The Ringer NBA Show
The NBA’s Late Leapers. Plus, Trae Young’s Exit Plan and the Big Three Hornets. | Group Chat
08 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hello and welcome to Group Chat. I am Justin Verrier and joining me in crystal clear 4K HD, whatever, Rob Mahoney, J. Kyle Mann. It's a new era, brothers.
Chapter 2: Where might Trae Young be headed?
Welcome to the future. How does that make you feel, Justin? I feel like you are maybe the most resistant to the future of anyone I know. how to dig that, nor do I necessarily think that's true. I got all sorts of tech. I got iPhones, I got iPods, I got iPods, ear pods. I got all the pods. You sound like a grandpa, even as you're saying it.
I was going to say, JV's sounding like the Jeb Bush thing where he lists off all the Apple products that he has. But yeah, Justin, I could watch just a breakout bit of content of you, A, adjusting your camera, dealing with all, just listening to you work through your tech balance in your life is pretty entertaining for me. I think people would dig it.
Chapter 3: What are the Charlotte Hornets' recent developments?
Yeah, we had about, what, like a 20-minute delay for this podcast, just trying to get a camera steady enough. Where we can't see Justin, we just see him going like this back and forth, and I was like almost in tears. I had a great time. Yeah, but now here I am in this very dark, moody lighting, so... It's a new era because this is I think the last pod that's going to go up on YouTube.
We are transitioning officially on video to Netflix with Sunday's episode. You still get everything on Spotify as per usual audio and video. But if you just want the video product, go watch Stranger Things and then watch some strange guys talk about some things. Yeah.
How many times do we have to mention Stranger Things on this pod to pop up as a recommended video after people are done watching it? Because I think I think we should try to game it. A little Hawkins breakdown. They had some basketball clips in there, right? Did they? Yeah, Dustin in season, I think, two or three.
Chapter 4: What are the implications of the Hornets' new Big Three?
I forget.
Chapter 5: How does Trae Young's potential move affect the Wizards?
There's some basketball going on. Caleb was putting it up. He was on the team. You're still behind. I'm okay with that. And the guy who got killed at the mall. There was some basketball. Billy, solid ball pressure guy, I thought. He was believable. Steve, I don't know. Steve seems like a wispy tuxedo scorer to me. But Rob doesn't even know what we're talking about.
Chapter 6: Who are the late leapers making an impact in the NBA?
But the stranger heads out there, they know. They know. I mean, Billy definitely had the haircut of a guy who would be a really annoying mid-major player who became a cult hero. So I guess that's worth something. Steel percentage through the roof, though. Absolutely. He would definitely be a Presti radar guy, I think. Less of a help defender, more of a point of attack guy.
Chapter 7: How is Keyonte George evolving in his role?
I could see it. Yeah, for sure. For sure. All right, on today's docket, we're going to get to some guys who are taking some leaps. But these aren't just the normal leaps. These aren't just the bounds. These aren't just the jumps.
Chapter 8: What should we know about Donovan Clingan's performance?
These are the late leapers. These are guys who have been popping over the past month or so, month plus of basketball. There's been some guys who have caught our eyes. We'll get to that at the back end of the pod. We're also going to talk about the mighty Charlotte Hornets. You're goddamn right. But first and foremost, we have to talk about Trey Young, because he's the guy...
In the rumor mill right now, on the last pod, I believe we ended it basically saying, I don't know who wants Trae Young. Is there actually a place for him to go? Turns out the market kind of agrees, Rob, because the only team that seems to have its hand up right now is the Washington Wizards. Yeah, a team we kind of yada yada'd our way past last time.
And to be fair, it's not who wants Trey Young, it's who needs Trey Young. And I think even the Wizards are in the category of the team that doesn't exactly need Trey Young, but they're positioned because of CJ McCollum's contract to just kind of throw up their hands and say, why not?
Why not take back Trey, keep this thing going, sub in a similar version of the same player if it can get us something in return? I get that from a certain perspective. I don't get it from the perspective of wanting to develop almost anyone else on that roster outside of Alex Saar.
Like, I think there could be a big, small chemistry between Trey, as we've seen with many bigs he's played with throughout his career. It's just tough if you're invested in the development of any of these other young wings or creators that Washington has to bring in someone like Trey, who just kind of by definition in the way he plays is going to dominate the ball and control a lot.
I'm of two minds about it because, you know, I spent some time watching Trey Johnson because he's been surging lately. And I don't know if we'll get to him or not, but I was just kind of watching the Wizards.
And there is the side of it where you're like, OK, if you're if you're wanting to get these guys into comfortable stasis, a guy like Trey Young is going to allow them a Keyshawn George, a Trey Johnson above Carrington to sort of like shift back into their natural comfortable roles. But comfortable stasis, is that what we're striving for? No, we're not.
I mean, I think if you're looking for the constraint thing that causes growth that's so popular, the constraint-led approach that's so popular in basketball right now, you want to kind of stress some of these guys to grow. And also, it serves the dual agenda of the thing that I'm kind of wondering about with the Wizards is, you know, they're not quite in the top three lottery odds in the 14%.
They're in the 12.5% where it takes a step down. That could be the difference between... The Wizards, if anybody, have learned here where they've gotten leapfrogged by some of these established teams in the lottery. It's like maybe they've gone the other way where they're just like this is chaos and they're just being like draft nihilists where they're like nothing we do matters.
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