#003 - Bleed Green

In this episode of G'day MBA, the hosts discuss various basketball topics. They thank their sponsor, Boxed Out Breaks, and talk about the FIBA World Championships. They also discuss Trey Young not being considered for Team USA and Scoot Henderson's bold statement about being Rookie of the Year. They mention the loyalty of Damian Lillard to the Portland Trail Blazers and the incident involving Anthony Edwards throwing a chair. Hello and welcome back to another episode of G'day MBA. We are the home of the triple dribble, where there is consistent banter and we take ill-advised shots. Before we start today's podcast, we would like to thank our sponsor, Boxed Out Breaks. Boxed Out Breaks is a reputable card breaking company here in Australia, run and owned by a Celtics diehard, Aiden Breaks Monday to Fridays nightly at a very reasonable price. Card breaking is an affordable way of collecting basketball cards with the chance of hitting rookie autos, veteran autos, game worn jersey patch cards and many more cool inserts. Be sure to check them out on Facebook and don't forget to box out. Today I am joined by a Celtics believer, the guy that got Ben Simmons to the NBA, Brayden Alfredo Green. Welcome Jado, how are you brother? Good mate, thanks for getting this started and having me on. Yeah, you enjoying it so far, you're not in the seat? Yeah, just quickly, we all know that the real person that got Ben Simmons to the NBA was Scott Hodge. Hodgie. For those people out there that know Hodgie, he was the real man that got him to the NBA. Shout out to you Hodgie, heard you did at the assist game. Definitely. Yeah. Alright, yeah, finally we did have two Lakers supporters on first and I feel like there was some bad juju in this room. The room was quite itchy. Yeah, well, to be honest, I thought they were starting to turn you into a Lakers fan. I think Beardy brought some sort of curse, he was sprinkling something across the desk the other day and it could explain a lot. Well, to be honest, I think we need to get some other perspectives on this podcast besides the delusional Lakers fan. They are blinded by the bright lights of Hollywood, I think, those guys, but, you know, just let them go and we'll see how they go. Alright, yeah, we will. Yeah. Shout out to Beardy and Shawno, they were our first two. They are good. They are good. I'm all about the banter, it's very fun. Let's kick it off with the week that was, it is the off-season, there is very little things that are happening, but we'll just start on Tuesday where teams are in camp for the FIBA World Championships coming up in the Philippines, Trae Young whinging about not being considered for Team USA. Yeah, well, I don't know, I'm not the biggest Trae Young fan, so I might be a little bit biased on this one, but there's just too many good point guards in America that are before him. That can actually defend. That can do a lot more than him, more than just defend. That's my opinion on him too. Look, I try to be as non-biased as possible. There is a lot of Trae Young fans out there, but I don't know if they are actually watching him on the defensive end. He can pull up and he does have those crazy three-pointers, very Steph-like, but he ain't Steph. Well, we watched that happen in the first round, I think, the Celtics came up against him. First round. Yeah. And I think there was one game there where we had pretty much all over in the fourth quarter and then he just started doing those crazy 40-foot three-pointers and that's when he plays his best, when he's got no pressure on him, when he knows that the games will be over or he's not going to win, he can come out and just start throwing those shots up and they go in and the next thing you know, like, holy fuck, they're only one point behind us and there's still three minutes to go here. Well, they've pushed a series that most were saying it's going to be a broom, it'll be a sweep. They ended up pushing that to six games. That's, as a Celtics fan, one of the Celtics' biggest problems, is that we tend to, if we know that the game is going to be easy, or we think that we should win it, they go in with that mentality and it kind of fucks us in the end, to be honest. It's that third quarter where we just have that snooze and that 15-point lead heading into the fourth goes down to three. So yeah, I agree also, Trey. But don't get me wrong, the Celtics are still the best team in the NBA. No question about it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Count those rings, we are still one in front of the Lakers because there's the asterisk next to the 2020 tip. Oh yeah, definitely. Me and Betty were talking about it the other day, yeah, fake ring. Anyway, moving on, on Wednesday, Scoot Henderson coming out and making a bold statement that he will be Rookie of the Year. He was drafted by Portland, third pick, should have went second to Charlotte. Charlotte really cocked that one up. What do you make of that? Well, to be honest, I liked all three of the first round picks. I think, obviously, Victor is going to go number one with the amount of hype that was around him. But, Brandon Miller, he's a really good player too. He's just like your typical wing that can sort of dribble, shoot, make his own shot. And I haven't seen too much of his game, but I know he can play defense a little bit, I think. Well, I'd assume he could. But the thing with Scoot is that he's been around NBA teams, NBA players for a whole season in the G League. Who did he play for? Ignite? Yeah, he played for G League, Ignite. Ignite, yeah. Ignite. Ignite. And I think that gives him a massive advantage. Similar to when a first year rookie gets injured before the season and then has a whole season to just be around the NBA teams, the NBA players, they just get a lot more knowledge and more prepared for the season, their first NBA season. Again, Ben Simmons had that first season off, had that whole year to sort of be around the Philadelphia 76ers and all the players, all the staff, to sort of build it up. And I'm not a massive fan on, if you didn't play your rookie year, you're still eligible for rookie of the year the following year. I think it should be, that's your year done. That's a great point. And I forgot that he actually sat out his rookie year. And that's a lot of people are now putting chat in the... The same conversation. And that makes, because Ben came out and then became rookie of the year, didn't he? Yeah, because this is the other thing too, is like, these guys that get in the NBA, you see them, when they come in as rookies, they still look like kids. And then after their first season, they've hit the gym, they've got sports scientists around them, and they just grow. They become NBA players. And that's back to Scoot Henderson. He has an NBA body already. Yeah, he's NBA ready, really. He's NBA ready. And by the looks of it, he's not lacking any confidence. Yeah. And I don't know. This will be the third time that we've mentioned it in the three weeks, but yeah, like, Dane will be moved on. Yeah. We've got to get that. So, someone needs to step up. I hope he does, because it's just getting messy over there. Yeah. And it's fair play on Lillard's part, like, he's stayed at... He's been loyal. He's been very loyal. So, people can question him and everything like that, but he tried to bring him a chip, didn't happen. Let the man go where he wants. And when you have... Did he get drafted to... Yeah. So, he was drafted by Portland. Yep. So, he's been loyal. Loyal. And you've seen... The hardest thing this day and age is players are now being put in history by how many rings they have, rather than their actual playing ability and what they've done as an individual player. I just don't see it like that. I see... I look at a player like Charles Buck, never won a ring, but look at him. He's a Hall of Famer. He's on TNT with Shaq and all that. This day and age, it's all about rings, and that's what the argument is. Yeah. Yeah, most definitely. I wonder if, say for example, when the whole lottery and the draft system came out, or the draft picks came out, if Portland did get number one, Duff? Well, I think it's hard not to pick him, with the amount of hype around him. Does Lillard then say, fuck it, I'm staying, let's talk with chemistry here? Well, I think you've got a better chance of coming in. Definitely. Yeah. Definitely. When you draft a point guard, that's a different story. Yeah. Especially when the top three picks in the rookies draft normally, they tend to be starters. Not many times they sit on the bench if you're a top, even top five. Top five, really. Yeah, top five are usually in a starting five. Normally start. Yeah. And they've got a pretty good career over in Portland, so I don't see where, Scoot might have had to sit on the bench, or he might have been playing too, but again, back on Scoot being rookie of the year, I think if they move Damien to a different team, it could happen, but we've seen that year with Brooklyn and KD, he ended up having to stay for, I think, half a season? Yeah, correct. So it could be the same situation. If Portland don't get what they want, they're not going to move him on. He's a big name, big contract. Portland will be smart about what they get in return. And the other thing too is how the NBA stepped in the other day and said, because Damien was coming out and said, I'm not going to turn up to training, I'm only going to Miami, and they stepped in and said, look, no, he's going to come out and do that. So the whole situation is really messy. We'll see. All right, moving on. This happened last year actually in the Denver playoffs against Minnesota when Anthony Edwards, when one of the boys at work first talked about it, he was like, do you know what happened? Anthony Edwards threw a chair at some chick and I was like, what the fuck? Yeah, like, what an idiot. There goes his NBA career. The footage came out later and it was, there was nothing in it. Yeah, well, to be honest, I didn't even know about it until the fine came out. And again, why is it so late? Well, it was, what, three months ago now? Longer. Well, the season's over. Yeah, so, but it was a 50k fine for throwing a chair, and like, 50k, yeah, that's a lot of money. Yeah. It's like the, say, in the NRL when someone gets like a thousand dollar fine or something. Well, it's like us going for a red light. Parking fine. And we're like, fuck, this is going to cost us shitloads. Yeah. It's nothing for these NBA players. No, exactly. I wouldn't be surprised. I don't know if they're allowed to or not, but I wouldn't be surprised if the franchise paid for it. Again, like, the younger players, fuck me, they're doing some dumb shit at the moment. Jar? Jar. Zion. Zion. Josh Primo? Yep. They're all... Was Primo, what did he do? Was he flashing the physio? Yeah, he did something, again, something stupid. Yeah. Actually, we won't go down that. That's a rabbit hole. But, and then like, who's the guy that plays for Houston that had heaps of drama in the team before him? Kevin Porter Jr. when he was at the Cavs? Yeah. Kevin Porter Jr., same thing. Just had a shocker of the court stuff, and I think, quickly touching base on it, I think that's what EMEA will sort out over there in Houston. There's a lot of young guys over there that did a good job at getting Fred Van Leet, and Fred Van Leet? Fleet. Fleet. We're going to have to edit that one out. Yeah, it's a tongue twister. Yeah, but anyway, that's just a quick touch on the Houston Rockets, but yeah, just the young guys, they're making silly decisions off the court. They are. Which really affects them, because the league doesn't want that. We live in a world now where you do something that the world doesn't agree with, you have to be punished. Most definitely. It's just stuffing up their future. And that's it. Yeah. Like a 19-year-old kid, for example, coming on those rookie contracts, 11 mil, never seen anything like it. Yeah, of course. Yeah. You're famous. The thing is that we were doing them when we were that age. If we were that famous and had eyes on us all the time, we'd be in the same position. Yeah. But that's where they've got to be smarter. They've come through the high school stage, the college stage, all of that is already for such a young age. You've already got media attention, you've got eyes on you. At such a young age, they should be ready by the time they're 19. Folks like us that just live in a normal life, we're still super immature by the time we get to 18 or 19, or most of us are. But these guys are being treated like adults before they even leave high school. And they have worked so hard. Wow, so hard. They've worked endlessly, hours on the hours, working in the gyms, working in those little one-percenters. Yeah. In high school, the majority of the prospects in high school don't even actually go to high school. I was watching something the other day, I think it might have been a Netflix series, I can't remember. But these high school kids, they get homeschooled, but then they just follow around all the camps, all the tournaments and stuff, because they don't have time to actually go to school. Yeah. Because they're playing basketball so much. Just basketball, 24-7. And to do all that, and then make it, and then do dumb shit like this to jeopardise all that, I think it's fucking stupid. It is. Also, on Thursday, we had Josh Hart signing a four-year, $81 million extension to stay on with New York, which sees him spend a little bit more time with Villanova College teammate Jalen Brunson, and we have Dante DiVincenzo also joining them from their college championship team. Do you make much of the Knicks this year, got much thoughts on them, or do you still think they're one big player away? Oh, I think they're a little bit more than that, but Brunson, I really like. R.J. Barrett had a lot of hype about him in New York, especially coming out of Duke after playing with Zion, and they had, again, because Zion had so much hype in college, you've got R.J. Barrett, who's his number two guy, so he's kind of on that same hype train. He hasn't done much since. He has, like, don't get me wrong, he's a good player, he gets stuff done, but he's not at that level to get through playoffs with Brunson. Again, Randall had a really good couple of years there, but then last season just kind of... He goes missing in the playoffs. He does, doesn't he? Yeah, there's a lot of players like that. Two years ago, he was most improved player. Two years ago, that's right, and then last year went completely missing before this year. Just gone. Came back to somewhat of form, but again, just went missing in the playoffs. Yeah, I don't know. Like, really good player, but just, yeah, very inconsistent. So, I think they need to make a little bit more than just one player move, but again, I really like Brunson. He's one of my favourite point guards at the moment for what he's getting paid, and just sort of came out of nowhere, so it was good to see him finally get out from underneath Luka's shadow or wing, and he's now the point guard, and you can see what he can really do now. Just on that, very funny, the fact they traded Brunson away for very little, and then they went out and spent the money on getting Kyrie in. Yeah, which is, again, we only seen a short period of that last year. Could you play Brunson at the point guard, Luka's shooting guard, or not really? I think Luka likes to have the ball in his hands. He likes being that primarily ball handler, doesn't he? Especially, because when you're the point guard, you can control where the ball goes on the court. Yep. So, as Luka being, which our mate Jim Bennis loves to say he's a ball hog, he, as a point guard, he can control whether he wants to shoot, whether he wants to get the ball moving. Again, I think if he had Brunson sort of leading the charge, he'd sort of be, not pushed to the side, he'd still be your number one go-to guy, but it's when the ball comes to you and whether it does. And I don't think Luka would like that. And, again, that's why it's going to be funny to see with Kyrie how that's going to work. I don't know what positions, I don't know if Kyrie plays point and shooting guard, or if it's the other way around, whether Kyrie plays the shooting. I've always liked Kyrie, he's been one of my favourite players. Besides, if you take away all of the off-court antics. Or on-court. Or on-court, yeah. When he stomps unlucky. Yeah, yeah, I don't like that, I really don't. But even me being a Celtics supporter, and a lot of people hate him, I just can't. I really like Kyrie, as a point guard, he's just so crafty. The way he can score, and everything that he does, his handles, I really do like him. Unfortunately it didn't work out in Boston with him, but, you know, I don't think with Kyrie anywhere is going to work out with him. But I'd like for him to prove me wrong. Not over a long period of time, anyway. No, no, no. He seems to be a two-year operator. Definitely. Yeah, that needs to change things up. Or due respect, that's what you need to do. Well, what do they say, change is better than a holiday sometimes. That's it. Could be that. Taken as a holiday. And on Friday, which is the day that we're recording this week, you guys will be hearing this on Monday morning. Today, the schedule came out for Christmas Day, where there's about six games played. Warriors will be playing in Denver. The Mavericks will be playing in Phoenix. The 76ers will be playing in Miami. The Bucs will be playing in New York. And I reckon we've got to get our first ever live stream going on Boxing Day, which is Christmas Day in the States. The Celtics at the Lakers. Do you get around watching the NBA on Boxing Day, like Christmas Day? Oh, yeah. I love... Well, it's holidays for us, because we're not working. So any opportunity to watch, especially the Celtics versus Lakers, I'll take. But again, on Boxing Day, it's even better. You know, the vibes are good. We're around Christmas. Everyone's on holidays. It's summer here in Australia, and it's just a beautiful time. So yeah, definitely like to watch it. We'll probably sit in the air-con or maybe go to WEF. Go to WEF. Have a few beverages. A few beverages, a few slaps. A few middies. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A few Wheel of Fortunes. Where's the gold? Definitely. But on that, that'll be really fun. Especially with our fellow friends, Baby, Shawno. Friends? Friends when we're not watching the NBA, especially when it's the Lakers versus Celtics. Yeah. But yeah, that'll be fun. Love the banter between the Celtics and Lakers. And it's always fun. And it puts a lot of pressure on the game, too. So it always makes it a little bit more enjoyable to watch it. A little bit more nerve-wracking. It does. It makes it easy. I reckon we'd blow them out in that game. Easy. Especially in LA. Easy. Yeah, I'm sick of hearing the old rhetoric around that being a foul. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Kayden fouling LeBron. He didn't even touch him. I don't think he did either. No. Like Pat Babb was carrying on with the camera and everything like that. Well, I reckon that was edited. There was clearly no contact. That was completely edited. Yeah. You can definitely see that that was edited. Like with a bit of chat GPT AI sort of. Definitely. We didn't win the game after that. We had to go into overtime. So the Lakers still had the exact same chance as us to win the game and they didn't. So that's how it is. Unlucky. They had every opportunity. All right. And onto the next segment. We're going to act as the GMs with $160 million. We can go about $5 million over the cap if needed. So what we're going to do is we're going to be the new GMs of the Las Vegas casinos we'll call them. Yeah, I like that. The Las Vegas casinos. The LA Rollers. Sorry, Las Vegas Rollers. Las Vegas Rollers. Yeah. All right. High Rollers. So we have the Las Vegas Rollers. Braydo is going to say who he would sign and I'll say who I would sign with $160 million to spend. How do you want to do it? Player by player or do you want to go? I'm easy. Your team, my team? You're the man on the pod so you tell me what you want. No, you go. All right. So we're going to go one by one? Sure. Why not? All right. So let's go through our starting teams, so your starting point guards. Well, we touched base on this. I said that we'd come and talk about him after this earlier in the podcast, but Jalen Brunson. I just think what he's doing, what he did last, at the end of the last season with the New York Knicks is just, he's easily a top five if not, maybe, yeah, top five if not a little bit higher point guard. And he's being paid, out of all the point guards in the league, he's the 19th highest paid. That's crazy. Which is crazy in my opinion. So even though it's still $26.3 million, which is a lot of money, I just still think that it's good value for Jalen Brunson, what he's doing. Well, in comparison to Steph being on 55, if you can get a guy, I know it's not Steph, but if you can get a guy that's last year that was top five. Again, the league now is being dominated by the wings. That's where a lot of the teams are putting all their money, on their wings. Just because of height, length, all that kind of stuff. Point guards, you have a look around the league and there's a lot of teams that have good point guards, but they're just sort of, they're not their main guys. Drew Holliday, those kind of players, Marcus Smart. Marcus Smart, yeah, all those kind of dudes. Then you've got your typical, like, Jarv Morant, Steph Curry. They're the focus point of the team. But again, it's very minimal compared to, like, you've got Tatum and Brown on the L6. You've got Anthony Davis, who's like a stretch 4-5. He's a 4-5. He's a 4-5, so he could be a wing. LeBron James wing. You've got your Paul Georges, your Kawhi Leonards. A lot of the money that teams are spending, unless you've got like a Djokic or an Embiid or a Giannis, but even then, Giannis can play. He can go to 4. I don't think he's named as a centre. I think he's named as a wing or a forward. He's the 4, because they've got Brookland. Yeah, exactly. That's where all their money's at, and I understand that, but yeah. Jalen Brunson, that's where I'm going in the roundabout, right? So for mine, we're going to have to, I don't know, have a cock-off or something. I'm also going Jalen Brunson. For those exact reasons, I've seen the contract, seen what he could prove once he was out of Lucas' shadow at Dallas. He's made New York. He's the number one guy there. $26 million, half of what Curry's earning. Yeah, so give me him. For sure. Moving on to your shooting guard. Shooting guard is my boy, Dee White. So obviously being a Celtics fan, you'd be surprised. I haven't actually got as many as you'd think in here, but Dee White is one of my Celtics that's making my list. But anyone that doesn't necessarily follow the Celtics like we do, he's not your typical player that draws attention, especially social media highlights and stuff like that. He's just a really good role player. I think he was, what was he in guard blocks? I think he was... I'm not entirely sure what he was there, but he did make second-team All-NBA defense. Second-team All-Defense, yep. He shot at a quite high percentage, I think, in the three-point. Good offense. Again, he just knows his role. He's not trying to be that guy. If Tatum or Brown or someone like that needs to be that guy, he's happy to let it happen. But at the same time, if they get stuck, he can also... You know, he's got the float game. He has that game in stretches where if Tatum and Brown are struggling and the game's not there... Yeah, he can step up and help the boys. You hit a bucket and the two boys are getting too much attention, Dee White can sort of either get a good shot or find something to help the boys out. So he's definitely my second. Nice pick. And this is where you probably think that the Lakers boys are having an impact on me. But my shooting guard at this contract, Austin Reeves, 13.4 million, which he just got extended. The dude came out of nowhere from being undrafted. There was talk, Baird, he was talking about last week that he could have got picked up by the Pistons. He said no, wanted to go to LA and it's paid dividends for him. He's definitely the third guy there now, unselfish. And similar to what Derek White would be doing for the Celtics, if Tatum and Brown are off, he can pick up the offense. He can do that. If LeBron and AD are off or they're out injured like they fucking always are, then he's proven that he can be that guy. For sure. And he's been doing pretty well in the little exhibition games that he's been playing for USA as well. Yeah. Again, because that team is not really stacked like they could be. This is a good opportunity for Reeves to really sort of develop. And we can probably talk about it a bit later on when we do another segment after because I'm sure his name will come up again. But it's the LA Lakers. They live in probably the best place in the country to live in, besides maybe Miami. But you're in LA. You're around the celebrities. You've got LeBron James as your mentor. You've got Anthony Davis. There's a lot to like. I'd be taking that over the money to go play for Detroit, would you say? Yeah. Fuck that. Fuck going to Detroit. Fuck that right off. Yeah. All right. Let's move on. Three position. Yeah. Again, so I am no GM at all. I'm terrible with contracts and I kind of just skimmed over this really quickly last night before we came in here. But I like DeRozan. He's always just been that consistent guy. He likes the fourth quarter. He can be clutch. We've seen – there was a couple of games last year, I think, where he got some buzzer beaters that were just insane. And they're like back-to-back too, I'm pretty sure. He torched us out early on in the season one game. We'll talk about that one. But, yeah, again, DeRozan, he plays hard. He's got that mid-range. I'm kind of building my team around shooting because that's where the league's going at the moment. It's all about shooting and stuff like that. So you've got Tatum, Brunson and White who are all right in the three. But DeRozan is good in his three, but he's really good in his mid-range. He can make his own shots. If the boys get a little bit jammed up, they can look at him and he can just go for it. I like that take. I like that take. I'm going to take Orlando Magic Sensation, Paulo Banqueiro. Nice little contract, $11.6 million, rookie of the year, last year just gone. I think he's going to be something. I think he's going to be a beast. His rookie year, the numbers that he put up in a pretty ordinary Orlando team, I think he's only going to grow strength for strength. But, again, his body's ready for the NBA. He's got that build. He was ready before he got into his rookie year last year. That's where I think – I know that's a big talking point at the moment. You've got your Chets who are tall, lanky and skinny. You've got your Victors. A lot of people are worried about that. With a Paulo or a Scoot, you don't have to worry about that stuff. They've got the body. They're ready to go. It just depends on whether they're going to step up and actually be able to play, and Paulo did. Yeah, most definitely. I'm keen to see him at the FIBA World Championship who will be playing alongside Austin Reeves. So this will be good for their team in the 2025 season when they come play for the Las Vegas Rollers. Yeah, definitely. Alright, moving on to the power forward or the number four position. Yeah, so, again, being a Celtics supporter. Second one in the team. I have to go, my boy. He's my guy, Tatum, of course. Who else? Look, I understand there's a lot of talk about him out in the league at the moment being inconsistent and stuff like that, but he's still growing. Again, I know that he's been in the league for how many years now? This will be his seventh year coming up. He's only 19, ladies and gentlemen. He's only 19. He'll be 19 for the rest of his life, I think. Until he retires. But, again, Tatum, I just really do like him. He was in the MVP talks early in the last season. I think the coaching really let him down last year. So, yeah, Tatum, his length, he's getting to the bucket. He improves on all of his weaknesses every year. There was a stage there where I thought Jalen Brown had the better handles and Tatum was the one that was always fumbling it and getting rid of it. But now he's the guy that I feel more confident with the ball rather than Jalen Brown. Obviously, with all this talk that everyone's talking about me, he's got no left hand, Brown. But, yeah, Tatum, he's just my guy, so I'm going him for $32.6 million. Fair shout. Fair shout. I like it. I did have him in there. I had to change a few things around for later picks of the team that you hear later on. Log on Laurie Marketing, last year's most improved player. The guy, I can't remember where he got drafted, but maybe he was drafted by Chicago, couldn't get any game time, and then he's ended up at the Jazz for a team that wasn't tipped to do much last year. And he had a sensational year. Oh, yeah, definitely. Jazz are doing things. Yeah, had an all-star year. So, for a $16.8 million contract, I liked it. He's a really good defensive player. He is a four. He's a power four that can play five. He can spread the floor. Yeah, I don't know, he's got a lot to his game. So, I picked him at the four. I've got a bigger team in Bankero and Laurie and my five, who's also a center. But, yeah, he's one of the bigger players. So, speaking of centers, who have you got in the five row? Again, building my team around shooting. So, I was looking at the centers that are decent shooters, but not too expensive. And I really like Vychevich. There's been a couple of chances or talks in the past seasons where Celtics have wanted to try and get him. And I was a big fan of that. Yeah. I really do like him. That was alright, especially for the contract. Yeah, definitely. He's only on $18.5 million. But looking at centers, after the top tier sort of centers, they really drop off as they go down the list. Yeah. But, yeah, Vychevich, he's my guy. He'll help spread the floor for the rest of the guys on the court. And he still does what he needs to do under the rim. Not the best, but does what he needs to do. Oh, yeah, he's pretty good offensive at rebounds. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, that's my pick at $18.5 million. What about you? This is where I've absolutely splurged. I'm picking the horse enthusiast. The two-time, robbed-of-three-time MVP of the league, Nikola Jokic, who took Denmark to their first championship. Yes, it is a whopping $55.2 million, which is nearly a third of the $106 million that we've got to play with. But I couldn't leave him out. To what he had to play with, I know they had Jamal Murray. They did have good vets. But without Jokic, I don't think they would have made it past, like, the second round in the finals, in my opinion. Oh, definitely not. And, yeah, he was the MVP of the league for two years in a row. I think he deserved it in the year just gone. Joel Embiid was also there on par, who did end up winning it. But, yeah. I think Jokic, he deserves it. And look what he did, look at Embiid in the playoffs. Him and Harden went missing when they versed us. Had a good chance to beat us. I don't even know who was the favourites out there, but it would have been very close. They were in the box seat, and it was Game 6 in Philly for them to advance, and they choked. I think the weirdest thing was, I think we went on a little bit of a run, we got a bit of a lead, and there was still, like, a good minute and 40 left in that game. And that's a long time in basketball, especially this day and age with all the three-point shooting. But, hey, him and Harden, I think there was a moment where we got a steal and went off, and they just didn't even get back on defence. They just, they had nothing. Went missing. They went missing, it was weird. And for someone who'd just got MVP, you would want to try and top that off with a good playoff run, and he just didn't look like he wanted to be there. And I think Djokic is... Everyone knows who Djokic is now, and he's a weapon. I love those players in the basketball that don't look like they're meant to be basketball players, and they just kill it. Shawne, I called him a garbage cleaner. Yeah, yeah, well, he's getting all that. Maybe a plumber, I don't know. He's getting all those calls. But, yeah, I really like him, and the best thing about him is he has no ego at all. And I think that helps a lot in today's game. Once ego comes in, people start wanting to be a better person or want more ball, and that's why he fits so perfect as an all-star, because he doesn't need that. Most definitely. So we will have our bench, which will be six men, which we will just talk roughly. Pick a six man, and we'll just have a quick yarn about that, and then we'll just quickly go through the remaining bench players. So six men, who have you got as your six man running the second unit? Well, I've got Tyrese Maxey. Nice pick. He's still in his rookie contract. He comes off it next season. But 3.5 million. What he does as a point guard for even Philly. I don't like Philly. I pretty much hate him. But Tyrese is a weapon. He starts sometimes. Sometimes he comes off the bench. But whenever he comes on the court, he just brings that energy. He's like a little Jack Russell, you know, just fucking running around. He's got so much energy, but he's got control the whole time, which is the difference between being too crazy and not having control. Again, he has pretty much been off limits in any talks with trades or anything, and Philadelphia have come out and said, don't even bother trying to call us about Maxey. But I really like him. I know our boy, Golden. He's a big fan of him. Okay. Actually, yeah, he's had him signed and stuff for his son. Yeah, that's Golden Collectibles. He had him at his eighth birthday party or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Opening card packs and things like that. I'm pretty sure he actually pulled a Tyrese Maxey. They did. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's sick. That's hell. That's who I'm going with. I like it, and I've gone something similar in terms of looking at the rookie contract, but capable of being that sixth man controlling the second unit. I picked Aussie boy, Josh Giddey, 6.8. Same sort of scenario. OKC is becoming stuck, just quietly. I know they're very young, but SGA, Giddey, Chad. Jalen Williams, J-Dub, there's two Jalen Williams. They're both really good. Both really good. They're going to be scary, and the way that Giddey has just slotted in. He jumped leaps last year as well. He got better, and that's what you want to see from rookies. You don't want to see him plateauing out and staying where they're at. You want to see him developing and getting better and better and better, and that's where he's gotten really good. Giddey, what is he, 6.7? 6.7. 6.7 point guard that's got unreal vision. That's a big thing that the NBA is missing these days, is those point guards that have that really good vision. That can see the court, how it is, and get passes the way that people don't think can get away. It's like, well, how did that come along? That's why it confuses the defense, and then you can get an easier shot, or you can make your other teammate get an easier shot because they're not expecting that pass. I think Giddey's got that. I'm really excited to watch him for the boomers. I actually had Giddey on there too, but because we're talking about him now, we'll be able to just skim over him all the time. All right, so let's talk about the rest of the bench, and then we'll talk about the small rotation plays that you'd have in there that would only get a run in terms of if there's a fair few injuries, they will slot in, or just vets that you want to have on your bench. So who have you got for the rest of your rotation, and then those smaller bench players? So, again, touching base on our boy Jimmy Bennis, he loves this guy, K-Love. K-Love. I'm going to have to go Kevin Love. For $3.9 million, that's very, very, very good. Then I've got K-Love, Matherin for $6.9 million, Franz Wagner for $5.5 million, Josh Green for $3.4 million. Then I've got Harold as a cheap $2.9 cent that can come on and guard big guys. Jalen Williams, who we just touched on, for $5 million. J-Dub. Yep. Sam Houser, who's our boy from Celtics, only on $1.8 million. I can't believe I didn't pick a Celtics player. And then finishing it off with, I've got a soft spot for this, Blake, point guard D-Rose. I like it. $3.2 million. Just a vet that's seen it all. Yeah, seen it all. He seems very composed and he'd be good. So to round out my regular rotation minutes, I had Giddy as my six man. Yeah, so Seth Curry at $4 million, Cam Whitmore, who was a summer league MVP, at $3.9, Jared Vanderbilt at $4.3, and I picked another Aussie in Jock Langdale, who's been impressive for Phoenix, $8 million. And then the smaller rotation players slash veterans that you just want to have in and around the team or for injury's sake, Dennis Smith Jr., who's just signed with the Nets, at $2.5. I also went K-Love on that $3.8 contract, just a good locker room dude. Bowl ball, long guy, you know, say Jock gets injured or Jokic, he can easily slot in to a setter role at $2.2. Cam Reddish, who, you know, he's been a bit shaky in his career after going six pick to Atlanta, now at the Lakers. I've got fucking three Lakers players. Yeah, I know, man. Like, I think these boys that you've had on the last two weeks have really influenced you a little bit. Look at Murray over here, the Celtics supporter, ready to lose another one. Old turncoat, hey. Oh, shit. Anyway, he's on $2.3. And to round out, another vet that I just... He's just a good locker room guy, in my opinion. I've never heard a bad word about him, Josh Richardson, who's now back in Miami. Who was a Celtics as well. Who was a Celtics. And I really liked his time as being a Celtics. Mamie, Mamie, Mamie, Mamie, Mamie. She sells seashells by the seashore. She sells... Woo! Yes, she sells seashells by the seashore. Boom! Let's go! Alright, moving on to irrelevant news, and we did hear it on another podcast, the Hullo Sport boys were talking about the Mushroom Killer. So, I don't know if the listeners are all over it, but Brado, do you want to explain what's happened here? Well, it's obviously an Aussie thing, so I know you've got a big, big audience out there listening, and people all around the world won't be up to date with this. We're huge in Jamaica. Yeah, OK. We'll let the Jamaicans know what's going on in Australia right now. But what it is, is that this woman has given... made a lunch for her ex-in-laws. So, the, I don't know, ex-father-in-law, ex-mother-in-law, so on. And those said people had food poisoning and then ended up dying. But the funny thing, or the weird thing is, not funny, definitely not funny, but the same meal that everyone else had, she was fine, her two kids were fine, but all the in-laws... What is it? Brown bread. Brown bread. Dead. So, there's one still surviving, needs a liver transplant. Critical condition. Yeah, critical condition. But where it gets weirder is that the ex-husband pulled out of said lunch. Yeah. The ex-husband, but didn't... Yeah, it was going to be the ex-husband and the new wife or something. Oh, I don't know about that. It was all very odd. But even weirder, six months ago, he was in intensive care, had two emergency intestine surgeries to save his life and he's still rehabilitating now, I'm pretty sure. His family also said... Sorry, his family just told, like, say goodbyes and everything like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like he won't live. Crazy, crazy. And I've seen the current affair, which is huge publicity over here in Australia, but Tracey Grimshaw, she's a legend of the broadcasting world. But yeah, they did an interview and she just didn't... Like, they caught her getting out of a car in the carport and she just didn't look like she... It was almost like she was acting. But again, this is all... It'd be terrible, absolutely terrible if she's telling the truth and she didn't mean it in this advert. It just looks very fishy. It looks very fishy that, like, neither her or her two kids, out of everyone else, like the rest of them are brown-brained. And there's actually been a lot of people coming out and defending him that these mushrooms that they think has been put in the lunch are called death caps and they look very, very similar to normal mushrooms that you can just pick. And also, on top of that, I'm pretty sure it happened in the Blue Mountains, maybe, or... Anyway, wherever they're from... I think it's in Victoria. Victoria? OK. Well, they do it quite regularly down there and pick their own mushrooms and cook it and stuff. But again, like the Hello Sports guy said, I would not be going out there and just picking random shit and eating it out of the bush, that's for sure. No way. Nothing can kill you out there. Yeah, quite wild. So I'll just quickly read on what Nine News have written and it said, "'The woman at the centre of the suspected mushroom poisoning "'in Victoria has travelled to Melbourne "'to speak with lawyers today. "'Erin Patterson, 48, was questioned and released "'without charge by detectives from the homicide squad "'after her three guests died "'and another fell seriously ill after eating toxic wild mushrooms "'during a lunch in the Gippsland region on July 29. "'Don Patterson, his wife Gail, "'Erin Patterson's in-laws and Heather Wilkinson "'died a week after the lunch in Leon Gather on July 29.'" So, yeah, I don't know, like, you shouldn't judge... Again, again, yeah, you shouldn't judge. You let the investigation take its path. But, yeah, if she's telling the truth and it actually is or, like, wasn't actually her or anything like that, it's fucking terrible because you're the person that's giving these people lunch, thinking it was just going to be a nice day, and then that happens and you just... Fuck, you'd feel so bad. Yeah, you would. But hopefully it's all good and she actually isn't guilty. Like, that's the best case scenario, and it was just a complete accident or a coincidence. But, yeah, it just seems a bit fishy if you look at everything that's going on around it. Most definitely. All right, last little segment for the podcast. How are you finding it? Oh, I love it. Yeah? Too bad you've got those other two, like, big fans on here. Otherwise I could do this every week if you really wanted to. We might just delete those. We might have to. Just start again. Yeah, let's go. I agree. All right, we'll move on now. Last segment, the listener questions. Thank you for everyone. We actually... This has been the most questions we've had this week, but we'll just... We'll pick three or four and run with it. Just something new to... Yeah, the newer sort of questions or something that we haven't covered. So, Forster034, Jaden Forster, happy birthday for yesterday, mate. I know it was your birthday. Hope you had a good one. So, in a game of one-on-one, I believe this is what he's getting at, in a game of one-on-one, all players in their prime, who wins? So you've got Wilt, Chamberlain, Hakeem, Halajuan or Shaq? Oh, we're going three centres? Yeah. For one-on-one? Yeah. Yeah, OK. One-on-one. Oh, man. That's actually a good question, between them three. Because normally when we have the one-on-one debates, it's not centres. You know, it's usually your forwards, your power forwards, all that kind of stuff. It's really hard being a 29-year-old, being born in 1993, and if you haven't gone back and watched tapes of the older guys, like Wilt Chamberlain and stuff like that, you can't appreciate how good they really were. But, again, just seeing Shaq's dominance, like, you look at some of the highlight reels that he does. Fuck me. Big and dominant. Oh, and... So, I'm going to go Shaq. I'm going to have to. But those other two guys are definitely really good. But, yeah, Shaq, just so dominant. He can get to the rim however he wants. And he's pretty good with his feet, for how big he is, and his weight that he's got about him. I like that take. And since you took Shaq, I'll just go someone different, and I'll go Wilt. Mm-hm. From Aura Ports. He had, like, a nice little float game for a big guy, and, yeah, couldn't rebound anything on that. Well, yeah, now you think about it. Shaq has his thighs on him, but I'll take Wilt, and, yeah, we'll see. We might make a game of 2K or something like that, see if we can do it. Who was the master of the skyhook? Was that Kareem? Kareem the Dream. Could be, yeah. That's an unguardable shot, what he had there. Yeah, we're during that period. You've got your body between you and the defender. So, the defender's between you and the rim, but you've got your inside shoulder on that guy, and if you're tall enough like him and can hook it over him, you can't defend that. You know what I mean? Agree. Especially in one-on-one, when you've got no help defence. Alright, moving on. Next question. Poppa Frass. Oh, here you go. The Frass Man. I know this bloke knows he's basketball, so what's the question? Huge basketball operator. Huge basketball fan. And he's... Also known as the Rainbow Man. The Rainbow Man? Yeah. The Muffin Man? Loves playing for every team he can. Oh. I believe... Same as Shaq, actually. Shaq's been known as the Rainbow Man, so... I believe Frass Man's only got two more to complete. Similar body type between the two as well. I believe the Frass Man's only got two more teams to complete the Rainbow in the Newcastle Rugby League. He does, yeah. He's got every team. So... But that's saying something. Everyone wants him. Everyone wants him. Yep. He's highly recruited? Yeah, we'll go with that. Highly sought after. Highly sought after. He's highly sought after. Yep, yep, yep. Alright, so his question is, the goat debate. Who have you got as your goat? Oh, man. No. No, it's LeBron. I know it's LeBron. Yeah, see, I really, really don't like this question. Because... Oh, we could sit here for fucking hours. We could do this whole podcast talking about this, but I'm just going to quickly just skim over it so we're not spending too much time on it. But I think LeBron and Jordan, they're in their own category. Like, that's... One, two, top of the pyramid. I don't think I could even say one or two between them. Again, you've got different generations. You've got different sports science. Like, LeBron has so much at the palm of his hands, like with sports science. These guys are getting nutritionists. I don't know if it was that intense back then when Jordan was playing, but everything is just so dialled in. They know every little stat and everything to make these athletes as good as they can. But again, that means that all of LeBron's opposition is at the exact same advantage. That's true. I don't know. Again, we were talking about this before. Rings come into the conversation a lot. Again, I don't really believe in the whole ring thing being a part of it, because it's a team sport. So teams is what brings rings. And that's true, because if you think of it, if rings were the Beal and Endor for the GOAT, it'd be Bill Russell. Bill Russell, he's our GOAT, but... Well, he is the GOAT. He is the GOAT, the Celtics' GOAT. So we're talking about the next GOAT. No, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So that's sort of how I see it. Them two dudes, Michael did what he did with those runs, the three peaks, and then he had that space off, and there's all that question, could he have just kept going? But then you've got LeBron's longevity. He is breaking every stat in the book, but has no ring, not as many rings as LeBron, Jordan. Fucking hell, I'm getting too pissed here. You're right. You're right. So Michael Jordan is unbelievable what he can do, what he could do, and his confidence and his charisma and all that kind of stuff. LeBron is just... He was so dominant for so long. Again, he still is dominant at the age of, what, 40? 37. 37? I thought he was closer to 40, but anyway, either way, what he's doing at his age is unbelievable. Hey, Siri, how old is LeBron James? LeBron James is 38 years old. Yeah, so LeBron being 38 and what he can do still at 38 is pretty impressive. It's very impressive. Again, the game's getting called differently. Back then, you could literally forearm someone in the face and it wouldn't be a fair. Now, you put a hand on their hip when they're going for a layup and it's a fair. So there's just so many variables that are in this. There's so many different factors. The fact they did never face off against one another. Exactly. Look, if they were in the same... If they were in their peak at the same time playing against each other, then we'd have a good thing to go off. But right now, it's just too hard. Every sport has it too. League has it. And it will happen. There'll be the next person. NFL, AFL. In 10, 15, 20 years' time, there will be another LeBron or a Michael Jordan. 100%. We've had a lot of people that try to say that they're the next, like Zion and a few others, but no one's even come close to them two guys. Them two guys, like I said, are in their own category. Then Kobe. Step down, Kobe. I don't know. Anyway. Yeah, they're my two guys. They're my two guys. Again, it's a hard question. Yeah. We will move on. The ball... I didn't ask you who yours was. I'm split between them. I didn't watch much of Jordan because it was before our time. It was before the internet. It was before the internet. It was really hard to watch NBA back then. Yeah. I've watched a lot of highlights. Obviously, I watched the last dance in. Just quickly touch on that. You can edit this out or not. But the growth of... I know you guys touched on it last week, but the growth of basketball in Australia, it's so good to see, especially coming from a kid that played my whole juniors playing basketball. That was the only one. All my mates, like you boys, all played footy. Leggies. No one played basketball besides me and Hodgie. Anyone would try to put a high school team together, it would be like three basketball players, me, Lanky, Hodgie, and then the rest of it was like just fill it out with athletes that sort of play sport and we can try and teach them how to play. It's somewhat of an idea. Yeah, yeah. But now, I reckon you'd have a full team in high school no matter what school you went to. Me and Betty talked about it last podcast and soccer's number one for kids between six and 13. Second's basketball in terms of percentages. It's really good to see. And I think what's killing the rugby league at the moment with the juniors is all the HIAs and stuff. It's really come a light to the parents and stuff. So they'd rather put their kids into something that's a little bit more, I guess, safe. Then something that's going to give you head concussions maybe potentially at a young age. Definitely. So next we have the Ball Babble podcast. They come up with some really good questions actually. They want to know, who will be the next superstar to request a trade excluding James Harden or Dame Willard? I'll take over here. Yeah, you take over first. I think with Harden I know he's excluded but the fact he's going to get shitty. Oh yeah, definitely. He's definitely in it. When he does go, I reckon Joel Embiid will be like, fuck this, I'm done. Well, there's already been inklings of Joel Embiid. He's already come out and not necessarily said he wants a trade. He's exploring his options as such. Of winning a championship. Yeah. And so if Philly don't give him those options to win it then he'll move, I think. He's out. So yeah, my take there is Embiid. I think Embiid. Again, we live in this era where superstars just want to have rings so they can be in the GOAT debate or in that sort of debate. That top echelon. The Kobe's that get drafted and say their thing until they retire, that's gone. They start getting towards the end of their prime and they haven't won a championship, they'll start looking somewhere where they can join and win a championship. 100%. Is there anyone else that sticks out for you? Off the top of my head, no. All the superstars seem... Somewhat settled? Somewhat settled. Or if not, they've moved over to where they were and just gone? Yeah, so nah. I think obviously Dane, which we've been told to exclude. Maybe like a Trae Young or someone like that? I wouldn't put him up there as a superstar. But yeah, he could maybe go, maybe. But I think he's pretty happy in Atlanta. I don't think he's chasing rings. Obviously everyone's chasing rings but I don't think it's even now or never for him right now. He's got a bit of time off his sleeve, yeah. Most definitely. It's all the older superstars, I reckon. One more to round out the podcast. The Brush, Jim Bennis. He wants to know, is Braden Green from B. Green Plumbing a three times Defensive Player of the Year for the Newcastle Hunters? Two times, three times? I don't know. It's that long. I'll have to check the record books. I played basketball my whole life as a kid but then as soon as I picked up the shovel and started doing that for a job, I stopped playing. So that's shit. Like over 30 this year. So we're talking 15 years ago. Jesus, I don't know. But that's what I was known for. I definitely wasn't a shooter. Played point guard here and there but I was more like a two man that could sort of drive and dish but defensive was where I tried to be the best. That was your game. High intensity, Marcus Smart sort of level on the defensive end? Yeah. I like that. If someone said that about me I'd fucking take it and run with it but I'm not going to say that I'm the Marcus Smart of Newcastle Hunters but if anyone else wants to say it I'll definitely say yeah. I'm saying it, mate. I'll take it then. So just a quick one to round out the podcast. What age was it when Ben Simmons was in Newcastle and you were on the same team? Well, this is where it's weird because with basketball it goes up in age divisions in twos so you're not playing 11s, 10s, 12s. You're playing 12s, 14s, 16s, 18s and there's always a bottom age and a top age because obviously two years. So normally the top age guys are the ones that make the first division teams and then you get maybe two or three guys that they sort of groom so that when they go into the next season they've got three guys that have already played at that level and then the second division dudes that are all good for their age but not good enough to be in first division they come up through. The thing with Ben Simmons is I think he's looking like three years younger than us and he was playing Newcastle representative three years above what his actual age was. I think he was under 12s. Under 12s, maybe under 14s. Okay, so if he was under 12s he would have been nine. Yeah, or maybe younger, maybe even eight. And how was he back then? Well, this is the thing, everyone was like, oh, was he massive? Was he massive? And I was like, well, he's fucking three years younger so he's not massive but he was a really, really good shooter which no one's going to believe me saying this but he was really, he was like three points in under 12s like if you even tried to shoot a three-pointer your coach would fucking hook you up. You'd be on the bench. But he could shoot threes under 12s and pretty good. And the coach was giving him that? Well, I guess so, yeah. His dad played NBL around Newcastle. I think he played for the Falcons, maybe. Not too sure. But yeah, they just, I guess they just let him go and he wasn't, again, because he was three years younger than us he wasn't like one of the main players but like three years younger. No one was doing that, you know what I mean? Like they were pulling him up from an age division that wasn't even in our age division. So yeah, he was, and this is the thing with him shooting. He was a pretty good shooter in high school and not too bad in college. Yeah. So... It's just all, yeah, confidence. It's really ugly now but... It's falling away, yeah. It's terrible but... Anyway, Ben... I know that happens. I really hope for Ben, like, I've got to say I know a lot of people in Australia don't like him but I guess because I sort of knew him. Have a connection of somewhat. Somewhat. I've still got a soft spot for him and I really want to see him do well and yeah, he's fucking hanging out with the Kardashians and stuff so that's pretty cool. Yeah, it is. Maybe that's why he's so good at basketball now. No, too busy worrying about that. The Kardashian curse. Everyone knows about that in the NBA. It's very well alive and on that, we're going to spray this room now. We're going to end the podcast. We're going to spray the room, get rid of the curse that's in this room that was left by the Lakers fans. Yeah, definitely. But Braino... We've got Macari's dojo... Juju Dust? Juju Dust or whatever he's called. Flat Earth Operator? Yeah, yeah, yeah. But on that note, guys, we're going to end it. Thank you, Braino, for joining me and we'll see you guys all next week. Thank you. Go Celtics!