 the off season storylines of which there were a few. The biggest one, look, we're about 24 hours away from this bad boy and this one, Damien Lillard, going to the Milwaukee Bucks, it shocked a lot of us. There's the trade, you're looking at it right there. What you basically need to take away from this is Damien Lillard's on the left, that's one player and then in return, all everyone else got all these other players, Drew Holiday being the big name there in the middle, Trailblazers, of course we know he's gone, but look, Shams, all of us had our phones. I've got my Shams notifications that I'm sitting here waiting on Lillard to go to the Miami Heat and then all of a sudden I'm thinking there's a typo. How did we get here? Yeah, so Lillard and the Heat, really, they both obviously wanted to be together and they believe Portland had absolutely no interest in doing any deal. It got to the point where Joe Cronin, the GM in Portland, he did not return any of the calls from Damien Lillard, Damien Lillard's agent. They went weeks without communicating. There was a point where Damien Lillard was in the facility in September working out and there was no communication. Joe Cronin, there was no hi, hello, no pleasantries exchange and that's, I think, when Damien Lillard knew. I'm gonna get traded. It's only a matter of where and when and he obviously ends up getting traded in Milwaukee and we know the pressure that the Bucks have been under. When you think about Giannis and Desacumbo made those comments a couple months ago now and said, I just want to win the championship. If that's not in Milwaukee, I'm fine. I mean, really opening the door for his exit and John Horst, the GM there, you have to give him credit. In 2020, when Giannis' Supermax extension was on the line, they go out and get Drew Holliday. Now when Giannis' extension, from what I'm told, he's not gonna extend but his future's up in the air. They go out and get Damien Lillard and I think they're still trying to fit in. They're still trying to find their place. Before I'm told, Damien and Giannis are hitting it off and I think Damien is happy now with the result. I mean, look, they jumped up to plus 380 to win a championship on the Fandall Sportsbook. I don't know if Damien was excited to move to Milwaukee as a fan and a consumer of the product of basketball. It's exciting to me. Are they now in the running for the best? I mean, look, when you look at the Eastern Conference, it's Milwaukee and it's Boston and then there's a drastic drop off. But when you look on paper, this makes sense. It fits, right? Damien Lillard can shoot the ball on an elite level. He can play make. He opens up the lanes for Giannis and that's exactly what he need. But to sit here and automatically assume this is a huge upgrade over Drew Holliday who has won them a championship who Team USA is now making the point that we want this guy going to the Olympics. He can lock down the best offensive score on the other team. So there are some questions, but yeah, when you look offensively, you look at this team and you can get a healthy Chris Middleton and some of the other signings, some of the guys they brought back, they're gonna be right there at the end of the season to compete for a championship. The Drew Holliday part I think was bittersweet for a lot of people. We didn't want to see him go. He's a big fan of everything he's done in the court. All right, Lou, this is a very pointed question. Is Damien Lillard that much of an upgrade over Holliday? Offensively, yes. And after that, it's a very polite no. Just to piggyback off of what Chandler just said, look, you've won a championship with Drew Holliday already. He was one of the anchors of that team. So it's hard to say a guy is an upgrade after replacing the guy that you've won a championship with and that guy being Damien Lillard, who can change the trajectory of any team that he's gonna play on. So I don't know if upgrade is the word, but he definitely gives them the same opportunity Drew Holliday gave them and won in the championship, if not a better one. Yeah, and to me, the key is Chris Middleton. Last year, he went through so many injuries. You know what you're gonna get with the honors. You know what you're gonna get with Damien Lillard, but people forget quickly how good he was and how he was kind of their go-to score. He was closing out the nets on the road in game seven. As good as he honestly is. Give me a healthy Chris Middleton. Now we're talking about this team and that trio is the best trio in the NBA. This is the thing, and it's amazing to me that Drew Holliday ended up in Boston. Do you think that they would have made this trade if they would have known that he was just gonna be in the same conference, not that far off the other contender? I don't think so. No, right? Yeah, I don't think so. But that's the risk that you're willing to take when you move a guy like Drew Holliday to a rebuilding team like Portland. You can't imagine he's gonna last there. You can't imagine that, but now it's kind of, they made their bed and they got to sleep in it because that's gonna be the guy and the team that they're gonna have to go through to get to the finals. I kind of love it. It's almost like they weren't done screwing with him. Like, oh yeah, now watch this. We're gonna keep it moving. It's a dice roll and it might backfire. Look, the East was not the only place where moves were happening. Obviously the West as well. The NBA never sleeps. And on that side of thing, you had Bradley Beal to the Suns. Chris Paul to the Wizards, who then ended up with the Warriors. And he's gonna start, you guys. He wants you to know that. Jordan Pool and a bunch of picks to the Wizards, then later traded. It's just, it's completely. I don't know about Chris Paul starting, by the way. He's not gonna start, but nobody wants to tell him that because it's awkward. All right, Beal had the very big, famous, beautiful, delicious, no trade clause. One of the few in NBA history. It's a wonderful thing, all power to you, but did it affect how everything went down for him? No question it affected things. I mean, if Damian Lillard, let's be honest. If he had a no trade clause, he would have been in Miami now. So Bradley Beal negotiates a no trade clause. And I think we finished our show the week that Bradley Beal got traded. So this is a good kind of circle, you know. Full circle. All come in full circle now. But I think the leverage that comes with that no trade clause and the fact that he wanted to go to Phoenix. And I think the one thing that I've been told between him, Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, they've talked and it's like, we're not trying to see who's gonna score 35 points. If it takes, if we're, one of us is at 18, 20, any given night, 15, as long as we won a championship, I don't think these guys care. But I think, of course, having the no trade clause, that led him to Phoenix. And at that point, it was Mattish via James Jones, Josh Bartelstein going out and meeting with him in New York and selling him. They were the only team out of all the teams to go out and get a meeting with him. So that clinched it. They're like, we're not wasting time otherwise. Katie has said, this big three that you just mentioned, that once they're rolling, often rolling, they're gonna be impossible to stop. We do love a big three. They are tied for phase with the nuggets right now, Vandalsport's book. But we've seen big threes fail, Lou. How does this one look to you? Looks really good. I close my eyes to get a ball to any of those guys and ask them to go win us a basketball game. So impossible, you know, this is the NBA, but if we're probably as close to impossible, it's impossible it's gonna get with Bradley Book and Katie at the helm of that team. And when you look at how those three guys play, the question is, you know, who's the point guard, right? Do you take book, you know, away from what he does really well and make him bring it up? Do you have a guy like a Kogi initiate the offense? But those three guys can go one-on-one. Those three guys can go get out and transition. They're so talented and they're so explosive offensively. I'm not really worried about who their point guard is. They have capable guys to bring the ball up and get into sets. I agree, it's gonna, they're gonna have to take turns. They're gonna have to be on self or someone. It's gonna be a different guy every single night, but man, on paper and on film, they fit. And if they're healthy, I think they're the team to beat in the West. What is the weakness, if you have to? I mean, who's gonna defend outside of Josh Kogi? Who's gonna play point guard? Is their bench gonna, is their bench gonna provide sparks? I like their signings. I like Drew Eubanks off the bench. I like Nerkich starting in the, so they have the team. I love Eric Gordon, who can come in and knock down threes. But I think that point guard is a huge question. I mean, Jordan, Jordan Goodwin is- He's a backup. And he's their only point, two point, the roster. And you know as the season goes along, it's all about depth. It's all about depth. You deal with injuries, you deal with different things. That bench is gonna have to try to win them a lot of basketball games. So I think that's where the weakness comes in for me. KD's had his share. That actually sounded awful. I'm gonna redo that. KD's been a part of very important big threes in his life. There have been some really good ones. I'm gonna take a look right now Chandler. I'm gonna put you on the spot. I want you to choose which of these, get to rank them. That ain't a bad list to be on. Yeah, I mean, jeez. I think the best, obviously, is the Warriors, right? I think they continue to win championships until last year if you didn't leave. So I go number one, Warriors, and then going to the bottom, you gotta go the Nets fourth. They played about seven games together with each other. Oh, that's the bottom? That's the last. What a weird way you're doing your list. Yeah, I'm just going for the best. Automatically the worst. All the drama that that team was riddled with injuries. I think they were 10 and three together. Yeah, but it's a small sample something. I know. I can't rank them. The Thunder was, they were, I think the Suns had the chance to be the second best big three he has. The Thunder, they were young. They weren't quite in their prime yet. These guys are all in their prime. It's, it's, it's, they're all healthy. I think it goes Golden State, Phoenix, O.K.C. then broke. So Phoenix get in the nod without... I think they can be. I think they can be. And I think they can win a championship in that Oklahoma City team never did. Agree? Yeah, I'll stay with that. Yeah, I feel like that was good. I mean the, the Oklahoma City one, what could have been. I feel like that will always be a what could have been whenever we look back on that entire time. The more, the more stuff happened, you guys. Kristaps Porzingis, remember him? They once called him the unicorn, but that has now been stolen and given to other people since. Traded to the Celtics. Marcus Smart then goes to the Grizzlies. Tyus Jones, Danila Gallinari now in the nation's capital. As far as best starting lineups, people are saying maybe the Celtics team. Do you agree with that? It's one of them. I don't know who they're going to start. I don't know if Horford's going to start, if they're going to start KP and Horford. I'm probably the biggest Derek White fan in America. I think he's so solid. I think he can score. I think he can defend. He can shoot. He can play make. I do think losing someone like Marcus Smart to their locker room, to their culture is tough. But I know preseason is preseason, but Porzingis looked good and he looked very, very strong. He looked healthy. He could shoot the ball. He looked stronger, right? He looked better. But it's tough to put my eggs in that basket after everything, you know, of what we've seen. But yeah, just for me, this is still the best team in the Eastern Conference. To me, it just feels like it's their time. I think Tatum and Brown are entering their prime. They're ready. They struggled last year in the playoffs a little bit, but they're going to grow from that. They're going to get better from that. They have a good bench, but it's just, it's like every team, it's all who's healthy and who gets hot in the playoffs. So you have holiday, you have Porzingis. Somebody has to, I don't want to say suffer, but their role's going to change. Who's that? One of those two. Wait, wait. They ain't going to be, Brown. No, they're not changing at all. It's not going to be JT. And it's not going to be J. So, Porzingis, you got to get in where you fit in, bro. You got to get in where you fit in. You know, those two guys have always anchored that basketball team, accomplished so many different things, you know, without having expectations, you know, and to do that. So the ad drew holiday to have Porzingis, those guys got to get in where they fit in. I mean, there were moments last year where those two guys, JT and Jay, like, they disappeared in the playoffs. I mean, I remember you just being frustrated and like, what's going on? So now when those types of things happen, you figure out, is this a trend or was this just a blip? What do you do with that from last year carrying into this season if you're those guys? Well, I think it's a blip for now, but if it continues this season and then it becomes a trend, then it's an issue. But I don't think they worry about them. I think you look at two of these guys, possibly the best duo. You know, there's so many of these days duos, trios, but these two guys are elite. They can do everything on the floor. They both are two-way players. They can defend. And now you add a drew holiday who has that experience in the post-season. It's a relief pressure. Hopefully Porzingis is healthy. Derrick White, Al Horford, guys like this, they can relieve pressure. But yeah, the best players show up in the post-season and those two didn't do that last year. So they definitely have an onus on them to step up this year and kind of carry this team to a championship. Sometimes a disappointing finish is the best thing that can happen to a team. Does that strike you here? Is that interesting to you here? No question. And obviously we know about the players. Like Jason Tatum, Jaylen Brown, those guys being superstars is going to take this team where they're going to go. But to me, what I'm looking at is Joe Missoula. Last season, I think there was a lot of scrutiny there. You know, his coaching staff, it was a tough position for him to be in. Literally, he takes over a few days for training camp. He made Yodoka's out. So now he gets a full summer to kind of get ingratiated there. And then they've really toughened up the staff. Charles Lee comes over. He was the lead assistant in Milwaukee. They get Sam Cassell. He comes over from Philadelphia. Like they really beefed up that bench. I think Chandler touched on that. Like their bench needed to be stronger, supporting a rookie head coach. And now they have, I think, done that. So the spotlight's going to be on Joe Missoula because there are guys on that bench there that are very, very proven. I don't, I'm not going to stay here and say which one's the better player, Drew Holiday or Marcus Smart. But we all know the value of Marcus Smart to the fans of Boston in that locker room. For Drew Holiday, is that an upgrade for the Celtics? I say no. I say no. When I think of Marcus Smart, I feel like he was the heartbeat of that team. He was one of those guys that championed the traditions of being a Boston Celtic. He was the energy guy. He was the locker room guy. So even though JT and Jalen were the best players on that team, when I think of the Boston Celtics, I always thought of Marcus Smart. And so basketball-wise, I think so. But locker room-wise, culture-wise, I say it was Marcus Smart. And Lou makes a good point. A lot of time it's not about the production. It's all the little things that a Marcus Smart can do. It's that locker room. It's the culture and the weight room and the facility. And he provided all that. And when you do think of the Boston Celtics, obviously the fans, they think of Tatum, they think of Brown, they think of points, they think of highlights. Marcus Smart has been the heartbeat of the team. And I think Drew Holiday is an upgrade offensively, being a true point guard, having the history of being a champion. But he's gonna be missed there for sure. I'm gonna miss him. Yeah. And I'm not even a fan of that team. Off-season trades, what did they result in percentage-wise? Who are we thinking are the favorites? Who are on top? We'll take a look right now. This is the final question for this part, guys. It's that this is how Fandal Sportsbook has decided these guys are gonna finish out. Boston Celtics sitting up top. Do we agree? Is there anything on there that we're changing for Memphis? Why? I mean, I'm surprised Memphis is even on there to be on. Well, I mean, they're... And Cleveland, they're kind of a long shoot. I mean, it's hard to sleep on the jams, right? Everyone always forgets these guys. They didn't make too many moves, but that's the same consistent product that they had last year that got it done. So I don't ever overlook them, but yeah, the Celtics are my team.