|FULL POD| Southeast Division Preview & Kurt Helin!

and the Washington Wizards. We also have a great interview with Kurt Healing from NBC Sports to prepare you for all the things about the new season. It is a loaded show. Welcome, let's get into it. William drop that generic gas beat that should be reh.

for an entire pound at your local Fred Myers. But we're gonna get into it anyway because there's still NBA

teams here that we have to cover. That's how much I love you. I want to talk about other things the tea, like the Chicago Bulls players meeting only first game of the season has to get waxed by the Okase thunder. But no, no, sir, we must fulfill our commitments, and we start with the Atlanta Hawks. Key additions. They get Kobe Buffin in the draft out of Michigan. They get Patty Mills from free agency. What is Patty Mills doing there? By the way, what the fuck? Why? First

of all, aren't you ready to retire? And second of all, why do you want to be with that dog shit organization? Subtractions. John Collins Finally, he's been in the news trade rumors so long. Finally happened. He gets himself into a better situation. Congratulations to John Collins. Anyway, we move forward about the Hawks. So though last year the Hawks imploded, they fired their coach of the deadline, they went out and hired a coach midway through the season in Quinn Snyder for so

much money, all the money. Spectacularly, also fired their GM, hired a whole new front office. Remember then they tried to say the GM wasn't really fired, he was just in an advisory role. Now I mean they fired him and he just kept him on site on step. Yeah, Travis Schlank. Now he's working for the Washington Wizards, part of the same same sort of umbrella, yellow starburst. But

we'll move forward. The explanation of hiring Quinn Snyder and then not waiting out the year was just so that Snyder could assess, he could wait and see what he had. He could get a head start for this season. And he found out pretty early that this old John Collins Trey Young thing it's not working. It's never gonna work. John Collins doesn't like Trey Young. So this summer they sent out John Collins the Utah Jazz for Rudy Gay

and his second round pick. Remember they were at one point I refusing to trade John Collins unless they got multiple first round picks for him back That was a real article. Those were the real news rumors. Sounds like they couldn't get that first round pick for him, and now they got a dirty muffin which was Rudy Gay and his second round pick. They turned down much better packages for him in the past. I like where John Collins landed for a team that was pretty trash. Last year,

the Hawks didn't really do much. They're still trying to roll out this whole Dejontey Murray and Trey Young experiments. I preferred to Jontay Murray. They add Patty Mills and Kobe Buffkin. Neither are going to be very much factors. This team is going to fall again on whether Dejonte and Trey could play together. And I don't know, honestly. I like DeAndre Hunter a lot. I am not sure

honestly if this roster makes any sense. They refused to extend Sidik Bay, which they traded for, which means he's probably getting moved at the deadline or they'll lose him for nothing. We're looking at a starting five of Clint Capella, who looked horrible in their opening game. He's been rumored to be traded for the last sixteen months, Trey Young, de Jontey Murray just signed an extension, DeAndre hurt Hunter, and bog Don Bogdanovic. Does anybody think that this team

is gonna win their division? No, this is a team that went to the Eastern Conference finals. Does anyone actually like this team? The Washington Wizards circle Atlanta on their calendars, like, yep, that's the game. That's the game we low manage stars for. That's the game we low manage Jordan Pool for. They're gonna probably win forty forty two games. They're gonna be a playing team as like a twelve seed? Was it seven, eight, nine, ten? So it's a ten seed? Ten seed? It feels like

so many damn teams get in. This is the kind of team really is like wins the NBA in season tournament and they just call that season his success because the owner's son is now running the team, and you know how that whole thing goes. And then we're gonna have another mediocres to season and Quinn Snyder will have to decide whether Trey Young can be on this team any longer in order for them to move on and succeed, and I think he'll get to the point where he

realizes maybe he's been the problem the whole time. We

move forward another team in this division. My vote for the team that had the absolutely worst off season by far, by far was the Miami Heat. How do you go to the finals and still have the worst off season of anyone? Love their draft picks, Haimi Hawkez love him, you end up getting Thomas Bryant. Don't hate it, Josh Richardson, you pick him up. That's terrible, John. I might be the leader of the Josh Richardson dis fan club, like the non fan club like. I don't hate him as

a person. He is not a piece. Though he is not a piece. I would have rather they got Kelly than Josh Richardson. That's not a lie. They lose Max Struz, who by the way, had seven threes for the Caves the other night, just loading up buckets after buckets. They lose Gabe Vincent. They lose Victor Oladipa. They were just waiting. They knew they were getting Damian Lillar, didn't they. They just knew they were getting Dame. They thought they were getting Bradley Beal for a song. This team could have

had Dame brad Beal, Jimmy Butler, bam Adebayo. Jesus, what are they doing? Pat Riley? Pat Riley, I don't know what to say other than he just doesn't want to spend money. He's done, he's decided, like the Chicago Bulls, We're gonna put together a good product and in the playoffs we'll see. But I'm not gonna go into the luxury tags for a thirty something star who's gonna make like sixty five million dollars next year. They lost out on Bradley Beal, who was his first choice, was going

to Miami. Even this week. Something came out where he was like, I thought it was a done deal, and for whatever reason, they did not want to make a move. It's the no trade clause, Bradley, It's the no trade clause, and they dragged their feet. No clue what happened. I know what happened. You know what happened, pat Riley. Happened. He wanted to basically get another star for free and have Bradley Beal wave his no trade clause, and instead

Bradley Burele goes to Phoenix for basically nothing. Literally, I think it was like what how many? Like a handful of second round picks? And Beale is still like, how did I end up in Phoenix? I don't know how this happened. It wasn't even on my board. It didn't even register as a team for me to go to. Then, of course they lose Dame because they didn't want to make a real offer. What did that leave them thinking

maybe they could get into the Drew Holiday Sweepstakes? But by then it was like Portland's I don't call us lose our number. Then now they're thinking maybe they can get into the Heart and Sweep steaks because Harden is now opening up the possibilities of trade partners for Philadelphia. He just wants to compete, doesn't matter if he's in La. It's a disaster. Their backup plan, Kelly Oubre went to the Sixers. Then Jannis, who was their backup, backup, backup plan,

just signed a massive three year extension. All they can hope for now is Joel Embiid. That's it. I'd say pat Riley is coming to a close of what he's willing to do in terms of his aggressiveness. They find these guys out of the bottom of the barrel. They want these role players who can contribute with very little money attached to them, and that helps them, you know, with their financial situation. That's fine, but ultimately that's not what you want to do when you are a championship

caliber franchise. He's a junk ball pitcher now, pat Riley, his command has failed. The Heat were three minutes from getting bounced last year in the player and then what do they do? They said, well, well, just instead of using that data to make our decision, we're going to use the data that's less likely, which is the fact that we went to the finals and then you lose two guys that were on the team that were key contributors. What do I like about this team? Obviously Jimmy Butler,

He's fucking beast. He's one of my favorite players in the league. I love bam Adebayo. Those two are enough to do a lot for you in a postseason. Tyler hero is an absolute bucket. He's like the white Anthony Simons. He's going to be able to get your buckets from the perimeter. He's going to probably have a chip on his shoulder and Chuck I don't know eighteen times a game. He's been rumored to be in every trade Miami's ever had. Recently, he deleted Miami from his Instagram. Remember, at one point

this beach could probably revenge season for Tyler Hero. Duncan Robinson I think is back into the rotation. I think they hate him less because he proved himself when Tyler Hero was out. In the playoffs, they're starting guards though, are Kyle Lowry and Caleb Martin. This is a bad team, folks. This is a bad team. This is the same team

as last year, only worse. If Heimi Hawkaz doesn't produce or Nikola Yovich, who was a healthy scratch last night doesn't produce ah and they don't make the playoffs, I would not be shocked if they don't make the playoffs. Everyone else except for Atlanta got better in their division and they got worse. It's Mas school, folks. They are taking a downturn. The biggest asset that the Heat have is obviously Eric Spolstra. He continues to make gold out of garbage, so I would be also not shocked if

they made the finals again. Best case scenario is playing, but you never know what's gonna happen when you get Jimmy Butler in the postseason, the heat though, or a team in decline. I am not ruining for them. I do not feel like they are a team that you can believe in, and pat Riley must take the blame.

We now take our attention to the Orlando Magic. You know it's bad, right, You know it's bad when the one bright spot of your division is Orlando Magic. That's where we're at. The Orlando Magic are the best team potentially in this dog shit division. Key additions Anthony Black, Jet Howard, Joe Ingles Key subtraction Bowl Bull. This is the only team in modern memory with ten guards on a twenty men roster. That's this is insane. I don't

know what they're doing. Even guys that were rumored to be traded, like Cole Anthony just signed a three year, thirty nine million dollar extension in the draft. They went out and got I don't know, two more guards just for safe measure. Anthony Black, he's not really in the rotation. Jet Howard not really in the rotation. We're just gonna

let him sit there and marinate like good chicken. You go with markl Foltz and Gary Harris and Jalen Suggs and Caleb Houston and Kevon Harris and trevl and Queen. You get the picture, folks. A lot of guards, a lot of guards. But I think that kind of diminishes how good this roster can be. Polo ban Caro will come off of the Rookie of the Year season that he had and he's gonna even be better. I think he could legitimately, once he finds his stride, he could

average twenty five points a season a game. Franz Wagner, I think he could be most improved player this year. He was incredible in World Cup play, leading Germany to a gold medal, but also they were undefeated, and I like Markel Foltz. I like Cole Anthony to lead this group of guards, which means I think the Magic are probably gonna have a very very deep team, twelve fourteen guys in a game. They should be fresher than a lot of teams. What is their upside, that's the question.

I think this is a playing team. I think this is a team that could legitimately win the division. This is a sneaky playoff team. The Magic in March. From March on were five hundred, So I think that's what they're gonna be going forward. I really do. The nice part though, of the magic is I think they have a lot of pieces that they can make some moves if they wanted to. At the deadline. They have enough assets. You could probably package Anthony Black. There's a lot of

teams that would like a six to seven guard. You have draft capital, you have young players. You can get probably anything you want. You can probably get Pascal sa Uckham if you want it. You got a starting five of Wendell Carter, Franz Wagner, marcl Foltz, Paolo and Jalen Suggs with Cole Anthony first man off the bench. What you need, or what they need, is veteran leadership. Of course, that's why Malcolm I think Malcolm Rognen really makes a

lot of sense for them. Do a deal with Portland Orlando, do a deal. We could use some wings. You guys got a lot, get us window. They also have Jonathan Isaac there, who's supposed to be good when he's healthy. You need somebody, probably with veteran mentorship who can slow these guards down. Do they need another guard? Probably not. They could actually use a guy like Jeremy Grant. Do a deal with Portland, Orlando, do a deal with Portland. I like these Magic I think they have a very

bright future. I think they win forty to forty four games.

It's time to chop it up with the Charlotte Hornets. Oh gross, just a team that has a lot of issues culturally with that roster. You've had some turnover, You've had a lack of turnover with players you probably should have turned over. Key Losses, Kelly oubre Kai Jones, the Mahollick, Dennis Smith junior, Key additions Brendan Miller in the draft, Nick Smith Junior who I like in the draft. Miles

Bridges signs his contract officially announced. That's the one where you wonder, why is this man still on the roster? LaMelo Ball agrees to a multi year extension. Frank Nilikina signed an extension. PJ. Washington agreed to an extension. I don't really know what to make of this team. Sometimes, things that they do in this franchise in general just leave me speechless. Why why you ask? Just why? Why? Let me count the ways?

their own way. Michael Jordan has sold his majority share at the franchise. The team has a chance to draft a once in a generation player, which is Scoot Henderson, and yet you pass on him for Brandon Miller, who by the way, also has his own off the court issues. Has struggled that summer League. Isn't some guy that you think can immediately respond as a franchise altering player. He just gets named I think a couple of weeks ago,

maybe even less, in a wrongful death suit. Kaya Jones' former first round draft pick ig lived himself out of the league. Half of Twitter joked that this team was going to sign Kevin Porter Junior. That's how bad things are in Charlotte is that people think you're gonna make the disastrously wrong move when given the chance. What do you have left? You got LaMelo five years, two sixty million dollar extension. I think he's worth it. You've got

a great point guard surrounded by a sea of toxic mididity. Yeah, toxic mididity. I said it. A bunch of mid guys who are toxic. Miles Bridges. I like PJ. Washington. He's just been at the wrong place in the wrong time. I think he was the last major free agent to sign, and he found almost no interest anywhere else for the price, which I think is is weird because he's a good piece. I like him. A lot three for forty eight is very good deal. I like Mark Williams. He's a nice

little p had him last year sophomore season. He's already snatched blocking people. Gordon Hayward. Is he gonna be healthy? Terry Rozier, does he even want to be there? You lost Kelly Ubre, which I mean, I don't think that was such a huge loss. Dennis Smith Junior. No one knows who can reliably hit a three pointer on this team. Besides, I don't know Terry Rozier. This is just not a good roster folks. This has got flashes of excitement, but not a team that you want to watch on a

night to night basis. They'll sneak up, they'll win some games when you're not watching right, They'll beat a team that you have no idea how they beat. They'll beat the box on a Wednesday. That's what they'll do. But short of a rebuild, I can't see how this team gets better anytime soon. We end our preview with the

Washington Wizards, who I think are my pick for the worst team in the NBA. I watched him last night the whole game played the Indiana Pacers. The Indiana Pacers blew hm out by like twenty. Key additions Jordan Poole in the trade, Tias Jones, who I love, Balao Kulibali who they got in the draft, and Landry Shaman who's in street clothes in game one. So that tells you everything you need to know. Key subtractions Bradley Beal, Poor Zingis, and Monty Morris. The Wizards are gonna be bad, folks.

It's gonna be I don't know even what the plan is because you've got guys like Pool and Tias Jones who are grown who are in the middle of them of their career, and that's not changing, right. This is the team you want to be rebuilding around. You blew up the bridge, you get rid of Porzingis and beale your two max players for a boatload of picks and some interesting players. So that's not bad. This team, though, is gonna lose. They're the East Coast in terms of

the equivalent amount of games lost. I don't think a team is gonna be as bad as them, except for maybe the Portland Trailblazers. A lot of games losing. You add Jordan Pool, which means you're gonna be chucking a lot. Jordan Poole went zero for six from three last night. My man Kyle Kusman put up twenty five, but he was chucking. We already saw that. Denny Abdya is pissed off at how little these guys want to pass him the ball, just casually launching thirty footer after thirty footer

four seconds into the shot clock. That, of course, is the Jordan Poole experience, so get used to that. What is left on this roster. They got Patrick Baldwin Junior from the Warriors, a nice little piece I like Danilo Gallinari, Danilo Gallinari. If you're a better he's gonna be putting up ten fifteen points a game. I think he's gonna be looking to get moved at the deadline. I think Landry Sham is terrible. Tyus Jones is a good piece. He is. I like COO's Coos. I just don't know

the team. I like ballall Coolibali a lot, but he's a brand new baby. He's a rookie. Over the next three years, Washington has four first and five seconds. They can gain even more draft capital by moving guys like Jones, Gallinari, Daniel Gafford, deln Wright. Maybe they're good in twenty thirty. Until then, enjoy Jordan Poole chuckin eighteen shots a game. Now we're in for a big treat. We got Kurt

Healing on. Kurt is the blogger in chief of Pro Basketball Talk dot com, but also nbcsports dot com and the managing editor in NBC. We had a wide ranging interview. It touched on a lot of inner storylines that come up for the season. So let's get into it. Welcome to the show, my man, Kurt Healin, lead NBA Rider managing editor NBC Sports dot Com, just one of the I would say more honest guys in their assessments of what's happening around the NBA. I've got a ton of questions.

There's a lot developing, and we could spend all day, but I figured I would call it down to the teams that I personally am the most interested in based on what we saw opening night, but also some of the sleeper teams too. So I am really intrigued by Phoenix. I think that's a team that could potentially break the mentality of the super team right being dead. And Bradley Beal obviously is a guy that they got for absolutely nothing.

They made moves at in the summer with Nurkic, which I think is super interesting, got a lot of depth. They get a bunch of guys from the Blazers, and I think when they went to Chase last night or on Tuesday night, we were wondering how they would look against a team that has largely been a contender anytime Steph is healthy. So the thing that stuck out to

me was Devin Booker. You watch him and it looked like he was the best player on the floor pretty much the entire night thirty two six and eight one steal, and that was with Steph doing you know, Steph things. Do you think Devin Booker is a legit MVP candidate if he plays on a team that Kevin Durant plays on.

gonna be hard. And I'm really curious to see how that shakes out with the new league rule on sixty five games to get your you know, to be eligible for end of season awards, and like, i think we're gonna see a whole lot of guys play sixty six games.

wanted to play with Kevin Durant. I'm curious from your perspective and what you see who is that number one X factor role player that you think is gonna bring the Suns over the top to get them to the finals and beat a team like Denver.

for the Final sixteen. You know in the playoffs, he's not the guy I'm worried about. They just need, you know, who are the other guys to step up?

way through. Everybody was producing, and they still scored over one hundred and twenty points and it was like not a lot of bench production.

we'll see. I think they will miss Bruce Brown in the Platts as much as I like Christian Brown and everybody else.

own put back and get the points as well. So it feels like maybe there's even another level production wise from a points perspective than Nicolekic was even doing the year before when he won MVP two years ago or the year before that, or even last year when MB won it. What are you seeing or what did you see from him? Did you see what I saw?

probably the best defender in the playoffs. He was phenomenal, and Jokic just destroyed him and and then did it again, and like, you've got to have one of those big bodies. I wonder if again, I think with the Suns, did they get Nurkic thinking back, thinking we've got to have somebody to put a body on him, who's somewhat more If he can just stay healthy, he's decision making and just iq R off the charts.

I don't think you can really take anything from AD's lack of production in the second half because he's tasked with guarding a guy who's decided he's going to score thirty thirteen and eleven or whatever it was, right, Like, so, do you think that was unfair criticism?

And I don't think it's all on him, because Trista, I hope you are passionate about and believe in something in your life. As much as D'Angel Russell believes in his shot, he's going to take it regardless. But and I don't think they got Anthony Davis the ball. And he had all these ISOs and posts up in the first half, he just literally wasn't getting them.

get through to the finals. I'm curious about a couple of dudes, though, Why sign someone like Christian Wood and Cam Reddish when those guys have clearly, throughout the course of their career been not locker room cancers, but certainly cultural negatives.

better than a minimum contract player. Yez, whatever I think of him, Like, why I might talk myself out of wanting him on my team.

It's like, I don't have Utah in the playoffs, dude, they still got John Collins and and Laurie marking in and like we're good last year and surprised people.

in Phoenix even last year. I mean, it's just better options than him down there. But you know, hey, he'll get he'll get more looks up there. So they're going to be a fun, interesting team and they're not going to be a pushover. There's you know, I don't think they're the worst team in the league. I was gonna say there is the Wizards.

own or get kicked out the door. Now, we got James Harden coming back to Philly past opening night and they're like, no, we don't want you traveling with the team. What does that mean, I don't want you traveling with the team. Does that mean that a deal is imminent or does that mean that we don't want you around our players muddying the water and poisoning the well.

Joel Embie's never been healthy in a postseason in his entire career. He's always dealing with something strange or a bone fracture, ankle, knee. It's like a mister, you know, it's like operation over there. And now you have a new coach. I'm just very suspicious in general about the ability for a team to really compete Milwaukee, included with

a brand new head coach. I'm moving forward to teams that you're the most excited about, teams that did not make the playoffs last year that you think are legit playoff teams this year.

or nights off. Because the jump from Europe to college, I don't think people could people can really grasp like playing forty games a night, forty games a season, low forties if you count a deep run in the NCAA tournament eighty two game regulars. He said, like the jump is just ridiculous, and the war a terearor is ridiculous. In Europe, you play two games a week. It's just the travel. The travel isn't as bad because you're just traveling around France.

wouldn't bet on it. Like I still I still just think it's it's Wemby's to lose.

in Cleveland is a fit. Those aren't like individually huge losses, but together it's just yeah, I can make I could see them falling, but I don't know if they were on the edge of that last year. They were trailing the balls hundering in the fourth quarter of the playing games if I remember that, probably playing a second playing game, so like they came that close last year, So it's possible.