Zach and Bill Simmons of the Ringer fill out their early MVP (3:02) and All-NBA ballots (44:02).

Zach and Adrian Wojnarowski open NBA trade season: buyers (2:18), sellers, big names that could be on the move (11:09), much more.

Zach talks to John Hollinger of The Athletic about trade buyers and sellers (3:33), Kevin Love (21:15), much more.

James Harden's basketball strengths are varied and, for a defense trying to guard him, frustrating. Now, teams are trying something different against the Houston Rockets' versatile star. ESPN senior writer Zach Lowe joins Mina Kimes to measure Harden's impact on the league this season and to discuss effective ways to stop him.

Zach talks to Marc Spears of The Undefeated about his Damian Lillard feature story (1:40), the Blazers (28:36), Chris Paul's comments about his trade to the Thunder (32:20), Utah's struggles, and more.

Zach talks to comedian Gary Gulman about his HBO special "The Great Depresh," basketball as coping mechanism (5:20), the 1980s NBA versus today's game (38:36), the art of writing jokes, and the origin of his state abbreviations bit (48:20).

Zach talks to Boston's Marcus Smart about being a stretch 6, tension in last season's Celtics locker-room (3:18), what's different now, being an inch away from losing basketball (9:22), and guarding Kyrie Irving (26:13).

Zach talks to ESPN's Doris Burke about first impressions of the Kawhi-PG Clippers (4:19), what's different about this Boston team (17:26), whether this is the end of the Spurs (31:19), and more. Then ESPN's Kevin Arnovitz joins to discuss his story on an epic NBA scam (41:02).

Zach talks to "The Good Place" creator Michael Schur and writers Joe Mande and Jen Statsky about their NBA fandom, their favorite jokes in the history of the show, and behind-the-scenes stories.

Zach talks to Howard Beck of Bleacher Report about Knicks chaos (2:55), Andrew Wiggins (33:09), and the 9-2 Lakers (49:09).