Brooklyn Nets 2026-27 NBA Season Lookahead

0:00This is Matt Rogers from Lost Culture East. It's with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang. This is Bowen Yang from Lost Culture East. It's with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang. You know when people try a new food and suddenly it's like, OK, hold on. I got a new favorite food. That's the reaction a lot of people are having when they first try Cupid Mayon. Yeah, it's the one with the red cap and the little baby on the bottle. You've probably seen it at the grocery store. And this mayo is different. Mm-hmm. Most mayonnaise uses whole eggs. Cupid only uses egg yolks, which gives it this rich umami flavor. It's smoother, deeper, almost buttery. Once people try it, they start putting it on everything. Egg sandwiches, fries, burgers, chefs use it, restaurants use it, people who really care about flavor use it, put it on just about anything. Then you'll understand. Cupid, the original Japanese mayonnaise. Save with digital deals at Vons and Albertsons. This week at Vons and Albertsons, Ginny O, 93% lean ground turkey is 399 per pound. Sold in a three pound tray with digital coupon limit to packages. And a one pound package of strawberries is 199 with digital coupon.

1:00Plus Kellogg's giant size cereal, 22.6 to 29.5 ounces, selected varieties are 299 each with digital coupon limit three. Hurry in, visit Vons or Albertsons.com for more deals and ways to save. Save with digital deals at Vons and Albertsons. This week at Vons and Albertsons, Ginny O, 93% lean ground turkey is 399 per pound. Sold in a three pound tray with digital coupon limit to packages. And a one pound package of strawberries is 199 with digital coupon. Plus Kellogg's giant size cereal, 22.6 to 29.5 ounces, selected varieties are 299 each with digital coupon limit three. Hurry in, visit Vons or Albertsons.com for more deals and ways to save. What is up, fellow sickos, I am Dan Favalli coming out with another 2026, 2027 MBA season.

2:07Look ahead, we're on to those Brooklyn nets, which means I have the awesome pleasure of being joined by Lucas Kaplan, who covers the team, covers basketball and all sorts of formats. Go check out his substack, Lucas Kaplan.substack.com. I will include the link to that in the podcast, YouTube description, as well as a social handle. And if you're watching, it will have been floating around on screen by this point. Lucas, we haven't decided whether this was year three or four of you coming back for the nets. Look ahead, I'm just going to say four. Thanks for coming back. How the heck are you, man? Yeah, covering the nets perhaps ages you faster than the reality of normal time. So I think year four, year five, year six, who knows. But this is one treat of covering the nets. So thanks for having me back, man. What's more stressful for you is it covering the liberty or is it covering the nets? No, the most stressful thing by far is that this time of year, nets media day, training camp, Liberty playoffs, intersex with Yankees playoff baseball,

3:10and I'm a diehard Yankees fan. And so covering basketball, writing to be clipping it, being nerdy about it is one thing. But having to manage my insane like baseball fandom, like stress of sneaking glances at the most excruciating sport you could possibly watch, which is playoff baseball is really the part that stresses me out. Baseball used to be my favorite sport and the Yankees were like my team growing up. And I've just completely, I'm so detached from it. I know enough to know that Aaron Judges and playing in the wild card series as we record this. It's like the extent of my MLB knowledge right now. There you go. It's nice to have one area of sports that I still just completely fan out over. Although nice, it's like I feel like I'm about to have a heart attack for all of October. Well, the nets before we move into October and beyond looking back at last season for them. What was your single biggest takeaway about how it unfolded and maybe how that informed

4:14how they carried themselves this past off season? I mean, it's such a basic take, but the single biggest takeaway was that Yegor was decent. Good as a rookie, I should say. Like they got a lot of flack for the five first round picks, most notably, Yegor at eight. Like I thought it was a big reach. A lot of draft analysts that I like no trust thought it was a big reach. Not saying that to defend my obviously clearly wrong opinion. But that was just kind of the tenor around the selection and draft night. And the most important thing that happened last year is that he was pretty good. Relatives expectations and like relative to a normal rookie. And so that okay, like we tanked for two years and we didn't get Cooper flag and we didn't get Darren Peterson and whatnot. However, Yegor real player, Mikel Brown, people are excited about him. You might have guards that are actually here for the future that people can get excited about that they can build around or just take into account.

5:18That is like by far the most important thing that happened to them over the last year. Yegor being good and then people legit being excited about my kill. I want to ask more about those two, but just stick with the off season really quickly. Were you surprised about how they want to about using their cap space where they weren't really more aggressive than Hey, let's trade Nick claxon for Julius Randall and the right to move up five spots. Or is this about what you expected that more measured approach from them coming into the off season? I expected about a more measured approach. I think that. Not getting the top top draft picks over the last two years, perhaps informed them to slow down a little bit. I think internally some thought that this off season could be the let's go for it off season. But frankly, like that just wouldn't have been prudent. They're not that close yet. And so this was a bridge off season and it really didn't surprise me that they went for. Medium impact.

6:20Veterans that will raise all ships in terms of like work ethic. I know we're going to get into Julius Randall and perhaps people don't think high character great morale veteran. When they think of him, but the nets do, I think view him as like, okay, like there were a real team like. And Julius is going to be good to have to kind of lift everybody up, same with Keon Ellis and Mo Wagner to lesser extents. And so it didn't surprise me that these are veterans that like can play confident regularly season basketball without ascending this team into a new level of expectations. You know what I mean? So what would you classify as the net's direction then? Are they kind of just biting their time waiting for either one of a Yeg or Joe Min or Michael Brown Jr. to hit or waiting to pounce on a bigger move? Like is that just that the best way to classify what they're doing at this moment? Yeah, I think it is. I think that it's more it's just as much about Yeg or in my kels development, which internally is huge.

7:25There wasn't really a great opportunity for them to go all in on a bigger name, a bigger star this summer. You really want them to trade for Yannis and just be a baron closet of Yannis and then a roster. No, yeah, definitely not going to contender out him. I mean, they I think they thought about it like Yannis said he wanted like love New York all this stuff. I do think they seriously molded over, but like it just wasn't the time. And so I think to your point, like, yeah, they're waiting for that time. And meanwhile, what else can we scrounge up like, oh, Dayron, two year contract. We think this is a real big man. Josh, mine out on the cheap. Maybe we found a role player for the future. Yeg or Michael, like, I think we got something in maybe no clowning, maybe not, but like, we'll let's see in the meantime. So I think that's where they're at, like a holding pattern of sorts. What do you make of the actual Julius Randall fit?

8:27And I was pretty low on it until some of the things that have come out since the offseason, the golfing story. I find absolutely hysterical that he took them golfing. And then he seemed like someone even at media day, the way he was talking about the importance of being a veteran wanting to take more threes. It kind of made me think, all right, maybe he just missed New York. He understands the assignment here. He's going to get plenty of touches, but this isn't someone who the way he's played in the past. I think you could look at and say, oh, this wouldn't fringe upon the development of some of these guys. Yeah, I think I was pretty high on it from day one. And I don't mean high like, oh, they're going to play off. So when a playoff series, blah, blah, blah. I just think it's honestly a pretty good fit. And I know that it's easy to say that when everybody's happy at media day. We'll see how Julius feels when they're on a four or five game losing streak. But like he doesn't seem to me like the type of player that is not going to want to work hard and like be coached and lift a team like through perhaps bad times.

9:35It feels more so that when he gets into trouble, it's like playoff expectations aren't being met true stars, like the development of Anthony Edwards and perhaps Jalen Bronson kind of in fringe on what he feels like he is capable of doing. I just don't see either of those problems really cropping up for Brooklyn, at least not in the short term future. So like this is a dude that has been a good regular season player for quite a while now. You can, you know, nitpick the fact that he made those all NBA teams, but those do indicate like a real deal level of production that the nets have not had in the building since the big three era. I mean, MPJ got close to it perhaps. But I don't know like I know media days, whatever, but like you said to me, it just does kind of feel like he can be the right guy for what they want to do here and like, yeah, my friends that are nix fans are like, oh, just like just you wait, you know, it's all peaches and cream now.

10:37And I'm like, I don't know, man, like I'm kind of if it takes five years for him to overstay his welcome, that will be a rousing success in Brooklyn. The I think you alluded to where the issue would be is that what if Yegor Joman let's say in year two is just so undeniable that it becomes clear. Oh no, everything needs to run through him. I think that's kind of what he struggled with. I don't think that'll be an issue at least this season if it is from the net's perspective where they are. That's an excellent problem for them to have at that point. It is I don't really see it happening just because Yegor did not show a lot of on ball chops last year and hey, he's been working on it. He's been stronger, the handle being more assertive. That's great. But I said to net's fans that were wary of the Julius edition. I'm like, he's not such an anomalous player and such a ball hog and this and that that like if Yegor and Mike L can't be good while Julius Randall's on the floor.

11:42That might be a Mike L and Yegor problem. You know what I mean? It would be like blaming the I don't know if you like blaming an ugly toaster for like having a bad decor in an apartment. It's like, come on man. So Yegor, what was your biggest takeaway from his rookie season and even what we saw from him in summer league. You mentioned that it doesn't feel like a ton of the on ball stuff is there in summer league. It's certainly like his free throw attempt rate actually existed, which I thought was a pretty good, pretty big deal. But what are you just sort of made of him from when he came into where he is now? Yeah, well, I brought about it a couple of times last year. If you look at his three point attempt rate, especially catch shoot and his low free throw rate. Those were like current clay Thompson buddy healed shop profiles, which this was the big passing guard, right? Like that is not what you would think. He has a ball in his hands getting downhill so on and so forth. It's great that he surpassed his shooting projections, but you know, where is the real unknown upside.

12:54If he's not playing with the ball in his hands, at least a little more, right? And he looks bigger and he was more assertive in summer league. I still thought some of the downhill drives were like awkward and maybe the 70% he shot from two or whatever in the high free throw rate were a little bit of small size theater, small size theater. But it'd be hard to deny that he looks a little different. And so I'm just excited to see him grow into whatever he's going to become. I do think it truly starts this season. Like he has the muscle and the reps now to like explore a little bit more. And this is going to be like the first season where you're going to see, I think the picture of like whatever he will become, if that makes sense. Because I don't think he will just be a super like low activity, extra passing, predominantly catch and shoot player in his career.

13:56I mean, if he is, he could still be useful. But I don't think he nor the nets envision him. Self that way. Right. And I guess there's I wouldn't want to see him adopt Julius Randall's tunnel vision tendencies. But like when you look at Julius Randall's body and what he does getting downhill, if you're worried about that he's not going to be a real thin, like even lashes, not someone who's just rail thin. And so I actually I might be sipping the summer league cool eight. not someone who was just rail thin. And so I actually, I might be sipping the summer league cool eight. Oh yeah. I'm hoping there's going to be a ton of on ball agency for him this year. I don't think he'll ever have the raw separation aspect or like hitting maybe a ton of step backs to get there. But I think this is someone who can have more of an inside the arc game. And I was almost encouraged last year because wasn't the knock on him. I think we talked about it. Well, what is

14:56this? What does his jumper look like? Right. It just kind of flip flopped where if I like, oh, he doesn't need to be on the ball, the jumper's ahead of schedule. We're actually wondering if can he be on the ball, which I guess is a different type of problem to have. But still, it was encouraging to me that what was pinpointed as one of his weaknesses was just like one of his greatest strengths. Right. I mean, I think the reason I was so long on him is because there was I felt both. I felt like I don't super trust to handle and I don't super trust not only right, he was thin last year had a strength deficiency. I also just didn't felt like he was super snappy. Like, had a lot of juice with the ball, like getting by people. And I was worried about the jump shot. He could shoot. I was like wrong. I the the pre BYU shooting samples are pretty strong. I'm not worried about the shot any more. And then he has a lot of tools to work with at least as an on ball guy. And so I do think like the biggest thing that watch for him this year is, OK, if he's going to be downhill more,

16:00if he's at least going to be trying to break the paint more, how strong of a advantage creator and pass her is he? Because I think you can say, last year, like, he just wasn't in the paint with advantages. So it's hard to know, like, it's just hard to know. I felt like he missed some high level reads personally, like hitting cutters later, manipulating the defense. But for me to say, man, like, he was overrated as a passer. I just don't know. I can't say that because he wasn't in the paint that much. His first 33 shot attempts last year, his first 30 shot attempts last year were from three. That's, that's not going to happen this year. That I just, it's not going to be like that this year. Did he save Sean Marx's job? Oh, because if we're having a conversation where like if Yegor Jomem just has a different rookie season where the on ball oomph isn't there, he didn't shoot well. What is the, there are still guys that are I'm going to hold out on Drake Powell. I

17:02still like him. But like Nolan Treyori, Danny Wolf, Ben Siroth, these aren't just no one's really peaking anyone's curiosity at a high level. And so Jomem is sort of the crown jewel of if you're going to use all five first round picks, you better hit on at least one of them. And they have. So I was just wondering, do you think there would have been more talk about Sean Marx's job security had Yegor Jomem and not been serviceable as a rookie? You know, it's funny in a weird way. People hating that selection helps Sean because it's not like he took the obvious choice and he had a good rookie season. It looks better that he perhaps went against the green and Yegor looks good. Yeah, it's hard. It's, it's depressing to imagine if Yegor was just like terrible last year where they would be. I think that like save might be a little strong, but it's is a thing where like, okay,

18:04you get this rebuild, Jordy would seemingly be your last coaching hire like for the foreseeable future. There are a lot of questions surrounding his job security, but okay, like, even if Yegor was terrible, they would still be in the same like macro building place where they do have flexibility, like their positions to do something in the future. But yeah, it would it the taste in your mouth would be a lot more sour if Yegor was bad. So, so maybe. But I so my answer would be, I mean, maybe Josiah feels differently, but my answer would be no, because I just think that Sean Marx has gotten a pretty bad rap all of a sudden. I his biggest misstep was leaning was years ago, leaning into that mega star model and letting them have sort of the run of the building by bringing in DeAndre Jordan, the way that the coat like Kenny Ackinson worked out. And so like, those are mistakes, but once you were committed to Kyrie Irving, Kevin

19:07Durant and even James Hardin, it was like that was sort of dynamic was almost beyond his control. And you look at the way he built that team back up when they didn't have draft equity at that time to get to a point where they were flexible enough and intriguing enough that players wanted to go there. So I probably do think there would have been more of a discussion over his job. I think there's a lot of people I think he sucks as an executive. And I'm not saying he's been perfect. I think he really did in hindsight, you know, the Kenny Ackinson thing to me was sort of the inflection point of, okay, you really should have drew a line somewhere. But I think he's become almost underappreciated as an executive when you look at what he's had to work with overall. And then also, I'm again, I don't know how that draft class from last year is going to look like, yeah, I definitely would have traded like a couple of those for sure. But I don't like what other executive in his position back when Kevin Durant and Kyrie were available would have just continued on of a different course. I don't know what franchise would have okay, that it's been hard to it's been hard to really nitpick

20:11the big moves he's made since then even because listen, I thought they didn't do quite a good enough job of tanking last year, two years ago in the run up to drafting Yegor. However, like holding out on trading cam Johnson, you got MPJ in an unprotected future nuggets first. And now MPJ's value has been rehabilitated. I thought they waited too long to flip Michaelle Bridges during Finney Smith and a shooter like blow this shit up. However, Michaelle five picks like that's a good trade on its own. We'll see what the draft the Kevin Durant trade tree for them is pretty well. Oh, yeah, at this point, it is still growing. There's roots one run deep. So yeah, like and then and then everything else is probably not what he gets dinged for nationally, like they've been soup, they were super laid on the uptake in terms of building with size and rebounding. Like the you could argue the physicality of those teams that were kind of trying to contend in 22, 23 did not

21:15have like adequate role players, especially again, big size rebounding, they were laid on that. You could argue like other than my not come swooping in at the end last year and maybe being a role player to watch. Where's been like the churning through of the roster, where's been the finding the diamonds in the rough of that he was so renowned for like in the first rebuild, right? Dinnwoody Joe Harris, Angela Russell. That stuff, I think those are real critiques. However, those are not commensurate with the criticism that he gets for just in general. When people ask me about the nets, the first thing they say is why Sean still have a job? I'm like, all right. Oh, really? That's the first question. That's interesting. A lot of time. I'm like, okay, that's a little perhaps a little much. Save with digital deals at Vons and Albertsons. This week at Vons and Albertsons, Ginny O, 93% lean ground Turkey is 399 per pound sold in a three pound tray with digital coupon limit to packages. And a one pound package of strawberries is

22:181.99 with digital coupon plus Kellogg's giant size cereal 22.6 to 29.5 ounces selected varieties are 299 each with digital coupon limit three. Hurry in, visit Vons or Albertsons dot com for more deals and ways to save. Meet the Red Bull Dragonberry Emergeizer. It's one of the many new drinks out now. Who knew ice cold drinks could be so fire. Try them all only at McDonald's. Show button here. Football season is finally back and prize picks is bringing out their best offer yet. New users who sign up will get $150 in line ups if you win your first $5 lineup. That's right. If you win your first $5 lineup, you'll get $150 in line ups. On prize picks, you simply pick two to six players, pick more or less on their staff projections and submit your lineup. Then sweat it out as you watch your picks play out live. It's the best way to get more locked in on game day. Make all the picks

23:21you want this football season all in the same at also prize picks is going crazy with the deals to start the football season giving users a new promo every day during stack September. And now prize picks is available nationwide. So what are you waiting for? Lock in for kick off because everyone and everything is on prize picks. What you want? Download the app today and use code blue wire to get one of your $50 instantly in line ups if you win your first $5 lineup. Prize picks run your game. What's up everybody? If you're listening to this or watching this, could I interest you in getting some bonus content, some ad free content? If only there were a way, Dan, could you could you tell me is it possible? Could it be done? There is a way. Go to patreon.com slash hardwood knocks NBA, you can get this episode ad free as well as two bonus episodes per month and since we are previewing the season for every single NBA team, we do have extended versions of our team look at as we're doing a behind the paywall segment with every

24:21single one of our guests, which have been a blast so far. So that's patreon.com slash hardwood knocks NBA where you can also get other perks like discounted merch, you get access to our discord and in passionate versions of grant behind the paywall, like some of the episodes that have come out behind the paywall grant is in rare form. Do you really want to miss any of that? I know I don't. I'm just glad you didn't say there's no way because that would have been a waste of our time. And now back to the show. Michael Brown Jr. I had him fifth on my big board, which is absolutely meaningless when you look at my big boards track record. Cody Williams was number one in his year, just as a wrap. Yeah, it's rough, it's rough stuff over here. I called him Lamella, please play as like Lamella ball, but with a conscience, what is your early impressions of him? And do you have any updates on just that he was dealing with the ankle injury we found out on media day? So when he like is going to be ready and then what type of role he's going to have on this team as a rookie? I think it's questionable whether he plays in the

25:22preseason. However, this is a lot better than the surprise Yegor planter fascia issue that they dropped on this last media day. I think this is just like an ankle spray. Okay, I would expect him to be ready for the start of the season. I was released. It wasn't the back when I saw the niche. I didn't see what the problem was. And I saw that they had an injury. I was like, Oh, fuck is it the back? And it wasn't. So I was pretty well. Thank God, I it's funny to be legit older than NBA players now, not like older by like a month or two. I'm not there yet. So I don't really know what you're talking about. But I'll break it down for you. I'm like a legit half generation older than my Kell and Yegor. Like they are young Gen Z. And so my Kell just kind of and Yegor are affectionately known in the building as the aura bros. I heard that. Do we like it? I haven't just I'm like, I haven't landed anywhere on it. I'm like, it's I

26:23don't love it, but it is apps. Like they are very they have the Gen Z camera awareness sensibility, where it is very hard to distinguish what is performative. And what is the result of having grown up in the surveillance state of 24 seven social media? Yeah, where does being performative and living online like blend? So like my Kell casually tosses like, you know, like, what's the biggest adjustment for you? He's like, man, like, it's just the terminology. But when it comes to the concepts, like, I'm a savant with this stuff. Like I really feel like I'm a savant basketball wise. And he said that multiple times. And I'm like, this is such a Gen Z brand of like pro athlete self assuredness. I like his vibe. It's funny. Like he has swagger like every once in a while you can kind of maybe roll your eyes a little bit. But it's fun that they have a kid who is so self assured who bombs from

27:24three who also thinks like, yeah, Bob from three, like I can score on anybody. But I'm a point guard. I love being a point guard. I love getting my teammates involved blah, blah, blah. And I'm really excited to see if the net's like truly have a guard that is a threat from 30 feet out and but wants to get into the paint and make decisions. Like I tweeted a lot of clips of his in summer league. Nets fans are not used to a young guard that is getting pressured from 30 feet out, getting hard hedged and trapped and just hitting the next gear and splitting it or exploding around it. Like this is this is a sports car with an engine that I'm not there. I'm not used to pretty different than Yegor honestly. Right. And it's also I mean, the Yegor is better than expected shooting kind of makes him a good compliment for him now because if he's going to get trapped in half court, like there's an outlet. And if he could be even more of a quick attacker like that makes it better. Where how do you feel about

28:26them as a back court together overall? I guess specifically on the the deep heads of end. I mean, you got to you got to see what you have here. You got to try it because they've shown too much promise so far in their respective careers to not experiment. And while you're in this holding period of you haven't made the big move, like what else are you doing? You know, Julius is commanding so much lineup optimization that you can't do it because you need a really strong defensive back court or like you need to prioritize MPJ. It's like now you've got to see what you have. I'm excited for it. Yegor was better than expected on defense last year for how slow and thin he was just because positional size does matter. And so you did see like, hey, like anticipation and deflections, you know, that matters. And my Kels had some good defensive moments and summer league. He's long, even if he will need to put on weight. So there is no

29:30reason why theoretically this can't work, which is a long way of saying I'm excited to see them play together. I don't know if this would be hot. I think my Cal Brown junior is going to end up being really impactful defensively. I don't know if he's ever going to be like the guy you want guarding other guys on an island or like going against the top guy, but I could see him being sort of this. If you have someone else on the roster that allows him to take chances, the way that SGA is able to disrupt in OKC, he just looks like that's why I said the mellable with a conscience because there didn't seem just based off the very little film work I did on him leading into the draft. It feels like he has what he called himself a Savon Intelligent Disruption Potential is what it would be. He also like, you know, when he played Darius A cuff in summer league, he's like, I'm guarding this guy. I'm guarding this guy. I'm picking him up. He had a good defensive game that day. Yeah. And there could be, you know, maybe down the line, a bit of a Kyry Irving thing where it's like, OK, in the playoffs,

30:32when he's pissed off and he wants to guard you, he could turn it up. I wouldn't be surprised if that is sort of his ultimate fate. Because, and that's compliment like he has the tools for it. What did you take away from the first year of the Michael Porter junior experience? Did you subscribe to his podcast? Is that I guess is that the? I didn't get to, I wanted to ask him a media day and the mic didn't get back to me. Maybe because they knew I was going to ask if you thought about his post plane career yet. I want to know what he would say to that. He's, you know, it's funny. He's like a beat reporter's dream, specifically, because the thing that makes him a pleasant interview, like interpersonally is the thing that makes him just unbearable at times, which is he'll say anything. He'll say what's on his mind. And that means after a loss, he's great after a win. He'll say

31:34things like last year, he'll say, Ah, yeah, I wasn't playing defense as hard as I as hard as I showed it for the first two weeks. Like took me a wide to adjust. And it's like, yeah, like you were all you didn't try at all on defense for the first two weeks. Appreciate hearing from you about it. So like he's a crazy guy. He's such a fascinated character to kind of be the centerpiece of a team. But also, oh my God, can he shoot? Like, I knew he could shoot, but you just think everything is going in. And sneakily, it's like, maybe the net should just extend him and pay him at 40 million year. Like he's good in this situation. You know, he's good on a contender. Like, I don't think they're thrilled with the off-court stuff. But like, he's really good and useful. So that was kind of my impression, like just basketball wise and everything. Pretty good. I was surprised his efficiency for the most part held up as

32:36well as it did, given he tripled his self-created true shooting attempts, put 100 positions. What I was even more surprised by and I apologize, not I mean, you heard it, but I apologize, not sending it the outline. I didn't hear or watch him say it. I saw the quote, him and media day saying he wants to be the best off ball player in the league. For him to say that, after kind of the agency, he did have last year, because in my back, my mind I was a little worried of Mike Elbron, Jr. is coming in. Yeah, Gorgio Man is coming in, Julius Randall's coming in as Michael Porter, Jr., expecting to be accustomed to a different type of role now. And for him to say that, I was just like, why are they trying to trade him again? If he just wants to play off all these things. When he keeps it basketball, it's like, he has very interesting and like smart things to say, honestly, and he is a great off ball player. And you know what? He said, yeah, like my job in Denver was not to swing the rock. I was there to shoot the ball. And it's like, all right, like, I got a tough to argue. But now that I'm here, like, yeah,

33:39when I come off curls and pin downs and my screener rolls, I can throw that. And it's like, okay, let's see it. And then we saw it. So when he says, I want to be the best off ball player in the league, I'm like, well, he is a huge target when he would, when they would, when other teams would switch off ball actions, if it was like guard to guard guard to wing a screen and, you know, Yegors, man would switch on him or Terence, man's man would switch on him. Oh, let me, let me reverse seal this. Let me post it up. And you can throw it over the top to me. Like, let me slip out of a screen. He's a really good off ball player. And you don't get that way without, you know, truly caring about, about that stuff, about those details. So I've, I've, man, like, I'm like, maybe radicalized into some sort of MPJ truth or, but I think the other thing to notice that Yegore and Mikel, I don't expect will command such usage so early on that like, you know, MPJ and Randall

34:41aren't going to get theirs in some form or fashion. Do you think it's more likely at this point that they extend to him or that they trade him before the deadline? I kind of think it's more likely they trade him. But it's very close. Just because, you know, Sean, immediate, I said, well, this is what we'd hope to see from him this and that. And, you know, defense, leadership, how he messes, meshes with the young guys. I'm like, man, if that's true, and you feel like you aren't sold yet, I don't know what more there is to see. Like, I feel like, how at this point in the process, are you going to meaningfully change your offer? You know what I mean? Like, yeah, are you expecting that the magic season goes so sideways and like, Franz Wagner's on the table and now his brother's here. And so you don't want to do anything before exploring that or

35:44some other trade. I'm just like, if you're not sold yet, I don't know what is perhaps going to get you to that point. Or are you just bleeding the market dry and letting MPJ and his representation know that like, yeah, no one else is beating whatever we're offering. If that's 30, 35 a year. So my gut says trade, but to me, there are reasons to extend them. Yeah, just because he fits on any iteration of what this team could be essentially, at least offensively. Yeah, the other thing that would be weird. I guess there'd be an element of they're just waiting for the right team to get desperate. But if your intention was to trade him, you would think that you get more for him at last year's deadline when he had a year and a half left on his contract or this offseason when you have the full year to go through them, then rather than trading him midstream now. Now, again, there could be an element of gamesmanship of we think the pistons are going to suck ass and they're really going to like come in and make like an offer that they weren't making it last

36:45year's trade deadline. Maybe there's that, but it would be bizarre to wait for the offers to get better as he gets closer to three agency, I guess is my point. I know I'm with you. I think Sean just feels that that the first thing is how the trade market works because the nicks had got to the place where they were willing to do that package for Mikhail. It wasn't necessarily because Mikhail lit the world on fire in that season when they missed the playoffs in 2324 and the coach got fired and the vibes were horrific. The nicks got to the place where they wanted him and Mikhail wanted to go there. Same thing with Cam Johnson, the nuggets got to the place where it was like, okay, we got to shake things up. MPJ is the guy to go. What can we do? So maybe I think that is part of Sean's general calculations that other teams, ups and downs, dictate the market more than perhaps just a

37:47player's performance because again, what like what's MPJ going to do this year that he didn't do last year? You know? It's a really good point. Day round sharp. Now the unquestioned starter. My guy, you want? Yeah, you're guy and you also take call. You talked about the Nicholas Clackston slippage last year when you were on the podcast and you proved prophetic there. But do you view Day round sharp or someone who could take on like at least a 25 plus minutes per game role? And the second part of that is what's the primary benefit of transitioning from Nicholas Clackston to Day round sharp is your primary big. Oh God, that hurts me. It is true. I don't know if you had any like blog boy favorites when you were, you know, Clackston was one of them. He looked like Kevin Durant on some of his drives. I don't like. No, no, he was so, you're so good. And I was so all in and I felt like I was right. I was watching his next team. I could still recall him like shutting Damien Liller down on a switch in the corner in crunch time against I think it was

38:49that wasn't the blazers then it wasn't the bucks. Yeah, like that's just that's that's how I remember Nick Clackston. That's the only guy class that I know that was like his breakout game and then nothing he was never heard from again and nothing never happened. No, yeah, it was it was sad. But Day round is has taken up that mantle. I mean, he's never played more than 1100 minutes in his season. He's going to be expected to play probably 2000. And so that is a jump that I can only see how that manifests right now. I believe he is if not number one number two, all time NBA offensive rebounds per 100 possessions. He's nuts. He doesn't qualify for the all time leaderboards. But he if he did, he'd be up there. Playing against bench units, playing short minute spurts. A lot of his a lot of the reason the advance metrics absolutely adore him, right, is because of the rebounding differential. Also playing behind Nick Clackston, who will we struggle to defensively rebound? You know, his

39:52impact stats are a benefit from that. So how does that look 2000 minutes? But the rebounding would be the main benefit. He's not going to just suddenly lose his ability overnight, right? He is a much better screener than Nick. You're getting a lot of benefits there. He turned it over quite a bit. But just to the eye, he does have a lot more like hub delay action. I can get into a handoff or I can hit the back cutter. You know, if someone slips at his zoom action, I can throw it over the top to them. So and the nets do run their offense like that. So I'm interested to see that. And yeah, mainly it's just like, can the impact sustain in a larger role? Will his lack of like true big time rim deterrence shot blocking kind of defensive style? Like will that hurt the nets in the long run? Or is it just everything that he can kind of do? He can move? He can play decent drop? He

40:54can switch a little bit? Can all that make him the positive defender that, you know, the metrics say that he is and is the offensive rebounding plus feel combo that, you know, got I say a heart and Stein paid 100 million. That's so many of the best non star bigs in the league have is they're on the next guy. It's a question worth exploring. And I'm really glad that they are. How, how do you think they'll go about? Because the rim deterrence is the one that stands out for me is the numbers don't necessarily love him there. Do the nets have the personnel to play even more aggressive as a way to paper over that? Or they just banking on day around sharp is going to get better there? What is the, it's a concern? But like what would be a potential solution that this team could explore? Man, I don't know like this, if you're going Michael Yegor Randall MPJ, Dayron, I'm like, not there's not a ton of confidence swelling in my basketball heart on defense. I

41:54think they're going to play pretty aggressive coverages. Dayron can really move his feet, head switch, trap. Jordi took this team from bottom of the league and forcing turnovers for years to top 10 the last two years without a ton of defensive stalwarts. So I think you're going to see pretty aggressive up the four coverages. Dayron can be good there. I think they'll try to lean into that. And if it's not working, maybe we can explore some, you know, I see him trying to take away the middle, trying to funnel guys to day Ron. So at least he has shorter space to cover. But then it's like, all right, funneling guys today, Ron at the rim, not the greatest rim protector. We'll see the one hair in the soup of his profile is that his tremendous on off splits the last couple of years, a lot of three point shooting variance. His opponents do not shoot well from three when he's been on the court. They shoot really well when he's off of it. Are we ascribing that today, Ron? Like, is that going to swing and

42:56all of a sudden, he doesn't, he's not that impact monster we've seen. I think he's by far the most interesting net on this team. That's not like, you know, Yegor and my kelp for all these reasons. I don't know if like maybe his offensive rebounding ends up offsetting it because now you're going up against a set net defense more often if they're winning the possession game is a saw, but I you're right, I don't even think about when you go through the projected starters, it's like, well, how are you supposed to play that aggressive with that person now? Yeah, that that scares me. Also, he's looking at this is a six year in the NBA, he's never been on the subway. We'll learn that immediately. He's never been on the subway. Never been on the subway. Mo Vognor offered to take him on the subway. Dayrun said, nope. That's I know. That's how do you I mean, what is the guy spent on Ubers or drivers at this point? Does he live right next to the net's practice facility or by Barclays? What is the like never, not once, but he's been pretty steadfast with that. So, yeah,

43:56as a as a native New Yorker, that's my only very slight orange flag with Dayrun. I want to I want to I want to take him on the subway. That would be a story to write. I took I took Dayrun Sharp on his first subway ride. We could do that. Yeah, version of subway takes be great. You mentioned Mo Vognor. He is basically the backup center rotation unto himself. What intrigued you about his fit on this team? But you're also looking at he has a serious injury in the rear view Dayrun Sharp, as you said, has never played more than 11 hundred minutes. What are the nets exploring outside of those two is a Julius Randall at the five? Is this a Danny Wolf instance? What what what happens there? I think it's wolf Randall like tape job. Yo, we got Noah Clowny at the three as well and Josh Maynott and we're at least super long at every position and big if not the center position and the other ones and we

44:59can switch, you know, effort by committee, so on and so forth. So that could be what they're leaning into. And then my deep sleeper cut this year is Cheney Johnson, who is I think still on a two way and is a six eight center, but is a real dog and was good in like Mickey Mouse, March and April minutes last year. So to answer your question, yeah, kind of it's it's looking a little shaky, but I like Cheney Johnson and we'll see about the rest. Mo Wagner, like, yeah, you got to see it, you know, like, the nets really believe in their shooting system, like in their shooting coaches and three point shot development. Maybe Mo has his best spacing season, you know, maybe they just he they need his brand of physicality and shit storing on the court for all the young guys. I think he can play in a similar way to Deiron, right? If not perhaps like replicate his impact. So we'll see about Mo, I'm a

46:05situation to monitor. I don't know how much confidence I have, but he's going to be the backup center. I hope they get weird with how they do the center position in the non day run chart minutes, because it's just like I like this roster is a bit not that built to do that you almost have to when you're looking at the personnel behind him. It's also like I said, they're in a holding pattern get weird experiment like try stuff. This is the time, you know, meet the Red Bull Dragondary Emergized. It's one of the many new drinks out now. Who knew ice cold drinks could be so fire. Try them all only at my dogs. Nothing want to ask you about it's the obligatory national NBA podcast question. Can you rank your level of intrigue of the the non-Yagorjome in first round picks from 2025? I get this question. This is the national question. And I've, I've, I've like never, ever been able to answer it.

47:05Oh, I think Nolan number two. I think Nolan just because there is some, there is speed. I know that that's just rave about him as like a worker that I've heard quote, he doesn't care about anything besides working. So little maybe perhaps an issue for him to discuss with a future therapist down the line, but good for Nets fans. I think that there's real speed like we've seen touch flashes of it. Maybe like catch and shoot, he can catch and shoot. Those numbers have never been bad. It's really been the off the dribble shooting. He likes to guard. So you can kind of squint and see if there's a high usage wing or whatever. Oh, he can catch and shoot. He can guard. He can push and transition. Right? Like, okay, I see something there. Maybe I think Danny number three, although I don't have a ton of confidence. And then Drake and Ben tough.

48:07Tough for me to choose. Ben has like done more and flashed more and Drake just has more of the tool set. I'd say, I'd say Ben and then Drake, although that's a pass for me. You could you could ask me tomorrow and I could change. If Drake, here's the thing, if Drake plays well for two weeks, he's going up to number three, if not number two. So don't feel that discouraged. That's all it takes. I don't, I mean, I obviously to read Whitehead had the injuries, but what is it about these guys that the nets get that they're supposed to have this like more of a hyper athletic profile? I just like, I Drake Palo, aside from some of the defensive moments, I said like very few defensive moments. I'm just like, what this is not what I thought that the nets were getting. That's the main thing I've written about him is it's like, yeah, the athleticism is kind of what's been touted, but also can I get one, he has a lane and just off two feet goes up to doom on somebody? Can I get one like, whoa, he just pinned that off the top

49:08of the top of the glass? Like just just a couple. Like I want to see it pop a little more. I'm worried that his deflection numbers are really low. For example, you know, I just, where is that showing up that that athleticism? And then not to mention, you know, we need a little bit more shooting development. But yeah, like again, like I said, he's drinking together four or five good games in a row. I'm in. How do you expect all of these guys to play or do you see one or two of them being an odd man out from the jump from the jump that there's going to be a couple odd men out, Jordy's like, you can't play with more than nine or 10 guys. And it's like so many guys, that's the big macro like roster, like coaching story for their season right now. It's like, where, where are they finding minutes for these guys? I don't think they'll all be in the rotation on day one. I do think we'll even see some more long island minutes for some of them here and there. But I think on average, I think you're going to get three of the five in the lineup,

50:11like on a, on a regular basis at any given time. Who is more important to the team this season? Josh, my not or Noah, Clowney? Oh, I think ideally it would be my not because he's shown more consistent or like real stuff. I think it's Josh, I just because I'm a higher on Josh as a player. However, like if Noah, if his best month of the season last year is how he's playing, and he said his main goal this season is to be like a better more impactful defender and rebounder, then Noah helps you paper over, perhaps that lack of center depth a little bit more as a big switchy three, four. So ideally, it's Noah, but I think it's Josh just because he's better. I think I agree with you, but Noah, Clowney, there's a ability to like draw fouls off his draw. Last year went through the roof. So if he's going to be able to do that, I always say to my

51:13friends who aren't for some reason watching 82 Nets games a year, I'm like, and you're still no, I honestly, I know, I have no standards. I'm like, Hey, Noah, Clowney, might, it sounds like so mean, and I don't mean it this way. But like, when people complain about Shay and Jayla just foul baiting, I can't watch the NBA. I'm like, you should watch Noah, Clowney, honestly, because like, at least those guys are tough, you know, like, Shay does 50 things a game. I'm like, Oh my God, that was sick. Noah on every drive is like yet another like low rip through with his arms, like two shots for Noah, Clowney, it's pretty unethical. And he's like even giggled about it. However, it's effective. It's helping him. That's not slander. That's just by perception of objective reality. Don't hate the player hate the game quite literally in this really charge it to the game literally what? So what would be the swing factor for him

52:15this season? Is it the shooting? Is it the rebounding? Is it the defensive value ability? Like what would be the single biggest thing that, Oh, he has to be in the rotation? He's doing this now. Yeah, I think it's I think it's shooting consistently. I think we could just get it up to 35% from three instead of like low 30s. Because he has stretches where he really does. He's in the high 30s. And it's like three weeks we can't make a shot. So it's that. And then it is defense. It is like man, in your rookie season, we saw flashes of he had a game with seven blocks. He was switching on to guards. A little bit of a Nick claxon, ask thing where it's this super skinny kid was just kind of all over the place with his long limbs. He has not replicated that since. And I just he's got to be a plus defender or rebounder to really earn these consistent minutes. So I would say it's that because there's not going to be a ton on offense other than catch and

53:17shoot three point bombing and like the occasional close out drive that ends in free throws. And hopefully like a donk or lay up here and there. But if he's given you real defense in that frame, which is like promising, then yeah, like that's a real player and he's going to play a lot. The offense, I feel good that there and part of this is Julius Randall's there, but they're going to meet and fully improve in the half court. Do they now have the personnel you think to materially improve in transition? Oh, this is a great question. They were such a load transition frequency team. Also, I think that did impact Drake Powell. Like he never got easy ones ever. And so and Nolan, like that's tough for young guys with who are fast and athletic. Yeah, I asked about that today at practice. Like it's been an emphasis. Jorrie's going to trust a team with some more veterans and some more experiences to let loose a little bit. I mean, Jorrie was just so pissed about their

54:20defense and defensive rebounding at the start of the year. And how often they turned it over in transition that he said, like, yeah, until we clean that up, like, well, then we can talk about letting them run in transition. So I do think we'll see more in transition. And the one thing they shouldn't be terrible at on defense is defensive rebounding. Say what you want about Randall, he's consistently defensive rebounded. Dayron MPJ is a three good defensive rebounder. Jager's pretty big for a two. Like, yeah, so I do think we'll see them play more in transition. There, yeah, there's you're to mention the rebounding in their project, they starting five, Mike Brown is the smallest guy at six five. Then if you if he's into starting. So yeah, the rebounding should be there. I didn't even you, I looked this up while you were talking about the Drake Powell point, the 16th percentile in transition true shooting attempts last year. That's not we solved it. There's hope I got to get a mount transition more. Yeah, Julius Randall might help them there too. Like, he's

55:20at least not afraid to get on the break. Now, the decisions he'll make sometimes like we could we can have a different discussion about that after it happens. But he's he's not for someone who's viewed as this ballstopper really wants to slow down and operate an attack like he is very willing to get out on the break. Right. In the half court, I think you might run into that, especially if you use the ball around the high elbow, but again, like, you know, maybe I'm drinking the the cool aid, but like I just trust if Jordi wants him to get on the glass, which he will and kick ahead and dribble ahead, I think he will. Like stuff like that that's so whatever institutional to the way a team wants to play. Julius has been in the league 13 years. Like he's made all start teams. I don't think he's just going to go rogue on every principle that Jordi wants to play with, you know, like I feel like people are being a little harsh on him. To the Jordi point, are there any like philosophical changes or ideological changes that you expect to see from this

56:20team that we haven't discussed already? I'm just curious to see what he does on a defensive year where they're actually going to be consistently trying to win games and not just develop. Like he really wants to be aggressive, you know, but how how diverse will they be defensively now that it's time to win some more games, you know, and if Yegor is making mistakes on defense or whoever, it's not like, hey, let like we want you to try this. We want to work through this. It's like, no, we're down five with 10 minutes to go. What is our best chance of winning this game right now? I'm curious to see if that produces a notable difference in especially their defense because, you know, Jordi has made lemonade out of lemons in in half court offense last two years. I dropped two sugar drink sugary drink metaphors in that in that answer. Cool. Late and

57:22lemonade. So there you go. I will drink them both. The so I guess the what I find interesting is this is implied with the Julius Randall acquisition, but they're not viewing this as a season where it's we don't own our first round pick. So it really just technically doesn't matter. It's like in the past it's oh, we have to optics win as many games as possible. So you're not sending pick X, but they won't you don't see them viewing this is just I don't say a throw away year, but continue like leaning really hard into the developmental track. I think that because the vibes in a five years ago was that net's bucks quarter final. That was only five years ago. I know, feels like forever ago. Yeah, that was my life has been BCE that moment and AD that moment of Katie's toe on the line. I think that it's just been so like miserable and it's not anybody's fault even like that is like not sound dramatic, a traumatic thing for a fan base to go through. And then it falls

58:22apart and then it's like Mikhail and that doesn't work out. And then you're tanking and you're just awful. And I would give any net's fan a million dollars if they could name the starting five from like any April game that they played in the last two seasons. And it's like that does weigh on an organization, you know, like you want to win 30 35 games as opposed to 25. And again, that's why the biggest story is going to be when do you give up quote unquote on young guys? When do you put them in the rotation? Even if right now Drake Powell is a worse NBA player than Terence Man, how do you judge that? And how does that affect your minutes giving? But no, I think that there is listen, the one thing the one argument there is to make is that perhaps this is a good year to be in the relegation zone if they're just bad. But before that, it's like no, like they want to be competitive, they want to build. And you know, maybe it is true that star XYZ that will come on the market next

59:23summer doesn't want to join an 18 win team, but a 34 win team. Oh, well, maybe, you know, that makes sense. Then being in the relegation zone just trying to mess with the pick that's going to Houston would be pretty funny if that's what ends up happening. And because they do own their pick in 28. So yeah, it also would mean that you've probably covered and watched some pretty rough basketball that season again. So I feel so I feel so bad for Jordy, he's like, you know, has the worst winning percentage of any nets had coach ever through two seasons. He's the second worst winning percentage of any coach in the NBA active head coach. It's like that feels that feel I would I would love to see him. I'm not the net should absolutely keep him. Maybe clear, I would love to say coach, the wizards roster this season and just see what that team could be under him rather than Brian Keith. I don't mean that as a shot up, Brian Keith, who is not to be fair coached a real basket got into coach real basketball team either, but you can watch the nets and see identifying principles through the

1:00:25muck. I have not once gotten that vibe from the wizards. And now they have real talent there. So I would just be like, a team like that would be fun to see Jordy for Nanda's coach. Two things can be true. One, there is a reason that every opposing coach throughout the league says, man, they play hard. Like I really was they're going to be good. Kenny Adkinson went on a long great answer about comparing his first years in Brooklyn to Jordy's and was like, man, they're going to be all right. Like you can watch you can tell. And listen, do net fans just want to believe that? Of course, like, but it's there's kernels of truth in that. Like it felt very real based on what we were watching. The second thing is man, it might be the best job to have coaching a tanking team because I'll tell you what, Jordy, like everyone loves him. And they don't win ever. It's like he is he is more job security than anybody. If you ranked all 30 coaches from job security this summer, he would be

1:01:25like way up there. Yeah. But that's a good thing. That's a good thing to be clear. That's a good thing. But there's the other side of that coin where it's I don't think anyone feels that way about Doug Christie or Brian Keith, just to name like two coaches, or even at this point, Willie Green before he was fired and then now even Jamal Mosley, who coached a real basketball team. So that is fair. Lucas, are you ready to enter the annual cookie cutter lightning round portion of this podcast? Yes. I'm sorry. Looking at this roster as it stands today, what do you view as the net's as single biggest need? Defense. It's that too broad, just in general. Yeah, defense and if not guys that don't turn it over, I'm worried that that will be their killy seal on offense. Oh, yeah, I mean, Randall, and if you're going Jome and Mike Hill Browns, a rookie, yeah, that's a guy to even think about that. That's a good point. Day Ron, Day Ron Loki. Next up is anything about this team, strengths, weaknesses,

1:02:29storylines, whatever that you think is flying under the radar that we have not discussed yet. I think most people have a pretty good grasp on what's interesting about this team on court from an on court perspective. I do think this is a fascinating case study in roster management. When, like, when do you, how do you treat first round assets? When do you begin to give up on them? How do you prioritize their playing time? Like, we've all heard of an MBA about man teams can be so married to the guys they selected in the first round. We'll see about the nets this year. Like, we'll see about it, you know, that's, they're also, do you view them as a team that is waiting to pounce in a, like a buy now capacity on the trademark? Yes. What would be like the archetype of player that would need to become available for that? Is it, could it be, oh, we decide we want to get involved in the trade Murphy's beef steaks or it needs to be like

1:03:29caps lock star type guy? It can be either because both set you up for different things. I think they have enough draft assets to make both moves eventually. You know what I mean? Like, if they were to trade for that capital S star, they could, they would also have some bullets left in the chamber to do maybe the trade Murphy trade or to do the, the lower case S star. Okay. What do you view as this teams top 10 rotation as of right now when they're at full strength? I do think starting five, if I had to bet maybe not day one, because my Kelma I missed the preseason, but ultimately my Kel Yegor MPJ Randall, Dayron. That's five, right? I think, I think day one six through 10 is Nolan, Keon Ellis, Mo Voguener, and then my not's got to be in

1:04:38there, right? Or no? I'm going to, the last, there's two spots left. The three guys I have in my head are my not clowny and wolf. Okay. I think my not like works is, my not's going to get time eventually, but I could see them wanting to just Danny Wolf's going to be a 22, 23 year old sophomore. It's like time to get him going, you know? And Noah last year of his rookie contract. And you know, my not wasn't playing a lot to start the, you know, his net's 10 year last year. Although I do think he's like the best player of that group. I'll go, I'll go Danny Noah, Mo, but the whole time I'll be just like, where's my not? Where's my not? Where's my not? So that's what I think it's not what I hope. I didn't ask you about him, but I'm guessing Josh with Jasperson's just in Long Island. All the time. I think he's, I think he's in Long Island. And I think ultimately he might get the chance later. But I'm, yeah, I'm excited about him. I did like him too. Is there, so we agree that they're going to be

1:05:41trying to win games at least to start the season. Is there go to closing unit? Do you think it's just their starters? Or do you see the potential of the farts in fiddle at any of those spots? Yeah, I see the potential where there will be games where it's like Randall and MPJ playing well. And we need size and rebounding. Okay, let's just go Yegore at the nominal one. And then sub Keon, Alison. So it's yeah, or Keon, MPJ Randall, Dera or it's Yegore, my not. MPJ Randall, Dera. What would be a weirdo wacky, wonky lineup? You want to see Jordy Fernandez roll out this year? Once again, I think you got to think big and like, you want to see how much they can replicate size and rebounding without a center. So I think it might even be like Randall, Danny at the five because like if he's some of his promises like he's really big, can he play the five in a meaningful capacity? So it would be like Randall, Danny, my not Noah, Yegore. Okay. Or even MPJ,

1:06:52Noah, Yegore, just six, nine and off everybody. I was trying to build a my Cal Brown junior, just plus like juice the defense lineup. So I think that would be my Cal Dayrun Sharpe is in there. Josh, my not, do I have to throw a man and Keon? Is that how it would have to be? Keon. Yeah. That four, that fifth spot where you put team and is is interesting. I mean, hopefully, hopefully Noah has the season where it's him, but might not be. If it's Noah, I was I really kind of intrigued by Noah Clowney. I think I just want to shoot a little bit better from three, but is there anything else before I ask you to make a couple of predictions that we haven't talked about that you think we need to discuss? No, like I'm curious about Joshua Jefferson. And one storyline is like again, took a while on the uptake, but like size and rebounded on this team. Finally, nice to see. I'm not used to it in my whole entire life as a net fan, just because I

1:07:54missed the finals runs in the early 2000s and literally since then, they have not been a plus size rebounded team. So nice to see them prioritizing it. So are they do you think that in defense of rebounding? Is this the year they get into? Well, they were 14th in 2024, but they've been 22nd the past two years. Are they do they avoid the if I set the higher or lower it ranking? Let's say 16 and a half. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I think MPJ Randall Dayron is like a lot of misgivings, but that's a really legit defensive rebounding front court. So as of right now, knowing all the things that come into play, whether they make moves, whether they don't make moves, how many games do you see this team winning? And where do you think they land in the Eastern Conference regular season standings? I think they win. I've gone back on fourth because sometimes I'm like, okay,

1:08:56how are they going to stop anybody and how are they not going to turn the ball over? And also, it's not like they're going to be the best shooting team in the league to negate those turnovers. So there are plenty of reasons to get negative, but I just kind of believe in Jordy and they've had more talent than they've had the last couple of years. I'll go through. I'll go 29 and 53. I'll go 30 and 52. I'll give them a nice even 30. I what would that be? Like probably 12, 13th. Yeah, as I was thinking, what are the teams in the East that you'd be prepared to guarantee that they're better than this year? No, no, okay. Let me, let me look at the roster. I could see Milwaukee just because they don't have to worry about the relegation zone. They have a lot of guys on their roster, but I could see them just leaning into development, Tyler Hiro gets traded contract year. How may Hock is junior contract year gets traded. I also don't know how they rebound quite frankly. So I could see them. Yeah, bucks. Yeah, that's a good show. Chicago maybe. Yeah, as bucks and Chicago are like the ones that you could

1:09:59probably squint and see. I don't want to, I don't want to be the negative guy about Charlotte, but like no, you're talking at your preaching of the choir now. I, we did our over-unders the other day. I took their under. Everyone just seems to think that like losing Lamello Ball isn't this huge subtraction for them. And just with Brennan Miller's shoulder history now, Conniple's dealing with a hamstring. I don't love their center rotation outside of Musa Diabate. Who's the best passer on that team right now? If the answer's Kobe White, I have questions. Yeah, I think they're better than the nets, but I think that their floor is lower than people are referencing right now. I agree. It's also like Conniple can have a great season and they can still be bad. Right. I took, this was not, I initially had the nets winning more than they're over under. I put them at 24 wins because one, I was 50 wins over when I went through my first pass through in the entire 50 wins. So I'm an optimist this year. But two, I really do think I'm with you on

1:11:03the Michael Porter Jr. stuff that I think someone they trade and I think this is going to be a classic case of they're just going to lean into development post-alls. Like maybe Josh Maynott gets traded to another team because he's so impactful defensively or just opens up a ton of options in the front court. Otherwise, if they stay together, like if they don't make a move, I think they would be an easy over. I'm just betting against them not making a move. I think that is the undercase like MPJ and maybe it's even in December, like they get a great offer or something, you know. So it's even earlier. That is fair. Yeah. I was kind of thinking in that head in my head, I was kind of thinking like this is going to be the team and blah, blah, blah. But I did say it's more likely they train MPJ. So I also don't know. I've said this on every look ahead. I don't know how the new lottery format actually impacts like what's the level of competition we're seeing post-all star break nights a night, which a team like the nets if it really has been cranked up. It probably hurts them more than some than some other teams. Could I get one more net's prediction from you?

1:12:10It could be whatever you would like it to be. One more net's prediction would be that one more net's prediction would be that the nets quickly regret not signing Deiron or Josh to longer term deals. Oh, I like that. Shout out. I mean, shout out to their front office for letting me know that mutual options were legal. I had no idea. I had no idea. Yeah. And listen, when Nick was starting to ascend a little, they gave him that deal. They gave him a two year deal for 20 million. And then he had that awesome year in the first year of that contract. They gave him four years, a hundred million. I'm not saying that's what Deiron's going to get, but I think they might regret not just, hey, we really believe in you. Here's three years, 45. Here's four years, 60. Same thing with Josh. So I think that might be something they look at and regret. If Deiron and

1:13:14Josh wanted that, which I think they would have. For mine, I was thinking about moving off this after the ankle stuff. I'm predicting Michael Brown Jr. makes an all rookie team. I think that the opportunity should be there to some extent. And if he stays healthy, just the stuff he showed, like, but when the back injury wasn't as much of an issue last year on the film that I saw, I think he could be plug and play on offense while also driving it for others. And then I think that this is just, if we look up and he's like averaging two steals per 36 minutes or something, it just wouldn't surprise me. Yeah. I, you know, it's funny. I was low on Yeg or last year, but I then I, all of my like spontaneous predictions, worries that he made would make all rookie second team, which he would have if they didn't shut him down. So I felt good about that. Yeah. I like that. I like that. And I also do think just the nets will be more fun to watch than perhaps people think and definitely your average 24 and a half over under win team. And that'll help Michael. So I like that prediction. Lucas, this was fantastic. We won 20 minutes over

1:14:18what we were supposed to. So I appreciate you sticking around. Are you able just to tell our audience where they could find you and all the great work they do. That, yeah. That's fine. These count is billable hours for me. And you guys can find me on all social media. Just my name, Lucas Kaplan. Some have an underscore at the end, but yeah, Kaplan with a K and doing most nets and Liberty writing for nets daily, SB nation subsidiaries shout out. And then I do also have a sub stack, mostly about women's basketball and nerdy things going on there. But, Lucas Kaplan social media, you'll find all the stuff. Hopefully, I'm big time enough where you can also type that into Google, but who knows? You have to be. Have you heard of yourself recently? I'll Google you after this to make sure that it's the first thing it comes up. But if it does not recent, the links to his sub stack, his work at netstaley and his social handles will be in the YouTube podcast description. Thank you so much, man. As you know by now, I'll hopefully be able to catch you again in the future unless you decide to, you know, take another step. That's

1:15:19a lot of you come back on the podcast, but I really do appreciate your time and insight. You're awesome. Thanks, man.