Let's Talk About the James Harden Trade

James Harden has been traded to the Los Angeles Clippers. Let’s discuss.

This was a long time coming, and at 2 am my time last night, it finally went through. The Clippers are receiving Harden and PJ Tucker. The 76ers got a bunch of picks and a good amount of mid level players. They got Marcus Morris Sr, Nic Batum and KJ Martin. There may be other players involved, maybe even picks, but these are the big names moving teams. The Clippers got the guy they wanted and they did not have to move another first round or Terrence Mann. The 76ers got rid of Harden and regained draft equity and mid level players to possibly move in a deal for a bigger name to pair with Embiid.

Looking at this trade from far out, if I just focus on the names, the Clippers got what they wanted and did not have to move much. Sure, the draft pick is a big deal for them, but in a win now move that is a decision you make 100 percent of the time. The Clippers now have four future hall of fame players on their roster. The defense is still very solid, and got better with the addition of Tucker. They have four guys that can create a shot at any time and they will score a bunch. Harden will also be a good stopgap when one, or let's be more realistic, both Kawhi Leonard and Paul George get hurt and miss time. This is the move they wanted to make all summer long and they now have a ton of time to integrate Harden into their offense. The 76ers got rid of their biggest headache. They don't have to worry about where Harden is, if he will show up, if they have to fine him, all of that is out the window now. He is not their problem. Embiid will get to roam the court with nobody blocking him or stopping the ball. Tyrese Maxey is going to get more and more of an opportunity to grow and get better as a scorer within their offense. And let's not overlook the players they acquired. Batum brings veteran leadership, an okay enough 3 point shot and solid defense. Marcus Morris Sr is tough and not afraid of anyone. He could be the enforcer they have needed for some time. And KJ Martin is a high flying, super athletic player. He will find himself open near the rim so much more now that he will be playing with a dominant guy like Embiid. Both teams, looking at it this way, achieved what they wanted in this trade.

This trade is not all roses. The Clippers have four guys that want to have the ball in their hands at crucial moments. Westbrook has finally found a game that works in his older age in the NBA. But it only works with the ball in his hands. Paul George is a wonderful shot creator, a great 3 point shooter and a very good mid range guy. But, he likes to create more often than not, and that requires the ball being in his hands. Kawhi Leonard is a true big game player. He may be one of the best clutch players in the game. But he, much like George, needs the ball in his hands to do those things. And then there is Harden. He has made no qualms about how much he wants, and needs, the ball in his hands to be as effective as possible. He is one of the biggest ball stoppers in the NBA. The whole cliche of "there is only one ball" has never been much of a thing for me, but this time it truly applies. As for the 76ers, they lost one of the best lob passers and pocket passers in the NBA. Harden is a magician passing the ball to willing shooters and Embiid was finding himself so wide open near the free throw the past two seasons due to Harden's passing. Now he has to rely on a guy like Maxey, who has shown flashes but is not ready for that yet. There is also Patrick Beverly who is pretty much just a defender in the league now. Tobias Harris has never been a fully willing passer. And De'Anthony Melton is so much better being an instant scorer off the bench. Without Harden, Embiid's shots may become tougher.

I'm excited to see how this all ends up for both teams. As for picking a "winner" in this trade, both teams won. They both got what they wanted. Now we have to see the long term effects. I can't wait. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the greatest basketball writer on the internet.

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Ty Ranks the 2023 - 2024 NBA Teams - Hanging Out at a Great Music Festival Division

Day five of my preseason NBA countdown brings us the start of the top ten. These are the top teams. These are the teams with real title aspirations.

At 10 I have the Memphis Grizzlies. This is my team. This is who I root for. I want nothing but the best for them. The hard part is they have floundered in the playoffs and Ja Morant, due to his own fault, is suspended for the first 25 games. They are going to miss him a lot. He is a very important guy to this team and their playoff hopes. They did get Marcus Smart in a trade. I like the defense, grit and willingness from him to shoot. Desmond Bane is getting better every year, he is their best shooter and he is a solid enough defender. Steven Adams should be back from injury. He brings toughness and much needed rebounding. Brandon Clarke should, hopefully, return at some point this season, and he is a great glue guy and bench player. Jaren Jackson Jr is the reigning defensive player of the year. He is also a good stretch four. He just needs to stop making dumb fouls. I like the addition of Derrick Rose. He is a solid vet and he is returning to the place that he dominated basketball. Kenny Lofton Jr should get spot minutes. Luke Kennard is a decent shooter, but he is inconsistent. Ziaire Williams has looked better this preseason. Santi Aldama is an okay backup big. The Grizzlies have a ton of talent. Now that talent needs to translate to the playoffs. They also need to play big while Morant is suspended.

At 9 I have the Sacramento Kings. The Kings are fun and good again. I feel like it is the late 90's, early 2000's all over again. De'Aaron Fox is awesome. He is fast, he is clutch and he is the perfect point guard to run this offense. Domantas Sabonis is a bruising big man who is one of the better low post passers in the league. Keegan Murray played well above his years last season and was dominant in summer league. Davion Mitchell is a superior perimeter defender. Malik Monk is a microwave shooter. Harrison Barnes is still around and still productive. Kevin Huerter is better than people give him credit. Chris Duarte has got range. This team has gotten better over the years and hiring Mike Brown was a wonderful decision by the front office. They are tried and true and will be for a good long time now.

At 8 I have the LA Clippers. The Clippers have so much talent on their roster. They have stars almost everywhere. Will that talent be healthy all year though? That is the million dollar question. Kawhi Leonard is an amazing basketball player. He is one of the best defenders in the league. His offense has gotten so much better. He is a terror for opponents. He can single win games single handed. But he has to play more than 20 games. Paul George is a bit more durable, but not by much. But when he is out there, boy oh boy is he awesome. He can shoot from anywhere. He is one of the best shot creators in the league. He is an awesome defender. There is not much he cannot do, except stay healthy for long stretches. Russell Westbrook rebuilt himself going to the Clippers. It seemed like an odd fit, but he slid right into that sixth man spot and was a great addition last season. I see that getting even better. Norman Powell is awesome when he isn't the first option. The dude can score in bunches, and when the Clippers have their stars on the floor he is always open. Ivica Zubac is a very good rebounder and a solid defensive presence. He just gets kind of dazed on offense from time to time. Terance Mann is amazing. I enjoy watching him play basketball. I also loved how he was messing with Chris Paul in the playoffs last season. Mason Plumlee and Nic Batum add veteran leadership. And Kobe Brown looks like a nice draft pick. The Clippers should be very good this year, but it all depends on health.

At 7 I have the Golden State Warriors. The names are all the same and they should win a lot of games. But man are they getting old. Steph Curry is the greatest shooter in the history of basketball. He is amazing to watch play and I am so happy that I am around to witness his greatness. Klay Thompson is still recovering from two horrendous knee injuries, but the guy puts up buckets. He has also started trash talking a lot, which I appreciate. Draymond Green is still a pest and the best system player this league may ever see. He is also still a top tier defender in the league and he is the only guy that I truly believe can guard all five positions with no drop off. Kevon Looney is the best rebounder in the NBA and he is the perfect center for this team. He just isn't much of a scoring threat. Johnathan Kuminga is seemingly getting better. Moses Moody may have a make or break year for this team. Andrew Wiggins should be fully back all season and he should be engaged. I love them bringing over Rudy Gay on a small deal. Gary Payton II should be full go and he had his best years within the Warriors system. And they brought over Chris Paul. I don't know how or if that will work, but I do know that he is maniacally trying to win a title. The Warriors will win a ton, but the old legs may be their downfall in the playoffs. I wouldn't bet against them though.

The final team for the day, another old team, at 6 I have the LA Lakers. The Lakers got so much better this offseason, and last year they made the conference finals. LeBron James is back and looks as good as he always has. He is the second greatest player of all time. He does amazing things with the ball in his hands. He is the best modern leader this game has ever seen. James rules. Anthony Davis looked awesome in the playoffs last season and I think that will translate to this season. He is such a good player when he is engaged and focused. He just needs to stay on the floor. I do not like, nor do I get the cult of Austin Reaves. But, the dude can shoot and playing alongside James is in his best interest. Rui Hachimura really found himself as a bench player with the Lakers. He looks like a trade steal. D'Angelo Russell is not as good as advertised. He can shoot, but he is often a minus on defense and can be a turnover machine. Getting Gabe Vincent is going to be big for their bench units. He can shoot and defend. Cam Reddish may actually be an okay bench player for this team. Jaxson Hayes is going to love grabbing lobs from LeBron. Jarred Vanderbilt is a long, switchy defender. The Lakers went out and found guys that fit around LeBron and AD. That is what they have needed to do for quite some time now. They did it and I think it will work in their favor.

That is it for today and for the week. Come back Monday for my top five teams. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the greatest basketball writer on the internet.

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Ty's 2022 - 2023 NBA Season Preview: Clippers, Warriors, Bucks

Welcome to day ten, the final day of my 22-23 NBA countdown. These are my favorites. These are the teams I believe in the most. I will do a playoff and awards prediction on Monday, and a men's college basketball preview on Tuesday. But this is the final day of my countdown.

At number 3 I have the Los Angeles Clippers. I have believed in the Clippers for a few years now, but this is the most I have ever believed in them. They have it all. Kawhi Leonard is back. He is amazing. He is the best overall defender in the NBA, he has become an incredible scorer and he is seemingly healthy again. He looked pretty good the other night, and I believe he will only get better and better as the season wears on. Paul George is also back. George is wrongfully hated by the media. He is a very solid two way player. He has had a solid career and he thrives being Robin to Kawhi's Batman. Ivica Zubac is okay. He can be frustrating at times, but he can also look very good. Reggie Jackson has found a solid home since leaving OKC. He fits very well with this squad. Robert Covington is a beast of a defender and can score here and there. Norm Powell is a great bench scorer and is one of the most important players on this title contending team. John Wall is back and I am so very happy. Wall was one of my favorite players and I wish nothing but solid health for the rest of his career. Luke Kennard can still shoot the three, and he is asked to do nothing else. Terance Mann is a promising young player. Marcus Morris Sr is their enforcer. Nic Batum still carries a little weight. This Clippers squad is loaded. They are deep and incredibly talented. They should be very good, depending on health. This team is legit.

At number 2 I have the defending champs, the Golden State Warriors. It is rinse, wash, repeat for this team. I feel like last season's title was so very fulfilling for this team. They did it their way on their own. I should despise this team but I just don't. They are fun to watch. Steph Curry is still amazing. He is a wizard on the floor. He has gotten better on defense. He is the best shooter of all time. He is in a class all his own. Klay Thompson is fully back and I couldn't be happier for him. It was such a sight to see him play last season and work out the kinks. I love that he is back. Jordan Poole got paid. We all know the offseason drama between him and Draymond Green, but that seems to have passed. And Poole is looking every bit like the next great shooter from Golden State. This is probably the last go round for Draymond Green here and I think he will relish it all. He loves this team, but they may not love him. He does great things that this team needs and this should be his final dance here. Andrew Wiggins proved he belongs. He was incredible in the Finals last year and he also got paid. James Wiseman adds depth and height to this squad. He just needs to stay on the floor. Donte DiVincenzo fits almost too perfectly with this team. It is gross. JaMychal Green brings offensive rebounding and grit. Kevon Looney is their center now and for the foreseeable future. Johnathan Kuminga and Moses Moody should get a chance to show they deserve playing time. And Andre Iguodala is their Udonis Haslem. The Warriors are very, very good and will be as long as Steph Curry is on this team.

And my number 1 team for the 22-23 NBA season is the Milwaukee Bucks. I love, love, love the Bucks. They are my father's favorite team and I find it hard to not root for them when they are not playing the Grizzlies. Giannis Antetokoumpo is the best player in the league. Full stop. He does it all, and is a very good player in the NBA. He is the one and only unicorn in the NBA. When healthy, Khris Middleton hits all the big shots, plays stout defense and has a very calm demeanor. Jrue Holiday may be the best perimeter defender in the league. He also hits big shots when called upon and plays a fun style of basketball. Brook Lopez will be there for the full season and that will benefit him and the Bucks. Bobby Portis has totally turned his career story around and has become a great energizer off the bench. He is awesome. Pat Conaughton can shoot the three and d up. Serge Ibaka can still give this team small minutes here and there. Jevon Carter brings toughness. Wes Matthews fits so well on this squad. This Bucks team has everything you could want in a modern NBA team. They are my early title favorites, and as the season goes on I think most will agree with me.

That is it, that is my 2022-23 NBA countdown. I hope you all have enjoyed it. The season is currently going on so enjoy the games. This should be a great season.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the greatest basketball writer on the internet.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

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Ty's 2021-2022 NBA Preview: Trailblazers, Mavericks, Hawks, Clippers

Welcome to day five of my 2021 NBA countdown. All of these teams are playoff bound. They could even make noise if things go their way. I like some of these teams but I also dislike one team on my countdown today. You'll see when I discuss said team.

At 14 I have the Portland Trailblazers. This feels like the last chance they have to do anything with Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum. I think if they have another early playoff exit, Dame is gone. That being said, they do still have Dame for at least this season. And he is a killer. This dude is a beast on offense, can score from anywhere past half court and is a big game player. He has put teams out of the playoffs in his career. He is so awesome, loyal and has pushed this franchise as far as they have been since the early 90's. CJ McCollum is another really good scorer. He has gotten better each year he has been in the league. He is also a super fun social media follow. But he is who he is at this point. He's good, not great. I liked the Norman Powell addition at the deadline last year, and I thought it was smart to re-sign him. He adds more scoring and is a solid defender. Jusuf Nurkic, if he can stay on the floor, is a great big man for this team. He has also become a solid post scorer. He just needs to stay healthy. I love the addition of Larry Nance Jr. He is a better version of Derrick Jones Jr and he is a much better defender. The Cody Zeller signing was very blah. If Anfernee Simons is going to pop he needs time on the floor and this may be his last chance in Portland. Tony Snell is a sniper. Robert Covington has slipped, but he can still be a menace on defense. Nassir Little just hasn't gotten it yet. And guys like Marquesse Chriss and Patrick Paterson are toast. I like Portland, and if they make a push for a guy like Kevin Love that could really open things up. As for now they are a firm playoff team simply because Dame is so damn good at basketball. He is amazing.

At number 13 I have the Dallas Mavericks. I think the Mavericks might be the most overrated team in the NBA. They have not been out of the first round in two years yet some seem to think they are on the precipice of the Finals. I don't get it. I also do not get all the love for Luka Doncic. He is a very good offensive basketball player. He does very good stuff. But he is boring, and whiny and slow and not the super duper star that Zach Lowe or Bill Simmons have made him out to be. He is also atrocious defensively. He is a fine player, but he is not an MVP. Not even close. Kristaps Porzingis is the softest seven footer I have ever watched. He is also very whiny. He is also very brittle. And he thinks he is way better than he actually is. He is a seven foot shooter, and he is not named Dirk. Tim Hardaway Jr has turned out to be a sniper, but he is also a total defensive liability. He gets hunted by other teams. Maxi Kleber is not the defensive stalwart that ESPN has made him out to be. Kawhi destroyed him in the playoffs last year. Dwight Powell cannot stay on the floor. Willie Cauley Stein has bounced around the league and cannot seem to find a right fit. Boban is more of a personality than a player. Reggie Bullock was a solid signing who will bring some kind of defense to this team. Frank Ntilikina was brought in for defense alone. Jalen Brunson is very blah. And Dorian Finney Smith has not made the leap. The Mavericks are a playoff team, but I see them more of a 6 or play in type playoff team. They are not even close to a title contender.

At 12 I have the Atlanta Hawks. They had one hell of a ride last season. Now we will see if they are for real. I think they are. Trae Young is awesome. He played the role of villain so great. He is a great shooter and excellent passer. He rules. He has also gone further in the playoffs than Luka. John Collins showed out in the playoffs, got paid and I think he is due to make another leap. He is great. I love Clint Capela on this team. He is a perfect pick and roll partner with Young and he looks to be returning as a defensive stopper. Cam Reddish has shown flashes in his limited role, which is perfect for him. DeAndre Hunter is proving that the Hawks were right to take him so high in the lottery two years ago. Bogdan Bogdanovic and Kevin Huerter are great three point shooters and floor spreaders. Sharife Cooper will get to learn how to play point guard from Trae Young. Lou Williams is still a super hot scorer from the bench. Jahlil Okafor has fully bought into being a minimal role player and that suits him. And Gorgui Dieng is a great fit as a deep bench vet. The Hawks are back and it is good to see. This team is young and fun and will be around for a while.

The final team for today, at number 11 I have the LA Clippers. They are only here because of injury. They would be a lot higher if they had a healthy Kawhi. Without Kawhi, for probably the whole year, this team is going to have to dig deep to be a real playoff threat. Paul George was great last year. I do not care that a lot of people say nasty stuff about him, the dude is good at basketball. He more than showed up against the Suns. He put on a show. He is also one of the best defenders in the league. PG can play, and he proved that tenfold last year. Terrance Mann proved he belongs in the league. He had a very solid playoffs. Reggie Jackson seems to have found a home, and with Patrick Beverly gone, he is the starting point guard. Eric Beldsoe is not as gifted athletically anymore, but he brings veteran experience to this team. They're taking a flyer on Justise Winslow, and if he does any little thing, he will help this team. If Serge Ibaka can stay on the floor he can space it offensively, is still an okay rebounder and can still protect the rim. I think Keon Johnson will find minutes here and there and he will bring energy to this squad. Ivica Zubac is a very solid center. Luke Kennard is overpaid, but he can shoot. Marcus Morris Sr was also good in the playoffs and he is tough. And Nic Batum still has something he can add to this team. The Clippers are kind of in nowhere land with Kawhi being out. But they still have some guys on this team that will push them to the playoffs.

That is it for today. Come back tomorrow for the next four teams.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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The Suns Actually Did It

Last night the Phoenix Suns beat the Clippers in game six of the West Finals to advance to their first Finals since 1993. This is quite the feat.

I have seen all the stuff online about how this is fake. They got the Lakers when LeBron and AD were hurt. The Nuggets did not have Jamal Murray. And the Clippers were without Kawhi. While that is all true, the only series I thought they might not win was the Lakers series. The Lakers had a 2-1 lead, then the injuries happened and then they imploded. But LeBron was still there. They were still the defending champs. As for the Nuggets, while not with Murray, they still had the league's MVP. Jokic was still in the lineup. So was Michael Porter Jr, Will Barton, Austin Rivers and all their subs. And Jokic was great. He did his thing. But that is what the Suns wanted. They let Jokic eat and dared the other players to beat them. They did not. The Suns swept them.

Then we have the Clippers. First off, all the Clipper fans complaining about the lack of "love" they get, or that everyone that doesn't root for them are "haters" or that Paul George and the rest of the team gets too much hate, get over it. I am a Michigan football fan. I do not want to hear about it. I have heard it my whole life. Michigan has a ton of fans, but there are more people that hate them, and I guarantee they hate Michigan football much, much more than anyone hates the Clippers. And for the fans that claim this season a "success", that is the deepest form of sports regret. This team should have at least gone to the Finals once. I picked them to go twice. This team was built around star power that has playoff success, and the best they have done is a six game series in the West Finals. This experiment hasn't worked yet, there is time, but so far it has not been great. They flamed out in the bubble, and they got beat easily, granted without Kawhi, by the Suns.

This was all to simply give the Suns their flowers. Now, I do want to say that I do not like their bandwagon fans. That idiot with the "Suns in 4" shirt that started a fight, he is the worst of the worst. Most of their other fans are not so great people. I disagree with a lot of their ideals and beliefs. They are bad, mean people. But for players like Devin Booker, Deandre Ayton, Mikail Bridges, Dario Saric, Cam Payne and, especially Chris Paul, this is awesome. They have been mostly healthy all season. They have played exceptional team defense. Their offense is very good. Monty Williams has done a hell of a job in his first year as their head coach. This team deserves to be here. They have been one of the best teams in the league all season, they were the two seed, they had one of the harder paths to get here and they did it. They did it with relative ease in fact. They are as solid a team as the NBA has right now. They remind me of the Spurs teams that were led by Tim Duncan, except they are more fun. Devin Booker is a knock down shooter. He is every bit as advertised. He is going to lead the league in scoring very soon. Deandre Ayton is a great, great modern big. He can stretch the floor a bit, he is a great rebounder, he is great around the rim, he is proving he was worth the number one pick. Mikail Bridges was an absolute steal when they traded for him on draft night. He can shoot and he plays great defense with his long arms.

This season is all about Chris Paul for me. He was the missing piece. I have been hard on CP3 his whole career too. He never made it to the big stage, until now. He is still a flopper, but it has worked so far. He has always been dirty, but that has played to his benefit. Just look at what Patrick Beverly did to him last night. He shoved him in the back when Paul wasn't even looking. That is not a good look, but we all know CP3 did something, and Beverly reacted wrong. Beverly will be, and should be, suspended for what he did. But to me it just proved that CP3 was in his head. His talking got to him and neutralized him. He did exactly what he wanted. And it worked. Chris Paul has been everything that the Suns needed and hoped and now he, and the franchise, are reaping the benefits. They are back in the Finals. I actually think they will win. I believe the gambling places have them as the odds on favorites. That is due to the young guys accepting their roles, and the addition of CP3. The Suns did it. They are in the Finals. Now they have to wait for their opponent. But again, I think they will win it all.

Congrats to the Suns.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the greatest basketball writer on the internet.

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Ty's 2020-2021 NBA Preview: Can Win It All

Today is the final day of my NBA countdown. We are eight days away from the start of the regular season. I will do predictions tomorrow, but as far as my rankings, this is it. These are the best of the best. These are the teams that have the players, coaches, staff and fortitude to win it all. The only thing stopping these teams are COVID or injury. I hope neither happens to any of them.

At number 5 I have the Boston Celtics. The Celtics are loaded with great young talent, they have one of the better head coaches and they have, for such a young team, lots of playoff experience. They also got rid of an albatross contract. The only thing that worries me with this team is depth. But man is their starting five loaded. Jayson Tatum is a straight up star. He can score from anywhere, he is lethal, he has the killer mentality, he plays defense and he just gets better and better. I am a true believer that he is a future face of the league. Jaylen Brown is an elite defender, and he is hyper athletic. His jumper is improving and he is asserting himself as the firm number 2 on this team. He may waffle from time to time, but he always makes up for it. Marcus Smart is the new age Tony Allen. He is a menace on defense. He can guard pretty much all 5 positions and he can draw fouls and mess with opponents heads. He isn't great offensively, but he is good enough. When Kemba Walker is healthy he is one of the better scoring guards in the NBA. He is also a solid perimeter defender. He is a better fit on this team too. He is so much better fitting in than being the star. He is injured, and will miss a month or two, but when he is back, the Celtics have three guys in the starting five that can go for 20 every night. Robert Williams may float in and out of games, miss some meetings and over sleep. But when he is engaged, this kid is good. There is a reason he slipped to the Celtics in his draft, but there is also a reason he was considered a lottery pick. He is starting to show flashes, and if he can reach some of his potential, he will only help this team. Daniel Thies is a solid defender. He does the dirty things for this team. Jeff Teague is a fine player, and that is all he has to be here. Grant Williams got decent, important minutes in the playoffs, and that is big for him. After these guys is where it gets murky. They gave Tristan Thompson too good of a contract for him. Tacko Fall is more of a spectacle than a player. Carsen Edwards and Romeo Langford haven't done much in their two years. Semi Ojeyle seems to be getting passed over. This is the worry for me with this team. But that starting five, and first two off the bench are more than enough for me to like them as a contender out of the East.

At number 4 I have the Miami Heat. Some said it was the bubble, others said it was Jimmy Butler, but I just think the Heat are a very good team, and they deserved to be in the Finals last season. Jimmy Butler proved yet again how important and viable he is on a top team. He willed them to the Finals. He had them as prepared as one player could. Bam Adebayo just keeps ascending. He is one of my absolute favorite players to watch. He goes hard, he rebounds and plays defense and he is becoming a great low post player. Adebayo is awesome. Tyler Herro has done more at 20 than I could ever imagine. He averaged double figures in the Finals. He averaged double figures as a teenager in the early playoffs. This kid is a straight up scorer. Now he has to play defense. Duncan Robinson is one of the most lethal shooters in the game, and the kid has earned every minute he now gets. He has made a name for himself, and all he has to do is shoot. He too needs to improve defensively. Goran Dragic re-signed there, and he is a perfect sixth man on this team. He runs their second unit so well. Kendrick Nunn had some ups and downs, and didn't play as much in the Finals. But, he can heat up at any moment. Andre Iguodala and Udonis Haslem are old, and their primes are way past them, but I would love to have two guys like that on my team. They are additional coaches when on the floor. Getting Avery Bradley will help their already good defense. Meyers Leonard provides front court depth. This team is good, and a return trip to the Finals wouldn't surprise me at all. Jimmy Butler is that dude.

At number 3 I have the LA Clippers. I was so very high on this team last year, and they totally blew it. They ran out of steam, they let the bubble get to them, and they lost a 3-1 lead to the Nuggets. They led to Doc Rivers leaving, and them letting a few other players walk. But this team is still loaded, they have to have revenge on their minds and I love hiring Ty Lue to take over as the head coach. Kawhi Leonard is not going to break down like he did in the bubble again. He will be back and he will be back with a vengeance. I wouldn't be shocked to see him return to his Spurs and Raptors self. He is a robot, but a robot that will be out for revenge. Paul George just signed a max deal, he is engaged to be married and it looks like he is having fun again. I know he said some stuff about the coaches last year, but who cares. This guy is an elite scorer and an even better defender. He just needs to stay focused. They also have Patrick Beverly and Lou Williams and Reggie Jackson back. Beverly is still an upper tier defender and his shot is better, Lou Will is a great, great bench scorer and Jackson plays all out every night. He may shoot too much, but he goes hard. Marcus Morris is a good dude to have on your side, and his shot is solid. Ivica Zubac is an underrated, solid big man. I like replacing Montrezl Harrell with Serge Ibaka. He may be older, but he is taller, he is a better shooter and still a bit better around the rim on defense. Luke Kennard adds long range shooting. And Nic Batum can still do some little things. The Clippers should bounce back. I would not be surprised to see them really challenge the top of the West. Some guys will need to step up, and play better than they did in the bubble, which I think they will. The Clippers will be just fine.

At number 2 I have the Milwaukee Bucks. The Bucks have the two time reigning MVP. Giannis is one of the best players in the league, and listening to him in interviews only furthers my belief that he is still getting better. Once he starts to hit his outside shot a bit more consistently, he will be as unstoppable as Shaq. He is also the best defender in the league. I love the addition of Jrue Holiday. He is a major upgrade over Eric Bledsoe, and he and Giannis will be a very formidable duo. Khris Middleton is another lockdown defender, and he can really shoot the ball. He needs to play better this year, but he will have ample shot opportunities playing next to Giannis and Holiday. He just needs to knock them down. Brook Lopez adds size and shooting. Donte DiVincenzo is inconsistent, but he can light it up. I wonder if his name being in trade talks will affect his play. Same thing for DJ Wilson, except he was barely seeing the floor anyway. Giannis brother Thanasis is there, and while it is cool that they are on the same team, I don't know how much he will truly see the floor. Bobby Portis is okay, but he shoots a bit too much, and people still only really know him from punching out another teammate in Chicago. And adding DJ Augustin adds a nice veteran, but also age. This team will be all about Giannis and Jrue Holiday. If they coalesce as I expect them to, they will be on top of the East.

The final team, the best team going into the season is the defending champs, the LA Lakers. They are here, they deserve it and they are, at least on paper, a much better team than the one that just won the title. They have LeBron back, and that is humongous no matter what. He was amazing in the bubble, and especially in the Finals. I still like Jordan as the GOAT, but LeBron is definitely the second greatest player ever. And no disrespect to Dywane Wade and Chris Bosh and Kyrie Irving, but he will be playing with his best teammate ever again this year, Anthony Davis. The two of them were a devastating pair. And Davis actually played a little better without LeBron on the floor. Davis is one of the best defenders in the league, he is probably the best big on offense and he showed some strength and ability to not get injured last season. He is also just now entering his prime. If they just had these two guys, and three of my friends I hoop with starting, they'd be a playoff team. Lucky for them though they have real NBA players, and they are solid. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope took a major step last year, and I fully buy him as a solid third or fourth option. He was awesome in the Finals. They replaced guys they let go of, Rajon Rondo, JaVale McGee and Dwight Howard, with Marc Gasol, Montezl Harrell and Dennis Schroeder. Gasol is a better defender and passer than both McGee and Howard. Harrell is a bull dog and a force on offense. Schroeder is a younger, and better offensive scoring version of Rondo. They upgraded all three of those positions. Alex Caruso is a solid player. I don't like the hype surrounding him, but that isn't him, that's the ESPN's of the world. He works well with LeBron's game. Talen Horton Tucker looks like a steal in the preseason. And Kyle Kuzma and Wes Matthews will be solid bench guys, if they keep them both. The Lakers only got better, and they should be the hands down favorites heading into this season.

There you have it, my teams ranked from 30-1. This feels right. I will be back tomorrow to wrap up my preseason NBA preview with predictions and award winners. Also, I want to wish my wife a very happy birthday. She is cooler than any other wife out there. That is just facts. Happy birthday, I love you.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the greatest basketball writer on the internet.

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What the Hell Happened to the Clippers?

Now that I have gotten the Big Ten restart feelings off my chest, I am ready to talk about the Clippers blowing a 3-1 conference semifinals lead again.

This was stunning. I assumed they were front runners for the title. Steve Ballmer jeopardized the future of the team to bring in Kawhi and trade for Paul George. Kawhi was the prize free agent last year. He was just coming off a Finals MVP and helping Toronto win a title and he wanted to be in LA all along. I wasn't so sure if it was with the Lakers or Clippers, but I knew it was LA. He wanted to go there before he was traded to Toronto from San Antonio. To no one's real surprise he picked the Clippers, and everyone, myself included, lauded the choice, the Clippers for pulling it off and Kawhi for not choosing the Lakers. Then they added Paul George, and my head exploded. I did not see that one coming. He signed an extension with the Thunder a year before, and then in an instant he was gone. So due to the fact that the Clippers acquired Kawhi and PG, and did not really lose too much of importance, they seemed like the team to beat going into this season.

And they did just fine. Sure they looked disinterested at times, they nursed injuries longer than they might have needed to, they played to the level of their opponent, but still, they seemed like they could turn it on when needed. I kept saying that. I kept telling anyone that said they may not be a title contender that they were crazy. They have Kawhi, who is one of, if not, the best overall player currently in the NBA. They've got PG, who was fully healthy, is a scorer and can defend on the perimeter with the best of them. And they had the important guys from their core the year before returning. They looked primed to finally make the West Finals and Finals and win it all. Even when the season stopped, and then restarted, I was still fully in on them. Even when the media decided to only focus on Luka and the Mavs in round one, I kept saying that the Clippers were going to roll in games 5 and 6 to close it out. And when they got up 3-1, I was sure Denver was toast. The Clippers looked like they had finally flipped that switch and were going to roll.

Then the Clippers blew a 16 point second half lead in game 5. I thought, okay it was one game, basketball is a finicky sport filled with crazy runs and Denver will never play any better than they did in the second half of that game. Then it happened again. I watched all of game 6. I figured when they built their lead to almost 20 that they were going to close it out. They had the new guys they needed and they looked prime to win. Then they started to foul and foul Denver, giving them free points and slowing the game to a grind. Denver trimmed the lead to 2 to start the fourth quarter and the momentum they had gained from there pushed them to another improbable comeback to force a game 7.

This was when I thought they were in trouble, but hey, I wrote on Tuesday that I thought they were going to win, and win handily. I assumed that Kawhi would do what he did last year, and what he did with San Antonio in their championship runs. I figured he wouldn't let this team blow it. He is too dominant a player to let that happen. And through the first half, and the first 3 minutes of the third, it looked that way. The Clippers had a 7 point lead, Denver couldn't hit a shot and they had to call a timeout. It didn't matter that Lou Williams wasn't making shots, and that Kawhi and PG were bricking everything and that Morris couldn't hit the ocean, they looked like they were locked in and ready to take the game over. Then Denver went on an 8-0 run to regain the lead. All the things I thought the Clippers were going to do, they did the opposite. There were missed defensive assignments everywhere. PG was getting beat by guys like Gary Harris and Torrey Craig. Nikola Jokic was making precise passes to wide open cutters. Jamal Murray exploded, at one point in the fourth quarter throwing a prayer at the rim and getting all net. I mean, it was amazing to see the Nuggets just take the will out of the Clippers. When Murray hit that improbable three, the deficit was 13 with about 6 minutes left. Teams can come back from that, it isn't that big a lead, especially in the modern NBA. But that three put the Nuggets up 16, and the Clippers quit, plain and simple. PG was throwing bricks left and right. One of his threes, uncontested mind you, hit the side of the backboard. Kawhi looked tired and sluggish and slow. Lou Williams was missing layups. Hell, the only guy who came to play was Montrezl Harrell, and as much as I enjoy his passion and play, when he is your leading scorer, on a team with Lou Will and Kawhi and PG, that is a problem. The Nuggets didn't just win, they took the Clippers lunch money. They played free and loose, without a care in the world, and it showed. And it showed that the Clippers played tight, with everything to lose and they got taken to the woodshed in the process.

This was baffling. After the game, NBA Twitter was filled with bomb after bomb after bomb. I highly recommend going to see what CJ McCollum and Damian Lillard were tweeting about during the game. It is pretty amazing. Analysts and beat writers and TV personalities were foaming at the mouth. Nuggets fans were cool about it, and I expected that. But the worst of anyone were Lakers fans. Some of the stuff they were putting was downright nasty. I am a Michigan football fan through and through, and I see stuff like this every year when they inevitably get beaten by the University of Ohio State. But, that usually comes from former players and lifelong fans. These Lakers fans were going nuts, calling the Clippers out and doing some wild stuff, even for the internet. It was crazy. But, when you blow a 3-1 lead, and you have a player in Patrick Beverly, who I would love him if he were on the Grizzlies, talking all his trash, and PG playing like he did, and seems to do every playoffs now since dubbing himself "Playoff P", and then to have all the finger pointing and excuses afterward, maybe some of the talk and slander is deserved.

I don't know where this leaves the team going into the future. I know PG said something along the lines of "this wasn't a title or bust year for us". That is wrong. They should, at least, be in the conference finals. But, I do know that he and Harrell don't necessarily get along. They are obviously going to pick PG, so where does that leave Harrell? Is he going to take less money to compete, or will he opt for a big deal that he most definitely will get offered by some other team this offseason? Where does this leave Lou Will? He is the instant offense off the bench for them, but he never meshed with PG and Kawhi. What do they do with Zubac? He plays his role, but could they get someone a little older, and maybe better equipped to play with PG and Kawhi? I have seen the name Marc Gasol kicked around already. And what about their staff? Doc Rivers is back, and even though his playoff record is less than stellar, he has won a title, and I think he is good with super stars. He should stick around. But I am sure Ty Lue is going to be a head coach very soon. Sam Casell will get some interest. They are going to lose some important assistant coaches who definitely deserve their chance to be a head coach. This was a pretty awful outcome for this team as assembled right now, and they will be dealing with a good amount of changes both in staff and personnel. And the way they have acted since the end of game 7 has made this that much worse.

This was a mess, this was not the way it was supposed to end, but here we are. Now I am curious to see how they handle this offseason, and what they look like next year. Maybe I was wrong, and the "Clipper Curse" is real. They shouldn't have blown this series as badly as they did. Definitely not with this current roster. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the greatest basketball writer on the internet.

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The NBA Restart Has Given US Two Must Watch Games Tonight

Tonight we have two pretty big NBA games. Let’s talk about them.

The Heat and Celtics will kick off the Eastern Conference Finals. I did not expect this, I believe I picked Milwaukee and Toronto, but I am not surprised Miami made it. I am surprised at how easily they have made it, but not surprised they are here. They are a good team. They play team basketball. They have good to great defenders. Jimmy Butler is proving that he is totally worth the headache when he is happy. They have a great young, and modern big, in Bam Adebayo. And they have shooting all over the floor. They are really good, and have looked really good getting here. Will they be rusty or tired? Maybe. But, I expect Butler, and Erik Spoelstra, to erase that quick and get back to playing like they were a week ago.

The Celtics had a tough, well played and well fought series win over Toronto. Toronto gave them all they could handle. They played them hard, played them dirty, played them like you expect a champion to play, even after losing their best guy, but the Celtics still won. I thought they were a year away. I thought they were still too young. But the young dudes stepped up, and Kemba Walker looks like himself. The knee injury and whatever else was bothering him seems to be gone. But I want to talk about their young guys. Jayson Tatum is a star. I have been lukewarm on him since college, but that dude is a player. He was absolutely great in the Toronto series. He was a scoring machine. He was making open jumpers and getting to the basket. He is becoming what many others saw coming out of Duke. He is a legit guy who could be the face of the league in a few years. Jaylen Brown might be the new Kawhi, except I think he is more athletic, and a better shooter at a younger age. Kawhi is great, more on him in a few, but so is Jaylen Brown. Brown is hyper athletic. He is a dunking machine. He is making open shots. And he is one of the premiere defenders in the league. He is becoming one of those lock down guys, a Kawhi Leonard type. And he leaves it all on the floor. I do not like the Celtics, not at all, but I love watching Jaylen Brown play basketball. He is one of my favorite young players. They also gave a rookie from Tennessee, I cannot for the life of me remember his name, who was playing super important, late minutes in a crucial game seven, and he was great. He played very solid defense.

The Celtics and Heat series is going to be good. I think that the Heat will finally have a series go a bit longer, but I do think the they will win. I think they will win in six, but seven wouldn't shock me either.

The other game tonight is one that I did not see coming at all. The Nuggets have made it to another game seven, for seemingly the tenth time in a row. And they are doing this making humongous comebacks against the Clippers, my and almost everyone else's preseason and restart pick for Finals winner. The Clippers are supposed to be this dominant defensive force with guys that can score more than enough points to win most games. They have held big leads, close to 20 point leads, in the second half of the last two games, close out games, and they have been beaten in both of them. Does this mean the "Clippers Curse" is real? Is Paul George not a marquee guy? Does Kawhi have enough in the tank? Are Montrezl Harrell and Lou Williams overrated? I don't think any of this is true. The "Clippers Curse" is bogus. They are a moribund franchise and they, just this season, I will never be a buyer of the "Lob City" Clippers as a real contender, got two real good guys. George is looking a little iffy, but he is still very good. And Kawhi may be the second best overall player in the league, behind only Giannis. I think Paul George is good, and he has rebounded just fine from his rough series against the Mavs. I think Harrell is still getting in "quality" shape, he didn't play in any seeding games, and he barely played in the Mavs series. He is also only 6'7, which is small for his position. And Lou Williams has been everything the Clippers have asked him to be. What is happening, at least to me is, the Nuggets are playing with house money, and they have guys hitting shots in crucial moments. Michael Porter Jr, while he says dumb things, has been solid on offense. Gary Harris has been out forever, but he is looking better. Morris is a great bench scorer. Nikola Jokic is having fun and getting every Clipper that guards him in foul trouble. And Jamal Murray is finding that rhythm he had in the Utah series. He is looking like that scoring machine that made me want to watch him play. This series has turned fun, and I don't think I have been this excited to watch a game seven that doesn't involve teams that I am a fan of. I could care less about these two teams, but I am definitely tuning in to watch tonight. I do think the Clippers will win, and I think they will win convincingly. But, the Nuggets have made it fun, they have made it a series, and if they pull off another 3-1 comeback, they may be one of those teams that is just destined to make a run this year.

I am pumped to watch some basketball tonight.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the greatest basketball writer on the internet.

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The NBA Did Not Disappoint

Last night was absolutely amazing. I watched every second of both NBA games that were on, and boy did both of them deliver. The games both started kind of slow, but other than that, they had some great moments, some big dunks, great defense, exceptional passing and it was the first time in four months that I felt somewhat normal. I was watching professional basketball that counted and it was simply wonderful.

This pandemic is just getting started, we are still a ways off from any kind of answers, other sports, mainly the MLB and football, seemed doomed to be postponed or out and out canceled, but the NBA, they seem to be doing it right. They seem to have figured something out. They are, much like other pro soccer leagues overseas, doing the right things, and it is working. And last night was the first big punctuation to their plan. This was the NBA putting their flag in the ground and showing how this could work right now. It was awesome. Outside of the basketball on the court, I'll get to that in a minute, all the prior to the game stuff was done very well. The introductions felt real. The announcers were there, but they were separated by Plexiglass. Everyone who was with the team, but wasn't a player or coach, they were all masked up, and most were gloved. The players that they let come watch the games, they were spread out, they had masks and they seemed to be enjoying themselves and their teammates' company. The kneeling before the game during the anthem was perfect. Every player and coach on both teams knelt before both games. It was tremendous. The social issues that some players chose to wear on the back of their jersey's was very tastefully done, and I loved reading all the different sayings, and seeing which player wore what saying.

Then we have the actual basketball. As I said, it started a bit slow, you'd expect that after an emergency four month stoppage. But as the games wore on, the play became better and better, and more competitive. It seemed like the players were feeling each other out at first, but then they simply switched into game mode. Brandon Ingram, in the Jazz-Pelicans game, was out there cooking for a while. Once he got going, the rest of the Pelicans started to buy in. Zion threw down an alley oop that was spectacular, JJ Redick provided some nice moments off the bench, Jrue Holiday was playing lock down defense and hitting shots, and the Pelicans started to get up and down the floor. The Jazz came out hot, with Rudy Gobert running things, but kind of cooled off for a minute. Then they started to chip away at the Pelicans lead. Mike Conley hit tough shots, Joe Ingles was a pest, Royce O'Neal was hitting threes and Donovan Mitchell started to feel it in the second half. The game came down to the end, with Brandon Ingram just missing a three that would have won the game at the buzzer. It was a great appetizer to the main course.

That main course was a scintillating Clippers-Lakers game. I know the Clippers were without Montrezl Harrell and Lou Williams, but hey, they are still a solid team without those guys. The Lakers though, man did they come to play. Anthony Davis was doing it all, including hitting an inordinate amount of free throws. JaVale McGee was rolling and dropping hooks everywhere. Dwight Howard provided solid rebounding off the bench. Danny Green made shots. But LeBron showed why he is still the best player in the world. He had a rough shooting night, but he made great passes, played some solid defense, and when he needed to, he made shots. The Clippers looked pretty good too. No Harrell meant more time for Zubac and Joakim Noah. Both guys had solid defensive games. Reggie Jackson got the start since Patrick Beverly just cleared protocol prior to the game, and he played like he did while in OKC. Beverly was no slouch either when he got in. He didn't shoot well, but he was that bulldog on defense. Paul George looked fully healthy for the first time in two years. He was making jumpers, asserting himself to get to the rim and playing his usual stout defense. Kawhi had some short jumpers, tired legs, but he ratched it up when he needed to like LeBron, coming on real strong in the second half. LeBron ended up hitting what was essentially a game winner, and the Lakers got a win on opening night in a game that was better than the first.

This couldn't have worked out better for the NBA. They had two great games, all the stars that were there played, made some plays and were all over highlights this morning. The lack of a crowd was nullified for me watching from home. Honestly, I couldn't tell the difference. The fact that these guys played as hard, and as well as they did, it made the fact that there were no fans moot. I liked the big TV screens that showed people, and the pumped in noise, but again, it didn't really affect my watching at all.

I'm so happy that the NBA is back and started off with a bang like it did. I hope they continue to have success, as far as people staying healthy and good games, and they are able to let this thing run its course. But, for at least one night, I felt normal again, watching real basketball games. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the greatest basketball writer on the internet.

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Ty's NBA 2019-2020 Preview: Clippers, 76ers

Okay, today ends my NBA countdown. I have my top 2 teams going into the 2019-20 season. That doesn't mean I am done writing about the NBA, not by a long shot. I will do my predictions, title and awards, tomorrow, and on Friday I will do my men's college basketball preview. But, the 2 teams I have today are the best of the best when fully healthy. These are the 2 teams that I think will matchup in the finals this year. They have good rosters, play good defense and, on paper, are the best 2 teams.

Okay, coming in at number 2 I have the LA Clippers. The Clippers had the coup of the summer. They got Kawhi Leonard. It seemed like a forgone conclusion that he was going there last summer, but he went to Toronto and won a title. And make no mistake, without Kawhi, the Raptors wouldn't have won. Now he is off to LA, and he, right now, is the best 2 way player in the league. Not to outdo themselves, the Clippers, on the very same night they signed Kawhi, traded for Paul George, who might be the second best 2 way player in the NBA,. This was shocking to me. I didn't think he was going to leave OKC. I assumed he and Westbrook would run it back at least one more year. But from everything I read, Kawhi wanted to team up with him, and the Clippers moved heaven and earth to acquire George. They traded away their future, but at least Kawhi and George are still relatively young. And when George gets back to full health, those 2 are going to be a nightmare for opponents. George shot the ball very well until he got hurt last year, and we all saw what Kawhi did in the playoffs. Getting these 2 guys was a tremendous boon for the Clippers. And the rest of their roster is pretty damn talented. They got Pat Beverly to resign, and he is the biggest pest, I mean that in the best way possible, in the NBA. He is also a perfect point guard to pair with the other starters on this team. He has also earned his place in the league, and it is hard to not root for a story like his. Montrezl Harrell has really become a solid big man. He is solid in the pick and roll, he can play defense, he is a good rebounder and he is tough. Lou Williams might be the best sixth man of all time, and that dude is instant offense. When he comes on the floor, he is liable to drop 30 on any given night. He is the shooter this team needs. Ivan Zubic proved to be a solid role playing big off the bench last year. I never would have thought that when watching him as a Laker, but he proved his worth as a Clipper. Landry Shamet can shoot the ball, and he was way better as a rookie than I thought he was going to be. JaMychal Green is a solid spot minute big man that is super long. Jerome Robinson had an odd year, and will barely see the floor, but he will be an okay bench player. And signing Mo Harkless was a low key good deal. The Clippers are the best defensive team in the league, and they can put up points too. This team, at full health, has the ability and talent to be very, very good.

But, there is one team that I think is better than them, coming in at number 1 I have the Philadelphia 76ers. My how the times have changed. I once called the 76ers the worst franchise in professional sports, but I'll be damned if all the tanking didn't kind of work. Joel Embiid is an absolute monster on both ends of the floor. He is unguardable in the post. He is so, so close to being the modern day Hakeem Olajuwon. I watched him in a preseason game last night, and while only going about 50 percent, he dominated. Embiid is so good. He just needs to stay healthy and stay on the floor. Ben Simmons is a 6'10 point guard that is a problem. He is so good with the ball in his hand, he is an excellent passer, he plays good defense and is a real threat to attack the rim at any point. And, if these videos of his three point shooting are even half real, watch out. If he has any semblance of a jump shot, he will vault himself into the conversation as a top 10 player. I feel like they picked the right guy to resign when they gave Tobias Harris a big time deal. Harris is a better teammate than Butler. He may not be as good a player, but the gap isn't that wide. Harris is a good shooter, a good defender and a great locker room guy. Getting Al Horford to sign with them was huge. Yes he is old, and not as athletic as some of the other guys on the team, but talk about a great veteran, and Horford is exactly that. He is also a great defender, a great passer and a solid offensive player. He has also been a great playoff player. And having him and Embiid playing post defense will be a nightmare for opponents. I am also a big fan of Josh Richardson, who they got in the Jimmy Butler trade. Richardson is a solid three point shooter, he is tall and long and he plays defense. I love what I have seen out of Matisse Thybulle, their first round pick. He is energetic and bouncy and looks like he will be a perfect addition. When Mike Scott gets back from his suspension, he will beat the hell out of you and he will hit open shots. Trey Burke has kind of found a home in the league as a bench player. He can fill it up on occasion and he is a solid backup point guard. He is an upgrade over TJ McConnell. Furkan Korkmaz is a summer league legend and has looked pretty solid in preseason. And I'm curious to see how Zhaire Smith looks in year 2. He was a good pick, took some bumps last year, and has had an entire summer and offseason to improve his game. I really, really like the 76res. They are like the real life Monstars. They are so, so , so big. I think their shortest starter is Richardson,, and he is 6'7. They are playing a different style of basketball right now, and with their length and want to play defense, I think it will work out really well for them.

Okay, there are my top 2 teams going into the season., Come back tomorrow for my predictions. The NBA season is less than a week away people. Time to get excited.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the greatest basketball writer on the internet. 

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Cloves and Fedoras: Ramona Shelburne Tells a Tale Worthy of Hollywood with "The Sterling Affairs" Podcast

Cloves and Fedoras is Seed Sings reviews for little known pieces of pop culture. Feel free to contact us with your own submissions of undiscovered gems that must be known.

Zach Lowe finally returned from his annual summer vacation the other day, and released the latest "Lowe Post" podcast. I'm a big time fan of that show, I usually listen to it before I listen to anything else, and I like it so much that even when he has Brian Windhorst on, who I cannot stand, I still listen because Lowe is such a great basketball writer.

Yesterday I was thrilled when I saw that Ramona Shelburne was the guest. She is right up there with Lowe, for me, as far as the best writers in basketball today. I have a very short list, Lowe, Shelburne, Jackie McMullan, hell, that might be it. So, whenever Shelburne is on the pod, it becomes even more of a must listen to for me. She was on to promote her new "30 For 30" podcast called "The Sterling Affairs". Pretty much every, if not all, NBA fans know the story of him being forced to sell the Clippers. Sterling is a total scumbag, racist asshole who deserves all the horrible things in life to happen to him. And that is very straight forward on this 5 part podcast series. But what Shelburne does with this, how deep she dives into his past and present, is truly wonderful. Also, not only do we see how awful Sterling is, but we see that his wife Shelly is not much better. And how V Stiviano was the only person who was willing to put him on blast, but how it had to be an absolute last ditch effort type thing. We also get to hear from lawyers, former players and coaches, announcers and TV personalities. It is so cool, and kind of sad and creepy.

I am three and a half episodes in, I had to clean my house while my kids were at school, the perfect time for me to binge podcasts, and I am totally invested and riveted and disgusted and blown away at what I am hearing. I cannot recommend this enough. Only 3 episodes in, and I find myself yelling at my phone and gasping and being completely shocked, but not surprised at all the goings on from Sterling's early life to when the tapes that Stiviano was recording for almost 2 years released. Sterling has always, and will always, be a racist asshole who only surrounds himself with yes men and women. He is a womanizer as well, a curmudgeon and a cheap skate. Hearing from former players, guys like Olden Poliyence, Ryan Hollins and Blake Griffin, at how uncomfortable and how he treated his players like property is appalling and revealing. The stories of the infamous "white parties" that the Sterling's would throw before the season sound so awful and uncomfortable and sad. Hearing Doc Rivers, who played and coached under Sterling, talk about how awful he was behind the scenes was eye opening. Listening to his wife, who is still with him, makes me angry at her and feel zero sympathy. She tries to come off as all innocent and clueless, but she is complicit in everything he did, does and will do. She is just as bad. Like I said earlier, Stiviano was the one who really brought his horrible behavior to light, but she is not a great person either. She was a star chaser and would be with anyone if they had money. Listening to Matt Barnes talk about her was hilarious because he truly hates her. Apparently she really tried to insert herself into the players lives, and they weren't having it.

What I think I like most about it though is how this story has everything that a big time Hollywood movie would want. It has many bad guys that take advantage of people, guys who were too afraid to tell the main villain to stop, intrigue, disgusting affairs and the main bad guy, finally, getting what he deserves. I cannot wait to finish the last episode and a half. I'm going to workout later, and I will most definitely finish it then.

This is a real homerun. I know that I am super hard on ESPN, but every once in awhile, they do something like this, and it totally works. Check this 5 part podcast series out. It is very well done, and it is a great, yet horrifying story. Know going into it that there is some truly awful language, and some horrible, horrible things are said. But man is this so, so good. I cannot wait to finish listening. Check it out.

Ty

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Ty never thought much about the Clippers until this whole Sterling thing blew up. Now the team cleaned up their ownership nicely, yet they make Ty take notice of the team a but more.

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Done Waiting on Kawhi

So, last Friday I wrote about how I, like pretty much everyone else, was awaiting Kawhi's free agency decision. Well, he made it at 4 am the next morning, and he made it loudly. I was absolutely stunned, not by the fact that he joined the Clippers, but that Paul George was a part of this all along, and that Kawhi pretty much knew where he wanted to go from the start.

This is a monumental move by an enormous free agent, and the NBA finally, mercifully, has parity again. There is a big number of teams I could see competing for the title in this upcoming season now. The Clippers are the prohibitive favorites in mine, and pretty much everyone else's eyes. They have 2 of the best 2 way players in the game, Patrick Beverly is the perfect point guard for this team, Lou Williams and Montrezl Harrell make for one hell of a duo coming off the bench and Mo Harkless was a solid trade pickup. They did mortgage their future, but they got Kawhi and Paul George. That is a move I would make 10 out of 10 times. The other LA team was left to scramble, much to my delight. I have loved hearing columnists say that "they are making out okay" with the signings of Boogie Cousins and Avery Bradley and Danny Green. Oh, they also brought back Rajon Rondo and JaVale McGee. Hilarious. They do have LeBron and AD though, and that is enough for me the make them a playoff team, but they are now the second team in LA. The Clippers have the better, more well rounded and younger dynamic duo. They also have a far superior head coach.

Also, these journalists trying to say the Lakers did fine, stop. They waited for Kawhi and he shunned them. They blew it, just like the Knicks did with KD. I love that Kawhi chose the Clippers because this means Rich Paul doesn't have as much pull as he thinks he does, and it proves how stupid Rob Pelinka is.

The Thunder are going to be an absolute mess next year, and for awhile. I hope for his sake they trade Russ. He deserves to go somewhere that wants him, and won't trade away super star players all the time. I would love to see him go to Miami, but time will tell. I will say, the Thunder made out like bandits in the trade. They got SEVEN future draft picks, 5 first rounders and Shai Gilgeous Alexander and Danilo Gallinari. Gilgeous Alexander is a guy they can rebuild around, and Gallinari is a great trade asset. But, they are going to be bad for awhile, especially if they trade Russ.

Back to the other contenders besides the Lakers and Clippers. In the West, we cannot just push aside teams like the Trailblazers, Nuggets, Rockets and Warriors. The Trailblazers did some weird stuff this offseason, but they still have Dame and CJ McCollum, and Jusuf Nurkic should be back at some point this year. The Nuggets have everyone back from a team that earned the 2 seed last season. The Rockets, even though they are totally dysfunctional, are still one of the better small ball teams in the league, and they can shoot the lights out. The Warriors have Steph, managed to somehow trade for D'Angelo Russell, get Klay back at some point, still have Draymond and they resigned Kevon Looney. While they won't be as dominant, they are still a playoff team. I can't forget the Jazz. Man did they did so much better this offseason. They are going to be real, real good. The Kings are up and coming too. New Orleans is going to be my favorite League Pass team. The West is going to be so much fun to watch this year.

The East is, in my opinion, Philly's to lose. They are so big, will eat teams up in defense and on the boards and will score just enough to win 55 or so games. They need to stay healthy, but if they do, they are legit. Milwaukee has the reigning MVP, they brought almost everyone back and they were the one seed last year. Giannis will only get better, and the shooting around him is key. The loss of Malcolm Brogdon will hurt more than they think, but they will still be good to great. Miami, especially if they acquire Westbrook, will be solid. They already have Jimmy Butler too. And they play hard and rough and solid defense. They want to take your will away, and I think they have the guys to do it. Boston should be thrilled that they don't have to deal with Kyrie anymore, and Kemba is a good replacement. They also have solid young guys like Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. But, Brad Stevens loyalty to Gordon Hayward is a concern, and losing Al Horford is going to sting. The Pacers got some solid pickups in Brogdon and Jeremy Lamb, and when Victor Oladipo gets back, they will be a top 4 seed. The Nets will be a playoff team again this year with the addition of Kyrie. But, next year, even if he is only 70 to 80 percent of his former self, the Nets will be the Clippers biggest threat out East.

I cannot wait to watch the regular season again. This time it will actually count. A game in the middle of the year that features Orlando and Milwaukee, or the Clippers and Nuggets will be fun, and important. This offseason has been wild, and when Kawhi made his choice it was epic. It makes the NBA so much more fun. I can't wait.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the greatest basketball writer on the internet. 

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.

Waiting on Kawhi

As we approach the weekend we still have no decision from Kawhi Leonard as to where he will be playing basketball next year.

It is starting to get a bit frustrating for me. I'm obsessed with basketball, especially the NBA, and this free agency period has been absolutely wild, with Kawhi being the lone exception. Pretty much every other big name free agent has signed, or will officially sign tomorrow. KD and Kyrie are on the Nets. Jimmy Butler is going to Miami. Al Horford is going to Philly. Philly re upped Tobias Harris. Kemba Walker is a Celtic. Utah got Mike Conley and Bojan Bogdonavic. Indiana signed Jeremy Lamb and traded for Malcolm Brogdon. I mean, I'm sure I'm missing someone, but for the most part, the big names, and small names, are off the market. Danny Green and Boogie are still out there, but Kawhi is the biggest of the free agents, and he is taking his sweet time. I mean, I guess I shouldn't be as annoyed as I am. I mean, this is his choice, his decision, and he can do whatever in the hell he wants. He can go anywhere he chooses.

In my lifetime every other big time free agent made their choice fairly quick. LeBron signed with Miami, Cleveland the second time and with the Lakers last year before the Fourth. KD announced on the Fourth that he was leaving OKC for Golden State. When Dwayne Wade left Miami for Chicago, it was done before free agency started. Boogie signed with the Warriors before the Fourth last year. The big guys usually do not take this long to make up their minds.

It actually makes me wonder why he is taking so long. Is it because he is so much different than your average star athlete today? Does he not care about the limelight enough that he really wants to think this thing out? Has he really not made up his mind yet? Has he already made up his mind, and he is just toying with the NBA? Has Adam Silver made a call telling him he really needs to consider the Lakers to make them relevant again? Does Uncle Dennis want him to play somewhere he doesn't want to play next year? Is he going to sign with a surprise team?

I do think all of these are legitimate questions, and with a guy like Kawhi, I don't know that they will ever be truly answered. I think he is taking so long because he is a different dude. I like to believe that he is truly split between the Lakers and Raptors. Hell, I would even go as far to say that the Clippers still have an outside shot. I think he is legit writing a pros and cons list for each team, and pouring over it every night. I think he likes the idea of the Clippers because they are essentially the West's version of the Raptors. Also, it is his home and if he could bring a first title there, like he did for the Raptors, think of the legacy. But, the Clippers, to some, not me because they are currently more relevant, are the second LA team, behind the Lakers.

I think he is considering the Lakers because, again, it is home. But also, it is history and legacy and the ability to play with LeBron and AD. He doesn't seem like the "super team" type guy, but who in the hell knows with him. Maybe he has always wanted to play with LeBron, and AD is just icing on the cake. But, if he does go there, he is third in line behind LeBron and AD. Everyone will talk about him third. Also, it would seem so out of character. I've looked at him as the dynasty killer. The guy that avoids the "super team". He is the guy that wants to beat the best, not join them. And he has done that twice.

And then there is Toronto. Many said he didn't want to play there, that he wouldn't even show up after being traded there. Well, not only did he show up, he won them a title. He hit the crucial buzzer beater against the 76ers. He locked down Giannis in the East Finals. And he put that team on his back and dethroned the Warriors. Pretty much everyone returns from that team, they get OG Anounoby back, Masai Ujiri is staying and he is "the man" on that team. Also, a star player from a title team has never left the year after winning it all. Kawhi could, and would, be the one to change that, but I don't understand why he would. He has it made there, the team is good and he makes them the favorite. But, Toronto is not home, and he already won them a title. He may be looking for the next challenge for him in his career. I simply don't know.

I fear he is going to sign with the Lakers, but I hope he does a one and one deal with the Raptors, and tries to win back to back titles. If he stays in Toronto, they are the favorites. If he goes to the Clippers, they will be one of the favorites. And if he chooses the Lakers, they will be the Vegas favorite, but they will have to scrounge up the rest of that lineup. I'll be anxiously awaiting his decision, but I'm done checking #NBAtwitter and Bleacher Report obsessively. Kawhi is taking his time, so I am not going to wait with bated breath. He could choose today, or it could be another week. We shall see, and wait.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the greatest basketball writer on the internet. 

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.

The Overrated Blake Griffin is Finished in the NBA

To round out my 2 weeks of basketball previews, I want to finish up talking about a specific player. This is not a young player. This is not a rookie. This is not a super star, not anymore at least. This is not a player that will matter come playoff time. This is not an all star. This player is Blake Griffin.

I want to ask a very specific question about him, and then I will try and answer it. And know this, I do not, and have never, ever like Griffin. Even with him going to the Michigan football game last weekend did not score him any points with me. The question, is Blake Griffin done?

Now, I have never thought he was as good as others used to say. I have always thought that he is/was wildly overrated. I have always thought that he is/was soft. I despise his constant complaining. I do not think he takes the games as serious as a supposed super star is supposed to. His win in the dunk contest, however long ago that was, was ridiculous. He did not jump over a car, he jumped over the hood. It was lame. I always thought he was the third wheel in the whole "Lob City" era with the Clippers. I do not think he is funny. I do not like his commercials. I just do not like Blake Griffin.

And before you think this piece is just to slander, you are 50 percent correct.

I have multiple signs that point to the fact that Griffin is cashed as a NBA player. Reason one, the Clippers gave him a max contract last year, and when the time to trade him came up, they did it without a second thought. And, they traded him to Detroit. For Tobias Harris and Avery Bradley. That is not the return you'd expect for a supposed super star. He then proceeded to do nothing to help the Pistons get to the playoffs. The one thing he helped do was get Stan Van Gundy fired as GM and coach. Van Gundy took that risk, and it blew up in his face.

Even before the trade, he was not the star the Clippers made him out to be. He was more known for his whining, dunking, doing stupid shit to fans and getting hurt. He missed his entire rookie year due to injury. He then wasn't much of a star in his next year, even if he won Rookie of the Year. Michael Carter Williams has also won that award by the way. He then got paired up with Chris Paul and Deandre Jordan started to come into this own, and while the Clippers were now a playoff team, it wasn't because of Griffin, at least not to me. Chris Paul pushed that team to the playoffs. Deandre Jordan was the defensive and rebounding stalwart they needed. Griffin was there to dunk. Sure, he developed a mid range shot, but in the modern NBA, most people don't want mid range shooting. Teams want threes, which he cannot shoot or dunks, which he is only getting worse at. The Clippers never made the conference finals with him as their supposed star player.

What really put this all into perspective for me was one instance in the preseason, and another that just happened the other night. Blake Griffin attempted to back down a smaller player, and then tried to elevate for a dunk. This happened against the same team, and the same player denied him, twice. When Griffin went up to dunk, to make the highlight reel like he used to do, his attempt was stopped cold by Jarrett Allen. Now, I know who Jarrett Allen is because I am a humongous NBA nerd. I like Allen. I think he is one of the better rim protectors in the NBA. But, he isn't Joel Embiid, Al Horford, prime Serge Ibaka or Rudy Gobert. Allen plays a smallish role on the awful Nets. And he stoned Griffin's dunk attempt twice. Griffin doesn't have the lift anymore. People aren't afraid to challenge him at the rim. He, of course, looked for a foul call, but both blocks were as clean as they come. These younger guys, that play modern NBA defense, are not afraid of a guy like Griffin anymore. I mean, Jarrett Allen made him look like a scrub. He stopped him cold two times in the matter of a week. Blake Griffin cannot do it anymore. It's either that, or he just doesn't care enough anymore since he is in Detroit, and he thinks no one is watching.

Well, I was watching. I saw the clips, then I watched them again and then I watched them a third time. I have told friends and family that like the NBA to check out the clips. I am writing an entire piece about his lack of explosion now. I have never though that Griffin was a star, and the 2 Allen blocks have just reaffirmed it for me.

This is pure joy for me, and I cannot wait to see the next back up center stone him at the rim again. Blake Griffin is done.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the greatest basketball writer on the internet. 

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.

Ty's 2018-2019 NBA Preview: Clippers, Timberwolves, Heat

As we move into day 5 of my NBA countdown, we finally get our first playoff team, and it isn't even a West team. The West is going to be heavily featured from here on out, but my first playoff team is from the East.

Coming in at number 18 I have the Los Angeles Clippers. Congratulations on, definitely now, being back to being the second, or maybe even third team, that anyone even talks about in LA or California. The Clippers are a shell of what was once the incredibly overrated "Lob City". None of those guys remain. They are all on new teams. They also got rid of Austin Rivers, which I think was one of their better moves in a long, long time. But, what is left over, I am not sold on. I do really like Shai Gilgeous Alexander. That kid became the face of the Kentucky team by the middle of the season, and he ran with it all the way to being a lottery pick. He has also looked good in preseason, and crushed summer league. He should be the point guard on opening night. But, they will roll out Patrick Beverly instead. I know that Beverly is a great and annoying defender, can run a team and doesn't need to shoot all the time. But, he is coming off some big time injuries, doesn't need to shoot because he can't really shoot and is old in NBA terms. If the over under until Danilo Gallinari gets hurt is 20 games, I'd take the under. That dude always gets hurt. Tobias Harris is a fine player, and has shown flashes of being a capable third or fourth option on a playoff team, but the Clippers are hoping he is their "guy". They replaced Deandre Jordan with Marcin Gortat, but what can he really do anymore than set a screen. He may not have liked John Wall personally, but he is going to miss him dearly when he is out there with Beverly or Milos Teodosic. As with Teodosic, he is old and will get hurt very quick too. Boban Marjanovic is their other option at center, but he is more known for his size than his game. He is the modern Gheorge Muresean. Lou Williams can score in bunches, but it won't matter for this team because they will not be playing for anything important after All Star break. I bet he gets traded. They resigned Avery Bradley, and while he was once a very good three and D guy, I think that was a one season deal. He has never played that well, and he is now coming off multiple injuries. Montrez Harrell is another option at the 5, but he is too plodding to face up against the top centers in the league. They also signed Luc Mbah AMoute, but he will not do for them what he did in Houston last season. The Clippers are back to being also rans. Maybe they will be able to lure Kawhi or Jimmy Butler, but that will not happen until next offseason. For now, they are a 38-40 win team at best.

At number 17 I have the Minnesota Timberwolves. Now, a lot of this depends on the whole Jimmy Butler thing. If he were to stay, as I think he should, they would be higher in my rankings. But, he has openly demanded a trade on way more than one occasion. That is why they are just outside of the playoffs for me. He will most likely get traded, I have heard that talks have been heating up, but if he doesn't, I still think, especially in the West, there are 8 better teams. And, who's to say that, if he stays, Butler would be fully engaged? He may tank just to get traded. As far as the rest of the roster, I love KAT. I think he is a great modern center. He can score from inside and out. He is a solid rebounder. He can score against the best of the best. But, he struggles defensively. Some of that is him, some of that is the coaching staff. He gets put in bad situations far too much due to their defensive scheme. Andrew Wiggins is one of the most bashed upon players in the league. I think he is okay, but others just seem to really dislike him. I think he is a very good slasher. I like his jump shot. I think he plays hard. But, just like KAT, he has not been able to play defense at any kind of level in the NBA. He is far too often on highlight reels for the wrong reason. I like both rookies they took, Keita Bates-Diop has looked great so far, and Josh Okogie is the point guard of the future. But, this staff will not play them enough. Thibs would rather play guys like Derrick Rose, he's washed, Luol Deng, I forgot he was in the league, Taj Gibson, who is okay, but real old and slow and Jeff Teague, who seems to hate playing in Minnesota and playing for Thibs. Thibs runs these guys into the ground for no reason. He is also taking on his former players about 5 years too late. Tyus Jones is okay, but he is much more suited for a back up role on a contender. And then there is the albatross that is the Gorgui Dieng contract. While this guy can play a little D and is an okay rebounder, he is making way too much money for a guy that cannot stay on the floor for more than 10 minutes a night. There is a reason they are trying to add him in the Butler trade talks. The Timberwolves are a mess right now. They finally broke their playoff drought last year, but now, they have so many problems, I just do not see them making a return, even if Butler sticks around for one more year.

My final team for the day, my first playoff team, coming in at number 16 I have the Miami Heat. Again, Jimmy Butler has a lot to do with this team, but I am going to judge them on my countdown as if he is not on this team because he isn't at the moment. I like the roster here, but they just don't have the guys to be any higher than this on my list. They have players, but they are mid level at their positions. I like Goran Dragic. I think he is a solid point guard. He is just fine running this offense. But, he is probably around the 10th best point guard in the league. Dwayne Wade is on his retirement tour all year. He will get a ton of the attention, and it is well deserved, he is a sure fire first ballot hall of famer. But, he is not the guy he was the first time around in Miami. Hasan Whiteside should be a top 5 enter in the league, but the dude has some issues. First off, he cannot shoot free throws and his jumper in nonexistent. What he does great is rebound and defend. But, he is too prone to getting into scuffles on and off the court, and he just isn't totally reliable. I like Whiteside's game, I just wish he didn't let the little things bother him. Justise Winslow can defend and can get to the hoop. But, he gets hurt far too much, and his jump shot has not looked good since he was drafted. He also may be traded at some point. Josh Richardson is a fine outside shooter. He's not too flashy, but the dude can fill it up if he needs to. Dion Waiters is coming off an ACL injury, and at his age, that may be the end. He won't admit it, he probably still thinks he is the best 2 guard in the league, but he is not, and I like Dion Waiters. I'm sure the Heat are regretting giving Tyler Johnson the contract the gave him 2 years ago. While he is a fine player, they over paid for him, and he has just not lived up to the money. I really like the high flying Derrick Jones Jr. All he needs is some playing time, and I think the Heat will give it to him. Watch out for this kid. He has been biding his time, and I feel like he is going to explode soon. James Johnson is a bad dude. He is big and mean and tough and I adore watching him play. He isn't anywhere near the best at his position, but I bet every star that has to go up against him dreads it. I think, especially with the uncertainty that Whiteside brings, that Bam Adebayo can be their center of the future, if he doesn't get traded. He has good feet, a nice touch around the rim and can rebound and defend his spot. Outside of those guys the rest of the roster is pretty blah. But, what makes the Heat a playoff team to me is Erik Spoelstra. He has a group of guys that know what they can and can't do, and he squeezes the most out of them that he can get. Spoelstra may be the most underrated coach in the league right now. The Heat will make the playoffs because of guys like James Johnson, Bam, Goran Dragic and Derrick Jones Jr. But, they will mainly make it because of the coaching job that Erik Spolestra does every year.

That's it for today. Come back tomorrow for the next three. It is all playoff teams from here on out.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the greatest basketball writer on the internet. 

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.

Jimmy Butler Should Stay in Minnesota and See What Happens

So I have a few thoughts about the whole Jimmy Butler situation.

If you don’t know, Butler has asked to be traded away from Minnesota. Apparently he has had enough, after just one season, of the young kids on the team, mainly KAT. First off, I have no problem if he wants to go to a team that has a chance to be competitive right away. It took KD leaving OKC for me to realize this. But, if you want a ring before your career is done, I say, go for it. Players careers are so limited now, get it while you can.

With that being said, I liked the fit of Butler with KAT and Wiggins. I also liked him alongside vets like Taj Gibson and Jeff Teague. He also got to go play for his first coach in the league, Tom Thibodeau. It seemed perfect. And at first, it was. The Timberwolves looked pretty good with their starting five, including Butler. They were rolling. I believe at one point they were at the 3 seed in the West.

Then Butler got hurt.

The Timberwolves stopped playing defense. Then Wiggins struggled. Then KAT started to struggle. Then Thibodeau started to play the vets way, way too many minutes. And then Butler said something about the young guys not having the will and the grind to be high caliber NBA stars. I agreed with him, but I felt like this was something they could have been said in the locker room, not to the media. That’s when the cracks started. I heard and read things saying he wanted out of Minnesota. I heard he was floated during the trade deadline. He then turned down a massive extension. This all shocked me.

And now, here we are today.

Butler gave the Timberwolves one last meeting, in LA, the other day, and this was when he asked to be traded. This was clearly a courtesy move by Butler, because he had no intention of sticking around. Now comes the hard/fun part.

Butler has given the three teams he prefers:

The Nets

Why?

The Knicks

What the hell?

And the Clippers

Please god no.

I don’t get why Jimmy Butler would want to leave the Timberwolves for one of these three teams. I know they have the most money, and can easily resign him next summer, but why the Nets, Knicks or Clippers, I may never know. One guess I have, Kyrie Irving has said he wants to team up with Butler, and he’s expressed interest in playing for the Knicks next year. As far as the Nets, I guess, it would be his team. They would have to build around him. With the Clippers, maybe he’s willing to miss the playoffs for one year until Kawhi Leonard signs there, that’s his preferred team.

But I say, what of all these fall through? What if Kyrie and the Celtics click, make the Finals and he loves playing for Brad Stevens? Also, they need a center, and I’d be salivating I’d I were Kyrie at the prospect of playing with Anthony Davis. I love Kristaps Porzingis, but AD is so much better than him. What if the Nets are permanently stuck in this mediocrity hell they live in now? What if Butler is the only guy they can get, and he ends up being a good stats, but team guy? That would be brutal for his legacy. The Clippers are the Clippers. They’re the quintessential underachieving overrated NBA team. Will Butler change that? Maybe, if they get Kawhi. But then he is the second best guy on a team? Will that be what he wants? Doesn’t a trade request mean you want to be “the guy”? That won’t happen if he goes to LA and they get Kawhi. Also, what if Toronto, somehow some way convince Kawhi to stay? Then Butler is left with a bunch of castoffs. Also, especially with LeBron now a Laker, the Clippers will always be the little brother, no matter the records.

I liked the fit of Butler in Minnesota, but I’m just an outside fan. There could be way more stuff I know nothing about as to why he wants out. But for now, it seems to me, he wants to go from a team that could be a perennial playoff contender to some teams with a ton of questions that won’t be answered until next year. We shall see.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the greatest basketball writer on the internet. 

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.

The Clippers Continue to Be One of the Worst Franchises in All of Sports

I want to start off today with a question.

What in the hell are you doing Los Angeles Clippers?

Look, I know that I have written about my extreme dislike for this team, but to give Doc Rivers an extensions, that is bananas. Yes, he was an okay coach at one time, although I think he gets a little inflated with his one title when the Celtics acquired KG and Ray Allen. Before that though, the Celtics wanted to fire him because he wasn't winning. And even before that, I'm pretty sure he was let go by the Magic. Rivers is a very, very middle of the road NBA coach. He has that one title, but that can only take you so far. Since he took over the Clippers, my mind has not changed on him. He had some very talented teams there, and the furthest he got in the playoffs, the second round. He had a team that had a prime Chris Paul, a never better DeAndre Jordan, and a healthy Blake Griffin, and they blew a 3-1 lead against the Rockets. And before that, there is the epic Chris Paul meltdown against the Thunder. There is the plethora of injuries that have this team bounced in the first round. There is his horrific instincts as a GM that has cost this team any semblance of a bench. His go to move as a GM was to sign guys that played the Celtics well when he coached there, but they were far out of their prime, or give his son a ridiculous contract because he's his son. Last year they got bounced by a Jazz team that was not that good in the first round, and I blame the majority of that on his coaching. They had game 7 at home, and his team laid a total egg. Chris Paul looked disengaged. Deandre Jordan wasn't being played hardly at all in critical moments, and Blake Griffin, well, he has been a shell of himself since the blown 3-1 series lead. Then this offseason, after losing Chris Paul, which Rivers did not handle well publicly, they gave Griffin a max deal. They said he would be a Clipper for life. They then went out and signed Danilo Galinari and some other dudes off the scrap heap, and the offseason chatter was that this team may be good. Well, they traded Griffin halfway through the year, Galinari was constantly injured and the guys they acquired from the Pistons, Avery Bradley and Tobias Harris, they were either hurt, Bradley, or didn't do much of anything, Harris. And they were out of the playoff picture before the year was close to done.

So, I assumed, much like everyone else, that the Clippers would relieve Rivers of all his duties, head coach included. They stripped him of player personal development and his GM duties, and I figured head coach was next. But today, they totally flummoxed me. Not only did they retain him, but they gave him a decent extension. I believe his deal lasts into the 2020's. That is insane. Do they really think this team, led by Austin Rivers and Deandre Jordan, if he sticks around, and coached by Doc Rivers will be a viable option in the West? Do they think Doc Rivers will be the guy to lure free agents like Kawhi and Paul George and LeBron to the Clipper over the Lakers or 76ers or any other team that is currently better than them? Do they really think they can reach the Finals being coached by Doc Rivers? None of that is going to happen. As long as Rivers is the coach there the Clippers will continue to be mediocre. He hasn't adjusted his coaching style to the modern game. He still lives in the past, and as I said earlier, signs guys that were once great against him, but are now trash. He will continue to give the keys to the team to his son, and his son is not a great NBA player. His teams will always hover around 38, 39 or 40 wins, but that will never be enough to be a playoff team in the West.

This is a dumb decision by a historically dumb franchise. I've been impressed with a lot of the offseason coaching moves, but this one is a head scratcher. Teams in the West will continue to pass by the Clippers, and the Clippers will return to being a laughingstock of a franchise. This move makes zero sense.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the greatest basketball writer on all the internet. He also does think it is awesome how LeBron handled the MAGA hat wearing douche in his last game.

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There is No Upside for Anyone with the Blake Griffin Trade

Blake Griffin is no longer a Clipper. He was traded to the Pistons in what some are calling a "blockbuster" deal. I don't view it that way. As you all know well by now, I think the Clippers and Blake Griffin are extremely overrated. They have never really accomplished anything noteworthy. They never got out of the second round of the playoffs. They never struck fear in any other NBA team. No matter how bad the Lakers were/are, the Clippers were always the second best team in LA. The dunk contest Blake Griffin won was stupid. He punched out employees of the team. He focused more on his "acting" and "stand up comedy" career. He always got hurt. He was one of the main guys to push Chris Paul out of town. He consistently complains to refs. These are all the things that I will remember about Blake Griffin as a Clipper.

In actuality, he had one great season as a Clipper. He was only once a top 5 player in the league. And that year, the Clippers blew a 3-1 lead to the Rockets in the playoffs. Other than that, he would be featured on ESPN due to some highlight dunks or because he got injured again. I don't think he ever truly bought in to being the face of the Clippers franchise. And yesterday, they ended that possibility for good.

Before I fully get into this trade, I don't think either team got better or worse. In fact, I think they will both finish right about where I picked them both in the preseason. The full trade, and I'm sure I'll miss out on some of the involved players, I will just highlight who I consider important, has the Clippers sending Blake Griffin, Brice Johnson and some dude I never heard of to the Pistons for Tobias Harris, Avery Bradley, Boban and a first and second round pick. At first glance you may see this and think that the Pistons got the better part of the deal. After all, they did get the "superstar". Again, I have never thought he was any kind of star. But, is he really the best player in this trade. Sure, he has had highlight reel dunks, extended his range and is a decent passer, but is he a better defender than Avery Bradley? No way. Is he a better scorer than Tobias Harris? Yes, but he needs the ball in his hands at all times. Harris can spread the floor and find open spots and hit rhythm jumpers. He doesn't need to hold the ball for the entirety of the shot clock before hoisting up a jumper.

The main thing with Griffin though, how long can he stay healthy? I know that Stan Van Gundy is taking a big, big leap, but what does he care? If this trade doesn't work and the Pistons miss the playoffs, he will be fired, but he can go straight to TV and make nearly as much as he does coaching and being the GM. This is a last ditch effort for him to save his job. I loved the combo of big guys in New Orleans(more on Boogie Cousins tomorrow), but this doesn't feel the same. Andre Drummond, while a great rim protector and rebounder, is nowhere near as athletic as Davis or Boogie. Also, Griffin has already played next to almost the exact same guy in LA, DeAndre Jordan, and that was not a success. I also feel like this will stifle Drummond's growth. He has been great this year, but now he will have to be second fiddle to Griffin. That is a bummer.

Also, the rest of the Pistons roster leaves a lot to be desired. Reggie Jackson is average at best, Luke Kennard is an inconsistent rookie, Henry Ellenson stinks, Ish Smith cannot do much anymore and Stanley Johnson hasn't figured it out yet. They just don't have good NBA players.

After reading that, you probably think that I think the Clippers won the trade then, right? Nope. Yes they shed a horrendous contract and opened up cap space, but that is about it. Avery Bradley is not engaged this season. He needs to be on a team with playoff ambitions, and neither the Pistons nor the Clippers will make the playoffs, in my opinion. Tobias Harris is good, and I think he will become a number one or two option on this team, especially if they get rid of Lou Williams and DeAndre Jordan, but would you want Tobias Harris to be your first or second option? Will he lead you to a title? How about the conference finals, or even the playoffs? It didn't happen in Orlando or Detroit, and I don't see that changing now. Boban is more known for his enormous hands than his playing ability. That is all that needs to be said about him. The rest of their roster is just as ho hum as the Pistons, especially if they get rid of Jordan and Williams. That means that guys like Montrez Harrell, Austin Rivers, Juwan Evans and Sam Dekker will be playing crunch time. Ouch. That is brutal. So no, the Clippers didn't win this trade either.

This trade is more substance than circumstance. It looks big on paper, but on the floor, I don't think it matters. I do find it hilarious that the Clippers traded him to Detroit though. That is ruthless, mean, but also hilarious. As I said at the top, he claims to want to be a stand up comedian and an actor. He could do that stuff in LA. Where is he going to do that in Detroit? I heard a story today that said  the people close to him say that he is very sad and frustrated right now. Well, the NBA is a business, so grow the hell up. People said the same thing to Isaish Thomas when the Celtics traded him for Kyrie Irving, and he was way more important to them than Blake Griffin ever was to the Clippers. Stop whining and go play for your new team.

Another thing that has made me laugh about all this is the sudden 180 from guys like Bill Simons and the whole Ringer staff. A year ago they were all saying that Griffin was one of the best young players in the NBA. They said he should be an MVP candidate. They claimed he would thrive without Chris Paul. They said he would win in spite of Doc Rivers. They loved him next to DeAndre Jordan. Today, on all their NBA podcasts, they were all singing a different tune. Now he is too often injured, he doesn't care enough, he needs a change of scenery, he was never going to lead the Clippers to the conference finals, he was too much of a headache to the franchise. They completely flipped on him. The Ringer is becoming a lot like the company they are trying to compete with, ESPN. They are front runners and they will drop you the moment you aren't relevant, or don't live and play in a big market anymore. It is hilarious and stupid all at the same time.

Bottom line, I don't think any team won this trade, I find it hilarious that Griffin is sulking like a baby when he makes millions upon millions of dollars playing a game, I think it is totally contradictory the way Bill Simmons and his yes men and women are treating him now. It is all just ridiculous. I guess my conclusion, or final thought to this trade is, who cares? No one got any better or any worse. Some mediocre guys were traded for other mediocre guys and neither the Pistons nor the Clippers will matter anyway, just like they haven't mattered in over a decade.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the greatest basketball writer on the internet. 

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.

Ty's 2017-2018 NBA Preview: Grizzlies, Clippers, Trailblazers

Two quick hits before I get back into my 2017-18 NBA countdown today.

First, I was going to write a whole article about how I am embarrassed to be a Michigan Wolverines football fan, but I slept on it, and I am not. I'm embarrassed how they played this past Saturday, and they need to not be so god damn predictable on offense, but I have come to the realization, with the youth and John O'Korn at QB, they will be worse than mediocre on offense all season. They were horrendous on Saturday night, and I feel like that will continue to be the case the rest of the season. I'll hit more on it when I do my mid season checkup. But, instead of sitting here and airing out frustrations about the Wolverines, I had an epiphany watching them. While they are great on defense, they are going to struggle the rest of the year because their offense is so far behind. I picked them to win 10 games this year, they look more like a 7 or 8 win team. And this talk of Harbaugh being a poor coach or bolting for the NFL is getting real annoying. If he wants to leave, fine. If he wants to stay, great. But every year I am sick of hearing all the "experts" say that, "this is the year Harbaugh bolts for the NFL". Give it a rest until he does leave. Enough Wolverines football talk.

The other quick thing I mentioned, I saw "Blade Runner 2049" last Friday and it is amazing. I'm not going to spoil anything because this is a movie that everyone needs to see in the theaters. With that being said, it lived up to my very high expectations. The tone, the visuals, the music, the writing, directing and acting, the graphics, everything about this movie is perfection. Please do yourselves a favor and go see this exceptional movie. It may be almost 3 hours long, but it never felt like it was. Go now and see "Blade Runner 2049".

Okay, the quick hits are out of the way, lets get back to the NBA preview. We will finally get a playoff ready squad today.

At number 18 I have the Memphis Grizzlies. I pored and pored over where to put this team. They have been really good to great for the majority of my twenties and early 30's. But, they lost a ton of key players this offseason. Tony Allen, Zach Randolph and Vince Carter are all gone. I know those guys are old, but they were some of the most important glue guys to the "grit and grind" style they play. They do still have Mike Conley Jr and Marc Gasol though. Conley Jr has turned himself into a premiere point guard. It was so hard for me to see this, because of where he played college ball, but damn is he good. He gets the big guys involved, he runs the offense perfectly and he has turned himself into quite the scorer. Marc Gasol is one of the better big guys in the league too. He is an exceptional passer and can fill it up too. He is also underrated as a defender in my opinion. But, after those guys, it gets murky and that is why I don't see them as a playoff team this year. Chandler Parsons will get hurt. He always does. His contract is dreadful for this team too. Ben McLemore is going to love being away from Sacramento, and I even wrote how I liked the signing, but he is what he is in the NBA. He is wildly inconsistent. Andrew Harrison could be good, but he hasn't shown it yet. JayMychal Green has the makings of a decent player, and with more playing time, he could get there. Mario Chalmers is back, but he is toast, especially after tearing his ACL. Tyreke Evans is too much of a ball stopper and not good enough of a shooter to do that. They drafted Dillon Brooks and Ivan Rabb, but I don't see how they get much time with the other guys on this roster. I feel bad for Conley Jr and Gasol. They are good, but if things start out rough I could see the Grizzlies blowing it up and trying to trade them to contenders. I still like this team, but they need an entire new identity, and that will be tough to find.

At number 17, just outside of my playoff teams, I have the Los Angeles Clippers. I do not get the hype surrounding this team. They lost a ton from a group of players that never really achieved much of anything anyway. They lost Jamal Crawford, JJ Redick and, most importantly, Chris Paul. That is brutal. How is DeAndre Jordan going to fair without Paul? I think it will be disastrous for him. I know Crawford is most likely done, but who will be his replacement for instant offense? Lou Williams? Isn't he the same player? Wesley Johnson? He isn't that good of a pro. Danilo Gallinari? How long until he gets hurt? Oh, that's right, he punched a guy in a Euro League game, and he is already hurt. What about Redick's replacement? I think he is pretty overrated, but Austin Rivers as his replacement, bull shit. Rivers might be a solid defender, but he is a horrid shooter and an all around bad offensive player. Blake Griffin is the point forward, and the face of the franchise now. But, he isn't one tenth the guy that the Clippers think he is, LeBron James. Griffin is incredibly overrated, and how long until he gets hurt? He will miss time again this year. You can bet on that. I do not like Patrick Beverly's fit on this team. I like Beverly's game, but he will not thrive off the ball, and Griffin is going to be the primary ball handler on this team. Sam Dekker is of no consequence in the NBA, and the same can be said for him on the Clippers. Jawun Evans and Sindarius Thornwell were good picks, but will Doc Rivers even play them? He didn't play Brice Johnson hardly at all last year, and he is a full year behind the rookies from his class. I do not see this team staying healthy, and even if they do, I do not see them being a 44 or 45 win team like some others do. They are, at best, a .500 team.

The final team for today, the first "playoff" team, is the Portland Trailblazers. The Trailblazers play no defense at all. They are really bad on that end of the floor. But, when you have Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum, you can outscore enough teams to win enough games to push to the playoffs. Hell, they made it last year with those 2 as their only threats. Where the Trailblazers struggle is the front court. I love how well Jusuf Nurkic played after he was traded, but he needs to do that for a full year before I fully buy in. He also suffered a rough injury in their first round playoff appearance. Meyers Leonard is trash. Why this dude is still in the league, and not in the G League or overseas, is baffling to me. Al Faroq Aminu is a pretty good player, and if you forget about him on offense he can score. He is not a horrible third option. Evan Turner just doesn't fit with this team. He had a good thing going in Boston, but he got a big contract, and I can't fault him for taking the cash. He just is way too ball dominant, and that doesn't work on a team with Lillard and McCollum. Noah Vonleh is a bust. He was all hype and has been no production. Maurice Harkless is a fine 8th or 9th guy, but he plays too many minutes on this team. Zach Collins was a so so pick. I do not like that they took him that high when he really didn't prove himself until tournament time. I do like the Caleb Swanigan pick though. That kid has had to work extra hard for everything in his life, and his work ethic is unparalleled. He will be a great grinder in the NBA. The Trailblazers are not great by any stretch of the imagination, but they won 41 last year, and Lillard and McCollum will only get better. I could see them winning 43 or 44 games this year to just get in to the playoffs and get swept by the Warriors.

That's it for today. Come back tomorrow for the next 3 teams. Nothing but playoff level teams from here on out.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the greatest basketball writer on the internet. 

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.

Don't Believe the Chris Paul to the Rockets Hype

This still may not be enough balls for Harden and Paul.

Today I'm going to be talking NBA, but no I will not be talking about the mercy firing of Phil Jackson. That was a long time coming. He may have been worse than Isiah Thomas, minus the sexual assault stuff, and he will go down as one of the worst executives in NBA history. He was a great coach, but a horrific evaluator of players, and his decisions on players was awful. Good riddance.

Instead, I want to talk about the Chris Paul trade to the Rockets. On paper this looks great. On paper you need more than one star to win, or even compete, for titles. On paper this makes the Rockets the second best team in the West, and maybe in all of the NBA. On paper this could catapult the Rockets to a place they have not been since the early to mid nineties.

But, the games are not played on paper. In fact, I see this trade as one of the biggest paper tigers in all of pro sports. Now, to get it out of the way immediately, both Chris Paul and James Harden are 2 of the best players to play the game. Harden attacks and scores and gets to the free throw line like almost no other 2 guard I have seen. He also became an excellent facilitator in Mike D'Antoni's offense last year. And Chris Paul is one of the greatest point guards to ever step on a basketball court. He knows all the tricks, setting illegal screens, getting away with multiple fouls and running a team, and he is, maybe a better word is was, a great defender. So yes, these 2 guys are great basketball players. But, unless this team adds Paul George, I do not care one way or another about them getting Carmelo Anthony possibly, he is beyond useless now, I do not think this will work out for the Rockets and blowhard Daryl Morey.

I remember 2 years ago, when the Rockets signed Ty Lawson, I loved that move. I thought he would pair perfectly with Harden and Beverly in the back court. Well, that famously did not work out, and about halfway through that season, Lawson was let go, and now, he is a ghost. Chris Paul is much, much, much better than Ty Lawson, but, he is also more ball dominant. James Harden is also very ball dominant. We have seen this from both for the majority of their careers. Harden wasn't as ball dominant while in OKC, but since he was traded to Houston, he has needed the ball in his hands. He needs to run the offense. He wants to be the face of that team, and for the most part, it has worked for them. They haven't won, or even made a Finals appearance, but they did get to the conference finals a few years back, and they regularly win 50 plus games.

Chris Paul also needs the ball in his hands. He is the epitome of what a point guard is. He needs the ball in his hands to see the floor and run the offense. It has been like this for him, I'd feel safe to say, since he was in high school. He also ran the offense and always had the ball in his hands in his 2 years at Wake Forest. And since he has been in the NBA, at both of his stops, he has been giving the keys to the offense, thus putting the basketball in his hands and letting him dictate how the offense runs.

So, how will the fact that there is only one ball work for this team? I have heard people say that they will stagger minutes, these 2 guys won't be on the floor together all the time and maybe they will buy into what the Warriors do, and be happy sharing the ball. I don't think any of this will work. Why not have your 2 best players on the floor together as much as possible? Why stagger their minutes? Why is this okay with some sports writers when they lambasted the Thunder for doing this when they had KD and Westbrook? Your 2 best players need to be on the floor together whenever possible. That is how you win. Also, I don't see either Chris Paul or James Harden being okay with sharing the ball. These 2 guys have been the guy on their main teams, and they have made it well known that they want to be the one that their teams count on. I don't think they will be okay spreading the ball around like the Warriors. The Warriors, and mainly Steph, Klay and KD, did not care who was the guy to get the last shot or bring it up the court during crucial moments of important games. They all trusted each other, and they can all shoot and handle the ball. Harden can shoot and handle the ball, but he is quick to just hold the ball for 20 seconds of the shot clock and either jack up a three or try to get to the rim for a layup or floor. Chris Paul is a good mid range shooter, but he can't get to rim that well, he is not a great three point shooter, and the Rockets don't like shooting mid range shots.

I know that these guys played well on the Olympic team together, but the NBA is a whole different monster. One of these guys needs to be the guy to come up big in the playoffs. I ask, which one of these has had any big time moments in big time playoff games. Harden is the consummate choker. He may be the Dan Marino of the NBA. He has had ample opportunity and he has choked each and every opportunity away. Chris Paul, what has he done since college? I don't think Wake Forest ever got passed the Sweet Sixteen while he was there, and we all know about the lack of success with the Clippers. They never made it out of the second round with him running the team. So yeah, good luck Daryl Morey and Mike D'Antoni. You got 2 guys that have proven to be very unclutch in their NBA careers.

Also, how will Harden deal with Paul's aggressive approach to running a team? Harden seems like a very loose, laidback dude, and Chris Paul may be the most intense player in the NBA. Chris Paul is famous for his tirades against teammates. It is never his fault when his team doesn't make it passed the second round. It is always the ref, the coach or his teammates. He is never to blame. How will Harden handle that? I'd guess, not that well.

The one thing I do agree with Paul on with this trade is his relationship with Doc and Austin Rivers. I do think that Doc the GM is atrocious, and if he really held back a trade that would have made the Clippers better because his son was involved, that is real shitty.

I will say, the Clippers did get something in return for someone who seemed to be out the door in a few days. Free agency starts at 12:00 AM July 1st. The Clippers were able to sign and trade Paul for Patrick Beverly, Sam Dekker, Montrez Harrell and some picks. They did not walk away empty handed.

With all this being said, I do not like this trade at all. The Rockets got a great point guard, but they already had a great point guard that just happens to be a little too soft. Harden needs to be coddled, and Chris Paul will not coddle him. He will verbally abuse the shit out of him. And the Clippers, while realizing that they weren't going anywhere with their "Big 3" of Paul, Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan, unfortunately traded the most reliable one of the group. Now Griffin, who is always hurt, and might leave too, has no one to throw him alley oops or get him open jumpers, and what on Earth is Jordan going to do without a guy that consistently got him open lobs. I feel worst for him. He was locked in a house 2 years ago by Chris Paul, among others, to re up with the Clippers, and now, Paul has left him high and dry.

While this trade may look good on paper, I don't see it making a real difference. I actually think it will blow up in their faces. Also, I don't think adding Chris Paul really makes them a threat to the Warriors, but I also think the Spurs are still better, and whatever team LeBron James is on will beat them. This trade is not as great as some may have you believe. Prove me wrong Houston, but I'm just waiting for this to be a total disaster for them, and for Paul to leave in free agency after the 2017-18 season.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the greatest basketball writer on the internet. 

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.