Takes

Spencer Dinwiddie's career might be over after being nicknamed 'Dinshiddie'

This was his first game since Kyle Kuzma called him Dinshiddie, which is a great, great nickname... and he wasn't good... I don't wanna overstate it, but when you get called Dinshiddie, it might be a wrap.

The Kings winning Game 1 against the Warriors counts as a tournament win for John Calipari

Does this count as a tournament win for Cal? Absolutely. Because De'Aaron Fox and Malik Monk, both in their playoff debut, go for over 30... I think Cal should be like, update the record books. The Kings beat the Warriors game One with two of my guys.

Diar DeRozan single-handedly won the play-in game for the Bulls against the Raptors

Diar DeRozan stole the story of the play-in game on Wednesday night. She single-handedly stopped the Toronto Raptors... She was screaming so loud before every free throw that the Raptors took in a dead silent arena. The Raptors went 18 for 36 from the free throw line. Ended up losing the game by what four? It was she won that game for the Bulls.

Diar DeRozan is the #1 overall NBA daughter

She's great. She's way better than Riley Curry. Yes. Before ranking NBA daughters, I got her one A in my daughter draft. I think that she was, she was great.

I aspire to coach in the NBA someday

No, I'm not, I, I've still got some, I got some developing to do on the sideline. There's no one coaching like me in the NBA. They're not ready... I do believe, I mean, that is something I aspire to, you know, down the road. You know, I love college. I, I hope I could, you know, continue to put UConn in this position moving forward.

The Lakers are the scariest team to ever come out of the play-in tournament

But the Lakers to me are the scariest team to ever come out of the play tournament. Does that mean they're gonna [make] the finals? Of course not, but geez Yeah. LeBron James Anthony Davis. That's a pretty scary seven seed, don't you think?

The 76ers have the most 'legacy at stake' this postseason

Until we see it, you know, it's fair to hang that on [James Harden] a little bit and if there's one player and one team who has sort of a legacy at stake, this postseason... it's the Philadelphia 76ers. And the other one I would say is Doc Rivers is part of that. It's not just James. Doc Rivers hasn't been a great playoff coach in the last five, 10 years either.

The Cleveland Cavaliers will win an NBA title in the 2020s

I also love this Cleveland Cavalier team... I'm really eager to see how they do, I don't think they're at the status of Milwaukee or Boston yet guys, but that team I'm buying stock on them winning a title in the 2020s. And they could, they could surprise this year.

The Suns will come out of the Western Conference

The west is drunk. Nobody has any idea what to happen... look, I use regular season numbers to try to predict, but the suns weren't, the suns... until very late in the season. They're two of the betting favorites now to come outta the west... I will predict that the suns are gonna come outta the west. It hinges on Kevin Durant's Health.

The Bucks will beat the Suns in the NBA Finals

First finals prediction is a 2021 rematch bucks suns... I think if either of those guys has to miss games, which is reasonable to expect, unfortunately that suns prediction would fall apart pretty fast... So my first son's, my first is sun's bucks and I take the bucks and that matchup.

The 76ers will beat the Nuggets in the NBA Finals

And without a doubt, I think this year's finals is gonna be a battle of these MVP Big Men. It's gonna be the 76ers against the nuggets. Wow. Embiid, Jokic, centers are back... and I'm taking Joel Embiid and the Sixers to win their first title since 1983. So Wow. Ending a 40 year drought. You can just book it.

The NBA was always going to figure out a way to get LeBron James and the Lakers into the playoffs

I think everybody out there with a pulse that's ever seen basketball or heard of the state of Minnesota before, knew that the Timberwolves were gonna give this up. The Lakers were gonna come back. The NBA, David Stern was gonna figure out a way for LeBron James to advance to the playoffs.

I won't respect the NBA Play-In tournament until a play-in team wins a title

I like it [the play-in] in theory because more basketball, more fun. These teams suck. These teams aren't gonna like... I need a play-in tournament team to win a title for me to start respecting the play-in tournament. Because the NBA playoffs like historically are the, you know, the top seeds are usually the teams that you see at the end.

The Minnesota Timberwolves are legitimately better without Rudy Gobert

Lakers in advanced the T-Wolves, let's say, let's do, let's do some positive spin zones for the T-Wolves. Okay. One, I think they're better without Rudy Gobert. Yeah. Like legitimately, you can make the case on defense that they need somebody like that to protect the rim. But on offense, they are like, I don't think it's even a debate right now. They work better... without 'em.

The Celtics will beat the Hawks in five games

We'll get, we'll give 'em [the Hawks] one game just cuz it's the NBA. You never know what's gonna happen. Maybe they win a home game. Celtics in five. If it goes six something went seriously wrong.

The Dallas Mavericks made the correct decision to tank while still mathematically alive

The Mavs were still alive to make the playing game... and they're like, fuck it. We'd rather keep our own pick... I know that people are mad about the Mavs move, but if you're trying to keep your pick winning that game and potentially having a Hail Mary... and then having to win those games to get swept, like I'm not, if I were a Mavs fan, I'd be fine with it.

Kyrie Irving is getting better at breaking up franchises in record time

Kyrie skipped his exit interview with the Mavericks. Kyrie decided he was done with the season. So Kyrie kind of just congrats to Kyrie. He's getting better at breaking up franchises in record time.

The 2023 NBA postseason is Chris Paul's championship to lose

I still think that it's Chris Paul's. This is his postseason to lose. If he doesn't get a championship, it's like, what are you doing Chris Paul? This is the one time that you have.

Joel Embiid officially clinched the MVP with his 52-point performance against the Celtics

Joel Embiid are like goldfish. It's just the last thing they saw. So he had the 52 point game against the Celtics on Tuesday night... I feel like that performance in a game against the Celtics was like, alright, officially Embiid is the MVP.

The Lakers are a legitimate threat as they climb the Western Conference standings

The Lakers... they are climbing up the west... Seeds four through 10 right now are separated by four and a half games. Damn. And Lakers are right there at eight. Are the Lakers back? They have LeBron and AD.

UConn will have two back-to-back blowouts to win the National Championship

I feel like we're in store for two Yukon [UConn] blowouts back to back... I get all I really need out of this Final Four is just one close game.

Every great tournament run includes a scary moment early on

It seems like every big run when you look at national champions, when you look at Final Four participants, usually out of their first four or five games, they had one really scary moment... Fortunately for us, we didn't have to bank in an 80 footer or anything like that.

College basketball should have one universal ball for every team to use

It seems like we should have one universal ball for college basketball for every team to use... every game we go to we have to practice a different, we have a closet full basketballs, we have to practice with a different one every week depending on where we're playing. So I would think it's time for, for all of us to come together and... have one basketball for the betterment of the game.

Kevin Durant is having the greatest mid-range season in 25 years

Kevin Durant is... arguably having the greatest mid-range season in the history since we've been tracking this for 25 years and he's breathing life into it and it's beautiful to watch... Kevin's almost 60% right now. It's incredible.

The Phoenix Suns could win the NBA title primarily using the mid-range game

Devin Booker on his team and Chris Paul on his team, the Phoenix Suns this year have a chance not only win the championship but doing it in the mid-range.

Nikola Jokic is giving up more points on layups than any player in the tracking era

He's giving up more points per game on layups as the closest defender of any player in the player tracking era, which is now 10 years. And so I brought that up because it's in the heat of this... chance for the Nuggets to finally get out of the Western Conference for Jokic to be a three time MVP.

No team has won a title with a defense ranked 11th or worse in decades

No NBA team has won the championship with a defense that's ranked 11th or worse in the regular season in a very long time... The Denver Nuggets are not checking that box. So... you get exposed if you play Giannis in a seven game series.

The Milwaukee Bucks are the favorites coming out of the Eastern Conference

They deserve to be the favorites. They have the best record without Chris [Middleton] a lot of the year. I think they, they deserve to be the favorites coming out of the East.

The NBA should bring back the 'one-and-one' free throw rule

When you make millions of dollars to shoot free throws, we, we don't need you to take one-on-one. Yeah. Like bring the one-on-one to the NBA. I think that's one thing we could do to actually increase the risk for some of these these guys.

The Philadelphia 76ers are currently in a complete free fall

My hot seat is the Philadelphia 76ERs. They're in a complete, complete free fall. Lost four outta the last five they played. Yoic. Everyone's talking about Embiid versus Yoic for mvp. MBI wasn't even man enough to play. James Harden also didn't play kind of a bullshit excuse like calf soreness.

The Timberwolves are a solid bet to win the NBA championship at +15,000

I put a future on the Timberwolves. Ooh. 15 plus 15,000 Whoa. On these guys and they beat the Kings. ... No, I'm saying they win two series, then you can hedge out and make a shitload of money. ... All of a sudden I'm sitting on a gold mine over here.

The Celtics will not win a championship because Joe Mazzulla is too religious

The Celtics can suck my dick. I think ever since Joe Mazzulla... do you see where he, when the fucking, the Queen of England or whatever, or the prince came to visit? They asked about that and he was like, I, I thought the only royal family was Jesus, Mary and Joseph. And I was like, all right, they're gonna lose. No fucking bitch ass nerd who says something like that is winning a fucking championship.

Players who play in Europe for 15 years often have a better life than fringe NBA players

I would actually say that a lot of players that end up doing the thing where they go to Europe and they play for 12, 15 years and they bounce around Europe all the time, they might have a better life than a guy that makes it to the NBA. Gets paid a shitload of money and maybe doesn't get, you know, doesn't sniff a championship. Maybe you're coming off the bench... going over and playing overseas in Europe or in New Zealand or Australia. That's probably a pretty good life.

Luka Doncic should think about leaving the Mavericks

If I was Luca, I would think about leaving Dallas.

Lakers fans are just bandwagon fans

Fuck the Lakers dude. Every time they had fucking playoff games, no one will come out. Could be up three-nothing in the first round as a one seed. And people are like, 'wow, they're such fucking bandwagon fans.' Fuck all of them.

LeBron James is a better Laker than Kobe Bryant

I started just doing a bit that LeBron is the best Laker of all time. And I had like my top fives and Kobe wasn't on it. [Ari: Kobe's the sixth best]. Yeah. It was like Nick Van Exel. It was like Shaq. So all these like... Will Chamberlain, Kareem, Magic, I'll give Worthy. And then LeBron.

Zion Williamson's injury issues are annoying because he just won't play

I'm a Pelicans fan... followed them. And Zion just won't play. He just won't play. It's annoying. He's not fragile. It's a different injury every time.

Steph Curry ruined basketball by normalizing the three-point shot

Steph Curry ruined basketball. Bob Ryan's kind of right. Bob Ryan's low-key right about this... I like the three point shot, but it has, it's drastically changed the sport and not always for the good. I do miss having a dude having just dudes bang down low.

Ja Morant will relapse if he plays poorly after his brief rehab

And the toughest part is the relapse where if he, if he gets back and he's not that good, you're gonna fall back in old habits and you're gonna be like, I need to, I need to have a gun in strip club again.

Adam Silver hates being the disciplinary figure and would much rather be seen as the 'cool' commissioner.

Silver hates this. Silver wants to be the cool guy. He wants to be the cool substitute teacher. He wants to be the cool stepdad. Like, 'Hey, I'm your friend, you can tell me anything.' So whenever he has to actually be the heavy, he absolutely cannot stand that.

The NBA MVP award and the discussion surrounding it are overrated compared to winning a title.

I also have a take: the MVP is just way overrated besides the team... in terms of a league-wide discussion, I just don't care who wins the MVP. I don't care who wins the title. Can you remember every MVP? ... Maybe MVPs aren't overrated, but the discussion about them is overrated because I feel like we spend a shit lot of time talking about an MVP that most people at the end of the day, then the playoffs starts, it's like, 'Yeah, this is what we're playing for.'

Ja Morant's strip club gun was surprisingly small and unimpressive

Outside of the seriousness of what's going on in Ja Morant's life, that was a pussy ass gun to flash. That thing was so small.

Ja Morant is personally responsible for his behavior, not just his 'surroundings'

The line that a lot of people been using is like he's surrounding himself around people. I think that's a lazy take. Like Ja Morant is, I would imagine the alpha of his friend group. He is the guy who has all this talent... you have to pick better choices.

The Phoenix Suns will win the NBA championship and Chris Paul will get his ring

I'm still, I'm all in on these Suns. I am, I am. Chris Paul getting that ship this year. I just, I don't see a way that Chris Paul loses this year. Yeah. I don't see it.

The 76ers have zero percent chance of winning the NBA title

The Sixers have no chance. So I will not be putting anything on the Sixers... I'm only betting things I actually think could win. I'm not gonna bet the Sixers have 0% chance.

The Lakers' season is over because of LeBron James' injury

LeBron is pretty much done. Three weeks will be reevaluating... Yeah, he's, it's this Lakers season is over.

The Phoenix Suns will win the NBA title this year

They're gonna win though. They're gonna win probably. They're definitely gonna win the title. This is year for Chris Paul.

It is ridiculous to think the Lakers are title contenders just because they beat the Mavs

I think it's ridiculous that everyone thinks the Lakers are gonna win the West because they beat the Mavs on Sunday.

The Celtics own the Sixers and it's frustrating

We would get smoked. The Celtics just fucking own us and it's so frustrating. I just fucking hate the Celtics so much.

Victor Wembanyama is going to be out of this world good

Charles Barkley has come out and said he doesn't know if [Wembanyama] will be good because he's gotta see him play the physical nature of NBA basketball. This means he's going to be out of this world good because Charles Barkley... is kind of stuck in the past... talking about the Golden State Warriors that went on to win four titles shooting jumpers.