The Ringer NBA Show - Boston’s Collapse and Golden State’s Growing Legacy | Weekends with Wos

Episode Date: June 19, 2022

Sabreena Merchant of SB Nation joins Wos to wrap a bow on the NBA season, with the two friends discussing how the Celtics fell apart in the NBA Finals, if Jayson Tatum is the type of guy you can build a championship team around, and why we should start thinking of the Warriors like the Duncan-Parker-Ginobili Spurs. Plus, an NBA draft preview (23:00), and the offseason storylines Sabreena and Wos are looking forward to (27:34). Host: Wosny Lambre Producer: Troy Farkas Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey everyone, it's Peter Rosenberg from Cheap Heat. Join me and the fearless, physically large stat guy, Greg, and of course Super Agent 35 under 35 Dipperstein as we tackle the biggest stories in pro wrestling each and every week. To hear us, follow the ringer wrestling show on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. Stay major and enjoy yourself. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to weekends.

I'm your host, Big Was, A.K.A. Wazney Lambray. I'm joined by Sabrina Merchant of the great SB Nation. She covers the WNBA over there. She is one of the goats in NBA media, in basketball media, excuse me. And our episode where we buried the Lakers, I'm telling you, I got the greatest feedback of any show I did this season from doing that. And I was like, well, we buried the Lakers.

We might as well bury the 2021-22 season together. Sabrina, welcome back to the show. I'm so excited that you brought me back to dance on the Celtics grave. It's what I was meant to do. Oh, man. And that's what we're going to do. So, you know, when you work in a take industry, I think it's important to own up to your mistakes, right? And I very foolishly picked the Celtics to beat the Warriors in six games.

I really thought they would overwhelm them with athleticism and talent. I know that the Celtics were completely stupid for three rounds of the playoffs. But I was like, what's the big deal? They've learned from their mistakes. They're going to be so good in the finals. You know, the Warriors are a little bit older, a little bit longer in the tooth. Like, they're a step slower than they once were when they first started this run. This young, really vibrant team is going to get.

get it done and the exact opposite happened. They were just as stupid and boneheaded as they were for the previous three rounds. The warriors were just tougher. They're like, and I don't mean like tough, like, oh, poke out your chest, like, just focus wise. Like, they could execute consistently on a possession by possession basis and they would execute four or five things every possession, right? Like, they wouldn't make just a.

the first or second rotation. They wouldn't help on the right guy. They would do everything right on every possession. And as a series wore on, Boston just didn't have it in them to do so. We were texting every now and again during the series, Sabrina. And you were like, these guys just do it to themselves. What did you mean by that when you talked about Boston just? And we're not going to take away from Golden State.

We're going to talk about how great they were. but Boston was like particularly stupid at times. Yeah, as much as I want to just clown on the Celtics as much as possible because it looks like they didn't know what they were doing. I really think it was more a function of the Golden State defense, which is why Boston looked like this. I mean, we can point to like game five against Milwaukee and game six against Miami as examples of the Celtics,

just not knowing what they were doing. But like this Golden State defense just suffocated every team throughout the postseason. That's what they've done throughout the entirety of these eight Steve Curry years and even the last two of the Mark Jackson era. Like they've been a dominant defensive team. And the fact that they have, oh, the greatest shooting back court of all time and Steph Curry, wherever you want to put him on the pantheon of greatest players. Like that's almost like window dressing. People say he's done in Kobe now. This is what I'm not here for.

Why? I just wanted to throw that out there, but go ahead. Sorry. No, but it's really interesting because we watched Warriors Cavs all those years. And even Warriors against the Raptors, like the Warriors would land the first punch. And because they play so differently from every team in the NBA, I know, like, Tyloo has famous that said that, like, 95% of the league plays one way, and then you have to game playing for Golden State. Like, it always takes the Eastern Conference team a couple of games to figure them out.

And you saw the Celtics, like, win convincingly game one, have a nice win in game three. And you're thinking, like, well, if this is them figuring out the Warriors, then what's going to happen? And, I mean, I guess this was the first time that the Warriors played. a team that was just less experienced than them, you know, that didn't have the human calculator of LeBron James on the court, like, that didn't have Nick Nurse and his wacky brilliance on the other end. Like, they were the ones who were figuring things out. And it was just such a perfect culmination of them just sending a message to every major star of the younger generation, like Nicola Yokic, Johnich, Jason Tatum, everyone who's trying to become the next base of the NBA

and the Warriors, who we thought were done three years ago. We're just like, no, no. Maybe we're We're not as good as we were three years ago, but still better than everybody else out there. Listen, and the crazy thing is, and I'm so happy you brought up the defense because I expected Boston to be able to guard Golden State. And basically, they did, right? Like, there were moments where Golden State's guys had individual moments of brilliance, right? I think about Andrew Wiggins in game five, Steph in game four. Like, they had individual moments of brilliance. But as a team offense, we're used to Golden State kind of just all the shit that your high school coach told you was important about offensive basketball, setting hard screens, cutting when they overplay.

All of the, like, all of these things, Golden State does to the max. And they did that. And they got decent looks, but they weren't some dominant offensive force. out there. I thought the Celtics acquitted themselves quite well on defense, even if there were moments when, you know, Al Horford is guarding the Steph Curry pick and roll from the free throw line. And I'm like, what the fuck is this guy doing? To be fair, he was never guarding him from the free throw line. He was always way high up. It just was not high enough on stuff curry. Okay. I'm just saying it was just like, bro, come on man. Like, you got to be in this guy's shirt.

And they had those moments. But again, for the most part, they got it done. It's just on offense. You know, I think Jalen Brown had his times where he was able to get going and find some creases. And Tatum really never really got going. I thought Marcus Smart had some good moments against Steph and Jordan Poole. But like, other than that, they never found their way offensively. And the way Golden State would, you know, when they would time their helps, who they would help on and not help on it just confused these guys the freaking turnovers where they're just it i'm this i'm just like you might as well just hand the ball off to golden

state like it's emmy smith right like it's football like here just take the ball and run with it like that was i haven't seen that in like a finals in a while it's been a minute since you felt like wow, they're just straight up outsmarting and outtuffing this team. I think it was really easy to sort of think of Boston's path to the finals very similarly to Milwaukee's last year. Yes. Because they had that, you know, second round series that felt like the conference finals, the, you know, NBA finals.

They had that surprisingly competitive sweep in round one, you know, Milwaukee against Miami last year and then Boston, Brooklyn the year ago. And like they'd been there so many times and it felt like they were finally getting over the hump. But, I mean, Jason Tatum is not. Janice and Teddingo. Like, not even close. I think,

I think that's like the major takeaway I had from this series, which seems obvious. I mean, I would have loved to see Milwaukee Golden State Finals. But Jason Tatum, I think,

was 18 to 51 in the paint during this series, which is an astounding figure for a guy who's supposed to be your best offensive player, something that Janus would never, never dream of those kind of numbers, 18 and 51.

But they just, they didn't have any way of scoring easy baskets, right? Like, even when they had transition opportunities. One of the worst transition teams I've ever seen, honestly, this Boston Celtics

group. Credits of Golden State's defense. I maintain that Dreamon Green is probably the best transition defender we've seen ever, especially on those two-on-one situations. He always knows exactly where to put his hands. Incredible stuff. But they just couldn't get any easy shots, right? It was like, are the threes going

in, then maybe we can win a game. If they're not going in, then what's going to happen? It's, I don't know. I want to give Golden State like a substantial amount of credit for, you know, getting through this path and like coming back to the finals after two years off. And it was obviously a very impressive win, considering they were down to one and in that situation in game four.

But I'm just not impressed with the Celtics as an Eastern Conference champ. Like if Middleton is healthy, we're not having this conversation right now, Oz. Oh, man. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. I didn't realize that you were going to come in here and just dedicate our time to denigrating the Celtics. But they looked that bad.

the last few games. There were times where I'm like, is Jason Tatum better? So just to slow down, I've been to Jason Tatum sort of truther since he came into the league, right? I think he had that great rookie campaign. Dunked on LeBron in his rookie postseason. Yes. And he had, you know, they go to the conference finals. And, you know, he's getting busy against Jordan Clarkson.

And Rodney Hood. And it's like, oh, my God, this 19-year-old kid. And how the hell is he doing it in the playoffs? And I'm like, guys, like, the people who are guarding him were, like, not at all very good. Those cabs teams were not known for their defense and whatever, whatever. But everybody sort of ran with it. And my thing about Jason Tatum that I was always like, man, I don't know about this guy is one. He's not the quickest guy, meaning he doesn't get.

get in front of people, right, offensively. Like he doesn't, he's not the quick first step guy immediately on top of the rim, which is the kind of guy that you think of as dominant wing got. And then it felt like for a while his best move was, I'm Kobe Bryant. I'm going to take a terrible turnaround 22 footer with a guy draped all over me. And when it goes in, it looks incredible. Like he looks like one of the best hoopers that ever.

lived, but you can't subsist on that type of offense all day, every day. So I was always skeptical of Tatum for that point. He doesn't get by people. His best move is a hard shot. And hard shot making is important, especially in the playoffs. But, like, I'm like, this is not how consistent good offense is generated. Whatever. He makes himself into a way better playmaker.

He got rid of that tunnel vision stuff. defensively. He is all NBA defense kind of guy. Way better than Marcus Smart who somehow won fucking defensive player of the year from like a straight up like

he ran a defensive player to year Oscars campaign essentially on the media and he won that. But he's a way better defender than Marcus Smart. And I'm like, man like it turned because like the gunner types

are always going to have like a bias against. But he turned himself into a guy who could find people. and a great defensive player, both team and on a ball. So I'm like, man, I'm coming around to this Tatum thing. It's like, Tatum, it's happening. And then this series happened where there were times

where Kavanaughn Luni got switched on him. And I'm just like, look, if you're supposed to be one of the 10 best players in the league, a star slash superstar type of guy, you got to beat Kavanaughan Luni when they single you up on him. and said no help. And this man could not beat Kavana Luni.

He couldn't beat Steph Curry. He could not beat Bialitsa. That was rough. Those are rough possessions. Yeah. It couldn't be Bia Lutza. It's just like... I mean, I think all you need to know about Jason Tatum's finals was he had one dunk in six games, right?

He's just not putting enough pressure on the room. He's not creating his enough shots for himself. I mean, I mentioned Middleton earlier, but his game just reminds me of the Paul George Middleton second guy kind of game where you need somebody else to be absorbing the majority of pressure. And that's not a bad player.

That's a really, really good player. That's an all-star. That's occasionally a first-team all-NBA guy. Like Paul George has been first-team all-MBA. I think Tatum was first team this year. A really good player. It's just not, I think the finals MVP conversation is way overblown,

but it was so obvious that Steph Curry was the best player in the series, win or lose, No matter what. Like, you need a guy of that level to win an NBA championship. And I just don't think Boston has that right now. I mean, he's still 24, Tatum, right? Like, guys go through these, you know, bumps, right?

Kobe's got the airball games. Everybody's got their first time in the playoffs where it's, you know, it doesn't go that well. But the fact that the Celtics have been like at this stage for five years now, four years now, and this was his big coming out party and it went like this. it's just not great. It's not a great look. And I know Boston was beat up.

You know, Marcus Smart looked like one side of his body just wasn't working. Robert Williams, I pray, has not done permanent damage to his knee because he was awesome, like the only center in the Eastern Conference to not get played off the floor. But I just find a weird that we talked about the Celtics having more talent than the warriors when the warriors have Steph Curry and they have Draymond Green who are generational at what they do. And somehow we thought that like a team with some good wings, you know. It was better than that. Why did we think that?

All right. All right. Like, this is turning into like, this is Western Conference exceptionalism here. It was. Like, Sabrina, like, the amount of pleasure and ecstasy that you are feeling, it is ridiculous. I'm watching you talk about the failure of the Celtics and you are beating. and you are beaming. It's, we have to move on

because it's starting to get rated R at this point. The level of pleasure you're feeling. Let's move on to Golden State, though. Because I do want to talk about Steph Clay and Drema, man. My buddies, Sam, Sam Svindiari and Andy Liu, they were the first people to point this out to me.

Of course, they're Warriors fans and homers. But they were like, yo, maybe we need to start thinking about Steph, Clay, and Dre, the way we thought about Timmy, Manu, and Tony Parker. Like, they're just a special group. They're going to adapt. They're going to figure stuff out. They're going to be hardest out to beat pretty much under any scenario. And I was like, God damn, man, that's an app description.

Right down to Steph Curry to me being a model superstar. In the way Tim Duncan was, just like, doesn't complain. takes all the blame, makes no excuses, comes out in his fucking just great, man. Like, I, like, I already, I kind of, I wasn't somebody that needed to be sold on, quote, unquote, Steph legacy, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like, I was already there with stuff,

but like, I've somehow gained a new level of affinity and respect for what the guy does. And these guys blew me away. There were times with, like, Golden State's offense was just nowhere and Clay would come off a screen and you rarely see the two point come off the screen catch and shoot

and Clay would do the I'm doing a curl, we need a bucket I got a little bit of space, boom he would do it two times in a row it's like all right the offenses feels like it's opening up now because now the defense has to respect that action and other things that are opening up

and like all these times were like Clay doesn't look like himself Dreyman's not making a layup. They just, I don't know what to say. Like, they really, they blew me away with this playoff run, man. Yeah, I think the Steph Duncan comparison is just, it's perfect, right? Because of the longevity with the one franchise and the fact that they seem to be egoless superstars, right?

Like Tim Duncan, just letting Tony Parker win finals MVP and not saying a word about it. You know, Steph Curry letting them trade away, Andre Gwadala, so they could bring you know, DeAngel Russell for this big grand plan and, you know, them advocating to keep Avery Bradley instead of Gary Payton too and the front office is just like, no, we're not going to do that. Like, I don't care how much you want to keep Avery Bradley. We're going to keep Gary Payton. And like, can you imagine LeBron, like just not having that kind of influence on those decisions? Like, it's just complete antithesis of the type of superstars there are and stuff, allowing everybody to do their own jobs while he's just incredibly, incredibly good at what he does, just makes him the model citizen for this era of the NBA. Clay, I mean, You mentioned the offense. Like the defense just picked up so much over the last three games, too. I mean, I never expected him to be, you know, an excellent defender post-ACL post-A-L post-Aquillies. But he was fantastic against Jalen Brown in those last couple of games.

He stoned him a few times. Right. And like, yeah, you know, Clay takes a ridiculous number of shots and no person should ever be taking. But he's Clay Thompson. So if he's going to shoot 36% from the series, like that's okay because the shots that he makes are just so freaking demoralizing. And like you said, they just get the warriors back on track when you need to a bucket because he's a tough shot maker.

And again, when that's your number two score, that's fine. It just can't be your number one guy. And then Tremont, I mean, like, how much his mom clowned on him for crying out loud. His mom was like, I don't know what's happening. And then he comes up and makes like multiple three-pointers in the close-out game. Like the start of game five where he was taking the ball to the basket, like on those fake handoffs, which he just hadn't been doing because he was allergic to shooting for the first four games.

That to me was so indicative of the tone changing, like him realizing what he's, had to do just to be respected even a little bit as a score. Just because they're just all so smart. They know exactly what they have to do. I mean, them getting better as the series went along because they were just the more experienced team. They had been in all of these situations before. They're 22 and 2 in playoff series under Steve Kerr.

It's absurd. 22 and 2. Like that's a ridiculous record in like games. It doesn't matter. Katie's been a lot of places. He never went 22. doing playoffs. That's fair.

That's fair. That's fair. That's fair. They just know exactly how to win games over and over again. I just thought it was so beautiful in a way to watch them, just show all of these younger players. Like, no, this is not how it's done. This is not how it's done. This is not how it's.

Yeah. And the Clay Thompson stuff, man, I had Jay King on last week. And he was talking about some of those Jalen Brown defensive possessions, like in crunch time. He was just like, honestly, that's just like championship. Just like, just toughness. Like, nah, man, I'm not going to let you beat me right now. Like, I'm a diminished version of myself, but I'm not letting it happen. And they just had that in spades.

And I'm the kind of person who kind of rose my eyes or I used to anyway. I think I'm getting older and more washed and I'm changing my mind. I'm becoming get off my long guy. But I used to definitely roll my eyes at heart of a champion, blah, blah, blah, blah. Championship medal, blah. I'm like, you got the bad players. You get the best shots. You play the best defense.

You're going to win the championship. Blah, blah, blah. Man, Golden State showed me the other side of that. Like, these guys are just champions, man. Just champions. Just toughness. Just fight. These guys fight.

And it's admirable. and we're going to miss these guys when they're no longer around. So I'm really grateful that we get to watch. When are they going to no longer be around, though, wise? Listen. Look, as great as Golden State is, I don't think they're like appreciably better than everybody else in the NBA, you know, especially when you consider what they were when KD was over there.

Like, they're a great team. They're going to have a say in the championship. next year, but I don't see why they couldn't lose. You know what I mean? And maybe I need to learn to stop doubting these cats because I did pick against, I picked against them against Dallas. Oh, I drank the Dallas Kool-Aid. Look, there's egg on my face.

There's people hitting me in my men. Do you feel stupid yet? Yes, I do. I'm sorry, Golden State. I'm happy for you guys. I just thought that was just an all-timer for Steph Curry and that guy. group and like that series is going to go on all of their reels when it comes to like when it's all said and done about their career that goes from Kerr to Steph to Draymond to Clay even

Iggy um this series is going to be the one where people be like yo this is how we knew this was a different bunch of players um so this is what I love about the NBA Sabrina like the season ends and we go right into NBA draft right into NBA free agency like The season is not over, basically. Things are still left to be settled. I want to get you a little bit of draft, Tate, because you, unlike me, actually watch these scrubs in college. So I do want to get your sense of who your favorite guys are.

And then I do want to spin it forward to the off season just a little bit before I let you go. Because I'll bring you guys behind the curtain. I was late today. I completely fucked up. I'm sorry. Again, Sabrina. Who are your favorite guys in the draft? Is Paolo number one on your big board?

Duky Homer that you are? I mean, I hate to be a cliche, but he is absolutely number one on my big board. But talk about it. Tell me why. I just thought the tournament that he had where he showed that he could basically score any time he wanted to,

no matter the matchup you put on him. I mean, they put the ball in his hands against any kind of defense that they were facing. He's got really good size. I mean, defensively, I'm like, I'm like, sold on what Paolo's going to be at the next level, very clearly a four, not any other position, which you'd want a guy that has a little bit more

versatility in that way. But I'm not sold on the home grin experience yet. You know, like the body just scares me. Wow. Ben Goliver is going to be very disappointed in you, Sabrina. Our buddy Ben Goliver shouts to Ben of the Washington Post. And Jabari Smith, I just don't think he does enough offensively. Like, he's a really good shooter, but I don't know what else he's providing to you on that end. So I just think Paula was so skilled offensively and he can do so many things in the playmaking that we saw from him, especially as a season war on was really impressive. And I like his fit in Orlando so much because they just don't have enough offensively minded players on the magic and put him there with all of these other like long, you know, rangy guys who can cover form defensively. I like the fit. I don't think they're going to pick him, unfortunately. For him to have to go to OKC when he has like the space needle tattooed on his arm or to have to go to Houston where, look, Lord knows what's happening with the Rockets right now, but I would like him on the magic. He's, he's my favorite guy on the board, like, by far. Yeah, so, Palo is actually the only person that I've watched.

Because of me, right? Yes, because of you. You forced me to watch Duke. And you were like, oh, you shouldn't be rooting against him. They have fun players. I'm like, oh, my God. This is one of those things where, like, your friends can talk you into things that you generally would not go for, but okay, I did it.

And I watched them. And the thing about Palo to me. I'm like, I don't know what I'm missing with this kid. He's fucking huge. He is huge. Like, he is going to be able to switch out on fives. He's going to, he's, it's a no-brainer for a man. Like, he is a big ass kid.

And he's very skilled. Like he says, I'm like, all right, NBA size, ridiculous level of skill at his age. I don't, I'm supposed to care about these other kids. I don't even understand that. Like, to me, like, when you can combine his size with his, like, passing ability, you know, like, he can make that obvious pass. But there's times where he's hitting guys, like, passing them open. Like, this is elite level stuff. His handle is tight for his size and his position.

Like, he has elite handle for power forward, period. Elite passing for power forward is a good shooter. He's not, again, he's not Jabari with the, like, you know, basically the. the lights out touch, but he's a good shooter. To me, he's the best guy in the draft. And Orlando would be stupid to pass him up. Look, I was worried about being a homer on Palo, but like our espionagealian guy, Rikio Dono,

who regularly clowns me about Duke and our works lag has been number one on him all year. So I feel better about it. And listen, another thing, I want to see Chet go to Oklahoma because I just think the great white hope potential in that town,

For what I do for work, oh, nah, you can't, you couldn't script a better outcome than that. So I really would like to see Chet go to OKC. And Jabari, like, to me, like, you don't put the ball on the ground. Like, he just, of the little bit that I watched him, he's just like a one-trick pony. And I hate talking about young guys like that, but like, you got to show me something. And the defensive part, you know, you wonder, it's like, is he going to be Ben Simmons or is he going to be like every other guy who's dogged on defensive college and never did anything in the NBA?

Like, you never really know. Like, is he ever going to have that want to on defense? But yeah, I'm with you. I'm big palo. I'm really, really interested to see where he goes. I think this draft is actually going to be really fun to see what teams end up doing. There's a couple of things going into the offseason that I'm really keeping my eye on. It seems like Zach Levine is going to get his fifth year, is going to get his money, hashtag and Clutch We Trust.

I'm really watching, though, the Aitin thing. To me, that's the most interesting story of the offseason because obviously they have the right to bring him back, no matter what deal he goes out there in signs, but he's clearly been wounded by them, clearly it affected his play, and he's an impact player. Like, he's going to make a difference for a team that he plays for.

What's your read on the whole Phoenix Aiton's situation? Yeah, that's like top two of things that I'm looking at this offseason is what happens with DeAndre Aiton, because you cannot let him go. you cannot be a team that claims to be a championship contender and let a guy who is, what is he like, 23 years old who. He looks 40, but he's 20. Sure, sure.

But he, like, dominated in the 2021 postseason. He was truly excellent. You spent a year just kicking him at every way possible, right? They don't hop for them the extension. They just tout how great Javille McGee has been all year and like, oh my God, Bizback Miyama, we saved him, you know, like those are not the things you do when you already have a franchise center there. Monty obviously had those comments

at the end of the Dallas series where he benched him and then said it was internal. I don't know, maybe that was COVID related, who the hell knows, but the fact that they just have gone out of their way not to say anything nice about him makes me think that they're not bringing him back. But again, how can you claim to be playing for an NBA championship when you were willing to let a player of that

caliber go? Because he will be worth his next contract. Like I know the max contract is like a ridiculous amount of money, but he's only a fourth-year guy, right? Like, this is the type of money he should be getting paid 25% of his salary cap. He does things that, like, a lot of centers cannot do. Like, he can punish switches. Like, that is an important thing about 108. That's the biggest thing for a center.

He can punish switches. So, I mean, he's got obviously great big and roll chemistry with Chris Paul. And when you're building a team of the future beyond Chris Paul, you want book, you want eight and you want bridges like that core together. And to think that you can build the future in Phoenix without him is Asinonon. to me. And all of the teams that are interested in getting him, what they're just going to put him in another losing situation again? Like, it's the pistons who want him. I just don't understand why he would want to go anywhere else, one, if he, like, is actually committed to, I don't know,

getting a ring at some point, and why Phoenix is playing this dance with him, like, they're not going to get a discount on him. It's just not happening. Someone is going to sign him to a max contract. Someone's going to do it, right? So either he's getting his money here or elsewhere. So do you want to keep him for as long as possible or do you want to make this as awkward as possible and get another year where he's like pouting the whole way through because we've seen dionne reyton's mood affect his play like that is an absolute thing he is not a guy who was motivated every single night out on the court when he was playing for his extension he played really hard when that money didn't come it wasn't great so i think you need to make him feel valued and they haven't done that so the easiest way to fix

that is just i don't know pay him his money and let's see what happens next year but it's it's so weird to me to think that they would just let him go a number one pick that they took over luca And they would just be like, not. Now, we don't need him because we have Bismack Viamba who can play during the regular season. That doesn't make any sense to me if you're trying to build a winning team. I'm in a loss for why Phoenix to do this. But then again, like Robert Sarver owns this team.

And will he own the team by the time next season starts? Who knows? It's just a whole thing. All right. You said top two. What's the other thing that's intriguing you? I think Miami's going to do something. They've got all of this salary tied up in like Tyler Hero and Duncan Robinson.

I know they don't have like a ton of picks. that they can trade, but they always seem to manage to get things done, you know, just by the fact that people want to come to Miami. Like, if Mitchell is available, if Beal wants to move, like, I just think that they need another guy who can actually score and you can hide people who don't play defense in Miami because, one, I think Spoke can coach a little bit out of them. Like, Duncan Robinson is a better defender than people give him credit for. He just, obviously is not just white. He's just white. That's all it is. He'll attack him because he's white. Yeah. It's not fair. It's not right. But they just need somebody who can score the ball.

next to Jimmy Butler so that Jimmy doesn't have to do everything. So I think Miami's going to make some sort of move to get like a nice high profile score out there. And I mean, I hope it happens because we need better teams coming out of the East was. Oh, my God. Eastern Conference slander. Unbelievable. I'm so happy I let you get your Celtics hate off.

You were very gleeful in doing so. Sabrina, thank you for coming on the show. Obviously, you know, the type of love and respect I got for the work that you do. You're my favorite person to talk to about basketball. Tell the people where they can find you and your excellent work. Tell them about your WNBA coverage coming up. Yeah, most of my work covering the WMBA is at SB Nation. And I also host a show on YouTube called The Step Through about the WMBA.

All right. That was our show. And how you know I love Sabrina. I didn't bring up Russell Westbrook one time today. That's our show. We're going to be switching up the Ringer NBA feed. It's the offseason. Things are going to be changing a little bit, but don't worry.

There's going to be plenty of contact. Excuse me. There's going to be plenty of content. I will be talking to you guys soon. Look out for group chat, real ones, all the difference. The answer, all the different stuff we got for you on the Ringer NBA feed. I will see you guys next time. Peace out.