I Put Every Western Conf NBA Team In A Tier List

I Put Every Western Conf NBA Team In A Tier List

So a couple days ago the NBA trade deadline finally passed and you know the Lakers were probably the most talked about team the league everyone thought they going to get de jonay Murray everyone thought they were going to know mix up something turns out they didn’t

Do a damn thing nothing happened it was very uneventful and we’re going to talk about that as well as putting every Western Conference Team into a tier list and a few other topics on episode three of the yeah like I said we got to start off

Talking about the Lakers as I’m a Lakers fan and I watched the whole trade deadline go by and obviously it wasn’t the greatest tread dine ever at least compared to last year especially when we saw the Nets completely implode Kevin Durant got traded Kyrie got traded James

Harden got traded a little bit before that like it was just all over place for two years in a row and this year we’re kind of back to the normal where most of the deals that went down were role player based maybe a couple bigname players like Pascal seak or ogj noi were

Traded but that happened weeks prior this time so overall it just wasn’t super exciting even less so if you were a Lakers fan like myself like I was saying nille has a sweet pulled up the Los Angeles Lakers before the trade deadline they after toothpick changes everything and this is facts the team

Didn’t change whatsoever Rob pinka decided to stamp hat and not just you know unload any assets and that comes as a big surprise right because for weeks we were told that it wasn’t a lock by any means but it was pretty likely that the J Murray was going to be a Laker

That was like there was so much smoke there we thought there had to be some kind of fire turns out talks stalled last week’s Le up the deadline because the Hawks aren’t stupid you know it came down to them realizing we don’t need to panic cell and get rid of jonte mayor

For nothing the pel are trying to get him for pennies on the dollar the Lakers are trying to get him for pennies on the dollar they were demanding either Austin Reed being in the trade for the Lakers or herb Jones being the trade for the Pelicans and nobody was

Trying to do that right dejonte Murray has kind of a negative Sigma on his name right now because it’s not working with the Hawks and people didn’t seem him as that big of a needle mover especially for Lakers side when danelo Russell has been playing like a Greek god for the

Past two months trade deadline dowlo he didn’t want to get traded he’s been making every shot he takes seemingly all these factors led into the case that happened that the Liquors didn’t do any moves and Lakers fans are pissed right and rightfully so to some extent you

Know we talked about all year when we’re talking about the Lakers that LeBron and Anthony Davis have rarely been healthy for the duration of their time on the Lakers it’s what it’s what’s derailed several playoff runs one of them gets hurt two of them gets hurt in opportune

Times have led to the team failing year after year and this year they’ve been completely healthy you know they miss games here and there for small lagging injuries LeBron’s old has to sit out every now and then but they have largely been healthy and they have largely been mediocre as they’re currently the

Nine seed I think they’re 27 and 29 at the moment not a good team and you can know if you’re a positive person and you want to give the Lakers some benefit of the doubt you could say you know Gabe Vincent hasn’t been there Jared Vanderbilt’s out now so and so and so

And so there’s reasons to believe that as time goes on they’re going to get better because there’s been some reasons why they’ve been able to uh fall down the standings after the inseason tournament when it look like they were peing they were currently the four SE at

That time you can give them benefited doubt in some ways but even if you’re going to do that your level of optimism on Lakers can only be like oh maybe they can hit the six seed you know like there’s no path to imagining them being a top TI Contender like we hope they

Could be whenever in the offseason came around and everybody was kind of pitching continuity and pitching give this team more time to have the chemistry that took them to the Western Conference Finals all that optimism is gone and this team is who this team is they are mediocre and anytime you have

Like I said two a Superstars you can’t really waste the season being mediocre you know we talked about this for the 76ers where everyone thought they’d make some big moves because they have assets and a prime Joel em be season who’s rarely healthy and you got to maximize

That he’s no longer healthy he got hurt story for another day but that same type of logic was why people were really heavily wanting them to make a big move same thing for Lakers you don’t waste the year where LeBron James is still an All-Star when he’s pushing 40 you just

Don’t and again that’s why lots of fans are upset and that’s why Lebron was clearly you know doing his normal Media stuff where he’s I like the guys we have in the locker room I’m leaving that to the general manager all this stuff but he wanted them to make a move Deon

Murray is a clutch guy that is probably a big reason why they were talking to him or talking about him to the Atlanta Hawks but that didn’t happen and I’m annoyed for all those reasons I just outlined but I’m not outraged I I kind

Of get it you know this team like I said not good Deonte Murray better than DeAngelo Russell Deonte Murray not that much better than D’Angelo Russell you know like he’d make a difference but not enough that I think makes it so you have to make the all in move if the deal

Wouldn’t be opportune for your team and all the reportings come out has been that the Lakers are waiting to make a move until the summer when they’ll have three first round picks available instead of the one or two they can do right now now that logic is sound

Because being able to make a deal involving three first- round picks means obviously you can get a better player than can now and make a real Splash while the logic of sound it’s also delusional because all the reports are saying they’re going to go after Trey young Donovan Mitchell Kyrie

Iring all these Stars I think they can get because they have three first round picks sorry to break it to you this isn’t 2011 three first round picks don’t guarantee you a star Donan Mitchell W for four Regal be for five you got to have some ammo and teams like the Nets

Teams like the Rockets all these other teams have a lot of picks that on the fact that you have three so while that’s delusional they’re not going to get nonmental in the summer Sor to break it to you I do understand that if they were make a move this year let’s say

It’s Deonte Murray it would take Austin Reeves in a first round pick let’s say it’s not Deonte Murray it’s a move along the margins they try to out bid the Suns to get Royce O’Neal give up a first round pick whatever that move is you’re going to take this team from being

Playing level to maybe top six level like the level you can make them better with those limited assets you have doesn’t really justify going Allin when you can try to just ride it out like you do now either way you’re not winning a championship and then maybe come next

Summer you can make a move that propels you up higher so it it annoys me as well that I’m watching this team just waste away a season where their star players are healthy Anthony Davis is playing as good as he has in Lakers uniform since the bubble all these things that would

Like lead to you on the surface being outraged I’m no different I am annoyed but I understand it I think I saw a couple tweets where people were saying the only thing worse than making no deal is making a bad deal and I agree if they

Had to give up their 2029 first round pick and awesome re for Deonte Murray then they flame out and then LeBron opts out worst case scenario ends up being a MAV next year or whatever the and then this team goes into a rebuild and now they don’t have the 20 29 first

Round pick or Austin Reeves but they got you know one shiny Deonte Murray sitting here getting them to the 11 seat every year like that would be awful right so I understand why they’d want to avoid the wor casario in avoid catastrophe and I’m generally not a fan of Team sitting on

Their hands doing nothing like listen on the Deep three we just talked about the whole trade deadline I gave the Bulls a mouthful pause oh Jesus Christ Jesus Christ oh my cut the tape highly criticize the Bulls because I think sitting on your hands when you need to

Do a big move either tanking or buying whatever it may be being in the middle is the worst thing you could do but I’m going to give the Lakers a pass this one time just because you can’t do action just for the sake of action it has to be meaningful to bring

Improvement that justify it and if that move wasn’t on the table it wasn’t on the table do you think LeBron is done as a Laker do I think he’s done no like in a certain can I say that in any type of certainty nah do I think it’s on the

Table yes and it’s really the first time that I’m like thinking about that as a realistic possibility you know every time LeBron goes to a new team we see the same cycle that team goes all in trades for another star does the LeBron James thing surrounding him with with

The talent they need to compete this time it was Anthony Davis the previous time it was Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving the previous time it was Dwayne Wade Chris Bosch you know how it goes and after four years that timeline dries out you you know Des spend all of your young

Assets to win now and eventually the bill comes due it’s what we’re seeing with the Warriors now it’s what we see with every Contender and we’ve reached that point with the Lakers and I think I’m starting to see that there’s there is a world where LeBron leaves this

Summer I don’t know if it’s the most likely thing in the world but it’s a possibility and you know like we have to accept the fact that we know the Russell Westbrook trade was a massive mistake but we kind of saw Fool’s Gold last year

Where we saw them get the the best out of what they could trading for Jared Vanderbilt Malik Beasley D’Angelo Russell all those moves propelled them to the Conference Finals they got the very most they could out of that run that was best case scenario not a good long-term scenario though you know it’s

Still a very lackluster you know surrounding cast around those two guys the league isn’t what it used to be a different formulas needed to win than what they’re currently trying to go with and maybe he stays you know LeBron’s going to school in California he’s probably not going to go into the draft

Year one I wouldn’t think he has all the business reasons to be here he loves being a Laker all the stuff that it won’t be shocking if he just deals with it and keeps running it back with Anthony Davis but you definitely see the right on the wall where it won’t be

Surprising at all if he decides that it’s time to do the Braun formula over again and go to the next team in his journey next thing we’re going to do we’re going to we’re going to get producer nille involved we’re going to do a blind rankings little little game

Time to you know inject some energy into the episode real simple he’s going to name five NBA players for me and I have to Blind rank them one through five I don’t know why I said one through five again as if you don’t understand that

Treating you guys like you need to be a laid out for you but you know how it goes you’ve seen blind rankings you’ve seen him on the Deep three you’ve seen him on every other Tik Tok Tik Tok count on the world we’re going to do one

Today with young players you ready get into this yeah you better not pull some on me you better not name like five scrubs that I’m going to be trying to overthink who’s going be number one you know I I know you got Ops out there

Right so let’s start this off got Ops out there this first name is alrin shenon shenon okay yeah that’s why you said I have Ops yeah apparently I’ve been labeled a shenon hater because I don’t think he’s better than Victor wanyama and yeah like you mentioned a

Couple weeks ago there was some Turkish guy in my DMs that was like you don’t want to mess with the Turkish State media we we come correct like he was going to send a hit out for me because I said he’s the seventh best center in the league but uh you know

Shangu is playing at All-Star level he very easily could have been one of the last couple spots I’ll go three just cuz there’s really good young players in the world maybe you put a Luca maybe you put Anthony Davis I mean maybe you put Anthony Edwards I’ll go conservative for

The first pick shun at three yeah the next name is Scotty Barnes see this is why we go shuna at three put Scotty Barnes at two Scotty Barnes made an Allstar team this year on the Deep three of the Christmas episode we did a current players rankings I ranked him

Stupid High I put him at 20 won the league which maybe I was being a little overzealous but in that argument I got just I got goated into an argument arguing him against Trey young and all these people you know you know how it goes in your rank people I declared with

Certainty that Scotty Barnes will be an All-Star this year I said that with my whole chest I was arrogant as about it I was like put it in writing he’s going to be an All-Star he almost wasn’t he didn’t get selected originally and made it as an injury reserve thank

God cuz I would have got clowned I I still might cuz I said he’s better than Trey young and all the stuff which we don’t got to go back to that but put Scotty Barnes at two I’m very confident he’s better than sing at the moment

Don’t come for for me Turkish people Mo was kind of the driving factor of those two names he thought you’d struggle a lot more with those no and maybe it’s just like confirmation bias where I want Scotty to be so good and I already declared it so I’m going to like ride

For him just like to make myself right maybe it’s a little bit of that but the defense is the difference there Scotty’s a legitimately very versatile very effective Defender and I think singon is a little bit better offensively because the passing abilities there to make in

The offensive Hub but I think Scotty is also a very underrated passer three-point shots coming along I’m comfortable going there third name is Shaden sharp Shaden sharp okay I have a feeling you just put like one of the worst players in the league on this list there’s no way that you made Shaden

Sharp the worst player you put just knowing you like you put somebody diabolical so I’m going to put Shaden sharp at four very promising young player but we’re still have to say promising because it hasn’t quite come around yet the team is a disaster he’s playing sharing touches with Anthony

Simons scoot Henderson the corpse of DeAndre Aon trying to figure it out for himself he’ll get there but for now he’s four Derek Lively oh damn ah did you put okay so here’s the problem I’m at now you already said two allst stars you said a role player at 2 through 4 I

Could put Derek glovely at 5 but if you pulled out some for the last one I going have to put them at one but I can’t Dereck Lively at one is still diabolical I can’t put him over Scotty Barnes so Derek Liv is going to five I

Feel like you screwed me over who’s going at one listen man the last name is Luca donic oh thank God thank God Luca donic number one nearly a perfect tier list I thought you were going to be the devil and put some somebody that you know is explicitly bad I won’t throw a

Name out there out of respect but I I underestimated your trustworthiness you’re not as evil as I thought you were it would have been perfect if I to put shanen at five cuz Derrick Love’s definitely better but if that’s the worst thing I did was swap those to at

Four and five I’m going to call this Lista W listen I’m not always going to go this easy on you all right I expect you never will again after this conversation so I’ll enjoy my days with the good list while they last let’s do the segment that the

Episode is titled after we’re going to put every single Western Conference NBA team into a tier list this is motivated by the fact that as of recording this there’s basically a four-way tie for first place right now the Timberwolves the Thunder the Nugget and the Clippers

Are all within half a game of each other just duking it out for the top seed I don’t know which way it’s going to go obviously with it being this close but I think we should take this moment to survey the entire conference obviously spend the most time talking about those

Teams let’s just do the entire conference simply because it sounds better than the title to say every team let’s do it what do you think to kill should we start at the bottom or start at the top bottom yeah got got got to earn it all right so Grizzlies your team

Is absolutely rans sack with injuries they had a game last week where they had two starters two two-way players and four 10day contracts because they had that many players injured a 15 man injury report it’s Insanity they got to go to F tier I’m sorry you’re the most

Wildly unlucky season of all time RP johnar he’ll be back next year GG Jackson is awesome you’re F tier after that Spurs F tier you know Victor wom yama’s great soan back to power forward looking promising you think you’re going to f tier uh who else rounds out the F

Tier Trailblazers I don’t have any words for you I hate watching you I think you’re honestly an embarrassing product right now I think nothing is really going well you know it’s a first year of rebuild after Damen Lillard so don’t have high expectations but I think they’re utilizing their players very

Poorly and not a promising start to that rebuild let’s get serious now we got we got the out of the way let’s start from the middle New Orleans Pelicans they are the definition of a b tier team to me I think I think no matter what they are incredibly deep

Incredibly competent at basically every position you know like Jonas valunas the standard competent Center straight power offensively very talented post moves no defense not no defense that’s a little extreme but very slow footed not very equipped there CJ McCollum one of the better players never make an All-Star

But he’s not blowing your socks off Brandon Ingram standard low-level All-Star high level not an All-Star like across the whole team very competent very talented players the fit is iffy and I think they have a little too many cooks in the kitchen their Rim defense isn’t particularly good their passing

Isn’t super high level they’re guaranteed to be a good team but I find it hard to believe they can ever hit a top tier and be a great team so I’m going to go there for B for them they’re like 25th in Rim defense right now which

Is like a little better than you’d expect when your Rim defense is manned by Zion Williamson and Jonas Val junis it’s a pretty Dreadful Rim defense combination and I just don’t see them making any noise with that tandem Bean together after that what do do with the

Kings the kings are disappointing to say the least I thought they’d be just as good as they were last year fying for the three four five seed something like that they’re been in the play playing range I think they’ve been as high as five sometimes but you know everybody’s

So close last year we saw them be like by far than their one offense and a dreadful defense this year they’re kind of like the opposite of that in terms of instead of being on the Polar ends of each Spectrum they’re just mid at both which is like a worst place to be

They’re 16th in offense 18th in defense they’ve had some injury issues Deen fox went out early in the year Dar Fox had a pitiful January he shot like 27% from three two points per game instead of 30 dropped his average on 27 I don’t think they’re talented enough from two through

Four and they didn’t make a big splash to the deadline to address that so I think they might be C honestly you know you say that they surprise you but at the beginning of the Season I’m pretty sure you were saying that their offense would just regress to you know just

Historically like they’re not going to keep that up yeah they couldn’t right but I thought regression meant you’d be like the seventh best offense not the goddamn 16th I didn’t think they’d be like average you know like they got to be yeah offense is regular defense is

Regular at best I won’t be shocked if they figure it out event but they haven’t yet let’s let’s do what team people want to hear about cuz I’m I’m starting off all the smart Maring teams Golden State Warriors you know I’ve wrote them off several times now uh

Starting off when Draymond Green got suspended twice in a row Klay Thompson was obviously Beyond cooked he’s had several media interviews where he’s addressed This and like come to the realization that he’s not what he once was he just got benched and they won immediately they started Brandon psky

There they’re 5-2 in their last seven games where Draymond Green starting at Center they have a very high top 10 net rating in that time they’ve been legitimately good you know it’s only seven game sample size but I do see promise in Draymond Green starting at center now John the Kinga is being

Empowered because of this move he’s having more space to operate getting more on ball opportunities with Klay Thompson not hogging as much because he’s like I said making these realizations that I would have went D beforehand we can go C for the Warriors they’re showing improvements they can

Earn their way up to B at best but for now we’ll go C just because they’re starting to get better but got got a lot of lot of room for improvement still I don’t think I’ve ever seen a star like Klay Thompson I’ve never seen a star in

A sport go out this transparently like he’s he’s pretty much having a media tour where he’s accepting like his fate yeah it’s like what’s another example like like and in football like Eli Manning was pretty crap for a while stuff like that it happens with quarterback sometimes but rarely happens

With this much of a magnifying glass on you in basketball honestly he he’s owning it I mean he has no choice cuz at first he wasn’t owning it and it was kind of a problem in the locker room so good on him for finally not being toxic

And he addressed that right he was like I was a bit toxic I was being selfish about it I was pouting so good for him on accepting reality I know it’s got to be tough next team let’s let’s do one of the good teams where are we going to put

The Dallas Mavericks they have been floundering a little bit also dreadfully injured but currently the e seed 29 and 23 they are five and five in their last five which is you know part of the course for the eight seed nice and average same amount of wins same amount

Of losses it’s how it goes they were expected to be a top tier offense you know they have Luca dones and Kyrie Irving but the problem is they haven’t had them very much this year Kyrie’s missed a lot of the season when he’s been there he’s looked pretty good

Derrick Livy had a little bit of injury concerns they just shipped Grant Williams ass to usbekistan because he’s been terrible who was their Prime offseason signing didn’t work out there’s reports that he was like annoying as and drove the rest of the team crazy in the locker room which

Seems like a low blow to report after he got got traded but Personnel issues apparently but they made big moves they got PJ Washington to to replace him they got Daniel Gafford to strengthen the center lineup with Derrick Lively I’ve been saying they need a lot of athleticism at the four because they

Three and four has no mph they need an Aaron Gordon they need a Jeremy Grant whoever that type of player is PJ Washington is like if you’re doing the Pokemon evolution of Aaron Gordon’s it goes PJ Washington Aaron Gordon Sean Kemp he just like those are the evolutions of powerful powerful words so

He’s like the worst version of that but he’s a good fit there Daniel grafford is good gives him another Lop threat next to LCA when derri livey sits I’ll go B for the Mavericks cuz I expect them to get better now post deadline yeah I think I think it’s a fair projection

Yeah I think so we got to speak through some of these I’m taking too much time Rockets your D sorry you had a strong start to this season on a easy schedule you were killing it your defense is really strong you fallen down to earth

You’re in the 12 seed right now no real chance of getting back into the playing range good for you you know you’re taking steps to be confident you sign the veterans Jaylen green has had a few strong games lately still not looking like the future for me but amen

Thompson’s going to be good cam Whitmore is going to be awesome tar E’s going to be awesome shenon already awesome like I said could be an All-Star but you’re not good this year you got to go into D tier sucks to suck Phoenix Suns they’re strange they just made some moves at the

Deadline where they kind of shipped out all the players they signed for the minimum this summer uh what’s his name udad nais gone Kaden bat deop gone down the list they’re all gone Grayson Allen’s been an awesome role player one of the best role players in the league

Honestly alongside their three star one of the best role players in the league alongside their three stars and since the three star has been healthy they’ve been a lot better than they were to start the season they’re firmly in the fifth seed they’re at the top of that

Second here after the top four teams and I think we can project them to be a strong playoff team so I’m going to go a honestly if the Mavs are B the sun’s got to be a like they’re they’re clearly better but they’re definitely not pushing s tier by any means and they’re

Only a because I project them to be even stronger in the playoffs when they obviously the way their ball handlers are set up they are pretty much they’re constructed for a playoff atmosphere where are we going to put the Los Angeles Lakers it’s see between BRC they

Can’t be D they’re not Rockets level they’re certainly not on the sun’s level you know they’re currently the nine seed they can really only get as high as the seven unless the Pelicans start to fall off and they can get into six they’re currently 9 and a half games out of

First the Pelicans at at six or 5 and a half games so I to me that’s their ceiling so to me they’re were playing team no matter what sounds to me like C they have had a top I mean a bottom 10 offense all year defense has been astoundingly mediocre Jared vanal might

Be out for the season which makes that defense impossible to get to high level ah no help is coming outside of Gaye Vincent which shout out Gabe Vincent I don’t think he’s Captain America I don’t think he’s coming in and fixing all their issues they’re probably just going

To be C all year Utah Jazz they had a really strong spurt where they won like 177 out of their 20 games went insane with Colin seon cooking Lowry doing his normal Lowry things John Collins is playing good at Center the call F falling back down to earth a

Little bit they’re four and six in their last 10 I think they’re a d tier team you know we don’t really project them to have any type of playoff push to get into the playin they kind of just are who they are at the 10 seed and they’re

Happy with that they’re early in rebuild they’re kind of rebuilding from the middle firmly 10 all right we got everybody out of the way that doesn’t matter the point of this tier list is for these four teams I gave everybody else their shine just so you

Can hear me talk about your favorite team did you a favor now we’re here for the meet potatoes nuggets rest tier let’s throw that to begin with they’re the Championship favorites I think or at least they should be unless you’re a seltic person which I understand but Nuggets won last year

Haven’t lost a step they’re defending better than they ever have jic is playing extremely well probably going to win the MVP with Joell and be sidelined no reason to pick against them they’re completely healthy they have the best supporting C around their two stars possible the best two-man game in the

League they’s the team to beat the Clippers this is the hard part because they are horrifying they are a buzz saw of offense and defense on both sides of the ball they have three incredible offensive players who are meshing perfectly Kawhi Leonard is back to being full cyborg mode Kawhi Leonard he’s

Averaging 24 points per game on one of the best efficiencies of his career true shooting wise doing it in a way that is different because he’s playing a lot of off ball with James Harden kind of leading the offensive approach they are really leaning into James Harden

Basketball they’re on the top of the league in pick and roll percentages and the top of the league in isolation percentages they’re the highest volume there I mean and the highest efficiency in isolation as well because all three of these guys that they have perimeter wise are excellent that and normally you

Can fall into a kind of malays with that where we seen some Kevin Durant teams in recent years kind of just be like ah ah your turn ah ah they’re not playing ukm offense they’re not playing XM offense James Harden is really leaned into the passing side of his game as his

Offensive you know scoring skill sets have kind of diminished over the years he can still do that stuff he’s not cooked but he’s firmly leaning into offense he’s averaging less than 20 points per game I mean fully leaning into passing and being an elite distributor while Paul George is kind of

Being like a supercharged Klay Thompson doing a lot of off ball stuff attacking Closeouts being the third option as you’d expect in that way and Kawai is just being god tier kawhai him and uh all three of those guys are shooting above 40% from three I think Kawai is

Still like 44% or something berserk and pull up his stats real quick he is currently shooting 45% 45.6% from three absurd that if you’re going to have James Harden leading your offense with that type of passing zubach eating in the pick and roll with him and kawhai Leonard shooting 45% from three

On the wing you’re going to be on stop one offense and they have been since those six games where they lost all of them when they traded for James Harden they’ve been on a tear they’re currently the 13th best defense in the league which fell off from a while ago they

Were like seven for a little bit and third best offense that to me screams s tier I think we can clearly profile them is having the two big wings that you need to have playoff type scoring when it comes down to off the dribble shooting attacking mismatches in the

Playoff setting where they were teams s out to stop your main actions all the James Harden stuff Kawai is going to be able to attack the weakest Defender play normal kawhai basketball last year whenever they had the first- round Series against the Suns I think the

First two games he was going insane he dropped 40 immediately got hurt which is always a big concern for this team so that’s always looming over us right we know Paul George and qu ler can both get hurt at any moment we know James Harden can defecate in his pants at any moment

Come play off time those concerns aren’t gone but I’m willing to past them because you know you have three players that have flaws but 90% of the time they’re great but those that 10% has come back to bite you a lot of times just do the math multiply those

Percentages against each other it’s smaller because you have the other guys to make up for it if James Harden lays one into his pants on the ground he’s doing his normal playoff James Harden stuff kaai can baill him out kawhai gets hurt you still got PG and James Harden

For those Mis games if PG hits inside the backboard you got kawhai and James Harden you know like there’s just a bountiful amount of options that unless they all themselves at the same time they’re going to be good I think they’re extremely playoff proof and I think are

Neck and neck with the nuggets I might still pick the nuggets in a series but if you Pi if you tell me the Clippers are making the finals and winning the finals I don’t doubt you at all listen I don’t think your new fans since the td3

Era know about the Isaac James Harden lore yeah I’m a bit of a James Harden stand if you go to my Twitter and type in James Harden you’re going to see many tweets about the man he was my favorite player in the world from 2017 through

2021 I went to war defending him so many times against the playoff allegations after like four of them I think like 2022 is like the last year with Russell Westbrook which I guess it was like 2020 2020 in the bubble I was like oh God Maybe I’m Wrong maybe this

Is who he is then he went to the Sixers did it again and I was like oh no he went to the Nets and got hurt and I was like okay he’s injured you know give him a break went to the uh 76ers himself again I was like it’s over I’m

Over it you you got it you got it he’s the worst playoff player of all time for a star you win but listen now he’s a third option he’s a strictly playmaker this is what he needs to be and it’s working well listen as a Steph fan who

Had agendas to push back in those days I was very happy to see him fall short every time I was always a LeBron fan he got me into the sport and then James Harden became my second favorite player you know the Lakers were asked for this

Period so I didn’t really have a team to root for rooting for LeBron and rooting for Harden during the Warriors dynasty was awful I was constantly in a state of failure and loss I didn’t know Victory ever all right we got two teams left Timberwolves a tier and early in

The season I think I would have got heat for that because you know they were clearly the one seed for a long time until these other three teams hawked him down but I think people are trying to realize that this seems great they’re going to go as far as the defense takes

Them right they’re by far the number one defense in the league still Rudy go is going to win POI cat is playing better than we expected cat to play I think everybody came into the year thought that cat would probably get traded eventually cuz it just wasn’t going to

Work with the two bigs they’ve made that work Anthony Edwards is currently averaging 26.7 points per game highly effective number one option for them his mid-range scoring has been really bad that’s kind of holding his efficiency down I think that’ll come around I don’t think he’s actually just a terrible

Shooter but that plus the lack of the natural you know like spacing issues that come with too bigs even when it works R Gober doesn’t give you a lot offensively Jay mcdown is a great 3 andd player not a Creator all these things combined they’re not a good offense and

I don’t don’t really project that a change in the playoffs either I think if anything that will get exposed more cuz I think the issues we have at Chon he towns in the past will come to come out a little bit more in the playoff setting where he can really be like pinpointed

His weaknesses so I just don’t see their offense being able to hold up against these other teams that also can ratchet up defensively I think they’re going to have to outshoot yic have to outshoot kawhai and I just don’t see that unless Anthony Edward shocks the world and

Comes out and proves he’s going to make like a Dwayne Wade leap in year five or whatever it is so I I’m comfortable putting them a but they’re the best team in a like they’re better than the Suns that least one team the Oklahoma City

Thunder I do not know what to do with this team I love them I think they’re incredible sheay gild Alexander is a top 10 player in this league Chad is a top 10 Center top probably 10 Defender he’s tops five in blocks right now gives him

That stretch five look you know if you listen to the first episode of the show I went in depth about why I think that changes an offense and how valuable he is last episode I went into hot take corner and talked about Jaylen Williams being a superstar in the making fully

Agree on all that it’s a bit concerning when two of the teams in the conference are strong and huge and have a Nicole yic down there have a go be in caral towns just like a lot of size and they never traded for backup center at the deadline they’re throwing Chad hren into

The fire he has to climb the mountain and try to just like hold his own against the two biggest teams in the conference immediately and maybe he’s capable you know they’re a small team but because of that they’re a highly skilled team a highly spaced out

Team have a lot of Pros to go with those cons maybe it’ll play itself out well but that weakness is a they have a specific weakness that hurts them against the Denver Nuggets who’s the team they got to beat so I’m like how can I expect them to beat the Nuggets

And be able to qualify as s tier I think to be an S tier you have to be as good as the Nuggets which I think the Clippers are and I think the Thunder are as good as the clippers but I don’t see them being the Nuggets so that’s a

Little it’s kind of hard to parse flip flip a coin flip a coin all right I I don’t got a coin around me okay I’m thinking of a number between one and 10 what is it eight seven I didn’t qualify what this would decide but you got the

Number wrong so that proved nothing put him in a tier I’m going to leave s tier for the two Premier teams that I think are the best teams the Thunder are just as good as the Clippers like I said and it’s funny cuz we had a power rankings

Episode on T3 a couple weeks ago ago where I ranked them over the Clippers and I was here arguing to death about it which granted that power rankings was like what they did in the season so far not projecting towards the playoff setting but again I’m going to keep the

S tier very specifically crafted for teams that are as good as the Nuggets or are the Nuggets but I won’t be shocked if the Thunder go there we’ll see how Gordon har makes him better we’ll see if the size becomes an issue at all we see

If big Jaylen Williams can hold up in a playoff setting a lot of unknown there did did you do it again did you make the greatest tier list of all time yeah I’m just like I’m just never wrong it’s fine like don’t don’t even worry about it

Like don’t even don’t go into the archive don’t look at old videos I’m just right all the time so they can’t with you today what it is no I think the the Clippers and Thunder is a big swing there we’ll see how that goes out uh maybe the Lakers are Mavericks

Somebody will surprise us but I think this is good for what we know now we’ll see how it ages before we get out of here I want to do something we’re going to put a spotlight on the team let’s call this Spotlight hour whatever I don’t know

We’re going to talk about the New York Knicks cuz as much as it pains me to do because you know Donovan my co-host on the Deep 3 is a Nicks fan Nick fans are loud Nicks fans are proud there are all these things they’re very very forward

About their fandom very annoying I guess we can just be blunt about it you got to give it to them you know this year you got to give it to him for years the New York Knicks were a laughing stalk of the league they were poorly run poorly

Managed ownership you know James Dolan for years people were begging him to sell the team cuz top down that was ass he was not leading a good charge as the guy who sets a tone in the organization that’s all changed they have sneakily been the best front office

In the league for several years now I guess poppy since Leon Rose took over they have shown exactly how to rebuild without like Premier Talent you know and when I say Premier talent I mean through the draft like they didn’t draft an Anthony Edwards they didn’t draft a Palo

Banero they damn sure didn’t draft a Victor wanyama like you know they didn’t have any big hit there their highest draft pick was RJ Barrett there’s other coveted young players Obi toppen Emanuel quickley Quinton Grimes that’s like kind of Mak up their young core they’re all

Out the door and they’re all out the door because they realize one of the most just like value ways to build a team is by finding others undervalued assets and putting them in position to succeed that they aren’t currently being put in they Unearthed jayen Jaylen Brunson from being the backup to LCA

Donic a very overqualified backup right we saw flashes in playoff settings where we’re like this guy can do more if he’s asked to they agreed you know partially because his dad Rick Brunson works for the Knicks so but they saw the vision because their Vision was familial so they promoted him

To give him that opportunity signed a big contract and he became a star they lowkey did something similar with Julius Randall several years before he was you know he was proving himself with the Pelicans but made the allstar leap with the with the Knicks that was a previous

Organization group I guess we won’t give him that but you know Oobi they tra for him when the maveri not the Mavericks the Raptors were starting several power forwards that all did the same thing o know being one of them they saw him and said he will work perfectly next to our

Star players we’re going to empower him to do the stuff he does at his best focus on defense be a tenacious Defender cutter all these things plucked him into the lineup Dante D venzo found him on the scrap Heap jumping from Team to team he doesn’t miss threes anymore you know

Isaiah hardenstein was Outcast by the rockets for no reason let go by the clippers for no reason comes in and immediately lights up with Mitchell Robinson gone Josh Hart same thing they traded a first round pick for him been a great addition to their team you just go

Spot by spot and every single opportunity every swing they’ve taken on a player has worked and that’s all culminated this year with the trade deadline Just Happening where they stole Boon bogdanovich and Alec Burks for Quinton Grimes contracts and two second round picks didn’t go up a first for two

Really good Shooters and just increase their depth and just building on the strength they’ve already shown this year and I just think we have to acknowledge that this is one of the smartest front offices in the league you know they’re finding all the market and efficiencies

They can and cap izing on it and you know maybe they don’t have the top 10 player needed to win a championship maybe they don’t have like you know like a Jason Tatum LeBron James Kevin Durant these like top tier guys that you can see leading one of the best teams in the

League but they got everything else you need you know they have a top 15 player a strong Supporting Cast they’ve been an absolute ridiculous defense since getting OG and anobi and they’re just putting themselves in the perfect position to once that next star becomes available they can pounce and truly be

Like an incredible team because you know I I said all the things they given up I never used the word first- round pick outside of Josh har a few years ago they kept all their picks so not only are they the deepest team in the Eastern

Conference not only do they have a young star in Jaylen Brunson not only do they have one the most valuable role players in the league in ogan noi all this stuff they have a wealth of picks if Donovan Mitchell becomes available if insert name becomes available whoever it may be

They can pounce and make that happen and even if that doesn’t happen just looking to this year it’s very easy to forecast this team as being in the Conference Finals like at minimum right like strong defense Jaylen brunson’s a proven playoff scorer who can thrive in that atmosphere we’ll see what Julius Randle

Looks like you know we had some ups and downs to say the least but but if we can get regular season Julie Randle to show up with mitell Robinson coming back and being healthy having the deepest 10-man rotation in the league it won’t be shocking if they make the finals like

Point Blank like they could beat the Celtics if everything breaks right and obviously you can’t account for everything breaking right everybody doesn’t get lucky every year but somebody does you know like somebody has to get the best end of the stick and if it’s them the sky is a limit for them do

I see them being the Clippers or the Nuggets maybe not but if you can get to the finals you have a puncher chance of winning it and inexplicably they’ve elevated themselves to being in that conversation when we never would have said that at the beginning of the year

Before all these moves were made so I don’t know who we have to pinpoint as like the reason for this but the whole organization from the top down deserves all the attention in the world right now for doing everything right I can’t believe this episode is about the Lakers

Sucking and the Knicks being great like what a world I live in right now my life sucks I’ll see youall next week

Today we tier list every NBA team in the west! #nba @thedeep3pod

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0:00- Intro
0:22- What’s next for the Lakers?
8:05- Blind ranking young players
11:45- West Conf Tier List
27:40- The Knicks are back