Eastern Conference Deep Dive and Bam’s 83 Points With Jaime Jaquez Jr.

All right, coming up on this at close show on a Thursday morning.

“Jason Tatum with a triple double, the Celtic score of million points.”

Everybody scored a million points last night and beat the heat.

Michael Pena is here. We're going to go around the NBA. Some winners and some losers of the last week or so. Top of the East is going to be the center of the discussion. Celtic's rolling pistons.

Just keep on winning without kid cutting him. They play Minnesota tonight. We'll see how that game goes. But had tip to the pistons jail and during all NBA lock at this point. I would hope I would think he'd be on my ballot if I had a ballot.

And then the other two teams at the top to catch in the nicks. Kind of mystery boxes this late in the season. We're up and down stretches lately, guys in and out of the lineup. Just weird teams. We try to sort of get a grip on them.

Then the second half of the East play off picture in complete chaos.

Orlando's ninth Miami's 10 Philadelphia is back to six Atlanta just keeps winning. They blew out the matchup last night, they're fifth quick peak in on all those teams. Plus we do a little most improved player and some other around the NBA stuff MVP. When we keep stuck in about it is the door cracking open for not just him, but Luca as well.

Talk about all that stuff. Then Hymehakis Jr comes on to talk all things heat 83 points. Their weird season, their new offense, his offseason, his sister playing in the final four. And then Sean Finnissie for the season's first metz corner.

We're trying not to be too dire, trying to be optimistic. We're trying our best. All coming up on the Zack low show. The Zack low show is brought to you by Bandool.

“The NBA postseason is here in Fandle knows the only thing better than watching your favorite”

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20 or over in select states 18 and over in DC, Kentucky Royalman gambling problem, called 1 in 100 gambler, called 188887897777, or visit ccpg.org/chat and Connecticut. Welcome to the Zack low show. It's Thursday. We've got, I don't know, two weeks left in the NBA regular season before the play in.

And the East is in chaos all over the place. Michael Pino is here to help us break that down plus the MVP award stock. Lots of other stuff. A mascot controversy. Pino, are you doing?

I'm doing great, man. I cannot wait to break down what happened with G-Wiz.

I did this is an amazing story.

We're not going to lead with that, we are going to just at least mention at the top that right before we recorded the pistons announced that Kade Cunningham will be out re-evaluated in another week, which would be in four more games missed, which if my math is correct would officially close the door on him making all NBA, the 65 game rule needs to go away. I don't love it.

I know that Adam Silver says what it's doing, what it's supposed to be doing, that's cool. This is a bad one. He should at least be 13 all NBA give me a give me as a voter. I'm not a voter anymore. The flexibility to do what I want and at least with that with 13.

But pistons just let's start at the top of the East because the pistons just keep on winning without Kade Cunningham. They play Minnesota tonight and the big winner of last night, the Celtics yet again, put up 53 points in the first quarter against Miami. In Jason Tatum, 25 points, 18 rebounds, 11 assists.

He's officially, if not all the way back, and he's not the efficiency still isn't there. So much closer than anyone could have reasonably expected. It's not just the rebounding, the shot making, the threes coming along. He's got a few blowby drives or finished contact drives every game now that are like, oh, my God.

And the way the Celtics are playing and the way the pistons are playing, both of those teams have to be very encouraged. And then the calves and the nicks, the other two teams that have been in this top four all season long, sort of just mystery boxes to me at this point. And I want to get your take on them for a bit.

But first of all, Tatum, unbelievable performance all around, not unbelievable. It's Jason Tatum. But like considering where we are, I think Celtics as favorites in the East is now kind of hard to dispute despite how well the pistons are playing without Cunningham. And the other thing I think happened last night, Jalen Brown had a sensational game just overpowering

everybody that the heat put in front of him, getting to the rim at will, making the

“simple play, the simple kick-off as when you should.”

And I think that the combination of K to officially missing all NBA and the way Jalen Brown is playing, I think he's going to get the first team all NBA spot that's sort of been

of word. I had at various points in the season, Anthony Edwards ahead of him. Don't been Mitchell ahead of him. You could make a collier argument based on advanced stats.

“I think I'd put Jalen Brown in the last all NBA spot at this point.”

Anthony Edwards has missed some games. Don't have the Mitchell's just kind of been in a weird shooting slump for two, three, four weeks now, and collier just, you know, he hasn't played as many games as many minutes. I'm looking at the minutes right now. Jalen Brown has played the most minutes of all of those four guys. He's played about 300 more than collier and 250 more than aunt. And

the advanced stats are, which always disadvantage Jalen Brown. There's just something

about his game, whether it's a system to turn over, is the number of mid-range jumpers he makes, whatever, that the advanced stats don't love, they're actually kind of narrowing to the point where team record, individual performance, minutes played, I think Jalen Brown will get a deserves to get the last first to all of the A-Sput.

“Yeah, I think that there's no wrong answer with a bunch of the names that you just mentioned.”

I would probably, this is going to go down to the wire for me with my vote. I think it's between Kauai and Jalen in that last spot. And I kind of just think that Kauai is the better player and he's an all-time great having his best season. So it'd just be a little tough for me not to appreciate that. And all the turmoil that the team has gone through with trades and injuries and stuff that is probably his fault that happened in the past. He's just been

phenomenal. So it's a tough-up for me. And JB has been incredible and just last night against the

heat, like, had like 13 points in the first three minutes of the game or something like that. He was stepping through double teams, knock it down three. He's been phenomenal. So I can't really say anything negative about any of these candidates. They're all phenomenal. I think, look, Kauai is better than Jalen Brown. Yeah, I don't think that's really up for serious debate. But the numbers this season, Jalen Brown's averaging 28.8 points a game, Kauai is a 28.1. Shooting percentages are pro-Kauai.

Jalen 48% overall 52% on Tuesdays, 34% on threes, Kauai, 50% overall, 57% on Tuesdays, 38% on threes, Kauai is a better defensive player. Jalen Brown has the edge in assists by a non-insignificant margin. Now the downside is that he's got more turnovers and all of these guys, which is. And he has

“I think, you know, he has a pension for live ball in the paint turnovers, which are particularly”

damaging and that may be one reason the advance stats are a little bit lower on him than the others.

But I just think, I was so dead wrong about the Celtics. I took the under on 41 and a half. I eat shit for it every day. All of their staff and coaches know that I was down on them. I just can't believe how good they are. And a number of things happen. Number one, Jalen Brown leveled way up like way up. It did just like go up and nuts. You went up like four notches in one year. The other thing that I sort of factored into myself, express them is other than the lack of

depth on the front line, the inexperience, all the questions that people like Nimi Kata and Baylor Shireman and Hugo Gonzalez and on and on have answered was just in the typical run-of-a-season Derek White on his 15 games or Peyton Pritcher or Miss 20 game, Jalen Brown. That just hasn't happened. Their core guys have been healthy all year and more than anything else, Jalen Brown, just came out and set the tone from the beginning of the year that I am a rock of stability. I am a

floor. Okay, our ceiling is going to get higher than you think, but like I am going to keep us base level competent on every single possession on both ends of the floor and especially on offense. I'm going to be able to get us a decent shot every time I have the ball on offense that I don't turn it over. And people are going to come back in this and throw the on-off numbers in my face in Jalen Brown's face that the Celtics are and quote unquote better with Jalen Brown

off the floor. The last time I checked over like plus 11 with Jalen Brown off the floor, plus six or something with him on the floor. And I just don't really care because the plus six is a pretty impressive figure in its own right. He's going against all the best opposing lineups. He is on the floor all the time that the other team is in the bonus because of his rotation patterns and free throw rate is a big reason. A potent free throw rate is a big reason. The Celtics defense takes

a hit in the Jalen Brown on-off minutes. Something interesting is going on there. But I'm not going to penalize him for the fact that the Celtics are deep and awesome and competitive and stagger their rotations so that two of their best players are on the floor almost all the time. I'm not going to penalize him for that. Ants on-off numbers aren't super impressive by this

minutes advantage he has given the way he's finishing the season. I think he deserves it. Totally fair. I mean at the start of the year when he was shooting the ball like Kevin Durant, I thought that that was one of the more revelatory parts of the season for the Celtics and kind of got them off to the hot start that they were able to sustain. And then I also think that, you know,

Boston has always been a team in recent years. They don't really attack the rim and this year they

one of the reasons that I am probably going to vote for Joe Masulip or coach of the year is just how he's adapted his philosophies his strategies to to the personality has. And so it's obviously a more athletic younger team and they have up their drives more than any other team from last year to this year. And Jalen I think is averaging like 10 more drives per game or per honor positions. I'm not sure. Then he did last year, which is obviously significant. I mean, he puts so much pressure

on the defense and he's no slouch on that end either. So it's, you know, it's, it's a, you're just splitting hairs. And so if you want to look at the team performance, obviously the Celtics are not in eighth place or wherever the clippers are and that's a, it's a big deal. So I couldn't argue either. Well, I just think either one is a, is a good choice. And I think the minutes, minutes matter. The fact that he's played more games and Colis still has to finish. I think

“twice play every game to just hit this, it may be just one more. I can't remember that matters to”

and the other thing that happened last night in that Miami win is that the Celtics are almost locked into number two. It's, they're like an 80 to 90% locked on number two, which makes the race for the three seed interesting, which puts them on the opposite side of the bracket from the pistons who just shout out to the pistons. They're really, really good. I said last week that if you

divided up the sort of pie over who would win the East, I would have the Celtics first and the

Nix second. We're going to talk about the Nix because my god, just every fucking day is a saga with the Nix. But that all the pie slices to use group chat terminology, we're like fairly close to 25% among the top four teams, like plus or minus three four percent here. And the pistons just are like we want more, we want more pie. We're taking another slice of the pie, cave cutting ends out. Oh, you think he's our whole offense. We don't function about him. Here comes Dennis Jenkins.

Why can't Dennis Jenkins be the most improved player, Michael Pena? He played 23 minutes the

“entirety of last year. I think it is now the starting point card on a team that keeps winning.”

Jill and Durin, I had two people from the pistons sex me in the last 48 hours being like, hey, what do you think of Jill and Durin? Do you get to make all NBAs? It's going to be close. Like it's he can get snub. I think he's a lot. I think he has to be all NBA the way he's carried the offense and carried the team without Kate cutting him. To me, he would be on my bow down to about yours. But just the pistons remain one of the stories of the season.

And I did not think whatever their schedule was that they would win this many games without Kate.

They've been phenomenal. Six and two since Kate went down. The offense is basically unchanged

in terms of points per possession. In terms of ranking, I think it's like 10th to 17th. The defense has been like rock solid, like no drop off whatsoever. They're still forcing turnovers. They're still protecting the rim. They're still benefiting from a little bit of three point luck.

“But I think Durin, I mean, I use the word revelation earlier to talk about Jail and Brown. I mean,”

I don't know the one step on what we're going to talk about later. But he's a strong candidate for most improved player for me. And he's averaging like 23, 10 and 3 with 68% shooting or something since Kate went down. And he's just so much more assertive than he was last year all year long. He's one of the few bigs when he grabs an offensive rebound. It's a green light to go back up every single time. He's not looking for, I mean, the pistons are bereft of three point

shooters anyway, but he's not looking to kick the ball out. He goes back up. He's super strong, obviously. And just when he gets a defensive rebound, it's a green light to bring the ball up the floor now waste any time and take advantage of whatever, you know, advantage is the pistons have 100%. And I just want to shout out this like really random thing that he does that I love so much. I don't really see too many other players, too many other bigs do it. But in dribble handoffs,

you notice how he like bounces the ball, like I head of him so that whoever's coming to get it on the DHL curling around him will have a extra step on their man. I just think that's like so slick. And it's part of the great chemistry that he has with Kate. I think it's some of the best pick and real chemistry in the NBA. But he's already developed it with Dan S Jenkins. And even Kevin Herder and Duncan Robinson. So I just think he elevates the team in a lot of different ways.

great early work before he gets the ball. He's like the possession's basically over. Like he's going to get fouled. He's doubled his free throw attempts from last year to this year. He's just amazing. Like such a great season for him. And to your point like a lock for all in the

“air for me, too. I think he should be and he's one of the leading candidates for most”

improved player. I'm not sure he'd be my pick but we'll get into that later. So the piston's feel rock solid in that they're going to get to number one seed. Whether Kate comes back when Kate comes back is a huge question. They can't win the East without Kate cutting him. But they know exactly who they are and what their identity is and reintegrating him will be as seamless as reintegrating Tatum has been for Boston. Boston feels rock solid. A sendin. Tatum is a sendin. The whole team is

absolutely rolling. They know exactly who they are as their identity. They know what they want to

accomplish all the time. There is never any confusion about what we're trying to do on any possession.

The next two teams in the East are so fascinating to me. Maybe the two most fascinating in the league because we're 75 games in and because of roster construction, midseason upheaval, injuries, whatever. It still feels like both the calves and the nicks are trying to figure some fundamental things out about themselves, stuff that the pistons and the Celtics have already figured out. I want to start with Cleveland. They got off to such a great start after swapping Garland for Hardin.

And they're still playing well. They're 10 and 7 in their last 17 games. That's kind of like,

“okay, the defenses slipped. I think they're like 15, 16th overall and the worse than that in”

their last 20 games. There was always going to be some slippage potentially with Hardin and Jared

Allen missing games. Allen's an outback. You started against the Lakers the other night. They got blowing out by the Lakers and yet another Luka MVP. Hey, remember me. I'm still in this master piece performance wasn't close. Like they just got straight up outclassed by the Lakers who are absolutely excuse me, absolutely humming and almost like on both ends of the floor. All the chemistry issues they had are all in the season are gone. It's Luka's team and it looks amazing. And so like

Mac's true started that game as sort of the fifth guy alongside the other four. I think Cleveland's dream outcome would be that's true. Takes that spot. The other dream outcome is that Dean Wade can stay healthy for more than 10 consecutive days because they like the defense with him and mobility and Allen. But in that game, you know, it felt almost like deja vu. Cleveland got a little bigger swapping Garland for Hardin, a little stouter physically, a little bit more switchable

defensively. In that here they are playing the Lakers and Struce and Donovan Mitchell have to guard Austin Reeves and Luka Donchitch. And I'm like, this is the same basic problem that the calves have had against teams with two elite wings or playmakers like the Celtics like Jill and Bronson. Like how much is really changed for the calves? You picked the calves to win the East so the or at least

“two weeks ago, I think you wrote a call about how the calves are going to win the East. I've never”

gotten there with them and they are more confusing to me today than they were when you wrote that column. What is your state of calves? What is your calves con? Well, I'm a calves con 3, right? We're just a calves con 3. What's your calves con level? I'll go 3 with 3 is 3 is we're chillin, we're fine. That's kind of how I feel. Maybe I need to go to 2 then because I'm not sure 3 is like I'd like can I I'd like to be a 4 if I'm a like 75 games I'd like to be at 4 maybe I'm I'm

but I'm still I'm not panicked. I'm not global thermonuclear war level 1, but I'll level 3 your calves con 3. Well, first of all I'd like to say in that column that I wrote, there was a caveat that this was right before Jason Tatum came back so it was if Jason Tatum comes back and looks like Jason Tatum then the Boston Celtics were probably going to win the East. So to be fair to myself have to throw that out there, but I'm still look you made the point about

how that was true. That was true since first start of the season I think and he has to guard Luca and that was just like all over my notes in terms of this is kind of a disaster for the Cavaliers like they are so desperate for Dean Wade and I don't know if also for the desperate for like the player that everyone thought in on multiple franchises that the

Andre Hunter was it never actually was it will be great point. So I don't know if like I'm

I'm desperate for Dean Wade means I'm not a championship contender. I feel like that could be a reality. I just think the offense is amazing and I would love to see this team win healthy. I loved you know they play the lineup when they beat Orlando recently

Mr. Lakers game by the way Sam Merrill also Mr. Lakers yeah yeah it was been unbelievable and he's

also so critical to their team and how they play but that lineup that closed Orlando I was just

really fascinated by it. Kenny Atkinson's decision to kind of surround his three best players with shooting some of the best shooting in the entire NBA. Max Troos has shot the crap out of

“the ball since he's come back to. So I would just love to see I think Kenny has a lot of”

lot of options and it's a good problem to have but he has so many I mean key on Alice Dennis shooter like who is going to come in and who are they going to play with when are they going to play? It's there's some questions that they still have to figure out as you said and you alluded to but I just really want to see them healthy and I still think like they could find themselves in a playoff series and kind of carry themselves through because they're just so talented and

then they know they've jelled offensively almost immediately the pick and roll chemistry with hardened and Alan was so seamless so do I think they're going to win the east I would still pick Boston but I like the calves and a series against the nicks and I like the calves honestly in a series against the pistons a team that I really really respect but I just think like

“shooting is so important in the playoffs and I think that they can scrounge up and I don't”

have defense against those two teams to beat them with their offense. I'll tell you what the calves

have in earned. The calves have in earned the right for us just pen them in the second round

when the Hawks are playing so well okay the Hawks are fifth I sort of can't believe that the Hawks are sustaining this against non-tanking teams but they are they beat to hell out of the magic in Orlando second out of a back-to-back for a lino but you know you'd think a team with a lot of stake would come out not lose by 30 at home the magic loss by 30 at home. Look the calves are should be awesome and the offense is awesome and they've found

instantly the right balance between the half court whenever one's on the floor kind of hardens domain with Mitchell as a secondary attacker transition is all done of a Mitchell catch and go hard in Allen central casting pick and roll combo hard and mostly coming along in Allen's absence you throw it all together you have the recipe for a great and deep team. It's just the team that you know when it's run into some playoff bullies has not exactly responded with

fervor and the pistons I'm guilty of it focusing on what they don't have in terms of shooting

and secondary playmaking which by the way they're proving we got a little bit more of the second

thing than you thought um they are bullies and they will kick the absolute living shit out of you if you're not ready to face them and the calves seem pretty happy to be in the fourth seat and to draw the pistons in the second round if they get there if kids back I mean good look like you got to bring your a game in that series and I haven't seen their a game for 15 20 games now maybe that's just because Allen's been out and Allen was very good against the

lakers at least offensively defensively I thought he was in so we'll see the calves and the other thing is you mentioned the options you know between the injuries and guys in and out of the lineup and like minutes restrictions in this and that like why is like I don't understand why Thomas Bryant is still playing at all you have these two centers on your team you're going to stack or the minutes I think that's one sort of low hanging freeze fine like Thomas Bryant is fine on a team

with Evan Mobile and Jared Allen he just shouldn't play and that's those short to him that's just the reality so I'm interested in the calves there's still a bit of a mystery box I would not pick them to win these right now the next I'm starting to think that the weirdness is just over taking them and it may be the defining feature of their season they're still just rocks solid by the numbers they haven't beaten really any good teams in since they beat disperse at home and then

came back and had a great run against the rockets at home and there's just something about them I went on Ian Beckley show earlier this week and I compared it to this sensation you have when there's a word or like a name like a trivia answer on the tip of your tongue

“and you've got it but you just can't quite form it that's what watching the mixes like to me it's like”

they for whatever reason every third game they catch a roll they catch a vibe where the pieces suddenly click into place and you're like that's the team that's the team I pick to make the finals and you're not even sure what happened to click them in the place or while of a sudden they are greater than the sum of their parts and then just as quickly as you've digested that and been happy about it they lose it and we go back to this like hey they're still pretty good

and nine over an 11 game stretch but it's like it's clunky and cat doesn't take shots and teams are

switching the brunts and cat pick and roll and putting their centers on Josh Hart and an issue that the next look like they had kind of solved one game ago is now just completely coming up their offense and it's just it's just this ineffable mystery to me that like they have it and then they don't and I just I can't figure out why or what clicks or or what makes them click when they click but they're not clicking enough for me to have the ton of faith that this year

is gonna end the way James Dolan says that it had to end but what you watch this team up close you live in New York what am I what are you seeing do you does what I'm saying makes sense to you like I just they they have it and then they don't yeah it makes sense I mean of late I mean the way I would just kind of synthesize it of the last month or so is that they haven't beaten any good teams like at all and all of their wins are against if you look at their schedule like

really bad tanking teams and when they do lose against the good teams it's like embarrassing losses that loss against the Houston rockets not only did Kevin Durant you know come out and hit his first like five shots or whatever and almost put the game away like two minutes into it but like Tariys and scores seven straight points at one point and with like five minutes to go in the first quarter and Kat makes a hook shot is twenty four ten to make a twenty four ten rockets

and they're coming down and nobody picks up Tariys and your crosses half court I'm in Thompson is walking the ball up the floor passes it to Tariys into the right wide open three this guy just scored seven straight points it's the three ten straight points time out next like stuff like that happens way more than it should for a team that can legitimately win a championship

in my opinion and I've always been a bit of a skeptic in the defense the numbers I know the

numbers they're terrific they're great I've watched them you know there are games and stretches

“where their defense is amazing and I have nothing negative to say about it I think fundamentally”

I always go back to just the differences between the regular season and the postseason with how they're they're built and how they can be attacked and so I'm generally skeptical and when you throw in like the just a lack of musical brainfarts that you see recently quite a bit it's concerning but you know there's there's stuff to like too but there's I just think like there's so much you know Kat said recently that they could figure it out in game eighty one or eighty two

and it's like that is one of the most damning quotes I've heard that's just not I don't think that's what I'm just as like every week there's either there's some sort of Nick's existential crisis every week it's a cat quote it's cat shot attempts it's the Mikhail Bridges trade being brought up on every media show because Mikhail Bridges said eight points on two of seven shooting

for the third straight game it's just there's just a lot going on all the time other than the

next playing awesome basketball um I'm just I find the Brunson cat thing endlessly fascinating

“you know I remember I think I was on with Bill Lera in the season when I said”

that pick and roll combination just hasn't led to what I thought it would lead to it's just not as easy for them to get cat open threes and cat pick and pop attack close out all that and you you wonder why in the most obvious answer is that teams don't put their centers on cat we'll get to that even when they do and Detroit did for almost the entirety of the first round last season um it just doesn't lead where you think it's gonna lead and I think part of it is that

Brunson as great as he is it lots of things is just not that kind of playmaker he's a little bit more methodical he's looking for his own shot more than he's looking to like bust down the defense and start ball and that's fine he's great at that but it's not conducive to cat being maximized um and I look this up because I was curious because I think about like when do the next start to look like the ball is flying around because they have a lot of like smart intuitive

movers and cutters and passers on their team and that's to tell for me when the ball is really

“moving they're very hard to guard and they're in a rhythm on both ends of the floor and I think”

it translates to the other end too for them whenever one's involved and I just like looked up when Brunson and Mitchell Robinson are on the floor and cat is off the floor they are plus 11 per 100 possessions and scoring at 127 points per 100 possessions according to Cleaning the glass

games where they found it where they found it and they were rolling and it was during one of those segments and the reason they were rolling is because when Mitchell Robinson's in the game the other teams put their centers on Mitchell Robinson he's not a threat to shoot jump shots the way cat is we're not worried about switching where to play our normal defense and they often blitz jail and Brunson or come up to the level of the screen because if you drop on him he's just gonna eat you up with

mid-range jumpers and when you do that on that in that alignment Brunson gets off the ball fast and sometimes he hits Robinson on the roll for a dunk or Robinson kicks it out sometimes if you can't get that pass because it's a straight on pass in jail in Brunson's not very tall he'll swing it to Josh Hart over here Hart will hit Mitchell Robinson on the roll and the ball just starts moving in such a dynamic way and I don't think it's entirely a coincidence that

through no fault of his own that those sequences seem to happen more what it's Brunson and Robinson and not cat however you are not getting to the promised land without Carl Anthony Towns

giving you 30 to 35 a plus minutes in a lot of games because his shooting is so powerful so yet again

we are two years into this and the nicks have to figure out more consistent answers to the wing on cat wing on Brunson center on Hart defense that the smart teams the able teams it teams

“have the personnel to do it are going to throw at them and that's what's so maddening about the”

nicks because on in some games they pull all the right levers it's not like they don't know what the counters to this are they've seen it for two years and those levers work to varying degrees and in other games they just don't touch some of the best levers and they just get it gummed up and every commentator says same well you got to give the ball to cat got a force feed the ball to cat I'm here to tell you that's not the answer to this at least not all the time

you want to force feed the ball to cat in the post against Tari Eason or jailing Williams from the Thunder wing jailing Williams that is a losing proposition you're not going to win against good teams that way he's not going to be efficient enough they're going to be too many turnovers now if you want to force the ball to cat when you know like a few times his duck in correctly and the defense isn't ready to load up on it and he can go quickly that's a different story

if Brunson has not a wing on him but a small guy on him like a traditional point guard and you run Brunson cat pick and roll and that guy switches on to cat that's a different story than jailing Williams or Tari Eason but the next two years in have let this scheme sort of gummed them up too often and against the wrong opponent it happened against the calves it happened against the Thunder it's happening against the Celtics they're just not going to score it

up to win and they have to figure it out because they need cat and they need to spacing the way he unbox their cutting game it's just it's the most interesting puzzle in the NBA to me is the nicks against that defense yeah I really like how you brought up a shorting the pick and roll with Mitch Robinson because you're you're seeing it actually a little bit deliberately

“with Carl Towns like at the beginning of the Thunder game I think it was their first play of the”

game it was a pick and roll high pick and roll with Brunson cat cat dives Brunson hard comes up to the

opposite elbow Brunson hits him what you're describing is the first play of the game and the

nicks ran it because they knew Houston is not starting to read shepherd in this game they're starting Tari Eason over him specifically for this reason to switch the Brunson cat pick and roll because we're not not only is Eason an animal in a huge wing defender we could put wings on everyone so we're not switching ourselves into a disadvantage on Brunson either and so what cat did is I know you're going to switch I'm going to slip out a bit hard I head of the switch I with you on my back and I'm

going to the rim jailens I can be able to get this past to me directly but hearts going to be over here he's going to hit heart hearts going to hit me I'm going to lay the ball up and in that's the kind of lever they have to pull but it just it didn't sustain no it doesn't I mean in the Thunder game they

tried it again in the third quarter and it was sniffed out immediately I you know like obviously

posting up cat is not like she's at smart he's turning it over Danny Chao just wrote a great piece on the ringer dot com about this cat is turning the ball over 25% of the time on postups

“that's not a good number and I think like you know it was really interesting to watch last night's”

game without Brunson and you know he had like a triple double 11 assists and they played through him and he was making quick decisions and they were there were a bunch of you know really ugly turnovers for sure he fell out of bounds once trying to drive baseline he does that every game for sure I just thought that was like a because like when when I before this season started when they hired Mike Brown I thought that Carl Anthony Towns is going to be used like to Montezabonus like

in a similar vein playing through him on the perimeter dribble handoffs you know elbow works

because it doesn't accentuate jail and Brunson I don't think but last night you saw that and I'm

“not saying that that's an answer at all but it was just interesting to see Towns act that way and”

then play through him in a game where their offense was by a large barrier their defense was terrible but and they played against the team that it doesn't start a center which was a factor and it's and it's tank and it's tanking yes of course so but no I so I don't really know what to say that's constructive here I we've seen Carl Anthony Towns in the play out so many times we've seen we know his words we know I don't know what you do I don't like I don't I don't know

well part of it is part of it is heart is gonna be the solution to a lot of this a big part of the solution or he's not gonna be able to play as much and I don't know the answer I'd like when they when they hum they leverage this scheme against the other team by using Josh Hart like

Drey Montgomery like you're not gonna guard me I'm gonna swing at you on the second side you're gonna run

handoffs the spurs game which they wanted home was a landmark game in that regard I just I just think it's interesting because if I if I'm the pistons and the Celtics I'm looking at these other two teams and thinking we got some kind of edge on them maybe psychologically the way that they're sort of just trying to figure themselves out and the next obviously you know the bridges trade comes up over and over again because they gave up so much for him they lost all of their optionality to try to chase

Janice obviously the honest situation is unresolved and if the nicks have a bad playoffs this is all gonna be revisited all every bit of it the decision to go for bridges in the first place and and overpay for him knowing that Janice may come down the road and we no longer have the easy ammo to go get him

“the Janice situation in Milwaukee who just loses every game by a thousand points though I think they”

actually won less night no they lost by only six less night we smile and Jan had a huge game that will be revisited and just the sort of general like if this team tops out as very expensive and not quite good enough it's gonna be a very interesting option for the next if if we get to that point and I think about it a lot it's like you know so the bridges trade the bridges trade was made because the team got better more quickly than I think they even anticipated that was the year it was

after they had lost the indiana in the second round of the playhouse so they had just like ran out of players basically everybody got hurt and they thought pretty confident like we would have won that series if if we were healthy we're we're there we're there now we can't afford to wait for theoretical player X to become available and bead was already too much of an injury risk for them to go chase

at that point at this level and they were just like maybe honest just never demands a trade maybe

he's still never demands a trade and then you start to think like well what are the other players that they could have gotten had they used some of the bridges ammo not all of it and you're like my brand it anger I'm going for a lot less the rant is the one went for a lot less and obviously they've they've got their optionality they would have had their optionality this summer but you know it's just going to be an interesting summer for the Nicarbalkers but hopefully an interesting play

hopefully an interesting playhouse because I wouldn't close the door and then make in the finals like they've shown a certain toughness they like the Celtics matchup like they've shown the ability to problem solve a little bit more than you would think given how often problems seem to tackle them yeah I was just going to say because you were talking about who else could they have gotten and I would be I would I don't this is kind of a move point but like throwing that same bag at Laury Market and

“the pretty that would be a pretty interesting move for the next and I think that”

I just envisioning him in that system and how he plays would be really the fit would be cleaner I think you might be there he might be a jazz lifeguard that was obviously at the start that before the town street too. Speaking of the honest just interesting you know as we watch the nuggets try to figure it out people and I think seven games in a row now six or seven games in a row most a lot of them against bad teams not a lot of them like super convincing and they're particularly with

their defense but camp johnson's coming along it Watson got hurt last night he heard his hamstring again knock on wood they need him hopefully that's not serious and you know they're trying to find a stable enough defense for them to realistically win three playoff series in the west and

I will never close the door on that team doing that based on even like they almost beat the

thunder last year with a bunch of injuries and micropart junior playing with one arm I just it's been interesting to me you'll get you nyanis um not I wouldn't say they're unlike parallel trajectories but they're interesting in this regard um the only players who have won multiple MVP's and one one or

and Bob Pettett one title for the 1958's in Louis Hawks every other multiple MVP multiple time

“MVP has won at least two NBA championships. Yokeage of course is one three MVP's donus is one two”

the players who have won three MVP's here's the whole list Bill Russell won 11 titles MJ16 magic one five LeBron has won four bird one three will won two and Moses Malone is a three time MVP one one it's just that's the territory though good those guys are in his multiple MVP winners and they're reaching the point in their careers where it's getting a little urgent like time is against them particularly with Wemben Yama in the Western conference and the thunder in the Western conference it's just an

interesting discussion ahead of away yannis has won one playoff series since the 2021 NBA title it's just it just food for thought that's all look can we talk about the MVP now sure just very quickly because it's been done to death Wembe 41 more points last night against the over match warriors triple down said I want the MVP I all the great ones grab all the hardware they can get when they're young I want it I'm staking my claim to it love I just love what he's done for the NBA's competitive

culture I don't want to be buddies with everybody I want to vanquish everyone and I want to do it now is the door you this is the one award you did not give out in your column this week yeah it's been shades award all season he's still shooting 55% on twos for the best team in the NBA he still has played 350ish more minutes than Wemben Yama but I will say this the advanced stats between the four of them are starting to narrow even with Luca like Luca's made up some ground not only in the raw stats but

in the advanced numbers is this race with five six games to go more open than the odd suggested you

“think or should it be more open than the odd suggested should it be more open yes I think so”

I don't think that that's realistic and I think that it's going to be between two players and we'll see how things kind of shake up coming down the straight way and Wemben yeah I am as you can see behind me a Nikole Doka Jackalite I think that even with the the injury him coming back the defensive issues you know shooting percentages dropping for a few weeks his team 10 11 wins below the thunder and the spurs and not having a chokehold on all the

advanced numbers like he normally has for the last five or six years I think that a case could a more credible case could be made for Yokeh then I've heard and I think that like I know you you've talked about this a ton in your show I still think he's the best player in the world I don't know how much longer that will last and I do think like some of the turnovers that he's throwing now I don't some of them I just cannot I'm not taking that seriously I'm just what like the the

kick-a-head's where his like eyes are closed like he had a turnover in against the Utah Jazz

last night where they always defense lay up and he passes the ball into the dude who just I forget

who it was on the jazz who just made the lay up so gave up four points in about two seconds and I know I'm not really helping my case by saying all the bad things up front here but I will say like no one has ever led the league in a system rebounds in a season which he is going to do averaging point per game he's the most efficient player out of all of these guys who are candidates he generates the most points per game out of all of them he generates in terms of just scoring

the ball and assisting baskets he generates 20 more points per game than Victor Wimba Nama

“he's the only one who when he takes it when he in this is a I think this is kind of a”

semantics argument but he's the only one when he sits the team falls apart like Victor Wimba Nama when he sits offensive okay when he sits and Luke Cornets on the court team is pretty good like

things are fine. Shago just Alexander is amazing and the fact that you know him and Victor

them being plus 17 plus 16 whatever they are net rating when they're on the court is incredible and Luke it's just like plus 10 or 11 or something like that and I don't want to integrate any either of these guys but I just think like we factor a little bit too much like the fact that SGA

which is the best defense that we've seen relative to league average since at least 1997 so like that's kind of like where my my case is when I when I look at value these are the things that I care about how like what you mean to your team in addition to you know efficiency and production and all that and winning and like it's not like the nuggets are a bad team like they just went set in a row yoke it should probably win player of the month in March his

March was insane first of all I want to I want to applaud you for just completely hijacking the

conversation for a yoke it's true believer screwed I'm sorry no I enjoyed it it was there was a great plot twist that was not expecting you to be like so actually yoke it is the MVP I would like to counter can I may I counter of course the spurs are minus 23 with Victor Wembinyama off the court for the season and plus 661 with him on the floor he has the second best plus minus in the league behind shade geologist Alexander the thunder are plus 685 when he's on the floor

you said that he's the most efficient of all of these players and again I am a yoke it's true believer I drink rakea like I'm all I'm all about it okay I eat chibapi like the whole thing

true shooting percentage yoke it's 673 shade 666 signed at a beast

he gets the line more he's a better free throw shooter yoke it is shooting 64% on to his

“shade shooting 60% like I think it's efficiency wise it's it's pretty much a wash I do want to”

clarify one thing because I'm getting roasted as the kids say for saying about shade quote this is Michael Jordan but of the modern era okay people this the this in that question was the single season she is having right now and the one having before it because shooting fifth a guard shooting 55% when he takes this many threes is Jordan-esque that is what I should have said I should have used to phrase Jordan-esque shade geologist Alexander is not Michael Jordan you know how I know

I'm 48 years old I grew up with Michael Jordan I still think Michael Jordan is the greatest player in the history of basketball I am not making a direct one to one comparison between SGA and Michael Jordan and that's partly my fault for not stating it as artfully and precisely as I should have Michael Jordan is the single most inevitable athlete of my life and I say that is someone who just is a neutral fan began sharing against the bulls late in their championship run because I just

wanted someone else to win and yet even cheering for those teams you knew they were not going to beat Michael Jordan the only athlete that I can remember who had that level of inevitability to them is another athlete that I can't achieve against frequently was Mariana Rivera when he would come into games or even before when he was looming when the Yankees were added by two runs in the zig-zoning and you knew they can get two in the third out of Mariana Rivera and the playoffs there

was an inevitability so just apologies for not being as precise but 55% from a guard and the

“clutch numbers that are outrageously good is Jordan-esque I would still vote for Shay but I think”

the door is cracking open because Wemba Nyama is finishing with this incredible kick they never

lose we know the defense you're right to Cape for Yokech a little bit and Luca the advanced stats are narrowing like I don't think the I think the first two months when the lakers were trying to figure out their chemistry and they're in whatever and the defense and the whining to the refs were talking points as hurt him but he has been this is maybe the best he's ever played in the last two months and it hasn't been three weeks or four weeks has been a couple months now and they are

I mean they are legitimately pretty scary like I would not pick the against the spurs or the thunder I've said before I wouldn't pick them against the wolves I'm beginning to waver on that nuggets I would still pick the nuggets but their chemistry Lebron playing off the ball like old man Lebron like attack blows out skitten corner threes Luca playing just with a zip and a speed that I don't even remember there was a play against Cleveland he sprinted the floor did not

have the ball sprinted the floor got it in half court sprinted into the lane with the ball dumped it's a Lebron for a Lebron like disguise playing with a pace and a zip I don't know anyway

“I think the MVP is a little bit open but I enjoyed the Yokech sidebar because I do think”

the defense has been worse since the injury the turnovers have been worse since the injury the nuggets are behind the two key teams and the standings yeah he still is having a crazy

unless you have more if he thinks to say no I appreciate the platform to cater my gag

it was fun it was fun um but I just want to quickly go through the east the bottom half of these playoffs because this is like I've reached a stage where it's like just wake me up not wake me up but like I'm not going to track the standings everyday because all of a sudden it's like Philly's back in six Toronto's in the play and Orlando's ninth Miami's tenth Charlotte is eighth

“the race for eighths an important one like we need Charlotte as neutral fans we need Charlotte to”

get to eight to get two shots to get into the playoffs and the rest of these should not want them to get into eighth I just you know Atlanta Atlanta has got a chokehold on the fifth spot because they have the sixthers tie break they do not have the raptor's tie break and these are just like a bunch of teams it's like I don't know the team I know is Charlotte Charlotte has been really really good for 55 games now the raptors look I know quickly was out and Brandon and Irma

was out lost to the kings at home like the rare it's like it's like it's like Haley's comment when one of the tanking teams beats a non-tanking team and if we saw it we got a sighting last night and the magic we all made fun of them for giving up the 31 oh run which is like they could have put me in and I might have been able to stop the 31 oh run I would have at least committed a flaker and fell and then they responded with a nice win over Phoenix and then they proceeded

“to get dropped at home and an actual important game to the Hawks they're ninth now the raptors”

are seventh it's just a complete mass Paul George was outstanding last night and beat the non-play he was ill I don't even know what point I'm making I would say the most interesting of these teams from a bigger picture standpoint is Franz Wagner came back last night and this feels very much like the last stand for the Orlando Magic for Jamal Mosley for this iteration of the team

like it's now or never you have the starting five back you have the two forwards healthy at the same

time you don't have anything black that's a big loss maybe you'll get him back at some point you have sogs it this feels like the last stand of this team and it doesn't feel like it's gonna work I watch a lot of Orlando Magic basketball for some reason they were a team that I was so high on coming to this season I don't know if I was more wrong about the magic of the Celtics but inverse predictions I I'm not gonna say I can't quit them because I definitely can and I

pretty sure I have quit them and I just don't see them I mean they barely beat the King's last week like it's just one of their only wins in the last you know two and a half weeks it's and just like the vibes the bickering between the franchise player and the head coach and both of them might not be there next year who knows um I'll just say like when they have jail and sugs I I'm more of a believer in anything they're trying to accomplish and I just love that dude so much

I like that he's healthy right now he's playing like a demon I think Desmond Bay in season has been a little underrated he hasn't missed a game all year he shut the ball pretty well I think he leads the league not me leads the league in total laps something like that so he I just want to shut out him uh Tristan De Silva big fan but like awesome they're 40 and 36 yeah I think that the Palo frowns do oh I mean you just can't keep making excuses with the injuries and she's not it's just

not happening well especially when you threw four first round picks and to get Desmond Bay and

which you know when we were talking about sort of missed opportunities for the next I didn't

“really consider him because you have to think who fits with the bruncin like what do you actually need”

and that's not exactly what I would be chasing yeah it's it's just a wild group of teams and the swings are going to be wild night tonight the Hawks I wasn't fully buying it like they were playing well but they were just playing a bunch of horrible teams they're legitimately playing well they're they're pretty interesting um they have a style of play that I'm not sure how well it would translate offensively and the play also in teams are really geared up for it but in the regular

season is is tough to play against the ball movement the unpredictable combinations of picking roles where people are coming off screens the pace all of it is really really hard and I think Jill and Johnson is pretty much a borderline lock at least for and all in B.A.S. but um okay before we talk more about awards will quickly we have to get into this it's been a while we can the M.B.A. we have that we have the jade and ivy thing which I don't even know what to make of that except

it seems it seems strange and a little bit like stuff is going on in his life that is

chance like a actual smart move to try to grab a top five pick heading into restricted

“reagency goes bust on them in the way that so many things have gone bust on them um”

you've had that and we've had what other strange things it's been a strange things but uh oh the Hanson young uh young uh rather the blazers are fine to a hundred thousand dollars and two of their front-off executives Mike Schmitz and Sergei Aleva are fine or suspended without pay for two weeks for improper contact with young in China before he was draft eligible worth noting by the way that um he has been like disastrously bad in his limited M.B.A. minutes like so like like

two years away from being two years away kind of bad now he's been good in the glee he's shooting like 70% on twos and the glee can clearly has skill but every time that dude has gotten on the floor in the M.B.A. it's been like oh my god this guy is so far away so that's a weird one and then we have the Washington wizards the Washington wizards this is a real thing that happened had to issue a press release this morning but there's serious press release

apologizing for an April Fool's joke that they pulled last night the joke was they had a fan shoe blindfolded for $10,000 and a but G.W. is the stupid mascot was there and

up million other mascots are there must have been G.W. is his birthday and he misses the shot

but the joke is everybody goes crazy there's celebration the air horns are playing and the joke is they're going to make them think he won $10,000 they have the giant check and then they show him the replay on the jumbo try and it's wah wah you actually lost and people believed

“rightfully so because that's what you're trying to make people believe that this was a real fan”

who had $10,000 dangled in front of his face and then had a yanked away by the freaking Phoenix Gorilla and Rocky the mountain lion and G.W. is and whoever else and the wizards have to set in this press release this is a real press release we apologize for last night's April Fool's joke that left many wondering if we had missed let a fan the skit involved in our mascot and other members of our performance team was scripted and intended to celebrate the day

all participants were in on the joke but we missed the mark our friends our fans are our priority and we continue to be committed to providing a positive experience to all who attend our games the hundreds of you who attend our games I made the last word up if I were the PR person who wrote that press release if I didn't I might not quit but I would be like here's the press release I'm going on a bender I'll see you in like 96 hours this is the lowest moment of my professional

career the wizards cannot even do a mascot April Fool's joke prank correctly and the downside of this is now everybody knows everybody's in on it when freaking clutch the bear if he still does this and Houston hits an opposing fan with the pie where a prank is done on a fan wearing a jersey from the opposing team now everybody knows they're part of the they're part of the skit they know it's all okay if you didn't know before now you know so the wizards ruin that for everybody

too only the wizards could do like could do this and the self seriousness of the press releases just what congratulations to the wizards who was offended by this I mean do we just cancel April Fool's day I didn't even see any good jokes yesterday I don't think that our country currently has a sense of humor for obvious reasons and what it like who was what did people write in where they upset like I don't why would this even make you mad would it because complaining

look I agree with you that it's it would have been a mean prank if it were real it would have been mean right if the fan actually thought he had one ten thousand dollars what have been pretty mean like I have a dark sense of humor I would probably have thought it was kind of funny but I get people being like that's just fucking mean like you're the wizards you're not this guy's even at the game you're lucky anyone's at the game um and people thought it was mean I guess I wouldn't have

apologized for it I certainly would have issued this would not like it has wizards like letterhead on top of it it's the whole thing is you know in order reminds me by the way my daughter we were at a hotel recently and apparently my daughter and my wife just she got sucked into family

feud she had never seen family feud before and by the way Steve Harvey family feud 11 year old

daughters not quite ready for what's going on Steve Harvey family feud but it reminded me the

“all time best family feud host is Ray Holmes this you're probably too young to remember Ray”

Holmes I believe he was the second host of the show and he used to play this prank it would only

if fast money is being a no okay but you got to you get you people know if fast money as you don't but people do you got to get 200 points you get two two family members combined have to give a series of survey answers um and okay two points two hundred points and you win

if the first person got 200 points all by him or herself Ray Holmes would be like all right

congratulations you won the ten thousand dollars we're gonna bring the second person out here and make up a fake score that you got like 72 points and all the pressures on you and prank them and he would just add live absolutely bizarre and impossible questions and that would completely flummix the poor person and they would be like us I just choked on national TV and then they would turn around and realize oh no they had won the difference is they had won the family feud people

are trying to trick them into thinking they were losing and in the end they win the wizards were doing the opposite okay real quickly most improved player you gave it to Jalen Durran correct

I did here are my here are my final final candidates like the like I'm really

whittling it down to the the the last batch of like six or seven guys Nikita Alexander Walker Niemius Kata Jalen Durran Danish Jenkins Ryan Rollins Collin Gillespie

“I think that's about it I mean no Denny Obdia I just feel like that's kind of”

Denny Obdian Jalen Johnson like I feel like it kind of started last year yeah both of both have made jumps but sure they can be on the list Durran is up wildly deserving candidate I mean to go up this much in usage and efficiency and give up nothing on defense and be able to create off into that okay it is is wild to me in a kilo Alexander Walker feels like it's in it's most in the spirit of the award

that guy's averaging 20 points a game and scoring in every possible way he's hunting threes he's leading the fast break he's doing like crazy spin moves on people he's hasn't sacrifice anything on defense I think I might vote for Nikita Alexander Walker I love it he was my runner up I gave him a long hard look almost chosen and if I'm being honest part of the reason I chose Durran was because I predicted he would win

the award before the season and I like being correct about things but Nikita Alexander Walker 20 points out of nowhere nine points per game last year I just love how you know he's increased his

“usage and his touches more than any other player in the league I think and”

like the defense is still all defensive team caliber like he's incredible he'll pick you up full

court he really cares he tries and him and Dyson Daniels as a back court is just phenomenal and that's one of the reasons why they've been so successful so yeah this is this is another award where it's just very very it's like impossible to pick between the two you've got a flip a coin but I love how you know you talk about the spirit of the award like this is his fourth team I think and obviously the opportunity has increased but like they didn't bring him in to do this this

wasn't like envisioned he came in to come off the bench in like supplement tray young like it's a completely caught everyone off guard so shout out to him love watching him play to he's so exciting just like the the handle the shot making the body control he's great the left hand is legendary

“stuff so if you pick him I think that's well that's really valid the left hand is part of what”

makes him so good in Atlanta system because he can come from anywhere at any time you know like a lot of guards he'll start in the corners and come off and take handles flying around but he can do that from the right corner or the left corner whereas because he can go he doesn't have like a dominant hand he can go either direction whereas a lot of guards is like I have to come from the left corner because I'm right handed and they just play like there was a play last night against Orlando

Orlando scored and the Hawks brought the ball up sprinting and the kill was sprinting jail John said the ball and the kill was sprinting and he sprinted and I mean sprinted and then came full stop and do a back screen like a flat screen for jail and John said to head the ball and I froze it 21 on the shot clock when he sets that pick and then sprinting out the other side to be behind the three-point line makes a three with 17 on the shot clock just okay so

your point guard is screening randomly with 21 on the shot clock for your power forward and then the power forward it's just this is he's such a perfect fit for how they play so yeah I mean like Hawks I don't know if I don't remember what they're over under was but they might actually

no this was great um I hope I didn't step on my MDP call it's coming out next week you might have

but uh no I'm actually held it I'm not gonna lie we held it because uh and this you don't want

“to put too much weight in one game but the spurs nuggets game on Saturday could be very important”

we'll see what happens it's it's gonna be a very interesting last week of the season for the MVP my vote would go to Shea as of now but I'd wait if I had a vote I would not make it now I would not set it up I would see how it unfolds Michael P enough from the wringer dot com thank you sir thank you Zach does that close show is brought to you by fan dual the NBA season on fandle it's all about the boost because game days mean your chance to boost your bet and make

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gambler called one eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit ccpg dot org slash chat and Connecticut this episode is brought to you by new era you know how some errors of the NBA just hit different as the official cap of the NBA new era is bringing back the good stuff with NBA hardwood classics collection vintage logos timeless icons killer throw back energy no matter what hot hat style you prefer new era has them all we're talking fifty nine fifty

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all right special treat we are joined by the Miami he's high my hot kids junior one of the leading candidates for six man to the year one of the my most favorite players to watch this year just a whirling dervish of spin moves and floaters and hooks and fast breaks how you do and sir oh well man happy to be here first of all we got a shout out percy the dog because right before this you are rushing to dog to the vet percy is my favorite breed of dog please tell

people what is going on with percy we got to give us some good vibes yeah shout out my boy percy the burney's mountain dog my favorite little buddy in the whole white world he's feeling a little under the weather he got diagnosed with some pneumonia so how to take him into the vet today but they're gonna do a good job they're gonna get him back to life keep a put a couple of liveies in his arm and he'll be just fine burnie's mountain dog is my number one ranked dog

we do not have a dog my daughter has been is on year five of agitating for a dog my wife and my daughter will want a smaller dog I keep this is they are the sweetest they look like they're smiling they're beautiful dogs and they're just like the nicest dogs in the world absolutely I mean I

love him I didn't know what kind of dog I wanted when we first got a dog but my girlfriend was

like no we got to get this one right here so I'm glad we were very happy with that choice this is my first dog I've ever had in my entire life so it's been a crazy experience but I love them and I went training for the world alright well he's gonna get better we're gonna get really a percy back and maybe maybe his getting better will be a good woman for the heat end of season can we like can we escape the plan are you tired of being in the plan this if you don't get out

and if you go five and oh down the stretch you have the tiebreaker against fili like there's a there's a chance but are you are you just tired of living this play in life yeah man I think you know I you know I understand the plan when it first initially was brought in but I mean we play 82 games in a season for a reason you know I think if you're a top eight you know you deserve to you deserve a playoff spot I mean I think you know as far as this tournament I mean I'm sure

it's great for the fans and everything but you know there what's the point of playing all these 82 games and if you so gotta play another game to get in but you know this is where we're at right

“now and you know that's what we're gonna be this year you know we're gonna do it and we have a lot of”

success in a playing game you know obviously we would like a secured solidified spot but you know you gotta deal with the cars that you're dealt with more importantly than the heat's play and fate your younger sister Gabriella is about to play in the national semi finals the final four for UCLA I'm just saying I look to your schedule um they play tomorrow you're off tomorrow and if they win they play Sunday you're off both Sunday and Monday are you are you plot is this

possible can you get where it's in where is it Phoenix or something yeah can you get there

one win and then you know I'm assuming they're gonna play you con you know I know you con self

Caroline is gonna be a good game but I will really want them to have that you con rematch in the national championship if you could take one skill from Gabriella and add it to your game what would it be her shooting for sure she's been she's been roping at this year um I give her a lot of credits she's been working really hard I'm getting her shot right in perfecting and she's been shooting hell out of politics here all right Miami heat stuff you're one raging success for you

one of the rookie of the year sort of front runners for a lot of the season I think I think I

“I think I voted you third in the end I can't remember I forget all my ballots by the time I filed”

year two high expectations a little bit of a step back and then here you come out in a brand new

offense and explode and and sort of like revive everything that everyone had hoped for you so

but I want you to take the heat the heat air exposure and and Pat Riley they don't mince words they don't mess around they're honest to a fault what is your exit meeting like after last season what do they say to you what do you remember from that meeting um you know I just remember especially talking as well he just gave me you know a list of things like a whole pretty much like report on all sort of things that he wanted me to work on for that summer and you know I took that and ran with

it literally everything that he talked about you know from awareness on defense to you know making plays on offense I really just took that into my summer kind of got to add a Miami went back home for the entirety of the summer pretty much and really just locked in to everything that he was telling

me it work on did you know it did he give you clues in the exit meeting that the offense was

gonna look so dramatically different or was that something you learned like over the summer or when you reported to camp like when did you know because it fits you like a glove obviously but when did you know uh really kind of when I got back and uh was coming back into I guess you know the silly they were talking about hey we're gonna switch up the offense um or we're thinking that this

“is gonna be a lot more suitable for the team and you know they were I think they're absolutely right I mean”

our offense is been really rolling this year um I think we're number one in pace and in scoring um I don't know where we're at an efficiency but I know we're like top five for a while at some point so it was really cool um shout out to Noah who's been really helping us you know implement that and you know the real shit yeah know the roast trying to you know implement this offense and really give everyone a chance to really shine in their roles someone told me I think it was when

your agents told me you're working on your handle was it being part of the summer plan so take me inside that was there a new drill you tried was there some funky like step curry style thing with tennis balls and strobe lights like what did you do um yeah I just did the old school literally just dribble pound ball you know you know 10 high 10 medium 10 low and then you know and having a guy's guard me just really implemented every part of my workout I used to tell guys

“like I'm not a really big drill guy my favorite thing to do and all the basketball was just a hoop”

you know you get better by who've been playing five on five but I took you know the drill part of it a lot more seriously especially with the ball handling just trying to get it tight so you know limit turnover is limit guys you know forcing me into bad positions and being able to you know manipulate defenses is what my handle I know you played soccer pretty seriously and you played baseball pretty seriously how how long did you how long how old were you when it was like all right

I got a transition out of those and just do basketball full-time like because you've you've mentioned how both of them both of those sports have helped you hone skills that are useful and basketball but like when did you sort of just focus exclusively on basketball when I got to college I was playing baseball pretty much all throughout high school except my junior year I had to take a because that was the biggest year for high schoolers the summer and I just knew I wasn't going

to be able to commit fully to baseball because I had too much going on during the summer but pretty much all of high school I played baseball soccer is something I just played for like in the summer like you know my neighborhood we had a bunch of kids so our favorite thing to do was play soccer in the street like we were going to call this act so one person's driveway was the goal the other person driveway was the goal and we would just play the summer like all day long. The reason I asked

he's because now I'm I'm a suburban loser dad and the sports is like a massive part of my life and my dad is a youth sports coach and has been for like 50 years and his like his cause select like the hill that he's going to die on is kids specialized too early no matter how good they are at one sport playing multiple sports is so good for them socially developing skills and like all the parents

talk at our local library my wife was there and she talked about this everyone hears it

and internalizes it and then they can't execute it because they get caught up in the rat race of like well that person's got private coaching in this sport and it's gone so like so tell people like

“why it was important for you to play different sports yeah I think most importantly it makes you”

miss the other sports you know you're playing basketball all year you know it's kind of hard to miss basketball if you play it all year so you know you go away you take a step back you go play some baseball you're excited to play baseball okay you get tired of it now I'm excited to go back to basketball I think kids can get really burnt out if you just give them the same thing over and over and over again um I know for me I wanted to try new things like you know golf is one of my favorite

hobbies now um you know it's a big thing in the NBA everyone likes to go off it's because you you play a two games in the year you need some sort of other competitive avenue another challenge something that you know you're not used to doing all the time and I think that's really important and obviously socially you get to meet so many friends like some of my best friends were my baseball teammates you know um you know I got a lot of friends were basketball but even like playing soccer

as well you meet so many different guides and it's just it's a lot of fun I mean I love playing different sports I think it brings out the competitor and everybody um and so yeah I think that's would be my argument anybody wanting to specialize extremely early it's not worth it it really isn't what's so what's the city or golf game my state of my golf game um man I'm pretty consistently can break a hundred uh so that's pretty good you know I broke in 90th handful of times um that's

kind of gonna be my goal this year so I consistently break 90 because 95 shooting hundred 95 is you know okay for me but I really want to get under 90 this summer who else is good on the heat who plays uh it's really just me juice myth and pull arson where the you know three guys I like to go for trying to get other guys involved but um for now it's just us three the heat don't strike me as a golfer in the organization I don't know I don't know why they it doesn't it doesn't

drive with the hashtag heat culture for some reason yeah I mean we have one of our our shooting coaches actually are really good golf or rock voters so we we try to get out with him sometimes we were actually just having a conversation about that we see in the makers doing golf outings and stuff like that we think you know we should do that implement that somehow with the heat we got

“so many great golf courses out here in Miami you need to find a way to make golf heat like”

you need to find a way to add violence or physical contact or some some sort of kind of like higher stakes it just doesn't it doesn't drive that's mental that's true that's right I'm not diminishing golf golf is super hard and very frustrating and you have to really really commit to it to get any good and you have to have mental stamina and physical stamina like walk if you walk a teen in the heat it's not nothing like it's it's anyway speaking of heat culture

I have heard that you and your dad who was also in athlete everyone in the haka's family is in athlete targeted the heat said we feel like we're a heat family we would fit the heat culture is is that true and like what led you to believe that man I was always a liquor fan growing up

but the heat was always like my second favorite team I always loved plain weight you know I was a

big shack fan so you know those early heat days but I don't it's just something about you know the culture of Jimmy Butler was one of my favorite players growing up as well and seeing them do what they were able to do always underdog always had a chip on their shoulder something about that really just resonated with me and you know I love the city of Miami and I thought would just be a great fit and I think they thought the same here's a draft workout story I heard

you go to Miami you do your workout normally there's like a nice spread of food for anyone who comes for the workout afterwards and the heat couldn't provide that because they're they're lounges like being renovated and they were like we have this like brown bag with the sandwich in it and they were like apologetic and you were like this is all I need

“I love this that is actually true yeah yeah I was I think I remember saying like everywhere else”

you wanted they had like you know look at all these chefs look at all this nice spread they got whatever you want they'll make you cook you whatever and then he it was literally like a brown bag with like eggs and bread that I was it I was all it was it got me fired up I was like this is what it's about right here did you meet Riley did you get yourself the Riley at that at that during the

process yeah yeah he was watching the workout so I got to shake his hand for the first time

and I introduced myself and you know yeah this is how you say your name and like yeah and that was

of you and this is a story I heard one ear fits true and it speaks to well to you as a teammate and just like a human so obviously things go sideways last year between the heat and Jimmy for reasons I have nothing to do with you he gives this now famous or infamous press conference where he says he's lost his joy for basketball and I talked to someone who is in the car with him like I'm maybe even on the way back from that press conference and everyone the way I was told to

me was like people with the heat sort of didn't know you know it's like give him some time given some space we're not sure what exactly is going on here and Jimmy's phone rings and the one guy you called him that night from the heat was you and what I heard was the message from highman was like hey man we can fix this like come back to us we got a good thing going here like trying to get things back together is that true? I'm trying to remember I think yeah because I did call him after

one of those I think I did call him out the one of those press conferences I was like hey man you know like whatever palms do got like I think we're here you know as your teammates weren't here

“we wanted to feel like you know we got your back type of thing so yeah I do remember that”

I don't know it was right after that but it was definitely that definitely something like that happened for sure. How much do you want to win six-maned beer because it's one of those awards where I bet in your head you have been in the past and you probably will be again someday a starter in the NBA and you think of yourself that way but this year you have not been a starter and you've been I think the leading score in the league off the bench five assists five rebounds of game off the bench is like that's a

pretty rare numbers to hit coming off the bench. How badly do you want this award? Man I don't know I like I want a lot of things more badly I think than individual

accolades like you know for example getting out of this plane winning some games but you know I always

say you know you win you get what you want you know the individual accolades come with winning so you know it's voted on so I don't know you know who I got a sway or who I got to talk to but you know at the end of the day for me it's more so about winning games and and try to you know make something that lasts for a team this is the team sport not the individual game it's not like tennis or golf so you know for me it's it's more about you know trying to win and trying to make this

make this dance okay you were involved in one of the landmark games of the year the decade will ever bam out of bio scores 83 points against the Washington Wizards yeah I went back and I looked at the fourth quarter of that game because I wanted to see what time I up to into fourth quarter does he take does he take a couple shots where it looks like oh it's earlier in the shot like we get this to BAM and you do you you missed a layup at one point and then you hit a corner three

where they throw like three guys at BAM 12 or 13 on the shot clock and he passes it to you and I'm wondering he's got like 70 or something at that point I'm wondering if you even when you catch that ball or like yeah man it's like do I normally I would shoot this is this

“the right play like do I got to expect a band what was that like uh that corner three I think I”

had to shoot that one see pass it like I'm like he's gonna pass it like I got I got to shoot it

but that was man what an incredible incredible thing to be a part of you know some of them

to tell my kids one day I'm a part of history me and BAM I think combined for like 90 something point second but in all seriousness now I was so happy for him I mean he came out that game firing I mean like didn't miss 30 in the first quarter we were like whoa this is skies on another level and he had 40 at the top and man you know I everyone wanted to say what they want but that was some of the craziest defensive ever seen played on a guy that hot like they didn't want

to send two and tell like the the last the fourth quarter and they kept hacking them I was like what I I didn't know what the wizards were trying to do I'm like this is like so confusing jarring defensive everyone want to sidewalk the offense well what about what they were doing defensively I mean they

let the guy go one on one after yeah 30 in the first quarter so you know I was really happy for

him to be able to get that accomplishment we were all pushing for him I mean you know even as a Kobe fan you know I let them know you guys will see a little later we did a little thing together right it's like you know I was sure that Kobe's record got broken but I was happy that you're the one that did it um when did who made the decision like we're now gonna start fouling the wizards to prolong the game was that someone doing that in the moment did spoke talk about that that you

“committed you're out of the game I think yeah now I think I was out of the game but the the”

wizards they started fouling like other guys to not true they started so once that happened we're like all right well all bets are off now you know you guys don't want to double triple teams of guys until the fourth telly at 70 points and now you guys want to follow the guys so that they can

off and let's go get a ban obviously Bam scores 83 his mom comes down from the court and you

“with the the relationship between Bam and his mom is very special she's around the team a lot”

you'd probably know her very well then I was watching the video from the locker room he gives a speech everyone comes in and like I don't know if you have other sort of personal memories from that night with Bam or what you guys did after the game if anything like what to take us inside the sort of post game of that moment yeah I mean we were just I mean we were all in shock we were all in awe like for a moment like that but 83 like that's such like an unattainable

impossible record for any basketball player like you know you think of world's 100 points like maybe that was real maybe that wasn't but we also Kobe score 81 and you know we've seen guys get close 67 but we all thought you know 83 or 81 is almost impossible and this guy comes in breaks that we were just all in shock like you know I was I had like I don't even know like this from Mexico you are very proud of your Mexican inherited you had the flag super imposed on the

court during the dunk contest are you gearing up for the world cup this summer what are your plans do you have plans I assume you're going to be wildly into this yeah world cup probably being Los Angeles I'm really happy that it's you know in America definitely going to check out some games I want to also prep suspect saying you know a lot of people like assumed that I was born in Mexico or not we're talking about California like grandmother she was an immigrant from Mexico

had my father obviously very proud of that you know just like every other American that ever came so America you know came came came from somewhere but yeah very proud of that very excited to see the world cup here in the states in North America and I can't wait it's going to be fun when Mexico plays the US in friendlies and in these kind of competitions what do you are you just neutral do you care yeah well you know as much as you know I love playing soccer and I love you

know enjoying I like watching I'm not like I shouldn't say I'm like the biggest diehard soccer fan so I'm just in for a great game you know I have at least just to both both sides but you know I'm all in for a great game that's really what I look for cream Lopez has declared for the NBA

draft he would be the first Mexican born player to be picked in the first round he's in New Zealand

or has been delaying in New Zealand have you spoken to him about about DNBA has he reached out to you like what would that mean for Mexico obviously there have been Mexico Mexican players you Eduardo Nahara others but what is that gonna mean and do no career middle yeah I mean I know

“I'm a little bit I don't I think I've met up maybe one time in passing maybe a long time ago”

but I think that's gonna be extremely huge I mean for for a native born you know Mexican Sue come to the NBA and really make make a name for themselves and really represent the country it's gonna be extremely special I'm super happy for them super happy for the Latino community to just be able to have you know someone else in the league as well representing and and putting on

for the Latin community and you know I'm really proud of that you know I always say that you know

I might be one of the you know the first first round doctor but I knew that there was going to be many more to come after and he's just you know the next guy and I hope you know there's he's not the last either there's going to be a whole line of Latino player especially from you know Mexico South America that are going to come love the sport of basketball like I do I mean that's for me

“most important thing I just want to spread the game that I love to people and you know hopefully”

they can follow in those footsteps you're a big Dodgers fan correct I am they all look at game seven of the world series probably in my top 10 all-time greatest games I've ever watched in any sort of where did you watch it how did you handle the emotional ups and downs that did the barely getting the guy out in home and all the like I like I mean that's stressful yeah I was watching it at master's for my parents my parents they were we were celebrating there what was it

20 well I don't even remember 20 something anniversary um at master's that we were all watching the game I mean the whole entire restaurant was watching the game as well we had it on our phones they had it up like the bar TV I just remember like it's one of those things are in loss

enjoying the game while watching it together it was it was a really special special moment for short well I'm I'm a metz fan as much as it hurts me to see the Timmy trumpet entrance in Los Angeles take good take good care of Ed Windy as for us you he's a closer you can trust and maybe maybe it'll be a little metz Dodgers play I'll soon know as metz needs to get out of their own way a little bit

“right now yeah I think the Dodgers I think we're gonna go for the 3p I think it's coming this year it seems”

that way all right I may have a junior thanks for some time as you have luck to Percy the Bernie's now in dog we need them to get healthy and best of luck down the stretch to the heat and hopefully in the play in and the playoffs I may have as junior great season's been super fun to watch thanks for coming on thank you guys appreciate y'all but what I wanted to say about my new student semester by tag leaptor Puycher soft behind the internet so master's really great

I say you can say that to Ruku you're a player but you don't know but you don't know egal zauber word for lust for track make the game just like this story and when they then are working he says catching that's right save like this story hold it down girl to Ruku now cost a lot of us will be in it's April it's metz corner Sean fantasy literally minutes before we popped on

“I got a text from my metz fan buddy David fellow suburban loser dad here in Connecticut”

just here's the whole text new players same result shrug emoji coming off I mean I don't know how to me this was one of the more frustrating losses I have seen as a newly immersed metz fan lindor forgot how many outs there were lindor forgot that you can be picked off of first base

when you're fiddling with your stupid oven mitt they were one out of maybe oh out of a million

with runners in scoring position which was the problem at the end of last year and their defense was only okay and Carson bench got a late jump on a blooper in the metz loss in their three and three they scored eleven runs in the opening game everybody was happy they have scored twelve games in the subsequent or twelve runs in the subsequent five games you know look I got it I'm trying I'm trying Sean there's a hundred and fifty six games left we had the best record in baseball after sixty nine

games last year okay and then everything changed so there's a lot to a lot to do a lot left to do but I don't feel great after six games I feel great about to pick the pitching is what we should feel good about I yeah I mean let's do what could we do some positives before we dissect what's really going on here starting pitching looks good let's have at it the starting pitching has been excellent superlative every single one of the five pitchers in the starting rotation

through basically five innings and two runs or less Freddie Pearl I thought looked terrific even though Francisco lindor was a little out to lunch yesterday I thought could I sango was throwing absolute

gas and it's good that's very exciting for us was he always like he was hit 99 and I was like oh

“okay so I did a point that he crossed 97 miles an hour like 13 times last year and I think he did it”

13 times in on in Tuesday's game so that was very encouraging the staff looks good I think the bullpen is also performed very well we can have a sticky lovely conversation if you want but otherwise Devon Williams has not been a disaster in fact one of his appearances was downright startling in terms of how dominant he was and I don't know the pitching is is really really strong which is I think what would make so much of the start just so depressing and innovating

in a classic met's way that they're not able to perform in other aspects of the game especially given what the narrative was coming out of the end of last season and then the retooling of this team and now we'll refine ourselves you know I was just telling you I was on vacation over the last few days with my family and couldn't help but steal away moments to watch games away from them even in a restful moment in my life and it just kind of brought down the vibe of another wise

nice time and I you're right that it is only six games and I'm not overreacting but it is a

little depressing I'm just so tired of runner on third less than two outs and we can't just

get him in and these extra the yesterday every extra ending you start with a runner at second they very quickly got runners bases loaded with one out couldn't score run just give you a run and this was the whole conceded the team is that probably gonna have a little bit less like traditional home run power but have a ton of guys who put the bat on the ball put it in play we're gonna be a put in play team up both ends of the floor you put it in play against us our defense is

gonna be really good compared to last year's clusterfuck we put it in play good things are gonna happen for us we're not putting it in play and it does like about Lindor has two triples

I'm very emotional watching the games and I feel in my gut and it would be nice to think like

this guy might get a double or this guy might get a home run and I just don't feel that

“for anybody except for Soto well we should probably talk about boba shut because I think a lot”

of these struggles revolve around him pressing at the beginning of his meds career and he's in this familiar position like we've seen this before I'm on a baseball texture over the few guys I have a few of them and one of them is a cubs fan Tim and he texted just to meet it the thread is just me and it another meds fan and him and he texted us how's the boat the shit era going so we're six games in and cubs fans are being mean to me about boba shut

well I mean it's it's we saw this with Carlos Beltron we saw this friend with Francisco Lindor we've seen this be unrecoverable for guys like Jason Bay you know where someone comes in on a big contract they feel a lot of pressure but shit isn't a particularly unique scenario because he's

making forty two million dollars this year in what is effectively a one year deal if he struggles

mightily he might actually pick up his player option and stick around but you can just see that he really in that first series at home he wanted to have a big moment and he was incredibly undisciplined discipline to the plate which is weird for him because he's such a skilled and resourceful hitter and such a bat to ball hitter and so you could see right off the bat like he's in his head a

“little bit and since then I think it has really significantly spiral he did have one RBI single in”

the cardinal series but you know he is in the exact same position that Peter Lanzo was in last season which is not to say that he's going to be a 50 home run bopper it's that Francisco Lindor and especially Juan Soto get on base a lot and there are going to be a lot of opportunities for him to drive and runs and honestly if he were hitting three hundred instead of one hundred right now the Metz might be five and one or six and oh and if that were the case we would be having a completely

different pod right now and he just hasn't hit and that's really what it comes down to other guys have had struggles you know Luis Robert got off to a really strong start and then he's kind of slow down a little bit Brett Bady had that great over the head night mayor O'Neill Cruz moment in game one since then he hasn't hit much Mark Viento's did hit a double but he hasn't played much

you know Carson Bench had a home run in his first game and he hasn't hit much so it's been

well it's been a trying time but I really do think I don't want to put everything on bobushet but I think if he if we were in game sixty seven instead of game six and he were feeling more in the in the settled in the season we just be having a different vibe if bobushet struggles for the entire season this is going to be a long depressing year I think I'm getting PTSD to I think my most fervent moment is just an absolutely batshit insane meds fan was when they

traded for Mike Piazza and I'm trying to even remember like how did we learn about things like that in 1997 and 1990 I mean I was in college and you would hear that like the ESPN dot com we have like rumors and he gets traded to the marlins obviously for for a hot second right and and you know that the meds were interested but like I just I'm my brain doesn't even

“remember what it was like to like did you have to just have sports center on in the background”

and something would happen and then you would learn about it but I remember learning about it and walking out of my dorm room in a haze just like no cell phone you know we had email but it's like not you weren't on all the time just walking around campus hoping to run into another meds fan to celebrate with this just walking around being like I can't believe the meds got Mike Piazza one of the 10 bestners at baseball I want to hug someone and then he was in a slump

right away he got booed immediately and I just remember thinking we're gonna boo him out of town he's a free agent he's gonna hate it here the fans are being mean to him he's slumping and then it normalized and everything was fine but I'm I'm like I'm already trying to be can you just not boo him just try to get him going a little bit because I'm getting nervous I mean boba show is getting booze in game two and that's you know that's New York that's

Met's fandom I think you got to you know this well and I know this really well it's 40 years this year man it's 40 years since 1986 there's a huge burden on this fandom and we feel really stymied and one of the reasons why I think we're harder on players now is because on paper we should have everything we have the wealthiest owner we have a really smart front office in theory of course we have homegrown talent and high profile free agents we have

great facilities we play in a very competitive division but in some cases that should elevate that has elevated the Yankees for for decades so you know it's depressing and so what happens

thing that I do I don't really think that that does much for you I do get depressed about the state of a certain player like we were watching Edwin Diaz right now on the Dodgers which is hard to watch but I remember watching Edwin Diaz at Dodgers Stadium get blown up five years ago and feel about about as low about him as a player as I ever have feeling like a genuine personal depression because of what a fiasco that trade was that brought him here and it turned around and

he turned out to be a terrific met one of the best clothes maybe the best clothes are in franchise history and the same could very well happen for bobbishet starting tonight it's just it's just the bummer so far you got to trust the track record right obviously I'm I'm not going to be like all now bobbishet suddenly sucks in the prime of his career after six bad game so it'll be fine offense will probably be alright and if the pitching continues to be good then yeah and airbender

has been good and Luke weaver has been good and you know I've ever one other than your guy Dicky Lovelady he's been pretty solid coming out of the pen I will say you mentioned Diaz

“I love the S&Y broadcast we all do I think week three of the major league baseball season is”

the end of like I don't need you to be like alright Peter Lanzo just hit a home run and Baltimore and Brandon Nimbo just did this and seeing the Timmy Trumpet entrance in LA was like an act of aggression against my soul I just don't need to see it anymore good luck to all of them let's move on yeah I was listening to the ringer fantasy football show this morning and they were talking about

Diaz's entrance in the live trumpeter and they were wondering was this the first time that

Diaz had ever had a live trumpeter which of course is not true and just made me feel so low as a Metz fan like that started in New York that that that that meme that theme that dominance all started in New York you know that obviously was the biggest blunder I think of the offseason was losing him knowing that the team wanted to retain him and so that's been difficult to see him go to I wouldn't even describe the Dodgers as our rivals I would just describe them as the daddy's of major league baseball right now but

that's tough to swallow the Alonzo and Nimbo thing let's talk about it okay um I ultimately was okay with both of those guys moving on I still have the the double shot of losing Diaz and Alonzo in a very contained period of time did did hurt a lot and I do think Alonzo

“I think is going to be really good this year and probably next year too I would worry about the”

back half of that contract as I have taunted Malarube in a little bit the Nimbo thing is is interesting I don't know how much thought you've given this but market semi and must far who has traded straight up one to one for Nimbo to the Rangers has played good defensive and has been abysmal at the plate abysmal and I think it's not unreasonable to wonder if he is cooked because he is coming off of consecutive sub 700 OPS seasons and if he is that is like a

huge drag on the lineup if he can't hit it all so what's the alternate reality we keep in Nimbo he plays left solo plays right bench play center or we just get Robert and Benches and Red so there and then we need a second baseman whoever that who's playing second base well I mean there's a break baby could be playing second base right now you know that's that's certainly an option I think it's it's hard to know like what the jenga tower would be if you didn't do that

particular trade and they did that particular trade for a reason right because Brandon Nimbo has five

“years and $100 million left on his contract and semi and only has two years and I think it's”

either 40 or $50 million left on that deal but if it were only one year with semi and you'd be like okay

halfway through this season you're effectively turning him into a utility and fielder but he's got a whole other year attached to this and this is a team that's built to win now with a possible work stoppage looming and so if that guy is hitting seventh or eighth in your lineup every day and he's not a major league baseball player anymore just in terms of what he can do at the plate it's very problematic because you're also balancing breaking in Bench who we don't know

which direction he's going to go like I hope it works out he obviously had an incredible spring training we barely even talked about his spring training you and I but he played so well he hit so well he's just going to have ups and downs because he's a rookie so it's very risky for a team like this to be trying to navigate a 23 year old super prospect and a 37 year old guy who's really on

not the back nine but like the back two so I'm really worried about that and look Nimbo was always

a productive hitter in New York and he's probably going to be one in Texas and it's going to be hard to watch when he's in 270 with a 350 on base and he hits 25 home runs that's going to be hard to accept maybe that doesn't happen maybe he hurts his foot maybe the planter for shyves comes back maybe he slips and falls down the stairs I have no idea but I started getting that pit my stomach thinking about Brandon Nimbo's three or four win season that could be coming versus

the new subject Mullins already she's out she hates him he gets out all the time with runners in scoring positions so that that's and look at hard to blame her it's not going great I'm glad he's a good fielder I just like again if there's a runner on third and you are one out can you just hit a sack fly could you just not strike out just hit a chopper just give me just get the

“run and it's all I'm looking for it's my it's my actually I think it's the moment in sports that”

has always anger to be most as a fan is the runner on third and less than two outs and we don't

get them in just just I just get them in just give me a run it's the minimum we can do I totally agree I mean I grew up hearing my dad grouse about that and so I have clearly adopted a very similar tone when you watch the sort of like the fundamental baseball go badly and that's like a fundamental thing is get the ball up in the air when you've got a runner in that position you know the team has been dreadful to start the season with runners in scoring position last year

statistically the team was third or fourth in baseball with runners in scoring position but that stat is insanely skewed because you may recall last August they hit 285 with runners in scoring position which was second best in the league that month they hit 50 home runs that month they also went 11 and 17 because that was the month in which they're pitching completely imploded and

the reality is they were not a top five with runners in scoring position team throughout the

rest of the season in fact they were barely top 10 most of the year despite having a $350 million payroll and they have struggled over the years doing this it's been different ownership different regimes um every team feels this way about their team with runners in scoring position because you

“are more likely to remember the moments in which your team did not come through than the”

moments in which they did come through but this is very it's situational it's managing it's preparation it's all these things I understand that it's a noisy stat but I have felt this as a concern for a very long time especially over the last five years with the team and it's really it's really weird to watch guys like Besheat like Jorge Polanco whose name we haven't mentioned yet like baby like increasingly you know professional hitters many guys who were brought in because of

their statistics with runners in scoring position just look a little lost or a little snimied Anthony decomo from MLB this morning shared the chase rate stats for with runners in scoring position and they were alarming for the mats and it just seems like a very over anxious team right now and I'm sure it'll change we've said this like five times already but it just sucks to sit through this experience of seeing a team that kind of can't get out of its own

head in the first week of the season so you mentioned chase rate I love all these new stats now they now they'll throw up conversion rate runner at third less than two outs for a particular better I that's the style I want that set every time and I want to shame the people who's conversion rates are too low but chase the king of the chase is Alperas and like if you throw that through to slide or low and outside it doesn't he's going to swing at it it's going to be two feet out of the

strike so he's going to swing at it but here's my question and I don't know enough about the mats or baseball or anything yet to answer this my daughter loves torrents it's one of her guys and so she's very happy that torrents and McLean are a little pair and torrents and Sangha appear to be a pair I don't know if that's because he can catch the ghost fork better or whatever so um for a team that needs some pop it like is can Alver has just play every day I don't know

it can he d h and can he catch more like do we need to play him every day he's not durable enough to play every day because torrents can't hit god bless him he's a great defense to get you can't hit it all Alver has has some fucking pop like he might have the second most poppin is bad on the

whole team right now I don't mean like could we just play him 150 games I mean the answer is no

“I think he does have maybe the most pop on the entire team short of one sodo”

if you look at that home run he hit in the first game I mean that was an absolute tank that was thrilling and honestly him pimping a home run is one of the best things about the mats well first of all part of the pimping is just the arm sleeve matching the cleats every game is just it's gonna it's gonna it's gonna get him some goodwill with my daughter eventually yeah he's he's he's got star like qualities even though he's been inconsistent there isn't he can't play

150 games is because he's prone to get hurt and um catchers obviously absorb more small injuries over the course of a season and he's also had some really weird freak injuries where he's been hit on the hand with balls and he's had balls fouled back and and injured himself and he had the handmate injury that lindor is currently rehabbing from right now so he's had some issues um I think it'd be nice to see him hitting in 130 games per year

puzzle every every night you know we've had we've had two Jared young starts so far this year yeah i did not try to let my back apart yeah so because of that you've got a lot of strange

“bats i think mendoza tends to really look at the matchups and then at sometimes think when he's making”

the line of card he overthinks them or the front office is overthinking it as they work in tandem alvarez deaching is a little scary but also he's just a very hot and cold player and when he goes into big slumps you look down the line up and you're like okay so it's alvarez simian bench and those three guys are cold then it just kind of feels a lot like it fell last year we're six seven eight nine we're really weak and so the team was top heavy and just feels like

a top heavy club again i don't after game one i texted my brother and my dad and i just said and i'm at a set you a similar thought i was like this line up is going to be an absolute bitch to pitch to they're going to be so tough because all of these guys work counts they see a lot of pitches i think they saw like 180 pitches from the pirates in game one and since then it's just been the opposite where they've been undisciplined and they all kind of are slumping and simultaneously

and so i hope i'm proven right after game one and i do think that that is ultimately where they're

going to revert to but alvarez is a guy who no matter what happens is always going to be a

little bit undisciplined as a header he's never going to be a 380 on base percentage guy that's not really his game that's not why he's in line up he's expected to hit for power opposite field power um so you know i'd love to see him get hot tonight um i like Robert so far i like Polanco so far um and the other big daughter update is very happy that Ben's shaped as mustache was not a fan of the Ben's mustache and thought it was ugly and a big mistake um we're bearing the

lead here um and we'll end with this where where are you on the the soda lindor every one is zaporating zaporatoring their high fives uh their lockers have now been separated people are speculation is running wild buster old knee was on ESPN radios i was driving around opining on the state of their relationship do care about this at all buster only had something bad to say about the match surely you just well i mean look i i love buster only so i don't i don't

know he would do he was saying look uh he doesn't know he didn't have any insight he he's pretty confident they're not like buddies he's not sure that it really matters like the classic sort of like 26 players 26 cadds whatever the same was kind of thing but it is interesting like meds fans are kind of obsessed with this like there are a lot of youtube videos breaking down handshake routines and facial expressions and uh did he call soda right away did not call soda right away like

“there's just so it's it's it's kind of NBA ish honestly um like breaking it down i i don't know”

what to make of it it does seem like they're they're obviously not best at friends it doesn't seem like they're close they seem like two different kinds of people i think that the rank speculation about whether or not that is deleterious to the teams fortunes is a little bit worthless because there are plenty of teams that have been great that had guys that did not get along at all um the example that you hear New York sports talk hosts reference all the time

is Reggie Jackson at Thurmond Monson in the 70s and there are many examples of that over the years with big personalities the thing that the the conversation that kicked up after game one and even i think was taking place a little bit during spring training is this feels like one soda

was team now and soda had a good first season he wasn't perfect he had some struggles but he had a

very good year he's gonna be here longer presumably than a Francisco Lendor and he is by most metrics this superlative player and so the idea of the the team taking on more of his personality especially as mainstays like Alonzo and nimo and McNeil move on and he gets to kind of like build a culture around him on the team probably has Lendor feeling um a little wanting the Lendor stuff in yesterday's game that was missed that. That's like Jivelle McGee level what the fuck is going on

“man like that was really you must have did you get some bad news that that morning because”

to be completely checked out on a ground ball double play opportunity in the first inning and then be picked off in the bottom half of that inning he just felt completely detached from

from what was going on with the team you know he took accountability he always does after the game

and he talked about it but he looked like his dog had just died and we're in game six so that was bizarre and soda has also not been perfect this season but he's hitting he's doing what he always does i mean he's hitting for power um he hasn't hit an every big spot but he's his his slash line is the only

percent faith in soda as a hitter every at bat is must watch must watch television for me it's just

“great theater um what do you think do you think it's a problem do you think it's like this is the”

sort of thing that is actually an issue i'm monitoring it just because of the bizarre O Lendor game from yesterday i don't really think it's an issue baseball is like a kind of a team sport and also kind of an individual sport and i don't really think they need to be friends i we all have these ideas as i did when i was a kid that all these guys are hanging out and going out to dinner and it's just like a like you're in a club and you're just hanging all the time and it's not

like that um so i don't but you know like i'd like Lendor did on half games like he did yesterday and i'd like him to hit the home run at some point all right you gotta go do the big picture

“the method going for a four game series and Sam Francisco who's not been good so far this season hopefully”

they they rebound and i am monitoring the other thing is when the met season went bad last year as it often as is the case for team suit seasons go bad they sucked on the road and so like i would like to see them establish a baseline of competency like hey we actually travel okay even when they were playing well they were like a juggernaut at home and just okay on the road so one and two on the road with both of the losses being bad is is not great so four game series

on the road let's get let's get at least to go I guess what can we just do that you think you think to is that what you're going for because it's not the giants are not a great team but

“that we are facing robby ray and Logan web which is just not ideal um and so you know two and two”

you know then you're five and five through ten which is not a nightmare or anything but i'll tell you how to split but this was supposed to be a way to get fat at the beginning of the year pirates cards giants we looked at two weeks ago and thought oh exciting maybe this is the way for this team to get hot early and and start building and now we're like okay i will split with the giants

like what the giants have a college baseball manager as running their team right now who's never

coached in the majors so like that's that's that's that we we've really lowered our standards for a $380 million ball club we we're facing two very good pictures so that's part of it and we did we did chase schemes after two thirds of it in which it was the song which was like crazy and very exciting so we'll see all right Sean fantasy we got the big picture with Amanda as always coming up today we got some it's gonna be a fun one you told me what the movies are and uh you were on the

rewatchable so we see our month concluded with LA confidential which i can't wait to listen to because the clips were delightful Sean fantasy let's go Matt's baby let's go Matt's thanks Zach all right that's it for today's episode uh thank you to Michael peanut thank you to

Jaime Hawke's junior thank you to Sean fantasy thank you to Mike Billy and Jonathan as always on

production thanks to you all for listening to and or watching the Zach low show I'll be on Bill's podcast on Sunday as usual and then back Tuesday with a new episode see you then 21 over in president select states for Kansas and affiliation with Kansas star casino or 18 and over in president DC you can tuck your Wyoming gambling problem call 1 800 gambler or 1 800 my reset call 1 888 789 777 777 or visit ccpg.org/chat and Connecticut or is it md gamblinghelped.org and

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