Division War Room: Can ANYONE Beat the Thunder? Northwest Division Predictions

0:00This is the Lockdown Podcast Network celebrating 10 years of your team every day. Running a business shouldn't feel like surviving a software group project. One app for accounting, another for inventory, another for sales, and somehow none of them talk to each other. That's where ODO comes in, an all-in-one business management software that brings every part of your business together from sales and accounting to inventory and marketing all in one powerful platform. No messy integrations, no bouncing between tabs and best of all, no spreadsheets. Stop managing software and start managing your business with one unified system. Try for free today at odu.com slash locked on. That's od o o dot com slash locked on. This is Jake from Lockdown. When the game's on the line, the best no end to pass. Because the right assist can change everything. And off the court, it's no different. That's where your state farm agent comes in. Whether it's protecting your car, your home, or helping you prep for the unexpected, that all ups set you up with a game plan that works for you.

1:02Like a good neighbor, state farm is there. Covered options are selected by the customer, availability and eligibility vary by state. Coming up on locked on NBA Daily. The Thunder might win 60 games again, but Denver added to Mar-de-Rosen, Minnesota has Lamello, and Portland has John Dame. This could be the NBA's toughest division. It's the Northwest Division preview. Lockdown NBA Daily starts now. You are locked on NBA, your daily NBA podcast, part of the locked on podcast network, your team every day. Hello, and welcome back to locked on NBA Daily. Wes Goldberg here with Matt Moore and Hayes. It is Division preview week here on locked on NBA Daily. And it's brought to you by CalShi. For a limited time, download CalShi. Use the code locked on to get $25. And you trade $25. CalShi, trade what's next. All week, we are zooming in on each division with our division war rooms.

2:04We're predicting who comes in first, who comes in last, and then we're going to highlight the most exciting things about each team later on in the show. But we've done the Eastern Conference. Let's move over to the Western Conference, where we're going to start with the Northwest Division. Three teams won at least 49 games last season in this division. Four of them made the playoffs. They finished in order. The Thunder, the Nuggets, the Wolves, the Trailblazers, and the Jazz. The big moves in the division over the summer, a quick recap. The Thunder decluttered its bench, so to speak, sending out Lou Dort, Aaron Wiggins, and Isaiah Joe, clearing the way for some of their young guys to play and contribute. Denver signed to Marta Rosen to come off the air bench. Minnesota traded for Lamello Ball. Portland traded for John Maranton. We'll be also getting Damian Lillard back from an injury that sideline him of all for all of last season. And then Utah drafted Darren Peterson. And real just sort of change of goals for the Jazz going into this year. They're going to go into the season trying to win games. The question is, Hayes, who wins the division? Under. Simple.

3:05It's simple. Probably still the best coach team in the division. The deepest team still in the division, even with giving up some of their championship proven depth and dork and Wiggins, but they're still the front runners in the division. Matt, you watch them in preseason and you're just like, how do they not have their guys instilled just like kill everyone? And they just, their replacement level of play is so high. And they're so well coached and they move the ball. Like this is why I the Thunder are a great example of why I think talent is a little more radio when we talk about NBA teams. Because like there are clips out there of the Thunder moving the ball constantly in these preseason. I guess preseason, but like they're look at the structure and the way that they move it. And he wind up at the end with like a great quality shot. And that helps so much and they're super talented like and they're super talented. Like they're starting five is as talented as anybody's.

4:07Mara looks awesome. That's obnoxious. Stop drafting incredible players. Sam Pressy, please leave some for the rest of the league. Kason Wallace I think makes a jump this season. I don't think the defense will be as good this year, but that only means that there'll be one point to two points better than every other defense in the league. It's just impossible to find holes with them unless they get hit with extremely bad injury luck worse than last year. I can't see any way they don't finish first the division by several wins. Hey, you were kind of making a face there for a minute. Because Matt's, Matt's thing of talent doesn't matter. It was just going to, but we don't need it. We don't need, we don't need to go down that rabbit. Matt's not going to drag me into a rabbit hole of his, of his words salad that doesn't make any sense. How do you say talent doesn't matter then by the end of it and their, never mind. It's just, it's the mat more isms of it all. That's all. Can I just saying that I just, we'll talk about, we could talk about another team in this

5:10division. And the reason I don't think that they're going to be as good as I will look the way that they were fitting last night and everybody's sharing highlights. And I'm like, this is, there's no chemistry here. There's no, those guys don't fit together. They're just throwing the ball to one another, meaninglessly in the back court. To your point, Matt, the infrastructure that Oklahoma City has is so important. And it just feels like it's impossible for this team to not be awesome. At least, at least in the regular season, when we talk about winning a bunch of games and who finishes first, this team has a legitimate chance to win 60 games for the third straight season. They're over under I think the last time we checked was like 59 and a half or something. That feels about right. And the crazy thing is you look, one of the talking points around the thunder was second apron stuff. They had to, they're one of these teams that had to, you know, move on from a bunch of players because of the second apron. And I always push back on that. I'm like, they were going to have to move on from these players anyway because they keep drafting guys in the top 15 of the draft. And these, they, you only get 15 standard roster spots. Some of these guys are going to have to leave with all these draft picks that they have.

6:12And they, Merrill looked awesome. Yeah. And that day more, Isaiah Harden signed in chat as a big rotation is just a cheat. That's the, that's the Chico. And Thomas Sorper is still hanging around with the draft last year who I really liked in the draft. A lot of the big last year too, supposed to be really good defensively that may not even play like. It's ridiculous. They got to play three big winups just to get these guys on the court. Yeah. And like, you know, the big thing with that is when they have injuries, they have these guys that can replace it. You know, Jada missed the entire season last year, effectively. And they just, AJ Mitchell was ready to pop in. Yeah. You know, and like, they're having Jara McCain handle a lot in preseason stuff. I'm not, I think McCain's really good as a spot up shooter. I don't necessarily love that role for him. We'll see if Topic comes along because they really, they really like Topic. So we'll see if he's a bit, if where he gets to. Yeah. Man, I just, this division is stacked, which we're going to talk about.

7:12And the thunder that much better than everybody else. And that's like a boring story at this point, but it just kind of is what it is. So look, the thunder are what they are. But the Denver Nuggets and the Minnesota Timberlost also in this division have won a ton of regular season games. A lot of playoff series are like, this is a really strong top of the division. And even the bottom of the division is, we'll talk about it's pretty strong too. So the floor of this division is pretty high overall. Hey, is when you think about Minnesota Denver, I don't think any of us are going to, you know, we were obviously all picking the thunder, but like do any of those, like which of those two teams have the best chance, I guess, of maybe dethroning with thunder at the top. If the thunder, like I think best way, but if the thunder didn't win, if I told you, right, under don't win the division, who wins? Just because I think it's more proven, I mean, they still have yokas. I'll say Denver, I wouldn't be surprised. I can make a kind of argument for Minnesota based off potential, but Denver is the more proven one. Yeah, I'm lower. I'm in a soda after watching them in preseason. I know that they look like everyone's saying they look awesome.

8:14I structurally, I don't, I don't agree. This is what you were alluding to before. Yeah. Denver's bench is looking a lot better than I thought it would. I don't know what that means, but it's, it does functionally look better. And like part of this is, is if you go look, when yokas is on the floor with literally any player, they have a 130 offensive rating. It's just really hard for the defense to be bad enough for you to win those minutes when he's putting out a 130 every night. It's just really hard. They are just, they have, they know how to play together. They have, the Christian Brown is looking way healthier and his explosiveness is back. Denver, I think, I think the proven, it's not just the proven nature of it. I think it's more that they know exactly what they want to do. And while I think their effort is not been as good as it needs to be for a team that has championship aspirations in the regular season, it's so much more consistent than Minnesota's. This wolves team screws around for vast stretches of the regular season.

9:18Until the wolves show me they're not going to do that. I'm not buying. He's where you at in the wolves. I'm, I'm higher in the wolves. Just, I think potential like, is it going to be some time where they have to, an adjustment period for them? I think absolutely. I don't think they're going to be one of these teams that hit the ground running when the season starts. I think they're going to play that your turn, my turn, offense from maybe the first month, month and a half of the season. And so they really figure out how to put them together. But they're a very well coach team too. I think they'll eventually figure out the best way to implement everybody there. Yeah, I like the way that Chris Finch is talking about simplifying things. And I actually think that's the right approach. You know, everybody's talking about how they, you know, Lamello ball, it complicated, all these things. But when you kind of look at the timber walls on paper, it's kind of a traditional basketball team with a very clear point guard, a guy who wants to be just a shooting guard in Anthony Edwards, two way wings around those guys. And then a rim protector and Rudy Gobert. They could simplify things to the point where I think it actually makes all these pieces click into place. I like the way that they're talking. I think Lamello could potentially get them into running opportunistically, which they

10:19really need to do. I'm willing to give them some time. I really want to go back to Denver really quick though, Matt, because the big thing with them is injuries. It's an older roster, a lot of wear and tear. And Aaron Gordon is so important to this group that if he plays, he plays 36 games last year, 51 games a year before that. It's been a rough couple of years for him, but you look even before that, I mean, it was 73 games, 68 games, 75 games. It's not as if this guy is Anthony Davis and just like hasn't been available for like the last half decade. It's really just been the last couple of years, but is that he's also 31 years old. Like where are you at on Aaron Gordon's help at this point? Because if they can get, you know, they don't need to get 73 games from him again, but if they can get back to 50, 60, 65 games from him, that is a huge difference maker for them. It's a point of contention amongst now gets fans like Michael, Ryan Blackburn, who's younger, just things that anybody over the age of 31 is just completely washed and dead. Like he's bad news. Really? Yeah. How old is he?

11:20He's 31. Oh, Blackburn, he's 29. Oh, that's coming up. So his life is over in two years. Okay. And so like, you know, he's been, you know, his thing has been the end of AG is coming because it's an athletic four, even though AG's added a three point shot. I go back and forth. I asked Jeff Stotz about an in street clothes on Twitter about what happens with soft tissue injuries with older guys and he was like, it does become a problem because of the recurrence. It's more likely for you to have recurrence off tissue injuries, but it's still better than having some sort of surgery. And like that's been my thing is like, AG hasn't had me, he hasn't torn an ACL knock on wood hasn't torn an MCL knock on wood. He doesn't have back or foot problems. He just has, he's just had these problems with his calf and his hamstring. Despite the fact that he incorporated hot yoga and did like all of these types of things. We asked him this year, he's trying to add more on his warm ups and cool downs to take better care of himself.

12:20He's in an incredible shape. Like he's like a one, a 99% tall athlete. I have a hard time just being like, yeah, AG's not going to be able to keep it together. He just doesn't, I don't think that makes any sense, but there's a lot of people that are concerned about it. I will say that that's a big reason why they have added so much redundancy at that position. If you look at their roster, they are imbalanced. They have no guards and they have a billion forwards. Spencer Jones already out with the hamstring injury. Bagley can fill in, but he's mainly a five. They drafted Trevin Brazil who looked great in the first preseason game. They have Duran Holmes. They have all of the steps that they can kind of slot in there at the four position. And Cam Johnson can play a little bit of it in small ball lineup. So they have the ability to manage for AG, but it is a concern, I think. So we talked a lot about OKC Minnesota and Denver there. We're going to turn things around. We're going to talk about who comes in last place in this division, but last place might

13:21not be a bad thing. We're going to talk about that next. Today's episode is brought to you by Fandwell. Welcome to your most rewarding NFL season ever, only on Fandwell. How rewarding are we talking? More rewarding than a touchdown with time expiring, more rewarding than an 18 point comeback, maybe even more rewarding than an offensive lineman catching a touchdown. This season, Fandwell is making the excitement go beyond what happens on the field with the all new Fandwell rewards club featuring exclusive offers, surprises in a whole lot more. Every week, check the Fandwell app to see what's waiting for you. There's nothing like a game winning play when everything comes down to the final seconds. That feeling is what makes football so exciting. And Fandwell is adding another layer of excitement with rewards and surprises throughout the season. The enough will give you something new to watch every week. And now Fandwell is giving Fandwell something to look forward to every week too. The rewards club has exclusive offers and surprises, so it's worth opening the app to see what's waiting. Like this, you're most rewarding NFL season ever with Fandwell. Visit Fandwell.com to get started. Today's episode is brought to you by ODO.

14:23Running a business shouldn't feel like you're trying to connect a bunch of systems that were never designed to work together. One app for accounting, another for inventory, another for sales, and somehow none of them talk to each other. That's where ODO comes in. ODO is an all-in-one business management software that brings every part of your business together in one powerful platform, from sales and accounting to inventory and marketing, and works in one place, helping your team move faster, stay organized, and focus on growing the business instead of managing software. The best organizations know that success isn't just about talent, it's about having everyone working toward the same goal, and that's true in sports, just like it is in business. Back when I worked in a sales office, the thing that brought us down was a lack of communication and not going in the same direction. Our biggest problem came when inventory sales and customers were on the wrong page. Just like in sports, organizations are successful when everyone's aligned. Great organizations win because operations matter. That's why you should get ODO. Try for free today at odu.com slash lockdown. That's odu.com slash lockdown.

15:26Welcome back to Lockdown NBA Daily, the best way to support the show. Subscribe on YouTube. We are Monday to Friday at 1 p.m. Eastern wherever you get your podcasts. Let's flip it around. We talked about who we think is going to finish in first in this division. We're all picking the Oklahoma City Thunder. We think very highly of Denver and Minnesota, at least in the regular season and what they could do. Who's going to finish in last in this division, Matt? I'll go with Portland. I think this is really tough here. I like Will Hardy as a coach. I like my sonora as a coach. Jollock really rusty last night. Dame looked awesome. Nirk is already out, but honestly Jackson Hayes is going to fill in and Kato to leave in the house. You're probably not paying the league. I like Kionte Peterson, Ace Bailey, Mark and Jaron Jackson Jr. more than I like, jaw Dame, Denny, to money camera. I was kind of higher on Blazers earlier in the in the free season. I was like picking them as like maybe they could be like a surprise team.

16:27And now I've kind of come back around to where I'm just like, I think they'll be fine. I just don't know that they're going to be able to be the competition. I think it's just too high. So I'll take Utah to finish fourth and or third and the Blazers to finish fifth. It's really these two teams, right? Unless the Minnesota thing completely blows up and implodes. It's going to be the Portland or the Utah Jazz. I like the Jazz is roster construction a lot more for sure, but I'll pick them that finish in the division because they have so many young players that just haven't been in the situation where you're actually trying to win games. And I think that that is a detriment when you're trying to close games. The trailblazers have some questionable fit things, but they have a lot of players that have won a lot of games on that team and they have the youth of that win on that run last year with Tiago as their coach. So I'll pick the Jazz to finish last in the division. I don't feel like super confident in that pick, but that's where I'm going to go with it. So Utah wins 22 games last year. Portland won 42 games last year and then we were a little bit of a surprise team last year.

17:29The playoffs and a lot of people picked that, but I figure Portland probably wins around that amount of games this year 38 39 40 42 43 something like that. So asking Utah to your point A's to go from 22 wins to at least 20 more wins to finish in that same Portland range. I think it's a big ask like that is a heavy lift. Now Jazz fans tell you what we were trying to lose and now we're trying to win. I do think that's harder. Easier said than done, right? It's harder to just kind of flip the switch and just be like, all right, let's just start winning games all of a sudden because they don't have that experience and it's a really young team. I think all these teams are going to be pretty good for the record. Yeah, I think there'll be tough, but I think that they may struggle to close games. That's something that young teams have to learn how to do. Portland's players learn that more last year and that's why I lean Portland. What do you think Matt? I do think that they just were openly trying to lose. Yeah. I just think that you can't, I think specifically trying to be like, well, it's 20 wins. No, it's not. It's more like 10.

18:29If the Utah had tried last year, they probably finished with 10 more wins. They had the talent. They just openly were actively sabotaging throwing games. That's why I was so upset and made a lot of Utah fans mad is because I was like, you're not just like we're not playing guys. You're actively like, oh no, we're in the lead. Let's take guys out and have Kyle Filipowski take step back crossover dribble threes late in the game. What are you doing? They have no depth at small forward. That forward really. It is obvious and camera and then we're looking at Sosoko and Sohan. Like there's nothing here. Their center rotation depends on how you feel about as good as Klingin and Robert Williams and Potter and the guard rotations obviously stacked. Though I think it's very likely somebody gets lost there. I don't know what the identity is going to be.

19:29Utah, I just feel like they at least have a pretty good construct of what they want to do and who they want to be. And I just think, you know, this actually is, I think, hey, I said that talent isn't as important as we talk about, but I did a talent gap between these two teams is tremendous. Utah is young. There's so much more talented than I think the Blazers are. Yeah, but it's unrefined. Tell me it's easy to just say they were trying to lose games, but through trying to lose games, you don't know how you don't learn how to go through the diversity of closing out that game that's five that's within five points. Right. So it's that part of I agree with everything you said about them trying to lose games. And I think that, you know, that ability kind of overtakes sometimes the talent. Like talent doesn't always win you games. It just does not. So, yeah, you talk maybe more talented, but they're very, very talented. Very young. If Damon's 100% he knows how to close game, you know, you holiday knows how to close games. Donovan Klingon, I think is a much better defensive anchor as far as rebounding room protection and everything that goes into it than anything Utah has. So like I think that it's going to be tough.

20:30I'm not saying that that Utah isn't deeper with the talent, but. There's guys having learn how to want when you. Is Utah really that young? Yeah. Okay. Uh-huh. So what, you know, then we look at much more cool thing to think about Jackson, say. Those are his employees in Utah, and one thing I really like isakovim. How do you do that? Well, normally, you know, in Utah, that's just all happened up to them were your underneath or your favorite smoothie. And then you were like, literally, not, all of a sudden, like a big one. So I think, I don't know, that's how many you ask. I mean, you don't know that behind this like just putting a board and third up, right? I'm actually, like disc lubing a number, like I said, I was just asking you again, But that the having that experience around I do think matters and then speak my highlight. I don't see this is not like a bunch of kids It's like a younger guy a rookie and Bailey. I just yeah, but they're younger on top of never being on a team that tried to win Yeah, even like a guy like Larry Markinan hasn't even really hit NBA puberty yet, right?

21:32Like he hasn't had to play in a playoff game that mattered He hasn't had to really do anything that mattered like some of these guys are older in age But they haven't really experienced winning basketball. You know how full about Larry Markin He's seven foot Zach Levine. He's gonna put up a lot of points and when it doesn't matter. Yeah, Markinan's awesome But and even Will Hardy like everybody wants to you know make this guy the next great thing as a head coach We have I still want to see it like I I think he's a really good coach But all I could say is I think he's a really good coach. We don't know anything yet Okay, well, I mean you guys have been higher on the Blazios in general, so it's it's fine I just I don't know The Blazers have the other problem which is like this is a post Achilles Very old Damien Lillard Drew a day is on last legs John it has not as like just just job we can all kind of do that Right, you know, I don't know where Scoot Henderson fits in again, he was playing this way. He's he's

22:33He's gonna be one of these injury guys like this guy you know runs into a wall I think it is the guy that I feel most confident in on this team like that's the guy I think I'm highest on because It depends a lot on if camera comes in and he shoots like you did at the end of the season I think that fundamentally helps right I also like if they're so guard heavy. How does that work with obvious? I don't know it's a balanced roster Yeah, I mean, Drew's the juice is the one thing that could make that and you say he's on his last legs I mean if averaging 17 points is on your last legs. He's got a long that last leg isn't gonna be a long one for me Still it so makes defense of impact But I think Drew's the key to making that work and because he can guard up and he's almost 50 years old So take that Ryan Blackburn. He's not I am yeah, I'm just saying he's 36 Hey, he's one of still one of the most impactful guys in the league. He's just 36. That's all I'm saying That's it. Um, I don't want to lose the plot here because I think what we're all saying is we think very highly of All these teams in the division like whoever finishes in last is not gonna be in the relegation zone in other words, right? Like this is gonna be a super competitive division that can can I ask this question though?

23:36I do think this is an ancient question. Let's do floor ceiling who is the higher Ceiling between Utah okay, I like this question. This is cool. It. Let's hold it for the next segment We're gonna do this and then talk about what excites us about each of these teams coming up here on lockdown NBA daily Today's episode is brought to you by CalChi a new basket ball season brings some big questions who makes the playoffs who wins their division who takes home the title CalChi America's number one prediction market platform. Let's you trade those predictions in a live market We're talking about who wins in Northwest division right now the thunder. They're trading at 73% Wapping 73% meaning a hundred dollars would pay out a hundred and thirty two dollars But what if Denver surprises us and takes the division they're at 10% and a hundred dollar trade could pay out more than $900 if they win the division on CalChi you're trading against peers in a live market meaning there's no house and as the probability changes You could buy in and out of your position trade the draft pick the game and more on CalChi Download CalChi and use the code locked on to get $25 when you trade $25 CalChi trade what's next 18 plus only

24:42Restrictions and eligibility requirements apply event contract trading involves risk and may not be suitable for all investors CalChi products are not available in all jurisdictions prices values and available markets may differ from those mentioned for more information see CalChi dot com slash regulatory It's not just electric. It's Toyota electric and during Toyota's easy choice sales event going electric is easier than ever Right now save instantly on a new Toyota EV with special incentive programs for first time EV buyers and prior EV owners Choose the sleek busy the adventurous busy woodland or the sporty CHR But don't wait these special savings won't last We make it easy Toyota let's go places Thanks for making locked on NBA daily part of your daily routine and making the lock down podcast network Your first listen every day to stay tuned throughout the preseason as we cover these games and we continue on with our division previews

25:44Matt repeat the question that you ask going to the break floor and ceilings Yeah, I think when we're talking about Portland and Utah This is a better way to frame is like what which team has a higher ceiling between the blazers and the jazz if I told you that one of those teams one Well, we'll stop short of 50 they won 48 games this season. Who do you think is more likely to have done that? Either one of you I thought you're talking to west uh Us Utah has the higher floor. I mean higher ceiling because of all the youth there like Darren Peterson puts together a rookie of the year season Ace Bailey puts together and can't like that's almost enough with Jeren's after junior B like they have the higher ceiling make no mistake about it But the higher floor I give to Portland and I'll bet on teams floor than I will their ceiling see I agree with that I think like Utah's floor is like oh they only went for 35 games and they are way further away than we thought they were And and like Portland's floor is like 36 games and they're just not very good Right, but Utah's ceiling is like oh they won 50 games and will Hardy is coach of the year right in Portland ceiling is like oh they won 37 games

26:55And yeah, I agree I think Utah's ceiling is a lot higher than Portland's because the other thing is like what if Kante George takes a leap He's just the best player on these two teams right like what if Jeren Jackson Jr Kind of cobbles together a season like he had a couple years ago and he's like the second best player Of these two teams right like Utah could just have the best guys and maybe even the best coach I think there's a ton of talent on that team. So I'm with you I think Utah has a higher ceiling but I also think they have the lower floor because a lot of things We just haven't seen it in a way that I think with Portland We kind of know what their floor and ceiling is they're gonna play hard. They got run in transition They're gonna miss a lot of outside jumpers and they're gonna play pretty decent defense. I do think We talk about these things as if we feel like oh, yeah, we know exactly, but there's always surprises right Who's got the biggest collapse potential in this division In the whole division. Oh, Minnesota See, I think it's Denver. Thanks never As long as they have Yokech I just I and maybe that's just me over over rating how much Yokech can keep everything together

27:56I don't ever see It completely falling apart as long as Yokech is on that team and healthy from Minnesota I could see it going to hell in a in a handbasket. Yeah, I just You know with Denver. I think it's The chemistry the staleness the injury situation is a little perilous there like there's just don't like I'm on the lookout now for who's gonna have that year from hell and I'm I there is I think a higher risk of it with Denver. I think then almost anybody else in the division You're right though that joker's pretty much like even in 2022 without Jamal and MPJ playing at all day 147 Like he just he's 47 wins out the box as long as you give him any NBA But now they have the DeMartin Rosen text, though. It's true Um, let's wrap it up quickly here Something that we we talked about a lot already But is there something that excites you that we haven't mentioned yet a player storyline a new addition anything Um for any one of these teams has I mean, I'm interested to see how this little mellow ball anything the average experiment goes like it has

29:02Has the has the potential to be amazing it has the potential to be an absolute crap show because we're on lockdown I'll say it that way um Daring Peters. I mean the Utah Jazz has a whole interesting. I like a lot of the players on the roster despite me picking them to To be at the bottom of the division I'm in try to see what the how these young players put it together as the season goes on So then for sure and then DeMartin Denver I just just I'm gonna tune in to lock down nuggets just to see swiper met Matt Moore's reaction to when DeMartin Rosen on a game in the fourth quarter He just says yeah, yo, it's in for me if you beat get out my way. Let me let me dribble the ball 18 So you know how bad you have to be on defense for me to care in a pretty season game I'm gonna do this 20 years. Do you know how bad you have to be for me to care DeMartin Rosen DeMartin Rosen has given up like 16 points on seven possessions I'm dying over there um AJ Mitchell year two jalen Williams returns Mara Chet Hunger and taking a step forward

30:03Whatever the next Thunder wing that's gonna wind up averaging 25 points when he starts For like 15 games of season um Nuggets I talked about the bench tia's Jones. I think is back Marvin Bagley looks awesome He finally gets to be on a team that's got intentions Here's a name for you learn alpha diolo Euro league the dp. O. Y. This guy is awesome. I loved I did ever a ton of work on him this summer And it's showing up early in preseason. He's incredible julie and straw. They looks way better Um for the wolves one bearer. Nye um I Don't really know about the wolves uh Jonathan Kamehga trying to contribute to a winning team and not having his coach adam That'll be entertaining Well mellow ball and Anthony Davis or Anthony Edwards shot selection We'll be the worst in the absolute NBA Terrence and junior having no regard for his own human life Just burrowing into defenders and transitioning You gotta do what you gotta do to give me minutes

31:04Right just like Terrence and juniors out there like I'm just here trying to give me Bryce sense of all hive There we go show we love for us sense of all here. Yep. Uh, I'm big on ace Bailey I am the he's genuinely the and I was so low on him coming into the draft and now I'm just like I really like this kid. I like the way he plays um and then Portland and then Portland I'm really excited that I get to go like you always have time to go get snacks during a Portland tribal Isers game because then he obvious is the worst grifter in the NBA It gets to the for in takes this time with the free throws um I'll highlight a couple you talk can't day George you guys know I love him I try to get him into like our top five in our locked on the top 100 or something so um I got I got him into like the 50s or somewhere um Yeah, I that I'm very excited to see the little mellow Anthony Edwards thing But we talked about that I like a lot of these young guys. I'm sort of in on Darren Peterson Really interested to see the genre and try to bounce back and one thing that we didn't spend enough time on

32:04The Chet Honger and playoff failure that it was right he had so much on him rightly or wrongly But the way that he was viewed the narrative at this point is almost more important as to whether or not he actually did it was a failure or not Um to see how he bounces back because everything we know about this guy is that he's a super competitive guy Right like he takes this stuff personally and I really want to see how Chet sort of responds from that Do we see this other level from Chet Honger because if we do well boy Like that's a big deal for the thunder um and then try them just trying to get back to the NBA finals and kind of continue What could have been a dynasty there it could still be a dynasty so That's it um really quick how many you play off teams do we get in this division will include the play in tournament How many how many of these teams in this division play a postseason game hey skim your number We're including playing far yeah, I pick I'll pick all far That's all of them uh that one two three three three I have

33:06Only three teams So uh Portland and Utah no I'm sorry for it. It's for the okay see for the number okay That makes more sense um I'll also go for just assuming like something goes wrong for one of these teams That's maybe that's sort of just me hedging there If you like what you heard today subscribe to locked on NBA daily wherever you get your podcasts including on YouTube Thanks to Matt and Hayes for the expertise every day and thank you For making the locked on podcast network your first listen. We'll see you back here tomorrow For more locked on NBA daily On kowshi you're trading against peers in a live market meeting There's no house and as the probability changes you can buy in and out of your position for a limited time Download the kowshi app and use code locked on to get $10 when you trade 10 KAL s hi kowshi trade on anything 18 plus only restrictions and eligibility requirements apply event contract trading involves risk and may not be suitable for all investors

34:07Prices values and available markets may differ from those mentioned for more information see kowshi.com slash regulatory All right put down the third cup of coffee more coffee is not fixing your test asterone Game day men's health is the leader in men's health and optimization with more than 430 clinics across the US and Canada you said face to face with a clinician who only does men's health Test asterone sexual performance peptides weight loss On-site labs with results in 15 minutes start with a complimentary test asterone test and consult book your appointment at game day men's health.com It's not just electric. It's Toyota electric and during Toyota's easy choice sales event going electric is easier than ever Right now safe instantly on a new Toyota EV with special incentive programs for first-time EV buyers and prior EV owners Choose the sleek busy the adventurous busy woodland or the sporty chr But don't wait these special savings won't last

35:10We make it easy Toyota let's go places