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The transcription discusses various topics related to the NBA, including the game limit for season awards, the performance of different teams, predictions for the three-point competition and dunk contest, the total points in the All-Star Game, and the prediction for the East vs West matchup. The speaker shares their thoughts and analysis on each topic, including statistics and player performances. Yeah, I'm recording now. Yeah. Yeah, good question. I think it's been interesting to see how much people care about the game limit for season awards and stuff, like the 65 game limit to be all-NBA or to win, like, MVP and stuff. Like, Embiid was the favorite. Now he's hurt. Now he's there. He's not even – he's not even possible to win the MVP now because he's hurt. I think it's been interesting to see, like, the – Oklahoma City, one of the youngest teams in the NBA, one of the best teams in the NBA, the Celtics just running away with the East. I feel like every year there's some type of, like, narrative that forms at the beginning of the year, whether scoring's up, whether scoring's down. This year, it kind of feels like it's the young guys in the West, the Thunder, the – even the Timberwolves are the number one team in the West with Anthony Edwards leading the charge. So, no, it's been a fun season. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. So, for the three-point competition, I definitely did the deepest dive on that, so I'm very prepared for this. My favorite bet is Tyree Caliburton. Right now, he has the second-best odds, so it's not a super-hot take. The favorite – the betting favorite in terms of odds is Damian Lillard. I'm not on Dame. I actually like Tyree Caliburton. Technically, the hometown player has never won the three-point competition, which is interesting. Not that that – that doesn't scare me off at all. That's just kind of more facts than any – that actually matters or anything. Last year, I was in Utah. Larry Markinan had the – he was participating. Obviously, he didn't end up winning. Yeah, Dame's the betting favorite, but he's just not having a good year shooting from deep. He's shooting his second-lowest percentage in his career at 34.4%. Last year, when he won, he was shooting 37.1% and averaging over 30 points per game. He's even admitted that he's got some personal stuff going on. That's kind of the reason why he's been shooting in a slump a little bit, but I think just because he won last year and because he's got the name value, Damian freaking Lillard, that's why he's the betting favorite. I didn't really see the value there. For me, it was on Tyree Talaburton. He was the runner-up last year, lost to Dame, so he's got experience in the competition, successful experience in the competition, and he tied the record for most points in the first round. Last year was 31. That's literally the record. Obviously, they change the scoring every year, so the records are kind of wonky, but he did really well in the first round, and they kind of just lost his juice as it went on. Five years into his career, he shot 40% from deep or better every single year, and the reason why I ended up picking him as my favorite, I try to find advanced stats that matter for the three-point competition, like what matters, what doesn't, and the two things I looked at was not only shooting percentage but volume as well, and I looked specifically at wide-open three-point attempts because that's exactly what the three-point competition is. Yeah, he attempts the second most wide-open three-point attempts in the NBA at 5.1, and he makes 43.2% on those attempts. The only player that shoots more than him is Trae Young, who is participating. He's got the third-best shots, but he shoots at a much lower clip, right? Trae Young is more known as a shooter. I think he's known as being a better shooter than he actually is, I think because he has But he's not a high-percentage type of shotmaker like Halliburton is. And then, in terms of strictly percentages, Malik Beasley technically makes the highest percent of anybody participating, but he shoots less than half the attempts per game, so I try to find volume plus accuracy is kind of where I went and how I landed on Tyrese Halliburton. So I know that was a long diatribe, but that's where we're going. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Yes, there is. So it's what I try to do for all these kind of events, a favorite and a long shot. My long shot is Larry Markunen. He's best off for that plus 800 odds, so 8-to-1, pretty good. His second year participating, I do like the fact that he has some experience. I mean, the first-time player has won before, so it's not necessary, or it's not like I'm completely writing them off. I just like the fact that they have experience. So I looked at a little bit of a different stat with Markunen. For Halliburton, it was shots that were wide open. For Markunen, it's catch-and-shoot opportunities, because that's essentially the same mechanics as the three-point competition. And Larry Markunen attempts the most catch-and-shoot opportunities per game in the NBA. He launches 7.4 catch-and-shoot. His only player in the NBA involves 7. Everybody else is 6 and below. And he shoots about 42% on those. So he does shoot them at a high clip and at a high percentage. The next closest participant in terms of catch-and-shoot is Malik Beasley, who attempts 4.8. So almost three fewer per game. So that's kind of like for Halliburton, it was wide open. For Markunen, it's catch-and-shoot. And I do like the fact that Markunen also, of the participants, he attempts the third-most wide-open shot attempts as well. So that's the best balance of the two. He makes 45% on 3.6 attempts per game. And then on the air, he's shooting 40.4%. So another shooter that shoots a lot of volume at a high clip. So between the two, I like the two I got. I like Halliburton. I like Markunen. Hopefully, we can get one of them to cash. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Admittedly, the dunk contest is harder to find, like the stats that I found for the three-point competition. For context, the favorite is Mac McClung, who won last year. But he's offered at minus 190. Yeah, I'll probably admit that he's the most likely to win. The odds obviously reflect that. Only four guys have repeated as NBA Slam Dunk champions, and the last one to do it was 2015. Granted, McClung is definitely a good bet to do so. I went with Jacob Toppin at plus 600 odds. He's got the third. So there's four participants. He's got the second long-shot odds. He's the least second favorite. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I do have some numbers about the total. So it opened up at $365.50. It's currently offered at $361.50. So however sharp you can call it, because it's the All-Star Game, sharp money did come in on the under. The important thing to note with the All-Star Game is there's no ELIM ending. They had it for the past three or four years, where the ELIM ending, for those of you who don't know, it's instead of having it times fourth quarter, it's just first to get to this many points. This year, they're just doing four normal 12-minute quarters. So no ELIM ending. So you can't look at last year, the total, the over-under was $325.50. That's because of the ELIM ending. With that said, I'm not going to suggest anybody actually take the under on the All-Star Game, but I will get that's the better play than the over. It's not going to be as fun, and you're going to watch it, and you're going to be like, man, these guys don't play defense. But even the past couple of years pre-ELIM ending, like the total hasn't exceeded $361. It's in 2017, and there's a three or four-year span in there where there's no ELIM ending. So I personally am not touching the total. If someone were to bet the total, the best value would be on the under, but that's definitely going to make you sweat a little bit. 100%. Yeah. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. Yeah, so I actually like the East, and they're the underdog here. Their plus-125, plus-128, actually, are the actual odds. I feel like the West is the favorite because they have the better players when you just look at the name. Jokic, Doncic, Kawhi, LeBron, Kevin Durant. A lot of these guys don't try in the All-Star Game anymore, whereas the East, a bunch of young and upcoming guys who actually will give effort, or Giannis, even though he's a little bit older, he still gives a ton of effort in the All-Star Game. And if I'm picking a side, I'll pick the side that I think is at least going to try better, try harder, not necessarily the side with the bigger names. Like Luka, he's appeared in four All-Star Games. He's never scored more than eight points. Jokic, he literally admitted last year that he just doesn't care about the All-Star Game. His exact quote, I would not draft myself either. I'm not meant for this game, which is hilarious. And, I mean, you just watch Jokic play. Like his game is not an All-Star Game type of guy. And then there's LeBron, who used to give a ton of effort in the All-Star Game. As he's gotten older, has given a lot less effort. Beginning in his career, he would always play 30-plus minutes. He's played fewer than 20 in three of the last four, and he's scored single digits in two of the last three as well. Whereas the young guys, they got Tyree Calvert making his first career start. Jason Tatum dropped to 55 in the All-Star Game last year. Damian Lillard is not obviously a young guy, but he's also making his first start in the All-Star Game. And then, like, Jalen Brunson, Trey Young, all these guys that have a little bit more to prove than Kawhi Leonard and all these vets in the West that have been there and done that. So I think the better play here is on the East Money Line. You can get it for plus odds. It's because the West between the guards, like with Steph Curry, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so if the East wins, which is my prediction, I think the most likely MVP is Giannis. There's a couple of things that you need to win MVP. You obviously need to care about the game. That's the most important one, and Giannis has shown that he cares. Last year, you can't look at because he was hurt heading into the game, so he only played one possession because he still wanted to start it. But prior to that, he had scored 30 points in the previous two All-Star Games, and he checks every box for if you look at previous MVPs. He's obviously got a massive name. He's one of the biggest names in the NBA. Excuse me. He's shown that he cares about the game, which is important. He's on a good team, granted they're on a little bit of a slump, but I think they're still third, maybe fourth in the East at this point. He's won finals MVP before. He's won real-life MVPs before, so after missing it last year, I think it only makes sense for him to go giving full effort in the game this year. He's also having an awesome year himself, even though the bucks are kind of stumbling a little bit. He's having a great year, and even though he is the betting favorite, he's still 6-1. He's plus 600 odds, so I always feel chalky going with the favorite. It makes me feel a little bit better when it's plus 600. There you go. There you go. Let's do it. Sure, so I have three for you guys. They're going in order of most likely to least likely to occur, so keep that in mind. They're all plus money because that's one of my – you've got to bet plus money. It's one of my favorite things to do. The first one that I want to talk about is Steph Curry to win the Clutch Player Award. He's currently the betting favorite, but he's plus 190 at draft game, so I still think that's solid value. It's honestly a two-man race, in my opinion, between him and Damian Willard. Dame has the second-best odds to win at plus 270, but I think – I mean, you could take both because I'd be shocked if the third player wins. You can kind of guarantee some income there, assuming one of them does win. It's only the second year of this award, so you don't have a ton of historical data and precedent and kind of what to go off of and stuff, but Steph Curry obviously has a name, Steph Rickon Curry, and I did try to find some stats to back this up. So NBA has a stat where they define clutch points. It's like five minutes or fewer in the fourth quarter, and the game is within, I think, a couple – I forget the exact numbers, but on the entire season, Steph has 157 total clutch points, again, as defined by NBA.com. The next closest player is DeMar DeRozan at 106 clutch points, so it's a 51-point difference between him and the second-most. And then if you look at, like, minutes played in the clutch, he's at the fourth-most, so it's not like he's wrapping up a bunch of stats just because he's playing the most. Fourth-most, yeah, it's a lot. It's not the most, and he's scored the most points by a mile. In terms of clutch points per game, he's second in the NBA with 5.1. The only guy above him is Anthony Simons, and he averages 5.2. Obviously, Simons isn't going to win the award. And he has the highlight reel moments, which I think you need. You need to have the stats. You need to have the highlight reel moments. We all remember the game winner he had against the Suns where he, like, turned and shot it and put it up with, like, a couple seconds left. It was, like, a ridiculous shot. So you can have that on the highlight board when you announce Steph Curry as the winner. So I think at plus 190, I think, yeah, I think it's, like, what? A 40% win percentage, something like that? I think he'll win more often than not, yeah. Really? Yeah. It went from plus 190 to minus 150 on draftings. That's crazy. So I would still take it at minus 125. I wouldn't take it at minus 150. It has moved like that for a reason. Like, right now, Jokic is minus 150 to win MVP, and I still think that's a good bet at that number. At the end of the day, it's what are the win percentage of the odds, and what's the win percentage of the bet? And I still think that the win percentage is higher than the minus 125 odds, but that is unfortunate. I didn't realize it moved that much. There you go. Sure. Yeah. So coach of the year, I'm going with Chris Finch. I will admit, I'm pretty heavy on futures that are related to the Timberwolves in the regular season, and I'm going with Chris Finch. I will admit, I'm pretty heavy on futures that are related to the Timberwolves in the regular season, not in the playoffs. But right now, they're the favorite in the West. Or, sorry, they're the one seed in the West by a couple games now. They just smacked the Clippers in the Clippers' home court. Like, that's fresh in people's minds. They also won, and this is not impressive, a back-to-back against the Blazers. I mean, they beat the crap out of them, so that's obviously good. What I like is, A, they're already in the one seed. B, they have of the top four seeds in the West, which is them, the Clippers, the Nuggets, and the Thunder. They have the easiest strength of schedule remaining of those four, and they also have the best record in the NBA against teams above 500. Even better than the Celtics, who have a four-and-a-half game lead on them, just in terms of overall record. They have the best win percentage against teams above 500. So they have an easy schedule, and then on the teams that are tougher, they have a good win percentage against them. Right now, the betting favorite is Mark Dagnall at plus 170. That makes sense because the Thunder are one of the youngest teams, and last I checked, they were the second seed in the West, so that all makes sense. But it's not like the Thunder don't have talent, right? Like, Chet is either going to win Rookie of the Year or come up second. SGA is a legitimate MVP candidate. Jalen Williams is getting better every month. And let's not forget how bad the Timberwolves have been for my entire adulthood. They've been a joke for 25 years. And now he's got – Chris Finch has got the Timberwolves with the best defense in the NBA by a mile, the best defense of the past two years, if you just look at defensive net rating. And this team was a mess even last year when they first got Rudy Gobert. So I think he deserves credit for how good their defense has become for making Rudy Gobert back into a Defensive Player of the Year type of caliber type of player where he was with the Jazz. And again, that's for plus 320 odds. At least that's what it was last I checked. This one didn't move aggressively against me either. Okay. I have been a Knicks hater my entire life, but I'm switching the other way. I'm going totally in the opposite direction. I think he was, yeah. I was seven years old when that happened. Yeah, so the Celtics are the heavy, heavy favorite for obvious reasons. They have the best record in the NBA. They probably have the best top six in the NBA. They're plus 130 to win the East. To me, there's not enough value on that at plus 130. Maybe the Warriors in their prime. I would take plus 130 to win. So of the options of the field, it was the Bucs, who as a sixer stand are coached by Doc Rivers. He hasn't made an adjustment since 2008. I'm out on that. They're the second favorite at plus 300 now. The third favorite is the Knicks that I'm talking about at plus 700. And the fourth favorite are the Cavs at plus 900. The Cavs, I like their roster. They're still a little bit younger, and they got punked so badly by the Knicks in the playoffs last year that I have a hard time seeing them winning three playoff series to get out of the East in a really, really tough East. And then the Sixers are the fifth best at plus 1100. If you guaranteed me that a beat came back and was healthy, I think that'd be some good value. But without that guarantee, obviously you can't guarantee that I'm not touching. So that led me to the Knicks, third best odds, who I think have a phenomenal roster. But more importantly than that, I don't think that the public has adequately caught on to Jalen Brunson being a legitimate superstar. He joined the Knicks, and last year they were a fun, up-and-coming team that nobody expected to do anything. He's a legitimate superstar. With their whole team banked up, he's scoring 30 points a game. He's one of the best pull-up shooters in the NBA off the pick and roll. He can lead the fast break. He's a good distributor. And while he's not the best in terms of quick twitch defender, he's at least got a sturdy base, so you can't just out-muscle him and punk him on defense. And outside of that, their roster is phenomenal. Before injuries kind of derailed the team, they made the OG and Inovy trade right around New Year's. They had the best defense in the NBA for five, six weeks. Better than the Cavs, better than the Timberwolves, the best defensive net rating. Obviously they need all those guys to get healthy, but OG and Inovy, Julius Randle should get back in the next couple of weeks. There's really no concern like there is on the NBA side. And outside of that, like even Chenzo's been playing great. Josh Hart has been playing great. I love the addition of Boyan Bogdanovich, just another shooter who won't get completely exposed on defense. And they might even get Mitchell Robinson back, who would turn their already elite defense into even more. And I just like the fact that they can play different ways. They can go small, put Hardenstein at center. They can go big. They have a bunch of ways they can beat you. And I think Jalen Brunson, like I said, what you need to win in the NBA is a legitimate superstar, and they have that in Jalen Brunson. So for plus 700, 7-1 odds, there you go. Yeah. Was that the lockout year where they had a shortened season and they were like the eighth seed or something like that? Yeah, there you go. Of course, yeah. All right. Yeah. Of course, yeah. Yeah. Great. Thank you. Yeah, in and out, perfect.