The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Brunson’s Brilliance in the Clutch, the Celtics’ Uncertain Future, and Milwaukee’s Giannis Decision With Chris Mannix

Episode Date: May 13, 2025

Russillo starts the show with his thoughts on the Knicks and Timberwolves both taking 3-1 leads (1:30). Then, he’s joined by Chris Mannix to discuss how far the Knicks can actually advance, what the future looks like for Boston, and what a trade package for Giannis might look like (25:41). Plus, Life Advice with Kyle (1:09:09)! Is it weird to use my roommate's shower? Check us out on YouTube for exclusive clips, livestreams, and more at youtube.com/@RyenRussilloPodcast The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Chris Mannix Producers: Steve Ceruti, Kyle Crichton, Mike Wargon, and Jonathan Frias Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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And listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Must be 21 and older and present in select states. Gambling problem? Call 100 Gambler or visit rg-help.com. On today's episode of the podcast, we will dig into New York taking a 3-1 lead in the second round of Eastern Conference playoffs, what this means for the Knicks, how they've been the tougher team, and of course, a disastrous close to this game for the Celtics and also the Tatum injury. A little bit on Ant's big night at Golden State and we've got Chris Mannix who is going

to give us all of the lottery perspective that we need as it reminds me that he was in the room last night for the ping pong balls but we do a ton of stuff on the playoffs and also some speculation about a new home perhaps for Yanis this summer and life advice. New York is where we start. They're up 3-1 in this second round series with the Celtics. They are one win away from their first Eastern Conference Finals appearance since 2000 where they lost two.

The Pacers in six games, Ewing, not super healthy in that series, played in four, really only played in three games. But look, I'll go through all of it. Much like you've heard me talk about these two teams all season long. When Boston was down 0-2, as bad as it looked with the blown leads, like they'll probably get game three.

They get game three in dramatic, well, not even dramatic fashion, in dominant fashion. And then I was like, you know, they're probably gonna get through this series. They'll get a two-two. Who knows, maybe the Knicks get another one in this thing. Four straight against them, probably not. Boston likes to make this hard on themselves.

And when it comes down to it, I think they'll get through this. Now with everything that happened last night, I certainly no longer feel that way. We'll get to the Tatum part of this a little bit later. Despite the regular season part of the evaluation, where the Knicks struggled against the best teams, how these two teams matched up against each other,

knowing that Detroit probably gave New York more of a series than we were expecting. But at the same time, sometimes I think when we think one team is better than the other one, we expect them that they're just never supposed to lose a playoff game in that specific series, which isn't entirely fair and historically inaccurate. But now that we've seen this play out like this and you want to talk about toughness, New York is the tougher physical team, they're tougher mentally, and Brunson is the best player in the court and the guy that you would trust the most.

So if you think about Boston and the questions about this group, uh, that have happened for a long time, you go back to 20, you're like, where's the toughness 22, where's the toughness 23, you're really going to lose the heat. So usually when you win a championship, you're able to put the toughest questions to bed and remember one put the toughness questions to bed and remember one of the storylines prior to the season where they won the title. And, you know, they have the market smart trade. It's like, this team is constantly questioned about the toughness of their

stars, then why would you trade? What is at least on paper? I don't know. I don't even know what I'm saying by saying on paper with market smart. I just felt like market smart was incredibly overrated. And I was like, if you're going with they can't win because he's gone, then you see a different basketball player than I do.

And then they win the title. And despite these little things that we've, or maybe major things that we've talked about Boston offensively in some of these big spots, it's like, well, when you win a title, I think, even if you want to go through, which I think is totally fair, the competition in the East at the time,

I don't know how Dallas turned into an injured team through the audit of the 24 playoff run of the Celtics, but they were dominant and they smoked everybody. And now we're sitting here in 25 going, are they actually still incredibly flawed? Are they actually just not really that tough? Do they not respond to these moments? Even though I think there's a lot of games you can say,

well, that's a tough win. That's the kind of game that you don't win unless you have some of that toughness and belief in yourself. And yet here we are in this series. So Brunson, again, even though I think boss has done a really good job containing him through long stretches, last night the dam broke. And the defensive stuff that I think Boston's always been able to bank on in this series,

even in the first couple of games, because that was really more about their offense falling apart. Brunson's third quarter, which is just a reminder of what this dude is capable of. 25 points, not total, but he scored or assisted on 25 points in the third quarter. If you look at some of the second spectrum numbers, and John Schulman had these on NBA.com where you just get so used to seeing Tatum hunt cat over and over and over again, and I've talked about how the Celtics can be a little too hot happy in their approach offensively. Well brunson in game for attack prisingis the way they set this up they set screens for brunson against prisingis twenty one times against horror for twelve times on 30 chances, so not total 33 possessions, which is 1.23 points per possession,

which is a great number. Prozingis has been a disaster in this series. And as soon as he comes in, they're gonna get him caught in between a defensive decision. And Brunson has been better attacking, pulling him out than I think Tatum has against Kaep. Bridges fourth quarter, here we go again.

He saved him in game two. And those jumpers, when he has the speed that he has off the pull-up, they're unguardable. Like if you're going as fast as he is with his arms and his reach and the angle of which he's fading away, and they're not even like straight at you and step back all the time. There are times where he is coming off a screen

and it's a handoff, sometimes it's a switch, and he's dribbling almost in a sprint to the baseline, angled away from the hoop, and then getting his body back. Like, if those are going in, there's really nothing you can do because you're just not gonna be able to contest it. So Bridges was terrific again. OG had a couple big shots after disappointing game three.

Cat can't hit threes in this series. You know, the great pick and roll stuff that we saw from Brunson and Kat during the regular season, the pick and pop stuff where it's like, it's just gonna challenge your offense, or excuse me, it's gonna challenge your defense. Kat's won a 10 on threes, but he's killing Boston on the glass, 14 rebounds a game.

He was 11 and 15 last night. New York in the paint dominant 73% on those shots a 6432 points in the paint advantage. And the double big lineup has been a major problem for Boston. Uh, Prezengis again lost. I don't know that you can deem him unplayable. It's almost like they're trying to figure out if they can discover something from him, but those are during very valuable playoff minutes. Horford, it's gonna be up and down at this stage of his career.

I think you take the highs and appreciate what he does in game three with the effort, and then you wonder what it's gonna look like coming back 48 hours later. And then Luke Ornette in eight minutes last night had zero rebounds. So, you know, New York was a team that was tough to get behind because of, well, I would say it this way.

Before the playoffs started, you're like, hey, I think the Knicks can win the East. That was tough. I wasn't gonna go there with it. I don't know how many people actually thought that it could possibly happen. And there was a lot of real stuff from the regular season that would prevent me from getting there.

If you look at who they were against Boston, Cleveland, and OKC, they were 0-10. They lost by an average of almost 17 points in those 10 games. If you look at their record against teams that were 500 or better during the regular season, the Knicks were 15 and 23. That was worse than the top seven teams in the West and only Detroit had a worse record against 500 or better teams in the top six in the East. So yeah, we can go through and say Mitchell Robinson and playing a bunch of those games,

we can go through and say Mitchell Robinson and playing a bunch of those games. But still, and look, if Mitchell Robinson is this much of a difference, extend them now. He has been really good. He's been really good consistently. I mean, the game three numbers, I'm not sure what to do with those. But in the three wins, it's a real difference. And with him being in there with Kat, you know, Kat not hitting the threes and those two guys just beating up, every rebound is a problem. Even when the Celtics defensive rebound, there's almost a delay of a couple touches

and a couple tips where it's just grinding on you. And a bit like that running the football stuff that we've talked about where is Houston going to be able to wear down a Golden State? Didn't work out, their offense isn't good enough. Does Minnesota absolutely wear down the Lakers in the fourth quarter because of their size and just all of the contested rebounds and all the physical shit that's just happening right around the rim over the course of a 48-minute game. The toll

that you are paying playing against that when you are just not matching their size. Boston should at least on paper with their different big lineups be able to have the kind of size, but it's not. It is a problem down there, for all these numbers that we can point to. So Boston's blown a 20-point lead, a 20-point lead, and a 14-point lead in the third quarters in these losses. I've talked about the hunting part of this. Boston had the defensive lapses. Bridges also hit great shots. They let Brunson get looser in that third quarter than I think they have at any longer stretch throughout this entire series. But this game started to fall apart.

Once again, if you're a Celtics fan, you've seen it before. Hey, they're going to get the switch. Hey, they're going to take forever on the shot clock. And they're going to run this out. And I think there's a very common thing that happens with basketball players is when you're a little bit more tired. That three with a little space just feels a lot better than driving against all of the contact that you're going to face in a playoff game.

Um, cat's done a better job holding up and the help has been there. And you start cheating off of some guys later in the game going, you know what? I'd still rather clog up Tatum here than make sure I'm getting a contest on drew holiday or Przingus who can't make a shot or for who you're going to cheat off on. And you know, Derek White, who lights it up in the first half, you're not going to cheat off him necessarily, but you understand the point. Like, Hey, I still want to try to shut off Tatum.

And once Tatum, you know, get shut off a few times as great as he was, there was that settling stretch that Celtics fans are so familiar with. And there's just maddening threes. I mean, some of the shot selection, how terrible it was when they needed something, where it's like you're playing right into the team's, the defense's hands by bailing them out with some of these terrible shots. So. Let's get to Tatum, because this part sucks. So the offense is falling apart, they get a timeout, they're gonna run something very different to finally get a different look, than just running something at the top

and then taking forever and settling. So they have it with Tatum off the ball. He's on the right elbow. Jaylen Brown's gonna come off the left elbow with a screen. They get it down to Tatum in that high post catch on the elbow. But again, they didn't want Tatum coming off a screen

and doing what they had just done as they were falling apart here. And as Jaylen Brown tries to secure the ball, it gets knocked away. OG gets it, goes the other way. Dunk three minutes left. It's 1 13, 1 0 4 and Tatum is down and he's down bad. Brown tries to secure the ball, it gets knocked away, OG gets it, goes the other way, dunk, three minutes left, it's 113-104 and Tatum is down. And he's down bad.

Now, this is somebody since he's been drafted in 2017 has played the most minutes in the NBA. He does not miss games. So whatever the Tatum arguments have been, one of the defaults with him is, okay, fine, he's not those other three or four guys, but this dude plays all the time. And now by the taping of right now, we still don't have the definitive word on what the injury is, but he needed to be helped off. He couldn't put any, anything down on that leg.

I'm not necessarily going to speculate, even though I think some of the speculation on it, uh, was a little weird because usually if it's the Achilles. You can walk. Um, but again, I'm kind of now doing the thing that I said that I wasn't going to do. So I'm going to stop myself right there. So look, you could sit there and say, hey, if Tatum stays in the game, they're still in it three minutes, nine points, not the end of the world. Weird stuff has happened.

Have you been listening the last 12 minutes? Because I don't know. I don't know that there was anything offensively that Boston does when stuff gets tight that you necessarily feel really good about. It looks really good for like three something quarters and then it doesn't. So I think much like the Lillard injury

where we allow ourselves to speculate on what this means, at least for Milwaukee's case, you know, the speculation on Giannis that we're going to talk to Mannix about a little bit later here. We're going to do the same thing with Boston. Injury topics are always a little weird. I think in a way it's nice that everybody can be really sensitive to it and feel bad for Tatum and what this will mean if it's a major injury, what it will mean for his career. I remember when Gordon Hayward went down with that broken ankle at the very start of the Celtic season and I was at home and I just thought, okay, I wonder what their offense is going to look like now with Hayward and I'd sent a tweet out or something that was just like, okay, this will

be interesting to see what the attack is and I think Marcus Smart's probably going to try to fill that void. And it was like, you would have thought I tweeted something about a president. It's like, how dare you? You know, and I was like thrown off because all I'm thinking about like back to the days of doing TV for the Celtics, if you've gone into halftime, you're like, hey, what do you think the offense is going to look like without Hayward's injury? You would say, Hey, this is what I think will or won't happen. Um, it was, it was weird. Like somebody got so mad at me that I was so mad that I actually DM the person, which I literally almost never do. Um, and I thought my thing was pretty straightforward. And then somebody had said to me like, Hey, that's very Skip Bailish-ish, which I didn't appreciate because Skip's tweet

when Haber went down was, a week East gets even easier for LeBron. And I was like, that fucking guy. I was like, yeah, I don't think those are the same. I don't think that they're the same. But we did it with Milwaukee, we're gonna do it with Boston because the Boston part of this is significant. Because if you look at Bobby Marks projections,

ESPN, Cap Guy, terrific, love Bobby. With the first round draft pick that Celtics will have, without resigning anyone, they're looking at a payroll with their tax bill north of $500 million, which has never ever happened before. So you have new ownership coming in, but some scenario where Wick is still really involved. And look, Wick throughout his entire ownership, I think his run is incredible. It's not just the two rings, it's that this team was very proactive.

When they had a decision of whether or not they should spend, they always spent. Wick and his group are the guys you would want owning your favorite basketball team. And you bring in a price tag of six billion and then the new ownership's like, so what's going on now? How's that tax work?

I thought these teams were like 230 million a year. It's 500 million. So can we trade that draft pick again? That's a lot to ask if this team had been able to pull off a repeat. Seems unlikely now. If they didn't repeat or don't, is it easier to make some sort of move? If Tatum's not playing, if Jalen Brown was the one player, because Jalen's owed $235 million

more on his contract. So if you were just running through the scenarios going like, okay, could you trade that contract out in a way where you feel like you're resetting yourself financially, but you're resetting the roster around Tatum, even if the last thing you would want to do is the new owners. Like the first thing we're doing is cutting costs. Cause a lot of new owners, they may do something that's expensive. They don't want to do to avoid the PR hit

of like the first thing that you do. And again, I warn any fan base, new owner syndrome is real, it has gone on for decades. Usually in that first 12 to 18 months, the new ownership group does something that'll end up being one of the dumbest things they do on their entire ownership resume. Dallas Mavericks, nice reminder.

Although we'll get to the lottery a little bit later. Mast fans feeling good today after the lottery win. So if they won another title with the first thing you do, break it up, probably not. So this, if Tatum's out into next year and they're eliminated here by the Knicks, I don't know. I don't know what the move is because it's not trading Drew Holiday. You're not going to get anything back for that guy. He's owed $105 million over the next three years. He's got a player

option at 37 years old for like in the thirties. Probably gonna pick that one up. Prezingis next year is 30.1 million. And again, Jalen Brown has four years and 285 million remain. So a dark day in Boston. Ant, that was fun. Ant games are probably my favorite games in the NBA. I guess I should say that I still hold out like those those just nights of enjoyment where Steph is Steph again because it's just not going to happen as consistently as it did during his prime. That's just science. I don't think any of us are shocked by that statement. But Ant doing what he did in the third quarter is I would say as of right now Steph is not eligible or just not available I should say with a hamstring injury, it's my favorite thing to see.

And so in a moment where the Warriors are up two at the half, like are they going to like even this series at two, two? And then you figure Minnesota gets game five at home, but then could Steph come back with that gap and all the speculation around that? Although I just don't know, cause hamstrings are so rough, they're just brutal, like the smallest little thing, and then it just lingers and lingers.

So who knows what he would even look like if he were gonna be able to come back. Who knows what game five ends up being, but the fact that Ant prevented this series from going 2-2 with his massive third quarter was really enjoyable. He had 16 in the third, Golden State had 17 total. What Ant did in the third quarter last night

was what Golden State did. Those third quarters during their prime years where it was just enough of this shit and just take over. On the other side of things for Golden State, some good, some bad. The bad part of it is playoff Jimmy. You could rename him passive Jimmy. He had nine shot attempts last night.

The best stretch that the Warriors had in the game is when he was on the bench to close out the first half. I don't know why, like I understand his approach to basketball, like we've seen it enough where he's kind of sizing things up, he's figuring things out. He's not gonna come out and take a million shots. Granted, he took a lot in game three,

but without Steph, he needs to be north of 20 shots. And a lot of times with the best players best players were like, how come he's not shooting, how come he's not shooting? It's like, well, do you want to just taking terrible shots the entire night? Like, what's the point of that? Just to appease our appetite for high shot volume because you're supposed to be the guy, like, shouldn't we appreciate the guy who's picking his spots and taking higher efficiency shots?

Well, if the other options are Draymond bringing the ball up, Pajemski, although Kaminga has been terrific. And aside, is Kaminga, Jalen Green with less opportunity? I don't know the answer to that popped in my head last night. But the Butler thing is incredibly frustrating because, you know, look, it looks like last night looked a lot like some of these regular season games with Miami where you were like what is going on with this guy the shot attempt stuff from Jimmy's never been really high because he gets at the free throw line so much but he didn't

get to the free throw line last night either he was a negative 30 a team worse negative 30 and it showed up so when I think back to like Jimmy in some of the quotes after Miami's like they took my joy away from me. Well, do they still have it? Because man, they need you and Golden State was in this game. I mean, even if I thought Minnesota eventually would pull away because that's what you think is going to happen with a better basketball team. You're you're watching it going, this is why coaches go crazy.

Because if everyone just played hard enough, everyone would have a chance. This zone thing that we're seeing constantly throughout the playoffs, I start to wonder, is the zone becoming this equalizer where if you're the lesser talented team, which is something I think everybody kind of grew up with, it was like, hey, we stink,

we're not as good as those guys. We're playing zone. Should that be happening in the NBA? Although I think Cleveland would submit, maybe we shouldn't have played it as much as we did in game four, even though it worked so well in game three. So Kers probably going at halftime going, we're in the fight. We're still in this thing. We can get this thing to two, two.

I think like that first half of last night is why I think all coaches and all sports go crazy because they're the, they're the absolute believers in our society. They will find a way to believe in their side. And that's what you want to be a coach. You don't want to show up being like, we don't have any chance. I've made the mistake when I was younger at times, like talking with a coach at a sport and being like, well, yeah, but like, I don't know that you guys really have a chance. I mean, it's like insulting a child

Like what no, I've never do it anymore. That's somebody on say thanks for the time. This is a tough series How could you possibly win these guys? Convinced themselves through the film and all the study and if they can just get that effort and that's what that first half was Until again aunt decided to shut the door. Ant now against Golden State is scoring seven and a half points in the first half of these games, and he's going for 20 in the second half. Randall was terrific last night.

You can, Minnesota's oddly having like the Rudy games and the non-Rudy games, and it doesn't really matter. But they take a 3-1 lead in this series and it probably is the way the series should look, despite some of the moments where you're like, why is Minnesota still screwing around with this team and being down in both of the last two games at Golden State? Final thought, I don't believe the lottery is fixed. The Ryan Rizzola podcast is brought to you by FanDuel.

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with FanDuel and NBA profit boosts. Simply make your bet. Activate your boost and go for even bigger winnings. Taking a look at the board. How about the Celtics being a four and a half point favorite in game five at home against the Knicks? When the model is the model, they just cannot quit those teams. And I'm not suggesting that I understand this better

than the people who put these numbers out there. For the record, again, I do not, although I still hate myself for not betting the under in game four Denver after watching what those guys did less than 48 hours later or earlier, I should say, in game three. So let's take a look at Denver at Oklahoma City. I do feel like that closing moment of game four for Oklahoma City could be

the defining moment of this thunder season and their postseason. That's how it felt to me. It feels a bit dramatic. So dramatic that I want to lay the 10 points at home against Denver. 10's a lot. I don't want to do that, but Moneyline is minus 480, so I don't want to do that. So is there a way I can find a way to bet on Oklahoma City, not have to lay the 10, not have to lay 480 to win 100? Can I figure out something that I think is likely to happen where I can get that number down,

maybe even get on the plus side of things? So let's take a look. So Oklahoma City money line, Jamal Murray to score 15 or more points, Aaron Gordon to score 15 or more points. The reason in being there is even though I'm going with the other side that I'm picking against, it feels like Murray and Gordon have to score

where if I'm trying to figure out secondary scores with Oklahoma City, it can be real hit or miss depending on, you know, who you're picking. You could go, Hey, this guy could go for 20. You also could have four. I don't see how Murray doesn't have 15 in the way this offense is running for Denver. I'd expect those guys, whether it's a blow up or survival mode, to be able to

get that. So that's now actually plus one six two. If you're going to Oklahoma City money line with those two prop bets. So that is the play. Don't just be a spectator this postseason, head to Fandle.com slash Ryan RYE and to download America's number one sportsbook and make every moment more must be twenty one and older and present.

Select states are 18 plus and present in D.C. Opt-in required bonus issued is non-retributable. Profit boost tokens restrictions apply including any token expiration and max wager amount. Cterms of sportsbook.fandle.com. Gambling problem call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com. Good to catch up with Chris Mannix, si.com in Chicago for the Combine. So we'll have some lottery stuff that we'll get to on the backend, but we start in New York, as I did with the pod today, where you have a Knicks team that has just shown their toughness in a way that even if I, like I loved watching them last year in that six year series, we know who Brunson is, but as I had mentioned in the open, there's all this regular season stuff. I was like, I don't really think they're going to actually end up

beating Boston. They're up 3-1 and then we have the Tatum injury. So before we get to the Tatum stuff and kind of Boston's big questions on the horizon here, what was your expectation in this series? I thought they went in five games. The regular season series doesn't always forecast what a series is going to look like. And the caveat of Nick Celtics in the regular season is that I think three of those games were played without Mitchell Robinson. So you knew he'd be a difference maker. But I thought the Celtic shot making coupled with the Knicks mediocre defense would be enough for them to win these games. I mean, they won two of them in the regular season by 20 plus, three of them by double figures. They got it done. The difference though, in this series is that in clutch minutes,

Jalen Brunson has been by far and away the best player on the floor. Um, you know, I was looking at some of these numbers, the Celtics, you know, with the score within five points in the last five minutes of the fourth quarter or overtime, 12 points on 24 possessions in this series, three of 23 shooting one of 11 from three point range, uh, four turnovers in those minutes. They have been awful in clutch time minutes. Whereas the Knicks turn the ball over to Brunson and he finds a way to make plays. I didn't anticipate there being, you know,

that having that big an impact on the series. Yeah, I'm with you. The clutch numbers are alarming and it just feels so unfair to look at, what do you wanna do, five, six seasons of the Celtics group and have all the questions that you had about them be reignited now.

Like, you know, this is, and it's like, yeah, but it feels a little dismissive, a dismissive of championship, another finals appearance, but watching the shot selection and the settling and the lack of movement, it's shocking a team this talented that is just had it happened to them twice in this series can find themselves doing the same fucking things in game four. Not to be that, but it just seems impossible

that you could be in a time out going, hey, we're doing it again, let's stop doing it. And they can't, they can't seem to help themselves. And it starts to just, again, I'm not saying, wow, you know, what does 24 mean? Because the ringing is a ring and it's so freaking hard to do this. But I'm, I'm just blown away that this group would fall into this trap. Yeah. And this group, like you look at Denver from a couple of years ago, like they kept their core together,

but they did lose some pieces on the fringes, the Bruce Browns, the Jeff Greens, that in part explains why they weren't able to repeat. The Celtics brought basically everybody back. Like they've had the injury to Sam Houser in the series. I need to know more about this poising illness. It's wild. One of the wilder stories I think of this whole postseason. I've been extremely disappointed in the defense of Derek White and to a lesser degree Drew Holliday.

Like they're there purportedly as two of the best defensive guards in the NBA and they can do nothing with Jalen Brunson. I think White's been getting cooked for most of this series. Holiday's been better, but he had that bad foul at the end of what came to that sent Brunson to the free throw line.

You know, this is what they're counting on. As much as they're expected to make shots when they're open, they've gotta be elite defenders, and in clutch time situations, they haven't been that. So it's just disappointing kind of across the board, the way this team has played. What are you ready to say about what the Knicks can do the rest of the way?

If we're going to sit here and assume Indiana is the team they're playing, they can beat Indiana. You know, I don't think Indiana is that special. I think the Knicks, I think they've got the horses to do it. I don't see them beating a Western Conference finalist winner. Like I don't see them beating Oklahoma City or Denver or Minnesota.

I just don't see it. I don't think they have the defensive skillset or the defensive horses to beat either any of those teams that come out of the West, but can they get to the finals? Yeah, I think they can easily get to the finals. I don't think an Indiana series is necessarily all that problematic for them. I think the same strengths they have in this series

being Brunson, Bridges and Ananobe defensively, Townes in the post. I think those are gonna be similarly strong for them in a conference finals matchup. But you get to the NBA finals, I think those are going to be similarly strong for them in a conference finals matchup. But you get to the NBA finals, I don't know, man. I just don't, I don't know if you see it, but I don't see them, how they match up well with any of those teams.

Are you, you know, maybe it's assuming a little bit here with OKC getting through Denver because you know, there was some, I thought it was pretty cool how they put up the clutch numbers and where okay. C had been in clutch moments against Denver. They throw up that graphic and then okay. C closes as the much better clutch team. Like you just start to expect, even though the number with okay. C was they've only played in 24 clutch games, lowest total.

And then I'm kind of sitting there and be like, okay, but is the best team in the NBA now just going to suck because they weren't challenged enough? I mean, 24 is still over 25% of the regular season games is technically clutch games. It just happens to be the least. Like Boston played in 33 clutch games in 24. Does it mean that Boston was more conditioned

for clutch games? Cause they had seven more opportunities to like figure out who they were. So it's as they were struggling against Denver, and then you pop up that graphic, it's like, Oh, guess these two things are connected. But I just would essentially sit there and be like, well, I refuse to believe that they're just now going to be bad in the clutch all the time because they're, they're less comfortable than some of these other

teams that had so many more opportunities to play clutch time during the regular season. So it is assuming a bit, uh, that they're just going to get through Denver. Cause if Denver had gotten through this, you'd be like, all right, well, look, they still have the best player in the world. I don't even know what I would do with Denver and Minnesota. I don't know if last year would have played in it, all of that. But as we've, I don't know that it's a reset because we're still obviously

not done here with the second round, but are you of the position now where it just feels like it's Oklahoma city's title, considering what could be coming out of the East and the other side of the West? Yeah. Again, I'm with you. This is going to be a tough finish for Oklahoma City. I think they're going to have to do it in seven games. I don't think they can close out Denver in Denver. But if they get that far, I just think their defensive versatility is going to be a problem for the Knicks. It's going to be a problem for the Pacers. I mean, you would have thought that Boston with its defensive wings could have slowed

Brunson down more than they have. But I look at what Oklahoma City can throw out there. You can just send big, strong, long bodies at Brunson all game long. I mean, whether it's Shea, you know, Dohert, Alex Caruso, Kason. I mean, they just, they can just send waves at you, physical guys. And Oklahoma city, you know, they're not the biggest team in the league, but I'd argue they're the most physical team in the league. Like one through five, they are extremely physical.

They'll bump and grind you and try to take advantage that way. I just think that's a tough matchup for the Knicks and the Pacers if they get to the finals. I'm just waiting to see what... I think there's more to come with this Nuggets series. I just think Denver... I think a game seven in Oklahoma city is going to be tight. It's going to be really tight.

And I think we're going to see what Oklahoma city is made of in a game like that. Yeah. I think, I think that's the right way to look at it. Cause I feel like even by asking that question and being dismissive of a lot of different stuff, but the realities of Oklahoma city gets through this. And then Cleveland and Boston are both gone. There's nothing to feel but much better about your chances

considering who was remaining in the field. When Boston played Oklahoma City this year, at no point did I think Boston was better than Oklahoma City, even with what would have, Boston probably would have been a favorite, had they made it through the West. But if you look at the regular season game, they took 55 threes on average in those two games against them.

They didn't shoot it well. We can get the shoot shot variant stuff. I think the way those games closed. I was like, this is a problem. This is a problem. But look, the only Boston question I have now is with the Tatum injury. What do you think like the questions that Boston is going to have to face based on the uncertainty, which we still have with what Tatum's injury is, but what do you think is the to-do list for this team if this is as bad as it looked last night? Yeah, there's going to be some payroll pairing this off season. There's no doubt about it. The question is how significant is that pairing?

I think you can safely assume that Sam Houser will be the first guy to go. I think the Celtics saw enough of Baylor Shireman in the regular season to believe that he can be a lower cost Sam Houser replacement. You plug him into those Houser minutes and I think they feel comfortable with that. The question then becomes like, do one of their high price guards go? Like, can they afford to keep Drew Holliday?

Can they afford to keep Derek White? Pritchard's on a great contract that he's going to stay, but you've got the question of bringing back Al Horford. What kind of deal does that look like? What does that do to your payroll? Like I think the reality is you're gonna lose at least a guy in this off season. The question is, how important is that guy going to be?

How ready are you to replace him with whatever you have in-house or you might sign at a low cost in the off season. I long believe Ryan that this team was as currently constructed was only protected by a championship. Like if they want a championship with this current group one, two in a row, no ownership group, whether it's WIC or Chisholm would come in and fundamentally dismantle that. They would keep that team intact at least until they, they lost in,

in a playoff round. But this is the way this is shaking out. I think you're going to see some form of change in Boston. It just remains to be seen how, how substantial it is. Do you have any read on the Tatum injury? Not really. They just like, and I've done probably what you've done. I've talked to a lot of trainers and medical experts around the league and they've all kind of reacted the same way with like hold up on the Achilles stuff because when you have an Achilles injury, you don't react like that.

Like you do go down, but I'm glad you also said it right. Because like that was very surprising to me. Because every Achilles injury we see, whether it was the the Kobe one, the Dame one, James Weisman, where it's almost confusion and then it's not painful and then you can walk. Yeah. So I'm glad you said it as well in the people that you've talked with. So keep going because I know. No, yeah. I mean you oftentimes you kind of see guys turn around, like, Wiseman actually turned around,

or one, like he thought somebody stepped on his foot in that moment. You know, Kobe walked his way to the free throw line. Even Durant, you know, same thing, kind of, there's a resignation to, to the, to the guy that has this, because they know what happened, but it's not the kind of, you know, excruciating pain that Tatum looked like he was in at the moment.

Even when he was being wheeled off, you could see there was still pain there. There was still a lot going on with that ankle. I think he's obviously done for the series. I think there's no doubt about that. But I think best case scenario for Boston is it's some kind of ligament tear that doesn't require the recovery time of an Achilles. I mean, Achilles injury, even in today's modern NBA, where guys recover from things a lot quicker, that is still almost always a year recovery time. And if you come back a little bit earlier than that,

you're not the same guy. It takes you six months to get back to being close to the player that you once were. So I think even the Celtics, the hope is that it's some kind of ligament tear of some sorts that maybe requires surgery, but only has a six-month recovery time as opposed to a 12-month recovery time. Some serious semantics work here with this Yana story where the headline yesterday, and it set off a lot of buzz around the league,

as I'm sure you're well aware, especially being in Chicago, of just as soon as you land, where the headline yesterday and it set off a lot of buzz around the league is that I'm sure you're well aware, especially being in Chicago of just as soon as you land, I land yesterday, you get the text. It's like, Hey, I think, you know, what do you think? You know, all this different stuff. And it's like, okay, well, my position was always that if Yannis was happy, that was probably going to be good enough for me. If I were Horst, it's been like, look, we have one of the stars of the league.

He's terrific. The options around us are very limited, but going back into next year with this kind of player who's this special. And if we win 48, 50 games, like who knows? And, you know, there's, there's a lot of teams that I do think, like even look at the Knicks going, okay, fine, we're not gonna be the one or two seed, but like, let's just get in. Home court doesn't seem to matter anymore

in this modern version of the playoffs. Like a very, I don't wanna even call it passive, but whenever Bill and I have these discussions of like, what do you think of this? And like, you know, I think Cleveland just probably runs it back and says Garland was hurt because they were so good in the regular season. And I always feel like the default setting for most of these GMs is just kind of run it back and says Garland was hurt because they were so good in the regular season. And I always feel like the default setting for most of these GMs is just kind of run it back.

This however, feels a little different because Giannis' approach to say, I just wonder if there's some hinting there that really tells you that he's good with moving on and if you're the Bucks, then it might be the move to just go like, let's do it now. Cause then if it gets nasty after another year, then it might be the move to just go like, let's do it now. Cause then if it gets nasty after another year, then the market for him is likely more limited. So I know you've talked to some people on it, so speculate away and tell us where you're at on this story.

I mean, like Janis is, is telegraphing that he has no interest in being Dirk Nowitzki. Like he doesn't want to be the guy decomposing on the end of the Bucs bench when they're a mediocre team. Like he has said it in podcasts, he said it on his brother's podcast recently, like he wants to win another championship. And even the most optimistic outlook of the Bucs next year does not have them coming within a stone's throw

of a championship. They are, in my opinion, without Dame, because I think he's gone, injury-wise, they're a 500 team. Because you're talking about replacing Dame with much lesser talent. Maybe you can go out there, use some of their newly found financial flexibility

and get a guy like a campaign type to fill into that role. But you're still under the best of circumstances where Giannis plays like an MVP again, a 500 team and a first round exit. And then with one less year on his contract, your options, as you said with Gian Yanis are a lot more limited. Like to me, it would be front office malpractice, not to aggressive, whether or not Yanis blesses this or not, to not go

out and aggressively pursue a trade because the idea of bringing a guy back, just because he's a great player in his prime and he might sell some tickets and he makes your franchise relevant, that is such loser talk. Like that is such a loser perspective for any front office to have. Like you and I kind of came up on the Danny Ainge mindset

where if you're not winning at a championship level, his viewpoint was to just lose at the worst possible level. That's why he broke up the team in the early 2010s in Boston and it turned out to be a great success. And it's not just what Ainge did, like Oklahoma City. When they realized they were at the end, yeah, Paul George wanted to go, but they dealt George, they dealt Russ, they got all these assets

and that's why they're in this position. Milwaukee, I think right now, with the teams that are out there that are probably gonna be sniffing around, and we can talk about them, but the teams that are out there, they've got a chance to get one of those all-time great rebuilding packages.

And I think it's crazy for them not to explore it, just to bring this guy back and satisfy your fan base and sell a few tickets. I don't understand that at all. So to me, you know, and I think there's a lot of GMs out there that believe they're going to do this, that they believe they're going to look at strongly at a Yanis deal with or without his expressed desire to be traded. But I think they've got to be proactive with all this

because this is their chance to start to, you know, get this team back on a different direction. Yeah, the quote made me think, okay, this is probably the nicer version of what would be said in 26, if 26 went like 25 did. So even if Jan has said the right things to me, I go, all right, now, I think there's another part of this where over the years we were conditioned to be like, well, when your guy wants out, you don't really get to pick where he goes except.

Ironically, the Dame deal, the same Bucks team where he wanted to go to one place in Portland's like, look, you're under contract and you can say whatever you want, but you have a longer term deal here. So it's not going to be up to you as much. That's the part of this that I want to, because if it is an open market where Milwaukee can trade him wherever they want, which I'd still be a little surprised if Giannis and his representation were just like, yeah, cool, let us know. Just let us know where we're going.

That's usually not the way that it would work out for a player of this stature. So if it's an open market, maybe this changes everything for Milwaukee. Maybe it makes all the basketball sense, despite never wanting to move on from a player of his talent. That part is gonna be really interesting

because if you have four or five teams bidding on him, this is a completely different deal than just the give us what you can and you get to keep your good players because this is the only place that he said that'll go. Yeah, I think they've got some options here. I think they're in a strong position. Number one, because of the contract that Yanis is under

with the two guaranteed years left. And number two, I don't think that Yannis would protest too many deals. Like I don't think that Giannis would try to steer his way to a specific location because of lifestyle or any non-basketball reasons. Every readout I've had on Giannis is that he wants to put himself in the best position to win. And the teams that we can talk about

that have the assets to acquire him, if they acquired him, they would immediately be in a great position to win. The question then becomes like, what are those teams and what would they have to give up? Now I've done kind of a 180 on some of these teams in the last 48 hours as I've talked to people in Chicago. I came in to this Yanis, and I've been thinking about Yanis deals since they got knocked

out because I never believed he was going to come back given the Dame injury. But think about Oklahoma City with Jalen Williams, the Hardenstein contract, all the draft picks that they have, that team's makes sense. But does Oklahoma City wanna tie itself to a player that is going to consume 35% of its salary cap? Like they've got a lot of contracts, even with a big deal, they're gonna have to work out in the years to come. San Antonio, getting the number two overall pick, all of a sudden you're saying, all right,

well, if you're Milwaukee and you love Dylan Harper, you can say this is our next franchise guy. We're trading the franchise guy, but we're getting one back in return. And we're getting a whole smorgasbord of, you know, Kelden Johnson, Devin Vassell types that can go into that deal. But if the Spurs acquired Yanis,

that kind of starts a clock on a Webinama window, at least window 1.0, because if they don't win a championship with Giannis at 30, 31, Darren Fox at 27, 28, four years from now, when those guys are either well past their prime or potentially even gone, Wemba Nyama might be looking around going like,

where's the rest of my talent? Where is the group of players that I'm gonna win with when these two guys are long gone? I think Houston's interesting, but does the walkie really want anything that's built around Jalen Green? Like I don't, and do they insist on getting Albin Thompson back, which would be a non-starter for me

if I was Houston. So, on the surface, to me it looked initially like, all right, there's gonna be a lot-starter for me if I was Houston. So, on the surface, to me, it looked initially like, all right, there's gonna be a lot of teams out there with big packages that you could send to Milwaukee for Yanis, but it might take a lot more work by the bucks to unearth some of those packages. Yeah, look, I mean, there's a lot of really good stuff in there, and the price is, I mean, there's a lot of really good stuff in there. And the price is, I mean, if Giannis is letting Milwaukee dictate between three to five different teams here, then the pricing of this is entirely different because so many of the other superstars that were traded, it was like, you're going to lose the trade, the talent trade, other than the SGA and the picks for Paul George.

But the norm is, Hey, we're going to kind of throw like two, maybe a third pick in there. Um, granted, look, I know there's other deals like go bear and bridges, which with the swaps ends up being more picks. But if you're Milwaukee and you're like, all right, we're sorting through, is there a, is there a Jaylen Williams deal in this? I don't know who other than a men, I mean, look, I like Taris and too, but we're talking about Giannis. I hold out hope for Jabari, but I don't know that that's going to sell a ton of tickets. The Jaylen Green price, especially after this playoff run, it's like, man, what are

we actually getting? Like if we are we getting somebody else where it's like, cool, this guy's gonna score a ton of points because Dame is out and Giannis isn't here anymore, so do we have something we're- He's just a contract at this point. To me, he's just a contract. Like, he's not- Yeah.

And even, look, even with the Nets, if you liked Cam Johnson and you liked the picks, I don't know why, because I've been told, like, Brooklyn, look out for Brooklyn, Brooklyn, and it's like. Me too. Why would Giannis be okay with that one though? Like cool, I'm in Brooklyn.

I don't know, I mean, the nets of any team that was in that drawing room, they were hoping for a top four pick. Cause they believe that a top four pick plus whatever they could offer in a deal would have made it interesting, would have put them in play for Yanis. Without that top four pick, I don't think they're in play. I don't think they can put together the package that would satisfy Milwaukee in that situation. But they were like in that room and outside that room, I'm telling you, they were

on pins and needles hoping that they were the team that moved up in the outside that room, I'm telling you, they were on pins and needles, hoping that they were the team that moved up in the draft. I look, I get the perspective of Oklahoma City, from what I was hearing, like, you know, that's a big number for them to absorb. But like, the thunder that they're really young, but they're not that young, you know what I mean? Like, they're not like, where it's not the point where they can afford to just punt on, you know, a couple of years as they continue to grow.

Like, Shea is just hitting his prime. Lou Dort is right around that age range. Like, if you have a chance to go out and get a player of that caliber and open up a window that, you know, four or five years to be the dominant team in a Western conference that just got a lot tougher. Like, you know, Cooper Flag, you know, four or five years to be the dominant team in a Western conference that just got a lot tougher. Like, you know, Cooper flag, you know, going to Dallas makes that conference tougher. San Antonio, whatever they do with that second pick makes that conference a lot tougher. If you have a chance to move the needle, I think you've got to, you know, take a swing. And if you're

Milwaukee, like, I don't know if Jalen Williams is James Harden, but I think Jalen Williams outside of that Oklahoma City ecosystem is going to put up big numbers. I think he's, he's a big time player, two way player that I think has, you know, front facing potential with your franchise. Like that, that would be the team I'd want to be in the mix most if I'm Milwaukee. If I'm Milwaukee, I'm watching the rest of this series, hoping the Thunder lose, and then hoping that Sam Presti and that front office feel like they have to do something with the teams in the West arming up around them.

Yeah, I'm glad you got to the Presti part of this because if there's one GM who I would feel like would resist a positive or negative result in what he was gonna do this summer would be Presti. Like he'll either look at his team and go, hey, I really like this team. Say we have him talking, we lose to Denver or we lose to Minnesota. If I really like this team and I like chat and I like my double big situation and Giannis has a bit of an injury history and maybe does that screw up the SGA spacing? Like I'm just trying to figure out the stuff that they'd be talking about. Just because I lost when I wasn't supposed to, I'm not then going to

trade away all these assets, but then he'd be criticized like, oh, this guy's so patient and he's stockpiling all these picks and like whatever you just lost in the second round or if they were to lose in the Western Conference finals. Uh, because I think other teams would be more motivated after a disappointing playoff exit to go, we're gonna change this whole thing around. And as I say all those things, thinking that I would understand like Presti

being very rational, perhaps the most irrational moment when you're eliminated, you'd say, hey, I just got Janis. Like I've completely changed, completely changed our ceiling and knowing that if SGA is on one side and Giannis is on the other side, even without the spacing that you would love to have from the guy that's on the non-ball side

and whatever Oklahoma City is running, we just have somebody now with whatever big you're keeping with this physical presence. It would be hard to argue against wanting to do that. I don't know if they win a title, if it changes everything. I think a lot of times sometimes that stuff is bullshit. I'm still not 100% sure I've ever believed that Durant didn't want to go to Golden State. It just sounded better when they lost and blew the 3-1 lead, that it was like, oh, now

I can go ahead and do this because I still think he would have done it if they had won. Is there any other team that we need to at least think about here? Let me just, let me add this about Oklahoma City. Oklahoma City, I think rightfully gets the value of chemistry and continuity. I mean, if you look at the teams that have won championships over the last four or five years, the value of chemistry and continuity. I mean, if you look at the teams that have won championships

over the last four or five years, a common thread is continuity with its core, right? Like Denver, Boston wins a championship. They had been trying to climb that mountain for years. Denver wins a championship. It took them a long time with that same group to break through. I mean, Golden State has had the core of its team together forever. Even that Bucks team, yeah, they added

Drew Holliday, but the guts of that team was largely together for a number of years. I think there's probably some unease within Oklahoma City about the idea of maybe not gutting your team, but trading 40% of your starting lineup to get a guy back that you're not 100% sure fits in. As great as Giannis is, it doesn't necessarily, and this sounds crazy, it doesn't necessarily fit into the kind of players that they're going after out there. Virt, you know, everybody, virtually everybody spaces the floor in Oklahoma City. You know, virtually everybody is a high level passer in Oklahoma City. I think they're they're probably a little wary about that. And look, if they could get him for, you know, 20 million dollars,

100 percent, you roll the dice on that one. But again, it goes back to Janice on that contract, potentially on extension, that's you know, 35% of their salary cap. And I do think there's going to be some unease in Oklahoma City win or lose about doing a deal of that magnitude because of those potential pitfalls. Okay. Last night, everybody loses their mind. Dallas wins the lottery because of the full circle drama of the Lakers. We already, everybody listening to this already knows the timeline, so I need you to get into it. I don't understand living in a world where I believe every conspiracy theory.

I don't understand it. I don't know if it's fun. I don't know if it's the people somehow root for things to be rigged, to then justify things that don't go their way. Not to say that there aren't some things that don't know if it's fun. I don't know if it's the people somehow root for things to be rigged, to then justify things that don't go their way. Not to say that there aren't some things that certainly feel rigged. The lottery is not one of the things that I feel are rigged. People love saying that it's rigged.

I don't fucking get it. I'll never understand it. I don't know if it's rigged. Why did Duncan end up in San Antonio? Of all of the people that end up in San Antonio, It's like, yeah, let's give the Spurs. Let's give one of the smallest markets, a guy that's going to be one of the greatest players in the history of this game. So basically you'll have results to be like, well, why would Rose go here? The Zion one was weird when Jim Rome asked David Stern about the lottery being rigged. And granted, I think he wanted the

soundbite because it was good and played. And here I still remember it years and years later. It was because of the Chris Paul trade that they ignored it, then they wanted to do it. I don't know why, I mean, again, unless you think that Luca Force was forced to the Lakers and then the NBA helped. I mean, everybody knows what the conspiracy theorists think on this stuff. But then when there are people like Zach Lowe who was in the lottery room, Tim Bontemps, I don't know, have you ever been in the room for the ping pong balls? I was in the room. are people like Zach Lowe, who was in a lot of room, Tim Bon temps, I don't know, have you ever been in the room for the ping pong balls? I was in the room. That's what I'm saying.

I was in the room last night. I've been, oh, you were in it last night. All right. So take us through it. I've been in the room for the better part of the last 10 years, really every year, but the, the COVID years where they didn't have, uh, media representatives or didn't have, I think 2021, they might have had one or two. But every year that they have allowed half a dozen,

a dozen media members in, I've wanted to be there. In part because it's just different, right? Like it's something that the cameras are not rolling on in that moment, so as a writer, you want to be able to show something that people generally can't see. in part because I do like being stuck in a room for an hour and a half with a bunch of executives that have no choice but to sit there and talk to me. But you know, you, you can approach everyone in that room and they've got nothing better to do. They can't play with their phones. They can't, you know, text. They can't talk to anybody on the phone like this. You're just stuck there until the televised version of the lottery goes through. Dacca, what you said, it is impossible to rig the NBA draft lottery.

There are 14 ping pong balls placed inside what is basically an oversized water jug with air blowing through it to spin it around. And four of them are selected every 10 seconds. Now, the NBA goes to such great pains to ensure that there is no appearance of impropriety. The guy that is telling the ping pong ball selector when to draw from the bucket, he has his back turned to the whole proceeding. Like he is standing there with his back to the drawing

and has a stopwatch in his hand. And every 10 seconds, he will raise his hand and that's when a ball is drawn. It would take a Houdini-esque act to be able to rig the NBA draft lottery. Now that being said, if I was, you know, going a little bit off here, but if I was going to make any changes to the draft lottery,

I would probably increase the odds of the team with the worst record of getting that winning combination. Like 14% is where those bottom three teams, that those are their odds of getting the four ball combination. That's not a very high number, right? Like we're all, you know, sort of in shock that the Mavericks with the 1.8% chance

of laying the top pick got it. And believe me, it was shocking in that room. But a 14% chance isn't a great number either. I know why the NBA does it. They want to do everything they can to curb tanking, to stop the race to the bottom. But I think we've seen over these last couple of years, it doesn't really change that.

For these bottom feeding teams, they're still gonna try to lose out and get some of those best odds. If you're going to help to lose out and get some of those best odds. If you're going to help these teams rebuild, help these teams get back on top, I would probably bump those odds back up once again. It used to be 25%. Maybe I'd bump it to 20% for the team or two teams with the worst record. But to circle back, there is no way of rigging the draft lottery. It is as, there's nothing suspect about what the lottery is.

We agree on that. And as far as flattening it out at the top, I feel for Silver in the NBA on this one, because no one can make up their minds on this because when you had it at a 25% odd of winning this thing, Minnesota had the worst record, Philly had the worst record, Nets had the worst record, Phoenix had the worst record. So that's 15 through 18. They all had a 25% chance of winning the lottery. They win the lottery and then it's like, well, no, let's actually flatten this out a little bit more because now we're encouraging tanking in this race

to have the worst record. So that all made sense between the playing game and changing the odds, tanking, which is a huge problem. It's a huge problem for business. It's a dirty word. Teams won't even say it when they're doing it. And when they're actually doing it, the lineups, they have to pretend that they're not.

And then you get other teams bitching about other teams that are tanking where it's like, you're doing it and when they're actually doing it, the lineups, they have to pretend that they're not. And then you get other teams bitching about other teams that are tanking where it's like, you're doing it too, but you're mad that they're tanking because their injury report. Like, you know, everybody knows, everyone is guilty here at the table. Everybody understands what's happening. And I don't blame the teams for doing it.

Because again, the whole point is, especially if you're a team that has no cap space or no one wants your cap space, you can't pull off any trades. This is the only way that you can fix yourself, unless you're the Miami Heat and three guys get together to decide to go down there. So we had something that kind of worked, but it still emphasized tanking. It de-emphas emphasized tanking. It deemphasizes tanking. And now everybody's mad because teams that shouldn't be getting these top picks are getting these picks.

I mean, when it came down to Dallas, San Antonio, the Sixers in Charlotte, this doesn't happen a lot. I was rooting for Charlotte. I don't know that I can say out loud. There's a lot of times over the years where I'm like, yeah, this is me rooting for the Hornets organization. But I was at that point because I could understand whether it's San Antonio getting lucky again, Dallas going through everything they went through, but at least good for those fans. Although it just seems absurd that Nico is in this position, just months removed

from the worst trade in NBA history. And then the Sixers who had championship aspirations and then shut it down. And I don't blame those guys. Like they were unapologetic about it. Like we're, we are tanking. We're not going to pretend, but if you're Utah or you're Washington, like, and not only did we not get the first pick, we're outside of this whole thing. Like Utah, who I wanted to get the first pick.

I wanted Utah to get the first pick. I wanted Utah to get it. I am a little biased because I like Will Hardy so much. But I also think as an organization, star players, difference makers don't wanna go there. So it has to be somebody that's homegrown. And who knows, maybe the fourth and fifth or sixth or eighth pick in this draft end up being outside

of probably Cooper, who seems like a pretty clean prospect, a real difference maker because that's happened before, obviously, with NBA draft pick history. But if you're Utah, you may have to get a little proactive here. You have to. I want to get to that. But the NBA needs as many teams as possible to be relevant. In an ideal world, there's one season where all 30 teams up until the last week are competing for a playing spot. That is the NBA's fever dream. But even if that's not gonna happen, you want each one of these markets to have some hope, right? Like a

franchise player that they can build around. I'd argue Charlotte kind of already has that. Like, they've got LaMelo, they've got Brandon Miller. Like, they've got foundational pieces there that if they can just keep these guys on the floor and make the right decisions around them, you might have that. But Washington does not have that. Utah definitely does not have that. Those teams were desperate for some star power and they're going to wind up drafting fifth or sixth. Like that, that, that fifth and sixth, that doesn't work. Um, that that's not good for the NBA. I think getting those guys, those teams as, as tough as it was to watch them, you know, scuffle through the end of the season. I think having those teams get the two top picks makes the NBA better overall.

Now Utah, I like Will Hardy too. I'm a fan. Ryan Smith did so many interviews the last couple of days, so many interviews. And he's talking about, we've got assets to play with. We've got things we can do. No team in the top five needs to make a deal more than the Utah Jazz. They've got to get inside the top three. They've got to get their hands on Ace Bailey or Dylan Harper. I think Dylan Harper is probably going to go number two. Whoever has

that pick, even with some overlap with Stephen Castle, I would imagine the Spurs are not in a position to turn down a talent of that caliber. So I would guess that if they stay there, they'll draft him. I would think any team moving up would probably draft him. But Ace Bailey there at number three. Not not a sure thing by any stretch. Some definite questions about Ace Bailey, but at his best, he has a really high ceiling. He is a bona fide shop maker,

a elite offensive player on the wing. The Jazz need that. If they stay at number five and draft like VJ Edgecombe, who I think is fine, Jeremiah Fears, who probably is fine. He's only 18 years old, but you've already got George and Collier kind of there in that backcourt. Like to me, if they sit at five and just draft the best player on the board, that's a whiff. They've got all these draft picks.

Philly doesn't really need an ace Bailey. Like I think Philly's obviously with Darrell going to be interesting to watch in the next month. Like what do they do with that draft pick? Could they be convinced to move down for future draft picks they could use in a bigger deal down the line? Like Utah's gotta do something, man. Like they draft edgecombed or fears, or whoever they've got at the top of their board, they're irrelevant once again.

Maybe Bailey doesn't work out, maybe he's not, you know, the guy that some teams think he is, but he at least has a ceiling. He has a high ceiling that in two years years he could turn out to be the franchise player that you're desperately missing. This is a big, big draft, I think, for Utah. I know you have more on the combine and more rumors and all that kind of stuff coming up on SI.com this week.

So enjoy Chicago, man. Appreciate it. And now it's time for today's winning bundle segment presented by State Farm. In basketball, it's all about that trusted coach-player connection. When a coach has a player's back, bold plays happen, just like when your team has every piece in place. State Farm isn't just an insurance company, they're the teammate on your bench. Whether it's a fender bet or store of damage or even just a quick policy question,

your agent is there to listen, assist, and help you choose the right coverage when it matters most. That said, a few standout winning bundles come to mind. We have talked about coaches, but let's talk a little bit about teammates here. Minnesota fans, it was probably rough at times after the catch rate. You're thinking, was this really the best move? This team made it to the Western Conference Finals. They're still really young.

Few shots here, few shots there. Maybe this team is playing for an NBA championship. Who knows what would happen in a matchup where Minnesota was probably more equipped than Dallas to deal with Boston. But as the season progressed, you were probably still disappointed. Maybe even disappointed in some of those

DiFincenzo missed threes. But what we have seen is perhaps the vision that this front office had in pairing up not just a coach and a player, but two teammates that were supposed to fit better in the playoffs. Off ball, Julius Randall, on ball, Julius Randall, the option that is a secondary option to Ant. Ant, who is a teammate who despite taking the face of the franchise label away from Kat, seemed to do it with such graciousness. And then now with the team clearly being his, um, and his aggressive killer

basketball mentality still wants the dudes around him to get involved, knows that Randall has to have these big moments if this team can compete for an NBA championship. All of this, maybe it's matchups to the Lakers and Golden State, but all of this seems to be coming into play at the perfect time as Minnesota closed with a great regular season stretch. The healthiest they've been all season, playing the defense that we'd expect from this group and having variety on offense that I think this front office envisioned after they moved on from somebody as talented as Carl Anthony Towns.

That feels like a winning combination. Off the court, you still need teammates who are there when it counts. That's where State Farm comes in with agents to help you choose coverage that's right for you. You can focus on what really matters, whether that's hitting game winners or just getting through the day like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. State Farm coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability and eligibility vary by state.

You want details? Buy. I drive a Ferrari. 355 Cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you can possibly imagine. Best of all kids, I am liquid. So now you know what's possible. Let me tell you can possibly imagine. And best of all kids, I am liquid.

So now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. Our email address is liveadvicerr at gmail.com. I left this out in the open. I just want to acknowledge it. The aunt and one finish with his left hand was insane. That is all. Hi, Kyle.

Yo, can we start with a little advice for me? Yeah. So remember I told you I was golfing with my father-in-law on Friday and I was worried about like being outnumbered or whatever. So it was a full five. There was two Koreans that basically just saw that there was a Korean group ahead of us and just left us to go with them and they had a great time. So I thought it was just, no, it's just a lot of Koreans go to that place and I feel like they'd us and just left us to go with them and they had a great time. So I thought it was racist. No, it's just a lot of Koreans go to that place and I feel like they'd rather like pair up and

they're just like very nice. They're like, we're going to go with them. I was like, okay. I'm Kyle, by the way. Anyway, see you later. And then there was a cantankerous old man who normally in bar settings, I love not so great for the golf course. He was like giving me, putting me through drills on the tee box, like giving my father-in-law lessons. Who's just too nice to tell him no. Is he good? I mean, he was old. So I mean, it didn't look good, but I mean, the ball was going straight and he was just like, let me ask you, are you interested in getting better? And I say yes. And I didn't realize I opened up Pandora's box of fucking golf tips for the next three holes.

But anyway, this is we're on the eighth hole. You know, this guy was very like, I think I was like, going in my bag while he was about the tee off. He's like, I don't like anyone making noise, please. Oh, shit. He's yelling at people on other tee boxes to be quiet while he's gonna hit. Anyway, that's not really what the question is. Somebody hit into us on the eighth hole. We're on the green. A ball comes flying in, really nicely hit, lands on the green while

we're on the green. And I just, I go, hello. And I don't hear anything back. This guy just takes a tee out of his pocket, tees it up and honestly kind of blew me away. I didn't, is that a thing that like, instead of people throwing the ball back at people or hitting it back or taking the ball, he just teed it up on the green. This girl was so confused. We're on the next tee box and she finds her ball and she's like, are you guys fucking with me? And he was like, no, you hit into us. All that's left is an apology. She didn't get it. Uh, he was still being contentious,

but I never saw that move where if somebody hits into you, you just tee it up. That way it kind of gets in their head a little bit. Have you ever heard of this? I've never seen that again. I don't play a ton and this has all been kind of new as I jumped it back into it again. I've never heard of that move. I've seen some stuff going back to earlier days. I've seen somebody hit it back at somebody when they hit into them. That seems a little ridiculous. Sometimes when somebody hits into you,

if they aren't good. Rage. No, no, but there are times where people get really, really mad about it, okay? And I got really mad at that part three because the first time it happened to me, I was like, is this guy actually doing this? And then when I hit my tee shot

and went to walk to the green, he hit his shot over me. So I was like, is this guy actually doing this? And then when I hit my tee shot and went to walk to the green, he hit his shot over me. So I was like, okay, this guy's just being an absolute dick. And then once I confronted him, he just gave me an extra helping a dick with a side a dick. And so I- Put that work out.

Yeah. That, I'm sure somebody's gonna say, oh yeah, that's something guys do. This guy sucks, he sucked. He's giving you lessons and he's mad about literally everything. But I guess my original point is that I think sometimes we have to have a little bit more allowance

on people hitting into you because I've seen bad golfers hit into somebody because they just hit the best shot they're gonna hit all day and they've never hit it that far with their iron and they compress it and it just goes way farther than they expected it to. Yes. And it's just, we all need to at times understand like some stuff is going to happen. I don't care who you are. You're probably going to hit an errant shot.

You're going to hit it over. I mean, look, it's a little different when you're slicing it and hitting somebody else's approach while they're in the opposite fairway. Right. And you just feel like an asshole because you've hit a terrible shot. But there's a lot of times where I think, even though I don't play that often, you'll notice it feels like somebody's hitting up on you

and then they're waving almost apologizing for hitting this great shot because they didn't expect it to happen. Sure, they could be a little... The hardcore golfer is going to tell us that none of this stuff should ever really happen, but it sounds like you played with an insane person. So, sorry.

I did, but I just, I kind of like the tee it up move. It's like, you don't have to yell. You don't have to throw the ball back. I even Google it to see if this happens. A couple people had mentioned it, but a lot of dudes are like, Oh, well, I would have just chucked it in the drink or I would have taken out my Sharpie and wrote screw you on it or something. But I just, I like the, the tee it up. It leaves people a little confused. And then you're kind of like, Oh no, did I hit into them? I don't know. I might use it in the future unless it's like a grave offense. I just kind of like it. The guy kind of redeemed himself after a day of sucking. I was like,

wow, you really made me think about that one. Harvey. I'm glad you looked it up. I mean, because look, no one is more prepared to tell you what you should have done than the person that wasn't there. Yeah. Right? I know as we were leaving, there were dudes teeing off and they saw this guy and they're like,

oh, you golfed with Grumpy today. So I guess he's like, I guess he's known at Roosevelt. So anyway, just wanted to ask you about that. When I come and play, I don't wanna play with him. All right, just a heads up. All right. You sure you don't wanna get better? He's giving out lessons.

All right. I'd rather be worse, sir. Yeah, I was thinking about saying some version of that to him after I didn't realize that it was gonna open up a hole, I thought it was gonna be a quick tip. He's got me doing drills, there's people behind us. And he's like, here, here, take one of my balls. I put your feet all the way together and hit it.

And I'm like, dude, it's a backup here. We can't, we can't. He's like, he doesn't mind, do you? Anyway, Harvey. Yeah, it was like the caddies who are really good. We had caddies at Riv and then at Pinehurst and the stuff they were saying on the greens, eventually I had to say, Hey, you gotta just stop talking to me about any of this stuff, cause I don't know what the fuck you're saying. I don't, I don't have a percentage thing down in my head. I don't know what the fuck you're saying. I don't, I don't have a percentage thing down in my head.

I don't know what giveaway the whole means. Uh, I don't care about the grain of the grass. I'm sure these are all awesome things that people who are better appreciate all this stuff, but you're giving me like three things to think about now, which is the last thing I need. Uh, while I'm putting all right, war gone. What's up? Oh, the're gone. What's up? The drama builds.

What's up? Hey guys. Hey, forever to turn on my video there. Yeah, just stay ready. You don't got to get ready, dude. Yeah. Okay. A couple emails here. Package problems. Five, nine, 200 pounds, 33 years old. Don't have impressive gym numbers, but I've had the same knee injury as Lonzo. So I got that going for me. Ouch. Bought a home in Fort Collins, summer of 2020. Good timing on that home purchase.

I bet Zillow must be fun to look at. Uh, and I mean, that as a compliment, not sarcastic. Been a bachelor in it ever since, since getting mail and packages for the previous owners, nearly five years later, five years later, you're still getting packages. The previous owners didn't move that far from what is now my home. And we had exchanges with the previous owners nearly five years later. Five years later, you're still getting packages. The previous owners didn't move that far from what is now my home and we had exchange numbers. I initially extended them the courtesy of letting them know when

something came through to the old address and letting them pick it up off the porch. Around Christmas of that year, I started to feel it was getting excessive. A decent number of Christmas packages that they were clearly ordering showed up in my place where I felt they could have easily checked the address ahead of time. When they made a pickup run, they didn't check closely and took a package that was for me off of my doorstep that I wasn't aware was there yet. Took them a couple of days to bring it back. After the Christmas package occurred, I asked them to please resubmit mail forwarding with

the post office. I was still getting quite a bit of their mail where they were coming by every week or two. They claimed they did. And while the amount of mail I received got lesser, it never dropped to zero and still included the occasional package where it was obvious. They just weren't verifying the addresses before purchasing things. During tax season of 21, uh-oh, after getting clearly important tax documents for them again and asked for mail forwarding to be submitted, at this point, I became tired enough of collecting their mail that for things coming through standard USPS, I adopted the policy of rejecting the delivery when possible or returning it to sender.

That sounds like a pain in the ass too. However, yeah, there's still the occasional package that would show up in my address, and these can be harder to deal with as they're usually just left on my porch. Often I do not know which shipping company delivered a package, so the tactic of refusing the delivery is not usually an option.

Do you think I'm off base for being frustrated by this and thinking it excessive? Quick answer, no. It's five years, dude. What do you all recommend I do when these packages show up on my porch? Stop being petty and reach back out to the folks I bought the house from or reach out to the vendor

and ask how I can return these packages. Reaching out to the vendors feels like a bit of a chore and I don't really want to take on as the chore of collecting the previous owners' shipments has gotten to me as well. Is there an alternative option I'm missing here? I gotta be honest with you, for the small thing that absolutely sucks. This kind of nails it because it's not that big of a deal, but it's the water torture of hassles because it's just never stopping. And, you know, look, you move into a house, you're always going to get mail from a previous owner. I've received it everywhere I've lived.

Oddly, I received some jewelry from China, I think. And I didn't open it up. I didn't know what to do. I probably set it aside thinking, hey, I'm going to reach back out. I remember one time I got these, this hardware. I got like a bunch of handles for drawers and cabinets and I reached out to the vendor. I sent it back to the vendor. They sent it back to me. I called the place who had ordered it. Cause you know, look, I love the hardware and I'm thinking, whoever ordered this, like this was going to outfit an entire kitchen, they're wondering where this shit is.

Everybody knows how. You gotta move this project along. Yeah, let's go. Yeah. Like I'm holding up the finished carpenters. I'm holding up painting. Like I've got to get these into the right place. I called after they'd sent it back to me.

I'm like, can you give me the contact of the person who ordered these? Of course we can't do that, sir it went on and on and on and Then I threw them away because I didn't need more hardware. I loved it drop shipping Yes What's that work? Yeah, it's sort of like gaslighting solution. I think I could probably break it down like gaslighting No in that I don't really in that I don't really, in that, I don't really know exactly what the term is, but I think I can kind of get it.

I mean, you basically buying something in selling. No, they'll like, they'll like send you a random product you didn't order. And the point is that they can then leave a review because they have like the purchase. So you're getting a free item. They're giving themselves a random like five star review. And I guess it like helps their Amazon account or something. But I've gotten a couple of packages and it's like, I didn't order this, no one's owning up to buying it for me. And there's just nothing you can do about it.

All right, totally off on drop shipping then. Oh, so you didn't know it. I was totally off on drop shipping then. So you're just opening up packages, they're addressed to you? Or are they just to your address, Mike? I'm trying to think. I think they were addressed to us.

Hmm. Yeah, cause it takes a lot of balls to open up a package with someone else's name on it, with your address. Yeah, no, I wouldn't do that. I've certainly done it. You gotta see what's inside. I mean, what if it's a bunch of money? I don't know. I don't do that. I've certainly done it. You gotta see what's inside. I mean, what if it's a bunch of money? I don't know.

I don't know. What if it's a bomb, Kyle? Yeah, well, that's what I was gonna say for Mike. He's getting several packages. Yeah, who would bomb you? Hold the reference. Exactly. No, I think this guy's totally right.

The whole reaching out to the vendor, again, I've tried it once. It sucked, it was worse. So that's not really a solution. I'd ask how old they are. I think that would be how I would handle this. If they're really old and they keep forgetting to click on, you're ordering something from Amazon

and every now and then I'll send my dad a new book. And then the next time I may go to Amazon, then right before I'm about to check out, I'm like, oh wait, I've got to go back to my original address. Now you'd like to think that most people can figure this out. Like this isn't new now ordering stuff online, but there is an age, if they're north of this age, I would tell you, all right, as far as the traditional mail, you can throw it away. It sounds like that has been sorted somewhat since the 21 tax thing. But if they're old, I think you're just.

They're not gonna learn a lesson at this point, dude. Yeah, they're on your route. And you wanna start throwing their stuff away? Like that would, we've got some people listening right now. I'd be like, keep all of it, throw it all away. These people need to be taught a lesson. Yeah, south of a certain number. Maybe that is the move. Just start opening up your shit. Girlfriend comes over, you're like, keep all of it, throw it all away. These people need to be taught a lesson. South of a certain number, maybe that is the move.

Just start opening up your shit. Girlfriend comes over, you're like, you have a lot of food prep containers. Sure do, can't beat the cost. And they come by and you're gonna- It's a crock pot and an air fryer. Look them right in the eye and be like, did you get those chair pads for our hardwood floors?

These are great pulls by you. get those chair pads for our hardwood floors. These are great pulls by you. Yeah. Chair socks. No, I didn't. And then they look in, they're like, I think those are, nope, not them. I got them at a different store. Michael's, ever heard of it?

So I just, I feel for you here, but ultimately you're going to have to decide. I'm not going to suggest you throw away someone else's items, but that's going to be for you to decide if you're going to throw them away, if you're going to keep them, if they need to be taught some kind of lesson here. Because five years later for you to be this, you're like a customs port for their imports. You didn't sign up for that. You're like a customs port for their imports. You didn't sign up for that.

Yeah, maybe you just have the rule with yourself. You don't have to tell them, be like, listen, I'm instituting a quarterly clean out or something. It's like every two months, if there's anything, I'm gonna put it in the garage, and then on the 15th of the second month, I'm throwing it all away. It's going to Goodwill, whatever. I mean, you don't have to, you don't have

to tell them that if you don't feel like having an uncomfortable conversation. But I think you need to have some sort of boundaries within yourself that you don't feel like you're getting taken advantage of or whatever. So, um, I think it would, I think it'd be best for you to have some sort of rule where you're just like, well, that's the rule. They missed the cutoff and I finally got rid of this thing and I wasn't hanging onto it forever. Just to make you feel like you've got some sort

of stability here instead of just waiting for whatever the next time they click through that Amazon cart without checking. It happens. My wife sent Bill like a 10 pound bag of bird seed the other day, I guess it was two weeks ago. And I was just like, I'm not gonna go over there and get it. I think that's, you just have to eat that cost.

He's probably confused, but it happens. Wait, your wife ordered bird feed and mistakenly had it delivered to Simmons' house. Yeah, because I had to send him like a couple of those, like, card reader dongle for when he was on the road. And for some reason, Amazon just had him as the last guy. And she's like, where's this? It said the birds he'd got delivered. I was like, oh fuck, he sent it to my boss's house.

Also my boss's house. You can't just text Bill and be like, hey, you got any bird feed over there that doesn't make any sense? I didn't, I guess I could have. I guess I could have. It's like, wow, we lost that one. Speaking of Bill, this happens now weekly and I'm sick of it.

Six, five, two, 15, bench, two, 35, don't squat or deadlift because the lower back isn't quite what it used to be. But my proudest stat of any category is I've led the conference in personal fouls both my junior and senior year of college. Wow. That's awesome.

Player comp, Daniel Tice, undersized big that walls up, makes the right plays, is always inadvertently getting hit in the face. Yeah, but that doesn't make sense because it sounds like you like retribution. Tice just likes getting hit in the face, complaining and never doing anything about it to make it stop.

I like Tice kind of, maybe as a third center, but I would have really liked him even more if he was like, enough of this. I'm getting hit in the face all the time. I'm going to now push somebody. I'll make this quick. My wife was all caps furious about Bill's Chewbacca take on the Star Wars Rewatchable episode.

I know there's no way Bill reads any emails. Can you please sort this message to him from my wife? Uh, no. And as further notice, this podcast, stop sending us emails that you want to get to Bill. One, I can tell you, Bill doesn't care. I know I don't, but if I were then to forward something to Bill and be like, Hey, here's an observation.

Here's a business proposal. I had to learn about the soft no bills. There's just, when Bill's like, oh, that's interesting, that's a no. Yeah. You know, it's just in the beginning, there was somebody who had written a book and they were like, I think it's gonna be

something super interesting to Bill. Would he write the forward? I didn't realize it was already a no. And so I thought I was like the go between and then I did a few of those, and it was just like, this guy's super busy. He is going to do things his way. Again, these are not criticisms.

You just have to understand his day to day being slammed with a million things, and he's only going to work on the things because he's working on a million things at the same time. So to further extend this little protocol we have here, we're just getting a lot of emails to be like, can you send this to Bill? Can you send this to Bill? We're not gonna tell Bill about what your wife thinks

about his Chewbacca take from the Star Wars rewatchable pod because he doesn't care. Yeah, think about it for one second. Yeah, thanks for the email though. Think about what you're asking. The emails that start with can you forward this to Bill? I forwarded zero of those ever. Not even like a funny one, like it's so ridiculous.

Let me just put it this way. I've never shared anything with him off of the request. Right. There's probably something where it was somebody who knew something or it was like, Hey, did you ever, I forget. I forget who I'll keep this vague, but there was somebody that worked in a front office that no longer works in a front office. And it told us, Hey, I'm never working in a front office, but I have stories for days.

And he started sharing some of the stories with me. And he was, I don't even know if I reached back out to him. I may have, I may not have, but it was like, if this guy comes on and is a guest on the pod and shares these stories, it's going to be a big deal. But it also felt like even though, again, I don't know that I'm holding myself to some sort of journalistic standard every single day as just a podcast host, it probably would be incredibly unfair to the person that he was going to be criticizing. So if that guy still listens to the pod, he knows exactly who I'm talking about. And I think I shared some of those anecdotes with Bill because they were incredible

and as entertaining as they were. We may even talk this out on the pod a little bit about like somebody wants to come on, but you know, whatever. And it was also like, hey, I'm never doing this again. All right, one more email. Let's go with the shower here. I like this one. Just gonna make sure I find it.

Because right now, I can't seem to find it. All right. Delay on the pod. It'd be nice if we had some, we just added in some elevator music, some, something you'd hear at TJ Maxx. Can you do that from like the music that we're allowed to play? We got a whole library, dude. We'll find something. Yeah.

Yeah, I'd love that. Okay, here we go. We found it. Two guys. Oh, one shower, two bios here. What are we talking about? One shower? Two by over here. What are we talking about? 62180, 155 bench, but trying to get that number up. Player comp, Warriors, Iguodala, point forward, who pushes the ball, delivers crisp passes while giving you some high effort defense and streaky shooting. 6'200, no gym stats.

Eddie Curry, big man with handle and touch, but lacking stamina. All right, here's the email. I'm a single guy, mid-20s, living in a major Northeast city with two of my closest childhood friends. I'll cut straight to the chase. My roommate, call him Jake, is on vacation in Ireland for the next week or so. Is it acceptable to use his shower while he's gone?

To set the scene, our apartment is a three bed, three bath, two floor complex. Wait, so you guys got three beds and three bathrooms? All right, two floor complex. And while it's great that everyone gets their own bathroom, not each facility is built the same. My other roommate and I's bathroom are your standard run of the mill curtain bathtub setups.

One could say they're a bit cramped. However, Jake's bathroom on his own floor is larger. It comes with a glass shower doors, marble counters, and a modern architectural feel, which is a departure from the rest of the bathrooms. In short, it's objectively the best bathroom. I've honestly been tempted to try it when he's out of the house, but fear of his coming home and catching me in the act has always prevented me

from discovering this great unknown. After consulting with my other roommate, I know he feels the same. So our question is, would it be weird to use Jake's shower while he's across the pond? He'll probably never find out or even care if someone did, but we need a ruling. Is it an invasion of personal space to use another man's shower while he's across the pond. He'll probably never find out or even care if someone did, but we need a ruling. Is it an invasion of personal space to use another man's shower is completely,

or is it completely unacceptable? Are we overthinking this? Love the pod. Like to get a ruling before he gets back to the States. I'm trying it once. You've showered at Jake's. I'm going to try it once. I'm saying I would.

I'd be respectful. You know, if you're in your own shower, I certainly wouldn't be at Jake's? I'm going to try it once, I'm saying. I would. I'd be respectful. You know, if you pee in your own shower, I certainly wouldn't pee in Jake's shower. But, um... If you were a guy that would do that. If you're one of those guys, I know they're out there. Sometimes the timing's off and you really got no choice. But I'm just saying, I would take extra respect in this shower,

but I certainly would try the shower. I think you have a choice. Why are we not just reaching out to the roommate and asking? No, no. Did they mention why that's not a possibility? Cause he'd probably be like, well, it's up to me. I'd say don't be naked in my bathroom if you got your own. Like if you're asking me which would I prefer,

I'd say don't get in my shower. But not a fan. You wouldn't tell a friend that though. You would be like, yeah, sure, whatever. If we all lived in the same, you know, three awesome condo, it sounds like. Let's make it happen. Yeah, geez.

With ensuite bathrooms, and somebody was like, hey, I just want to see what you got. I don't know. Where does it end? I want to see if your toilet feels different than mine does, I don't know. Where does it end? So if I was that guy, I might, I might be

like, no, I think it's weird. Um, so I wouldn't ask, but he's, he's that far away, dude. It's not like he's at the gym. You're trying to grab a shower. Like he's, he's away. Do it. Be respectful. I'd say get in that shower. Uh, you know, it depends on what Jake's deal is, because the thing is, if he doesn't care, then you are overthinking it. The thing is though, is if he does really care, it might be even more rewarding. It's like having sex in public, you know, where you're just going, I know I shouldn't be doing this, but God, do I feel fresh and so clean. There's something that I have similar

as far as my living resume. The last year we were in college, lived in this massive house and the bedroom thing was never gonna be even. I was, I'd say the second poorest of the six. Sully was the poorest. So he took the worst room. It was on the living room floor.

The room absolutely sucked. It's a nice metaphor for society. Yeah. The poorest guy sleeping on the living room floor. The room absolutely sucked. It's a nice metaphor for society. Yeah. The boars got to sleep on the floor. He just, he was like, look, I'll take the shitty room because then we started like changing up the rent. I mean, this turned into a fiasco. Uh, so basically then we had like tiers of what everyone should have to pay based on what their room was.

So there was an upstairs bedroom that was massive with cathedral ceilings, but it was still like all the way upstairs. And it was kind of this odd room. And then there was like a loft area off of that where the stairwell just went right into the center. And then Bob, who was in that side of it, actually just straight up framed out a wall, sheetrock, painted the fucking wall.

He just decided I'm throwing a wall up in this house because I don't want everyone just coming up to the third floor and now my bedroom is like this greeting loft area. So he took it upon himself to do that. I had, because I think, I was never gonna get the best room because I didn't have the money and no one would want me to have the best room, but they also wouldn't want to have me

have the worst room because they were like, then we're going to have to deal with Rosillo having the worst room. So we have to just kind of keep him, let's just try to keep his emotions as neutral as we possibly can. So I got like a standard normal, just bedroom with a door. Uh, and there was, there was three rooms on that floor that were all actual like traditional bedrooms okay so did Bob's wall raise his property value do you have to pay more rent when he put the wall up and closed it off did you guys know

like we have to adjust this now we have to get it a pretty you actually have the best room now well I haven't gotten it like the clincher of it all is because there was two normal bedrooms, me and another guy were in those. And then you had this weird cathedral like sort of awesome huge room. But then it was like also you had to go through Bob's room that now was a real room because he had the wall and Chris's room sucked and no one ever went to Chris. Like it was a room that was incapable of hosting anyone.

Uh, I at least had like a couch and a fridge and like a bit of a setup. And then I kind of tore out my closet to put the entertainment center into the closet. And so then there was the master bedroom and the master bedroom was insane. It was arguably the nicest bedroom. Any student at UVM could possibly have. I'm talking of anyone that was there that was living off campus. I don't know that anybody could have had a better bedroom

than what was the master because the guy who built the house built a house for himself. Then ultimately it was like, I don't want to live in this house anymore. It had a entire living room inside of the bedroom. It had this massive bathroom with a jacuzzi bathtub in there and then also a little deck, a balcony area that looked out over the lake. And it was also like these bay windows that also looked down at the lake. I mean, it was nuts. It was nuts that this bedroom existed,

or is even a chance for it to be there for somebody. So the guy that probably would be visited the least got that bedroom. And so no one ever actually really hung out in there. Nobody was ever allowed to use the bathroom because it was his. And then there was this entire rent controversy because then like a few months in after we decided like,

hey, if the standard, if the median price is 300, then you should be at 350. And since Chris's room absolutely sucks, it should be like 250. Right? And I think there was only two of us that were actually paying our own rent. The two poorest kids.

Right. So then there was, I remember it was like the weirdest time of the entire thing is that the house had been handed down over the years, cool guy group to cool guy group. Right. And I think some of previous cool guys were visiting and so they wanted to come back to

their house. And then the guy who was on our group, who was actually having to pay more after we decided like, we can't have you with this room be paying the same as Chris, his room sucks. And then I think he came up and was like, Hey, I just talked to so-and-so. It was like, those guys said they just split it even, Steven, six ways. Like, well, it's fucking 3 a.m. We'll table this until the next minutes. Like, we can't do this right now or whatever.

And he was so mad at us. And when he got so mad at us, I think then guys were determined. They were like, we are bathing. Whenever he is gone, we are bathing in that room, even though he's paying like 50 bucks more. Whenever he is gone, we're bathing in that room, even though he's paying like 50 bucks more. So it really feels like your decision

is going to be based on Jake's level of caring, because I think I'd be motivated the more he cared. Yeah. And it sounds like you're not even sure if you will. So I'd say go in there, give it a little test drive, but be careful. Be careful because then you have to go back to your shower and maybe it's better never knowing. Okay. I think that's enough. I think we got enough on that one. Thanks to Kyle. Thanks to Warragon. Thanks to Jonathan Frias.

Thank you for checking out our podcast during the NBA playoffs. We've got Mike Breen, I believe on Thursdays. So we are just, uh, Alison's been awesome with the guests, uh, as she always is. So check out our podcast on Spotify. It's also a video podcast. Subscribe to our YouTube page, the Ryan Russell podcast, Ringer Spotify. They were going to name me Michael Jordan. My dad was like, I don't think you can live up to it, so they named me Michael Jared. Must be 21 and older, present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in DC gambling problem.

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