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Speaker 3: You know how this works To.
Speaker 2: Put Tyler's mind through the ringer, Twist it to a pretzel.
Speaker 2: I've got six questions today, Actually, nay, make that seven
Speaker 2: questions all right? Day a super sized edition of Premium
Speaker 2: Picks on a Friday.
Speaker 3: Let's get to it.
Speaker 2: We'll start with the question that throughout there on social media.
Speaker 2: This one is on my Twitter account if you want
Speaker 2: to lay in a vote for yourself.
Speaker 3: I wonder how many.
Speaker 2: Homers I was gonna get on my timeline today on
Speaker 2: Twitter at Brandon Cravitz.
Speaker 3: Is how you can follow me?
Speaker 2: Which Eastern Conference team has a better chance of repping
Speaker 2: the conference next year in the NBA Finals? Is it
Speaker 2: the Indiana Pacers who are there now headed to a
Speaker 2: Game seven, or is it the Orlando Magic who just
Speaker 2: beefed up with Desmond Baine.
Speaker 3: I have results for you, but I would like your
Speaker 3: vote first.
Speaker 4: This vote should this is how things should play out.
Speaker 4: Brand I'm not saying that this is how they are
Speaker 4: going to I'm saying this is how it should play out.
Speaker 4: It should be about a sixty forty split in Indiana's
Speaker 4: favor I don't think that's what it is going to be,
Speaker 4: but that's what it should be.
Speaker 1: And here's why.
Speaker 4: Because the Orlando Magic have not made it out of
Speaker 4: the first round, and since the Dwight days, it's been
Speaker 4: a long time the Magic I've been knocking on the door.
Speaker 4: It's been impressive that they made it to the first
Speaker 4: n and that's been the goal that they have achieved
Speaker 4: each of the last two years and now trying to
Speaker 4: break through that door get on.
Speaker 1: To round two and beyond.
Speaker 4: And the Indiana Pacers have proven each of the last
Speaker 4: I mean really going back to last year when you
Speaker 4: made the Eastern Conference Finals, that you can't skip those steps.
Speaker 4: You can go from first round exit to Eastern Conference
Speaker 4: Finals in a season. It's not like it has to
Speaker 4: be a gradual progression, but you need to figure out
Speaker 4: how you get to that point, and simply adding players
Speaker 4: doesn't always guarantee that you are going to get to
Speaker 4: that point. Something needs to click, like it has for
Speaker 4: Indiana each of the last two seasons, focusing on building
Speaker 4: one of the highest powered offenses for the regular season
Speaker 4: and then transitioning it into being one of the most
Speaker 4: harassing defenses during the postseason. With that said, I've brought
Speaker 4: I think Jake Chapman brought up a good point the
Speaker 4: other day. It's tough to make a deep playoff run
Speaker 4: numerous seasons in a row, and you see it across
Speaker 4: sports US in the NBA. But you saw the Celtics
Speaker 4: fizzle out this year. Indiana into the finals, it seemed
Speaker 4: like they were starting fizzle out before.
Speaker 1: I mean, they.
Speaker 4: Snapped back to fresh legs in front of the home
Speaker 4: crowd in Game six and forced the Game seven last night.
Speaker 4: But it's a very difficult thing to do. So not
Speaker 4: to knock against the Pacers, But how this vote should
Speaker 4: be is sixty forty.
Speaker 1: Pacers are the more likely team.
Speaker 4: However, BK, I have a strong feeling that is not
Speaker 4: how the vote is going to go.
Speaker 3: You're correct, that is not how it is going.
Speaker 2: Eighty one percent of the vote on the Orlando Magic,
Speaker 2: nineteen percent on the Indiana Pacers.
Speaker 3: It is a.
Speaker 2: Little bit too lopsided for my comfort. I happen to
Speaker 2: agree with the vote, though, and I recognize that it
Speaker 2: flies in the face of logic because the Pacers knocked
Speaker 2: on the doorstep a year ago in the Eastern Conference
Speaker 2: Finals and now they're in the NBA Finals and they've
Speaker 2: won three games, So why would they have less of
Speaker 2: a chance than the Orlando I do think that part
Speaker 2: of that is just simply attrition injury luck. It's hard
Speaker 2: to bank on those things year after year. Not only
Speaker 2: have they been fortunate with the injuries that they have
Speaker 2: not sustained up until this cap strain for Tyrese Haliburton,
Speaker 2: but they've also gone up against teams that have been
Speaker 2: hampered by injury.
Speaker 3: It's hard to do that every single year.
Speaker 2: And with all of the minutes logged and all of that,
Speaker 2: the Eastern Conference is wide open. So I think we
Speaker 2: are going to see a new team represent the Eastern
Speaker 2: Conference in the NBA Finals. And I do think some
Speaker 2: of this is homersm but also just speaking objectively, I
Speaker 2: think the Magic are one of the teams that are
Speaker 2: on the shortlist to do that. So even though if
Speaker 2: lies in the face of logic, I will take the
Speaker 2: Orlando Magic. I was actually sitting back watching this game
Speaker 2: last night going, I can't wait to be in the
Speaker 2: building for player intros for the Magic home game in
Speaker 2: the NBA Finals next year.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Me.
Speaker 4: We think about just the first playoff intros of the
Speaker 4: current era, going back to Cleveland two seasons ago, where
Speaker 4: you know, it wasn't so long ago that the Magic
Speaker 4: were in the playoffs. He only had to go back
Speaker 4: to twenty nineteen, but it was the first time that
Speaker 4: this era of Magic basketball is in the playoffs and
Speaker 4: fans were ready ready for that. You just think about
Speaker 4: Palo and Franzis those guys return Palo's undertaker music when
Speaker 4: he came back from injury this year. We've already seen
Speaker 4: some electric things, but nothing those will be squashed by
Speaker 4: when the Magic make a trip to the Eastern Conference
Speaker 4: Finals or the NBA Finals for that matter.
Speaker 2: Question number two, what will Desmond Baines points per game
Speaker 2: average be next season for the Orlando Magic. Now the
Speaker 2: average nineteen points per game. Last year, his career high
Speaker 2: is about twenty four points per game. That was two
Speaker 2: seasons ago where he only played forty two games.
Speaker 3: Over the course of his career, he's at.
Speaker 2: Eighteen per So you tell me different team, different ask
Speaker 2: in terms of what he is set to do offensively,
Speaker 2: I think, so, what do you think points per game
Speaker 2: for Desmond Bane?
Speaker 3: Open ended question for premium picks.
Speaker 4: Yeah, this is a It's a really fun one and
Speaker 4: it's a really interesting conversation. Potentially could be an entire
Speaker 4: segment either through the summer as we get close to
Speaker 4: the season of what is this offensive spread going to
Speaker 4: look like for the Orlando Magic, Because one thing I
Speaker 4: think we can all feel confident in is that Paolo
Speaker 4: Vancaro averages twenty five plus and probably closer to twenty
Speaker 4: six points.
Speaker 1: He did in the regular.
Speaker 4: Season, he did it this year in the games that
Speaker 4: he was available, he did it in the postseason.
Speaker 1: You'd imagine that's going to be where he lives now.
Speaker 4: Franz Bager's twenty four points a night. That's tough to
Speaker 4: replicate because part of the reason why he was up
Speaker 4: to that point, in my opinion, was because of the
Speaker 4: injury to Jalen Suggs and all the injuries throughout the
Speaker 4: roster that he was able to boost his stats by
Speaker 4: being the ace for this team for an extended stretch
Speaker 4: with Palo bank Caro on the on the shelf, so
Speaker 4: pending injuries, I don't know if you see his number
Speaker 4: get that high and you throw in another elite scoring
Speaker 4: option like Desmond Bain, how I think this goes is
Speaker 4: you have Palo at the twenty five plus I'll say
Speaker 4: twenty six points, and then you do have Frauds and
Speaker 4: Desmond Baine from twenty to twenty one. Jalen Sugs a
Speaker 4: little bit lower than that at seventeen to eighteen.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go with that is the scoring split.
Speaker 4: The Magic are gonna have four players averaging above or
Speaker 4: close to twenty points to night. So for Bain, he's
Speaker 4: gonna be in line with Franz at twenty to twenty one.
Speaker 3: I don't think it's gonna be that high.
Speaker 2: I think he's gonna settle in closer to about eighteen.
Speaker 2: I'm looking at some comparisons around the league, some teams
Speaker 2: that have multiple players that those teams rely on to
Speaker 2: carry the scoring load. Desmond Bain is going to be
Speaker 2: part of that function game in and game out, so
Speaker 2: he's going to have he's going to average more than
Speaker 2: fifteen points per game. The Knicks Jalen Brunson twenty nine
Speaker 2: per hat twenty one. The next highest was og Andnobi
Speaker 2: at sixteen. So maybe they're not the best example because
Speaker 2: they kind of use all five guys. What about the
Speaker 2: Boston Celtics who also use a little bit of everybody,
Speaker 2: but very top heavy with Jason Tatum twenty eight points
Speaker 2: per game, Jalen Brown twenty two.
Speaker 3: That's looking a lot like Palo and Franz by.
Speaker 2: The way, and then Derek White And this is what
Speaker 2: I'm using as my sample, eighteen point eight points per
Speaker 2: game for Derek White as their third leading scorer. That
Speaker 2: to me feels like what it's going to look like.
Speaker 2: It's really hard to get. In fact, I would have
Speaker 2: to go through all thirty in the NBA. I don't
Speaker 2: think there's a team in the league that had three
Speaker 2: players averaging twenty points per game last year.
Speaker 1: Hmm, i'd have to.
Speaker 2: I want to say the La Calves, did I I
Speaker 2: tell you I've gone through the Calves, the Knicks, the Celtics.
Speaker 2: I'm trying to pick some of the top offenses in
Speaker 2: the league.
Speaker 3: I think none of them had.
Speaker 1: I think the LA.
Speaker 4: Clipper or no, well that was postseason less. Sorry, I
Speaker 4: gotta filter out. Oh no, I'm clicking on postseasons too.
Speaker 1: That's the other thing.
Speaker 4: The LA Clippers did do it though, I remember that
Speaker 4: from a pregame show throughout the year, James Harden at
Speaker 4: twenty three, Norm Pale at twenty two, and Kawhi Leonard
Speaker 4: at twenty one and a half. Kawhi only played in
Speaker 4: thirty seven games this season, though, but you also had
Speaker 4: to beat a Zubac up there flirting with it as
Speaker 4: well as seventeen.
Speaker 1: So I think it can be done.
Speaker 4: And I think with the questions of how deep this
Speaker 4: magic team is going to go and how much offensive
Speaker 4: stability you're going to be able to get from that
Speaker 4: second group, the offense might be responsible for mixing in
Speaker 4: with those bench players, and Desmond main can be a
Speaker 4: primary scorer.
Speaker 1: We haven't seen in this current era.
Speaker 4: Of magic basketball where you are comfortable with Bo Palo
Speaker 4: and Franz on the bench for extended time. Desmond Baine
Speaker 4: can change that. Desmond Bane, he can be in a
Speaker 4: rotation with bench and some other starters where he is
Speaker 4: the primary Paul handler, he is the primary facilitator, he
Speaker 4: is the primary score and it's not the worst place
Speaker 4: to be, so I think it'll be an interesting thing
Speaker 4: to track that.
Speaker 3: Right there.
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