The Deep 3 Podcast - Picking The Biggest NBA Playoff X-Factor Players | TD3 Live

Episode Date: April 2, 2025

These NBA players will decide how the playoffs go! #nba Support the stream: https://streamlabs.com/thedeep3pod Today we react to all the latest NBA news! Check out the TD3 merch: https://the-deep-3-shop.fourthwall.com/ Join the TD3 discord!: https://discord.gg/RUkjpMPp7E Listen on Spotify!: https://open.spotify.com/show/3elbbqVumwqz8wlIdknsLW Listen on Apple Podcasts!: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-deep-3-podcast/id1657940794 Follow us on TikTok!: https://www.tiktok.com/@thedeepthree Follow us on Instagram!: https://www.instagram.com/thedeep3podcast/ Isaac's twitter: https://twitter.com/byisaacg Muhamed's twitter: https://twitter.com/Mojo99_ Donnavan's twitter: https://twitter.com/Dsmoot3D Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

y'all are good news for you not only are we live not only are we on time okay there's two of us in person we've officially started to move to full time in person content i'm in the city i'm in the city it's the parade is how my city is as you see we still got beau in the process he'll be here very soon very very soon but starting april pretty much everything is going to be in person we're here man new era first live stream in person it is and I would like to take this time to say PSA free beef stew free Isaiah Stewart you know what I'm saying we're going to be here when you get home it's all good we're going to hold you down Isaiah all right but I'm going anywhere free beef stew spam you're the only person who ever said that holy shit

okay yeah shout out beef stew don't like what Adam's doing to him it's unjust oh he's committing like actual assault on the court for No reason. We're not going to get there. Let me have a little fun as a treat. You're trying to see riddance go down. We're here for entertainment. That's the funniest part of all that is everybody constantly laments for the 90s.

I miss the physical play. I miss when guys were able to go out there and really try and, you know, play like men. And then as soon as you get one, as soon as you get a real 90s enforcer. Oh, my God. Yeah. How can he do this? It's disrespectful to the game. Get this thug out of here.

I'm like, let him cook. Y'all change like the weather, man. That is crazy. Yeah, somebody actually tweeted that at me today. They were like, yo, send this thug to jail. I was like, are you serious? Yes, yes, because I tweeted out freebie stoo. And someone was like, put that thug in jail.

Of course they did. That's all right, man, relax, relax, relax. So, yeah, actually, if you guys don't know what happened, in the Pistons versus Timberwolves game the other day, we had a little brawl. We had a little fisticuffs, if you will. Dontonie Vincenzo basically won up. I don't know exactly what caused it.

But he started pressing Ron Holland. And somebody else, I forget. which teammate, I think it was Nasri, he came up and they were kind of double team Ron Hawn a little bit, talking shit, and then in came beef stew from the top rope, started his big kerfuffle. He was not going to let his rook get pressed like this.

And yeah, man, it was, I thought it was great. So initially what really started this whole thing. Yeah, Nasreed, he kind of was overreacting. I think Ron Han clicked him just a little bit, barely made any contact for real. But Nasri felt like it was a semi-dangerous play, and then he started waved his finger, walking up to Ron Han,

just like these and then that's when like the whole car fuffle just started happening don't de vincenzo was using his fucking um elbows and shit shoving people in the chest and then it ended up with ron hon crying on the sidelines bro crying out of anger it's very good the finger pointing is very like it's an underrated aggressive move because if you start pointing like you really do have to be ready for anything that happens like oh you don't know you don't know like okay like let people know nazi yeah it was great um I don't feel like either, I mean, I don't feel like the side of it in that run the wrong. You know, stuff like this happens.

Everyone's putting on, sticking up for their own teammates. That's how it goes. It was very funny, though, that whenever it got like semi-broken up and everybody was kind of, you know, there was a mob of people pushing each other apart. Everybody usually is like, oh, right, right, right. They're yapping at each other. But everyone kind of backs up. The whole time Isaiah Stewart was fighting through mushing, Dantan-in-the-face on the face over and over again. They pulled them off.

He stopped. He saw an audience-rear-in-the-ground, said, mush you. Like, he was just a heat-seeking missile looking for a face. to put his palm on. It was nonstop aggression. He looked like Ray Lewis. I saw somebody make the point that the biggest winner in all of this was Rudy Gobert. Because normally in fights, people would just take the opportunity to take a cheap shot at Rudy.

And nobody did that this time. And so the fact that there was a fight, Rudy Gober's team was involved. And he came out unscathed was actually a very big plus for him. So that's cool. I think it was a couple moments before this play. Beef stew and Rudy Gober got into what obviously reading. He was just, like, touching his waist or whatever, like, position himself for a rebound or whatever is going on in the next play.

And the Vee's do, he did exactly this, like, finger-pointing thing that you're talking about, Donna. But he was like, yeah, bro, don't touch you. Don't touch me. Swipe his, Rudy Gaubert's hands away from his waist. He was like, yeah, I don't do that. Don't do that. So it was there.

But attention was just, like, diverse somewhere else. I saw Timberwell's fans are talking about how they're proud of the character growth of Jada McDaniels, because Jim McDaniels stayed out of it, too. And I didn't know this about him, but apparently Jay McDaniels has always trained to go. He's always going jumping in this too. So everyone, it was very surprised in Timberwolves fans. They were like, look at him. A new man, a mature player, a veteran of the game, not jumping in to throw hands. Look at him go. No, man. Jump in. One time. Like, there's like, there's eight games in the season left. You can take two games, right? Get your

body right for the playoffs. You'll be okay. It's fine. So, and naturally, after this kerfuffle, suspensions were handed out, as you'd expect. There was actual violence. So they were going to go ahead and do more than a little bit of fine. And the suspensions we got are two games for Isaiah Stewart, which I thought it would have been like four. So two is not too bad. Yeah, because he's a multiple time offencer, dude. Oh, yeah, yeah. He's past three strikes.

No, no, he's, I said on Twitter, I think he's kind of low-key building a case for himself to be in the all-MBA hands Hall of Fame. Like, the only reason we don't think about it in that way is we don't have nostalgia. You know, we think about run our test. We think about the bad boy pistons as like these hard motherfuckers from back in the day. we have the nostalgic lens of seeing them. Isaiah Stewart's come from the same cloth. I think he's building a resume for himself. You said that and then I got to thinking

I was trying to make like a Mount Rushmore of just like guys who are, you know, just ready to go. And Isaiah Stewart honestly has all the moments. Isaiah Stewart, again, tried to beat up LeBron. That was crazy. That and that being his like coming out party of like LeBron, like he saw blood and then was like, I have to beat this man up.

I have to. Nothing is more important. to me in this moment than putting hands on LeBron. That in itself would have cemented him as number one. If he actually landed against LeBron, that would have been number one. But there was that. And then remember, I think it was last year, Drew Eubanks or somebody like actually called the police on Isaiah Stewart because there was the-

No, that's so sick. Right? Because there was an incident in the tunnel pre-game. And Isaiah Stork had the police called on him. I don't remember the details, but I know what you're talking about. I remember that happening, but so much happens in the NBA that I can't remember the exact details. But yeah, I remember that.

It really escalated that way. And it was like, this is a reputation police call for sure. 100%. You have the face of the league and police presence were involved. He's up there. He's top five. You got to be. Dude, this hasn't happened in such a long time.

But if there's one thing that the specifically of the Detroit prisons need to do, they need a hand Isaiah Stewart like a 10-year contract. And make sure that he stays a piston. This type of activity and this type of behavior can't be allowed. anywhere else in the league other than Detroit specifically because we're so we are we're so unprofessional I love it again we're not but we're not asking for this every single night but obviously it's an 82 game season it's March right it's it's it's quote unquote fake basketball time stuff can happen every once in a while and it's okay also it's very cool that

I say his story was pointing to his jersey pointed at Detroit like he's putting it off for the city at the same time. It's little things like that where it's like this is the common thread through Ares that's going to bring the whole city together

and I love that. And everybody on Twitter is like fake tough guy fake tough guy I'm like I don't know he's fucking touching people it feels like a real tough guy to me

he's just doing it I don't know he's pretty legit seems pretty physical shout out to horse of Yokish for tipping $5 he's not keeping his hands

to himself I don't know if it's fake shout out to horse of Yokish for tipping $5 he said are you guys familiar with a Lebron Glaze songs, aka Bronify, and if so, what are your guys's favorites? I really enjoy

Man on the Lakers. Which is your favorite? That's a banger. I can't remember them. I'm blanking now. Mr. LeBron, the promiscuous. Oh, that was good. That one's good. I like the evil LeBron one. The Cardi one. That was funny. What? I do like that. Oh, yeah, I did hear that one. They did evil Jordan, but LeBron. And shout out to Mo Cheeks, the Rump Shaker for tipping $6.69. sense. He said, who you got in a seven-game series, 20-25 Celtics or 2019 Raptors? Probably the Celtics. Twenty-five. I'm going to assume that was a typo, and he's saying last year's Celtics? Yeah. Okay. Probably the Celtics. That's close. I'll take last year of Celtics. Yeah. I'm taking the Celtics. Yeah, I think Celtics. They're one of those teams. I'm going to pick them against most

matchups in the modern NBA. One of those wines. They are, they are. One of them wines. One of them, them's. There are a bunch of them. Next new story. Oh, shout out to I of Avocado for tipping $15. You know he does it for the love of the game because he didn't even put a caption. It's just $15. He'd say, here you go.

Appreciate you, man. He doesn't even need that. I like that. Y'all, we got to talk about the first piece of real news, something that happened since we last spoke. Taylor Jenkins has been abruptly fired three and a half weeks before the NBA playoff start. They have part of ways with Coach Taylor Jenkins.

We've talked a lot on this show over this whole season about the dynamic of the Grizzlies. I think early on this season, I was like, I don't know if y'all notice. Jod doesn't really make that much sense in this new offense. He's not running, picking rolls. He doesn't look particularly comfortable. And over time, everybody starts to notice that, oh, yeah, John's playing pretty poorly. And eventually he became the people who act like it was mostly a Jod issue, which in some respects it is, right?

People were acting like he kind of just fell off and he's not as good as he once was. But I think clearly they had issues with, they decided to go a new way with their offense to give themselves a higher floor, maybe even a higher ceiling in their half court, a way that is. isn't so reliant on Jha, isn't so relying on any one player. It really is team over one player. But throughout that transformation, they kind of hurt their number one player. So I think people sensed that something was brewing. This would lead to something. But I don't think any of us thought it would be a firing three weeks before the playoffs start.

That's, like, yeah, everyone's already kind of pointed out. It's not the fact that Taylor Jenkins was fired. It's just the fact that it happened now. That's the craziest part. Because I don't, I don't think that a team, even like regardless of where they stand in the, in the Western Conference, because Western Conference standings are also, we've seen this all year. They're also low-key fake because-so close. Yeah, because everybody's moving up and down every two to three days. So like the Rockets, the Rockets were sliding down.

Now, granted, it took them a streak to get back up. But the Rockets were down at six. Now they're all the way back up to two where they were for a majority of the season. There's been times where the Grizzlies have been to. and so it's very, very wild that you make this kind of a change going into what feels like a very defining playoff run for the grimm. See, he was defining in that like it would decide if Taylor Jenkins kept his job or not. Exactly.

But now that clearly the, so this only happens, I think, if there's something really, really brewing an organization that we don't know about, like we've all assumed that maybe Jomoran would be upset by this. You know, just based on this bi-language, based on the natural idea, the new scheme doesn't fit the player who's supposed to be the face of your franchise like we all did a lot of projecting assuming he wouldn't like this and it would lead to some issues and a lot of times that's inappropriate right a lot of times we're kind of putting ideas on people that maybe they don't always have maybe sometimes they don't share this frustration that fans do kind of fucking looks like he might

have shared the frustrations that fans do because this doesn't happen for no reason unless there's outspoken voices within the organization that are saying Taylor Jenkins has a goddamn problem and we can't deal with this anymore yeah and you're absolutely right but I think going back to what Donovan said, the timing of thing is easy, is even a bigger problem because regardless of the fact, like, there is something we've all been talking about whether or not they're going to revert back to the John Morant style, uh, level of bass ball and whatnot, but we can all admit fire him, don't fire him. It's a fucking, you're going out bad regardless, but I think as an organization is about how you decide to go out, setting a certain level of, like, class

and not firing this dude, just nine, ten games before the season. And it, it's, it, It just screams, like, disarray, you know? Yeah, it's a weird, for sure. You got Jared Jackson Jr. You got Jared Jackson Jr. over here saying, yeah, we're losing a couple of games, but at least we're not like homeless and stuff like that, which is like, I mean, he's not wrong at the end of the day, but also, like, this is kind of worrisome. And then you got fucking Desmond Bain and Saltya Adama are beefing on the sidelines too, which is normal. We've seen that from literally all NBA teams and players that you can imagine, but just the timing of all of this is just so weird. And I think if there's one thing that you need to remain consistent through all the inconsistencies of this roster and the level of play, you just need to keep some guy in the building.

Yeah. Yeah, it's just weird. I mean, Grizzies fans have hated Tio Jenkins all year for probably good and bad reasons, right? Like, he's been a flawed coach. People have had issues with, one, the idea of the system ruling, kind of like negating John Morant strengths. That's obviously going to cause disagreement. I think I don't hate that idea, right? Like even when John Moran was at his best, they had like the 20.

fifth half-court offense for some years. I don't hate the idea of trying something new, but you got to strike a balance. You got to find a way to make him comfortable and get the best of both worlds. So I can understand why fans would be upset with that, not working out perfectly. But I know they had a lot of issues with small stuff too. They don't like quite how much he relied on the depth that they didn't play their best players for starter minutes. You know, John Morant's playing 28 minutes a game. That's a big issue to some people. Some people don't like his insistence on playing Santiago Dima big minutes. He hasn't embraced Zach Edy very much. He had a very short leash with him hasn't really made good use of his offensive skills so you're kind of just getting the

downside on defense without the upside on offense a lot of small stuff that grisies fans certainly weren't surprised by him being fired yeah but also i i i do feel like in a certain in a certain way he's also like handcuffed because because of john moran's availability and so i think like we've made this point a lot where you kind of have to go to this offense because jaws jaws missing 30, 35 games, right? He's, he's not, he's not playing for two weeks straight. And so how are you supposed to, how are you supposed to create some type of, like, actual high end continuity, right? The, the Grizzlies have relied on their depth and their talent and their development for, for years now. And it's gotten them to be very high seeds in the Western Conference, which is always competitive. They've

had favorable matchups. But you go and you look at the game logs and you look at the playoff series. John Moran is missing games in playoff series very consistently. You look at it this year. He's missing games a lot. And so shout out, honestly, to Taylor Jenkins in the fact that, one, the Grizzlies also, like, fired his whole staff last, last offseason. And he didn't really have control over who else he was bringing in. So that is another thing that that coach does not have control over.

And then your best player is not always there. You have to figure stuff out. And so, like, while the very minute things. like can frustrate some fans the overarching thing and you know that in the NBA to win at a high level you need your best player do play like one of the five best players in the world you're not getting that from John Moran in the same way that we saw two years ago two and a half years ago and so for that Taylor Jenkins was at a disadvantage for a majority of the year yeah and we have a report from the athletic actually that I don't know how how in depth it's I'm just looking at a

legion hoops aggregation of it but apparently John Morant complained about the Taylor Jenkins offensive scheme they added this year which they added because you just said they added all this new assistant coaches it was to do this type of thing and make this new offense apparently the quote is some days he looks like he's ready to play and some days he looks like he doesn't want to be there because he hates the offense this is an athletic article so it's probably good sources and you know that's not surprising we did see a lot of bad body language stuff and for the reasons you said if taylor jenkins doesn't have a fair chance because he doesn't have the buy-in of his top player because his player feels like he's not

being prioritized that sounds like a classic rift between a head coach and a best player organizationally you have to pick a side and one guy is the guy who puts 30,000 butts in seats every day and you pay $50 million a year to and one guy is a young hit coach that was really good for the time you needed him. You saw your team through a rebuild,

established a culture, and helped you get there. But, you know, you often see this type of timeline. A team like this needs a new coach, a new face to kind of take you to the next level. And I'm not even saying Taylor Jenkins isn't that caliber coach.

I don't really know because we've only seen this environment. He's fine. I'm cool. But like if people would maximize this potential with this team. Yeah, maybe not, but if that's how the jaw feels and the organization feels, I can understand having to make a move. Yeah, I agree.

I think we're all on the same page. We see this time and time again with like all NBA teams that are semi-young looking to make the next step and prove themselves in the playoffs. I think the latest that we've seen that happened with is the Cleveland Cavaliers, you know, and now we see a couple years ago, I could compare a team in terms of like timeline-wise

and how they viewed Taylor. Jenkins who helped find this new identity is like the Detroit Pissons. You know, J.B. Berksap is the perfect dude who's like a culture setter. It can help point teams in the right direction. Is he going to necessarily get you over the top? I don't know. But in terms of doing what's necessary and laying out like a basic rubric of how to, a how to book to build an NBA team to be functional, he is at and he is,

he proved to do that. Now, as for like the Memphis. Grizzies and the product that we've seen over the last few games, really the past month or so, they've been so bad and they haven't had an actual quality win since February 2nd. Outside of that, they beat up on teams like the Spurs, the Raptors, the Orlando Magic, the Houston Rockets, the Mavericks, Pelicans, the Utah Jazz. They don't have a quality win since the Milwaukee Bucks, and that's entirely scary. And the bucks are like such a shaky team too.

And if you don't even want to count that, then it goes even like a little bit even further back. So in general, they were cooked. The defense has been such disaster. And like it's weird too because they obviously started the season off really good defensively and just hit a wall where things just stopped going well. I feel like Desmond Bain. I've seen a lot of Grizzies fans complaining about his defense that it hasn't been

what it once was, someone who has a reputation for being a good defender. Obviously, Jaron Jackson going out with the injury. Seems like that was the catalyst. I really lost the momentum. and they just haven't recovered. Like, they are, they've always had not the strongest defensive personnel. Like, someone to tell Dom is not the best defender in the world. Deson Bain's not the best defender in the world.

We know Jha isn't, he's a rookie who's 7'4, 300 pounds. He has some learning to do. Luke Knard, et cetera. They don't have a ton of elite defenders, but they've had a great team defense. And Jaron Jackson has been a big part of that. So it's not surprising that if they falter and lose momentum, that it's the type of personnel that could really struggle to, like, get that back. I think, I don't know, I think at this point now, making a decision like this, to me, signals, especially from the top down, the season's lost, right?

Like, I think that they, they believe that they were not going to get to the places that you want to go, but now the offseason becomes extremely important. And whoever you bring into, to coach this team is so important because not only like for this specific era of the Grizzlies being successful and maximizing John and all that, but you. look at, like, and Mo, you mentioned it a little bit earlier, you look at a lot of the other younger teams in the NBA, like the Cleveland Cavaliers and teams like that, they've passed the Grizzlies up, right? Like when the Grizzlies were at their best, we're like, oh, they're going to be here for a while, they're going to compete for conference finals, and you look in that span, the Cleveland Cavaliers are the number one seed. They've figured it, they've figured it out with what they're doing. The Oklahoma City Thunder have been the number one seed for the last

two years. The Minnesota Timber was made the Western Conference Finals last year. The Indiana Pacers with another young guard, they made the conference finals last year. All around the league, you have teams who have been able to figure out their situation to whatever level of success and get to places that the Grizzlies thought they were going to be at and expected themselves to be at, and they just haven't reached it in like three and four years. So now it's crazy because it feels like the league is passing them by when you have Jared Jackson making this offensive lead when you have John Moran who's supposed to be one of the 10 best players. I am so, so curious to see who they bring in because if there's, you know, we've, and we've talked

sprinkles of like, oh, like who are they going to pick? Clearly now they should side with John now that you fire Taylor Jenkins. So, okay, if you're going to roll with John and JJJ, did you have to go somewhere next year? Yeah, people have been doing a lot of like, oh, Jean-Marrant can get traded now. I feel like they just picked Joss. So I don't really see them going there. But I suppose it's not impossible. If they go outside in the playoffs,

maybe they were to band it off completely and just have to completely retool and maybe only Jaron's safe. Who knows? But big point of reflection for them. That'd be shocked too. But you never know. We'll see how things go.

But regardless, big point of flexion. We'll see what their next era entails. Next new story. In the way that that one was surprising and it was like, Kachosoloff, we never expected it. I would say this is the opposite. This is equally unsurprising.

Lamello Ball is out for the season. They've shut him down for the last 10 games as he undergoes a minor procedure on his right ankle. Who would have thought? Lamele ball ankle surgery. Yikes. And wrist.

Double, double whammy. Yeah, these are injuries that he's had in the past that cut them off for a severe amount of time. So this is like not good news.

Even if you read this as a Charlotte Hornish fan and ain't tripped too bad because it's not a, it didn't keep him out for the season for a real. Yeah, they're tanking. Zion also got shut down

in similar ways. You know, 10 games left. Let's try a cup a flag and let's get our guys healthy and let them sit. But, you know, you don't love to see another ankle.

procedure needed. Procedure's pretty extreme. So, you know, it's a bookend to another lamello ball season. Lamello ball season, Hornet season. It's not even just on him. It's just, it's just a shit show that hopefully they get some lottery look, and this can be the catalyst that they lose these next 10 games, and they get

the top one of the top two or three picks in the draft. That was going to happen anyway, so it's... Probably. That was going to happen anyway. I am Adam Silver. I am rigging the living shit out of the NBA draft. in gifting this organization, Cooper five, because you're at your fucking mild. I'm not.

No, no, no. They need him more than anyone else. That's not how it works. That's not how it works. You're crazy. In order for the, listen, let me, let me, let me, let me, let me give you some game. In order for the lottery to be rigged for you, right? Or for you to get one of those top three picks.

The league has to see you as moving in a certain direction, right? You have to show some type of foundation that you have an infrastructure to coddle this number and pick that we're about to give you. The Charlotte Hornets have shown that they will break any asset that you give them. We are not giving you Cooper Flack. We're not giving. We are not putting the Great White Hope in Charlotte

where they are tearing down everything. It cannot happen. He will not be in Charlotte Hornet. It's not happened over my dead body. I promise you it won't happen. Yeah, that would be the worst shit ever. It's not even like they need it. It's that they're incompetent and don't deserve it.

It's really the thing. Every team down there needs Cooper Flag. They're all trashed. They're all starting a rebuild. They all need the injection. The Wizards need just as bad. God knows the Nets need some lottery love. Not really, brother.

I mean, when I think of teams that need a talent injection, the most, I'm 100% looking at a team like the Charlotte Horns first. But look at the Nets roster. Look at the Jazz roster. Listen, the Nets aren't a serious basketball team. The Nets aren't a serious basketball team. The Utah Jazz are asked by committee. They want to be bad.

They are going to take into town, bro. Like, they could have blew it up a long. But the Hornets, they tried to be good. They just can't be good. They're incapable of it. And that's worse. That's worse. You just got to give it.

You got to give it up. And that's why they don't deserve Cooper Flagg. It's not tanking. It's just bad. You can't trust them to write the ship. What are we doing? It's going to be lamella ball for like 41 games. You're going to have Brandon Miller for about 50.

You have no idea if Salon is even going to be here. I don't know who that is, man. That's what I'm going. What's happening with him? No, I'm not putting a Cooper flag down there, shall be. Yeah, no, thank you. Chris Milton says the Wizards can be a playoff team next season. Agree or disagree?

I agree. I think it can be a playing team, not playoff team. But if you count the playing as a playoffs, then I agree. I mean, sure, if they get a Cooper flag, I guess it's possible. Let me, let me read you, listen, right now, the 10C, and this is why I agree with Mo, play-in team. Okay. The 10th seed Chicago Bulls who have had a, oh, look at that. They're fun type of March.

They are 33 and 42 in the 10th. That's so bad. The Eastern Conference sucks. There is a world where if they get either if they get flag or if you get a major leap from somebody, they can be the 10th seed. Yeah, I guess so. Right? Like they can have a stretch in the Eastern Conference where they win games and it's like,

what are the Wizards doing? and you're supposed to be tanking for another, for another pick. They have some guys, and it's looked kind of interesting over the last, like, three weeks. I can see it. It's fake interesting in terms of being good. They are far away from being good. I agree. It's interesting.

I like the young core. Unless Chris Middleton looks like 2021, Chris Middleton, they are far away. If they get Cooper flag, sure. Then all bets are off the table. Second year, Saar, and the best prospect that's when now ready of the last, like, five or seven years. Sure. Anything else from that, man, they are far. away. I don't know.

I'm looking at 27 wins next year, not 33. 27 wins might get you to the 10th seed. It's 27 wins in the 10th. We need to abolish. I've never been in support of a 1 through 16 playoff model. I think it's good to have culture, good to have conferences mean something.

If 27 wins gets you into the 8 seat next year, we need to abolish the each and conference. We need to condemn them to hell. It's disgusting. Condem them to hell. Is basketball, man. No. No, it's a kick's not.

It's so fucking blight on humanity. That's what it is. They could get to 30. They get to 30 wins. Yeah, if they get Cooper a flag. Okay. Yes, I'll say that. If they get a flag.

They're making the play in next year. If they get coop. If they get coop. Okay. And if Alexar gets better than like 45% true. That's the thing. It can't even be only Alexar like the Bub Carringtons of the world and all the other young prospects. You can throw in AJ Johnson, too.

He's been like really good over the last, I don't know, 10 games or so. If all these guys take a next step in Georgia. Jordan pool is doing the normal Jordan pool things, then I can genuinely see like 33, 34 wins easily. 34 is a lot. 31 is probably like the limit. That's like the high end.

I also, I do think that playing, even if they get Cooper Flag, is best case scenario, obviously. And 32 wins is their ceiling. If they get Cooper flag, which is basically like three games better,

three or four games better than what the Toronto Raptors are this year. Okay, that's fair. All right, that's all the news we got today. Let's get into the main topic this episode. As you guys see by the title, let's talk about the biggest X-factor players of the NBA playoffs. We don't have got to go through every single playoff team,

but let's talk about the most important players on the most important teams that are going to potentially swing the playoffs. Because, like, there's an X factor on like the magic, but there's no one single X factor. I guess it could be Franz Wagner. But I don't know, but there's not one single player you look at that's like if he's going to make the leap

or he's going to perform, that can change the entire playoff picture, right? So let's talk about those. the five to ten whatever we land on most important players to watch in the playoffs donovan you go first who's your first big NBA playoff X Factor we're talking about nobody other than my beloved OG and a nobi okay and why OG that I definitely was not expecting that and I'm saying this because one OG and a newbie and a newbie and a noobie is absolutely hooping right now he is a walking bucket and I'm looking at him because he is going to have to have

to be one of the, one of the best two-way players in the NBA for the NICS to, to make a run. Like, obviously, you know, like, Jalen Brunton is coming off, he's coming off an injury. We'll see how long it takes for him to get fully, you know, back into it. I don't think he's going to take a long time, but whatever. But we know the defensive struggles between Jalen Brunton, Karathy Towns, all that. O.D. and Nobie, if his offense and his three-point shooting can be at a certain level, And then also you have him playing all, all defense, like all NBA level defense, and he is a legitimate two-way wing, getting into a series where they're going to have to play

the Boston Celtics, you're going to have to have as much firepower as possible. And I think that I think that I know what I'm getting from Jalen Brunson. I think I know what I'm getting from Carl Envy Towns. Even Josh Hart, I know on a night in and night out basis, I'm getting 120% effort. I'm getting a near triple double, double doubles, all that stuff. one of those wings are in terms of Mikhail and OG are going to have to step up and the fact that OG is stepping up right now and filling a void if he can continue that the Knicks do have something special

who do you guys think is the biggest X factor on the Knicks I'm seeing you guys say a lot of different names spamming in the chat let us know who you think is the biggest X factor you've mentioned him in passing I kind of think it's Brunson which is like the easy answer because he's the best player but he's coming off an injury that he's not back yet there's nine games left I'm assuming he comes back within the next few games or so they're going to want to have some runway to get his feet under him let's say he plays four or five games before the playoffs start

that's not a long time maybe in a rhythm after missing two months he has to be able to like wake up and immediately be 40 points per game in the playoffs again which is a lot yeah that's a fuck ton to ask it felt impossible to ask you last year we all doubted his ability to be this one option as the only star on the team as a small guard a scoring guard at that like nobody expected them to be able to make noise because we were like shout out jalen we don't think he's like that and he proved us all wrong he had a fucking magnificent all-time great let borderline legendary

playoff run for as legendary as you can be if we're not winning anything you know but individual performance it was an all-time great series averaging 40 just being a one-man army that's a lot to ask in the perfect situation where you're healthy full head of steam coming off an injury and saying do that again otherwise we wasted a lot of draft picks for the small window that's a that that sounds like the X factor to me. He decides how far the Knicks go and the Knicks are the only chance to make some kind of noise in the Eastern Conference outside the top two teams. Bro, the chat is frying me right now. Someone said that the chat don't know what X Factor means and then I see campaign and Tibbs and the God as goddamn answers. They call y'all a bunch

of dummies. That's hilarious. They're saying we don't know what X Factor's or the chat? No, no. They don't know what X Factor is. They don't know what X Factor is. They don't know what X factor is. Oh, my God. And then I see, like, other popular angers like Cat or whatever, which is like... Cat's a good one. Yeah. Popular, yeah.

But when it comes to Cat, I think when I think of the term X factor, I think as someone who can give me, like, hope and I've seen them have an ability to do something very possibly positively impossible. And as for Cat, like, the ship has kind of sailed in terms of expecting certain things from him defensively. He's fried on that end. he yeah yeah i feel like cat is cat i don't i don't really expect you high or super bad low i think he will give you bad defense that fries you in certain situations and we'll give you big spike

offensive games that really wins you some games like he's just cat yeah exactly that's why i'm like i don't know if cat is he cat is just such a predictable person but in my mind i probably would lean towards like one of the wings either o g mccal who's been great since jillan jillan brunson's been out or hell maybe even like josh hart if he you know is shooting the ball at like a high high clip, which you see him do before last year. Mr. Robinson could be there. Mr. Robinson is a great answer as well. How has he been?

I don't have a good feel for how he's been since coming back. It's been, it's not like the most, like, ideal. Like the idea when you thought, like, oh, like, yeah, Mitch is going to be back and Catsgate would be there and it's going to be seamless. Hasn't been 100% that, which is, like, honestly, the way that he came into the playoffs last year where he had, he had, like, wrapped up and he had came back and then instantly was just, like, playing great defense on Joel and B. That's extremely hard to do, you know, for anybody.

And so for somebody who's missed as much time as him, like, it's fair that it's still not like 100%. Preciouser has also been up and down. And like, there was a- Knicks fans hate him. Nick's fans hate his ass. But he's turned, he's turning around. Like, he's played pretty well, like, as of recently.

And everyone's like, yeah, he read all the tweets of everyone saying like that he's been playing like trash and he turned it all real quick. Nick's, he's also. But he's also very, very up and down. But another reason why I go to OG is because last year, OG got hurt as well. And we've seen time and time again Oji and Nobie and his injury availability be things that can hamper the team. But if he's there and he's healthy, he's had moments where his offensive creation has legitimately been needed and he's delivered. I think that that is something that the next 100% do need.

Do the Oklahoma City Thunder have an X factor? they're so you know listen they had 50 games without chet and they were god damn fine they lost jadub they were god damn fine they started the season without heartenstein they were god damn fine can you say they have a next factor when they're just like so deep and like yeah i think who they're reliant on because they want without everybody i think he's jadov though yeah it's probably the best answer because they need that secondary creation he's looking really good as of late he's looking like last year jad up again you know early season the on ball reps just haven't been as good as they once were the shot making the tough shot making from the mid range and three hasn't been

the same as was last year when it was one of the best percentages in the league and you know when that happens the passing gets lower and you just haven't felt quite as good for him to be the secondary ball hander hasn't mattered because now you have isaiah hardinstein and chet and shay is the best player in the world this season but i can see jadub you know if he's playing like it hasn't been as of late and he tends this going forward that i don't know how they lose yeah i think jadab is the answer like cross roster wise like they have so many guys who can fill in every single gap needed and having iHeart who's just such a unique talent at the big man position when it comes to this playmaking passing and all that i still think it is j-dub someone in the chat

said donovan looks like a shek right now because we're in this beanie and this this st and this fit on that's hilarious only only reference i have for what that means is him Herschel Ali and Rami. And he also works. Just like, yeah, should I be mad to a Donovan right now, bro? Yeah, go get, Jess.

I'm at the road right now. I swear to God, I do. And I literally can't if you want. Donovan, al-a-lakeem, my brother. And al-a-l-l-l-ah. You bet. I did. I did.

I did. I did it. I think Chet's also. Honestly, I think Chet's a bigger X-factor because Chet's scoring hasn't... Listen, if I takes it to you, I'll get it right. I promise you. Okay, bet. I think Chet's a bigger X-factor right now

because they're playing the two big lineup right now. They're starting in the power forward. It's playing a lot of men, so at Hardinstein. And it's been dominant for the team. It's fantastic for the team. Their defense is fucking ridiculous. They figured out the big-to-big passing. The offense is good.

It's not good for his individual scoring. because you know naturally any stretch five is probably going to be a better score as a five same thing we saw with cat going back to five this year right if you were somebody that can shoot well and attack off the dribble you're better off attacking slow foot fives rather than trying to make that mismatch happen with size of the four so you're never going to prioritize chet scoring him playing power forward so if he can figure out a way to be an effective score and like get it back to 20 points per game while playing the power forward next to hartinstein when you know they're really like scheming for him not to do that they're just sacrificing that if he can do

that they're going to fucking blitz everybody. Chech gets to the scoring rhythm at the four, they are going to no chance of losing. I think, I think, go ahead. No, you got it. I was going to say, I think Chek can, like, roll in with a steamy hot, like, 13 points per game, and that 13 is going to feel like 25 at the most random time because it's like, fuck, where we got this guy to do with as well.

So I don't know if I'll be in towards Chet. Well, yeah, but that's what I'm saying. Like, you're right. Like, that's the calculus they're making. They're saying, we can let you score less because everything around that. that all the benefits you get from playing two bigs outweighs that we don't need you to necessarily be the score. So they're really sacrificing him in that way and it's fine for the reason you said. But imagine if they get both. Imagine if he gets on the heater and he gets comfortable there

and they get all the big to big passing. They get the double big defense. They get his spacing at the four. And also he's a goddamn bucket killing everybody in the high post. Like it would be ridiculous. Well, that's asking him to be one of like the like seven to ten best players in the in the league. In playoffs, that's not, that's not ridiculous. I know. I know it's not. I know it's not. It's not ridiculous. But it's also, I think, I think that point furthers the idea that J-Dub is the X factor. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because if we are going to sacrifice that and if we are going to put you at a disadvantage offensively, that's fine because you know that if, because you saw, you saw last year with, with, with, and with Gobert, like these double big lineups, you're

able to challenge people and put size on the floor. And when both of the, when both of the big man are good defenders right as opposed to cat in and go bear that is when you get legendary special defense and so if we if we can do that force people to either try try and go big with us and and you know lessen their offense or if they want to go and counter that we're going we're going small we're just going to we're going to dominate you with with size on on the glass everywhere j dv is going to have to be able to to create to keep those lineups there because offensively And especially to where it's gotten now, the offensive synergy between Chet and Hartnstein is good enough to where if J-Dub shows up, they're fine. And even it's also very, very weird because like you said, when we first started this, it's, I don't even know if they have a true X-factor because any lineup that they put out there is going to blitz everybody.

There's so many options. Like, let's say J-Dub doesn't play well. Okay. Now we put Chet back at the 5 and we go back to our small unit line from early. year and start Kaysen and we have Chet having more of a scoring boost because he's playing the five attacking mismatches. Let's say Chet doesn't play well and he's struggling at the four, put him at the five

or put him on the bench to close out games and have Aaron Wiggins in there, have Kaysen Wallace and they have Caruso in there. They have... I said, Joe, fuck, they got names, bro. That's the seventh name I could have thought of. They have so many names, so many options. Like, let's say, I say, like there's so many, the fact that their second look is going to be to put their

center back at center, that that's the backup plan for any which scenario is amazing. it's over I'm telling you all right now they are and I've said it all year they are my pick to win the time they should win the championship I have this tweet I'm ready to

I tweeted as soon as the day they traded for Hardenstein I mean signed Hardenstein I tweeted the these are the 2015 Warriors and this is going to change the league for the next five years I'm like that can't wait to quote it can't wait to quote it when they win you got that ready

and if they lose I'm going to ignore it and mute the tweet because of people who quote it go fuck yourself that's how it goes we control the narrative everybody. Once they added the mute tweet function, I never had to see anybody

get mad at me ever again. It's lovely. It's so great. Who's the biggest X factor for the Cavaliers? Mo? I think that's pretty, pretty easy.

If I look at Donovan Mitchell, I think he's a proven playoff riser, seeing what he did against most top teams in the NBA outside of the Oklahoma City Thunder because they just clamor everybody. But he's pretty consistent.

in within his game, and I feel very confident in his scoring punch. Cool. I also feel very confident that Evan Mobley and his defense can travel anywhere throughout all times. But I'm kind of in between whether the X-Factor should be him or

Darious Garum, because what Evan Mobley has done offensively has been a big part of the reason why they are one of the best teams in the entire NBA. And I'm really stuck in between those two. there's really two extra factors on this team

genuinely I believe it's Garland for me pretty easily I'm glad you said that I was doing the same thing I think it's very easily I mean again we keep talking about it all year the Cavalier season

entirely comes down to them versus Celtics right we don't really feel like any other team has a real chance maybe the Knicks if they get the best case scenario but I'm gonna pick the Cavs quite easily in that matchup

there's a non-zero chance the Knicks win but I'm heavily heavily predicting the Cavs it's really just them in the Celtics and, you know, they're one obvious weakness for the Cavs to pick on. We've said it all year.

They have two small guards that are starting. They're probably going to pick on the smaller one, which is Darius Garland. He has to hold his own defensively, and he also has to, he's going to give up some defensive value, right? If you attack him over and over, he's a smallest guy,

you're eventually, you're going to have your way with him a little bit. He has to make up with it at offense, and he has to be a walking mismatch, continue to kill bench lineups when he's a main go-to-score. Continue in their starting lineups to be able to attack mismatches and really stretch up Porzingis and make his lack of mobility hurt. Maybe out Horford, if you can get that matchup going.

Like, he has to be clicking at all cylinders offensively because you're not going to get some, like, crazy defensive performance, right? He doesn't have the ceiling for that. Yes. But offensively, he can go berserk and make up for it. So he can't have a poor shooting series. He has to be on fire. Yeah, he's someone who has the shortest leash out of all the,

out of the entire group. But also, like, in terms of winning a championship and shit like that, I think that of a movie is so incredibly pivotal because of his, the aggressiveness and how, at time starts his entire career. We've seen it win-of-way now. Obviously, he's a different player now. But I think I need to see more proof on the table for me to be like, okay, yeah, I feel

confident in his game. Now, the defense is very reliable and I can't say anything about that. That's why I, that's why, like, Garland for me, is on the scale, but I'm kind of in between. Yeah, I think because of Mowgli's defense, and maybe this is the same thing, and maybe it's not, I feel like in terms of, quote-unquote, pressure, Mobley might be the one under more pressure just because he's the one who has to show

that he's playoff proof for that he can that he can do same things for him what's somebody saying dude someone just said someone tell Mo his month is over what is over is he talking about like February so a black history

but yeah so like Garland the the cap superp for the last two years, even when they weren't the number one seed, has been the fact that they could have these lineups with a small guard and with the big, and both of them would be very, very functional. And so with Garland, again, it's been a minute since people have seen it due to some circumstances and some injuries and stuff like that.

True. But don't forget that like Darry's Garland is very capable of rising to the occasion in the playoffs. And so if they do get a great Darius Garland playoff run, I think that that even negates the fact that if Evan Mobley isn't a fantastic offensive player, they can still get somewhere if Garland rises to that level. So that's what I'm taking Garland. Chat, who do you guys think is the second best player on the Cavs?

Because I feel like that's such a debate. And I feel like that informs a lot of how people view the X factor. If you think that Garland is the second best player, you're probably going to think Evan Mobley is the X factor, right? Because you need that third guy to step up and vice versa. I kind of lean Evan Mowgli as the second best player So maybe that's why I view Garland as like The third guy that has to do his thing

I just feel like Evan Moby is a little bit safer Just because of the defensive floor But I don't know I feel like that that's gonna be a debate for a while Maybe the playoff performance will decide Who's viewed as their second guy They really are 2A and 2B for me I can't I still can't decide

Just because they do Their jobs and their importance are still so So so high on the priority list for the Cavs and they're important in their own way And so I can't, I can't say, like, what Mobley does is more or less important than Garland because they need everybody. I kind of think, I feel like, you know, they're not the strongest defense in the world. I almost feel like Mobley carries more of a burden defensively, maybe. So maybe that makes them a second most important player.

You know, they don't play, they play a lot of lineups with small wings. And even DeAndre Hunter, who's bigger isn't, like, amazing defensively. And obviously, the two small guards. So I feel like Mobley's defense is, like, super important. So maybe that's why I lean him. Because, like, offensively, obviously, fucking dares Garland. better, but the gap defensively in terms of responsibility is probably more

on Motley shoulders than the offenses on Garland's. Yeah. Who's more important? Yeah, I agree because if Darry's Garland's having a shitter series or whatever it is, there's been time and time again where Darry's not having the best game, and then Tyrone comes in and he just boop, boop, beep, boop, beep, beep, beep,

beep, pop, like just doing shit on the court all over the place. Yeah, the presence of Ty Jerome is a good point. Yeah, exactly. So I think that kind of helps me decide, and also on top of that, too, there's a reason why, like, not to say that he would have been traded, but there's a reason why trade talk

was around Darius Garland's name, and Evan Mobley has never been in question and probably will never be in question for the next few years. So I think now I'm waiting towards Darius Garland being the X Factor. Okay, that's fair. Yeah, I mean, also, I mean, Jared,

really the whole roster is a guy that MX Factor. There's so many question marks on how, again, it only talk, only when it comes to beating the Celtics, there's a lot of question marks. Outside of that, I guess, I guess nobody's X Factor because they're so reliable. Going back to the West, this is a fun one.

Who's the biggest X factor on the Denver Nuggets? Obviously, Yokic is Yokic. Outside of that, I think almost the whole roster has question marks. MPJ, you know, streaky player by nature, being the shooter, what do you get from him? Aaron Gordon hasn't been healthy. Jamal Murray is a guy who in some years in the playoffs is fucking God and makes them unbeatable. Last year looks a little more mortal dealing with injuries. Like, he's obviously up and down.

Who do you pinpoint as the most important X factor on a roster that's like completely comprise of X-Factors? And actually, I think I'm going to lean towards Jamal Murray. Anytime he's been healthy, they are stomping their way, walking their way into the Western Conference finals, damn near the NBA finals.

Now, has that happened? No, because he's been fucking not healthy over the last few years, and he had to get himself up to a certain point even this year. Now he's looking more regular and more of the not God version of Jamal Murray, but a good version of Jamal Murray. I don't think,

if the Nuggets were to have an upsetting round, I think I agree with you when it comes to like this whole damn roster is the X Factor, but if they go bad, like embarrassingly, it's going to be Jamal-Marie Solz. Yeah, someone, uh, senior everything in the chat said Westbrook is obviously the X Factor. Uh, I think he has the, the biggest like X Factor sealing is Westbrook because if he has a good series, that can like be a gigantic difference.

I just think that it's real easy for them to not rely on Russell Westbrook. So I probably wouldn't say him because if he's having a bad series, can just not play him and they can be fine rotation-wise. So I'd go to someone who has a bigger burden on their shoulders. So I guess Juan Murray, I also feel like Aaron Gordon is probably a huge X-factor. Their defense is so bad. They don't have the perimeter defenders at all to make a pick and roll defense functional with Yokic.

Aaron Gordon has to go out there and have a defensive lockdown performance of his life for them to really have a chance against a really great offensive team. Yeah, but that's more burden. Like you said than anything, it's really, knowing that you don't have the defense to personnel like that, you are going to have to beat people offensively. And as great as Yolkich is, he can't do everything. And you can win games if Yokic is scoring 40 and Jamal Murray is scoring 31. That is your formula.

You are going to have to get 60 to 70 points every single night from those two guys. If you're talking about making a run to the Western Conference finals and beating, you know, beating OKC in the second round or going up against the Lakers and beating them or some of these other teams, you know, playing the Warriors and their new look, you're going to have to get major, major contributions from them. And Jamal Murray, like most said, when he has, when he's been healthy and he's been good, the nuggets are like, oh, hey, his basketball stuff is mad easy. Like, we're good.

But when he's struggled or when he hasn't been there, they are going out sad. And it's really, like, his performance is going to define the season again. again. Yeah, I guess John Murray might be the biggest X factor of the whole playoffs and I think about it

because obviously anytime you have Yokeach in his prime you want to be able to be a like serious threat and it kind of just feels like they're not at least in comparison

to the thunder just because they have so many holes and yeah, I guess you're right. The only opportunity they have is to be a ridiculous offense

that nobody can keep up with. That only is possible with Jamal Murray. That's literally the only outcome that could make that happen. Who would, did the Lakers face off against

the Nuggets in the 2020 Western Conference Finals? Yes. Yeah. So it only makes sense that Jamal Murray is the biggest sacrifice because he was and playing insane basketball in 2020. Obviously the one of the championship, I think in 2023 or so. So he was also a god then.

And in between all those years where he wasn't there, he was either hurt or just playing like shitty, sucky basketball. So Jamal Murray is definitely like the big sex factor. Yeah, yeah. Okay. going back to the East, the Celtics. And obviously they're the safest, highest floor team in the goddamn league defending champs. Chris House Sourzingis is back now.

They're going to look probably pretty much how you'd expect coming off of a championship, going into the playoffs, fully healthy. If Porzinga stays, we'll see what the status of Tatum is at the time. Who is the biggest X factor there? Because obviously, KP's health is always one of them. Jalen Brown had a really bad start to the season as a shooter. I think he's normalized a little bit, but obviously that's a question mark. Drew Holiday hasn't been nearly as effective as a shooter.

he was last year. I think all three of those could be the answer. Which one are you guys thinking is like the number one? I'm going Jalen Brown. Okay. I think Jalen Brown like yes. Yes, KP, his health, KP's health gets them to a level where you start talking about them

as like all-time teams and straight, you know, unguardedable. But they still have to beat Cleveland in order to get there. They should have to beat New York in order to get there. But, like, Jaylen Brown has played at all NBA levels before, hasn't really done that this year. And there's a baseline where if him and Tatum are hooping like that, especially with the growth that we've seen from Tatum this year, they can do what they did last year, which is, hey, we're just going to run through the first three rounds, not even need Christop's Pozingis, and we're going to be fine. And a lot of that depends on how aggressive and how good Jaylon Brown is playing. And I think he is the number one extractor for them going into the playoffs. Yeah.

Yeah. I guess Jalen Brown decides their floor and if they're going to be able to do their normal Celtic stuff and not be relying on KP like you said, needing him. Like Jalen Brown decides if they can blitz the first three rounds without KP. But I think to beat the Thunder, which is like the end goal here, we all think the Thunder are going to be in the finals. You need KP. That's fair. Since he came back, I'm like, oh, fuck man. I love the calves, but I don't know if KP's there and he's 100%.

It's going to be fucking scary. And that's even more exasperated when you think about the Thunder who I think even better than the Cavs, obviously. I lean towards KP for that reason because you need every single bit of your ceiling. I don't think the 80% of the Celtics that's good enough to beat every other team. I don't think it's going to be good enough to even compete with the Thunder. Yeah, I 100% I agree. There's even been, oh, excuse me, I bet, 110% agree. There's even been, there's even been games that I single.

card. There's been even the games that I've seen earlier this season where, okay, like, KP is not playing as a majority of the year and they're up against a team like the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Cavs stop walk into their house and they not open, but they win in an impressive fashion. And even them, I'm like, I don't even know if they can beat the cats without Chris outs for doing it. So I think they're more likely to compare to a team like the Oklahoma City Thunder.

But that's why I'm obviously leaning towards like KP being. to X-Act. I think Jen and Brack to play shitty basketball or OK basketball, and because of how monstrous Drew Holiday and Derek White especially has been offensively. Shout out Big Dog in the chat. He said, came in the chat said, yo, this is Big Dog. Shout to Big Dog. Yeah, what if that's the Uber driver from yesterday? That's something he would say. Which one? We had like fucking five crazy Uber. Do you know which one? I actually, yeah. I can't remember. Oh, yeah. The one Mo was there for. What was I going to say before that?

This isn't the biggest X factor, but I think it's an interesting wrinkle. What if Tatum shoots really well? Last year they won the finals without any really struggle, and he shot like shit for a lot of the series. Obviously played well overall. I think great playmaking, great defense, great rebounding, everything around the jump shot.

But his jump shot was so broke for the whole run that people were, people were, oh my God, is Tatum ever going to be able to shoot well again? Like, it was like, people were really scared. What if he shoots well for the whole playoff run and he just kill everybody. I was scared. Forget about Jaylon Brown. That's what I'm saying.

But, and that answers my question from last year of what if Jason Tatum is just a bucket, you know? And that would be, that would be scary. If Jason Tatum can show up every single night and just be unguardable whether he's on the ball, whether he's playing making, whether he's trying to score for himself, rebound in defense. if he gets to that level, that is where we get to places and conversations of what are they going to say now? If he comes out and has the playoff, the quote unquote playoff run, that would be very scary. Yeah, like early in the season, when Jason Tatum's first like 15 games was utterly ridiculous.

Like he was playing like a top three player in the world. If he gets on a streak like that again and the three point shot is falling, the aggression to the rim he's had this year and last year really is here full force, everything else is clicking like man shout out the thunder if everything clicks right for the Celtics their ceiling is like I don't know how many teams in history can beat this team if they get that

version of Tatum and everybody else plays well which is a lot to ask for you don't you hardly get the best version of everybody in the playoff series but if they do and if they get the best version Jason Tatum it's ridiculous I mean I don't know if you ask every team for if you ask every player

on every team to play their best version of basketball I still don't know how they would face off against someone like the Oklahoma City Thunder with a team who I don't know if they have more questions but same amount of questions I guess having to face a Chet who's giving you like 2018 to 20 a game alongside J-Dub who's like actually shows up and Shay who's just being

Shay you don't ask him to do anything else like just be you bro walk in and walk in the crib and just score 33 I don't know all right chat all right chat who's the biggest X factor for the Lakers LeBron Ew Do you see that LeBrand

LeBron Lebron The Lakers is interesting I mean Okay so right now It actually unironically is LeBron Since he came back

From the injury He looks like Early season Lebron for those first 20 games We were like Fuck man McQueen is faded

It's time It's over Then he got Middle of the season Got into his groove Looked once again Clearly like a top 10 player Since injury

these past seven games or so. Actually, I don't think it's been seven. It's probably been number four since he came back. It looks rough. They beat the Rockets last night. That guy could not drive past anybody. There are some rough possessions. And, you know, he's 40.

It makes sense. I think at this point, he still has the ceiling of getting to that top tier player, but he needs to have momentum. He takes a while to rev his engines and get back to full speed for a stretch of games. I think that's probably the biggest X factor. Because if he doesn't get back to playing like a top 10 player,

they don't have a goddamn chance. But outside of LeBron, who's the biggest X factor? Oh, man, I think I'll point towards all the other role guys. Like, naturally, we may think it's like Austin Reeves, but I think Luke is so damn good. Like, he can overshadow Austin Reeves and his deficiencies on the court, whether offensively if he ends up coming short, which he rarely ever does.

So I think I had to point towards guys like, okay, what is Gabe Benson going to do? Can he give you, like, three threes? Hey, man. When he hits his three, they're insane. They're insane. They're insane. It's over valuable, bro. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I think it's, I think it's the, the Gabe Vinsons of the world and the Jackson Hades of the world and the Rui Hatching Roos. That's, that's why I would go. I would go either. Jackson probably. I should know, I was more on the lines of Gabe Vincent.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, Gabe Rui, DFS. I think the, so. The only reason why is because can one of you three shoot lights out for three weeks, for four weeks, right? Like Rui last year? Yeah. Can one of you guys just black out and just. make every three possible because that right there would be extremely scary if you can get an all-time

three-point shooter run from one of your from one of your guys like that that always is so that yes if that happens that means a difference i think in terms of like less variance j j reddick has a really fucking short leash with jackson hayes j jr reddick is itching to go small every minute he can as soon as jackson hayes gets attacked one play makes one mistake ruy center it's immediate go to small ball if jackson Jason Hayes can earn JJ Redick's trust and get those 35 minutes a game and give them a consistent guy who can at least roll and catch a lot from Luca, that makes a big difference because I really do not like watching Luca play in these small ball lineups for he has to do a lot of isolation and doesn't have like a natural pick and roll partner.

It's not like typical Luca Donchish basketball. He just looks still effective, but it's not the level of interior scoring you'd expect from him because he doesn't have that screener. Yeah, you're taking away superpower. To me it's Jackson Hayes for that reason. But yeah, it obviously would be great if we can get a 40% three points year. I do a lot to help. Yeah, I agree.

That's not everyone else. I feel pretty confident in guys like Luca and Dorian Finney Smith, Jr. My bar is not that super high for me. So that's why I'm like, I don't call him an X factor. So naturally it's LeBron and after that, it's the game that's in the Jackson Hays of the world. What about the Houston Rockets? Let's stick on this game. They're an interesting team that I feel like nobody fucking believes in them to win a playoff series.

and I get why I feel like it's going a little bit too far they are a good team still if I know you guys aren't confident either who would need to be that X factor for you guys to say they're going to beat the Warriors in the first round Fred Van Lee green oh two of no easy okay dude wow the end we get to five minutes left in the game

and like you start getting these like Fred van vbleet shots towards the end of like the shot clock and ends of the game and it gets It's a little frustrating sometimes because they are always the hardest shots possible, you know, and you know that the ball's going to, it's going to be in his hands. Yeah. Right. Like whether you like it or not, Fred Van Vleet is going to be in control of this offense.

And so because of that, his shot making is going to have to be otherworldly for them to make a deep run. Because, like, as great as a man is, he's not, he's not creating, you know, from. the perimeter like that. Sangoon, he can, he can, he can score obviously, but a lot of times you go to like end of game situations. A lot of times those shots are very perimeter oriented. And so you're not going to get Sangoon touches like that. I think that Fred Van Bleet is going to have to, you know, be the idealized version of

himself of what the Rockets thought that they were getting when they're bringing in a veteran championship type of guy. Yeah. He's going to have to hoop. Yeah. I understand a Jaylen Green answer too. Like obviously if Jalen Green has one of his 30-point-per-game heater weeks, that's a gigantic difference.

Yes. I feel that way, the same way I feel about the answer of like Gabe Vincent being the answer for Lakers. Like, yeah, if that happens, great, can't really, who knows? Like, that's so possible to shooting variants. I like the idea for Evam Vlique because, like, he is the point guard. He organizes the offense for better or for worse. And I think it's similar with him to what is with Dylan Brooks,

who in his game last night against the Lakers, he shot like eight fucking shots in the left fourth quarter. It was Dylan Brooks time, and people were like, who does he think he is? Pass the Rock. Did you see that offense? He had to pull some shit out of his ass. That's how I feel about him and Fred Van Vleet. They're both so often forced to just pull lightning out of a bottle, try to make something happen.

And it's always ugly because the half-quard offense is terrible in the fourth quarter. So I guess I like the Fred Van Vleet enhancer because they're going to need him to do something. I don't know. I don't know about the Frembley stuff because, like, with Fred, like, like, he's been a tough shot. taker and maker his entire career he's never been like one of the best tough shot makers in the league but that's just the nature of his game because he's a small guard he has he's been there's been plenty of seasons where he's shot like 39% from the field 40 41 37% like that's who he is that's his nature so i'm like i don't even know if like a cool 45% uh from the field shooting

series would do wonders for this team more so i guess the the answer for me personally go ahead donner say the thing that would push back on that is, like, yes, that has been his shot profile for his career. But when he was at his best doing that, he wasn't the number one option offensively. Like, you had Kyle Lauer there, you had Kawhi there, you had Pascal Siakum there. And so you had, you had other guys that when it got down to, you know, to crunch time or late game possessions, you also might be avoiding Alphran Sangoon. You also, you also kind of, kind trusted him. Yeah, I mean, Singu's also a next factor, but that's obvious.

Like, he's the best player, like how he performs in the playoffs is the next factor. Low key, Stephen Adams is low key next factor. They have been employing his double big lineup that if you ask me before the season, do I have faith in a Stephen Adams Sengun lineup at the four, five, four, I would be like, are you out of your fucking mind? That sounds insane to be you Sengun that way, right? It's not because they're using it really smartly. They're deploying it, um, just basically as soon as they see a lineup out there with poor

shooters, at least one or two that they can ignore. and really crunch the floor in a way that they don't feel like Stephen Adams can get really stretched out. They throw it out there immediately and just mash his team's fucking faces in with offensive rebounds and big to big passing Sangoon post-ups.

They just revert back to 1994 as soon as they see bad shooters like Jared Vanderbilt out there. If they can do that in the playoffs against teams that have good shooters and if they can make that work against straight up good offensive lineups, that's a like just crazy ceiling look to have

to be able to throw that out there and throw teams off. Do you think that they're actually going to be able to do that, Mo? I'm not against the Warriors. I said, do you think that they're actually going to be able to do that? No, hell no. I think teams are going to sniff that shit out once the playoffs start. It's working pretty well.

Again, they're using it sparingly. They're using a smart lead. They're not going to use it too much. Yeah, exactly. I can't hate at a certain point. Four to seven minutes of a game is going to like carry them to victory at the end of the scene. Hey, man. That's the time.

No, that's what happens. That's what happens in the playoffs. It's four to seven minute stretches that, like, that kind of decide a game like that. It's something that eyes of gas, that's situational as fuck lineup. That was, I framed it that way. I said they used it situationally. That was the point. Yeah.

Yeah. But, like, then, if it becomes situational and they use it in the right situations, they can decide some games. No, do I think that's going to be the deciding factor? No, but it's nothing to look at. Yeah, there's just so many. This entire goddamn team is, like, an X factor, bro, to be honest with you. Yeah, anybody with a lot of questions, you can point to a lot of them.

Yeah, exactly. It seems as the most questions by far to everyone outside of maybe the Memphis is Grizzlies. And they just have so much to, so much that swings on the pendulum looks at them. What about the Timberwolves? Who's their X factor? Obviously, his aunt is, Gobert is looking, he's a little, lost to set from last year, but he's playing well. He looks like Gobert, just like 90% of the last season. They've had a good Julius Randall stretch as of late, especially since, since,

second half of the season as a whole, he looks magnificent compared to how he looked first half of the year. Is it Jada McDaniels? He's looked really good. He's been shooting really well second half of the year after being goddamn awful to start the year. Or is it just Julius Randall? Is it just the obvious answer?

It's Julius Randall. Because it's Julius Randall from a Thunder, not Thunder from a T. Will's perspective, but also from an individual Julius Randall perspective. Because he, to this day, still has to have had a had. a dominant playoff series or a playoff series where you could point to and be like, no, that's when he was at his best doing the quote-unquote Julius Randall thing. And you kind of need that. And he's going to be healthy for the first time and a long time going into the playoffs.

And I think that like the Timberwolves, having that two-man game and being able to play off of both of them in terms of and Randall is very, very key. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, he's the easy answer, right? Just like Jalen Greens is the answer for the Rockets. Julius Randall is the big obvious swing factor, the big talking point. But I don't know. I feel like there's, outside of him being obviously the answer, he is the answer.

I feel like there's almost equal as much on Jamie McDaniel's offense. Because obviously defensively, I think he's going to be good. No one's really doubting his ability to be a good wingstopper. But a big part of the turnaround, while it has been Julius Randall looking comfortable, it's hard to exaggerate how fucking horrible Jamie McDaniels was to start the season and how just good and competent he's been now as a shooter from the mid-range from three.

If that falls off, it's that much harder for Julius Randall. You know, like he needs this spacing. He needs Don't see Devincento there. He needs J. McDaniels to shoot well. He needs Jansu to shoot well. Yes, ex-factors, like facilitate your main X-Factor

being able to do his thing. That's why I think I might lean towards Jada McDaniels because I've seen the Minnesota Timberals before in the regularly season, of course, have an impressive level of success without, Julius Randall. I almost feel like

if Jada McDaniels has the ability to consistently shoot well and do what he's been doing in the mid-range, like everything else will fall in place perfectly. But if he's not, yo, like your best defender on the perimeter being gone fucking hurts. It hurts

your team like a motherfucker when it comes strength-wise when it comes to what's supposed to be good at what your identity is. And if he can produce offensively or cannot produce offensively, like that can just change the entire course of the series. Shout out Shohei Otani in the chat. Appreciate you coming through legend. Oh, we lost Mo. Mo's gone. He logged up.

Always. Dude, did Shohei Otani just fucking nuke Mo? Probably. He's trying to pull up. That's crazy. Well, damn. Mo's gone. I got to figure out what's up with that. But that's all the X-Frager's I want to talk about anyways. So I guess we can write out with Mo and end the stream here. show hair tiny pull up next week yeah listen show hey he got the best of mo we'll see y'all good episode this week stay tuned for saturday it'll be interesting and we'll see y'all later