The Ringer NBA Show - Let’s Get Ready to Conference Finals! | The Mismatch

Episode Date: May 14, 2019

The shorthanded Portland Trail Blazers advance to the Western Conference finals in impressive fashion, but how far will they be able to push reigning champs Golden State Warriors (0:48)? With the Toronto Raptors now facing the well-rested Milwaukee Bucks, who will emerge from a massive Eastern Conference finals showdown (22:38)? Plus: Recent head coach hirings elicit a wide range of reactions, and many fan bases’ hopes hinge on the results of the NBA draft lottery (48:30). Hosts: Chris Vernon, Kevin O’Connor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it's Liz Kelly and welcome to the Ringer podcast network. The NBA playoffs are in full swing and we have coverage across all of our channels to keep you up to speed as we make our way towards the finals. Make sure to check out the Ringer MBA show for daily coverage of the games from each series and The Ringer.com to read Kevin O'Connor, Dan Devine, and the rest of our NBA experts break down every key matchup. And don't forget to tune in every Sunday evening to the Bill Simmons podcast to hear Bill and Ryan Rucillo's NBA reactions from the weekend. As always, these can be found on Apple, Spotify. or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, everyone. This is Isaac Lee,

producer of The Ringer NBA show. Before we get into today's episode of The Mismatch, I just want to let you know that we recorded this before it was reported that the Philadelphia 76ers head coach Brett Brown will return next season. So please keep this in mind

as there is some speculative talk regarding his job security in this podcast. And now let's get to the show. Welcome to The Ringer NBA show. I'm Chris Vernon. And joining me as he does every Tuesday from The Ringer.com is Kevin

O'Connor, A.K. A.K. A.A. Kevin O. Camera. A.K.A. Kevin O. Conflict. A. K.A. Kevin O. Kavana. Kavanaugh. It's too late. Hey. Hey. Burnow. What's going on with you today, man? Sitting here in my Steph Curry jersey. No big whoop. Oh, geez. You know, I just, landed in Chicago today because I'm going to the draft lottery tomorrow. And first thing I did, I was starving. I got Lou Malnati's pizza and I got a personal size pizza from there because I'm trying to be semi-healthy but also enjoy a nice pizza. And dude, I'm starving right now. Those pizzas are too small.

I need one of the pizzas that's for two or three people to fill up. I'm hungry, Chris. Have you been having these hunger pangs since the Rockets Blue Game Sick at home versus a team without their best player or no. Has it been like that since game six of the Rockets Warriors? Or is this something more recent? That might be exactly when it started. I think you're on to something, Chris,

because that night, when you look back at that game, that's where it all started. Ever since then, I've just been trying to eat through my sorrows that James Hardin and the Houston Rockets went out against the Golden State Warriors. But you know what? I know we're not going to really talk about that game this much. But I think it sucks that so many people have made fun

of the Houston Rockets for losing to Golden State's so many times, four times and five seasons. Because look, there are so many other teams that are tanking or taking a back seat and waiting them out. The Rockets are actually going at the Warriors. They're just not as good as one of the greatest teams ever assembled. Oh, hold on. I think I must have misunderstood what was going to happen with this.

I thought this whole show was going to be about the Rockets losing. No? I guess, oh. We'll have a lot of time to discuss the future of the Houston Rockets over the off season, I'm sure, because, you know, their season's over. Time to look ahead. Yeah, well, at least Hardin showed up when it mattered most. And at least there wasn't a video of us talking about Hardin and Clutch moments that was circulating everywhere.

All right, let's move on. We do now, by virtue of what took place on Sunday, which were two unbelievable game sevens. What a day. Oh, it was the best. Let's start with the first one. which saw the Denver Nuggets get up by 17 points against the Portland Trailblazers, only to have the Trailblazers led by this amazing performance by C.J. McCollum, take care of business in Denver.

And so now we will end up having Portland playing Golden State. Listen, I know you liked Denver. I said I liked Portland, but I did not feel great about it, especially with having to play a game seven in Denver. But what stood out to me is in the second half of the game. that game. And I tweeted this out in the course of it. It felt like so many of those 50-50 balls, those hustle plays, that super attention to detail, and obviously had the one guy making massive play after massive play in a column, everything from threes to go into the basket,

to chase down blocks, you name it. It felt to me like a team that has the scars. You know, it can become trite when we talk about having those playoff scars. But I believe it is true in basketball, the same way it is true in life, where people could talk about failure enabled me to succeed. If I got my heartbroken a relationship and I made it through it, it helps make me who I am the next time around. And if I fail or if I'm told no at a job, it will make me better the next time around. and Portland is a team that has experienced that heartbreak and they've experienced that failure.

And sometimes the sting of that or the fear of that can be taken away when you've already experienced it. And so you get to play with this level of confidence, whereas I thought on the flip side, Denver looked like a team that was there for the first time. You don't want to screw up. You don't want to be to blame. And I take literally nothing away from Denver for losing. that game. I thought, honestly, that was a team that has the scars versus a team that just took their first. They earned theirs. They got their scar. And their future is intensely bright.

And I know some people have busted up Denver for losing a game seven at home, especially after they have a lead. I thought that was about Portland. What about you? I'm right there with you. I mean, this was a game that had everything. In terms of Denver, it was a horrific shooting night, obviously. Two for 19 from three. Yokic only had two assists. He's a a player who has very rarely had two assists at all in single games this season. In the playoffs, the average 8.9 assists per game with 14.4 potential assist per game. When you consider that ratio, it's quite strong from assist to potential assists. And that game, he only had two total assists and not only nine potential assists.

There's just a poor offensive performance by Denver, but there's nothing for them to, you know, hang their hats on there. They're a good young team, and they're going to be there in the future. And Jamal Murray is who he is right now, an inconsistent. an up and down shooter, but the game had everything for Portland. They had the unlikely hero in Evan Turner, who was horrific on the offensive end of the floor throughout the entire postseason, and he came alive with Rodney Hood going down in the game. Zach Collins had some productive minutes off the bench as a young big man for the Portland

Trailwaysers, and then obviously in the starting lineup, with Damien Lillard having a down performance. He still, you know, racked up eight assists, still passed, contributed with 10 rebounds, but C.G. McCollum, elevating his play to a higher level and scoring from anywhere in the court. And obviously during the game and after the game because of LeBron's tweet, it somehow turned into a conversation about analytics and numbers. And it's a shame, really, because it really should have been about the Blazers still. As you said, C.J. McCollum in that game was unbelievable.

And I think looking forward to that Portland Golden State series, I'm not sure how much of a chance Portland has. Guys are just dropping, like, flies for them, having Rodney Hood healthy. is, you know, as silly as I might sound to say, is important in that series. They're just losing a lot of guys. But still having that backcord with McCollum and or Lillard who can go off any night, at least gives them a chance to make it competitive, especially for as long as Kevin Durant's out. Yeah.

And they've got a lot of guys that have been able to step up. And as we're going to preview these series ahead, I do think that one of the lessons of Portland is they were able to get by. They clearly have this two-headed monster of either. elite level guards where they've got Lillard and McCollum. And I know that it has been a topic. You wrote about it at one point about how maybe it's not the best fit to have those two guys together. But doesn't it feel like, especially when we're watching all these playoff games,

the league has shifted so much in such an extreme way that now having multiple amazing ball handlers, it's actually turned. their way. The league has gone their way to where you don't necessarily need to have the inside out or somebody else that would be a better fit because now these big guys, it is just so hard for them to dominate a game and or even be relevant at many times. Like, I'm looking ahead. I know we'll get to the other series. I mean, Marcus Ald and Brooke Lopez are going to become very close to each other because they're just going to be standing out at the three point line talking for an entire series. It's like the big guys are standing out at the out on the

perimeter and you're just creating space for whatever awesome perimeter guy can go in there and make a play off the bounce and Portland's got two of them. And so even when one of them didn't have it going, the other one could absolutely kill you. And we saw the same thing happened in the Golden State game where it was Clay carried them until Curry got it going. And having two of them, it just makes it so hard. And as big guys have become less and less relevant as this thing has gone on, and especially with the teams that we're about to see in these conference finals, you know, they weighted it out.

They've got these two great players who are averaging a combined 55 a game. And then they've got enough good players that they can keep getting. contributions depth-wise. And it's kind of the story of how the Blazers are there, even despite losing what, by most estimations, was their third best player for the entire season. I'm glad you touched on that regarding the fit with Lillard and McCollum, because it's still not a perfect fit.

But you can have great success despite not having a perfect fit. Again, you know, not to touch too much on the other series, but the Sixers went seven games against the Toronto Raptors. When I'm beat in Ben Simmons is not a perfect. fit. It's just not. That's the reality that the Sixers are going to have to face moving forward unless something changes with the roster, but you can still have great

success. And Portland has with Lerner-McColum, they've been in the playoffs virtually every single season with those players. And now they're in the Western Conference finals, and it's great for them that they have reached this level. Still, though, like, in an ideal world, the Warriors have it, because

Clay Thompson is an elite, the elitist of the elite defenders, defending multiple positions and his own position. Curry is a much better defender than he gets credit for. It's six foot three. Plays with effort. He's smart on the end of the floor. He just gets picked on defense because he's surrounded by a bunch of great players and he's the weak link. Lillard and McCollum are not great defenders. So it's an imperfect fit for them. But obviously, as you're saying, on the offensive end of the floor, this is the type of guard play you want in today's league. And a night where

Lillard is having a down night not able to score, McCollum can go off. And I think your point Also, the inverse conversation here is the changing role of the big man. It's like Kurt Goldsbury had in his book, Sprawball. I'm in the first chapter right now, and he opens up just explaining the basics of how the game has changed. And it's like the L. Jefferson's of the world are disappearing and the Ryan Anderson's are on the rise. And we're fully in that now in the NBA, where looking forward again with this Blazers series, I do wonder if we're going to see as much Zach Collins as possible. for Portland rather than Ennis Cantor

because Collins' ability to not only space the floor but switch on the defensive end too and Protect the Rim as a shot blocker seems more valuable in a series against the Golden State Warriors, a team that in all likelihood is ideally going to want to space the floor five out with Draymond at the five or even Jordan Bell when he's in there

or Looney in the Dunker spot, four out or five out offense. And Cantor has been much better than anybody could have expected and should be commended for the effort that he has put out on the floor while dealing with a shoulder injury that he has. He has been quite solid for Portland, but against Golden State, it's another level. And the problem with Zach Collins is he always gets in foul trouble. He had five fouls in game seven on Sunday. It's been an issue for him since he was in college, and it doesn't look like it's going to be changing anytime soon at 21 years old.

It's certainly not going to change against the Warriors. But I do wonder if Stott's, as he did increasingly game by game in the Denver series just says screw it. Like I'm going to play this young guy as much as I possibly can simply because like you said, Chris, he does the things that big men need to do at a higher level in today's game. That will absolutely be the case when they go small.

The interesting thing is going to be does Golden State stick with playing a big guy with the moving everybody over, right? Because in the absence of Durant, what they did is they started Bogot. Obviously Looney was awesome in the game. but they did play a big guy.

Whereas prior to, they'd really just rolled out that Draymond center. And so was that because they were playing the Rockets and they had Capella on the other side. And so they felt okay about the Draymond Capella and certainly being able to take away that pick and roll and him finishing lobs over and over again. And they were able to take that away with Draymond.

Or was that a function of playing Houston or is that what, if we assume they'll get Durant back at some point, they're going to keep getting to, which is having Draymond at the 5 and then moving Durant, Iguidale, into that starting lineup along with Curry and Thompson. Or, you know, I mean, you can play Cantor if they play Bogot. You can.

For sure, of course. But Bogot only played 12 minutes in game 6. But the one thing to note, though, is that with KD, he's supposed to only be out for sure game one. We'll see about two, three, and moving forward. And then DeMarcus Cousins is also swiftly on track to return during the series as well. So that's another wrinkle for Golden State because they don't need DeMarcus Cousins to win a championship, obviously. They don't need him.

However, Cousins, the versatility that he provides Steve Kerr in terms of the way he can play different lineups. Cousins, the size that he presents gives you a curveball that you can throw. out there. Everybody's expecting Golden State to go with their death lineup. With all small ball, with Draymond at the 5, KD at the 4, Igwadala, Curry, and Thompson on the floor as well. That's the lineup that everybody's

terrified of and everybody talks about. However, Cousins at least gives you an option to play big. Another guy who's bruising inside either as a playmaker or somebody who's beating up on mismatches if you're switching pick and rolls against him. So again, that's another issue for Portland. Like with Portland we're talking about

they need Rodney Hood to get back with Golden State, it's while Katie and DeMarcus cousins are coming back soon. Yeah. In four games against the Golden State Warriors this year, Damien Lillard averaged 28 points per game, shooting 48% from the field, 50% from three. We know he's got the hometown thing going. We know that though he struggled in that last series,

you certainly would never bet against him, much less against the Warriors, where he's had a lot of success, at least individually in the past. I know that there's a sentiment that this is going to be a quick series, but I certainly would not be surprised if we saw a game six in Portland, would you? I'd be fairly surprised. I would pick this in five.

I mean, I guess I wouldn't be stunned. I'd be wildly surprised. I think you could get two games of that duo being absolutely out of this world. Sure. Yeah, I think that's possible. I just worry about sort of what we saw in that Denver. series. Golden State is going to help off Aminu. They're going to help off Harkless.

I think that's going to be an issue for Portland in the half-court offense, and they're going to have to run in a lot of their half-court offense against a team that's going to score as much as Golden State is. Not going to get early offense transition opportunities quite as much against the Warriors. It's going to be a tough series for

Aminu and Harkas, as it already was against Denver. Yeah, they won that game 7 on the road. You see McCollum have the 37 in the game. It was not a good series for Lillard. I'm just counting on a couple really big games out of him and that, you know, maybe it becomes a little more competitive than people would have thought.

I mean, listen, we saw the Clippers take the Warriors to six games. So I certainly think Portland could. You know, Portland also, I'll tell you the other thing. In the absence of Durant, the one thing is, you know, the longer this goes on and the less that they get out of guys that come off of their bench, because the Warriors, you're talking big, big minutes for all of these guys. Portland can go a little bit deeper, you know, and I think this is also something that could help Milwaukee a great deal, because you're logging a ton of minutes for the starting guys without getting real great

contribution from your bench guys. And so can Portland, can they bring in some guys off their bench? And can Seth Curry and Zach Collins and Evan Turner? do some stuff off the bench, right? It sucks not having Rodney Hood. But again, like we've seen each one of those guys. Curry had one big game. Hood had a big game. Evan Turner had a big game seven.

Collins has had some really good moments. So, you know, if you get 15 out of somebody off the bench, that's a lot more than the Warriors get out of somebody off the bench generally. And so that's the other thing. Right. You're now a couple rounds in, high stakes, high intensity basketball. That's how the Clippers did it. We know that. Their bench guys got it done for them. But now they don't have nearly that talent.

But if they're able to win a couple games, it's going to be, I think, in part because some of these guys that came off that Portland bench did something you weren't necessarily expecting. Sure. That's definitely true. But ultimately, it still comes down to the starters, the stars in each team. And I think that final game between the Warriors and the Rockets, obviously Curry scoring 33 points in the second half goes without saying how magnificent it was to watch. But I thought specifically Golden State showed how impossible they can be to stop,

even without Kevin Durant, when they're in a situation, when they can just run pick and roll over and over and over. They ran so many possessions in that fourth quarter, regardless of the defense Houston was playing, just running that side pick and roll with Draymond Green, screening for Stefan Curry. They had counters depending on what Houston was doing,

and they just ran the same play other times as well. Because with Houston, if you're trapping the pick and roll, it gets the ball out of Curry's hands. But you're putting it into Dremont, who is an all-time great passer on the short role. He doesn't have a productive floater game. He only shoots 30% over the past five seasons on floaters. However, his passing ability is obviously legendary for his position.

And if you do that, you need to be sharp on your rotation. on that final dagger three that Clay hit, it's because Chris Small made a slight rotation just stunting to the corner on Andri Godala. So you need to be perfect in your rotations. And then if you're switching against the pick and roll, you're just allowing Steph to be Steph. He hit the pull-up three against PJ Tucker.

He had the layup driving down the lane against Tucker. And there was another time where there was miscommunication and he had the layup, I think with around 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter when that run really started of a bunch of pick-and-roll possessions for Golden State. And so for Portland, it's going to be tough. Like, you're not going to be able to successfully stop that with Cantor. He's just not that caliber of a defender. And then with Collins, as good as he is as a young big,

he just gets into constant foul trouble. That's going to be an issue for him in the series. So I'm not sure where the answers come from for Portland. Other than what you're saying, Chris, they need their bench guys to really, really step up on a nightly basis. But I think they've proven over the course of the season, that's quite a bit to ask. Evan Turner, you're not going to get 14 baskets,

from every every game. Rodney Hood is one of the streakiest players in the game. And Seth Curry, as good as he is as a shooter, he's not somebody you're going to rely on for buckets. This is going to come down to Lillard and McCollum going off, but also their defense being as sharp it has absolutely ever been, especially, especially when Golden State is spamming the pick and roll

like they did against the Rockets just to end that series. Yeah. I mean, the last time that these two teams met in the regular season was a Portland, to 129-107 win. They had four 30-point quarters in that game. They scored 31, 33, 30, and then 35, and they got contributions all up and down. And interestingly enough, in that game, Jake Lehman,

with the 26 minutes and 17 points. How about that? Seth Curry had to add 11. Got to have Jake Lehman. Got to have Jake Lehman. Hey, maybe that's a secret weapon. maybe that's the warrior killer. Jake Lehman, who knew?

He had some moments this season, to be fair. He did. Well, here's the thing. One of the things we've talked so much about how many problems Portland can have with Golden State, Portland has shown the ability to be able to really score against them. So Golden State has had some problems defensively against them also. In all those games, you're talking about these teams. I mean, you had, let's see, what did I just say, 129-10?

one time when they played 115 105 that was a Golden State win 110 1009 it was an overtime win at Golden State two days after Christmas for Portland and

12597 Golden State beat them in November good God all right so we got one outlier you know just smashed game there's some pretty good games in there though between these two

We're going to get some competitive games for sure. I would still pick Golden State and five in the series, though, but it'll be competitive. I'll say six. All right, let's move to the other side. Holy hell, that Kauai Leonard shot. I mean, I still can't believe it. I still can't believe.

You could shoot that. I saw my buddy Lee Ellis from the starters. He posted a video yesterday where he had recreated the Lillard shot earlier in the playoffs and he went out to a park and he was recreating the kawai one and you could shoot that a hundred million times and you're never getting it to bounce like that ever like you can't recreate it but it made for a super funny video to say the least in just attempting to get the ball to bounce like that but would you take the whole the suspense of it all what do you do

to make it bounce like that hook it up to a wire or something like that that's the only one way I can think of. I really don't know. I mean, you could do that a million times and never get it to happen. You have Embed with the amazing contest. You have the suspense of it bouncing high off the rim. And so everybody holding their collective breath. And then obviously it dropping, Kauai showing the emotion, Mbid showing the emotion and then being comforted by Marcosol. And let's start with Philly real quick. I know they covered Philly at length on heat check. But I don't think that this is some grand statement about Philly and what they can and cannot do going forward, what kind of coach Brett Brown is,

whether Ben Simmons and Joe L.M.B can play together, on and on and on. This is, you know, years ago I read this Sports Illustrated article and Jeff Van Gundy, this has always stuck with me. It was an article about coaching, and he was saying, we can go to a timeout,

and we're down by one. And we go to a timeout, and I draw up the perfect, play. And he says, and my guys go out there and they execute it. And the ball swings exactly where we want it to. And the guy's open and he rises up and he takes the shot. And that ball is in the air and it's good coach, bad coach, good coach, bad coach, good coach, bad coach. And I always think about that when these games come down to something like that and a guy makes or misses a shot that replays in my mind, good coach, bad coach.

And I thought about that, you know, obviously regarding Barrett Brown as he's become a big topic, though Joe L&B did stand up for him. And frankly, everything that has to do with rosters and what we think about rosters and what's going to work and what's not going to work, Toronto was better than Philly. I thought that. We both thought they were going to win that series. And frankly, I was surprised that it was a game seven and it took Kauai Leonard hitting that shot at the buzzer to beat him. What do you think? With Brett Brown, it's interesting. He's definitely a good coach.

And I thought even when the Sixers were tanking, Brett Brown did a good job in terms of player development, considering the hand that he was dealt. And I think what's sort of been overlooked with this current team, a team that's good, it's competitive, it's a playoff team, is that there's still been a lot of difficulties for him as a coach with the personnel changes when the trades that were made for Butler this season and then for Tobias Harris.

so it is not easy to integrate new players into your system and to lose other key players as well. Markell Fultz was an utter bust for him. Zaire Smith got hurt. He was somebody who was supposed to be a spark off the bench as a defensive player, but he got hurt earlier and was not able to contribute this season. They constantly had pieces coming in and out of the lineup, and that's hard for a coach to deal with and build a lineup. Never mind the fact that, again, to touch back on what we mentioned earlier,

your two stars have joined forces with another star in Jimmy Butler, and they're an imperfect fit. It's not an easy job for Brett Brown with what he has with the Sixers, and for them to go seven games against the Toronto Raptors, who, by the way, were favored. A lot of people picked them to win this series easily, for that matter. They did a good job making adjustments with the personnel that they had. I thought putting Embed on Seacum was a great adjustment by Brett Brown.

I use Ben Simmons more frequently and that dunker's spot on the baseline used him a little bit more often in on-ball screens. I still want to see Brett Brown incorporate more pick and roll with Simmons at the five, like I wrote about after game one

of the playoffs for Philly this year, as I've written about it in the past, I want to see more Simmons in that pick and roll with or without Embed on the floor. I would like to see more of that. But with that said, Brown has done a good job.

And I think the big question for Philly is going to be if you were to let him go, Well, who are you going to get? I mean, who's a better coach than Brett Brown? It could easily be the first sign, or maybe not the first sign, another sign of a dysfunctional franchise if you do fire Brett Brown, considering the job that he has done and considering the fact that almost every single player

that was asked about him during their exit interviews this week, praise Brett Brown, supported Brett Brown as a coach. I think that says a lot for players to do that publicly. There's no BS with what they were saying. Don't just read the quotes. Listen to the way they're saying it. I think that means a lot. So if the Sixers do fire Brett Brown,

you've got to have somebody else who's clearly a better coach. And I'm not sure who an obvious option is. I know there was rumblings when Brian Kalangelo was there that they liked Jay Wright. I'm not sure if that would even be an option at this point. And I'm not sure Jay Wright would necessarily be a clear upgrade over Brett Brown. I think there's just some tweaks that they need to make to the roster in addition to having their younger guys continuing to improve as well, like him beat Anne Simmons, obviously. And I'm going to tell you this.

You've got one of your best players in the second friggin year in the NBA. Like somehow everybody has lost sight to that when you're talking about Simmons. He's in his second year. Exactly. Last is the one thing about Simmons. I have criticized Ben when it comes to him

shooting with the wrong hand more than anybody, but he's still only his second season. And like we expect a lot of these young players to be what they're going to be when they're 27, 28 years old. It's outrageous. It is outrageous. It is outrageous. to be much more than he is now is ridiculous.

He's already a very good player with a chance to be super special for a long, long time. All right, just to extend the point a little bit more, because I heard a lot of, you know, Simmons slander or, oh, maybe they should move off of Ben Simmons or whatever. And I'm thinking to myself, this is like crazy world stuff now. Second year, here's if you judge guys in their second year in the league, okay? C.J. McCallum, 15 minutes a game, 6.8 points per game. Jimmy Buckets, 26 minutes, 8.6 points per game. Dremont, 22 minutes, 6 points a game.

Kyle Lowry, 25 minutes, 9.6 points per game. Kauai Leonard, 31 minutes, 12 points per game. Janice, 31 minutes, 13 points per game. Siakum, 21 minutes, 7 points per game, on and on and on. I mean, we might want to wait a little bit to we determine what a guy is in the league. I mean, because I just listed you all kinds of guys that are left in these finals. And if you would have judged them after a year two,

and this guy made the frigging All-Star team, I don't particularly get it. I think some part it is we've now conditioned ourselves through social media and whatever to react so quickly to everything. But patience is certainly a virtue, certainly with great, great players especially. So Brett Brown's counting on that. That's not easy.

Embed has been. in and out, had 50 different ailments during these playoffs. That's the real concern, by the way. That's the real concern. No, you had, you had tendonitis, you had the shits, you had a upper respiratory thing. It was, it was just always something with him. Then you have Jimmy Bucket, who's like, by all accounts, very difficult to deal with. Tobias Harris, who was just the best scorer and rebounder off a pretty good team in the Western

conference that now is coming over and has asked to fit in and play a role. Like one of the things we lose side of, we think so much of coaching, I'm telling you so much more of coaching is about dealing with the personalities in that locker room on that team in that moment than it is making the right adjustment, making the right X's and O's call. You know, I heard him getting blamed for the shot clock violations. Like, it's like, come on, man, players have to make plays. and one of the most important things with these coaches,

like he ain't making the play down the stretch. He's not making those plays. And it's like, oh, but now he's the one that should be the scapegoat if they catch some shot clock violations or whatever. Like you have no idea what was drawn up in that huddle. You don't know if they broke away from the play. You don't know what the hell was supposed to happen. And so without that context,

I would just tell you that dealing with personality, in any business or any team is such an underrated trait and for him to have to deal with an inomatic guy like Gambide where you had all these ailments and all this stuff and then Butler and then Simmons, who's kind of a to himself guy, but he's in his second year in the league. And people are already talking about how,

oh, he might need to go somewhere else and he might need to get traded because it's not a great fit, whatever. And then you've got another guy who's in a friggin' contract year who was just leading his team in scoring and rebounding. And you've got to get him to fit in. Like Brett Brown, that ain't easy, man. That is not easy, much less to pull it off, get to a game seven, and then have all the guys talking great about you.

After you've coached 5,000 losses and doing it. I mean, it's crazy to me. This guy could win every game for the next 10 years and never have a 500 record because he took all the losses he took there. That's worth something to me. And so I don't know, man. Like, I think it's goofier than hell that they're talking about getting rid of him. I really do.

Getting rid of Brown or getting rid of Ben Simmons, which part? Both. They both be insane. Yeah. They got beat by a better team. They're not better than the Raptors. They're not better. They are not a better team than the Raptors.

They weren't for 82 games and they weren't during the playoffs. The better team won. I get it if the better team loses, but the better team won. And so that's why I've just like, at a loss of some of the topics that come out after that. You know, I think another thing that Brett Brown was

criticized for in this series was, especially in Game 7, people talked about him playing Joel and Bede too much. I mean, come on, what are your other options here? John Schumann tweeted this from NBA.com earlier where in over the last four games, the Sixers played 45 minutes with him beat off the floor and they were outscored by 84 points over those 45 minutes.

Oh, and it's always an easy answer. It's always an easy answer as to what he should have done, right? The easiest answer is, hey, how about your roster doesn't have sacks of shit behind him that you can play without being minus two points per minute? It's like he gets slaughtered if he puts him on the bench, literally slaughtered if he puts him on the bench. And also, I still wish they used Simmons at the five a little bit more. You can't do it for too long. Ben Simmons just doesn't have the physicality or the toughness to play the five for long, sustainable stretches like Janice Hunter de Kumpo does,

who was just bigger, stronger, and just flat out a tougher player. And that's not a knock on Ben Simmons because Simmons is a far superior passer than Janus. He has greater strengths than Janus does in different categories. But I do wish that they use, again, Ben at the five a little bit more. with a little bit more pick and roll in situations, Zimbabed was on the floor, rather than during those minutes using Boban out there. I agree with you.

I agree with you. This is the one. If you want to kick the guy, you're hitting it on the head. Boban only played 28 minutes in the series, though. It's not like he played a lot. He played 28 minutes. No, but here's why.

Mike Scott got killed. Jonah Boulder got killed. Greg Monroe got killed. Amir Johnson got killed. Here's what I tell you. You could have gotten away with. it probably more often. Number one, it gets Simmons, you know,

let McConnell take some minutes. He'll chase Lowry around and piss him off. And then he could give you whatever, 10 minutes in the game if you want to get the kid some rest. And Mark was not going to take Simmons down in the post and just eat him alive. He just wasn't. That wasn't their offense.

And so you actually could have gotten away with that Simmons on Gasol more. You could have. I mean, maybe Toronto would have thrown. Gassal down in the post, but I doubt it. I doubt it. I mean, he's just standing at the top of the key 90% of these possessions. And by the way, you're probably okay with that. I mean, Gassol

post stuff is not the most efficient play at the stage of his career and it's not the most efficient play within that offense either. I thought Tobias Harris had a fine enough job in those situations where they did post Mark Gassol. That's really the one thing. It's like in game seven, playing and beat for 45

minutes, it didn't work out. Like he was clearly tired, exhausted at the of that game, but that was the risk Brett Brown had a take. And they were right in there at the end. And if it went overtime, if that shot rims out instead of rimming in, we might be talking about how those Sixers are going to the Eastern Conference finals. That's what I'm telling you. Is anybody

talking about it, Joel M. Beds' minutes, if Kaua doesn't make the shot, hell no. It's not a topic. It's not a topic. Harkening back to what I was saying earlier, that Sports Illustrated article, good coach, bad coach, good coach, bad coach. You get picked apart if that shot goes in.

And if you don't, it's like, The job Brett Brown did. Game 7 on the road. They win against a team that had the better record all year. It's crazy stuff, man. Seriously. It's crazy. Yeah.

Like we talked about last week, I still tend to put blame and praise on the players because, you know, coaches can only do so much. And especially in a game like basketball where historically it comes down to which team has the best players, which team has the best star. I think in like the NFL, it's a little bit different for me. I'm over the full week. how much game planning goes in by position for a full NFL staff to prepare for another

opponent. It's a little bit more like a chess match than basketball is. And that's, that doesn't diminish the importance of coaches. There's still incredibly important things coaches do in the NBA, obviously, with rotations and personality management up and down the list. It goes without saying. But players play in coaches coach. And Sixers had a great series. And they're a young team and they're only going to get better moving forward, assuming that MBE stays healthy, assuming Ben Simmons continues improving,

and assuming this summer, it breaks right for them. They have big questions moving forward, no different than the team that they lost to with the Toronto Raptors. Like, this could just be a one-year wonder against the Milwaukee Bucks.

It's going to be incredibly difficult. For Kauai Leonard, again, like this whole series against the Sixers, it sometimes seemed like he was the only guy who could do anything on the offensive end of the floor.

That'll be magnified even more against the bucks, Chris. You are preaching about this Easter conference finals that's about to be coming up after these words. Today's episode, The Mismatch, is brought to you by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Here are a few excuses you may have for not wearing a seatbelt. I'm not going very far. I'm in a rush.

It's too uncomfortable. Sometimes I just forget. Don't kid yourself. There's no such thing as a good excuse for not buckling up. And if you've used any of these excuses or others, you're putting yourself at risk of injury or death. In 2017, more than 10,000 people were unbuckled when they were. killed in car crashes. That's 51% of people killed in motor vehicle crashes that were not wearing a seatbelt. No matter what kind of vehicle you drive, wearing your seatbelt is the best defense in a crash.

Even when you sit in the back seat, you still need to buckle up. That goes for when you ride in taxis, use ride-sharing services too. Cops are on the lookout and riding tickets, so why take the risk? In 2017 alone, seatbelt saved nearly 15,000 lives. So do the smart thing and buckle up. Every trip day or night. Click it or tick it. So here's the thing. When I watched Toronto throughout the year, I thought this was a very good passing team that really got the ball popping around. They ended up, it was so much isolation in so many of these games against Philly. And you didn't feel like it was everybody kind of doing something and everybody contributing. And you had the one great star, but then

everybody kind of doing their party. You did have a couple of big. big Siakum games, but then you had some really down Seacom games. And you go and look and you juxtapose it versus the team they're going to play in the bucks. You had Kawhi Leonard average 31 points, okay? You had Seacom average 21. The only other player that averaged double digits for Toronto in these playoffs is Kyle Lowry.

Whereas Milwaukee's got Janice, Middleton, Bledsoe, Hill, Brogden. that's five right there that are going to average double digits or half so far. And then you have Mertich average in nine, Kinnaten average in eight, Brooke Lopez averaging eight, Ilyosovic getting you six. And then, I mean, you've got a couple more guys. You got a Baca with nine, Gassall with eight, Danny Green with eight. But once you get past that, it's Norman Powell six, Van Vleet four.

I mean, they are so much deeper and so much more productive, so much farther down their roster. Milwaukee is. This has truly been Kauai and then you don't really know that's the one thing you've been able to count on. But I mean, the guys averaging over 30 points a game for God's sakes.

You've only got two other guys on their team that have averaged double digits so far. Whereas you're a bucket away from frigging eight guys averaging double digits for the books. And I think that's where they can get the Raptors. And that'll be a big problem. Don't you?

Yeah. I think they have a lot of guys that they can throw at Kauai with Chris Middleton. He was the primary defender over the course of the season. Defended Kauai for about 70% of their possessions over the full season. But Brogden also did a good job. You can put Yannis on him as well. I'm not sure they would start that way. I don't think they should.

It's pretty clear what Milwaukee should do. They should have Yannis on Conoco on Pascal Seacum, which could try to effectively take him out of the series, allowing Janus to roam a little bit when Siakum is spotting up, causing havoc in the passing lanes. I think that'll be the best use of Janus. Then Middleton did a really fine job over the season defending Leonard. And obviously, Kauai, when he's in playoff mode, is on a different level. But I think that's how you should start with Janus on Seacom and Middleton on Kauai and Leonard.

But again, like you said, Chris, they have other guys that can throw at him with Brogden. Maybe even on a switch. If you're switching screens, Eric Bletso can at least try to survive. survive, even though he's at a size disadvantage against Kauai Leonard. For Toronto, this goes without saying it's true for every series, but they can't be solely reliant on Kauai Leonard to win this series. They're going to need Kyle Laueri to have the best series of his playoff career. Marcosol is going to need to be more aggressive shooting three-pointers, I think,

because Brooke Lopez is going to sag off him, just like Gasol is going to sag off Lopez. Gasol is going to have to have a big series shooting the ball as well. he shot only 27% in the series against the Sixers, shot 50% in the series against the Magic at 39% for the whole playoffs. So he's going to need to be even better than that in this series to help close the gap for Toronto. But this is still a close series. It would not surprise me at all.

This one goes seven, Chris. What about you? Oh, I agree with you completely. Very, very hard to call. Seven. Okay. I actually tweeted this out during the season. I went back to try to find it.

You know, I see every one of these teams in person, at least once. And the two times that I left the arena most impressed with teams this season were the Bucks and the Raptors, where I walked out and I was like, oh, my God, that team is friggin awesome. You know, like both of them. So I think these are two great teams. I really do. Two great teams who obviously have, this is superstar stuff with Janice and Kauai. That's the bigger question. who has the bigger series of those two guys?

It's a hard call, isn't it? For sure. They play different games. I know. But like, all right, so Yonis is average 27 so far. Kauai's average 31 so far. It feels like Kauai will probably have the bigger numbers simply because there's more on his shoulders, as we mentioned.

Yonis can have a game where George Hill, you know, and Pat Kinnaten, as we saw, you know, Conantin. Conantin. I've screwed up this game. guy, hey, let me say this. I've screwed up that guy's name since he was a pitcher. Since he was a baseball player. I've been screwed up that guy's name. But the truth is, those guys came in and flipped games. That doesn't happen with the Raptors. They don't bring in Van Vleet and Norman Powell and flip games, whereas the bucks, they do bring some guys in. And so

it feels like the load is heavier on Kauai. But I'll tell you this, in three games this year versus Toronto, Yannis averaged 27 and 15. So he had his days against them during the regular season for sure. Sure. The tough thing for Toronto in the series is who defends Yonis? And they're going to start out with Seacum. He's going to be the primary defender on Yannis, just like Yonis is probably going to be the primary defender on him.

I think if they're able to get O.G. and Ninobe back at some point this series, I think his presence would help give you another long defensive body who can at least try to contain Janus, especially if he's getting out in transition, trying to sag off him a little bit in the half court. I think having Ananoi will be important, but Kawhi Leonard very rarely defended Janus during the season. He logged 31 possessions defending Janus, according to NBA.com's tracking data. You can watch the film, and that's not quite accurate. It was far fewer possessions than that where he actually defended Janus. I do wonder if at some point they turned to that during the series. I'm doubtful.

I think they'll have to go with Siakum or try to, if Anandobi comes back, him as well, it's going to have to be those guys. Because if you're going with Kawhi Leonard, again, that's going to just sap him of so much energy that he needs on the offensive end of the floor. Or you're taking him off of Chris Middleton as well. So it's a difficult matchup for Toronto in that sense because Kauai, you want him on Chris Middleton, not on Yianas into the Kupo, but you don't have your second best defender against Yianas and Oji Annanovi. He's somebody who benefit them a lot if he can come back. I expect this to be a great series. I would lean towards the books. I told you this last series.

Everybody made it all because it's a bigger market and because it's a, because it was Kyrie and all that crap that was going on. And Boston was such a disappointment. Everybody made that all about Boston. But I said, I do think there's, there's a part of this year where people are not giving the proper credit to Milwaukee, who is awesome and were awesome all year long and had this. this crazy great point differential in 160 games.

And I mean, they're a great team, man. They are a great team. And everybody made that about Boston. But maybe just maybe that was a little bit about Milwaukee. One quick thing, Kev, do you know, I do not know if there is a myriad of languages that Janus speaks or any of their players for that matter? And the reason that this would be of relevance is this. Ross Golda one day,

tweeted out earlier, a cool nugget. Cool nugget from the Raptors very international team. Sergei Baca speaks French to Pascal Seaccom, Spanish to Mark Gasol, and English to the rest of the team.

So when Serge and Gasol doubled Joel Embed, they would yell to where to help from in Spanish so that Embed who speaks French could not understand. Do we know if there's, Do we know the language barriers that could beset the Milwaukee Bucks with this very international Raptors team who can communicate to each other in all these different languages? I didn't know that was such an advantage.

That's actually quite fascinating. It is. I know that's a great nugget, right? That he would use a different language when yelling it so that Embed, who spoke French, could not understand. That is unbelievable. Anyway, I think we're both kind of on the same page on the Bucks Raptor. So we think it's going to be Bucks Warriors. We might as well get our picks out there before this thing starts.

Yeah, I would go Bucks and Seven and Warriors in five. All right. So we got our conference finals picks of what we think is going to be the NBA finals. A couple quick hits before we get out of here, Kev. What the hell with the Lakers ending up with Frank Vogel and Jason Kidd? Has there ever been so much reporting around the hiring of an assistant coach? It's more about Jason Kidd than it is about Frank Vogel. That can't be good for Frank Vogel, can't it, Chris?

No, so all right, at what point is Jason Kidd the guy on the sidelines of Frank Vogel's God? Like, do we say the spring? Does he make it to March? Is that the over under? I'll put it there. I'll put Frank Vogel at March. I'll give him a season. I'll take the over.

Okay. All right. I'll take the over. But it's one of the weirdest, weirdest coaching hirings that I can remember with everything that's leaked, getting details of meetings and details of how interviews went. The constant interest in Jason Kidd throughout this entire process, very odd. It's a symptom of a dysfunctional franchise. Not just a symptom. It's right on their face.

It's a rash right on their face. This is a dysfunctional franchise. when everything's leaking. Kev, I was a Frank Vogel fan. You know, I thought he was very good with the Pacers. But let me say a couple of things. It has not been a great look for Frank Vogel, for Nate McMillan to move over and be awesome,

you know, losing his best player and damn near getting home court advantage in the Eastern Conference. It has also not been a good look for Frank Vogel to leave Orlando and Steve Clifford be awesome. You know what I mean? Like, you typically look and I don't know, if you leave a gig, you hope the next guy like fails.

So it makes you look better. Like neither of those guys have failed in the least. And so I was always a Vogel fan, but I cannot deny the Pacers have not been worse off for firing him. And Orlando has not been worse off for firing him. So I don't know, I don't know where to go. I just don't get it. I don't get it.

I mean, it's like you ask when was the over under for Vogel before a kid gets elevated to the position of head coach? I mean, this is a guy who is planning his escape from Brooklyn and didn't tell any of his assistants. The assistants that he brought on staff while he was trying to make his move to the Milwaukee Bucks. He's somebody who berated, berated Lawrence Frank before demoting him while they were both with the Nets. Never mind the off-court stuff with Jason Kidd that he is pled guilty to as well. It's just very odd that this is the guy that they're bringing in as an assistant. Speaking of teams that have been better off since firing you,

I think the Milwaukee books have been okay. I mean, they literally hired. They hired two guys. I mean, did they not have the meeting? And they're like, all right, well, where did Frank coach last? And they like, Orlando. Like, well, how do you do there? It did terrible.

Well, Orlando, they still suck, right? No, actually, they made the playoffs. Wait, what? And then, yeah, where was Jason? a kid. What was he doing? He's coaching the bucks. How'd they do? They won 60 freaking games. Like, what? Both franchises that they left got like way better when they left. And you hired both of them. I don't know. You figured out. One thing on Kid with Janus, he gets credited a lot for helping Yonis with his player development. Yannis himself has credited

Jason Kidd for some of the work he did while he was there. But one thing that does ball bothering me with that conversation is people acting like it was a big deal for a kid to put the ball in Janus's hands. Larry Drew did that during Janus's rookie season. The ball was in Janus's hands when he played overseas in the second division Greek league. I mean, you can go back and look at footage of Janus. I remember years ago, one of the first draft articles I wrote when I wrote for Celtics blog on SB Nation was about Janus, this mysterious player. And the greatest strength he had was his ability to take the ball from coast to coast in the open floor. The question was how his game would develop in the half court at the time, but his ability to dribble the ball was never a question.

You don't have to be some coaching genius or some great player developmental coach to put the ball on Janus onto the coupos hands. It's what he's always done and what he always will do. So for kid to be credited for that, I think is silly. Maybe there's a lot of stuff that happened behind the scenes that we don't know and weren't unable to speak on, but Janus has expressed in support of him with the job that he did. I'm sure kids' experience played a factor as well, especially as Janus was blossoming into stardom, something that kid experienced firsthand as a player himself.

But in that aspect has always been a little bit baffling to me. The system Jason Kidd ran with the Bucks was an embarrassment. It was a backwards system that was disadvantageous. Listen, I do buy. I do buy that he communicated and helped him grow and make the transition, which was not going to be an easy one, into the NBA. No doubt. And played a role in his development.

much like I believe that Mark Jackson played a role in the development of Clay and Steph. Absolutely. Former point guard coaching two young guards, no doubt about it. It helps. But the system stunk, though, and it worked against Janus. Well, and this reeks of we're hiring Jason Kidd so that when LeBron inevitably hates Frank Vogel, there'll be somebody on the bench that can talk to him, which is exactly what they did when they hired David Blatt in Cleveland and they put Ty Lou next to him.

Right? It's like, all right. That's what's happening. It's 100% what's happening. So when he tells David Blatt to F off, somebody there with some power can talk to LeBron. And so Jason Kidd is going to have to be the LeBron whisperer because he'll tell Frank Vogel to F off, just like he told Eric Spolster to F off, just like he told David Blatt to Foss. off. I mean, it's what's going to happen. And so that's what this reeks of. Yeah. I know Dave

McManamanman from ESPN mentioned this recently, either on a tweet or on a TV hit or something like that, but what people are going to be watching, the microscope the Lakers are under, it's going to be things like, who's LeBron talking to in huddles? Does he go straight to kid or does he go to Vogel? The microscope that's going to be on Vogel is going to be unlike anything that he's ever experienced as a coach, unlike anything most coaches have ever experienced, experienced, especially with the way this happened, and especially who Jason Kidd is as a former player, as a coach of two teams already, it's going to be another drama-filled season for the Lakers.

And we're only getting started with the summer. No, it's totally set up for sabotage. You know this. Because what happens is when LeBron is there to bitch about what took place. And man, why doesn't he play me with so-and-so, or why don't we do this or why don't we do that? Guess what? him and all those other guys like he'll have Maverick and all

the rest of the crew and his agent and clutch. Guess who they're going to be bitching to? Jason Kidd. Until they can stage the coup and Jason Kidd's job will then be to defend Frank Vogel. But he ain't going to defend Frank Vogel. He's going to be like, you know what? You're right. I don't know what the hell is going on here.

But if we can get Jeannie to get rid of this stupid ass, you know, then I'll get the job. Like I see it happening. It's exactly. how this is going to play out. It's quite predictable. It's just about how we get there. That's what I feel.

I'm looking forward to how we get there. It's going to be exciting. Look, here's the one thing I will say. LeBron historically has been, for the most part, quite supportive of his coaches. Publicly, it's just what happens behind the scenes. That's the question.

The shenanigans that happened there. And he's gotten what he's wanted for the most part over his career and it's worked out for him. It's going to be fascinating to watch this unfold. All right. Two more quick hits. One, John Beeline, that took me by total surprise this morning when he took the Cavs job. Just because, you know, it came out of nowhere.

I had not heard anything about Beeline talking to the Cleveland Cavaliers. I mean, I've watched college basketball for years. I was a fan of his West Virginia teams. I was a fan for sure of his Michigan teams. I've actually met him before, and he is one of the kindest guys I've come across in sports. I'm a huge Beeline fan. I think the guy's a basketball genius. obviously coaches success in the NBA is generally dependent upon the roster that you hand them.

But if there's one thing I have known of B-Line, it is his ability over whatever. I think 44 years of being a winner in coaching. This guy could coach basketball. He's another coach that other coaches look up to, whether it's for clinics or anything else. He'll maximize what he's got. I mean, that's what he's been known for. And hell, all those Michigan guys, I mean, I guess we could take away LaVern. they've all looked better playing for Michigan than they have in the NBA.

You know? Karis Lavert is maybe the one exception of the guys that have been drafted this decade. Yeah. Tim Hardaway, Trey Burke, Nick Stouskis, Glenn Robinson, Karas Lever, DJ Wilson, Mo Wagner, and Duncan Robinson had a cup of coffee this year with the heat. Each of those guys got better in Michigan. Hey, don't leave out Mitch McGarry. Don't you leave out Mitch McGarry?

That's right. I forgot Mitch McGarry. That's right. What is he? What did I just read the other day? he's like a professional something. What is he? He's like a fly fisherman or some shit. I don't know. I would, I would love to read a short feature, not a long feature, but a short mini feature on Mitch McGarry, where he's at now, what he's doing.

No, he's a professional bowler. I said fly fishing. Really? He is a professional bowler. Wow. I just pulled up his Wikipedia. Does he like bowl against, what's that dude's name? Pete Weber? that guy that's like the famous bowler that does all like the antics and shit is Mitch McGarry bowl against him that's what I got to see I would quite enjoy watching Mitch McGarry

bowl now at this point I thought with McGarry's hustle and attitude and tenacity he played with that Michigan would translate well to the NBA but it did not at all he had much greater interests other than hooping clearly

that's for sure he's only 26 professional bowling hey and if it works out for him for him. He may get one day enshrined in the National Bowling Hall of Fame, which I saw a million times. I saw it a million times as a child. Do you know where it is?

It's in St. Louis. It was right next to Bush Stadium where the Cardinals play. So when my dad would take me to games, I would see this bowling Hall of Fame that was next door all the time. It was right next to the baseball stadium. So I actually know where the bowling Hall of Fame is. There you go. How many times have you been there?

never what how can you know i've gone you were so close to it i never went to the bowling hall fame you never thought hey i'm gonna go check this out do you want to know something hilarious i did go to a hall of fame this year of something that i never thought i would when the all-star game was in charlotte this year and they had the nascar hall of fame it was across the street from my hotel and so me and my producer walked over to the nascar hall of Fame. You'll love this. We walk in and there's like nobody there, nobody,

walking around, looking at the exhibit. It's weird because I'm like, where are people, right? NASCAR Hall of Fame. So I'm kind of walking around. We run into two people, all right? Who is it? It's Darryl Morey and his daughter.

And I've known Darryl for a long time, despite what I say about his best player. I like Darrell a great deal. And so it's me, my producer, Darrell Morey, his daughter, and then there's like a scarce amount of people in this NASCAR Hall of Fame. He's like, I wanted to check it out too, you know? So there we are walking around. He's probably doing analytics about NASCAR at this very moment. So we're walking around. We get done at the NASCAR Hall of Fame, which is totally worth going to and it's fun to do.

I go back to the hotel. You're going to love this. I go back to the hotel and I'm going to lay down to take a nap before the events of the evening. I flip on the TV, bro, the Daytona 500 is going on. The NASCAR season, like, opened, and it's the biggest event of the whole year. And we had absolutely no idea that this was happening. And so I would encourage anybody, if you ever want to go to the NASCAR Hall of Fame, go the day of the Daytona 500, because there will be. be nobody there unless Daryl Morey isn't down to his daughter.

Maybe they'll be there. But I called my producer and I'm like, bro, the effing Daytona 500 is going on. I'm like, no wonder there was nobody at the NASCAR Hall of Fame. Anybody gives a shit about NASCAR watching the race. I don't think Daryl knew it was going on either. It's so funny. Oh, so good. All right.

I have one other B-Lyin comment. There's a lot of stuff on Twitter yesterday remarking how he's 60. six years old, like, they hired an old coach. I don't get it. I don't understand. So what if he's 66? He's a great coach. And oh, by the way, like, I don't see anybody talking about how Terry Stotz is 61 or or Mike

Dantonie is 68 or Alvin Gentry is 64. I don't see any of that. But it's like with this new hire, there's just been this wave of B-Line 66. They hired an old coach. I'm like, so what? He has historically had great offensive systems at the, colleges he's coached at. He historically has been tremendous with player development. And as you said, Chris, he's respected across the basketball industry at the college and NBA level in terms of

connections and the ability to hire top assistants. That'll be beneficial for the Cleveland Cavaliers. It's a great hire for them. It does not matter that he's 66 years old. There are six other head coaches over 60 years old. Really, it's no big deal to me that he's one of the older coaches in the league third oldest behind Antonio and Popovich does not matter. I'm always a little bit mused when people talk about age too. And as someone who gets accused

of looking much younger than I am, I would like to report to everybody that for a point of reference, Leonard Hamilton, the head coach at Florida State, who I will imagine many people are aware of, is 70. Leonard Hamilton is 70 years old.

He might have the most unbelievable believable look versus age ever. But Leonard Hamilton 70. Nick Sabin, 67. Nobody wants to hire Nick Saban because he's too old. I mean,

it's goofy. Ridiculous. It is. The problem is Bline looks old. He does. He looks old. He looks like an old college professor. And so that's the problem.

But like Leonard Hamilton doesn't look old. So nobody's sitting there like, God, your frigging college basketball coach is 70. Like nobody even notices. It looks like a college. What does a college professor look like, Chris? Does Joe Ingalls look like an NBA player? Does John Beeline look like an NBA head coach?

Oh, I stand by that. I stand by John Beeline looks like a college professor. And I stand by Joe Ingalls. All right, last thing, you are in Chicago. Yes, I am. Because the draft lottery is tomorrow night. Now, are you going to be in the room? Yes, I will be locked in the room.

I am looking forward to that experience. I will be one of the first people in the world to know who is going to land Zion Williamson. happy about that, but I'm going to miss out on the live madness that's going to occur on Twitter and Reddit and ESPN or in a podcast. I'm going to miss that. Do you feel like you have laser like focus so that if there are any shenanigans that take place for the Knicks to get Zion Williamson that you can, you'll be able to figure it out and point it out? Yeah, I will I will have my eyes open for a furs and envelope or a weighted lottery ball. A weighted lottery.

looking for that. A weighted lottery ball, too. I'll tell you this. I've gone on tankathon.com, and I can't tell you how many times I've played that simulation lottery that they got on there. That's a great site. Isn't it? Oh, it's great.

That's such a great site. Yeah. I mean, obviously it is for people like you that love tanking, despite the fact that they're going to be, I want to report no lottery picks in the Eastern Conference finals in either team's rotation. So I suppose there is a different way to build. I found that interesting. A little tidbit for everybody that's excited about the lottery.

Yeah, good stat. The best chances at getting the number one picker, of course, the Knicks, the Cleveland Cavaliers, and the Phoenix Sons, followed by the Bulls and the Hawks. Now, what is the protection on the Dallas one that is going to Atlanta? Top five. That's to five. So essentially top four protection.

because it could only land in the top four. Right. So that one will be very interesting to keep an eye on. And obviously the Grizzlies one, which they are slotted at eight right now. If it is nine or below, it gets conveyed to the Boston Celtics. So those are the two picks that are being swapped that are high, except for, I guess, oh, the tail end of the lottery, the Sacramento ones going to Boston. Unless it's number one, then it goes to Philadelphia.

But there's only a 1% chance of that happening. You never know. but it's a possibility nonetheless. Okay, so that is only protected at one. If Sacramento jumped up there and got in the top four. No, no, no. It goes to Philadelphia if it's one and it goes to Boston if it's two, three, four, or 14. Oh, wow.

Yeah. Interesting. Okay. All right. Well, you'll be there tomorrow night. It is certainly a massive, it does feel like a huge one because it's Zion. I think Davis was the last time we got this excited. It felt like the prize was feasibly franchise changing.

Absolutely. It's Zion, but it's also the teams that land a higher pick, depending on who they are, could increase their odds of landing the guy you just mentioned, Anthony Davis in a trade this summer. It could change the course of their plans. It's one of the most important days in NBA history in terms of the caliber of prospect that's available, considering some of the teams, the positions that they're in, to make a splash this summer.

and if it's a trade market or in free agency from that matter, too. It's a big day. It's a big day for the NBA, for sure. I'm with it. And certainly that whole Zion thing, he is easily the most famous that we have had come out. I mean, there have been really good players that you knew if you got the number one pick you were going to get him.

But it's been a while. It's been a while since it felt like this. Like it's like, oh my God, whoever gets this number one picks getting Zion. Yeah. I mean, he has three, 2 million Instagram followers and he's not even in the NBA yet. My God. You know, those numbers are superficial and they ultimately don't matter in life.

But for a player in their branding in there and all that, it's quite fascinating how much of a star he already is before ever playing a single NBA game. And it's like you said, most famous player to enter the league besides LeBron. Yep. That's going to do it for the Ringer NBA show, The Mismatch today. Please give us a rating and review on iTunes, five stars, five stars. Dick what you're hearing, and we will talk to you next week.