I talk about the ridiculous new anti-COVID policy of the NBA, and the hug police set to enforce it.  I also talk about the unfortunate situation with Caris LeVert (get well soon).  I do the regular features like team of the week (it's a surprise!) and all of that jazz. 

It finally happed.   The James Harden trade.   I talk about it.  I also talk about COVID and how it's affecting the league, along with all the other usual features of the show.

I talk about the lack of James Harden trade, the injury to Fultz, the covid situation with KD and the nice run some suprising teams are having.  I also of course name a disappointing team of the week, and talk about Wrestle Kingdom 15 a little bit.

For the third year in a row they end up in the last spot due to pending moves.  Depending on who you believe, Harden is nearly gone, or they aren’t going to trade him at all.  The team looks miserable.  They don’t necessarily look bad though.  It’s more team based basketball, and Harden might be hate passing to his teammates a bit more, but it’s effective regardless.  And even while surly and disengaged for roughly a half, he’s still super competitive.  I dunno I almost think the move is to wait until the real offseason when the deals will be better. 

The Sixers have rotations now that make a little more sense.  Overall I think they’ll end up having a pretty good season, although they look very bad without Embiid.  Some of their past messiness existed as an insurance policy to the fact that Embiid doesn’t play a full schedule.  The Sixers will need to find a way to overcome that or he needs to find a way to play more.  

Brooklyn is is a very nice spot.  KD looks fully healthy, Kyrie is engaged, and they are deep offensively and good enough defensively.  So giving up a ton of that go bring Harden in . . . it’s not a no brainer.  With that said, stars win titles much more than depth does, and Brooklyn would have the most star power in the league if they did make that trade for Harden.  I dunno.  It’s a good basketball question to be in position to ask, especially considering where Brooklyn was this year and last year.

System stills pristine but definitely are looking like they are a little light on talent on offense.  The Heat proved last year though if you’re a solid defensive team and you can make it to the playoffs you can go a long way.  A Harden trade would obviously help that offensive talent issue out quite a bit, although I’m not sure he can keep up with their defensive standards, and it’s hard to keep defensive standards if you make exceptions for one player, although the Raptors are mature enough to maybe try it?

This. Team has a great offense!  So it might actually be pretty fun to watch them this year.   I hope Beal and Westbrook will have some fun chemistry.  The defense though . . . it might be pretty dire.  They are going to have a lot of ABA losses on their hand this season for sure.,  Worth watching, though. 

This team was in command of their playoff series last year, and things just went ary.  They didn’t have a lot of room for error with Bojan hurt, and Mitchell started to lose those.  This year should hopefully be different for them.  The thing that is most important to them is health.  

The Spurs were right behind the Blazers for the play in game, and arguably had more right to be there since were a consistently better team most of the season.  Unfortunately that constant level has become not enough.  There’s a solid team here for sure, but they are going to need to find something dynamic to be better than 8-10 in the West.