Breaks breaking down all the biggest NBA storylines or tilled in so the heat Check. The Heat Check was just a crazy, the best podcast covering all the drama around the association.
So if the Magic, the Thunder, the Pacers, and the Jazz are all on the move, then who's fallen off the cliff? That's the question, because that's this is a lot easier to predict, in my opinion, than the teams that are on the rise, to be honest, and it's for a lot of different reasons. Number One, we gotta go with the number one most obvious team the people think is actually a contender, but they are not a contender, and that is the La Clippers. They are a team
at a crossroads. They have one of the more talented deep rosters in the NBA, and it doesn't matter because their players don't play. Their players are never healthy. You have nine guys on the roster with at least seven years of NBA experience under their belt, including seven with a decade or more of wear and tear on that trend, that's that's fine. I'm like, oh, you want to a veteran team, Yeah, but like those tires are getting a
little bald. And the Winter's coming. You add you have Westbrook, but Toom played fifteen years, Paul George has played thirteen, Kawhi Leonard twelve, and that right there, in my opinion, is the problem. They're not a healthy team. Kawhi has played just forty nine percent of the games in the past six seasons. Paul George has missed forty of his games as a Clipper. Even Norm Power has missed one
hundred games in four years. That's just too much. That's just too many games to miss if you think you're a contender. I am not convinced that any of these players can play even close to eighty two games. And now you add in the new low management rules. I mean, there's problems, problems. This is an old team that lacks true point guard and has very little depth. kJ Martin's fine player. I like them a lot right way. Maybe bones Hiland can develop, maybe he can be useful, but
I don't. I don't love this roster at all, and I don't think they have much time to fix it. I don't want to play this. I don't want to overplay this too soon. But there were rumors last season about discord in the locker room and discord with Tylou. And when you give Michael Winger the clips GM who bolts for the Washington Wizards, it doesn't give you much confidence that things are being run in a productive and healthy fashion. Sometimes sometimes you figure maybe the rumors were true, right,
Maybe something miss going on. It's like NASCAR driver ditching Coca Cola as their main sponsor and then they replace them with Starry, which I think is like what if it used to be? I don't even remember Sierra missed something like that. Something is up uh and that's not done unless there's a reason for it. And the other problem for the Clippers is they just don't have any trade capital. There's nothing they can do. You want Harden,
who gives a fuck? How are you gonna get it? They gave it all away and shake Yojes Alexander for Paul George, which could be and probably is the worst trade in NBA history. Their draft class Kobe Brown at thirty I don't hate. I guess six to eight small forward has a little hitch in his shot, like Jordan Miller from Miami. Neither are altering franchise altering players. Let's be real and with the west On the rise, like even Utah. Utah
has a better roster than the La Clippers. I know that's crazy to say, but top to bottom, I'd rather have Utah's team. The Clippers are one of those teams that's just gonna drop off of a cliff and unless something goes significantly differently than the last years that Paul George and Kawhi have been there moving forward, Brooklyn, that's another team that you have to expect is gonna decline. That's a bit unfair because they were the sixty last year, but a lot of those games that they won came
when Kyrie Irving and Kevin Duramer on those teams. So they skated into the playoffs and they were running on fumes playing the Philadelphia seventy six ers. Mckel Bridges is a nice player. Cam Johnson's a nice player, but hey, what are you gonna do? That is the way the cookie crumbles. They lost two Hall of Famers within a week lass season, a third made his way out in the preseason h last year, and we shouldn't have much of an expectation for this year. Right There's a real
chance that the Nets might be bottom three. That's that's with the healthy Ben Simmons. I'm not sure Ben Simmons is even himself ever. Again, they have nice pieces. I like they have mckel bridges. Like I said, Nick Claxton is a nice piece. If he could shoot free throws, he'd be really good. Royce O'Neill is a nice player off the bench. But like I like Spencer Dinwiddie too. No shade the Spencer DINWIDDI hm hmm. That's pretty much it.
That's kind of it. You lost Utah Wattenabe, your one of your better three point shooters who could do a little bit of everything, because he decided to go play with Kevin Durant and they lack depth. And fortunately, if you're a Nets fan, you now have assets again to go and make stuff happen. And you drained the cupboard for a decade to get Hard and Katie and Kyrie. But now after this year, you'll have five first rounders in the following five years. Kind of prime for a rebuild.
If you ask me, maybe you want to try to trade for Dame. I don't hate that. Go ahead, have them, go get them, go go make a deal for him. We then turned to Philadelphia. We talked about a lot in the off season. They are. They are also headed for a very tumultuous season. Let's be real. Anytime Hardin is on your team in the preseason at trading camp and he he doesn't want to be there, then I mean, what are you gonna say. It's just you're headed for
You're headed for drama. I don't think big game James is going to decide to play for Darryl Moray anytime soon. He already said it twice. Let me say it again. I will never play for this team as long as Daryl Moury is there. So as long as Daryl Moury is there, you've got fat suit James to be worrying about. And given the fact that he was supposed to be your starting guard, You've got Tyree s Maxi there, who's a fine player, but definitely isn't I don't think ready
to step into James Harden's shoes. You have Montres Harrow who tore his acl and is out for the full year. It's it's tailspin city, really. They finished fifty four and twenty eight last year, right third place. A lot of people were high on their chances in the playoff to be a real contender. A lot of people also forget that Joel Embiid is always hurt in the playoffs. But hey, I digress, But why do I think that this team
is headed for a big falloff? Best case scenario, the Sixers train discreuntel star for a boltload of assets, and that's not happening. The only place he wants to go to is the Clippers, and like I said, they don't have enough assets to go and get him. Some of that has to do with Hardens not the same Hardened as he was in twenty nineteen. Most of it's due to the fact that no team is dumb enough to risk valuable assets on a player who is on an expiring contract and has been known to be an asshole
when he doesn't want to play for that team. He's now forced his way off of three teams in three years. No shade to James Harden. That's just math school. Maury may be waiting for a star player in return, but that's not happening, which leaves these other three scenarios. These other scenarios, First, Harden gets moved for nothing bag of chips, which is probably a realistic call for a discrentold star
who's probably not even play in shape. But then you don't have really any point guard to fill your roster with unless it's Tyreves Maxi. Second, Sixers say, Harden, you need to play basketball for us playing hardball. There's no other way, And that can end in two ways. Harden decides he's going to act my neck, my beat my neck, Yeah, my bet, and then just sit on the sidelines and
street clothes until you trade him. That's one scenario. Or he can just dip set on you and play for China and decide because they've already embraced him in his new brand of alcohol, and then the Sixers still have a massive hole in their lineup. The other scenario is that Harden gets forced to play for a team that he now actively hates, and we know how that goes. Like I said, he fakes an injury and that's pretty much it. Or actually there is one more scenario that
people are not talking about. Just fire dearral Morey. Just fire him, get rid of them, and then maybe, maybe, just maybe James Harden plays out the rest of his contract, see how he looks. He trade him maybe at the deadline to a team he wants to go to or that he'd be okay with and then at least his values higher than it is right now. When he's telling everyone he's not going to play for you, Joel Embiid already saying that he's unhappy, or at least alluding to it.
Michael Scotto reported this summer that the Knicks are watching the situation because they're trying to get Joel Embiid. I mean, let's be honest. Everything I'm saying is making me out of breath because it's a shit show. We all know that the Warriors got absolutely derailed last year by external issues.
If you think Draymond Green punching Jordan Poole in the face was bad enough to deroyl a title contender that just won the title the year before, guess what, it's even worse than Philly, with those fans, with that ownership, and with the players involved. Philly is this year's wish version of Golden State. All of that brings me to the team that I think is going to be primed for a massive fall off, a team that I don't even know why people think is a real contender this year.
I've been in a knockdown, drag out war folks with Heat fans online not real ones. People thought maybe it was real. I'm not into violence, but I had the bravery to say, Hey, your team sucks. Okay, your roster sucks,
and Blazers don't want any of your roster. Honestly, you don't have the assets to trade for a top three point guard in this league, no matter how old he is, no matter how much he gets paid, and no matter how much you tell us that you do, no matter how much Dame's agent tells us that you do, you don't have it. And you would think I murdered a school bus full of Miami Dade County orphans. I mean they came for me in the streets. It was blood.
The fan base is delusional. Uh, It's like you're trying to convince now the world that Tyler heroes better than ogn Andobi because why because now Toronto looks like they're in the sweepstakes for Damian Lillard, and so you're gonna come after Ogn and Nobi's caliber of play when Memphis was trying to trade for him for three first round picks and Toronto said no, that's how crazy they are. The Heat are primed for a fall off. The cliff why they were a playing team last year, they were
an eight seed. They caught fire, They were lucky. They were constructed in a way where Jimmy Butler took this team to a place that they probably shouldn't even gone. You had injuries to the Bucks, Joannice Middleton, em beat. You got carried on the back of Jimmy Buckets right. You had some unbelievable performances, nice story, nice run. But guess what, you can't steal Damian Lillard for nothing, because
we still know that those players aren't very good. This team went out, they lost Max Streus, they lost gave Vincent, very critical players to what they did in the playoffs. They want to get Damian Lillard to take and then take on Kyle Lowry's our Albatrosh contract when he's thirty eight years old, and that Portland should be happy. You're absolutely insane. And don't even get me started on Tyler Hero, who is of absolutely no use to Portland at all.
Considering that they have one too many guards on their team right now, they don't need another one. But they do lose starters from an eighth place team, well, a seventh place team, But then you know the whole play and thing. They lose Victor Oladipo and Cody Zeller And before you say, oh, that's no big loss, Oladipo averaged eleven three and four in one half of the season. Zeller had seven to four in one and fifteen minutes,
and that wasn't terrible either. So who did they replace Max Strue and Gabe Vincent with at this point Josh Richardson, which Keith fans think is is like the second coming of Jesus and Thomas Bryant. Okay, sure, I love HEIMI hack he's a great player. Is he ready to contribute right now, right the second to a title team? I don't know. I think he's going to need time to adjust. I think teams are going to be hunting him too because of this lack of size. Here is what one
scouting report said about Heimi Hawkins. Hawkes struggles to create contact, often fading away and maneuvering around defenders. His twenty four point nine free throw rate percentage is seventy ninth of one oh nine Division wing forwards Division one wing forwards, yuck. Despite his size, Hawkes tends to play small in the post. He allows defenders to easily alter his shots. Although he is an excellent offensive rebounder, this may cause issues at
the next level, where players are quicker and stronger. If he struggles, they have perimeter shots and score on the post, he may be unable to make the most out of his hybrid size and his unique skill set. In other words, we know he's no Max Strews, Like stop with that. So this is a team that's counting on major minutes from Kevin Love and Josh Richardson. Who The last time that Josh Richardson was productive, really in any meaningful way was when he played for Miami and Miami flipped him
to get Jimmy Butler and they fleeced the Sixers. What are they don't really want him back? No. Seventh place to the finals was the surprise. Okay, that was the surprise. What would not surprise me is if this team is a lottery team, when if they can't get Dame. See I almost said when if they can't get