The Ringer NBA Show - The Nets are Done, and the Grizzlies and T-Wolves Are Tied 2-2 | Weekends with Wos

Episode Date: April 24, 2022

Wos is joined by Bleacher Report and The Athletic’s Mo Dakhil to discuss the Celtics' dismantling of the Nets. They also look ahead to the Nets' offseason, and wonder how far the Celtics can go in the playoffs (2:40). Then, they discuss the Timberwolves tying their series against the Grizzlies (24:46). Host: Wosny Lambre Guest: Mo Dakhil Associate Producer: Isaiah Blakely Additional Production Supervision: Benjamin Cruz Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Are you a sports fan who didn't know the NFL draft was this week? Then boy, do I have the teaser trailer for you. I'm Danny Heifitz, and I host the Ringer NFL draft show every week with Danny Kelly, Ben Solek, and Craig Horlebeck. We're doing mock drafts before the draft. We're great in picks after the draft. Now, do we know which picks were good and who's going to go where? No, absolutely not.

We can't predict the future. But people like hearing about it. Yeah, don't you, you sickos. So we talk about it anyway. So come listen to the Ringer NFL draft show. And guess what? If you like the draft, but you don't like me, you can go listen to the ringer NFL show with Kevin Clark and Nora Princeziati and our other NFL experts,

or you can go to NFL draft.com to check out our massive draft guide. So come listen to the ringer NFL draft show and the ringer NFL show on Spotify because they employ me, or it's also available on all the other platforms that don't employ me. with Woz on the Ringer NBA podcast network. I'm joined by a very esteemed guest, formerly of the Spurs, the Los Angeles Clippers, the Australian national team. You can find his work in Bleacher Report.

One more thing on Twitter. He's on Twitch. This man is a multimedia maven. My man, Mo Doc Hill, was popping, man. What is up was? I'm shocked they gave you a weekend show. I know, I know, I know.

They didn't get the memo about my life, though. They didn't check the stories? I don't think they got to memo about what it is I do on the weekends. Working ain't supposed to be on that docket. But here we are. Really excited to talk to you today, man. Definitely want to get into the Gris, Minnesota series. because to me that's the most interesting series we got left now

because just, you know, two really young, talented teams. Figuring it out. They're figuring it out. But it's still fun. But man, you know, we got to start off with the Celtics and that series. Brooklyn is done. They're finished. They went down 3-0 yesterday.

They basically, it looked, It looked like a team that had resigned itself to, this is over. We're not going to be able to pull this one out. And, yeah, the season is over. The weirdest craziest NBA season, from a individual team standpoint that I can remember, where you got a guy who's not playing because of vaccine refusal, you got a guy, a superstar requesting a trade. You get another alleged star back in the trade who never played.

for you, pops up with a mysterious injury. It's just a crazy turn of events this whole season, Mo. What do you think was ultimately their undoing against Boston in particular? I mean, against Boston is just a matter of the constant pressure the Boston Celtics defense puts on them. But also the lack of continuity to really build an offense. You know, you know me wise. I'm an X's and O's nerd. And there's no other way to describe it.

There's probably not even a big enough word to describe how much of a nerd I am on that stuff. There isn't any to watch when you watch Brooklyn. Like it was funny. It took two and a half games for them to run a one four flat to get KD some space. Like that was, I mean, it was a simple adjustment. It was sitting there the whole time and it took two and a half games. And the real issue is this just shows you how much the regular season matters, right? Yes.

Katie and Kyrie, unbelievable stars. we think, yeah, no problem. We always think it's plug and play. They had no chance at any point to really build an offense and build, create continuity so that they have an understanding of what to do. You know, and it's not just Kyrie's vaccine hesitation and everything with that was a big blow. But also KD missing a lot of time.

Yep. Right. So even in the games that Kyrie was playing on the road, there were games where KD wasn't because he was out. So there's no way to really build that sort of offensive system of like, this is what we're going to go to down the stretch. And you saw it in game two. You know, game one,

Kyrie goes completely off in the fourth quarter until he goes into ego ball trying to get the dagger. And that backfired in his face. And then you have the situation where in game two, the offense in the fourth quarter just completely fell apart and became one-on-one. And that's like Boston just going like come right to my hands, baby. Let's go. We got enough defenders.

We got you covered. And that's with Robert Williams sitting on the sidelines. Yeah, man What struck me Watching the game yesterday Is Without Joe Harris, without Ben Simmons, Those are big

Big losses to not bring to a playoff series Against a team The caliber of what Boston is How unbalanced the roster is, right? What I saw happen yesterday, especially when Jalen Brown In the second half decided that I'm going to live in the paint

Like it was a team that discovered like, wait, their wing and guard rotation is who? You're right. Who? They finally figured it out in the second half of game three that Brooklyn just cannot guard on the perimeter with any consistency whatsoever. And you contrast that to what Boston is throwing in the direction of KD and Kyrie in the forms of Tatum, Brown, you know, the defensive player of the year.

You know, like, they're just throwing. throwing waves of incredible defensive talent at Brooklyn. And Brooklyn just had no answer for what they were trying to do on the perimeter yesterday. And it was just like, again, it was just like four straight possessions of Jalen Brown just putting his head down. Like, nope, getting to the cup. Getting to the cup. Sorry, Patty Mills, get off of me. Gorin Chaudits, get out of here.

Kyrie Irvin, get out of here. Seth Kirk, like, you're not guarding me. Bye. Just look at their starting lineup, right? In their starting lineup, they're starting 6-2 Kyrie Irving, and I'm looking at this right out. That's a generous, by the way. Well, all of this is very generous, as I'm getting through this. Seth Curry, 6-2.

Yeah. Bruce Brown, 6-4. That's listed, by the way. If Bruce Brown's 64, I'm 6-1. That's it. That's we're changing my license. All of that. I'm 6-1 if Bruce Brown's 6-4.

Let's measure it up and see what happens. 6-1 is going into Mosrya, y'all. right now. And then you're bringing off the bench, Goran Dragich, 6-3. You know, then you're bringing Patty Mills, 6-1. Like, that's the size

you're bringing off the bench and you're not really getting anything. Part of it was they didn't go into the season with this kind of an unbalanced roster, right? Losing Joe Harris, like a lot of average fans may not know who he is, but just besides sharpshooting, just having a 6-6 guy on the court helps.

Yeah. In a game of length. That's not like he's... They also miss Jeff Green. who was big for them playing stretch five last year. Like all of that stuff, you know. And you even saw just the, the minute and a half that Blake Griffin had left in him.

You know, but you saw the difference, right? He's playing well. He was adding a little bit of length. He kept Jalen Brown out of the paint for like two possessions. Yeah. You know, resistance.

Yeah. Just, just, but just again, a little bit more size. And that's the stuff they missed. So having that on the, you know,

him barely playing in the series, having Joe Harris out. The balance of the roster. I mean, it totally got derailed with the whole situation with James Harden, which I think only happens because Kyrie refused to take the vaccine and led to all these issues. It just collapsed on them. So then when you make the trade, you're trading James Hardin.

And he's also a pretty big dude. You know, questionable how big, depending on what time of the season it is and what shape he's in. But, you know, and you're bringing in another small guard. And I think that just put them in such a disadvantage where, you know, I was looking at every time I was trying to figure out like, okay. how are they going to defend? Because like I said, like the nerd I am, all right, they're not going to defend.

That was just my result. At the end of it was just there's no way they can play defense. And they're just going to have to outscore everybody. And if they slow down, they're screwed. And they kind of held up the first two games. But again, I think Boston finally realized what their advantages were and they exploited them. And the problem if you're Brooklyn, it's like, that's the beauty of a playoff series, right? Where people are like, oh, they stole a game.

What that means is that when you play a team six, seven times, there are things, some of your weaknesses that they're not going to be able to pick up on in the first two games, and you might be able to steal one because of that fact, right? And Brooklyn just couldn't manage to pull it through. And now the Celtics are clearly the better team, clearly more. And I think Time Lord in his minutes, like, just the raw athleticism that he brings on defense, where it's like even if by the grace of God you do get past Jason Tatum

who at times had Katie in a straight jacket. At times. I felt like Katie, at times Katie got through. I felt like it was more often than not and he was locked up. So, but for the grace of God, you get through that gauntlet on the perimeter

and your gift at the cup is time, Lord, smashing everything and gobbling everything up. They just looked incredible when they're clicking on all things. But I do want to concentrate on the Tatum thing because, you know, Mo, I've been, I don't want to say adjacent Tatum skeptic, but definitely a Jason Tatum, pump the brakes, guys, like superstar, this, like, you know what superstars do? You know, like, you know what they do to elevate teammates?

You know what they're doing on defense to influence the outcomes? Like, do you understand what a superstar actually does on a night-to-night basis, slow it down? But, man, if you're guarding Kevin Durant on an island for the majority of these positions, possessions and you are doing as good a job as anybody I've seen since Tony Allen damn near 10 years ago I got to tip my hat to this guy and it's just it's just phenomenal what he's done this series on that end I have an article dropping on Bleacher later and if the editors might edit it out because it's probably too unlike me to write something pretty but just the comment of like this is like watching a caterpillar emerge from a cocoon and see a

butterfly. The way we're watching Jason Tatum emerge and step up in a way where it's like, he's doing it on both ends of the court. Go look at his numbers from game two. He shot it really poorly in that game, still had 10 assists, didn't affect his defense. And we've seen it from a lot of young guys where, hey, I don't have it going on offense. You know, you start to see their defense struggle and all those things and start to kind of not necessarily have it all the way. For him, it didn't mean anything. He ramped it up and kept going and continued. to go on. I was with you was early in his career like, okay, we're just handing this stuff out now. Yeah. But no, he's earned it right now. And to be honest, there were shades of this as early as

2020, you know, before the pandemic hit, there was a game against the Lakers in L.A. where he stood toe to toe with LeBron. They ultimately lose the game. But there were possessions where he took LeBron one-on-one. There was a game heading into that All-Star break. I remember clearly against the Clippers. And he was guarding Kauai one-on-one and was doing a good job. So I was like, okay, it's there. How often will we see it and whatnot? And now we're watching this now. And I'm, I couldn't be happy with this dude's turning into a full on NBA player. I hate the term two way player. Because this isn't, this isn't football. Two way player is means you play offensive defensive defense and football. And in basketball, it's called a basketball player because

you're supposed to play both freaking sides of the court. So, you know, I prefer calling other guys one way players. He's turning into a well-rounded, full-on NBA player and not just that, an actual superstar. Yeah. It's, it's, yesterday really crystallized that for me when you contrast it. And I think,

because I do want to get into the, I guess the game plan strategy of it all. And the reason why I picked Boston to win this series, and I thought that they would do it quite comfortably, was that they had good answers

for Brooklyn strengths, right? Meaning, Kyrie and KD being two of the best one-on-one players in the game, the boss and Celsius could make that difficult. Meaning if that's all you are subsisting on offensively, that's the only way you're going to generate buckets

is these guys being wearing capes one-on-one for the entirety of a game, the entirety of a series against this level of defense, give me that all day. Because I don't care how great KD is, how great Kyrie is. That takes a toll. Like the idea that the lift is going to be driven, dribble, dribble,

create some space, you know, rise above some of the lankiest dudes in the NBA. Like, this is a big ask. And that was their basic strategy. You know,

it begs the question of the job Steve Nash has done. I'm somebody who's actually been kind of bullish on Nash because just thinking about the job of managing these types of personalities. I don't envy him. And let's just put it like that. But you do have, you know, with great power comes great responsibility.

You got a talented roster. So a lot is going to be expected of you. What do you think about what Nash did? I know one thing that pissed me off, and I'm not the first person to say this, the drumming minutes. I mean, can we just park that dude? He does nothing for you. He really's not doing it.

It's not like he gets all his credit for being a great rebounder. Their rebounding numbers are never affected by this guy being on. on the actual court. Not his personal rebounding stats. The Nets, how often they corral a rebound is not affected by having drumming out there. I don't understand what he brings to the table. That was my main Nash, great,

but people have had others. What'd you think about what Nash did in this series? First, I'm still caught off guard by a Marvel movie reference with great power comes great responsibility. Is that a Marvel thing? Yeah, a little Spider-Man thing. I'm shocked.

I don't know what to do. I thought it was karate or something. I think the roof is falling. Like I'm a little bit concerned now. I have some concerns from that. But more importantly, like, it's funny because like when Nash got the job, everybody immediately great hire. I was like, yo, he's never coached a game.

Like that's not an easy thing to just step into. And you're right. This was not an easy job to walk into. And this season, even more so just all the personalities you got to deal with and dodge and work around with. You know, I think the drumming thing is a big one there. And you saw it. what was he doing?

There are opportunities to grab rebounds and he's tapping the ball out and guess what? It ends up right in the Celtics hands and that's the bucket. You know, you're giving up another opportunity there and things like that.

I thought Nick Claxton has been great. I feel like he gets underutilized a lot with this team. I feel like he should be starting. And you know what? If you're going to play Drummond to replace Claxton, it's going to be short, short minutes.

You know, and I understand the need of like, yo, we need size, we need that a little bit and so on. And there are times where Drummond can be helpful, but not heavy minutes, not a starter, you know, and just everything, you know, as we talked about,

like there's no offensive game plan for two seasons now. I haven't seen anything. It's just roll out the balls. You guys figure it out on offense, you know, but at the same time, there just hasn't been a lot of great defensive planning to go with it, you know, like just put it this way. Peyton Pritchard's on the court. And whenever he's on the court, they're not able to attack him. Yeah.

And part of that is, and again, we have to give credit to Boston. Some of it is some great jobs of switching him out. I love when they do to switch handoff. Like, Peyton Pritchard switches on a guy, you know, Tatum or Brown or somebody is in the corner guarding a guy, and immediately they hand each other off. I'm like, man, this is a team that is just completely locked in and in sync with what they want to do.

I mean, it was one of the more impressive ones because there was one in the third quarter where it was exactly that. Pritchard, they set the screen, Pritchard switches on to KD, they're about to get the ball to KD, and Mark is smart lifts up from the corner and just, it's seamless, right? It's just right into it. And that does not happen easily.

Like, that's a very complicated thing to do. Because if you screw that up, you're leaving Kevin Durant wide open. And as bad as he's been in his playoffs, you don't leave Kevin Durant wide open. And they've nailed it almost every time, but not being able to attack him and things like that or put him in situations where,

we're going to run this screen. but first we're going to clear out Marcus Smart. And now when you're setting the screen, you know, now good luck trying to scram switch. Because at least even if you do, Marcus has got a long way to go to catch up to Pritchard to make that switch happen. And this is KD or Kyrie, two of the best shooters in the league.

Like these are tough decisions you have to make. But again, they're not, there's just no continuity. There's no any of that. And that's why they're going down. The team that nobody wanted to face, is down to real. Can I touch on that? Because that was kind of silly.

Like, listen, I was afraid of Kevin Duran and Kyrie Irving. By the way, if I was a video guy for any of the teams I was playing for, it would have given me another migraine. Like, just the stress of it. But we really did kind of overplay it because it's just like, I kind of was just saying they're not stopping anybody. You know, like this is the only team I thought that should have a concern against Brooklyn was maybe Miami.

just because I felt like they have opportunities where they'll be able to attack guys. You know, you're going to put hero on the court for large minutes and things like that. They'll be able to attack and go at him. And by the way, I wasn't convinced Miami would lose to him,

but it would have been a tougher series. I wasn't sure if Miami could keep up offensively with them. You look at Boston. Besides Pritchard, where's the weak point? Right? And Pritchard's playing limited minutes. You know, you're not, there aren't a lot of weak areas on them defensively.

And almost none of those guys take anything off the table offensively. And I think that's the challenge. And it was just funny to me when everybody's like, this is the team, nobody should want to play. I'm like, you guys should just go ahead and do your thing. Absolutely. I saw people making snarky comments about the bucks.

And it's like, oh, you avoided Brooklyn. And now look, a guy's heard. And, you know, the Bulls won a game because Caruso was dominant. It was like, uh, and now this street won. Go look at what they just did in Chicago, in Chicago. Chicago. It's true one. I think, yeah, it's fine.

Was it even close at any point? Like, maybe the, it felt like it was 10-0 at the tip. Like, they smoked them. But I do want to spin it forward with both teams. I think the East is shaping up really nicely for Boston right now. They got Time Lord back. All of their core guys are relatively healthy. They just got a great test in round one.

of what their defensive medal is. They're sitting pretty nice right now going forward in the Eastern Conference playoffs. But Brooklyn got some, they got some choices to make this offseason, man. And Kyrie Irvin is going to demand a max deal. And, you know, you've sort of, you got to dance with the devil here

because this is what you signed up for when you brought KD and Kyrie in, what are they doing in the long season? I haven't taken a look at their full on cap situation, but one, they're resigning Kyrie because here's the, here's the thing that everybody who always like, oh,

just let him walk. You don't understand the cap then. You let him walk. Doesn't mean you get to replace him with a max player. Yeah. Right? Like you're over the cap. That just means that's,

you let him go for nothing and you have nothing to show for it. And now it's KD and guys. you know, and who knows what you get from Ben Simmons. I'm, I know you're not a Ben Simmons guy. I'm, I'm a little higher on Ben Simmons. I should actually say a lot higher because you're so low on him. But, um, but the, the, I think what he can bring to them defensively. I think what he can do, you know, as sort of a short role guy, kind of like a Dremont,

a bigger Dremont green for them on the offensive end will really open things up for them a lot and things like that. I think getting time on the courts together is important. important. The thing they got to get in the offseason is they got to find wings. They got to go find the, and I don't know if they have where they could find them and things like that. I like Kessler Edwards. He still got a ways to go. This was his rookie year. It wasn't quite ready for anything. You know, you got to go find the Robert Covington's. You know, you got to go find those guys to get them to come into your, your roster so that you can start

having wing death because that's what they're missing there. Because here's the thing, Katie's a good defender. He really is. He can't do what is being asked of Tatum. This is just, he's, he's 30-something years old. Like, I get it. He's still a great player, but he can't be asked to do that. That's wild. It's wild, right?

He's playing 40-something minutes. He's dealing with every defender of the Celtics have had, right? Every time he turns, it's another dude in green, you know, unless they're wearing their ridiculous black jerseys. Boston, please, boot the black jerseys. But you're dealing with all of those constant attacks. You can't ask him to have. have to carry the offensive load and that heavy of a defensive load, make it a little bit

easier for it. You know, that's kind of what you got to do there. At least there are possessions where Tatum can switch off Katie for a little bit and get a breather on a defensive possession. There aren't any for Katie. And I think the big thing is they got to find wings. I actually kind of like what Dragich does for them off the bench. I think, you know, I wouldn't be surprised if they find a new home for Patty Mills.

But I think that's going to be the stuff they got to start finding. they got to get some wings in there. They got to find the 6-5-6-6 guys that can play defense. Even if they can't shoot a lick, they need to find a guy that can play some defense. Because Katie will survive if you added two non-shooters on the court, which is probably what would happen with Ben Simmons and if you have another wing there.

But if they can get stops on the other end, it'll go a long way for them. Yeah, so Kyrie's coming back, y'all. It's probably going to get the five-year. I would put provisions in there if I were in the net. I would just have discussions there of like, listen, man, we got to talk about some of this stuff. Because this year it was the vaccine, okay, whatever your opinions are. Yeah, before he took off because of January 6th.

He was just so disturbed by the attempted coup he couldn't go to work, Mo. Yeah, no. So you have, I mean, like, so whatever next year's is, we need to have provisions here to protect us a little bit. And I think that should be the conversation there. So it's, we're going to give you the max. We need provisions. We're not going to have provisions. We shouldn't have to give you the max.

And I think that should be a conversation there. I'm glad I don't have to have those. Yes, absolutely. So, yeah, let's move on to the series that I'm basically most fascinated by and that's Grizzlies Timberwolves. And yesterday, the Timberwolves basically, again, controlled this game for the most part. And then the fuckery started happening again, Mo.

And honestly, watching both of these teams reminds me of my kitten, Mimi. Like, I marvel at her athleticism. Like, sometimes she'll just be darting around the room, jumping on stuff. I'm like, damn, you can reach that, all of that. And then every now and again, she wedges herself between my door and screen door and gets stuck and starts looking at me like, oh, can you help me? Right. Like, she just does some of the most boneheaded things imaginable, right?

but she's a kid and she's young. You understand. But it's like, it's both of those things. Like, I marvel at how just highly skilled these young dudes are merged with their athleticism. Like, these guys, like, some of the reads that Jha makes on a night-to-night basis is it blows me away. The spaces he's fitting some of these passes into, like, basically looking guys open, right? Like he's looking in a direction because he knows the defense is going to shade and he knows that it's going to be a pocket for his guy.

Like, just some high level stuff. I know Anthony Edwards, every time he goes down, people like basically have a heart attack. But yeah, they controlled this game. And then things got tightened by a miracle they were able to pull it out. What did you see yesterday, Mo? I think this is a young, this is everything you said. It's a young team problem, especially in the playoffs.

build a big lead, blow a big lead, right? And I'm still not quite over game three. Like, I still don't understand. I can't fully comprehend blowing two 25 point leads in a game and then losing. Now, to the wolves credit, they come back. Yeah. And do it a gift. Because I walked out of game three going, it's over.

Doing the Vince Carter. That's what Bill said. But I just don't buy that Memphis is that much better than them. They're not. And here's the things that come to play with them. They are not a team that has a great half-court offense. As great as Jaws passing is, right? And they're doing a better job with some of the stuff in the half-court.

But they are a heavy transition team, a heavy offensive rebounding team. Now, listen, offensive rebounding can stick in the playoffs to a degree. The transition defense, transition tends to change a little bit, right? Everybody kind of backs off a little bit. And then some of the interesting stats was that I saw that when I'm, you know, looking from at my stuff is like, jaw at the rim is struggling massively. Right.

Regular season shot 66% at the rim. This is according to cleaning the glass. This season 40 or excuse me, this playoffs, 47%. That's a damn near 20 point drop. Yep. That's the series.

Yeah. Right there. That's it. If he can fix that and get that up to about like 55. that's going to change things for the wolves. But that's kind of the, excuse me, excuse me,

change things for Memphis and the wolves because the wolves have to deal with them. But you have the issue of that's something they got to find a way to get job, more open opportunities in there. And some of that's transition. Some of that is kind of clearing the lane out a bit. But it's getting hard there in watching Memphis. And I'm with you.

Memphis isn't that far ahead of Minnesota. You know, the way people talked about Minnesota going into the series. And everybody was having fun with them celebrate. and all that stuff. But, you know, look, like, this is a team that matches up really well. And as long as Kat doesn't lose his mind, every time a foul is called on him and can stay engaged in the game, they're going to be in it.

Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, got to talk about the Carl Towns of it all because God knows I savaged the guy after what he was doing in game three with the ridiculous fouls and just, like, his inability to, like, impose his will on a game. game where he's, you know, you're supposed to be one of the best players in the league. Like, your presence should be felt every single game. Even if, okay, let's just say you go three of 11 from three.

You need to be getting 11-3s up, though, right? Like, you're the best shooting big in the history of, like, you need to be imposing your will and what your strengths are in every single game. And obviously, he didn't do that in game three, but I thought he came back strong. And the key number to me is get to the line 17 times. Like, that's somebody who's imposing his will on a defense. On a team, like, yeah, Stephen Adams is a big dude, but he's a terrible matchup for Towns. Because Towns wants to bring you out and draw you out and can take you off the dribble.

But, like, as much as we love Jared Jackson's defense, his sort of mobility and shiftingness and his quasi-rimp protection, he's not that big. He can be moved. Carl Towns can put his body on him. And I thought, you know, and the same thing for Brandon Clark. You know, these guys are not huge. Like Carl Towns should be drawing doubles and triples every time he gets it anywhere near the basket. And, you know, making good passes.

So I'm happy Carl Towns was able to get off to Schneid. I just love that Anthony Edwards just like isn't phased by anything for better or for worse at times. But like he just doesn't care. Like he's like, I'm getting my shots up. I'm getting to the rank. I'm getting up off. I don't care. Before we get to the Edwards thing, the thing about towns and really the Grizzlies and him going to the line 17 times, I don't know if you saw the Taylor Jenkins rant after the game.

I did not. He called it like the worst officiated game he's ever seen. Everything would. It was a take that for dad or rant. And we can argue because they shot 40 free throws or whatever. Let's just be honest here about some of the Grizzlies defenders. They're all freaking foul prone. Right?

Like he can complain about like, hey, they damn near fouled out our guys. Yeah, because your guys are fouling constantly. Jaron Jackson Jr. fouls a ton. He's a foul artist. He's a hack, bro. Dylan Brooks. Dylan Brooks fouls all the time. Like, it's...

So handsy. We're not... I mean, you can't be upset with that. You know, that's kind of the way you look at it. So, yeah, they shot a ton of free throws because you guys kept fouling them. And that's a big issue there for the Grizzlies defensively to figure it out. Because, like, hey, I think Jaron Jackson Jr. has a chance to be a defense. of the year in the league at some point.

Big key to that, you got to be on the freaking floor. Yeah. So you're on the floor. You can't finish games with five fouls consistently, right? Like, let's have a few, you got to be down there to the three foul mark in that instance. I think that's the massive issue for the Grizzlies there. And

it just was, after we're done here, go go listen to the Taylor Jenkins. I'm going to enjoy it. I needed him to end it with a take that for dad or rent. Let's just go. And I have a theory. Anytime you start complaining as the coach about that. You're feeling it.

Series is almost over. Yeah. You're feeling it. 2-2. You're right there now. Yeah. Again, look, I don't want to pat myself on the back, but, you know,

Memphis contingent has been on me all year because I made a flipping remark about John. It was basically John the Pips. I was wrong about that. Their guys are better than just guys. 100%. However, you know, you're seeing it in this series against Minnesota, like, you need more than one dude that has juice on the ball,

meaning draws double teams, sucks defenses, and punctures defenses, and therefore you can spray it out and attack those lapses. They don't have that. Like, as much as we love Triple J offensively, he spaces for you, which is nice. Occasionally, he finishes. He ain't nobody's creator. You know, Bain has a little bit of juice on the ball, but really, he's just a finisher of Jaws possessions, right? Like, of Jaws usage, he's the finisher of that. And same for Dylan Brooks. Like, these guys aren't that.

And I think against a team like Minnesota, they can eventually cobble enough together where it's going to be fine, but they play Golden State in the next round. Oh, no, no, don't even, that's, they're going to get him, they're going to, They're going to get embarrassed. I'm sorry. It's not even trying. What you just said is such a key thing, right? You take Jah out and then the play creator creation goes to Desmond Bain goes to Dylan

Brooks. And this is in the starting lineup, right? And then, you know, Jaron Jackson Jr. is not a play creator. They're not going to use him as that. And then you're going to bring Tice Johnson, who I think is, by the way, I like him. He's the best backup point guard in the NBA this season. Like, I don't think that's close. That ain't replacing Jha and the playmaking there, right?

Like this is a team that the league is becoming more and more. You need to have multiple ball handlers. This league is getting away from heliocentric basketball. And thank God, that might be something you could use at the end of games. But you need a guy to be able to kick it out to. Just look at what's going on in Dallas. Right? They're able to, Luca's able to kick it to Jalen Brunson, who's been unbelievable.

He's able to kick it to Spencer Dinwiddie, which let's be honest, none of us were expecting when he got traded there that he'd be this good there. But now they have two other ball handlers on top of probably the best in Luca, right? And it's, yes, it's a massive drop off between Luca to those guys. But it's not the same drop off as it is from jaw to the other guys. And I think that's the issue there. And that's what Memphis is going to have to start looking for going forward there with some of the talent that they have. They might have to make a two-for-one type trade to bring in a guy.

And yeah. And again, like the reason why I thought it was smart for Mo to bring up how effective Memphis has been in transition all regular season long is because, you know, traditionally that's an indicator of a team that might have a drop off in the playoffs because everybody gets back on defense, everybody's keyed into their matchups in the playoffs in a way that most teams just aren't in the regular season. And when it redounds to Jha as the be-all and end-all of offensive creation, that's where you get into some trouble.

It's not just, look, he struggled with his shot yesterday. and you mentioned that he needs to do better finishing at the cup, it's a big, it's a heavy lift. Even against Minnesota who aren't like, they're not Boston, right? They're decent enough. But it's still, even against the defensive back caliber, it's a heavy lift.

Now, you go ask them to do it against the experts, people who have their doctoral degrees in defense in Golden State. And like, this guy's supposed to be asked to do that possession after possession. I think that's tough. And I think, look, they're in a dog fight, man. This thing is going to be tough to finish off Minnesota. The best part about this was, I want this to be the development of a new rivalry. Like, I think rivalries are developed in the playoffs.

Some people argue with me of like, oh, it's regional. No, it's not. I lived in L.A. We think it's going to be a Clipper Laker rivalry. That's never going to be the rivalry. When I was younger, it was Lakers San Antonio. right and that was uh Portland you know and it was all because of playoffs yeah this is what I wanted to be let this be this was my hope I said hey I didn't right by the way I got on up I didn't think

Minnesota was going to beat the clippers in the first game they did and so now I'm like let this be a rivalry like I learned my lesson this let this become something there let John and Anthony Edwards have battles all through the years right now going back and forth I want this like we need these stinks and I hope this is the start of it and I need it to go seven just to make that happen. So I'm going to put you on a spot here, Mo. Who do you got taking the series? Do you have the stones to pick Aunt Edwards and the boys? I mean, I have to find out what are the plans of the protesters because the wolves are

three and oh whenever there's a protester and I'm just curious if I can get a little heads up. But I like that you also positioned it in a way of like I'm gutless if I go another. the route. Thank you, Wads, for putting me in that situation. But yes, I am the gutless wonder. I'm still going with Memphis. And the main reason why, more importantly than anything else, is I don't trust Kat. Yeah. I don't trust him to stay smart. I don't trust him to make the right decisions. He's fouling ridiculously. There was a foul. I think it was in game two where he's shooting a three and to try to get the foul. He kicks his leg out and it turns into an offensive foul. And he act shocked. I'm like, bro,

what are you talking about? You were trying to draw a foul and just play it was the right call. You know, and I think there's just a level of that stuff I'm a little bit concerned about. And then I think if this goes seven, the game being in Memphis and having had to play

a game, sorry, not play, I didn't play, I was a video coordinator, having to have to go to Memphis for a game seven. That is a very, very intense place to play, especially in that environment. Now, granted, we won, but we were veterans. Yeah.

You know, we had Chris Paul, we had our guys going in that, in that environment. I don't think these guys, I think even Edwards, who's never shaken, honestly, the dude is unbelievable in that, like, if I could find the way to be as chill as him just for 10 minutes in my life, that's an accomplishment. But, like, I think even that could shake him because that's a wild environment. So I think just game seven, I got to go with Memphis. All right. I love it.

Mo, man, thank you for coming on the show today. Tell the people where they can find you, brother. Okay, this is going to be a little bit of a long list, so everybody brace yourself. Okay, and thank you for having me, Waz. Of course. You can find my writing on Bleacher Report. I podcast on the Athletic Podcast Network. I'm there a bunch of times.

Just go follow the feed, and you'll see my name pop up. I'm on Twitter, M-O-D-A-K-H-L-N-B-A. I'm constantly tweeting out videos of games and things like that, as well as the one more thing video segment. You can find me on Twitch. I'm doing post game shows most nights and really breaking down games. Like just talking basketball. We have fun.

We talk about the drama and some of that stuff as well. But we're going to get into the really kind of nerdy stuff, which is what I used to do. There we go. You know, you could do the Homer Simpson, you know, just yelling nerds. That's me. But you could find me at all those places. And who knows where else I pop up? All right.

Fire. Yeah, man, make sure you guys stay with the ringers NBA coverage, NBA playoff coverage. Obviously us, the mismatch, real one. You know the vibes, man. We'll see you guys next week. I'll be seeing you guys on Wednesday with group chat. We're out of here. Peace.