NBA Contenders and Their Concerns | The Bill Simmons Podcast 

Definitely contenders

Porter is a LOT better than most fans realize. The only worry with him is injuries.

He just seems like he's figured it out. He still takes some bad fouls here and there but it seems like he's completely comfortable with his role on the floor. We've come a long way from when Bill was calling him one of the worst contracts in the league.

@@doktarr 100%

A 6'10" Small Forward he's a good shooter can definitely get his shot off needs to stay healthy if he plays aggressive and Malone takes some of the leash off of him I can see him being an All Star in a couple years he's like 22 right

I feel its more than just MPJ jacking the shots tho its just seem the ball and Jokic playstile lead to this MPJ find gamechanging shot its what Bill alluding to I thinl

​@@doktarr yes it seems like it but wait playoffs time and i hope you are right but oooh i don't know I'm more like he will be old mpj

Simmons and the *&^%$ Lakers. I'm not a Cavs believer. Healthy contenders do not have losing road records. Next year, yes.

@@David-iv6je I can respect that. But putting in even a similar team like the Knicks over them doesn't make much sense.

@@chadgimmi Oh sure bro I'm with you. Just they've got no shot against a healthy Celtics or Bucks. Not so sure about the Sixers tho. I'd like to see the Cavs match up against Embiid and Harden.

@David yeah I get it.. the 6ers would give the Cavs more trouble than the Celtics imo.. Celtics are 0-3 vs tue cavs and the cavs have had no answer in stopping embiid. But the playoffs are a completely different animal

No they going nowhere 💯

Cavs are not a contender and so are the Knicks. Lakers at least makes sense they have Bron and a solid roster post trade deadline. Cavs are way too young what are they contending for ? Posssibly winning a series

@@nbanow9612 the conference finals or finals. They match up well against Boston. Philly has their number but if DG and Mobes flourish in the playoffs… Cavs are a contender

Haha, yeah and lost to Knicks

Poole no but Kuminga, Moody, and Wiseman plus picks for 1-2 legitimate players would've been smart

@@evanclp514 you’re not getting a bag of chips for that

@@joshain330 now, no. but last season Moody and Kuminga stock was really high. i'm not saying you'd get stars but solid, rotation players that could help them win now.

@@evanclp514 keeping poole while both klay and steph are playing elite was a mistake. Poole does not fit when those 2 guys are playing. He becomes an average role player essentially. But he's a promising young player making 140 mil for 4 years. Other teams that are rebuilding would give up a lot for him. Add in other pieces like kuminga and wiseman and they coulda got a legit star player back who actually fits with steph and klay.

@@mambaASI he gives good scoring off the bench and could be the player to replace curry in a couple years so i would keep him. you don't need a legit star back. you just need solid role players like what they did with gp2

For real. It was the same for Gobert in Utah. People say he got exposed, and then you look at the defense of the other guys, and it was not good. :D In today's NBA, defense is a group stat.

Having defenders that can navigate screens (even Jamal is a better option than anything they've had the past two years) means Jokic can play higher up the floor and rotate without being run ragged. Also, MPJ in addition to Gordon (and Gordon not having so much perimeter responsibility) adds so much more vertical presence covering up on the back that the Nuggets have so many more options and looks they can throw at teams defensively than the last two years

Denver has THE BEST CLUTCH defense in NBA...thats not possibel if yor center is bad on defense...

@Khris Middleton Denver has the best cluch defense in NBA , and they are top 3 on a season with Jokic on the court... He is THE MOST underrated good defender in the history of the league...

lol these jokic takes are just terrible - he is a bad denfender for a center . nothing to discuss and no stats needed !

And yet still not as bad as Marcus Smart in the playoffs last year.

Ask MJ and LeBron first

Literally every nba player cries about calls. Every possession. Every play. Every single one of them.

He cries soooooo much it's a problem yooo i mean soooooo much, he is pathetic 💯

@Eddie Pauda maybe but Lukas is excessive. That's why everyone talks about him doing it and not players like KD or Kawhi. It's levels to it and Luka at the top

Their defence is abysmal, by far worse than any of their competition. That becomes extra important in the playoffs when games slow down. Their two stars are also unproven in the playoffs so we don’t know what they’ll be like. Sac’s offence also benefits a lot from their pace which will partially be neutralized in a post season setting. I doubt the lakers blazers or Jazz do anything against them but Dallas would definitely have a strong chance

As. Nuggets fan, may we meet in the WC Finals!

If season end now kings have good chance to go to west finals

Conveniently left out the best team in the conference lmao

@@fst5349 because we wouldn’t play them in the first 2 rounds. That’s why.

It makes absolutely no sense. Wiggins hasn't played well all year even prior to the injury but he was the key to winning the Finals last year. As far as Kuminga, if they traded him, by the time he gets to his fourth year everyone would say the Warriors should package XYZ players to trade for him lol

Agreed. Kuminga is extremely good. It's that simple. So is Wiggins. This is just hot take nonsense. Also lumping Moody Wiseman and Kuminga in together as some sort of youth squad is dumb. They may all be young and drafted around the same time, but one is clearly a rotation-worthy contributor and the other are not. It's like saying that Draymond and Harrison Barnes have the same worth because they were drafted the same year.

I get it. OTOH it is a much bigger stretch than last year. They really look BAD.

You can say that again, the within part i mean. Never seen a dude with less playmaking abilities in my life, and it's going to comeback to hurt them in the playoffs. An underrated part of what makes Golden State so great in the post szn is that they mostly roll out lineups that feature 4 or even 5 playmakers at a time so they can always get out of deadlocks, or if opposing defense has stopped their 1st or 2nd actions.

​@@replicantona he doesnt need to play a ball.

Lol legitimitet defender? 🤣😂😆

@@ljutko7 hes fine. he's not gonna make an all defense team but if he's the worst perimeter defender in your rotation you're doing pretty damn good. people talk about him still like he's some sieve but in reality he's probably about average overall, which is fine when every other perimeter player who gets minutes on your team ranges from solidly above average to exceptional

@@joejoe5156 i hope will see

Lol nah. There are a few teams that match up well against PHX and 2 of them are in the West

CLE: losing record on the road. MEM: also losing record on the road. That's the main indicator of a young team unless they are veterans with multiple guys coming off a bad injury season (GSW last year with Dray's back and Klay's two years.)

Warriors gotta stop blaming bench looney be getting cooked him and dray rn… hold yo starters accountable

Exactly….

They are but there’s just no concerns with them

Ahh explains why they didn’t talk about the Bucks either, Suns is defense though.

Zero

Age, defense, depth and injuries.

@@Joeshiesty286 injuries yes. The others no

Okogie missing 1 million shots

​@@zeus4885 😆

Great point. Giannis is the only big in the league that has a chance in space v. wings and 1's.

yeah but jokic is extremely bad at defence

@@xboxgamerhrThis is THE BIGGEST LIE! Do you watch basketball? He leads all the bigs in deflections, great rebounder, great positional defender, smart..etc...Denver Nuggets with Jokic on the floor are TOP 3 defense in the NBA, and BEST DEFENSE IN THE CLUTCH!

​@@tompratt7125 Bam and JJJ too

are you high ?? lol embiid a bad defender is the worst take ever

These clips are like trailers for you to listen to the full pod on Spotify, ringers getting paid by them not RU-vid

Yeah I wish these were full on youtube cause I don't care about Spotify and don't care enough about thsse to get it just for that but if they were available I would watch or listen to every minute of bill and Ryan or whoever else on these.

1 - RU-vid still pays for their views which Spotify collects 2 - Spotify could offer full video like JRE. All I’m saying is if they record the whole thing in video, why not release it. My sentiment on having full video available pre-dates Spotify deal as well. Anyways just a suggestion, I think it would get more views/listens

Of course it would get more views. But Spotify paid insane $ to get the content and drive viewers to them Star Wars would get a ton more views if they released it for free on RU-vid. What business sense would that make? They want to drive people to want to go to their platform for the content. It’s why they invested in bill and others. To have their content

Hence, me stating, Spotify could have exclusive rights to all Ringers videos and release only on their platform e.g. Joe Rogan Experience.

Here you go. Time stamps Time Stamps Time stamps………….

Spot on

And as a Nuggets fan, he hits all those shots all the time. Like when they won vs Portland that year in the playoffs w/o Murray, he hit THE shot.

Don't agree. See take.

@@nikolakrstic8079 all those shots ? how many titles has denver won when he hits all his shots?

@@denigster there is a lot of games played. It's not only title shots that count kid

Bill was really rushing everything

I’d say the same about his ball handling but have you seen his shooting stats in crunch time? Out of this world.

Top 6 in clutch stats each of the last 3 years.

Tatum is so much better than Paul George lol

@@amc1140 , today, yeah… but prime PG vs. Tatum is a pretty even match and what feels like a pretty similar conversation.

@@paulwilliams5500 agree, prime PG and current Tatum is pretty spot on

No Defense vs JA now... but the grizz would be champs if JA best dunks would be if his ass was glued to the bench

Lmao

Lol facts

The response should be "uh, no" lol

All they need is a few key injury’s to happen to the other top teams and they could sneak in. I’m just wondering if the Labron-foot-rest thing is more rest for the playoffs, than it is an actual injury. He seemed to be fine dunking the ball since saying he had the injury for a while now. Idk, you never know with that guy.

Everyone healthy and they’re absolutely contenders

luka is not loyal to the mavs, a lot has been written about that and not all great players complain all the time about fouls, the hell you on?

@@xboxgamerhr Bird, LeBron, KG, Dirk, Duncan. All infamous for complaining to the refs. I'm sure there are some who don't but it's pretty common. Luka isn't from America he has no loyalties or bonds except with the team who drafted him. Same way with Jokic, Giannas etc.

​@@apolloforabetterfuture4814 😂😂😆 luku is bichin like baby boi he cry like 30 mi. Every game its pathetic and its bad for Mavs

Luka?

Yeah, act like a baseball Ump and toss them out of the game, or just assess them fouls for questioning.

@user-wu8sj3ee3d Luka and the other 50 players who do it. I like Luka but watching bitching every play gets old

@@shorewall I agree 👍

These two are super casuals. Bill only pays attention to the Celtics and Lakers and the Ryan pays more attention to football. Having the Lakers and Clippers as well as the Warriors as contenders is a joke.

@Joe Shmoe I don't think they are "super casuals." You can't watch every single game if you have a life even if you really love basketball. Most people just have a hard time counting those teams out. When Bill brought up the Lakers, Ryan said "I thought we were only talking about contenders," and Bill basically said he's not counting them out at this point.

But yet they don't even mention a thing about the cavaliers who are 4th in the east, have had the number 1 defense all season along with the number 1 net rating, 9th in offense and only 1 of 3 teams in the top 10 of both offensive and defensive rating smh

Because it pretty clearly is ?

@@admiller67 how when the top 3 eastern teams are going to have a pretty easy 1st round matchup compared to the West top 3?

Exactly, also number 1 in defense all year, first in net rating,one of the best 4th quarter teams in the NBA, 9th in offense and 1 of only 3 teams in the league that are top 10 in both offensive and defensive rating, Garland and mobley are number 1 and 2 with the best +/- in the 4th quarter and they have 4 guys in the top 15, the most of any other team, and oh yea they have Donovan Mitchell who's having a career year and has proven to be one of the best playoff performers in the NBA but yes let's talk about the Knicks, warriors, and Lakers over the Cavs lmfao fuck this dude

I think they’ll take that dare

I'm not sure the kings think they themselves are contenders

They can def spoil somebody else's chances tho. Like if I'm the clippers lakers or mavs dass a matchup nightmare 1st round

Why get more invested and upset then the actual players of the team who all are now going home with 10s to 100s of million dollars so they aren’t playing for th steam but for their own stats and winning is bonus.

​@Mustapha Love I dodnt think so either and it still might show a lot more cone playoffs but the games I've seen of them lately they look really really good. Maybe the most cohesive team chemistry wise I've seen lately.

Nope 🤣

the reason is gsw dont take them any serious

@@denigster sure...🙄

um they are the reigning champs and returned the key players. Durant's got nothing to do with the Celtics going down.

Nope 🤣

Because he gets cooked on D every playoffs, 1-5 like Rusillo said. Steph ate him up for breakfast

@Asher Brauner he actually doesn't though if you look at his defensive rating. He's not an amazing defender but he's definitely not a liability

@@Joemama72096 Defensive rating means very little. It doesn't mean nothing, but overall defensive impact is notoriously hard to measure. On the other hand, the eye test is a real thing. It's not perfect, either, but anyone who watches Jokic play D and Giannis play D who is being honest has to say that one is so very much better than the other. I don't even have a rooting interest here, I admire both players, but this seems to me to simply be a fact.

I feel like I’ve heard this before. Maybe the last 4 seasons

If he plays, gotta rest them calves

As a Clipper fan, I want to agree with this. Problem is, Ty Lue has done a poor job with rotations, and I don't trust him to figure that out by the playoffs.

@@dodger1214Yeah. Since trading Reggie Jackson it seems their defensive identity is just gone now. They’re best defender has to run the point now so he can’t exhaust himself playing defense as well. I do like that Paul G is moving the ball more and not taking as many bad shots as was. so, idk. They just look a bit weird right now

@@ronnenvallejo7444 And Reggie wasn't exactly a stellar defender himself. If he was glue that kept the Clipper defense together, then they weren't that good to begin with.

Nope 🤣

Bucks have a better record a better team and most importantly a better player

Chris Paul is a historic whiner too

@@71SanClarebut not the entire game like Luka.

He's been less frustrated in recent games because of Kyrie... Seethe

I have to give it to Tatum...

Funny

Lol

Super impressed with the Knicks. A team built for the playoffs more than the regular season. I like the defensive physicality and they've now got a legit high level half court offense. Robinson has the potential to be a real difference maker in some playoff games. Western conference fan but looking forward to the eastern playoffs. Gonna be crazy.

When has he been exposed

Ignorant comment. When has he been exposed? He's essentially destroyed teams in the playoffs for 4 years. Do you even know what his playoff numbers are or how the Nuggets have done in the playoffs? in 2019 Nugs missed WCF by a few minutes in a second round game 7 loss in their first playoff experience. Next year they made the WCF. Last two years were destroyed by catastrophic injuries but Jokic still dominated in the playoffs both years. This is the first time the team has been healthy for 3 years. Do your homework before you say silly things.

@@youngmula916 nuggets have been worse with him on the floor than off for the past 3 years in the playoffs. not all his fault but he has some defensive flaws that are harder to cover up as the defensive anchor in the playoffs. nuggets did a really good job constructing the roster to maximize his strengths and cover up weaknesses this year though so think its less likely to be as big a concern, but having your center be a bad rim protector and more easily exposed than many centers in the pick and roll makes it though to build around. nuggets are interesting because jokic is obviously insane and unique offensively but having him as the center really flies in the face of what most championship level teams have, which is a very good to elite defender anchoring the defense with great rim protection. nuggets' entire perimeter defense is very good though, everybody is above average to elite aside from mpj who is basically average