Are Cavaliers & Timberwolves contenders or pretenders? How do we fix NBA All-Star game? | Nerd Sesh

Are Cavaliers & Timberwolves contenders or pretenders? How do we fix NBA All-Star game? | Nerd Sesh

Welcome everybody back into nerd sesh as always I’m Carson breber and alongside me is Logan Camden and today in honor of President’s Day we are going to be ranking every US president based on How likely it was that they mewed starting with Warren G Harding Logan what would your rating for him

Be I don’t goack I don’t think Warren G Harden knew what me was I’m going to keep it a buck L take I fear he clearly muted cuz he mogs almost every other president bro was strapping with a strong jawline I don’t know what that means man me I know Pablo Pablo intricately

Described what M what is a MOG mogging Logan is when effectively you one up everybody else in the room with your looks so let’s say you’re in a room and I walk in what I’ve done is I’ve mogged you ah I always thought you were kind of

Beat man no no no no no no uh clearly your eyes aren’t very good okay we’re actually going to be doing a mailbag today and one of the questions actually is about how how did Carson get to be such a cutie patootie somebody on Twitter I also wrote down for my answer

There I always thought Carson was pretty beat man yeah well Joel asks and the answer is hours upon hours of Mee we’re also going to talk some basketball though in a little bit of football we mostly got NBA questions today and a few of you guys asked us about the Cavs lots

Of intrigue around the Cavs who of course have won 18 of their last 20 games we’re going to pick Michael’s question here who asks are the have contenders or does the lack of a true top five player limit their Championship ceiling I want to expand on that last

Question about Carson you guys I actually lived with Carson for a long time dude hours on hours you guys think he’s playing like he would sit there I’d be like Carson like you want me to cook up dinner man are you hungry and then he’d

Go yeah Mee for hours on hours bro it’s ridiculous I invented mewing a lot of people don’t realize dude back freshman you’re at college man Carson was on the wave man he invented it they called me Mewtwo um I don’t think the Cavaliers are real contenders for a few reasons

And and this recent stretch has been really encouraging I think what we’ve seen is two things if they’re going to stick with this current rotation and their current crop of franchise building blocks I think one thing is abundantly clear that they have to stagger their minutes and they have to have they have

To mix up their rotation another thing is abundantly clear to me and that’s that they near they need more shooting and spacing on the wings like you just amplify the the skill sets of a guy like Donovan Mitchell of a guy like Darius Garland uh of your big men on the floor

When there are guys who can legitimately knock down shots you think about their playoff rotation last year you know trotting out Isaac aoro in a lineup with Evan Moy and Jared Allen it’s really cool it’s really nice like CLE I mean like it’s it’s encouraging for Cleveland that they’ve

Had a stretch like this considering how disappointing last season’s playoff run was that being said it also says to me that this current crop of your stars doesn’t really fully complement each other and that’s ultimately going to be something that I think holds this team

Back I just don’t think there’s a ton of continuity between the starting five and your five best players and I think there’s a lack of competent three and D Wings down the roster uh and that’s something that’s going to hold the team back uh I think they found a formula

That works to an extent you know they found a way to win games and that’s staggering these minutes and your players and uh using different lineups Works adding more spacing works but I don’t have a ton of faith in working in a playoff setting because you want your

Best players out there on the floor and if you’re going to play Garland Mitchell Moy and Allen in closing minutes I just think that’s a lineup that just does not really work together so no I don’t think the Cavaliers are real contenders although this stretch is is really really impressive I mean this

Is something that’s really freaking hard to do yeah it’s always awesome to win this many regular season games and especially when you consider all that they’ve had to deal with like for more than half of this stretch they’ve been without both Garland and Moy they’re back now they’ve been back for the last

10ish games but they were reeling off wins when it was just Mitchell and Allen out there and Mitchell has played at an incredibly high level this regular season has done some of the best playmaking that we’ve seen from him has been consistently especially once the Cavs turn things around engage

Defensively I do want to give some context just to like this insane run they have had a very light schedule they’re 4-2 against teams who are 500 or better in this 20 game stretch but still they’re beating good teams and they are running through bad teams to me I just

Don’t think I can be all that moved by regular season results from this Cleveland Cavaliers team because less we forget last year they were second in all of basketball in net rating and they were ninth in offensive rating they were number one in defensive rating they were better than their record would indicate

In the regular season and then in the playoffs we saw all of these really glaring issues cost them and they couldn’t even really hang with the Knicks in a first round series despite the fact that Julius Randall was like God awful like 14 points per game on

What was he maybe 30% from the field just vintage stuff from him and still like they were soundly outplayed in that series and when I look at their issues I just don’t think that they fundamentally solv them I do think that they’ve improved on the wings I think that what

You get for Max stru is better than what they had last year because although he hasn’t had a great shooting season you’re getting more floor spacing you’re getting a guy who’s capable putting the ball on the floor and playmaking who’s going to bring you more grit defensively

Than say a Caris LeVert and it’s just going to fit more easily into a primarily off ball role so they’ve improved there but the fundamental issue is still a lack of high-end two-way wings and trotting out these unskilled front Court two big looks because that’s what got them exposed against the Knicks

Basically teams were able to devote so much defensive attention to their guards and that forced them to settle for a lot of tough pull-up jumpers took the offense out of rhythm the guards weren’t efficient things just spiraled for them and although these improvements on the wings maybe make them a little bit

Better it doesn’t fundamentally change that in the East around them has gotten better and to Michael’s question specifically does the lack of a true top five player limit their Championship ceiling that is part of it I think that there’s issues Beyond like who is their number one guy but Donovan Mitchell as

Awesome as he has been in this regular season in stretch and he has been phenomenal I do still worry about him super consistently maintaining the level that they would need we’ve seen him have some flamethrower runs before in Utah back in 2020 and in 2021 as well but you

Also see the stretches where he becomes very very shoot first he becomes very specifically reliant on the pull-up threes he can be erratic there and he can hurt team offense as a result so yeah they’re a little bit better than last year but until in my opinion Evan

Moy matures to the point where they can confidently play him at the five and you move off of Jared Allen like that has to be the formula to them actually unlocking a different ceiling because when I go matchup to matchup I don’t like how they match up against the

Knicks because in that series despite having these two big looks they got bodied in terms of physicality and on the glass the Knicks are even bigger on the front line they’re an even more dominant rebounding team this year the one weakness glaring weakness besides randle’s fallof which again you can’t

Get a worse version of Julius Randall than you already got and lost to the other issue they had was a real lack of spot up shooting on the wings where now they’re Dynamic with Dante D venzo and with OG and anobi they’re a better defensive team with OG in there Jaylen

Brunson is maybe even better than he was last year like I just don’t see that and then the Bucks I think have that more reliable offensive Duo the more explosive offense the Celtics are just in a different Talent level in terms of their overall basketball team and I

Think that again there’s weaknesses that can be attacked with this Cavs team the lack of highend offensive skill in the front Court putting out these two small guard looks a team like Boston has so many big Athletic ball handlers they’re going to be able to hunt Mitchell and

Garland so to me they’re still not contenders but what they’re doing in the regular season is awesome we did see them have an awesome regular season last year though yeah I think it is going to be matchup dependent you know who they draw in the first round but if I had to

Predict how Cleveland season ends it’s a first round exit and then once again I think that Cleveland has a lot of questions to answer in this off season about what they’re going to do because I think there are two well there’s three weaknesses in the starting lineup right

Well you have two major redundancies with both groups of your star guys in the back court and in the front Court you know they’re stylistically very similar players Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland are both you know defensive uh you know they lack defensively and then Jared Allen and

Evan Mobley both lack offensively so there’s there’s some redundancies there and then I just think you got to finally make the decision and make that move and I mean the encouraging thing about this is that I think a lot of teams would be interested in acquiring a guy like Jared

Allen and I think you can go out and get a really complimentary 3 and D wing and then go out and get some other assets that you think work alongside these guys some more perimeter Defenders some more more 3 and D guys really like if they

Can get two or three competent 3 and D guys for this rotation another really big merer big body type who’s going to Anchor the glass Off the Bench on the low block you know get some size Off the Bench I don’t think Cleveland’s that far away you know what I mean they’re very

Talented at the top it’s really about filling out the rest of this rotation with complimentary guys who do little things that can amplify your star players so I don’t think this is the year for Cleveland but I think if they do a lot this off season something could

Materialize for next season where they are primed to make a playoff push yeah they’re still in a very good spot when you consider that they have four quote unquote Star level talents MO needs to progress more offensively and jiren Allen he is a one-time Allstar I don’t know if I would consistently consider

Him on that level and that those guys are young and Donovan Mitchell’s 27 Garland’s 24 MO is 22 but to me if they want to take the leap to True Contender status it’s probably going to have to be moving off of Allen so you can have more

Perimeter skill offensively I will say I don’t think the most likely outcome for them is a first round exit because they’re winning a lot of games and if they have that two seed and you draw the Pacers or you draw the magic I would be pretty confident with them in either of

Those matchups the concerning first round draw could be the heat because the heat have playoff Voodoo and they have their stard Duo and they have an improved set of wings but I think that they’re a second round exit ultimately it’s really the Celtics the Bucks and the Knicks who I still have pretty

Concretely above them in a playoff setting okay Natalie asks of the teams that are most likely going to hold up to the TW uh 40 wins before 20 losses rule the Cavs Celtics t-wolves Thunder and Clippers who are The Pretenders and contenders and could it be possible that

This year’s finals winner comes from outside this group not only do I think it’s possible I think it’s probably likely I mean the team that I have the most faith in hoisting the championship at the end of this season is still the Denver Nuggets I think the Denver

Nuggets have taking their foot off the gas pedal a little bit this isn’t something that’s foreign to defending Champions right uh it’s regular season you know the nuggets are going to turn it up when it comes playoff time and I think there are distinct advantages that Denver has they’re really freaking big

They’re physical they’re athletic uh those are good advantages but they also have a top tier Duo and Nicole yic and Jamal Murray they’re just going to manufacture points and manufacturer offense at the end of games I mean with what they have done over the past few seasons I think it’s kind of inarguable

Like there’s nobody better at closing games out when it comes down to Jamal and joic I trust those guys to make big shots to create I trust the continuity of this team team to to play great defense they’re just a perfect fitting puzzle right now and so I wouldn’t bet

Against anybody else other than Denver right now out of that group I think the two contenders are the Celtics and the Clippers I think the Celtics are one of the most talented starting fives in basketball and with what we’ve seen in the Clippers it’s really encouraging

They’ve got a lot of Firepower at the top and then defensively you’ve got two great defensive Wings in Kawai and PG they make up for hard and shortcomings defensively and they are just a well oil machine man like they they they play really well together and the Clippers

Have had the luxury of trading for Harden at the start of the Season where they can build that chemistry in continuity it was rough I said that I counted the Clippers out man Carson held the faith and shout out to you man the Clippers figured it out I didn’t exactly

Nail it I thought they were going to be like the fifth best team in the west I just didn’t sell all my stock after the rough start but I did not think they’d be this good yeah they’ve exceeded a lot of expectations so I think the Clippers

Are legit and I can see them you know making a Western Conference Finals run or making that push the reason and we’ve hampered on this for a while about the timber wolves and the Thunder we just talked about the Cavs I think the Cavs have too many uh just fundamental roster

Uh issues to to to make it through I I’m really scarred by what we saw in last year’s playoffs it’s really hard for me to buy in on Cleveland after what we saw and there shortcomings last year for Minnesota and Oklahoma City it’s tough uh we’ve talked about them a lot they’re

Very two hot button teams are a lot of fun two young teams that have surged up the power rankings out well uh so I’ll reiterate a lot of our thoughts about them Oklahoma City I think it’s slight they are very young uh and that’s what I think it’s going to

Come back to bite them I think against a more physical team out west if that’s the Lakers if that’s Minnesota uh if that’s Denver you know if they run into one of these really big teams I think they’re going to get crushed on the glass I think they’re going to get out

Physical out athletic a little bit and that’s going to be their doom and again they don’t have a whole lot of Veteran guys here uh we went on Jason’s show Jason itated a very good point you know it’s hard for these young teams to make it through with Minnesota I do worry

About their offensive shortcomings you’re trusting a really young Anthony Edwards to carry your offense through ant has played great in playoff settings and in big game scenarios his jumpers been on he’s exerted a ton of pressure on the rim he’s playm well he’s been really efficient it’s just hard for me to

Imagine Anthony uh you know going over the top and being great and continuing uh to lead out a great halfcourt offense through an entirety of a playoff run or a playoff series it’s just a lot on the shoulder of a very young player who isn’t as developed in that area you know

He’s not he just hasn’t reached that total control of offensive game the way I need so you know I think they’re very good teams I can see them winning a playoff series I’m not counting them out for that but in terms of making a title

Push I I really don’t see it with uh Oklahoma City with Minnesota or with Cleveland yeah so I agree completely in terms of the split here and I think that you can kind of dial it down to some fundamental criteria that every champion and that’s the standard that we’re

Holding these teams to really cuz I wouldn’t necessarily call them Pretenders any of them but I think the Cavs the t-wolves and the Thunder all have clear red flags when you’re talking about holding them to that Championship standard first of all if you’re not a

Great team on both sides of the ball if you’re not top 10 on both sides of the ball historically that really eliminates you from the title conversation we’ve seen some exceptions in recent years especially as the regular season has become a bit devalued but particularly when you’re look at offensive production

Where effort isn’t as much of a factor the Cavs have been on a very good offensive stretch but they are still on the hole this year an average offensive team with again some clear skill concerns and the lack of like that real upper echelon number one kind of guy the

T-wolves you can say a lot of the same things right the spacing isn’t ideal can’t ant play up to the level of say a kawhai Leonard or niik yic right these like absolute best guys in the league for an extended run they’re 17th in offensive rating on the year the Thunder

I that’s a very good two-way team but it comes down to what you mentioned with the slight front court and I think the overall inexperience it just feels like they can get bullied in some of these matchups so the Celtics are obviously contenders like I think that they’re

Going to win these they’re one of the best regular season teams that we’ve seen this centry You could argue I mean they could easily be a 65 win team they’re 11th all time in terms of Point differential per game up to this point on the year and the Clippers just have

That formula of three star shot creators and then they’ve got good depth they’ve got good Wings really Elite shooting team they have that one a physical highle rim protector efficient Rim finisher and zbots they check a lot of boxes I still don’t view them on Denver’s level because they aren’t quite

As physically imposing and because they are a bit more specifically reliant on pull-up shots falling consistently and we’ve seen that bite them in the past but they’re a really really good basketball team so I definitely view those two in a tier a little bit Above the Rest now this question I really like

From E coli if you could change one MVP winner and one finals outcome what person in series would you change so I’m going to lob the first one up to Carson uh Carson did a uh an extensive breakdown of Russell Westbrooks MVP victory in a school project a literal school project

2017 uh that’s probably my pick too just because Carson’s bit my ear off about that one for uh the longest time and so I’m in agreement I’ve heard his Spiel many times about why James Harden should have won that but on the inverse I’ll give my answer about the finals question

I have two picks for that one the first one I go to is 2012 and the only reason I say that is I just think the course of NBA history would be changed so much and I think it’s really fascinating and interesting to see what the three-headed

Monster of Kevin Durant James Harden and Russell Westbrook would have been able to do what they would have become if they would have stuck together you know the yeah just to see the Ripple the butterfly effect uh essentially of what could have happened with that team if

They get a title do are all of them still in Oklahoma City does James Harden still leave and go out and become an MVP does James Harden never reach a ceiling do they run it back and win a bunch of titles together you know there’s just so

Many what if about if they had gotten that done uh that changed the course of NBA history and I think that’s really fascinating the other one that I would choose is 2016 and the only reason I put that as an honorable mention and not as my

Choice one it’s a classic NBA Finals I mean it’s one of the greatest like it’s etched in history forever 3-1 comeback LeBron’s block like it just historical memories and moments on the biggest stage of basketball so I wouldn’t want to completely erase that because it’s historical but the only reason I say

2016 and I consider it is I don’t think the more talented team won you know I I never came away from that finals feeling like the 2016 Cavs were better than the 2016 Warriors that’s why I say that traditionally I enjoy when the best team wins and traditionally in basketball in

Seven game series when you have those big sample sizes right Super Bowls are not necessarily won by the best team in football every year because it’s one game format the NCAA tournament is not always won by the best team in college basketball it’s what makes these Sports

Really volatile and fun to watch in basketball because we play seven game series traditionally the best team is going to win but there’s so many weird things that happened in that series Draymond suspension game seven you know the Warriors just falling apart not being able get injury Harrison Barnes can’t

Hit a shot for an entire series Steph throws a ball out of bounds off of behind the back pass sure sure we remember it 100% uh and that’s the only reason I consider that one is I don’t think the better team won in that series but it is a a classic B basketball

Moment so I’ll go with 2012 I think it would be really interesting to see how the course of NBA history changes uh if the Thunder end up capturing that first ring it’s a great choice dude mine is 2016 though and I I know that a lot of people disagree with that because it’s

Like the greatest series comeback in NBA history there’s no question and LeBron played at over a three- game stretch maybe the highest level that we’ve seen from anybody ever so I wouldn’t want to take away that moment but I’m a warrior fan so like it was one of the most

Gut-wrenching things ever and I remember watching game seven I was at in Tahoe Lake Tahoe was some of my pals and then we had to drive home and it was like a 4-Hour Drive of just silence and there are so many little wh ifs throughout that series and the cliche is that like

The Warriors and Cavs basically swapped which titles should have been theirs 2015 the Warriors weren’t quite quite ready as a team and if Kyrie and Klo had been healthy then the Cavs would have won and then the next year if you don’t have the Draymond suspension and the Bogan injury and Harrison Barnes

Shooting 30% over an entire series that maybe the Warriors should have won that one because they were the better team overall but for me just on a personal level that was really really painful outside of that there’s not that much that I would change and it’s interesting

Because it’s like I enjoy the current mythology and history of the NBA so much that I’m kind of like well that piece happening is so important to this guy’s Legacy or that guy’s Legacy Maybe and this is kind of a random one but no I

Don’t want to do that I was going to say 74 have the Bucks beat the Celtics just because those Celtics teams were so great like all the way from 73 to 76 but it’s just not as iconic and it would have been cool to see Kareem get another one in Milwaukee especially with

Oscar like a little more over the hill by that point but then it’s like all right then does he request the trade to La maybe eventually Maybe later down the line maybe it’s somewhere else then we don’t get Kareem and Magic I can’t mess it I can’t do the butterfly effect the

Only one I can do is 2016 and the other thing Logan is that frankly I just wish that Kevin Durant had never been a Golden State Warrior if you could give them the 2016 title and I think that Steph has specifically said that he would trade two rings to get that one

2016 ring and you know that trade works out pretty nicely if you take away the two KD rings to me those are just the two most devalued rings in NBA history it was two years where the league was the least competitive it’s ever been because there

Was this team that was so stacked with talent and it was done a bit artificially because the piece that puts a 73 win team over the top like the greatest regular season team ever is a top three player in the league acquired through free agency that to me just

Wasn’t good for the competitive balance of the sport and to some extent it limited like all right how high can these guys legacies climbs obviously Steph is was still a top 10 player ever KD is a top 15 player ever it was probably a net positive but you’re

Always going to have that hanging over your total ring counts well the ironic part is what everybody forgets about that 2016 season is that Oklahoma City had Golden State on the ropes because Golden State chokes in the finals they kind of let Oklahoma City off the hook you know we got backto back

3-1 blown leads the Thunder blowing the 3-1 to Golden State and then Golden State blowing the 3-1 to Cleveland like it’s not like okoklahoma city was Far Away Kevin Durant was Kevin Durant was going to always be justified in leaving if he wanted to right you’re

Your own man you can go do what you want and make your own decisions but the fact that Oklahoma City was so close to getting back that season and then you know he chose to join the team that beat them the team that won 73 win uh games yeah yeah

It’s we all know what we think about it I had two other choices that I think we could consider uh it’s the same team that lost in the finals actually I would point to 2021 uh the buck Suns the only reason I say that is I think it would be

Really cool if Chris Paul had gotten a ring finally um Phoenix had had one to hoist and then the one that my dad always harps on one of his favorite NBA teams of all time was 1993 when the Suns played the Bulls yeah that would have

Been cool he loved uh Michael Jordan he loved the Bulls back in their Heyday but he said the only team that he loved more and the player that he loved more was Chuck and those Sun steams I mean they’re a lot of fun man uh Thunder d

Man Kevin Johnson Chuck uh it’s it’s a really fun team and it sucks for Charles Barkley that he never got that ring and that it just kind of hangs over and lingers over his head MJ did that MJ did that to a lot of guys you could point to

A lot of guys that you want to get a ring but I think the most two painful are Barkley and then and then Chris Paul so if I could flip I wouldn’t I wouldn’t like taking away from MJ you know the mythological six and0 but those are the

Two other ones I’d point to good choices last Factor I’ll say on 2016 Draymond Finals MVP would go crazy would go crazy earn that everybody forgets about that game seven man yeah and I also think like this is really the lone point for like the Steph isn’t clutch narrative is

This one Series where he didn’t play well but he also you know wasn’t fully healthy Logan like he had an ankle injury 2015 he was great every subsequent finals run and every subsequent playoff run he’s been great so that annoys me but also if there were two non-step finals MVPs for his two

Rings perhaps that would present some issues of their own real quick just on the MVP point it would be 2017 for me and it’s not that I love James Harden I just think that that is one of if not the most clear-cut cases of Apples to Apples

MVP cases and going with the wrong guy and the reason that I say that is that when you think about Russell Westbrook and James Harden’s value to a basketball team they share the the same flaws they’re going to be low effort defensively they’re not going to necessarily be super high efficiency

Although Harden was pretty efficient at this point they’re going to be high turnover but they’re going to be these heliocentric sort of I dictate every possession and there’s ultimately a ceiling to that but in terms of floor raising that year Harden was just better at it don’t believe what the Rewritten

History tells you I’ve gone back I’ve looked through all of the media pre-season predictions everybody thought the Thunder were going to be a better team than the Rockets after losing Dwight Howard and Harden made that team you just gave him capable spot up Shooters Ryan Anderson and the boys

Clink capella was a nobody and he led to this Elite offense 55 win team and really what it came down to was the fact that Russ averaged two more rebounds per game which is insignificant the triple double is an insignificant stat the difference in Impact between whether you

Have 30 10 and 10 or 29 9 and 11 right that is completely insignificant it only matters to anybody because we decided that hitting this specific benchmark matters when it doesn’t in terms of impacting a basketball game and that was it and Russ had a crazy low contested

Rebound rate so he was literally being force-fed rebounds by his great rebounding teammates like Stephen Adams who was boxing out and so Russ could start the fast break like to me it was just an example of misguided factors determining the MVP result narrative because KD had left Russ and then the

Triple double thing and really at the end of the day it’s like these guys are responsible for leading to team offense and Harden had more offensive talent because he had Shooters but he didn’t have uh uh some really good Supporting Cast he led to a dominant team offense

Russ led to an average team offense the Thunder were in the playoffs because they were a really good team defense which he was no part of I also think that kawhai and LeBron made better cases than Russ that year but Harden is the one where it’s like such a clear

Comparison they’re bringing the same value one dude is just doing a better job of it two things the one thing I’ll give Russ credit for is that the offense that he put up so many points with such an offensively inept cast like I know that James Harden didn’t have a great

Supporting Cast but the fact that he’s out there with Victor Oladipo and Andre Roberson and like literally these Steven Adams stepen Adams I mean nonf floor spacers and an offensive zero like Roberson like it really is impressive that Russ was able to do that with such a totally horrible supporting cat but I

Do think guys made better cases would you flip last year’s playoff race between Joel embiid and Nicole yic MVP well I thought that embiid was third I thought that both Giannis and joic made better cases I didn’t like embiid’s but he did have a pretty phenomenal season and

Obviously Russ had a great season too but it’s like even in terms of floor raising I thought that LeBron was better that year the Cavs were 0 and8 without him wow 0 and8 and they were I think 51 and 20 23 with him and yeah like Russ

Did a good job through sheer force of making that a capable offense when in terms of personnel they shouldn’t have been that they should have been a bad offense but at the end of the day that’s not what we typically reward with MVP it’s not just floor raising to being capable with low

Efficiency and sheer volume it’s Harden taking that group of role players nobody else who can threaten a defense with the ball in their hands really and making them a top two offense being so directly responsible for their success as a 55- win team and doing it while producing in

Terms of raw numbers at the same level as Russ but on much better efficiency 6% better true shooting or if you don’t have a dominant regular season record something like what joic did two years ago where that team is even less talented than the 2017 Rockets or thunder because they were without mpj

And Jamaal Murray for that entire year but when he’s on the floor they play as an Elite basketball team in terms of Point differential and record and his efficiency is incredible and he’s doing it with a play style that is so clearly conducive to any situation and Russ just

Wasn’t checking all those boxes other ones just real quick 97 I think MJ should have won over Carl Malone that was voter fatigue uh really it’s tough to make a case for Malone that year MJ was a slightly higher volume score better playmaker slightly better

Defender on a 69 win team in 1970 I think could have been the third rookie to win MVP right on the tals of Wes unseld Willis Reed got it that Year Kim took a 27- win team made them a 56 win team averaged like 294 and five on really good efficiency really impactful

Defensively but Willis Reed was on a great Knicks team it was just much more of a collective effort in my opinion all right d asks after CJ Stroud’s outstanding rookie year where would you rank him among current quarterbacks and in what light do you view the Texans as

A team next year I think CJ St stamped as a top 10 quarterback in the league now uh one of the guys that you would build your franchise around I’ll go ahead and I’ll give my list out I think it goes momes Josh Allen Joe burrow Lamar Jackson Justin Herbert Matthew Stafford

And then I’d probably go the next three guys from here are probably CJ stra Jordan love and and Aaron rers and no D some sort of order knowledge Dak I mean Dak comes after those guys to me definitively uh st’s a baller man uh and I think the

Texans are real contenders you think about what they did last season they already did the hard part the hard part is establishing the culture and actually getting the team to buy in and to win games you found your franchise Cornerstone and quarterback he’s going to make the offense go now it’s just

About building the assets are out you know uh defensively they’ve got studs willing Anderson Jonathan grard Stingley I mean it really is like I I don’t mean this hyperbolically like considering how shitty the AFC South is and how nonserious like the other teams are in the division I think the Titans are

Going to be in the seller I think the Colts and Jaguars are going to be competitive but I think it’s a Texans division to lose uh the Jaguars to me their entire roster top to bottom is just not what the Texans is shout out to Trevor Lawrence I think he’s overcoming

That situation a lot Trevor Lawrence has not been the quarterback that I expected him to be at this point oh and Taw too Taw is in the top 10 I didn’t mention him he wholeheartedly is in that top 10 of guys i’ take him over deak too he’s

Somewhere in that stoud love Rogers tier somewhere in there for me so shout out Taw he’s overcoming that situation but the Jaguars roster top to bottom to me is a little too far away the Colts are good but it’s going to be Anthony Richardson’s basically deao rookie

Season I think it’s a lot for me to ask Anthony Richardson to propel them to winning the division and the Titans are not a serious football team so I think the Texans are going to win the South again next year and with a good draft

Where I think you invest in o line I think you uh I think you invest up front with the big boys I think you go out and you get another interior guy probably in the middle uh I think you get some linebackers some more defensive guys and

I think the Texans are going to be set like you have the culture you have the building blocks you have the head coach yeah what I’m saying is the found is Rock Solid now it’s about putting the house in and building on top of it I

Think the Texans are going to be a playoff team if CJ Stroud stays healthy and I think they’re legit contenders like you think about the thing the thing that’s toughest about the AFC is Carson we talked about this all season long the afc’s quarterbacks and teams are going

To eat themselves alive like you are going to be battle tested tried and true by the time you get to the Super Bowl and it’s kind of just a matter of hoping that this Elite quarterback knocks out this Elite quarterback it is going to be seven Elite quarterbacks in the playoff

Field every single year and so I mean the Texans can go as far as they can it’s kind of like damn I just hope we don’t run into momes you know what I mean I hope Mahomes gets knocked out by burrow or I hope Mahomes gets knocked

Out by Josh Allen it’s about avoiding the Chiefs so I I consider the Texans kind of in my legit contenders tier where I think they can go as far as CJ strad can take them if that’s an AFC title game if that’s a divisional round

If it’s the Super Bowl uh I think the Texans are really really legit um they were just young last year and I think that’s what limited them now they’ve got a year of experience they’re getting older there’s another crop uh in year of draft talent coming in I’m really high

On the Texans I think they’re a real Contender I think it’s going to depend on how they handle this off season but they have the potential to be a real Contender because they got a bunch of cap and I think that they have already I would say a top eight quarterback in

Football in CJ stoud I agree with the names that you had above him the when you were talking about like clearly and then you paused and then I don’t know necessarily how I feel about some of the other guys but momes Josh Lamar Herbert burough Stafford I would still have dud

You have Lamar and her love Joe yeah what’s wrong with that carried by Kev B mcferson I think you just got I think you got love scars from Joe burrow man I think you got love scars no we can have a Joe burrow debate if you want right

Now Lamar he could never be a oneman offense like Lamar bro could never Lamar leads out better regular season offenses with Hollywood Brown as his number one receiver than joar Chase that’s like St Drew Brees couldn’t lead out great offenses man no it’s not first of all I didn’t say great

Offenses and by the way Joe Bro hasn’t LED great offenses Joe Bro has not led a great regular season offense they’ve never been a top five scoring offense with him then they get to the playoffs they get a couple timely takeaways Evan mcferson makes 8,000 field goals from 75

Yards or more it’s okay Carson do you need a hug man no I don’t no I don’t I just don’t appreciate the insinuation look dude at the end of the day to me the margin between three and five is very slim Josh Allen is obviously put on

I’m gonna just put on for my boy I put respect on Joe I think he’s I would take him three he’s my third quarterback well he was your qb2 before the year and then all Josh Allen and low key I think in revision like if we’re thinking about it

Man I lowkey think we got MVP wrong man I think Josh probably should have won MVP over Lamar I don’t actually I think it’s close uh to me the fact that Josh didn’t finish top five was insane I thought Josh was clearly second but the Ravens were so consistently great Lamar

Was in control of every game he played a very very clean season Josh made a lot of oopsies this year Josh had some ugly moments the good so outweighed the bad but like just looking at specifically this regular season I felt that Lamar deserved it but Josh should have been

Second anyways talking about CJ strad he’s the man we know that he’s the man historically great rookie quarterback and I think it’s what you said invest in the o line specifically on the interior ideally through the draft probably upgrade at running back I just think it

Would be nice to have one more like actual Dynamic playmaker on the field no hate to Bill’s Legend Devon single T he just doesn’t really doesn’t really uh rev my engine you know like he’s in that midrange and then they’ve got a bunch of cap space so maybe linebacker safety you

Make a a splashy upgrade there if they nail those moves then I think that absolutely this is a team that has real contending potential the AFC is brutal but they’ve got the quarterback they’ve got the coach and they’ve got the fundamental pieces in place I mean they’ve got a really good young

Receiving core they’ve got some really good young pass rushers it’s just going to be some of the uh additional supporting position groups on both sides of the ball okay Nigel asks in a hypothetical scenario the nuggets and Clippers don’t make it out of the West who does there’s two teams to me and

They may not be the teams you expect I don’t know if a lot of people would take the timber woles or the Thunder because of Records my first team would be Phoenix and the only reason I say Phoenix and and in this hypothetical scenario I think it takes injuries to stars and

That’s always the thing about football B whatever sport injuries dictate a lot of it right sure um I think it would take injuries to stars that limit you know either Murray or PG or Kawai or joic I think it would take a serious injury to

A star for one of these teams to not make it out West that’s how confident I am in these two teams as the top two out west next would be Phoenix just because they could withstand an injury to one guy and they have a lot of Firepower at

The top where they’re just going to make shots like you think about I know a lot of people you know revisionist history look at that Suns nuggets series and think that it was Uber competitive because it was six or it was 4 to2 in six games and the Suns did effectively

Win those games you get super hot from the mid-range you just light them up you know it’s really hard to defend in the playoffs and those grimy buckets in those scenarios I trust Phoenix more than a lot of other teams to continue to manufacture offense it may not be the

Most dynamic and it may not be the uh most conducive to winning but you’ve got a lot of tough buckets on the roster and sometimes in a playoff scenario that’s just going to matter more and if they can re an average defensive ceiling with injuries to other teams that could be

Enough like you think about Dallas getting to the uh Western Conference Finals a couple years back with Luca similar scenario but they have more offensive Firepower and speaking of Luca the other team that I would point to out west if it’s neither of those top two

Would be Dallas again when it comes down to it it’s top tier shot making Luca and Kyrie are going to get me Buckets all game long and now the moves that they made at the tread line uh trade deadline excuse me to get PJ Washington uh along

With with Derrick livley paired up with Daniel Gafford and they got rid of the Michelin Man Grant Williams shout out Grant is balling Grant is balling how dare you you can’t miss in Charlotte bye Grant uh good luck buddy um they got the stay puffed marshmallow man out there in

Charlotte man uh now that he has been banished uh over to the east coast uh and with the additions I think Dallas is is really primed I like the role players a lot more you’ve got other shot makers too like Tim Hardway junor is a guy that

Can swing of playoff series with his shooting I just like their role players their depth a lot more I like their interior defense they got more athleticism and physicality inside and again at the end of the day when you got Luca and Kyrie I believe a lot of magic

Things can happen with those two on the court so those would be my top two after that I don’t know man Golden State and LA but there’s a drop off between those two team how far are you going before you get to Minnesota now you’re talking about six teams out

West yeah I’d go Phoenix Dallas Golden State Minnesota La wow I’m higher on Minnesota and like listen I have been more scared off in the past and correctly so by teams that don’t manufacture very good half court offense in the playoffs it’s not a good thing it’s why I’ve never bought into the

Grizzlies as like a legit playoff threat in recent years but I think that this Minnesota team is much better set up to compensate for a lack of a great half court offense because they have two physically gifted high-end shot creators and shot makers an ant and Cat who I

Think can scale well to that playoff environment because of their physical advantages in that grimy Rock fight that you’re talking about and then they are just a dominant defense dude dominant and I think that we see that kind of regardless of a matchup they’ve been able to maintain that level the Suns

Intrigue me because KD in book is terrifying and now that you have Royce O’Neal he’s kind of that two-way Wing that we’ve been talking about them missing a guy who can defend at the point of attack and knock down shots and he’s got a little bit more of that

Physicality to him so I do like that move and Dallas I would also highlight like I think that those are the three for me after the top two because if you get Unstoppable Luca who you very well may get and you get hot Kyrie who you

Very well may get both those guys are playing unbelievably now that you are improved in terms of your athleticism and the front court and you’ve got enough shooting on the wings like your back court goes nuclear you do enough in terms of defense and rebounding and

Whatnot then you could get there at the end of the day though I just think that Minnesota is going to physically kind of dominate any of these teams and I don’t think that scoring on Minnesota is ever going to come easy and like as great as

Book in kdr I just worry I worry about consistently relying on the tough twos and an extended run for any playoff team so I think I’m going Minnesota here but it’s close and uh Phoenix and Dallas are both looking scarier as of late okay I like this question from Ben if you

Didn’t have a favorite team and had to pick one today based on how much you like the players on a roster who would you ride with uh my favorite teams to watch are always teams that play Beautiful basketball with good ball movement they play hard

Defense uh when I was a kid my favorite team to watch uh the first team I ever watched that was awesome I love the 2011 Dallas Mavericks that was the first team that I really loved watching play basketball defensively the outside shot making the unselfish play like they were

A great team uh the Spurs of that era God you would have loved the 77 Blazers I’m telling you I mean talk about a team Mo Lucas and the boys man yeah uh you know I I really loved watching The Warriors I know a lot of people hated

Golden State I don’t know how you can I still adore the Warriors like watching them is is Heavenly and the team that reminds me most of those teams of old are the New York Knicks if I had to pick a team today it would be the New York

Knicks unequivocally they have one of my favorite players in the league and Jaylen Brunson uh they’ve got a lot of guys that play unselfishly they play hard they’re gritty they play defense they crash the glass they do the little things and they’re just a great team man

You just see it on the floor like uh the Knicks to me just play really beautiful basketball they’re probably my favorite team to watch uh in the NBA today outside of Golden State there’s something about the dubs man and Steph Curry like I yeah I can’t ever get

Enough of of Golden State but if I had to pick one it’d be the Knicks man they play really beautiful basketball they play hard they got a lot of heart man and uh I like teams with a lot of heart with a lot of dog in them uh I like

Watching the Knicks a lot their only problem is they have Julius Randle but I really like watching ing the Knicks to so I’m a Warriors fan I do love how they play basketball I think that the motion based offense everything that they do in terms of off ball movement it’s so

Aesthetically pleasing I I love it I love watching the ball move like that and I love basketball teams who are predicated upon skill one of my favorite traits is just great passing in basketball players and then I really love versatile shot making like not so much ball stopping one-on-one stuff but

I really like dudes who like if you have great post footwork right if you have a bunch of counters in a situation like that is very graceful scoring I do enjoy and the Nuggets give me kind of all of those things like I love watching the Nuggets play I think watching jic

Conduct offense is so awesome I love his touch shot making I just love touch in general uh that that sounded kind of weird but I really enjoy it in terms of basketball and the passing obviously but then Murray brings like that super tough bucket crazy fluid oh my God he can go

To Every counter he can hit you with the turnaround the step back Etc and everybody just compliments each other so perfectly Aaron Gordon fits in so beautifully the physical mismatch attacker Rim finisher can play multiple roles defensively mpj that guy’s fun to watch shoot because he’s just like got

That rare ability to rise up no matter what because of his height and just drain him I love kcp what he does in terms of effort defensively and his spot up shooting and close out attacking that’s just like such a beautiful such a beautiful symbiotic basketball team but I also really really

Love the Thunder and I think that like that’s the team a few years down the line that is going to be probably running stuff in the league and so much fun to watch SGA when I talk about the counters when I talk about that versatile scoring and like balance just

Like graceful movers he’s incredible he’s like a ballerina on the basketball court who’s also this unreal shot maker and a great athlete and Jaylen Williams again just like tough to stay in front of but then he can shift gears at such a high level he’s a big- Time mid-range

Shot maker all of these guys are good passers all of them are good athletes I love super skilled Bigs like Chad who can pass big-time shooter such a great defender Josh giddy unfortunately is another story I don’t much like him at all for multiple reasons but like once

They ship him out even just dropping Gord Hayward in there like what an awesome basketball team to watch so those would be my two choices getting on the action with draftking Sportsbook an official sports betting partner of the NBA new customers who deposit $5 or more

Can get a no sweat bet up to $1,000 back in a bonus bet download the drafting Sportsbook app now and use code nerds new customers can get a no sweat bet up to ,000 if your first betet loses only on draftking Sportsbook with code nerds the crown is yours this has been a

Real hot button topic around uh the NBA Twitter sphere and just discourse Max asks do you think anything needs to be changed with the current Allstar Weekend whether that be the game itself the weekend as a whole Etc yes multiple things one I think we need to start putting people that love

Basketball on the broadcast uh oh yeah W take it really dejected me hearing Kenny Smith’s comments after Sabrina and Steph went head to-head wow I was astonished I was uh at my I I was at my work we were watching the Three-Point Contest uh it was a little slower so I could actually

Watch Sabrina and Steph go head-to-head the energy in the building was great everybody was glued to the TV watching Sabrina shoot and you could tell like it was awesome it made my day as a basketball fan watching Sabrina drain those threes it was freaking awesome I loved every second of that I

Was like finally dude she put up 26 man what else do you want the girl to do from NBA range it was awesome it was freaking awesome and I love that like it fired everybody up in the building we were so excited and for a brief Split Second we all thought man

Sabrina might beat the best shooter on planet Earth ultimately that was the did we really expect Sabrina to win no you put her up against the greatest shooter to ever touch a basketball so yeah how can you falter for falling short when she had had the best round of anybody

And there’s just there’s just she would have been tied with all the dudes who went to the playoff in the men’s competition nobody got more than 26 outside of Steph Curry and the thing that really plucks my nerves is there’s just a lot of Woman Haters on this uh

Planet that don’t want to give any of them props oh she should have shot from the WNBA line shut the hell up Kenny oh she should have uh well let’s make her shoot with an NBA sized ball do you guys have brains do y’all like critically

Think it all I am I I was so proud of s uh Sabrina I thought she put on a show I thought she performed her ass off and I came away from it going can we please put some respect on the women this is the most talented women’s basketball has

Ever been and I am so excited for when Caitlyn Clark gets to the WNBA and we can get some eyes on this product because it’s going to be a lot of fun these girls are ballers they are freaking skilled they are smart they play good ball and I think it is just

So sad and pathetic that we continue to tear down these women uh for no reason other than the fact that they’re not men I thought it was really pathetic uh how Kenny phrased that and how he painted that picture um I was really disappointed with that and so first and

Foremost we can get to because I have some changes for the All-Star game that I think we should make first and foremost can we get the haters out of the building and can we put people that genuinely love the game and love ball on the broadcast that’s the first change

I’d make yeah well that’s just a reality for all of basketball media dude there is so much unnecessary negativity I’m not talking about Fair criticisms of individual players because you have to do that like you hear the things that we say about Julius Randall like you can’t

Be honest without being critical but it it is the Blind and unwarranted hating of the sport as a whole that just permeates NBA media and takes the focus away from all of the beautiful things going on in any given basketball game all of the strategy all of the historically unparalleled skill and it

Just devolves into the same toxic debates and the same stupid beaten to death talking points about why things used to be better and it’s just very exhausting and I really resent that about NBA media as a whole specifically with this though I think you’re absolutely right and I mean that is

Another just horrible part of NBA media culture and sports media culture is just the way that people talk about women in sports like it’s it really sucks and obviously that speaks to a greater societal illness that has to be addressed but Kenny Kenny’s kind of an

Idiot and I really don’t know what he was talking about and just to explain why you you asked if we have brains when you’re talking about her shooting with an NBA ball that’s so different from shooting from NBA distance because think about about it right she’s playing on

The same basketball court okay the three-point line is just a little bit closer Sabrina pulls from NBA range in games right moving a few feet back is something that she already does within the context of the sport that she is playing she can totally do that and she

Did and she stepped up and she [ __ ] balled changing the ball that you shoot with is now asking someone to rewire what they practice every single day for hours and hours on end changing conditions like that right it’d be like asking somebody to to hit with a

Different bat in baseball it’d be like asking somebody to play with a different Rack in tennis it’s just stupid and uh it’s not at all comparable to her shooting from NBA range which she did again and got a score that would have tied anybody in the men’s competition so

I agree that was just disheartening and it was stupid and it was a bad look for the NBA media overall yeah the other change I would make is uh for the All-Star Game specifically Scott Van Pelt said this on Twitter and I think he made a great point if you want

People to care about the game have the players care about the game and I don’t mean that these guys got to go full bore Shawn Taylor in the Pro Bowl lighting up Brian Mormon on a fourth down fake punt we ain’t got to lick somebody man we

Ain’t got to go full boore full hard you know crazy but I mean dude Luca’s launching a 85 foot shot with 40 seconds left it’s like can we have some semblance of a regular basketball game if the players guess got the two for one if the players play like it means something the

Fans would watch it like it means something but if the players play and don’t care about the game then we’re not and I’m not asking us to go again full stop but can we play a little defense can we you know like here’s my thing is

Like if somebody goes to the rim and blows by guy you don’t have to contest it let the guy throw down a rim Rattler but can you pretend to play a little on ball defense and to me it’s like uh it’s like the pro bowler it’s

Like if this is the product that we’re going to get and it’s going to be so lackluster why do we even play the game man why you know I enjoyed the rising stars game more than the allstar game you know what I mean like I enjoyed those festivities more I’m sorry what

Were you going to say well I was just going to say I think that that’s obviously the problem the question is like how do you solve that what are the incentives what are the changes to where this game that hasn’t meant something for quite some time and that’s one thing

That’s a little bit weird about the outrage everybody’s freaking out like this is the first time they’ve watched an All-Star Game guys the All-Star game sucks All-Star events in sports suck the Pro Bowl is unwatchable is way worse off than NBA Allstar Weekend which by the

Way also is bad like I didn’t watch the All-Star Game I watched the dunk contest and I watched Steph Sabrina and like that was kind of it and I love basketball I’m addicted to basketball this is its own kind of little like freak sow that nobody cares about and we

Shouldn’t get our hopes up for it but if you are G to get guys to play like it means something then how do you do that it’s a good question I don’t know people talked about uh the old MLB rule for the All-Star game which I hate I don’t think

That’s I don’t think that’s the right move I mean I think it should be the better team gets you know what I mean so to be clear that is the winner of the allstar game has home field advantage in the NBA Finals that being said if we did do that

I mean I think guys would play their you know I think they’d play super hard so be a real basketball game it would be an answer that would make it a real basketball game some have talked about changing the incentives uh from the inseason tournament and making the

All-Star game I think if we’re going to legitimize the inseason tournament and make it its own entity and try to build it up is something that means something then I think you have to keep those incentives to the in inseason tournament so it’s either I guess we’re down to two

Options Carson and that’s you change it drastically and we do something groundbreaking where we make the All-Star game game mean more than it ever has before and let that determine where game seven is played or we throw money at the players and say hey if y’all win this game we’re going to throw

Y’all a big old bag so go out there and play like it means something play hard uh and the money thing I don’t know if that would really move the needle because these guys already make so much money um you know every game it’s like would that really move the needle like

That would change it but I don’t know like to you Carson as a basketball purist like would you be okay with game Seven’s location being decided by an All-Star Game listen I think it’s weird but there has to be some incentive to play and there just isn’t right now

So I kind of like it but honestly my focus with Allstar Weekend is more about fixing the events outside of the game itself I think the game is just broken the dunk contest is tough too because it’s not like we don’t have good athletes we were talking about this with

Pablo last week it’s just so hard to do a creative dunk now right like Jacob toppen does a 360 between the legs and he gets a 47 which by the way was just terrible judging I don’t know what they were doing I don’t know what they were

Seeing with Jaylen Brown where they were like oh 49 and then Jacob does something actually sick and they’re like yeah it doesn’t really move the needle for me I legitimately think we should do some sort of NBA players versus Instagram dunkers like competition I think the

Best dunkers on the planet just are not in the dunk contest outside of MC mclung who is not an actual NBA player he is a g-league player who gets called up for the event he hasn’t appeared an NBA game this year and he’s a sick dunker and he

Actually makes the competition but like that’s just the reality the the NBA stars those days are past us Stephen A said LeBron ruined the dunk contest no no stars have participated in the dunk contest for the last 15 plus years and like I don’t know I guess he had a role

In that because he didn’t do it and stars used to do it but I think it’s a much more widespread cultural change throughout the league than you can just put on LeBron so I would at least get like cooler dunkers in there because really what’s the difference to I mean

The average NBA fan between a Jacob toppen in terms of name recognition and what’s his face Jordan kilganon like a a really cool dunker online it doesn’t matter or like I would say even if we have to dig into because ma entertained me and a lot of people at the bar did

Not like uh the dunk contest there was this one girl I was standing up there next to and she goes I think I think Jacob to and dunked and she goes this this is the dumbest thing I’ve ever watched and I was like yep pretty much wow that’s that’s about right

Um I think you’re right dude I mean if it takes us getting actual dunkers or if we have to go deeper Into the g-league Depths you’re right like if there’s no name value recognition who cares like let’s get Derrick Jones Jr back out there let’s bring out and the reality of it is

Is nothing will ever top what Aaron Gordon and Zack LaVine did and it sucks because if you were there for those two dunk contests it was the greatest oh my God man I can’t explain to you how happy those two dunk contests made me as a kid

They yeah two of the greatest nights of my life the reactions from the fans the the feeling at my house the it was nuts those two events were crazy and so if that’s what sucks is like we know there’s those are we have dunkers like that and we have guys who are probably

Creative enough to do that but I agree with you man if we’re going to bring out quote unquote bums or like guys who we just don’t know like the one you’re the only one calling them bums to be clear it’s like if we’re bringing out like non

NBA guys who cares let’s bring out just the best dunkers period if it’s going to make it more entertaining let’s do that whatever’s better for the product the bottom line is that the Three-Point Contest is completely surpassed it the if we do steps oh my go I don’t think

It’s close I think the Three-Point Contest laps the dunk contest interesting I don’t know dude I still kind of like the dunk contest and like I I think that Mack did some legit cool stuff he did something actually original I liked when he uh jumped over bro and

Then tapped the ball up to himself I thought that that was cool dunking over Shaq obviously everybody dunks over everybody but like it was still pretty freaking sick with the reverse I like the D contest it’s just not great I hated that I hated that dude oh my God Jaylen Brown an intellectual

Man a social activist former captain of his chess team a Berkeley man a scholar through and through brought out kaisen at live on stream to dunk over a 5 foot three man sitting down it was really one of the weakest dunk performances ever from Jaylen and

He somehow got into the final which was insane yeah also by the way just moreon Kenny Kenny said that he didn’t know that haime hawz had bounc and he said that he had never that he didn’t know that Tyrese halberton could shoot from three at this frequency Ty halberton who

Has been having like a a pullup three-point shooting season that only Steph Curry can hit throughout NBA history that’s the one aspect of Allstar Weekend that I do like is when certain analysts open their mouth and you can just tell that they haven’t watched ball this year or something like that and

That’s one of my fun true true anyways real quick before we move on the events that I would like to see actually added to Allstar Weekend things that could actually change the Dynamics the skill challenge sucks we don’t need that the dunk contest and Three-Point Contest are just such

Staples that they’re always going to be around and I think that again we can do more experimenting with the dunk contest the Three-Point Contest is what it is it’s really there’s nothing to change there I would love to see the 1V one tournament I think that would be the

Coolest thing that would be the coolest thing and if you can get dudes in there then they will play with pride I would love to see it happen I don’t know if guys are too concerned about their reputations to even want it to be an event but like that would be a

Dream come true what NBA fan doesn’t want to watch KD and Kyrie play one-on-one like it would be so so entertaining and the other thing that I would like to see is a three onree tournament I would just like to see guys in that environment playing basketball in the

Half court with the super open spacing and then what you do is you just like split up the the full rosters right we have 24 guys you turn that into eight teams of three you set up a little bracket every game is only to 11 and there’s consistent Stakes then so it’s

Not a 48 minute game where it doesn’t matter for 46 minutes no matter what and oh what if we get into a blowout every single time you’re already close to crunch time you’re playing to 11 ones and twos and I just think that that would be so much better for the stakes

It would be different I don’t care that it’s not five on five basketball the five on five basketball game sucks I concur I think those would be awesome additions and I think I think the players would play harder and that’s the point that is what we are trying to

Reach I think the one-on-one tournament would be Immaculate though man and can you imagine like you get the banner I’m the coldest dude in the league I’m the best ISO guy in the league that would mean something I would rather watch them play duck duck goose I would rather

Watch them play London Bridges falling down than watch an entire NBA Allstar game 100 P 100 P I would like to watch them play dodgeball like what if we just started doing other sports that would be more fun to me what about a seven on seven football game at NBA All-Star

Weekend I think guys would try more in that Mel Parson’s played harder in the All-Star Game than any of the NBA Allstars you know why he actually has something to prove he can actually show people hey I’m pretty sick at basketball these guys have nothing to prove they

Have nothing to gain with things as they’re currently constructed so there’s a lot to change okay Richard asks how much defensive impact does wemi have to have in this era for you to consider him a better Defender than Bill Russell great question is it about switchability

Or can he protect the rim at a comparable level and become the best defender ever that way the first thing I’d say about this is it’s really hard to compare across eras because you have to think about in Bill Russell’s era there was no three-point line the most

Valuable shot is a shot at The Rim which in turn means that that’s where guys are trying to get they’re trying to get close to the rim you can funnel guys in and Bill was great as a deterrent in protecting the rim the difference to me is wem’s insane length we’ve never seen

A guy with tools like this 7 foot4 8 foot wingspan uh I mean was just means he can cover more ground he can cover more space he can jump into more passing Lanes he can close out better with less effort and he’s a really fluid athletic

Mover uh for his size and so I mean all that comb mind I mean I Carson I know this has been one of your fundamental takes about wemi for a while but I really do think wemi could be the best defender ever in terms of defensive playmaking in terms of Rim deter in

Terms of rebounding and switchability like yeah I know Victor looks like a giraffe but he does not move like one man he is Nimble you know he moves really fluidly for a guy that size and so I don’t think we can take anything away from Bill Russell you know I think

It’s a disservice to him if you were like first of all I think if you drop Bill Russ in today’s game he could figure it out and he’d be an all-time Defender there I I don’t think that guys because they played in a different era I

Think that if you gave them time to adjust to today’s game a baller is a baller he’s going to be a baller in whatever era you play him in I think Bill Russell would be a great defender would he be less impactful because he’s uh not as great an athlete as the guys

Today because maybe he isn’t as big or strong because our athletes are better today maybe but I still think Bill Russell would be an impactful and great player you know that just doesn’t change but wemi is such a physical specimen that he can just do things that other

Great players can’t he can do things that Bill Russell can’t and because he’s doing this in a tougher era in a more skilled ERA with better athletes with you know better players I do think it’s impressive and I do think he can be the greatest Defender ever it’s just it

Really is hard comparing guys that you know that played damn man I mean 60 years apart it really is tough yeah yeah I think that this is a great question there will likely never be an NBA player who just monoy Mano if you are looking at their impact on team defense within the

Context of their era I doubt anybody ever surpasses Bill Russell’s value in that sense because Bill Russell made the Celtics the best defense in the league 12 of 13 years and he made them the best defense in the league by so much that they won 11 titles despite consistently

Being in the lower half of the league in terms of offensive efficiency that level of singular impact in today’s NBA is probably not possible because of just the different Dynamics like you said spacing right you can’t singularly take the rim in the same way an offensive

Skill is just higher all around to the point where you can’t win titles anymore if you aren’t a good offense and Bill Russell and those Celtics teams were so great defensively that they could but I still think that wemi has a case because I believe in judging people relative to

Their contemporaries that’s my whole thing that’s why I never believe in like the oh that guy played against plumbers thing and Russell dominated defensively versus his contemporaries in a way that we may never see see again but I also think that wemi has an opportunity to

Exceed his peers in a way that we’ve never seen before even if that doesn’t mean every single year with the number one defense because nobody could do that so that like judging people versus their contemporaries goes both ways I think it doesn’t just favor these older players because the game has progressed since

Then and things have changed wemi has the ability to blend alltime Rim protection with that really impressive ability to guard in space in a way that we’ve never seen he has tools like nobody we’ve ever seen he is as a rookie on Pace if he were playing 36 minutes a

Game to be averaging 5.4 combined Steals and blocks per game that’s production that we haven’t seen for many body forget about rookies in 32 years he has already made the Spurs defense so much better in terms of opponent defensive field goal percentage at The Rim he is already among the

League’s Elite Rim protectors so we’ve just never seen anything like him we’ve never seen a 74 dude with an 8 foot wingspan who has great instincts and who moves really well that’s just the reality so ultimately I think that his argument is going to be about that combination and being the best any

Modern big man could possibly be defensively to answer your question so it’s not just about switchability it’s about that combination with this alltime Rim protection that we would have seen from the great defensive bigs of old the aems the David Robinsons both of whom were agile obviously but they weren’t 74

It’s that all-around combination that just makes WBY one of a kind and makes him the potential defensive goat but I mentioned David Robinson dunks and Hoops asks what’s y’all’s perspective of David Robinson’s career do you believe he should have won and done more as a lone

Star or was he held back by the lack of a second star it’s a great question I think it’s one of the best questions in today’s mailbag uh that being said I think it is a little bit of a mixed bag I think David Robinson is probably slightly

Historically overrated in terms of uh his career accomplishments but I also think it’s hard to criticize him when he didn’t have that second guy to turn to you know and tell Tim Duncan he played in 27 career playoff series he was five- six in series Without Tim

Duncan he was 12- four in series with Tim Duncan so obviously he benefited from having him but who wouldn’t right um in 16 of 27 playoff series he was under 20 points per game and he was also under 50% from the field in eight of 27

Playoff series he was at 45% or lower from the field so I think he did underachieve a little bit in his playoff career but again it’s hard when you’re that singular guy that team can key in on and don’t have to respect other players or you have another you know

More guys that you can count on um he didn’t win a title until Tim Duncan came around and he played a lesser role on some of the later title teams so I think uh he can get a little overrated because of that but I think it’s I don’t know

It’s it’s a mixed bag like I I think that it’s a little of both you know what I mean like I think that it is hard to win without a second star but I also don’t think that David Robinson played up to his absolute Apex uh every year in

The playoffs here’s what I think Robinson is a top 30 player ever to me and we did our top 25 players over the summer and I think he is literally the first guy off he’s probably my number 26 player ever and you mentioned some of his shortcomings Logan fair I also think

That we can underrate truly the all-time floor Riser that he was we were just doing our all rookie draft last week and you talked about how he took a 21- win team and yes there were improvements alongside him sea Elliott upgrading the point guard position getting Mo Cheeks and then

Trading him for Rod Strickland but that is a massive massive impact from your star player and consistently like he just made the Spurs an elite team without Elite Talent in the seven years before Duncan they averaged 55 wins a year with Robinson they had four top three defenses he’s

One of the alltime great defensive forces that we’ve ever seen and whenever he went out they just weren’t all that good coming off of a 59 win season in 1997 the year he gets hurt they were three and three when he played and then 17 and 59 without him Shawn Elliott

Misses a lot of games that year too but that’s still absurd and then 1992 he misses some games they were 42 and 26 when he played 5- n when he didn’t so I honestly think that his pre Duncan Legacy in resume is quite similar to kg’s pre- Boston Legacy and resume you

Have these guys who are alltime clearly top 10 alltime Defenders and are still uniquely skilled for Bigs offensively with mid-range shot making with playmaking with their agility overall and they can make you decent enough there but ultimately can that guy be your offensive number one on a title

Team it’s a really tall task I think kg is a little bit different because he was dealing with such comically bad talent for most of those years and I think that his offensive skill scaled a little better he was actually a better playmaker he was a better jump shooter

Robinson had some ugly series before Duncan it’s not that he was awful he averaged 2412 and three on plus 2% true shooting versus League average in the playoffs over those years but his efficiency took a real hit he averaged as many turnovers as assists and generally the trend was that the greater

Offensive players the best guy opposite him if it was AEM dogged him if it was Barkley like that guy would generally went out so for those reasons I think that David Robinson’s Legacy is pretty appropriate in terms of how he’s viewed like he was an awesome floor raiser but

Him taking you all the way as your offensive number one to a title I don’t know if that could have happened it would have required pretty great supporting casts around him but as a defensive anchor and offensive number two I mean he’s one of the best that

We’ve ever seen and that’s what happened with Duncan and it would have been cool if we could have seen a few more years of Robinson if he had come into the league sooner than 24 and if maybe he did have a second star who complimented him in a different way than Duncan like

Defensively what they did was all-time special but maybe like Robinson is your defensive anchor and then you have a big time perimeter shot maker who can be your offensive number one maybe they could have won a title like that but I think that we got a pretty good sense of

Who David Robinson was in those years without Duncan all right one more Spurs question Logan this is from Cameron what does a Trey young to San Antonio trade really look like I need to hear from an unbiased logical point of view so I put this through the trade machine the money

Does work out this could work uh tell me if you think this is enough value I think it is uh I said Kellin Johnson Malachi brandom Trey Jones Blake Wesley a 24 first round pick top six protected from Toronto uh San Antonio is sending back the Hawks their own 2025 first

Round pick they are going to send a 25 first round pick from the Bulls that is top 10 protected and then a 26 first round pick uh Atlanta uh this is Atlanta’s first round they have swap right so Atlanta would get the better of the Spurs Hawks picks basically they

Just get their pick back so to summarize Kellin Johnson Malachi brandom Trey Jones Blake Wesley four first round picks and all the Hawks give up is Trey young the money works out I think it’s approximate value and I mean you’re getting a really great offensive Superstar to pair alongside with wemi I

Think they would complement each other really really well and I think the Spurs desperately need uh they desperately need a point guard they desperately need another guy who can get Buckets uh you’re eliminating Jeremy Sohan point guard minutes completely uh maybe throw him in the deal uh just eliminate him

From San Antonio the important piece of this is that I think you keep Devon vasel I think he’s a really great complimentary number three guy for this team and I wouldn’t want to lose him a hypothetical trade so I think you got to give up some young assets you got to

Give up your starting point guard you got to give up Kellin you got to give up some draft Capital but I think it would be worth it and that’s what I’d give up I absolutely agree that it’s worth it I’m thinking about the particulars of the deal that you’ve proposed I wonder

If you could get away with keeping one of brandom or Trey Jones and maybe you just throw in like Devon Graham there who’s a useless asset but that makes the money work in terms of he’s got a midsize contract through next year but overall I wouldn’t be like oh that’s

Such an overpay because I don’t think that Trey Jones or Malachi brandom is like a must have I would rather have brandom Trey Jones actually really is only valuable in a world where you don’t have Trey young and you need like a capable point guard who can at least do

That basic stuff setting up wemi but I think that that’s pretty much right Kellin Johnson is the shiny young asset and then maybe one or two with a midsize veteran contract that doesn’t really matter and then four first round picks I think that’s pretty appropriate the

Beauty of this for San Antonio and why it can feel like such a win is you can just give the Hawks most of their picks back you don’t really have to give up any of your own picks because they’ve got a couple from other teams as well

But because of the deant trade they have three Hawks picks give them back give them back and give them Kellin Johnson who frankly I don’t think is essential to this team’s future at all I don’t love how he scales to like a real winning basketball team I think he and

Vasel can be a bit redundant and Vel is just kind of better across the board I think that Vel is a more fluid shot Creator I think that he is a better playmaker I think he is a much better peer shooter I think he has better

Defensive tools it’s no a brainer to me between the two of them that vasel is the guy going forward and if you get Trey I mean that’s a championship Duo to me I’m like confident that’s a championship Duo because every issue that we can have about Trey young is

Really about him as your offensive number one or how does he fit alongside other perimeter stars who need to be operating at a decently high volume themselves running pick and roll running offense like can he bring enough value away from the ball can he uh be unselfish enough alongside those guys in

Terms of how he plays basketball if you are pairing him with a great big then that is just like a beautiful relationship where Trey is just going to make wemi the best version of himself I mean he is going to feed that man they are going to be constantly stressing

Defenses and then on the other side of the ball whoever could cover up better for Trey’s deficiencies defensive than Victor wanyama that duo would win a title and if you keep Vel so you have like a really good Wing I mean you just got to figure out those Wing spots and and that

Would be unbelievable that would be awesome okay okay Dylan can you talk about what the Bills should do this offseason I think the primary focus for the Buffalo Bills uh in the draft should be getting a wide receiver that is what I would prioritize you have Dalton

Concade don’t know if you’re going to have Stefan Diggs that is why you make a contingency plan um if you keep Stefan Diggs you have a great number one and a great uh you know you have a great number one QB wide out pairing but then

If you invest and you hit it I like uh I like that neighbors kid uh Malik uh neighbors I like him a lot I also like that uh D what’s that white boy’s name uh from Georgia yeah lad makoni lad makoni that’s white AB man I want that

Kid dude bold High Praise I would take I really I need to I need to look at the NFL draft more it’s coming up fast uh I’ve really I really like those two guys as white outse in the draft and so by doing this you’re either getting a

Really great number two two Stefan Diggs you can ship Gabe Davis off uh wherever he needs to go um boo uh and so it also gives you a contingency plan if Diggs wants to leave or if you want to trade Diggs you can get some more draft Capital reinvest in another position or

Something like that um and you have a guy that can replace him but if you keep everybody you have Diggs you have Conca and you got another guy that you can turn to again I like neighbors he would probably be the guy that I focus in on

The bills would have to trade up big time to get neighbors big time you would um again on the low end maybe you get makoni or something like that wi out to me is where I go in the first two rounds that is where I’m going if I’m Buffalo

After that secondary the Trey White injury uh Micah Hyde getting older uh secondary just getting older up there in age guy sustaining injuries uh pyer like it’s time you have to reinvest there you need to get younger faster you need fresh blood man you got

To get new guys in the secondary and uh next after that I’m investing in the offensive line I don’t think you can ever go wrong up there I’m getting Josh Allen I’m getting James cook some health and then after that I’m getting linebacker depth I think the Buffalo

Bills are really set on their front line I really like what they’ve built they invested a lot of draft Capital uh in their front four in their Edge rushers and in their interior guys and I think it is paid off I think they have solid guys who can get pressure I’d also

Figure out how the hell I am getting off of that Von Miller money I don’t know if there’s anything in that contract I’m trying to get off that as fast as I can and so that’s that’s my order that’s my itinerary in that order wide out secondary offensive line linebacker

Depth go win a chip Buffalo yeah I think that in terms of the draft first round got to go receiver I wouldn’t necessarily expect them to trade up to get into like the Malik neighbors range because then you’re talking about maybe top five definitely top 10 I think it’s more likely that

They end up with like a Brian Thomas junor kind of type uh which I’m going to have to watch more of all these guys to see how much I like them but that just has to be a position that you address because you can’t really have faith in

Diggs sticking around and frankly he just wasn’t good enough down the stretch last season and I think that mutually you might just be at the breaking point in that relationship and then I agree with a lot of what you laid out I mean the secondary Micah future there very

Unclear and his contracts up either way so even if he did want to come back wouldn’t be worth bringing back in my opinion I really would like to resign Daquon Jones he was awesome on the interior defensively really would like to resign Leonard Floyd uh because he

Was just a phenomenal Edge rusher and then I think that in terms of linebackers like Dodson is up Taylor rap is up in the secondary like there’s some good depth pieces guys who were sort of diam in the rough for the bills I think you got to bring those guys back but

Ultimately it’s going to be about getting younger defensively and therefore ideally being healthier and it’s going to be about just giving that little bit of juice to the group of weapons offensively and getting ready for a post Stefon Diggs World okay one last quick question Evan

Asks can you just talk about the Hornets they’re my team and the media stops talking about teams like them after the All-Star break but we’re three and0 since adding the new guys and I think we could be a playoff team next year I don’t know about that I mean I

Like the enth iasm young man I I’ll hold out hope I like a lot of the young pieces uh in Charlotte Brandon Miller I think is a superstar he is a stud I love watching lamelo ball play uh and I want to give a big shout out I have not

Tooted my horn about this guy I really like Trey man out of the draft I was uh saddened that he was kind of buried at the bottom of the bench uh in Oklahoma City you know it sucks because there’s a lot of talented guys like I distinctly

Remember Trey man and Duce McBride were you know two of my favorite guards and it sucked you know because there’s an abundance of great scoring guards and guys who have bags it’s hard to crack rotation like again put it into context I’ve watched a lot of M mclung in the G

League m mclung is an NBA player that guy is a NBA rotational point guard I believe so I think he is good enough to be on a roster maybe not rotation but at least good enough to be on a roster and you see what he can do a guy like that

Not even in the league you know what I mean and so for a lot of guys it’s just tough cracking rotations so to see Trey Mann finally get some burn um with the Hornets he’s 147 and seven on 46 46 100 splits uh he’s got a butter smooth game

I like his handle I like his floater game um the Hornets are a fun team I hate Grant Williams like I think Grant Williams sucks I think you guys should 17 game 17 a game can’t miss in Charlotte I suppose uh so good luck with Grant I like what they’re doing though I

Like that Charlotte is uh I like that Charlotte has picked a direction that they’re getting younger they moved off Gordon Hayward this year they moved off Terry Rosier I’m glad that they’ve picked a direction I’m glad they’re giving minutes to young guys I really like uh Brandon Miller lamelo ball Trey

Man um I think the Hornets are finally moving toward something better playoffs next year I think is a little ambitious but yeah stranger things have happened and the truth is Stranger Than Fiction I probably wouldn’t bet on it I would say the Hornets are probably

Two years away if that um from being a legit playoff team I really think we have to see how lamelo and Brandon Miller uh get together and I think the biggest thing is just going to be it sucks man it really reminds me of the Washington Wizards the biggest thing

With these young teams that have been in the dregs for so long is just building a culture and getting these guys ready to play defense you know I think you need a culture Setter like a Mike Brown think about how Mike Brown came into Sacramento talented team didn’t have a

Culture he gave them an identity he made them really great on offense and what did that lead to it led to them giving a ton of effort defensively and they played really hard that has to be your idea in Charlotte you have the talent it’s about getting these guys to buy in

Play hard night to night and really lock in defensively uh they got to reestablish the culture there in Charlotte if they can get that to happen I think Charlotte can uh can get out of this hole that they’re in and finally make a playoff push there still a ways

Away I think that Brandon Miller is obviously awesome and over the last couple months has just really established that well really last month he’s been playing so exceptionally well Trey man I think is a good find because he’s a skilled basketball player and I think that his playmaking has been fun

And has been impressive and you see he’s just Shifty he’s just a creative ball handler he’s got like that pullup shot making he’s fun dude he’s fun I kind of think that he’s more fun than he is easy to fit into a lineup like generally he’s

Nice though he’s nice he is nice he’s always been nice but it’s like when you’re not going to be a lead guard you got to be the guy who does the little stuff you probably got to be a little bit of a bigger more physical two-way

Guard and that’s just not Trey man but maybe he’s just a nice ass six man like that’s kind of what I thought of him as a prospect that’s what I can see for him going forward outside of that I know that for Hornets fans winning three games is like winning the freaking Super

Bowl and congratulations on that I don’t really know where these guys figure into your future outside of Trey like Grant right he’s he’s solid and he’s going to help teams that are trying to get over the hump but that’s kind of the spot that I think you want him in meic it’s

Been like really fun to see him actually getting some minutes because he’s a super skilled passer and he’s got like that sort of Veteran Poise but I think that he’s a backup point guard in the league so I don’t see a lot that’s really meaningfully changing in terms of

The new guys and with where the Hornets are at it’s like you’re not really at the point where those little depth moves on the margins getting those vets move the needle but congratulations on winning three games that’s something all right the remaining questions are going

To be really not about the NBA or the NFL so we’ll run through those noodles asks who’s the first team you’re rebuilding on NCAA football 25 Logan uh I’m gonna have to watch gameplay first I want to get this out there I am very skeptical about EA Sports putting effort

Uh into any thing uh I loved Madden when I was a kid with my whole heart I started with Madden 2000 playing with my dad on the PS2 from a very young age I graduated to Mad 06 I’ve played every Madden for Mad 06 up to the current

Madden and I am frankly I’ve been disappointed and let down by every Madden that has been released since 2013 uh EA Sports is a bad company I do not support them uh I think that they half ass their game I think that ESPN NFL 2K5

Is better I I just have a lot of issues with the game play and uh the predatory uh microtransaction uh things that go down in those games there is a clear lack of effort and a clear emphasis on just making money every year that I just

Despise for Madden so I need to see that it’s a great gameplay game before I’m going to purchase it that being said man I love the old college football games and the team that I always played with was UVA UVA sucks in every football game and I would play quarterback for them

I’m not a rebuild guy I’m a Road to Glory guy so I would interesting I would play quarterback I would make myself a lefty uh I would be vanilla Vic um really fast really Speedy uh I was like in a consistently I would just drop back

And pass every play I never handed it off I’d throw for like 4,000 yards I’d rush for a thousand I was I was basically Cam Newton uh and I took UVA thought you were vanilla Vic I was Vanilla Vic but if I had to get were you

Slighter no let’s be honest slight quick you were big okay I was 65 225 I was tank um but I was agile so if I’m if I’m going to get the game if it’s a good product if the game play is really solid

I will buy it I will play it um but I’m taking UVA I’m going to play QB and uh I’m leading them to the chip I miss those old college football games man I don’t know if you played them they were fun as hell you don’t know if I played

Them Logan they are like my favorite game dude because my favorite part of any sports video game is roster building really like I think that that’s the most fun part because the game play is always going to be flawed and of course like it’s fun but you play enough 2K and you’re like

All right cool these certain few things are just broken and it can get repetitive because you’re like oh well it turns out in the new 2k games I haven’t played the last couple but you know starting in like 20 or whatever if you just have a really fast athlete and

You sprint down the court you can score four 40 points in transition every game and it’s like that sucks but also if it works why wouldn’t I do it every video game has some little thing like that I really like the old NCAA gameplay but I’m looking for over on my camera roll

Here dude I from what was the game mode called where you would build it wasn’t dynasty was it uh yeah no it was Dynasty it was Dynasty bro I have so many screenshots of the careers of all of my players I think from a uh from a

Specific Dynasty that I did with my friend Carville like it’s ridiculous I have hundreds and hundreds of screenshots just of these dudes in their career stats I never look at them but it would be terrifying to me if I didn’t have access to them so that’s what I’d

Be focused on and I’m rebuilding the cow Bears I’m bringing the cow Bears to glory and by the way that asked me that reminds me one person asked how I ended up as a bills and Cal fan I’m from the Bay Area my dad went to Cal that’s why

I’m a cal fan I’m a Bills fan because of my friend Carville who I just mentioned his family they’re big Bills fans and I always watch football at their house growing up boom two birds one Stone I just wanted to say the reason the game play is flawed now is because uh the

Game engines that these games are built on specifically Madden in the PlayStation 2 era the madens and the old NCAA football games were built on football engines they were specifically football games football physics all about football and now they run games on firstperson Shooters uh engines so the graphics look

Better and me personally as a football it’s a football game all the guys have helmets on I really don’t care what they look like under the helmet if we could sacrifice graphics for gameplay like literally I I mean this like if Madden dropped a remastered version of like any

Of the old madens on the PS2 or any of the college football games I’d buy that in a heartbeat because the game play is fun and that should be the goal of any game to make the game play fun yeah recruiting is so fun but what the hell

Is recruiting going to be like now with nil like am I going to have to like throw a d a house am I going to have to be like hey how do you like this Lakeside Mansion I hadn’t thought about that dude I think we are I think we’re

Gonna have to be shelling out cash bro but it’s all right it’s still going to be fun all right I’m gonna solo this one from yunker Zack he says he needs the feder versus jokovic goat debate I’ll be pretty pretty straightforward here I don’t think it’s that much of a debate

Anymore you can look at basically any metric weeks at number one jokovic is far past Federer now slams he’s got 24 still adding to that fed has 20 Masters 1000s he has more like just across the board all of these accomplishments he exceeds him and then I think if you are

Putting the context in around those the way in which jokovic has acred all of those accomplishments is more impressive because he did it in a tougher era like 2011 when he first ascends the throne and has his all-time great season his first of several 2015 I would say he was

Even better but he does that when rth was coming off of his best year ever fed is still very near his Peak fed racks up a lot of slams in that 2004 to 07 range where really nobody could challenge him outside of Rafa at the French who in

Terms of grass and hard wasn’t the player he would become Novak jokovic racked up this completely unparalleled uh resume of accomplishments beating the best generation in tennis history outside of him going head-to-head against the two other top three players ever and Annie Murray who in any other generation like

Would have been one of the top two guys and beating all of them outplaying all of them against top 10 on any surface I think he’s the greatest all-around player ever when you account for his dominance I mean on grass he absolutely goes toe-to-toe with fed on hard he is

The greatest player ever and on Clay I mean outside of Borg and Rafa You could argue he’s the greatest player ever Fed was never dominant like that on Clay so I don’t think it’s a debate anymore Logan you agree right d I completely agree man yeah nook’s the goat he’s been

The goat I’ve been telling people he was going to be the goat now he’s got the longevity and the raw accomplishments to justify that bro is insane Flawless bayat asks do you guys like one piece or anime in general uh I’ve watched one anime uh it

Was Jiu-Jitsu kaisen I that in with the boy car and our friend group it was an electric time I enjoyed it immensely uh please put me on with others yeah I’ll put you on buddy by the way season two of kaen is out and it is sweeping the

Globe everybody’s talking about it I’m actually not totally caught up I’m Midway through but that’s a good one I’ve never watched One Piece One Piece is just an insane investment it’s like a thousand episodes Logan you know I don’t really have time for that yeah but I

Have watched several anime back on Titan is my favorite Death Note was the first I ever saw really gripped me outside of that what have I seen it gripped me bro it riveted me it captivated me okay can you stop being so filthy for God’s sakes for one moment of your rotten little

Life so I’m I’m an anime enjoyer but not an anime Enthusiast I would say you know I’m not just inherently going to be interested in something because it’s anime but if something’s really good I will not restrict myself from it just because it is Anime so there you go okay

Carville asks who shot the sheriff Carson yeah all right fair enough and last question from Jay Lars if you guys were to make videos about sports other than football basketball WWE tennis what would you pick dude I don’t know because my areas of expertise don’t uh go far

Beyond let me rephrase the question for the boy then because he kind of took our answers I feel like the easier question here is sports other than football and basketball and then we could say oh Logan would do WWE and I would do tennis but Jay Lars already knows that those

Would be our answers and outside of that I don’t think any of our bags go that deep so I’ll rephrase the question forget about sports if you were to make videos about anything other than those topics what would you pick I guess I would do like Dr

Pepper Dr Pepper is not a bad answer probably Day in the Life for like me video reactions hey life hold on like like like what’s that bro who like sets up cameras everywhere he goes oh no dude those kill me those kill me Day in the

Life wow so you’d be you’d be a modern day vlogger something I mean but like I wouldn’t I’m GNA be honest dude those would bore me I wouldn’t put enough effort into those to really make them high quality I guess like when I go play pick up I guess I would just do

Basketball videos of me actually hooping I guess that’s kind of a cop out cuz he said not basketball or football but yeah Cop Out find something else the the only thing that I do consistently enough is hoop so the only content no what about things you’re passionate about why does

It have to be you filming yourself going about your day-to-day routine dude the thing I’m most passionate about is basketball the thing I enjoy doing most is playing basketball so that would probably be what I do videos on maybe fishing if I was back in Virginia we get

Some fishing content there we go that moves the needle come on what’s your favorite fish you’ve ever caught oh man this one summer I worked with my dad out at this house house and they uh they used to have this army base that they stocked the pond at Great

White you got great white if the truck had too much fish they would come out to this one house and they would dump all the fish in there and so this one summer when I was working with my dad dude every time I cast it out I was basically

Reeling one in man I caught well you were juicing I was it was a Juiced Pond man yeah you were juicing bro that’s steroid era numbers you’re never going to get in the hall with that on your resume I used uh I used these lizard bait that you could make dance yeah I’m

Sure you did those are outlawed yeah they’re illegal and then guess get this after I caught the fish I cuted it open and I put weights in there to make it like 20 lbs and then I’d be like dude I caught this 20 lb fish today it was like

Fake numbers I Juiced them dude that was the funniest thing the BR who were putting weights in their fish you saw that right I did yeah man that was insane I didn’t know if you would just come up with that off the Dome and I was

Going to say I’ve got a story for you you pal mine what would I do videos about great question movies and in fact you know what Logan I think I’m GNA do an Oscars podcast this year for nerd sesh by myself because I don’t think you’ve seen enough of the movies and I

Don’t think you would be interested I’ve seen all of the best picture nominees so I’ve got a really informed opinion this year that’s a good answer I would say maybe video games too video games are a big passion I like sports video games but I was Hardcore when I was a kid so

Maybe that’s an answer too but uh basketball is where my heart is at and then I would do a breakdown of whether or not Warren G Harding MW it I thought you were going to do a twerk video though all right no no again we’re not having this conversation again

I would love a Carson torque video I think that would go hard all right guys that’s going to do it for us here today sorry that we went a little long on this one but we wanted to get to as many of your questions as we could hope you

Enjoyed if you did there’s all always more nerd sesh content follow us across social Tik Tok Instagram @ nerd sesh Twitter nerd SES listen to the Pod across audio platforms watch the pod on our YouTube channel check out our video breakdowns I just did one on kristof’s porzingis that’s on our YouTube channel

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And with that as always I’ve been Carson braber I have been Logan cden and this was nerd sash

The nerds answer all YOUR questions in the latest mailbag episode! How do we fix the broken NBA all-star weekend? Can Donovan Mitchell and the Cleveland Cavaliers truly contend? Is CJ Stroud ready to make the Houston Texans a contender? Did Warren G. Harding mew?

Timeline
0:00 Are Cavs a threat to win it all?
10:55 Which “elite” teams are pretenders?
17:10 Rewriting NBA history
30:50 Where does Stroud rank as a QB?
38:00 NBA Darkhorses out West
42:13 Favorite NBA teams to watch
47:50 Fixing NBA All-Star Weekend
1:05:00 How can Wemby be defensive GOAT?
1:10:20 David Robinson legacy talk
1:15:24 Trae Young to Spurs trade
1:19:50 Bills off-season plans
1:24:08 Hornets talk
1:29:00 Vibey questions

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