@@RobertRobinson-od6eq Celtics super-fans painting NBA narratives for years. It is fine if they have a bias but at least be accurate. Anyways, the bottom line, they are wrong about most things. I know Bill Simmons is past his prime but I was really surprised at Russilo. Just down right inaccurate about so many teams. Missing basic analysis . Sorry, are you new to this shit?
100% agree with Rusillo regarding Embiid. Much as i love Maxey, he can't be the only one with the right attitude and availability. Also, I prefer FIBA rules as well.
Always love these, and the addition of Ryen only makes it better. Here's hoping my man Jimmy Butler stays healthy this year and shoves it in everyone's face
I was hoping it would turn into a Superfans sketch. “I think they can get 85 wins.” “There are only 82 games in the season.” “Mazzulla will find a way!”
Best analysis by far! Respectful show. On the same level with Hoop Collective! Thank you for your work Gents! Highly appreciated! Honoured to listen to You!
the idea that pat riley has done right by jimmy when the heat are trotting out caleb martin, max strus, duncan robinson, etc. as their difference makers while a team like the celtics has derrick white, jrue holiday, and porzingis is......... also, jimmy gets credit bc we've literally seen him go head-to-head with your guy and outplay him with far less help
I'd say Jimmy Butler actually wasn't rewarded at all for taking the Heat to 2 finals. People dont consider him a top 10 or 15 player and he's not get a max extension. Imagine any other player in the league taking their team to the NBA finals twice and getting this little respect.
Mazulla was the scapegoat for Smart. Smart made it impossible for Mazulla to coach the way he wanted to and he was in the way of the Jays taking over as the leaders. Smart was playing crunch time minutes over Derick White, if Mazulla wanted to play Dwhite then Smart would have had a melt down. I was tough on Mazulla at times but in my opinion the most important part of being an NBA coach is getting your players to buy in and play both sides of the court and Mazulla did that, going 16-3 in a playoff run.
I wouldn’t go that far - Mazzulla was in over his head with or without Smart and it is his job to get ALL the players to buy in - but everything you said about Smart is accurate He also didn’t have the personnel to run the system he wanted which is a big reason it looked so bad last year. Please don’t act like going 16-3 was impressive though. Boston is good but that was the easiest title in NBA history. They shouldn’t have lost a single game honestly.
@@michaelahurt Yes but in the grand scheme of things Holiday was Smart's replacement not KP. Also I would say Denver's championship last year was easier. They never faced any legitimate talent. All sub 50 win teams.
On the raptors, the number is probably around 29.5 cause Scottie got injured and they blatantly tanked for a good month. Basically sat everyone. If they played with a full roster they’re at least a 30 win team.
@@peterbrown8362 son, I know more about this sport than you ever will. I've forgotten more about ball than you will ever know. Typical Canadian cluelessness when it comes to basketball, lol...
@@dearmas9068 you, bill, ryen and house havent got a single clue about the raps. We dont really expect yall to watch or know anything about them anyway so its fine. Im not saying theyre some good team btw they'll still be bad but there was some context that was needed to why the line as 29.5 wins.
@@MLDoomsday no. We do. I know more than you about your own team, and they definitely do. Sorry, son. Your squad is bad. Barnes is a low impact stat stuffer. You're going to stay bad. And your fanbase deserves this.
Simmons was an astute and entertaining blogger and did a great job combining his passions of sports and movies. He jumped the shark once his ego surpassed his wit (not a high bar, he is the Seth McFarlane of sports content) and he started commenting on things he is not educated on. Russillo and Simmons could not name 7 Raptors players yet are guaranteeing an under. Easiest bet in Vegas is Raptors over.
The way they speak about The Raptors proves they don’t actually watch any of these teams. They looked at their record last year with 25 games and just assumed they’d be worse. Not knowing that Scottie, RJ, Quickly AND Jakob didn’t play for HALF THE SEASON.
23/24 Raptors with Barnes 22-38 23/24 Raptors with Quickley 12-26 23/24 Raptors with Barrett 11-21 (and that's with Barrett playing much better than he has ever really done in NY, which is unlikely to continue) They were on pace to barely get above 30 wins team even before the trades (with a better team), and their late-season tank brought them to 25, but it's not like there's any evidence that they would've won many of those games with their core guys. The reason RJ and Quickley only played half a season for them was because they gave up a better player for them, and Scottie still played 60 games. This team is awful and it's absurd how Toronto fans don't seem to realize it. It's like there's this weird Masai-cult thing going on, which is blinding hem to how bad his restructuring of this roster has been going back to the trade deadline two years ago.
@@Andrew034 problem is the raptors always have players that fans like in a vacuum (siakam, anunoby, barnes now), but the team's been less than the sum of its parts since the covid year, tbh. ppl were acting like nick nurse was god's gift to coaching, but they were mediocre two years after kawhi left. sixers got eliminated in the 2nd round like they always do. and to your point, masai's incredible job positioning them to pick up someone like kawhi, and then making the kawhi trade and winning a chip has given him a lot of cover for poor roster construction
Im a raps fan and think the roster is absolutely dogshit. Fans act like masais jesus and i dont understand how he’s completely wiped of all criticism whenever someone brings up the chip. Crazy
@@Andrew034 Interesting false narrative, casual. Funny how you forgot to add a stat when Barnes, Quickley and RJ were all playing together. You decided to isolate the stats to your favor. You're pathetic
I think that raptors line is at 29.5 cuz they were tanking since their pick was top 6 protected and they sat their guys a bunch to try to get it up there.
Strange number of raptors fans in the comments, and im assuming theyre raptors fans because there would be no other reason to think theyre not going to be terrible.
The raptors segment was hilarious . Good question though who was in competition with them to pay quickly all that money 😂😂😂 and scottie Barnes Iso to win the game is a nightmare 😂😂😂😂 not to mention the cam Thomas shot chucking is so true 😂😂😂😂
You know nithkng about IQ. Masai is one of the best president in the league in asessong talent. After all hd started in the business as a scout sleeping all over the floor in Europe. Ryen & Simkons are haters & have been talking down on Nasai since Kaehi trade. IQ's contract is 5yr/ 162.5 M which works out to be 32.5M a yr all same $ for the 5 yrs. This contract will look like a steal in 2 yrs. Raps cap space & flexibility is better than most teams under the new CBA. I can't wait for many of you to look silly in the next couple of yrs. Scottie Barnes is 1 if the most versatile player in the league w/ a high bb IQ. Both things cannot be taught. Masai build a chip team w/ not 1 lottery player. He didn't have to spend big $$ like Celtics to do so. He knows after the next 2 yrs many of these top heavy teams will have to shed salary & won't be potent.
Quickley's contract is flat, which means it doesn't get increasingly more expensive. In 5 years, he might be one of the cheapest starting point guards in the NBA. The Raptors believe he can still develop more. The only way his contract will be bad is if he literally forgets how to shoot 3s and refuses to play a lick of defense. By all accounts, he worked really hard this summer and I'd bet he'll take a jump this season. As for Scottie Barnes, have you bothered to watch him at all recently? His trainer, Brian Macon, is a handles coach and Scottie has been in the lab since February working on his skills bag. You could see it in the most recent Raptors/Celtics game. He was creating off the dribble and pulling up from midrange and nailing beautiful looking jumpers. Improvement and hard work is real, and to ignore it is showing a serious lack of foresight.
@@daryl_s They are just haters & it is sad that some so called Raptors fans are in agreement w/ their terrible takes. Many of them just want to tank for lottery picks as if Flagg, etal will take us to top 6 seed next season. Did they see a supposedly generational talent named Wemby on the Spurs last season? Even him could not help Spurs win more gms & doubt they will be in playin picture this season.
Masai, who decided to zag on what should've been an obvious firesale and gave up a first-rounder for Poeltl, didn't trade Van Vleet and let him walk, waited a year to long on the OG and Siakam trades getting back 50 cents on the dollar for them? That Masai? Good luck.
Yeah, that dumbass Masai only won a chip and drafted a ROY in the past 5 seasons. I guess he’s also to blame for discovering no names like Vanvleet and Siakim and turning them into all stars. What an embarrassment.
@@Andrew034That sane Masai build a chip team w/o lottery picks. That same Masai had Raps the 2nd winningest franchise not name Golden State Warriors for 7 straight yrs. That same Masai drafted SB who many laughed at & now show that his decision making & bb iq is better than many of your favorite players. That same Masai refused to mortgage Raps present & future & many of you all will be having eggs on your faces in 2 yrs when the new CBA catch up to you all favourite teams.# hater.
BS. He said DeRozan is better than Kawai? GTFO. Zero chance he said that. He probably said who knows if Kawhi will even play and you heard what you wanted to
I wasn’t locked into the Magic last year but Franz scored 34 in Orlando vs Cleveland in the playoffs and I was in the building. I bought his jersey after the game. Was he really that bad?
the sixers bit is funny if you sub out embiid and the sixers for tatum and the celtics (until last season). celtics consistently lost to teams with less talent than them, you had tatum and brown talking about individual goals and how they were shifting focus, etc...bc that's what players do. anyway, nothing the sixers do will matter until embiid either gets through an entire season and postseason healthy or they win a championship, so the points aren't invalid. just funny watching two celtics guys (who have rooted for the most talented team in the league since kd left the warriors, but have 1 whole championship in that span) talk about underachieving and misplaced focus
You guys are really harsh on Toronto imo. Quickley is a valid bet by their FO. He is good and dedicated. If he can improve his handles and get better at attacking the rim, this contract is good. Barrett was the „throw in“ and his contract too high. He s from Toronto though and still pretty young. Also very mature person. By the time the Raptors become decent again, they can re-sign him on better deal. The Toronto segment was sloppy imo. … felt a bit, like the media punching bag has moved from NY to Toronto now and there s always a team that gets it from talking heads
Oh man, these guys don't know a thing about the Raptors. They're better this year than they were last year. Nobody thinks they're going to win the East. But these guys clearly haven't watched Scottie Barnes since his sophomore slump. They clearly don't understand Quickley's contract, his trajectory and his fit with Scottie. They haven't noticed Gradey Dick's massive improvement this offseason. They don't understand the context of Bruce Brown's contract. And they ignore the fact that the Raptors still have 5 picks in the next 2 drafts. This is a team on the rise, with a clear plan and direction, and they've been smart buying assets on the rise. And yet they give Washington flowers while diminishing Masai Ujiri? I'll take the over on the Raptors this season. They'll win at least 32 games. I think Bill Simmons is just mad they beat the Celtics and ruined their perfect preseason.
Nah it’s just that the only people who watch Barnes and see LeBron James are Raptors fans. Everyone else sees Aaron Gordon and can’t wait until he can go be a third option on a good team
@michaelahurt That kind of makes sense. I mean, the people who know the most about a subject are the ones who study it the most. I suppose that makes Raptors fans the most qualified. Sort of like they have a PhD in Scottienomics while you guys who see Aaron Gordon quit school in the third grade to pursue your lifelong dream of digging septic holes for Dunning-Kruger Inc.
@@daryl_s Local fans are irrational and constantly overrate (or underrated) their own players. They are way too close and can't be objective. It's not just Raptors fans -- go look at how Knicks fans talked about Porzingis or Lakers fans talked about Talen Horton-Tucker. I remember Pistons fans talking themselves into Rodney Stuckey and Austin Daye being All-Stars. Lol. Raptors fans are the _LEAST_ qualified because they have no frame of reference. They have a PhD -- Pathological Hope & Delusion
@@sama2086 I mean, he could barely jump. His knee was shot. He had to keep getting his knee drained. Obviously he wasn't going to be able to perform well in 4th quarters. He even said as much to Maxey he could only go so long.
@@sama2086down the stretch you don’t want to force feed the ball into a double teamed big that is at 50%. Man I get he’s had bad performances but Tobias Harris weighed down this team’s depth for years. Crazy to me that Embiid took the full brunt of the blame with a 180 million dollar player getting 0 points per game
Cam Thomas hate is unnecessary and I love you Ryen. Shot a higher % than Mikal last year. As someone who watched all 82 games and went to a dozen of them in person CT is not the problem. Horrible coaching all year long, our half court offense looked like 8th graders out there so both Mikal and CT turned it into iso ball and CT happens to be a better iso player
Russillo calling out Embiid not wanting the ball in those Knicks games is why he is the realest. People will try to argue with you about this when it was clear as day. He was shook. He is just not that guy.
To be fair to Toronto Quickley - Barrett - Barnes - Poeltl was +11.5 Of course that was in 234 minutes on wildly unsustainable shooting variance and in the other 205 minutes BBQ played together they were -6 Also Poeltl is like shockingly important for them.
Doesn’t matter how many games lamelo plays. He’s not a winning player. If the hornets sniff 35 wins it will be due to Brandon Miller making a big sophomore leap. Which is possible.
@@themagicman225 and the lie detector test determined that was false. Lamelo played 51 and 75 games his first two years and the Hornets went 33-39 and 43-39 as play in teams. And then Lamelo played 36 and 22 the next two seasons and they went 27-55 and 21-61. kinda crazy the Hornets Wins and losses directly correlate to how much Lamelo plays.
Maxey is the clutch guy just as Murray is the clutch guy for the Nuggets. Yes Embiid is not the clutch guy at all but they’re well covered. Not injured best roster in the East
Russillo is right, Tatum did not get enough credit for all he did to help the Celtics win a title, outside of just scoring. Not getting the MVP was evidence of that, even though JB was awesome!
Wow, look at the men nodding when he said, "Why hasn't it always been about the titles?" They didn't spot why that was a silly comment. It's been about titles every year. That's not different. What is different is their opinion about what is required to give them a shot. Most of Embiid's playoff injury history involved injuries that happened in the playoffs. Last year was different. And so we're seeing them react to that.
32 minute mark Russillo lifts up the cap and moves back the non existent hair, was he thinking about his old Jeep Wrangler (TJ) with its new coil suspension that was introduced in 1997? One could only speculate...
Thank you Russillo. Anyone who actually watches the Magic knows how good Banchero is. The Magic are a terrible offensive team with a bunch of average players. Mosley is doing miracles with this team and it's all based on great team defense. You cannot compare Paolo Banchero with anyone else in the league because there's no other star in the NBA playing with so many offensively limited players. This year will probably be a bit better since they actually have a couple of guys who can shoot threes but the talent level on this team is still below average league wise.
When Scottie Barnes makes All-NBA third team this season, finishes top-five in triple-doubles and posts a box-plus-minus of 6.5, yall are going to act surprised. But don't be, because you're hearing it now.
The first two are plausible but a 6.5 BPM is essentially saying he’ll be a top 10 player. For reference Kevin Durant was 4 last year. This will likely be an adjustment year for him. He’s never been a #1 option. Even in high school. It’s extremely unlikely he just slides right into that role with no problems. That’s not how this works.
If you genuinely want to know whay happened to mikal in his second season look at the type of shots hes taking its very different from the first season and from his shot diet prior to his career. Beyond the fact hes taking more shots
@@sama2086 biggest thing is where he takes his shots from and how the shots are being generate. I actually think with brunson and other ball handlers around him that he will return to form as the nets guy from the first season. Unless he isn't assertive enough to tell the other players to give him the ball
The nets section might've been the worst thing I've ever heard. Mikal Bridges averaged 15.6 points on 53% TS post All-Star break, but it was Cam Thomas' fault? Just say you don't watch Cam Thomas rather than whatever that was I just listened to
Hornets are an easy over. I can’t wait for them to eat crow. I think part of Bill’s thing with LaMelo is that he always torches the Celtics so he doesn’t like him.
They were 12-19 when they traded OG, then went 11-20 or so until they shut their guys down. Yes, they tanked at the end, but before tanking, they were basically on pace for a 30 win season. And that's with getting games from OG and Siakam, who are better than any Raptor player on the roster now (expect for Barnes, maybe). They are going to be awful.
@@Andrew034 I think unless they shut down the team they will break 30 wins. The east is horrible it’s really not a lot of wins at all. Scottie broke his hand last season and we instantly lost 16 games in a row, if he’s healthy they will be alright.
as a raptors fan, yes they are. the point remains, what the fuck is the plan. they're bad, but not bad enough to challenge for the best chance at pick 1.
@@jamesdrummond7684 Every lottery team has a chance for the number 1 pick. The Pistons been terrible and get the 5th pick every year. The lottery odds are too close for any of it to matter any more.
@@jamesdrummond7684You are not a Raps fan just a band wagonist. The plan his a rebuild around SB. This is the first yr with promising young core & vets with high bb iQ. Raps is only a handful of team with flexibilty & cap space under the new CBA w/ all their picks + others from trades moving forward. I suggest before you follow the distress chain you go & do your research, start by reading the new CBA.
Hornets take was irresponsible. In the two seasons Lamelo played most the games he made the play in. In the two seasons, Lamelo played 35 games or less the Hornets sucked. The correlation seems obvious. Him and Brandon Miller about to lite the league on fire.
@@Andrew034 Brandon Miller is legit legit. Tre Mann looks like he could strive for sixth man of the year. Miles Bridges is the same Miles Bridges from those two years. Their only question mark is Mark being healthy at the C. What's the issue?
@@dearmas9068 I mean we saw them in the play in 2 years straight in Balls first 2 years. Then he got injured and played less than 40 games two years in a row. That was the issue.
While I share their dour assessment of the Raptors roster, they failed to mention that the Raptors deliberately tanked the last 20 games of the season, which is why they finished with just 25 wins.
Not only did the Raptors deliberately tank, Scottie Barnes was injured, IQ was injured, Jakob Poeltl was injured, Barrett tragically lost his younger brother, Siakam and OG were traded mid-season, Jontay Porter was tanking his own play, it was Darko's first year as a head coach, Gradey Dick really struggled out of the gate, Bruce Brown thought he was going be traded again and was playing hurt, Jalen McDaniels was a rotation player and Malachi Flynn was their backup point guard. Last season was about a culture reset. This off-season has been monumental in the development of Scottie Barnes, Gradey Dick and Immanuel Quickley. Even guys like Ochai Agbaji are looking way different. There's an influx of shooting and smart players that fit around Scottie Barnes, who looks like he's going to be a regular triple-double threat with a high box-plus-minus and VORP this season. I'll take the over on 29.5 ten times out of ten. Barring injuries, gambling scandals, tragic deaths, asteroid strikes or another global pandemic, the Raptors are definitely better than a 30 win team.
Raptors aren’t that bad. It’s obvious Americans don’t watch the team. Last year the win total was low because of injuries and tanking. Atlanta is a mediocre team who will trade Trae after they convey their pick to the Spurs. Not sure what Simmons is smoking but they aren’t a great team.
@@Andrew034Seems like you are just a hater & never watch a Raptor gms in your life. Barnes, RJ, Yak & IQ outscored opponents by 14 pts/ 100 possession last season even though it was 234 mins due to injury. These guys have been developing chemistry all this off season & will surprise many of the haters, including this crew. ses
About the Raptors theyre dead wrong Raps are a lock to go over 29.5 wins...theyre starting 5 if healthy is a LOCK to over.Issues with the OG trade but not the Siakam trade which was 100 times worse ? They went 25-57 because IQ and Scottie went down 2nd half and Scottie never played again after the ASB....just piss poor analysm but these 3 and i expect nothing more....terrible at there jobs which is to watch the games..
Has Russillo ever done a podcast before? Of course he has, I listen to his 2-3 times a week. Even on his own pod, he'll sometimes start a statement at a whisper and slowly increase his volume. He was just perposterous with his volume on this podcast. SPEAK UP. Some of us do dishes or take showers when we listen to podcast. We cant stop every 3-5 minutes to increase the volume to be able to hear the first 15 seconds of your statement and then turned it down again so Bill doesnt blow our ear drum out.
