The Ringer NBA Show - What Are We Looking Forward to in the Playoffs? | The Answer

Episode Date: May 7, 2021

Chris is joined by the newest member of The Ringer's staff, Wosny Lambre, to talk about what they're expecting and looking forward to come playoff time. Host: Chris Ryan Guest: Wosny Lambre Production Assistant: Isaiah Blakely Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Listen up all you New York fans. Veteran New York sports talk host, John Dostromski gives his unique take on all the big stories in the Big Apple and beyond, including guest conversations, gambling picks, and reactions from you, the listener. Check out New York, New York with John Dostromsky on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello and welcome to The Ringer NBA show. It's The Answer. My name is Chris Ryan. I'm your host. And today I'm joined by the newest edition to the Ringer staff. Was Lambrey, he came by. We just talked about a bunch of NBA stuff. I know usually. I have a central question that I'm asking that we're trying to answer, but I just wanted to catch up with Woz about all things NBA. And if there was a central question to this episode, it's what are we looking forward to in the playoffs?

And maybe how can the playoffs and how can this postseason redeem what's been a little bit of, you know, not depressing, but maybe not always the most inspiring NBA season. And NBA season that seemed to have to happen for financial reasons and had to happen in a certain way for financial reasons. But maybe the flip side of that, the bright side of that, the silver lining of that, is that, like, guys have been saving it up for the postseason.

And this postseason, the way it's shaking out with the playing tournament, with playing tournament, having this kind of tractor beam effect on the Lakers, the possibility that we could see Zion and Steph in a play-in tournament, like, elimination game, the possibility that, like, we could get a Clippers, Lakers first-round series. Like, it's going to get electrifying, like, really early, and I wanted to get hype for it.

So, Waz came by and he got me hype for it, like, pretty easily. So check it out this episode of The Answer, and we'll be back with you next week. All right, man. This is really exciting for me. Waz is here. Waz Lambert is officially part of the Ringer, and this is officially, this is your first Ringer podcast as a Ringer, as a Ringer employee. This is really exciting shit.

Yeah, man, it feels like if you ever watched it through the wire video, when Kanye comes out and Dane puts the Rockefeller chain on him, that's what this feels like right now. Do I get to be dame in this situation? That's right. You the dame dad should have ringer, bro. Usually I'm like the, at best young guru. I'm just on the boards.

Slightly tweaking the EQs. No, no, no, no. Now that I'm here, I'm going to have you pouring champagne on video vixins and on the yachts in Trinidad. That's what you're doing now, Chris Ryan. I'm so glad that you joined us, man. I've been a fan for such a long time. Obviously, folks have heard you on the answer other ringer pods. And now you're here with us.

You're going to be working on the ringer NBA show, throughout the postseason, we're developing a bunch of stuff with you. We're really excited to have you aboard. I wanted to introduce you to, I mean, everybody knows that the answer is sort of the tide that lifts all the boats. It's like Bill and KOC just surf on the back of the waves here to their traffic. And I wanted just to let this mass audience know, like, what, like, do you have any core basketball beliefs? Before we get into, like, what we want to talk about today, is there anything like people should know about you going into your new career here? I mean, honestly, my thing about the NBA specifically, I just think these guys, not only

are the best athletes in the world, I think they're the most interesting guys in American sports, right? I think any metric you want to use to draw, whether it be who's doing movies, Instagram followers, impressions, whatever you want to, any metric you want to look up, these guys are the people that folks are generally the most interested in, individually, in American sports. And so that's how I attack it. You know what I mean? My interest in it, my coverage of it is more holistic than anything else because I just think these guys are, you know, some of the most fascinating people in culture, period. And that's how I approach everything I do as it relates to the NBA.

You know, I'm not just somebody doing this is my job. I'm obsessed with the NBA. So that's, you know, that's the type of energy you're going to give from me as far as my coverage as a journalist with the J. I'm wearing a, they can't see, but I'm wearing a fedora right now. That's a feather in it. A little press card. Capital J.

Yeah, exactly. I don't know what to do that because, like, this pod typically talks about slob actions. We talk about ATOs. We talk about pin down screens. So it's like we don't do a lot of holistic coverage on this pod, but we could try. We could try today. you and I were talking a little earlier in the week.

I was like, we want to chat about on Friday. And you know, you had mentioned that you felt like there was a malaise over this season, which has kind of been unintentionally the theme of this pod this season, has just been kind of mostly picking at the scabs here and there, like being like what's up with like the analytical and tactical tipping point we may have arrived at and fans not being in the crowd, the compression of the stadium. And basically whether or not there is like a kind of not institutional, lapse or failure, but like at least a stutter going on in the NBA in terms of, I think,

the reputation of the league versus the like, you know, the reality of the league right now. And I guess I'm curious, what makes you think personally that there has been like a kind of cloud hanging over the league this year? I mean, we saw it when they came back two months after the season had ended, the previous season had ended, right? Like, there were public comments made by prominent NBA players that they were not into the idea of coming back within two months. Like, it was made public.

So the guys were against it, first of all. Second of all, like anybody but any type of sense could know, like, two months does not an offseason make, right? So it was just, you know, we realized that the only reason they were doing this because of the dollars, they had to salvage the money. And this season was going to be the sort of sacrificial lamb. And everybody involved knew it. I think, you know, there's been so much made of load management and needing to sort of lop off games from the season and all of those things, right? Sports science, et cetera, et cetera. I think this year you saw people taking games off, like, straight up like, this is PTO.

Yeah. You know, this isn't even load management. This is straight PTO. I got days off, et cetera, et cetera, like any other job. Like, yo, I put my two weeks in. And, you know, like, that's what they've been doing all season. And then, you know, you can tell from the product very early on in the season, a bunch of people pointed it out, like the blowouts, like the number of games that ended

with a point differential of 25 plus or more were at record setting paces. And we know what that is, right? You and I have watched enough NBA games to know when somebody's up 20, the game's not over. All of a sudden this season, dudes are just like, yo, they got me coming back after two months. they're condensing this schedule and compressing it 72 games in way less time. Like, I'm not tripping off of this one game. And I think that's sort of been the attitude all season, which, you know, it was unfortunate, but it's a must because they wanted to get their schedule back in order.

Next year, they're going to have all of their fans in there. The schedule is going to be back to what it needs to be, et cetera, et cetera. But this season, specifically the regular season. And notoriously, the NBA. regular season, quote-unquote, doesn't matter. So this season, it just straight up extra didn't matter. And I think that, you know, the product has suffered for it, which is to be understood, although, you know, I know there's a long-winded ass answer.

I say all of that to say, I think what the bubble proved to me and everybody else is that when these guys are ready to lace them up and go completely hard and balls to the wall, they will. And I think we're going to see that in the postseason. Yeah, that, the two sides. of that. So like last night, it was basically symbolic of like my entire experience of the regular season. I got like

emotionally invested in the idea of watching Lakers Clippers. I was like, this is what I'm doing. My wife went out. I was like, I got my ramen delivered. I got a cold beer out. I cracked it open. I like put a tablet to the side so that I could follow along on social media

and enjoy the laughs. And then I realized, oh, I think I missed the beginning of the game. And I turned it on. They were like, Clippers were up 22. And I was like, what the fuck happened? What happened here? I'm just like, I just turned this on. And that is like, you're right. Yes, leads happen, runs happen. But there is this weird

feeling of like, damn, these guys are down 34 in the third quarter? Like, this game is over. And there are a lot of like these sort of immediate endings to games where one side is just like, we just showed up to like make up the numbers so that we didn't forfeit. Also, I think what

also what's funny is that specifically with the Lakers and clippers because they so clearly don't like each other, they always treat their games as sort of like, we're not going to show them anything for real. We're going to do our base stuff, and we're not going to actually whip out any of the crazy stuff that we might have to during the playoffs, right?

Like, for instance, the Lakers would play their two big lineup all freaking game. Meanwhile, we know in the playoffs, their best lineup is AD at the 5, right? So they would treat these games. games like that anyway, but then LeBron's not playing. So it's like... Bron's not playing. AD gets back spasms. Like, the game seems like it's a rap. T.HT wasn't playing.

I don't even know how that would have made a difference. And then, you know, like to your point, I thought it was interesting watching Rondo on the sideline in a couple of times just because, you know, you still don't have very full stadium so you can hear a lot of banter on the sidelines. And Rondo is essentially like calling out plays to target treads. He's just like he's too small. ball, go at him. And just playing Trez off the court mentally from the sideline. I was like,

this is incredible. You know, so I hear, like, that's, that was basically symbolic of the experience watching the season. There's been, like, a handful of really cool games. There's been some really great stories. But for the most part, I think we are invested, like, we have put all of our eggs in the playoffs basket to, like, really come through. See, I agree with you that, like, there are definitely years where this part of the season is essentially like paid vacation and guys are just like, I just don't want to like get a high ankle spring going into the playoffs unlike LeBron. But like how good do the playoffs have to be to kind of redeem what we've seen this season? I think what's going to end up happening is that the playoffs are going to be incredible

because it's going to be compared to this product. Like basically every single regular season, it's a bad idea to compare that hoop to what happens in the postseason. And now this year is just exponentially worse idea to compare what's happening in this regular season or what's absolutely going to happen in the playoffs. Like the effort level, execution level, the skill level, because there's no longer going to be any, sorry Chicago fans, Chicago Bulls games or OKC games or Orlando Magic games. Like the skill, execution and effort level are going to be ratified. it up to such a degree as to make this regular season, like, unrecognizable as NBA basketball. So I think it's going to have the effect of being like, wow, I forgot the NBA could be this great.

Yeah. And I think I honestly, truly think that's what's going to happen because so many guys have so many things to prove, which, you know, obviously we'll get into later. Yeah, you know, and the other thing there is that I actually think in this year more than maybe any other in the last 10 years, these guys are like, we have a shot at this. Like, there's like, upwards of 40 NBA players

who, like, legitimately are going into this season being like, I've shot at winning an NBA title. And for a lot of these dudes like Chris Paul, like completely changing my legacy as a player, that's the most exciting thing to me, is that like the Miami thing last year, I think was at once, like, made perfect sense that that was like a bubble team.

That was a team that was just like, seemed to eat up the very thing that was breaking other teams, which was like isolation, and they, like, were obviously, it was essentially like a home game being when Orlando is not that different from being in Miami. I just thought that they, like, adapted to the situation the best and then a couple of other teams around them

imploded, but what they proved is that like, if shit breaks right, you never know. You never know. You got it. And that's, and like, it isn't just the, like, LeBron rules where it's like, if he's on this team, he's going to the finals. So who's the one other team that gets to play against him.

So, I mean, I want to talk a little bit about what we might see, what might be like a great sort of four acts in the playoffs that would kind of redeem the season. But do you look around and see another Miami or another team that comes out of nowhere in the postseason, almost March Madness style? I think everybody was looking at Denver to be that team.

After we watched how they play, after the acquisition of Gordon, where it's like, wow, like this guy. fits this scheme and this team like a glove. He's exactly what they had been missing as far as just a component of athleticism and force that he plays with, right? The floor, so, like, for the first time in his entire career, he's playing in a spread floor. Orlando has just spent years just drafting rangy wing guys with absolutely no Jimmy. So he's been playing in this condensed court.

And then all of a sudden he gets in Denver and it's like, anytime I cut to the basket, it's me and my man. And I'm going to overpower this dude once Yokic delivers the rock to me. Right? So I think we all thought it was going to be Denver. But then, of course, Murray goes down, which again, casualty to the season. I don't care what anybody tells me. That's a schedule casualty, the Jamal Murray thing.

So aside from them, is Milwaukee allowed to be that team? Yeah, I think so. I think that that was like how, how not disgraceful, but like, once they got banged out of there by Miami last year, I was like, this is going to have to be, you guys are going to have to find me at the finals to like really redeem, redeem what just happened here. You know, there's just such little belief in what they can do, even after the Drew Holiday acquisition. It's just this idea of just like, fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, fool me again. How did W say it? I can't remember. But you know what I mean.

But I think people have been so dismissive of them. I think they do have a chance to come out of nowhere and sort of surprise people with, you know, they do have a high level of talent on their team. I think there's a lack of belief in the coach, which I think is founded based off of the last two post seasons. And even if you want to go back to Atlanta, I think is founded. But I do think they have a talent level that is such

that they could beat Dan there. body. They're dope. If it comes down to that. They're dope, but I still hate the, like, the taking threes with 23 seconds left and the shot clock, like, just off the, like, I just don't know if those shots are going to be there or fall. And I know they've made adjustments on defense and, like, everybody's just like, no,

no, they're switching now. And I'm like, no, they seem good. I'm glad that Yonis is practicing the jumpers. I'm glad that it's not just going to be him running into BAM and falling down. And Drew is obviously, like, a huge upgrade over anything that they've had over the last five years, but I still don't love their offense when it comes to the postseason. 100%. I think, you know, and I've been banging this drum for two to three years now, this concept of Janus as this wing initiator, he's miscast in that role. And I always use

the Lakers as an example. He's more AD than he is LeBron. He's a finisher, not an initiator. And I don't know that they've built a squad that can best exploit his finishing capabilities, right? Like, Drew Holliday is an amazing hooper, but he's nobody's idea of some incredible table setter, right? That's not really his strength. His strength is in the fact that he's a Swiss Army knife and that he can do a little bit of everything. You know, he's a jack of all trades, but a master of none, if you will. So I don't know that they've changed the context by which they come to postseason offense in crunch time. You know, is it still going to be Janis dribbling the ball 30 feet from the basket?

The guy sagging off of him and daring him. That's, to me, that's a losing form of the ball. Who knows? They've experimented a lot with other people initiating in big moments this year. So we'll see if when nut crunching time comes, if they'll actually go to that. Because it's one thing to do it in the regular season, but it's another thing when your job, your season is on the line. It's like, here, Janus, do something.

You know, that tends to be what happens. They played the regular season well, though. Like, they never really got into that zone where people are like, you guys are trying to win 63 games. Like, you know, it's like they never really got so far ahead that, like, it felt like they were trying to rack up wins, not unnecessarily. You try to win every game.

But, like, there are seasons where teams, like the Rockets from a couple years ago, the Warriors from a couple years ago, or the bucks over the last couple of seasons where it's like, oh, you guys want first seed. You guys are busting everybody up on a nightly basis. And I just felt like they were able to fly under the radar for a long time this season.

Like, we wrote about them a lot, but I don't feel like a lot of people really have been checking for the fact that the bucks have been in and around that first seed all season long for the most part. And yeah, like I hear what you're saying about Drew. I still think like a crazy what if is just like what happens if they had just figured out a way to grow Chris Paul. Like I just I do think Chris Paul in that.

I was crying for. Were you? Yes. Like, you know, it's you can say whatever the hell you want about Chris Paul. He knows how to grind out competent offensive possessions. You are going to come up with quality looks all the time. And you can just put him in charge of doing that. And so just that alone makes him somebody they needed.

And, you know, people say, well, they lost to the heat on defense. Sure, sure. These dudes were playing drop coverages for like three games against Tyler Hero and Duncan Robinson. And it's like, wait, so you're just going to sag off of a screen because that's what you've been doing all regular season, even though your opponent is just raining trays on your head top, and they just kept doing that, right? So they did kind of lose it on defense, but let's not pretend that they had some grand plan on offense either.

They didn't. They would have got smoked if it came down to crunch time and just letting Janus do what he does, as we mentioned. I just think Chris Paul, and it's been born out in Phoenix, it's been born out every single place that he's gone. The guy understands what a quality look is, right? and he understands what the defense is trying to do, he understands how to position his guys

in order to generate those looks. To me, the Chris Paul thing was a no-brainer. But obviously, you know, Milwaukee, they had other plans. Ryan and Bill were talking the other day, I think it was on their Sunday pod. They were talking about CP3, and they were talking about,

I think Ryan was saying, like, there was one moment a couple weeks ago where he saw a play where Aiton kind of got, like, stuck out, like, on a switch and just guarded his ass off against Jordan Clarkson. And then because he did such like, through, put so much effort into this like defensive assignment and was like following Clarkson all over the court

and stuck with him, immediate next possession, Paul makes sure Aiton gets the ball. Make sure he gets the ball in the poster, like gets a look. That's the kind of like emotional, like esteem service that I don't think the bucks have had in the past. And that's sometimes when you're watching them

and it's like, you guys just had a good, like, defensive, like, stop. And it's because the way the offense is laid out, like the math says Dante DiVincenzo should take this shot if he's got three feet of daylight, even if there's 23 seconds left in the shot clock, even if he didn't have anything to do with the defensive possession on the other end of the floor, even if he doesn't necessarily need a shot right now.

And Chris is the kind of guy who would be like, he doesn't need to do this right now. This guy needs to do this. Like I feel like they do need. Bud's system clearly works, but it doesn't necessarily always like, accumulate what people actually need on a court to play well. You know what I mean? Yeah, like I said, it's very predictable.

Yeah. And that's the problem against the best players, against the smartest players, against the most skilled players, you're telling me I know what you're going to do every time and you dare me to just beat that. Like, I can't pass this test when I know the answers already. That's the problem with that system that he's been, you know, sort of running. And again, the proof is in the pudding. Just look at OKC last year. That team had no business being any good, but for Chris Paul being on it, straight up and down, right? And, you know, the situation in Houston was what it was.

I think the personality mixes between he and Hardin were in ideal. You know, and so the basketball sort of went the way that it did. But, you know, the guys won every single place that he's gone. You know, you can talk about the postseason success and he's, you know, he sort of had meltdowns in the most inopportune moments, obviously in the past. But you can't tell me this guy doesn't play winning basketball every single time. He does it straight from it. And so, you know, Phoenix, that story is amazing.

I'm so happy for them. and what's going on there, right? Like, that thing that they did in the bubble was amazing in the sense that these dudes played at a high effort and execution level. It's like, damn, like, I've never seen this group play like this before. And then they go out and get a high-level execution psychopath in here. And it just, you know, and it takes off in the way that it did.

And so, you know, like, look, I'm watching the bucks. I'm going to pay attention to what they're doing. I can't say that I'm all that optimistic. And honestly, if Harden KD and Kyrie are even relatively healthy at the same time, none of this stuff even matters. Do you think that's like a couple of gentlemen sweeps for them? Like, do you think it's not even close? I don't think it's close.

I think somebody like Miami can give them some problems because between Spoh being for my money, the best coach in the NBA, as far as not just adjustments, just getting his guys to understand what the plan is. Execution-wise, like when the heat are locked in, they're executing at a level that is ridiculous. So I think between scheme and execution,

I think Miami could cause some problems. And, you know, Jimmy, Butler, man, he's a problem. He's been playing really well this second half the season for sure. He's a problem. And if he's at all right, I think they're going to have good crunch time offense. And

scheme-wise, defensively, they're going to execute at a ridiculous level. And again, they have personnel that obviously Jimmy makes him switchable, band makes them switchable. Duncan Robinson and Tyler Hero, they become a little

bit problematic. But again, you can deal with switches on to Joe Harris, et cetera, et cetera. I just think Miami, I just love the idea of Spow coming up with ways to gum up the works for this, you know, free-flowing one-on-one, you know, smooth basketball that Brooklyn likes to run. Yeah, they run this, like, I mean, at least from my eye watching it, it seems like they've just, like, perfected this five-out, like, drive-and-kick. There's always a guy cutting in the basket, but for the, most part, there's nothing but space.

I feel like you're either being polite or impolite by not mentioning Philly. Like, it's either like you're either saying, like, you're either trying not to hurt my feelings or you're trying to troll me into asking about it, but let's do it. I mean, you know. They have two elite wing defenders. Now, neither of those guys can shoot. So that's a problem. Like, they have, but I think that defensively, they can serve up the best, like,

antidote towards Brooklyn. Like with rim protection, with wing defenders. I don't know, man. The problem is we haven't really seen the three-headed monster in Brooklyn. Like, we've seen seven games of it. So, like, I want to project

and I want to say, like, well, the math problem is just unsolvable. Like, if you've got Kyrie, Kevin, and James on a court together, you don't have 12 dudes to guard them. So that's just, that's a wrap. Yeah. And, you know, to me, what it boils down to is

will they be willing to gummy the works, to muddy the game up, to make it a nasty in the mud, grind it out? Philly in Miami, Will. Okay, okay. And that's to me, that's what it's going to take. I think about 2016, the Warriors versus the Cavs, where the Cavs figured out, like, we're going to knock step around, we're going to walk the ball up.

We're going to make this thing nasty. We're going to make it bloody. Game 7 was in the 90s. The Warriors were not playing games in the 90s in 2016, dude. Yeah, yeah. So whenever you have a team who's that highly potent, the plan has to be to make it a slug fest, to slow it down.

Don't walk it up. Don't be afraid to get into some little elbows shoving little situations. Like, you got to be willing to do that and see how K.D. Hardin are going to respond specifically, right? And again, another thing with KD, I think the regular season doesn't test his ability to everybody getting up in his shirt, like really, really getting up in his shirt and forcing him to, one, drive past me on that Achilles and two, stop, plant, rise up on that Achilles

over me, right? Like, those are the shots he's going to have to make and take in the playoffs against him. amazing set defenses. I don't think he's been put to the test that way in the regular season. I also was noticing the last time I watched him a couple of nights ago, where I was just like, he's coming down.

Like, a lot of guys are not giving him any space to land. Like, I feel like that's like this weird. Like, they're going to have to figure out what they're going to do about this. But with him, with, and with Kyrie, I feel like those guys are spending a lot of time like on their ass after jump shots. And then looking at the ref and just being like, what's up? And it's like,

I don't know whether it's something about their form. like when they're going up or whether or not that's just how people are defending guys now or it's like rather it's the only way you can deal with them

um like if you if people go back and watch the best defender against KD ever is Tony Allen and that's what he did he got in his airspace he didn't get like he basically just stayed in his shirt

I know that sounds cliche as hell but he just stayed on him like literally stuck to this guy and it's like all right rise and fire but you're coming down with me all up in your grill. And so I think that's going to be the sort of solution. Strategically sending two at KD

because although he's gotten so much better since the beginning of his career at playmaking, that's not his strength. And so I think when teams get smart about when they send two to KD is going to be part of how you guard Brooklyn. Because this idea that you're just going to let them iso you to death, That doesn't, that just, that's a sure way to the freaking guillotine.

You can't do that. You got to be strategic about when you send the help. Now, Hardin, don't even think about it. Yeah. Don't even think about sending a second guy to Hardin. He's going to just destroy you because it comes too fast. It just comes too fast. His processor is just so much faster than everybody else's.

So you can't do that. But K.D. And Kyrie, you can absolutely strategically. send to their way. And I think, you know, whether if you want to do it with size, whether you want to do it with quickness and hands, who knows, but you got to be smart. And again, I think Spolster's the person I trust the most

to come up with something to slow that thing down. We're getting excited about basketball. It feels like we're like, so let's do a couple of things that we're looking forward to in the playoffs that we think could make it a season like that we hold, dear to our hearts, right? I got, for the first act, for this first early round here, I think

I'm ready to embrace the chaos. As long as we get, like, I know that a bunch of superstars are now just being like, who came up with this shit. But the play in tournament has, like, the idea of having, like, essentially like a classic game seven before the playoffs even start is intoxicating.

It's really, really smart. And there is an outside shot that we, we get something like Zion Steff in a one-game playoff. And that is, that's genius, man. Usually we're stuck watching, like, I just, you know, watching Joe Johnson Hawks teams get gentlemen swept. You know, like, that's how the playoffs usually start for us.

This has got, like, the chance to really, like, give us some electroshock therapy. Listen, you know how I know this is a great thing? All the agitia is causing amongst players who are on teams that are round seventh seed. LeBron starts crying and moaning about it and not at his team in seventh seed. Luca was doing it before. Oh, this is stupid.

I can't believe they're doing it. That's how I know it's awesome. Yeah. Right? Because if it was one of those things where LeBron and the Lakers know, like, we're just going to smoke whoever we play. It doesn't freaking matter.

They wouldn't be crying about it in public. You know, and I love that it adds this sort of, and obviously, Chris, I know that you're into European soccer. Yeah. it adds this sort of element of top four going to the Champions League or relegation, et cetera, et cetera. It adds that bit of intrigue to everything. And so I'm excited about it.

And I'm also excited about Man City being in the Champions League final, my boy. Man, how did you even just like decide that you liked this team, man? So, so one, let's get this out the way. I'm a lifelong Jets and Mets fan. Okay. Okay. Dual existence, dual suffering, misery. Just, just harrowing stuff being fans of those two teams.

No, I know. Fantasy, I'm best friends with fantasy. So you already know. The theater is real, yeah. And so, you know, I just really got into European soccer. It was probably like, I want to say like 2016, 2015-ish around it, probably 2016 closer to. And so I put it to a poll to my Twitter follow. It was like, yo, what club should I support?

And everybody was basically like, look, man, you've had enough suffering. Yeah, you can go with Arsenal if you want. Yeah. But just run with the winners, man. You got to go with PEP. You got to go with Man City. And, you know, at the same time, I remember watching, yeah, yeah, Tourie. Was it 2014?

Where he was just killing people at the World Cup. He bossed. Yeah. Yeah. He was killing people. Like, the way this dude was controlling everything in the middle of the pitch, I'm like, yo, this guy is freaking insane. Yeah. Right?

And so, you know, that didn't hurt either. And so, yeah, you can thank Yaya Toray and my Mets and Jets fandom for now. Yeah, I support the Emirates. I'm about to get a tattoo of the flag. and we keep in pushing. I think that actually if people are looking for clubs to get into, rather than put it into Twitter, I would probably tell them,

watch a major tournament, like watch a World Cup or Euros, and pick your favorite player and find out who he plays for now. There is like a lot of player movement in football, but it's not as, I think guys usually do like three to five years on a squad. So if you find somebody you like the chances are, whoever he's playing with,

he's going to be there for a little bit. That's how I got in Liverpool was seeing Stephen Gerard, like I guess it was like in 06 or something like that maybe 07 but like I was just really I was blown away by him and I was like I guess I'm a Liverpool fan I forgot where we were oh we were talking about the playing game and yeah you're right

it gives it gives this like adrenaline shot to the to the playoffs which I think yes could there be a situation where like the spurs somehow like knock out like three other teams that are like maybe more blockbuster value

for sure but like I think the chances are that we'll get, at least in one of those conferences, are really, really dope, like, one game, these two stars squaring off for everything. So I'm looking forward to that. What's your feeling on getting really good rivalry matchups too early in the playoffs? Because I've heard some people talking about,

like, when is the exact moment to get Clippers Lakers in the Western Conference Finals? But to me, I think the great, the next thing I would look forward to is getting that like these guys have to play like a very serious matchup the first round like Lakers Clippers first round would be delightful to me. I mean, just the idea that you want to perfectly time it is stupid after we watched what happened last season when Denver kicked these guys out prematurely. So like if you haven't learned your lesson, if you actually want to see this thing,

just be happy when it happens. Because trust me, trust me, Chris, it's going to be theater. ever it happens because, man, I was at the Clippers. I was at Doc Rivers pregame press conference when somebody asked him about something LeBron said. And Doc basically, he said, we're going with our plan that we've already had with Kauai, and that's what we're going to do. We don't know what their plan is.

It's probably just what LeBron tells him it is. And I was like, ooh. Because when you're, it's one thing, when you watch it, it's one thing. But in the room, I could tell Doc was like, fuck these dudes. Straight up and down. He's talking shit about me and my squad. Fuck those dudes. Straight up.

I can feel it. And so I know that these dudes have a problem. Like, just the fact that LeBron went out of his way to go after that. Like, there was no reason for it. It's obvious that there's an understanding that Kauai is my freaking biggest rival. biggest threat, my closest comp, and the clippers, they play in our building, they play in our city, we don't like those dudes. So I know whenever those two teams face off in a playoff setting, it's going to be fun. Trust me. Give it to be early. Whether it's the first round,

second round, third round, it's going to be a problem, guys. The third thing I want to see is a generational page turn. Like, I think we've been primed for it. Obviously, it feels like earlier and earlier in guys' career, they're given more and more, like, franchise responsibility, like, essentially, like, Luca is the Dallas Mavericks. Like, Zion is obviously going to be the Pelicans. We keep putting all this emphasis on younger players.

But in the end of the day, we're watching Jimmy and LeBron and KD and these dudes who we've been watching, like, for the most part, for the last 10, 15 years. So I would love to see some effort towards, like, turning the league over to the Embedes of the Yokey. which is the Lucas, the whatever's.

You know, like, just the bookers. Just because I think that's, A, that's like the circle of life. It's time to do it. But B, it's just, like, exciting to see different teams in the mix again. It's exciting to see the suns. It's exciting to see the jazz. It's exciting to see Philly, if I may say so. Like, it's exciting to see all these squads kind of, like,

reckoning with, like, man, maybe LeBron's not going to be around forever. Maybe, like, maybe, like, these guys are getable. Yeah, and I think you're going to see that bear out in the, the playoffs in these series, I don't think, again, aside from Brooklyn out east, I don't think there's any way for the Clippers to have a waltz through the playoffs. Yeah. The Lakers are not going to waltz through the playoffs. Like, it's going to be a slog for all of these guys.

And the teams that they're going to have, you know, these slug fest against are your Phoenixes, are your Denver's, are your Utah's, right? Like, these teams are going to give them major problems. Like, they're going to face major adversity. And I think that's going to show people like, no, no, no, these young guys are here. This isn't theoretical that one day they might ascend to the level of these, you know, proven veteran superstar types. Like, no, all of these series are going to be tough. Nobody's beating Utah on five games.

That's not happening this year. You know, the sons, I'm. I'm kind of skeptical of the Sons. I hate their big man rotation for the playoffs specifically. But I think Utah, even Denver, without Murray, I think is going to be. You haven't bought all the Sons Kool-Aid? Nah, no, no. I love the story.

I love the ascension after just years, after seven seconds of less, of just, like, being lost in the forest. But you don't want to see Frank out there. No. No. No. And by the way, like, Aiton, I like him as a player, but like, do you trust him to be the anchor of a solid playoff defense?

I just can't see that for him. And, you know, Dario Sarich, God bless him. Remember, early in the season, him at the five lineups were just destroying people. You want to see that line up against the Lakers? I think the Lakers specifically should give them a little bit of problems. I'm saying? I mean, like, I think the Lakers are like actually, like, it's hard because, like, I don't really know how I'm evaluating the Lakers.

Am I evaluating, like, the Kuzma West Matthews drumming Lakers? Or am I evaluating, like, an AD LeBron with like Marcus Loll coming out of mothballs and directing traffic? Here's how you evaluate the Lakers. LeBron, straight up. The Lakers have the best defense in the league when they're healthy. Mm-hmm. And then LeBron, straight up, walking down every possession, dictating the terms of every single possession.

You want to face that in the playoffs? No, no. You don't want that. You don't want those problems in your life. Look, we had like, this is the last thing that I wanted to talk about, which is the idea of a finals matchup. And I think that there's like, it's funny,

like people will start like armchair quarterbacking, like what would be good for the league? Like, oh, the league doesn't want, I don't know, like a bucks versus. Suns finals or something like that. I think that would be really exciting. But like the league wants a certain matchup. They want Lakers Brooklyn.

They want something like that. I just want something that doesn't have caveats. Because I feel like last season, despite how good Lakers played, there is, and I don't think it's an asterisk as much as it's just like, it was a weird bubble season.

And it was a weird, like, the heat kind of stormed through, you know, a Bucks team that were obviously, like, that, like, obviously, like, became the center of the demonstrations and the protests and then, like, obviously lost to the heat.

Like, I think that there was a lot of stuff going on in the bubble that, like, kind of gave the whole, the procession of the Lakers a little bit of a different tint. I would love to just feel like these were the best two teams at the end of the playoffs that got to play one another. And it wasn't because LeBron had a high ankle sprain that he couldn't get over. And it wasn't because this person tweaked their knee or these people like melted down. Like, it would just be like, these two teams played the best in the postseason. It's really all I can wish for. And I think you're going to get that. And that might be my own blind optimism. But the playoffs have a funny way of forcing great players to do great things. I know that sounds like cliche

and pat, but like you only get that Kauai shot, sorry, Chris, against Philly in the play. Like that moment in the magnitude of it and like can only happen in that crucible, right? Yeah. And the playoffs have a funny way of extracting that out of the best players. And I think we're going to get those moments, this playoffs. Like, I think these guys are going to be really locked in because let's face it, they haven't done shit all season. They have the energy and the wherewithal to pull that out of themselves. I really, really do genuinely think that's what's going to happen.

Do you have any, like, not predictions, but do you have like a feeling about any team? Do you have like a sixth sense about any teams going to the players? that people maybe aren't talking about enough or that like you think could make a run or actually like are not built for this? I'm waiting for Donovan Mitchell to do the thing that I just know he has in him. I just know it.

I know he has it in him to just take over a big series. We're just like, they got out of that damn round against that team that was just as good as them because Donovan Mitchell did it. Yes. I'm just waiting for him to do that, and I think he's going to do it this year.

I really, really do. I don't really... I'm not a rudy guy. Yeah? I'm just not a rudy guy. Temperamentally, like, just some of the stuff he's done, and I'm not a rudy guy. Like outside of the phone touching?

Like, do we just... Are you... Yeah, okay. It's something about him temperamentally that's just not my cup of tea. And so I think it's shades how I feel about. how he plays. Plus, like, in the playoffs, he's, like, been, like, not amazing in the postseason, right? So I don't, I think the jazz are going to go far because they have a perimeter guy who just can't be dealt with.

And that's how teams have won championships. Yes. You know, it's been proven. You need a win guy who can't be stopped one-on-one. Yeah. I think if and when Donovan Mitchell finally becomes that guy on the biggest stage, you're going to see Utah do crazy things. is not, and obviously on a possession to possession basis, defensively, Rudy's a big part of it.

And even offensively, he's a big part of what they do, you know, as far as the spread pick and roll, right? But I think in the playoffs, bro, you just put a wing on Rudy. He's not going to punish you. And you switch to pick and roll. It's kind of, it's basically that simple. And so it comes down to Ken Donovan Mitchell just crush his matchup. And I think he's going to finally do it.

Or, like, are the Jazz one of those weird teams that's going to wind up with their second best player on the bench and the most crucial points of a playoff game, which I don't know if constitutionally, like, Quinn can do. I'm old enough to remember Kevin Love losing minutes to washed up Richard Jefferson in the NBA finals. Okay? Yeah, that old.

I feel like they won because they started benching Kev Love, right? So that's, and it's the playoffs. Ain't no time for this. Rudy, we're paying you this much. We got to win. Right. You know, matchup-wise, we got to go with whatever match-up. works best. So yeah, I'm waiting for Donovan Mitchell to take his step and let everybody know

that he's one of those guys, for real. We end on Utah Talk. How about that? Don't let him say that we only do big markets. Blas, thank you so much for joining me today. And thanks so much for joining the ringer. I can't wait to hear what you do. Hey, man, Chris, we're going to fuck these people up. I promise you. Thanks, man. Thanks for listening to The Answer. We are produced by Isaiah Blakely. And you can listen to The Ringar NBA show for sometimes five times a week. Subscribe, follow on Spotify and also check out the mismatch. Check out Bill Simmons, check out Ryan Rusillo,

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