The Bill Simmons Podcast - Part 2: Ant’s Big Leap, Phoenix in Shambles, and Summer Panic Teams With Ryen Russillo

Episode Date: April 29, 2024

In Part 2 of a two-part podcast, The Ringer's Bill Simmons is joined by Ryen Russillo to discuss Anthony Edwards and the Timberwolves sweeping the Suns (1:06), Round 2 speculation for Timberwolves-Nuggets, and the Bucks-Pacers series (19:37), before participating in the Panic Playoff Draft (38:53). Host: Bill Simmons Guest: Ryen Russillo Producer: Kyle Crichton The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

coming up part two of the NBA playoff extravaganza with Brian Rossella next it's the Bill Simmons podcast presented by FanDuel football is in full action FanDuel's highest rated sports book is the best place to bet it all we've been doing pretty well a million dollar picks this year I love the first month of the season because you have to go into the season thinking I think Pittsburgh's gonna be good I think the go into the season thinking, I think Pittsburgh's going to be good. I think the Chargers are going to be good. I think Seattle's going to be good. And then trying to back what you think in those first few weeks and then zag the other way if you were wrong. You could bet on new and fun markets on FanDuel like to catch a pass, same game parlays,

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and a whole bunch of other plots from the weekend. That is already up. This is part two. Me, Rossello, talking about the end of the Sun season. Pacers, Bucs, the Bucs in trouble and some panic teams that we think could be

coming to fruition as we head toward the offseason for some of these teams, including the Phoenix Suns. It's all next, first our friends from Pearl Jam. All right. We're taping part two. It is 9.41 Pacific time. What a night for Russo and I. This is great.

It's just like if we had a basketball child together, it would be Anthony Edwards. And just watching him blossom, I just feel like I'm watching our kid go through high school and get a 4-0 senior year and letter jackets and win the state championship. This is just really special. This is the first time I really felt like this guy might be the guy

like a year, two years from now in the league. Like in a real way, like final level face of the league, best guy in the league. He's just hitting every checkpoint, Rosillo. He is. And it feels like it's ahead of schedule and like a concerned parent, cause I get it. I still get it. I was afraid for him in a way. Like I was afraid. I go, what if everybody loads up defensively on him and no one else is scoring and Conley or McDaniels can't get anything going on

and Rudy's not an option and who knows what to expect with Cat. I was like, it's not going to be his fault. It's not going to be his fault. And the beauty of this team, through this series at least, was we know the defense was going to travel for every game. But there was these little pockets where, I don't know if Conley was bad tonight,

but Conley got Grayson Allen for like a half straight. Towns, when you look at his numbers now, you're like, wow, he scored a ton. McDaniels had a huge night in there. Alexander Walker seems to hit all sorts of shots. If you leave Rudy, look, we know he's not an offensive threat. The point of this is then Ant would just say, okay, you know what though? You know what? Thank you to everyone.

Thanks for the help. But this quarter is mine. Well, and you know when it's about to happen, like when it's in progress, it's like when you go to the movies and they start showing the previews and you're like, oh, the lights are dimming. The movie's going to start now. And start showing the previews and you're like, oh, the lights are dimming. The movie's going to start now.

And he hits that first shot and you're like, is this, are we going to have a little run here? And then it happens. It's like an alert. It's going on both ends. Yeah. Yeah. Like Marty Fish, tennis player, I guess just an unbelievable golfer as well.

Tough life. But anytime something's happening during the regular season, we just have a code. Now he's a huge Timberwolves fan. So he's just texting me. We have this alert code for Ant. And it's probably like in the beginning of the Golden State thing. We're like, do you see what's happening tonight? Like, have you paid attention? Where everybody who's just a league pass junkie, like this is what it's supposed to be like, but we're so hard on the superstars. Cause we kind of want it to happen all the time. Like Ant's first half,

you know, like, Oh, what's going on with him? What's good. But with him, I'm like, whatever,

it doesn't matter. And then he and Booker go toe to toe for the third quarter. And then to see Ant, like, I don't know that I've had a playoff game. There was one 41 left, Bill. And it was 117-113. And it was the least drama I've felt.

It was just like, whatever. It doesn't matter. The Suns mistakenly fouled because they thought there was 20 seconds left. They said, no, you guys have 100 seconds left. Ant hit a 28-footer with 534 left to make the score 105, 101 Minnesota. And it was a bomb. And that was the official ant alert. It was like, Oh, here we go. And then he just kept making shots. He basically turned Beal into a summer meme over the course of the fourth quarter. Beal, I just could not have been worse tonight. I mean, it was an iconic, awful game.

It was such a bad game that we were texting about what a bad game he was having before the end of the game when he had two straight turnovers, gave up the monster dunk to Ant, and then fouled out 50 feet from the basket. It's just like Ant just ruined him tonight. But 40 points, 31 in the second half. And it was the same thing as game three,

which we didn't talk about in part one. There was like an alpha thing going on in the game where a control of the surroundings that, I got to say it, it reminded me a little of Jordan. I don't think it's like, I don't feel like that's like a crazy thing to say. Something about the superior athleticism combined with the moment, combined with him really just wanting to kill the other team.

He said in the interview after, he was like, I just want to kill. But he said it tonight to the TNT guys at the end. He's like, I told you all, I just want to kill everybody and get them out of my way. That's how he's wired. And this is the stuff that we love. So we'll see where it goes.

But age 22, this is pretty good. Because I was trying to think of who... It's one round, right? But it's... Who comes into the league where it's already understood, okay, this is his team. And I'm not talking about like Jalen green sophomore season with the rockets where they're not good. And he's taking 20 shots a game.

And again, to update the Jalen green stuff, we felt really good about him at the close of this year. So there's younger players that are really talented that we've seen put up huge numbers and you're like, okay, well this guy's the number one option. You're like,

okay, but what does it really mean? like this team has a chance to do something really special this year i don't know what to make of these teams in the west like i gotta pick somebody but i don't know it feels more wide open than it did two weeks ago for them but but in a yeah but i think in a way of like yeah in a good way and you know the offense there was just a lot of times it was like, okay, if they have their one Achilles heel, like what could it possibly be? But then I start thinking about how they have enough size with Jokic and then it's like, okay, but with this Murray situation, is there going to be enough wing scoring? If you're going to have a third guy kind of step up offensively for Minnesota, then that changes the landscape of like what I even think is possible for them.

But back to the Ant point, of course there's LeBron, where it was fairly apparent the minute he suited up that it was going to be his team. And then he started doing some really cool stuff early on. That was 0-7 against the Pistons was the moment. And I don't know if this, I'm not ready to say this was the moment for Ant, but it was, it only reminded me of watching TV going. That was the Eastern Conference Finals. Yeah, but it was... It only reminded me of watching TV going... That was the Eastern Conference Finals. Yeah, and it was 25 straight points, and it was a

much tougher opponent. But he had a couple checkpoints leading up to that, and the point is that Ant's hitting those checkpoints leading up to that. And now, to me, it's conceivable that he could go against Denver and knock out Jokic. It's conceivable. I wouldn't predict it, but it's

conceivable. And by the way, Rosillo, this starts with the Team USA last summer, which he goes in and they don't realize that it's going to become his team. But over the course of whatever, they slowly realize like, oh shit, we can't keep this guy off the court. And then it spreads to the season and it just keeps going, kept climbing the court. And then it spreads to the season and it just keeps going, kept climbing the ladder. And then he's going against this hero in this series, which he talked about in all the right ways, like with the right amount of respect, but also like, I also want to beat this guy. He said that in the interview after, it's like, I can't wait to play with him this summer for team USA and give him shit that I

sent him home. It's just, there's a spirit to him that I think the league really needs. That's the part that is scary about how big of a deal he can be as far as a superstar. Wade, I think, is another good comparison at least. Wade was in his third year when they won that title and he was the reason why it happened, I think more so than any single player on the Heat team. I don't think that's really even debatable. But in the beginning of the year when, well, maybe it wasn't the beginning of the year, when he had the John Collins dunk. I think I've had three monologues on Ant.

So if this were a Sports Illustrated cover, like keeping track of him, this season I've had more monologues on Ant than probably any other player in the NBA. And I had this one where I was talking about like, look, his game is the most aesthetically pleasing. Like this is what you want every awesome basketball player to be able to do. Like hit all the shots, show supreme athleticism and a floor full of the world's best athletes. And then also just have these Sean Kemp, like I want to insult your family type dunks mixed into all of these other things that he does. But then his personality. Yeah. And the defense where he has moments where I'd be like, wait, is that McDaniels? Oh my God. Ant, no. Ant picked him up over half court.

And now he's like, I'm going to take you apart. And then he's also like fun. He feels 100% real in this world where you're just so aware of your surroundings at such a young age when you have any kind of profile. It doesn't seem like any of that bothers him whatsoever i'm just raving and raving and raving about him and they actually put my quote up at the minneapolis airport oh and yeah i know uh and then he had the dunk against collins where i did another open of just like he makes me feel like a kid again when i'm watching him do all these things. But look, the dunks, the athleticism, the attitude, the quotes, the growth of his game

is what should scare the rest of the league. The fact that he, this year when I was watching these drives, and it wasn't like, all right, maybe I'll get fouled and get some free throws. And he actually doesn't get much of a superstar whistle at all. But these kickouts, the trust that he still has with his teammates he had a play late tonight where he got bottled up he grabbed the offensive rebound when no one thought he could get it he got trapped in the corner and he got out of the trap and still made a pass and then Minnesota kind of screwed it up but there's there's an understanding

of the game that he seems to have also that combines with this personality where all these older players are totally cool with him being the alpha like he laughs at cats jokes well and he also he shouts out the teammates in every interview which i was uh i told you i went to that game the laker game a couple weeks ago and i was so impressed with the patience that he had offensively but then just seeing it in person, how he did, how he deals with everyone on his team and what a force he is around the hat. Everything feeds off him like everything.

And you just know it when you see it. I think it's been the best thing that ever happened to towns. Towns was great tonight. You know, in towns is somebody that there's an alternate universe where he just never has an important playoff moment in his career, you career. And he just becomes your typical frustrating, talented, but guy who let you down in the NBA playoffs over passer. Yeah. I mean, look, no one's, you're not going to love him. I mean, you had a tweet the other day about his, his bad fouls. He had three terrible fouls helped get him into the bonus.

Yeah. He had a foul that was in the bonus at three 41 when Phoenix couldn't score and what's Rudy got back in. And you were just like, what, what are you doing? I also think towns leads the league and weirdness per 36, but he has basketball reference. It is. You gotta, you gotta keep scrolling over but towns was awesome and if you think about the player that like would be the prototypical roster fit like okay well ant can kind of score all these different levels but you

need some spacing but it's like wait they have rudy oh they'd love to have a stretch four it's just that towns at one point probably thought he was going to be in the Hall of Fame. Who knows the basketball Hall of Fame? He'll probably still get in. But Towns, okay, we could go back to doing what you want to do and take 20 shots a game. We're not really going to win. Defensively, Towns was always a mess. And now it's like everything, this rising tide thing of this entire team has been incredible.

And the offensive concerns I would have late against another really good team tight in the playoffs, it was never even an issue here. Phoenix felt helpless against them. Yeah. This was town's first really good playoff game of the series. Now, they didn't totally need them before. But I am just so upset that I'm never doing this again. Just remind me next year when we're doing podcasts in the last 10 days of

this season, I'm never overreacting to the last week of the season. Again, I'm not doing it because watching, watching the sons beat this team nine days apart at the end of the year really messed me up. I really liked the T wolves. I bet on them 16 to one to make the finals against the

Celtics like two weeks before the end of the season. And by the time the playoffs are starting, I'm like, yeah, Phoenix is going to beat him. Just a bad matchup. Like no thought at all put into it. And then you watch these games and it's like, they're way bigger. Ant's the best part on the floor. Phoenix's depth and the bill issue, which we'll talk about a little later, like just kind of mushroomed into this awful thing. Their body language was awful. You could see it today. They were dying to fall apart in that game today. You could feel it.

I thought this was way more like the way you're talking about it though. I thought Phoenix was way more impressive than my expectations for this game down three. Oh yeah. Well, cause cause who was impressive? It was Booker and KD. Both of those guys were at least like,

we're not going down this way. Nobody else showed up. But those two guys were great. I mean, Beal had one of the worst backs to the loss games. It's just, it's always going to be mentioned. We're going to be talking about him this summer and we're calling him Bradley Beal's not expiring contract.

And we're just going to mention this game. What did he end with? Did he even get to 10 points? So he got to nine, which is shocking. He had nine points, two assists, one rebound. He was four for 13. He had six turnovers and he fouled out and had an incident with Vogel where he ran by him and kind of like stiffed him on a handshake that went viral on Twitter.

Other than that, pretty good game. The numbers don't do it justice. This is one of the special terrible games of anyone with a profile. At one point I wrote down his line. He had two personal fouls, 0 points,

0 rebounds, 0 assists, 2 turnovers, and I was like, okay, looks like he's going for the Tony Snell tonight. And because of the fouls, they ended up having to go to the bench a little bit earlier because Nurkic had two fouls. And then Phoenix was just like, look, we're going to go small. I think they were going to try to go small at some point anyway. But the problem is when you go that small, even though it was a really tight whistle, I think, throughout most of the game, when when you're small you're just going to end up you're just going to

end up fouling in a bunch of spots you don't normally want to because there's just nothing you can do physically and so like it's like okay well beal will come in he can't be this bad in the second half and he was and you know you mentioned those turnovers. They were like super turnovers. They weren't just your typical NBA turnovers. They were like truly horrible. And it was still 110-109, all right? Yeah.

So it's 110-109, and Beal goes to throw it cross-court to KD, who's not even looking at it. Right. He nails him in the shoulder. Hit him in the... Yeah. So it turns into a turnover, but then Conley can't corral the ball. Phoenix comes back to the other way.

That didn't even count for one of the turnovers. He had two other turnovers after that. Right, right. So then during this melee of getting the ball, Phoenix brings it across. And because of the scramble feels wide open at the top of the key and i always like every time a shot goes up it's pretty nauseating to do it as often as i do i'll just make myself say whether or not i think it's going in or not right and sometimes like i'll look at the guy's feet or his hands i'll just be like nope yep nope yep when he when he caught it i was like out loud by myself i'm like there's no fucking there's no shot

attempted this weekend i have been less confident in yeah than this one and maybe a precious achua 15 footer game 15 footer two three uh. The handshake thing with Vogel, although, look, Beal during the Wizards years had some real all-NBA pout team where it's like, hey, man, I know you put up huge numbers and you're really talented and everything, but the team always kind of stinks and it's a little on you. I know they had the run in 17 and then the flirtation with the playoffs there with the Westbrook year when Westbrook put up big numbers.

But there was always this element of Beal where you were like, who are you mad at? Like, what? What are you? And you did the extension, too. You got the extra money. You got the extra year, which is what everybody kind of saying, like deep down, he wanted to do all these things. So then when he comes off the court, though, with to be fair to him i think he's so incredibly frustrated with

himself because nothing's working out and he's picking up a foul like every two or three minutes i think it was almost like vogel going hey give me five and anyone with any pride is like i don't want a five right now yeah like i don't want i just want to go to my room and put on Pink Floyd. He was singularly atrocious tonight. It was really rough. It's kind of our job to never forget.

Listen, I said last year when they made the trade, I thought it was a dumb trade. I didn't think it would make much of a difference for them long term. I said if was a dumb trade. I didn't think it would make much of a difference for them long term. And I said, if they had had Beal instead of Shamit against Denver last year, I still think they lose.

This year, if they had Shamit instead of Beal, maybe this goes five. Might even have been able to sneak it to six. I don't know. Does Shamit face make a difference? Look, I don't love Beal, but he was free. He was.

He was free. But he wasn't totally free though because it was the Chris Paul expiring, which they could have used in February to try to get a better asset than this Bradley Beal contract that now is almost $54 million. Maybe, but the biggest headliner for this trade deadline was Bogdanovich, who wasn't even part of the closing group for the Knicks. Yeah, fair. But maybe they could have gotten Zach Levine in November. I don't know. Who knows?

Would you want Zach Levine? I don't know. I think I'd rather have Beal. Well, they might find out next year. Let's take a break because we're going to do... Oh, we have a good thing coming up here. This episode is brought to you by my old friend, Miller Lite. I've been a big fan of Miller Lite, man, since college days when I was allowed to have

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caused by debilitating tremors, Sunnybrook was the only hospital in Canada who could provide Andy with something special. Three neurosurgeons, two scientists, one movement disorders coordinator, All right. So Minnesota, Denver, and Denver still needs to win game five. Murray, we'll see if he plays, but do you feel differently about a Minnesota Denver series than you did two weeks ago because I feel at least mildly different. I would still pick Denver, but I'm hesitating now.

I don't want to get caught up in this because I also think Phoenix is a mess. Yes. And you could even see it in the beginning, like some of the stuff they were doing, like Nurkic came over with Rudy to set a screen for KD, and KD's like, get out of here.

I don't want to switch into Rudy. I've got Cat on me. Then there was another play where Booker didn't have McDaniels on him, and then O'Neal came over to set the screen where then he'd be switching to McDaniels. And Booker's like, no, get away. And I'm watching this to start a game four. It was like two of the first five plays they ran. And I'm thinking, are you guys still this screwed up? And there's a bunch of examples of that, of just like weak.

There was another play too where Booker took his guy into the corner and then Gordon had Conley on him and KD had a better defender on him. And Booker had to be like, hey, set a screen for KD at the break because they're going to get a switch into Conley. It was like, oh yeah, great idea. So anyway. Well, the reason I ask that question is because two years ago,

a team built around some young stars that thought they were going to be in a dogfight in round one against a team that they allegedly didn't match up that great against was the Boston Celtics playing Kevin Durant and the Brooklyn Nets. Stole game one at the end. Sweeps them. Goes on to make the finals.

And at some point over that series, passed some invisible point and rounded into some different, better version of themselves. And I'm wondering if that happened with Minnesota. Well, I think it's a really good comp too, because Brooklyn was messed up. And they also had Kevin Durant. Can we just, before we get into the Minnesota-Denver thing, spend some time on Durant? Because we haven't really done it yet.

Yeah, it hurts, but I'm ready to do it. Go ahead. Because he got swept this year. Last year, lost. Forced his way out of Brooklyn. Ends up losing in round one. Year before, gets swept. Year before, foot on the line against Milwaukee.

Year before, no playoffs. They made it to round two last year. Year before, gets hurt in the finals. Round two, sorry. Yeah, I mean, when you think of where he was in 2019 before he hit his calf, when he was averaging 35 a game the first series and a half, he was in that Houston series,

and he just was unequivocally the best player in the world. And since then, he's been one of the best 10 to 12 players in the world, but has not been at that same level. And now he's going to be 36 years old next year. I don't love the situation he's in. I don't know how they improve the team. And we'll see if he stays. Not great, though. Not a great last five years, Priscilla. I don't feel good about it, to answer your question. The whole thing feels pretty ugly because last year they got the scare from LA Clippers, but then George isn't playing, Kawhi gets hurt, and they're basically like, hey, Westbrook, let's go OKC Westbrook. You get all those possessions.

Westbrook puts up big numbers. It still ends up only being a five-game series. And then they get 2-2 with Denver. And if you remember, Booker was going crazy. Three and four. One of those games, what did they average? They scored like 100 points combined or like 90 points combined in game three. It was some crazy number. No, it's an absurd number so it's 89 something 86 yeah 86 booker went 20 or 25 for 47 points and nine assists three turnovers and then never just turned it on the next time yeah and then in that series because you're kind of like all right well they got it to six with the eventual chance it's like heaven they got blasted in three of those games but you

don't think that this is happening. And then you're probably thinking, all right, well, Durant will have been here longer. They'll figure it all out. We'll have these three guys that are really good scorers. That's what really matters in the playoffs. And I can't help but think of whatever this chapter is we're on with Durant. It's got to count for something.

Because I thought he was really good tonight, but man, watching Ant just take over these quarters, and you're going, shouldn't Durant have a couple of these quarters? Yeah. It's not so much even about the sweep. I don't know if I'm missing something, because the overall number is like, look, when you're a one or two option, you're still going to get your 20 plus points. But this was the case of the Boston series two years ago. Remember Tatum was just better than him for a week and a half. Stout

played him. The last time he was really at the level you're talking about was that Buck series. Right. And that was in 2021, which is three years ago but you know he's 2007 draft he's been in the league this is 17th season it's kind of crazy so that the guy that we have in our heads just because it's this weird thing that happens sometimes in sports where the guy gets older but he looks exactly like i remember this happened with jerry Rice where it wasn't really Jerry Rice anymore, but it still looked like Jerry Rice. So you're like, oh, it's still Jerry Rice when he was in the Raiders,

but it wasn't really Jerry Rice anymore. I don't think that's the case with KD because KD still statistically was awesome. But what you're talking about is there's like a 5%, 6%. Decline's the wrong word, but he can just not, he can't match baskets with somebody like Ant in the same way when Ant's feeling like that.

It's like Durant's not like, okay, now I'm going to throw some punches. We don't see that in the same way. And maybe it's part of like, it's part of Booker. He's on Booker's team too. And maybe he, maybe there's stuff he doesn't want to like do

from a takeover standpoint. I don't know. Maybe he's just older,'t want to do from a takeover standpoint. I don't know. Maybe he's just older. But I'm with you. There's something slightly disappointing about it. He went for 30 twice. Game two was bad. He ends up with 25 and four.

The shooting numbers are fine except for three. But his shooting splits are still exactly what you'd expect. It would be 55, 42. G gets to the free throw line a bunch i'm just my idea of what he is the idea of what ishpia thought he was doing when he makes this trade because i don't blame an owner for being like if i just say yes right now i get kevin durant on my basketball team but to watch it feel like it's like oh okay he got some he got some numbers but like when was when like it's like oh okay he got some he got some numbers

but like when was when was it so clear he was the best player when did it seem like he was completely in control that the other team had no answer for him and it just doesn't feel

like that enough with him especially when there's a guy on the other team that's doing those things yeah well and there's also more good offensive players now yeah you know that might be a small piece of it, but they never figured out. One of the things I thought with the Suns is they never figured out what their best five was and what that looked like. And sometimes I almost thought in my head, maybe it was Duran at the five, which is the matchup. That was the lineup I thought they were going to go at in this Minnesota series to try to turn it on

Minnesota a little bit, a little smaller, a little Golden State 2017-ish, but it just didn't work. This game was so bad for everybody. Nobody else had double figures. Nobody could hang on to the basketball. There's just so many moments in these games. You're like, what are you guys doing? And then guys got scared to shoot on top of everything else. mean i'm really can i can i say something that's really

important oh i'm gonna listen because this happened with the 2011 heat too and every once in a while these teams they load up with the two or the three expensive guys and then they're like no we're gonna be able to build around these guys. And we're, we're, we're, we're smarter than everybody else. We're going to be able to build, you know, we'll find, we'll find eight. You only need like four or five more role players and we're going to be great. And then we get to a situation like this and it's like, yeah, we just didn't have enough around those guys. We got to really build around. And it's like, yeah, this is what happens when you spend $150 million on three guys. You end up with like Josh Akogi in big spots. You end up with no

point guard. You just don't have a point guard. I do think they miss Grayson and I'm not, maybe he would have swung one game and they lucked out with the fact that Grayson was so good this year, considering where I think all of us were on him heading into that trade. But when you go all in on guys, I've been saying this with the Lakers too, like you, you know, you're going to spend 105 million on Davis and LeBron. Guess what? You got to roll the dice with D'Angelo Russell. You know, you got to roll the dice with Rui Hachimora. That's how it goes. You're not just going to be able to build a super team. So I think people forget that over and over again. It's really with the situation you want to be in is like where Minnesota was, where they at least were able to draft a couple of the guys they had.

That's where Boston was, where Denver was, where you have some of these guys on your team already and you're building around that versus where Phoenix is, where the only guy that's a homegrown guy is Booker. Everyone else is gone or traded. Do you think about that Jalen Smith that could have been Halliburton, all of these moments that they had to build the team around,

they just didn't have it. No, and especially getting rid of Bridges and Cam and then the Durant trade. I don't know if we're doing any of this now, but you bring up that Miami comparison. At least they were losing to Dallas in the NBA Finals. And you still, if you're Riley, you're like, what can we do? Like, okay, we'll put those three guys together and we'll figure out the rest of it a little bit later on. But they really had the five because they also had Mike Miller and they had Haslam,

and they had Chalmers. On paper, that made more sense, but then when it actually got into it, Dallas had more depth and LeBron sucked in the finals. Yeah, that's it. And Dirk was good. But once they added Ray Allen, it, you know. I don't, you know,

when I looked at that team and you go like, Oh, they could have done that. I mean, you made it to four straight finals. We're talking about a team that just got swept and I was thinking round one. Right. Right. And I was thinking about the story cause you and I were both doing, you know, it's not the Vegas super bowl. I was in Phoenix for that one because it was a trade deadline. You're texting being like, I think this is happening.

And then we tape the pod and you're kind of like, no, I just can't help myself. And then I'm like, okay, well, you just added Kevin Durant. But then when the story started coming out a little bit more about how it went down, it's like, well, Durant was adamant that he didn't want to turn it into some open market thing. And I'm like, well, if I'm the nets, I'm going, well, we just, your four year extension just kicked in. You wanted the coach.

You wanted me fired. So, you know, apologies if we don't want to fucking acquiesce to every one of your demands here, because you're burning us with a four year extension left on this thing. Yeah. So we knew that part of it,

or at least the part that was told. And then you think of what was given up and you go, okay, so then it's all these firsts because it just feels like anybody of this magnitude's like the four first and maybe a swap on top of everything else and then it's like okay but it's also cam johnson who's a nice role player and then it's mikhail who you know felt better about last year i still think there's a lot of stock in in bridges and you're like but who are you bidding against

if Durant was saying that I only wanted to do this way? I mean, did Ishby just get worked? Well, when we did the pod after, I think we both said, yeah, you kind of have to do it. You have to get Kevin Durant. I know I said it. I know I said it. No, we both said it, but we also said,

that's a lot and you don't have a lot of outs now like if this doesn't 100% work there's not a lot of moves left if these two guys don't work with Aiden and Paul what's your next move and then when they did the Beal thing that was that I did not I was out on the Beal trade I did not like it and I thought they ruined all their outs because like Durant leaves you less out so it's like we may as well add somebody in deal from a talent standpoint that is going to be better than either transaction.

But then they did the Aiton for Nurkic and Grayson and I don't know. I get it but once they did all those moves they had nothing left. There were no other moves. That's your team. And we're going to do the playoff panic draft that in our next break but you know we never answered the question i never answered the minnesota denver

thing oh yeah i know i know what minnesota will want to do you know with rudy on gordon to try to take away the lob threat and that can screw up denver a little bit by having gordon spaced as opposed to that dunker threat that destroys all these other teams yeah um you know ant like is he gonna do something really really special here and take out the defending champs in the second round like who are they gonna have defend them peyton watson you know i well wait wait wait wait it'll be pope but it doesn't matter like it with some of these guys it doesn't matter it doesn't um it doesn't mean he's going to be shut down. It just means things are going to be a little bit harder for him.

The same way they were harder for Booker throughout this entire series until he could get free in game four, but it was too late. And that big third quarter is because Rudy had foul trouble. So Booker could drive at will in this one. So if I gave you Minnesota-Denver, OKC-Dallas, Boston-Orlando, and Knicks-Indiana, it's pretty clear what series we're going to be the most focused on out of those four.

Easily, yeah. Which is crazy. Minnesota-Denver will be the marquee series of round two. Quickly, let's talk Indiana because they're up 3-1. I can't even believe what happened in Milwaukee this year. At one point, it seemed like Middleton was going off, and I was like, what else can happen? No Giannis, no Dame.

Bobby Portis gets thrown out. Indiana just turns it up. They're just running on everything. They're shooting threes. They're having a great time. They're up 3-1 in the series. And they have a chance to finish off Milwaukee, who we head into the season, and I think they're one of the three favorites to win the title. They're all in on this team in a variety of ways.

They fire their coach halfway through. Things never get better. They basically play 500 ball. They get close to the playoffs. Giannis gets hurt. Dame gets hurt during this series. And it looks like they're going to be gone in a couple days, barring a miracle.

Is this more shocking to you than Phoenix? No, because the Giannis piece was already eliminated even though I always held out hope that he could come back just because he's always had a good history of this in the past. And maybe they were doing what a lot of teams do and they're like, we're not going to update you with any of the bad stuff. And then you factor in Lillard to the whole thing. I mean, they were in this game.

They were in this game today. Middleton was great. And when he went in Lillard to the whole thing. I mean, they were in this game. They were in this game today. Middleton was great. And when he went down, I'm like, what are you going to be running Jackson ISOs now? What are you going to do? Yet, Indiana's on the other side. They just didn't miss any shots for two and a half hours. They hit every single three. You're looking at that going, how

is Milwaukee possibly in this? But that's the great thing about playing the Pacers is you're always kind of in it because their defense just continues to be terrible. So as I was watching it, I don't know, I think when they tossed it back to the studio, somebody had said like, hey, this could be a dangerous team in the playoffs. And I started thinking

about it. Could the Pacers just run like crazy with the winner of Nick Sixers? Could they just run and go, all right, we're not going to play any defense, but we're just going to get out there. We have all the shooting.

And Halliburton's starting to look a little bit Halliburton-y-ish again now with the amazing game three finish. But then I look at their pace. They were second in the NBA in pace behind the Wizards, which is maybe the wizards should play slower in the playoffs they have press conference actually here the wizard's like we just want to be a little slower actually so i was looking i was like i wonder what the pace is because we all know it's down

to the playoffs they're down to nine of the 16 playoff teams after being second in the NBA. They're down like 10 possessions. Hmm. Which is kind of, because it still seems like. I wonder if that has some partly to do with Milwaukee going slower. It does. It does. But I just don't know if they're going to be able to just, you know, I just don't know if they'll be able to defend well enough to win four games

against a much better team that's not missing its two best players. I think they could hang with New York or Philly, especially if, like, what are we getting from Rob? If Mitchell Robinson is just not going to play in the next round, you know, Bogdanovich now, he's hurt, and it looks like he's either going to be playing hurt or he's going to be out. I just don't think New York has the depth. And if you go on the Philly side, I just feel like Philly could lose to anybody. Like, how can you predict two days from now with Philadelphia? Well, I can't imagine Embiid looking like this

and playing against a stretch bit. He's been going up against Hartenstein, who's only really got him with these floater handoffs after Embiid's gone to help on a Brunson drive. But as I was watching Embiid today, I was like, if they were to even make it against Boston, imagine him having a run out against Perzingis.

He's going to get his 35 and 18. Well, how about Siakam? Who's running with Siakam on this team? I mean, Siakam looks, this is about as much fun as I've had watching him play basketball. Yeah, I think Indiana could talk themselves into, hey, why not? Portland

made it that year. What was it, 2019? All of a sudden, Portland was in the Western Finals and we were like, how's Portland in the Western Finals? Sometimes you never know. Two teams, one of them did two really good teams. One gets knocked off. There's an injury. Then all of a sudden you have a weird Final Four.

I also think they have a good home court. Their fans are into it. They like playing at home. They play with real pace. There's a feistiness to this team. Neespeth once again got into it today with somebody. Jackson. Jackson did grab

him from behind. He and Nemhar are ready to fight the whole game. TJ's feisty. I think it's a feisty team. All right. Do you know any Sigma Chi's? TJ's like, get out of here then. Let's take a break and we're going to do the panic trap.

Metro Lynx and Cross Lynx are reminding everyone to be careful as Eglinton Crosstown LRT train testing is in progress. Please be alert as trains can pass at any time on the tracks. Remember to follow all traffic signals. Be careful along our tracks and only make left turns where it's safe to do so. Be alert, be aware, and stay safe. Be careful along our tracks and only make left turns where it's safe to do so. Be alert, be aware, and stay safe. All right, so we're going to do the panic playoff draft.

Only playoff teams eligible. And as we went to break, Saruti told us that there's an athletic article. Brian Curtis calls this the Now They Tell Us article, where the season ends, and then there's immediately a story with inside anecdotes from the season that went wrong. This one they had just, I guess, cooked ready for those sons to get swept. It's all about how Frank Vogel basically lost the team halfway through the year. Durant doesn't like how he's been used. This is stuff we've been hearing for the last month or so, that if the Suns lost, Vogel was going to be on his way out.

I'm glad they have somebody to blame. The 2020 Finals winning coach, this was his fault. But that article came out, and that ties into what we're going to talk about here with the Panic Playoff Draft. I'm going to give you first pick. We have the nominees for the Panic Playoff Draft

are you can take Phoenix, you can take Milwaukee, Dallas or Clippers, you have both. They count as one selection. Philadelphia, New Orleans, Lakers, Miami, and then Cleveland or Orlando.

Most panicky team heading into the offseason for you. Is it Phoenix? Yeah, it's Phoenix. Okay. I think we've talked about it already. The lack of outs, the draft pick, debts are absurd.

Can I give you some deets? Please do. Durant, Beal, Booker, that's 150 million plus next year. Nurkic is at, going to be at 18.

Grayson Allen has an extension kicking in. He is going to be at 18. Grayson Allen has an extension kicking in. He's going to be at 15.6. They have Nasir Little somehow at 6.7. So they're a second apron team. Going to be really hard for them to do anything. Their picks, 25, 27, and 29 go to Brooklyn. They get the worst out of these swaps with all these weird teams in 24, 26, 28, and 30.

So their picks are going to... They basically have four firsts that they're not going to be allowed to trade. And then all their seconds, there's a chunk of the seconds that all go to Washington too. Yeah, and they lost all their seconds. And...

If you had to say who's out between Durant and Booker who would you pick Durant so where does he go I don't know let's see who wins this year come on

hey man I mean he's made it real hard he's made it real hard on a's made it real hard on a relationship. I've defended him for a really long time, and I'm not just talking about this seriously. If you're going to fucking do this again, you're going to do it again. You know? I mean, Lakers fans and LeBron tried to do this with Vogel,

and it's like, oh, cool, now you got Darvin Hamm. Problem solved. Great work, everybody. So I'm not telling you, like, I loved everything I saw from Phoenix, but they were all in and out of the lineup. I think Vogel a good coach so you're there one year you don't like the way you were used I don't know take it to the fucking hoop nobody was Vogel telling you don't so if you're gonna ask for a trade from Brooklyn when the extension's about to kick in which is

the new normal now in this league I gotta've got to dig around a little bit more. Let me see what he says. He makes it tough for you to continuously have his back on some of these decisions, if it's true that he's going to want his way out of this after an exit. At some point, man...

I was with him when he was like, I just don't know if I can play with Russell Westbrook anymore and I need to do City. And it's like, I get it, man. Then he was in the Warriors and it's like, you know, it's a Steph's team. Kind of want my own team. It's like, all right, I don't get that as much. Steph's like one of the great teammates of all time.

But, you know, everybody's got the right to follow their own destiny. So he goes to New York with Kyrie. Didn't really get that. They get James Harden. Now it's the three of them. That didn't really work. Harden leaves. Him and Kyrie.

I don't know what happened there. But all of a sudden, Katie's ready to go. They say, hey, what are you talking about? You just got here. We're not trading you. Fire everybody. No, fire everybody and I'll stay. Steve Nash goes,

you got to keep Jacques Vaughn. This is our guy. All right, we'll keep him. And then two months later, he's getting traded. Goes to Phoenix. Who was the coach last year for Phoenix? I'm blanking. Monty Williams.

Monty's out. Bring in Frank Vogel. Let's bring in Bradley Beal. I'm still not happy. It's tough. It's a tough look for him. It's tough to defend. I can't defend it, so I'm not going to try.

I can't either. Booker, I think, fetches a bigger price than Durant at age 36. And if they wanted to get serious about this. Yeah, this is even debatable. That's why you're keeping him. Yeah. You're just not. And he's under contract for four more years.

So it doesn't, it's, this isn't even a conversation. The only thing you'd have to worry about in the way this stuff works is if Booker. So like, I thought there would come a time where they kept losing. It was Sarver still owning the team. He was cheap. Then Chris Paul came in and saved everything. Look, I know he didn't win a ring, but the thing entirely changed. Once Paul showed up, they're winning games.

Booker's in. He's starting to get the notoriety that I think he deserved. This whole thing. I don't know. There's just certain players that I look at and be like, okay, this is entirely his fault. And there's other players I'm like, I don't know about that. I just would have way more sympathy for Booker being one of the original guys there and the fact that he's younger and he plays.

I know he's had some injury stuff. Yeah, he's actually missed some games over the years, but he's still younger and he's locked up for four years. And by the way, what do you think they're going to do? Do like the Brooklyn? I mean, now we're just podcasting, right? But you do the Brooklyn where you think, well, can you trade? Well, trade the asset to recoup some of the picks?

We're in this new era where you don't have any of your picks. So you're like basically where Brooklyn is, where you want to rebuild. You have somebody else's picks, but not your picks. So you don't want to get too bad. And this is how they basically solve tanking. Nobody can tank because nobody has their picks. It's going to be the new NBA. It's going to be 30 teams.

Nobody has their own picks. Book going to be the new NBA. It's going to be 30 teams. Nobody has their own picks. Booker would be an interesting one. But then why would you do it? Because then you'd have to tear the whole thing down and you don't have any of your own picks. So then you'd have to be trying to figure out, hey, do we... That's the thing about trading Durant

is you go, cool, you guys can have them. And then in two years, we'll get your good picks. If this is all going to happen. You know, this is two hours after the game ended. Kaminga, Draymond, and a couple firsts? That doesn't do anything for me. For the Warriors or for the Suns? Julius Randle and three firsts. Julius Randle

in three firsts. No, no. Let's go back. This is actually... Julius Randle in three firsts for KD. That's how I think

he stays. Whatever the price is for him has dropped dramatically because of the... Let's go back to the Kaminga one. Oh, yeah.

I got you in. All right. Okay. Because that would be an incredible like we're running it back. Golden State zag on like do they start to get creative this offseason? It's like when

Bad Boys for Life when Martin Lawrence and Will Smith were like, fuck it. Let's make a third one. That's the problem with the soft cap is that you end up doing stuff you don't want to do because you can't ever recoup the salary slot. Although it's become more restrictive with this. And it's actually great for players in a way. It's like, well, wait, we don't want to resign you.

Oh my God, that's how much you're going to get. Okay, but we don't want to lose you for nothing. So maybe we'll trade you in two years. So here's your contract, even though we hate it. You know what else is going to be weird? The team USA, where a lot of these guys are all together and a lot of these storylines are going to be kind of happening in real time. Like I tweeted this on Friday, but Ant took the two guard spot from Booker. I think Booker was the starting two guard and now it has to be Ant. Ant's going to, it has a chance to be,

it's going to be LeBron Curry and Ant as the face of the team, basically. But now you have Booker and KD on that team. You're going to have LeBron, God knows what he's going to pull this summer if they get bounced in five. I'm prepared for literally anything with him. You know,

you're going down the line. It's what happens if Boston, you know, loses in the Eastern Finals. Like, it's just, and then they're all going to be in France together

with all this drama. It's been a really quiet few months, man. Well, it's not going to be much quiet. Listen, I took five weeks off last year. I'm not taking five weeks

off this year. I'm going to be, I'm going to be doing stuff. All right, so we have Phoenix. I'll go next. It's obviously Milwaukee. I mean, it's Phoenix and Milwaukee

as your two panic teams. The Milwaukee thing's brutal because that Dame contract just gets worse and worse and worse and worse and worse. They can swap. New Orleans can swap picks with them. So Milwaukee keeps their pick this year.

They do not have their 25, 27, or 29. They have some swaps going on in 26, 28, and 30. That team looks old. Because they are. Because they are. You watch them today. It was a little alarming without their two best guys. Well, today doesn't even count.

You just realized the three through 12, like how grim it is. And I wonder, could they maybe call Miami and be like, hey, remember when you guys wanted to trade Hero and Jovich and the Jakeyes pick for Dame with some picks. Like, is that still on the table for you guys? Or what are you thinking? They're not going to do that. If there's one team, as long as everybody's okay there and not pulling a, eh, I tried it out, I'm out of here. That team probably is more likely to run it back

than some of these other panic teams. You talking Miami or Milwaukee? Milwaukee. Okay. Unless we get our first international player who's a superstar, because I've always pointed this out. But I mean, just because it's always been the American guys, it doesn't mean it's never going to be an international guy.

We need somebody. It almost happened in October. I mean, it really, I think they thought that was going to potentially happen. Who? Giannis. I think that was closer than was reported or people realized. I think that was one of the things

that led to the Dame trade. So anyway, Milwaukee's in trouble. Who would you put? Would you put Dallas or the Clippers as the third panic team? Who's more panicky? Because one of those two teams is going to lose the series and then go, wait a second, what?

Yeah, but when I look at it, I think of panic equaling actual transactions because the Clippers would probably just want to resign everybody even though it hasn't worked and go, this is better than not resigning everybody for the reasons that we've already pointed out. I think Dallas would go, we were really good in the second half. Tweak here, tweak there.

Luka was hurt. Luka was talking after the game, after we did part one, he was talking about how he feels like he let down Kyrie. Kyrie's been amazing. I'm not playing well enough. I got to do better. Like he had some of that stuff.

So they could talk themselves into, Whoa, what if Luca gets healthy next year? Right. We get the same Kyrie season. That doesn't have its picks. And Luke is still young enough. And this is really only the first full year with Kyrie.

So I don't, it would be a really disappointing loss on either end. Uh, certainly more so for Dallas because the Clippers don't have Kawhi, but I think I'm going to go with Philly as my pick. As your third pick. Okay. Make the case.

They've got to use that cap space on somebody significant. And if Paul George is not on the table, like after Paul George has that game three with seven points, you're just making the rounds and seeing people be like, well, I don't even want him. You hope you have the option to say yes to him. Unless you're going to get really, really creative with a bad free agent class

because they get worse and worse all the time. There's very rarely the good ones anymore that you're excited about for the guys because I'll just do extensions now. If you're Paul George, would you be, other than the LAPs, would you be super pumped to just re-sign with the Clips

if they lost to Dallas in like six? The only way it happens is if he feels like the Kawhi deal, like the Clippers weren't as committed to him as they were to Kawhi, and then maybe Ego's getting involved. Which is true. Yeah.

Which is true. Yeah. So maybe that is all Daryl needs and it's a better landing spot than all these other teams that are bad. I mean, Orlando has cap space and they're good. Maybe it's what Orlando needs.

Yeah, right. I mean, if I'm Paul George and my choices are Orlando and Philly, you know what I'm doing. Going to Orlando. It's not even a debate. Did you say that Paul George seems like the perfect fit personality

wise for the greater Orlando area? Did I say that? Yeah, because I think you did and I think it's great. I'll claim it. I don't remember if I said it or not, but I'll take it. If you think of Paul George, you're like, yeah. You know who loves

Orlando? Paul George. Yeah, it sounds great. He's over a celebration like on his day off. Just walks around. He's like, this is crazy. Roller coasters 24-7, 365, cotton candy like you read about.

He's literally what they need. I mean, imagine next year, Suggs, Paul George, Palo, Franz, Guard TBD. There's something there. Or Langtho Magic. Oh, my God. That'd be great. And the modern Bill Russell, Jonathan Isaac.

If they don't have... So if Philly can't land something really significant, and maybe it's the next mad guy getting traded into their cap space, which is always potentially on the table if this were to be a weird... I just feel like we're going to have a weird summer. We definitely are. If Philly can't do that,

and they have to use the cap space to piece it together, and then they got to tell Embiid, like, hey, we weren't able to figure it out and the thing that really sucks for him too is these Harden minutes should have been going to somebody better than roll guys that could disappear on a night and you wouldn't

even notice them like hey cool I love Batum's effort and I know they're getting some picks back out of it but like that's a devastating blow even if I don't love Harden later in the playoffs. It's like, yeah. That's a good point about today where Kyrie looks awesome.

That's a double loss for Durant, who's just that this is a professional low for him other than the Achilles. And then same thing for Philly. They have this terrible loss. And two hours later, Harden is fucking destroying Detroit on the same little swoop play over and

over again. It's like, yeah, we had that guy. Well, I'm with you on Philly. I think, I think the Philly thing is way more chaotic than maybe it seems right now.

Cause if they lose to the Knicks in game five, I don't know. All bets are off for me with that team. Here's what I would ask. Like would Embiid, if I gave you the two options, if we want to the Knicks in game five, I don't know. All bets are off for me with that team. Here's what I would ask. Would Embiid, if I gave you the two options, if we want to be completely irresponsible here, and we're not reporters, who cares, but if they don't get anybody,

Does he ask for a trade? Does Embiid go, this is awesome? Or does Embiid say, hey, I need to be better? Or does he do what most pro athletes do and go, hey, I'm not getting any younger and I'm hurt all the time. Like, I tried it. Ben sucked. The Harden thing sucked. And then we didn't get anybody for him.

And then we had all this cap space. And, you know, we don't really have anything. All these New York fans were at my playoff game. They hurt my feelings. That's not a LeBron destination, right? Well, remember when he was a free agent before he went to the Lakers? Like, that was the thing. Those guys,

I think Clutch was really putting it out there that Philly would be a potential destination to just try to drive the competition to get LeBron and then they didn't even take a meeting. So I don't know. If you just replace Tobias Harris with LeBron, I would

say the Sixers are a more interesting playoff team. I don't know what version they'll get with LeBron in year 22. By the way, I did my best free agent signings pyramid in part one of the pod. I forgot LeBron of the Lakers. There's a third LeBron free agency both of us forgot.

That's a good one. Yeah. With the title? Yeah, that's got to be in the top 10, right? Yeah, I guess. But it was almost like that wasn't totally a free agent signing because everyone knew he was going there, but I guess it counts. Well, it does based on the way you did it. You still had Butler lower than he should have been.

If you make it to two NBA finals with the Heat and that team wasn't great either year. I think Waddell was a finals MVP. He should have been. It was a fun exercise. All right, so you took Philly. I'm going to take the Clippers just because

I think the Kawhi extension, the fact that they did it when he had played well for a couple weeks, and they're like, oh, he looks great. Here's more. Here are more years. Don't want to lose this guy. And now they have that hanging over the franchise again. It's now a half a decade of this dance with them.

So you have for fifth, would you say Dallas or would you say the Lakers? Panic is the word here. Does New Orleans finally go, hey? They have to. You have to. Yeah, but think about what we're saying here. Does New Orleans finally go, hey, they have to. You have to. Yeah, but think about what we're saying here. We're naming like seven guys.

We're like, all right. And that's what was so interesting about the drama of this playoffs is that you're going to have these really disappointing exits this year. Ingram is not going to be in the Pelicans next year. I'm going to think New Orleans. They're going to trade Ingram somewhere for something I think that would be the one prediction I feel the best about Harrison Heald? Summer Movement no I think

he'd have value for some of these teams right like if you're Detroit you're like oh we can get Brandon Ingram absolutely yeah there's five teams I would love to have them is there a possible Atlanta? Could there be a Trey Young? Could you get super frisky?

Could there be a mega deal? The Lakers might be a better pick then. If you're talking about panic and something more drastic, I could see them just dumping. If they re-sign LeBron, they're dumping the picks and they're adding the best available, maybe two-time all-star they can find. And I don't know if that's Trey Young.

I don't know if it's a Brandon Ingram. I don't know how Trey Young changes their destiny in any conceivable way. Well, I'm not saying. I think you start printing banners here, but that's the Lakers. No, I have Laker fans in my life who are like, just somewhere getting Trey. Well, they don't. Okay, cool. I'm sure they're just grinding Atlanta games, just somewhere getting Trey. Well, they don't. Like, okay, cool.

I'm sure they're just grinding Atlanta games out here in LA at 4 o'clock. Good luck with Trey and LeBron as 40% of your defense. Let me know how that goes. LeBron at 40 years old. How many of the West Coast is watching Hawks games at 4 Pacific time? I would have the Lakers. All right. of time. I would have the Lakers. Alright. New Orleans, the only panic would

be they're hitting shit or get off the pot stage with the roster. What are you going to do with all these picks? What are you going to do with all these assets? Do you really think Zion and Trey Murphy and Brandon Ingram, do you need all three of those guys?

Is CJ really going to be your guard who's going to decide big stretches and playoff games for you? Or can you upgrade that? Like they're going to have to go all in at some point here. And I think this would be the summer to think about that.

Especially as OKC gets better and better. Denver has Jokic. Minnesota has this ant fucking freight train coming. Like those are the three teams you're looking at now, and you have to compete with them. Ingram, two picks, Dyson, and some filler for Durant if you were New Orleans?

I mean, on paper, yeah, but does Durant want to go to New Orleans? Would he be happy? You're only getting it for a year before he asks for a trade anyway. If this Phoenix story is true. He's got two years left in his deal. No, I know. I'm kidding about the Phoenix story.

Oh. I just feel like we talked about it and went pretty deep on it, and I haven't even read it yet, and I haven't heard anything. So I don't know. We'll see. If we're just talking what's the most fun Durant to go on state is the most fun if they're just like we're running it back

it's like when a band gets back together it's like oh the police are back together Sting and Stuart Copeland and Andy Summers they're all talking they're gonna do a tour we're like what that would be the worst and I just wonder if Andy would be

like, they were like, actually Andy signed with Orlando. Miami Panic 8 all to you? No, I think they didn't have Butler, they didn't have Rozier, and Jovich is going to be really good. Joe Cronin regrets. Could add Hakez, Jovich, and Hero, plus some picks for Dame, a trade that Joe Cronin regrets could have

Hakez, Jovich, and Hero plus some picks for Dame a trade that we both thought was a stupid trade for them because they had so many guards well I just didn't think Hero was as good as Maxi like that was one of the other things that was being floated out there

like if they could have done this deal and then, you know, they traded for two players ultimately with all the pieces that moved around that are really hurt all the time. Like Rob Williams, I don't know why you would have been able

to depend on him and then Brogdon gets hurt on top of everything else. Did you see the Aiton stats last seven, eight weeks of the year? Aiton was putting up big numbers, man. I couldn't believe how bad his numbers were the first half of the season. I was expecting huge Aiton numbers all year long from him.

He was like 22 and 14 for the last two months of the season. And he was saying, finally, I'm getting to show who DeAndre Aiton is. I think he might have third-personed himself. Not as many times as Malik Nabors did on Thursday night. If I were tanking, I would sign Westbrook to a four-year deal with three team options and I would trade for eight.

But the thing is, I'd probably still be too good. I'd win like 25. And then we didn't even mention Cleveland, which I think would be the other possible panic team. More from a sense of Mitchell being the last year of his deal and if he wants to

go somewhere, you start to push for it this summer. If there's one consistent, hey, what do you think happens this summer? The most consistent one is that they have to do something because he's not going to stay and they have a year left on it. If we were talking realistic moves instead of just ranking it

and the panicky thing, which I'm still not quite sure what it is, they're a higher pick. But I don't feel like them losing is as dramatic as Dallas losing in the first round to the Clippers without Kawhi or the Clippers being just stuck in purgatory. Same thing with the Pelicans. Philadelphia, if they were to miss out on big free agents. I think Cleveland could go, all right, we lost in the first round. We've had this group for two years. There's still a bunch of young guys.

Now we have a Mitchell decision. Well, our winner is Phoenix. Any predictions for the week? Is the round one going to zag it off for you or do you think we end up where we all think we're going to end up? Do we have a seven game series? I think Cleveland and Orlando will go seven. Me too.

You think Philly Knicks go seven? I don't think it's going to be five. I think I just think they're so intense, those games. It just doesn't seem right that that's a five-game series. Don't you think?

Cleveland-Orlando will be our seven-gamer. I think the Knicks are going to finish them off in game five. The crowd will go nuts. All the Knicks fans, they're just out of their mind with Brunson and I think they finish it off. So we have tomorrow, Celtics Heat, Thunder Pelicans, Lakers Nuggets. All three of those series could be done.

Tuesday, 76ers Knicks, Magic Cavs, Pacers Bucks. That one could be done. Yeah, we might not. It could be one of those situations where we have like no game on Friday night. You know how that happens sometimes? They're like, oh might not. It could be one of those situations where we have like no game on Friday night. You know how that happens sometimes? They're like, oh my God. Can't wait for the Friday night to do or die.

And it's like, oh wait, every series is over. This sucks. Rosillo, great to see you as always. Thanks for hanging for the two-parter. Thanks to Steve Cerruti and Kyle Creighton for producing as always. You can listen to Rosillo's podcast. You can check out his YouTube channel.

You can watch clips and videos from this podcast on my YouTube channel, youtube.com slash Bill Simmons. Can I get you on a rewatchables over the next couple weeks, by the way? You available? Legend of Greystove. That's not on the list, but we can negotiate the movie. But I'm going to need you next couple weeks. I'm reading this new book on Captain Cook.

And they brought this guy back to London. It was from one of the islands. And this island had been invaded by some other island. And he wanted to basically talk to the people in charge of England and say, we need guns. And instead, he just partied, just banged everybody that moved. Yeah. And it was just like, he was like the most famous guy because he didn't look like anybody else.

And he was fun. He loved to hunt the Englishmen that he befriended people with major power and then there was a rumor they were like here's three guineas going to the town before you get on the ship with captain cook here and grab yourself maybe a mug of port and a mutton something and they were like nope rumor is he spent it on a woman right before he got back on the boat. So that guy. Movie? They can turn that into a movie or no? Well, that's kind of what got me thinking of Greystoke a little bit. This is your father.

Remember that? This is a big movie for us when we were kids. You know, Ben Simmons is in a history class. Every once in a while he comes home and he's mad about something that happened historically. I can't even imagine these conversations. A few days ago he came up and he's like, dad, the Versailles Treaty. We really screwed that one up.

That was one of his takes. Maybe that'll be, maybe I give him a history podcast. That'd be great. For side trading. Didn't solve anything. Headed us to the Second World War. All right. Thanks to everybody.

I'll see you in this pod on Tuesday. Bye, Rossello. Must be 21 plus, 18 plus D.C. I don't have to wait. Iowa, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and Vermont. Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 in Arizona, 888-789-7777, or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut, 809 with it in Indiana, 800-522-4700, or visit ksgamblinghelp.com in Kansas. 877-770-STOP in Louisiana. mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. 800gambler.net in West Virginia. 800-522-4700 in Wyoming. Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24 seven support of Massachusetts or call 1-877-8-HOPE-NY or text HopeNY in New York.