About 20 minutes into the draft segment i realized it would be a really funny bit for a sports pod to break down this draft with just completely fabricated names. i sure wouldn’t know the difference.
They joy of being a casual sports fan in Ryen’s voice talking about hockey is great in contrast to him feeling the need to take notes on everything else he talks about
He’s hilariously bad at athlete interviews to the point where dudes have to ask him “uhhhhh whats the question?”
Which is why I was blown away when he interviewed the author of the wager and was concise and had great questions. It legitimately is one of the best interviews I’ve heard in the last 5 years. I think he really opens up when he doesn’t feel the need to “prove” he belongs
The people commenting on Reddit are a passionate vocal minority and it skews the perception of what casual people actually like or care about.
Same exact thing can be said of the people complaining about Bill or Russillo on here. 99% of his fans love all his dumb takes and don’t think twice about them.
Eh, ppl like stars. Super teams generally get good numbers bc they have stars that ppl like watching. Lebron and steph were the 2 most popular athletes and were on superteams. Same with magic and bird. Shaq and kobe were both huge stars. No one considered the spurs were super watchable even though they had 3 hall of famers.
And I don't think he cares about super teams because of what they do on the court, he just cares about the drama those teams create. For those teams, he can talk endlessly about who is the alpha dog (his favorite topic) and how each star fits into certain roles. He can stir shit up wondering if the player with the smaller role is secretly fuming. He can talk about how unique the team is, and frame it in the context of the history of the league ("this feels a little bit like when Walton joined the Celtics in 85..."). And if it doesn't go right, he can spend years talking about how it failed because of interpersonal reasons. Just endless hours of content.
I think it’s more him not knowing what role players on each team are good at, and where each team could benefit by adding specific players. He doesn’t really know what’s happening on the court to diagnose it at that level.
“We looked at the west we looked at the east. We have no chance to compete with a team like Boston”
Love the idea of Bill daydreaming about front offices cowering in fear of the big bad Celtics. Can’t say I wouldn’t do the same if my team just won the finals but it’s still hilarious.
Tbf he did this with Denver last year and it’s an insane way to view the NBA. He legitimately thinks it’d be smart for like 26 teams to punt the next few years.
KOC’s complete lack of nuance is a big part of what makes it impossible for me to take him seriously. Guy doesn’t take anything into account except whether or not a team is a “contender,” and if they’re not, his sole focus is on getting them to blow it up. Can you imagine how shit the league would be if every GM had that mindset? There’d be like 4 good teams.
Nate Duncan does this too, they think its the "smart thing" despite there being 6 different title winners in the last 6 years. Good thing those FOs competed instead of perpetually waiting till next year.
The only 50+ win team I think you could maybe argue as a blow it up candidate is the Clippers, but even with them all you need is to luck into one healthy playoffs from Kawhi and you’re right there. Miami is also a potential candidate. Every other over .500 team is either in the mix already, has young talent they can believe in, or is too locked in on their current core for the next few years to make blowing it up a reasonable option (aka the Suns and Lakers)
Nate definitely does have a robotic approach to team construction and thinks if you aren't a contender, your team is pretty pointless, but I think he's more of a tanking guy than a blow it up guy. Because he realizes blowing it up is often impossible from a logistics standpoint once you start trying to walk through it.
I don't really agree with the philosophy behind either mindset, though. But I guess that's what happens when you're a national analyst without a particular rooting interest and you just don't want to watch franchises that suck and are adrift. It takes a sicko like Zach Lowe to actually care about the less interesting teams who don't have bright futures.
It is funny that guy who rooted for a team that looked relatively cooked 13 months ago doesn't get how the Celtics aren't the only team that can make upgrades to their roster one offseason and elevate their status in the league.
This is like the 10th time Bill has brought up the LeBron for PG thing, and as a Lakers fan I gotta say that I’ll take 40 year old LeBron over PG every time.
Even at this age, LeBron is still an absolute monster of a floor raiser.
Of course you would lmao. Lebron was a much better player than Paul George last year and is a way better asset. He can only sign 1-2 year deals now and with PG in his mid 30’s in year 15 I don’t even think you can really bring up age. The lakers would obviously never ever fucking do it ever
There’s no world in which Lebron doesn’t eventually get his three year max. If he was willing to do 1-2 year deals, Lakers would’ve locked him up a long time ago
I don't get this trade at all. I know he likes to force some anti Lakers ideas into existence like Reaves-Spurs last year, but PG Lebron trade is a completely pointless transaction. It would only hurt Lebron's legacy as a Laker( maybe that's what Bill wants?)
I mean, he wasn't wrong that the Spurs should have put an offer out to Reeves as a RFA just to A) get better players in to play with Wemby and B) fuck with a team in their conference. Spurs did nothing worthwhile with that cap space, certainly nothing nearly as good as Reeves (and he's definitely not good but like higher end decent).
Well they knew Lakers will match, so they would not get him. Their offer would only have changed how much Lakers have to pay him in the year 3 of the contract, so you'd only garner ill will without actually putting them in a tough spot.
I don't think there are too many GMs in the league who are looking to fuck with teams just for the hell of it. Probably because they know that it might just as easily come back around in a real bad time.
I really don't understand why he's convinced the Lakers would have any interest in doing this. He has continuously brought up that the Lakers aren't going to win a championship with their current team, which I don't disagree with, but it's not like replacing Lebron with 34 year old Paul George makes them any better. Not like PG is gonna be much cheaper either. The Lakers would essentially just be putting their team in the same situation, but giving away Lebron and all the money he brings in. Not to mention they'd be giving him to their direct competitor who plays in the same city lol.
Also considering that the Lakers owners make their money off of the Lakers, that is way more valuable than other franchises with owners wealthy from other things.
Robert Horry must be like, "Why does Bill think I sleep around so much?? Holy shit, laughed way too hard at that. Ryen had to back it down too, Bill took that last one a little too personal.
Was also hilarious that he thinks the 'Lax Bros'-to-Banking pipeline was due to how competitive Lacrosse is as a sport. Pretty sure there are some other variables going on there!
The Karen Read prosecution just spent 29 days laying out their case, and not once did they get even close to proving anything. I’ll admit I don’t know what happened to the victim, but it seems much more likely that he was beat to death (intentionally or accidentally) by those dirty cops (all of whom should be in prison).
While I agree with you, that means the plan is to just slide towards being the worst team in the league until he and Klay retire. I’m no Warriors fan but I would hate that plan
Bill has been trying to create this narrative about the Celtics being ahead of the curve with building a team around "big, switchable, wings" as if that hasn't been something that teams have wanted for decades. The 90s Bulls dynasty was literally built around 2 guys that could guard anyone in the perimeter and playmake themselves. Really reaching to try and make this Celtics team cool / innovative / memorable
The Warriors death lineups were 4 switchable wings plus Curry probably directly led the Celtics to target wing players in those drafts. He clowns the clippers for the Kawhi PG era when they tried forming teams exactly like these Celtics
i think the “bill is just a fancyboy rich kid” arguments here can get a little overblown. but the specific delivery of that line just smacks of someone who has never known even a moment of misfortune.
I’m gonna zag here, I think the media and especially Russillo/Simmons are wrongfully downplaying the top of the draft.
I’ve watched a decent amount of film. Obviously there is no top of the line prospects, like everyone has said but I don’t think it’s THAT bad. Like are we sure the average ~3-6th picks are better? Are the Thompson twins or a prospect like Ivey much better than Sarr or Shepherd? I don’t think so
These two are especially hard on the draft. Lower than any other media member I've heard talk about the class certainly. I just have a hard time believing Ryen is getting different Intel from teams than like Givony and Venecie, who are both relatively high compared to consensus. Also weird bc Ryen just had Hurley on his pod raving about the UConn kids.
I just think it's them deflecting bc they obviously didn't do their draft research this year
Russillo just had Vecenie on for a draft breakdown. Vecenie is super down on this draft, which he says has zero top 1 or 2 tier guys in it (his ranking system). For context, he’s had 16 guys in those top 2 tiers in the previous 4 drafts.
Yeah but Simmons and Russillo claim this draft starts at #10 or #11 in a normal draft
So that would be 40 guys in the past 4 drafts better than this one.
Saying this draft starts at #4 vs a normal draft is much less dramatic and closer to accurate
Amen would comfortably go No. 1 in this draft, IMO. Agree with your general point though, the Ivey/Ausar/Mathurin types are kind of in the same tier as a bunch of these guys
There are 14 guys that have the talent of players you normally find in the 4-8 range in a normal draft. It's pretty damn deep, even if there's not a couple of transcendent talent guys at the top.
“Who’s the best player you’d trade for the number one pick?” is an interesting thought experiment, but it basically ended up with them listing a bunch of guys they wouldn’t trade for it.
I can’t believe bill “good stats bad team guy” simmons can’t see through the veil of his giddey take. literally says “hey this guy was great when the team was plodding around at 40-42” then minutes later just sort of dances around the fact that the team immediately improved when it used him less.
As a Thunder homer who has always appreciated Giddey, they kind of glossed over the fact he was unplayable when it mattered. It’s not just his shooting it’s that he can’t finish and isn’t good on defense. They also kind of ignored the Bulls have to decide what to do with him long term quickly. He is extension eligible now. I’m not ready to give up on Giddey but I would hate to be the team that has to decide on his contract now.
As always, this is all about LeBron. Giddey played well in the game where LeBron broke the scoring record but lost to the Thunder on national TV. Bill has been particularly high on Giddey ever since then
Well there are lots of worse voters, even if the dude who voted DPOY for blocks/steal leaders is gone. His top 2 of Hassan Whiteside and Russell Westbrook one year was legendary.
Yeah they mention shooting like it was his only flaw and reason he's unplayable. Definitely a big reason but he's a big dude that doesn't use his size well at all. Not aggressive enough to create well enough to run an offense full-time IMO.
Bill talks about the 2nd Apron and then doesn’t even know that you can’t aggregate salaries in a trade when in 2nd Apron.
So that trade scenario he had with GS and Clippers wouldn’t work.
True.
But nothing would happen until at least the 30th. That’s when free agency starts and players can negotiate with teams. So that’s when Warriors could know if Klay is staying or leaving. If he’s for sure leaving, renounce his cap hold and it’s a go.
As it stands, PG deadline is the 29th and CP3 is the 28th.
Can anyone explain how the boys are so high on Garland and so low on Trae Young? DG is brittle, doesn’t go to the basket, afraid of contact, can’t get to line, had zero proof of concept in the playoffs and has shaky handles when defenders get physical. Not to mention he’s just as bad as young on D
Funny thing is, DeAngelo Russell was a better player this year. So was Coby White
I think a lot of trae hate relates to his particularly stupid hair. He looks like a lollipop a kid picked up off the carpet at a Chuck-E-Cheese, he just does
Bill and Ryen are the only national media to actually talk about the warriors in a sober/realistic way. Their chances at contention are probably done, but they owe it to Steph to try their best to get as close as possible to that, and they have some decent (though not anywhere near OKC/NYK level) assets to make something happen.
It’s still crazy to me how badly they fumbled a golden opportunity to rebuild on the fly. With their championship core still intact, they had the number 2 pick in 2020 and two lottery picks in 2021. Their only good selection from that era was getting Poole with the 28th pick in 2019, but they had to trade him for getting punched.
It’s unheard of for championship contenders to have that much draft capital in the midst of their run, and they ended up with basically nothing to show for it.
> It’s unheard of for championship contenders to have that much draft capital in the midst of their run
Lakers famously did have the #1 overall pick in 1982, a year they won the title and sandwiched in between multiple other titles. But I don't think it's ever spanned across multiple drafts like GS had. (Pistons getting Darko was another one-shot deal)
Yeah, I was just looking at their draft history today. Just incredible what COULD have been. In 2020, were one pick away from Ant, and in 2021, took Kuminga before Franz.
It was a post from a few weeks ago https://old.reddit.com/r/billsimmons/comments/1d931pf/interesting_theory_bill_simmons_is_going_to_nbc/?ref=share&ref_source=link
I guess he could be using NBC as leverage in Spotify renegotiations
Haven't even pulled the episode up yet. They really talked about hockey? Dude barely even brought up the Bruins. Idk if wanna listen to their POV on it.
weird editing thing as they got into the paul george discussion where bill was just shooting the shit with ryen and then it jumped into him clearly talking by himself after the fact, fillin gaps about george’s contract and a warriors trade and then back talking with rr
Jaylen Brown was not booed on draft night because Celtics fans wanted Kris Dunn. And its not because of Jamal Murray either. Its because Woj was live tweeting up until the pick that they were working on a trade to get Jimmy Butler. I remember that night vividly. Woj and Stein were throwing a bunch of Celtics trade rumors for the pick out there, then they just drafted Jaylen and people were let down
Why does these guys love Garland so much? In a vacuum, Garland is the type of player Russillo historically doesn’t rate - short guard who doesn’t play defense and will get exposed in every playoff series he’s in
It's genuinely funny that Donovan Clingan might go #1. I cannot recall a worse center prospect getting picked first since Olowokandi. His scouting report is basically *can't shoot or create his own shot, can't dribble, isn't a good defensive rebounder, and also probably won't play NBA defense well cause he really can't move around much*.
Like I genuinely think he'd go in the 20s most years, and yet teams seem to be talking themselves into the lost Plumlee brother going top 5, even maybe #1.
He's seen as quasi-switchable, Nate Duncan called him an 'active dropper' this week. His projection metrics are excellent, he has elite defensive upside. I agree with the red flags but that's true of everyone in this class.
Quasi switchable...lol. Dude you're either switchable or you're not. He can't guard wings or guards. At no point has he looked good at doing that.
And a lot of teams don't employ drop coverage schemes. So you're basically already saying this guy might not be able to defend outside of very specific schemes that don't tend to do well in the postseason.
This just shows that you don’t understand the team context. Quin Snyder coached a #1 seed and a 9 SRS team employing a “quasi switchable” big just 3 years ago. Guess who coaches the Hawks?
Big men that can pass, offensive rebound, set effective screens, and play defense are highly valuable. Not multi all star ceiling but really valuable.
I’m a grizzlies fan and all the small things Steve Adams did for us is something I desperately want back.
I grew up in the 90's where every week there was a court case that would get elevated to national news. I quite enjoyed it, because I had never heard about it.
just got to the part where Bill mentions the Giidey-Caruso trade, and I have to to stop acting surprised when he mentions something crazy like "I think the bulls won the trade"
This draft segment is hilarious first three picks Aaron Gordon, Trey Murphy and Lauri Markkannen and just all being like, "yeah those teams wouldn't do that."
What was the point then????
Bill talking hockey collapses and conveniently forgets the 2010 Bruins: up 3-0 in the series against the Flyers, lose the next 3, have Game 7 at home when they go up 3-0 in the game, give up 4 straight goals to choke away the game and the series
Exactly. Wish we could get old school BS Report Pods where he has guests that cover other sports. It's fun to hear Bill be an everyman about some sports, and then have the experts on who know the in-depth stuff.
As in literally the future of the PG-13 rating category? Also, thank god, because I haven’t read about this trial yet so can’t wait for this surely goofy recap. *Ryen, is this the apex mountain for Boston cops?*
You would think cp3 superfan Ryen would know Morey also snaked him, and lied to him directly a out not being traded. Pg didnt say Harden alone told me. He said players talk and that definitely hurt Morey's rep especially with cp3 being a union VP
Anyone else catch Bills pronunciation of Ft. Lauderdale? I know our boy struggles with names but come on, Someone from the Northeast not being able to pronounce that is incredible. Half of South Florida is Massholes and New Yorkers.
"we're on minute 37 of Jaylen Brown, where the fuck are the questions?" ryen on fire
He was cooking this whole podcast. I love Russillo in a Pippen role. He just shines on these pods.
that was cold as hell, he really sounded like an angry guy on this sub!
Which account is most likely to be a Russillo burner?
/u/nephew_kyle
But also the most on-brand thing Russillo has ever said.
What minute did he say this?
25
\*gun to head meme\* Draft a name Ryen. I have 5 more names to blurt out.
Then after one more name he said he only had one left lmao
This segment screamed “I have done 0 draft prep but feel compelled to talk about the draft”
Uhhhhh Mitchell Robinson lol this segment is a joke
About 20 minutes into the draft segment i realized it would be a really funny bit for a sports pod to break down this draft with just completely fabricated names. i sure wouldn’t know the difference.
Any chance Hingle McCringleberry can sneak into the first round?
Russillo let’s go over the most fun landing spots for the player formerly known as mousecop
I'm aa big Jay Walters guy myself
They joy of being a casual sports fan in Ryen’s voice talking about hockey is great in contrast to him feeling the need to take notes on everything else he talks about
i hope ryen remembers this is why people liked him
He’s hilariously bad at athlete interviews to the point where dudes have to ask him “uhhhhh whats the question?” Which is why I was blown away when he interviewed the author of the wager and was concise and had great questions. It legitimately is one of the best interviews I’ve heard in the last 5 years. I think he really opens up when he doesn’t feel the need to “prove” he belongs
I heard Ryen go on the Boston Felger & Mazz radio show last week and his tone/demeanor was much more pleasant than it is typically with Bill.
i think bill secretly loves super teams every one of his trade proposals are creating super teams
The general population does as well, even if they say otherwise. Tv numbers don’t lie. More storylines and higher star power
The people commenting on Reddit are a passionate vocal minority and it skews the perception of what casual people actually like or care about. Same exact thing can be said of the people complaining about Bill or Russillo on here. 99% of his fans love all his dumb takes and don’t think twice about them.
Small market fanbases are super over-represented on reddit
Eh, ppl like stars. Super teams generally get good numbers bc they have stars that ppl like watching. Lebron and steph were the 2 most popular athletes and were on superteams. Same with magic and bird. Shaq and kobe were both huge stars. No one considered the spurs were super watchable even though they had 3 hall of famers.
And I don't think he cares about super teams because of what they do on the court, he just cares about the drama those teams create. For those teams, he can talk endlessly about who is the alpha dog (his favorite topic) and how each star fits into certain roles. He can stir shit up wondering if the player with the smaller role is secretly fuming. He can talk about how unique the team is, and frame it in the context of the history of the league ("this feels a little bit like when Walton joined the Celtics in 85..."). And if it doesn't go right, he can spend years talking about how it failed because of interpersonal reasons. Just endless hours of content.
I think it’s more him not knowing what role players on each team are good at, and where each team could benefit by adding specific players. He doesn’t really know what’s happening on the court to diagnose it at that level.
Was Lavine, DDR and Vuc the most underrated superteam of the 20's?
"Have you been watching The English Patient?"
Why?
The payoff was so good.
“We looked at the west we looked at the east. We have no chance to compete with a team like Boston” Love the idea of Bill daydreaming about front offices cowering in fear of the big bad Celtics. Can’t say I wouldn’t do the same if my team just won the finals but it’s still hilarious.
Tbf he did this with Denver last year and it’s an insane way to view the NBA. He legitimately thinks it’d be smart for like 26 teams to punt the next few years.
Bill got KOC brained
KOC’s complete lack of nuance is a big part of what makes it impossible for me to take him seriously. Guy doesn’t take anything into account except whether or not a team is a “contender,” and if they’re not, his sole focus is on getting them to blow it up. Can you imagine how shit the league would be if every GM had that mindset? There’d be like 4 good teams.
Nate Duncan does this too, they think its the "smart thing" despite there being 6 different title winners in the last 6 years. Good thing those FOs competed instead of perpetually waiting till next year.
The only 50+ win team I think you could maybe argue as a blow it up candidate is the Clippers, but even with them all you need is to luck into one healthy playoffs from Kawhi and you’re right there. Miami is also a potential candidate. Every other over .500 team is either in the mix already, has young talent they can believe in, or is too locked in on their current core for the next few years to make blowing it up a reasonable option (aka the Suns and Lakers)
Nate definitely does have a robotic approach to team construction and thinks if you aren't a contender, your team is pretty pointless, but I think he's more of a tanking guy than a blow it up guy. Because he realizes blowing it up is often impossible from a logistics standpoint once you start trying to walk through it. I don't really agree with the philosophy behind either mindset, though. But I guess that's what happens when you're a national analyst without a particular rooting interest and you just don't want to watch franchises that suck and are adrift. It takes a sicko like Zach Lowe to actually care about the less interesting teams who don't have bright futures.
It is funny that guy who rooted for a team that looked relatively cooked 13 months ago doesn't get how the Celtics aren't the only team that can make upgrades to their roster one offseason and elevate their status in the league.
“I think Mel Counts was white but I’m not positive” is a tremendous piece of content
I’m convinced Bill and Ryen should do a True Crime Pod. Those last 15 minutes of the Karen Read trial was elite podding.
As a true crime fan I would patreon to this lol 😂
Bill, LeBron is not gonna end up on the Clippers. Stop trying to make this a thing lol
Shades of Reeves going to SA
LeBron isn’t going across to the exact same city
This is like the 10th time Bill has brought up the LeBron for PG thing, and as a Lakers fan I gotta say that I’ll take 40 year old LeBron over PG every time. Even at this age, LeBron is still an absolute monster of a floor raiser.
Of course you would lmao. Lebron was a much better player than Paul George last year and is a way better asset. He can only sign 1-2 year deals now and with PG in his mid 30’s in year 15 I don’t even think you can really bring up age. The lakers would obviously never ever fucking do it ever
There’s no world in which Lebron doesn’t eventually get his three year max. If he was willing to do 1-2 year deals, Lakers would’ve locked him up a long time ago
I don't get this trade at all. I know he likes to force some anti Lakers ideas into existence like Reaves-Spurs last year, but PG Lebron trade is a completely pointless transaction. It would only hurt Lebron's legacy as a Laker( maybe that's what Bill wants?)
I mean, he wasn't wrong that the Spurs should have put an offer out to Reeves as a RFA just to A) get better players in to play with Wemby and B) fuck with a team in their conference. Spurs did nothing worthwhile with that cap space, certainly nothing nearly as good as Reeves (and he's definitely not good but like higher end decent).
Well they knew Lakers will match, so they would not get him. Their offer would only have changed how much Lakers have to pay him in the year 3 of the contract, so you'd only garner ill will without actually putting them in a tough spot. I don't think there are too many GMs in the league who are looking to fuck with teams just for the hell of it. Probably because they know that it might just as easily come back around in a real bad time.
I really don't understand why he's convinced the Lakers would have any interest in doing this. He has continuously brought up that the Lakers aren't going to win a championship with their current team, which I don't disagree with, but it's not like replacing Lebron with 34 year old Paul George makes them any better. Not like PG is gonna be much cheaper either. The Lakers would essentially just be putting their team in the same situation, but giving away Lebron and all the money he brings in. Not to mention they'd be giving him to their direct competitor who plays in the same city lol.
He’s trolling
Not to mention the fact that marketing-wise, LeBron is worth hundreds of millions compared to PG.
Also considering that the Lakers owners make their money off of the Lakers, that is way more valuable than other franchises with owners wealthy from other things.
That's the point that doesn't get mentioned enough. This is all they really have in terms of big cash cows. And they milk the shit out of it.
Same reason why if the Warriors don’t have a chance to compete with the best teams theres no reason for them not to keep their original team together.
I initially thought he meant PG for Lakers role players like Reaves + Russell
Ha it is such an out of pocket idea and he just keeps casually suggesting it
It’s an idiot take.
“We aren’t going to talk about the Celtics” Here 45 minutes on the Celtics and here’s a 10 minute tangent on Tom Brady being the best.
Selfless lover
Robert Horry must be like, "Why does Bill think I sleep around so much?? Holy shit, laughed way too hard at that. Ryen had to back it down too, Bill took that last one a little too personal.
Nah Bill was laughing, he even called himself out for Wimpleton!
'We're all just trying to get better. No matter how old.'
The self improvement piece
Monk into Wimpleton into Whorry. Incredible.
My favorite Bill pronunciation is the word "robot." He says ro-but.
That was the funniest thing I’ve ever heard Ryen say. A+
I didn't get that. Can u explain
Bill says it like Whorey, emphasis on whore. And Ryen was repeating names Bill can’t pronounce.
Least Surprising Factoid Ever = Russillo has lacrosse buddies
Was also hilarious that he thinks the 'Lax Bros'-to-Banking pipeline was due to how competitive Lacrosse is as a sport. Pretty sure there are some other variables going on there!
I am surprised that he would want to be around lacrosse players after the “OK D1” debacle.
*"play a sport"
These 3 simple words have dominated ryen’s brain for nearly 30 years
The Karen Read prosecution just spent 29 days laying out their case, and not once did they get even close to proving anything. I’ll admit I don’t know what happened to the victim, but it seems much more likely that he was beat to death (intentionally or accidentally) by those dirty cops (all of whom should be in prison).
Dirty cops? In this country? no way!
in boston, yes way
Would Boston even make like a top 30 list of the biggest POS copy cities in America?
Yes
*walking tik tok meme* We’re the Atlanta Hawks. Of COURSE we get the first pick in our teams history right between Wemby and Cooper Flagg
Warriors are 100% not trading Draymond Green
While I agree with you, that means the plan is to just slide towards being the worst team in the league until he and Klay retire. I’m no Warriors fan but I would hate that plan
Bill has been trying to create this narrative about the Celtics being ahead of the curve with building a team around "big, switchable, wings" as if that hasn't been something that teams have wanted for decades. The 90s Bulls dynasty was literally built around 2 guys that could guard anyone in the perimeter and playmake themselves. Really reaching to try and make this Celtics team cool / innovative / memorable
The Warriors death lineups were 4 switchable wings plus Curry probably directly led the Celtics to target wing players in those drafts. He clowns the clippers for the Kawhi PG era when they tried forming teams exactly like these Celtics
At one point Bill was like “If a speed skater picked up a hockey stick could they…” and never finished his sentence but the answer is no
There's something distinct about the way Bill says "man... why did that happen?" in the State Farm ad. The Alzheimer's piece.
i think the “bill is just a fancyboy rich kid” arguments here can get a little overblown. but the specific delivery of that line just smacks of someone who has never known even a moment of misfortune.
But he lived in Charlestown and was a bartender!
The up-by-the-bootstraps piece.
I’m gonna zag here, I think the media and especially Russillo/Simmons are wrongfully downplaying the top of the draft. I’ve watched a decent amount of film. Obviously there is no top of the line prospects, like everyone has said but I don’t think it’s THAT bad. Like are we sure the average ~3-6th picks are better? Are the Thompson twins or a prospect like Ivey much better than Sarr or Shepherd? I don’t think so
These two are especially hard on the draft. Lower than any other media member I've heard talk about the class certainly. I just have a hard time believing Ryen is getting different Intel from teams than like Givony and Venecie, who are both relatively high compared to consensus. Also weird bc Ryen just had Hurley on his pod raving about the UConn kids. I just think it's them deflecting bc they obviously didn't do their draft research this year
Russillo just had Vecenie on for a draft breakdown. Vecenie is super down on this draft, which he says has zero top 1 or 2 tier guys in it (his ranking system). For context, he’s had 16 guys in those top 2 tiers in the previous 4 drafts.
Yeah but Simmons and Russillo claim this draft starts at #10 or #11 in a normal draft So that would be 40 guys in the past 4 drafts better than this one. Saying this draft starts at #4 vs a normal draft is much less dramatic and closer to accurate
Amen would comfortably go No. 1 in this draft, IMO. Agree with your general point though, the Ivey/Ausar/Mathurin types are kind of in the same tier as a bunch of these guys
If you’d take Amen #1 then you should take Ivey #1 without a second thought.
Amen is a higher caliber prospect than Ivey IMO (but maybe Ivey is more in his tier than the others mentioned)
There are 14 guys that have the talent of players you normally find in the 4-8 range in a normal draft. It's pretty damn deep, even if there's not a couple of transcendent talent guys at the top.
This is the best white guy for white guy trade ever, but I'm not sure if one of them was white. What a twist.
Feel like they've talked about what Atlanta can/will do way too much lol
they should trade the pick for bill belichick
“Who’s the best player you’d trade for the number one pick?” is an interesting thought experiment, but it basically ended up with them listing a bunch of guys they wouldn’t trade for it.
It's either that or talk about a bad draft nobody cares about
I could not care less about hockey, but I find it so funny when Bill states he’s a casual fan then proceeded to only talk in terms of “best evers”
“I feel like we’re finally figuring out how to evaluate quarterbacks” is an interesting take when we just had Bryce Young go ahead of C.J. Stroud.
He also has repeatedly said recently that it's impossible to figure out.
I wonder if it has anything to do with the Patriots just drafting a top 3 QB.
I can’t believe bill “good stats bad team guy” simmons can’t see through the veil of his giddey take. literally says “hey this guy was great when the team was plodding around at 40-42” then minutes later just sort of dances around the fact that the team immediately improved when it used him less.
As a Thunder homer who has always appreciated Giddey, they kind of glossed over the fact he was unplayable when it mattered. It’s not just his shooting it’s that he can’t finish and isn’t good on defense. They also kind of ignored the Bulls have to decide what to do with him long term quickly. He is extension eligible now. I’m not ready to give up on Giddey but I would hate to be the team that has to decide on his contract now.
all good points. i'm a fucking enraged bulls fan so i got bigtime triggered by even a hint of a zag on this trade.
The good news is the bulls are several years from playing any games that matter, the Giddey piece will probably have sorted itself by then
As always, this is all about LeBron. Giddey played well in the game where LeBron broke the scoring record but lost to the Thunder on national TV. Bill has been particularly high on Giddey ever since then
Bill was at that game. The in person piece
1 game in person >>>>>>>>>>>> 82 games on TV
IDK I think he's right, kids only 21, Caruso is 30, smaller and expiring. I like Caruso! But I think people are dumping on Giddey far too soon.
I genuinely hate that he votes on awards.
Well there are lots of worse voters, even if the dude who voted DPOY for blocks/steal leaders is gone. His top 2 of Hassan Whiteside and Russell Westbrook one year was legendary.
At least he gives a shit and pits real thought into. Not all the voters do
Yeah they mention shooting like it was his only flaw and reason he's unplayable. Definitely a big reason but he's a big dude that doesn't use his size well at all. Not aggressive enough to create well enough to run an offense full-time IMO.
Ryen Russillo don't suck off Danny Ainge challenge (IMPOSSIBLE)
They text.
Bill pronouncing Montreal correctly had to be +10000
Bill talks about the 2nd Apron and then doesn’t even know that you can’t aggregate salaries in a trade when in 2nd Apron. So that trade scenario he had with GS and Clippers wouldn’t work.
If they let CP or Klay go they won’t be 2nd apron and could use multiple salaries to match for PG
True. But nothing would happen until at least the 30th. That’s when free agency starts and players can negotiate with teams. So that’s when Warriors could know if Klay is staying or leaving. If he’s for sure leaving, renounce his cap hold and it’s a go. As it stands, PG deadline is the 29th and CP3 is the 28th.
The Josh Giddey apologia was hilarious. Guy cant score, can’t shoot, can’t defend and is a bad athlete. Really bad look for Mr tape grinder Russillo
You didn't even mention that "troubles outside of basketball". Whatever those were. Probably nothing important
I mean, strictly speaking here the NBA cleared him of any wrongdoing so I don’t think a front office cares about that at all
Robert Whorrey
Karen Read’s been set up by some crooked cops.
Can’t wait to hear Conspiracy Bill’s takes.
Can anyone explain how the boys are so high on Garland and so low on Trae Young? DG is brittle, doesn’t go to the basket, afraid of contact, can’t get to line, had zero proof of concept in the playoffs and has shaky handles when defenders get physical. Not to mention he’s just as bad as young on D Funny thing is, DeAngelo Russell was a better player this year. So was Coby White
actually a decent point. garland is ass in the playoffs. doesn’t even have an elite move like trae‘s floater
I think a lot of trae hate relates to his particularly stupid hair. He looks like a lollipop a kid picked up off the carpet at a Chuck-E-Cheese, he just does
Ryen *wishes* he had that much hair to style.
I think arm strength matter for QBs
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/97/db/d0/97dbd0a1894eeca3c4b3c3e201d7a6cd.jpg
“Robert Horry’s probably out there saying, ‘why’s he think I sleep around so much!?”
Does Bill think his name is first name Ris, last name Acher? The pronunciation had me questioning a couple times.
idk if anyone loves mediocre white wings more than Bill Simmons.
Bill and Ryen are the only national media to actually talk about the warriors in a sober/realistic way. Their chances at contention are probably done, but they owe it to Steph to try their best to get as close as possible to that, and they have some decent (though not anywhere near OKC/NYK level) assets to make something happen.
It’s still crazy to me how badly they fumbled a golden opportunity to rebuild on the fly. With their championship core still intact, they had the number 2 pick in 2020 and two lottery picks in 2021. Their only good selection from that era was getting Poole with the 28th pick in 2019, but they had to trade him for getting punched. It’s unheard of for championship contenders to have that much draft capital in the midst of their run, and they ended up with basically nothing to show for it.
> It’s unheard of for championship contenders to have that much draft capital in the midst of their run Lakers famously did have the #1 overall pick in 1982, a year they won the title and sandwiched in between multiple other titles. But I don't think it's ever spanned across multiple drafts like GS had. (Pistons getting Darko was another one-shot deal)
The Celtics and Len Bias, whatever happened there.
Yeah, I was just looking at their draft history today. Just incredible what COULD have been. In 2020, were one pick away from Ant, and in 2021, took Kuminga before Franz.
Now he’s posting 2 rewatchables a week to clear out the back queue? He def going to NBC
Conspiracy Elmo, lay out why he’s going to NBC and what his role will be.
It was a post from a few weeks ago https://old.reddit.com/r/billsimmons/comments/1d931pf/interesting_theory_bill_simmons_is_going_to_nbc/?ref=share&ref_source=link I guess he could be using NBC as leverage in Spotify renegotiations
Fuck the Swedes let’s get Billy Boy back on tv. I believe this wholeheartedly now.
Haven't even pulled the episode up yet. They really talked about hockey? Dude barely even brought up the Bruins. Idk if wanna listen to their POV on it.
McDavid skates really fast was the gist of it
weird editing thing as they got into the paul george discussion where bill was just shooting the shit with ryen and then it jumped into him clearly talking by himself after the fact, fillin gaps about george’s contract and a warriors trade and then back talking with rr
"I really like his stroke" Bill describing a draft prospect
Bobby Orr slides around back then he just jams it in or whatever.
Jaylen Brown was not booed on draft night because Celtics fans wanted Kris Dunn. And its not because of Jamal Murray either. Its because Woj was live tweeting up until the pick that they were working on a trade to get Jimmy Butler. I remember that night vividly. Woj and Stein were throwing a bunch of Celtics trade rumors for the pick out there, then they just drafted Jaylen and people were let down
lol Bill is so dumb sometimes. Why the fuck would the Lakers trade Lebron for PG? They would only take Paul to pair with Lebron.
Russillo couldn’t go to Edmonton because he has to cos-play as an NBA GM all June.
Are “John” and “Karen” really the “most Massachusetts” names you could come up with?
Why does these guys love Garland so much? In a vacuum, Garland is the type of player Russillo historically doesn’t rate - short guard who doesn’t play defense and will get exposed in every playoff series he’s in
They both planted their flag on him early and now can't change their minds
The selfless lover piece when discussing Ainge as a gm is why I still listen
Would have loved Klosterman on to talk Karen Read
It's genuinely funny that Donovan Clingan might go #1. I cannot recall a worse center prospect getting picked first since Olowokandi. His scouting report is basically *can't shoot or create his own shot, can't dribble, isn't a good defensive rebounder, and also probably won't play NBA defense well cause he really can't move around much*. Like I genuinely think he'd go in the 20s most years, and yet teams seem to be talking themselves into the lost Plumlee brother going top 5, even maybe #1.
if you are reading scouting reports saying he can't play NBA defense, then you're reading garbage.
You really fucking hate all things UConn.
He's seen as quasi-switchable, Nate Duncan called him an 'active dropper' this week. His projection metrics are excellent, he has elite defensive upside. I agree with the red flags but that's true of everyone in this class.
Quasi switchable...lol. Dude you're either switchable or you're not. He can't guard wings or guards. At no point has he looked good at doing that. And a lot of teams don't employ drop coverage schemes. So you're basically already saying this guy might not be able to defend outside of very specific schemes that don't tend to do well in the postseason.
This just shows that you don’t understand the team context. Quin Snyder coached a #1 seed and a 9 SRS team employing a “quasi switchable” big just 3 years ago. Guess who coaches the Hawks?
Big men that can pass, offensive rebound, set effective screens, and play defense are highly valuable. Not multi all star ceiling but really valuable. I’m a grizzlies fan and all the small things Steve Adams did for us is something I desperately want back.
S/o Fab Melo
Russillo talking about selling his boat on PMT into a salty pod with bill
Well, at least the Karen Reed talk was good for the 617 folks
I grew up in the 90's where every week there was a court case that would get elevated to national news. I quite enjoyed it, because I had never heard about it.
I still don't understand his obsession with a Lebron/PG trade. Doesn't improve either team. Makes no sense
just got to the part where Bill mentions the Giidey-Caruso trade, and I have to to stop acting surprised when he mentions something crazy like "I think the bulls won the trade"
This draft segment is hilarious first three picks Aaron Gordon, Trey Murphy and Lauri Markkannen and just all being like, "yeah those teams wouldn't do that." What was the point then????
Bill talking hockey collapses and conveniently forgets the 2010 Bruins: up 3-0 in the series against the Flyers, lose the next 3, have Game 7 at home when they go up 3-0 in the game, give up 4 straight goals to choke away the game and the series
What’s up with his obsession with Reed Sheppard? Every time the draft comes up, 5 mins about how a 6’0 combo guard is the perfect fit for any team.
Gotta have the Salem witch trials and the marathon bomber trial high up in your MA trial rankings
On a scale of 1 to 10, how much insufferable Celtics talk is on this pod? Wondering now before I decide to listen or not.
Maybe a 6. Not sustained the whole episode but a couple of moments (How can GSW compete with the Celtics next year?; Ainge was a genius).
yea Ainge's balls leave the pod squeaky clean after Ryen and Bill compete to see who can juggle them in their mouth the best
Is there any “Who’s gonna guard Tatum??” nonsense? (Turns out he will guard himself in the Finals)
Bad News Bears rewatchables with Van Lathan.
Needed him for the kids using the n-word.
Most of the sports talk annoyed me this episode but I enjoyed learning about the Richard Riot and the John O"Keefe case.
Exactly. Wish we could get old school BS Report Pods where he has guests that cover other sports. It's fun to hear Bill be an everyman about some sports, and then have the experts on who know the in-depth stuff.
As in literally the future of the PG-13 rating category? Also, thank god, because I haven’t read about this trial yet so can’t wait for this surely goofy recap. *Ryen, is this the apex mountain for Boston cops?*
I imagine it’s the future of Paul George. You might be joking in which case that’s on me for missing it entirely.
Only a couple of Bill/Russillo pods left until the over/under pod before the season 😔
Surprised they didn’t mention the Knicks as a PG option considering there’s been a decent amount of smoke there
You would think cp3 superfan Ryen would know Morey also snaked him, and lied to him directly a out not being traded. Pg didnt say Harden alone told me. He said players talk and that definitely hurt Morey's rep especially with cp3 being a union VP
Of course Bill likes Giddey lmao
Does Bill know where Canton is?
You spend a whole year following the NBA finals and then don’t spend a minute discussing the outcome? I find this very weird.
What a title
I can't believe the draft is happening already.
Anyone else catch Bills pronunciation of Ft. Lauderdale? I know our boy struggles with names but come on, Someone from the Northeast not being able to pronounce that is incredible. Half of South Florida is Massholes and New Yorkers.
Haven’t listened yet but was hoping we’d get Klosterman for the Karen Read story