Hello everyone, and welcome to the latest surely one of the most ridiculous episodes
of Hardwood Knox. This is Adam fromwil here with my fantastic co host Dan
fa Valley, and it has been one of the most ridiculous basketball days that
I can remember. It started off with some unexpected news that Kawhi Leonard of
the Los Angeles Clippers had suffered an unspecified ACL injury that will most likely knock
him out for at least the duration of this series against the Utah Jazz.
Then we learned about Chris Paul entering the COVID nineteen protocol and probably missing some
of the Western Conference Finals that the Phoenix Suns have already advanced to. Then
Scott Brooks was unsurprisingly let go by the Washington Wizards, and then stan Van
Gundi was far more surprisingly let go by the New Orleans Pelicans. And we're
recording this shortly after the Atlanta Hawks completed a twenty six point comeback against the
Doc Rivers. Is I mean the Philadelphia seventy six ers. So I think
we had to start there, right, Dan, just because that was just
a wild, unexpected game. Just quickly on your recap did you get that
Donnie Nelson's no longer with the Dallas Mavericks. No, I knew I was
going to forget something, because what a day that was before twelve pm Mestern
time was out of control. I woke up a little bit later than normal.
We just installed some like room darkening blinds in our bedroom, so I
slept in a little bit more than usual, and there was just this deluge
of news as soon as I woke up. I'll be letting Sportscasting know that
you decided to sleep in on their dime. But yeah, did we have
to start with? I mean, also the doc reversing Chris Paul being dealt
like playoff blows at essentially the same time. Just this is all it's too
much taking. But yeah, hawk sixers Philly leads by as much as twenty
six they were they had a twenty didn't they have a twenty point lead going
into the fourth quarter? Was it eighteen? What was the lead heading into
the fourth in this it was a lot of points, that's fair. It's
all kind of blurned together because again we're we're doing this so quickly after But
I think it was eighteen based on my quick math because the Hawks won the
fourth quarter forty to nineteen for a three point win. Yeah, so that's
a huge and the impetus was a combination of maybe the Sixers tried to steal
too much sign without dwell and beat on the court, plus Lou Williams going
absolutely nuclear. Lou Williams was a plus thirty one in a three point victory.
That says a lot. I'm always reticent to cite individual plus minus,
especially on a single game basis, but that says a lot. He just
went nuclear. I mean he and Seth Curry we're trading buckets during the fourth
quarter. He didn't make any mistakes. He played the entire last fifteen minutes
or so of the game and was just unbelievable. I don't how do you
feel about that? And look, Trey Young was good. Thirty nine.
That was like the most casual thirty nine points ever, a ten of twenty
three shooting. He was seventeen of nineteen at the foul line, which was
huge for him. John Collins made some really big plays down the stretch.
That huge block you're talking about his recovery there on the block, him block
and beat who do you blocks? Harris? He should have taken the corner
three pointer down that possession. Gallo with that dagger two down the stretch.
He still looked at signing is going to be if a long term but the
like that he can do that still point is my point. It's unbelievable how
many takeaways I feel like we can have from this game, just between the
Lou Williams explosion, Trey Young just continuing to cement himself as an absolute stud
whose resume is just not going to be questioned after this this postseason run,
however long it lasts. Seth Curry thirty six points, I'm thirteen of nineteen
shooting, continuing to just torch the Hawks and operate us so much more than
Justice bought up guy, and he's quickly becoming one of the most underrated contracts
in the NBA, the biggest value contracts in the league. Ben Simmons,
you know, I've been a staunch Ben Simmons defender from the start, really,
but it's tough to have a point of attack guard who shot four or
fourteen from the free throw line and was getting hacked and they had to keep
the ball out of his hands because the Hawks were trying to climb back from
that twenty plus point deficit, only took four field goal attempts in a close
playoff game, and per stat Muse, among players in a single playoff run
who have taken at least fifty free throw attempts, he now has the second
worst free throw percentage in a playoff run thirty two point eight percent, which
only beats Ben Wallace in two thousand and six, who was at twenty seven
point three percent. I think I've been hesitant to engage in this conversation because
the amount of defensive flexibility Ben Simmons brings the transition offense, his ability to
serve as a brilliant passer and a quality cutter. To me, it often
supersedes the very obvious works in his game, But those are just becoming more
and more pronounced, and I feel like this game in particular could be used
as the start of a bigger conversation about the validity of having him as a
part of the Sixers core. Is that too hot? Takey coming off this
game? No, because it's clear that he and Joel Embiid work, but
this is untenable during the postseason. It's not a he and Joel Embiid thing.
It's a Ben Simmons thing at this point. And like you already mentioned,
he wound up missing ten free throws in Game five four fourteen, and
there's you know, when you're looking at free throw percentages, you can really
quibble over how many points you're really leaving on the board. Twenty eight point
six percent and fourteen attempts is a problem. And when you're only taking four
shots too throughout the game and you don't have range beyond that, which we
need the Ben. This was always lazy discord, but you can't want Ben
Simmons to take threes when he can't make stand still, wide open free throws.
That can't be a thing at this point. And if Philly loses this
series, the Ben Simmons trades will have to be looked at, and the
natural targets will be the Ben Simmons CJ. McCollum structure will be visited,
I'm sure, or Ben Simmons for Bradley Beal. I don't know which way
you go. McCullum feels more likely, just because if you are Washington,
and I'm not trying to downplay Simmons's value under contract for another four more years
and he's you know, defensive player of the year quality. He is only
twenty four turns twenty five in July. If you're Washington, is that who
you want to begin you're rebuild around. I'm not even considering the fit with
Russell Westbrook because there isn't one. I just don't think you weigh that if
you're thinking longer term, because Russell Westbrook is not the future either. It
just you probably need to give up. My point would be other stuff to
get Bradley Beale, whereas CJ. McCullum, maybe there's a chance Portland has
to send you back something else at this point, though, when you look
at the is it fair to call the liability that he's become on offense?
Maybe that's straight. Let's relay what happened during the closing men into this game.
We were watching together, you know, we were on Skype and we're
streaming the game through the watch dnt app and kind of talking through it together,
and both of us when the Sixers had the ball down three or four,
I can't remember, with twenty one seconds left, we didn't think that
Simmons was going to be back on the court after a time out was called
because he's not going to shoot a three. He can't touch the ball or
else Atlanta is going to foul him immediately. So that in and of itself,
I think is a huge indication of just how much of a perceived liability
he's become. He was still on the floor for that possession. It didn't
work, but he was on the floor. I'm more intrigued by the Portland
framework, though, because I do like the idea of pairing him with Damian
Lillard. That's something that Philadelphia doesn't have that Washington doesn't have unless he's playing
with feel, which is that dominate, dominant point of attack creator who can
pull up and create his own looks and shoot from all over the floor.
Embid is a terrific offensive talent, but that's not what he is. Right.
Here's where it would get interesting. Do you think that Phillies defense,
because it was built on elite you know, they're built on elite defense as
well, doesn't sustain the loss of going from a Ben Simmons to a CJ.
McCollum. That is a big ass difference. And Ben Simmons is somebody
who you can just put on. We can talk about how rim protectors are
probably or definitely inherently more impactful defensively. But to have that guy in Ben
Simmons, who you can put on anybody that you want and know that he's
going to make a difference. Losing that is tough and it feels necessary because
you need the greater optionality, versatility, whatever on offense. It's just that's
a huge drop off. You go from Ben Simon's a Bradleybilly, you go
from Ben Simon's the CJ mccoum. It doesn't matter. That is just such
a massive drop off on defense. I'd be curious whether I think the Sixers
would have a better fitting roster, but I don't know how much it elevates
them. And look, they did, you know, with when joelb play
without Ben Simmons this year, there's lineup context to think about. They were
in the eighteen percentile of defensive efficiency and so I don't know that you can
just count on, Hey, give me a tise tiable, a trap ton
more minutes, bring back Danny Green and they'd be fine. There are probably
some real issues there that they have to consider. I'm really glad that you
said that proactively, because my response was going to be it wouldn't be as
good. But bring back Danny Green and give m Atise table more minutes and
they'll probably be fine. I mean, the development of Tyrese Maxie looms kind
of l large here. But Ben Simmons is incredibly important to what Philadelphia does
defend. I mean, he's one of the five to seven best defenders in
the game. So and he's probably the single most versatile defender. He's got
to be seen in the data. Just the matchup data alone indicates as much
that he covers a wider variety of assignments and covers them well than anyone else.
Yeah, so I think you at this point, though, you probably
just need it for the variance in how your team is run. Though,
right you look at that move seriously. If you wind up losing into the
Hawks, like like, you're not moving Tobias Harris, You're not moving in
bead, you probably have to make a change. If you have a series
loss to Atlanta with this many blown leads, regardless of what's going on with
him, be it's health Now. I think the thing we aren't talking about,
what if a sign in trade for Kyle Lowry's on the table, you
can figure out the hardcap stuff. Your package obviously isn't going to include Ben
Simmons. Is that is that the preferential route to giving up Ben Simmons?
That package is going to cost you at least one of Maxie and Tiable at
least one of them, plus right, you probably have to double sign and
trade Danny Green because I don't know what your salary filler is now. Because
Danny Green's coming off the books. You're not moving to buyas Harrison that deal
either. I wouldn't think I would say that that's probably the preferential route.
I just don't know how realistic it is post trade deadline, because they're going
to have to be other money mechanisms in there to make it work. Yeah,
I'm getting slightly distracted just because I'm seeing all these Ben Simmons tweets coming
in and just to relay a few that were great. I saw somebody say,
and I'm already blanking on who it was that Simmons, who shot four
of fourteen actually shot better from the line this game than he did the previous
game, where he only made twenty percent of his looks, and Anthony Doyle
tweeted Ben Simmons has missed more free throws this year in the playoffs than Steve
nashmist in the playoffs entire career. Benna shot sixty seven free throws. Steve
Nash shot four hundred and forty. That is wild. And again I'm not
really here for the Ben Simmons slander because, as we mentioned at the top
of this segment, like there's so much good that he does, but it
just speaks to the growing problem there's there are. This would be counter to
our one discussion where we said there are obstacles for every star and should just
accept them. This is one of those borderline is it an unworkable obstacle?
And the question there would be can they make this team more playoff proof on
the margins without making that wholesale change. And the Kyle Lowry sign and trade
is the biggest best I think, I agree, I agree. I hesitate
to take any one star level player, and Ben Simmons is a star level
player and just say that you can't win a title with them. I think
the issue is he's pushing closer to that category unless there's a perfectly constructed roster
around him that can account for the very serious plaus you know, you could
get away with the hacker shack and the hack of Dwight Howard and the hack
of Ben Wallace is because they're not primary ball handlers. But that with Ben
Simmons, if you can't have the ball in his hands at the end of
the game, you cannot play him. Yeah, And that's where it's like,
I don't know that moves on the margins solve this team, which is
where it gets interesting. So it would have to be the Kyle Lowry type
move or that's why you're visiting the Ben Simmons trade scenarios, because I don't
think that you can just be like, hey, let's can we get Austin
Rivers or Alec Burks in here and be fine. I don't know if it's
that, you know, maybe I would say the lowest end game changer for
them would be an Evan Fournier And I'm not even sure like that does it.
So if they lose this series, which they haven't lost yet by the
way Game six this is, we should note that that it is still eminently
possible, and this team seems Philadelphia could win this series. This team seems
so much much better at the top than Atlanta. But Atlanta has you know
Bardanovitch is in foul trouble and struggling, they just have other guys to go
to. There's just so many weapons on this team right now. Maybe Joel
Embi had he had a louder second half after dropping twenty four in the first.
I just kind of, you know the way this It seemed like Philly
might after Game two that this was going to be not a shorter series,
but like, oh, they'll win in six, but it'll be a decisive
six, And it really felt like that for most of Game five. Kudos
to Atlanta for having two just gutsy come from behind victories in the playoffs so
far against Philly. Like that shows real I think that experience is really important
to them. I think it also stems from the lack of experience because up
and down this roster, it's filled with key contributors who have not been in
the playoffs before. And when you haven't been in the playoffs before, you
don't necessarily know how to win these type games, but you also don't know
how to lose them. If you watched but I'm sure you watch Buck's Nets
Game five, I know the takeaway was, oh, why isn't Joannis taking
on to Kevin Durant assignment and this that the other thing. There are two
things. I don't know that it's Jannis's decision. There's a coach involved here,
and I'm not trying to lay that at Mike Buenholzer's feet because I don't
know. If I would do the same thing, I would say more aggressively
double triple Kevin Durant. James Harden is playing on one leg. He made
one field goal in Game five, leave him or and Jonas is most disruptive
as a helper, so let him putting him on. And the other thing
with putting him on KD, I would argue you still have to bring help,
or that it's just not gonna matter because KD is gonna go off.
He's gonna have forty nine points on certain nights no matter who's defending him.
The things to me that I think were the difference makers. I'm curious what
you think the stuff I just mentioned on defense, be more aggressive going after
KD, then double triple. Just throw everybody at him and be smarter on
offense. There is everyone's pointing to that viral moment where James Harden waved help
defense off in the post on Drew Holiday. That can't be the way that
you're attacking a hobble James Harden is by going after him in his statistically,
he is a great post actually undeniably best defensive position. And I'll note this,
get into your offense quicker. Because Milwaukee during the excuse me, the
regular season, they led the league in the share of their buckets that came
between eighteen and fifteen seconds in the shot clock early, so it's like not
always transition, semi transition just before the defense gets set. In this series,
they are at nineteen point three percent of their buck share of their shot
attempts are coming during that range. And no, you don't want to force
it, but that is a difference. And you even look at their earlier
shots where you're looking at between twenty two and eighteen seconds in the shot clock
as well, those numbers are down in this series. You have to react
quicker there. And then I do think there's the level of can you be
more inventive, like Janice just needs to the jumper's gotta stop. I don't
like saying that. I'm a big believer an advocate in volume changes, the
way defenses have to defend you. But I would argue his perimeter volume right
now is hurting the way that the Bucks can be defended and they need,
you know, go at James Hardenore if he's going to be on the floor
for that long. It just feels like one dumb decision after another. Right,
The simplest one is how you defend Katie. Like I don't like the
idea of assigning Jannis as the primary defender on him, because that's not even
his strength. Like he for all of his defensive gifts and for all of
his defensive accolades, he is not the greatest isolation stopper. He's a terrific
help defender, and if you put him on Katie as a primary matchup,
you're taking away his biggest strength, and it's a strength that you need.
It was baffling to me that there wasn't an in game adjustment to send help
off of Harden or other players against a scorching hot Kevin Durant. And then
I realized that Mike Budenholtzer was still coaching, and I was a little bit
less shocked because he's the master of not making any in game adjustments whatsoever.
This just it feels like a dumb basketball team, an extremely talented dumb basketball
team. I mean that might be fair. Mike Budenholz is not surviving this,
yea, his job has gone if they don't win this series. I
don't I would be very surprised if he comes back. And I don't know
that coaching makes all the difference, but it feels like there were enough of
mistakes here, given the injuries to Brooklyn. Yeah, absolutely missing time and
then playing on one leg, and then no Kyrie, and there has been
no strategic adjustment. There's been no rotational adjustments. There's no changing up how
you're attacking Brooklyn's defense or lack thereof. There's been no tactical switches. When
Kevin Durant is going off, that's just okay, We'll let him cook a
different defender and a one on one scenario. We'll let him crawl off a
screen and hit another three as we try to fight through it without sending any
help his way. It just it's really for us training to watch a team
as talented as the Bucks have all of that talent be squandered, both by
end game execution and the lack of coaching adjustments and it's almost like we saw
a similar story unfold with the Atlanta Hawks team that was coached by Mike Gudenholtzer,
or it's like the Spurs immediately went on one of the best championship runs
of all time once Mike Budenholzer left them after a championship collapse. Some coaches
are phenomenal regular season coaches and don't belong in the sidelines in the playoffs.
And I want to make it clear that I thought jan has played a smarter
game than he has a lot of this series on offense anyway, And I'm
just not laying the defensive responsibility at his feet if you want, I don't
think that's the answer. But if you want Jannis to be the primary defender
on Kevin Durant, I don't think that's a has to be a Yannis decision
where he has to go to the coach and tell Mike Budenhols I wanted Defenderant,
like, make that your call. So that was just criticism I didn't
agree with. And I thought Jannis probably had one of his better playoff games
on offense overall in Game five to waste that when the other thing I'll argue
James harn will probably be just as hobbled he is planning to play in game
six. I think I saw Joe Harris has been low key terrible, and
Joe Harris isn't going to be terrible. Okay, He's not gonna be like
that forever. Like that's you're going to get a good Joe Harris game.
I would argue, And then what happens? But just because you you've shown
you can't hang with Brooklyn when they're when they're making shots, and so I
do do you give the Bucks? What percentage chance of winning? Do you
give the Bucks? In Game six? I still think that the talent they
have at their disposal is significant enough that I would give them like a thirty
percent chance of winning the series. What percentage chances is Mike Buonhols or the
head coach in Milwaukee next season. I think that would be about thirty percent.
Those numbers might be slightly correlated. I'm wondering if it's lower, just
because if they lose this, even if they force a Game seven, just
to look back at this series and a missed opportunity, then in Game five,
that's probably a smarter answer. The other thing from this series. You
and I both have picked against the nets and gotten a bit of criticism for
doing so, just because the offensive talent they have at their disposal is overwhelming.
I don't know about you, but I still don't know that I have
a good feel for how good this Brooklyn team is. It might be because
there are three best players have played in fewer than fifteen games together. That
might be, and that's part of it. But the other part is,
like, I'm not sure how good this Milwaukee team is in a postseason scenario.
It just it doesn't feel like we've seen Brooklyn be fully tested and see
just how well it can play with the stars all on the court, which
is kind of terrifying. But there it looks. I mean, if you're
even even in this hobbled state, they are fully capable of winning a title.
We've said that from the start. Yeah, but here's if we're picking
against them, Like, it's not to say they have no shot at winning
a title or anything. You have to be changed. Yeah, it almost
this. Everything you're saying, though, adds to the element of I would
say Philadelphia and Milwaukee specifically have to be will be kicking themselves if they get
bounced in this round, because that might be it'll be one of the best
chances you have of beating Brooklyn just because Philly meeting them in the next round.
But if they beat the Hawks, which we don't know that they will
anymore, to go up against some version of a NETS team that's not at
full strength when they have those three players as big and then Milwaukee to actually
be in a position to have a three to two lead on this team like
that, these are opportunities that they just might not get back. I'm not
I think injuries are probably going to be a big three long thing in Brooklyn.
Just when you look at these three guys. Kevin Rant with the achilles
just amazing that he's doing this, but we did even mentioned that he just
had a forty nine point triple double, absolutely wild and play the entire game.
It's incredible what he's done. But just having that achilles injury in his
rearview and we saw him deal with some lower extremity injuries this year. James
harn has been ripe for injuries just because of his usage the past seven eight
years, however long it's been. And then Kyrie Evere's just always had stuff.
It's various stuff. It's not necessarily all reoccurring or chronic, but he's
always had stuff. At the same time, I don't know that you could
say you're ever going to get a point where what one point five, one
point seven, five of the next three stars are injured, right, that's
just opportunity. It might there with you. I do think that in our
previous episode, I said that when it comes to the Crystal Basketball rankings we
do at NBA math, the coveted twelve, we felt like there are like
seven or eight options for it. Unless something changes, it's going to be
Kevin Durant. And that one game was enough to convince me that he is.
He is getting my vote this year. He can't. For me.
The availability stuff matters, and I just think he's too much of a wild
card. They're still maybe playing forty eight minutes in a playoff game, and
knowing that a lot of the stuff he went through, aside from the league
health and safety protocols this year that might have been more load management and precautionary
than actually a red alarm, I'll think I'll give more weight to it.
But he he's that dude. I could not. I was shocked he played
the entire game. I'm not gonna lie. I am curious, and this
is a good segue into the injuries we have. So kwilin are dealing with
a right acl injury. They're calling it a sprain as of now. I
hope it stays that way, because a tear surgery there of any kind puts
next season in jeopardy for him. And then Mike Conley had a setback in
his recovery from a hamstring injury. Don't know when we're going to see him
again. And then Chris Paul is in the league's health and safety protocols.
Now, John Gambadoro did say that Chris Paul returned a positive test. I
think it's also been out there that Chris Paul is also vaccinated, so that's
you know, make of that what you will. I do believe that the
quarantine periods are shorter for people that have been vaccinated. He might just need
to return to negative tests, or this is a situation where they have so
much time before the start of the next series. He could be back by
Game two or three at the latest. But hopefully he's just okay. If
if he returned to positive test, Hopefully just is going to be fine as
soon as possible. I think it's important to note on that point. I
think it's important to note that I don't like engaging with the disingenuous arguments from
the anti VAXX contingent, but being vaccinated does not guarantee you that you're not
going to be infected with COVID nineteen. It means that if you are,
you, first of all, you have a lower chance of that transmission.
But even if you do, the effects are more minimized. Right, we've
see we don't see the deaths or the hospitalizations that are associated with the illness.
But it is not an indication that the vaccine doesn't work that somebody tested
positive after being vaccinated. I agree with everything, and you said mostly because
it's it's true. That's a large part why I agree with you. And
I don't want to conflate the injuries with this, so let's sort of start
with the injuries. It's just it's it feels like they're determining these playoffs more
so than usual, and I'm just we're watching Game five between the Clippers and
the Jazz unfold now, assuming Kauai is out for the rest of the series,
do you give them a chance of actually winning this series. And I
know the Jazz might be missing Mike Conley for the rest of the series,
if not year as well. They just Kawhi Leonard in Mike Conley. It's
just it's a big difference. And Kawhi, by the way, he spent
the most time if any Clipper garding Luka Doncich in round one. He spent
more time than anyone entering Game five on the Clippers guarding Donovan Mitchell's that's who
you're losing, in addition to everything he's done offensively, which is everything.
I'm probably not the right person to ask that question just because I had the
Jazz winning at all before the playoffs started, and I'm not deviating from that
opinion. Now. My son's title pick is looking mighty dicey at the moment
with less Paul is able to return, which we just really don't know how
many times has that looked. And I'm not gonna, you know, do
a victory lap for them getting this far, because I believe on the podcast
we did, I had sons sixers in the finals with the Sun's winning.
I've definitely wavered on that a bunch of times and Chris Paul has thrown me
for like eighty different worlds this postseason, the shoulder injury, him not really
shooting. I really just hope he's okay from the COVID. It just sucks
that it feels like injuries or having such a a staunch impact on these playoffs
more so than usually. I know the NBA came out with a statement that
there's been the injury rate was similar to the past three seasons we have not
had. We will have to go back. When's the last time we had
eleven All Stars? I think it was never miss games in the playoffs.
We've already seen that sited as the most that we've had in NBA history.
But to answer your original question, without Kawhi Leonard, I don't think the
Clippers stand much of a chance here. Maybe that ages poorly because Paul George
is remarkably talented and has been shooting the lights out, and with uneven greener
light without Kawai taking shots, maybe he shoots his way through this series.
It's definitely possible, but the talent disparity is huge. Even without Mike Conley
on the court, this Jazz team remains so good on both ends of the
floor. You know, Boyan Bogdanovich currently has twenty three points on seven of
nine shooting from downtown. They've scored fifty six points with just under six minutes
left in the second quarter, and Donovan Mitchell has taken two shots. And
we can't forget about the defense because there are so many quality defensive pieces on
this team. With Rudy Gobert protecting the back end, Joe Ingles is able
to thrive in virtually any defensive situation. Royce O'Neill just hustles his ass off
on every single possession and it just keeps going from there. This is a
really good team, and I feel like we keep saying that, and there's
still so much hesitance to accept that the Jazz are a legitimate title. And
we're probably going to be dealing with a similar conversation in the Western Conference finals
should they eliminate the Clippers, because then it'll be like, oh, like,
would they really have gotten by the Clippers if Kawhi Leonard had been healthy,
Yes, they probably could have there. That's why from here in Milwaukee,
I know you're missing Dante Devincenzo, but all your best players are healthy
that we know of and just wild circumstances. I am Hawks got all their
injuries out of the way during the regular season. That's why they're having success
now. And I'm from DeAndre Hunter and Cam Reddish. This team still isn't
at full strength, right, No one's if no one's ever full strengthechnicly in
the playoffs, but like they are missing DeAndre Hunters, their best wing defender,
and it's not really all that close. So that's monstrous for them too.
I on these injuries. We had the shortest offseason in sports history for
the NBA. The back half of the schedule was brutal for a lot of
teams. Did you see what Lebron James tweeted about everything today? I'm curious
this is to where you land on that. And since I didn't tell you
I was going to ask you, I will preface it with my and they're
actually quick thoughts. There is a duality here because I am going to say
this was collectively bargained and I find it very hard to believe that perhaps the
best player in NBA history didn't have his voice heard throughout all this. When
the Christmas the vice president of the Players Association, right, is he not
the actual president. I'll google that. I don't know why I'm getting confused,
but regardless, I'm pretty sure Chris Pas also the gods of one of
Lebron's kids, So the god, the godfather of one of Lebron's kids,
and the president of the players Association. Lebron didn't have his word heard,
and this was collectively bargained, So I want that out the players. They
had a financial stake in this, just like the league, just like the
teams did. The duality here comes into play where just because these are millionaires,
that doesn't mean they had all this leverage. Their window to make money
is incredibly finite, and there are players that don't make as much as Lebron
James like these. There are guys that might only be in the league fewer
than five seasons. There are guys they are making less than they're making a
couple million dollars a year, which again that's a lot of money, but
they're in their limited window to make that, and so there's going to be
the urgency there. And regardless, you don't have the same leverage as billionaire
owners who are going to wield most of the control in these situations. So
I understand both sides of the thing. I also people have tried to point
out that Lebron has been a hypocrite with this. I believe he was in
favor of canceling the season when they were in the bubble, that that was
something he tried to do, and he didn't want to play in the All
Star Game even though we did so He's been consistent in that messaging. I
just find it very hard to believe that he wasn't heard, given his stature
and his relationship with Chris Paul. So there is it has to be noted
this was collectively bargained. But the reality of the situation here is this is
millionaires versus billionaires, and the billionaires are going to have more influence over the
decisions than these millionaire let's call them what they are, employees. I don't
have that much to add beyond that. I mean, we've seen that there's
a correlation between shortened off seasons and increased levels of soft tissue injuries. At
the same time, it is important to acknowledge that a lot of the most
prominent injuries that we're seeing are occurring with players who have lengthy injury histories.
Kawhi Leonard has had a lot of issues with his lower extremities dating back to
his time with the San Antonio's First James Harden and Kyrie Irving have not been
perfect pictures of health. The list goes on and on. Chris Paul like,
when has he ever been healthy for an entire playoff runs? It's impossible
to infer causation from correlation here, and that applies to both the injury histories
and the shortened off season. So it's it's easy to immediately criticize the league
for kind of viewing this whole season as a blatant money grab by wanting to
fit in the full scale duel and have a jam packed schedule. But I
just I don't think we have enough information to truly know. And it does
matter that it was collectively bargained, but even that doesn't mean that there was
unanimity among the individual sides. You know, for all we know it was
a fifty one forty nine split among the players to sign that to sign and
ratify that agreement. We don't have that data, and there's just a lot
of information that that you and I just aren't going to be privy too that
would help inform this conversation. I do think it This is, you know,
the NBA is just not different from any other business. Not not saying
this is acceptable, but they are going to operate in their find They're going
to operate with their financial interests in mind first and foremost. That that is
just going to happen. I'm not supporting that. I feel like that's the
reality of the situation. I don't know what in a perfect world, Yeah,
this would have been spaced out, maybe the season gets spread out longer
or there's fewer games. But they needed seventy two to get the regional network
TV deals. That's why we had the bubble regular season in the first place.
The bubble suns don't happen if they didn't have to meet that requirement.
There are a lot of factors at play here. I don't know if there
was a feasible because we can, we can map out the ideal solution to
all this, I just don't know how realistic that is. So it's it's
a shitty situation. I hate to see all these injuries. I will say
the NBA coming out with that injury data just seems like wildly ill times,
like you needed to read the room there that was that was pretty poor form
in my book. Agreed. Agreed, we can move on to and I
look the thoughts on the Suns without CP three. Whatever time they have to
navigate without him is going to be a problem because they're either going to be
facing if they face the Jazz, it's a huge problem. If they face
the Clippers without Kauai, maybe that's more of an even fight at that point
would take. But it's it's again, it's hard to speculate on this one
without more information because we have no idea if he's going to miss time,
and if he's going to miss time, how much is it going to be.
It's pure speculation at this point. Let's get to the coaching changes and
the front office change in Dallas Washington. I think we can blow through fairly
quickly. Scott Brooks, it felt like his days were numbered there. And
I'm not sure if all the other moves around the league where you saw stan
Van Gundy being fired after his first year, sort of expedited the situation because
he wanted to put his name in one of these openings before they're all scooped
up. But it felt like he just given that. I don't know where
you know, I'm sure people are going to have him in there. If
we Power rank coaches, he's probably bottom five around there. People don't think
he's very inventive on either end of the floor. You look at the situation
the Wizards are in, Bradley Beale can be a free agent in twenty twenty
two player option. They'll try and extend him this summer. Don't know if
it'll work. If you're the Wizards, you're probably not gonna give him a
long term come in because you don't know what's gonna happen with Bradley Beal.
I don't know what he's done during his time there that would make you want
to give him a raise off of his seven million dollars salary. If you're
Scott Brooks, you don't want to accept a short term deal because you want
security in the event that this all goes to ship, which it might do.
And Bradley Beal situation and his agent morn Lagarry, that's very much how
he operated. When you even just look at Mike d Antonian in Houston,
and I think John Hollinger put it, there's like very high silist potential in
the wizard's job. Just like the Blazer's job, So that one I don't
really make anything of it other than I'll be curious to see who they get
to have interest in that job, because unless it's a first timer or someone
with not a lot of NBA head coaching experience, they're probably going to have
to back up the brings truck in years and annual salary to get them to
commit. Without knowing what Bradley Beal is going to do. That calculus of
course changes should Bill sign an extension or declare that he's going to come back,
I wholeheartedly agree. I don't think that's going to be a particularly appealing
job for virtually any candidate except for the first timers and those internal promotions that
we could see. But the writing was on the wall with Scott Brooks.
We criticized it when he was hired, and we've criticized him a lot since
then, and the ceiling was limited with him in place, and it dates
all the way back to his time with the Oklahoma City Thunder, where I
think the reason he had that job in the first place was because Kevin Durant
and Russell Westbrook were really good. But even then it felt like the decision
making, the the exes and os, the application of analytics, just everything
was lackluster at best. So I'm not I'm not surprised by this, and
I think he's he is what he is as a coach, which is probably
better suited for more of an assistant role that can be focused on player development,
and that Wizard's job is going to be an interesting one and monitor because
I feel like it might be the most likely of the many, many openings
to result in somebody who is just a totally off the radar candidate. The
stan Ban Gunni firing was was very surprising, very surprising. I don't think
I don't think he did a particularly good job with Pelicans. There were things
that he did well. He was the one who saw that you could unleash
sign On Williamson as a point forward and really open up his game and the
offense in general. But he was billed as a defensive minded coach and was
not able to build a quality defense in his one season in New Orleans.
That said, a lot of the blame has to rest with the front office
because this roster composition never made too much sense. So I didn't think that
he in any way deserved to be fired, and I was surprised that he
didn't get the second year with this team. But we also see the reports
about him and brandon Ingram chafing a little bit, and there wasn't the progress
that we expected to see. So I'm also not totally shocked by it.
After I had a little bit of time to process, I actually am,
because I mean the stuff with him not vibing it seems with New Orleans is
too most important players in Zion and brandon Ingram makes sense. Also, it
does seem like I think this was from Rog's reporting that the front office were
the ones pushing to put the ball in Zion's hands. This roster made very
little fucking sense, very little sense. The blame has to fall out the
author of the front office there. I know a lot of Pelicans sans thought
the spacing upfront trope was overrated. You need to have a better front court
player to compliment Zion wings, and you also need more wings on this team
who were the wings for the Pelicans for most of the season. I'm not
even looking at you know. It's it's Josh Hart and Brandon Ingram, is
what I'm getting at. There towards later in the year, Like, yeah,
it was great to have the Naji Marshall story, but like West of
One dude was on the payroll of I'm a big West One due guy,
and like that was only for part of the season. There's just weren't a
ton of wings. It was Josh Hart brand Ingram and that's it. And
why did you sten Steven Adams? What was that trade made for? And
ultimately what's going to be interesting about this team moving forward? If you're the
Pelicans, you should want to bring back line to the ball and Josh Hart.
But if you pay them what their cap holds amount to, which is
about a combine thirty six million dollars, and I would argue that's eminently possible
they cost that much because of the offer sheets. I think Lonzo could get
in restrict to the free ency. You're all of a sudden at the tax
line. And so if you get yourself in a situation where you either want
had to grease the wheels of a trade for Blzo or Adams by giving up
assets to clear money because the Pelicans aren't paying the tax it's just not happening,
or you let one of those guys walk for nothing or are forced to
sign and trade them. That's just bad form too, and so I don't
put that blame on Stam MCGNUNTI I don't know how much better he was supposed
to coach this roster again, If he wasn't resonating with their most important players,
that matters. And if there was a resistance to putting the ball in
Zion William's hands, that doesn't really make a ton of sense because that was
clearly their best route and if there were still resistance, effort was working.
I do think the novelty wore off a little bit because of the Pelican spacing.
That's still a roster. That's a cosmetic issue that falls at the feet
of the front office. So that's why I was surprised the other thing here,
And I think this is probably a good sign. He had three years
left on his deal, and so the fact that they're willing to move on
from what they deem a mistake, if that's what the front office deems it
now, and early props to them for making that call instead of doubling down
or just feeling uncomfortable going in the next year and delaying what might be inevitable
I'm not ready to pat them on the back for making that call just yet,
though. Let's see who they hire, because are they going to try
and cheap out now because they're paying another coach for an additional three years and
we've seen I don't want to get into the names mentioned because there's been a
ton already, but their assistance are supposed to be part of the equation,
including Teresa Weatherspoon. I will say that it's the NBA like it's time,
like there needs to be a female head coach. I'm not advocating which one
it needs to be. It has to happen already, and I hope that
there's always that suspicion of I hope that these teams, you know, Becky
Hammond's linked to interviews in the past, We've seen Carol Larson. I think
Tan gentially linked to the Celtics. This shouldn't just be for like appearances.
It shouldn't be an interview aesthetic. These are brilliant basketball minds. I hope
they receive a legitimate consideration. It's time for the NBA to have a female
head coach. It's it's a long past due. I just don't know what
direction they're going to go in with a head coach now because of one their
timelines wonky just because Zion's ready. He's so good, he's ready to win
now. And John Hollingers mentioned this that there's stuff in New Orleans that he's
unhappy. A lot of it apparently had to do with the spacing, which
I don't blame him. The other part was injury management, but I think
just his health to kind of close the year, you know, I don't
know that just might be an issue of a young kid wants to ply and
they're trying to be overcautious. I don't know how much the fault them for
the situation is just weird, and I'm very interesting what direction they go with
their head coaching spot after they got rid of stan Van Gundi won so quickly,
but two with three more years left on his contract. I will say
that I hope stan Van Gundi does whatever makes him happy, whether that's coaching
a team or not. But I really hope we get to see him in
the broadcast booth again soon, because that man is a treat when he broadcast
basketball games. They need. That's what I want out of this situation.
Like and I know many other people said the same thing on Twitter at elsewhere
immediately in the aftermath of the firing. But let's get him behind a microphone
again, because there are some people who are just ridiculously good at being eloquent
in a way that's informative and entertaining, and he checked those boxes. I
would love to see. I know people don't love Jeff Van Gundy, but
I'd love to see a dual Van Gundy game called. That's something I would
tuot him for as well. I'm gonna plead the fifth on this one.
Look, any Stam van Gunny game is great. I just think that would
be it would be it would be an improvement over Mark Jackson Jeff Van Gundy.
Yeah, but that's not exactly the best bar to set there. Let's
get to this last thing, man, unless you have anything else to add
here. Not really, the Pelicans need to improve, like they need to
make changes to their roster. I'm gonna stay flat out you should want Lonzo
and Josh Hart back. But it's as I mentioned, if those if you
lose those guys for nothing or forced to sign and trade them or use asss
the clear money to keep them, that's not stamming Gunny's fault. Spacing was
not standing in favor of bringing Lonzo Ball back, and I think we've we've
made that clear in the past, but you've got to do something to get
a little more stretching miess out of your front court. And that Steven Adams
extension is just looking worse and worse by the day. But as for the
last piece of news with Donnie Nelson fired from, it was a mutual parting
of the way, ual parting of ways, whatever it may be. He's
no longer there after two plus decades. And I will admit that, given
the plethora of news items that we were inundated with all day, that I
have not read up on this one as much as the others. So I
think I've seen some hints that, like Luca was pissed about the decisions some
people were saying on TV appearances in the aftermath, and that this had been
planned since Sunday. So it was a response to the expose from from Tim
Cato and co at The Athletic about the shadow GM in place in Dallas.
Redacted, so we'll call him redacted. Yeah, So I just I don't
I'm still processing this one. There's also been stuff that Luca hasn't spoken to
anyone, so we don't know if he's upset. He's expected to speak with
the media tomorrow when he announces his intention to play for the Slavinia national team,
so we can wait by the time this podcast is out, maybe he'll
have said something by then. But Mark Cuban doesn't get to call that report
bullshit and then have this happened a few days later. That doesn't get to
happen. No, there was one. I mean, there's clearly some structural
thoughts on that topic, a lot of which I'm gonna I'm gonna keepholstered.
Well, that's disappointing their search for a new head of the front office because
all these titles are you know, give him team president, general manager,
you know, head executive vice president about whatever you baskeb operations, whatever you're
gonna want to call them. I wonder what type of interest this job will
draw because for a little Donnie Nelson has been with the Mavericks forever and I
someone mentioned this on a podcast that I listened to. Cuban hasn't run this
team without a Nelson in charge over the past quarter century. Whatever it's been
and I think the impression around the league is that he can be difficult to
work with because he's so involved, or if there is a situation with redacted
where he's allowing redacted to have so much say or influence in this like ambiguous
role I would call the title of redacted was just so bizarre. I am
curiously like if Massi U Jerry is looking around, and I would argue all
indicators, most indicators are that he'll stay in Toronto unless he has political aspirations
that draw him away from basketball, which is totally possible. There will be
people that want the matter. There's Luca Donchers is there. This is huge,
But I'm just curious with what type of names that's gonna draw, or
just with direction they go in overall, because this is a new situation for
them, they've had that steadiness in the front office aside, well, I
don't want to say aside from it's not in aside, there've been stuff going
on behind the scenes, including the sexual harassment stuff that was exposed or really
two years removed from that that was just a wild stories more than that now,
But just to be clear, those are the pervasive cultural issues around that
the Cuban was somehow unaware of despite being super hands on in every other area.
That's the one we're talking about here. That was just and even when
I was disappointed when he went on I can't remember it was the jumper ESPN
and like the questions were just they felt like softballs there too about that.
But like there have been issues, I'm saying there have been issues. I
want to make that clear in Dallas, and you laid it out like these
they're not cultural wars. There's something worse. They're issues of morality here and
basic human decency. They're also just haven't been a lot of changes and maybe
that's been part of the problem in Dallas. I don't know basketball wise,
is when I'm looking at now, how they're going to handle this search and
who will be interested in it. There will be interest because Luca dontch is
a top five basketball player. The other thing that's come out of this is
there's been no extension talks between Luca and the Mavericks just yet. Look,
maybe Luca's unhappy because he was close with Donnie Nelson, with the relationship I
believe that existed before he ever came to the NBA. I don't doubt that
maybe he's upset he's signing an extension. He's taking him with the guarantee two
hundred million dollars. This is not the season's been over for a second.
He can't sign that extension yet. Anyway, there's let's just he's not leaving.
This isn't gonna be the impetus for him to leave. If he used
his leverage to be like, no, I'm going to sign my qualifying offer
and then I'm gonna leave, he'd be the first player of his caliber to
do that. We saw Greg Munroe do it and it kind of sort of
worked out for him, but not really. He did get money from Milwaukee.
Christos porzing Is threatened to do it and the Knicks took it seriously.
Highly doubt that he would have sign the qualifying offer coming off an ACL there,
But that's just my I'm just guessing there. It's not going to happen.
And so I do think the magic the Mavericks. You're on the clock
with Luca because he's so good and you want to create this unrest and because
the process of pre agency now it happens or unfurls two years in advance.
Of free agency instead of just one. Yeah, you're automatically on the clock
because Luca is just amazing, and you want to get to a point where
two or three years down the road he made me tries to exert some premature
leverage or anything along those lines. This is not I will be flabbergasted if
this is an impetus for him deciding to try and leverage his way out from
Dallas early. Let's not make it about something it's not going to be.
I'm right there with you on that. It would be unfathomable for him to
turn down that kind of extension, especially since we've seen in this player empowerment
era just how easy it is for players after signing those extensions to still force
their way out if they so choose. So that feels like making something way
more of this story than should exist. But at the same time, like
I just, I'm continuing to lose more and more confidence in Cubans governorship of
this team. I just it frustrates me to no end that, you know,
after four years of him being very being a very outspoken critic of Donald
Trump and his relationship with the fake news media, that he's engaging in those
same tactics, you know, just the immediate calling of bullshit of the the
Tim Cato and the athletic story and then and apologist. I'm slightly misconstruing this
since I don't have screenshots or anything, but like he posted a second response
to that story that was that said something along the lines of him never being
asked to comment on it, or only asked to comment on it after the
story was published, and then quickly deleted that and amended it to say that,
you know, he wasn't even much of an opportunity to or something that
was a little bit more toned down but providing no specifics. And we've seen
it throughout his tenure, whether it's the denying of the pervasive sexual harassment culture
that existed within the organization that he was so apparently hands on with except that
he didn't know that that was happening, or on a far less impactful level,
him talking about how when they didn't want it, when they didn't manage
to sign one of the many free agents that they've missed out on, that
oh, we didn't really want that player anyway, you know, like whatever,
he was never really a pursuit, even though all the reports indicated to
the contrary. It's just it's harder to believe that anything that he's saying on
these topics is genuine. There's always the great assault too, when team governors,
front office executives, players are commenting on their own team, that they
have to take the approach of oh, this isn't happening, or it's more
positive than pictures painted. But this was just like the time of it all.
You don't you don't get you don't get to play that card. The
last question I want to ask you that's not related to this, but it's
quick and definitely more lighthearted. What is the most attractive coaching opening right now
between Portland, Washington, Milwaukee, Orlando, h Boston, New Orleans and
which one am I missing? I'm missing anyone on an Indiana excuse me?
If Milwaukee is available, that's the answer, just because you have the most
premier talent who's locked up with a lot of complimentary secondary talents. Other than
that, Portland, I think if we're I mean, Boston is going to
be a coveted job just because it's the Boston Celtics and they have such an
indelible legacy within the NBA history. But Portland still has Damian Lillard and C.
J. McCollum, and whether you're building around that core or using mc
collumns trade base for another star, that probably gives you the highest immediate upside.
New Orleans probably gives you more long term upside with Zion Williamson and Brandon
Ingram, but there's still a lot to parse out With a roster construction that
doesn't make any sense. Portland's at least makes sense, even if the upside
is a little bit more limited. I don't want to touch Washington or Portland
with a ten foot poll if I'm a coach, just because of the teardown
potential there, and I know Dame has another four years left on his deal.
That would it be a teardown in Portland or would it be a restructuring
because I don't think you're trading the column for prospects and picks. No,
you're trading him to build something different around Lillard. My concern would be Damian
Lillard getting frustrated after next year and causing some waves. I'm not saying he'll
do that because he's always said he'd rather Basically, he's rather said rather lose
in Portland than win somewhere else, but losing this much has a way of
changing things. Sorry that I wouldn't want to touch that. With the Bradley
Beale seven Washington, it might be Indiana. They're like a good team if
they're healthy. It'd be Indiana or New Orleans for me, just because you
have Zion Williamson, who's a transcendent talent. It's just do you trust the
flexibility there on the front office to put the right talent around him. How
do you feel about BIS as a number two? I would feel pretty good,
but it be between New Orleans and Indiana for me. I'm not basing
this off of Milwaukee, by the way, just because Mike Gwinholser is still
the coach, but if they lose against the Nets, you could definitely throw
them into the mix. Yeah there, that doesn't for us. We did
this in under an hour. It might be a little bit over an hour
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Until next time, we leave you with the shout out two to one,
the only they're driving four behind. An amazing come from behind victory for
the Atlanta Hawks, Sweet Lemon, pepper Loo