LeBron and the Warriors have ruined people’s perception of how hard it is to actually win a title.

Saying Jaylen Brown is NOT a top 25 player is absolutely insane

Hot take: the fact that Rob Pelinka still has a job doesn’t make sense. He completely fumbled the roster after the 2020 championship and the Russell Westbrook deal single handedly destroyed the Lakers championship window with Lebron and AD. People excuse him by saying that Lebron had a heavier influence on these decisions than he did, but at the end of the day, he’s the GM and the buck stops with him.

Hot take: the next few years for the nets have the potential to be as bad if not WORSE than the years following the KG, Paul Pierce trade.

Tatum has had quite possibly the most blessed roster for the early years of a career I’ve ever seen; the fact he hasn’t converted to a championship is astounding. If any player he’s compared too was put in his position they probably would have won one with one of these teams.

Hot take: setting screens is an underrated skill, while it may be as important as an assist but is not analyzed

Hot take: Using championships as a measurement for how good a player is individually is completely stupid and rarely ever accurately determines how truly great a player is/was and we need to use actual in game/other historical statistics to determine how good they are instead of relying on championships as a testament. Players like Steve Nash, Chris Paul, James Harden, TMac, Stockon, Malone etc. Get completely undervalued and their legacy tainted because they didn't win a chip but in reality that doesn't take away from their skill at all and it's much more of a team accomplishment

Hot take: 50/40/90 is (slightly) overrated. Here’s what I mean: FG% includes 3PA, so players with higher volume of 3s, even at insane efficiency, will tank their FG%. As a result, the 50/40/90 club rewards players with lower volume on 3s. KD and Bird got it twice while only putting up like 3 3 point ATTEMPTS per game. Meanwhile, Steph Curry, the best 3pt shooter ever and one of the best finishers ever only shot 50% from the field once just because he jacks up WAYYYYY more 3s, like literally more than double anyone else in the 50/40/90 club

“I just gotta haircut… anyways” 😂😂

Hot take: just because you average a lot of assists doesn’t make you an elite playmaker there is more to it like how often you turnover the ball or how difficult are the passes you are making to get the assist understanding what the defense is giving you to find openings within the defense to set up opportunities for your teammates also seeing the game 1 step ahead of everyone else to set up teammates for efficient shots and controlling the pace of the game

Shout out to rusty for giving explanations instead of shitting on the guy for not understanding what those things mean. Most nba fans will attack someone for not knowing ball instead of actually trying to educate them

I think for international players, their achievements with their national teams matter a lot, and Argentina's 2004 gold medal is the greatest international achievement of at the very least 21st century, and possibly ever

My hot take: Domantas Sabonis is the most consistent player in the NBA right now. He’s rarely ever injured, and basically guarantees you a near triple double every game he plays. His only real flaw is his turnovers, which is listed as the most in the league as a center. Other than that, he’s essentially a top 3 center on any given night, dominates AD, makes Jokic try, outplays wemby, and scores heavily on Gobert.

Hot take: Kawhi and KD should be ranked pretty close to each other all-time. Both have similar accolades and both have similar peaks. Me personally, I’d take prime Kawhi (the year Zaza took him out when he was beating the KD warriors) over prime KD. KD somehow always gets ranked 15-20 spots higher in all-time lists

Hot take- We give way more weight to Jokic’s efficiency and certain advanced stats that don’t have a Huge impact on the game. Luka is the MVP this year. Only argument for Jokic is the nuggets record. Rusty Explain This- Luka leads the NBA in points generated (points + assisted points) He also leads Jokic in points from assists each game (labeled as appg below) Luka- 59.1ppg generated (34ppg + 25.1appg) Joker 48.5ppg generated (26.1ppg + 22.4appg) Someone in the comments helped me calculate that Jokic’s efficiency leads to 8.82ppg extra in comparison to Luka from his offensive efficiency (shooting efficiency, rebounding, difference in turnovers, etc) But even when including all of those points from his efficiency and adjusting for Luka’s extra turnovers, (58.59ppg generated) Luka is still ahead in his points generated and offensive production. Another factor to this is that Joker plays less minutes a game than Luka . Joker averages slightly more points generated per minute on the floor. In theory if they played the same minutes Jokic total production would be greater than Luka. The problem is that this is in THEORY. In Reality, Jokic doesn’t play enough minutes to beat Luka’s production each game. In THEORY, joker WOULD be more productive if he played more minutes, but in REALITY, Luka has simply been more productive each game and the stats show it. This is why I say that we give too much weight to Jokic’s efficiency, especially when comparing him to Luka. Luka statistically has been more productive this season than Jokic. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.

My hot take is that Jalen Brunson has cemented himself as a fringe top-ten player towards the back half of this season. Knicks have been very turbulent and he’s been an incredible leader. Not to mention the fact that he’s been averaging 30 points in the 2024 calendar year.

Hot take: the infamous Ben simmons passed up layup was a good play from his perspective and was the pretty smart choice. Also both Doc and Embiid should receive more hate for throwing ben under the bus publicly.

Hot take- Pacers got fleeced in the Siakam trade. Brown was playing well, and giving up 3 first rounders was far too much imo. Could come back to bite us big time, especially if the team is bad in 2024 or 2026, when the picks are. Plus the team hasn't even gotten better we're just fading into mediocrity in true indiana fashion

Hot Take: Wemby is already the best defender in the league

Dirk had the best playoff run ever.

Hot take: Brandon Miller has a higher ceiling then Chet

HOT TAKE: Rusty you really should look at players international accomplishments when doing all time rankings. Don't get me wrong, nba accomplishments will matter the most, but most Serbians will tell you Jokic isn't the greatest Serbian player ever because he hasn't accomplished anything on the international level yet. These things do matter. Manu's gold medal is a GREAT example. Its arguably more valuable to his legacy then any of his individual nba championship wins.

Hot take: The Mavs would wash the Thunder in a 7-game series

Hot take: people underrate a teams staff for winning, as a good head coach is important however a good assistant coach and staff could be just or more important

Hot take: leadership is the most underrated skill in basketball because there is nothing numbers wise to show it concretely. The main sign of it is winning when not the favorite, but it mostly relies on eye test and other knowledge on the player. It is the main reason why so many mvps win the championships later than their actual mvp season. Notable times leadership beat talent: 2023 Jokic vs suns 2023 Jimmy vs east 2022 curry vs Celtics 2022 Luka vs suns 2021 Giannis vs nets 2018 Lebron vs east 2016 Lebron vs warriors 2011 dirk vs heat 2006 Wade vs mavs 2003 Duncan vs everyone 1995 Hakeem vs everyone 1994 Hakeem vs everyone

Hot take: it has become inherently more difficult to build championship level teams around wings than around guards and bigs due to the wings rarely being able to have as much impact on the game as guards and bigs. a championship level team built around a guard sees that guard control almost every intricacy of that team’s offense, and teams built around a star big usually have a big that is an elite scorer, great defender, playmaking hub, controls the glass, and dominates the paint. wings are supposed to be a middle ground on the spectrum between guard and big, but now the furthest ends of that spectrum are what the modern game favors the most.

Hot take: The Lakers should be talked about in a similar light to the Miami Heat when it comes to the playoffs despite their uneventful regular seasons. The Lakers with LeBron and healthy AD have won a title, made it to the conference finals, and were up on the number 2 seed Phoenix Suns before AD got hurt. They aren’t top tier contenders in the west but they should be serious candidates to make it to the conference finals.

Hot take: Rusty putting the timestamps for the takes in the description is the best part of hot takes (that and not using Elon’s Nazi website as the main source)

Hot Take: If Kevin Garnett never won a ring he would be the most disrespected NBA player of all time due to the ring bias of a lot NBA fans. This would lead to people overlooking one of the most skilled players of all time and one of the greatest peaks simply because he didn’t win a championship.

Man got an haircut mid video. Dude is the goat Hot take: You previous hair before the haircut fit you pretty damn well

I used to love your what if videos. I know you don’t do them anymore, but if you could do that OKC what if with trading Russ instead, I’d go nuts

Hot Take not really : Better call Saul > Breaking Bad

European here, the "Avengers" assembly for Paris 2024 is not going to have the impact many assume. The main issue in recent years wasnt a lack of talent and only bringing the "B-team", but rather poor team composition, a fundamental missunderstanding of the priorities in a FIBA ruleset and mediocre coaching. The lack of offensive rebounding, the missing discipline while boxing out, the importance of size, coaching schemes and many more issues wont get fixed by simply bringing more talent, like team USA wasnt the most talented to begin with. Statements like "we want to beat everyone by 40" by KD are ludicrous and appear like the players are not prepared whatsoever of what it would take to win a medal.

The reason wemby has bad efficiency is because of the pieces around him, as he is being double and tripple teamed. People fail to realize that Chet and wemby have different contexts to how good or bad their efficiency has been

6:18 I literally thought you were calling me, I was confused why I heard my name here lol

The Tim Duncan over Kareem take might be one of the worst things ive ever heard. How is the longevity pushing Kareem's case over Duncan while Duncan also played like 20 seasons???

Hot take: If Boston don't win the east (esp. If they lose to an 8th seed with a 3rd of the team being undrafted players), we need to admit they need to blow it up!

Hot take: Current wemby is already a top 10-15 defensive peak of all time

Continuing to post this on every video: Sabonis is the best player on the Kings by a fair margin. Nothing separates Fox from a bunch of other scoring guards, but Domas is the reason the Kings work as a team at all.

Hot take: after the playoffs people will realize that Jonathan Isaac is still a top 3 defender in the NBA when he plays, he has been on a minutes restriction forever now, but if he can play 20-25 minutes per game in the playoffs then I have no question that he will be on Gobert's and Davis's level defensively. His on-off numbers are currently laughably good. I wouldnt even be suprised if he plays better in the playoffs than Franz.

6:20 😂 Luka lobbing up oops for Yokozuna 😂

shouldnt be a hot take: the nba and to some extend nba community has a problem of sweeping offcourt issues under the rug, there should be way more consequences for players like josh giddey and joshua primo

Jokic used to be a terrible defender, but he's actually slightly above average the last 2 seasons. Dude seems to have taken a page out of Marc Gasol's playbook.

Hot take, the way to curb the incessant 3 point shooting and takes of “modern basketball doesn’t allow defence” takes is to introduce a midrange 2.5 line or some such to increase motivation for greater shot variety

Next years Allstars game should be 1st 2nd year team vs 10+ year team.

Hot take:All of LeBron records are overrated His records are just longevity based numbers

Thanks Nick

Other hot take: Montreal should have a team next. Smaller market, but the French twist creates instant rivalries with Boston and Toronto (who we share hockey rivalries with) and we have like 3 players from Montreal alone (Benedict Maturin, Chris Boucher and Lu Dort). We also already have the arena/stadium ready. It would also be hilarious to see NBA players try to pretend they’re gonna learn French like the Hockey players do

Two Faces of Greg Popovich was a great video.

hot take: some of the the warriors success is attributed to bending rules such as carrying, moving screens, and blatant traveling. i’m not talking about traveling on step backs and whatnot. just last night vs dallas klay got the inbound towards the end of a tight game and traveled so hard. i understand much of the league does these things from time to time but watch any warriors game any season they were a contender and i guarantee you that at least 25% of the time on offense there’s a moving screen or a shameless curry carry. - houston’s residential warriors hater

Hot take: The Lakers are the third best team in the league (behind Denver and Boston) and will beat any team in the West other than Denver in a 7 game series. Nobody talks about them missing two top 8 rotation guys in Vando and Gabe for essentially the entire season, which is the main reason they aren’t a top 4 seed

Hot take: perkins absolutely helped embiid win mvp by saying the voters were racist because jokic is the first white guy to win mvp since.....2007!!!! Perkins race baiting and embiid crying have put a stain on embiids mvp for the rest of time

Couple of hot takes: the nba should get rid of confrences and make teams play each other twice. It would make the seeding more fair because teams will get the seed they deserve and less games will make each game more important and less games and longer rest period between them will make it easier for players to stay healthy.

Hot take: this one's been going through my friendgroup so it might be future old head revisionism, but the last shot of the game I'd take prime Russ over prime Harden. I don't know what happens to Russ but there are so many clutch threes he has where you have no idea why it's going in, but it does. Harden is a better shooter, a better clutch shooter, and probably a better offensive player, but the absolute last shot of a random regular season game there's maybe like 4 people I'd take over prime Westbrook to hit that shot.

hot take: kyrie would not be considered better than dame if the cavs didn’t win that 2016 ring. dame has consistently been the better player with far less talented supporting players, with this season being the only exception. lillard’s best yrs in portland were mvp worthy, meanwhile kyrie has never reached that level, even without injuries. edit: dame has also led teams just as talented if not worse than kyrie’s early years in cleveland to impressive runs in the post-season, meanwhile irving has not proven himself to be a competent leader. peak dame could be the #1 option on a championship team, can’t say the same for kyrie

Hot take: There isn’t more “talent” in today’s NBA. Due to social media, every player gets their own platform to showcase their abilities meaning more people see it. To the regular fan, any NBA player looks incredible (which they are). That also makes a lot of guys who are otherwise average NBA players get a lot of support that they are top players in the league.

Hot take: herb jones is the best defender in the league aside from Rudy and Wemby

Hot take: I could see Jalen Williams be considered to be better than Shai as soon as next year.

The way Shaq talks about the game rly shows how little he had to worry about technique. When listening to LeBron in his podcast it is so technical and he sounds like an NFL quarterback, while all Shaq reminisces on is bodying and posting up 6’8” white guys.

Lebron and the warriors have ruined the perception of doing well in the regular season. People would dismiss the regular season since at the end of the day you have to get through the warriors in the west and get through lebron in the east.

If the nuggets don't win the title this year because of depth (their only issue in my opinion) they need to trade Mpj. He earns too much and fills cap space that could be used to get some role players in return of a 3 point shooting that comes and goes too much

Hindsight makes every trade and "what if" seem like it would be better or more interesting than they actually would be. The Dame trade is the perfect example of how duos that seem like layups can be disappointing.

Hot take: suns are the scariest team in the playoffs solely due to possible favorable seeding and unpredictably this team has that I think some of the newer younger teams will overlook and will get punished.

The obsession with championships has ruined any and all NBA discourse because no matter how great a player was, if they lack a ring, they're suddenly bums

Your jokic defensive take was music to my ears. Ive been saying this for a while, almoat verbatim to your take. Thank God someome said it like this on a popular podcast.

Hot take: Giannis will leave the Milwaukee Bucks if Doc Rivers isn’t fired soon

Hot Takes: 1. Tim Duncan is Top 5 player All-Time. Dude has same amount of FMVP as Magic, more than Kareem. Not to mention he beat two top 10 players all-time in their peak Shaq/Kobe, with a decent roster. He also has the second underrated MVP season right behind 94 Hakeem. His arguably a top 3 defender all-time. As well as being an underrated playmaker for a Big Men. Lastly, his the only player in the top 10 not named MJ/Russell with him and his team with a finals record of 5-1 better then most beside the two mentioned. 2. Kevin Durant isn’t Top 15 All-Time, in theory/talent wise yes, but reality as a first option isn’t Better than Guys such as Wade, Dirk and M. Malone, who all had a success as first options. Which doesn’t help KD’s case for being ranked above and beyond this guys. 3. The Top 5 Players All-Time should in reality coexist of the best at each position. Magic, MJ, Bron, Duncan, Kareem. 4. Moses Malone is a Top 15 All-Time 5. 2012-13 is Peak Bron 6. Kobe (1999-2003) is the greatest second option of all-time. The best two-way guard during this period. Dude was arguably a top 3 player by 2001 and by 2003 surpassed his first option. Runner ups are Kareem (82’-87’), Pippen (91’-98’). 7. SGA has the potential to be a Top 3 PG/SG if he continues his success and wins a couple of championships and potentially an mvp/FMVP .

I agree with that final take. The front office did a poor job of evaluating the respective play styles of Russ and Harden and seeing which one of them would've been a good fit next to KD. But to add on, hot take: Poor roster construction and poor coaching also prevented KD and Russ from getting OKC over the hump. KD mentioned before that the front office did not equip the roster with enough floor spacing or offensive skill outside of himself and Russ. Putting them in a starting 5 with non-offensive threats like Ibaka, Adams, and Roberson with predictable coaching from Scott Brooks and then Billy Donovan? Sure, they always had really good defense, but that wasn't good enough. That turned out to be a bigger problem than a lot of people realize(d), especially at the time.

Hot take: De'Aron Fox is overall the more valuable and better player than Sabonis because he's better equipped for playoff basketball. He can get to a level of scorer that Sabonis simply can't reach and doesn't have any really exploitable weaknesses now that he's become a good three point shooter unless he just happens to be missing shots that he normally makes. Sabonis has a shaky jumpshot, can't use his right hand, and doesn't have any post moves aside from shoulder checking and going left which only works on smaller defenders. Because of this teams will force Sabonis to try and beat them 1v1 which will mitigate much of his playmaking and thus will tank his value as a player.

Hot Take Kareem Should be in the goat debate more 2nd all time in scoring 6 mvps 6 rings he isn’t talked about at all when he is arguably the GOAT

Hot take: the knicks would have made the ecf last year if they made the og annunoby trade last year, that would have proabibly improved randles game, the knicks defense, and would also make the raptors a play-in team this year.

Carmelo Anthony does not deserve to have his jersey retired by the Denver Nuggets. Jokić wearing #15 aside, Melo’s exit and the shade he’s thrown at the organization since should cost him that honor.

Dominance: totally agree with your takes, but even though I love steph I almost think dominance should be reserved for more athletic or bigger (e.g. Jokic) players who just can't be guarded on offense or can't be schemed against on defense. Basically offensively dominant players are so good that they make iso ball look like a good, highly efficient brand of basketball and defensively they not only can guard 1-5 but they can lock up 1-5. These are the players that play well without a good team but play at an all-time level with a good roster. Superstar: I think of this more like a popularity contest and that the scope widens as a sport gets more popular but eventually has to retract before it loses all meaning. I think superstardom should basically be reserved for players who are known by people who don't pay attention to that specific sport. I like hockey and want to eventually get into it but I can only name wayne gretsky because i don't currently and have never watched hockey. Greatness: When dominance meets popularity. Basically a dominant player with a narrative who meets stardom or superstardom through their accolades within context of their career. Playmaking: Totally agree with Rusty, but even though I agree with the take on gravity, I wouldn't hate if someone thought this was more about ball handling and passing (as long as they take flashiness with a grain of salt e.g. kyrie's playmaking versus jimmy or kawhi)

Biggest hot take funny enough was from YOU on your podcast saying you’d pick SGA over Luka for MVP. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing 😂

Yall are forgetting how important PJ Tucker was for the bucks was defensively. We had a legitimately really good defense then lost Tucker

Hot take: The new CBA will dramatically raise the value of players that attend college for multiple years at the draft, as teams with two trusted max contracts and good emerging role players that they will not be able to extend will prefer taking a more experienced win now player on a rookie contract over developing a 'raw project' in hope of getting a super star in 3 or 4 years. Jaime Jaquez is the prototype

HOT TAKE: Timberwolves has the best chance to beat the Nuggets.

Jokic is the best draft pick

2019 Kawhi had a better playoff run than 2018 LBJ. Better defense, better scoring and more efficient

Hot take: Luka doncic is already a top 15 scorer of all time and by the end of his career he will be top 5 minimum.

With regards to playmaking, you can also be a defensive playmaker. That’d be more getting deflections, steals, forcing TOVs, etc. You don’t have to be an elite defender to be a good playmaker on DEF, and not all elite defenders are great DEF playmakers. Steals can be very overrated on the box score if you’re getting blown by and can’t do anything else. Also some of the best defenders that are great at defending numerous positions, navigating screens, etc. may not force a ton of steals. JMO.

deni avdija will be an mvp and dpoy level player. especially if the wizards would give him the room to develop. anthony davis should be playing the four. his natural position. lakers won with him playing the forward and dwight or mcgee in the pivot spot. put christian wood or someone there

Hot take: Embiid winning MVP last year helped Jokic just as much as if he won it. Because of the Perkins narratives, Jokic winning a chip, and Embiid choking int he playoffs, people want to act like Embiid didnt deserve it and everyone is brainwashed into thinking Joker was easily the best player in the nba in the 2023 regular season.

If d rose had never gotten hurt he wouldn’t have had an all time career anyway. He was about to enter his prime right around when his skill set at point guard was becoming less valuable. I don’t think he ever would’ve won a chip.

Hot take: I'm unsure whether MVPs gain or lose value given the abundance of fair candidates we have each year compared to decades past.

Hot take: Kevin Garnett is the most complete bigmen ever and it's not even particularly close, he could defend all 5 positions he is a top 2 team defender ever, an elite rim protector and rebounder and on top of that he could dribble, shoot, roll, pop, be a lob threat, or post-up. That's what really makes the TWolves's inability to find someone to pair him with, because he would have been a seemless fit with literally any player no matter their skillset.

Ice cold take: Getting a cut mid video is tuff 🥶🥶🥶

I honestly don’t remember Paul pierce being a top 7 player like ever 😂

ngl Rusty been slowly turning into a light skin but with the haircut you can't hide it

Hot take: Russell westrbook effort has always been mid. He got a reputation as the hardest working player because he's quick and fast, so it's looks like he is playing hard. He often falls asleep on defense, doesn't always sprint back, and off ball movement is often minimal even as a role player. He's only been top 10 in distance travel per game once

Hot Take: Trae young is better than ja morant and has been for the entire time they’ve both been in the league, ja just gets rated more highly and more attention because he dunks and has flashier highlights, he is not more effective

Hot take: MJ and Scottie Pippen are the greatest duo of all time, and is better than the Kobe/Shaq lakers and MJ still the goat

Hot take: the nba should push the 3 point line further back

Who should've been on the 75th anniversary team? Klay or Dwight 🤷‍♂️

Hot Take: The Ja Morant injury could turn the ‘24 Grizzlies into the ‘99 Spurs.

MJ's looks and sexiness contribute heavily to his goat case and people disguise their attraction to him as his "aura" or "legend"

I still believe the evolution of the SG position will be the combo guard. I refuse to believe the NBA will streamline to only having one shot creator when teams like the Celtics, Mavericks, and Thunder have multiple guys who can play on/off ball offemsively. The SG of the future will likely look like what Kyrie Irving is doing this season.

You can’t call someone who gets targeted on defence a good defender. If any team goes into a playoff series with the game plan to pick and roll x player to death because they aren’t good enough to stop it then they are disqualified from being called a good defender.

Playmaking should include big time defensive stops such as steals and blocks considering that playmaking should account for points created and for points denied

Hot take: Magic and Kareem are overrated. Many old heads criticize Steph for having KD for his 2 rings and Kobe for having Shaq for his 3 rings, yet they rate Magic and Kareem 3rd and 4th all-time even though they played with each other for all 5 championships. (And Kareem's first ring was when half of the best players were in the other league.)