The Ringer NBA Show - The First Round: The Close, the Not, and the Swept | The Mismatch

Episode Date: August 25, 2020

Verno and KOC discuss the competitive first-round matchups (1:16), teams that are figuratively on the ropes (28:37), and the already-concluded series (52:52). Hosts: Chris Vernon and Kevin O’Connor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Or in Colorado, call 1-800-5-2-2-4. 4700. And now it's time for the mismatch. Welcome to The Ringer NBA show. I'm Chris Vernon. And joining me as he does every Tuesday from the Ringer.com. It's Kevin O'Connor, A.K., Kevin O'Bomber, Kevin O'Connor, Kevin O'Compel, Kevin O'Chyr, Kevin O'Brien. How's it going this morning, Chris?

Everything's great. We have playoff games that are going on from lunchtime all the way until I go to bed every single night. It is a lot to keep up with, to say the least. But yesterday, things got a lot more fun because it was only 48 hours ago that we knew we were getting at least one game six in the Mavericks Clippers series. And yesterday we were solidified. We're at least getting another deep series with Oklahoma City ousting Houston in game four. We were on the podcast on Friday, Kevin, and I asked you, should I wave me?

my white flag and you said, indeed I should, I flip it back around to you and say, Kevin, just concede because your rockets are in big trouble now. Big time trouble, man. Oklahoma City, their defense is really freaking good, man. And what Dort is doing in the series, you know, he doesn't shoot the ball particularly well, three of nine in game four, you know, so he can play enough, though. He's not Andre Robertson in his prime offensive liability. He's serviceable on that end.

But what he brings on defense for OKC fans, I'm sure is very reminiscent of what they watched for years with Robertson, just a purely dominant defensive player. And he makes life hard on James Harden. James Hardin's still putting out big time numbers, you know, 32 points, but it takes 25 shots to get there. And more so than just the raw numbers, it looks hard for him to get buckets.

And that's largely because of what Thornt's doing. Well, and a lot of those aren't on Dort. Kelly Iko from The Athletic wrote a really good article about this and then had all kinds of video clips in it, but I was stunned by this. It said, it says when it comes to defending Hardin, however, you wouldn't be laughed out of the room if you referred to Dort as a stopper. Hardin is shooting just three of 21 from the floor when defended by Dort, a total of three games, 13 minutes and 42 seconds of game time, and 54 seconds partial possessions. the regular season, Dort held Hardin to two of 13 shooting over eight minutes of game time and 32.6 partial possessions. This adds up to nearly half a full NBA game of data. And when you account for all the possessions that go into a game and the 24 second shot clock,

that is a lot of data. And then it goes on to talk about it. And then they outline what he did against Devin Booker, Zach Levine, Donovan Mitchell, Campbell Walker, Damien Lillard, And then they have Vince Edwards, who was a teammate of both of these guys, Hardin and Doord, kind of go through and show all the video clips of it. And I'll tell you this, Kevin, this Doort thing is the damnedest thing. You know, you do extensive work on the draft every single year. Was he even a name that even came around? I mean, eight months ago, he's playing in the G League for the Oklahoma City Blue.

So I had him ranked 30 first on my draft guide last year. So early second round pick, the concern with him was his jumper like we just mentioned. You know, he was a guy at Arizona State who did not shoot the ball well at all. I was told in pre-draft workouts, he shot the ball probably even worse than he did during the college season. He had some decision-making issues as well on the offensive end of the floor with shot selection and with choices with passing reading the floor. But with Dorn, I mean, the reason why I liked him. as a sleeper in the draft was because of his defense and his effort and his intensity. He constantly hustled on the floor.

He was a winning player. The type of guy that we see now, he'll take a charge if you need to. He'll dive for a loose ball. Always stays engaged, always in his defensive stance. There's never a question about that with him, which is why I thought it was really shocking that he went undrafted at the time. That's an even stronger feeling now that we all share. How does a guy like that go undrafted, especially after he had a pretty,

good freshman season in Arizona State showing offensive flashes and showing he has a floor as a defensive player. So in some ways, it's not shocking to see him defending well, considering that's who he always was. But, you know, doing this against the caliber of players that he is, as a credit to him for continuing to improve. And he has limited some of the shot selection mistakes that he had in the past at Arizona State largely due to a change and roll. You get three guards for Oklahoma City with Chris Paul, Shegildos Alexander, and Dennis Schrooter, who handle the rock there.

Dort, the role is simplified for him, spot up and hit as many threes as you can, and play as hard as you can on defense. So in that sense, I mean, those numbers you cited, I mean, the dude's the real deal, man, he really is. And with your Houston here, I do wonder,

without Russell Westbrook here, without that secondary ball handling presence, who can attack off the dribble consistently and create driving quick opportunities. What is the solution here for the Rockets to really get hard and going and get everybody else in that team going at an even higher level? Or is it more just they're scoring enough?

It's just their defense has just been horrific. They can't get stops. They can't stop dribble penetration at all. Well, there's a couple things that the Thunder have done here. Number one, they're one of the very few teams, and Billy Donovan might have fallen into this because of Stephen Adams not being able to be on the court. You know, he's still playing at him.

He's still giving Noel some time. But he fell into their small ball lineup, really in that overtime where they outscored him. I believe it was, what was it, 12 to 5 or something like? 15 to 3. 15 to 3, they outscored him in that overtime. And that lineup was the three guards, Paul Schroeder and Gildes Alexander, with Dort and Gallo. And so they're the one of the few teams that could actually match up small and have possibly better weapons all across the board to play small. And that's the problem. You know,

there's a lot of these teams, they can't, they can't play small versus Houston. And it felt like in the first couple of games, they tried to be big, you know, and I thought maybe, hey, you can control the pace and maybe be big, but they're controlling the pace and being able to play small. To your point about Westbrook, and this is something that would never in a million years happen if he's there. Yesterday, they had seven fast break points and 10 free throws. As a team, I mean, you know, just Westbrook grabbing the ball off the rim and taking off is going to get you double digits of fast break points, right? Much less get to the free throw line a bunch. And so their ability to go small, the other thing, when you spoke about defensively,

they've decided they're just going to go at Hardin all the time. They are just going to try to get him switched onto their guys constantly. And they've gotten him in foul trouble the last couple of games too. And he looked gassed out at the end of yesterday's game. You know, you saw all those threes were falling short. He just looked tired. And so they're making him be mega active. Look, I mean, the real solution is you shoot 573s.

You got to make a few more and you win the game, right? Like, I mean, that's what they do. It's math. That being said, Oklahoma City has kind of stumbled into something that is very, very difficult for them to deal with. So that lineup you're mentioning without Noel or Adams on the floor. The Oklahoma City Thunder have played that for 24 minutes in the series, and they've outscored Houston by 31 points per 100 possessions. What?

They're posting a 140. 41 offensive rating. So pure dominance from that lineup without either of their bigs. Just to give that perspective, they're getting outscored by 15 points for 100 of possessions in 120 minutes with Adams at center. They're outscoring Houston by six points for 100 possessions

and 53 minutes with Noel at center. So their best lineup statistically is without either of them, second best is with Noel, third best is with Adams. And I mean, there's small samples here. But it is representative of what we've seen in the court with what's working versus what isn't. And you mentioned Houston looking tired sometimes at the end, the game is particularly

hardened, and that's partially because of how much he's getting attacked on defense. It's not that he's a bad defender because he's not anymore. He has become at least an average defender. It's just for OKC, it's strategic to wear him out. Sure. And I can't help watching Houston thinking to myself, this is a team that so far in the series has attempted only 10 of 3, 363 of their shots from mid-range outside the paint.

That's only 2.7% of their shots, less than 3% of their shot attempts have been mid-range jumpers outside of the paint. I can't help but think late in games when you do have those tired legs, maybe that's the time to deviate away from the layups, free throws, and three strategy, especially with James Hardin or with Westbrook when he gets back, but especially with Hardin. open up the midrange a little bit and force the defense to defend that, but also make it a little easier for Hardin sometimes, so he doesn't have to launch him so far or just hurl his body into a paint that is packed

in order to stop him from drawing files or getting to the basket. I feel like that is something that I'd love to see from Houston, just to add even more variety to what they do on offense. They're still scoring a lot, and like you said, hit a couple more threes. they probably win the game, but they shot 40% from three and lost. Open up the mid-range a little bit late. Well, and I think to your point, you see throughout the league, so many of the guys that are very good when it comes down the stretch

are the guys that are effective from that range. I don't think there's any mistaking that Oklahoma City was the best late-game team all season long. They have also been very good in late games. I mean, they got run out in the first two games. They lost by 28 combined points. And what I said going into this is playoffs are typically close games. And if it's a close game, I want Chris Paul on my side because guess who knocks that thing down with regularity.

You know, everybody's trying to take away three. That elbow jumper with Chris Paul. Yeah. And you know what I mean? Like there's a bunch of guys that are like that. It's what made it so confounding when you saw the clippers at the end of their game. Kauai, the shot he took with the game on the line. I mean, he is another one of those guys where I'm thinking of myself,

man, if this guy gets to the elbow and rises up, you're in big trouble. Instead, he bailed them out by taking that crap three at the end of their game. But I do think there is something to that, that Chris Paul, whether it's the floaters, whether it's, he gets into that sweet spot that is open defensively because teams are so trying to take away inside and outside that they're so effective at it. And, you know, it's really, do you hit the threes or not with Houston? You know that. Sure.

In this series, I think we've also seen the difference between great on-ball defenders and good on-ball defenders. With Houston, you know, Covington is good on-ball. Not great. He's gotten burned far too often by some of OKC's guards. There's multiple possessions where Chris Paul just kind of snuck right by him, eat with ease, and got to the rim or to his spot from mid-range. You know, Jeff Green got burned. turned late in the game by Dennis Schroeder just completely opened the door for him to get to the basket.

Whereas with OKC, we already talked about Dort, but Dort is just a higher level of an on-ball defender with his ability to move laterly and with the strength that he has and just the mindset that he has too. Houston needs those guys in that group, Covington, Green, even Tucker for that matter, to elevate their play further because they're getting matched up against those OKC guards very often. very often. Well, look, Kev, those Oklahoma City players, they're just better. You know, when you come down to the end of the game, I mentioned Chris Paul gets it done, but Shoehl just has made plays. Schrooter has made place. Like, if it ain't hardened, who are you counting on?

That's where Westbrook is missed the most. When it's five minutes left to go in the game and you're talking a one or two possession game, now those first two games, none of that was exposed. But when you've watched it the last two, it's like, if James Harden ain't scoring on this next possession, because he sets it up for everybody else too. None of those guys are really beating you off the dribble and making a shot, right? They have to be...

Except maybe like this is something I wrote about on Monday. They're having Jeff Green bring the ball out more often. They're having hardened screen for Jeff Green. And I asked Antonio about that after Saturday's game. And he said, you know, the value in that is that it just gives James a rest for one position or two possession or ten possessions. because Green is the other guy who can at least handle from the perimeter a little bit because you don't have Westbrook.

But even Jeff Green is that that's not the guy you want handling the ball on the perimeter to your point. I'm just saying that's what they have to rely on now. Well, and let's be fair. So it's pretty clear that Oklahoma City has made the adjustments to make this, to make these great games. They've won two close games. And Houston, as I said, won those first two by 28. I don't think that it's necessarily, okay, they figured it out, they flipped it completely.

They have turned it into this is going to be great. And these games are coming down to the end of the games. And it's who do you trust more? And I do think there is something too. Their ability to play small better than Houston play small is quite the thing that's happened in this whole deal. And the other is they are tiring out hard. And we've seen it before when so much is put on his plate that come playoff time that he's gotten worn down before. And you saw it yesterday at the end of that game.

And so we'll just have to keep an eye on it. These games are coming at everybody fast. There's not like the three-day layover, you know, before they're playing again. Or they played on a Thursday and the next game's on a Sunday. Like they're back at it tomorrow. And so there's no rest for the weary. on this. Sure, absolutely. And I guess just a pivot to the Mavericks Clippers series here real quickly. This is one of the things that Dallas has that Houston doesn't. And, you know,

obviously Dallas is tied two to two against the clippers because of Luca, his greatness. You know, what we saw in game four at the end of that was just unbelievable. I mean, that was special. But Dallas also has other guys who can handle the ball. Seth Curry, Tray Burke, Tim Hardaway, Jr. these guys are also helping take ball handling responsibility off the plate of Luca, whether he's off the floor or even when he's on the floor to get him touches off ball

off of movement. And with Houston, you don't see nearly as much of that, which I think does weigh on James Harden more than it does on Luca, who does have that support like Chris Paul has with Gildes Alexander and with Schrooter. You need to have

multiple ball handlers, guys who can attack off the dribble, who can create for others. And Houston right now with Westbrook out, sometimes even with Westbrook, I feel like if, you know, Covington could be a better passer off the dribble or if PJ Tucker could be somebody who's better, you know, at facilitating, you want to be relying on Jeff Green for that. You would have somebody else who could actually handle that responsibility even without Westbrook. Dallas and OKC and, you know, Boston and Toronto. Lakers, so many other teams have many guys who can do that for you.

Houston doesn't. Yeah, let's get to the Clippers and the Mavericks. You know, you talked about Luca at the end of that game, and whether it was the end of that game or, frankly, the whole game, it's very obvious that Patrick Beverly's not there for the Clippers, and we chronicled last week, they're like a fight. 500 team without Pat Bev. They are a dynamite team with him.

And sometimes every once in a while, there are these kind of guys that people will roll their eyes at when you say their loss is actually as bad as a star's loss in some cases. And I and I, and I harken back to what we're, the series we were just talking about. You said Dort is a winning player. How about this? Since he was put in the starting lineup for the Thunder, they're, record is 16 and 5. Wow. 16 and 5.

Okay? You saw they didn't look the same when he wasn't in the mix. Now, I know they've changed some things, but his absence is weirdly massive for them. And I think the same goes with Pat Bev for the Clippers. That is no excuse for the Clippers. And the truth is, I'm well aware, Lucas shot, which is a long bomb that he makes, which is a legendary shot now. think we'll be seeing that for years and years.

Luca legends. If that doesn't go in, we know a lot of the narrative has changed dramatically, right? Like, it's the shots in the air, so what do we think about everything that's taken place? But when we are talking big picture here, Paul George has been absolutely abysmal. Kauai has been amazing,

and it's not enough. And in fairness, I know they're missing Pat Beverly, but they're missing. Poor Zingas, for God's sakes. And that's like the guy to go along with Luca. I know you say they have ball handlers, but truth is, Luca's got the ball, you know,

almost 80% of the time and is creating for those guys on regular occasion. Even though they have been... He is, like, he is touching and possessing the ball more than anybody else in the playoffs. He's logging over 100 touches per game. He's logging over nine minutes of possession time per game. But, you know, Carrey Hardaway and Burke are all averaging about, you know,

two minutes of possession time per game. So about six minutes. They combined are doing what your second star would do. But yeah, Luca is obviously the center of that offense. And one other thing I do want to mention, you mentioned no KP, and you did mention Paul George struggling. This is a minor player compared to Paul George. But Maxie Kleba is shooting only one for 16 from three in the series, a guy who has hit 37% of his threes on the season,

the guy who has really been replacing Chris Stapps in that floor-spacing big man role. Kleba is somebody who has also struggled significantly on shots that he usually hits and should theoretically be better moving forward like Paul George should. So both of these teams can be even better if they get healthy with Beverly and with Bezingis

and if they're struggling players, Paul George, a star, Cleva, a role player, both also elevate their player. There's higher ceilings for both of them. Well, let's say this. On the lucre front, look, going into the series, I said, I am prepared for people wanting to tear him down, like they did Donovan Mitchell a year ago.

And I said, I suppose it's possible, like, if he goes off against this team, a team that has held LeBron James to his worst percentages all year, a team that has done this to all manner of stars because of their elite-level perimeter defenders that they can throw at you, And you know that in the playoffs, it's not a one-off. So everybody's trying to make your life miserable, right?

And the fact that this kid has got, like, it's not like he is up to his season standards. He is so far for surpassing his seasons. He really is like immortal, Kevin. Like, I watch that game just in absolute awe of this guy. I mean, what are the, 43, 17, and 13? I mean, against that team. In a 21-point comeback victory. Against that team.

Against that team. Unreal. I mean, a team that, like I said, has held LeBron James, the greatest player of this generation to his worst percentages. And this guy's going 43, 17, and 13, it's unheard of what he was doing. There is no amount of praise I could heap on this guy because that was, And not to mention, the ankle sprained two nights before looked terrible.

I mean, it was a full turn to where he was hopped. By the way, quick time out. What the hell was he doing hopping 300 yards, it seemed, back to the locker room during that? Like, can somebody, can he put his arm on somebody's shoulder? Or can we get him some way? Like, the guy hopped on one leg all the way back to the locker room, like forever away. It was bananas. But he comes back.

You know he can't be 100, 100%, and it was just out of his mind. And there's part of me that thinks, wow, look what he's able to do. And the Clippers have no answer. There's another part of me that says, bro, he had 43, 17, and 13, and he had to win the game on the last second shot.

You're like, who has that kind of a game and has to win on a last second shot? second shot. A guy who went against Kauai Leonard, who at 32, also a great game, nine rebounds, four assists, great defense as always. Lou Williams had 36 off the bench as well. He went against some stout competition here. I made a video this week for the restart about the other guys on the Mavs.

That's why it's really on my mind. But with Luca, like he is obviously the reason why they're in a position for an upset here. But he is getting support, though. Trey Burke with 25 points on 10 of 14. Tim Hardaway with 21 points, Seth Curry with 15 points off the bench. Bobon, the clippers can't seem to find an answer

for playing Bobon off. They can't seem to find an answer here. They keep putting Harold on him. There is no answer. Yeah, you can't stop Boban. You can't stop Boban, Marianovic, of course. He's eight foot tall. With a great attitude.

I am going to be interested to see what type of adjustments Doc Rivers and the Clippers make in this game, though. Do you minimize, Reggie Jackson's minutes here, considering the amount of off-ball errors he's making, leaving shooters open, making bad rotations, over-committing, over-helping, which is opening cuts and shots.

Are you going to change there and maybe shorten your rotation? Are you going to start changing what you do when Bobon's off the floor to play him off the court? Is Paul George going to actually get going here? I looked at this week. George obviously is struggling. He's been horrific, and a lot of it is self-inflicted. But not all of it is.

Dorian Finney Smith has done a nice job on him. Kid Gilchrist has done a good job in Minix. Kleba has done a good job as well. Is there something the Clippers can do to get him going maybe more off ball? Because a lot of what he's been doing, a lot of his struggles have come on ball. He is missing his spot-up jumpers as well. But I do wonder if maybe there's some, you know, run him off some screen actions, getting towards the rim, some open layup opportunities, just to get him going,

get him in a rhythm. He could take these guys off the dribble. Like he took him off the dribble. dribble the last at the very end of the game he missed the little layup that he had yes but like bro get the ball and go to the damn basket drive on people get fouled go to the free throw line get yourself in a rhythm like he's just there's seven minutes where you're just i don't even know he's in the game it's crazy like impact the game i don't i can't let this guy off the hook and the other thing when you said reggie jackson look i don't want to bag on kawai too bad you can't get switched

off that easy I'm sorry. I get it with the Maxi Cleaver screen. That happens in the huddle. That happens in the huddle, though. It's terrible. That's a coaching decision, not Kauai's. And you see Dort, look, they're trying to get him off of James Hardin.

He fights through that thing. He slips that thing all the time. And I don't understand what the clippers are doing in that situation. I don't understand how your decision in the huddle is to have Reggie Jackson, who they want on Luca, who they want that, instead of having Kauai fight over that screen, which he could have. He absolutely could have in that situation. Or run to at him.

Run too at him and if Maxie Kleba beats me, fine. If he beats me, beats me, beats me. Maxi Kleba, who's hit one three-pointer in the entire series and can't seem to find the net. Right. I mean, I just, that was very, very, very puzzling. I do not think the Clippers will end up losing the series. I think we'll look back on this. They could, though.

They could. They could. I mean, look, they've been a 500 team without Pat Bev. Nothing's off the table. And they're not getting him back. It did not sound like Doc was after that game. He didn't sound very positive at all. And then I checked his comment yesterday.

And it was, I don't expect to get him back. And again, much like we talked about with Westbrook, when I said, hey, this really concerns me. And like, and it's the difference between the Luca thing and these guys, which is Luca could go and you can, you could pain relief the thing. And you can also stick it in ice for the amount of time you've got, for the 48 hours you've got, you can get this. you can get that swelling down and you can manage that. When it's muscles, when it's your quad, when it's your hamstring, and in I think in Bev's case, it's a quad, right? Or it's a calf, actually.

Any of those muscles, that's just time. There's no amount of treatment you can do. There's no amount of ice, massages, like all that. You're trying everything. But in the end, you've just got to wait for the muscle to heal enough to be able to play. and so they may not get him back. And that's very troublesome for them. You saw any time he was on the bench,

they were using the vibrator, therogun. Come on his foot. Slow down on the vibrator on Pat Beb. I don't think they were using a, I don't think they were using a vibrator on him, Ken. Good grief. I forgot for the name for a minute. The Therrigon.

How dare you? All right. Let's move to the team. Those are the great series that we have. Let's move to the teams that are on life support. Okay. This Denver thing is unbelievable. Like, Utah is down by Donovic.

We knew that going in. I really thought that Denver is exactly the type of team that can expose their lack of depth because what they bring off of the bench is it's just not good enough in my mind. But the truth is you can run these starters out there, play in big minutes, and Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert and now Mike Conley, who's playing very free and is kind of, it seems like he's now gotten a chemistry with Gobert that did not exist prior to. You've got, you've got this thing humming along and that Denver defense is atrocious. It's horrible.

I mean, it is so bad. And for all those Denver people out there that were saying, hey, he'll leave Michael Porter in. This is for real. He's tried playing Michael Porter and they just go at his ass every single time. He is unplayable defensively. And Yokic, there's nothing Malone can do with them. Like, he's tried everything, and it's all a debacle.

Like, and you do wonder, like, I mean, you're going to have to flank this guy with Bill Russell because trying to build a defense where they're not throwing him into everything and even Gobert's sneaking behind them and getting the duns. I mean, Gobert's getting like 17 points in these games. And you know he doesn't make a jump shot. So how's he get? This is the defense of a bad team, not a team that was so good. And I do have to wonder, is this finally where, when I got to the playoffs,

this is where Gary Harris, this is where Will Barton, these guys being out, super shows up. Because the defense at the point of attack, as they say, kind of, it alleviated our Yokic problems, if I'm Denver. but now without them and the guards can't stay in front of Donovan Mitchell and can't get past to Gobert's screen. Good God, Kev. This is a, this is a depressing

way to go out because if they don't turn into an infinitely better defensive team, they're done in the next game. Today on the ringer, Jonathan Charks wrote an article with the headline, Ben Simmons might be the solution to the Nuggets problems. And it's like, it's like theoretically, that would be great, you know,

add a super versatile defender, you know, who can defend at the point of attack, who can defend bigger players, who's great off ball. Is he still in Orlando? Can you put a jersey on them? Because I'm not really not finding any other solutions for them. I mean, that's a solution for another day in the future and with a big theoretical trade that probably won't happen, but makes sense for them because that's what they need. They need a savior in the defensive end of the floor, and it's not on the roster.

That player does not exist on the Denver roster. And that is a major, major, major, major, major problem for them in this series. I don't know where the solutions are. I've thought a lot about this. And I don't think that there's anything clear that the Nuggets can do. You can say pull Michael Porter from the rotation entirely. Who are you giving those 20 plus minutes to? Who are you giving them to?

Are you just going with an eight-man rotation? Maybe that's the choice you make. Maybe you really shorten this to seven-man rotation. You wanted to do that in the first round? I mean, that says a lot about where your team is and your chances moving forward against the Clippers or the Mavericks in the second round. For Denver here, man,

they got a 50.0 turnover game from Jamal Murray in game before, and they lost because their defense is so freaking horrible. Yokic turned into a solid defender this season and he's back to sucking gun defense right now. It's really, I mean, I don't know what you do. Not to mention, they are in overtime from being swept out of the defense.

this thing. Yeah. I mean, Utah lost the 57 point game by Donovan Mitchell. I mean, so. And by the way, after that game, didn't we say they're probably not going to get another game like that from Mitchell? He scores 51 in game four. You and I, we are.

Oh, my goodness. We get to come by this honest, too, because we were Donovan Mitchell hipsters. Yeah. We can toot our horn on that. As I've said, Betty Times, it was just by circumstance. And people every year they say, well, Summer League doesn't matter. But sometimes Summer League does matter. All right.

Like I watched this past year. I watched Brandon Clark win the MVP of the Summer League. And guess what? Brandon Clark's really fantastic. And he had a very good rookie season, right? He looked better than the other guys there. But the first year, that year after that draft, I was not super well-versed in Donovan Mitchell even going into that.

And I was at a game. And I watched this guy score like 35 points and he had 10 steals in the game. And I remember me and you did a podcast in my room and I said, Kevin, it was like you took an 10-time NBA All-Star and threw him in a summer league game and said, go play against these guys. Like, that's how much better this guy was than everybody on the floor. It really looked like that. And, of course, since his rookie season, he's been outstanding.

But God, man, I didn't see this. Two 50-point games in a friggin' series? Like, he is better than I could have ever imagined him being Mitchell. For sure. And this is superstar stuff, seriously. I mean, it's like before that draft, I wrote an article saying that if I'm placing a bet on that annual steel that we all always talk about, the 11 to 17 or 18 range, I'm placing that bet on Mitchell. But even then, I mean, you're expecting him to be a really good player. You're expecting him to be a guy who's a good defender who can play on ball or off ball, get some buckets for you, be a sure.

shot creator. You're not expecting a guy who could score 50 plus points twice in a playoff series at this age. You're not like, nobody's expecting that. No, he's in that, Tyler Hero range, right? Like they're drafted around the same thing. Yeah, you mean the like the mid first round. Yeah. And Tyler Hero's going to have a long, very good career. But not like Donovan Mitchell. No, I mean, it would be hilarious if we looked up in two years at Tyler Hero scoring 50 in the play. That would be wild. That would be wild.

Hey, and I'm not putting it past anybody now because you watch these games, and I swear, I mean, the frigging Raptor scored 150 points in regulation. Kevin, they only play 48 minutes. You got to score over three points a minute to pull that off. Like, the numbers on some of these, and I even tweeted out yesterday when I was watching that Houston game, you can't even go take a point. piss without a 12-point lead being gone. Yeah.

Like, you know what I mean? I get up out of my chair. I go get me something to drink, whatever. I come back, and these leads just evaporate all the time. You get a way to wait until the commercials. I know. I do. I really do.

I need to wait until a commercial. Anyways, Utah now, I mean, at the very beginning of the season, certainly with the acquisitions of Bogdanovitch and Conley, we looked at them as a sleeper contender. Are we back to that or is this just Denver is a disgrace? I really don't know. Denver's a disgrace because of their defense. Their defense is an embarrassment. I mean, I would pick the Clippers or the Mavericks over Utah.

But, I mean, they could be competitive for sure with the way Mitchell's playing, with the way Conley's coming along. Gobert is doing a heck of a lot for that team on both ends of the floor. They're getting positive contributions across their roster. Jordan Clarkson, 24 points off the bench for them in that game against Denver. They still have some weapons. They just don't have nearly as many without Bogdanovich.

They do have a shallow bench. That remains true, as we talked about before the series and after game one. So I would not pick them in the next round against either opponent. But I think what we're seeing, though, does put into perspective what their upside was with Bogdanovich because of what he provided as that secondary scoring presence. But I do, we did also, I did say before the series, I wonder if Conley would be doing this,

if Bogdanovich were still playing. I say no. Conley's gone, you don't think so? Nope. Because as someone who watched, I watched Mike Connolly his entire career. I always thought when I watched them

that he was trying to fit in and that he was thinking, you know, I watched him play his whole life. This guy doesn't, You see him at the end of, what was it, the end of the third quarter, he just walks up the court and bangs a three home, put him up by eight. Like he's just not, he's just playing now.

He's playing like he's always played, where it was like, I'm trying to fit in in this mix. And so because you have, there's really just him and Donovan with the ball in their hands, you know, a majority of the time. And the other guys are kind of roll guys around them. He kind of fills in, this is exactly what the, what Paul George should be doing, right? Which is, you know, look, there's only one other guy

that's going to dominate the ball on your team. And these other guys, you whip it over to Marcus Morris and he'll hit a three. Or you whip it over to Landry Shammit or you set up, you know, whoever your big is at the time. But you've got kind of two guys and then you got role players surrounding them. Three guys with two role players surrounding them gets tough because the third guy has to take a backseat.

And I don't think it's easy to take a back seat when you're Mike Conley and you've had the ball in your hands. You're literally since you've been a child. You have been the point card on a basketball team. And you're setting other people up, right? And now you can get your own shots. I just think that, you know, we've seen it. Like, it's hard to pull off the three. You've got somebody, Ray Allen has to sacrifice.

Chris Bosch has to sacrifice. Kevin Love has to sacrifice. And I don't think that they ever really found that. comfort in a pecking order that they have with Mitchell, Bogdanovich, and Conley, you know? I'd love to write an article or read an article about, you know, a deep, honest conversation with Conley about what's changed for him. I mean, I'm not sure how open he would be about it,

but I do wonder if during the hiatus, if he at all, you know, referenced film with Gobert, what kind of conversations did he have with the coaching staff, what changes happen within him, you know, mentally or, physically for him to suddenly become the Mike Conley of old. He's backed me and the guy, I mean, or like would he in an honest conversation, you know, say, yeah, it is easier for me without Bogdanovich, handling some of the secondary responsibilities. I just wonder what his own take would be.

So, I mean, whether someone else wrote that or if I wrote that, it's something maybe worth looking into, but. Well, I noticed this when I was watching the last game. And as I said, you know, obviously I watch every game the guy played for over a decade. I don't remember, I swear to God, Kevin, I'm sure there are some. I don't remember him ever throwing in Alley, you. I was about to ask you about that. I'm not kidding.

I was about to ask that, yeah, yeah. I mean, he threw the ball to, it was pick and pop with Markasaw. It was rolling to the rim, like a bull in a china shop with Zibo. Yep. You know, there was never a guy that really you threw a lob over the rim too, and that's Gobert. You know what I mean? Like, he's always had either pick and pop guys or just roll the rim guys.

And I do think that there was something about building that type of chemistry and how do I play with a guy like this? Because he's never, even Greg Oden. I mean, that's a long time ago, though. I mean, it's a long time ago that he played Greg Oded. You know, just the type of bigs he's played with. Whereas Gobert is just, you know, roll hard to the rim and set me up. The other thing is we're talking about getting past screens.

These Denver guys, they die on his, when he sits a screen, Donovan Mitchell's just got a friggin' runway. It's unbelievable. Like, I just, I don't know, man. I'm not going to discount them now because I thought that they were in big trouble, you know, against Denver. And not only are they're not in big trouble. They are waxing them.

And with Denver, you know, this is the crossroads. every team comes to. You got front offices that'll say it would have been all different if we had Will Barton and Gary Harris. And so they run it back without making big changes because they think to themselves, we weren't healthy. That was not a proper representation. And it would have been all different if we had our guys.

Now, in this case, you can either decide whether that's foolishness or if that's reality. I tend to think it would be foolishness, don't you? And that you've got to really have, you got to have some tough conversations, you know, when you get to the offseason if you're Denver about, okay, this isn't good enough to compete at the highest level. In some ways, it is like a early version of the conversation happening now with the Sixers. The Sixers right now, everybody's talking about, well, how do you successfully build around a Simmons and Embed?

They fire Brett Brown, which we'll get to a little bit later. You're wondering, how do you build around that roster? it's the same conversation in the early stages with Denver. How do you build around Yokic, who at his best as a good positional defender? He's right now performing very badly on defense, but at his best, he's a positional guy. He's not a lockdown defender. He's not a great rim protector. He's a great rebounder, but he's not somebody who anchors your defense.

And you don't have those point of attack defenders either. And, you know, I mentioned the Charks article earlier of a guy like Ben Simmons. I mean, you're not getting Ben Simmons. It's a, it's a dream. That's only, that would be a couple of years from now if he wants out. And even then, if he wants out, he's maybe he doesn't want to go to Denver. Maybe he has power to demand a trade to a specific place. Who knows? But for the nuggets, there does need to be that serious conversation within that front office about who is the right coach for the team. I like Michael Wallen for what it's worth. Who is the right coach for the team? What is the right system?

What personnel does the team need in order to build around a star at the level of Yokic, who was the best center in basketball during the season? He's not any slouch over here. He's a great player, truly a great player. But what can you do to maximize him? And also, what is wrong with him on defense right now? Is it conditioning? Is it time off right now?

Because he was pretty good. Like I said, before basketball stopped in March. What is wrong here? There's a lot that needs to be diagnosed for this Nuggets team, because I don't like their chances of getting 3-1 comeback. That ain't happening. No. Other teams on life support, the Blazers,

especially after last night where they got whacked by the Los Angeles Lakers. You know, we talked on Friday, and everybody did the grand overreactions. We probably did a little included, but I referenced to you that I read this thing on second spectrum about how game one was the worst shooting luck that anyone had had happened. in like 30 years for a regular season game or a playoff game or maybe it was like 15 years, whatever it was.

I think it was since 2013. Okay. And they, oh, it was. It's only seven, yeah. Oh, okay. But it was thousands of basketball games, I believe. Yes, exactly. Yeah.

When you take it into consideration, the regular season and the playoffs and that their projected point total would have been 46 points higher. And I couldn't get that out of my head because what that tells me is, You got to where you wanted to get. You got the shots you wanted to get. You just made none of them. When the number is that extreme, and then obviously we have seen a massive course correction with that.

And so over the last three games, I suppose Frank Vogel is now a good coach in Laker fans' eyes. Contagius Call Well, Pope, is just fine. And the truth is Anthony Davis, you know, who had a bizarre game one has turned into one of the best five guys at basketball. Most times when you watch him out on the court, LeBron has been fantastic, as usual. They've played a couple different guys here and there, but defensively they have just shut Portland down completely,

and now Willard's all banged up. And so this feels almost like a, you know, with them and the magic, it feels like we got to watch this last game kind of as a murder. mercy killing because both the Lakers and the Bucks had one game blips and now they look like we expected them to look when this thing all started, right? Yeah, for sure. I mean, the Lakers are straight up the better team. And even in that game one, their defense that showed some of the problems they could cause

Damien Lillard and the Blazers. And Dame this series, you know, he has not been that guy that we saw. in the seating games or during the entire regular season for that matter too because of what they're doing against them they have a really good this is in contrast to denver really good point of attack defenders or steering him into their rim protection into their size whether it's a d or magee or dwight howard great offball help from guys like lebron dany green whoever it may be they are playing a collective five-person defensive game plan against Lillard and executing it at a high, high level.

And that's why they're winning the series against Lillard. Never mind the fact that they're shooting the ball better. There's a bigger, stronger, more talented team in order to get shots on the offensive end of the floor. The Lakers are serious, man. I mean, this is why I've picked them before the season, why I picked them to win the finals before the playoffs. This team with LeBron and with AD, you mentioned the stat before we started recording.

Anthony Davis in only 17 minutes on 36 seconds, a plus 37. That's outrageous, man. Oh, my goodness. For the Lakers, man, they're going to be in the conference finals. I picked them against Houston or O'KC. It's just a matter of who the opponent will be there.

And it won't be easy to get to the finals, but this team is showing they are who we thought they were. Yes. And I am looking forward to either of the series, whether it's Houston or Oklahoma City. Yeah, me too. Those are both great matchups for... It's going to be a fight.

It's going to be a fight. Both great matchups for the Lakers. Still pick the Lakers in, you know, five or six, but... Yeah. The Bucks, on the other hand, who's defended... One more thing, one more thing before we move on. Also with Portland, they also just seem like a tired team, too. Yeah, of course.

Nerkich is not playing at the same level on defensive. that he did earlier in the seating games. He really started getting tired towards the end of those eight games, and that's really wearing on him now. White side has fallen off on defense. This team is the same damn thing we talked about before. They just don't have enough wings. They don't have enough defense.

And for them, like with Denver, we talked about that, with the Sixers, we'll talk about that a little bit more later. But with Portland, they have a lot of work to do in order to solve that problem. Yeah. The magic and the bucks, again, And we've got to watch one more of this, but the Bucks lost their game one. And it did, you know, look, Middleton was bad. And Middleton was frankly bad.

He's been bad in the series overall. But it was like, hey, they haven't defended very well in the bubble. And then that game one, like it all came to a head. And that was rough stuff. And I can't remember who wrote the article, but I read earlier in the week. It was chronicling how Boodenholzer, like, changed their defensive scheme for game one. said to hell with that, we're going back. Because almost as a test trial, like, hey, we're going to have to use this stuff

later down the road when we play against some of these other smaller teams, whether it be the Celtics or whether it be the Raptors. And Boonezer is always killed for just doing what he does. And yet, weirdly, he didn't do what he always does. And their rim protection just went away completely. You know, Vucevich looked like friggin' wilt-Chamberlin. And so they've gotten it back on track now over the course of the last three games. And it's certainly started to look a lot more like the Bucks team that we saw.

I still think they are in for an absolute war with Miami. Yeah, that's going to be a tough series. I think the Lakers have clearly looked better, you know, since the playoffs have started and looked a lot like we thought they were going to look more so than the Bucks and giving you confidence in what they've got going right now. They were a dominant team during the regular season, and they don't look like that right now. They look like somebody that could be picked off by, you know,

I don't think they'd be massive favorites against any of the other three teams remaining in the East, seriously. Like, I think that gap is a lot smaller than we thought it was going into this. it's nice to see Mark Hill Foltz shooting the ball well I'm just saying is it is it is it he's shooting 57% of three

he's hit 5 of 11 of his threes 5 of 5 of 5 from the free throw line I'm just saying it would be really funny if he becomes awesome I don't think so not with the shot looking like that this is a it goes in

I will be shocked if Mark Lofoltz with a shot that looks like that is successful. As a shooter, he can still be a good player without a reliable jump shot. I've said he can be

Sean Livingston if he wants to be. Post-injury, Sean Livingston, a guy who plays hard on defense, passes, hits mid-range jumpers, you know, maybe the occasional three-for-folds, gets to the rim.

He can be that if he wants to. He can still be a good player, but all I'm saying is, it's nice to see him shooting threes, and I hope the form continues to improve so it can translate against, you know, really good defenders attempting to stop a premier player off the dribble, which he is not right now.

But it's just nice to see the development. It's a big step up from what we've seen in the past. That's my only point. I just had to bring that up about Fultz. It's nice to see. You probably would have been the best guard on the Sixers. He probably would have been. So wouldn't have Trey Burke.

Womp, Womp, Womp, Womp, Wamp, Wamp. Oh, Trey Burke, too. Trey Burke has been a revelation. Can't believe they waived him. it's crazy for and who think Kyle O'Quinn and Netto or whoever that like what are you doing? Why do you look at I mean do you think about who they didn't wave in order like I get it if you waived him because you got guys but like that's who you kept guys that are like unplayable for you. It was crazy. I mean they did get Alex Burks and Glenn Robinson.

That's why they waived. Yeah, so what? Trey Burke. But you're saying they should have. wave some of those other guys. Yes, I should have. Yeah. The ousted. Let's start with the Pacers. I mean, look, they got beat. They never got run out of the gym. They were like in all of these games. And they did it without Subonis. So this is juxtaposed with the Denver thing. I do think if I'm the Pacers,

I say, this would have been different if we had our guys. This could have been different if subonis is in the mix, especially when I'm that close in every game. And so I look at it and say, I don't need to make monstrous changes because if we had subonis, it would have been a different story.

Do you agree with that? Yeah, I would have been tighter. I'd still pick Miami and Sierra. I would too, but it certainly would have been way more competitive than a sweep. Yeah, right. That's for sure. Which is what Utah basically has done to Denver, right? By the way, Sabonis, with the timing of

him going back to Orlando. Did he ever get out of quarantine? I don't know. I don't think he did, right? I don't know if he did. I don't know. But I do, I thought he flew down there to tell Oladipo to pass the ball.

That's what he should have done. What the hell was he doing? Seriously. Like, Malcolm Brogden was awesome. Like, pass the ball guy. I don't understand Oladip. I'm a huge Ola Depot fan. But God.

I mean, Ola Dipo, had a good game four statistically. No, no, I'm talking about three. I'm talking about three. Okay, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Brogden had it cracking. Yeah.

I don't understand. Brogden's a damn good player, man. Yeah. But I like that Pacer's team, and I thought they overachieved, and they, you know, they were in every one of these playoff games. There wasn't a massive gap. And I do think that that's a long series if Sabonis is in the mix. And certainly they would add a chance if some bonus is in the mix.

So I'd try to, I'd try to come back next season with Oladipo healthy for a whole year. with Brogden, and it's a bonus at Turner. And now I got T.J. Warren, who was obviously a revelation during the bubble time. And I feel pretty good. Jeremy Lamb will be back, hopefully healthy.

Sounds like you're describing a second round loss team to me. I just don't hate them. I don't hate it. No, me neither. I don't hate it. I mean, again, you go into it thinking I'm a good team

and I need some luck. And I can alter my team as the season goes on via trade or whatever. I don't need to blow it up for sure. No, you don't. Don't need to blow it up. No.

Not yet. All right. Not yet. Speaking of blowing it up, Philadelphia. All right. No, they don't need to blow it up, but yeah.

They're going to blow up everything around Simmons and a beat. How about that? Everything around those two. Okay, so I'm glad you said this because everybody's coming up with trade ideas for one or the other. And I'm with you in this. Okay.

So if I have been, Simmons and I have Joel Embed. There's a way to build around this. And we have actually seen some success. You remember a couple years ago when they had kind of underachieve. They went and got like Marco Bellinelli and like Iliosovo or whatever. And the numbers with those guys on the court were unbelievable. Because Ilios would stand in the corner. Bell and Ellie would stretch the floor. They're obviously not good enough. But it was just the theory of, hey, this isn't rocket science here. How about I go and I have J.J. J. J. J. Reddick and Jimmy Butler and another guy that could shoot.

The idea that Elton Brand went into the offseason and said, these are my guys. And I guess you thought Al Hartford was going to be your power forward and that that would be good together because surely you didn't spend that kind of money on a backup center. And then you saw Tobias Harris and thought this is a good, I mean, it was just doomed from the start. Seriously, it's a bad fit. And it doesn't make a ton of basketball since, oh, you got to do.

I'd tell you this, if I had Ben Simmons, I'd flank him with four shooters. And if I had Joe L. M. B'd flank him with four shooters. And if I had both of them, I sure as hell flank him with three shooters. Like, this is not, like, sometimes you ain't got to think too hard on this stuff. And, I mean, that is an absolute debacle. And I know Brett Brown's taken, he didn't maximize it. He didn't do a great job. But on the other hand, that's a bad mix of guys to try to get to win with.

for sure and i mean i picked them to go to the files before the season because i expected their defense to be even despite potential offensive struggles i thought their defense would be dominant with an bead with simmons with horford you know getting back healthy but didn't happen this was not a dominant defense at all despite simmons and abid being who they are horford has not gotten back to being the guy that he was before richardson was not the same level that he was in Miami. This team did not get the contributions they needed across the roster on defense. And they also seem like a disconnected defense. Obviously, we know about their struggles on the road. With Philadelphia, man, they need undeniably a guy who can create off the triple from the perimeter, not Ben Simmons.

Ben Simmons is your guy who is just a major weapon in transition, who's a major weapon in the half court attacking off of others, off short roll, pick and roll. But you don't have that point guard who can do that for you josh richardson did not get better from what he was in miami he got worse as a ball handler he got worse as a shock creator did not shoot the ball as well as he did they haven't been able to find that other guy they try to go out with netto with burke with alex burks it didn't work out with any of them but they got to find somebody i've said this name a bunch and i'm obsessed with the idea of chris paul for them whether it's paul or whether it's somebody else, somebody in the draft,

they got to find that guy who can create off the dribble in the half court in order to both space the floor when Simmons or Embed have it, but also create for those dudes. Simmons also needs to actually spot up and shoot threes. He didn't before he got hurt. He didn't do it enough. And I'm still not convinced he can do it effectively. With Embed and Simmons, it can work.

It's just hard to build around those guys. And this circles back to whether I'm right or whether I'm wrong about it. It's why I ranked Ingram ahead of Simmons in the draft, because Simmons is a hard guy to build around. You got to have the right pieces. You got to have the right pieces to build around a guy like that, especially when he's on the same roster

as somebody like Joelle Embed. Because Embed himself also is a low 30% three-point shooter. And also is not somebody who rolls hard to the rim. He just doesn't. You just wonder if you waste years. You are wasting years. No, no, no.

I'm saying trying to do it. And that we're going to come back a year from now, Kev, and say, it's just hard to build around. They get a new coach. It's just hard to build around those guys. They move, they somehow find a landing place for Horford, and they get, you know, whatever, a quarter on the dollar just because somebody's taking on that contract.

Maybe they find, you know, a place for Paris, or maybe they just keep Harris, because they've got so much invested in him. But they find a place for Horford. And we say, man, it's still, it's just, it's hard to build around these guys. Now, in fairness, if I'm a Philly fan, I'm going, We had it built.

We lost the friggin' last shot of the game to the team that won the championship. And both of those guys walked away in free agency. And you got me shittier players. Like, you had it. If you roll out there, JJ Reddick, Jimmy Butler, Ben Simmons, and Joe L.M.B., and now I got one other guy. I find another guy that can shoot the ball. Like, I've got a team that can play for the championship, for real.

And they had those guys and let those guys walk and then replace them with worst fits, you know, in Horford and Harris. And so it clearly can be done. It can. Right. We just saw it. I know where they lost. But I looked at that and said, boy, if I could run that back, I'd take another crack at that, especially with Kawhiagan. But they just eff that up.

They effed that up bad. and the first sacrificial lamb is Brett Brown, but I'm with Philly fans on this, man, you've got to clean that out. Those are unforgivable errors. To trade all that shit away for Tobias Harris and then give him the stupidest contract, like the Clippers weren't keeping him in the offseason anyway.

And you had look up and say, hey, the Clippers got better when he left last year. You know, like, it counts for something with me. Well, I mean, that's the thing, though. I mean, right now for Philly, to your point about maybe the, only decision is the hardest decision and that's choosing between Embedd and Simmons because that's where you can get the greatest return for either of those guys and restructure your roster because you're not getting like slouchy players back.

You're probably getting a really nice piece. You know, again, pointing to that Charks idea, you know, he's saying like a Jamal Murray back or something like that or Anna Michael Porter or whatever. If you're getting that in return, you're building around Embed, then great. My question be is if you're Philly, do you want to build around Embedd or Simmons there in that case. They're not going to make that choice, though. So we're just speaking hypothetically here. Elton Brand said himself today that he's not going to trade either of them. And that's consistent with everything that I've heard. They're nowhere near that. But I do

wonder, though, in a year or two years from now, if we are at that point, and then at that point, maybe you're getting a diminished return. Or maybe at that point, one of those guys falls off a little bit or is angry and wants out, which hurts your leverage and potential return. for Philly, this could go south really quickly over the next couple of years. Well, and you know the more dangerous one is clearly Simmons because he's represented by clutch. And we get to, I mean, look,

I'm not using this as a demerit against them. We have seen them force people's hands. If anything, it's a compliment to them. That's what an agent is supposed to do is represent their client and put them in the best situation possible. They have even dictated landing areas for their guys. Right? So, I mean...

It's all like CAA has. hasn't done that with other clients either. Of course, but it could also help you get a King's ransom. So, yeah, they'll make sure that Ben Simmons lands wherever they want him to go, but they'll also help you get, I mean, look, nobody's crying over New Orleans's return that they got for Anthony Davis. If you got to get rid of Anthony Davis, at least you got all kinds of assets back in the deal, including Ingram, who's going to be like multiple-time All-Star,

Lonzo who crapped his pants in the bubble but we'll see Josh Hart's a good role player and then they got a million picks and all this other stuff I mean they got you know they got return for that

as good as you could for Anthony Davis I think and so that's kind of the deal like okay yeah they forced my client out but at least they're gonna they'll also set up the trade for us you know

and make sure we get a lot of shit back by the way where's Josh Harris their owner. They just fire their head coach of like almost a decade. They're restructuring the entire front office. Wait. And where, where's the owner out here? We're not going to hear from him. Dude, you got to look this up. What's up? Adrian Wojianoski tweets out yesterday a statement from him. It's a friggin iPhone note. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, no, that's all we got. Look, when I saw that, I'm like, who, what kind of Mickey Mouse operation is this?

An iPhone note? Like, bro, put the shit on some letterhead. Like, you've got a whole PR department, unless you fired him because you didn't want to pay him during all of this time. Remember when he had that PR debacle a couple of months ago? That's right. Like, do you have a department working, like a statement in an iPhone note?

What are we talking about here? That's like NAA college basketball stuff. And I say that as someone who loves the NAA. But, I mean, like, that's like you ain't got anybody to do this stuff. That's like you got to do this crap on your own, so I'll just make an iPhone note. You damn owner of the 76ers. This is ridiculous. Ridiculous.

I mean, come on. Where is Josh Harris? He's on his iPhone, Kevin. The answer is he's on his iPhone. How'd that work? I wonder, did, like, he texts the quote to Woe to put it in the iPhone notes, or did have a screenshot the note? No, because it says, like, it's a quote.

It's like a quote sixers managing part of Josh Harris said. I don't think Josh Harris would write that himself. I think Woj put it in the iPhone note. Probably came in a text or was over the phone or something like that. But either way. That's how it's presented. Either way, that's how it's presented. And where is Harris to answer questions for what this debacle is?

No, he clearly doesn't talk to anybody before he does or says something. I'm dead serious. Yeah. That's what happened earlier when he was like, yeah, everybody's, you know, All these people are getting furloughed and gone and whatever else. And then, like, within like an hour, he was like, oh, sorry for my hasty decision. We're sorry. Like, you already broke the trust with everybody in that building that as soon as times got bad,

you were trying to fire us. You know what I mean? We've been doing all this stuff. You don't know any of us and you're trying to fire us as soon as you were going to take a little hit in the pocket. And so I don't know, man. I don't have a lot of faith in that ownership. Speaking of ownership, last thing we've got to get to, before we get out of here.

The Minnesota Timberwolves, it looks like Glenn Taylor's selling them, and this is going to shock you. But all the headlines are former Memphis Grizzlies Minority owner, Daniel Strauss, is going to buy the Timberwolves. Or certainly,

it looks like they're headed that direction. I'm not kidding you, Kevin. Daniel Strauss could walk in the room I am doing this podcast in right now, and I would have absolutely no idea who he is. None. And I read the article about it, and it was like, you know, he was praised for his quiet and hands-off approach, whatever. I mean, obviously, you know, I've been at every home game for 20 years. I have no idea what this person looks like. I have never seen him. Nothing. So, like, people were asking me like, hey, what do you think about this guy that was a Grizzly's minority owner? You know, maybe buying the timbrelals. I'm like, dude, I don't know who that is. Like, I don't, like, you know, like, I just Googled his name. There's an MMA fighter, Daniel Strauss.

That's the first photo that popped up. So when the Grizzlies were bought, Robert Perrow is the majority owner, and he owned like 26%, I think it was, of the team. And then there was a group of minority owners. The two biggest were a guy named Steve Kaplan, who was connected with Jason Levian, who I believe he's tried to buy. He was in a group to try to buy the Dodgers.

They own a soccer team. like Kaplan is with Oak Tree investments out in California and he was around all the time. This Steve Kaplan. The other guy Daniel Strauss, are you mocking me? This other guy, Daniel Strauss,

I'm telling you about who's going to own the Timberwolves and the fact that yeah, this guy was a minority over of an NBA team and I don't even know who this guy is. And he was the minority owner of my team. I've seen Robert Parra. I've seen Steve Kaplan, but he was like

the third guy, he might have been at a game, maybe. I never heard anything about him his entire time. But I'd imagine he made a fortune being in the investment group and then selling off. And maybe he's going to be the Timberwolves owner now. It sucks that Kevin Garnett's not going to be the owner of the Timberwolves, by the way. Can I just go ahead and say that? Yeah, it stinks. I'm disappointed about that.

Yeah. So anyways, here's hoping that, well, look, he's never buying. it from Glenn Taylor. He's not going to have anything to do with him. But maybe it'll be the first time I see Daniel Strauss is up at that podium when he's buying the Minnesota Turn for Wolves, even though he's evidently got Grizzlies in his headline everywhere. One other quick thing.

We didn't mention Boston, Toronto. That could be the series of the second round. And that is going to be, you get two of the best head coaches in basketball with Nurse and Stevens. You know, game one, it's going to be great. starting Thursday, but more than anything else, I'm looking forward to seeing what type of adjustments those coaches and how the players execute that over the course of that series. I mean, that is going to be a battle with two great half-court defenses, with versatility,

which team can create enough stops to get easy transition chances, which team is going to get better contributions in the half-court? Because it's inevitable, the far majority of your possessions are in the half-court. from their on-ball presence. You know, Hayward out, can Jayland Brown continue to step up for Boston? Can Tatum find even a higher level of play against Toronto's stout defense? Can Fred Van Lee keep it up? It's going to be really damn fun, dude.

Well, and it's those other guys, you know, like, you know Toronto can come off the bench with Norm Powell, who he can get you buckets or Serge Abacca, it could get you buckets, or they've got a ton of guys that can score and be productive, you know, are the, are the, are the Brad Wanamakers and the Grant Williams is and these guys of the world, are they going to be able to contribute? Because once you get past those first six, seven minutes, and the benches start coming in, that's where Toronto can be super devastating.

And so how does that Boston bench hold up against it? That's why I would give Toronto the edge in this, just the sheer depth that they have. And that's why when you say the Tatum another level, like you do feel like, okay, that's what can negate it. You can negate the depth if you've got a guy that can play 40 minutes and is. And Kemba Walker, too. And Kemba has been really, really good.

He's productive as two guys. And by the way, Jaylen Brown, it seems like every time he's handed, Moore's put on his plate, he gets better. I mean, they've put Brown in the Hayward kind of point forward role.

And he's really shining for the Celtics. I mean, this series is going seven, I think between these two. I think it's going to be the best series of the second round. Oh, wow. Yeah, I'm just really, really stoked for what we're going to see from these two teams with the players that they have, high IQ players who all hustle play so hard,

the band leads and Marcus Smart's of the world. And then two great head coaches who are some of the best at making game to game and quarter to quarter adjustments. It's got to be one hell of a serious, man. Thursday night, baby. I heard Bill and Rosillo talking about this in reference to Bill's conversation with this father and he said, look, you need to bring this up. This is when not having Hayward is going to hurt against Toronto. You buy that? You buy that. It didn't show up against Philly.

You didn't sit there and go, God, it really hurts not having Hayward. But that against Toronto, especially a team that pings the ball around and losing a smart player that keeps the ball moving and is obviously a 30 plus minute per game guy who had played well. That's going to really hurt just because of who it's going to throw into action and that you start getting more into that bench. You buy that? Yeah, no doubt about it. Yeah, I mean, you're going to be relying on Wanamaker as your ball handler off the bench.

But, you know, he's been pretty good. He's been better than he was all season long, that's for sure. And one of their note, though, Kyle Lari, it does sound like despite his ankle injury that he had in game four, he will play in game one. So that's good news for the Raptors. Kevin, we're going to get to watch that on Thursday, so we will get to instant react to that after the games on Thursday night. It is always a pleasure, and I'll talk to you on Friday.

Can't wait.