NBA 2026 CHRISTMAS MATCHUPS AND THE STORIES THEY TELL!

Episode 3 i talk about the Christmas games and how it will look for the teams playing one another. Ben Simmons wanting to return to the NBA (possibly Philly) sure thats a rumor and more...

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Good afternoon, good morning, good evening, wherever you are listening to this from. And for those of you who are listening, those of you who download, I appreciate it. Thank you. You're the best. But don't be afraid to leave some comments. You know, let's get the discussion going. You know, let's get the conversation going and uh talk on these things. Let's have some friendly debates, right? Um, I'm on here right now. Episode three, by the way. Episode three. Telling you, if nobody downloaded this, I probably wouldn't even continue to do it. But all it takes is one. But yes, we're back. Episode three of Off the Court. And um for my visual listeners, I'm sorry I keep looking up at the screen. I gotta move the camera. Eventually I will. Audio listeners, you're good. You can't see me fumble with my eyeballs. It's all good. Um, but yeah, we're here to talk about the NBA today. Uh might sprinkle a couple of things in there, such as Kyler Murray being named the uh QB1 for uh the Vikings. Yes, over the Vikings, over McCarthy. McCarthy, can't remember his last name, but yeah. Um he's gonna be the starting quarterback, which, if I'm correct, Kyler Murray is very injury prone. Very. So it'll be interesting to see what happens with that. Any other NFL news that I've seen today or yesterday, anytime over the weekend, no. Uh the next topic would be Ben Simmons. And I'm gonna get into the NBA stuff in a minute. It's about the schedule. Not the NBA schedule per se, but uh the Christmas schedule. Ben Simmons, so sorry, took a sip of coffee. Um Ben Simmons looking to come back to the NBA. If this is true, happy for him. I mean, he should have never gave up, but you don't know what somebody's going through mentally. You don't know what anybody's going through physically, especially when they're they're on an another part of the world and they're not in front of your face, right? Ben Simmons is looking to get back into the NBA right now. He is playing for Australia. That's what I saw. And if I'm correct, he's from Australia or he's Australian. I can't remember, but if the picture is true, if the picture is real and it's not AI, he looks jacked. And for him to be, what is he, a point, point center, whatever these new hybrid positions are that they create, that's what uh Ben Simmons is. He can run point, he can play center. So any team would be amazing, uh not amazing, but great for him to have. For him to be a part of, excuse me. The only issue is will he still have that confidence? Will Bill will Ben Simmons still be able to play? Everything about him towards the end of his first run in the NBA. He was just scared. Again, this is towards the end of his run, his first run. He was scared. He was he felt so bad after that shot. And I really think that's what it was. When you're right there under the basket, you're right there in the paint, and you don't lay it up, you just pass it off. That had to play a big part in his decision to just step away for a while. This isn't this wasn't a he couldn't play type situation, right? This is a doubting himself, a being afraid to play the game self. Like, who wants to play a game for a team, and the fans are just all over you, right? It's it's nuts. Hard to deal with. I couldn't imagine. All I did was run track, and I didn't have anybody mooing me. So I don't know what that feels like. Uh so yeah, he's gonna be playing uh hopefully in the NBA soon. Uh the rumor was, but you know, again, rumors and stuff, because this is how we do this. We we report on the rumors and things of that nature. So the rumor is that he definitely wants to join the NBA again, but the rumor is Philly as an option, and I'm like, no, because if Philly decides to take him back, you might as well take back Markel Foltz, right? I think he's still in, he's not even in Orlando. I don't think, I don't know where Markel Foltz is right now. But he had the issue. He was scared to shoot. Yeah, there's something wrong with his form. He's the only person I know that was like in 2K live, just checking his shot and checking all the base and the form and the release, and it was crazy. But uh he did get better, thankfully. Not an NBA champion, at least I don't think. Uh I know he didn't win one with Orlando or Philly, so there is that. Um I don't know if he was on the bench for anybody and got a championship with that. But in all honesty, any team would be great uh or it would be a great addition to the team to have a player like a Ben Simmons who can run the floor, um, lead not lead the team, because that would be like he's a leader, right? And we don't know if Ben Simmons is a leader, but he can control the pace of the game or he can get in the paint and do what he got to do there. He can bang in the paint and and possibly dominate. But with these guys that's out now, it's like the big man position isn't so much uh big man play. It's actually like it has a little bit of style to it. Like these guys aren't necessarily so rough anymore. Now you got some that are. You know, you got your uh Isaiah Stewart, you got um I think Adams is definitely uh one of the aggressive players for the five position, Steven Adams. Who else? Dwight Howard is joking around saying that he wants to join the league again, too. So we'll just have to see what happens. But Ben Simmons would be a great addition to any team for sure, for sure. Uh they're still talking about this W, excuse me, my voice cracked. They're still talking about this WNBA thing. These guys, uh Royce White and Enus Cancer Freedom, definitely are they look like they're dead set to join the the draft to enter the draft for the WNBA this season or next season.

SPEAKER_00 7:25

So we don't know what's gonna happen with that.

SPEAKER_01 7:28

I apologize. Still drinking my coffee. Um one day I'll do one of these live. One day, but not yet. I gotta build a base, right? Gotta build up more uh eyes, you know, get more eyes to the product. So until then, we'll do this. Um But yeah, the WNBA, they're still going through their uh situation right now. Stephen A. Smith has spoken on it and he's speaking on them as far as saying, you know, hey, you you you dug this hole for yourself. Now you gotta get out of it. And I don't think that they can. Um with the ink being what it says, no way to erase it. I never read it. I can only go by what I'm hearing. By what I'm hearing, the WNBA said what they said. And as far as we know, haha, as far as we know, all women play in the WNBA that are WNBA players. So we'll have to see where that goes, what happens with that?

SPEAKER_00 8:42

Steph Curry.

SPEAKER_01 8:46

Still playing with the Golden State Warriors, and I believe he'll be uh coming up for contract extension this summer, or excuse me, next summer, I believe. Um, and I bring up Steph Curry because he is one of the what three, four, five, five Christmas games that are that's gonna be happening soon. Or excuse me, not soon. Christmas, duh. I'm making mistakes. But Steph Curry's gonna be with the Warriors going up against the Nuggets. Now, this game, I won't say doesn't mean anything because it's Christmas time and this is a game that goes on the win-loss record. But this game is one that I see as two of the hottest teams at their respective times, if that's the right word to use. They used to be white hot and now they've dwindled. The Warriors more than the Nuggets. But the Warriors, former champions going up against the Nuggets, former champions, would be interesting to see with the roster that they have, because right now all they have is really as far as noticeable names, Jimmy Butler. I don't know if he's coming back this season. He probably is, but you got Jimmy Butler, Draymond Green, and Steph. Now, before all these trades and things of that nature happened, it was Draymond, Steph, Clay, and whoever else they can put in that fourth position, and they used to just run rampant. I don't know if they could do that now. Uh, Steph, he's a shooter. Shooter's gonna shoot, so he's not doing too much activity. Draymond, he's getting up there in age, and if he isn't, he damn sure looks like it. Um, and he's very combative with everybody. He's gonna mess around and get another suspension or whatever. Uh, who else they got? Jimmy Butler. Don't know what's gonna happen with him. He was a great addition to the team when he got there, but again, once he got injured, you know, what are you gonna do? So it'll be interesting to see how that team gels. Uh, they got Yaksel Yaxel? Yeah, I think that's his name. Yaxel Landberg or Yaxel Landenberg. Um, he was a good player. Their team are the um Summer League champions. Excuse me. So we'll see if Draymond Wing, Draymond Wing, we'll see if Draymond Green has uh taken him under his wing to, you know, coach him up and teach him some things and see where his level of gumption or his level of go get it is at. They're playing against Nuggets, like I said. Before I even get too far into this, I just want to see what the Christmas uniforms are really gonna look like. They do pretty good every year with the Christmas uniforms, so it'll be interesting to see how these look. Uh so the Nuggets, they're another team. They were white hot. I mean, they only won one championship, but just them as a team in general, they're like today's version of what the Spurs were back in the day with David Robinson, Tim Duncan, I think Robert Ory played with them at the time, Manu Ginobli, uh Tiago Splitter, uh the list goes on, Tony Parker. You know, I can keep going. Those guys, the Spurs team was great, and I kind of see that with the Nuggets, and that's just my eye test. That's me, my eye test don't come at me. You know, I'm just saying what I see. So they kind of remind me of the Spurs, but other than that, uh, it brings me back to what I said on the last episode. The blowing the team up after winning a championship, like I said, I think that started with the Lakers. And then the Nuggets did it after them. I wanna say Boston did it as well. Not Boston so much as blowing it all up, but I'd have to look back at that. But regardless, Nuggets, as soon as they won a championship, everybody was out of there. They traded all the key pieces. And I guess they thought, oh, we'll get it done with just Jamal Murray and Jokic. And I didn't get it done for them. But they're still a good team. As long as you got Jokic, you're a good team. I can't say as long as you got Steph Curry, you're a good team because Steph just shoots. Can he get in the paint? Sometimes if he can pull off the space, and if he can get the space and then he can hit a layup, but I can't say that for what the Warriors have around them right now. So that is one of the games, Nuggets versus Warriors. Another one we have is OKC versus the Minnesota Timberwolves. OKC, former NBA champions, right?

SPEAKER_00 14:29

They have a lot to prove, at least to me.

SPEAKER_01 14:38

After seeing the level of the disrespectful level of ridiculousness from SGA and just OKC in general with the foul baiting and the flopping. They say Jalen Brunson does it too. I mentioned him because he's my one of my no, he's not my favorite player, but he is on my favorite team. So that being the New York Knicks, current NBA champions, yes, go Knicks. Um yeah, the flopping that OKC did for these playoffs was atrocious. I'm not gonna sit here and say I watched them during the season. I would like to believe that they didn't do this during the season. If they did, yikes. I feel sorry for the fans. But OKC has a lot to prove just for that alone. You ain't it, you went toe-to-toe with the Spurs, toe-to-toe with Wimby, toe-to-toe with the alien, and couldn't get the job done. So this game alone with the wolves will let me see what they're really made of because the wolves have two guys that, from what I'm reading and seeing, the wolves have two guys that are like locked in. Reports say that they basically hang around each other all the time. They're always in the gym together, rather. So if that is the case and they are always in the gym together, you got a recipe for greatness, or at least a recipe for excitement. Mello don't care. Give him the ball, he's gonna do what he does. Anthony Edwards, he don't care. He don't care about how tall you are, how how light-skinned you are, how small your feet are. You got on a basketball uniform, you on the basketball court, he's gonna ball. So, and I I'm just excited to see them because I think they are going to be on a level of must-see like never before with any other team. So with the level of and how young they are too, right? I think they're both 24, if that. One probably older than the other. But with the young age, and the same thing for OKC, that should be a fun game. That should definitely be a fun game. So I'm looking forward to that. Another one. This game here. Man. The 76ers versus the Los Angeles Lakers. There's the story. There's all the story right there. Just that's it. It's gonna be LeBron and the Sixers versus his former team. The Los Angeles Lakers. I don't see. Actually, no, I think that when they play each other for this Christmas game, I believe that LeBron is gonna do the most. Or at least the most that he can. He's gonna drop 20. I believe he's gonna drop 20. But it's about what the other guys do, right? If he can drop 20 and win, he'll have so, so many bragging rights. Just because that's his old team, that being the Lakers, they didn't want to pay him. That's what's being said. So we're gonna see. Lakers, I have nothing to say good or bad, about them at this stage, because this is something I I don't know what the Lakers got going on. I can't even, I only know how good of a player Luka Doncic is. Never watched Walker Kessler. Uh the whole starting lineup is I don't know what the Lakers got going on, but hopefully it's a good game. I believe um Luca's gonna be running the point. See how that goes. Again, that's another, that's one of those jerseys I want to see, you know, one of those uniforms I want to see because I know that that's probably gonna be spicy. So I want to see that. I do want to see that. So 76ers and the Lakers, but you also, before I even go to the next one, the the 76ers, they well, they should have enough time by Christmas. You got what? A little bit of August, September, in October. I forget when the uh preseason games start, but by the time Christmas rolls around, they should have gelled enough, that being the Sixers, they should have gelled enough by then to show what they can do together. Because this lineup, them and the Lakers have a lineup they that's never played together. Three of the players from Philly's starting lineup were already there. You add in Jalen, uh Jalen Brown, LeBron James. I want to say Contavius Caldwell Pope, he dipped out just to go there. Uh who else? Like I said, it's rumored that Ben Simmons wants to go there. I don't see how that would work. He'd be a free agent. We'd probably have to take a vet minimum, but we we're we're gonna see how both these teams look. And as I said before, the Sixers have a whole lot more that they gotta prove. A whole lot more than the Lakers. This is Luca's first year uh leading the Lakers. So it's probably gonna take him another year or two. Who knows? Who knows? Luca Magic, as they call it. Another game you wanna you wanna see, you wanna see. Next game is Heat and Celtics. Celtics, no more Jalen Brown. They got a a a weird lineup too, but they ended up getting, you know, Paul George, PG, Podcast P. Uh DNP, whatever else you can think of. Uh hopefully he will play this year, this season, like like actually play versus worrying about his podcast. You know, oh, I can't go because I gotta do this, I gotta do that. Nah, the NBA is not your side chick. You know, you can't be like, oh, I'll come and go as I please. You can paid all these all these millions to play. So get your butt on the court, Paul George, and play. Uh Jason Tatum, right now he's so low dolo, because we don't know what they're gonna look like when you pair Jason Tatum with Paul George. So it'll be interesting to see how that operates. I don't even know. Who's their point guard? Is it Pritchard? Is it Peyton Pritchard? I forget his name. I can't think right now. But again, I don't I don't know what they have. I don't know what what what Joe is doing. But hopefully it works out. This is something different. I guess they had to get rid of Jalen Brown. And I'm gonna speak on Jalen Brown in a little bit after I get done with this. Now that I just thought about something, um, I don't know what's happening with this, but it's it's Jason Tatum and Paul George going up against the Heat. Another new look team. Bam out of bio, Giannis Ante Tacumbo, uh Andrew Wiggins, Davion Mitchell, and if I'm correct, somebody else wanted to join that team if they didn't already. Um was it Chris Middleton? No, it wasn't Chris Middleton. Chris Middleton got traded over to Washington. I can't remember, but there's the the Miami Heat. Giannis and Bam, you getting, you getting rebounds out the watch. They might together get about three to five blocks a night if they work together. See, that makes me think about, again, the Spurs, when you had Tim Duncan and David Robinson. Tim Duncan and David Robinson, you know, the Admiral and the Big Fundamental, whatever they want to call him, the Twin Towers, they did it. They worked well together. Shaq and Kobe, they worked well together. Who else? Uh I don't know. Who was another another two? Uh Stephen Clay. There you go. Splash Brothers, they worked well together. It's something about the the, how do you say the marriage of these two players working together that could make something special in Miami? If Giannis doesn't get a ring in Miami, I don't know what to do. I'm rooting for the Knicks because I want them to win again. But with the way the East looks, and with Tyrese Halliburton returning, uh, who else? There's quite a few people returning. You know, it'll be interesting to see how the league looks then when the playoffs roll around. We'll just have to wait and see. But the Heat and the Knicks, that's gonna be, I'm sorry, the Heat and the Celtics, that's gonna be a decent one. Very decent. Um it's a lot of games. I didn't see the date, but according to the way it looked, it looked like these games are gonna be the same day because they said Christmas games, unless they split them up and do some on Christmas Eve, but we'll have to see. And the last one, and then again, like I said, I'll talk about Jalen Brown after this. Spurs versus the Knicks, a repeat of the NBA finals of 2026. Uh, it's not the finals, obviously. And to be fair, like what the the Lakers beat them 3-2. I mean, the Knicks beat them 3-2. So where are your bragging rates, right? Spurs? Oh, we could have tried the series. Okay, cool. No, we ain't doing it like that. So, Spurs, they do look good. They they look good in the playoffs. They had me a little worried because the Knicks kept doing this thing that they can't do. They have to get out of the habit of figuring it out while the game goes. Like you're failing in the beginning, and as the game goes on, you're getting better and better and better. You need to be doing that. You need to be hitting all cylinders right away. Kind of how they hit all cylinders when everybody just put them like, oh, y'all gonna lose to the hawks, y'all gonna lose to the hawks, and they beat the brakes off of everybody after that. But when they got to the Spurs, the Spurs slowed them down, kept them on their toes, and made them switch up. They kept they kept their composure, they kept it simple, they didn't overdo things, they didn't chase blocks, baskets, none of that. They just played basketball. Excuse me, and they got it done. So hopefully in this Christmas game, that's what they do. Again, the Spurs, they look great. I can't even hate Stefan Castle. Uh is it Ron Harper Jr., which I think he got traded. I'm not sure. Good look at that too. See, there's so much going on. This offseason was crazy. I don't know who's still where. So Spurs next rematch of the NBA championship is gonna be nice to see. Really nice to see. My final uh topic.

SPEAKER_00 26:47

Take one more sip here. My final topic is Jalen Brown.

SPEAKER_01 27:01

There seems to be this thing about Jalen Brown that he's too cool for school or the smartest guy in the room, and that supposedly played a part in him getting traded. Which if that is, I could see why you would want to, because you wouldn't want that in a locker room. Somebody thinking that they're smarter or better than the rest of the guys. So I get it. But you would pull that person to the side and you would talk to them about it as professional as possible, as professionally as possible. To get rid of a man or woman because you don't like their politics or their policies, whatever it may be, is is is crazy. It's nuts. Not saying that that's what happened, but that's what's being being said. And if it's not being said, it sounds crazy to kind of put that out there. I I've never seen none of us have, right? Seen Jalen Brown act in that manner. And great if he is, but super duper smart. But we don't really know if it's true that that's how he feels about everything. Truth of the matter is, he said this was his best season. Obviously, Jason Tatum wasn't playing, and he said this is this was my best season, because he got to lead the team. He's not leading the team in Philly, so I don't know what's gonna happen there. Don't know if he wanted to go to Philly, don't won't know if he minds playing in Philly, but that's where he's gonna be at. And if he's wise, he'll stay off of social media. Not social media. No, social media. He'll stay off the streaming services, he'll stay off the Twitch. Him to go up on Twitch and do what he did, that would that's crazy. You talk trash about a player, and now he's your partner, he's your teammate, that being Joel MB. You're teaming with LeBron James, he ain't having it. So if he does Jalen Brown have this D.A attitude or D.Va mentality, it ain't gonna fly because we all know LeBron. You know Le GM. La GM is not playing that, he's not having that. So hopefully Jalen Brown gets it together. And I will say this: don't know if Jalen Brown will ever hear this, but I'll say this to everybody else. He should keep the politics. If that's what's going on, that's what he wants to be known for. Keep that out of your sports, keep that out of your job, keep that out of your workplace. Not because I say so, because I am nobody at the end of the day. I am no one. I'm just a regular person. But it just shows that for some reason, you just can't put, you can't tie those two together. Politics in the workplace, it doesn't work. It's weird. Uh people get angry, people get upset, and then you might think, oh, because you have your beliefs in your politics that you are better than everyone else. And you just can't have that. So keep it out of the workplace. That is it. Love who you love, like who you like, vote where you vote. Support who you want to support. But you don't have to tell the world. The world doesn't need to know. If that's what you want to do, then go ahead, be a politician. Be be whatever you want to be in the army leader. Sorry, drama age. But be whatever you want to be, but everybody doesn't need to know. We already know Jalen Brown is a basketball player, but that's because it's out there on the screen and we see it. But we don't need to know what charities he's spending money. We don't need to know what charities any player is spending money. We don't need to know about these guys' personal lives. We just want to have some good basketball, some good sports, period. So hopefully we do. Those are the Christmas games. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for listening. Thank you for watching. For my visual listeners, I'm getting better. At least I believe I am. This is episode three. I am your host, Philip Paul. I'm out.