Thinking Basketball podcast.

My name is Ben.

Welcome to the 2026 thinkies.

This is our eighth annual defensive player of the year awards.

Defensive awards of the year?

Defensive awards of the best defensive players of the year.

Whatever it is, Rob Antle years ago, coined it the thinkies.

And that has stuck.

We go through and we talk about different categories of defense and, you know,

hand out.

We still haven't had the trophies made.

I mean, I don't know who I need to subcontract to get these trophies made, but we hand out the most important things like best hands and best point of attack

defender and of course the gold standards of the awards now, I think, are, you know, things like

Best Perimeter Helper and Best Paint Protector, the granddaddy of the mall. Cody, I know this is an important day for you. So first of all, happy thinkies day. And secondly, where would you like to start? Do you have a preamble? We have a lot to cover. This is my favorite episode of the year, which is interesting because I think when I first started, this is the podcast that I felt the least prepared for.

Like, this is the one I'm going to get the most flack for.

It's impossible to know.

And you know, there's like the meme where you have the one person that doesn't know anything. And they're like, I don't know anything. And in the middle, it would be like, I know everything. And on the other end, it's like, I know, oh, I don't know anything. That's kind of how I feel about this.

Like the more I watch defense, the more I'm like, I don't know.

I have a lot of thoughts, but I't know anything. That's kind of how I feel about this. Like, the more I watch defense, the more I'm like, I don't know.

I have a lot of thoughts, but I have no answer.

So I'm excited to see what the voting body has said about these players.

That's how I feel.

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