A Magic Upset, a Lakers Surprise, Playoff Wemby, El Cheapo, Bill’s Award Flip, and Other Round 1 Notes With Zach Lowe

[MUSIC PLAYING] Bill Simmons podcast, we are live on Netflix. Sunday night, Zach Low is here. I don't know where to begin, but this was an awesome sports weekend because we had a two-day WrestleMania, and I don't care about that.

We had hockey started today. We had just a devastating brewing collapse in Buffalo.

First Buffalo home playoff game.

“I think first Buffalo playoff game in 15 years.”

Well, it's just fell apart in seven minutes, and it was just pure delirium in Buffalo. And then we had 10 basketball games in the span of 52 hours if you counted two plans. Do you get numb by the end of this?

Because I feel like my brain's like a little scrambled by the time we got to the fourth game tonight. Usually I do, but I'm feeling crystal clear this weekend. I don't know if it's a schedule. I don't know if it's actually like I slept last night pretty

well, but I'm feeling good. I'm feeling less, I'm usually fried and I'm not fried right now. Well, we had some blowouts with choked. Paying into the playoffs, everyone was thinking, this feels like chocked round one.

This was like all the ringer gambling guys were all like what? What's going to be the weird series? What's going to be the upset? And the logical one seemed to be Houston Lakers.

“Do we trust that Lucas not going to be back for round one?”

Like Houston's weird, and then all sudden Katie gets scratched. So that series goes, say, where? Then today Orlando Detroit. You and I, we were texting with a bunch of people today.

And you and I, you mentioned in first about,

at a trade Orlando, something with Orlando, I don't know. You sniffed it out. How did Spock sniff this one out? That Orlando is going to be the big upset? I mean, Detroit, you know, the long layoff

came back from the collapse long or Lando looked awesome against Charlotte in the last playoff game. I, they just have oscillated between this like we're dead. We're dying, break up the whole team to like, oh my God, this is the team that everyone thought we would be.

When our over one was 50 and a half. And some people like this idea right here have took the over. And I just once they beat Charlotte like that, I was like, maybe they'll just carry this momentum a little bit further. I don't know what this means for the rest of this series,

but super impressive start by them. And yeah, it's been such a weird. We've been ready to break up that team 25 different times.

And here they are up one-o in the first round.

Rock bottom on Sunday and then on Wednesday. On Sunday, they lose to the main Celtics. The G League Celtics basically beat them. Capped off by Luca Garza designed. Durkdo Witzky in your face three that basically swings the playoffs.

Gives, gives a affiliate home game in the plan. Then they go and they play that playing game on Wednesday. And they're awful. And they just stink. And the next day there's this TikTok that somebody did about Palo.

Did you see that? It was like top five worst plays in the plan. First honorable mention, here's Palo Bancaro. And then he would go to the next one and he'd be like, and then the former number one pick of the whatever draft.

And each time it was a different intro, but it was just a series of terrible Palo plays. I don't have TikTok on my phone, but this got sent to me over and over again because it was on social. And it was basically Thursday was basically the Palo punching bag day.

Everybody's like, that's it. Magic suck. It's all Palo's fault. They're going to fire mostly, blah, blah, blah. And they killed Charlotte on Friday.

Like they killed them. And it was this defensive thing that they put on where it was like, holy shit, where this come from. It captured my attention. I didn't know if they'd be able to sustain it.

The thing that was stunning about tonight's act are today, I guess. They basically took Dernan out of the game. I voted for him second team on BA. He was like an afterthought. He might as well have been a backup center.

And they really bullied him and didn't let him get any of the pick and roll stuff. And pistons move back to being the Kade centric team. That was our biggest fear with them in the playoffs. It's like Kader bust. I don't know how they did it in two hours.

Yeah, worst case scenario for the pistons, right? It's like it's Kade and like who else? Anyone else going to create any offense? It's we don't really know who to play down the stretcher games.

“Do we need to take a Sard Thompson out because of the spacing issues?”

Could we play Thompson and Dernan together? Have you minutes late in the game? Carousel avert played four minutes here. Comes Kevin Hurder. It was like exactly the sort of nightmare scenario.

I think he spun and put a lay up over one Del Carter during. And I was like, oh, I haven't seen that. Like Deed hired again. That was the whole story of Kade's absence was Jail and Dernan stepping up.

“And I think they barely, the magic had a smart game plan to just take everybody else out of the”

game and make Kade do everything. And part of that was they switched that Kade Dernan pick and roll over and over and over again. And Kade beat it. He would beat Wendell Carter Jr after dribble now and then. And then they just swarm him and say, hey, you got to either shoot a contested shot.

Or past one of these non shooters, what we're not giving you is Jail and Dernan on the roll. Then the times that they tried to give it to him on the mismatch on the other end of that switch, they just swarmed off everybody else, deflected the past. Sugs was everywhere. They just didn't get let him get any easy buckets.

It didn't let that pick and roll get rolling in a way that unlocked anyone else on the team. It was a nice for a coach that we've all given a lot of flag two all year. It's serverless for Jamal Mosley. It was a solid solid game plan from him today. I thought they played in a plus on Friday.

They were really good today.

I mean, first of all, they basically only played seven guys.

Like, guys eight nine played, I don't know, seven eight minutes, but they basically went with the seven men rotation. And those five guys, you know, Sugs has been the minutes have been all over the place this year for him.

“Even in the playing game on on Friday, I think he played 22 minutes.”

But he played 36 today and really looked like the Sugs from the guy that basically got that giant contract, just a two way all over the place, most annoying, prayer possible, everywhere, hands, touching everything. So they had that. Palo was way more in control, you know, that we've seen this with him sometimes where he

looks better in the playoffs than the regular season. I don't really understand that. Franz of Telty and Carter yet again, because he looked good Friday night too. You watch Carter, you're like, all right, that's there's something there. So you watch all but together, I was thinking with the playoffs.

I thought about this yesterday, watch it at land in the next two and you watch the two teams. And you're like, if I didn't know anything about it, I know the seeds records do these teams seem around the same level, right? And that land has seemed like a hair below the next, but seem like they could play with them. We're going to talk about that game later.

This game, it was like, you wouldn't have known who the one seed was and who the eight seed was if you came out of a coma, right?

“If you just woke up, you missed six months of the season, you were like, who's the one seed?”

Was it Orlando? No, no, it was actually Detroit. Well, Detroit, you know, all the things they do to exert their will and their physicality on everybody else, don't work as well against Orlando, because Orlando's is big and strong and nasty. As the pistons are, and you said, you said a key word, which is health.

Anthony Black is back, and Franz Wagner is back. And like, maybe that's just part of what this is and why we didn't see this team together the whole year. When Sugs is in now, the lineup, I've called him to sort of skeleton key of their team before. They're starting five has been good all year when healthy.

They're just never healthy, but they played so goddamn hard on both ends of the floor.

So it was so much force, so much speed, so much decisiveness, that part of me was like, and I mean this in a sort of peck handed way, are they like the least accomplished flip this which team in the history of the NBA? Have they had like waiting to play this hard all year and they just barely scrimmed them by the eighth seed, because this was a completely different team than some of the bad

lay and egg games they've had. Yeah, I thought Friday night what they did to Charlotte, just it wasn't just the 30 point blowout. Charlotte over and over again, they weren't getting shots off in 24 seconds or they were getting terrible shots. Like they demolished an offense that was a top five offense for most of the season, right?

The last two thirds and then today same thing, they took this play with Kate and Durin, that's worked all year. That was like the bread and butter for this piston steam and they just blew it up. I was looking at the shooting for them. So they shot 30% from three in the Friday playing game.

They shot 29% from three today. So you can't look at it if you're like, "Ah, there's a little fluke with Orlando." It's like, "Actually, it wasn't that fluke." Like they kept on Friday, Charlotte only had seven offensive rebounds. Today, Detroit only had six offensive rebounds.

So basically, they're playing good defense, they're not giving up offensive rebounds.

They're taking care of the ball. And you talk about the flip the switch stuff. To me, it's like when you hit rock bottom, like they hit, I'm a big believer this, especially in football, like teams trying to tell you who they are. I felt like they were trying to tell us who they were in that first playing game and in the

Celtics game, it gets the main Celtics where it's like, we're ready to go to the offseason. It was borderline 1, 2, 3 can't cool. It really was pretty bad. And for the most part, when I see that, I just quit on the team completely. So I can't even imagine what it's like to be in Orlando, Magic Finn right now.

there's no way anyone could have believed in Orlando after those two games, right?

“So now it's like, maybe that's what happened.”

They had to hit rock bottom. Maybe they had some great team meeting that we don't know about. But they're completely different team and I have to buy into it. I mean, they were flying on defense. How many destroyed possessions, even ones that ended up with baskets or drawn falls,

were went like, hey, why are halfway through? Though there's a loose ball, there's a deflection to choice picks it up and they reconfigure and everything's okay, but they were just flying around and on offense. Like, this is not been a good offensive team in quite a long time. They set real screens.

They changed sides of the floor with decisiveness. They ran into the catch at full speed. They cut hard. Like, they did everything with such decisiveness and force. And it wasn't like the most sophisticated, pretty offense.

But they executed their stuff with just vigor and force. And it's like, where has this band? Why have you not played like this the entire year? I don't understand. But if they play like this, this entire series,

they absolutely have a chance to win it.

“They were, I think, plus 350 or plus 330,”

something like that to win the game today for the series. Fandals still has them plus 172. I think that's a mistake. I actually, to me, this is a 50/50 series now because if Orlando, now, granted, maybe that's stupid because maybe in game two,

they're just going to go back to being the Orlando from a week ago. But I do feel like this switch might have flipped. And here's the things that we saw this three years ago with Miami. Miami finished, they were 44 and 38 to 2023 heat. They were 13 and 12.

They're last 25.

And they lost the first playing game.

And we were like, it's over. They're done. Fuck it. Fuck the heat. They were on the ropes and the second playing game. Right.

So they win the second playing game. And then they beat Milwaukee, the Nix, and Boston all in order. And made the finals again as an eight-seed. So it's basically, there's a track record for this. Well, there's one record of it.

Well, for three years ago, or is it like it was in 1977? I just want to be clear. Are you positing that a magic finals run? No, it's coming. No, okay, I was about, I was about to be a little bit.

I'm not. I'm just saying it seems inconceivable. But we just lived through this three years ago. The difference is that heat team had actually accomplished some stuff for made the finals in 2020, and that Jimmy Butler, etc, etc.

But this, to me, I wrote this down in minutes. This is a really good example. Well, I think the one seeds in each conference, it should be two, two, three. And not two, two, one, one, one, and a harbor of doing it. There should be some sort of advantage for being the one seed.

You look at the trade. They have that, I mean, I'm not making excuses for them, because I didn't think they played well today. And I thought Orlando exposed real holes for them.

They'll talk about it in a second.

But they didn't play a meaningful game for what two and a half weeks. They had the one seed in each locked up. Then they just had a week off. They're bringing Kate back in, trying to feel that out. And they really haven't played a game with that kind of intensity.

That meant something probably in a month. I mean, while Orlando has been in this group of, they had to turn it up and Boston in that fourth quarter, when they realized they were losing the main South-X. They lost.

Filly was a playing game in front of a hostile crowd. Then Charlotte, to get into the tournament. And then today, they're kind of in the groove. Whereas the trade isn't. So, if I'm Detroit, I'm like, well, that kind of sucks.

Like, we're in a weirdly, we're like, in a disadvantage. I've actually come to disagree with you on the two, two, three format. Okay, let's hear it. If only because this, I agree that the number one seed should have a little bit more benefit to it than it does now.

I think that might skew, I'd have to think more, but I think that might skew it too much, because the NBA is already the most predictable league in U.S. professional sports.

And extending the first round series from five to seven,

two decades ago, sort of decreased the upset chances. Like, in a seven game series, the best team slash health this team is likely going to win. So, I would keep the two, three, two, two, one, one, one. Have everyone want to do it.

“I do think that you should at least get to pick your first opponent.”

And I know that NBA scheduling people will be like, it's impossible, we can schedule a 82 game season with all these matrices. And as Emirates cup and all this stuff, but we just absolutely cannot do that one thing because it messes up our ability to schedule the playoffs.

Because this is a case where I think Detroit probably picks Filly instead of Orlando, and it has an easier time in Europe's Celtics than get Orlando. So, I'm trying to split the difference a little bit, but by the way, I do agree with you. I don't think Detroit played very well today.

And they were like a little frazzled. And if you want to look at the frazzledness of it, like, those plays where Palo is isolating on the wing, and they would load up their defense to him, like shade to him,

Yeah, we could just give the ball to Jill and they're like, very basic help to help her kind of stuff. And they just let go. They just were like, they were a little frazzled, I thought.

“And I think game two, they will not be as frazzled.”

History's always suggests that a big home favorite

that loses game one tends to route the other team in game two. Yeah, I'm expecting Detroit to even the series, and then it all feels different, but we'll see. You became like a ringer gambling show post there. Okay, well, the history of game two.

So one of the things with Detroit, we were worried about, they never did anything in the trade deadline. Well, because the murder was like the fourth best player tonight, they did something at least. That's my point.

Instead of like going all in and trading some real capital and trying to get somebody and strengthen in that spot, Kevin Herder was the answer. So Herder plays 18 minutes today, run home in place 10, Javante Green plays four,

Levert plays four, Duncan Robinson plays 26.

And that position, they always had probably the worst guy in the four compared

to the five Orlando guys. So I thought that was, that was not great for them. And then the, you know, Tobias five for 15 again, we've kind of seen this from Tobias and when the lights get a little brighter, I thought he had a really good season for them,

but he's got to do better, but this is not a great matchup for him. He's going against two forwards that are better than him. I thought he had a good playoff last year too against the next. I was a good showing for him in terms of his toughness and his rising to the level, but it did feel, he was one of seven on threes.

“I think it felt like he was one of 15 on corner threes,”

because they were all open and like he just got to knock down two or three more of them. And the other minutes thing I would look at, you mentioned you add on them all off a sartops. It also only 25 minutes.

And this is the thing we've been harping on over with the lack of shooting that

the distance has is when it's a go time, he might be the best perimeter defender in the entire NBA. And can you play him 35 minutes a game or is the spacing with him and durin? And then they had beef stew and durin playing together a little bit. And that was a little clunky like, is how can we figure out the equation?

And it's not good that in game 83. So, guys, I guess we're going to close crunch time with Jenkins and herder. And maybe beef stew for a little while. And like two starters, one starter, three starters. Like do we have to go to play right now?

That makes me a little nervous. I'm glad you mentioned that, because I was the last thing I want to talk about. This is a shocking game one collapse at home. And in crunch time, they had Jenkins and Cade playing together, which I bet they haven't done more than how many times could they have actually

probably done that this year? Finish games of those two? Finish, I don't know, but there's a decent sample size of minutes in there. They're a plus 10 per 100 possessions or something. And in a decent sample of minutes, but yeah, but again, it's a definition of those two.

Durin wasn't out there. Stewart was the center. Herder was out there. It was just odd. This is the number one seed, they almost won 60 games.

I listen, I was on Texas with my dad for two days leading up to the weekend. About who would we rather see Orlando or Philly? Who would you rather want for that seven eight? And I was like, I don't want to see Orlando, even though they look so bad in that Sunday game, because they're physical, there's cheap shop potential with them.

“I just think Philly would know and be, just feels like an easier ride for us, right?”

And then Orlando looks like shit in that game. My dad's like, I told you we should have played Philly and then today he flipped again. He was like, I told you Orlando would have been a problem. Like my dad can't remember what argument we've had.

But Charlotte versus Orlando, when you see how teams were blowing up Charlotte, I'm sure the traits now looking at that like con was clearly not 100% healthy. I'm sure the traits look at that like man, that could have been a lot easier of a series. We were way more physical than them. I hope Detroit is looking at none of that and just looking at themselves

and looking at the standings and looking in the mirror and saying, let's just come kick to shit out of this team in the next game. We've won 60 whatever games. Like this isn't about them. It's not about Charlotte. It's not about who we could have played and wham wham wham if we could pick up on it. Let's go on kick some butt. I'm more concerned than you.

I'm not unconcerned. I'm just like, let's like, if they win game two, the series starts to feel a little, you know, these swings go up and down. I'm not going to go crazy. After game one, I expect them to win game two if they don't. Obviously it's full on panic time. I'm more concerned than you because I like normally when we have an upset like that, it's like, oh, somebody shot 20 for 48 from 3 or the best guy in the

other team got him foul trouble. There's some sort of dump variable. There was no dump variable. Orlando just played way better than them and they were tougher than them and weren't afraid of them. In fact, they weren't afraid of them and took 19 less free throws by the way. Right. The fact that they weren't afraid and weren't surprised at all what was happening

does. And by the way, they might just 180 us back. That's how Detroit gets back in the series.

Orlando just turns into the team from 10 days ago. And they have some injury guys too. Like,

“I don't know if I trust Sugs to play healthy for two weeks. I don't know if I trust Frons. Who does?”

The other one that we watched tonight was Spurs Portland and, you know, it wasn't surprising San Antonio won pretty easily. The color coordinated sections. I have some thoughts. I loved it. You're going to be a grinch on this. Yeah. Yes, I am. What do you want? What do you want? Just one color all the way around? You've won five titles as a franchise. Is that the time for gimmicks? Act like they've been there before. You've ever franchiseed this stuff. They

usually just do one colors. It's just the multi colors that's sticking in your crawl. I felt like I was at a parade. Oh my god. Every section was a different color. They've been seven years. They would five titles. They'd Tim Duncan. They'd one of the ten best pairs of all time. Who is there at the game? Probably wondering why everybody was in a different section wearing a different t-shirt. He wasn't wondering because they're the fiesta colors. He was wearing the shirt. I get it. I get it. You're like

Cramer is the age one. You don't want to win. You want to win. This is one of our championship contenders. I don't know. I just horrible take. That's fine. I don't put the t-shirt on. I hate to t-shirts. I don't understand the t-shirts. I don't like when the Celtics do them. I just like old school basketball. I don't want to be dressed like everyone else by section. We've lost our minds. You want like just the old school organ playing, no music, no songs. Yes. That sounds great. Old school organ

is amazing. I like the sound of the sneaker screeching. I'm just old. He did win five titles. I don't

know if he needed gimmicks. Wembing just hasn't edged him. He really just seems like he wants to destroy everybody. It's a pretty great quality for the guy we're pinning our future belief hopes on. Very Jordan Kobe. Everyone is my enemy. I'm not here to make friends. I really want to embarrass what we're playing again. So you could feel it tonight. Pretty good game. Had a couple good stretch. Had a stretch in the fourth quarter where he's like, I'm on NBC. I want to put on a little

show here. Good times all around. I wasn't pressed by Portland though. I thought they kind of hung around and got some punches in. They were frisky. I'm sure you were thrilled with scoots seven for 11 performance. He looked very calm, very collected. They just don't have enough offensive talent. They're a team that's geared toward getting to the rim and they're facing a guy who's just not going to let you get there or unless you want to get embarrassed. And so they're going to have

to make more jumpshots than they're capable of. They took 38 threes tonight, which for them is quite

a lot. They made 10. And good first test for the spurs. I thought like a nice physical like

gutty team who's not afraid. They're going to throw some different defenses at you. They threw them at different matchups at Wemby and different times. And then they played super small, a granite center. It was just like a fun like all right. We're not leaving a lot of cards in our back pocket for this one. We're good for everything we have at you and try to win one game here.

“Yeah. I think I think game three of Portland will be a nice little mini test for them.”

Be a good crowd. Portland will be fired up. And I think Portland's a pretty good man. It's hard to believe there are seven seed because I think if like if we had done your draft, I don't know if they would have been the 17 drafted for the the one seed got to pick who they're playing and then the two seed did. I think would you if you were San Antonio, would you wanted to play Houston or Portland? You'd definitely want to want to play the lakers if you didn't

think Luke was playing. Well, that would be your letting me pick anyone. I'm just my draft is I just get to pick from the play and turn them in in which case I probably would have picked Phoenix over over Portland based on how they're coming down the stretch and Phoenix just as an healthy with grace and Allen and Mark Williams and all that. But yeah, Portland is a pain in the ass. They're physical. They're tough. They have a lot of weird like size personnel that allows them to do a lot

different stuff on defense, scoots, making shots. They're the thigh ball has completely changed their defense since you got healthy. He's just a complete bummed menace to society out there. They're just

“not fun to play against. You're going to feel the blazers. Yeah, so scoot was, how many turners do you have?”

Three, three, you'll take that to nine minutes tonight. Sign it up. One turn over to nine minutes. That's fine. Look pretty explosive. You did. I'm going to talk to my business manager tomorrow. Make share of my position is still stable. One thing on this, there's a lot of stuff going on around

from time to time. This guy has been a fascination of mine for a little while now, culminating with the story about how he didn't want to late checkouts for everybody. A couple days ago. I forgot where they came out. I forgot who had it. So you had that today. The big story was that he didn't pay for the two way guys to go to the game. Yeah, Sean. I can't at Tonya. Yeah. That the three two way guys, including Caleb Blubb, who actually helped them out there in the season. And you know,

had like a pretty decent impact for them. And they told all those guys to stay home. Then there's a lot of stuff that's been going around really for the last three weeks about that they lowball splitter that they don't that he has this theory that you shouldn't have to pay a lot of money for a coach. Maybe he's going to target somebody who would just be happy to take the job.

“This guy who just bought the team who spent time done and who spent four point. I think two”

five billion on it. And I guess spent all his money on the team. And now what's the cut back at

everything else? It's a pretty weird way to start your new ownership. I will say that. Look, if I am a young, if I'm like a 34 year old high school bachelor basketball coach in the Portland area and I'm doing some really wacky stuff like we're pressing every time we're taking 75 threes. I'm scheduling a meeting. I want to get in there. Be like half a million bucks. I'll do it for 200. Okay. Look at look at look at all the crazy stuff that I'm doing with my team of guys.

I don't even have a six footer on the team. We're doing crazy brand of stuff and give me I'll do it. Well, I'd be, well, just make me like the smartest guy in sports. The most interesting guy in sports if I have that. Yeah. He's like, I can kind of see it from his point after if he's has like, if you're having drinks on the one night and he's having cigars and he's telling you about his plans. He's like, hey, this whole thing about paying a lot of money for coaches.

How come 12 of them get fired every year? And I have to pay this guy four million in this guy five. What? Why would I just zag on that and just pay like a million? I'm going to fire the guy in three years anyway. You feel like, okay, Tom done it. It's a good plan. Yeah. I mean, go for it.

Remember the famous high school coach in Arkansas who never punted. He was like the first guy to

never punt. If there's anybody in the Pacific Northwest doing something like that in basketball, get it, get in a room with Tom done and right now, because Tiago splitters done an awesome job.

“I think he should be the favorite to be the coach. I think I wouldn't even mind if they just”

gave him the job right now. I don't know if they're going to offer him enough money to make it worth his while. It's just because there's going to be other jobs that open up and the room is going around or interesting. But yeah, just high school coaches in Portland get out there. Why does it still say acting coach for Tiago splitter? He's been the coach since game two. He's been the coach for six straight months and the other coach sold his house and

got it dated. Well, just in case, you know, can we just call him the coach? Like he's been the coach for also the Blazers are 42 and 40 with like pretty weird personnel, a low offensive ceiling, scoots missed a lot of the season. They've had injuries up and down Drew Holley's Mr. Holley's in general grants. Jeremy Grant time lord is just a walking 40 games of basketball who's great tonight. And here they are with like a real identity of defense and toughness

and building around any obvious like the point point forward and they play super hard. I just tonight, I mean, they're not leaving a lot of strategic cards on the table. They're trying a lot of

“different stuff. And I think he's done a great job and who else do you want to be the coach?”

Their picks, they have their first goes to Chicago this year. And then they get some of these

Milwaukee swaps, 28 and 30, they get swaps. They get Milwaukee's first in 29 and they have some good assets. They're pretty good salary cap situation except for the Drew contract. And if I was importantly, I'd feel good about all of this. But now we just had Al Chippo took over the team. I don't think they've had their they haven't figured out their arena thing yet. And this guy's like, you know, Donald Sterling had some good ideas, not the bad stuff. I'm just

talking about the ownership stuff out there. The way he cut costs was very smart. No. El Chippo. El Chippo. Thank you. By the way, Portland fans, feel free to take that. Here's the bright line you cannot cross as an NBA owner. You want a nickel and dime the coach? Okay, like I don't it doesn't seem great. You want to like skimperown meals and all this stuff. Like fans aren't really going to find that stuff out. What you can't do and I don't think anyone

has done it since, um, who wasn't that sold to pick? You cannot sell your first round pick.

for cash, you should be kicked out of the league immediately. Well, it's been about 10 or 12 years.

“I think, and I'm blanking on which, which. Well, Sarva was the most famous one. Oh, that.”

Yeah, he, he, he basically sold the Lua d'Angpick for, I was like the seventh pick in the draft. Well, and they dumped, they dumped all these picks to Seattle and trades that helps the thunder become what the thunder are, like, stepped on his bonkers. Um, the other thing, we're saying this, we're sort of making light of it. But I think as long time old, I'm old, your old NBA fans, like, this is a franchise that we actually care a lot about. The blazers are an awesome franchise. They're

up there. All by themselves now without Seattle. They have a fun history. They have incredible fans.

It's like, yeah, let's make sure we take care of this, this fan base. It's pretty brutal, because the thing I'd be worried about, just in general, with some of these teams, is these teams that become so expensive that people are leveraging themselves to, you know, just to pull it off. And then they get it. And now they're looking at it like, well, shit, we can cut here. We can go here. We got here. And it's like, that's not how the NBA works. But you got to spend

at least a modicum stuff. Not keeping out on a coach is insane. If that's like really the strategy, that's insane. Now with it, there's bad coaches every year. There's bad hires. We've seen situations like the sun's paying three, four coaches at the same time. That's also insane. But to to be like, this is like a strategic advantage. If we go this way, and I'll be able to save 11 coaching is the one place that there's no cap. This is just like a straightforward,

you know, this is a luxury, basically, for your team. If you're going to cheap out on that,

that's a bad sign. agree. And boy, are they up against the tough opponent in the San Antonio Spurs and Wemby who just had four different highlights today. They were outrageous. Boy, including near the end when he almost dunked from his head was behind the backboard basically. And then it looked like he was, it feels like he's really a threat to get seriously hurt by the backboard twice again. He's very tall and he jumps and he's limb fly around.

But that transition thing where he, he went around the back on Denny Obdia, then he hit him with the righty and an outdream. Well, that he spun back to his left and like, it wasn't even a dunk as much as it was just like he jumped in his hands or in the basket. It was like, I don't even know,

“like, what am I supposed to do now? Well, how can I go on with the rest of my day when that?”

That happened. Well, I'm going to rule out Portland for Janice. I know I mentioned that to you a week ago. This, this guy doesn't even want to pay a coach. I'm pretty sure he's not going to pay for Janice and his two brothers to be on the team. Can I shout out? No, I mean, I didn't, I didn't, I was, I was with you on the like, they could be a 13 in a Janice trade or a 14. I did not see Janice, it would be fun if he traded for Janice and then refused to fly Janice's brothers

to the playoff game. I would go well. How about just not even, like, what about not signing them? I mean, the bucks ended up, they had all the, all the brothers, Alex, and Thanasus. There's a fourth brother though. They didn't go all in. They went, they went, they went, they went mostly in, but there was still one last brother. I think so. What? Kostus head coach of the blazers, discount head coach. Oh, and just do the NASA's. Yeah. Yeah, because the NASA seems to be

the one that Janice is, like, kind of, that's his real conciliary. See, higher than Asus? Yeah. Pretty fun. Okay. So if you had to pick, we're going to talk about all the other games in a second after we do a break, but if you had to pick the upset heading into our break that we're about to take, would you go Houston or would you go Orlando? I mean, I'd Lakers or Orlando, I should say. I, I just, I'm still parking the Houston Lakers thing over here because the injuries make it so

weird. So I'm just like, I want to see more of the series before I really digest it. So I'll just say Orlando for now. Kudos Kudos to a Kudos to the magic. Great showing the last couple of games. I really respect and appreciate what Adam Silver and the NBA did staggering out that Lakers Houston series.

“When's game two Wednesday? It's going until like July. I think I think game seven is July 15th.”

It's just going and going and going. It's going out forever. Well, the first rounds of

was like that though. There's always this is this is the time you mentioned like Orlando has injury

risks on their team. This is the round where it's like you get extra days off for jail and songs and Franz Wagner. And if you were healthy, Jo LnB, but alas, well, so tomorrow we have Toronto Cleveland, Atlanta, New York, Minnesota, Denver. Really good once. And then the Lakers plan Tuesday. Just like push that one for the three days. And then the next one is Friday.

losing streak by game three of Lakers, Rackets, I might I might be drinking on the Sunday podcast with you

at that point. That'll be really exciting. Yeah. Well, next Sunday will be coming off ironically, Lakers Houston. Game four. Great. That'll be next one. All right. We're going to take a break. We're going to come back and we have six other series that we have to dive into next. The Bill Simmons podcast is brought to you by Fandle. The NBA postseason is here in Fandle. No,

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contact your Wyoming. Game problem called 100 game bar call 888-79 7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat Connecticut. This episode is brought to you by PayPal. We've seen some legendary athletes on the number four jersey. Now I can't name names, but you guys know who I'm talking about. In fact, if you look at my studio, there's a framed picture of one of my favorite number fours. You played hockey. Anyway, you know what else is game changing for? PayPal, pay in four.

No fees, no interest, no impact on your credit score, just the flexibility to pay the way that works for you. And it's available at millions of online stores, pay in four with PayPal, subject to approval, learn more at paypal.com/payinfor, paypalink and mls 910457. Alright, we're going to talk about the other six series. There's a lot of fun questions. We'll start with the West. Where the lake is Houston, Houston was a minus 900 favorite when the odds

came out for the series and started steadily dropping. And then there was this mystery Kevin Durin and

“Jerry that I didn't know about till yesterday. Did you when did you find out about it?”

When it was reported. That's all. Yeah. It did. Nice job of hiding it. And then, of course, you do the lakeers are going to win. Even though they're a plus two and a half, LeBron had a classic game manager game, Luke Canard stock continues to rise. And more importantly, the rockets just doing exactly what you would think they would do in this situation. Clock toilet offense, just inexplicable. I don't know why they weren't pressuring more. I didn't understand really

anything they did. I thought it was a worse rockets loss than a better lakeers win if that makes sense. A little bit of both, definitely the least watchable of all the games so far. It was like, it made a rock fight is an insult to rock fights. But I just wanted to point out a couple of things. Do you know how hard it is to lose an NBA game? Were you taking 93 shots?

“And the other team takes 66 shots. You take the same number of free throws. So that's not the”

reason the other team is taken. So more few are official field goals in you. The other team takes 93 pointers total in the year of our basketball, God's 2026. And you get 21 offense rebounds. And you lose by nine. That's, that is mathematically improbable and congratulations to the Houston rockets we're pulling it off. And felt like they were out of the game the whole fourth quarter, even though it was not a blowout. Also led to a text from my dad in the third quarter's act.

Just I hate the lakers was this text. He was just furious that it worked out this way. He thought we were going to get rid of them in the round one. And that's not how it's happening. Well, tell your dad, tell your dad fuck up like what's so downside they get a little time to get healthy. Maybe they get a little frisky, a little interesting. I mean, do you want to watch this rock

to see him play for two playoff rounds? I don't. Here's what I did tell my dad. I love that the

laker fans are getting sucked in here. So Luke gets heard. It's like, we're done. And now yesterday, Katie goes down. LeBron looks pretty spray with a week off. Eight and looked alive. I mean, alive is a bonus for him. And now they're like, man, if we could just, we get by Houston. Luke comes back. Luke versus SGA. He's had success against that team. I love that they're talking themselves into it. It's great. I love watching it from afar. You're already going to just

rule out Phoenix's upside chances. You're going to sit under looking at looking at it to the second round. I'm going to rule that up. I'm going to rule it out visciferously. I have some Houston questions for you since you're you're a smart breakdown basketball guy dude. So where you made your bones initially? Sure. All right. Question number one about the rockets. Why do they use shengun like this? Why? Like, like, how? Like, just just, hey, there's 11 on the shot clock and nothing

is happened. Can you just dribble from 20 feet out and maybe something good will happen? Like that?

probably of the century. Can you just do an imitation of that? Why don't they put them near the basket? Why don't they have them posting up drawing double teams? I don't understand anything with how they use them. Well, also, like, can you can you do that, but also with no shooting around you at all, so that there's just no passing angle for you to go to. It's just traffic everywhere. Every kick out option is like, I mean, I'm in Thompson took two corner three last night where

I was like, I guess this is just all we got. Like, I guess we just got to take this one. I,

you know, look, they're starting to read shepherd, which is a goodie took a million three last

night. They just need to run that pick and roll combination more, especially when Durant comes back. That's their only like oxygen on offense other than transition, which delakers did an okay job at limiting and offensive rebounding, which they got a lot of. And it just like sometimes it feels like that's just their offense is just throw it at the rim and we'll get it. And that's all they got. And it just too many possessions where there's just no concept of shot clock spacing. There was one.

“I can't remember when it was in the second half. Schengoon and Reed Shepherd ran an inverted”

pick and roll on the right side of the floor. It's just a great idea. Like, that's a good idea. You're too best off with the players. You're best shooter. Like, do it do all that. Reed Shepherd popped open, like, screamed and flared out. He was open, except Schengoon couldn't get him the ball because another defender, I think it was Vanderbilt rotated kind of into the air space where the past might go. And the reason Vanderbilt could do that and leave the other side of the

floor was that three rocket players were almost like standing on top of each other in the left corner. They're close. And so Schengoon had nothing nothing to do, but just keep dribbling. And there was still 12 on the shot clock. And it was as if 12 was the same as two. And like, okay, I guess can't do anything else. Schengoon just do something. And I don't even remember what happened, but it wasn't good. And of all the playoff teams, they're the one that gets like the most, like,

leg load was doing the rocket's game. We're just a couple moments where you just hear the disgust and the announcer's voices. They're like, oh, I don't, I don't really know what was going up to spacing in that play, Mike, so you have that. They're really tied to Thompson. And I think Thompson's excellent, but I think you could also argue that with the state of the Lakers offense

“without all their guys, maybe you should have more shooting and try to outscore them. And maybe”

at least give five minutes of Schengoon surrounded by four shooters and just see what it looks like. I'll throw that in. I don't know. Do they do they have four shooters? Is that even a feasible lineup for them? I mean, the bar and read. Are there two more anywhere? I mean, what was the holidays? Eastern was seven for seven. They do have a holiday to Aaron holiday. It's just, you do have to remember, like Fred Van Blieck, the lack of guard play other than read shepherd

on the team. It's astonishing. And I'm in Thompson is not a point guard. He's just an I'm in Thompson, which is great. That's what he should be for now. No Van Blieck, no Durant. And I was thinking like, when you're, if you're Eme Doke, you're two best offensive players right now by far with Durant out our read and Schengoon. Yeah. Do I stagger them? Which is what he opted to do? And I think one of the reasons he opted to do that was if I put Scheng, one of the, one of the things

that I was thinking about maybe the reason why you wouldn't do that, rather is if I put Schengoon out there without read shepherd and without Kevin Durant, like what, who is running a pick and roll with him? Right. Like opening up the office. So it's they just have so, and, and Fini Smith has just given them absolutely nothing. He's supposed to be one of these shooters that you put out there and on up like that. They just don't have it. Let's start going to play guys that aren't playing.

Why don't they run more high screens with read and Jibari? It was my next question. Or any

sort of action with the two of them. It just seems like I always watched Jibari and I go, I feel like

“there's more there and I don't think the Rockets agree with me. And that's why they use in this way.”

But I personally feel like there's more there. Maybe I'm the one that's wrong. But I don't understand that either. Probably I'm guessing if we went back and looked at the personnel, the lakeers would switch it and so they just, that doesn't give up on it, right? Like, slip out of it. You can fake screen and flare away. There's a ways to do something else when you know the team's going to switch it. I did think it was notable that both teams know that the other offense is going to

hunt, respectively, read Shepherd and Luke Canard and both teams, I think, very smartly, did not have those players guard each other because they are the only real dangerous shooters. I mean, not the only for the lakeers, but the dangerous shooters on the floor. So they put better defenders on this. If you're going to put those guys in the action, guess what? We're going to

switch as many as we can. Third question. So I would have gone, it was me. I would have gone into

the series if I'm Houston. We don't have Kevin Durant. You know, LeBron is going to try to do his LeBron game manager thing. And I thought he had a really fun game yesterday. Good throw back. Kind of early 90s magic Johnson type game. I just said, like, hey, I'm in Thompson. You're stuck to this guy for two and a half hours. Like, if you're going to play,

41 by the end of this game. And that's it. And I don't feel like they did that either. I, between smart and LeBron, I would just 94 feet it with everyone I have, just put miles on them and make them work, you know? Well, the only time they were doing that is if you watch, if you go back and watch when Brownie was in the game, right, all IV on Houston's bench was saying, press him, press him, press him, because he can't every time. But it was interesting with LeBron,

like they put a cogeonum to start the game. And like a cogey starting is a problem. It's just another guy that teams are going to ignore even though he shot it. Well, and he's got some bulk to him,

“anyone else like LeBron kind of made Tariys and look not strong enough. And I think the same”

thing would happen to him and Thompson except he's a better athlete. He can get up vertically a little bit. But I think he would just overpower him and old man put him under the basket. By the way,

Kudos to old man LeBron taking back to back hook shots, uh, later in the game. But that was first.

I would take my chances with Thompson and just hope the young legs and athletic ability would do it. We'll see. I mean, this would be a catastrophe for Houston. And I don't even know how they would go into the summer if they lose this series when they there's no look, uh, and no Reeves. And this even I know they lose KD right before and it's a little bit of a weird event. But they should still come on. And if you if you come out of this getting bounced that around one

to me, they've moved to the top of the panic playoff team list. I'm ready for a coach firing. I'm ready for a trade. I'm ready for they have some picks to move around. I'm ready for basically anything with them. Well, and not only that. Like if if the Lakers are everywhere to get those guys healthy,

“they'd become a at least a more interesting second round of point of focus, the this version of Houston.”

Now, you could sit here and say, wait a second, uh, we have no Van Vly and we have no Durant.

Well, the other team has no Luca and no Reeves. And they at least seemed like prepared for how to play without those guys a little bit. They have LeBron who's a genius. I got it. But, um, it just the lack of just any idea of what to do was disturbing. Can I give LeBron Kudos for another old man thing? Yeah. Really wonderful performance at he's he's allowed to do the thing where he shoots and he makes

a basket and he thinks he gets fouled and he points at the ref. And the point is like when other players do that, it's a tea because the point is the point is like you specifically were supposed to be in the line of sight to call that foul. But he does it so politely like he just sort of nods at the guy and the guy nods back and LeBron said, okay, then he gets away with it. No one does anything. It was just very polite pointing back and forth multiple times in the game.

So you think Jason Tatum should start doing that because he does the sarcastic laugh, shrug thing and they hate that. They hate the hate the hate the pointing because you're not only saying back all you're pointing out, you're pointing specifically to the one of the three that was supposed to make the call you think should have happened. My big question for this series if Katie, whether he comes back or not, if he's not 100% KD, if he's a limited version of

himself or whatever. What do you do if what's your number one thing to do if you're the

“rackets? Because if you watch them all year, he played basically every game. I think he missed four,”

put 36 minutes a game. He brought the ball up for that most of the time, especially in the fourth quarter. They ran the whole offense through him. And on the fly, I just feel like it has to be shengun at this point. But you pointed out earlier, if they're on the shooters around him, you just collapse on him. What is it? Is it just cross your fingers and hope breach Shepherd turns into the third pick of the 2024 draft? What's the move? Well, I mean, reach Shepherd. He took, he took their

kind of shots. Yeah, I think you just have to maximize the three of those guys on there. Like a good triangle of functional offense. Like two guys who can handle the ball and pick and roll a roller who can pass, you can invert it, you can post them whatever. Those three guys, although the numbers are just good and not great with them on the floor. That's a road map to like the ball can pop a little bit instead of just station to station. Everybody gets it holds it and looks around

for three seconds. By the way, total minutes played leaders for the season. On men Thompson, Houston Rock, it's one. Kevin Durant, Houston Rock, it's two. Jibar Smith, Junior, Houston Rock, it's five. Email Doka is becoming like Tibs 2.0 in like a lot of ways right now. He did this with the Celtics to that year. He played those guys big minutes. Listen, I thought their biggest mistake the whole year was yanking shepherd up and down out of the lineup in and out. They

you never got to feel if, you know, they were just going to actually say, all right, dude,

here are the car keys. Let's go and clearly Doka didn't love the defense and then was frustrated with them. Another in a situation where they actually need him. So you have the classic basketball move of, I know I yelled you a lot and I bench you few times, but hey, man, let's get past this. Let's move forward. The LeBron piece of this one last thing. You know, he shows up in 2018, weird first year. Kind of isn't even on the team the second half of the year. Then I like

It's going to hurt you a little bit. I think second year it feels like LeBron's on the Lakers, but then COVID hits bubble. Third year seems good. You better. You just yada yada the NBA championship. Well, they didn't get to celebrate now. I'm I'm talking about I'm going to the part of did LeBron ever feel 100% like a Laker or did he feel like LeBron James, who was playing on the

Lakers, right, whereas like Kobe magic are like Lakers. And I always felt like there was a Kobe.

I've talked about this before. A Kobe LeBron tension. There's a lot of Laker fans who are just like, I love Kobe LeBron's not a real Laker. Like Kobe was this whole run this way. It was one of the first times I felt like, oh, you know, LeBron's been on the teammate years and they've kind of watched all these different versions of him and the crowd and just the general atmosphere was kind of like, this is fucking awesome. So glad LeBron James is on the team. I don't know. There was just

“something that was a little bit of a tip last night that I don't know. Maybe I'm crazy. What do you think?”

Well, I think it's just undeniably impressive that last man's standing is 41 year old LeBron James. That's not right. That's not to say that there's like it's anyone's fault that Luke and Reeves are injured. They're just injured. And here's the sky. Okay. Hey, man, we thought the team kind of passed you by you willingly in the last 30, 40 games of the season took a back seat. And now we need you. We're calling on you again to summon everything that you have left in your LeBron number

one option tank. Give it if it might just be playing bully ball in the post and occasionally going on on the fast break. And he's like, yeah, I'll do it. How many minutes should you 38 tonight and game one? I'll give you 38. Like whatever. And I'm not going to make big history onix about it. I was going to come out and play and play really well. I'm both ends of the floor. I think where we were in January and February versus where we are now. We're in a much better place

with him. And just the Lakers, the eight years that he just spent, where a fun like it was going really badly there as it was clearly like man, can this just be Luka's team? Thanks for everything the Brian. We're ready to move forward to we kind of need you buddy. And we've really liked how you've played the last two months. And this would be a nice little fitting if you could you could just just buy two weeks for us. Luka can come back pretty interesting stuff.

“I can't really be still doing it the way he's doing it too. I think he looks the most athletic”

he's looked like in five, six years. And there's going to be a game before Luka comes back in the series where they're going to do. One of my favorite games he ever played was that game seven of 2018 in Boston when he did the he put the whole 48 minutes and controlled the pace of that game about as well as anybody has ever done it like Jordan and Utah in game six and 98 is the best I've ever seen it. Just I need to do exactly this for us to have a

chance and control every moment of this game the way I'm doing it or we're not going to win. And LeBron was like that that game. And I wonder if there's a he's not the same guy was in 18, but I wonder if there's a little bit of a variation of that that he can do in a rocket's game, which I also flow. And you know what I mean? There also could be still a game in him where the jumper is going and he's getting switches and he just makes like five of seven

on step back three is from the left wing and his sweet spot, right? Like that game they like a little like lower lift and penetrating into the paint over and over again. Like he'll you

“might have a game like that and I'm too. I mean, would you if if you I think I picked Houston”

and five and this was before the grand the grand news came out maybe six I can remember. Would you what what was your pick and what would you pick now? I thought it was a stay away at Gunpoint. I would have picked he put Houston. I would have picked them in six or seven, but you knew that

you knew the Lakers were going in one of the first three games and you knew Houston was going to

blow a stupid game. So I thought it would be three two after six and figured Houston win. I did not put any money on the series. I didn't put them in any parlay. Like to me it was a complete stay away because I don't trust Houston. I haven't liked the way they've looked all year. I don't think they're well coached. I don't think the personnel of the team makes sense and I just I thought it was a blowable series, but I also didn't feel strong enough about the Lakers.

I think LeBron gets credit too for whatever eight is doing lately. Like in JJ it gets credit a bunch of Lakers get credit. But I ate and looks relatively salvageable now and I laughed the entire summer and off season and we talked about it when we did the overunders we have. Like this is hilarious. They're talking themselves into eight and the Laker fans are like hey and I don't know. When he tries he's a functional center. I think he's like 10th or 11th

and rebounds for the season for 12th something like that. He's not terrible. I guess is my point. I thought it was a ridiculous signing. So maybe I was wrong. I don't know. I was like one of the only people who thought this is going to work and then it looked like it was very much not going to work and by where I kept saying by work I mean like 16 and eight, 15 and

80 ended up at 12 and a half and eight but like he has good touch. He's never going to get fouled.

from it. He's got his foibles but he has good touch and he's a decent passer and if he just does this thing, just roll and make short jumpers, make floaters, make layups. He should walk in on a team like this to 15 and eight and like he didn't do any spectacular in game one. He just like made easy shots for a giant guy. Is Shengunianness as the focal points of a trade more or less realistic

“to you than it was a week ago. More for sure. I mean if they melt down in this series I think”

I think the stock has gone way up on that one. Okay see Phoenix which was a pretty catastrophic blood game one. Big question for you. Will Dylan Brooks make it out of the series alive? What happens as the ship starts going down and he gets more and more frustrated? What does he capable of? Well will he talk to the media? If there's a conflagration, remember he did that was the whole thing. He got into stuff and he was like I don't want to talk to the media. I do like I mean you

would notice was there an over under for how many minutes into the series before he picked up a flaker and fell we did not get to five. He picked up a flaker and fell immediately. At least I'll say this like he took 22 shots tonight. That okay sees defense and just reminded you that as great as they are in the regular season they hit the frenzy switch when the playoff start and it just is like what are we even supposed to do and when you get into that mode what you end up doing is like

I guess still Brooks is going to take 22 shots and most of them are going to be like contested leaning twos on the pick and roll which is not what you want them to do but yeah it was like you know they had their flaker and dueling flaker and it's hard to see and got a very similar one and you know it's he'll get into some stuff and it's just is Dork going to engage or we're going to get like the Brooks door like I'll wait for it. Yeah it could happen but it's a little like

in a hockey series when the two enforcers are just skating around you're just kind of waiting for them to be in the air together um Phoenix goes from beating golden state on Friday night and golden state looking old and creaky the whole game to then going into this okay see bus saw less than 40 hours later um I wrote this down okay I think Chet is clearly

okay see second best guy now whereas last year it was two a two b with him and lambs but

“and I mean best guy by I think he is easily their second most important indispensable guy now”

and when he's really good like he was really good today that's when they looked the most unbeatable so I was like come I wonder if the splits back this up so there in the regular season there are 56 and 13 when he played in the 56 wins he shot 57% and 38% from 3 and in the losses he shot 49% and 26% from 3 and scored three more points a game in the wins I mean it's a small thing but I think when he's playing good and he's shooting threes and they're going in

it's kind of like oh when now what do we do you can't go small ball against them when they're when he's playing well and because I was trying I was watching them today trying to think like

what would the Celtics do against this team they probably try to go a little bigger but ultimately

end up with Tatum at the five and try to go a little smaller but if Chet's playing well can you even do that so I don't know to me he's the clear number two now I mean I get what you're saying

“and I think a lot of that has to do with Jill and we'll just have a miss most of the season and a”

bunch of really good wings sort of emerging in his stead that makes him feel more confident they can cover up for him when he's not out in the same way they can't with Chet. I do think his size Joan Lube size on the wing and his two-way play and his ability to make a be a secondary creator is gonna it merged is more and more important but the thing with Chet that I've said this before is like you know Phoenix is starting small against their double big lineup which means a wing is

gonna be covering Chet it was Dylan Brooks at points who is Devon Booker at points and you know he's not gonna be the back-down powerhouse guy against those guys that's just not what he is but he's really gotten better and he was one really early in the game I just face up spin rise up for a jump shot from 13 feet away that you can't touch I you got even in my line of sight he's really steady and good on that shot and then you throw in the

defense by the way that's Shay block today when he wrote it over and got Igadaro at the rim yeah I mean I hate to be the guy that's like that one thing is why he's the MVP to me that epitome is why I give him the slightest edge over Joker in the MVP values so he's this that is a sensational defense of play and he's got one or two of those like every single game that was an

incredible incredible block okay see has the twelfth pick thanks to the clip resusing

and you haven't thrown yourself into this draft and don't normally do it's a really weird draft because there's a top four of guys who all have all NBA potential and I think if you said how many of the top four will be in the NBA the overall number would probably two and a half and I'll go over but then five through twelve there's a bunch of really good guys too and most of them are guards

which means one guard who you feel extra been six or seven is all of the sudden available

“about 11 or 12 it's a little terrifying that their gold state or 11 ocusy at 12 can get like major major”

dudes but the thing I'm is thinking if you're them would you try to move up is this the moment where you try to cash in the picks overload and some of the players who have and do the 150 cents for a dollar kind of trade and try to move up from 12 to the top four because they have the assets including they have 12th and 18th this year they have a bunch of future picks they have a pick swap with the Quippers next year doesn't look like they're getting that you top picked this year

and they have a bunch of their own picks they have some really good young players

while us could be on the table potentially they could think about that but would you would you

consider that or would it not how the season turned out and the target would be almost like just like a a top whatever pick and a draft that's that almost restarts the salary clock in

“some ways and that's that's the sort of issue that they're going to be dealing with look anything”

possible for them they for sure have will and have looked at trades like that in prior drafts they'll do it again I'm sure um in this draft it all you're doing is getting me very excited for my favorite event of the year which is the lottery and by the way you're going again this is you're picking right here you can't keep me out you can't keep me out if you try to keep me out I'm going like the Bobby Valentine in the next guy and yeah I know I'm with Ernst and young it's just me

Mr. I'm Ernst and by the way they're last two first-round picks Topic and Sorber who everyone

forgets but they just got have gotten they haven't been able to play they have these other two like first-round picks just sitting there it's it's unbelievable yeah I was looking at the teams that could go in the top four trying to figure out who would actually be receptive to a trade back to try to pick up a bunch of assets um it would be really hard for me to trade out this top four but if I was okay see if they were trading up I think the guy they would target knowing nothing

just how pressed he thinks would be Caleb Wilson the North Carolina player who's probably going forth who I would describe if you watch like a 12 minute have I sent you the YouTube clips of him yet? No yet I would describe his YouTube here's the best possible version of him in a 12 minute clip Sean camping the mid-90s crosswood shed oh my god yeah no three can't shoot three's but that kind of athleticism and room protection and just like electric yeah and pick a son you had

the pick a son it's good yeah I did that pick a son it's good but um but I do wonder is this to hear they take a swing and then the other question is would Jda be on the table or Wallace but

“we'll find out um the only thing I had was Phoenix I think they boosted Jalen greens trade value”

enough in in that golden state game and maybe even in this series that now you can think about can we turn him and other stuff into can we roll the dice with John Maran or something like that do we want to do we want to do that but like somebody or Zion would you is there a roll the dice guy that you could use Jalen Green as the lure for and try to go with a higher upside who's not a guard sir probably sir best there guys are guards Zion's an interesting name it was

also interesting to me that Joe Dumares came out and just said we're not trading him stop asking us and like I don't understand it was like it was like why remember I think it was Chris Haynes tweeted like a month before the trade deadline hey pelicans just close for business they're not trading any of these guys might wait what the trade deadlines in a month like why you're close for business is this some bizarre like very transparent actually we're open for business if you

make us a better offer why are you announcing all these things but yeah Jalen Green is a rollercoaster like the sun they're just at a massive talent deficit in this series just in terms of shot creation and offense and shooting they just don't have enough I'd be mildly surprised if they want to game it's kind of burn going say it a little bit because they couldn't even play two games in a row without looking without poor zingas and curry both looking like they had

just played in a seven game series even though they put one game on once and eight but I'm sure they feel like and we're probably if we were healthy we're probably better than that team um okay see Phoenix would you go sweep I picked sweep that was my official my official pick was uh was okay see in four my favorite bet um my favorite parlay bet which I posted yesterday was okay see in Phoenix to be ended four or five in San Antonio and Portland to end in four or five

which combined was like even on so I thought I don't see anyway either of those series goes to six

Denver Minnesota I thought Minnesota played really well and they lost so if you're Minnesota I mean

“the the big thing for for them is Edwards doesn't look 100% healthy I think that's fair it's”

say he's looks 90% healthy but there's a little piece missing that you know I don't I don't there's the recklessness that he doesn't have because he's obviously not 100% healthy I really liked how they played I thought that was one of the best go bare games I've seen in a while I thought he was excellent um and I thought they went toe to toe with them whole game and I thought they really made Denver have to play well to beat them um I thought that game was awesome like to me these are

two the best seven teams in the league to fun matchup this is the rubber match of three playoff series everyone now knows it in the last three years they played 29 times at 15-14 Denver it's an awesome

stat wow I thought they played a decent game I'm a little lower on on how Minnesota played in

game one than you are I would think you like I thought Randall again had just an up and down game were a couple lapses on defense that I didn't love um a couple of things happening every Randall game now yeah they just they weren't as clean defense loser and need to be on some of on some of Denver's best stuff and it was just like okay by antstanders I didn't think they played a good I thought they played like a B B minus game I don't Denver also played pretty well as it was a gritty game

that was a gritty like Denver I did dig that one out it was not as easy you'll catch out a bunch of turnovers early including the one free just rammed into go bare like three times like I'm just going again I'm going again right I didn't just lost the ball yeah Minnesota Denver shot 10 for 36 from three so that's the one thing of your Denver like we can do better than that but I thought everything else I don't know I really like that Denver team I had I thought the best I don't know if they're

gonna win the title but I thought the best value bet's heading to the playoffs were Denver like Denver to make the finals Denver to play the Celtics Denver to play the next stuff like that the case

“against them is that this road is gonna be so difficult and I think Aaron Gordon now I don't mind”

saying this one weekend into the playoffs Aaron Gordon now has become the number one oh god is he going to get up is he okay he's become that he went down three times yesterday and my fear with them is can you get 10 weeks out of Aaron Gordon I think that's everybody's fear I've called his lower body the biggest ex-factor in the league this year because yeah there's even if they had Watson and not Aaron Gordon they're just a completely different team when Aaron Gordon plays the

the power and force that he brings on both ends of the floor the vertical aspect the chemistry with yogurt like there's just paid Watson does a lot of stuff really well he does some stuff offensively they're in Gordon can't do quite as well e-guards point guards and smaller guards better than Aaron Gordon does at this point he just there's just no replacing what Aaron Gordon brings the level of force and just monstrous offense and defense force that he brings it's just it so we'll see

I mean it's one game he did go down a few times and that's my number one concern about them too he's the long slog man it's a long slog and like they're set up for put I mean we'll see but how this series goes but like they don't they don't have like a hay we might be able to wipe

“them out in four or five on the road map for them and that's why I was higher on how minutes”

total look yesterday than you because some of the other stuff they can fix is the series goes long but I thought from a physicality standpoint in a game one we saw these game ones where somebody can

teams usually throw like a good quarter and a half and then as third quarter all of a sudden they're

down 15 you're like what happened you know that Cleveland game yesterday was like what happened it was a two-point game that creeps up 18 I thought minutes so to knew what they wanted to do were really physical I thought go bare had a great plan against Joker Joker still ended up would he have like 25 14 or 11 something like that but he really had to work for everything they could through everybody at Murray and and I thought that Ray Randall was nightmare for a lot of

the you know some of the weird stuff that he was doing but I liked the physicality had with Gordon where he was like really trying to big boy and force her him a little bit I think my sense from them as they feel like we can be really physical with this team and maybe having an advantage with that so from that they accomplished it I just don't know if Ant I don't know if they can be Denver events not 100% yeah they need him to be on par with yokeaches the other in the series and

he was good and he had he had moments like he had more you made the right reads out of the pick and roll most times they put two on him and he had a couple moments where one where he split I think yokeaches on the pick and roll went up and made a lefty layup that left the crew astonished and then he had one well I like when they do this when they he had Aaron Gordon switched on him and instead of running

ISO and he blew by him and I remember if he'd be drew a foul or made a layup or both but he had

he had moments but and they need Randall like just to play they need Randall to be a legit like this is a guy that was in the all NBA conversation for a couple of years made a couple of NBA teams right to your point about Gordon anytime he has anybody on him other than Gordon he's going to have to win that matchup whether it's Spencer Jones or Cam Johnson or an even a smaller player like he's just like Gordon is a beast the other guy is he should be able to move around and then

start kicking the ball out a little bit yeah they're good thing for Minnesota I look like he belonged in the series and was at the speed of it and has probably been a close for them I thought it was

“interesting with Denver Brown played 21 minutes but was out there late and was pretty important”

down the stretch like they were using him as a ball handler and and leaning on him and the

which you know that's a guy they didn't have last year but so they played nine guys, Valentine is only played seven minutes and Jones played nine so they're really going seven and Joker played 40 it was it felt like sometimes in a series the game ones feel super important then other times they feel like a tester this one felt like Minnesota was going into it going we can steal this what steal this what steal game one so I'm excited for game two I have a confession

for you okay on Tuesday I did my award picks yeah and I did MVP and I did this long thing about how I couldn't believe I wasn't voted for Joker and SGA and I was trying to be fair and rational about it and SGA they won 10 more games they were the one seed and he was the best clutch player in the league and four straight 31 point seasons and for then I was like I just can't

believe I'm not voting for Joker I he had the best offensive I've never seen an offensive season like

that he's one of the best but I just so anyway we ran it we cut it as a video and I watched it on social media and what I saw was a person who was confused and didn't have a lot of conviction in a choice and I was a little embarrassed by it I was like I'm doing gymnastics not to pick yokeage who is the best part in the league and is the most valuable to his team part in the league and instead I'm doing these mental gymnastics because SGA is on the on the best team and he's

fucking awesome and look either guy could be the MVP it's and when he could have been the MVP it was an awesome thing so anyway because the league did their stupid appeal thing where they didn't tell us that we could even vote until Thursday I'd three more days to think about it got the text on Friday send your picks in please from Mark Brissard I voted for Joker I changed my pick it's like I did a lot of land moonlight I changed my pick I was like what am I doing

how could I now vote for Joker and and I feel I I feel not awesome about it because I thought SGA

“had an awesome year too but I just think Joker's the best guy in the league I think he means”

the most to his team what a plot twist he was dead the whole time I know I know the question is did the play in but it just might be a little too close to home no because neither team was in the plan no no did the plan change your rookie at the year but it did not okay the plan did change my six man of the year vote because I was 50 50 with I had hotcas over Kelvin Johnson but then Miami lost on Wednesday and I was just like I'm gonna have the six man of the year for a team

that couldn't even get to the last round of the play in game and I switched it so that's the league's fault they should have made us vote for the play in games Kelvin Johnson a fine choice great choice very important guy on a 61 win team leader of the clubhouse I felt pretty good about that I know I voted you know I voted Cooper flagrant I don't know the ballot but you know I picked Cooper flag am I gonna get docked now are you or anything I could provide a great choice

it's my Uber rating and it go down mysteriously we love that we love Cooper 4.72 okay now we love Cooper flag I thought that was that was the thing the arguments were great this year I didn't thought Mazula bigger staff was a really good one you know the only one that was a no-brainer was most improved and defensive player there once once when it became eligible yeah Mazula the Mazula bigger staff argument is a no-brainer to everyone it is not is is a no-brainer to

“Joel Mazula who doesn't want even want the award right I think should be mandated to throw it in the”

garbage if he gets it did a non-campaign so you did a pot after they announced the Luca and Kade rail eligible I got a great email from somebody that was the best solution I've ever heard for this 65 game roll from from a listener named Gray McCoy this is so obvious I can't believe we didn't

a 65 game threshold be tiered why is it all or nothing I would propose 65 games and up eligible

for all awards 62 games and 62 games eligible for second or third team on BA and 60 games eligible

for third team on BA it's a great idea this is not much different from my campaign from the second that they enacted this silly rule that it should not apply to third team all NBA specifically because all NBA is what counts for the super max stuff and third team again I've said it's over and over again I don't want to get stuck in a situation where I'm just throwing on a Kevin Durant played 55 games but Julia's Randall played 66 and like the whole world knows one guy's better than the other

but I guess I like let at least for third team all NBA let me put the guys who we all knew that season were the best guys so not that different from that idea I just do we want more how many how how I'm getting how many charts am I going to need to figure out who's eligible from what award I have someone who's going to have to build a flow chart for me with these kind of proposals well think about it this way 65 and up every year eligible 62 that means you missed 20 games

and you probably shouldn't have been first team anyway you missed one fourth of the season

you know and then maybe third team we could say it's 55 enough but I like the idea of the tier

“so I think it's smart so Kate got to 64 as we said that thought Kate was at 62 he got to”

but I voted sad put Kate on second team because you know I thought he he it was a battle with him in jail and brown anyway he was ahead of jail and brown before he got hurt and then he missed four weeks so I don't know I didn't so bad about that one that's a fine that's a sensible choice that's probably what I would have done without looking at it and complete detail right now but that's probably what I would have done yeah so the tier thing is good I like the minutes thing

to I think if we're over 2,000 minutes maybe you're at least eligible for second team but I they should experiment with that and and try to figure that out all right the three Eastern conference series we did not cover okay and we could go fast Boston Philly Philly has to be Boston since 1982 which didn't stop their fans from chaining we want Boston during the playing game a mistake

“no no stop I want to get in the playoffs that's what they want should they want to”

should they lose and say we want Detroit and risk it I would have done a see you Sunday come or you got to be nicer to the Philly fans I don't like you want Boston don't go on my chalkboard okay the Philly Boston thing invented BDLA and he was one fan base to the other team encouraging that it'd like to be a little nicer I was there and I didn't like it when we did it okay it's like what are we doing why are you telling these guys why are you supporting these guys

Tatum was the story from this first game from a holy shit his rebounding he had 11 rebounds in this game it just seems in pot like if you're looking at like props when for these games you're doing like same game part of this and stuff that kind of seems impossible for him not to get 10 rebounds he's around the rim all the time he looked awesome jalan at a bad first half and then came along in the second half my dad went to the game and called me after giddy because he thought

Jay it he thought Tatum just looked awesome um that only small support with the Celtics right now is Vusavich and whether when we get to this next series when he's going to play he had a really really really awful second quarter stretch and like he was going for a dunk loss the ball that was actually I'm giving him points for that that was entertaining and a game that didn't

have a lot of entertainment I'm like it doesn't grab rebounds anymore he's always trying to tip

rebounds like he's just slow around the basket I don't ever feel like his three point shots are going

“in and now the the thing is he's rusty he had a broken finger you you need to see this series”

whether you can play him but I really wonder is Garza just going to be when they get to that next series is it going to be Garza time and maybe I have to go back and rewatch the game because I kind of liked Vusavich's minutes today I think this is a good matchup for him I think this is the kind of bulky guys that they got him to play against and he had a couple contested boxouts against drumman who's a bear I thought his defense at the rim by his standards tonight was like pretty good he got

you just got big and vertical and there was the with that one no call I think it was with edge comb that ran into him where I was I didn't mind the no call there was one maxi shot that I think he just mudded blocked around there and I thought by his standards he played pretty good defense at the basket and that this is the kind of size matchup that they got him for but yeah I agree I mean Garza's a better shooter he's been very good all year and I think it'll be matchup

to matchup but I didn't I didn't mind Vusavich's postseason debut first half was bad second half was

one of these two games these first two games of Boston new Philly was going to throw some punches

“so it'll probably begin to they could still run after breaks I think Paul George looks pretty good”

he does like if you're talking about maybe trying to convince somebody to take him in a trade and attaching assets to it I don't think it's as inconceivable as it might have been in October you're just putting all these guys they all these seems after one game you're just putting them right into the offseason just where right you're gone I don't think it's a mystery that Philly would trade Paul George like I'm not breaking news it was very sad for me as someone who has been you know

I just whole era of Philadelphia hinky on basketball is just the most bizarre era of an team in the NBA it was sad that it's come to listen to the worst contracts draft and it's just a one two punch for Philly just just NBA Paul George picks one and two just maybe a little sad for Philly thanks thank god for Yaka Pertle because he might be crashing party next year Boston is in a great spot my big question for this series was was that just an absolute

godsend that Orlando lost the Philly in that playing game because then you watch Orlando and Charlotte again Charlotte and all the sudden they were the defensive beasts that we thought they might be before the season and really physical and at the very least you're gonna have some bruises and you're gonna feel in Orlando series which I'm not sure that's the case with Philly I think that was a pretty good break that they got Philly instead of Orlando though I think we talked about this last week

that you know you asked me who would you rather play and I said if NBA's not playing Philly because it's the very like Orlando now that they're healthy with Anthony Black and Franz Wagner back

they they have they can go seven deep in good players it doesn't always mesh well it's

ugly the coaching thing is a little bit of a mess but they have an upside that I just don't think Philly can get to without NBA now they even like you need like a 43 point maxi game and somebody else making seven threes to win in Boston I think so well for four of 23 you're just

“DOI you have no chance like that's what they shot from three today the makes and the attempts”

you just do those two numbers you have no shot Toronto Cleveland felt for the first half like huh okay and then Cleveland blew them out in the second half hurdle looked awful I guess the big question for me in this one is did round one break perfectly for Cleveland where you get to skip Atlanta and play Toronto you hopefully get to play to try after a really physical knockdown dragout Orlando series and then you're playing whoever's left with Celtics next hoping

that that's a knockdown dragout too on paper this played out perfectly and then you have the Mitchell piece who I thought Mitchell was awesome Mr. Ryan he was in the running for best guy

the weekend and you did this when we did our most intriguing draft you took him first and you said like

this is day if there's gonna be the moment it should probably be this year or around this year we're gonna elevate into that next level it's we're ready it's time he had that look yesterday so I don't think they're gonna make the finals but I will say it's broken nicely for them I also think it has broken nicely for them Atlanta is better than Toronto and has a higher ceiling than Toronto does particularly without quickly and they just they just don't have enough

“juice offensively I think they're actually there have court offense actually produced it”

or rate that surprisingly I looked it up today because it just felt so hard everything's so hard and they got no turnovers no fast breaks like that's the stuff that they that they feast on but yeah I think Atlanta and I think Cleveland has a good for a team that endured a lot of roster chaos throughout the season I think they figured out a lot of things about their rotation and when the two big should play together when they shouldn't who should play with whom both small big guards just

should go with other guards they have a and part of that is that juice has really rounded back into format I think it yeah they've got they've got some holes on the roster like wing size, traditional wing defense and all that but at least I think have a good sense of what their identity is and what their rotation should look like I think that really showed in the first game and nice nice to get off to an easy easy one for them. It's true is it's important that

guys spent in some big games over the years and is recently as six weeks ago we weren't sure if we're going to see him I guess my big note on Toronto which I just think you know I just don't think Toronto is a very good playout team. I do feel like anger him has a lot of advantages against him and he only took nine free throw nine field goals and ten free throws yesterday but only nine shots and I thought Cleveland had a lot of trouble whoever was guarding him I just felt like he could

get his shot against everybody and I didn't really understand why they went away from him

there's some moves for them to make but ultimately I do we know about quickly because they need

like that wild card you know he check guy and he's been upgraded to questionable right now for game 2 is the last they saw and look without I said this before when previewing a series without him that means we're going to see more Jamal shed which is which is good for their defense and bad for their offense as well as shed shot the ball in in in game 1 because they do they run a lot of like in picking rules with Scotty and the point guard both directions and shed is just

treated like a non threat to score teams just stay closer to Scotty you're not going to get the ball of Scotty like take your floaters whatever quickly elices a threat all the time he had an

“oak you had a pretty good season I thought so I think they just need his wild card nature the other”

one is like you know do they come to a point where they start CMB over Pernell and just say we lose some size we lose some rebounding but we gain the ability to switch everything and CMB was looking pretty ready for the playoffs yeah and Pernell Pernell looked not good on either end of the floor I can't see Pernell's plus minus but I guess it was a 0 0 no but I don't think I don't think I don't think he looked he didn't he didn't contain the pick and roll on defense

which is what he's out there to do and he brought another table on offense and graded deck I guess is just what happened to him well that's I was actually thinking about the team ancestor he got he's lost he hasn't been in a rotation for a month no I know so he's just that's it well I mean look Jacoby Walters has played his help played him and I thought is a good option for them defensively in the series but if you're thought if quickly can't go again and you're just like

we just need shooting it would not be surprised just surprised me at all they'd dusted him or even Jameson battle off just like run around it if you can make a few shots we'll see what happens

I I picked mom of third in my sixth man in the year he did not live up to a yesterday

Hock as second do you go Hock as two at least yeah or did you take them all okay at Hock as two I thought sixth man was really rough this year I was even trying to talk myself into Jenkins I'm Detroit but the hate him average 10 points a game but he was at least a conversation

“with how he'd finished the year I think that the best bench guys I thought Hock has”

encountered Johnson were both very good but neither of them are like blowing you away as a candidate and I think because and it's because a lot of the best bench guys just played like 52 games in 1200 minutes like Carousel of AJ Mitchell I saw I heard standing gun to say he voted for Mitchell Robinson just because game to game that's his impact Isaiah Stewart just like it's hard to give one of those guys in a word when another guy's played like almost double the minutes and played pretty well

Toronto Cleveland did to make it nostalgic to make you nostalgic at all for NBA TV what we used to have I'll tell you what it made me nostalgic for that game Toronto Cleveland that matchup and then LeBron making the fade away from the left side of the floor and like looking at the out of the crowd being like oh that was nice it did make me nostalgic for that one game in Toronto I was at that game where he was just like you know what I'm just going to

“clown the whole franchise I'm going to clown the country I'm going to clown the city I'm clowning”

all of Canada I'm just going to take one ridiculous and they got increasingly more ridiculous like how about from 23 feet what if I took a turnaround fade away three and fell in Drake's lap on the sideline with that be funny let me try that one it was just so humiliating and those two events together I did get a little LeBron to nostalgia I got nostalgic for the bad NBA TV commercials the half-hearted half-time studio show just thought what we used to have

speaking of TV Amazon had all the games all the plan and then the first three run one games

really interesting thing I never considered so we went over Friday night

went over to some friends house and I was like I'm only going if they had the game on they're like no no we're gonna have the game on it was by wife's friends and my friends too but we're gonna have drinks like I need the game on okay cool get to the game is like oh we forgot to put the game on what channel is it it's on Amazon took five minutes oh Amazon wait what do we watch anything on him and now it's like they're trying to figure out the Amazon and the Apple TV the logging in and I was

getting I got a bunch of emails about this this weekend from people who were traveling who were like at hotels or they're in bars and the bar didn't have it it is this unintended consequence of the streaming era I never really thought about until we got to the playoffs that we've just as a society we have to get together with the streaming revolution and make sure we're trying as a society and I'm talking friends of friends friends that are our casual sports fans

for sure like just make sure you're logged in to Amazon and make sure you're logged in to peacock and just get your shit together everybody that's my little PSI I don't have any issues with it but I am a streaming over subscriber I just like we'll just have everything all the time and waste money because you know I like the smart people like well I'm done with that show cancel Apple TV I'm done with that show I'll pick it up later I'm just like I just want to have everything all the time

well I got shit out of Amazon for one of the playing games it was like your account's easy too many devices I'm like huh so start I went into the settings and I'm shutting down devices and it turns out both my dad and my daughter were watching basketball and Amazon and

glammed onto my account and then my dad's like well I don't want to I I always jump on your

things I don't why do I have to pay for the streamers when you have them that's just the attitude of people 75 and up I don't know why can't pay for Amazon for $9 a month well I think you just got to kick your daughter off her soul like you're about your the boss she's in charge of me 25 years from now when you know God only knows what's going to happen in the physically it's a kind of thing like she'll hold it against you you have the same thing with your daughter yeah

someday they're in charge of charge of us I always want to like do the right thing all right quickly can we run through the four teams with a case of what do you do the four teams that got bounced from the plant no it's not really quick switch it we're just not going to do hawks next oh we didn't do hawks next no my dad you we don't have to no I really want to do hawks next I was in my notes and I just forgot to do it my big question for you is

“if Nog gets going is this the series sure yeah I think I picked Nixon six that's what I had”

I think the next player I think the next player one of their better defensive games if not one of their best defensive games of the season and game one I was super impressed with them across the board Atlanta didn't even shoot badly from three they shot 38 percent but yeah I didn't know six or 17 yellow Johnson 8 of 19 there's definitely some room on the table for them I think I think though you know like I would pick the next to win game two and then Atlanta to win game three

and then game four is where it gets a little little spicy you know who was not spicy in that game some pretty I'm overwhelmed by all of this moments in two minutes for Zachary Ricochet that I did not particularly enjoy for the hawks you didn't like his O for three and his miss of a two foot layup and the realization of everyone yet again that they could have just taken castle with the first pick and they played seven guys basically if you don't count Risa Shay and Moe Gay

was one that played 11 minutes so you know I don't have to next played really well in that game they if I'm a next fan I'm super encouraged by how they looked if they had castle instead of Risa Shay would you think the Hawks are gonna win the series that's a pretty nasty team yeah I would yeah I mean can you imagine that that's a lot of defensive players that's rolling the floor once it would make the next life so that I mean we've seen castle guard Brunson and Kat in the same

game in guard them both pretty well be pretty useful player I had castle first in that trap not always right

but did you end up putting in my 13th all in B.A.? No because look at the red bump about yeah everyone everyone got a little gibberish I put him first team all day that was where uh interesting that was where I moved and I put Wallace too and I know I'm gonna be in the minority on those

“votes but I I really think those two guys are absolute animals who's gonna argue strongly against”

their inclusion they're awesome you know as a bummer I had no place for a Kamara I couldn't near that I couldn't find a spot for him and I kept like trying to can I bump this guy I don't know and I I feel terrible I know that hurt you is as number one Portland Trailblazers and you've really really repaired whatever was whatever if there was still leftover damage from your relationship

with Portland fans from years and years ago you've really gone out of your way I've always been

trying to remember what I do well there were soccer shots yeah that that one yeah soccer shots forgot about yeah you've really meant that fences you and Justin various you get together and talk about his garden and everything else that's going on in Portland next that land is a really good series and I really wish that land was playing Cleveland because I thought that I think that land it could have beaten Cleveland we'll see with Alexander Walker because the next

are just so confident and comfortable in these fourth quarters and it's the big fear of your

“Celtic fan I think the Celtics have a better team and more talent and yet they're gonna have to”

win these fourth quarters and the nicks are really really really good really confident and really comfortable the tighter the game gets and I think it's really hard to win an MSG too even despite there was when they started to come back and like the games over and it got to eight and all the sudden you could feel everybody with the Hallebert and Thought Bubble and this

missed it I thought I don't think I knew it was on your pod recently and so that's sucking up

“I think he's been excellent this year with the Nelson and I think the key with him was he's just”

he's oh two man booth guy way better if it's just him and the play by play guy and he can just do his thing versus like having to share the ball I thought I thought he was all over what was that he did that game right he did yeah yeah I thought he was all over that game and all the angles and like picking up stuff in the moment the same way we would if we were watching on the couch like ooh resa shake yikes might not might not be able to put him back in and like like Jeff he's very

good at translating like exes you know stuff into quick TV friendly like oh yeah that's what's happening like in the last you know the one the thing I'll watch in game two is you know Atlanta late in the game made the switch that I was sort of wondering when they would do it they took a Congo off cat and put him on Josh Hart and put Dyson Daniels on cat because cat was just killing

“them with the spacing is passing the two main game with Brunson and that meant they had to move”

see Jim a column on the McHill bridges like there's all these domino effects of just like what do we do with cat we put a centers anywhere but cat because he's making picking pops he's rolling into the brim he's doing cat stuff so that would be and that's the kind of thing that stands sees that on possession one and in eight words can describe like why they're doing that right yeah the Celtics are going to be in a weird spot and round two if if that's the series because

weird they cat is putting cat against Robinson is just better and I wonder if they're going to try to either go a little smaller against towns or maybe try some garras or like what they're going to

do to try to use towns against themselves basically but they the the big switch the Celts have

for around two would be datum at the five with Brown with the shooter and with the two guards

“and then make towns basically have to guard the shooter no matter where he is but uh I thought that was”

good next one NBA just released it's a word finalist you want to do do you want to hear them or no do care awards finalist for what we know what NBA is how many are there three three and each category so we can who is the third for coach of the year coach of the year is not listed here um so MVP was the three rookie the year was edge com was third rookie rookie the year is also being announced later we have six man most improved defense player the year in clutch player of the year

oh at those finalists have been announced what was clutch who's the third three finalists are SGA

Anthony Edwards and Jamal Murray are the three finalists for clutch player do you know Bronson Bronson apparently snubbed from reading my email from Mark Resort correctly wow really good sign for a pistons fans a Saur Thompson is the third finalist in defense player of the year a little bit of chat and Wimbie I voted for him six man of the year surprise third finalists I would say I would classify this as a surprise I may hack his junior Kelvin Johnson

Tim Hardaway junior the third finalist six man of the year Jesus I want to know that let's play what do you do really quick and then we'll go golden state they have curry at 62 they have butler at 56.8 dream on at 27.7 so not a lot of flexibility they're both of those last to our expirings who are who are for Stanto's pods Milton Moody at 12.2 out for next year under contract they've the full mid level they've the 11th pick in the draft unless

unless they get a little lucky they get a little Adam's over very dust on the pick the top four ten percent I don't know what you're applying ten percent well just saying if we're doing the what's do a fantasy draft of who if they did break the lottery who would they break the lottery for this year golden state would number on pick poor Zengus free agent GP2 is a free agent so my what do you do here if I can get LeBron and do the expendables I draft a guard

with the 11th pick I'd file on for them would be unbelievable the Alabama guard who's like just high IQ leader defensive but also can be guys up to dribble burrs if they could somehow get

him would be amazing there's on a guy can I throw a give me butter moody in our twenty twenty

seven first top four protected for Cibonis and Demard Doros and trade at you know you may not I would I will not give you permission to get anyone you're just rejecting it but I'm rejecting the concept of it I'm rejecting all of it to expire in contracts and my top four protected pick

no no no who says no I say no and the warrior say no the warrior said okay it's too much too much money um let me look at Cibonis's contract because it's not as bad as you think it's not for years yeah I just don't the roses and expire I just don't know what that's doing for me like I've got to live in a world where I'm actually trying to give Steph Curry a chance to be two two with the

“thunder and the spurs and the nuggets next year and the second rally that's that's what I'm trying”

to do like I need I need to aim differently than that okay so give me your solution what are we doing well I think I think we're going to do see them do all the stuff that we think they're going to do which is can we get LeBron is quite Leonard potentially available they we know they looked at him but we

have four first round picks to trade more or less and is is that enough to get in the honest

conversation I'm not sure but I think it's it's all that because I just don't you know everyone's going to construct their fantasy curry deals and this and that I just don't they're not trading curry I don't see it happening they also have a coach that was pretty open about like hey I'm but as we've been talking about from months now it's like I may not be here next year and so that affects a lot of they've got to figure that out and and because if Steve Curry's the coach

you've got to as we've now learned you probably should use that hydrific on a player who's going to be able to function and Steve Curry's system now and not do what they do with coming over Franz Wagner or you trade that eleven pick or you do that and you add a couple other picks maybe try to get like a like a train Murphy type sure I mean because that's our only goal right our only goal is hey wouldn't it be awesome game five in San Antonio it's two to next year just in

the second round of the playoffs and the first round just like well just fun fun for another year

but there could be stretch which I don't think they would do um 56.8 so you could stretch it out

“over five years and I think it would cost some 11 million here um I don't even know why they would”

do that because I don't think it would create enough cap space to do anything crazy probably better off having him as an expiring or maybe they hope he comes back um the LeBron piece will be the fun part of this because I do like the idea of the old guy team and kind of leaning into that is Poorsenga somebody to bring back I think don't look at it because I just think the market for him is going to be very cool based on his availability issues so maybe it's a one year deal maybe it's one

plus one the number is not too big he does add and you could see glimpses of like this makes sense a shooting five we've not really had this in a little while and then and then he was heard on Friday he was limpin around and it was like what happened you played one game and you're already hurt and then they got a pyjempt he extension staring him in the face pyjempts he had a good year for them I I'm interested to see how those talks go yeah there's this new version of post last CBA of uh

yeah we're actually not gonna extend you let's just play it out um which is not gone well really in any situation that we had we went poorly with Camp Thomas although there are reasons for that

it went poorly with Cominga um I've always wondered why you had to do the extension if you didn't

want to because all they become is eventually an unrestricted fridge and nobody ever as cap space so I do think the teams have a little more leverage was shit real nice but uh yeah agree it's weird I likes a bonus for them and I know I'm in the minority and I know there's some people that are out on him and think he makes too much money but if you're if you're looking for the right guy to be with Dreyman one of the things for them is rebounding right um I think he's high IQ

“and you could run offense through him and put him at top of the key I think he can post up I think”

you can play him and Dreyman together um I think he's expendable in Sacramento for a hundred reasons including the fact that uh the rookie look good for them the rookie center and uh Mexican Ronaldo right uh who can't guard anybody like literally anybody but at least you could talk this off it no no he does not play Dreyman he doesn't all right it's bad you've got to even just be nice get the rest of the nice thing he's a rookie you know his hair is flopping around he's trying

real hard let him let him be well this leads to the next one which is the clippers wait can we just stop on so bonus I understand everything you're saying play the split game with him in the post all the stuff that he does but subonus plus Dreyman plus Butler is like a lot of guys who know one's guarding but Butler would have to be in the in this a bonus trade all right so you're throwing him out yeah okay okay anyway what was the next one well clippers it's just do we keep

coi for another year it's too hard to predict what they're gonna do because it all depends on the indie pick if they get five six seven eight nine they're getting a blue chip guy there's the straps awesome they could get a cuff at five they could get buries they could get walk there the Illinois kid

I'm trying to get more assets like it would just open up a lot of like I was thinking if they

“got the fifth pick from Indiana which I think the lowest Indiana can go is maybe six because they”

could drop four spots that's it so if they got the fifth pick in Dallas got eight could they drop back three spots with Dallas because Dallas would want the best guard take buries who would be perfect for them with with garland because this is a two guard and get more assets from Dallas and then kind of be ready to roll I think they would be thinking about stuff like that they could they're probably one of the more creative for an office right then Zuba straight was really creative

creative yeah the word you want to use creative creative they're a little outside the box but I could see them if they got the fifth pick from Indiana being oh I see where you're going yeah they're creative listen they'd be creative in a lot of ways there is a case so it's a very interesting situation right because again for the next whatever years they don't control their pick right so they can't tank or they can't get reap the benefits

of tanking anyway so there's a swap next year with okay see somehow this Paul George trade

it's just never gonna end because I forever it's like herpes and garland you know 42 45

million the next two years in his prime like you're kind of our designing a team that's living in a couple of different worlds like you have a near house or who's a good young center you and I both like him and I think he's like TBD if he's on the team next year it did not did not finish the season well he's in our office and they could just do basically the coming to the next year well he's not under he's he's a straight free agent though he's he's in

or he's a restricted to this summer right I see what you mean yeah I could just one plus one I'm listening and then you could argue like even if they are kind of semi-design to be competitive now and Balmer always wants to be competitive and they don't control their pick I mean my choice with Kawaii or ride it out extend him again or like you see it is he just

“have the healthiest season he's ever going to have again that's why I'm trying to move off him now”

I'm trading him the problem is he knows where the bodies were buried if bodies were buried

that knows who knows the conditions that have taken place not accusing anyone in any direction I'm just saying they've gone through a lot them and quite I would trade Kawaii I don't think he's for what he did what was it his year 15 season don't like the 2011 draft he average 28 points a game and played six five minutes games um if the warriors are like we still want Kawaii but like great give us the 11th pick back let's go

do you do you have him second or third team all in be a cool item second thing yeah so they have two variables here one is that indie pick is it going to be five or basically are they going to be picking five or six or is that roll over to 2031 and then are is there going to be repercussions from the aspiration thing or not we still don't know we still don't have the decision on that

so too hard to decide but Kawaii for Butler with the warriors starting in a pick or more stuff does fade under the cap but that makes a little more than Kawaii but you could do that

“I think I think the clippers if they ever got to this discussion with they were going to”

trade Kawaii or even think about it and the teams that called on him are not really sure they were thinking about it at this past trade deadline I think they would treat him not as I think they would say he's an all-in-be-a player we want we're not trading him for an injured player and one first round pick even a good one we want multiple first round picks and like we want not quite a trove of everything because it's quali and he's old and there's a lot of baggage

but I don't think they're going to sell like low-ish on him the other two teams are Miami and Charlotte Charlotte's in a great spot in Charlotte I don't think we need to belabor this one they have the 14th pick they have their own first in 27 they have a top two protected Dallas first in 27 great Dallas they have an unprotected Miami first in 27 and some really good things all around I think they're they're kind of riding with La Mello either way I think he's there next year

even if it ended pretty weird and they have Miller and Con making it combined 25 million they bridges as an expiring they have bridges Williams and and Grant Williams and Josh Green

are basically like 52 million of expiring that could be used for a yawnest trade by the way Charlotte

a little closer to Greece um you're gonna make a face when I say this but I don't know I just like the Greece proximity that's a closer just saying this closer it's on the use coast

the 13th pick in the draft but for the most part I don't know norm Powell I think that contract

“probably sled backwards as the year went along they have bam here own wagons for a combined”

110 million um they have this yoga extension that kicks in next year for 16.2 million good luck

with that guys I wonder if these two teams are the answers to each other's problems okay he's bam out of bio in the table I could offer you bridges and Grant Williams could be so good there oh my god I could give you your 27 first back now you have it unprotected you have all your first again I could give you my 14th pick I could give you that Dallas pick I could give you a 2,029 first here's everything I got give us bam and now I have bam con Brandon Miller, Lamello

and some roll guys let's fucking go bam is from North Carolina and he has a family and friends that go to every Charlotte game um you like these he'd be so good there it's a come to Jesus moment for Miami right because bam's the captain he's the last guy they want to trade he's a

“personification of heat culture and that's all real they all love him you saw how they reacted to”

his A3 point game his mom being on the floor all that stuff but they are at a moment where they just can't deny anymore that this is all they are they already didn't extend hero and that you know just continues to be an ongoing thing you know which didn't pop where's good but the where a

bam fit is always going to be where's like fine he's fine like I'm not sure what he's going to be

but I I just think that fit is going to be a little clunky here and they're all the time Hawkins is fine y'all Katrina's look good but like you're not this core is not winning you anything and they have to know that and now there's no hope for it and you're in a conference with the trait Boston the next Atlanta who's going to get a top 10 pick Charlotte you have washed in the might win the lottery etc etc you've from an asset standpoint I'm starting to get really scared

if I'm Miami I love that you threw Washington and those are nice of you you're slandering Maxine Renault but you're going to give the wizards some problems they might get the bandsaw who knows they're going to get one of those right but the other thing Miami has to do with things you call them the

hidden burger knocked over now you're like I just feel bad I mean I have had right no first

team all rookie so I'm just like I might get I might get his jersey or something I don't know I must do you like them because you could probably score 20 points on him if he was guarding it my jumper's actually looking pretty good right that was mean the other but the other thing for Miami is look we all know who the best player that's potentially available this summer like the best best guy the blockbuster guys y'allness right and we know that Miami is floored it with y'allness before

they were one of the teams that was in whatever was going on in February but you also just have to ask yourself is is if we get to the end of that and we get y'allness and everyone's going to be celebrating hey we didn't get damn we didn't well we got y'allness and I'm left with bam and y'allness and Davey on Mitchell yeah and also bam and y'allness what is that so like I don't know and then the other path is no we're just going to build a slow we're going to do we're going to build a slow

we have a lottery pick we're not going to do anything exuberant work but then you're okay just being like a nice frisky team next year I don't I don't I don't I don't know what they're okay with and what they're appetite for risky neither direction really is bam's going to New Year 10 he is going to turn 29 years old next season he'd be so good in Charlotte I'm so jealous that she's love this is y'allness is four years older than him with even more miles because he came

“into the league sooner and I think you could make the case for what the cost would be for y'allness”

and bam's probably 80 cents of that right and bam's younger and more durable and a better fit for Charlotte I think less than 80 cents maybe 60 cents whatever it is but if I'm Charlotte I would rather go for bam with my young guys because if I get y'allness it's like it now I'm beholden I did all the work on this you know a few weeks ago in the pot about like some real historical concerns like he's going to be able to stay in the court in the right ways whereas bam I know

for at least year 10 11 12 13 I should be good at the very least the next four he'll be at the same 2010 level with the same excellent defense and I don't know I just think these two teams make sense as trade partners there's also a geron jackson junior thing with bam's contract where we all well I mean I think I'm a little higher on triple jade than you are but like every one agrees bam is a really good player like there's just no debate that bam is really good

is if I got good value like I think the I think the Grizzlies got the best value they were going to

get for geron jackson junior on the contract that he's on and bam is like is the three point or real semi real like is if it doesn't if it proves not super real how is he going to age like I think there's some chance that if you can turn that contract into similar return to what the Grizzlies got for triple jade that it would it would be it would age is like a pretty good trade I just know that Miami hesitant him he just means that much to to what their franchises

to tough on this is the problem with the league you don't want to be stuck in the middle but you also want to have the guys that your fans can wear as jersey and they play for the team for 15 to 20 years but you know I look at like when the when the Celtics cut the chord with

“Pearson KG which was just cold blooded but it was the best thing they ever did right and”

Danny out of anybody was always willing to think that way and I think if the path is to nowhere

which I think it is for Miami I think you really have to think about how do we blow this up the fact that Charlotte owns their pick to me makes this a lot easier because then it's like all right we're throwing away one year we're getting all these assets back and we could at least talk ourselves into this there's also the variable that if you're a team like because I think it's a lot of your protected pick next year right and no that happened this year next year it's I think

it's free next year I'd have to look there's also the what is a lot of rules look like because if you're a team like Miami and you think the odds are just going to get severely flattened which I think is the most likely outcome you all have a sudden maybe don't mind as much if we are

of 40 when team or 42 when team because we like there's not as much benefited being

“super like the middle has become more profitable I think I think all of these teams are grappling”

with how sooner these changes are going to come because we need to start planning like the these kind of directional pivots if I'm sure that I feel great where I am I have a lot of flexibility I didn't like how the season ended I don't think con myself a Orlando played the the best game they played all year there's a lot of things that went wrong that took a big lead early the big thing Charlotte asked to figure out is where do we go with the mellow for actually

trying to win multiple playoff rounds and I don't know the answer he does some perplexing stuff game to game that is fun during the rig is he an 82 game guy or a 16 to 20 game guy is what they need to decide with them I thought he had just some head scratching crazy moments in both games that may be really really wonder like is this somebody you're given the car case to stop making driving analogies with the mellow you're just walking into your

wife I am setting myself up I did wonder like it's caught did con's back at her because I didn't have them adjust the seat move it back a little bit maybe the seat was too high up maybe it was my thought I just don't look la mellow had a you called as the drunk as game of the year it was severely intoxicated and la mellow's last 90 seconds was like a whirlwind of I just don't even understand what's the day one I just don't understand what's happening but con was not playing well

Miller was fine like there are offenses just a different beast with la mellow on the floor he defended I guess better this year he's only 24 he's only 24 like he's he's still like entering

“his prime I think his contract is fine I think trading him would be it just depends what you would get”

but it's hard like I'm not I'm not messing with this right now if I'm sure that I like these three guys together I want to see more of it I want to see la mellow's growth continue I'm not messing with it I'm not messing with it I'm not messing with it either I would have some concerns after those last two games I would I would just be thinking better all summer like especially watching the playoffs and watching these four rounds and just certain things that have to happen if

you're a really serious playoff team can you have that kind of volatility with your best guy who has the ball who's like I'm just gonna take this 30 footer right now even though there's 30 seconds left to the door that game I'm just gonna take it that makes it to a 16 the two of 16 from three or whatever was in that Miami game was like a little and then the fouling hero the turno it was a lot it was absolutely a lot all right Zack low even though the met season is in shambles you're

gonna do in your podcast Tuesday morning and Thursday morning thanks to Miklob ultra thanks to Gahau and Eduardo as well new rewatchables coming on Monday the kindergarten cop you watch out one with your daughter yet two violent your wife doesn't like violence I haven't I remember being very fond of it however many years ago it came out it's tremendous and then we don't know what's in yeah I don't know what's in there like there's gotta be stuff that's aged poorly but

maybe not and then ghostbusters the week after oh my god yeah turns out that was a successful movie

will see you next Sunday we'll have a lot more playoff clarification back then let's go all right let's do

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