The Ringer NBA Show - This Is NBA Playoffs 'Jeopardy' | The Answer

Episode Date: April 16, 2022

Chris and Seerat start the pod by reacting to the news that Paul George will be out for the Clippers-Pelicans play-in game. Next they engage in a 'Jeopardy'-style question and answer format in making their predictions for the upcoming NBA playoffs. They touch on a myriad of subjects, including the MVP race(4:31), Doc Rivers (23:13), their picks to win the Finals(39:09), and much more. Hosts: Chris Ryan and Seerat Sohi Producer: Chris Sutton Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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I am Chris Ryan. I'm joined as always by Siritt. So he, what's up to Stuart? I'm great. How are you doing? It's Friday. We have one more round of playing games before we get into the NBA playoffs.

I'm very excited about that. The Timberwolves Clippers game was just like, I felt like that was the umma thurman adrenaline shots of the heart in Pulp Fiction that I needed to get me excited about basketball coming into the playoffs. Like every possession mattered. Dudes were crying. Dudes were freaking out about foul calls. People were jumping on the scores table. It was just like, let's go. Let's get into the playoffs. So I'm pretty excited. Yeah, I'm pumped. I'm pumped. So, sir, today, I did preview the playoffs. You know, there's lots of different ways we could have done this. But there's a podcast I really like called

Axe to Grind, which is about hardcore punk rock and a while. while back they did something called hardcore jeopardy where they were doing basically a game of jeopardy about hardcore and i thought we could do that with the nba i thought we could do playoff jeopardy where we basically do answers in the form of a question as a way of predicting what's going to happen in the next couple of rounds are you a jeopardy fan not really i mean you know i would watch it if it was on back in the times of watching things on tv when they were on i was just never very good at it And I just don't, like, I have too much of an ego. I'm too insecure to get into things that I'm not good at.

Do you like trivia in general? Yeah, I like trivia. Okay. I'm a taboo fan. I always like Wheel of Fortune. I like connecting things. But if you just ask me a question straight out, like, there's too much air in this brain. Like, it doesn't work out that well.

As we're going to record right now, we just announced that Paul George is going to be missing tonight's play-in game between. the clippers and the pelicans could do to being entered into health and safety testing positive for COVID, which I honestly have to admit that I did not know the NBA was still doing this. Like I know that there's vaccination policies. Obviously, Matisse Thibble is not going to be participating in the Toronto games of the Toronto Philly series. But I guess I was under the impression that they were kind of like not really that stringently

testing anymore, but apparently they are. This definitely caught me by surprise. I had no idea that we were really doing this anymore. all. And this sucks, honestly, for the Clippers. It does. The timing is uncanny. Having this happened now as opposed to like, even if it happened, if it happened a day from now, it'd be better. Or if it happened like a couple days ago, they lost that game against Minnesota anyway. If the Clippers beat the Pelicans, this will only serve to like continue to build the myth of Tyloo, which I think is honestly getting a little out of control right now. You think so? I think it's awesome.

I think he's an amazing coach, but I think because everybody needs to, like, top each other when they're talking about him. So it starts out and it's just like, wow, he's just amazing at like finding mismatches and like always throwing different defensive looks at teams. And then it gets it like more and more and more. And then it's just like, Tailu can solve climate change. If he just had Kauai and Paul George healthy. Too many tops, not enough bottoms. I feel you. We're kind of in like the Brad Stevens territory right now.

Like, yeah, would you rather have Brad Stevens or LeBron James on your team? Okay. So should we start playing Jeopardy? Let's do it. This is our way of previewing the playoffs. We're going to do answers in the form of a question, and then Syri and I will say who is or what is. And this is just the way we thought we might be fun,

a way to look at the matchups and the first round here. So we have some that are like more total, like more widescreen, where they're looking at like the entire postseason, almost in retrospect, even though it hasn't even started yet. But for the first answer in the form of question, we have this player, immediately made voters regret their MVP selection. So obviously the last couple of weeks have been dominated by awards talk.

We haven't really indulged too much in it. But the MVP race has been very tight. There's been a lot of different takes about who should get it, Embed, Yokech, Janus, some outside shouts for Devin Booker or whatever. This player in the NBA playoffs, because, you know, you vote at the end of the regular season, the playoffs don't really come into it. Who do you think is going to make people regret their vote?

This is just going to be about me. I'm going to regret my my votes. I went Yokic, Janice, M. B, B, Bucer, and Luca, and I feel like there's just going to be a moment in late May when Booker's just carrying the suns. And, you know, they make the finals again. And, you know, maybe Janus is still there. But, you know, I feel like Yok is just going to be nowhere to be found then. I'm sorry, but I feel like M.B. is just not going to be relevant at that moment either. I'm just going to be sitting there being like, wow, this guy is just kind of doing like his like Kobe slash Jordan impression. and I gave him a fourth place MVP vote. Yeah, it's going to be tough if Embed and Yokic go home in the first round. Yeah.

I can't remember the last time. I mean, you know, they had the Westbrook year where they barely made the playoffs, but he was rewarded, obviously, for like, the triple double season. It's been a long time since, like, the top two, if not three MVP candidates did not make it out of the first round of the playoffs. See, I can tell that we're getting better at podcasting together because you kind of paused after the Westbrook moment, just to see if I would say anything, but I'm not going there this time. I feel like there's been enough Westbrook slander. I think that we all, like, collectively, like, we should give all of ourselves a break

and also Russell Westbrook a break and also Lakers fan a break, and we could just stop talking about it. It was a bad season. Yeah. It was a bad match. We don't have to keep delivering it. Yeah. So you have Booker. Now, in your hypothetical Booker MVP push or, you know, Booker makes everybody second guess how they voted,

Are you seeing Booker taking over for an injured Chris Paul at any time during this playoffs? I mean, probably. You got a price in a few injuries when you've got Chris Paul on the team, right? And they did it last season. They did it in the regular season. I think that's a big reason that he's even in the conversation was them going 12 and 3 without him. And, you know, just how well Booker played. I think he, like, his scoring average has been pretty consistent throughout this season.

He only went up like two points when Paul was hurt. But I think that's almost a point, right? Like he's been the guy holding down the fort for Phoenix while they've had a ton of injuries this season. Even then they're still the number one seed by quite a margin too, right? Like they're like no one even came within a stone's throw of them. The reason I just didn't go with him was just, I mean, you know, you look at those three guys statistically. You look at what Yokic has done this season. It's weird.

The MVP is a weird, a weird award now, I think. It's like, it's become about dependency. And it's almost designed at this point to make us look like full. because the players who win MVP don't win championships for the most part. Right. In the last, you know, 22 years or so, I think like five players have won the MVP

and then also won the championship. Like, it's almost designed in a way that, you know, if you rely so much on somebody in the regular season, then it's natural that that team is going to see like an early playoff exit. That's probably going to be the Yokic story. And it might be the MBEED story. Yeah, I mean, for Yokic, he's in a situation

where, you know, the team that he carried, the whole year with Porter and Murray absent. Like, it's probably their absences created the mythology around his MVP season. I think he obviously would have been a contender anyway had they been healthy. But the fact that he was able to get the Nuggets to the 6th seed, essentially on his own with Bones Highland and a couple of other guys, is MVP-esque. You know what I mean?

That's definitely something that I don't think many other guys could have done. On the other hand, like, because he won't have Porter and Murray, I don't think that they're going to go very far in the playoffs and it'll probably be a regular season achievement for Yokic. It is interesting with the Yokish debate. We don't have to get into it because we have a whole other slate of things to talk about today. I feel like the conversation around MVP is veering pretty dangerously close

to there being a certain mathematical equation that you can solve for being MVP and that like some of the advanced statistics, which Yokic almost uniformly is at the top of, are now becoming like, bigger governing factors than what people vote for. That just seems like that to me anecdotally when I hear people talk where they're like, look, wind shares, warp, all these advanced statistics,

like, Yoka, just at the top, you have to give it to them. Whereas it kind of like robs the award of, I don't know, like in the eye of the beholder part of it. I guess that is also how you get like ridiculously bad MVP votes sometimes though. Yeah, it's weird. It's almost like, it's like the reverse version of, of the defensive player of a year award, where it's like, you know, there's just,

you're like, you have to give. it to Rudy Gobert because he's destroying all these advanced metrics. Meanwhile, he's still dropping on every possible screen against the Warriors in 2022. Yeah. You know, we just don't, we don't think about that part because the other, the other games balance, balance those things out. You've got to have a balance between the stats and the eye test. And as I say those words, I feel like we should move on because we really don't need to have that conversation. Well, if we had done this pod five days ago, I would have said Luca. If we had done this pod pre-caf injury, I would have said Donchich, because I think that Dallas has a shot against Phoenix in the second round.

I think that Dallas was probably one of the two or three most impressive teams down the last couple of stretch of games there. I thought any given game, they could throw a bunch of different looks at you. And Donchich was obviously playing into peak performance, you know, and was essentially dominating the game and making everything kind of tilt towards his end. And yeah, I mean, like the calf injury. is bad. I think that that's one of those things where I'm not a doctor at all, but like, it's one of those injuries that I bet like he'll probably rush back on and not be at his best and just hopefully he doesn't aggravate it. So without Dantz, I'm going to go with Steph.

So I'm going to pick two guys kind of passing in the middle of the night in terms of injury. Steph's supposed to be coming back. I don't know if it's guaranteed that he's playing in this first game, the first Warriors game. Yeah, I think they're still being cute about it, but it feels like he'll play. I don't know. I just, I want to, I want to believe. And I just feel like when the Warriors had Steph, Dre, Clay, and Pool briefly firing on all cylinders. But even without Clay, Steph's just, was just magical this year. Like, the Warriors work when he's on the floor and don't so much when he's not. And it's interesting with a system team like that where you would probably hope that you could, to some extent, plug and play players into this,

motion system. It still all comes down to Steph and the kind of attention that Steph draws on the floor and his ability to get around to different spots and his ability to like create mismatches for other players because there's so much attention being drawn towards him. So if Steph's healthy, I think that the Warriors can make a deep run. It's possible. And I think people might be like, oh, maybe this was the Stephier, even though he did miss a significant amount of time. Let's move on to our second answer in the form of a question.

And we're talking about injuries, so this kind of works. This player shocks the NBA with his brilliant return to action after a long. long-term injury. I kind of want to change mine on the spot. Okay. I had Jamal Murray. So as of right now, we've got Michael Malone saying that it's doubtful that he'll play in this series. And you've also got, you know, the team president, Tim Connolly, being like, yeah, he's at the red zone. Like, we don't really know. There's not really much clarity on that situation. It feels like that's kind of where we've been with them. Like Porter, I think, is going to be out. He had a setback in his rehab. So that is kind of out of the question, it seems like, for the Nuggets.

but yeah, I had Jamal Murray, but I'm just, I'm so tempted to pick Zion Williams in here. Do it, do it. It would just be so, so funny. And it would be awesome. So Zion's doing 360 dunks in layup lines right now. Exactly. And it feels like every one of those is just like his attempt to make the internet go crazy so that the pelicans let him play.

I want to wish this into existence a little bit. Obviously, like nobody should play unless they actually can and should. But at the same time, it's like, man, like this team has. has been really good since the CJ trade. The vibes are kind of coming together. They're coming together, and I feel like Zion back would just really put a bow on it. Like, if they could just give the Sons a run for their money and then enter the next season, just feeling like happy and like, okay, everybody's healthy, that'd be cool.

And I want to watch Zion play above all else. If the Pelicans could sort of become the Sons from a couple years ago, like the bubble sons, where the Pelicans get like a little bit of a boost of confidence by getting him from the plan into the playoffs and then maybe even just taking a game off the Suns. Yeah. And just making it a little complicated so that they could go into next season with B.I. Zion and CJ and be like, we actually have something here. Yeah, that's a great trio to build around. Willie Green's a good coach. We have a bunch of picks that we could trade or we could do stuff with.

We've got Herb. We've got Alvarado. It's all finally looking a little bit brighter in New Orleans. Jones Ive, let's go. Willie Green also was an assistant with the bubble suns. For Monty Williams. There you go. See?

My pick is who is Ben Simmons. And your guess is as good as mine as to whether this guy's going to play. Because there are tweets that are like Ben Simmons can't move. There are tweets that are like Ben Simmons plays 18 hours of call of duty a day. There are Steve Nash quotes where they're like, Ben Simmons isn't really sprinting yet. and then there are quotes where it's like anonymous sources being like Ben Simmons looks awesome in practice and is targeting the middle of the first round to

return. So if he came back, he would be stepping into Boston, basically. Like he would be in the tail end of what would have to have been a competitive Boston Brooklyn series. So let's just say like he is the guy we saw against Atlanta, who was bad, right? I still think that that dude would be a huge upgrade for the Nets. and I don't know, really understand how if he's got a herniated disc and he's got an epidural, like really what we're going to see out there. Like, I'm not a back expert, but that just seems like him not playing competitive basketball for this entire time and then coming right back against Boston is some cause for concern.

But of all the people who are these X factor guys who could come back and make a interesting return to action, I still think Ben is kind of the X factor. Yeah, I think he can plug and play in that situation. Coming back against the number one defense in the TD Garden is going to be very interesting. How do you think, I mean, you know, their Revolutionary War rival city would react? Like, would Boston fans almost be like rooting for Ben Simmons because he just like, he did Philadelphia so dirty? Oh, because it would make the Sixers fans feel pain. No, I think that they, I think that they're going to try him really like rock Brooklyn.

I don't think they want to have like a long series where Katie is playing in games. sixes and sevens with them. But then, like, who do they boo between Kyle? Like, they're just going to lose their voices between Kyrie and Simmons, you know? Like, it's like, it's going to be a long series. And I just feel like, you know, they got it. The fans got to pace themselves, too. Like, they can be looking at, like, Kyrie in the first game there and being like, hey, like, we've tried booing this guy before. He doesn't care. He doesn't even hear it. Like, maybe we should save it. Hashtag save it for Simmons. In the NBA playoffs, there are no sure things except one, You bet at least $20 in same game parley's on Fandall's Sportsbook,

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potential. Who do you got? I got Boston. Great pick. Yeah, I just feel like they, they remind me a lot of, you know, some of these hard-nosed defensive teams that just, you know, you get a little bit more effort in the playoffs from these teams. Like, well, I picked them because they're playing the Nets. And it just sets up the perfect debate because it's like, well, the Nets, you know, they scratched and clawed their way into the playoffs. If you could really call any of their season scratching and clawing, I feel like they kind of just like wandered there. They weren't really trying. that hard. But now we have them in there and, you know,

like the nets are probably designed to be able to beat them. I went, I did a basketball news podcast a few weeks ago and we were talking about the Celtics defense and like doesn't have any weaknesses. And if Time Lord's playing, who is also, also another guy who could miraculously come back from an injury. And I don't think he would shock the world. I think

we know what he can do. But, you know, like they make everything really hard. They have great isolation defenders. They have a defender for every type of player that you have. And then they have that backup. too. And, you know, we kind of came to the conclusion that the only thing that you can really do is be really good at making tough shots. And they've got two guys, like, the nets have two guys. Like, they're the two best scorers in the NBA that will consistently make tough shots. I think if you get like playoff KD against the Celtics defense, like, it's going to be interesting for sure. I think

it's a type of thing where, you know, the Celtics could give the nets a few hits that make them lose down the line, but I see the Nets winning that series. And then you kind of just have a bunch of questions about Boston, where they go from here. So do you see the Nets winning that series actually, or just within the context of this hypothetical question? No, I think they're going to win the series. Wow. Is that shocking? They have the best player by eons in that series. I think the Nets are going to get their asses kicked. Really? Yeah. I mean, it'll be interesting for sure. So one thing that I think is kind of, it'd be kind of fascinating to watch in this series specifically is the beginnings of games, because Boston's hallmark, especially when they had, they were rolling with Robert Williams,

was they would just go up 25 on teams. Like, they were just, and that is one thing that you don't see a ton of in playoffs. And what you're saying is like, oh, like if this game is close and it's about shot making at the end of the game, like, well, which two guys would you rather have the ball, like, than Kyrie and Kevin Durant at the end of a game when it's, like, close and you're getting back into it. I just don't know if Brooklyn can, like, hang with these dudes. like Brooklyn does literally have two players.

Like Seth Curry, for as good as he is in the regular season, is going to get kind of exposed in the playoffs, like he kind of usually does. And if they don't have Ben Simmons, they're out there with like Andre Drummond and Goran Dragach. Like, I just don't think they have enough dudes. I can see that happening for sure. But I also look at it like, okay,

you have like two quarters before the fourth to make up for whatever deficit you give up. Sure. It's just, it's really easy for the Nets to carve up a lead like that, you know? It's just, it's a couple transition threes and then like a couple dunks and you're good. And like that sounds overly simplistic, but that's, that's the point of the Nets really. Like, it's overly simplistic because they just have two guys that are such scintillating scores that it doesn't really matter and they have shooters around them. But doesn't that go against everything that we've been kind of saying about playoff basketball

for the last couple of years where everything is like all these complicated matchups and throwing different looks and like having like adjustments game to game and quarter to quarter or half to half and it. Like, I don't even know if the Nets can do. that? What is the Nets like offense? You know? I think they adjust pretty well. They played a ton of different lineups like over the last two years. They've had to. I think they're actually a little bit more versatile than that. Like, you know, they can go small pretty well. They can go big pretty well. I can't believe I'm just like I'm like caping up for Boston. Like what am I doing? Yeah, this is actually this answers this answers the question as to whether Ben Simmons will get food because you are so on team

Boston right now. Yeah, no, I mean, I think that's the idea though, right? Like there is a simplicity to the way that they play that does go against some of the things that we've seen in the playoffs recently but it's also like you have a team like the bucks where they do like they don't have to find a different way to win and these guys don't just you know it's I'm Kevin Durant hi my response for this answer in the form of question is who is Memphis yeah Boston East Boston East

I don't believe this like I don't think Memphis is going to falter in the playoffs but I do think that they are allowed to This is a young team. They haven't had that many playoff campaigns. This is Jock coming back off of an injury. This is a different kind of basketball. And I'm fairly confident that they'll get through the first round and beat Minnesota. But it wouldn't shock me if they didn't.

And it wouldn't shock me if they were handily beaten in the second round by a Golden State team. So, you know, what success is? This is something Verno and KOC were talking about a while back, like a couple months ago on the mismatch is like, what would be disappointing for Memphis. Is it a second round exit? Do they have to get into the conference finals? Like, what is the need for this team? I feel like this is like the breakout season. And if they go home in the second round, it's not the end of the world. And I don't think we're going to have to do like a was Memphis real, was it Memphis ever real thing? But I do think that they are probably in for a little bit of a coming back down to earth moment in the playoffs. Yeah, I would say it depends what happens, right?

Like, I could see them getting punched in the mouth by the Timberwolves. And if they aren't able to respond to that, then I think you might look at it and be like, well, that was disappointing. But yeah, I mean, like, anybody in the second round at this point is, it's like, how disappointing can it really be to lose to an actual contender, right? Like, that's just, that's how stacked these teams are at this point. I think the thing that works out really well for Memphis, too, is that they don't need to answer the questions of what happens next for this team because they're really young. Yeah.

Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Like, I would, I would be looking for, I would be looking for progress. on like incremental things. Like looking at last season's playoffs, I think the things that they struggled with was, like if you look at Jha and his game management, is something that I think he needed to improve in last year's playoffs. And if it's the same story of like, you know, getting a little bit of tunnel vision

and not really, you know, making that next step of, okay, like, let's figure out a way for Jaron Jackson to eat in this series because he can and he should. Those are the kind of things that you look at and say, like, okay, well, that was a little bit disappointing. but if they lose with like, you know, a level of effort and improvement and I don't necessarily know the word I'm looking for. If they can lose in a way that shows that they're a little bit more nimble than they were last year, a little bit more playoff built, then I'm kind of, I look at it.

I'm like, okay, well, let's just, let's see what they are next year. But I think they are a playoff build though. Like, I agree with you. They are an interesting team for this question, but I'm, I have belief in them. Yeah. So the next one we have is, um, despite regularly steering his team to the playoffs. This coach left after 2022 NBA postseason and we have the same person. So let's talk about Doc Rivers. My official prediction or whatever is the Sixers are going to lose in five to the Raptors. Really? I don't have very good vibes about this team. I certainly don't have good vibes about the team's relationship to its coach. The Thibble thing is not good. I just could see the Sixers splitting.

home the home games with Toronto and then losing both in Toronto and then kind of giving up. And the stuff coming out of Philly with Doc this past week, a lot of it is around like a very like nobody's going to really care about this, but it's about whether or not B-B-B-B-Ball Paul Reed is the backup center or is it D'Andre Jordan. And Doc has been very combative about his lack of opportunity provided for B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-L-all, who is a little bit more of a modern backup five, like has a couple more tools. It's certainly more mobile than DeAndre is. And it's kind of put into focus, like, just the disconnect between Doc and the fan base,

maybe Doc and the team, maybe Doc to some extent, modern basketball. And I don't know, I just think Doc's and Coach of Lakers next year. It just seems like that's where this is all going. It just makes sense. And I think like the winning time documentary 40 years from now is going to be like the opposite. It just needs Doc Rivers more than it needs Nick Nurse. So Nick Nurse was the other person who's been, like, weirdly rumored for the Lakers job. I can't remember.

Did LeBron say he's, like, a fan of Nick Nurse or something? Yeah, I think, like, well, Nick Nurse is clutch. Oh, okay. And, uh, apparently, like, you know, sources say that Ad and LeBron are fans of his coaching, which is like, hey, yeah, like get in line with the rest of the league there, basically, right? Yeah, I, I don't really see that one happening. I just don't know why he would want to go there at this point. But Doc is kind of a perfect fit for the Lakers.

Yeah, and I just think he's not a perfect fit for Philly anymore. Yeah. And a lot of the stuff in Philly is going to wind up being about Hardin. It's going to be about whether Hardin resigns. It's going to be about how Hardin plays in the postseason. It's going to be about if he doesn't play well in the postseason, what was the reason for that? Is it like specifically a hamstring injury that can be repaired? Is there a sense that like he's interested in participating in the upper echelon of NBA basketball anymore?

like obviously like he's a guy who marches to the sound of his own music so he talked his way out of Houston he talked his way out of Brooklyn and now he's in Philly and he's got this huge deal and Philly also for their own purposes Darrell held on to Ben Simmons and got the player he wanted and now I honestly got to say like based on what you see from James Hardin and imagining him in three seasons like do you still want to be paying him 45 million dollars to be the 35, 36 year old version of James Harden is kind of tough thing to to kind of to kind of talk to kind of Are you trying to wish a first round loss into existence so that the Sixers don't resign James Hardin? Well, no, it's not even that as much as it's just like, I just don't think the team has it this year.

This team is too slow and this team just does not have like the athleticism, I think, to compete with the Toronto team. So I actually, yeah, I just don't think they have it. Yeah. I don't have a lot of faith in them in the playoffs. And I love the Raptors as an upset candidate, but I think I think the Sixers are just going to be a bad matchup for them. Like, MB is just so good in the paint. That's their one weakness, right? Like, they can stop guys from getting into the paint,

but once you're in there, like, they just don't have enough size. I think Embed's just going to be able to get him over the hump, like, you know, just do what he needs to do. Maybe make me feel better about the MVP prediction, right? Because that is probably what it's going to take, especially with eyeball out. But, yeah, it's going to be talking. I don't even think there's any real other candidates. I was looking at the playoffs and I was like,

oh, it seems like everyone's kind of good with what they have. I have a weird feeling this year is going to have a lot of coaching turnover. I could see Berego going. I could see Quinn Snyder going. I could see Doc going. I could see some of the younger guys who are coaching teams that are in Orlando, Houston. Like any team that's in the lottery like that, like it's in play, I think. There's a lot out there, I think, that could happen.

Quinn Snyder's Sixers coach would be pretty good. That guy is intense, but I think he would be a really good coach. All right, let's move on to the next one. This player missed a critical game that his team lost because he was suspended for picking up too many technical fouls. I took Luca here. He's trying. He says he's trying his best. to not be complaining all the time.

He's just not there yet. He's not there yet. And I think that the Mabs can also make a deep enough run that, you know, like it'll take seven technical fouls. And he'll pick him up quick, honestly. Playoffs get a little bit more intense, too. I just don't think he's going to be able to, to handle it. Like, there's just going to be moments where he gets so mad,

especially coming back from an injury, too. Like, you're just, the body's a little bit more sensitive. Like, you want a little bit more protection. I think he's just going to be a little louder. I had, I had Dremont for this, but I think, you know, he's, he is older and wiser. So Luca comes back from calf injury and immediately just gets tossed. Yeah. What an advertisement?

I have him beating the jazz, like kind of no matter what, which we can get to later. But yeah, pretty much. Mine is Towns. Put me on team, celebrate however you want. Like, I really don't care. I love, I love celebrations. But I was a little, like, thrown off by Towns's. temperament in that Clippers game.

And I wonder whether or not Taylor Jenkins is watching that game and is like, okay, like you can get into Carl Towns's head a little bit. Now, whether it's like just stealing some of the stuff that Ty Lou did against Carl Towns in that playing game just to make him uncomfortable or whether it's, I don't know, just being super physical with him whenever you can, it just seemed like Carl was like a little, just like on tilt. and I wonder whether or not he's a guy who can be knocked off his square in a playoff series. Yeah, Stephen Adams and Jaron Jackson and the Grizzlies are like kind of perfectly designed to make that happen.

I like that pick. Dylan Brooks and Desmond Bean seem like they are going to be like pretending they got elbowed a lot. Yeah, Dylan Brooks is also a candidate for this question too. Let's move on to the next one. So this star duo had a public falling out that precipitated their breakup this summer. Yeah, we'll get to the Utah stuff now, right? I think it's just time. It's time for Mitchell and Gaubert.

I feel like Donovan's been really patient about all this stuff. I think just another playoff loss. The way that they've stumbled through the second half of the season two, like the vibes are just really bad. And I think all it's going to take, there's so much subtext that they seem to read within each other's comments at this point that I feel like all it's going to take is like that happening in a moment when, you know, they're losing.

It feels like the wheels are about to fall off there. Yeah. I mean, Stockton and Malone there are not. So this is, this seems like a thing where the question is, does Danny Aange want to break them up? Or do these guys want to be broken up? And if they do want to be broken up, who wants out of town worse or who wants out of town first? The, the Mitchell to New York stuff is like obviously out there. But then you've got Rudy who I think might be almost underappreciated at this point.

And like on one hand, I could see him go to like Charlotte or something like that. Apparently, Gordon Hayward wants to change a scenery. So he's going to come back to Utah for the old scenery? I guess, yeah. And then on the other hand, there's, I mean, I'm sure it was BS, but there was even a rumor that, like, Golden State would be interested in Rudy, you know? So no matter, like, where he goes,

he's going to dramatically improve the defense of the team that he joins. It's just a matter of whether or not, like, he's a difficult character or whether it's just been a bad, a bad situation, bad contacts for him over the last couple of years. So Utah will be fascinating to see whether it's an organization, organizational tear down or whether the players players lead it. I have kind of like a

just a super trolly one here for my answer. I have, who is Paul George and Kauai Leonard? So on one hand, the clippers are routinely like just punching above their weight because they're dealing with all the clipper curse stuff and injured superstars and everything else.

And like they're able to get a mere coffee to play better than half the Sixers roster. And they've got like just incredible contributions coming from all over the floor and they're playing five out and just just wrecking teams. On the other hand, like, Steve Ballmer really getting his money's worth out of this team. Yeah, man, I was thinking about that one too. And, like, I was thinking about Ty Loo's as an answer to the previous question about, like, what coach could potentially lead for a leper contender.

We're going to look back at this one. It's going to be really interesting because that season, we were like, oh, man, like, the Nets won free agency and the Clippers won free agency. And here we are in 2022, and it's like both of these teams are just kind of stuck in this like failure to launch place. Because like, you know, for the clippers, mostly because of injuries, the nets, you know, all of the things and injuries. It's hard because I think that when they are together, there is a lot of potential for them to be very destructive. I think they can even look at like a team like the Suns and say like that that's a model for how we could play. And then the other thing is like, what's the trade market, really?

Like, which one of those guys would you trade? It would be PG. And I'm really just trolling here. But I will say that, like, you put it exactly right. Like, these two teams that you think won free agency and have actually just remained in this hypothetical state of if and when we ever get all our guys going at the same time will be unbeatable. I mean, the clippers were awesome. Like, whenever they've had Kauai and PG and Tailu and these guys around them, like, it's been cool, watch.

But, like, Kauai Leonard and Paul George are not that durable. And I wonder if you have any teams out there, like, we made a joke a couple weeks ago about, like, would Memphis be, like, a perfect place for a Paul George type player? And I wonder whether or not you, like, kind of sell high on Paul George. And if there's anything out there that the Clippers would be interested in getting into, or if there was, maybe there's just, like, they're like, this is as far as we can go with a team where the two best players are not routinely on the floor. It's just an idea.

I'm just throwing it out there. Let's just see if it sticks. Next question. This one steady team faced major questions about their future after having their weaknesses exposed in the postseason. Who do you got? I got Chicago. We've talked about this a little bit before, but...

So this isn't just like injuries. You can't just chalk it up to Caruso and ball missing most of the season or whatever. No, no. Like, we talked about the Bulls earlier in this season where we were really high on them, but at the same time, we saw this sort of future where they have to play the the bucks in the first round and it's just going to be like you know yonis dunking all over them because they just don't have the interior defense and then you have like the three-headed monster of drew holiday and and chris middleton reminding everybody why toronto traded demaraderos in the first place

and they are kind of perfectly set up for that scenario unfortunately right now i don't think it necessarily speaks completely to you know like those are the weaknesses for chicago and they just happen to be running into the team that's going to be able to exploit them really well like i don't even think it's be a really long series with those teams. Actually, like, you know, this team does remind me a lot of those raptors. Like, I was thinking about what do they do next? And I'm like, it was like they wanted the LeBron stopper. Now they're going to need a Janice stopper.

And P.J. Tucker is a free agent this season. Like, they have a decision on Levine, too. Like, Levine is going to, he's probably going to command a max. But he's also, he's had some injuries too. And, like, the same knee that he, like, the left knee, he tore his ACL a couple years ago. it's been giving him problems as well. So, yeah, things just don't look as rosy as they did earlier this season, and then you just got a situation where they're kind of locked in to what they have right now.

Like, I feel like with Levine, it's like, if he's dealing with injuries, he's not going to want to necessarily go somewhere else. Like, I think he's never really been a free agent before. I'm sure he'll test the waters a little bit, especially if the first round looks really bad for them. They don't have a lot of maneuverability from here. Then you're just kind of hoping that Patrick Williams ends up being the answer. answer to that question. And, you know, maybe down the line he could be, but he's not really on

their age timeline either. It feels like they were so close to coming together. And yeah, I just, I don't know, I just don't feel good about Chicago's future right now. I feel like they can get away with, we like our chances with Lonzo, Caruso, de Rosen, Levine, and Vouch. Like, I think that Lonzo's a pretty crucial player for them and to not have him hurts. They had a tough second half for the season. I think that they were always kind of having trouble with teams that were better than them. Honestly, like, they were always having trouble with the teams at the top of the league. It was that they were really, really capably taking care of all, all like the teams beneath them in the regular season. They had that kind of going for them. I think maybe they're

just a year away from being not necessarily contenders, but like a three or four seat. Now, the Eastern Conference is so competitive. And avoiding the books. And avoiding the bucks. And getting, and getting a Charlotte or a Pacers or a whatever kind of first. round and having a little bit more luck. My team is kind of contrary to what I was saying earlier in the podcast about Steph, but I have Golden State here. So a couple of different things can happen here. One is Steph could not be healthy. Two is Steph could be healthy, but they just get like an erratic performance from everybody around Steph. Clay has been hit or miss. Jordan Pool is on a crazy heater right now, but correct me if I'm on, but like pool, Clay and

Steph haven't gotten a ton of minutes together, right? Barely, yeah. Right. They've had some moments where they've looked really good together, but they've also had a lot of, you know, Poole has had some trouble transitioning into this role and Clay's, you know, he's, I think he's a year away from being fully recovered, too. Yeah, I think you're probably right. So then there's the depth issues, and there is the, like, what was cool during the regular

season, like with commingo and Moody, like, doesn't necessarily translate until the postseason. There's the Wiggins disappearing act. I love Warriors Twitter, but I like, I always look on in fascination with the disdain with which they hold Steve Kerr. And I don't know. I've seen teams with better vibes going into playoffs. And I wonder whether or not what was like an incredibly inspiring, awesome first half of the season turned into kind of like a darker like steps out, Dre's out, like we're getting our butts kicked. Then they kind of turned it around at the very end of the season. but I'm not so sure this team is got it this year.

Yeah, I think there almost might be a little bit credence to the Gobert stuff there too, because I think they have, if they lose, there's also going to be the tactical issue as well. Like if Steph is healthy, but they got Yokic in the first round, and they just don't have anybody that can guard him. Like, Draymond's going to try his darnest best, but Yok is just going to turn around and know that Draymond's six, seven, and he can get a hook over him. anytime he wants to. It'll be tiring for him, but I actually think Denver has a reasonable shot in that series. And then you just got the West. We talked about this many times before,

so we won't get into it too much, but the West is just packed with Biggs. Like, what do you do about Aiton? What do you do about the Memphis, you know, just Glyath down there with like, with Stephen Adams and Jerry Jackson? And if it's Minnesota, then you still got to deal with Carl Towns. Like, it's just tough to get through the West without having an actual seven foot big man who's going to be able to rebound the ball for you. Like, I think they can just get crushed on the boards, get crushed in the paint. And if they're, if they're not firing on all cylinders from the three point line, I don't know if they're going to make up for that. Yeah. All right, let's do our final question. Yeah. Let's do it. This team won the 2022 NBA finals. I got Phoenix. Feels, feels a little

self-explanatory with the way the sun's season is gone. They're all healthy. Things have happened for them at the right time. Like, they had the injuries happen to them at the right time that allowed them to grow and now, you know, their full strength team that's really, really deep and they know how to play together. You know, they've, they walked through the fire last season. They're really angry, too. I feel like they're really motivated from the loss. And the vibes are strong. Like, I just don't, I look at that team and I'm like, I feel like they can, they can withstand most of the challenges that will be posed to them. Like, they can get punched in the mouth. McKeel Bridges is much better this year than, than he was last year. He's a real creator for them. Broker's improved. His playmaking's

improve, his decision making has improved. Aitin is actually kind of like he has become so much more diverse from the five spot too, like just in the center of the court. Like he's, he's hitting every floater. He's expanded his range. His playmaking has improved. Like everyone is just a little bit better than they were the season before. And I think that that's going to be enough to get them over the hump. I think they're going to win. I had the bucks here for like content and like how cool it would be for like a second, a back-to-back champion. I think the sons are going to win. I think they're just the best team. I think we'll get to the end of this and we'll be like maybe it was never really in question. Maybe this is a historically good NBA team that needs to be remembered because we certainly

didn't remember them in the regular season. No, but I wonder whether they're about to lawnmower this playoffs. And that would be, I think, especially good for Paul. You know what I mean? Like a quick playoffs, like getting through teams 404-1 might be the best recipe and not dilly-dallying and playing game sixes and stuff like that. There's just a perfect basketball team. They are. They can answer every question. And I kind of like rooting for teams like that. Like even when I watch the bucks, I'm like, God, the bucks don't make this much. Sometimes the bucks don't make sense and it's not bully ball, but I'm just like, what is this? The suns just kind of like make total sense to me when I watch them play. They're beautiful to watch. They're kind of like the spurs and that like they are perfect

and they're the number one seed and they're probably going to win the championship and we're going to look back and be like, why didn't we spend the entire regular season talking about them? Yeah. All right. Well, I guess that's it. We have the suns, winning. We have Doc leaving. We have Carl Towns and Luca Donchich getting ejected. We have Memphis crumbling under expectations. We have all of it. I'm not on next week. Sir, it's got Friday to herself. She'll have a guest next Friday and then I'll be back to the following week. I hope everybody enjoys the first weekend of the playoffs. Sir, what's the game that you have circled? Like, I cannot wait for game one of this series. Honestly, I think it's Boston, Brooklyn. It's probably the

It's the closest series, and it's the one that I have the most questions about. And I think it's, like, probably the most controversial in that, like, everyone kind of feels a different way about it as well. And there's just, I mean, there's so much potential for things to explode there. You got Ben, like, I'm really excited to hopefully watch Ben Simmons play again. We haven't had playoff, like, real playoff, Kyrie, like, healthy. So, yeah, I'm excited for that one. What about you?

For my sins, I'm excited for Toronto Philly. And then I think I'm really. excited for Memphis, Minnesota. Yeah, it would be a good one too. I think Memphis can, like, or Minnesota can give him a, give him an actual real challenge here. Also just like a really, two really fun teams to watch. Yeah. And, uh, watching Ant not know that he's not the best player on the planet, like would be

really fun against that Memphis team. Um, Sarah, thanks so much for joining me today. Chris Sutton was our producer. We'll be back next Friday or Cyril will be back next Friday. Until then, everybody enjoy the NBA playoffs.