Takes

The Knicks will win their first-round series against the Hawks

I do think the Knicks are going to win this series. I do think they'll make adjustments. And I love that the Mecca leads the league in dudes rocking jerseys with nothing underneath. It's fucking awesome.

It should be easier to hit a shot if you are seeing three hoops like LeBron James claimed

Actually, if we're actually going into LeBron's brain and seeing through his eyes, shouldn't that make it easier to hit the shot if there are three hoops? It should have counted. he said he shot at the one in the middle. It went in the one in the middle.

The Lakers will repeat as NBA Champions

I think, unfortunately, the Lakers are going to repeat. what you saw in the second half when he's – even though he's never going to be 100% again, [LeBron] just decides, like, oh, yeah, I remember I'm LeBron and I can go to the rim whenever I want and I can dominate this game.

The Celtics would beat the 76ers if they matched up in the 2021 playoffs

If we were playing the Sixers, we'd beat them. I'll say that right now. If we were playing the Sixers, we'd beat them.

The NBA Play-In should only be a one-game sudden death between the 8 and 9 seeds

I just think that do 8-9. I'm cool with 8-9. I think the 7-10 thing is stupid. 8-9 sun death. One game. Yes, exactly. Eight, nine, sudden death, one game. Yes, exactly.

The NBA play-in tournament is stupid

I've decided I'm not going to be Mr. No Fun. I'll just let the playing game happen. I'm not going to tweet that this is stupid. I'm just going to sit here and be right in my silence because... This was stupid.

The Wizards are a regular season team not built for the play-ins

The Wizards are not built for the play-ins, the regular season team. But we do get another game of play-in basketball in Washington.

You cannot win in the NBA when Robin Lopez is your go-to guy

I also think anytime Robin Lopez is like your go-to guy... You're probably not going to win that game. Doing some post moves on everyone's ass.

The NBA's current play-in tournament structure for the 7th and 8th seeds is stupid.

I just hate that they — like, they had something good. Eight versus nine is good... When you add the 10th seed, it's stupid. And the fact that the 7th seed could potentially not make the playoffs is even dumber. I just hate the whole thing.

The Wizards could beat the Brooklyn Nets in the first round of the NBA playoffs.

I think that if the Wizards beat the Celtics, if they end up matching up against the Nets, I think that the Wizards could actually beat the Nets in the first round.

If the Nets reach the NBA Finals before the Celtics do, they officially won the Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett trade.

The Nets have a chance to possibly get to the finals or win the NBA championship. Would they have officially won the trade with the Celtics when they traded all those guys and they got all the picks back because the Nets would be in the finals before the Celtics were?

Joel Embiid is the most dominant player in the NBA right now.

Embiid is, you could make the argument, is the most dominant player right now in the NBA... Joel Embiid, when healthy, is the most dominant player in the NBA.

LeBron James will hobble into the playoffs then start dropping triple-doubles on everyone

I think LeBron's going to be like Willy Wonka coming to the gate. Like, he's just hobbling, hobbling, hobbling, does a tumble, and now he's just dropping triple-doubles in everyone's face. Like, I think he's going to be fine.

The Wizards are the least consequential team in all of sports

I would make the argument that the Wizards are probably the least consequential team to ever pay attention to in all of sports.

The NBA play-in tournament is stupid because a 7th seed can miss the playoffs

I still think it's stupid that you could finish with the seventh seed and not make the playoffs. That part is very dumb to me.

The Celtics weren't going to make any noise in the playoffs anyway

They weren't going to make any noise in the playoffs anyway.

SlamBall will definitely be back on television in the U.S. within five years

Oh, 100%. 100% [chance SlamBall is back on US TV in five years].

The NBA should make dunks worth three points to fix the league's geometry

I actually think the NBA is going to have to adopt that dunks being worth three in order to change the geometry of what's happening in the NBA right now. First and foremost is you have to stop people from attacking the rim, right?

Luka Doncic is getting very close to being a dirty player

Luka Doncic is getting very close to being, like, a dirty player... And he already gets people mad at him because he complains about every call. So, like, you can't—then you just become Chris Paul.

LeBron James is laying the groundwork for the greatest underdog story ever with his injury excuses

LeBron James is laying the groundwork for one of the greatest underdog stories of all time... LeBron James came back from his ankle injury. Bron James said, on his first game back... getting back to 100% is impossible. I don't think I'll ever be back to 100% in my career. Poor little LeBron James is just out there.

Russell Westbrook deserves significantly more respect for averaging a triple-double for a fourth season

Russell Westbrook doesn't get enough respect. This is now the fourth season that he will average a triple-double for the entire season. He could record zero points, zero rebounds, and zero assists in all the rest of the games this season, and he would still have a triple-double... The dude is fucking crazy. He's really, really good.

Lou Dort is the best on-ball defender in the NBA

He is absolutely the best on-ball defender. He will lock you down. Lou Dort, he's the best. Dort-your-chamber.

Joel Embiid's missed full-court heave against the Suns is the best shot in NBA history.

I don't care that it didn't go in. I think that is the best shot... that's the best shot in NBA history. ... The process of that shot, I'm not going to base whether or not it was a good shot off if it went in. ... The most incredible thing I've ever seen on a basketball court.

Nikola Jokic is the NBA MVP.

Jokic is our MVP. I was reminded we're nuggets podcast. ... 7% credit. All I was saying was I was just throwing it out there.

Steph Curry should be the 2021 NBA MVP

Steph for MVP. Do it. I think Steph Curry should be the most valuable player of the league. You cannot tell the story of the NBA in the year 2021 without mentioning Steph Curry.

Steph Curry is the greatest shooter in the history of basketball and deserves more respect

I think that we're in the specific zone now where we don't respect Steph Curry enough... we should just remember the fact that we're watching literally the greatest shooter of all time play basketball. So we should just enjoy that and be like, holy shit, Steph Curry is awesome all the time. He is that much better of a shooter than everyone else in the history of basketball.

Zion Williamson will eventually become a New York Knick

Big time shout out to Zion for just knowing exactly what he was doing... he goes, thank you for asking me that question. Then went on for about a minute and a half talking about how New York City is his favorite place in the world to play basketball... I think, I mean, he's got to become a Knick now, right?

LaMarcus Aldridge is not a Hall of Famer

[Speaker 2]: is LaMarcus Aldridge a Hall of Famer? [PFT Commenter]: Nah. Hang on, hang on. Let me just be strong.

The Nuggets are 'cooked' for the season after Jamal Murray's injury

Jamal Murray tears ACL. So the Nuggets are cooked and that does suck because they actually were like one of those teams like, oh, maybe if they get a nice run going. So we're going to be Jazz fans now.

James Harden is the best player on the Brooklyn Nets

The Brooklyn Nets this year, they are 36-17. They are 27-7 with James Harden playing, and they are 9-10 without. James Harden is the best player in the Brooklyn Nets.

Alex Rodriguez is buying the Timberwolves specifically to move them to Seattle

It's definitely a move, though, for A-Rod. He is buying that team to move it. To Seattle.

If a player scores while committing a charge, the basket should still count

To fix the charge rule, because this is one of those things where there's so many and it's kind of annoying where it's like there's too many charges. They should make it so that if you score, it counts. No matter what.

Every team Kevin Durant joins becomes 'whack'

Every team KD goes to, he makes them whack, you know? I love the Warriors. The Warriors were cool. They had their thing going. And then KD showed up to the party and was like, wait, guys, include me. And then I hated the Warriors. And then, you know, he went to the Nets. And now they're like, you know... If they don't win the championship, they're so whack.

LeBron James never would have won the 2020 title if fans were in the stands

LeBron. Because he never would have won a title if there were fans. Seriously.

Kevin Durant has actually become more likable by being more online

Kevin Durant is the most online person of all time. I think he has done the impossible. Usually when people are more online, they become worse people... Kevin Durant has become more likable by being online more.

People are overreacting to the Nets signing LaMarcus Aldridge

LaMarcus Aldridge signing with the Nets had everyone upset. I still don't understand why. Everyone does the tweet where it's like, look how many All-Stars the Nets have... This is they're doing everyone who's upset about this is doing my Kevin White bit being like Kevin White's a top 10 pick. Eventually you get old and LaMarcus Aldridge, great career, but he's not LaMarcus Aldridge of five, ten years ago.

The Chicago Bulls are finally building a winning culture by trading for Nikola Vucevic

The Bulls basically took the entire Garpax regime and threw it in the trash can today, which was awesome. Vucevic coming to Chicago... I'm sick of missing the playoffs and getting the seventh pick and getting a guy that we have to wait on and hope is good. If you want to eventually be a team that can win in the playoffs, you have to make the playoffs. You have to have a culture of hey, we're trying to compete.

The Boston Celtics have no chance of beating the Brooklyn Nets or Miami Heat in the playoffs

There's no way we're winning. There's no way we're beating the Nets. We're probably not going to beat the Heat again. That's what sucks about the NBA is where there's really only a few teams that are going to make the finals.

Rajon Rondo was the main reason the Lakers won the 2020 NBA title

Rondo really was the reason why they won the title. [Rondo] the LeBron stopper. People forget, Rondo really was the reason why they won the title.

The Los Angeles Clippers will not do anything in the 2021 NBA playoffs

I don't really expect the Clippers to do jack shit in the playoffs again this year, but it'll be nice to see [Rondo] out there.

A basketball team's pace of play does not correlate to their defensive efficiency

I don't think pace of play correlates to defensive efficiency at all, which you can tell. I mean, we're top three in the country in defensive efficiency. We've been number one for a few weeks... on our offense is one of the fastest, if not the fastest in power five. So I think we can still push the pace on offense and then demand a lot out of them on defense and get stops.

Steph Curry and the Warriors will win the NBA title this year

I think Steph Curry on the West will take it... [Big Cat: No way, are they going to even make the playoffs?] Steph Curry definitely not going to win. LeBron going to take it. My underdogs is Steph Curry.

The Brooklyn Nets will win the Eastern Conference

I think the Nets are going to win it in the East. They just got our guy Blake Griffin, so that will be the final piece.

Buddy Boeheim should be the #1 pick for the Houston Rockets and will be a 10-time NBA All-Star

Buddy Boeheim would be my number one pick if I were the Houston Rockets. Buddy Boeheim, dude, he can't miss. He's shooting 55% from three... I'm telling you, he is going to be a 10-time All-Star in the NBA.

I considered Boston, Golden State, and Portland before signing with the Nets

I will tell you some of the teams... I really liked Boston. I really liked Golden State. I really liked Portland. There was a few other teams... but I had a tough decision. But ultimately, I had to do what was best for me and I think my ability to get a dunk.

Coaches need to stop calling isolation plays and start calling real sets at the ends of games

I'm just stating facts in the interest of fairness, Big Cat. Coaches need to call actual plays at the ends of games. They need to stop with the ISO, and then the guy has the ball, dribbles it three times between his legs, and then shoots from 25 feet because Steph Curry ruined basketball.

The Bulls are one year away from being title contenders

Obviously, I wanted [Blake Griffin] to go to the Bulls, but I think the Bulls are probably a year away from being title contenders. Yeah, one year. One year away from being title contenders. And I still have actually enjoyed watching this Bulls team, and I have high hopes for them to make the playoffs.

Blake Griffin will dunk for the first time since 2019 this year

I'm really hoping that Blake goes there and then he can just immediately play like old Blake again. Change of scenery will be good for him. He's going to dunk for the first time since 2019. Mark my words. 2021 is the year of Blake Griffin dunking again.

Replay review has ruined the watchability of basketball

Review in NBA and college basketball has ruined the watchability of basketball games because it just the last five minutes take forever. And they look at every little piece of the game and did it go off this guy? It was unwatchable. They need to dial it back.

There should be a shot clock on replay reviews

I want there to be a shot clock on reviews because not only would it speed it up and make it, like, if you can't figure it out within 30 seconds, stop, right?