The Ringer NBA Show - Anthony Edwards Goes Supernova In Denver. Plus, Things We Think We Know After Round 1. | Group Chat

Episode Date: May 5, 2024

Justin and Wos give their instant reactions to Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves taking game 1 against the Denver Nuggets. They talk about the stars for each team, adjustments that can be made and if their thoughts on the series have changed at all. Then they discuss 5 things they think they know after the first round (26:07). They wrap up by briefly previewing Game 7 between the Cavs-Magic (56:45). The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Hosts: Justin Verrier and Wosny Lambre Producer: Isaiah Blakely Additional Production Supervision: Ben Cruz Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it's Brian Curtis from The Ringer, and I want to tell you about the Press Box podcast. The Press Box is a podcast for anybody who likes news, whether it's about sports or politics or pop culture, and wants to understand how that news really gets made. We have news shows every Monday and Thursday. We have long interviews with everyone from John Crackhour to Joe Buck. Your social media feeds are bursting with information every day. Let us help you sort it out. Join us on the press box.

Welcome to Group Chat. I am Justin Barrier and joining me, Big Was. No Rob Mahoney tonight, but we got the two boys here for the slobber knocker between the wolves and the nuggets. What's up, Was? I'm good, man. Literally just reeling from that game, that was an incredible, you know, opening matchup. Just a slug fest, really. The whole game was just super close the entire time.

These guys trading shots. um, trait like strategies, adjustments being made. And this is just game one. Really cool to see. Yeah. So we're going to get to game seven preview of the magic and calves because that's going to be happening early on Sunday. Uh, we're also going to do what we think we know after the first round. So kind of like a look back, look ahead at some of the big things that, uh, we haven't discussed yet. But we have to start with, God damn, one of the best playoff games, not just second round games that I've seen in a very long time. I think I knew, and I tweeted this out, that it was a slobber knocker, that this was kind of everything we had hoped for when Nas Reid gets to the bucket and just dunks it like he's Ann Edwards.

And I was like, oh, we're on here. This was incredible. Yeah, it was really something. The first half, of course, Minnesota just came out. They jumped out on the Denver Nuggets. 18 to 4 at one point, Denver calls a timeout. And it's like, oh, man, like these guys are serious. Denver looked like, you know, they just came off of a hangover from a first-round series

and sort of finding their way through this game. And Minnesota just jumped out on him. Aunt Edwards was just, he had everything working. He's getting to the cup. He had the mid-range working. Very early on, he let these guys know that, you know, KCP, Jamal Murray, these guys are going to be a little bit too skinny to deal. with what Edwards is bringing the bear.

And that was made playing from the start. He was a big part of getting them off to that great start. And then, of course, Denver comes all the way back. And then, like I said, it just becomes a slug fest. Yeah, there was a real reminiscent thing to this game where it looked a little bit like the Lakers series where the wolves threw the first punch. And the Nuckets looked pretty days.

And Ant was a big part of that. It seemed like, I don't know if it was the early start, or this is just what the Nuggets are going to do this postseason, where they're easing into a matchup and then they slowly take over. Well, we got to the point late in the game where the Nuggets should take over. Unfortunately, Ant was there. And we talked about this before. It just seems like whatever juice the Lakers lacked that maybe because they had tired legs,

because they were so over-reliant on a 39-year-old LeBron, well, the wolves have fucking Anthony Edwards. And he looks like the best goddamn player in the league right now, 43 points, seven rebounds, three assists, two blocks, one assist. I mean, I could just come up with so many hyperboleys at this point to talk about what Anne's doing. But what do you think? To me, it's like how he could just stop runs by just getting a great, a great look. And the looks that he's getting, he is creating so much space and his 14, 15 footers that at this point in his career are essentially automatic.

I thought he played a nice defensive game. When the floor was sort of spread and balanced, he had a nice dish-off game as well. Like, man, only one turnover today. Like, and, you know, with the amount of usage that he had, I just thought he had a nice floor game. His jump, he was just locked in. And his physicality, that's what I thought was the difference was.

When I'm watching the Lakers won, their defense is nowhere near to the levels, just not this talented up and down the roster. as Minnesota's is. But two, on the ball, as great as LeBron is, he can't consistently just beat people up from the perimeter and get downhill and force, you know, Denver to commit extra resources to stop him what he's doing at the Cup.

He's just, you know, 39, 40 years old. He's not able to do that anymore. Aunt Edwards, you know, essentially in the prime of his life, he can do that with consistency. And when that wasn't working, you know, Carl Towns had a nice third quarter stretch where he dropped like seven buckets. Some of them were like tough shots, tough runners. Like they were just getting it from everywhere early on, man. It was just so cool.

I think the biggest compliment you can get from Denver's defense is when Aaron Gordon just picks you up. They say, especially late in a game, we need Aaron Gordon to just kind of shut this guy down. And he's done that a lot. He did the last post season. He did it a little bit in the Lakers series. But when Aunt stopped on a dine with Gordon basically in his shorts for that pull-up, that looked, dare I say, MJ-esque. And we're going to keep saying that as ridiculous as it sounds. It looks exactly like that.

I was like, goddamn. Like, what do you do against this guy? Because your boy, Kenny, it just doesn't have the heft, especially when Aunt has a head of steam. And Gordon is just like, there's not much you could do about that when you have a step back like that. Yeah, Gordon actually is obviously strong enough to deal with Ed, but I don't know that the lateral movement, he's, you know, this guy is lightning quick. Like, this is a next level first step, right? We're not talking about a Paul George or a Kawhi Leonard, you know, older guys who, you know,

they need a little, they can maybe get a little step and create some separation, but it's not going to be that much. Like, they're not turning the corner on guys anymore the way Aunt is. And they just don't have a great match of him. I think they could do different things, clouding his vision and making it a little bit more difficult. But even then, you know, they were helping off of guys like Nas Reid one pass away. And it was making quick decisions. So it's not just that he's killing these guys when he gets his one-on-one matchup.

It's also that, like, he's recognized. Look, when they try to load up on me, I just need to get rid of the ball. Trust that my teammates are going to make the right play. And he did that tonight. Yeah, this seemed to be the game plan. and it only had three assists, but you're right. He was moving the ball. He was making the right reads.

He was making the easy passes that he should. And it just seemed like everything was flowing from there. So this is from Kirk Goldsbury. These are the players that have scored 35 plus points in three straight playoff games at age 22 or younger. Lou El Cinder, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Anthony Edwards. This is kind of uncharted territory. And so, I mean, there's probably a larger discussion. we could have at some point about like can the wolves win a title when your guy is this young.

But like this is the first time where I'm even like entertaining those ideas that someone at this stage of his career might be able to vault not only past the nuggets, but even get into the finals and beyond. Look, if he's going to play like this, if he's going to be this locked in, they can absolutely win the championship with a player this young. Like, you know, I anticipate this being a long series. And so again, we'll see if, you know, these guys are able to maintain this, but if he's going to play like this, then, man, it's going to be tough. So on the other end of this, Nikola Yokic has a mere 32 points, nine assists, eight rebounds, how hum stuff, you know, for the probably three-time MVP. Unfortunately, seven turnovers, pretty atypical of them.

They look pretty sloppy. And for Yokish to be this sloppy is like, honestly, startling. minus 12 in the game. And I think this brings us back to your friend Rudy Gobert, who is, there I say, magnifique in this year. They can't do this without Rudy Gobert. This is, Rudy Gobert was as instrumental as it was to Minnesota's offense being able to work consistently tonight. Rudy Gobert on defense made everything happen.

The Nuggets, they're not one of these teams that want to get up 40, 45-3s a game. They're not the Celtics. They actually want to try to score it inside. And then when teams start loading up on their paint stuff, then they start spraying out to their shooters. But tonight, Rudy, they just were not getting to the paint. And when they were, they weren't getting great looks.

And I think it culminated ultimately at the end of that game, you know, under four minutes to go. Yokic, he's driving down the lane. Rudy is giving him his space, that patented fake floater that we've seen him do time and time and time and time again to Aaron Gordon for the flush. He goes for it and Rudy reads it and smacks it out. You know, he had three consecutive possessions where he smacked that out. He stoned, basically stoned Yokich on an isolation post up where Yokin tried to score a left jump hook where he missed it. Rudy, you know, he took a shot, missed it, got his own putback, scored that. And then, of course, you know, the icing on the cake, that ridiculous bank shot that he made from the free throw line.

And is going to get all of the highlights tonight. And I think he deserves it. But Rudy is right there in terms of importance in the outcome of this game. We were joking before we came on. That bank shot looked like Rudy was taking a beer pong shot. That was one of the most ridiculous mid-range jumpers. I think I've ever seen, but you're right. It was just insult to injury. Yokich had some success on post-ups on him early on, but like Yokic is just going to do that. There's only so much you could do

against Yokic. But like, man, I just kept thinking throughout this game, like, Tim Connolly had a blueprint. Man, he knew like what he was going to stop. And the collective size across the board to the point where like Nas Reid was put in that center. And it was like a Reed Anderson front court. And the announcers are like, oh, they're going small. I was like, small, breed is like 270 pounds. He's a stretch five. And so just to like, to see just all the bodies that they could throw out. Gina McDaniels was pretty quiet in this game,

but just like the length that they have to be able to like interchange on these guys. It's like, I don't know what you do at this point, especially as we should mention with Jamal Murray, who was hobbling. Yeah, Jamal Murray looked a little bit hobbled, looked a little bit limited. Some of the shots that he did make with like his hardest shots. I thought he was able to generate some decent looks and just straight up didn't make it. Some of it, maybe he's uncomfortable.

Maybe some of the arms and the limbs that he's being showed is rattling him a little bit. But Murray looked, he didn't look like himself tonight. And Porter Jr., like, I think this is about as good as you can expect from him. You know, 6 of 13, he put up 7-3s. Like, this is the Port of Junior night. I think this is a good Porta-June.

game. And, you know, to go back to Yokic, he took nine threes, which he doesn't really want to do, only made two of them. He's got to make, he's got to be willing to, like, they're not going to win this series without Yokic having a superlative performance. Like, he has to be the best guy on the floor. He has to attack, be hyper-aggressive trying to score. He has to be willing to take and make those threes. He has to make Minnesota's defense a little bit more honest. And yeah, man, they're in for dogfight. I thought this thing would go seven going in. I thought ultimately Denver would be able to pull it out with some of their, you know,

obviously their continuity, cohesion. They've all been there before together. But matchup-wise, I've been saying it all year. This is their toughest matchup. And, man, game one, prove that to be the truth. You're right. Whenever Yokic takes more shots than he typically does, you could tell that something isn't quite right.

And oftentimes, honestly, he's able to find a solution just by being the score, right? Unfortunately, in this game, and I wonder if this is like kind of the big thing to take away going forward, is like if Murray isn't quite right, and we should mention in the start of this game, he was very not right. I think he was 0 for 5 in the first half. I think that's like one of the only times that's ever happened. He just seemed not only off, but just disengaged in a way that, like, I guess he was toward the end of that Lakers series, but he managed to come back in this game. He did manage to kind of rally back in the second half.

I wonder if he's preserving himself in certain ways. Maybe he's like pacing himself out. Maybe this is just what the Nuggets do, where they peak after halftime. I have no idea, but you're right. He was making incredibly difficult shots. So on the one hand, like maybe the injuries persist. On the other hand, I think you have to get the Wolf's some credit here because it just seems like they were making things so difficult for him, where the only things he was

even getting were those difficult off-balance shots, the ones where he was giving a taunt afterward, even though, like, for some reason, Aunt got the tech, but he did not. It was just kind of, he was off there. And that's kind of like the big swing thing for me in this series. Yeah, they're able to, again, make him uncomfortable. I think, I don't think he's going to have to have a series where he averages like 25, 28 a game. But when he does get his opportunities, because he's going to have space to operate. Like, the wolves are not dumb. Yokic is going to be the center of gravity, right?

Like, he's going to pull defenders towards him just by glint of him being out there. And Murray's going to have some space. He's got to execute, though. Like, he needs to, you know, knock those mid-rangers down. Don't hesitate. As soon as you get the airspace, pull up, shoot the,

three, I think a lot of the shots that Yoke was getting in this game was, you know, towards the end of the shot clock where it's like, oh, man, okay, now I have to do it. It's not within the natural floor of what they're trying to do. Yeah, man, they definitely got to go back to the drawing board and try to take Minnesota out of, you know, how they want to, you know, deploy their resources. Are we making Yoke, a thing? Did you just make that up? I stole that from Adam Morris.

Yeah. Yo, yeah. All right. We'll have to use that down the road here. I thought at halftime that this was going to be a classic and is the only one showing up offensively for Minnesota sort of game. And I think early in that third quarter, Aaron Gordon really got into it with Towns.

And Towns did the classic, I'm going into Crybaby mode. Let's just call it what it is. And I was like, oh, no. This is where this game turns. I think he got two quick whistle. all of a sudden. One of them was a four-point play on Murray. I'm just like, oh, no.

This is a typical wolves experience, right? But I think you have to give it credit to Towns. I don't think he had a good game. I think at halftime, Aunt had something like 26 points in the entire rest of the roster, had 15. It was clearly all Aunt and nothing else, but Towns did show up when they needed to.

Didn't have a good game overall, I would say, or not a great game overall. But he had enough of what they needed from it. Yeah, I like that as soon as they tried to start putting some of these guards on him, which in the past, if you remember Memphis was very comfortable, putting smaller guys guards on him being like, all right, we're going to dare Carl Towns to put the ball on the floor and try to make a play on the drive.

And teams that had success with him in the past, but today, when they were putting guards on him, Carl Towns was making them pay. And again, these are the things they're going to, need. Like, when they do have matchup advantages, their best guys are going to have to come through. And I thought he did it enough. Again, everybody on the wolves on offense pulled their weight just enough. Mike Conley, just enough, right? Nasree was horrible on both ends of the floor in the first half. And in the second half, he's making the threes. He's, you know, he's killing,

scrambling defenses on closeouts. Like, he's doing just enough with the 16 points. I thought the ancillary guys outside of Ant did just enough to keep this thing afloat. And I think, again, just to bring it back to their defense, Denver's in the half court, they had a 97.5 offensive rating. Any other team that's pretty freaking good for the playoffs, but for Denver

to only have a 97 and a half offensive rating in the half court, first shot offense, they better strap up. man. I thought this was almost the Nasreid game, at least toward the end there. So he had 16 points overall. He had 14 points in the fourth quarter alone, six for seven, two for two for three. He was minus 17 at halftime. But even in that third quarter plus five, I thought like just they found the right lineup combinations to at the very least play to his strength. And this is what we've always talked about those non-yokets minutes. And I thought that the wolves did something very shrewd,

as I referenced before, going a little bit, in air quote smaller in order to at least gain an offensive advantage in those minutes. And I do think, like, when Yokic was off the floor, they had enough to push the buttons in order to extend the lead or at least not get it to the point where it was going to be insurmountable. I just thought like he was incredible. It was very much like, yeah, this is the sixth man of the year who could probably be starting on a lot of teams and I don't want to be reductive enough to be like this was the swing point of this game. But like, you know, Reggie Jackson had some moments of this game. But like it really was kind of Yokic and whatever else you can get from MPJ. And so like the wolves just oddly enough have so

many other options to get offense from where it's like it's almost like the reverse of what you typically think of the wolves. So the wolves just have a better bench. Like Alexander Walker has just turned himself into a very high quality defender. Like, he is in guys' shirts. He's super athletic. He's instinctive. Like, he's just a plus defender now. And you can't, like, he was one of five today.

And I think he's one of the guys you've got to concede to. But he's not a guy that you could just ignore a closeout on. Right. And so he's a guy. Monti Morris, you know, only three minutes, didn't really do much today. But I think he's going to get in the game. And Kyle Anderson, I don't think this. This is a Kyle Anderson series because of his lack of shooting and Denver's going to do a lot to ignore him and help off of him and do stuff like hide yokech on him and stuff like that.

But their bench, all of that being said, is better than Denver's, right? Denver is relying on Christian Brown, of course, who I like Peyton Watson. Justin Holiday, I didn't expect him to get 16 minutes today, but that's a thing that happened. Like, you know, Reggie Jackson had a couple of moments in the first half where he looked nice or whatever. But, yo, it's the nuggets, I think everybody assumed this team's, this year's team would be worse because the bench would not be as consistent as it was throughout last year, especially in the playoffs. I thought today was kind of indicative of that, right, when you compare it to the wolves. So nothing surprising there either. The margin for error just seems a lot thinner for the nuggets.

and especially if this calf injury or whatever has happened with Jamal Murray is going to persist throughout the series and then beyond, just feels like they're going to need some of these other guys. I thought Christian Brown actually played pretty well, especially defensively. Peyton Watson, I'm sorry to say, was, I don't know. I don't know if this is a Peyton Watson series. This was not a Peyton Watson game.

No, it was not. It might have been like a year early there, but, you know, good things down the road for him. One of the shots that he took, he was pretty damn wide open an airball did. I think the moment might have gotten a little bit too big for him here in game one when he, you know, got a taste of this level of playoff physicality and just like, holy smokes, like athleticism that got thrown at him. He didn't have a good, it was not his best showing. Again, I think that's why the holiday minutes were what they were. I think Mike Malone was like, look, man, Justin Holliday is a vet. He's going to execute my stuff at least,

even if he gets beat, at least he's going to be in the right places and not completely, you know, throw up on himself. So, yeah, that's another thing to monitor. The bench was the number one thing that people pointed to as this team's weakness coming into the season. You know, I think Denver was just like, look, our young guys are in development mode and they'll be able to, the growing pains will happen, but they'll paper over these shortcomings. But yeah, I agree that this is something to monitor. So do you think any differently about this series than you did going into it. I know you said he thought it was going to go seven regardless,

but are you like now if you're the, like the predictive political needle that the New York time uses, are you like a little bit more toward the wolves after this one? I think the only thing for me is that they never really bothered Ant too much. So that I am a little bit surprised that they couldn't bother him at all.

But everything else seemed obvious to me. Like, the wolf staying home on Yokic and being like, yo, the last thing we're going to do is send two at you. You know, we'll send a late help, late contest, Rudy style when he's roaming off of the play. But all of that stuff seemed pretty obvious to me as to what they were going to do. When they could, they guarded the pick and roll with two guys. Like, man, this is what I expected, honestly.

It's just, Ant just looked way better than I, than even I could have anticipated. Yeah, it was meteoric tonight. And so, like, even like a more muted version of that, if he scores 30, then obviously this is a different ballgame. But, man, the Murray minutes. And just, like, his lack of dynamicism, I think I just created a word, he wasn't very dynamic. And this one, it worries me down the stretch because the wolves just look spry and, like, ferocious, dare I say, in the way that like the nuggets just having this entire postseason.

I go back to what we talked about in the last podcast where it's like, yeah, those comebacks were absolutely bulletproof and like dramatic and a clear indication of what the nuggets made them so good in the first place, right? It's like, yeah, they kind of got themselves in those situations in the first place. And if they're going to keep playing with their food like that, I guess the guy like aunt who could explode in the fourth quarter and has like these legs to not only just like go toe to toe to with them but excel like it's going to be tough it's going to be tough they're going to need to be laser focused all game long you know going down 14 at home guys in the first quarter you're going to have to come out and treat this like the dog fight that it that it is

razor focus razor sharp focus from the tip take care of the ball, make the wolves play in half court, make this an execution contest, that's the only way they win this series, y'all. Yep. Anything else from this one? Or should we go to our big thing here?

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All right. So we're calling this things we think we know after round one. Round one technically doesn't finish until tomorrow's 10 a.m. tilt between the calves and the magic. But just bear with us here. These are, there's kind of basically the things I think I know. I actually did add one in from Waz that I think he thinks he knows based on my algorithm just being a lot of your tweets, especially when you tweet a lot in a given night. Because I think we're just tethered together here online at this point. the first one I have down. The Knicks are one of the biggest winners of the playoffs, regardless of what happens from here on out. And I think just what they've showed, both from a team standpoint, but also what it says to the rest of the league and just like the basketball community at large,

is important because not only did their crowd storm Philly and take over to the point where the owners had to buy a bunch of tickets, right? you had Embed getting told to fuck off repeatedly at MSG and he's like, damn, that was nice. How fun is this? But also, Jalen Brown isn't just a guy. He's a dude. Like, you're a guy if you're like an all-star.

I think dude is like all NBA. And I think like he has shown this postseason that he is that dude. And so if I'm like a prospective free agent, if I'm like one of these guys that are looking for a new home, we're hearing like Jim Butler rumors, all these other guys are in ether now. I'm like, damn, what if I could just go be the guy that is an outlet for him? We could play off each other. All of a sudden, this becomes super easy. And we get to do this at MSG in front of this incredible crowd. And so I'm like, this is the best sales pitch for the Knicks since, goddamn, I don't know, since the Garden was Eden, I guess. Man, so the thing about that first round

and Jalen Brunson in particular is that it's not. like he's playing with a bunch of complimentary talent that is allowing all of his skills to shine. The man is just getting it done, possession after possession, when the other team knows exactly what Tibbs is running. Give the ball of Jalen Brunson, set a couple of screens, hopefully it works out, right? And these are things that only bona fide true stars do

on a consistent basis. So the fact that he did that, and announced himself as that kind of dude, like, no, I'm an actual bona fide all-star player. You know, that to me is the win. Now, as far as getting disgruntled guys to force their way to New York or if New York can just put up a dope package together

to bring in a different guy, that's one thing. You know, I think that's nice. I think the Brunson thing specifically for me is like, he's just shown that this isn't some nice little story, right? This isn't like, you know, I always use this example. I remember when Tibbs had the, like, the Bulls team with Nate Robinson was the like the fulcrum of the offense. And we all knew it was like obviously a little engine that could, but it was a joke, right? Like, they were just playing harder than everybody.

You can't do something with Nate, right? Like, this ain't that. Like, this guy is a star. He was better than Embed on a bunch of nights. M. B. This guy's MVP. He was playing like the MVP before his initial injury this year.

He cooked him. Again, we know M.B. was limited, but this guy was incredible. And so going forward, just knowing that you have this guy. And, you know, even if it just means they upgrade the ancillary talent,

maybe they don't get a star just. But what they do is they upgrade the guys around him, you know, that it could just be higher quality than what they're getting at power forward right now. Julius Randall's not even playing, mind you. You know, like if they could just upgrade the quality,

it'll still be pretty cool, even without a star, because this guy has shown himself like he is legitimately the shit. Yeah. I guess I was saying Jalen Brown. This just goes to show you how I'm not used to talking this much. It's crazy. I know. I obviously meant Jailen Brunson.

just to show you like how far we've come in such a short span. I want to just go over recent Nick's history. So seven years ago, not that long ago, I think I had already moved back from New Orleans to Los Angeles. I know a lot has happened since. But like just seven years ago was when they parted ways with Phil Jackson. And in that same year is when they banned Charles Oakley. Okay, that was seven years ago. Five years ago, Katie and Kyrie Spurton.

them for Brooklyn because they're like we can't touch this place like I don't want anything to do with James Dolan I don't want to listen to JD in the straight shot all this stuff

that place was toxic four years ago do you remember when they got into it with Spike Lee where they're like you have to go through another entrance

and they put out a press release where like this guy is lying like what the fuck is he talking about and then three years ago

make the playoffs for the first time in eight years, last year even, get bounced in round two. We're all like, God damn, this is it. This is all for them. Julius Randall plays poorly again.

We're like, this team probably topped out. How many fucking segments did we do where we're like, oh, when are they going to get a star? This seems like this is just a certain point. I just feel like things have shifted so quickly

to now where I'm wondering like, if we're talking destinations, like I think this has like the perfect combination of a team, a culture, and identity, and obviously that big-ass market that everyone wants to play in. Yeah, it's so funny, Justin, because this would have always been, obviously, the case

if they could ever just string together years of competence like they did in the 90s, right? It's just never been consistent. Donnie Walsh had a nice stretch. Then they forced his hand on the Mellow Deal, forced him out, and they did, They just spent years in the wilderness and God bless them, I'm not going to front. I've been one of those people that was skeptical of the CAA Alliance.

And, you know, this idea that every single person that ever comes through the building has to be CAA connected and this whole lot familiar thing and the media blackout and all of this stuff. I was definitely skeptical. You have to give it up for them, man, for what they've put together here. There's just no other way to it. And the fact of the matter is they got Jalen Brunson to town. That was their move for that amount of bread, $25 million per, or 27, whatever it is. Leon Rose, World Wide West, those guys got to get their flowers for putting this thing together. Being patient.

Not throwing the baby out with the bathwater to get Donovan Mitchell. Not jumping out at the, you know, the fastest, easiest, quickest superstar trade that, was out there doing something drastic for Zach Levine or somebody else. They've stayed the course, you know, and obviously the way things shook out in the East with the injuries to the bucks and the Sixers have played in their favor. But guess what? You have to be in it to win it. You can't create this sort of opportunity for yourself if you're not already doing all

of the right things on the way. And so, yeah, man, these guys, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, They did win. I think they're going to blow the doors off the Pacers. Honestly, I'll be surprised if this thing went six games because I think they're just going to guard the hell out of them. And the Pacers' defense, we know this is highly problematic. But man, a conference finals for the New York Knicks?

What? Yeah, madness. They had to hit the Jalen Brunson double and turn it into a triple, if not a ground roll. What is it? In the side of the park, home run. Clearly, I haven't watched a lot of baseball lately. But not only that, but then just like getting the Villanova guys to create almost like a vibe where it's just like, this seems fun. Like the atmosphere just seems like different in a way. Like everything just seems cordial and not tense anymore because even when they had certain good

teams, like they weren't fun. Like the Melo team had its moments. But a lot of that was just like trudging through Mel's bullshit. I'm like just finding enough. just to make it to a first round series where you're ultimately going to get beat by a heat or something like that. So things are different. Also, the thing about the Mello team with J.R. and Tyson Chandler, there wasn't this sense of discovery.

You know, I'm learning something new about Hartenstein's game every single day. I'm learning something new about Deuce McBride every single day. Jalen Brunson, he's had great moments in the postseason, but that last year in Dallas in the second round, Like, Carlot wasn't giving them that much tick. So even Jalen Brunson has been a bit of a revelation as just like getting the keys to the car. You know, that's what's been cool about it.

It's so revelatory on this stage. You know, that's what I think is carrying this to even a higher level. Even OG, who's a known quantity, but him doing it in this context, it just feels so much different than what started to get stale in Toronto, right? It just feels like this is discovery, man. There's bing bonging happening. We're saying, you're chatting fuck Trey Young, even though they're not even playing the Hawks anymore. But you mentioned the 90s back there with the Pacers.

I think it harkens back to one of the classic clashes in recent history. I have to ask, do you have like a Carl Keneye jean jacket that you could break out for this one? Yeah, maybe a Forrest Bias, 05 jersey. Perhaps if I could interest you in that. man, I love it. Nick Spacer's, man, the Tyrese Maxie was,

you know, that evoked some Reggie Miller memories, man. That seven points in 29 seconds. He better call some of these games, too. Reggie? Reggie's, yeah.

Like, he's so instrumental to that 90s legacy, man. All of those fights, the yelling at Spike, just, you know, the choke and gesture, Ewing the finger roll. Like, there's so much history

between these two franchises. And so, yeah, the nostalgic factor is there. I just wondered what the Pacers have in them because, like, against it, like, a severely cooked Bucks team, they had some moments where I was like, golly, good golly, Indiana. You guys look like a mess, like a joke right now.

Halliburton specifically is just bad. It's just bad. Yeah. So I wonder if they're even going to put up a fight. but you know, strange things have happened. Yeah, on the one hand,

they're going to be able to score, even if Halliburton doesn't even cross into the three-point arc, but at the same time, you saw some of these games go down to the wire and they need to turn to someone. And typically Halliburton has been that guy, but like, I don't know whether it's being in his first postseason,

whether it's the injury. It's probably a little bit of both, if anything, is probably more of the injury, but just like it doesn't really have it, especially when he's getting harassed on the perimeter. And so it feels like a, a moment for the Pacers just to make it to the second round because they've come a long way in such

a short time just since they got Halliburton, but this probably feels where it ends. I would be surprised at this got more than six games, I would say. What do you think? Yeah, six games would be a lot for me specifically, I mean, even, because even when the Knicks are not playing their best, they're playing their asses off on defense. So I don't see like one of these games with Indiana just lights them up from three because Indiana doesn't have a lot of shooting themselves. right? Like between Nemhard and Neesmith and, you know, Pascal Seattle.

Like, these aren't shooters. T.J. McConnell, like, they're going to be two-pointing the Knicks to death here. And so I anticipate every game to be close. And when the Knicks, you know, get their thing rolling when they're forcing turnovers and then making a couple of threes and Brunson has got the thing rolling. I could see them winning this thing in five quite easily.

They're just the team. Like, if you look at what the, Knicks had to do to get here, the level of hoop they had to play to get to the second round as compared to the level that Indiana showed against that depleted and diminished bucks team, I feel like they should be an overwhelming favorite here. Yep, I agree. Number two on my list here. Darry was right to bet on chaos this offseason.

And now I have said multiple times pretty much since last off season, what the hell is the plan in Philly? because he's just opening up a ton of cap space and kind of hoping for the best. Hardin didn't really return much. Maybe like a pick in here. We'll see if that becomes anything. But really, it's Joel in a hope and a prayer at this point. Obviously, Maxie proved himself in this postseason. He's going to get brought back. But they just have this lump of space to mold into something. And to the point where really Joel is the only contract on the books at this point. And I was like, what do they do? Who comes? Who even comes in have space anymore. But as we're seeing

slowly but surely as like teams kind of go off the board here, it seems like they actually might have their pick of the litter. At this point, I just jotted down the teams that are like expected to face up evil. Just this offseason, I have the clippers, heat, calves, bucks, sons,

pelicans, the Sixers themselves if they don't actually get anyone, the Warriors. I could probably name a few more than I'm just missing. The jazz are probably going to be the mix because they have a lot of assets, teams like that. But it seems like something good could happen for the Sixers. Does it seem the same way for you? Yeah, I mean, the flexibility is awesome. And obviously, Darrell's been pretty creative about getting transactions

done, right? And like with this much flexibility, you know he's ran like 50 million different scenarios of what they could do. You know, their ability to not just sign, you know, try to go after a free agent like, you know, Pying the Scott LeBron James or Paul George, but their ability to just trade somebody into their space. You know, that's another possibility or trade multiple people into their space, you know. And so the sky is kind of, I don't want to say the sky's the limit, but they have a lot of options as to how, you know, you never know. Maybe they do get Tobias Harris back on a fair deal or something.

Like, we don't know. But I think they are well positioned to come back with a better, more well-rounded roster next year. And yeah, Philly fans should definitely be excited and anxious to see what the GM is able to cook up in the summer. On the one hand,

I'd be excited if they just did a Mia Kulpah and brought Jimmy back on the other hand. Like the amount of like shit you'd have to take just to kind of rewrite recent history and just go back to that would be something else. Although I do think Jimmy Maxi and B would be a lot of fun. I don't know how long of a runway they'd have,

but like at least for the next two seasons. that would be fun. It kind of brings me to a 2B that I have here, which is that Paul George has to go somewhere else. I can't do this again with the Clippers. And I hope our friend Paul recognizes the same because sludgeon through those last two games against the Mabs without Kauai.

It's just like, dude, you might just be doing the same thing next year. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I don't know. no, man. He spent so much time early on in his career trying to get himself to Southern California. Palmdale's finest. Palmdale's finest. And the idea that he's not going to take the money if Ballmer offers it to him, you know, offers him the 170 million or whatever it is, I just find. that hard to believe, man.

Like if they offer him the four years 180, 170, to stay with the clippers, I feel like this is what he wants. This is where he wants to be. And he's gonna run it back. And the thing is the clippers aren't sending it. Like, if the clippers were stupid enough to be like, you know, we don't give it damn. We're just, we're done with this core,

and we're gonna try to do something else. I don't think they don't have that option, so they're gonna offer them the money. Maybe he takes it with an understanding like, yo, man, if this goes south, can we try to move me somewhere? Maybe. But it feels like they're on a collision course to come back to each other. I agree. The Clippers don't have a choice but to pay him and probably Harden, too.

So why would he leave if he can't get the same amount of money? On the other hand, and I also think, like, in the Clippers' benefit, like, him leaving and us being left with just Hardin and Kawhi would somehow be worse than what we just experienced. So like maybe we should be rooting for him to come back. But here's my idea for him. He's already tried to go home to L.A. Why not go home again to Oklahoma City? And so...

Home again. Now on the one hand, Russ isn't there. Although maybe just bring Russ with you. What the fuck else is Russ going to do? So he doesn't have the same like party to go to at Russ's place, which apparently just completely changed his mind. But I do think he would, it would be in his business. benefit, especially considering his recent injury history. The fact that Paul George,

quietly, 34 years old, doesn't look like one of these old dogs that we talk about all the time, but like, he's getting up there in age. So this contract's going to be his last. He's probably going to start showing signs of ages, especially considering the defensive load he typically takes on on the wing there. Why not go be the old guard kind of ushering in this new group in OKC? And now on the one hand, you're thin, like you are committing to a lot of wings in that case, but like, Shea, Dor, J-dub, Paul George, Chet. Good guy. Yeah, I mean, I love that as a wing rotation, of course.

I think he'd be forced to start playing the four in that point. And some people might say, well, maybe Paul George should be transitioning to the four. I think he's still a little skinny to be doing that full time, right? But, I mean, if anybody can make it work, it's OKC with Dagnal and his creativity. and just, you know, that would give them the ability to just run guys off for the floor on offense. However, you know, the problem of their thinness up front will not be solved by something like this.

And so I wonder about that part of the equation, but they would absolutely, you know, now turn into one of the league's offensive juggernauts, right? And I think their attack, man, I was saying this the other day, like the way did they play right now where they make you guard the rim, all the way out to the three-point line with the guys that they have

on the driving kick game and the shooters that they could bring to bear. You know, like, they stretch people out as well as anybody in the league right now. Again, I just wonder if Paul George at his age wants to go back to the prairie. It just seems like that's a young man's idea of NBA life and not, you know, a proven veteran

who, again, has a bag of money probably sitting in there waiting for him in Los Angeles. You could do some fishing in O'KC. You'd probably build a man-made lake out there with that kind of money. Yeah, it just seems like he fits what they want to do and clearly like giddy for whatever Gordon Hayward has given them. It seems like they want to go in that direction where they have attacking things in the perimeter.

He would fit that. And you always have like a Jay Will in reserve. And you can always go out and get another big to fill out the heft and get you through the regular season. I think it would be interesting. But speaking of OKC, we should talk about that series. What I have down here for number three is the Mavericks are who we thought they were because they did kind of show what you wanted from them in that game six against the clippers.

They kind of like snuffed them out toward the end of that one. And now on the one hand, it looks pretty good, especially when Kyrie is clicking and playing with seemingly positivity and this whole new mindset of his that he won't stop talking about. on the other hand Luca a little hobbled had the illness had the knee injury

Claibor it turns out might not be there for maybe the rest of the post season based on this ace and joint issue He made some big shots in this series too He was really good Clearly Jason Kidd leans on him He's just one of those steady vets

that Luca has always relied on as well So on the one hand I want to believe in the Mavs going into the series against O KC because they have the heft that is going to stay on the court in the way that Valanchunas didn't for the Pelicans

On the other hand, if you're starting to drop some guys, Luca isn't quite right, then it gets a little bit dicier for me. But what do you think about going into the series? I think Luca not being able to find his shot and them still, you know, basically obliterating in the clipper. Speaks to two things. One, their defense actually is real. And that's what carried the day towards from the All-Star game on, right?

They played at a top four, top five defensive level in Dallas from the All-Star game on. And the Clippers offense, I get it. Not the, they didn't, you know, they obviously didn't have Kauai Leonard. And even when he was out, like, it's not like their offense was like extremely complex and complicated and things of that nature, right? But it don't matter.

The Mavs snuffed them out. They played incredible elite defense. I wonder if they're going to be able to carry that into, you know, the next round. But, you know, if you're saying, like, they are who we thought they were, yeah, Kyrie and Luca can get you

quality looks on a pretty consistent basis, and the defense is not a slouch or a pushover in ways that they have been in the past. And so, you know, Luca, look, he was not his best self in the Clipper series and they were still able to basically dominate. He's going to have to be a lot better to be OKC. And so, yeah, I echo your sentiments. Like, this is a team that's very Luca-centric. But, you know, I think he, I think Luca, it's reason, it's, it's, it's, reasonable to think he could get to a level that could beat OKC in this round. So he was four for 27 from three over his last games against the clippers. On the one hand, takes a lot of tough shots and was able to find other stuff.

His playmaking was like top notch at times during that series, especially him and Kyrie playing off each other and kind of activating some of these other guys that we're talking about. On the other hand, if that is partially due to the knee or whatever illness that he had, then it becomes a dice here preposition. I might still pick the Mavs in seven in this one. I think I'm like, I kind of am kicking myself because I think I'm simultaneously discounting what OKC is done. But like, I want to see Chet and some of these, dare I say, scrawny or younger guys actually do the same thing they did in the first round against some of these other thumpers at the maps have. Do you have a prediction for the series?

I'm leaning Mavericks and this is just my bias against young guys. I don't think their team, their roster is more talented. but I do think, you know, Jason Kidd is a damn good coach. They're going to come up with coverages and ways to bother Shea and what he's doing. And they're going to make it so that these other guys, the J-dubs, the Chets, the Isaiah Joe's, like, they beat the Mavericks. And I wonder if those guys are going to be up to the task in their very first real-life playoff test because the Pelicans were without their best player, All-Star, Zion Williams.

So I'm leaning Maver's, but it's not. I don't feel confident in it at all. I could see O.K.C. taking this thing as well. But I'm definitely leaning Luca, Kyrie, their collective playoff sort of experience and clutch experience and, you know, basically getting it done execution-wise throughout the course of that series. Okay. This next one is for you because I saw you were very vocal about this.

Darwin Ham wasn't the biggest problem in L.A. So I see the floor. The biggest problem is the Denver Nuggets. I'm sorry. There's no coach. And I hear people's argument that Darwin Ham's rotation early in the year not playing

the conference finals lineup of Rui Dilo and Austin Reeves sticking with them and that fluctuation messed up their season, put them in a position to get the seventh seed, put them in a position to play the Nuggets.

That's cool. However, nobody thinks this roster was on par with the Nuggets. And you saw what Minnesota just did with the Nuggets today. Nobody thinks this roster's on poor with Minnesota and what they're doing. The roster was very compromised and limited. I think Darvinham in both playoffs this year and last got about as much as you could

have reasonably expect from that group of players. Now, do I think Darvinham is the next Phil Jackson? No. But the idea that on the pecking order of why the Lakers season turned out the way that it did, I felt like Darvin Ham was pretty low on that pecking order. I don't know where you're at with that. Yeah, I think not turning to the lineup that they ultimately leaned on, especially down the stretch there,

was kind of reasonable because they were trying to strike a balance, right? Like, at a certain point, they had to turn all offense because that was the only way that they were going to win games. And Delo just happened to round into form where he just couldn't miss a shot at certain point. And so, like, I get the experimentation that he did early on. I think the thing that really kind of soured a lot of people there, especially seeing LeBron James and some of the biggest stakeholders for that team,

was just some of the in-game adjustments, the lineup decisions, the tactical adjustments. Clearly, he needs some progress there. I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if he got another job. I tend to agree with you. I think that the roster was flawed. And I even said that going into the season, I just don't think they had the ceiling that some of the other teams that were seeing just kind of take flight even had. Even the wolves just seemed like they had another gear to reach where it's like the Lakers were really setting themselves up to try to be the team that they were last postseason, which got blown out of the Western Conference finals in four games against the Nuggets. And so this seemed inevitable for me, especially at the trade deadline where they basically said we're going to hold off and try this at the trade deadline.

I think where I would kind of push back slightly is how much of this is LeBron versus Polinka in the front office where it's like, by all indications, the Rust deal was a LeBron thing. Oh, yeah. But you got to be a strong enough front office to not do that. Maybe. So to me, it's both. And to be clear, I'm not going to shed a tear for Darwin Ham. If you lose the locker room, you lose your players, you're way easier to get rid of than the players are.

Obviously, I think there's a delicate balance. Every coach has to sort of walk the tightrope where you don't want to be too buddy, with these guys, but you, you know, where they're walking all over in you and you're not establishing a pecking order a la Adrienne Griffin in the bucks. Like, you don't want to do that, but you also can't just lose the locker room straight up, you know, like, and that's the job of the coach to strike that delicate balance. That's what you get paid millions for. That's why your contract is guaranteed.

That's the pressure that's put on you when you voluntarily take a job that LeBron James is the, you know, the focal point along with Anthony D. Davis and losing those guys and Darvahams on fault. So I'm not going to cry for him, but to pretend that he's the one that tanked the season, I just, I don't buy it. Coaching LeBron might be the hardest job in the NBA. Let's just say that. With a roster like this, I agree.

And also like a roster that LeBron kind of has ends with that extend beyond just the Lakers on, like, it's not just Lakers on your chest. It's also like it's clutch for a lot of these guys. And like for AD and LeBron, they clearly wield so much power on that team. Like when Ham was just like in that last game where he just didn't have a timeout because he conceded to AD, I was like, this is like his issue in microcosm.

And now they got that challenge that AD barked for and they did win it, but ultimately left them without a timeout toward the end. So it was kind of defeat the purpose. It's just like it spirals out of control because everyone is looking to LeBron. Like really nobody has done a good job of it since Spoh other than Tailu. And like, Ty Lou, it did what you were saying, right? He did kind of stand up to LeBron in a lot of ways. And Kyrie in particular.

But like, he was LeBron's guy to start with. And that's kind of why he came up underneath from Blatt. So like, man, it's a no-win proposition for him or whoever's going to come next. But we'll see what happens. I tend to agree with you overall, though. Last thing here. For me, at least going into tonight, I might feel differently now. Nothing had changed about my finals prediction.

Because at the very least on the eastern side of the bracket, Chrisops can just go on vacation until the finals. And I don't think anything's going to change. The West might be a little different now, but I guess I would still lean nuggets of only for the institutional knowledge, you know? Yeah, that's it. That's it. They aren't for a dog fight.

But I do lean nuggets because, you know, they've done it before. And that tends to count a lot in the playoffs in terms of the mental fortitude on a night-to-night basis. But yeah, it's still Celtics nugs right now. Nothing in the East has, you know, persuaded me to think otherwise. Okay, real quick before we go here, hopefully you're catching this before the game actually starts because game seven of Mavs, Cavs Magic starts at 10 a.m. for some reason, on a Sunday where no other games are happening. Like, I appreciate the afternoon and evening off in the middle of the playoffs, but like, it's a very weird. It's the calves in the madge.

It's fine. I guess I'm surprised they didn't put it on NBA TV. But for me, a lot of this comes down to Jared Allen's help. It was so weird in that game six where the magic seemed like they were stuffing as many centers or, in their quote, center types into a lineup. And the calves were simultaneously going small. And as we know at this point, Evan Mowb, he probably better off as a center, but like, dude needs 50 to 70 pounds in order to really go toe to. That's why you saw Tristan Thompson so much. That's why Markeith Morris was in then to give him a little bit of extra ferociousness.

I think if Allen's there, though, I lean calves. If he's not, it's pretty dicey. What do you think? I don't know, man. After game six, like, I was, look, the, the magic's are completely capable of on the road in a game seven, not being able to. make a single shot. And, you know, because they do have limited shooting and, you know, the paint's backed against them and they just don't get it done.

But at the bottom end of that game, the way the calves look to be so stuck in the mud and basically in, you know, second gear and the magic looked like they could run back another game immediately after that with the fresh young legs and the athleticism. I'm like, man, that feels like that could carry the day going into game seven, even with the youth, even being on the road. Being at home in games up is a massive advantage. And also, I just want to will this into existence

because I think they're just a much better matchup for the Celtics than the Cavs are, because this predictable-ass offense and just like, you know, barely got got... Like, they have four playoff rotation players, man. The rest of it is senior.

Senior getting looks. Karis Laverte is just done. Bickerstavis is like, I'm finished with kid. I know. You know, George Nying, it's like they have four rotation guys, man. The Celtics will make quick work of these cats. And so, you know, I just, if only just because I hope Orlando can pull this out. I think Donovan Mitchell's 50 piece might have been this saddest 50-point game I've ever seen. It's just like no one was excited about it. It seemed like he just decided at a certain point that he was going to do it all himself.

He scored the last 23 points or something crazy like that for his team. Which is nuts. 18 and the fourth. Which is crazy and like what a heroic feat. But on the other hand, like, that didn't matter. That's what it says about your offense. Yeah. Yeah.

And again, the way that you're doing it with this one-on-one, nobody, like the defense doesn't feel compelled to get engaged. You have to expend so much energy to do this. Like, even when you're scoring, you're playing and, to the defense's hands. And so I think the magic are going to clip them, you know, maybe I'll look like an idiot, but I think the magic are going to get them out of here.

Young boys going to the second round. I think it means more to Orlando than it does Cleveland at this point. Orlando just wants to prove himself. We'll probably be watching Donovan Mitchell's last game in a Cleveland Cavs jersey. Most likely. I think it comes down to L.O. At a certain point, what's the point of keeping this dude around

if you can't beat the magic in the first round? Like, this experimented is a dud. You tried, it didn't work, move on. I appreciated the idea. I thought it was interesting, but, like, things just don't line up right. I wouldn't be surprised if you get rid of Mitchell. Like, do you start worrying about Allen who? Alan, let's just say outright, probably their second best player.

Even though Mowgli and Garland have so much more upside. But, like, they're your next wave. Like, they're the future. And honestly, it wouldn't be the worst thing if you want Mowbly to be your center to, like, throw him into the fire. So he's not just, like, getting brutalized in game six of a closeout game that you need. to get rebounds, man. It was tough for them to get rebounds.

He just is not tough enough. I hate calling guys soft, but like, goddamn. Like, he just needs to build them calluses on his game. He's getting switched off onto Palo or he's guarding France and he's at the perimeter. The ball goes up. What's he going to do when, you know, it's tough? Yeah, he just needs to get bigger.

All right. Let's wrap it there. Thank you to Isaiah Blakely. Thank you to Ben Cruz. We'll be back on Wednesday. same time, same place. So after those games, Rob will be back.

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