The 30 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys, With Zach Lowe

From a low-compost garden, the best-time car is available.

In addition to the quality and the low-price, the price is in hand. Now all the garden products are in our daily and in the auction. In the auction, small prices are big, friends. It's Bill Simmons podcast, I am here with Zach Low, Sunday night, live on Netflix. I am so glad we waited because I would have had anything in today that Denver was going

to be our number four seed, not our number three seed, but no. They beat San Antonio. Anyway, Zach's in Denver because he is doing a live show there tomorrow night. I have a new rewatchable coming tomorrow. It is a live show we did last week, and San Francisco basic instincts.

So get ready for that. There is also a new ringer podcast coming. I wanted to mention on Tuesday that you can follow, subscribe now. It's a narrative podcast called Lagata. And if you like Miami-Vice and the 80s and drugs and cocaine and great stories and all kinds of things like that,

which I do. Get ready for Lagata two episodes coming on Tuesday. All right, Zach Low. Yeah. Do you want to start West or East?

Because shit went down today. Things happened. As much as I'm tempted to start with what the hell happened with the Orlando magic today.

“I think the West has to be the starting point just because of the implications of Denver getting the third seed.”

The lakeers getting the fourth seed. Just wide-ranging matchup implications across the board there. Okay. So Denver, all we knew from Denver today, they were 11.5 point underdogs against San Antonio. And all we knew was that Joker had to play like 15 to 20 minutes to be eligible for game 65.

Other than that, seeing pretty clear because they were resting all their dudes that they were really comfortable getting into that four or five matchup playing whoever. San Antonio wants to be Denver because if that would have moved the lakeers up to three, that sounds great to them. So they're trying hard the whole game and somehow Denver says, No, no, David Rottie. Big body ready baby.

Can't stop big body Rottie. Yeah. No Wemby for San Antonio. So now, I guess my question to you is, if you're Denver, are you like celebrating right now? Are you happy? I mean, you're celebrating that you got the over. Your over was 53 and a half for the year. Miraculous over.

I won. We did terrible on over under as you won for most most correct over under as all of us wonder 500. I went five and three of my locks. I'm selling that to my fans this summer off year, five and three in the box. But if you're Denver, are you celebrating what are you doing?

“I think you're like, you clearly didn't care, right?”

So if they cared, they could have manipulated it more than they did. And I think, look, you're going to have to beat these teams sometime. You could argue, like, is it better to go Oklahoma City and then San Antonio and hope one of them gets knocked out? Or is it better to go San Antonio than Oklahoma City? The order they're going to have to go now.

You might have to be both over me either way. Might as well have some fun. Don't tempt the basketball gods by manipulating the standings and pulling shenanigans on the last day of the season. Have some fun. Get in San Antonio's head maybe.

I don't mind it. I mean, it's six or one half dozen of the other.

I would have liked the easier first round matchup.

But it may not even make a difference in the end. And we'll see how Minnesota looks in the first round, right? Jada McDaniels just came back and just missed some time. They've been just up and down and weird. And Denver actually kind of played much better against the Wolves this year than they had in the prior couple years.

But I think there are three and one. So I like it. Go for it. Get some W's. Well, I was trying to think of the weirdest game 82 that actually swung seasons.

Because there was one. I don't remember what year it was with the Duncan spurs. But they lost a dumb game. In the last week or the last day and it swung the seeds and it actually like screwed up the playoffs. I believe it was some old down.

“I believe it was lost to New Orleans and the last day of the season that set up the spurs.”

Clippers epic first round series in New Orleans.

Yeah. New Orleans made the playoffs cause of it. Yeah. You're right. 2015 then.

So that was one. Then the other one was two years ago. San Antonio with Wemby beat Denver in the last week. And that swung the Denver seed a little bit. And then all of a sudden that road was much tougher.

You know what? Your road's going to be tough. You want to win the road's going to be tough. You know, I have some Denver thoughts on the road to the to the finals or whatever that I'm going to share later when we do our draft. I like it.

Rose going to be tough. Don't tempt the basketball gods. 54 wins for Denver. They don't have Gordon half the year. They lose paid Watson for a long time.

Cam Johnson's not really healthy till the last. I would say month and a half and they hit their over under by a half win. Feels like around the right thing and yet I watched a ton of Denver this year. And I really feel like that could have been 60 wins. They had some really dumb losses over the course of of the year.

So Denver, Minnesota. Now becomes. I think our best first round series. Right. That would be the best matchup where there's history.

I could see an upset. Great players are in the game. Minnesota seems like the relatively healthy. I think that's number one now. I think so.

I mean, Nick's Hawks has a lot of fun potential, but it doesn't have the history. You know, this is a rubber match.

“I think three of the last four years now that I'll have met in the playoffs.”

That's what you want.

Like that's where I've always happened when you face the same team four out of five years.

Three out of four years. A lot of the characters haven't changed. There's been some changes. But like a lot of the core guys are still there. It's one one epic seven gamer.

The last time they played that Minnesota. One on Denver's home floor. It's to Tim Connelly like hovering over everything. Yeah, really go bare draft day trade like stuff happening and Tim Connelly re acquiring him. In Minnesota's just a lot here.

And yeah, it is. And it's a big series for the wolves because I think they've banked a lot on. Hey, we've made the conference finals two years in a row. We play up to our competition. Sometimes we play down to our competition.

We get bored and wake us up in the playoffs. So now you woke up and you're six. And this is what you're looking at.

So you know, the most important thing is that you're going to be a second team all in B.A.

Maybe 13. I'd put them on second team. Good luck. That's not what you want. But that this is your reward for, you know, kind of.

Lolly gagging through parts of the regular season. You have to go Denver. San Antonio. Okay. No shot on happening.

Not happening. I don't like my chances as healthy as Minnesota is so that the most unhappy team was Minnesota. I'm sorry. They go into the day thinking they might be able to play the Lakers around one with Luke up maybe coming back halfway through the series.

Instead, they have Denver. The happiest team is the Lakers. Lakers now. Are they going to play? Yeah.

Yeah, they're going to play. To get to play that weird Houston team who loves nothing more than being up eight with four minutes left than then bone the game. I don't know.

“I think out of all those teams, they didn't have a real chance against Minnesota.”

They didn't have a chance against Denver. They didn't have a chance against Houston. They can tread water. Maybe it's 21 after three. Maybe it's 22.

Maybe they're down three two. Luke comes back like games six seven five somewhere in there. You know, there will be a game where the Lakers shoot 55 free throws or something crazy. Love it. Your plan.

The season's already wasted. No time. Five minutes. You know, there's going to be a game that Houston chokes away at 12 point lead with five minutes left. The people that haven't watched been watching them all year.

Like, what's happening? Why is KD dribbling the ball up against the press? What is this team doing? I'm prepared for this to go seven. That's the game that the body language doctor is going to write a 10,000 word column.

And I realize it would happen to the rocket. Shouldn't the rockets, couldn't you argue the rockets are the happiest team? Because they get the Lakers without Luke and without Reeves. Maybe Luke comes back. I don't know.

I'll believe it when I see it. We don't know when he's going back. Could you argue that the rocket to have one nine out of ten and are playing kind of well. That they're actually the big winner or that Oklahoma City is the big winner because Denver. And, and San Antonio kind of slotted where they should and they'll have an easier seconder.

“Like, I think Houston and Oklahoma City have cases too.”

So rockets, Lakers, both of them is static to be playing each other. Nobody can be offended because they're equally as excited to have the other team in a round one series. The other thing that got decided in the West. Portland locked down the eight seed, which means we have Portland Phoenix. It was an almost hilarious game 82.

The Kings, they're like a mongous. I don't, you watch Instagram videos of a mongous just taking down a sink. And you're like, how did that happen? Is that something you're doing regularly watching mongous?

I got a mongous for the first second. I had to delete it.

What were they? Eight, Nate, they're last 16. This is why you can't fire Doug Christy. You got to keep on me. Could be this could be the next, you know, pick a all-time great coach.

Doug Christy just won his 600th game. He said, coach, okay, you can't fire him. How could you, how could you? I got to say the young guys are looking better. When they remember, it was pretty good to see Doug Christy like a month ago.

“Who is that guy with like, the pony tail, the little guy?”

Oh, we picked him in the first round. Maybe we should try to play him.

Yeah, I don't know. I was thinking of nicknames for them. Whether they're the Sacramento Drunk Kings, because they're just drunk at all times. You've no idea what to expect. They're the drunk guy at one in the morning. Anything's possible. They go like the game maybe two today. It's like, I don't know. They could beat Portland.

We'll out to be Portland, because they're the Kings. How can you figure out anything they're doing? I don't know if they're drunk from a drunk or a Menno or the Sacramento Drunk Kings, whatever they are. It's had three bears in them at all times. I think it's, it's just a lot all the time.

It's just, you know, we've already made great fun of the intentional foul on Seth Curry.

And just, you know, it's bad times when your defense in the court of tanking law is your own incompetence.

That's the only, you're on her? No, we're just bad dumb. Yeah, we just misread the situation and we're stupid. They have a guy doing cardwell, kind of feisty backup center who I have in my head called him Duane Coswell 130 times. And it's just too much for me.

“And I think I'm just going to, I'm just going to say that he's doing Coswell.”

So anyway, Portland ends up holding off Sacramento. And now we have a really good blazer suns game in the seven eight matchup. And I have not looked on Fandel yet to see what the line is. But I'm going to guess that that line is around like the suns being barely favored. Would you agree with that? Like, so it's like minus two.

I'm not a betting guy like you are, but I was going to throw out suns minus four and a half or something like that. I think it's going to be a really fun game. I'm going to find out right now. I don't I don't see it might be too soon might be too early. Too soon we'll go back.

Fandel not ready for us yet. Maybe they're still trying to figure out what happened in that weird Sacramento game. I'm bummed the farm Phoenix. I would much rather play the Quippers. I just don't think the Quippers have enough size.

“And I think I think everybody's excited to play the Quippers right now.”

Like if I'm Golden State, which is going to be Wednesday night, I'm so excited. Can't wait to go. Might be Steph Curry's last meaningful playoff moment for all we know. Who knows? We have no idea if the Warriors will ever be good again. This is not a meaningful playoff moment. I'm sorry.

I know it involves Steph Curry and Quay Leonard and Dremond Green in a bunch of big names that now you. We could not call the nine ten game a meaningful playoff moment. I'm banning you from doing that. Counter. No counter. I don't accept your counter. Counter. They win the nine ten. They win the eight nine.

And now they're playing okay see.

The team that gave us the first great Steph Curry arrival moment.

The double bang when it became clear that this was somebody who had a chance to be a generational guy. And now we circle all the way back. They took Kevin Durant from them. They're going to be, you know, prohibitive favorites. They probably know chance of beating okay see. But okay see gold state. I would watch every game every minute and really enjoy it.

And who knows was Steph Curry? Okay. We talk ourselves into a who knows was Steph Curry by an hour before that series. By the way, they'll probably get swept. I was going to say I feel like that's a nice. That's like a nice pre game intro for whatever network has that game.

And then eight minutes in we've forgotten about the pre game intro and it's 26 to eight. Oklahoma City game one. Lutheran is just clubbing Steph Curry. Portland though, legs that I talked a surprising amount of them on Thursday. They now that Charlotte is no longer allowed as a guilty league pasting because they just became a well-known good league pasting.

Portland over the last couple months became the guilty league past pleasure team, especially when Obdi had came back. And Obdi is right on the fringe of a 30 mile B.A. if Luke has that eligible. Now I asked multiple MBA sources today. Hey, how about a Luke ruling? That would be cool.

Like we're all doing podcasts this week doing our votes and we have to turn the votes in. Like you know, it'd be cool knowing if Luke a dot should result or not because there's a huge still no idea. I think they're not even allowed to file the appeal until that last day of the regular season. That's now. And I mean, it's just I can't believe that we're in a situation where we have to wait for like actual litigators to figure out whether a guy is eligible or not.

Well, there's some salary cap stuff tied to this right, which is one of the reasons you didn't want to vote anymore.

“But like like I have castle on my 30 mile B.A. I'm just boiler alert. I'm putting him on and I don't know. Does that affect?”

I have no idea. Is that affect like his it doesn't right for no he's too soon into his career unless I'm. What about the Scotty Barnes that's a bump him.

Does he get like a percentage thing? I never said I try not to think about this stuff.

You got to be in the right year and I don't think either of those guys is in there and they're right you're so far. Well, we'll see with Luca. All right to the east the game of the day the reason game 82 exists the reason the play and it's so much fun. Boston against Orlando. Celtics were like 13.5 point favorites and I was telling you. Underducks underducks. Underducks. I mean, yeah.

They were alive dog to say the least. If you know anything about this Celtics team or Joe Mesola, Joe Mesola, incapable of tanking and for the record. You and I talked on the phone six hours before the game and you predicted exactly what was going to happen. I think we're going to play all their backups and the backups to play hardest shit and the magic would be like, oh my God, we're in a game. What's happening does does been vain.

Maybe come back are you still in the arena? Maybe come back and play. We might need you. This was if we hadn't had San Antonio Denver a weekend ago. This was in the running for game of the year. We had the reunion of the main lobster clause. This was it. This was the main lobster clause sports movie.

We had a Celtic team that had 11.5 million in active players playing Orlando.

Who's playing everybody except Desmond Bane who did the ceremonial. You'll play the first half. You played 82 games in a season. Congrats buddy. Have a seat. Enjoy the second half. And he's back in the game with five minutes left, which is the ultimate humiliation. Three Celtics had career highs, Baylor Shireman, Ron Harper Jr.

Who was on his way to 40 and got hurt and then Luca Garza. Garza hit the craziest three of the Celtic season. Orlando crawls back ties the game. The Celtics can barely get the ball in but if somehow schedule to two for one. That's basically Garza just shooting a 26 footer on Carter right in his face.

It makes it. And if you're thinking about voting Missoula for coach of the year. It's nights like this. This team is just from. Number player number one to player number 20 is just wired to try really hard and play smart and do well. And it was an amazing achievement.

I am I would vote Joe Missoula for coach either. By the way, I'm thinking of asking the lead to get my ballot bag next to you. But I would vote Missoula coach of the year over JB Baker Steph. They would be one two for me. And that my second observation is I'm almost alarmed by how delighted you are talking about game 82.

This might be the most delighted I've seen you talking about the Celtics on any of these podcasts. Because my favorite way to the year. I mean, this is your reality. Listen, Shireman is turning into a guy. Oh, no.

And now, when I say he's turning to a guy, I'm not saying like, this is somebody who's going to be an all star or be the focal point of an offense. But if we're he is now at least moved into the in a playoff series. There's going to be a weird bearer Shireman half quarter game. Something weird is going to happen with him above. So there's that.

“I like Garza and I think Garza is better than Bucevic for this team.”

And I know they're going to have a week to try to get Bucevic going. But I like the fact that Garza was really good. And I continue to love Ron Harper Jr. And I feel like on a lot of different teams. He would have played 25 minutes a game.

So all that stuff was good. But the reality is, this is everyone's like, is this J. Lens team or is it Jason's team? Who's team is it? It's Mazul is team. This guy, this is one of the best coaching performances I've seen in a long time.

He was, you could tell in the first quarter. He's like, was like a game seven. And he had that energy. And it was just was really something for a half a second for half a second there. When you were saying is a J. Lens team is a Jason's team.

The reality is for half a second.

I thought you were going to say it's Shireman's team. I thought for that was just like my brain just went for half a second.

“He's actually going to say Shireman, by the way, the, I think the way I would put it.”

Is like that guy is now ready to be a 20 minute a game guy in the highest level of postseason games. Like whether he has a half or whatever, like he's ready to play real minutes, real backup bench minutes against the best teams and hold his own up both ends of four. He's a good good player. A couple of fun things with him really good at at not always breaking up two on ones and three on ones, but at least kind of fucking up the play a little bit.

And an excellent rebound taper, which I know is one of your favorite skills.

There's two different taps.

There's one where the guys just blindly tap at backwards, which we were taught when we played basketball never to do that,

because you're jump starting a fast break for the other team. Then there's the other tapers that are like really smartly tapping it to teammates or in areas where you can get the ball back. He's really good at that. The flip side, Orlando. I think mostly, I don't think he wasn't on the hot seat before.

But this is a borderline catastrophic Orlando loss. I mean, they actually went backwards in the standings. They now have to play a playing game as the road team. Inexplicable, the main thing. And we'll talk about it in a second.

But this whole thing about just not taking game 82 seriously enough because the other team is going to rest some guys. The leaks too good now. Like we thought with Denver, we saw it with the Celtics. Like when guys play scrubs, they're not scrubs anymore, you know?

“The only thing I would say is all it cost them.”

And I think they understood that it was the most likely scenario by far. All it cost them was home court in the seven A game against the Philly team that's not going to have dual and beat. So let's just not pretend that it cost them like the fifth seat or the sixth seat. It cost them, and it's certainly embarrassing. The main thing was extremely unusual and also kind of embarrassing. But it didn't cost them that they're like, they should still.

They should still be able to beat Philly with no M. B. on the road. And if they can't and their season ends, then did Jamal mostly seat has been hot all year. It then erupts in flames, I think. It was a horrific coaching job. And I will say this as somebody who watched that entire game.

It was talking to people about it as was happening, being in disbelief that they weren't pressuring a team that had no point guard. The Celtics had no point guard in that game. They had Benton dribbling the ball up and shyarm in and run Harper Jr. And Orlando has all these dudes that could pressure you and people that can you try to trap. Just try to get some turnovers and they're just letting them walk the ball up.

I thought I was incredibly confusing, but the team that was probably the most furious was, you know, Atlanta, who can also look at themselves in the mirror because they decided not to care about game 82. And now that's played the next. Because they've had a chance to wait. Instead of the calves, but here's my question.

But now they have to go next round one, Celtics round two potentially, which I'm going to guess wouldn't be ideal. My question for you is, it seems like the Hawks were cool with that. I think they were cool with that.

“I think even mapping it to round two is kind of misses the point of what their season is.”

If anything in round two for them is gravy and sure would be nice to get an easier round two. I don't think they cared Nick's versus calves that they've played both, I mean, they've had good games going with both of them. And in the last week of the season, they lost to both, but good games. And I think they also probably wrongly assumed that Orlando would win, which would create a three way tie that they would then win and keep the fifth seed in Orlando messed up Orlando's plans. It messed up.

I feel he's travel plans, really got to cancel some travel plans, and it messed up part of Atlanta's plans. But in the end, I just don't think they really care. Yeah, well, I watched. I watched them play the next on Monday, and I watched them play the calves on Wednesday.

I saw the second half of that one. I watched the full Monday game.

And Alexander Walker was great against the next. I mean, he probably had one of his best games of the season. I ended up winning at the end. Brunson made some plays. That's the game of McCollum makes the crazy half court shot that doesn't count by, like, doesn't count. Finger kneel. The Hawks looks really comfortable against the next.

And if I'm the next, I'm fucking bummed. I would have so much rather played Toronto than Atlanta. Atlanta has dudes to throw on Brunson. Brunson's going to get his points and do all his stuff anyway, but they can throw Daniel's Adam and Alexander Walker Adam.

“That's not nothing, right? They could even put Jalen Johnson Adam if you want to go big.”

It's just a weird matchup for them because their teams kind of built to stop the other teams off some wings. But the Hawks have, like, just weird guard stuff. They get points and bunches. And if you look at, like, with the last, I had this written down. Last 31 games, both teams are 21 and 10, and they're right next to each other in ratings.

So for 40% of the season, they've basically been right next to each other.

I don't know. I thought Atlanta calves would go 7. I would say 6 or 7 for this.

What do you think? I can't wait to dig into this film and everything over the next couple days, but yeah, I don't think it's going to be a quick series. Atlanta's ceiling is just higher than Toronto's.

Toronto can hum along at an okay level because their defense is always pretty steady.

They just can't hit the heights that Atlanta can hit because their offense is just pretty, it's pretty limited. To your point about runs in a Bayesian to see, I'm going to go back and watch who, you know, who they would have put,

“who Toronto would have put on Brunson in a playoff series. What, can you put Scotty Barnes on him?”

Do you need cap at these sort of things that we don't care about anymore? And the next dominated Toronto in the regular season. So I'm sure the next would have rather had that match up. It's a comfortable one for them. Atlanta is like this new team used to be like a pretty direct, as, as tricky as Tray was to game plan against on defense.

It was a pretty direct game plan like Tray's coming at me on one end. And on the other hand, we can direct our entire offense to wherever Tray is. And now it's, they're just a hard team to grasp and plan for and, and a tricky team to play against. The problem is they're like a bench guy short and it was funny watching Portland tonight, because Cratchy was playing for Portland, who they, they gave away a guess for tax reasons.

But I think that one of the games, I think it was the next game, they got eight points total from their branch.

They just got, like, nothing.

And Kominga is going to be, you know, Kominga is going to be hit or miss. He, oh, of 21 game might have to the next game. Um, Toronto to your point. Um, and this is Cleveland had to be another one of the happiest teams today, because Cleveland, I think Cleveland Atlanta would have been a kind of a blood bath.

Toronto went 500 for the last 75% of the season. They started out 14 and five. Um, they went 21 16 against the top three seeds in each conference. They got swept by the Celtics, they got swept by the next. So to your point on the ceiling, um, yeah, they, they finished with the five seed,

because it would happen with Orlando. But I don't, I just don't feel like there was any difference. Five, six, seven, eight, nine, even you go all the way to Miami. Like, I just, all those teams could look good on the right, right, you know. And out of all, all of those teams, I think my favorites probably Atlanta.

If you go from five through ten, I think I, I thought Atlanta was playing the best at the end of the year. Yes, Charlotte has, has not stumbled, but they've kind of come back to earth a little bit in the last ten games. Um, ended up ninth, which is great. It's a great season for them anyway. It's certainly they can still get into the playoffs.

Atlanta's been the highest level team in Toronto. This has been a huge talking point in Toronto all year. They can't beat good teams. They have them in good enough at home. They've actually been decent on the road.

Just a weird team who's offends on the wrong night. Just looks clunky and gummed up and we'll see how they do against the calves. It's a team that has a good bench, which can go a long way over the course of a regular season. But in the playoffs, I don't know if it necessarily matters at much. Atlanta and the calves.

What, which actually, you know what, let's take a break because I want to find out from you,

which one just first glance is feeling the most upsetty to you.

But we're going to take a break, come back and answer that. The bill Simmons podcast is brought to you by Fandel.

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We're going to do the upset conversation in a second.

Philly Orlando is one of the games. That's Tuesday night. No one beat. Mostly in the hot seat. Orlando trades all that stuff for Desmond Bane.

And wins four more games. And I don't think their fans are doing backflips about how the season went. Do you think if you're to trade? Do you think the trade has a preference out of Philly to trade Charlotte Miami for who they want to play?

I think it's like. I've got to get saw those teams.

“Yeah, I think if you asked to trade, they would say,”

Dude, we won 60 games or whatever. We're tough as shit. We play defense. We beat down. We're going to beat the hell out of all these teams.

We're not afraid of any of them. Realistically, I think you would have to say Charlotte would be the one that you would say. They have they've demonstrated a very high level play for a very long time and competitive against us although we beat them in the brawl game because they

could not handle our size in our physicality. That's what kind of trigger the whole. Be about they during. Stewart brawl. So I don't think they they'd really have a preference.

But if you're telling me. I get to choose between like fully healthy Charlotte. Philly without Embed or Lando like a half broken team. Miami kind of just like stumbled around for the last 20 games. I did at least want not Charlotte, but I bet they don't care.

And they shouldn't. They're the number one seed. Yeah, I would say Charlotte as well, except I watched that game Friday and the pistons really big boyed them in that game. Which has happened to Charlotte, you know, the more and they've been in

amazing story, especially when you think they started foreign 14 or whatever it was.

But they're a little small. And those the bully teams seem to really enjoy going against them. And I start no wonder if Detroit would just be a bad matchup for them. I might have been too low on Detroit. I especially like we did our scariest play at like scariest ceiling of a play

off team. I feel a little differently about Detroit than I did a couple weeks ago. Well, the way they weathered the K to injury was tremendous.

“And they're just they're just I think everyone is focused rightfully so on the outside”

shooting and do they have enough to have enough secondary creation all that. Jenkins has potentially answered at least a bit of like the can anyone but Kate creates some offense for us off the juggle. We'll see how he holds up in the playoffs. But they just get by with just cutting toughness, size, rebounding.

And their defenses legit topped a bottom there. They're really good. And like they they to their point about where they had where we had them in the

scariest draft like their offense may never reach scary levels.

But you're just not going to beat them in a short series. Like even if they lose to Boston or lose to the Nixon, it's going to be like a long nasty series. And that tends I think that just favors them because they're just bigger and meaner and tougher than a lot of these other teams.

And they wear you down. I think one other thing happen with them. So I was thinking about a Friday night. Because I really thought Charlotte was going to show up Friday night. And I didn't bet on it.

But I just felt like, you know, coming off the fight. It's in Charlotte. This will be a nice little test for the hornets. Like they're playing for stuff and Detroit really big boredom. I wonder like in the last month or so, because this. This happens and this more of a football thing than a basketball thing.

But in football, there's always the nobody believes in us team, especially when we get toward the playoffs. And there's this team that gets a chip on their shoulder because they feel like they're not being respected.

“Basketball. It's a little tougher because I think for the most part.”

It's really tough to if you play like shit, you're probably going to play like shit in the playoffs. And if you're really erratic in the regular season, you're probably going to be. Miami's really the only team that's been hit with a pull off the nobody believes in us thing over the last 10 years and a real chip on their shoulder and a switch. I think Detroit has that now.

I think they're, they just seem pissed off to me. Like I don't know if you read or heard any of the stuff from the Charlotte game, but like during didn't want to do any sort of post game, anything like can shakes. The game ended and like we're off the floor. Like they were still mad about the fight stuff.

I like it. So I like it. And then K goes out and everybody's like, well, the Detroit's done kids out. They're not going to, they're going to lose the number one seed. They didn't.

I just think there's, I've been reading between the lines, reading stuff on them. And I think there's an edge to them now that I'm not sure they had it started the season. Yes, I mean, they, they are the nobody believes in us team, which is ironic. Cause they're the number one seed. I felt like JJ read it tried to nudge the lakers into that when he was like,

everybody wants to play us and say, yeah, man, with no Luca and Reeves, you can probably, you can probably get why that is. You don't get to be the nobody believes in us team, but Detroit Detroit has a point.

People think they're young, shooting challenge, all that. K got hurt.

“I thought they were safe for the number one seed.”

I didn't think they were going to lose that at all. But they have a point and I'm very excited to watch them in the playoffs.

If they roll in the first round and come like guns blazing in the second round for Cleveland or whatever,

that's going to be a lot of fun. They have a great crowd at home. They're going to have home court. They got something with Jenkins that they didn't have before the All Star Break, where they've turned Jenkins now into a real asset.

You know, those cave minutes. They got to play a couple games here heading into the playoffs. So he's not just coming in. Look to good flat. I will say, though, this is, I want to mention this.

As you know, I'm the unofficial ZAR professional sports. I think this is another great case for the one seed in each conference. It should be five games at home. Two, two, three, because for Detroit. So, let's say,

Filly loses to Orlando, and now they have to play Filly in round one. But maybe in bead can come back. I'd wonder who they would want to pick out of the Filly Orlando Charlotte Miami, or what if Charlotte ends up being the eight seed and they're like fuck. And Boston gets Filly in Orlando's out.

It just feels like there should be some advantage toward being first that I don't think we have.

You're preaching to the preacher. I think the number one seed you get to pick it's on opponent. I think I'm fine with the five two home court thing in the first round. If you play the whole 82 game season in an era where teams are not really playing the whole 82 game season for good reasons for bad reasons. And you come out number one and in Detroit's case number one by a pretty healthy margin in these.

“You should get a bigger reward than you get.”

And by the way Detroit played its guys every game down the stretch didn't have to do that. They did it because I think they fried themselves on. We want to stay in rhythm. We want to stay in peak physicality and we want to deliver. Like we want to go in the playoffs feeling like we didn't leave anything on the table. And we're going in like full blast and I was fun.

You know, I wonder at the end of the year if a team should get a trophy from like the Adam Silver trophy or something for just like, I'm just proud of you guys that you gave a shit for every week. Thank you. Thank you for being a role model of how the league should work. You guys really cared the entire time.

Here's another reason why they should get a 223. It's actually better for Boston the way the setup is now because the seven eight game happens. And Boston's going to know from that point on who their opponent's going to be right there four days. But if you're Detroit now you have to wait for the eight nine like it could be like. Let's say Charlotte versus Orlando for the eight nine and you're not going to know until once again Friday night.

It's only done and then we go on Sunday. So you have the number one seed.

“Allegedly with a huge advantage not knowing who they're going to play on a Friday morning.”

Having to scout two teams and seem stupid to me. Phoenix Portland is the other seven eight. And as we said before, genuinely think Portland could win this. Scoot stock by the way, my accountant just called like a half hour go.

Asked if I saw the crossover in the first half when he just went right to the rim and looked like there.

Gross, I said I did. But Scoot, again, look pretty good. Obdia looks great. The center of the team has a nice vibe. That like, you know, if they win the set, if they are able to win the seven seed.

Put them against San Antonio. It's not nothing. I don't think they'd win. But if I'm San Antonio, I'm like, all right, this kind of sucks. I thought we're going to play Phoenix.

Is either team that pleasant to play against? I mean, that's kind of a rock fight between two mediocre offenses and tough physical defenses. Lots of turnover, lots of fouls. San Antonio is above. Should be above caring about this and should wipe out either of those teams in a playoff series.

But Portland's frisky. I've also held onto some Scoot stock over the years, not as much as you. So I've been happy to see that. And I'll pick all the play and all the playing games on my pod either tomorrow or Thursday or whenever whatever is left. I'll pick them.

And I, because it's, but it's folly to pick one game, but it's also fun. I very well might pick Portland to win that game in Phoenix. I have a Fandel line. You were correct. Suns four and a half.

You played it out of gambling guy and you're just picking lines exactly. Look at me. Portland is plus 152. I don't know what that means. I like it.

That means if you bet $100 and that means $152, they win. Okay. So, and then the magic sixers, sixers are one point favorites. And then the clippers are minus three and a half against the Warriors.

Interesting.

“Didn't we have an Atlanta Charlotte play and game at one point?”

I feel like that was worse. But though any game involving those two teams is just going to be, there's going to be goofy offense. Somebody might score 145. Lamello will take some crazy shots.

There's always fun stuff going on in those games.

Well, the 910 Charlotte Miami, which is really the, but one of the worst frarver is we have. That would be a fun thing. Top five worst frarver is Charlotte Miami. How many times do you think they played the playoffs series?

They're in the same division. I mean, they played once. It was a seven game ugly ugly series back in the day with a play three times. 2001 Charlotte won three nothing. 2014 Miami sweep.

LeBron's last year and then 2016 the aforementioned ugly four to three battle that Miami won.

“I think that was nobody won somebody just lost.”

Let's say Steven Jackson's still there on Charlotte now.

Who was there on Charlotte to Al Jefferson? I think they got out of campus and campus certainly there. Joe Henderson's problem involved. How sad that this was. I don't remember.

I'd think about this series a little bit with seven. I had an idea for this winner. Charlotte Miami winner advances to the eight nine. Luzer has to take terror as your back. That's it.

He's actually at the game. He's hanging above the arena like the world wrestling when they do the WWE. When they do the money in the bank belt. Terror is just in a strap hanging over the arena. And then after the game gets lowered down and rejoins one of the two teams.

That's my that's my. My idea. I don't know if you're into it. I mean, Rocher. I don't know if you're going to do it.

I don't know if you're going to do it. I don't know if you're going to do it. I don't know if you're going to do it. I don't know if you're going to do it. I don't know if you're going to do it.

I don't know if you're going to do it. I don't know if you're going to do it. I don't know if you're going to do it. I don't know if you're going to do it. I don't know if you're going to do it.

I don't know if you're going to do it. I don't know if you're going to do it. I don't know if you're going to do it. I don't know if you're going to do it. I don't know if you're going to do it.

I don't know if you're going to do it. I don't know if you're going to do it. I don't know if you're going to do it. I don't know if you're going to do it. I don't know if you're going to do it.

I don't know if you're going to do it. I don't know if you're going to do it. I don't know if you're going to do it. I don't know if you're going to do it. I don't know if you're going to do it.

I don't know if you're going to do it. I don't know if you're going to do it. I don't know if you're going to do it. I don't know if you're going to do it. I'm excited. As if this was like 2014 Blake Griffin, the Sterling Controvers, she's Chris Paul, young warriors, rising up, and I'm like, this might be the least exciting possible clippers warriors posties and matchup of the last 58 is the least exciting bird. But it's still it's still Seth Curry and it's still quite Leonard who's going to make second team all in B.A.

Stuff would have been right in that conversation too if you hadn't got hurt. You know, it's sad because I knew you when you were an impressionable pup. You'd wide eyes. You really love basketball. Just the thought of Steph and Kauai and a doer die game. What is the lady did no end. Now you've been on some studio shows. You're hanging out with me.

“Okay. All right. And now it's like you're too, you're too good for. No, I think good for Steph versus Kauai. Guess what. I'll tell you what's that. Hello. I'm showing up at like 5. 34 warmups.”

I'm going to get there soon as doors open. I'm in. I want to and I will expect if you are there at 5. 30, I will expect at least one tweet from the body language doctor about Derek Jones Jr's pre game warmup. I'm going to do multiple IG posts getting ready. I want to watch Steph do the full court. Heave shot whatever it does. If you're two questions off this game really quick. Ken Gold and state went to in a row. I think it is is conceivable as lousy as they've been this year. Could they just eat the clippers in Portland or Phoenix back to back. I think they're.

Yeah. Absolutely. If you're the clips do you wish you had zubats in this game and you're never made the trade or you still love the trade.

Love the trade. Good value and we'll see how the water, see how the water unfolds. I think that's also the right answer. And part of that trade was they thought they're going to need her house or who is a badass for like a week and a half and then got hurt. But I think that's your guy now. A math. Matthew and slump to the finish line.

I mean, it depends on what LeBron is going to want when he switches teams. Okay. All right. How much money are they going to have to have left over?

I'm not I'm not I'm not I mean, do you really you really think there's a chance LeBron goes to the clippers. I've always been told through the years hard no on the clippers.

I've said that as well. I'm just trying to torture the cup or fan sorry. Oh, they they've been through enough. My god. I Jen remember when I threw my warriors theory at you with LeBron a while ago. I don't know six weeks ago. I'm starting to become convinced that's going to happen. And I think it's the expendables when everyone's last alone did the action movie when he got all the older action heroes back together.

Yeah, and it was like never saw kind of an all star team of older. The longer was that I bunch of people.

“I'm really convinced that that's how this plays out.”

Look, they're looking at everybody, right? Like Stein. I think broke the news that they looked at Hawaii at the trade deadline, which is true.

Now confirmed that. That's true. Like if they're just like whatever who can help Steph, who's get a bull, if we can't get you honest, who could we get? Heard some yannas stuff, too. You did. It's been all over the but with the warriors are just how much the situation is trade preferences heard this. He doesn't want to be on the west coast, which rules out my Portland theory that I was really excited about. Okay, I heard because I looked at a map to back up the information I was getting.

Greece really is far from America. It turns out that's what the map said. Not close. As it turns out, Greece far away. But you're going from Greece to America. The East Coast turns out closer to Greece than the West Coast. The Portland Portland really far away. Portland's like you're talking 19 hours from Greece.

I don't know. It's 19, but it's long. I'm glad that this is dawning on you. I was going to the right away.

“I was going to ask if you want to talk about the Hungarian election today.”

If you really just want to get into some geopolitics or do you want to just just keep going that over to the side. Yeah. So put on the flip side. Suddenly a team like Charlotte not that far from Greece. Oh my god. Hey, look, they had look. Okay. We're not. We're not doing this. We're not doing this. We're not doing Jonathan. We're not doing it. We're not doing it. We're not doing it. We're not doing it. We're not doing it. We're not doing it. We're not doing it. We're not doing it. We're not doing it.

We're not doing it. We're not doing it. We're not doing it. We're not doing it. We're not doing it. We're not doing it. We're not doing it. We're not doing it. We're not doing it. We're not doing it. We're not doing it. We're not doing it. We're not doing it. We're not doing it. We're not doing it. We're not doing it. We're not Go back and go down the eastward eastern seaboard. First of all, the buck's probably shouldn't care and don't care anymore. And number two, give me the guy who's like, you know what? I want Midwest. I like it here. Give me another Midwest team.

Deal me to Chicago. Let me go save the bull. Someone has to save the bull. Someone has to save them from themselves. I'll do it. It's 100 miles away. I'll do it. I'm glad you mentioned the bulls. One of five American cities with direct flights to Greece. My lead favorite. It made your American airport by the way. Oh, here. I hate over here.

“I think mine is is probably Atlanta. It's just too big. I don't like when I have to get on a”

tram to go from one terminal to another. I don't like shramps. I just want to just want to land. You know, it's an amazing airport. Burbank. They were thrown into Burbank before. Burbank. We did

Sam, we did San Francisco. Burbank. Amazing. You're like out and you're like in your car in a second.

Round one. Okay. So Boston versus Philly or Orlando. Those are the two choices. If we go upset watch, let's cross up. Okay. So you're San Antonio because no round one team is beating either of them. Okay. Upset teams. Minnesota beating Denver. Who is even favorite in Lakers Houston? I better look at that. I, um, Lakers have home court. I would, I think used and should be favorite personally. Houston is giant favorites. Mine's 900. So Lakers are going to be the

upset in that. Um Cleveland, Toronto, so Toronto, beating Cleveland Atlanta beat in the next or Detroit or Boston losing to the Hodgepodge of Teams. What is your most upsetty? Where's upset watch going in your opinion for you? I mean, I think of the all those series. I'm going to just park Lakers rockets over here because I don't, we'll see who's healthy, who's not. I, I, I, I'm tempted to say Minnesota. I just don't have enough

confidence in the state of their team over the last month. I, I guess, I guess next, I guess next hoax, because I think the hoax are, are interesting. I will pick the next to win that series. But ain't the calves who have had their playoff bug abuse over the years kind of locked into a, a good matchup

as a bad game or Jared Allen gets pushed around on the boards or whatever usual stuff happens to them. That should just be a series they should win. I, I guess I would say the next. I would as well, because I just don't think Toronto has it in them to be Cleveland. I think that would have to be a real collapse. I will say Cleveland fits a lot of the recipe you'd want for a playoff upset because of their defense. That's just a great way to lose a series, not being able

to guard anybody and giving up a bunch of threes. I'm trying to think which team would have a better chance of upsetting to trade. And I think it's probably Charlotte, even though we just litigated how small they looked in that. But just a Charlotte three-point shooting. The longer that series goes, if they just got hot, I would start to get scared after a while. Plus, you're in a situation where lamello, I don't think he would be, but it's conceivable. He could be the best part in a series.

“Right? That's how he would be. I'm saying it's at least in play. It's in play. I keep trying to”

talk myself into what I thought the magic would be in the preseason like Franz's back, Anthony Black is back. They've got their full compliment of players. They have a scary upside. Their defense has been top eight in the last couple years. Not this year, it slipped backwards. Their offense is actually better, but it's still kind of a mess. But they have all these guys. They're all healthy. And it's just too much has happened. Too much has gone wrong. There's just too much

and there. And they should be, they should be the answer to this question, even with as well as Charlotte has played, the fully healthy magic who had a 50 and a half over under before the season should be the answer to this question. And they're just, they just aren't. We did bad on the overunderers. It was the worst I've ever done.

“Now, great idea. No, here's the thing. And I'm not making excuses. I think all the tanking”

really screwed up some of the record stuff. Like some of the stuff that normally works, even like one of, I had the the unders for Washington and Brooklyn, I think for, does that just thought they're trying to do? We don't. I think we all did.

The problem is with this many teams trying to tank, they end up playing each other at

a bunch of times. So you had teams getting wins that didn't even want to win. That happened. The Milwaukee, the Milwaukee Dallas, Golden State, those situations being where it was just an awful year. But now I'm really a motivator. Make a comeback. I have some of my playoff spots for you on Fandwell. Next minus 255 for the series over Atlanta. So that's a little rough. I would have said three to one, but minus 255 Atlanta plus 215 to win that. And then

Cleveland is minus 480 against Toronto. Toronto is plus 370 to take that. And then Minnesota Denver, what do you think the, you know, nothing about odds, but what do you think the odds are for that? Minnesota Denver. Based on all the numbers you just threw out on those other series, I'll say like Denver minus 500. Denver minus 330. Okay. So the so faith and faith in

the wolves, my stealth contender who all, first of all, stealth means stealth, right? Like low

chance, but possible, stealth is a key word. And also match up dependent and they've just walked into a nightmareish path to get anywhere in the playoffs. 330s a little lower than I expected, given ants up, you know, in and out of the lineup, Jayden has just come back and I, that's all lower than I would have thought. I agree. I think there's some pedigree stuff with Minnesota, just the two conference finals, which I think is meaningful. Okay. Enough for a play. It's time.

Okay. Last year we did it. This ago faster this year. Our 25 most intriguing people in the 2026 playoffs. We did this last year and somehow pick 28. Oh, highlights the last year. We did it

“categories. So it's basically a draft. We're going back and forth the drafting, but you have to”

draft a player for a specific category. And here are those categories of America. Apex Superstar beloved bench guy crossroads guy, meaning somebody who is at the crossroads of his career, crossroads with his team, whatever, defensive stud, feel good star, hot sea coach, hot seat wild card could be coach or player. I didn't know that could be a player too. You can be a human

big. Okay. Could be an owner. Oh my god. Let's see guy, second banana, third banana, the leap.

Last year I took Tyreys Hallebert and that's my leap guy. And he made a huge leap. Trade machine guy, somebody were coming out of the playoffs like that guy's getting traded. We blink and then we

and then stick him in one of those categories. So it's your most intriguing player assigned to a category. So you're expecting me to come in here and get Webby or Yokech or SGA because, you know, I guess I want to win this right like there's I don't know how one wins this, but you think I'm going to take one of these names. And I'm not. I am going to for the crossroads category. I'm starting here. I am taking Donovan Mitchell in the crossroads category. And I just think he's had a

fascinating career. He's made the playoffs every year of his career and has never made the conference

finals. His team and it's not on him. I'm people say like he's never made the conference. His teams have never made the conference finals. He's had some great series. He's had some clunkers. His team's particularly in Utah. I've had both both Utah and Cleveland. I've had some like pretty epic

“flameouts. I think in all, I think he's been in the playoffs eight times already, eight for eight.”

His teams have won. I think just one series where you could say they beat a team as good as them or maybe a little bit better. And that was his rookie year when they beat the thunder with Paul George and Russ in the first round in six games. They had the same record that year. Other than that, they've lost to their peers. They've lost two couple teams that who at their worst then. They haven't been anyone who's better than them. And look, Cleveland's obviously had a kind of a checkered history

with this core. They exchanged one member of it. There is Garland for James Hardin. Donovan Mitchell's the guy. I trust them most of Cleveland's best players. Like I expect him to be great in the playoffs. He's been great in the playoffs. He's been at times like the only Cavalier you felt you could count on in the playoffs. But it's just like I kind of want to see him make make a run longer than he's been because he's been such a consistently great player. And it's a crossroads

picked for me also because like if they if they'd disappointed in the playoffs again, they've already traded one of these guys. I just don't he's not like up for, you know, he's not a flight risk anytime soon. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying like there just comes a point. You've seen it with the clippers, the Chris Paul Blake Griffin clippers were like, if you just lose too many times too early in the playoffs for what your pedigree should be, it just starts to go sideways a little bit.

And I think Cleveland is kind of nearing that point and Donovan Mitchell. It's just I want to see a deeper playoff run. That's all. And he's had some bad losses. I think the last couple of

“years were bad. But the clippers Utah won. We're didn't call why. How am I I can't remember?”

Because that was why I got hurt. We did that. I got hurt halfway through the series and they still lost. They were up to 0. They lost four games in a row. And the sixth game is Terrence Man having

like an out of body experience and hitting a million threes. And just and the other the next year

when you talk. Limped out of the glacier go bare Mitchell here, Luca was hurt from part of that series. And they still couldn't beat the maps. That was the Bronson, maybe he could be have his own team. I thought that was a really good pick. I had I ironically had Mitchell third on my list. Not first. But I had him third and I saw the case. I don't I don't have for for that category or for just your whole list. I would have not I would have put me their legacy across her here's

the thing with Mitchell. We've gone through this a couple times with players. How far can we go with

“this guy? Chris Paul you mentioned him he got in there. I think Dame was in there too. Even though”

Dame did get to the conference finals and that really weird gold state Houston year when Durank got hurt all that you know and then they got swept but I don't think anyone felt like that was a conference finals team. Westbrook I think was another one where like what? How far are we going with this? And I think Mitchell is certainly a better higher upside player than Westbrook was. On paper he seems like somebody who should be able to be the best guy on at least a conference finalist.

I also think if it doesn't happen this year I wouldn't be surprised to be on another team next year which is why crossroads I think was the right pick for them. I think we both agree. If

something bad happens to this team in one of the first two rounds I'm prepared for any outcome

with any guy in that roster. Absolutely nothing nothing would shock me if they lose I mean got forbid they lose in the first round I expect them to win that series but if Detroit just we've seen different versions of Cleveland but with this same front line we've seen them get out physicaled and out tough in the playoffs before by big burly teams notably the next. If that would happen again in a Detroit series I just all bets are off. Yeah because you could even see

I don't know I noticed the luxury tax bill came out. 7 teams paid the luxury tax the

And then you look at some of the desperate teams around the week that want to make a big splash

and we'll see. Mitchell always like it always seemed like he was supposed to go to the next

went to school on Grand Edge like famously wanted to be the East Coast and then just kind of ended up on Cleveland. I've always been suspicious of that and maybe Brooklyn how many years in row are the size just going to be like yeah we're going to suck again like at some point they're going to have to make a real run and happen a team. Well they don't have to control their pick mixture which makes them kind of a wild card and you know if she's like I expect like down

to the Mitchell is resigned with Cleveland at the moment when he could he's got multiple years left on his table. Yeah we know that doesn't mean anything now. No but he's also like I don't want to make this too much of a panic thing he's got a lot of years left on his theily set all the right things he's been happy there. People tend to get less happy when their teams he's got actually he's only got next year in a player option left on his deal. He's also showing up for them

in the playoffs with other people on their team were injured or didn't show up. So you got to get them credit for that. But yeah this is a big a big moment for him and for the calves.

Yeah a really good season. If Luca is real at an eligible which we're just never going to find out

“if he's eligible or not. He is real at an eligible. I think Mitchell's going to be my”

five and that team. How about this? If we're going to take forever to make these rulings and we're going to have to litigate this. Why don't remember the NBA award show when they tried to make that a thing and they kept all the awards secret for the NBA award show. Yeah credit carpet and then they pretend like that just never happened and we never tried that. Let's never talk about it. Bring it back. If it's going to take forever. Let's all get together again in July and give

us some awards. We can get the lawyers can come out like the Ernst and young guys and announce it and talk you know who knows. I'm going to take in my in my apex superstar spot. I'm going to take Wendy. And I do think I liked your Mitchell case. I had Wendy first on my ballot. I think he is by far the most intriguing guy in these playoffs. I wrote down on my notes is this is 1975 Jaws moment. It's just just a moment when we're releasing a summer blockbuster and it's going to

make a couldjilly dollars and be known as one of the best films of its kind and and we're always

“going to remember this was the year it came out or we're going to wait a year or two years. Who knows?”

I've just, I'm old enough to remember when it seemed like Samson or Lazio, I'm going to be around forever and that lasted a year. I never trust any sort of long-term anything when big guys are involved and I know right now he has a really good team that's been kicking ass a shit in my first. He was the best part of song person this year on that voting firm for MVP but he was the best single performance I saw in person this year. My questions are can he play 35 to 37 minutes

a game in the playoffs which I think he's going to have to do for this team to win and you're going to have to rip through this Denver okay see whoever comes out of the east gauntlet when foreign or row. My question for you if they make the finals and he's aged 22 but they lose in the finals is that season still a huge win for him because I would say it is. Oh my god yeah absolutely even though you talk it out and you think they lost you an eastern conference team in the finals they'd be

favorite you get to get to the finals with this young group of guys and a couple of veterans would be a massive win. Great pick I'm jealous you got Wemby he also doesn't really fit any other category like he's too young for the legacy guys he's too good for the defensive stud category he's already made the leap I'm don't it there's probably another leap coming but it just because the only category you can really it may be feel good star could be but he doesn't feel right for that so you

got him in the right category. The other thing that we should just mention really quick and why you know I'm always excited for them be a playoffs trying to think of the last time a new guy was in the playoffs that was kind of can't miss I don't care who San Antonio plays every round

“I'm not missing a minute of the spurs in the playoffs and I think the last guy was probably”

Curry out of the new guys obviously going back to the 2000s there were others but when Curry and we were working together at Grantland I think it was your first year when Curry had kind of his breakout that year when they upset Denver and then they lost the San Antonio and at some point there in that it became like I'm not missing a Curry playoffs game anymore just period and I feel that way about Wemby I think Wemby out of all the guys that are in the playoffs I don't

want to miss Wemby or Yoke Edge one minute of any playoffs game with those guys. I felt that way about Luka when he first cracked a playhouse with Dallas and he lived up to the. That's good.

First play of the bubble and yeah in the bubble. You're right that's good call my apologies to Luka.

All right you have the next pick. All right I'm going to pick Yoke Edge and I have him in the legacy category.

“That's the right category and I think it's it's the right pick and for just this just this”

reason only. And I was hoping the seeds would fall this way for this pick because he is a three-time MVP. He probably should be a four-time MVP. I don't think he's going to win this year. He's going to get closer. You can get second again probably. You I think before the season said he's already one of the 10 greatest players of all time. I don't think that's premature to say that and I went over this my pod last week. If you look at all the guys who have won three or more MVP's it's a

very short list. Every one of them but Moses Malone has more than one ring and I think that's one of the reasons why Moses Malone doesn't get mentioned enough in these like all-time great conversations. And that's nothing against Yoke Edge who if you replayed the 21 and 22 seasons with the fully healthy nuggets it feels like they get one of those titles potentially like one of those may have belonged to them. You can make some argument about the clippers but at some point

he's going to I don't know if he's going to have to get a second ring to enter that kind of

stratosphere because he's just been this good. I just think if he does and if he does it this season by running through this gauntlet of teams the entire conversation about him goes even up another level where some of the the most hallowed names in the league begin to not only be mentioned alongside him but maybe a little bit behind him but that's if right that's if and at some point I do think he'll make another run to the finals and if it's if it's this year we're going to be having

some pretty high level conversations about him after the finals. Yeah I think I'll put that three through two picks. Now that's you made all the right points. I would have made all the same ones. Moses is a great comparison because he was the best part of the league for five years and had some bad luck with the team. So he was on only one one title only one final. He made the finals with like a 40 41 team.

But for five years who's the best guy in the league. Yo Kitch has been the best guy in the league for this entire decade. He's either been one or two depending on who got super hot that year or whatever else was going on. I did a tweet this week about this weekend about if he's second in MVP if he finishes number two which I think is conceivable that he'd be the third player ever to be first their second MVP for six straight years. The other two were Russell and Bird.

There's only he would be I think the six guy ever to just have six top two MVP finishes.

“I think MVP finishes are super important. It's a good way to look at who actually had real impact.”

It's easy to be like oh this guy was amazing but go look at where did they stay in the season. This is the thing that is probably the worst for Curry's top 10 case. Is he kind of doesn't have enough like top three top four MVP's if you're really putting him against everybody. It's the one thing you can ding them on and for Yo Kitch is the finals. By the way, years from now you look back and you go he only won one title. What happened and you

weren't there to see how devastated the Murray injury was because it took two playoffs away from them.

And the other thing I was always out to dinner with some guys in Denver last night,

nuggets fans. They wanted the third seed and they wanted the gauntlet. And I thought it was interesting why I don't know if the team probably doesn't care about this but they are so sick of hearing about how Denver had an easy road to the first championship. How they got to face two play in teams along the way including in the finals that they now want they they're they're not getting greedy. They're like if we're going to win it again, I want to win it the hardest way possible

and and it just got me thinking about not only Yo Kitch and the MVP in history but like if they actually did this against these teams, what it would mean for for the whole franchise. The gauntlet's get. I mean my favorite self-deck team ever was the 87 team the year after they won an 86 when they had to they basically had a seven game war against Milwaukee a seven game war against Detroit and then they had to put the lakers and then he beat the

lakers but it was like just that pulled the most out of them. They're almost broken down at the end

“and it was a real championship run. You know this nugget seems a little younger. I think they could”

survive other things. I think there's more chances here but Yo Kitch just had the best career of his career and he's probably not going to win the MVP. The offensive stats I was doing all the work this weekend trying to figure out a vote for and the offensive stats are just like you just can't even believe it. They've just like you're just like oh my god like true shooting just pick any

like over 50 points a game of offense and I'll say I'll say it again the defense is the best rebounder

“and their defense is not been good enough in the last 20 games whatever problematic maybe it's a”

wait till the playoffs thing maybe whatever like if you're if you're just focusing on that what you're missing is like they're making it look so easy on offense no matter who they play that it's a it's actually a little bit scary it's some of these games are like it's like shooting fish in the barrel it's it's just too easy for them that if they actually ramp up their defense at all like Peyton Watson gets healthy whatever they can absolutely win the title it's just a hard

road so that's my that's my pick Denver 12 to one to win the title okay see as plus 125 San Antonio's plus 480 and the Celtics are plus 550 Cleveland is 10 to one that was the other one Cleveland's odds drop because of how the playoff's played out with Toronto which I thought was interesting okay really good pick you're doing a great job you've got an apartment should be proud I have to take Tatum here because it's a it's the most intriguing draft okay

and I'm gonna put him in the feel good star category he was my number one pick for that category I was actually gonna take I might have was Lucas gonna take him next room we don't need talk about Tatum everybody knows the stakes this was one of the craziest comebacks I've ever seen and in some ways he's even better than he was before he left another way he's not like I thought that next game he had a lot of trouble going and buying around in an

OB which I thought was notable like there's a certain way to defend him that I just don't think

he's 100% comfortable with the first step yet everything else is back the reboundings back the passing

back and he's just so much better than I thought he was gonna be I was like boy it would be nice if he was a rich man Sam Houser and it's like this guy's one of the 10 best rebounders in the league already and playing defense and the passing and and you know just is a really meaningful athlete to Boston fans and

“Celtic fans and at the games and everyone's just really invested in this so the longer it goes I think”

it can be pretty special it's the right pick you would have been a good second banana pick maybe the way this year has gone but just the right category for him I was gonna take him next round but you taking him in this round allows me to make the most obvious pick but load up my roster apex super super star because I took Yokech for Legacy guy apex super star I'll just take SGA just sit in there low hang and fruit I'll take him everything I said about Yokech it legacy what happens

him if he levels up he's probably I would say gonna win his second MVP if he finishes that with

back-to-back titles breaking the leagues no repeat streak and back-to-back finals MVP's we're talking like I saw some tweets today he already one of the 25 best players in league that conversation is gonna go zoom in in a different or is zoom in higher than that if this postseason goes that way so look I got Yokech I got SGA I'm taking SGA and there's no other category for him

“this is the only category I think where he fits so I'm taking him here I just did my pyramid I”

just updated it for the playoffs and I have him in level four and I have him 30th okay and I think that's the right area but I think if they win a second title and he's two time back-to-back MVP back-to-back titles back-to-back finals MVP's he's in the top 25 and that's it it's not arguable that's just where he ends up because now we're talking about some real shit that only a handful guys have done in the history of the league good pick I have no notes

I also think he could have been if there's a category of who who could be dinged by these playoffs that would have been an inching one like if he just sucks in the San Antonio series or you know there's some other outcomes so then we're like some I've had Drago the restaurant cut out comes which you could feel a little bit in December when they played the spurs a couple times like huh but then so so if we have a seven foot five alien we can stop this guy

but that's the only time you felt that way and I just never worry about him having a bad game

and even his bad games were like oh he's shot eight for 21 and still got 10 free throws and finished with 29 points and and then you know the next game he's gonna play but he just never has two bad games in a row defensive constant anyway that's an obvious pick I changed my mind on my MVP pick

and they're still having decided okay this is for my weakling pick oh boy you're getting a

no you know what I'm gonna go hot seat wildcard oh I'm jealous because I have I'm gonna I have two guesses for who you're gonna pick and I'll just pick the other one later the Aaron Fox oh you went not coach okay went not coach okay hot seat wildcard dear Fox I have talked about this on the pot and the past don't need to belabor it but this is the guy to watch on this first team as we start climbing levels and seeing how high they can go somebody who used to be one of the best

clutch guys in the league who had the offense running through him in the kings who now has to figure out when to pick his spots on this team with a sent foot six alien on it and now there's been some signs some of those signs for me watching them if I like if I'm a spurs fan the ball seems to find

him a lot big moments I'm not always sure he's gonna deliver and I'm just really interested to see

how it plays out because ultimately when you go in these playoffs and you'll see it like when it's Hawks cat when it's Hawks next ultimately that game's gonna come down to CJ versus Jalen Brunsett right and if you're a Hawks fan and you're in these tight games with three minutes left you're gonna have this epiphany where you're like fuck we have CJ who's a good player and they have Jalen Brunsett who's second team on BA we're kind of at a disadvantage here if Fox is the guy deciding offense for them

“but now I'm going against yokeage or SGA I just don't like my chances as much and I think it's it's a”

lot of pressure for him and he could be the lightning rod if things don't go well in a series especially when we have 48 hours 72 hours between games and he has like a three for 16 over six from three game four start of sports center start about the shows start about the pods what's up with the air in fox should they bench him just interested to see how it goes if it goes wrong and it might not go wrong yeah the that should we bench him feels a little far fetched to me

in the podcast there I would be talking about okay fair in the in the hot take studio show air that that will absolutely be a topic I'll I'll just say this like I had him on the list from i candidates for the trade machine pick the problem there being he has four years left on his contract after this at a gigantic number I've actually been completely fine with how he's played this year I dipping down to 33% from three is a little disappointing given he started higher

“than that I think he's just done a good job at fitting in and not forcing anything and”

gradually developing a better chemistry with Wemby I don't think he's ever going to be tasked with okay man now we need like we need to run every offensive possession to review it's crunch time you were clutch player the year two years ago three years ago whatever I don't think this team is built like that and that's fine but he's being paid a salary of that level of player for many years going forward and the spurs although they're thrilled to have this sort of like present

all-star dianfox now two young guards rising up behind him nobody's over tax the young guys don't have to do too much at some point that equation starts to wobble when the young guys get ready

and expensive and it's just it's only natural and you know you just never know when the time

is going to come so he was on my list for that category and I don't I don't disagree with a lot of your reasoning I also just don't worry about him much in terms of like underperforming yeah and from an aggregation standpoint I I'm glass half full on fox of this team I'm just trying to look at if things start to go wrong what would people point at and that seems to be the

“one but I I actually like him on this team and I think if they didn't have him you would still”

want to guy like him somebody who's a little older somebody who's been in some situations he's competitive I think he's a you know he's a legitimately good point guard and this is an awesome spot for him they actually need him they need him at the end of games you know that he's he's just got to figure out how do I pick my spots and how much do I take over how much do I defer and it's I don't end be him because he'll be the lightning rod if it doesn't work out all right you're up

I'm deciding if I want to make a good pick or just an annoy you pick and I think I'm going to just annoy you okay and take Peyton Fritchard as my beloved bench guy just so you can't have him and and obviously he's been phenomenal all season whether he started or come off the bench is paint game one-on-one game is reaching Paul Bunyan level proportions at this point and he's massively important to

I was delighted that he had a really good next game against a team that he has always sucked against

“I thought that was really important that he finally put one on the board because they're gonna”

definitely see him all right let's get crazy my next pick is Jalen Williams which one Jay Dubb you know what I'm not gonna get that crazy now fuck it I'm gonna take him as my trade machine guy I like it just for fun just for shits and giggles it's not just for fun don't do that I just don't do it in your head okay see has a lot of money to spend over these next couple years and I just sometimes I wonder like if if it doesn't work out for them this year how does that play out and I also couldn't think of

another place to put him because I didn't want him as my second banana um look he's a good lately

I don't think there's a lot to worry about here but I also think it's gonna be really hard to have three max guys plus case on wall as plus all these draft picks and I do wonder like if you're gonna take a huge swing what what is what does that look like now if they win the title again they're not trading anybody but who knows I'm just trying to loosen the draft well look there's a reason why I'm still softer pick I'm just listening things up my there's a reason my trade machine list is

loaded with guys on the thunder that are not Jay Dubb but are like door and you know Wallace and AJ Mitchell just guys that you know they can fling around the league I'm not gonna

go to that category now I'm gonna go chalk in in my second banana category for reasons that need

not not to be elaborated not at all I will pick Carl entity towns is my second banana intriguing for the playoffs team is built to win now team fired it's coach despite it's first conference finals appearance in forever up and down season he seems to be the subject of a team wide existential crisis every two weeks has actually finished strong enough that I would put him third team all in B.A. right now his defense has been just been a pretty solid defensive

couple of months for him and you just know that by game maybe by game two of the first round there where you will have an existential crisis of like why did he only take four shots in the last three quarters of that game or why are they not running the bruncentowns pick enroll enough which they've been running a lot lately and we shall see how it goes against the

“Hawks but he's had ups and downs in the playoffs to say the least I think he's turned some corners”

in that regard over the last couple of years and got a little more consistent made some huge shots last year along the way but he's still one of the more enigmatic second banana types in the league and I'm proud to have him on my roster you and I both know a lot of next fans and you live in Connecticut so you're around them probably 50% of techs I get from next fans are about towns but sometimes like positive like excited that they think towns good things are happening with towns

he's figured it out I think this is a land matchup I think this is a land matchup is a good matchup for him I don't think it's a great matchup for the next relative to what they could have drawn yeah it'll be interesting to see how the Hawks guard him but if they guard him like they guarded him the last time they played last week to good matchup for him and Denick should lean into his offense more so I'm optimistic because an optimistic hopeful pick of cat I am I need to get this guy

off the board before you take him it's a little early and I'm taking him for third banana

“but I asked I think he's super intriguing for these playoffs because I think he's a ceiling”

changer I think you're going to take my guy yeah I sure am you can say hi to him in Denver right now oh it is oh no yeah yes he's the super power of this Denver team he looks like he's back and you could and Yoke is physically looks like he's back and I think this might be the most healthy they've had all three of those guys at the same time playing well that I can remember it since they won the title so for that was three years ago he feels like he just gets slightly better

every year and there's been guys like this upram bay history that just as they get older they age like a fine one and he's one of them I just feel like every year he's gotten 5% better so that's

and I've almost already taken him twice and I'm angry that you took him so glad I got paid and

“preacher maybe I'll start just taking maybe I'll just make a run to Celtics to spite you maybe”

just just get resentful maybe I'll take Hugo now is my defensive stud just just to spite wow I'm not doing that let's see let's see let's see I'm gonna go back to back bananas

okay and for my third banana I will go back to back nix I guess one could argue if he's the

true third banana but the other noisy nick dialog is all about my kale bridges because of the five first rompix because of the like last six weeks where it's like did he not crack double figures again and just they need him to be not only a more reliable score but a more when they're flowing he's just more involved in the offense both as a secondary ball handler as like a playmaker and open space he's just more involved and they're gonna need that version of him

and just like that if they don't get it like just in general if this playoffs goes poorly for the nix if they lose to the hawks in the first round which is not impossible if they lose to Boston

in the second round there'd be no shame in that right like Boston's been the best team in these

for the last 40 games it's a good matchup for the nix but there's certainly be no shame in it however there would certainly be like an organization wide stain of we fired the coach into this really dramatic stuff and took an and our out around earlier and we traded five first round picks for this guy and Yannis is still sitting out there I just feel like there's going to be a lot of McKale bridges noise and so he's going to be you know and an OB could be a third banana

for them I'm taking the kill bridges interesting I feel like an an OB is there third banana but maybe in the playoffs it becomes bridges I don't know I guess they're both third bananas maybe

maybe they're on that team they're both third bananas that'd be fair that's the sometimes

real and sometimes theoretical strength of the nix they just have a lot of very good players and yeah he's one of them he's certainly given the ball handling load he showed he could take in Brooklyn he's sort of more tailor made for like a banana 2.5 kind of role he just hasn't played enough for them so you can tell that I'm just the nix are just the most interesting puzzle to me in the NBA them are the caps and so it's not a coincidence that I've drafted two nix

well there's also their storylines with them that include they haven't won the title since 1973 they are looming as a semi-blood up team they're looming as Yannis possible destination they're looming as a possible Donovan Mitchell destination they're looming as just a destination I'm prepared for anything with the nix that they lose and round one are relative I listen you started out really well on this draft and the board has just been breaking for me

perfectly ever since and you don't like my fix it takes no I do I'm just excited that you left this guy in the board for me for the hot seat coach category I'm not been impressed by the coaching of this team this year chemistry doesn't seem great

“I think the offense is just been bizarre I don't understand why they have why EMA”

hasn't just said I have to sink or swim with Reach Shepherd because I don't have Fred Ben Blit and it's going to be impossible to win even two straight rounds of that a real point card and he's just doing it his way they put a staggering amount of miles and minutes on Amin Thompson who led the league in minutes this year and Kevin Durin who's 37 years old who I think was like seventh and minutes

didn't know they were one hard minutes they were one two the last time I checked Oh Jesus hard minutes right it's not like he Kevin Durin's running to the corner and just setting up shop watching other people on the play he's dribbling the ball up against people like J.D. McDaniels and shit like that I don't understand half the shit this team has done all season and I don't understand the Reach Shepherd thing at all I don't care if he's

weak for you on defense you're putting miles and unnecessary crunch time issues on your team and it's like if you took Reach Shepherd 30 either either he has something

“or he doesn't but you have to find out this year you're not winning the title so I just don't”

understand it and I would be very unsuppressed if he was not their coach next year remember

proven correct I think they're they've backed into it not they've won nine out of ten they haven't

“backed into anything but they have a good first round matchup and I think if they win a playoff”

series and play a pretty honestly competitive second round playoff series despite all the offensive

infrastructure stuff that we spent all year talking about the crunch time disasters and whatever with van fleet injured and finish Smith being a complete nothing I think they were they would walk him and I think they'd be fine giving you may another year it's it's not a completely off the wall pick what if they lose to Lebron and the lakers in round one in a series that look at dodgeage plays two games or no games and by the way would there be would there be would I mean

EMA is trash talk Lebron multiple times in games I feel like he kind of wants to fight Lebron yeah like he just there's something there and if they're losing who the hell knows it's not

it's it's it's yeah that could be the first if if EMA came off the to take guys that could

“come off the bench it actually get into a fight with a player or him and Joe Mozilla I think”

Joe Mozilla it's any time there's any sort of an altercation I was worried but this happened in 1975 and the finals went out and all adults came off the bench and fought Mike Reardon and got ejected by the way okay you're up I'm so excited the leap the leap I could take this guy in multiple categories I have a feel good star that I want to take in that category but you've already filled that category I believe so I'm strategically shoving this picked down the road

I know you wish you had this guy in your roster so I'll take him in the leap category Steph Castle will be my will be my leap guy and I'll just spend pen and pen and I'm in I don't even need to explain it the guys might he's might be like my favorite non top 10 player in the league to watch I just everything about him is insanely entertaining to watch and I know one thing can nitpick is shooting nitpick is turnovers can nitpick is passing

can nitpick is assist passing can nitpick is pain scoring one thing I know for sure is that dude is not afraid of anything that's about to hit them into playoffs he wants all of it he's not afraid of any player he's not afraid of any opponent he's not afraid of any scheme

he's not afraid of having a always shot he started over eight in his first career playoff game

is he going to get rattled no no he's not so he's my leap guy I spent a half hour making sure it wasn't absurd to put him on 13 m on BA and the answer was it's not I would encourage anyone questioning whether he should be on an all on BA team with all the guys that are now missing see him in person once it it all makes sense if you see him in person I didn't and I count league past two because I watched a lot of spursy shirt because of Wemby

I never saw that I take a split second off even today in that Denver game there was a stretch where he was just getting offensive rebounds with there was surrounded by all these taller guys and he just kept jumping up over people and getting offensive rebounds given them the people I love Steph Castle that's a really good pick I did have him okay I'm going to have to do it you did this last year so now I'm feeling like I'm cheating

and if you want it it just can find it to one player that's fine no do what you want to do this is for the crossroads guy and again they might not have been the playoffs for all we know but I'm taking Palo and I'd like to really take him with France just because I feel like if this week goes badly for Orlando

I do not think these two guys will be teammates next year and they will just have to

“make some hard decisions I think this is a stealthy honesty”

I think it's a stealth hey Sacramento you give us the fourth pick in the draft and we'll give you Palo let's let's dance I'm just prepared for anything with this but I think they would have to take a hard look at whether it makes sense to build a team around these two guys together I think they already probably have and are doing it pending not even pending the playoffs I had him I was going to take him in my trade machine pick for all the reasons you outlined

category and he's always by the way Palo has always shown up big in the playoffs and I think

“that's one of the good it's one of the interesting reasons to take him here after a pretty”

spotty regular season the last couple months have been better than the ones that came before it fit with France is still kind of TPD but on underman teams that dude has always shown up and not just in a like oh he had to take 30 shots and he got a pretty inefficient 35 points like he's showing up on both ends of the forum play pretty well and that guy is still in there obviously so it's it's a good pick and I had him on my my trade list yeah because they could

lose the filly and they could lose to Charlotte and be out of the playoffs on Friday night and at that point the wheels and the trade machine will come off all right you're out it's time for another spike pick hmm I contemplated him for leap okay defensive stud I will take Derek what hmm another one of my favorite players to watch in the league unrelenting uh makes every decision correctly would have been in my all NBA conversation

at the shot the ball a little better I saw Pina put a mind I just don't think you can put a guard who takes this many threes and doesn't make enough of a mind and all NBA team even with all these guys missing but he's on the fringe of the conversation and I think if he shot 39% from three or something I think he he's that good at everything else and just an all-time great defensive guard

for a team that again has legit finals ambitions do you have him first team all day I do not have

him second team yeah it's funny because this is an intriguing draft and I think he belongs in the draft for the reasons you just mentioned but also because much like the Aaron Fox on the spurs he could be the guy that sinks the Celtics that he can't make a shot because it it'll hit a point a little like 2022 where teams are just gonna leave him open if they don't think it's going in it's hasn't been that bad but it's been veering toward the vicinity of hey we we're gonna actually

have to see him make two before we start flying out of you if I heard you talking about this with legs

“and I am on like team of zoola about this I'm not worried it if you want to leave him open I'm”

thrilled that you're gonna have a moment I want to take all this all the shots I'm not worried either but I'm a tiny bit worried just a little bit a little a wiff worried all right he's still on the board I can't believe I can get him with this kind of value this late as my legacy guy I'll happily take Jalen Bronson here so disbroken it to fantasy pick it's broke pretty nicely for them they get to play Toronto around one

which no they play no I lay it that part dinner break that part dinner break nicely for them actually didn't break nicely for them I'd take it back I reckon at that comment but they go at laying around one and then Boston around two he's got a ton of confidence against Boston he's got ton of confidence against everybody he's a beloved New Yorker he's done a lot for the team they came within two wins in the finals last year I don't know how many more swings that they

Apple you're gonna get you have a one seed Detroit team that's pretty young you have a two seed Boston that you feel like you could beat because you beat them last year and this is about as good of a chance as you're gonna get San Antonio not quite San Antonio yet when be next year is going to be more frightening okay see we'll be the same Denver probably the best they're gonna be it's a really nice moment for him he's second team on BA I don't think he will be a top five MVP

“do you no I don't you think he gets sneak fit play I don't think he will no and I think he's kind”

of settled into people having opinion on him and they think he is what he is but I think he's somebody that can go toe to toe with every great part of the league and we'll see legacy guy I think it's a great pick and it's it's a great pick particularly because he's a Nick and because of what conversations he's already in like this every week there's a new is he already the greatest Nick since X or could he be the greatest Nick ever is he already a better

Nick than this guy if he takes them to the finals there's gonna be you and compare there's just

gonna be a lot of like you and obviously had incredible longevity you got this guys from the 70s

and all that but like there's just because he's a Nick although legacy talk feels like doubly important and noisy well especially because they're all sitting courts out of the games

and you can see how the entire city mobilizes behind the team when they're playing well and he's

“the focal point of it so there you go okay you're up I have a lot of the negative categories yet”

and I'm not I don't want to go there yet especially since you've left me like I who doesn't fit anywhere else other than has to be mentioned and so you know who has to be mentioned jail and brown has to be mentioned the guy who is gonna be in the top five of the MVP and probably be first team all NBA and set to tone for a Celtic team that was not gonna accept pessimists like me saying gap year under 41 and a half whatever and it's been all too happy to talk about that and now the

playoffs are here and Jason Tatum's back and I'm just fascinated to see how Boston continues to evolve with the guy who was there undisputed best player now back in the lineup with jail and brown

coming off an incredible regular season where he leveled up in a lot to degrees in different categories

that as you said you don't normally see guys in year 10 leveling up this much in his passing this much in his dribbling this much in his steadiness this much in his decision making now the bigger stages here and there's gonna be not scrutiny but just sort of curiosity of like okay now you're facing the best teams the best defense is game planning for you just days back how does it all look and so I don't have another category to take him in he's got to be taken

all take him in my must be mentioned category so you're taking him in bonus guy who must be mentioned yes okay because I don't have any other place to take him and I get to steal him from you it's interesting I thought you might take him in the leap well it took Castle already yeah the leap already the leap kind of I mean I don't know that this I don't know where I'll take him so I'm gonna take him here and boy does he deserve to be mentioned he's been one of the

half dozen best stories biggest stories most important stories of this entire season

I'm gonna take uh oh my feel good stars gone dammit I already took a feel good well yeah that really complicates things for me well oh man looks like I have to do second banana and I get to take one of my favorite guys this season somebody I've really thoroughly enjoyed you took Steph Castle for me that I would have put in this category

“I'm gonna take Jalen Thurin of the Detroit Pistence who I think I'm going to vote for second”

team on BA I think he has been you mentioned Jalen before and I think Jalen Thurin's like this too I think when we only go stats and advanced stats when you're looking at somebody's case for whatever and you're not also talking about the stuff you can feel when you're watching as a season the nuances of a season I think to me that Jalen Brown, Jalen Thurin of the two guys I think of for this and Castle to some review too Jalen Brown there's all kinds of stats where you can be like the

on off it's not as good and if you didn't actually watch the season you'd understand how important it was that he scored Jalen Brown scored 35 point 30 points I think 35 times this year and he repeatedly guarded the other best guy in the other team and just showed up night after

night after night where this weird team that they had with no Tatum and you never knew if

Richard was going to show up offensively or of white or one of the wings but he always kind of knew Jalen was going to be there there's 30 points and his 12 free throw temps and his nine two points and there's something to be said for that Duran is the same thing for me it's night after night this guy is 2010 he's one of the physical most scary guys in the league there's an intensity

“of him that he has that I think the team feeds off and I think I think other than Kade he's the guy”

in this team that they he's the emotional folk room and I think he's gotten better as the year went along too do you do you feel that way he felt like he's gotten a little better offensively as the year has gone well especially without Kade when they needed him to get to get 20 every night so I might see got 25 some dice you got 30 I think he's a very intriguing player because he's still so young I think he's still 22 or 23 years old and there are still occasional hiccups with him

on defense in terms of his positioning and his angles but he can make up for a lot of it with just sheer athleticism that's going to be tested I've had a couple of scouts kind of just say I have a little skepticism with his offensive game and how it will survive in the playoffs because he seems to sometimes operate on the knife's edge of risk of turnovers of thread the needle passes of is that dribble move really going to work and they're curious to see how it holds up against

be an absolute lock for all NBA I'd have them 13 I wouldn't really argue too strongly if you put

“him second team but he should be like he should be a lock and he'd be a lock even if Luka and”

Ant were both eligible he would still make my 13 so he's a great pick and the thing to reason why both jailens are fun for the intriguing draft because they're both intriguing jailens going to be intriguing for all the who's going to have the ball at the end of the game can he continue to stay at this level j them brown and then during it's like okay you guys are number one seed you look awesome in the regular season can you now go up like 8% in the playoffs can you

now be like a 20 and 14 guy 22 and 14 can you do this day after night can you stay out of thought trouble

can you keep that physicality without losing your temper and shit like that all right you're up again I'll run out of categories yeah I'll just take the low hanging fruit

“and be quick I'll just take mostly for hot seed coach we already talked about it so now if you”

pick someone else to do it I like it oh I put that in the hot seed wildcard like something okay I got I got rid of both of my hot seeds already man there's some good guys that we haven't taken yeah including this next guy to let me see if I have a spot for him oh

put him here I'll put him in my bonus guy who has to be mentioned Anthony Edwards

he depends mentioning that's for damn sure just it's just I didn't really expect to take him here but I just we've gone too far without him being in there a couple of intriguing things about him is he 100% healthy can he beat Denver again and have this like crazy you know fairly successful run against a pretty great nugget steam over the years what happens if he can play okay see in a series what happens if he he's going gets Wemby in a series every sort of outcome with

Anthony Edwards and any round is intriguing and fun we'll see if he's on over set I've heard he's close to 100% but not Audrey he was also sick that was part of the reason why I missed a couple of these games he was he was like quite ill and it wasn't just the knee soreness or whatever he was over there I know one thing that happened like if there's one guy who's actually going to try to dunk on Wemby Njama it's him and talk shit and talk shit about the French and God only knows

of them okay we're almost done trade machine guy I've got a number of candidates I could go boring like Cam Johnson salary dump to resine pay him Watson I could go whatever I'll go Julius Randall as my trade machine guy is had a shaky last six weeks or so the world knows they were going through whatever machinations would have been necessary to try to get involved in Janice I mean there's just almost no way he wouldn't be part of some multi-team trade in that scenario he was awesome in the

playoffs last year played the best best wall of his life in the playoffs last year and if they are going to be the team that they think they can be they got to get out their own way in a number of ways and one of those things is him and if not who knows so I'll take Julius Randall I have no nuts I'm going to go right to my weak link and I make this pick I'd like to make the point this is not a character assassination I've been really impressed by how he's played this year

I'm just judging it based on history reputation and whether he can shed some of that reputation but also some of the situations he's been in this season where his team which is really good has really needed him to all the sudden like oh our leads down to one can you create a really good shot for us and that man is Tobias Harris oh wow yeah will he remain a playoff weak link or will he shed the weak link label because all I know is watching this pistons team the ball seems to find

him in big spots and we've seen in the regular season that's fine in the playoffs it's usually not but I can promise that if you're a pistons fan you've had this conversation with yourself like man we really needed that 17 foot fall away from Tobias on the baseline to squeeze out

“that win that could be happening in round one round two we'll see well he's especially important”

during the non-cade minutes for them he plays almost all the non-cade minutes for this reason like hey at the very least the floor of our possession is the 15 foot turn around in the post

got better all right he's been great Tobias has been the heart like one of the heart and soul guys on that team of that they love him I just saying all that I didn't think he was high profile enough to fit that category oh a critique of my draft I mean look weak link I could go

this is the number one seed the third best player the guy who takes big shots from the

seed the third is he the third best player is that I guess that's our top sentence so fourth best player all right fine I mean weak link I can't I contemplate it a whole bunch of you guys your guy you're gonna take one yeah I'm gonna take a loop I'll just weakly you're you're ragging me on Tobias Harris you're taking a boost of my contemplated of course I contemplate it in as we all would he he's just a permanent weak link he's not I'm not a big to see if he won't be

a weak link I'm gonna go intriguing and weak link a more high wattage player could have been a trade machine player I just I'd like to see Jill and Green again in the playoffs and can we just get a redo on the world's disaster from last year he hasn't played much this year they plugged

him right back in his the full-time starter and he's basically just being jailing Green which is

taking a lot of shots and not making enough of them and decision making is a little bit better he's

“he's had a few nice passes on the pick and roll lately that I think our level up passes for him”

but it's just it's very inconsistent his contract is super tradable and I could see him shooting them out of a play in game or a playoff game and also like the one game they won I'm sorry the one of the games they won the one game he played really well last year against the worse he was was because he just won crazy I just think we haven't seen if that is this really the right fit for him with booker and and maybe we'll learn a little bit more in the playoffs

that's pretty good thank you oh man

there's a guy I really want to take care but if like it's a waste of a pick I'm going to do it I feel the same way about this guy that I did about the guy I took last year I don't think it's going to work out the same for his team for the leap Tyrese Maxi I don't know if this will happen but if you're just looking at the playoffs and saying which guy could completely change his narrative

in a month and a half I took caliber in a year ago because I thought the Pacers had a legitimate chance to win a round or two and I liked how he was playing and I liked that team I don't like this sixer's team as much but if they they're in a two seven matchup against the Celtics

“I think he would go toe to toe with the Celtics for two weeks and all the Celtic fans would be”

terrified of him and relieved that to get rid of him by the end of the series if he goes against the trade same thing I actually think he has another gear in him he's great at home the fans really believe in him like he's a guy that could just go for 36 a game in the playoffs or some crazy thing I could see it so I I had to have him somewhere in this draft and I'm taking him he was sensational the last time we saw him in the playoffs two years ago against the next

30 a game seven assists bunch of huge dagger shots including one that I believe won game five for them I can't remember what's up my head what game it was at it's on the one hand I want to say can a guy who almost average 29 points a game make a leap but without him beat it could definitely make a leap in terms of just his his standing in the league if he has a yeah I'm talking just totally on the table totally on the table yeah this is an I'm

“carrying a team by myself to a giant upset and I think this is the right point of his career”

I also like there's something about that dude you're up 10 against Philly and he'll just score 10 points in like 90 seconds it was like oh my god what just happened we're up 10 he and Donovan Mitchell are like that they might be the two scariest guys in the league when their teams are down 12 with 90 seconds left and you're about to check out of the game they're just go insane okay feel good star I'll do it I'll just take my feel good star easy pick I've been

just biting my time on this one lamello ball I almost took up for leap and I'd have the balls no pun intended he is a textbook central casting feel good the narrative turned all the way around

but love it boy what point are the little mellow driving jokes gonna expire are we almost there

never it's the hard part is that driving is a part of his game and so you're just going to say it

all the time and it's gonna always conjure up that image okay I have to bang up beloved bench guy I have to bang out defensive stud and those are my last two categories so beloved bench guy

“had him in Boston once upon a time I think he's going to play an important role in a long”

spurs play officers because I am dubious of Wemby staying completely healthy for ten straight weeks and this team's pretty good when he plays the one and only luke court net I thought one of the best signings of the offseason they don't they obviously lose a ton when Wemby's done in there but it's not a catastrophe and if anything like it's kind of fun when luke court nets in there

and he gives them a different look and I wonder if they would even play him and Wemby together

from time to time we get some big lineup would you ever see that happening? yeah absolutely I mean they what French vanilla was the thing for a while it hasn't been a much of a thing lately but you need all the things in the play a moment you need all the you need that's the great thing about the place if you're gonna go a long way you need every tool in the toolbox come out at some point all right so you have one pick left and it is your hot seat wild card

okay I just want to mention we've done this entire draft and nobody took career libran okay I mean they're quite I mean libran with Evan Booker but it's okay it's deeply what do you want me look as hurt lebran's carrying a team that is not quite drawing dead but is is in major trouble with all the injuries carries on the

tenth seed I mean I'm that it's intriguing I'm not I know exactly who Steph Curry is he's amazing

I just don't think there's going to be a lot of like gold state warriors playoff games here are my candidates for wild card hot seat

“for coaches Chris Finch and Kenny Akinson I think they're wonderful coaches”

and I don't think anything bad should happen either of them but I just know how owners are when bad things happen in the playoffs and we'll see on both of them I think they're awesome coaches I'll go off the beaten path though for this and I just want to say their needs I'll go off to beat and pass for this off to beaten because this is the off to beaten path hot seat category I'm going to go Zachary Risa Shay who was recently benched by the Atlanta Hawks

and is the former number one pick and a draft that happened not that long ago and would be potentially a must have ingredient in any massive the Hawks did what where who's on the Hawks now kind of trade and it's like hey look man reach shepherds come along Alex Sark kind of played fake basketball for 50 games he's pretty good castles is stud clinging is becoming a stud like like there's a lack going on in your draft class

can we get something and you're young you're 21 years old it's it's not fair

“but whatever a team is like you know what I think we're just better off with Cory Kisper”

getting some of your minutes and you're just not going to play it's it's not great it's not great So I'll go Risa Shay who did you make fun of me for because I took off the beaten path I was your off to beaten path hot seat guy or deer and fox okay it's a better picked in one Last pick I just like the last pick of the draft I only have defensive stud left Apologies to done have been clinging I did think about you here especially if it's uh

if it's somehow is there any it could potentially be Portland San Antonio right He's on yeah he's on my list for defensive stud yeah a donovan clinging when be battle would be really fun I thought about Dyson Daniels here trying to chase around J. Limbrunson and I'm not taking either of those guys and I'm not taking really go bury there because I don't want really a my team oh my god stop one of my team

This guy I think is the most intriguing guy left that we haven't taken because I think

alarm me a little bit as a Celtic fan because I thought Tatum had a lot of trouble with them

“I have them as a second team all defense I think you can make a case if your life”

depended on the game and you wanted five defenders out there he might be one of the five O. J. and Nobi there's a certain type of guy that he's just awesome regarding

and if he's really locked in and it's it's basically any scoring wing it's Durant it's Tatum

it's J. Limbrun he's just he's big he's physical he knows all the moves he gets right in your chest and I think if they beat the Boston Celtics and round two I think it would be him and I think it'd be J. Limbrun so it would be the two reasons he was definitely on my my list for defensive stud I kind of took Derek White just to be mean to you I love O. J. and Nobi I flip flopped him on first and second team all defense four times in the past two weeks

I think I'm gonna end up with him on second team all defense but like you said his physicality and his strength the combination of strength and weakness is extremely rare

you can guard every kind of player he's guarded and beat in playoff games before like he's just

that special um a lot all the all the defense is right got taken yeah um I was gonna say a good a good way to think about all the defenses if you're a guy in the other team how high in the oh shit this guy how high are you on that ranking for the different players in the league like

“I think point guards are like they see okay see and they're like”

case on wall as fuck how about the whole team Karuso Karuso didn't get drafted for all these the door I know yeah apologies to all those guys we also didn't draft Corey Lebron I thought there was a CJ McCollon case he was in my one letter my feel good star category coi Leonard Devon Booker did not get drafted Mike Brown look at Donchitch

Duran and Jalen Johnson Durant Durant I almost took Durant I almost took Durant for legacy just because I mean we've almost talked it to death over the years of just like the code uh to his career the all the twists and turns post leaving okay see what a Houston playoff run would mean I just don't think this particular team has a long playoff run in them but you know what it's not like there are rules for this let's add a category code a guy

you want to ran I'll give you Durant I yeah just I just you just made it up and I already took a guy so I'll take them all right so you have Kevin Durant as a code a guy Durant and that means I can take just so we can have him in the draft Steph Curry and by the way Lebron would have been an acceptable picker as well Steph Curry winning two straight playing games going it's okay see and doing the Denzel Washington last

40 minutes man on fire I'm just gonna take on an entire drug cartel it's see if I could survive

“and I'm gonna die but you're gonna have a good time this is happening I think I would be in there”

all right recap of the draft okay you know we we took then the people can vote the people can vote apex superstar I have Wendy you have SGA beloved bench guy I have Luke Cornet you have Peyton Richard crossroads guy you have Donovan Mitchell which was a great pick I took Palo friend friends as a little dotted line defensive stud I have OG and an over you have Derek White feel good star you have Lamilla ball I've Jason Tatum hot sea coach

Shumal Mosley for you email doka for me hot seat wildcard Zach Risha shake

for you I have D.R. and Fox legacy guy I have Bronson you have Yokech second banana you have towns I have

Jalen Durant third banana the best pick of the draft for me Aaron Gordon you took McHellbridge's the leap Steph Castle for you to retiree Spaxi for me trade machine guy Julius Randall for you J. Dub for me and I got to be honest you weren't I thought that would get a reaction for me didn't really react weeklink Jalen Green for you Tobias Harris for me bonus guy I was to be mentioned Jalen Brown for you Anthony Edwards for me and then Coda guy Kevin Durant for you

and Steph Curry for me and I bad news we both been fired for me S.P. and because we didn't draft LeBron so pack up your bags we're done again actually this can be a first tag segment LeBron doesn't go in a 32 person most intriguing draft what's going on that's it for the draft all right

think we have 32 right now four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve thirteen fourteen now thirty all right yeah so we'll just give LeBron special achievement LeBron he goes to both of us special achievement LeBron we share the brand please keep your speech a few more than three minutes

“we both we both take LeBron because he's been that important to the leap”

Zach though Denver tomorrow night sold out show you're gonna have the one and only Chris Ryan even though it's not here I'm out anymore you're gonna have Tim Hardaway Jr

who else is gonna be on you have one more person Adam Morris from DNVR who knows never got anyone in the

“world yeah we're gonna do a lot of different stuff and then you're going to be um you're gonna be doing”

Tuesday Thursday pots this week well I don't I don't we'll see if the Denver one is the Tuesday one I don't know um but uh because we're doing a Monday night but Thursday for sure

will we I will do my annual eight by eight slash six by six rapid fire preview of every first round

“series that we know about and I have to you I have to thank uh new era for helping us out”

the livestream they're also sponsoring my show tomorrow so thank double thank you new era also sent some really good stuff that I've broken out a couple times thanks to Gahown at Wardo and Chris and Jack Wilson as well on the ringer side thanks to everybody who watched and listened I hope the draft inferiority do you or made you mad or anything I'm gonna be back on Tuesday and Thursday this week new rewatchables coming tomorrow basic instinct get ready for Legata on Tuesday and uh

this is really fun good to see you Zach well always fun thanks for having me thanks Netflix

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