Bill Simmons had his buddy Joe House and Ringer writer J. Kyle Mann on his Friday podcast to play a game of ‘Too Soon.’ They started with the prompt, “Is it too soon for the New York Knicks to trade Julius Randle?” Simmons suggested that the Knicks would be a natural spot for Karl-Anthony Towns but that the Minnesota Timberwolves were no longer a viable trade partner.
This isn’t like trying to get rid of Ben Simmons. [Randle is] clearly a guy who might need a change of scenery. The problem for them is [that] I thought [New York] was gonna be the natural place for [Towns].
Towns and Gobert, it wasn’t gonna go well, and Minnesota was gonna be like f—, we gotta get out of this deal. We’ve got four years left. The last year of it ends with a six. $61 million. Let’s get out of it now.
But then you watch Minnesota, and it’s like, I actually wouldn’t do anything if I was Minnesota. They beat up on Denver. They’re the only team in the league that’s not afraid of Denver. And, in general, they’re a weird team that I’m not sure would make sense. But I also haven’t considered doing anything yet, if I were them.
Simmons then returns to talking about the Denver Nuggets later in the podcast, saying that there were some questions about how they’d look with Bruce Brown departing. Would they trust the young guys? What about Christian Brown?
Minnesota waxed [Denver], but I also think every great team is gonna have their one team that’s kind of a weird matchup for them. The next Denver-Minnesota game is probably the most interesting game of the year from a standpoint of, ‘Let’s see, they tagged Denver. Denver didn’t see it coming. They broke a beer bottle over their head. They didn’t see it.’
But now we’re outside the club. What do you got? Let’s go! And I want to see how Denver responds to that.
Later, he had Ringer podcaster Chris Vernon on to talk about the 0-5 Memphis Grizzlies. Simmons pointed out that Memphis is going to have trouble playing against big teams.
The only thing is there’s only a couple teams like that where you can say, ‘Oh man, this is a big boy team. You guys are in trouble tonight.’ So there’s certain nights, like Jokic is gonna be a disaster for them every time they play. Physically they can’t handle it.
Vernon mentioned that the Grizzlies lost to the Los Angeles Lakers, a big team, in the first round of the playoffs last year. Simmons said that the Wolves also would be a threat to them.
Minnesota is big. Minnesota is big, a little clumsy, and really hard to play, which Denver figured out last night.
Simmons didn’t dedicate a segment to the Wolves. But he gave them multiple backhanded compliments, unsolicited, throughout Friday’s podcast. That’s a good sign for a team that’s all-in this year.
