The Ringer NBA Show - Looking at Chicago’s Surprising Season. Plus, Are the Bucks the Championship Favorites?

Episode Date: January 24, 2022

Wos is joined by Amin Elhassan of Meadowlark Media and SiriusXM NBA Radio to discuss the Bulls’ surprising season and investigate whether their success is sustainable in the playoffs (2:30). Then, they get into the Bucks and whether they should be considered the championship favorites (18:49). Host: Wosny Lambre Guest: Amin Elhassan Production: Carlos Chiriboga Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I'm Derek Thompson, long-time writer with the Atlantic Magazine on tech, culture, and politics. There is a lot of noise out there, and my goal is to cut through the headlines, loud tweets, and hot takes in my new podcast, Plain English. I'll talk to some of the smartest people I know to give you clear viewpoints and memorable takeaways. Plain English starts November 16th. Listen for free on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. podcast feed. Of course, I'm Big Was, A.k.a. Wazley Lambrain. I'm joined by a very special guest. Amino Hassan of Metal Arc Media, of serious NBA radio, of the Cinephode podcast. I mean, you know, I mean, I feel like you actually one of the few multimedia cats out there in a sense that TV, radio, podcast, web shows.

I mean, there's nothing you haven't done in the multimedia space, bro. Yeah, I was going to say technically, technically I haven't done, or I'm not doing TV anymore. So that it, but I have done it. Yes, you have done it. It's on a checklist. There was a time I used to say that I was the only person in all the world who was doing TV, radio, podcast, digital videos all at the same time.

That was a, that was a truth and live streaming at the same time. I don't think that's the case anymore. We got, because over here at Spotify, we got Green Room. Obviously, there's Twitter spaces. There's all this other stuff. This live stuff where people can interact.

I'm not going to hold you. We was doing that in 2014, 13, bro. Eight years ago. Eight, nine years ago, we were doing what they're doing now. Yeah, that was all the rage. With interactivity and all that stuff. So, I mean, it's crazy to see where the industry has gone

and it's cool. And it's also like, yeah, you know, Oh, yeah, I remember what I used to do that. Exactly. My first beer. Anyway, so I got you on the show today and me because I wanted to talk about two Eastern Conference teams, the Bucks, which we'll get into later on. But first I want to talk about the Chicago Bulls because I feel like outside of the Warriors being like really freaking good in the way that I don't think a lot of people expected. I feel like the Bull story is probably the most like surprising in the league this year, just how great they've played.

with injuries and all of that stuff. They've managed to be like one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference, if not in the entire NBA. And first I wanted to know, what was your thought of the off season before the season? Because I know I was wrong. I just didn't think they were going to be able to defend nearly as good enough to be this good.

What did you think about the moves they made in the off season? Right. I thought, so here's the thing. And part of this is some stuff that we can say we were wrong about. and part of us we could say what still hasn't borne out yet. So the part that we were wrong about, I thought they made good moves.

I like the Mardorosa. Me too. I really like Lanzo Ball. I really like Alex Crusoe. Like I like those guys. Hell, I even like Busevich if you want to go back to last trade deadline. But my thing was like,

is this a team that is going to excel at an elite level? The reason I ask that is like what have they given up in return? Beyond the salaries owed to Caruso and Ball, which I didn't think were, of the ordinary for them in a vacuum, but combined with what they want to pay

Zach Levine in the near future, and more importantly, the picks they gave up. Because they gave up two to get Busevich. They gave up, I believe, two to get Alonzo. Alonzo. DeRosan.

And then Alonzo. So it's like, all right, that's, if you just told me this is my squad, I'm like, okay, it's like, well, what did I have to give up? When you start to describe, you're like, know. I don't know. That seems like a lot for a team that I thought at the time had a ceiling

on how good they could be. Fast forward of halfway through the season. And I can say, all right, they are really good. I didn't think they'd be this good. And you know what? Because of what's happening in the Eastern Conference, maybe they might be good enough. Maybe they're not good enough to go to the finals. But having said all that, I still think, A, they're not going to be good enough to win a championship,

which most teams don't, let's be honest, but the cost on the back end. Because whatever they accomplished this year, I think we can all agree, this looks like it's going to be the best of it. It's not like next year they'll be even better than they were this year.

Chances are Brooklyn fully healthy without not have worry about a vaccine mandate, which we assume will be done in a year or so, that's going to be a better team. Milwaukee fully healthy for the whole season, that's a better team. Miami fully healthy is a better team. Philly, whatever they get done

with this Ben Simmons saga, better. And then you throw in the Charlottes and the Clevelands and all the other up-and-comers. I'm not saying Chicago is going to be eighth, but I'm just saying like, it's still going to be a little bit of a harder climb

than what this season has been. Yeah, because I do want to get into the this season of it all, right? Because right now, there's 17th in defense, which is down from what it was earlier in the year. Right. They're seventh in offense, which, like, they're basically right there with Charlotte, Miami, Phoenix, Brooklyn, who's at the top, like, who's above them, right? So they're clearly one of the elite offenses in the NBA. And I think the question still remains, right? We see Caruso went down, one of their best defensive players with the,

wrist injury. The question to me remains like, what's it going to look like in the playoffs when people are attacking Vooch and they are attacking DeRosen and they are sort of, you know, part in the pun, but bum hunting on offense. I don't know that this is going to be able to hold up in the postseason as presently constructed. Again, so I think part of it goes back to what we're talking about is that when healthy, you have Lanzel ball, you have Alex Rousseau, you've got Derek Jones. These are all defensive players. These are guys that do well

and switch and guard larger than what they are and can cover for what Deroza and Vucevich can't do. But this is the case with every NBA team. The more injuries you have, the more people we take off the board, the more your weaknesses are accentuated. The more it's obvious. Hey, now these guys can't depend.

And remember also, Patrick Williams only played five games this year. This is supposed to be their start. for this is supposed to be a dude who is guarding everything one through four maybe even one through five and they don't have him available so they've had to do a little bit of kind of like rearranging and javanti green get some time and and as i said derrick jones junior you had his time and whatever all of these things are contingency plans for what the intended plan was so when we talk about getting to the playoffs again i can tell you what i thought would happen at the beginning season

I thought this team would be a six or a seed, six or a five seed, get to the playoffs, get knocked out in the first round. Now I'm like, well, maybe they're a second round team. But I still think if Milwaukee is reasonably healthy, if Brooklyn is reasonably healthy, even with Kyrie not being able to play home games. And if Miami's reasonably be healthy, I take any one of those three teams.

And if Philly gets a deal done for Ben Simmons, I might take them as well. And I don't say, I don't want to say this like to rain on the parade. on the parade of people in Chicago. It's a fun story. It's a fun story. And also, yo, kudos. You guys are a lot better

than everybody thought you'd be. No one's out here saying like, yeah, you're still garbage. I'm just saying that these accomplishments are tempered with the still very real flaws that they have to live up to in a playoff situation.

All right, so I do want to talk about Zach Levine, the Zach Levine thing, because, you know, a lot was made in the off-season, Like, he's at the Olympics. They're asking him about the Bulls and his deal. And I remember, I'll never forget watching the clip

because our boy, Brian Winhorse, asked him the question. And he said, and he was talking about his deal. And he was like, all I want is respect, which, like, it's just a strange, it's a strange way to frame. Not strange. And I want you to get into it. But I just wanted to say that, like, when they brought in DeRosen, first of all, I do think, I think there's proven that DeRosen is a complimentary player

to what Levine does because he's so good at setting people up, right? And he doesn't operate in the same areas of the floor that Levine does. So it's very complimentary. However, it felt like Chicago with as much as they paid to Rosen, it felt like he was like a ballast against Levine. If he was like, yo, Supermax me, fam, like I'm Supermax or get out of my face. Like, do you think Levine has made himself Supermax? I don't even want to say worthy, but just like,

Like, he has to get the Supermax or, you know, what is your feeling about the Levine situation? Because I think that thing is still lingering. All right. So first of all, I don't know what ballast means, but I'm a ticket to disrespect. Yes. Shout out to Kevin Hart and 40-year-old virgin. You're going to be a nigga. You're going to be my nigga.

No, here's the deal. The Bulls were facing. with a very real Sophie's choice in the off season. Zach Levine is our best player. We love them. We want them here for a long time. We have an opportunity to do an extend and renegotiate, right? Meaning, usually you can't renegotiate much in the NBA.

But when you have cap space and you have a player who's making less than what the maximum allowable is for them, you can renegotiate. meaning taking their existing salaries and give them bumps on all that and then add a couple of years on the back end. That was one option. Option two is get this guy help. They chose option two.

They said, Zach, you're worth it. We know you're worth it. But to pay you and say, we're coming back with the same group of guys that has been not good enough in the last couple of years, it's not going to change anything. We have an opportunity to go to get to Rosen

an all-star, a dude who's a very productive score, even last year in San Antonio, as everybody forgot him, and an effective playmaker. I think people forget D'Rosen, like, last couple of years of San Antonio's been doing crazy, like six, seven assists a game, you know, like 25% plus on the assist percentage side, right?

And then also, and I think this is key, because DeRosen obviously helped offensively and getting ball and Caruso helped them offensively. I talked to Arturz Cardin Chauvis and Billy Donovan before the season started, and that was their thing. It was like, we wanted more playmakers. We didn't want the burden of making offense happen to fall strictly on Levine. But the other part of this was, and this is the part I didn't anticipate, which was what Lonzo Ball and Alex Crusoe would do defensively for this team.

Being active, being disruptors, stopping the attack at the point of attack rather than all. this rotating and stuff on the back end. And they were awesome. And they lifted this team to be an awesome defensive outfit. And that helped tremendously. And then DeRosen could just focus on being great offensively and all the other things happen, et cetera, et cetera. So they made that decision.

And I think we can all say that was the right decision. Yep. But obviously, if you're Levine and you're like, where am I money at, right? And when he says, that's why I discus agree with you saying respect is a weird way. Respect for NBA players comes down to like how much are you getting paid? Did they pay you every allowable dollar that was allowed under the seller cap? That's what it comes down to, right? Because that's how they compare the sums to one another. The example I always bring up was, I remember when I was with the Knicks, my first year with

the Knicks, or my only year with the Knicks, I should say, and it was 0405. And Stefan Marbury at the time had always been saying on the best point guard in the NBA, on the best point guard in the NBA. This is the time when there are only two people in the history of the NBA who had career averages of 20 points in eight assists, Oscar and Steph Marbury. So he was like, on the best point guard in the NBA. So he had obviously been traded from Phoenix

to New York the year before. Phoenix in that off season, signs Steve Nash, signs Quentin Richardson, signs Stephen Hunter. And literally the rest of the roster is the same dudes. And they went from being a lottery team with Steph Marbury.

To the top of the west. They started the season 31 and 4, something insane like that. Right. And you know the New York media because the rabble rouses they are, they all rushed over. Like, hey, Steph, you said you were the best point guard

in the NBA. They pretty much just flopped out point guards and they're 31 and 4, bro, with the same roster you had that was like struggling. Yeah. And Steph said, well, last I checked, I got a max deal and he didn't. so you tell me who's doing it right.

And that right there in a nutshell is how NBA players think. Right. The greatest sign of respect is when they're like, I wanted to pay you more, but literally the league said this is the most I could pay you. Right. Right. Like they're handcuffing me.

They're taking me away, bro. I want to give you more money, but no, get up. Right. So when you're dealing in that situation, that's how the measure of respect goes, if you're Zach Levine, you can say, the rational part of you would say, wow, I got a much better team.

we got a chance to win a championship or whatever. But the irrational part says, hold up, bro. Are you saying I'm not worth this money? Why wouldn't you give me this money? It's the same thing that happened to Kwai in San Antonio. Where it's like, hey, if we don't extend you before your fourth season, this gives us a lot more flexibility next off season. And we'll still pay you.

And they still paid him. But that shit sat with Kwai. Like, they thought twice. Same thing with your boy Gordon Hayward. The Jazz said, go out of it over. and go out and get a max office sheet. And what match it? And they did.

And they did. But that shit sat with him. Like, okay, that's how you felt. As soon as I can get out of here. I'm out of here. I'm out of here. I'm out of here. So, but I wonder though, like,

because you mentioned all of the financial commitments and asset commitments that they put into bringing in these new guys, right? The Bulls are a rich team, but they rarely ever operate like one. And so that's what. I'm like, are they going to give Zach Levine $40 million a year over five years when they have the opportunity to? I think they will when, I think they will.

I think they will because of what this team has done this season, right? Got you. It's proven. They are competitive. And also, we know for a fact that with this draft obligations that they have, you don't have a choice of saying, okay, so this is the one. back to the drawing board, right? You have to do this stuff.

Otherwise, you're in trouble, right? Otherwise, you gave up all these picks for a team to watch Levine Walkway. So as I pull it up right here, these are the picks they owe, right? They owe, let's see here. They owe, whoa, scroll, scroll. All right, they were all right.

Oh, first round pick to Orlando. They already gave one to Orlando. prior to this for that Vooch vich trade. Yep. They have a second round pick that's forfeited due to their

involvement in tampering. They have a second round pick that they owe to the Lakers. They have a second round pick that they owe to the New Orleans Hornets in 2024. They have a first round pick they owe to San Antonio.

They have a second round pick they owe to San Antonio. So they've got two firsts that they owe over the next three drafts. and they've got one, two, three, four, four picks, they owe in a fifth one in the second round that's been forfeited, right? Meaning, look, we don't have a lot of leeway

to add talent to this team on the cheap. Yep. This is your squad other than minimums and exceptions. So at that point, do you say to yourself, well, you know what, Zach Levine, I don't want to pay you 40 million a year. You know you're not as good of a team without them. And you know you're avid.

It's not like, but we'll have 40 million in caps face. No. No, you're not going to have 40 million. You're over the cap by a lot already. By a lot. By a lot because you paid the ball. You paid DeRosen. You paid, Busavich is still paid for one more year, right, before he becomes a free agent.

Even Caruso at $9 million. And that's not counting. you know, Patrick Williams extension that they'll negotiate this next offseason, et cetera. So the reality is you're sitting here saying to yourself, if I'm not happy with this team, letting one dude walk isn't going to be enough. And knowing when they were together and they were healthy, hell, we were pretty good. So I think they're going to pay them.

They're going to pay them. They're going to try and make it short. They're going to try and make some outs on the back end. But I think they're going to pay him. Zach Levine going to get his money. That's good. I'm happy for him, man. That brother really wants his paper.

And he's not playing about it. All right, so we move on to the Milwaukee Bucks, man, because I think the way things are shaping up right now, the injuries in Brooklyn, the weirdness with the Vax cards and all of that. I think even, you know, Dremont hasn't been playing, but even still, Golden State has begun to show some of their warts. as a team. Obviously, Phoenix has been excellent all season long, but they got their butts kicked by the Bucks in the finals last year. I feel like things are shaping up that the Bucks are the championship favorite to repeat again. It feels like they're not getting that type of attention and not getting that type of enthusiasm, both in the media and just generally what it feels like online. But to my mind, the Bucks are the favorite to win the championship

right now. What have you thought about the Bucs season so far? Yeah, I think they're one of the favorites. You know, it's hard for me to say this one team. Before you go on, I need the audience to know that Amin has always been annoyed by Bucks' playoff performances and that he's like, there are ways that this team could clearly and easily be playing better. So much better. And they don't. So much better.

You know. So much better. Just so people know, Amin has an annoyance with playoff bucks. Can you explain some of just a few other things? that the bucks don't do in key situations that just drive you up a wall. Okay, so one of them is on defense, and people don't talk about it a whole lot.

People focus on the offensive one, which is the more obvious one. But defensively, they have this thing where it's like, we go balls to wall chasing after the point of attack. But then if you happen to be a team that can, like, get the ball out and swing around, oh, well, like, so the bucks, if you look at the numbers,

they've given up more the most, if not up there, of three-pointers in the league. More open three-pointers in the league. More corner threes in the league. Right? And that's all indicative of their defensive style,

the way they were trying to stop it at the start, but not really have an answer at the end. And what happened to them in 2019 was they played a Celtics team that I believe one game, game one moving the ball and then everything after that was Kyrie trying to do his hand one mix tape tour which of course plays into what Milwaukee wants to do what they won yep they won

they move on they play Toronto and Toronto moved the ball and got open shots and Milwaukee lost four games in a row and then the next year they play Miami and Miami is one of the best that ball movement yep and three point shooting and that's just something that I was saying like in February like you, pre-COVID, if the bucks play the heat, no, I don't care how dominant they are. If they play the heat, they're going to lose. Because their defense is so not compatible with the way the heat play offense.

Right. It's the worst type of defense you play. And then last year, obviously, they had their moments where it looked touch and go, but they got like the breaks that every champion needs and they end up winning. the other side is the offense, that's the part that I think they have gotten better at, which is this realization that just because Janus is our best player

doesn't mean you have to give him the ball like he's Kobe. Exactly. Or LeBron. Or KD. That's not him. He's Shaq. Exactly. And what I was saying during the season,

because remember they had the game against Phoenix earlier that season, where they're down to, and the play call was, we're going to give it to the Janus 30 feet from the basket and he's going to dribble ISO and he pulled up for 20 footer he missed the shot they lost and afterwards both him and Boone Holzer was like yeah that was a play and if we had the opportunity to do it again we'll do it the same way

and I'm like who are you trying to we're trying to blue this to it would be like don't Shaq the ball at half course like get us one big fella look we all like waz you and I both remember the Shaq and Kobe Lakers of course Kobe's a great player he's a great player he's Hall of Famer, top 50, top 75, all that stuff. But also, we recognize Shaq was the better player on that team. Yes. Shaq carried that team.

He was the focal point of the team. Yes. He is the alpha and omega. But teams down two or three. They didn't give the ball to Shaq from 17 feet and say, Shaq, operate. No, they gave the ball to a perimeter, a good perimeter player. or in the case of Kobe, a great one, and he was able to set things up.

And the funny thing about the bugs is, like, they have the guys that can set up perimeter action and get Janus the ball maybe on the move or closer to the basket so that he could be a finisher. A bang, bang, where it's like, if you're going to foul him, it's going to be an N-1. Yeah.

And they did more of that in the playoffs. There were times when Milton was, like, him and Janus was running two-man game. And Janus is sitting punishing screens. Middleton only needs a little bit of daylight to score. But again, like, Janus is making that happen, right? Like him setting a punishing screen and the amount of gravity he has, it's opening airspace for his team.

He's like he's still hugely contributing to a great end result. It's just not glory, glory, glory, hallelujah. Janus is our savior. We gave him the ball 30 feet and he made something happen. Like, that ain't it. Right. Right. And it was funny because early in the playoffs, when they had their struggles,

and you had people saying, like, I'm not talking about fans or people on Twitter, I'm talking about, like, people are paid to watch basketball for a living. Maybe Chris Middlesson is the Batman and Janus is the Robin. And I'm like, give me a break. What are we doing here? What do we do? So you guys want to boil down the entire game to the last two minutes of the game? Like, that's cool.

I get it. You got to win those two minutes. you got to win the other 46 too. And this dude over 46 minutes was unstoppable. And if you run your offense the right way, where he, if he gets a touch,

that means we already dunk in this thing. Yep. Which is, again, what we started in the finals. Then you're fine. But the problem was what they did earlier in that year and early in that playoffs and indeed all the years before that was they were treating him like

he was a ball handling perimeter playmaker. And he's not that. He's a big. He's a big who can handle a little better than your regular big, but he's a big in the way you should think about. He's a finisher.

He's not an initiator. He's a finisher. So I do want to ask you because, like, obviously it sounds like you don't have the amount of conviction at the bucks, like this thing seems sotted for them when it comes to the injuries and the reliability of some of the guys

in Brooklyn for various reasons. And I want to say this because people do make a big thing about the COVID stuff with Kyrie. Cairo has not finished a season for his team in like half of the last six seasons. If not more than that, if my math, I know there was a Boston season he didn't finish. Several Cleveland seasons he didn't finish. Last year he didn't finish with Brooklyn.

Like, he's always getting hurt. So forget about COVID. This is what he's done the last few years. 54 out of 72 games last year. The year before that, 20 out of 70, whatever games it was. I never know what 2019-20 was. because of, you know, how many, you know, every team had different number of games they played.

2018, 2019, Boston, 67 out of 82. The year before that, 60 out of 82. Year before that, Cleveland, 72 out of 82. But then the year before that, 53 out of 82. So he's never played 82 games. He's never played, he's played 75 games one time in his career. That's crazy. And, you know, most of the time he's playing a significant amount of less games

where you're noticing. It's not the usual nine or eight games missing, right? To me, it's not even about Kyrie. To me, it's about Hardin. This is a guy who's lived his entire NBA career, first of all, since he got to Houston at the very least, I play every game. All right? Number two, I play a shit ton of minutes.

Yeah. Number three, I'm not just standing out there. balls in my hands. I'm taking a lot of contact as I play this very physical style. Right? Year after year after year, up until last year when he got to Brooklyn.

And it changed a little, but it was still a lot of games, a lot of minutes, and maybe the workload's not as hard because you've got one of the two of the other guys, but still there were games where he was by himself. Then you take that and you say, oh, by the way,

lights to get after it. I'm not here to judge. We all enjoy a nice night out, right? But I think if you do a poll around the NBA, eliminate the role players, just to give me NBA superstars. Where do you think he ranks on gets after it versus, I'm going home with a nice warm glass of milk and a book?

I can say anecdotally, I mean, from I've seen the guy out a decent amount. just conversations with people who would know. I feel like he's at the top of any superstar list. And I don't think he's got much challenge at the superstar, especially at his age. I think some of the young guys... Okay, you're hopping ahead because what I was getting at was like,

look, I'm not saying that you come in and he's horseshit the next day. I'm just saying he's living life to the full. list. Yeah. This isn't a guy who's getting nine to ten hours of sleep and, you know, resting and staying off of the things that may be detrimental to your body and your health. That's who you is. Again, I'm with it.

I'm all for freedom of choice. And as long as you can do your job, fine. But here's a problem. You've got the minutes, the games, the workload. The, perhaps I'm not doing the LeBron. in terms of seven fingers on my body and all that stuff. Yeah. And then you throw in 32 years old, about to be 33 years old.

He was 20 when he got drafted in 2009. It's about to be 22. It's 13 years. So he's 32 to 33 years old this year. The mileage plus not the maintenance. Yeah. That's exactly. A lot of mileage and no maintenance.

What happens, people say, there are people who say, James Hardin, can't trust him to play. else, he's a choker. I don't think he's a choker at all. I think he's every bit of a great player. I think what we're seeing is a dude who's tired and broken down. And this is the most important part

because I named all those factors. But then when you throw in, everybody else he's playing against is playing with this different math. They're not, Steph Curry's not playing 82. And he's not playing 39 minutes. And he's not getting a beating.

And he's not going out night after night. Yep. And Durant, for the most part, even though in Brooklyn he's starting to do more of that stuff, right? Hadn't been doing it. And LeBron's not doing that. And et cetera, et cetera. And so.

And Jimmy Butler's not. And Janice is not. Yeah. So you can say, hey, I'm the tough guy who plays every game and every minute. And da-da-da-da. And this will make the old heads respect me. But like I say the same thing. If Michael Jordan, who played 40 minutes a night,

82 games a year. Looked around and saw Patrick and Charles and Carl Malone and all these other dudes resting and playing less minutes and coming to playoffs fresh and kicking his ass. You don't think Michael Jordan would be like, give me some of that load management shit right now. Yeah.

Because the goal is to win. The goal isn't to be the toughest guy. If it were, then we'd all say AC Green was the best player of all time. Because he played every game, right? Right? That's what it's about. So I say all this is to say that when I look at Brooklyn,

the big flaw I think about is that James Harden, I think, especially now, Durant's out. Kyrie can only play road games. What you're going to see is this dude's load is going to go up significantly and he'll do well because he's great and they'll win games and they'll stay afloat and they'll get to the playoffs and it'll get hurt or be worn out and people say,

oh, told you he's not reliable on the playoffs. And I'm like, you warm the fuck out during the regular season, what you want? Yeah. You got to pick which one you want. So, okay, you've outlined perfectly why Brooklyn seems like very, very beatable playoff opponent for the best teams in the East. If Milwaukee doesn't make it out of the East, why does that not happen?

I mean, to me, I look at one of two scenarios. One is that the Sixers have done a trade that's made them, reimagined them. and Bede is amazing. I don't know that a combination of a healthy Brooke Lopez, which, by the way, we're still a ways away from seeing, and Jan is playing the five, and Bobby Portis. Bobby Port.

Like, none of those guys are either good enough or big enough to make a difference there. And then, like, you feel out the rest of their roster. Now you have other decisions you got to make. I think Philly has an opportunity, depending on a deal that they make it. I don't think, I don't know if they're going to make one or not. And then the other one is their old nemesis.

I think Miami's always going to be a thorn in their side because they're a team that plays outside in where they've got a guy in Bam out of bio who can guard you on it probably as well as anybody in the league. He can do a credible job at it. He can do a credible job at it. Depensively then offensively, since he's so weird and out there,

it makes things difficult for Milwaukee to adjust. And then obviously they move very well. They're excellent three-point shooting team. So I think Miami and... A reimagined Philadelphia. A reimagined Philly. And then obviously, if Kevin Durant's healthy, they're just the best player in the conference.

Yeah. To be honest. Yeah. So, you know, look, again, I just feel like things are shaping up pretty well for them. As long as they have their three guys healthy, I think they're going to be a whale of a team come playoff time. Whale of a team? Yeah, and I think just the confidence they've gained.

Because, like, I watch them in crunch time now. Like, again, it's regular season. But you can tell when teams have that look of confidence that, like, all right, we know what we have to do. Maybe, you know, make a miss league shit might happen. But we know exactly how we need to get to the type of shots we want. in crunch time situations, like they have the look of that kind of team. And I think they gained that confidence last year and again, again, some diminished opponents. But whatever, they got the confidence.

They got it. Exactly. It doesn't matter. All that matters is now they've seen themselves be successful in those situations. They're like, oh, yeah, we can do this. Exactly. Whereas before, there's that mental block of like, here we go again. Whereas everything's going to go wrong.

And so if I'm hearing you correctly, you're just basically like, this is a matchup dependent thing, which, of course, the NBA playoffs always. is. But you think the bucks are right there at the top as far as championship teams in the league this year? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I would say to me, Phoenix and Golden State are a cut above everybody else.

Hmm. Okay. But then, like, everybody else, like, is, no, I'm not saying it's out of the question, but I'm just saying, not quite. Phoenix and Golden State to me are the two best. And if Golden State's healthy, like, I'm, I'm going to be. going to confidently say I think they're going to win the championship

because I mean they just have a style of play that's so different for most of these teams you're talking about meeting and matching up right the difference between the regular season matchup and a playoff matchup is we get to sit around and game plan for you but the reality is the game planning

not exactly the same but it's fairly similar a lot of pick and roll a lot of guard play whatever and then you play Golden State and it's this whole thing where people are moving and the ball is moving and everyone's a threat and I think it's so different from what teams play 82 games against

that it gives them an advantage. Is it an absolute advantage? No, obviously it can be overcome. But I think when they're at their best offensively, it's so different. It's harder to stop than any other offense in the league. And then on the flip side, defensively, we know they are elite at that they get after it

and they've got some. so many guys that are versatile. And then when you have two guys and Raymond Green and Andre Guadalor, just genius is literally, genius love basketball players and makes life that much more difficult. All right, man. Amin, thank you so much for coming in today. This was amazing stuff. Please tell the people where they can find you and your work because you're doing a lot,

man. You're working like an African. I'm telling you. Well, two to my creed, you know. Basketball. wise, I would say Series 6M NBA Radio. I appear multiple times in a week

so you can catch me whenever. Metal arc media, I'm on the Levitard show, so catch me there periodically. I have a basketball podcast I do with Tom Habistro called the Haber show. Catch that as well. And then outside of basketball, I would say

Cynophobe, that's the podcast where Zach Harper and I, watch movies that are poorly rated on rotten tomatoes and try to ascertain whether they're accurately poorly rated or maybe they get a fair shake. It's cinephobe. It's produced by Anthony Mays. You get it wherever you get podcasts. And I think that's it for now.

I might have a couple of other things that I've forgotten, but, you know, maybe when they start paying me a little bit more, I remember to miss them. I love it, man. That's our show for today. We'll see you guys next week. This was Weekends with Waz. We out of here. Peace.