Talking Buckets: Recent Episodes
Elijah Polson
Welcome to Talking Buckets! Elijah Polson and Tiger An run through the latest news from everything NBA-related. We talk about anything from game analysis and season predictions to weird and funny drama around the league. Soon enough, these two BCIT journalism students will be your go-to source for Vancouver-based NBA content. We're getting better with every episode, so make sure you stick around as the season goes on!
This week on Talking Buckets, Elijah and Tiger recap what went wrong for the teams that were eliminated in the Play-In tournament, give their original predictions on what would happen in each first round playoff series, and reassess those thoughts based on the impressions they've gathered from watching each team play at least two games! (Note: This episode was recorded just after 76ers/Raptors game 4, not accounting for anything beyond that)
00:38 - Why the Charlotte Hornets lost
04:25 - Why the Cleveland Cavaliers lost
09:50 - Why the San Antonio Spurs lost
14:49 - Why the Los Angeles Clippers lost
20:02 - Phoenix vs New Orleans impressions (Suns lead 2-1 as of recording)
24:16 - Memphis vs Minnesota impressions (Grizzlies lead 2-1 as of recording)
28:47 - Golden State vs Denver impressions (Warriors lead 3-0 as of recording)
34:03 - Dallas vs Utah impressions (Mavericks lead 2-1 as of recording)
40:47 - Miami vs Atlanta impressions (Heat lead 2-1 as of recording)
44:31 - Boston vs Brooklyn impressions (Celtics lead 2-0 as of recording)
49:20 - Milwaukee vs Chicago impressions (Bucks lead 2-1 as of recording)
53:02 - Philadelphia vs Toronto impressions (76ers lead 3-1 as of recording)
Talking Buckets is back after an extended hiatus...and just in time for the playoffs! But first, Tiger and Elijah talk about the Play-In tournament, as well beginning a mini series called Why They Lost. We'll go through each of the 10 teams that missed the Play-In, examining how their season went and what their future looks like. More teams will get their own segment as they're eliminated from title contention. We'll be back on a much more consistent basis for the rest of the season with our studies at BCIT wrapping up, so stick around for the best basketball content on this side of the Pacific North West!
00:38 - Welcome back!
02:15 - Why the Orlando Magic lost
05:48 - Why the Detroit Pistons lost
09:27 - Why the Indiana Pacers lost
12:49 - Why the Washington Wizards lost
15:27 - Why the New York Knicks lost
20:26 - Why the Houston Rockets lost
25:36 - Why the Oklahoma City Thunder lost
29:20 - Why the Portland Trail Blazers lost
33:06 - Why the Sacramento Kings lost
37:20 - Why the Los Angeles Lakers lost
45:39 - Western Conference Play-In Tournament Predictions
48:23 - Eastern Conference Play-In Tournament Predictions
This week on Talking Buckets, Tiger and Elijah break down both NBA conferences based on how realistic each playoff team's chances are of making it to the Finals or winning it all! Other topics discussed during these team-by-team breakdowns include a debate on if LeBron will leave the Lakers once his contract expires in 2023, and returning to an Anthony Davis trade idea Elijah proposed in December that is now gaining traction with sports journalists such as Stephen A. Smith!
00:38 - Eastern Conference championship hopes analysis (LeBron discussion near end of this segment)
18:16 - Western Conference championship hopes analysis (AD discussion near end of this segment)
In a special bonus episode for this week on Talking Buckets, Elijah and Tiger react to the rest of the trade deadline and pre-All Star Weekend announcements! We give predictions for All-Star Saturday night, poke fun at Harden and Simmons following their blockbuster trade, and tear the Kings apart of trading Haliburton away, among other topics.
00:38 - All-Star Saturday Night competition predictions
09:42 - Who wins Team LeBron vs Team Durant?
12:42 - Ben Simmons and James Harden trade reactions
21:45 - Why did the Mavericks trade Kristaps Porzingis?
24:55 - How much will Bradley Beal's wrist surgery affect his impending free agency?
27:23 - Tiger rationally explains why the Kings/Pacers trade was fair
29:00 - Elijah rips apart the Kings for trading away Haliburton for an outside shot at the playoffs
On this episode of Talking Buckets, Elijah and Tiger react to the NBA All Star reserve selections (Before Dejounte Murray and LaMelo Ball were announced as injury replacements), analyze early trade deadline moves, and debate about how various teams should be handling drama with their star players!
00:38 - NBA All-Star Reserve Reactions (Pre Murray/Ball announcement)
7:13 - Clippers acquire Norman Powell and Robert Covington
12:19 - Cavaliers acquire Caris LeVert
16:23 - Harden/Simmons trade rumors
25:00 - Westbrook being benched in crunch time reaction
29:45 - Julius Randle rocky relationship with Knicks
35:20 - Thoughts on Bucks title chances
This week on Talking Buckets, Elijah and Tiger talk about our biggest surprises and disappointments at the halfway mark of the NBA season, make starting lineup predictions for the All Star game, debate what the weirdest arena shenanigan was over the last two weeks, and more!
00:38 - 1/2 season NBA team surprises/disappointments
09:51 - 1/2 season NBA player surprises/disappointments
20:00 - All Star starting lineup predictions
29:10 - Which of Kyrie and Klay have been more impressive since returning to action?
34:53 - Recap of Raptors/Kings/Grizzlies arena shenanigans
40:00 - Why aren't the Bulls being taken as seriously as other Eastern Conference contenders?
44:31 - Sunday pick'em
This week on Talking Buckets, Elijah and Tiger dissect the first batch of NBA All Star vote rankings! These votes are mostly accumulated on Twitter, so we debate which players are too high or low, while also discussing who we think should also be thrown into the mix.
00:38 - West Frontcourt
16:05 - West Guards
30:32 - East Frontcourt
40:17 - East Guards
Note: Due to ongoing COVID-19 restrictions in B.C., the podcast will continue to be recorded remotely until February at the earliest
Happy holidays! Talking Buckets host Elijah visited Chicago for a week and a half and got to see the Bulls defeat the Lakers! He returns alongside Tiger to discuss his thoughts on the game, and discuss other topics like feel-good NBA holiday stories and how to make a mid-season tournament entertaining for all audiences.
00:38 - Best feel-good story of the NBA during the holidays?
10:12 - Elijah's thoughts on attending his first NBA game
20:43 - How bad do we feel for LeBron's situation on a scale of 1-10?
30:38 - Thoughts on Brooklyn caving in to let Kyrie return to the Nets
34:13 - Tiger's ideas for creating an exciting mid-season NBA tournament worth playing for
41:14 - New Year's Eve pick'em game
This week on Talking Buckets, Elijah and Tiger discuss whether a firing of Lakers head coach Frank Vogel could actually happen, resurgent trade rumors on Trail Blazers superstar Damian Lillard, the savageness of whoever makes graphics for NBC Boston, and more!
00:38 - Frank Vogel job security in jeopardy 09:48 - Damian Lillard trade rumors are back 16:48 - How do the Pacers begin their rebuild? 22:46 - NBC Boston constantly roasting other teams 26:10 - Saturday night predictions ft. an apology to the Kings
This week on Talking Buckets, Elijah and Tiger dissect what makes the Suns so special (RIP their 18 game win streak it got snapped after the recording), talk about how embarrassing the Thunder's 73 point loss was, poke fun at Enes Kanter for changing his last name to Freedom, and more! 00:38 - Why the Phoenix Suns should be taken more seriously than last year 09:20 - Breaking down the biggest loss in NBA history 14:54 - Thoughts on Kemba Walker and Blake Griffen being healthy scratches 19:52 - Nuggets injuries derailing title hopes 25:47 - Enes Kanter stealing Ron Artest's name change stunt 28:27 - NBA "punishes" Heat and Bulls for tampering during free agency 31:13 - Saturday night NBA prediction game
We're back in our regular studio and release schedule! In this episode of Talking Buckets, Elijah and Tiger look at what Vegas thinks of every team's championship odds, who would win a boxing match between LeBron James and Isaiah Stewart, why Kevin Durant has the worst self-care of any modern athlete, and more!
00:38 - 1/4 season awards
14:53 - Vegas championship odds reactions
24:12 - LeBron James vs Isaiah Stewart (Featuring Gilbert Arenas flaming Stewart online)
35:01 - Thoughts on Jayson Tatum's poor play
39:51 - Poking fun at Kevin Durant's ashy ankles
43:09 - Saturday night game predictions
Talking Buckets is back after a brief hiatus! Elijah and Tiger return to talk about why the Warriors are dominating the early season, debate if LeBron James needs to do more or less to fix the Lakers, and wonder why Scottie Pippen is constantly taking shots at Michael Jordan, among other topics! We'll be back on our regular Saturday release schedule after this episode (including studio mics again since this episode was recorded remotely lol)
0:38 - Which player this season is having the biggest redemption tour so far?
5:33 - Is this version of the Golden State Warriors the best non-Kevin-Durant iteration ever?
11:53 - What should LeBron James (aka LeGM) do to fix the Los Angeles Lakers?
22:28 - Which NBA franchise is the most dysfunctional right now?
29:15 - Why is Scottie Pippen lashing out against Michael Jordan?
33:09 - Winners and losers of the past week and a half
Talking Buckets returns to get you caught up on the NBA heading into the weekend! Elijah and Tiger talk about the earlier-than-usual Celtics dysfunction, Zion's inability to slim down, the latest on Ben Simmons vs the 76ers, Rob Sarver being comically stereotypical for a rich white man, and more!
00:38 - Thoughts on the last week of NBA action
10:37 - Free throw rates down across the league
15:27 - Marcus Smart not happy after Celtics loss
21:33 - Charles Barkley roasts Zion's weight
25:27 - Ben Simmons fined $360,000 again
30:14 - Rob Sarver is Donald Sarver reborn
35:51 - 76ers commentator has no chill
38:10 - Saturday game predictions
Note: Regarding Marcus Smart's comments, they were actually after a 4th quarter meltdown against the Bulls, not the Wizards.
Talking Buckets is back with your weekend NBA recap! Elijah Polson and Tiger An about surprises and disappointments (spoiler: James Harden went off after putting him on blast), react to Lakers drama, laugh about amped up Knicks fans, and more!
0:00 - Introductions 0:40 - Biggest surprise and disappointment from past 7 days
5:00 - AD/Dwight Scuffle + 75th Anniversary NBA team
13:24 - More Lakers Drama
19:23 - Sidetalk video on Knicks fans after winning 2OT vs Boston
25:54 - Nets "fans" siding with Kyrie on his vaccination status
28:26 - Blake Griffin pulls a Ben Simmons
30:13 - Shallow dive into fantasy basketball
34:17 - Predictions for next 7 days
43: 47 - Goodbyes
The pilot episode of our NBA podcast! Elijah Polson and Tiger An go over highlights from the opening three days of NBA action, and make their predictions for playoff seeding for both conferences. We definitely winged the premiere since we only had a loose script of what we wanted to talk about, but it still turned out well and everyone's gotta start somewhere right? This show is only going to get better as we go along, so stick with us as we look to become a hot source for NBA content in Vancouver! 0:00 - Introductions 1:07 - Thoughts on first three days of NBA 12:28 - Eastern Conference playoff seeding predictions 29:10 - Western Conference playoff seeding predictions 57:16 - Goodbyes