The Ringer NBA Show - Concern-Trolling Playoff Teams and Just Concerns for the Sixers | Heat Check

Episode Date: April 8, 2019

With the postseason just within grasp, which flaws could haunt playoff-bound teams in the weeks to come (4:50)? And of course, the Philadelphia 76ers generate genuine apprehension from their fan base (34:04). Host: John Gonzalez Guests: Joe House, Dan Pfeiffer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's up, guys, it's Liz Kelly, and welcome to the Ringer Podcast Network. April is a huge month for TV, and starting this weekend, the Recapables feed returns to give you in-depth analysis on your favorite TV shows, including Killing Eve, billions, and many more. There will also be a special pre-capable series on the Recapables feed on the final season of Game of Thrones, where our staff forecasts what will happen every Sunday on the show. So make sure to subscribe now before the premiere of Killing Eve and Game of Thrones on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get. your podcasts. Welcome to Heat Check. I'm your host John Gonzalez. Join as I am every week by our esteemed producer, Isaac. Hey, hey.

Isaac, a lot of tournament stuff over the weekend before we get to the NBA because we started with the tournament last week. I have two things I wanted to talk about. One, our buddies from One Shining podcast, Titus and Tate, did you see that they judged the college slam dunk championship? I did. I did. They were some immaculate tuxedos.

So they wore tuxedos, which bless their hearts. But one of the first scores they threw up because they had to do a score together, one of the first scores they threw up was 69. Of course. They are legends. I recommend you listen to their podcast. The duffel bag boys are out of their heads. They're shouts to Titus and Tate.

It was hilarious to see them do that. The other thing was, is an update from last week's conversation about putting up a go-fund me for Isaac's hair. We wanted to have him cut his hair like Matt Harms. So, Isaac, I actually went and put this whole GoFundMe together, right? I got to the last stage. I got to the last, because people were like, oh, what happened to this thing? Got to the last stage, which was just finding pictures to compare you to side by side. And I had plenty of Matt Harms with his interesting haircut, shall we say.

And then I went to get yours. And every picture of you on the internet is basically the same haircut. So I'm like, I don't know what we're doing here, and I deleted it. You already have his haircut. I have a similar haircut. It's pretty damn close. I faded up. You know, the line is a little different.

It's pretty close. So I was like, I don't know how we're going to raise money for a haircut that's basically the same thing. So Isaac's off the hook. Yes. Thank you. There's your update. I want to thank all of you for listening. Please rate and review us on all of our fantastic NBA shows and pods, if you would be so inclined.

And there's also lots of great content on the ringer. As I mentioned, one shining pod with Titus and Tate has been killing it from the NCAA tournament. You want to check that out. We've got Roger Sherman on, you know, Texas Tech and Virginia and the experiment. Somehow they're in the title game, Isaac. It's going to be an interesting title game on Monday evening. Yeah.

Unfortunately, my Michigan State Spartans are not in the tournament anymore. RIP, we'll play taps for them later. Palo, he's got a piece on how Hardin and Janus have defined the NBA season. And Danny had a very interesting piece as well, Isaac. Do you want to talk about this one? Yeah, so Danny Chow, our esteemed colleague, wrote about one Ralph Lawler, who is retiring after 40 years as the Clippers play-by-play announcer,

and it's an excellent, excellent story that you should all read on the ringer.com. If you're a Clippers fan, grab some tissues and then read it on Ringer.com, because it's a tear-jerker this one. Ralph's a legend. I talked to him a couple of weeks ago when the Paisers were in town,

and he was like, you know, I'm not sure I want to leave right now because the Clippers are playing so well, and he's convinced that with two max slots this off season, that they could be in line to compete in the Western Conference for a long while. Sad to see him go.

He's a legend. Yeah. I'm tearing up right now. How does it speak. So read that one. All right. So it's almost playoff time. God, the season is.

The season is almost over. I'm doing the sign of the crossover here. We've made it, folks. Later on in the show, for not the first time. For the second time, we're going to have Dan Pfeiffer from Pod Save America to talk about his beloved Philadelphia 76ers.

Isaac, we've never talked about the Sixers before. The 109876ers. Nope. Never happened. I had talked to Dan. Dan had done something on the pod, and it made me think of Dan. I'll talk about that later on. But I was like, you know, we should have Dan on to talk about his anxiety pre-postseason.

Because I think Sixers fans last season, super excited about their prospects going to the playoffs. This season, less excited about their way they're playing. So we'll talk to Dan about that. But first, we've got to run down all the other playoff action and how we feel about certain teams going into the postseason. And for that, we need the hottest heat checks in heat check history. Let's bring him in. Boom, Shakalaka. He's heating up.

All right, joining me on the other line, one of our absolute favorites here at Heech, from House of Carbs and Fairway Rowland. He's got the Ernie Grunfeld-sized monkey off his back. It's Joe House. Yeah, what up, Wangan? I texted you after it happened. Now, you were already on Simmons

to delight over Ernie Grunfeld's dismissal after 16th season. So we won't go too deep into this, because I want to talk about the other playoff teams, the other playoff teams. The Wizards aren't a playoff team. team. But I do, however, we would be remiss if we didn't let you address this topic directly to the heat check listeners. So go. Say your peace. Wang Gan, I got to tell you, I remain as discombobulated and disoriented as I was at the moment that this news was received last Tuesday afternoon.

It hasn't been a full week yet for me to process. I've only lived my adult basketball life one way the past 16 years. and that has been under the umbrella of abject mediocrity. I mean, I only know one way. That is trading out of the first round to avoid having the embarrassment of making a misstep with a draft pick, which is a real true feature of the Grunfeld era. Lack of imagination with respect to Euro players. We drafted three in his era in the first round. I guess you would say the best of those three was Kevin Serafin because his,

his career lasted longer than both Jan Veseli and Alexei Peshroff. And I just don't know what to do with myself. Like, what if we got a GM who had a perspective on how to properly draft somebody? Like, what if we got a GM that arrives here and helps deliver some institutional stability such that the team isn't hoping, hoping, that seems like the plan, that its number one draft pick is going to turn into a. leader. Like, we're just going to sort of watch the guy and hope that because he was first overall, he also possesses leadership skills, and we're going to pay him in a way that makes

him the leader, even though he may not really truly be a leader of men. The Celtics are finding out that could be an issue, perhaps, and they may be able to cut bait with Kyrie Irving. But the John Walla leadership experiment hasn't gone great. I just don't know exactly what to do with myself, but it feels like a brand new world. And that's all we can ask for. One step at a time, dare to dream. I'm super excited for you. One quick question before we move on to teams that are going to be in the playoffs.

Haley wrote a piece for us that I thought was interesting. The question that she posits in her story is, what happens to the fire Ernie fans in a post-Earnie world? Who do you blame? Well, whoever arrives is going to have a full two years. Like, it's got to be one of the most attractive jobs in the NBA because... Wait, is that right? Getting right to the heart of you. Well, how about this?

you can't mess up. There's nothing to do wrong. As long as the management, as long as the ownership insists that John Wall stay on the team, stay on the roster, I know for sure that's going to be the case next season because they're going to recoup 80% of the 40 million bucks that they owe him under the insurance contract that the league insists every team have. So they're going to get 80% of $40 million next year. But beyond that, you know, I would think about starting to stretch, but they're in

rebuilding mode. They may try and make the playoffs. next season with some combination of Beal and resigning Portis and resigning Bobby Portis, resigning Sideransky, resigning Thomas Bryant, Dwight Howard's butt should be recovered by then. I mean, they're like, you know, in that zone of eight to 12 in the east. So they may just try and kind of retool on the fly, but no matter what happens, the next GM is not going to be responsible for the next two years. So in that respect, I think it would be a great job.

Come on in. You can't really mess it up. Yeah, I understand your point about whatever GM follows Ernie Grunfeld gets a grace period. There's no doubt about that. I would take umbrage with how attractive the job is because if you end up maxing Beal, which they should, then all of a sudden you're locked into a massive amount of money for two guys, one of whom, as you mentioned, John Wall, you're never getting off that contract. Really rough. I mean, whoever the next GM is, if he can pull one magic trick, if he can somehow get John Wall off that roster,

then all of a sudden it's all gravy. But Godspeed to you and the Wizards, I'm happy that Ernie is gone for you. You were super excited about it. And I have a lot of Wizards fans in my life. I want nice things for them. All right. Thank you. For you, I thought you'd be perfect for this.

So we're almost at the postseason. God bless. And I wanted to go through not all of the playoff teams, but most of the playoff teams, and do our concerned troll index. I will present you with the team and various scenarios. And you'll tell me why you're concerned about that particular team. I can't wait. You know me.

I like nothing better than saying bad things about teams and having their fans come at me with all kinds of stats that prove up what a moron I am. It's perfect for you. It really is. We're going to start. I'm an expert at this. We're going to start in the Western Conference. I'm going to skip the Golden State Warriors.

I'm going to say that I'm not concerned about them and neither are you. Smart. Smart man. All right. So the Denver Nuggets who have been at the top of the Western Conference all season long, all of a sudden are in danger Joe House of losing that two seed. As it stands right now, they could fall to the three. They're going to finish out their season at the Jazz.

and then home against the Timberwolves. The rockets are just a half game behind them. They're going to finish out at the thunder. You know, the Nuggets have been a squarely team for me all season. Are you a believer in them? Well, I'm definitely a believer in the sense that they were poised at the beginning of this season to make a leap. And they did make that leap. And it was exciting and invigorating to have that leap come at a true, you're talking to an old guy here, Wongon, as you know.

Yeah. to see a true throwback player like the Joker, Jokic, who really plays like he's from an era three decades ago. All of those moves that the up and unders, the slow lumbering, you know, he plays a game of angles. He doesn't play a high flying game. But it's so crazy effective. It really suits my mind's eye. So I enjoyed everything that Denver did this year under the leadership of the Joker and his transformational all-end. NBA level performance, I just don't know about them in the playoffs.

I mean, the playoffs in the regular season are two radically different animals. And I applaud Denver for what they've done. I've been completely thrilled by it. But let's look right this second, the two possibilities for them, because this is all still subject to change, right? It is. The two possibilities for them matchup-wise in this first round. Well, there's three possibilities, the spurs, the thunder, or the clippers.

one of those three is going to be who they play. And I don't think the Nuggets want any part of either the Spurs or the Thunder. Now, no offense to ICE, the Clippers are another great regular season story. I'm not that concerned about them in the playoffs. I don't see them advancing. But the Nuggets against the Thunder are the Spurs. Those are tangles. Those are like teams with legit playoff chops with players who have expectations of getting out of the first round.

it's an uphill battle for the nuggets. I, as I've mentioned on this program previously, I really like the nuggets. I love that they're deep. They're interesting. They're fun to watch. Yokic is a marvelous player to put on my television and entertain me. After Yokic, though, I wonder, playoff basketball-wise, which of these guys can and will regularly step up? Because it's one thing to have depth in the regular season to help you.

It's another one you need a bucket late in a game, and they're trying to lock down Yokic. Like, what happens then? So that's my concern. You mentioned the Clippers, as Iceman pointed out on Twitter, bad time for them to lose three straight. They are not playing their optimal basketball right now. I mean, look, they've already so exceeded every single expectation. They made the playoffs against all odds. They have traded their best player two consecutive seasons.

I mean, it's a terrific success story, any which way you want to cut it. Balmer's going to collect those checks for the two home games that they get to host. They're going to be great sell-out. great crowd. I mean, imagine if the Clippers play the Warriors, that old Clippers,

Warriors animosity. None of the players are the same, but Patrick Beverly loves to get in that ass and seeing him up against Steph is going to be glorious. I mean,

hooray to the Clippers. Is it going to be glorious? So I want to bring you in here because the Warriors have been pretty, like not open about it, but kind of open, hinting that like they want the clippers, not because they have,

like, obviously they would end up throttling the clippers. But the reason why they really want the clippers, super short travel for them in the first round, so it's just an easy trip for them. Logistics. Logistics, yeah. Yeah.

It's not great. It's not ideal. It's not what you want. It's both great and ideal. Ice, it's everything. It's great. It's ideal. And it's what you want.

You're in the playoffs and potentially facing the defending champs. What could be better? Is it not, is it not gravy, though, Isaac that you, as House points out that you are in the playoffs, you had a season that exceeded expectations. by any reasonable measure. You traded away your best player and got some picks out of it. Your prime for the off season. If you get bounced in four games, who cares?

Yeah, yeah, no, no. It's absolutely gravy. It's gravy, but, you know, like, this season was supposed to be some kind of audition for the free agents, the marquee free agents that were aiming to get this off season, right? But it feels like this is at the end of the audition, but then, like, you're just failing it?

Yeah, right. You don't hit the right note? Yeah, it's like when a gym, Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. And she can't do the whole stand-up thing. You gotta stick the landing. No, no, no.

You can't stick the landing. Nobody did the clippers a better favor than, I mean, let's just say it. LeBron, not the goat, James. Like, the person whose voice cracked at the end, the one falling down at the stage at the, at the crucial moment, the crucial dramatic moment, it's the ridiculous Lakers and the ridiculous LeBron James. That's a clown show, bro. And his voice cracked in the middle, though. Well, no, no, but look, we're talking about their audition for free agency for this summer.

The Clippers look glorious. The Lakers don't have a coach. Everybody likes to play for Doc Rivers. Doc Rivers is a legit coach of the year candidate this year. I love the Clippers position going into this offseason. I think maybe the problem is that I'm so used to having just deep-rooted cynicism for the Clippers that I'm even turning gravy into a situation that I can sigh about. Dude, gravy is always delicious.

Take it from me. House of carbs. Gravy is always delicious. This is a good point. This is why we have you on the program. Gravy is always delicious. Isaac can enjoy your gravy. All right, other Western conference teams

that I want to run through with you here, House. The Blazers, the Blazers have had a good season again. I thought, like, they were well primed to avenge last season. You know, they're not going to run into Anthony Davis this year. Damien Liller doesn't have to worry about having Drew Holiday play defense on them. With a win or a jazz loss, they get home court advantage in the first round.

They finish out at the Lakers, who have already mailed it in. but CJ, you've got an injury issue there and you're not going to have NERC. I feel bad because Portland, another team that exceeded expectations this season. They got to 50 for the first time in a while, right? It's been a long time since they got to 50 wins.

And they, I think, have their best case scenario in terms of who they're a match up with in this first round. It's pretty much a lock they're playing Utah, right? Correct. So Utah also banged up. Now, the NERC injury is just a bummer. I hate that shit, right? Like, especially right here on the brink of the playoffs,

there's nothing worse than a key element, a key cog in a successful regular season team, right as the playoffs arriving not being available for the playoffs, that just sucks. And Portland deserves better. But I honestly think they're a decent matchup for Utah because of how banged up Utah is. Like, there are only three guys on Utah that aren't hurt or haven't fighting some kind of nagging, injury and it's it's gobert ingless and royce neal everybody else on that team is like taking nights off trying to nurse an injury you know trying to get back to full health so i think out of out of all of the western conference opponents portland might face utah is their best option and especially

because perimeter defense wise utah doesn't have a super record for that and if dame and cj just go off they go off and maybe that's the best case scenario blazers are banged up to This is a series that I really want to see because I have no idea how to handicap this one. Both teams have finished out the season playing really well. Both teams have won eight of their last 10 as we record this. I'm excited to see this series. I have no idea. It wouldn't surprise me either way if one of these teams smacks the other, if it goes the distance,

if it's close the whole way. I have no idea what to make of this series because they're two very different teams. They're both hobbled. I don't know what to expect. I know I'm excited about it. I totally agree with you. Anything feels possible with this thing. Yeah, Utah's been on a super tear since the All-Star break.

Second Press record in the entire NBA. I think they're right there with Houston, in fact. They're right over the brink of hitting that 50 game barometer that's felt like, you know, it was kind of a lock at the beginning of the season. They have to win one of these last two games to hit 50. So another great regular season for them. But I wish everybody was in full health on both teams. before we move to the Eastern Conference,

because a lot of teams over there that I want to talk about, what are your expectations for the Thunder and the Spurs? Any? Well, if the Spurs play the Nuggets, I'm going to sit down and look at the odds and think about putting some wagers on the Spurs to win that series, and I'm also going to put a little taste on

in a certain number of games, like Spurs and Six. I bet there are really good odds for that that our good friends at Westgate are going to put out. So I'll be looking for that quite a lot. but Oklahoma City is a gigantic question mark that comes down to Paul George's shoulder. I mean, it's literally like on his shoulders how they're going to finish out this playoff run. He hasn't looked right since coming back from his injury. And they're currently

lined up to play Houston possibly, you know, in the first round. And if they face Houston in the first round in the first round of the playoffs for the third consecutive year. Yeah, I'm with you. I would bet heavily on the rockets to upend the third. Thunder, but then if all of a sudden it's the Nuggets, then I don't know. I don't know what happens because after 80 games, the Thunder have played 80 games. Some other teams have played 81. After 80 games, I still have no idea what to make of the Thunder. It changes from game to game from week to week.

All right, to the Eastern Conference where there's some similar scenarios there, to talk about teams that I don't know what to make of. Let's start with the Boston Celtics. They're locked into the four seed now. They've got some injuries with Tatum with a shin contusion and Marcus Smart with a strained oblique. After 81 games, what do we know about the Celtics? They don't like Kyrie Irving. Kyrie Irving's not a popular person. That's my number one takeaway. Now, the Celtics have, to their credit, done exactly the thing, the short-term thing that was in front of their nose to

put them in the very best position, which was beat the pasters twice in the last two weeks to ensure that they lock themselves into that four-seed and have home court advantage, which means they are going to beat the Indiana Pacers in the first round of the playoffs. And here's the thing that we know about Kyrie Irving in the playoffs. I said at the outset, the playoffs being a radically different animal, he is a playoff whore. Everything about him, he's a legs spread open for the playoffs. And I just think to hit him on this stage, he'll be wanting to make a point in this

first round. I think they get rid of Indiana without too much heavy lifting. Again, this is not a knock on the Pacers. I've said a couple times on this show how much I admire the season they've had. This is a gravy team. You want to talk about a gravy team. Exactly. And they're all kudos to the institutional integrity of that franchise for taking on a blow like they took on with Oladipo's injury and sustaining, you know, some semblance of performance throughout the balance of the season.

They've hit their ceiling. They're 47 wins right now. They might get to 48. They might get to 49. That's incredible under, oh, no, there are. They can only win one more game. They've played 81. They can only get to, but still, that's incredible, given the injury to Oladipo.

They're going to lose to the Celtics in their first round, and I don't even think it's going to be that close. I want the people of Indiana to hear me here. The rest of the country roots for you. Everybody that's not in New England is now an Indiana Pacers fan. Well, I don't know. I'm not going to go that far. I'm not rooting for Indiana. I have a little taste on the Celtics to win the Eastern Conference.

I forget about your gambling interests. I'm talking about your heart. Inside your heart of hearts. You put the money aside for a second. All right. So some other teams in the Eastern Conference. Congratulations are in order. The Brooklyn Nets and the Orlando Magic have made the playoffs.

Nets missed three seasons of playoff basketball. Magic missed six seasons of playoff basketball. Shouts to Kevin Clark. He's very excited. Are you worried about either of those teams? Do either of those teams look like they could do some damage? Well, I would like to make an observation. Please.

I was on this program maybe three weeks ago. we were sitting there prognosticating on who we anticipated was going to grab the eight seed in the east. And I said probably 17 different terrible things about the Orlando Magic. Yeah. Me too. Since that program, since that program, they have won nine and 11 games. So honestly, I'm still waiting for my thank you basket from Kevin Clark because really all it took was you and I saying a handful of bad things about Orlando. Yeah.

for them to write the ship. And congratulations to them here in the playoffs. They're right now going to play either Toronto or Philadelphia. Both of those are big fat losers for them. There is no scenario under which they're going to be either one of those teams. But they're just happy to be here. Happy to be here. That's fine.

That's an achievement. Congrats. They are extremely happy to be here. Afterwards, every quote from the players and the coach and the fans and the community was effusive. I'm talking about the Orlando. magic. And this is something that the organization has been very upfront about all season long, about how they wanted to end their playoff drought.

They wanted to get back into the postseason. They wanted to simultaneously both develop their young guys and try to win right now. It was important to them. They made it. I still thought, you know, I don't know what the big deal is because I think that you're probably right if they end up playing the Raptors of the Sixers. It's probably a first round bounce. 76ers, they played actually pretty well this season.

I think they split the season series with them to, too. but the Raptors, I think, would be a really bad look for them. But they made it. So they're excited about that. So kudos to them. And you're right, we definitely push them over the line. They won eight of their last 10, and I think that that's no small part to you and I bad-mouthing them.

So we've got seven teams in the Eastern Conference that are locked in. The eighth seat is still up for grabs. The Detroit Pistons have absolutely come apart at the seams. They've lost four straight. They've lost seven of their last 10. They've got Blake Griffin out there on friggin' one leg house. He's got a big bulky knee brace. I was watching that game the other day,

and he was like hobbling around, and he didn't look good. And Dwayne Casey said a bunch of things afterwards, and I want to run this past you. He said, everybody's banged up. And then he said, one of the things I loved about Blake was he was playing on one leg,

diving on the floor. And then he said, Blake can't hurt his knee any worse by playing on it. And I was like, okay, well, you have more medical information than me. And I'm not a doctor, but I'm a little curious about that.

David, I'm not sure about you can't hurt it any worse by playing on your bulky knee. Does that make sense to you? It does not. And it sounds like that's one of those old school tropes. It's what you expect watching Kenny and Chuck and Shaq sitting around with Ernie, back in my day, we have put some tussing on it or spray some windex on it, you know, just get out there and play. That's that old school medical kind of talk. Personally, I'm torn because both Detroit and Charlotte, had individual performances from players that I like quite a bit. I like Kemba and I like Blake, and they both carried those franchises right up to the brink of the playoffs.

And I don't know which of those two I have a preference for in terms of making, you know, filling this eight seed. It's tough. So right now, the Pistons would finish up at home against Memphis, then at New York. If they went out, they're in.

Still alive, the Charlotte Hornets, they finish out at Cleveland. and then they are home against the magic, but they need a ton of help because the other team that's still alive, the heat, they finish out home against Philly and then they're at the Nets.

The heat have lost four straight, including an overtime killer against Toronto in Toronto last night, or yesterday afternoon, rather. The Hornets would need to win out and they'd need some help in terms of losses. The Pistons control their destiny, but they're just like limping literally and figuratively right now.

I don't know which of these three teams I would bet on. because I don't like any of the three of them right now. The Hornets are playing their best basketball late in the season. They've won seven or the last 10. So I guess if you're going to go with the hot hand, it would be them. But again, they don't have those tiebreakers. So you're the betting man. Handicap this for us.

Who would you bet on if you had to right now to take that eight seed? I would bet on Detroit because their destiny is in their own hands in the sense that they went out. They're in. And neither Memphis nor the New York Knicks have any reason whatsoever to win those basketball games. Fair point. that's why I would I would choose Detroit. I just want to do a quick second on the Miami Heat. Please.

The other thing that you and I did when we talked about Orlando is we touted the heat. We touted the institutional, you know, integrity of the Miami Heat. We said, Pat Riley will not indulge his team going on a swoon over the last couple of weeks. They're going to lock in that eight seed and they're going to definitely be in the playoffs and they're going to retool on the fly. How about this? The Miami Heat have quit on. Eric's Bolstra and on Pat Riley and the city of Miami.

They could go suck an egg. Take that, Miami. You know, I'm shocked by it, but there's no other explanation. This level of mediocrity that they've shown over the last two weeks, that's Wizards kind of shit right there. Like, I don't have any good feeling for Miami. I hope they enjoy the 15th pick in the draft and sucking on Hassan Whiteside's contract. I mean, they're stuck.

They're stuck in their F'd. That's, that's, they're in Wizards territory. Welcome to my world. I hope they're very happy with Hassan Whiteside. As this last closing thing here, I'm an Eastern Conference guy, you're an Eastern Conference guy, I can't help it. I realize it's ugly and bad basketball for a while. But I've been sort of entertained by it.

And yet, there's really no defense for this, like, what's happened with this eight-seed here, because there's a very good chance here that whichever teen ends up in the eight-seat doesn't have a winning record. I mean, if it's the Hornets or the Heat, it won't be a winning record. It'll be at best, a losing record. And then with the Pistons at best, it would be a 500. and it's not good. It's not good.

This is the Eastern Conference. Bad look for them. It reaffirms, and I bet we're not that far away from this, that we need to do a 16-team bracket where the divisional performances and the records, the record only matters for the purposes of seating in the 1 through 16 bracket. And we don't play conference versus conference. We just make it a 16-team bracket. that to me is the fairest way to undo the injustice of a team in the East that might make the playoffs with a sub-500 record.

Punish them. Put them up against the Warriors. Well, it would change things, right? Because then teams aren't trying to lose at the end of the season in like a late mini tank. But right now, I mean, the Sacramento Kings are the last team out in the Western Conference. And they've got 39 wins. So that puts them on par with the pistons and the Hornets and the heat. So it's not like there's some great. brave injustice. Isn't that more fair? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, like, I'm all for putting everybody in, you know, taking away the conferences and just playing the best 16 teams. But I'm saying like, it's not like there's a team

in the Western conference that has, say, 46 wins and they're not getting in. It's the same bit. That's right. Yeah, so. All right. So Joe House, I love when you tell us what's wrong with everybody. This was excellent. He's on House of Carbs. He's on Fairway Roll. And it's a great. It's one of your favorite times a year. You've got the Masters coming up. It's a big deal. I mean, look, we've got Fairway Rolling. We're taping today the preview show. We got Fairway Rowland coming out Wednesday. That's your gambling glory show.

We're going to give everybody two or three winners for the Masters. And then a recap show immediately after the green jacket goes on somebody's shoulders Sunday night. And, of course, House of Carbs this week, we're going to do a master's focus. I have a guy coming on from Golf Digest who's going to talk about what your master's sandwich choice says about you. I mean, this is the best time of year. The golf is back. The flowers are out. Everything's good, Wongon.

I'm excited for you. I'm a Pimento cheese sandwich man myself. So I'm looking forward to this. Listen to him on those two podcasts. Joe House, you're the best. We'll talk to you soon in the playoffs. Love you, buddy.

Appreciate it. All right, that was Joe House. Before we go to Dan Fifer, let me tell you about the NBA watch of the night. There are no games on Monday night because there's the NCAA championship. But Tuesday, Isaac, Tuesday, there are a lot of games. There's a double header on T&T. And TNT had decided to go with the Celtics.

at Washington, they chose to air that game instead of Dwayne Wayne's final home game in Miami against the Sixers. Yeah, tough look for TNT, perhaps, but also Dwayne Wade, I feel like I already got his W by all of NBA Twitter dunking on Paul Pierce when he said that he's better than Dwayne Wade in his career. Amazing. What did you think of Paul Pierce being Paul Piers? I mean, like, it was very unsurprising to me that Paul Pierce would support Paul Piers.

because he loves himself more than anybody does. Do you have a stake in that? I mean, like, I think it's Dwayne. But a lot of people made it sound outlandish that Paul Pierce would deign to say that he's in the same company. No, it's not outlandish. Paul Pierce, first of all, played for the Clippers in his late career.

I guess you could say he played, yes. Yeah, that's one mark for him. But in all seriousness, like, they're pretty comparable players. I do think that Dwaywayne Wade has had a better career just by all metrics, just fame standards, by popularity, even like outside of Boston, I would say Dwayne Wade is universally more popular.

And yeah, I feel like that debate isn't really a debate. Yeah, so Dwayne Wade's son dunked all over Paul Pierce, as did the rest of greater social media. And yet, I think TNT wins here for the dunking on contest because they dunked on Dwayne Wade

by picking a Wizards game. I mean, like, if you're Dwayne Wade, it's like, I really do have to retire now. They chose the Wizards over me. Anyway, check out Celtics at Wals. Washington, followed by Rockets at Thunder on TNT, remember gang. If you want to watch every NBA game, subscribe to NBA League Pass on NBA.com or from your preferred video provider. Before we go to Dan Fyfer and we break down everything that worries us about the Philadelphia 76ers heading into the playoffs,

let's take a quick break for a word from our sponsors. Today's episode of He-check is brought to you by Captera. Do you remember 1989? Isaac does not. Isaac was not born yet. I do. I was born. That was the year the World Wide Web was invented.

Well, guess what? We've come a long way since then. So why does it feel like the software you use every day at work is stuck in the past? Take a leap into the future by finding the right software for your business on captera.com. It's the leading free online resource to help you find the best software solution for your business. With over 700,000 reviews of products from real software users, CAPTERRA has everything you need to make an informed decision. Search more than 700 specific categories of software from project management to email marketing. No matter.

what your business needs, Captera makes it easy to discover the solution fast. Now, I don't have a business. I work at a business. But where to have my own business, I would want to find the right software. How would I do that? How would I go about finding the right software solutions from my business? I'd go to Captera. They got it locked down.

I'd visit captera.com slash NBA for free. I could do that today to find the right tools to make 2019 the year for my business. You should do it for your business. Captera.com slash NBA. That's Captera. C-A-T-E-R-A.com slash MBA. All right, joining me on the other line from Pod Save America, an author of Yes, we Still Can.

It's Dan Fifer. What's up, Dan? Hey, man, how you doing? So I was listening to Pod Save America, and you had a very funny line about how the bar memo on the Mueller report was like the Sixers prematurely firing off the confetti cannon in the playoffs last year and then losing to the Celtics, which was both... Yeah, it's a very esoteric reference and only a few.

people outside of Sixers fans get. Oh, it hit the sweet spot for me. And it was both hilarious and painful. So I immediately hit you up and we were sort of going back and forth. And this led us to a conversation about everything that's wrong with the Sixers, which was a very Philadelphia conversation. It's perfect for this podcast because we were just concerned trolling all the other teams. It feels different this year, doesn't it?

Because last year, the Sixers was like, we're winning towards the end of the season, and they wanted the playoffs on a role. And it had stopped all those seasons of protracted losing. And this year, the order is just sort of reversed. The Sixers, the record's about the same, but it doesn't feel as momentous. And I don't think the overall feeling for Sixers fans and certainly maybe specifically for you is as positive. Yeah, I was trying to think about the last time a Sixers team had expectations and pressure on it, where there was a world in which you could actually be disappointed.

Because if you go all the way back to the Iverson, take the team to the final season back in 01, even that whole thing felt like just this huge gift because right prior to that season, it felt like the whole Iverson experience was going off the rails and he would be off the team or out of the league or Larry Brown would be gone. And somehow this whole amazing season happened. Even when we lost to the Lakers in the finals that year, it still felt great. This year just feels different because it feels every day like there are all these expectations on the team.

Yet those expectations seem to being set by people. who don't watch the team, they just look at the roster and see Jewel Embedde, Ben Simmons, Tobias Harris, JJ Reddick, and Jimmy Butler, you're like, how can this team not at least go to the conference finals? But if you watch them every night, as we do, you see that that seems to be a very hard to imagine outcome, or at least you see a lot of ways in which they could end up falling short, I guess, be the right way to say it. Yeah, I think that's right.

And it's just weird because they've won 50 games in back-to-back seasons, which you would think, like, would make everybody in Philadelphia ecstatic. And yet, they had a three-game losing streak until they won by beating the Bulls, which the Bulls are trying to lose. And they put out one of the worst lineups that game I've ever seen. Jakar Samson, the revenge game, Jakar played well. But before that, they lost to the Hawks. And they lost to the Bucks in a game where I had said to you, man, they had control of that. And then it just deteriorated completely out of nowhere.

And the Bucks ended up winning that game. And your response was, I'm very worried about them. This is, I'm revealing our DM. I'm very worried about them. I'd be shocked if they made. out of the second round. That game, I both take a little bit with a grand assault because Jimmy Butler wasn't playing. Now, the Bucks also were missing half their team and lost Derek Bledsoe early in the game. But it did reveal this problem with the Sixers ever since Jimmy Butler

came, which is they've decided that the only way to play down the stretch in a close game is to play ISO ball with Jimmy and move everyone else out of the way. And they didn't have Jimmy. So they decided to do that same play with Tobias Harris, and he became the point card. And it's just very worrisome that there's not, I mean, it sort of bespeaks the larger challenge with the Sixers, is that you're just like constantly looking for creative offense, creative schemes to take advantage of the massive amount of talent they have. And at the end of the game, it's just like, we're going to give it to one guy and have them go one-on-one, or we're going to pass it to well and beat and do nothing else and let them double team him or have him sort of dribble onto

the baseline. And so it's like it is concerning. It's been a long time since they've had a good win. The last good win I was looking at the schedule was that first Bucks game in Milwaukee a few weeks ago. Because even that was a good win, even the game against the Celtics that they won, they really kind of stole that game and it required Jimmy to to make a falling down, save the game shot at the end of the shot clock after an absolute disastrous possession and was the only way they won. And so it's been a long time so they've had a good game and they've had a lot of bad ones in the interim. Yeah, and that's been the case a couple of times this season where Jimmy Butler's won games that you would expect that they would have otherwise lost with some sort of crazy circus shot.

I was there and for a couple of them early on when they first acquired him. But I want to run down, you sent me, dispatched me a list of worries. Per your phrase, worry about everything, panic about nothing. You have a lot of worries. Yes, I do. You outlined, you said, Ben worries me. Jimmy worries me. J.J.

getting picked on at the end of game. games worries me. Joel's weird load management thing and conditioning worries me. I agree with you. I would add to that they have a zillion centers that they've signed, including Greg Monroe, who they can't play in the playoffs. I mean,

I don't know what they're going to do with this. Did you see that 26 different players have appeared in a game for the Sixers this season, which is a franchise record? Yeah, which is amazing considering the process years. Yeah, it really is.

The year we're supposed to be contenders, we have so many players. I think in some ways, I worry about all those things. I can talk about those worries. I think in the defense of the Sixers, like Brett has had three teams this year, right? He's had essentially a new team at the beginning of the year

because of the loss of Ilyasova and Bellinelli. So it was just basically Ben and Joelle and JJ and a bunch of other guys. Then you have the Jimmy team. Then you have the Post-Dobias team. And they've had, and there's been some really positive things. Like the bench post-Dobias trade, I think, is much better. And Mike Scott has been a revelation for this team,

something we've needed. But because of injuries, because of Joel's situation, Jimmy's had a lot of injuries, there's been very few minutes of sort of the top seven to nine guys who would theoretically make up a playoff rotation playing together. And so it's just a bit of a mess. And now who knew that James Ennis was the keystone

to the whole lineup? Because once he went out, all of a sudden it's like, Sheikh Milton is playing, Zaire Smith is playing, which is great. But neither of them. them are going to get any time in the playoffs. And so it's felt like they've been mailing it in down the stretch once they sort of locked themselves in to the three seed.

If you want to talk about worries, you right then going, the keys are Mike Scott and James Ennis. Like now all of a sudden, I'm very concerned because if that's the case, things have gone terribly awry. Before we get into the bench, because I do want to get into the bench. And like, I like their first five. But after that, I would disagree with you in that, like, the bench worries the hell out of me.

I look at that bench and I think they're just so thin and I don't know where they're going to get minutes and steal minutes in the playoffs with some of these guys. But you make a really good point about Brett Brown. You, I'm sure, know better than most people as a Sixers fan that the coach in Philly always gets heat when they lose and gets zero credit when they win. And Brett is no exception.

In fact, he might even be the rule. Like, whenever they lose, he takes all the heat. And I always look at it and go, what did you expect him to do with this group that won, as you mentioned, has been a rotating cast of characters after their main guys. And two, none of these guys have really been,

in addition to not having actual unit cohesion, none of these extra superfluous pieces have been quality players. I mean, like, you can't ring something out of nothing. Right. I think that there are,

like if you were to talk about Brett, like what's good and what's bad about Brett, is he is a great coach in the most traditional sense of what a coach is, which he builds a culture, he manages the personalities. And we should,

didn't diminish what he has done to just sort of keep together this team. Like, there's only one other coach who's playing four max-level players on his team at one time, and that's Steve Kerr. And so the fact that Brett Brown has allowed them to be successful with this situation, this transition speaks to sort of, like his foundational abilities as a coach. You do worry, I mean, at least I do worry, about the creativity in some of the offensive stuff. Right. Like, he's definitely hampered.

These team makes almost no sense. on paper other than this idea that you're just going to put the most talented group of players you possibly can together and let them figure it out, which I mean has worked in NBA history, but it's hard. And you do worry the end of games. And I think that's, you know, maybe 30% Brent and 70% the players just having mental meltdowns at the end of games. But the end of game situations are disastrous. And a lot of times they win anyway because Jimmy makes a crazy shot or the other team just makes a bunch of mistakes. But it's never really. pretty, it's never solid execution at the end of a game.

And that has to be somewhat on Brett. But I hear all the time, the ringer is a, other than yourself and maybe Chris, sort of is an anti-Brette Brown super pack. Yes. But people say that all the time. But I do ask, like, who is the coach they're going to get who is going to be better than Brett? Right.

It's like, yes, if Popovich wanted to come, we take them. If Spolstra wanted to come, that would be interesting. But the NBA is a wash in a flood of mediocre coaches. And I think Brett is in the upper tier of coaches. He's just not the best coach in the history of the NBA. But I don't know who you're trading him for, right? This is an excellent point. Like, how many more wins are you getting with a different coach than you are getting with Brett Brown?

And I will stipulate that I am very protective of Brett. I like him as a human being. He's just a good dude. He's great, yes. Yeah. And I've been around him a lot. And, like, I will 1,000 percent say that I am. not an objective observer on this.

However, all the points that you just made are correct to me and also the roster construction of which I will say that he must have had a hand, of course, because he's tight with Elton and he's the reason why Elton got that gig. Yes, and the ringer got rid of the Sixers general manager. Yeah, I tried to track. I'm working on a piece for later in the week that I don't want to tip too much on, but I have tried recently to track down Brian Colangelo,

and he's gone to ground. Yeah, I imagine. Yeah. So this team, though, after the first five guys, worries the hell out of me because they bring in Greg Monro. And I guess any time you can get a fourth center that you can't play in the playoffs, you've got to do it. But I'm not sure exactly what Greg Monroe brings that Amir Johnson doesn't. After, you know, say Mike Scott and James Ennis, as you mentioned, who will have to play significant minutes, you've got Jonah Bolden, you've got Bobie.

I mean, TJ has settled into his TJ role. You know, he had some rough patches there. I think we know what we're going to get out of TJ. There's not a lot that I think you can ring out of, say, a shake Milton or like, how many minutes would you feel comfortable giving to Zaire Smith who just returned to the team and hasn't played most of the season? Jonathan Simmons has been a disaster for them. There's not a lot here for them to get creative with in the playoffs. I mean, when you look at the rest of the East, with the exception probably of, I think the Celtics and the Raptors,

the rest of the East has miserable bench. I mean, the people who were coming off the bench from Milwaukee in that game this past weekend were a disaster as well. Look, I think Mike Scott has been very good. He has won games for them. He has been the 3-and-D guy they've been looking for for a long time. I can see a world where, again, some teams, including maybe the Celtics down the stretch, Mike Scott is playing instead of JJ with the rest of the starting five because he can D up a little bit better. I think there is some value in the N.S. Simmons, Mike Scott group is just you have this revolving group of guys who can play D, who are big enough to play, who are quasi-switchable, that you can sort of test out and see who's hot and who's not. The part about the Monroe signing that bothers me is more that I think Justin Patton was an asset that could have been used down the line.

because the advantage of the patent is he's basically never played, so therefore people can project good things on him. And so just getting rid of him in order to sign Greg Monroe for whatever it is, three regular season games and a couple of playoffs series seems not great. I do think Greg Monroe can play down the stretch against both the Celtics. You remember Greg Monroe destroyed us in the playoffs last year when he was a Celtic. I think he can play against the Celtics if were we to go that far, presuming the Celtics to go that far, in a Baines-Horford line.

up. I think Monroe can also play when Gasol's on the floor. So, I think he has some utility. He's also something you can try out who can score and he can pass. And I'm Greg Monroe biased as a George Johnson ticket holder during the two very exciting Greg Monroe years. But I think he, like,

Amir is a disaster in the playoffs. I think Greg Monroe at least gives you offense. Amir's only ability to score is like one put back dunk a game where he reminds us he can still jump. And the rest of it's sort of a mess. And Monroe can, he's like, it's fine.

I don't think it's the end of the world. I don't think it's the difference between success and failure, but I mean, it's fine. The things that are worried, like in the list of worries, just Ben's passivity of the last few games is just, that worries me. Like, he just, he seems to have regressed since the All-Star break, and I'm not entirely sure why.

And maybe it's having Tobias here, which should be helpful to him. Maybe he should be playing more with the second team, with a stagger situation where he can get up and down running. But it's been, messy. Yeah, I'm a little worried about that for the playoffs. I mean, there's no doubt about it. We saw in the playoffs last year, everybody knows playoff basketball is different and you're going to key on certain guys and get different looks. And it's a lot harder to score. And like, they

sagged off him so much last season. And, you know, like, Shoot a 3, Hugh Coward was born. And like, I don't know. I'm worried about him. But for me, the main concern, my main worry is definitely the bench. And like, last year, all the pro-Colangelo stands to the extent that there were any, were giving him so much credit for Marco and Erson and hand-wringing about how you could possibly replace them. And I was one of those people that completely dismissed it and said that Marco and Ersan are at best like replacement level players and it's not that big a deal. Now all of a sudden I'm looking at it going James Edison, Mike Scott, are your first two guys off the bench. Maybe it was a bigger deal that I gave a credit for. But we'll see. It's definitely

going to be, it's going to be a thing, like to see how Breck can squeeze minutes out of it. I will say one of the other things that you said in our conversation before we did the podcast, You said, at least they won't be playing the Celtics in the first round, which has been my nightmare scenario since before the All-Star break. That is true. They are locked into the three seed. At present, we're looking at either the nets. I'm saying we as in the greater basketball community.

I'm not counting myself among the Philadelphia 76ers. I don't do the we thing. The Philadelphia 76ers are looking at playing either the Brooklyn Nets or the Orlando Magic in the first round. Do you have a preference? The Magic. Yeah, I think I'd probably go to the Magic, too. I feel pretty good about both of those teams.

There is such a drop-off between five and eight in the east. I mean, even the Pacers, Sons, Oladipo are still pretty good and have some good players. And I actually think they match up pretty well with the Sixers with some real size. But six, seven, eight are pretty bad. But, you know, objectively bad teams. The Nets, the DeAngelo Russell problem. The Guard problem. Because like, if you want to make an All-Star team and you're under six-foot-five, play the Sixers.

because whether it's Kemba, Trey Young, DeAngelo, Russell, unfortunately, Kyrie Irving, we have no one to cover them. No. It's absolute disaster. But every time the Sixers play the Nets over the last two years,

the Nets have won some sneaky games against the Sixers, but I just see Joelle Embed and he looks at Jared Allen, like a cartoon character, looks at another cartoon character, and sees a steak. He's just, like, drooling. Yeah.

I mean, he's just so, like, they have no answer for Embedd. The magic are a disaster and a whole host of ways, even though Voochovich would be in the Hall of Fame, where he only to be the games he played against the Sixers,

but I think they're pretty hard. I take either one. Either one is fine. As long as it's not the Celtics, because we're terrible against the Celtics, they have our number. Like, if we went down, if the Sixers went down,

like, eight nothing in game one, it would basically be over and it would be a meltdown. When the Sixers were playing the Celtics, whatever that was, a few weeks ago, in Philly, and they were just getting destroyed. I looked at my wife and said, oh, I'm going to have to not listen to a ringer podcast for a week now.

She was like, what is wrong with you? And I was like, I just can't. I can't just hear everyone say, tell me what is actually true. It's not an incorrect analysis, but just the stomping on the graves of the sixers after a Celtics loss would be more than I can. So now, if we play the Celtics, it will apparently be, in the Eastern Conference finals, which seems better. Do you have a preference between, were we to make out the first round,

between the Bucks or the Raptors? Tough one, probably the Bucks. I think that the Raptors are deeper. They're more of a unit. They're playing really well right now. Not to say that the Bucks aren't they both won seven of the last 10. I just think that the Sixers have played better against the Bucks, you know, anecdotally watching them.

I like the matchups. And they had that game. They had that game the other day. And then it just frigging deteriorated. So I think I'd rather have the Bucks, they get to the second round. What do you think? Yeah, I agree. I agree with that. I think the Raptors are really good. And Gasol has been a problem and the few times he's played in Bede. The Raptors just have a lot of options. If I, I don't bet on sports, but if I were looking for odds, and I don't

bet, and I wouldn't bet on my own team, but the Celtics are the team that I think had, Celtics are either going to lose in the first round to Indiana or they're going to go to the NBA finals, I think. I was just talking to House about this. Like, they've played 81 games. I have no idea. what to make of them. I don't know what they are. I don't know what they can do. I don't know if they're a good team or a bad team or if they're at each other's throats or if they figured it all out. It all changes from week to week. That's kind of the fun of the Eastern Conference because I really don't know what to make of it. And to the first round matchup with the Sixers, like, I'm sort of torn on it between the Nets and the Magic.

The Magic have played the Sixers surprisingly well this year. I think that they split the season series. You mentioned the guard issue with the Nets. The Sixers can't stop small guards, speedy guards. And they've got two of them, not just in DeAngelo Russell, but also in Spencer Dinwiddie. And like that makes me a little nervous. But storyline-wise, like, I like the idea of the Sixers, Brooklyn, New York, Philly, like, corridor matchup. But then you also have Sixers Magic would be interesting

because you'd have Markle Fultz rooting real hard from the bench and MCW, which is amazing. So storyline-wise, I think either of those would be fun. But I guess I'd rather have the magic, I guess. Tough call. Yeah, I think that's, there's no All-Stars on the Magic. and DeAngelo Russell is a legit guy who can steal a game. I'm not sure there's anyone who on their own can steal a game from the Sixers on the Magic.

Well, I mean, we could still lose, but for sure. We bought a couple games, including that famous first Jimmy game that they lost. But either one is fine. I have been staring, like every day for months, I've been looking at the numbers to see how, at looking at the standings and see where the Sixers were going to fall, this is the Celtics. I just knew it was going to be four or five. and that was going to be too painful

because they were almost certainly going to lose to the Celtics in the first round. And so I'm just glad to have them and the other side of the bracket. Oh, 1,000%. That would have been the end of the ringer. A 4-5 first round matchup, as you mentioned,

like you would have had to tune out the Ringer podcast for a week. Here, like, I can't do that because we still have a Slack channel. And for example, like, anything Boston related is madness. But even Kevin Clark and his Orlando Magic, he was talking shit when they made the playoffs last night

saying that he's hoping he gets the Sixers because he's confident that they would get a win. And he's a magic fan. Now, imagine how it would be with the Celtics and the Sixers in the first round. Unbearable. Oh, yeah, that would be brutal. I have some Nets fans in my life. They're not super obnoxious, like the Celtics fans in my life.

So that would be, I know no magic fans. I've never, the only magic fan I've ever even heard of is Kevin Clark. So in that sense, in a worst case scenario where the Sixers played the magic and lost, there would be no one I know heck like me. So I guess maybe I should pick the magic then. The best, the best that we could do. All right, before I let you go, because you're a very busy man, give me a prediction. I don't bet either.

I learned a long time I've said this before on the podcast. I've covered sports for long enough to know that I am terrible at forecasting what's going to happen. So you do it for me. What do you think's going to happen with the Sixers? I think they're going to go to the second round and hopefully take Toronto to six. I think that's the likely scenario. Yeah, I think you're probably right. I mean, Toronto's just really good and they're really good at home.

And we haven't beaten a full Toronto team this year, I don't think, or even come really close. This kind of run us out of the gym every – they've run the six out of the gym every time they've played them. So there's not a lot of hope – or there's not a lot of that's happened this year that suggests they're going to do well there. But I also like to live on the dark side and lower expectations. This has been the effect that 2016 has had on my life. So this way I can – if the Sixers don't go very far, then at least will comfort myself with the correctness of my prediction. and if they go very far, I will forget I ever made this prediction. Pleasantly surprised, and I never said anything.

Yeah, not just 2016, but my experience is a Philadelphia, and I'm with you. Lower the bar as far as possible. He's Dan Pfeiffer, go get his book. It's author of Yes, We Still Can, and you can also hear him on Pod Save America every Thursday. Dan, thank you. We'll have you back in the playoffs. We'll talk about the Sixers. Sounds good.

That was Dan Pfeiffer. I want to thank Dan Pfeiffer. He was awesome. House was House per usual. We love him. Isaac Lee on the On the Ons and Two is producing the show. Thank you so much. And I want to thank you guys.

Please rate and review us on iTunes if you would be so inclined. Read all of our content on the ringer.com. And don't forget, you get the mismatch on Tuesdays. You get group chat on Thursdays. You get corner three on Fridays. The playoffs are here, people. We will be back on Monday to break down the playoffs. For Isaac, I'm Guns.

Thanks for listening. See you next week.