Howard Beck

But everything that you just said, I agree with about Luca's kind of court demeanor.

You know, obviously, you know, he's been in and out.

Austin Reeves has been in and out.

LeBron has been in and out.

But it's also like they're kind of marking time.

Like this is a we know this isn't our team.

Right.

Like, I think this is like seeping into everything right now.

This is not the team.

There's some new team that is on the Luca timeline that is reconstructed around him probably this summer.

And in the meantime, it's we're running out the clock on LeBron, who may or may not be back.

But the general sense around the league is that he won't be.

No, I'm just saying, this all feels very temporary.

And if that's the case, if that's seeping into everybody's psyche, then it kind of almost follows that maybe you're not quite as committed to the sharpest version of yourself, especially on the playmaking side for Luka, for any of them.

They're not making a deep playoff run, or at least they're not making the finals.

And they're running out the clock on one era and waiting to start the next one.

So when I did this exercise yesterday, and again, this is quick and dirty.

I did not spend hours on this.

I had 11 absolute positive locks for the 15 spots.

And then I just kind of tried to rearrange from there.