The Ringer NBA Show
Say One Nice Thing … About the West’s Tanktastic Bottom Five. Plus, Wemby Goes Off Again.
03 Apr 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hello and welcome to Group Chat.
Chapter 2: What did Victor Wembanyama achieve against the Warriors?
I am Justin Verrier and joining me, Rob Mahoney, the great Rob Mahoney. Does that honorary title come with like a sash or maybe like the key to the east side of Los Angeles?
I think you have to tell me because you literally just made it up. So what are you giving me?
I've heard that on many a podcast. Oh, come on. Come on.
You're great. I am merely regular Rob Mahoney here to talk today about some unfortunately irregular NBA teams, but it's that point in the season, Justin. You know, we got to dispense with these teams that we're not going to be talking about for a while.
That's right. We're going to be talking about the Western Conference edition of our Say One Nice Thing series.
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Chapter 3: What positive outlook do the hosts provide for the Dallas Mavericks?
We did the Eastern Conference team, the bottom five in the East on Monday. We're going to do the bottom five of the West now on here on Thursday. Just you and I. But first, we're going to talk about something that isn't bad. We're going to talk about something that's potentially historically great already, which is Victor Webanyama, who last night put up 41 as if it was nothing.
I think for a while now, we've kind of talked about the Wemby come up. He's made multiple leaps, it feels like, in this season, making a real run for MVP and is very proud of the fact that he is very much in the thick of this race. We'll talk about that probably next week or the week after we'll make our actual picks.
My thing last night that really jumped out to me is like, I almost feel like I can't miss a Wemby game at this point. It's becoming very Steph Curry prime, like where it's like, this is appointment viewing, no matter who he's playing against.
Yeah, I mean, he has something similar to Steph in just a weird counterintuitive way where when you would watch Steph play, I would say, especially when he's really cooking, whether that's in his prime or kind of one of these later career games where he just absolutely goes off. There's that like background feeling of at any point he could spring around a screen and get a three.
Like he could be open. It doesn't matter who has the ball.
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Chapter 4: How are the Memphis Grizzlies adapting amidst challenges?
It doesn't matter what a possession looks like. At any moment, something exciting could happen. And Wemby, I feel like brings a lot of that same high drama to defense. And it's like, if he's on the floor, we've seen him cover so much ground. We've seen him block a Kevin Durant turnaround. We've seen him blow up things at the rim. We've seen him take away three pointers.
Like it feels like he can get to anything. And so every time I'm watching him, it's like, there is a step factor of like, could an amazing play happen at any time? and also kind of a Giannis factor as far as how much ground he can cover very quickly and what looks like a layup could suddenly be a dunk. I don't know how you tune out on this guy.
Chapter 5: What are the New Orleans Pelicans' current struggles?
I don't know how you would, whatever you think of him as a player or the Spurs and their contending chances. It feels like as an aesthetic product, Justin, as a basketball experience, he should have kind of a universal approval rating. The Ringer NBA show is brought to you by FanDuel.
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It's crazy because if you didn't catch last night's game, and I don't blame you if you didn't tune in because it was against a very depleted Warriors team.
Chapter 6: What is the future outlook for the Utah Jazz?
At the end of the game, Malavay Leon's, your boy, had to take a left-handed free throw just because they didn't have enough bodies to throw out there. So things are going quite poorly for the Warriors and... Uh, for that reason, like I tuned in from the beginning, saw that Wemby was cooking a little bit, but you know, I'll just take that one off, right? Move along.
We had to watch a lot of bad basketball in order to prepare for the other end of this podcast. Uh, but then all of a sudden you, you like pick up the box score or people are texting you. He has a real like group chat MVP, small G, small C, not our group chat. Of course, like you and your friends group chat. You're like, you see what Wemby did?
Like, are you watching what is going on?
Chapter 7: How do the Sacramento Kings fit into the current NBA landscape?
Like maybe, maybe he is the MVP. Yeah. I think it has to be both. He is the guy who is lighting up your lowercase g, lowercase e group chats, but also competing for the biggest stuff there is to compete for. And that combination, I mean, that's what drives the league. That is what makes you potentially the face of the NBA for years to come. It's what puts you at the center of every conversation.
Yeah. The craziest thing, if you didn't watch the full game, I would go back and just pull up the highlight package because the first one of the reel that I saw was just like blow your wig back, like something that you just can't see elsewhere, which is that he catches it on the perimeter.
I believe Pajemski is trying to attempt to close out and Wemby does like the jab in the different direction, gets by him quickly, almost as if he is a 6'6 wing player and And then gets in like drives to the basket on the left side.
Chapter 8: What unique qualities does Victor Wembanyama bring to the NBA?
He's dribbling with his left is suspended in midair, switches hands and then drills. It gets an and one off of that. And I'm just like, this guy is seven four. He's literally one of the biggest players, not only in the league, but that we've seen play in the league. And he's just doing things as if he had the mobility and athleticism of something like Steph.
And so I'm just like, he just, every single game, it's something I've never seen before. And I have to imagine like, if we're talking about the big picture discussion about the league, about like, oh man, tanking, this is going wrong. That is going wrong. At the very least we have this.
And I wonder if, if like he is our shining beacon of hope of like, if people want to turn this thing around, like this might be the guy, if anything, it has to be the guy probably.
Yeah, I think you need someone who feels as singular as he does to turn a lot of this conversation. And yeah, you can revamp the tanking odds. You can go through with expansion. There's lots of ways to have new shiny things happening, but none of it's going to feel as new and as shiny as this. Because of what you're saying, that quality that he's doing
Things that even for people who watch a ton of basketball feel unique on a nightly basis. He almost defies Justin. Like, do you remember when NBA teams were evaluating prospects with like a freeze frame test? It would be like they pause a play midway through and it's like, how does this play finish? And it's a good way to test like what a prospect anticipates.
Okay, this rotation is going to come over. This guy's going to kick for the three. And if you've seen enough basketball, played enough basketball, you know those patterns. Wemby just defies the freeze frame test.
If you froze that play you're describing with Pajemski at the three-point line on the catch, there's no way you could possibly predict, oh, he's going to drive, contort, get met with a body, and then switch hands midair for a finish that no player his size has ever done before. And if that's kind of the baseline of who he can be, I think the NBA is in a pretty good place ultimately.
Like there's a lot that needs to be sorted out. There's, I mean, like, I don't know what the NBA is doing in Europe. I don't know what all these initiatives are. Bring, clearly the answer is bring Europe here. It's bring Victor Webinyama to the NBA and let us watch him on a regular basis.
I want to get to that later because the France lineup, like who he's going to be playing with and like the types of player is actually pretty fascinating. But Spurs on a completely other level, probably than any other team like the Thunder have played well, but the Spurs just seem like the team of destiny at this point as we're recording this. Already on another win streak, 10 in a row.
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