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Kings Sign Ben Simmons & the NBA's Most Disrespected Fanbase

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Ben Simmons is back in the NBA. The former All-Star is signing a one-year deal with the Sacramento Kings, where he’s expected to back up rookie Darius Acuff Jr. and potentially play all five positions. Wes Goldberg, Matt Moore and Haize debate whether Sacramento is the right landing spot and what Simmons can realistically provide after a year away.

Then, which NBA star could still be traded before training camp? The guys identify candidates for one last offseason blockbuster before turning their attention to Portland.

After trading for Ja Morant and bringing Damian Lillard back, should the Trail Blazers actually be thinking about a championship? And finally, it’s Peak Offseason Content: Which NBA fanbase is the most disrespected in the league right now?

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Kings Sign Ben Simmons & the NBA's Most Disrespected Fanbase

Locked On NBA – Daily Podcast On The National Basketball Association

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Locked On NBA – Daily Podcast On The National Basketball AssociationKings Sign Ben Simmons & the NBA's Most Disrespected Fanbase. Machine-transcribed; use the interactive transcript above to jump the player to any line.

This is the Lockdown Podcast Network celebrating 10 years of your team every day. This is Jake from Lockdown. When the game's on the line, the best no end to pass. Because the right assist can change everything. And off the court, it's no different. That's where your State Farm agent comes in. Whether it's protecting your car, your home, or helping you prep for the unexpected, they'll help set you up with a game plan that works for you. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Like cover options are selected by the customer, availability and eligibility vary by state. For curb appeal that lasts, shop Labor Day extra big deals at Loves. For a limited time, get 50% off all Holland Papers. Plus, save $110 on the Ego Power Plus, 56 volt, 2.5 amp hour blower trimmer combo kit. Now just $249. Labor Day deals are on now. It Loves. In store and online. Bell at through 9.7. Wall supplies last.

Selection varies by location. Holland Papers offer exclusive to Laskin Hawaii. Coming up on Lockdown NBA Daily, Ben Simmons is back. We're going to talk about what he can bring to the Sacramento Kings. Plus, who could still get traded this summer? And is their serious talk of titles in Portland? Lockdown NBA Daily starts now. You are Lockdown NBA. You're Daily NBA Podcast. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Your team every day. Hello and welcome back to Lockdown NBA Daily. I'm Wes Goldberg. That's Matt Moore. That's Hayes. We have a great show for you today. We're going to be taking a second look at the Portland Trailblazers and some surprising goals that they may have after trading for John Morant. That I'm going to ask the guys who they think is the most disrespected fan base in the NBA. But before we get to all of that, we do have some breaking news. This morning, Ben Simmons is back after being out of the league last year.

Simmons will sign a one year deal with the Sacramento Kings. I got one of your guys' thoughts on the move here. But first, let me read a little bit from Mark Spears' story on ESPN. Spears broke the news and in that piece, wrote, quote, the Kings offered Simmons a contract with the expectation of him being a backup point guard for rookie Darius, a cuff junior, and play positions one through five for the Kings. Simmons serves as a high upside reclamation project who still has yours left in his perspective prime and quote, Hey, is your thoughts on the move for the Kings? It's the Kings is Ben Simmons. I have no thoughts. It doesn't matter. It's a non factor. Like, let's just be honest with you. This matter is not in the league. It doesn't matter for the Sacramento Kings. It doesn't do anything for Ben Simmons. This is one of those things that at this point in the offseason, cool. It's a story. It's a headline because it's September and we're waiting for two and a half weeks until a training camp starts. Nobody cares about the Kings. Nobody cares about Ben Simmons. This is a non factor around the NBA. This is not matter and it's really disrespectful of the sense that we've been talking about this right now. Nobody cares.

Nobody gives it down. Thanks for joining us everybody. I was blocked on. Yeah. Yeah. I care about the Kings. Damn it. Like, somebody's got to be. Do you care about the Kings? Do you care about some players on the Kings, man? Let's be real here. I do care about the Kings fans. Like, the Kings fans deserve better than what they've gotten, right? It's true. This is one of those all lives matter moments. Let's just be real here, man. All right. All right. I just love the idea that Hayes came in here and said it's disrespectful of Ben Simmons to come back to the NBA and make us talk about it. Make us talk about it. That was, yeah. I think. The only thing I've got a guy here is that Simmons' problem is not actually, everyone thinks that Simmons' problem is that he didn't take a shot in a playoff game. Or they go to the injuries. And that's neither one of those things. Simmons doesn't love basketball. That's like, that was the dirty secret that was out there when he was in the draft. It was the dirty secret when he was in Philadelphia.

Like, everybody knows that he doesn't love basketball. And he's back because of the money. And that's fine. Like, he's talented enough to pursue making a career out of it. But I just, I do think that there's a certain level of what you got to be able to show that you care enough about everything. And, you know, that follows through with, like, being in the professional and all the stuff that you got to do to go along with it. And I don't know the second one I know is the best. Maybe that's the best place for him to go because the standards will be so low. But I just, I'm kind of like, okay, sure. I can't get to a place where I can see so many things would have to go well for him to be able to parlay this into anything meaningful that it doesn't feel like it's going to move the needle at all. I don't know. West, do you still have any hope for Benby and some sort of like impact player? Do I have hope? No. But maybe I'm just feeling good because my daughter slept at the night last night. So I'm feeling a little charitable right now.

I'm happy for Ben Simmons. Good for him, man. Get your contract. Welcome back. Give it another shot, right? The Sacramento Kings is like the minor league team of the NBA, right? So you do, you start there and you try to work your way up. Maybe there's something here, but to your point, Matt, like, I, he doesn't love basketball. But like, that's not the only other players in the league don't love basketball and they've managed to stay in the league for a long time. We all know that. It's, it's that it's plus the inability to be a factor on offense. It's the injuries, right? Like the back injuries were such a big deal. There's so many things, I guess, as my point stacked against Ben Simmons that for him to actually turn this opportunity and turn it into a second act. The odds are long on it, right? Like there's just so much going against him. Now he did spend basically the whole last year apparently rehabbing again, according to that Mark Spears story. But we'll see. Like it's just, I don't know. And then there's the other question too is like does the league need a player like Ben Simmons anymore, right? Who kind of needs the ball in his hands to be effective offensively?

We'll see what he can be defensively because he hit very high highs in Philadelphia, but had not hit those highs in a very long time. I don't know. Like what is Ben Simmons in 2026? Like even the best version of Ben Simmons. I mean, I think he's actually more viable now than anyone a couple of years ago because shooting isn't as important as it was. We're seeing teams go to more towards the athleticism and defense, right? Could he just be Dyson Daniels? Yeah. You know, the thing I've always wanted Simmons to be from the very first time that I did any work on him in LSU was I just wanted him to be Dremont. That's it. I just wanted to be able to run screen and roll with him and then get him to ball in a short role and let him create that to me seems like such a great way to do it. But I don't know if that's possible at this point. So before the big Ben Simmons news that Hayes found so disrespectful, we were going to base the first segment on big moves that could still happen this offseason. So it does feel like the big moves have already been done. But we have also seen surprises in the past. I think about when Carl Nathany Towns got traded to the Nix right before training camp

a couple of years ago. So this isn't necessarily a prediction that this will happen. But if a surprise trade like this does happen, who do you think is a good candidate to get traded late in the offseason? Matt, I know you have a name for us. So when you were a man on the hook collective talked openly about this a day that it's demonos subbonus as Sacramento. And I think it's, you know, subbonus when the King started to implode when Deer and Fox kind of issued his trade request, there were open comments from subbonus that were kind of like, yeah, I don't know what's going on or like what's how this is going to go. And there was a lot of reports that like, yeah, he's probably going to want to go to. And I think last year he was kind of like, okay, I'm hurt and everything's kind of wound down fine. I'm a little bit surprised that he's still on the Kings for a number of reasons and the answer might be as simple as like, nobody's willing to take on any of these contracts anymore.

But nobody's willing to take on any of these contracts when they think that they're going to be good. The question is like, when you get to a point where you're like, we're not as good as we thought we were or needed to be or we could be better if that kind of changes things. So I will just kind of say like I expect the bonus to be on a different team by the deadline. By the deadline. Yeah, by the day, I don't think he finishes the king with this season with the Sacramento Kings. There's no way he does that. They can move him by the start of the training camp, but they could be best just so they can move on. He can move on and he could join, but teams may want to get through training camp. See, maybe you let his value drop a little bit too. You can see that he's healthy. He didn't play a lot of games last season, but I don't think there's any way. So bonus finishes the season with the Kings. If they, if he does, it would be more malpractice by the King. So then again, I shouldn't be surprised by that. I do like the idea of Hayes of teams kind of just going into their training camp preseason, maybe even start the season and be like, do we really need an answer here at the center spot? And if they do, bonus seems like the guy who's out there, right? I guess based on all of this reporting, but Hayes, do you think the bonus outside of Sacramento

can be a factor? Absolutely. So bonus can, especially if he has a defensive structure around him. Bonus is still a player that can impact winning. And I think he's a player that can help teams. He probably already be off the Kings if it wasn't for the huge contract. Now, is he overpaid per his production? Maybe, you know, there's a lot of players in the NBA that you can say that about. So I wouldn't argue that point, but bonus can absolutely help teams in the right situation. Is there a team that maybe sticks out in terms of having that infrastructure around him that can? If I'm the Toronto Raptors, I'm calling to see if there's anywhere they take Yaku Poodle and whatever first rounds I can attach to it to get him in there. If I'm a Raptor's, I do that with the Kings. The Warriors probably should also be another team because I don't trust their bigs at all. So there'll be another team that I would say probably should call them also. I like both of those teams, Matt, any other ones? Galus. Right. I don't think he's too old to be able to play there. And if you're like, well, you need the room protection and defense. Sure. But I kind of, I will not kind of let go of the idea of playing the bonus of form with

a room protector at five. I just still just kind of continue to think there's a way to do this. There's a way to pull this off. You could also place the bonus of the five with Cooper flag and Marais Johnson or P.J. Washington. That's good defensive players around them. Yeah. The calves probably shouldn't look at this, but I think that they might. The calves have been kind of looking for these big upgrades. They want to keep adding these like big moves. And if they can do some, you know, they're strapped here even after moving Maxter's. But if there's a way for them to be able to get themselves in a position to trade their first apron capped because of the decision to give Peyton Watson the restricted free agency deal. I have to explain all of these things in way to make complicated terms because the CBA sucks. But if they're able to move something that's like Jared Allen for M pieces for Devon Sabonis, that's probably something that they would look at. They have been aggressive over the last year and a half, two years. So I mean, it would be surprising. Maybe not all that surprising when you really think about it.

Meanwhile, the Portland Trailblazer played blah, blah, blah. The Portland Trailblazers try that one more time. Had a sneakily active offseason, but are there goals for this team as Damien Lillard approaches, retirement, a little surprising, according to Lockdown Blazers, they might be. That's coming up next. Today's episode of Lockdown NBA Daily is brought to you by Square, the system powering so many of the places that we already know and love. Whether you're running a packed game day spot, a local restaurant, or a growing business, Square gives sellers the tools to run their business without making things more complicated. Square brings payments, inventory, payroll, invoices, customer insights, and more together in one connected system. So whether you're a one location business or maybe growing into multiple locations, Square gives you the tools to sell, manage, and grow without needing an IT team to figure it all out. For someone like me who's always on the go between games, media, availability, podcasts, daycare pickup, there's something that I appreciate about those local spots that make my shopping experience smooth and quick, check out, and easy payments.

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Subscribe on YouTube. We are Monday to Friday at 1 p.m. Eastern, wherever you get your podcast. Let's start today's segment with this clip from Locked On Blazers who are talking about the goals for the team after trading for John Moran. John Moran's a good offensive player at his best. Daimler is a great offensive player. Any obviate proved to be an offensive engine last year. There's a world in which you just have those guys and you mix and match enough that the offense is really good. But I just think there's more ways that it's going negative than go positive. I think one of the concerns, what's the resolution with this group? It's that Daim just retires and leaves and you just wait for that. Yeah, Daim is close to retiring. So if the goal is to give him a shot of the title, you need to move now. Hey, Zuh and I liked Portland last year. But I don't know that we ever really talked about them in terms of can they build a path to title contention. They've been somewhat overlooked despite the fact that they traded for John Moran. I do think that's an interesting question though.

What is the goal for the Blazers after not only acquiring JAW but also bringing back Damien Lillard who turned to 36 in July? What should be the goals in Portland? The goals should be playoffs. I mean, that has to be the goal with the agent Ross that you have. I get it that you still got young pieces that are developing, but you got JAW. Got Daim there. Denny made a huge leap last season. Don McLean is a very young and good defensive center like you should be aimed for the playoffs. You were a playoff team last year. Not many people expected that, especially you had it into the last month of the season. They made a great push. Now you need to take it a step further. There's kind of some imbalance on that roster, but I think good coaching can figure it out. Shade and Sharp being out actually kind of helps you kind of figure that out a little bit more. Playoffs for sure and they should be aiming to be a team that I don't know if they can want to play off series, but they should make it interesting in the first round. They either need to win enough to where people think of higher of Tom Dundin and no longer hate him or they need to start losing so that he can start forcing his way out of Portland to get the team move wherever it is that he wants to go to make more money.

That's should be the goal. I mean, look, he's right. You can't have any expectations higher than this. You can't be like, oh, we want to make a conference finals when you look at the teams in front of you. I don't know. Could they beat these teams ahead of them? Like, yeah, like I think with where we're at in the league, you can be like, yeah, if you get the right injuries or matchups or whatever, you can get past Houston or LA or Denver. You know, St. Antonio would be a shock, but it's also just like, you're not making the conference finals unless it's a fake conference finals appearance. And that's okay because I think they're just trying to set like a bar. I do think one of the questions I was pretty reasonable here is just like, who's there? Is is Danny good enough to be the kind of guy that sets a, oh, they're actually a contender because he's made this jump and then B is Danny going to have the opportunity to be that given that jaw is going to have the ball and Dame's going to have the ball as much as they are. I just don't know. I don't know how I don't know how this is going to go. I like Portland as before as being competitive, but I don't know.

What the, if you ask me like, what the goal for the Blazers should be, I think it's just like compete and try win games. That's about it. Yeah, that's kind of why I pulled this clip is it was very interesting to me because we've all liked, you know, some of the moves that Portland made. I, to me, they were just sort of a fun story. And I'm honest, I kind of overlooked them as a team that mattered in the Western conference more than just, hey, they mean the last couple of years, they're the team that had that now has to, you know, do the John Marant thing. I guess the whole deal this year would be kind of what you were talking about there, Matt. They did talk about this on the show. Like the fit issues are real. Those are really big questions that they need to answer. Maybe you spend this year trying to answer those things and then you realize, okay, is John Marant capable of being that guy again? Can he be the face of this franchise when Damon Lillard does retire? And if that's the case, then maybe you do open up a window to some sort of version of title contention because they're like, hey, I said, there's a lot of pieces that we like here. I don't know. Hey, it's like, if the best version of John Marant pans out here in Portland, maybe the best case scenario there, is that the best path for them going forward?

I still think you need another one of those young guys to make a step too. Like, like, John, John getting back to John Marant, if he gets back even close to what he was a few years ago before he's trying to go down hill, it helps a lot. But I think that you still need, didn't need to maybe make another leap, shading, you know, when he does get back healthy. If you really want to contend for something in the West, they're still kind of far. If they want to compete in the West, like, be a fun team, that could punch some teams in the face, they're not that far off from that. But if they really want to be a contender in the West, they need a couple of things to break their way. I do want to kind of push back on my own. The thing I have to say first because I don't like it when we do the thing where it's like, oh, you're not going to want to tie it all. So what's the point of this? Right. Yeah. Right. You know, Portland has been miserable for a lot of years because of a number, it was just like, it just kind of happened to them the way it happens to a lot of teams. And I think for them, it's, it is going to get back to being a level of, of competitiveness. And you can also, you can find guys, if you're in a competitive environment that allows you to be a lot.

And I do think at some point you have to compete to figure out what you have. Yeah. Are these guys made for it? And it's not just jaw. It's not just jaw and it's not just where is Dame. It's not just Denny. It's too money camera. Like it's too money camera able to be like a real impact like is he at that level is done of in England at that level. Those kind of guys, I think Shad and Sharp is probably in that conversation, but he's going to have his year severely impacted by injury. Scoot Henderson, you know, is he one of those, Scoot did a really good playoff series. Like he had a really good play, it's just a series, but he had a really good playoff series against the Western Conference champs. So I think that there's just like things that you can do in terms of competing that don't necessarily have to be built towards winning a championship. You always say that, but you're so far away, you honestly have to figure out where you have to figure out where you are in order to find out how to get where you want to go. I guess that brings the timeline question into this because like I say, Damien Lillard 36 years old.

How do you, I don't think you can realistically contend right now in the next couple years and send Damien Lillard off with some sort of miracle title. That's probably not realistic. But how can you send Damien Lillard off in a good way? Right? Like is it enough just to be back in Portland and to retire a trailblazer? Like what's the best way to sort of honor this guy who's an icon to your franchise, his? I mean, he has a contract. They're honoring him because they gave him with Dave. They're playing on the table. No, we're the contraper. Yeah, they're paying. No, I mean, honestly, like, it's not like he's on a team where they're not going to be competitive. I think that's that's a way that they're doing it. Like he's on the team where they're going to be competitive. They're going to fight. And so on the basketball court, they're honoring him that way. And I think other than that, like you're going to have to prove it. Like how can you elevate these guys? You want to be further than that? Like it's not going to be as simple with they're not one move away from the championship without somebody exceed, you know, very much so, you know, exceeding the timeline for this team. So they're kind of doing the most that they can to be honest with you. Matt, let me kind of rephrase the question based off what Hazard said.

Should Damien Lillard's timeline impact Portland's timeline? Oh, it depends on what kind of day they get back this year. This feels like a year of discovery for Portland. Yeah, because like, look, if they look, you know, they made a thousand shots in the counting system in the workouts, I don't know why I was with them. But like if Damien looks like he is himself, it does kind of change the equation because I do think you have to say this roster is more talented than the last one that he'll competed with in Portland. That was been a several years ago. But like it's that's a relevant question here. And we are seeing guys still compete. I don't, you know, I think a good way is like, look, Steph's still really good. And it's like, yeah, but look at what Steph's team, like look at how good Steph's team is still. You know, and it's just like, how good can you really be with if Damien's,

even if Damien looks like that, you can't have Damien be that guy at this age. Probably. It's a very complicated formula. I do think that it's like, you know what they need to aim for? Here we go. This is what they need to aim for. The early 2000s Pacers with Reggie Miller. Right? That made conference finals and we're like within range of being able to make a finals. Because of their defense and their talent. But that team wasn't stacked with like all star guys. It was like run our test meta-world peace. Right? You know, notably try not to get someone who goes into the stands and fights people. Try. Do you need that? What do you need that? Yeah. But like that's what you need to aim for here is like the, is the the early 2000s Pacers is the kind of I think the goal here with Reggie as. See that was a team that was still kind of building with Reggie like this. This Portland team isn't building with like,

Damien's a part of it because of who Damien is and what he's meant to that franchise. I don't to answer what's, you know, the updated question. I don't know if Damien's time line should affect the Portland Trailblazer timeline. Unless it deal falls into their lap that they're just like this, this gets us where we need to get to. We can compete in Damien's time. I don't think that you can like because at that point you're doing the disservice to the players are developing in my opinion. Like if a scoop deal gets you there, okay, cool. Like because you're giving up scoop, but I don't know how much you should chase that to be honest with you. If Damien Lillard is back to what he basically was pre injury, which is 25 points per game, almost 38% shooting from three. Yes, the playmaking is always there. 36 minutes per game. I mean, that's a really good player. You pair that version of Damien Lillard who's an all-star at level player with Danny Abbia who's an all-star. And maybe you get some sort of bounce back from John Morant. Like there's, and we all like Donovan Klingin and a lot of these role players. I don't know. Like this is an interesting roster, but I do think what we're all kind of saying here is, let's figure out what all of this is first. And then you kind of maybe alter your goals and your expectations after that.

We had a lot of news today, but it is peak off season. So we do have peak off season content that I want to ask you guys about. I'm going to ask you who you think is the most disrespected fan base in the NBA. This is locked on NBA daily. Today's episode is sponsored by Indeed Sponsored Jobs. When workplace chaos hits and you need the right hire, Indeed Sponsored Jobs helps connect employers with candidates who match specific needs like skills, certifications and locations. So less time gets spent searching and more time gets spent finding the right fit. People are finding all the hires on Indeed right now. In the minute that I've been talking to you, companies like yours have made 27 hires on Indeed, according to Indeed Data worldwide. In the NBA, teams spend the off season hoping to make that one addition that can have ripple effects on everybody around them. Teams know that the right hire can make all of the difference. And the same applies to your business. When you find someone who brings the right skills, attitude and experience, it makes the entire group better. Tools like Indeed Sponsored Jobs can help make that process easier. So spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check

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Thanks again for making locked on NBA Daily. Part of your daily routine and making the Lockdown podcast network your first listen every day. It is time for some peak offseason content here at the beginning of September. Who is the most disrespected fanbase in the NBA right now? Hey, it's the Clippers. They're owner disrespected them. There's nobody else with the Clippers right now. Like I mean, we're talking about like media. I'll let Matt, but if we're talking about right now in this moment, the franchise they got crapped on the most is the Clippers. That's it. This is sort of why I asked the question based on all things this week. I've been trying my best to not crapple on the Clippers and kick them while they're already down. But I mean, at this point, they just they got to eat the crap. Like this is the Clippers. Matt, it's a good argument. Disrespected by the owner of the team. I mean, it doesn't that is kicking dirt on you when you're down. I don't know. They are disrespected by the owner of the team.

That's just me. I think there were consequences or sucks for them the most. We get the harm that was caused. But um, um, I, you know, we're doing that route. I think you actually, I think what you actually have to do is you have to go to, you have to go towards towards owners that are not treating the franchise with the level of respect that it deserves. Is it the team we were just talking about? I would not. No. So like, just to be clear here, again, I'm just going to like try and be clear here. Steve Balmer. No, I was talking about the in the last segment. Oh, okay. The last segment. Yeah, I mean, look, Dundin is heading down that road. But I can't get there yet with them because it's like, he has a coach from a 360 deal. It's pretty disrespectful. Yeah, it's not good. And he is threat, literally threatening the fans in the city. Yeah, to move the team. Yeah, but like, we, you know, his thing is pretty routinely. You know, just wait. We're going to win. And they won with a hurricane. So like, you have to give him the opportunity right before we crush him.

I'm waiting. I'm waiting. I think from the owners from the fans, me and disrespect about the owners, actually, I would have to kind of point towards the Debra Nugget here because Nugget's fans are pretty frustrated with the fact that they have Nikola yoga to a lot of people are like, this is might be an all-time top 10 guys. Like, one of the best 10 players in NBA history. And yet, like, they can't get within range. They can't make a conference finals again. They have two conference finals appearances, one in the bubble, and then one when they won the championship. But they have not been back in three years and they've gotten steadily worse in on larger account because of the salary cap constraints. I think that's one. We probably need to like, Dallas here. If this is, if it's like, Dallas, disrespected by the owners. Who has been more disrespected? What fanbase has been more disrespected by owners than the fanbase than the owner that traded Luca Dachic.

The Sacramento Kings? The light the beam team was only two years ago. Sure, but like, they got, they got you. We're talking about, yeah, I mean, I do, I do. I do try to be there because they, it wasn't considered how much the fans love the Luca. Regardless of the basketball stuff, which was always, you know, dumb and stupid, it was just like, hey, I don't even care that you love this guy and that everybody wears this guy's shoes. That's fair. What about the media? Like, let's talk about social media, the media in general, disrespected by maybe other fan bases in the league before we get to, I feel like we've been talking about owners so much on this show. Disrespected fanbase in the NBA, by everybody else. Is there a different kind of team? Can I, I will, I will start us off with another team, which I think might be a little surprising. I think the Nick serving a little disrespected here because nobody really seems to be picking them as a real contender to repeat. Everybody's just picking one of these teams out of the Western conference. That team just dominated the Eastern conference side of the bracket and

was awesome in the NBA finals. And I do feel like they're being disrespected a little bit in terms of, you know, there are some people picking them, but it doesn't feel like they're in that conversation, the way that the Thunder and the Spurs are kind of mostly dominating that conversation. Yeah, but you're going down to team not fan base because everybody respects the fan base because they're in New York and they have to be important because they live in New York and there's so many of them. I don't know if people respected New York's fan base. They've been getting killed on social media literally since the playoffs started. Except for that one guy who was the rallying cry. Yeah, everybody was really happy for the next. A lot of people were pulling for the next time. I thought in the playoffs, and we're talking fan bases from a media perspective. See, I, I get really jaded there and I'm just like, oh, you mean everyone outside of the Lakers in the next? That's like everyone outside of the Lakers in the next? Like what fan base is what fan base is respected in the NBA? That's a good question. What fan that what fan base does everybody respect? Because it's like, who's your historic franchise? Well, it's a boss at Celtics. Well, there are certainly comments made about the Celtics fan base

from a number of perspectives. Yep. Someone on the show. Yep. Yeah, I'd like your fans. I will, I will openly admit, they're like, I think 95% of them are bandwagoners. Oh, for sure. This is like Miami Heat Fan. It's the easier. Now, I'm not talking about West West is actually Miami Heat Fan. But let's be real. West. Come on. I'm not talking about West, but like, let's be clear. When you go to when you go to the Miami Heat stadium, how many people are legitimate fans? How many people are there because of business? Like before the before the heat was in the way, like, come on. No, very little business. The question is how many people are there to watch the basketball game and how many people are there to go to the 11 night club afterwards? It's not really, it's not a whole lot of business getting done. It's not like Chase Center with the Warriors. Well, I mean, Zion is one of the bad things in the league and that, you know, different kind of business. Yeah, who's the most respected fan base in the league? I think we've actually went the other way on the Toronto Raptors fans. Ever since Jurassic Park, nobody gets to say anything bad about

Toronto fans. And I think Jurassic Park is incredibly overrated. But everybody is kind of one the other way where we were always like, we're making fun of Canadians. And now I think we kind of have a little bit of guilt for it. And now we're like, you know, who's really great Toronto Raptors fans? Okay. Okay. Who's the most overrated fan base in the NBA? Most overrated fan base in the NBA? Yeah. Lakers fans. I would say Warriors fans now. Because I think they kind of ruined it by moving from Oakland to San Francisco where they used to be awesome fans. And now those fans have been priced out. And now the people that actually go to the games are there just to do business. And not the fun Miami kind of business like the Dumsula, Kun Valley business that nobody wants to hear about. We can legitimately do properly rated like overly rated properly rated underrated for all 30 teams. I think it'd be a really good fun conversation. I think both fans are properly rated. They show up. We know. They got that arena. Yep. They're going to sell out every every every game. I'm not having a single night. Even though so many fans hate this team and they're so mad at Ryan's

door and they're so sick of them. And they still show up. They still show up. That's why every when both fans are like, oh, we're so frustrated. I'm like, okay, they stop going to the game. Oh, you're not going to stop going to the game. Okay. Okay. And the minute that they're good, they're like there. And then it seems to have to be good. It's just let us be above 500 title number seven coming. It's bulls fans. There's no in between for us at all. I think Bucks fans are great. I think most of the central division. I think the central division has the best fans of basketball. It's great. Cool. I would have to agree with that. Shout out to Kings fans. I know we were talking about them a lot in the first segment. There I used to go to a lot of Sacramento games when I lived in the Bay Area. I used to drive up there. Awesome, awesome fans who have no, they don't need to support that team at all because of what they went through and yet they still they are right or die. So I respect it. And the Miami Heat fans are underrated. Why are they underrated? Because everybody get they because of the whole they left with the before the the Ray Allen shot thing. And then ever since then it's just been like this whole fan base stinks. I'm like,

they don't stink. They're not like the craziest fan base in the league, but they're not bad fans. And I do feel like I have to stand up for Miami fans. You get a bad rap. Compare them to a to like what are they not? Like they're not as bad as give me a fan base. Oh, I don't want to throw another fan base under the bus, but like they're not they're not bad fans like they cheer for their team. They're very active. You can't say the Celtics fans aren't good fans. You can criticize them on the number of other levels, but like you can't say that they don't show up and that they're not like hardcore. And then that's like that's my point with the heat. They show up. It's they've sold out every game for many many years and like legit like they sell those games out. They show up late, which is the problem, but that's sort of a community thing. There's a level beyond this of like it's not just showing up though. It's about the intensity. It's what is the building feel like. And I will say that like having been do a fair amount of games in Miami, not intimidating atmosphere. You're not like a whole man. This arena,

you know, like I would put my top tier for that would be Oklahoma City, yeah, Golden State when they're at Oracle, but not now. San Antonio intimidating. San Antonio is like I have compared San Antonio to Allen Fieldhouse where it's like legacy and intensity and like they are that is an angry fan base. Like they are ready to hate you. That like that to me is like probably the top tier. There have been some other good ones. I think Dallas fans, I think actually are really good for word before they rip their heart out. Blasers. Oh God. If you have a chance, go see a blazer game before Tom Dunton rips them out. Like they are absolutely. That that building is so much fun to be in because it's the only team in town. And so like they're just going to care about them in a different way. I just don't think that Miami you can devote the amount of energy. Like this. I'm not putting Miami in the top tier. I just don't think they deserve to be in the bottom tier. That's all I'm saying. You're gonna have to tell me. People put out there. Definitely not in the bottom tier. But you gotta tell me who's in the bottom. I don't want to disrespect another fan base to prop up the fan base. You came over the segment.

What's with the hell? What do you mean? That's a fair point. The most disrespected fan. Okay. Who's the most disrespected? No, I thought, uh, no. You know, I said Toronto was respected. Who is disrespected? I said somebody was disrespected. I forgot. It's the clippers. The clippers are disrespected. Also New Orleans. Shout out to New Orleans. Very disrespected. Everybody's like just move them. They don't they don't fit here because the clippers fans do show up. Like they show up and they they absorb this abuse over and over and over and over and over again. Yeah, just because you're disrespected doesn't mean that you deserve to be disrespected. Yeah. There's also this problem of like there's volume of fans and then there's how hardcore you are. Like the Pelican fans, I know that are actual New Orleans basketball fans. And they do like they are some of the most like they love that team and all they want is for that team to do something to reward them for their the misery that they've been enacted on. But if you're just if you judge this by like do you show up for your team? No, New Orleans is one of

the worst attendance figures in the league. Right. Nobody can have tickets tickets too expensive. Well, that's the other whole thing. That's that's where we get to a problem where like these tickets are just like not or actual fans of teams anymore. Right. And we're back to the owners again. What's every time it just goes back to the owners? How do we keep doing that? We're going to end it there. If you like what you heard today, subscribe to Lockdown NBA Daily wherever you get your podcasts. Also tune in every day Monday through Friday on a YouTube. Thanks to Matt and Hayes for their expertise every day. Thank you for making the Lockdown podcast network your first listen. We'll see you back here next week for more Lockdown NBA Daily. On Kowshi, you're trading against peers in a live market, meaning there's no house and as the probability changes, you can buy in and out of your position for a limited time. Download the Kowshi app and use code Lockdown to get $10 when you trade 10 KAL S H I Kowshi trade on anything. 18 plus only restrictions and eligibility requirements apply event contract trading

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