Can Houston Complete the Historic Comeback? Plus, Game 6 Previews, and Lottery Reform

Coming up on the Zach Low Show, Kirk Low's various here.

We're talking all things NBA playoffs, quick hitters on all of tonight's game sixes, Nick Hawks, sixers, Celtics, nuggets, wolves, and deep dives on everything that happened last night. The Lakers, are they in trouble?

“Are they going to be the first team ever to blow a three-old lead?”

Can the rockets actually do this? What happened in game five? What's going to happen in game six? Cleveland, woof. Took some injuries, took some mobly threes, took some other stuff, survived, took then a shooter.

Surviving home to beat Toronto, they're up three-two, can Toronto even this thing up? What did the calves discover? What did they not discover? What can Toronto do to counter it? Detroit prolongs its season with the home win over the magic, cade, and palo 45 points

of peace.

We dive into what happened in that game, what adjustments we might see in game six?

Can Detroit pull off a comeback? We talk lottery reform. Is this good idea? Is it a bad idea? Three-two, one banana.

That's what the NBA is calling it. Maybe not the answer. I made that up. Blazers off season. Look ahead to the next round and some of these matchups, lots of stuff to talk about with

Kirk Gold's Barry. Also, Reeves is back. We talk about that too. That's all coming up on the Zack Closho. The Zack Closho is brought to you by Bandool.

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Welcome to the Zack Closho and the first round that will never end other than the spurs

and the thunder. Everyone facing a elimination one last night, and the Cleveland Cavaliers, it took some Evan Mulbley 3s. It took a Scotty Barnes injury that he stayed in the game for and took a brand in Ingraham injury.

The Cleveland Cavaliers pushed the raptors to the break of elimination. We got a lot to talk about. Kirk Closho. How are you doing? I am well.

It's the greatest time of the year, and this might be the drunkest first round I can remember Zack Closho. The most wonderful time of the year. When I was a teacher, many, many moons ago, my good buddy Tim and I used to see that song during mid-term and final exam week because it was our way of talking to the students.

We don't have to actually teach you, you just have to sit in our class and just shut up and take tests and for us, that was the most wonderful time. Well, it is the finals week here at the University of Texas too, so shout out to all those undergrads and grad students getting ready for finals. By the way, one thing before we get started, Blake Griffin had no business attacking our

man on television last night with your LED shirt or whatever he was accusing you of. I just want to say that I have your back, Zach, though. Yeah, yeah, it's a nice shirt, actually people thought it was cheap shirt TJ Maxx was throwing at me in some of the comments that I get it at TJ Maxx, no.

“Let me tell you this, TJ Maxx, I won't buy anything from you, okay?”

So, and I didn't get it from Coles, it's a nice shirt and you get some Paul Stewart shirt I can remember, so I don't want to hear any of this. Okay, Lakers, rockets, woo, Mr. Gold's very. Justin Reeves came back and the Lakers still look like an older slower team leaking a little oil on offense overly dependent on a 41 year old Uber superstar and there was a moment

when the rockets were up 5 with 38 seconds to go and they had the ball and I'm in time so I'm just to jump her and Tariys and got the offensive rebound and just, you know, we're two games away now from the one of the most horrific collapses you will ever see a team have. One crazy mistake after another, all Tariys is got to do, bringing the ball down, kick it

out, get felt, do anything, put up an instantaneous contested layup that misses and gives the Lakers life and they go down and I think LeBron took a three and I'm like, this is going to go in. The rockets are going to choke again. He missed someone else, Mr. three, then there was any way, the rockets won, but in that

moment, I was like, oh my god, now this is where you want to be. Someone is going to do it sometime. It is going to happen. The Celtics coach by you mate, no, it was coach by Joe Muzulek, it's not even a Ducca in 2023. Almost did it against Miami.

It's now three to the rockets are going home for game six. Is this going to happen, Kirk? What do we think?

I think we're going to look back at this series and say, oh man, game three was the inflection point because I still feel like the rockets are probably the better team in the series. I think they've had an awful game three loss. They had a couple of just stinkers in LA to start the series.

Just as a probability guy, I don't think it will happen, but I do think a 30 to 35% chance of it happening is crazy to think about. But I think they look like the better team over these last two or three games, depending on your take of game three, Zach. I thought they were really found something with the vibe since Kevin's gone out.

“And that's what I want to ask you about.”

It feels like this young core, like the heart of the rockets core without Fred Van Flee, now that's even out of course without Kevin Durant, is found some chemistry and some energy. They're making mistakes. Of course, Reed Shepherd made the one-game three-tory minute last night, but yeah, it feels like they're a better team going into these last two games.

Don't you think? It does feel like they're youth and athleticism is starting to wear on the lake as a little bit. Notably, they discovered in the last game and continued it into this game that they are allowed to actually hunt Luke Canard on defense and make him play defensive on men Thompson

is hunting him, Reed Shepherd is hunting him a little bit.

Actually, Reed Shepherd, like first of all, just a really fun Reed Shepherd bounce back

the last couple of games. He had all, he finished the game. He almost ice the game without the Tariys and mistaken some other stuff. With what I call a Kauai, the same person gets bucket, steel, bucket on a runout dunk. That's a Kauai.

One guy, let's take over the whole game for like 45 seconds on both ends of the floor. He's like hunting, canard, he hunted, really, Hachimura at one point and just blew by

“him and I think created a Tariys in three, like I think Reed Shepherd can cook some of these”

lakers defenders one on one and they kind of leaned into that. Reeves is another guy. They can go after and obviously Reeves helps the lakers off fence quite a lot. We saw some nice Reeves Lebron two man games as a way for them to hunt Reed Shepherd. But I do think the rockets athleticism and youth is starting to wear them down.

This has been like a really bad offensive series for the lakers. They're averaging a hundred and seven points for honor possessions. That would have been just about last in the regular season. They're last in three point rate. They're last in turnover rate.

This is a team that's kind of leaking oil right now. And the rockets like no great shakes. It's ugly every single possession for the day ran. There was one possession last night where Shen Goon had the ball at the left elbow extended. The rockets ran a split action with Reed Shepherd and Jabari Smith Junior screening

for each other. And because Reed Shepherd is kind of a red alert shooter, the lakers got a little freaked out. Two people chased him, Jabari Smith cut into the lane for an easy little short jumper. And I was like, oh, wow, they just ran real offense. Like the rockets just ran an actual play.

But like I do think the lakers are in some danger here, being the first team ever to blow

a three-old lead somewhere in Los Angeles, Bill Simmons just perked up a little bit. But here's the thing.

“It's almost hard to get, I think probably both of our brains around the idea of this”

young rockets team who blew game three and historically bad fashion is prone to some mistakes. Obviously of youth is not exactly like teaming with depth with all these injuries and Shoms reported today, Durant is going to miss game six. He's going to actually win two more high pressure games against LeBron and Reeves and the lakers.

It just feels like LeBron is going to think out a way to manufacture like a 98, 94 win in one of these games. Yeah. That's where I land to. I think Reeves, it was shaken off some dust last night.

I mean, shooting.

I always eat four or 16 or something from the floor.

That's kind of what you expect for a player coming back and drop into the playoffs against a pretty aggressive perimeter defense fully young guys. He's not going to do that again and game six or if there's a game seven. So I think they're offense. We can expect more.

I think the lakers are three and oh, when they score 100 points, talk about a dumb guy stat and oh, and two and they don't. All there's law. Law there's law, baby. Yeah, there you go.

Law there's law. So, but here's the, here's the trivia question. I think you'll get this right, but do you know who the lakers, when I talk to you about the series before it started, we both picked the rockets, I think. And one of my real points was who do you think the lakers, second best player is going into

the series without Austin raise and look at Dodgers, he said, really hatched tomorrow. Do you know who the second leading score in the series is for the Los Angeles lakers right now? After Kinnard coming back to Earth in the last two games and again, I think wearing down after Hachimera offense sort of thought, like he, it felt like he had made every

He did not do that last night. I'm going to guess it's a dominate mark Marcus smart.

Marcus smart was my second guess.

It is usage his search, one of the things I like to look at in the first round of the playoffs is whose usage rates are soaring relative to the regular season and who's are diminishing spoiler. I was looking at that in the context of Kinnard coming in earlier today, but yeah, Marcus smart is usage has surged and that's not a great sign.

If you told me that this team was going to depend on Marcus smart and Rui Hachimera and Luke Kinnard, that doesn't sound like a second round. Playoff team to me, but credit to them, they still have a chance to do it.

“Luke Kinnard was absolutely invisible last night, but I think they have a good chance to win”

one of these next two games. Yeah, or the thunder, or the thunder, the first playoff team ever to go to Kinnard between playoff rounds and just relax like watching this rock fight between now, obviously the reason the lakers are leaking oil on offense is because one of the three to four best offense of players in the world is injured, and he's the son and the stars and everything

that revolves around him and the lakers off ends. And so, and by the way, this was like, it's actually kind of tribute to the lakers supporting players to J.J. Redix coaching job, to Polinka stealing Luke Kinnard and saving his assets for another day, but in saving his assets for another day for the most part, it was indicated to us that what we already knew was, this wasn't supposed to be like the

year for the lakers, this was there where they recalibrated around Luke after a seismic unexpected trade fell into their laps, thanks, Nico, and then spent the offseason, this offseason coming up, really recalibrating around Luke, now Luke has gone, reads has been gone for four of the five games, the ramps have been gone for four of the five games. It's just such a bizarre series, but the one thing I will say is like, you can't, I don't

think it's quite fair to the lakers to be like, well, this should be three to rockets, had they not blown game three, because how does game four unfold if it's two one lakers instead of three old lakers, that felt like a kind of a let down, we've kind of got this

“in the bad game for the lakers, but they don't have this in the bag anymore, man, I think”

Houston could actually do this, I just, it just feels like imagine if of all teams of all those like accolades and history and records and everything that LeBron already has that he becomes the the best player, the best healthy player on it, the first team ever to blow

a three-old lead, it's just going to be a take off from me, Jordan never blew a three-old

lead, that's right dude, I, yeah, Jordan never blew a three-old lead, oh my god, any Jordan never blew a three-old lead, oh, Jordan who played for Penn, never blew a three-old lead, I don't know, 90s, I believe basketball, I don't want to live in a world where I have to endure that, so I guess I'm rooting for the lakers, but I agree if, if Houston whose young core looks really good right now and set like I said, found a vibe, find some energy,

find some velocity and force on both ends, win game six, there's going to be a lot of pressure on some pretty fragile pieces of this Lakers rotation to perform really well in a game seven, including eight in canard, it was just invisible last night, and all the players we

“mentioned, ultimately I think Reeves and LeBron are going to be enough to steal one of these”

last two games, but yeah, it is a dicey situation for legacy talk on the A block of first

take, if this happens. Luke Corne, never blew a three-old lead, I don't know why just so

Luke Corne, I can probably cause Luke, you said Luke canard, by the way, you know, I just want to shout out, we just made a first-day joke, I think J. Billis has been like unbelievable on these games for ESPN, he sees all the nuances right away, like oh they switched this matchup, here's why, they ran this set at this guy, here's why, here's the mistake that just happened on that plane, he's super succinct about it, he's like a huge net plus to

the NBA broadcasting world, a couple other things, by the way, on the eastern thing, I think I woke up my wife and my daughter, I let out some sort of gutter-old yelp when he put that lay up back up from my office that reverberated around the house, and then my next thought was, I don't know if you follow Tari Esen's mom on Twitter, absolutely, absolutely delightful follow, I was like what is Tari Esen's mom going to do if they blow this game

because of his layup, Tari Esen's mom is not on my Twitter follow, make sure to change that today, but maybe it was a touching tribute to Marcus Smart, who was playing just with a bone-headed late game shot choice, you know, Marcus has made a few of those in his

has the ball with 2.8 seconds left in game six, and the lakers are going to need somebody

to make a play, so I am not, I am not saying the lakers have got this thing by any means, I would just, if I had to pick them, Zach, I would pick them, obviously, two chances to do it. Yeah, if I had to pick, it's just, it's hard to imagine it happening, but it, it, it, it very

“will, could have, by the way, also like I've been a big Tari Esen fan, I think this season”

has been wildly up and down for him, I very, it should to see what Houston's plan for his long term is a free agent to summer, but the, the underrated element, maybe not underrated, but the, the late least discussed element of the game three collapse, so you have the Jabari throw away, you have the read getting picked, you have LeBron making that shot, you have the three shot fall against Jason on tape, he may set up for the game, and then we forgot

what play we were running at the end of regulation, and I'm pretty sure if you watch the play, that's on Tari Esen, because it's supposed to be a shin-goon Esen picking role, and Esen takes forever to come up from the corner to set the screen, and people are like yelling at him to like get moving, come on, anyway, a couple other notes from this game. I didn't, I don't know if you noticed this, I, I understand the lakers are trying to junk

it up on defense with lots of different schemes and lots of randomness and like half

“zones and unpredictability, there were like four or five possessions in that game, where”

they like randomly hard doubled or wildly overhelped on shin-goon postups, like 20 feet from the rim, even like one he had Ruyonum, one he had dehydrated, and I'm like there wasn't him in a switch, and again, I understand they're probably trying to generate turnovers, just junk up, be random, but they gave up like two dunks at the rim, an open read shepherd theorem, like why are you, I just don't think I thought the risk outweighed the

reward of that by a lot. Yeah, a lot of double tins, right? It feels like Houston figured it out and they kept throwing them out. But again, like JJ has, has found some defensive competence in a group that I had very low expectations for, so keep junk in it up JJ. And shout out to Jabari Smith, Jr. is had a pretty solid series, especially from three, and talk about oxygen for a team that needs it. Dorian Finny Smith hits two threes,

I'm in Thompson, hits two threes, I'm in Thompson, hits two threes, like stop the presses, and Aaron Holiday just like a three in a runner, just again, oxygen, you need oxygen from those guys. And the last thing I'll say is I do wonder if Luke Canard is being hunted again if the lake or start blitzing a little bit more and like daring the rockets to pass the ball around to all their nods shooters to see to see what happens. But the lakeers are in trouble.

This is a real thing. And someone sometime is going to actually do this. And this is a pretty even injury riddled matchup. You would ideally like, like, it seems more likely that the home team in game seven that like the higher seed, like the Celtics three years ago would be the team to do it. But yeah, you made the joke about okay, CB and Cancun between the series. What if LeBron James retired after game six if they lose? Okay. So he doesn't have to play game seven.

So he wouldn't be on the court for the first three. Oh, come back. Wow. I was confused for a second.

I was a game six. What's happening after game six? Oh, that's too much for me to handle. Okay. Let's do very quickly tonight's three games. We have three, what do we have three games six this tonight? All game six. Yes. And by the time this goes up, we'll be about six hours from tip seven hours from tip Boston Philly game six. One thing Kirk Gold's Barry is looking for is the Celtics try to close out a series that I just kind of assumed they would close out and beat or no

and beat in game five. And just the bigger storyline here and in the Hawksnick's game is like are the magic just going to win the East like this is going to win the East because Detroit the number one seed is on the brink. The number two seed the Celtics really like kind of struggled to win game three in Philly and then couldn't close them out in game five. Cleveland will talk about their up three two by the by the skin of their teeth and then

and then you know this what a missing one anyway everyone's on the brink. But tell me one thing

“you're looking at is the Celtics try to close this out. Well, I think in the last game,”

Joel and Beat was marvelous and Maxi was also very good. And so the simple thing is who's the MVP of game six and that's the team that's probably going to win. Can Jason take them do it. He's played really well but didn't play great and then Jalen Brown sort of diminished where we we expected him to be in this series. So I'm looking for who's going to be the best player in the

game which is against sort of a first take way to look at this. You'll probably have some better

analysis. But dude if him beats going to play like this and Paul George's defense by the way is very underrated under discussed like the you talked to the six or coaches they were like yeah Paul George don't make fun of them. This guy still brings a hundred mile in our fastball on

away one of those two big threats for Boston when he's in the game and and Beat and Maxi are going to do this. They had a chance but I'm laser focused on Joel and Beat. I don't know if he can do this two games in a row with where his body's at and if he can't the Boston Celtics are going to win and then I would put them as the favorite knee. He almost couldn't do it one game in a row after

leaving the game and going back with injury. But that second half the first half was like okay

I mean Joel and Beat's been injured a lot this year. He's feeling it out. He doesn't look so confident in his body. He's not like overpowering Luka Garza and then in the second half he just put in a cola Vuchavitch in the basket for different times and then you could see him understanding that okay I've got it and you could see Vuchavitch understanding oh shit he's got it and when you could really see that was when Joel and Beat would face up he started driving much harder at Vuchavitch

like I'm coming at you with force and then Vuchavitch would back pedal like oh my god I don't know and he would hit the brakes real hard and hit an easy little 14 foot jumper but it was easy because he started going at him full speed with force and he mentioned Paul Jordan and they he played 43 minutes in that game had a bunch of 3s. Oh there's only like 18 points or 16 points or something but that was like this was the vision of what this team was supposed to be. Paul George

as elite 3nd third option. Maxi and And Beat kind of basic but effective offense low turnovers

and the other thing is they played the lineup of Maxi Edgcom Grimes, George and Beat that lineup was plus 16 in 15 minutes it only played 45 minutes the entire regular season and it's a lineup I've been waiting to see more of so we'll see how it goes and I'm the Celtics like you know I had a front office person from another team asking me like why do the Celtics suddenly

“look a little bit more vulnerable than we thought they were going to the playoffs and I think”

it's a Derek White jumpshot is just completely vanished and B there's centers under playoff scrutiny are not who we thought they were before this season but not quite this like rock solid three-headed monster that they looked like they might be going into the playoffs and Kate has foul troubles been a part of that so anyway that's a fun game. The one more point on that's these the exact point I had on my notes so I had the Celtics coming out of the East and they gave

up loop coordinate obviously those Alhorford and Pursing is the whole front court from their title team is gone with the exception of Tatum and and I think that's right Zach I think Joelle and Beat having a big game has a little bit to do with you know incompetent play in the front court for a team that wants to come out of the East so that's it if I did if you gave me a second thing to look at it would be like all right who's going to is Kate going to be the guy because that

would be the guy if I had to pick but the foul trouble you mentioned is a big deal I've never

been a big vooch guy especially on on the defensive end of the court and then Garza is what he

“is so I think the Celtics have a clear weakness now and going into a series potentially against”

the nicks that could be relevant again so I think that's where I watched this game six is the M. B. D. Verseltex front court matchup one quick thing you are looking for in nicks Hawks which is a very interesting chess match of particularly the Hawks juggling the rotations and the juggling the matchups rather just even between games within games with Dyson Daniel starts on cat then he moves to Brunson always back on cat we can't decide where to put who what are you looking for in this game

you know I think cats have been really impressive and I think one of the more impressive players in the Eastern Commerce playoffs I want him to continue to do that and put the series away and then I think the nicks have asserted themselves as with like he said with Detroit flailing with Cleveland not exactly running away with the series I think the town's Brunson that depth of the nicks but if

“town's is going to play like this I think the nicks have a real strong voice going in around too.”

I I texted someone close to town's after that game five and I said that might be the best sub 20 point game cat has ever played in his life. He was awesome he was awesome on both ends of the floor he blocked them a column three on a pick and roll they put him on Jalen Johnson for a little bit when they went with town's Mitchell Robertson double big which Mike Brown said he doesn't really like in this series I kind of like it fine for them frankly because

Mitchell Robertson is just a really productive player and he snuffed out Jalen Johnson like I just thought he was awesome the one thing I will look for is this the next defense has been sensational in this series I think there are three wins have been among the the half dozen best single game

thought was interesting was particularly in the second half of the game to get Jalen Johnson going

“the Hawks ran way even more than usual inverted Jalen Johnson dice and Daniel's picking rules with”

Jalen Johnson as the ball handler and the Nixon and pretty disciplined and trying to go under anything with Jalen Johnson and obviously with dice and Daniel's and just sort of making a shell and for some reason they decided we're actually going to amp this up and blitz a little bit or go over these screens and they started opening up like trapping Jalen Johnson dice and Daniel's open on the roll dice and Daniel's kicks it out for threes and I'm watching like why are they

this doesn't make any sense to me I land is getting good threes out of this and I just wondered watching it if like all right if we're going to play defensive like an absolute frenzied super intense

level and this is the price for it that we kind of open up this a little bit with our frenzy and our

intensity that's a price that we're willing to pay for just the overall vibe and mood of our defense but that's one thing I'm watching I pick Nixon six so I guess I have to pick the next to

“when this game their wins have obviously been more convincing than the Hawks to one point when so”

we'll see all right let's take a break and we'll I already covered wolves now gets on my last episode there's been a three-day break between game or two-day break between games do you have any thoughts you want to get on that before take a break I mean kid Nicole Yo gets your Jamal Murray make a three-point shot that would be my quick hit or I mean if you look at who's had the biggest jump shooting drop-off in these playoffs from the regular season those guys are at the very top of

the list particularly Nicole Yo gets so yeah I'm watching that Nicole Yo gets shooting line that series just makes me sad there's too many injuries it'll be interesting to see who guts through it and and if they can put up a fight against San Antonio who's not in Kianku and I don't think but they're just relaxing a little bit all right let's take a break and we'll get to the cabs surviving game five at home does that close show is brought to you by fan dual

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game a last minute trip with the crew spontaneous date that's when prime same day delivery comes in get whatever you need delivered to you fast so you can say yes to the moment same day delivery it's on prime visit amazon dot com slash prime to find millions of items delivered fast available in select areas terms apply all right Kirk all's buried tell the truth were you writing the calves opituary in your head at points in the second and third quarters of that game last night at home

against Toronto when james hearted and was throwing the ball all over the place when evidently in Jared Allen were like twing with the idea of maybe exploiting mismatches in the post and when the raptors were just playing when Jacobi Walter had an out-of-body experience and made

a million threes and when the raptors i thought were just playing with more force and confidence

than the calves where were you starting to be like do i need to do i need to dial up some fake down of an initial trades right now yes uh i did not expect to have in mobile least threes

“to find the bottom of the net when they did uh so shout out to him but i think those threes will”

go down as some of the biggest shots of their season uh because i thought those two uh two fourth quarter threes i think uh three three three for the game yeah and so credit to him that's something he's been working on for years can he i can said really pushed him when he got that job to develop that came up handy in the biggest moment of the season um but yeah dude it feels like last year right Zach it feels like this is the team that let us down last year and here they go again

instead of Indiana it's Toronto who doesn't really have a healthy team right now you mentioned that the injury is the Scotty and Brandon earlier so yeah i was i was starting to get very concerned up particularly when you layer in the james harden as an exactly throwing a hundred miles an hour right now and turn the ball over donovan Mitchell hasn't really shown up at the level i would have expected um and they're not out of this uh what are your thoughts no no they're definitely

con two right now even though they're up three two we would have been the calves con scale would have

“been broken uh had they lost that game there's then they might have been a dentist shooter third”

quarter explosion where he just blew about a couple guys had a couple of jumpers including a three when they duck screens against him and this is what dentistry does he has like one of these playoff games every series were like oh yeah team germany dentist showed up and they needed every bit of it Mitchell has been just pretty good by his standards okay harden had an efficient game but the

turnovers were just absolutely atrocious in the first half and they were the worst kinds like pick six

pass picks he got picked and it became a pick six like picked is dribble got picked yeah um and defensively he's obviously like mostly a no show um so it was a worrisome performance and look like brandening room played eleven minutes and he's been pretty bad for the most part of the series but he is just a needed release valve for them particularly when Scotty Barnes sits and Scotty Barnes

“is dealing with now a thigh bruise I think it was and was just not imposing his will on the game”

offensively from the six minute mark of the third quarter through the rest of the game and but the minutes when Scotty Barnes sits if there's no brandening room like those are pretty rough minutes and by the way Emmanuel quickly hasn't played the entire series and yes that probably helps Toronto's defensive a little bit because more Jamal shed is good for their defensive and that guy is just a freaking demon but you you start to think about things like

well I would really like to get Scotty Barnes matched up against Donovan Mitchell or James Hardin or Sam Merrill or somebody that he can really beat the crap out of in the post why is that not happening more and one of the reasons it's not happening more is because when they run things like a shed Scotty Barnes pick and roll which I like and they got a couple of good things out of it by involving a small guard with Scotty Barnes the cab just aren't worried about Jamal shed they're

not going to let him drive and do stuff in a way that they would not with quickly this was a pretty uninspiring win honestly for the cabs I thought obviously they figured out some things about their rotation they started streuse they've concluded that Merrill is just a must have pretty big minutes player because of his gravity and his shooting I didn't really get or

expect the Thomas Bryan cameo that occurred in the second quarter of the game and they just

mobly Allen together minus 11 in 10 minutes last night and they've just it's just that that

“that duo is just not working in this series and that's what when we were on the for the series”

like I expect that I said Jared Allen was the big the big X factor for Cleveland he's not going to lead them in scoring but the ability that two big lineup which had some really exciting metrics coming into the playoffs to to make somebody feel Cleveland on defense finally just like you said I think they're 12 out of 16 teams on defense against a wounded Toronto team that is not a good offense even when they're healthy and you mentioned shed play and key point guard minutes

start and actions that's not even quickly out there so I think it's fair to be disappointed in this team Cleveland up three two I go so far as is to say I expect Toronto to win game six at home and really put the pressure on James Harden and this Cavs team in game seven which God all bets are off of that happens if we get a Cavs Raptor is game seven in Cleveland James Harden's involved now it's only the first round so the pressure is not quite at harden cave

in levels yet but it would be Cavs Con one must watch I don't know what to expect because

the injuries have just in the second half reached a critical threshold for the Raptors where

Scottie Barnes who has been I mean anyone who wasn't paying much attention to the Raptors in the regular season has got to come out of this with an understanding of how how fucking good that guy is and how he plays on both ends before he's a little bit you know offensively it's not always pretty to jumper like the three comes and goes and mostly goes but he made he made some mid-range his last night when they when they conceded him and he's just plays with such power on both

ends of the floor his passing was great his passing was actually so good that he hit yaka fertile in the face once when yaka fertile isn't expecting the ball the one thing I will say and I talked about this and it'll lead up to game five was I didn't understand why the Cavs were not going at fertile more in the pick and roll just like if you have a traditional lumbering center on the floor who is not going to switch like cmb is going to switch just run your normal

stuff and see what happens and in the third quarter they had a stretch where they put harden in the pick and roll they say they would have fertile's guy was Allen a couple times it was

fertile defend in space and they just picked them apart and I'm like where has this been the whole series and it also it made me think I mean cmb played 26 minutes and was minus seven

fertile play 21 minutes it was plus six so maybe I'm off base but particularly in the second

half and down the stretch I was like I kind of just want more cmb in this game and less fertile because the more fertile in there the warrior giving them an easy lever to pull on offense and they finally kind of pulled it a little bit yeah that's interesting I keep waiting for Donovan Mitchell to have those kinds of attacking moments where he is at like you're you called it early Dennis Schroeder shouldn't be the guy I think of when I think about hey which of these

calves guards is attacking the rim most frequently but yes Schroeder was leaving it all on the floor

“last night collapsing into the stench and over and over again that's what I expect from Donovan”

Mitchell especially if they get those fertile moments out of yaka deserves a lot of credit he's one of

the more efficient ripper textures when his feet are in good position in the NBA so it's not exactly like an easy guy to pick on at the rim but yeah I guess I'm really focused on Donovan Mitchell man because like you said at the beginning of this like sort of teasing about the trade machine this is not a great start to the playoffs for this team it hasn't been a good year I do expect Toronto to find a way to win game six and like again like the like the like the

lakeers the brink of disaster awaits if if the wrong team wins game six and that's going to be a lot of pressure on that team yeah Donovan Mitchell 23 a game on 44% shooting 39% from 3 is

only 228 free throws a game and I think that reflects that yeah the paint is just it's difficult

for Cleveland's guards to get into the paint because of how a depth Toronto is with its huge and rangey and fast defenders that they just shut windows really fast they can rotate and recover

“and passes you think are there are not there to the point that I think they've been in Cleveland's”

heads a little bit there was a play in game in game four where moldly comfortable on the short rule at the foul line and Jared Allen was like wide open under the basket just textbook big to big pass available on the pick and roll and moldly froze it didn't make the pass and I think he ended up kicking it out to somebody you missed the three or something but it was it struck me is like Toronto has kind of sacked a little bit of Cleveland's confidence in its ball moving because of how fast

they move on defense so you know look I was relieved to see that Jared Allen had a couple duck-in baskets against RJ Barrett and one against Chukoby Walter like yeah you've got to be able to exploit that I was relieved that Evan will believe it a couple jumpshots and faced up a few times against yaka portal and got buckets like they needed more from the bigs and they got a little more I just can I shout out who do you think the leading score for the raptors is in the series

it's not Scotty it's not Scotty and oh man I guess we're both missed our trivia questions today it's a sad day on his act. I got revenge shout out RJ Barrett oh that's right he's awesome 24 game 53% shooting 46% on threes you know the raptors made that in and it would be trade for partly for financial reasons and partly to get manual quickly and RJ Barrett was kind of an afterthought kind of the price of getting

a manual quickly and he's not a sexy player three point shot comes and goes defensively he's just and and hard in and Mitchell had been hunting him a lot in the series and that's really the only offense that the Cleveland guards have consistently had is hunting Barrett and Ingram and Drong double teams or shooting ISO three or whatever but he's a pretty rock solid all around player he does everything pretty well on offense decent secondary creator he's averaging four times a game

in this series and his bully ball layups have been just like again oxygen for an offense that can we he's sometimes and he had that one huge one over Sam Merrill at the end of game forward like 40 seconds left to pull him within one I do think I do wonder let me test out this

“theory for you I remember years and years ago there was a Toronto indiana first round series”

where Toronto was the higher seed and had a ton of expectations in indiana with your boy George Hill and Paul George took them to seven in a really ugly series and I remember thinking as disappointing as this is for Toronto it was like his domain case he can get fire level of disappointing I wonder if the next series will feel easier for them because indiana just had a certain physicality and length that was problematic for them and I just I wonder if if Cleveland

is able to win this series as as rickety as they feel right now if whether it's Detroit or

particularly Orlando who we're going to talk about it we will see a forensic health here not or and Detroit is obviously a big physical team although not quite so much when they have like Dunkin Robinson and Levert on the floor I do wonder if there's a world in which we all get a little too low on Cleveland and then they look a little looser in a little freer in the next round I do know which is a huge half by the way it's still enough you did a good job saying hey this

is sort of the the casual fans introduction to Scotty Barnes and I agree with that but it's also the casual fans introduction to one of the better defenses in the eastern conference and look

“Toronto without quickly you sort of alluded to this early very very good defense I think”

Shed had one of the most impressive sort of nerdy defensive plays in this series where he sort of

left at I forget it was bringing up the ball to force that eight second violation and a really

I didn't miss it yeah there's a really smart play I've loved his defense since he was in college RJ Barrett I had this in my notes too one of the more improved three point shooters in these playoffs just up there with OGN and OB they're both in the top three of like the big shooting spikes I've monitored but yeah I think Cleveland is turning it over at one of the highest rates in these playoffs Cleveland is not getting rebounds even when they have mobile and Jared Allen out there at the

rate they would expect we can put this all on Cleveland but to your earlier point let's not forget the raptors are the ones out there playing with force playing this kind of defense getting

“those loose balls getting those rebounds so I think the future is bright in Toronto whether they”

get out of the series or not I think they're going to be one of the teams that we look at next years like oh this is a really good core they have they play hard they play great defense but some of these markers were seeing predominant Mitchell James Harden and the two big lineup for Cleveland get some credit for the to the raptors for playing this well especially on defense act well it's going to be interesting to see who they even conclude is is part of their

core right like Ingraham has won your left I'm sorry a year in a player option left after this greedy dick doesn't play anymore RJ Barrett has just next year left and will be extension eligible

and again he makes $29 million next year so we'll see if there's anything to be done there

but you come out of this at least feeling like yeah Scotty Barnes is going to be a legit

“you know he was I think borderline 13 fallen BA this year yeah maybe he has another”

little level above that where he becomes like a borderline second team all in BA I don't know if I see first team all in BA but but he's going to be a very good player for a very long time of one of the best defense players in the league and CMB is awesome and that's that's a home run draft pick and at the very least you feel pretty good about that all right let's go on to Detroit or Lando who will face the winner of this raptors cab series what a dual last night

Palo Bancaro 45 points six of 11 on threes which is like a lunar eclipse level event for Palo Bancaro three points shooting but he brought it and he brought it in a big game maybe he's the real playoff p Kirk Goldner maybe maybe it's an outfield George maybe he's Palo Bancaro's real playoff p we won't talk about five of 12 from the foul line of magic 16 of 30 at the foul line in a potential close out game holy smokes I might be able to shoot 16 to 30

from the foul line in my driver let's not not not in an NBA game and cade cunning him oh you had 45 points all put up 45 points too on 13 of 23 shooting made all of his three throws also at six turnovers on my god could could the dribble man just like just a little be a little bit more careful around some of these guys um Detroit survives got a little dicey toward the end or Lando got it to within three and then there was a sort of a random offensive rebound that went to Detroit's way

and they iced it uh I don't I don't I don't really have a read on this one and how confident I feel in either team going into game six part of that is Franz Wagner miss game five with his calf injury acting up again which put Jamal Kane into the starting five and if anyone two months ago would have predicted that Jamal Kane who was not even on the Orlando Magic for part of the season would be starting for the Orlando Magic and a close out playoff game good luck to you

and I think a stand hit this a lot on the broadcast I do think that helped loosen up things for cade in this game on offense I don't know what what's your feel for this one what are you looking at as we head back to the magic arena for game six yeah I have it on my board right over here on

the professors whiteboard is where the hell is Jalen Durant that is for me the first second and third

to what we expected in the playoffs he's just not shooting all year long he was he was only

behind Janice and Zion in layups and dunks per game he almost got ten attempts per game at the room Zion I'm glad like yeah a thing happened in my brain when you said his name where it was just like

“I remember Zion that guy's kind of fun I you know Zion okay anyway just but yeah so window”

Carter like we just gave credit to the raptors window Carter is playing sort of the uns you know this is less than celebrated version of basketball's the defense aside of the court and he's done very well shutting down Jalen Durant and now he's getting five layups or five point six per game his usage has plummeted Tobias Harris and Cade Cunningham usage has spiked as a result

of the magic being able to really marginalize this all-unbe a force that this pick and roll

partner of Cade Cunningham and now Cade Cade has the highest usage in the NBA playoffs at low he's up there at 36 that's not where he wants to be he wants to be down near 30 he wants to drive it so yes he's turning it over in part because his pick and roll partner hasn't been there dude his he has those passes those those outlets that that were there all year

“are gone and again credit to window Carter but for me if Detroit goes down here”

there's going to be a lot of questions and a lot of fingers not pointed at Cade Cunningham but pointed at the other partner in that pick and roll combo

I also think pointed at like Orlando came into the series and made one major change designed

completely to take away Jalen Durant and it was from tip off of game one yeah we're switching Decade Durant pick and roll and we're going to go under the screen and switch so we make sure switches are clean and yeah that's going to put Franz Wagner on Jalen Durant we don't care A for on this tough B we're taking away his rolls to the rim and that's the way he wants to score C if you try and enter the ball to Jalen Durant in the post you're going to have at least

one other guy who's a complete non-shooter on the floor and we're going to help off that guy whether

“it's a Sartamson or Ron Holland who is disappeared or Javante Green who's not a non-shooter he's”

made his shots he's just going to not be treated like a shooter shooter and we're just going to swarm him and knock the ball away and the pistons have not had enough of a consistent answer to that question and they're not going to force any kind of re-adjustment from the magic unless they find one they've had little answers here and there like in game two Jalen Durant started slipping screens really hard he started running up to set a screen and then running out before even

coming close to Kate cutting him and being like if you're going to switch I'm going to get a head of you and at the very least suck in your defense more than being sucked in right now Kate Stan hit him on this last night is like Kate's got to attack this window card or junior switch and sometimes he does I don't think he does it enough and I don't think he does it decisively enough like it just just don't dance with it if you get to switch just put your head down and go and then

there was a possession last night where they just had Jalen Durant set two or three screens in a row for Kate cutting him lower and lower on the floor so he can walk into an easier jump shot so there are counters this like I thought Kate was better at hunting a Desmond Bane last night that's a matchup that he seems to like we'll just do that more particularly if Dunkin Robinson is being guarded by Desmond Bane lean into that have Dunkin Robinson start flying around the floor

there's a lot of counters but they've just they've taken Durant's roles to the rim out of the series and they've taken him kind of out of the series to it to almost the startling degree and when he forces it when he's like I got to get it involved I got to do something he looks frazzled and rushed and completely out of control in a way that he did not look in the regular season and that's a lot of credit to Wendell Carter Jr who's a big tough SOB

who is in his head and really enjoying being in jail Durant's head. Yeah for a variety of reasons so we don't need to go into here but Detroit is also not able to shoot three we do this coming in but they unsurprisingly ranked dead last in the playoffs and three points shooting I know it's sort of an interesting point but they miss Malik Beesley right they don't have that they had that last year um and he wasn't particularly great in the playoffs but Dunkin Robinson

isn't enough he changes what they're able to do on defense even get them to competent three points shooting when he's out there but you're telling me their rim threatening force has been completely contained and now there are three sort of are terrible that sounds like a losing formula

gonna collapse and and and and and and really take Durant Durant out of the series in this

pick and roll action that's been their lifeblood all year long um that seems like a losing formula to me doesn't exactly that seems like we're writing an obituary with a couple of clear causes of death you can't score from the outside and you're all NBA center sure as hell didn't look like one against the Orlando magic well a couple of things the pistons doing not nothing but settling for just a minor Kevin Hurder traded Kevin Hurders been you know a non-factor for a lot of

“the series who's out last night I think told you that they were approaching this playoffs like”

all right let's just see what we got like a lesser version of a I've made this comparison or earlier this week of of Oklahoma City dear they lost to Dallas and just we're like we're taking this is the learning experience so what we learned was like Josh Gidey doesn't fit our team and we're going to make a change well they've learned some things the pistons have in in this series uh but Jalen Durant is only 22 years old that's thing number one um and so they will learn from this

they just need more shooting more offense and I think they will if they lose this series will recaliprate a little bit and be a very interesting offseason team in terms of do they go out

and try to get a better second option around K because this is all the stuff we knew about the

pistons and worried about has come to fruition in terms of in terms of their playoff

“viability which they're still viable they're still alive in this series but it's been it's been”

a rough go for Jalen Durant and I don't like they just they just haven't been able to counter it enough um one thing I did like the day did last night was a sar Thompson first of all what had bought so that he doesn't he doesn't just block shots he like clothes lines shots he like clothes lines the ball out of the air with such violence that it's it's really jarring to watch I checked the tracking data on second spectrum genius IQ today he set 13 ball screens last night

and I had talked before the game about how they just have to make him a more active part of their offense they can't just let him stand to the side and be ignored completely and have his guy clock up the lane like set having set flare screens and they had 13 ball screens that's the most he's set in any game this year and it's not only a way to sort of punish the magic for ignoring him like if you ignore him and he set the screen he's like dream on greens like oh my god all of a sudden

kid cutting him as a runway nobody's here it's a way of hunting sort of the magic's lesser

“defenders and I think that that's a smart thing to do and they scored 1.7 points per possession”

whenever they used a sar Thompson in a ball screen and the front thing is huge because without him not only do you lose your I mean you could argue he's their best all around player their number one defender on kade but the non-palom in its last night and they'll stagger bank hero in bane so at least bane is out there but the non-palom in it's are rough rough sledding and they were minus 7 and 7 minutes with him on the bench last night and the offense

is just completely rudderless and that's when they would have both fronds and bane out there and and the lack of fronds in those moments was was pretty tough yeah it's not a pretty series at all in part because both these defenses are very competent but I'm going to go back to the stat I think that I wish I had said earlier about durin among the nine pistons that have taken at least ten shots in the series jalen durin has the lowest shot quality you talk about these

nerdy player tracking stats all year longzack low he had the best shot quality on a team by four he was catching long time yeah don't say the last he is the lowest shot quality and again that is I've given Jamal Mosley who's gotten roasted including on the zack low show and the bill sim and show with me hand up they've done a great job here on the interior play of jalen durin getting him away from his happy place and really limiting the offense of efficiency and then

on your palo point I'm glad you said it when he's making shots he looks like one of the best scores in the league because he can blend the jump shooting and the rim attacking getting to the line and he made his threes last night which was great to see but I don't expect that to happen going forward in this series it's just we just have too much data that suggests the palo is not a great three point shooting not a great jump shooter so who else in in the absence of fronds

is going to score for them it's got to be vain or sucks uh somebody like that's got to really

step up if they're going to put this series away jalen durin never blew a three-o lead either

or just for a couple other takes on the game last night number one I think Dunkin Roberts

look it doesn't look great it's like a teenager who has not realized that he needs to start shaving

“that's that's what it looks like um number two and the reason I don't have a great level of”

confidence in either team it particularly Detroit with fronds maybe not playing we'll see

I thought they had a stretch in the second quarter where the game was kind of there for them to

seize control of where they just did a lot of like dumb young in an over aggressive things carouselvert failed the carouselvert's not young he's like a nine year veteran failed jomal cane out of three danis Jenkins like randomly ran into double team palo bank hero on the baseline twenty feet from the basket and fouled him uh Tobias Harris bonked a layup a wide open layup in transition again not a young guy thing and bank hero made a layup

on the other end Isaiah Stewart grabbed the rim and committed a gold tending violation on and we became an and one and then on the missed free throw just shoved window carted junior to the floor because window carted junior had the nerve to outwork him and out maneuver him for an offensive rebound uh a sard Thompson a couple of like why are you randomly running away from the only dangerous three point shooter on the other team to double team someone who's not in trouble

and doesn't mean being got a couple of threes out of it it was that stretch of the game that I just like it's like a five minute stretch of what are you doing and this makes me worry that you're it like I in my notes I was like if they lose the game remember this stretch and they didn't lose the game but and then as far as bank hero I mean obviously they're trying to get their hunting all the

“small pistons guards as much as possible and then one wrinkle I really like for them to do that I think”

they should do it more is use him as the screener for sugs or bane and just mix it up so it's not a palo inverted pick and roll every single time because that seems to catch the pistons off guard but this is you know like all these games are ugly and close and I expect games six to be through the total score of the series is Orlando plus three right now so it's gonna be close and ugly yet close and ugly that's that's the name of the series and we're still waiting for the beef

stew fight there's gotta be some sort of pushing and traveling with goga or somebody coming off dying think I mean the stew goga you could stage that it's summer league just as an extra event for the beef if they don't get into it in this series we could just do an MMA summer slam of the summer slam event between that I mean what the the magic or mostly not taking a band you

“know the not he's not even a quiet agitator a louder agitator who is not maybe as tall and physically”

imposing as the guys you mentioned does been bane is always starting some shit and to the point

maybe he hurled the ball through the ball people one it was in an obie where in an obie he like pegged in an obie is if they were like playing with football and you've thrown the ball at them and in an obie was like what just was confused like why did you do that to me anyway all right let's take a break we'll talk about some other league wide news before we go all right the other big news non playoffs in the NBA is the league has sent to its 30 teams

and its general managers it's revised and combined proposal for lottery reform which day would hope would go into into effect next season already in the 20 27 draft they want to vote on it in May we're just trying to rush this through the rush this through congress rush this through the legislature let's get it through rubber stamp it let's go um they are calling it the three two one lottery proposal the NBA's attempt to give something a little bit convoluted a very simple

and buzzy name and the basic thing is this they're flattening the odds even flatter than they are now I'm going to try to keep it as simple as possible um so that there is less advantage to being among the worst teams in the NBA and more profit to be had toward the back of the lottery and now including some of the play in teams including whatever teams end up as the eighth seed would be in the lottery we're expanding the lottery into 16 teams now um and not only are

they flattening the odds to to make it less profit will be very bad they are relegating the three worst teams if you finish just one of the three worst records you are not relegated to

the glee you are relegated to a second level of odds that are worse than the teams with the

fourth fifth six seventh eighth ninth and tenth the worst record in the NBA the other teams in is the plan you still are in the lottery you still are part of the lottery you still have pretty decent odds you have a floor of the number twelve pick you can't fall below that but you I have a actual worst subset of odds that idea came from a team that I show not name who proposed that

worst worst teams and that incentivizes winning obviously by they will try to all win toward the end of the season to not be in the three worst teams and the teams that are above them in the series will also try to win to keep them in the three worst teams obviously the big worry here that you hear from around the league is um and this is something I'm still battling with in my soul Kirk is the draft has historically been designed to help bad teams this doesn't completely do a

way with that the bad teams if you ran this system for a 50 years the bad teams would win or win out or have better picks than the good teams or the mediocre teams in the aggregate but it does

sort of muddy it a little bit and then underneath that is of course the lurking always present

small market concern over well if Oklahoma City and San Antonio and small market teams x1 can't get elite players through the draft or can't can't almost you can never guarantee getting elite players in the draft but can't jack up our odds to a point where it becomes a profitable strategy and we can't get them in free agency and it's harder to trade for them how exactly are we getting them right are any of those arguments persuasive to you and just what do you think of

“this 321 banana it's a lot um I think look the new CBA has made trades harder than ever free agency”

seems to be more restrictive and sort of less active than ever all that is to say the draft is the

most important team building tool in the league right now for everybody and so they have to get this

right this proposal I think clearly would wound teams like the wizards and the kings and the paces this year in the current system there would be a 42% chance those are the three worst teams those are three worst team they would get a 42% chance of getting the number one pick uh in total we're bringing our team percentage yeah we're bringing that down to 16% so we're really saying you we don't want teams to be at the bottom that's a really bad place so I think I'll put it in

even more stark terms for you right now the three worst teams in the league have a the worst team has a 100% chance at a top 5 pick yeah the second worst team has an 80% chance at a top 5 pick the third worst team has a 67% chance at a top 5 pick in this proposed system all three of those teams would have a 28% chance at a top 5 pick I mean that is a massive drop off and the teams both the teams above them in the standings better than them record wise but also in the

“plan to admit they would have a 39% chance at a top 5 pick so there was a cliff there and I think”

that's perfectly well said so I think what this what this proposal does is it effectively disincentivizes really really sucking it really disincentivizes the quote process right that we can't do that anymore I think we would agree that low that this effectively takes that strategy off the board you don't want to be very very bad the more interesting thing is what happens to the sort of typically bad teams and the incentives towards the

middle of the league and you've heard this for as long as I have the MBA punishes the middle you don't want to be kind about the traditional lottery that we're we have right now really punishes

a team like the bulls they always seem to be there right 30 and 52 32 and 50 something like that

you don't want to be there so this to me is really going to be successful or failed depending on how teams react in that middle class like the fifth to 15th worst teams and I heard Bill say this and I want to get your feedback will we see teams I don't really want to deal with the plan are we going to now see teams be like oh I'm just two spots away from having an 8% chance of the number one pick in the draft are we going to start to see a team like Miami or Charlotte this year saying you know

what fuck it I'm just going down a few slots to get into those juicy lottery ball positions that's where this things up on trial so I'm glad you brought that up it is an area of concern around front office people who I this proposal at at least the feedback that has come to me or that I have

“sought out from sources has been largely pretty positive I people seem to like it I think their”

will be pushes for tweaks here and there like maybe protect the worst teams like raised their

and this is one of the things that comes up is is there too big of a cliff between

making the play in the door playoffs and missing the play in so like that that like sweet spot of not the three worst teams but not in the play in you have an 8% chance at the number one pick the losers of the 7-8 teams have a 2.7% chance of this right pick and you know different different odds gaps for top 5 top 3 and then the 9th and 10 teams have a 5% so there is a big

“at the number one pick so there is a big difference I think the league would argue”

and I bet they're probably going to end up being right that by including the play in teams in like a non trivial way in the lottery for not just the number one pick but for top 3 picks top 5 picks like for instance current system the 4 play in teams have between a 2% depending on where you are a 2% and like 9% chance at a top 5 pick right in this new proposal to like almost no chance 2 to 8% not almost no chance but very little chance in this system the play in teams

would have either a 15% chance if you're in the 7-8 game or a 28% chance if you're in the 9-10 game at a top 5 pick those are like that's a real chance at a high pick and I think the league is betting that that's good enough that teams will not endure the shame from their fan base the lack of postseason home game revenue to to tank from the 6 seed into the play in or from the play in to the lower half of the play in or from the lower half of the play and to out that the

“incentives are aligned to dissuade teams for doing that I think they're probably right only time will”

tell and there may be a little tweak here and there it's a legit concern it's a concern effort from front office people I just if you do that shame on you but obviously any of these systems is going to be imperfect and will create a line somewhere where there's an incentive to be bad you can't totally eliminate where you can but you can't do it like this yeah we play over 1,200 regular season games and the nicest thing I'll say to the NBA is that I think this proposal

makes a greater chunk of those games watchable I think that what we saw this year while we were caught what a concept I know what was the regular season it's tragic you know when you got a kid and I got a kid and I remember talking to one of my girls this season I'm trying to explain where why the team was trying to lose right and I know that's sort of a cliche moment but like there were a lot of those games whether you were in the arena with your family or watching

late pass like you and me or just whatever the huge chunk of the inventory this year was trash because teams were trying to lose that can't happen in any pro sports league that's trying to get us to pay hundreds of dollars to go to arena to watch other people play sports they need to

“fix this and I think this does probably get closer to fixing it without completely fixing it.”

Now there are other ways to add actual stakes to more NBA games one of which would be a short in the season which is not a silver bullet but some sort of cover bullet that would

help with a lot of these problems at first blush and again in my it's so ingrained in my soul

I socialistic sports soul that the draft the purpose of it is to help bad teams get good and anything that chips away at that does present the possibility that it's not going to I don't I'm not going to use this language ago it's we're going to have halves and have knots and it's going to be a hopeless for a bad team to get good but it will make it a little bit harder and I struggle with that just like I struggle with the whole maybe there shouldn't be a draft at all

concept which is over here and not under consideration right now but at first blush I think this proposal does a pretty good job at at it's basically saying the tanking problem is so bad that we have to make fixing that priority number one and if that makes it a little bit harder for bad teams to game the draft if that chips away at the nature and the soul of the reverse order draft then so be it because there is still a vague reverse ordering like this still does favor

the worst teams it still does only include the bottom half the league in the lottery it's not like we're doing a 30 team flat odds draw where the thunder without the clippers pick could get the

first pick and I think based on how bad this season has been and maybe next year wouldn't have

been as bad and the year after wouldn't have been as bad because the drafts are not as high value

at the reverse order principle and helping bad teams sing a little bit to eliminate just how many

horrible games there were and how many teams were trading for players and not playing them

“sitting players for no reason pulling players in the second half of games I think that trade-off”

is worth it and this does a pretty good job of it I also think I don't know if people have realized this it's going to change the lottery like how the lottery actually works pretty dramatically did you ever get to sit in the back room like wherever you're now they got to let man send me my invite please so if I'm understanding how this is going to work um right now there's a lottery machine like you see on the old television news with the balls flying around inside of it and the meteorologist

picking out the thing um with 15 with 15 balls in it or 14 balls I think for whatever it is numbered

one to 14 they're not numbered by teams they just have numbers on them and what teams own is combinations of numbers for digit combinations and so they're like a thousand and one or something possible for digit combinations and the worst teams on the most of those combinations so like the worst teams own whatever 25% of the combination whatever 14% of the combination whatever it is and they so you pick four balls out and then the guy reads like two six seven twelve Detroit has the number

one pick now if I'm reading this correctly three two one is how many balls each team gets like the you get three balls you get two balls you get one ball that totals up to 37 balls and so I think what we're going to get are like team branded logo embossed ping pong balls 37 of them all floating around in this machine it up comes like oh it just says raptors or whatever like wind the number one pick no four number combinations no one is like right now everyone is in

there looking through spreadsheets that are 10 pages long to see who owns what four digit combination now it's just logo ball this is done this is it and we're drawing all of them all 16 and this proposal would get draw draw draw it is not even a word drawn so that really changes the mechanics of the mechanics ping pong balls are going to be kind of cool I think oh man let's get some artists designing them right now I think that's a really fun idea I want to say this I want to

be I think I deserve this I want to be the celebrity drawer of the watery a machine okay like lip for like he's bursting young people forget the NBA officials who have to stand there like this is the most serious thing they've ever done who has put more love and affection and sweat equity into this ridiculous spectacle that is the NBA lottery then I have I have in my little TV backdrop over here the stopwatch the red stopwatch that the NBA official who has to ceremoniously turn

his back to the crowd or turn his back to the machine rather and signal with the hand raising up

when the 22nd interval or 10 second interval is up and you can draw the next ball and has a red stopwatch

the same guy did it yeah I'm just gonna say his name like the day did it for like 10 years in a row when became friends because I'm the number one lottery fan when he retired and left the end he didn't retire he left the NBA he gave me the red stopwatch and autographed it for me I have the red stopwatch I want to be the drawer I want to draw the balls let me do it I think he should go get it and put it on

“Netflix for everybody to see I would like this I think you should wear your LED shirt I think they should”

have the Emirates lottery drawing all where anything you find or anything with any spots or make a little Ultra T shirt whatever you want to wear put on your your your fan dual hat your make a little Ultra shirt but yeah they should do this this this would be great television I'm not even joking the the current thing they do is suspenseful I'm with all of the people sitting out there on the stage of course we all know that the fate is sealed up by that time and it's just

for show but man that's a cool opportunity and we should definitely do a live Zack low show from the lottery that would be a very good episode you can't bring anything in there you can't bring a phone you can't bring a computer you're still like you was there did well they let media there they've like ten or twelve media in there but you can't bring any electronics I just the problem I would have is that wouldn't be able to censor myself so if like you know like if Dallas like last year Dallas

wins a lottery I would have been up there and be like we can't we got to do this over again this is

“ridiculous but you should be you talk wins like you guys should be embarrassed by what you did”

winter when like you can't last year no this year I'm telling I was there last year I was so sure yeah yeah you know that's sure but here's my point what what you are saying and what I am

market teams these are legitimate concerns it's fair now there have been a lot of bad teams who have gotten a lot of bites at the apple in a lot of different lottery systems and fuck them up over and over again and there's been a lot of smart teams who have gotten great players

in the middle of the first round there's also been a lot of teams who have actually

properly gamed and gotten lucky in the lottery like you're saying a total of spurs 100 per cent as wonderful as this run is if they have branded Miller instead of Victor women yama they're not in the playoffs right now they probably don't have deer and fox right now it's a good to hold to forget Dylan Harper and stuff to castly they can get keep those two guys the thunder deer thunder one point oh was all top five picks and surjabaka this thunder is

like she was an 11th or 12th pick if you double as a late letter pick so there's different ways to do it but here's my thing you can't out of both sides of your mouth wine about oh my god this makes it so much harder for bad teams and also wine about how tanking is out of control

“and discourage on the league like you if you want to solve the tanking problem you're going to”

have to chip away at the reverse order draft you can't have it both ways and so I see all this wine about well teams are going to be trapped and however bad teams get well too bad like you run this you teams a lot of you wrote this and this is a way to solve a more urgent problem the other and lastly there's merit to this if it is indeed harder for some teams to get access to superstar draft prospects then I think there are other things you can do in the CBA to give them

better access to superstar or star level NBA players namely like let's talk about eliminating restricted for agency so that a really good fourth year player is not just trapped on his own team maybe a bad team maybe the wizards have cap room the summer that so and so it becomes a free agent and they can actually use it to get that player there's a lot of discussions to be had and that's why it's important for people to remember this solution is not permanent it's going to be revisited

“in a few years and maybe scrapped entirely we'll see yeah and Adam Silver I think he”

self identified as an incrementalist early in this discussion and I support all of that I support incrementalists in our society but I think this is incremental progress act I think that's where I land I'd love to see this play out I think teams will be like you mentioned I think it was you like Lori Markin and a huge chunk of his prime has now been lost to this sort of process and Utah and that sucks it sucks for jazz fans and look if this were the current system I don't think

the jazz would have played the way they play down the stretch and that's good for those of us who just want to watch good pro basketball so I think this is an incremental step towards a solution well let's look at the jazz then right like Larry Markin and was the seventh pick in the 2017 draft yep he was acquired as you know one of the major pieces but not like a centerpiece in a trade involving the 13th pick down of an Mitchell in the 2017 and B.A. draft he's now the most

important player on the Utah Jazz he onto a George was what the 16th pick the 16th pick in the

2023 draft he's the second most important player on Utah Jazz Ace Bailey was the fifth or six pick I

think six pick fifth pick so like he's a high pick but he's not in number one like they're just different ways to build your team and a lot of teams have built through the top three picks and fucked them all up all the time so anyway last thing related to this yeah the blazers were eliminated by your San Antonio spurs. Interesting offseason coming for the blazers El Chippo has built his dubbed him the new owner Tom Dundin has to hire a middle school E teacher as the blazers said

“coach we'll see who takes that job I think Tiago Splitter should just get the job it'd be”

made to really I know it's like what a novel concept guy does a good job reward him with the fair contract that's like sorry they do have those some interesting interesting questions going forward they have scoot Henderson up for a contract extension already had had an interesting like a nice year and then two bad games at the end they have shade in sharps contract extension kicking in

four years about 90 million finish the season playing six minutes in an elimination game and very clearly

in the doghouse yet again defensive liability um I mean is the the young core here right now is that like we know for sure our cornerstone players is Obdia who's only 25 and he's extension

Tomani Kamara rock solid three and do you guy and Donovan Clingan who's a very nice young center prospect and then after that it's like I scoot part of the long term core I I would he's had an interesting year I'd be interested to hear take shade in sharps we'll see and then they

“have Orlando's first round pick in 2028 do you remember how they got that pick no idea”

it's going to be interesting when to revisit um they got it from Memphis who owned it via the band trade and uh Memphis traded up to get such a coward with the blazers and the blazers for their for moving back got that Orlando pick and drafted young Hansen who I mean it's great that he's making the blazers popular in China he's not helping them win any any NBA games anytime

they own Milwaukee swap rates in 2028 and 2030 and an extra first round pick in 2029 from either

Boston or Milwaukee they've got some stuff to play with what do you think of this team every team of the week every every team in the west has this like every young building team in the west has the same dilemma which is how do we reach the level of these teams at the top who are also really young well they found something and again I'm a big Tiago guy they you know they've had such a crazy season we don't have to go through the trancey stuff the ownership stuff and then like

Mike Smith's and the other assistant she I'm getting trouble for tampering with um young before the draft right so they've really came out like what did they actually do um I don't know I

“I wanted to hear more about that too because I think we worked with Mike at ESPN I was like okay what's”

what's going on here um but yeah just a really strange backdrop right away from the roster you have ownership uncertainty you have this coaching crisis Tiago like a phoenix from the ashes brings this thing to the playoffs I think he takes from the ashes wow what was dude I mean seriously who expected there's two kinds of playoff losses act there's a team or like if Detroit loses is a catastrophe uh but if Cleveland loses it's a catastrophe if Detroit loses it's disappointing

oh what a one come on but Portland getting here and losing to a good team in five games that's pretty nice outcome for their season given where they started after game one with their head coach getting pulled out a bed in the middle of the night by the fed uh like so I'd start there dude like this is

been a pretty successful run starting with that day uh with Tiago the higher Tiago first of all

“if Damian Lillard you didn't mention the only thing I would add as I go okay Damian's coming back”

that's gonna bring sort of the the tickets back and and they're gonna have a face of the franchise again I don't expect much from Damian at this phase of his career I would say the core to your question is Kling and Denny and Scoot yeah I'm putting Scoot in there I don't think they have uh the I don't think they're in a position to to risk him going somewhere else and being really good and what we saw I was at the game in game two where he he looked like the best player on the

court times uh and then he would disappear but I am going to extend Scoot there uh and I think they really found a defense of identity um with their front court I thought time war was good at times Kamara you mentioned Drew Holiday they found something there I would continue to build around this core and try to build a top five defense and an adequate offense so so Drew Holiday was sensational

for that one healthy he has next year 34.8 million and a player option for 37.2 and 27.28 Jeremy Grant

who was Jeremy Grant has almost an identical contract in length and mechanics yeah Scoot I agree with you like I you know about two weeks into Scoot finally coming back from injury I had Kyle Mann on it we did like a Brandon Miller Scoot visitation and I said on that pot I was like just keep an eye on Scoot because there are some signs here like the explosion is still here the jumper looks better he doesn't finish around the rim as in fact it goes you with think

and his turnovers are kind of out of control but there was something going on and then in the playoffs and the end of the regular season defensively he really got engaged for the first time and like and like was denying the ball and doing all this stuff and in a weird way for a guy who came out is a number one ball handler at a point guard they just simplified things for him and we're like I think you have actually two assists a game in the playoffs you're going to play off the ball a lot you're

going to play almost like I'm going to say 80% of your minutes with any of you they didn't stack of them as much as you with think and we're just going to take the game and make it simpler for you you're not going to be the point guard you're not going to have to make all kinds of decisions you're going to be a secondary ball handler and we're just your jump shot and we want you to defend

it may just made the game simpler for him the sharp one it's just wildly disappointing that

“the end of every season chancey and now Tiago split are like yeah we can't trust you like we're”

getting bring you off the bench we don't trust your defense we don't trust your decision making on offense because there's something in there there's obviously like explosive eye popping talent and athleticism but when he dials in and focuses and doesn't take no pass long toes and tries on defense and just when he gets the ball keeps it moving there's an interesting player there but it just hasn't sustained and he's still very young but there's a downside in which this

contract becomes I don't want to say dead money but like a Christian brown kind of like oh this we thought this was an okay idea at the time and maybe it's like yeah again there's going to be ups and flows to all of this but the thing that they need is obviously shooting and any team that has Denny and Scoot in a center like Klingan who is trying to become a shooter and we'll be service boy yes like you can't go out and trade if you're going to pour in all your assets

for like a big move and it's not one of the five best players in the league it can't be a non-shooter it can't be another alpha ball handler who's an okay shooter it can't be another big man who's an okay shooter it has to be someone who could shoot which is why I'm just interested to see how somebody's playoff series sort of end up like would you throw everything at Donovan Mitchell if the cast lay him out and that becomes a thing would you throw everything at Jamal Murray

if Denny gets flamed out and that becomes I don't I don't know and I don't think either of those

players will be traded but you never know and those are the kind of names that if I'm like

star hunting and it's not Janice and maybe I shouldn't star hunt maybe I should just aim lower and make tweaks and bring in some shooters here there that's probably the most likely thing but I just think they have a lot of stuff and at some point you got to take a swing if you're really going to compete at the highest level but I agree with you that like basic thing number one is let's lean all the way into being a top three defense and just get in a playoff series against

one of those teams and see if we could fuck it up a little bit yeah I'm in on that I think the biggest thing they got to do is just lean in on Tiago and be like this is a good coach where the Portland Blazers nobody expected much from us he the last 30 games the year they were really

“good and had this thing I think the most important shooting project is Denny himself if Denny”

could learn to shoot a little more reliably if he could develop a step back he's such a gifted attack or he knows the dark arts obviously getting to the free throw line you know that's one of the more important player development challenges in the organization it's just can Denny become an average three point shooter can he do what some of the other gifted attacking players of his size have learned to do like Luca Donchish develop a step back because that's really if they can get that

right they're good I like their coaching staff as I said and then Damien coming back so I think they have some interesting pieces I haven't thought much about if they could attract somebody in the trade market but you're exactly right next week is the most fascinating week of the year for the trade machine right because all of these disappointing teams then you start to look at players like you alluded to that could become available in the trade market over the summer yeah this

first round has been a big win for some old school conventional wisdom non shooters are really hard to play in the playoffs defensive liabilities become harder to play in the playoffs the game slows down in the playoffs and there are 16 game players like Dre'm on one said and 82 game players and it's wonderful that you had a great season up in the lead up to the playoffs but the playoffs is a different animal and teams are going to treat you differently and there's going to be jail

and dirt and kind of stories every year and they stress test your roster in a way that the regular

season never ever will if you have any weaknesses if you have any chemistry issues if you have

any just weak links in the chain the playoffs are going to lay them bare for everybody to see

“and give you a clearer idea after the season of like what do we actually have here and that's what”

you're referring to so some of these teams get to the end of the playoffs like are we didn't think we had we didn't have what we thought we had we have this lesser thing and said by the way on the blazers I haven't verified this but sports business radio tweeted this I don't know if you saw this about the mascots and Tom Dunnan no I have not I know that's going to trigger you a source this is directly from sports radio sports business radio I have not received seen every

few did anywhere a source told me the person tweets that Dunnan doesn't think the blazers should have two mascots blazed the trail cat and their secondary mascot Douglas fur

he was recently reintroduced I think introduced like three years ago look if you're coming

for the mascots yeah just maybe just don't buy the team if you're coming for the mask got to like we you know what we can cut six figures from the light there's gonna be a nine-year-old kid at a blazers game next year being like well we're stuck with where's Douglas fur at where's my dad's gonna be a hard conversation that's gonna it's not worth it new owner it's not worth it

“ill cheapo is not worth it for that nine-year-old kid to be like remember that time I got my”

picture with Douglas fur where's Douglas fur now oh I do like these ridiculous medsky kings blazed the trail cat who's been there all the way to blaze the main say you know there's what seems like two ill cheapos point those act low as there are teams that have two mascots yes so I can off the top of my head the Cleveland Cavaliers have like a swordsman guy and then they have moon dog who's just a dog who just runs around there's like I'm a dog like that's what I am

there's probably another one off this is a great question for listeners does your team have a secondary mascot there at least two and Douglas fur is one of them Douglas fur's a proud proud to be the secondary mascot he's not trying to make a cool against way to trail cat he's he's proud right cool loads Barry what do we got coming up from you I just published a piece

about what I'm looking at in the first round there was a big winby thing and I am now looking at

“injuries we everybody likes that but shout out to my spurs that's the last thing I want to get to”

first series win in seven years after a dicey start I was there a game two and one be fell down really scary moment announced out in game three it was a real question for this young team our man Dylan Harper and Stefan castle both played great games in on the road just a great series win of course they were expected to win but they overcame some adversity but yeah I'm watching the spurs baby round two and my unsung guy for them continues to be Devon Vassel I mentioned how

scoots decision making was kind of simplified this year to same thing has happened for Vassel who now that they have three point cards on the team plus an all-world centerpiece he just doesn't

have to do as much on offense like there was a moment two seasons ago where he was running

more pick and roll and they were running more offense through him now it's just like you're going to start in the corner you're going to come off pin downs the decision tree is going to be real simple we're going to leverage your shooting in all kinds of different ways but you catch it if you have a mid-range or great next pass over great if you're open for three great and the result has been a simpler game for him on offense and defensively and on the glass that guy has leveled way up like there

was two or three years ago the spurs people would have told you he's not he's not really becoming the defender we thought he could be his kind of a liability and he's not a stopper now

“but he gets contested rebounds and he did he black I think it was either it was clinging”

our rubber Williams that he blocked at the rim in game five like he wasn't making plays like that even six months ago and it's just you know it's signed that everyone on that team is dialed in to all the stuff that actually wins and I can't wait to see how the wessey is Western rest of these western coffers play off so the guys spurs are your spurs are in quite the position Mr. Gold's very yeah I think they're they're great I'm rooting for them obviously but if they

get to that thunder series that's a treat for every basketball fan I mean a lot to do to get there but you're right when they're making threes whether it's dill in or champagne he got hot in game five in in vicelle and both champagne in vicelle deserve a lot of credit for becoming gritty or rebounding type players then I would have expected in this rotation not to mention kelton johnson really leaning into that six man role but yeah this is a great team man and we're

really excited I love your pod with Shay by the way it was great to hear you guys chop it up and uh... yes I told you shay sarano not shake it was Alexander yeah not shayton sharp who I don't think's coming on your podcast recently or soon based on what you just said about them but shay sarano and I hope to be going to a lot of these playoff camps in san Antonio soon you said shayem pennies name I do think underrated swing moment in the season

is when mitch johnson pulled the trigger on shayem pennies starts in heirs and barns comes off the bench because they knew that that was going to make them a little smaller it was going to bring some defensive challenges but they also knew we just can't put line ups out there where it's easy for teams to put their center on someone other than women yava and heirs and barns was the place where they would put their centers now

obviously we've seen portland put clinging on castle the entire series and teams will do that too castles just such a much more dynamic player not the shooter heirs and barns is but that was it that was like a big fork in the road of like all right I think we just have to do it

very check about it the ringer you're always always welcome on the zack low show we'll see you next time

“but thank you all right that's it for the zack low show today we will be back on Tuesday as usual”

I'll be on bill's podcast on sunday we're going to have some game six in the same game seven

to talk about buckle up for that thanks to the great Kirk Gold's barrier for his time and his insight

“thanks to the usual to Mike Billy and Jonathan on production thanks to you all for listening to”

and or watching the zack low show including on Netflix see you next week

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