 What's the word y'all? I did not expect to have to run into the work office and fire up another video, second one of the day. But the word is on fire, NBA Twitter specifically, is on fire because on a random Wednesday at seven o'clock PM central time, Russell Westbrook was traded for a John Wall in the first round pick. Be sure to leave a like on the video, subscribe if you're new when there's breaking news. Literally what I said, I'm running to this room to talk about what I think. This has to be one of the most lateral superstar trades I have ever seen. This was rumored to have happened or rumored to have been in conversations a few weeks ago. And when I hear like a rumor between two players or two teams about to make a trade and it doesn't happen that same day, I automatically think, okay, trade negotiations didn't go as planned. They're gonna step their separate ways. But apparently what they were waiting for is for Tommy Shepard throwing an extra first round pick for the Houston Rockets to make this happen. Media day was yesterday. It was literally yesterday. And I don't know if Russell Westbrook and John Wall has said anything, but listen, who gets better? I literally don't know. I mean, I guess you could probably say on paper the Washington Warriors get better because they just went from a team with no John Wall to now Russell Westbrook, who we can all agree when Russell Westbrook is healthy, he is still an impactful, very good NBA player. So I can see that. And that's probably why they threw the extra first round pick. But we're talking about two players who are older point guards, probably passed their prime. Now, when people here pass their prime, they automatically think of super negative connotation, but pass your prime for Russell Westbrook can still be really good. Literally, his prime was in MVP. He's not playing like an MVP anymore. So he's a little bit past his prime. John Wall, we don't know what the hell to expect from John Wall. I guess those 10 minute clips that we've seen him in open runs show that he's solid, but we'll never know until he's on the court. It's been two seasons, two full seasons since we've seen him, which is kind of crazy. That tells you everything that was going on in Houston that they were willing to trade Russell Westbrook for a guy that hasn't played in two seasons in a first round pick, which is something we'll talk about for the Houston Rockets because they went from a team under Daryl Morey that basically had no future assets, no picks or anything to a team that over the last couple of weeks have traded for multiple first round picks, which is a W. I mean, they're trying to win now and also think about the future as well. But okay, this is not a trade to me that is for the Wizards to get that much better. It is not a trade for me for the Houston Rockets to get that much better right now. This is 1,000% a chemistry thing. This man, John Wall, tell my face. I mean, I guess it was through a Zoom call. Told me that he had no intentions of leaving Bradley Beale. He had no intentions of doing anything to take away from what Bradley Beale was building on in Washington. And just a few months later, we found out that he wanted out. He wanted out, same thing with Russell Westberg, right? He also wanted out. So it may sense on paper for this trade to happen, for this little swap of talent to happen, but since it didn't happen immediately, I immediately thought, okay, it was not going to happen. So the Houston Rockets will start there. I already mentioned how they acquired another first round pick, which is a W for them because they haven't had any of that. This is going to be another interesting fit. Another player that I want to say that James Harden continuously gets these really big names to play alongside. He had Dwight Howard. He had Chris Paul. He had Russell Westberg. And now he is getting John Wall. And it seems like in every one of those situations that it ended on negative terms with every single one of those guys. Every single one of those guys. I don't want to make this video like a hit piece about James Harden because obviously James Harden as a basketball player is ridiculously talented, but it has to say something, right? That he is on his fourth player that is all-star. I'm going to continue to refer to as John Wall as all-star caliber because that's the last time I saw him play. We'll see once the season starts in a few weeks if he is still that. But this would be the first all-star caliber player that he has had on his team in the many years in Houston. And that's, I guess, a testament to Houston that they are willing to continue to try to find the perfect guy to get him over the hump. I don't think John Wall is going to be that for them if we're keeping it a buck. I just don't. We talked about how Russell Westbrook shooting walls was kind of weird for a fit for the James Harden system and everything that they do. And John Wall is not that much better of a shooter. I mean, yes, he is a better shooter, but it's not like you're going back to what Chris Paul was giving you as an off-ball player. John Wall as an off-ball player is yet to be really seen. Because even when he was playing with Bradley Biel a few seasons ago, he was the better player at that point, right? Now Bradley Biel is better than John Wall, but when last time they played together, John Wall was the better player. John Wall was like the third or fourth best point guard in the league last time he played. And well, he's never really been an off-ball player. We've never really seen him do that. So I'm interested to see how that's going to work out. I do want to say that the Houston Rockets off-season is so, so weird, but I already praised it for what it's done. And with their new regime, with their new coaching, I'm hoping that things change up where it's not just James Harden and five players out, because obviously, there's a ceiling on that. And now the ceiling is definitely there if John Wall is your starting point guard. But they went and got out and got some players to actually run the center position, to actually run a real power forward position in Christian Wood and DeMarcus Cousins. I'm gonna say it. I like this team as far as like, they should be fun. They should be fun. And Stephen Silas is their coach now. And a lot of people are giving Stephen Silas that credit for building the offense that was revolving around Luka this off or this regular season. And that team, of course, ended up being like one of the best offensive teams in NBA history. And now you have James Harden, who are, him and Luka are similar players in their play styles, step backs, big shots, all of those type of things. The Houston Rockets are an interesting team. And you know what's crazy? I gotta take this poster off my wall. I have a poster of James Harden and Russell Westbrook. It's gotta go. It's a throwback now. But interesting, obviously, again, like I said, this has a lot to do with chemistry over anything it seems like. Now for the Washington Wizards, with Russell Westbrook, at least you know what you're getting. You didn't have that with John Wall going into the season. You know what you're getting at Russell Westbrook. And that is a fiery point guard that is very, very talented. And he will try to play through anything which is to his own downfall. Because when he is playing through stuff, he's not as good. But we know him to be really good. I mean, we have two very big contracts. Two, I would say, of the worst contracts in the league getting swapped for each other. This Washington Wizards team is interesting because I was going to make a whole video about them, which I'm glad I didn't do now, about like, what is their ceiling this season? You know, with John Wall, with Bradley Beale, with Denny Abdiah, with Rui Hachimora. They had Thomas Bryant, Troy Bronzion. They brought in Robin Lopez. What was their ceiling going to be? Is that a playoff team? I think Adam Russell Westbrook makes them a playoff team undoubtedly. Barg, any injury, any virus contractions. That's how talented a player Russell Westbrook is. I know Russell Westbrook is a very polarizing player in NBA fandom, but he is good enough to have moments to carry you to the playoffs. That's it. This team, pretty sure this team is going to be a playoff team. Now, the only thing that scares me about this team is the lack of defense. Last year, they were basically the worst defense in the league, and for part of the season, they were like one of the top five offenses, and then they stopped being efficient offensively. And then that's when we saw them start to be really, really bad. And they didn't make any dramatic moves in this offseason to get that defense better. So that is something I'll be worried about. But on paper, I think this team, adding Russell Westbrook makes them a playoff team. I think it does. I think it does. The rest of the surrounded pieces, other than, of course, Bradley Beale is out there, Rui Hachimura hopefully would take a bigger step. And what Tommy Shepard was saying in the podcast that I was a student, he is the general manager of the Washington Wizards, if you didn't know, that he has been trying to get Thomas Bryan to be a better defender. Because Thomas Bryan, as much of a weapon he is on the offensive side of the ball, he is a well below average defender, and usually teams that have a starting center that is well below average aren't successful. So they need him to either be good or have him be a backup to Robin Lopez, who at this point probably isn't a starting quality center, but he's well ahead of Thomas Bryan when it comes to the defensive side of the ball. Let me know what you think about this, Kray, y'all. That's all I really have on it. That's it. I'll talk to y'all soon. Call game.