The Deep 3 Podcast - The Winners & Losers Of The NBA Draft Lottery | Ep. 212

Episode Date: May 11, 2026

Reacting to the NBA Draft Lottery! #nba   Check out the TD3 merch: https://the-deep-3-shop.fourthwall.com/   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   Mo's twitter: https://twitter.com/Mojo99_   Donnavan's twitter: https://twitter.com/Dsmoot3D   0:00- Intro 1:47- Draft Lottery reaction 43:36- Top 10 NBA Mock Draft 1:13:32- Knicks vs 76ers 1:29:06- Spurs vs Timberwolves 1:36:40- Lakers vs Thunder 1:53:27- Cavs vs Pistons Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Well, would you say that it's been a rough month as a Hawks fan after watching the New York Knicks? Kind of just decimate your team after you went up to one, thought it was going to be a good week for you. Turned out it wasn't. You'd say that's fair to say, right, that your playoff basketball hasn't been fun? Hey, man, the Knicks are one of the championship. We got two games on them. Okay, fair. Then would you also say it's fair to say that your one saving grace for the year,

your one hope for some kind of solace and enjoyment in the world was the draft lottery? valid. Would you fair to say that you had a pretty horrible night yesterday? You know what? There could be worse teams. I could be the Sacramento Kings. I could be the Indiana Pacers. But you know what?

This is just the cherry on top. I wasn't supposed to have this big. This pick really don't belong to this. So it is what it is. The gimmick returns again. Meet Gimmick, man. Exactly. We weren't supposed to be here.

Yeah, me, I wasn't supposed to be here, man. I literally wasn't. As you guys see my title, we are here today to react to the NBA draft lottery, talk about where every single team's pick fell, who the winners were, who the losers will, were. And this is like a pivotal draft lottery that will literally shape the next five years of NBA hoops potentially. So lots of dive into today, some pretty big losers to talk about today, especially Mo and the Hawks. Yeah, I ain't a lot.

I said hurt. There is. It's true. It's true. Let's talk about it. Cue the intro music. We're throwing it back. Whoa.

That's crazy. He was bragging. I don't eat it. The cranium is crazy. Oh my God. Crown eaters rejoice. So before we get into specific winners and losers, here's a recap of the lottery now after it happened. Washington Wizards, number one overall pick.

Finally a bad team gets number one. No, we're jumping up from the 10th spot. This is the first time since the flight of lottery odds that the worst record got the number one pick. Well, goddamn deserved. I feel like every single time whenever the lottery happens, speaking for myself, but also know other people do it too, we all as an NBA unit, fandom, NBA world sits down and we try to conspiracy theory our way into what happened this year and what Adam Silver decided to reward.

And this time around, he's rewarding. Guys who actually tried this year. He went ahead and sat down and said, you know what? Utah Jazz. Even y'all did some despicable shit. We had to, I think they got charged like $500,000 for sitting for sitting quality players out in the fourth court for no fucking reason. You know what? We see you.

We see the Washington Wizards making two big swing trades for guys who are like known all-stars and all that in this league in Trey and also Anthony Davis. Not peak of value. But good guys. We're going to respect you guys trying to be good. Yeah. And that's a follow this year. I love the verbiage that every single NBA fan uses now that what Adam's so rewarded. Hell, you.

That's become, like, accepted truth in the masses that this shit is picked hand choice. I love that. But yeah, that's the story, right? The top two teams are the two worst teams in the league that tried to buy in at the deadline last year, getting Jared Jackson, getting Tray Young, like you said, Anthony Davis. And they got rewarded down. So they're going to have an opportunity to be good next year while having, presumably, AJ DeBonsla and Darren Peterson in some order.

Kind of just what you want to see from a lottery that rewards, you know, parity. Memphis Grizzlies and Chicago Bulls jump up to the top four. Donovan, are you excited about those two teams? No. No, I'm chilling. What? I'm telling. The Bulls, like, they still have, the Bulls have so much going on with them,

and they still have so much of a, like, direction that they need to figure out with their new, the new front office era. Memphis, actually, I am, I'm interested to see where Memphis goes because, like, I think AJ and Peterson are going to go one and two. And then obviously, like, then the debate after that turns into, Boozer versus Wilson and then depending on where Memphis lies

then that to me is where the draft actually begins. Yeah. I'm excited about all four these teams in the top, honestly. This is a great top four. This is in a year where everybody was like spending a strange amount of time talking about the possibility of OKC jumping up from 12 to top four and kind of like doom posting about what happens when they get Caleb Wilson become unstoppable. People are talking about what happens when Golden State gets the number one pick and gets their dynasty reignited and yada yada.

This is a very ethical top four. If we're going to use the word, that's a buzzword of Twitter in the past four weeks. Kind of. There's a teams that need the top four picks that will get ignited, super star talent added to their top four. There's no reason to be upset about this, at least. You don't think Brooklyn needs a top pick? Sure, sure. There's many teams that did need it.

That's a problem when you have eight shooters in the league right now. But the four shiters are top deserved it, need it. It's good for all these teams. They're teams that I'm excited to see if Caleb Wilson goes to Chicago, him and modest, Buzellis running the break. That's an identity now. Something they're bringing in a new GM, presumably someone smarter that can do a little bit of something, even though the ownership group will continue to handcuff them to an anchor. But it's a direction. Memphis, I think we will talk at length about how they do everything right. So them getting presumably boozer, the like analytic darling

makes a lot of sense. I'm excited about that. It's a lot of good storyline on top four. Yeah. I feel like this year's draft felt like it was a very like, or this year's lottery, felt very ethical. And this is something that Adam Silver had to do. We had to do maintenance. You know, no one really wants to do spring cleaning and also the shit. Like he had to just get the dirty work done. And this is very foundational in my mind. And whatever happens with like the grizzies or the bowls is all good shit. But there's so many other pivotal things that happen in this draft that literally

fucked certain teams. I disagree that it's ethical. I actually don't, I don't think it's ethical. The top four teams are ethical. I think the fact that the jazz, I think one, the wizard, The Wizards won less than 20 games. They gave up 83 points. That's not ethical.

The Jazz, the jazz were fined for tanking. And they were given a top two picks. Bad teams are the top picks. That's what we talk about. That's good. It's good at bad teams. They have an opportunity to get good now. Aside from that, the Clippers getting the pick and the clippers being under investigation.

That's tough. They're moving up in the top five. Not ethical. I think there's a difference between, there's a difference between like, you know, the system rewarding parity and the ethicalness of the lottery. Well, I don't, I don't think that's the, that's the, these are different conversations. You want it to be respectable to teams you respect.

I don't give a shit about that. I want the lottery to reward the bad teams and have them, have the opportunity to get good and have a cycle of parity where the teams that are at the bottom get talent and can move up to ranks because that's how you get the top end talent. And then Silver said, Sacramento, you go down. Not you. You don't get that opportunity.

Everybody else can. Not you. You're not you. And that's a problem. Yeah, well, some of the other shorts are great. But I'm happy to top four teams. I think it all makes sense.

And it's like not a situation where it's a team you say, oh, they don't deserve that. They're just lucky. All of that is the good landing spots for those four super stars. I think they're up top. You mentioned it.

Number five, Indiana Pacers lose the most pivotal coin flip of the last decade. They traded the number four pick in the draft or number four standings in the lottery to get Ibiza Zubach. They also sent out Benedict Mathrin. And if this pick didn't convey, it was going to be at a future, I think, 2031 first-on-pick.

And now they get that pick back because of this pick conveyed. And it was a 52% chance. They keep the pick, 48% chance. It lands five or six and goes to the Clippers. They said, we talked about at length of the trade deadline. We're literally flipping a coin. If it lands on heads, we get Zubotch and a top four pick, and we're absolutely stacked next year with Tyrese Hallibur back.

If it's tails, we gave up way too much for the 13th best center in the league. And at least we have our starting center, but we lost because we tried to go bigger. could go home and they went home they lost yeah i can't i can't believe this i i kind of it is funny and i do kind of like it just just just just off of the fact of it's not going to be this powerhouse in the east like that but this is this is the exact situation that i was like this is dumb to do like you just open yourself up for if even if you didn't want to trade for zubaz you could just have this pick and go find another center you can just find a regular center like it's it's going to be okay in opening yourself up to this wrist was ridiculous.

And now knowing that Tyrese Halliborne is coming off the Achilles has every disease that's ever been known to me. And it's like, and like he's like he's fighting through so much. And the backbone of your franchise is going through so much. And the foundation of everything that that you're doing is under such chaos. And you think it's okay to just go upstairs and start shooting dice with the pick. That's ridiculous. That's crazy.

They're GMP. Right after the lottery ended, he tweeted this statement, Kevin Pritchard at Pacers Kev. I'm really sorry to all our fans. I own taking this risk. Surprised it came up to fifth after this year. I thought we were due some luck. But please remember,

the team deserved a starting center to compete with the best teams next year. We have always been resilient. I wish we could have video of him saying this tweet because he would have been scratching all. All day looking for looking around just eyes all big just like I can't believe it. I can't believe we lost this page. I would do. What did you do?

This is definitely a chat GPT indicator right here. This is this is absolutely insane for the Pacers that you could be in this situation. And when we were talking about ethical and at the very start you said the two worst teams, no, the Wizards were the worst team and the Paces were the second worst team. And you are leaving this draft with absolutely nothing. in one of the best drafts in a long time. And it's because you took this wild risk. I, like, it's crazy. It's crazy after here.

Is that it was very much calculated. It was top four protected for a reason. They thought that guys who were five and onward, they didn't really love like that compared to what the first four offered for them. So I understand it. It's a gamble. It's a gamble. But you have, at the end of day, you have Zubach.

And obviously, like, no one in their right fucking mind would still even want to trade the fifth or if. they landed sticks pick for a Zubot. You're not doing that. That's terrible value. So it's something that they got to swallow. I get it. But it was calculated.

You know, they'd rather have a case. It was calculated incorrectly. Everybody always always says that when something doesn't go their way. It was a calculated risk. You calculated incorrectly. And it was something that we saw

from the moment you made the deal. Come on, come on. Every bet is a bad bet if you're telling them it's a bad bet after you already lost. I was saying it was a bad bet before. Sure. But like every, we knew it's a gamble, right?

And of course, it's easy to say you're an idiot when you already lost. to gamble that was built in. They knew they had an opportunity to lose it. There was there like most of it. There is still some idea that the worst case scenario, we have a starting center that fits great. We had no starting center before. And we're still going to be a good team next year. It's unfortunate. It's a shitty downside that we overpaid so bad for Zubotch. But at least we have a good player. And in the short term, with that fifth pick, they weren't going to get a win out contributor at that spot unless they pick Yaxel, which I guess they could reach there.

You're probably getting a young guard who for the first couple of years going to develop. And it would be nice to have that player obviously more valuable than Zubach. But in terms of maximizing this title window, your downside is you have a very good starting center and you still get to compete. Your upside is so immense that you get together this insane rotation with both those that I understand taking that risk that obviously the downside is there, but the upside is so immense that I'm not going to say it's indefensible. I just want to say question. Just to clarify, so Isaac and Moe, y'all like the process, right? I don't mind it. I think it's obviously fucking you don't see that a lot for reason

because you're literally flipping a coin and it's gambling and it's insane to some degree but you knew the risk and I can at least understand it because the upside is so good yeah this was their guy I'm not going to say I love the process but I understand it yeah and I respect at the end of day because without this

okay let's say they do go ahead and keep their pick at number five you don't have someone necessarily fits this roster perfectly the way you want to because you already have Tyrese Haller who's going to be the guy and pretty much he can fit with anyone in the goddamn world but you have a massive gaping hole at the fucking five still regardless. And if you're not overpaying for Zubatch, then you're going to overpay for someone else.

In a four-star draft, it makes sense a little bit to do that. Again, it's still, obviously, they lost the bet so it's easy to say you're an idiot. But that is part of the calculus for sure, is that they said there's exactly four players that we think can help us win a championship in the next two years. Whether or not it's smart or not, who knows, if they don't do good the next few years, that's probably the end of the window anyways and you're going to have the rebuild and kind of ship see how come out, do all these things. And we're back to the point we're going to try to lose again to try to get in the top five

pick. It's fine. Now, what I don't respect at all is that fucking tweet, pull it up. To know you're taking a gamble and then to say sorry for losing that gamble, grow a pair. Stand on something. That is ridiculous. To say sorry, this was a calculated risk. Everybody knew that.

And for you to apologize for losing, you're not built for the gambling life in the first place. Let me say that. And then to say, I thought we were due. That's the verbiage that gambling degenerates that do kickstream say, I'm due. You know what clips I've seen of idiots that fucking flip coins on Lamborghinis. on kick say, I'm due.

That is insane verbage to hear from your GM. This tweet, I lose all respect for the process. Which is why when I look at this and you say it's indefensible, that specific tweet, clearly he knew I have to defend something, right? Because this move is super wild. And I do think that like going out and giving up giving up the amount of the amount of picks, if you're going to overpay for somebody in like in a free agency sense or like in a, in a, in a dollar sense. Okay, that's one thing. The Pacers are a team that won. You're probably not going to get free agents to go there anyways. You do build through the draft a majority of the time.

And now that you are giving up draft picks in this specific window, when you know that the second apron has this in this new era, like having actually good value contracts is so important. And you gave up a top five pick that was going to have seven years of cost control on your, on your books. you gave that that up that is i do agree it's indefensible i think the process from the start was and just allowing yourself to be in this in this situation i think it was ridiculous and i don't agree with it and so now yeah it looks like i'm doubling down and like i'm hating i haven't like this from the from the moment it happened and right now this is like this is just what this is what you what you reap right yeah you reap what you're doing you're doing something

yeah thank you whether reaping you're sewing you who's to say which one you're doing but you're doing something so i'm a reaping you're doing something so i'm a reap Someone are the reaping. Oh yeah, they are. They're reaping. I just, I just cannot, like,

fathom being a Pacer's fan and having to sit down and go through winning 18, 19 games just to end up with nothing. That's like, that's not even a gut punch. You tweeted that? And then when your comments

telling you to kill yourself? Bro, I got the craziest insult fucking ever. They were just on Twitter. I didn't know. It was hilarious. You say, how dare our little hawksman

talk to me like this? that shit was hilarious but you know valid you poured salt in the wound and that wound is gaping yeah man whether the process be would it be

it's a gamble and I understand your point that as a gym of a team you probably shouldn't be gambling you shouldn't be playing roulette with your team I think the downside isn't quite as bad

as it may seem given their specific situation so I'm not going to kill them for it relative to everybody else but I understand the risk and you probably don't want your team operating that way just because

you can't you can't with downsize as a small market team. No, this tweet was hilarious, right? Someone had been posting that AJ DePonsa gunner clip after every patient's lost, they only walk away with nothing. Bro, it was insane how consistent they were

with posting those clips. It's like, I can't imagine and fathom the heartbreak and pain going through this after looking forward to something every single night, brother. Like, it's okay. AJ's on the way to get nothing. If they would have gotten Caleb?

Yeah, if they got in four. four, Caleb Wilmsler or something by there, or even if like, hey, fuck it, if they didn't do this trade in the first person, ended up, ended up with five, hey man, you can work with something, brad. Nothing. But see, think about it. If they didn't end up with five, I guess you could still trade for Zubatch. You would have to go with future picks and not this one.

So they probably still could have to trade now, right? They could have to trade the 29, 31 picks and gotten Zubach still. So that's possible. And then you, what, draft? Who did you have to five for them? Because what is a young guard going to do for you right now? I guess you just solidify your depth and pick your pick of the litter for your backup point guard. Yeah, whoever you feel like is best, whoever you feel

I can play on long side, Halbernan and Nemhard. Yeah, so, sure, that's the other side. But again, the upside would have been that could have had Caleb Wilson and Zubatch. I understand it. It sucks. That could have been league changing. It sucks, yeah.

That's exactly why they said precisely top four protected. What I'm describing is gambling addiction, and this is why you don't do it. Because what I'm saying is, oh, it could have been so good. They could have hit red. And that's the downside. Yeah, it's tough. But for the Clippers.

Amazing year for the Clippers. You trade James Hardin and get a 26-year-old point guard. That's going to be here for a long run. Your building block in Darius Garland, who once he gets his feet healthy, if he gets his feet healthy long term, legitimate building block. You asked them two years ago, could you imagine landing an all-star like that in the position they're in? They'd say, fuck no.

Then you trade that and now you get the fifth pick to pair with him. That is an amazing pivot opportunity for a team that seemingly had no pivot opportunities. And now they can draft somebody who would now, whoever they may be. We'll talk about that later to pair with Kauai and Garland. or they get even more big brain and trade Kauai sell high this summer that's possible they can enter

a very very surprisingly bright future well bright because they still have no pick control but you know brightish for where they could have been it is it is wild that they got this fifth pick and it's going to be hilarious when the league takes it away they'll take it away next summer so this is their last opportunity I think they're not going to take away before the draft

so they can get this one in and the next couple are in taking it. Silver what are you made of man how fast are you willing to move exactly give them back to the patient Oh, no, that would be crazy. That would be so crazy. The tweet Kevin Pritchie was saying, my bad, yo.

I knew it the whole time. I just had to show face. Don't apologize for being early. This is resiliency. Yeah. No, but Garland, yeah, Garland, number five pick Hawaii. I definitely think, and the way that Garland was playing,

whenever he got to L.A., like, if he's going to be there and he's going to be healthy, and it is just, for Clippers fans, it is kind of annoying. that the two guys that you have are guys that have had major just injury issues over the last couple years and they haven't been

healthy all the time but it is what it is. But to be fair, that's the only reason you have Garland. If he was healthy, you wouldn't have a chance of getting him. Yeah. And now you have a 26 year old point guard. You have a top five pick. So, I think right now it would, it's much easier to say, yeah, trade

Kauai because I think that the teams who would need a Kauai, it's not smart for them to go out on a limb and take that risk of giving up assets to go get him, especially with any type of punishment, not, you know, not being stated out in public. So I think if you're the, if you're the clippers rocking with this core and just seeing where this takes us, I think it can't, it can't happen. And if you don't start next season 14 and whatever, like, if you just have a regular season, you can be in the

mix. You could be at the top of the plan, top six, whatever. Like, there's a world where they are actually competitive. Yeah, and we'll have an interesting conversation later in this episode. We do a mock draft of should they think about win now players for that exact reason. Win now and draft, no relative, a little bit older players that can contribute this season, or should they think about like post-coi, wrote the band did off, let's get a young player to pair with Garland. Interesting choices here for them, for sure.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Next pick. Obviously, so so far winners and losers, I think all obviously the top four teams are all winners. Paces are losers. Clippers are massive winners. next to the biggest losers of this draft outside of the Pacers

Brooklyn Nets and Kings fall to six and seven Now this is tough Very tough two years ago the Brooklyn Nets traded back for control of their picks Said we're finally gonna take it to do things the right way They've been rewarded by falling in the draft total of five spots Getting the eighth and six pick Shout out for doing these ethically Nobody cares when you're in Brooklyn

Yeah this this absolutely is hilarious Because They needed this pick more than fucking ever, considering that next year, they don't have control over their pick at all. They actually don't have their pick at all. That belongs to the Houston Rockets. And for a team that went ahead and traded or went ahead last year, and they said like, what, five guards in the first round or came up for the draft

with like five different guys. And for all those guys to be, you know, like, okay, like productive NBA players. Some of them are productive NBA players so far, but nothing really jump out the jump out the paper, no real foundational pieces, and you're still walking into the season with the same exact questions, that fucking sucks. That's a shot to the heart. And it's a shot to the heart considering position wise, too, because this draft is outside of the top four guys, littered with point guards. You just took a bunch of those guys already. What the fuck are we doing? Let's do it again.

Only one of them is good so far. And he's like, he's really like a wing like in pass and in Demin. So I don't think they're really in a position where they can't take a point guard. I'm not letting Ben Seraph dictate my fucking future. Yeah. So, yeah, you know what? Take Darius A-Kuff. Nothing's stopping to you. Go ahead, do it.

I think that's something that they should do. Whoever is the best guard available, whether it be Fleming's Aka or Wagger, whatever it is that they have in mind, they have no choice but to go for stealing for the next few years. Yeah. So it would be nice to be top four, obviously. This is a class that six and seven has those talented guards. So if you were going to fall in a class, like last year's hurt worse to me.

Them get ending up with Demen last year, hurts a little more to me than a six. Like they can very much take eight cuff. And I think probably feel good about it. It'd be better to have Caleb Wilson. Better to have loser. But as a consolation prize, I think this portion of the first round isn't too bad. Who's still a Nets fan?

Honestly, after draft lottery day, I do feel the worst that I feel for all of the franchises and all of the fan bases for that exact reason of, y'all won 20 games this year. And for you to walk away in a spot lower. than what you are. And also, all of these are like, we're doing ping pong balls as all probabilities. However,

everybody gets in their mind that whatever slot they're in, they're like, okay, we own that slot. It's like, not really, like,

you know, it's not really yours. But you get so attached to being like, we should be in the top four. And for them to, for them to fall out, it is,

it is rough. Yeah, I'm with you. I think that none of the point guards that they draft to last year, don't care. Don't care. We're going to keep throwing assets.

We're going to keep throwing resources to find our point guard of the future and we will build there. I think Nolan and Treor might seem like, seems like he'll be a very quality six man for them. He's worth investing in. Don't care at all with Ben Serraff. So if we get Aikov to start, Devin plays like the two or three, still continue to build up some wings around those guys.

I'm completely okay with that vision. Or Fleming, whoever they like of the guards of the pick six. Yeah, man. Just not ideal at all. Not ideal at all. I actually kind of like that. I don't know. I'm not losing that much sleep personally. I'm a Nets fan. Now, Kings fans, you should be,

you should be seeking solace. They've been a wait. They've had insomnia for like 20 years now. Fair. So they haven't had a good night's rest in two decades. And I mean, last night was no different. I legit don't know if there has been a more desolate future in the NBA over the last 10, 15 years. No, we say that.

But what makes your statement like you feel like even more true is that they don't have to be like this or live like this. They didn't make no size of trade for any superstars who are old and impending like the Brooklyn Nets or any other team that you can think of that fell on their face or like the Phoenix Suns or anything like that. No, they have all their picks. Just self-inflicted wounds. Oh yeah, they chose his life. They're not the victim of anything, of bad luck, of one GM being stupid. They're a victim of a history of many GMs, many people that have come through those shares, all being equally brain dead. And it's resulted in you being eternally doomed to damnation.

You have one of the more expensive rosters. You got a bonus. He just turned 30. Demars there. Zach Levine's there. And I think he still has like a couple of years left on his contract. Nothing really to look forward to at all. Very like just disgusting, smushed in together, smash burger of a goddamn team.

it's just it's depressing listen if you want to leave being a king's fan go ahead and do that you have to you should i think i think it's on it's on the table here because they're not gonna they're not gonna do anything for row this year and i think over basically their entire history like to for them not to have these very consistent peaks for them not for them to be the small market team that is also It's kind of like the antithesis of the patients where like they're just always at the bottom. You're not getting the number one pick. You're just far out of the top five like year in and year out. You're not getting the premium picks.

I don't know where they go from here. I saw a tweet where someone pull up the history of number seven of real picks. It's for it. In the last 20 years, it's for it. Really? It's terrible. It's so bad. It's the worst place to fucking be.

Fuck, man. I wish I got it. I didn't pull up the tweet. I don't know if I can Google I got it History of number seven So in the last What whatever he is

I'm just listening Jeremiah Fears Klingin Bilal Shaden Sharp Kaminga Killingahe Keeley Hayes

Kobe Kobe Wendellie Wendell McCartre Wendell Murray Maybe look my bad Maybe number 6th It might have been

The 6 overall pick That was a Nets fan I saw that did it Look at the 6th pick That's not too bad actually What's the 6th pick I think there's that one Six pick

Pick Tray Johnson Salon Anthony Black Matherin giddy anieca jarek hover mobamba jonathan isa buddy healed willie collie stein marcus smart nerlings noelle dame yon vesley you go back to dame yeah dame was drafted 14 years ago that was 2012 dame was drafted 15 years ago that was awful yeah it wasn't seven pick

seven pick you can sleep well at night there's some stars there usually six pick history says you're fucked hey sacram rental let's get the work man let's let's let's become confident. I think this is a good exercise for the franchise. But how? How? How? Be a good GM. Be a good front office and, you know, actually scout draft prospects properly.

Get the diamonds in the road. What the fuck is wrong with you? You're asking for way too much. You think they want to be good? These are the kings. They do want to be good. And no, they don't. They want to sell tickets and exist. You are telling them to, you're telling the GM to roll the ball up

and to put your hand in the dirt and just to, He doesn't know how. And to go out and make plays, he doesn't have the juice like that. But how do you learn, though? You got to roll the ball out at some point. They've had a lot of opportunities and the ball goes out of bounds every time. They keep rolling it out the door. This is not just sport.

Go play lacrosse, right? Go play soccer. This is what I'm saying, though. I'm glad they didn't get a top pick so that, you know what I'm saying? And that's a thing. That's why Adam Silver didn't want to reward guys like them because they fuck up everything that they get their hands on to. They've had so many opportunities to try to draft well six. Like the Wizards haven't done that?

I mean, this is a new wizard's regime. It's different now. They did. It was different now. It's blowing it up with this new regime post-Brad the bill. They've been fine. They sucked ass last year, but, like, their process has been fine. Yeah, the only, like, bad move that you could really, like, sit down and cast her over the last few years is the ditty thing.

But that's, like, they're like, okay, it's whatever. And they weren't, like, they weren't resting. They weren't straight for all-stars and resting them outside of the Tray Young thing. Because Anthony Davis was hurt. And the Tray Young thing, like, we knew at that point it was too far gone. They were legit ass before that. Like, they just were bad because their players sucked. So.

It wasn't quite as egregious of a like, oh, they're taking on purpose. They suck ass. So I don't feel too bad at all about the Wizards. Yeah. Who's number nine and ten? Let's go back to that. Nine and ten? We have nine to Dallas Mavericks to stay where they are, didn't jump up.

The one opportunity before their pick loses control with a lot of swaps for the next five years. The one opportunity to add an elite talent next to Cooper flag, they're going to get out the mud and do some good scouting and find a guy number nine because they didn't get lucky. This is, regardless of the fact, I think for the Dallas Mavericks, specifically for the Hawks and Mavericks, I love. like where they ended up being because these are teams that both they do any guards. I'm skeptical whether Atlanta will actually do that or not. But I think that because of how deep this is guard wise and how there's so many quality guys who can do so many different things for your teams. And these are teams that kind of like need so many different things too from that position

too. You can't be too upset. Yeah, you'd want to be higher so you have more optionality. But at the end of the day, like guys like Phylon is going to be up there. And Burries might be up there as well. in any situation in any universe, those guys will be productive for your team. Seamless fits.

I actually skip, yeah, you're actually to skip the Hawks. Oops. Number eight, the Hawks get the Pelicans pick. They had the opportunity to get the best of the Pelicans of the Milwaukee Bucks. Pelicans fell at eight. Milwaukee Bucks fell at 10.

You had potentially, I think, was it the fourth best odds total with the two odds combined? Yeah. We got eight. I don't know, was it the fourth? Of the top four picks. I think the top four teams have like 47%.

Oh, yeah, yeah, it was four. Yeah, yeah, the top four. Actually, it might have been higher because I think I'm looking at it now. Scroll to the right a little bit. like a 40-something percent chance to get in top four, right? I believe. So you had the third best odds we're getting top four because number one gets 52

percent. Number two gets 45 percent. You had like 42 percent, I think it was total combined. Oh, actually no, it's on their screen right now. Uh, nope. Either way. You didn't get it. Yes, it's 40 percent. Forty-three percent and you didn't get it. Yeah, shit sucks. I wanted to be top four. I wanted any, any one of those four guys.

I'm sure you did. Wilson, Peterson, doesn't matter. Like, I don't go a fuck about fit. Get talent in the fucking door. getting generators of talent here right now, please, I need it. But I'm not too upset. I get one of the top line guards regardless of the fact. I think that, you know, when he, when, what's the name, Mark Tatum called out Milwaukee when he fell to the ground, when he fucking called out Atlanta, I was like, oh, my fucking

God, it's actually happening. We won't end up getting a topic. And I think this right here was like the big old, like, mystery box for all Atlanta. the Hawks fans, no matter how this season went through all the trials and tribulations, trade and tray, losing, like, having a generational loss of the Knicks and all that in the playoffs. We had this at the end of the day to look forward to, and we still do, but hopes are a little bit less than what it was because the ceiling is just simply not there, no matter who's

up front, unless like Wilson's there or something. Wilson? Yeah. He's not going to be there. Of Caleb? He's not going to read it. Of Caleb? I'm going to leave.

I'm going to start lying and leak some medicals, right? him and Peterson yeah 23 and 8 for 13 is the final trade for the Pelicans did they cook um no

no fuck no 23 and 8 is the final 13 is right the middle those two numbers you could have had it's two for one though you could have had Derek Queen

and this pick nothing stopped you just this is a calm little protection yo Derek queen well if food of top four protected it then that means the hawks still would have got it.

So they could have done the smart-ish thing. It still would have went to the Hawks. But at least they avoided catastrophe of giving the Hawks one of those four superstars. At least we can say that. That's what this lottery felt like. It felt like a very big, like we avoided catastrophe. With the Hawks not getting a top pick,

with the Thunder not getting a top pick, with the Pacers, not jumping up and revitalizing their gap year. Like there's so many teams where it could have happened for them and it would have been like, oh my God, what's going to happen to the league now? this feels a little bit more like ballets. Call the lottery.

No craziness. Yeah. No headlines. A little bit of headlines because Indiana Pacers, but like I'm so glad to do is maintenance. How to take his, change his oil, you know,

you know, do the bare minimum so we can keep the ship of float. So I understand it. Your biggest headline is the Indiana team got screwed over because they flipped a coin and lost there. Yeah. What a great storytelling.

In recent years we had the Mavericks trade Luca and they get the first pick, rigged. They avoid that craziness and stuff. You can't have big sororans happen every single year. And Adam knows this and that's why he rigged it

to seem calm so that his other rigs are like, oh, we're actually doing something. Yes, because the fact that it is in the mainstream, he's like, okay, the block is way too hot right now.

It's way too hot. We have to calm it down. We have to cool it all. Exactly. So I'm gonna let y'all have it this year. Best believe next year? It's going to be madness. And with the new rules,

but they can do whatever the fuck they want because the odds are crazy. He's set it up perfectly. You know how people, you make trades for cap space you can go get somebody? That's what Adam Silver did this year.

He's better than Prime Vince McMahon. This man can write a story. You can suspend disbelief. Fuck with Adam Silver. Yep. Still got us thinking it's real. That's how great he is. Brace him.

We're talking about worst commissioner in sports. All he cares about his money. No, he cares about telling a story and he's amazing at it. He's just a writer. He's just a thespian. He's a set of a file.

David Stern was never moving like this. By Adam Super's letterbox right now. Let's see what he likes. David Stern might have been mean. He might have been effective. His penwork was not such an adams. What do you think his favorite like directors? Well, Adam loves twists.

So who writes a lot of twists in their movies? Kevin Feigie. He loves world building. The Tarantino guy He's an M. Knight Shama la. Yeah, I think Adam Silver has a lot of respect for Martin's Crozzi. Ryan Coogler guy. That is the top of the picks.

So recap, I don't think you spend the time of the top four, actually, to go back real quick. We kind of glossed over it. The Bulls might be getting out of hell. Yeah, I mean, when it comes to how they completely cleaned out their entire front office, It's cleaned out Billy Donovan from the scene too. I feel very optimistic because they have a lot of interesting pieces. Headlined by Modus Buzellis for real. And also Noah Senge being like seven foot tall now, I guess.

I guess like interesting. But outside of that, like they have like a whole lot of confusing moving pieces on the roster. But like adding whatever young player, whether it be somehow boozer slips their way, which is very possible. I think Caleb Wilson is one of them ones. And if you were to watch more tape on him, Donovan, you'd be like, oh yeah, like, that's. He feels like a very you-coded player, like very old-school. No, it is. You watch some fucking college basketball.

No, no, no, no. No, he would be your guy. Was that not wild? That's kind of crazy. He's your, he would be your guy. He would be your guy. This is like your type of player. He is.

It makes sense. If you're, if you, you can tell me that he's my kind of player. Yeah. Without being like, you don't would do nothing. You open up a book, idiot. No, I mean, you know, you openly said like, cause basketball. You watch him.

but it's not like Yeah, you know. You're not wrong. You're not wrong. Am I wrong? You're not wrong. You're not wrong. It's wild.

If you just started watching this shit, like he'd be your guy. Nah. Yeah. I love that. I hope they get Caleb. They have four, which I think they probably will. I don't think Boozer's going to fall to four just off of.

I don't know. But it's obvious possible. Those four guys are all bunched together. It is to the eye of the beholder at two, three and four for sure. My gut would say, I think on the first reaction, Boozer on the gris makes a lot of sense for what they value, but so is Caleb Wilson. So I'm going to operate on the assumption

they get Caleb Wilson at 4. Modest and Caleb Wilson running the break, Josh Giddy doesn't do a whole lot well, but he does run the break well on those passes. He can bring down the middle, those two on the wings, I can get behind that. It's very like smash mouth wildly athletic.

That's something that their new GM very much prioritizes and wants to have, he wants to have that be like the build of his team, which makes so much sense, whether it be him or booze, are like, I'm, I'm not going to say I'm up for the, I'm up on the bulls just yet because there's so much other things that you have to figure out. But this is like, you can't get any better than this when he comes to stepping into this

new fresh, new fresh regime. Bro, we're saying all this are going to draft. There's a cop. No, they're not. Oh my God. They're not doing that. This is guard. This is guard city.

They're not doing that. That would kill me. That'd be the funniest in the world. I would harass. Kenny Beach him. Kenny would hear about it. It would be hilarious. We face home on the show once a week.

And we just remind him for like six months. There's Jacob, by the way. There's Jacob, by the way. Dude, I'll bet so much money they don't do that. Yeah, of course not. But it would be funny as fuck. And if anybody can defy your disbelief, it's the bulls. That one, I put a little bit on it.

No, they're just going to talk about nothing, but like he wants size and physicality, athleticism. That's those people off the scent. It's a new guy, though. You can't let him know your next movie. You think when they hired the last year, they thought immediately he was a moron?

No, he surprised him by being even stupider than Garpacks. Maybe this guy's a surprise for us too. I doubt it. Prediction for this draft, I think we will be reminded why these lottery teams are in the lottery. All bad picks. All bad picks. And the Grizzlies.

Number one overall pick. Bad pick. The Grizzlies. I adore the idea of seeing Zach Edie and Boozer play together as a four or five combination. That's crazy. That positional size and the interior passing a Boozer to Edie and how much he's able to swallow up space is a vertical threat, that's truly fucking crazy.

And with a coward next to him two, who's long as hell for a small forward, that's crazy. I don't know what they're going to do with Jai. And if Jaws ever going to play good basketball again, if it's going to be from Memphis, probably not. I don't know what the guard situation is going to be like long term. But that trio would move the shit out of me. Yeah. This is a fantastic new slate to, this is a fantastic way to pivot. They just went ahead and traded all the goddamn picks.

Trade it away. It doesn't mean for all the goddamn picks in the world. And they did the same thing with Jerry Jackson Jr. who knows it's going to happen to Jha. Like when it comes to rebuilds, this feels like one of the fastest like Kickstarter rebuilds that we'll see in quite some time. And I feel like whoever this pick is going to be,

Caleb Wilson, who I would be so fucking enamored, seeing him alongside Modis Buzellas, or not Madas well as my bad, Sidgawr, that would be fucking fantastic. See you or if it is, if it is Boozer who just feels like one of your traditional Perennial All-Star guys, they're not going to be in the lottery for more than like two years.

They can't. They're too good. I agree. I agree. Again, that's a duo just made for me as a nerd. Boozer and E.D.

That's good. That would be immediately really good. Yeah. Out the lottery is a lot of lottery. Let's not forget who they were before this year.

They're a team that was like always, we think their talent isn't there, but they find a way to be competitive. Like, I don't think they're terribly far from that if they get Boozer specifically. I'm, well,

is a completely different team. I think Booz is a very floor raising type of player. is what I'm saying too. Like that's, it's a different type of team, of course, but the same people running it,

the same ethos, like finds them all these second round picks and all these undrafted guys that they uncover. You still tie Jerome, who once they ship out, John Morant, presumably he'll be the starting point guard.

I like that, the combination of players I just named. Yeah. That's not going to be a bad team very long at all. Yeah, Janlon Welz is still there and he's growing and developing

he's not a bad player at all. And then, of course, Santiel Domazzae. They have a lot of debt pieces there. Cam Spencer's there, who's good. Like, bro, they have they're not like a nothing team they can compete in the west they're not going to be like

11th seed worst case scenario i think next year if this player ends up being what they what they what they have been advertised as i think they probably finish like a 10th seed next year and that really matters if he's healthy or not yeah if he shows us what you showed us and i was like was it 12 games he played this year before he got hurt that was a different level of player will he ever stay healthy with that frame i don't know who's to say but even if that's the starting five you mentioned jalen Wells. If it's Ty Jerome, Jaylon Wells, coward, boozer,

and Edie, that immediately moves me. I'm gonna get up here and say that's a nine seat. Someone crazy. I'm gonna nerd the fuck out over that team. Yeah, that's a big ass team. I like it. Fair. I'm looking at the at the West standings right now and that's just like, I can, I guess I can kind of see them getting up to

getting up to 10, but also like the Mavs like Cooper's, with Cooper's ascension and them, you know, adding another piece this year, and what they can do. There's also just teams like the suns will probably be decent again next year. The clippers are going to be better.

I feel like jumping into that top 10 and getting into the playing range. That is hard. And that is tough. And so I just don't, I don't see it right now. I think Boozer is that level of guy, though, that's going to be an all-star that, like, he's not Cooper Flag,

but as far as, like, assuming year two, Cooper Flag makes his team incredible, I'm not going to go that far to say that that makes him for sure a better team just because we'll see what they get with the, what was it, ninth picked ahead. It's not like they're adding Caleb Wilson

they're adding boozer himself. So I'm not going to assume that's a great team next year just because the surrounding cast around them isn't one that you're like they're prime for a jump, they're so deep. And the Sun's,

salute, I won't be shocked if we looked up next year and they got lapped by some young teams. But even Dallas, even Dallas, like, you're getting Kyrie back, you're getting Kyrie back, you're getting lively back. You got this pick?

Yeah, you're going to be much more competitive than you were this year. I forgot Kyrie. That changes everything. Completely. So yeah, I think, I think Dallas, like the, the situation that you guys are describing for for Memphis, I see that, honestly, a lot more for Dallas going into next year that I do for Memphis. Yeah, that's very fair. That's very fair. That's very fair. I think one thing that also is like, it doesn't leave a sour taste in my mouth, but it's also like, damn,

if I wish I knew, if I knew we're going to be at number two, I would have done it with Utah and how they traded for Jared Jackson Jr., which I love that. I like that move still to this day. but knowing that you got the number two overall pick, Cameron Boozer is right there. And then on top of that, too, you have ties because his dad played for your team. And it's also his dad is a literal scout for this team too. You are like, you have been at every single level of basketball, like, towards the top of every single conversation when it comes to being the best player in the world.

And now, like, you have this guy here who still would. If Jared Jackson Jr. wasn't here, he would be like a great fit on this team. But now that makes this whole conversation a little bit mucking. You can't really even like entertain that for two seconds. And I guess that's more so like why I'm entertaining is because I'm kind of like dicey on Darren Peterson and how he will scale up and how last season went for him with all the health stuff. But also it's just like it's interesting to see how things panned out for them. Okay. Well, let's get into that then.

Let's pivot straight into that type of conversation. Let's do a mock draft of the top 10 teams after the lottery. Let's talk about it. you're a little scared Darren Peterson. You really like Cameron Boozer, Caleb Bullsson. Let's have done and look at each team and decide who, if we were in front of the front office right now, what we would do right now the day after the lottery.

Okay, let's do it. Let's do it. Wizards are on the clock. Yes, we have this pulled up here. This is the Fanspo mock draft simulator. On here, we have the big board and the left. The team is on the clock. On the right, you can see their current roster

and the salary cap situation. Yeah. Who do you want for them? Pick number one. Obviously, it comes down to Peterson or DeBanza. Go ahead and hit that music. Yeah, play the song. Ding ding ding ding ding

I thought you wanted me to play the gunner song Me too I thought you wanted to No we like our money over here That too with the number one Overall pick The Washington Wizard select AJ DeBotton

Is it no debate to you Is it obviously AJ And I would assume if you're going to say yes It's because he's a safer prospect Doesn't have the injury concerns to Darren Peterson Has the ceiling of Darren Peterson though And overall you just have no real questions

On him being good Yeah I think you feel feels very safe to say that he should probably be the number one overall pick. I think when it comes to seeing how he fits alongside Alexar, Kishan George, you have trades still in his prime, and then you can get whatever you get from Anthony Davis. I think in no matter what world or no scenario you're in, Agent or Bonza should be the answer regardless of the fact even with fit. he feels like your stereotypical prototypical 6-8-69 guy mad athletic three-level score he shot like 33% from the field he was overly taxed offensively 32% from the three-point line but he has he shot like

70% 79% from the free throw line and his touch is there he's so creative when it comes to getting to his spots he loves the mid-range shot the mid-range shot he's he covers so much ground with his length and all that i think he's like he feels like one of those guys who you look up and he's like, oh, this is just like an eight-time all-star, a guy who can sit down and call, like, one of the two, the three best players on a championship level team. He's that level. Damn. Okay.

Yeah, no, I agree. And I think Darren Peterson could be that as well. It's just the injury thing. And if you like both players a lot, I think it's fair to say that's going to be the differentiating factor. I know some people will have some concerns about AJ and the fact that I don't know if it'll ever be an impact defender for his size. That's very true.

Which is a problem at 6-9. You'd want a guy to be some type of defensive ups. side and his just inactivity at the college level is pretty crazy for a prospect of his level. He's one of the lowest stock percentages you'll see of any prospect that's deemed to be this level as a wing. It doesn't do a lot of the offball stuff. Doesn't do a lot of like the wing stuff you want to see, especially from a team that has a go-to score in Anthony Davis when he's healthy, has a lead point guard in Tray Young.

You really want AJ to like grow as a wing, not just like an on-ball guy, be more of a traditional small forward, not this like combo shooting guard that a lot of guys become these days. So that'd be a question. They have to ask, do they think he can fit that? I assume the answer is probably yes. And if you can have him grow in that way, make it so he does a small stuff as a complimentary player first.

They can grow into being the on ball scoring God. I like it. I think when it comes to like just situational, I don't think there's a better situation for him. You could argue Utah, but I don't think there's a better situation for him at all to not be overtaxed while also learning how to do all the nitty-gritty things and then eventually growing up to becoming a top 10. But do we think Utah says this is our guy? He's in state.

We put so much money into BYU's pockets to make sure we get this guy. Do we have to trade up and get him or one pick away? I think you have to consider it. Yeah. I think like. If you're the wizard, though, do you consider it? No. I'm picking up the phone and I'm hanging up immediately.

I'm calling the cops on you. Why would you want me to do that? What are you telling the cops that's happening to do you? This guy's trying to rob me on the phone. This guy from Utah's mad. He's blowing up the phone right now. What's going on? A crazy woman on my line.

He won't leave me alone. Yeah. Yeah, I don't think, like, you can, you can hear him out, but unless the hall is crazy, I wouldn't, I wouldn't do it. I think, like, for, for Washington, you have to, AJ moves and looks like, just straight eye test, moves and looks like a number one pick. And I think, like, the athleticism and all of the physical tools that he has for all of the questions that you have about all the other things, you are going to, regardless if it's true or not, you're going to lie to yourself and you're going to tell yourself, we can, we can turn them into this all around, and somebody who can do everything because he is that physically talented. So that's why you take him one. If I'm the Wizards and somebody wants to give me a haul to move up to one,

I like all these top four picks. I think it wouldn't be, it wouldn't be unwise to trade down, take extra assets, and just, oh, no, I got to pick the third best all-star of this class. I don't think that'd be crazy for this position they're in. Yeah, but also it says a lot that someone's willing to mortgage some of their future to get a step up and grab someone like AJ. So that will tell me, like you want all this for him? If they want to tell me Keonté George and the two-pick

Or the second for the first week. All right, you think Keonté George is a superstar. No, I'm like, I don't even know why they would. Nah, it's not even that. It's like, that's a lot. That's a lot. If you're doing that, then I'm saying hell no, because damn, you want him that bad?

No. Mo, would Darren Peterson be or won without the injured concerns? Mm. I think he's probably like tier three or not tier three, but he's like player number three, maybe four for me because I think that when you look at his tape versus him, And I don't watch a lot of him. I don't watch high school basketball.

I think that's just so crazy to me because they're literally like 16, 17 years old. And they're not even fully into their body or whatever. Yeah. But I think it's so crazy to see how different he looks athletically from there compared to his what he looks like and what he did in Kansas. But also in the same conversation to the level of shooting and how easy he just gets his bag off without any like real hard work is like tantalizing. So if someone calls, someone walks in to me and be like, yeah, he's like the first best, he's the best player.

He's a new, this generation's Kobe Bryant or whatever the hell it is. It's cool. I would believe it. But I think for me, how he impacts the game if he's not getting a bucket. He's a great defender. That also saves a lot. But the passing is what like stops the conversation for me. Yeah, the passing was a bit disappointing in terms of him being like a lead guard.

So I think about him more as a combo now more as a true shooting guard. I would definitely consider him number one if he didn't have the injury concerns. And if it didn't seem like something that might be following him, if it was just a one-time thing and there's 100% certainty, there's no type of lingering concerns, I would a million percent be considering him at one. I think I'd rather consider Cameron Boozer one before him. This person. I like all three. I think all three can consider one. That's the real thing because I think all three are number one overall level prospects.

But okay, camera, AJ DeBanza goes first overall in our mock draft. Washington Wizards. My bad. Utah Jazz on the clock number two. I think they obviously go Darren. He fits perfectly between all the giant players they have. Here's a guard-sized guy that's incredibly good when all you have is six, nine players.

Yeah, and you can tell him, just don't dry scoop the creatine. You'll be eye. Yeah. Dry scoop and creatine is nuts. Have you ever done that before? Dry scoop, no. Why would you dry scoop creatine?

I don't know. I never took creatine before, so I'm just like. No, that was hilarious. I don't know who told him that. That shit was not true. That shit was saying bullshit on that. I know.

He had to figure out something shit to say. That was such a cover up. I'm not going to like, there's no world, unless you took 10 times the dose of you were just supposed to take creatine and drank no water and your kidneys are fucked,

then maybe Creighton and give you full body cramps. I felt like I was going to die off of Creight team. The most research product in the history of fucking food science. He legit had to be drinking no water at all.

At all. Which is some young people have shit like that. Remember D.K. Mac I was talking about he did seed Skittles all day and stuff like that as an elite athlete. Sometimes young guys have surprisingly strange habits. Maybe he was drinking no water.

And that's possible. So we get him two bottles of water. We get him a Stanley Cup and an Ovala and he's fine. And it's okay. And he can come in and he can score 25 for us and that that's fine.

The only thing that worries me about this pick and that makes it feel not as seamless or perfect necessarily is that there is like a playmaking gap there. But thankfully, I do feel like you do have one of the, a very good, smart offensive head coach who will prioritize a lot of these guys to like get in the right places, get off the ball quick and all that. So I like it.

I like prioritizing Daryans playmaking and his development for that reason and trying to give him those touches early on. And also that's a point guard problem, is that they have to decide, is Count of George, that guy, can he be a playmaker? If not, he's the one that's replaced eventually. Because Darren Peachson has such a ceiling, such a floor that I'm not worried about that in terms of anything.

He's good enough that we figure out the rest around him. I agree. Yeah, I'm not letting Keonti George sit down and like mess up what this guy couldn't get at all. Yeah. We say, also, we say that a lot. There is honestly, that list for me is really growing in terms of players that I'm not going to let determine my future. Oh, for sure.

And so it's like, I understand. We just traded a lot for Jaron Jackson Jr. If you think that Camboozer really is like a number one overall pick talent and that he should go there, I'm not really letting that stop me right now. If you think he's that, he's that caliber of guy because one, also. So if they do get Darren, the roster, I do think is very, it's very, very intriguing. I think it's a playoff immediately. Yeah, I think it's up there.

But also, if you do have Camboozer, okay, he could play for. for two years kind of behind behind jaron he could develop just just a little bit more but if you have that level of player on on your team you have so much more flexibility in case the jaron thing doesn't work and you need to get off of money i think it's okay to even still consider that it just be so weird and wonk it to roll into next season with with kiontie and then you have a slew of guys you got what jaron jackson junior played your two or something like that got jaron We're going to break basketball. Right.

It's too much. To turn after two, Laurier at the three, Cambuz at the four, Walker at the five. That's just too big. With that being said, though, I also agree. I also agree Camboozer is that little prospect. This is the easy pick number three to me. The Grizzies getting Camboozer is incredible. Everything they do in that new motion system with Isola in this like smart basketball frenetic.

Everybody make a good read. That is Camboozer to a T. The interior passing you're going to see of Boozer throwing lobs on a short roll to Zach Eadie is going to be fucking beautiful. I don't know. My Kayla Wilson's stuff. It to me, it is very tough. They're both incredible. The fit between that team

and just how synergetic that duo of Big Men is to me plus everything we know about the team and how they already have this style of play of people putting the ball on the ground. Boozer makes so much sense to me. When it comes to putting the ball on the ground, I think Caleb Wilson does that better

when it comes to putting the ball through the fucking backboard. Caleb Wilson does that so much better. When it comes to putting the ball through the backboard, yes. I didn't say backboard. I didn't say you, Shaq. I didn't say dunking it.

Now, Caleb's not Shaq. Yeah. Caleb's not Shaq, but I think that Caleb Wilson's ceiling is higher. Now, I think things may be safer and it's not. Obviously, I think if I was, if it was me personally, I don't know. I don't know where I have, where I've reached towards, but it's a conversation. Now he can't be ahead of Caleb. It's a conversation for me.

Okay. Over, we're Peterson. I think that's the thing. I'm not, I think that Peterson is like towards the bottom of this tier. Okay. And then I have Boozer and Caleb smushed in between each other. And for me personally, I think Caleb, well, he just feels like the prototypical Memphis guy from like a cultural standpoint.

Not what these new guys have going on right now. This is a tough choice. This is tough choice in the draft. Both are incredible opportunities to have high level stars. Who do you want alongside that Gede and all these guys? I like the idea of Cambooz are there more just because the way he operates in short spaces. His interior passing is incredibly good. They need a lead playmaker.

That's the type of thing they're exactly missing. And maybe Caleb could also evolve into that. you know, people say like maybe he can be in Gen Z, Chris Bosch and be your main guy. We'll see. I'm certain that Cam Boozer will be an elite point forward. I'm not even, if it's like the Gen Z. Chris Boston, like, okay, that's not, I wouldn't entertain that conversation. Another here or there is.

But if he is like the interior presence that I think he could be being a defensive force as well or having the potential to seeling to, which is something that that's not in the conversation for Boozer at all, that right there to me lends itself to be an even higher scene play. If you're going to do it, you're going to do it. I might roll the while and say, fuck you, give me Cainville Wilson. Camboozer could be the best offensive

power forward in the league. Offensive. That's in the conversation. Think about the players out there. He can be what you want Pallow to be is that point forward size mismatch that can create plays. Already a better playmaker.

Can Palli Bancaro. We'll see if the scoring goes. In that conversation, that's maybe more of a Palli Bancaro conversation than it is a Camboosur one. But that style of player, I think the idea that is very tantalizing. That's why Pallel went one,

having that constant mismatch that can make plays for others, especially when you have a guy who's specifically good at Inte Passing like Camboozer with the interior force like 80 that's too enticing for me to pass up with Caleb does the three point percentage no that that does that mean anything to you because I mean something because I do think like it is like seeing guys who are uber athletic and then they don't have the the three point shot you can over index on the athleticism and then just be like oh yeah he'll he'll learn how to shoot and then we get to year four and he's shooting 32 percent and you're like bro

I'm I need this to get up to 35 36 like can you can you do you do? do something and then you start to hit a wall in his development as an officer player like does that does that move you in terms of like having booze over him that does move me it is worrisome I feel a little bit better because it's like okay he's not shooting like

65% from the free throw or anything like that it's somewhat respectable it's in the low 70s which you can work with that and if you look at the shot too it's not completely broken you know now we play this game a lot too at the same time as well we've only almost every single

prospect ever. So if you want to go boozer, that's fine. We can roll with it. Yeah. It feels more complete. I start to get nervous when we're projecting people out and we're like, where's free throw percentage is good? So he's your profile. He's a good shooter. But also he has good touch. You know what else makes you a good shooter? Knocking down shots. Like I would, I would like to see you do that at a bit higher clip to have that, to have that work. So like, if we're, if you do think that they are even, I do think that the floor of Boozer and, not having that specific flaw because that can end up being

a pretty fatal flaw for guys like especially like of that of that, of that size. I think I think Boozer right now I would take him. I don't even think Caleb Wilson needs to be a great shooter though. He can be offensively like a more polished version of whatever

Mobley is offensively or that type of like lengthy slash. Imagine Evan Mobley with anger problems. Evan Mobley has way more fluidity can actually get by people. Like that's a good player. It already is a good player but that can be a great offensive a player even without a jump shot. Yeah.

I don't think he's an on shooter. So I'm not terribly worried about that. But we can go Boozer. Going back to what you said, I liked how you kind of compared Boozer to Apollo. They're different players obviously. But similar mold, I think Boozer's like the more complete, best version of what we thought Paulo was supposed to be.

And combined with like the shooting, the processing, the ability to like use his strength to get to that rim while also breaking down defenses from the top of the key and running offense and masking as like a secondary offensive creator too, you know, That's special. That's, damn, that's Polo-like. That's, like,

Detroit Pistons basketball, Detroit Pistons, Blake Griffin-like right there. That's special. I'll take that. If you have a loser and AD and you get one big guard who can drive,

how does any team have three big bodies that can stay in front of those guys? That would be crazy. That's tough. So, Blue's at 3. Now, Chicago Bulls and the clock. Finding the person that can get them out of the mud for good.

Is it obviously, Caleb Wilson? There's Aikoff, man. There we go. The conversation begins. Let's talk about it. Let's story tell, man. Let's story tell. Come on.

Please no. Caleb Wilson is a fucking lifeline for a team that's been drowning for decades. You get Caleb Wilson. Him and Modis Badellas mean these two athletic wings. I'm in love with that fit. Yeah, I agree. I think that's the best fit right now for them. It's the best ceiling play right now, too.

Him and Modis are like, they go together so well. And you're restarting your entire team. You don't know what center is going to be there for you, for the future. So yeah, get the best player available. Yep. Easy pick. Number five, Clippers. Getting this pick from the Pacers. What do they do with this opportunity in front of them? Right now, this tier of prospects, mostly a bunch of lead guards. They already have Darius Garland who firmly cannot play with another small guard.

You're still trying to win now because you got Kawhi? What do they do? You think firmly can't play? Firmly. If you want to be a good team, you cannot have two small guards and Garland be one of them. Yeah, yeah. Maybe I feel a little bit higher on. on Garland.

No, I'm high in Garland. It's just like maximizing Garland. Yeah. Defensively, you're not going to survive with him being equally as held back as a guard next to him. Yeah, it's tough. It's very tough. And this is where like the draft really, really, really begins when it comes to no one knows what the fuck is going on. And at this point in time, does anyone want to sit down and entertain some calls?

Trade back? Should trading back be a potential option? I think the Kings or the Mab to try and trade up. to get their guard of the preference, whether it be A-Cuff or Fleming, whoever may be that they want to be the lead guard next to their stars, one of those teams should trade up.

Now, I don't know if we do that for this exercise, but I think that they should do that, and then the Clippers should take whoever they think is the best off-ball guard, or if they want to get fancy and pick Mara, you know, for a place Zubatch. That's a, a lot of people will call that a reach.

It would be, it would be. I like that, but I think ultimately what this team ends up doing is picking the probably best guy available, considering that their future is dicey. They still don't have several first-on picks for the next few years off of what they did with OKC. And you go for a ceiling.

Also considering, too, like, Darius Garland isn't healthy all the time too. You got him for James Harden for a reason at that price. I think you pick the best player available. I think this idea if you can't draft for fit is such an overused adage that is people to say that because it's like a smart thing to say, you do have players in a roster and you need to win games and be productive. I think you do need to draft for fit to some regard. I think when you're the worst team in the league

and you have no good players, you don't draft for fit. But when you have Kawhi and assuming they don't want to trade him and you have Garland, you do have to not, you can't pretend those guys aren't on the roster. At one point in time, they were the worst team in the league. They weren't very far from that. It had to do some generational shit led by Kawhi and Leonard who appears like once in every blue moon.

That's all I'm like, I don't know, man. Yeah, but either way, fuck Kawhi Leonard. You have Darius Garland. You're not going to get rid of him. That's your new building block. You cannot pretend you don't know Darren is there and draft. and draft another lead guard that doesn't fit with him?

So I think in this scenario, what makes you feel better is if you want to take Keaton Wagler, who has like a net size, but I don't know if that size is necessarily like functional when it comes to what you typically see and how it's used as an advantage. But if you want to entertain that, I'd be open to it.

Kingston family would be the easy conversation, but he really doesn't feel like he can play with Daris Garland, even though he has more size with him too. I think he's like six, three and a half or six four. But that's even rough, too. Okay, well, who's the best profiling as an offball guard of this bunch to you? Is it Mikhail Brown? No, he's even more of a flyer for me.

He's even more of a flyer. I think right now I'd probably want to take Keene Wagler. The ceiling is there, and on top of that, too, I think there's a couple of scenarios where he can play what Dare is going. But in that same breath, though, let me tell you this as well, because this is a collective idea. Same breath, he will be fucking fried defensively. He'll be fried defensively there's Garland.

Then why would we pick him? Do you think there's any chance to become a good defender? No. So I think ultimately let's get Bradenberry's. Because he's not necessarily like the lead guard on a team. And the creation and the playmaking isn't where you want to be at for like your lead guy. But when it comes to doing all the other things on the court, rebounding, being a froche defender. And also like playmaking here and there when need be.

I think he's like the perfect stopgap for all those things. He annihilates every question. Hey, he stills in a fucking bludder. They call their positions. Burrys. Burrys. Got a shooting guard? Oh, he said shooting guard.

Burries. I think you just pass him down a little bit. I don't know what this. Yeah, I'm not sure where they would like list them as. There is. Right there. Rating Barry is number six overall. Good size.

Six four. He's stocky. He's 200, 200 pounds or whatever. He's the heaviest guy here. I think that this is the best decision for all the questions that they have in between. Number seven, Brooklyn Nets. Do they just take Darius A-Cuff and run and say we got our lead guard? Number six, Nets.

Please. Oh, yeah, number six, Brooklyn Nets. Please. Yeah, best player available, fuck it. They think A-Cuff can be this star score? Please. What's stopping you? Nobody.

Nothing is stopping you. Demon can play off-ball with him. That's a good fit. Demand has the size. If he can develop, add some weight to him, become more of a defender too. Be your three-in-d-wing that can do some secondary playmaking. A-cuff can be your Trey Young. I'm not mad at it.

I'm not mad. I think Aikoff right now, he is like the, offensively, he's the most all-around guard here, and he has, like, he's top end at a lot of goddamn skills. He can get it at the paint. He's a good, he's a good paint score. He gets, he does a great job at getting those touches. He's a great mid-range score.

He has a floater. He has a great passer. And all levels, connective or main playmaking guy, he can get a guy over for a lob as well. There's so much to his game that's just, like, so refined. And if he ends up being like the best guard in general over like Peterson, that would not surprise me at all like two, three years from now. Bro, just say it.

I'm not going to say it. He's tough. He's tough. He's tough. Don't ask about the defense. Don't ask about the wingspan. He's nice as hell. He's tough, man.

Okay. But as a team in the nets who needs top end talent, that's a good swing and hope that he can just be one of the best scores of the position. Yeah. Sacramento Kings up next. I think they do the same thing and just go for the best lead ball handler they can find at this range. I think they go Kings and Fleming.

The Kings, yeah, they probably go Kings and Foaming. That sucks so because I like him, you know. Like anybody who I like, I don't want me to go to the Kings. You don't want to curse him? Yeah, no. Men, Keyes and filming, they're athletic slasher that can actually create paint touches and be a lead playmaker for you. I've seen people compare him to Deeran Fox.

It's a perfect fucking fit. You get this guy that comes in and does that same role that you just traded away. This roster legitimately has no point guards. Exactly. Pick the highest profile passer playmaker guy. That's so crazy when they had Tyrese alberton and Deer. I don't know if they should. I don't know if they should.

I feel like Keaton Wagler has a higher ceiling. Do I think he'll be the better player? I wouldn't probably say that yet. But that's not kind of want to give them Wagler. Right now on their active. You just want to get so you don't like. Yeah. Right.

Listen, right now, right now. He has a higher ceiling. Already drafted him. He has a higher ceiling. Yeah, right. They have two. They have two point guards on their cap sheet for 26, 27. Please God.

Devin Carter, Killian Hayes. Damn. Kicks and Fleming. That's it. Pick number eight. what do you want to do for the Atlanta Hawks? His roster is trashed. Honestly, no.

Did you make the pick already? I already made the pick for seven. You fucked us. Okay. Why? I think they should have took Waggoner because he has the highest thing in terms of like playmaking and like offensive prowess. That's very fair to say.

I think. Blenby so he picked a bun too fast. Yeah. I think Fleming's has definitely a better for though. Better four. I personally, I really like that. Would you like, do you like Wagler for your team? No.

He just, would you want Kings and Fleming for your team? Yeah, I think that'll be okay. His ulterior mode if he wants to flip him. No, no, no, no, no, no. So what do you want to do for the Hawks? I do the same thing on Housecox? What do you want to do for the Hawks? Do you need a center?

You need a point guard. You both. This part do you want to reach for Mara? Part of me does. I think that over the last few years you've seen the trend and people or the league realizing, Oh, fuck, being big and physical really fucking matters. Seeing a guy like Jalen Duren eat and be a fucking all star.

He's probably going to be named on an all-in-bea player too. We've seen Donovan Klingin soar up in the rankings. We've seen Zach Edie soar up as well. And I think size is super important. But is it a reach to get a day marr right now? Guy who's like... Who cares? It's not that big of a reach.

It is a reach relative to the consensus. I think you're at the point where you... Vorty lost a premium guys. you're debating between guys who are slightly higher on many boards but aren't necessarily perfect fits what you need. I don't think this is a crazy thing, especially when you're already in a win now mode. Again,

I think the idea of you have to draft BPA, put drafting for fits, dumb. That's so overblown to me. If you're in a certain position, you can draft for fit if you think the guy is good enough. Also, it doesn't matter. You said this,

you said this pick his house money. So take whoever. Listen, this house is in the trenches, though. Gun to your head right now. Who? This house is in the trenches.

Macal Brown, Jr., is in the, the conversation too because he forget the conversation we're not having conversation anymore gun to your head who you got to we got to talk through we got no no we talk too much who do you want to know who you take y'all can go to hell i'm talking through it who do you want to pick gun is to your head you want to die mccal's on the board and also a die is on the board too mackow he is not the pastor that his passing and processing and decision make is not always is not where i'd want it to be necessary in order for him to be the guy i think i die feel safer i'll go ahead and give him okay

You know, reaches happen. It reaches relative to the consensus happens every year. Yeah. Let it be you if he's going to be good. Why not? The size is too crazy alongside Jalen Johnson. Shout out to your kid Kong. Having him in-press center.

A day on there would be so good for rest of utility. We won't be abused by car and any towns no more. Listen, man. That's going to happen. That's your cat stopper? He's our stopping for a lot of guys. Okay. Yeah.

Next up. Who's number nine? One B stopper? We have. The Mavs. Dallas Mavericks number nine. I know they're sick as hell because a lot of their top guys went out but it's okay because I think

Mackell, Macall Brown is here. You're talking about how much you love him. They need a lead guard. Who? Keene Wagler. Ooh, King Wagler's still here. You were just saying you love him so much. They need a high ceiling guard next to Cooper Flag long term. Keen Wagler still here. Damn. He can play next to Cole. He can play next to

Kyrie Irving early in his career, develop into that lead playmaker as time goes on. Be the lop thrower to Cooper Flag long term. You know what, Wagler, you go, who? Let's go pick him. Honestly, that's perfect. He's a good. He's a great creator. Yeah, I agree. People say they see shades of Tyree's Halliburton.

If we can get Diet Tyrese Halliburton when he's year four and Kyrie's done being the lead guy, yeah. I fucking love that. I think this is the best possible. One of the better outcomes for him because there's not as much pressure for him to like get buckets off in such a way. A lot of one thing that people will always like harp on is that, you know, he is like the small six six dude you've seen in your life. So, in terms of like weight and also athletically too. I think people will always like harped on.

Yeah, this dude just cannot dunk. He does not dunk at all. And then someone posted a video of him dunk. and like pregame warmers and people lost their minds and shit months ago. So I think that for all those things, this is one of the more physical teams and bigger teams out there. And this covers up a lot of clinical weaknesses for him.

So Wagler, you're home. There you go. Perfect fit. Last pick. Number 10, Milwaukee Bucks. We want to assume they keep Janus or trade Yonis? Trade Yonis. I don't even think it matters at this point.

I think all the guys available still would be like would fit perfectly well alongside Yonis. Well, I was to say, if they keep yonest, do they potentially entertain picking Yaxel and trying to win now with the guy who's 22? No, he's not 22. He's like 24. Oh, 24. My dad. He's going to be like 24 at the start of the year.

Yeah. Old half Ricky. Even older than 22. Does the entertain go and win now to keep honest? Fuck no. He's gone. He might not be. That's the crazy part.

Is he really might not be. And you're saying, fuck no. I will blow Milwaukee up if he's still at once. At the start. If they make a move, if they make a move. We can't. I can't go through another season. All right.

So for your mental health, we assume they trade yon is. I can't do it. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. I think they're taking it from my mental health. Please. So what guard do you like here to pick from this bunch? McHale.

Macale Brown, Jr. There you go. Yeah. Yeah. I think he has the highest ceiling here. He can play alongside someone like Ryan Raw and Sue so you don't necessarily step on that. Not that it necessarily mattered in the first ways. But the playmaking is interesting.

The scoring, he's a big guard. He's like 6, 4, 6.6.5. I think that matters. And the ceiling with him in terms of scoring and consistency will, like, the consistency for the most part. The jump shot consistency matters at the end of the day. But I think this is like the best, one of the better outcomes for him in terms of like what he can be. Having a coach and Taylor Jenkins out there letting him play through his mistake. So this is the best possible outcome for him.

And there we go. That is our top 10 mock draft immediately after the lottery. So to recap, AJ DeBonsel 1 Darren Peterson 2 Cambozer 3 Caleb Wilson 4 Braden Burry's at 5

which that's the most interesting pick of this whole bunch because who knows what they're going to do in a unique-ass situation I do we don't see a lot of trade downs in the NBA draft this could be one where I think you actually see it Darius take up at 6

Kingston Fleming at 7 at Dei Mara at 8 Keaton Wagler at 9 and McHale Brown Jr. at 10 I'd be very satisfied for all these scenes of this happened very solid but it's easy to take

because our fucking picks so duh but I think this would make a lot of sense to me. Yeah. If anything was going to go different, what do you think would be? D.R. S. A Chicago Bull. I'm so hot that, bro. And there you go.

Anything can happen. All right. Now that we're done talking about the draft lottery and what we think is going to happen at top of the draft, let's talk about every single second round playoff series going on right now. We have to start with the one that's over. The New York Knicks sweep the living fuck out of the 76ers, a series after the 70 sixers came down three one upset the celtics we thought maybe the sixers

were just in their moment and they were going to carry this momentum forward and they're proven to be better than we thought and it would be a long series i think me and mo picked uh nixon seven donovan picked nix and five because how could he not have that confidence turns out he was right and they beat the dog shit at these boys i told you we should a random and we did you did you what was it different why was this these dudes suck these dudes suck series and not a the six year containing the momentum. Well, clearly after game three, whatever players

only meeting they had, everybody's like all right, I guess our life is just on the line. They haven't lost in two weeks. I haven't felt like this, maybe in my entire life. This is insane. They have like three wins by over 40 points. They could have won by 50 yesterday. I have no idea what was said.

I don't know what's going on. Because even like, okay, so at least on the floor, the crudges, about this entire thing is that cat has leveled up cat as a playmaker cat as a as a passer and a defender is outstanding and as a as a defender that in itself is changing everything then you have mackail bridges who is okay going to the rim okay okay okay hitting hitting layups having some some physicality that's crazy they won two games on the road without oj and an obi these dudes suck The Sixers should be ashamed of themselves.

And they were able, Jaylon Brunson was able to take advantage of anytime Joe L&B was on the floor, he's like, come here, that's food. He was able to knock that down. The three-point shooting yesterday specifically was outstanding. There was a point where they were like 14 for 19 from 3. They are locked in offensively to a level that this is what, this is what I was asking for last year of let's just not run Jalen Brunson

high screen and roll into an ISO every single time down the floor. Let's have some movement. Let's have some secondary actions. Let's actually play some NBA offense and see what we can do. And now we're seeing the full extent of it. And so the defense that we saw go up and down in the regular season, eventually netted out as one of the better defenses in the league. That has come to full fruition in the playoffs.

The offense is there. And I think the best sign out of all of this is that, This wasn't a, oh my God, Jalen Brunson's scoring 45 every single night. We've seen Jalen Brunson be able to play off ball so much more in this playoff run. And it's so indicative of this team is just well-rounded. And this version of the Knicks is extremely dangerous. I've said it after we beat the Hawks by 50. I'm convinced now, I want O KC tomorrow.

I'm ready. I'm ready. He keeps on saying. I say it one more time. You deserve to see. I want O KC tomorrow. Yeah. Yeah.

This is a threat. We go clip that. Also, move over Anthony Edwards. There's a new conference finals man and is Jalen Brunson. Back to back years in the conference finals were so up. I cannot believe that they packed them up in four games. We knew it. Not one.

Dude, if y'all were playing like this from the jump, from the start, start of the year, y'all would have won 60 games. All playing, like, by far in the way, like, the best offense. Yes, bro, yes. They're that special right now. This is your moment. This team is so proud to meet the finals. It's crazy. The fact that everything is coalescing like this at the right time, this is one of those runs

when you look up and say, no, it should have been clear they're going to be in the finals from the start of the second round, right? Happens from time to time. It's a little different contextually, but kind of like the pace your second half of last year, except you started it when the playoffs started. And a couple weeks before they were playing well. It's inexplicable that we're here after how this season

started that we're talking about Kat made a year 11 leap. Kat became an elite defender in year 11. A decade is. Who the fuck does that when you have a career of being the most inconsistent, just intolerably weak defender in terms of weakness that's holding you back? In year 11, you figure that shit out and you become the best version of yourself. In a season that started with you being the worst version of yourself offensively, you couldn't buy a bucket, had a brick for a jumper after a decade to be a good shooter.

Confusing ass year that it was up and down for Kat. Now was the most up it's ever been. We have 2024 when he was playing Power 4 next to Rudy Gobert and became the best version of himself. Then now, where he's playing center, once again being the best version of himself, he captures these moments and rise that wave and makes a conference finals.

I hope we can continue that going forward because they should make the finals off the strength of that alone of him being the true superstar they thought they were trading for. That's nice to see. Bro. Jalen Brunson was also amazing in the series. First round didn't go amazing for those first few games. Dyson Daniels tax, Nicole Alexander Walker tax.

Came in this series and they had Tyrese, and rookie VJ to hang with him. He did whatever he wanted, got wherever he wanted the whole time. We mentioned O.G. Anobi, the start of the series, was a legit star-level weapon attacking with his size.

Shout out the Sixers. Shout out of them getting the best week of their season at the right time to take down the Celtics. We got excited because it felt like they were just getting together. And the same way we're talking about the Knicks, becoming the best version at the right time, felt like it was going to be the way for the Sixers.

It wasn't. They had a good week. We watched the series against the Knicks. It just looks like a team that was worse in pretty much every way. And that's fine. They overachieve. That's good for them.

I'm sorry. Yeah, I agree. For the Sixers, yo, it's tough. You said everything that needed to be set for the Knicks. For the Sixers, man,

like, it's just tough. You see Tyrese going to the series or finish the series. He only scored over 20 points, like one time, average pretty much the same minuses and turnovers. And I don't think it's like really a blight on him and who he is,

but what's really missing for this team? And you're just waiting for guys like, VJ. Edgecom to show. But really like the whole the biggest elephant in the room that we have and says, yo, it's oil and be, it's cooked. It's chopped right now. And it's just, it's chopped.

It's tough to. Yeah. It's tough to witness him like labor through this. And it's no one's going to sit down and blame on him or jump on him. You're not especially too because it's like, you know what it is with him at this point of his career. You know, he's getting a dog down. I mean, it is. It's over.

It's funny that he didn't miss a shot yesterday. Yeah. It still didn't matter. I was surprised I was like, wait, he's seven for seven. Oh my God, he's eight for eight. I don't really have any slander at all for the six years. Like, yeah. You punched up.

Actually, no, I do. They were good. Because the last two games, Paul George, who was playing very, very well in the first round. And even in the first two games of the series, he had a game where he was very, very dominant in the first quarter, did not make a shot for the rest of the game. True. They had so many moments, even in the game two game win and B, when and B, and B, and B, was out, Robinson was out. They, they had an opportunity to take games, and their execution down the stretch of

games were poor. They did not execute well. And Maxie, who has been very, very good all year long, like, yes, yes, I'm not going to blame Maxie like, oh, you should have won the series. I wasn't expecting that. I do, I did want Maxie to play just a little bit better. Sure, sure. Yeah, and that didn't necessarily happen.

Of course not. But I think it was mostly just because they were like, I said, just overmatched. And their offense was getting legitimately clamped. And you can look at everybody. Like, Maxi should have shot better. He was getting clamped. Paul George should have closed better. He was getting clamped. Everybody was getting clamped. And it just, their offense never got in motion. They felt like they were never getting the defensive rotation. They were just constantly having a nick in front of them, two bodies in front of them. And when you're not as good at every single position, it's hard for any one player to take over. We're not talking about a top 10

player in the world in Paul George and Tyrice Maxie that we should have the expectations that they just succeed in spite of it all. Some people were saying that. about Max. Well, that was a bit much. And once again, everybody's better than Jaylen Brunson. Everybody's a better guard in the east, right? All the guards in the east are better than Jayla Brunson

until it's actually time to be better than Jane and Brunson. Everybody can make all of these shots until it's actually time to step up for your team. And time and time again, Jaylen Brunson, the shot making down the stretch of games, the one-on-one play, his ability to get to the line,

all of it. His also ability to this specific year and in the last in the last eight games because the way he was playing the first three games that Atlanta series was very very on ball

and now since they've kind of switch you've seen him give up the ropes just a little bit more to make that switch inside the playoffs not many players can do that and Brunson has and it is fantastic

that he's done it. Yeah, I agree, I agree. I think something that we saw in the Atlanta series that really like aided them is was Atlanta's ability to make Brunson work on both ends

and when it comes to this next series, I think that one of the main things that I saw was how they would try and attempt to go at Brunson, but they were always sending help. And the thing about this team is that they didn't have the necessary shooters to go ahead and punish him on a consistent basis, and they were able to help insulate that always. There's always Mikalbredges or OG

whenever he's over there in Kat, who was like, I think the reputation, going back to what we said, the reputation of him being just a cone defensively, slowly starting to win away because this was a fantastic series. They just couldn't like make them make all their weaknesses, real weaknesses at all. And at that point, like, you're just going to get the Goliath right now. Yeah. Again, the Knicks are just playing this well at all facets.

And you're so underman talent-wise. Yeah. There's nothing they could do. It was just every single facet of the game overpowered. And that's all I really care about is can they continue this. Because if they can and Kat is going to continue to play at this level and capture lightning in a bottle and have his best run of his career, there's no reason that we'll be in the finals. Like they should be to me the easy favorite to make it out of the East now. Yeah, I would have an ex-a apology.

I can go lie. Because I had them as one of my most disappointing teams, especially with them ending up as a third team they were supposed to take over to East. They are taking over the East at the right time. Salute to y'all, man. I don't even think you owe them an apology. They're playing better. Like, they're playing better at an over.

They were unsurious as fuck. Yeah. People always do that. Obviously, fans are going to be like, apologize. No. They're playing way better than they were before. If they did this, I would have said, yeah, they're going to beat the fuck out of the success.

But they weren't, well, I guess they did do it to the Hawks. But, you know, took a couple games for us to get sample size to take it seriously as translating. They did this all year. There would be no questions about them. They have two losses to playoffs, but I combined two points. Crazy. And there were moments in the regular season. I remember where I was on MLK Day when they lost by 30 at home to the Mavericks.

You had many heartful conversations on this show about being concerned about the future of this team. And we had concerns about Jalen Brunson, about Kat, about McHill Bridgesford. sure about the coach being the right fit talking about what's cast role in the offense we've got to figure it out took time you know first year with the coach it took a whole 82 games to figure it out and they got to where they were the whole plan worked as planned we want to be the best version of us when it matters most and they are we're talking about we rolled into game 79 and cat was talking about some yeah I'm just still trying to figure out my role finally figured it out yeah he locked in like crazy the the wildest part about

is he's still fouling everybody but just a Yeah. He still is getting three fouls again. I am interested. Obviously, like, that's always going to be a thing. And especially in this series going up against Embed, you are going to be in foul trouble because he's going to throw his body around. But going into next series, if he can be 10% more discipline, the way that Jalen Dern is playing, the way that Evan Mowby is playing, like, you should not be in three fouls in the first 12 minutes of the game. That should not be something.

that happens. Yeah, there's less stress of him offensively. And, you know, Jalen Duren's very slow-footed. I don't see why

Kat, can tell you to get his game off. They, they, both, both of them have to lock in. I have no idea. What?

I want to leave from the mic. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not about you. I'm just loud of you. I do. Can't sneeze. God.

Before games, the big, took over Philly. Literally, walk into their trap, took over their trap. It's so funny. Like,

Philly's, literally all their fans spiraling i sometimes i forget that like philly fans are so insufferable and they're like they're like a tier two tier two level of insufferable of like you guys and like theirs fans or whatever but seeing them like come after everyone and acting like the mccain thing which is horrible but it's not like ending their franchise necessarily it's horrible but seeing how they're spiraling man it's it's like a very valid crash out they're over here like pulling up all the files or talking about how oh yeah our owner he doesn't pay the luxury tax at all. The only times he's paid the luxury

tax over the last 10 years, maybe like fucking twice. He hates the tax. Blasey, blah, blah, blah. Fire Nick Nurse. Darry, you can ship him out to China too. And all this is just seeing them spirals like, damn, man. Well, it's kind of valid because what the fuck's next for them? They're just kind of stuck in purgatory. So I'd be mad

too. I'd be pulling my guns at everybody. Also, extension kicks in this all season. For Joel and Bean. Yep. Yeah. So unfortunately for them, again, I think they overachieved. It's nice that they were ready to beat the Celtics when none of us thought it would happen. That's a great memory. Bags, I appreciate that.

Thank you. That was cool. That was cool. What was it say about the Celtics? That you blew it through one lead to a team with the Knicks fucking blitz out the door. You're just sorry? The Knicks were going to also blitz us. That's what I got from that.

I will say this. Same second round wins as that stuff. That's kind of tough. Joel and Bid. I've got to conference finals. That's tough. Nix fans stole your whole fan bases chain. That's tough.

I'm walking away with something. I didn't hear anything you're walking away with. I didn't. Shared misery? Cope. Yes. I heard cope. Massive, massive weight.

Now, let me too. Maybe that means you're even shittier than we thought. And we gave a credit to the 76 years for coming back. Maybe we shouldn't have given them any credit. Maybe we should have all just continued to double down on those Celtics being frauds. All I know is, we would have done better. No, we would have slipped you out too. So you can say that now.

I can. I can. And what can you say about it? Not a dead thing. He can just say whatever he wants is ridiculous. Y'all not taking over TD Garden like what with Philly though no that was embarrassing that that's where I was it really it really was yeah and B'd said something about it before the series started because of what happened in 24 where he was saying yeah y'all got to lock it yeah he's like

y'all don't sell your tickets y'all really have to show up and then they'd come down to oh they they asked Maxie about it yesterday and he was like I mean we just have to win games and just make people feel like they you know like they should be here it is it this This matchup is something where it's like, even Boston that isn't, is Boston crazy far from Philly? All of them are, yeah, all of them are super close. I swear Boston is closer to New York than Philly. That's what really like. It might be.

I don't know the exact distance. I think it is. But for everybody in the Northeast, you can get on a train and get to get to the game on game day. For the Nick, for Nick fans to be able to go in there and turn that into MSG 2.0. Yeah. That is a, it's crazy. It's a massive blight on Sixers fans. next series

Minnesota ties up the series against the Spurge 2-2 after Victor Wobin Yama tries to take Nasreem I think he wants it

too bad I think so Nasreid catches an elbow to the throat by Victor Women Yama Victor Wom Yama gets ejected in the first half of the game

close game still the Spurs were very close to still winning it but they went cold in the fourth quarter while Anthony Edwards took the fuck over jump shot after jump shot

playing like one the best players in the world to steal this game which I shouldn't even say steal. Wemby's ejected. They should have won this game. They went in at home, tie the series up two, too. You're right. You shouldn't have said steel, but it almost felt like it was a steal too because

they struggled. Guys like Darren Fox stepped up and he showed why he was worth that up-and-coming contract extension, and they made things super tough, and Minnesota still feels like they escaped barely by just like the skin of their fucking teeth. Yep. And so many clutch plays, clutch rebounds

made by guys like Nas Reid, just random making smart plays too. They got this one, but man, it doesn't feel good. It doesn't feel like prideful at all. For obvious reasons. Well, shit, they kept the series gone because if Wimmy didn't get ejected, the little one down 3-1, shit would have been over.

But they didn't. And we're now, we have a series on our hands. I don't know if Wembe Nama is going to get a further. Suspension? I don't think so. He might. That was crazy as fuck. He paused and then through the elbow.

Like, that was ridiculous. I think it looks worse for slow-o in terms of the pause. I think he was doing the thing they always do when he's being fucking hounded on the boards. They do the thing where they go side to side. But there was a little bit of frustration there where he's doing the side-to-side motion, but he was also like, man, fuck off me. Like a little bit more extra. So I understand it wasn't quite like, I saw some people being like, it's run our test level on James Hardin.

It wasn't all that. But it was too much. He needs to have the mindfulness to not let himself get frustrated and exaggerate it to that degree. Also, just unlucky that Nazaree's throat happened to be there. He could have knocked him out. He could have killed him to the throat. Yes. So he can't let's frustration.

His face. That was hilarious. I just want to show him face. That's hilarious. That's him reacting. He can't let his frustrations get to him like that. Like, you were being fouled and attacked on the boards. You got to be careful.

Don't let me go out and say. He was like, yeah, I refuse to carry the burden of holding my emotions. He's so fucking real. So be it. But in this degree, your team needs you, you can't let that happen. That's stupid. That's dumb. Well, that's not what you make.

Let's not do this. That's not what he was talking about. Before you get going. Yeah. That's not what he meant. But like, I think. You're about to get going for 10 minutes. I think, oh.

Hold your remote. I mean you do But like No, it is It is crazy though And also Very, very whack at the end What's a flagrant two?

Oh, I'm objected. Oh, okay You knew what Flagrant 2. Well, he didn't know he's on camera So I don't know if he was pre-performative. I'm not, I'm not saying it's I'm not saying it's Performative and will be

Also, you do know you're on camera Like there's There's a million cameras in the In the end of the video But whatever Never never ask He tried to get into it He's trying to get into it.

God damn. Was that that stupid? No, he turned a pod. It's okay. I respect wanting to pot. Was that that stupid though? Like to not, to not know, like, all right. You knew.

Like, that's, that's kind of, that's kind of, it's kind of wild. We might get suspended for him. Who knows, right? He might get another game. Do we got a series? Yes, we have a series. Absolutely. By definition.

Escape with this. Do we got a dream of a situation where a suspension makes this series possible? No. Because what the Anthony Edwards hobble, it looked like, especially after the previous game, which I don't think we acted to

because it happened over the weekend. They beat the dog shit out of them. I will say I'm very surprised with how actually healthy the Timberwolves are with all the injuries they've been going through. Outside of Dante, they're pretty much healthy. Yeah, well, Anthony Edwards is... Yeah, he's not 100% but, like, they got bodies on the floor compared to, like, how they were falling apart against the Nuggets. I'm like, you look down.

Everyone's playing outside of Dante. Yeah, Ayo came back after missing a game as playing like Iyo. It's just, if Anthony Edwards was whole and was able to really slash, like he could... Oh my goodness. It would change things. Yeah. But the fact that he's shooting like he's shooting despite that, just an incredible player. Man, he's ridiculous.

This is why, like, having so many different levels of skill set and being elite at so many things is so important. If one thing goes, you have other things to rely on. I don't know how far the Timberwolves will be able to take this. The thought of Victor when Binyama being suspended is literally frying my brain because I feel like he has a clear representation and he has no track record or history. is someone like Draymond or Dylan Brooks you're fucking out of here you know but it's fresh and this is the young goat somebody in the throat

I know I know but he doesn't have no he's a first time offender you know like you know I think if he just deserves to be like slapped on the wrist told not to do that very stern talk that you cost your team a fucking playoff game yeah he already served the suspension essentially so yeah I think it's enough I'll understand

if they're going to go off like the rule and like if they do the whole process and the rule says that that merits another suspension game I get it. I'm not going to be like, give him a break. But I do a matter. I feel like when they get to it, they'll probably say there's just enough natural event going on that they'll probably say one game was enough.

I don't know, though. I'm not in the office. That was dangerous as fuck. Yeah. We'll see. You got big elbows. You got to be careful with him. You just say he could have killed Nause Reed.

I was joking. This is going to be a decapitation on the floor. And he's not going to get suspended. That's crazy. He hasn't done it before. That does matter That does matter a lot Actually like if he had done it before

They'd super suspend them Yeah true Super suspend They wouldn't hesitate Yeah maybe we'll see If he does get to spend it again We have a series on our hands And shout at the two rules

This is everything they embody They're a tough team that when the playoffs come They're gonna fucking lock in and say I'm not weak, you're weak We're gonna put ourselves in positions to succeed every time And if what you need is a lucky Victor Wobayama being an idiot for two seconds to change the series, you got it. I don't feel confident in them going forward in winning this series because, bro, like, guys like Julius Randall, well, really just Julius Randall specifically has had a piss poor series.

He's shooting like 37% from the field. And he's had fucking, bro, his assist at turnover ratio was absolutely hilarious. He has five turnovers. He's having five turnovers a game. It's only like two assists, right? he's making so many like wrong dishes and then and all the ones that they do have they're just like they're he they're like barely like scathing away and they can survive all the fuck up that he's like like every timbrewell fan would tell you like brad like julius randall cannot be here next to

you at home they're they're incredibly ass he goes guys like julius randall no it's just like i'm like guys like no it's really him now's read is doing his thing please rudy one point eight assist of 4.5 turnovers, 14 points per game on 46% true shooting. Brother, that's disgusting. He's shooting 37 from the field and 26 from the 3rd. Oh, I did not know about

this 4.5 turnover. This guy's Yeah, it's like horrible. That's all I'm like, I don't know if you can win the series because he's that much of an anchor. He's the only other guy who can dribble. Well, child to Terrence, Terran Shannon, of course, I do soon. But when it comes to like a star guy who can really come in and dictate how

our series go, he's supposed to be that guy for Anthony Edwards and he just can't do it Shout out those two guards your name They can't create. They're not actual creators for others Exactly He just weren't really fast down the down the hill Yeah, it's great Down the Hill

Down the Hill score Yeah I would assume the Spurs still close it out But they're being pushed and it's a long series And on the other side of the bracket I guess we can transition to that OKC is going to sweep the fuck at the Lakers and have some rest While San Antonio now comes off of

What might be a war with the Minnesota Timberwolves Tired Legs might have some impact on the conference finals a series that we think is going to be incredibly close. How do you like your belt, man? Farragamo, Gucci, Hermes. I feel like it's been a pretty soft belt though.

Soft? Yeah, I mean, it's pretty like, it's not a belt that hurts really. I don't hurt from this. I haven't seen a single Lakers fan hurt. Kind of is what it is. It's a polite belt. I mean, it's not, no, it's not,

it's not polite. I mean, it's still a belt, so it's still, like, not great. This thing. Yeah, you're still going to feel it. But, like, it's not. like it's sworeing that hard. I don't know.

It almost hurts. It's like when your mom's mad at you when she has to punish you but it's not like you came out here and broke something that's like $1,000 and you need to be like fucking, this is real like I gotta do this

because it's my job. You're right. I got to sweep you. But you know, it doesn't hurt it down in your soul. You're not gonna get trauma from this as a child. I did walk into the series

expecting you guys to get blasted by like 30, 25 every single night. Have a belt like warmed up in the microwave, then come out and just wow, wow, wow. But then it has like hot belt. Microwavey belt is ridiculous.

Like hot belt. That's absurd. I thought it was going to be like that. But it's not. Let's unpack that. But it was only 20? I've never experienced more like that if you want to unpack it. I've actually never had to happen to be.

No. I've never heard of anybody heating up anything to beat anybody with. Let's unpack. First of all, first of all, I have heard of somebody heating up things to beat people with. It wasn't about children. It was not about kids. It wasn't about kids at all. That's a crazy connection to make.

That's crazy. Let's keep potty. Come on. That's crazy. But yeah. That's so innovative. That's so innovated to the space. Innovated to the space.

Hot belt. Hot. It's like AI for discipline. It's crazy. The only talk you put from this series. The only thing to talk about in this series is tracking player performance, really. And J.J. Reddick has put on a master class defensively of locking up Shea. But in doing so, he's allowed everybody else to beat the fuck out of the Lakers.

First two games, they say we're going to double team you by any means necessary. You will not get in a rhythm. Shea did a good job passing the ball, keeping the ball moving, being the playmaker. And in turn, Chet 8. He's shooting like 95% in the restricted area right now. Belt, She did a good job there. Game three. They started off doing that.

Case and Wallace did a few early threes, and JJ Redick smartly said, now we're gonna mix it up a little bit. We're going back to defending you one-on-one after you're so used to, that's nine quarters of being double-teamed. That shit was shay in a blunder. His brain was razzled,

which, funnily enough, happens all the time in game threes. He has a terrible history of game three performances, which that's when teams changed coverages up after the first stretch of the series. Takes him a second to get adjusted. He was on a terrible rhythm and was just being rushed into awkward jumpers

that didn't have the same rhythm you'd normally expect from him, just missing a ton of jump shots over and over. And in some ways, he was just missing jumpers. Not much you can do about that. But it was a cold stretch because he was forced in such a lack of natural rhythm, going from double teams to being defended one-on-one, having a shootover, Rehachamore and stuff like that. Masterclass defensively from JJ Redick,

who I'm getting more and more encouraged day by day that if he had a good team, he is an elite coach. I agree. That's the number one thing that I learned on the Lakers front. He is one of those guys. He is, I don't know, roughly like a top five to maybe seven worst. case in era coach in the NBA. What he does schematically and how he makes the effort to like bring something new to

the table and try different things and throwing a dude zero in the scene in the scene too and got guys like Jake Laveria. Lavera. What the hell? La Rearia. Hell yeah. Laveria. Tragon.

What the hell? Dragon. Time out. Time out. Time out. Time out. Time out. Jake Lauravia.

There you go. Hey. That was ultimately locking right there. The most useless guy on the goddamn court, by the way, too. do anything for you at all. If he wasn't white, he would get slandered so much. Toy and Prince was treated like the devil when he was on the Lakers because he ran around and did nothing. Let's unpack this man. Jake Lager runs around and does worse than nothing. He runs around and does destruction. He misses layups, misses threes, fouls stupidly, gives up offensive

rebounds. He is terrible right now. And has been for the whole season outside of that early stretch where he was making all those jumpers and everyone was like, yo, the Lakers got another crazy white boy. Once the jumper stopped falling like they were in November, he has been horrible. and nobody cares because you assume he has this certain like plays to get in the right way high IQ player because he's white he's not he's not a high IQ player at all he's not Tori and Prince was much better

I miss Toy and Prince every day when I see Jake the Radio play that's new levels of bad not gonna lie he'll be unpacking Tori and Prince made shots yeah true man Jake the Ravier runs around right now

that's tough tricking people how do you feel about the referee conversation I don't give a fuck don't ask me that shit is so fucking funny. I don't feel. That's how we feel.

So funny. We've had this conversation so many times for the last two years. I don't get to fuck. I hate to talk about it. Like, it's a thing that's not made out of nowhere, but it's talked about so much

like it's the main factor in things. It's just not. So I'd rather like not talk about it at all. To be fair. I share the same opinion. I don't get a fuck. You know. I get why Twitter gives a fuck.

They can complain about it. I don't care. Okay. What else happened to series? You're doing your job, man. It's reducing the show. Facts. Oh, also in this game, the most recent one,

Isaiah Hardinstein made DeAndre Aden look like a child. Like, he just learned how to play basketball. There was that stretch, and I think it was a third quarter, where he had Aiden in a blender fighting for boxouts down below. The Thunder, I think, got two in a row. Offensive rebounds off of that, because Aiden was trying to fight for a position with Hardinstein, who was just big bro in the shit out of him on the boards.

And then after that, they got an one on Aiden as well because he was trying to rotate off of A. And A. Hartinstein putting his elbow in his stomach. And J. J. Reddick cuts to him on the side. line and he says, I can't play him. I know. hilarious. That shit was frying me.

I can't play him. Yeah. People were like, DeAndrean isn't trying. No, he's trying. He's just getting shit on by Isaiah Hardinstein, which might be worse. You just can't bang with him.

I don't know if you think it's worse to get destroyed or not try. Whichever one you want to attribute it to, Deandrean was doing it. Man, when you go from Sengoon to Eye Hardin' Chet. It's a different war. It's a different war entirely. He was locking shit.

new shit up for a while. Shing him got his licks in, but he was doing a good job. You can't do that with a hard-in-sign shit over there. Yeah, you're absolutely boxed. You're the...

And I think it's okay, though. It's okay. He's playing out of his weight class. He's not built for this match-up at all. Neither is fucking Jackson days. You are boxed. It's okay. Make a boxed.

So tonight's the last night, you're gonna watch the King play this season? Yeah. Probably. They can't sweat. Damn. They can't get one? No.

I just want to see a good Austin Reeves game. He had one. good game. He had one good game. Honestly, another one. AJ Mitchell snatched the chain last game. Agent Mitchell was much better than him in game three. I think two awesome two good awesome Reeves games is a lot to ask for. Miss a Thunder.

But that is a result. In this, in this specific circumstance, I do think it is just a lot. Yeah, but if I do get two good awesome games in a sweep in which he has absolutely no chance of doing anything. Oh, you're eating all summer. I'm good. I'm not worth it all. Give him the 40 million a year. I'm chilling. Oh, 40 million. I know about that you're saying. It says.

Yeah. It sounds ooh. It's like barely Tyler Hero money these days. So like it's not ooh anymore, but it does sound. I want to give Tyler here a $40 million. It's like OG makes 50. Like good players make 40 these days. Let me tell you about OG.

No, I'm not sure about OG. But like he makes more than Austin Review. So it's okay because OG's played better than Austin Reviews. So like that's the market these days. This team is. Put them out. This is done. Put him out.

But Thunder should be a close series. I mean, it should be a quick series. to sweep them. Like we said, the spurs are going through a war. Do you feel good about what you've seen from the Thunder in the series to feel good about them in the next one? How can you not?

How could you not? I guess before you keep on, the answer to that is, Wemby's another side. We saw the regular season series. People are going to, mostly is praying on the Thunder's downfall, but they're going to assume the Spurs

still have their number. That would something, I think some people have to be proven that they can get past the spurs. I think the fact, though, like they're doing all this without J-Dub. And I think the fact that whenever you do see, whenever the Lakers have made

shake get off the ball, you are getting those moments from Chet and so the big three whenever they do come back together you will feel good about at least those two being able to provide something against San Antonio and at this point

like I'm worried I want Chet to be going into the series with as much confidence as possible because it's been we know when he plays Wemby confidence drops 15 points so I need that to be at an all-time high. The thing I'm honestly the most worried about is just J-Dub coming back.

And are you going to be able to be consistent throughout that series against the Spurs? But everything else, especially the Spurs right now. Yeah. As we go, I look, I really do want to see Wembe not be there and see those three guards step up and have one of those types of games to really, like, you're going back home, you're going to have the crowd behind you, all of that stuff. I want to see all three of them really, really step up and just take that game five

and that I think I might feel a little bit better about them going into that series than right now. Yeah. We've talked all year that while we do so think, I'll speak for myself, why I do still once again think the Thunder are the best team in the NBA, and that's number one spot is in a conversation,

have what we said all year that the Spurs can win the championship. They can beat them. Said the same thing about the Celtics as the team on East that I think if they saw the Thunder have a specific batch up, they could beat them. in a like whatever percent of chance you want to give that, right? I now feel closer to I felt last year

where I feel like the Thunder are just almost they're going to win the championship. And I hold very little space now for them not to win a championship in my mind. That last year they struggled and went to seven in some series because the offense around Shea was dog shit. They had no secondary creation.

It was J-Dubber bust as essentially backup point guard plus Wingstopper. And when his shot wasn't falling and he couldn't create, there was nothing around Shea. The double teams would come. Kaysen Wall's brick. Ludorke Bricks. Chet had the bad hip.

Couldn't create anything. Couldn't even finish that sometimes. It was getting stuffed at the rim. Chet looks like the best bird for himself that I've been saying for two years. He should be. 21 points per game on 68% true shooting in the series. 10 rebounds, which that's a big jump this year.

While playing power forward, still averaging 10 rebounds. Four stocks a game. He's been the dominant two-way player we wanted to be. AJ Mitchell changes everything about this team, about them having another ball handler there that when Shea's not playing super well, another guy that can dribble next to him, the pressure isn't quite as Shee

to be so hillyos. eccentric. The shooters are shooting well now. Jeremy Kane's giving good minutes. Being a sniper, we haven't gotten the case in Wallace, Lou Dwart Brickfest like we got last year. Caruso still doing his normal playoff rising thing. I almost like don't care them much about J. Dub. I want him to come back to give them optionality, obviously, another big defender for those guards. But offensively, like the pressure on him to be an on-ball creator is now zero with AJ Mitchell playing like this. Yeah, yeah. I agree. This is not the same OKC that will, OKC team that rolled into last year at all. They're a year older. They're so much better. You're right.

all those guys specifically guys like case won't so he's a better shooter now and you can't necessarily sit down and let him watch try to watch him break like three threes or four threes he's going to hit a couple of them now and that's how he's developed and same things can be said about guys like oh not even the same things chet hungerman going right to what you said he elevated to new space and new level to where he's just more consistent and all of his moves just more crispier he's one thing that we harped on a lot last year was that he was coming off a fucking broken hip and he looks like he's not doing that anymore and he's fully healed and he's moving so much better and more like more more precise he's not missing any bunnies at all that we watched him miss so many dunks and shit last year because

you can tell he was like getting his weight under him and then going to that back to what you said something that like makes this whole conversation different from years before outside of of course shooting and chat being better is a j mitchell and in the series against the spurs i think when he played the series was played it was like one-one they lost by like two points or so and that was one of like the most disgusting games that i seen okay c play and that was when pretty much everyone was getting their licks off of them the hornets whole team they were losing like a lot of teams they went through their they went through their slump and then in the game where he did play it felt so much more in another game we played later on in twenty-six it felt so much different i think they won by like 20 or something crazy like that yeah and his creation and how he was able to just like give way more optionality and do things that not a lot of guys in leave you can do, which is like just usher yourself into the paint and just slide and glide by anyone and get your shot off in three level scoring type way. That's special. Yeah, he makes a huge difference. Yeah. And they, they like move forward. I agree with you. Like they will be the heavy favorites. But San Antonio, I'm also, I'm just, I'm interested because this is now just, there's just two

series where they haven't had WMB every single game. Yeah. And so like, like, like, young player. Like, what does it tell you though? What are you, what are you learning? Well, I mean, he got, he got his head mashed against the ground in one of them That's pretty crazy So it happened a lot Yeah

Elbows don't happen a lot I don't know Yes he's missing games I don't know if I can take away anything from that No no that's what I'm saying Where I I think that the San Antonio

I think that the Thunder will be the favorites However the series For San Antonio Like they If you're expecting When me to be there Because he's not getting his face mask

Because he's not throwing elbows That would have been A sweep in in series one And then maybe looking at a five-game series instead of instead of a six game yeah got knocked out yeah yeah yeah sleep for two seconds it's crazy yeah and so if they had a sweep and a five-game series then i do feel like the the way in which we're talking about the spurs going into a matchup with okayc would feel a little bit different and and that's just assuming that they win the next two games and don't

have to go to a game seven but if he's there and nothing wild happens and he doesn't you know go unconscious then i do feel better about uh about san antonio yeah yeah i yeah i i'm I'm not running on San Antonio at all. They still can very much beat the Thunder. But I'm no longer, I was never worried, but I'm just more, whatever percentage it was before, if I thought it was 60% Thunder, 40% Spurs, I'm just shifting it 10% either way. So that still leaves room for the Thunder can beat them.

I mean, the Spurs, we've seen it before. But I feel very good about the Thunder going back to back. I think it's definitely fair right now to say that there's less questions about the Thunder than the Spurs. Much less. It has the errands, Stefan's offensive consistency, Wembe, and everything that comes up. with that, yeah.

But we haven't even seen the Thunder push for a single game in the playoffs. This time last year, they're fighting for their fucking life. I was so worried as somebody who talked all year that they're going to win the championship every time they lost, people were harassing me in the comments

and on Twitter because the Denver was pushing them in a round two. This shit is slight now. They haven't even sweat a single time through seven games. It's easy. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Bro, they're leveled up on every single way.

And I keep on saying this. I said this multiple times because it's just so funny to me. But seeing last year how Mark, Mark Dagonal went ahead and randomly started AJ Mitchell in the finals or something like that and give him like real minutes for a quick second because it got really real quick but seeing him do that it's like okay I understand we're going now this team is just different he's so different and now I'm like more confident ever like this is their this is their year fully they should not win easily because who they have up and up against them in the spur is not going to be easy

but yeah this is just one of those teams yeah it's not going to be easy but it might be repeating in the parody era. Boy, I'm shay conversation's going to get scary, man. Oh, for sure. A lot of assets to keep it going. Parity era. We've been saying every six months,

there's a new checkmark that they're checking and saying, oh, first they won the championship, had the MVP, back to back MVP, maybe back to back championship. Oh, maybe it is a dynasty. We're going to keep going.

Yeah. And they have the 12th pick in this year's draft too. Fuck, man. Insert Yaxil into this next year. When does it fucking end? Wemby. I trust you.

You got it. Yeah. You got a big dog. He'll get one at some point. Players like him, they're so good with that type of team around, and he'll get one at some point. Yes, it's this year. Could be.

Still could be. He's not writing them off. Rifle very confident these thunder teams right now. Yeah. Which, spoiler alert, the thunder you feel confident. What a surprise, right? Last series to talk about before we wrap up this episode, Cavs versus Pistons.

Saw the Cavs save their season this past game. How are you feeling? We all said it would be a long series. Started off, we saw a couple games where it was like, oh, maybe the Pistons they asked them for. Maybe it won't be a long series. Now it's 2-1. We finally saw Hardin and have a good game.

Really close it out and win in game 3 for his team. After having a disaster class in game 2, where he looked like he just couldn't hang anymore with these top-tier young defenders. Came back, me clutch shots. Kind of feel like this series just comes down to who executes in the fourth quarter. These teams are so close to each other

and such a rock fight for the whole game that, at least in this one, Harder made those shots at the end. Kate turned a ball over three times in a row, had a disastrous one minute, kind of swung the game. Yeah. feels like most of the games are going to go down to things like that.

Yeah. I think like for for Kate, but even without, even or even with that stretch, man, yeah, nobody else on this team dribble, man. Like nobody else can do anything. And the moments like that he sits, I mean, he's sitting for 45 seconds a minute. And then instantly games are just flipping. And they, they don't have anybody who can steady the, steady the, steady the ship for 30 seconds for two possessions and when the margins are literally that thin

that's why I start to get worried about about Detroit because like your big your big man rotation is is a beef stew he's hurt jane durn has been playing poorly all all playoffs long then you have your your guard rotation behind kate they're not stepping up it it's like if kate is not going crazy and is not giving you this massive cushion I feel kind of nervous whenever we get to like you know the fourth quarter and execution. I have a theory about Jalen Duren. Please tell me. I think you got too muscular.

Your Shayla got too muscular. I think he needs to lose some weight. He looks he's very heavy. He's a big guy that you don't see a lot of things these days built like that built like a fucking action figure right? He looks like a 2000 center like he's like he's taxed with defending shack. You don't see it today and there's a reason for it. Players, a lot of times the tradeoff isn't worth it when you have to move in space so much

as a center these days, that there's only so much extra benefit to be given by being so much stronger than everybody else and so much thicker, he moves slow as hell, doesn't jump very high. And I think the lack of vertical, the lack of quick twitch mobility,

it really hurts them sometimes on getting back in these pick and roll coverages, getting rebounds, finishing over people. He can't finish right now because he can't get any verticality over these guys who are longer and more talented defensively. He might need to lose some weight and be a little more agile.

Dwight without the hops is insane. Yeah, kind of. Literally. Like, he might need to slim down a little bit have some more mobility and burst to him. Yeah, I mean, he never really was, like, even when he was, like, smaller when he was younger, like 20 years old or whatever, like, he never was jumping out the gym. Of course, of course.

So, like, he wasn't known as, like, an insane vertical threat. But going back to what you said, you're absolutely right still with that being said, because right now the type of lift that he's getting when he was how tax he is, it's not helping. He's talking up tough jumpers with no, no type of athletic help there at all, it's straight touch. over Evan Mobley. That's pretty difficult. Yeah, yeah, exactly. This is, it's just everything with the, with the pistons is going to be an uphill battle. Kate is overtaxed a fucking oblivion, bro.

Like, how are you going to tell me that this man is expected to be one of the best defenders out there, sit down, create for himself at a high level, knocking on every single mid-range shot. I get as many two paint touches as you can, take all the tough contorted shots. And on top of that, too, set everyone else up. And then, oh, yeah, can you just go ahead and, like, grab a hell of a rebounds for me to. We had like 10 rebounds his last game versus the cabs. It's just like so insane to sit down and see. He's so overtax.

And I think what always kills this and makes his overtak stuff look so much worse is just like the turnovers. But I think the turnover is like plainly happen because he's so fucking tired. And when you're tired, when you're that tired and you're asked to do so much for your team, your brain literally starts to slow down. Yeah, he needs he needs help. And somebody else on that team has to has to be somewhat more, more consistent. Also, we got a good DeMitch game in game three. True. You got the line.

The past two games had eight free throws, both games. That's the big difference. The slashing has been up there. Yeah. So we have to see, for me to feel good about Cleveland moving forward, I need to see a second straight game or just a couple, you know, just multiple games like that from D. Mitch. Because this version of James Hardin and D. Mitch, where Harding can actually blow by some people, he can actually get to the rim.

And then D. Mitch is knocking down shots at a very, very high rate. we're getting to the line and he's not taking two free throws a game now he's taking six he's taking he's taking eight free throws a game that's a much big a difference than what we're seen in the first two games that version of the calves they can come back from oh two they can win this series if we get another game the way that we saw in games one and two for for de Mitch or very or even more similar to the first round against toronto then this is probably going to be a three one series tonight and then we can we can chalk it up and we'll see I don't feel good about the calves but we did think it would be a long series.

So if you tell me, it still ends up being a long series despite the slow start. I'll believe it. We'll see, man. They don't, they need another game because they have no ability to come back down from 3-1.

That's not happening. The question is, do you think they're going to get it? Tonight? Yeah. I don't really, I have no predictions for you. Because I think every,

like I said, every single one of these games is going to come down to fourth quarter execution. Cade's going to be tired. There's not going to be, there's not going to be, there's hard matchups. for the guards on the other side Hardin's old.

Demich has been inconsistent. It's like whatever given night which one of those three players plays the best. Yeah. It felt like. Know what it is? It's a roll the ball out series. Literally.

Yeah. Fells to like close my eyes and throw out and dark. Roll the ball out. I think the, I think the pissons probably get this one. I'm expecting a more careful. Cade Cunningham.

I don't know if I trust James Hardin and Donovan Mitchell to limit the turnover. This is the best game that Hardin has had. when it comes to closing out and you typically don't see that him hitting all those tough contested shots is I just don't trust Hardin I don't trust him

That's fair Which is fair That's fair That's fair That's bad real He did it last game I don't know if he can do it again There's no reason to trust Hardin

or D Mitch right now I've played this playoffs In terms of this matchup No reason to trust them Yeah Now they can you can leave the door open To be surprised And they can win

But trust to pick them Yeah hard to go that way Yeah I'd want to They're supposed to They're literally built for moments like this. They sat down over the last few years and got a max bruising all that to do to make. Are they? They should.

They should be. They literally sat down and tried to add depth. They got Dennis shorter for reasons like this. They're supposed to. Are they going to? I don't know. The Knicks are really going to the finals, man. They both shit in the bed.

I don't feel good about either of these teams being the Knicks right now. Wow. Yeah, the Knicks are going to the finals. Can they piss and beat the Knicks? No. Fuck no. No, they can't? No.

No, they can't? The Pissons. I mean, you never know. A couple games. I won't say so absolutely. I won't pick them. But what's the path? The same, the same.

You get a Hawk series where you have, I think OG doesn't, can't be there if that's the case or can't be 100%. That makes things so much easier. And then at that point in time, you guess what? You know, I'm room for the camps tonight. We're pushing this series to seven. Wow. And OG is going to have a week and a half two weeks off. That's, okay.

That's your best. You're so sick. I'm telling you stay up. I'd be doing the same thing, though. Okay, okay, okay, okay. Who's a better matchup for the Knicks? But the Cavs get those shoes? I'm buying a D.Mish jersey tonight.

I mean, the Cavs, I think Mowbly, I don't think Cat's going to be able to eat them alive. Like, he ate up Joella and Bede because it's slowest foot speed difference. F and Lillby can hang a little bit better there. Jared Allen can hang a little better there probably. So I don't know if it's quite as much in offensive bloodbath that they'll play the Cavs.

Who's slowing down Brunson? On the Cavs? Yeah. Hey, Dean Wade. My faith isn't you Brother, I ain't got nothing for you, man am I rooting for the caps? Am I rooted for James Hardin to have his shining

playoff moment? Who would you rather see? I don't even know who's... I don't know because part of me kind of wants to play Detroit just because their offense is so just like in the mud but also that the familiarity

from last year and their physicality is like I really don't want to see that they can muddy some stuff up and it's a weird series and then on the other side. if our pat to the finals gets blocked by James Hardin Oh, I can't stomach that I can't live like that

I couldn't go on I can't exist in that in that world Is last year all over again? It's too much It's too much even further like Then losing to Tyrese in the patient No no no that's worse like you can't top that No losing to James Hardin sure sure the names are worse But the way that happened The two blutes and Tobias Harris though on the other side

Tobias. There's something funny about saying tow bias instead of Tobias. It makes it so much funnier. No, no, you're right. Some people say it. It makes it sound funnier to me. Tobias.

Fuck-ass name. Tobias. Oh, no, you're trying to get that. To bias. It just sounds funny. That's crazy. That's insane. Let a Tobias meet me.

we've just he's trying to pot now now now you're in a pod look at him to bias lame ass me

oh gosh but see to bias is fine to bias toe bias makes it sound hilarious I can't explain to you

the rationale I don't know it's there that's lame that's crazy some names are lame we've disrespected people

in so many different ways I don't know we've ever been like, yeah, you have a lame-ass name. Well, some people do. It's not about Tobias Harris. I like Tobias Harris. Good player has been, there you go, perform well.

Yeah. I don't like his name. Tobias isn't a cool name. I don't got to pretend the name itself is cool. Mind you, mind you, last week, we hated on him because his logo is Tobias. And so this is back to back of like, yeah, Tobias sucks. Yeah. Tobias.

Correct. Tobias isn't a suck. Tobias sucks. It's not a cool name. As a staff label, it grew, Tobias. I don't think I'm not crazy here. I think Toe bias is a funny name. Let the jury decide on that.

Tote not tough. It's a difference. Yeah. Is there other names like that that you say to a certain way? 100%. I'm not going to say it, though. I can't think off the top of my name. No, say it.

But yeah, if you like just pronounce somebody's name. Actually don't have a name on top of my head. Okay. There's definitely other names that certain inclinations. What I'm really saying is when it rolls off the tongue in a certain way it sounds funny. Because the way Beesol's said it, he's, you let Tobias Harris beat you. So his point was like, it's just Tobias Harris. Okay, I think the name for me is actually in this draft.

Keaton Wagler. Yeah, Wagler beat you. All right. It doesn't pass the test. Yeah. But you let Tobias beat you. All right. You let Tobias beat you.

It's different. It's different. It's way funnier. Lebron James, that ass. Okay. Is that where we're going with this? am I getting the activity kind of but there's certain names that lend itself

to that like LeBron doesn't really lend itself to that you can say anything like that but certain names are just funny I wish I had more examples here to further this theory but I don't no you that's funny that's fucking hilarious type shit type and that's if you're still here let us know what other names

lend himself to being joked on because the name sounds funny I want to see the list I'm curious and we'll see y'all on Thursday