The Mismatch - Which Teams Are Surging and Which Are Faltering Heading Into the NBA Season’s Final Stretch?

Episode Date: April 6, 2021

As the stretch run approaches, Verno and KOC talk about the teams that are surging toward the postseason and those that are falling behind. The Utah Jazz haven’t let up with their 3-heavy playing style (0:24) and the Brooklyn Nets have plenty of options for different matchups in the postseason (17:32). Then they talk about how Aaron Gordon looks like the glue between Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic (28:00), Ben Simmons falling short in recent weeks (39:27), this year’s Warriors hurtling toward basketball hell (51:21), and more! Hosts: Chris Vernon and Kevin O’Connor Associate Producer: Sasha Ashall Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

David Chewaker and Kaz host the mass man show every week, breaking down everything in the world of professional wrestling. Check out the mass man show on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to The Mismatch. I'm Chris Vernon. And joining me as he does every Tuesday from the wringer.com is Kevin O'Connor, aka Kevin O'Bomber, Kevin O'Connor, Kevin O'Connor, Kevin O'Kandekin'Keeland, Kevin O'Kimler, what's going on today? Well, we are headed towards the stretch run.

the standings look different every single day. We've got a couple of teams that are cratering that we are going to talk about. But before we get to all of that, you came out with your power rankings. Now, I know that it has been customary. When you come out with your power rankings, you try in the least soon after to not pay attention to who is yelling at you the most. But I must ask you, have you noticed? if one team's fan base is yelling at you the most based upon the power rankings that you put out. No, not this time.

I got the least hate on my rankings for this week than any other power rankings additions this season. It's kind of weird, Chris. It's funny. One of my friends asked me this last night where we were playing war zone. Before the national championship game, he's like, who you get hated on the most? Nobody this week, Chris. No. Is there a team that stands out?

I know. Too low or too high? I mean, look, I think that you, team, teams fan bases are going to get mad at you about ranking them lower than they think they should be. Nobody's going to get mad at you for ranking them higher than they think they should be, right? And, frankly, the ones that you have pushed lower, the team isn't playing well recently. therefore a fan base is typically really down on their team when they're not playing well recently.

It is always the team that is doing really well that feels unacknowledged, right? What have you been watching? Right? We've been so good. But the truth is you've got a lot of people that are fans of teams in the NBA that I would think right now have a decidedly. mediocre team that they root for. And so you're not going to get, it's not apathy,

but it's just lack of passion when you're just win one, lose one, win a couple, lose a couple. Like no big streaks either way. And then you have that group of people whose teams have been faltering as of late. And that makes up a reasonable group, right?

There's only, I mean, honestly, how many fans are, bases right now are thrilled with their team. Utah, Brooklyn, Philly's not. Philly's not right now. They're never happy. Ben Simmons down lately. Bucks, probably. Yeah. I think Phoenix should be very happy right now. Phoenix, yes, thrilled. Clippers have concerns. Paul George right now dealing with the toe injury. Definitely not 100%. Lakers obviously have guys So Nuggets should be thrilled right now.

They should be feeling great. They're thrilled post trade deadline with the way the Gordon things worked out. Sure. Blazers fans still worried about the defense. Maddox fans are feeling really good. Big win over Utah on Monday night. Yeah, but they just had the Porzingis injury. Here we go again.

Can't count on it. You know, this kind of stuff. Celtics fans are feeling better now. Evan Fournier is in the COVID health and safety protocols. I mean, the Celtics are starting to train. up and then that happens. Yeah, that's, that's a brutal.

That's brutal, especially when he got going a little bit. All right, let's kind of go through this. So the point is, I mean, you can probably count on your hand. How many fan bases feel great about their team right now? It's maybe the lowest amount that we've had it a long, long time. Because even teams that have expectations, you know, they're not, they're not meeting those expectations except for a few of them. Doesn't that open up the, when you don't have like many of those teams?

I think a lot of fan bases can feel like there's a chance, though. I think that's what makes this year really interesting. Like there's a lot of teams I look at them and I'm like, oh, yeah, I can make the argument for them to go all the way to the NBA finals and maybe win the whole freaking thing. Like, it's that type of year. I don't know if I can make the argument for a lot of them to go to the NBA finals, but I can make a lot of them the argument to go to the conference finals. Fair.

I don't think there's many. I can make the argument that we'll get to the NBA finals. I think we can. Really? Really? Yeah. It's a strong year. I mean, you can say LeBron and 80 get back and stay healthy and everything's fine for the Lakers, but there's no guarantee of that. Paul George with the toe injury right now

is not the same player. Ever since that first became an issue for him, his numbers are way down. He's way down. He's admitted that it's bothering him. And like, that's the type of thing, you know, had that in the power rankings. I talked to Brian Suterer, who's like a sports doctor on YouTube, has a great

channel there where he analyzes injuries. And he said to me, this is the type of thing that can require many weeks more than a month for it to completely go away. And your article is it seven weeks. Yeah, seven weeks sometimes. And there's no, there's no seven weeks to rest. You know, you can't get those rest. I mean, I'm reading that.

And I'm like, hold on now. Like, if this were, if all things were called off, right, then you'd want to rest on that thing possibly two months. exactly possibly to be able to get you know where you need to be not feel it nothing there exactly because that's the type of thing where when you ramp up and this is according to brian suitor when you ramp up activity like paul george had to to get back on the court that's when it can start lingering and get coming back until the off season when you actually have those seven plus weeks to rest and to be able to work it back in a way that doesn't re you know re-injure it or make make you feel pain so that's a

concern. And when you have that factor there, Chris, I think that opens the window for the suns or the jazz or the nuggets or even the Blazers, you know, to jump through and maybe go all the the way. Like, I feel like it's, it's almost a, even though a fan base might not feel like, yeah, we feel awesome about our odds. The fact not a lot of teams are saying that in and of itself means like you can feel pretty good, maybe even better than any other year recently. That makes it fun to me. Yeah, no, you certainly have the opportunity now. And regarding the Paul George thing, this is something that does not get talked about very much that I thought about, which is when you are hurting, right, and it's inevitable, he's going to be hobbled, right, according to what

you wrote. It's never going to be perfect, at least until you get to the offseason and give it some rest. And the numbers are down since this has come to light. When you are hobbled like that, what ends up happening is you put yourself at risk of other injuries because you start favoring that. And so the more you start favoring that, the more pressure it puts on your knee that wouldn't normally have the same pressure or your back that might not have normally the same pressure. And so it can really cascade, you know, to where, yes, this is the one thing that hurt, but it ends up increasing your opportunity to have other ailments and other things that really bother you before the end. And so like you said in your article, they don't, they need all NBA

Paul George to be able to be able to go to the NBA finals. Like that's, you know, which is what they, their expectations are as a, as an organization. I mean, they mortgage their entire future to be able to do this. So they fancy themselves as an NBA finals team. But in the absence of him being not good, great. They have no chance. Like, he has to be great. Can't have another pandemic P playoff run. Just can't happen.

No. All right, let's start with the team that you ranked first, which is the easiest ranking ever, because they have been consistently great all year long. There was one tiny blip, but still, to this day, they've only lost 11 games. And that is the Utah Jazz. Oh, 12, I'm sorry.

Dallas beat them last night. That's right. They lost last night to Dallas. They've lost 12 games. The numbers on the three point percentage with volume slash rate in which they hit them is crazy. And you kind of tied in, and I'm going to let you give these stats to everybody listening. You tied in that they did shoot an extremely good percentage as a team last year. They just didn't shoot it as much, right? their frequency of three-pointers. So the question is, what would happen if they just shot a lot more

of them? Would those, are they shooting that number because those are the great ones, right? Those are really good shots. And so that's, of course, why they have this really good percentage. But if they shot a lot more, then the quality of those threes is going to go down, therefore the percentage is going to go down. And in fact, damn near the opposite is true. They've shot more threes and they shoot them even better. So last season, Utah was number one in three point percentage, but they were eighth and three point frequency. This season, they have a chance to be the first team in NBA history to shoot at least 40% of their shots from three point range and hit 40% of those shots. And this year, they're attempting 49% of their shots from three point range, nearly half Chris, nearly half.

nearly half of their shots are threes, and they're hitting 39 and a half percent of those. So they're not quite at the 40 percent mark. They didn't shoot the ball well from three last night against Dallas, so their numbers actually dipped slightly. But they have a chance to be, you know, 40 percent from three in the year,

attempting over 40 percent of their shots. In NBA history, have only seen the 17, 18, 19, and 20 rockets to that and the 1920 Mavericks. So there's only been five other teams that have attempted over 40 percent of their shots from three, no surprise. This is a recent boom with teams doing that.

But Utah has made that leap into that, you know, upper threshold of NBA three-point shooting teams. Portland's doing it this year, too. But nobody's shooting the ball as well as Utah with that amount of frequency. And I don't know, again, the blurb in the article just wrote about how the guy who doesn't shoot any of them in Rudy Gober is such an important piece of that. And, you know, we've talked and touched on this a little bit throughout the year. But it's just kind of, it sickens me sometimes to see the disrespect.

at Gobert. I'm like Shaq on TV because he's not a high volume score because he's not scoring 20 points. Rudy Gobert creates shots for other people just because he's already a such a dominant pick and roll finisher. Defenses have to collapse into the paint to respect that, which opens up teammates. And Gobert has gotten way better over the years as a passer at kicking the ball out out of a short role, two shooters or creating defensive rotations. I just think Gobert doesn't deserve some of the disrespect that he's gotten. And people talk about his defense, but he's so important to that Utah Jazz offense as well. I mean, if you want to talk about the most valuable player on Utah, Mitchell, Conley, or Gobert. I mean, to me, it's Gobert because he does so much beyond the box score.

And he's part of the reason why that team has been so good for so long, as you said, Chris. It will be fascinating to see if they have to sacrifice in the playoffs, that once somebody game plans against them, are they going to be able to function the same way that they do right now? Because that has been the issue with the Houston Rockets, you know, when it came to the playoffs, that, you know, over the course of seven games, you know, do you, the whole live by the three, die by the three, when you are shooting that high of a percentage and you're really playing with at least one guy that doesn't shoot them, that what is the, what's the price you pay for that?

And can these teams that you are playing against in the playoffs expose that and make you play differently and less comfortable than you want to? They're not just going to let you bop the ball around until you get it to a corner three. They're going to stay home and stay attached to those guys because you know that when you get to the playoffs, that that is what the other team is going to try to game plan, against. And that was the issue. You know what I mean? I remember you talking about like, hey, like it wouldn't be so bad. And this is why Chris Paul was was so successful for those Rockets teams. It wouldn't be so bad if you just stepped up a few feet and took some mid-range jumpers or some floaters for this team because they have just decided they're not going to let you shoot

this high percentage from three. If anything, they're going to stay attached. And so it's going to be fascinating because they certainly have been great doing it during the regular season. You know, I think part of that, Chris, is we're going to see probably maybe. We'll see what happens to the postseason depends on matchups and so much. But we're likely going to see more teams switch pick and rolls against Utah. Like if Gobert is screening about half the time according to Second Spectrum stats, defenses drop their defender into the paint. That's because of Gobert, the way he rolls.

You know, that's naturally what you're going to do. but maybe in the postseason we'll see more switching in those scenarios. I'll tell you this. I saw Utah in person twice about a week ago. And in the fourth quarter, the Grizzlies just decided they were going to rush that stuff. And Mike Conley just floated them to death. Exactly. And that's the thing.

Utah this year, Mike Conley for years has been one of the league's better ISO scores, you know, in terms of efficiency, better pick and roll scores in terms of efficiency. Mitchell is better this year. than ever before. Better shooter, better shooting numbers, better getting the basket. Everything about him is better. Jordan Clarkson, likely the sixth man of the year. You know, they, Joe Engels, an efficient guy, Boyan Bogdanovich, an efficient guy. Like, they have a lot of guys who can create a shot for you if you need it. Conley and Mitchell being the two main ones.

But like they can do, they can beat you by committee. They don't have the one singular star off from the perimeter, but they have guys that can do that. Well, and it's pretty simple when you think about it. And this is why it can be so devastating. If you have Ingalls in one corner and do you have Bogdanovich in the other corner, I mean, anybody can just envision this in their head. They have either Mitchell or Conley at the top. They run, go bear up there to be able to set the screen.

And so now you've got a choice to make. And Donovan Mitchell or Mike Conley is either going to try to get to that mid-range and drop that floater on you. Or if your guy from the corner pinches in, they're just going to kick it out. and those guys are deadly, deadly. I mean, I would bet I haven't looked at it, but like those numbers are freaky anyway that you say percentage-wise, there's no telling what they shoot from those corners.

I mean, because they run there in transition and knock down those corner threes. Even Clarkson knocks down the corner ones. It's just they are a tough guard, especially. So to your point, you know, if you do cave in on that, they have shown a willingness to be able to just kind of go in the lane and they've got guys that can hit that, you know, 10 to 15 foot shot, which is what the rockets were reluctant to do, you know, during those years, right? Ford it's worth, Chris. You mentioned the corner three numbers.

They lead the NBA in frequency of corner three point attempts. And on the year, according to cleaning the glass, their seventh percentage at 42%. Isn't that amazing? 42% is seventh. I mean, on fast breaks, they run there. Yeah, they do.

They run to the corner three. You know what I mean? It's, you know, some people get irritated by the whole, you know, hey, just take the lay up

or take the odd man break. But if they get an odd man break, many times, you're going to see somebody just totally flare out and get to that spot. And so you have to stay attached to them. Anyway,

that's an easy number one. one and kind of why they have been number one this year. And we'll see if it holds up when it comes playoff time. But there's certainly a title contender, to say the least. One of the things I do want to ask you is there have been a couple of additions, just going through your power rankings that had jogged my brain on something, which is when you're talking about the nets, you talk about Nick Claxton, right? And he talked about how the numbers are the numbers, right, and his ability to switch.

and you bring in these veterans and, you know, you even mentioned that Steve Nash is going to have a decision to make. I can totally, I can totally see this being a thing, right, where it's in between Lamarcus Aldrich and Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan. Like, you have got these, these aren't veterans. These are like 10 plus year veterans. and are you going to be willing to play the better player, right? Are you going to be the guy that actually, by all accounts, helps you win more, but does not have the years of service, does not have the playoff reps, might make a mistake here and there that you've got to live with.

And it just feels like they brought in some guys, and that's going to be a thing. It's odd that he was really cracking right before that trade deadline. And then they bring in guys that probably, you know, even if it doesn't reduce his minutes the rest of the regular season, probably will in the playoffs. I don't know about that personally. I think we're going to see matchup to match up series to series.

Like there very well might be a game or a series in which you don't see Claxton. There might be a series. reason in which you don't see much like Blake Griffin. I mean like it really could be like that with the Brooklyn Nets and DeAndre Jordan and all I could. It will be the the odd man out for the most part. But Claxton's ability to switch. There's good reason why Steve Nash was using him to close a lot in fourth quarters. Aldridge and Blake and Claxton to me are the three main guys and that'll like their minutes and their usage and maybe even who starts will depend on the series and the in the playoffs. Like even this week, we saw Claxton play 17 minutes against the Knicks.

The game before that, he played eight. You know, it wasn't the game for him because he doesn't have that size for a big man battle. So, you know, that could, I mean, it could create that scenario that you're talking about where there's debate about who should be playing. But just based off the trends of the year, I would predict we're going to see differences series to series. Well, that'll be the Nash thing. Yeah. Look, coaches play veterans. Kev, they do.

You're right, they do. Yeah, fans don't get mad. Fans never get mad. I mean, never. You never see fans getting irate about a veteran not playing enough. It's always the young guy that doesn't get to play enough. That's true. But, like, Coxson was closing fourth quarter games, though, before they got Aldridge and Blake

Griffin, you know, so, like, I mean that they'll say Steve Nash has a history of playing a young guy over the veteran in the fourth quarter and, like, just. I think it's easier with DeAndre than Aldridge is what I'll say. It is easier. It's definitely easier. But the fact Nash did it already makes me believe that he'd be willing to do it again in a playoff series or even in a big game during the regular season. I wouldn't expect that to change.

Maybe it will. Aldridge has been pretty good for them. You know, Blake Giffins are pretty good. So we'll see how that pans out over the course of the year. But the fact they have so many options is what's most impressive. And they all do totally different things on the court. And what's going to be most fascinating about them is, do they have all three of those guys healthy when it's playoff time? And that's part of it too.

I mean, injury history, age with these guys. Yeah, well, and I'm talking about the, forget the center position, which is intriguing. Also, they're stars. Do they have Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, James Harden, available and healthy when it comes playoff time? because it has just been so long since we have seen three of them. And honestly, it seems rather infrequent that we even see two of them. Yeah. You see Hardin, but there's no Kyrie.

You see Kyrie, but there's no Hardin. Like, if you flip on a Nets game, the chances of you seeing Kyrie and Hardin and their guys have been very, very, very low. and I mean the three of them on the same court I can't even remember what it looks like anymore they've only played 186 minutes together crazy that's pretty wild that's wild isn't it's less than three games yeah worth of time yeah I mean that's pretty insane yeah right I can't believe it yeah for those guys and like

the good thing for them is that Katie's an easy guy to integrate into the mix you know, like, you just throw them the ball. Yeah, you just throw in there. It's okay. And plus, you know, they've played together before. Yeah. So it's all they don't have some existing chemistry and there's such high IQ basketball players.

All of them are so smart on the court. So it's easier to do that. But yeah, I would imagine it's still kind of difficult though, right? Yeah. We're working, work and get that chemistry together and getting that rhythm before the postseason. This is not going to be an easy run in either conference. Look, all we need to know is that not only are they integrating those three, the whole lineup around them has changed. Yeah.

Right. So they don't have reps with the other guys either. It isn't like you're plugging them in. And it's the Joe Harris and Bruce Brown, like they were kind of playing when those guys were playing together. Blake, Aldridge. Yeah. And these guys are getting real minutes. All we need to know is, yes, we know that it can be extremely.

devastating, but you're headed towards less than 20 games that you will have played together. And think back to when we had, you know, LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosch, and it was thrown together. It took a while. I mean, they weren't devastating until January of that year. You know what I mean? Maybe December, right? But, like, the beginning was, you can't just throw three stars.

together, right, the chemistry, but I mean, I remember that. You know, ESPN had a whole site dedicated to it, like heat check or whatever it was called, right? Or the heat index and hired all these people. And like, that was, it was every day we were getting news about that team. And it was like, are they going to have to find a different coach? LeBron is mad at Spoh. This thing ain't working.

And it's like, they went through growing pains until, and obviously, lost the first go round in the finals. It's going to be fascinating to see if they can just throw it together with the nets. Because they are not going to have a lot of time before they've got to be ready for playoff basketball. And that's essentially what they're going to be doing. Yes. I mean, right now you're hardened with the hamstring strain right now. It's the type of thing with that.

That stuff can linger, dude. Oh, yeah. It can linger. I mean, there's so many variables this season with some of the injuries that guys have had. Well, the two that you mentioned, the hardened one, obviously, which is a hamstring. You always get your antennas up when there's something like that. And the other one was PJ Tucker and the calf. I mean, those are muscles.

Those just have to heal. They just have to heal. And it's a matter of how serious they are. Now, obviously, if you catch it early, if it's just a little twinge, you could just get some rest and whatever. But we, how many times have we seen either a guy have a hamstring or a calf problem? And then two weeks turns to four weeks, four weeks turns to six weeks. I mean, then you're, Chris Paul's just missing the playoffs.

You're just not getting him back. I mean, it's happened over and over again because there ain't nothing you can do with a muscle except for time. It's just got to heal. And so you're right. I mean, if you've twinge it already and you're hardened, And, you know, at one point, yeah. Isn't kind of crazy with Hardin at the time that deal happened, I thought, oh, yeah, no chance. Hardin or Katie or even, or Kyrie for that matter, or win MVP or have a chance to win MVP.

And just the way the season has played out with Katie missing so many games, Kyrie being in and out of the lineup, Hardin had played himself into that conversation. He wasn't, he's not a top my ballad right now. I have Yokch there right now. But, you know, you had Hardin be part of that conversation. LeBron was considered the favorite at one point and Bede was considered the favorite at one point and I think we'll see how much time Hardin actually misses if any he played four minutes last night and then was taken out after you know missing a couple games

so we'll see there but it's just you know we've had three of the arguable top candidates for MVP now missing time and for Hardin specifically in Brooklyn I thought this year was going to be about integrating him in with Katie and Kyrie having a lower usage. Instead, he was doing effectively what he's done

before to carry that team in spite of the fact other guys were missing. It's just a weird season for James Hardin when he's been the same guy when we expected to see something so much different, but we still might see that in the playoffs. It's just a, this whole season's funky. All those awards

have just, so many of them have just become like the two biggest MVP and rookie of the year. like, yeah, because Lamello could lose it. Right. Potentially. The only one that is, I mean, look, Goberra probably went defensive player of the year.

They'll give it to him. But Clarkson's probably got a pretty solid lead on six men. Monty Williams is going to run away with coach of the year. Like that one's the one in the books, right? He's the one of the books. But in terms of, yeah, the MVP, rookie of the year, those things are, those things are there for the taking in this last stretch run. A couple other things I want to ask you about the.

you mentioned a threat your article. We were talking about how you mentioned Kevin Durant just, you know, easy to integrate, plug and play. And it seems to me that in many of these cases around the league, the ones, it's always easier to acquire the guy that is the role player, the guy that can just be plugged and played, as we say. And there's always going to be some kind of stress or, you know, lag time for integrating somebody.

that does a lot more. And I think we're seeing that with like the Vosovic's of the world and the laverts of the world and guys that are not just you can bounce a ball around and they'll get whatever shot they get. But to that point, you mentioned the Gordon thing. And Dan Devine has an article on the ringer today about how great that has been. I mean, he is like the ultimate, like whenever we're, I'm trying to give an example of this, like acquiring a guy that you could just plug him in. And you don't, you even got to run any plays for him. He can run the baseline.

He can cut. He could just sit in a dunker spot, whatever. Like, the Gordon thing has worked out perfectly fit wise in Denver. Yeah. In the power rankings, I have a play in there that I think sort of defines Aaron Gordon's time with the Nuggets so far where Yokic made the one-handed catch for the finish at the end of the Clippers Nuggets game last week. And Gordon caught the ball on the roll and just quickly flipped it to Gordon, to Yokic, perfect pass, perfectly timed, in sync as if they've been playing together for many years.

And that's the way it's felt. Like, Gordon has just come right in immediately. And he fits. It just works. He's just, he's kind of the connective piece between Murray and Yokic, giving them another creator who's not going to be a primary guy for you, but can occasionally run a pick and roll for you, who can occasionally be utilized as a screener on the shore. roll can occasionally bring the ball up the floor. He can cut. He can spot up. He can defend multiple positions at a high level. I mean, he's come running right away and played at the best level of production in his entire career. Chris, it's kind of crazy to watch. I mean,

we've talked about him ever since we've done this pod, started in 2016. I've always loved Aaron Gordon. I didn't expect them to be this good this soon with a new team. I thought it would take a little bit of time still, but boy, it's fun to watch. Well, and it's one of those times where we talk about so much of a guy's destiny can be about fit, right? I always was reluctant towards the Aaron Gordon can be a lot more, can be a star, right? He is an unbelievable role player. That's what he is, right? I think that people fancied him as like, at least some, right?

If he just got out of Orlando, he could be whatever. But the truth is he's a guy that can help you win. He can defend. He can roll to the basket. And he's not going to be a star. He's not going to make all-star teams. But he is going to be an extremely valuable piece in the league that can help you win basketball games. And when you're talking about being on the high end or the highest end of role players, there's no shame in that.

There's stars. And then there's the guys like, you. You know what I mean? Like, you end up having 15-year careers by being high-end role players. Danny Green still has value. Trevor or Riza has had value for 20 years. PJ Tucker, when he gets, he's 36. When he gets traded, people are like, oh, when he signs with the bucks, it's like,

oh, this could actually move the needle. Or you could be Draymond Green. Yeah. Like, Draymond Green is what he is. He's a elite role player. one of the greatest role players of all time. And like those guys can, you know, raise the floor of a team and raise the ceiling

because of what they provide next to these, quote unquote, stars. Like you can be a star in your role, regardless of what your role is, whether you're got the guy handling the ball for eight minutes a game, shooting 20 shots a game, or the guy is shooting five times a game. Like you,

if you can be a star in your role, you can help your team. And Aaron Gordon is in that role with the Denver Nuggets right now. And the trick is being happy with that, right? A lot of guys aren't happy with that, the first three, four years in the league. Some guys, even six or seven years into the league, sit there and say, I should be able to do more. And the Nuggets had, you know, guys like that.

Malik Beasley wanted to be more than what he was going to be on the Nuggets. And Jeremy Grant wanted to be more than what he was going to be on the Nuggets. It feels like when you're seven years into your career, somebody like Aaron Gordon's like, all right, I'm cool being this, you know? Yeah, I mean, that's part of, like, to tie it back to Rudy Gobert. Yeah. I think that unselfishness should be appreciated. I mean, I look at that as such a positive thing.

If you embrace your role and maximize your responsibilities for the team that helped them win at the highest possible level, like, I think that's something that should be commended and admired and shared, you know, to people more. so than like saying, oh, this guy doesn't score 25 points per game, therefore he's not worth max money. Like I just hate that that's the discourse with certain players. And it's just really cool to see Aaron Gordon come in and boom, right away, right away fit in, right away embrace a brand new role with a brand new situation where it's very clear what the hierarchy is. Yokic is number one. Murray is number two.

And then everybody else fills in the blanks and the ways that they need to. Michael Porter Jr. as well deserves credit. a guy who for years now there's been concerns about his defense. He's playing the best defense of his career man because he's making the choice to lock in and focus on that end of the floor. He's putting the work off the court to improve fundamentals to have a better awareness of defensive spatial awareness. These guys deserve credit for doing the little things.

And that's why Denver has gotten better over the course of the year. And that's why Denver feels like they're about to start peaking at the perfect time. Like they're serious threats in the Western Conference. The favorites, no, I mean, we've talked about this before, Chris. Like, the Lakers are the favorites if LeBron and AD are healthy. But they may not be in the favorite doesn't always win. The favorite doesn't always win. And Denver, they have who I think so far should be the MVP and Nicole Yokic.

The MVP, a lot of the time ends up in the NBA finals, Chris. He does. It has not worked that way for the back-to-back MVP in Yon-A's not. No. But he's got a different version of his team. by virtue of Drew Holiday being added to that mix, signed a big, big deal this past week, which some people did raise their eyebrows at for Drew Holiday.

But, I mean, again, to me, Drew Holiday is a winning player. He is the consummate two-way player, and he fits in that odd, you know, the Mike Connolly zone, which is, Okay, he is not the Damien Lillards. He is not the Steph Curry's. He is not like the highest, highest end of the star spectrum. But I'm comfortable with my guy, taking my guy into the fight, right?

This guy's not a shrinking violet and he's not going to be overwhelmed by this matchup. And so he falls into that odd category of doesn't have. a million all-star teams isn't going to be the guy that's the leading shot taker on the team but is going to be great on both ends of the court and is going to help you win basketball games and you don't just automatically write off that matchup as okay we're at a real deficit with this i'm i'm a huge holiday fan i and to me like with somebody like milwaukee it you're not signing big free agents what the hell are you supposed to be you're supposed to spending that money on if you ain't and you just gave up a hundred million things you can't have drew

holiday not be part of this going forward so the price is the price and i know that people sit there go ah do holiday that much money but i mean look surprised at doing business at this point well i saw some stuff on twitter yesterday about like who are they bidding against there's not a lot of teams that are contenders that have cap space the soft season etc um the thing is is cap space can created. There's always threats out there. We saw the way the Miami he got Jimmy Butler in which they signed and traded for him with Josh

Richardson as the salary and the deal, sending him to Philadelphia. There's always a threat out there who can make a play for a free agent and try to work out a sign and trade. And so for Milwaukee, it makes some sense to lock up the guy long term now and plus why would you not

want to? As you said, you gave up everything that you did, all those draft picks to get Drew Holiday, and he's fitting as well as he did as he is already. I mean, he's providing the scoring when he needs to, and especially in games, Yannis is out. He's always providing elite defense.

And he's not just a guard defender. A lot of guys who are six foot three, 200 pounds only defend guards. Drew Holliday has the length and the strength to defend bigger wings. And he does it pretty well. So if you're the bucks, this is exactly the type of guy you would want to have next to Yannis at an Akumpo on Chris Middleton.

So just get it done, man, and enter the playoffs on high, you know, with all these guys locked up long-term, ready for their first run together. Yeah, I'm with you. And the truth is, you, like, we just got through a trade deadline where the biggest name that everybody was talking about as the desirable guy, whether it was for Miami or it was for the Lakers or it was for the Clippers or it was for Philly was Kyle Lowry. 35 years old. I mean, right? Like we just got done talking about how everybody, like it was the Kyle Lowry sweepstakes. And who's going to end up with Kyle Lowry? Kyle Lowry is a guy that could really move the needle and push somebody, you know, even further.

So what are we talking about here, right? Drew Holiday is going to have real value for a long time from now. You know, he's not as old as people think he came into the league when he was so young. I was just looking. It's hard to believe his only all-star game with way. Back in 2012, 2013, it's last year in Philly before the process. Just really got going. Well, and like I said, I keep bringing this up.

The last time that he was in the playoffs, they busted, who was it, the Blazers? They bust the Blazers ass. That Pelicans team with Tim and AD. I mean, that was. 17, 18 season. Yeah. Holiday in those playoffs averaged 24 points, six assists, six rebounds, played great defense, as you mentioned. He was there for it.

He's a player, man. Right? So I got no problem with that. Another of the very highly ranked Easter conference teams that I do want to mention to you was Philly. And your note is about Ben Simmons in your power rankings. And I watched their game on Sunday evening. They played against Memphis. And I'm here to tell you, Kevin, it was like it was the topic amongst me and my friends, which is, what the hell is going on with this guy?

There's something up. There's something up. Like, it was weird. Like, I have seen him non-aggressive before. I think he had, I had to go back and look, I think he had like six. I mean, I don't even remember how many points he had in that game. Do you have that by any chance? The game on Sunday, the game on Sunday night that Philly just played.

I mean, they were booing the hell out of the team on the court. But, I mean, it was like he wasn't. even involved in the game. They got murdered by the Grizzies. He ended up with seven. He ended up with seven points in that game. On six shots. Bizarre.

All right. So just to give those numbers out, Chris, and the 22 games prior to the All-Star break, Ben Simmons was averaging 17 points per game on a true shooting percentage above 60%. In the 11 games since then, 13 points per game on a true shooting percentage of only 40. I'm sorry. I'm all thrown off whack.

All right. Sorry. Let me restate that one more time. This is the time that's going to get it right. Just to give you those numbers, Chris, and the 22 games prior to the All-Star break, Ben Simmons averaged 17 points on 61% shooting prior to the All-Star break. Since then, 13 points per game on 46% shooting from the field. And specifically, within 8 feet of the rim, he was shooting 63% prior to the break,

48% within 8 feet of the rim. What's the only place he shoots? I know, but that's the problem. Like, the numbers are way down near the rim. The aggression is down. He's playing more hesitant. He was playing the best basketball, I thought, personally, of his entire career in the lead up to the All-Star break.

And ever since then, he has not been the same guy. You remember when Embeddeed went out and they were having to get by like soon after, there were a couple of those games. I remember exclusively one in Utah where I watched him. And, I mean, he was a force of nature in that game. And to watch that and then juxtaposed against what I saw on Sunday, which is a guy that takes like six shots in the game, has seven. I mean, he was nothing.

And I'm thinking, like, that's the guy you got to worry about. This guy could be, you know, be devastating. He's just a hard matchup. and especially, there was one play at the beginning of the game, the very beginning of the game. He caught the ball off the rim, rebound. He drove all the way down and chucked it. It slammed it down. And I was thinking, oh, God, like this is what you're up against.

This guy is like, he's going to be able to do that when he wants to. Just grab the ball off the rim and just go all himself because nobody's going to get, there's a bunch of small guys you're not going to get in his way he just never did Dylan Brooks bumped him what he bitched about it and then he was just like gone from the game it's like he didn't even play

anymore bizarre bizarre it's pretty weird and you know the thing is that earlier in the year Ben Simmons was dealing with a knee and a back injury I haven't heard a thing I'm not reporting anything here but I can't help but wonder if there's something up physically because that would explain

it because the way he's playing now resembles the way he looked prior to the break he took in January when he was hurt and he was dealing with the injury and he needed some time away from the court I wonder if there's something up there like maybe you know how he was in the COVID protocols from All Star Weekend maybe the extended you know 10ish days off you know sometimes guys are better when they keep moving they keep playing rather than take having some downtime I don't know what it is but it would explain you never know what's happening And if it's not that, yeah, you don't know. But whatever, whatever it is, it needs to be better.

It could be that he, you know, watches Instagram all the time and his ex-girlfriend is, you know, posted pictures with Devin Booker. I mean, that's annoying. Oh, God. I'm saying, you never know. That would annoy me. Yeah. You don't know what I mean? Especially if she's like super famous, I'd be like, dang it.

What are they to see us on Instagram all the time? People send me this shit. Whether it's like Instagram sadness or whether it's, you know, physical. pain. The fact is, is the Sixers score only 107 points per 100 chances when Simmons is on the court without Joel and Bede. That would rank 22nd in the NBA according to the second spectrum. That number needs to get better in the postseason because the fact is that with Joel on Bid, he's not going to play 40 minutes a game. That goes without saying. But secondly, with Embed's injury history, there's always a chance of a miss game or a couple of misgames

or even a miss quarter, those minutes when Ben Simmons is running the show, they got to be better than that. They got to be better than 22nd in the league. And I look at the talent on that roster. I look at and think about what the idea of what Ben Simmons could be, the flashes of what he's shown he can be. They should be better than that without Joel and Bede on the floor. They should be.

And they got to figure that out. And I thought the 10 game absence Joel and Bid had dealing with his scary knee injury that it looked like he had, I thought this would be a time to experiment and figure things out and try to work it out with Ben Simmons. And they did win games and they won games with their defense. Their defense is still elite. It's always been elite and it will continue to be elite. But you still get to get that offense right.

A couple of teams that I thought before we get into the craterers, as it were, look, teams that you were high on them in the preseason. So you probably fancy them, fancy putting them up a little higher than they deserve to be. the ones when I was scrolling through that I was like, oh, that's high. Dallas. I mean, I think you had them at like seven. Yeah, that's high. Come on.

Are you sure? They have not been very good. They have not been very good this year. They're seventh right now in the West. They've been the third best team in basketball for two months now. Huh? They've been the third best team in the NBA for two months now. Is that looking at net rating?

I mean, like, third best, just in terms of net rating, they've been the third best for two months since early February. So that like with the power rankings in the beginning of the year when I was doing these power rankings, I was kind of like championship index like who is the best finals odds. The way we're doing them now is like most sites do with power rankings, more

recent performance. But with Dallas, Luca is playing at an MVP level, Chris. He's shooting the ball better than ever, playing better defense than ever. Yeah, but and the rest of that team has gotten better too. Like Josh Richardson is playing better. Shooting the ball better. Even like he's been doing everything good.

all year long, but now the shooting numbers are getting better. Everybody on that team is making contributions. KP. is the only guy you can look at and be like, geez, if only he could stay healthy. Well, now he hurt his wrist. Well, even KPs had some great games recently, though. That team is, they're

a second tier contender in my book, just like they were before the year. I mean, they're one of those teams I wouldn't put on the same level as Denver or in the same level as Utah or Phoenix. Well, they obviously got a great win last night. Oh, they're also going to be they will be the team where the whoever ends up with whatever it is,

two, if they're seven or three, if they're six is going to be like, oh, come on. You think about it right now. If it's Phoenix, and that's who you find in the first round,

yeah, you know what I mean? And this is your first, you know, picking up playoff scars. Yeah. Like they don't have, they don't have experience.

They got a couple, guys like Paul and Crowder that are going to get minutes for them that have got, you know, real playoff, you know, scars. But the rest of those guys, it's going to be their first time through. We'll see how those standing shagged out there. We mentioned this last week, but the Lakers could fall.

There's a chance here. There's no question. Dallas is only two and a half back from the Lakers. Only two and a half back. Hey, and you know, a couple of weeks ago, we had taught or maybe it was just more recent than that

we talked about the whole one together yeah with all the with the Marcusol and the Andre Drummond thing and I told you and you saw those quotes you called it out

you're gonna lose this guy like in terms of like look he's gonna do he's going to be it's not like you're gonna lose him as a player when he's on the court but in terms of

the whole all for one, one for all. You know, he feel, you could read in those statements that there's a feeling of betrayal in some way, right? That I side, like you guys recruited me and you convinced me to come here. And the job I was to have was to play defense, keep the ball moving, and make, accentuate those two guys. These two stars. You brought me in to make AD and LeBron even better than what they are. And I went and pulled it up.

I mean, look, obviously any lineup with LeBron and AD is going to be fantastic. You know, you could put me and you out there and we're going to have a positive net rating. I don't know about that. But, I mean, like, that three-man lineup, because when he said that, I was like, I wonder if that's worked out. Because that's one of the things you have to take into consideration, you know, I, How much better do you think you can be if you replace him? The three men line up with him and the two stars is plus 14. I mean, they outscore their opponents by 14 points per 100 possessions.

So in fairness, you know, I think you've probably got a reasonable point of view on that. Like, okay. So is Andre Drummond going to be plus 20? You're going to be plus 18, whatever? Like, you know, I was broadier to do this. and now I'm, you know, replaced. It'd be kind of a fun experiment, me and you. With LeBron and AD?

Yeah, 15 minutes a game with LeBron and AD. Fifteen minutes a game, the whole season. We'd be huffing and puffing at the end of that 15. I mean, look, here's what I know. Every year when you pull up like two-man lineups, like the highest in the league is always LeBron and Caruso. So, I mean, I mean, I'm not trying to take anything away from how it's Caruso, but it's not like Caruso's dropping 30 points when he's playing with LeBron James,

right? You got to man your position and run up and down the court. Hey, you know what you got to do? You got to pass the ball to LeBron James. That's what you got to do. Every once in a while, cut to the basket. Good luck to us getting the ball through those passing lands. Good luck to us. So anyways, that was a, that's another one of, that's a thing that goes on that can affect chemistry though. Like much like we talked about with the nets, they're It's going to be these things that you don't know how it's going to end up with those teams. The other one that you had high, and if you're talking about like recent matters a lot more, bro, the warriors are like hurtling towards basketball hell right now.

And they have been awful and they got beat by a thousand. I couldn't believe. I know Curry wasn't there. I thought the app was screwed up when I saw that score. It was like, 100 to 50. And I was like, no way. It's embarrassing. It's a joke.

Ridiculous. And I was listening to the beginning of Zach's pod that he's doing Nick Ferdell. And oh my God, Ferdell was just, that mean, do not listen to that if you're a Warriors fan. Or do listen to it for the reason. Were they just, I mean, unrelenting on Wiseman and just done like it was not like it wasn't pretty on the Wiseman front. But the other one was the do you have the goods? Is this what you should build around? Is there not to be another act with Curry, Clay and Draymond?

And he kind of crapped all over that idea too. What did he say about that? Just like that no, that this is not. You're not just going to build around, you know, Curry, Dremont, and Clay. I mean, Clay's obviously, he's at the ACL and then the Achilles after that. And that, you know, and obviously they needed Wiseman to be good immediately. And so how are you building and how are you building with Steph in mind for this last, you know, whatever X number of years in his prime versus what you're doing with this. James Wiseman draft pick that you just used the second pick in the draft on and whatever else.

But it just was not, it was, it wasn't pretty. And they were pretty, they were pretty rough on, on Wiseman and just kind of how bad he has been that like just the truth is he has not been good. He hasn't been good. No. And everybody can make all manner of excuse and whatever else. But, and he's just lost his confidence that, you know, Kerr's got these recent quotes about. him. But in terms of what you want as a player to respond, he's had like, you know, he's had to sit

out for the health and safety things. He's gotten benched. He's been moved back into the starting lineup. And he just, it hasn't had the desired effect. It does not seem there on Wiseman. You want him to take that instruction, take that punishment in some ways, you know, know, tough love, and then react in an extremely positive manner. And instead, the more often reaction has been to kind of hole up, you know.

And he is young and he hasn't been playing college and whatever else. But it just, it hasn't gotten better as the season has gone on, which is what you want to see with the development of some of a young player, right? Yeah, I mean, I think with the Warriors, this season is obviously a lost year. transition year without Clay Thompson. But you would have hoped that they would be better than this, especially with Seth Curry off the floor, you would hope that they would have shown some adaptability.

And that was the main thing in the blurb for the power rankings that I had about Golden State is that, you know, adaptability is the number one quality in the teams that win for years and years and years and years and years. San Antonio Spurs, the New England Patriots, you know, what pop has done over the years going from Twin Towers, post-offences with David Robinson and Tim Duncan to playing more, you know, ball movement,

motion offenses with Manu and Tony Parker, bringing in Kauai and Leonard. You use more isolations than you ever have before, always adapting. You know, the Patriots did that over the years, switching defensive schemes, three-four to four-three going to nickel base before anybody else running five-wide, going to two tight-end cents with Rob, Rob Gorkowski, Aaronenez, is constantly switching systems to best fit the system to, the personnel. The Warriors are running the same scheme they did four or five years ago when you had

with worse players. With worst players and guys who were different types of players. And, you know, the solution is not simply run more pick and roll with Steph Curry because he's the, you know, the most efficient pick and roll shot creator in the league, you know, ever.

It's not that. Like, teams are going to blitz and trap them, get the ball out of his hands. That is not the solution. But what this does magnify is, Two things. I worry about the lack of adaptability.

Steve Kerr has talked for years about I hate running pick and roll. I don't want to pick and run, pick and roll. It makes guys, you know, get bored standing in a corner. They get taken out of the game. Essentially, he doesn't want to be the Rockets, but you don't have to be the rockets to run more pick and roll with Stefan Curry and James Wiseman. James Wiseman, one of the reasons why I think he's probably struggling

is because he's not doing the thing that he's best at right now. Rim running. You know, screen and roll. pulling, pick and popping. Like, I want to see more of that. Get those guys going. Integrate that into your offense, add another layer. But it's not the solution to their struggles.

The fact is that this team needs personnel changes. And that's on Bob Myers in the front office. They got to bring new guys in. You can't just hope for Clay Thompson to come back and stay healthy and be the same Clay Thompson. We saw prior to that injury. You can't just hope for that and then for that to work. You also need to have some personnel change.

and system changes here too. So there's so much that I look at with this Warriors roster. So while Steph Curry might be the same and might be, he's not going to be like peak of powers, Steph, like the historic MVP seasons that he had. Like, but he could be a large percentage of that.

But the other two, like the idea that Clay Thompson is going to be what Clay Thompson was. Unrealistic. With the age and coming off the injury, is rather far-fetched at this point. And Draymond's not the same guy either. Draymond Green averages six points a game, Kevin. And defenses don't respect him.

No, and like, look, one of the great forgotten games of all time, which is the game seven, the pin-block. Traymond had like almost a 30-something point triple double in that game. I think he was one number shy of having a triple double in that game seven. like, Traymond Green is not scoring 30-something points in a finals game. He had 32 points, 15 rebounds, nine assists on 11 of 15 shooting. I'm not sure he's shot 15 times in a single game this year. When it mattered most.

I mean, that is game. 13 is his most for what it's worth. I mean, that is game seven of the NBA finals. Yeah. He hasn't had a 30-point game. When is the last time, Traymond agrees. That might be the last time Dreybogger he scored 30

whatever that finals was against the LeBron Cavs. Like, he averages six points a game. I get it. It's what he does. But I mean, like if there was ever a time

where, you know, it was a little more needed in the absence of Clay Thompson, uh, that has not been so. And so he's not that guy. He's not that guy that he was

when they were making those finals. runs. And so things are different. And yeah, like if you want to, if you want to do the read and react, I mean, there is some, they had such insanely high IQ players for so many years. And even the ones they brought in, the Livingstons, the Iguodalis, the Barboses, the David West's, the Anderson Verigiles, like, whoever, Andrew Bogan, whoever you want to bring in, right? Like they were all mega basketball savvy high IQ guys, right?

And you can't just say, hey, this is the way we play when we're the like this is why the spurs don't bring in Kelly Ubrey and Andrew Wiggins. Like that's why. They don't bring in those kind of guys. Like so if you want to be

if you want to be that team, if you want to be the pop it around reading, like look at the defense, react to the defense, cut here, cut and everybody's kind of reading each other's mind, then you better have a gang of high IQ players, not just whoever you draft and whoever you sign in free agency or trade for and then say, go do that stuff, you know, because that just, you know,

to me that is a little bit of a, that's a reluctance or a lack of awareness of what you did have that was so special. Well, and so Golden State during those years, defenses weren't switching screens on or off the ball at the frequency of the frequency that they are now. So those actions with guys coming off screens, you know, with handoffs, a lot of motion, the ball changing sides on the court with the personnel, with the state of NBA defenses was just devastating. It was devastating. But the way defenses, you know, act now, when you don't have that caliber of players, it's a lot harder to run that. that. I saw a clip, Diana Tarasi talking years ago. I think it was Bill Simmons podcast, like a 2015 or something when the Warriors were the Warriors, when they were competing for

championships. And she mentioned on the pod how, you know, it's great to run that style. But sometimes you can't do that with depending on what a defense does. Katie's talked about this over the year. She's like, there's limitations of the motion. And we're seeing that now. Like the fact is, is Steph Carrey leads the NBA and three point attempts per game. He should be taking more. Steph should be taking five more shots at game. It's just the truth with this year's personnel. And, you know, part of me gets it in the sense that, you know,

Kurt doesn't want to move away from what they've done before. But you still got to make tweaks. And the Warriors World tweeted a great video the other day of the Warriors running their weave like at the top of the key, handoff to handoff, and it resulted in a Kent Baysmore, you know, dribbling the ball towards the basket. Steph Curry didn't get a single touch. And Baysmore just turned the ball over, Hawks going the other way. And it's just, I've seen that so many times this year watching the Warriors where Steph doesn't

get a touch. And in today's game with that team, that just shouldn't happen. It shouldn't happen. Steph is capable of creating for himself and for others better than anybody. And, you know, while he is having a great individual, season, there's still more that's been untapped from him this year, in my opinion, that could have had the Warriors in a far better position for being in the playoffs or maybe not even being in the play. And I still think that there's more to this team if the system were a little bit

different. But that doesn't change the fact that the personnel needs to improve dramatically, considering the clay factor and the Dremont being worse as we've talked about. Like, they got to make some serious changes. They have to. And it's hard now. It's hard now to put more on his play because he's trying to play through that tailbone thing, which would probably in a different year keep him out longer, right? It's obviously, I mean, he's not been playing a bunch of consecutive games in a row. And this is a hard year for anybody that have an injury that they're going to attempt to play with because the games, it's just relentless these schedules.

And that might be part of it. Like part of it here might be they don't want to give Stefan Curry 25 shots per game. Well, what's the upside? The other thing is, I mean, I watched them play Miami. This might have been right when stuff came back, but it's maybe a week ago. I don't know. Again, this stuff all runs together. But, I mean, you come, they would set that high screen and they just blitzed it.

They just blitzed it. And they just say, it's the hell with it. somebody else beat us. And Andrew Wiggins was good in the first half, and then the second half didn't do crap. And it was like, okay, fine. If we lose to Andrew Wiggins, we lose to Andrew Wiggins. You know, so what?

But, I mean, I remember back of the day, like, you know, I was in a meeting where coaches were talking about how, you know, it was against one of these Rockets teams. And it was like, we just want Capella catching the ball. We just want him getting the ball. they're going to throw it to him off of that, off of this pick and roll. We want him catching the ball and him making the decision.

We'll live with it. But it gets the ball out of the guy's hands that we want the ball, you know, don't want to have the ball, which is Hardin. Anytime the ball is in Capella's hands instead of James Hardin's hands, it's a win for our defense, you're right? And it's like, that's how you can play the Warriors. Anytime the ball's not in step's hands, it's a win. Fine. Who's going to kill us?

Seriously. Who's going to kill them? Yep, they're going to blitz. That used to be Clay. Right? Yep, they blitz and trap all game long. That's what they would do. And ultimately for Steph and for the Warriors, that's where the talent deficit is apparent.

They need to have more shooters around him. And by the way, like two years ago when they lost the Toronto in the finals, in my post-final story, I had a lot in there about the Warriors. They were caught. people caught up with them in terms of three-point shooting. They used to be ahead of the curve in terms of the amount of threes that they took. They're in middle of the pack now. They haven't evolved over time when other teams have.

And that's in terms of personnel. It's in terms of system in terms of shot selection. They need to change. And I hope for that organization this year has made that very apparent that they need to evolve in order to continue winning and competing for championships with Steph Curry. otherwise he might develop a wandering eye because why wouldn't he? Let me say this. I lost our Andrew Wiggins bet by him still being on the Warriors post-trade deadline.

I paid the Andrew Wiggins debt. Thank you. But they are paying a much greater price than that. So I take solace in that. I lost my 100 bucks, but they're losing much more than 100 bucks. by having him still on that team because he should be the guy, right? He's shooting 40% from three, averaging 18 points. They got the Minnesota, well, not yet.

We'll see what happens on lottery night with the Minnesota pick. But they could get that this year. Might be next year, though. It's possible. Either way. Great pick to have. I'm just talking about that. That's a lot of money sunk into a guy that doesn't exactly give me a lot of relief

when everybody can just decide Steph Curry's not going to destroy me tonight. Before we get out of here, the National Championship game, that was one of the most stunning outcomes that I can remember last night. I mean, a Gonzaga team that until the UCLA game had beaten everybody by double digits

since a December, early, early December game against West Virginia that they won by five. Other than that, I believe it was 29 out of 30 games. They had won by double digits this season. Then they played the epic overtime game against UCLA, but they just got buried last night by Baylor, and it was off the bat. It wasn't like a slow barrier.

I mean, it was 9-0. Then it's like 20 to 6 or whatever the hell the score was. And Baylor just did not let up. I think they got it to nine, maybe once or twice, but then Baylor would do something else. And so the question that comes out of that, because obviously we don't analyze college basketball, but we do analyze draft picks,

and you have a draft board. Suggs, Kisbert, Mitchell, Butler, did any of those guys improve their stock exponentially to you? DeVion Mitchell, for sure. Over the course of the tournament has made apparent that he's a lottery talent and he'll be in the lottery whenever we do our next draft guide update. Butler on on Baylor. I liked him last year before he pulled his name out of the draft.

So not a lot's changed. He's a mid late first round draft pick in my eyes. Corey Kispert did not look good in some of these games, especially in the final against Baylor. That could hurt him. I had a text with an NBA exec last night. It's like does not look good for Kisper. It looks very rough, you know. Everybody, mostly had him as a lottery guy.

Part of that was because there is certainly a much different level of speed and athleticism in the NBA. And Baylor possessed that. And Baylor has it. You know what I mean? And it was like, okay, is this what this dude is going to look like on the next level where there's a lot of guys that are vastly superior athletically? Yeah. Baylor had so many plays like that where their athleticism and hustle combined. Like, it's not just one.

It wasn't just. Yeah, a team of dogs too. Yeah. They go hard. Like such a gritty team. Like the team is, it's great. Every passing lane, every time you try to dribble, like anything that Gonzaga did, it was like, Jesus, get off me.

Like, they're not the one with like the scowling bulldog logo, but they were playing like that on the court. Right. Just an invasion of person. space all the time. Yeah, exactly. And they made everything. They just made every three they took it.

It felt like there was like a little span where they didn't, but they started five for five. Then they missed some. And then, you know, the last 10 minutes of the game, they started banging them all down again. It was crazy. What about Suggs? Obviously, the moment of the tournament, do you think it becomes a real Suggs-Cunningham debate? No. No.

No. His stock has not changed a bit since preseason. He's just, he's only locked himself in as a top five-ish guy. He reminds me so much of, there's so many things he does that remind me of Darren Williams. You know, and I'm trying to let people,

like, like Darren Williams, Illinois Darren Williams, that was coming out that got drafted ahead of Chris Paul, no less, right? Like, and young Darren Williams in the NBA,

that's what I'm talking about, who was, he was a devastating, a devastating point guard that didn't look like the athlete that he was, like quickness, everything. I mean, and he had great vision

and he hit those like stepbacks, but Suggs, boy, he glides to the rim. He flies. And is a, he's got that leader thing. He's got a dog in him too. He didn't have a lot of guys there for the dog fight with him last night.

But he's got it. He does have that mentality. I'm a Suggs guy. Yeah, he's the type of guy who, like, whatever his upside is, whatever his ceiling is, he will maximize it, you know, in the context of the situation and environment that he's in. And hopefully for him, he falls into an NBA situation that is just as good for him as Gonzaga was for him. Like, what a great situation for him. He selected the school partially for development reasons to get to the NBA.

And hopefully he lands in a similarly great situation to maximize who he is because he will work towards that. Whatever level that is, superstar. I'm with you. One time, all-star, multiple-time all-star. I don't know. We'll find out. But I used to write that article about the who will not. He is 100.

He will not. He will not. He's going to have some level of success. He's going to have great head on his shoulders. Yeah. You know, plays hard. Love the game of basketball. those are the guys like you want to have on your team.

Yes. Then when they also have talent. He's not going to be crap. There's no way. He's a bust. It'd be shocking. No. As they play this audio five years or now.

I don't think so. I don't think so either. So the draft is going to be at a different time this year. We've been meaning to talk about this, but the dates came out a couple of weeks. weeks ago, and that is not the same calendar. You know, it felt like we were kind of kind of get back to normal and everything was going to get back on, you know, the right calendar. But with the Olympics going on and everything else, like it's the draft is not going to

be our typical June 25th or whatever it normally would be draft this year. So that is a different calendar. stands to reason that if we're going to have a summer league in Las Vegas, that'll have to be even after that. So we're talking about August for that, right? Yeah, yeah. We got the draft lottery on June 22nd. And we have the draft itself on July 29th.

Today's after my birthday. So maybe in August we'll have Summer League. Wow. We might be there, Chris. Yeah. Hopefully, look, if there is a summer league, we'll be there. We'll see what happens. For sure.

And hopefully we could by that time do like live events and stuff. We could try to put something together maybe while we're out in Vegas. Because we did that we went to that one that, you know, Bill and Rosillo and Daryl did a couple years ago. It was still on. It was. It was a really good scene there for sure. I'd love to do a live show with you, Chris. Like one of the greatest thrills of my life was doing Dunk on Cancer Live in Toronto.

Oh, yeah. We raised money up there and they're like 200. or so people there for the pot. And, like, so many, like, friends and colleagues in the NBA media world showed up. It was really awesome having some. It was like a big live podcast. It'd be cool to do that with you, Chris. Yeah.

Let's keep our fingers crossed that everything can go off in Vegas like we hope so. Safety would have to be number one, obviously. And hopefully by that point. Oh, I don't really care about the safety thing. I'm just kidding. But hopefully, hopefully by that time, you know. Hopefully no more super spreader events by that point. And hopefully everybody will be vaccinated by then.

I hope so. Keep getting those vaccinations out into the world for the population. Yep. All right. Thanks to producer Sasha. As always, Kevin, I will talk to you on Friday. Have a good week, everybody.