Are We Live? Episode 53

Lebron's Last Decision

Song: Podcast By Snail Music (Loop)
Author: ‪@SnailMusicES‬

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Are we lying? We get us, yep, yes. We lie. Okay, so why don't we cover you? Yo, we back. You know, every now and then I do a pod where I feel like you guys know what I'm gonna talk about. And today is one of those pods. Um yeah, I mean if you if you remember last pod I ended up with it begging LeBron to uh pick his next team already. Um and a couple days later, or Friday, Friday around noon, I think it was, he announced that he's gonna be signed with the Sixers, what he called his uh last decision. Um so yeah, I mean I'll be honest. Part of the reason I wasn't that like bothered about him taking so long or his this like this whole thing in in general was kind of like I was just kind of assuming he was gonna be a calf, like all the reporting, I'm saying in you know, air quotes reporting was that he's gonna be a he's gonna be a cavalier, that it was just a matter of time before he announced it or whatever. Um and I when it came out that I was a Sixers, I was pretty shocked. Um, yeah, like I just thought he would go to the Cavs and have this farewell tour and have the the narrative that you know unfinished business type thing, whatever you want to call it. And yeah, it would just be that. I didn't think he would want to add a fourth team to his ledger, first of all. Um, and I definitely did not think it would be the Sixers if he did. Now, to be honest with you, I probably thought it was gonna be um if it was not gonna be Cleveland, I thought it was gonna be uh the Warriors. Um But yeah, the Sixers, I mean you know, I tweeted out earlier that I thought the the him based on everything we think LeBron wants, the Miami Heat was the clear best choice. Now, to be to get to go into detail where I thought he right what I thought it sounded like he wanted was that he wanted a team that's competitive right now that can win. Um a location his family would want to be in, you know, himself, his wife, his daughter, all that stuff. Um and a team where he was gonna have the ball in his hands a decent amount because based on everything we heard from Rich Poe and LeBron, even at times, I thought he didn't really enjoy that third option shit he did in the for the Lakers last year with Austin Reeves and Luka Doncic. Um, so I was thinking, like, alright, that kind of rules out Philly, that kind of rules out Cleveland, um, that kind of rules out Minnesota a bit, but and that kind of leaves Miami or the Warriors, you know. I thought Miami right now is a much better team than the Warriors. Um than the Eastern Conference in comparison to the Warriors, in comparison to the Warriors. Um he played for Miami, and in contrast, he was, you know, the Warriors were like his arguably his biggest rival in his career, you could say that or Celtics, I guess you want to say. Um, so yeah, based on all the stuff that me myself presumed that LeBron would care about, I thought the heat um was the obvious choice. Um, I felt like based on again, based on the reporting, you know, for everyone that uh he's basically Cav has done deal. Um but clearly now that LeBron has chosen the Sixers, he clearly made his decision based on what he believes that's gonna be a key point to talk about going forward. What he believes gives him the best chance to win a championship because uh in terms of location, I mean it's come out that he's gonna live in New York and you know commute to Philly every day. Um, which isn't too, you know. I remember JJ Reddick once said he used to do the same thing, so it's not like out of the ordinary to do that. Um so I don't think like Philadelphia as a destination in terms of the location was some appealing thing for him. Um, the usage, I mean, he could not have picked up a team where his usage was gonna be the lowest. Like, I mean, they've got five guys that you would think want to have the ball in their hands, at least for a certain amount of time. Not to say that anyone is selfish or anything, but you know, max season all-star, he averaged like what 28-29 a game. Same thing for Jalen Brown, and BD's a former MVP that's averaged 30 plus. Like, VJ Eshcombe is is gonna want to you know show and prove that he's a up-and-coming star in this league. Like, in terms of touches, Philadelphia was probably near the bottom of the league for LeBron. So clearly, and I don't think LeBron is an idiot, he probably knows that. So, I be like, clearly, that was not something he's uh too bothered about. Now, what does that say about what how he feels about the Lakers, though, right? Because I think we all we can all agree he did not like his role in the Lakers. So, was that him basically being like, Look, I'll give the rock up, but not for Luca and Austin Reeves. I'm not I'm not vibing with that. Um, so that's kind of funny. Um, yeah, so let's get into his decision to pick the Sixers. Like I said, based on picking the Sixers, I think that's clearly that He thinks this is um the best chance he has at Wii and Championship. Now, the key thing I said there is he believes this. I don't think I mean I think a lot of people do think he made the right decision in that regard, but I think there's plenty of people that look at that and go, huh? Um I saw something on social media from someone that said like it's not really a surprise he picked the Sixers in that regard because LeBron has kind of always believed in you know stacking as much talent as possible instead of chasing the perfect fit. Like if you remember, I mean, even Miami really, like him, Chris Bosch, and D. Wade was ridiculous on paper in terms of how good all three of them were. But the fit with him and D. Wade at first, especially, wasn't the cleanest. Even Bosch, it wasn't the cleanest, like D. Wade kind of had to change his role. Uh Chris Bosch, of course, famously became more of a stretch five. Um, and they were just so good that it ended up working, right? But uh when he was on the Cavs, his second suit with the Cavs, um, his last year, they brought along D. Wade and D. Rose, and they had Isaiah Tom, like just a bunch of big names, which obviously uh did not work famously. Um, and then as a Laker, he I mean, there's a lot of debate on who was the architect of bringing Rust to the Lakers, but I would imagine LeBron had some say in that, and I think he even said, like, yeah, I think it's gonna work. Like, you know, he's always believed in talent over fit. So him picking the Sixers based on how much talent they had, I mean that tracks along with you know his uh thought process over the years. Now, let's talk about did LeBron make the right choice in picking who he thought was the best team? Now I think it's quite obvious that LeBron was planning on his last team to be the Knicks. Um, the fact that he's gonna live in New York going forward, and the fact that Rich Paul even said that if the Knicks did not win a championship, there would be no sweepstakes basically. It would just be LeBron to the Knicks. Um, but yeah, I mean the Knicks winning a championship from both perspectives, kind of you know, shut down that. If you're a LeBron, you don't want to join a team that just won. That's just a bad narrative for him personally. Um, and then for the Knicks, it's kind of like, you know what, you didn't join us when we're down, now you want to join us when we're up, like, you know, get lost type to type shit. And if I was a Knicks fan, I would kind of be happy at that, to be honest with you. I don't I want our guys to be the guys, you know. We don't have to add LeBron to all that. Um, even if that's kind of naive to not want your team to keep getting better. Like, yeah, if LeBron James replaced, let's just say Josh Hart in the starting lineup, that team would be pretty crazy good, right? But there's something about doing it with your guys, um, and I get that. So I if I was a Knicks fan, I'd kind of be you know a little bit happy about them uh curving LeBron and vice versa, or vice versa, I should say. Um and while I said that LeBron clearly picked who he thinks is the um the best team for him to win a championship, that wasn't the only consideration because if he was only worried about winning a championship, then he would be a Spurs or an Oklahoma City Thunder right now, like point blank. Now, based on the reporting, it seems like the Spurs were not really interested in LeBron. Um, I don't know about LeBron be interested in them to be honest, but um, yeah, the Spurs kind of seem hung up on this like we don't want any mercenary star type thing, we want an organic team. Now I know they traded for De'Aaron Fox, but he's not really like a high-profile guy like that. But um, yeah, I mean the Spurs like basically chose Tobias Harris over LeBron, which is hilarious to say out loud, but that's what happened. And um, LeBron to the Thunder, I don't know if the Thunder wanted him or not. I don't know. There's no reporting on that, we don't really know. Um, but realistically, I just don't think LeBron was ever gonna live in Oklahoma, like, respectfully to Oklahomans out there. I just don't think that was ever gonna happen. Um if LeBron was choosing between the Heat, the Wolves, the Warriors, and the Sixers, as it was reported. Now, Rich Paul did come on and say that he was really down to the Warriors and the uh Sixers. Um, but if he was down to those four teams, I have a hard time believing he made the right choice. Like, I mean, we can argue about how good the Sixers team is gonna be, and I will get into that a little bit later. But the simple fact is Joel Embiid has never proven he can stay healthy throughout a whole season, like from the start of the regular season till the end of the playoffs. He has basically for his entire career dealt with some sort of nagling, you know, injury for his lower body, most of the time his lower body, right? So at no point has he proven that he's reliable from a health standpoint. Um and at this point, the Sixers still rely on him to be a winning basketball team. At no point have they really been able to win games consistently or be a good team consistently without him on the floor. Now, of course, with LeBron in the fold, with Jalen Brown in the fold, with Maxie, you know, continuing to become a you know a better star, I guess I could say for lack of their term, Vijay Edgecombe uh continuing to develop, maybe that changes, but that's quite the projection to uh bank on for your last season, I would say. Um, and of the four teams that were heavily brought up being in for LeBron, to me, the best chance to win was probably the Timberwolves. Um Anthony Edwards is good enough to win a championship, I would say. Um, and you would think at his age he'll only continue to get better. You're gonna have elite shooting around you. I mean, you've got Anthony Edwards and the mellow ball, who are two of the best high volume three-point shooters, um, high degree of difficulty, all that jazz. Um Rudy Gobert, even at this stage of his career, he is good enough defensively to anchor it by himself, basically. I mean, I mean, Minnesota has had some guys over the year, but based on the numbers, he's been able to carry a defense um by himself. And on the perimeter, they have some guys that you can, you know, LeBronca and lean on, like uh J Daniels, uh, Jalen Collark, um Anthony Edwards when he when he feels like it. Um you have guys like AL who Io De Silmo who are like decent. Um so yeah, they have a pretty well-rounded team with a young superstar, you know, someone that LeBron can, you know, LeBron can load manage and chill a bit and let Anthony Edwards carry the carry the team on certain on most nights, honestly. Um They've got a lot of good pieces, you know, young pieces like Terrence Shannon. I mean, you know, Terrence Shannon isn't even that young actually, but like guys on rookie deals and like Terrence Shannon, you've got the French young big man who's interesting in Berenger, you have um Bones Highland who's like a nice spark plug score. Like they've got a lot of pieces, and they had a big LeBron size hole in their starting lineup at the four, and this that just felt like a natural spot for him to to plug into. Like, I can just imagine like Ant and Lamelo running pick and rolls with LeBron as a screener. Yeah, it feels kind of that feels really good if you ask me. Um, but yeah, maybe LeBron didn't want to live in Minnesota, uh which I would imagine is probably a big consideration. Um maybe LeBron doesn't value Lamello ball as a player. Uh I mean there's a lot of I mean I can see LeBron like as a 42-year-old man watching Lamelo take like one-legged step back logo threes and be like, man, fuck this. I'm not I'm not playing with that. Um, I don't agree with that assessment that LaMelo is some like you know losing player that doesn't that doesn't try to care about winning and all that, but like I can imagine someone like LeBron watching LaMelo and having that thought, you know. Um and yeah, I would have I would think the Wolves were the best choice. Now the opposing argument would be that um they're bigs outside Ruby Gobert, it's unknown. I like Baron J, but he still has to prove it. Um you're in the Western Conference, so you gotta go through either or both of the Spurs and Thunder. Um yeah, and uh maybe he doesn't. I mean, I don't know. Yeah, that's so those are those are the things that I would guess LeBron thought about and uh ended up not choosing Minnesota. I mean, and there was basically came out and said, like, yeah, we're not in the running, basically. So I guess there wasn't too much consideration, but that to me felt like the best option if it was just about winning and it was between those four teams, then that's what I would say. Um personally, I think it's good for basketball and like the history of basketball, um, that LeBron didn't go to the Warriors. Now you can think that's dramatic or you know, too, whatever, but like I just think like if a top two player in NBA history went to what a lot of people consider, like you said, his biggest rival. I just don't think that's good for the league, to be honest with you. Like, like, imagine if Michael Jordan went and played for the Pistons, you'd be like, man, what the hell? That is disgusting. You know what I mean? Like, obviously, there was more animosity between the Pistons and Michael Jordan, and like LeBron and Draymond are obviously close. LeBron and Steph Curry feel like they're somewhat close, so it wouldn't be the same, like it wouldn't be like, uh, but it would still be like, man, I I think it's good if LeBron doesn't. It's good good for like basketball history if LeBron doesn't play for the team went up in the finals, what, like three years? Three years, right? Yeah, 16, 17, 18. Yeah, three straight years. Um, and lost two twice. No, four straight years, 15, 16, 17, 18, and lost two three times. Like, and I think Draymond even said that on his podcast today that he thought LeBron couldn't get over joining a team that he played in the final so often. Um, and I think it's good, you know. Um based on the reports though, if the Warriors had traded for AD or maybe a Jalen Brown, um, which would have been like Jimmy Butler and some sort of package of picks, they would have had a really good shot at LeBron going to them. Now I interpret that as LeBron didn't think this uh Warriors team had enough talent to really compete. Um, and he was probably right in that in that assessment. Um but for what's worth I think the Warriors were probably right to not pay up to get AD. The Jalen Brown thing is a lot more convoluted discussion, like that's maybe for another day. But to not, it would have taken Jimmy Butler and maybe two firsts to get AD from the Wizards, and the Wizards would have had a lot of leverage to ask for you know whatever they wanted, because it would have been like the Kawhi and Clipper situation. Now, of course, AD is nowhere near what Paul George was at that time, but you get what I mean. Um and despite the name brand of having all those names like Steph Curry, LeBron, A.D., uh Draymond, Porzingis, Alfred, despite all those names on the team, that team was not gonna be a real contender. Like, on top of all the injury stuff and the age and all that, the last time we saw Ed on the basketball court, he was not that good. Like, I think people are kind of forgetting how bad he looked for the Mavs last season. To go along with that, Draymond Green was not that good last season. Like, if you were looking at some of the plus-minus stuff, he was really not good for um a large part of last season. Now, I think people are remembering in the play-in when he like guarded Kawhi and shot him down, but like for for most of the season, he was very much unplayable, especially on the offensive side of the ball. Um, so yeah, like I think the Warriors were right to not chip away at their future for that, you know, miscast of big name players to get LeBron and AD on the team. But at the same time, the Warriors for an office, including the ownership in Lakeup, how they've treated the end of Steph Stephen Curry's uh career is a joke. Like, yeah, maybe not trade those picks for AD and as a result, LeBron, but they should have been they should they have not done anything in the offseason in a year where you miss the playoffs, all you're doing is betting on what's the uh Lindenburg to save you. That's crazy. Um yeah, so that's the under Warriors. Um, and now that LeBron has chosen his next team, like the Cavs, the Heat, the Timberwolves, the team that didn't end up getting LeBron, I mean the they're kind of screwed for next season, you know, un you know, barring some crazy trade happening uh that we can't predict. Um, of course, the words are also screwed, but they were probably screwed anyway, so I don't even feel like mentioning them. But like, if you're the Cavs, after getting swept by the Knicks in the conference finals, an uncomparative sweep. I mean, the first game one was obviously they should have won, but after that, you just got whooped badly. Um, so to go from that, you've lost Dean Wade, who wasn't a perfect player by any means, but was I thought pretty important to them um as their best option guarding opposing stars. Um, you missed out on LeBron, obviously, and the response to that is uh bringing back uh Mario Hazonia from overseas. I think he's playing at Real Madrid. Um and I peeped, this is kind of nasty, but I went to peep Hazonia's stats in uh at Real Madrid, and it's not like he's going crazy over there. I was just like, unless unless he's playing amazing defense, which doesn't show up on the stats, obviously. I'm like, is this guy really an NBA player at this point? Like, I don't even know if that's true. So um that's crazy, and there have been some reports that they want to move Max Struce in order to add Cominga, which is like holy shit, Cleveland! Like, if you do that, your season is over already. Like, if you think losing Dean Wade and Max Struce and adding Jonathan Kominga and Mario Hazonia is the appropriate answer to what happened last playoffs, then it's over for them. I don't know what else to say besides it's over for them. Um, so yeah, Cleveland, Mission Braun, massive massive amplifications. Miami, I mean the thing is with Miami, like the Offseason is a massive success just off the strength of Landing Giannis. But that current roster around Bam and Giannis is not good. Um, now I was kind of under the assumption that the roster for this next season wasn't going to be that good, regardless of what happened uh when they landed Giannis, that is. But Landing LeBron, for the minimum, by the way, which I haven't mentioned it up, but Laney LeBron would have been a massive band-aid for at least a year, um, in terms of what they needed on the perimeter, in terms of creation and all that stuff. But um, yeah, now that they don't have that, you're looking at their starting lineup, it's like Davion Mitchell, Tim Hardaway, unless I forgot someone, uh, Wiggins, Giannis, bam. Like, that's not a contender, bro. Like, yes, spam uh Giannis and Spo can work some magic, and then the team can overachieve. I mean, their defense is gonna be amazing, you would think. And if you have amazing defense, Priscilla, like, yeah, that could be a good team. Could that advance in the playoffs for a round? Yeah, maybe two rounds, possibly, yeah. But I would say there's basically zero chance that they're a no-doubt top-tier contender, and when you have a 32-year-old Giannis, that's kind of a problem, I would think. Um, so yeah, Messina on LeBron was a huge bummer for them, I would say. Um, and Minnesota, like, who the hell is starting at the four for them? Like I said, their front court now is extremely thin. It's just Rudy Gobert and uh Berengay, the younger uh friends they drafted last year, who I like. I need to keep saying I do like him, but he's uh you can't rely on him at this point, uh, at least yet. Um so yeah, those three teams, the teams that missed out on LeBron, um, they really needed him. And now that they didn't get him, I don't know. It's kind of bleak for their upcoming season. At least right now. Like the Cavs, they don't do that stupid Kuminga stuff. They have like things to move around and maybe they can shake it up. Um Minnesota, I don't know. I don't know what they're gonna do to be honest. I think they've used up most of their assets on the current team they have. Um, there's not many, there's no free agent fours really out there that they can just plug in and stuff. I don't know what they're gonna do with for the starting lineup as of right now. Um, but yeah, um, that's it for teams that missed out on LeBron. Now, lastly, the Philadelphia 76ers who actually managed to sign LeBron for the minimum for uh a one plus one. Now, I have a feeling this is gonna be LeBron's last year. I don't know. Like, LeBron said himself that after they lost to Thunder, that he thought I'm gonna retire, right? Now, is he gonna go from that to two more years? Like, maybe, maybe LeBron will just be dramatic, right? Like, we know you can do that from time to time, but is he gonna go from I'm gonna retire to no actually I'm gonna play two more years? I feel like this is gonna be LeBron's last season, to be honest with you. Um, we do know that if he does not retire, that he'll be playing on the Sixers for another year, because he said this is his last season, so I'm assuming he's not gonna add a uh fifth team to his uh resume, I guess. But let's talk about how good is this Sixer team gonna be. Now, the starting five to look at on paper in a or in a graphic on social media is crazy to look at, right? You got Tyrese Maxie, VJ Edgecombe, Jalen Brown, LeBron James, Joel Empede. Four guys that have been all NBA. I believe Maxie was in all MBA last year, right? Yeah, he was. Four guys that have been all NBA. Two of them have been league MVPs, two of them are finals MVPs. Um Vijay Eshcomb, I believe, was all rookie last year. And you would think at some point in his career is gonna be an all-star, at least. I mean, at least there's a lot to say, but you would think there's a pretty good chance Vijay Eshcomb is an all-star at some point in his career. Um, so just that saying out loud, he's a crazy amount of talent, right? But let's get into the fit and all that stuff, all that jazz. Um, I mean, the first thing I want to say is there are a lot of variables that make it really hard to guess how good or not good this Sixers team will be next season. But there are two things that I'm pretty certain of, right? The ceiling of this team on a given game will be extremely high, extremely high, like best team in the league type ceiling, right? Now, in contrast, the second thing I'm certain of that the floor of this team will be extremely low, like a team that's not even playoff caliber, you know what I mean? Um, because outside of Tyrese Maxi in the starting five, on a given game, you don't really know what you're gonna get, I would think. Now, let me explain that. Now, I think for Vijay Hcomb, LeBron Embiid, most people will understand why I said that, right? Like Vijay Eshcomb is a young player, there's gonna be ups and downs, he's still developing all that stuff. LeBron is 42, he's gonna have games where he just feels old as hell, and there are gonna be games where he looks like I mean not Peak LeBron, but like a high-level Braun. Embiid, kind of similar, even though he's not as old. There's gonna be games where his body doesn't feel good. Um, there's gonna be a lot of games he doesn't even play because he's gonna be-I'm almost certain he's gonna be load-managed, but there are gonna be games where he's unguardable because I mean Embiid, for all his injuries and lack of mobility and this and that, the dude can score the damn ball, and he can score the ball until he's like 50, probably. Um, so I think it's kind of understood why I would say those three guys are gonna be very up and down throughout a season. But Jalen Brown, I think, as someone who's watched pretty much every game he's ever played, I would say, probably, um, there's a reason the Celtics ended up trading him, and I think one of those reasons is that while on his best days he looks like a Kawhi Tracy McGaith hybrid, on his worst days, he looks like a horrible basketball player, right? And I would say for at this point, when he's 30 years old and on a supermax contract, I would say there's too many bad games where it's on the lower end of the spectrum for a player on a Supermax. Um, like you watch Jalen Brown when he plays against um the Clippers and he has 50 and he's guarding Kawhi and all that. You watch him for really the first two months, maybe two and a half, three months of the last regular season, you're like, this is like one of the best wings I've ever seen, right? And then you watch him um against the Heat in 2023 in the Eastern Conference Finals, and you're like, is this his first time playing basketball? Like, um, and for me, the fact that that was still happening this year, um, and in the playoffs versus that for in that first round versus the Sixers, like, especially uh game five, I would say, was the most outrageous example. Five and six, I'll just say, was the most outrageous example of that the the floor of his game being still so low. Um, so yeah, like I said, I just think like I said, the two things I'm confident in, there's gonna be games his team looks incredible, and there's gonna be teams that this team looks horrible, and that can be said for a lot of teams, but I think amongst the better teams in the league, this is gonna be the most demonstrative version of that um taking place. Now, let's get into the strengths, the what this team will be good at and bad at, most likely at least. Like I said, there's a lot of variables, like, you know, what is MB gonna look like next year? We don't really know. Like, he's coming into the off-season healthy, apparently. Um, of course, he had the appendix surgery, so that's that was a hurdle. But the body, I the rest of his body, I believe, was healthy going into the off-season. Um, so what is he gonna look like next year? Is he gonna look spry? He's gonna look, you know, is mobility gonna look a little fried. I don't know. We don't really know. Um, what does LeBron look like at 42, right? We have no idea. He could be cooked completely. There's no, I mean it's unlikely, I would think. LeBron is too smart and too big to just be completely cooked, but it is possible. Um Vijay Shcom could be he could be anything, he could literally be anything. I mean, he could make a year or two leap where he's like an all-star. Like, what does that what does that mean if he's like an all-star next year like this? Like also a caliber player, I should say. Because I think it's unlikely he puts up the counting stats to be an actual all-star. But like, if he makes a leap, like what does that mean with the team? Like, um, anyway, but like strengths. Let's start with strengths. I'll be nice, even though I'm a Celtics fan. Um, this should be probably the best team in the league in transition offense. Um, I saw some stat that like the Sixers now have three of the five best um transition scores in terms of points per game from last season in LeBron, Maxie, Jalen Brown. Now, of course, the volume with them all being the same team is gonna be overlapping a bit. So they're not gonna, I mean that those stats are a little bit misleading, but I think it's clear to say this is gonna be one of the toughest teams to stop in transition, if not the toughest team to stop in uh transition. Now, of course, they gotta get stops for that, but that's another topic. Um, they're gonna be absurdly good at drawing fouls. Like, I think that's kind of self-explanatory. Like, Embiid is the king of drawing fouls, even in a diminished version. Uh, Jalen Brown, despite uh not being big fans of the rest, was up there in free throws last year, too. Um, so this team's gonna draw loads of fouls. Um, I think that's pretty obvious to see. Um, and despite some people saying that they don't have any depth, I actually think their staggered lineups are gonna be really good. Like, you know, to go along with the star hunting of LeBron and Jalen, they also got Dean Wade, they got KCP, they got Simons, like those are three flawed guys in terms of you know, Simons outside of shooting is pretty terrible. KCP at this point is kind of a cooked 3nd player, but he'll try to be a 3nd player, which actually matters. Uh Dean Wade is I've been calling him the white PJ Tucker because like on defense he's quite good, but on offense, he's kind of uh you know, you're fine with leaving him open type thing. But they're gonna have they're gonna be guys that are willing to play a role, and that's gonna be really good when you stagger with like you know, two of LeBron and Maxie, with you know, let's just say Dean Wade and KCP, like that's a really good lineup for your bench, right? Um, and Fredny Simons, who's a great shooter, if you put him next to Jalen Brown MB, like that's that's a good fit, you know. Like, I actually think their depth is not much of a problem, especially on the perimeter. Um lastly, I think um this is kind of obvious, but like in terms of 1v1 creation, this team is absolutely loaded. Like, um when you come into this season and you're starting five, Vijay Eshcomb is the worst 1v1 creator um in that five by a considerable margin, too. At least what we saw from Vijay Eshcomb last time he played, right? He could like I get like I said, he could get a lot better. But what we expect of Vijay Eshcomb is that by far and away, he's the worst 1v1 player in that starting five, and the other four are gonna be are quite good. Like LeBron at this point is a little more streaky, of course, with his age, but MB one-on-one scoring, he's still top-notch. Jalen Brown, I think he was like first in the league in uh two-point shot attempts. Um, he's a great mid-range shooter. Um, Tyrese Max, he's a blur, he's a great volume three-point shooter. Um, so guarding those guards 1v1, not a lot of teams are gonna have four guys to guard, you know, that so like there are gonna be every team is gonna have a weakness or a weak spot defensive that they can attack, and that's gonna be a huge advantage for them. Um now, let's get to the weaknesses. Um, of course, there's intangible stuff, like they have guys with playoff experience and all that, yada yada yada, including Nick Nurse. But let's get to more the weaknesses concerns. Now, there's gonna be obvious health concerns with MB, like I mentioned earlier. He has never stayed healthy basically, and to go along with that, they have not really added a even mediocre backup center, like obviously, there's the Mitchell Robinson, there's the uh who else is like a high-end backup center that I'm blanking. I guess you could see DeAndre Ayton, you could say uh Lamar Blank on the or Hardenstein when he comes off the bench, um, which he doesn't really actually. Luke Cornette is one of the higher-end backups. Um, yeah, you know, there's a few high-level backups, then there's like the medium, medium-level backups, like uh um like a Kavanaugh, I even Cavanoni is not that good, but like what basically what I'm saying is their backup center options are really bad, like a Dembona and Huckporty. Like I just I mean Huckporty's young, and both of them are young to be fair. So maybe there's some untapped potential there, but I at this point they're both bad players, I would say. So the whenever MB is on the floor, whether that be he's just sitting on the bench or he's hurt or he's load managing, that could be a big problem. Now, with MB on the floor, rebounding on both sides of the ball is gonna be a pretty big issue, I think. Um last regular season, when Embiid was on the floor, the Sixers' opponents had offensive rebound percentage of 31.3. Now that is a very high number. I think that um the Knicks, for example, were at 32%, and we think of them as you know one of the better offensive rebounding teams in the league. So that's a pretty high number. So getting you know, finishing possessions with a rebound is gonna be a problem. And at this stage in his career, LeBron is not much of a defensive rebounder, right? Like he's gonna be caught not boxing out a couple times and all that. So for your 4-5 to be LeBron and Embiid, defensive rebound is gonna be an issue, clearly. And on the offensive side, you know, Embiid at this point, he largely operates on the perimeter in the mid-range, three-point line. He likes to float around on the perimeter. So they're not gonna be a team that gets a lot of offensive rebounds. And last season, the Sixers offensive rebounded better by 5% when he was sitting on the bench. Now that's a huge swing, that's a massive swing. So they were like a good, a really good offensive rebounding team when he sat on the floor when he was not playing, and when he was playing, they were one of the worst. So that's that's a so like the rebounding on both sides of the ball is gonna be a weakness for sure. And depending on how they allocate touches in the offense, turnovers could be an issue too. Because um Tyrese Maxi is elite at not turning the ball over, especially amongst like high users guys. But at this point, LeBron is quite bad in that regard, and Jalen Brown has always struggled with turnovers in his career, um, especially relative to like you know his playmaking capabilities. So I saw something that LeBron is gonna be their point guard in the offense. I don't even know what the hell that means at this point, but I would think it makes more sense to have Tyrese Maxi um on the ball more. Now, of course, I know there's been a discussion about this. Tyrese Maxi can obviously play off the ball great, but I think at this point he's probably their best option on the ball, at least on the perimeter, guys. And B is still their best scorer, I would think. Um, but yeah, turning the ball over could be an issue for them. And like I said, in general, you look at the rebounding and the turnovers, like the possession battle is gonna be a huge flaw for this team, I would say. Like, and that's something that teams are emphasizing more and more. They're kind of going in the opposite direction. Um, and lastly, on defense, there's a lot of questions, I would say, at the very least, a lot of questions. Now, LeBron, he'll pick his spots, like there'll be times LeBron locks in, he's gonna be good defensively, um, mostly in the playoffs, I would guess. Um, but generally, across across a whole season, and maybe across a full game in the playoffs, I would think he's gonna be a negative for the most part. Tyrese Maxie is a negative on defense. Um, and B at this point in his career is pretty exclusively a drop coverage big. And um his overall realm deterrence is nowhere near what it used to be. Like he used to be one of the best handful of room protectors in the league, um, and defensive anchors in general. And I at this point, I don't think he's anywhere near that. Um VJ is obviously great on the perimeter, and he's trying to get better. Um, Jalen Brown is a really good 1v1 defender, especially in certain matchups. But off the ball, he's really bad. It just is what he just is what it is at this point. Like, he just is really bad. Um, D-Wade is a really good defender. Um on this team, I don't know how much playing time he's gonna be able to get because of I mean you would imagine LeBron and Jalen Brown played at three and the four quite a bit. So yeah. I mean, they're they're gonna they can there's there's potential for good defensive lineups, but that starting five, which I'm looking at, I don't know. It's gonna be it's could could be an issue in certain matchups, especially when they get deeper into the playoffs. Um so yeah, that's strengths and weaknesses. I mean, this team is clearly gonna have championship aspirations, even if people some people don't agree they are that good. It's just impossible. You add LeBron and Jaden Brown and a couple like high name free agent role players, like to go along with Maxi and B and VJ, like it's impossible to act like they're not gonna have championship aspirations, like and I but personally I believe they're gonna have weaknesses that are too clear that the more complete teams are gonna be able to, you know, go at in a playoff series. Now, one thing though is though, how many of those teams exist in the east, right? Like, how many teams had the bodies to guard them in terms of one-on-one matchups, and then on top of that, you can take advantage of the lack of rebounding or turnovers or whatever, right? Like, in the east, the list is kind of short, like the Knicks, of course, uh to me in terms of top end teams are clearly still above the Sixers, but after that, like, it's kind of like a who knows, you know what I mean? There's a lot of question marks. Um, that includes the Heat, of course, the Celtics, of course, the Cavs still, uh, the Pacers. There's a lot of question marks there with everything, really, but they're in the mix. Um in terms of top end teams, that's it to me. Like, they're gonna be some frisky teams like Orlando and uh the Hawks. Um, who else? I forget. Is that it? That sounds about right. I mean, I'm I'm gonna see Wizards, guys. I don't see a bruh. The Wizards are not making the playoffs, guys. If they make the playoffs, that's because Iggy DeBonstas like Michael Jordan, but yeah. Um, like I said, this team has clear weaknesses that top-end teams can take advantage of. But how many of the teams are in the East? Like the Knicks? Uh, funnily enough, I think the Celticks are a bad matchup for the Sixers because they can guard on the perimeter, they're going to take advantage of the offensive glass clearly. Um, and the three-point bombing is gonna be a issue. Three-point battle is gonna be a huge issue for the Sixers in that matchup. So, ironically, that's gonna that's kind of but like after that, like, I don't know, like, could they make a yeah, they can win a couple rounds, I think. I mean, I like I said, this team's ceiling is super high, and the floor is high. So, would I be shocked if they made the finals or the conference finals? No. Would I be shocked if they were a first-round exit? Also, no. Um, but to even have that ceiling in the first place, and you've been damn near relevant the last couple of years. I mean, it's easy to see why um sixter fans are excited about all this shit that just happened. Um, but yeah, um, that's all on all things LeBron. I went a bit longer than I thought. I mean, to be honest, LeBron picking the Sixers made the conversation a lot more interesting. Um, so yeah, I had a lot more to talk about. Um there's a lot happening in the transfer world, not as concrete, like there's a lot of whispers here and there, a lot of it involving Real Madrid. Um, but I will part on that eventually when more you know, there are more concrete signings that actually take place and whatnot. But until then, see ya.