Halford & Brough in the Morning - Will Tom Willander Sign With The Canucks?

Episode Date: April 15, 2025

In hour two, Mike & Jason discuss the future of the top defensive prospect Tom Willander, and if he will sign with the Canucks for next season, (3:00), plus they preview the NBA playoffs with All City NBA Podcasts's Adam Mares (25:17). This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

A check attempt by Wendrick forces Quinn Hughes to the outside. Now he cuts behind the San Jose net. He throws it back. Shot by Besser! High and wide! Rebound! Score! Alexander Gyorgiyev tried to twist his body into a pretzel and gained seven more arms

to become an octopus. But unfortunately the rebound of that shot by Fesser deflected off the end boards and came out. As Giorgiup twisted to try to make the save, Jake deBrus Conley just tapped it underneath him and put it in. Canucks win it by the score of two to one in overtime. 702 on a Tuesday.

Happy Tuesday everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough in the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. 702 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough in the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. BC's first and trusted choice for debt help with over 3,000 five star reviews. Visit them online at sans-trustee.com. We are in hour two of the program now. That's right, hour two. Hour two is brought to you by Jason Homonuck at Jason.mortgage. If you love giving the banks more of your money, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you.

Visit him online at jason.mortgage. What is going on here? It sounded like the Canucks game was played in the 1920s last night. A Canucks of water with a taste of Lady Licker. The arena's going gonna burn down again. We're coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec footwear and orthotics working together with you in step.

By the way, the Denman, old Denman arena. They burned down. Where the millionaires played? Burned down. A lot of things burned down back then. It's like bad luck started. A few blocks from my house. And close to the key. Well, way to make it about you, buddy.

Right, which is also close to the downtown core of the Pacific Coliseum. That's right. Yeah, all within spitting distance in the heart of downtown the Pacific Coliseum So yesterday in case you missed it during the Canucks game There was some very Interesting I'm using my words delicately here for no particular reason but some very interesting reporting going on regarding the future of Canucks prospect, Tom Willander. I will walk you through it chronologically and all of this unfolded while the Canucks were in the middle of their heart stopping win against the San Jose sharks last night. So shortly after puck drop at seven o'clock our time, uh, daily face-offs, Frank Sarah Valley tweeted out the following.

I'm hearing that the Canucks in 2023 first round pick Tom Willander have an agreement in place on an entry level deal that begins in the twenty twenty five, twenty twenty six season. Not entirely clear when the deal will be announced, but he's turning pro. Oh, that sounds great. Will Anderson, awesome. Will Anderson is back on campus, because he loves school. That's me putting that in. And he will finish out the semester.

So at 718 last night, as you said. Awesome. It's good. Ooh, that's good. Then at 7.55 PM, Thomas Drantz of Canucks Talk in the Athletic Vancouver. Oh, he's gonna ruin it. He ruins everything.

He sure did, Jason. He tweeted out that, I checked in with both sides to confirm Frank Saravalli's report about Tom Willander and the Canucks being in agreement on a three year entry level contract and have heard uniform denials in response. Ooh, that's bad. I've been told there's no agreement.

And as of Monday evening, progress in talks continues to be slow. We're not done yet, though Shortly after drance tweeted that out Steve Ewan of the province tweeted out said Tom will under carries with him a terrible curse Steve Ewan writes Todd Diamond who's Tom Willander's family advisor, make sure you point that out, he's not an agent right now,

he's just a family advisor. He said that Frank Zervalli's report about Willander signing was totally false via email. Something was said, not good. Frank then got back on the Twitter machine and said that he wanted to amend his earlier report. Quote, it was premature to say that the two sides have an agreement

in place tonight. However, sources are very confident that this will end with an agreement that begins in the twenty twenty five, twenty twenty six season. OK, what drama? What a saga. So it seems to me like it's unlikely that Will Ender is going to play for the Vancouver Canucks this season. He might still play for the Abbotsford

Canucks. Apparently the battle is over schedule A bonuses. Now, Halford, you're going to recap what schedule A bonuses are. They're scheduled to come out on any day that has the letter A involved in its name. That sounds correct. You're correct. Every day is a bonus day. So it's actually, in all seriousness, it's individual accomplishments.

I knew that. Goals assist. Winning the heart trophy. I think it's capped at like a million bucks or something. So I imagine if you're going to have an argument about schedule A bonuses, it would be, okay, well, how much money can I earn here? But also how easy is it to get it? Right, attainable bonuses.

Attainable bonuses, right? If you play- That's the A in A bonuses, attainable. Are you able to tie your skates? That's 50 grand right there. That's a schedule B bonus. That's what the nets are offering. The schedule B bonuses are actually tougher.

Oh really? Yeah, I think they're more tied, they're more tied to like league wide accomplishments. I think that's the actual- Like rookie of the year and that sort of thing. Winning the Kahn Smythe, which is hard when you don't make the playoffs. What's the schedule of C-Bones then?

The schedule, that's the skate time stuff. Yeah. That's sportsmanship. The Sabres give all their players the Kahn Smythe schedule of the Kahn Smythe. Yeah, we'll give you a million dollars if you win playoffs MVP. We'll give you a million dollars if you win Playoffs MVP. We'll give you two million dollars.

Well, I just hope that Tom Willander, I just hope that he reports to Abbotsford for the playoffs. And there is still time to get something done so that he can do that because Abbotsford's season actually ends on Saturday. So the Calder Cup playoffs don't start until a little bit after that. Yeah. The Stanley Cup playoffs start on, on, on Saturday, but that's the final game for Abbotsford. So there's still time.

I'm not particularly worried about this. Um, the fact that, um, we're hearing things like, it's just, it's like, it's a negotiation now. It's, I'd be worried if I was hearing things like, Tom Willander isn't even talking to the Canucks right now. That's where you were. Do you remember, was it Cutter Goetje that the Flyers couldn't even like-

Couldn't get a meeting with. They couldn't even get a meeting with him. But they kept that under wraps pretty well. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but the whole idea- Can't do that in Vancouver though. No, no, no. 18 different outlets talking about the Tom Willander story. Yeah, Todd Diamond has a big mouth. No, no. 18 different outlets talking about the Tom Willander story. Yeah.

Todd Diamond has a big mouth. Yeah. Loves to email. Loves to email. But you know, that's when I'd be worried is if there were no conversations at all. This to me just seems like a negotiation about money that is probably going to get figured out.

And you know, I don't expect, or I'd be surprised if Tom Willander went back to school because of an argument over Schedule A bonuses. Like, let's make it abundantly clear, we have no, there's no reason to panic. I saw a lot of people, especially on social media, shockingly accusing the media of trying to drum up drama and panic and concern and worry to fuel some sort of narrative that the sky is continually falling on this

franchise and that this is just another example of things going terribly wrong. I did try yesterday in vain, I suppose, because some people accused me of rewriting history, but just pointing out that there are some trends, recent ones as well, not going into the way back machine of one players returning to school. To either utilize that part of the CBA where collegiate players can play out their four years and then basically become a free agent and say where they want. Isaac Howard, a former

first-round pick of the Tampa Bay Lightning, is on that trajectory right now and he's gonna do that at Michigan State so they're gonna try and move him. And then I mentioned Cutter Goche as well, an entirely different scenario but just kind of wanted to call his own shots, did not want to be in Philadelphia and more distressingly wanted to be in Anaheim, and he got his wish. But this doesn't sound like that. No, but you just, it's, it would be- No, no, no, but this, but no, no, no, this doesn't sound like that because if it's gotten all the

way to the point where they're arguing over Schedule A bonuses, he's clearly not just being like, nah, I don't really want to be with the Canucks. This does not sound like that. Where I was going with the conversation was, if anyone's wondering why people are going down this road, it's because there's a mechanism available to Will Lander and every other NCAA player, every other NCAA player that isn't gifted to other guys.

It's just a, it's a CBA loophole and you just have to be aware of it and cognizant of it. So that's it. So Peter and Cloverdale texts in, I don't think I've heard of teams and college players negotiating. Usually, it's if the player wants to play for the team or not, how much money can they possibly be arguing about?

Well, like a million bucks. And again, there's time to do it. Because if you want Will Ander to play for Abbotsford in the playoffs, again, he probably wants to finish his classes. Love school. Abbottsford's regular season doesn't finish until Saturday, so you got a few days to argue. No school on Saturdays.

You might as well. And then hopefully get him into the lineup for the playoffs. Now that we're down this road a little bit though, the other interesting thing with the NCAA wrinkle and loophole in the CVA is that with the transfer portal, it can actually make even more sense for guys to stick around for the full four years of their collegiate collegiate experience. Cause if they want to go chase a national title or join a program that is on the

verge, like it does open up another avenue. You don't have to stay at the same school. You can move to another one too. Stop fear mongering. Ah man. Tom Willander's going to Western Michigan. He's like, I'm jumping on that train right now. Did you, I heard-

That's not true. It's just a joke. So I heard a- It's a collegiate hockey joke. It's a deep cut. Okay, stop your fear mongering. And listen to this crazy stat that I heard. Go.

That Western Michigan's defense was older on average than Chicago's defense. Yeah, I heard that, I saw that stat making the rounds. I didn't get the exact- Isn't that incredible? Yeah. I mean, Western Michigan is that type of program where they're gonna take the guys

that are a little bit older. Because the young guys always, I don't wanna go to Western Michigan, that's not cool. That's right. I wanna go to Michigan, real Michigan. Half the guys in their blue line are married with kids. Yeah, no, I know. It was in a couple of the conference tournaments

ahead of March Madness. I mean, look, I watched a lot of college basketball this year and I was watching, I think I told you, Grand Canyon University had a player that was 24 years old and was on his fourth or fifth school. And that's kind of NCAA sports. If you want, you can do the Van Wilder thing and extend your eligibility well into your 20s.

Right, you can be mid to late 20s basically. Teams like Michigan or whatever, they're like the one and done schools. Yeah. You know, they're the Dukes. Right. Of college hockey. That's a very good way of looking at it. The blue bloods of college hockey.

And Western Michigan is the, I don't know, Western Kentucky. We'll take it for your fifth year. We love to have you here. Okay, speaking of basketball. Yes. The NBA plan starts tonight and we're going to talk about that with our next guest, but I wanted to ask the listeners whether or not they'd want to have an

NHL plan. So let's say the NHL took the NBA's model for the plan in the Western Conference. took the NBA's model for the plan. In the Western Conference, you would have Minnesota playing St. Louis as a seven, eight matchup. And the winner of that game would get into the playoffs. The loser of that game would still have a chance

because they would play the winner of Calgary versus Vancouver, nine, 10, and then the winner of that game would make the playoffs. So if you're Vancouver in the 10 spot in the conference, you would have to win two games. First, you'd have to beat Calgary and then you'd have to beat the loser of Minnesota St. Louis.

For me, from a pure business perspective, this is a no-brainer to do it. It would just get a ton of people interested in these games. And it would get frankly, out of market people interested in these games because, you know, not all these games are winner take all. Like the seven, eight, if you lose that, you're not necessarily out of it. You still got a chance to get in the back door, but you know, the Calgary Vancouver game,

losing you're out of there. So it's like these games that, I mean, they would be very stressful to watch, but I also feel like in the NHL, there wouldn't be, like it wouldn't really matter. You know, like, are any of these teams gonna win the cup? That that's the difference. I think between the NHL and and this year not every year, but this year in the NBA Some of the teams involved in the plan

Correct me if I'm wrong here Like who are the teams involved in the plan in the NBA? Well, the Golden State Warriors. Yeah, Golden State. Yeah, Golden State to Mark U. Golden State has a chance. Golden State with their record. Yeah. Of 48.

Because they got Jimmy Butler. They won 48 games. They would be the fifth seed in the East. Like they're a good team. Right? It just happens that the West is really loaded. OK, so let me do the historical background here. Because really what you're wondering is,

does the playoff? Get impacted by the teams that make it through the play in the short answer from the NBA is yes because a couple seven seeds Have gone on to make long playoff runs including the 2023 Miami Heat which also featured Jimmy Butler the interesting thing about them is they went into the play-in as the seventh seed that year lost the seven eight game, but then won their second game and got in and then they had this really crazy run. Now here's general history has shown that if you're a seven or an eight seed, you've got the opportunity to make some noise. Since they instituted this format in 2021, the 10th seed, so the last team into the play-in, has never made it through. The 10th seed usually gets outed as, you know,

the 10th best team in the conference. Well, it's also hard, they have to win two games. Right. And they're just not, usually they're not good. Very rarely is a 10th seed above 500, and very rarely are they considered a serious contender. But in the NHL, you give the Canucks a fighting chance. Well, see, we opened the door in the bubble where we had a play in.

Right. Because there were teams that were outside the playoff picture going in. And that's where the intrigue really got sparked. I think there's a different type of plan. Yeah. But you you had teams that weren't your traditional one through the lower seats. Right. And it was an interesting sort of thought experiment for the league to see like what would this be like laddie? I remember you push back rather aggressively against a play-in tournament for the National Hockey League. What was yours? What was your logic behind that?

It's teams have no business being involved in this part of the season playing to get into this part of the season And I get that I get that part of it. It's like. Why do I want to see sub, you know, mediocre teams battle it out for the final spot? Well, there's five points difference between the Wild and the Canucks. There's not, there's not, there's not like a huge difference. And if the Canucks were in the East, they'd be in. You could argue the Wild aren't good enough to be in the playoffs.

Honestly. Well, eight teams are going to make it. So that's not a good argument to make. Like these teams are all, you know, from a pure, I'm talking about like fan interest, which is important in business, which I know all fans don't care about, but like fan interest. Ask yourself the question, okay? You're in the entertainment business, okay? Would fans watch those games? 100%.

I'm gonna watch tonight. I'm gonna probably watch Atlanta and Orlando tonight. The first time I will have watched either of those teams this year with any sort of interest. I'm not arguing that it doesn't make sense financially. I'm just saying as a fan, I would rather see the hard cut off. I like it better.

The hard cut. You love a hard cut for the playoffs. I love a good hard cut. So in the East, you would rather see the hard cut off. I like it better. The hard cut. You love a hard cut for the playoff. I love a good hard cut. So in the East, you would have seven through 10. Right now you've got New Jersey, Montreal, Columbus, and Detroit. Detroit fans would be all over this, you know, to watch that, to watch that. I mean, they haven't seen their team in the playoffs for a long, long time. That is a part of it.

And I don't know, you know, it's kind of like is it So gimmicky not really it's not so gimmicky I mean the NBA is doing it so the NBA tries everything they've never done anything The NBA is the ultimate litmus test like we'll try it okay, we'll try it two fans like it in the NBA Do they watch these games? They've been Fine like it hasn't been a rousing success like people have mocked the play-in especially Yeah, you know the broadcasters okay like Charles Barkley and Shaq have often laughed when I mean it was quite famous like the Minnesota Timber War was a couple years ago. They were celebrating, like they won an NBA championship.

He's like, you won the play-in. Like, let's, and there is that element to it. It's like, does this really count? Like, did we win a playoff series? Do we have playoff experience? Now all of those things. But I will say, like in the case of the, what it does, what it does is it kind of reinstitutes

the underdog into a certain degree, the Cinderella. It does, because in a parody league like the National Hockey League, we've said it countless times, the St. Louis Blues win a first round playoff series. Numerically, they're the underdog, but they're not gonna be a huge underdog. Okay, I'm gonna take you back to little Jason's childhood. And Gary Betman talks a lot about the tradition I'm going to take you back to little Jason's childhood and

Gary Batman talks a lot about the tradition of 16 teams making the playoffs and how the Stanley Cup playoffs are the best playoffs And I don't disagree that the Stanley Cup playoffs are the best playoffs. Okay, okay, but when little Jason Started watching hockey 16 teams made the playoffs tradition There were 21 teams in the NHL. Yes, yes. Okay, the 1983-84 standings had teams like Chicago in the Norris division with a record of 30 wins, 42 losses and eight ties.

So they had a whopping 68 points that season make the playoffs. Bad teams made the playoffs. That was a bad team and it made the playoffs. The Winnipeg Jets that season were 31, 38 and 11 for a whopping 73 points. The Canucks also had 73 points. Good for third place in the smite division. They made the playoffs. Those teams wouldn't have made the playoffs with a record like that in the smite division, they made the playoffs. Those teams wouldn't have made the playoffs with a record like that in the current NHL. No. So you had five teams missed the playoffs. Yep.

And they were dreadful teams. So one team out of each division, like the Leafs had 61 points that season. They missed it in the Norris. The Kings had 59 points in the smite. They missed 66 for Hartford and then Kill to this the Patrick division the unlucky Patrick division was the one stuck with six teams So two teams a whopping two teams of the division would miss New Jersey had 41 points and Pittsburgh had 38

right, so they were god awful. That season. Yeah. You know, so when you bring up the whole argument of tradition, the league has changed. The league has more teams now, so vis-a-vis should it have more playoff teams? No, in the eyes of Gary Batman, because he

thinks they've got it perfect right now. He thinks that it's very difficult to make the playoffs, which it is when half the leagues are making it. It's not easy to make the playoffs in the national hockey league and there's no sort of consolation prize like the play in yet. And I think that he will forever hang his hat on the fact that you can't match the first round of the NHL playoffs.

You can't. The first round of the NHL playoffs in terms of competitiveness and the amount of series that go the distance and go to wire, go the wire. You get the energy of starting the playoffs. It's always the best round. You get the health also, because by the time the Stanley Cup final comes around, you gotta admit, sometimes the hockey's not great because guys are done. That is the only good argument for not having a plan. You take away from the buzz of the first round. Well, no, it's more about the wear and tear

of the playoffs as it goes on, and how it just adds to the injuries. But again, you're talking about team seven through 10. Playing one game. But they're, and they're probably not, they're not gonna go that far. Probably not gonna go that far. I don't think the wear and tear factor's

that big of a deal. And the other teams get more rest while they're playing these plans. Yeah, I don't think the wear and tear factor's a big deal. If you're talking to one game, like one extra game for a play, it isn't gonna make a big deal. You're talking about a league that's afraid to add like two minutes to't think the wear and tear factor is a big if you're talking to one game like one extra game for a Play isn't gonna make you're talking about a leak That's afraid to add like two minutes to overtime because of wear and tear they're gonna add an attire round and not Yeah, no worry there. I don't think they'll do it as long as Batman's Commissioner He seems staunchly opposed to it and this is a guy that has at times

seated His stance to the owners and then kind of done like the tisk, tisk told you so like you've heard all this stuff about the centralized draft now, right? Like people are saying, man, after we had such a great time at the Sphere in Vegas last year, shouldn't we have just stuck with what we had? And Betman sitting there in his chair like a disappointed father. He's like, I told you so, but you guys wanted to do the centralized draft, right?

And that's where he's seated sometimes. In this instance, no, he's very defiant that they've got the perfect formula for the playoffs. And I think maybe he's bristling at the notion of other leagues like the NBA, they're like, we'll try it, like, hey, let's try it, why not? Let's give it a shot. Because the NBA has gone through the pros and cons of it.

I don't think Betman even wants to entertain that because he loves the sanctity of that first round. And it is admittedly, even though I give the league and Betman crap from time to time, the first round of the playoffs is, like, you can bank on it being good. You can almost, like, guarantee it.

As opposed to the NBA playoffs. I have no idea what you're getting in the first round to be complete that. There is going to be a little NBA talk coming up next on the Halford and Bref show on Sportsnet 650. Hey, it's Mick Nazar. Have your say and join me on the People's Show with big takes and even bigger bets weekdays three to four on Sportsnet 650 or wherever you get your podcasts. ["Sportsnet 650 Theme Song"] 733 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. Halford, Bruv Sportsnet 650. Halford and Bruv of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates BC Spurs and Trusted Choice

for NetHelp with over 3,000 five-star reviews. Visit them online at sans-trustee.com. We are in hour two of the program. Adam Maas from the all city NBA podcast is going to join us in just a moment here. Our two of this program is brought to by Jason Hominock at Jason dot mortgage. If you love paying too much for your mortgage, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit them online at Jason dot mortgage. As we mentioned in the previous segment, NBA play in tournament begins tonight. A very tantalizing affair in the second, the nightcap between the Golden State

Warriors and the Memphis Grizzlies joining us now to break it all down. As mentioned from the all city NBA podcast, Adam Maras here on the Halford and Bref show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Adam. How are you? I'm good fellas. How you doing? We're good. Thanks for taking the time to do this today. We appreciate it. So I do want to start with that Warriors Grizzlies game Just because of the records of the two teams involved in the possibility of one may be going on a run

One who do you see emerging as the winner this evening and two does that winner? Have what it takes to make a significant dent in the Western Conference playoff chase takes to make a significant dent in the Western Conference playoff chase? Well, I definitely think the winner has a chance to make a dent just given who the matchup is. If you win this game, you go into the, face the two seeded Houston Rockets, who I think had a phenomenal year,

but are very inexperienced. You don't know how they're gonna respond in a playoff setting, and they struggle to score in the clutch, which is usually an important bellwether for how a team will have playoff setting and they struggle to score in the clutch, which is usually an important bellwether for how a team will have a playoff success. So if it's the Warriors who I anticipate winning tonight, they're the more veteran team. The Grizzlies have been struggling and have not looked like a very

competitive playoff team. So if it is the Warriors and they face the Rockets, I actually like the Warriors chances quite a bit. How dramatically different have the Warriors been since acquiring Jimmy Butler? I mean, very different. It was funny. Draymond Green had some interesting comments, right, around the All-Star break, where he predicted that the Warriors

would win a championship this year, which is obviously pretty bold. But he said something that stuck with me, which was that the team, even though their record was around 500 at the time, he said, we're right there. It seems like we're not from the outside, but I know that we're right there and we were just missing a piece.

And I think he's right. I think Jimmy Butler is the type of player who fits into their system. It's a ball movement system. It's a very smart defense that flies around. And I do think he was a missing piece. So they look dramatically different to me. Their best punch is a scary one, I think for all the teams in the Western Conference. And while they don't really have the size, I mean, every team in

the West this year outside of the Oklahoma City Thunder has a weakness. Their weakness is a vulnerability to size. If they do play Houston, that's a strength of theirs. They play two centers, so that would be a very interesting dynamic. But I just think from an execution standpoint, what they do defensively in the half court with Jimmy Butler, it's exactly how you win in the playoffs. That level of connection on the defensive end. It feels like there's a bunch of teams in the Western Conference alone that have some compelling storylines and narratives heading into these playoffs. There's no question.

I think the Western Conference playoffs is going to be great for four rounds. Starting right off the top, Lakers, Timberwolves is a really good matchup. You have two teams that are still trying to figure out who they are after adding pieces. Obviously, Luka Doncic, more recently, we all know the storyline there, but even Minnesota to me is one of the sleeping giants of the Western Conference because they are also a team that was assembling new pieces, trying to figure it out. And it had a disrupted rhythm for most of the year with guys in and out of the lineup. So to me that's a great series. I think Denver Clippers is a great series. A lot of intrigue there with a new coach in Denver, sort of a new

energy. The Clippers are a completely different team in the back half of the season than they were the front half. And then as we just mentioned that two-seven matchup, if it is the Warriors, I think could go either way as well. So I don't remember, you know, I think Oklahoma City is gonna beat whoever they play in the first round, especially if that's Memphis or Dallas or Sacramento, I think they'll beat them pretty easily.

But the other three series are all to me, close enough to a coin flip that I could see either side of it winning. And I don't remember the last time I felt that way, about three first round playoff series in one conference. Do you see Oklahoma City as a massive favorite to get out of the West or just a favorite? I think just a favorite. And I know that almost sounds disrespectful given their record, but experience really

does matter in the playoffs and versatility matters even more. You know, I said everybody has a weakness, but Oklahoma City, and I actually think they do have one weakness, and that is the ability to defend big wings. And you look at the Western Conference, they played the Clippers in the second round, Kawhi Leonard, he's had success against them, he's been getting better as the season goes on,

he gets a little bit more reps under him, but he's just too big. They're so talented defensively with their guards, but their guards are shorter. Case and Wallace Lou Dord is strong, but he's little short. Kawhi Leonard's one of those guys that just elevates and scores over smaller defenders at ease. And then if you look at the Lakers, LeBron James, look at Dodge.

It's two of the best big wing scores and facilitators the league has ever seen. And so I look at that and I say, that's their weakness. It's not a huge weakness like other teams have, maybe more pronounced weaknesses, but it is a place where they're vulnerable. And there's just a couple of teams in the Western Conference that I think are going to be able to exploit that vulnerability.

Doesn't mean I think they'll lose, but I do think that they're going to struggle more than what they showed in the regular season. We're speaking to Adam Mars from the All city NBA podcast here on the Halford and Bref show on sports net six 50 NBA play in tournament gets underway tonight. Adam, I you're based out of Denver. So I did want to ask you about the nuggets. We spent a fair amount of time last week talking about the sort of shock dismissal of Mike Malone as head coach.

Not a lot of 50 win teams fired their coach with three games left in the regular season, especially with everything that the nuggets bring to the table. I know it's been like a news filled week and I know that Cronke did his media availability yesterday. So what did he have to say? What was interesting about it? When has the vibe been in Denver like over the last week and a half? Well, you know, it's funny because I think it was more shocking outside of Denver than it was

inside of it. Okay. And Josh Cronke had a very interesting comment yesterday where he said, when you have Jokic on your team, you mask a lot of problems. I think that's true. 50 wins for a team that has the best player in the world, that both feels like a lot and a little at the same time. I think with this team, Michael Blom was a great coach. He's the winningest coach in Nuggets history, brought them their first championship. His tenure here in Denver was a massive success, but most coaches in the NBA expire at a certain point. And I think Michael Malone's message and

voice had probably run its course in Denver. And another thing Josh Cronke pointed out was last week after their four game losing streak, just being in the locker room, it was clear that the team had lost its emotional edge. And I think it was clear to everybody that had been around the team all year that this had just felt stale. So they ripped, as he put it, they ripped the band-aid off. Obviously the latest coach is fired in a season. Three games to go, Ty's, UB Brown from 50 years ago.

So it's abnormal timing, but the vibe with the team this week has been phenomenal. It's been a completely different energy shift as they now operate under David Adelman. And I'm told Nikola Jokic in particular has really been galvanized from this. Not that he wanted Michael Malone fired or there were tensions between him,

but I think he just saw a team that felt like it was going nowhere and energy that was completely dead. And over this last week, the team has just kind of had a shot of life of, hey, something's different here. There's a new voice, new direction, slightly new changes, like things to the rotation. They're going to Jokic a little bit less. I think they actually played through him a little too much this season, which is a funny thing to say because it obviously is effective. But I just think the team has a little bit of a different

energy shift and is carrying some momentum into the playoffs. We're obviously big Jamal Murray fans, given what he's done for the Canadian men's team and how great he's been for the Nuggets, but there's obviously a high level of concern about his health and his playing future. How high should that level of concern be? I think pretty high.

You know, he looked good in the last two games he played. Physically, he looked good. Still wasn't scoring a ton, but looked like a guy that was getting back into it. But Jamal Murray's health has been the story for the Denver Nuggets for the last five seasons. He's really only been healthy for one playoff run over that stretch, and that was in 2023

when they won the championship. He was massive in that run, had a 30-point triple-double in the playoffs. We know what he did in 2020. He has two really big playoff runs in his career, but in between those he has completely missed two playoff runs. And then last year he was injured and under-performed in the playoffs outside of two massive game-winning shots against the Lakers. But outside of those shots, he struggled quite a bit. And so I think there's reason for massive concern with him. We don't know that he has the ability to play a series right now at full strength

in rhythm and they're going to need it against the Clippers, especially starting out on their home court. So it's a huge mystery. He looked healthy most recently, but, um, you know but the broader history tells you that when he's hobbled this time of year, he's not able to play consistent. I know in the East, the Celtics didn't actually, or they're not going to finish with the best record in the East. Cleveland did, but are the Celtics still the favorites to come out of the East?

I think so. This again comes back to experience, not just winning the championship last year, but they've been, that group has been on the stage in the playoffs quite a bit. Cleveland's a little bit of a new story. And I even think the way Cleveland scores, the way they defend, it's a little bit more susceptible to variance in a postseason where as what the Celtics are doing, including speaking at the right time, I mean, they're entering the playoffs on an upswing as well. They're just a team that knows what they're doing. Nobody's been able to stop them from doing what they're doing. And if you do stop them, they have five options on the court at all times that you can throw the ball to and score in different ways. So they have this offensive and

defensive versatility that I think is a little different. Cleveland's best punch might be right on par with the Celtics, but what happens when they have to go to their other punch? Boston knows exactly what they're doing and how they win in a variety of ways. And I think Cleveland, we're going to find that out in this playoff run, just how versatile they can be if a team shuts down what they're trying to do.

Okay, Adam, I wanted to talk to you about the idea of the play-in and how it's gone for the NBA because you're talking to a couple of Canadians and most of our show is about hockey and the idea of a plan for the NHL has come up and been debated. What have been the good things about the plan for the NBA and have there been any bad things? Well, I'll start with something I guess a little

bit more neutral, which is that the seven, the teams that end up coming out of the play-in and taking on the seven and the eighth seed, I don't know how much of an impact they're really making on the overall playoff arc. So, so in that way, a one seed, a two seed, whoever it is they're playing, they should be able to advance to the second round.

What I think's happened in the NBA that's been effective about the play-in is, it's prevented tanking teams. Whereas before, if you're a nine seed or a ten seed, you're a couple games out by the all-star break, maybe you think about throwing in the towel and cutting your season a little bit short, playing some younger guys, and then those regular season games become less compelling. What you have right now is you have teams in the nine, 10, 11, sometimes even 12 spot coming out of the all star break who all feel like they have a chance to make the playoffs still.

And so they keep their foot on the gas all the way through the tape and the, the NBA, I don't know about the NHL just cause I'm not a big hockey guy, but the NBA had a real tanking problem with half of the NBA sort of shutting down their rosters halfway through the season. And I think that's the biggest success of the play-in is that that doesn't happen anymore. You still get tanking teams but it's more like six or seven teams as opposed to 11, 12, 13 teams. Was tanking part of the justification to go to the plan or was it mostly about creating some more games that people will tune in and watch?

I, well, both of those go hand in hand. Tanking is just unwatchable basketball to the casual fan. So I think it had a lot to do with how do we mitigate tanking and that rule, the play in came in around the same time they were, might've been the exact same year that they flattened the lottery odds.

So whereas before you had this overwhelming incentive to be those, one of the three worst teams in the NBA, they flattened the incentive between the first, the worst team and the seventh worst team. So now you always feel like you have a chance at getting a top pick or a top three pick, but then you compound that with this idea of, Hey, if we're the, the 11th seed in the conference, a couple wins gets us a shot to get into the playoffs. I think both of those things have just flattened the incentives. But I think the other part of this, I mean, this is Adam Silver's vision for the NBA. And I don't

know if this part of it is a good or bad one. He likes parity. He always references the NFL and says in the NFL, you could be the worst team one year and make the playoffs the next year. And he wants that for the NBA because again again it keeps the regular season more compelling. So I think it is it is a lot about tanking and just about the overall watchability of the league. Speaking of compelling the MVP conversation it seems like it goes back and forth on a near daily basis. Who's the NBA MVP this season? I think it's Shegel, just Alexander. And, and as you mentioned, I'm saying I'm, I'm calling in today. I covered the Denver nuggets and, and I think Yocic has had one of the most

dominant individual seasons of all time and watching him in real time. I know there's a lot of box score watchers and how much of this is just the system or stat padding or this or that Yokich is a brilliant basketball player one of the most brilliant I've ever watched on the offensive end And so I don't take anything away from the fact that he's averaging a 30-point triple double in his top three and points Rebound assists and steals which is insane But at the same time I'm a guy who thinks that winning At the same time, I'm a guy who thinks that winning matters and that we should be a little humble in how we analyze the game and how much we really know how to separate individual

value from team success. When those things are close, six, seven games, I think we could say, okay, there's probably context about the strength of the team and these different things. But we look back sometimes 20, 30 years ago at how we analyze the game and we're standing from a position where we understand more and we change the way we analyze guys from the 90s, sometimes through a modern lens. I think we have to look at winning and say, hey, the ultimate goal of basketball is to win. And some of that probably has to do with leadership and culture and all these other things. And we should be a little humble about how we separate individual performance

from team success. Team success is the one constant. And when you win 20 more games than everybody else in your conference, there's probably something you did right that we're not fully recognizing. Okay, your choice might not be that popular in Denver, but it's really popular up here in Canada.

So job well done there. Hey Adam, this was great, man. We appreciate you taking the time for doing this today. Enjoy tonight and the rest of the NBA playoffs. This was great. You guys do the same. Talk soon. Yeah. Thank you. That's Adam Mares from the All City NBA podcast here on the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Okay. We got a text from James into the Dunbar Lumber text line and we're going to go back to hockey here. We're going to go back to the Vancouver

Canucks. Our bread and butter. And he texts in, he says, guys, as the off-season approaches, I feel it's a good time to write this. Is this management group just a polished Jim Benning? When they got here, the days of UFAs leaving for free were supposed to be over. We trade our firsts like crazy, and first we acquire, and the supposed to be over. We trade our first like crazy and the first we acquire. We obliterated our center depth and in terms of UFA slash trading assets for UFAs and letting

them walk, we've now potentially got Lindholm, Zadorov, Souter and Besser. Those are pretty big names to lose for free. I'm starting to lose my faith in this management group, I guess is what I'm saying. Love the show. Okay, first of all, for the record, I think you should separate Lindholm and Zdorov from Suter and Besser because Lindholm and Zdorov were actually part of a playoff team and sometimes playoff teams have UFAs that walk for free. That's just the nature of being a playoff team. Souter and Besser, I think are completely different stories because the Canucks are not going to make

the playoffs and the Canucks were certainly not guaranteed to make the playoffs at the trade deadline when the decision was made not to trade those guys. All I will say about this text is I can't push back too hard on it. If your faith in this management group is shaken, I don't blame you.

This season has been a circus. And if you believe that accountability starts at the top, Jim Rutherford is the president of hockey ops, Patrick Alveen is the general manager. A lot of things didn't go well this off season. And it wasn't all bad. I mean, you got to like the moves to bring in Lankanen at the last minute. If you think it went bad, it would have gotten a lot worse if they didn't bring in Lankanen. You like some of their additions like Kiefer Sherwood, and they have fixed the Blue Line. Granted, it was at the expense of the Forward Group,

so now they've got to fix the Forward Group. But for me, the biggest thing that happened as Halfords sighed deeply into the mic- I'm thinking. Is that, you know, the Miller-Peterson thing for me was, that's given me the most pause for like, is this organization, you know, like what happened there and how much accountability are you guys

going to take for it? Now it's easy to say, well, it's the players. Well, yeah, but you decide on your players. And you made the decision to give both those guys long-term contracts. JT Miller's already gone and half the fan base wants the other guy gone. So what.

Did you ever believe Rutherford when he said that he felt that they had it fixed between Peddersen and Miller and that's. Yeah. Yeah. But I mean he felt that they had it fixed between Pederson and Miller. And that's, yeah. Yeah, but I mean, how did they let it get off the rails so badly again? And what did they do to try and fix it? I think people should understand like,

how rare it is for your, I mean, this is like, your top two centers and you're like two of your leadership group. Which again is why. Two parts of your leadership group couldn't get along and one of them had to be traded away and the other one we got massive questions about. You know, like these are the guys? These are the guys that you made part of your

leadership group? These are the guys that you committed all this money in term to? Those guys? Well, which is why I put this on. How can you not question the management? But is, but that's why that, that instance I put on the players and I'll maintain that. But the management made the decision to bet on the

players and the bets are looking bad. They made the bet on the pretense that the relationship was fixed and that they were going to get along. And they were wrong. We don't give credit for like, Hey, we thought it was fixed when it unfix fixes itself. So spectacularly. Yeah.

But that's on the players. Okay. We can go around in circles. I'm not saying that the players don't bear responsibility, but I'm saying as a general manager, you make bets on players. If my confidence was to be shaken in the manager group. If your bets are bad, then your bets are bad. If my confidence was to be shaken in the management group, I'd point to a few other things where

there are some worrying trends. There are some worrying trends, repeat history, patterns of behavior, where like this doesn't seem like, or anything like, it's great that they have an ability to clean up their messes and trade away the players that aren't working out. But that seems to have happened an awful lot over a two year span. That's one where I'm like, okay,

remember when you first came aboard and you had Derek Clancy onboard heading up your pro scouting department, people were kind of enamored with the way that you were identifying talent across the league and what your pro scouting department was doing. And that's kind of taken a 180 because now you're trading away a lot of the players

that you've identified in free agency and via trade. That's a concerning thing. That to me is something where you're like, what's the disconnect here? What are we missing in terms of guys that we're identifying that aren't fitting? So do you think the organization will ever get together as all the elements of the leadership group, you know, coaches, management, ownership, and they'll look back on the last decade and go, you know, we've only made the playoffs twice and we've

actually only had home playoff dates once. Cause the other time they made the playoffs was in the bubble. You think they'll ever get together and be like, is our philosophy sound? Are we doing things the right way? Should we maybe take a look at our overall philosophy and our constant trading of first round draft picks and our constant chasing of the game and the fact that we're constantly having to rob Peter to pay Paul to fix things on? Well, that's been hanging over them for a decade. Is it? Oh, I just said that. That's the big thing. I just said that. And and the fact that we're constantly having to rob Peter to pay Paul to fix things on

Just said that I know I mean I was like is there ever is there ever like, you know The age-old retool instead of rebuild do you remember that? I can't remember it was an old English show British show where They're like are we the baddies and it was a couple of like German Nazis that were like, yeah, like, you know, like pointing at the skulls and the skull, like, are we the baddies? Like, do they ever have that, you know, moment of reflection was like, is our strategy maybe not working here? Especially when you look at like Montreal like how to properly do a rebuild. No, no, don't look anywhere else Look at the fact that you've made the playoffs twice in a decade and go Is it us is it us or is it is it like is us? Because as an organization, for the last decade,

you have failed. Do I think they should do that self-analysis? Yes. Do I think they will do that self-analysis? No. They could have had two successful rebuilds by now in the last 10 years. Two.

Am I so out of touch? No. It's the children who are wrong. We got one final hour to go on the Haliford and Bref show on Sportsnet 650, the play-by-play voice of the Vancouver Canucks. Brandon Batchelor is gonna join us next, and in the 8.30 we're gonna do what we learned,

we'll do ours, and we will read yours. A reminder, get them in, Dunbar Lumbertex line is 650, 650. Text in now, hashtag it WWL, and tell us what you learned over the last 24 hours in sports. It's your chance to be on the radio, and it's coming up in the final hour of the Haliford and Bref Show on Sportsnet 650.