The Mismatch - MVP Check, Dangerous Playoff Teams, and Are the Kings Being Disrespected?

Episode Date: March 31, 2023

After being disappointed by last night’s Bucks-Celtics game, Verno and KOC decide to play a round of everyone’s favorite game: That’s True, That Might Be True, or That’s Ridiculous! They begin with the Celtics blowout win and debate if there’s any significance to the loss for the Bucks (05:03). With the latest MVP straw poll released, the guys discuss if the MVP will be decided on the last week of the season, then debate if the league is showing disrespect to the Kings after clinching a playoff spot (22:02). As the Lakers continue to rise up the standings, are they more dangerous than the Warriors in the playoffs (33:54)? How about the Timberwolves? Also, they debate if Jaylin Williams can upset Paolo Banchero as Rookie of the Year, run through the latest inductees to the Basketball Hall of Fame, and so much more (45:26). Hosts: Chris Vernon and Kevin O’Connor Producer: Jessie Lopez Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's official. One Shining Podcast is back, and I am your host, Tate Frazier. And as March Badness begins, we're covering everything from Selection Sunday all the way to the championship and beyond. We're going to have great guests that are coming through on the show. And look, if you're a friend of the program and you're already subscribed, you don't have to do anything. OSP is back. It's going to be right back in your feed. And if you're not a friend of the program, and this is your first time on the rodeo, then let me tell you this. You need to go to Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcast. and smash subscribe today because the OSP show is back.

Welcome to The Mismatch. I'm Chris Vernon and joining me he does every Friday from the wringer.com is Kevin O'Connor, A.K. Kevin O'Bomber, Kevin O'Connor, Kevin O'Bomber, Kevin O'Conflict, Kevin O'Candiland, Kevin O'Cardust, Kevin O'Connell! Another disappointing game, man. Come on, what's going on with this?

We got some bad luck. So we recorded on Monday night. We were all set up to record. record after the epic Joe L&B Nicola Yoked showdown. Part two. That never happened. Boom. Now tonight, we said, you know what? We want to be able to get this podcast out to people? How about we record after the epic Celtics Bucks game?

This is one that we had Circle. We're going to get to watch the Celtics versus the Bucks, a possible Eastern Conference finals preview. You saw the bucks coming off of Drew Hollidays, 51, 8, and 8. Janus is 35 point triple double. And it appeared, Kevin, that they used up all of their stats last evening and did not bring any of those along with them. What a absolute bloodbath.

The Celtics are now 53 and 24, while the bucks are 55 and 22. So the Celtics are two games back from the bucks. Not impossible. This is a big one that could possibly swing in the standings. And as we've talked about many times, getting up to one would keep you away from playing a second round series against Philadelphia. And so I do think that the one seat has tremendous value,

not only with the home court, obviously, but just that your second round opponent, as it stands right now, would be the winner of Cleveland and New York. And given the lack of playoff appearances slash success, from those two, you know that that would be a much easier opponent for you to play in the second round

on your way to an East Finals than would be the Philadelphia 76ers. Chris, that might be true, that might be true, but not necessarily because the Hardin Achilles injury that he's been talking about, that he doesn't know where it came from. Like, he's four for 14 against Dallas, two for 14 against Chicago, four for 15 against the Charlotte Hornets. That's his last three games. He's made only two out of 18 three-pointers. If Hardin is limited at all, that does kind of change things when you're assessing. Would you rather face Philly or?

Cleveland. Cleveland, we've talked about it all year. Number one, defensive rating. They've been number four in offensive rating since the All-Star break. Number nine all season long. Cleveland's damn good, dude. They're a really good team. They get back in transition. They've got the two trees

back there. Mowgli's had a real advancement in his game over the course of the last month or so. He's had some really big ones, got a little more aggressive in spots. And then you've got those two guards who can just honestly match anyone.

And as I told you, I think Garland is as underrated as it gets in the league. And he alongside with Donovan Mitchell, along with those guys, you know, yes, I think they're a really good basketball team. And I do think they can be dangerous. So you might be, you might be right on this. It might be one of those careful what you wish for things. I'm glad you answered that by saying it might be true because today, in this very special episode of The Mismatch that we were recording on Thursday night prior to Denver and New Orleans.

So if anything happens in that, don't blame us. And if the Pelicans win, then I'll be glad that we recorded before that game. If the Pelicans win, I might have to record a, you're going to record a new top. A 15-minute topper. That costs a monologue for you. We are going to play everybody's favorite game that we play on the mismatch. That's true. That might be true. That's ridiculous. All right, Kevin. Statement number one on everyone's favorite game. Tonight's Buck Celtics game was a very significant. That's ridiculous.

It means little to nothing because it was the fifth game in five different cities and seven nights for the Bucks. And you think about what the playoffs are. They are a completely different beast when it comes to motivation. When it comes to rest, when it comes to game planning, I just don't think one of these regular season games has much of anything to do with what we'll see in the postseason. With that said, though, Chris, I do think there is something to seeing Robert Williams make his return the last three, four games for the Celtics now, in the difference that he can make in their rotation with the size that he provides, the room protection, the at-room finishing, the connective tissue as a passer. time lord is absolutely critical to what the Celtics are and what their upside can be. So I do think seeing him on the floor against the bucks is the one significant thing to pull away from tonight's game.

And you are going to see a lot of teams do this to Janus. This is now even more in vogue than maybe in the past, which is the ones that can do it are going to just set up that wall. And they're just going to say, look, man, you want to you want to bang threes, bang threes. but that's what you're going to have to do against us. That's what you're going to have to do. If Grayson Allen and Chris Middleton and Drew Holiday, if you want to just, Bobby Portis, whoever you're playing,

you guys want to shoot threes. Go ahead. But like, we're going to, there's nothing you can do about the transition stuff, but in the half court, we're just going to make this guy see three guys every time he puts his head up or puts his head down, for that matter,

to go to the basket. and it is going to really come down in many cases to whether or not those teams can make that the bucks can make them pay for that. But I do think you're right that, I don't know, they're very significant as obviously where this thing went off. It could, we could look back and say, hey, this game was set up to be rather intense and we're making some excuses for the bucks getting bald in the way they did. They played a lot of games this year, Kevin.

They've never been down like that. I mean, they got bold in this game. And they were down, what, 28 at half, I think? And then it didn't get any better when they came out of the locker room. And so we might look back and say, hey, Boston kind of found something in terms of dealing with Janus, they're the ones that knocked them out last year. I know that everybody has said without Middleton, without Middleton, but maybe it's a wait and see.

I don't know. I was really impressed with Boston night. Obviously, they shot the hell out of the ball. I mean, they made, they're making threes pulling up in transition. I mean, they shot a million of them, and they made a million of them that felt like in that game. I just wish a game like this could have been totally featured. I mean, I wish this game wasn't the fifth

and seven nights right for the bucks and and i and i wish there was more space between games where a team like this wouldn't be tired it would just give more meaning to every regular season game if that were the case instead like this week we don't get and bide because of scheduling he plays a back-to-back and they decide to arrest them you know this game tonight's an absolute dud on the side of the bucks they're exhausted they're tired you know and second night of a back-to-back boston has a little bit more rest and it ends up the way it is. And not that, you know, two teams having rest necessarily means it will always be a great game.

But I do think it increases the probability of players going on the court and actually playing in the case of Embed. And then also in the case of that they're more rested and there's game planning. That's what makes the postseason so special because there is that space between games and coaches are able to prepare, players are able to be better prepped and they're able to be better, you know, have better health. I just wish the regular season had that too from October through April. Oh, for sure.

And, you know, I was thinking about this. Do you think, this is just on an aside, this is not a statement I'm making, do you think that while we like the games right now and we're finally to that part of the schedule where we're paying attention, we're standings watching, these games have great significance at the end, that while it did mean that we would get a bigger selection of competitive teams, that actually it ended up devaluing the regular season even more, that weirdly, yes, postseason basketball and the end of this gets better, but with the fact that you only have to be really in the top 12 with X amount of time

to go to be able to have a crack to get into the play-in and that so many teams seem comfortable not having home court advantage or not playing to get home court advantage or playing to get even a top six C necessarily, that they're comfortable doing that, that that in fact helped devalue the regular season even more, which is something that has been a level, that is we've had a level of concern with. You're talking playing, right? Yeah. With what the plan did.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That it goes to 10 teams that you don't have to, right? Like the penalty, yes, it has caused more teams to want to compete. But the flip side of that is that in some cases, you're okay with the, hey, look, we're going to have to play our way in. And some of these teams, especially the veteran teams, aren't necessarily scared. I think the 7 through 10 want the 6. I still think that's the case.

Yeah, I think so. Yeah. I mean, yeah, they do. Do you think it matters greatly? I mean, I was there last night. I went to a game and there was no Jared Jackson, there was no Desmond Bain, there was no Tyos Jones. You know, they had played a bunch of games in a row.

And then right before the game, during the pregame, they say, Kauai Leonard's not playing personal reasons. And I don't know what his personal reasons were. I don't know if he's playing tomorrow night. But I know they're right there. Like they are on the cusp of not being in the play in. Or I'm saying having to play their way. Yeah, we don't know with Kauai.

Like whatever personal reasons actually means, you know, you could use that excuse and that doesn't matter. Like, clearly, the league's not going to do anything about it. You can take as much time as you want. I think with the Clippers, like I think the teams want the top six. To me, like the incentive that needs to be created, I know home court is an incentive. but like I just think at the top of the standings,

those top three teams should be able to choose their first round opponent. I think that's where great incentive lies, where if you could get the number one seed, you get to choose first. If you get the second seed, you get the choose second. You get the third seed, you get the choose third. And then the fourth seed gets whoever. And I know that changes the whole complexion of what the playoffs are,

but then if you have that, it means you don't have teams straddling for like, well, we want the five, so we're going to lose these games, you know, purposely, or we want the six, so we're going to lose these games purposely. You know, I don't think you don't really have many teams dropping the seven anymore because of the play-in, though. Like, teams want the six. They want the six seed because it's a guaranteed playoff spot. They don't have to play in any play-in competition and risk, you know, missing the playoffs entirely.

So you don't see that as much. But I think the plan, the way it's changed things mostly, is around the trade deadline. You don't have as many definitive buyers and sellers. It's not like you have half the league selling off to the top half of the league. Now there's a bunch of teams that are happy being pretty good. And you can look at that in two different ways. You might say, I like when more teams are selling, creating stronger teams. But on the other hand, it's not a bad thing if two-thirds of the league is more competitive.

You're saying earlier that we got this dud denied after we didn't get the MBDyokage thing. I just thought of another one, like we were going to get a preview of that matchup between Nick's Cavs and Randall's out for two weeks. Like, just nothing is, like, it really is. Like, this is the week of that it feels emblematic of the season we've had, which is just like nothing awesome materializes. You know, it's just even like, Kevin Durant goes to the sun and then he like gets hurt in a layup line. It's really hard to get to see. It's like, bro, do we? ever get to see the stuff that we really look forward to and for it to just play out at it.

I mean, it's going to be great if once we get to playoff basketball, if we start having these epic games and epic moments because we just have not been delivered them throughout this regular season. I got tagged in a post, you know, on Twitter today by this guy Max. And it was a Hope's height post from March 21st. So this is 10 days ago. And they tracked the percentage of the games missed by All-Stars. And this season, as of March 21st, 20.4% of games have been missed by All-Stars this season, which is an all-time high.

Like an all-time high. And their chart that they have, it's like a trend line of every season in NBA history. And it has like progressively trended up since the mid-90s. You can see that trend line going up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up So it's turning out to I am on the edge of my seat you know these stories have come out and we have not had Unlike in the past a tremendous amount of Ayer or public negotiation regarding The Players Association and the owners with this collective bargaining agreement

They have actually tonight I believe which will be Friday night where most people are listening to this, that they can get framework done and, you know, we're going to labor peace. But we haven't had a lot of details coming out about them ironing out that contract and kind of what is going to be involved. Like the minimum, the minimum games for awards. I've heard. And like what's going to, what is actually when they get to the table, like it's actually going to actually going to be addressed?

I've heard it's more likely going to be closer to 60 games than say 50 games for that minimum. I'm not sure what the exact number will end up being, but I've heard more like 60, less like 50, because I've talked to some people, media executives like, oh, what's the league going to do? Make it 50, you know, way too low. I don't think it's going to be too low. I think it'll be something fairly reasonable. Personally, I hope they, you know, I mentioned missing 20% of games. 20% is around 65.

I think, put it at like 65 or 70. Like, raise the bar. I don't, you know, like, why not? Well, and here's the other thing, Kev. This is what we've got to remember, and this is what gives me hope. Not regarding fans and fan reaction and whether or not they think franchise values

are going to take a hit or whether or not less people buy season tickets and all the things that we think they don't really care about because they're made men because of the media deal. And the media deal's up in a couple of years. And so you just got to follow the money. It can be me and you complaining about it.

It can be fans saying, I'm not going to buy tickets anymore, whatever it may be. What matters is that media deal, that multimedia deal, and that is where the money is. That's where the money is. And so I do think that there could be,

if I am a TV partner, I am privately expressing my discontent with this. If I'm a TV partner. Yeah. I'm like, come on, this is bullshit. I'm paying $50 billion for this thing. And, you know, it's like it did not used to be like this.

It didn't used to be a crapshoot whether or not we would get the matchup that we thought we were going to get. We understand injuries. But like, come on now. You got an issue. year where guys aren't playing in these premier matchups. We set up the schedule looking at this.

This is why we put this team on national TV more than this team on national TV. This is why we feature this game instead of this game. And all the way, and you're just getting burned over and over and over again. So many times this season. Like it's been twice a week for us. Twice in a week. And it's the end of the season. Yeah.

And it's like twice in a week. but if this is how many times this year, it's coming some out. I can't remember. I don't know if there's every night. I would say, yes, less than, there are probably less than five shows, the whole season that we needed to wait

until the end of a game. That's true. Yeah, it's been a lot of times we're able to start early. It's a lot of times. It's twice this week. Yeah. We were expecting to record, and now the game is over. But, I mean, the whole reason that this was set up this way is we were going to record after this big game.

And it over and over again, there's been the case. But, I mean, you could go back through our text. We text each other, and it's like, well, if this is still 35, like, we're not going to spend a lot of time on that. Yeah, on Tuesday, we're like, yeah, we'll record after self-exbox. We're stoked about it. And then today we're like, but in the middle of the second quarter, we're like,

it really is. You know, it just felt like the whole damn season has been like Charlie Brown pulling the football. It really has, which is a shame because there's so many amazing players and there's so many fun teams. It's just you don't always see those teams at full strength.

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In Wyoming, visit 1,900, 522-4700. And West Virginia, visit 1,800 gambler.net. All right, we'll have to get back focused, because we've got a game to play. That's true. That might be true. That's ridiculous. We forgot all about the game. All right, next statement.

The MVP will be decided in this last week of the season because Joe L.M.B. sat in that game versus Nicolioch. I'll answer that. You really stress the because. I'll say that might be true. Just because ballots were received today. I got my ballot in my email today.

The NBA sent them out to all voters. So for me, I haven't determined what I'll do yet. So it might not be until the last week for me. So I'll say, in my case, that might be true. In part because we didn't get to see them play there tonight. But that's just like one game. It's still not the whole reason. Our buddy Tim Bontems came out with his NBA MVP straw poll.

This one was something else, Chris. And Joelle M.B. Was the winner of the MVP in the straw poll. He got less first place vote than Nicolioch. Two less votes. But he got six more second place vote. Oh, man. This would be the closest MVP voting ever.

Yeah. Ever. Yep. It was 790 was the total points. And Yokic had 788. It is significant that Janus in this, because these are prospective voters. I have taken part in Bontemp's straw poll before. I don't mind telling everybody that.

You put Jabber at first. I did not. I have not taken, I did not. No, I was accused of giving Jared Jackson the vote. I didn't vote in this one. I didn't vote in this one. Well, the interesting thing is, is, you know, you look at the vote here, 790 points for Embed, 788 for Yokic, 612 for Janus. Yonis comes in second in the last straw poll with only 552. Yes, it's a pretty wide margin. Yes, and that shows like how much of a heavy phase. favorite Yokich was back in February when Bon Temp's did this then. But now it's really tightened up between those three

and B, Yonkich, and Yonis. I don't think Yonis is going to win just because everybody talks about this as Embed versus Yokic. I still have Yonis first on my personal rankings. And, you know, when I do a full-on deep dive and completely reevaluate things,

we'll see how that changes for me. But he certainly could play spoiler with 18 first place votes. 15 second place votes, the more people that have him first or second, bumping down and beat or Yokic, that could really, really change things

when it comes to who wins, as we saw with Yokic having more first place votes and beat having more second place votes. It could get wild, man. It's going to be interesting. The crazy thing is, the only thing, when I started looking through that,

I was like, you know, I knew who the top three were going to be. Yeah. Clearly the margin was close than anyone could have ever expected. When you're polling that many people and it comes out that close, that's amazing. It's pretty cool.

But the other thing that stood out to me is the only 100% lock that there is is that Jason Tatum will be fourth in the MVP voting. Everybody had, everybody had, you know, this top three, and then they had them in different orders, but everyone had Jason Tatum fourth. So we figured out who is the decided fourth, and then who knows who's going to be fit.

Maybe Luca, maybe it's Shea Gildas Alexander, maybe it's, yeah, one of the Sacramento guys, or Donovan Mitchell or whoever, but we do know that it's most likely that Jason Tatum ends up fourth. And I guess, look, being fifth in MVP vote, being top five in MVP voting, is a feather to put in your cap.

and if the Mavs vomit all over themselves and don't make it, and Oklahoma City does make the play in, you know, SGA would get a top five MVP, you know, on his, on his resume. He was close on this one. Very good. Yeah, and Subonis, too, is up there, right? Subonis, and they were able to pull off what they did last night, clinching. And so I don't know if Luca will, I don't think Luca will even.

to be five if they end up missing everything all together. And that would open the door for one of those other guys. And why you can just say, who gives a crap, who's fifth in MVP voting? Like, we go back and there's a historical record of it that we always look back. And we say, hey, man, that guy was fifth in MVP voting one year. You know, it is significant. Were there any whack-out choices on there, you thought, for like fifth on MVP? Wacko?

Yeah, well, I mean, Jaron Jackson Jr. got a vote. I told you. I was accused of that. I'm just saying. I didn't do that. I'm just wondering who. I mean, do you think that's a wacko choice? I mean, it's no more wacko than

Steph Curry, who hasn't been available all that much or Jalen Brown or whoever. I mean, again, people don't care about defense. but Memphis was one of the worst defenses in the NBA and he came into the lineup and they have been the number one defense in the NBA since he has entered the lineup. He is having a historically amazing defensive season by all measurements.

I saw yesterday his block percentage, percentage of shots that get blocked. He blocks out one out of every 10 shots when he's on the court. The only one that's ever done that is, Newt bowl three times. Defensive player of beer, I think. Yeah. But so I mean, look, of course it's goopy to vote him for MVP. I mean, come on. Nobody.

And I'm not responsible for that. As I said, I did not vote in this. But, you know, I mean, he's on team with the second best record. It's still goopening, for sure. I think anything, any of those guys, honestly, that's not

Embed, Yokage, Yonis, Tatum. And then, you know, of those names we mentioned, either Luca, SGA, Sabonis, like anything past there is pretty goofy, given one of those guys a vote. Come on, Jimmy Butler?

Yeah, Jim Butler's supposed to be in the play-in right now. I know I said a good statistical season, but what? Okay. Everybody's got their own criteria, though, they say. Anyway, what we did learn is that this is going to be wildly fascinated to see how it plays out at the end. The aforementioned kings and subonis.

Next thing. The kings deserve more respect than they are getting as a playoff team. That's ridiculous. I mean, how much more respect can they get? They've gotten, they get zero. Literally everyone wants to play them. Everyone. And they say it.

people want to play them Minnesota wants to play them the Lakers want to play them everybody wants to play them well because they want the 6th seed because it's a guaranteed playoff spot No but they want it because No they don't they want the 6 seed

because it's a guaranteed playoff spot That's why I know what's been said You want the 6 seed because you're guaranteed to be in the playoffs That's why you want the 6th But they also want that opponent you will pick a lot of those teams against a king

who would you not pick against the king you tell me but you'd rather have you'd rather have the sixth seed and face the kings than have than the seven or eight seed and have to win a really tough game and then possibly lose and then then possibly be on the brink of elimination you could frame it like hey they just want to be it solidly in the playoffs I agree you want to six okay fine

now so you think if the grizzlies were the three if the grizzlies were the three people would still want the six they wouldn't be tanked to the seven they'd still want the six they would rather play a team that is 30 and six at home yeah they'd rather they'd still rather get the six okay look you all right here let's do it this way who would you pick for the kings to be by the way the kings could still catch the gris we're going to find out the level of disrespect

who would you pick for the Kings to beat that they could possibly play in the playoffs. The Kings are currently two games back from Memphis. They're like, this isn't locked in. No, no, no. Let's just say there's three. There's not four games. Don't try to wiggle out of this.

Who would you pick the Kings to beat? Out of the four through 10 right now, I would not pick them over the sons. I would not pick them over the Warriors. I would pick them over the Clippers. When I say Warriors, that means. with Wiggins back. Okay, so Clippers. I'd pick them over the wolves.

I would not pick them over the Lakers. I'd pick them over the Pelicans. I'd pick them over the Thunders. What? I'd pick them over the Mavericks. I'd pick them over the Jazz. So what teams did I say I wouldn't pick them over? Warriors Lakers, that's it.

Suns, Warriors, Lakers, that's it. Okay, and you are giving them respect. Yeah, I mean. You would pick them to beat the wolves or the clippers or the Borgers. Yeah, but I just wonder how much, to me, the way I look at it is how much more respect can they get. People have recognized all season long they have an incredible, innovative offense that plays so many different ways. Mike Brown's probably going to win coach of the year. Darren Fox is probably going to win the clutch player of the year.

Fox and Sabonas are both in all-N-Ba consideration. They might get votes for fifth on MVP ballots. How much more respect can they get? That's the way I look at it. Fair enough. Their defense stinks. that's where you pick apart who they could beat in the playoffs

their defense is bottom five it has not improved all season long they're going to have to outscore teams like crazy despite their deficiencies on defense I just don't know I just don't think how much more respect the you know can I mean they had the third best record in the league as you say

striking distance from two and yet no one really thinks of them as a Western conference contender Because they're not. Not with a defense that bad, unless they're an outlier in league history, which you never know. Like, this is a weird year. Maybe the injuries carry on to the playoffs, right?

And all this, everything you just said, Chris, where it's been like five pods this year, right? Yeah, right. Right? Like, maybe that continues on into the playoffs. You never know, right? Where that aids a team to make a deeper run that we don't expect to. But, like, with a defense that bad, they're going against, you know, decades of history where teams with defenses that bad tend to flame out in the first or second round.

So we would be set up right now where they would be facing the Warriors. But we don't know with the Warriors with Andrew Wiggins. That's the big question. All right. Well, I guess, look, for my next statement, I don't even have to... The next statement was the Lakers are more dangerous than the Warriors. Well, I guess this does apply because you said either of them. them.

The Lakers are more dangerous than the Warriors. That's true. How about from my perspective, right? So as someone who would be rooting for Memphis and Memphis is going to be playing the seven, right? If you told me you can play the Warriors or you can play the Lakers, you would say I should choose the Warriors in that. Yeah, I mean, every team is different.

But, I mean, if you face the Warriors, you're going to get smoked as long as we against us back. I mean, I'd love to see that battle. I wish you would watch them play each other. I wish you'd watch them play each other. It would be so helpful

so you wouldn't say this stupid-ass stuff. Well, I mean, they haven't had Wiggins. They haven't had Wiggins. I mean, you understand they haven't had Stephen Adams. The lost Brandon Clark to a torn Achilles.

They've had their starting. lineup for like 125 minutes. Are they going to have Stephen Adams? Are you telling me that they will? It's possible. Are they going to have Andrew Wiggins? Are you telling me they will? The last thing Steve Kerr said, it sounded pretty optimistic about having him for the

most season. All right. Well, look, I am unafraid of that. I mean, you get, you get, I mean, there's a big difference. Of course they are fearful. Chris, there's a big difference between Adams and Wiggins. Wiggins is working out every day. doing whatever he's doing at home.

Adams is getting stem cell injections. Well, he's also getting re-valuated this week. Yeah. And it started doing some work. And so, I mean, if his reevaluation goes well, then he'll be able to play. Not. I don't know. Trayvon will just have to punch somebody in the face again.

I mean, I can't believe you're talking so favorably about the Warriors after what they did to your pelicans the other night. I went, I came home for my game. And they were up by 20, and I just turned the damn thing off and went to bed. And then I was just waiting for all the tweets in the morning. It's like, oh, I can't wait to see this shit. And then I woke up and I'm like, oh, my God. So I went back to watch how they did it. And I'm like, bro, is Draymond going to have to stab someone to get another tech?

What is going on? I'll tell you what, Chris. I think Steve Kerr listened to our podcast on Tuesday, though, because remember we talked about Cummina's Minutes? He played 31 minutes on Tuesday night against the football. Pelicans and had a really good game. That was wild. All right, so you do view the Lakers as more dangerous than the Warriors, though.

That's what you originally said. Yeah, I mean, going back to my post-trade deadline power rankings, I had the Lakers' sixth, I had the Warriors fifth. Let's flip those teams right now. That's the way I'd put it. Okay. Yeah. And obviously, you know, the Wind Horse quote that went everywhere.

LeBron has came back because he smells blood or whatever. He senses weakness. That was a good quote. Yeah. Very good quote. It was always a great quote. And he should smell blood. The West is weak.

No, for sure. And I, I can't wait to watch him lose and then walk out with a huge boot on his foot and then tell everybody that he was too hurt to win. You know that's coming, right? You know the second they lose. That's coming, right? Well, just to be clear, you'd rather have the warrior.

in the first round is a Grizzlies guy. I mean, I just think that you're, like, the Warriors, I hope we get that. I want, I want, I want Kingslakers. I'm going to tell you what you think. I want Grizzlies Warriors. And the first round, that's drama. If you told me there is no Stephen Adams,

100%. I would rather have the Warriors. Yeah. Because they will get mashed on the boards by the Lakers. Davis will be able to play volleyball on the backboard, and you get no calls versus them.

None. You're just going to get ground down into a foul-fast, half-court game, and it's going to be a mess. Whereas the Warriors, that's not the way they play. They play a more pace and space, open-type game, and they're small.

They're small. They don't have a bunch of big guys. They're not going to destroy you on the backboards, but the Lakers are that kind of team. Same thing with the wolves. Wolves are big too. You know what I mean? Like that's going to be the thing.

That's where the Adams thing could kill Memphis. For sure. I wonder, like, what's the most lower seed upsets in NBA history? Like, how many times that was like a 5 beat of four, six beta three, a seven beat of two? We've had eight versus one. I mean, I went to an eight versus one. How many in one year? Oh, I don't know.

I can't imagine that. Yeah. And they're pretty rare. I know. They're probably the maximum ever. It's probably two. Yeah. They're so rare.

Yeah. Like a four or five is nothing, you know, spectacular. And that even goes back to when it was three out of five. Yeah. You remember the Mutumbo laying on the floor with the ball in the air? I mean, that's when it's three out of five. You know, the ones that I remember the most are clearly either ones that I covered, like when Memphis beat San Antonio or the Knicks Heat certainly very very.

significant. The We Believe Warriors, you know, knocking off the Mavs that year. I mean, there's been some good ones. And it might be more, it might be more common than we think. The wolves are more dangerous than both of those teams we just debated danger with.

The Lakers and the Warriors. The wolves are more dangerous than both of those teams. That's ridiculous. No, the Lakers have LeBron James and Anthony Davis. two of the top 10 to 12 players in league. The Warriors have Stefan Curry, Draymond Green, Clay Thompson, possibly Andrew Wiggins,

grizzled playoff experience on both of those squads. The Wolves, they don't have that experience together. They don't have that experience individually, so I can't put them ahead of the Lakers of the Warriors. Yeah, and I wanted to say big congrats to the Lakers. They are now 15 and 15 with LeBron and AD Healthy. in the 30 games that they played together. So that was huge for them to get to 500 this year.

It was awesome. Obviously a dangerous team. Next statement. Rudy Gobert is right. Your guy. The league tries to help all the teams that beat the wolves. Rudy Gobert, of course, had a tirade the other night. He said, it's bullshit.

It's bullshit. That was the beginning of his quote. It's not really fair. Every night, I've been in this league for 10 years and I always try to give the benefit of the doubt, but it's hard for me to think they're not trying to help them win tonight. It's hard for me to believe they don't try to help the Warriors win or the other night against the Kings. It's so obvious. We work so hard to be in a position to compete with the best and we just get manipulated into those situations where it just impacts the game. The other team too much. They know how to do it. They do it different ways. Tonight was another way of doing it,

but it's all good. We understand it's a business. We understand we're not the biggest of the markets that we're a team that I know you want to see Kevin Durant in the playoffs Steph Curry in the playoffs you want to see LeBron James in the playoffs timber wolves aren't there yet well can't believe you didn't do your accent for him your impression we we Kevin Okanair he's bullshit all right the league does want all these teams that are beating the wolves to beat them. No. You don't think so?

You know, isn't it interesting... You're not going to back your guy? I mean, isn't it interesting how many players have just come out and just completely ripped the NBA for stuff like this? You got Luca making the money sign to the referees. You get Gobert saying this. You got other players trashing them. Van Bleet a couple weeks ago after the game.

I mean, whoa, players really going at the league. Adam Silver, what's you going to do about it? too wildly. You had Trey throwing a bowl at one last weekend. Remember that? Yeah. And so you have the ironic thing about this is A, I don't know if anybody's bitched as much as Monty Williams this year

about the raw deal the sons get. He always talked about how the sons get a raw deal. So that's going to fall on deaf ears. And, you know, Rudy should have left it to like Warriors, Lakers. He would have gotten a lot of NBA fandom behind him, but sometimes you make a critical error in making your argument that loses everyone. And the second he said kings,

he lost everyone. And they got screwed. Scruly in the season. And it's been 16 years since they made, you think the NBA is doing something for the Kings? When did this start? Like the history of the Kings is marred with being screwed. Yes.

Like, in fact, that is, if we get Kings Lakers, we're going to have to watch replays of what many people believe is one of the great robberies in NBA playoff history, where they set the Lakers to the line 700,000 times against the Chris Weber Kings. And so, I don't know, man. he could have You got Like my advice to Rudy

Would be hey Play the hits man Play the hits You got a lot of warrior fans out there You got a lot of Laker fans out there A lot of them are super crazy And fight with people on the internet All day every day

And They're the teams that have won Championships Recently they're the ones with big stars Play the hits It hits, Rudy. But you throw in Sacramento and the argument is that the league wants these teams to win.

It's like, come on, bro. I promise you, Adam Silver is not sitting around going, guys, we have got to figure out a way for Sacramento to hold onto their spot. This light-the-beam stuff is just taking over everything. like the beam stuff is mega fun for sure but he lost everybody on that and it looks bad when you just start naming everybody that beat you it's like what the NBA's fixing games just so happens to be all of the people that have beaten you recently that's how they're fixing them uh and by the way he spent his career in Utah you know it's not like he's been playing it's some kind of like

so he's seen it both ways, and it's like, I don't know. And they were the number one team last year. You think the NBA was sitting around going, thank God, Utah has won 60 games in his first in the standings. It's outrageous. Next one, Jalen Williams, Oklahoma City Thunder, hit a game winner last night. Boy, they needed it too, because that would have been a bad one, bad one to lose at this structure of the season.

But Jaylon Williams has made the rookie of the year a real debate. That might be true, but probably not. I tweeted maybe about a week ago saying, you know, Jaylon Williams has made a serious run at rookie of the year. I think Magic fans kind of took that the wrong way as to say, like, this will be a real debate. I just mean like he's like been awesome for a month or so now. And like he's really pushing himself into this conversation.

But Bencaro has been the rookie of the year pretty much the entire season. He's been from the start, you know, the heavy volume guy with a heavy role. You know, he's played a lot of games. Jalen Williams has been awesome for weeks. You know, he's been very good all season long, you know, as a role player, and now he's getting more opportunity. But I think if you're factoring in, you know, if you're looking purely at scoring efficiency, then yes, Jalen Williams is going to be a rookie year.

of the year. If you're valuing what he's done, you know, last, you know, the last stretch where he's had a heavy workload, then yes, he's a rookie of the year. But the entire season, to me, it's Paulo Bencaro and Jaylon Williams is just really pushing for a second right now. One of the things that I will say regarding Jaylon Williams is, and you could go back and listen to after first saw him, I was not aware of him at Santa Clara. So the first I saw him was Summer League in Salt Lake City. You go back and you can hear it because it came on the show the next time and I was like, I love this, the one with the hair.

I love him. Absolutely love this kid. And you will recall, I've said many times on the show, David Roddy, when I first interviewed him, he told me the best player that he played against in college was Jalen Williams, this kid. And saw him and immediately loved what he brought to the table. every once in a while, this Summer League stuff does play out. And you see these guys at Summer League. Famously, you and I came on here raving about Donovan Mitchell right after Summer League.

It's like, oh, my God, what did we just watch? This guy's just better than, like, this is going to look bad. This guy got drafted too low. And Jalen Williams did feel that way where it was like, man, this guy could really be a steal when it all plays. out and sure enough it has he's had a great rookie season another one because you know we always get to summer league and the people will say

it's just summer league it's just summer league sometimes that does give you a glimpse into who is really going to be successful because another one just broke the aforementioned Donovan Mitchell's rookie three point record in Keegan Murray who was also a

big standout that we were like holy shit this guy this guy looks like the best player on the floor every time he takes before for the summer league games. There was some real foreshadowing with both of those guys. And I still wonder, you know, Pollo was a one-year guy, big, huge recruit. I mean, like, he has been tapped as going to be amazing for a long time. He's one of those.

The other ones, I think this is going to be a great rookie class to go back and look at because we get this snapshot and clear. these guys that were ready to contribute out of college were the ones that impressed us the most and are going to be in that rookie of the year standings. So once you get past Paolo, it's going to be Jalen Williams, who had experience,

Keegan Murray, experienced player, Walker Kessler, very experienced player, right? Like these are kind of like ready-made players. They were ready to come in and contribute and contribute to winning. immediately. And I think we're going to look back at this draft and we'll see how it plays out

because some of the younger, more potential talent players. Of course, we didn't see Chet. Jabari is going to be a radically different human being and player in three or four years. But like, I think this is going to be a really good one. Like, are we going to look back And the guys that we thought were the best four or five rookies from this rookie class after this first season,

how many of those are in the mix after the other ones start to progress? But these ready-made guys, they came in and contributed to winning, like, immediately. I mean, there's value to having a guy on a, you know, Penny's contract as a rookie, you know, drafting someone who you feel is more ready that can come in right away and help you. That's what we've seen. And I wonder, you know, how that will affect teams drafting in the first round this year, especially with so many teams having multiple first round draft picks. You can take some swings on, you know, riskier guys who may or may not work out, but then you can, you know, have some quote-unquote safer players. But the thing is, Chris, is you know this

with Desmond Bain. We're seeing this with Jalen Williams, Walker Kessler. Sometimes what is, quote-unquote, safe, those guys end up tapping into a higher upside than you ever could have imagined. It's the whole just, they're good. Yeah. They're good. You know, we may look back and Jaden Ivy ends up being way better than Kegan Murray.

But for this year, Kegan Murray was super valuable for the Kings. And it might be we look up, but Kegan Murray has a better career than some of the guys that were drafted behind him. But I remember even on draft night, you know, that that was a thing. I even criticized them because I'm a huge

Jaden Ivy guy. And I do think Ivy's going to be a fantastic player in the NBA. I still believe that. But you had some real ready-made in this year's class. I mean, I just saw Paulo in person for the first time earlier this week.

Oh, my God. I mean, Kevin, when he gets it all figured out, watch out just does not look like a rookie man they could have two they could have two top 20 guys

bankero and bognarer size of that yeah I mean look I saw Franz he was like four for a thousand and then he had 11 points in the last 70 seconds of the game it was the craziest thing I've ever seen

he had 11 points in 70 seconds after Dylan Brooks shut him down the whole game whole game. But I mean, he's done that to a lot of top 20 players. I didn't like that. Oh, boy. Next one. I can't wait until Wagner's beating the grizzlies in a couple of years.

Come on. Dirk, Dwayne Wade, Pogasol, Tony Parker, Greg Popovich. Every one of those guys should be first ballot Hall of Famers. Yeah. They were all on that list. That's true. It's going to be a big class. That's true.

Yeah. I think I agree. I don't think there should be much debate about it, right? Because, I mean, you're taking even international play. Yeah, which has to be, you know, for Powell. That puts power as a first ballot. The international exploits make him a first ballot. I always think it's weird when current guys, like, Craig Popovich is coaching right now.

Well, Parker, too. I mean, you know, he had success in Fiba. No, no, no, no. but I'm saying, Popovich, he's coaching right now. Like, they always do that with college coaches,

too. It's like Jay Wright, the Hall of Famer, like, he's coached from Villanova. Like, what the hell? Like,

why is it? Like, I'm always supposed to wait on the end of careers to do this. I always find it strange. Uh, next statement.

Taylon Horton Tucker's 41 is the best, what performance that we get in that last, the last two weeks of the season, we always get, weird performances. Taylor Norton Ducker's 41 is the best one.

It's the best of the last two weeks. I don't know if it'll be the best of the next two weeks, so I'll say that might be true. Here's the one interesting thing with him having 41 points last night, Chris. He had 37 a few weeks ago, right? But in the seven games since he had 37 points, he averaged 12.4 points per game on 39% from 2, and 22% from 3

and 58% from the line. So he drops 37 points, then goes back to becoming the same old Tailing Horton Tucker, and then he drops 41. He only gets up for big games. Yeah. Do you think Tailing Horton Tuckers

is more, when you like look at the box scores or you're skating through and you see that, okay? Because I'm assuming you probably weren't watching Taylorin Horton Tucker's 41. I wasn't either. glued to my

TV live which which I would because I'm going to tell you the one that I was actually

on a post game show and I was scrolling through to see like check up on the scores and it was actually I believe it was Oklahoma City game earlier this week

and PJ Washington's 38 oh yeah that he had I was like what how about Isaiah Joe had 33 in that

same game. Teo Maladon's revenge game? Yeah. I mean, look at their read off the horned starting line up that night. It's incredible. That night at Teo Maladon, Svema Kai Luke, Bryce McGowan's who's a rookie,

Nick Richards, P.J. Washington. And then off the bench, Kai Jones, J.T. Thor, James Book night, eight-man rotation for the Hornets. They went full playoff mode there. And PJ Washington's like, I know you guys are setting us up to lose, but I'm a restricted free agent, dumbasses.

I'm going to get minds. I think I am more surprised by PJ Washington's 38 than Taylor Norton Tucker's 41. I think that's fair. That's fair. By the way, in 43, 43 PJ. Wait, he ended up with 43. He had 43, yes.

PJ. I'm sorry, I shorted him five points. Okay, did that win? Yeah, that's fair. Yeah. Like, I could see Taylor Norton Tucker going big in a game, just a random-ass game. But PJ Washington going for 43, not something I had in the cards. PJ Washington is going to have a very interesting restricted free agency. Because, like, you think about 6-7 big, versatile, can space the floor, clearly, you know, can have high-scoring affairs.

Like he's had other, you know, 20 plus point games, 25 plus point games. I'm always like him. Yeah, no, I feel, I mean, you plug PJ Washington on a winning team. I don't know. It gets interesting, yeah. He's a lot like, you know, like even just, it's crazy that it's a cop, but like, PJ Brown years ago. Like, I could see those kind of like, just matching PJs.

I know, I'm matching PJs. I'm saying like they have the value of Leon Poe, you know, like these kind of. of guys that like to Michael Green. No, I'm saying these kind of guys that like at worst, they're still valuable, even as they become veterans. They're still valuable. They can give you a minute. They can give you some hard minutes.

They can knock down 17 footers. But he may be better than even that, right? Like, I mean, it's only four years into his career. I really liked him coming out of the draft. He was on my guys that can't fail list. And he has not failed. But I certainly never suspected he'd be scoring 40. playing with Sveh McIluck and who was the other one,

Bryce McGowan's. I guess you have to. We're playing with those guys. Next statement. Brandon Miller will drop in the draft. Maybe that might be true. I mean, like who knows? The draft is a long ways away and,

and what is that? March and three months now. Maybe. I mean, it could be for off court reasons. It could be for, you know, on court reasons. But I would say no. I think he'll end up. being the second or third pick.

The off court would be much more like it. I mean like it said they like I think it is fair to say we have not talked about it much on this show because we do an NBA show. But he's a very highly touted draft prospect who was involved in a really gruesome scene that took place and just being around NBA, you know, talent evaluators and knowing what goes on in those interview. and what all they're trying to find out, I do think that his,

his interview processes and his answers to everything that took place with that as they are talking about it are going to be much more important than, I mean, he'll have representation. I'm sure he will be well prepared

to answer those questions, but teams are probably going to grill him a lot more. talking about the millions of dollars on the line and using a high pick, they're going to grill them a lot more than he got grilled about it at Alabama or by his coach or the SEC or anything else, you know. Totally. I mean, it's also possible that like an Amen Thompson or an Osar Thompson, they're shooting the hell out of the ball and pre-draft workouts after making steady progress on their mechanics all year and a team with a second pick or the third pick decides,

oh, we want them. And then Miller goes from, you know, in the conversation for two to three to five or six. You know, like that could, that's falling too. But I just, I mean, he's number two on my board. I'm sticking to that for now. But I don't see myself changing from that. But we'll see it's a long ways to go, three months until the draft. Last one.

Baseball's new rules are going to get you to watch more. That's ridiculous. I don't have the time. Wow. That's what they're doing, though. They're making it take less time. There's a pitch talk now. I already have, I focus on basketball.

I focus on my. on my mom. I do things in my own time. Call of duty. Call of duty. Occasionally seeing friends. Peloton, Kevin O. Peloton. I'm working out every day.

It's the busiest time of year. April, May, June, July. This is the stretch of the year where I am at my max busiest. I can't do it. I see people the least. I definitely can't watch baseball. I don't miss it either. I miss football.

I do miss football. When is the last baseball game you watch? Like a full game start to finish. Yeah. Well, you watch the baseball game. Full game, like intently. I don't even know. I can't remember.

Were you not in on the whole Red Sox fever? Oh, of course I was. Yeah. Oh, you did. You cared about that. Oh, yeah. Baseball was the sport I fell in love with first. Baseball was my first sport, really.

you know, I was like probably six, seven years old, you know. So like this is 96, 97, probably when I first started loving baseball. I played little league. I played minor leagues. I played baseball growing up. I was a good pitcher, right? You're playing in a minor leagues. No, I know.

No, that was not like minor leagues locally. Like, that's what it was called. I know. I'm kidding. But no, like, like I love the Red Sox. I used to watch every Red Sox game with my dad for probably from like, I don't know, like 02 through, I don't know, 09, something like that.

Since you've lived in L.A., have you gone to Dodgers or Angels? I've been to a Dodgers game or two Dodgers games. I have not been to an Angels game yet. The Angels are kind of out of a city, but I've been to one or two Dodgers games. Dodgers games are fun. I just, you know. You should go see Otani in person. You should.

I know. I should. I went and saw him last year in person just to say I didn't. Yeah. Maybe. But I saw him in New York. Maybe buy a ticket, like on the day he's pitching, something like that. But you really cannot even remember the last time you...

A full game? No, I don't remember. No. Not even the playoffs? No. World Series, nothing. I mean, parts of games, yeah. But a full game, no.

Yeah. Oh, I don't think... I mean, I'm... I mean, I'm... That's what I thought we said. Well, like, it was opening day to day. I obviously, I watched the Cardinals Blue Jays game, which was awesome, by the way. If you love scoring, you loved it.

I've watched clips of the pitch clock. It's a massive improvement. Oh, yeah. For baseball. I mean, it's a big time improvement. And, like, I think if you're the NBA, I mean, Adam Silver, you just installed a playing tournament. People liked it for the most part. You've done all these things.

Don't be afraid, Adam Silver, to be daring with the changes that you put to the schedule, to the rules on the court, to make the game as good as it can be. We're seeing it with NBA, with NFL, with NLB now with the pitch clock. You can make innovative changes and people are going to adapt just like anything else in life. The most innovative change that I would be in favor of would be getting the players to play. Yeah. Okay, so how do you do that? You do that by dropping the amount of games.

There's too many regular season games. You may give them more meaning if there's fewer of them. You overhaul the schedule, so there's two games a week. with a third game, a premier game, a national TV featured game. And if the players don't play in that, like there's going to be some hit, like some not,

whether it's a minimum for awards or whatever, like there's got to be penalty. You have to make them care about it themselves. The other thing is... Also, get rid of flopping. Players should be suspended for flopping, not find, suspended.

Get flopping out of the game because the officials fall for it. It hurts the game. I grew up not liking soccer to an extent. I liked watching World Cup and all that, but I always thought too much flopping and soccer. Too much acting, too much flopping. Basketball has become that.

So get rid of it. Get it out of the game. Suspend players if they're flopping too much. Because as of now, the way I analyze the game, it's like I have to respect the player for bending the rules and for influencing and manipulating

officials to their own favor in the name of winning, Marcus Smart, on defense. Chris Paul, anytime a defender's arm is in his way. Like, I respect it because they're playing

within the rules. Change the rules and get that behavior out of the damn game, Adam Silver. Improved the game. Regarding the baseball would, I mean,

they're playing some spring training games in less than two hours. Incredible. Yeah. I'm going to be fascinated to see how this all plays out and how well it works. NBA's equivalent of that

could be moving to like one free throw. They've done that in the G-League. Like one free throw and say, too. I'd be in favor of that too. Hey, I'm going to play off basketball tomorrow. Oh, yeah? The Hustle?

The Memphis Hustle play the Rio Grande Valley Vipers. Memphis Hustle have a cool logo. They do have a cool. They got great gear because they got great colors, red, black, and white. Yeah, it's super cool. They are playing against the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, Jalen Leque on that team and some others.

But, yeah, playoff basketball in the G-League. I'm going to go see it. I think they play the, I think it's like Stockton. The Stockton Kings and somebody else are on the other side. But it's one and done when you get to the G League playoff. So you get a Kenny Lofton. Is he going to be playing for the hustle? He'll be playing.

Nice. I think they're going to have him and Laravia. But not Roddy. Roddy is, Roddy's school with the big league squad now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, they have a game. They've game at night. Kennedy Chandler with the big leagues now, too, right?

They don't have them come on the hustle anymore. Yeah, well, and the point guard for Memphis, the hustle, led the league and assist. He was great for them. Jacob Gildier, the kid that went to Richmond. Okay. He's actually the all-time steals leader in NCAA history. Yeah. Little guy.

Unless he's only 5'9. I was pulled it up. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he averaged like 10 assists the game this year. Yeah. I'm excited for it just because I want to playoff basketball. Gets me a little appetizer for it. All the marvels.

I like... Busy day for you tomorrow. Could you imagine... You got G-League and then the Grizzlies at night? That's right. Could you imagine if the NBA did the... Just won and done? Oh, yeah.

I mean, that's what the... Your whole season comes down to one game. But, Chris, that's what you hope the in-season tournament becomes. You hope the in-season tournament has meaning and value, and it becomes something that fans look forward to, and that you feel crushed. when they lose. You hope it becomes that. It will take time.

Buy in from the players, but I hope it becomes that because that's what the NBA needs is some type of single elimination tournament. Well, Kevin is always a pleasure. Baseball, MLB's not afraid with the pitch clock. They're not afraid. NBA, be daring. Make the game better. Thank you, our executive producer, Jesse Lopez, as always.

So I'm watching right now, the Pelicans are beating the nuggets, as we're signing off. So I need to get out of here. No Yokic. No Yokic. Oh, really? And no Yokich. He's out with a calf injury.

Oh, for God. You know he said that because of Mbid sitting out with a calf injury. Yeah. You know he's just mocking it. Oh, my calf hurts. So TNT tonight got a friggin' 50-point blowout in one game. Our poor guy, Lefko, huh? And then no Yokic.

And Lefko's in the studio with Isaiah Thomas Channing Fry and Jamal Crawford because the other guys are doing the Final Four. And Ernie and Kenyon. So what a dud Thursday night. I know, huh? God, last. But Chris, you know what? We had a fun show.

We did. We enjoyed our conversation. This was fun. We had a good time. Everybody have a great weekend. Kevin. I'll talk to you next week. Have a good luck.