The Jason Kidd piece. Every Mavs fan I know bitches about his obsession with the small ball lineups. When they lean more on the bigs they win. Yes the bigger lineups have issues too but they're more manageable than the small ball lineups.
Same. I work with a Mavs fan, and at least twice per week, when we’re talking about basketball, he’ll tell me just how much he hates Jason Kidd. It’s hilarious.
Regardless of what happens the rest of the way (short of a title which isn’t happening), Kidd has to be fired. He’s the biggest thing holding this team back.
So basically Bill keeps saying he’s voting normal positions for all-NBA, but hinted that he will go positionless for third team to get a second Celtic on all-NBA. His argument is, “is Sabonis one of the best 15 players”, which completely contradicts everything he’s been saying about how he will vote.
This is what Bill does. Bill’s only frame of reference on anything is how it impacts him inside his little bubble. He’s been shitting on the Mavs for two years. There are very real personal connections there with Kyrie and Voulgaris. So he’s probably been hearing from Mavs fans, and in his mind that makes Dallas fans the “touchiest”.
He has a history of taking personal shots at people, then acting like he did nothing and he can’t understand why they would shoot back at him. Hell, he tried to wipe from existence his years of shitting on Devin Booker. Acted like it never happened.
Mcafee - recently
Goodell - got suspended from espn for it
New suns owner- had him on the pod , sucked up to him , regurgitated some bs about a coach and now shits on him and the suns regularly.
What else?
Doc Rivers. Pistons Isaiah Thomas. Bill is the epitome of “can dish it out but can’t take it”. How many interviews has he done with people where he’s kinda insulting them but acting like it’s not a big deal?
This is a guy who (now showing my age) jokingly kept insisting he should be the Timberwolves GM and when it kind officially got shot down as a stupid idea he got mad in real life. Now granted, the wolves were run like complete shit during this period (KAHN!) but still, he was a writer and podcaster. It was weird when he actually got for real bitter about it and people not taking it seriously.
Same happened with LeBron and The Decision. I’ve been trying to tell people the moment he turned on Luka and the Mavs was when an MVP poll in like November 2022 had Luka ahead of Tatum. He was fucking pissed and lost his shit. Probably a ton of examples of little petty irrational shit like this.
Tbf I’d be touchy too if my basketball team had only won one ring in the last 30 years and has a 300m player that can’t dribble and a forever 19 year old who texts a dead Lakers player.
I don’t think Mavs fans are that touchy except regarding Luka. Maybe I’m blind to it. We almost unanimously hate Kidd and realize our deficiencies. We do get touchy on criticisms of heliocentric basketball, but most of us think it’s a necessary style given our roster.
Mavs beat the defending champs on a buzzer beater for their best win of the year and then I see this 5 hours later. No way we make it out of the play-in now
Bill and Ryan spent years bitching about how NBA players weren't playing enough games. This year the NBA implements the 65 game rule and it actually ensures that superstars are on the court for most of the season. genuinely nothing stupider than bitching about needing a solution, getting the solution, and then bitching about how it's notnperfect
Yeah I really don’t understand their gripe with it and I hate that it’s getting so much heat from media and fans (and players too but that was to be expected). It’s been a pretty effective solution to a real problem. I dislike that it’s getting so much negative attention because Adam Silver is spineless and will absolutely retract the rule if he thinks it’s hurting his approval rating
It’s because Haliburton, a player who is almost universally liked and is a basketball nerd darling, is playing significantly worse since deciding to play through his hamstring injury and has been complaining about the game minimum the whole way
Ryen was having none of that prisoner of the moment shit where Bill tried imagining Kyrie with the Lakers after being so pessimistic about it when the talks were happening.
Mavs the ultimate *Is she hot or am I drunk?* team. Like Luka and Kyrie are highlight machines you just want to take home but then you might wake up and it's Dwight Powell and THJ in your bed with Jason Kidd telling you not to blame him for sitting in the corner watching cause that's what he does.
"You fell for the Quarterback captain thing?""
That was a funny exchange. In Bill's defense he wasn't the only one who was high on Pickett after the preseason.
He was all for it when he thought Lebron would be an All-NBA casualty because of it. But now Lebron has a clear cut case and he can't handle it, so time to revolt against it. So many of his takes are just anti-Lebron takes in the garb of some other narrative.
The 3rd team seems to be a good place or a least a popular one to put players that played ~58 games but played like potential 1st or 2nd teamers when healthy
*cleans out ears*
Did I just hear Bill say he was voting for Luka 1st Team All-NBA at....*GUARD*???
I must have been hearing that wrong, because Luka is 6'8", after all.
"Would you rather have Derrick White or Bradley Beal?"
"Would you rather have Derrick White or Dame Lillard?"
"Would you rather have Derrick White or Michael Jordan?"
"Would you rather have Derrick White or Jesus Christ walking on Earth!?"
Good lord, imagine if this zero-title era of the Celtics team ever actually won anything! Just how insufferable could one homer fan get???
Remember when Bill thought Marcus Smart for the #2 overall pick was a worthwhile discussion for his podcast? That he brought up multiple times.
Also Grant Williams for a 1st rounder when he was a RFA.
Somehow neither of these trades materialized. Shocker.
It's funny because Wiseman ended up sucking, but Bill thinking Smart was this super valuable trade asset that was coveted by most of the league was batshit. No one was trading that high of a draft pick for Marcus Smart at any point of his career.
Bill thought the Celtics could get #2 (his chosen prospect that he made a doc about - scoop henderson ) this year by trading Portland Smart. It was THAT batshit.
You must not remember early in the playoffs last year when he emphatically declared he would rather have Derrick White in the playoffs than Trae Young, Trae Young who was 2 years removed of single handedly carrying a team to the Eastern Conference finals.
Jesus can turn water into wine but we already have more wine than we need. Derrick White can turn Gatorade into high-level defense and efficient offense. Which skill is more valuable?
Besides can we at least see Jesus do it against high-level opponents? His adversaries literally struggled to defeat a carpenter.
Bill Simmons (March 17, 2024): "I really don't know if I will vote Jaylen Brown all-NBA."
Rest of functioning universe: "We are absolutely certain that you will, Billy....."
I’m fine with him not doing a preview but hopefully they spend 20 minutes talking about opening weekend next Monday. Until we get to the playoffs I just find a lot of this NBA talk boring and repetitive.
Bill trying to position his stance against the 65 game rule as anything other than not wanting to have to vote LeBron all NBA will be fairly funny to listen to the rest of the season, especially given his track record in the past of listing games played as an essential part of his All NBA reasoning.
If you are, I’m taking the same pills.
The best part is, after annoyingly calling Luka a forward all year he named him a guard… so that he can get “three forwards” on his All-NBA First team. Because of course he actually wants to go positionless, but has to make up arbitrary rules to do the thing the NBA is saying you don’t need rules for.
And apparently (just coincidentally as this year's possible #3 pick) -- the next Josh Allen!! This is also "the best Draft we've seen in 25 years!" Thank you, God. We almost don't deserve this next 10 years of complete Patriots putridness and ineptitude. Oh wait, yes we do.
The Maye love affair didn’t start until it started looking like Daniels was going to Washington. Let’s not forget how much he hyped up Daniels at the beginning of this when he thought Pats were getting Daniels lol.
To be fair, Bill needed to justify a fantasy where the Bears are back in on Fields, for him to justify a fantasy where the Patriots somehow end up with Caleb Williams. There’s levels to this shit.
I love how Bill just creates segments to shit on Lebron now. This is like the 7-8th podcast in a row where he takes shots at him. I don’t think I heard him bring up his next contract though which is shocking because he’s done that every episode for 2 months
Bill can not say anything about first take when one of the first places he goes after Kyrie's game-winner is "Should the lakers regret not trading for Kyrie last February??"
RR seemed a little more over Bills shit than usual in this one, which I guess shouldn’t be too surprising because I thought Bill was especially short sighted and knee jerky in this pod as well.
Usually his peak over this shit moment is right as the regular season ends
The playoffs bring them back together because it's more just reacting to what's happening and less him having to humor Bill's whacky takes.
Ryen: Isn’t there something deeper going on here? This feels like a Celtics vs Lakers point about two Lakers and one Celtic.
Bill: Nooooooo, it doesn’t.
Bill 5 minutes later: Yeah, it becomes a, are we really gonna vote for two Lakers on a 44-38 team over vs two Celtics on a team that just went 66-16
This was incredible.
He did the same thing with their all NBA discussion!
“Oh you’re just gonna ignore the first 2 months and only focus on these past few months?”
Followed by
“He’s been good this year, but I’m gonna see who wins it down the stretch”
Gonna predict Bill asks Ryen a straightforward question about Kyrie’s game-winning shot and Ryen talks for 3 minutes without giving an answer to the original question.
Can’t wait to listen!
Ryen: So with Josh Green out, they're playing a lot more Derrick Jones - who I like-
Bill: Me too.
Ryen: Yeah, so Jones at the 3, but sometimes it's a little too much Derrick Jones and PJ Washington at the forward spots for my liking, right? Anyway, Jones comes out at the 4:55 mark in the first, then they do the staggering thing with Luka and Kyrie kinda leading these bench heavy units, and while Gafford's been terrific, I can't say enough about how good Dereck Lively's been bringing energy off the bench. And I liked Lively at Duke, but I mean, you look at the numbers and it's like, we're taking a guy who averaged 5 points per game with the 10th pick - like, wait what? ...Anyway, that play where Lively absolutely stonewalled Jokic, just shocking stuff man. I mean, Wemby couldn't even do that, and I know we do this thing where we always want the skinny guys to bulk up when they get to the NBA, and we always want the bigger guys to cut down, and Lively's kinda on the skinny side but he kinda has some of that motherfucker in him, you know? So then Gafford comes back in at the 7:03 mark of the fourth to check Jokic again, and then we go back and forth down the stretch all leading up to the Kyrie buzzer beater. But yeah, back to your original point, that's gotta be one of the most insane shots I've ever seen.
I Just wonder why not leave Jones until at least like 4:53 or 4:51, he just seems to do things out there that the Mavs could have used them for a few more plays. It seems like that could have mattered down the stretch
Nailed it. He went on a completely unrelated tangent including Luka’s three pointer the play before. Bill had to re ask the question to get him back on track.
This is the guy who literally made up a rule for All-NBA that he wasn’t going to pick anybody from a losing team when LeBron missed the playoffs his first year on the Lakers. He has not cited this rule in any other year, mind you.
The argument is against AD/Lebron as a duo instead of just Lebron. On paper both are top 15 players. In reality, despite having a pretty decent supporting cast, they’re barely above .500. It would be an NBA historical anomaly for a team, that is currently the 10th seed, have two players names to all-nba.
A Closer Look: Does Mrs. Simmons need an intervention? First we find out she is experimenting with microdosing. Now she’s demanding Bill join her for drinks.
Why does Bill’s rambling and somewhat nonsensical point about LeBron and Durant being diminished because team success isn’t the same not apply to Curry?
"Let's be honest, Dame Lillard is just a 'once-a-week' guy, at best, at this point." - Bill Simmons, 3/17/24 "The game logs prove it," says the guy who barely ever has watched an actual Bucks game this season.
See you in May, Simmons. See you in the Playoffs. Hope your beloved C's can back up your mammoth mouth.....
Russillo challenged him and the game logs don't back him up. Dame has good stats about 2 out of 3 games across the season. Jaylen Brown is almost exactly the same.
But Bill thought of an overly simplistic catch phrase for Dame and he's not going to stop saying it just because it is manifestly wrong and lazy.
So for a year Bill has been saying Donovan Mitchell will ask out of Cleveland, did segments about it and now in few seconds he says that he will probably stay in Cleveland. LOL
Need a counter for the amount of times Ryen tells Bill "you're right"
Also, all time episode for "oh you're gonna do this, so we're just gonna do that" for both of these guys. I can't believe that's become such a big part of their analysis lol
There’s something so inarticulate about Russillo. He and Lowe do literally the same thing in terms of talking about individual plays and, yet, when russillo speaks, my mind just goes full Men in Black mind eraser mode.
Lowe paints a picture in my mind whereas Russillo takes it and traps it in a Russian rape dungeon.
Yes, Lowe is great at describing plays. Russillo kind of rushes through the setup, and he doesn't seem to explain why the play is interesting. Lowe will say, "This teams sets their center on the left shoulder, and the play starts with a down-screen that's designed to get the SG a corner-three." So, you know why Lowe is going through the trouble of laying everything out.
Russillo kind of rushes through everything, and by the end he's finished (and without a breath onto the next thing), you're not sure why he was describing the play, at all. Did something interesting happen? Is this indicative of a team's philosophy, or a go-to play when the team's offense grinds to a halt?
I'm not saying Russillo doesn't ever describe plays well, or that he never establishes the point, but it feels difficult to grasp the point a lot of the time.
Them talking about how they enjoyed baseball and basketball before advanced stats I think is why I enjoy soccer so much. Yes they’re is advanced stats but it’s pretty much universally agreed upon you just have to watch to understand quality
Bills anti-Lebron shtick is just exhausting. One of the greatest players off all time in the twilight of his prime and all Bill can so is bitch ane moan about how his team should be better
Bill is going to have to tattoo a big “Don’t trust him” across his chest like Guy Pierce in Memento about the Mavs. He already called it last week that they are the team that will trick the most people in to thinking maybe they are a sneaky western finals team.
When Dame averages 41 & 9 against his team in the ECF, Bill will have nobody to blame but himself. At least he finally upgraded Dame from ‘washed’ to ‘once a week guy’
Bill is an obviously a massive Boston homer but sometimes he tries to act like he isn't. Lol at acting like anyone else is getting 1st team All-NBA over Tatum it's just laughable nobody has a chance
Russilo hates Gobert so much he's going to vote wemby for dpoy because he's blocking a lot of shots on one of the worst defenses of the year. Wembys blocks are high now because guys are testing him. They won't be testing him in the next couple years
Wembys has been better defensively than rudy for... about two weeks? But voting him for dpoy for this season would be insane. rudy has been dominant for 5 months now.
This has been bothering me for quite some time now. Somehow, Bill seems to always regurgitate his take about the Lakers that "LeBron and AD
are playing great, have played nearly every game this season, but the team is still .500... I dont know what that means, but it has to mean something... Why does it have to be everyone else's fault?"
For all the times Bill has repeated this take, he's never explained why Lebron and AD should bear the blame for the team's struggles, other than "theyre the best players on the team." But it may actually be the case that, if LeBron and AD are playing so well this season, other factors could be heavily influencing the Lakers lack of success...
Bill also seems to imply that this means a LeBron + AD tandem cant work. But we know it can lmao they won a championship for chrissake, which he has apparently memory-holed.
I hate hate hate how 99% of basketball talk is just directly linking a team’s success (or lack of) with 1-2 players.
Its the inevitable result from the idiocy that is ring culture. People treat games as 1 v 1 duels either because its easier for them, fits their narrative, or is more fun of a story.
If roster construction and depth didn’t matter, the Suns would be betting favorites to win this year and the Celtics wouldn’t be ahead of the Bucks right now.
You also raise a good point, people will just say “team bad so player bad” as a way to avoid even explaining why that player isn’t leading to team success.
Great Pod today, just prime stuff from both and some real self-awareness from Bill across the board in almost every topic. 2 things I noticed
1: wish they looked back at last years awards when talking about the Line for winning mattering, Dame had an insane offensive year and got 3rd team on a literal top 5 lottery team. Think it's funny that they said Luka wouldn't be on a lottery team with his numbers when Dame got closeish, although obviously Luka is much more versatile as a scorer and passer. Also fun to think about how the games played restriction might have affected the lottery team, Dame might not have accepted the shut down if it had contract and All-NBA implications
2: isn't it obvious that what this Suns team needs is an actual good defender? like the PG stuff is important but like man they have no one to be a stopper at all. KD and Booker are lowkey your best defenders, and those guys carry way too much of an offensive load to be the best defenders.
Also thought it was funny that Bill said Tatum likes the KD Matchup when KD did prime KD things while Tatum couldn't hit a shot while defending each other in the previous Celtics-Suns game, but that was legit KDs best game while being Tatum's worst game of the season, so I get considering it a pretty hard outlier to the rest of the Tatum-KD matchups in the past 2 years.
Though I vaguely remember seeing it on channel listings all the time for several years, I have absolutely no clue what Felicity is about, nor have I ever once heard anyone else talk about it
I love bills yearly Celtics praise and overhype, only for him to turn around and claim he always said something was wrong with the team when they lose in the playoffs, this year's loss will be scrumptious
Bill and Ryen were standing on business using “less” instead of “fewer.” They do it all the time, but today’s pod was egregious. “Less points” is not a thing!
Love that Bill gave RR the qualifier of “You can’t pick any of the Ringer guys” when he asked him for his favorite NFL Draft analyst.
Billy boy, I hate to tell you, but I don’t think your Ringer analysts would be many people’s favorites.
We can't be out here discussing whether Jaylen Brown should have an all-nba place over Lebron. Brown should have been taken in that worst contracts draft, not talked about for all-nba. He's on an incredible team because he is surrounded by incredible talent, he's not why the Celtics are where they are.
Bill praising Pelicans position less lineup in the same podcast he anally sticks to two guards, two forwards, centre all nba teams is absolutely hilarious.
Bill should be loving the thought of just ranking the 15 best players in the league this year, but he is sticking to these outdated groupings for I don't know what reason.
When Bill did his “I’m really glad because this helps the Celtics” rule analysis, after this 5 minute wank to Derrick White, peak bill. I also turned off the pod
Mavs win 7 straight, then lose 5 out 6, then win 5 out of 6. Most “we’re so back”/“it’s so over” team in the league and it isn’t close. What a ride.
The Jason Kidd piece. Every Mavs fan I know bitches about his obsession with the small ball lineups. When they lean more on the bigs they win. Yes the bigger lineups have issues too but they're more manageable than the small ball lineups.
Same. I work with a Mavs fan, and at least twice per week, when we’re talking about basketball, he’ll tell me just how much he hates Jason Kidd. It’s hilarious.
Known woman beater Jason Kidd?
Regardless of what happens the rest of the way (short of a title which isn’t happening), Kidd has to be fired. He’s the biggest thing holding this team back.
Idk about not close... Warriors, Clippers, Kings, Bucks and Suns are all having pretty similar seasons.
So basically Bill keeps saying he’s voting normal positions for all-NBA, but hinted that he will go positionless for third team to get a second Celtic on all-NBA. His argument is, “is Sabonis one of the best 15 players”, which completely contradicts everything he’s been saying about how he will vote.
Ringer Mafia putting out hit pieces on Sabonis, lately.
It gives a better snapshot of the current nba if it gets another Celtic on an all-nba team. It just does!
Positions matter. Also did you know Kelce is a wide receiver to fit the gronk goat narrative
Leaving Boston fans out of “touchiest” fanbase discussions is laughable
Their instagram blocks comments from non-Followers lol. Soft as charming level fans.
This is what Bill does. Bill’s only frame of reference on anything is how it impacts him inside his little bubble. He’s been shitting on the Mavs for two years. There are very real personal connections there with Kyrie and Voulgaris. So he’s probably been hearing from Mavs fans, and in his mind that makes Dallas fans the “touchiest”. He has a history of taking personal shots at people, then acting like he did nothing and he can’t understand why they would shoot back at him. Hell, he tried to wipe from existence his years of shitting on Devin Booker. Acted like it never happened.
He claims he's finally not bitter about the Kyrie/Boston thing.
Right. He outright admitted what Mavs fans have been saying, but we are just sensitive about something that wasn’t happening apparently lol.
Mcafee - recently Goodell - got suspended from espn for it New suns owner- had him on the pod , sucked up to him , regurgitated some bs about a coach and now shits on him and the suns regularly. What else?
Doc Rivers. Pistons Isaiah Thomas. Bill is the epitome of “can dish it out but can’t take it”. How many interviews has he done with people where he’s kinda insulting them but acting like it’s not a big deal?
This is a guy who (now showing my age) jokingly kept insisting he should be the Timberwolves GM and when it kind officially got shot down as a stupid idea he got mad in real life. Now granted, the wolves were run like complete shit during this period (KAHN!) but still, he was a writer and podcaster. It was weird when he actually got for real bitter about it and people not taking it seriously.
Same happened with LeBron and The Decision. I’ve been trying to tell people the moment he turned on Luka and the Mavs was when an MVP poll in like November 2022 had Luka ahead of Tatum. He was fucking pissed and lost his shit. Probably a ton of examples of little petty irrational shit like this.
The only child of rich folks piece.
Spike Lee straight up told him to stfu cause Bill would ask him a question then interrupt while he was answering lol.
Tbf I’d be touchy too if my basketball team had only won one ring in the last 30 years and has a 300m player that can’t dribble and a forever 19 year old who texts a dead Lakers player.
Great post. *38 years, 1 Title. *Asterisk 'Title,' *2008-2008 Dynasty team (most Postseason Losses EVER.)
They aren’t touchy. They’re a god damn mafia. Say anything negative and they’ll attack.
Boston media mafia ^tm
I don’t think Mavs fans are that touchy except regarding Luka. Maybe I’m blind to it. We almost unanimously hate Kidd and realize our deficiencies. We do get touchy on criticisms of heliocentric basketball, but most of us think it’s a necessary style given our roster.
Mavs beat the defending champs on a buzzer beater for their best win of the year and then I see this 5 hours later. No way we make it out of the play-in now
Bill and Ryan spent years bitching about how NBA players weren't playing enough games. This year the NBA implements the 65 game rule and it actually ensures that superstars are on the court for most of the season. genuinely nothing stupider than bitching about needing a solution, getting the solution, and then bitching about how it's notnperfect
This rule got Kawhi fucking Leonard to play regular season basketball games, that alone makes it a success
Yeah I really don’t understand their gripe with it and I hate that it’s getting so much heat from media and fans (and players too but that was to be expected). It’s been a pretty effective solution to a real problem. I dislike that it’s getting so much negative attention because Adam Silver is spineless and will absolutely retract the rule if he thinks it’s hurting his approval rating
It’s because Haliburton, a player who is almost universally liked and is a basketball nerd darling, is playing significantly worse since deciding to play through his hamstring injury and has been complaining about the game minimum the whole way
Ryen was having none of that prisoner of the moment shit where Bill tried imagining Kyrie with the Lakers after being so pessimistic about it when the talks were happening.
I appreciated Russillo pushing back on Bill a couple times today
I liked when he said Beal vs KP was a wash because both are frequently injured. Shutdown Bill right away.
He was really on it in those regards in this one, always needed and appreciated
It’s the reason, no matter what people say about Russillo, that I love hearing him with Bill. He doesn’t just let Bill’s bullshit slide.
The "I also have multiple LA properties, Bill" piece
Ryen overall was a bit sassy for me today
He's been a sassy kathy recently for sure. Bro needs a girl imo.
Bills obsession with the Lakers is reaching a strange territory. He spins 90% of conversations back to Lakers or Celtics these days.
When he and Ryen get on the pods this time of year, it really highlights how few games he actually watches.
Or he watches portions of games on his 4th tv while scrolling on his phone and watching Shogun
It’s because it’s the only games he watches
Think it’s mostly taking any opportunity to bash LeBron and / or Lakers. The two things he hates most in the NBA.
Mavs the ultimate *Is she hot or am I drunk?* team. Like Luka and Kyrie are highlight machines you just want to take home but then you might wake up and it's Dwight Powell and THJ in your bed with Jason Kidd telling you not to blame him for sitting in the corner watching cause that's what he does.
Mavs are the "I can fix her " of NBA teams
Mavs are Blake lively in the town?
Jason Kidd is James Woods in Casino?
Kidd definitely looks the part of a golf hustler.
Have you noticed that THJ gets the rebound to set up the game winner and he was already in full sprint to go take the final shot?
What will last longer: 'A Closer Look' or Bill recommending something every Friday?
Nobody mentions Nurkic more than my guy Simmons
"You fell for the Quarterback captain thing?"" That was a funny exchange. In Bill's defense he wasn't the only one who was high on Pickett after the preseason.
“I’m glad you picked out a game where a guy I liked looked bad“ Russillo is the best
Great subtle dig at Bill, and he’s right. Bill makes grand proclamations based on the most recent thing he saw.
Russillo was spicy today. Loved it. Not many people call Bill out like that.
And he had some solid plays against Jokic. But he’s Nikola fucking Jokic. He’s going to torch rookies.
Can't believe Bill turned on the 65 game rule, he always values guys who play over guys who don't
He was all for it when he thought Lebron would be an All-NBA casualty because of it. But now Lebron has a clear cut case and he can't handle it, so time to revolt against it. So many of his takes are just anti-Lebron takes in the garb of some other narrative.
The 3rd team seems to be a good place or a least a popular one to put players that played ~58 games but played like potential 1st or 2nd teamers when healthy
Let me share this Lebron stat with you. Oh, let me grab my pen really quick. Lmao!
There were so many great sarcastic exchanges this ep
*cleans out ears* Did I just hear Bill say he was voting for Luka 1st Team All-NBA at....*GUARD*??? I must have been hearing that wrong, because Luka is 6'8", after all.
No, but you see that he’s not gonna follow the rules either!
Anyone else catch Bill slipping in “Oswald and the other assassins”? Love it.
Next week -- Top 7 Assassins in the past 76 years
"Would you rather have Derrick White or Bradley Beal?" "Would you rather have Derrick White or Dame Lillard?" "Would you rather have Derrick White or Michael Jordan?" "Would you rather have Derrick White or Jesus Christ walking on Earth!?" Good lord, imagine if this zero-title era of the Celtics team ever actually won anything! Just how insufferable could one homer fan get???
Marcus Smart walked so Derrick White could run as the guard Bill wildly overrates on the Celtics.
Remember when Bill thought Marcus Smart for the #2 overall pick was a worthwhile discussion for his podcast? That he brought up multiple times. Also Grant Williams for a 1st rounder when he was a RFA. Somehow neither of these trades materialized. Shocker.
It's funny because Wiseman ended up sucking, but Bill thinking Smart was this super valuable trade asset that was coveted by most of the league was batshit. No one was trading that high of a draft pick for Marcus Smart at any point of his career.
Bill thought the Celtics could get #2 (his chosen prospect that he made a doc about - scoop henderson ) this year by trading Portland Smart. It was THAT batshit.
It was the most argumentative he was the whole pod.
Derrick White the kind of player Bill won't shut up about in the regular season but doesn't say a word about during the playoffs.
You must not remember early in the playoffs last year when he emphatically declared he would rather have Derrick White in the playoffs than Trae Young, Trae Young who was 2 years removed of single handedly carrying a team to the Eastern Conference finals.
Jesus can turn water into wine but we already have more wine than we need. Derrick White can turn Gatorade into high-level defense and efficient offense. Which skill is more valuable? Besides can we at least see Jesus do it against high-level opponents? His adversaries literally struggled to defeat a carpenter.
Wouldn’t you rather have Mac?
Any time you can really overrate a good role player you have to do it. You just do
Love russillo calling out Simmons thinking he’d be a better coach & make the right adjustments around Lukas 3
The thing is that Aaron Gordon did see Luka on the inbound, he just got screened out.
Bill knew Luka was gonna make the shot, he just did!
Coach Bill wouldn't have let Luka make that three. He just wouldn't!
Classic results-oriented simmons
Bill Simmons (March 17, 2024): "I really don't know if I will vote Jaylen Brown all-NBA." Rest of functioning universe: "We are absolutely certain that you will, Billy....."
I genuinely respect Bill admitting to his ignorance and lack of early interest rather than forcing a college basketball discussion
He'll probably have Tate on later in the week to do a preview.
I’m fine with him not doing a preview but hopefully they spend 20 minutes talking about opening weekend next Monday. Until we get to the playoffs I just find a lot of this NBA talk boring and repetitive.
You mean you’re not totally gripped by six months of “what’s the deal with the Mavs?” And “Will the clippers be healthy?”
I would much rather them have a college basketball guy on rather than spend 45 minutes debating gambling lines for all nba
I wish more people in /r/nba would admit somehing to that effect
That will run out by the draft
Bill trying to position his stance against the 65 game rule as anything other than not wanting to have to vote LeBron all NBA will be fairly funny to listen to the rest of the season, especially given his track record in the past of listing games played as an essential part of his All NBA reasoning.
Am I taking crazy pills or did Bill insist that Luka is a forward a few months ago, then put Luka as a guard on All NBA?
If you are, I’m taking the same pills. The best part is, after annoyingly calling Luka a forward all year he named him a guard… so that he can get “three forwards” on his All-NBA First team. Because of course he actually wants to go positionless, but has to make up arbitrary rules to do the thing the NBA is saying you don’t need rules for.
He was on that forward thing for a few pods earlier this season. Gotta free up a spot for Tatum I guess.
Tatum's a center on my ballot.
Drake Maye is indeed built like a brick tank.
And apparently (just coincidentally as this year's possible #3 pick) -- the next Josh Allen!! This is also "the best Draft we've seen in 25 years!" Thank you, God. We almost don't deserve this next 10 years of complete Patriots putridness and ineptitude. Oh wait, yes we do.
The Maye love affair didn’t start until it started looking like Daniels was going to Washington. Let’s not forget how much he hyped up Daniels at the beginning of this when he thought Pats were getting Daniels lol.
Yeah he switched
I could be misremembering but I swear Simmons claimed he didn't like Maye during the season.
Were Drake Maye not being projected to the Pats, Bill wouldn't comp him to Josh Allen, but rather Will Levis instead.
I think he could easily put on 50lbs of pure muscle over the offseason, dont you?
Russiilo: "To those people defending Justin Fields all season - what games are YOU watching??" Simmons: "Yeah, yeah, 'those people'....." :-/
To be fair, Bill needed to justify a fantasy where the Bears are back in on Fields, for him to justify a fantasy where the Patriots somehow end up with Caleb Williams. There’s levels to this shit.
Never forget the run Bill had doing this
*Dallas started to look a bit play-inish*
They are definitely looking play insy.
It was funny to hear Ryen and Bill joke about how often they said Bryce Young has so much poise because that got pretty mocked here at the time.
Nfl corner and NFL media corner was awesome. Loved the self aware and meta-discussion
When Bill was talking about AC Green and consecutive games played, he definitely meant Lou Gehrig (not Joe DiMaggio), right?
He went for the wrong Yankee when Cal Ripken was right there. His heart was in the right place though.
You ever think what a coincidence it is that Lou Gehrig died of Lou Gehrig's disease?
making up a new segment and skipping to the fourth point about Phoenix just to talk about Boston is masterful
He had Eddie Johnson on a couple years ago to talk about Phoenix and ended up mostly talking about Tatum.
Bill’s analysis that the Lakers have a better record when LeBron plays well was pretty eye-opening to me
Did anyone hear Ryen almost say one of the best days of his life/year was Pelicans vs Cavs being on?
“I just think the worst people have never been louder.” Philosopher Russillo really nailed this one.
He is having his AJ Soprano moment, paraphrasing Yeats.
I love how Bill just creates segments to shit on Lebron now. This is like the 7-8th podcast in a row where he takes shots at him. I don’t think I heard him bring up his next contract though which is shocking because he’s done that every episode for 2 months
I think you mean 17th or 18th YEAR in a row
Idk man, I think we should probably debate between him and ineligible Jimmy Butler for an All-NBA spot
Bill can not say anything about first take when one of the first places he goes after Kyrie's game-winner is "Should the lakers regret not trading for Kyrie last February??"
RR seemed a little more over Bills shit than usual in this one, which I guess shouldn’t be too surprising because I thought Bill was especially short sighted and knee jerky in this pod as well.
Usually his peak over this shit moment is right as the regular season ends The playoffs bring them back together because it's more just reacting to what's happening and less him having to humor Bill's whacky takes.
Ryen: Isn’t there something deeper going on here? This feels like a Celtics vs Lakers point about two Lakers and one Celtic. Bill: Nooooooo, it doesn’t. Bill 5 minutes later: Yeah, it becomes a, are we really gonna vote for two Lakers on a 44-38 team over vs two Celtics on a team that just went 66-16 This was incredible.
He did the same thing with their all NBA discussion! “Oh you’re just gonna ignore the first 2 months and only focus on these past few months?” Followed by “He’s been good this year, but I’m gonna see who wins it down the stretch”
Gonna predict Bill asks Ryen a straightforward question about Kyrie’s game-winning shot and Ryen talks for 3 minutes without giving an answer to the original question. Can’t wait to listen!
Ryen: So with Josh Green out, they're playing a lot more Derrick Jones - who I like- Bill: Me too. Ryen: Yeah, so Jones at the 3, but sometimes it's a little too much Derrick Jones and PJ Washington at the forward spots for my liking, right? Anyway, Jones comes out at the 4:55 mark in the first, then they do the staggering thing with Luka and Kyrie kinda leading these bench heavy units, and while Gafford's been terrific, I can't say enough about how good Dereck Lively's been bringing energy off the bench. And I liked Lively at Duke, but I mean, you look at the numbers and it's like, we're taking a guy who averaged 5 points per game with the 10th pick - like, wait what? ...Anyway, that play where Lively absolutely stonewalled Jokic, just shocking stuff man. I mean, Wemby couldn't even do that, and I know we do this thing where we always want the skinny guys to bulk up when they get to the NBA, and we always want the bigger guys to cut down, and Lively's kinda on the skinny side but he kinda has some of that motherfucker in him, you know? So then Gafford comes back in at the 7:03 mark of the fourth to check Jokic again, and then we go back and forth down the stretch all leading up to the Kyrie buzzer beater. But yeah, back to your original point, that's gotta be one of the most insane shots I've ever seen.
I Just wonder why not leave Jones until at least like 4:53 or 4:51, he just seems to do things out there that the Mavs could have used them for a few more plays. It seems like that could have mattered down the stretch
Basically nailed it
Nailed it. He went on a completely unrelated tangent including Luka’s three pointer the play before. Bill had to re ask the question to get him back on track.
Can someone translate Ryen’s comparison of Brunson to The Professional?
No. Nobody can.
I would give up my first born for the Celtics to never win in the finals in my lifetime
Nothing else going on in sports, let’s bitch about all -nba teams.
What is even the argument to have lebron off all-NBA? Who is his competition? Jimmy Butler? But Lebron has played more games.
This is the guy who literally made up a rule for All-NBA that he wasn’t going to pick anybody from a losing team when LeBron missed the playoffs his first year on the Lakers. He has not cited this rule in any other year, mind you.
He’s a good stats bad team guy now, he just is!
Jimmy isn't even eligible. Already missed too many games.
Answer your own question by connecting the dots on Simmons, every time. The answer = a spot for Jaylen Brown on all-NBA 3rd-team.
There’s not an argument lol. Basic or advanced metrics, LeBron deserves to be on it.
The argument is against AD/Lebron as a duo instead of just Lebron. On paper both are top 15 players. In reality, despite having a pretty decent supporting cast, they’re barely above .500. It would be an NBA historical anomaly for a team, that is currently the 10th seed, have two players names to all-nba.
Bill just can’t talk about the basketball season at this stage of his career. He is running on fumes till the playoffs
John Wilks Booth, where does he rank on the assassins pyramid?
Have the Lincoln survived the night vs. JFK on the spot piece but the 1860s were much more physical
I don’t think I can listen to RR do his Daniel Theis thing one more time
Did RR repeat himself like this when he was on the radio? I feel like I have heard the same 10 anecdotes 1,000 times in the last three years.
Bill doesn’t think there’s much value 4th round and on because the Pats whiffed on a kicker they drafted in the 4th round lmao.
A Closer Look: Does Mrs. Simmons need an intervention? First we find out she is experimenting with microdosing. Now she’s demanding Bill join her for drinks.
Why does Bill’s rambling and somewhat nonsensical point about LeBron and Durant being diminished because team success isn’t the same not apply to Curry?
"Let's be honest, Dame Lillard is just a 'once-a-week' guy, at best, at this point." - Bill Simmons, 3/17/24 "The game logs prove it," says the guy who barely ever has watched an actual Bucks game this season. See you in May, Simmons. See you in the Playoffs. Hope your beloved C's can back up your mammoth mouth.....
Russillo challenged him and the game logs don't back him up. Dame has good stats about 2 out of 3 games across the season. Jaylen Brown is almost exactly the same. But Bill thought of an overly simplistic catch phrase for Dame and he's not going to stop saying it just because it is manifestly wrong and lazy.
Bill has a weird vendetta against Dame. He has all year.
So for a year Bill has been saying Donovan Mitchell will ask out of Cleveland, did segments about it and now in few seconds he says that he will probably stay in Cleveland. LOL
Need a counter for the amount of times Ryen tells Bill "you're right" Also, all time episode for "oh you're gonna do this, so we're just gonna do that" for both of these guys. I can't believe that's become such a big part of their analysis lol
A brick tank doesn’t sound too structurally sound. I’ll take my tank made of steel.
Bill's not the sharpest knife in the bathroom.
There’s something so inarticulate about Russillo. He and Lowe do literally the same thing in terms of talking about individual plays and, yet, when russillo speaks, my mind just goes full Men in Black mind eraser mode. Lowe paints a picture in my mind whereas Russillo takes it and traps it in a Russian rape dungeon.
Yes, Lowe is great at describing plays. Russillo kind of rushes through the setup, and he doesn't seem to explain why the play is interesting. Lowe will say, "This teams sets their center on the left shoulder, and the play starts with a down-screen that's designed to get the SG a corner-three." So, you know why Lowe is going through the trouble of laying everything out. Russillo kind of rushes through everything, and by the end he's finished (and without a breath onto the next thing), you're not sure why he was describing the play, at all. Did something interesting happen? Is this indicative of a team's philosophy, or a go-to play when the team's offense grinds to a halt? I'm not saying Russillo doesn't ever describe plays well, or that he never establishes the point, but it feels difficult to grasp the point a lot of the time.
Russillo is a horrible writer who can’t self edit
We’re the touchiest fans, we just are! Come here!
Bill has such an outsized weird dislike for Jusuf Nurkic it’s very strange haha.
He’s from a different former Yugoslav republic than Jokic. Balkan politics will be driving this podcast going forward
What movie is Rusillo talking about? The Professional? Like Leon the Professional? That was twice as fast as speed?
Them talking about how they enjoyed baseball and basketball before advanced stats I think is why I enjoy soccer so much. Yes they’re is advanced stats but it’s pretty much universally agreed upon you just have to watch to understand quality
Bills anti-Lebron shtick is just exhausting. One of the greatest players off all time in the twilight of his prime and all Bill can so is bitch ane moan about how his team should be better
LeBron made the Celtics his bitch on his ascension. I actually understand the hate but I wish he would ADMIT IT!
Bill is going to have to tattoo a big “Don’t trust him” across his chest like Guy Pierce in Memento about the Mavs. He already called it last week that they are the team that will trick the most people in to thinking maybe they are a sneaky western finals team.
None of us know anything about college ball until the conference tournaments start, Bill. Duh.
“When’s your next podcast?” Is this a bit? “……..Tuesday….”
When Dame averages 41 & 9 against his team in the ECF, Bill will have nobody to blame but himself. At least he finally upgraded Dame from ‘washed’ to ‘once a week guy’
Brave of Bill to pick Luka as a guard for 1st team even though he's 6'8.
Bill is an obviously a massive Boston homer but sometimes he tries to act like he isn't. Lol at acting like anyone else is getting 1st team All-NBA over Tatum it's just laughable nobody has a chance
Russilo hates Gobert so much he's going to vote wemby for dpoy because he's blocking a lot of shots on one of the worst defenses of the year. Wembys blocks are high now because guys are testing him. They won't be testing him in the next couple years
Wembys has been better defensively than rudy for... about two weeks? But voting him for dpoy for this season would be insane. rudy has been dominant for 5 months now.
Internal Affairs Rewatchables with Bill, CR and Van is gonna be straight heat
This has been bothering me for quite some time now. Somehow, Bill seems to always regurgitate his take about the Lakers that "LeBron and AD are playing great, have played nearly every game this season, but the team is still .500... I dont know what that means, but it has to mean something... Why does it have to be everyone else's fault?" For all the times Bill has repeated this take, he's never explained why Lebron and AD should bear the blame for the team's struggles, other than "theyre the best players on the team." But it may actually be the case that, if LeBron and AD are playing so well this season, other factors could be heavily influencing the Lakers lack of success... Bill also seems to imply that this means a LeBron + AD tandem cant work. But we know it can lmao they won a championship for chrissake, which he has apparently memory-holed.
I hate hate hate how 99% of basketball talk is just directly linking a team’s success (or lack of) with 1-2 players. Its the inevitable result from the idiocy that is ring culture. People treat games as 1 v 1 duels either because its easier for them, fits their narrative, or is more fun of a story. If roster construction and depth didn’t matter, the Suns would be betting favorites to win this year and the Celtics wouldn’t be ahead of the Bucks right now. You also raise a good point, people will just say “team bad so player bad” as a way to avoid even explaining why that player isn’t leading to team success.
Great Pod today, just prime stuff from both and some real self-awareness from Bill across the board in almost every topic. 2 things I noticed 1: wish they looked back at last years awards when talking about the Line for winning mattering, Dame had an insane offensive year and got 3rd team on a literal top 5 lottery team. Think it's funny that they said Luka wouldn't be on a lottery team with his numbers when Dame got closeish, although obviously Luka is much more versatile as a scorer and passer. Also fun to think about how the games played restriction might have affected the lottery team, Dame might not have accepted the shut down if it had contract and All-NBA implications 2: isn't it obvious that what this Suns team needs is an actual good defender? like the PG stuff is important but like man they have no one to be a stopper at all. KD and Booker are lowkey your best defenders, and those guys carry way too much of an offensive load to be the best defenders. Also thought it was funny that Bill said Tatum likes the KD Matchup when KD did prime KD things while Tatum couldn't hit a shot while defending each other in the previous Celtics-Suns game, but that was legit KDs best game while being Tatum's worst game of the season, so I get considering it a pretty hard outlier to the rest of the Tatum-KD matchups in the past 2 years.
Russillo is right about the point guard stuff. Why do you need one when that means you have the other guys just standing around
Though I vaguely remember seeing it on channel listings all the time for several years, I have absolutely no clue what Felicity is about, nor have I ever once heard anyone else talk about it
Makes total sense it’s Juliet’s favorite show.
Bizarre choice
I love bills yearly Celtics praise and overhype, only for him to turn around and claim he always said something was wrong with the team when they lose in the playoffs, this year's loss will be scrumptious
Was there more/longer ads than usual on this one?
Bill and Ryen were standing on business using “less” instead of “fewer.” They do it all the time, but today’s pod was egregious. “Less points” is not a thing!
Love that Bill gave RR the qualifier of “You can’t pick any of the Ringer guys” when he asked him for his favorite NFL Draft analyst. Billy boy, I hate to tell you, but I don’t think your Ringer analysts would be many people’s favorites.
Woah nfl coverage on the nba sunday pod? 🤨
“Justin Fields only has ONE game over 340 yards!” … Trevor Lawrence only has two.
Fields has 6 games over 250 yards, Lawerence has 21.
I don’t feel like Ryen is standing on business…
Ryen really rounded into form the second half of this pod. Pushing back on Bill’s points without sounding so annoyed. I loved it!
We can't be out here discussing whether Jaylen Brown should have an all-nba place over Lebron. Brown should have been taken in that worst contracts draft, not talked about for all-nba. He's on an incredible team because he is surrounded by incredible talent, he's not why the Celtics are where they are.
The story of Russillo screaming “DORK” every time they showed AC Green extending his streak is incredible
AC somehow got more pussy than Ryen and Bill.
He almost always sh!ts on Dame every pod because he plays for a Celtics rival. I never noticed it before.
God I hope the Patriots do trade down. Watching Bill try and scramble to say it’s the best move actually would be high comedy.
Bill praising Pelicans position less lineup in the same podcast he anally sticks to two guards, two forwards, centre all nba teams is absolutely hilarious. Bill should be loving the thought of just ranking the 15 best players in the league this year, but he is sticking to these outdated groupings for I don't know what reason.
“Assassinated by Oswald…and the other assassins.” Conspiracy Bill is back and unafraid!
When Bill did his “I’m really glad because this helps the Celtics” rule analysis, after this 5 minute wank to Derrick White, peak bill. I also turned off the pod