Way-Too-Early 2027 NBA Player Awards | Ringer NBA Show
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What is the premise and rules of the 'Way-Too-Early Way-Too-Spicy' 2027 NBA awards episode?
what up it's the ringer nba show howard beck senior writer at the ringer joining me today He's currently weighing a one-year deal at the minimum to become the 76ers' seventh man. It's ringer senior writer Michael Pita.
Pita, great to see you. It's been a while. It's great to see you, Howard. Is that a compliment? Was that an insult? What was that?
They need bodies, Pita. They need depth. LeBron needs guys to pass to. You're as good an option as anybody as far as I'm concerned.
How could the Kawhi Leonard cap circumvention story affect opening night rosters and awards narratives?
I appreciate it.
I think that's a compliment.
I appreciate it. Thank you. Great to see you.
It's great to see you too. It's been a bit. You and I are here today to continue our time honored tradition. And by time honored, I mean, we did this last year for the first time. And now this will be the second time of making way too early, way too spicy picks. For the NBA Awards for next season. That's MVP Rookie of the Year, etc. This is even earlier and spicier than we did it a year ago. Because I looked it up and last year we did this on like August 28th, I think it was. And we are doing this on the final day of July now. So it's even earlier and thus, by definition, I think... even spicier. We have no idea what the fuck's going to happen between now and opening night. So this is a great formula for us being horrifically embarrassed by things that we were about to say over the next, you know, 50 minutes or so.
So, so that's fun. It's always great to set yourself up for failure.
Yes, and we will be having our wonderful producer, Cliff, read what we did last year, unfortunately. I thought that those episodes or that transcript was scrubbed from the internet, but I guess not. Thank you, Cliff. So that should be a total blast to hear everything we got super right last year.
We dug it up out of the Wayback Machine. Nothing is ever forgotten. We're going to get to that in a minute. Our way too early, way too spicy, possibly too spicy awards. But before that, there's not much going on. There's not much news to kick around. So let's just real quickly hit this because the only news of the last couple of days was Baxter Holmes at ESPN reporting that the Kawhi Leonard aspiration cap circumvention brouhaha could drag into 2027. I was on a podcast with my buddy Casey Johnson in Chicago yesterday and this came up so I thought I would throw it to you. What jersey is Kawhi Leonard wearing on opening night of 2026-27? It...
Better be a Toronto Raptors jersey. It just did better. I struggle to imagine a scenario where he is not, and I think it would be beyond... I mean, right now the league has egg on its face, of course. It would go beyond that into something just nefarious and... unseemly in the city of Toronto would be burned to the ground. So I think that it would be great if he was on the Toronto Raptors next year.
All right, but are you, because we want to make predictions that we will be embarrassed by later. I mean, are you predicting he actually will? Because that's what I'm saying here. Like, where do we think he actually is? Not what's right or wrong.
He has to be. Like, I can't envision him still being with the Clippers. I can, and I think he's going to be.
I think that's where this is headed. Like it was one thing for Adam Silver at his press conference in Vegas, which I attended to say it could still be or did he say weeks? No. Mike Bass's statement, I think, had been like it could still be weeks. And then and then Adam, I think, followed up with something along those lines. Like we're still working on this thing. It could take, you know, you know, most of summer or whatever. When Baxter Holmes has somebody leaking to him that it could leach into 2027, it feels to me like somebody's trying to brace us all for this being maybe not just possible, but likely. That's me reading tea leaves. I'm interpreting. That is not reporting. But I don't think we can brush that aside.
And I also just think that if it's not wrapped up and we don't know what Kawhi Leonard's fate is contractually or suspension-wise, You can't go into that agreement.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the premise and rules of the 'Way-Too-Early Way-Too-Spicy' 2027 NBA awards episode?
0:13–0:42
2
How could the Kawhi Leonard cap circumvention story affect opening night rosters and awards narratives?
0:42–29:56
3
Who are the jalapeño and Carolina Reaper picks for Defensive Player of the Year and why?
29:56–1:15:12
4
Which players did they choose as spicy picks for Sixth Man of the Year and what roles enable them?
1:15:12–1:32:25
Speakers
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