The Ringer NBA Show - Which Teams Are Going to Surprise Us in the Play-In Tournament? | The Answer

Episode Date: April 11, 2023

Kyle and Seerat start their conversation by talking about the end of March Madness and the general scramble around the league at the end of the NBA's regular season. This leads to an examination of the highly publicized on-court altercation between Rudy Gobert and Kyle Anderson (8:12). They then dissect, analyze, and share their picks for each of the play-in matchups this week. Timberwolves-Lakers (20:01) Hawks-Heat (23:18) Thunder-Pelicans (36:36) Bulls-Raptors (47:08) Hosts: J. Kyle Mann and Seerat Sohi Associate Producer: Chris Sutton Production Supervision: Benjamin Cruz and Conor Nevins Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bill finally gave the ringers Philly crew a podcast. I'm Ben Solac. And I'm Shiel Capadia. That's right, just a couple Philly guys with a new space to fire off some Eagles takes to get caught up in the Sixers, Chaos, and more. We'll be coming to you twice a week on Sundays and Thursdays, plus bonus episodes whenever we get breaking news or Philly drama. Plus when Hardin and Embed somehow convince you suckers that this year's going to be different,

our fellow Philly stands at the Ringer will have you covered on the Sixers and all your other favorite teams in town. It's Philly Sports, Shield. What could possibly go wrong? Join the fun and follow the ringers Philly special now on Spotify. Folks basketball predictably, unfailingly, all the time everywhere is very good. Basketball never stops. I've seen that on some t-shirts here and there. I am joined to talk about basketball as this season ramps up into the playoffs. I am joined by the Poet Laureate of Edmonton.

She's not in Edmonton. She's not in Philly. I think that she is finally back home. Syrit Sohi. Syrit, are you excited? What's your temperature? What's your... Back in the Mecca, in the Mecca basketball, Los Angeles.

What's your heart rate right now? Are you... I'm excited. Ball is life. Loving. I love the plan. I love the pre-plan, the play-ins of the plan. It's been a really good week.

This sort of hop from March Madness to this crazy seatings race to the play-in, to the plan, to now the plan. I've never had so much fun. watching basketball waiting for the playoffs to start. Like this time of year is usually just like, all right, most of the seeds are kind of locked in. We know what's going to happen. Like we're just sort of, we're slogging our way to the finish line, waiting for that injection of good basketball that we get in the first round. But it's just been consistent.

It's been good. Yeah. The last, well, I was going to ask you, you mentioned March Madness. I mean, you said that as if you said that was so much pizzazz. that like, were you into March Madness? I know you were into, you were... I was into Kate and Clark. I was going to say, I knew you were into that whole, that experience,

which was amazing and must-see TV. Yeah, I mean, this time of the year is always kind of weird because I'm like, I don't know. I feel like the pieces have been sort of scrambling into the place, like at the very last second, and we had the, you know, we had some of the award races going down to the wire. You know, according to Doc Rivers, it all came down to one night. I don't even know why we discussed anything seriously.

it was over. Well, M.B. dropped a 50 piece for reference what I'm talking about. We did our award season, the last edition of our award season podcast last week when we were talking about the MVP. And then Mb comes out and drops 50 on the Celtics. But I feel like the pieces have been kind of moving more than normal up to the deadline. I don't know. I don't know.

This time of the year, the stats are kind of misleading. People will be like, well, in March, Hamadu Diallo shot 40% from 3. I'm like, well, you know, this time of the year is weird. It's a weird time of the year. Month by month, game log stats are just always weird, you know? Month by month split on like how a guy is shooting is basically how, you know, teams and fan bases trick themselves into having hope for, you know, the development of a young guy who doesn't necessarily have a jump shot.

Not to say that that has to be Diallo, but, you know, that's just, that's how it goes. You know, we've all been fans. I also, I love, by the way, taking this back to Doc. Doc saying that after just the madness and incompetence, that was the final minute of that 76ers game, and just like the sheer number of ways that they could have lost that game, that they almost did lose that game. Like it came down to Jason Tatum missing a shot at the buzzer when the sixers were up six with a minute to go. I don't know.

And they also blew the lead in the fourth quarter. I don't know. I think if I was a coach, I'd be concerned with things aside from trying to ingratiate the best player on my team. Who doesn't really seem to like need that type of, you know, I think Joel Embed is a smart guy. I think he can see what's happening there. I don't know if he's totally above needing, you know,

the positive influence. We can litigate that another day. But you said something really interesting that you made a comment about, you know, March stats and sort of. We'll use a word that has a negative charge to it. I mean, in some cases, this can be the case that, like, some people, they're, like, convincing themselves to have optimism. And I think that the playing game has been a pretty positive experiment.

You know, the NBA is borrowing some of the lightning in a bottle that makes March Madness incredible in that we're going to get, we're going to get one, you know, single game elimination situation in this tournament. But overall, like, the, do you, I mean, do you feel like this? experiment for the NBA is something that should stick with, which I guess your answer to this would sort of dictate whether they should stick with it or not. I mean, but it sounds like you feel like it's been a positive thing for the NBA, the playing game overall.

Oh, I don't think it's a question. I don't think it's a question at all. I think it's made the regular season a lot more exciting. I think it's allowed, you know, it depends on the team, but like, you know, the Lakers and the Wolves, which we'll talk about, both teams that were just dealing with a ton of chaos throughout the season. And I mean, the Timberwolves dealing with a ton of chaos up until the end of the season. And the Lakers, obviously, like, they're ups and downs.

And now they've, like, they went from LeBron breaks the scoring record. And you have this moment where you're like, what the hell is going to be this team from here on out? Like, they lose the game that he breaks the scoring record. And they lose it to Oklahoma, which at the time feels like a really big game, given the playing picture that could, and that's another like credits of the playing in game. Like all these, all these other matchups,

like there's a bunch of matchups that matter a lot more throughout the regular season. It's like jolted a little bit more electricity into the regular season, you know? But it looks at that, in that moment, like it's just kind of over for the Lakers. And now that LeBron's broken the scoring record, there is just a lack of excitement. It's like the balloon has popped.

and you don't really know where they're going from here. And I just, I can't understate how hopeless and excruciating and boring and dull and uninspiring the experience of watching the Lakers was before they made all these trades at the deadline. But it was just, it was like, it was a roller coaster of bad. It wasn't like one of those fun roller coasters. It was just like it was a rust coming off the bench experience and you never really know what you're going to get.

And like, none of the role players have really figured out what they, what they're doing is Davis, like, every time Anthony Davis falls, you're like, oh, damn, like, not this again. And now it's like, Davis has been healthy. They traded for DeAngeli Russell. They traded for Jared Vanderbilt. They are like one of the best teams in the league since the All-Star break. And they're probably the best team in the play in picture. They're 12 and four in games at Davis and Russell.

have both played. They're nine and two when James has been healthy. Like, LeBron hasn't even been healthy in this stretch. And they're still crushing it. You know, like, they've been like the second best defense since February 10th, since the trade. And they're running. They're just a lot more fun.

And they have an incredible starting lineup. So, like, that's a team that now, like, in previous years, okay, now they sneak into the seven seed and they probably play Memphis. Now they have to do a little bit extra to get there. They're playing a Timberwolves team. that. I mean, gosh. Let's get into that. Let's get into that. Let's get into that. So, yeah, this weekend, I mean, it went wild. We saw, we saw an exchange between Rudy Gobert and Kyle Slow Mo Anderson on the bench where, I mean, you've probably seen the clip by now. I mean,

Rudy made a pretty half-hearted. It doesn't matter how, what percentage of the heart was in it. I mean, it was, he took a swipe at him. I mean, it wasn't a full. on shove. I mean, we can do sort of a breakdown of the physicality of it, I guess. He definitely didn't do an open palm to shoulder shove. The arm came around in a swinging

motion. So, I mean, you have to kind of say that it was a punch. It was a punch. It just wasn't a very good one. Yeah, it was a bad punch. It was, it was the best use of his wingspan all game. You know, Rudy at close range not being accurate is, I guess

stands up to the reputation. But so, but yeah, I mean, it's not good. And he's, he's going to be sitting out. Do you think, I guess the question coming away here, of course, the other fold of this is Jane McDaniels has like fractures in his hand. So he is not going to be playing. I assume he's out indefinitely. They're not going to be in the playoffs long enough for him even to potentially come back.

So I don't think. Tell the listeners, tell the listeners how McDaniels broke his hand. Well, he did the age old. I'm mad, punched the wall. He got a really dumb foul. I'm trying to remember who it was. He was blocking out, but he basically just turned to face the person and just grab them. And as soon as it started to have, who did he grab?

I'm forgetting now. It was anyway, but he threw the person in the ground, got his second foul. He got mad about that. I don't know why, you know. It's the old radio head thing. You do it to yourself. And that's what hurts the worst. So he goes out there, punches the wall, breaks his hand.

He's going to be out. I just think specifically in, you know, specifically in this matchup, I feel like this is going to, this is going to be a tough playing tournament in general. Like, I don't think that they're going to get past the Lakers. And then let's say they're in that second game. Both the Thunder and the Pelicans, you know, we're looking ahead. Those are very, like, wingy teams, like big ball handlers, not a lot of, like, big guy presence. if you think about like Trey Murphy, Brandon Ingram, Shea, Giddy, Jalen Williams. There's just a lot of them.

They're going to need Jaden. So I kind of feel like, I don't know. I don't want to be too definitive here, but I will. I kind of feel like Minnesota's fucked. Okay. I kind of feel like Minnesota's fucks. I really do. You do it to yourself.

That's what hurts the most. Might as well be the motto for the Timberwolf season. You do it to yourself. Yeah, they should play it in the arena. That's pretty good. Ladies and gentlemen, Alex Rodriguez, you do it to yourself. Anyway, what do you agree or disagree? So, yeah, the Pelicans Sunder stuff later.

So this is kind of fascinating because the Timberwolves are now basically the team that they were last season, minus Vanderbilt and plus Kyle Anderson. And minus Pabibb, which you can. Some might say as an addition, depending on who the Bulls might disagree. But he was helpful for them, I think. Yeah, yeah. He was good pat-beth for them. He was good pat-beth for them.

And so, yeah, that's a big omission there too. But I think adding Kyle Anderson is essentially the only thing this team needed to do after the playoffs last year. Just like get in a veteran low turnover, secondary playmaker, close-out attacker, who is going to balance things out for you on offense. If not in the locker room, a little more fiery in the locker room, then on the court, our guy slow-mo, which, you know, made clear, made clear with Gobert's reaction to him, which, again, one more on that, like, just the reporting on what was said is so funny.

It's incredible. It's so funny. It's agency journalism off. Theater. Why don't you grab some rebounds? I don't know. I mean, Kyle, me, you and I, we've gotten into it. We've gotten into it sometimes, right? I, you know, I don't know. Never in sincerity, though. I mean, we joke about getting into it. We've never, like, gotten into it. Not like that. I would say the time that I was recording you at All Star and you, you know, tried to block the camera lens with your hand is basically like the closest we got to a Gobert slow-mo level of interaction.

Farce joke. All I want to say is that we've said far worse things to each other. Your lame bit that I shot down. Yeah. Which ironically involved Carl Anthony Towns also. Yeah, it did. It did.

Look at that. Look at that. So, look, here's the thing. So the wolves are basically the team that they had before they traded for Gobert. Obviously, there's more nuance to that than just that. But they have a bit of a surprise fact. I think that they might not have had with Gobert. Now, okay, Gobert goes out.

Now, against Anthony Davis in particular, that is a more difficult thing to deal with if you're the wolves. I think, honestly, if this was any other matchup and all of a sudden they don't have Rudy Gobert, I'd be like, oh, no. Oh, no, that's so sad. Yeah. They're going to be so much worse. But, like, no, they're not.

Well, we saw them offensively come to life in the second half of that game. It was the Pelicans. Yeah, I mean, we saw them come to life because they had spacing like they did last year. And they, you know, they had the five out thing where they had them driving lanes and you suddenly saw Anthony Edwards. It was a tough thing, I think, for the developmental kind of corner for Anthony Edwards this year that we wanted to see grow to add a guy who was not, you know, especially a threat to, A, catch the ball and pass it, B, pop, C, catch the ball on the roll. It just, it was a tough thing. You might be on to something there. I know that I definitively said they're fucked, but I mean, it's all about preparation.

And this is going to be a different look. You know, suddenly you're going to be in a different look on a short turnaround. That could play in their favor, potentially, if you want to play, you know, the hypothetical there. Yeah, exactly. So they really stunted the potential of the cat and duo with the trade. They've just, Carl Anthony Towns and Edwards have just been involved in far less action. this season, especially on picks. Last year,

they were in the 76 percentile as a pick and roll duo. And this year, it's down to 0.858 points per possession, which is not good. And they've only run it 118 times. They ran it 646 times last season. Way to make a trade that goes away from one of your most efficient plays

that involves your two best players, by the way. I don't know. It just doesn't seem like the best one. We don't need to keep pilot on this trade, but like we kind of do because it gets a word. worse and worse. Nobody, like, raised their hand and, like, did A-Rod say, you know, put your hand down? I don't know.

I just kind of feel like that one was, that was kind of a crucial, it's kind of a crucial oversight. I don't know. Have you ever seen War the Worlds? You ever seen the movie? The Steven Spielberg. Well, there's this big thing. I mean, the whole, it's been out for, you know, like 100 years at this point.

But the whole point of it is that, like, the aliens set up this, like, million years plan to take down human beings. and they like bury these like walker things in the ground and they emerge and they start killing humans. But there was like one crucial oversight, which was that the aliens were going to get sick in our atmosphere, which to me was like, you know, in those million years of meetings, did no one from that alien race race their hand and ponder that question? And I'm not saying that the Gobert trade is on that level, but it seems like a pretty crucial thing to look at the thing that we have that's unique and do well. and to say, hey, let's put this guy in the middle of this. We're doing it again.

We're litigating the Gobert trade again. But it's, I don't know, maybe it'll be, maybe they'll have a little extra, a little extra oomph being sort of reunited with space with, you know, towns was in and out of the lineup this year too. So maybe, maybe there'll be a little renewed, refreshed energy there between him and aunt. So I've done the Edwards and Towns without Gobert on and off splits before. I'm just going to do them again with the final.

count now that the regular season is over. Edwards makes basically slight efficiency gains all over the place when he's not playing with Gobert. Carl Anthony Towns scores 12 more points per game and his efficiency jumps 27% to 45% from three. His field goal percent jumps eight points. That's a lot. So I think I think this is just going to be a big Carl Anthony Towns versus Anthony Davis moment here.

Battle of the Cats. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, this is a big Kentucky matchup, actually. How do you feel about that? It is. It's, I quickly on, I mean, there was a time where it looked like, if you went back to like 2014, 20, 15, 20, almost a 2016-ish, there was a time where it looked like, oh, like, three of the best big guys in the world are, like, played for cow. And it's like, it kind of has been a story, an unsatisfying story, honestly. You think about the, you know, AD got a title, but he hasn't quite been, I was talking about Yon, I stole this error from him.

Carl has been brilliant at times. And then, you know, cousins got injured and his career got totally derailed. So that's an interesting thing. That's a subplot, though. I wanted to ask you another, just one more thing about the Gobert thing that's, you know, maybe to the side. But what do you think about that apology? What do you think about that tweet apology? Did he, you know, the thing that really stuck to me was regardless of what was said. I don't know. Did you like that apology? I kind of thought like maybe that didn't need to be in there. It should have just been like, I shouldn't have done it. End of story. But he said something. That's kind of what it felt like to me.

It was a hedged apology, which suggests that perhaps there was more said than what we've been told was said. I think these moments are tough because you obviously have to apologize right away because you're a public figure and this is how it goes. At the same time, he was obviously very angry about something. And not to say that he should punch somebody because he's angry. You should never do that. But at the same time, it's like he clearly hasn't cooled down yet. He clearly feels like he was in the right somehow. There's like a bit of self-righteousness in his apology, which like in fairness,

I think when you do something wrong, it can take a couple of days to actually get there and realize that, you know, you were complete, like you got to, the ego death part of it takes a little longer than the Twitter social media age would like for it to. Oh, yeah. Are you a quick cool down person? Do you need, are you somebody that like your graph goes down slowly over time or are you like, just in general? It totally depends.

I think, and like, I think if you left me to my own devices, I would figure it out. I think when there is some sort of pressure to figure it out, it can almost make things a little worse. What about you? I'm pretty quick, but I actually spike up quick too. I'll like get on something, but be off it really quickly. Like just so coming away from this,

just to keep it to keep it moving, in general, I mean, what's your expectation here? I know we've kind of rationalized why, why the wolves might have some outside chance of doing this. I mean, do you think they're going to beat the Lakers?

The wolves are like, yeah, it's kind of like my devil's advocate theory. I'm just like, I don't know, I'm feeling like a white man today. I'm just going to play devil's advocate. So the other thing with the Jada McDaniel's

injuries, like, who the hell guards LeBron James? This is an interesting matchup. Slow-mo, I assume, right? I mean... They've played twice since the trades, and, like, the Lakers have had, like, their share of injuries, but we actually have, like, some level of useful tape on both these, both these teams. McDaniels held James to 0.5, 7 points per possession this season, so that's just, like, a huge, huge loss.

So, yeah, I imagine you start slow-mo on, on him, but I'm also. just like watching some of the things that Anthony Edwards did to the Pelicans, like his defense on Ingram, the force travel, the poke around steel, the late strip, and then obviously like that late block on McCollum, I'm just going to throw him out on LeBron for a second,

just to see what happens. There is like a fun past the torch sort of legendary potential there because I feel like Anthony Edwards is a guy that can win any game for you. if it's just a one game sample, which is what I love about the plan, like he can be the guy that does a little bit of everything. But like if we could get like a little bit of like, you know,

like a Jordan versus Magic in the NBA finals type of moment, like one phenom on the rise versus like a giant of the game who's lost his step, but he still has, he still has a few points to prove. I would just love to see that happen, you know, but I don't know.

There's another like there's, the wolves are not. Holes just aren't as hamstrung as I think people are making them out to be. Like, Nikiel Alexander Walker, I think, can play some minutes on defense. Torion Prince can make it happen too, right? I think the key is just going to be, the key is probably going to be Anthony Davis. Like, can he dominate the Carl Towns matchup? Yeah, I think there's some legitimacy there.

I think timeline-wise, I think it probably matches up more with, like, Jordan versus, well, no, no, don't worry about that. I don't know. I feel like the Lakers, the points that you brought up, I think that. that the Lakers have a little more continuity. Like you said that like what they've been doing, they've been doing what they've been doing. The moves that they made have helped them and sort of solidify

and short up some things for them. But in the short term... Their new starting lineup has a plus 20 net rating. Yeah. I just feel like this is a pretty great break for them. And then you think about them moving into, you know, to play the two C potentially against Memphis. And I feel like it's a pretty decent draw.

all. I mean, I feel like if I'm the Lakers, I'd probably want to potentially see the Kings or, I don't know, the Clippers have been talking pretty confident. I know I saw some Paul George quotes that surprised me that he would say some of the things that he was saying. But I feel like I'd feel pretty good about the Grizzlies matchup, too, if I'm L.A., considering the injuries that they've had with Adams and then Brandon Clark. But I'm going to lean towards the Lakers as well. Let's move on to the other seven and eight game in the east, which is a familiar matchup from, like, last year's playoffs. We saw the Heat last year in the 2022 playoffs take down the Hawks in five games. It didn't even feel that close. I think in Game 5, Jimmy Butler and Kyle Lauer didn't even play, and they still won that game. One of the, like, these teams are a little bit different. Granted, you know, PJ Tucker is no longer with the heat. You know, Deonté Murray obviously has come.

The heat have sort of started to, I think they laid a wager down. on this like Tray Young alignment when it was some of the moves that they've made. KOC wrote a story about how the Hawks there have been murmurs that they could potentially move their quote unquote superstar and Trey Young.

I kind of feel like that's the big storyline coming into this game. If he is rigid in his play style, you know, Quinn Snyder has, I went and looked and I didn't see like a tracking sort of trend that showed that they were moving Trey off the ball effectively

or if there was a lot of movement on that front. I guess all that is to say that, like, if he's not going to do that, then it does kind of come down to how productive can Tray Young, the source of a lot of their offense based on the way they play, how effective can he be against Miami? They had his number last year. Trey in the pick and roll last year in 45 reps against Miami, in that five-game series, 0.6 points per possession.

He averaged 6.2 turnovers in that series. They had a lot. This is a tough matchup for him. There's no other way to put it. I mean, you think about the things that Trey likes to do coming north, south, get you in space, make your big guy look like a fool, get the secondary help coming. The heat, the way they play defense, they kind of feel impervious to some of the, or they at least are not super vulnerable.

Impervious is a strong word. I mean, they're not super vulnerable to like the movement. I don't feel like the Hawks' movements. enough to kind of put their defense in a stressful situation. I don't know. What do you think about this? Do you think that this is overblown or do you think that Trey can figure this out? How do you how are you feeling about this matchup for for Trey? No, I mean there's a reason that the he have historically dominated this matchup right and it's not just it's obviously like the the perimeter defense of like

Vincent and Streets but like you know we spent some time talking about BAM out of bio a couple weeks ago. And, you know, it's just, Bam is going to meet Trey on the level, right? Like, and he is one of the few guys in the league, like when we talk about defending one to five, who is not going to get made a fool of by Trey Young, like, to use your word. So it's just a really ugly matchup for them. And then also this, this Hawks team is worse offensively than last year's team too. They just don't have the shooting that they had last year. And then like, we'll see what happens with Quinn in the off season. I feel like adding new sets, especially, you know, he came in in February. Teams are tired. I don't imagine they got a lot of practice

time to be able to actually change the way that they play. And trying to also get, you know, your superstar high usage ball handler to play off the ball is something that I think that's like an off-season to ask. I don't think that's something that you can really implement mid-season. But the other point, I think this is something that KOC also brought up in his article is just that, like, you would hope that that was

a type of change that Trey would make after lobbying the team to bring in another bat ball had Lair and Deonté Murray, you know? So that part is just, it's like, I don't know how much willingness Young has to actually change the way that he plays, but then also,

you know, if you're going to have, you know, two disappointing seasons in a row, that end the same way, which I mean, I don't know, like anything can happen. It's one game. But I feel like this is a matchup that I probably feel like the most confidence about in terms of the way that it's going to go, right? So then maybe you maybe that's a bit of a wake-up call. You at least hope it's a bit of a wake-up call.

But yeah, I mean, the idea of everybody on the Hawks potentially being on the move is like, I don't know, it's really compelling because they have a lot of guys that can play Quinnball. It's just that like if the head of the snake isn't going to get down with it, then I don't really know what it looks like. Yeah, this, if you think about like the keeper, I don't want to get into like an offseason hawks conversation here. But I mean, like there are keeper pieces here that can defend. I just feel like they have a problem, which is I think Miami is going to be able to play really aggressive with Trey, with Gabe Benson and Max Trues, you know, up at the level, pushing him towards the corner of the half court, you know, towards the towards the towards. the time lying in the corner there. And basically, I mean, and Swelstra has talked a lot about this,

that this is their, this is their MO when they're playing Trey. They want to pick him up early. They want to pressure him. You know, he's prone to sticky possessions, dribbling the ball a lot, sticking on it for too long, which is kind of odd considering how good of a pass. But that's the problem when, like, we talked about whenever you have, like, an offense that has a battery and then you have an offense that is a conduit and that, you know, Trey's more of a battery. You know, if you look at the way they pass the ball, and by that, I just mean like he is the source, he's a home run passer. And I noticed this when I was scouting him in college, it was just that like he wants to make the one pass, the one pass that is the right pass. And if you look at like per

100 possessions, I sent this to you, when Trey is on the court, Atlanta passes the ball 244.9 times per 100 possessions. When Trey is off the court, that number jumps 31. It jumps up to 275.8. So that is huge. The ball movement, you know, whether or not it's more efficient or effective, it's just, it's a fact that the ball moves more when he's not on the court. The problem is that, A,

they haven't gotten as much. I feel like the DeAndre Hunter sort of narrative, stock, whatever you want to call it, has dipped a lot in the past year and a half. I feel like he had enthusiastic lovers in the past. That kind of came out funny, but fans, he had, I don't know anything about DeAndre Hunter's love life.

Anyway, moving forward, Kyle, before you say something even dumber. So, no, I think that the other thing, too, is that Sadiege Bay has not quite been the guy. He's been one of the most inefficient kind of close-out defenders and Miami is going to torch you.

They try to hunt hero. They played a game earlier this year where they tried to hunt hero. But I just think that, like, overall, they don't have somebody that's going to be able to guard Jimmy. They are going to bother the shit out of what Atlanta does.

Watch Atlanta come out make me look stupid. It is one game scenario. But I just kind of feel like I don't think that Atlanta's going to win this game. And I also don't think that this game, even if they win this and they won a couple games in the first round of the playoffs, I don't think that that should change their thinking. You know, I think we've seen in the past that like a little bit of short-term success can kind of like, I don't know. I don't think that that should distract them from what needs to be done with this roster. I feel like they should probably already know what they're going to do, don't you think? I think that the vibes are just so bad there, you know, and they've been bad for a while.

And like, you hear whispers about Trey as a teammate. And it's just, it's starting to feel like it's either time for young to kind of have a look in the mirror. Or this is just going to be the same story. And like, even if he wants out, even if he wants to go somewhere. else or they decide to move on from him. This is still something that he's going to have to figure out, right? Like, he's just been incredibly ball dominant. He's not very trusting of his teammates.

I think there's a world in which that he can make everyone around him so much better with just his, his playmaking is legendary. You know, he is one of the best playmakers in the NBA. He sees passing angles that very few other guys can actually see. Just, you know, he has gotten free buckets for guys like, Capella like Collins like a Kongwood but at the same time like not a lot of the young talent around him has been able to develop and then you see you know you see a guy like Kevin Herder who was basically toiling away in Atlanta trying to either spot up or attack closeouts or basically play like

this sort of plotting pick and roll heavy style go into a system that has a lot more movement and now all the sudden he's great. And I think there's a number of guys on that team that, like, I wouldn't be surprised if that happened, you know? So I still think it's like the same story as ever. This team has all of the talent in the world. They can't really seem to put it together. And they don't seem to make the tactical moves that you need to see them make

in order for them to do that. I would be curious to see what they look like with an offseason of Quinn Snyder. I still think that there's so much there and you're already. So you've spent so much time with this team that you might as well see what it looks like with a guy that has like the right tactical principles. But I'm also a little wary on how much of it actually works out unless you have full buy-in from Trey. Yeah. It's it's going to come down to that. And, you know, that's that's an on and off-court thing.

It's a cultural thing. It's it just affects your team in so many different ways. And, you know, one of the big things here is that, like, that one of the big things in the playoffs, I think if you're going to go the distance is finding the way, you know, can you keep your strengths on the floor without making yourself vulnerable on the other end or in some way? And that's kind of, that's been sort of the dissonance, I think, between what they're trying to do and what they keep running up against. We talk about his playmaking and things like that. A lot of that is contingent on him bending the defense. And Miami is this team. And you think about the powers that be, that are in the east right now, you think about like Evan Mobley is emerging. You think about the bucks are going to be who they are for at least the foreseeable future. I don't know. The Magic are a big, strong team that seem like they're missing just a couple pieces. I just think that, like, this is, you know, the Celtics are a super switchable physical team

that can keep a lot of, like, rangy defenders on the floor. I just think that a lot of what he does is contingent on him bending the defense. And if we have these really flexible, long athletic teams that are defensively really solid, I don't see that problem going away, and I don't know that there's an offense based on what Trey has shown us in the past. I don't know that there is an offense that's going to fix all of those things, and just going to magically, magic wand, make those, the defensive problems. We haven't even talked about that, him defensively. So I don't know. I think we both are kind of firmly leaning heat here.

I think we need to transition over to the other matchup on the other side. Let's talk about the 9-10 matchup. Should we take a break and then do it? Yeah, let's take a break before we do that. So before we talk about the 9-10 matchup between the Pelicans and the Thunder, which Seared is going to educate us on, we're going to take a break. The NBA playoffs are here and you can turn crossovers into cash with Fandool. Just visit fandul.com slash ring your NBA right now in place a $5 bet,

and you'll get an instant, $150 bucks and bonus bets. Now, before the playoffs start, we got the play-in game, and right now the Pelicans are favored to beat the Thunder by five and a half points. And I just think that's a little close. I think that game is a lot more of a toss. I might put some money on the Thunder there. There's no better place to bet all the playoff action than America's number one sportsbook. Just go to Fandual.com slash ringer NBA and sign up to get $150 in bonus bets when you bet your first five bucks.

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Tennessee in Virginia. 1-800 next step or text next step to 533442 in Arizona. 1-8-889-777-7 or visit ccpgaglinghulled.org in Connecticut, 1-8009 with it in Indiana. 1-800-2-470 or visit KSgamblinghelp.com in Kansas, 18777-7-7-0 stop in Louisiana. Visit www.md-Mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. 1-800-5-22-470 in Wyoming or visit www. 1,800 gambler.net in West Virginia. All right, so we're going to talk about the 9-10 matchup,

which will go down on Wednesday. And they'll be playing the loser of the 7-8 matchup. So, yeah, this is, so we'll start with, we'll start with Pelicans versus Thunder. This is going to be a really interesting matchup. I really have no sort of read on which way it's going to go. I feel like this two, two-star players, Gilder's Alexander and Braddon Ingram,

are kind of going to be facing similar scenarios. Both teams have a ton of big wings that they can throw at each other. And then you have guys around them that you just start to wonder, okay, who's going to show up? I think this game is really going to come down to, you know, I feel like I can trust, I can trust SGA, I can trust Ingram. Like, I feel like they're both guys that despite the defensive wins, talent on the other side will get slowed down but not completely stopped.

I was watching, so these guys, they played each other four times. The Thunder went one and three and most of the games are pretty irrelevant. Like there's just people missing, things like that. The game that they played in February, Ingram basically showed that it doesn't necessarily matter if you put Ludo on him. and it doesn't matter if you switch SGA on him. He spent some time on Kenrick Williams, who was out for this season. He, in a sea of players that were like long and strong, he was the longest and strongest.

And he almost at this point reminds me, like obviously they are like the Kevin Durant comparisons. And you see that with the way that he just knows that he can shoot over the top of anybody. But he's also strong and he's one of those guys that uses his strength to basically just be really patient and be a calming force in the offense. And, you know, combine that with his mid-range mastery. And it kind of reminds me of Kauai, the way that he can just slow the game down to his own pace and, like, methodically find what type of shot he wants to find. And then with SGA, it's kind of similar, except the SGA just uses, uses a post a lot more and he gets to the rim more and he gets probably more points in the paint as opposed to mid-range points. but they both are just kind of,

they both play that role for, for their teams. And like, we kind of had similar games from both of them. Like that March, the game they played in March is another testament to the plan. Because like, that was a game that both teams kind of knew that they had to win.

But there was no Ingram in the, in the March game. And Shay just kind of took over. I'm really excited to see what Shea looks like in an important game. We've seen what Ingram looks like. And I think Ingram is absolutely the type of guy who, can, you know, especially in a one game scenario like this, like just put a team on his shoulders. And if this was just an Ingram versus SGA thing, I'd probably give Ingram the edge.

But it's not. And one of the things that I worry about from the Pelican standpoint is C.J. McCollum. I think CJ's just going to have to have his pull-up game, like locked, loaded, confident, ready to go. because the Thunder wings just give him a lot of trouble. And he's just, he's kind of, he's in career low territory for, you know, most of his stuff be under the three point line. He's never been like the strongest rim finisher. But he's also just like, he's kind of in the low 40 area from mid range too. So he just hasn't been that efficient in that area.

And then you add the length of the thunder. I think they've just, they've been able to bother him a lot. in the regular season matchup. And I just, I see that being a little bit troublesome for him. Yeah, you're like, this is the lowest he's shot from the mid-range since his second year in the league. He's at 41% in his long mid-range attempts right now. I mean, we have seen Shea in some playoff series.

And we saw him in a bubble series with OKC, the Chris Paul team with, I believe Schroeder was in there too, another funky, weird three-guard alignment there. And then we saw him, you know, obviously in that one. series against the warrior. So he's been here, but I guess the big thing is just... This is a different shade, though. This is a... That was where I... That was going to be my next point is that he has sort of set up some of the pressure release stuff that we talked about when we talked about Most Improved is that, you know, he can make some of those shots. He can, you know, the big thing is, I like the

Ingram thing there. And I think this could spell out maybe what personnel wise, what OKC could be thinking about, like, like for their roster building or like where they go from here. I'll be curious to see who they play on him if they play Jalen with a Y Williams on him at all because Dort as strong as he is off the bounce, it doesn't counter the thing of the... I guess the big thing is, is Dort going to be able

to keep Ingram off of his spots? But I don't know that it's as simple as that. Fandle has this game, you know, their line actually has the Pelicans minus five and a half. They're actually favored. I feel like that's kind of the conventional thinking on this. but I feel like this is, this one feels like more of a toss-up to me.

I don't know. I could easily see because OKC just has that insane, we're coming for you, energy. Like, I don't know. I just get this vibe that, like, they could come out here and have an agenda because they don't really have anything to lose in terms of where they're going. They're smart. You know, all four of the eight, nine, or the nine-10 teams in the, in the, plan are projected in the lottery odds as we know.

So they're going to have a chance to add to their team and get this good experience. This feels like a toss up to me. But it seems like you're leaning pelagons. No, it's a toss up to me too. It's a toss up to me too. I think I think Ingram is just like, I just feel like with his experience, I think that he probably has a slight edge over SGA, despite, you know, SGA's had the superior season.

I just think situationally he's been here before and like we've seen him do it. So I just, I lean a little bit more towards him. But at the same time, like on the other end, like, Herb Jones is not giving SGA problems away that Herb Jones gives problems to the rest of the NBA. You know? Yeah. Um, I think both those guys are just such great, tough shot makers and they know their spots. So I think that that matchup, like, let's, let's say we call it a wash and it kind of just depends on,

all right, we're going to need Tray Murphy to hit shots, going to need Richardson to hit shots. We'll see what version of CJ we get. You hope that Jones hit some shots, right? And it's also going to be an interesting test for Ingram's playmaking, too, which is definitely picked up over like, I mean, he's just been on a tear lately anyway. But I think like, yeah, over the last 14 games, he's averaging eight assists per game. And he's shooting above 50% from the field too.

He's just like he's been on a tear lately. But he's still, that's still a part of his game that he's exploring. the thunder, like the way that they, they love getting into passing lanes. They love making you make secondary tertiary decisions and then swiping the ball from you. That's, that's a thing that was really interesting with the JV matchup. And I think that is going to, that might be the X factor. So Valenciun is is somebody who can just absolutely punish the thunder down low for not really having a true center.

They can post them up. I think the thunder, the thunder will probably want to double him. and kind of force the non-Angrum, the non-CJ, the non-Murphy shooters to either hit shots or make good decisions. I think that's probably like their best plan of attack against JV. But then on the other end of it, you want to, like the Thunder are also going to try to play them off the floor, I imagine. They lead the NBA and drives. And that's just, that's not a fun scenario for for somewhat flat-footed Jonas Valentunus to find himself in. Like, this could end up being, becoming a Larry Nance type of game pretty quickly.

But that's one to watch because those, those always like, those always come down to like game to game. What is the guy giving you? Like, is it, is he making up for the loss on defense enough? You know, like, is he grabbing enough offensive rebounds? Like, that's the one place where I think that Oklahoma is really vulnerable and that, you know, JV can definitely punish them. But they're also, I mean, like, they're a good help defense team. Like for a team that's as young as they are, like they kind of, they know their spots. And they're really quick.

They're really aggressive at the same time. So I don't know. That's this, this is just a game that I don't have any feel on. But I'm actually, I'm also like maybe the most excited for it. Yeah. I feel like this one could be chaos. Like, yeah, like this could be a fun like holy shit kind of game. Like you talked about the drives thing.

I think that could end up being, you know, if you're a team that doesn't guard the ball well, it's going to be a long day against OKC. That's kind of been my recurring thing that I've said about them. You know, the Pelicans are, let's see, they have the seventh worst points per chance allowed in the NBA on drives. And as we've said, like the OKC, they just like, just ATM machine just print paint touches off drives. So that'll be an interesting dynamic.

So overall, I think we're equally kind of excited just as like nerdy, you know, blogger types anyway. We love the young teams. I think that's sort of the, that's the, that's loving to watch, love and watching the world burn. Let's get, let's get Josh Gideon, like, and J-dub and J-Lan with a Y some, some playoff experience or some playing experience, see how they do. Like, they'll be, they have some potential to be bothered by these long, strong wings. So I don't know. It's just going to be fun. And like, you know, I think, I think, I think the Thunder have less stakes. They can just see who they are. They can learn a little bit more about themselves.

And the Pelicans without Zion, you know, I think like the stakes kind of are what they are. They're still pretty low. But I still, I feel like, because they're a little bit older,

I feel like there's a little bit more pressure on the pelicans to pull this out. Yeah. Yeah, there definitely is. I mean, in last year, they, I don't know,

I don't know how much pressure there really is considering. The Zion part of it is just so hard to, yeah, to figure into this. So let's move on to the last, the last matchup. This one is,

I feel like these two teams have kind of fallen on. off the national discourse sort of radar. Like people haven't been paying as much attention to them. A, because Chicago has just kind of drifted from where we were with them last fall to, they actually made some moves at the deadline and we can talk about here in a second. But the Raptors, the Raptors, Sirth, you as sort of a steward of the north, you are really dialed in on this.

The vibes have been extremely up and down this season. This is a matchup, though, where just talking about, let's talk about the Bulls first. Let's talk about what they've shifted. I feel like people in general haven't paid attention to this. At the deadline, the Bulls, obviously, I just want to like, I'm not somebody that defends Pat Bev all the time, or very frequently at all. But he is someone who keeps resurfacing on teams and affecting them in a way that could be characterized as positive. This is a team Chicago that has kind of gotten their shit. together since the beginning of February. Since February 1st, the Bulls have had the best

defensive rating in the league at 109.6. And that's been really heavy on ball pressure. They have a lot of guys that can pressure the ball. Pat Bev, Alex Caruso is freaking brilliant. They've even gotten a little extra effort out of Levine and DeRosen. So they have like a four that's been their most frequently used lineup. So they're leaning really heavy. And a lot of that is because, A, they have the personnel to do that. But B, they don't have a room protector back there. There's not a consistent, reliable room protector on this roster. So this is a team that depends on having, you know, quote unquote, smaller lineups out there. What do you think that's going to do against the Raptors, though? Do you think that that is a sort of

a philosophy that is going to work in a one-game scenario? Or do you think that the Raptors, how good or bad of a matchup is this for Chicago? I think Chicago has just been the superior team since the All-Star Break. The Raptors have obviously picked up their defense. They're like a top-five defense since trading for Yakopurdo. So they've, you know, they've done some of the things that they need to do as well. And you also,

I mean, like another point for Chicago is just, Patrick Williams has really emerged as like one of the better pick and roll switch defenders in the NBA too. And they're getting better positioning out of Butchavich. My gut sort of tells me that the raptors can pull this one out. Demar de Rosen has not played well against the raptors in the last few years, basically ever since the emergence of O.G. Anunobi as, like, an elite, one of the best, if not the best isolation defenders in the league.

Like, he has become the guys that kind of gave the Rosen nightmares in the playoffs. So I think, like, if he can handle the Rosen one-on-one, but, man, like, is Nick Nairz going to let that happen? Like, that's another question that I have to, right? Like, I almost wonder if they'll, like, despite OG, throw the kitchen sink at the Rosen, and then all of a sudden, then you get Levine just going off too, right? Like those are the two guys you have to focus on the most. But in the regular season matchups this season, I think for the most part,

it's been like DeRosen's been in for a game. Levine's been in for a game. So it's kind of hard to gauge what the raptors, how the rappers would approach a fully healthy Chicago lineup. But the other thing is also just like, Pascal Seacum is probably the best player in this game, right? I think so. Yeah.

So, yeah, the rapist. Chris have the best player as well. And the best player against, like, yes, there's ball pressure. But, like, I think it's going to take, like, just like, yeoman's work from Alex Caruso. And I'm not saying he can't do it. And I think it is actually going to be fascinating to watch some, like, Pascal Seaccombe versus Alex Caruso possessions that, like, you know, for people like you and me that is just like manna in heaven. I think it'll be, I think it'll be interesting how, how they sort of navigate guarding him. But I don't really, I don't know.

I don't have a feel for this. I feel like the Raptors are going to win. You know, Chicago, it's been a good, it's been a feel good story. I mean, not like an overly. They've pieced something together that has worked, but they're also 17 and 15 during that stretch since February 1st. So they found something that kind of works, but I just feel like they're going to have to shoot the shit out of the ball to, like, overcome the easy offense that Toronto is going

to be able to produce. And I think you hit on it. You know, the fact that three-headed mom, of OG, Barnes, Yakum, and you could even go further. Toronto also turns this team over a lot, and I feel like that's going to be an issue. I think Pertil's going to be an issue for them as well. Like if they're going to be playing uphill, I just feel like they're going to be depending a lot on creating sort of havoc and disruption.

Maybe they'll be able to do it, but I just feel like Toronto, I don't particularly like this matchup for Chicago, but I could be wrong. That's fair. That's fair. I think, so let's, let's zoom out a little bit. Both these teams made deadline moves that were a little bit, I think, in denial of what they actually have. And they've both figured a few things out, but neither of them are necessarily made the kind of like post trade deadline jumps that would suggest like, oh yeah, this was a no-brainer to just add a little bit more and then see what you are. Now, from the Bull's perspective, just because their future is so handicapped because of,

you know, the deal, like the way that they had to, like, give up a bunch of picks to get DeRosen there, get Vucovich there. It's a little bit of a different proposition for them. Like, the risk, you know, the cost-benefit analysis of trying to win this season is, like, you know, it's fine for them to do that. With the Raptors, I'm a little bit like, do you have to give up picks for Yacobrido? You know, like, is that just for this? In this draft? I feel like this is a team that just needs a lot more talent. Like they both could use an injection of talent.

And like both, I just don't think they are going to get a lot from the plan. The Raptors probably have a few more guys that could use some playoff experience. But like, I don't know. Yeah, like get Scotty Barnes into a playing game. But is that really worse all of this?

I mean, you're assuming that that move was just to get into the playing game. I mean, I definitely think these teams are kind of both in the same tier of like, they have ascended to the point of being annoying, but like we always say, the superstar acquisition game, they're not,

we're waiting for them to cross that bridge, you know, to cross into the Rubicon of superstar, you know, head-to-head matchups and things like that, which is what, you know, the playoffs kind of come down to in a lot of situations.

You talked about Siakum. Seacum, he's there, but it's sort of like, he's sort of that like, he's waiting in the wings. It's like he's not quite on the level. of the first team all NBAers.

I don't know. I don't know. Am I right or wrong? Am I going on this direction of... No, I think that's fair. I think he's right on that line. He's right on that line. Yeah.

He's sort of like the second or third best player on like a title level team. But anyway, all that said, I'm still leaning towards the Raptors winning this one just because I like them. I like the way that's... They've also picked on Andre Drummond in previous matchups and this. I just, I kind of wonder if Chicago is going to run out of answers if they're not able to turn Toronto over. So, yeah, so overall the playing game, those are, we're going to be reacting to those games. And the playoff coverage is going to be very reactionary on the site on the podcast feeds.

We're going to see some changes in the pairings. So you're going to be maybe seeing a little bit of a different look, but it's going to be coming at you fast and furious. Syriot, anything else you want to add about the playing games? Anything else on your, are all hearts and minds clear? this afternoon for Sir Ratsohi or what's going on with you? I mean, clarity is hard earned and I haven't particularly earned it quite yet. So all I'll say is we've already got some good stuff for you guys. West Goldberg wrote a feature about Kevin Love.

And yeah, check out KOC's Hawks article. I think it's a pretty good depiction of exactly where they're at. And go yell at Michael Pina about his MVP and he was brave enough to put his entire awards ballot out there for you guys to dissect and criticize. So, you know, get it, get in on that. Yeah. Pina is not a coward at all. Pina is basically the embodiment of the, the Neo meme of the, you know, the come get some basically.

And I admire that about him. Yes. Hawks fans didn't really enjoy KOC's article. I was noticing. I was enjoying the response to that. I mean, have they enjoyed the season? Are they, like, watching this and being like, yeah, I know, we're just, you know, we're just a hop and a step away. There's a thing when there's something going on with your team where it's just kind of,

And like, you can know that it's going on and you can be annoyed about it, but like other people aren't allowed to talk about it. We saw that for years with the jazz where it was like they were defending. They were just like, no, man, the Gobert, no, you know, you don't understand Gobert. And then it's like, screen assists. The moment, the moment Gobert leaves, they're like, oh, yeah, he did. Yeah, wow. Okay. I just kind of, you know, that goes on.

That goes on. I can't even tell you how many times I've had people tweeted me and be like, don't talk about my team. There's just a, there's a surliness, you know, there's a surliness, I think that comes from. Someone makes one of your sibling. Yeah. Yeah, you can't say that. I can say that, you know. Anyway, Seer, good to see you.

I guess that is all. So we will catch you when we catch you in whatever form. Just keep an eye on the feed. No promises on whether or not Sir it now will be doing reactions. We'll see. It's going to be just like a game of, is boggle the game where they press the thing and it jumbles? Is that the, it's going to be sort of a grab bag. We'll see.

But we'll be coming at you soon in some form. This has been the answer. We're produced by Chris Hornetleg Sutton, and we'll catch you next time. I have no.