Sean is joined by Nick Walas—host of Words With Walas—to discuss the Trae Young trade to Washington, touching on the Wizards side of the deal (1:53), the Hawks side of the deal (11:10), and then raising an existential question about how the CBA has affected trade value for star players (15:27). Then, Sean and Nick pick teams for some mid-season superlatives, including:

• Biggest Surprise (20:48)
• The One-Piece-Away Team (35:06)
• Biggest Dark Horse Contender (48:35)
• Most Obvious Blow-It-Up Team (59:38)
• Biggest Disappointment (1:13:24)
• Best Ahead-of-Schedule Ascension (1:30:49)
• Most At-a-Cross-Roads Team (1:43:59)

Let's play another edition of my annual game called Sample Size Roulette, where I answer whether or not the sample size is big enough to say that... the Hawks are better off without Trae Young (0:47), the Mavs should blow it up and trade AD (11:03), the Magic are closer to a play-in team than an East contender (21:45), the Rockets don’t need to add a guard this year (29:48), the Pistons should be co-favorites in the East (40:57), the Thunder could break the 73-win record (51:01), the Clippers are not a playoff team (57:21), Joel Embiid is completely washed (1:05:11), the Suns are a playoff contender (1:13:40), and Wemby could win MVP this season (1:23:47).

In order to preview the upcoming 2025-26 NBA season, let's discuss all 30 teams by grouping them into 10 tiers based on their prospects to contend this season. This is the sixth episode in the 6-part Contender Tiers series, discussing the following tiers:

Tier 2: Playing for Second Place

4) Cleveland Cavaliers (1:51)

3) New York Knicks (14:17)

Tier 1: Deserving Favorites

2) Denver Nuggets (27:52)

1) Oklahoma City Thunder (39:22)