Hey, what's up everybody? We're back. It's the Rich Eyes and Showbasketball podcast as promised in the new year. We're gonna be with you every single week from now until the end of the NBA season for the most part. We might take a week or two or off, but we're back. It's content. It's Adam. It's TJ. The fellas. What's happening? Boys. What's going on, Chris? Great. Turn this mic on and then I can speak. What up?

Hey, what's up? Hey, we're back. Do you want to restart? I kind of like that though. You know, it's it's it's it's real. It's the realness of it. It is. It is the total realness is the first episode of the new year. Happy New Year, everybody. And there's a lot going on in the association. We were going to break come to you last week when everyone was on the scoring benches. Look at with a 60 20 triple double. It's by the way 71, which is unbelievable. What's it like? It was 40 or 50 point night.

Every single night in the league. It's calm down a little bit, but we are at the halfway point of the NBA season. Boston, your number one team in the East has played exactly 41 games, 29 and 12. Denver's played 20 there, 40. Excuse me. They're 27 and 13. As we look at the standings, guys, halfway through the season are teams where you thought they'd be. Like, do you think they're going to be in this season?

I think it was Boston and Brooklyn and Milwaukee and Philly as the top four in the East. Was it Denver, Memphis, New Orleans and Dallas in the West? Our things shaking out now that we're at the halfway point as you thought Adam. Well, you know, Brooklyn was kind of left for dead at the start of the year. They looked very mediocre to not even making the playoffs potentially and they've kind of come out of nowhere. They found their groove ever since.

They fired Steve Nash and that's a dangerous team right there. So they're kind of unexpected. I mean, you still have two, two of the top 15 players in the league with Durant and Kyrie, but you never knew what the rest of the team was going to provide in terms of the injuries in terms of South Curry coming back, but that team's legit now. So they're in the mix. The top four for the East. Yeah, pretty much. It's there are expected for the West, though.

The Pelicans obviously were a question before the season in terms of is Zion going to be healthy. That was the big question. You knew CJ would always be a solid player, but you didn't know what you're going to get at a Zion. So the Pelicans have been a surprise. The Warriors are completely underperforming right now. I predicted them to win the championship before the season started. Weirdly, I still think they will win the championship right now with their with their mediocre 20 and 21. Interesting.

But them not being in the top four is surprised to me. And I'd say I say the Clippers also TJ. The Clippers are not looking as good as I thought they'd be. I thought they'd be in the top two and the West. So that's kind of a surprise to me. So yeah, that's kind of what I think right now.

TJ East. I think we all could have predicted what the top four in the East would look like at the halfway point. As Adam said, Philly Milwaukee Brooklyn in Boston, but the West. Gosh, the West is going to be so, so fun. I think in the second half of the year.

And Denver, I think Denver Memphis are separating themselves higher register. What do you think?

I'm kind of looking at what Adam just said about Golden State and I wanted to check something. You know, Steph went down on the 14th, right? He played last night.

He played last night. We're saving this on Wednesday. So in the games that he missed, when you thought that if the wheels were going to fall off, it was going to happen when he was out, they let me just make sure I got this right.

When were they 500? How many games five, six, two, they had a five, like six and six. So yeah, they played 500 ball. They kept things afloat when stuff was gone. And now he's back. Again, I'm just going to keep much like with Tom Brady, right?

No matter what the team's record is, when it counts and when the money's on the line, you're probably going to put your faith in Tom Brady, right? Sure.

Same thing with Steph Curry and Clay Thompson in this Golden State team. Yeah, they can, you know, they can mess around. They can juggle lineups. They can, you know, take some DNP coaches decisions.

But when we get to crunch time and when the playoffs or, you know, right there and it's time to really get busy, I don't think anyone in this room or anyone's really worried that the Warriors won't be able to like turn it up and not.

So I feel like, you know, they're, their goal team like them. And also with the Clippers, I think it's just to get to the playoffs healthy.

Yeah, not quite worry about where you're seated. And then you hope that you have your full rotation intact. You hope that your health is good. And then you start playing.

I know Rich is like a big, he's really down on a lot of the NBA players who sit out back the backs and, you know, and I,

to a certain extent, I get it. Look, I don't have kids. So I never use the, you know, families and kids are coming here to see you. And this might be their one time. That just doesn't, it's not applicable to me, but I understand it.

But I also understand that like you want to have your best players healthy when the playoffs come. So I can understand both sides of the argument. I can understand people who get mad about it.

And I can also understand why the teams might be a little hesitant to put their stars out there for 82 games.

Yeah, it just talking about that real quick. I think it's just there's so much more money involved now than even when Michael Jordan played.

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