The Bill Simmons Podcast
The Rockets' Rise and NBA League Pass Rankings With Zach Lowe, Plus Week 11 NFL Picks With Joe House
21 Nov 2025
Chapter 1: What is discussed at the start of this section?
The Bill Simmons Podcast brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. We're also brought to you by the Ringer Podcast Network, which has a slew of awesome podcasts, both sports, culture. Amy Poehler's Good Hang. I don't need to tell you to check that out because I think it was the most successful launch podcast in the last couple of years. It's a really good podcast, though.
I have a new Rewatchables coming for you on Monday night. And I'll just say this. It's going to be me and Chris Ryan and Cousin Sal. Those will be the three hosts. And it's a movie that isn't that good. but you'll still really like it. You'll enjoy the podcast anyway. So that's coming. I'll tweet out over the weekend. Fine, I'll tell you what it is. Fine, twist my arm.
We're doing Two for the Money with Matthew McConaughey and Al Pacino, a movie that predicted the rise of sports gambling and is, I think, started out as a drama and is now a comedy. But we're going to be breaking that down on Monday. So two for the money. You have a whole weekend to watch it. 20th anniversary. I'm surprised you haven't celebrated it. Coming up on this podcast, Action Packed.
I'm recording from New York City. Zach Lowe is here. He joined me live. We did League Pass rankings and a whole bunch of other stuff. And then House comes on late for the Ringer 107 picks. It's all next. We're going to take a break. Pearl Jam and then Zach Lowe. This episode of the Bill Simmons podcast is presented by State Farm. Having insurance isn't the same as having State Farm.
It's like needing the protection of an offensive guard on the football field, but getting an elementary school crossing guard. Sure, they're both guards, but you can only trust one to keep your quarterback safe when the game is on the line. So don't settle for just any insurance. When you can have State Farm, like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. All right, Zach Lowe is here.
I am in New York City. Zach Lowe took the train. Two trains, two kinds of trains. Metro North to the subway. Was it fun?
Love the train. You like the train. Do you get recognized?
Are people like, hey, Zach Lowe?
Occasionally. And sometimes someone is listening to my podcast on the subway. That's always a good one. I was like, hey.
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Chapter 2: What upcoming content can listeners expect?
So it's the Nets' fault, and it's the Nets' fault probably for thinking they could come into New York and try to steal New York from the Knicks because everybody loves the Knicks here. So I don't know what the solution is, but I'll tell you one of the solutions. Having five first-round picks and not having any of them be anyone I was that interested in watching play basketball, that wasn't great.
Anyway, enough about the Nets. We're going to talk about them later because one of the many things we're doing. We have a lot of bells and whistles for this one.
Chapter 3: How does Zach Lowe feel about the current NBA teams?
We're going to do an updated through... What is it? Five weeks now? 15 games. Whatever it is. I don't know.
Six weeks? Whatever.
Updated league pass rankings. More based on if there are 15 games on and all the teams are across the board... which where does your eyes go for like, Oh, that team or, Oh, I'm not going near that team. Combined with like what the situation I was in last night where I went to dinner, I came home. I really had time to watch one game, one of those condensed games.
And then a whole fourth quarter of one of the games. And I, the game I pick kind of ties into where we're going before we do this. I mean, we could do the league pass draft. And then when we get to this team, deep dive them, you want to just do it that way. Whatever you want. This is your, this is the bill Simmons podcasts. I hate when you pass off this responsibility to me.
This is the best thing about being a guest is I don't have to worry about any of that stuff.
Yeah, good point. All right, league pass draft. I'll give you the first pick. We'll go back and forth. So where are we drafting? Are we drafting the best? Are we drafting right off the top? I think we have to go best to worst. Okay. And I think worst will be actually kind of funny because there's a few choices this year and we'll talk about some of the reasons why.
But who's your number one team so far? Six weeks. Six weeks.
So here's what I did. I did... When Mahoney and I did the league pass rankings before the season, I wrote those down on one column. And then I did a revamped, revised one on the next column with biggest risers, biggest losers, people who stayed about the same. So taking from that column... Only because Wemba Nyama is hurt. Right now, I'm taking Denver with the number one pick.
Denver was number two. Great pick. For my preseason league pass rankings. Yeah. I think if Wemba were healthy, they'd still be number two. Right now, they are number one. It's just unassailable. And the Jokic stuff just gets crazy. Did you watch any of their game last night? I saw that. Did you see the one handed underhand off the backboard floater? It was very Larry Bird.
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Chapter 4: What insights are shared about the Houston Rockets?
Like, it's like another team like Houston, like these competitive motherfuckers who just want to win every game, who want to, like, rip your heart out of your chest. And Duren, they'll be 11th for me in a month, but right now the Duren piece has been fascinating for me. Like, for him to just become basically Dwight Howard,
He's like a 23 and 11 night after night, like just kind of brute forcing everybody. It's like, I didn't have this on my bingo card. I think he's 22. I'm going to, he might have a more, I'm not saying better.
He might have a more refined offensive game now. than Dwight Howard ever did. Oh, he doesn't.
And he's not as good of a shot blocker as Dwight.
But I'm just saying, like, that force who's like... No, I'm saying he might have a more refined offensive game now than Dwight ever did. Like, his face-up game is really good. I agree with that.
Okay.
I think he should be an all-star. I haven't sat down and looked at the... God only knows how to even build the rosters anymore with this stupid new thing that we're doing.
Honestly, he's in the running for third-team All-NBA for me. If we were doing it after 13 games, which we wouldn't, but...
Now, he had a hot start to last season, too, and it faded. But he looks like a— Man, this is different. He's a different player defensively. I've always been a big Dern guy. This is way ahead of schedule. Like, this is a complete all-star level explosion.
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Chapter 5: What are the current thoughts on the Philadelphia 76ers?
I said Philly.
No, you're up. No, I just said Maxi and Edgecom are worth the price of admission. What do you even think of Philly, like, as a team? I think the identity of that team, which has yet to find its full fruition yet will be a delight when they end up with the three guards and people who run and Nick nurse, that's going to be a fun something.
It'll be the post and beat error, which is probably already happening.
You're still just like, this is a placeholder. This team can't do anything real. No. Cause nobody would ever take and beat her George.
ever I'm saying Embiid and George remain on the team there's no like oh you mean like there's oh my god Embiid's looking great I think it's done did you did you see him use the one leg he was playing on one leg he was like dragging the other leg like Duncan did this for the last what five years of his career where it seemed like one of his legs just didn't really work anymore he made it work it's a little different for Embiid what do you have next I'm going a little bit off the board now yeah Miami
I had them as my next one. Well, I stole them. They're fun to watch. Super fast.
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Chapter 6: How are the Miami Heat performing this season?
Fun, weird style.
Hawkeyes resurgence.
Hawkeyes resurgence. Simone Pantechio. Just shooting a million threes per 36 minutes. Andrew Wiggins. A little happier. Looks great. Bam's back. Ware is averaging like 18 rebounds a game over the last week. Tyler Hero's coming back. That's an interesting plot twist. Rogier. Oh. Sorry. Wow.
And Norm Powell. Maybe he makes his all-star team this year. I don't know.
So...
Talk about going back in time and stopping something. Yeah, I know. John Collins and Bradley Beal for Norm Powell.
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Chapter 7: What insights are shared about the Utah Jazz?
Didn't work out. As you know, I don't like Miami or their fans. This team is very fun to watch. Very fun to watch. They brought back the Miami Vice jerseys. Yeah. Huge. I'm really glad that Hawkeyes is good at basketball again because I really enjoyed him as a rookie. Pella Larson. Pella Larson's interesting. And as you know, I mean... We always joke about islands.
Chapter 8: What are the predictions for the upcoming NFL games?
What warranted an island? Davion Mitchell Island. I mean, I basically had to fold it. It was done.
It was empty.
There were no people living there anymore, but he's back.
And always, always frisky on the trade market when they have stuff to trade. I have Utah as my next pick. Oh, they were going to be my next pick.
So we're now going off the board. Utah is... I don't know if you noticed, but I took Charlotte like seventh. So I've been going off the board this whole time. Yeah. Listen, it's the first six weeks of the season. I'm just the heart wants what the heart wants. Utah marketing is playing great. Unbelievable. The Kessler thing, which was a bummer.
It is a weirdly made them more interesting because now just lineups and I don't know what's going on. Um, what do you think marketing is averaging points per game? He's 30, 30.6. Yeah. It's like, Oh my God. Night after night, 30 a game. Um, Keontae George isn't my cup of tea, but he's been really good.
I don't know if you're winning three straight playoff rounds with the best version of him seven years from now, but he's definitely better. I mean, that's definitely an asset for them. I don't know. What player from the past would you compare him to from a ceiling standpoint? What are the best version of his stats someday? Like 24 and 8? Yeah, something like that. Is the team winning?
I don't see why not. He's a completely different guy this year in terms of his approach to the game. It's a huge win for them. Look, Ace Bailey's playing. Ace Bailey started the other day. Kevin Love's involved. Slow Mo's back involved. And either they score 140 points or the other team scores 140 points or both.
They put a 150 plus burger on somebody last week.
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