Thinking Basketball Podcast, my name is Ben. Welcome back to another episode. Today we are on the other side of the trade

deadline. We finally made it so with the exception of roster buyouts, the

playoff rosters roster buyouts.

Wow, what a way to start the podcast.

With the exception of the buyout market,

the rosters are set.

I think the chaos of the trade deadline

and everything that's happened in the NBA this year has just sort of scrambled my brain.

So if words are coming out backwards, Now you know why. Today we are going to sit down with

Jackson. Frank, an incredible writer. We're all very jealous of Jackson's

writing, those of us who try to put words on the page the way he does.

Just a fantastically gifted writer does a lot of NBA draft stuff, also looks at

NBA stuff as well, looks at NBA stuff as well. Looks at NBA stuff as well. This is right up there with the

all-time great starts to a podcast episode. We will talk to Jackson specifically about a piece he wrote recently on

Jason Tatum, first-time All-Star, somewhat controversial for some people.

I've talked about him a decent amount before I want to dive into that piece with Jackson and of course we will talk about

Zion Williamson what we've seen from him in his first oh we still only played a couple hundred minutes in the NBA as of

recording this and some thoughts on the white-hot

Damian Lillard who was just taking the latest turn at carrying the scorching scoring baton

in the National Basketball Association, averaging like what 45 or 48 points per game for a stretch here.

Yeah, you had a two week stretch over six games

where you average 49 points per game multiple 50 point games he started with a 60 point

...