SGA and Bam’s Record Breaking Nights!

The master-writer has left her to be a soft-handed,

so it's a master-writer. I'm saying, you can say that you're a hero. You're a master-writer, right? But you don't understand. Exactly.

The master-writer is a philosopher. Do you just do it with this story? And if you then work, you'll be able to do it. - Is it? - Save. This story is called "The King of the Rings".

Now, let's try it out. Coming up on the Zach Low Show after this, we got Rob Mahoney to talk about all the big games that happened tonight. Spurs, nuggets, Celtics, Thunder, No Tatum.

But still, these are some heavyweight, heavyweight matchups.

What do we see? What did we learn? What's going on? Bam out of bio. Had 83 points, I haven't talked about it yet.

Was it gross? Was it ethical? Was it triumphant? Was it some combination of all those things? Sposed today?

I apologize to absolutely no one. Did we expect Eric Sposer to apologize to anyone? We'll talk to Bam. We'll talk to Lakers. Just kind of keep winning.

So the clip is actually, but the Lakers,

who keep winning without LeBron too. How are they doing it? What's happening?

“Is Luca semi-inserting himself into the MVP conversation?”

I think Shay Parli has that almost locked up, but the Lakers are outperforming, I think, the expectations a lot of us had for them mid-season. And then speaking of the Western Conference, John Christinski is here to talk about the wolves.

All the wolves, just when you think you have the wolves nailed as a contender, stealth contender, they're getting it together. They get walloped, three games in a row. Look, worse and worse and worse with each game. What's going on?

What's the Minnesota tumble was where they rank in the West? What's happening? We give a little love to the clippers who thump them the other night. So that's all things wolves with John Christinski. Grab Mahoney, all coming up on the Zach Low Show.

The Zach Low Show is brought to you by Bandool. Things are really heating up on the court. And Bandool is the best place to bet on all the epic matchups during the NBA season. Build the same game parlay for a shot at a bigger payout,

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gambler called one eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven seven numbers at CCPG.org/chat in Connecticut. Welcome to Zach Low Show. Drop Mahoney is here. We both just watched a simul cast of sorts, Denver, San Antonio, Victor Wembin. I'm an outer in Gordon out. Oklahoma City Boston came down to the wire, came down to two chat home.

Green free throws after an offensive rebound, but shade Gilchus Alexander 35 points.

“And I think 18 shots, another efficient game breaks Will Chamberlain's record from most consecutive games with 20 points or more.”

A hundred and twenty seven. It's a crazy record. The thunder sneak it out Boston at no Tatum. No Derek White, the thunder at no jail and Williams. No Isaiah Hartnstein really like both of these games and just a lot about the NBA lately.

The adaptability of these teams to remain so competitive without key guys in like here's Ron Harper Jr. is going to make some threes who go Gonzalez is going to get every single offensive rebound from the corner. His guys are going to score a little bit out of their comfort zone, but let's start with Oklahoma City, Denver beats San Antonio. So the thunder pick up a game in the race for the number one seed. Everyone around my poor Minnesota timber wolves in the last one today, including Phoenix who got I think 79 combined points from jail and green in Devon Booker.

They just keep winning and that race keeps heating up. But I don't know, reflections on the thunder. I mean, we can't take too much from any of these games because of all the guys that are out. But just reflections on shade, the consistency required to do this and anything you saw in this game tonight that was interesting to you. Yeah, let's start with the shape part.

I mean, it's a history making week in the NBA in a lot of ways. And this was a non-touchable record until suddenly it wasn't. And I think I was left kind of thinking about what are the things that shade is better at this point than anybody else in the world.

“I think we've gotten used to just saying, oh, he's the best one on one score, but like within that,”

obviously the best mid range shooter in the game right now, the best driver in the game right now, the best crunch time score increasingly is apparent. But like also as the best body control of anyone in the league also has like the best change of pace of anybody in the league. I think the ways in which he's becoming unimpeachable in all of those different respects. Yeah, they feed off of each other. But just like it's the portrait of an all-time player like being drawn in real time. And being able to see that in this kind of fashion with that sort of consistency, I mean, it's a fucking privilege.

Let's just call it what it is. Yeah, minimal foul grifting tonight, although Luca Garza, the Mike's called him, did you catch that? The Mike's under the basketball thing.

And I can't lip read because his head was turned a little bit away from the camera, but he was yelling something in the Mike was there. But anyway, this is a big week's act for angry dudes yelling that's not basketball. You know, really maybe the high watermark for that exact kind of dude. A lot of anger percolating around the league, but you know, I I said after he tied well to record. And again, like another just three blocks tonight for shame, just everywhere defensively.

You know, it was really everywhere defensively. Alex Kuroso, every time he plays and I'm not sure exactly what he, I know he had a hip injury, but his general schedule with the thunder has been sort of like three quarters time employee, but whenever he plays, it's like, oh my god, this guy is just a freaking menace to society. But I said after that last game, I'm a yogurt's true believer.

I, this is the first time where now I'm starting to say as as she passed him is just the best player.

“Forget MVP is just the best player in basketball now. Where do you stand on this?”

I think I'm leaning like slightly toward Shay these days. And it's hard to say because like Yoke is just clearly like laboring and working his way back from his injury. 31, 20 and 13 tonight in San Antonio, like the Yokech Murray, I mean, their dynamic is just one of my favorite things in modern basketball. And so it's so hard to lean against that in any particular way. But Shay is like made a believer of me. And I think you just have to acknowledge what he does

to make the thunder exactly what they are, what he does to enable putting so much defensive personnel in the floor around him by virtue of his one-on-one creation. What he does to make them one of the lowest turnover teams in the league, what he does just like stylistically,

that feels so singular, relative to anything we've ever seen before. And I think that's part of

why. Like not just like who does he compare to now, who does he compare to in the past. I found myself thinking a lot about is what Shay does even something you can emulate. Like if you're

“on 11-year-old basketball player right now, who's training to be the best possible future pro,”

you can be, can you even try to do this? Like can you try to do the weird contortions that he does on every step back that seem to only work for him? And if so or if not, like what does that even say about Shay? I'm not sure anymore. Well, and we've seen the last two games. I mean, all season, but in high profile moments in the last two games, particularly the Denver game from two or three nights ago and over that was the pull-up step back three is just now like,

oh, just another 40% plus three point weapon for Shay. And it comes close to making him pretty unguardedable because that's the shot teams are like, if you're going to do that before we can send our double, you're going to do that without a pick and roll, you're going to just do that. Then we're loading up for your drive, we got all the help ready, and that's annoying to you. You're just going to take a step back three like, okay. Yeah, impressive win for, you know,

everyone was undermaned. A couple of other standard notes, Celtics did it, Denver did it, more and more teams are going to do it. It's not new. It's not novel, but it seems like a lot of teams are just going full on. We're putting our centers on Lou Dort or our centers on Alex Coruso. And we know the funder know how to do, how to counter that and all of that if you have any, there are a lot of Lou threes tonight, a lot of Lou's. Do you have any thoughts on the funder's

handling of that strategy? I'm almost like a less concerned with the Lou part because that is just going to like the shots are going to hit or they're not. And more concerned with the, what does that mean for Chet being guarded by a wing? And I thought this was actually a pretty great game for that kind of showcase for Chet where he plays like a physical big in some cases and in some aspects of the game and in others he just kind of is a body in the mix. And I thought like that

“game securing rebound in which I think was poor Sam Houser trying to fend him off the glass,”

like that's exactly the kind of thing Chet has to nail. And the fact that he can do it at a time where, yeah, as a heart and shine is out, like that just gives the thunder that much more comfort in terms of when push comes to shove if they do need to play this way, they know that Chet can be counted on to get like that kind of opportunity in particular. AJ Mitchell looks like he has a miss to beat didn't shoot super efficiently tonight, but he's he's just been awesome. I didn't think

that like with AJ Mitchell, like when the thunder start AJ Mitchell, to me that's like a sign of respect

basically. Actually he was six of 10, by the way, a miss book, a sign of respect for the other team.

Yeah, yeah, because like if you let the thunder like they will dort and Wallace their way through every wing minute they possibly can and cruiser their way through every wing minute they possibly can. And so if they feel like even when they're short handed, that they need to start AJ Mitchell against you, I think it's the tip of the hat to your defense to be honest with you. Well, and they're loaded for bear when they get healthy and

you know, we're all assuming wing Jalen Williams is going to get be healthy and get healthy. We have not really seen him healthy the entire season. And that's obviously a huge ex-factor, but those non-shave minutes used to be a little bit of a puzzle for how are you going to get offence.

those minutes and now you throw AJ Mitchell into the mix, like they should be pretty stable in those minutes. And big Jalen Williams, I used to call wing Jalen Williams the good Jalen Williams and all these NBA players are good, like a big facetious big Jalen Williams. Look, he doesn't play enough minutes. He's not a big enough part of the rotation when the thunder or fully healthy to actually be in contention for this award, but he's like in the contention for six

man to the last six weeks. That guy has been awesome. A machine, he's an awesome player. He's making every three. If he had played like 20 minutes a game like this the entire season,

“he would be at least in the conversation for like, do I got to put him on a ballot spot?”

Because he's like rock solid defensively, he's he's just been an awesome story for them. Also like low key, a pretty good like high post passer hitting cutters like he did tonight, like he just has a lot of cohesive skills that help you play good team basketball. And like what more can you ask of your, you know, third center option off the bench effectively than that? Also, one of the more shocking nerd moments in the NBA when he does not get the benefit of the

doubt on a black charge ball, which happened once tonight. Boston obviously missing two of its best players and did just keep on trucking like Peyton Pritchard, make another buzzer shot, take a lot of shots, do your thing, Sam Houser, come on in, Ron Harper Jr. Stand being gunny, just matter faculty at the beginning of the broadcast tonight said these are the two teams to be in their respective conferences. Are we, are we three Tatum games in? Are we already there with Boston at Detroit's been

a little rocky lately? You know Cleveland got smoked by Orlando the other night. Someone always

seems to be injured. Yeah. You know New York is like, God help you if you can figure out the next I can't have given up. Are we already there with Boston? We're getting kind of close. I mean,

“I think we're going to need to see Tatum over like a sustained stretch, the opening, like the opening”

offerings have been just incredible in terms of what he's been able to do, but three games and 15 games or 20 games or more importantly, like a seven game series at a time are very different like endeavors. So I want to see a little bit more, but if it continues in this way, I think they probably do have more going for them, the basically any other contender at this point. I'm not quite ready to bail under Troy just yet, but I think the Celtics are coming on incredibly strong.

You can't bail on the pistons. I was never quite convinced of them as like a finals team just

because of their obvious offensive issues, but they have so much toughness, so much size. Cleveland in New York, like both have the upsides, you know, to win any playoff series in these to make the final. So it's hard for me to just go that all in on Boston with the Tatum thing being this new, but one thing that they do feel like is the most complete team of the four and just having no weaknesses really that are easily exploitable. They're pretty complete on both sides of the

ball. Nimi, Kate, a most improved player candidate. Got to be. I don't know who I would pick in the East right now. I picked the next of the star of the season. I just sure. I don't know. Well, let me ask you this. Like these four teams tonight, you know, we have, you know, San Antonio, Denver going at it. We got Boston and OKC going at it. Those were the four lowest turnover teams in the league, and they might be the four best teams in the

league. Do you think there's anything to that idea? Is there something about the NBA right now that is a more of a possession game than it used to be? It's funny because I noted that well, certainly a lot of coaches are emphasizing. It's the same reason why a guy like Hugo Gonzalez has free reign to just crash the offensive of glass from the corners every single time possessions, possession, possession, and Missouri has been the most vocal I think about about this issue.

That's, it's interesting because when Boston Oklahoma City is like the turnover bull, right? It's, it's the team that forces the most turnovers against the team that commits the lease and

else of the thunder of the second lease. I Denver San Antonio, I didn't think about it as hard.

Yeah, maybe there, maybe there is something there. Just not only turnovers, but live ball turnovers specifically. Yeah. San Antonio did not win tonight. The nuggets after blowing out the rockets last night. Nice, a nice couple of days for the nuggets. Blue out the rockets who, you know, find are good, but I don't think are quite in the same stratosphere as some of these other teams, San Antonio. And then beat the spurs on the road, back to back, no Wemby, fair, no Aaron Gordon

for the nuggets, not equivalent, but the nuggets. No Peyton Watson. No Peyton Watson. Yeah, and they're so small when those guys don't play all those Spencer Jones gave them huge minutes tonight, and they actually won decisively a non-yoked stretch of minutes when they moth ball Valentinus who's sneakily like rough kind of month for the Jonas Valentinus minutes and just went super small. But it wins a win when you get into San Antonio at 4/3 in the morning and you win.

“And all of these wins for Denver are important. What did you see from this game that was interesting to you?”

I mean, I think a couple of things. I think in terms of the late possessions and the way this

going exactly where the nuggets defense wanted them to go, which is, you know, all of your

cuterable penetration is going to end with a Kelvin Johnson catch and shoot three, a Dylan Harper

“catch and shoot three, a Harrison Barnes catch and shoot three. Those are not bad shots. But I think”

part of the thing is every nuggets possession was going exactly to Murray and Yokeage and some combination over and over and over. And they were kicking out and making plays. And you could say the same about, you know, finding Spencer Jones in the lane or Cam Johnson certainly had his moments down the stretch. But it just felt like a team that knew what it shots were versus one that didn't. And maybe that's somewhat having Wemby nod in the mix and you can get to your stuff more

excessively and more easily when he's out there. But I'm not even sure the San Antonio when Wemby plays knows exactly where and how it wants to go in a crunch time where Denver has done this over and over and over and just it felt like old hat for them. And in the non-Yokeage minutes were big

in the third quarter or I'm sorry, yeah, in the fourth quarter, whenever I can't, my brain is

broken from the travel today, but I think early fourth quarter. Because even with Yokeage looking not quite peak, peak Yokeage in the last month or so since you've come back from injury, they're like plus 800 possessions with Yokeage on the floor and that stretch and minus like a lot. So to survive those minutes was big and Murray was unbelievable with the shot making.

“And there was a possession, I think I think they went up five with maybe like a minute,”

40 or two minutes to go where the spurs were putting Keldon Johnson on Yokeage and God bless Keldon Johnson. That guy wants all all the physicality you want me to front him you want me to just body check him you want me to crawl underneath his jersey and give him a purple nirpo like I'll do the whole thing. It just doesn't seem fun. Like it seems fun being a big enough wing that you can bulldoze your way through other wings, but when then you're asked to garden a Kola Yokeage like it's not ideal.

And then they threw Castle on them late in the game. Castle is not far from the all defense conversation. Oh yeah, that guy's just an absolute monster. But anyway, maybe the best rebounding guard in the league too to be honest with your triple double for him tonight. He's just going through these guys. It's like just literally like all you you're you went under the screen and you're here. I don't I don't care. You're a littleer than me. I'm just going to shove you aside and go through.

But anyway, they get the ball to Yokeage. They manage to enter the ball to him and he's immediately double-teamed by two spurs and he kicks it out somewhere and they swing and swing and swing and swing and the spurs rotate and the rotation spit out lukornet onto Yokeage. So they they almost like rotate into normal matchups. And Denver reads that and is like oh Murray Yokeage pick and roll. We got the matchups we want and Murray snakes it and makes this ridiculous going the wrong against his body

righty floater to put the nuggets up five just an awesome game for those two. And the spurs look without Wemby. It's a pretty awesome effort. And these young guards like Dylan Harper's ability to create a good shot for himself from from scratch is remarkable castles awesome Harrison Barnes came back. The cell I don't think he ended up with the best shooting line five of 14 so but four of 10 on three's yeah I've just been impressed with his all around

play the wild card you only played nine minutes they were productive nine minutes it's probably early for Carter Bryant to factor into the spurs postseason rotation but he's become a real interesting long-term piece for them oh yeah I mean just a reminder whenever he pops out there

“and hits a couple shots or I think in this one the play that made my eyes go wide was”

being chased off the three-point line into a baseline drive met at the rim I mean near enough by Yokeage I think and just reminding you of like how much of a big bodied wing he is on top of you know the length and the potential shooting like he factors into their future in a pretty significant way and I think the idea that the spurs they're here now contending for the title in the present tense with Victor Webinjama they also just have all of this slow burn or stuff going

in the background like Carter Bryant to if you told me in two years he's just like a critical

part of their team in every possible way I couldn't talk you out of that no no he I think you probably will be I mean he's still very young defensively he's there now like young guard pretty much anybody and that possession you mentioned what's probably going to prevent him from being a postseason in mainstay for them is he had an open three and he passed on it and there was this like blip of I don't know should I drive it what should I do here and that kind of feel in the flow I think is

going to be his primary obstacle but he he looks awesome and the the spurs how much pie how much title pie did the thunder have in your last group chat NBA pie I want to say they have 35% down from 40 but now they might be back up to 38% you know the pie is a fluid exercise we can always bake more yeah I mean that's about right I don't know where that net's out on thunder versus the field I guess it would net out on you taking the group chat pie taking field which has 65%

I've got to see Jill and Williams before I take them over the field because the spurs are here now

points or no field goes at least against the rockets the other night did not play tonight so I got

“to see a little more from him but I think they can win the title and the west we'll we'll see but”

yeah let's go to the leakers are winning right now that game is still going on the bulls have cut it to 11 in the fourth quarter god blip I hope this game ends over recording this and if the bulls come back and win don't you just has 41 points Lebron is back tonight and the leakers are just just hanging around just you know they've been almost the least

upside-y team of these top 16s in the west but they're if they win this game they will be third

in the west for at least a hot second and all these teams are very close to each other I think they're 11 in 2 now without Lebron when or at least when Reeves and Luca play without Lebron what do you read into that and what have you seen from a pretty like pretty solid leaker stretch right now yeah I mean I think the Lebron part of it it's just pretty clear that he having him and Luca on the floor together makes it almost impossible to have a consistently

solvent defense like I just think it puts you in a in a position or quagmire that they don't have the personnel really to get out of so Luca Nard steps in and it's all where it's what's all

“tightened up I mean honestly Luca Nard's been a much bigger factor here than I was anticipating”

him being he's just like a real deal part of the rotation I did oh and I he's been on a lot of

teams and every team he goes to they're like oh he doesn't shoot enough three he's a defensive

liability and all of a sudden he just like goes from 18 minutes to 10 minutes to 8 minutes to 8 minutes to 0 minute he's been awesome for them like he's literally really really really good but anyway continue on Lebron so it's the defense it's the obvious chemistry stuff what else yeah I mean I think it is the defense and so you see just some of the compatibility issues with him being out like I don't know what to make of this stretch where they have gone from I don't know

just like playing fish in the barrel defense for 50 games until all of a sudden now they look weirdly competent and they were they look weirdly competent even among the lesser defenders even guys like Luca like some of the exchanges and some of the switches they were doing gets met as soda the other day just look like clean and intense and like good focused basketball in ways that I'm just not used to seeing the lakeers play and so is that a thing that is sustainable

or not because it's the difference between the rise to just like can you aspire to mediocrity versus are you just going to be one of the worst defensive teams in the league? Luca has been playing with noticeably more zip in the last week or two and I wonder if some health ailment has just felt better for him because like against the nicks with Mitchell Robinson against the wolves with go bare when they would bring their screeners up to the level I mean he was putting his head

down splitting the screens and like no no like I'm playing around I want to look for past like I'm just going right to the rim with a kind of explosion that you don't see from him as often and Reeves is playing that way too I also wonder if it's like you take one of the three out of the equation it just gets more there's just more clarity for them like there's no one at the like the arguably the greatest player of all time is over there and like we gotta get him the ball

I'm not saying LeBron's going to hurt the lakers when he comes back there still winning tonight I just think it gets less complicated to your point about their defense they played the third most zone in the NBA for the season and on on those possessions according to the the tracking data they're allowing 1.049 points per possession that would outrank the thunder is overall defense like obviously there's some fluki opponent shooting and some more involved in there

but their zone like they play this kind of zone when I'm watching it it it morphs into different forms midsection where sometimes our wait is that man demand are they are they planning to go man demand are they starting a man demand and then going and you can see some teams being like I don't quite understand what I'm seeing here like they figured out something with the zone that is

“interesting I think it's a huge part of what has made Luca and Austin and Luke canard especially”

like much difficult to target lately because if it is shifting in shape in that way like

isolating in the way you want isn't always an option and the exchanges as I was saying have been so

clean not just in a pick and roll kind of traditional man sense but like the baton hand off within the zone also has just been like really well organized and really well communicated and so then all of a sudden it's like yeah the room protection is going to be a mess for this team generally speaking but if you're not getting blown by as much at the point of attack like you have to worry about it to the degree that DeAndre Aiden and Jackson Aides have had to worry about it

over the course of this season and so I just think a lot of stuff has been cleaned up by junking up possessions in that way just like a little more switching a little more zone here and there a little more containment on the perimeter in general and obviously you look like a functional basketball team again and it's amazing what the defense can do when you even get that far they also have won the tiebreaker over the wolves they've lost it already to Phoenix

schedule they only play the rockets three times and nuggets three times in the wolves three times and they're one of them crazy yeah they got a good they got a good little they got a good little schedule I forgot the one spurs thing I did want to mention oh sure I've quietly enjoyed the DeAndre Fox year one really year one for the spurs I know he got I wasn't I was a little surprised that you got name to the all-sorting because his numbers are on eye popping and the young guards are

doing what they do I just love like the three-headed monster they have and the power of having

two of them on the floor at all times is just ex is like lago rhythmic for them like they just never

are lacking for ball handlers and even though people treat Harper and castle like shaky to non-shooters it hasn't even really hurt them because if you rotate away from them on the ball gets to them and the spurs have the unselfishness and pace of of of a veteran team the way they moved the ball when the ball gets to them if there's a gap in front they're going and they're so explosive you're not sitting in front of them but foxes just felt like the glue holding a lot of their possessions together

and like yeah you know I can always run an empty side picking roll with Wemby like if all if or look Hornet if things go badly and I got a good mid-rangeer I just had I've really enjoyed

“deer and fox and soon into a new I think increasingly so for me because earlier in the season I”

felt like especially in some of their bigger matchups he felt like a little more of an ancillary part in some of those games and where I wanted to see him be the veteran I wanted to see him be the calming presence and I feel like we're getting that more and more including tonight where like it just feels like he is answering the call in a different kind of way lately and if he can be that in addition to all of the popular getting from castle and Harper in particular

you're right like you can always triangulate two good guards having a good night between the three

of them and that's it just opens up so many exciting possibilities for their lineups in general you know what else I like I had like having a good lefty involved it's same with Dylan Harper and it just empowers like the other side of the floor and so they can run those empty side picking rolls with fox like starting from the right corner going left they're the kind of plays like I have John Cresinsky coming on after you but we recorded it already and we were talking about

Minnesota's offense and how it just like kind of sinks into these periods of like we don't really have a second plan on any of these possessions if we even a first one I would love to see them run like more and emphasize empty side picking roller come off a pin down and catch it on the move and like some of the stuff that the spurs just do is pretty elementary parts there often yeah it could really like catapult and into advantageous positions mark a smartman pretty good

for the makers by the way he's also been yeah quite good and I mean Ru is always been solid for

them in the capacity that they ask him to play like just those two guys being stable and the other and everyone else showing up and I also just hope at this point in the season can we just be normal about Luca having an amazing offensive season like he's just one of the best players in the world and I'm very confused about the conversation around him on a daily basis are you that confused like

“I'm a little confused are you just immune to being annoyed by whining that I think that's”

all it is and whining and like bad defense which as you said has been much less of a problem in the last two to three weeks he's been moving his feet and like actually engage which it makes the non-engagement portions of the season all the more frustrating because you see proof of concept like do just just be average or like normal below average and we're good yeah everything you're saying is true I think I just operate from a space of most superstars to the people around them are in

some way annoying like you know who's annoying to like co-exist with in a workplace shekillo kneel you know who's annoying to co-exist with in a workplace prime liberal on james like these guys do amazing things on the court but they also take and have certain entitlements they also you know take advantage of certain opportunities they also choose not to play defense they you know get surgery on company time whatever it may be like this is kind of part of the game

and everybody has their quirks and like the fact that Lucas quirks are I'm gonna create in a way that it maybe two other people in the entire world can and the trade-off for that is I'm not gonna play great defense most of the time and I'm gonna complain a lot I'm just will I have an appetite for a lot of complaining if that's the trade-off I'm willing to put up with a lot for everything Luca Dunchitch gets you he has given the lakers through three and a half quarters 41 points

ten rebounds and six assists tonight and yeah I have written in my notes a couple of times from recent lakers games Luca looks more like Dallas peak Dallas Luca lately and just the passes are

“coming a little easier this zip I talked about before and I think before Shay I think Shay”

probably slammed the door on the MVP conversation with that win against Denver when he broke it went head-to-head and he made the two threes at the end but you know it's it's never overthold so over I think we were like a couple of Shay missed games or a blast Shay stretch away from a Wemby case getting more and like more feasible and a Luca case getting more feasible

with Luca on the floor not great but not bad and minus three with him on the bench

“Luca and Reeves know LeBron plus twelve per hundred possession some of that is that opponent's”

can't make a shot and the Wemby numbers the last time I checked were like spurs plus 18 per 100 possessions with Wemby on the floor and getting out scored with Wemby off the floor and it's up

it's the plus 18 of that equation that I've always valued the most the same with yoga

it doesn't really sway me that oh his team falls apart without him he's so valuable and like that factors in sometimes but it's like when you elevate your team to these sort of net ratings that are like preposterous that matters more to me and that's where Wemby was but uh and Luca was was coming along alright let's take a quick break and then we'll move east because we got to discuss we got to discuss the east other than Boston the sack closed show is brought

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customer availability and eligibility very by state shifting east rob it's been a little bit since bam out of bio scored eighty three points I have not had a podcast about it

“I was not watching the game when it was going on I was alerted to it I guess I think it was”

NBC like popped into the game and I don't think I've ever been more surprised by anything happening in an NBA game like not even the season being shut down because we really go bare tested positive for COVID yeah bam out of bio not in the top fifty of players you would think would crack 70 let alone best cobe's eighty one points not in the top two on his own team I think for players you would pick to score seventy points norm parallel and Tyler hero would probably be drafted above him

in in in that draft just a completely shocking outcome and then of course I went back and I watched the game later that night in the next morning to see like how in the world did this happen and then it became clear to me as I was watching it that this is this is going to cause some fiery debates in the top radio space above the giveaway for you about that

it's never comfortable when your own team starts committing fouls on purpose in

a blowout to try to get the ball back and out of the wizards there's a lot to be said about the twenty twenty six washington wizards none of it good um they they at least hung around for three point seven quarters probably in like the no one takes their starters out yet score range like they're down on their own seventeen with five minutes to go like it was plausible that they could make some sort of comeback but the fouling the kashad johnson miss free throw really really annoyed

me the intentional miss free throw um but I have what what what did you what did you so that all surprised me um the first the first quarter when bam just lost his mind and had 31 like completely legitimate points in one quarter also kind of surprised me um I'll tell you I'll just

“tell you where I net out on this I think if he had scored eighty points the whole thing would have”

died down fairly quickly short because he surpassed a legend who passed away tragically not long ago and and one of the more iconic and beloved by his peers players in history this is now taken out of life of its own and it's why systemic rights a com that's like what they just should have taken him out of eighty one points to not pass Kobe I don't particularly agree with that of the year in the game chases many points as you can get I guess um I was you know who you know who would

hate that is Kobe Bryant I like if yeah I'm just I'm I'm I like love Sam have a lot of respect for Sam I cannot fathom that take well I can fathom it I can fathom it because the game was over and I

you know there's a certain the the heat have earned I think a certain like everyone likes to knock them down a peg because of their accomplishments and also their constant touting of heat culture to the point that they put it on a goddamn basketball court with a bunch of words that you can't read underneath it and there was a sort of like well that's bad sportsmanship take that I got from a couple of coaches that's bad sportsmanship to game was over there just inflating

his point and I don't think there's nothing to that like I can fathom that take here's where

I know it's not the second greatest scoring game of all time obviously like that's obvious I don't

care that he has more raw points than Kobe Bryant it's not what was he it was 20 of 43 or something and he made a million free throws I can't remember exactly what it was I would rank it behind 81 points for sure probably behind Kobe has a couple really efficient 60 plus point games including one against your Dallas Mavericks level three quarters yeah 62 or 63 and three quarters it was unbelievable and beat 70 point game I think is obviously a better scoring game Lucas 73 point game Luca was 25 of 33

in that game against Atlanta he only made 15 free throws or for this kind of game is like very low

“I think that's a better scoring game and that was a closeish game if I remember correctly I think”

like they were in it and fighting for it yeah and I guess I guess that that bumps it up it was a real game Jordan has like a 69 point game against Cleveland that I really like from back in the day and I'm

always partial to the that was that wasn't Michael Jordan that was God disguised as Michael Jordan

playoff game from 1986 I would rank it all despite the raw point totals I would rank it all behind that there was there was some aggressive chucking starting midway through the third quarter of Bamboo just fire everything up and then the fouling stuff at the end but all of these games have nonsense in them for the most of what yeah once points or once a point record like this is in play nonsense ensues so I'm not I thought it was an unseemly toward the end a little bit and

I think it's okay to feel that and but yeah I have been driving the Bamwagon for nine 10 years at this point so this is not about Bam who's one of the great guys in the league to captain a these stalwart of heat culture awesome backstory like the guy I was a little unseemly toward the end but I just I can't get that far up on you know what my brain is capable of my brain is capable of appreciating a great feat yep also feeling that some of it is a little exaggerated by

unsimely behavior at the end and sliding it in where I feel like it should be slotted in the all-time great scoring feats which is like it below some of those games where I said it's still 83 points

“it's still great I'm not you know what that's where I net out it's not that crazy I think it's a”

fair place to net out I I can't imagine frankly either getting incredibly fired up unless you are Bam at a bio which by all means get fired up or getting all that fuss about it like it's just a game

it is kind of a force in the way that you explained basically all of these crazy scoring games

alternate to forces over time this was high on the far scale though this was this was maybe the highest I think I think once you're within range once you cross 50 like what else are you supposed to do like yes you could check yourself out of the game yeah your team could just like completely pull the rip core to get out of there against a tanking wizard's team but like why not like why not go for it if you're presented with the opportunity it's no and and okay so here's the real issue

the real issue is the wizard's presented him with an opportunity they sure that was such a trash fire performance by the wizards first of all where was Troy Youngie played tonight where was he why you trade for him I know I mean like I get I understand what's happened we all understand what's happening Anthony Davis see a rat is he gonna play ever he wouldn't have been really helpful and their effort level and execution on defense was pathetic you can go back and what I watched

every bam shot again I watch every time he drew a fall again there are like any number of lowlights by players who are better than this because shot johnson took a three in the second quarter Alex Sar was under the rim with like textbook inside position on bam like like everything unfolded perfectly for him to get the rebound he was inside he was inside position there was no scrum happening bam wasn't even like trying so hard and Alex Sar

“may honestly have well it may as well have just turned around and started a conversation with”

bam about like the Miami marlins season outlook this year he just sort of like turned half way and bam was like oh you're just now you're gonna try I'll I guess I'll go get this rebound and then he got fouled and he made two free throws and guess what go watch all the fouls there might be three 50 50ish or 40 60ish calls that go Miami's way but I thought the

the rest of them are just absolutely a bismally terrible defense and guys who are out of position

“because they're just playing terrible defense and because they're out of position lunging”

trying to get back into position and that's when you felt like most of those fouls or fouls the wizard there was another one someone took a bam contested a trade johnson three right it was a switch you contested a trade johnson three he did guess what guess what he did he leaked out guess what all five wizards on the floored it nothing just like nothing we're starting to do a bob characters standing on the other side of the floor was his job to get back on defense

he's just stood around just checking out maybe checking out some of the people in the front row I don't know and bam got to run out dunk they were so bad that they like I don't even want to hear from the wizards about oh was humiliating for us it was bad sportsmanship just and this in it's obviously tanking like they're tanking they're playing the incentive game that Adam Silver is going to try to remove or chip away up by the 20 27 draft they they were as much of a story

as much of a conch they were a bigger part of this story their defensive incompetence and lack of effort was a bigger part of this game than it probably than it had any right to be

“yes I think and I think it would be on incompetence into desperation and frustration on the part”

of some of those fouls were just like you really could just all get out of here in one piece and not do this and it would be okay but I don't know why the the degree of fouling happened in the way it did all of the like I grew at everything you're saying about the wizards I also want to make

one very important point maybe the most important point I've ever made on this podcast which is

I came on with you preseason and I put the wizards in the top 10 of my league pass rankings and I just want to say the wizards played the most talked about game of the entire season wow every other spinning this into a w for you every other network cut into it to show a wizards game in real time and if that is not league pass supremacy I'm sorry is that I really don't know what so you're galaxy branding this this is the greatest moment of the wizards franchise since

John Wall left on to the scoring table this is it for this the biggest moment that they've experienced since that time since one of the funeral games against Boston remember the funeral games when people dressed in black and they that was like the funeral games were like I guess look man the Eastern conference is so bad that LeBron is openly disparaging every other team and like sleepwalking through the regular season we got to be entertaining somehow

it's like they were like a TV show throwing in a kid in the last season just trying to just

something to keep it entertaining. Bam followed up his 83 point out first with a six of 20

game tonight for the heat uh who's still one uh over they got 28 points from Pella Larson and Pella Larson was from fucking ballant tonight. I like Pella and Casio Acretino they started wearing Bam together. Bam I had 21 points of the six 20 shooting. I'm gonna I'm just taking a

“shot in the dark um I think I'm I'm gonna call by the end of next week the box of shot of”

shut yonna's down. I just I don't see any points of this anymore. I said a couple weeks ago they have so many big games big-ish games against teams that are ahead of them in the standings if they don't do well um the writing's gonna be on the wall. They're now five games behind Charlotte in the lost column and no right to expect Charlotte suddenly gonna fall apart the way they're playing seven games behind Philly who's dropped to ninth and seven games behind the Hawks. It's over and

yonna's hasn't looked I didn't see their game tonight. He had 31 points maybe he looked like yonna's. He has not looked right to me and any of the games he's played. He was grimacing again several times in their game two games ago. I might have been our Orlando I can remember who it was. I'm just calling it it's Thursday March 12th by Thursday March 19th I'll give it a week. I think they're shutting them down. If there's no point. No insight into them. No. Just me just I'm just calling it.

I mean their games are a total disaster to watch to experience as a basketball exercise like I don't know who they're for at this point, especially if they're gonna continue to be this bad. So please do shut him down. Like I would like to help the yonna's next season. If that's a good way to get it started let's go ahead and do that. Well and it's a good way to have at least a chance of I mean there's not so many teams they can realistically quote catch in the lottery race. One of them

would be Chicago. They're tied the they're now tied with the bulls. That's a bad sign tied with the bulls is a bad sign. Name name eight bulls right now eight current bulls. Let's see if we can do it together. Let's name some bulls. Ready? Yeah let's do it first. We'll alternate until we're out. I mean Josh giddy is the easy one. Jones Smith. Nick Richards. Wow. Stealing Isaac Accorot. Montespecialis. Patrick Williams. It's might still might happen for Patrick Williams Robb.

Yeah, are you out? It's not gonna happen. It will never happen. I don't believe it. Is it Leonard Miller?

calling something on that one. We got to consult this grab a little guy. I don't know.

“Is, um, who's this don't Robb Dillingham's on their team. Anthony Simon's. Uh, is, is Uki Kawamura still there?”

Oh my god. He is so is Mac McClung. I'll go Mac McClung. Mac McClung. I think I have the tap out. I don't think I can think I can beat Mac McClung. Gershine. Yeah, we say Lee. Oh, Gershine is there. You're right. Let's see who we're asking. This is thrilling podcasting. The ensemble. This, this is how far you fallen. Bulls. Okay. This is how far you've fallen. We've got Zach Collins. No way. Then Gai,

who they drafted in the first one, we forgot him. Sure. Oh, we forgot. We forgot. We forgot a player who

maybe sadists in terms of a personal professional transformation at the trade deadline. Maybe the saddest switch of teams of all people. This would be interesting of all people who got traded. Did anyone have a sadder transition than Colin Sexton from the Red Hot Charlotte Hornets to the what the fuck are we doing here? Can we write out the season Chicago Bulls? That's like the inverse key on Ellis. You don't want to be on this side of that.

Wow. Key on Key on Key on's playing well for the calves. It's a shame that there was no, there were no, Zach Romano could not have seen who could have predicted it. One of my favorite Sacramento subplots. It's late. I'm on East Coast time. It's one in the morning. I'm a little,

I'm a little loopy. One of my favorite Sacramento subplots is other than Russ calling out the media,

“which I already addressed is when they remember that Devon Carter was on their team and it was like”

a lottery pick, not long ago. Like, oh, that guy. We kind of think he stinks, but let's play. I'm gonna see what happens. Like you still on the team. Wasn't he once like not untradable but a sticking point in several different trade negotiations that they couldn't bear to give up Devon Carter? That's another good podcast for the offseason. I pitched this last week with Matheren playing so well for the clippers. Playing his way into the six-man of the year conversation.

I think it's too late. Given how many games he's missed, but the sort of like the best, there's, there's some status like above throw in in these big name trades. Like Markin and

would fit this as the like one of the guys that was in the Donovan Mitchell trade.

Chris Middleton would fit that he was kind of a true throw in. But the guys who are not the headliners who in the initial euphoria of the trade analysis, they're sort of like almost just at the end of a sentence and not mentioned again. We need to have another deep dive episode. This is a build topic of most untouchable and/or like they're the key swing piece in a trade guys who end up not really amounting to anything. So we there would be the Roddy Bubua of all stars.

“Terrence Mann, I think, would come into this category. That would be a fun one.”

Speaking of the East and the Miami Heat, we now have a complete morass in the East from Orlando through Philly. Only three games separate the magic who are now fifth and on quite a run, beat the snuck out of game against the calves at home. The other night blew out the timber wolves. I had been one of the best teams in the league, six wins in a row. The heat of one seven wins, seven games in a row. The Hawks have won eight games in a row. I have no idea what's happening.

How are these teams winning all of these games? The raptors are now in the play and the sixers are now in the bottom half of the play and at ninth. Where do you want to start? What's going on with Orlando? What happened? I mean, it seems like they're actually playing defense again, which is nice. The post fronds is out indefinitely magic. To me, look and feel just dramatically different. That's no indictment of fronds. Obviously not his fault, but not dissimilar to the

lakers. I think there is a certain clarity to the Palo Bancaro led version of this team, which I also need to add. It's weird that the constant existential crisis around Palo Bancaro seems to have quieted as the team is now just like rattling off win after win after win and the guy who's six ten and can theoretically get to any shot he wants looks awfully good in the process. Their team just feels like it makes a little more sense. And some of that is honest,

like Tristan to Silva has played really well. Window Carter has played really well. Not for nothing, the swap of Tius Jones for Javan Carter. I think it's like a meaningful difference in like tenor for their bench, like given them like a little bit of backbone in a way that they kind of needed. And someone who will shoot the basketball. I mean, it does help. It is interesting because I thought fronds had kind of surmounted Palo as like this is the best

player on the team. And I mentioned when Palo was hurt, often that they really found something playing sugs, black, bane, fronds, and a center. Three rangey, tough defensive guards and a center with fronds and no Palo. A version of that I guess is happening now. What's your hello and it's not an indictment on either one of them, but it is just it's a tricky fit and we have seen it work at a pretty high level. But something interesting is happening. He's averaging 26 nine rebounds,

bit up. He's playing with like the power game that we all wanted him to play. I think bane has been pretty consistently very good for them the entire season and really awesome. And took over the offense

late in that game against Cleveland. You just never know what they're getting out of the bench.

Jet Howard has looked a little bit more confident lately that helps. Jonathan Isaac is out not playing Carter's help. It's just when they they stagger bane in Palo. So one of them is on the floor all the time with fronds out. And those lineups are you're like looking around. It's like all right, it does mean bane and javon Carter and Noah Penda and Golga Patadze or Movo Wagner and I'm missing a fifth jet Howard is like let's I don't know how they're surviving, but they're

surviving. They're saving their season. And that's a power to them. The Hawks, it hasn't been the greatest of competition over the last eight games and it was not again tonight with the broken nets in town. So I'm not going to read anything too much into it. Even not the greatest feels generous for this stretch of schedule. Yeah, let's let's riddle it off. The Hawks eight consecutive wins. This is not the first one against Brooklyn. I don't think

“nothing. Brooklyn Washington, Washington, Portland when they were totally underman. I think”

that it's a non-dennie game. Yanis Milwaukee, I think that was a Yanis game. Filming when they were beaten up Dallas, Brooklyn. Okay, it's even worse than I thought. Four of the games are against Brooklyn and Washington. But still, I just didn't think this group had a level of consistency to win eight games against in a row against any subset of NBA teams. That's true. This new starting five with CJ McCollum is is working out so far. Coming good didn't have a good game tonight

offensively anyway, but he's been pretty good after missing a few games. Is there anything to this other than, yeah, the Hawks are going to make the plan again? It's hard to know just because I didn't expect them to be as bad or inconsistent as they were. So how might to make sense of them being good randomly other than a stretch of schedule? It just feels there's a there's a fracture

with reality. This is a very talented team that doesn't always translate that hasn't quite

found itself yet. There's so many elements that I like and I agree with you that CJ's inclusion,

“even though he individually is not had his best stretch, I think he just helps their starting line up”

and just really key lineups of a lot of their best players. Find a balance and make sense in a way that they were not before. And some of that is just like he is obviously less talented than Tray Young, but also much lower maintenance than Tray Young, also more available than Tray Young was for a majority of this season. It's like just having him out there. I think has been genuinely helpful, but other than that, I really have no way to explain a sudden turn in a team that

has been among the most frustrating of all the teams in the NBA this year. When you produce content written or audio or videos, we do and you do it two or three times a week, you are almost your brain almost mandates that you react somehow to a streak, a three-game streak, a four-game

streak. Now this is an eight-game streak, so it's a little longer. And it's always tough for me to do that

because sometimes the actual explanation for a three or four-game streak is the schedule. It's just the schedule and you want to read all these things into it. They're doing this and the tactics. So this is really just a you either played a bunch of great teams and you lost or a bunch of shit teams and you mostly won. The Hawks have played a bunch of shit teams and they mostly won. I will say

“I think Dyson Daniel has had Dyson Daniels has had kind of a sneaky decent year offensively.”

The three has completely fallen off the map, but the other parts of his offensive game have really risen up a level, passing, cutting, two-point shock creation and teams are putting centers on him a lot and putting wings on in Yeka Kagu who's suddenly turned into like one of the best stretch shooting pigment in the league. Awesome. And the Hawks have kind of quickly figured out how to deal with that by putting Dyson Daniel as a screener and a bunch of picking roles, by putting Dyson Daniels as

the ball handler. When you put him and Jill and Johnson and the picking role together, it's often putting the two worst shooters on the floor for the Hawks in the action, which which sort of blows up their spacing in a good way. They're just a really creative, they have sequences on offense where it's the perfect kind of randomness where I'm not even sure they know what they're about to do, but it ends up like looking good because they have a bunch of intuitive passers and cutters on

the team and it just it just kind of works out. I don't mind watching these Hawks. I don't mind watching them. It's also why if they just rolled into next season with basically this exact roster, I would fall for it again. Like I would still believe that they are in some way going to be good. I'm just going to keep talking myself into it until they dissolve the franchise. Trey on place for the wizards. It's interesting that the wizards in Anthony Davis and

Trey on almost kind of have accumulated like every product in a way of the draft day,

for Luca Dottich and I was thinking about that trade the other day. That was an underrated shock. Not shocking because there were rumblings of it for weeks in advance. That was like a

“fun little draft day swap. Big draft day swap. What does Cam Reddish up to? What's he doing?”

It's a great question. I bet he's playing abroad somewhere. That would be my guess. I haven't not googled him in a while. They're really just playing for the San Diego Clippers. Sorry. I'll all you know, happy G-League salute to Cam Reddish. The San Diago Clippers. Hopefully no alleged cap circumvention in the G-League. When cap circumvention gets to the G-League, we'll really have reached reach to fun point. Toronto I did a whole deep dive on with the great Jack Armstrong

last week. I don't need they've now lost two games in a row since then, including the pelicans. I don't think I've ever seen a team quite like the pelicans who have decided we're not starting any centers and four of our first five guys off the bench are going to be centers. Eves Misi, Macovitch, Queen, DJ, you get involved. It's like a parade of centers coming off the bench. I don't really understand it, but they're winning. And Filly, it's like the injury situation is just

reach a critical point where what felt like a very successful season all things considered. Like

staying in the top six given that Embede plays half the games and you know, they're relying on a rookie starting two guard who's been outstanding is now on the verge of feeling, I don't even really know how it feels because Paul George just suspended. They now have a negative point differential for the season. They're going to hang on to a play in spot, but it really the top 10 in both conferences are completely decided, but I don't quite know how to feel about this six

season. And let's just say they finish 9/10th and they do knock it out of the play in, right? And maybe health is the reason why, right? Maybe they just never get fully healthy. I just wonder how this ownership group is going to regard that as an outcome. Particularly that McCain trade obviously has been a flashpoint for six or six fans, but it's just a weird, how should we feel about the sixers? I think hollow. Like there's just not a lot to make you feel anything. There's not a lot

of spirit within the direction of the team. Like I think all of the animating forces for the sixers

are the moments where Joelle looks amazing and it's healthy enough to be himself. VGA Edge

com obviously has been a revelation when he's played Tyrese Maxi. You won't hear me say a bad word about him. All those things are great. What do they portend? What do they point to as far as where the sixers can go from here? There's really not a direction for them to move other than to try to be as competent as possible here right now. And they're just not very good. Even even if they had everyone available as you were saying, even if the best case scenario from here

on out, I don't see them cracking into those top tiers of the east. I say tiers multiple of the

“east at this point. Like I think they have too much to climb. And so then what are they playing for?”

Are we talking about the next very good sixers team being a team that's like six years in the future? Five years in the future? I just think it's going to take them a while. I mean, they have a starting-back court that looks like a legitimate building block to a good team. Yes. I mean, they are still four games or five hundred. It just feels like they're in complete jail and it's not a bad jail. It's like a minimum security prisoner or something because they're

four games or a five hundred. But I mean, Joelle and Beat has three years left on his contract after this. This is what I'm saying. Paul George has two and I think it just feels like they're in a holding pattern until they can get out of those contracts and there's just no getting out of them. Like no one is touching those like Joelle just doesn't play and Paul George has been okay, but

full 54 million and a 56 million dollar player option. No, thank you. So yeah, I don't know,

we'll see if there's any changes around them. But it's been a rough few. By the way, I'm looking

“at the standings like I think the heat are the heat have the same net rating now as the calves.”

The heat are 38 and 29. They're now nine games or 500 despite the fact that bunch of people have missed a bunch of games. They're plus four scoring margin overall and they have the same point differential as Cleveland. Now, that puts them behind the next the Celtics and the Pistons. But something is happening with the heat. This other than bam, there's something here that's a little bit more interesting than like a typical late run by an a team. What we should probably

deep not go a little deeper. What else is of interest to you there? I've mentioned the where bam numbers turning positive like wildly so a bunch of times heroes looked good, but like there's something more happening. I mean, there often has been like weirdly incendiary in a way that,

but I think the surpasses even that in terms of the actual output of this recent stretch for them. When I watched them play, yeah, you see the size of the where bam combination. Yeah, you see heroes, heroes, better nights, for example. They just feel like it's in so many facilitators on

the floor, basically, at all times, in a way that makes them for me a very pleasant watch and also

“makes them like hyper functional. And I think even just getting this kind of stretch from Yakuachunus,”

who was a zero for them in the rotation earlier in the year. He found another guy. He's pretty good. He is pretty good and Pelalarson. I'm a big time fan other than, you know, randomly going off for 28 tonight. That's even beside the point. I just think he, just guys who facilitate good flow. And they have so many of those players, Jaime Hawkins and other one of those players. Like they have so many of those guys in the mix that I feel like maybe they're finally tapping into the right

balance of the size and the skill and the collective playmaking necessary to sustain something that's just like a little more stable than one on one, pick and roll less offense. Yeah, their pick and roll

frequency has gone up, it's still last in the league, which is fine, but it's gone. It's probably

doubled since hero came back. And all the injuries, often on injuries, they've kind of been able to and I think this has actually helped them forestalled the difficult decision of like how much can we play hero and Powell together. Yeah, Norm Powell made the all-star team this year. Tyler hero made the all-star team last year was the last year or the year before last year. It's hard to tell someone of that status. You're actually going to come off the bench and

Wiggins has also been hurt. I just wonder what their best five is to start games and to finish games and how often it includes both of those guys and they haven't really had to face that crossroads yet because they've been both of them and been injured often on. Norm Powell will come back soon. Yeah, I don't know if they have a high end of sealing to beat the top four teams in a playoff series. I actually don't think they do, but the fifth best team in the East question is,

they're now in, they should probably be considered in pole position for that. They're more

“Charlotte, I think, given the way Charlotte has been playing, but they're just in such uphill battle.”

Yeah, something is going on with the heat though, other than BAM scoring 83 points. They do feel like the definitive favorite and the safest of all these options. Yeah, like the sixers just aren't healthy enough. The magic, even though I think their defense has been much improved, they still have to like work over time to beat the wizards. Like they have that in the monocasian. The heat field really stable. And I don't know that I was expecting

that given the way that their season has taken some pretty strange turns due to those injuries over the course of it, but they feel like a team that has just kind of found themselves. If I had a ballot, I haven't researched it super deeply in a bit. I think Hock has a six-manity here. Well, it's him, it's killed in Johnson. It's not as read. It's a math room with the late push. There's a bunch of other candidates, but I think it's Hock as I think it might be, it might have been

a hot, it's like wired a wire Hock as for me. He's definitely been the favorite early among the favorites. Why is it not Isaiah Stewart? He's going to end up with a lot a lot fewer minutes played. If that matters to, then a lot of the key candidates, like I'll, I mean, Hock has his played, let me check it out now. I mean, and some of that is the suspension, obviously. Hock has played 1750 minutes and Stewart has played 23. Yeah, it's some point it becomes a pretty

pretty meaningful gap, but I like to, I mean, the case is what just makes the case out standing defense and the semi-reliable shooting and jack-o-ball trades. One of the best offensive players in the league, like full stop, the kind of center who you can plug and play with a lot of different lineups,

“because if it's like a skill set that's more multifaceted that I think he gets credit for, including”

with Darren. Yeah, but I mean, I think if you're in contention for all defense and you're coming off the bench, like you at least deserve a place in the sixth-man conversation. I don't, I don't disagree with that. He's on my list of eight guys that I would consider for a valid spot, probably. I would just give it to Hock as I said now, but I need to look, I need to look again. Anything we didn't hit, anything you're dying to talk about? I think we had a lot of it. I mean, this,

this whole East situation is really interesting. I'm not sure any of it is all that good, but I'm glad that we have it. I'm glad that the East race feels open in a live, even if

I don't know that it ultimately means much of anything. You know what would be a feather? I would

like to wish, I mean, it should have looked us up before. Right now, the top 10 teams in the East are over 500, and I'm wondering, I'm just going to really go quickly to the standings. I don't think we've had a plan era occurrence. 23 was close, but the bulls are 40 and 42. When all, no, it happened, it happened in, well, so much for that. It happened in 2021, 22. The

tropes for that. Rob Mahoney, we got, we got group chat, what else we got? I mean, group chat,

most of it. Like, prestige, DV continues on, you know, what's what it comes around, you got, the pit is still going, what's new? The pit's going on, you four years about to come back.

“Tell me about you, four years. I don't know nothing about it, except that I is in it, I think.”

Yeah, actually, mostly as do I, other than it is the crop of basically an actor, an actress, production factory for the entire Hollywood industrial complex right now, but I'm in the process of getting caught up myself, so I can watch this new season of real time. Do you like the morning show? It's a little too much for me. I've only, like, everyone involved, but I, I simply can't. Billy Billy Crudup was on my flight today and had a lot of it. It was a star-studded flight,

Billy Crudup, a couple of people approached him, Greg Oden was on the flight, it was a,

it was an eclectic, eclectic mix, but Billy Crudup looking very handsome. I mean, he always does.

What did Billy think of Bams 83? I didn't, I didn't get to ask him about it. I should, that would have been a very fun, uh, you're Billy Crudup, right? Yeah, that's me. What did that BAM on a bio game? And what do you think about that? Did that bastardize basketball that it set the sport back? All right, Rob Mohnie, thanks for staying up late, but I'll talk to you soon. Thanks, I appreciate it. All right. John Krasinski, I don't know if it was your fault

when you wrote a column about how everything was coming together for the Minnesota Timples, like it does every year at this time of year. I don't know if it was my fault for declaring the wolves all season. My sneaky title contender. I don't know if it was my fault again for declaring

that the wolves had won the cat trade about six weeks ago, making my semi-final verdict,

barring a next championship. Because the wolves after looking so wonderful, looking like they were rolling, have just crap the bed for three consecutive games or Lando blowout. And then just like the other side of the cat trade, the next, an L.A. L.A. road sweep, lakers, clippers, neither games, super competitive, clippers game, especially depressing. They gave up 150 something points and got into a shoving match after the game. John, I don't know, I don't know what to do here

emotionally. Should I should I just get out now? Should I just give up now? The wolves are now down to 12th and offense 11th in defense. It wasn't long ago, John, the house yet on days of like December, where they were top seven on both sides of the ball. And then they fell a little bit, but they're still top 10 like 9th and 10th, that still counts as top 10. That's a marker for title content. You know, they're top 12. We're getting, we're getting to a point of pseudo-averageness

that bothers me. And now they are a game ahead of the lost column of the number seven phoenix sons. Every, there are three teams above them are 40 and 25. This is an absolute dogfight,

“just to say how the play and John, just just talked to me, man. What do I need to do here?”

Should I just quit now? Now, I would say this, Zach. I mean, knowing this team, especially this iteration of the last year, plus now, every time that you think they've put it together and you're ready. Okay. Here we go. Watch out for these guys, then they fall apart. And every time you think they are beyond being redeemed, that they have lost the plot and that it's over for them. They will go and win beat okay see. They'll beat the San Antonio spurs. They'll they'll have great

games and and real you back in. It is an enigmatic bipolar team. That is very emotional and rides the waves both for good and bad. And so right now, though, I think it is fair to say that this is the Nadir of their season. So far, I mean, they have gotten absolutely crush in three straight games. They have not really competed. And so things got to turn around and they've got to kind of come together and and wake up a little bit because, you know, this is a confidence shaking

slump here over these last three. It's been pretty glaring. Well, so, and we have to like, let's dispense with all the excuses, which don't apply anymore. We're not in the dog days anymore. We're past all star break. We're right. We're in fact we're we're zooming in on seeding possibilities and play in danger. So like, this is urgency time. There's 15, 17 games left in the season. So let's dispense with that. They're relatively healthy. So they don't really have, they've been healthy

all years act. Like, that's it's been great for them that way. Like, the games have been

“important. Like, the LA games in particular were important and they just didn't show up. Yes,”

they shot poorly from three, but they did everything poorly. So I don't really particularly care. The coaches and go on anywhere, at least not during the season. So you can dispense with that potential excuse. So like, what you were with the team in LA, both sides of the ball, this was an equal opportunity collapse. They were awful on offense. They were

basically stopped happening other than Anthony Edwards bailing them out of a bunch of possessions

defensively, sloppy across the board, blame all around, blame and every facet of the game. And so when you go through a stretch like this at this point in the season where we're not in the

“dog days anymore, you're healthy and all that. You should be year enough. People start to ask”

like, what's wrong in the team? Like, what's what's going on within the team? Is there a player player rivalry? Is there a player coach rivalry? Is there a health situation we don't know about? So like, you're around the team? What's going on with the team? Yeah, I'll tell you my observation. And it's been this way for most of the season, but I think it's especially acute right now is the team is not connected together. And that's going to sound wishy-washy and touchy-feely,

but when you look at the way the clippers are playing right now and how locked in they are and how much they sacrifice for each other and how much they pass up good shots to get great shots, things of that nature, the wolves are not doing that. It is a collection of individuals, really talented individuals. And so when they are winning games right now, it's generally speaking because they are so freaking talented and anti-take over or you know, really might have a great defensive

gamer or something like that. But they are rarely playing connected basketball on both ends.

“Right now the defense, I think in the last three halves is giving up over 70 points in each”

half like it's terrible and you're seeing Julius Randall not, you know, just being Julius Randall in terms of having the downslip slope of effort. You're seeing Anthony Edwards lose guys back door. You're seeing Rudy go bare not protecting the rim and maybe that's because he's not getting the ball offensively. You are seeing the the offense be very eye so heavy and stick and make slow passes that are easy to intercept. I actually thought Zach and the cliper game they played

really well offensively in terms of body movement, ball movement and shooting, but then they just turned it over a bunch of times. And so it's a group that has not at all all season long, ever seem like they were fully on the same page. And that's been really surprising to me because it's a group that's been together for two years now. They know each other. Everyone's contracts are fairly locked in. Like there's none of that kind of lingering in the background, but they just

do not play like a connected together group. And that allows that their opponents to just take advantage of that and and really kind of reduce the advantages that the wolves have from an individual talent standpoint on a night in the night out basis. Okay. So normally when they craft the bed, I mean, you and I've talked about this before. No good team has ever looked bad the way the Minnesota Timples of the last three years look bad. When they look bad, they look so bad.

“It's incomprehensible. And that's what the last week has been. And normally when they go through”

that rut, it's turnovers. They just start throwing the ball low over the place. That was not the case in New Orlando game, and it was not the case in the Lakers game against the clipers. I think

they had nine turnovers in the first quarter before they were all in the first half. They were all

insane. They were all ridiculous. They were all sloppy. It was just a greatest hit's real of Minnesota Timples. Bad basketball. I've got their transition defense, which has been a bugaboo for them. And the past has leaked oil a little bit in the last couple of games. You know, Ants been bad defensively. Like this is these are the last three games of the one you point at when you say, why why is he not in all defense candidate every year? What it's

games like this where he's just standing around getting back cut Randall. And we do need to zero in on Randall in a bit. Because to me, you don't know, no one person is to blame, but go bear's offense is going to be inconsistent. Nature at the beast. Even Chenzos offense is going to be a little. It just in terms of raw production. It's going to be a little inconsistent. Nature of a three point shooter. Some days he's four of nine, some days he's five of ten, some days he's one of nine.

McDaniels is sort of a bell. Why are there for the team? Sometimes he'll get you 20,

sometimes they'll get you eight. Randall is the second guy who just has to be around 20 every single

game. The efficiency is going to wax and win 20 to 25 every game for this team to hit it's ceiling. He's just had like a bad. It's a month and a half now of mostly just bad Julius Randall basketball by his standards. There's been a couple of games where I wrote in my notes. He just looks slow. Like slow. Not even disengage kind of slow, just like moving slow on both ends of the floor to the point where I'm like something wrong as he is he patting is something health wise wrong and then he'll

have a little stretch where he'll there was I can't remember which game it was but he was it was all my notes were like slow, slow, slow, slow, and then he blocked the shot and got a fast break basket out of it. All of a sudden he looked like Julius Randall. So we have to get to the bottom of what's going on with Randall. But to me, you know, talking to some scouts and coaches about the wolves in the last two days as we plan this and as they had one bad loss after another and I

So when guys aren't getting enough touches, when the ball's not moving around and it hasn't been moving as it needs to move in these last few games, they're effort wins on defense and when I started

“asking, you know, like so like what how should they solve this? I think it's just got to be in”

all our commitment to defense like resetting the defense because in an understanding that when they get stops and they run, the offense comes for everybody and you got to stop powoting about I don't have enough touches or the ball's not moving and now that's going to affect your defense of effort. You've got to make the offense happen with your defense and it feels like they need to kick in the ass like this five times a season and this is the most urgent, urgent time because

the ball's been sticky and it's so what's frustrating about them, John, is like they know how to play together, like it's it's not complicated. So ants can have the ball a lot but he's not a traditional point card, but what he's going to do is draw to all the time because teams blitz him all the time

and all he's got to do is make the first simple pass available to him and then the next guy has to

either the point five basketball, you either catch it and drive into the gap that's open or you make the next pass available or both and when they play like that, it's all smooth and it all goes well. These last few games have been like all right Julie, so we're just going to walk into an off the dribble three with 20 on the shot clock. Now's Reed's going to dribble over to the corner and take an off the dribble 20 footer from the corner. Like there's a thought there's no process

of an ant do stuff. But to me, if you're asking like how to solve it, how to snap out of it,

“the players may want to talk about the offense and the sharing of the ball. I think it has to start”

for them on like we should be a better defensive team than this and when we get stops and we run, the other stuff takes care of itself. Yeah, I think that one thing that has been apparent all season long, I've said this is it's the most emotional team that I've ever covered in terms of the way they ride the wave of high spirits when things are going well and then low spirits when they are not going well, it's a moody group. And so I do think the way to sort of

manufacture the higher spirits is to be overpowering defensively to have Rudy go a bit of blocking shots to have ants and even chans on McDaniels and DeSumo and all those guys moving around the perimeter and rotating and covering for each other, getting stops and then getting out and running and because that does breed more movement, that breeds more on selfishness. And I think that

that would be get cleaner, more high-impactful offense. The problem is, and I think the scouts that you

talk to are right on too many of these guys right now have their identities rooted in offensive production or at least offensive involvement when they are not getting shots or when it is ISO and slowdown, everyone's shoulder slump and then that translates to not getting back defensively, that translates to when I do pass it, it's a lazy one that is getting some of their passes against the clippers were like, I don't even know, are you guys not looking where the defenses,

the ants through one 10 feet out of bounds, just a simple, a simple, exact pass I'm talking about, draw two on the left wing on a pick and roll cross court pass to the next guy except the next guy was 10 feet to the left of where the ball, I just like what's going on? Yeah, a hundred percent

“and I do think like the defense is also I think where they can reclaim some of their competitive”

spirit because if anything coming off of that absolutely terrible performance against the Lakers on Tuesday, they should have been ready to go against the clippers right from the start. Like, hey, let's go out and send a message that that was ridiculous. We just lost the Orlando by 27. We just got smoked by Luca and Austin Reeves in the second half. Our pride has hurt. It's time to start playing and instead it was the clippers who were just swarming and the

wolves were not ready for that. That's a poor reflection on them as individuals and being ready for the fight, but also in the coaches that are getting them ready and preparing them, like everyone's wearing this right now and they have to get back to just bringing that energy because it's not there right now and that makes it not just hard to watch, but actually kind of embarrassing for them right now. What's what's going on with Randall? What do you think? I mean, you look at his numbers

still averaging 21 in game. I bet that's like 18 for the past six weeks or something. He's down

to 31 percent from three, which means he's in the 20s for quite a while now because he was a little

hotter before that. So some of it is just like the jumper is going in, but he just does not look right to me in an engagement speed kind of level. What's going on? Yeah, I think there's a few things that have happened. First of all, prior to the trade deadline when the wolves were very much in the honest hunt, certainly his name was coming up in rumors throughout that and I do think that bothered him. I don't think he liked it at all. I think he took that a little bit personally and

and so there was some sort of feelings going on involved with that. But we are far away from that.

I think he's had some planner fashion. I had a stuff that he's just playing through nothing major, but stuff is worn out. The other part, Zack, is he has played in every single game this year.

“He takes great pride in that. But last year, if you remember, he missed 15 games or so with a”

growing right around January and end of February. He came back from that refreshed. His body was ready and they were 17 and four down to stretch and he looked physically great. So I think that physically he is a little bit worn down right now because he's played in every game. But one of the big things to your point is his three-point shot has not just like leveled off. It's falling off of a cliff. And no one expects him to be cat from, you know, 40% from three, but you expect him 34 or 35%.

If you can get him up to 36, great. And that makes him a threat right now. He is in December 29%, February 23%, March 16% from three. And that means that when you don't have any threat from that, from out there, it allows the defense to completely sag off to get into the gaps against Anthony Edwards. And so now they don't have to guard Rudy because no one passes to him. And they don't have to guard Julius on the perimeter. And man, that just makes the offense.

I have to have a lot harder for everyone else involved. And so Julius is in a funk right now.

“I think physically I think a little bit mentally and the only way for the wolves to shake out of this, this whole”

team wide thing is to get Julius Randall back to where he was at the start of the season when he was great. And in the first two rounds of the playoffs last year when he was excellent. And the high stakes pass well, he's played every question. He was amazing. He was amazing and they have to find they have to find that kind of feelings for him and get him back locked in because that's the

difference right now. Yeah, I never really understood how the wolves, I agree with you

if the wolves were working on Janice, like that was a real thing. I don't know how real the bucks intentions of actually trading anymore. I never understood how the wolves were mechanically going to make it happen. But it just had to have been like five guys flying around the league in different trades with draft picks coming back and stuff that the bucks had won. And obviously Randall with his salary was a natural element of that. Yeah, I mean, look, again, the other excuse

were out of his, I forgot to mention this before of like, well, you know, conference finals we've been there before like wake us up in the playoffs. The only team in the West with wake us up for the playoffs, a margin for air is Oklahoma City. And now San Antonio has joined them. But Oklahoma City started the season with that kind of margin and they've kept it. They can say wake us up to the place. They don't play like that, but they could. The wolves are in the territory of

fuck around and find out what the play in tournament is like. And then you can from the play in

tournament, even if you get out of it, you're facing the second seed or whatever on the road,

you're on the road to the whole playoffs. It's not easy. Randall, it's sometimes it's simple. Like, I just don't think the wolves can be the best teams in the West four times in seven games in less Randall is the 20 point plus score. Like there's been too many games in the last month where it's like 13 points, 15 points, 11 points. They just can't win that way, because

“there are other guys other than Anne, who I think has been largely outstanding the entire season”

fringe MVP candidate this falling off a little bit lately. Their other guys are just going to wax and wind a bit. What else do I say about Anne Randall? Well, I would say the other thing about that's that with Randall is with because they do not have a traditional point card out there, he is relied upon to be their facilitator. And that's great. That's his best, that's his best skill is right. Just play bully ball on the post. And that's the other thing I was going to say,

they just don't have any like when when the first half last night, I thought the ball was pretty sticky. The latest game I thought the ball was pretty sticky. And the bodies were just not moving. Like everyone's just watching. They just need someone in those funks to just be like, you know what? I'm going off script. I'm going to just run over here and set a screen. I'm going to run up and set a screen for you. Even Shenzou would be like the classic guy to do that as the shooter who can

go screen and flare out. No, that's up. Randall can do it too. Just go set up pick. Like get things moving. They get stuck in their own just in their own way almost. But you mentioned the traditional point card. There's a lot of interesting things happening. Rotation wise now to soon knew missed um last night's game against the clippers. And as you noted, it should be at least set out loud that they faced in all world version of Quy went bananas last night for 45 points.

Reeves and Donchitch were unbelievable for the lakers in the previous game. So, you know, sometimes you run into star players and they play great for the clippers. Can't say enough about how good Derek Jones Jr has been on the season when he's been available. killed killed Minnesota last night. Garland they're plus 60 already with Garland on the floor and like not that much minutes. Like not that many minutes. He's been he's been great. So they played

two good teams who played well. They got great games from their star players. But there's a lot of

just like so calmly just never plays anymore. Now there's an alarming amount of slowmo going on.

IO and before they got slowmo. One of my curiosity is was are we going to see a little bit more of jaded McDaniels at the fore because now they have an extra guard who can really play and I kind of like when they play that card and just go go off script for them a little bit. We have not seen that but we've seen a hell of a slowmo at the fore. We've also seen slowmo with two of the three core bigs and like these gigantic lineups like ant McDaniels, slowmo, Randall, Goberre, Randall,

where it's like giant. It can't stay in a junior got thrown in last night. I'm like just seems like there's a there's a little bit there's just a lot of slowmo. I didn't see I know Chris Finch loves him. These are connectors. This is that I just didn't expect this much Kylie Anderson in my life. Yeah, I think it is coming a little bit out of desperation for sure. I mean, there is no coach

in the NBA who has never loved slowmo more than Finch loves slowmo. Part of that is because

this team has a basketball IQ issue and especially if Conley is not going to be a viable option, I think Chris Finch wants a smart guy out there to have the ball in his hands to facilitate and to be able to be a defensively versatile guy. The question becomes is like at this stage of Kyle Anderson's career is he capable of doing that for you know in the high 20s and minutes that's going to be answered here down the stretch. But I think that the reason that he is out there is because

a lot of their other guys have trouble dissecting the defense in the middle of a game and on the

“fly and so that's why a lot of the turnover has happened is because either they have ball handling”

issues or decision making issues and Chris Finch believes that Kyle Anderson does not have those issues and so you lean on him as much as you can right now. Yeah, they made a big bet in general that Anne and Randall was enough of a point guard combined enough of a traditional enough of a decision making apparatus combined and the numbers say they're pretty much right like that lineup has been really good the entire season and interestingly when they sit both of them at the same time

which is one of the more interesting game-by-game decisions that Finch has to make. Sometimes he staggers himself sometimes he doesn't their numbers are pretty good or have been pretty good with the both of them on the bench but then when they go bad when it gets sticky it doesn't seem like they'd know a way out of it and to me the way out has to just be defense and effort and randomness on offense but look I mean they have a pretty hard schedule the rest of the way I think they have

the third hardest remaining schedule in the Western Conference they are in the whole two home games

“I think so they have two home games coming to them. No it's the other way around I think”

that's a lot of a lot of a lot of that to get more of a road games in home games so like look to play Houston a couple of times Detroit a couple of times they got a big game against Phoenix coming up like they got a they got to actually take care of their shit because Phoenix to their credit just keeps on winning without Dylan Brooks or they just keep on staying afloat and the lakers I think like the lakers deserve a lot of credit for they've been much better

without Lamaron it's just the fact at this point I don't know how much causality there is but I do think there's some Luca and Reeves just play with more clarity and certainty and like as a result just like zip when they when they don't have to look over their shoulders a little bit I think none of these teams are going away Minnesota is going to have to take a top four or even top five seed it's not just going to be given to them and no one cares that they made the conference

finals twice in a row these last three games you don't want to over react to a three game stretch any three game stretch for any team particularly a team that can be a skits of frenic as the wolves

“this is a trouble in three games to me I don't think I'm over yet I think I think I'm it's”

it's a kind of stretch where if they don't come out and answer it in their next two or three games questions about the fabric of the team are going to be fairly asked I think yeah I think that's fair and I want to show no chase for out from the pioneer press he has a great stat for aunt because

aunt has been largely amazing this year he's made huge strides and clutch performance decision making

there you know just really he continues to improve and get to the tertiary MVP conversation for him to kind of go into full on no I'm in this with Shay and Luca and Ed Wemby and all these guys in in the real MVP conversation the next the final step I think is how he kind of masters the the the the the puppet master game in terms of like getting others involved because when he is in the first quarter of games this season per jays and and his usage is over 23% the wolves are

20 and 19 so ordinary games if he is below 23% in the first quarter getting other people involved the ball is moving getting the even chance on McDaniels looks they are 12 and two and they be local Oklahoma City Denver San Antonio and that's when they play their best is when aunt gets other people involved early and then shifts into okay now it's time for me to take over as the score

but and he's shown in the playoffs especially that he can do that and that he can make those decisions

and flick into that and get this team going in the right direction and and that's where he said last night to me in the in the locker room is just like I got to do more like it's got to be on me and you know

“it's got to be on everyone for sure but if you want to be a true MVP there are just a few things it's”

picking up your defensive intensity and it's kind of making sure that you're getting other people involved as well as getting all all the the touches yourself that kind of helps you graduate from superstar to MVP level and so that's what I'm kind of watching for down the stretch here. Yeah his defense has made good enough the last few games there was there was a sideline at a bounce play last night to the clip was ran was it was matharan scored and it was on matharan

and whoever go bear was guarding set a back screen from a thorn and if you and I held a clinic

about how to defend that as badly and as lazily as possible not just go bear an ant but the five the three guys around them but particularly go bear an ant and had no interest in chasing matharan go bear had limited interest in doing much of anything it's like that was the play where I looked at that it was like this team is ready to just get out of loss. Yeah team is out on this game but you mentioned ant and the passing it's it's so interesting to me because I mentioned this on my

pod Tuesday where I like to zero in uncertain areas of the game when I watch a particular team and one I do with Minnesota is what does ant do against drop coverage and what does he do against sort

“of basically anything but blitzes because I think anything softer than a straight blitz I think”

the straight blitz he's been pretty diligent really good I'm just getting the ball out of my hands and I'm gonna let everybody else play four on three he almost looks um I don't want to say less comfortable or less certain about what to do but less something against more conservative coverage is which is weird because he's so explosive he's just see that kind of coverage and be like this you're you're giving me a runway I'm gonna dunk all over your face and sometimes he does who

did he what Raptor did he dunk on the area they you got me. Yes, yes, yes, I'm poor Jim Pearson I knew he was gonna bring it up on the brach has brought up poor you don't want. Why are you bring why why am I just because it's the Raptors I'm gonna drop the man live in peace but he almost the playmaking out like you're talking puppet master stuff like the Chris Paul like all Luca like get into that like dead zone 12 14 eight feet from the rim and manipulate the

defense with a live dribble he doesn't quite have that down yet and and particularly like

“the lobster go bare that's what they would come and they don't come as often and look he's what”

is they at 24 he's very important he's not a point guard but it's it's been interesting to me just to watch like the blitz he's just like yeah I trust everybody I'm getting rid of the ball it's the other stuff where he's he's fine like he he produces out of it he's one of the eight best players in the league at worst um it just isn't as it doesn't feel as like easy for him the decision tree doesn't feel as easy for him if that makes any sense it makes a lot of sense

and I'll tell you one of the roots of that issue is that in when when it's not a blitz when they blitz and he has to just pass it to Rudy quickly at the top and then just start a DHL or something like that that's easy and Rudy can handle that when the defense is saved off and you're trying to get Rudy the ball in any kind of traffic whether it's with the lob or little pocket pass just to kind of get the action started and get him on that runway going down I think he has some trouble

trust in Rudy in catching that and I understand why there are times in these games where he's trying to slip a pass to Rudy and he doesn't quite catch it cleanly and it's a turnover and then it's slump shoulders I think Julius Randall has the same issues. I mentioned before with you

it's like the first year of Julius last year you could have run such a great real from the first

25 games of Rudy with his hands up yeah like I'm hoping to put a second call in in Toronto and I'm specifically Julius just not asking him the ball. Yeah yeah I mean so that that is an issue and you saw in the second half against the clippers they got Rudy a little bit more involved and they were a little more diligent about it but it is a very much a you have Chris Finch has to tell them do this rather than just being an actual thing and when you have any seeds of doubt

in your mind against the defense like the clippers against you know anybody that's heavy in the gaps like that like the opponents just feast on that doubt and I think that's a big issue right now that the wolves are trying to figure out. Well, John they're also failing the crap out there everybody they're back to 21 they're down to 26 in foul rate which is again and one of those habits that I thought they had kind of kicked in the last couple years of really becoming a mature pseudo-contender kind of

team. Well, John I think we're in too deep to two of us you're at a rock choice you have no choice you're not going to pull the Nick Friedell and bail out and start covering a new team once to

I'm not I'm going down with the ship one way or another. I'm I'm staying on the ship

“the violin to find the string quartet is playing over here. I'm staying hanging with them. We're”

going to ask some drinks we're going to watch the ship go down or or we're going to stay on the ship while it's repaired and we get to our destination. So I'm in I'm not going off. I'm still calling them a stealthy contender but I am worried to the core and by and by the way if they're not let's say

worst case scenario happens they fall into the play and they lose into first round they get

wall up to buy San Antonio or something like that a team that's younger than they are but appears to have surpass them with the star who appears to have surpassed their star. They don't have like a

“ton of outs right now like it's the same issue they had they face trading for yannis like they”

don't have a ton of picks they don't have like other than ant really I mean jaded McDonald's is a very attractive young player but the exactly the compiler you want if you're trying to be a good team it's why every team asks for him it's not like and they're not a lot of easy pivots they can really make. No it would take quite a bit of creativity on Tim Connelly's part to kind of shuffle things up i.e. as shown in ability to do that so I wouldn't put it past him this summer to make

major changes if that were to happen but I also will reiterate exactly like this is a team that

“every time they are on the brink of complete collapse they figure out a way to pull themselves”

out of it and all of a sudden they're playing well and all of a sudden they're sweeping some team in the first round and then playing really well in the second round and they're in the conference finals like I have you know been ready to jump off of the ship several times

over the past couple of years and they always do figure it out so until they are dead and buried

I'm not going to believe it but I also until they are in the conference finals or God forbid in the NBA finals I won't believe that either it's just a wild crazy unreal team to cover and it's really fun to do you never know what's going to happen every day. I got bad news for you I had the captain detached the life rafts from the ship so we have we we have no outs jankers in the athletic uh and the jankers in the ski show the best in the business thank you sir enjoy the rest

of your day thanks that appreciate it all right that's it for today's edition of the Zack

low show thank you to Oscar Tony Nick and Mike on production thanks to Rob Bahoney as always

in the great chancras in ski as well thanks to you all for listening to and or watching the Zack low show we will be back on Tuesday with the new episode as usual have a good weekend 21 over in president select states for Kansas and affiliation with Kansas star casino or 18 and over in president DC can tuck your way home and gambling problem call 1 in 100 gambler or 1 800 my reset call 1 888 789 777 777 or visit ccpg.org/chat and Connecticut

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