA media day opening. opening topics, all kinds of things. And then Brian Curtis, every once in a while, I have Brian Curtis on talk about a bunch of sports media stuff. We want to talk about football broadcasters, Mike Tomlin, uh, best, worst playoff, uh, play by playing and color guys and all kinds of, and, and we ended up talking about writing and, um, had a typical combo that Curtis and I usually have, which I really enjoyed. Enjoyed the whole podcast, enjoyed everything except for the Red Sox laying a stink egg in Yankee stadium today. We're gonna take a break, Pearl jam, and then come back with Kirk Goldsberry right after this. The Bill Simmons Podcast is presented by FanDuel. The NFL is here and it's the most rewarding season ever on FanDuel with the all-time FanDuel Rewards Club. Every eligible bet can earn you points. Win or lose, you still get points. The more points, the bigger the rewards you can unlock. Head to FanDuel.com slash BS to start earning with FanDuel Rewards Club. 21 plus select states are 18 plus DC or Wyoming. Get in a problem, call 1-800-GAMBLER, call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut. Speaker 3 (7:04) Kurt Goldsberry is here recording this part of the podcast mid-afternoon Pacific time on Tuesday. You don't know this, but this is an all Texas podcast because Brian Curtis is the other guest. It's the two Speaker 1 (7:14) of Speaker 3 (7:14) you. Yeah, you went to a game together recently too. Speaker 1 (7:18) We went to the Ohio State game, which was an incredible moment. I promised my students, Bill, if we won that game, I'd grow a mustache and wouldn't shave it until the Texas football team lost. So after a tight game in Tennessee, I still have this stupid mustache. I thought you were just prepping for Speaker 3 (7:34) Movember, but no, it was, you bet your students. I love it. Okay. Yeah. Speaker 1 (7:39) Speaking Speaker 3 (7:40) of bets. Durant on the Pistons is betting that $200 million or whatever they offered is, there's more out there. This is turning into one of the weirdest contract stories we've had. I wasn't really buying in on this and Jalen Durant actually pushing his way out. And yet now it feels like he might, there's a possibility he might push his way out. Are you following this story and how real do you think this is? Speaker 1 (8:10) Oh, it's incredibly real. I think when it gets to media day and this dude isn't there and he's not on the roster. And I have a take. Usually I'm pretty nuanced on this stuff, but I think this young man, Bill, needs to take the money. Five years, 200 million. He just had an awkward playoff run to be kind. Speaker 3 (8:28) To Speaker 1 (8:28) say the Speaker 3 (8:28) least, yeah. Speaker 1 (8:30) But I think he needs to take the money. The game has changed. The salary cap system has changed. In an era, Bill, where we have this hard cap, and let's call it what it is, a hard cap, the second apron, overpaying top talent is a cardinal sin in the league. And I think some of the league's agents aren't doing a great job of updating their players, that this is just a different era. Five years, $200 million at age 22. That's a great deal. Maybe I'm an old, grumpy dude at this point, but I think he's got to take it. Speaker 3 (9:01) No, but you're talking about it realistically in a league where I think six centers out of 30 teams are making 35 million or more, right? Yeah. And out of those six, probably four of the teams regret the contract, I would say. And one Speaker 1 (9:14) more thing. And the guys that are making that money, Embiid, Wembin, Yama, Joker, what have they done, Bill? They've completely reinvented the position. Speaker 3 (9:23) Yeah. They Speaker 1 (9:24) dribble, pass, and shoot the heck out of the ball. And Durin is kind of old school. That's why I love his game. He's like a big that you and I grew up with. But I think he's got to take this money and move on. Well, you look at the Celtics, right? They have Mitchell Robinson and Speaker 3 (9:40) they have Kata, who this year are going to be making less than $18 million combined. Next year, Kata's extension kicks in. And him and Robinson will be making $28 million combined. Speaker 1 (9:53) Yeah. Speaker 3 (9:54) And I really liked Dern. I thought he was a huge part. I've talked about this before. I thought he was a huge part of the identity of that Pistons team. But I don't think you, if those two guys together are making 28 and I have to pay Dern and Paul Reed, you know, almost 50 million bucks. I just don't think that makes sense with the way the NBA is. I don't think the position is valuable enough and it's too easy to be able to patch unless it's Jokic, right? If it's somebody on that level, sure. Because now it's a superstar thing. I think it's hard with the centers because you can play some of them off the floor. You have situations like you had in the playoffs last year. His age is the right age, but it feels like there's bad blood, which sometimes doesn't go away. This has been a legacy of the NBA where sometimes the staring contest that like 30 years ago, Sean Kemp in Seattle, all of a sudden they were trading him. Because he was so mad that Jim McElbane was making more money than Speaker 1 (10:52) him. Speaker 3 (10:53) And then they had just made the finals a year earlier. And all of a sudden, he's getting shipped out. So it makes me think he's going to get traded. Speaker 1 (11:02) Yeah, I think that's more real in the last couple of weeks. Again, since it got to media day and the roster and it's there's there is a staring contest. It does feel like a trade and the Thompson extension Speaker 3 (11:12) who Speaker 1 (11:13) got less than what Duren wanted. Speaker 3 (11:15) Yeah, they took care of the teammate and it was a better deal than the Duren deal. But that I don't Speaker 1 (11:20) think that helped either. How many players are worth five years, $200 million in this economy? In this economy? And again, he went from a 20-point-a-game score in the regular season. Everybody had him all NBA, myself included, on my ballot. In the playoffs against Orlando and Cleveland, not exactly the greatest teams we saw in the playoffs. This dude dropped to 10-point-a-game, and his on-off splits were terrible. Detroit was a much better team when he was off. the floor. And, and look, he should be, I think he should be happy to get this offer bill. Speaker 3 (11:55) The problem for them is the sign-in trades become problematic. Because in my head, I was like, oh, they should just do a deal with Washington and get Anthony Davis back in picks. And that's short-term, that helps them. Long-term, they don't have to worry about this contract being an albatross and they're building around Cade and Thompson and other stuff they've done. The problem is Davis is at 58 million, right? And so if you're sign-in trading him, I assume you're signing and trading him to a team. that is going to offer more than five 200. So the only team dumb enough to do that as Sacramento, who of course is in the middle of this and is obviously wink, wink to the agent. Like, Oh, we'd go higher than that, which is the old day or more, more James Harden move with the OKC extension in 2012. Well, we do five for 75 for 80. They're only offering four for 55. Like we're, we're at five 80 right now. If you can, if you can figure it out. Speaker 3 (12:56) Sacramento has to be Sabonis. And I'm just not doing that if I'm Detroit. I'm just not. Speaker 1 (13:04) He doesn't seem to fit. And I do think like the Cade part of it is huge, right? They have a franchise piece that almost any other team in the league would say. So they want to get somebody on that timeline. I think a Sartre Thompson fits that too. Speaker 2 (13:17) But Speaker 1 (13:17) that's where the AD thing is sort of a hiccup. And the other thing is like Trajan Langdon. within five weeks of getting to New Orleans, was part of the deal, part of the front office that traded AD to the Lakers. So I'm not sure he wants to get back into the AD business. It's not going to work. Speaker 3 (13:34) Because it floated around yesterday with AD. And it's just the salaries don't work. Detroit would have to put another guy in the trade. And it just doesn't make sense. Speaker 1 (13:43) I like it from Washington's perspective. That's Speaker 3 (13:46) a Speaker 1 (13:46) team that's young and could find their... the center of the future to match their age profile. But yeah, from the Pistons perspective, remember there's number one seed in the Eastern Conference bill. They won 60 games last year. Well, they're not winning that this Speaker 3 (14:01) year. Speaker 1 (14:01) This Speaker 3 (14:01) is just Speaker 1 (14:01) super awkward. I was going to ask you if you could remember, you said Sean Kemp, but it's like, I couldn't, I haven't seen something go this sideways, this fast with a young all NBA player like this for a rising team in a long time. Speaker 3 (14:14) Yeah. Usually it's, it's like a Vince Carter type of situation. Yeah. where somebody is unhappy or TMAC in Orlando. This happened a lot in the 2000s, but the guys already had the money at that point. This almost feels like the disrespect is such a huge piece of this. Speaker 3 (14:31) I look at them like I don't think I didn't think they had any chance of winning 60. I don't really like what they did this this offseason. Right. Even even like I look at the lack of they basically have one shot greater. Right. Yeah. Tobias, who is now on San Antonio, who is always everyone's glass half empty on him all the time. But Tobias, at least they could go to him and he could hit a shot, which especially in the playoffs, like when when. Either Cade was out or Cade was struggling. At least you had somewhere else to go. I don't know where they go now. Speaker 1 (15:04) Yeah, and remember, the bread and butter action was this Cade-Durin pick and roll, which was one of the most spammed actions in the entire league last season. And you look at the most common pick and roll combinations, it's very, very close to the top, if not the top. I don't remember. So even from Cade's perspective, this is very risky from the team. From the perspective of the Detroit Pistons, That's his running mate. That is Cade's number one bread and butter action too. And so if this thing really goes sideways, Cade's going to have to reinvent how he plays. And you mentioned the departure of Harris. You're going to have a completely new look offense in Detroit. And Stewart's gone, Speaker 3 (15:44) which Speaker 1 (15:45) it Speaker 3 (15:45) seems like there was a lot of stuff behind the scenes, but I was like Stewart. I thought he had a weird year last year and the fight definitely mixed it up in the wrong way, but they lost Harris and Stewart and Levert, who I've never been a fan of. Replace those guys with John Collins, Isaiah Joe, and a Corey. Corey's a rookie, but you're asking a lot. Isaiah Joe, I think we all like as a shooter, but never really has played significant minutes on a really good team ever. And then, I don't know. I watched Collins last year. Some Clipper games. He's fine. Yeah. I personally think would rather have, would rather have Tobias. I know that like John Collins is an advanced stat. People, there's a lot of positive things behind it, but. I don't know. I don't like Speaker 1 (16:34) it. Speaker 3 (16:35) I don't like what they did. So the other trade, because obviously Milwaukee just has too many guys and God only knows what they're trying to do. But there's some sort of framework of like hero and where basically some of the guys they got in the Giannis trade and could they throw other stuff in? There's only one trade that I really like. And I don't know if you were focused on this one, but Atlanta. Speaker 1 (16:59) Yeah, that's the one I was hoping you'd say. Tell me more. Speaker 3 (17:01) I just think Okonkwo and Daniels for, for Duren makes a shitload of sense to me for everybody involved, especially when they got the Lou Dort. Yeah. Adding him, he can just basically go in the Daniel spot as another lockdown defender for them. And now you're upgrading at center. And then if I'm Detroit, I get out of this. I've split up the contracts. Daniels is at 25 a year, which is probably fair. It's a little, it's a little high considering that he doesn't seem to be growing offensively at all. But, um, That was the only one that made sense to me. Speaker 1 (17:34) And if you look at the pattern in Atlanta over the last couple of years, there's a couple of sort of things they're obviously targeting, which is size and strength and athleticism, which Jalen Duren, more than almost any other player in the NBA, checks those boxes, especially at his position, just one of the more physically imposing dominant bigs in the league. And I think if that's what Quinn Snyder is going for in his lineup. It fills a big need there. And remember, this is a team that finished last season before the playoffs, about as hot as anybody in the league, and then was the only team in the East or in the West, for that matter, to take two games from the Knicks in the playoffs. So, you know, Atlanta is the team to watch, in my opinion. They've been active. Do Speaker 3 (18:17) you Speaker 1 (18:17) like that crunch time Speaker 3 (18:18) five? If it's Duren, Jalen Johnson, McCollum, Lou Dort. Speaker 3 (18:27) and Alexander Walker. And that's all I'm rolling with. There's six minutes left in a huge playoff game. I kind of like it. Speaker 1 (18:33) I kind of like it. I still think CJ is running on borrowed time a little bit. They drafted a point guard. Well, Speaker 3 (18:38) they Speaker 1 (18:38) have Speaker 3 (18:38) his replacement ready to roll, yeah. Speaker 1 (18:40) Yeah, and so if that kid comes along, and I think they proved it to me at the end of last season and in the playoffs. I don't know if I love it like I like the Knicks five or like when your team was really humming, that five-man group. Yeah. But I think it's an upgrade for the Atlanta Hawks in the frontcourt. Speaker 3 (18:59) Well, we'll see what happens. I do not think a center should make $40 million a year up in this current salary cap economy unless it's Jokic or Wemby. But what do I know? They also announced some rule changes that they're going to be looking at. Points of Speaker 1 (19:14) education. Now they're called points of education. Are Speaker 3 (19:16) we calling this the Jalen Brown? Who are we naming that one after? It's basically they're saying you can't use the stiff arm as you're driving. LeBron does it too. I mean, a bunch of people does. do this, but I'll be interested to see how long they stick to this one. Speaker 1 (19:29) I've heard trainers call it the paddle, the off arm, like, and they're training it now. They're training it. Yeah. The paddle, like you're dribbling with your right hand and you can't use your hand as much, but you can sort of maneuver your off arm, like the Heisman trophy a little bit, as long as you don't fully stiff arm. But yeah, that came out today. And I count me among the people that are sort of happy that they announced this. a little bit cynical that they're going to enforce it, Bill. We've seen these kinds of points of emphasis now called points of education for years. Sometimes they last a week. Sometimes they last a month. Sometimes they actually last. So I, as an old guy. Handshakes were part of the game. Now it feels like the offensive players in this attacking guard era, SGA, Jalen Brown, Luka Doncic, are weaponizing that off-arm and almost committing reach-in fouls as an offensive player. And I would love to see it go away. You don't see it in college basketball. You don't see it in women's basketball. You don't see it in European basketball. It's an NBA-specific issue that I think has arisen in the last 10 years that has gotten out of hand, no pun intended. in the 2020s. And I associate with SGA. I'll go ahead and say it. Speaker 3 (20:43) Okay. I still think Jalen, but it's because I watched the most Celtic game. But you're right. SGA probably perfected it. Speaker 1 (20:51) I wonder who... Well, J... Yeah. Jalen was the example they used. Speaker 3 (20:55) LeBron was sneaky good at it, though. Because he could... You'd Speaker 1 (20:58) be Speaker 3 (20:58) a fool not to. By the way, I'm not throwing shade. Yeah. Speaker 1 (21:01) If you can get away with that, you should do it. And I'm not insulting SGA. If you can get away with it, it's a brilliant play. I mean... But it's kind of the thing if you were playing pickup basketball and you started doing this to people, they'd be like, dude, what are you doing? Yeah, stop that. And it's just commonplace in the NBA. It's funny in Speaker 3 (21:16) FIBA that it does not work in FIBA and they call it and they get mad when you do it and then they have to adjust. The other one I'm more excited about is the illegal screening. I thought the screening stuff was out of control the last two years and really more noticeable in person than anything where you could really see guys were just never set anymore and it was becoming. A, harder to guard everybody 30 feet from the hoop, but then B, I think real potential for injury and knees knocking and all kinds of bad things. I see them actually sticking with this. Speaker 1 (21:49) I blame Steve Kerr and Draymond Green, David Lee and Andrew Bogut. And I say that lovingly. The founding fathers. The moving screen warriors. But I think they deserve credit. And I would always say to people in the 2010s, if you're not getting called for one or two of these violations, every game, you're not setting dirty enough screens. And they really put the onus on the officials. And to this point in 2026, Bill, I think it is fair to say that screens are dirtier than ever and breaking rules at a higher rate. They just haven't been enforced. And in the examples in the videos they show have a lot of guys, you know, pushing guys away, moving into the contact and disrupting what they're calling freedom of movement on the defender trying to get around a screen. So like you, I think it's an ambitious one. I'm glad they're focusing on it. But my question back to you is, do you trust that they'll follow through on both of these going into the new season? I Speaker 3 (22:47) think they'll follow through on the illegal screens. And I think they'll see how it goes with the stiff arms. Right. Because on defense, they're also doing stuff, right? So I don't know. It'll be a push and pull. The Bill Simmons podcast brought to you by FanDuel. Post-season baseball is here. FanDuel has something pretty nice for the wildcard series. With FanDuel's early win, you don't have to wait around to see how a game ends. If your money line, that one you picked goes up by two, two runs at any point. you win instantly. How Speaker 1 (23:19) about that? That's it. Up two, you win. Fandle's doing Speaker 3 (23:22) it every day of the wildcard series. I would stay away from Red Sox Yankees with this because I think every game is going to be like one, nothing, two, one, three, two, somewhere in that. I think the Houston White Sox series is a good one for this because I think there's going to be, I know it's a best of three, but there'll be a game where Houston scores like nine runs. So I would think about that anyway. Figure out who you like, make your money line pick. If they get that two run lead, you've got yourself an early win. Download the FanDuel app to get started. FanDuel, your home for home runs. 21 plus select states are 18 plus DC or Wyoming. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Game problem, call 1-800-GAMBLER. Call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat Connecticut. Speaker 1 (24:09) I have, I wrote down, I was on a six hour flight today. Speaker 3 (24:13) I wrote down, I went through painstakingly and wrote down a bunch of quotes from media day. And we're going to play a little game called, do you believe this? Um, LeBron is the first one. He said, I didn't come here to lose in the second round. Um, Speaker 3 (24:34) Felt like a slight dig at Embiid. Like just a little. Embiid's never gotten out of the second round. Very pointed that it was the second round. Here's what I thought was interesting about this. Why didn't he say, I didn't come here to lose in the conference finals? Speaker 3 (24:50) Because the way this is phrased, I didn't come here to lose in the second round. So the conference finals, if he loses, that's okay. I just thought the second round thing was weird. What did he say? I didn't come here to not make the finals or something like that. But this second round, I thought was odd. Speaker 1 (25:02) Well, it was even weirder because he said, I didn't leave my family behind or something along those lines. Like he was very emotional. But I think he really thinks this is one of the best teams in the East. And I think it gives him the best shot of winning. And ultimately, I think if we asked him, Bill, about... why he chose Philadelphia. He thinks it's a superior place to win basketball games than Cleveland, which I think was the other big choice for him. I know he thinks very highly of Tyrese Maxey, Jalen Brown, our personal friends of his. So I think he thinks this is a great team. And I don't read much more into it than that. Speaker 3 (25:39) I don't think the Cleveland thing worked out because they couldn't get rid of Harden. The Lakers didn't want him. San Antonio and OKC didn't want him. And the Knicks won the title and Philly turned out because of the Jalen Brown thing. I would love to know if Jalen Brown, if that hadn't happened, would he have gone there? But we'll never know. Next one. Draymond Green on LeBron said he passed on the Warriors. He couldn't get over the past, quote. which is I battled these guys over and over again. What is that going to look like for me? If I sign there, what type of beating will I get if I go there? That's why I thought LeBron didn't go to the Warriors. So on a do you believe, I actually believe this. I think this was the reason he didn't go to the Warriors. Speaker 1 (26:22) I think that and I think it stacks with the previous point. I don't think he thinks the Warriors are going anywhere. And, you know, Jimmy Butler is banged up. Stephen Curry, is he 37 or 38? We saw the Porzingis news this week, you know, and this is a Western conference that has two juggernauts sitting at the top. And then Nikoli Jokic sitting there in third or fourth. Anthony Edwards. It's just a harder path. As much as the East has improved, I still think he just didn't think the Golden State Warriors were going to make a lot of noise come April and May. It Speaker 3 (26:57) was noticeable that Embiid is in much, much, much better shape, too. I don't know if LeBron, how much he had to do with that. But Embiid looks like the guy from eight years ago. Speaker 1 (27:08) When he's good, as you guys saw, like the Boston Celtics fans know exactly what we're talking about. If he can put it together, he is still one of the top five players in the league. Like if he looks good, he looks incredible. And, you know, he can't sustain it. So we'll see. I've yet to see it. And you make this point better than anybody. How many games does he play every year? Yeah. You know, his body breaks down. He has bad luck. But being skinnier Speaker 3 (27:33) will help him not get injured is Speaker 1 (27:35) my expert take. How about this? Just emulate what Tim Duncan did. Well, let's do it. And I love what you said earlier this week. Just play once a week. Like, I don't know if they're going to be able to get away with that sparse. But yeah, like with the depth they have with LeBron James, Jalen Brown, Tyrese Maxey, Vijay Edgecombe, he can sit out back to backs. They can still win games against decent teams. if they program Joel Embiid's usage and load management, I think that we could see the LeBron effect for Embiid actually being a sustainability for that dude. Speaker 3 (28:11) Next one is a tweet from John Krasinski, who does an excellent job covering the Timberwolves. Yeah, he does. Tim Connolly says he's, quote, super happy in Minnesota. He's entering the last year of his deal, but notes he's had opportunities to move and has stayed. Says he's focused on winning here. Do you believe him? Speaker 1 (28:28) I think he wants to see what happens with this crazy LaMelo risk that he took. And I, for one, am very cynical. I don't think it's going to happen. I don't think it's going to work. If for no other reason that LaMelo ball is never going to be healthy to play 82 games. I think it's the most sort of under reported thing about LaMelo is his own injury history, his ability to stay upright. And again, in the context of a brutal Western conference, you can't have any kind of mess ups. Tim Connolly deserves a lot of credit for building a team, two teams in the Western Conference that have been very good over the last decade. So I could see him going elsewhere if this thing falls apart. Speaker 1 (29:06) I didn't believe that tweet. Speaker 3 (29:10) He said he's had opportunities to move and has stayed. You stayed because you're under contract and you couldn't move to the other opportunities. So I just don't believe it. I think the LaMelo ball trade was a Hail Mary to some degree, where you're just basically trying to game the variance of a ton of three-pointers and take some pressure off Ant, and you're going to cross your fingers and hope it works. I said it at the time. I thought it was an overreaction. I thought the reason that they didn't succeed like the way we maybe thought they would, it was because they had a ton of injuries at the wrong time. Speaker 1 (29:43) Yeah, Ant-Man was on one leg. Like, let's not forget it. Yeah. Speaker 3 (29:47) And the Randall thing got weird because they were trying to desperately trade everybody in February for Durant and whatever else. Next one, Tyronn Lue. Quote, I wouldn't want to be at any other place. Speaker 3 (30:02) This is my first. I'm a zero out of 10. I don't believe this. There's no way you wouldn't want to be in another place. I'm going to guess you'd be in 20 other places. Speaker 1 (30:11) He hasn't been this happy since he was looking up at Allen Iverson's crotch when he was getting stepped over in 2001. That is the biggest bologna sandwich I think we heard at Media Day. And that's saying something, Bill. Like, this is such a bad situation. And now Brandon Ingram appears to have some really bad injury news, too. Speaker 3 (30:28) Appears Speaker 1 (30:28) he's Speaker 3 (30:28) a Speaker 1 (30:28) partially Speaker 3 (30:29) torn Achilles. Speaker 3 (30:31) So this is the Clipper fans I know are like, so is this why they got more than maybe it seems like they should have for Kawhi? Speaker 1 (30:42) Because training for a Speaker 3 (30:44) guy who was injured and has a partially, first of all, how do you have a partially torn Achilles? Speaker 1 (30:49) Right. Yeah, I think it's like a small tear. But is that something that comes out in the physical that could have slowed down the trade? Is that what you're getting at? I don't know. Or do you Speaker 3 (30:59) the the Raptors didn't know? Speaker 3 (31:03) Yeah. I didn't know he had this injury. They just figured it out. He was said at the end of the year, he was hurt last year. Speaker 1 (31:11) Yeah. Anyway, I mean that, but yeah, so I think I'd put Tyloo with Tim Connolly, right? These are two really high caliber. Tyloo is a great coach. I'm not throwing any shade at him. And Tim Connolly too, like these are very marketable player or people in the NBA. If they choose to go somewhere else, I Speaker 3 (31:32) think they both will. Jason Tatum, quote, they're asking about what it's like to have your own team. It's not a simple thing. Like this is my team.