One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.

Welcome to the NBA Daily Ding on The Athletic NBA Show.

Ding, ding!

How about we can just watch basketball?

I like that idea.

Hello, and welcome to the Daily Ding on The Athletic Invea show.

I'm David Moore here with Keith Parrish for a fun summer podcast.

Before we start, don't forget, you can get this pod without ads by subscribing at

theathletic.com slash NBA show.

Keith, over at The Athletic last week, we published something, I mean, you know, one of these

huge articles where 30 writers kind of tap in, and it was a fascinating topic that I thought

was perfect for a daily ding, and you were my first choice to go over this topic, because

we love to talk about expectations.

And in particular, when those expectations are the bare minimum.

And so here's what we got.

We have our top five players with something to prove this season.

These are guys who, for various reasons, just haven't

shown, you know, I haven't lived up to the promise, the expectations, Keith. These are guys,

would you say, especially last season, had very disappointing years. Yeah, these are guys who

maybe they've shown us something. They've enticed us a little bit.

And we think, all right, you know what?

It's kind of a make or break.

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