The Bill Simmons Podcast - Part 1: Kawhi’s Smackdown, Luka’s Next Move, and Trae Torches Philly With Ryen Russillo

Episode Date: June 7, 2021

In Part 1 of the two-part Sunday podcast, The Ringer’s Bill Simmons is joined by Ryen Russillo to discuss the Mavericks’ Game 7 loss to the Clippers, Kawhi Leonard’s two-way play, some highlights from the series, the Clippers’ Round 2 matchup with the Jazz, the Mavericks’ offseason, and more (2:30). Then they discuss the Hawks’ Game 1 victory over the 76ers, needed adjustments to combat Trae Young, and a look ahead to Game 2 (52:30). Next they discuss the Lakers’ Round 1 exit at the hands of the Suns, the Anthony Davis injury saga, Chris Paul’s impact on Devin Booker, how the Knicks will handle Julius Randle’s upcoming contract negotiations, and more (1:16:30). Host: Bill Simmons Guest: Ryen Russillo Producer: Kyle Crichton Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Maybe Rossella and I will talk about it on this two-parter. New rewatchable is coming Monday night. Raiders of the Lost Ark, 40th anniversary. Me, Sean Fantasy, Chris Ryan. We did it in person. You still have a day to watch it if you want to watch it. I think it's on Paramount Plus

for free if you have that. You can check that out. Raiders of the Lost Ark, a movie that, by the way, still banging. 40 years. Doesn't feel like it, really doesn't. Coming up, it's a two-part extravaganza. We're splitting this by a couple hours. Part one, taping like 3.15 Pacific time

right after Eclipse Mavs game seven. We're gonna talk about a whole bunch of basketball stuff. And then we're gonna come back after the Paul Mayweather pay-per-view. God only knows what's gonna to happen in that fight. But after that happens, we'll record part two. We're going to throw in a lot of basketball stuff in that. Anything we didn't cover in part one.

And that is the plan for today. First, our friends from Pearl Jam. All right, Ryan Rosillas here. We just watched Game 7 Mavs Clips. Luka Doncic, 46 points, 29 in the first half. Not sure what else he could have done. His team just really wasn't good. More importantly though, the Clips are starting to look like a team that could make the finals.

I was impressed by the last two games. Really, really, really impressed by Kawhi Leonard, who, as it turns out, is one of the top 30 players of all time, in case we forgot. He, 55 playoff games heading into today. Did you know this? His last 55 from 2017 to today, 55 playoff games, 39 and four were his averages.

Shooting 51%, 39% from three, 89% free throw. The two-way stuff. This all starts for me, Rosillo. Game six, that two-way game he played, which ranked among the best two-way games we've seen, I think, in the last 10 years. And then it carried over a little bit to today. But Kawhi to me is the story.

I think you could make a case he's the best player left in the West. You could make a case the road is going through the Clippers, even though they will not have home court advantage for at least this next series and possibly neither of the next two. What do you think? Yeah, I have no problem starting with Kawhi because it was a little bit of a reminder of like, oh, this is why you do everything you can to go ahead and get him, even though you're never quite sure where you stand with him. Because when they're down to, oh, you're like, okay, wait a minute. They traded all these picks

for Paul George to be able to bring in Kawhi. They've already gone through the first coach. They have that disastrous game. And look, he was terrible in game seven of last year when they lost to Denver, but I didn't really put it on him as much because it was, you know, even though it was bad, he's built up enough equity. And, you know, I think that's where some people have a hard time where it's like, well, if you say this about this guy, but then you say it about this guy and you're like, well, it's usually because somebody else has done something before and we're more likely to give them a bit of a pass as opposed to somebody who hasn't done it before but you're right this was one of those reminders where he's had moments even in some of those games last year against Denver um where you know I know I kind of

was changing where I was like oh maybe Giannis is the best player oh no wait Kawhi is the best player in the league and you're like okay wait a. I feel like an idiot because now LeBron's the best player again. But he had one play build, 91-83. Terrence Mann got it in the short corner there to the right. And he airballed the three. Kawhi was the furthest player away from the rim. And he read it perfectly, ran through everybody. Luka wasn't even thinking of boxing him out. Because at a certain age, you guys get to the NBA

and they're like, I'm done with that part of my game, boxing out people. And he caught it, put it up, and it was just one of those moments where you go, he's going to do whatever he wants right now, both offensively and defensively. So he deserves all the credit. I'm glad you brought that up

because that was when the game was decided. Third quarter, 21-2 run for the Clips. It looked like it was going to be down to the wire game. And then Luka missed a couple free throws. Morris hit a three. All of a sudden, they're up five. The Kawhi offensive rebound thing that you mentioned happened. Terrence Mann got an offensive rebound.

And all of a sudden, the Mavs just looked slow. And then Luke Kennard came in in and he did a couple things. He had 11 points in 10 minutes. Yeah, he made a couple threes. After the third quarter, they were 16 for 31 from three. And it just seemed like you knew where it was heading.

But, you know, so our West teams that are left, Clips, Phoenix, Denver, Utah. If you're going to rank who has the best player left Kawhi is the best playoff proven player Jokic I think has been the best player

all season and has certainly had the biggest kind of impact Utah does not have a player in that conversation and then if you're Phoenix you're kind of hoping Booker can be the offensive can go toe to toe with anybody but you don't really have a player like that either. And I'm a,

I always gravitate toward the best player as I try to figure out what the puzzle is as we keep going in these playoffs. But this is a scenario we're heading toward here where Utah has the best total team. Phoenix, I think is probably number two for best kind of total team, most valuable. And then you have the Kawhi Jokic thing. I think the thing that Clip stumbled into,

which we knew they had because we saw, especially in the Utah matchup, is they kind of know what their small ball lineup is now. Remember how many times we talked about who's their best five? Who's their best seven? What are they going to do in a game seven? I think they've kind of figured that out now.

Zubach barely played. Rondo barely played. And they're just going to go down with this team they have. Do you think it'll work against Utah? Well, I think it'll be a little bit of an experiment because, I mean, Utah is, along with Phoenix, they know exactly who they're going to be despite

maybe an adjustment here or there. And here we were at game seven and both teams, both Dallas and the Clippers were scrambling. And Rondo played nine minutes. Zubat's played three minutes. And I think what you learn there is, especially at the end of game six, which was another Kawhi moment where you're like,

this is absurd what he's doing to everybody, is you go, why do I want Rondo initiating the offense? Like as much as everybody just loves Rondo, Rondo why do I want Rondo initiating the offense? As much as everybody just loves Rondo, Rondo, Rondo, Rondo, why would I add a layer to getting the fucking basketball back to Kawhi Leonard? Why would I do this? The same thing as it was brought up in that Toronto game. And when I had Nurse on the podcast, once he just kind of decides he's going to take over, everybody else is accepting of it and he's just making the right... They had a zone that they tried against him. They tried zones for long stretches tonight and it didn't really mean a ton. The other part of this Clippers

game is Marcus Morris, who I've never thought of as a guy that's going to show up in a big spot. We saw it in game six, one for 10. He was unbelievable. Seven to nine from three. You know, Reggie Jackson, who was great in game six. Mann, who I, you know, you're talking rotations. I would think at this point, Mann has proved, especially if you want to go small and exploit some of the other stuff, that you're going to go Mann

before you go Rondo at this point. Agree. And it's interesting. Morris and Jackson, two classic Fe or famine guys in a playoff series, right? Where you're not really expecting that much from them, but if they show up, it's a bonus and they get Jackson game six, they get Morris tonight. We've also seen scenarios where the team that's relying on those feast or famine guys, none of them all show up at the same time and you're out like that happened to the 2018 Celtics, right? All their Feaster family guys,

Rogier, Morris, et cetera, et cetera. None of them can make a shot. And then all of a sudden it piles up. For here, it has not mattered yet. I think the most interesting thing to me about that lineup was how well they moved the ball. I actually really liked the shots the Clippers got. And I don't know how much of that

was them just kind of figuring out who their guys are and how much of it was Dallas having to play one of the craziest gimmicks that's ever almost flipped the series. Beaubon and Porzingis together for just in game six, you could have almost faulted them because they didn't have Beaubon in the last five minutes in this game. They were like, all right, I guess we're going down with these two guys and we'll just be super slow and we won't be able to chase. And if you swing it around to the corner, we're not going to be able to be there in time, but this is our only chance. And the ball moving on the clips,

I thought was the best I've seen from them. We've made fun of them a lot, especially them in the Lakers too about, eh, it's like whoever gets the ball over mid court, it's kind of, that's who's going to shoot. Did not feel that way in this game. But I can't tell how much of this was the Clippers finding who they are and how much of it was two gigantic seven-foot-plus freaks kind of rumbling around in a zone. You know, if you don't move the ball around, it's criminal. Yeah, look, they stayed zone.

I mean, I was looking at it. I could have missed maybe a possession here or there, but I think Dallas stayed zone like the first six or seven minutes of the game. Usually teams come out and zone and then switch it. And then in game six, they had moments where it looked like the zone was working and then it wasn't real quick. You know what I mean?

And then you're like, all right, we got to figure this thing out. I think the other part, like you could just look at stats and go, okay, wait a minute, guys. Like the Clippers, if you look at them, they go 24-24 from the free throw line. They're 20-43 from three. Marcus Morris gives you 7-9 from three.

Reggie Jackson has some late buckets. Kennard had those two. Terrence Mann. I mean, they had a lot of really unexpected good balance here. Made all their free throws. Terrific from three. And on the other side of it, you have the Mavs make 11 free throws. So they're minus 13 there.

And they're only 10 to 36 at like 29 to 28 percent um from three for them because the other part of the storyline that was playing out as it played out through the series is that Luka goes crazy in the first quarter again we've seen that where he's averaging 11 points in the first quarter 10 in the second eight and then coming into this is all coming into this game then he was around like four points per quarter in the fourth and his shooting percentage was 31%. So it became a storyline in this one. And then it's always kind of like, oh, is he tired?

Because that's what sucks when you lose. It's like, oh, he needs to condition more. He's got to go to post camp, and he's got to do all these things. Meanwhile, he's clearly like one of the best players in the world and only his third season in. But I thought he was fine because right as they were talking about whether or not he was tired, he hits a great post post pivot. He hits a three right after that. I think, and this will play into how we talk about Atlanta and Philadelphia bill. It's very obvious that even great defensive

players, there's a moment where they feel like they have to turn it on. And I've talked about quite defensively where I still think some of these guys that have the reputation, it's amazing because then you're only really judging your reputation and you can float a little. And I think all these guys, as great as they are defensively, will find times to float. The effort that the Clippers played with trying to get back to the original assignment, fighting some of the switching, Kawhi just staying engaged during those big Luka possessions,

I don't think it has as much to do with Luka as Luka's team around him is a mismatch of all these pieces, and a lot of them aren't that great, and it was Kawhi's defense. So, you know, I don't look at, like, Luka has to now sit at home and watch film and re-evaluate who he is as a player. I think that's kind of where this game turned again in Game 7. Kawhi's offense then also knowing, hey, it's a Game 7, and I've got to play to another level that I'm not going to be playing consistently every time I'm out here because it's a game seven, and I've got to play to another level that I'm not going to be playing consistently every time I'm out here because it's just not sustainable.

I'm pushing back on one thing. I think that the Mavs lost the series in game six. And what I saw, and I don't know if I'm right, this is just, I still have the scars from when this happened to Anton Walker 20 years ago. The foul shooting thing with Luka this whole series was a real issue. And I thought it affected him in game six. And I was amazed the announcers didn't talk about it.

When he's at his best, he's going to the basket. He's doing that herky jerky stuff. You know, he's getting where he wants and he's bouncing off dudes and he's drawing contact constantly. Right. Especially if his shots not going in. He played game six, like a guy who didn't want to go to the free throw line. I felt like he was settling for a lot of stuff around the key. I thought he was dumping the ball over, like trying to draw contact, stuff like that. And I just don't think, I don't know why he wasn't comfortable from the free throw line. It's not like he's- Well, he's not because he's not making them. You know what I mean? It is a chicken or the egg thing. But I don't know what happened. It's like, I'm not saying he's not because not making them. You know what I mean? It is a chicken or the egg thing. It's like, he, I'm not saying he's Steph Curry from the free throw line, but he turned into a

50% free throw shooter this whole series. And I really felt specifically in game six, it was a little better today. It seemed like he had those drives with the right hand where he dives into the guy over and over again. He just didn't want to take them. Cause I don't feel like he wanted to get fouled. So I don't know if that was a neck thing or what was going on, but I really felt like game six was the one to take. Granted, you might not be able to beat a Clippers team that has Kawhi play a game like the game he played.

But on the other hand, if Luka, I thought, just could have bounced off some more people. You're talking about four points, which is what they needed to win that game. And I'd love to know the answer. What happened on his free throw shooting? Well, it's all mental. And I don't, I didn't say like, I'm not sitting here defending the free throw thing. So when you say I got to push back, like you're right. If there's an evaluation of who he is as a guy, then I'm saying, yeah, I'm saying if I'm him, I'm looking back at the series. I'm like, what the fuck

happened? I'm, I'm just telling you, like, ask anybody who's ever started to think about it when you're, when you don't want to be there at the free throw line. It's like, it's, it can be career altering. I'm serious. It is devastating, man. Well, that's why I brought up Antoine. You were there. Remember that all of a sudden he didn't want to get fouled five feet from the basket and he was doing those quick flips. Remember? Or he's like no i do i remember i remember all this stuff because you look most guys you can see it on their face like lebron had a weird turn yeah you know a few years ago where then all of a sudden he didn't want to take the technical anymore because he wasn't making them and i know was another one where

he just went rondo had a weird stretch on him pierce had a weird stretch where i looked at it and it was funny because i knew no one else saw it and i asked one of our mutual friends who works for the celtics about it i go something going on with pierce in the fourth quarter he's like oh my god he goes dude i've been on this forever and then i went through i mean this is total nerd alert but i went through like an entire season for pierce and added up all of his free throw attempts the first three quarters and then did it in the fourth quarter it was like 81 to 60 percent but Pierce somehow corrected it which is really rare so you'd hate to see Luka this this early in his career because once you go up there

with any kind of hesitation as a free throw shooter the muscle memory just gets messed with and you start changing things up it's really really, I don't know. You're right. That part of it is, is really disappointing. And you know, it's a, it's probably if he's perfect from the free throw liners and 80, 85%, maybe we're talking about Dallas and where the Clippers going to blow it up. Well, there was a couple of momentum ones too. Like near the end of the first quarter, he had a chance to go over 30 for the quarter and he missed two in a row. And then during that 21-2 run we talked about, he missed those too.

Just to talk about the Mavs really quick. First of all, you brought this up before we started recording. What happened to Josh Richardson? Is he on the team? I'm going to Google it just to double check. Curry's been crunch time for the Sixers all year. Last year, Curry was crunch time for the Mavs. They flipped Curry for Richardson

because they wanted a wing who could defend and hit threes. And we've talked about this a few months ago. Richardson had this really fool's gold two and a half months in Miami, where he was awesome. And other than that, he's just been kind of an is who he is guy. This seems like the second Josh that Dallas has just, just has completely fallen apart on the maps. The first one being Josh Howard. So he, how many minutes did he play six? Uh,

yeah, I think he played six minutes. And then Brunson, who I legitimately thought about voting for like third place for sixth man of the year. I felt like he would come in, swing games. He was good in crunch time. And the speed of the Clippers made him basically unplayable. They went with Trey Burke, who played eight minutes,

was 0 for 3 and a minus 10 in the eight minutes. He was on there for most of that stuff. So he was bad. I don't know what happened to Maxie Kleber this year. He started out hurt, but that was a guy who was huge for them last year. He was terrible. Dwight Powell only played five minutes and their big trade was JJ Redick, who'd never played at all. So they did have the expiring contract with James Johnson. They were never able to get anybody for it. Even Fournier, one of the least successful playoff players ever, would have played more minutes than basically

anyone on their bench. Their bench had six points in this game yeah richardson a couple years ago scored almost 17 a game for miami played 35 minutes hit 36 percent from three hit 38 percent from three the year before that so you're thinking like 24 25 plays defense one of those wings who can shoot yeah like man i would love to have this guy and then it didn't happen in Philly. And then you thought, okay, well, that whole Philly thing was a mess. And I mean, he was basically a DNP and it's like, Carlisle just couldn't trust him. I mean, the Dallas thing is always so weird because you'll be looking at moments. You go like Maxi Kleber is your first choice here to defend Kawhi, but Kleber actually doesn't get, he competes not to say like, he's going to be shutting down Kawhi. For Z zingas even though his numbers are

okay tonight when you really look for him he's just a he's just a level but like look even if you didn't like perzingis he's probably two levels below what he was at his best and i don't know if it's a lingering health thing but even when he hits a couple shots here or there runs the baseline in the dunker spot um which they had some moments when they doubled luca that i remember going back to game one. You're like, okay, well, you know, but it never seems to be in the flow of everything. It just is like, hey, I haven't taken a shot

in four or five positions. I'm going to take one. I'm going to get beat for a rebound. He looks lost. So when you look at this roster, I mean, this would have been a disastrous series for the Clippers to lose. I watched Porzingis,

and what scared me the last couple games is I actually thought he was playing hard. You can't use the, oh man, he's not into it or they can't get him going. He played really hard.

He was making the extra pass. He wasn't a disaster. He's just not that good. He took that one pull-up three in the fast break and Mark Jackson's like, I like that shot. And Van Gundy's like, what are you talking about? He's like, you like two on one pull up threes?

Yeah. It was so great that he called it out. His inability to use his size at all where the Clippers just had no respect for him, right? They're putting like Terrence Mann and Marcus Morris and whoever else. It's not like Porzingis is going to post up. And if you look at the advanced stats for Porzingis' post-up,

they're reprehensible, which is why they don't post them up. So, man, I look at this Dallas roster. I have a really good question for you, but I want to take a break because this is a really, really good one. We're going to take a break, and then I got it for you. This episode is brought to you by Movember. The mustache is back with a vengeance. Look at Travis Kelsey. Before he rocked that Superbowl ring, he rocked that super soup strainer. Grow a mustache for Movember. You'll do great things too. You won't win the Superbowl, but your fundraising will support mental health,

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Just search Movember. All right, here's my question for you relating to the Mavs. We've never seen a player do this before. Lucas, three years in, normally this is where they say, here's this giant extension. You should sign it. This would be great. You should take it. And year five, when you're supposed to be making 13 million, instead you'll be making 30, 31 million, whatever it is, because your new contract will have kicked in. So obviously nobody turns down 20 million. If I'm Luke,

I'm not signing it. I'm playing it out. Why not? We've never, and I think Zion's the other one who could do it. We've never seen. So this would be the logical last chapter of the player empowerment era where it's like player empowerment, players, players calling the shots. This is the one thing we've never seen a player do is say, you know what? I know, I know I could be making 30 million next year, whatever there's, I'm going to, I'm going to see how you guys do for me. I'm going to roll the dice because I'm pretty sure I'll be able to get a max contract from somebody else. Now, the question for me is you got the Knicks sitting there in two years from now, right? I've had a couple of Knicks friends ask me about this. Do you think Luca would ever blah, blah, blah? And it's like, could Luca make more money if he was in New York two years from now? Would this

be like when the soccer players, you know, when, I don't know, Mbappe goes to FC Barcelona or, you know, these guys, these young talents, they just flip and they go to the biggest possible market because that's where the most money is. Do you see any scenario where Luka turns down the max extension and plays it out? I don't believe we've had anybody ever do it. It's never happened. Right. So the first guy that I'd ever heard, and this is funny because this is kind of like your tom cruise theory you know you've i've complimented the tom cruise theory a couple times where you're like he was always as crazy he gave us the evidence and we just didn't believe it until he spread the breadcrumbs like if you go backwards and look at the evidence you go oh wait okay i got it now it all makes sense and i think

there are moments over kairi's timeline as a player where you're like oh wait i got it now. It all makes sense. And I think there are moments over Kyrie's timeline as a player where you're like, oh, wait, I got it. Kyrie was the first guy that was like, there were guys saying, I don't know, man, he's just different. Like he might actually sacrifice a lot. I don't know what the numbers are, but it's different than the vet player looking at an extension somewhere else. So he would be a pioneer if he did it. Um, it'd be interesting how that played out because I mean, the whole point of, of the love of having these rookie guys is it's just understood you're going to have them in control for seven years. So I'd have to remember when LeBron went heading into 2010 and I never found out a hundred percent

if this was true or not, but there was always this rumor that Nike put in this extra bonus if you played in New York. Remember that? I remember hearing about it. I don't know if it was ever true or not. I never knew if it was true but it was like, hey, if you play in New York, this bonus gets triggered. I guess my question is this. So Luka

for his fourth year is going to make $10.1 million next year. And then after that, it becomes, he could basically not sign the extension. And then it becomes that qualifying offer thing where they would have to give him a qualifying offer for 13.3. If he's still like, I'm not signing, I'm not signing. So it'd be 13.3 million.

And then he could basically become a free agent after that. So he'd be sacrificing in that $13.3 qualifying year. That's when year one, they blow that up. The new extension with the Mavs would start. And that would start at like $30. So let's say he costs himself $18 million by rolling the dice. All right. Taxes, you lose half of that.

You're at $9 million, right? Wow. No state tax though. No state tax. So let's say- Has anybody mentioned that? $8.5 million. Let's say he's keeping by whatever, rolling the dice of the year. I'm pretty sure you could make that back if you were in a bigger market. I guess my point is, I think that dude is super competitive. And unless they prove to him over the next year that they can put a competitive roster on him, I don't think he's going to stay. Now, the counter would be like Cuban going, dude, I just put $100 million in Bitcoin in a secret account overseas.

It's yours. How would they even monitor Bitcoin? That's called barcubic to criminal. But how would they monitor any of this NFT stuff? Not to accuse him of putting a hundred million and breaking the salary cap. How do we know with any owner if they gave somebody a little extra like NFT, Bitcoin? I don't know. Like, whatever.

My point is, I think they have to fix this roster and I'm looking at it and I don't know how they fix it. Porzingis doesn't have trade value. Harden is a free agent. I would always, whenever I, you know, we're like, hey, who's available? Who's available? Porzingis's name has come up more this season than anybody else.

Right. You know, of somebody that's a, but then it's just, I don't even know what the market is, especially when you look at his extension there. He would be, he would be the first to do it. That's a high, you know, a guy that actually is eligible

for the extension with his team. And that's why people kind of criticize the league where they're going to say, you know, most rookies come in and all they care about, the first thing they care about is getting that extension. And then they'll worry about the rest of it later. He's special enough that I can understand why you'd bring it up. It's just, look, I'm not saying it's never going to happen. Until it happens. We all kind of look at it and be like, Oh, no one's ever going to do that and sacrifice the kind of money on the extension. Cause I do think it's different

as far as the, the, the amount of earnings that you would have, the difference between that, as opposed to a guy who's coming off of his first extension and then says, you know what, I've got an option year here. And I know if I do it this way, you know what I mean? Like guys, Anthony Davis cost himself money, like dollar for dollar. There was even something, I think, with Durant leaving a year earlier. You know what I mean? Where guys can look at it and say, well, if I sign the extension in the 10th year or the 8th year versus this. So I mean, guys have been okay sacrificing money, which is the unintended consequence of so much of this salary structure. They've been like,

well, if you stay here, you're going to make all this money. Yeah, but with the salary cap spike with the new TV deal, the guys are making so much money, they don't really ever care. So I think the difference here is that the rookie is only coming off a rookie deal, even if we're talking about the kind of money that Luke has been at. I wonder what would happen if he went to them and said, I'll sign the extension, but it's going to be like a one-on-one. So you can rip up my last year and I'll be in the same spot. I was in anyway,

and I'll make more money, I guess like, because he's first team on BA and all, all the other stuff he brings to the table, the max extension they could offer him is probably some staggering number. Um, I would, I would love,

Hey, people out there who, who know how to crunch all these numbers. I would love to read a piece explaining exactly how much money Luca could make with his next contract, what would be the financial risk, all that stuff. So I'm looking at their salaries for next year. So right now, they have 90.9 on the books. They have Luca and Trey Burke is 15 combined Brunson Tyrell, Terry. That's they're up to 18.

Uh, Josh Richardson, unfortunately is a player option for 11.6. Pretty sure he's exercising that one. So now we're at around 30, Josh green. He's at three 33, Finney Smith's for we're at 37.

Poor Zingas 31.6 next year. So now we're close to 70. Maxie Kleber's at basically nine. Powell's at 11. So we're basically at 90, however high you cut it. And unless they can somehow dump Porzingis on somebody, which I don't see. I don't see how they dump Porzingis without getting, you know, like Porzingis Kemba Walker. There's a, there's a world that, that might happen. Like the Mavs could talk themselves into it. They're getting out that contract a year earlier. The Celtics could be like Porzingis needs to change the scenery,

but I don't see how they get Porzingis off the team without trading for somebody else's issue. Kevin Love. Well, Cleveland still thinks Kevin Love is like a key part of their future. So I don't, I don't know okay uh look no one's no one's like the Kemba thing as bad as it is at 70 plus million you could still attach a first and somebody probably do it you know all the cap space that's out there so you know you might just have to give up an asset and a pick that you don't want to give up a pick for to get off of the deal but even with Przingis I mean maybe there's enough enough allure there for some of the other teams that miss out I mean look what Oklahoma City has done by moving around and going all right we'll go ahead and do this and then now

there's actually like rumors about teams looking especially when you look at the real numbers on the fourth year of Horford's deal which are pretty absurd incentives unlikely meaning that you're like all right well Horford had a big a big number and maybe I'm below the cap and I got to get to the floor anyway. So yeah, maybe I'll do something there. So too often we'll look at some of these players that look like they're impossible to move and they're not impossible.

So I don't think it's impossible. It's just, you're not going to get anything back that makes you better. You're just going to have to clear the deck and reset for the Luka part of it. Dallas's dream scenario would probably be Horford for Przingis, right? I don't see why Presti would ever sign on for the extra years for Porzingis

and get in the way of what he's doing. Poku mentor? That would be fascinating, actually. If they did a pay-per-view Poku-Porzingis one-on-one, I would watch that. Poku and the Zing on their back? The problem is that just takes away, one-on-one takes away from Poku's vision and all of his, his floor skills. So Poku's better five on five.

The best part of Porzingis getting traded is, you know, he'll give an interview where he's like, look, Luca is a great player, but it's finally time for me to cook. Like it'll have one of those translated into another language. Yeah. He speaks pretty good English. I don't, um, oh, you mean like he'll, he of those translated in another language yeah he speaks pretty good english i don't um oh you mean like he'll he'll do it with like euro basket deutschland yeah or like the lithuanian daily herald and it's some something that's translated like uh the reason my game went south is because i never had the ball because luca had the ball all the time or he says something crazy i don't i just think i you said what he was two levels below where he was pre-k injury yeah because there's a time like

even if you didn't love Przingis he's a good player he's a good player you look at the way he could shoot it you know I'm not telling you he's perfect but he was a hell of a lot better than the people that doubted him coming in and he had a nice start to his career but I also think he's that weird thing where he's like two inches too tall for his movement and that's what's led to all these injuries like he's almost too tall yeah i have another topic for you boban best oddity center of your lifetime i'll give you the nominees i already know what mine is Murison Maneu Mark Eaton Matt Geiger

no Matt Geiger had it out of me I'm talking like seven foot two or higher and when they're out there you're just like I can't fucking believe

this guy's playing right now and they're actually doing stuff they have to be potentially a villain in a Bruce Lee movie potentially yeah that's why Geiger would never make it. Right.

Geiger. I just remember we used to hack the shit out of each other in pickup games and be like, Geiger counter. And it was just something that we did. Trust me, we're the only ones that did it, and it didn't catch on. Manute's my guy. Because Manute's transition, when you go and watch the YouTube clips, for whatever reason, I've fallen on it a few times, where he starts just jacking up threes and guys are laughing their heads off. He's my first pick for oddity centers of my lifetime.

But I'll tell you, Boban is not far off. You're getting good value if you're getting Boban a two. So Murasan, the whiz in the mid-1990s for two years. He was good. Two years span. 13-8 with almost two blocks a game, 60% stayed on the floor. That 97 Wiz team actually got a couple punches in against the Bulls. They got swept, but they didn't get a couple jabs. They were coming up.

In the playoffs that year against the Bulls. All those games were close, weren't they? And then Bulls just closed them out. Then you were like, this Wizards team is going to be awesome. Tough playoffs for Mirosan against the Bulls. Five points, six rebounds. The Bulls, you're not going to believe this, but the Bulls were able to kind of play him off

the floor with some athleticism. So it was a problem for him. But he was good. And then Manute had a couple moments. What was that? There was a Sixers run with him, right? With Barkley? Yeah. One of those years. I'm going to look that up as we're talking. And then Eaton, I think had the most success just because he actually was an anchor. He just passed away, by the way. He was actually an anchor for them. Oh yeah. Manute, man, Manute stats are way worse. So Jesus. Oh, he had that golden state year in 1989 when he averaged 4.3 blocks a game in 22 minutes.

And then the, uh, he was ended up in Philly in the early nineties, I think just for comic relief for Barkley, but wow. On the 86 whiz, Manute Ball, five games, 5.8 blocks a game in playoffs. It's pretty good. Mark Eaton, probably the most successful one. I'm looking up some of the rookie extension stuff,

by the way. Harden is arguably a case for it because he demanded a trade because they were going to pay him like 80%. At that time, Harden started seven games combined the first three years of his run in Oklahoma City. And even though that was a disastrous decision, the money wasn't that different. They could have wrote it out for another year.

And I'll never forget laughing about Daryl Morey saying, well, we wouldn't have done this deal a year from now. And you're like, really? You wouldn't have traded the pick for Steven Adams and Jeremy Lamb? You wouldn't have done this for James Harden? And the money was all tax purpose. And they could have just run it back and seen where they were at and then seen what the trade market... It's one of the few times I think Presti missed, but it was also ownership mandate stuff. But Harden wasn't going to be offered the full max. I think they were trying to get him to 80% of it or something.

No, it's like four for 54. Something like that. Harden wanted four for 64. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. It was 80% of what he could have been offered. But that was an underrated tampering story though because I think once they were a little deadlocked, there were some other teams that came in like, hey man,

if Harden's leaving, we'll give him the five for 85, whatever it was. Because I think he was handicapped by Durant had already locked down the five year. So there were other teams like Houston that could be like, all right, if you come here, we'll blow it out. So once I think everybody realized there was significant money out there for Harden, that was a wrap. And by the way, the decision from a basketball building

standpoint of going like all right well I'd probably rather have a Baca as the big than the three perimeter guys just pulling their hands and like today you would never do that you would never be like you know and look Harden ended up becoming like even whatever your limitations were for any you know he's he's a guy from a ceiling standpoint you're like okay he's good but I don't know if he's going to be like all that and then you're like actually he's 10 times better than whatever you thought his ceiling was so you know credit to him for that one but i've just i'm going through here and trying to find it because usually the rookie off the rookie numbers goes all right this is my first big kick in like i don't want to i don't want to mess with the security of this because i can do

it earlier i don't have to play on the qualifying offer there's also a story that i was looking at here ironically that prasingas was threatening to play on the qualifying offer. Somebody's probably going to do it at some point though. You're right. Like it's a, it's a good topic to bring up because we can't act like no one's ever going to do it because if you've ever done that with this kind of stuff, you're always going to end up being surprised. Um, I was thinking with Kawhi, I forgot to mention this cause he's, he's put together such a great resume now, right? And now he has a chance to win three titles on three teams, which LeBron did last year. And that's not an extensive list of guys

who've been the best player on three different titles. Can I just jump in, though, real quick? We're basically in a 10-year version of an NBA where this is even a possibility. Like, if you're good enough to lead a team to a title, no one historically was ever playing on three different teams. So this is a whole, I've heard people bring this up.

Like when Kawhi was tempting, you know, like, and it was like, should we say Kawhi is the second best, but no one else has ever, because nobody fucking did it. Like Bird wasn't on his third team.

I just do Bird for you. So I appreciate it. Here's the thing. Let's say the Clippers win the title. And then, uh, there'll be probably a nuclear war right afterwards because that'll be the sign that the world's gonna end.

If you go back to the 2013 finals, LeBron wins with Miami. LeBron then wins three titles in the next eight years, basically. 16 with Cleveland and 20 with the Lakers. Kawhi wins 14 with the Spurs, 19 with the Raptors. And then in this hypothetical, it'll be 21 with the Lakers Kawhi wins 14 with the Spurs 19 with the Raptors and then

in this hypothetical it would be 21 with the Clippers so you'd have two guys winning six of the ten titles for six different teams I don't know if that's where basketball is going

or whether we'll just look back at that as one of the weirdest historical flukes then you would have Durant if Brooklyn won the title be a guy who won with Golden State and withes. Then you would have Durant. If Brooklyn won the title, be a guy who won with Golden State and with Brooklyn. And then you would have three guys on seven different teams winning seven

of the nine titles, basically, on three different teams. Pretty weird. Yeah, look, I'd say my first instinct was, hey, this is kind of the league we have right now. But I think it's a little bit dismissive of how special how hard it is to win so to then have two guys do it six times six teams yeah it would also be pretty empowering too to somebody like hawaii who you know when when he was asked by lebron like hey why don't you come here to the Lakers? He was like, fuck you. Well, I do wonder, like,

the way he played on Friday and Sunday, maybe 3%, a little hop in your step after the Lakers are out, and now you can sniff the title. We were like, holy shit. You watch that Laker game, and there's like, Jesus Christ, if we can get through this

Mavs series, we can really make the finals. We have the most talent of any team that's left here. But I was going to say with Kawhi. Do they? Do they definitively have that? Because I think it's fairly even with the four teams that are left. And honestly, Denver's fourth.

But Jokic is, you know, I don't want to turn this into like all of a sudden now we think Kawhi's like in his own level here and Jokic doesn't even taste it. No, no, no. I think he has a better team than Jokic. this into like all of a sudden now we think kawaii's like in his own level here and yokich doesn't even taste no no no yokich was everything yeah i think denver has the fourth best team of this group but even if you're saying hey the clippers and there's another version of this man where the mavs hit some free throws the clippers hit less threes with roll guys that you don't always trust and we're talking about this manaling of the clippers and being like why do we ever think this team was that good so i don't want to be too reactionary here but i think it's wide open with these three teams and no one should ever think this team was that good? So I don't want to be too reactionary here, but I think it's wide open with these three teams

and no one should ever think that they're that. Like that's, even with the Lakers. I think it's wide open with the four teams. Right? You think Denver could come out of the West? I was talking to a friend of mine yesterday about Jokic and what he did to Portland, trying to figure out what the right team is

to change what that destiny was of that series, right? Portland wasn't a very good defensive team. But Jokic hit this point where it was like there was just no answers. Like you single him, he scores, you double him. Somebody gets a wide open three. What do you do? I would say the Clippers probably had the best chance

just because they can play the lineup we basically saw today. And they could just throw six, eight guys and scramble and try to stop it and try to make it a series where these dudes on the Nuggets, they're just going to basically make or break you. And it's not Jokic, but that's kind of what Portland tried to do. And Jokic just solved it. And Nurkic in the foul trouble. I mean, Nurkic, I think, fouled out of half the games. And there was also... But Jokic does that to every center.

He fouls out whoever's guarding him. They always have three fouls in the first half. There's another sense that, like, Nurkic is, like, such an emotional guy that he still thinks Denver screwed him over. And that he was, like, amped up against it. I mean, here's what I do know is that the remaining three teams have much better options than Portland did.

Yes. Against Jokic. You didn't like Carmelo? The hard Carmelo doubles. How about when Carmelo was guarding him? He was literally guarding him in the post right and then you know poor canner because you just know like like canner's like well at least i didn't get destroyed on pick and rolls this time it was just another big um and canner did

a really good job for them when they needed him to because nurkic wasn't healthy the whole time so uh i this is what i kind of love about where we're at right now, because I'm almost willing to accept any theory. Although it may also be that the nets are going to win the NBA finals in like five games. We go, yep. Okay. They were that good. Like that's, that's the only thing other than it's wide open, you know, cause I've, I've changed my mind on it a few times because I'm like, Hey, look at if Brooklyn ends up rolling through everybody, are you really going to be shocked? And I still think there's some things that I know we'll get to at some point with Milwaukee and the other pod, but I can't help but think of all these different teams I want to give a chance. And I'm like, there might be this juggernaut just waiting for him and they already are that and it doesn't matter. It's funny how many bests we have right now, right? I think Jokic is the best offensive player in basketball. I even think he's better than Luca just because of, you know,

that, that it's almost like the football stuff we talk about, like with the chiefs, when they would play Kelsey and Hill and they put them on one side and you could just see the defense, like their brain breaks trying to figure it out. Jokic just somehow figured out to do that with a pretty mediocre supporting cast other than Porter. So you have him. You have Kawhi is still the best two-way player.

Durant's the best scoring forward. Harden's the best creator. Kyrie is the best heat check guy in either conference, right? Gobert's the best defensive player. Like there's just all of these dudes that are really good at something. And then you look at Chris Paul. I know you loved, I know you probably fell asleep at night watching the locker room video of Chris Paul

going into the Suns locker room after he beat the Lakers. I know you'd probably just watch that 20 times. You saw that, right? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, it's my home screen.

Chris is the best leader in the playoffs, I think we could say. But it's just, it's a really good playoffs. And what's crazy is we lost Dame. We lost LeBron and Davis.

We never had Curry. We lost Tatum, who has a chance to be potentially Durant 2.0. He'll never be as great as Durant. But you know what I mean? He could at least fill the void of who's the best scoring forward

in the league right now. It could be him. And we still have just a slew of awesome guys left. Let me throw a couple things at you, though, because you know how, like, A, the defense is going to tighten up and these threes aren't going to be as open.

And we've seen three-point reliant offenses in the regular season mow through everybody. And then when you get to the playoffs, you like all right yeah i i don't know if this seat like i've asked it a couple times where is this effort level and the lack of defensive consistency is this going to become the new norm and with guys in and out of the games all the time like i i'm serious when i ask is i don't know that i have an answer to it but it's at least a theory worth bringing up there were eight teams in the NBA regular

season that had an offensive rating of 115 points per 100 possessions or higher. All right. That's still a staggering number. The most efficient offensive league average we've ever had in NBA history this year. And I think for the top five seasons of all time are like in the last four years. Going into today's playoff games you had eight playoff teams where their offensive efficiency averaged among those eight teams at 120 points per 100 possessions we had one team over 40 on threes the clippers all right we know who's number two this season the regular season from three it was actually the knicks believe it or not which is probably hard to believe after watching them lose that first series to Atlanta going into today's games five

teams and granted I know it's a small sample with only first round games and barely some second round games but five teams are over 40 percent from three and so whether you're looking at like Trey Young and a graphic where the start of his offensive outburst of his playoff career because Trey was incredible I can't wait to talk about him later but like hey it's it's jordan it's jerry west and it's trey young in a graphic you know and then luca has 19 points in the first quarter of a game seven like it's only happened one other time in 25 years of playoff games where somebody had 20 or 19 points or more in the first quarter of a game seven and and it was Jamal Murray last year with 20 points in a Game 7.

There's all of these offensive numbers. I mean, Philly's awesome defense. They're 1-10 when giving up 118 or more points this year. Atlanta scored 128. And if they didn't go down their leg for three minutes to close the game, who knows? Maybe they're at 130 or 140 if the game was

still on the balance. They had to keep playing offense. Yeah. Good point. Offensive numbers. I don't know which is which, but ERAs are the new offensive numbers in the playoffs and offensive numbers are the new ERA because there's just for years now when I've watched baseball, I go, there's no way that, that this is not the greatest pitching we've ever seen. Maybe the biggest arms and so many options out of the bullpen, but the way people play offense in baseball is also a big product of, of why you have these absurd ERAs. I just,

so far two weeks into the playoffs, man, the offense is cranked up. It hasn't been slowed down at all. It's almost absurd to compare what we're watching in baseball, football, or basketball to things that happened in the past. Like 10 years ago. They were talking about Luka today and they were like, he has a chance to have the most points ever in a game seven.

The guy who held the record was Dominique Wilkins with 47. 47 in one of the most amazing game, game seven non-finals we've ever had in 1988 against the Celtics. When he went to this whole other level and had this iconic game that 10 people will have that record be passing it next 10 years. And it's the same thing for each sport, right? Baseball. It just became about the three outcomes. You go look at the home run leaders. It's absurd. There's going to be, you know, 50 guys with 30 home runs this year and all these dudes with 1.5 strikeouts per night per inning and shit like that. The football where everybody can throw for 4,000 yards. Now, if you stay healthy, right. Any receiver can get to a thousand yards. If he plays 15 games,

um, when we were growing up, like Cliff Branch would go 40 catches for 790 yards and we would be like talking about him reverentially. Stanley Morgan, oh my God, the steamer had 60 catches and 900 yards this year, whatever. So I just think to go backwards and compare this shit to the stuff from the past, it's almost like comparing black and white movies to color movies or something and yeah or honestly silent movies because like every game there'll be

some graphic that comes up on one of these like how special trey was in the first round and then again the game against philly you know what luca has done to start his career in these two series and granted look he lost the clippers two times in in a row, and that's really what matters. But there's all of these offensive outcomes where I'm like, wait, what is that? Like, who's on that graphic? Jordan? You know, Shaq?

It's always like West, Michael Jordan, and LeBron. Yeah, West is always in there. Kareem, Wilt, and, you know, Boban. Yeah, right. It's no offense to any of these guys. I think that's, again, what we've talked about consistently is that the depth at the top of this league is better than it's ever been. But that whole, let's see, the playoff thing

slowed us down a little bit. And, you know, we could just chalk it up to the first couple rounds coming off another exhausting season with things that are far different. You know, it's almost like when you do the baseball comp, yeah, the arms are bigger and more powerful. And it's crazy how many times you're watching a bullpen and you're like, your sixth inning guy throws 101 and has a nasty knuckle curve to back it up. And it looks the same because he totally understands the spin rate and all this stuff. Like, okay, I get it. It's the

same as the shooting because that's what bothers me when we compare generations you go look the shot making alone is so beyond and it happened in such a quick amount of time once guys realize like you know what actually if i work on this shot i can make it consistently enough in a game where it's a weapon i can spread everybody but having said all those things there's just changes of the games it's it usually doesn't happen this quick in such a short amount of time for the years and the same thing with the football thing if you look at the all-time yardage leaders, they're all going to be guys from like the last decade, 12 deep, except for Marino.

Matt Stafford. Yeah, right. So it's both. You know what I mean? It's not being just, it's both. It's incredibly impressive, but it's also happening more often than you would ever, ever think. Let's take a break.

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Visit amex.ca slash business platinum. One last point on the heirs thing. I had somebody text me who, um, was from a different era, but kind of branches. Both of them. It was just like,

how can anyone say the guys from my era were better than the guys we're watching now? Like the fucking Dame Lillard game. It was like, nobody in my hair was capable of a game like that. Bird had the 60 once in new Orleans. And it was like the greatest moment of my life. He made some crazy threes, right?

We watch that routinely now. We live in this world where Trey Young has 25 at halftime and then Luka has 29 at halftime. These are things that just weren't happening and the threes, the spacing, the fact that there's not centers anymore and stuff like that, but it's just gonna be very hard

to put it all into context. And I think for basketball, this has turned into what baseball was like from 97 to 03, when the steroid era basically ruined the stats. And it was like, I don't know what these mean anymore. Luis Gonzalez had 57 homers this year. What are we supposed to say? Sammy Sosa had 132 homers in two seasons. What, what is this? What am I watching? I'm supposed to compare this to Roger Maris. Now, in this case, there's no performance enhancing drugs. It's just the three point line in the spacing, but, um, it's a three point line. It was definitely the lack of defense. And I think, you know, there are times even when I

watch playoff matchups where I go and I don't know, I mean do you want to get into Philly Atlanta at all now? Yeah, I'm ready to do it right now. Because I think there's a theme there because as much as Kawhi changed game seven offensively and defensively and I know that not everybody can do the De La Vadova

where you know you have to get a kidney replaced after defending as intensely as he did against Steph in 15. But you'll be like, these defensive rep guys on the perimeter, this is a good gig. You're going to start Danny Green against Trey? You're just going to let Danny Green get worked by Trey Young for a half

when you have Thibel as an option and you have defensive player of the year potentially and Ben Simmons. And I understand like size-wise, maybe it can be too big of a guy, but I mean, Simmons has done some special things defensively and it's like, wait, so you have Kawhi and you have George

and you have these switchable guys in this stuff. And Terrence Mann didn't play in game one. Like you guys aren't going to figure out a better way to like slow down the Luka thing. And I don't know if that's coming off a regular season as i've said throughout like defensive effort was never worse it's understandable i get it not knocking the guys empty arenas for more than half the season it's just not the same vibe you're not going to feel the same energy and sometimes you really need that kind of stuff but it was just something i've been thinking about the last couple days a little bit like these guys with big time defensive resumes, you're like, where, when are you, who are you saving them for?

Right. Kawhi, it was just bizarre that it took them that long to throw him at Luka. But I thought the stuff he did against Luka the last two games, Luka had an incredible offensive game today. And I still felt like made some crazy shots. It was, it was a hard 46 it wasn't like a flow in the offense like he really made some well as soon as he got kawaii off of him and look he's he would torture whoever kawaii's had some other nice stretches against luca too statistically but you know i remember doing thursday's pod and at that point i go it

doesn't look like kawaii can guard the guy. But I thought the important thing with him in game seven was as soon as they got Kawhi off of him, Luka was like, okay, it's go time. And it felt like it worked every time. Hawks Sixers. So I did a Hawks-Bucks parlay

six to one before round two. I'm not going to panic about the Bucks yet. But then all of a sudden sudden Embiid was coming back they broke that what like 45 minutes before Embiid might play in game one I still don't I've never seen was it a torn meniscus was it not it was a partial tear so clearly it wasn't

the MCL I'll admit like you with the injury stuff I'm like I assume they're not telling us the truth and if it's an MCL especially for somebody like him, this has to be pretty significant. I thought he looked great today. Maybe not super mobile on the defensive rebounding part of it.

I was watching how he rebounded. It felt like so many of the rebounds just bounced right to him. But if you had not told us anything, we wouldn't start this podcast with the Sixers portion going, hey, Embiid looked a little off. Is something wrong with him? Because, you know, whatever the mistakes were,

we'll get to all that kind of stuff. But I thought he looked much better than my expectations when that news broke. Because when the news broke, I was like, oh, what are we going to see here? And I thought he was really good. He looked a little more careful, I think is the word I would use. He wasn't, you know, when he's really feeling athletically,

he has plays like how he got when when he's really feeling athletically he has plays like how he got hurt when he's trying to attack robin lopez and basically dunk on him i thought he was a little more careful with the spins and stuff like that but i thought he was really effective um look the hawks have a shitload of talent and guys who can score and if you fall asleep and you do the wrong coaching stuff and whatever, they can put up 70 plus in the first half, which is what happened today. I don't know what, I don't, apparently Philly didn't watch the last series. I don't understand the strategy with Trey. We've, this is now the third pod where we've talked about just, you have to take them out. Let the other

guys be, especially with Hunter not playing today. Um, second half, they did a much better job. They started rushing two guys at him over midcourt. They started trapping him. I don't know what takes these teams two games into the series or a half in the series or whatever just to do the very basic things they should be doing. I don't know if they

tapped into something or Atlanta will adjust whatever, but the big thing I want to say about Trey, um, who we've already talked about on this pod, like we're so happy with what he's watching. I keep seeing him getting compared to Curry. And to me,

he's so much more in the Nash camp, the stuff he's doing now that he has really figured out who he is and what to do and not to, um, and how he controls the game. And those little things where he's like dribbling into the lane, he's popping out, but he's not giving up the ball yet. And then all of a sudden he's turning around and flipping it. Um, the last second passes to people on drives.

I don't think he doesn't remind me of Curry at all. He really doesn't. I think he's so much more reminds me of Nash. He was incredible today. And then in the last three minutes, the entire team melted down. And I'm going to choose to just say that was a hiccup. The Trey thing, he continues to do it. Can Trey make the finals? The NBA finals?

Yeah. I'm going to say no, but I had to ask the question. Yeah. I don't think it's ridiculous, though. I don't at all. Because I think there's a couple things going on. Like, when you start with the Trey thing,

and you and I catch a lot of shit for this, and I'm like, well, you know, I'm not changing my opinion of who I thought he was as a player when he got better. Yeah. You know, they had, what were they, what,

three worst teams last year in the league? And even this front office that caught a lot of shit for all of the offseason moves. And now you're like, wait, there's all of these options. Like, this is a really well, it's not just good value, except for the Rondo deal, which they still get an asset back, which is shocking. Because that Rondo contract, you're like, well, are you giving those guys? But I think it was because they wanted to bring Rondo in to kind of like tell Trey some of the differences that you have to have.

Like, there's different times you have to have different approaches in the game. And it's very clear that he's doing that. Well, look, Nate McMillan even brought it up in an interview this week. And that's why the Hawks part of this always drives you crazy. It's like,

look, we've had reports of teammates being frustrated with him in film room. And Nate McMillan was like, I had to kind of teach him the difference between this is how you play in the first quarter, second, third, and the fourth quarter.

They brought it up in the broadcast again today. Trey young is fucking awesome. All right. He's this version of him is awesome so could he get to the nba finals he absolutely could now back to the knicks thing i think the knicks not getting tray involved defensively is a fair criticism because the knicks had literally zero offensive options so why not give it a shot i was looking for it today and they didn't do it either. And I just don't think Philly's really built that way. And knowing Doc, I think the way that I do, I don't think Doc is going to go seeking Trey Young and switches with his offense, the way it's set up. It's going to

be in bead touches. It's going to be kickouts like Tobias Harris kind of had one of those weird invisible games today. Simmons had some moments. Harris and Middleton both had the, eh, are we sure? Harris didn't come back until late because I think they were trying to figure it all out. I think this is a very experimental game for Doc, or at least the first half was. Danny Green's not going to get an iso dribbling against him. Ben Simmons isn't going to get an iso. I don't think Philadelphia is necessarily built offensively

where it's going to be, let's do the exposed Trey Young on defense. You want to give it a shot and try it like I'm all for it, but I bet you Docs, if you got him in an honest private moment, he would say, I think it's going to take us out of what we actually do seeking that. Whereas New York, I think it's a much more fair criticism because it wasn't like you had all these other awesome options. Right. Does that make sense to you? Yeah. And Brooklyn's the team that if we really want to talk about exposing

trey young on defense brooklyn's the team that would be able to do it um let me stay on that though because the one doc thing 19 of the 25 first half points for trey were against danny green and they ran the same fucking drag screen left side get Trey to the right and they let him do it whenever he wanted and then when he brought Theibel in at the end of the first quarter Nate immediately took Trey out which is where he does come out and then second half they're like let's get Simmons on him and this is the part of Trey where I don't enjoy it where you're allowed to do this running back Heisman off arm thing and then stick the arm into the defensive guy, and then there's contact,

and then all of a sudden the foul's on you. And there were two absolute bullshit calls on Ben Simmons in that spot. So now Ben gets hit with the two fouls, and everybody's like, what? So now what am I supposed to do? They trapped him really hard because they had to have that kind of effort just to get back in the game.

We're going to see some of that trapping, but you can also get really burnt on that and the flow of the game when you know it, because Trey has shown, I think the comp that I would use was Steph there because he doesn't do the off the ball stuff. Steph does. Nobody does. That's why Steph's the best. But the way Trey goes, all right, you want to trap, you want to double, okay, outlet pass, and then I'm going to get it to somebody else. Trey will eventually burn you on that. But what you can't do is let the Danny Green thing happen for an entire 24 minutes like it happened today. Well, and you also have to match Tybalt up against Trey.

Having Tybalt on the court when Trey's not on the court doesn't make any sense to me. I just don't think they want to. They went back to their offensive guys there when they had Tybalt in those spots in some of those moments. So I know some people. He made a couple threes. He did.

My guy. I know we have a thread where people were suggesting maybe a Duke senior night maxi start where you have him go out there like Pemberton Huddlestein, who is like the coach's manager. Yeah, full-court press. And just 60 seconds floor slapping, and then he gets subbed out and Cameron's going crazy. 60 seconds floor slapping, and then he gets subbed out,

and Cameron's going crazy. Then Kay and him almost make out when he gets subbed out, and everybody goes nuts. A little Duke senior night with Maxie. I don't know. I'm not buying it, though. Can I do a narrative complaint?

Please. When somebody blossoms into the player that we wanted them to become, but there were people like us. I think Booker's another good example, right? Booker, in year six, has turned into an awesome guy. And at my point with Booker the whole time is like, yeah,

he's talented, but his team doesn't win. Like, let's, let's talk about it when his team wins. Now his team's winning and he's was awesome in the game six. You can't go retroactive and be like, you were wrong about Devin Booker.

It wasn't wrong. Devin Booker's team. I wrote it down. His first four years, there were 87 and 241. Last year, they're 34 and 39. This year, they're good. And he's proven that if you put a really good team around him, he was able to go up a level. And now I think he's, I don't know, top 20, top 25 guy and somebody who could be the lead score on a playoff contender. I didn't know if that wasn't true those first five years. My whole point with this stuff is like, I can only judge what I'm watching. I can.

There's a lot of talented guys in the league. We've always talked about, we think there's 90 guys who could score 20 points a game in bat. It's more. Maybe 100. I resisted it when you said like 100 the first time. And then the more I thought about it, you're like, it's a much higher number of guys that could get 20 in a game.

There's this last level that you have to get to where when you finally have the right team around you, all right, what do you have? And I think Booker has passed the test. Trey Young has passed the test. There are other guys that for me have not passed the test, you know? And like, if Towns had an awesome team around him, would that mean he now becomes a top 20 guy? Like, maybe, I don't know.

He has the talent to do it, but I still have to see it. So I guess maybe my issue with some of this stuff is, I think we do this rush to judgment with the young guys, especially this guy's going to be, he's got it all. And it's this house of highlights, TikTok, NBA 2K way of how we judge guys who, you know, like in Booker's case, just hadn't done anything yet. And now he's doing stuff and it's awesome to watch, but that doesn't change the fact that for five years, he was on an irrelevant team, and that has to be held against you at least a tiny bit. Yeah, because some of it, we can pick and choose, but look, I'm not going to be consistent with it all the time.

I'm going to like Zion for a long time, even if they don't win the West, because I think whoever he is now at this point is somebody that impacts the game in positive ways other than the defense, which I do think improved towards the end of the year. I do think it was a true, and that's improving from atrocious

at the beginning of the year. But Zion's a good test though. Let's say Zion, the first five years of his career doesn't make the playoffs and doesn't finish above 500. Can we still say Zion's awesome at that point? Because at some point, if you're an awesome basketball player, at some point that should translate into some form of

winning. I should be able to see it. And I'm with you. I love Zion. I'm not worried about it. I think he's one of the safest bets we have. What are you worried about? I'm worried that he'll be in a deep West fighting for a playoff spot the next four years of his career. And then, I mean, we're very predictable with this, right? We're excited. We anoint you. And then once the playoff failures start to happen, we start to go like, hey, what's the deal? Like, you're going to hear people give Donchik shit tomorrow.

And I think if anything, Donchik has proven, you know, I'm not as quick to anoint as you are because I think that's where we end up making mistakes, but your love for him, which was, you were in the queue ahead of me and you know, you're, you're right about it. Like, I don't, I don't leave this being like, Hey, Donchich needs, needs some improvement. I think the problem with it is this, is that basically any of the arguments or any of the disputes, I always feel like, well, what are they motivated by? Like more often than not, they're motivated by the person that wants the thing, I always feel like, well, what are they motivated by? More often than not, they're motivated by the person that wants the thing

that I'm saying isn't happening. Well, they're motivated by selfishly wanting it to be true. And for Atlanta fans, it's like, well, we want to believe that Trey is all of these things and you just didn't see it. I think Trey has proven

that I don't think he's the same guy and the person that liked him the whole time that was mad at you or I are going to say, no, Trey was the exact same guy the entire time. But that's a foul. Right. But that's just, this is not unique to Atlanta. It's not unique to Trey Young.

It's the same stuff over and over and over again. But what can seem at times inconsistent is I know there are going to be some players that I really like, that I think will impact their teams in positive ways, even though the team isn't that good. I think a lot of times there'll be guys where I think the numbers are easier to get. Now they're going to put these big numbers like is Jeremy Grant awesome now, or did an awful basketball team let him go crazy this year with shots. Now Jeremy Grant ended up being a better offensive player than I thought he had in his bag. Like his, his skillset was on display this year and much better.

And it ended up being one of the worst teams in the league. And, you know, and that's not even all on Grant because the rest of the roster wasn't all that good. So sometimes it's the roster around the player. Sometimes it's a player puts up big numbers and is a losing player. And for a while there, I thought Trey was kind of like destined to be a losing player. That part I ended up being wrong about, but I also think he got better and clearly the team around him got a lot better. Well, and what they were incentivizing for him, I think was off. And I don't know whether you can just say, oh, this was all Nate McMillan or, oh, once Bogdanovich fell into place and started playing, the team fell into place and Trey sense like, oh, if I do this, we're just going to win

more. I don't know what the reasons are. I just know that it's been different to watch him. I think Booker is an interesting one, right? Because even the first, I would say six, seven weeks of the season, even though the Suns were playing well and Chris Paul looked great and Aiton made a big jump. Remember Booker wasn't playing that well yet. And it was like, wait, he's going to go up a level, right? And he wasn't shooting that well. And then it fell into place.

And you look at the team they have now, it would actually be worse if he wasn't playing that well, because the team he has where he's got one of the best point guards, one of the best 10 point guards of all time. He's got a center who is a double,ouble every night, who is athletic, who can finish around the rim. You have multiple wings who can make shots. You have the J Crowder piece. You even have a backup point guard in Payne who can come in and do stuff. It's the perfect team if you're a two guard.

All they're asking for him is, hey, do your thing. Make some shots, man. And we have shooters around you. We have a point guard who All they're asking for him is, hey, do your thing. Make some shots, man. And we have shooters around you. We have a point guard who's going to get you this. And he went up a level. And I think it's awesome. Yeah, but he also,

like it's very Jamal Murray-ish though too. Because if you go back and look at the course of the season, you're like, well, how different is Booker? I mean, he's 34% from three for his career. I think he was, well, he's 34 this year. He's 35% for his career. Now he's at, well, he's 34 this year. He's 35% for his career.

Now he's at 43%. It's where he can get better. And it's his signature. It's those Jamal Murray moments where you go, I don't think I was wrong about Jamal Murray, but my God,

look what he's doing at the Utah Jazz, you know? And Donovan Mitchell had a bit of that coming out party where there's more Donovan Mitchell that I like that I don't like. I think there's some moments where he forces the issue. We've been over these things, but I still rather have somebody that leans towards confidence, but not like absurd hero in a movie confidence,

as opposed to somebody that's like second guessing even being out there. And so Mitchell's had kind of these breakout moments, but I think the Booker Murray thing aligns pretty well because it's these moments on top of everything else. Like, hey, can you close out? And granted, look, the Anthony Davis thing changed everything. The Lakers win that series if Davis is healthy. I'm not going to hear the argument. Otherwise, I know anything's possible.

But this Lakers obituary throughout, it's just kind of funny because all of us kind of sat here and were like, they're even better this year. They had an awesome record. Everybody was healthy. And then everybody was hurt. And then guys got hurt again. And it's like, man, this Lakers team, like what went wrong? You're like, it's really easy. Like this isn't some mystery,

but there's not going to be another 48 hours on this thing here. Is another 48 hours just a sequel? It's the first 48 is what I'm thinking about. Nevermind. Okay. But you know what? Like the Booker first quarter

and then the three point barrage, it's so much like it's beyond just the stats. It's that you could carry a team and do that in a closeout game the way Murray did when we didn't know that before then, you know? So just to say, Hey, we know they can do that. It's, it's kind of hard to make that assumption. But that same thing with Trey, right? And I think the, the reason I was so impressed with Trey and Booker was their best moments happened on the road in those playoff series and pretty iconic places, right? Booker goes in game six, Hunt's Davis in the beginning. It was like, if, if you're not a hundred percent, he got everybody right now. And he went right after him. And then from that

point on, just rolls through and doesn't in staples doesn't, doesn't ever seem like he didn't expect any of this to happen. Right. Which was the same thing Trey had at MSG where it wasn't just that he was good. He, he felt the moment. Like he, he was, this was, he was like, I was destined to be here. I was destined to be your new Reggie Miller. That was the side you saw in college that I didn't see those first couple years where even when he did it, I was like, oh, fuck you, dude. You're just putting up fantasy stats. Your team's not winning. Now it's like, now there's substance behind it. And I think it's really lifted both of those guys in a way that, you know, if we were making, we still threw our

top 40 at one point. Booker was down for me in the top 40, just because he, especially for the first six weeks of the season and stuff like that. Trey, because of the defense. But now if you're thinking like, all right, if I'm trying, trying to win a title, who are my top 40, both of those guys have moved up. And I think it happened for Murray last year. Anyway, with, with the Booker situation.

I always, I think I liked, and I'm not doing this as a play to result. I always felt like I liked him a little bit more than you. Yeah, I think you're right. I think you had him closer to the Towns thing, where I think we look at Towns and be like, I know how skilled you are. I know what the numbers are. I 100% agree.

And you're like, but are you maybe the problem? Because, I mean, that's how hard, I mean, since the league is so deep. Now, I can't imagine the kind of stuff we'd be saying about Kawhi and Paul George. I'm not necessarily even saying you or I, but just in general. Like, oh, these guys. I mean, hell, it's happened to the Lakers a little bit. And I'm like, dude, they're nothing other than hurt, all right?

That's it. And if Chris Paul were to lose in the first round, and then all of these things that gets attached to these guys. And I know we keep track of winning, and I know that's what's really, really important. But there's just some young guys. Look at even Giannis. Maybe Giannis is a good example. I've got myself derailed herei. You're like, oh, this guy's kind of interesting, but what is he? And then he was kind of like a house of highlights guy. And then you're like, you guys watching the full game though? Because if you're watching the full game, and then he does become the centerpiece

of a team that's good enough, despite their playoff shortcomings, to be a team that's like a one seed. I know it's a three seed this year. That's the difference of a guy, even though he doesn't have the playoff resume, and we'll see what happens here against the Nets,

where even that accomplishment in itself is actually a big deal as the focal point of a team that can win like 60 games and be taken seriously than just even getting to like 42 and scoring 25 for a team that's going to get bounced

in the first round. I have an important question for you. We'll take one more break. Here's the question. You can think about it. Does this Booker thing happen the same way if he doesn't get to be on Chris Paul's team? Brazil is going to answer that after this. All right. So I left a Chris Paul cliffhanger. I do wonder when you play with a guy like that, and there's only been a handful of point guards like that the last 25 years, right? I think Nash was another one.

Somebody who not only can understand where to get, puts real thought into. Kid has to be thrown in there. If you're going that 25 years. Yeah. Puts real thought into where everybody should have the ball. Also has some leadership stuff.

Can also steer you the right ways when things are going the wrong ways. That trade, which they had to do, and you had a year ago, we were talking about at some point, if they don't start winning, Booker's not going to make the playoffs the first six years of his career. At some point, he's going to start looking around going, what the fuck?

And this is how the NBA works. What Paul does for him leading to that 47 point game against the Lakers in game six. I just wonder who, for the next generation, who are going to be the guys like that, that can affect a young teammate like that? Who is it? Because the LeBron Paul generation is on its way out. Like, I think Durant could affect people like that. And you could see Durant's personality is all over that Nets team.

He's, he's kind of figured out who he is at the, at whatever point of life he's at. And there, there's an unselfishness with that team that I think comes from him. What other, what other players could impact the UC in the next generation? You're basically asking like, is the point guard, the,

the set up everyone else. First point guard is he, he's an endangered species and he might be going extinct. Is who's the, yeah, the put I've put real thought into the other guys on my team, guys. It's not a long list. Well, I don't even know what the list is.

I mean, Trey's better looking for his first because he's the best floater guy in the league. He's eight years away from even knowing if he's going to be an answer to this question i mean he's still a baby he's like 22 21 he's not going to know how to do that yet i just don't know that those guys like combo guard used to be a bad word that and now it's like if you're not a score first point guard then it's like why do we want you out there i mean it's kind of stupid when you think about it like he used to get

like apprehensive about drafting scoring point guards like oh was this guy gonna get anybody else involved and now it's like how can we put five guys out there that can get us a bucket it would be cool if sugs turned into that guy or cunningham one of the one of the guys from i almost said cunningham because he's so good at playmaking, but you know, he shoots it really well. Suggs does a lot of the in-between stuff. You know, he really, he really does like Suggs does Suggs has moments and you know who did it? This is kind of a crazy, but the reason you ended up loving Halliburton so much in college is he, he made the in-between plays. He made the plays. The other nine guys aren't even thinking about just like Kawhi, we said at the top. Kawhi got that rebound off the man miss because nobody else was paying

attention to it the way Kawhi was. And that was a dangerous thing for Kawhi to crash because he would have been the one back, was supposed to be back. But you just tell he read it. He read it better than everybody else did. And he ran and caught an air ball and everybody's watching him. Halliburton has that in him where he sees stuff, at least in college, where other guys weren't doing it. And I see that a lot of the same stuff with Suggs, not that they're the same player, but moments where you go,

he's the only guy on the floor that read this that way. All right, we're going to rip through some stuff. I want to save Portland and Dame in that whole situation. We'll save that for part two. We'll save Bucks save that for part two. We'll say bucks nets for part two and maybe some nuggets, nuggets, jazz stuff for, for part two.

Let's, let's close with this. What info did you have on game six with Anthony Davis and how that whole thing played out? Is it, is anything not been made public that you've heard of? No, I think everybody's kind of figured it out here a little bit because the day of,

like I had talked to somebody that said he wasn't going to go in game five and that it was bad. And then day of, he wasn't going to go. And then he magically was ready to go. I was like, wait, what? And people think it's straight up. Like he got sick of Charles Barkley calling him street clothes and not just Charles Barkley, but people thinking that of him. So I saw some people after the fact being like, the team can't let him out there.

And it's like, you know what, man? I think the team was like, all right, fine. If you want to go, then I guess you can go. I heard LeBron told him, don't even bother. Like, don't even bother. We're going to try our best out here and i think davis is a guy who i've defended and i feel good about defending him because when he's right he's special and you know that's why you go out and acquire guys like that i know lakers fans are really frustrated and

like want them to take up all different kinds of exercises now to fix his body because um you know it was clearly a problem this year but i also also think he's- Is that a thing with Laker fans? They're suggesting Pilates programs for him? What are they doing? Pilates, a little hot yoga, um, you know, a little band work. Wow. Some band work. Some band work. Some TB12, maybe? Yeah. You know, look, I laughed about pliability. I'd like to be a little bit more pliable. And if Brady can keep doing this thing, then, you know, who's, who's to say he's wrong. But I, I really think Davis has moments where like, he can be a, like a young kid sometimes. I think it was just bumming him out. So he was like, all right, I'm going to go out there. So I, I guess we should say, Hey, good

for you for even giving it a shot, but it was clear. He didn't jump center. Like the second he started walking around, you go, so I don't, I don't know. My feeling is he was going to do it no matter what to show everybody. And everybody was like, all right, fine.

And then we saw what happened. I wonder if he's healthy or semi healthy. What happens in that series? Because once Chris was actually, I don't know. He looked like, Oh, can I do my percent thing for you?

I thought he looked like 87% Chris. That's high. I think he was like 70. Cause you saw what happened when he get it at the top of three. He like didn't trust himself to take the shot. 82%. 79. Hold on.

Okay. Let me, let me look through these here. Can you calculate this? Um, yeah, I don't know. It's,

it's the Lakers were minus 800 after game three. That was the gambling line for them to win this series. So I think your instincts are correct to say if it's a pretty good fork in the road. What if for a lot of different things, right? Now we look at this Lakers LeBron situation. LeBron's been there three years. Two, they get a round one and out, they get a no playoffs and then they win the finals. So I think you take one title, right? It's like the KG thing. Goals to win a title, they get to win a title. But now it's year 19 for him. Davis is tied to him. They have no way to make

the roster really that better. So it's going to have to be those two guys and maybe some Kyle Lowry trade they can sneak out. But I was wondering if Davis, like in the most secret moment of his life with whoever he trusts the most, like his dad,

and just like at 10 o'clock after two glasses of wine, it's just like, do you think I made a mistake signing that extension with the Lakers and tying myself to LeBron? Who's going to be in year 19 next year. And who's already played more minutes than anyone in the history of the league. Should I, should I, if I had a do-over, would I take it? Well, first of all, yes, because he's heard all the time. So he should be psyched that he got the extension

because who knows what's going to end up happening. The other part of this is knowing Davis' personality. I don't know him, but knowing enough people down in New Orleans that know his personality, that once he was signed up with Clutch, I mean, that's why this whole thing was so funny about him potentially like not doing, turning down the option and exploring free agency. Like, what do you think Davis is going to tell Clutch?

Hey, you know what? I'm actually not going to sign on for this long term with your guy. Like, I'm not going to help. I'm not going to help this. So, you know, anybody that wants to go, hey, you know, should they have not done the extension or she? First of all, everybody should have done it. They want a title. They want a title.

And yeah, they gave up in retrospect like we don't know like we don't know of what they'll have given up historically will be looked at as way too much or not enough goals to win a title the goal is to win a title and they won one and it worked and i what were they 22 and 6 at one point bill there wasn't too many people saying hey this lakers team i don't like the way the roster is constructed yeah it looked a little messy there at the end. Yeah, there wasn't enough shooting. But, I mean, even if you hate the Lakers, I think you have to look at this far more rationally, which was rare after they were

eliminated in that I know they have a ton of tough decisions this offseason and where they're up against the tax bill, like what their tax bill could be just bringing everybody back from a roster that didn't always seem like it fit. When you have those two guys, you have a chance. And and that's the whole point is you hope to have a chance and now more teams have a chance because they're not healthy and they're out of it it's pretty big numbers for those two guys that kind of huge 40 next year's they're just a combined 70 almost 77 million

and that's why the dame thing you, what becomes news and what doesn't. And it's funny because like, I'll look at some of these, these content, like NBA content pages on Instagram and it'd be like millions of followers or 500,000 followers. And like, all they do is parrot, like Stephen A says on first take that teams will be monitoring the Dame Lillard situation. Holy shit. Holy shit. Like 500,000 likes.

And you go, what? Who the fuck liked that? Who, who shit. Holy shit. Like 500,000 likes and you go, who the fuck liked that? Who goes, whoa. What does monitoring mean? What does it mean? You're just refreshing Google? I talked to some people this week about it

and I go, give me handicap the Dame situation. No, save this for part two. Perfect tease. I think Dame's the whole segment. Let's do more off-season stuff later. Good. Quickly though, Chris Paul, what are you hearing about him with? Tease. All right, let's do some more. Let's do more offseason stuff later. Good.

Quickly, though, Chris Paul, what are you hearing about him with... He's going to want three years, I think. You know, opt out. That's a big number. I mean, it'd be hilarious if Sarver... They can't. They have to just give him whatever he wants, I would think, to keep everybody happy.

We'll see how the rest of this plays out, even if he's hurt. But I think he's at 36 years old. He turned 36 in May. He's going to want, we had a pretty good birthday party, but he'll want to, instead of the one year at that massive number, you know, try to get it at three years and you're probably paying him a little bit more at 39 than you want to, but that's what's going to happen. What have you heard about Randall? Anything? Yeah. I think there was a part of it where

there was maybe a thought of doing the one year and hoping to hit the bigger extension next offseason. I've always thought all along that the Knicks would gladly give them the four for, what is it, 130 or something? And go,

we know you're not perfect. You had a hell of a year last year. We don't know who else we're going to spend it on. I think they have 60 plus million in projected cap space. So it's just weird. It's just weird how somebody's value

can feel like it changes monumentally in just a span of a few playoff games, which is probably not entirely fair. But I think it's also a reminder too, like, oh, this is why Randall was on a bunch of teams. And I like Randall. You know what I mean I mean like I love what he did this season for that team but it's kind of a weird thing where the team and the Randall side of it I wonder how much

that series impacted what they think of their position each team you know well it's like the reverse of what we were talking about with Trey and Booker, right? Those guys kind of own the moment and went up a level and Randall went the other way. And it's hard not to look at that and have real questions. I mean, this second time Antoine's going to come up in the pod and in an hour, I did not, I did not expect a lot of that in Vegas, but you know, Antoine was an all-star was a young guy was a foundation piece with somebody I think people felt really good about and then got eviscerated by Kenya Martin and two straight playoff series and by the end of it you're like wow that guy can't be one of the best three guys on a championship team you just you just knew it after those two series and he got a max the first time around it was more about him

wanting the second max right because he just thought like hey I'm the go-to guy on this team not Paul Pierce remember what he said about Pierce He'd be good scoring off the bench. Yeah. Well, that's what happens with the playoffs. Sometimes it shines a giant spotlight on whatever your flaws are. Sometimes you blossom. You just never know with this stuff. Yeah.

And look, sometimes it's... You're right. Because sometimes it's incredibly revealing and a roadmap to the truth of who that player is. And sometimes it's completely unfair. And in this case, it's not unfair because Randall was so bad in that series that I think any rational person has to think, wait a second,

would you not do the four for one 30? No, I wouldn't do that. I wouldn't, I wouldn't do anything more than like four for a hundred. So if he were bouncing as a free agent, you would be like, okay, no problem. I'm just playing it out with that deal. I'm on a great contract next year. I need to see more. And if he does really well, then it's all going to work out. We could offer him the most money

anyway. It's not like he's going to leave and just take 10 bucks more somewhere else. I think you sell it to him like, this cap space will be so helpful. We'll be able to make the team better. We'll be able to do this, this, this, and this. Then we can take care of you in a year. You just do it that way. All right. Part two, we're going to come back with some Floyd Mayweather, which it's Logan Paul.

You're locked in. 35 pound difference. I'm going to be watching with my son. I'll be able to give you his stakes too. We'll come on right after that. And then we'll do some Portland stuff and we will do some, we got to do nets. So we got to do more Milwaukee,

Brooklyn. Yeah. So those three things that'll be in a part two. See that. All right. That's it for part one of the Bill Simmons podcast. We will be back late night tonight, me and Rossello

covering the rest of this basketball stuff. Plus Paul Mayweather, this podcast was produced by a fine gentleman named Kyle Creighton, who I've known since he was nine years old. He was a young buck. We've grown a lot together and now it's all led to this,

him producing my June 6th podcast. I'll see you for part two. Feel the air Sweat down On the wayside On the first I never said I don't have To ever