What's up y'all is Drewski and I've teamed up with Mountain Dew to produce a
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Spotify, and wherever you listen to podcasts. Hello, everyone, welcome
to the latest episode of Hardwood Knocks. This is Adam Fromwill here with my
fantastic co host Dan for Valley, and today we've decided to go back to
our roots a little bit. Now, this podcast has been around for like
seven years an hour or so, with various hosts and various different iterations.
But when we originally started this, we always went in not really knowing where
the episodes were going to go, and just having a general topic and figuring
out from there. And that's what we're gonna do today, just talk playoff
basketball because there have been so many compelling series and compelling games and compelling storylines,
and we just want to hit all of them, or at least as
many as we can. Whatever we do miss, we will probably cover on
Locker Room this Sunday at four pm Eastern, just as we do every single
week. So send us questions to our Twitter dms to the NBA Math account
when we inevitably put out a solicitation for your mail bag questions, and check
it out at four pm. That out of the way. How's it going,
Dan? I am spectacular. The energy drink I'm mixed before this is
frozen because I try to get the water called by putting it in the freezer,
but apparently I left it in too long. I blame you for that,
for delaying us by like plastairs those five minutes that made it nice.
How are you doing. I'm good, I'm pretty I'm really digging that the
spider Man cup that you have there. Yeah. I have all these Marvel
like are they just called shakers? Is that what they're called? Drink mixers?
Yeah? So I have all these different Marvel themes shakers because I am
an adult and that's what. And the Marvels shirt right now? Yes,
I dude, look you see me with my hair down too. I'm like
really a mess tonight, tired, exhausted, enjoying the playoffs, though,
how are you doing? I'm the opposite. I'm like a little bit dressed
up, which is I do have a colored shirt on, which might be
the first time I've not had a T shirt on, and like, what
a year. It's a shame we haven't brought the video element to this podcast
yet because you look dapper. If I must say, no hat, I
appreciate that you dressed to them, Haroline, not even the nine. You're
dressed to the Thames. Thank you. I appreciate that. The one thing
I wanted to ask you about before, and this is playoff related your thoughts
on as we record this, it would be the past twenty four hours of
NBA fandom, someone spitting on Matt and Trey Young and Nicks fan, a
Madison Square garden, someone pouring popcorn on Russell Westbrook as he's leaving with an
injury. And then, of course, I'm sure you saw the report from
Tim McMahon of ESPN about what was said to John Morant's family at the Jazz
Grizzlies game, and it was racist, it was misogynistic. It was all
too typical, not just for Utah, for so many fan bases. And
then you have Danny Ainge saying, no players have ever he's never heard of
anything racist being said to them in Boston. Again, this happens outside of
Boston. It happens outside of Utah. The ignorance, the whether deliberate or
accidental, is off the charts. There. Then you had Marcus Smart saying
it happens all the time, and it's disturbing because we know they root for
us, and that's it's hard to hear, it's hard to reconcile. This
is gross, it's sickening, it's despicable. As I mentioned, it's also
all too typical. It happens everywhere. No fan base is immune. There
are fan bases that are worse than most. I would argue Boston and Utah
are up there. They're also I would say, look Knicks fans there.
You don't hear about the it happens. You're not gonna hear about the racist
comments as much. But they're brutal, and even a place like Philadelphia you're
channing, was it fuck Russ or whatever it was, when he's leaving with
an injury, Like, come on, he's leaving with an injury, and
how do we not understand that this is a fucking game and they're aligned,
you don't cross. And there's also look, there's the morality human element here
too, where if you're saying that and I won't even I can't even bring
myself to repeat it what we said to John Morant's father or mother, I
believe like that's racism. It's just outright flagrant racism. And there is that's
not sports, that's not prisoner of the moment. That is racism, ingrained,
entrenched racism, and it honestly grosses me out. I'm enraged that it
happens so often, so sweepingly, so comprehensively. And you know what,
because it's the playoffs, because now it's caught on video. That's why we're
hearing about it. The fact that players probably don't talk about this more publicly,
I'm sure it happens amongst themselves. It's I don't know how they don't
do that. I don't know how they operate under these circumstances. I know
they get paid a lot of money, and part of that, I guess
is to endure the criticism on social media. You're gonna have fans booing you.
Even John Morant's family said they were having back and forth with jazz fans.
Who you know, Kudos to the Philly fans that singled out the guy
that poor popcorn on RUSS. There were the jazz fans that singled out the
racist piece of shit. Great, and I still would say you remove that.
These players are still under an enormous amount of pressure. I don't care
how much money they'll make. This isn't a matter of getting soft to have
to listen to that trash talk. I would never search my name on Twitter.
Someone could tell me my article was wrong, or point out a granular
point that's incorrect or that they don't agree with, and I'd probably be in
shambles. So there needs to be more of a human element here. The
fans that are listening to this podcast, I'm assuming are not the problem.
If you are part of the problem, I don't know why you're listening to
this podcast, but it's really discouraging that all this stuff still goes on and
it's not look coming. This will be the last thing I'll say before I
throw it to you. This is not the pandemic and isolation at work.
Maybe people are more unruly because they've been inside or not been a sporting events
for so long. This was happening across the board forever. This has just
been going on. It's just crops off every once in a while where we
hear more about it. I will say, I don't remember a twenty four
hour period or so hearing as many stories as we've done right now, and
it is disheartening, even though you knew it was going on already. If
I may inject just a little bit of levity here, I will have to
say that that was the longest question I've ever been asked that didn't include a
question. Well, you were like, I watch your thoughts on this.
I'm sorry, it's just funny. I texted you was enraged. So that
was me just unloaded a second everything you had to say. I think the
only thing I would add to it is that I'm just I'm thrilled that while
all of this is going on, there is more of an acceptance of athletes
speaking out about mental health. We've seen it for a couple of years now
where guys like Demarda Rosen and Kevin Love and many others have opened up,
have opened up to the public about the struggles that they face in that area.
We've seen the younger generation of up and coming and stars be more open
with their feelings and sharing what they're thinking and what their thought process is about
so many of these things, and it's fantastic to see going to a different
sport now. Naomi Osaka just talking about how press conferences are kind of an
archaic institution. I'm sure there's like there's some merit to it, but it
feels like you're beating a horse while it's down after a bad match, you
deal with repetitive questions, You're forced to relive your worst moments over and over,
and it's just not good for mental health for some people. And it's
great to see the worldwide and sports wide embrace of that. It's not happening
universally, but it is happening, and I think that that is at least
beneficial, because, as you said, all of this is despicable and it
flies in the face of the very basic, bare minimum level of civility indecency
as fellow human beings that we should ask from people who are attending a sporting
event to be entertained by the people that they're berating like it. It's it's
baffling that it happens. But at the same time I get it because we
live in an uncivil world and the country is very polarized at the moment and
has been for quite some time. And it's it's just it's a shame,
and I don't know what the solution is. I wish that NBA teams would
just say we're permanently banning you, rather than indefinitely banning you, which has
implies redemption, which there shouldn't be. Yeah, I don't I don't know
what you do to ensure that it doesn't happen again, because it's going to.
But stronger steps and stronger actions have to be taken. Like the players
are ultimately human beings who are playing a game and getting paid a whole lot
of money to play that game. But there is no amount of money that
you can be paid. There's no amount of fame and recognition that you can
achieve that should supersede basic human decency. I can't add anything to that because
it was perfect, and I think it was smart the touch, though the
indefinitely stuff bothers me. The implication of redemption there. If you're asking whether
I think a grown adult who's hurling racial slurs at John Rand's family in front
of their child, I believe it said should be canceled. Yes, correct,
that's right. I think by canceled you mean have consequences for their behavior.
Concrete consequence is not indefinitely, And I don't know how that one was
raised. So I don't want to misspeak on the Jazz one, but the
Knicks one for sure said indefinitely. It should be permanently. There shouldn't be
a chance for redemption here because there's you know, I don't. It wouldn't
make it any better if it were a child or something. But these are
adults making decisions like you don't. I don't know what the redemption here would
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a heavy shift though, or a heavy start before we shift into basketball.
I do think, while this is going to be very off the cuff,
we should start with the three series that will be played on Friday night.
For those who will be listening to this, I'll throw it to you between
I can't I can't imagine you're at all interested in net Celtics. So between
Nicks, Hawks, Clippers, Mavericks, you can choose where we go.
I mean, we had to do Nicks Hawks right, considering we have a
Hawks fan and the Knicks fan, the fact that we're doing this podcast at
the moment while supporting each other still is a minor miracle pretending to support maybe,
yeah, we're great actors, Yeah exactly. It's been really fun.
I think that's the biggest takeaway so far is that both Game one in Game
two were really entertaining contests. I do think, and maybe I'm just biased
here, I do think that the reactions of like, we want Brooklyn after
the game to win and stuff was kind of hilarious. And I don't think
after watching these first two games that the Nicks should be that confident coming into
Atlanta. The game plan against everyone but Trey Young worked really well during Game
two, but the Hawks were white like four of twenty two from beyond the
arc, and those were good looks in catching shoot situations from the shooters that
you largely want taking those shots. And it's like the continuation of the Voodoo
Jedi defense that the Knicks played so effectively in the first portion of the season,
where we were questioning the validity of the overall defensive chops and whether there
was just going to be a start progression to the mean, And I feel
like we're going to see a little bit of that moving forward. In this
series because the Hawks offensive process has been far better than the Hawks offensive results.
Yeah, I would be totally with you there. They're not going to
and I mean they shot twelve of thirty three from three in Game two,
which is thirty six point four percent. Isn't that low, But the quality
of their looks on there felt like they think it was like four of twenty
two and a second half or something though. Yeah, and I mean,
look, the Knicks played hilicious defense in that third quarter, without a doubt.
But some of this stuff could normalize for the Knicks too, because Julius
Randol has been a non factor for pretty much all of Game one and then
a lot of Game two as well. I do agree with you that they
shouldn't be chanting. We want Brooklyn. First of all, it's gonna be
Philly or Washington in the second round anyway, if we're talking about what's literally
coming next. But I haven't seen anything that would make me think they stand
a chance against by Philly or Washington. I was trying to be courteous there,
but yes, it's it's going to be Philly. The Knicks themselves could
oh you know what it was? The Hawks did not shoot thirty six percent.
Three was twenty seven point three. I was looking at the wrong team.
They're going to shoot better from three, They're uncontested. Three point percentage
in this game was just basement low, sub basement low. Negatives. I
think, yeah, yeah, definitely negatives. I do think the Knicks offense
probably has another gear, but I've been impressed with the way that it might
has been able to defend Julius Randalls. Some of the shots he's taking are
normal shots he would make, but the normal shots he would make those are
high variants. Those are really difficult looks that he has taken this season,
and you do have to question outside Julius Randall, do the Knicks have enough
shot creation to get by? You have Derrick Rose, you have Alec Burks,
RJ. Barrett to some extent, they're there too. You're going any
big performances from at least one of them every single night, maybe you get
them. They got it from Derek Rose in Game three. This series is
I don't when you look on paper, I don't think it's evenly matched.
I don't think it's a spicy take to say that the Hawks have a lot
more talent than the Knicks, but their defense is gritty and they hustle.
The fact that they lowered the Alfred Peyton minutes by a total of three minutes
came two, he was over five. Let's see if they pan that down
even further. Also, the other thing, Reggie Bullock did a hell of
a job against Trey Young for parts of that game. I still think Frankie
la Keena should see time. Even though he was obliterated on that last play.
You can't ask him to sit on the bench for all but twenty three
seconds before that and then bring him in for nine seconds to stop Trey Young.
I will die on that hill. But again, I'm talking about how
the Knicks have a pathway to being better, and there's it's low hanging fruit
for the Hawks as well. You have to assume Danila Gallinari will probably still
continue to look like Marsine Gore Todd, but he won't shoot like him from
a long distance. That was a good line. He'll get better. Bardanovitch,
who thirteen from three and he's been critical to them navigating the non Tree
Young minutes going to be better. Lou Williams is a nightmare. DeAndre Hunter
missed like eighteen shots in a row in the third and fourth quarters. I
know John Collins was in foul trouble, but two shot attempts from him,
you know, missing all of them. That's just a wild game. I
feel more comfortable about my pick, which was Hawks and seven after the start
of the series, but this does almost feel like a if I had to
go one way. It feels like it's fate to complete, to go seven
games. But there's also the element of if there's a team that's going to
pull away out of this and turn it into a shorter series, then we
expect right now, I still have that feeling it'll be Atlanta. Yeah.
I picked the Knicks going into the series, and the first two games have
convinced me to switch that. I think I'd be pretty surprised if the Knicks
did win this series. As you mentioned, there are definitely pathways to improve
ment Julius Randall most notably, but it doesn't feel like there are as many
of those as the Hawks have. I mean, ultimately, this is a
game that was tied with a few minutes left, albeit with major runs on
both ends. The Hawks rup fifteen at one point, the Knicks rup ten,
and the fourth quarter before it was tied. But that happened in spite
of John Collins having the first scoreless game of his NBA career, all of
the shooting woes that we've mentioned, You're not going to shut down Trey Young
at this point. It's remarkable how much more in control of the offense he
is. He's always put up huge numbers, but these feel like they're coming
more naturally. He's not forcing those super deep looks, he's not committing stupid
turnovers by trying to do too much. He's very much figured it out on
the offensive end, and he's playing a little bit peskier defense than I think
the national audience has realized. He's been playing for a little bit, so
it just feels like there's more upside. And the fact that it's one and
one coming out of the two Madison Square Garden games and could have been two
in the Hawks's favor despite those struggles, I think is really encouraging for Atlanta
to maybe d this in like six Andre Young's defense. I think the Knicks
are glorifying that because they're not at first hunted mismatches, and there is,
but he hasn't been a train wreck. The whole season. I mean,
he's still been bad. He's been bad. But if I view it like
I did like Boston Celtics era Isaiah Thomas, where there were serious limitations that
we're going to always prevent him from being a good, even passable defender,
but he played passing lanes and hustled enough that he wasn't just a huge,
glaring liability every time out. My stance would be, though, did Knicks
have to get better at attacking him on defense because there shouldn't be It's criminal
that he's allowed to stand still on certain possessions on guys because they're not going
to try and go after him that that hasn't been the KNICKSMO this season.
I totally recognize that. Make it YOURMO at this point. Yeah, I
guess like the only way they're really going to do that though, is with
Derek Rose minutes or by getting trade to switch on to Julius Randall, and
the Hawks are going to do everything they can do to make sure that doesn't
happen. Yeah, there's neat Look, if you're going to put him on
Reggie Block, I guess at points then it gets to like are you not
gonna are you gonna use Reggie Block as the screener. You could absolutely use
RJ. Barrett as the screener if you wanted to. I think we're going
to see both of those things happen in Game three. But yeah, I
still you've flipped your pick. I'm still with the Hawks here, have either
of us? I had Clippers in five over Dallas. YouTube commenters were all
over me claiming I didn't want I did as well. Yeah, that's fine.
I definitely did watch the Mavericks this year and over the second half when
we knew they were better. I was still terribly off base on the pulse
of this series. La Trails zero two in this has your pick flip flopped?
Or do you still give the Clippers a legitimate chance of winning this series?
I'm gonna I'm gonna continue picking the Clippers to win the series. Ultimately,
I think that Luca don chich is fucking amazing, first and foremost.
I mean, he's going against a team with Kawhi Leonard, Paul George,
Marcus Morris, and Patrick Beverley and he's torching all of them. And that's
kind of the problem is that they've won these two games, but it has
been an enormously taxing set of affairs for Don Chich and I think he's going
to wear down a little bit. There's going to be an off game where
he'll still play like a star because he's a superstar, but they need him
to be that guy every single night. And I think the Clippers depth is
still going to give them a fighting chance in this series, but it's going
to go the distance. I'm very tempted to flip to the Mavericks in this
one. I get it like the Mavericks are better than I anticipated in this
setting, now that they have their full complement of players. You know,
Christops Porzingis has been more effective than he has been in quite some time.
Don Chich is just playing ridiculously high level basketball. Tim Hardaway Jr. Is
playing like he wants a new contract. There are a lot of positive pieces
here, more so than I expected. But I just I look at the
energy expenditures and I wonder about that for Dallas. And also the other thing
is will Tim Hardaway Junior continue to shoot two trillion percent from beyond the arc
in this series? That's a fair questions. He's fully fantastic basketball this series,
But you are right if they get to a point where they need another
shot creator. I don't know if they have it. Yeah, you have
John Brunts and even Tim Hardaway Junior can do a little bit of that.
But if you need a lot of it, if the map, if the
excuse me, if the Clippers are able to force the ball off the Mavericks
hands at all, and they could stand to play Donch it's more aggressively on
defense, They're you know, they elected to play a small lot in game
two. I don't know. Do you think that's the answer is to go
smaller. I'm not sure what the answer is against him right now. I
think you if you want to go smaller, it should be with the intent
to switch everything. And that's when you should get into minutes where you know,
maybe you don't have a real guard on the floor, is it Kali,
Marcus Morris, Paul George, but toomb and man on the court that
that would be if you're going to downsize that much. Otherwise, maybe it's
worth it to use Serge Ibaka a little bit more. I think you have
to. I mean, eighteen minutes through two games for a guy who's that
effective on defense still and who can space the floor with his shot like play.
I want to see more Terrence Man too, But I think Terrence Man
might be more important when you're looking at and they did play him fifteen plus
in game two. It might be more important if you're looking at the scope
of defending don Chitch, because with Sergebacca, I would argue he's probably less
adept in space than zoobots, and so if there is a switch, and
we've seen needless switches from the Clippers through both games, really he could get
cooked just as much as zoobots, which might be appeal of going small,
but I think at that point, like Patrick Beverley's fantastic, I don't want
to see him or Reggie Jackson match up against Luka. Donchis there and it
still does seem like there and look, I'm not the excess and no Savan,
but based off I was reading John Hollinger and then just watching the game,
like, there seems to be a lot of miscommunication going on in Los
Angeles. They definitely do with the town to get out of this. I
think the defense has clearly been their biggest issue. They're good to need more
from their supporting cast overall. Kauai was good, was great forty one points,
four assist, four of seven from three. Paul George was good,
only went one of seven from three. You need him to shoot better on
those, but he was good overall. The Marcus Morris like yet two or
five from three is technically good a disaster. Yeah, he's been buying large
not great, and especially in Game one, he really hurt them. Patrick
Beverley has been a non factor for them on offense. You need someone to
really step up here, and I don't Rondo is not, you know,
seven assistant Game two. I don't know that he's having the intended impact.
I might have I said a lot of times this season, I don't think
they need a point guard and this or conventional point guard, pure floor general,
whatever you wanted to call it. I thought that was overrated and that
one was walking that back is they probably did need a different look at point
guard, just maybe it wasn't Rondo was the archetype of player that they need.
They need someone who's both a table setter and also not afraid to shoot
or I don't want to say Rondo was afraid to shoot, but who's going
to look for their own shot too? When they're on the ball. So
it's weird that I kind of I feel like I might have underrated that aspect
of this roster construction, and yet they tried to address it, and I
think they kind of went the wrong way there. Would you, and I
don't want to relitigate this too much, would you've rather had Lou Williams or
Rondo in this series? And this obviously comes with the caw Yeah that Lou
will not playing so hot against the Knicks, I think I'd still rather have
Rondo for this team. You just it's nice to have another creator, but
they have those. I mean, there's no there's no issue for Kawhi,
Leonard and Paul George taking over games. It's the defense that has been the
biggest challenge, and Rondo's going to give you a little bit more on that
end. He's still not a great defender, especially at this stage of his
career, but he's going to give you more. What's the fallout or is
there any fallout? That's where I was That's where I was going to go.
I was gonna ask you, like, I don't know that I want
to stick to our series by series style too long. So is Kawhi or
a flight risk? I would say no because it feels like this is more
of a location thing for him, And is he gonna force like a sign
and trade to the Warriors of the Lakers unless that's on the table, which
I don't think it would be. I would assume he's back the fallout.
I would imagine if everyone else does Paul George get shopped, it's hard to
figure a more ideal partner for Kawhi Leonard then Paul George. But if if
this doesn't work and you get bounced in round one, this isn't even round
two and you aren't even leading. It's not like you blew a three to
one lead. We're like, oh, we would have been bying. It
was just an anomaly. This is gonna be everywhere you bring Serge Ibaka as
a player option. Would he be back? Do you look at trying to
trade zoobots and get like a more mobile big do you look at I think
the two things you look at and look there. Here's here's what's difficult about
their situation is it's easy to say, shot Paul George. Who are you
getting for Paul George that upgrade your roster? And there are teams you know,
I saw a theoristrom like, oh, Miami could get him, Like
you throw on tire heat Tyler Hero, Andre Goodalla's salary, go on dragases
salary. How does that make the Clippers better? They're not this team that's
looking to rebuild and so picks or a prospect like Hero is not going to
move the needle for them. That's what makes it so complicated. They might
be the ones that do something a little bit more. It's not nuclear because
I don't know if they have the assets to do that. But you do
have Beverly's money, you have the Luke Konard money. Now that extension does
not look so hot when he's not even playing DNP coach's decisions in this series.
Can you go out and get maybe an This was thrown on the Hollander
and Duncan podcast this past week. Someone mentioned like, do you use Canard
and Beverly is the basis to try and get Kemba Walker from Boston? If
Boston's just looking to trim their overall payroll, I like that might be that
might be the type of fallout we're looking at. Or you could try and
get more mobile upfront with moving on from Zubotzabaka. I don't know what options
are out there for them though, and that's what makes it so difficult.
They don't have the assets to go and make a win now swim and then
they're players that they can move like they have these digestible salaries. I don't
know how interested teams are going to be in Patrick Beverley, in Luconard and
then yes, you can even Marcus Morris on his deal, there will be
interest, But what are you getting for Marcus Morris that makes you better?
You get into the element of, oh, they're just trimming payroll, and
I'll go the Paul George stuff, like, is there what's the star for
star swap out there that could potentially make sense, you know, Paul George
for Beal, Like that might make sense for the Clippers, but doesn't make
sense for the Wizards because you're probably like Russ and Paul George, been there,
done that in Oklahoma City. So I just don't know what the move
would be. You're not doing it, but my point of me, you're
not doing it for picks and prospects that all these other teams, whether you're
the Knicks, I saw the Warriors fans getting in on this where it's like
you absolutely after Wiseman in the pick, like that's great, But the Clippers
don't want Wiseman in the pick because they have Kauai. But if they if
they did, like if they were actually looking to blow this up in a
rebuilding style, which again they shouldn't because Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, Los
Angeles Clippers. Uh you know, and you might laugh me out of the
room for this one, but you know, who's a super interesting fit next
to Paul George, next to Paul George, like on the Clippers or a
different team, on a different team, like if they're going the true rebuilding
route, Shay Guild just Alexander. That is such a great pairing, okay
with hilarious? Would it be right if Okasey's like, well, we have
more picks than we expect it now, like, let's shop a couple of
If they do move Paul George, it's probably a three team scenario right where
there's a rebuilding team that wants the picks. I think so, but I
want you to acknowledge my PG thirteen SGA Combo. I would love it would
be fun makes sense, except that the Clippers would never do it, obviously,
No, because they'd want Alexander back. Would Shay Giler's Alexander be a
better compliment to Kawai than Paul George? I actually kind of think so.
I probably agree with you. You just get more of that traditional pick and
roll element out of him, even though he wasn't doing a ton of that
in Oklahoma City. He didn't have the talent to do it. And ultimately
one of the biggest struggles the Clippers have is an inability to get to the
free throw line, and that's something that SGA can do. Yeah there,
and they can go on runs where they're because they have the Probably is he
the best guy in the league at drawing fouls on jump shots? Has to
be one of the top five in Kawhi Leonard. But yeah, there's that
problem for them. You look at they're not a team that's going to have
Rondo. You know, after the surge of Bacca injury, they got to
the rim a lot more. That hasn't necessarily held up in this series.
So yeah, there's a ton of issues. Do you think there will be?
Without getting into specifics, like we just went through the scenarios, the
two separate questions, what percentage chance would you pag of Kawhi leaving LA,
opting out, forcing a sign and trade whatever, outright leaving if they lose
the series? And two, let's say that doesn't happen, do you expect
some other kind of significant fallout or would it be more likely that they run
this back again. I think i'd put it at like twenty ish percent.
That's actually feel like he's pretty high. Yeah, I think it's got to
be a little higher than you would expect because Kauai is just notoriously inscrutable,
and I don't want to even pretend that I have any insight to what it's
thinking is now. Maybe he is tired of losing because he has won championships
with multiple franchises and experienced what it's like to be at the pinnacle of the
association, But I don't know. I have no idea, and I just
I think because one of the biggest reasons reportedly that he made the decision to
go to LA in the first place was to be closer to home and to
be playing in LA, I think it's hard to see a move happening for
actually having fallout from a loss, even if they're swept. I'm not sure
that they're really going to be able to blow it up. Maybe there would
be a desire to, but I think you're still looking more at moves around
the periphery and maybe getting rid of a certain head coach who was carried to
a title by Lebron James WHOA That is a scorching hot take, is it.
I do think d Tyron Lou done as a coach that should put him
in the upper echelon, especially to the point that you get rid of Doc
Rivers. For him, I do think he was touted for his ability to
disorder, and there's been closed door stuff under Doc Rivers in the past with
Blake Rybin and CB three. Doc Rivers has still been a little vindicated during
this Clipper series. If there's still tension behind the scenes, if we can
find out that all this stuff was still happening this year, then maybe it's
fair to reevaluate how tylu But like, how is it I get I mean
it is on him defensive in all series though, Like if somebody came to
you with Tyler's resume, what about it is standing out at this point.
I mean, he's been a pretty old it assistant in the past. Sure,
there are a lot of pretty heralded assistants who are not successful as head
coaches. Wow, that is not where I thought. Do you get rid
of him after one year? Though? And I'm assuming Kauai and Paul George
approved of him, otherwise he's not in LA right now. Yeah, I
would assume that that was the case. But if you can't mess with the
roster too much and you don't want to blow it up by trading one of
your two superstars, who's going to be the natural scapegoat? Probably probably Rondo,
yeah, I get it. Maybe Marcus Morris, Yeah, he'll be
one of the natural ones. Yeah. I mean, I'm not trying to
put down Tyler's coaching acumen or anything like that. Like, as you said,
he does have a lot of success as an assistant coach, which I
just kind of think he was in Cleveland. That's fair. I am just
I guess I can't imagine anything happening because it's year one, but I guess
Nate Yorkin is about to get fired in Indie. So think about someone like
Ron Adams, right, who was just massively successful as essentially a defensive coordinator
on coaching staffs, but there was never any speculation that he was going to
become a head coach because there are so many fantastic basketball coaches like Tyron Lou
who are great in the second chair. I genuinely don't mean this as an
insult to Lou. I think it's going to come across that way. I
just I'm not sure that he's the guy you want in the head coach role
to take a team like this to a title, because ultimately, like Kawhi
Leonard and Paul George are not vocal leaders, the Clippers have had chemistry issues.
You look at this roster on paper and it should consistently be so much
better than it is. There is just an overabundance of talent on paper.
See I think the more so two things. I think Tyler has done stuff
for them on offense, where the ball has definitely moved more for stretches,
it's still can bog down than it did Underdoc Rivers if he doesn't adjust more
defensively, like figuring out how to just you either have to force the ball
out of Luca's hands, be quicker with the doubles that you're sending, or
say, you know what Kawai on Luca whole game. No switching done.
That's that's what I would do. I mean, I think you're in that
territory. You could because the argument's fair. He does so much on offense,
you want him to do that on defense. Despite Paul George saying they're
not concerned, the answer is yes, you were at that point, yep.
I think the bigger flaw is relying on the coach to be that voice
we're talking about in the locker room and they don't have a guy on the
roster. I know Serge did it in Toronto. He also had Kyle Lowry.
That chemistry. He had Gasol there too, Like the chemistry within that
locker room was off the chart. You had a multiple guys. And then
Rondo has always sort of been a It seems like teammates really enjoy playing with
him and he's his IQ is through the roof. But I don't know if
he's the right player to come in and you him and Sergeibaka and Taylu clashing
heads. That's going to send the wrong message you openately need. I would
say, you know a bunch of Jared Dudley's in your locker room or channing
for eyes whatever, or you need a marquee player yep, and Surge just
isn't that. Rondo isn't even that at this point, and that is the
bigger issue to me. I don't think that can be on Lou specifically.
That feels like the organization setting him or even Doc Rivers up to fail a
little bit. And I'm not trying to look Kawai and Paul George are both
spectacular all NBA players. I do think Kawai is great on both ends of
the ball. But this if we hear another offseason of like a locker room
that he's basically at the forefront of, it's sort of in shambles. The
whole Lebron versus Kawahi conversation was officially ridiculous and never should have taken place.
But That's where I'm looking at, and so can you do something to improve
the chemistry of this team? But it comes back to what you said.
I would vote against seismic changes just because I can't fathom what those would be
unless Kawhi Paul George says that they want out and forced the Clippers hands,
which is again why I think it's just a little bit more likely that you
do see that after one year coaching change, and just to be as explicitly
clear as I can be, like, I'm not saying that Tyler is a
big problem for the Clippers. He's done a lot of good things. He's
more of a neutral in my mind, and that's why I think it's likely
that he's replaced because I'm not sure that he does enough to elevate the team.
But again, like if that came across as me trying to bash Tyler's
coaching ability, like my apologies, and that is not the intent. I
don't want to spend too much time on Celtics nets. Boston will losing four
exactly, I think it's the plan. Is it still a poet who we're
watching? It feels like it is there a fallout here for Boston once they
get swept. No, not with Jaylen Brown out, not with Jason Tatum
poked in the eye, and maybe not totally one hundred percent. I don't
think there should be because this is not It hasn't been the team that it
should have been all year because the top seven players I don't have they played
one game together this season, and it hasn't even been like I'm serious.
I don't think. I don't think the top seven rotation members have played a
single game together, even like they go seven. It hasn't even been It
hasn't even been like one season ending injury because Jalen Brown's happened so late in
the campaign. It's just been this steady stream of COVID nineteen related absences and
health and safety protocols and minor injuries and more serious injuries that take a month
to recover from. And we just haven't seen the Boston Celtics that were advertised
through some fault of their own, but not through all fault of their own.
And we're still not seeing we're seeing an even more diminished version now.
So I don't think there should be a coaching change. I don't think that
there should be massive roster turnover and upheaval like this is still a really good
team when all the pieces are there. So I'm going to disagree with you,
I think pretty significantly here. I don't put this on coaching. I
don't even put it on the players. It's Danny Ains the front office.
They really try to be for the rest of this put they messed this up.
And so I think the fallout is they have set themselves back years because
you don't have a move after this the Kemba contract. I love Kemba Walker.
I would take a bullet for Kemba Walker. Two years and seventy three
million dollars left, that's not eminently movable right now. He has been unspectacular
in the playoffs. What do you do? What's the move You're going to
be by virtue of having Kemba, Jalen Brown, kemb on a Max Jalen
Brown on a near Max Jason Tatums Max kicks in next year, you still
have Tristan Thompson on the books. Marcus Smart, you're going to be in
the tax or awfully close to it for next season. And you're not getting
you know, you're not. You don't have the assets to go out there
and do anything because you can build stuff around Marcus Smart if you want to.
But like these these picks have now conveyed into players, and I think
Nie Smith and pretty have shown that they're interesting. They're not like these super
goot members. Yeah, they're not like these super tantalizing prospects that can anchor
a blockbuster. Romeo Langford has not played enough to reach that and has the
injury concerns. Grant Williams like the liners with him at the five, they
can be like a little bit fun, but he's underachieved relative to expectations and
how smart people believe he was. You have Robert Williams. That's great.
He is, It's more than great. Come on, here's the thing.
The value of big men who don't shoot or put the ball on the floor.
Yeah, they're His passing is better than and I look his one on
one defense feels like it's gotten a lot better. He's extension eligible this summer,
and so that drives down the value of someone you have to reinvest in.
What is the move? And so it's either you ride this out with
a team that unless both Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown make leaps into being top
ten players, I don't see a pathway to them being contenders. Now.
It's a matter of so waiting it out in which case you're not going to
win a title for the next year or two, or can you go out
and make a move. And I think if they do make a move,
it's going to be cost cutting where it's oh, we dumped Kemba, what
did you get back if you got Patrick Beverly and Luke Kennard back for Kemba
Walker. Let's say that's the framework. You don't get better, you don't
you got. I do think this offseason we're gonna see Danny Ainge make a
ton I repeat a ton of almost transactions. The least spiciest take. That
bit will never get old. By the way, I never people get mad
on Twitter whenever I pointed out I do not care. That is the funniest
thing to me. I something if they want to be good or if they
want to be title contenders, I think they're at least two years away because
that aligns with some of the contracts. The other interesting thing here is you
could sign Marcus mart to an extension, and I know people still have him
as a one way player. I think he does have a little bit more
to offer on offense. It doesn't really matter, but he's at fourteen point
three million next season, not underpaid. Is that. I don't know if
that's enough of a number to extend him at because one twenty percent of that
is what you're looking at it as eighteen million. I guess maybe you cork
off an extension from there so you have to worry about his free agency in
twenty twenty two. You're at a process where you could just be staying expensive.
They really screwed up a window of opportunity here. I think the biggest
misses. I mean you look at you lost Kyrie Irving, Gordon Hayward,
al Horford and they all turned into Evan Fournier and what's left to that trade
exception. Essentially that's I won't put all of that on Danny Age. Clearly
something was amiss with the Kyrie Irving stuff, and the team has to be
to blame to some extent for that. The al Horford thing, I don't
think anyone's regarding them for not matching that contract. The Gordon Hayward ones,
that's the big one, because you ended up getting a trade exception which you
turned into Evan Fournier for that, If you could have had Miles Turner and
a first it sounds like that was the deal. Because here's here's what that
does. Not only does it give you Miles Turner and maybe you think he's
fodder for Joell Eenbid, I don't care everyone's fodder for Joell Eenbid. It
also means you don't sign Tristan Thompson. You used your best spending tool physical
spending tool last year on Tristan Thompson and you ended up giving away giving away
Daniel Tys, who's better than Tristan Thompson. You have our W three,
so that's gives you some cover, but it had you had Miles Turner.
You have daniel Tye. You have our W three. Still, the center
rotation is better, and who knows who you signed with that midlevel exception,
then you probably use it on a player who's not Jeff Tigue and a better
ball handler there. Danny Ainge and the front office. I'm trying not the
curse again for this podcast because I was so heated at the beginning of it.
They messed up big time, and I think it's set the Celtics back.
You know, if we include this year a total of two or three
years, it's not more, but it's harrowing, but it's also accurate,
right, Yeah, I mean I agree with all of what you're saying there.
My only rebuttal is that I think we need a better nickname for Robert
Williams than Timelord or r W three. Yeah, Timelord, Like I don't
know it just doesn't really like flow off the tongue. Maybe that's a hot
take, is dumb. It kind of mocks him, does it not because
he overslept or had a problem with punctuality. He's so fun he and there
needs to be like a good nickname for well, Okay, how do you
feel about boo butt because that's listed on Basketball Reference. Yeah, that's how
I feel. I'm sorry, I'm here for boo butt because that's so just
off the wall. I would like to know the origin story for that one,
if anyone has the boobt origin story. One of my fav because,
you know, I think as I've gotten older and had to do so much
different stuff in the league, I've fallen off. Like I only just found
out after the Raptors Blazers trade about Norman Powell's dogs, I'm not as in
tune with the cultural like the pop culture stuff of the d NBA. So
I love going to Basketball Reference and like so even I think it was a
few months ago I went to Jayson Tatum's page and saw that he had the
nickname Taco J. And I didn't know that, did you? He doesn't
have that nickname? Oh, he doesn't. Let me double check. No.
I mean, I'm sure that it's listed there, because everything's listed there.
But I think, like I think, and I could be totally off
base here, but I believe that Basketball Reference adds those if they're like called
it once in a column by like a local paper or by an announcer or
something. So you get a ton of just one off ones that obviously they're
not being called out with any semblance of frequency. Yeah, it is listed
there, though, but there are some great ones like shout out to Big
Penguin, Andre Drummond and stuff like that. And Marcus Smart actually has I
don't know that he's called these, but Cobra and Wolverine those are like I
like those, Yeah, I guess, but like I've literally never heard those
used. Okay, the last Celtics guy who is the best NA don't is
never Google. I actually had an Evan Fourier tweet go off about googling the
other night. Jalen Brown needs a better nickname, JB an old man.
That's it. JB is fine. Actually I don't mind that one. Like
if you called Jason Tatum j bye, j oh, yeah, that's fair
in our text, you guys, Jacob Burne. We will never bestow your
nickname upon someone else. So we need a better name for Robert Williams.
I think we need a better name for Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown. I'm
fine with the Marcus Smart ones. I'll let those stand. I don't know
that Jaylen Brown needs one. There's something about like there are some names we
just don't need a nickname, like Steph Curry, Lebron James. You don't
need nicknames there. I feel like Jaylen Brown is just a really good superstar
basketball name. Kemma Walker is a great superstar bass Kemba and Cardiac is actually
also a good nickname. By the way, I agree, and that was
that dates all the way back to Yukon. That is a legit nickname.
Anyway, Let's move on to a couple other teams before we wrap up here.
Heat Bucks. So, holy crap, the Bucks are now five and
one against the Heat this season. Can you guess Milwaukee's average margin of victory
in those five wins. It's gonna be like seventeen point two points. You
got the decimal right, It's twenty five point two. Wow. Jimmy Butler
didn't play in any of the regular season games, so he's absent two of
those victories. They have still been absolutely slaughtered. During the playoffs. He
really turned it up in or turned to I should say he turned it up
more. It wasn't his best game that we've seen him play. In Game
three seven to seventeen, it felt like he was being more aggressive. Two
or four from three is a great night for him. What is going on
with bam Atabio on this year? He might have had the quietest seven of
fourteen seventeen point eight rebound, four assist night, one block once I've ever
seen. Yeah, I think it's a testament to him that he's still putting
up those numbers while totally disappearing. But it definitely feels like he's totally disappeared.
I just I want to see him. I don't like oversimplifying it to
this and there's other stuff. The Bucks defense has just absolutely been wild.
Let's make that clear, Like, I need to see bam Atibi. I'll
get more than three looks at the bat and he was five of eight on
twos outside the restricted area and still inside the paint. But oh of three
from two's outside the paint. I've said over and over that I don't want
him to be more aggressive. This is not what I meant. Man,
Please stop that. You I pushed back against this, but you know what,
I'm there. Have him run more pick and roll at this point,
do something else with Jimmy Butler to maybe get him moving. I don't know
what they do, are they? The two questions are will they get swept?
And what's the fallout for them? That one's tougher because they hinge so
much of their hopes in this upcoming free agency class that has dwindled and dwindled
and dwindled. My favorite thing to think about is Jannis waiting on purpose for
free agency to play out last year before signing his extension, so that it
messed with the futures of all the teams that were waiting on him. Could
buy that, but yeah, I mean, I just Miami feels like it's
stuck waiting until a superstar are is legitimately available via trade, whether that's Karl
Anthony Towns as weird of a combination as he and vam Adebayo would be,
or the classic Bradley Beal example, or some unknown player who hasn't yet asked
for a trade but might but it doesn't feel like they have any paths other
than that because they're not going to have much draft capital. This free agency
class is garbage relative to previous ones, and this roster just isn't going to
work. I mean, I think we're now realizing just how accurate Jason Tatum's
comment about some players like Tyler Hero being products of the bubble environment and not
necessarily playing like this on a more regular basis. This guard, this guard
rotation is a mess. Goran Dragicich is not himself anymore. He's not going
to be himself given the advanced nature of his age. Tyler Hero is not
going to be a star. Kendrick Nunn is not going to be a star,
and that is a significant problem when you have Jimmy Butler, who,
as great as he is, is a go to scorer. That's not his
natural role. Bam Autobio is not a go to scorer, and that just
necessitates even stronger guard play that they don't have, and they don't have a
path too. Yes, everything you said one hundred times over, Yes they
are what they're saving grace. I don't know how much cap space will matter
this summer because of how you point it out. But they have a path
to you know, getting more than twenty million in cap space while still carrying
holds for Duncan Robinson. I would renounce. Maybe you don't renounce Kendrick Nunn,
but I just don't know what his material value as his team are you
going after like Rashaun Holmes, like, who what's the play with that Max
money? Yeah? I worry that that still mess them up even more because
they're going to overpay someone. It's not going to be Max money because of
it's just not it's under it's it's barely over twenty million. Giving Bam the
extension kind of took them out of the Yanna sweepstakes. You would always figure
out a way to get them, make that clear we're going to sign and
trade or something, but they're not gonna have Max money. I think the
reason you spend on someone this year is just because you can't afterwards, because
I'm assuming they're not going to let Duncan Robinson walk, and I'm assuming Duncan
Robinson gets more than Davis Burton's did probably, so you know, maybe they'll
be in the Kui mix. They'll probably in the Kyle lowrymix. You spend
that money just because it's not going to be available to you if you're planning
on keeping Duncan Robinson. The one thing I want to push back on and
Tyler Hero has been underwhelming this year, to put it kindly verging, and
he's been bad in this series. I don't understand why people can't look past
the report that the Heat wouldn't give him up into James Harden trade because the
jokes are funny, but I'm starting to see that people really believe that that
was a real stance when I think what was happening, and pretty clearly by
the way, there were so many other moving parts that the Heat couldn't get
to. Yes, they could figure out the salary matching because of those contracts
for Dragics and Andre Goodala. They had a link at the time too.
They figured out a way to get Oladipot's money there, so like there would
have been a way to do that, but they just didn't have the pig
e need to beat out Phillies offer or we're turned out to be the Nets
offer. Do you think that Houston would have done whatever Miami could have offered.
They would have had to mood some stuff around for picks you're probably looking
at two first and Tyler Hero plus salary filler and maybe precious a chewa whatever.
Are they doing that deal over what Philly had on the table, which
was Ben Simmons and mystery Box after that, or what they got from the
next No, And so if you're the heat, you might as well just
put the idea to bed and say you're not going to include Tyler Hero so
that it doesn't have him. Could be a leverage play as well, like
if you think that you're close, then you could be trying to make them
cave a little bit, because there's always that leverage sign and song and dance
and play. So I don't I don't really buy that narrative at all.
I don't, and I think had they had the assets to actually get hardened,
because I don't think and I think they know that Tyler Hero wasn't going
to get him even if you did view him as the second coming of Devin
Booker is the comp that I've seen, which I never really saw it.
But anyway, let's say Houston assume that that's what he was. That's not
getting you James Harden alone. They just didn't have the other moving parts and
so that is the second thing I wanted to cover there. But I do
think there will be fallout in Miami in the form of I think that they
will be aggressive in free agency with Kyle Lowry. Maybe they even try and
get meetings with Chris Paul if he opts out. They'll definitely try and be
in in a Kauai if he opts out. They'll probably spend the money smaller
scale too, and I wouldn't be surprised to see to maybe try and chase
more trades. With Tyler Hero being more widely available, his value has obviously
created. Though here's the thing. Ultimately Miami is about to be swept out
of the playoffs. Maybe they win one game and then go down in five
games. They don't have many pathways to improvement unless a star becomes available and
they really favor whatever offer is thrown out there by pat Riley in the heat.
And if you look up and down this roster, the only people I
see who I think have even a remote chance of making an All Star team
are Bam Auto Bio and assumed thirty two year old Jimmy Butler. I don't
think there's anyone else on the roster that has all Star upside. I would
agree with you there. That's a huge issue. I think I think the
Heat are just stuck. And maybe it's weird to say about a team that
just made the finals a year ago, but that was also strange circumstances,
benefiting from some fortuitous happenings, didn't go well in the finals, and we've
seen the fallout now, and I just I don't see like they're even With
the Clippers, I think you can piece together a path to something better.
I don't even know what they constructed, you mean, right, Yeah,
I just I don't even know where to start with Miami. Are they Are
you stuck when you have bam Ade Bio, Jimmy Butler and Cap Space?
Were you? I think? So you want to get a third star?
Yeah? I really hate the mentality that every team should be championship or bust.
I think the teams that make the playoffs after years of struggles should be
able to celebrate those accomplishments. I think that the idea that rings are the
only things that really matter, and that every team should either be the worst
team in the league or a true championship contender, I think those ideas are
corrosive to the overall quality of the league and do not reflect well on what
we as a society value. But the Heat are still stuck in that upper
tier of mediocrity for the time being. I think, and like, if
that's okay with you, great, Like, let's celebrate those teams that are
consistently good and don't want to tear it down, which is also not to
discredit those who do want to tear it down. But no matter what philosophy
the Heat organization adheres to, I just don't see the path forward. And
that's something I don't think you can say about any other team where it's like,
if they want to be rebuilders, I don't know what they do because
you're still Are you getting that much for Jimmy Butler at this stage of his
career enough to facilitate a true teardown? I don't think so. Well.
I was gonna say it does get interesting because he turns thirty two in September
and will be a free agent after next year if he declined this player offer,
which I imagine he will. I still don't think they're stuck, but
I get your overarching point. That definitely makes sense. There's they're clearly not
at the level that we thought they were in the bubble. I don't.
I do think a lot of this is a testament to the Milwaukee It's just
a lot different and having true holiday stretches. I also a mistake from Miami.
You should have brought Jay Crowder back. You could have if you needed
the space later. I'm a very big advocate of get the space later when
you need it. Jay Crowder would have been monstrous for this team. They're
just stretched so thin on defense. Now. That's not to say though,
had they gone up against Philly, have they got up against someone else in
the first round Atlanta, New York, if they still wouldn't have necessarily gotten
beat But I yet, I don't think they're that stuck. Because you have
you think bam Adebayo should be a top ten player. There's a chance,
there's a chance that he and Jimmy Butler's windows a line to the point where
they're both top fifteen players next year. You're not stuck when you have that
in cap space and Duncan Robinson. I am very interested to see what happens
with him, because you have to have a little bit. I don't think
anything that he's done. He shot a little worse this year, but it
was still over forty percent, and the level of difficulty on his attempts is
wild, and defenses are more keyed in on him now that they know what's
going on with Duncan Robinson. I think he probably gets between fifteen and eighteen
million a year. Yeah, I think you're probably right, and are you?
If the Heat don't pay that, that's when we start thinking, Okay,
well what's going on here? There feels like there's something more at play.
But I do agree with you. The path forward now is because what
the the question of what do you do now? I think it's harder than
ever, but I don't I think there are options on the table. If
they wanted to tear it down, they could if they want to make a
minor swing Tyler Hero and then you have the Goren deal, you have Andre
Goodalla's team option. I don't know who you can get with that, even
if you're attaching a very distant first round pick. I wouldn't be too surprised
to see Kemba in a Heat jersey next year. But that might be.
That's the thing that might be the play, and that's not you know they
could do that is to push this team over the top. Move though,
if Kemba's Kemba, Yes, Kemba's thirty one and has been on the decline
for a little bit and has a long history of knee injuries. Now the
knee injuries, yes, was he's he was still really good for really good.
But that doesn't mean he wasn't declining with no no this year he was,
he was not great. I'm saying I'm not ready to count him out
off of what I too love Kenba, and I'm appreciative. I'm very appreciative
of you toning down what you were about to say and going with not great.
I saw that hesitation in your eyes. The other thing that they have
here is I don't know if he's slated to play next season with his injury,
but they still have Victor Roll of Deeple on the books. And is
the path forward he gets healthy and hits. I don't it's not a viable
path forward, but like and maybe they'll finish with the fourteenth best record next
year and get the number one pick in the draft. Like we're throwing out
likely scenarios, right. I think the last thing we need to talk about
is there's really nothing to glean from Philly in Washington? Is there gonna Beny
fallout once Washington loses the Bradley Beal's future is going to get interesting because I
don't I know, he said he wants to stay there, and I'm not
a fan of putting words in players mouths, but with free agency coming up
after this year, the front office has to at least have the conversation with
him and be realistic about where it is. Because Russ and Bradley Beale and
Davis Berton's they're taking up most of your cap What are the improvements here?
Rudy hot Chimore has gotten better this year? You have Denny Denny avdal Was.
I think he's better. He's obviously not playing right now, but I
thought he was better than expected this year. Do you have a clear path
forward in the imminent future to be a fringe contender? I don't know that
that conversation heats up until around the trade deadline. I still think they just
try and run it back with because Russ wasn't healthy. He was playing through
a torn quad this year. The series I really wanted to talk about before
we wrap up Memphis Utah it's been surprisingly fun. Yeah, fully press for
sure. They are way friskier than I think anyone anticipated. John Morant talk
about a star turn, he could just get anything he wanted during Game two
and just a joy to watch. Yeah, it feels like he's another player,
where like Deer and Fox a few years ago, Trey Young right about
now like it just it's noticeably slowing down for him, which is pretty terrifying
given his speed and hops. They're super fun, but I don't really expect
this to be that competitive of a series going forward. I don't really expect
John Morant to be able to replicate a forty seven point game. Donovan Mitchell
is only going to get further integrated into this rotation, and Utah is still
just a machine when all of its pieces are there. Like if you send
any sort of help on a pick and roll, Mike Conley or Donovan Mitchell
is going to find the open guy and they're going to make the shot or
swing for an even easier one. This offense, in particular, is a
machine, and the Grizzlies, much like basically every other team in the NBA,
don't really have a way to play. Rudy Gobert off the court that
I looked. The other thing they're picking role of defensing game through was not
existing. Not just bad, it didn't exist the look. I think it
was encouraging. Dono Mitchell. The performance he had, you could tell the
timing was sort of off, and even just looking at his passes like still
getting his feel back. But for a first game after missing a month plus
in the playoffs against the defense like the Grizzlies important. I wonder if it
was Mike Conley's sort of injury problems last year blessing in disguise were didn't play
as much, and now he's just so freaking fresh and fifteen assists, fifteen
assists, he's so good. They were like pin point. This was not
like, all, since we're complimenting Utah, I'll throw out in Utah comparison.
This was not like patting the stat books with John Stockton assists. I
thought you said we were complimenting Utah. I know, and I and then
I said that I could afford to make that paris a little when revicerated one
of their fans just at the earlier of this podst Mike Conley floater game was
just on point, though in that game. Sorry is it? I forgot
to turn the volume off on a video that was next to the shot chart
that I was looking at. Five of nine on two's outside the restricted area,
but inside the paint, five of not five of ten overall on just
two's outside of the restrict area. Still just so good. And I think
I know it's only the Grizzlies, but I think my impressions where I thought
Utah might be. I don't want to say a paper tiger, but I
wasn't. I didn't think they were gonna win the title. And I still
they're not my pick. They're probably more threatened. Still pick that's if they
win the Tiger, you're gonna look awfully good. They're Rudy Gobert is just
dominant. They don't. There's just no what is and what is the team
that can defend Rudy Gobert. Maybe the Lakers if they face the Clippers in
the next round, by the way, they're gonna chew through them with the
way that the Clippers have been defending Dan. I just love that sentence though,
that you've said, how can they defend Rudy Gobert? Because he is
that good on offensive? Well, and I get him all the time,
right, I get why people don't like him all the time because he does
slop. It was it was bad? Oh yeah, it was terrible,
And he does that fairly frequently. You know, the whole touching all the
microphones and shutting down, the whole NBA things and some of the comments that
he's made. Like, I understand why he rubs people the wrong way,
but there is not enough appreciation for just how good he is on both ends
of the floor. And it's about way more than the screen assists, which
you know a lot of people like to make fun of even though they're valuable.
He's a deadly roll man. He's a good offensive rebounder. He is
a very underrated passer. Again, the screens are really impactful. He's so
good on the offensive end despite not scoring that much, he can completely control
the game and still score. Yeah that the Jazz are. They are a
threat, and their path to the let's say, the Western Conference finals at
least looks a lot rosier now because I still think that they I don't know
that they're defending Don Chich will be a problem for them, but like the
Mavericks, defending them might actually be harder than them defending the Clippers right now,
and if they do, for some reason face the Clippers who came back
with the way that LA has defended, They're gonna be minced meat for Utah.
If you was a top five offense all year long, and even forget
that, even when their offense has been bad in playoffs passed not not so
much last year, but Mitchell's first two seasons in the league, they were
still generating really high quality shots. That's what their offense does. Now.
It's just you have so many guys who are going to knock them down.
Between Boyabodanovitch, between Mike Conley, between Joe Ingles, Donovan Mitchell, even
if someone has an off night, there's just like, yeah, there's I
think there's a limit to their real shot creation. Donovan Mitchell is so important
to them to do that, even when you have Conley and Boyabodanovitch and Ingles,
but there's just always gonna be someone else who's making threes anything else you
have. If if people want to hear more about the Grizzlies, we did
do a deep dive in our previous podcast about where they sort of go from
here and get to that next level. That that's certainly worth listening to.
I think it was towards the end of our past podcast. We don't want
to get into any of the other series because they all are two of them
are happening as we speak, and we don't want to date this too hard.
What else are you who? Really? What are you watching for the
rest of the first round? What are you most intrigued by? And why
is it the implosion of the Clippers. I think it's the Knicks Hawks series
and the Clippers Maverick series. I'm assuming that Denver, Portland and Phoenix Los
Angeles Lakers are still off limits because they're currently in progress. Yeah, you
could say that you're still going to watch them. I just hope if we
could get like a full st a seventy five percent CP three performance in Game
four yea, to make this a series. It's that I had sons in
seven. I'll stand by that pick. But Chris Paul some really tough breaks
in the playoffs these past few years, from getting destroyed by Josh Smith in
the fourth quarter with when he was with the Clippers, to the hamstring injuries
with Houston, whatever the hell ended up happening in Houston that following year to
now, this really just blows. But I'm not kind of phoenix out yet.
Just makes that's the series I'm really watching. I was probably most intrigued
by it to begin with, and then Knicks Hawks obviously, well we'll be
somebody to watch the Clippers for the car crash theory. You can't look away.
But I see my pick. I'm not changing my pick yet. Maybe
that's dumb. I totally get. I'm not changing my clippers in five pick
either. I'm sticking with clippers in five. It's not looking good, says
the other guy who picked the Clippers in five. Oh, you had them
in five too, I don't remember it was either five or six. If
it's six, your picks at least still alive. That makes you feel any
better? Yeah, for now, this was fun. If you guys have
not subscribed to us wherever you get your podcast hey, and you're listening to
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but go follow them until next time. We leave it to shout out to
the one. The only I'm doing this for Adam because he's been championing him
as a fantastic offensive player for so long. Soon to be Defensive Player of
the Year. Rudy Gobert, Sugar Ray, Leonard, Roberto Duran, Marvelous,
Marvin Hagler, and Thomas Hearns legends whose four way rivalry define one of
the greatest errors in boxing history, relive their decade of dominance in the new
Showtime Sports documentary The Kings, a four parts series premiering Sunday, June sixth,
only on Showtime