Pardon My Take - NFL Draft With Daniel Jeremiah, Timberwolves HC Chris Finch, Playoffs Are Here And We Have A Thunder Fan Refusing To Wear The Shirt

Episode Date: April 21, 2025

It’s playoff season and we talk about all the action this weekend. Russell Westbrook submitted the most Russell Westbrook game ever (00:00:00-00:20:16). Cam Payne went nuclear (00:20:16-00:31:52). The Thunder blowout the Grizzlies. Hank isn’t worried about any team + we talk some puck and the Jets unreal game winner plus glass banger guy is in jail (00:31:52-01:01:07). Who’s back of the week including PFT finding a softball team (01:01:07-01:14:56). Daniel Jeremiah joins the show to talk NFL draft, what quarterbacks he likes, positional strengths, Travis Hunter playing Wide Receiver instead of CB and more (01:14:56-01:53:48). Timberwolves Head Coach Chris Finch joins the show to talk playoff basketball, adjustments he makes, Anthony Edwards and more (01:53:48-02:23:22). We finish with lottery ball (02:23:22-02:27:19).You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/pardon-my-take

Hey, pardon my take listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad free on Amazon Music. On today's pardon my take, we have two great interviews for the people. We have Daniel Jeremiah, it is draft week. We always have DJ on, we're gonna have McShea on later this week. Breaking down the draft, who he thinks is going to go in the top 10. Some late picks that could be good. Overall thoughts on the draft.

A crazy, crazy take that now I'm actually coming around on on Travis Hunter. Yeah. So yeah, actually a shocking one. So really good stuff there. And then we also have Minnesota Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch. We taped it on Friday so we knew there was going to be a game one in between. We told him hey coach try to win game one so this is not awkward and guess what he went out in one game one for us. We're going to talk about the playoffs we've got them we finally kicked off all the

playoffs the NBA and NHL. We're going to do who's back the week lottery ball and it's all brought to you by our friends at DraftKings. The NBA 82 game grind is done and now the real fun begins. The NBA playoffs are here and it's time for all the high stakes drama, clutch moments and jaw dropping plays if you're looking to make the playoffs even more exciting. DraftKings Sportsbook has you covered as an official sports betting partner, the NBA from the playing games all the way through to the finals. Now's the time to back your favorite players and teams as they chase glory. All season long DraftKings has been the go-to spot for NBA player props and that doesn't stop now. Want to make your

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bucks only on DraftKings. The crown is yours. Today is Monday, April 21st and it is playoff season PFT It's playoff season the caps didn't have a game which was bullshit Yeah, that's tonight very excited to watch the caps in the playoffs. Yeah, nothing like having a team in playoff hockey It's uh, it's a lot of fun to look forward to and then every single second that you watch it If you don't have at least a two-goal lead, you're just shitting yourself. Yeah, I'm pumped to see maybe Wi-Fi verse Willie Chucking some knocks. Yeah, that's that should be a good matchup. I was pissed though for you because the first I don't know why the NHL did it this this way this year.

Maybe it was last year too. But I always love the first weekend of playoffs because it's like, all right, we got eight hockey games on Saturday or eight hockey and basketball games. Yeah, eight hockey basketball games Sunday. It's going to be wall to wall. It felt great to have just, you know, noon comes around on Saturday. Yeah. I'm going to watch some playoff basketball. This truly is sports season. Yeah, this is sports season. Like NFL season is football season because it's got NFL college football. It's great. Your weekends are pretty booked, but this is just sports. It's sports everywhere. My favorite week of the year. Meaningful sports all the time. It is your favorite week of the year. We also have WrestleMania going on right now that we're going to comment on at the end. We have it live in the studio.

So we're watching Cody Rhodes versus John Cena. I know that a lot of people come to this podcast for our wrestling takes. Yep. Well, I mean, I'm going to comment on it if Cody Rhodes wins. Yeah. And if he doesn't, it was rigged. Yeah. Some I can't see the crucial beat him scripted. Where's this one? It's in Vegas. Okay, the Vegas screw job. Yeah. Max, can we make sure the TV set up because I'm sure at some point, we're going to need a clip from you or something. And maybe also we're going to have to to sim the lottery. We're going to use some of the we're going to have to send the draft at some point. Yeah, no, I'm pumped to watch the caps and playoff. I do think that this might be our year and the issue is we don't really have a goaltender We've got two goaltenders and neither one you have to pick which one is gonna get hot at the right time

And we're thought about playing them both the same time Well, I think that we should employ if we get a one goal lead employ the pile Yeah The stack where you just you lay on top of everybody else in the crease. Memes is coming in. Memes has a... Memes two looks are either Luka Donchich or I'm going to break and enter your home. This is Wet Bandit Memes. Yeah he really like I don't know what's what's with what are you trying to look like someone who's gonna come rob us? He's got the one pant leg up. Yeah. He's got drugs on him. That could be a gang pant leg up. Yeah. He's got drugs

on him. That could be a gang thing. It could be. Are you wearing a bull's jersey. Are you proud of MS 13. No matter. OK. All right. Let's talk some playoffs. Let's talk some ball. Let's just go through it chronologically because we had eight NBA games five hockey games six hockey games. I can't remember how many hockey games we had. But let's start with the Pacers and Bucks first tip off on Saturday. I had a take that I wanted to just rip off right away. I think that you shouldn't wear your alternate jerseys, especially like I think those are the city version for the Pacers in the playoffs because someday you will look back and if like the Pacers go to the NBA Finals and they have a historic run in 20 years from now you're like man I wish they were wearing the old-school like pinstripes or

looking like the Pacers not whatever the hell they looked like on Saturday with the paint splatter to a baseline it was weird if Reggie Miller had been wearing those when he scored all those points against the Knicks nobody would even think was that impressive yeah be like it was an exhibition game Yeah, that is perfect for the play-in tournament. Yeah, exactly We're playing turn weird for that maybe weird for the in season tournament, too Yeah, the NBA Cup I'd not a put not a playoff uniform. I agree. I don't want to overreact to Game ones. I think the Bucks are in a lot of trouble

I think the patients are really good and I'm gonna throw out. Come back though. Yeah. Game is coming back. He got in a little. He actually was wearing a great sweater. He got into a jawing match with a Terry's Hal Burton towards the end of the game. Uh, Pascal Siakam needs more respect. Okay. He's so good. All right. I will. And he's also like consistently so good. Yeah. Yeah. I know. Like he's consistently so good, but he's not flashy. He's not, he's not flashy. send good. Yeah. Yeah, I know like he's consistently so good, but he's not flashy He's not he's not flashy. He's kind of a little bit of a throwback and he's also not a number pretty He's not a number one of a pretty game, right? But he's so good

Yeah And he's so efficient effective and I feel like the reason why the the the Bucks could be in a lot of trouble is Yana still got all his stats Hal Burton was not good shooting and they still blew him out and it was never really close. And Hal Burton obviously does more than shooting because he had a bunch of assists and he can control the games in other ways. But I think that's probably a bad sign for the Bucs going forward. I got to put my hand up and say, I don't, I don't at least during the regular season,

pay that much attention to what Tyrese Halliburton has going on. But every time he does pop up it's because somebody's clowning him. Yeah. Does he does he lead the league and getting clown in terms of like the upper echelon players? He I think he is one of those guys that maybe gets picked on a little bit. He also he likes to talk shit when he's up and he doesn't really play defense. Yeah. But he's I mean he's, very good player. And like I said, he, he didn't shoot well and he's not a bad shooter. He's not known for like being an incredible shooter, but once he, like if you win a game by 20 plus and ours, I think it was 19, uh, and Tyrese Halliburton shoots three for 13, it feels like the Pacers might have more to go up. I know dames coming back Yeah, I just this Bucks team kind of bums me out because Giannis is so good. And did you guys see Kyle Kuzma? He dropped

22 minutes 0.0 rebounds zero assist two fouls That is so hard to do in a playoff game in a regular season game. I could see it happening in a playoff game That is really really hard to not have a single statistic like a rebound bounce your way. You happen to pass to someone and they score. Especially a guy like Kuzma. Who has no problem just chucking it. Hank did you see there was a meme going around I guess it was from a Laker fan account they had a draft grade after the team yes yes it had like no layer radius bn I oh was yes there's one ESPN and it was like upside and like everything

everything was either Kyle Kuzma tied with Tatum or Kyle Kuzma beating Tatum yeah it was crazy think about it I'm to try to find it right now, but yeah, 22 minutes, 0.0 rebounds, zero sys. That's really hard to do. I might, I could do it. I might be able to get an assist. Yeah. I mean, I would probably have more than two fouls. I would just pass the ball to Yonis. Right. It's pretty simple. Pass the ball. Yonis when he's got a full head of steam. Yeah. Just throw the ball up in the air. Let Yonis catch it in the paint. It wasn't, it wasn't. It was the experience. Lakers insider 16, but it was, but this gets, this gets, this goes around all the time. It was shooting about it. So shooting Kuzma was better than Tatum. Okay. Passing. They were the same defense. Kuzma was better. Potential Kuzma was potential.

Yeah, I like that when you think about it Jason Tatum is the Jalen Hurts of Kyle Kuzma's wait break that down for me that hurt my brain Jason Tatum yeah is the Jalen Hurts of Kyle Kuzma's I don't get it how just a little bit more put together Jalen hurts, okay, I Think I get it. He's like a cleaned up Well, no, he's way more than a cleaned up Kyle Kuzma. Yeah cleaned up Jalen hurts plays way better in championships. Oh That's a good point them. Yeah That's a good point max

Jason Tatum had great stats and did he be Patrick Mahomes finals last year? It's it's crazy. I didn't be He did not be Patrick Mahomes. He did not So I don't think I don't think he could Just like just like Shohei doesn't have a Heisman Until Jason Tatum beats Patrick Mahomes. Can you actually say he's good? Did you see Shohei when he was doing this weekend? He had a baby, right? Oh, not that.

The more impressive thing. He filled up cups of water for all his team. Oh, I did see that. He went over to the water cooler and he poured like eight cups of water and took it to all his teammates. None for him. Great dude. Great guy.

Great dude. Yeah, I feel like the Bucks are just kind of a bummer now because I like Giannis. I've never not liked Giannis and it's just I he doesn't really seem to have much help at all we'll see what happens when Dame gets back but it does feel like this is it's the last gasp of the Dame experiment yeah and and maybe Yannis in in Milwaukee mm-hmm yeah probably he might he ask out. I don't know. I don't want him to. I also do feel bad. I don't like the Bucs, but I feel bad for Bucs fans having to deal with the minute Giannis got good. It's literally the prevailing conversation has been, when

is he going to ask out? Which is bullshit. He wants to play in Miami, right? Right. Yeah. Let Milwaukee enjoy Giannis. Yeah. All right. My favorite game, I think of the weekend, you guys would agree. Uh, nuggets Clippers. There has never been a more Russell Westbrook game. It was the most Russell Westbrook game possible. The end of that game, the play that Russell Westbrook made was one absolutely with like 10 seconds left. Yeah, but he, all of them leading up to it. It was insane. He was actually playing like an insane person. He almost gave away the game. Then the announcer was like, yeah, you know, I got to take the good with the bad with Westbrook. They didn't spend enough time talking about how insane he went on the

court. He, so there was a perfect tweet from Kofi who I think he's a, uh, is he an NBA guy or a streamer? He's, he's very talented, but he, uh, he had the perfect tweet from Kofi who I think he's a is he an NBA guy or a streamer? He's he's very talented but he he had the perfect tweet. He said Russell Westbrook truly is the item box from Mario Kart. Yeah. And it's so perfect because this Russell what the best way I could describe it if you miss this game if you watch the last three minutes of Russell Westbrook Russell Westbrook haters and lovers could both say I told you so. They could literally just point at each other and be like told you so. This is what Russell Westbrook did to end the game. This is like three minutes left. This is a back and forth

game. He went offensive rebound and a put back. Then he missed a layup where he was forcing it on a fast break. Then he made a layup. Then he bricked an open three. Then he made a three with 24 seconds left to take a two point lead. And then he had the last shot and he didn't get a shot off. Yeah. It was literally back and forth. Awesome play, bad play, awesome play, bad play. And also Russell Westbrook. I, I know that he frustrates people. I love watching Russell Westbrook because he basically is the, um, if you ever asked like, what if someone tried just the absolute hardest and like what would happen? That's Russell Westbrook. Cause he's like

his offensive rebound. He got, he was getting offensive rebounds. He was out hustling the entire team, but then he was also trying so hard to make plays that weren't there. And then he would actually make a play that was there. And it was just so much fun. What I truly admire about Russell Westbrook is that he has never lost confidence in himself. No. And he's been given every opportunity to lose confidence in himself, to just say, fuck this. I quit. It's not going to work out for me. People are changing my name to Westbrook. Yeah. And he still thinks at any given time he can, he can go nuclear on any given occasion. Like the play

at the end where he got the ball, I think there were like 10, 13 seconds left. All he had to do was just pass the ball out or dribble the ball back out. Yoke it to him. It was like maybe at like seven seconds off. He could have just passed it back to Yoke. Yeah. Or just dribbled away from the basket, killed some clock and he was like, you know what? I'm going to over three guys and dunk. Oh, wait, you're talking about the end of overtime Yeah, Oh cuz the end of end of regulation when he just didn't get a shot off. Yeah, that was through it off I think that he actually meant to do that too. I think that in his head he was like well, he got caught jumping off

I think there's a chance that Russell Westbrook thought You know what? The best pump fake is when you actually leave your feet Yeah, and then you throw it off the guys back then you get it and shoot it immediately Yes, there's a chance that he thought he could pull that off. But in overtime. Yes, he got the ball and All he had to do was just dribble like five feet backwards Maybe make a pass back to the three-point line and the game was gonna be over and he was like I'm gonna dunk on everyone right now and I'm gonna show show them. And then he did not dunk on any of them. And it was, yes, but he's

so entertaining to watch. He was just, it was pure Russell Westbrook and he was just great. James Harden was great. I don't know why. Kawhi felt like he was like, he had that, I think in the second quarter, he scored like 12 points in a few minutes. And then I feel like he just kind of disappeared for a little bit. Um, this series is going to rock though. Yeah, it's going to be great. The match just pulled up. Russell Westbrook now has the most clutch shots made by a point guard in NBA history. He definitely has the most missed clutch shots too. That's why, like, think about it. What other, what other athlete right now can both lovers and haters say, I told you so.

And you can say, you're both right. You're both 100% right. That's it. Yeah. He really is so perfect because whatever side you pick, you're going to be right. You just got to wait a couple seconds. I love watching him play. And I'm so glad that I don't have to root for him on my team. Yeah. I mean he made that three to go up to Anymore. Yeah, he made that three to go up to and and it was like this is the Russell wet Like he's the hero and then he doesn't get a shot off at the end of regulation. They should pass him around I mean Jamis Winston knows what should be in that Definitely in that conversation every team should have the every fan base should have the it's not even like the privilege of rooting for us

Westbrook, it's just taking him away from the last team that had to root for him. I think it's a lot more fun to watch Russell Westbrook if you do not have yes if you're not rooting for him on your team or even rooting against him. Yeah but bad news for the rest of the NBA is Kawhi looks back. Yeah yeah he's a bully back. I feel like he could have asserted himself a little bit more I mean this they kind of Did Clippers should have won this game? They absolutely should have won this game

But I think this series could go long It is fun to watch Kawai when you know that he cares and that he's trying so oh, yeah He is a great dominant player. Yes. He had 22 points I feel like I might be wrong, but I feel like he had 12 of them in the second quarter and I Don't know. I mean James Harden. This was almost a Heroic James Harden game. Mm-hmm, and it is a game one. Yeah I was so we have to say real good that was game one not game six. Yeah, it was game one And you know, could you still the best you guys see that video of your kitchen the

little kid yeah that that made me cry yeah Ben Simmons on the Clippers is so funny he's just a nothing he got a couple rebounds he is out there in part to like try to frustrate yokich if he can yeah just like push this guy but that video with the kid and yokich was absolutely horrible the kid given the money straight to his mom. His mom saying remember the money. What? No, it was like, it was like a shoe deal or something like that. The guy gave the kid money. He was like my it was like a little chubby kid with with Rex backs. He's like my favorite player is Jokic. I've always wanted to meet him. Guy

gives him new Jokic shoes, gives him money. He gives it right to his mom his mom's like we're gonna I'm gonna Spend this on you and what do I always tell you and he's like be kind to everyone and I just started fucking Get a little little teary-eyed then he went to a game and he was like in yokich was like you kind of look like me, which was very funny and Asked yokich for a hug and yokich like yokich looked happier than he did with the kid than he did when he won the title Yeah, it was awesome Can you find the kid can you find it max so he could see it and get a little teary-eyed? I'll find that kid is so tweeted out. He's so pure so cool. I hope that kid never logs onto the internet. Yeah

Yeah, and and fuck anyone who was like, oh this was staged Come on guys We got a we got to be able to, to believe in something. Did WrestleMania end without us realizing it? Who won? Zena. Oh, nevermind. God damn it. Yokoichi and Van Gundy fighting for the ball is very funny too. Oh my God. I mean, Van Gundy being Jacked Van Gundy being whatever it is 30 years later and he's still I mean cuz obviously everyone

was tweeting out him on Alonzo morning's leg. Yeah. 30 years later he's still fighting. Yeah. He held onto that ball. That was one of my favorite highlights of all time is when he just grabbed onto Zoey's leg and was like stop stop fighting and so we're just walking around like nothing was attached to him. Like a pair of heavy shoes. Yeah. But yeah, Yokochi and JVJ just going at it. Trying to, I feel like the nuggets or the Clippers, he had a couple of people helping them. I feel like Yokochi gets into these like once a playoffs. I mean, it was the best when he got into it with the son's owner. Yeah. Ishby, Ishby a flopped. Yeah. Ishby did flop. It was, it was like, it was maybe on Thursday max. It's okay. Hank will

find it. Hank will probably think it's's fake Hank will probably think it's rigged And it's not real and he'll have some I mean what you said about Lee Corso was disgusting seeing it in a good riddance. Yeah, good riddance. I mean the Rizzo goes to lots of games I know what's the difference? Happy birthday the Rizzo by the way. He is risen He's yeah nine years old on Easter Saturday games. What's the difference? Happy birthday. The Rizzer by the way. He is risen. Uh, he's yeah. Nine years old on Easter Saturday was maybe his birthday. You clearly don't keep up with your Rizzer. I don't keep up. I don't have the birthday in my calendar. Uh, okay. Get a knock on your door for that sort of thing. Next day or next game. Nick's first

Pistons. This is, this was so I know and I'm not even going to fight the fight because I understand it's a very small minority of like the NBA playoffs suck. Why would you watch that? Listen any playoffs I'm watching. I just am. But having going from Russell Westbrook to campaign was so entertaining because this was this was basically the Pistons first try at the playoffs as his young core and they were really good for three quarters and as soon as it got to crunch time it was like oh yeah this is what a hardened team looks like and campaign and Jalen Brunson going for 17 consecutive points between the two of them 21-0 run mm- awesome. And campaign, Max,

can you believe that just a year ago, like think about how many Knicks fans had to delete their tweets because campaign was the Jalen Brunson agitator last year. And now he and Jalen Brunson are teamed up, you know, being a Knicks legend on his first game as a Knicks legend on the, you know, in a playoff game. That's all you need from campaign is just give you one of these games in a playoff and for him to do it on his first, he's, he's ahead of schedule. Yeah. So is he going off too fast?

You already burned the campaign game. You may have already burned. I don't know how many campaigns you want a series. Yeah. Yeah. And his shot looks so bad, but it goes in and you, yeah, max, this was a, a bizarro sixers game because it was campaign going off and then Tobias Harris having 25 points for the pistons. Yeah, no Tobias Harris had his, uh, has best playoff game ever. Were you like, where'd that come from? It's not

easy to play in Philly. I guess. I don't know. Yeah. There was so I read an article this morning on the athletic read by Fred Katz. No no relation. And he was talking about campaign and it was like when he got first got to the Knicks Jalen Brunson literally went up to him was like I fucking hate you. But now you're my teammate. And it was very awkward. And then he dropped an anecdote that is so campaign and just so funny so the anecdote goes this as a rookie campaign didn't appreciate his overall rating in the video game NBA 2k 16 a 72 grade ranked 242nd in the NBA so Payne solved the problem himself he created a new player named the new player So Payne solved the problem himself. He created a new player named the

new player, Cameron Payne moved all the sliders up to 99, the highest rating and played a season that technically had two campaigns refusing to acknowledge the lesser avatar. And he said, I got to give myself some love. I love that. It's great. That is exactly what I would do if I was in a sports video game, slider max, all your stats out. It's great. That is exactly what I would do if I was in a sports video game. Slider. Max all your stats out. That's the reason like I would absolutely get pissed off if I felt that 2k like gave me the short end of the stick on my speed. Yeah. Like I would go balls to the wall. Be like, fuck this. I'm going to make my own version myself. The one that I am delusional enough to see the one that thinks that I'm better at baseball than Hank and I'll just max out my stats and play with myself. Yeah. Yeah. You love playing with yourself. I do. Uh, Oh gee

was awesome. He put Kate Cunningham in a torture chamber and Joe cat played some defense in the fourth. Pistons collapsed. They did, but the Knicks also kind of ramped up the pressure and I mean campaign when campaign gets going, you can't stop him When campaign is he said his mind went blank. It was just all of a sudden Yeah, the game just completely flipped. It looks like it looked like the Knicks were out of it Yeah, yeah, they were down eight with like nine minutes left. Then campaign showed up Are you worried about the campaign game next round? No Hanks not worried about anything. Let me tell you something about Hank He is cockier than ever right now. Hank has reached his peak level of I don't give a fuck about any

other team. Why should I? The well we can get to the thunder in a little bit. I'm sure we will. Let's get it done in a little bit. Yeah we'll get to the thunder a little bit. We had the so so we have Chris Finch Minnesota Timberwolves head coach coming up interview. Great interview. We taped it on Friday. We gave him some tips for this series, which he might've actually taken. I think so. Yeah. Because the Timberwolves destroyed the Lakers, uh, absolutely destroyed them and really good interview. I, I enjoyed watching this game. Jade McDaniels. I feel like he does this in the playoffs where he just goes up a level. He was awesome.

And like Anthony Embers didn't even shoot well. He did a good job reading their defense. I don't know what the Lakers don't have. I'm not going to overreact. You know what? I'm not going to overreact. They don't have an answer for Nas Reed. You can have LeBron, you can have Luca, but you don't have Nas.

Yeah. What was the, what was the, oh fuck. read you can have LeBron you can have Luca but you don't have Nas yeah what was the what was the fuck what was Jamel Hill tweet where like they figured something out the late like the Lakers figure something out and at the end of the game here was that against the Nuggets maybe because that you could make the argument brawny getting into this game they figured out the Lakers might have figured something out no No matchup. Anthony Edwards after the game, he was kind of talking shit about LA. Oh, wait, here it is. A win is a win. But if I'm Denver, I treat this like a loss. Lakers really figured something out. Putting Hachimura on Yoke.

It's one of those somewhat small adjustments that can win a series. That was when the Lakers got swept. And I think after that was like, just,, I think it was for one company. No, I last year was four one. Oh, this is two. Yeah. And also just saying the sentence Ruri Hachimura on Yoke itch. That'll shut them down. But did you see what Ant said after the game? No, he was like playing in front of the crowd in LA is fun. It's not hard. Like in Denver, like I played in some tough environments before, like in Denver. That's hard. So I don't know. LA, are you good sports town? You just going to take this to the timber? The Timberlake are deep. They roll guys out there. They play with so much defensive intensity. They had

them like Luca and we're going to talk. We actually said this to Chris Finch. Like what do you do when you know Luca's going to go for 30 plus every game? And he's like, you know, we just got to make sure it's not efficient. He had 37. They just don't have anyone besides like once it's Luca and LeBron, like their role players have to step up. And I don't know. I'm not going to overreact though. Cause I did see a stat. I'll throw the stat out there. I'm not going to overreact. So this is fifth this is LeBron James 55th playoff series and he's 31 and 24 in game ones which obviously you're like oh that's yeah that's good he's over 500 it's still LeBron James been on some really good teams he's lost 24 game ones but he's 41 and 13 in, in series overall. So yeah. So what, what he has done in the past is like, he uses the first game to like probe the defense, figure out what he wants to do. And then he turns it on a game too. That happens.

I'm not going to overreact. Don't overreact. I am going to agree to disagree. Okay. With Jay Billis. Oh yeah. Calling this game, which was such a bummer turning it on and hearing him. I didn't know that Jay Billis was going to do NBA games. That's something that there should be like a TV rating that pops up. Yeah. Like just Billis's face at the top left-hand corner of the screen before the game starts, letting all the kids know at home. You're going to, yeah, just with a warning, you know, it's like a warning, the jackass warning. It should just be a warning. Jay Billis is calling this game you're going to get a stern talking to. Yes. Do not attempt this at home. And Jay Billis, when, when LeBron started complaining about a missed call and

then Jay Billis goes, now LeBron's really get it into with the referee and this is interest because LeBron's not much of a complainer agree to disagree. Jay. Yeah. You're being disingenuous that was disingenuous of him. Either that Jay, you got two options. One, you were being disingenuous to you've never that, Jay, you got two options. One, you were being disingenuous. Two, you've never, ever watched LeBron James play basketball. Which one is it? Yeah. Because it has to be one or the other.

I hope it's not the set, because you're calling his games. I would think that ESPN would make sure that you've seen LeBron James play basketball. So it sounds like, ipso facto, you were being disingenuous. Yes, he was. I don't appreciate being lied to as a viewer. I'd agree. I 100% agree. Will the Timber Roll shoot 50% from three every game? Probably not. Nope. Probably not. That would be your takeaway if you're a Lakers fan. Yep.

That's probably not going to happen again. But on the other side, I always like to early early playoffs. I like to look for a Team of Destiny stuff. You know watching all these games, figuring out what the fan base feels like. Here's something I love from the Timberwolves fan base. There's a guy on Twitter called Ballofthewild who I think is the Timberwolves, maybe he runs the Timberwolves Reddit. He does an edit after every win. That's Warren's Yvonne Werewolves from London and it's awesome. Where was London? Yeah, and he's and it's it's just him saying a woo for like 40 seconds while it's like Anthony Edwards popping up and like all this stuff. I don't can you find it? It's he's ball of the wild

I don't know if we can play it you could play it without the sound and I'll just I'll just do the a woo. I love that T So you can see it. I mean Warren's Yvonne is like my favorite. All right here it is ready watch see that edit Does he add in like different lyrics no, it's just a whole time whoo That's the woo going the whole time Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooo ooooooooo o ooooo o o o o o o o o o o o 50% probably not will they get another Nas read Nas read game maybe Yeah, I love watching him play. He's one of my favorite players for some reason You know you watch you watch enough sports and you just develop fixations on guys and you're like I just like that guy for some reason. Yeah, Nas read is that guy for me? Yeah, uh Yeah, I'm not gonna overreact. I think the Lakers will still be in the series because they have Luca and they have

LeBron James. But Nico Harrison was happy watching this. He definitely was. He said defense wins championships. That was so funny on Friday night. He should not be allowed to take a victory lap. I'm banning Nico from taking victory laps. Oh yeah, no, he can't.

He knows he can't. But the camera work, shout out Jake B Mars, shout out the guys in the truck, the camera work to zoom in on Nico Harrison when Anthony Davis was limping to the bench was so perfect. And Nico Harrison having the court vision to realize the camera was on him and giving a side eye to it. What a moment. It was good. Good television. That was a beautiful, beautiful moment. Great television. Nico Harrison, you're he's you know what? He's off the hook or he he's been let off the hook by the Mavs not making it. We just need to bring him up once a week. Just put a reminder that he's a shithead and an idiot and we'll do that for Mavs fans.

I agree. Just once a week throughout the entire playoffs to be like, Hey, member Nico Harrison, what a fucking moron that guy is. Um side eye so good all right let's talk about the Thunder Hank sure they look pretty damn good Hank does not respect the Thunder not gonna overreact right that's the theme of this segment is that what we do on this show we don't overreact we don't overreact correct the Thunder so we're not gonna overreact to wins or loss. Okay, I'll just say a couple facts. Fact number one, this was the biggest beat down in the history of game one. Did you like my new Mike Greenberg rule?

We also did. What's your new rule? If you win a game one by 50 points, the series should be over. Because when this game was such a blowout? It was like 30 points at half. How much more exciting would it be in the second half if the Grizzlies were literally fighting to keep the series alive? And the and the and the thunder were like no we're going to finish the series in one game. I feel like a lot of teams would try to win by 50 points. It would be awesome.

Yeah. To just that's it's only game one. It's got to be exactly 50 or more 50 or more If you win the game one by 50 series over we've seen enough. I like that Yeah, just be done with it And just have that be like something in the back of your head every game one And the way they they did this was they won by more than 50 points and they had their starters out Like they they took their foot off the gas big time if you told me before the game that marvin bagley Like they took their foot off the gas big time. If you told me before the game that Marvin Bagley would go 8 for 8 from the field and score 17 points and SGA would go 4 for 13 from the field and score 15 points, I'd be like probably the Thunder still

won because they're just better. But man that was a close game. Yeah they didn't even get a SGA game. He was four for 13 and they won by 50 and it was never it it wasn't close I mean the first quarter was a little no the first five minutes maybe was close after that it was just an absolute beat down and guess what the Thunder have played the Grizzlies four times this year they've beaten them like not 50 points but they've beaten them soundly every time. This series, I will overreact. Overdone. See ya. See ya. Next one. Yeah. This series, I agree with that. 51 points, game one. Josh said that there's only one way to go and that's up. It won't get worse is what John Marantz

said. Oh, it could get worse. I think it could get worse because they, they again took their foot off the gas for much of the second half. After that first run, it was over. There was a moment in the game where a good friend, friend of the program, Alex Caruso had zero points and I think his plus minus was 27. Yeah. How many points did he end up with? Cause he didn't score much if at all. Yeah. Can you scroll down? It was just such an ass kicking. Yeah. it's zero points. He finished with zero points plus 30. That's awesome. Desmond Bain with a minus 50. That's an insane plus minus. That is insane. Would you like another set? Yeah. Cause we're not going to overreact. We're just going to talk stats. If you're asking me if I want it, I don't. You don't want to

say I'm sure you're going to say it. You don't want to talk ball with the boys? We're not going to over- Okay, I'll just ask you. We'll change the subject. Maybe you can give a stat. What was the Celtics record against the Thunder this year? 0-2. Mm-hmm.

That's a stat. It's a good stat, yeah. Good stat, but you're not worried at all. In fact, some would argue that you're slightly disrespectful of the Thunder. No, it's not that, PFT. I know like there's there's a lot of basketball to be played They're in a separate conference I think once we get to the Western Conference finals then I'll you know tune in on the two teams and Depending on how they're playing in the Western Conference finals. I'll determine whether or not I'm worried

But first round game one a lot of basketball we played a lot of good teams in the West We'll see what see that. So Chet Hongren said at the end of the day we can't control what people say what narratives y'all come up with. That's y'all's job. That's that's your job Hank. Chet says it's your job to come up with a narrative that's y'all's job will come up with a narrative like you did last year with the Timberwolves and the Nuggets who didn't even end up making it to the final. That's true. It's good. You're wrong. Hey We were wrong Thunder when we were wrong they have to make it there first Mm-hmm, but you were you were worried about the Nuggets last year you too have to make it there first good point Max

Yeah, that's true. And that's what I'm focused on. I'm not worrying about other teams I'm worried about my team the Boston Celtics. That's not what you're focused on. Yes It is do you know we're focused on the next game the lottery pull it up Yeah, one point bulls went up to one point seven percent. That's not what you're focused on. Yes, it is. Do you know we're focused on the next game the lottery pull it up Yeah, one point bulls went up to one point seven percent. That's huge. Yeah doubled it Yeah, because the heat got in art sim it sim that shit Brooklyn bullshit, we'll do it till one of the three gets it Billy Billy shit Philly's winning this too much. I know I don't like it with the 10 percent.

Now there's no way they let Billy win. I just hope they let they let us keep our pick. The NBA should step in and be like you guys made a mockery of the load management this year. A mockery. You're spitting Adam Silver's face injuries or injuries. Should we. So I made you guys aware of this

as a journalist. I was doing some work on Friday night really awesome life I have super exciting There's a guy Who has season tickets to the Thunder who sits front row who I think has actually been to every Thunder game since their existence Who refuses to wear the shirt mm-hmm so this guy? Juan Guerra I actually reached out to him trying to get him on the show. He's gone radio silent on me. I think I might have tweeted too much about how he needs to wear the shirt.

He realized it was not going to be a friendly interview. It was probably not going to be, it was going to be a contentious interview. Cause I also had Thunder fans being like, don't give this guy any shine. I was like, dude, we're going to have him on. Listen, there's one thing about this show. We would never have the back of a guy who just sits front row at sporting events, trying to stick out so people notice him on the camera. Absolutely not.

We would never have that guy's back. But so we can do good cop, bad cop. I, we just, I still want them on. Yeah. We could make it, make a personal clip for me out of this and I will send it to this guy. I think he has the right to wear whatever he wants. He pays for the tickets courtside, right? Yeah. So he pays just like anybody else to get in and he's not a fucking conformist. He thinks for himself. He's a good guy. We need more of that in

today's society. We should all be free to wear whatever we want to wear and sit courtside. And he's still a fan of the team. Let's not wear shirt. Let this, no, no, no big cat. You gotta wear the shirt. He should wear whatever he wants. That's what our founding fathers fought for. If everyone in America in 1776 was like, yeah, we'll just put on the red coats, you know what, we'd all be speaking British right now.

We'd be talking English instead of American. You gotta wear the shirt. You gotta wear the shirt. So this, I was made aware of this by our good friend Ryan Rousselaou on Friday night. This was the tweet that he sent out. Yeah that's the guy. He doesn't wear the shirt. He doesn't wear the shirt. Look at that. He's just wearing a different shirt trying to stick out and that's his friend. He takes the game who at least wears the right color but he doesn't wear the shirt either.

Juan Guerrero wrote on Friday night, I think he might've deleted this. I'm going to say this in the most respectful way possible mentioned to another grown man, what he should be wearing at any point in his life will get you immediately blocked. Yeah. That means even a thunder playoff shirt, you may as well just block me first. We're so then got blocked within like five minutes, and I was like I'm gonna try to get this guy on but yeah, I did I did reach out to him as a big J journalist and he he initially agreed and Since then he's he has not responded. So yeah, I think I I'm a big you got to wear the shirt guy I'm gonna take this guy's side just because

It's working so far. I'll tell you what, the thunder are going to lose a playoff game at home in this run. And it's because this guy's not wearing the shirt. They might not though. That's good. That's why it's going to be, it's going to be, you got like you look out, there's this intimidating crowd. Everyone's wearing the shirt and that guy's not wearing the shirt. There's a reason why it might be the first team to ever go undefeated in the playoffs. Not with this guy not wearing a shirt. There's a reason why they were the first team that was put on Wendy's cities when he was buying the hotel rooms. Very Oklahoma City Thunder were number one a on Wendler's list. Was that true? I think that was the first one they said to us

Okay, he might have I don't know if he put Boston on first. I mean they had they had a historic regular season They did they were very very good. But this guy's shirt him trying to be different. I'm gonna lose a game at home Hank They are no PFT Well, he thinks this guy sure doesn't matter and I do. There's the difference. Do you know they let you exchange a shirt if they give you the wrong size. No that's how good they are with the shirts in Oklahoma City. Any other place bothers me. What. When you just like you're like oh it's a cool shirt. Oh it's a small. They have they have a kiosk that you can go and you'd be like you gave me a small I need an XL boom.

There you go. There's the shirt. Any other city, I'd be like, listen, some people wear the shirt, some people don't wear the shirt. Oklahoma City does one thing. They wear the shirt. What is their shirt budget per game? It's got to be insane.

It's got to be tens of thousands of dollars. It's got to be fucking insane. Some poor person's job is to just put those shirts on every single seat. You know what? Not some poor person. I bet you that guy or girl is essentially royalty in Oklahoma City. She's got the shirts. I guarantee you there's some kid in middle school right now in Oklahoma City listening

to this podcast, shout out this kid, and he's like, yeah, my mom is friends with a guy who puts out the shirt. Do you think that the guy that doesn't wear the shirt, does he get on as well? First of all, do they even in between quarters have like the t-shirt cannon to fire out more shirts? They probably do. Or somebody that throws out an extra shirt. Yeah.

And if so, does this guy stand up and try to catch the shirts? No, he doesn't. He refuses to wear the shirt. I know. But does he try to take away shirts that he might wear that that I would have a problem with. I just you got to put on the shirt. It's crazy. Hank this is your PFT. You don't think he should wear the shirt. Why conform. Do what he wants to do. Oklahoma City dude. Free country. They are known for their shirts. You got to put on the shirt. Where's it gotten them?

I mean the best. No, no. Where's it gotten in the players? It got him. He's gone to every single game. He paid for those tickets. But I'm saying what you said, where's it gotten them? You don't know how high the Oklahoma city thunder can go. If he puts on the shirt, they literally have never won anything with him. Might be the missing piece. You're real shame if this guy's peacocking out there. And what if he puts on the shirt. They literally have never won anything with him. Might be the missing piece. It'd be a real shame if this guy... He's peacocking out there and what if he puts on the shirt and they win it all? I don't think he should put it on the shirt. Hank is just... you were going line by line. You were like, to a man, the Thunder don't

have a single guy that's better than anyone on the Boston Celtics. Literally what you said. That is the biggest... Max, is that not what Hank said? We said, let's go guy for guy. I did not say that. Not even close. Literally what you said. The biggest? Max, is that not what Hank said? You said, let's go guy for guy. I did not say that. Not even close. You went guy for guy?

Yes, Hank did. But I did not say the words, the Thunder don't have a single person, but I just said let's go guy for guy. I was just trying to... You said guy for guy, everyone on the Celtics beats everyone on the Thunder. You just said, if this team is healthy. There's no way they lose Yeah, that's what I said. You're not worried about the Thunder and you said absolutely not All right, you're gonna go guy for guy. We did go back. I would like to judge closer than you thought Yeah, do you have Dave Portnoy and the guy who won't put on the shirt? No, okay

Well, you should put that in the guy for guy off. Don't I go? I'm not we I don't want to do this again. You don't want to go go in staff or stack guy for guy Just go guy for guy Okay, PFT, would you like to start? Yeah, let's go guy for guy. I'll start with I don't know. I'll say Hartenstein Against Al Horf. I'll take Al Horford way better playoff experience. Okay veteran player Big-time player. What are the stats? Who's got better stats? Again, okay. Okay. All right. Big Cat, who wins?

I mean, I would take Heart and Sign right now. Right now. Al Horford's pretty old. Al Horford is a better player overall in his career. Correct. Okay. By far. Okay.

Okay. Chris Staps and Chet. I would go Chris Staps. I would lean Chet. Hmm, I would lean chat Lou Dort Peyton Pritchard Lou Dordaire quite I'm I'm a Dorset Chamber guy. So yeah, you know that the answer listen, I love I love Lou Dordor The Celtics have a great team. I'm not even saying that I would doubt the Celtics

I'm just saying you should respect the Thunder. I respect them. You always see the Thunder before you hear it I respect the Thunder good point You know if the Thunder won't get don't get under lightning will if the Thunder win the Western Conference I Will start to think you were not respecting the thumb you're not The way this car not into my conference, but the way this conversation started was you were like There's no way this Celtics team is losing if they are healthy. That's a fact.

I was like, you're not worried about anyone? That's a fact. And you said no. And I was like, you're not worried about the Thunder? And you said no. I'm not worried about anyone. So that is zero respect. It's an easy way to get killed.

No, that's incorrect. You said there is no way that this team loses. I have tremendous respect for the Celtics and supreme confidence in my team. That doesn't mean I don't respect the Thunder. I just believe in our guys I think that Hank just hates the you guys don't understand you hate the Thunder because it's the only thing that can get you to stop playing Sounds like you're in the torture chamber right now. No

It's round one of the Western Conference finals. There's a lot of good teams in the West It's not just under have not fucking this this iteration of thunder haven't done it jack shit It is round one and it is game one No team has done jack shit until they do jack shit last year. The Celtics did not do jack. Okay, what the Thunder do last year? What? Something's on jack shit. They made it to the finals What the fuck does that mean? It means you won the Eastern Conference. That's pretty fucked Oh, it's just a lot easier to do than the

So you scared me. Factor fiction. Okay how the Philadelphia 76ers done the Eastern Conference Max? I'm not talking about the Philadelphia 76ers. He asked you a factor fiction Hank. We're not talking about the Philadelphia 76ers. You're ducking the factor fiction. Yeah we are.

Well if the fucking Eastern Conference is so easy. How are we talking about the Philadelphia 76ers? Then how come the Sixers can't even make it to the finals of the Eastern Conference finals? We are not talking about the Philadelphia 76ers. Because you said the Eastern Conference is so easy Max. I think we can all agree that this guy has to put on the shirt because the minute this Argument happened was because we started talking about the shirt That's where that's where the anger came out in this podcast. Listen are good this fucking guy will put on his shirt

We're divided enough as a nation right now. We can't have another debate like this We can't and Hank is that feel good boys Hank gets to And Hank gets too- Does that feel good, boys? Hank gets too wound up. Look at you, emotional. Well, you did- you did- We're all trying to find the guy who wound him up. No, I'm not wound up. It's just like you guys- I was shocked. I was taking a bath. On this show, over and over and over and over again,

when it's like, are you weird? Are you weird? Are you weird? Are you weird? Oh, they lost the regular season game. But you talk about the Celtics like they're this five-time dynasty. They've won one finals Which when was that finals? Oh the most recent one Oh, right. I'm a defending champion. You know how hard it is to repeat Yeah, I do so like this isn't you're you're looking at this like it's a foregone I'm happy we have max max has just entered the NBA playoffs. I did We have often I'm happy we have max max has just entered the NBA playoffs I did Anti-selting that is my NBA play welcome to the NBA playoffs man I just care so much about Hank that I'm trying to warn him against the the the dangers of hubris right now

And if they were in our conference, I would be like, you know, it'd be a different story But like you're flying too close to the Sun. You've got to respect your thunder. It's not gonna be told June Why would I be concerning myself because they're gonna remember they this that's y'all's job to do the narrative that's what Chet Holmgren said and y'all's have done quite a job why are you hitting with the y'all's well that's what Chet said that's what that's y'all's job y'all's Hank you get hit with some y'alls have have put up quite the quite the bulletin board material. I hope that they see this in Oklahoma City

Okay, me too I do too because I hope that everyone sees this and says put the fucking shirt on dude Yeah, fucking put it on put it on You guys are now making a root against the thunder You should once a root against the thunder. Yes. Yeah, you should they're they're. They're really good. You weren't previously rooting. Who, who are you most afraid of in the West? Clippers, he said. Clippers one Thunder two thunder to, I mean, personally just like, although not really, it's not really statistical based, but LeBron LeBron. Yeah, mm-hmm scare me. Yeah, that would scare me. Uh, you want to talk with Celtics game? Yeah, Celtics 103 magic 86 This is why the Celtics are really fucking good because their fourth option is Derek White and he had 30 points

Derek White was awesome to sell a new door Listen you could say you can you can say anyone about Thunder. If you fucking go after Lou Dort, I will fight you. I fucking love Lou Dort. The guy brings energy. He hits threes, big threes. Defense. Defense. He's got fat ass.

He's Canadian. I understand it's hard to repeat. I do believe truly from the bottom of my heart, and I'm probably probably gonna say this statement over and over and over again when this debate keeps coming up every show and it's like are you worried about this team because they won one game what it's all this maybe lose one game are you worried answers going to be no this team is better than the team last year that won the championship and if they stay healthy they will repeat that is my whole hearted belief for Zingas does look fully healthy. Yeah. He's making great plays on defense.

And Derek White's defense is obviously incredible. Did you hit in threes? What do you shoot from three today? Cause it feel like he made every single one of them were out of his first six or something when he was shooting like that. And then they put Prichard in the game and Prichard just goes out there and starts toying with the defense. It, listen, the magic team defense is very good and I feel like they can be competitive, but at times it did feel like the Celtics were like fucking with them a little bit. The Magic just have, they have two guys really good. Wagner and Paolo are really, really

good and the rest of their team. I mean, think about it there. I think their third, uh, leading score was Jonathan Isaac was seven points. You can't, you can't beat a Celtics team that has Derek White is again, Derek White is not like saying it's not disrespect to say he's their fourth option because that's just what he is. He scored 30 points and he was awesome and Tatum and, and Jalen Brown did not shoot well and it does not matter because they have so many guys, so many guys any given night. Are you worried about Jason Tatum's wrist? I know he got x-rays. I said they came back negative. Are you worried that his mom's gonna try to fight a team? No, it's a good thing. That was very funny. Yeah mom said you want me to go in that locker room

It's good mom. Yeah, really good mom I'm excited how many tweets did you get being like panic button at halftime? I? Got a few a decent amount. That's it's premature guys We got listen we're gonna get to the panic button stuff when like the Cavs win a couple games against Celtics Or maybe when Knicks are one-in-one if the Knicks win one one of the first two games So yeah, you can't do it halftime against the magic going back into my old Hank knows ball files And you pretty accurately predicted the playoffs last year in terms of how many losses you're gonna have this year What do you say? It's gonna be prior to the NBA finals. How many losses total will you have?

Good question Three Three one in the second round two in the fourth third round. I'd say two and a half I mean I would take the under I would set the line in two and a half and I take the under You think calves are gonna take two off you? I don't know. I don't think the calves are gonna make it. Oh Should we talk? I mean they they beat the shit out of the heat. Yeah, they this is why the play I mean the heat are The heat are just not like what are we

doing? The Heat were not a good team during the regular season they won the play-in I mean I guess the Heat were the best of the other play-in they proved that on Friday night. Trey Young is just I don't know how Hawks fans do it the his his just standing around the last few possessions Having guys get rebounds over him. It was it was brutal to watch and It was I just don't know how you do that I don't know how you root for that guy and Davey on Mitchell basically out hustled him and the end of that game was Unbelievable. It's just a win for heat culture

Yeah But then they had to play the Cavs today and guess what a Cavs team that won what 60 plus games Versus a heat team that is under six games under 500. Yeah, the Cavs are better than the Heat There's also got to be something to be said that the Grizzlies and Heat getting blown out has something to do with the fact that They had to play all week on Friday. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I'd say probably that's probably fair But still I don't think the Cavs are so much better than fair But still I don't think it's the calves are so much better than the heat there I don't think it's gonna be a sweep though. I think that the either the heat are gonna win one maybe two The calves are so much better than the I would take the under on two. I

think the calves are a lot better than the and they've been very good all year and The heat or not. I mean, there's not a very good team. and the heat or not, I mean, they're just not a very good team. They're under 500. I don't know what else to say. When you're under 500, we've proven over 82 games you're not that good of a team. Yeah, and Spoh has to be going out there understanding that he's probably gonna lose every night.

Yeah, and Donovan Mitchell was awesome, scored 30. Yeah, I Think the Cavs are very good team and then we have we're watching right now the Warriors kind of Welcome the Rockets to the NBA the Warriors officially back. Yeah, I think they might say you might be back like oh, okay. Oh Okay, just saying yeah third quarter. I think I think what Wendy said was completely accurate about the West Just like pretend that they don't have the little numbers next to their names. Yeah Absolutely Yeah, I mean this is a Warriors team that I don't their depth is

It could be an issue because obviously Jimmy and Steph have to carry a big scoring load every single night, but Yeah, I did see I wouldn't go against Steph Curry. Dylan Brooks tried to tackle somebody. I don't know who he hit. It definitely wasn't Trayvon because he's already doing that. Yeah, there was the nice thing though is he's got Steven Adams to back him up. Yeah, which is a great guy to have behind you if you're gonna pick a fight with somebody. That's a fact. That's a fact. Uh, she talked a little puck. We had two games on, on, uh, Saturday. I've made my future bet because Whitney told me that he thought maybe the abs I took abs plus seven 50 of us told PFT, nothing he cares that I would cash out if they played the caps

in the finals. Cause I would rather you win. You are free to do whatever you want with your bet. But I would. And I will not hold it against you if you don't cash out. But I would be a lot of money. I'd want a roof for you. I'm locked in But I would. And I will not hold it against you if you don't cash out. But I would. Because it could be a lot of money. I'd want a roof for you.

I'm locked in. Or a year. Yeah, I'd want a roof for you. But that first game, the Jets Blues was awesome. And I don't know if you guys saw, but the one-timer goal to win the game with like a minute and 30 left by Kyle Conner was so sick. Cross Ice just fucking buried it. And there's something about playoff

games in Canada that are just incredible. I do like it. And the the leaf senator series is gonna be great because there's a lot of bad blood. And just both two Canadian teams, one has to go on for I would like to see Canadian team make it to the St. Louis Cup finals. Yeah, I think that'd be fun. Ah, the so the abs beat the fuck out of the the stars. Speaking of famous fans, I remembered that glass banger is in jail. Oh, he is. Yeah, locked up. He's in jail till the end of May. Now, I don't know what to believe on on Twitter, because anyone could say anything but there was a question of like where is he and everyone's like he's in jail oh Hank might be right the the Rockets just cut it to nine and someone replied he's in jail because old lawyer died and he missed the court date for a DUI he

got insane circumstances only could happen to a fucker like that. I choose to believe these circumstances Apparently he's in he's in jail for until like the end of May So we will not get glass banger at Dallas stars home But he is like that's the irony of being in jail and visiting with people you do get to bang on the glass there That's true. That's facts. Do you think he's doing that? I think probably someone shows somebody just shows up and plays the game for him on like it's like on their phone. Yeah, he just gets a hit the cell we had and then the devils got killed by the Hurricanes which I when we had Whitney on last week previewing the NHL playoffs I based solely on Frank

the Tank Sweets I had no idea the devils were even in the playoffs. They also got a bunch of injuries. There was that one clip of like both their guys coming off. Guess what? I know that there's people who were in prime season of dick measuring between the two sports. There were some blowouts in hockey too. A lot of blowouts. There were some blowouts in hockey. I think also the Sunday, because we had three games to start Sunday in the NBA where there were 12 and a half or more Favorites and they all covered. Mm-hmm. And it was like yeah

I guess this sucks is it was the one seeds and then the two seed so ending champs I've got a small bone to pick with the Winnipeg Jets. Okay, very minor And also they did win the president's trophy, right? And I think that the last team to win the Stanley Cup Yes, was the Blackhawks. I believe that win the president's trophy right and I think that the last team to win the Stanley Cup Yes, was the Blackhawks. I believe that won the president's trophy. That was a long time. It was at 2012. I think in 2015 we might have no 2013 what was a shortened year the shortened year? I don't know. I think the shortened year was 2011 No, no, there was a year where we they started the season. I'm gonna look it up. I want to say it was 2015 was the shortened year. Nope. That was not a shortened leaf. I searched for what jet is in the logo for the Winnipeg Jets. The AI overview says that it's an F-15 Eagle. That's not an F-15 Eagle. Oh, that's

either a Hornet or maybe a Viper, but I think it's a Hornet. Canada's got a lot of F-18 Hornets. That is not, that is absolutely fucking lutely not an F-15. So we're saying wait So there might they might have fucked up the design black ox 2012 2013 That was a short year They would they had the best record because I remember they started and they they won like 20 in a row or didn't lose for forever So wait, so explain it to me again. It's a big deal to me, but probably to no other person in the world

They say that it's an F-15 Eagle. That's, buddy, that's not an F-15. What is it? That's either a Hornet. I think it's a Hornet. But they're jets. They're jets. They're both jets. So does it matter? Well, yeah, because that's not the outline of an F-15. If they're claiming that's an

F-15, that's not an F-15. But it's a jet in their logo. It is a jet in their logo, yes. Also, who told you that it was an f-15. That's not an f-15, but it's a jet in their logo. It is a jet in their logo Yes, also who told you that it was an f-15 the AI overview I'm looking at it right now the what a peg jets logo features a fighter jet an f-15 eagle I think your problem is with the AI is it did I get a I'd? Yeah like no

Right. This is the I've had some issues with the AI recently asking a question. So what did you see? No, I've seen nothing, but I've asked the AI, like the Google AI questions, and I've gone to other people telling them that that is the answer. Okay. And then being made look a fool. I found another source. I thought this was your thing. Well, no, I'm telling you, if they're claiming that's an F15, it is not a 15, but I just saw like, shouldn't you be able to verify that? That's what I'm

doing right now is that I read a source on the internet that said that that was an F-15 and I am telling you that is not an F-15, but then I just found a different source that says indeed it is a hornet as I suspected yes strawman question it's still a jet right yep okay jet still a jet so that part they're right they are right they are the jet that is jet yeah from my second source that I'm looking at it does appear that it's an f-18 so it was the AI that was wrong the AI was yeah I was wrong yeah Yeah, fuck that AI. Yeah, I I'm stronger than the machine Do you know my jet knowledge is better than Google?

Do you know who was never wrong about this no me cuz I always thought it was a jet It's confirmed a jet But yeah, Winnipeg good job having a properly sourced logo. Yeah, wait, hey memes, what'd you think about the Knicks? You're a Knicks fan. We just passed over. Yeah, it was a campaign game. I was very nervous when they went down eight. Yeah.

And then campaign popped off. Do you think maybe you could take that guy? Knicks in six. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, bing bong. Jerry was in Chicago this weekend. We just didn't see him, sucked. He was here for a volleyball tournament. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,

oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, I'm just saying that's y'all's narrative max that is y'all that's track. That's y'all's there it is Okay, do we want to do? Who's back of the week and then we'll get to our interviews greater views who's back the week brought to you by our friends at truly Truly unruly lemonade combines a high out of truly unruly with everyone's favorite lemonade level up your lemonade 8% ABV 100% delicious for supercharged lemonade flavors, bumpin blue ras, OG original lemonade, punched up pineapple, wild pink, it's the official hard seltzer, pardon my take, find Truly Unruly Lemonade at a store near you or visit trulyhardseltzer.com. I am a big fan of the wild pink, go check them right now 8% ABV 100% delicious level up your lemonade

For supercharged lemonade flavors bumpin blue Razz og original lemonade punched up pineapple wild pink the official hard seltzer Pardon my take find truly unruly Lemonade at a store near you visit truly hard seltzer calm Henry Yeah, man, who's back the week is playoffs. Playoffs. It's that time of year. Should we break down the games? Also in golf though, Justin Thomas for the first time in three years won his first tournament in a playoff. The RBC heritage. So Justin Thomas is back. When I saw RBC heritage, I Thomas is back perhaps we're back when I saw RBC heritage I thought it was being played in Europe somewhere I thought

it was played in Canada that's a big time yeah one of the I don't know why it feels like it's in Scotland right the RBC heritage yeah but then they showed the the well I think it was prime South Carolina yeah Yeah, yeah prime South Carolina, but the winner I always thought it was Canada because the winner gets that Jacket the red jacket. Oh the fifth major First win in three years. Yeah, that's that's major for him. We like JT. Yeah big one. Yeah Tough for our guys see who Kim tracker

Yeah, big one. Yeah. Tough for our guy. See who Kim tracker knows see who Kim started the day in first, right? He's lights out. And today, that was brutal. I felt bad for our boy. I saw him tweet something like I'm with my family. They're all happy and I'm just in hell. Like that's the way I appreciate that he's committed to it. Yeah. Like if you're a tracker, the losses should affect you right and listen We all choose a path. I mean the Brooks tracker is like he's He's been gone rogue. Yeah, he goes off the map. Yeah but but our guys see who Kim tracker we love him and he You don't choose this life It chooses you and it happened to choose him to track see who Kim and he was brutal today

And that was stuff Yeah family all happy laughing and here I am molding about the who Actually can't imagine not being a sports fan. You all must be so happy It's very funny to like be like being a sports fan when it's like you're actually just talking about see who can he's probably gonna Like someone like an uncle at Easter being like what's wrong James? He's like All right, you got you got money on the Grizzlies nope I just track see who Kim and that's my life and I love I respect him for it

There should be a see who Kim tracker tracker that updates us on what see who Kim track. I think we are going through Yeah, that's that segment. Yeah, we're track. What's up up with see who Kim track I would like to see an account though that does it so I can read it oh okay pfd year who's back so Hank you just went with playoffs plus are back got it you know you didn't like it was good it was good you know you didn't want to say golf it was really good yeah well no it was His playoffs. Yeah, yes are back. Were you happy? Was I happy? Yeah, see JT one Yeah, not really. I was happy to see Justin Thomas win. Yeah, Sam Yeah, good story agreed good guy him

My who's back of the week is the rivalry the rivalries back on I Who's back of the week is the rivalry. The rivalries back on. I have joined a softball team. Oh, yeah. I'm officially on Kadex softball team. And man, the group chat is buzzing. Great vibes in the group chat. These are my boys. Can't wait to have a couple beers with them, play some softball. It's gonna be great. I'm fucking pumped. I'm ready to go. Pump for you. Yeah. Same. Also, people should be blaming Max for inviting PFT. Oh yeah. I'll go with that. People blaming me. It's like dude I invited myself onto a team. I wasn't. I mean you are kind of the leader

of the team. I am not the leader. Yeah he is the leader of the pugs. He is kind of the leader of the you are your pugs. I both joined this team. You're the best player. You're the dog. I'm not the best player. I might join Katie. See, dude, cause I've got, yeah, let me tell you. Let me tell you. I might join Katie. This team I can tell just a picture. I can tell just from the group chat what kind of guys I'm dealing with. And these are some loyal dudes. I'm pumped to play some. I'm committed to the pugs pugs pugs. Listen, what position do you want to play? Whatever position. No no in a perfect world though like let's say you're you're you know setting the lineup you're putting yourself I'm like you excel I gotta meet the boys I

gotta see you I guess nobody I gotta get in where in a world where there's yeah I gotta start fitting in and not fitting out but like in a vacuum I would say pretty strong left field would you accept a D8 spot? Wherever they need me. Okay. That's what kind of team guy I am. Yeah, listen, I'm committed to the Pugs. We're 1-0.

We've had some early season adversity and we fought through and we're ready to go. We're ready to go. We're so bad. We can't go find. I find myself. I did feel a little bit- Clubhouse cancer find. A small bit emasculated when the group chat started going and we're talking about getting

jerseys together. This team is really rally rattling around each other, which I love. I love being a group of guys like that. Um, but we're, uh, we are a fat pitches only. Nice. Yeah. Yeah. Classic. Right. So we were getting the Jersey order stuff going on and they're like, okay, we're going to put in the Jersey order. Uh, I'm just going to write the sizes out and just like whichever one you'll be. So it's like medium, large, extra large, double XL, triple XL. And I was the only one

that liked me. So it's a bunch of big boys, which I'm down with. You're like when that happens on the burner verse always makes you laugh when a guy's like, you all you all cool if I have a day. And he posts like a picture of his fit pick and it's like a Peter Millar medium. Yeah, everyone's like dude, you probably weigh 130 pounds you you obviously are you're you're as sturdy of a medium as they come I'm a sturdy boy. I'm a little thick. Yeah, you're not a you're not a true medium. No, I mean I've gone from being a smetium to now I'm a Marge

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you gotta get a march when I when I rock the medium. It's like you're wearing a smetium. No, that's a Marge That's a Marge. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You got to get a Marge. When I rock the medium, it's like your winner's medium. No, that's a Marge. That's a Marge, baby. Well, I'm excited. I mean, I'm happy you found a home. Yeah, me too. Are you guys going to do a home run derby? Just pump to play softball. Or some kind of competition? Good question. I mean, I was down to do one with Hank, but Hank seemed like he didn't want to smoke on Friday. So no, Hank is a better baseball player than me. I will admit that. We could go to a field and we go to a field. Go to a field. Okay. I'm, let's go. I'm down again. I don't know where the, I didn't want the smoke came from, but I'm, I would love

to. Let's do a 16 inch home run Derby. Okay. Yeah. We're going to find a field with a fence. I have one. Okay. Great. They might not hit any home runs. So how many pitches I? Think it's like first to five home runs That might take a while might take a while how yeah, how far these fence? Well, there's there's a softball field that we could play on like 220 kind of like a Jose Altuve guy I do have the six inches. Yeah 16. It's tough to get out like it's not For people who don't know what we're talking about 16 softball I do have the power. 16 inches. Yeah, 16 inches. It's tough to hit out. That's hard. Like, it's not, for people who don't know what we're talking about, 16 inch softball,

the ball is like this big and it's softer and you don't, in Chicago, you don't play with gloves. So there's no gloves on the field and the ball gets a little softer as the game goes. And it's like, it's a very fun game because as you get older, you don't really want to be playing 12 inch where someone like Max gets up you get older, you don't really want to be playing 12 inch where someone like Max gets up to the plate, you're playing first base and he hits a rocket 100 miles an hour down the line right in your face.

This is a game that's a little bit more skilled than speed and yeah, the ball gets a little softer. You can't really hit it. You can't hit like 300 foot bombs with 16 inch softball. Okay. The circumference is 16 inches. Yes For our podcast for our podcast. Listen, maybe maybe we we set up our own outfield fence with just like a rope We could do that. Okay, where I'm kind of there

would like halfway between Little league here just play it a little league field. Yeah little league. Yeah, just played a little league field. Yeah. Yeah Yeah, we find a little league. All right. Yeah, we'll do that. That'd be good PM TV We'll do it right after max actually fucking does is Dinger's only league video. Yeah We're about to have the draft for me. Yeah, only we have that setup We have to do it before we play Dinger's only again But that team doesn't play. Yeah, actually no, that'll work, that'll work, that'll work.

The Cubs are playing right now, you can do it. Would you want me to pitch against the Cubs? Yeah. That'd be so awesome. Oh my God. The wind's blowing out. Oh, that'd be so fucking awesome. Okay, my Who's Back of the Week is Big Dom. Not to be a trigger to you, Max, but Big Dom because Harry Roseman said Big Dom is the best in the NFL at finding out about players red flags. Said he's the best. I don't know how he does, but he does. Finds it out.

And he stops problems. He stops problems before they start. Never been in a rest. Yeah. Also, my who's back is, how did Matt Fitzpatrick do today, or this weekend? Did he play? He did, I think, but not great. I didn't know this story until I saw it, but he played an entire season with a four ounce weight in his driver without realizing it.

How's that possible? I don't know, because he's like quite literally the biggest stats data guy. Right, like we did a whole full swing thing about him keeping track of every shot ever and then he forgot to take a 4 ounce weight out of his club. He's tied for 38th, he is ranked 116th FedEx Cup rankings, 75th in the world. So is there going to be any punishment? No I think it's not a punishment. You can have weights.

But he just thought he was like, he cares so much about the data and knows all the shafts and weights and lofts and stuff He put it in the siding he was playing Like it's a leaded donut like yeah, okay It's not it doesn't add like he chose a 38 ounce bat Yeah, but thought in his head that he was hitting a 34 ounce. Okay. I thought it meant like the head of the drive No, I didn't work. He didn't see what you did you what he doesn't think you know baseball I know ball down to you? What? He doesn't think you know baseball. He's just trying to dumb it down to you with ounces and bats.

No, I understand the concept of the leaded donut. Dude, this guy's on a softball team now. Okay? Fat pitches only. Yeah. You don't have to talk to him like that. He was really talking down to you. Hank is talking down to me.

I can't wait to settle this on the diamond, Hank. Same. I'm scared. I'm ducking smoke. You don't respect me. You don't respect the Thunder. Two, same. I'm scared. I'm ducking smoke. You don't, you don't respect me. You don't respect the thunder to all time greats. Hey, good call on this warriors rockets game. Fuck. Do we have to w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w

w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w who wins this game. But, uh, yeah, don't, don't talk PFT. Okay. You got this. Uh, all right, let's get to our interviews. We've got, uh, Minnesota timber. We're gonna start with Daniel Jeremiah talking draft. And then we got Minnesota timber wolves, head coach Chris Finch. Okay. Before we get to Daniel Jeremiah talking draft, KFC the future of dunking is here. The dunk it bucket is no ordinary release. It's a first of its kind customizable flavor experience. KFC is introducing the first ever bucket built for dunking. It's an interactive, crave worthy food experience designed for

ultimate dipping, dunking, sharing and devouring. Now with the new Dunk It Bucket, KFC is inviting everyone to get on all the delicious possibilities and dunk it their way because dunking isn't just for basketball legends anymore, it's for everyone. Hank, you can finally dunk. I've been dunking all month long. I love these Dunk It Buckets. The Dunk It Bucket is awesome. It is awesome. So go check it out now KFC Dunk It Challenge may be over But you can still dunk dip and devour with the KFC Dunk It bucket Go check it out now dunk like Hank with the KFC Dunk It bucket. It's no ordinary release It's a first of its kind customizable flavor experience from KFC the Dunk It bucket Daniel Jeremiah is also brought to you by our friends at Chevy.

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Hank can finally dunk. Silverado brings the grit then pairs it with all the latest truck tech inside and out. The result a truck that can do it all then show up on Monday with a story to tell. So learn more about the Silverado Trail Boss at Chevy.com Chevrolet. Together let's drive. Okay here he is Daniel Jeremiah talking NFL draft. Okay we now welcome on, uh, recurring guests, very special guests. It's a yearly tradition. It is Daniel Jeremiah from the NFL network, move the sticks podcast, chargers radio. You can find them on Twitter at move the sticks.

He is one of our draft experts and it's always great. It's draft week. So let's start with this DJ. Great to talk to you. Thanks for coming on. Uh, is it wrong to say that this draft does not have a lot of buzz because I feel like maybe especially compared to last year, uh, we're in draft week and it just feels like there's not a lot, not a lot of movement, not a lot of talk. Uh, is that a fair assessment? I think it's fair. You know, it doesn't mean it's not a, like a quality draft. It's I just been saying it's starters, not stars. Like last year we had six quarterbacks. Like that's so rare when you have that many quarterbacks and quarterbacks provide the juice and the intrigue. Um, and this year when you've got, you know, cam ward

seems locked in at one, Travis Hunter seems locked in at two. So, you know, it, you know, there's not really that juice there at the top because we, we kind of feel like we know what's going on there and then it begins at three. Yeah. So you, you just said starters, not stars. And that's what I've, I've been reading about how it's, uh, well you tell me how many blue chippers projected pro bowlers. And obviously this is all hard to do because the draft, uh, are there in this draft or where, you know, where would you say if you're picking in this range, you're going to get a guy who has potential to be a bona fide star versus this is where the falloff is to me.

And I think everybody's somewhat in this range. Some have a few more, but I think like cam ward in his own category as a quarterback. And I think there's six like premier players. Some drafts you might have, you know, 13, 14, um, this year there's six. Now the difference is I'm at like, doesn't mean like the seventh, eighth, ninth guy aren't really good, but to me that group is huge. Like Quinshaw and Judkins is in the early thirties for me and grade wise is not going to be much different than who I would have going with the ninth or 10th pick. Right. So if we're looking at this year's draft, where would, if you were And grade wise is not going to be much different than who I would have going with the ninth or tenth pick, right?

So if we're looking at this year's draft, where would if you were to put cam warden last year's draft, where would you see him going? I gave him the same grade as I gave Bo Nicks. So They would literally be right there with him and Bo, you know I look he was the last of that first group to go but outside Jane Daniels You'd say probably played the second best of all of those guys. So, um, I think, I think cams not quite as polished as Bo it was coming out, but I think their skillset wise is very similar. And what were the six players that you would say are like, Hey,

these are the blue chip guys. These are the guys that if you have one of these top picks, you're going to probably get someone who might be a perennial pro bowler. I start with like the little tier there at the very top. It's Abdul Carter, Travis Hunter, whatever order you want to put them in. You gave him the same grade. It's just whatever you need. Um, those two guys, I got the two tight ends in that mix. So Tyler Warren, Colson Loveland, I've got Ashen Gentie up there. I think he's my third player. Um,

and then I've got, uh, Mason Graham in there. So does that get me to the six? Yeah, that gets you to the six. Yeah. I mean, I love Mason Graham. I think he's going to be awesome. I'm hoping he falls to 10, but I very highly doubt it. Uh, okay. So that's a good big picture of, of the draft. What about in terms of strongest positions and weakest positions just so people know going into this week? I Think I think defensive line overall like just numbers. You're gonna see a ton of D linemen edge rushers DT's That's probably the the largest collection the largest number of players if you're gonna look at guys that can have you know starter potential

I think that group's probably the deepest. But from comparing a group to what they are historically, the tight ends and the running backs are really, really good. And it's a really, really strong group of those guys compared to what we'd normally get. Not premier positions, but that's why I've argued. There's some years where it's like, hey, bang the table. Tackles, edge rushers, corners, receivers,

the premium positions, they get elevated. But this year to me, like some of these running backs and tight ends are so good and there's such a gap as players with them and these other premier positions. Like I think you almost got to throw that out the window. Yeah. Yeah. What about at the quarterback position with Sador? So some people are having Sador going some in the top 10, I've seen a couple of people like that. And then some have them falling more towards the end of the first round. I feel like this is, I've kind of, maybe it's a prediction, but it feels like one of those years where we'll get through part of the first round and there will be a team that, now we can take you to where later on in the first round, uh, where do you have them going? And then two,

do you see that happening? I think it's very, very possible. Like to me, I think there's a little bit of a game of chicken, uh, with three teams. So Pittsburgh, you know, they're in that market. They're picking 21 to me. There's like a, there's like a bullseye on them of like, okay, if you want to cut, if you're the come back up team, then you know, Sean Payton, Denver at 20 is, is probably going to be a hot spot where you're trying to get and the Browns and the Giants say if they both were in on whether it's Shadoor, whether it's Dart, um, they're competing against each other to see who wants to be most aggressive to go up and get the quarterback after already having secured

You know, we assume will be Hunter and Carter And the cost isn't that much so you're looking at it would be the second round pick. Let's say for the Giants 34 It would be there one of their thirds. They have two thirds would be 65 and then a fifth round pick which is 164 so I would think if you're the Giants or you're a a fan of the giants and you come out of it and you've got Abdul Carter and then you come out and you end up with should do or or dart, whoever your choice is there. You still got a third round pick. So that's a, that's a pretty nice hall there. You've got a quarterback of the future, but you also have a big time premier player. I was thinking they would make a ton of sense for the Giants because you got a coach who's in save my job mode and You need a quarterback. You don't have an answer at the quarterback position And so you take that premium player at the top and then you also double dip and and come back in for Chador

So you mentioned Jackson Dart too He's that guy that like the closer we get to the draft the better he becomes Like the further away we get from watching him play football, he becomes better at football. But I've got some teams saying that like they might, you could see him as maybe a first round draft pick. So who did you have him above Chedure or Chedure above him? I have on my list, I have Chedure. You know, he's like right around 1820, like in that range from my list and darts in the mid 30s. But, you know, I get to me dart, my comp on him was kind of off the walls a little different,

but he reminded me of hurts just from the standpoint of kind of built similarly. They're like strong sturdy tough guys. They got better each and every year in college not arriving as like a finished product, but guys that you know, I think you're kind of buying into the kid and the competitiveness of the kid and the toughness of the kid that he's going to eventually get there. And I mean, I look, I was at Hertz, like one of his first training camp practices and it was not good. You know, like there was, there was like, oh gosh, what did we do type vibe there, but he just proved he's just gonna

outwork everybody and he's gonna figure it out and, and, and he did. So I think that's the comparison there with those, like the trajectory of those two guys. So, uh, I know I would be a terrible, uh, scout or someone in the front office because I would overreact to a specific game more than every other game. Yeah. So that was good. Now it's helped me sometimes. I was, I was first on the bandwagon of packs and Lynch is not good because I lost a lot of money in his bowl game, but the job is bowl game. Can I tell you the story about his? Yes, please. I was at his bowl game and I wanted to see him. So I went, I don't think I ever told this, but I went, uh, I went down on the field. I was working with NFL network, but I didn't want to, I didn't want anybody to kind of recognize me. I don't think they

would have anyways. I probably could have worn an NFL shield and a Rob Lowe hat. Nobody would have known who I was, but I went down there right by the fence along the sideline. Cause I wanted to see like how he interacted with everybody. Cause I knew he was big and strong and athletic and all that stuff. The play on the field, he didn't play great in that game, but to me, I went down on the sideline. I did not see him interact with anybody. He'd come off the sideline. He wasn't talking to coaches. He wasn't around teammates. So that's when I kind of jumped ship on him at that bowl game.

Yeah. That was so, so, so sometimes it works in kind of jumped ship on him at that bowl game. Yeah, that was so, so sometimes it works in my favor. Sometimes it doesn't, but the Florida game for Jackson dart was horrendous. And when you're sitting in that meeting, is there like, do you say, Hey, look, there's one game guys, we can't, we can't react to a bad game. Just like we can't react to a really good game. Or is it like, no, this might be a sign of something else that we got to be worried about longterm. Well, I mean, I look, there's always going to be outliers and clunkers, you know, Lamar Jackson, I want to say they played LSU and their bowl game and it was not, it was not

good for his final sendoff there. Um, but you know, th th this is the same thing I've and I don't have the medical information, so I can't, you know't stamp this as a hundred percent, but in talking to some people around the league and maybe they're just apologists or they have big grades on these guys, but like you hear Will Howard might've been concussed in the, in the Michigan game. You hear Jackson Dart might've been concussed in the Florida game. I'm not, I don't have that documented. I'm just saying that there's that, that stuff floats around out there when you're talking to people, but it's not the first time somebody's had a

stinker Josh Allen and who was playing with a junior high team when they went and played that Iowa game, but like had the interceptions and people just, just hung onto that one moment on him and punished him for that. And it's like, dude, that's, you know, he wasn't even fighting a fair fight with what he had in that game, but you're going to have a game like that every now and then. Right. Yeah.

How do you weigh that? Like, I guess the real question I'm asking is how, how do you weigh, um, fight with what he had in that game, but you're going to have a game like that every now and then. Right. Yeah. How do you weigh that? Like, I guess the real question I'm asking is how do you weigh traits, like the, if a guy has a big arm, very accurate, et cetera, et cetera, against the games that you've seen him play most recently? Well, I think big games are important, you know, how you play in that. But I, like to me, there was a lesson in scouting and obviously I hadn't learned it the hard way, but with Josh and with Mahomes where it was like,

okay, there's some rawness to them. There's some, some, some issues that pop up. There's some development that needs to take place. But when you have like combination of size, you know, ridiculous arm talent and then incredible like competitiveness. And then you go through the later on the process you find out oh yeah by the way they're unbelievable dudes who are incredibly smart like these guys are gonna figure it out like I'll take my chances on those guys who maybe a little rough around the edges so

it you know to get to your point there I'm chasing ceiling with quarterbacks maybe more than I'm looking at the floor you know when you just look around the AFC and you look at the quarterbacks you have to go through, it's like to me, okay, if I take a guy who has like a mid-level ceiling, but I know he's gonna hit it, like I'm confident he's gonna hit it, and I have another guy with a wide range,

but a higher ceiling, well, either way, if I take the high range guy, any bus, I gotta go get another quarterback. If I take the guy with the mid ceiling, two years, three years, now I'm like, well, he's not good enough either, like I gotta go back and get another quarterback. So you might as well just take your swing. Yeah. No, it's a good way to think about it. And I think that as fans, we, we probably criticize too much on the swings because it's like, you can't, you don't want to be stuck in that mediocre, you know, having a starting quarterback who's just good enough to get paid, but not good enough to win a Super bowl. Yeah. Just list. I mean, when you look at the AFC and off the top of my head, you're talking about my homes,

Alan Lamar, Jackson burrow, um, CJ Stroud, Herbert, like you got to navigate through that gauntlet and you're going to go out there with kind of a, you know, a middling middling quarterback like you're never going to survive. Yeah. Yeah. Speaking, speaking to Josh, we were talking about, you know, some of the bad games he had in college. Who was one guy in this draft that is from, you know, that next level,

maybe group of five school that you think might be a sleeper guy that you're going to get an excellent player. Maybe you haven't seen him play that much, but who's one guy that stands out. Well, I just go immediately to Gray's Abel from North Dakota state. You know, first of all, they've put offensive lineman in the NFL. They know how to coach them. They know how to identify them. They know how to develop them.

And then take guys from these non, you know, traditional, you know, power four type programs and they go to the senior bowl and they not only hold their own, they're like pretty dominant down there. That's a high batting average with those guys, man. And he can play all five positions. Um, so yeah, he's's he's like that immediate name that just pops right into my head. Yeah. The running backs in this draft is very interesting because it's Ashley Jenny obviously is at the top and he's going to go in whatever the first

six, seven picks. But you said, you know, there's a lot of depth at running back. Who's your favorite of the next group and it does it? Is it fair to say that like there's going to be probably five or six teams that are come away from this draft being like, Hey, we feel like we've got a guy who on his rookie contracts going to be really good contributor to this team. Dude, there's a boatload of them. Um, but like Trevion Henderson for me from, from Ohio state, just because you got home run hitter, which I love. Um, but then you've got somebody who's he's arguably, and I have to go back

through my notes, like from way back in like the early two thousands, I don't recall off top of my head a better pass protecting back coming out of college. Like he's unbelievable at it. So you've got that, which is a hard thing to find and he possesses it. Then you've got someone who, you know, it's not, he's not a smallish back like he's put together. Um, he doesn't have a ton of tread on his tires because they've spread the rock around there at Ohio State so now he's one that I would think and it like I know you know the Bears and people will look at that and

say gosh that would be insane if they did that with pick number 10 but then you kind of step back and look at it and you're like okay the biggest issue is you guys know like they didn't protect last year. So we revamped the offensive line and now we've got a running back who can not only, you know, hit a home run. I can get them involved in the pass game, but come, you know, look, you come against some of those big time fronts. I got an extra, it's like having an extra lineman back there to help protect Caleb. So that would, that would be maybe a little shock if that happened when he got picked, but I could easily explain it.

So like in terms of draft trends, uh, it is a copycat league. Do you feel like the, the tide shifting in the running backs or even linebackers where it's like, you saw what the lions did a couple of years ago and everyone's like, this is crazy. Why would they do this? They took it. They take a running back and a linebacker early. Our team starting to open their eyes a little bit more being like, Hey, this isn't, crazy. Why would they do this? They took it. They take a running back in a linebacker early. Our team's starting to open their eyes a little bit more being like, Hey, this isn't, this isn't as crazy as we thought it was, you know, five, six years ago. I just think it's the order of operation. I don't think that I have an issue with taking

a running back and I don't think most teams do. I think the mistakes are when you're a terrible team and you take a running back, no one and he's got like a six year, seven year shelf life and you're going to waste two or three years of those carries on a terrible team. What's the point? Like you're better off building up your team. And then the second I start the clock on the running back, like it matters. All of his carries like Detroit had the offensive line that are taking care of the marquee positions on defense.

They had Aiden Hutchinson. So you dropped Jamir Gibbs and he hits the ground running and off you go. But to me, if you're a bad team, bad offensive line, you can disguise a good running back with a bad supporting cast. Yeah, that's where the mistake is for me. And it's a really good point. It's it's why I feel bad for Giants fans who get made fun of for the Saquon deal. And it's like, but Saquon would like the Giants

wouldn't have been good with Saquon this year. Saquon was added to a Superbowl ready team. And that's why he flourished. He always has been a good running back. It's just that he was on a really bad team and it makes no sense to pay a running back on a really bad team. A hundred percent. Yeah. It's to me, it's just that it's one of the final pieces there. Everybody talked about, you know, I think Seattle was the reason for this was kind of like you build up your roster, then you drop in the quarterback. I almost more believe so it's the running back in terms of once you have everything built up, okay, drop him in there and off you go.

And there's teams in this draft where you look at it. And that's why like normally the teams pick in the top 10 aren't, don't have those keep bases covered. And so that's why you see some of these running backs that go up there and maybe don't pop as much, but the bears are different. They're different. Like if somehow Gentie were to get there, they've, they've invested in that offensive line.

They have the quarterback in place. They have all the key positions and defense. They're in pretty good spot there. Um, so that's why it's kind of a unique opportunity for them. And, um, even if, if Gentie was gone, I would, you know, I'd be doing my homework on Hampton, who's a stud at a North Carolina. Like I would love to see the Bears come away with a dynamic back. I think they're ready for him. Yeah. Yeah. We have to dive into maybe the biggest controversy of all time in the NFL draft.

What's been going on with Will Campbell and his arm length measurement. So, uh, I know you're, you're a big arm length guy, probably. Um, he measured in at 32 and five eighths inches at the combine. And that's just below the magic number of 33 inches, which is what you say you have to have to be an offensive tackle. Then was it at his pro day or was that the senior pro day? He measured in at 33 inches. So he got up there. His arm length increased. Are his arms is that three eighths of an inch good enough?

Is that enough to make Will Campbell an elite tackle? Well, the, uh, the arm length controversy goes like well beyond Campbell because there were guys at the senior bowl who got their arms measured in a bow. The tackle from Purdue is one off top of my head whose arms magically shrunk an inch from the senior bowl to the combine. So like all the combine numbers this year were low. So I don't know if they've have different people doing it that you know, used to be you had the same guy would do it at the senior bowl is the same guy would do it at the

Combine. So i'm going to go on a limb and say they have different people doing this who are doing it differently. Um, so all the numbers are kind of jacked this year. And you see the pro day numbers match more what the All-Star game numbers were. So it kind of looks like the senior bowl is an outlier. But to me, I've never been in a draft room where it was like, he's 30, 32 and 7 8s, not touching him. Oh, he's 33. We're in on him.

I think a little bit more of that gets made. To me, it's just more about how do you play with your length? Like the the on the on the need length side of the argument go watch the Super Bowl and go watch Joe Tooney Who's not long and who who the Philadelphia Eagles got into his chest and just beat the crud out of him in that game And that was their plan coming into that game. He's a short-arm. We're going to rush long, meaning we're just going to get to his chest. We're going to get extended and get to his chest. And he struggled like that, that there is a reason why people care about arm. Like there is something to that, but I watch Rashawn Slater every week with

the chargers who's got 33 inch arms, but who's built like a wrestler. He's got unbelievable core strength. And even if you get to his chest before he can get on you, he can drop his weight with incredible strength and base. And the arm length doesn't even, it's not even an issue. Yeah. So I think that's, it's kind of, that's a long way to get to it, but I do think arm length matters, but I think you have to put it in a contest. It's kind of like all these measurements where it's like the hand size. We joke about it, but if you had a preference, you would rather have your quarterback have bigger hands and smaller hands because

it's proven that yes, there are quarterbacks with smaller hands who are good, but when it comes to elements, when it comes to, you know, uh, holding onto the football, yeah, you'd probably want to have a 10 inch hand. Like that would, that would help. Yeah. I mean, I think it's across the board. I think that's not just in football. I think in basketball, if you had a good basketball player at six foot five with a normal wingspan and a, and a player that was six foot four with freakishly long arms, like, yeah, I liked the guy with a lot of length because that clogs up lanes and that helps you close out and defend like this.

You're always going to prefer it, but you get in trouble when you discard good play and punish them for, for a trait and you get in trouble when you elevate somebody because they have traits and they can't play. Yeah. So in conclusion, will Campbell, you're not, you're not worried about him at all being a tackle. No, I look, he's not as, he doesn't have the same core strength that Rashawn Slater has.

I didn't give him as high of a grade as I gave Rashawn Slater, but with him, I think he can hold up. I think he's really good at recovering. He's got great feet. Um, but to me, there are times where he's more so than his arm length. Rashawn's broad. He's narrow like will more the wingspan probably bothers me than the arm length. He's just kind of narrow shouldered and guys can kind of get on his

edges a little bit, but I, he's such a great kid. He's so smart. He's so tough. Um, I think the absolute worst case scenario is he fails outside and he's a pro bowl caliber guard. So I think from that standpoint, he has a higher floor. Uh, another reason why this draft maybe doesn't have as much buzz is it's not just the quarterbacks, but the wide receivers. We, I feel like we had a stretch here where the wide receivers were phenomenal and there was every year would

be five or six guys going in the first round is like, holy shit. Uh, and it doesn't feel that way. Talk to me about the wide receiver class and then specifically Tet Macmillan because I feel like I've heard just everything. Like people saying he's a stud and then people ripping them apart. Where do you land on Tet? And then as the wide receivers in total, sure. Uh, big picture. I don't think we have the, again, the stars, like the big time, like top 10 caliber receiver, um, and that we've had in some of these previous years, but I think it's a really good group. I think there's a lot of twos and, uh, you know, a good number of threes. I don't know that we

have like a number one wide out in this class, um, to, to Macmillan specifically, like this is an example of kind of maybe the polarizing nature with him. I call one team and, uh, and say, what'd you guys think of him? Well, he's super smooth. Um, he's ultra athletic. He's got agility. He makes it look easy, you know, with his ranging and he go get it. You know, he has a volleyball background.

I love, you know, love him, you know, really, really love the kid. Talk to somebody else. He, there's no urgency to what he does. Um, I don't see him really compete. It doesn't look like he strains much to try and make things happen, you know, and he's a volleyball player, you know, I mean, come on, he's a, so I'm like, literally they said the exact same things and one likes him and what doesn't like him. It's just kind of all how you, how you view it. Yeah. Yeah. And then what wide receivers is a total, like like is there another one that you like or maybe farther down the line where you're like, Hey, this guy's probably not going to go to the second or third round, but he's going to be a solid pro. Yeah. I like the day two group. Like there's two kids from Iowa state. I think

are really, really good. Um, you've got Noel who is kind of a, you know, a power slot. Like he's a strong sturdy slot who can really, really run, um, who give you run after the catch. He's just, to me he's like ready-made, like drop him in and he's a strong, sturdy slot who can really, really run, um, who can give you run after the catch. He's just, to me, he's like ready-made, like drop him in and he's going to be super productive right away. Uh, and then you've got Higgins on the outside who's like more of that power forward type, um, you know, one of the things that I was talking to Purdy about this, I'm like, one thing I never understood, I don't know if you guys

have ever tackled the subject, but why don't we include pass interference yards on totals for receivers and quarterbacks? Yeah. I mean, Joe Flacco would be even more elite. Yeah. Throw that deep ball. But I mean, like Higgins draws so many penalties. So like, if you just looked at his numbers on paper, like, yeah,

he's got good numbers, but if you added in all the yards and the first downs that he accumulated because he's so physical and fights for the ball and draws flags, like that's a skill. and it's a more valuable skill in the NFL than it is in college. So like those are a couple of day two guys, Jack bash probably goes in the third round from TCU, uh, who's another like ultra ultra competitive kid. So, uh, those are a few I like, I do think that there should also be an end one for wide receivers. If they get a pass interference called against them and they catch the ball,

I, there should be an additional five yards on there. I like that. Yeah. What about Travis Hunter? What do we think about? Are some teams, uh, look at Adam and saying, yeah, uh, you're only going to play a cornerback or is every team that's picking up at the top, are they going to draft them with the understanding that he's going to play both sides? I think everybody I've talked to has a plan to major in minor, you know, like you have major in one side, minor on the other. And to me, look, we can debate all these other

teams that they're going to do. Cleveland's going to take him. He's going to major in offense. He's going to minor on defense. Really? Oh yeah. Oh, I think so. Yeah. I always assumed it was the other way around. You have him great as a, as a wide receiver. I think he's right. He's more impactful as a receiver right now. And so to me, I think that's where you start him, especially in a team in Cleveland, who doesn't have the premier quarterback. And maybe they, you know, I do think they try and come away with one and, and uh, get back in to take one. But to me, yeah, I think that's, I think he'll be on the opposite side of Jerry Judy and, and they'll, uh, they'll get the ball in his hands as much as possible.

So why do you have him? Like, why are you seeing him more as a wide receiver than a cornerback? Cause everybody else that we've talked to has said cornerback first, they'll put them in on packages on offense. Yeah. I mean, first of all, on an, as an aside, he wants to play wide receiver. I think he says he wants to play everything, but if you told him, he would say he's a wide receiver slash corner, and not the other way around. Okay. He touches the football more on offense. And this is not the old days. Like he's not, he's not a press man corner, put him on one side of the field and forget about it, leave him alone. He's at his best where he can use his instincts and eyes play off coverage,

see things, set traps, drive on the ball and make some plays. So I, you know, I don't think he's not like a Pat Sertan, like coming out of college as a corner, whereas I think he is right now ready to go. There's a ton of ways we can get the ball in his hands. I just think he impacts the game more on offense at this point in time. And it's never really been done. Everybody that's had this two-way ability, it's always been major on defense package of plays on offense.

So I realized in saying that, look, this is new, this is a new uncharted waters, so to speak. But to me, that's what makes the most sense for him. Yeah. I got a question about not this year's draft, but overall the way college football is going and then it has, it pertains to the NFL. Obviously you followed the Nico saga in Tennessee. How's that going to impact how teams evaluate these guys going forward where it's like, Hey, I, you know, loyalty is kind of a stupid thing because you know, there is no loyalty in, in these high level sports, but you know, jumping around from team to team having a situation like this, where it's like, he, you know, sits out and not, I don't want to say quit on his team, but like there's that, that storyline goes, So how do teams kind of judge something like this? Cause it probably is going to happen

a lot more going forward. The teams who don't need a quarterback or aren't picking high enough to take one are going to be very vocal about how upsetting this is. And the team, the teams that are picking up high and need quarterbacks are not going to give two cents about it. Like nobody's going to care. It's talent over everything. Right. So it's going to have zero impact on guys and where they go. And we're already used to this last year. I mean, shoot the last, I don't know, maybe five years, you're more, the, the rarity is the guy who's been at one stop. Yeah. All these guys have bounced all over the place. Now what the motivation is for that people can get upset about it if they want, but, uh, you know, from a scouting standpoint with, with Nico specifically, I haven't seen a ton of

them, but I've seen a ton of the Tennessee offense and it's kind of like that old Baylor art Braille's offense where they're literally could touch the hand of the coach on the sideline. It's hard to translate that to the next level from an evaluation standpoint. Uh, you know, I, I don't know what exactly UCLA's offense is going to look like, but I'm kind of excited to see him from an evaluator standpoint in a different offense. It's a really good point because we get tricked by it.

So like going forward, we just got to remember that we're going to hear a lot of criticism of a guy like Nico or someone who has the same situation. It's just going to come from guys that would never have to pick him anyway. Exactly. Yeah. What does it matter? Right. I mean, that's, that's my whole, my whole point.

I mean, I just think there's, there's, there's teams every year that need upgrades and are desperate and they are not going to give a crap about any of this stuff. Yeah. And if one of those players falls to the team that's complaining, they'll change their tune and draft that guy anyways. I've been in a draft room where we had a player with some character issues that we viewed as like a third round pick.

And we had a black dot on him, which meant he was undraftable. And then all of a sudden in the sixth round, our director said, print up a new card, take the black dot off. He's been punished enough. How do you work out? That's perfect. He hung around for a few years. He wasn't a great player, but for a six round pick, he was, it was functional.

Yeah. So what about, um, what about a surprise team? Are we going to get a team that we don't think needs a quarterback that is going to try to make a move? And it'd be very funny if the Falcons did it again this year. I know they won't, but is there a team like the Falcons from last year that you're going to be like, what the hell? I mean, that would, that would probably kill the surprise. I don't, I can't think of one.

There's none like that. I'm looking at it as like a sneaky quarterback team. I mean, the Rams have been mentioned, you know, but I don't know. I mean, I don't think they would do it early, but Matthew's older and, you know, maybe they take one on day two or something like that, but, you know, two has been hurt. Maybe that could be a, you know, a surprise there, but they've paid him. It seems like that wouldn't, that would catch me off guard.

So if there is one, I'm, I'll be as caught off guard as anybody. Yeah. Uh, what about, um, some of the tweener guys? I don't know if we still call them tweeners. I feel like I haven't heard that. Okay. Good, good. Because I haven't heard that, that term a lot recently.

No, it's like been changed to, uh, like a chess piece. If you have somebody on defense, versatile, you have versatile, you move them around a lot. Um, is it, or there any tweeners that we should have our eyes on and then, uh, follow up question, uh, who are, who are the guys that have been undersized that are labeled as tweeners that in your opinion have actually worked out? Yeah. Um, tweeners that have worked out. Well, I mean like Brandon Graham is like kind of my classic tweener.

Um, he was kind of in between body type of a defensive tackle and an edge rusher. And, and, you know, it's like, how, where do we use him best? I was there in Philadelphia when he was there and it's like, well, his, it's better to have his power advantage over a tackle than his quickness advantage over a guard, but he's like, you know, kind of a classic example of, uh, of a tweener. When I'm looking at guys in this draft, you know, this draft, we have a lot of these DTs are all over 300 pounds. Normally we get some of these 275, 280 pound guys.

We don't have as many of those this year. Like Elijah Roberts from SMU, probably like a third round pick but he's one that you kind of go okay does he play inside does he play outside Savion Jones from LSU is another one kind of a tweener there so there's a few of them sprinkled in throughout here but not it's not a huge it's not a huge tweener year maybe the other one I would say is Nick Skorton from A&M. Nick Skorton is fascinating because he is someone when I watched him, I, gosh, I didn't see like big time juice and takeoff at A&M last year. And then I found out after the fact, well, they bulked him up to 280. They wanted to be bigger. So he got up to 280 pounds. Well, he shows up at his pro days, 257 and he's moving around good.

He looks great. And that was, you know, teams like you gotta go back and watch him when he was at Purdue the year before, cause he was lighter and he looks like a different guy. So he's one that's just kind of weird that you're going to see the guy when he gets picked and be like, that doesn't even look like the same human being. Uh, yeah. That's the guy that you saw last year. Uh, all right. This is an unfair question. I'm going to ask you anyway, Outside of the top, let's say eight, give me a team and player that you're like, I know this is what's going to end up happening. Cause I think there are teams like the Packers or the Ravens. It's almost like if you, if you

fall on either beat writers, you can basically telegraph what their pick is. So do you have, I'll give you two shots at it. And if you get one of them right, we'll just be like, DJ was right. He got, he nailed it. So I'll give you two shots at it. And if you get one of them right, we'll just be like, DJ was right. He got, he nailed it. So I'll give you two shots at it. A team player that you're like, I think this is going to happen. It's like, you can almost write it down right now. Well, how you guys, I know, Dan, you talked to hardball. So I don't know if he, if he's into manifestation, but it just feels like I think every night he's going to bed with Colston Loveland's picture like on the wall And he just stares at it and is like, this is going to happen. I believe it.

He will be here. Um, so that's one I would say. And then I will say with the Houston Texans, this one, I'll go with Booker. I'll go with Tyler Booker from, from Alabama. When you have the connection with Nico Ryan's to Alabama. And then when I talked to the guys at Alabama about Tyler Booker, they say he was the offensive, Will Anderson, who also was with the Houston Texans I'm like, there's a lot of there's a lot of stuff working together there. Okay, so if you get either of those, right?

We're gonna we'll make a graphic and be like as first reported by Daniel Jeremiah seven days before the draft He nailed the DJ knows tell me save their time on that graphic though. No, don't don't don't do that unless it actually happens Which the odds are very low. No, we got, you got one of those. You got one of those too. And I know as a scout you fall in love with guys. I'm sure that you've, you've experienced it where you're scouting somebody and you're like, this guy is going to go way too late. I would personally have him way higher. Is there somebody that's going to be picked in the third,

fourth round this year that you have fallen in love with? Ooh, that's a great question. Great. Thank you. So I'll give you like an example of someone, he might even go beyond that, but there's a safety, Woodson, Craig Woodson from Cal, who's, I'm like one of those guys, right, don't kind of, I don't know what I'm missing. Like he's got enough size, he takes the ball away,

he ran the mid four fours. I talked to the guys at Cal, like super smart, great leader. Cal's been like a sneaky, good secondary factory over the years. There's certain schools that you kind of are surprised when you dig into it and you're like, gosh, there's a lot of guys playing in the NFL at this position from this school. So he's one, I think to me, I have him like in the like early mid third round and maybe he goes in like the fifth, fifth round, you know, when it's all said and done, but I think you'll look up and he'll be starting next year.

Okay, I got one last question. It's been awesome. Thank you so much DJ. You got to go D obviously everyone's gonna be watching on NFL Network on draft night move the sticks podcast. The last question is row back question. You're wearing your row back right now. Row back.com promo code take 20% off your first purchase. Q-zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts, everything row back.com promo code take our give us a, I want to do a new thing where we're just going to call it mr. PMT. Cause there's obviously the mr. irrelevant. Give us a six or seventh round quarterback that you're like, Hey, this guy could, who knows just so we can then say, yeah, actually we had it first before anyone

else. Uh, not saying give us the next Tom Brady, but a quarterback, you know, is going to go in the last couple of rounds that you're like, there's at least something there. So when his name gets called, all of our fans could be like, yup, that's Mr. PMT. He's going to be the guy. And we're just going to take, we're going to do this every year for the next decade until we get one, right. And then we're going to be like, we were the first to say, um, now this one's interesting because if you were to go in like the third or fourth round, I wouldn't be shocked because his plays really good, but because of some other factors, mainly his size, I could see him falling into the six or seventh round. So it's not like I'm creating a quarterback

out of thin air here. You guys all know him. You've all seen him play a bunch, but I would go with Dylan Gabriel. Okay. That's Mr. PMT. So he, I saw a picture of him wearing jet skier the other day. Oh, there you go. Yeah. He was very, he's got a strong arm, man. He is not, he is, you know, he's he's five 11 he's older. Um, but he's got a, he's got a really strong arm. I've kind of advocated if you're the dolphins and I know they brought over Zach Wilson, but that'd be a, I mean, shoot, just bring him in there.

If you can get him in the third, fourth round, no one too, is more than likely to miss some games. Like I think he could do everything that, you know, Tua can do. Yeah. And are you going up to green Bay? Yeah. Yeah. Yep.

I'm out there all week. What can we expect from green Bay in this draft? Are they doing anything different? I don't know, man. The only thing that I know is they have, uh, we do the puppy thing. What can we expect from green Bay in this draft? Are they do anything different? I don't know, man. The only thing that I know is they have, uh, we do the puppy thing. Like we bring in the rescue puppies and the one peed on me two years ago. So that's like, the only thing I'm prepared for is just bring an extra

shirt and try and work on my technique. It's like all the ball security stuff that they teach you football. Yeah. Puppy security is like opposite. You got to throw all, there's no point. You want zero points of pressure. You got to keep that thing out extended. So that's, that's all I'm really focused on to be honest. It's a great point. All right. Well, we can't wait to watch you on draft night. Thank you so much, DJ. We appreciate you and having you on every year. And let's hope that Dylan

Gabriel goes and you know, wins a Superbowl and we can be like, yeah, actually that was Mr. PMT. Oh man. You kidding me? And then you got to do a whole weekend like that like they do the thing in Newport Beach I don't know where you guys want to want to take the guy if there's a cost involved there I don't know if you want to be cost-conscious But you'd have to put together a whole weekend for the player like they do for mr irrelevant Yeah, we drive him around the basketball court using Max's wheelchair. Yeah, it'd be fantastic

And they get and they can get as much lasagna as they want. Yeah Sounds like a heck of a weekend. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Thanks so much. See you buddy. Chris Finch is going to be brought to you by our great friends, our fantastic friends over at Game Time. It's live event season right now. Hank, can you look up tickets for, let's look up Cubs-Fillies tickets. Cubs-Fillies tickets. Wrigley Field. There's going to be a lot of out of control filly trash there. Anybody in particular? I'll be there. I don't know about other filly trash. No, let's talk about you. Max will be there. He's probably worth the price of admission on his own. Just go buy Max a beer. That's that's the day buy max beer Friday at Wrigley Field. He'll drink he'll chug it. He'll chug it Yeah, that's a that's a guaranteed fact, especially if it's one of those bats one of the bats that's filled the beer

Yeah, he'll drink a million of those so at Wrigley Field on Friday Philly's Cubs. What are we looking at? You can get in the building for fourteen dollars fourteen You can get in the building for $14. 14 bucks? 14 bucks. That can't be true. That is going to leave you a lot of cash. I'm looking at it right now on Game Time. A lot of beer cash in the wallet for Max.

Get your drinking pants on buddy. And guess what else is here? NBA playoffs are here. The only place to buy the hard to get playoff tickets is Game Time. The official ticketing partner of Barstool Sports. They've got the best last minute deals, all in prices, views from your seat, and the lowest price guarantee. Game Time takes the guesswork out of buying NBA playoff tickets. Prices on the app actually go down the closer it gets to tip off.

You can save up to 60% when buying last minute tickets. Plus, on April 22nd for Earth Day, when you select and purchase a super deal, Game Time will plant a tree with the proceeds. if you're looking at those Cubs tickets or Hank tell you what look up look at the Celtics tickets what are the Celtics tickets like in this series it's gonna be a long hard-fought series against the Magic I'm sure that you're convinced it's probably gonna go the distance right Hank? No I'm just gonna look at game two is on Wednesday that's probably the last game of this series that you can go to in Boston at least you can get in the building for

$150 okay, that's good for Celtics tickets. Yeah proud basketball. So actually 138 take it back fire you and guess what? It's gonna be less than that too If it's your first time with game time you download the app Create an account use code PMT and you can take 20 bucks off your first purchase terms apply again create an account, use code PMT, and you can take 20 bucks off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account, redeem code PMT, get 20 bucks off, download the Game Time app today. What time is it? Game Time.

And now, here's Chris Finch. Okay, we now welcome on a very special guest. It is Minnesota Timberwolves head coach, Chris Finch, ahead of the playoffs. Just so that everyone knows we're taping this on Friday. They have game one Saturday night against the Lakers. We just told coach he's got to try to really win this game so that, uh, so, so that on Monday when we run the interview, everyone's like, man, Chris Finch, what a genius. Here's actually what you need to do. Don't tear your knee on Saturday night again.

Okay. Because then, then this would be an awkward interview to run. How tear your knee on Saturday night again. Okay, because then then this would be an awkward interview to run How is your knee feeling and are you excited to actually be able to walk around this playoffs? He's feeling good. Thanks. It's been almost a year. So it should be good after this long But yeah, no excited to get started be fun to be back up on on both legs for the playoffs again Yeah, so your knee on, uh, on both legs for the playoffs again. Yeah. So, so your knee, uh, uh, like do you have a different strategy now going into this postseason? Like I always think it's, it's similar to like being at a dog park where you got to keep a little bend in your knee. Cause a Labrador might jump and, you know, cut you from behind. Are you, do you have

any new strategy on how you're going to be standing in the box in the playoffs? Well, I mean, I don't have, I don't necessarily have a new strategy, but what I have noticed is how many times people actually start coming your direction. Your radar is much better now when you realize that you could be taken out at any moment in time. I actually thought there was a benefit to that where you'd be less likely to get teed up by a ref if you're, you know, you got a big thing on your leg. You're like, Oh, it's just me. Like you're less of a threat that way. True. Yeah. Well, sitting in the second row, I could yell a little bit louder. So I'm not, they could, they couldn't nearly tell where it was coming from sometimes. Yeah. Yeah. So, all right. So we're getting ready for the playoffs. Uh, your season has been an interesting one because you guys started off slow. You came on strong at the end. What was the, the big adjustment that you were able to make or was it just the guys fighting

through things, uh, to get to a point where you're back to where you want to be in terms of a real contender in the West. Yeah, I think, uh, much, much, much of the credit goes to the guys, you know, just figuring it out over time, you know, understanding what they had to do, sacrifices, roll, rotations, you know, being ready to kind of change and adapt as the season was going along. The biggest thing was really our offense. Our offense was struggling out of the gate.

We had a lot of turnovers, ball was sticky, spacing issues, the normal stuff. But you gotta remember, we made that trade literally 48 hours before we opened up training camp. And Julius came into training camp still nursing the very last, you know, kind of remnants of a shoulder, off season shoulder surgery. We really didn't have him for much of pre-season anyway.

It took us a while to figure out how to best play with him and around him. Once we started to do that early to mid-December, I could feel like the team getting better, the momentum building, um, you know, maybe we wouldn't, weren't always getting the results, but it just felt a lot more like the team that I knew we could become. Yeah. Yeah.

And you got a big matchup in the first round here. And, uh, you know, obviously JJ is somebody that, you know, uh, you went on his podcast, do you, do you look back at that and be like, I feel like JJ just asked me on his podcast that he could get info on me so that if I played in the playoffs, he'd be able to use that against me. Well, I mean, it was fun being on JJ's podcast, but I don't remember talking about much other than JJ. Is there any element like in a pregame speech before the series starts where you do like

a little like, Hey, I'm Chris Finch. You know, I was, I was a lower level player. I play, I grinded it out. I played in Europe and then you got the pretty boy, JJ Reddick, who we're friends with Duke and all the accolades and a first, you know, a first round pick. Like you got it. You got to beef up that narrative and be like, Hey, where are the dogs here? Yeah, no, I mean, we might play, We might play up on the underdog story, but that won't involve me. I assure you that one thing that, you know, in the NBA, nobody cares where you've come from. No one cares what you've done before. Um, we all got here through different channels. Um, you know, all that matters is, you know, what the heck you're

doing and you know, you're fighting for your teammates and you, and, and, you know, all that matters is, you know, what the heck you're doing and you know, you're fighting for your teammates and you, and, and, you know, guys have confidence in that. So, yeah, you guys are a very fun team to watch. You're a very gritty team, which I appreciate. Uh, obviously Ant gets a lot of the accolades, but is there somebody that you would say, you know, taking him out, who's the most important player? Maybe not the best, but the most important player for you. Yeah.

I mean, I mean, Rudy Gobert is just so impactful on both sides of the ball. I think, you know, Rudy, uh, is a very polarizing player in the league. Um, but you know, having been with him now for, uh, three years, like he just, his, his, his value cannot be overestimated. It's just so important to everything that we do. You know, he brings it every single night, you know, and it takes a while for guys to learn to play with Rudy where you can really maximize him and he can help you. So he would certainly be up there.

And we have so many guys that are just so important to our success. You got Mike Conley. I mean, he's just kind of humming away in the background all the time. Just super steady. When we need him to step up and do more, you know, more of scoring, he does it easy, seamlessly. Jaden McDaniels just kind of just took another big step forward for us this year.

I think his growth and becoming a legitimate two-way player has been very, very important. Yeah, it's really hard to just single out one guy. We've had so many guys with great seasons. Nikhil Alexander Walker has been in many ways our most consistent guy from day one this season, both sides of the ball, just really settled into his role. It's fun to watch him kind of become the player that he's become, you know,

after some early struggles in the league, which is not unusual for a lot of guys who come in the league with a lot of expectation and, and, uh, put a lot of pressure on themselves. It takes them a minute to figure it out. But since he's been with us, it's just been such a joy to watch and he's he's been so important. Yeah. All right. So I saw some of social media, which you've had comments on saying that using Joe Ingalls as your Luca, uh, you know, model, uh, in practice is not going to work. Uh, what is he able to do though, to replicate it? Cause

it does, maybe he's not, he's not Luca, but he also has a lot of smarts and you're able to maybe give you looks. So how does that work when you're, when you're trying to mimic a player like Luca and how you're going to defend him in a series? Well, of course it's, you know, um, if we had an exact Luca replica, we'd probably be a 70 win team. Right. So nobody can go out and replicate these players in practice. But Joe is extremely intelligent, he's an unbelievable pick and roll player.

You know, he understands like all the different coverages that a team would try to employ and he can understand how to try to manipulate that or take advantage of it. So, you know, it's what we've, you know, we're fortunate enough to have him in a lot of ways. His leadership has been great for us and our young players this year. He hasn't been on court as much as we thought when we did sign him, but that was before the trade happened. And we got Dante and we got a little deeper as a result, but all that being said, Joe has a incredible amount of experience and he can bring that to, you know, our preparation. I got a free tip for you. Uh, you don't have to take it, but have you thought about, we saw Luca go back to Dallas. He was very emotional when he saw the video.

Uh, have you thought about maybe playing into that? Maybe playing the same video when he comes to Minnesota. Maybe we get a couple fans wearing Luca Mavs jerseys in the front row. Maybe changing some of your play calls to just be like Dallas Mavericks like over and over just to keep reminding him about the Mavs and get in his head a little bit. Yeah. I think we're going to leave Luca alone. Okay. All right. Hey, listen, I said free're going to leave Luca alone. OK, all right. Hey, listen, I said free tip. You didn't have to take it, but just something to think about. Maybe you pencil in a little unibrow on Rudy?

Yeah. That might be a good, yeah, get inside his head a little bit. Just have him constantly be thinking about Dallas instead of thinking about the Minnesota Timberwolves. All right, will do. OK. Are you guys, like, what's the difference for a casual fan watching in the regular season

as opposed to the playoffs in terms of how you approach it as a head coach? Are there anything, is there anything that you're going to be doing differently for game one as opposed to if you were to play the Lakers in, I don't know, early February? Well, I think, you know, yeah, there's certainly, you're dialed into another level of game plan preparation. I think, yeah, there's certainly, you're dialed in to another level of game plan preparation. I think sometimes in the league, you play a game, might be a back to back, you're playing on a quick turnaround, you have your base defense, you know what you're trying to do and you make the adjustments, might be small, might be, nothing super radical. And I don't think you go into the playoffs being radical either

but you do have a week's worth of game planning preparation and you can go through a lot of different scenarios whether it be plan B, plan C, you know, that kind of stuff. You become a lot more matchup focused I would think and also you just, you know, you try to take things away. Um, and you put a lot of time and energy and effort into that. So there are some pretty big differences, I would say that is one of the huge advantages of, you know, avoiding the plan is that you have a week to kind of maybe reinvent yourself along certain lines. Yeah. So, so in a game to game, because I love watching the playoffs because it feels like every game you see adjustments

and counter adjustments. From a coach's perspective, you go into a series. Is it just a total feel of like, OK, now it's time to adjust after, say, game one? Or is it sometimes you're like, hey, we got to just trust what we came in here with and maybe not adjust till it's elimination time or how does that really work where you're weighing like, Hey, let's do something totally different after game one because we got to change

it. Otherwise we're going to be in trouble quickly. Yeah, it's a great question. I think that's a, that's based, that strikes at the heart of what playoff coaching really is. It you gotta be ready to make adjustments, willing to make adjustments, but sometimes, you gotta just do it better. And so that's a feel thing. It's kinda like you'll know it when you see it sometimes. In the playoffs, there's a lot of outside noise.

Everybody's talking about game one and what's going to happen with game two. And there's so many extremes and, you know, everyone thinks what's just happened is always what's going to happen again. It's just not the case. You know, I think one thing that's kind of stands out when you see a lot of the playoffs in the modern era is you'll see a lot of blowouts in the playoffs. You never used to see blowouts in the playoffs 25, 30 years ago, unless it was a 1-8 series, you know, but you know, now you'll see, you'll see a team that's favored, they might get dumped by 20 plus points one night, you know,

so I do think that, you know, the, there's a course of a reaction overreaction cycle that goes on here. And the last thing I'd say about adjustments is that you gotta be able to make them because you gotta be able to execute them. You have to have it in your arsenal. The obvious thing might be to, let's say, switch everything or not switch something or go, you have to still be able to do it.

Your personnel has to lend itself to be able to do these things. So it's not like you can just go out and do things that your personnel is not capable of delivering. Um, or, or, or systematically, you can't be that radical and change everything. So, or you're not going to be very good at it either. So it's, it's kind of a balancing act there. Yeah. I also am curious the like going up against a guy like luke and obviously lebron is lebron but the mentality of a player that you're coaching and trying to explain to them that like hey He's probably gonna get 30 like we got to make it harder for him to get 30

But he's gonna probably get 30 and how how you get someone to like mentally be locked in where it's like, if someone puts 30 up naturally, you're going to be like, man, I didn't do well tonight, but it Lucas such an incredible offensive player. And you could say the same for ant where it's like, Hey, it doesn't matter. We know he's going to do that. It's just trying to make it as difficult as possible with him and keeping everyone like not down on themselves when he does go for 35. Yeah, that's, you know, that's the, that's the choice we make coming into a lot of these games, whether it be playoffs or regular season,

it's really hard to stop star players, you know, it's hard to take them out of the game completely. And if you do so, of course you're leaving other things wide open. So you're daring other people to beat you. And some of that is, you know, that I think that goes to a different level in the playoffs. I think there's, you'll see a lot of that just guys who are quote unquote unguarded to, to, so we can, you know, put more time and attention to the star player or take away something that a team really is trying to do.

But we also have the benefit of like measuring efficiency now it's in game and we can, if you're going to give 30 points on 27 shots, you know, that generally that's a good, that's a win for the defense as long as you're not fouling at a high rate too. So, you know, it takes a mental toughness. I have a great admiration for a lot of these players like Jayden McDaniels types who gets that matchup every single night,

you know, who's got to go out there and battle. And it doesn't look like he might win, you know. We played Denver this year and, you know, of course Jokic had 61 on us one time. The time before that he had 36, but you know, in the 36 point game, we felt we had done a really good job on them. So, um, and that was largely Rudy's matchup that night.

And we didn't do a lot of doubling and we didn't do a lot of gimmicky stuff. So it was just him and Rudy and, you know, sometimes it's just about a war of attrition, can you wear them down and hopefully they miss one of the shots at the end. Yeah. Yeah. You guys have had some, some incredible comebacks too. I'm thinking to last year against the nuggets is one. I think Oklahoma city this year, you might've been down by even more against Oklahoma city when he came back. Have you considered not getting down by 25 points and just playing

with the entire game? No, I haven't actually. We actually say let's get down big and race back and forth and it'll be exciting for everyone. Yeah. I mean, as a coach, that must be like, it's gotta be a great feeling when your team executes, you're never out of it. You're able to come back, but also the first three quarters have to be excruciating to be like, where I can't believe we're losing by 20 right now. Well, I would tell you this, we just lost the game to the Milwaukee bucks where we were up 24 to start the fourth and we lost in the fourth quarter. And that was far more excruciating than being down for three quarters of winning. So that's the league today though. You know, these massive swings,

I think that's what makes the league super exciting right now. Not just the style of play, the pace of play, the three point shot. I love the fact that the league has let more defense come back in. I think that's also aided in a lot of these runs and these big swings. Um, so yeah, I think it's, it starts with decent, you know, of course you never want to be down, but it starts with your defense and if you can play defense and get stops, you could turn any game around now with the pace of play and the three point shooting.

Yeah. Uh, would you say that you have better blobs or slobs? Uh, that's a good question. I would say we're probably better, uh, blobs. Okay. Okay. Do you have like two or three blobs that you're like, these are, do you have a blob that you, you have like breaking case of emergency? Yeah. We have a few of those. I love that. I love that. Do you have a couple that you're like, I would, if I were a coach, I would just have one blob. That's like, I'm not going to break this out until like game seven of the finals. Like this is my, this is the best blob I've ever come up with. Well, you know, it's funny you say that because every year we do this, you know, we, we have plays that we hold back for special situations and then maybe you never get to those special situations and they're really, really good plays.

So you'll go the whole season and maybe never run it but one time. So we've started rethinking some of that. We figure like we might as well run this stuff just at any old time because if we feel it's good it's, you know, you might as well try it. Yeah. Yeah. If I had a blob that I was in love with, I could tell myself that I'm, I'm saving it

for the NBA finals, but then I'm coaching the all-star game. I'm like, we really need a bucket right now. I would not, I would not have the discipline to be able to hold onto my blob for that long. So, so credit to you. Have you seen the all-star game? It's pretty easy to get a bucket. It is. It is. Yeah. But actually my two blobs, I think would be, uh, the alley, off the blob and then, uh, the throw the ball off the guy's back when he's looking away and then catch that. Those are the

only two I would ever run. I'd be very easy, easily defeated. Uh, you were talking about efficiency earlier. Do you believe in long twos? Cause when, when I'm watching NBA games, my favorite two things to say are, uh, you don't need a three here when you're down big late. And then, uh, that's an inefficient shot. If somebody takes a long two, uh, what's your philosophy on those? Yeah, I think there's a, yeah, of course I believe in the long two. Um, it's part of the game for sure. I think there's definitely a time and a place to

use it. Um, you know, when we talk about shot selection with our guys, we have built in that shot in certain contexts. What I would say is that you got to make a lot of them to be really good. And with the number of threes that are shot in the league right now, it's just hard to keep pace sometimes if you're just going to live with the twos, which a lot of teams are willing to do defensively. So I always tell our guys, when it comes to hard shots or whatever, you can make that shot.

No one's denying that you can't. Might be at 45%, which is pretty good. It might be at 50%, which is great, but most likely it's in the low 40s. It's just really hard to make a living on that shot. So you just got to be so, so good at it and such high volume that uh, that just to counter what's going on at the other end of the floor more than anything else. Yeah. Uh, so Anthony Edwards, who's a phenom, uh, and last year was kind of his like coming out party in the playoffs. Uh, obviously he was good before that, but that was like the, the national coming out party. When you're, when you're coaching him, are there games

where you're like, you see it in his eyes or he tells you something and it's like, okay, we can just, just let ant do what he wants to do because he's got it right now. Like, is that a, is that a field thing or does he actually say it to you? Like, Hey coach, I got this tonight. Like I'm, I'm feeling great. I mean, it's a, it's more of a field thing. it's a look thing, you can tell. Since I got here, which was in the midst of Ant's rookie year, you could tell, I remember his first 40-point game, which was against Phoenix, shortly after the All-Star break. It was kind of an awakening for him. He has incredible confidence in himself and his ability to go out and do his thing. Always has, even before he had figured out how to do it largely. But once he started to kind

of figure it out, he's always had this incredible sense for the moment within a game of knowing when to take over. And it could be defensively too. And then he gets on these mini runs and he could turn a quarter or turn a game around in a heartbeat. And it's pretty cool to watch, kind of know when it's coming, because you can feel it. He makes a few momentum plays for himself or his teammates.

And that's one of the things I think, he's learned a lot in those in these few early years he's you know he's way more thinking the game than he had early on. I do think one thing that I've always let him do is I've coached him hard we've held him accountable coached him hard but we give him incredible amount of freedom to figure it out and I think that was the only way he was going to learn. You know, if he went into a super, um, you know, overly structured kind of patterned environment, I'm not sure that that would have benefited him early on.

Uh, if he went into, uh, a system where there was a ton of like off ball movement and cutting and reading and all that kind of stuff. I'm not sure that would have benefited him early on. Now he understands that, but just kind of giving him a big platform to do his thing and what was most comfortable for him allowed these moments that you're talking about to come about.

Yeah. Do you ever catch yourself like watching the Jumbotron a little too much when, when they're replaying a dunk or something that a big moment from him. Yeah, no doubt. It's been some of those don'ts to have a front row seat for, I think most of them happened, have happened right in front of the bench too, which has been kind of cool. Yeah. What's he like in practice? Has he done things in practice that just amaze you? Yeah. Like in practice, he he'll, he'll just take over part of practice. We know one thing we preach to him when he was, you know, early on, I was like,

you know, if you want to be the best player on a team, like you got to, you got to prove it to your teammates in practice. That's where if you can dominate a practice, you just take over. You know, he's not dunking on everybody in practice, but he'll, you know, when we go live and we're playing and the competitiveness is there in practice, uh, you know, which is we don't often go live in NBA practice once we get out of preseason, but during preseason, he'll definitely have these days, you know, in a row where he's setting the tone and he's letting everybody know how good he is. Yeah. Yeah. So we talked about Lucas play from a coaching perspective. Are you,

do you have a game plan? Or are you maybe like getting yourself hyped up before the game being like, I can't let Luca out, complain me to the refs. Like I have to be ready for his complaining to the refs. And I have to match that.. Like are you saying looking in the mirror and being like, Hey, you're the coach. You can't let him get to the rest before I get to the refs. No, I love that. No, that's a, that's kind of a losing battle. I'm not sure we're going to, you're going to get that one. Um, I think for as important for us, this series, uh, is for us to stay super focused on the game, leave the officials alone. That's the coaches and the players included. Yeah. Yeah. It might be the good strategy. Just be like, never

say anything to them and let Luca kind of out-complain himself and just let him burn out the refs. You know, you can go silence, give the silent treatment to the refs. You could also learn Slovenian and then translate what Luca is saying so that the you're like, Hey, just cussed at you. That's right. You couldn't understand it. I'll just make up Slovenia and then I don't have to learn it. And then I can say what I want to say. That's also, it's also very smart. Are there any words that'll get you teed up that, that maybe we don't know about? Uh, well the word bozo got me thrown out of the game. That was offensive, but yeah. Yeah. What was the context in that? Oh God. It was, uh, I just, I was actually having a sidebar conversation with Bradley Beale and you know,

the official kind of overheard it. So I do feel like Bozo that one stings like it's a, you know, calling somebody a clown. The ref is going to have rabbit ears for that. Was that the only word that you said? Well, after he threw me out, I think I had a few more words for him. But, uh, yeah, but that was, that was kind of it, you know, but, you know, all these things are, they, they're all happened in context. And sometimes I always find what after the, after the fact, I was thinking like, what, you know, what were you so angry about? You know, how did it get to that point? in context and sometimes I always find what after the, after the fact, I was thinking like, what, you know, what were you so angry about? You know, how did it get to that point?

You have these kind of reflective moments where you're a little ashamed of yourself. So yeah, is there though in your head, like a strategic tech that you can take because we saw it in like the national championship game where the second half started and it was the, the, the refereeing was going one way and then Todd golden Florida's coach got a tech and it then flipped. And it was like, I don't know if he did it on purpose, but is there in your head like, Hey, there's a time when I should take a tech here to try to maybe bring a little bit more, you know, balance to the game. Yeah, I think we all, you know, reserve that right. And we've all done that.

Um, you know, I'll probably, probably use that less about the flow of the game, more about protecting the players. Yeah. You know, so they don't, so they don't get one or they don't get super frustrated or they know that somebody else is fighting the fight with them. Yeah, that makes sense. Have you, uh, what was the first meeting between you and A-Rod like when he was like, Hey, I'm going to come in here might on the team.

Um, trying to think back. So it was cool. Pretty cool. They, he and Mark Laurie came in and they talked to us before practice one day. Um, just trying to think that was way back in kind of the COVID, uh, still the COVID period after, um, you know, and so it was just kind of the COVID, still the COVID period after, you know, and so it was just kind of limited people were around the team at that point in time anyway, but yeah, they've been great.

You know, they've, they've had a really positive impact on the energy of the team. I think, you know, one thing I really like about Alex is, you know, having played a high level sports, he high level sports, he understands what a winning environment looks and feels like and those cultures. But yeah, he's not a basketball guy, so he doesn't walk around pretending to know basketball, but he's super inquisitive, will ask a lot of questions, ask a lot of really good questions, and it wants to be educated, very, very appropriate. Mark's similar, Mark's the same, Mark's really, really smart, he loves the numbers,

he's into analytics, he builds his own models on whether trades or draft, all that stuff, but he's not questioning us about pick and roll coverages and substitutions and rotations and all that. So they've been really, really pleasure, pleasure to have around and, you know, look forward to the future with them. Yeah. Uh, all right. So coach, I got one last question. It's been so much fun. We appreciate you joining us. Uh, rollback question, R H O B A C K.com promo code take 20% off your first

purchase. Q zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts, Ro back.com promo code take. You had a, you had a, uh, a comment to the, to the media the other day where you're like, Hey, I could just go on Twitter. Everyone knows how to coach better than me. I found, um, this guy named ball lover 69 69 said Chris Finch is a fucking idiot. I could do the rotations better than him. Do you, do you want to maybe take his criticism? Should we connect you with him? No, man. I think he's probably right. You know, it's, this is pretty easy. We just, you know, we just throw up any old person that we think so can do the job out there and you know, we just kind of go from there. I also made

up that one, but I did. I, you actually, I looked, I looked for Chris Finch idiot and it wasn't as much as you'd think. So I think you're doing an okay job. Like it wasn't, it wasn't that bad. Oh, you got to wear the throwback jerseys or is that the plan? The white throwback jerseys say wolves on them. No, that was last year's that those are the cleanest jerseys. I think those might be the best jerseys in the NBA right now. You got jersey in the NBA right now. You gotta bring them back. Yeah, I was disappointed that we didn't have those in the rotation this year. So, but hey, if you want to hear a good one. So Chris Finch idiot,

I'm sure it's out there. You just probably didn't look hard enough. When I was living in England, I lived in England for about 10 years. And, uh, that was at the height of the office, the British version of the office. And, uh, the, one of the characters there who was Todd Packer, like Todd Packer's equivalent, the outside sales guy, his name was Chris Finch. So that was some fun years, um, cause he was basically like the village idiot in that show. And so everybody kind of latched onto that and tried to, you know, rope my name into it.

Oh, that's funny. That's a tough one. Yeah. If you look up Chris Finch Bozo on Twitter, you will find a couple of comments that's that's way worse than calling you an idiot. Yeah. These guys should all be blocked. Yeah. All right. Well, these guys should all be blocked. Yeah

All right. Well coach best of luck in the playoffs and great having you on okay. Appreciate it guys. Thanks, man Part of my take is sponsored by better help Let's talk numbers traditional in-person therapy can cost anywhere from a hundred to two hundred fifty dollars per session that adds up fast But with better help online therapy you can save on average up to 50% per session And this month better help is giving you the biggest discount on starting therapy that I've ever offered on the show 90% off your first week guys don't miss this therapy should feel accessible Not like luxury with online therapy you get quality care at a price that makes sense It can help you with anything from anxiety to everyday stress. I've gone to therapy in the past, I've benefited from it tremendously.

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Okay, let's do numbers. The Warriors have won game one. Welcome to the playoffs, Rockets. Listen, everybody wants to crown the Oklahoma City Thunder The Warriors look really good. They do everybody out there is putting so much respect on them feels a little bit disrespectful to the one-time champs the Warriors the The one time champs. Yeah. Well, I mean that one point. Yeah one former champs the I Give credit the Rockets for fighting. I thought that game was over. Yeah

They fought back made it like a four-point game. But yeah warriors different. I think this would be a good series but little welcome to the To the NBA press all the young teams. Mm-hmm the Rockets what? continue all the young teams that are welcoming themselves to playoffs the Rockets the Pistons the Magic were in the playoffs last year, but Tough and other young teams Well the Thunder were in the playoffs last year Just this year. I'm saying the Rockets like they haven't they had a really good season But they're very young same with the Pistons might be here too early for and that kind of went the same way where it's like fourth quarter the the

older team the veteran team like hey this is winning time I agree yeah okay numbers 319 memes didn't have his fucking I have to adjust the camera did you want three now go 17 take three now for what three okay I'll go 17. Take three. Now for what? Three. Okay, I'll keep three. Where are you going? 17 for? That guy who won WrestleMania number 17. Oh, we don't say his name. We don't say his name.

Travis Scott. Champ. I think people were upset about WrestleMania. You know what? Put me in that, in that camp. I'm fucking pissed. Yeah. I'm pissed too. I wanted Cody Rhodes to win. This is the Rocks fault Yeah

99 put a girl Sure, what did you say pft 93? Beams I see by the way, all right, we'll do the number. I'm probably gonna get it the number so I'm probably gonna get it I'm probably gonna get it. Oh so close. It seems I see that you're running with this I'm never gonna get the 50-50 lottery. You're never gonna get it. Yeah the thing that it's like I do probably 20 times a year and it's a one in like 20,000 chance versus the thing you do three times a week one in a hundred chance

Yours is technically 50-50 That's a good counterpoint. All right, let's do one more three 19 17 60 just 60 one 99 99. 34. I feel like 34 has been hot. That's double 17 memes. Love you guys. I'm going to be a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a

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