What Giannis’s Return Means for the Bottom of the East. Plus, Trouble in Denver?

Coming up on the Zacklow show, the great modiculus here.

And we're going to start in the east. Yannas attempted Cumpo made his long-awaited return to the bucks lineup. And definitely save their season and the bucks are headed for a split. No, they got destroyed at home by the Boston Celtics. Falling three games behind the number ten seed Charlotte Hornets in the lost column.

We're going to talk about how Yannas looked the rest of the team. Doc Rivers is making a lot of changes to the rotation or those smart or they not smart.

“Is there any hope for the bucks and is there a chance?”

Yannas is actually going to play through the rest of this regular season or will. They fall so far behind that that changes. And then we go through six to eleven rapid fire fillies. The hold on the number six seed is getting a little tenuous. We go rapid fire through Philly or Lando.

Miami, Atlanta, Charlotte, Milwaukee, which three of these teams are actually going to make

the playoffs and then we move west. The nuggets they squeaked one out in Utah last night. Yokech was just falling on people and getting calls overturned. But they snuck it out against the team to sunshine to win great game by Jamal Murray. But the nuggets five and eight in their last 13 Cam Johnson set out last night with an injury.

Is this just the year that it's not going to happen for them? They're having it. It's not our year kind of year. We're going to dive into that and sort of the bigger picture in the west. The thunder bill called them villains is that fair.

“Talk a little bit more about the Lou Dord thing.”

And then Darious Garland made his return to the Clippers last night and a actually big win for them. Overgold and Sarah and talk about how he looked.

And what the take landscape is with the picks that Atlanta owns from New Orleans.

And the Clippers own from Indiana. What other chances of keeping them? What's going on with the taking discussion? Is this still happening? All that coming up on the Zach Low Show with mode to kill.

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We're entering the fourth quarter of the NBA season. Janice's back. Darius Garland debuted. Steph Curry is still out. Zach Edy had surgery. Tray Young got ejected from the sidelines of a wizard's game.

He's apparently actually going to play for the Washington wizards. I'll set the over under at Tray Young games played for the season at five and a half. The great moment to kill is here to help sort out all of this stuff. Well, how you doing? I'm doing great.

“Is that getting thrown out before you've actually appeared in a game?”

Is pretty impressive. I think honestly, you know, when they said he's going to come back and start playing. I think Thursday there's next game as maybe I was I was thinking boy playing basketball. It's a good way to get injured. It's a good way to get injured and miss something like a little nagging injury.

You could pop up really easily if you play basketball. I'm setting the over under at five and a half games. I'm expecting a little a little window in the what this could look like with Tray Young. Some extension murmurs and a sore ankle or some kind of oblique muscle or something to take him out for the rest of the season, but backspasms, backspasms, backspasms, backspasms.

That's right, lower body, DNP, lower body. Mow, Janice came back last night and this was one of the big simmering stories in the NBA is when will he come back, can the buck sneak into the play in tournament? If so, can they with the best player on the conference, sneak into the playoffs? If so, could they scare a team in round one?

If so, could they actually get to round two? If so, could they it's just so many ifs that people just kind of got carried away by the possibility of Janice sneaking the bucks into the plan. That would be nice. It would be a feather in the cap.

They would probably be at least competitive if not favored over the glut of mediocrities that are currently in the play in tournament, not including the Charlotte Horn at Charlotte, you have advanced past mediocre status, even though you're record is still mediocre, you're above this, you're floating above the mediocrities, but there's such a big gap between that and making any real noise.

And then Janice comes back last night, seven of 18 and the bucks lose a disastrous game to the Celtics without jail and Brown still without Jason Tatum without Nimi Keda. They get absolutely boat-raced at home and they are now three games behind Charlotte and Atlanta in the lost column for the wanted number ten seed.

They have a chance to win the tiebreaker still against Orlando, Miami, Atlanta, and they've already won it against Charlotte.

“So, I think in the next ten days, we're going to know if this is anything alive for the”

bucks and if it's not, even if they go 500 in those games, if they don't make real progress up the standings and up the tiebreakers, I could see Janice getting shut down and the bucks deciding, we got to get this lottery pick as, increase our chances to get a high pick as much as possible. We get the least of our pick and pelicans pick the better one goes to Atlanta. I thought Janice looked okay last night, seven of 18, not great.

He had a couple of explosive dunks when he got a running start. It this may be confirmation by a small, I don't know what you saw. I didn't think his vertical lift was there in the same way. Usually it's particularly when he was planning off the right leg, which is the calf injury that he didn't look as above the rim, explosive to me, particularly like we're so used to him

emerging from like a crowd of bodies like a superhero under the rim and rising up in dunking. I didn't see that last night and I got a couple of texts from people who were watching the game scouts on other teams and stuff and their response was he looked okay, but why are they playing

“him? What is the point of this? The risk is catastrophic and that's why I'm thinking”

if they don't do well in the next 10 days, I think this could go the other way real fast in terms of them shutting them down. But maybe again, I'm open to maybe this is just me seeing looking for something and then seeing something that actually wasn't there. No, it was there. There's I don't think there's a way to argue it. I don't know if some of it might be rust. If it's more just hey, it's eased. It's been out a long time, needs to kind of get

as wind back, but I'll say it did not feel his presence really defensively, which was a great point. I though his defense was meandering to absent by his standards, by his pretty lofty standards. And this was a game they need. They need every game. If they're going to try to make this planerase on a night when the Celtics rest everybody, like you can't, you got to go get this

game. And this game was not very competitive besides a small spur in the beginning of the third

quarter where they cut it, I think, nine. It was a massive blowout by the time the the third quarter ended. And when you looked at Janice in particular, there were moments like you said, like he had couple drives down the lane, you know, and got dunked stuff. But there were also times where he drove and you could just see the lift not there and he missed layups that would normally be dunked or dunk attempts. And that would get him to the free throw line. I think those were the things I kind of

saw, you know, the good news is you did see the gravity of him. The bucks did get better looks and it make a lot of them. But they did get better looks when he had the ball and, you know, the doubles are coming and things like that. But that overall for him, that was just like in okay game by by Janice's standards of where he plays that. And offensively was just okay. And yeah,

defensively just was non-existent. Yeah, he had one offensive rebound put back attempt in the first

quarter, like in the right dunker spot where he went up with his left hand planning off his right foot, I went back and watched it. And he kind of couldn't get the ball over the rim. Now he was

“in traffic. And I think he got foul. I can't remember, but it struck me immediately as to play like”

that's a dunk most of the time. And yeah, look, the team obviously makes more sense around Janice. It makes no sense without a model. They held the fort okay in the 15 games he missed. I think they were 8 and 7. They had a couple of good wins recently against Orlando and Miami big wins for their tie break purposes. And then they beat like the zombie thunder and the zombie calves. But you got to beat the zombies and they're the zombies bucks without Janice. But you know, 60 whatever games, 50,

whatever games into the season, we saw Kuzuma get benched. We saw Camp Thomas get semi benched in the second half didn't play very much. We saw the bucks go super big with Portis, Sims and Turner and Portis, Janice and Turner and like lineups that the kind of lineups they had gradually moved away from with the honest is like, I guess the three, three and a half something. Usman Jeng started. Ryan Rollins came off the bench. I understand like the Rollins AJ Green Kevin Portis Jr. combo is kind of

small one to three. Like there's no true three almost defensively at least the AJ Green's close in that group. But less Ryan Rollins just doesn't seem like a good choice to me. And it's just like there's still just kind of figuring out what if anything this team is and like Sims has been really good. I thought he was decent again last night passing, switching, moving his feet. And that just highlights how unimpactful Miles Turner has been the entire season. And therefore, what a potential

disaster ditch they've dug themselves with this stretch, Dame Willard and signed Miles Turner with

Cap space double whammy. And look, there are three games back and there's always a shot with the honest

but last night was like a super disparating laws. And by the way, also, and I don't want this to be

all NBA ballot, meaning I think he has been somewhere between the sixth and tenth best player in the NBA this season. Oh, wow, the slander on Jalen Brown. This was another game that kind of chips away at like Jalen Brown's been making do with nothing around him. Like the Celtics have been awesome with Jalen Brown off the floor of the entire season. That is not in any way a slam on him. It's just this idea that, well, he's carrying a bunch of nothing to all these wins.

Just his never really been true. And last night, Derek White showed out.

Baylor Shireman has been awesome attack and closeouts, Peyton Purchers has been great the whole season. Hugo Gonzalez, as you can't even keep him off the glass and he's making open threes. This is just a professional hard playing super smart mistake free basketball team. And Joe Mizula at the three quarter mark is my coach of the year. Yeah, it kind of has to be at this point. I think, you know, I know that we're going to be talks of should have been should be JB Bicker

staff. And he probably should have gotten it last year or whatnot. And so he should get it this year and things like that. But when you watch what Mizula has done with this squad, it's impressive. And they came out with full force. They didn't come out with the attitude of like we don't know, Brown, no preacher, no Keta were whatever were kind of throwing this game away. They came out with like, no, we're going to beat these guys. And they beat them soundly. And you know,

I loved watching Gonzalez on the floor. Like he was guarding. Yeah, and as he was all over the place, like I loved the way he played in this game last night. So I mean, yeah, I know it's kind of a tangent of our discussion. But yeah, I don't see how Mizula is not, you know, if he's not one,

“he's definitely two in coach of the year. Hugo Gonzalez, the Flying Lama, that's what I'm calling”

him from now on. The first of these bucks games, by the way, bucks versus Hawks Wednesday,

the bucks lead the season series 1-0, they have two games left. So like the urgency starts now, they play Orlando on Sunday, Miami, two days or four days after that, and Atlanta two days after that. So we're, and then if it just, I could definitely see, just Yana's just like shut it down. And by way, the, to the people asking, why is he playing? This is a, a two-risky, they have nothing at stake. My assumption, based on everything, Yana's just said publicly, everything Dr. Rivers is said publicly,

everything I've heard privately is he's playing because he wants to play. And the bucks are going to do what they're super star player wants them to do. And, you know, in this, as we're bonoening tanking and guys sitting out and load management, I'm not going to sit here and like hammer

the bucks for playing Yana's. Now, if he continues to look, and unexplosive and the losses pile up,

then you then it becomes a different decision. Once the standings make the decision for you, it becomes a kind of a different conversation. Much easier conversation at that point, because especially if he continues to look, excuse me, if he continues to look like this, where it's, it's, this wasn't, this was kind of like Yana's light yesterday in the game we saw. And I don't, if he, if he continues to look like that, and it's, you know, his, his calf is kind of

hindering him and things like that, and they don't have anything to play for, there's absolutely zero reason to play. And, and doesn't even matter of, doesn't matter where he's going to play next or could even be in Milwaukee, but like you can't risk next year when you have nothing to play for. Now, in, in that sense, if you once you're out of it, and like you said, we'll know in 10 days.

“By next Saturday, I think is, is when they play the hocks, we'll kind of know if they're in the”

mixer or not. You're talking about Jonathan Komingo's Atlanta hocks, who ffff. He's with a lot of tear. Let's see what they play at real team, but we're going to get the hocks because we're now we're going to go speed around 6 to 11 in the east with Milwaukee as 11 is, is an interesting storyline, partly because of Milwaukee, although they're now a semi-distant 11 with 20 games to go, so 22 games to go whatever it is. But 6 is Philly at 33 and 27, and 10 is Charlotte at 30 and 31.

So four games in the lost column separate 6 from 10, Philadelphia is only one game in the lost column, clinging to that number 6 seed over Orlando, and two games in the lost column over Miami, whose eighth. For now, we're going to park Toronto a little bit above this discussion. They're only two games ahead of Philly, but I haven't done as much on Toronto as I like and we're going to rectify that on Thursday. They're going to do a deep dive on the raptors. For now, let's park them

“up here, knowing the raptors, they'll probably lose tonight. I think they play Minnesota and be right”

in this discussion. But this is an interesting set of teams, all flawed, all trending in different directions, a couple with different personnel decisions and trades and suspensions. Let's go rapid fire through them in the order of the standings. The Philadelphia 76ers 33 and 27, a whopping plus 28 total points for the season 13th and offense, 16th and defense, and that's going to be a theme. A lot

Orlando, who's right behind them. They have a massive game with Miami that will decide their

tiebreaker with Miami. The Charlotte tiebreaker is still to be decided. They've lost the Atlanta tiebreaker and won the Bucks tiebreaker. They have lost four out of six, I'm sorry, they have lost four out of six out of the last 10. They're four and six out of the last 10, but they have one three out of the last four, including a big win over Miami. Joelle and Beat is out at least the next two games with no oblique strain is just, you know, oblique, just add it to the list. Like I don't

understand how all of these random things keep happening to him. What have you seen from Miami

“of Philadelphia, from Philadelphia of late? Yeah, I think kind of the thing that sort of”

concerns me is the size a little bit. Like Max, he's been awesome. Absolutely phenomenal. I heard you and Bill talking about it on Sunday where he would rank in your all-in-be-a teams and things like that he's been phenomenal. And then, you know, VJ Edgham is kind of it a little bit of that rookie wall in that sense and it's not as he's playing his ass off, but it's not as productive as it was. I think to start the year and I think we're kind of beginning to see sort of the

talent disparity. I think kind of catch up to them. We saw it in that Celtics game where like they

were in it to the very end, but it was still not something like you could just you never felt

like Boston was going to lose this game. And I think that was a big one and Keta had a monster night. And without Joel and Bead, you know, they really didn't have an answer for being able to stop him keeping the ball alive on the offensive glass and getting tippins and how his activity and things like that. I felt like there's beginning to see kind of the talent disparity for them sort of hurt them. And then when you look at their schedule, Zach, I go to tank it on to to see

everybody's, this is my favorite part of the season because then I go to tank it on and I get to see the remaining schedule and everybody's, you know, toughest opponents and whatnot. They, they have the 18th toughest schedule. So they're pretty good in this and they got a lot of tankers on their schedule.

They used this magical and that there's really no difference in schedule quality between the

toughest schedule and the easiest and the easiest schedule and these because there's just a lot of media currently on the table. Like Portland has a laughably easy schedule in the West and there's a little bit more diversity. But yeah, they're scheduled and they have played two more home games in road games, the sixes, which every little margin matters at this time of year. Especially when we're talking like season series or making sure you stay ahead, but they got the pistons twice. They got the thunder.

They have dispersed right twice. The rockets, wolves and calves. Like that's a pretty tough group of games right there that they're going to have to win some of those battles right there as they go through if they're going to try to stay ahead in six or even by some, you know, catch Toronto.

“You know, and I think it's going to be really important for them and no PG, we know with the suspension,”

no no and beat for at least two games and you know how it goes with and beat like, okay, but like are we sure we're getting them back into games or we sure we know what's going on. You know, I think when he's on the court, he's been really good for them. Lately and I think he's been very helpful, but I just worry about them in terms of their size and everything that they have. And then when I just look at their talent on the roster and

and look at who they put out on the floor, they play their asses off. Bona has been great, even though he wants to stupid college. It's wow. Where do you go? You go to UCLA, right? That's UCLA slander from a USC guy. That was just you slipped that right in there. You tried to keep going, Mo, you tried to just slip in and keep going, but I'm going to let the brewing people know what just happened. You could let them know. I live in Culver City, which is supposedly UCLA

town except I walk around with my SC gear on all the time and let them know. So I think more importantly though, like they don't have a lot after that. And I think it's like it's a lot on Maxi right now. Edgecomb slipping a little bit as a rookie kind of just and which is expected. He's a rookie. I'm not trying to be that hard. Grimes has kind of been a bit up and down as of late. Like I think they got some challenges. I love Edgecomb. I love I loved his game against Boston. It has felt like

the last month it slowed down for him a little bit in terms of this production. And he's had some defensive games right in thing. His defense was up to his pretty high for a rookie standards. I thought he was great against Boston made a little friend in the front row by kicking her in the face and then we had a 14 minute review to see who's ball it was is just these endless these endless reviews. Oh, just can I can I can I throw in a thing about reviews? Yeah, go ahead.

It just real quick real quick. No, I just let me hear it because I'm I'm ready to be done with them. Well, I've I'm out like all together on reviews, but if you're going to do it,

“you have to watch it has to be in real time. I'm tired of slowing everything down frame by frame.”

Let's analyze every little bit of this or things like this. This is we're slowing this down

after after watching it four times, you're done. Whatever the call was on the floor stands. That's

“it move on. Gotta keep these games moving. We can't have that and that poor lady should get kicked in the”

face and has been broadcast on national TV for the past 10 minutes. That poor lady just like how many times you're going to watch it clip of yourself getting kicked in the face. I said this would build if the reps are going to take that long or a psychiatrist was all out on a coffee break, like let her decide who's ball it is. Just show her the monitor. She's going to be on TV just show her the monitor. It's 2026 and the last two minutes of close games in the NBA still take

10 times longer than they should take and we just we just can't solve this problem no matter what. If you get the wrong series of events, all the coaches have saved their challenges for the last three minutes of the game. Everyone's got time outs left. There's a god forbid. There's like we got to check if this is a flavored foul or a clear path foul. Just buckle up. Go get a beer. It's going to be 30 minutes for the last two minutes of the game. And then if it goes to over time,

cancel your morning meetings. We're going to be here forever. It just still takes two long. On the

“six years, I think you nailed it with the talent, disparity thing. They've been pretty good. They've”

held the four without Paul Georgian. I thought they would. I remember telling Mahoney like whatever your win projection is for them in these 25 games. Not get down one maybe two. I don't know exactly what the record has been. They're like 500 in their last whatever games. But the thing that I

underestimated and saying that and this is something you always have to remind yourself is one guy

out your margin for anything else going wrong is just so slim and now something is gone wrong with Joel and Beat and look, Joel and Beat, I compared him to Jamie Moyer a couple of months ago. It's a junk baller now. He's gotten a little bit of his burst back gradually over the year. It started with like the horizontal burst. The verticality is not quite not nearly where you three, but he did call for a lob at one point in a recent game against Miami and VG Edge come through

him a bad lob, but like the fact that he called for it was kind of encouraging. But he's been really, really good the entire year. They are plus six with M. Beat on the floor and minus two and a half with M. Beat off the floor. And as much dissonance and this has been discussed is there is between the way the super fast back court wants to play and the way M. Beat, the slower style that M. Beat

“kind of plays, I think they've met more or less in the middle ground enough times for it to be”

workable and they're just, they just need more layers to their offense than they have without a player of Joel and Beat's quality and that sort of second way of playing. So given what you said about their schedule and in Beads health and Paul George suspension, you know, it'll be interesting to see if any of these teams are than Charlotte who's the furthest behind can actually get their shit together enough to chase the sixers because if this season ends badly for the sixers and

right now, I think 60 games in if you froze it now, I think this season is a success for Philadelphia. Six games over 500 with all the injuries with the suspension, with like hitting another huge pick with Edgecom, but if they slip into the play in and then you're no matter where you are, you're at high risk and they missed the playoffs. I think there's going to be some organizational

angst in there and you just never know what's going to happen when there's organizational angst.

Next team on the list, you ready? Yeah, let's go. Your favorite team to watch. I know you dial up every Orlando Magic game to see the offensive sets. They remind you of the beautiful game spurs, peak warriors, 31 and 28. The Orlando Magic are, they are, let's see, a whopping plus eight total points for the season, the definition of mediocrity, 19th and offense, 13th in defense. They have the same kind of schedule every other team with East has. And let's see,

they've got some tie breakers still at stake with the Hawks and the Hornet, so they are currently losing both. They play the bucks on March 8th. That game will decide the season series between the two of them. So buckle up for that one. They have already lost the sixers tie break and swept the heat 400. The heat can't figure them out and the magic can't really figure anybody else out. Recent notes on the magic who still have no Franz Wagner, Jill and Sugs plays every other

game. Jonathan Isaac is basically a center where nothing now, like spot minutes at the four,

that hasn't really worked. It's just the same old story for me, Mo, but you got anything for me. I mean, I've railed on them all season with just how bad the offense has looked. It's gotten a little bit better post all star break. It's, you know, the numbers. It's climbed. It hasn't looked better, but the numbers have shown that it has improved in terms of offensive rating. But ultimately, you know, the bigger promise, even with their offense sucks, their defense has just not been

what we're used to. And that's a 13th. Yeah, that's not good enough. Yeah, it's just, well, I mean, that's just not what we're used. This is a top five defensive team, you know, that we've seen over

bedrock. That was their backbone. No matter what, at least get stops. And that was the thing that made

them tough in the playoffs. That was the thing that made them challenging for everybody else. And they're not even doing that. Their point differential is plus point two. Like that's a big, you know, for me, that's that says everything right there, because at least, if they had a competent defense, they'd be all right. They'd be in a little bit of a better situation. It's, they're one of the more frustrating teams for you. No, because I text you all the time when I get annoyed when I'm watching

a game. And I'm just like, oh my God. Yeah, I mean, look, I don't think either of us believes that Jamal Mosley has covered himself in glory. This offense is completely aimless. There was a

“possession. I think it was in there. Did they play Houston recently? I get all my games and stuff.”

Yes, they did. Where there was like 11 on the shot clock 12 on the shot clock. So time, like halfway through the shot clock. And Jonathan Isaac got the ball at the left elbow. Maybe even like elbow extended and just nothing happened. And so Jonathan Isaac, the worst offense of player in your rotation by like some margin, so bad that his defense as outstanding as it is, he just can't really be on the floor for you unless you play him at center. Just looked around. It was like, oh, I'm going to create

a long two for myself with 12 on the shot clock. Cool. It's the worst shot imaginable for any

NBA team, basically, a contested off the dribble Jonathan Isaac 18 footer. I guess I'm going to do that.

And it missed. There's so much juban Carter going on. It's legitimately alarming. And he just joined the team like five seconds ago. And he's like, I'll I'll take 17, three. It's give me all the off the dribble. Three is I'll take them all. And part of it is the coaching just they have not installed

“any sort of coherent offensive system. Part of it is just the person out like you look at this”

team, particularly without Franz with sucks playing every other game and missing most of his trees when he plays. There's just no there's no like playmaking on like Palo's okay. He's an okay playmaker for his size. Who's screening for him? That's any kind of threat rolling to the rim. He's the best threat screening and rolling to the rim. When Dell Carter Jr spends half the game

parked in the corners where he's a total non entity. Nobody guards him out there. They don't

have a traditional point guard like Anthony Black is kind of a point guard. He's been outstanding. Like he's, in by the way, if I'm Anthony Black's agent, I'm going into extension to go ashesions this summer. And I'm saying not a penny less than jail and sucks. I've been better than him this season. And I play more than him. And that contract is going to voice some very tough decisions onto the magic. But they just don't have a lot of playmaking. And I don't like it's the

“little things also like watch Palo being Karo screen in games when he is the screener. He misses”

like 75% of his screens are just there's no contact. And sometimes that's okay. Like if you're like a mary stottomyer and you're slipping out and you're so explosive rolling to the rim that that's the kind of point of you screening. Allows not that they don't set good screens. They don't have good passing. Their best player is injured and it's everybody's fault and yet they're 31 and 28 and they're sniffing a top six seed. So I guess it just still to me this is the year from hell

for the magic. But that Houston loss was a pretty bad one for them. Right. Like they had control that came and then Houston comes back and beats in. Like that's the game at home. You got to win if you're a lando. How about the Detroit loss when they're up by 14 up at half time and they get just smoked the rest of the game and scored 90 something points. Right. Like but that's all those stuff we're talking like there's just so many cases where we're watching games where it's just like

God. Like what do you guys do like just offensively? When you're in a battle to get out of the play tournament and that's huge. Just the fact that the weak rest that you get when you're not in the play tournament is massive and we've seen it over and over again through these playoffs. You need that and allow yourselves to get get rest prep all that fun stuff. You got a battle much harder than they are and I just feel like they're almost kind of resigned to the fact of like all right. This is who we are.

This would look different. Obviously if Sugs were reliably available, if Franz Wagner were healthy and I just don't I haven't seen enough evidence to do it with look so different, particularly on offense and I would feel great about this team. They're obviously entering across roads off season almost no matter what happens and and I mean that roster wise coaching wise maybe front office wise everything wise because this season is not gone to plan. Let's take a quick break and

then we'll talk about the rest of these teams including the ones that are a little more fun than the magic. This episode is brought to you by state farm on the court the best players know when to pass and off of it you still need teammates who are there when it counts. That's where state farm comes in. With agents and digital capabilities to help you find the coverage you need you could focus on what really matters. Whether that's scoring game winners or just getting through the day state

farm with the assist coverage options are selected by the customer availability and eligibility very by state. Okay next up in the standings the Miami heat currently eighth 32 in 29.

All everyone do every Miami game they'll tell about how many points they score and

“oh my god they're number one number 15 an offense. A very strong number four in defense. I don't”

think they've gotten enough credit for that this is a stout defense of team. Bam belongs right in

the sub victor Wembanyama defense player of the year. Conversation as always and you know we talked about

plus eight for the magic plus 28 all these mediocrities. They are plus 174 points for the season. That's actually like this is a legit freaking team. They have won the tiebreaker. No they have not won any tiebreakers. They have four at stake. Milwaukee they're one in one. And we'll care about that. They're two in Oregon, Charlotte with two games left. One in one against Philadelphia, one game left. They've lost the Orlando one. They're two in one against the Hawks who they play

on the last game of the season. Norman Powell is out at least a week with a groin injury which just continues to put off the what do we think of this hero norm situation. Both are extension eligible and do we want to pay both? Does it make sense to pay both? I suspect the answer to that question is probably going to be no for the heat but time will tell. And what I projected is they're starting five and what is one of their potential starting five? I mean like hero and

and Powell have only played 150 minutes together the entire season. The lineup of Mitchell who's been great, Powell, Hero, Wiggins, Bam. So the small ball version of they're starting five with Wiggins at the fore has only played in eight games the entire season, 98 minutes. So we haven't really seen this team. What has interested you about the heat lately? Yeah you know the thing that really interested me, if you go back and watch that Houston game and shout out Cooper Moorhead

who put this out there on he's the best. You know he dropped out like they played the season high 44 possessions alone against the rockets the other day and they're winning against

“the rockets and it really just flammics Houston all together and how to handle things and I think”

just going back to what you said it's surprising that they're fourth and defense and it's not a shot of you know these guys but look when you look at the roster you go oh wow donovan Mitchell excuse me not Davey on Mitchell. Davey on Mitchell. Davey's a brilliant slip. Bam all like they have they have some guys there where's been really good and in that game against Houston where and Bam played really well together they were in possessions on together

on that zone for I think about half of those possessions and they were pretty strong just on that and if they could find a way to put those two on the floor together consistently and have a rock solid defense and be able to produce on offense they're really going to be a problem for a lot of teams you know going into it like this is this is one of my favorite teams that's in the play in tournament range for the the east you know it's it's they're one of those that you

they just play their asses off it's faux so we always know how you know how hard this team is

going to play out well coach they are all that fun stuff you know without Powell it's it's a little bit less offense of firepower but then they unleash pillow larson goes nuts and that he's just in a game to start out like they have a lot of stuff there that's they have random guys that go off and you're all suddenly like wow like the the heat are in this they're battling and they always go back to point differential plus 2.8 point differential for the season that's pretty

“strong right there for a team that's seventh great excuse me and I think heroes played pretty well”

21 a game 49% shooting 37% on three he's going to get hunted on defense we know that that's just life and he competes and they have a good infrastructure behind him you nailed it with where I mean this is what my top five most interesting subplot in the league for NBA nerds is the ban where combination because what a roller coaster you're for a collo where pretty good start shows all the flashes you want from him in this offense he's making enough threes when he

asks to spot up he's a good offensive rebounder dives to the rim a little more discipline on defense not chasing every blocks thing down fighting harder on the boards then he goes through a mid season slump where all of that kind of fades out and there are games where some of the bigger centers like really beat the crap out of them on the boards there was one where go bare just eight is lunch

in the second half of the game and suppose trust in him declines they have kind of a public

tent about it and there's a lot of noise about like is is spo losing him is spo's coaching style the right coaching style for collo where this guy's so talented the heat half to get that talent out of him that any path forward whether it's with ban and where or with where as a trade asset this summer in whatever yannas talks happen whatever the next sort of star who becomes available talks happen they need that to happen and the last 15 games super like I the talent is undeniable

in three hundred and twenty five minutes with ban and where on the floor together I looked

up this morning and I thought that that I know they've been better lately that doesn't seem right because that was like minus a significant amount for a lot of the season in six games since February 1st they've only played in six games together they are plus eighty seven in fifty nine minutes now some of that is just crazy like that's just insane and the heat for the season

“have allowed I think the fourth lowest percentage on threes for the season so their defense may be”

there may be a tiny bit of luck factor in there but I like where I love ban bands a winner they've just got to figure out if that situation is workable for them long term if those two guys can play together and or if where is important enough to be a trade asset or if he's important and steady enough to make ban a trade asset I know the heat won't have to know that trade they do not want to trade ban on our any circumstances he's the captain he's broken some of

along the morning's weight room records like he is heat culture so I think it would be much more likely that you know where becomes a trade asset but as we've seen with Damian Lillard you don't

always get the trade for the guys you want trade for and it helps if your own players are good

I just really like this team if they can stay healthy I think they have a lot of pieces and by the way at the end of this I'm going to make you pick three of these teams that you think are going to get into the playoff so that's my that's my heat speel we'll see when norm comes back and how they handle the power hero to some and just just to just to add in because I really quickly did a over the last 15 games lineup that a between two man lineup on NBA dot com they've only played six

games together so small sample size 59 I mean on the floor together 59 total minutes together in six games they're net rating is plus 66.9 I told you plus 87 plus 87 total points it's it's insane I mean it's it's it's absurd like and and that way if they can they can put that together

“that's really promising now I do remember one game because I this is like one of the things I do”

every four days is check the Bamware minutes in every game I check that I don't see every he game I don't see I I look at the lineup did it there was one game where they were like plus 22 or some crazy number but that's still it does that did they've been like that in a bunch of games okay next on the list your and my a rousing 531 and 31 a total point differential of plus one for the season congratulations to the Eleanor Hawks you are plus one for the season they have a very good

typebacker situation and some of these well that's actually not they've they're they've won the fill the one they're up to against Orlando they're losing to Atlanta or Miami they're lost the one to Charlotte and they have two games left against the box where that becomes relevant or not Jonathan Kominga has exploded onto the scene they're chanting thank you warriors the warrior's gonna have to ride out a little embarrassment here as Kominga swords against bad teams so far we'll see what

it does on the competition stiffens and causing his continues to just not play for a warrior's team that's falling down the standings we'll talk about them a little bit lately resuscitate now coming off the bench that's not great and the pelicans pick the pelicans are still trying to win and they are now 19 and 43 which puts them in the number six spot in the lottery rankings the kings have a firm legal grip on the number one spot in the lottery rating some graduations to the

kings after that the jazz the pelicans the Pacers the nets and the wizards are all pretty close only one of these teams is trying to win that's the pelicans if indeed the pelicans finish with the six worst record in the NBA and there is a big gap between six and seven right now the mavericks may do their damn best to close that gap but it's gonna be tough that would give the Hawks a 37% chance at a top four pick and a 76% chance at a top seven pick but the odds would be

close to 50 50 it's number six or number seven which is not what it looked like it was going to be halfway through the season Zion is out again though so we'll see anything interesting about the Hawks

other than Kominga we saw the first Kominga jail in Johnson minutes the other day in a win against

Portland they looked fine it was Portland they turned it over a lot transition is very good for Jonathan Kominga anything I'm interested here for my sad cacalling Hawks our sad cacalling Hawks I was I was on the band where I get with you I will I have no all footage has been erased it was

“all I've told you I told I don't remember I it was all AI like I was never high on the Hawks”

if you see a clip of me circulating saying the Hawks take the over it's a lock this team can make the conference final that's AI it's a very dangerous thing yeah well I for me it's it there's no

and what that looks like when they're on the floor together and right now so far it is just transition it is just flying up down the court in the way and that's probably how they want to play with what they have on their roster and something you want to make sure you get out in transition and you play in those games forget who they played on Sunday was it was it the blazer it was

that was Portland yeah it was Portland like his first quarter run right off the bat was impressive

he was getting in the line he was getting you know and again in transition and flying but like you said we got to see what it looks like as they play proper you know talent around them but for me I just think this is it's just going to be interesting it's it's being 500 and is a disappointing season for them for what we thought they were going to be you know for for this season

“and and we were to load a lot of people thought that and I think that's the important thing”

to kind of sort of just to understand that like this is disappointment for them being in the plane tournament was not the plan this season even even that remains so even with triung and Christopso was saying is basically giving them nothing in the form of on court production for the

entire season it's still disappointing and it's to me disappointing for everybody for triung

for Quinn Snyder for the front office that they could not find a way to blend stylistically with what because that was the ceiling that was we have this team that's coming with switching defenders and cuts and off ball movement and random picket rolls and jailing johnson handling and then screening and blah blah blah you mix that in with the kind of spacing and play making that triung provides you might have something and they just couldn't do it and it's on

everybody it's it's there's no it's on triung for being sort of digactic about he wants to play

“it's on the coaching staff and Quinn Snyder for just not being able to coax everyone in the”

right directions it's massive but even so even getting nothing from him this team should be better

than 31 at 31 it's a disappointment and that pelicans picking up bill was on his pod sunday

was saying they should have traded it they should have got somebody for it and we sort of just skirt it around it and went on to the next thing and I wanted to say to him like well who like who is available it could they've gotten yannis for that I don't really think there's any evidence that yannis was on the table in any real way now that asset at that time was a pretty golden ship they had already traded triung which was going to be sort of the salary matching slash like

hey we got triung that's kind of cool from Milwaukee and 37% of the top four pick it's not like 5% that if that's where it ends up being like that's still a lot of percent and do I trust the pelicans to continue winning at this rate for an extended period of time not really even with the shot they Murray back Zion's out so jury will be out on that one also they could still trade it leading up to the draft right once we get in the draft and we know what the position

is and things like that or on draft night or draft the rookie and and trade him later so it's it's it's I'm with you in the sense of like this the trademark it wasn't there like who who would they have won after with that pick yet a lot of teams would have happily taken it but I don't know what they would have gotten back in return would have been worth you know worth the move itself a couple things I do want to say about the hoax joc landale I said it at the trade deadline

as like just sneaky good acquisition for them he's been awesome for the hoax for the hoax I don't know how I just said hoax my whole loss of broken my whole brain my body and my soul everything and because he can nominally shoot threes a congo can really shoot threes particularly from the corners but everywhere you see them they can make hay maybe with this kominga jalan johnson combination maybe they could even run pick and rolls with the two of them involved but certainly

with one of them is the screener the other in the dunker spot the center space somewhere like that's kind of interesting and I do what I also want to shout out dice and dandles it feels like he's had a really disappointing season because he can't shoot threes anymore he's clearly got it's in his head he doesn't take them he doesn't make them he has like a very tiny amount of threes for the season and he's not he's not the defensive wrecking crew that he was last year we hit the three steels

“a game he's still averaging one and a half one point nine I think steels per game I do want to”

get malo credit he's shooting 56% on twos like he's been really good in the paint from floater range all of that he's a one of the best cutters in the entire league six assists and six rebounds a game are both up for him he's getting better at a lot of stuff that's getting lost in all the talk about his shooting which is a real thing and it makes it hard for them to build sort of coherent lineups with him and they're plus two and a half with him on the floor per hundred

possessions minus four and a half with him off the floor it's I think the best net rating of all the rotation players on their team reseshe has been it's only year two but what's happening with him is a far bigger problem than anything that's happening with Daniels and I'm just I'm not going to rush with reseshe like I still think he's going to be a productive wing in the NBA but

write the jury on that that they made the wrong pick at number one and you only get so many chances to pick that high yeah it's tough in that situation and with reseshe developments not linear so like

obviously you wanted to you to hope he'd have a better second year but okay this has been a step back

type of year for him next season he can get going try to get in the lab try to find himself a little bit more and and figure out what is where his game needs to be what he needs to be doing

“more often I think is going to be a key thing for him when they get going I'm not ready to give”

up on him because we've seen this from young guys before where they've had a good rookie year bad soft more year and come back so I don't feel like I'm ready to go out there and and go nuts but yeah like you see what SARS doing it's tough to kind of look at it and say like yeah we we made the right pick well SARS castle needs shepherd who you know the start read shepherd thing

is getting some momentum now because he has been starting to borrow Smith juniors miss the last two

games for Houston and I said after that next collapse that like every game they lose like that when their fourth quarter offense goes to shit I'm just watching screaming just put read shepherd in the game because yeah look he's small he's going to get hunted on defense he can't just build everything around the defense if the offense is just flatlining and he competes he's got great hands he makes plays steals blocks everything like that and he just loosens up so much about the offense

to have a quick twitch ball handler good pass or like I keep hearing he's not a true point card just I don't know like he throws passes every game or like that's a fucking laser beam that he just threw left handed no look under the to somebody under the rim anyway it was the wrong pick I still think Lisa Shale would be good also playing like a guy with no confidence you know he's not playing like a team with no confidence the Charlotte Hornets 31 31 not quite 500 yet but

almost there they have three home games in hand tough schedule by East standards mo this is the number four offense in the NBA and perhaps just as pertinent the number 17 defense and trending up if they can get to league average that's interesting plus 184 the tenth best point differential in the league number 10 overall I have sung the praises of this team everyone is sung the praises of this team build and I talked about them being a 50 win team next year build throughout the warriors

“as a comp I hope I think that like let's hit the brakes on that but this is clearly something”

about these three guys ball Miller Kinniple and they're almost the anti magic and that the magic are built around two like size players who team street as non shooters and they're kind of like particularly palo little slow and deliberate in the way they play the Hornets are built around three like size players six seven the mellow six seven Miller six six Kinniple who two of them one is an A minus shooter in the mellow one is A plus plus and Kinniple one is kind of B TBD and Miller

but the way they move and the speed with which they play and move the ball and the variety of ways on ball and off ball that charles me and his staff pair them together and screening actions and cutting actions it's just a freaking whirlwind and it's very much a three-man show they and Ali have Kobe white I don't have really any notes mo accept that I did it with Bill and I'll do it again here Bill was talking about Miller and Kinniple and that's the foundation of the team and this

do all I'm like I know people just love to hate on the mellow because goofy shit every game the guy is

really good he's always been really good plus or minus like seven decisions a game we've now

and that's offense and defense we're now if it was 10 to 10 decisions that you're like do really we're down to like three to five that's major progress he's a really good shooter he's the next level pastor he's playing harder on defense and they are plus nine and a half with him on the floor and minus two and a half with him off the floor it's always been like this their offense is always amazing with the mellow and just for whatever it's worth and I don't think it's worth much with Kahn

and Miller on the floor and Nolan mellow their minus 17 and a half per 100 possessions according to cleaning the glass now small sample size shooting luck all that this is just a legit awesome

“offensive team and I'm not sure I'd be scared of them if I were Detroit or Boston because I think”

those teams are just polished two way much more experience kind of teams but I also would not expect an easy series I'd expect like a competitive four to like a game five at home we got a win this

forget all these other teams were born and shit get the hornets into the playoffs and he

“notes more the thing I like about them is they have the highest point differential of all the”

teams were talking about it are good plus plus three but that taking that count they started four and fourteen for them to still be plus three at this point let's you know how good they've been since that terrible start we should note that like plus a hundred of those plus 184 are two games against Philadelphia and you talk but even if you took those down to normal levels since whenever they started winning they've been one of the six to eight best teams in the NBA but those count

those count right like those that's indicative of quality yeah so I mean you know they

came out there and they kicked somebody's ass like that that that matters to the degree in in these

takes but what I love about it is just how fast the offense is right and like just how quickly everybody kind of responds and reacts to everything and you know there's there are unsung heroes on this roster Moosa Dibatics you know you you have guys that are making plays and are doing things you know beyond just those three guys those are the three main guys and they've been awesome and they've kind of found themselves and meld well together like I love

Knieples movement with the mellows passing right because the mellow will find them as he's working his way around a screen or coming off of stuff uh I did a edit for NBA TV and we went through con knieples threes and one of my favorite things that they did was they ran a screen where he's setting the ball the the pin down the guy curls around coming off the pin down and screws knieples guy and knieples pass back for three it's like I love the creativity that you're

getting from Charles Lee and all those things and and sort of just smart stuff that they're doing and using movement and stuff like that when you combine shooting with passing and cutting like it's really difficult to defend in the way that they play and it puts you on your heels defensively because it's like okay I gotta go here oh I gotta oh okay well I gotta rush up on la mellow oh no Miller's cutting back door I'm screwed like you're you're in all sorts of different ways you know

when you're up against it and I think they put you in a lot of bad spots and I think they're

“that's what's so fun about their offense and it is just high octane and you have a lot of fun”

with that stuff that I mean there are everybody's favorite team like we we can agree like I think across the board um la mellow will even be like off the ball sometimes now both is a screen or like coming up from the corner or whatever you have it and dea bot dea has really developed enough on offense that if they blitz the hornets ball handlers and and Miller is the only one who is kind of vulnerable to the blitz his decision making is a little slower than the other two but that's

coming along if you blitz them a dea bot dea can catch it and dribble it one time and hit a floater and like that's a big step for him and also like they're really hard to blitz just because of the shooting and passing they have on the floor it's hard to blitz teams who move the ball like that and move it to guys who are shooters and I'm gonna repeat this because it's so stunning I said it on bills pod but cannipple Cooper flags me have to play to take this from canipple I

thought Cooper flag had nose to head of him like 10 15 games ago canipple now has the lead in the rookie of the year race because flag is in playing he's injured and I think he'll start playing soon again hopefully but canipple like he's a good shooter and people gloss it over I said to some bills pod there are seven total player seasons six total player seasons in which a player is played 2,000 minutes hit at least 43% on threes cantables at 44 on eight threes or more per 36 minutes

he's above that number two the seven previous seasons to this are curry curry curry clay Thompson Desmond Bay and one dunk in Robinson season that sneaks in in Miami and canipple is going to

“join that club like that's how good of a shooter this dude is and good of it he moves the ball and all that”

anyway uh the hornets are really fun to watch okay mode it's time I'm trying to think let me just make sure I have no more hornets notes I don't their defenses up to 17th I talked with Bill about the infrastructure underlying everything they do um we have to pick three of these uh what six teams to make the post season by rule three of them must make it from the eastern conference uh I I have

my picks but I'm gonna let you go first and we'll see if we match and this is not who we're rooting for

this is who we actually think with affiliate 33 and 27 31 and 28 magic all the way down to 30 and 31 Charlotte 26 and 34 bucks who's actually making the playoffs I'm going with Philadelphia going Orlando and I'm going Charlotte the only difference we have is I'm going Philadelphia

and sucks can stay in and they're they're qualitatively definitely the second to best or maybe

third at worst of these teams and maybe the best I just I may just I may not like watching them but I also don't have a lot of faith that they're gonna stay in this ship and Miami just Miami's their way in they just they get in there so I'm going I'm going fill my Miami Charlotte my only thing the only reason why I'm going Orlando over Miami is just the way it's set up in the stand eggs now seven eight and Orlando just has to win one game and they've like you said Miami has not been able to really

figure out this Orlando squad the season and I feel like that's going to be the the problem for the the heat if it was I didn't factor the floral Orlando advantage in I don't you know what I don't

“care mo I don't care fair enough but I think that's going to be a and they just got to win the”

one game to get in you know and it's it's funny for me to have picked Orlando considering how much I've I've been on been on them this season but I think they they find a way all right let's take a quick break and we're going to go discuss some western conference ha mama we feel the grossity be on mm-hmm so it's hot and so creamy hey we can then pop a creamy sign Nutella or the fun mama and for papa believed no Nutella is Nutella

happenings let's move west the Denver nuggets mo biggest threat to Oklahoma City I said it full health I've said many times that if they didn't go toe to toe with the thunder and win the championship squeaked went out in Utah last night Yokech was falling all over the place falling on top of people there were some wrestling moves involved a little bit of flopping a controversial overturned

“foul call on Yokech at the end of the game it's not great even on a back-to-back”

even in Utah it altitude and Denver should be used to playing it altitude it's not great when you just squeak out but win in Utah a team that's not trying to win organizationally when Jamal Murray goes off for 45 points this was coming off two straight losses to other western conference powers at Oklahoma City in overtime when Yokech did the the mean mug and Lou Dort and Lou Dort but obviously cheap shot I can't believe people were even like

trying to defend Lou Dort like a very obvious cheap shot I might make you do your best Yokech eyes impression at some point and then a home loss to Minnesota where the wolves led wire to wire their defensive numbers were okay in those games just okay eye test was worse than okay for me and both of those games and there was this idea that their defense had really rebounded since the all-starbreak and it's really based on two

games one against the Celtics who were back to back at altitude and scored only 84 points and one against Portland they won by 54 points in Portland's offense things I don't think their defense is leveled up really at all in any meaningful way Aaron Gordon is still out Cam Johnson

has been MIA and miss last night's game and I said this was built I you will never write

often nuggets with Yokech and Murray I want to see them at full health I don't know if it's even fair to assume they're in Gordon can be at full health for any extended period of time but they were saying that during the nuggets will always game that a week or so will see Watson and Gordon both back Brown is now back and and looks like himself Cam Johnson presumably will be back soon from what I don't even remember what his injury is which gives them all kind of

options you know we know their core lineups are going to be Murray Gordon Yokech and at full health they have a lot of interesting ways to fill those last two spots last night they were not a full health they actually started valetunus next to Yokech but I said this would build they are

“I think five and eight in their last thirteen games they have not played well since Yokech came back”

Yokech is outstanding always looks puts up outstanding numbers I don't think he's looked

I mean it's hard to say he's looking like Yokech like the best offensive player of all time to me his defense has been worse than usual all season and worse than usual in this 15 game stretch and his offense has been always outstanding but his jumper has been wonky and his turnovers have been up and they just don't have they need Yokech to be P. Yokech I just it's starting to I'm not quite there yet but it's starting to bubble up at my stomach and I said the son Sunday with Bill

every great team has those years or it's just like it's not our year just it doesn't just there's too much stuff going wrong and none of it really in our control it's not our year and I'm worried that this is a not our year year for the nuggets I'm not there yet but I've officially been worried for like a week now yeah so just go first the Yokech coming back from injuries you know with I 100% agree with you on the defense aside I feel like he's taken kind of a step back

and it's been more just his effort level defensively on that and I feel like it's not as intense as

shooting numbers have like his percentage has dropped off a cliff and there's like the risk the

“risk the clumbling's right yeah like he went from for shooting 43% from three before the injury”

or it was like every time he shot the three I was like that's automatic like now everybody's really screwed or is now he shooting 32% like that's an 11 point drop in percentage say just about the same amount of attempts and and things like that but that's a huge drop off for the nuggets there offensively just on that end of what they had before you know Yokech's injury then on top of that like the KM Johnson like I was in on this trade I loved the trade I thought it was smart for them I

thought it worked out I thought it was going to work out better and it was very plug and play and it was just gonna seamlessly work together and I should have been smarter exact because I

should have gone to my own personal experience my first year with the spurs was Richard Jefferson's

first year with the spurs and when I took the job with the spurs and I'll say my goodbyes to some of the clipper staffers it was right after that trade and somebody with the clipper said literally said to me like right after you're gonna win a ring now like because that's we all thought it was plug and play at Richard Jefferson Tony Monu Tim like this is gonna work and it didn't work that first season it actually took RJ a full year came back the second year was was awesome was

killing it from three and all that's I feel like KM still trying to figure out where he fits within this offense and teams basically are just not guarding him he had a wide open three in the corner against Oklahoma City on a huge possession that I'm pretty sure would have given the nuggets the lead missed it and it's some of it's been the injuries that he's missed the time he's missed so he hasn't been able to have that chemistry to to figure out where he goes and then even with Gordon out

and for so long like it's difficult for him to kind of figure out where he's gonna fit in the scheme of things like there there are a lot of things that when I start kind of looking at with the nuggets I'm starting to get like huh like that's not quite where where you want that to be

“and even with Gordon like you need to get at least 15 games before the playoffs full health”

so everybody understands their roles and understands what they need to be doing and I'm worried would just go into the sense of like we haven't seen a play forever at this point it's worrisome Cam Johnson we knew he was not gonna be any kind of major defensive upgrade over Michael Gordon Jr. at least I knew and only if only because of rebounding like Gordon Jr's a really good rebounder he's six ten he's just bigger than Cam Johnson. Cam Johnson might be more engaged

rotationally he might be in the right place at the right time. I think his defense has been worse than it was in Phoenix and Brooklyn probably because he's been slowed by injuries often on but teams are just they're picking on him with their quick guards just like they're pick on

you know I mean they pick on everybody on the nuggets basically other than you know Peyton Watson

Christian Brown and even Christian Brown is over matched guarding like a Shay one on one which is his job because they don't have anyone else who can do it he's just shades just too fast form and I don't think his point of attack defense has been all that good and Adam Morris has been on this for DNVR sports too but guys are just going at Cam Johnson and shoot like the shooting I I understood the trade I didn't like it nearly as much as anyone else because I kept I was I felt like I was in crazy

town defending Michael Porter Jr. people acted like he was just a fucking nobody because he's said some stuff on some podcasts that was weird and like defensively he could be absent minded he's got back issues all this I just kept saying like a six ten a plus shooter with Yokech is just so freaking valuable and Cam Johnson is not six ten he has not been an A plus shooter he's been fine he's shooting for he's actually shooting a higher percentage of Michael Porter Jr. but on

“fewer attempts by like two or three per 36 minutes which is massively important to the nuggets”

offense because they just they don't shoot threes and every little bit of threes that they lose is exponentially important to them because of how few they shoot and you know right now they're feeling the lack of size without Watson and Gordon because particularly when teams bring Yokech out to the perimeter he's been not nearly as as like he's just been lost at sea at no man's land too often and when people get by him there's just no size anywhere behind him and like the whole aggressive

picking roll defense they play with him is based on we got to have size like Michael Porter Jr. and Gordon rotating to the rim is a real thing Cam Johnson and Bruce Brown rotating to the rim is not threatening for anybody and it's just like the Cam Johnson thing is so interesting because I mentioned if they're healthy or if Aaron Gordon's 90% healthy they're gonna close games with Murray Gordon Yokech and two open slots and right now like if you ask me who I have the most faith in

Watson Gordon combination is has quite enough juice offensively maybe I'm wrong because Gordon is

“a made man is a 40% three point shoot now he's gonna be given space but he's gonna make those shots”

and he's giving less space than he used to be Peyton Watson is shooting 41% on threes he's not treated as a shooter but if he makes the shots it doesn't matter now he's 50 something percent on corner threes and less than that on above the break Christian Brown has been up and down so I is that workable and if it because if it's not those three then you're counting on Cam Johnson and if it's not Cam Johnson then you're going way down and size with Tim Hardaway Jr.

Bruce Brown they just sign ties Jones forgive me if I'm not really gonna think the ties Jones is changing the Denver Nuggets life after being watching out with multiple teams already this season I'd rather play jail and pick it frankly the ties Jones at this point so even if they get healthy the Cam Johnson piece to use Bill's phraseology worries me a little bit just in terms of like how does like who's closing games for this thing they have a lot of options and it's to the

“front office credit that they have like two hardaway juniors been great Bruce Brown is Bruce Brown”

like Watson's been awesome I just don't know you know how it all fits together yeah and the scary part is have you seen their schedule going into the they have a crazy schedule it's it's two games against the thunder left which everybody signed up and make sure you're paying attention to the the next time they meet three games against the spurs Nick's rockets two against the lakeers it's pretty intense like just a hard to schedule in the

NBA yeah by far and it's not like it's insane to me when you see that stuff so we're gonna see I guess what they're gonna be but like I just it's like you said sometimes he's great teams just have a year where you just you go into it know it like going into the past you kind of feel like they just don't have it and they might shock us all and and and all of a sudden be phenomenal last 10 games of season and we're already to roll but also comes down to their playoff matchups

like they're out right like that's one thing you watch for in the West and I watch more in the West than anywhere else they're the way they're slotted their fifth right now one lost behind Minnesota they have the the tiebreaker over Minnesota so you know it's it's important for them to at least

tie up their four five and that means potentially playing Oklahoma City in the second round like

that could be pretty tough right there in that area they're tied with the lakeers and number of losses there only two losses up on Phoenix but without Dylan Brooks and you know the injuries have piled up with with Phoenix like I don't think they'll drop into the plane but like kind of crazy like they could drop to six you know and it and it might actually be smart for them

“to drop to six I don't think I think Denver cares less about when they play Oklahoma City”

and more about who they might play in the first round that would just be my guess as to like Minnesota plays in really I know Denver's three and one against Minnesota they just lost them and one of the games was in overtime Minnesota's obviously played them total in the playoffs including winning a game seven in Denver I think they probably don't it's I think the one do we get the thunder thing is like you're gonna you're gonna probably have to go through them

at some point and by the way one of the other big ex-factors now is the thunder are going to get healthy and they're gonna remind people like oh this is like this is the full team like Jared McCain is a luxury um if I had some people asked me like where was the rest of the league on Jared McCain like if he was available nobody out bid Oklahoma City Oklahoma City traded legit

draft equity a first round pick in some seconds and I don't think the sixes were getting that

for a guy who was on the fringes of their rotation and has played like 50 NBA games this is the benefit of being Oklahoma City they don't care about overpaying with draft picks they're built to overpay with draft picks anyway um Jared jail and Williams that's like I'm gonna watch very carefully and when he comes back because he's barely played the season we have not really seen him at peak level form because of his wrist injury and other stuff and now he's been out with the

leg injury of some kind and this was a guy who was putting up like like we were through five six games of the final thinking is he challenging shape for finals MVP like masterpiece level games late in the NBA finals um he's a big ex-factor but I love those matchups with the thunder and the nuggets and a couple of things have stuck out to me um number one let me bring this up

to make sure I get it the nuggets have played the third most zone on defense in the entire NBA this

year behind Miami and Milwaukee that's according to the genius IQ second spectrum track and data the thunder have faced the third most zone in the NBA this season including against the nuggets

nuggets have done quite poorly playing zone according to the tracking data that's one thing I like

“the thunder is attack with the zone I love the way they use the baseline particularly when they have”

two bigs in the game they pass to each other on the baseline um and the thunder have gotten a little more daring uh and it's only for small snippets of games well playing shed as the lone big man against yokeach and having shed guard yokeach and just a yokeach thing that I'm watching I'm not sure what it means but I'm interested in your take yokeach this season 10 post-ups per 100 possessions that is his fourth lowest number ever and his lowest frequency since 2017 2018

in his best season he's been up around 13 14 15 and the reason I and there's still like wildly efficient plays but the reason I looked that up is I've watched all of these nugget games and thought to myself plan I'd like to see him post that there are even 1.46 points for research and I just feel like I'm not seeing it as much and it just feeds into my like he has a bit he's still the best

“offense player in the NBA he just hasn't been quite the dominant like ultra ultra dominant like”

I'm gonna do everything at all times kind of force so those are I just think it's a fascinating metric I wonder if some of that has to do with Murray having such an amazing year and from start to finish and then they've decided to kind of let's hammer more the pick and roll between those two guys than anything else and I think that might play into some of that but yeah like posting up yokeach just seems like a good idea that I probably want to do 15 times a game and you know

could just be we're playing the long game we're saving all this stuff for the playoffs and I will never

count them out and we'll never count them out especially with Jalen Williams health being a a little bit more of an unknown than a thunder would like it to be but the West is is just going to be holacious um I don't know what did you think of of Bill's uh are the thunder becoming villains question slash take after the loot door yokeach uh I thought I thought they were becoming villains beforehand I thought that was kind of been and I feel like that's been sort of bubbling

“up underneath that's why I think so many people were so excited when the spurs were beating them”

in December right I felt like people were genuinely excited and and you know you guys said it a lot of it's baked in jealousy right a lot of it that cannot be certain of the envy the envy of their stockpile of picks and the shade trade and all of that do you know how annoyed I'd be if I was what a the other 20 90 but then it's also the stuff where it's like they go the reports of them complaining to the jazz you know about the jazz it makes you listen to the NBA and things because

they own the jazz is picking they don't you know it's like all these small things that they kind of do it and they don't care and I'm happy about that with Oklahoma City like that whatever they don't care about that outside noise very San Antonio spurs ish in that sense but they just go about their business but it is going to piss everybody else off everybody else is going to be I loved Bill mentioning the commercial suck you know like I thought that was hilarious I didn't

come across my radar yet yeah but it's true though they're annoying when you watch those things and it was the whole what a girl wants commercial and thing like it was all those things like they are becoming villains but you know what that's good I love it it's what we need it we need more villains we need more rivalries the listen I dirty play by door you know and no question just there's no argument there's no argument that it wasn't like it wasn't like it reminded me

of Chris Paul was the master of this when he'd be dribbling up the floor and veer into somebody

behind him to draw a fell and I never liked that and I loved when the league started calling it

an offensive fell but at least it was like a not a basketball play but he had the basketball and there was like basketball going on that was just like I'm just gonna hit check you and like there's a little elbow to it too is like I'm just gonna go out of my way stop and hit you just to be Lou Dort the the funniest thing of all this and this is the thing that drives me nuts about Oklahoma City actually did a video on offside for it after the they lost to this person the

playing tournament game in Vegas. Dort was shocked the referee called the foul if you go back and of course reaction as soon as everybody though but that's everybody but they do but they get away with so much to me it's like you can't really just complain every time like the whistle blows you know and and it's all that stuff like I just think the the way we're kind of it's just fun I love it their villains I love that we're having more animosity across the board in the NBA I don't want

fights and things like that but I love that we have rivalries kind of coming back in a way and

bubbling up because everybody's kind of having these sort of little skirmishes. Dort also one of the elite extended leg kickers if he sees an opportunity on his three-point shot when he's coming down like he'll just do a karate kick sideways and see if it hits somebody and by the way I he's not alone lots people do that and I did the referees should definitely air on the side of those being offensive fouls like if it's questionable call it on the offense I do the

“leg kick needs to go by the way the pushoff is now officially a major talking boy I think”

thanks to Doris Burke who railed about it a little bit when who got ant got called from one like a call and then Jamal Murray didn't get called for I thought a much less agreed just one than ant did and I've heard that was Sunday before that I had already gotten text from coaches about pushoff's being an epidemic in the league and everyone's gonna think it's Shay that's the reason Jalen Brown's name has come up quite a lot as a pushoff guy and he got called for one

the other day against it wasn't feeling was the game before after a couple others that I thought probably should have been called so it's like a real it's like a real discussion what what are your thoughts on the state of the put and by the way I told all these coaches is politely as I could spare me because when your guy does it you're gonna be like that's definitely not a foul don't call that a foul that was a legit basketball place all coaches are

hypocrites I just just spare me I've said it nice I was like I'll wait for player X to do it but what's your where are we on pushoff well one the one of the most iconic shots we've ever

“had has come off of a pushoff don't you dare don't you dare but nonetheless I think for me it's”

it's one the arm is fully extended right like the way I always kind of thought it was like if you

had your elbows bent and kind of but when you fully extend that's when it's it's got to be called and in in in that area for me personally I generally wish that give the defense a little more latitude and in in in defending like it's it's that those the pushoffs is wild to me just the offensive player throwing his body into a defender and all of a sudden that's a foul call and it's I don't know what the defense is supposed to do like we need to kind of find a way but

the pushoff stuff is to me once you extend your arm that's an offensive foul and that needs to be called and that needs to be more consistent when you talk about jail and brown getting away with three and then getting the the price or the least aggressive one gets called it's because the coach on the other side was probably harping on the rough the whole time and as soon as you finally saw it he blew the whistle I just think we need to just be more consistent with what are we going to call

amen on the thunder villain sing when Bill said that I was like I'm pretty sure I've already talked about this and it was on a December 11th I had an episode with Howard Beck and it was right after they had played Phoenix and shit and grace and Allen and other great villain by the way

“had gotten into a couple of like shoving matches I think so my have gotten ejected there were definitely”

technical issues there was like multiple just out of your way to shove people and I talked about that at that point they were like 22 and one or something crazy and I talked about like I love I love this I love that they're leaning they seem to be leaning in if not to all out villainy because what I said on that pod I think still holds true today if they're villains it's because

the best team always becomes something of the villain the rest of the league begins to root

against them and you begin to find things that you just don't like about them because you're there the one everyone is aiming for but they also have played from day one of this season like give us your best shot we know we know like we know everyone's coming for us now we're champions we know we play super physical and everyone hates it and thinks the rest don't call them a fouls on us we know we're going to try to win every single game and this is when they were

24 and one 23 and one we want we're like actually they played that ketemu is actually chasing 70 wins like we want 68 last year we want 70 not only do we want to beat you we want to take the ball from you so many times that you just give up running your offense we want to make you basically quit in an NBA game and just go through the motions for the rest of the game and they have an edge they they mean mugged they now darts play was was dirty no question but I like it and I'm

all for a little NBA villainy it's more fun and you got to respect the way they attacked the season to start the year like just the way everything you said was right on like there's just no like

at some point you know there's always the question of like do they take their foot off the gas a

little bit now they fought like no they were a falter out of from the beginning and you got to give them a lot of that kind of like respecting that regard I appreciate that they do that and there

or sometimes it feels very propaganda but like I think you know ultimately like don't just they're

good as team at the end of the day and you can't be mad at the fact that Sam Prestey built this team with not just a bull load of assets that they can go ahead and make a trade and get Jared McCain

“for and and basically I don't I think if anybody came to the table with a little bit of a”

more offer they did just said cool here's another second round pick like whatever they would have they would have gotten in at the end of the day and then he's nailed these draft picks he's nailed his signings turning giddy into Alex Caruso is a win the heart and sign stuff we haven't even I mean case on walls a whole like all these guys AJ Mitchell everything wagons all that stuff you got to get them credit they've done all these things right and they were in the position they were

when the clippers needed Paul George and they leveraged it for everything they had and by the way they the most underrate and it's underrated but they deserve a lot of credit for getting Paul George people were like Oklahoma City Paul George wow and they made a good asset play to keep their team afloat in the playoffs with Ross post Katie and it worked and then they flipped them

“for what they thought were anyway Denver lot of stake for Denver very expensive team”

Aaron Gordon's 30 you'll could just 30 something 30 31 they're already at the first

day for next year before you account for any valentus Peyton Watson Bruce Brown Tim Hardaway junior they are out three first future first round picks already including the one they attach some Michael board junior so all these teams have all all these stakes are big last thing Darious Garland made his debut for the clippers last night the clippers with a huge come from behind win against the warriors that has major play-in implications the clippers now

lead the season series two one and are only a game behind the warriors for the seven eight spot I mean they need the seven eight versus nine ten is huge um what did you think of Darious Garland's first 23 minutes is an LA clipper well the first three minutes were an utter disaster like in in the way he had two turnovers right off well I don't know if it was right off the bat but back to back right one were Moses moody just completely ripped the ball right out of his hands as

he was trying to drive and then the other one he gets trapped on the long the sidelines and ends of turning it over finished with five turnovers I like to go five and a half because he got forced into a jump ball in in that situation besides that like once he started to find his group after the first in he looked much more comfortable a little bit more fluid in the way he was doing it we should mention he started he came off the bench came off the bench in that's easier

to manage minutes because he's on a minute restriction they're going to work him in slowly with all that stuff he wasn't he didn't his first it wasn't paired with koi was a matron was he was paired with matron I think in that first and they just didn't have any sort of fluidity with that once he was paired with koi you started to kind of see how this slowly starts to work he didn't have a great game but it was pretty it was pretty good like I was

if I'm a clipper fan I'm encouraged I'm like okay I like what I saw after that the turnovers are one thing he missed a couple of clean looks he had some stuff where he created a good he got the ball on the sidelines off a pass from koi drives middle kicks it out relocates to the top of the three had a great pass from Kobe Sanders it was a wide open three he missed it but that's like

“yo that's what you want to see those are the things you got to like I liked what I saw so far with it”

I think you know there will be questions defensively for sure but like offensively I think he's going to little rust find his way through but I think there's some real promise there and just faster the pace I loved you knew like they just need a little more juice and transition and he brings that

they've never for better and worse they've not had a player like him in a very long time they

have steered away from small guards who are perhaps defensive liabilities and now they've invested somewhat big in one of them and they'll have to figure that out but they also just haven't had like a just I mean a passer like shifty small guy step back I mean hard to took a ton of threes but just played a totally different style than Darious Garland does and even like you mentioned he came in when koi was out just anything first of all those minutes have been just a lot of piecemeal like

alright Jordan Miller go to work and he's been like good enough for sure but now they have a little bit more of a okay we can build an offense that's coherent around Garland and Mather and one koi sits and one koi plays just anything to take the load off him and get him easier shots and not have him have to create everything in the half court is just given his on again off again

but he got a rare bucket for him as the screener in a pick and roll and boy what I like to see a little bit more of that given that small guys are going to defend Garland and if you switch koi just going to take you down into his office I just you know I've talked about this before but there was all the conspiracy theories when those trades were made when the zubatch trade was made in hardened for Garland about how oh my god are they preparing for Armageddon or they preparing

for koi's contract to get avoided or they're doing right by hardened and zubatch to get them out of

town before all hell breaks loose are they acquiring first round picks in preparation

to for fit first round picks I don't know what's going to happen with the with the investigation is still going on I don't know what their punishment is going to be I don't know what their bracing for god knows they're not going to sit there and talk about it with me I said then and I'll

“still say now I think both trades made sense on the merits for a team that clearly had to”

start pivoting to the next era of itself without bottoming out because they don't control their picks and they have an owner who won't tolerate bottoming out anyway I think these were both really good picks for them the zubatch trade has unleashed Yannick koi neeterhouser who was awesome last night around the rim on defense and on offense and it looks like a very interesting prospect and boy that that pick in Garland is much younger than hardened 10 years younger obviously

and that pick is just going to be so fun to watch in the lottery room the paceers right now are the numbers two seed in the lottery but it's it's really tight between Indiana Brooklyn and Washington

Utah that's going to be super tight but by win percentage they have the second worst record

right now that would be and remember it's top four protected the paceers keep it if it's one to four the clippers get it if it's five denied right now the paceers would have a 52% chance of

“that pick landing in the top four they fall to three it's the same 52% they fall to four or”

rise to four I don't even know what the proper terminology is it drops to 48% that it's in the top four so the odds shift a little bit to the clippers if they go to five it's 42% the odds now shift somewhat significantly towards the clippers God forbid they fall or rise to six which is about the the ceiling for all these teams it's 37% that it's in the top four in major edge to the clippers and by the way all the tanking stuff remains ongoing behind closed doors in the

league office and I do think I do think we're gonna see if if not if not a seismic change that's bigger than all the band days we've talked about if not there we're they're at least going to get to the goal line on big big changes and put it to a vote and I'll be my guess would be we see something more actually enacted than just the band days we talked about like you can't trade anything but the top four protected pick in the top 14% to pick I would bet on more significant change

than that and and maybe even in time for the 2027 draft this draft they're not messing with it's too late in the game you could even argue next draft is a little early given that

“people may trade based on rules that exist now but I think change is coming um the one more”

thing though about that trade with the spacers we always talk about the pick we always talk about

as we've got we don't talk about matter and getting traded there like that was big for them that he's been huge for them he's won them in get he's won them games he's kept them in games there's there's a we talk about Charlotte and having multiple ball hammers and guys is it's not the same level but now you have a third guy too they can go drop 30 you know like he can get hot and go completely nuts like there's a you know we're talking about one koai is off the floor they're going

to have garland and matter and together you know and there's now matter has to again like it needs to be locked in defensively and things like that because you can't have those two both being tough positions defensively but the fact is they've added another offensive player in their their their rental we talk about their trades it matter to kind of and I understand why matter to kind of gets lost a little bit in the shuffle but let's not forget this dude was

playing big games for the Pacers in the finals he was a big piece for them in the in their run and had some big nights like I I feel like sometimes we do it we don't give him enough attention on in that trade scenario totally agree and in fact this is a great podcast topic from that day even better for building for me but I would like to do it we need to come up with a name for these guys who are kind of treated as throw-ins salary matching throw-ins whatever like yeah

he's intriguing throw-in throw-ins and are actually more than that in trades like the classic example is Chris Middleton who's just kind of got tossed in to the branded night brand and Jennings trade and turned into by far the best player in it but like marketing in in the Donovan Mitchell hoopla where he gets traded to Cleveland all the focuses on the picks and this and that

yeah it's kind of a fun flier on Larry marketing turns into an awesome player,

math run and I don't think we'll ever get nearly as good as marketing is but you know you you in all the focus ends up being on the the best player in the picks and justifiably

“so those are the most important but I it would be fun to go through all the history of trades to be like”

who were I mean marketing is was probably better than a throw-in but at that point he had kind of watched out in Chicago fellow at disappointing lottery pick didn't really fit super well in Cleveland like and and just he and sex didn't both well hey whatever it takes just they get whatever you want and it's just it's a really interesting dynamic of all all these trades. By the way clippers total point differential for the season mo after what are they they've played 60 games plus zero

a total flat zero very fitting for the clippers mode to kill tell people where they can find you off side obviously is is one of them where else yeah so do the videos on off side make sure you're subscribing there off side dot GG go sign up to be a part of the app I know you're an Android guy's act we will have an Android app soon you could sign up for the waitlist there boy I'm gonna let a crap for that I was just telling you that's we're coming we're gonna

help you you want to sign up we got you there too is just a little bit later um Apple comes first

and then we have on after that double durable podcast with Jared Dubin we do it right now once a week we're gonna ramp up as we get going you know close to the other you're ramping up yeah ramp it up I got a ramp up a little bit and get going there and then make sure you check out the association weekend edition on NBA TV on Saturday I'm gonna be there with Alexis Morgan Zach Harper and myself we'll we just have a ton of fun going around the league a lot of live lookings and and overall

“then sometimes he might get in excess and mows at it there you go mode to kill if you want to know”

what happened in the game you watched and why one team one and one team lost and what one coach was trying to accomplish he is your follow uh and we love our now Tuesdays with mow with no little iteration like Mondays with mow but Tuesdays with mow will do thank you bud thank you all right that's it for today's episode of the Zach low show we are back Thursday

with the new episode Thursday thanks as always to the great mode to kill for his insight thanks

to Jonathan Mike and Billy on production thanks to you all for listening to and/or watching Zach low show 21 or over in president's like states for Kansas and affiliation with Kansas darkest you know or 18 and over in president and DC you can tuck your Wyoming gambling problem call 1 800 gambler or 1 800 my reset call 1 888 789 777 777 or visit ccpg.org/chat and Connecticut or visit mdgamblinghelp.org and Maryland hope is here visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-505-0

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Louisiana call 1 877 777 0 787 but what I want to tell you today my not the kempfisher-guantzion the studio semester by tag laptop bücher soft handy internet as a master's real toy ah Zach you can't say the zurück oh yeah you mine's from the store you have a set but you don't know egal zauber word for lust for track make the whole thing like this store and when When they then are working, he says, "Catching"? "Cave"? "Save"? "Viso Steuja." "Holy Dangle zurück." Now, cost a loss.