An Epic Spurs-Thunder Series, Cleveland Survives, and the Knicks' Moment Is HERE With Zach Lowe

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That's good for all the price. Now in your video. ID, Buddhist for all of. All right, Bill Simmons' podcast lives on Netflix. Zack low is here.

We thought we'd be starting after the Cavaliers' Pistons game. But the Pistons had other ideas and so did the Cavaliers. I wanted to mention, new rewatchables coming on Monday. We did Borat. It was me and Kyle Brandt.

It's turned into a politically incorrect comedy month on the rewatchable. And we have that, Zack low is going to be Tuesday morning, Thursday morning as we head into an absolutely awesome round three. Very excited. The next might make the finals.

Don't jinx it. Don't jinx my spray on, thunder. Spurs and thunder. We're going to talk about where this matchup ranks for us. But we'll start with Cavs Pistons.

So wrote down Great Win for Cleveland and Donovan Mitchell fans and supporters. He sent Win for James Harden truthers. Great Win for the next because they now have home court in the Eastern Conference Finals. They have one, two, five and seven. Where do you want to start with those?

What truth?

“What truth do the James Harden truthers subscribe to?”

That he's one of the 40 best players of all time that he's actually come up big in some playoff games. They just all happen to be in series that his team eventually lost. He had luck against the Warriors a couple times for Conference Finals. I don't know what else would they say.

I think we should start with Donovan Mitchell and getting over the hump into the conference Finals. He had the stats are not overwhelming, but I thought he played awesome. And the seven assists is to me the defining stat at the game for him. I just thought he slowed down played with a better pace.

Kept his dribble alive a little bit longer on the pick and roll like looking actively for the big guys instead of like that overhead carry. He does it used to be like a once a game kind of thing and it became like five times a game as he was searching for his own points and playing a little frazzled. And I thought he was just under control.

Got the big guys involved. Game seven, Jared Allen showed up as a result. Evan Bowley played. I think his fourth really nice game in a row. And just like we get Cleveland, Nick's, which is like the road not taken for Donovan

Mitchell, the road not taken for the nicks after acquiring jail in Brunson and flirting

with pairing him with Donovan Mitchell, who allegedly always dreamed of playing for the

nicks. He's from here. His family is still all in the northeast. His dad works for the meds on and on. So we get like that road not taken.

JB bigger staff doesn't get to avenge his firing from Cleveland and you know, I like the calves paid a high price for Donovan Mitchell, like blowery marking and the gap between Mitchell and lowery marking and whatever you're playing, he's our shrunk dramatically since that trade and the three paced and the two swaps.

“And I think now you have to look at it as you paid full freight, but here you are in the”

conference finals with like a nicks team that I think is going to be the favorite. I will pick them to win the series, but they're not unbeatable. The Cleveland Cleveland has a chance in the series to get to the finals. Yeah, I had Mitchell as the top story to nine years, 77th playoff game tonight.

Never made conference finals, which becomes a weird list.

When you've had a really good career, you've made small MBAs, but you've never made a pass around to and I don't know who the most famous player in that list is, but I always take a Dominic Wilkins when I think of lists like that and all the what ifs with his career and how like if the lakers had just taken him over James Worthy and if he had been able to get by the Celtics once or the pistons, anybody had this awesome career, but never even

got to be in the final four. I felt like we're heading that way with Mitchell. Friday night, I just was supified by Friday night. I thought for sure the calves are going to win. I don't know what happened to them. They looked with our jick, the pistons. They had so many turnovers in that in the Friday night game. And then today we were texting during the near the end of the first half that

calves had two turnovers with like four minutes left in the second quarter.

iffy. They really needed that energy stuff and they needed like the two on ones and the blocks and going the other way. And they just didn't didn't get any of those today. And it's just a large a game all the way around. Kate was a good Mitchell was the best guy in the four. But the point you made about to get in the big guys about, I almost wonder, did they look

at the tapes of the first six games and notice that every time they drove to the basket,

the pistons bigs and Thompson were just flying at those guys trying to block the shots. And like they told Mitchell, when you go to the basket, look for out and look for mobility because those guys over and over again were rolling and they seemed like they were unimpeded. So it almost felt like a football strategy flip of like they keep doing this, zag this way, and Mitchell bought in because the thing with Mitchell, it was a storyline that he was averaging what, two point nine

assists to the playoffs. That's terrible. He's supposed to be the guy who makes everybody

“else better and he wasn't. But I did tonight. I think if they lost this game and he had another game”

like that, the number one takeaway, I mean, that all the big takeaways would have been the big picture calf stuff that we don't have to discuss now. Right. What are they going to do? Is this team of the future? Who do they trade? Yeah. Yeah. You can say all that stuff is stable. But the biggest basketball takeaway would have been what happened to Donovan Mitchell's playmaking. Like I thought this was going to develop into a real strength of his game. And it kind of had just

disappeared in the playoffs. He was he was not making passes that were there to be made. He was, he was not looking for them. He was just playing. I keep using the word frazzled. He looked a little sped up and just not in his normal state of mind and tonight he was really, really under control and really good and a little black coalition before tonight. I felt like not that fun to play with would have been my take. And out of sync, sometimes with Hardin, I mean, gradually

starting in game three and excluding the just inexplicable egg they laid in game six three four five seven,

“you started to see the calves figure out some ways to it wasn't pretty. It's not always artful,”

but to loosen up their half court offense a little bit. It was sometimes hunting mismatches for Jonathan Mitchell. It was using mobile more in the pick and roll and they started to get like the

mobile to Allen big to big passing going on. It was finally I thought probably a little overdue

starting streased tonight and playing Meryl Moore and just having more shooting on the floor. Meryl like probably should have like the thing with the Sam Meryl who came in and completely changed. I've been calling for it all serious, but I don't know why they weren't playing him more. Do you think he was, was he hurt? Like I, well, he did miss a game. He's my extension obvious person to play more. He did miss a game. I thought the streased adjustment was going to come sooner and in Kenny's

defense that line, the initial starting line up with Wade had had like a better plus minus than I thought of in the playoffs, but it's just the offense was so clunky. I didn't know. Wade was not bringing enough defensively to really justify it. I thought they could have reorganized their rotation a bit, but so it happens in the playoffs, Mandy shrink your rotation. You got a stretch for answers. These are, you know, the calves for as ugly as it's looked at times. Seven games and seven games

and they're here and they had to negotiate two of the five best defenses in the NBA this year.

It's like not always going to look pretty, but they found just enough to squeak those series out.

Yeah, so the big adjustment was starting macho man Maxi Struz. I saw you. I saw that. That was fun. Macho. Yeah. Hopefully that'll keep going in the, in the next series, but sorry, dropping out of it. Other than that, it just looked like they took care of the ball and Mitchell played better. Those were really, that was really, because Friday night was, I was really surprised and stunned, but Detroit did seem like they got the read the read during

combo going. And then today it was gone again. And we'll talk about Detroit later and what turns worth and all that stuff, but for ugly loss for Detroit. How wild. Like just a reminder that it's a little as predictable as the NBA is compared to other sports leagues in terms of who we generally wins and advances game to game. It's like, wait, Cleveland won three games in a row and just got obliterated in game six in the most disputing way possible at home. Detroit's riding

high, they're going back home. You know, they're like games to have it and they get obliterated at home. It's like it can swing in wild ways even if it doesn't seem no way sometimes. Yeah, it's turnovers and threes basically seem to be when you have two teams that

“I think had notched below the highest level that we have going in the league right now. Who”

the hell knows? For Detroit, how bad was that loss for you? If I gave you a scale of 1 to the 2022 map suns game. That's 10. That's 10. I'll go six and a half. I mean, I think we saw in the first round that this team was it's regular season win total, probably inflated a little bit how good they really were. And all the sort of concerns we had about their viability is like a real finals championship team came to bear in the series against

Orlando, which by the way, I think Orlando probably wins if Franz Wagner doesn't get hurt and also

podcast with the scariest ceiling playoff teams when we had Detroit 11th and their fans and media got mad at us. Well, I mean, and just I'm going six and a half maybe seven because it's a young team, it's a rising team. In a lot of ways, again, this is a team that had it over under,

“I think in the high 40s before the season started and here they are going toe to toe with Donovan”

Mitchell and James Harden and David Mobile and Jared Allen in the second round. It's great season,

but Jalen Dern another invisible game Tobias Harris over from the field. He's a free agent. You've really got a tough question, tough discussion to have with him and just the center rotation completely fell apart again. After Jalen Dern looked reinvigorated, we were texting over the weekend, the biggest, the biggest possible positive sign for Detroit going into game seven is maybe Jalen Dern got over whatever mental hurdle or whatever was happening in him. He had a pretty

game. Yeah, and there's missing labs that everything around the bass. And then I say a Stuart for what felt like the fourth time in the series is just throwing guys, like judo throwing guys at the foul line and picking up these crazy fouls and J.B. bigger stuff's like dude, cool, you're the tough guy in the team. Can you play basketball? Because if you're, if you're not gonna play basketball, we're bringing in Paul Reed. Six minutes for Isaiah Stuart tonight. So I would go higher than six

and a half for the pistons for three reasons. One, you have this impossible to figure out during contract thing though. I mean, I don't know, he just got out played by Jared Allen, who plays,

who makes, you know, 28, 29 million a year, right? So you can't pay Dern more than that, even though

I voted for him for an on the 18th. I don't know, we've seen this in football, and we've seen it in basketball, where if you overpay somebody who's not a dominant guy, that's the quickest way to screw your team up for three, four years. It's okay, the Bradley, the Bradley Bill Parallax, Parrot. Paradox, Pip. What happened? Bradley Bill Parallax? I just couldn't in good conscience, pay that guy more than 33 to 34 a year. Oh, I think if you're, I think after this series,

if you're Dern's agent, you might pretend to protest what you just said. Like, oh, that might, might place a phone call to Bill Simmons being like, well, I got to do the, the thing where I protest, but secretly, you're like, I would take that, like that's, like, we're, I was so, it's a Daniel's 25 year, Caitlyn Johnson signed for, I thought, I think we all felt like it was a little low, right? Thirty years. I think five for five for 150. So he's somewhere in there,

but I wouldn't feel good about going over 30 for him after that series. I don't feel good about

“paying that for centers in general, because I think the perimeter guy is a more important,”

unless it's yoga to Wemby. I will say, I thought his defense was pretty solid throughout the series. Offensively, he was exposed is kind of not ready for the, for the playoffs at the level that the distance needs him to be ready, which is a really high level, second round against a really good team. Like, it's got, it's high level stuff. And, you know, the perimeter, the perimeter game, like, every time he takes a mid-range jumper, it's a win for the other team. And I think

he'll get better at that. He's only 22. You can't repeat that enough, but like, I don't know what the market, I mean, the bulls are the team with cap space that has the obvious hole at the position. But I just don't know that anyone is blowing jail endurance market away with any kind of offer sheet. Now, agents, as we saw with Miles Turner, are super creative of like magicking up, sign-in trades and crazy deals. But, you know, I, it's the center of our

secrecy, like, or zish. I mean, we'll see if they have any cap space. They have this $50 million possible cap space. And it depends on a lot of different things, LeBron, Bruehachamura, how quickly this reads and all that. But he, he would be, I mean, at the very, very high end of what the leakers could, could go after. Sure enough, you know. So that was my first time. Two more things for it being bunded out of front of the pistons. The second is what happened as they

“stood where I, I think he became a liability as the playoffs on wrong. He was one of my favorite”

bench guys in the league this season. And I don't know if since the fight, it never felt like he

got his impact back the way it was before the fight where it felt like he was coming in and just swinging in games and adding on to Dern, and I just thought he got worse than the playoffs to the point. Seems like he came out. It seemed like he was yelling at a couple coaches and they cut away from it. But I think he's an obvious trade piece for them, making $15 million here. There's great room protection. Thanks for him. Maybe he needs to play more. But just in general, I thought that

that was a guy that seemed like he was one of the better contracts in the league and just was MIA. So that's two. And then the third one is just that they punted on the trade deadline, which we talked about at the time. Their big move is Kevin Hurder, who didn't play tonight,

universal, which Kevin Hurder was going to suddenly be playing 22 minutes a game off the bench in

“the series. But he even, he wasn't, he didn't play one minute at the series today. He got in”

at some point. Yeah. Yeah. Well, whatever. So they kind of punted on that. And we talked about it. And we said, hey, they, you know, it's a marathon, not a sprint. They're using the same pressy logic of, let's try to build and we'll, we'll pounce when we pounce. I don't know. If you have a chance to get into the final four, that means you're four wins away from the finals,

I certainly think they've had a lot of success against the next. And they really needed that second

score, which is what we said in February. You're putting all your bricks in the, you're putting all your eggs in the Tobias Harris basket. And he was over six today. And they did not have that other score. They could trust. Levert had the one hot game in the series. You know, they'd have Jenkins with his three every once in a while Robinson, who did not seem healthy to me. I know he made a couple of threes, but I felt like he had some back thing. I was watching him, he's walking,

he looked 100% to me. But they were just missing that second, whoever it was. And I don't know if I was a pistons fan. I'd be mad about that. Yeah. I mean, you know, I was talking about this with some people at the combine. And, and you hear this, like, well, I mean, ironically, they got, they get to swap picks with the timber wolves in the first round of this draft, because they took on Mike Conley and the initial salary dumpers said they were involved in that.

And I, ironically, I say, because you hear a lot of people say, well, I mean, like, they could have gotten in for Kobe White, or I would soon knew or a guy like that. I mean, they could have, is that getting them over the hump? Is it worth it? But it's definitely what he given them a better shot in this series, because we, like, we all knew they were light on secondary

“creators. And I think, honestly, like, I think it, it, it, Cade had to have been exhausted”

by the end of this series, because he just has to do everything. And the calves, I think probably switched too easily against Cade, like they gave him hard, and they gave him down of

the initial, they gave him Merrill, they gave him whatever matchup he wanted. They'd never really

trapped him when he got those matchups. And a lot of people were calling for that. And I understand that. And I think they could have done a little bit. I bet what they were thinking was, look, we're just going to make him dribble eight times and take a 14 footer. And yet it's going to be over and done of a Mitchell or Sam Merrill. But we're not giving him the easy stuff and the easy passes. We're just going to wear his ass out. And they're like, what he was doing,

what is he, he, no one in the league is carrying a bigger load. I don't think, did Cade cutting him in the playoffs. Two MVP votes from people today for him. First place in first place, no, he first play 70 p votes. Yeah. So I have a lot of next fans of my life. I know you have even more. And they've been asking me for two weeks, who do I want to play? Do I want to play the calves or the pistons? And my answer, at least for the last week, is you're going to beat

either team, it doesn't matter. But I'd rather play the pistons. Because the calves still have this sealing thing that they, the potential of what they are, is still more dangerous than what the pistons are to me, which is a team that just has too much trouble scoring. And the Thompson

piece of it, Thompson who, you know, steals and blocks some offensive rebounds, three incredible

defensive plays a game, like clearly somebody who can be one of your best five guys on the floor and be really impactful. But if you don't have enough scoring, and especially this is a pistons team, if they fall behind 15, it felt like 50, you know. And I just feel like if I'm in the next, I would have much rather played that team because I'm better than anyway, I could just outscore them. Cleveland who knows with the two bigs? You mentioned mostly earlier, the last

three of the last four games. I thought he was really, really, really good. As much as I've enjoyed watching him play, just total package, like defending the rim, some good passing, was aggressive, was an afraid to shoot his three. Did you feel like he went up a tiny notch or am I crazy? No, I mean, look, the scoring numbers are, I don't think he cracked 20 unless he did tonight. I haven't checked the final box scoring in any of those games. I just thought he

“played really solid all around basketball. And I think the series started to turn when the”

calves had him more involved in the picking role than like used him as a passer more than used him as a hub more. And I think like that's not going to be sexy statistically, but I thought he made all the right plays and got him just, it got the ball moving a little bit for a team that was like like 29 assists tonight. They've been dead last in a six rate in the playoffs for most of the playoffs. It just got the ball moving a little bit more and it invigorated him like there was a

moment. I think it was in game four where he dunked on Isaiah Stewart, like dunked on him hard. And I'm like, where is this every other game? Like, why is this a rare thing? Like, this level of nastiness and aggression. And he played that way. The rest of the series, I kind of agree with you. The piston swept the nicks in the regular season. They blew him out. If not all three times and at least

bothers the nicks. They just beat the crap out of the nicks. The nicks were not ready for how physical to Troy played. Obviously, in the playoffs, your state of readiness and your willingness to engage. And that kind of stuff is going to be way higher. The calves, like you love the trick or treat analogy for players. The calves have a little bit of that in them where they for a quarter will find this groove where the hard and Mitchell thing is more complimentary than it is. Like, they

amplify each other a little bit more than they do usually. The bigs are rolling through Sir Merrill or making shock. Like, oh my god, this team is awesome in the rim. Yeah. And then the next two quarters, it'll just be a little bit like sluggish. And so they do have that kind of like, oh, if that team pops a little bit more than than off the knot, then yeah, they have a chance.

“They've also really, I think Merrill, Sam Merrill has really emerged as a possible like MSG playoff”

villain. Like I can see him going in and being unafraid and hitting shots. Schroeder, who was plus 12 today, was at at least two turnovers. Schroeder was a turnover machine with a couple games. So the point that he almost seemed like unplayable in game six. Like I was surprised they kept them out there. But, you know, with Macho Man Maxi Struse, Harder, Mobile, Allen, Mitchell, and Merrill. I at least know I have six guys. And then Wade's like a six and a

half, at least he has some size. It's don't, don't be able to land some punches on the next. But if I turn the next, this is, I mean, this is easily, easily their best chance to make the final since 1994, I think. It's not. It's not. They're way better than they were way better than either it seems. What do you think the line is for the series? I'm going to fanned over right now. Before I look, I'm going to say, Nick's minus 300. I was going to say 250 or 230 or something like that.

So okay. The answer is minus 240. Okay. Well, 190 for the cabs. You win that one.

“I win. That's why you're Mr. Gambling. And I win. I win. Yeah, me and house had nine different”

bets going on this game tonight. This is what I did. That's what I do. And I won by prices right rules. Which I respected my house. Yeah, it's like my wife does not respect prices right rules. She says that's stupid. It should just be who's ever closest. I respect the institution that is the prices right. I like prices right rules as well. Bruns had minus 170 for for conference MVP. Mitchell's three to one. Towns plus 950. Hard and 20 to one. OG's 22 to one. And then Evan Mobile is sitting there at 33 to

one. All right. Got against it. Got to get get my app. Get my app up. Not against that one. Because I, in my opinion, Mobile will be the, that's the cabs guy to watch in a series like this. Yeah, I'm pretty awesome. That's a, that's a differentiator for them. I'm going to dig in a little bit tomorrow. Obviously, it's a quick turnaround game. One is Tuesday in New York. I will hopefully be there. And, but I, I'll dig in on the matchups a little bit. But the nicks. OG and it will be practice

and said he's feeling much better. And this does not like the hamstring injury from two years ago. That's a huge thing. I just think they're better. I think they're a better team. They, they, they, I think we're two and one or three and one against the cabs this year now. We'll say the last time they played. I've said this over and over again. I need to cabs figure out a little bit something on who should match up with who and how all that should work defensively and, and gave the nicks

a little bit of trouble. And I think they, they've discovered a little bit of, of that kind of stuff. But the nicks are just better and like to your point. I'm surrounded by nicks fans. They are absolutely

“giddy. And I'm like, you should be giddy. This is by far the best chance. I like, I'm,”

I never thought I would ever have a hometown finals as long as I would be doing this. So finals

where I didn't have to travel for half of it. I just never even deemed it possible. I just never, which of these teams is going to suddenly be competent enough to actually win three playoff rounds. This is by far the most likely. It's ever been to the point that if the nicks don't win this next series, I think it's going to be absolutely crushing for their fan base and, um, they're, they're a whole organization. I don't know how crushing will be because, um, they had the will to live for the

rest of the lives crushed out of them by the halberting shot and that pisses from back. So they're, they're already dead inside. I can't believe you. You have to mention that like, they're dead inside. They have, they have no emotion left. Um, how about the Paul Reed shot? By the way, can we just, from, uh, from a, from game six and hung on the, it was like a golf shot that just hung out on the lip for five seconds. Like, it would. He's doing the fist pump after. Uh,

we're going to take a break. A couple more storylines for that, uh, caps nicks series one second.

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teams have the the can't get over the hump teams. The teams that they went a few playoff series that might even make a conference finals to have like a three or four year window and they just

“can't make the finals right and I think the most my favorite example of this team ever was the”

Mark Price Cavaliers that with Dority and Nance and all those dudes. I thought those were

really really good teams. It's really unfair that the never made a final. They had some bad

injury look, you know, they obviously crossed paths with Michael Jordan at the worst possible times and the pistons and then Price got hurt. But I just thought that was a really good team and you look back and you're like, oh, that was an error but the never got over the hump. And I think the nicks and the calves are like that right now where the calves, they've had this Mitchell little mini error here. They were able to get lucky with the mobile being there and being

able to draft him and then the Jared Alancher, you basically get him for nothing. And then, you know, Garland initially turned him in hard. But this is their window right now, I feel like. And then the next same thing where they they went all in with the bridges. They were able to dump Randall at the perfect time. We're going to talk about him later. They get towns that trade turned out really well.

“And this is the window right now for them. And this is why when I think about this series like”

for one of these teams, whoever loses this, I don't think it'll be well, we made the conference finals. I think this is like, this was our fucking chance to make the finals. So there's real stakes here that not that there is no mistakes for the conference finals. But I feel like this is like a four-year road to this series. Yeah, I mean, look, if you're right, and one of these teams comes out feeling disappointed to the point where they view changes necessary, like certainly the

bucks are opening for just maximum disappointment around the top whatever teams in the league, including these two teams. And it is like, I talked about this last week. Like, imagine if Cleveland comes back and wins the series and they did, like, what does that mean for Hardin's future with the team? It seems to solidify, right? Does it solidify Mitchell's? But like, you're right, if they just get rolled, if one of these, it's different if you go to seven and it's just like both teams play

really, really well. It's like just under like, it's a tip your cap kind of series. But if it's four one and we get exposed on the glass, like Mitchell Robertson four years ago exposed us on the glass. Or four one and cat has another existential crisis week. Like, the cat thing goes back this way where he's fouling and like all of a sudden, you just can't recapture whatever it is you had against Philadelphia and at the end of the Atlanta series. Like, you're right, there could be

there could be certainly disappointment to the point of like, all right, we got to pivot.

“I mean, we'll see how it goes, I guess. The problem with some of this stuff, I remember”

you talking about this when Dame was leaving Portland about like, they made the 2019 western finals. That's a win. They were one of the four, you know, teams left. But the whole Dame air in Portland, I don't look at it as like, oh man, they were rolling, you know, we go back and we look at that western finals as I got as a little flookie. The Houston and Golden State was really the western finals out here. But that was an error. And I was thinking about the get over the hump teams.

The Gritton Grang Grizzlies is a great one at the finals. I mean, made the conference finals, right?

over the hump, lab city cookers, Paul George Pacers, your favorite, the coach bud hawks, blazers, the hard and rockets is probably the most successful example of just a ton of success,

but never actually made the finals. The Celtics pre-COVID Celtics basically, 16 to 20,

“where they made the eastern finals. I think four to five times. That whole, you know,”

in the eastern conference, yeah, it was just Cleveland and a bunch of whatever. Yeah. So, and Nick's and calves now. And then, and then the wolves. And we'll talk about the wolves later, because I want to do what do you do. But sometimes, like, being one of the final four teams is okay, I think we just overreact to where it's like, we didn't win the title. What do we do? And it's like, I don't know, man, there's 30 teams in this league. There's a lot of good players. Like, if I'm

the calves, I'm like, all right, this was pretty good. We were down 20 in the second round. We made it. Like, maybe let's cool the jets on all the panics up. Now, if they had lost tonight, I would have had five trades for you. I, I totally agree. Making the conference finals is really hard. And there's only four teams left and you're one of them. And you've learned something about yourself. You're going to be better all for it. The next year, when you're in the playoffs.

“And you know, you were doing the hump thing. Like, I was like, where's the hump? Because a lot of”

these teams you were mentioning made the conference finals, but not the finals. And I guess that hump is the finals. I mean, that's like, and again, like, when you get a tear down a conference finals team, because now you have decisions to make in the salary cap forces you to make decisions and all that kind of stuff. But it's hard to get that far in the playoffs. And, you know, I mean,

the West is just a completely different animal. Like, Minnesota loses to San Antonio in the second

round of the playoffs. I'm supposed to panic about now there are things to panic about. Like, Julius Randall disappearing is a thing to panic about. Rudy Gilberre kind of sneakily disappeared in the last two or three games. Well, I mean, he's, that's a catastrophe. Okay. I was trying to be nice for, for Rudy, because everyone just, it's just he's just a punching bag of the anti-air. No, it's a punching bag, but just trying to be nice. I'm trying to be nice. You're being bullied.

He's been bullied too long. I'm trying to be nice to him. Putting that aside, if I'm Minnesota, I'm really scared that one of the people I have to go through in my conference, Victor Rambadiyama, just completely annihilated by center to the point and Stan was making it on the broadcast that they were, they, and I talked about it last week too on my podcast. They were re-jiggering their rotations. The wolves were to have Rudy in the game. Only when Wemby was not in

the game, not good or limited. Yeah. So, look, but it's hard to make the conference finals. The calves are pretty young. And yeah, I don't know why. There was something else I was going to say in Ephrago, but it's, it's hard to make the conference finals with Detroit. So, we talk about they're obviously not panic. They're young. Derns 22, Cates, and his mid 20s. There's a trade for a second score. Let's, let's try to get Cates some help. No question. There's probably a coli-liner

conversation. There's probably a, we don't have enough to get J. Limbran conversation, but what's at least kick the tires? There's a, hey, do we make our version of the Desmond Bane,

“Macau Bridges trade for trade Murphy and see if the world is interested in that. But I think”

it's somebody like that. I think it's, I think they have to find a reliable second score that is not to buy a service. That's not to buy a set of good season. And I actually really like the way played the regular season, but the, the play I speak for. Well, the question that you're going to have to face is, what's the salary that you're throwing in? I mean, you can throw in all your picks. I guess, and that's pretty valuable. Throw in all your picks on your swaps. They got everything,

but I got to get up to a number, right? Like if I'm the names you're mentioning, I got, I got to get up to, even though they have a big number. They have Robinson, who's 16 a year, the next two, but he's only 2 million guaranteed this year. So they can get out of that. They can, I think they could trade Stewart pretty easily. And I think that's somebody that's just throwed one. But just sort of J. Lim, you just threw J. Limbran's name in there. The Boston Celtics are not trading

finer than the appeal in Brown for Isaiah Stewart, Duncan Robinson, and a bunch of Detroit first

around picks. Like that's, you're not getting a guy like that. They're not, and the problem is they're

not getting a wire trade Murphy for what they have to trade anyway. I don't, unless Thompson is involved. Well, they're not doing sort of a pass. They're not doing that. And that's the other thing, they have to figure out, do they do they extend Thompson? Do they give him, you know, do they jump the gun on the RFACs and take it out, basically? I mean, look, we could get a lot of pretty, I mean, we had the four guys who just hung and restricted for agency forever last year because they're just

was nothing out there for them. We've seen the rockets already play pretty tough with some of their internal free agents and just say we're not giving you the max. How about this? And if you don't take it, we'll just be happily negotiating against you and restricted for agency. Yeah. And I think

a rule. And I don't think teams have adequately taken advantage of it. And I think it's really

like, if you can chip 8 to 10 million a year off some of these contracts, again, it sucks for

the players, but it's a weapon that you're, you have collectively bargained to have. And I like, I'm sorry, Thompson really hurts the flexibility of being able to fix your roster. Once you do that extension, your, your poison pill. Look, we're just, the, these are just the rules. I have to live in it. I can think about other rules, but these are the rules that it's now. And under those rules, like, I'm not extending a sartopsid. Now unless he's willing to take a, a pretty big

discount. And because if I'm, and if I'm a sartopsid agent, I'd say, like, oh, no, I want the max. It's 25%. And like, then we're not negotiating. Then we'll go to, we'll, we'll take it to a restricted for agency. If a, if a sartopsid agent asked that or said that, I would cut a 45 minute video of him missing eight footers. And be like, we're not giving you the max. And here's our 45

“minute answer on that. Well, I think that would make it a footer. I think it would make it a footer.”

I don't know if that would go over well. I think that would be perceived as rude. What, what would the backyard basketball one on one games between the tops and twins, like, ferocious. I wouldn't want to be a part of those games. Just incredible. Is that why they both can't shoot because

the other one was so great defensively, they never figured out how to make it up a job. Just four

hour games, if you're like, we got to eat dinner. I know it's too, too, to 11. But we did her is ready. It's getting cold. Can we just call it a three? Um, like two, two, she does just fighting unable to gain up or ground on each other. Uh, I'm going to just quickly give you my, I had some Cleveland content in case they lost about what would happen. I was really excited about some of this. I wrote down an all caps LeBron is looming. I think we can close the door now for the LeBron comes

back to Cleveland. Um, hey, guys, I'm a former champ. I'm here to help. What if they lose? What if they can swept? I mean, I don't think they would what if it's four one and it's just the it ends like with a

“whimper. Really? Just closing or just closing it. What's the golf like in Cleveland? Because I think that's”

going to be the number one determined or for probably not great for a long time. I think he has staying in California. Yeah. Uh, I had some Mitchell trades, though. Okay. Well, let's say how about this. If Mitchell gets swept, if they, if the calves get swept, but I'm just trying to figure out what his value is. Fourth picture cargo is, Chicago's not doing that, right? I would, I would think not new GM new, new, new lease on life. Let's get it. Let's get a cornerstone. You guys, you know, guy, but

Brooklyn six pick, which I think is for sale. They were the, they were the first team that came to my mind when you just sort of six pick, triari and a future first call it in. Um, Sacramento seven pick with Levine, and I get another Sacramento pick. And then, uh, and then Atlanta, eighth pick with dice and Daniels, something there. He'd be very good on Atlanta. I mean, he'd be very good anywhere, but there would have been a, a really interesting discussion to be had of Donovan Mitchell, almost 30

eligible to sign just a, one of these extensions is just going to be a just gigantic amount of

“money if it's a max extension going into his mid 30s with a playoff record that I think, by the way,”

has been a little bit underrated as he's come under some scrutiny in this series. I think he's been pretty goddamn good in the playoffs. And there's been a couple of series the last two years for the calves where he felt like the only one he was like the bus driver and just just just the only one that was really up for a fight Orlando game seven was a good one, too. And he was great tonight. And, and, and, but there's still what I've been interested in discussion like, you know,

small guard 30 plus 30 and into 33 34 35 on pms 70 million and he's never made the conference

finals and that discussion is at least forestalled for now. The bigger issue for me with that kind of money is to make anyone better, which he was not doing during the playoffs, but he did tonight. I did get got an email earlier today from Alex Taylor. This was before we knew the result who said being a calves fan is a lot like having an elderly relative, you're taking care of. I always have to watch and I'm rooting for them, but I kind of can't wait for this shit to be over with. That's a

dark email. That is, yeah, I think that's where the calves fans are mentally, I guess. I needed her warning for that. That was an awful Alex Taylor. She's Alex Taylor. Um, and then this one I got before game seven from Britt Pierce about watching James Harden push off on every drive and flop all over the for the best playoff moment this year has to be Dean Wade slipping on Harden's sweat spot. And to basket in the run out dunk, the referee should be embarrassed for the ship for two

decades. That would have been if the calves that lost, that would have been the signature play, but they won and now nobody will remember. There also would have been like I'm sure there was an understanding between James Harden and Cleveland Cavaliers about what would come next. When he has this player option for next year. Yeah. And the clippers, there was clearly an understanding

of that nature of James Harden tends to change teams and find one where he finds a better understanding. But if they had just flamed out in the series and by the way, he was two of 10 today. It's not like you covered himself in glory in this game. He just didn't turn the ball over. I like that. I thought he was good. Two for 10 was deceiving. I do think, again, I'm sure they've already kind of talked about it. But I like, can you just, I would have been like, use the off the end of your player

option and we can just wash our hands of this because he's got to see an old in front of my eyes.

“I don't think that's what happens. It's I think the pair options 43. Yeah. No, he's,”

it's, what's going to happen is he's going to get an option. He's going to have to get a long tour deal. But I'm saying if they if they flamed out in the series and he goes down like he's gone down at other games sevens before, if I'm the calves, I'm like, I don't know, man, how many more years of this? Like, I know we treated Garland. Don't you want to do what if it was like 27 and 27? He's going to take that. I guess, I guess you would. But he's in the, what draft was in 2009? He's old.

He's getting old. He's getting old. It's just him and curry from that draft now, right? Does anybody else from that draft? I don't know. You're better at the draft stuff than I am. I think that was, but and you do get to, you do get to have him as a trade chip in case you have one of those meetings that doesn't go well and then he gets traded to another place. Well, the question is,

is this the third straight team he felt like he was wink wink promise something that then

did not materialize? Yeah, I did. I didn't sense, um, it didn't sense. He's a lot of empathy for Daryl Mori from the James Harden camp when the news of Daryl Mori's firing was rinkling through the combine in Chicago last week. I want to invite Daryl on my podcast and just pour truth serum into getting the tell all kinds of stuff with the painting of Harden be in the background.

“You think he still has the painting? Remember the Ramona Robshawler with that piece and it was like”

sitting in the living room, stands this painting of commission from this artist for this amount of money and it's James Harden doing this and then it's a quote from Daryl being like, yes, he's my news. We will be forever connected. We hugged on the tarmac all those years ago. Well, when he has this podcast on the ringer, maybe James will be one of the first Daryl Mori. Daryl Mori,

did Daryl induction be amazing. I don't, I don't think that one will happen.

I don't know if there's a lot of, the mismatch hard to, the mismatch 2.0. Yeah, that'll be more than a mismatch. I don't see those two getting together for a pod. All right, next calves. Do you, well, you'll do Tuesday morning, so you'll be able to do a pick on that, sir. So I want to step on your podcast. Listen to Zack's pod. I'm picking up picked the nicks. I'm that there's no amount of film study or whatever that I'm doing tomorrow that is going to

make me pick the calves. I'm picking the nicks. It's just a matter of how many games I would

“lean right now toward nicks and five. Just because I think Mitchell will have one game when he”

goes nuts. That's usually usually what happens with him. I love one game where everything goes right would be my guess, but I don't. I just think the nicks, it's weird. We have three classes of teams this year and I too as we get in the final four because we have this okay C San Antonio all the way up here. I think we have the nicks here, but punchers chance of being able to hang and assume it's either those teams. I don't question. And then probably the calves here. I think those

are the three levels. Yeah. I think the nicks could win the championship. I wouldn't bet on it. I wouldn't pick up not going to pick them over either of the Western Conference teams, but if you told me it's a 25% chance they could win one of those series. That sounds reasonable to me. I think the next win in the championship, this is going to get cut out in a social media video. I'm fine with it. I think the next win in the championship is the biggest thing left in any sport

other than the bills, Vikings, or Detroit Lions winning a Super Bowl. And I probably left out another team where their friends are going to be mad at me. But when you think about the nicks not winning since '73, but the generations of fans and the drought of 20 years. And there's just so many parallels to me with the Red Sox pre-O4. Just the emotion that will come out of that, we cannot, I don't think there's another basketball team that would have it. And there's some that

it's unrealistic because the Sacramento Kings as long as they have the current owners will never win

the title. So we can't even be like, oh, and Sacramento, it's like we'll never know because they're not going to win. Phoenix, a little bit, just because of all their tough losses, but other, I just think the nicks have the most fans, New York's the biggest city we have. Generations of fans go home back to the 50s and grandfathers and great grandfathers. And I just think it's the biggest thing we have. >> Well, look, I mean, outside the arena is already a complete shit show after

every game. And I mean, that mostly affectionately, but also like leave JR Smith alone and leave

I mean, they're the nicks. I mean, this is they are an absolute iconic team there in New York, steam in New York is a big gigantic city. I would throw out like the timber walls Vikings, tofer in Minnesota would be pretty huge. >> Well, how about this, Minnesota hasn't won a title of any kind since '91 and I'm going to think the twins, I don't even think they've been in the finals in any sports since '91. Pretty sure that's true. >> I mean, my north star is quite like a

sense of history as a whole muddled. >> But the thing is like, I know there's been a bunch of

teams that have had droughts or have never won it all. Like the Maple Leafs fans are listening me

right now. Like what about us? And just the nicks are the biggest city in America. Like they have the most fans. That's the point is like they've had 53 years of just getting their teeth kicked in

“and they have just a shitload of fans. So that's, could that's why I would make that argument.”

>> Can I give you one more of that? >> The bets are a 40, by the way. >> I'm aware and we beat the Yankees today and come from behind the bottom of the tenth win to take the subway series yet again. Can I just throw one other team at you? >> Yeah. >> I am curious to know what modern Atlanta would feel like if they got a team that they really felt like this could be a championship team. Like the Bud Hawks, I think

everybody knew they're going to run into the Cleveland Buzzsaw at some point. And this was like a very fun team at a very fun story for like the basketball seat, right? Like all of the past the ball that do all this cool stuff with Corver? Like what if they got a like a cool last dude like like jail and I mean it was but like like Anthony Edwards, what ever don't do that? >> Like University of Georgia, Georgia Native Anthony Edwards, and had a team where you like

actually believed that it's that team's like they would go crazy there. >> That would be a pretty good one. Hey listen, lots of teams have a one Indiana get back there after the Haliburton coming so close and Haliburton going down like that would be another one. But I just think the next have the they've so many fans and some but I you would I mean it's a little less fair for you because you're in the vicinity. >> I mean the heartlamps. >> We just I just know there's so many

next and it's like all they want. This is it. All right. I'm going next in five. >> Okay. >> This might pick. I don't know what the odds are. Let's talk spurs okay see. >> Oh my god. >> You you were asked me what I thought the most anticipated series has been since you and I have known each other which was 2011. I tried to hire you it didn't

work out and then you finally finally came to Greatland the next year. You sent me all these

series that you thought were in the running for most anticipated playoff series. >> Trying to get my headspace back into what it was what it felt like before those series started. >> Yeah Kirk and I talked about this for a scratch on Tuesday and I said that I thought this was the biggest series in eight years but I didn't really put a ton of thought into it and then when you

“and I were talking about it. I think the weirder thing to me is that we haven't had like a”

mammoth series like this in eight years and I don't really know all the reasons for that because I do think we have a lot of talent in the 2020s. I don't know if it's bad luck or I don't really have an answer but I know that this is this feels like the single biggest series we've had at least since the first Cavs were one but what would you go like what was the top five that you landed on. >> So first of all my theories as to what you just devoid that you just talked

about are I have a few theories will you let's hear it no let's go let's dive into it. >> I think the pandemic fucked up like two and a half seasons they just didn't not that they don't don't don't like or fans I'm not saying that it just didn't they didn't the games didn't feel the same obviously. >> I'll say no don't be the games are in a fucking bubble with cardboard cutouts of sand and then the next season there was attendance restrictions all over they could just

didn't and then I think the parody like we've had seven championships in seven years we just haven't had these like two colossuses who are rising next to each other and meeting in the playoffs over and over again 60 plus win just like jogger nods and now we're going to have that I'll give you my top five I made my top five before you give me the top five yeah I have a point off your point because I'm glad you brought the COVID I think that would have been the best and biggest

the most anticipated series but we didn't get a cuz COVID would have been Lakers Clippers first coire second LeBron year they were the two best teams in the league and we were headed that way and

“I remember the weekend before all the COVID should happen and I think that might even played”

that weekend and it just was clearly I remember you in a podcast that's Sunday and it was like

this is it man we're headed we've never had the LA versus LA collision course this is fucking

happening why was the raining finals at BP LeBron had his fastball back like Davis was there we were

ad campaign that was like we're the anti-lakers of LA it was great and it just immediately was over

for for two plus years we never had the awesome nuggets kind of oh my god nuggets series either

big and probably the closest was that that first battle with the Timberwolves when the Timberwolves ended up beating him in game seven but there wasn't an anticipation for that like with this spurs yeah there's no anyway the nuggets are in a bunch like a bunch of my honorable mention top 20

“anticipated series like I think thunder nuggets last year was like that was a pretty hot series but”

again it wasn't like it was earlier now you need like it needs to feel like this is the finals right now there's big legacy altering stuff I have two of hopefully the two best guys in the league but at least two of the best three or four like you got to check a lot of boxes with this which is what this series does so what do you got my top five I did this from LeBron signing in Miami until now top five most anticipated series I said you at least I have like 20 finalists my top five were

I'll go and reverse order number five Oklahoma City San Antonio Western Conference finals 2012 it was like the old guys versus the young guys the spurs had acquired D-out at the end of that like a middle of that season and they were on like a 20 game winning streak going into that series or they had killed the clippers killed them they I think they had won 20 straight games after going up 20 in that series and then the thunder were like oh we're just younger and more athletic

and we're actually ready and they just wiped the spurs out four and row so that was number five by the way on that 2012 which was a great basketball season and it was right after the lockout so it was all condensed sped up and there was just a lot of basketball happening and the thing that sucked is we lost Eric Rose at the beginning of that playoffs but we had Chicago Miami Boston on one side and then we had this lob city team that came out of nowhere because

Chris Paul ended up on the clippers you had this proud spurs team trying to get their thrown back you had okay see you know ascending um and then you you had with there's one more right okay see clippers now that's it those three so we had maybe grit and grind Memphis was like going around there yeah kind of lurking but yeah that was a I thought both of those thunder series because heat heat thunder in the next round was also really great but I like the non-finals for this

okay I'm with you on that one number four most anticipated series warriors thunder Western conference finals 2016 ends up being the clay Thompson game six series um just so I had that higher

I had that second on my list okay no because it was 73 and nine it felt like it was the

ramps last maybe he was getting out of there maybe he was going to Washington maybe he was going to Boston the gold state buzz had started but most people didn't know whether to believe it or not but it just felt like there was something moment has happening ahead of us I'm not done with that team that you're yet on my list number three out of a bunch of candidates from this two year era the 2014 finals heat spurs two

I think just the happiest I've ever been covering basketball was being at the back-to-back heat spurs finals just so many awesome players awesome story lines the vengeance storyline in the second one that the one out the 2014 one after the rail and shot deer before broke disperse hearts uh and it would hit heat favored for that series too which people forget that's the air conditioning game is in that series oh yeah the air conditioning goes out

honorable mention I just think disperse the spurs thunder conference finals from that year is also

“awesome that's why number three by the way clippers clippers thunder that year was awesome too right”

was that 14 honorable mention not so awesome for the clippers but honorable mention uh the clippers had quite a dramatic playoff run that year with Donald Sterling happening right before uh yeah number two the 2016 NBA finals 73 win warriors Lebron and the calves just this

set the rematch after the first one had Kyrie injured Kevin Love injured and it ended up being

not quite a fair fight as the Warriors won their first title and number one just slightly over that 2018 western conference finals warriors versus the rockets team with Chris Paul and James Hardin and they switched everything and we're built to beat the Warriors and actually had them on the ropes the ramp warriors the invincible Warriors that had gone 16 and won in the playoffs the year before I think that was my number one it's a great list so I had I had five of the six

“folded the one you didn't mention that I think is lost the history and was fucking awesome was”

Warriors rockets 2019 went to ramp was hurt and it felt like it was we were headed toward the end of this Warriors run that was awesome um we're probably weren't getting to ramp back it was

game six uh what do you have like 30 in the second half I think one of my hero in the first

half and it's also not just one of my favorite carry games it's one of my favorite carry and dream on together games because they just run the same two-man game on the right side of the floor over and over again down the stretch but they do six different things out of it in six different possessions and the rockets just don't even know what to hell hit them and it's one open shot after another 18 western finals is a great one because it kind of did feel like the finals that LeBron had nobody left on the

Cavs that season uh that weird Celtic team that didn't even have Kyrie and Hayward almost made the finals came within a couple of mysteries and a console we had to like a couple of hundred but we also had the Chris Paul uh could this be it and then he gets hurt and game four that was an awesome series for this decade you wrote down Clippers Mavs 21 bucks next 21 nugget suns 23 six or Celtics 23 Wolves

“nuggets 24 nuggets clips 25 and Thunder nuggets 25 the only one I think could be in the discussion as”

bucks nets um but I can't remember when the injury started but it was Janus coming off two straight MVP's it was your greatest theoretical team of all time the nets it kind of felt like whoever one that series was making the finals and as it turned out it was the correct assumption because the other series was Hawks sixers which was the uh the end of Ben Simmons's career as we knew it but um but bucks nets was I think we were excited for that and then the injury is just started coming

yeah we were but I was trying to remember trying to put myself back into the space of like I must have been pretty pumped for that series um COVID was back at that point it was just that 21 was weird I don't really remember talking about it and by the way I now remember as I'm going through the whole list of my honorable mentions the very first one of my honorable mentions listed uh chronologically is the 2011 NBA finals he Mavs and we were talking before about how

making the conference finals and losing should not be treated as some catastrophic failure or I have

“to upend my entire team and pivot in a different direction but I forgot to say now remember to say”

is that Mavricks team is the quintessential example of that yeah they tweaked here and there but they failed in the playoffs over and over and over again with dirt often in high profile ways and they just took the attitude of it's not that bad to be a 50 to 58 win team every year and just be good and good and good and maybe hit great in the right year where we get the right matchups the right chemistry whatever and maybe we'll win a title and they won the title and

it's one of the most beloved title teams of the last quarter century the NBA they are the poster team

for you don't always have to like blow it up or trade three people when you're running into a

wall in the conference finals or wherever over and over again so what are the 22 warriors the poster boy of there is there won a title anyway even though they should have made trades and they didn't because they were doing the two timelines both well I think they're the poster thing of like if you have a top 12 player of all time wherever you think stuff is like you shouldn't it and he's in his prime just like just keep trying to win and they did

basketball is really good from 12 to 14 we still have a lot of good teams and a lot of good players I think the 2010 South of Glakers rematch Dorf saw of this I think for a variety of reasons it also feels like it feels like the end of basketball and the start of this new era basketball ironically in this new decade when the three started to come in and the new to rant moved up and curry and all of these little brown went to Miami it just feels like basketball shifts as a sport

“and that's how the Glakers series incredible anticipation but also feels like the end of a specific”

generation at the same time I remember thinking at the time and I was not at this is 17 years ago whatever 16 years ago not as well first in like the early early history of the NBA as you were then I am now so you can talk about the 69 finals whatever great I remember thinking at that time could you make the argument that this game seven is the biggest game in the history of the NBA Celtics Lakers Lakers trying to like close the title gap Kobe the big three Celtics going for one

last ring when it felt like they should have had another one never did and just I don't think that was

a crazy I mean I'm sure we could go back and find other candidates for such a lofty designation but it had to be up there yeah there's like there's a couple finals that I think levitate above the rest of them 2016 it's definitely like that I mean that's you could argue that might be the biggest one not to think at the time in 1610 I was thinking is this one game obviously yeah 2016 that that was

that's why like if we get a game seven in this first under series oh my god I think we're gonna feel that way right because fun this I know Wendy's 22 but I don't care man he's seven foot seven like you you got to take a year by year when somebody's got that kind of size and I just

am always nervous about injuries of them and then okay see you know you just never know

it's really hard to just put title seasons together it's hard to keep everybody happy they've done a great job of it press the famously and some of the stuff starting to come out a little about how he approaches player evaluations stuff but really thinks about personality chemistry

“wanting to build these guys that are all gonna pull for each other that's why he sees some”

like Jared McCain and he just grabs him there's like a certain type of person that he values and they probably had the best chance of anyone of having a long long run with a tail without any disease of more stuff happening but well you talk about stakes like shade just one

to second MVP in a row today it was announced yeah if he they go if they break it yeah

Sean somehow scooped everybody but was it a scoop did we did anyone think she was not when in the MVP is there one person I'm sure no I mean I don't think it was a surprise but I'm sure the league and it's broadcast partners preferred that to be the other broadcast partners preferred that to be out at a different way yeah that wasn't great but but if they break the no repeat streak in the NBA now and he wins another finals in the NBA and they're still pretty young I mean like

the historical stakes for him and for the standard team are now very big and they they will begin to put if they win another title and they break the no repeat run they will begin to put themselves into position with another title whether it's next like if they win three out of four or four out of seven or something they will get into some pretty big historical discussions and like that starts now that starts with like this this title and this is the first time

they mean they if you're like they've barely participated in the playoffs it's been so easy for that now we're here yeah back to back finals MVP Jordan had came shack Kobe Lebron and Durant that's the entire list and then back to back regular season MVP's Russell Wilk Korean Moses Bird Magic Jordan Duncan Nash Lebron Curry yannison Yoke and Yokech. The yannison second MVP kind of kind of reinvestigate that one at some point. Well look no one reinvestigates an MVP race

“like you I mean you got a whole team under you I think I voted for yannison but I but now it's like”

when they always talk about the Lebron winning up MVP's that might have been the shaking one

that he should have taken to keep finish second I got I'd have to look back. Yeah I don't know I remember only for yannison both times so anyway the the the people who've done the back to back regular season then finals MVP it's not a not a long list also speaking MVP Yokech got second place he he officially top two MVP sixth straight years him Bird and Russell that's the whole list. Wow I thought it would be a little closer in the in the voting that it was.

Yeah 83 first first placeers for Shay 10 for you Joker and five for Wemby so you thought Joker would get more votes? Who do you think was gonna get more votes? I thought Yokech would would snag like 10 more first place votes or would just be a little bit less of a route than it was. I have a segment I didn't tell you about called spurs okay see legacy check. Okay wow look let's check some legacies out. Just mentioned Shay okay he's

really going for something unique here with the back to back and finals MVP and run MVP. Chet has there's seeds of the Wemby feud going really since like 2023 it's like is something's here that doesn't seem like there's a lot of love between these two guys and

“now they have a chance to really go at it he's I think he's solidified himself as the second best”

under guy it's probably the second best defender in the league second best center. He's their best chance to maybe nullify Wemby a little bit I don't know if Wemby can be nullified it might be impossible well it's definitely not the second best center in the NBA. I mean this goes back to before you know they were even in the NBA the international basketball scene there's a lot of there's a lot of Wemby Chet history and I'm just gonna say like just let's see how Jalen Williams

looks before I mean it doesn't really matter they're both awesome but before we definitively say that Chet has now surpassed him as the second best player in the Thunder I mean this was a dude who was

from yeah he's gonna play he's ready oh I forgot what he looked like well you get ready

he's gonna look right you're gonna see him again he was on my legacy list I wrote Jalen Williams hyphen um were you here I guess he was there do you not remember the finals last year he was on the lead no he was awesome I had him I had him like 12th of my regular 100 just like to

“see him play could he play could he play some basketball uh legacy Sam Prestey okay I think a title”

getting by this series and then the next series I think officially um he becomes one of the great jams of all time I think it's just official yeah you talking our back and west and Riley Jericho Krauss pick anyone but um to put that whole Durant run together not have a quick at there and then do what he did with this decade it's it's he's certainly been the best GM in the league for how many years now the one that people point to yeah I mean 15 I don't know if it's quite

long it's very long time and there's indisputably he's in the gonna go in the pantheon of the best ever to do it yeah AJ Mitchell that's contracting the league bordering on one of the best this century with the way he's playing big three million dollars a year ridiculous trade bait

or keep bait for them and in my opinion hold on your horses Zacklow yeah the single most important

thunder player in the series thunderer bit single most important thunderer for this reason the spurs are gonna go small and do that three guard thing and try to do speed and unleash their pit bulls and they need Mitchell to be really good they need it and be as good as he was the last two rounds they're gonna have to play lineups with him and SGA together and a defender and might even have to go a little smaller and he's just gonna have to be good he's gonna have to do what he's

done and we haven't seen him do it at this level we've seen him do the regular saves that we've seen him do it against in series where they were much better than the other team this is a whole other level so we're gonna find out I love that you brought him up and I think you did for exactly the right reasons I think it's very much worth noting that he missed three out of the five games

the teams played this year and you felt his absence in the games he wasn't there just the second

dairy ball the more ball handling because I mean the spurs secret sauce against the thunder was we have a ton of ball handling and enough that we can a get into the panning at your defense and be not collapse in a

“hail of turnovers because we have reliable guards and that's how you feast on but the thunder”

can play similar lineups now that AJ Mitchell has become AJ Mitchell to this degree and I think we're gonna see like I've been waiting for the thunder death line up all year and we've barely seen it and it's Shay AJ Mitchell Carruso, Jalen Williams, Chet-Hongran at the end of some games or the crunch out of some games it's we've had glimpses of it one of the glimpses was in one of the spurs games I was rewatching all of it I think that's an awesome lineup that if we if we

we see everyone healthy we'll see a little bit more of it hopefully in this series and we've seen what's the lineup again? Shay Mitchell, Jalen Williams, Carruso, Chet it's like I want to close me up the defense with Carruso and Chet, but I have more offense than the three AJ and the dork spot, three super dynamic ball handlers in Mitchell, Shay and Jadub and just I just think it's like look there's no dork so you lose a little heft right and there's no case in Wallace who's

sort of your defensive ace in the hole at all times but just something to watch for because the other thing with the spurs is this is a fun series for them because they can play the Wemby with smaller guys lined up, they can play them with three guards in a swing you know, play with three and a half guards whatever they want and it's not like okay so we're like okay we're going big and you're making it they're just not going to be able to do it so I do think the guard's versus guard staying

which was a huge advantage for San Antonio okay see how's the guard so I have Mitchell Alex Carruso role player Hall fame is like in reach now for him absolutely this would be three titles for him

“I think they really need him in this series specifically because I want to see who do you think”

guard's Harper for them? I mean I think it's good all of these are just going to be a combination of tons of different people depending on who else's in the game. Right so let's say let's say end of the game they go Fox Harper castle, the cell and Wemby. I mean they rarely play that they disperse rarely put all three other guards on the floor together it just it just hasn't happened very much this year but sure we can we can stay we're doing a little more in the playoffs though

just a little but not very much because Champagne plays a ton killed in Johnson plays a ton

is right like I think we would the thunder are awesome in any configuration and we have not seen

“hardly any of heart and steam and home we're in together against the spurs with Wemby on the floor”

so those those two the double big the best double big they have that you can't you got to play shooters they've only played 33 minutes against the spurs in five games in it was really only in three games and if you go back and watch a lot of them were against Cornet and Harrison Barnes because Wemby came off the bench and two of the games that they played and so they start and Wemby comes in and like it when it's Wemby is the only big man on the floor for the spurs and

shit is the only big man on the floor for the thunder I just think the chess match that's going to evolve over the course of the series is going to be fascinating starting with do they guard each other and if so how often because the thunder have put shit on you know Harrison Barnes

called Johnson basically not Wemby and the spurs have kind of toggled between Wemby sure you

can guard shed you can guard anybody but we like you have like guard choruso and roe of guard dork and roe of like I just think that chess match is going to be super interesting and will dot guard Wemby every one of them that will happen dork guarded fox a lot so they're they're based alignment when it was one big versus one big if they had one that was used the most frequently it was like dork on fox and jailing Williams on Wemby Nyama to switch that pick and roll

and they would have the bigs elsewhere on the floor but dork will guard Wemby some caruso guarded Wemby some like dork throw everybody they'll put hard and steam on them now and then like

“particularly I think when the the starters are against the starters it's just going to be super”

interesting to see who guards who it's going to be I know I'd love to know how many people

okay see he's going to actually settle on as the series goes along is there basically playing

ten and sometimes even eleven in the last two rounds but I think that gets narrowed down I didn't they probably end up at nine would be my guess right that's usually what it is I'll tell you I can't tell if it was because okay see was you know like AJ Mitchell was out for a bunch of games a couple of three of the games as I mentioned and but like a guy that saw a lot of the floor against the spurs in the regular

season games and it was not played hardly at all in the playoffs is Ken Rich Williams and I do wonder if he's someone that they look at as do we try them at the five a little bit or we like his shooting at the four next to Chet he guarded Wemby a bit I wonder if he's a guy that is going to get a shot to play a little bit in the series Wendy I have for legacy as this would be the single crazy is the sense since 1977 Bill Walman pretty much if you're just like hey I'm going to

actually win four straight series and take the title here at age 22 Harper is definitely moving into that 1981 McCail 83 where the 88 Pippin 2003 Manu and Tony where this is just the guy at the beginning of his career who is also a huge chess piece and it's somebody that I genuinely think he has a chance to be a Hall of Fame like top 50 guard there's like how soon I were talking about the other day like like I was there when young Jason kid showed up

and you know some of the best guards of the last 40 years I've seen the beginning stages I just think he has it like I would bet anything I don't think that's a daring bet he had it absolutely has it he's going to be a star there's a world in which this was a popular debate question I was meeting everyone at the combine was a best player from that draft in five years and 10 years

“is it automatically Cooper or is it Harper those were two? I think people would defer to the size”

that Cooper has but I think Harper being the best player on the draft is in play and by the way all

the love Harper is getting is incredible like he's incredible and the genobly comparisons are

lefties they come off the bench no please mentoring him it's an amazing story he has totally stepped up in the playoffs Steph Castle's averaging 26 and five on 49% shooting and 44% on three and just being a gigantic pain in the ass to everyone at every position on defense and he's going to guard SJ a lot and like I just can't I just can't wait for that what a show that's going to be I had Castle is the next legacy guy I wrote down horrific haunting of the 2024 top three draft

oh my god what a story terrific at this point the Reed Shepherd stuff I mean for teams at half of it I had him first but but but for teams that have massively high stakes like are ready to win big right now the rockets in the spurs the spurs didn't quite know that they were going to be ready at this fast like that's a huge sliding doors moment in like the the coming history of the west brutal coronette Barnes I was gonna say when are we champs I was like we're going to say

when are we going to get the coronette second title when is that tomorrow's how about Barnes what

King's basically months ago and now it's is in the best series in 10 years I just watched the

a jailbreak jail the jail blazers documentary on Netflix escape from Sacramento sounds like the next netflix or Amazon batting ball mini dock Mitch Johnson vs. Dagna the most boring great coach match up and NBA history sure can anyone name three things about either of these best Mitch Johnson was a Stanford and more diagonal quote. That's it's that's that's that's that Mitch Johnson son of John Johnson yeah NBA champ Seattle ended up on the Celtics in 1976

“and something got screwed up and I can't remember what happened the trade got void it or the”

signing something weird in actually to trade him getting a Seattle but during that brief time looked at my mom and dad's condo came into the condo because we were selling the condo moving to another house and John Johnson remember the Celtic walk through the condo and six year old me almost had a heart attack or seven year old meh over all of us what a that's that's my most exciting Miss Johnson story for you that's a lot of information about Mitch Johnson's dad to how long could

somebody spend with Mitch Johnson and Dagna together drinking beers before something fun oh I bet two hours no I bet not that long I like because Elvester's gonna come out of Dagna to some everyone get you get a couple of people a couple beers in it becomes a fun time when I'm my college roommates was from lemon sir Chuck LaPasta LaPasta Chuck LaPasta I'm sure and then last one for me for legacy check Adam Silver okay the spurs next series is sitting right there this is

“your biggest rating series since 2016 when be versus next what what are some strings remember”

when the spurs were the boring killers of ratings even when they were like yeah exactly yeah basketball team and now they have freaking like I nobody can take their eyes off the student people who know nothing about the NBA are asking about him and watching these games and by the way I'm like we've barely scratched the surface of just how awesome this series could be and we were texting like I I looked it up because I'm like man the spurs every loss they've had in the playoff

has been like when we got a cushion when we did that way you got ejected and I looked it up in the last since February first and look everything says the thunder should win right it's experience versus youth the spurs have been taken their lumps back to back champs number one seed

all of that stuff and their records incredible and it's absolutely terrifying to not pick the spurs

because instead February first the spurs are 37 and three playoffs in regular season when when be plays at least 15 minutes in a game 37 and three in half a season it's at they just don't lose when he plays a real game they don't lose any games anymore feels like they're just up 20 all the time but you could say the same about okay so I'm picking the spurs okay they are what what did what is there what are the odds for this right now let's see

so they are plus 220 for the series I'm taking it I would do spurs in five 151 or spurs in six plus 5550 for these these are bets are you just picking them to win the series no I'm picking the spurs to win I'm just saying that the value I like

“are those two I think I think asking the spurs to win a game seven with how young their team”

are is in okay sees a little ambitious I think it has to be in six I like Ben Godney mentioned it today it's a great point I thought Ben Godney's been really good the whole playoff shout out to him two men both clearly his destiny for broadcasting three men didn't like them two men great

made a great point about the rest in this thing we see this every year we always forget the team

that's been playing and is in the groove and you know can just go from one series they always have an advantage in game one over the team that hasn't played so I think the spurs I really think they actually have to win game one to win the series as goofy as that sounds and I think they are going to win game one and so that one on fandle spurs to win game one in the series is plus 450 so I like that that too but I think the spurs are going to win Zack I just think they've caught

lightning in a bottle and this feels like 77 blazers to me I'm tired of thinking about the teams from the past and how you got to learn and take your lumps and I just don't think it matters they have a seven foot seven guy who's out of control and a bunch of pit bulls and they absolutely struck oil with this doing harbour thing like this is to get those three

best guys are 22 21 and 20 I think it's going to I think they're going to win I said it on Christmas

the spurs can win the championship and they absolutely can win the championship. Oh and I forgot one more thing in my my pick. Okay so Jalen Williams thing is I know he's going

“to be back and they feel good about it but I think it's a weird variable to introduce”

into the biggest series of the year and I don't think it's going to be seamless and I do think okay see as too many guys I don't know about all the roles with all those guys and they can I know they have great chemistry and all that stuff but I don't even think they know who they're best five to seven guys hours I think San Antonio knows I think they know exactly who they are what lineups work and don't work for them and I just think they're going to win.

These are all great reasons spikters spurs you don't even need great reasons spikters spurs they

won sixty whatever games thirty seven and three in their last forty games on a one be place more than fifteen minutes. I mean it's an unimpeachable pick they can absolutely win the title. I'm going to pick the thunder and seven. Did you expect it? The Jalen Williams thing is not a worry to me other than is he going to get re-insured again. I think he probably could have come back earlier had they felt any kind of pressure at all for me the sons of the

makers and they got to sit them out for a long time. I do I still will like defer a little bit to the experience factor and having been through these moments of like big total stress although the spurs seem completely carefree to the point that when he was like yeah I'll kick a game by elbowing Nazareth in the head like I don't really care well lose this one we're going to be fine I just want to elbow Nazareth in the head because I'm fucking annoyed at everything. Yeah

and I look they have a look thunder got a lot of guys they have a ton of continuity so I don't think inappropriate introducing jade up is going to be that big of a deal and they're just going to have to make some decisions maybe it's a big versus small decision maybe it's like not a nice as they are Joe series maybe it's whatever they've already done it with Aaron Wiggins too and whatever thirty seven and three you can make there's a similar record sitting out there

for Oklahoma City and it's last like forty games with Shane or something like that. It's scary this is what the spurs did to them in the regular season was legit I went back and watch all the film you could definitely see Shay looking uncomfortable looking like this is my pet this is my pet jump shot this is the pet move I do every game but the guy on me is a pretty good defender and like I see that the giant arm there and I know he can jump really far and get to and like you

“would see him pull out of shots that he makes in his sleep but I think I looked these are too”

awesome teams I think Oklahoma City has some court advantage their more experience and I do think they probably have a little bit of an extra gear that they've been waiting and saving and reserve

for a series like this so I'm going to defer to the champs and pick thunder and my second if the

zone is long as we're being full disclosure my second backup pick would be thunder and six like this is not a case where I'm picking thunder and seven but I kind of don't it's wishy washi and it's fifty fifty I would I'm picking the thunder to win the series so I think I would go thunder and seven thunder and six maybe spurs and six is the third most likely outcome but I'm going thunder we both three long series six games is plus T10 on Fando and plus T20 is seven games

and that's another way to do you could just be both what sweet plus 1200 or something like that oh my god spur sweep is twenty five to one thunder sweep is plus five fifty I just don't see it that's whoa over than I would have expected okay say in five is plus two ninety okay say in six is plus four seventy it's pretty strong actually um can I just give me a chance and a little love for this yeah I mentioned how like teams have obviously all season gone back and forth with putting their

their centers not on a webbie and Oklahoma City has done that quite a bit um and castle is now like the guy that they try to do this with and castle has just been like you think this works like this isn't going to work how about I just shoot forty five percent three and when I'm not doing that how about I just barrel to the rim with all the space you're giving me and also for 32 points an elimination game but he's been the guy that like clinging guarded castle and on and on

mid season moving Harrison Barnes to the bench in favor of Julian Champenney I mean it's one

“of the most important mid season adjustments that coaches made in a long time it completely changed”

the spurs because Harrison Barnes was the safest guy to put your center on and Mitch Johnson had to go to Harrison Barnes who was having our nice year making a ton of corn trees but starting to slow down be like hey man and is a is a bigger, better defender than Julian Champenney bigger

like relatively unproven shooter over you because we just have to maximize when be and you're

you're too safe of a hiding spot for these other centers they can roam off you they don't have to guard him and our goal just has to be we're going to make it as hard as possible for you to finagle the matchups with where your center is on the floor and like it's Julian Champenney it's not like some like ten year veteran with a track record in Harrison Barnes ate it and he took it

“and you remain productive and now he's barely playing because that's what happens in the playoffs”

and it worked and it was like not a gutsy move but it was like a it was a big like seismic shift in how the spurs are guarded I think it's a good one um Minnesota quick this is another thing for my San Antonio case yeah I think Minnesota was really good and I think San Antonio just kind of broke them as the series went along specifically Randall who just his brain broke during that series is a rough run which was at a hundred percent they used some stuff against

Minnesota you know obviously they were lying on calmly a little too much go bare was eradicated in that series but I actually thought it was a more impressive six game win because they really should have just swept them you know when we get to kick that out of the one game I don't know that that game one looking back like they if Champenney just hits the three they maybe they win that but uh I really like that Minnesota team which brings me to a what do you do with them um Minnesota

Randall has 36 this year or this upcoming year and 33 the next year go Bears 36 and 38 they asked up to figure out Io and different chances 12.5 expiring next year um I don't think Edward's or McDaniels goes anywhere do you buy anything that this team got a little screwed up holistically when everybody was getting shot for three minutes there when they thought that a chance to get you on us um not really because you you didn't hear a lot of that when they were

kicking the shit out of the nuggets and the first round like it wasn't a probably wasn't a problem then against a team with you know one of the two or three best players to the minimum two best players in the world and that when you lose then it becomes a problem all of a sudden but against

that team was a problem what's the problem is Julius Randall's been in the playoffs four times in

his career and three of them had been complete disasters and one of them last year was we thought

“okay got over the playoff hump after just I think he came into last year shooting like 30% for his”

career in the playoffs and had a great playoffs and he reverted right back to what he had been in the first two runs of the playoffs that was that is that because of the trade stuff I don't really I don't really buy that I think what really submarine them was anti-airwords was an hundred percent I always in a hundred percent even chenzo tours Achilles and they stopped playing Blunt Island like they just kind of ran out of ran out of ice and then go there had four points combined in the

last two games of the series I think it's a good showing for them with all that injury stuff to take two out of the spurs I think is a perfectly fine showing doesn't feel good so they can they can put together Randall and deep and chenzo's expire he's not gonna play next year if you play zill won't be back to April and you could take back somebody else's big money problem if you want okay that you could be like all right we'll take Zach Levines last year

“well why is Randall why what is that doing for me I'm just I'm just pointing out they could put”

those contracts together if they wanted to change something they could think about something like that somebody's big expiring which would give them more trade flexibility and December January February maybe then what they have I don't know what you do about go bear after that spurs series and who knows say it might be a get over the hump thing like we talked about earlier where they had their run and this is kind of where they are and now they're clearly just going to be behind

San Antonio no KC for the rest of decade and that's where we are you know what though I get again like this is a franchise that from the last couple years of garnet to the one Jimmy Butler year just sucked sucked continuously and sucked in every possible fashion I mean like a little flirting with like we're all we're five hundred with recubio and Kevin love we're like a fun team to watch Nicole the Peck of it but like they just weren't good they did nothing in the playoffs they had the one

Butler year they were using the first battery luck with Rubio bad engine without Jefferson and just like

everything goes wrong and then they bought the Butler thing goes hey wire and then you're back not quite to square one but back to like we got to figure out what the hell we're doing with the team and now you've been in two straight conference finals in a conference semifinal where you win two games off Victor when we down like this is just indisputably an awesome three years for the Minnesota like all of their fans should are are elated by everything that's happened without that

somebody else well this was the this was always the mystery of like they're in an honest they're in an honest they're one of the teams that's like in in last 72 hours still in contact with Milwaukee and I never got how that was gonna happen because they don't have any they have very minimal to

know first and on picks to trade I never believed that I never understood how they're getting them but

“I believe but McDonald's would have had to have been in the trade for them to have any sort of”

assets to think about for Yana's I think well yes I don't I don't know again I don't know how but yes if there's a person on their team who's getting you multiple good first round picks that's who it is and you know I don't I just don't know how they're gonna do it but if they were trying then they'll surely try again god I hate bringing this up can we talk about Yana's straight value for a second when you this is your favorite one of your favorite topics so go ahead

well we're gonna be talking about it for the next four to five weeks he was in the news this week because Mao's Turner gave that interview to talk about that was that was pretty I have no problem saying this because he's not gonna be on my team like next year so here's some tea I'm gonna spill

or it's just like hey man they paid me 25 million dollars a year where I didn't have a lot a lot

of other options I'm just happy as a clam this is all great for me I know he's stumped this year though I can't really find the team for Yana's I thought this was gonna be a lot easier last year

“if we were doing this a year ago I think we had multiple suitors and just just kind of talking”

to people and hearing from different people about this I'm really surprised how Luke warm the market is for him I don't think people feel like this is a home run this will change my franchise I will now have a chance to win the title it was telling that San Antonio okay see you want to know part of them when they had the most assets it seems to me that the team that would trade for Yana's would be a team that needs to take a little bit of a hail marionor as a

really short window and that rules out a lot of teams I you know my dad and I have kind of landed the we hope it's not the Celtics that's where I've landed after looking at this from every direction I don't it's cold and awful in answering tomorrow Simmons I don't want Yana's in Austin get that guy fuck it out of here I don't know I went through all the stuff what two months ago about the year 14 and after big guys and how how kind of creepy the stats were and how few

guys even were able to put up 20 tens and the injury history hit in the last five years and I just doesn't something's just telling me to stay away and I know some teams will talk themselves into it but I just don't know what he's worth I don't I can't figure it out so what of your as you talk to people in the league what are you hearing so I mentioned this last week when I got back from the combine that it like the thing comes out from shams that the bucks are

quote open for business which you already knew that they're going to be open for business Jimmy has some came out instead we're going to be open for business gum we wanted to do it before the draft if we're not going to sign him or if he's not going to sign whatever and it just like there's a it's an interesting paradox because there's a general I mean everyone was in Chicago

I saw a million people yeah there's a there's a general assumption that he will get traded

because that's just what happens right like when the toothpaste is as far out of the tube yeah and yet no one can really identify the team that that fits the right the right package of like we have stuff a lot of stuff that's going to entice me walkie and we're going to be good enough to justify sending out all that stuff when you honest is here and I said this I had I met up with a a very high-powered agent who knows things and we were just shooting a shit and I said

so what's your put your bed on you honest and he said you know I'm just I'm going no trade I'm in the contrarian zone I think I'm going no trade I think he's going to be on the bucks and I was like really wise like I just don't know what the team is who's the team go through all the team find the team and it was like I heard you say this it was like a fairly convincing argument that

“I still but didn't sway me like I think he's going to get traded still and that's why I said after”

all that if I just had to bet if you made me like pick a team that is it if I just had to guess if he's traded where is he traded I would put my amy as my number one guest team because they fit the Hail Mary thing you just said because they have just enough stuff that if they threw it all together the bucks could sell it is like hey we got we got a lot and maybe we can reflipped this one guy we got and like get another thing and but I don't feel great about that package

whatever it is if I'm Milwaukee Portland would be the other team and I don't even know if you'd want to go there yeah they're saying he's at least he's not a two-way player so you can travel

Max and said he thought he would thought it was more like hockey I saw that I saw it I didn't realize

all the players went to the games yeah well he learned he learned a valuable lesson some of the stuff we keep hearing everybody seems terrified about the injury history and the miles on the body right using almost like a running back and football or a car that has a ton of miles on that's gone across country just wondering if I get young as how many years left am I actually getting there's also the stylistic thing if you already have a best point in your team how is that

person going to fit with the honest guy who likes to have the ball who likes to be a top of the key

“how does that fit with somebody like Jason Tatum right and then you know I think everybody”

loves yawnest the guy I think everybody thinks he's a great guy but there's some there's some stuff that comes with yawnest right he's got multiple agents he's got he's got the two brothers he's been the superstar in a in his own team now for 11 12 years probably used a custom to certain treatments and it's just it's risky to bring somebody in like that we've seen it not work in the NBA where it's like I'm a big star I'm walking in this is down my new team and sometimes

it doesn't work great even when Dame came to Milwaukee it was rocky there for a year it was a similar situation so I think we're I think we're both looking at the same team and but would you say what kind of hell Mary situation would you say you still expect him to be traded though I do I do because here's what I think has changed I think it's become acrimonious with him and the GM I think him not playing at the end of last year I I don't think it's on good terms

what's the understanding I mean the miles turner stuff got kind of a chuckle from people but

that was real shit and he's basically saying the dude was never on time ever without saying who it was

but we knew who he was talking about and like I mean I didn't realize I did he not say who it was did he not did he just say it's the best player or whatever um yeah he there was some dancing around but you could tell who he was talking about I mean that certainly wasn't kind to dock either that kind of stuff in noise whoever it is a noise players like I've heard stories about we had to hold the plane because this guy was late and everyone's grumbling because they have

dinner plans when they get to the city are like the guy was late for his massage table appointment and it was like I created this whole backup that room to everybody's days and when the guy if it if he's talking about you honestly like when the you just if you're the best guy on the team and you're the franchise guy you can't do that stuff is not acceptable for someone if you're

“you have to be the other way you have to be the guy who sets the standard for the rest of the team”

there's one other team that I think we have to mention and it ties into another thing that I've been wondering about if there's going to be punishment against the cuppers should they be moving fast right now and trying to trade their picks in case they're worried that they might get taken away and if you're going to do that like do you just could you just trade the number five pick for yannas right now and just we're trying to win a title with coli and yannas in garland

and yes I think they would have the cap space to do it they could put a couple of

expirings there to make it to make it work and basically try to jumpstart if they feel like a

punishments coming because I think the the feeling is we're going to have a verdict pretty soon the I that would shock me if only because I mean I was there when it happened and I saw other people like they just feel like they got a new lease on life with this pick I mean just to new that it completely changed everything about their franchise and it would just absolutely blow me away if so who are the other hill merit teams then I guess you could say if Cleveland gets annihilated

“by the next maybe they're in that zone but that's what I would say would you trade mobile for”

yannas straight up at this point with the injury history because I don't think I would I'd be I'd be that's a smart move it'd be I don't know if I would do it honestly but it if like a couple years of Mitchell plus yannas is is interesting yeah that's like a classic two-year window yeah I'd be very nervous to do that so yeah how the playoffs play out is a big part of it right we haven't mentioned Houston and then you have the other kind of older

hill merit teams who may not have enough to get it done like the lakers and the warriors and teams like that right but well that's it rockets I mean would you trade shengun and another contract for yannas and throw some picks and I don't know if I would do that the only other one I could think of is Brooklyn I do not as we said before I don't think they're keeping their six pick and is it like a two-part move or move one is yannas move to is something else

Brooklyn is like they've been floating around the room remote like this with yannas for a long

time and the question has always been like what who is yannas going there to play with and given

his age in his injury history you don't get a year to be like we'll find another guy like that

“year you have to have your team ready to compete at the highest possible level the six pick is”

super interesting like I haven't heard a lot of buzz about the nets in the six pick yet but they're just in the range where everybody's a guard and they just drafted a million guards and and not all of them are put you like your guy buries is not a is not a point guard so maybe he would fit there but it is an interesting place for them to land he can't entrap a cup for waga or half has to be six they just have the most value and they don't need either

those guys I also think all the intel I've gotten is that they don't want to have another rebuilding year like they want to be good they're tired of this and the nets are in a weird spot the

side family who I think everybody thinks are great owners and it's like a first class team

they have this awesome WMBA team situation where they sell out people love it there's real energy in the arena and then they have this net team that's just punted and they're playing in the same city as a team that's about to make the finals barring something crazy happening so I don't see how they don't try to I had someone make the the best possible pitch to me about the nets at the six pick and he was just I don't even remember who was it was a front-off

guy in the letter team he was just he didn't know anything concrete he was just saying this is what they should do he was like I don't even care who they took in the last draft they should take a cuff because he would just be like the ultimate draw like the hipsters like this kind of is a cool undersized guy who just cool stuff like he would just fit what they just give him a buzz give him some hipster like street cred like he would do he was just like fuck all the guys they

just picked maybe they'll develop maybe they won't they should take a cuff no matter what if he's

“still there I agree with it because he has real-guy repotential and you have to investigate it but”

yeah so if we're talking you know the draft still five weeks away but I do feel like we're in range now it's May 17th the draft is in five weeks and I think some trade stuff is starting you know for sure the Celtics are certainly looking at it I think the Celtics whatever I've talked about this already but whatever they decided to do with Jalen I think would be I don't think it's a jannis move I think it's more of a can we get two pieces for Jalen,

sub-sallera cap or leave and maybe somebody that makes less money than him two years from now type of thing but I would say they're way more likely to keep them than trade him you know I would I do think it's more likely they use on the team next year than not I yeah I don't I don't know anything more than that

“so we'll see it's a weird situation alright well it's past been that year time and you have to get”

up early tomorrow so we have to go anything else we cover everything I think we cover everything you heard in Chicago that you didn't talk about in a podcast oh good I talked about a lot of it on my podcast

see a lot of people were there it was crowded it was it was everyone's always there it's one of the

great's like Vegas but in a shorter period of time in an normal city and not Vegas which I do like big is so a lot actually but um I all have to think about that I have nothing all right so we have we have nicks and we have spur we I have the spurs you have okay say and we both have nicks yeah okay thanks to Gahown and Warta thanks to Zach low as well don't forget new rewatchables for me tomorrow for that for a nice really fun one and then I'll be back on Tuesday night's accident I'm new podcast on

Tuesday morning after game one spurs thunder which should be an all-timeer that's great to see you as it was it's gonna be a blast thanks for having me must be 21 plus some president select states for Kansas and affiliation with Kansas star casino or 18 plus some president DC can tuck your well and game problem call one engine gambler 1 800 my reset call 888 797 777 777 or visit ccpg.org/chat and connect it or mdgambling help.org and Maryland hope is here visit gambling help line ma.org or call 800 327 50 50

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