The Ringer NBA Show

We discuss the breaking news that Brad Beal will sit out the rest of the season to manage a shoulder injury he’s been dealing with this season. What does that mean for the Wizards’ chances of making the playoffs or even the play-in tournament? Plus: Beal’s injury raises questions about why the NBA decided to go with 22 teams in Orlando instead of the initially proposed 20-team plan. Hosts: Chris Vernon and Kevin O’Connor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We discuss how some of the lower seeds might get shuffled in the final eight games of the regular season before locking in the playoff matchups (10:30). Then, with no show scheduled for Friday, we dive back into the mailbag early this week, answering your questions about players from the last four drafts who we haven’t given up hope on, biggest underachievers in NBA history, what games we’re best at, and more (37:17).Hosts: Chris Vernon and Kevin O’Connor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After the first wave of news about which NBA players are opting out of the Orlando bubble plan for the season’s restart, we discuss whether our view of the competitive landscape of the league has changed at all (1:20). Then, we open back up the mailbag to answer your questions on Vince Carter, the NBA teams left out of the bubble plan, tampering in Orlando, and more (27:50).Hosts: Chris Vernon and Kevin O’Connor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A lot can change in an unprecedented, three-month interruption of the NBA season. After not seeing much of anything from players on social media since the NBA shut down, Chris and Kevin each list the three players they’re most excited to see when basketball returns.Hosts: Chris Vernon and Kevin O’Connor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We run through some of the details of the NBA’s 100-page booklet of health guidelines for when the league returns in Orlando (2:00), before revisiting the Memphis Grizzlies' choice to taken Hasheem Thabeet second overall in 2009 (22:36). Then we answer your questions about which rookies are in the best and worst situations, which teams have the brightest decades ahead of them, and which two teams from NBA history we’d want to watch face off (35:40).Hosts: Chris Vernon and Kevin O’Connor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A group of players reportedly led by Kyrie Irving held a phone call to discuss whether returning to play—amid the COVID-19 pandemic and continued social unrest surrounding police brutality—is the best course of action. Is this a representative sample of what NBA players want to do, and will this mean we won’t see some players make the trip to Orlando when the ramp-up begins at the end of June?Hosts: Chris Vernon and Kevin O’Connor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As the restart of the NBA season gets closer and closer, there are rumblings among some players about how comfortable they will be about staying in the campus environment of Disney World without the freedom to leave for two months (0:33). Plus, we answer your questions about which underdog could win the title when basketball comes back, fixing the Knicks, ‘The Bachelor,’ and more (35:12).Hosts: Chris Vernon and Kevin O’Connor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Now that we have a date for when the NBA will be playing games again, the focus has narrowed to what happens in the interim. We discuss the NBA’s evolving thought process on COVID-19 testing, how many players will be with their teams in Orlando, and more (0:34). Then, we briefly discuss the wing prospects in the coming NBA draft that Kevin is most excited about (49:58).Hosts: Chris Vernon and Kevin O’Connor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After Thursday’s board of governors call with Adam Silver, the NBA has almost unanimously approved the league’s plan to return with eight regular-season games followed by a play-in tournament for the 8th seed in each conference. Now all that’s left is for the players union to approve the plan and for each team to get to Orlando and ramp up to play. We discuss potential challenges the teams will face getting ready to play competitively again (0:49), and then we open up the mailbag to answer your questions about the return plan, the league’s openness to potential player protests during games or the national anthem, and more (21:03).Hosts: Chris Vernon and Kevin O’Connor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We discuss the sweeping condemnation of police brutality from NBA players and the NBA community—in line with nationwide protests over the last week—and what it means to even think or talk about the return of basketball in this moment (0:39). Then we go over reports about the league’s plan to return in late July and the board of governors meeting tomorrow that will dictate the terms of that return (10:08).Hosts: Chris Vernon and Kevin O’Connor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices