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During the Blue Nile Anniversary Sale, going on now, go to bluenile.com to shop the Blue Nile Anniversary Sale and save up to 40%. That's bluenile.com. - Yes, welcome in. Hold my banner here wherever you get your podcast. Spotify, Apple, Amazon Prime, I'm George Belecce. Filling in for Travis Thomas. I got my boy, Auntie Campbell with me. I'll hold my banner as well. We got a full show for you guys today. I'll give a little take. It's been a minute since I've been on the pod. I gotta give my two cents on the whole Jeff Bezos situation of him being thought of. And there was rumors that he wants to own the Celtics and then quickly bowing out. We'll get into NBA previews as well, talking Utah Jazz, Oklahoma City Thunder. My favorite thing, Tay's got one in seven for me. We'll see if I do better. Go for two for two, but that Carmelo won. Wasn't easy, but I found that shot. We'll talk some Nike and Lego and plenty more around the league as well. Let's bring you my boy Tay real quick. Auntie, back on the show. It's been a minute. For a while there, I was thinking like, you just don't want me back, I guess. But like, desperate times, desperate measures. Travis Officer, like I guess George is back on. Yeah, yeah, that's how I feel. For sure. I'm like, I got stuck with George again on this episode. I'm scratching my head. I'm like, what are we gonna talk about? No, I'm just joking, bro. I'm excited to have you just as excited as I am to announce that the Wanda Bonner is now fourth all time in the WNBA and all time scores. She's probably not gonna get up to one or two because Tina Charles is still playing and she's at two right now and DT, the GOAT is at one and she's way beyond and she's gonna keep playing as well. But obviously, she's gonna have a chance to pass Tina Thompson for the three spot within the next couple of games. She's about 100 points away. The sun are playing right now as we're recording. So we'll see how much she finishes with. Is that a little breaking news right here on Hold My Banner? No, it's not breaking news. It's breaking news? It's breaking the US, yes, but not breaking news. You broke the news to me. So it's awesome to hear about the Wanda Bonner. I just figured, like you heard me say, Drew Holliday should be a Hall of Famer, like I can never bring him back on the show. Yeah, exactly. I'm gonna have you out there raising Keynes with Drew, making some chicken fingers for some people if you keep giving takes like that. Bro, two gold nettles, two rings on his fingers, all those first team all defense in the NBA. I'm just saying, we'll bring you back on today. We'll bring you back on before you take away my Drew Holliday Hall of Fame take. Now, I said it right open from the jump. We saw those rumors come out that all stemmed back to Bill Simmons, saying he was hearing Jeff Bezos is interested in owning the Celtics. And I think that's kind of like a no-dough thing. I'm not knocking Bill Simmons for reporting that, I mean, he definitely heard it to run for it. All these hyper, hyper, hyper-successful business moguls, entrepreneurs, tech guys, whatever you wanna say, whatever you wanna call them. The dudes like to Steve Bombers in the world and more, because Bezos is worth all that. He's worth worth $200 billion. They're gonna be interested any time a sports franchise comes up. He went for the Washington commanders a couple years ago, got outbid. Commanders were bought for six and a half billion. Yes, that's an NFL franchise, but are there worth six and a half billion? I don't think so. Josh Harris just ended up paying the price of getting into the NFL. Now, we know the Celtics are valued between five and six billion. I mean, they just wanna ring and it's an NBA franchise. And the Celtics are two of the biggest stars in the game, especially with Jason Tatum, who's a top seven guy in the league. And Jalen Brown, who many of you is top 15, I say top 12, maybe top 10. I mean, you get that coming off a ring, a global, global, global brand. And let's face it, the commanders and the Celtics, when you look over all sports franchises to own across all major sports, they're not in the same neighborhood. There's the Celtics, there's the Knicks, there's the Lakers. You could even say there are the Bulls because of what MJ did it, but even though they've been bad, there are the Cowboys, right? There are the Giants, there are the Patriots, there's the Yankees, the Red Sox, the Dodgers, there's the Bruins, the Blackhawks, the Rangers. There are those certain teams, when you go into major pro sports that are just a bigger brand and just mean more to the league. And overall, what these guys got, you don't get to 200 billion without having a huge ego. It's not just owning a team, it's owning the team. And that's what the Celtics are right now. But just as quickly as it came up of Jeff Bezos' interest and everyone's going, well, I want a local guy, 200 billion. That's what you want. Because think about the tax that some of these teams are estimated to have, the Suns, 188 million, the T-wolves, 105 million, Milwaukee, 74, Boston, 65, Lakers, 53. When you start paying Tatum and Brown together with the Supermaxes, Derek White on a contract, we'll see how much longer Drew Holiday. He did sign that extension, we'll see how long before he gets moved. I mean, that tax dollar is going to go up 200 million a year. You need someone that has the money that doesn't mind paying the tax. The Suns are owned by Matt Ischbia, 8 billion. Minnesota, Glenn Taylor, majority owner, 2.9 billion. Milwaukee, majority owner, Wes Edens, 2.9 billion. The Lakers, Jeannie Bus, 700 million. What the Lakers have been doing, they've been operating like they're a mom to pop shop for better or for worse. Whoever buys the Celtics, you want them to have that hubris and that audacity and that ego to want to pay the tax because that's what keeps the core together longer. You don't want someone that's going to want to break away that core as quick as possible and get into the zero dollar tax paying because then what, it's a Charlotte Bobcats. Excuse me, Charlotte Hornets who you'd be rooting for. But just as quickly as Jeff Bezos was rumored to be and people said, well, I don't want to want a local owner. You don't want that. You want someone with a lot of money and someone that's competitive. They, like Steve Bomber, they don't want to just be sitting courtside. They want to be winning courtside. They want to be there in the playoffs and then be a finals. Even like a Mark Cuban as well and everything he did to build up himself and make him a household name thanks to owning the Mavericks. But then Bezos as quickly as his rumored, he was interested, came out that, well, no, he's not looking into it at all. What I think that move was, wasn't the price tag. It was him going, wait, I don't get my own arena because what did Bomber just do with the Clippers? Built into it though, that place is unreal. Now they have their own home arena. A, they don't have to pay at least to pay to rent to anybody. And B, he owns a piece, a building, a piece of property. He can use year round, concerts, events, WWE Smackdown. I don't care, Taylor Swift comes to town. They're performing there. Oh, and by the way, 41 times a year, regular season only, you got your team in the door. You got all these people coming through to experience something. The Celtics have their lease with TD Garden through 2036, next 15 years. Bezos probably goes, I'm interested in buying the Celtics, made a few phone calls with someone with as much money as they will find out quickly and go, oh, I can't build that building in Everett until 2036. And he looks at six billion right now, but all those years of leasing, while if he waits for Vegas or Seattle to get their expansion franchise, and if they get their own building, yeah, maybe that'll be seven, eight, nine billion when that comes around, but he owns his own building right off the bat. So I think Bezos, that's the type of owner you want, someone that has the money to pay, but keep in mind what these owners are dealing with. They don't wanna pay rent, but they don't own TD Garden, they lease it out. And said we want, I think it's great inside, yeah, it's tight, it's on a small footprint, but that's the sixth or seventh oldest building in the NBA. That matters to these guys, to these big time owners. They wanna build their own arena. And then like I said, you build in Everett, across from the casino, I would hate that it would lose its touch. It wouldn't be the same home court advantage as Celtics get right now, because then you get people traveling, going to Boston, check out the Freedom Trail, go to Bunker Hill, have beers at Warren Tavern, and oysters at the Union Oyster House. And then go to Everett, Gamble, and then go across Street and watch an NBA game. But the issue is, they're gonna be from all over the country and they won't be from Boston. It'll take that home court away, but it's a business. It's why Irv Grossbeck is getting out of it right now. He's getting up there in age. And if he could save on taxes, or say he just passes away and hands the team to WIC and his kids and his family, maybe they get taxed at like 40%. But if they sell it right now, that gets taxed at 20. 20% difference on 6 billion, it's a lot of money. And I'm just guessing the numbers there. But that's where people need to understand. I wanted a guy like Bezos in. I think a guy like Bezos will come. One thing that got to understand too, if you hear someone is interested in the team, they're giving away their hand. The banks got to line up, the investors. There's so much money that comes into this. I don't think it'll be decided before this upcoming season. And again, a guy like Bezos, you know what he gets? He walks in and goes, wait, WIC, you're still holding on to 50? No, no, no. 100% is what I get. Here's a check, straight cash, I'm liquid. 6 1/2, 7 billion, get out, my team now. But he wants his team and his building, whoever buys the team. Let's bring my boy Tae back in. I know it's kind of old news Tae, but it's been so long. And that's what I'm thinking, driving around. People ask me, I'm like, I love that Bezos rumor, but I'm not surprised he backed away. When he found out he doesn't get the whole thing. - Yeah, I'm not shocked to buy that at all as well. Yeah, like you said, it's an important part of being an owner is owning the building that you play in. Obviously, it's a huge asset towards that team. So I would like to see a guy who would come in. I don't have a list, you know what I mean? Or anything like that, because I don't just think of billionaires in my off time. But I do know this. I want somebody who's gonna come into this team and give it their all, kind of like a bomber or a Cuban. A guy who's really invested on the ins and outs of the team and loves Boston as a whole. And even if they're not from here or have no ties to Boston or anything like that, they come and embrace the culture, kind of like you have when you got here at a Boston man. And really want to win with these guys on the court, off the court, and just be an all around staple of the city of Boston. That's what I want to see in an owner. I don't want a guy who's just gonna come in money bags. I think, if Jeff Bezos would be money bags. - He would have just been money bags. - He would have just been money bags. - Exactly. I want somebody who's gonna be their court side who knows the family, who's gonna hug your baby daughter. And you know what I mean? And give your grandma a nice walk to her chair. That's the guy that I want to come in here and be an owner of this team, if possible. But who knows if that's out there? - Man, I was just, you think about all the tech, all the medicine that's in this area, like there's gotta be someone out there with them billions. And again though, maybe we don't know. Like just think of like Market Basket. That's a locally owned, a locally started empire here. Maybe they gotta get outside help. The end of the day they can go, I could be that 51%. And someone that's from here that can step in and do it. But again, who has that money that would come in and be willing to pay this tax? That's why I look at a guy like Bezos. I sit down, Boston has entered the chat. Chic Mansour, he owns Man City. They own a bunch of soccer clubs around the country. He's worth 17 billion. But he is the son of the petroleum empire of the Middle East. - Yeah, one trillion is his family's net worth. That's different money. But what you get with those guys, people in the Middle East, I know it. I'm Lebanese, I'm Armenian. There's a lot of money out there. There's egos. And that's what you want. You don't want that David Tepper ego. I'm on fire everyone. But you want that ego of, I want to put the best team ever out there. Look at what they did once they bought Man City. World class arena that play in stadium. World class facilities. And look at how much they pay to get the biggest names in soccer to play for the team. And look at who they have. They're paying what it takes to keep Pep Guardiola, best friends with Joe Missoula, to be there leading that team on the pitch. I just think of someone like that, that would come in and have the money. And all right, maybe he won't be present every day, especially everything that got going in. But someone has a money that is raising the standard, has a high standard and doesn't look at it like an asset. Looks at it like this is a team. This is a football team, a basketball team, a soccer team. And it's all about championships or someone that wants that. But then it would come into NBA owners got to approve. And if this guy comes in with seven billion cash, which he can afford thanks to his family. Who knows if that would happen? Because end of the day, it's an old boys club in the NBA and they go, who's this guy from the Middle East coming in trying to show us up? Just saying, I don't think it would happen that way either. - Yeah, it probably would. And you're probably right about that. I don't think the NBA fraternity will want somebody to come in who's like that, who's basketball and all of that stuff. They're really particular about people they let own teams in the NBA. So no question about that. A guy who's in there to shake it up. I think they're all out on that. - It's one of you got to walk the talk, talk to talk. And you got to play the game. Like there's a game within the game. There's a game to get to that money to buy a team. Then there's the game of, all right, now you're in the club, you're one to 30. Get out, quote, unquote, majority owners. You're one to 30. All right, but you got to do it this way. You got to pay your dues that way. Completely disagree. But then on the end, he'd go look, if I give you this check and I buy this team, you get 30 million right away. But again, it's a long game. None of those guys want to give up the franchise for what we know. I'd like to see a chic monsoir. I just think I'd be fun dynamic to have. - Oil, oil money's different money, bro. Oil money is like, my boy, his brother studied abroad in Spain and he got back. I was catching up and there's a while back. He was like, yeah, I made friends. She was awesome. She's like the heir to the fourth richest family in the Middle East. And I was like, dude, do you know what that is? He was like, oh, yeah. He was like, she was cool. But I'm like, that is insane money. I'm still like, I was in a tuck it over the weekend. I did not belong to this. That's not a humble brag. Like I walked in, people smelt the poor on me. They're like, what are you doing here? But you pull out of there, you're seeing these like 20, 30 million dollar homes. You get to the airport, you see the private jet private, all those private jets. You see a 40, 50 million dollar yacht. That's the type of people you want. That's the world you got to be in to even sniff buying an NBA team. It is a different world to be considered. - I seen the way you traveled, George. You belong. (laughing) You belong. You travel nice. You travel nice. (laughing) - So what you got for us today, Taylor, let's get into it. - All right, so we got to preview some NBA teams. We're going through the list. Now we're up to the Utah Jazz. I know a team probably people don't want to hear about from us, you know what I mean? The team that had a lot of struggles last year. I personally think they got a little bit better over this off season. What do you think about this Utah Jazz team going into the 2024, 2025 NBA season? - This is a team I was high on last season. And I think they're over under wind total. It was set around 27, 28 and a half. And I said go over and they did. But then you still see a low wind total for what they have around 31 games, depending on what book you go to. - Yep. - That's mostly what Vegas has given them. Kind of a let down off season. Because we know Danny Ainge mentioned going big game hunting. All right, Trey, Paul George didn't get them. Even a guy like Brendan Ingram less sexy name, but still big game hunting. - Yep. - Even does Lori marketing get moved. They tied him up to a five year deal and they can't trade him because he signed it within six months of the NBA trade deadline. So he stayed to put it. But how they drafted Cody Williams out of Colorado, a bucket, Isaiah Collier out of USC, you know him well, a bucket. Kyle Philopowski give you a front court depth. Oh, we know he'll love being out there in Mormon land. But then John Collins, Jordan Clarkson on the roster for now they could be trade deadline pieces. But a team of Keontae, George, a bucket, Colin Sexton, Markinin, John Collins, Walker, Kessler, like this is a deep team with a good head coach and Will Hardy. - Yep. - So this could be a team maybe they get into the play in. Maybe they mess around and get there. I mean, we know they have the home court, they got the coach, they got the talent and the depth of the roster. How much they step up? I'm excited to see this jazz team play. I think they would add a good wrinkle to the West of just being a different type of contender and someone that can be a new blood back into the playoffs that make it more interesting. - Yeah. I don't know. They might be, you know, they're probably gonna be right where they were last year on the edge of that play inville, looking out, you know what I mean? Looking through the window peeking and seeing like, oh, can't we? They might be like how the Houston Rockets were last year, right? We got to the end of the season and they were doing the Hey Warriors come out and play, you know, 'cause they were on their tail for a little bit and then the Warriors ended up being the Warriors and pulling away. I think the jazz can probably be that team this year where they're flirting with 35 wins and at the end of the season, they're looking at them and they're like, oh, are they a playoff team with like 20 games to go? Like maybe they are, maybe they aren't, you know. I think that's definitely what you're gonna see. I am a little nervous about this team just on the defensive end as a whole. I think that obviously losing Chris Dunn was a huge loss for them and I know people are like, Chris Dunn, but he's a huge leader on the team of like younger guys, honestly. Most of these guys that they're gonna be relying on coming into this season, you talked about Collie, you talked about Cody Williams, you talked about Flip. All three of these guys are gonna have to play minutes and they're gonna have one of them, at least maybe two of them are gonna have to work out. If the Jazs are gonna be good in the next couple of years, they have a huge issue at point guard now. They don't have one, you know what I mean? They have three guards who play point, but not really point. They mostly want to score what Chiante, George, Clarkson and Sexton, they all want to score the basketball. But they not so great at facilitating the other guys and I don't blame them because the Jaz haven't really had other guys to facilitate to in years besides marking in, you know what I mean? Now they have John Collins, but it's not like a guy that you can just, you know, give the ball to and watch work. He's more of a off the ball, lob thread, maybe hit a couple, 15 footers to corner three kind of guy, you know what I mean? A Walker Kessler, he's not really been what they thought he was going to be, honestly. Like he's a rim protector at first. We know that, but offensively his game has just not been what he was projected to be coming out of Auburn, out of college. So you're really hoping that one of these guards, you know, Collier really is the one you would hope 'cause he's a huge facilitator. That's what he came into the league as a point guard, a original type of point guard, not a big scoring. He's more of a get downhill, assist kind of guy. We got to see if he's able to translate that into the NBA 'cause he didn't do that super well at USC and I know he missed some time with injury. But yeah, this jazz team, I know I sound them, like I'm not high on them. I'm higher on them than they were last year. They won 31 games. I think that they're gonna float around 33 to 35 this year, which is a little bit better than they were the year before. But obviously you just gotta hope that they stay healthy. - Just in perspective, like 36 wins got the Hawks into the play in. 46 wins is what you would need to make it in the West. And look at the landscape of them too. The Rockets are gonna get better. Another season in our email, Doca. We'll see what guys step up out of their core. The Grizzlies could get better, like they see what they get from Jocco. - They will, because they'll have job back, yeah. - Yeah, they got job back like a full season. I just still, the Zack Eadie dynamic in that fast of an offense, but I'll get there another time. And shoot, bro, we say it all the time. When does the talk start about whenby? Like a 22 win Spurs team. Whenby went through the season, went through the Olympics, saw what it takes to get by in the NBA, not even get by to thrive in the NBA. The dude was so pissed off to get a silver medal and lose against a stacked dream. Hall of Fame, Team USA. So pissed off that he can take a Spurs team from 22 wins to 40 wins. - Yeah. - Dominates both ends of the floor. And right there, you're already passing the jazz, you're doing that slow cooking rebuild. - Yeah. - But you never know what Trader Danny, like what he'll have up his sleeve, what he could do at the deadline, especially with guys that he can move in Collins and in those guys as well with John Collins. Like I wouldn't leave anyone off the court. - And Clarkson. - And Jordan Clarkson. Even Collins Sexton, you just never know what could happen with those guys. - One of those guys is probably gonna leave this team before the end of the year. They, I think they have to, you know what I mean? They're gonna be in a spot where they get to halfway through the season. They only have 18, 20 wins, hopefully. You know what I mean? So they're definitely gonna be some questions about whether one of those three guys who have kind of been there for a couple of years now, is it gonna continue to work out for them? They obviously invested large in the lorry. But yeah, I wanted to ask you what bets do you like from the Utah Jazz team that you have? Maybe that you're gonna sprinkle a couple of dollars on going into the year? - I just saw over 29 and a half wins. It's even money on DK. I mean, this is a team that won 31 last year. They got better, they locked up marketing. They just have a deeper team all around. Yeah, maybe they can look like they'd be sellers at the deadline, but there's also a team with the majority of their roster being guys that they have drafted. And this is another year of Danny Ainge leading that front office, leaving the structure. To get that at plus money for a team that won 31 games, that guy's gotten better year by year in the win column and gets more talent on the scoring side. I understand the point you're making about gelling, but it's so simple to me. Like, can you win 30 games? That's it. It's all I'm asking. Can you win 30 games? Yes, I'd take it for even money. What about you, you find any you like? - Yeah, I think I like, I've seen on FanDuel, there's 30 plus wins for the jazz and you get plus 160 at this. I think that I would probably sprinkle a couple of dollars there because I, once again, a team that won 31 games a season ago, a team that I think is going to be better. Obviously adding John Collins last year, you know, shaking up, they're gonna be more gel. They're gonna have a point guard if they play Collier that's really willing to facilitate and set up these guys because they do have scores. Keontak can really fill it up. Clarkson can really fill it up. Sex can really fill it up. Marketing can really fill it up. And you could get that random 30, 40 point game out of Collins any night because he's athletic, he's a lot there, he gets hot, he's a streaky guy. He starts shooting the ball really well. They have guys that can fill it up. So I think this team will be dangerous on the offensive end and guys are gonna take them lightly because like you said, they're looking at, oh, okay, I gotta play the Spurs. Maybe I gotta not take them as lightly because it wouldn't be this year. We know we're not gonna take Houston as lightly. We know we're not gonna take Memphis as lightly. So all these other teams are getting better and they're gonna be able to sneak and get some guys on some wins just because they're like, ah, it's Utah, we're going out there with the Mormons and the snow. These dudes aren't ready and they're gonna come ready to play on the offensive end and they're gonna score points. - If they're gonna catch them in the middle like a West Coast trip, fourth, fifth game of that swing, maybe on the second half of the back-to-back, hold as Utah, this seems like, what are we doing here? Why do they have an NBA team here? And then they come out and get buckets and punch them in the mouth by the time they get to it. Plus one six, so same thing, DK is saying 30 wins. Fandil is saying 30 or more wins. So the smarter bet is yours, like go to Fandil because if they place your bet, then every 100, you bet you'll get 60 more dollars in return. You're giving up 60 cents on the dollar. If you go with DK, if you go with Fandil and go with 30 or more wins for a jazz team or both books are telling you, that's where they are. The team last year told us 31 wins. The smart bet, like you found that one at Fandil. I'm gonna hop off after this show, open up my Fandil app and place a bet on that. It's just smart betting, it's part of it, it's just a smart betting. - This episode is brought to you by Microsoft Azure. Turn your ideas into reality with an Azure-free account. Get everything you need to develop apps across cloud and hybrid environments, scale workloads, create cloud-connected mobile experiences and so much more. Discover what you can create with popular services free for 12 months. Learn more at azure.com. That's azure.com and sign up for a free account to start building in the cloud today. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, let's talk about a good team. The Oklahoma City Thunder, probably going to be the number one seed in the west. That's a little spoiler for me. How do you feel about the OKC Thunder going into the 2024, 2025 NBA season? - I loved them last year, big physical, shoot really efficiently. Have a top four player in the world right now with SGA as a leader of their offense, both ends of the floor. But then they go out and sign in Alex Caruso and Isaiah Hartenstein over from the Knicks Caruso, of course, signed from a separate team, but good wing defender, good shooter and Caruso, big strong physical, a vet to show these guys. And Hartenstein is someone that you run everything through SGA, like he's one stop shop, he is the offense. But Hartenstein can run it from the nail at the free throw line and do a lot of things out of the post. They just didn't have that ability to before. And he takes pressure off of Chet, Chet can go out on the perimeter, be that guy. That is a huge mismatch for teams to face, while Hartenstein can do a lot on his own as well. So I think they've vastly upgraded. They've re-signed Isaiah Joe and Aaron Wiggins as well. I love the J-Dub and J-Will, the guys they have there. It's more than SGA. But on how good they're top three players. And it is an addition by subtraction really to bring in Alex Caruso to replace them. But Josh Giddy out of here, where when it comes time for the playoffs, teams can't defend them the same way. Like they can't keep one guy open and it helps them out when you're playing four out of five basketball and just dare Giddy to shoot because he's terrible at that spot. They have a true threat in this offense. I love SGA, I love the Thunder. I think this is a team I expect to get to the Western Conference Finals. So that reflects in a different way you say and they're gonna be the one seat in the West. Would not be shocked at all. - Yeah, I was looking up Caruso's stats as you were talking because I thought the same thing. Like you're losing Giddy, but you're getting a guy who fits more into your system now. I think Giddy might have an opportunity to be a better player over his career than Alex Caruso is, just off a basketball talent. But you didn't need what he brought to OKC on the Thunder. You need that more in Chicago, right? A guy who's an on-ball guard who really needs to ball in his hands to score, facilitate and get things done for his team on the offense event. He doesn't need to be in the corner waiting for a shot, playing off closed outs. He needs to be playing pick and roll. And we saw that while Australia. And I'll talk more about him when I talk, when we talk about the Chicago Bulls. But with Caruso, you got a 40% three point shooter now added to his SGA's team. So you got him, you got Dor who's obviously became a way better shooter throughout his time being there with the Thunder over his career. You got Wiggins, who's going to be a lights out shooter for their team. You have the good J. Dove. Excuse me. Dailin Williams number eight, you know what I'm saying? It's a bucket getter supreme. He plays super well off the ball. He shoots the ball extremely well. And then you have a center with Chet, who can stretch the floor out as well. Kind of like what we see with Porzinga's here in Boston. He stretches the floor out to 30 plus feet. And he makes defense be aware. You have that now surrounding SGA. This team is going to be really, really dangerous. And Caruso's a better defender right now in his career than Josh Giddy is. And then on top of that, like you said, you're adding hardened Stein. They had beyond ball. You know what I mean last year. What was beyond ball doing for them? Nothing, sitting on the bench, nothing. And they replaced that and get Isaiah Hardin Stein, who did a lot for the Knicks this year and was a huge part of their success, honestly, throughout the season and the playoffs. So adding that, those two guys is going to be huge for this Thunder team. I think they have a chance to be, honestly the best record in the entire NBA. - Yep. - No question about that. Is there any, I want to ask you this though. Do you think Shea has a chance? Or how good of a chance? If you could scale it on a one to 10th scale. One being, he's not getting MVP at all. 10 being, he's for sure getting MVP. How would you ranks Shea on that scale in terms of getting final, I mean, NBA MVP? - Okay, see getting the one seed says they're having a better record than Donchich and Yochich. We're both betting favorites ahead of SGA to get regular season MVP. - Yep. - And I just think how good his game is getting, how it's evolving, and the better Surroundic has, they have a better spacing, better depth, better everything. - Yep. - One to 10, 10 is basically he got it. So if even if I gave him a nine, there's that space to leave open. - Yep. - I'd go eight point, eight point three. - Eight point three. - And it's high probability. I mean, this is a guy, you can bet him six to one to win league MVP. - Yep. - But we see what the favorites are. It's Yochich, it's Donchich, it's still Janis up there too. But I just think it's gonna be the MVP of someone that comes out of the West. I think it's where the better basketball is. And even if you look at the East, like a guy like Tatum, top seven player, you're not gonna win MVP. Jalen Brown, great player, you're not gonna win MVP. Janis is a good threat. Maybe Jalen Brunson, but I just don't see the Knicks being that one seed. I just need a really good regular season team. - Yep. - And I think OKC is the best chance to be a really good regular season team. Because they added in the off season, they added and they addressed where they were missing pieces. And there isn't that big loss. Like the Nuggets roster wise, like losing a case they're not as good as they once were. - Yep. - When you lose someone who's a great shooter and perimeter guy like KCP. But then the magic got better because they brought in defense and spacing. And even with the Mavericks, that's one that's up in the air. You bring in Clay, he has to be your third, fourth best player. Playing off a dodge to try to help him. The Mavs got better. But the Thunder were so good and they just got even better. And you talked about the growth of a door of the Williams and what those guys are. Their top three players are still SGA, Jalen Williams, and Chet, where you could say even Lou Dorton, that how elite a defender he is as well. Because of how good this team is, but it's clear-cut who their best player is. I like SGA's chances to win MVP a lot. - Yeah, I do. I actually would bet it. Like you said, plus 550, six to one, you know. - Depending where you go. - Depending on where you go. Yeah, I got it from Fandall. - So I love that real quick. We just see the, why you should always look at different books. Where you got a better number for the Jazz wins on Fandall. I got a better number for SGA MVP. Over at Drafts. - So yeah, maybe I'll switch it over. And I'll go like how you said after this episode. It's pretty a couple of dollars. No, I'm not a betting man. But yeah, I think SGA has a great chance because of all the things that you said. I personally think that they're gonna have the best record in the entire NBA next season. I know the West is a tough, tough case, but I think it's gonna be some growing pains in Dallas when you're figuring out how to play with clay. I think there's gonna be obviously a slowdown for the Nuggets, like you said, because it seems like every year, guys keep getting posts off their team, you know, Bruce Brown two years ago. Now, KCP, you know, getting posts off of their team and going to the Orlando Magic. They keep losing guys and they're not adding much back in the draft and that worries me for the Denver Nuggets. So I think while those teams are figuring it out, okay, C's gonna come out. - They got it solved. - And they're gonna have it already figured out because two plug and play guys with Caruso with Hardenstein, they're gonna be ready to go from day one. I think this team is going to be the best team in the NBA in terms of records in the regular season. And then on top of that, I think SGA is gonna continue to light people up 30 points a game and he's gonna have more assists because Giddy has gone till they lost their second facilitator and they got more shooting. - Yeah, it's a perfect put of like, they just had to do the small tweaks to this roster. Already we're a really good team. She had to make those small adjustments to get even better. And this is with the Mavericks team coming off an NBA championship run with mileage. Timber Wolves will be better. I mean, they drafted well and obviously Ant-Man, just the confidence goes up. I didn't even think that was possible with him. But what O.K.C. has at that core. And then it is the best team in the NBA and clear cup best player. That's perfect marriage of SGA getting a league MVP. No matter what though, you look at top four players in the league. Yokich, Donchich, Janus, SGA, none of them American-born. Don't forget, Shay is from Canada. He's a maple leaf guy, right? Loves his, what is it? Maple syrup up that way. - And it's Tim Hortons. - Yeah, Tim Hortons is fired. I'm a big Tim Hortons man. Duncan's great, Duncan's great. But like you're up there, like Tim Hortons is good too. So he was wondering like, what's a local chain to go to certain countries? Tim Hortons, that's that good stuff. I take Tim Hortons over Starbucks. - Oh, that's a hot take. - Oh yeah. - I wanna ask you, if you have any other hot takes on bets that you would like to take on this team. - On the Thunder? - Yeah. - So I kind of, you know, played my cards on that. - Yeah. - But seven to one, the win, the whole thing. Now, it's also when you look at the number where it's a Celtics plus 295. - Yeah. - And the next shortest odds is OKC seven to one. Like that's a huge line to draw. - Yeah. - But second best odds, just seven to one. Now I would tell you too, bet the Celtics at plus 295 because they cruised through the regular season and they cruised through the post season and they cruised through the finals to win. It was nuts what they did. They never, never, never really faced like hard adversity. I know KCP going down all that stuff. So I would bet that Celtics team plus 295, but if you're taking a team out of the West, take the Thunder 7 to one. Now you could fall a dollar under and go, I'm gonna bet on this team to be a regular season team. SGA MVP six to one. Those are two bets I like with the Thunder of. You're telling me the second most likely team to win the NBA title. Seven to one, seven to one right now. I would take that number. - Yeah, so on FanDuel they have one of most regular season wins. And I already talked about how I think they're gonna be the best team in the regular season this year because probably KCP, we're not getting him back until December, maybe January here in Boston. I think that OKC is gonna take advantage of that. You can get them at five to one on FanDuel for most regular season wins. And obviously I think I wanna take that because of all the reasons that we stated before it. - Yeah, think about it. So then it goes into regular season wins five to one. SGA MVP six to one, if they get the most wins, SGA very likely to get MVP. But of course there's that factor of how much everyone loves Ant-Man, how much and how good Luca has been does he take another leap. Where maybe those T-Wolves or Mavs don't finish with the best record, but they get MVP anyway. You got options. You believe in this team as a regular season team, five to one. And again, you bet that. And then regular season concludes. You got nice. I'm in a good spot. That's it. I got my winnings. That's it. I don't have to sweat this thing out until the NBA finals. But $200 difference between winning the whole thing and winning the regular season. - Yeah, 100%. All right, now it's time for your favorite game. - Let's do it. - Winning seven. So obviously this is a segment where you get an opportunity to guess the NBA player that I'm thinking of. You get seven questions after the seventh question. If you don't have the correct guess, then you get a silhouette and you get one final guess after that. - Perfect, I love it. Let's do it, baby. - Let's do it. All right, I'm gonna start with current player or are they retired? - They're current. - Current. - Okay. How many NBA titles do they have? - This player has one NBA title. - One NBA title. Current player, one NBA title. - Yes. - Where did they play in college? I keep prepared this time. - Okay, I will tell you the conference that they played in college. - No, where did they play in college? - The conference that they played in college is the Pac-12. Pac-12. - All right, current or retired, they're current player, one NBA champion. - Yup, from the Pac-12. - Why can't you tell me what college you have played? - 'Cause they'll give it away. (laughs) - RIP the Pac-12, by the way. - Yes. - I had to go to Big Ten Network to watch Oregon football. - I saw your tweet about that, that was crazy. - Appreciate the like, nasty one. - Hated that. - Oh man. - How many all stars do they have? - This player has, let me count three all-star appearance. - Three all-star, so that's my fourth question. - Yes, that is your fourth question. Three all-star appearances, current NBA player, one champion. - Played in the Pac-12, played in the Pac-12, three all-stars. What year were they drafted? - The year that they were drafted was 2016. - Ooh, man, all right, so I gotta go a little deep on their Pac-12 days then. - This is a 2016 draft, front or back court. - This is a front slash back court guy. - Bro, this is the same thing as a fellow. - This is a wing. - Wing. - This is a wing. That was question number six. - Three time all-star NBA champion, played in the Pac-12, drafted 2016, East or West? - East End Conference. - East. - That was question number seven. Would you like to see your silhouette? - Yeah, give me the silhouette. Let's see if this helps. - Is it Jalen Brown? - It is, let's go. - Before I asked East or West, I was like, wait, 'cause 2016, that was the key question. - Yup. - That's awesome. - I couldn't give you cow. - I couldn't give you cow. If I said cow, current NBA player, like, come on, bro. - There's no one else. - Like, come on, bro, who else? You know what I'm saying? - Hey, well done, well played. - Yes. - You see, like, I did it once. I was asking all the wrong questions. But it was once you said wing. And I saw 2016 draft. I was like, wait, champion Pac-12, three all-stars. Like, it took a minute for JB to come into his own. If I went how many times has he been all pro, that would help too, 'cause you would have said once. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you had all NBA out of the year, it would have only been one time. Pac-12, it was 2016 is what helped NBA champion All-Star. That's what gave it. And then, yeah, Pac-12, I'm like, that's Jalen Brown. - Yeah, yeah. - Before I went East or West. - Yeah, Aquaman, man, you know what I mean? - Have you been seeing all this? Yeah, the Aquaman stuff, he's been releasing music. I didn't get the chance to ask you about that, how you felt about his song way. Is that fair? Have you heard it yet? - It was terrible. (laughing) - Bro, it was awful. And like, dude, it was awful. Okay, hold on, we'll move on to the next thing, all right? So a couple of things that Jalen Brown is mad with. It's Nike, right? But they have this partnership with Lego, and also this tweet that they put out to show their sponsorship that they're having, their partnership with Lego. And people are wondering, right? Will there be some NBA, Nike, Lego shoes? You know what I'm saying? Like some Jordans or some Nike's or some, you know, whatever, some dunks. And I wanted to know if you could list off some of the shoes that you would like to see get Lego-fied, like the ones that you would put on your, you know, your console table and your living room or something like that. - Yeah, so I'm not wearing them, right? - No, you're not wearing them, of course not. We're not talking about Lego shoes that you would wear, 'cause we don't wanna see shoes Lego-fied. We wanna see them actually be built with your own two hands, and then you show them off to your friends. - We've seen those awful red boots. Like, I won't, I won't write anything off of what people will wear on their feet. - I gotta go Jordan 11s, it's my favorite Jordans. - Okay. - And I think what's the best is that you could go with like the gammas or you can go with the blues too on that. - Yep. - Are they gonna be sick? Dunks in general and what you could play with that of like the different color ways you could get dunks? - Yeah. - This is interesting, I mean, I'm not talented enough. If you think about it, like this can happen already. It could be a bunch of red, black and white, and I can make the Jordan 11s. - Yep. - Or give me, I mean, you could keep it simple, give me like purple and white, and you could make the dunks. - Yeah. - I'm excited for this. - Jordan 11s, the ones, trying to think of more recent Jordans. I would like, I like the Janus ones with the backward swoosh. - Yeah. - I would love to see those too, and the Travis Scott's too. - Travis Scott's would be dope. - That backward swoosh is so sick to me. - Yeah. - So I would like that to be lego-fired, what about you? - Yeah, I have a couple on my list and I'm specific color ways, okay? - Nice. - So I would like to see the Sean Witherspoon, Air Max 97s. - Yeah, I love the Witherspoon. - That would be fire man, just to have the wave pattern and the legos with the colors and all that other stuff. That would be dope to see. Another one that's close to home to me, I gotta see those Bruce Lee Kobe fives. - Yep. - Those would be sick with the like tear, with the red, you know what I mean? Rips in them, and the yellow and black, Bruce Lee color way. Those would be so dope. And of course, Kobe's, you know what I mean? Having a Kobe on the coffee table would be dope. And then my favorite shoe of all time, and I wear them around the office here. I love them so much that they're beat up. Top three Jordan ones. So they're mixed match Jordan's. One side is like a red tongue, the other side is like a blue tongue. You got some red, white and blue color ways in there, which are more, you know, Jordan-esque, black, white. It's just a great shoe. If you haven't seen it before, go look at it. I love it, I wear it with mixed match shoelaces. So those are my three that I would love to see. - Another to plug you on too. I like your fruity pebble LeBron Lowe's. - Yeah. - That'd be sick too. Again, same thing with the color ways and all that. - Yeah. I would wonder how they would do the shoelaces with that. That would be dope 'cause they have like the fruity pebble speckles on it and stuff like that. Like, you know. - I feel like the shoelaces would be like a hard plastic and you click them in. Like it'd just be a big piece, you know? You can't go piece by piece. You said on the Kobe for the Bruce Lee's, I like to see the kill bill, Kobe's. - Yeah. - Those would be ill too. - Yeah, those would be dope. Those definitely would be dope. When I grow out of, you know, upgrade a little and get away from like five hundred ten square feet in Charlestown. - Yeah. - And I get my own office. Legos, it's therapeutic to do this. Like painting, right? But then you do it and like, you know, you hang a painting on your wall. I think it's a genius. Same thing with the Legos. Put it up, coffee, table, desk, put on your bookcase in the Zoom background. - Yep. - Like that, yeah. And I have a Nike Legos. I mean, they have to. There's no way they don't do it. - Yeah, they have to do it, right? That's the whole point of the partnership. The shoe is probably going to, in real life, is probably going to cost less than the Lego version. But, you know, whatever, who cares? - I haven't seen how much a Lego set costs in a minute. How much do Lego sets cost these days? - Dude, like if you want to buy one of those like Star Wars ones or like the, you know how you love F1, the car ones, yeah. Those are like three, four, five hundred dollars, man. It's crazy. - Bro, Titanic 680. - Yep. - Hogwarts 470. - Yep. - Home alone, 290. Who wants a home alone Lego set? Get out of here, 290? - Yeah, no, exactly. In like the Harry Potter ones, don't even look at the Harry Potter, or like the infinity gauntlet. Like if you do that from Marvel, bro, those things are expensive. I'm so glad neither of us have kids. This is a Travis problem. - They can't even still play with Legos. - Bro, I haven't played with Legos in a minute. I'll play with the small sets. - Yeah. - Yeah, exactly. Look at this price. - Yeah, no, it's crazy. - 230 to build a globe? No, Lego Marvel Avengers title of five, Hundo? No, I'm just gonna get a pair of shoes at this point. - Yeah. - Honestly, that's it. - Yeah, you know what would be dope though, because I absolutely love those games when I was a kid. Lego Star Wars, if they made a Lego Star Wars edition of an actual Nike shoe that I could wear, that would be tough. I would rock that. Somehow, someway, I don't need to like Lego, you know? Nike would make it cooler, you know what I'm saying, where it's not like little kid, Lego version, but like, I would love to see that. - Man, now you got my mind, man. I got a hop on goat, or Nike sees him like new dunks to grab or something like that. - Yes, sir. - Yes, sir. - Always good being on Banner with you. I think I'm on all week, right? - Yeah, yeah. - As long as you have me, I'll stay tight. As long as you have me, I'll stay. He's on tight, Campbell, I'm George Black. This was Hold My Banner. Wherever you're listening, please like, subscribe, great review, if you're watching on Nestons YouTube or Neston Twitch, hit the subscribe button as well. Tweet at Tay, follow him on Instagram, same with me. Comment, DM us, any questions you guys got, or email us at thechat@neson.com and be like, "Hey, it's from my Banner peeps." - Yup. - This is a question I got for you guys. We'd appreciate it. Tay, always good being with you, bro. - Always good to be with you as well, George, my boy. - Till next time, we'll see you guys. - Deuces. (air whooshing) - Don't miss out on a second of the action. Follow Neston on Instagram, Facebook, X and TikTok to stay in the loop on all things New England sports. From news to exclusive behind the scenes action, Neston has you covered.
