The Ringer NBA Show - The Rise in NBA Scoring, the Milwaukee Bucks, and Potential MVPs With Seth Partnow

Episode Date: March 17, 2023

Wos returns with The Athletic’s basketball analytics writer, Seth Partnow, to discuss the drastic explosion of scoring in the NBA and how that is affecting the game, the Milwaukee Bucks as the leading Eastern Conference team, and where they see the Bucks as finals contenders. Lastly, the two discuss the their potential picks for MVPs. Host: Wosny Lambre Guest: Seth Partnow Producer: Brian Waters and Jade Whaley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey everyone, it's Ariel Hawani, and I wanted to let you know that each and every week, I'm part of a great program called The Ringer MMA Show. I hosted alongside two absolutely brilliant minds. Their names, Chuck Mindenhall and Pizzie Carroll, and every Thursday, a new episode drops where we preview the weekend in mixed martial arts and react to all the biggest news. Plus, after every UFC pay-per-view, we give you a post-fight show. So this is what you have to do. Just follow the Ringer M-M-M-A show on your Spotify app.

So you don't miss an episode. We'll talk to you then. Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to the latest edition of weekends. I'm your co-host, Big Wazzy, A.K.A. Wazzy Lambray, and I'm joined by my partner. You've read them in The Athletic. He's now a big part of the dunked-on media empire

over there with my guys, Nate Duncan and Danny LaRue. He's used to work for the Milwaukee Bucks, so you know he's a big Bucks homer. My guy, Seth Bartow. what's going on brother? I take offense at being called a horror. But other than that, how are you doing a lot? It's been a while.

It's got to be chatting with you. It's been a minute, man. I know you're very busy with your real job, traversing the planet, mainly Western Europe, drinking the finest wines, the most delicious hams, and the finest cheeses.

I know that's what's going on over there. So I'm happy you were able to take some time out to talk to us today, brother. You make myself my life sound so much more, so much more Austin Powers than it actually is. Austin Powers. I like that. Well, I wanted to talk to you about a myriad of things today

because, you know, obviously I value your perspective for a couple of reasons. One, you were in the media for years and then you started working on the team side. So you have both of those perspectives. and then, you know, you do have a more analytical bent. Is that a correct way to phrase that? I think that's fair. Okay. So I wanted to talk to you about the scoring in the NBA.

We haven't really touched on it on group chat or even here, but obviously anybody who's paying attention to the league this year recognizes how crazy the scoring is, obviously, on a team level, and individual level. Like we had two 70 point games this year. I think there's like 60 guys, if I'm not mistaken, scoring 20 points or more. We're like when I was growing up, right, and I was like seven years old collecting basketball cards, if a guy averaged 20 points a game, it was huge.

It was like, this guy's clearly an all-star. He's clearly one of the best players. And so anybody who's been paying attention long enough sees the league is just, the points are just pouring in. my guy Habistro on his show, he talked about, you know, possessions are up, and obviously people are taking and making a lot more threes. Is that it? Is that all there is to this? No.

I mean, first of all, possessions are up. That is certainly part of it. Second of all, we've certainly, the entire league has basically, I don't think there are any, no, we want to set up our plays to get, you know, catch and shoot 17 footers. That doesn't happen anymore. So offenses have gotten harder to. guard. I think the rule set in place now has it's been

trending pro offense for a while. I think you can trace a lot of the modern style back to kind of the relaxation on hand-checking rules 20 years ago. But I think possibly with the degree to which the carry rules have been

interpreted the way the gather step rules have been interpreted. The leeway that screeners can get in terms of how much they can roll and move. Bodies KG now. Yeah, yeah. And then also just like, you give crafty offensive players a clear indication on what's a foul.

There are going to be guys who play for that. So I think all those things all sort of play into it. Partially because of the rise of the three-point or the skill level of players has risen, I think, because kind of have to be able to do that to be on the floor. But on top of that, I think there's some stylistic things. my podcast partner at NERder, Modakia likes to point out that defenses have become predictable. So it's almost like offenses,

I mean, we know what the rotations are. We know what triggers a rotation. And if we can create situations because we can set a little, a wide screen, shall we say, you can get into situations where, okay, we dribble the ball over here, do this thing, defense rotates, you know, swing the ball open three. It's like, you know, press the blood and get the prize.

So that's part of it. that makes it a little easier on offense. And then I think because offenses become so important, there used to be like the Keith Bogan's player doesn't exist in today's game. Where you have a choice between, you know,

a functional player, but he's going to be a defender versus he's going to be an offensive player. They always go offense first now. Like how many teams are choosing, you know, the sons are a special case because of who they have on their roster? or so, they kind of are forced to have that be Tori Craig.

But I think most teams, if you said, okay, your fifth guy is going to be George Nyang are going to be Tori Craig. I think by and large teams are all taking George Nying. That does two things. One, puts more offensive players on the floor. Two, it puts more bad defensive players on the floor. So I think it's a bunch of things rolling together. And I think this year feels like almost we've hit a tipping point where it was rising.

It's rising. and now this year it's just an avalanche. Yeah, you know, when I'm watching this stuff, it's kind of crazy because a lot of my frame of reference is the LeBron Heat teams, right, where they start off as this defensive juggernaut. And by the end, they're kind of like a blah defensive team and they just score on people.

And these groundbreaking lineups was Bosch, Shane Badiye, D. Wade and Mario Charmers next to LeBron, right? And, you know, when they would close, of course, it was Ray Allen, who was all-time great. And even in that time was like, holy shit, this guy's a supernova from three. But like, Shane Batty, even Bosch, who later on became a more willing and ready three-point shooting. These guys were not shooting. They certainly weren't letting it fly like George Nyang. You know, like, it's just no hesitation.

anytime he has even a little bit of space in the corner or above the break, but he's just letting it fly. And I'm just like, that paradigm is just gone. Like, the people who are taking these shots, I'm watching the Clippers the other day against the Warriors. And, like, of course, Kauai Leonard, when he gets into the teeth of the defense, you have to put two guys on him. Like, he's Kauai fucking Leonard.

Like, there's no other option. He's kicking him out to wide open Eric Gordon. Like, this guy's not just a regular shot. shoot this guy is an insanely good shooter right i just think the difference of the open shots that are conceded like these guys not only are they shooting it with confidence they're just way better than 10 years ago even five years ago it feels like i think it's that but it's also i mean maybe those guys on the heat weren't all willing to shoot but you're talking about a lineup where there it's because bosh can handle the ball wash can play at the elbow bosh can initiate some stuff i think

you're seeing more lineups where there are five four and even five guys who can do something with the ball right we're almost it's almost moving away a little bit from the the sort of the the the not to use a you know a cliche term at this point but the heliocentrism of one guy handles the ball everyone else does anything like you look at a team like like Utah this year like they've had a lot of success because they don't have you don't have any superstar players right but there's five even Walker Kessler can run a DHO so you have so you have You have all of these guys who you help off of them, and they can make a play. They can keep the thing going.

It's almost like everybody has some of the 2013-14 spurs in their bag. Yeah. Because, like, you know, Boris Diao's skill set is now, like, a baseline rather than, not everyone's as good at it as Boris Diao was. But it's like, you have to be able to do those things now, as opposed to people, wow, they've got a guy who can do those things. Yeah. And that's why it's great that you said this.

skill level because, you know, I remember when the stretch four became this like buzzy word and everybody needed a stretch four because that was just going to turn your offense into just, you know, completely unbelievable. And then coaches were just, I was going to put a little guy on him. He's going to get in his shirt. These dudes can't dribble. They're definitely not posting anybody. Like, it was nothing to get rid of a stretch four who literally was just a 610 guy who shot

threes. It's like, if you can't dribble. If you can't read a defense, if you can't punish a smaller guy, your function is useless, right? Like they completely, they made that obsolete so quickly. Whereas now, like you mentioned, like these guys can do multiple things, not just swish a corner three-pointer, right? Yeah, it's Marcus Morris, not Richard Lewis. Right. You know, I think, I'm probably a little bit bad.

It was probably, at least in his Orlando days, early Orlando days, is a better player than Marcus. Morris is now. But the stuff you're talking about, the ability to guard multiple positions, he ends up with a point guard on him. Marcus Morris can put that guy in the basket. Yes. And maybe, I mean, two years ago, Mark and Mark as Morris could, you know, part of what we've seen with the Clippers this year is the fact that, you know, everyone's just a little bit older. But you know what I'm saying about that sort of arc player? And so yeah, you're right. It's not just, it's not just a tall guy who's a spot-up shooter. It's a beefy three instead of a tall three almost. And I know somebody listening to this to be like, all right, so where we, like,

what's the conclusion to draw from this? I know, like, I have, you know, I like to fancy myself as a more intellectual basketball consumer, but even me, I get the sticker shock, old man, me jerk of just like, come on, guys scoring 160 and regulate, this is nonsense. This is hogwash. You know, has it gone too far? Do we need to sort of address this in the rules? I don't mean, like the foul seeking behavior, I want that shit completely eradicated. I want to see people get punished. Like Eric Gordon, not only did they not call the foul for him when he jumped into the guy, clearly,

they said, no, you actually get a file, right? Instead of even a non-call, it's like, no, you're a file. I want to see more of that for the file seeking stuff. I really want to see people get penalized for trying to the trickery with the refs, but is this a bad thing ultimately? So on that, just on that last point, I'm a big soccer fan. And I actually, so they sometimes give yellow cards for diving. Yes.

I actually like it. I like it better when the ref looks at the guy and just waves at him to get up. That's, that to me is even like worse than a yellow card. Like I want to see if Terry Young is going to flail his arms into a guy and fall down. want the ref to run by and look at him and just kind of go, nah, and we just keep playing rather than them call the offensive foul. So, yeah, some of it is rules.

Like I think, yeah, we can, you know, do more to eliminate some of the foul secret game here. We can clean up the illegal streams a little. The lead, they kind of did some stuff with calling more of the carries and people didn't seem to like that very much. I mean, Jordan Poole couldn't dribble for three weeks. Yeah, well, I mean, but I mean, if you can't dribble

without putting your hand into the ball, maybe, you know. So I don't, like, don't know. That's that's, that's, that's something that has to, would have to be probably communicated at the start of the years. Like, this, this doesn't go anymore, you know, the, the big, yeah, the, the sort of the oil pole. They all do it, though. Just, yeah, all do it. But I think it's also, I mean, we haven't seen the next, like, switching was supposed to solve everything, right? And what that's actually done is I think that's instigated the teams instead of having the, okay, well, we're going to switch, and we're going to end up on your

stretch forward. You can't do anything. Now it's like, well, this is a guy who can handle the ball, who can do some things. So you switch and you're now at a disadvantage because he's not, he's not, maybe George Nage isn't the best player, but you put him in an advantage situation against a guy who's smaller than him. You can back him down, make a pass, do all those things. So that's, so that, I don't want to say that's negated switching because, you know, Boston with their full compliment to players can still be a very effective switch of defense. Switching team, yeah. Yeah. You know, the warriors when they were, you know, whole and healthy this year could still be a very effective future of defense.

But I think a more of a, and the next revolution's sort of base, guard your guy defense, the team that we've been looking at a lot this year, who's kind of showing some avenues for it has been OKC. They don't do a lot of like the soft switching early. They stay home. They help and recover. And then late in the shot clock, they switch aggressively. They switch and trap aggressively. they are they are you know on offense we often talk about you know you want to get in a situation then just play basketball whereas the defense has become very rote and okayc seems like all right

figured out defensively a little bit and and that you know that's a little harder to do but if you know if you can do it well the offense doesn't know what you're doing and so you don't get those easy well i'm just going to dribble the ball over here call for a middle street and this guy's going to help onto the nail i'm going to swing swing corner three on the underside which is so often what we get with as predictable as kind of end-bay defenses have largely become, at least in the regular season. Yeah, so I guess what you're telling me is that defenses just need to become more dynamic. And if I'm honest with myself, you know, this is just how the pendulum swings at a certain point.

Offenses gain the upper hand overall. I remember when fucking ice defense was first introduced and it was tripping people to hell up, right? And if I'm honest with myself, I'd rather watch this than that. So I agree with you. No, I prefer, like, I prefer, like, if we're going to go too far to one direction of the other, I would definitely prefer it to be too far to the offense. Yeah. But I think I kind of agree with you that we've maybe gone too far too far and can dial it back a little bit.

I mean, we are, we've already beaten and are in the process of smashing the record for most 30 point and 40 point games in the season. absolutely obliterating those. You're basically, like, first or second night after the All-Star break broke those records. And, you know, 50-point games is out of reach because, you know, wilt in one season holds the all-time record. And, you know, the Chamberlain records, and many of them are still intact.

But, like, other than that, like, this is the first time there's ever been two 70-point games in this season. Crazy. Like, yeah. Just crazy. Get off the bench and bet the NBA with Fan Duel, America's number one sports book. Because right now, Fandul is giving new customers 10 times your first bet in bonus bets.

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Your bucks are riding high. My bucks. They seem to be the most. Right now, it's inarguable. They're the most dominant team in the league right now. They are absolutely grounding people into powder on defense, just suffocating guys. You know, obviously we know what Janice does.

a lot of people believe that Brooke Lopez should be in contention for defensive player of the year. I tend to agree with them watching Drew Holiday. I can't say it enough. Like, what this dude does to all NBA caliber guards

on a regular basis where he makes these guys look mortal in this offensive crazy-ass sort of environment is kind of nuts. They do seem to be the most dominant team in the league right now. Are you feeling like

these guys should be the title favorites. I picked the, having, having protested that they're not my bucks. I did pick them to win the title before the season. I thought it was going to be, I thought it was going to be bucks over nuggets in the finals. And some of that was based on,

you know, assuming that Chris Middleton was going to get back and help him. He's, he's not been great. He's not been great, but he's been, he's rounding into, you know, good enough. They've gotten a lot more out of Joe Engels than I thought they were going to. Brooke Lopez is having, as you say, spectacular season.

If I had a vote, I know he's probably the betting favorite now. If I had a vote, he'd be second. I would still go with Jaron Jackson. But certainly, as of right now, but I think over the last month in season, it's certainly like, he certainly, like,

Lopez could certainly, like, catch in my mind where, where Jaron has been. And so he's right there. And yeah, Janus, and they have a bunch of like hard-nosed physical. He put great pressure on the ball. You mentioned Drew Holiday.

like Jaffan Carter is Yeah, he's a ball heart Yeah, that's, that can't be fun to play against it's like Yeah, you get your, you're, when we get, they've got Javon Carter and Drew Holiday on the floor and we're supposed to bring the ball up against that.

Yeah, that can't be a lot of fun. Yeah, and the shit about Ingalls is important too because, you know, my skepticism with the Bucks will always be the same. I've watched enough to have court playoff bucks offense to be skeptical, right? Like, to be like, as good as they can be,

they're literally going to score 8. 82 points in a freaking playoff game this year, right? Like, it's just what they do every single year. So I'm definitely skeptical. But I like what Joe Ingalls does. Like, his savvy on the ball of just understanding defensive, like, where the defenders are placed. And like you said, predicting what defenders are going to do, like, it doesn't matter that he's not as quick or not that he was ever that quick anyway. Obviously, he's got a pull-up game when defenses try to sort of sag off of what they're doing.

and help on guys like Janice and Brooke Lopez in the paint. I like what he's doing, but I don't know. Are they going to have enough offense in the playoffs is my question. I mean, I'd say everything you just said, being six, nine helps there too. Yeah. Like that sort of opens up the entire court to you as a passer in a way that it wouldn't necessarily be for like a 60 point card. I think if he can stay on the floor defensively in the playoffs, and that was always my concern on top of the health.

is he started even before he hurt his knee last year, he was really starting to look a little creaky. If he can stay on the floor enough defensively, just being able to run like middle pick and roll with him in Janus or him in, him in Brooke Lopez or him and Bobby Portis, like that gives them a little bit of a floor on some offensive positions that they haven't always had

in the last couple post seasons. Like there isn't, they haven't really, you know, like, you know, the fastball has, always been, okay, Janus drive really fast at the basket, then we'll see what happens. Beat the hell out of people. Yeah. And, you know, as to, you know, and it works.

Yeah, and it works. But, you know, the bucks do not have a, do not have an all-world collection of shooters. So what happens is defense gets compact, and he tries to do that and runs into a wall. And if you miss a couple shots, you start to tighten up, the defense starts to compact even more. And that kind of snowballs on itself. if they have another thing they can go to that isn't John is doing that or isn't like Chris Middleton mid-post-iso that they can get some

they can create some defensive movement with like that's a that's that's a that is a a club they did not have in the bag last year to postseason and you know but it's still the big if I mean whether or not he just has a giant target on his back defensively

and that and he doesn't give enough offensively to overcome that that's that's I think that's the question, aside from health for them entering the playoffs. I picked the nuggets to win the championship this year. I thought they would play the Celtics. And I just really just, I was just like, look, I think they're going to score against anybody. And against this, particularly the box, I feel like their defense can figure something out. Right.

And obviously it would be a seven-game series and it's strength on strength. But it's just like, I think you can figure out how to guard these guys over the stretch. But, you know, I could easily see it going the other way where their defense just straight up isn't good enough to contain what Janice brings to the table and they get beat. But I do. They are still my pick to come out of the West. And I would give them a healthy chance against, you know, even the best teams in the East. But, you know, because we are getting you out of here. But I did want to get you on MVP because it seems to be outside of the Jiam Morant shit, the stuff that gets people the most riled up.

Who is your MVP first? well, no, second, who's your MVP? But first, I need you to explain to me why a white writer is so racist. Why are you guys so racist? You media voters. Tell, explain the racism to me. Please, Seth.

No, I'm just kidding. You're trying to get me fired? For the record, I understand. It's not lost on me as a black man, how somebody could be like, man, you know, like Michael Jordan and Kareem and all of these people, never won three straight MVP's and, but like, Nicola Yonkis. I'm glad you went there. I'm glad you went there because a lot of that, oh, you can't win three like LeBron didn't and everything.

And the years where they didn't, we look back on, say, oh, we, can I swear on this podcast? We fucked up. Of course you can. We fucked up by not giving them, by giving it to Carmel and Derek Rose those years. We wish we hadn't had done that. but now we want to use that as precedent. The three straight MVP thing is more that, you know, if you look at the guys who've won two straight,

their third year has generally not been as good. Like, you know, Janus two years ago was, you know, they experimented in the regular season and it worked out and they won the championship. Aside from like, you know, the year that MJ would have won three in a row and LeBron would have won three in a row, and we recognized those as mistakes. Yokic has been better this year.

Yes. Like he's so so so so he's not having the okay well I just have two great seasons like okay he's having his best season ever yeah yeah he was he was certainly an unusual MVP the last two years given the level of team success yeah but two COVID years so no shit it was unusual like everything about the NBA was unusual the last two years and so I don't like he like he had MVP worthy years but he also kind of there was a little bit of by default because everyone else kind of who was on that level missed so much time this year he has been the team he's had his he's had his guys back team has been better he's been fantastic he is like

it's it's funny like the area where where like you know if you think that yannis and mb are the other top three candidates and i think i think those are the clear top three this point clearly the two get him retain jason tatum i think i think tatum is probably hitting like he hit He has the misfortune of having his best stretcher play at the beginning of the year, which for whatever reason matters less in MVP voting because we have short memories. Because, you know, how many crazy things has Kyrie done since Tatum was amazing? But, you know, they're supposed advantage on him. He's in scoring.

And Yokic is by far the best combination of volume and efficiency in the NBA this year. As a scorer. And that's before you get into the fact that he's. possibly like he's in he's not in discussion of the best passing center of all time no there's no he's best passer of all time and he's yes period full stop we're talking about magic stockton lebron whoever you want to put up that bird whoever he's there if he had if he had like prioritized it he could be averaging a triple double this year no i'm not going to say oh he doesn't stack that blah blah blah. But I mean,

he's, I mean, I think you, you kind of saw it a little bit in the off-star game. This is not the Westbrook stat padding. Yeah. This is, this is not that. You just watch the games. He's, he's doing, he's making the right play every single time. Well, and there's also games where he's like, oh, we don't need me to do that tonight.

All right. I'll just kind of, I'll just kind of sit out here and do my stuff. And I'll take nine shots tonight. Will win my 25. Like he's done that. I don't, you know. Because Embed and Yanis are trying to win MVP, I don't think you're going to see any games like that from those guys.

And that's not to, you know, I think stats only take you so far. Like stats get you in the conversation, but then trying to totally parse just from stats. Well, I want to talk about the parsing, right? Specifically with Embed, I think some people would say that Embedde is, he's a great offensive player. He's playing, like, there's no doubt about it. He's scoring at will, essentially.

if not a great offense into itself. I think that's the difference, right? I think Yokic is an offense. Embed is a great offensive player, but obviously, they're worlds a part on defense. I don't think that can be argued. And what would you say to some people that say

Embed is making up the difference defensively? I think that this is not, just from a night to night regular season impact, I don't think this has been your Enbeats' best defense. I think if you're saying, we're getting into like fourth quarter of game seven in a playoff series. He's going to bring it on defense. Yeah.

Unquestionably. I also think that at least in a regular season setting, I think Yokich is a better defender than he's like he can't protect the room. We know that. But he's got he's smart. He can be in good spots. Great hands. Gets tons of steals.

So he's not a he's not the he's not the he's not Nick Vuccovich on defense. Right. But that way. He's not Carl Anthony Town. on defense. So I think over the course of the regular season,

I think yes, Mb has been better. And Yonis certainly has been better. But I think that the gap is much smaller than people would say. I think in terms of output or in terms of actual ability. In terms of output,

I think again, you get it, you get us in a game. But the MVP is not game seven of the playoffs. Yeah. MVP is 82. Fear.

And if we want to, I mean, if we want to do a playoffs MVP award, I'm here for that. But I don't, I get, I get, it's like, it gets weird when we said, well, because he can't win MVP this year because his starting point guard in the playoffs the last two years was Facundo Campazo.

It doesn't make any sense. Yeah. The Ptiollo. Yeah. Like if you're, if you're going to, like, if you want to make the argument that you think Janice or M. B has a better season, I'm here for that.

That, like, those are perfectly credible arguments. Just the attempt to disqualify. Oh, he got smoked in the first round, the blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like, if talk to any Warriors fan, Yokic was by far the most scariest proposition that they faced in the playoffs individually. It's not even freaking close. He was, he was dominant, okay? Like, he was dominant against the Warriors who basically make everybody look human.

That wasn't the case with Yo Kitsch in the playoffs last year. And I think the difference, what people refuse to bring up for me when, you know, the Yonis stuff, especially with the Yonis case, Yonis was worse in the playoffs during his MVP seasons. That made people feel like, yo, what are we doing? Is he really the best? Blah, blah, blah. He played worse than his capabilities in those post seasons, particularly in the rounds that he left in. And so it left people to be like, maybe this guy isn't who we think he is.

Those people were wrong. But I understood that argument. That's not what happens with Yo Kijjic. He actually, he's even better in the playoffs. It's craziness. The only thing, like, the biggest demerit you can give him as a playoff is, like, the losing of cool and, like, some pretty ugly ejections, frankly. Yeah, for sure.

Like, that's, that's, that's, that's. That's certainly fair. But yeah, no, I mean, I think from a, from a when he's on the court standpoint, I think his playoff resume is pretty unassailable. Yeah. In terms of it's basically, and the funny thing is, is I think that, uh, that the playoffs actually made him like, if you remember the, the first round of the bubble, there was that series, the jazz and the nuggets. And the jazz looked like they decided, all right, we're not letting Yokuch beat us with his passing. We're going to make him score 40 every night to the best. and we don't think it's not that we don't think he can do that we don't think he wants to do that

right and it took him a couple games then he was like oh i can get buckets and he basically hasn't and he basically hasn't stopped since then like the level of of well i'm just going to score like passing is cool but buckets are cool too like and he just hasn't looked back since then like he's taking his offense like his not just his playmaking but his scoring game inside outside on the movie like he catches the ball at the elbow and he turns and shoots that little floater in the middle. What do you do with that? He's he is the deadliest crunch time weapon in the NBA.

I don't care what anybody says. As much as I love Steph, I love KD. Those dudes are getting you jump shots from 20 feet and beyond. They can make those shots. They're great at them. Yokech will get you a freaking seven footer. A seven foot shot with the game on the line consistently. if you try to guard him with one person.

And if you don't, it's a wide open jump shot. I'm done. I don't even need to do this anymore. It's just to me, if you don't watch this dude, and again, I'm invested in my own pick and sounding smart, so I'm invested in my own vanity. So I end up watching a lot of Nuggets games. And I just watch it, I'm just like,

you can't do anything with this dude. Nothing. And so, you know, obviously he's the MVP to me. I think they're going to show, I think Denver's going to surprise people how well they play in the playoffs. Ultimately, I think they're going to go to the finals. I think they'll win, but obviously I wouldn't be surprised if they lost, right? I just think, you know, I just think the world of the guy and what he's doing. But we do got to get up out of here.

Before we go, before we go, I'm as a fan, I am excited for Denver in the playoffs, both because of Yokic, but the number of different matchups where it's Aaron Gordon versus. whoever. What's up, bro? He almost let me finish. Seth's son is beautiful, bro. Wow. All right. I guess that's my cue to get out of here.

Oh, right. Bruce is part now making his daily podcast appearance. Tell the people when they can find your stuff. What's up, Bruce? Let your dad plug his work. We want him to shill up here. He's tired of dad not. Show him attention, man.

He needs your attention, said. So you can find I'm, you know, writing probably about once or twice a month right now at the Athletic Weekly on Nurtors She wrote. Big stuff coming before the playoffs in the Athletic. Got my pre-postseason player tiers are going to come out, which always-love that. Always draws. Gets the people going. Everyone agrees with everything I say on that every time.

So we're going to do that before the postseason and we're going to do it in the summer, like we always do. A couple times a week you can find over at Dunk Dog. And then Mo Dekeel and I are regularly doing live streams of games on playback. We're having a lot of fun with that. Mo's got a very good eye for the game. And we just kind of wrap and watch. And end up watching a lot of thunder.

Actually, you talked earlier about them defensively. Like we've been watching a ton of them. They're great to watch. Yeah, they're what, you know, Toronto thinks they're doing every year when they draft these rangy young athletic guys. But it's actually working over there. But that's probably because they have a freaking actual star. Can I make a plug, actually?

Yes, please talk to awards. Jalen Williams for a rookie of the year. Okay. Okay. We might have to get you back on for some postseason awards at some point because I know you're going to have some spice. But yeah, that's our show for today. I want to thank again the man with the wettest jump shot in NBA media, Seth Part now. I want to thank my producer, Jade Whaley, because she is the greatest to ever do it.

Appreciate you, Jay. She keeps the trains running on time. Make sure you check out everything else on the ringer NBA feed. We're going to start hitting you with more stuff, more weekend stuff, more group chat, more everything as the playoffs start rolling in here. So be on the lookout for that. We'll see you guys next week. Peace.