The Ringer NBA Show - Jazz Strike Down Thunder, LeBron Carries Cavs, and Rockets Back on Course | Group Chat (Ep. 251)

Episode Date: April 19, 2018

The Ringer’s Chris Ryan and Justin Verrier are joined by Kevin O’Connor, Jason Concepcion, and Paolo Uggetti to react to the night’s triple-header action and assess the state of the playoffs thus far. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today's episode of the Ringer NBA show Group Chat is brought to you by Seekkeek. Seekek is the best app for buying and selling tickets to sporting events, concerts, and more. For $20 off, your first Seatgeek purchase on any gamer sporting event, all you have to use is promo code Ringer NBA. Download the Seatkeek app or go right to seekgeek.com. What's up, everyone? This is Chris Ryan. I'm an editor at Theringer.com. If you're listening to this on Thursday, what you're about to hear is a live broadcast of a show we did last night, after the TNT triple header.

We're going to be doing more of these Wednesday night live shows as we go forward. So check for group chat late Wednesday night, early Thursday morning. Keep your eyes peeled for these throughout the playoffs. On this show, we talked a lot about Donovan Mitchell. We talked a lot about the Pelicans and how real they are. We talked a lot about the Blazers and what frauds they are. We talked about Mello, and we talked about who should coach the Nix because you can't leave the NICS alone.

Without further ado, it's group chat. Basketball is very good OkayC would make the finals in the east Ben Simmons doesn't need a jumper Terry Rozier is more clutch than Kyrie basketball is very good Hello and welcome to NBA group chat live The podcast for the eye test

I'm joined as always by Justin Verrier and today we have two special guests Kevin O'Connor and Jason Concepcion It's the playoffs. Every Possession matters, Justin. Don't forget about our friends in the back here. What's up? Palo's back here. He's going to be hitting us up with some social questions. Keith's back there. Mining

Bitcoin. He's mining Bitcoins. It's been a long night with this Houston, Minnesota game. We've been kind of, we've been mining our own bitcoins trying to get through it. That series is over, by the way. And we're going to get to that. But first, we want to get to the big game of the night. And I don't know if

you would even call it surprise at this point that Utah was able to pick one off in in Oklahoma City. But we were We've basically been kicking this around for a while now. Is Donovan Mitchell at this point more valuable than the OKC3? Playoff P, playoff Mello, playoff Russ. Mitchell ends the night with 28 and 6. For what it's worth, I thought Russ was more efficient than Mitchell, but I guess the narrative machine is going to say what it's going to say.

Guys, what did you think of Utah's performance tonight, Justin? You know, were you surprised that they were able to get one and that they're going to go back to Utah with the split? No, I mean, a lot of these teams in the bottom half of the West, are just really evenly matched. We look at even the Blazers and the Pelicans. We say, what a surprise that the Pelicans are up to O in that series. But a lot of these teams are like, what, one game apart, if that? And I think you saw that here.

Stephen Adams has a little bit of an injury, and all of a sudden, the Jazz are just able to take advantage. Mitchell was great, and so it was like, Gobert. Yeah, Carmelo, Anthony, Paul George, and Russell Westbrook were 0 for 14 in the fourth quarter. That's tough. Yeah, that's from Fred Katz. The Jazz won 102-95. And, you know, Kevin, do you feel like...

Is home court shakier this season? Is it my imagination? I'm not like getting the feeling like people are in, these teams are in caldrons and that there's no chance for them to get out. I think these teams are evenly matched in a lot of ways. It's really strong matchups. So you have a guy like Mitchell who's, granted he's a rookie, but they're putting Paul George on him in that second half

and he's still getting buckets, still creating space. So it's like home court, how valuable is it when you have great players going against other great players? Mitchell was already one of the games better players, period, not just young players in the league. He's someone that gives Utah a chance to win games. So beyond just like the standings are almost equal, you're saying that these specific matchups are actually pretty... Yeah, well, I mean, like think about the West. Yeah. It was like two games of separation between three and nine.

Yeah. So like Portland was a three seed. Yeah. But who cares? Right. There wasn't much of a difference from every other team. No, it's Houston and Golden State and that it's everybody else. Did you leave this game thinking, OKC, just don't.

does not have it this year, there's just something wrong with the way Presti put the team together. Or after Robertson's out, there's just nothing that they don't have enough perimeter defense to stop these guys. They just don't really have the horses to put in a dominating performance. And I think to your point about home court, I also think we're not at the point in the playoffs where the intensity has gotten to that level of the refs letting physicality go and it's getting chippy. So you don't really see that thing where the crowd is just hanging on every possessive. yet. But I agree with Justin KOC. These teams are just evenly matched. They're strong at the same places and it's just going to be a trading punch at situation a lot of the series. One thing that's

been interesting over the last couple of seasons, especially post-Durant with OKC, is that I think when it was Durant and Westbrook, the scrutiny was on the bottom half of the roster, right? Like the non-elite players on the roster. And post-Durant, all the scrutiny's on Russ. I think his MVP award actually in retrospect is probably bad for his legacy or for his, the way we perceive him, it's like if he hadn't won the MVP,

it would have just been an insanely heroic season that didn't ultimately amount to anything. And now this season, it's almost as if he's like defending that MVP award, trying to justify it against Hardin, who's now going to like win this runaway MVP award. But watching this series, I thought

Russ actually, relatively for Russ, played within himself tonight. But we're now way more, we're way harder on those top three guys at OKC than we are on the Jeremy Grants, the Ray Felton's, the Abrinas. You know what I'm saying? Well, let me try this takeout on you real quick. Sure. Russell Westbrook, underrated. He's been good in the back half of the season. And you look at him in these past two games, he's probably their most consistent player. I mean, Paul George had the first game where he went off. He was at 30 whatever in the third quarter, I believe.

Yeah. But like in this game wasn't to that level and Mello, the guy who's taking shots as if he were one of those guys, still not good. I don't know if you've heard this, Chris. Carmel Anthony, not good. I think to that point, it's fair to criticize those top three guys because they gave up all those good backups for those guys. One of those guys is dominating right now in the playoffs in Victor Oladipo. Right.

So they exchanged those quality role players for the stars. They were supposed to elevate them, and yet they haven't at all. Mellow especially tonight. Just really embarrassing. I'm just going to pull you up on this a little bit because this is. something you write about so much, which is just how much context matters to some of these performances. Before we went on, we were talking so much about, oh, the Knicks could have had Donovan Mitchell, so-and-Mitchell, so-and-Mitchell, so-and-so couldn't have Donovan Mitchell. Donovan Mitchell might not have been

Donovan Mitchell if some of the injuries didn't go the way that they went on, and if Hayward hadn't left. You know what I mean? Donovan Mitchell was an additive thing that they were going to have this season, and he turns out to be the engine of the jazz offense. I mean, these things changed just because of, like, these little things that we don't even understand. Get this Knicks should have had Donovan Mitchell narrate. about him. There's like six to eight other teams that could have taken him. Where did we start with Dennis Smith?

Right. And then all of a sudden it's over. But then wait, he actually is terror. It's not a good shooter. Let's like push him aside. Donovan Mitchell's worth. We had Mitchell going to the Knicks in the ringer NBA draft guy mock drafts. Every mock draft was like, can Donovan Mitchell score at the NBA level? He's got the physical tools to be a defender, but is he

a top level score? And now it's like, oh, Donovan Mitchell is he Duane Wade with a jumper? For sure. I never knew who he was. In context matters, because people can say the Hornets, if they drafted Mitchell instead of Monk, everything would be different. But maybe Mitchell would have been on the bench the entire year, and Monk would have been the guy having a really good rookie season for Utah. We'll find out next season when those guys actually wind up playing a little bit. By the way, if you guys want to jump in on the conversation, hashtag ringer NBA, if you have questions, if you have constructive feedback, comments, any Donovan Mitchell mock drafts you want to revisit.

Bitcoin mining strategies. Bitcoin mining strategies. We're trying to get to the bottom of that. Jacob Kinard said, who would you rather have complimenting your star player in the playoffs? Drew and playoff Rondo from the Pelicans? Or Mello and Playoff P? Oh, man.

Well, Mello. Please, Jason. That's a zero. Or a negative. I mean, Mello, I think I saw a stat that someone tweeted that he's nine of his last 41 threes. He has never been a good defender. And now he's physically washed, I think we can say. I think you can say that, Jason, yes.

Paul George, obviously, still an elite perimeter defender. So that kind of cancels each other out. But he's not an every night offensively dominant on an every night basis anymore. Yeah, he just can't do that. I think he's a little, he's not streaky, but I just feel like he can have that 30-point playoff performance, and then he can kind of just kind of get swallowed up by the flow of the game sometimes. Well, that's kind of like the structural weakness of the big three, OKC's big three structures. Mello is not a big anything.

Paul George is not consistent. Paul George is not consistent enough to carry a team offensively on a night-to-night basis. And, you know, Russ is Russ, but that's so it's like a big two and a third. And that was the issue with George in Indiana, too. Yeah. Right? It's not just here when he has two other guys that are trying to lean on. In Indiana, when he was the only guy and theoretically could have been getting 20 plus shots of game,

scoring 30 points per game. Yeah. He still didn't take on that load. Always left you wanting more with the Pacers. And now he's still, you still need. more from him. Yeah, and they don't have a point guard. They don't have the Chris Paul point guard who's going to sit back in second gear for three quarters. Right. And then if they need him going to overdrive in the fourth,

Powell, you have, was there something about playoff P you want to drop on us? Yeah, so post-game, somebody asked Paul George if he had pressure to perform to his playoff P billing. Uh-huh. And he said, he said, it's not like it's a name I'm trying to live up to. Yes. Then Mello, Mello next to him goes, you can't give it back now. Mellow. Let's just a good point. I want to break this down for a second. You can't, yeah.

You can't disown the name you give yourself. So Mello is right. Yes. Second of all. Yes. Are they taking this loss quite seriously enough if they're getting into a semantic debate about Playoff P? Who said Playoff P? Does somebody say Playoff B?

Was that me? Hold on, shut up. For creating an entire week's worth of news? Yes. Just by calling himself something that nobody else in the world has ever called him. He gave us good headlines, for sure. We're going to talk more about the other games from tonight. We had the Cavs tying up the series with the indie,

and obviously the Rockets, annihilating the wolves. But I want to also open up the conversation to the playoffs in whole. So let's talk about winners and losers for the playoffs so far. And Justin, as a sort of New Orleans expat, spirit of the Tremay, just constantly following around, what do you think about Drew Holiday so far? Because he's obviously been a winner. Is he the playoff MVP right now, the front runner for it?

Because he's been the best player on the court. The best two-way player in basketball. 100%. And obviously Anthony Davis, just by being there and being so good, opens up a lot for those guys. But what he's done, not only in the offense event, I believe he had 33 points in the last game, which is just incredible for Drew,

a guy who has gotten his 20 from time to time, but isn't that level of score so often. Yeah. But the defense he's playing basically shutting down, Damien Ler. Against the, at least one of, if he's not on McCollum, he's on Lillard, the two best players on Portland. He's exposing. Yeah.

And it's not just man defense. It's the timeliness with some of the plays he made. Like in game one, that last minute, some of the plays he made, deflection, the block, the stamp. The block is one of the best plays of the playoffs. Unbelievable. They actually did what I was hoping a couple, like Indy would do. I mean, I think Indy did press Cleveland a little bit tonight. But New Orleans, like, they got that first game in Portland.

And they're like, House money. Like, it's up to Portland. to defend home court now. We can get really aggressive. We can get after it. And Portland kind of quaked a little bit. So, I mean, I was wondering, when Portland goes to New Orleans, is that going to feel like a road game? Is like a playoff New Orleans crowd going to show up? We'll see. I mean, apparently they've sold out both games, which is surprising. Okay. The city has come out when they've made the playoffs. In 2015, they came out for that. But they've

kind of like been waiting for a team like this. I mean, they're hitting a stride at the perfect moment. If they're not going to get excited about this, what are they going to get excited about? This is probably the most exciting team in the freaking NBA right now. Muratich and Rondo hitting dagger shots was not something that I was prepared for. So, Kevin, the question I have about the Pelicans, is there a regression coming? Is there a playoff Rondo playing so above what we think the level that Rondo is, like, is there a regression coming? Or is this actually an incredible playoff team that we have on our hands and they can

even make some noise in the next round. I think we saw a little bit of that in game one towards the end of that game where it just seemed like they didn't have enough weapons. Portland started slowing them down in that game, really making a run, where the holiday's been terrific. You wonder if he can keep that up, which he's never really been that high volume score. Anthony Davis, he is just on another level from everybody else on the court, but it's a lot to ask him to do that for seven games, maybe 10, 12, 13, 14 games, it goes into the second round. Doing that every single night. You need more from other guys.

And I do wonder if it runs out eventually. On the offensive end, least their defense is for real, though. They're playing those guys a lot of minutes. And those type of team... They have to. Yeah. If they lose one of those guys to an injury,

even for the rest of the game, I think they're going to be in trouble. Alvin Gentry, shout out my guy, Alvin Gentry, making... Great performance from this playout. The same joke he's been telling for three years. I'm not even joking about LeBron being like 65,

but he's been out there playing so many minutes. Finally got someone to laugh at it, But he still makes no sense because he's just giving him an excuse to run his guys into the ground, which might hurt them in games of 5, 6 or whatever it goes on line. Honestly, though, it's so nice to see at least one coach enjoying himself during the playoffs. Instead of him be like, oh, he's! Here's the minutes per game of your New Orleans Pelicans. Davis, 40 minutes, Miratich 39, Ray John Rondo, 39, Drew Holiday, 38.5, Etouan Moore, 29.

And then it's 21, 14, 10, 7. Great, especially in the front court. I love how it goes from, like, can we make sure these guys all have Casper mattresses? And, like, really get a lot of, like, just, like, good restorative sleep. And then it's just, like, play for you. I mean, you have to. Like, you look at this roster, and it's like, there's no help. Yeah, check the aloe is their third big.

There's a sophomore who's on the come-up, but he's not a guy you want to play a heavy playoff. Kevin, as a testament to where Davis is in his career right now, we're almost taking his, nightly performances for granted. He's moved into the heart in the LeBron zone of, well, of course he's going to get 35 and 15 and completely dominate both ends of the court. We expect that.

What about Rondo? Like, the Rondo's amazing. Like, he almost feels like he's being minimized. This guy is definitely a top four NBA player. For sure. And it's like you said, he's putting up the big numbers, Chris, but the defense, his ability to switch

onto Damien Lillard, he had that possession where he got switched early in clock and he locked him down for 15 to 20 seconds, just somehow curved his arm over Lillard's entire body and blocked the shot. It's things like that, the impressive blocks. It's his ability to read the floor and communicate. He's a top level player right now. So in the background here while we're talking, we have the Rockets Wolves game on,

and it is 100 to 7 to 9 as we speak. And I think it is a good segue to talk about two of the losers of the playoffs so far. and that is the next generation of Wolf Stars, Cat and Wiggins. Really disappointing two first games from them. I know that the odds were long, but to come up so empty, you feel like this isn't just like the Rockets game-planning them out.

This is a real failure of imagination and a failure of execution on their parts. Yeah, I think the good thing about the playoffs is it almost like crystallizes takes in a way. I love crystal takes. I love crystal things. I live in my room. No, but like, you spend 82 games and there's a lot of data to really parse through,

but it really feels like we've kind of cemented something in these first two games. And what we've found out about Andrew Wiggins, not good. Yes. Not a good NBA player. And we've said this all season, wondering, like, when is the guy that they pay to max, you're going to show up? Right. Not now.

Turns out, when Glenn Taylor was like, I need to look him in the eyes and see if he's ready for this, you should have looked him deeper in the eyes. Maybe you should have a longer staring contest. One day we'll come up with an advanced stat that discovers that Andrew Wiggins is good. But that it won't be today. Well, here's it. Here's the thing.

So, Pallel, do you have a wolf's comment for us? Are you a wolf question from social? Yeah, so basically somebody was asking, given how bad the wolves have looked, should the NBA just replace them with the nuggets right now? Or basically, I guess I would the nuggets unfair. I definitely think so for you guys, after two games, who is the team that they should hit the eject button

and fly in the nuggets for? It's Minnesota because Houston right now, with 30 seconds left in this game, almost over, shot below 40% from the field, 31% from 3, hard-in-shot 2 for 18, and yet Minnesota's still going to lose by 20. Carl Anthony Towns again, second game in a row, nine shots. Yeah, five points.

That's like, it's truly troubling. Have you seen anything from like the way Tibbs, the way Dan Tony is going after him. I mean, like, I see him stuck in the corner. He's walking off the floor right now. The face he is making is the face of a guy about to give a very sullen press conference backstage in the locker room. I think that this is really bad for him. He's, I'm not saying anything negative about him to say that it has been whispered about that Kat is very aware of his stat lines, right? So five points a game in his first playoff series is not cool. Five points is fine. That happens.

No, it doesn't, dude. That happens. He's the first time in the playoffs, it happens. It can even happen two games in a row. But nine shots total for a guy who's that offensively gifted just cannot happen. Is that a Tim's problem? Is that Tibbs lying on Jeff's? I don't know. I think it's a I think he's also on Kat because he's going to set better screens. He's going to really be more aggressive in establishing post position. He's going to do things like that too and demand the ball. Maybe it's on coaching not enabling him. Right. to demand the ball, but that's something that's like, you know what, screw it.

I'm one of the best big men in basketball. Not to be all shack, but he does need to like, be like, hey, get me the ball or I'm going to put your head through a window. But at the same time, like who's providing him space down low? If that's the issue, like Wiggins, as we mentioned, hasn't stepped up. He's not stretching the floor. It's like, what, 80% of himself? And then elsewhere, you have like Taj Gibson who's effectively just another big there to soak up bodies. I mean, it's like, to your point, Justin, Butler only shot six times tonight.

They yanked Jimmy at a certain point. He played only 25 minutes tonight, but he scored 11 points. Three. I mean, like, there's just no juice to this offense. Get Bial Lice out there to spread that floor. Yeah, stretch three, Namadabilica. Yeah. I mean, it's just tough.

It's just, like, also, like, you know, Wiggins actually did take the most shots tonight. So there's, like, obviously, like, the difference between how somebody perceives themselves and how they're actually executing in this series is really off. As far as other winners and losers go, can we just take a second to talk about my large adult koala, Ben Simmons? Sure. Do you guys want to talk about him?

Even though Justice Winslow showed a little bit of a cheat sheet on how to handle Ben, which is do not give him 35 feet of runway to either tomahawk dunk or make a Magic Johnson pass, I think that Kevin and I were talking about this, you can see how much farther along he is in his career even than somebody like Wiggins. In terms of the poise, in terms of like

if we need a bucket, if we need a play, I'm going to go do it. And also on the defensive end, he's still pretty, he's way better than I thought he was going to be. It's like we were talking about earlier, there was a certain player who just didn't execute a simple play. And Ben Simmons, he never fails to execute plays. Whether it's advanced plays,

whether it's crazy outlet passes full court, he does it all. And he's unbelievable defensively as well across the motions. Well, he just, he affects the game in various ways. He rebounds, he scores, he passes the ball. Wiggins, you know, if he's not scoring, not a noted passer, you know, does not have an eye for the pass, simple pass maybe, like extremely low assist rate, not a rebounder. So what are we talking about here?

Yeah, what are we talking about here. Right. Yeah, and that's what we've talked about in the past with Wiggins. It's just his idea of a superstar is antiquated because he thinks it's just scoring when a lot of what we see from superstars of today, it's guys who do a little bit of everything. And as Jason was alluding to there, it's just like, Ben Simmons had a bad game

and he had a 24 point almost triple double. Yeah, I think the one thing that's been a big lesson out of this playoffs is like just the importance of guys who are comfortable without the ball. Yeah. And that's one of the reasons why the Sixers were successful over the second half of the season, especially when MB got hurt. I don't think there's anything to the MBUing theory.

Like, I think they'll be just fine with Embed coming back. But Ben and a bunch of guys, who love running around and taking off kilter threes like Bellinelli and Ilova and JJ. Give the ball or Bell and Ellie. Yeah, right? That's how you win. I think that and that's one of the problems you're seeing with OKC. It's one of the problems you're seeing with Minnesota is everybody wants to hold the ball for a little bit and see what's in front of them. And then they'll go do something. But that's not, you can't do that with a big three because there's other two other guys who are like,

come on, you got past that. Right. I mean, the Warriors kind of changed the equation. Like we learned from the big three heat that like if you have three superstars and maybe enough around them. You could win titles. You could push teams to the limits. But as we're seeing now, like, the teams that are succeeding, are not only having one or two superstars, you have those guys around them. And I mean, the stories are coming out lately. Ben Cohen had a really good one in the Wall Street Journal. Like, you need those three-point shooters, especially when your two best players aren't shooting threes. Ben and Joel is an occasional good three-point shooter. All right. So I do want to ask about factor fiction because two games, very small sample size.

But here are some things that I want you guys to tell me this is a factor, this is fiction. Because it's too early, right? NBA factor fiction. LeBron James is still the best insurance policy in basketball. I mean, he had to put up 40 and 12, 40-something and 12 tonight to get a win, but he can do it. Yes. Yeah, it's fact. It's a fact. But here's the problem with insurance is if it comes in handy, it's because you needed it. Well, yeah, I mean, Jeff Green is still a person on the cavaliers, which is an issue. Yeah. Cal Quarver was like their big chess move every day.

I saw a couple of tweets to this speaking to this point, but I made a joke or a bet actually,

like wager earlier, that if Kevin Love was out, that was it for this series. Because I just think that

there is the lack of cohesion from this Cavs team that was been rebuilt twice this year was showing a little

bit against a team in the Pacers who obviously have an identity and know where everybody's supposed to be at any

given time, have a lot of letusism. I don't think this Cavs team ever captured the bounce they were supposed to get from Hood, Clarks, and Nance. What do you think? For sure they haven't. And we asked this question in the article today about the Cavaliers where

it's like when is having LeBron not enough? Because like you look at the rest of this roster, George Hill is a complete shell of his former cell. What's up with him? Rodney Hood, completely inconsistent, doesn't stay in the floor. He's like Rondo without the memes. I have a George Hill theory that I will put forward after you go. Could you go? I mean, it's like said, Jeff Green is still on the roster. There's not a lot of juice on that team. Yeah. My George Hill theory is one that he's been washed for several years and that his reputation is primarily a creation of a Zach Lo Grantland column where he was like, you know who I love? George Hill, great player when he had that TikTok, the George Hill-Kauai trade TikTok piece.

And I think that is what has created the modern reputation of George Hill. So here's another... That indoors to this day. Reputational problem is that Kevin Love has entered that Anthony Davis zone where every time he is like even slightly injured looking, I'm like that's it.

Yeah, he's done. Bad hands. Bad hands. Soft hands. The knuckle push-ups probably should lay off those. One of the least lucky players I've seen in a long time. Like the Olinic shoulder problem. It looked like he may have... Like he jammed a finger, but we thought for a minute

he might either broken his wrist or broken a thumb today. And it's like he is literally For as much as LeBron is obviously the The toll that they're going to pay to get to the finals They can't do it without Kevin Love. He's the only person who seems to know where to stand When LeBron's on the floor. For sure, I mean, that was the risk at the time of the trade

It was like about just he had the knee injury in Minnesota But now it's like a long list of things And for Cleveland, it's always a concern They have multiple guys on their roster. Hill, Love, and Rodney Hood Where durability is a question And that's part of being skilled players your availability.

And I wonder how available those guys will be going into June. Underrated X factor, J.R. Smith has washed. And it pains me to say that. Yeah, I mean, I feel like he's been washed for a while. Yeah, no, but he could still kind of like put together. He could turn it on and was still a good shooter. Like he has in the past. He's like, Roblo and St. Elmo's Fire.

It's like he's good for one party a year. Right. But there's a lot of other parties are like, this is awkward. Right. And then the, yeah, then the saxophone comes out. Did you guys like that right? Yeah, that was good. It's really topical, yeah.

No, but I mean, that's why Kevin Love is important because who else is going to provide that secondary scoring? Kevin Love has 15 points. He's still the second score on the Cavs. And you saw the difference between tonight and game one where if he gives them just enough, they have a chance to win. I think we were just all thinking that there was going to be these, like, it was going to be always LeBron

and then on any given night, one of Clarkson, Hill or Hood could pour on 25. And I don't think we've gotten that yet. Well, Hood, maybe, we thought that. Clarkson, we never, did anybody really ever think that? Clarkson has his crazy heat check night. He just has like the hand movements and people think he's something. Yeah, he really knows how to play it up.

Jeff Green has not been particularly useful this series. Powell, though, you have a note about people with the last name Green. Is that right? No. Okay. People with the last name, love. Oh, all right. Stry from Tailu said he's good to go for game three.

Good for him. He just had a jam thumb. But he said he didn't go back to him in the game because Lou like the flow of the team he had on the floor. And they almost blew the lead, so I don't know. I feel about that. That seems like kind of self-dab.

I think it is a little bit self-dab. Like, here's a move I made. I think that's like... Pretty good. He was... Pretty good. And it was like, you know what? I jammed my thumb.

If I get hit in the thumb again during this game, it's going to be really bad. And Lou is like, all right, you sit out. But then after the game, Lou was like, see that? Think about it. I did. Got all the little secret lineups.

Let's talk a little bit about, I don't want to belabor the Pelicans, but I do want to bring up what has been really one of my favorite stories of the playoffs. For this, let's set a timer with the Google assistant. Hey, Google, set a timer for two minutes. All right, two minutes, and we are starting now. Cochella Boogie.

There was a rumor that Boogie was not in attendance to one of these Portland games, because he was going to see Beyonce or something. Turns out that was not the case. it does turn out, however, that Boogie lives in Vegas. And I think that's great. I think everybody should live where they want to live. I don't know personally if that's where I would put Boogie.

Sure. You know, like that seems like there's plenty of nice places to live in New Orleans. Like, it seems like it's a little close to the team. I guess the big question we're talking about here, and it's factor fiction. Factor fiction, the Pelicans are buried with Brow and a bunch of shooters than they are with the Twin Towers. I love this take. This is the one we've talked about for a couple months here. I mean, I think, as we've described in the past,

boogie takes them to another level. Like, I think the pelicans are going to have trouble in the next round where you have a team like the Warriors and the Rockets coming in, and they're not at that point yet. But I think if you had more wing help, which is where they're weakest, I think it made a lot more sense for this team. And so you're in a really big question going into this summer where you don't have many options because of your cap situation.

Do you just bring boogie back because it's the path of least resistance? Or do you maybe play for two years? And maybe two years from now, you can get a guy that really augments what AD and Drew do better. It's a monumental risk either way. Because if you're paying him the full max, you've got a guy 280 plus pounds coming back from a torn Achilles. You don't know what type of player he'll be. But if you don't bring him back, you're missing out on a guy who is one of the top big men in basketball, who, as you said, Justin, elevates really what they can become.

Because if you get that right, you have two of the game's best big men who can score for. from inside, outside, you can pass, can handle the ball. They do it all. And I think if you can bring him back on a one or two year deal, that's the best case scenario. Then you can test it out, see how he is.

The only question is if, and we don't have to get too deep in the weeds of like orthopedics. Hey, Google, stop timer. But like, is that first year of that deal basically awash because of his rehab? History says yes. The Wesley Matthews like,

I'm learning out of run again. Yeah, history says yes. Palo, I think you have a comment for us. Yeah, so on the Periscope, Bill Simmons, I don't know if you've heard of him. He asked, should the Blazers bring Bobby Portis to New Orleans? Oh, game 3 and 4. I love it.

Can you feel like that's my work? I mean, I think that would be like an interesting move from Olshay. Just have him sit there, like, sideline. Oh, just sitting there? Yeah, just like, oh, I love that. He's not going to play. Boxing gloves. Do you think that's why Stalis is at the Sixers games?

The sixers have Kevin Hart and Alan Iverson and Stousauskis. And Stouskis. So it's like really the Mount Rushmore of Philly is there. I will, it doesn't get talked about enough. This is kind of dark web. Okay.

That Bobby Portis put Meritich in the hospital, gravely injured him. Yeah. Crushed his face. Yeah. And the Bull's response, like as a team, but players and as a franchise was like,

yeah. It's really weird. Great Ameritich. It's really tough. Both were good after that, and they got along, and the Bulls had won. We don't really talk a lot. I'm just saying, like, we don't talk enough about, like, what that is about. Sure, sure.

That's ever, we have to ask Tommy Alter for the real deal on that. Kevin, I know that you have a factor fiction about this Rockets defense. Yeah, I just think Minnesota, we talked about they scored 82, and how Katz struggling, Wiggins is struggling. How about we also give the Houston Rockets defense some time? So, factor fiction, defense wins chance. And that's why the Rockets will win the championship. The thing is it's more about their offense.

They can win games even when their offense is struggling. Because their defense is so good, they have Clint Capella, one of the best defensive big men in basketball. They have a bunch of switchy, versatile defenders, even without Luke Babamamuete. So PJ Tucker, they have other guys on that roster. Chris Paul, one of the best defensive point cards. They're loaded on the defensive end.

So I don't have the numbers in front of me in terms of minutes per game, but one of the things that was a big talking point, obviously, before any playoffs is how the rotation shrink. rotation to shrink. Yep. And it does seem like we've seen a lot more PJ Tucker, and it seems like PJ Tucker was created in a lab to play playoff basketball. And he just seems like perfectly suited to give this Rockets team a little bit of an edge

that you don't necessarily associate with a hardened team. I also think their offense is so irritating. It must be so, no, it must be so irritating to play defense against that offense that it throws you out of your offensive flow. Why do you hate math so much? What? Why do you hate math? I just like old school basketball, man.

I think if you get fouled, you get fouled, but don't go hunting for it. And I also just don't like our dependence on threes. I love post games. My dream playoff series would be five Lamarcus Aldridge's versus five Lamarcus Aldrichus. But Houston takes that old school game, man. They isolate more than anybody else. We did a video about James Harden and had more isolations than any other team in the league. Chris has a lot of in one.

t-shirts in his closet and he just doesn't want to let them go. Let me ask you guys this. It's another factor fiction. We haven't really talked about this team at all, thank God. You don't need Kyrie when you have Scary Terry, aka Tito Three Sticks. Is Brad Steehanes? I tried that on Haley.

I was just like, it's Terry Rozier's nickname is Tito Three Sticks, right? And she just like, as a Louisville grad, grad, just like stared at me. I definitely felt like I was just like, you know, Steve Bouchmy, like, Nark where I was just like, Hello, young team. Hello, team. Terry three sticks.

No, in reality, like, can Brad Stevens just create guards out of nothing at this point? Do you do the, or is this that the buck sucks so much that Terry Rozier looks like an all-star? No, I think you have to, Brad Stevens is outper. The team is outperforming its expected point totals on a regular basis over the long term throughout the course of the season with multiple injured players. Terry Rozier shot 26%

his rookie year and it's like to turn him into this with the players that they have on the floor at various times Shane Larkin guys he'd never heard of you have to chalk it up to the system

and it's like you said Brad Stevens he does create these players he's like forwarded Westworld creates whatever he means Kyrie O'Rovra goes down Terry Rosear turns into Carrie Irvin Right right I think it's I mean

I think that they will probably be stressed to have somebody of Kyrie's skill level in the next round or whatever but yeah I mean like the Bletsso Rozier like rivalry has definitely been like one that I couldn't have called. It's two guys who can't who don't know each other's names. Right. Blenzo trying very hard to throw shade when he had nothing else around him.

It's like I don't know the name of this guy that's giving me buckets on a regular basis and cooking me. Who's scoring way more than me playing better basketball than me in any like facet of the game? Although wasn't the start of it was that was that Rozier pretty much accidentally called Bledsoe, Drew Bledso? Was that what is it?

That's right. He was right. He's just been listening to too much W-E-E-E-I. What do you guys think? I want to ask one more Factor Fiction. Fact of fiction, the Blazers are frauds. Ooh.

It's not even spice. I'm just asking. I think it might be fact. Wow. I... You base your team around Damien Lillard. You pretty much... Oh, shit. And all of a sudden...

It's just in time. Come on. Dame time just doesn't exist. I'm trying to rack my brain for a time pun. I don't have one. It's just... He hasn't shown up in the playoffs. Drew Holiday, as we mentioned, his defense has been great.

But if you can't do the one thing that, like, the team has been built around... Yeah. I'm sorry, but, like, that's kind of a fraudulent behavior. He has been... Well, yeah, I would say... There are frauds in that sense. Like,

this is what we're seeing with this series is basically proof positive that Dame is not like the top

level guy that you could probably advance to a finals with especially if he's not going to do it on the other end yeah I mean

so that's an issue Drew Holiday is eating his lunch My question is why were so many people buying granted they were the three-se Because that's how good

the fraud is But they weren't significantly better than any of the other teams below them in fact they probably were a little bit worse. So do you feel like that they were, like, is there some similarities between them and the Sixers

where they rattled off a lot of wins at a time of the year when some teams were taking their foot off the pedal against lesser teams? Because I still want to value the regular season. Like, I want to believe in what I'm seeing to some extent. And I don't like it when everybody's just like, it's the second game of a back-to-back,

or this team was tanking. It's like just beat NBA teams and I give you respect. I think it's a little bit of the problem. Why don't I sound like I'm 72 years old? Why can you play hard at the regular season you guys. I think it is a little bit of like the way we criticized the Raptors in the past, which is they have a talented back court that

can put buckets on inferior opposition and that inflates their win total to a degree that kind of doesn't accurately correspond with how good they are. Yeah. And then when you meet a team that matches up well, that's the other thing. This is a bad matchup for them. It's a terrible matchup. It's a bad matchup. It's a bad matchup. It's like Bill Simmons has said on his pod before. That's why are you going to watch the games.

It's a bad match. AD is the best player on the floor. And Rondo and Drew can negate or at least hinder what CJ and Dame do. That's a tough matchup for them too. So that's a bad match. It's a bad match. Norlands was built to make them look like frauds. But if we're any other matchup, maybe Portland's up

2.0. We're talking about them. How far can they go in the playoffs? What are they going to do? Maybe the Warriors aren't ready for them. Yeah. Speaking of all these things, I want to talk a little bit about watchability. Because this is also to some extent in entertainment. What do you guys think has been the most entertaining series so far? It's still a little watchability right.

I mean, I don't want to keep dipping into the Pelicans Blazers as well, but that series has been riveting. I think that that is far away. What do you think is number two? If the Pelicans Blazers is easily the most entertaining, you guys go Sixers Heat with me? Yeah, Philly, Miami, for sure. Just because of like the youth on display,

and we're getting to see these guys in this pressure cooker for the first time, how they're going to react, the fact that Fultz is getting playoff minutes is like... He was, yeah. It's not... Like, we cannot talk about enough about how wild that is.

Does Philomena the White Widows still have season tickets in Miami? Are we going to get her? Does she remember her the woman who gave doubles in? Oh, yes. She flips off, you, O'Kim Noah? I hope so. I mean, Wade's back. Maybe she can come back to it.

That's what I'm saying. Bring all, like, bring everyone back. Yeah. I mean, the chess match also has been pretty riveting. Yes. The adjustments the heed made on Ben Simmons, as you mentioned, but also elsewhere on the team

just kind of some of the matchups going on there. And I wonder what Brett Brown is going to do to counter that. If Joam Beed isn't going to come back, you still start. Yeah, so Embedit's doubtful for three. I'm really... Tired of being baby! I sure is. Yes, I've heard that.

Other, you know, we talked about the Celtics Bucks. I think that's been a really entertaining series. On the bottom half of it, I would say that the two top teams in the West seem to just be trouncing their competition. So they're the ones that I wonder whether or not you're going to start seeing people switch off to a rerun of Rosolian Isle. when the Spurs. Love Brazilian Isleian House.

Yeah. Which series is over? Keff, which series is done? Unfortunately, it's probably those two you just alluded to. Houston versus Minnesota than Golden State over San Antonio. None of the Eastern Conference

playoff series is you don't feel like anybody's walking away with anything there. You don't think Toronto's got it wrapped up. I haven't talked about Toronto at all. I mean, Toronto, Toronto probably has a wrapped up, but to a lesser extent than the two teams we just mentioned

Golden State and Houston, but Washington just does not look ready for Toronto. And Toronto has gotten back to the level that they were in early March and February in the prior months. We talked about the chess match between Brett Brown and Eric Spolstra. Scott Brooks's like Trump move was basically to bring out Ty Lawson from China. Yes.

And he was playing heavy minutes last game. And I'm just watching this like, what is going on right now? Him, Mike Scott. They're basically just trying to pull anything they can on the half. Nothing says things are going extremely well. Like Ty Lawson. Bring Ty Lawson back. Yeah.

For a playoff run. Speaking of these coaching moves, Bill actually sent in a couple of questions, and I wanted to jump on this one, even though it is not specifically playoff-related. What would be the funniest next Knicks coach? Ooh. Can I answer this first? Sure. Michael Cohen.

Joe Prunty. Did you say Michael Cohen? I didn't know Michael Cohen. I mean, the story that came out today with Kenny the Jet Smith, potentially getting a look who's pretty good because not only is that like the idea of self-ludicrous. New York high school legend. Sure. Maybe there are a bunch

too. He might as well get Stefan Marbury. Archbishop Maloy I believe. Maybe that's a real reason Kaui Leonard's in New York. Because he's going to be the coach? I mean the market, it's, I think it's going to be Jerry Stackhouse as me hoping, I guess just because it'd be nice to see someone

new who's put their dues in on a night to night basis for a while get a shot. Mark Jackson, the, you know, the team went to the finals and won it right after he was fired. That's tough. And everybody else is, you know, a non-factor Vogel is... It's just a retread, yeah. It's just retreads.

I'd like to see them. It'd be cool to see them pick someone out of pocket. Like really look at college, look at the G-League, look at some of these younger guys. So you'd be like something like that. How about Kenny Smith? Kenny Smith. We know nothing about his coaching acumen. He's super good with the iPad on TNT.

I don't want to cast aspersions or make any kind of comment on his coaching acumen because literally there's nothing. He could be great as far as anyone now. We've seen former NBA players go to broadcasting and then become great general managers. Steve Kerr is what you're saying. The thing that troubles me about the search in general is that it is sort of the old kind of Nix thing of here's a bunch of names that you recognize. Yes. Like where is the left field

guy? Where is the college guy? Where is the well-regarded assistant on a team that I've never heard of? Like you don't see, I get Stackhouse as that guy, but the rest of them are retreads. It is really interesting. Because we could have quite a few coaching openings.

Not even talking about some of these playoff teams that might be looking for new coaches after one round. And yet the names, I mean, whoever's agents, you know, is whoever's David Fisdale's agent, whoever Steve Clifford's even whoever stackhouse is Asian doing great jobs because

those like there's four or five guys who are being associated with every single opening and it just seems like there's a real lack of imagination the one person who's sort of like the most it's like the most kind of like the most like imaginative

one is Buttonholzer because he's actually already got a job in Atlanta even though he just oversaw the worst team in the league he did have a 60 win team and you know he's up for the Phoenix job, but there's also talk of him going to Milwaukee. That would be... That would be interesting. That would be really

interesting. I mean, Fisdale is a guy, I know that he already had his one shot, but he didn't really disprove any of the four momentum he had going into that job. I think that he was in a tough spot. Very tough spot. A trench culture that like... Yeah, but he's... And he still was able to modernize that offense to a certain extent until he

ran into Marcus All and whatever happened in there. I think the coach Bud's stuff is really interesting, because that was brewing in January. Yeah. There were, you you know, breadcrumbs that he might want to push his way out or there's a chance to get him out of Atlanta. And so he's a great coach, really good technician, tactician on the floor. So if you're Phoenix or any of these other teams, whether it's New York or Milwaukee, why are you not giving Atlanta a call to get him? Maybe you do, maybe you are willing to give something up

to get him. Even if you're a team that has a plethora of assets that you're able to, that you're able to give up, I think he'd be terrific in Phoenix. My favorite thing about Mike Bunn-Holzer is he always looks like he just ate a hot pepper. What am I, the thing that I'm trying to figure out, did you guys see the rumor recently where it was like, there was an article about tanking for some reason, I can't remember where it was, but it was basically like,

an owner chewed out a coach for winning in L.A. And there was only two teams in March, and it could have only been two teams, and it was pretty obviously, like the Hawks, I guess. I think it was Atlanta or Memphis? Yeah, and one of those two. So if you were bud, would you want to coach the Bucks

and get John? Or would you want to coach Phoenix? I know this is going to sound insane, but I'd rather probably coach Phoenix because I think they have more flexibility moving forward. Right. And they have a top pick this year, whereas Milwaukee, yes, they have Janus,

but what else do they have? They have two knee surgeries in Jabari Parker. And who knows what they're going to do with him? He'll be gone. There's not a lot that Milwaukee can do, whereas Phoenix really, they have limitless possibilities. Limitless. It's the truth. Milwaukee has not had...

The one thing that mystifies me is like, I understand that the kid's situation must have been bad. Actually, Pallel, do you have a question about Jason Kidd or a comment? There wasn't Nick's comment. It was more comment than a question from Facebook, Levi Massey. He said the nixiest thing to do would be to hire Jason Kidd.

That is true. I mean, it was pretty good. I was a point guard for the Nix. He was really, and... He was really, and... You saw Bud turn Horford, Corver, and Jeff Teague into All-Stars and a 60-win Atlanta team. Grandin LeBron rock their world.

But what could he do with Giannis and Bledsoe and Middleton? Everybody seems to think that Milwaukee's going to magically fix their team by hiring a good coach. I don't, I think it's the roster that also needs change. Yeah, but like, okay, but Kevin, don't you think that like the non, the Kyrie and Hayward-Free Celtics are a perfect example of what a well-coached team can accomplish? Sure, but there's also a lot of good players on the Celtics. Milwaukee doesn't have a lot of good players. Boston has a wealth of them.

Right. I think if there's a sliver of hope with the Bucks in terms of their roster, it's that playoff game against the Raptors last season where they basically stoned them defensively for like a half, just using that crazy length that they have on the team. Now, if somebody could figure out how to unlock that in a way that makes sense to overcome the fact that they're light on shooting and all those other things, maybe that's an interesting team.

Figure out where Thon Maker is? I don't know where that guy is. I think he's on the bench, like, behind the bench. I just don't know what it is. No, I know what you're saying, but I just think a guy, a coach waits an entire career to coach somebody like Yonis.

For sure. So why not take that opportunity when it comes along? I think there is some potential on that roster, but it also, if you look at it, the pressure situation is also completely opposite. Whereas with the Bucks, you're basically being hired to figure that team out

and take them to the next level before Yannis, his free agency. Whereas with the Sons, you basically are starting from scratch to a certain degree. You have a bit of leeway and runway to play with in order to take that team. I agree with you, but we do not have any evidence over the last five or six years that the suns are any more stable or less of a pressure cooker than working in Milwaukee is. Sure. And like they've been trying to reboot that team for years now. And I like Booker, but like I just don't see it. I would much rather go to Milwaukee. But I take your point.

What do you guys think? Who do you guys think so far would be? the playoff MVP for you. Let's just get back to the playoffs a little bit. I mean, maybe LeBron is considering what he's done. Now, if we're going strictly by record, obviously you would favor someone more like Drew Holiday, considering the two-way impact he's had. We talked about him a lot. But what LeBron is doing with, as we mentioned, just like a high school roster has just been amazing. And I know it's like not interesting to say that LeBron is the best player, but I mean, he's had the best postseason statistically probably so far. Al Horford. I'm just kidding. His screening, passing, I'm kidding.

Look at that screen, oh my God! It's definitely Drew Holiday, right? Drew Holiday? I'm going to go Ilyossova. What? How about Marco? I almost believed you. I think it's technically LeBron, but I also go Drew Holiday.

Just because of the... He's been so underrated for so long, and it's like, people are just discovering now that, oh, this guy drew Holiday that was... that I have never really seen play, was on middling Sixers teams, was injured for basically two entire seasons. It's good. It's really good.

I think it's Braun, but I actually think that he's so good right now that it's bad for the Cavs. Because I... Whoa. Look at that team. Look at that team. He knows that he has still got a full tank.

He's playing 40 minutes after playing almost... He played every game the season, didn't he? Like sky high minutes. He's like, look at what I'm capable of. And I got these Yahoo's that I'm playing with. Like, I should be, like, cruising into the finals because of, like, where I am in my career. I don't think it bodes well. I didn't think that the win tonight that he looked particularly like, we got this.

I did it. We did it. Like, it seems like I almost feel like he's so good. He's like, I'm leaving this team behind. It's because it wasn't we did it. It was I did it. He scored the first 16 points to the night. Yeah.

You got any social or questions or comments you want to share with us? I think to the conversation of playoff MVP, you know, what about Terry Rozier? Somebody put what is this, what is this possible trade value now? Sorry, you mean, AKA Tito three sticks? I'm sorry, I apologize. This is not Haley's burner account, but what is Rosier's trade value now?

It was a question. So is he a free agent? No, next summer, he'll be a restricted free agent in 2019. I just, I mean, personally, would never answer the phone if Danny Hange called, again, ever again. What if you're the Spurs and Kauai's like, hey. No way, man.

If you're the Celtics, do you want Kauai? Dude, Ruggier for Kauai, who says no. I mean, we're giving a lot more than that. What do we think Terry's career is? Is he ever going to be a start in this league? Is he just a high-level backup? I was talking to Jonathan Charks the other day. How about a Patrick Beverly tight?

Not exactly him, but gritty defender, he plays hard, hits some big shots where you're like, no, no, no, no, no, no, yes. He's that type. He's never more than a top-level backup. Terry, to become more than that, I think he needs to improve his at-room finery. which is a problem in college, still a problem now, and he still needs to improve his shooting consistency. Which has gotten better, but still has a ways to go.

Terry's Flip Murray. Like, we're gonna talk about him for like 10 days. Flip Murray, 20 points of game. He's gonna be like, oh yeah, that dude, it's like Jody Meeks Jr. Scarey. Flip sanity. Let's talk really briefly.

This is the group chat pod. We'll be going up on Wednesday nights. So Thursday morning you should be listening to this. Let's just talk a little bit quickly about the Thursday night games. Sixers Heat Game 3 in Miami. Right now, and B. Beat is doubtful. I think everybody thought after that tweet, after that

Instagram story that he was going to be playing, he's tired of being babyed. Right. Do you think that that enters into the Sixers calculus? I just saw an Instagram story from Joel waiting to put him in. It's complicated. I mean, I think that I think that I'm, I don't understand where

the medical staff ends and the coaching staff begins and the players' interests. And this is a conversation about Kauai as well. But like the fact that Embed clearly thinks he should be on the floor. And I personally, with facial industries, injuries, and concussions, I don't necessarily know what the four days matters. Like, is his face going to be

that much more healed over the weekend than it was on, it's going to be on Thursday? I mean, I'm not looking to you like you're a doctor. I'm not going to say, this is obviously, like, if M.B. thinks one thing, and I don't think Brett Brown was like, yeah, he's a week away. Like, he's, I think that there was like the vibe was that he was going to play in Miami, and now it seems like that's not the case. Well, I mean, Shalston Brown for handling that really well.

He's done it the entire time he's been there. He got peppered with that question immediately when he was at the press conference, probably didn't even see the Instagram before he went up there, and it was basically like, I love the fire. That guy just wants to be back on the court. Wouldn't you want to be that? And then, like, he's done a good job managing the whole PR perspective of this whole thing. Look what he's done with Fult.

So, Jason, let me ask you, was that the best Miami can possibly play? and they're going to come down a couple miles per hour, or is that like the key? They just have to have so much aggression. I think that that notorious Miami home crowd going. Yeah, I wouldn't say that that's the best they could play, but I would say that the way they tweak the defense to take into account Ben's lack of shooting,

like there was always three players between him and the paint and any kind of pass. Like it wasn't just one guy, it wasn't just as Winslow, it was like a scheme. That is very interesting, and I am interested to see if Brett Brown has anything for that. It's really the story of the series. Game one, Miami saggs off like they did all season. Ben Simmons dominates.

Game two, they pressure him. Simmons still had a terrific game, but their offense was quite a bit more stagnant. I believe JJ Redick said it was choppy, and it certainly was. I think the guys from Rites of Ricky Sanchez were talking about this after game two, and I was kind of fascinated with how this is going to be managed. do you play TJ in the Fultz minutes to be the ball handler and basically punt on Fultz's

development in this series like his Fultz on the line of a guy who can be benched is like you can't play him in this environment because he missed that one shot and then he didn't play the second half whereas TJ at least is like gonna kind of match the

competitive fire of like a James Johnson and a Justice Winslow in 90 feet he's a steady hand whereas like with Fultz he's a curveball I think you throw out there when you need a little shot in the arm. Whereas, but when you throw him out there, I don't know where you're going to get out of him. As you mentioned, I think he missed three shots the last time he was out there.

And like, yes, athletically, he could hang, but then maybe the shots don't go in. Maybe things start to snowball from there. I think he's just too much of an unknown variable to really ride with. I think you go with the same exact form related in a game two. Put Fultz out there in the first half. See what happens. Because like Brett Brown said, the risk reward, you'll lean towards the risk. I'm sorry, you'll lean towards the reward.

Let me ask you really quickly then just to wrap things up. Pelicans, do you think that there is a trap game here where they're riding a little too high? Portland can come back and steal one. Yeah, totally. If they steal one on the road head back a home game on game five, this could easily become a series. Yeah, I mean, Harkless is back in there. And I know it sounds weird to say that Moe Harkless is like the X factor.

What about Moe? What about them? I mean, yeah, if they had Will Barton, this would be completely different. But, I mean, Mo gives them something on the wing that they weren't getting from Turner. And the Pelicans have been going with this three-guard line. line up the entire season. So if you're going to hurt them, I feel like on the wing is kind of where it might help. So we're going to wrap things up there. If you guys like the blog boys t-shirt, the blog boy t-shirt, you may have seen Steph Curry rocking it over the weekend. It's ringer.com

slash shop. You can cop the blog boy t-shirt. You can pass the eye test with it. We also make sure you're checking out the ringer NBA show. He check goes up on Sunday nights, Kev and Verno on Tuesdays. Draft classes Friday? Yes. Sources say every other Wednesday, group chat every Wednesday night going the Thursday morning. Shout out to Keith back there. Everybody wants to know what's up with Keith. Keith, Keith's mine and Bitcoin right now. Justin, Jason, Kevin Powell, me, Chris, and everybody backstage. All the crew.

We'll see you guys soon. Basketball is very good. Basketball is very good.