Speaker 1: Howard Beck. Happy Friday, my friend. Where do we find
Speaker 1: you right now?
Speaker 2: I happy for Eddie. I'm home in Brooklyn and preparing,
Speaker 2: bracing myself, gearing up to be at the Garden tomorrow
Speaker 2: night where your orange and Blue will be taking on
Speaker 2: what are the Red, White and blue? I think of
Speaker 2: the Pistons.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I'm excited, Yeah for sure. And this is
Speaker 3: a little bit of a throwback.
Speaker 1: And you have to be very old to remember when
Speaker 1: the Pistons and the next played for anything that mattered,
Speaker 1: because it's been really a long long time.
Speaker 3: But let's stay out east. Then we'll kind of make
Speaker 3: our way out this way.
Speaker 1: And if my black hat media magic, you know, if
Speaker 1: I'm able to, you know, conjure up some magic trick,
Speaker 1: maybe we'll talk about the Jazz, but I don't know.
Speaker 1: So let's start with best case scenario for a fifty
Speaker 1: one team.
Speaker 3: It feels like it has a lot of questions.
Speaker 1: I've heard a lot of people believe that Detroit can
Speaker 1: make this uncomfortable. So best case scenario for the Knicks,
Speaker 1: And what do you make of this round one matchup
Speaker 1: against Detroit?
Speaker 2: I think the Pistons chance. I don't think this is
Speaker 2: your average three to six matchup, and I think, you know,
Speaker 2: the biggest knock on the Pistons of the biggest doubt
Speaker 2: will be simply the fact that this team, in this
Speaker 2: construction of it, is making its first foray into the postseason.
Speaker 2: And you know, notably your your key players on that team,
Speaker 2: Kay Cunningham obviously, and Asar Thompson and many of the
Speaker 2: others are are young and new to this, and you
Speaker 2: never know how young players are going to adjust to
Speaker 2: or react to the spotlight. And the Knicks are a very,
Speaker 2: very playoff steeped team, So there's that. But the Pistons
Speaker 2: are tough as heck, and I think we've seen that
Speaker 2: all season. They have proven that over and over again.
Speaker 2: They are tough defensively, and I think they have the
Speaker 2: ability to make life tough on Jalen Brunson and to
Speaker 2: make the next work for this. I think this series
Speaker 2: could go the distance, but I do expect the next
Speaker 2: to win it.
Speaker 1: I will put on my red panda hat for a
Speaker 1: moment and balance some plates and try to bring a
Speaker 1: jazz topic in here. I'm not going to ask you
Speaker 1: about the jazz, but I will ask you about Detroit
Speaker 1: who a year ago Howard was the worst team in
Speaker 1: the NBA and the Jazz are the worst team in
Speaker 1: the NBA. We're waiting to see what the lottery brings.
Speaker 1: But Detroit, for all their troubles, actually fell to five.
Speaker 1: Now Kay got hurt and he's everything to them. So
Speaker 1: I just wondered, from your perspective and vantage point, since
Speaker 1: we're out here in Salt Lake in the midst of
Speaker 1: a very very long rebuild, what stands out most to
Speaker 1: you about the way Detroit has gone about this where
Speaker 1: they're back in the playoffs and very relevant and should
Speaker 1: be for a number of years.
Speaker 2: That's a good question where to start there. I mean, look,
Speaker 2: the Pistons have been in the lottery for most of
Speaker 2: the last two decades, so I don't think we should
Speaker 2: look to Detroit as any model for anything. If we
Speaker 2: want to just take the last you know, four or
Speaker 2: five years and say, well, you know, how have they
Speaker 2: finally gotten their feet under them again? I mean, if
Speaker 2: you're in the lottery enough times and you get the
Speaker 2: number one pick at least once, which they did to
Speaker 2: get Kid, uh, cool, But you know a lot of times,
Speaker 2: like the Pistons have had pretty bad life lottery luck.
Speaker 2: They've they've slipped a lot of times, and so you know,
Speaker 2: if anything, there are a lesson in the lottery and
Speaker 2: being bad or tanking is not a panacea. It's no
Speaker 2: guarantee of anything. I think the most interesting wrinkle in
Speaker 2: their evolution of the last couple of years is and
Speaker 2: this is, of course, after flushing the front office a
Speaker 2: couple of times, flushing the coaching, you know, the head
Speaker 2: coach a couple of times, that the current group, led
Speaker 2: by Trajan Langdon, decided, you know what, we need some
Speaker 2: veterans in here with our young guys. And I was
Speaker 2: a skeptic, I'll be honest. I was like, I don't
Speaker 2: get why they're signing Tobias Harris to a big I
Speaker 2: don't know. It's only like a two year deal, I think.
Speaker 2: But I wasn't convinced last summer that that was the move.
Speaker 2: But they brought in Tobias Harris, and then they later
Speaker 2: brought in Dennis Shrewder, and they signed Malik Beasley, and
Speaker 2: they they traded away Quentin Grimes for Tim Hardaway Junior,
Speaker 2: another deal I did not agree with then and I
Speaker 2: still kind of don't agree with. And you know, bolstered
Speaker 2: by the fact that Quentin Grimes traded again from Dallas
Speaker 2: to Philly went off in Philly down the stretch. Didn't
Speaker 2: understand it. But I do think that bringing in some
Speaker 2: of these vets to put around the young guys has
Speaker 2: helped stabilize them. And obviously the hiring of JB. Bickerstaff
Speaker 2: fresh off of being five was a huge move for them.
Speaker 2: So I think some of this is just like, there's
Speaker 2: a little bit of luck and a little bit of
Speaker 2: patience and a little bit of you know, finding the
Speaker 2: right vets at the right time and the right coach
Speaker 2: at the right time.
Speaker 1: Okay, so tonight we have the Heat and the Hawks
Speaker 1: in Atlanta for the right to face the Calves. Can
Speaker 1: either of these two teams make Cleveland even kind of
Speaker 1: uncomfortable in a playoff series?
Speaker 2: Oh? Man, I wish I could pretend that they would.
Speaker 2: I wish I could sit here and give you the
Speaker 2: Pollyannish kind of like, hey, you know, anything can happen
Speaker 2: in a seven game series or what. Let's be honest.
Speaker 2: There is one major exception this season, and there have
Speaker 2: been some exceptions in recent seasons, and maybe more often
Speaker 2: than we used to in the past, but in general,
Speaker 2: the foll statement holds true. Seventh and eight seeds are
Speaker 2: cannon fodder in this league, and most first round series
Speaker 2: involving one eights and two sevens are are predictable and
Speaker 2: often dull. I'm not expecting much to change this year,
Speaker 2: other than, of course, the biggest you know outlier to that,
Speaker 2: which is the Warriors as a seventh seed, and you know,
Speaker 2: they were very, very very narrowly the seventh seed after
Speaker 2: losing on you know, Game eighty two, and the West
Speaker 2: is just that tough and that deep, and the Warriors,
Speaker 2: you know, if they'd had Jimmy Butler from day one,
Speaker 2: probably would not be, you know, the seventh seed today.
Speaker 2: As former team, the Heat who are playing tonight, who
Speaker 2: you asked about, don't have Jimmy Butler anymore, because that's
Speaker 2: how trades work. When you trade a guy, you don't
Speaker 2: have him, you have Andrew Wiggins instead. The Heat that
Speaker 2: we saw the last few years, you know, play their
Speaker 2: way out of the play in get to the finals,
Speaker 2: be this really tough out all the time. Like there's
Speaker 2: some of that still there, but a lot of that
Speaker 2: was Jimmy frankly, and you know, Tyler Hero has been
Speaker 2: really good for them. Bam out of Bio is still
Speaker 2: Bam out of Bayo. They're still tough, they still play defense,
Speaker 2: but they just don't have a lot of offense to
Speaker 2: speak of, and and a lot of you know, not
Speaker 2: enough ways to just put points on the border create
Speaker 2: open shots. And the Cavaliers are awesome. So no, I'm
Speaker 2: not expecting much out of that series. If it's if
Speaker 2: it's if it's the Heat, or if it's anybody, I
Speaker 2: don't care who it is.
Speaker 1: The Cavaliers are winning for stre Now, just let me
Speaker 1: follow up, because I'm taking copious notes so I can learn.
Speaker 1: So what you're saying is when a team trades a player,
Speaker 1: that player is no longer on that team.
Speaker 3: Did am I understanding that correctly?
Speaker 2: My vast research indicates that that is the case.
Speaker 3: Oh that is just gold on a Friday, Howard. I
Speaker 3: appreciate that.
Speaker 2: Uh, That's what I'm here for.
Speaker 3: I know you are, I know you are.
Speaker 1: I will kick the tires with Pacers bucks because the
Speaker 1: Pacers found a little something over the final six weeks
Speaker 1: of the season, and Milwaukee will be without Dame for
Speaker 1: at least one game. And look, I all always cringe
Speaker 1: when I hear a media member be like, Hey, I
Speaker 1: had a torn acl once.
Speaker 3: Here's what happened to me. But I will tell you
Speaker 3: that I had a blood clout once upon a time,
Speaker 3: and it SAPs your energy.
Speaker 1: I mean, it really does. I don't know what's what
Speaker 1: we can expect from Dame. He's going to be out
Speaker 1: Game one, but the rest of the series, like he
Speaker 1: is going to take a minute to get back to
Speaker 1: being full Damed.
Speaker 3: But Milwaukee is Milwaukee and they have Yiannis.
Speaker 1: So this seems to be a series that is a
Speaker 1: little more intriguing than the others that we've talked about.
Speaker 3: What do you think happens here?
Speaker 2: I'm very intrigued. I was intrigued before we knew what
Speaker 2: Dame's status was. But it's certainly great news for him
Speaker 2: and for the Bucks that he's on the mend, and
Speaker 2: it's great to hear I have not dealt with the
Speaker 2: blood clot, I have had a torn aco. So I
Speaker 2: don't know what you know he's to expect from here.
Speaker 2: I'm imagining that it's going to take several days for
Speaker 2: him to just get back into game shape, and whenever
Speaker 2: we see him appear in the series, we probably won't
Speaker 2: see you know, peak Dame Lillard. But I think that
Speaker 2: the Bucks were already you know, going to be facing
Speaker 2: a bit of an uphill battle here, like they have
Speaker 2: the best player in the series. And you know, one
Speaker 2: of our playoff axioms in the NBA is go with
Speaker 2: the team that has the best player, and that's clearly
Speaker 2: Yannis by quite a bit. However, everything else from two
Speaker 2: through whatever I think is in the Bucks favor, they've
Speaker 2: got us in the Pacers favor. I should say the
Speaker 2: Pacers have more depth there. It's interesting because they're not
Speaker 2: the prototypical like Championship contender where you've got like an
Speaker 2: absolute stud top five, top ten player. Tyres Haliburton will
Speaker 2: probably make all MBA. He was on my ballot, I think,
Speaker 2: on the third team, but he's not in that Yiannis tier.
Speaker 2: But they have Siakham and they've got em hard, and
Speaker 2: they've got Nie Smith, and they've got Miles Turner, and
Speaker 2: they just got a lot of really good, you know,
Speaker 2: teaching McCollum. They's got a lot of really good players
Speaker 2: who contribute and know their roles and play them to
Speaker 2: the hilt. And they've got a bit of a swagger
Speaker 2: about them and We saw that last year when they
Speaker 2: beat the Knicks and then you know, played a really
Speaker 2: tough series again the Celtics. I think the Pacers have
Speaker 2: the overall advantage here, you know, even if Dame is back,
Speaker 2: and even if Dame is at you know, back to
Speaker 2: one hundred percent.
Speaker 1: All right, let's move out west, and you know, let's
Speaker 1: start with the You reference the Warriors as the seventh seed,
Speaker 1: and you know, the the Warriors Grizzlies game was wildly
Speaker 1: entertaining and we had some real vintage steph fourth quarter moments,
Speaker 1: the you know, the triple pump, fake three and a
Speaker 1: couple of dagger threes, and Jimmy was Jimmy over the
Speaker 1: first three quarters. But Howard after, I don't know, after
Speaker 1: kind of dialing into that game, and I don't know
Speaker 1: how many people are really giving the Rockets very much,
Speaker 1: you know, very much, you know, attention or credit for
Speaker 1: what they've achieved all year. I don't think Golden State
Speaker 1: has the size of the length to deal with what
Speaker 1: amy you Douk has in Houston. Now, you could make
Speaker 1: an argument that, you know, back to your point about
Speaker 1: the Pacers bocks, when the team clearly has the best player,
Speaker 1: you tend to side with that team, and you can
Speaker 1: make the argument that Golden State has the two best
Speaker 1: players in the series. And maybe it's not even an argument,
Speaker 1: maybe they just do. But I'm and Thompson is going
Speaker 1: to be stuck like glue to steath. And they've got
Speaker 1: Dylan Brooks, They've got a lot of tough wing defenders,
Speaker 1: and they've got size down load that I don't think
Speaker 1: Golden State does. So I've heard a lot of people say,
Speaker 1: even though it's seven to two, Golden State is going.
Speaker 3: To run through them.
Speaker 1: I don't know, man, I think this is going to
Speaker 1: be a dog fight, a bit of a rock fight.
Speaker 1: So Round one Warriors Rockets, what do you think.
Speaker 2: I love the fact that we have like this just
Speaker 2: clash of all these different axioms or cherished beliefs, right
Speaker 2: like Warriors of all the experience. The Rockets, it's their
Speaker 2: first playoff run with this group, and they've got a
Speaker 2: lot of youth. So we've got the youth versus experience thing.
Speaker 2: And we've got yeah, absolute legends you know with with
Speaker 2: Stephen Draymond and another you know stud with with Jimmy
Speaker 2: all of them very proven. But we also have to
Speaker 2: your point a size issue here, where the Rockets have
Speaker 2: the size advantage across the board. We also have a
Speaker 2: a little bit of a depth thing where I think
Speaker 2: I think the Rockets have a little bit better depth.
Speaker 2: But also there's a youth versus a veteran thing that's
Speaker 2: you know, forget the experience for a minute, but just
Speaker 2: youthful legs and you're on an every other day's schedule
Speaker 2: and you know, you know, Jimmy, Steph and Raymond are
Speaker 2: all in their mid to late thirties. I could they
Speaker 2: just wear down. So I think the Warriors have the
Speaker 2: advantage going in based on all the obvious things to
Speaker 2: do with playoff experience and know how and just you know,
Speaker 2: higher level of talent at the top end. But I
Speaker 2: think the depth and the youth of the Rockets is
Speaker 2: going in, their size is going to make it really
Speaker 2: difficult for them. And we saw that a couple of
Speaker 2: weeks ago when Men Thompson you know, kind of locked
Speaker 2: up Curry and had you know, Steph had one of
Speaker 2: his worst games we've seen in years. Can the Warriors
Speaker 2: do enough to get him off of him, to get
Speaker 2: and to keep Dylan Brooks and the rest of them
Speaker 2: off of him as well. That's a question. Can the Rockets,
Speaker 2: on the flip side of that, though, stick with their
Speaker 2: double big lineup of Shanngoon and Steven Adams or can
Speaker 2: the Warriors play those guys? Or you please play play
Speaker 2: Adams off the court because they're gonna be smaller and
Speaker 2: running up and down the court and trying to you know,
Speaker 2: Steven Adams away from the basket. There's a lot of
Speaker 2: cat and mouse and chess game that's gonna go on here.
Speaker 2: But I give the Warriors the slight edge.
Speaker 3: Okay, fair enough.
Speaker 1: Since I asked you, I have a feeling you're gonna
Speaker 1: give me the same answer.
Speaker 3: But maybe not, because you know, it's it's so wild.
Speaker 1: Regarding what's happened in Dallas this year, the wildest thing
Speaker 1: is simply they traded Luke at twenty five.
Speaker 3: Is a global superstar, a generational talent.
Speaker 1: But because of the kind of the ground swell of
Speaker 1: what the hell are you doing by doing that? We
Speaker 1: talk about Anthony Davis like he's Stromiles Swift and he's awesome, right,
Speaker 1: and like they don't have Kyrie And I'm not saying
Speaker 1: either of these teams, Memphis or Dallas certainly beats Oklahoma City,
Speaker 1: but out of the two, which team gives Okay, see
Speaker 1: at least a little bit pushback Round one.
Speaker 2: Wow, it's hard to stay in part because like the
Speaker 2: key to Memphis being the answer is John Morant, and
Speaker 2: Jah is still ailing right now, Like I don't even know,
Speaker 2: like I haven't seen the latest update, but you know,
Speaker 2: I think he got some kind of injection and like
Speaker 2: he didn't practice yentterday, Like is he gonna play it?
Speaker 2: I assume he'll play tonight, but you know, John Morant. First,
Speaker 2: the Grizzlies have to get past the mass and then
Speaker 2: Jahn Morant needs to be you know, close to one
Speaker 2: hundred percent by Sunday, which is probably not gonna happen.
Speaker 2: I don't trust what Dallas has, Like there's they don't
Speaker 2: They don't really have a point guard now, they don't
Speaker 2: have a lot of shot creation that they get their
Speaker 2: shot creation through mostly ball movement and just power. But
Speaker 2: you don't have without Kyrie. You don't have that off
Speaker 2: the bounced guy who can just penetrate a defense, break
Speaker 2: it down, force help and then get get you know,
Speaker 2: get guys in rotation. So I don't I don't trust
Speaker 2: the Mavericks top level talent right now, they don't have
Speaker 2: it they need. If you don't have Luca, then you
Speaker 2: needed Kyrie, and now you don't have Kyrie. They don't
Speaker 2: have Luca, by the way, because they traded him to
Speaker 2: the Lakers. And as we've established, once you do that
Speaker 2: no longer.
Speaker 3: I'm adding the footnote to my earlier note. Thank you hour.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah for sure. So no, I don't trust these
Speaker 2: of these teams is going to give Oklahoma much of
Speaker 2: a challenge. But if it is the Grizzlies who emerge,
Speaker 2: I think that across the board, they're just better built
Speaker 2: because they didn't trade their superstar midseason. Right Like, we
Speaker 2: might have this conversation this time next year, and the
Speaker 2: Mavericks conversation might be very different, but right now they're
Speaker 2: a team that needs to take the offseason to kind
Speaker 2: of fix their roster.
Speaker 1: The four five and the three six man two really
Speaker 1: good teams are going home after round one. So let's
Speaker 1: go to Nugs Clips. And you know I talked to
Speaker 1: you about this last week. Whenever Kwi is healthy for
Speaker 1: an extended stretch, we're all reminded of oh yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1: He is still one of those guys and Jeff Van
Speaker 1: Gundhi giving a lot of credit our guy here on
Speaker 1: the show. It makes me sadly doesn't join us anymore.
Speaker 1: But I'm glad that he has a job. I wonder
Speaker 1: if he's going to get a head coaching job after
Speaker 1: how we You know, he's kind of been credited by
Speaker 1: helping Tylu with his defense. I'm not taking anything away
Speaker 1: from Tye, but Nuggets clips round one. Man. There's a
Speaker 1: lot on the line here because you know, Denver of
Speaker 1: course fired their head coach and Howard just so you know,
Speaker 1: when you fire a head coach, he no longer coaches
Speaker 1: the team. Uh So, Denver La clip, Denver La clips?
Speaker 3: How does this go down?
Speaker 2: We are just like giving out some like incredible wisdoms. Yes,
Speaker 2: like your audience, I hope they know how fortunate they are.
Speaker 3: Yeah they should. If they don't, they should.
Speaker 2: Nuggets Clippers like there is there's no such thing as
Speaker 2: an upset really in a four or five, especially when
Speaker 2: you've got an identical record. But to the extent that
Speaker 2: the Clippers are the lower seed, I think they're pulling
Speaker 2: the upset here. Upset in like quote marks, I really
Speaker 2: really really respect what the Clippers have been able to
Speaker 2: do this year like I was, and I'll admit this outright,
Speaker 2: I thought, Wait, you resigned Kawhi Leonard all this money,
Speaker 2: but you're letting Paul George walk. What are you doing?
Speaker 2: Like are you trying to contend or are you not
Speaker 2: trying to? Like what's going on here? Really you're relying
Speaker 2: on always hurt Kawhi Leonard and you know you never
Speaker 2: know what you're going to get from him, James Harden
Speaker 2: at this stage of his career, and oh, Norm pounds
Speaker 2: that there's some nice players here, but like, really, where
Speaker 2: are you guys going with all this? And oh here
Speaker 2: they are fifty wins. Incredible job by Tyler and as
Speaker 2: you point out by jeff Bean Gundy who joined the
Speaker 2: staff this year. Incredible job by James Harden holding it
Speaker 2: down until Kawhi Leonard got back. Incredible job by Kawhi
Speaker 2: Leonard becoming Kawhi Leonard again. And you know, being an
Speaker 2: interest an incredibly dominant player for the last couple of months.
Speaker 2: The only reason not to believe in the Clippers right now.
Speaker 2: And they've had one of the best every like every
Speaker 2: metric you can cite for the last six seven eight weeks.
Speaker 2: The Clippers are are right up there with the best
Speaker 2: teams in the league, and the only reason to doubt
Speaker 2: them would be if you don't trust Kawhi to stay
Speaker 2: healthy through a series, which fair understandable, We've seen that
Speaker 2: play many times, or if you don't trust James Harden
Speaker 2: to come through in the clutch, which again fair, we've
Speaker 2: seen that play many times. But he doesn't have to
Speaker 2: be their leading scorer in this case, because they've got
Speaker 2: Kawhi Leonard, and they've got Norm Powell and Ivika Zubac
Speaker 2: has had a great season and is one of the
Speaker 2: few centers who can at least make Jokic work. And
Speaker 2: the Nuggets are in a weird place. I mean, they,
Speaker 2: as we know, just fire their GM and coach and
Speaker 2: one fell swoop with days ago in the regular season,
Speaker 2: one of the stranger things we've seen, and so I
Speaker 2: feel like there's still a little bit of a cloud
Speaker 2: over them, though they did finish strong under Dave Battleman.
Speaker 1: I cannot believe I'm going to ask you this, but
Speaker 1: I will because this year in the NBA, a lot
Speaker 1: of paradigms have been shifted and changed. If Denver loses
Speaker 1: Round one, is there any way that Nikola Jokic decides
Speaker 1: that he needs another place to play? And is there
Speaker 1: any way that, like it would have to be a mandate,
Speaker 1: it would have to be you have to trade me.
Speaker 1: But hey, we saw Luka traded and if I'm Nikola Jokic,
Speaker 1: I'm looking around. I'm like, did I'm the best in
Speaker 1: the world at this and you need to do more
Speaker 1: to take advantage of me before I'm thirty two to
Speaker 1: thirty three years old? If they lose round one? What
Speaker 1: does the offseason look like in Denver?
Speaker 2: In this league, It's always fair to ask that question.
Speaker 2: There's a part of me that says, like, Eh, like,
Speaker 2: we can't get ahead of ourselves. Let's not get crazy.
Speaker 2: Let's not stir it up too much on the Jokics front,
Speaker 2: especially given the Jokic doesn't seem to be wired that way,
Speaker 2: that he's not that kind of personality, right, He's not
Speaker 2: one running around making demands. He's a pretty low maintenance superstar.
Speaker 2: And I don't expect it. As bad as things have
Speaker 2: gotten there, or as shaky as things have been, I
Speaker 2: should say, I don't expect even a first round knockout
Speaker 2: is going to suddenly cause him to like start stomping
Speaker 2: his feet and say trade me. But it's the NBA
Speaker 2: and you just never know, and you can't take guys
Speaker 2: of his caliber for granted. And it's got to be frustrating,
Speaker 2: you know. Ever since they won the championship, you know,
Speaker 2: they lose key rotation players. Now they've fired the GM
Speaker 2: and the only head coach that he's ever played for
Speaker 2: in the NBA. There's just a lot of static there
Speaker 2: right now, and we don't know who the new GM
Speaker 2: is going to be. We don't know if David Adaman
Speaker 2: is going to be the permanent head coach. There are
Speaker 2: questions Jokic and his representation. I'm sure we'll be asking
Speaker 2: some of those questions, but I don't I feel like
Speaker 2: we're getting too far ahead of ourselves to speculate on
Speaker 2: his future at this stage.
Speaker 1: All right, another good team's going home. It's either going
Speaker 1: to be the Lakers or the Timberwolves. You know, this
Speaker 1: is the last series that we have not talked about.
Speaker 1: It's the late game coming up tomorrow night. Obviously the
Speaker 1: process of watching Luke and Lebron figured this out has
Speaker 1: been fascinating with two you know, high IQ basketball players
Speaker 1: like that you give the Timberwolves a puncher's chance here,
Speaker 1: what do you think happens round one?
Speaker 2: Yes, puncher's chance. The Timberwolves obviously made a big trade
Speaker 2: right on, you know, the eve of training camp when
Speaker 2: they swapped out Towns for Julius Randall, And it took
Speaker 2: them a while to get their feedback under them and
Speaker 2: and to really you know, integrate Randall and figure out
Speaker 2: what their identity was now. But they've been really good,
Speaker 2: another one of those teams where the staying And they
Speaker 2: won forty nine games, which is not bad at all,
Speaker 2: But they finished the season much stronger than they began it,
Speaker 2: so the record is not fully reflective. I think of
Speaker 2: how dangerous they could be. You know, the Lakers, you know,
Speaker 2: you're always like, you should never bet against Lebron. We've
Speaker 2: learned that many many times. And Lebron and Luca together
Speaker 2: is just absolutely you know, striking fear in the hearts
Speaker 2: of every coach, every film breakdown, guy like you don't
Speaker 2: want to face that. But the Lakers don't have a
Speaker 2: complete roster, They don't have a real traditional big Jackson
Speaker 2: Hayes will play some nominal minutes out there as the
Speaker 2: starter at center, but otherwise it's you know, Dorian Finney
Speaker 2: Smith or Ruy Hashimura. In the Minnesota Timberwolves take advantage
Speaker 2: with Randall and Rudy Gobert. Randall likes to play bully ball.
Speaker 2: Who's guarding him. But the flip side of it is
Speaker 2: the Timberwolves have to contend with with Luca and Lebron.
Speaker 2: They do have some great primer defenders the Kail Alexander
Speaker 2: Walker and Anthony Edwards himself and Jade McDaniels and Chris
Speaker 2: Finch is a really good coach. So I think that
Speaker 2: siver Wolves can make this a real series. I think
Speaker 2: this thing could could go six or seven games. I
Speaker 2: do think the Lakers, just based on the firepower of
Speaker 2: Lebron and Luca and Austin Grieves have been has had
Speaker 2: an incredible season as well. So they've got they've got
Speaker 2: three guys who can hurt you in crunch time, and
Speaker 2: I'm not sure that Minnesota could say the same.
Speaker 1: All Right, Howard, before I say you lose, I know
Speaker 1: I've talked to you about this, but now it's time
Speaker 1: to actually get serious. And you know, as far as
Speaker 1: casting votes and such, MVP appears to be still pretty
Speaker 1: highly debated. It's one of those things where I have
Speaker 1: an opinion and I do think it's Shay, but I
Speaker 1: also acknowledge that Jokic continues to be historic and I
Speaker 1: think he's the best player of this generation. Howard Beck
Speaker 1: take MVP Pro Basketball this year? Is who and why?
Speaker 2: It's It's Shae, And Shae was on my official ballot
Speaker 2: that I sent in earlier this week. And it's not
Speaker 2: a knock on Jokic. It never is a knock and
Speaker 2: I hate so often the MVP discussion has become like
Speaker 2: how much can you, you know, tear into the other
Speaker 2: guy's case. Yokis did everything he possibly could and he
Speaker 2: had another incredible season. So did Shae. And if you
Speaker 2: want to say, well Yokis did historic things, so did she.
Speaker 2: And we don't have to get into the neddy gritty
Speaker 2: of those stats. But it's all there, trust me. But
Speaker 2: there's also a long standing, you know, structure for this
Speaker 2: award that is not acknowledged, but it's there. If you
Speaker 2: look at the history of the award, with very few exceptions,
Speaker 2: it is usually a player on one of the best teams.
Speaker 2: And you can't say that about the Nuggets this year.
Speaker 2: They've barely got the fifty wins, and the Oklahoma City
Speaker 2: Thunder won sixty eight games sixty eight they were flirting
Speaker 2: with seventy, and Shay is a really big part of that.
Speaker 2: He's the most important reason for that. Does he have
Speaker 2: a better supporting cast, Sure, but that's been the case
Speaker 2: with this award many many times over the years. It's
Speaker 2: not punishing a guy who had a great individual season,
Speaker 2: but his teammates just weren't good enough to get him there.
Speaker 2: It's no this is the standard. The standard is again
Speaker 2: a couple of exceptions Russell Westbrook one of the other
Speaker 2: Yoka Chiers actually, but for the most part, for the
Speaker 2: last forty years, the MVP goes to a team that
Speaker 2: is clearly among the elite, and the Thunder one sixty
Speaker 2: eight games, eighteen more than the Nuggets, sixteen more than
Speaker 2: any other team in the conference. Shay was the biggest
Speaker 2: reason for that. He had a phenomenal year offensively. He's
Speaker 2: a plus defensively as well. I think his case was
Speaker 2: incredibly strong. I had no reservations about voting for him.
Speaker 1: One more quick one because I mentioned this earlier. You
Speaker 1: think Jeff gets a look as a head coach, you
Speaker 1: think somebody, Yeah, you know, I'm biased. I'm the wrong
Speaker 1: guy to ask anybody should hire him. I mean, that's
Speaker 1: my guy. But do you think after what's happened with
Speaker 1: the Clips this year, somebody looks at Jeff van Gunny
Speaker 1: for a head coaching job.
Speaker 2: I would think so, Spence. I'm not sure where Jeff's
Speaker 2: head is these days on that. Does he like, is
Speaker 2: he just enjoying now getting to be like the sage
Speaker 2: veteran on the bench with the younger head coach in Tylerue,
Speaker 2: or does he want that head coaching job again and
Speaker 2: everything that goes with it, all the stress and scrutiny.
Speaker 2: I know that there were years there during his run
Speaker 2: with ESPN where you know, he was certainly interested in
Speaker 2: getting back to the bench, and teams kept passing up
Speaker 2: on him. So I'm not saying that as a criticism
Speaker 2: or as any kind of like doubts. I just I
Speaker 2: don't know what that is, right, Like, I haven't talked
Speaker 2: to all these owners in GMS about why they didn't
Speaker 2: hire Jeff any of the other years that they could have,
Speaker 2: But it felt at a certain point like the league
Speaker 2: had just decided to move on and he was no
Speaker 2: longer the hot name or as you know whatever. I
Speaker 2: don't know what to make of it. It was kind
Speaker 2: of a mystery. But he spent that year with Boston.
Speaker 2: He's now but on the bench with the Clippers. He's
Speaker 2: getting a ton of credit, deserving credit for how the
Speaker 2: Clippers have you know, built their defense this year, especially
Speaker 2: without Kawhi for most of it. I gotta think that
Speaker 2: that is getting him some notice. And if he wants
Speaker 2: to be a coach again, you know, we know there's
Speaker 2: already a few openings and there will probably be a
Speaker 2: couple of more.
Speaker 3: All right, my friend, Well, great time of year.
Speaker 1: Appreciate your time and the intimate knowledge of how transactions
Speaker 1: work in pro basketball. Howard, have a great weekend, Buddy,
Speaker 1: will chat to you right the great Howard back NBA playoffs.
Speaker 3: It is time.
Speaker 1: Howard Beck one of the best writers in the NBA
Speaker 1: writer ecosystem at Howard Beck on Twitter and then he'll
Speaker 1: send you to his blue sky because he doesn't tweet anymore.
Speaker 1: But I always appreciate Howard's time. All right, I've got
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