The Ringer NBA Show - The Portland Trail Blazers Advance, Plus: Next-Round Predictions | The Mismatch

Episode Date: August 14, 2020

Verno and KOC discuss the Portland Trail Blazers' win over the Brooklyn Nets and what we can expect for their next matchup against the Memphis Grizzlies, with the eighth seed on the line (1:00). Then they break down the potential franchises that could see changes in the near future (12:40) and discuss the teams to keep an eye on as they move on to the next rounds (33:40). Hosts: Chris Vernon and Kevin O'Connor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today's episode of The Mismatch is brought to you by Buffalo Wild Wings. Basketball is finally back. It's time to celebrate the return with Buffalo Wild Wings, where the wings come in 24 sauces and seasonings. When you watch it home, make sure you watch with a wing bundle. Basketball's back, and there's no better way to watch than with Buffalo Wild Wings. Now, time for the mismatch. Welcome to The Ringer NBA show.

I'm Chris Varnan. And joining me as he does every Friday from The Ringer.com is Kevin O'Connor, aka Kevin O'Bomber, Kevin O'Clinner, Kevin O'Conflict. Kevin O Candyland, Kevin O'Cammer. Kevin. Burdo. What to end of the night. That's all my gosh.

That's fun. Yeah, we're recording this on late Thursday night. We have just watched Karris Lavert come down the court, have a game winning shot to send the Portland Trailblazers home to put the Phoenix Suns in a play-in game over the weekend. It takes a step-back jumper against C.J. McCollum. He misses it. And so Portland moves on. Phoenix, though they went undefeated in the bubble, falls just short of moving on. And I was texting with you during the game.

And I was saying by virtue of the Grizzlies beating Milwaukee today, they are going to be in a play-end game. And they were either going to be the eight seed of Portland lost tonight. or they were going to be, uh, they were going to be the nine seed, um, if Portland won. And so Portland did win.

And so that's who they're going to be playing on Saturday. Um, it, Portland has, uh, they beat the Grizzlies at the very beginning of all of this. Clearly, when you have to beat a team twice and they only have to beat you once,

you're at extreme disadvantage. Um, but I told you, via text, I said, look, obviously I would like the Grizzlies to win. If they're not going to win because it's a bridge too far and they've lost their guys, I'd rather see the Sons play the Lakers than Portland play the Lakers. I told you that tonight. I just, for fun's sake, I would rather see that matchup because I was also telling you through the course of the game,

I think this Portland thing, you know, look, I have been effusive in my praise about Damien. in Lillard. But as I have watched them, and obviously I've watched a bunch of their games over the last week, they cannot stop anybody. It's like the backup for the Clippers, the backups. And Bede went down in that Philly game and Lillard had to score like nine straight and put him on his back in that game. You know, that Mavericks game obviously is 150 to 150 down at the end of the game. And then tonight, this is like, like the Brooklyn Nets that are playing in their eighth game together as a group because these guys, half these guys weren't even on the team, you know, when this thing all ended. And here, this is the reality of Portland though, right? I mean, Damien Lillard, what he did during the stretch is something we're always going to remember, 51 points, 61 points, 42 points tonight.

I mean, the heroics from him are just incredible. We're always going to have the image of him pulling up from the NBA low. just steps past half court. What he did is absolutely remarkable. This is Hall of Fame level stuff. I was at a loss for words watching him at time. Shortly after he had that pull up past half court, he had a crazy step back three when he was heavily contested.

I mean, it becomes normal from him. With all that said, what we saw was special from him, what we also saw was just horrific defense. And if Portland gets past Memphis, which in all likelihood, they will. They have to win only one. And that win could come on Saturday or Sunday if there's a second game on Sunday. But against the Lakers, the Lakers offense is going to get itself right against Portland if that's the matchup.

This defense is so bad. Because here's the thing, you and I talked about this and I said Portland's the one. And you had written at the very beginning of all of this, how those numbers, to me, were extremely persuasive. This is a team that went to the West Finals last year. With NERCitch, you're saying. You're talking about the numbers, the NERCCH numbers, just to put those out there for the listeners again.

Last season with NERCich, they outscored opponents by about 10 points per 100 possessions when Lillard and Nirkich shared the floor. When just Lillard was on the floor last year and this season, they're about even. It was like plus 0.9 points per 100 possessions. Fact is they are a significantly better team with NERC. Though I do think, like,

NERC is great as he has been, I'm not sure the impact is, is the same pre-injury yet. He's still getting himself back. I also think that this is a good case study in sometimes it's not just about, you know, we can extract two guys, but it's those other three that have now been changed out because Gary Trent's not some kind of defense, you know, it's not Gary Payton out there. And Hassan Whiteside is lazier and all get out.

And Carmelo. He played hard tonight. I mean. I watched Jared Allen and Joe Harris and everybody in the free world get offensive rebounds all night. Sure. It was ridiculous. And Carmelos trying that that's more than waiting before. He's got himself into shape.

I'm not saying this is a good defensive team because they're clearly not. They're horrible defensive team. Well, and I'll tell you this. But that's because we're talking about the effort White side and Carmelo were giving. Gary Trent has turned himself into a solid defender. A great defender. The thing in Portland is, without a Risa, or even with a Risa, they don't have enough wing defenders. That's right.

They just don't. And that's their big, big weakness here in many ways it always has with the Lillard McCollum back cord with how they can get overmatched defensively. It's always been their problem. And then you're going to see that again against the Lakers. They're just going to pound them and probably winning four or five because that defense is so bad. I've talked about this so many times. it is such an extremely difficult task. If you don't have, if your small forward is not a good defender, it is really tough,

you know, unless you have somebody flanking him. But, I mean, you go back, there are so many in the history of the NBA, like those wing solid defenders, whether it is the Areza types, or you go back in the day where there were these role playing type guys that the last. Lakers would have for years on the wing or the Tashon Prince's when they, when he played for Detroit or obviously now you see LeBron, Kauai Leonard, Paul George, so many of these. Yeah, you really do. And obviously, it is a tremendous bonus if the guy's an amazing offensive player too.

But to not have good defenders on the wing at all, I mean, you just saw tonight. that was just, I mean, I get it. They've had to play like eight grand slam efforts in a row. They're dead. You could see Lillard after that game. He spent, you know, and they, it's so hard to get up and get up and get up game after game after game, but they've done it and they got their just desserts. They are in a great position now and they've gotten the eight seed, but they are not what

they were last year by any means. and they are also just so bad defensively that you feel like any team can put up points on them. You've seen teams that are literally playing benches of their teams that can score 120 on them. And so they're there. And I will tell you this, I feel bad for the Sons. To go there to go 8 and 0 and then fall short of making the playoffs. I mean, you went down there and you did everything you possibly could. And then that's incredibly frustrating.

You know what I mean? I've always been a basketball fan. I put myself in the place of those fans. I would be furious. Sure. I feel bad. And I saw some stuff out there about like, you know, how them going, you know, ruins the point of the playing tournament.

I disagree with that. I mean, the playing tournament was meant to kind of help simulate the end of the regular season. And the Suns just didn't win enough games during the year. I mean, it's just as simple as that. They, they fizzled after a great start. You know, that's disappointing. But, you know, even though this feels like a new season, it technically is an extension of the 2019-20 NBA season, even though in many ways it is a new season. So, like, it sucks.

And I feel bad for Suns fans. Obviously, I was rooting for the Suns to get in. Routing hard for the Suns to get in. But, um, but. But with Phoenix, like, you know, they came and they got what they, more than what they could have asked for. They came in with the lowest odds in the Western Conference and they went 8 and no. They went 8 in now. And Devin Booker with this young core that wasn't even at full strength because Uber didn't play.

Aaron Baines didn't play. They played well together and they had a moment of growth together. And a lot of these guys are going to be back. And you saw that clip of Monty Williams that went viral earlier today on Twitter with him talking to his team after that game and saying like, you know, more needs to happen for us tonight to keep playing, but no matter what happens, you know, I love you guys. I love this group and this Phoenix Sun's team, like I said, a lot of these guys will be here part of the core moving forward. McHale Bridges, Cam Johnson, Devin Booker, DeAndre Ate, and a lot of young guys and veterans

too, maybe. This team experienced growth. And for, you know, for some of these teams, they're coming to hit or win a championship. For some of these teams, whether it's Memphis, whether it's Phoenix or New Orleans. They came here for development. And I feel like we saw Brooklyn through these eight games, get that development too. With some of these guys, maybe they bring them back next year as part of a KD, Kyrie, Lavert, you know, Big Three. Phoenix got that.

Norlands, I'm not sure they did get that. So some of these, some of these teams did. And with Phoenix, you know, I feel bad for the fans. I feel bad for the players. But also it's like this is a reminder of what they can be in the future to themselves. and also just an important area, important time for growth. But you kind of win either way, because after the Grizzlies drafted Brandon Clark, you dubbed them the bright future grizzlies and really left the sun's behind.

And so you were going to be, you were going to be good either way. The bright future grizzlies are now in the, in the, in the, in the play in against the Portland Trailblazers, right? They are. Of course. I did not leave the suns though, but the grizzlies all. have an incredibly bright future. I look forward to seeing John Morant in some of these big, you know, high pressure games against Damien Lillard. That's going to be great drama,

even if it's just one game on Saturday. It's disappointing. Jaron Jackson got hurt, obviously. We've talked about that before. But, you know, I look forward to seeing that. And of these teams in the West, like with the Spurs, you know, their 22-year playoff streak ended. This is the first time and a long time that we're going to not have the Spurs in the postseason. They played well, without Aldridge, you know, putting DeMarerosen at the four. They're another team that couldn't defend, but it was fun to watch them reinvent themselves on the fly. It was.

And actually put themselves in are not a chance to get in. Well, I'm going to be honest. Not going to miss them. I know you're not. I'm really not. Not going to miss them that much. You mean, they had their run. It was 22 years.

Isn't that enough? I mean, really, what were they going to do anyway? Sorry, Shay. Sorry, Shara. You do wonder what's going to happen with them going forward. also to our producer Erica today also that's right tough spot tough spot Erica you walked right into it um five teams are headed home uh we've got to play in game so there were uh 22 teams 16 clearly make the playoffs there are two that are going to play for that last spot so there's five that are going home you mentioned

phoenix has literally nothing to be ashamed about no and with their bubble performance um clearly can be totally resentful. I would be if I were a Phoenix fan, but I'd also be thrilled about what I've got going forward. And I would think next year, we should be a playoff team, right, if I'm Phoenix. So they get to walk out of this. Yes, disappointed, but I would be very hopeful

about my franchise going forward. And I do think that's a lot. The reason I'm bringing this up, that's a lot different. I think the Spurs fans, fans are fine, right? Like they're fine. They're not going to, they're not going to walk away from this with some kind of colossal disappointment

that their team didn't make it. This was a disappointing season. They knew from the very beginning that this wasn't very fun. And then this team was fun that played, you know, and that's right. More fun. In Orlando, it was more fun to watch.

Then the Aldridge edition spurs. Sack and Pell. Good stuff from like Derek White too. Some of the young guys having some good moments. Sack and Pelicans just despond. No, Sanctuary. Sacramento first,

it's just a catastrophe. A, you played like crap. B, the number two pick in the draft, Marvin Bagley, cannot stay healthy. And it is now even being highlighted worse

by the Aitans of the world and especially Luca, Trey Young playing in the All-Star game. I mean, at Jaron Jackson, like everybody in the top five outside of him has been big contributors. You've got this debacle going on

with Bogdanovich and Buddy Heald. You pay Buddy Heald $80 million. A joke. Now Bogdanovich, like, Buddy Heel played great coming off the bench, you know, before the pandemic hit. Now they go down to the bubble. Buddy Heald can't make a shot,

is still pissed off. And Bogdanovich goes all the way the hell off, plays the best he's played, and he's heading into restricted, free agency and you've got to make a decision on them and keeping both of them seems untenable. Then you've got all this Vladi Divac stuff. I was reading today Sam Amick, who has covered that team intensely for 20 years. So he always knows the ins and outs.

He says, you know, Vladdy got an extension last year. It kind of lines up with Luke Walton's. So it appears they're safe. But a lot of stuff's weird there because they hired Joe Dumars. I don't think they're safe. for what it's worth. But, well, I do, I do know, like, even though all of those deals were lined up together. Yeah.

But my understanding, this is like conversations with people around the league pre hiatus. Okay. They're like, those guys just because they have those deals aren't necessarily safe. Interesting. And then that remains true now. Will they get fired? I don't know. But, like, they're not safe.

I think the sentiment is that these owners are going to be a lot of them, especially the small market ones, are going to be losing their ass. And so do you want to pay off? coaches and contracts also because you're already going to be losing. Or do you look at it and say, look, I'm losing money anyway. I might as well. Just go ahead and try to get back on a different track than the track that I'm on. But they've got just a whole mess going on there.

If we're looking to like inspire a fan base by performance at the bubble and look forward to the future, that was like the complete opposite of what took place with Sacramento. and and then like you said buddy healed's pissed off today he's asked today he's asked if he could be happy with his role moving forward and he said quote you guys know me you know how i feel you all can read me well and like he did not say yes he would be happy with this current role that he has right for certain he's somebody who's been outspoken about his role in the past and with buddy healed the guy you just signed a guy who has been a quality player player for you was one of the best shooters in the league even though he couldn't find the net in orlando uh

Well, the other kings are so much to sort out with the roster. And you don't know if you have the right guy at coach. You don't know if you have the right guy in the front office. And for ownership, I feel like the change has to happen in the front office. It just has to happen there. Here's the thing, Kev. The crazy thing is, and it always comes back to owners. And eventually, many of these owners will come to their senses and get the proper alignment that is needed.

within an organization to have success. You know, sometimes it can just end up working out. But like it's always the same franchise is that you're hearing about who's really got the voice there. And you're hearing that now like this Sam Amic article, I didn't even know about this. It's talking about how a year ago they brought in Joe Dumars as a consultant. And there's a lot of people there that think he's got the ear of the owner. And it's like if you don't have some alignment where the guy in charge is the one talking to the owner in order to get stuff done and there is a trust there. And instead the owner keeps looking for different voices to get feedback from.

You're just, you're dead. You really are. You're dead. I've been around a franchise like that where it's like you consult all kinds of people. And it's like, well, what about the guy that's supposed to be doing, you know, do it. in the job. And I mean, imagine if you've got an assistant GM and you've got a GM and then you've got a consultant that you hired too. And you got and it's whoever, whoever has the, the owner's ear. That's it. You know? And so. In many ways, it's reflective. I mean, it's true for any type of

organization or job. People need to fall into respective roles. It's definitely true for a basketball team too. You need to have the right organizational alignment. You also need to have the right role alignment with your roster, with guys understanding what their objectives are on the court, what their roles and responsibilities are. And if you don't have that, that's when things can clash, or there can be friction amongst players

with understanding what I'm supposed to do. When is my time to actually be a score versus be a spot-up shooter? When is my time to do this or that? And for the Kings, they're a team that, as long as I've known them, I mean, ever since the early 2000s, besides those teams, has been a team that just never seem

to have that. And it's disappointing because that's a great basketball city that has a lot of great fans and the team has just failed to really reward them for their pain and misery the last decade plus it's sad how about this they are one season off from the record i think it's 15 straight years without the playoffs embarrassing that's unbelievable it's embarrassing because they've had some good players too yeah i mean say what you want about the marcus cousins as a guy like you know in the locker room or with teammates he a great player. And it's embarrassing that you can't even get that team into the postseason.

I mean, what a joke. And now they have a budding superstar. And Darry Fox. We didn't even just mentioned him until just now. Well, and he's a year. Special. Hey, guess what? You're going to be making a decision on him after next year. Right? Because obviously, you're going to do everything you can to keep him. But I wait for the day. I wait for a day that a player

coming off his rookie deal would be like, you know what? I'm going to do everything I can to get out of here. I wait for that day. And I don't know, who it's going to be. It might not even be a top five, top ten, but the day you saw it. No, we saw it. It happened in New York. True. We did see it with KP.

I mean, he did see it with KP. He wanted out. Those circumstances, those circumstances were a little weird, though, because it was also Phil Jackson and the next front office being unsure about wanting to keep him too, but I mean like a one-sided player, 100% like, I want out.

I want out. And like, you're right, that is a good example of what we could see more. Because I thought, I thought at that time that that would now, I wondered if this is going to be a sea change, if we would see more in the future, like the forced trade, because that is clearly a disaster for a franchise, especially given the lack of return that they got for him in New York, you know, in terms of assets for the future. It's ridiculous. I mean, the draft picks are going to be nice assets to have. And like with KP, the injuries are always a concern. they always will be he's a cornerstone type player he is exactly he's a seven foot three guy who

can drain threes from from almost half cord and that's right protect the rim and block shots and fits well with luca it's a shame he doesn't defend more in the post but there's going to be i'm sorry score more from the post but we'll have a lot of time to talk about the maverick so they're tough series against the clippers but the kings and pelicans though pelicans as well another team like now with david griffin in there they do have some alignment the question with them is going to be is gentry the right coach for that gig. And my understanding is that he very well is on the hot seat and that there could be a change there in New Orleans.

So we'll see what happens in that situation. In that same article on The Athletic, and this is the first time I had read anybody floated. So I'll give my buddy Sam some credit on this. He said a name to watch out for is Mike Dantone. Because, and I didn't think about this, Griffin was with him in Phoenix during the whole seven seconds or less. If anybody can go back and read that book, the great book by Jack McCallum,

Griffin is prominently featured in that book about that season. And he was part of the organization there at Phoenix alongside Mike D. Anthony, there has been not rumors, but like there have just been a million conversations going back to last summer about how. People thought this was like a lame duck year, a swan song year, whatever it was. It looks like Houston is really going to be up against it with two just murderous series back to back to try to get past in order to get to a West Finals. Especially with Russell Westbrook missing at least the start of the first round series. So we could easily see them faltering and then just moving on from Mike D. Antony.

and it could happen even if they don't falter by the way. Like that could happen even if they go to the Western Conference finals that they move on from I'll tell you this though with those athletes that they've got there and Zion and Ingram and whatever like that could that could be that could be the real deal. If that, you know, again, Tyloo has a relationship with Griffin too. Tyloo's going to be up for a bunch of jobs. Tyloo is one name that I heard connected to New Orleans for the obvious thing of Griffin connection. I just hadn't even thought about the De Antony connection.

Well, I'll tell you what. Like keep this in mind when it comes to, let's say, Let's say they move on from Gentry. Let's say they have an open slot. When I interviewed David Griffin for my video on the Pelicans last month, one of the things that he said, and this is completely paraphrasing what he said. We were talking about Zion.

And basically the gist of what he said was Zion was like historically efficient despite posting up. That's his most frequent play. And that's one of the things that he's not best at. He's best at like movement cutting to the rim, you know, coming off screens. and handoffs and scoring off of movement. And yet he was historically efficient doing what he's worst at.

Again, I'm paraphrasing. But fact is, I heard him say that. And like as I'm listening back to the audio afterwards, I was thinking, who's the one making the decision to have him posts up as often as he did? It's Alvin Gentry. Alvin Gentry is the one calling the plays, you know, installing the sets, you know, talking about their priorities on the offensive end of the floor. That's all now that Lelvin Gentry.

Well, think about the time that we have. have seen De Antony have a crazy athlete at the four. He turned Amar Estademeyer into a guy that, you know, they're getting into the playoffs. This guy's posting 30 and 20 against Tim Duncan. Like this guy was a force of nature and clearly set up perfectly for that kind of scenario. And I could see him doing Amari Stademeyer type stuff, you know. 100%. Like, like they get a run.

They should have ran a lot more high pick and roll. And I know I understand like you can't do that as much as maybe you want to with through holiday as your point card. You definitely can't with launch a ball because he can't shoot, especially in Orlando. He couldn't shoot. But I still would have loved to have seen more than that. I still would have loved to have seen more of what New Orleans did in the preseason. They ran so many, so many movement sets to get Zion going towards the room.

And when Zion came back in January, they didn't do it much at all. There's so much post-ups. And with Gentry, I think the way New Orleans defense. it in Orlando was just a complete and utter embarrassment. It was a joke watching that team. They have quality defenders. Zion can't defend right now because he's not fully in

great conditioning. But Lonzo Ball the way he defended, Brennan Ingram the way he defended, just total ass. And these are two guys in L.A. were good defenders. And I don't know if that's on them specifically, or I don't know if it's just something wrong with the culture

there, which is partially a product of the coaching. But fact is that's a team that has personnel despite how young they are that should be better defensively. It should be better defensively already and it's not. And if I'm Griffin, I'm looking hard at that in addition to Zion's usage

with just basic post-ups and I'm like maybe maybe finding a really creative coach here is the move when we have a talent like Zion because by the way, with Williamson, he's just a rookie, but all this talk about his durability and his health

that's real. Like there's concern there. So if you're thinking about, usually when you have a guy that's going to be entering their second year, they're like, okay, we can take it easy here. We can we can build slow, build young. But with Zion, I think there needs to be urgency to win now because he already is like if you're stacking up all the players, what, a top 20, top 25, top 30 player in the league, that's a guy you're just about ready to win with when you already have Drew Holiday, one of the best defensive guards in the league who's a highly underrated offensive player. You get another guy. there another high-end player suddenly you're talking about a really really good team really good team so there should be urgency for them to find the right coach and make a big move whether it's trade signing you know sign and trade whatever it may be griffin and that front office needs to be aggressive in my opinion when usually with young players i tend to think don't rush things and they shouldn't rush with short-sighted moves it needs to be the right call here but there should be urgency more so than like a jammerant or you know or another nice young player like that was zion there needs to be

there's just got to be because of his body type hey chris before we move on let's hear from today's sponsors today's episode of the mismatch is brought to you by fandul ufc 252 is coming up on august 15th and there's no better place to bet the action than on fandul sportsbook right now fandle sportswork has a special UFC 252 offer for new users. Just sign up with my code, Ringer NBA, and you'll get exclusive 21 to one odds on Cormier v. Meosich to win their title fight at UFC 252. That means you can pick either fighter to win,

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Now, time for the mismatch. All right, the only other team that's heading home is Washington. You know, we kind of knew what you were getting into with Washington. Yeah, we did. Brad Beald wasn't going. Davis Burton's wasn't going. And so it turned out to be miserable like most people thought it would, their performance there.

The two bright spots and our David Aldridge, who has covered the Wizards forever talk about this, were evidently very happy with your guy, Troy Brown. Troy Brown and how he showed. They were not thrilled with Hachamura because this was really going to be a showcase for him, you know, and some guys have really taken that bull by the horns,

i.e. Michael Porter, Jr., and others that have been given the opportunity to do more because guys are out. And so wanted to be able to have a showcase for him, and it just didn't really take. You know, he's, I think, I think there's a group of people that think his destiny is like a very high end player when the truth is his destiny is probably more like a role player in the league, right?

That's what the Wizards need Hachemara to be is to be like a really good third best player. If your best player is Ruri Hachamore, your team's not going to be very good. And if I'm a Wizards fan, I'm trying to recalibrate my expectations for him into thinking he's going to be like our big wing who defends opposing stars. That's what you want him to be. He's not there yet. A guy who hits spot up threes, which he still needs to get better at. You know, attacks close outs, attacks mismatches with his size and fluidity.

I mean, you can see the makings of it. He shows those flashes, but he's not there yet. And with the Wizards, it's interesting. They went one in seven Orlando, won their first game today against a Celtic squad that was not trying to win. I wonder if Bradley Beale and, you know, Bertons, Burton's maybe not so because the contract, his upcoming in injury history.

But Beal, I wonder if there's any part of him. Like, yeah, maybe if I were there, we could have won a couple more games, three or four more games and gotten the play in tournament against Orlando, who is stunk. I mean, I just wonder if maybe you're thinking, maybe we could have got in and had a series against Milwaukee. But even then, like,

you're still going to get beat by the bucks, you know? Uh, piggybacking off of that. Let's just get straight into, because look, we got that play in game. There are games, as we mentioned, going on Friday when most of you will listen to this. None of them are of any consequence.

None. Not a single one. None of them. So we're already set up with our matchups. Only except for like the four and five split between OKC and Houston, but it doesn't matter. I got to tell you. The way this all played out, you and I and every other hardcore basketball fans are going to watch this, these Easter conference ones, I mean, this is a.

DUD, really. Like, just the level of competition, because I look at him, Milwaukee, Orlando, just like, there's nothing there that is like all that. All that and drinking. Toronto and the Nets. A bet for a sweep. Is that legal in Massachusetts? Can I place that? I think so.

Toronto, Toronto and the Nets, at least the Nets compete. And they've been a little fun, but they're, they're just not. They're going to get. No. If you get. No, if they get one game like Orlando did last year, right? Remember Orlando got the DJ August team game against Toronto and then got their asses. Where can I do a parlay for sweeps with the 1 and 2 and 7 in these? What would the odds be on that? I don't know. Look, with the Simmons thing and now M.B. Like the Boston Philly thing, that could have been amazing. It's just not.

Bad. Boston's going to beat up Philly. The only hope for Philly, the only hope is if M. Bedeed has like a a Lilard-esque series where he's just going off. Nobody can stop him on Boston inside. Tice gets buried under the rim. That's the only chance. Look, it's not like the Grizzlies or some great shakes, but they needed that Boston game like blood the other day. And that Boston team just hammered them.

And clearly, I'm watching that game very intensely. Well, they are, when they've got Kemba cracking, they are devastating offensively. I mean, they swing that ball around and they've got this one pass kickout stuff that they do over and over and over again. And the second you close out, you finally catch up to the one pass. Like, all right, he's going to kick it out to this corner. So we're going to race to the corner. They just throw it back up to the elbow extended.

And it's frigging Gordon Hayward or it's Jason Tatum. Or it's, you know what I mean? Like, like when they have those four guys out there with Tice, holy mackerel. I mean, that is a, that, like they are, they'll all play team basketball. The ball doesn't stick, you know, and when they're, yeah, when they're going, they are, they're tough. I mean, the second round of these East playoffs are going to be unbelievable. It's going to be awesome. But I don't, I don't think that Milwaukee, Toronto, Boston, or Miami is going to have much of a fight, honestly, with their opponents.

I hate that. There's usually one good one. And I suppose heat pacers could be pretty good. But I just watched them play this week. I was hoping Sabonis would come back. But there's a report on Wednesday from Nate McMillan. I believe he said at the time that he's still out indefinitely. So no subonis.

I just watched those teams play this past week. It was 48, 48 at halftime. And Miami shot like 30% from the field. Came out in the second half. It just kicked their ass. Miami's a better team. It's a better team. Way better.

It's a better team. And like you said, the second round in the east, and this is why I'm going to continue hammering this point, whoever represents the east in the finals will have done something special because that second round and third round is going to be tough. Like, well, it wouldn't be a shocker if they're all seven games series. Oh, with those. With them. It would be a shocker.

Boston, Toronto is going to be amazing. Awesome. And I think Miami's going to put up one hell of a fight with Milwaukee. Oh, yeah. It might only go six. but it's going to be six really hard games. And maybe Milwaukee blows them out and one. But like it's going to be a real hard series.

And you mentioned Boston, they seem to be finding themselves. And Kemba looks like Kemba. The Kemba we saw in February and March, that player was not good. And he's had some up and down moments in Orlando. But overall, he's looking more like himself.

And that changes everything for Boston with what they can be on the offensive end of the court. So like you have three formidable opponents for Milwaukee to potentially get through with Toronto, Boston, and Miami. I'm stoked for what we're going to get in the East after the first round. To make it a series, I mean, Embed's got to average what, 30? Seriously. 30. Well, so here's a thing.

He needs to average over 30, but also continue defending at an elite level. Can he do both? Maybe. Maybe. That's your one. That's your one chance to, you know, look, you have to, we have to at least make that caveat because as we both agree, him at his best is one of the very few guys that you would put up against anybody and say, I've got the best guy that night.

And be it his best as a top five player, but he's not always at his best. Right. Like once every four games. He has runs. Maybe in the play also. And we'll see. I mean, this is the thing. Like with, look, Brett Brown's gone.

if Philly loses in the first round of Boston. That's been floating around the league for the past couple of days. If they lose in round one of the Celtics, Brett Brown is likely gone. Might have a little Horford inside knowledge too. He might be able to help with the game plan. Yeah, we'll see. We'll see.

Who knows? But fact is, is for Brett Brown, the pressure is on him. The pressure is on Brett Brown to show that he can adjust on the fly, change the way they do things, to maximize what Joelle and Bede can be to maximize what these guys are because they don't have slouches on their roster. The pieces aren't perfect,

but it can work with Tobias Harris doing a little bit more. It can work with Josh Richardson, getting back to doing the stuff that he was doing in Miami. It can work if you adjust. Can he adjust? Well, Brett Brown hasn't proven that with Philadelphia.

He's yet to prove that. And we'll see if he can now. This is a big test for him. And if he fails, it's not going to be good for him. Well, it's going to be super fun. because there is absolutely no way around it. Embedd is the dude.

Like that team is going to go as he goes. It is now spotlight on him. You've got to be a superstar. End of story. Like that's your team's only chance is for you to be an absolute megastar in this deal. And so do you deliver or not? This is a case study for can you win through a post player? because Joe Al-M-Beed had one of the most efficient post seasons for a high-volume post-player

in synergies, you know, recorded history, which is since 0-4-05. So we're not getting like prime shack years. We're not getting Hakeem in the 90s. But since 0-4, Embed had one of the most efficient seasons from the post ever of that group. Like second only to Dirk, by the way. And that is the one Boston week. It is. You know, I mean, he should.

He's beat up Tice this year. He's really beaten him up. One of the guys that gives Tice trouble. Tice is a really good player, underrated player, really versatile defensively, but against Embed, he's had some trouble. But with a full game plan, I'm sure you're going to see Boston double and pressure and maybe sometimes even triple Embed because of Philadelphia's iffy shooters. And that's where I want to see Brett Brown get creative.

It can't be stagnant around and be in the post. They need to have some offball movement. There needs to be some timely cuts. And I look forward to seeing what they come out with against the Celtics next. At least that one is intriguing. It's intriguing. Yes. It is intriguing.

There's a reason to watch it. Unlike one versus eight, unlike two versus seven, at least two versus six. I'm sorry, three versus six has some intrigue. I'm looking forward to watching it. I'm just, I'm not sure also that Philadelphia has enough wing defenders to stop everything Boston's going to throw at them with Tatum, with Brown and Hayward. I'm not sure. I don't think they do. I see very, a very small possibility.

top four don't move on honestly matisse title but tees tidal as good as he is defensively as a rookie he still is lean and that's where ben simmons had just ben simmons was there for tatum ben simmons was there for pascal siacum he was there for yannas and without him like that's gonna kill philadelphia i asked brown that this week for the article i wrote about the sixers i forget if we mentioned this on tuesday but yeah i did because we talked about he he said how it's what they need to do on offense is obvious. But right, him mentioning and saying outright that we feel the pain, the pain without Ben Simmons, they're about to feel it even more during that series when they have nobody

to stop a Tatum or a Brown or Hayward, whoever's going off. In the West, we'll have the Lakers versus either Portland or the Grizzlies. I think it makes very little difference. Obviously, Portland should be able to put up a much better fight. And you've always got a, look, they got a guy that could go for 60-something points. So in the case that it is them, I do think Anthony Davis is going to absolutely demolish either of those. Like, just embarrass them. Seriously.

Like, it's going to be bad, bad. The numbers he would be able to put up against either Portland or Memphis are going to be staggering if he's, like, locked in and wants to. I'm talking like, we're going to look and you're going to think it's not real on the bottom line. Like, because neither of those two teams have anybody to deal with him. Like, not even close. Like, that was, I text with you the other day. I was like, you know, the big lament for me at that time, I'm thinking maybe the Grizzies will be able to play against the Lakers.

Like, Jared Jackson is one of the very handful of players in the NBA that you are actually as comfortable as you can be throwing out there against Anthony Davis. He's got the size and the decks. the defensive chops. He'll play a face-up big away from the basket. And he's longer than all hell. Like, but that's the kind of guy. He would fall out in 25 minutes, but he has the body to offend him.

Maybe. But when he, but when he didn't foul out, they actually beat the Lakers earlier this year. And when he did foul out, Anthony Davis went to the free throw line like 30 times in the game. I'm not kidding. Are you, are you saying that Anthony talks about? Oliver can't stop Anthony Davis. I'm saying, I mean, look, it was pretty clear that, and, and again, I have not confirmed this with anybody, but I was told that Yonis, that Yonis, yeah, sources say, Janus headbutted Mo

Wagner, not because he was mad at Mo Wagner, but rather because he knew that he was going to be guarded by Anthony Tolliver in the next game. And he's got like, you know, everybody's been talking him up. He's got the MDP. He doesn't want to get humiliating. by Anthony Tolliver, right? Imagine going like one for 17 against Anthony Tolliver. It might take the award away. They might actually change everybody's vote.

I'll tell you this. I did wonder, I'm glad all these guys are going to get to have like their family members, their wives and everybody, whatever, because I felt like these last like three or four days with, you know, Damien Lidler doing the put respect on my effing name and Yon his head button a guy.

It felt like a lot of pent up testosterone over here. So you fall on the steam. Even a bucket here. I do. I do. Interesting. Hey, you want to hear the funniest one that I have had. This was told to me by a player that the conversations amongst guys down there about why Phoenix

is so awesome is because, yeah, because there's no girls down here. They're just focused on basketball all the time. Phoenix is like a haven for beautiful girls and that's a young team. And so the theory was these guys have absolutely no distractions. they're not going out at night. It's just basketball, basketball, basketball, and the truth is they got a bunch of good players. And so I swear, that's what other NBA players think about why Phoenix was so much better at the bubble is because there is no distraction. None.

I know. I thought it was great. I mean, it is total focus on. I don't tend to subscribe to the Stephen A part. I don't see how you can't go three months with without, you know, you know, somebody. It's been like two years for me. Oh my gosh. Don't have been dead on the air.

I don't care. What difference does it make? I'm happy with it. You know, it's cool with me. Next thing I know, you're going to be headbuttoned me to the screen. It was like 24 years until my first time. Oh, no. We're getting a little too.

All right. I go wait 24 years. I'm pretty sure I go wait three months. I mean, come on. Have some self-control Stephen A. The Lakers. That clip that went viral of him this week. Hilarious, dude.

killing me. You are killing me. Stephen A is the best, man. That guy. Hey, Chris, let's take another quick break and hear from today's sponsor. Today's episode of the mismatch is brought to you by Buffalo Wild Wings. Basketball is finally back. It's time to celebrate the return with Buffalo

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All right. The Lakers, we think they're going to be able to handle their voted easily. Clippers Dallas. Let me say this. All right. Here's my prediction, Kevin. Yeah.

Obviously, I think the Clippers are going to win. But this is my prediction of how this thing's going to play out. And I already started to see it. It's the first time I experienced it last week. We all love, love, love, love, love somebody. And then there is a segment of society and basketball fans that get sick of that. And so they start to resent that and they can't wait to tear somebody down. And here is my prediction.

Oh, see that in every industry. No, but they will, but people are going to do this and they are going to wrongfully do it. The Clippers are going to make life absolutely hell on Luca. He will be his first time in the playoffs. And people are going to start crapping on him like he's next. ever been crapped on before because we did this last year. You remember I came on the show and I said, bro, he is in his second year and Donovan Mitchell is trying to carry this team and people were killing him. Oh, yeah, he's overrated. Are we sure Donovan Mitchell's a star? Everybody already

anointed him. And I'm like, he's in his second year in the league. He's in his first big high leverage situation and he's the best player and the guy they're kind of on scoring. And yeah, his percentages are terrible and he's getting beat up. But that's what he's being asked to do this and he's going to look a lot different years to come. And obviously, interestingly enough, they did it with Dirk a hundred years ago, right? And then Dirk becomes who Dirk becomes 10 years down the road. George and Kauai are going to make this guy's life miserable.

The numbers won't be the crazy triple double numbers because they're just going to decide. this guy's not beating us and they're going to I mean that's two of the best wing defenders in the world they'll trade off on him they'll get the ball out of his hands and then when they don't get the ball of his hands

they're just great defenders and people are going to start crapping on Luca Donchitz that's my prediction and I will defend him and I will say it's wrong so I'm saying this before the season the series starts when everybody starts to crap on him and talk about oh can you win with Luca

oh what does it mean if Luca's your best player. Oh, this is what happens when you have blah, blah, blah. It's coming. It's coming. 100%. And you didn't even mention, you didn't even mention Patrick Beverly, who defended Luca more than anybody on the Clippers this season. Right. And, and their half-court matchups. But, um,

it's coming. Probably right that they're going to make life hard on him. But what if he goes down swinging and Luca has a great series, Mavericks losing like five hard fought games or six hard fought games against the clippers. And Luca comes out. He had, did pretty well, despite the defense attention he faced. If that happens, if the inverse happens, then you're going to have to talk

about like, wait a minute, how great is he really? Oh, is he already top, top two, top three? No, you're right. That conversation would happen. I am talking about him like he is immortal. You become immortal if you do the Jordan thing. We just got done watching the last dance. Oh, you're talking like he has like a 62 point game. No, I'm saying, but like nobody looked at those. They might have said, oh, he's selfish or maybe you can't win with him or whatever. They said, about Jordan at the time. But the truth was you couldn't deny. He bawled the hell out.

You know, he took his lumps, but he kept going to the basket and he, no, he bawled out. He had one great game. Not one. Well,

one special. Spectacular. Spectacular game. And then he had some good games and he had one iffy game in that series. That's right. But even those, those old Bulls teams that were taking their lumps and getting their scar tissue, like nobody,

nobody sat there at all. but, you know, Michael Jordan's not here for it, or they didn't make him a shell of himself. Jordan for what it's worth, just put up the numbers. Game one, 49 points on 18 of 36, game two, the 63 point game, 22 of 41, then game three, which I lost 19 points on 8 of 18. So it's like, you had one great game, one spectacular game, and then one, yeah.

And well, like what I'm saying is, if you put up, if Luca puts up big numbers in this series, Yes, that is a different deal because this is the nightmare matchup. It really is for him. And I just foresee a circumstance where first time of the playoffs, first time that a team, you know, it's easier to do this stuff on a one-off game. But when a team just says, like, we're only playing one team for the next seven games. And so here is our game plan against them.

You even saw Portland do it in that game. And it was like, shit, if Porzingis goes for 50, he goes for 50. And I'll be damned. He looked in the first half like he was going to go for 50, you know. But that's going to be the plan is like, hey, fine. If Tim Hardaway wants to score a million and Porzingis and Trey Burke and these guys, but this guy's not, this guy ain't going to kill us. And so it's just a, I mean, I think almost against anybody else,

Luca would be the best player in the series in a lot of series and yeah would just go bonkers but against the clippers that sucks sure and just to give a little context of what he did versus the clippers during the season uh game one 22 points on 14 shot attempts he went to the line 16 times game two he had 36 points on 26 shots went to the line 14 times and then game three had 29 points on 20 21 shots went the line only six times so he's put up volume numbers his efficiency has not been at the level and i can't go back and be and who the hell knows who was playing seriously like i don't remember but oh yeah i know i mean you know like if we really wanted to go game by game we could no but i'm saying i'm just speaking generally about what he

faced and and the fact is is that already his numbers were slightly lower than they normally are because the clippers were so damn good defensively, man. It's like it, it wouldn't shock me if Dallas loses isn't five in that. And maybe he did play against them, but I would just say for any player, if I said, hey, and he did this against the clippers, the chances of that happening in a game where Paul George and Kauai Leonard both played are probably pretty low because what is worth. Kauai played in all three, George played in two of them. Kauai played all three. George played in just two.

Wow. Hopefully, uh, lost all three. Yeah. Utah Denver. I mean, they putting this on like true TV. I don't know how many people are going to be super excited about Utah, Denver. Utah, look. I'm excited about Denver.

Denver I'm excited about what they are. Their bench is going to ravage Utah's bench. Ravage them. Their bench, shit, you watch them play. And it's like, they bring off guys off that bench that you don't even know we're on that team that are. You know, like, and guys that didn't even play during the season, obviously we've seen Bull Bowl, we've seen a lot of PJ Dozier minutes.

We've seen all kinds of guys getting clock throughout this thing, but they are just really 12, 15 deep. And Utah's five. They're five, six, if you want to count Jordan Clarkson. They don't have anybody. I'd count, I'd count Clarkson. Okay, fine. And then Emmanuel Moodye, Tony Bradley, you know, corkey McBricks, and.

you know, dummy Dierreball. Like, they stink. No respect. I mean, the Bogdanovich thing is a killer, you know? It really is. It's a killer. So, I mean, I don't think they're just,

if they had Bogdanovich, it's a different deal. But they don't have Bogdanovich and they don't have depth. And that Denver team can be a big, big problem for you if you don't have depth. And they, I mean, that's kind of how I see that.

if assuming Utah loses in the manner that you expect them to lose. Oh, it's still going six games. Well, I'm just saying, well, whatever it goes, assuming they lose as you expect, the conversation after that would be like, what do you do with Gobert? One year ahead of his free agency, is he a guy that you want part of that core? Do you want to assign him to the money that he's going to want? Or are you going to try to trade him? That's going to be the conversation for them after that series.

And for Denver, I mean, I'm excited to see. what Michael Porter Jr. does in this playoff series when Utah's defense can game plan when they might be able to do some things that he didn't face during the seating games when he had this really impressive run. I look forward to seeing that from Denver because we know what Yokic can do. We know what Jamal Mari can do. We know so much of what Denver can do. But these X factors are what they need to really continue to blossom for them to have a shot against the clippers of the Lakers. So that's what I'm going to be watching most. Like who steps up on that team? or steps up even more than what we've already seen.

Don't you think that the coronavirus stuff sign that deal? I mean, I hate to, I hate to, you know, I'm not speaking out of school here. When that all happened, I don't know, I mean, repairing that is a difficult task. And the other thing is you might just want to join the new NBA and say, we've got Donovan Mitchell and we think Donovan Mitchell could be unlocked even more if we played up and down. You're always going to be dictated in some ways. You know, if you've got Rudy Gobert, flying up and down the court is not what's best. You know, you're best playing half court basketball on a regular basis because you've got a guy that can pin everything to the glass and anchor a defense. And then on the other end, you know, he's just there to catch lobs or whatever.

And so you may say, hey, we're actually going to kind of alter what we want to do, given our personnel and who are best players all. and maybe we're ready to. I don't know. I do wonder what's going to happen with these guys, like the Gobears of the world. And does somebody build, you know, it does kind of dictate if you've got him on your team, flying up and down like the rest of the NBA

and spacing five wide is not what you do, you know? I think Gober can, Gobert is already a success in this league. And I think he can be a championship player. Gobert has improved so much on the perimeter. I mean, some of the knocks on him in the past when he got spun around in that Golden State series by Steph Curry, I think sort of amplified a, it overblue his perimeter defense is a weakness that it is not. He is one of the best defensive players that I've ever seen in my life.

I think he can survive. But, but, you know, I do wonder, let's say Utah decides we want to. to move on from him let's just say that happens i do question how many teams would be lined up for his services i do question that aspect because the fact is is that in today's league you see so many teams that have centers making a under 10 million dollars per year which allows you to allocate money elsewhere do you want to give rudy gobert over 25 million over 30 million and and have that take up so much for your cap maybe maybe if you're a team like let's let's one team i've had a conversation with an executive last month from a team

and we were talking about like guys who could get traded and Gobert came up and he brought up Brooklyn to me he's like Brooklyn not say this is not like a rumor this is just like us talking you know theoretically about ideas and he's like Brooklyn makes sense because this is the team that's in championship mode they're in a big market can be willing to pay him and he's better than Jared Allen he can elevate what they are in the defensive end of the court and he fits with Kyrie Irving high pick and roll with Kyrie and Gobert

with Kevin Durant, the versatility on defense that they have. It's a fascinating one. It's like one of the few teams. I mean, go up and down the list. You mentioned Boston too. And I'm like, I don't know about Boston. They really like what they have with Tice making $5 million. You know, the low cost there makes sense for them.

And you're not going to send Gordon Hayward back to Utah in a trade either. It would be hilarious. But like, they'll go up and down the list for teams for Gobert. And there's not a lot that makes sense. Brooklyn does. So for Utah, I mean, if they lose in that first round and they decide to make a change, get a cheaper center back maybe in return and spend elsewhere to build around Mitchell. I'm intrigued. I'm very intrigued. Hey, it's funny tonight because in the moments that remember what Jared Allen was out of the game. Oh yeah, Nurkich was going off and White Side was going up. Yeah. No, but they had freaking Justin Anderson guard him. Justin Anderson, six five. My guy. Justin Anderson. You know what I mean? He was. doing the PJ Tucker impression.

The bubble nets were like a bunch of my like guys in the draft that I like who ended up not panning out. I love Luau. I had him ranked on my top 10. I'm like, this is the sleeper. He was cracking. He was doing good. Dude, Luamu is still young.

Still young. I'm not giving up. I just think with the Gobeer thing, they can say whatever they want publicly. That got bad with the Gobeer. And look, there's a breach of trust that takes place in that locker room and your best player ended up getting coronavirus. I mean, that is, that's a tough one. He obviously was very mad about it.

I know they've tried when it has come up to say, hey, yeah, we talked and whatever. But it's just you're never going to be the same. You're not. You're just never going to be the same relationship-wise. And I'm not saying they're going to hate each other forever or that they do hate each other. It's just not going to be the same. It's a forgive, but don't forget. That's right. And you forgive him because he didn't know. He didn't mean it. Of course he didn't mean it. That's right. You're on a team together. You know, you never do that to you purposely.

But you don't forget it. And it's something that does tarnish what the relationship is. And I'm sure, I'm like, there's probably a situation in life like with friends or family where something similar or happening. It probably changes things for that dynamic between people and a family or a friendship, never mind on a basketball team, which is just spotlighted for the whole world to see. Well, and we've got one more to get to before we get out of here, Kevin. And that is my team that I picked, if I couldn't pick, when we did the who beyond L.A. Do you believe in the most? I picked O KC. And you picked Houston. And we've got a showdown. We do. And this is, I think there is a goal between this series and every other series

that is taking place in the first round that is so huge. Like, I mean, Dallas and Clippers is going to be entertainment for the whole Luca taking his first lumps, but they ain't got enough to deal with the Clippers yet. Like, that's going to,

it's going to come with time as they build that roster out. And they were better this year than I certainly expected them to be. This Houston, Oklahoma City thing, though, especially knowing, feeds in to the Lakers because I think either of them are going to be a really tough draw for the Lakers. But you've got a great matchup and you've got with that the whole, we got rid of Chris Paul. And now Chris Paul is facing us in the playoffs.

Heads up. Like we're having to meet. I don't think you would have ever expected that Chris Paul certainly, look, we're all making our season predictions. is we're not expecting Chris Paul to be a four or five seed in this thing, much less Houston probably thinking, we'll never see him. I'll trade him to Miami in the off season or whatever.

They probably not even going to keep him. And here it is, Chris Paul versus the team that discarded him. It's the best. It's great. I look forward to the drama. I look forward to Chris Paul and James Harden yelling at each other at some point, or maybe at least just Chris Paul yelling at Hardin on the court.

Oh, yeah. It's going to be great stuff. Well, and they're supposed to have shrewder back. And Westbrook will be out for Houston, as we mentioned earlier. At least to the start of the series. It's been unclear too, right? And I'll tell you this. Quads and hamstrings are the two that freak me out if I hear that.

If I hear about a guy sitting out with a quad or a guy sitting out with a hamstring. Because so many times with those, like, you know, you can spray your ankle or you can tweak something and you can ice it up and you can have a massage there. therapist, you could do all this stuff. Typically with these big muscles like a quad or a hamstring. And we've seen guys lose entire post seasons, entire seasons for that matter, with weird quad stuff and obviously hamstring same way, because it's just got to heal. Now, Westbrook appears to be made out of metal. So he's probably going to be just fine.

And he'll probably just regenerate like Terminator 2 or something. But those two things, you know, the front of your leg, the back of your leg, those quad and hamstring stuff, because there ain't really anything you can do. You can try to do the heat treatment. You can try to do the stretches, whatever. But that's just a time thing. It's just got to heal. And there's a big risk in going out there and hurting it. Hell, we went through this with Kauai for a whole weird season.

Remember, he'd go out there and then he just couldn't play anymore. And it's like, yeah, I hope that's not the case with Westbrook because Lord knows he is as fast twitch, you know, as they come. And imagine how awkward this will be for OKC fans if he does come back. I cannot imagine how weird that's going to be for them. A lot less awkward than if this shit wasn't in a bubble. Yeah. Can you imagine? Oh, my goodness.

Could you imagine Westbrook coming back there for a game three? No. I can't. All right. You still like your Houston chances? I mean, I feel worse without Westberg. That's for sure. Westbrook's critical to what they are.

And the Westbrook we saw in the second half of the year after the Capella trade, bringing in Robert Covington was probably the best version of Russell Westbrook in terms of efficiency in terms of usage that I've ever seen in my life. You know, I mean, like you can look at his MVP season and say, that's a better player. Like, I'm not arguing that. But the way he was utilized was really creative. And it was good. It's good.

It was very efficient. And it was complimentary to what Hardin is as well. It gave a different pace, a different energy. And now without that, I don't feel nearly as good about Houston's chances in that series, especially with the amount of guards and weapons that O.KC has that need to be stopped. Okay. So he was able to slow them down, you know, in some of the games during the year. I don't know how valuable any of those are.

Capello was there for all three of those. Okay. I just don't know how much I'd read into any. of those like this is a brand new team you see right now do you think they can play stephen adams off the floor i think they can make things difficult there that's the that's the that's the real question because even either stephen adams are going to be grabbing 17 rebounds a game or he's not going to be able to play this is there's no in between i mean like we've talked a lot about houston with the small ball experiment you know what we're going to see with p j tucker and robert

covington in that front court this is a great test for for that against Stephen Adams, who is a throwback style center. What can Stephen Adams do in this type of series? It's similar to what we just talked about with Rudy Gobert, just to a lesser degree. With Stephen Adams in this type of series, how does he survive against Houston spacing? Does he? Does he get played off the floor? Or does he completely punish them by, do they crash the glass more than usual to try to exploit that and get second chances?

I look forward to seeing how Billy Donovan and that OKC staff makes those calls over the course of the series. That starts next Tuesday, so we won't get to talk about it until after game one. But I'm very, very excited for next week to analyze that series, maybe more than any of them. Breaking down this series is going to be a heck of a lot of fun. I've already thought about it a thousand times. I was wondering, I was like, I was like if Westbrook doesn't come back, is Paul going to go out there on Hardin? like as a point guard to point guard or are they going to throw Dort and let him use his fouls and Roberson and let him use his fouls.

Put Dorne on him. Yeah, I mean, just have Dort sick him. Doort's so fun, man. How can you not love watching? Lockheen's door. Lord is so freaking fun. How do he go?

How do he fall as far as he did in the draft? Thornt was, Dort in college could not shoot. And I heard like pre-draft he struggled to shoot. And that was a concern for teams. But that guy played hard, man. in college. He could defend and with his body type and his

fluidity. Like he's a guy that I want to bet on. He loves to play, man. I saw him like John Gurdon right now. He do. He loves to play basketball. He loves. He loves a grind, man. I feel like I'm in a QB camp or whatever that show he used to do was, right? Spider through Y. Banana or whatever

he's always saying, tell me about a little spider do Y banana. You watch Hard Docs this week? I didn't. Sean McBey reminds me of I've got a tape. It's the way he talks. He's like, I love football, man. I love football.

Oh, he's a bro. He's a total bro. It's got a great house. Oh, he does? Yeah, beautiful home. Very modern. I've got it. I've got it taped.

I'm going to watch it. I watch it on Wednesday night. Worth? You think it's, is it worth me watching? Yeah, I thought it was awesome. I loved the great first episode. All right. Last thing.

It's already late when we're recording this. it won't be long after we, you know, are done recording this that you will go to bed. The question is, after I play war zone for a couple hours. Dude, that is so funny. You brought that up because I have not talked to you about the call of duty stuff,

but the commercial ran. Did you see the commercial that was running during the game tonight? It had like Richard Sherman, and it had Devin Booker and it had whoever. You could play with Booker now. He's got a long time off. That's true. You and your guy Booker.

No. That's true. I told my son, I haven't let my son get it. But he said, I played that at my friend's house. I said, you did what? He said, I only played it once. And I said, you know what's crazy? I was watching an interview today.

And the guy said he loved playing Call of Duty. And it wasn't like one of these young NBA players or something. A lot of the athletes love it. I was absolutely like, I couldn't believe it. I was like, really? Guess who it was? I'm talking a massively, hugely famous athlete, hugely. Maybe one of the biggest in the world.

I don't know, LeBron. It's not LeBron, but who? Tiger Woods. Tiger Woods, that was my second guess. Can you believe that? Tiger Woods plays war zone or just Call of Duty? Call of Duty. Love's Call of Duty.

Interesting. I was shocked. I wonder if I've ever met Tiger Woods and the Gulag. Yeah, I saw The Gul-Log. The gulag you don't know what the gulag is? I don't. The gulag is in war zone when if you die, you go to the gulag afterwards and you have an opportunity in a one-on-one matchup to get yourself back into the game. So you'll find all the suns there tonight.

They're in the gulag? Did I do this right? Yeah. I mean. How long are you going to cry tonight about the sons? I'm being serious. I've already let all the tears out before. You have.

You let them all. I'll let them all out. I'm thinking this restart might be the kiss of death. Seriously. It was a mixture of tears of joy now. You did the freaking pelicans and they shit the bed on you. And then you did the sons and they did you in. Oh, poor Caruso.

He might give up 60 points a game or something. He's the other one, right? And Rondo's coming back at the bubble. He's in quarantine might take those minutes. Playoff Rondo. So like we did. We did. How Zion Williams still lead the pelicans to the NBA playoffs?

Their defense stunk. They did not happen. The Bradley B.L. That was about the future of the Wizards. That one is fine and accurate. How Luca could deliver a championship to the Maverst. That one is fine. That was future focused as well.

Do the Philadelphia 76th? Have what it takes to win a title this year. That was before the Ben Simmons injury. And it was very skeptical. I would say that one was accurate. It was more excited for what they can be. Okay. Why you should take Alex Crusoe seriously?

I stand by every word in that video and we'll continue to. Caruso was a really good important. player to what the Lakers are. Frank Vogel said so himself. How Bam out of bio in the Miami Heat could upset their way to the finals. We've already talked about what they can be and how they can present calls. Remember you did the video with like the next day, Yonis just really pooped on him. That was tough. And then Devin Booker and the Phoenix Suns are here to stay, the one this week that went up on Wednesday

about Devin Booker's and his emergence as a star about DeAndre Aiton's defensive progress, about the pieces around the McHale Burgess and Kelly Ubray who didn't play, as I said, and Cam Johnson getting way better on defense. Baines, Ricky Rubio, with his playmaking, how that's really helped everybody along.

I love making that video this week. I'm having so much fun collaborating with Dylan Burkey and Sean Yu and Jason Gallagher every week on these because like, my favorite thing is to collaborate with others on bigger projects. And getting that

with those guys this this last month or so has just been so freaking fun so i mean like for anybody who hasn't checked them out would really mean a lot to all of us if you you know head over to the ringer's youtube page and check out the restart and then what's the next videos like christ does what's the next don't know don't know yep next week i'm expecting to do something based off a game one or a game two um but we'll figure that out i i hope it's uh how anthony tulliver can make mince meat out of anthony davis I told my buddy the other day, I was like, I was like, I don't want to win against the Lakers. You never know how badly I want to see Anthony Davis average 60 and 30.

It really doesn't matter who I mean, Portland or Memphis. I hope there's a game two with the playing tournament at least. I'm not expecting Memphis to win when that tournament against Portland. I don't see them winning two in a row, but I hope we get a game to on Sunday. Anything is on the table. against that team you just saw. I mean, the freaking backup sixers,

the backup nets, the, I mean, everybody scored on them. It's just a matter of, you know, can you outscore Damian Lillard in the last quarter of the game?

And the truth is like, you can't. Like, that's why they're, or they are. But the problem, I mean, the guy may go for 60 against you,

but they can't stop anybody. They don't have, they don't care to stop anybody. No. They're willing to play these ridiculous. I mean, I think they, They care to stop people.

We saw Dame make that, you know, steal towards the end of the game, which arguably could have been a foul. But that's a different conversation. Dude, how many, how many offensive rebounds, though? Like, even to the fourth quarter where it's just, it's just four guys standing around for Portland. Maybe they're just gassed out from giving home run efforts. I think they are. But, but Jared Allen, I swear to God, it felt like he had 50 rebounds in that game or tip outs. I love Jared Allen.

I do too. You know what? Good for you, Kenny Ackinson, walking off all dead for making you play D'Andre Jordan. I mean, that's ridiculous. How is that dude not infinitely better than D'Andre Jordan? Like, he's so much better. I mean, well, Katie and Karee helped have their choice with the starting center. We'll see if they have their choice of the coach, too.

We'll see. I know, I'll tell you this, with the way Jock Vaughn had that team playing, pretty remarkable. I expected the bubble nets to come in and go like 1 in 7 or 0 and 8. They came in and won some games. They played hard every game. That freaking Lavert, what a player. He's going to be a nice third piece. Hell yeah.

Behind Katie and Kyrie. Big time. Really nice. Gonna hit his spot up threes next year. This bubble thing has been a crazy success. Truth. Like, in terms of the no positive test, the basketball has been great. And now we, the playing thing worked out and now to make it all the, like, we're up late on a frigging random Thursday night seeing if the Nets can beat Portland.

And it's going to decide the fate of NBA teams. I mean, that worked out well. And now the playoffs are set up. So here's just hoping we get great playoffs. But by the next time we talk, well, I think we'll have talked about game ones because Monday night there's some game ones, right? Who will we have? So Monday we have Utah, Denver at 1.30 Eastern. Brooklyn, Toronto at 4, Philly, Boston at 630, Dallas Clippers at 9 o'clock.

That's on Monday. And as far as I know, I believe we're still going to be recording on Tuesday morning. So I would expect to see this in your feed Tuesday afternoon. Wait. Hold on a second now. Did you say they're going to be playing at like lunchtime on Monday? Yes. The playoffs.

Yeah, so the whole first round has early starts and then the second round goes back to later starts. I didn't understand that happening. Wow. Yep. Yep. That's crazy. I think I said that on the show before. I'm pretty sure I reported that on here. I didn't understand that they were going to be playing at lunchtime. You're not even aggregating me, Chris? Come on. I get enough of you, Kevin. Yeah, I know. I know. But I do, I do expect us to record Tuesday morning. If we change back to recording Monday night for two. Tuesday morning commute or Tuesday morning. Listen, we'll let you know. Good grief. We are going to be talking about all kinds of games by the time that comes around. Big shout out to Erica filling in for Isaac who ditched us again.

This week, surprise. He came back to be our producer after Bobby ditched us. Isaac came back for like two weeks. And next thing you know, he was like, oh, Isaac's not there this week. Erica's going to be there. So Erica, when are you dumping us? Eric, how much trash did Isaac toss about us before he said, take him, take him from me? Do you talk a lot of trash? Four years. We can't hold on to anybody, Kevin. Very sad.

Don't leave us, Erica. No, thanks to Erica for feeling it tonight. Everybody have a wonderful and safe weekend. We will talk to you on Tuesday. Have a good one, everybody.