The Ringer NBA Show - Were the Play-in Games a Success? | The Answer

Episode Date: May 21, 2021

Chris Ryan and Seerat Sohi start by deciding whether the play-in format was a success (0:54). Then they talk about what other changes the league could make (20:00) and wrap up by talking about a couple of the first-round matchups they're looking forward to (31:41). Hosts: Chris Ryan and Seerat Sohi Production Assistant: Isaiah Blakely Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The NBA season is heating up and Kevin O'Connor and Chris Vernon have got you covered on the mismatch. They discuss all the news, the trends, and transactions happening around the league. They also offer their on court analysis and occasionally get into heated debates. Check out the mismatch on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello and welcome to The Ringer NBA show. It's The Answer. I'm Chris Ryan and I am joined by my new co-host, Seer-It, so he, Seer, what's up? I'm good. I'm good. How's it going?

Good. Siritt's the latest person to join the Ringer, the latest Ringer. I don't even know what to call. call new, new employees at the ringer. But, Siri, thank you so much for coming on the show. I really wanted to do the answer with you because, I don't know, I think you have such thoughtful answers to like big NBA questions. And that's, that's what we're trying to do here. How have you been enjoying the play-in games? Because that's what I wanted to talk about today, and whether or not this has been a

successful product for the NBA, because ultimately, I feel like it was a consumer, a consumer decision to make this tournament. play in tournament. It kind of helped sort of alleviate some of the late season malaise and some of the tanking and some of the crap were stuck in the middle. Let's just like kind of walk, walk through these games at the end of the season. But ultimately, I think it was like a product. And I wanted to know what you thought of it on a consumer reports level. Yeah, I love that you called it a consumer report that kind of that gets the heart of exactly what's going on right now. It worked. It obviously worked in every possible way.

The stars aligned for that LeBron versus Steph performance, which isn't going to happen every year. But I think you prevented some really ugly tanking. And that is probably really important too. And you also, that little race that you started doing towards the end of the year about, hey, is there like, who's going to, what's the seating going to be? Like that started a little bit early too, which also took out some of, you know, just that late season. I don't really care what's happening until April thing. Now I'm excited for the playoffs because

these games kind of had a playoff vibe that reminded me like, oh yeah, when NBA players care about things, it's really good. Yeah, I mean, I think that ultimately, like, I noticed in March or something that the MVP conversation was like starting to overtake who was winning and losing games almost. And then pretty soon after that, like all NBA discussion and awards discussions started to become like the main fodder for for pods and just for conversation in general. And I do think that the play-in games wound up making that six through that 7, 8, 9, 10 seating was then became like, oh, this is, this is fascinating. Can Zion get in? Or the Kings eliminated?

Like, should the, like, look at the Bulls went all in with Vooch to get that play. And that, like, all those storylines came spinning out of that decision. So let me ask you this, though. So we've seen five of the six games, Warriors Grizzar tonight. so we're recording this on Friday morning. What's your review of these games? Give me out of five stars. What's your review of the play in tournament

with and without Lakers Warriors? Oh, okay. Oh, gosh, that's tough. So you're asking me to review a restaurant on Yale, but just imagine you didn't eat the steak. Yes. And it's a steakhouse. Exactly.

Yeah. Yeah. Um, listen, I love the mushroom Neptune at Kegg, so that will still be fine. Um, I think, so we talked about this a little bit before, but I thought Grizzly Spurs was a perfect game. Um, and I thought it was sort of the perfect template for what a playing game should be. I don't need seven games of that. Sometimes you do get seven games of that and it's fine. Like, it can create some pretty intense rivalries, but ultimately like a team that, both those teams, like don't score a lot. They're not great shooting teams and there was a lot of grit.

You know, we saw we saw a throwback and like these grizzlies have been a bit of a throwback, right? And that was perfect. Like it was like one of those games that went down to the wire didn't see a lot of pretty stuff but like you got really you got really into the ugly stuff. I think sometimes like when you get into game five of the series like that it can be like okay all right. Can I like I just want to watch some like some skill basketball right? But that was that to me was a perfect game. Um, the other one, kind of strange. Kind of strange.

Don't you think I kind of, I expected that level of intensity in every game and that's not exactly what we got. This is like a little bit of the the first monkey shot up into space for these things where it's just like, you don't really know how these guys are going to react to like all of a sudden having knockout basketball

after a 72 game season of a short turnaround. So it's like, you know, maybe, maybe they're immediately going to react, go back to like their instincts of like, oh cool like this is like when we played march badness or like this is like in high school and we had like tournaments and they that wasn't really the case for the the pacer's hornets game i felt like the hornets like like missed an email or something like that and like just we're like yeah this is just a super normal late season game right guys and they were just getting backdoor cut to death on in a way

that it was like a lot of people who said like the hornets are so young the hornets are so young but like they obviously just weren't prepared for any kind of intensity and i i think they were probably more talented than the Pacers. I thought they were going to win that game. Yeah, they were, it was, it was shocking how unprepared they seemed for the moment. I was watching, I was watching that game thinking, okay, I'll watch the first little bit of the third quarter. And if it looks like there's a comeback in the works, like I'll start, like, I'm back in on this. They come out and immediately, there was just, there was a back cut that I think, I think,

Sabonis made a pass to, to, I can't remember who exactly it was, to be honest, but there was a back cut on the first possession of the third quarter. I mean, the fact that you don't know which Pacers was like, you're like, they were all just scoring so much, right? Like, I don't really remember. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Sabonis passed to somebody, right? And it was, it was, like, the first defensive possession for the Hornets. I was like, okay. Like, these guys didn't come to play at all. Like, you just got out. I think there was, there was like a lot of, like, maybe Barago will give them the Rocky, like, a rocky speech and, like, they'll come out. And it did. didn't really happen. That's the thing is, like, I feel like some teams were ready for it,

and some teams weren't. You know, my, I want to talk a little bit about Lakers' warriors as like a spectacle more than necessarily like what we learned from it basketball-wise, but I did think it was good and interesting, ultimately for the league. And let's just assume that the Warriors beat the Grizzlies tonight. Do you think it's better that seven and eight seeds eventually progressed, that we did not have a Cinderella 10-7s, seed. Cinderella 10 seed go through and become the eight seed necessarily. In this particular scenario, yes.

But I do like that the plane gives an opportunity for some of these teams that maybe had injuries. One of the things you've been hearing a lot about is like, well, it's not always going to be like this, right? Because you're just never going to get Warriors, Lakers again. Now, potentially, yeah, getting the two most engaging super. superstars to, you know, have to play this one game battle to the death is a pretty sweet deal for the NBA. I'm happy for them.

That's that particular moment is not going to happen. But if you look back at previous seasons, I think that there might be some decisions that go a different way. The one that sticks out to me is like last year, maybe Kevin Durant comes back. If they know that they just need to sneak into the 10 seed and win two games, like a healthy Brooklyn Nets team can do that. I'm not saying they would have, right? But I think as a team, you start thinking in those terms a little bit more as well. Two years ago, the Lakers missed the playoffs because of LeBron's injury. They probably get into the playing tournament if that happened.

So if it existed back then. So I think that there are scenarios that will always be somewhat exciting because there are teams that end up in precarious situations. There are teams that really turn on in the second half of the season, you know, that Miami Heat team that went 11 and 30, then 30 and 11, they would have made some noise in the playing in tournament. There's a ton of teams every year that are like kind of intriguing that just didn't get the right start that they needed to get. And it just keeps like the narrative alive for a little bit longer. Like the Zion narrative was alive for a little bit longer.

And that's good for the league too. And that's, you know, it's good for us too. Because like, honestly, like I like that I could keep watching the Pelicans without feeling like, I really should watch the Pelicans anymore. And it's good. It's good to give people something to, like teams and people fans, something that they can actually care about. Yeah.

Ultimately, I think that it engages a lot more fan bases a little bit longer. You know, like Wizards fans had so much momentum going into the end of the season. It's nice to have it so that they still have something to cheer for. Yeah, and those games are for those fans. You know, I think those are the types of games where, you know, like, let's say Charlotte. I don't think everybody in Charlotte was getting up to watch the Hornets. I mean, Lamello, like regardless of Lomello, maybe they were this season. that is an opportunity

where it's like you kind of have like everybody in the city probably watching the game or like everybody who even like remotely like sports for the first like 12 minutes of it at least yeah yeah yeah checking it out but that's ultimately what you want you want people to check it out and if it's going to be that bad of a game

then maybe they won't stick around but I mean I imagine that Grizzly Spurs situation they probably did and maybe if you're in Memphis like you're probably pretty excited for tonight's game too against a Warriors absolutely I do think you're right though it's like, we'll know that the plan tournament has really arrived when it has its Willis

Reed moment. When some guy comes back from brutal injury just to qualify for like a second elimination game to get into the bottom. Oh man, Bradley Beals basically Willis reading for like the last week, honestly. Let me ask you this. You know, so there's been, there were a couple of like weird because it was essentially a television product still. And like, you know, there were fans in the crowd, but I still think that they were manipulating it so that they had two double headers for two nights there. I did think that that Wizards game was

the Wizard Celtics game was pretty inert and I was kind of wondering whether or not it might be because it was an East Coast game starting at 9 p.m. And that those guys went through their usual day. I'm sure they were able to tweak their rituals or whatever. But they still

had shots of Westbrook out there hyping himself up on the floor at like 7 o'clock when he would normally start his game. And then he had to wait two hours then he came out and pretty much like rolled a gutter ball against the Celtics. Do you think that any of like the mild tweaks that have to like happen to these things because they want to do it as two double headers maybe affected what we saw on the court?

It's definitely possible. I just think after a season like this, like a two hour window is just like whatever. Like you can't touch me with that anymore. The stuff that players have dealt with this season is just. And then you get used to that in the playoffs too anyways. I do think that I wonder if there was. an inability to figure out exactly how jacked up you should be. Because it is a new situation in that way.

And I think you saw that with the Hornets, Russ is, you know, maybe Russ, maybe Russ was just like a little too hyped. Yeah, I do make it sound like Russ was drinking Mountain Dew beforehand. I'm sure he has like a much more like he can tweak his performance a little bit better. But it wasn't like he was having a sugar crash. But you're right, though. I mean, I do think that even in those elimination games,

or not in the elimination games, but in the 7-8 games to see who would be 7 and who would go to the final game, I almost wonder whether the Wizards were like, it's not that big of a deal if we lose because we get whoever these kind of bummier teams below.

It's like we can beat the Pacers or the Hornets. So there is like that weird, you still have that safety net, which I think is important. I don't know what would happen if the league had an opportunity to get Steph into the playoffs. and lost it.

I guess we'll find out tonight. But let's just say the Warriors lose to the Grizzlies tonight. Is that a kind of catastrophe for the league? No, no. I don't think so.

You got two stuff in two really high-leverage games. I think getting that LeBron game is much bigger than getting him to playoffs. Obviously, like from a raw ratings perspective, that's probably not true because you get a couple,

you know, you can spread it out over the first round. Sure. But they weren't going to get you know, I don't think the Warriors are really going to be out here getting out of the first round, right? Like, you can get a couple extra stuff games. And I'm, I'm always a proponent of more, of more Steph games. I think everybody who likes the NBA is. But I don't think that's too big of a deal, because ultimately, like, the reason you want to prop up a guy like that is so somebody can take him

down. Like, if the Grizzlies win this, then you've kind of created some Grizzlies fans. And that's great. Like, that's what the league needs next, right? Like, you need to get people excited about John Morat and Jaron Jackson and whoever the next people are going to be. I was hoping that that could be the case for Charlotte as well. Although, you know, people know about Lamello, right? But I think it's fine because you still get to see them in a game. You still got the Warriors Lakers thing.

And then now it's like, okay, if they get beats, like Dylan Brooks did it again. You know, you get some of these like cult, you can get some of these cult hero things going maybe a little bit earlier than we usually do in the playoffs. No, it's like Dylan Brooks could be. to this what some of those UCLA kids were during March Madness, right? Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

So, like, this has been a time of, like, where I think a lot of people have been like, you know, from the bubble, I remember people being like, they're shooting the lights out in the bubble because it's smaller gyms and there's no crowds and they can just concentrate on their stroke and like everybody is, the field goal percentage is off the charts. And then I would say, for better or for worse, like we saw a lot of different kinds of basketball over the course of this no fan season up until this point when they started letting people in. But I think that, you know, a lot of threes, like the shooting was still pretty high level. I think the game intensities, especially towards the second half of the season, I just think

you started seeing a lot of blowouts, a lot of teams kind of tapping out early. Did you notice anything, I guess tactically, but even feel wise during the play in tournament, that felt like different kind of basketball because the stakes were different? Yeah, totally, totally. That's what I really liked about Warriors Lakers. You figured out, like I think they started doing some stuff in the first quarter to Steph that I don't think you would necessarily do until the fourth quarter if it was a regular game. Or maybe just not even do it all because who cares, honestly. Yeah.

But yeah, like they were taking away the passing lanes early. Like it was kind of clear they weren't going to let Steph and Draymond do their regular thing. If they wanted to, if they wanted to, you know, create leverage off of Steph, they were going to have to like, and credit to them. They did a good job of this. Like they would have to get it to cutters through like big arms and stuff. And obviously Dremont's Dremont, he can figure that stuff out. But it started at that level, right? And it started at this level of like, we're going to try our best not to not to let

Steph be Steph. Like there was and it was interesting because it didn't, I mean, it didn't really work. Honestly. But one of the things I loved about that game was just that on a basic level is proof of engagement that we just don't really get in the regular season. And any time you can get LeBron and Steph and Draymond and Anthony Davis all in the same room giving a crap, it's going to make good television. I don't really care what you do with them, right?

Yeah, there was a period of time during that game where they were blitzing out. They were taking Steph out like at the half court line and he would have to do some crazy elaborate pass around two bigs basically to get the ball to Draymond, who then had a four on three, but Draymond then would have to pick, like, Wiggins, pool, whoever, who was going to get the shot if they weren't cutting, like, who was going to take this three-pointer? And each time it was like American Ninja Warrior. I was like, oh my God, is he going to be able to get this pass over this huge guy to Draymond, who then has to like get it to the guy on the three-point line?

And I've never heard of this guy who's molder, you know? Like, it was like this incredibly like elaborate thing. Yeah. I think you're right. Like, that's a, that's probably more of a, we cannot lose. defense. Yeah. We have to take

something out from these guys. I thought you were right. And I think on the flip side of that, it was Davis at the 5, which has been like, the Lakers,

uh, like always have this card and they never ever, they play it from time to time. But like, they played that, like, they learned very fast that like drummond needed to get out of this game. And that like,

they could not let the warriors go up 18 or anything on their home court and gets, and just get smoked like that. And I thought that had a lot of rip. effects, though, for what's going to come in the coming rounds, though, because you show everybody that everybody knows Anthony Davis at the five Lakers are more or less unbeatable if they're healthy. And so how long are we going to, like, pretend like, Andre should start, Andre should get rotation minutes, especially, I mean, personally, I think Gassal's still, like, really useful and, like, I think that they, they, like, fit better and work better when Gassal's on the floor.

What did you think of, like, what the Lakers did? and do you think that like seeing that Davis at the five stuff is just like you guys can't mess around against the next team? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's, I wonder if we'll see it in the first round at all other than fourth quarters. Because I think the way that the Lakers approach things is that they don't really want to make an adjustment until they have to. And I think I think most championship level teams really do that, especially with the five position. And I think obviously, like, you know, we've had some back, like, we've had some back and forth with Davis and his feeling about the five position too.

So maybe that plays into it a little bit as well. But, I mean, it really, it really just depends on the suns, right? Like, can they push the Lakers to a point where they need to actually play their best lineups? And I think, you know, like any, any good coach is going to try to not reveal that for a little while. And I think it's a rare situation because that usually doesn't actually. work. You usually need to have like a much better sense of what you are with your best lineups than the Lakers did last year. And the fact that they just went to 80 to the five and it immediately worked. Like that's just that's a huge thing to have in your back pocket. I don't think, I don't think we're

going to see it unless, you know, Chris Paul and Devin Booker decide that it is something that must be seen, you know, and put put drumming in a couple pick and rolls and like, you might be a little bit different. I have Chris, like Chris Paul just snaking and figuring out a way to score on him every single time. Might convince them, but we'll see what happened in that series, I guess. I think we'll see it at some point. The we don't want to show you all of our cards thing has been, it's been very, like, it's my, my, my, like, weighted blanket as a Sixers fan, where I'm just like, Ben can shoot. We just didn't want to show you that card yet. Yeah. Yeah. He's actually basically like, Peek Del Curry. We just didn't want to show that card yet. Yeah, no, that's really smart. That's really

Because then teams just aren't going to know what to do with it. Doc Rivers notorious for really changing things up during the playoffs too. Oh, yeah. He really likes to shake things up. I think we'll see that. And Ben Simmons loves trying new things as well. So we get through this tournament. We got one more game. I think what this is going to signal is an increasing gamification of the game, right? Like an increasing interest in drumming up random fan. interest, maybe traditionally, like, fan bases that might not have, like, a dog in the fight,

like, by the time you get to playoffs. And also, like, casuals and people who are just like, oh, I saw in TV that today they're doing this. Like, they're drawing things out of a hat to see who's going to get to, like, play. Like, I think that, like, we're just going to keep seeing more of this. You see it with the All-Star game, with the picking teams. You see it with the play in tournament. Do you think that this gives Silver more of an, out of silver more of a mandate to keep experimenting with stuff. I think so. I think so because on when it comes to the on-court stuff, every single time Adam Silver has like come up with something and I've been like, I think we've all been like, this doesn't seem like a great idea. It kind of secretly ends up

being like being a great idea. You saw it with the Elam ending too. Yeah. Any opportunity to shout out the Elam ending. Only way the basketball should be played from here on out is something I will take. So yeah, that's that's my idea actually. Take the leverage. you have gained from this to then next season introduce the eel mending to regular season games and i will personally be the happiest NBA fan in the universe but no i think uh i think it definitely does right i'm just kind of curious what's what's next and and chris you are you're a soccer fan so i'm can i'm curious like is there do you think there's going to be anything that silver wants to bring over he's kind of talked about it before so this is interesting to

should bring this up because one, I feel like this is really my main contribution to NBA podcasting at this point is pointing out when it's also like soccer. But I do think that like having different kinds of games, having games with different kinds of vibes is like really, really valuable in soccer. Sometimes it's these two-legged knockout like in the Champions League where you play once at your spot, once it theirs, and it's like this aggregate score. I don't think the NBA is ever going to do anything like that. But you could see with the tournament and you could see the plan. And even in a game where it wasn't

loser go home with Warriors versus Lakers, but it was not like a Lakers Warriors regular season game. It was definitely like, you guys know you're the only game in town tonight. Everybody in the country is watching this. And there is like a little bit of bragging rights going on. And you could see when

LeBron started heating up in the second half while Steph was on the bench and then Steph started like clapping when like the score, like when the Lakers went up like four or six. And it was like, okay, like these guys are like taking this as seriously as anything. And they know when they're on television. Yeah. Right. National TV step.

I do think that the NBA like could see, okay, we get like a different kind of atmosphere when you have a different kind of competition. In European soccer right now, there's just like a crisis of the amount of games guys are playing because of the same things that are the NBA you're dealing with with like compression of the schedule with the quick turnaround. And when talk about the most obvious thing that they would bring in is a is a like a sort of in-season tournament the commissioners cup whatever you want to call it's the f a cup in england where basically it's just you know one game knockouts until you get to the semi-finals aside from the fact that nobody has come up with a really compelling um player-centric

form of of incentive like i don't like i guess like give everybody a million bucks would be like nobody would laugh at that but a lot of these guys make a lot of money like maybe if you're asking them to play eight more games a year, that's going to be tough. But I do think that like just watching this NBA season and seeing the way that like a lot of these guys and a lot of the coaches have talked about, just the amount of basketball that they've been forced to play, it's hard to find the spot where you're going to put a in-season tournament unless you basically get rid of an All-Star break. Yeah, and I don't think you can quite do that. It is interesting that, like, that is, the position the NBA is in right now is interesting because they feel like they have to have a lot of games because they need to make up for a lot of lost revenue,

and that's always been the business model for them. But at the same time, what we're finding is at least for the television product, the games that do really well are the games that people, players, really care about. And it's like, I think the playing is a good way to strike that balance. But the other thing that I found this season is I just, I just liked 72 games more. I feel like some of these winning streaks really mattered a lot more too. Like the Hawks one is one that really sticks out to me after. And if it had been 82, you never know if that would have made that big of a difference, right?

Well, maybe they're like a seven seat or something instead. And I just, I just think that like it's better. It's better that the Hawks got a real reward for that. And I think it's better that, you know, honestly, like the Bulls making a truck. and then, like, completely falling apart. Like, I mean, that's the other side of it, but it's also, you know, consequence for action too, right? Like, I don't necessarily think that, like,

you know, padding all these wins early in the season necessarily makes for, like, the best teams getting in. I think, obviously, the season needs to be shortened, right? It wouldn't be, you know, that wouldn't be a revolutionary take by any means. I do wonder if, like, having some, having the plan can then create a little bit more of an appetite in the league to then shorten the season. season a little bit. And then if you add something else, maybe you can shorten it even more. And I think the benefit of that is, you know, from a rest perspective, it's not like every team is

going to be playing, right? Some of these teams will, but, you know, the Nets just got a bunch of rest. The heat, the Bucks just got a bunch of rest, right? The Sixers just got a bunch of rest. So you can kind of balance those things out and ensure that like in most cases, when you don't have LeBron playing in it, that the teams that really like will need the rest can still get it and you can still have an entertaining product happening at the same time. Maybe take advantage of the fact that you have 30 NBA teams. And the problem with the league right now is really just the fact that you don't know what to pay attention to. Like, you and I can talk about how there's so much exciting basketball going on. But like we also happen to really like

basketball. And we're going to watch it no matter what. And we're going to be talking about like, hey, is Anthony Edwards, like Anthony Edwards versus La Mello Ball in April? Like, that can sustain me, right? Yeah. Like, I don't know. know that it can sustain your average, your average fan of sports. But if you can take advantage of the fact that you do have a bunch of talent on a bunch of teams and actually like spread out when they play and showcase some of these teams, maybe that could be your solution. And like really make a national TV push as opposed to like, you know, trying to like servicing the fans and trying to guarantee that somebody in, you know, in Denver will always have one opportunity to see Joelle

Embed play is, I think, maybe a business model for a past era, especially since you don't even know if they're going to play anymore because they're like, they aren't really like, they're sick of that bargain. Like, they might rest, right? You know, one of the cool things that happen. So there's two things that I would say about the cup competitions in soccer that I think the NBA could look at. Number one is like, you know, when Liverpool plays a team from like the lower leagues, and I don't

think that the NBA should have like G league teams in this cup. but I do think, like, let's say, Brooklyn plays Orlando in this cup competition and this tournament. There's no reason that all three of KD. Kyrie and Durant have to play this. If they want to go out there and try and beat the magic with their B team or their reserves and have KD, Kyrie, and Hardin on the bench to start and breaking case of emergency, they're welcome to roll the dice and do it. And, like, that is essentially what happens in these soccer matches is, like, Liverpool will go out there with essentially their like kids or with reserves,

but they'll have one or two superstars on the bench just in case. And if they go down a goal, like, they'll bring Mosea in to like try and even it out. So I think that would be kind of awesome. It's like you couldn't make a rule, but I would almost be like Durant can only play the second half. I've always wondered why NBA teams don't do that in the first place, honestly. Yeah.

Yeah. And I think that would, I think a lot of it has to do with those guys just having very, very specific rhythms to their game. where they're just like, I have to play the first six minutes and then I sit. And then I come back in at the beginning, like two minutes into the second quarter. And that's how it goes. But that would be one thing.

And the other would just be neutral sites. So, like, first of all, it would be really cool if you went full, like, field of dreams with it and just, like, had a Brooklyn Golden State game in, like, Iowa or like at, like, a gym in in Indiana or something. I know you need like a certain level of court for these guys. But I do think that like if you're concerned about- In the end has got courts, man. I'm sure.

If you're concerned about people being like, I saved up all year to go see Kevin Durant and then he didn't play and I spent $500 on tickets, like these sort of straw men NBA fans who like buy tickets for their whole family to go see Dame and then Dame takes the night off for rest. Yeah. Like let's start having.

Just sorry to pause you there, but I just remind you. me. Did you ever see that tweet thread by the guy who went to a Pacer's game and it cost him $1,200? No. What is he? I'll find it and I'll post it on Twitter. Wait, so what was the gist of it?

Well, basically, like, he was saying, like, it was just one of those things where like he ate with his family like four times and that night at, like, good restaurants, ate at the game, like, paid egregious amounts for parking. The replies to that were amazing. And obviously, like, Twitter being Twitter,

somebody found the drill tweet. Right. Right. The candles tweet. And it was honestly exactly that. At first I thought he was trolling because it was so similar to that. And it was right around the time of that discourse. But no, I guess.

You could tell me you took like your family of four to an NBA game and spent $12,000. And I would be like, that sounds about right. No, but I could figure out a way for you to spend like $12,000. It's like get like valet parking at Staples. by the entire team jerseys, like, by three square meals for four people. I think there might have been a jersey thrown in there, actually. But the other thing was just, like, I was going to say,

if you want to start, like, alleviating the idea, the threat of these guys not showing up for certain games, like, let's have, like, a Brooklyn versus Golden State game in Denver. Like, that would be kind of wild. But it would just be, it would be sort of fun to have, like, a little bit of a traveling circus element to it. Like, if you're going to do it, just, like, go full showman with it. Yeah, I mean, they do that with, you know, some of these games in cities that don't have NBA teams.

I mean, obviously, maybe not London and then trying to play like a real competitive game, but you could do Mexico City. Yeah? You could do Edmonton. You could do like who says no? Exactly. All right. So I guess did you want to hit anything else with the, with the plan tournament? No, I think.

Any straight takes? I don't think so. I think we got everything. Yeah, I think we solved it. Yeah. Well, of course. We've come up with the answer. Do you have anything, Chris?

No, I just, like, many people are saying that they wanted to know whether or not I was excited about Wizard Sixers. I am. I do think that there will be a little bit of a Russ and Bid thing, which is like it'll be entertaining if a little bit nerve-wracking. I do not think this will be a sweep. So, you know, I'm really excited. I'm really excited to rekindle my competition with Andrew Sharp over the wizard. and the Sixers. So I'm looking forward to the first round.

What is your, what's your first round matchup that you're most excited about? Probably heat bucks. Heat bucks. Right. Yeah. Right.

Did you see that tweet that I think Habershro sent out where it was like Jimmy Butler has not played against any of the top four teams? And I think Tom meant it as like kind of like, no one knows the storm that is coming when Jimmy finally plays these guys. And like, I was like, doesn't this mean that Jimmy Butler like took the year off? And as he should. He said, you know.

Jimmy's been through a lot lately. I think, okay, I think the heat are going to win the series. I think the heat are going to get nuked. Really? You think the heat are going to win. Okay, tell me why. It's honestly, it's like pure feel. Like, I'm just like,

people are too, like, they're running too much off of the bias of the bubble. And I think this is a different Bucks team. I think Drew Holiday is a much different player than Eric Bledso. I think that PJ Tucker is useful. I think Bobby Portis has been really useful. I think they've changed their defense. a little bit.

And I just think that this heat team is too streaky. They are streaky. They are streaky. But they're streaking the bubble. True. True. But at the same time, I think that probably applies more to some of their later series.

I just don't, I can't in good conscience pick the bucks. The heat destroyed the bucks last year. And I don't think the bucks have changed fundamentally the problems that they had in terms of why the heat destroyed them, which is to say that Yanis. still can't shoot. Until he can,

that's still gonna be, that's gonna be a problem. And more, more than that, really, like, I just, I don't think they have

a reliable closer the way that the heat do. Like, I trust Jimmy Butler at the end of those games way more than I trust anybody else on the court. And I also just think,

like, the heat are really being disrespected, man. Like, they just, nobody disrespects the heat. Everybody's to the finals. I know,

I don't want to do, like, the whole thing, but like, they just went to the finals. and everyone's like, and most people think they're going to be a first round out against the team that they most convincingly be. Is that the prevailing wisdom? I thought that everybody was like, oh, the box. I don't want to make a straw man of, you know, who says what. Like, you can find whatever. But yeah, like, I just, I just feel like they should be the favorite in this series, honestly. Like, you have probably the best, Yonis defender in the league in Batman, a bio. There are probably some of the guys that he can throw out there. But he's probably the best. And, and, and, and, the he, he, he's probably the best. And, he. are playing like the heat again. Like I think a big reason that we just haven't seen them be themselves is like all the COVID stuff that they went through.

But like when you look at that team, I think like the biggest thing is just really like Goron is not who he was last year. Right. I don't know. Maybe he will be. But other than that, like you have a young team where everyone's gotten better. Duncan Robinson is better. Tyler Hero's better.

He's not going to be like finals Tyler Hero. But like he'll be something and it'll probably be a little bit more consistent. Next week on the answer, we'll find out who's, well not who's right. but we'll find out where things are going. Cyr will be back next Friday with me and every Friday going forward on the answer. Thanks for listening. Make sure you're subscribed to the Ringer NBA show.

Follow that on Spotify. Mismatch. Also, Ryan, Bill, lots of Ringer MBA pods. On the Ringer NBA show, we got real ones. We got group chat. We've got the answer. So make sure you're tuned in. This week's show was produced by Isaiah Blakely.

We'll be back next Friday. Take care.