The Zach Lowe Show - Knicks Up 2-0! Plus, Spurs Even the Series, Lottery Thoughts, and Fake Trades!

Episode Date: May 7, 2026

Zach is joined by Mo Dakhil to discuss why the Knicks need to be worried about OG Anunoby’s injury even though they're up 2-0. Then, they break down the adjustments the Spurs made in Game 2 before quickly previewing the Thursday-night games. Finally, they cover the three biggest offseason story lines to watch. (0:00) Welcome to The Zach Lowe Show! (2:07) Mo Dakhil joins the show! (4:25) OG Anunoby’s injury is the most important thing from Game 2 (19:04) Philly played well even without Joel Embiid (25:10) The Spurs dominated the Timberwolves to even the series (35:33) How can the Wolves avoid Wemby? (45:29) Lakers-Thunder Game 3 preview (48:08) Tonight is a "show me" game for Cleveland (55:27) Offseason story lines (59:19) Who has the most at stake in the draft lottery? (1:10:13) Jaylen Brown’s Twitch stream (1:18:57) Jaylen Brown fake trades Host: Zach Lowe Guest: Mo Dakhil Producers: Mike Wargon, Jonathan Frias, and Billy Gil Social: Keith Fujimoto and Michael Szokoli Visit us in stores and online Warbyparker.com/LOWE The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit https://fanduel.com/playwithaplan to learn more about the resources and helplines Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. We're up on the Zach Lowe show. Mo Tequila is here. talk everything second round react to last night's Knicks win over the Sixers without Joel Embed. O.G. and O.B. pulled up with some hamstring issue or leg issue late in the game. We'll talk about the impact of that. San Antonio

blows the doors off the Timberwolves in game two to even up that series. I. O. Dissoumoo got hurt again. Ant was not quite aunt. And we'll talk about, you know, how that series moves forward back to Minnesota for games. Three and four. Who do we like in that series? I picked Spurs and Six. I'm sticking with Spurs. Burrs in six. And that one, quickie previews of

tonight's games, Cavs, Pistons. Show me a game for the Cads. Show me something because your offense was a mess in game one and Detroit kind of

eeked it out at the end. Good effort, of course, by the Pistons. And then Thunderlakers went a lot like Thunderlakers was expected to go in game one. Do they have any hope?

And then it's draft lottery week. We're going to talk about who has the most at stake. What would be the funniest outcome? What would be the saddest outcome? Trade possibilities and all of that stuff. Jalen Brown Twitch stream, Jalen Brown fake trades, Janice, the Bucks owner said some stuff about Janus,

the offseason is about to get into full swing. We'll talk about all of that and more with Moad DeKeele coming up on The Zach Lowe show. The Zach Lowe show is brought to you by Fanduel. It's been a wild playoff run, but it's not over yet. And Fanduil wants to bring you closer to the court to make more of all the action to come. Fan duel is the best place to bet the teams, the players, and plays during the NBA postseason. Build the same game parlay for a shot at a bigger payout or try live betting and jump into the action after tip off. Download the Fan Dual Sportsbook app now and play your game.

21 over in select states, 18 or over in DC, Kentucky, Wyoming. Gambling problem. Call 1-800-Gambler. Call 1-88-78-9-77-7-77 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut. Do the Zach Lowe show. It's bright and early on a Thursday morning. The New York Knicks are up to O in the conference semifinals. Did they suffer a big loss?

We'll talk about that. And the Spurs absolutely destroyed the hapless turnover prone. Just not quite there. Minnesota Timberwolves, even that series of 1-1. We have two more games tonight. We have the lottery coming up. We have Jalen Brown saying more stuff on Twitch and me learning what Twitch is and how it works. We have the Bucks owners saying interesting yet somehow also crazy things about Yannis.

There's a lot going on. Moatikil. How are you? I'm doing great, Zach. I'm on your side of the country. I'm on the East Coast. It's nice. Welcome.

Welcome. We like having you. Welcome to the worst sports time zone of all four time zones. Oh my God. This is wild. I think everybody who lives in L.A. should have to do like two weeks in New York watching sports so that you feel like what we feel. It's not good for sleep.

All right. Let's start Nick Sixers. Well, I hope to Sixers fans enjoyed the like 72 hours where they got to see their team playing to its full potential because Joelle is. Embed was out for game two with a malady, an endless series of maladies linked to he got hip. It's lots of stuff he got nailed on the screen after having appendicitis. I'm not blaming him. He's just out.

And this was the fear all along, obviously, that could he hold up for two series, three series, particularly once we got going every other day, gutted it out in game one. I suppose there's a case to be made that the Sixers should have just punted that game from the beginning. that's an easier case to make in Fantasyland than it is in real life. It's hard to look your team in the eye and be like, you know what? We're just not going to really try that hard to win this game. And then they did punt it when it got out of control. Good showing, I thought for the Sixers last night, Maxie came out with the right mentality.

The guy was just hunting every kind of opportunity there was to score. He understood he needed to spark his team. Played pretty good defensively. The whole team did. They had great minutes from Don Barlow as a stopgap center when all of their centers got in foul trouble. Everyone was in foul trouble. Mitchell Robinson was also out in this game. There was a lot of Huckporti.

I do wonder if it's 9.30 in the morning right now. We won't know about OGN and Obie's hamstring thing. He pulled up with about three minutes to go, sat on the left the bench for the rest of the game. Obviously, you had hamstring issues in the playoffs two years ago. This is not then. Totally different Nick's team. Everybody on that team was hurt by the end. Everybody else is pretty healthy.

I mean, Mitchell Robinson was an illness last night. But I do wonder, Mo, if the single most important thing that happened last night was, depending on the MRI results, O'GN and Obie's hamstring injury. Because not a stretch to say he has been the best player on the Knicks in the playoffs and like one of the five to ten best players in the NBA in the playoffs, 21 points, seven and a half rebounds, three stocks per game. on 62% shooting, 54% on threes, 67% on twos, and you saw in this game, if Kat continues to commit dumbfowls and illegal screens,

we're going to see OG Annanobie as a backup center. He's a wild card if Embed gets healthy in this series to guard Embed now and then. Every time the Sixers, and it hasn't been very many times, have tried to put their centers on him and cross-match, like that. He has burned them with pick and pop threes and drives to the rim. He beat VJ. Edgecombe on a switch,

just bullied him, so he's beating mismatches that way. Just like the Knicks have a lot of really good wings. No one quite like him. And we'll see how long he's out for. If it were me, Mo, the luxury of a two-0 lead, I'm soft peddling this

and giving him as much rest as possible. I should feel pretty confident that I can win one of two in Philly. particularly with Embed status uncertain, even if he plays. Like, let's gut out one of two and try to wrap this up in five or six. I actually think they could plausibly win the East without Ogen and O'Neobi, the way that Cleveland and Detroit have kind of had to gut out their respective games. But, boy, would they miss his size against Cleveland, who plays two bigs to start

and finish a lot of games, so less so finishing? And Detroit, who absolutely kicked a shit out of the Knicks in the regular seasons. you need all the physicality you can get. So I just think any analysis of game, too, has to start with like knock on wood for OG and Ninobe because the Knicks are looking like a worthy finals team right now could still make it without him. But if he's out for like the playoffs,

which I hope not, and you just never know what these things could be like a game. It could be two weeks. It could be a month. I do think the finals, if they were to get there, that's when you would just be like, oh, okay, now we're upping a level and we really do need him.

The thing that's brutal about it, because you lay out the numbers, even when he comes back, what is he going to come back as? And that's something that's really concerning, because he's been not just, he's been the most consistent Nick player. He's been the guy you could count on every night

on both ends of the floor and the way that he's provided for this Nick's team and being able to spread the floor, like you said, with his shooting numbers are just absolutely absurd. And it's such a killer sort of situation when you saw him pull up. And to be honest, like, I missed it at first.

I had to go back and catch it. But when you saw him pull up, it was just like, oh, man, that's not good. Because he tried to gut it out for the rest of that possession. I mean, he tried to dunk on, it was drumming. Who was he was trying to dunk on right there? He misses the dunk, but it was a, and then it comes back down. And then he just immediately knew, I've done, I got to get out. And I think that's a brutal possession and position to be in with the next,

you said they don't have anybody like him off the bench. I mean, just even body type, right? Like they become immediately a smaller team the moment he's not available. Honestly, the closest guy they have is Diawara, who had really nice moments for them in the regular season. If I'm Mike Brown, like, I'm not averse to giving DiOara a shot to just like put him on the floor, see how he looks. He's got size.

He shot the three pretty well. But yeah, I mean, he's a rookie, unproven. ever, like, yes. And very few teams have anybody like OG and O. That's why the Knicks traded so much stuff to get him. Yeah, and I think it's really going to be an important one going through. I'm with you. I actually don't think, I think they can pull out one of the next two games in Philly,

you know, with what they have. I don't need to worry about him for the next two games. Like, get yourself right and let's see where we're at. And if I can win the series without him, like that's a massive win. for them, right? Obviously, they get to kind of rest him a little bit more. It's the next round and where I'm worried, because of the physicality is going to ramp up even more, especially if it's the pistons that move on. And you have to deal with their sort of just bruising mentality. That's where I'm concerned. It was the biggest story of the night.

Like, there's no way to look at it when you see his importance and his value to this team, it just crushes you when he's not going to be available. And you're, you're chances are lower because like they did look like a champion contender, not a contender, like they look like, yo, this is a team that legitimately has a chance to take on anybody in the West with the way they've been playing the past few games. Like they were blowing everybody out the door out to chimps before game two. Like I'm pretty bummed that he went down. Yeah, you know, it's interesting.

I've been thinking a lot about this. I picked the Knicks to make the finals before the season. and you are, I am, many of us are trapped in this mental thing of like, well, you know, you get to the finals from the East and then it's like, oh, here comes the varsity conference champion and it's going to be ugly from there. And I don't think it's like I agree if it spurs or thunder, you know, the Knicks did beat the Thunder in a high profile, Kia Sprite, Poulan Wheatier, Taco Bell, Emeritus Cup, finals game.

That was a big spotlight game. but if it's one of those two teams, the Knicks, even at full health, would be underdogs, particularly against the Thunder defending champions, still haven't lost the game in the playoffs. But like matchups are funny things. And you get into a series and maybe you find something that you didn't anticipate, that's an advantage that the other team didn't even anticipate.

And you start yanking on that a little bit. And like you steal one of the first two games. So short series, like you get one kind of random fluke you win, one win when you play out of your mind. And like all of a sudden, your two wins from the title, the Pacers were a huge underdogs last year. They almost won. It's just, it's one series.

Anything can happen. And I think the Knicks have shown enough. And they're a strange enough matchup with cat at the five, if he can ever stop fucking fouling everybody. Jesus. Versus the, and then they can flip to the double big and they throw the Mitchell Robinson ingredient out there. Brunson's a strange player undersized, sure, but he's like a tough, he's tough to grasp defensively. and their defense is like a proven thing now. I mean, this has been a top eight defense for a long time.

They've been sensational on the playoffs. They've been sensational in the series. I don't think that's an impossible hill to climb for the fully healthy. Nix, obviously, they have to get there. But they would find a way to be in those games. And so you just knock on wood, like, I would love it by the end of today. It's whatever the lowest grade of the lowest thing is. It's 10 days to two weeks.

Take it slow. Get out of this series and move on. because I do think even if Embed plays the rest of the series, which we don't know, four out of five is going to be a tall order for Philly, even with three of the five games in Philly. Go ahead. The one thing I kind of thought,

put the Knicks in a tough position in this game, part of it was the nature of finding out day of that Embed's out. It took a target off the floor for them, right? Like, they went, the way Brunson attacked them in game one, like he absolutely killed it. My podcast partner, Jared Dupin, sent me this from game one. You know, 27 picking rolls Embedde was involved in.

And the Knicks had a 1.62 points per possession, you know, including passes on those, on that. Like that target kind of was taken off for the Knicks a little bit. And I think, you know, if Embedd comes back, it's almost like, cool. Like you could just see Brunson sort of just rubbing his hands ready to go back to work right off the bat in that instance. So I think that's going to be something that even if Embed comes back, I'd be worried about if I was Philly. At the same time, like I had this discussion with Bill after Embed's first playoff game back where it was like a little tough integrating him and Maxie got lost. And he floated the are they better without Embed thing.

I'm like, no, they're not. And I think, yes, they attacked Embed a ton in the pick and roll and had great success in the first game. You saw last night that without that segment of their offense, the Knicks can just load up on everything else. So they're blitzing every maxi pick and roll where he tries to hunt Brunson and saying to the Sixers, go ahead. Like Kelly Ubra, you want to play four on three and a Dem Bono is under the rim. We don't think you can beat us. And their rotations were like wildly on point last night, the Knicks defense. Even when they just ran straight pick and roll with like Barlow or Bona at center, blitz.

and like, okay, Dom Barlow, you're just like fresh into the game. You want to play four on three? Good luck. And he fumbled one, he like fumbled the ball and then threw a pass out of bounds and the Knicks were flying everywhere. And if you freeze those, it does look like, oh, there's a six or over there open. But when you freeze it, you're missing the speed of what's going on in real time and how that Knicks defender is already starting to run to the open guy and where that Nix defender

is going to be when the ball actually gets to that open guy. And even, you know, one thing that I talked about after game one was when Maxie gets a favorable matchup, namely Brunson, I would just not even send a pickup for him. I would just let him go one-on-one and try to go to the rim. And the Knicks were like, no, no, we're not going to let you do that. We're just going to double you at half court and take the ball out of your hands. All of those things become much harder for the Knicks to do with Joel and beat on the floor instead of the centers who were on the floor. Not to mention the post-up option, the pick and pop short twos, all of that. So I think it goes both ways.

I just don't, I said it against Boston, and I'll say it now. I don't think the Sixers can score enough points to be competitive to win a seven game series against a good team without Joel Embed, even if he is at times a little lost in space defensively. And I thought the Knicks, yes, maybe they lost a place to hunt when they had the ball, but they became predators on defense because Embedd was not on the floor. The one thing, too, though, about those rotations when they did Blitz was the Brunson didn't do particularly a great job of sprinting to the opposite corner. Right. Like, it was almost funny.

There was one possession I was watching, rewatching this morning where, like, it happens. And it's almost like he stopped every time the swing, swing pass was made. And it was the one where, I forget who I think UBRA attacked from the corner and found, Barlow for a bucket and a dump off. But it was like he stopped at the first pass, looked real quick, where is the ball going? And it was covered. Go goes to the next pass, stops there,

just, oh, okay, and then runs over, where Ubra is immediately able to attack. Like there are small things where they're a rotation. I thought they could have been sharper with that. And that's just me nitpicking the way, you know, I do as a nerd. But I think that's the stuff that they need to be a bit sharper going into it, because that actually really opened up Philly's offense quite a bit.

I thought Philly did a great job moving the ball off of those double teams and getting a lot of swing, swing, swing three, swing, swing, swing, you know, rip and go and all of those different opportunities. It was, that was the stuff that I think most impressed me with the Sixth's offense. I thought that was a really good battle. I agree that the Sixers moved the ball really well. And sometimes when you move the ball really well, the rotations are not going to be perfect. Two guys are going to pause for a second, like who's shooting over to the corner who's coming up to the wing. they had even one possession where they, and this is like really getting into the weeds,

it was a maxi Ubre pick and roll, kind of in the middle of the floor. And they blitched it. And Ubrey flared out. And he flared out, I think, in a very calculated way to the side of the floor where the Sixers only had one shooter and not two. And when you do that and he caught the ball,

suddenly there's one guy that has to guard a ton of space and two Sixers, Ubre and Paul George. And Paul George, Ubre, I kicked it to Paul George, and Paul George made a three, but the Knicks were fast enough that Brunson got there and made Paul George pump fake, take a dribble and go to the sidestep three, which is like all you can ask for. The Sixers, and this is a very important technicality to me, they even achieved on one possession the rarefied air of what the Zach Lowe show and formerly the low post would call, would term a Spurs gasm credited to the 2013 Spurs who took ball movement

and the next season to a new level. And if this was a, again, this is technically a spurs-gasm, blitz to pick and roll, and instead of hitting the roll man, maxi hits Vijay Edgecombe on the wing as a release valve. And in like two seconds, it goes Maxi to Edgecombe. Edgecombe hits, I think, Barlow on the roll. Barlow swings it to Grimes at the wing. Grimes passes it to someone in the corner.

All five-sixers touch the ball. It doesn't touch the floor and someone shoots a three. That's a spurs-gazum. but that's to go to the wing, to the roller, to a shooter. They achieved it, and it was a tough shot. I think they actually missed the shot. But I agree they moved it well. They made the right passes.

I just saw for the most part the Knicks did a B plus A minus job of rotating. And like, sometimes you're going to lose those battles. Sometimes you're going to win. I'm just not sure how relevant all of that is if Embed is actually playing game three. Yeah, I think that's a big one there for that. And you're right. Like for the most part, the Knicks handled it really well. in terms of that.

I just found that really kind of the most interesting part of the game for me was watching the Knicks rotate out of that was really the thing that got me geeked up each time just seeing like, okay, who's coming from where are they going to handle it? And, you know, like you said, they handled it well for the most part, but there were moments where I thought the Sixers were pretty smart in the way they attacked. I was pretty impressed with that. Yeah, it was, I think Nick Nurse is in a good job in the playoffs. I said that after game one when they looked so lifeless against Boston.

I thought that they were baiting Boston's defense and their Boston's tendencies and leveraging them against them in a smart way. It just, they just didn't have the talent at that point to win those games. And then Embed came back. I thought last night they played, I mean, it was a close game until the end with Don Barlow playing the five instead of Embeded. And Grimes not really bringing that much off the bench. And I think they're going to need more Grimes just because of his shooting and the way that when they play him instead of Wube right now, Ubre has been essential for them. But when they play the three guards plus Paul George, it just becomes harder for the Knicks

to hide Brunson. The only other note I have on this game is this, not the only other one, but we're going to get out of this game soon. The Sixers had a window in the second quarter when Kat picked up his third foul and was, of course, astonished that they dared call a foul on him. And Brunson was resting. And so both of them were off the floor. And I think the Knicks were minus two in about four.

or five minutes. And they were really, and like they were minus, it was even. And then Maxi made free throws off of a foul when Brunson was coming back in the game. You just got to win those minutes by more, by hook or by crook. Like those are minutes that are gifted to you. You got to win them by more. And the Knicks did well to manufacture buckets. And like Josh Hart has been, I mean, he's, he, what did he have like five points

last night? He's getting like two and three steals every game. He guarded Maxi well when he got switched on to Maxi. He's just been sensational. Michael Bridges has continued to come to life. He played very well last night at both ends of the floor. So you just hope, like, let's get everybody healthy. Let's get in and OBE healthy and beat healthy and Mitchell Robinson healthy.

And like maybe restart the series, but the Knicks are up too old. Yeah, I think that's the right way to go about it. And that's the big thing. You got to take advantage of those minutes when those guys, when Kat and Brunson are off the fore. And for just, you said it earlier, but just for the love of God, Kat, please stop, Val. Like this, it's, he's playing, he's playing amazing. On both ends of the floor, he's playing really well. This has been his, this has been my favorite cat playoffs run that we've had.

And it's really frustrating when it, we, it gets cut short by just dumb fouls. And then it's that face he makes afterwards where it's like, kind of gets squished and like, like, what are you talking? Like, you, you fouled him. Like, it's a foul. You just stop it. Who is, who is more astonished? Who wins the astonishment competition in this series on calls against their team? It's cat versus Nick Nurse in a battle of like one seeds across the NBA.

Nick Nurse, I love Nick Nurse. I feel I've been thinking about him because of his brother. I've known Nick for a long time. He really, though, has rocketed up the jaw. I mean, he's been like even there were memes of him with the Raptors in making astonished faces. But it's like every call he's astonished. Like you can't be that astonished. Every time.

It's too close to call between those two. Like, it really is. One thing on Bridges, a little thing I love that the Knicks did. And the reason why Bridges is more involved in this series, and he has been from the get-go is because Maxxie's guarding him. And the Knicks are smartly being like, we're going to involve you a lot, at the very least, to try to make you tired. And so the Knicks have gotten so much credit from running this simple little screening action

down in the corner when Brunson goes and screens for Annobe. And like people are reacting to it like they've reinvented the wheel. It's like a pretty elementary thing and like great. It's working and it's like not rocket science. They did twice or three times last night. Brunson started jogging toward the corner. Like that's where he was going to go. And then bolted diagonally up to the wing to set a screen for bridges to try to involve

Maxi and the Sixers were not ready for it. And they messed up the coverages. Bridges got a lay up. I just, I love the entire idea of. we're going to counter what you're expecting and involve Maxi at the same time. Just good coaching. Just smart action right there. Yeah.

All right. Well, get everyone healthy, I guess. I don't know. Get everyone healthy and stop fouling. Let's take a quick break and we'll go to the Western Conference where not a competitive game last night in San Antonio. The Zach Lowe Show is brought to you by Fandulul. The NBA playoffs are here and everything's on the line.

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Spurs Wolves. Well, on to Game 3 in Minnesota. This is a classic, just a classic Underdog Wins Game 1 on the road. Confluence of factors, home team stomps in game 2, home favorite stomps in game 2. We've seen it a million times. We saw it in the first round in a couple series. So not shocking. I think if you're Minnesota, like not even shocking.

that part of it was Minnesota just being too loose with the ball, too casual with their transition defense. Stuff that like is A, not unexpected for a little bit of a schizophrenic team. And B, not unexpected when probably some part of your brain is like, we did what we came to do in game one. This would be gravy, but it doesn't seem to be going our way. So other alarming signs, Ant continues to be on a minute's restriction and just isn't really as involved in the offense as the wolves are going to need him to be. His pick and roll volume is down. He's taking a lot of threes.

He's playing decoy a lot while guys like Terrence Shannon, who's been great, like run the offense and Randall runs the offense. He had one drive last night where he blew by Vassell and I think finished through Cornette at the rim left handed. That was the only time really where it was like, oh, ants in the building, ants here. And between that and I.O. leaving the game, returning and leaving the game, I think they said with a heel injury. and obviously Dante's out,

you just start to feel again the sort of critical threshold of injuries hitting Minnesota. And I mean, I picked the Spurs in Six. It just seems unfathomable to me that even with home court now in their back pocket, that the wolves could win three more times with Ant looking like this.

And it's like we can do the X's and O's and all of that. But if Ant is a 25 minute a game, half decoy, half Ant, I just don't see a pathway for Minnesota. Yeah, no, it's brutal that way. And then on top of that, like, the spurs are bouncing on that. You know, anytime he gets the ball, it's an immediate double, you know, at half court. They're not waiting for the pick.

So I want to get, I want to get into that because it actually kind of surprised me that they didn't do that at the beginning of the game. They started doing it in like the second quarter. He hadn't really done anything. Like, he hadn't done anything to scare them. And so I ask you, like, why do you think they did that? Like, do you, why do you think they planned? They clearly had it in their game plan and then they broke it out. And it was like, oh, okay.

Normally that happens when it's like it's Shea against an overmatch Lakers team. Or it's a guy who's just gone bananas for the first two quarters of the game. He has 30 points. You just got to take the ball out of his hands. Why do you think they did that? I think part of it was just, we want to force you guys to play faster. We want you to play fast. Speed you up as much as possible and be frenetic.

And then on top of that, we want to force the turnovers. We want to put you in bad positions with that. So as soon as Ant Crosses Half Court, we're not going to let him just bring up the ball and be relaxed with it and go one-on-one. We're sending the double right away and immediately into denial. There's a great, they had it on the broadcast, you know, with Mitch Johnson, miced up, like telling the guys like, go, come, come, come, come, okay, now stay, stay, stay. You know, after he gives up the ball, they're going into full denial.

We're going to try to speed you up. because if you watch that game, this was like the spurs were so freaking fast in this game. And I mean like it was turnovers, boom, transition. Miss Basket, we're looking for the outlet, we're in transition. Maid Basket, we're looking for the outlet, we're in transition. We're even getting into the half court, you know, with 20, 19 seconds on the shot clock. We're trying to speed up the process.

And I think that was part of it. It wasn't so much that Ant was killing them. But it was more just like, hey, we want to, make the wolves. We want to put them on their heels when they're on offense even and have them kind of backpedaling. And it worked in such a way. I think it caught even them off guard. And I think that was kind of a smart sort of tactic with what they did. And then the other thing, they just didn't want it to get going. If you go to game one, that started the fourth quarter to the four minute mark. He was awesome. You know, I did a X's and Moe's segment on the X-Live stuff I'm doing right now.

and that was my segment yesterday, was just looking at what Ant did in that run. And they didn't want to have any of that. He torched Kelton Johnson and switches in game one. They were not going to switch. We're just going to double it, get out of his hands, and let's see if the other guys can do it. And then with Iowa out, with Dante out, like there's less guys out there yet.

Terrence Shannon's been awesome. McDaniels has really stepped up, but it's like, can you do that enough? And I think those spurs are betting they can't. Yeah, so obviously my first thought was they're trying to generate turnovers and just see if they can just freak the wolves out and get

eight free points and run away with the game. My next thought was they're fine letting Minnesota's other players play four on three because Wembe Njama's on the back line and good luck to you. And there was one play where they doubled off I.O. Ant hit I.O.

Io drove in a four on three. Wembe guarded all four guys by himself and blocked I.O. at the rim. But then my last thought, the more holistic one was, I think they're just like, you know what, Anthony Edwards, we're not letting you get in a rhythm at all. We're not even going to let you your Minnesota is at their best. And maybe they can't quite get there without DeVincenzo, who's like roving three point shooting is so important for them. But they're at their best when Ant runs pick and roll with Gobert.

And they get teams in the blender. Teams put two on the ball. Ant makes the right pass. The ball starts moving around. Everyone's touching it. They get a lot of threes. Their three point volume is way down in this series. Obviously, Dante being out as part of that. But I just think the Spurs proactively were like, we're not even letting you get there. You're not letting you're not even getting a screen. We're not letting you run a pick and roll because we don't even want you to feel

that kind of rhythm and that kind of flow. And I thought that was really smart. I would keep doing it. You can't do it every possession because if you do anything, every possession, good teams figure it out. I thought it was really smart. And like they just didn't let him get any kind of flow. And then after that, the game just completely unraveled for Minnesota.

Yeah. And I think the, you know, when I was with the Spurs, like we would, we would save that for the end of games. We'd call it fire. And it would usually be for Kobe. Right. And they just immediately went into fire early in the second quarter and just said, we're going to go with it. Because I think that was a big part of it, man.

I think they just saw what was coming. And they're just saying, we're not going to, we know what happens when he gets hot. We saw it. We're not going to let it happen again. Minnesota's transition defense off and on a bugaboo for them over the years was awful. Peaking with the very rare Ant takes a like a Minnesota shooter was Ann takes a corner three. So his defender is way down at the bottom of the floor. It was Steph Castle.

The corner three defender leaks out. The guy all the way down in the corner leaks out and gets a dunk while Julius Randall is on the opposite wing. It's his job to get back because just sort of watching everything unfold. I will say, I have a bone to pick with Stepcastle. He had a dunk in this game. He was fantastic in the game. He got to the foul line nine times.

He just beat the shit out of everybody in the way that he does. He had a dunk in this game where he caught the ball in the left corner against Mike Conley and blew by him and dunked. And I just want to say as a 48-year-old man, that hurt me personally. That's going to be like me playing soccer against my daughter in two years. It's ageism. it's not fair. And I think the referees, after Mike Conley has been a good citizen in this league for so long,

I think you call it off, call a travel, call it offensive foul. It's not fair what he did to Mike Conley. That's all. That's all. Elder, elder abuse is really what you're talking about. What I did love about Castle was one he tried to go at Gover. Oh, he did. He went for it.

He kind of wound up and he was, he was like leaning. I was like, I don't know. I just don't want it. In midair, my brain was like, like, I don't want anyone to get injured because this isn't good. It looked like also what he was like trying to go for it. Like he wasn't anywhere near like aligned with the rim being straight ahead.

It almost looked like he was off completely. But we talk about, you know, the, the wolves trying to go at Wembe. Like it was fun to see Castle go at it. And the funny thing, too, just to add, after game one, all the talk from the wolves players was like, we know he's going to, Wemby's going to block shots. We're going to keep going.

They didn't really attack Wemby that much in game two the way they did in game one. There's one, I posted it on X, where Terrence Shannon drove, and I call these U-turns, drove, saw Wembe turn right around, and then took a mid-range jumper. Like that was, you know, that was the thing where in game one, those drives were challenging Wembe. They did not do that nearly as much in game two. And I thought Wembe, look, we all knew he would do it, but he came out with a much more aggressive mindset.

You know, he went to the post more. He got that one play against Randall where he got the ball at the nail and just kind of burrowed in there. And all of a sudden, if he burrows in one foot, he's at the basket. And then he had another pick and roll where they switched and they switched McDaniels onto him. And he kind of put McDaniels on his hip and rolled into the post, caught a ball pretty deep, spun baseline, roasted McDaniels, missed, and then put back his own miss.

It's like, all right, that's just a mindset thing. Like, Gated McDaniels is not a small guard. that switch is like there are a lot of times where Victor or any other big guy is not going to take that switch down to the post like that. That was just a guy being like, in game one, I didn't do this enough. I am asserting my will in this game. It might not pay off on this possession. I might miss. I might fall over.

It could be awkward. This is a great defender. But I'm taking you down to the block and I'm going to see what the hell happens and what happened was good. To me, the most interesting battleground in this series so far has been when Victor is on the floor. and Gobert is off the floor. Now, the wolves have been, they're minus 21 with Gobert on the floor, minus 15 with Gobert off the floor. So there's minus across the board. But I find these minutes interesting because when Gobert is on the floor, Wembeyanama is going to guard him.

It's very simple. And he's guarding Wembeyanba. Both teams have kept it simple. We're keeping our bigs on the big. We're going to have size in the middle. If you put us in a pick and roll, our bigs can guard both guys at the same time, stay home on shooters. We're not messing around. When Rudy's out of the game and Victor,

in the game, we've seen a lot of different things. And it boils down to disperse for whatever reason, do not want to put him on Randall. So they have Victor sometimes on Jalen Clark, sometimes on Jada McDaniels, sometimes not really on anyone, just sort of whoever is in the corner, he's going to hang around that area and toggle between guys. And the wolves are sort of digesting that and figuring out ways to attack it. But I find those minutes very interesting. And And what would like either team, like, do you think either team has some low-hanging fruit to like pick there? Well, I think it becomes a bit challenging for the wolves in terms of the defensive opportunities. I think it's, you know, Randall being more physical with Wembe, but like you said, we saw early one that happened.

Wembe kind of handled it. He's kind of figuring it out as he's going in real time. So I'm worried about them there. I think for the spurs, it's also more of. just like this is full-on attack the pain time. Right? Like this is just go straight at the rim. You know,

whether it's not a lot of lobs for Wemby. I know they got the first one in this game early, but like this is just keep, this is, let's not settle for shots. Let's just put the pressure at the rim. If their number one shot blocker is not going to be there, let's go to work.

And I think it's really important for that. Every time. Yeah, just get downhill. And you have the guys to do it. So just go to work with that. And that's going to open up opportunities because that's going to open up the lobster Wemby. If not, it's going to open up offensive board opportunities for other guys. Like I think that's got to be the focus for the spurs.

And it's the other way around, right, when Wembe's off the bench, I mean, on the bench. But the other thing, too, is Cornett has actually held up pretty well as a rim protector all season and did pretty well in this game on top of that. You know, you talked about the one where Aunt got him. there was another one where he got in at the rim. And I think it's really important that that continues for the spurs because that's the thing where it's like, at least we don't lose all our shot blocking when he comes off. I almost feel bad for Cornett because every time when Benyama goes out of the game,

the announcers are like, well, now you got to attack the rim. Victor is not there. And it's like, Luke Corny, poor guy is not a sit there. He's pretty good. But all the announcers are like, well, now you can see their eyes are wide. And they're going to attack the rim. Like Luke's all right. Anyway, I'm more thinking about the other end of the floor,

wolves offense versus Spurs defense. And obviously each team can adjust. But if I'm the wolves and they don't want Wemby on Randall, and they want Wemby hanging around the corners, I'm just keeping it very simple. I'm going to put shooters in both corners. Nas Reid is going to be in one corner. Someone else who can shoot threes is going to be another corner.

and if Jalen Clark, if he's in the game, is going to be up on the wing somewhere or setting flare screens. And I'm going to give the ball to Randall. And I'm just going to let him attack. And Victor's either going to come all the way from the corner and leave a shooter or Randall's going to get to the rim or something else is going to open up. Obviously, there are counters to that, namely putting Victor on Randall or putting Victor on someone else or not having Victor near the corners, whatever it is. But when they had non-shooters in the corners and just let Vic hang out on the baseline, like you're just, not going to be able to score that way. When they had Nas Reid in the corner and another shooter in the other corner, they got good looks out of it. Mike Conley got a corner three hanging out

in the corner on those plays and Jalen Clark said a flare screen. I just think that's an interesting sort of game within the game. And just again, notable to me that for whatever reason the Spurs don't want Wemby on Randall. Physicality probably is part of it. Staying near the rim is part of it. But I just think those numbers, those minutes are interesting. And shout out to the, you know who the other big winner in this series is so far, Mo? No, who you got? Marchant Gortat has just never been more famous. Like, he's more famous for this Gortat screen than he ever was as a player.

He should be monetizing this somehow. This is wildly unfair that everyone, Doris Burke is now screaming, Gortat screen, the Gortat screen was so critical in game one. I wonder what percentage of the viewers even know what a Gortat screen is. I'm not saying that insultingly, it's just so in the weeds. and she's right. It was critical in game one. And actually, you can see, it's a funny little game within the game.

You can see the Wolves ball handlers on a pick and roll slowing down because they're, they're been told, wait for Rudy to screen and get back down towards the paint where he can blockade when Banjama a second time. Don't go too fast. And you can even see on drives. It's not even on a pick and roll. Someone just winds up and drives from the. wing and Gobert and Wembe are under the rim.

Gobert tries to start getting in front of Wembe Njama and block him out of the way. And Wembeyanama is like, no, no, no. They're battling for a spot in line at the movies or something. And Wembe's trying to get in front of him. But Marching Gortad, if you're listening to this, get an attorney, like a good IP attorney because it's like Darwin Ham all over again. Like the hammer played is named after Darwin Ham. It's the most, I mean, Darbinham became a head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers.

So this is facetious. but like playing wise, the most notable thing is there's a play named after him. He should get some credit for that. Marching Gortat, world famous now because of the Gortat screen. I would like him to not get an attorney because I, when I used to do my one-boat thing videos, it was definitely Gortat was one of them, was a focus on that one. I'll probably have to go find it and put it back out there for everybody. I've used it many times myself in describing that action.

So just I'm more afraid if it, if, there's a retroactive bill that I won't be able to afford because he gets the IT of this. So I'd prefer he not. Hey, look, man, there's a whole generation of League Pass nerds like me, like you, like a lot of other people, and like 17 Washington, D.C. area residents who can wax poetic about the John Wall marching, Gortat pick and roll and the Gortat screens. When he had a Mohawk, you look like somebody straight out of Mad Max. I was always a big, he was a great backup center in Orlando.

I was always a big fan of his. And now he's just, you know, I just wonder his phone must blow up every single, every single game where this is mentioned. It's like his phone just must go crazy. I have another important center note for you related to this series. You know the cornet contest, obviously, right? Yeah. The big jump, the cornet, just wherever he is on the floor, if his guy shoots, not wherever he is, but he'll be 10 feet away from the shooter and he'll just do like a straight up jump. Like he almost looks like he's doing calisthenics, just to try to get in your line of sight.

DeAndre Aiton is doing this now. Obviously, JJ Redick has talked about the Cornette contest. DeAndre Aiton is doing it in a way that I've never seen anyone do it before. And I'm actually afraid makes no sense and might be hurting the Lakers. He'll be in the paint, like under the rim. And somebody, his guy, some other guy will shoot a three. And DeAndre Aten in the paint, like not even in the guy's line of sight, will jump and clap his hands.

He'll do like his version of the Cornette contest. and I'll be like, what are you, is JJ telling you to do this? Why are you doing this? You're under the basket. And I'm like, I'm starting to think, is he hurting his rebounding position because he's so committed to this bit of doing his version of the cornet contest from under the rim? I've never seen anyone do this before. And I'm like, why are you doing this?

Stop doing. Just box out, man. Anyway. I wonder if he got like the instructions like not fully fleshed out. right? He's like, yeah, when your guy is going to shoot a three, jump, no matter where you are. And his response is like, okay, I'll just jump. No matter where I am. And then he's added the clap to it. Before we move on, though, from this game, we got to talk about Dylan Harper.

Oh, my God. Yeah, please do. He's been, I mean, as a rookie, he's been absolutely phenomenal through these entire playoffs. Like the run he had in game, one was amazing. Yesterday, just all the smart plays in transition, getting that big, the tip dunk off of a mist. Like all the small things that he's doing defensively finding the outlets. He's the one that makes the kick ahead past the castle

to get the dunk in transition. There was one play. It was a deflection, but it was ambient doubled. He was trying to swing it to an open shooter in the corner. And, you know, there is Harper knocking that one out of bounds as he's there. Just all the small things that you're seeing. Stop with the blink

182. Stop with the blink 182. I'm not even trying to. I wasn't even trying to. You're almost going to make me sing and nobody wants to hear me saying. But I think just he is doing all the little things. Thank you. You're welcome. He's doing all the little things where it's like you're watching this as a rookie and he's

just coming to the playoffs completely unfaced. And I love every bit of it when I'm watching him and just going nuts with this stuff and watch him. And I'm just like, man, two or three years from now like this dude's going to be unbelievable. You know what Blink 182 is right about?

Surprises really do let me know she cares. A surprise is just, it really does just do the trick. Okay, let's very quickly just like two minutes on each of tonight's games because there's not a lot of lag time between when this post and the games. Lakers Thunder, is there anything here to talk about going into game two? I liked what the Lakers did in terms of how they defended Shea, but they need to figure out how to rotate out of that and how to kind of like go from there into everything. They can't let guy, like Chet went off, I think was a big thing. And I think the strategy is sound, but you got to execute it.

So like they did a good job with Shea, but it's being able to fire out after that is going to be the other thing that's really important. It's an important piece to that strategy that I just don't think the Lakers really did it. And I don't feel like the Thunder were threatened at any point in this game. No, obviously they're throwing two and three guys at Shea almost admitted he crosses half court. my one nip pick is like if you're going to do that, you have to do it properly. And there were too many times where Shea's defender would open up his hips and like open up a driving lane and be waving for someone like you're supposed to be here now. And if you open up like that and someone isn't there now, it's over. The possession is toast for you.

I do think I would love to have a real conversation with JJ about this because I wonder if like a third of the reason they're doing this. Because it's not just that they're trapping Shea. if you look at the matchups, who's guarding who, it's completely random sometimes from possession to possession. Like, Aiton will be guarding Caruso, and then on the next possession, he'll be guarding Chet Holmgren. And I do wonder if people are just, and I do wonder if part of the hope is,

if we do get a stop, the matchups are going to be so jumbled that, yeah, this team is an unbelievable defensive team. They can match up any way possible, but maybe there'll be a moment of confusion. maybe the smallest guy on the floor will be on LeBron, even though our small guys can do like a passable job at times on LeBron. And I mean, the only other thing I have notes is like Reaves obviously has to make shots and play way better. And I think they're going to have to lean even more into the Reeves, LeBron, two-man game,

because they're only consistent offense is Reeves high pick and roll and he missed every look he got. And LeBron hunting what passes for small guys, whether it's Wallace, who he can put in the basket, but we'll put up resistance or Shea or whoever. And the Thunder are not giving them, giving LeBron those matchups. They're blitzing and doubling and like making the Lakers pass it around. But if you put your two best players in actions, maybe that becomes a little harder. It just like, it just sucks that Luka is injured and continues to be injured. It sucks that J.O. Williams is injured because I'll say it again.

Luca at full strength plus Jeline Williams out. Don't Lakers have a chance to make this a competitive series? And right now it doesn't feel like they do. Maybe they win tonight and this all sounds foolish. The game I am more interested in is Cleveland, Detroit. I think this is a show me game for the Cavs tonight. I'm saying this. It's now 10-20 Eastern.

Maybe they win by 20. Maybe they make this look foolish. I thought their performance for 40 minutes of game one was disgusting and unsurious. And I thought their offense was a complete mess. I can't believe what a mess the offense is on a team that has four guys who have made recent All-Star teams, including two of the best guards of the last 15 years. They look like they have no plan, no identity, no cohesion, no flow. And Hardin looks old now.

And that's not like a new thing. He can't get by anyone. And he doesn't like when Duren or whoever the screener defender is comes up to the level of the screen or pretty high, Hardin just pulls up. Like I don't, he does not want to attack that. matchup at all. And the Pistons know it. They know they can stop him in his tracks. They know they can stay close to home-ish on the other guys. They know they can help off Mowgli if he's on the floor and not screening. And Wade and they'll dare Tyson. Tyson was a good shooter this year and

Schrooter. And they're scrunching all the way in on them. And I mean, they got on a little bit of rhythm when they started running hard in Mobley picking rolls in the second half with Allen in the dunker spot. And I do think that's their simplest offense is just getting to the pick and roll like that. But they looked, I mean, we're talking about Donovan Mitchell caught a pass out of bounds. James Harden committed the rare self-back court violation. Mulk two or three instances of guys throwing the ball to players who thought the ball was going to be in another place or the passer thought the player was going to be in another

place. What is Thomas Bryant doing on the court? Like, why is he playing? And why is he shooting threes with 18 on the shot clock? I think the single most depressing possession of the playoffs so far was Dennis Schroeder ran a pick and roll with someone. I don't remember who it was. Drove down toward like the Steve Nash spot under the basket and tried to skip this little skimmer pass to the corner. And I'm like, oh, there's a corner shooter.

Who's he passed you in the corner? It's Thomas Bryant. Right, right. And the pass is low and Thomas Bryant drops it. I'm like, let me hold up for a second. Donvin Mitchell is on the floor. you have at your disposal, Evan Mobley and Jared Allen.

Now, Sam Merrill was out in the second half, but I think they need his shooting in this series. But you still have, like, real guys. And I'm watching a possession in the second round of the playoffs for a team that traded Darius Garland for James Hardin, aging themselves up 10 years in one trade. And I'm watching

Dennis Schrooter. God bless him. He's fine. He actually played pretty well. Try to throw a contested corner skimmer pass to Thomas Bryant with the idea that maybe Thomas Brian will take a corner three. What am I watching? What's happening right now? And to me, if they lose this game tonight, yeah, they haven't lost the home game yet. The series doesn't start until the road team wins, yada, yada, yada, yada. I don't know, man, can this team win four out of five? They haven't won a road game yet in the playoffs. Detroit is beatable. Like, they're good. Detroit's good. And they won that

game and they out physicaled them, they outplayed them. They have no good matchup for Cade. Like if their answer to Cade is more Dean Wade, that's just going to help Detroit's defense. And I wonder if even Struce starts tonight and they just take a chance on we just need more shooting on the floor. But this is a show me game for the Cavs. If they melt down in this game and it's a ugly Detroit win, people are going to start asking some pretty ugly questions about the Cavs and like, is this James Harden trade potentially a disaster? Even if you think Dary Scarlane is overpaid and hurt all the time? I picked them to win this series.

I pitched Cads in seven based on kind of sheer talent alone. Detroit obviously didn't blow anyone away in the first round of the playoffs. I'm just, I'm calling it out now at 1030. We don't need to talk about it more. I was, their offense was gross for most of the first round. I thought it would be less gross, extricated from the switchy, weird Toronto team. And it was just as gross and just as incoherent. And I don't know how we get to game like 95 or whatever.

and you're just this incoherent on offense? I don't understand how you go into a playoff game that way. Like, to watch and the way they played this game, there were two things that stood out to me. One, they played with zero intentions, right? Zero sort of how we, this is what we do. It's a lot of dribbling up on the court. We're going to bounce around,

and then we'll find our way, you know, in that sense. And two, zero force, right? Like, and I know the pistons are a big physical team, but you have to meet them where they're at sometimes and have to bump them and fight them near a little bit. The only person that really showed fight to me in the game for the Cavs was Maxx. He had a great run for them when he was on the floor,

and I think it's everybody else was shocking. Like watching Duncan Robinson get forced turnovers on James Hardin should never happen. How about the one where James Hardin just fell over? Like just was dribbling and just kind of fell and was like, oh, okay. it was it was it's and i don't want to hear the game seven excuse because both teams were coming off of a game seven you know both teams were in that situation so it's like this is a massively huge game for everything for the calves this game too for people who are going to say oh you're

hating on hardin hardin brought them back in the game in the fourth quarter he he salvaged that game for himself and for the team in the fourth quarter and they had a chance to win it and again i picked the cabs in seven because i'm like they have these two star guards and they should be able to create functional offense because of it. So I don't want to hear that. But I just thought their performance was so disappointing. And you mentioned force. And Kenny Atkinson, good for him, mentioned it after the game.

It's a boring topic. But he mentioned, like, can we set some screens? Their screening was so bad in game one. There was a pick and roll. Grant Hill has now talked about this a lot, the Spain pick and roll, where it's a pick and roll and then somebody else sets a back screen on the screeners defender. So there's like a lot of screens involved. I think it was even like a staggered screen.

into his Spain pick and roll. So at least three screens are involved. They went 0 for three. They completely whiffed on every screen. Nobody made contact with any Pistons player. Everybody got off Scott Free. No one had to switch. No one had to rotate.

There was absolutely no stress on the defense because the screens whiffed completely. Now, sometimes, and we saw this with Kat last night, Bigs who are in foul trouble are kind of like a little cautious setting screens. And Kat started to kind of set, you know, he whiffed on a lot of screens because he got as skinny as possible. for the Cavs, there was just no excuse, and they played with no force. And this is a team, like, look, if they are down 2-0, it's going to be CavsCon 1.

If they lose this series and it's decisive, it's a complete disaster. And the off-season gets very, very interesting for the Cavs from top to bottom. Speaking of the all-season, let's take a break because you know where I'm headed in a couple days, Mo Chicago, the lottery is here. Let's talk about that when we come back. Okay, three offseason storylines that kind of coalesce into one. Jalen Brown's Twitch stream and then a follow-up Twitch stream, trying to clarify the first Twitch stream,

saying, I love Boston, I want to be in Boston for the rest of my career if it's up to me. He's extension eligible this summer. You might have heard they were eliminated in the first round by the Philadelphia 76ers. Called it his favorite season of the year, of his career, rather. Double down on that, saying it is my favorite season in the, in the, Twitch follow-up saying it is my favorite season. I think he was trying to say like I was, it was my favorite season because we were underdogs, idiots like me, Zach Lowe predicted the Celtics to go under their wind total.

It'll be, it's just more fun to play without the expectations and to exceed expectations and prove people wrong. I don't think he meant it necessarily. He's like, well, Jason Tatum wasn't there and I got to cook. But he sort of emphasized the underdog angle of that we have the honest thing. and Jimmy Haslam, the Bucks owner said yesterday that they would like to clarify the Yannis situation before the draft, which is like, oh, okay, Janus can't sign his extension until October. Obviously, they can discuss it and he'd get an indication of whether he's going to sign it or not. But the Bucks, this feels like the Bucs trying to win a PR battle a little bit of like, hey, it's up to him.

We're going to make it up to him. Janus has always been like, it's actually up to them. it's up to everyone. But to say before the draft is, okay, I mean, that means we want this transaction cycle the Bucks do to move on if Janus indicates he wants to move on. And I just want to applaud Jimmy Haslam at the end of this article I'm reading on ESPN.com. I'm just going to quote him because these owners, they just can't put a microphone in front of them without something embarrassing happening.

Janice has brought Milwaukee its second championship in the first in 50 years, Haslam said, we're off to a good start, Moe, we're doing well. You could just stop, maybe stop there.

He's a phenomenal player. He's a phenomenal person. Great. We're doing well. He's arguably one of the best basketball players. Oh, oh, he's arguably one of the best basketball players in the world.

What happens in your brain as Jimmy Haslam to stick arguably in there? Like, it's a small thing it's stupid that I'm over emphasizing it. He's not arguably one of the best basketball players in the world. He's one of the best basketball players in the world. It's a less egregious version of when Patrick Dumont, after the Luca trade, was listing off all the great players, all the great two-way players and their commitment to being

in shape and committed to their teams. And he listed Shaq notoriously not in shape and not committed to his teams. and didn't list Lifetime Maverick champion finals MVP, Dirknevinsky. And everyone was like, can we stick this guy in a closet and never have him talk again? So the honest stuff, the Jalen Brown stuff, whatever it is, I don't think the Celtics want to trade Jalen Brown by any stretch, but we will see what happens. And then the lottery is here. And all of these things are obviously intertwined because teams are going to move up and teams are going to move down. and does Atlanta,

Atlanta between the Milwaukee pick and the New Orleans pick has about a 40% chance of landing in the top four. Does a top four pick make them more likely to go all in for a player like Janus or Jalen Brown?

I would argue it should actually make them less likely to go in for such a player and just take the pick and be happy and move on with life. You have lots at stake for lots of teams. So let's do some lottery fun.

What is the, let's start with like, the actual serious conversation. Who has the most at stake, in your opinion, in Sunday's ping pong extravaganza? I really think it's actually the Indiana Pacers. I think when you look at where they're at, if they can get one of the top four picks,

like this is going to take them to another level. Like, I love the way they're set up with Tyrese Hallibor and with the trade for Zubach, you know, what they have with Pascal. Let's clarify for people. just before you start. Indiana traded its pick to the clippers. Top four protected and protected from 10 on, meaning the Pacers keep it if it's one, two, three, or four. And the Clippers get it if it's five, six, seven, eight, or nine. Yeah. And I think this has a chance to really set them up to be a true power in the East. It can only be five or six, by the way. So the Clippers get it if it's five or six.

but they can go in that sense of like finals last year, lottery this year, right back into the thick of things in the Eastern Conference. They're going to be right there already, but then also have a young caliber player, regardless who they pick, that they can kind of set up to sort of almost work their way into the system. Like for me, that is such a massive opportunity for them.

I know all the low franchise, the Washington, the Sacramento, is all that. It would be game changing for them to have a franchise player. But this is a team that's already set to be kind of in the running to be a contender next year to be able to add a top four pick would be so just, it would just set them up for so long. Assuming Halliburton is healthy, both from the Achilles and the shingles stuff that's been troubling him. And like, that's, you know, I had shingles, by the way, when I was like

22 years old. And it was just itchy for me. I got it on my side. And it's like it's, I got very lucky. Like, if you get it when you're older or like Tyrese got it on his face, that's, that's, that's nasty stuff. Um, my pick, I had, I had four candidates for this honor of most at stake. Both Indiana and the clippers were among my top four. This is just a huge swing moment for both of these franchises. If the Pacers keep this pick, which they have a 52% chance of doing, so it's almost a coin flip, they add an A plus draft prospect to their core. They also add a big trade asset.

I just don't think it's in the Pacer's DNA to take an opportunity like that, like a franchise that has really never tanked or very rarely tanked. They tanked this year, obviously, to bring a player like that into a core that is actually like not even that old. I think they just keep that player and are thrilled about the bridge that they've built themselves for many years going forward.

If the clippers don't get this pick, it rolls over into a 2031 unprotected Pacers pick, which could be a good asset. 2031, who knows what the hell is going on in the world. And if the clippers do get it, they get not a top four pick, but five or six in a pretty deep draft,

and again, a rare chance for them having traded so much stuff to Oklahoma City, including their own pick in this lottery. Right. Yes. To get a blue chip player that they just haven't had this chance in a long time. And they just went younger with Garland as well. And so I think it's a huge swing moment for both.

Ironically, the thunder moving up in the draft with the Clippers pick would help the clippers get the Pacers pick. Would embarrass the shit out of the Clippers. But still, I have two other candidates. Can you give you my two other candidates for most at stake? Yeah, go for it. Number one is Atlanta, which I already mentioned. And I think, again, if it were me running the Hawks and I get a top four pick,

I'm just keeping the pick, and I'm building around Gianlon Johnson and Akangwu and Nikola Alexander Walker and Dyson and maybe Kaminga stays, whatever. I'm just like, I have a good team, re-signed CJ, not going to speed it up. If I fall to eighth or ninth, or, I mean, where can I really? There's a lot of scenarios in play for them. If I fall somewhere else, I might be a little bit more. open to that pick plus Ries Sashay, plus a lot of stuff for somebody. Could be honest.

Could be, again, they have the Milwaukee pick this year and some part of it next year. It could be Jalen Brown. It could be somebody. So Atlanta. And just the other team, is anything good ever going to happen for Sacramento? Like, you just, like at some point, you got to make your own luck. I understand it. And the kings have done nothing.

to get the lottery gods on their side. We all know that. But at some point, this team has moved down in the lottery a bunch of times. Then they missed the picks that they pick in the lottery. Shout out Marvin Bagley and many, many others. I don't mean to pick on Marvin Bagley, but Luca was just sitting there for them. And they said, hey, you know what?

We like this guy from Duke. They even lost the coin flip with Utah for the fourth spot in the lottery. By the way, Utah went from that coin flip, went from, I think, 99.6% chance of keeping their pick to 100% chance of keeping their pick for the Jazz, the top eight pick they owed Oklahoma City. So there was even a little bit of sweating for the jazz to do. So those are my four. I mean, like, you could argue Washington as the other sad sacker, Brooklyn having just picked five picks. Brooklyn's got a big market. They'll get a free agent at some point. Maybe they'll trade for a big guy this summer.

I don't know. Washington, like, enough. You got a lot of bites at the Apple. You got some interesting young players. Sacramento, it's like Neat Clifford's all right. I've actually kind of liked the way Neat Clifford finished the season. Rayneau, I put on first team all rookie. I just don't really know what his upside is, given his defense of limitations. And, you know,

Devin Carter, they don't play very much. And Keegan Murray's fine. He's overpaid. Just it would be nice for Kings fans to get something. I feel for the Kings fan, but I'm so worried about this organization ruining another young player. Right? Like,

drafting high, a player where it's like, I don't understand their development philosophy. And, you know, like a lot of young guys got minutes at the end of the season this year. And there are some guys that are promising, like you talked about. We both like Renault. There's neat Clifford. There's a lot of that stuff. But it's like, I just, I don't want to, I don't trust them to get to actually develop and get the most out of a player. So for me, I'm kind of don't want them to get the.

the lottery because of that. I don't want them to win the lottery because of that. What is your funniest possible lottery outcome? Okay. My funniest possible lottery outcome was, I actually think it'd be kind of hilarious if Dallas won it again. Okay. That's not a bad candidate. You know, the odds, like, look, 6.7% overall number one, you know, top 4, 29%, before the tanking, rules all change and everything that goes into it. Like, I think it'd be kind of, one, I like that they got Maasai, run their front office now. I like the way they're kind of set up. With Cooper, why not get them another running mate?

Let's go. I think it'd be pretty funny to me if they got the number one pick. My pick was for funniest possible outcome is New Orleans pick being the number one pick in the draft in Atlanta getting it would be, to me, the apologies to New Orleans fans, one of my favorite cities on the planet. It would still be funny. I don't know if I texted you this in time, but I wanted to pick what would be this year's Dallas, where a team wins it and people are like, really, they deserve that after what they did? Who would be, do you have a pick for this? Like, who would be this year as they win the lottery? And you're like, oh, why? They got it?

I think the answer to me would actually be Golden State, but not for the way, like the why. but more just like, really, they're going to win the lottery? Like, this is, we're going to, they're going to get the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the last few drafts where they're in the lottery. They, they, they, they, they botched, you know, with everything, James Wiseman, uh, Jonathan Camingo, all that stuff. We've rehashed that a million times. But like, to me, they would be, it would be kind of the moment where it's like, really, they're going to win the lottery. My pick for this year's Dallas. going to step on. Bill did his karma rankings yesterday, which are delightful with Nick Wright, awesome podcast. So I'm not going to do the karma. I'm just speaking. This year's Dallas

for me would be Chicago. Chicago wins the lottery and I would be like, we already saw this move with Derek Rose. Like no plan. Now they just hired Bryson Graham, well, I think he's really good and we'll do a good job there, but completely rudderless for so long, about to enter a period where being, if the lottery rules change, where being in the middle is suddenly, like, more profitable after years of they were in the middle and it was not profitable. And they shoot up from number nine to get the number one pick. I think that would be this year's Chicago. Do you have a worst case scenario, like most feared possible outcome for the league?

It's the, you already touched on it. It's the Clippers pick going number one. There's no other answer. It happened before to the Clippers, right? This is the Clippers' number one pick. And then it went to Cleveland. Kyrie Irving. For Kyrie Irving, it was the Barron Davis trade that they had made.

Sure was. It's happened before to them. So it's kind of, in one way, the whole week does not want this. And at the same time, it might actually be the funniest outcome. I don't think it would be funny. I think it would be like a horror movie villain got more powers or something. Yes. I honestly, it would be funny in the room, because I'm going to be in the drawing room again.

Someone might weep in that, like either the Clippers representative or just someone on a Western conference team might just be like, might weep. I could see someone maybe just going up and did you watch the show? I think you recommended the show to me, Platonic? Yes. Solid show. And one of my favorite running bits in the show is Seth Rogan just kicking the easy. scooters down every time he sees them because he just finds him annoying.

I think someone might do that with the ping-bong ball machine if it spits up Oklahoma City. Like some disgruntled person might get banned from the league for just knocking the thing over and fleeing the scene. Okay, let's talk about Jalen Brown. I dropped my notes. I don't know if this is going to be a thing. It's too early for me to know if it's going to be a thing. I do know that the Celtics just lost in the first round of the playoffs.

that Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown make $112 million, give or take, between them next year, and that only escalates. That Jalen Brown is extension eligible now, once the summer starts, despite having three more guaranteed years left on his deal at 57, 61, and 65. So if you're extending him right now when he's eligible, that extension doesn't even kick in until 2029, 2030 when he's 32 years old. 29 and a half ish now. And it's presumably Jalen Brown's not going to be like, I'll sign a cheapo extension now. So you're looking at a $70 million plus extension. And it raised eyebrows around Boston when he said this was my favorite year of my career, not the championship year, not the finals MVP year, all that.

So who knows if there will be any movement on this? Again, I don't think Boston wants to trade Jalen Brown. and Jalen Brown, to his credit, it came out yesterday and said, I want to be in Boston. He has really embraced Boston, the community, the fans, which we will talk about,

the Celtic tradition. It seems to really matter to him. That's awesome. It's still a cold business, and who knows what will happen? Did you watch the Twitch stream? You're a Twitch veteran. I'm a Twitch veteran.

I used to have a Twitch channel. I did not watch the Twitch stream. I did have a Boston friend of mine send me some highlights. You know, it was during the playoff game. So it wasn't, I didn't want to kind of lose my attention too much. So I did not, I did not lock in on the Jalen Brown Twitch stream. I dove in yesterday. I was like, I just got to see, I want to see the first, the raw document.

That's impressive. You picked up Twitch? Well, I don't have a Twitch app. You can just watch it, apparently. Yeah. or a Twitch account or whatever. I'm not a Twitcher. And I expected to just watch the main part where he talks about how it's his favorite year

and just get out of it. I watched like 40 minutes of it. I was totally mesmerized. I have never felt more out of touch in my entire life than I did for those 40 minutes. I just had no idea what was happening. I was mesmerized and I like by everything. So I was mesmerized by he really thinks there's an officiating conspiracy against him. Yeah.

Which he does get called for a lot of offensive fouls. The push off the push off thing is very simple. If your whole arm comes out, you're probably going to get called for an offensive foul. If you hold it like this and only the forearm is there, you're not going to get called for it. He puts his whole arm out. a lot. He talked a lot about how about people who turn their brains off I think because of analytics and people turn their brains off

in analytics and the media. I'm like, I don't, he's on to something because he's right. He talked about how people don't watch the games anymore and I think there's something to that. I don't think analytics is the reason why people, less people watch the actual games now than they used to. And not everyone in the media is like that. Some some of us do watch the games. He seemed mad that expectations for the team changed when they became, when they exceeded expectations, which like, that's what happens. You, people had low expectations for you. Then he won 57 games. And so, yeah, it's going to be disappointing when you

lose in the first round. But he was, it's, it's, he obviously, Jalen is a super smart guy. He's spoken at Harvard and MIT. He does tons of community work. He's a very engaging speaker. But I did feel like I was watching a portal into a different universe that I did not know existed. And in that universe, Jalen Brown is friends with like dudes from Celtics Twitter who are in his house or in his studio. They come in after game seven. They all sit with him. And he's like, here's this guy.

Here's that guy. Hey, you want to sit and give your thoughts on the season. And they sit there and they pontificate about the season, almost talking like they're part of the team. and I was just like, so this is, I'm so old and out of touch that people really do make friends with Twitter people in real life and including superstar basketball players and fans. And they're at his house. It's not like they're DMing on some stream or something.

They're at his house. I was absolutely mesmerized by everything. I have no notes. I now want to watch more Jalen Brown. There's a whole world out there that I didn't know existed of people doing this. It's an amazing way. One, it's an awesome way to actually get a look into his thoughts. And credit to him for his candor.

I personally, if I was part of the team, I personally wouldn't want. Well, it was the people who say, said it was loser behavior to blame the refs, are right, it was loser behavior to blame the refs. You blew a 3-1 lead. It's fine. The Sixers were awesome. M. Bid flops. Yeah, we know Mbid flops. Lots of people flomp. It's fine. But beyond that to me,

like, I don't mind this stuff. I like that he came out and said, no, this is what I met by those comments. Yeah, me too. Just to defend him a little bit, too. I'm not criticizing him. I'm just saying I was mesmerized by the whole thing. Not you, but others who are criticized Like, he was an MVP candidate this year.

Like, yeah, it was a fun-ass season. Deservedly so. Yeah, like, it's a fun-ass season for him. Like, yeah, it didn't go the way he wanted. You know, fine. But, like, he gets to say, like, yeah, this was one of my favorite seasons. I got to have a lot of fun doing this. Like, there's nothing wrong with that.

That I don't have any qualms with it. And it is fun proving people wrong. It absolutely is. And it's fun doing it with a bunch of guys who, have been castoffs and written off in their career. Even Peyton Pritchard three years ago was like, is he even going to be on the Celtics? But you throw Keda, Garza, Hugo, Jordan Walsh.

Like, it's probably fun to be to spearhead all of that. Yeah. So I think there's a lot of that stuff there. I like the Twitch Street. I like that he did it, does it. I personally don't, I'm not going to partake in it. I'm not a big, I'm not going to jump in. And I'm just going to focus on the basketball side.

but it is amazing the friendships he's developed with with Twitter, Boston Twitter fans and things like that. And that shows him ingrained in the community too, though. And right, like, in that circle, that's big. I just was not aware that this is happening. And they're all, they clearly like know him well. They're all in there. He's name checking all of them.

They're sitting down as part of the stream. I think it's just maybe I need to make more. friends through so maybe I've missed the boat on this. Zach, I can't wait for the next time I'm on the pod with you. And there's going to be people that are on the Zach Lowe Reddit that are going to be hanging out in your office there and telling me what you're going to be telling me this is so and so and so. Honestly, it's either that or my daughter's hot take on the Mets or actually my wife and

I have a running bit. She's probably overhearing this from the living room where she doesn't follow the NBA at all. She wants to come on my podcast for two reasons. Number one, to make fun of me and tell the world how actually insane I am. And number two, we have a running bit where I'll ask her like, hey, so what do you think about Timberwolves Spurs game two? And she'll give analysis without any knowledge. And she'll be like, you know, I mean, it's like Minnesota.

It's been a rocky year for them. And like, you know, they need to step up under pressure. And the Spurs, you know, their favorites here, like they got to eat. even up the series. And I will actually tell her like, you're 80% of the way there. You're nailing it. You're nailing it. That's awesome. Or my daughter's hot takes on the Mets, and she has a lot. Okay. Can we do Jalen Brown fake trades just for fun? Yes. Just to the caveat, I have a couple, but I am not nearly a trade machine Picasso like I met, like you and Well, there's only one trade.

There's only one trade machine, Picasso. And this is just a thought exercise, just because I think it was notable that he said the thing that he said. And it's going to certainly, like, teams are going to pick up the phone when things like that happen. I'm not saying that teams have called. I don't know if teams have called. First, the obvious one that people have already talked about is Jalen for Yannis. Whether it's straight up, whether Boston throws in picks, whatever. I mean, we don't need to belabor.

Janus is amazing. He brings a rim attacking element that Celtics don't have. He's only two years older than Jalen. What do you think about that trade, notably from the Bucks perspective? For the Bucs perspective, it's bringing in a piece in terms of like, okay, we can go win right now. Not a champion, but we can go win. We're in a situation where we're going to go win games. We're not going to tank. We're going to build around Jalen. It's going to be interesting to see how him and how we're with him and Miles Turner and the pick and roll and how that can kind of develop. They're still, you know, I'm assuming they're still

just going to have everybody else with them. But this is, hey, Jalen, this is your team. Go to work now. We just saw, you know, what he did for this past season. You know, obviously he's not going to have quite the same amount of talent around him. I think that Bugs team still has a lot more work, but I think giving him opportunity to kind of just blossom as just,

this is solely your team go. I think it's interesting. I think pairing him with Taylor Jenkins. I think Jenkins would be able to do some good stuff with him and put him in good situations and good spots. Like, I kind of like that for Milwaukee. We know that they can't really tank knowing their situation with draft picks. So I think this is one of those things where when they're going to make a Yannis trade, if and when they got to find a way to make it so that we're not just going to be absolutely terrible because unless we're getting our picks back from Portland. It's a relevancy trade for them for sure.

It's a we don't want to bottom out, particularly when the lottery rules are going to change the way they might. Small market, we get a guy who might make first team all NBA this year. And again, deservedly, I put Jalen Brown first team all NBA to be clear Jalen Brown. I still. And again, they'll get a good pick in this draft because they get the lesser of their pick and the Pelicans pick. So they'll get a top whatever pick. And like, yeah, you start to, this is, they're going to be their case to Yonis. Like another, maybe we nail this draft, blah, blah, blah.

Like, it's not, I don't, I don't hate it for the bucks. It's fine. If your goal is to stay relevant and stay afloat, I don't know that I would necessarily aim that way. I do worry, and this is more an indictment on the NBA financial structure than anything else, that Jalen Brown's next contract is going to be a complete albatross. And that sucks. That's just the reality of the seniority scale, the cap, the tax, et cetera. and it's why I keep lobbying for things like,

if Boston were to extend him and keep him, homegrown superstar, whether on a max or supermax, you should get some kind of cap apron tax relief if you have a player like that on your team or maybe two players like that on your team. Because it just, it shouldn't be a detriment to draft well,

play well, win, and keep the players that your fans have grown to love. It shouldn't be like crippling to do that. Now, if he gets traded to the bucks, he's not on the Celtics anymore. It's different story. there are multiple three-way trades you could do if the Bucks want to aim differently than that.

Bill and Nick Wright talked about Atlanta. Atlanta gets Jalen, Boston gets Janice. The Bucks get picks from everybody, including their own stuff back from Atlanta. I think Atlanta is an interesting, just straight-up trade partner, Atlanta, Boston, straight up, depending on what kind of picks they'd like to move, what Boston, how rehabilitable Boston thinks Risha Shea is as a prospect. I don't love the salary that would have to go to the Celtics in that deal from either perspective. Like, I don't love it if I'm Boston and I don't love how many core players I'd have to give up if I'm Atlanta, whether it's Daniels plus Kaminga plus Risha Shay plus on and on. But there could be something there. I think there's a fun three-way trade where Yannis goes to Boston, Jalen Brown goes to Portland, and

Portland sends both salary and picks, notably Milwaukee's own picks, and Boston sends picks and stuff back to Milwaukee, and it's a full rebuild mode? I can keep going, well, don't you give me one of your favorite ones? So one of my favorite ones that I focused mainly on Western Conference teams, and I was trying to make sure Boston had some pieces back in that way. And so I'm going to start with, I went with the New Orleans Pelicans. Okay.

They're on my list. I wanted to figure out a way to get them Zion but didn't really figure that one out. But I went with Dejante Murray, Trey Murphy III, and they get the Pelicans first round pick next year, 2027 for Brown. That's one you have to think about

because Trey Murphy the third is that coveted around the league. I also played around with Zion possibilities. Again, if I'm New Orleans, I'm not sure what the point of that is, but it does get me a better best player. It's an interesting one. And again, if you're Boston, you're talking about not only turning Jalen Brown into multiple pieces that help you win now, it's resetting your finances a little bit going

forward and hoping to nail the balance of we're still going to be very competitive in the Eastern Conference, if not one of the favorites, probably one of the favorites, and have a little bit more financial flexibility and pick up some youth in a pick or whatever in the process. I have one more. I have a crazy one. No, go. There's no such thing as too crazy. Kind of, kind of nothing. Luca Donchich got traded for Anthony Davis.

There's no such thing as too crazy. It really sucks that Nico Harrison has removed the ability of us having just crazy wild ones. But do we finally get a Kauai Leonard, Jalen Brown trade? I don't think that's crazy at all. That's on my list. And I have the, and I have the, I threw the clippers have to throw in a 20-30 first round pick. Oh, yeah. You got to attack.

something to Kauai. With Kauai's contract expiring after next year, they can kind of, if they want to just, hey, let's get out of Capel after that. I think it's interesting. For me, that's one where I would take a hard look for the Clippers, Garland and Brown as my core for the next few years. Like, I kind of like where they're set up. It's on my list.

If I'm Boston, I just think he's too much of an injury risk. And I just, I can't do it. But the word you used there was finally because obviously Jalen Brown was the piece that would have moved in any number of theoretical Danny A in Boston trades for Paul George for Jimmy Butler for Kawhi Leonard and also notably post Danny Age for Kevin Durant. And the rockets are on my list. And it's interesting how the tables have turned. In 2022, when Durant issued a trade request to get out of Brooklyn, the Celtics were one of the hot names. And I wrote back then that I would not trade Jalen Brown and other, it would have been other stuff for Duran. And part of the reason is I, there were many reasons.

But number one, it's I hate trading up in age. And it was from 25 to 33 at that point, Jalen to KD. I wrote about how there's a very good possibility Jalen Brown has not peaked and particularly that he's developing as a playmaker a little bit later in his career. That turned out to be right. And I wrote that at that time, the Celtics were coming off a finals appearance and were already one of the favorites, if not the favorite, to win the championship next year. And so, yeah, Durant might make me more of a favorite now because of his fit with Tatum, his malleability, he's Kevin Durant four years ago. But I'm not sure he bumps my odds up today enough for the damage to tomorrow.

And so sure enough, the Celtics didn't do it. and they won the championship two years later. Now, you're aging up from 29 to 37. So Jalen Brown is now approaching age 30 instead of right in the meat of his prime. It's much more likely that he has peaked, that this year is his peak, which what a peak. You have won the title with this score. You've achieved that. And you are now in position where you get the extra stuff from Houston for Kevin Durant.

And Houston just gets to get out of the Durant experience, reset its age roster a little bit, but still have a superstar talent coming in. I think it's interesting. I think multiple picks probably have to go to Boston. I don't know if I can get that net swap next year, which is super valuable, probably not. Ultimately, I think Durant has reached an age where I'm just not going to, that's not the guy I'm going for if my boss. He's too old and there's just too much noise everywhere he goes now. But it's interesting to think about. Yeah, it's tough.

It's tough to kind of bank on that. And just, again, like the way the past few teams with Durant have gone as well, it's a bit frustrating. Like, I don't know if you really want to sign up for that if you're Boston in that way. And, you know, although it would be podcast goals for us with Bill talking about KED and Boston. That'd be a lot of fun for the podcast world. But I don't think that's something you're I think the KD run is him being the most sought after guy is probably coming to an end pretty quickly.

Okay, some other ones just for shits and giggles, as I say. The obvious, not obvious, but like the teams that have assets in the ability to win for Jalen Brown, not for Yannis. Toronto can get into any conversation they want. I don't see a Jalen Brown trade happening there. for various reasons. I don't think he's their type. I don't think he's their guy that they're going to go all in on at that money. And they also just have the contracts they would trade are just contracts. No one is really itching to get right now. To me, again, we talked about already, but if Cleveland loses this series, there are just anything's on the table for them. I don't even know what the trade would be. Like, do you start, I mean, Mowbly, I think they would be very hesitant to do. But like, I just don't know what else. Maybe there is no trade for that reason. But Miami always. always has to be mentioned with Janus and or Jalen Brown. Same kind of packages, you know,

picks, young guys, hero, Wiggins, blah, blah, blah. Just to do it. Sign and trade, Austin Reeves, plus all three plus all the picks for Jalen Brown. Just to mention the Lakers. They'd have to throw in more money. Don't see that one. Celtics and Lakers don't trade with each other.

Warriors have four first round picks. I just the salary, getting to the salary is very, very hard. Too hard for that. Yeah. The one wild card that I kind of thought was interesting, I'm just making this up out of whole cloth, to be clear, is would Brooklyn ever do something with Michael Porter Jr. Plus salary filler, plus they have a, I mean, I don't know how many picks it would take, but they have like Knicks picks up the wazoo.

They have a big Nuggets pick in 2032. Michael Porter Jr. makes less money. he'll be on an expiring contract. He brings a plus three-point shooting. He's younger than Jalen Brown. Is the injury prone, maybe? And the Nets get, hey, we have a superstar. He's 29.

Maybe we can get another star in the door with some of our other asses. I don't think that's crazy. I do feel like Michael Porter Jr.'s game and just general Michael Porter Jr.ness is maybe a little volatile for a team that's moving off a tent pull. beloved superstar finals MVP.

I tried with Sacramento. I just, I can't do it. You keep trying. Don't banish him to Sacramento. No. I tried with Charlotte, just because I do think Charlotte has,

they've just got a ton of stuff and they're clearly ripe for a little bit of a win now move. But again, like, I'm just not parting out of my, I'm not doing Cinniple. I'm not doing Miller. I mean,

Lamello, I don't know. that Paulson is going to be interested in that. And I'm not doing, I'm not messing with what happened in Charlotte. Leave, leave Charlotte alone. I have one more little wild one. But how about Jamal Murray for Jalen Brown? I thought about that a little bit.

Like if, I mean, salary has to be sent, you know, the, the nuggets have to send a little more. But I'm wondering if that's something, you actually, you have to have the conversation about it. both teams do. I mean, for Denver, you're going to lose a primary ball handler for a team that doesn't really have a ton of actual ball handlers. And, you know, for the Celtics, you're defensively, you're taking a hit with Jamal, but you're adding a lot of offensive firepower as well. Like, he's going to make up a little bit for what Jaylen does offensively,

but he can't do obviously the defense side if it's going to take a him. But hopefully Tatum's coming back, ready to go all next year. you gotta think about it what a C change that would be for both teams in terms of style personnel obviously with Denver you have this sort of wing defense thing that they don't I mean they did not have

because of injuries but you have you'd have to resolve the Cam Johnson Peyton Watson contract like all of that would have to be resolved and then if you're Boston like do Murray Pritcher White It's a lot of point guards-ish. I mean, Derek White kind of flamed out at the end of the season, but he's still Derek White. It's interesting.

It was on my list. I just still think the most likely outcome by a lot is that Jalen Brown is on the Celtics next year and Jason Tatum's on the Celtics next year. They tweak around the edges a little bit. They have a repeater tax issue that they have to deal with. I'm interested to see how they navigate that because in the end, shedding all that veteran talent did hurt them, particularly on the front line once the playoffs got going and Joel M. Bede came back. It's going to be interesting. Well, look, in four days when I get out of that ballroom

in Chicago, the landscape of the league will be a little clearer for the next couple of months. And given what Jimmy Haslam said about Janus, buckle up because the offseason unfficially starts at the combine when all the agents are there and all the teams are there and I will be there too. And everyone's going to be whispering and huddling and having conversations and meetings at the fancy hotel. It's a fun time. Moat Dekiel. We're, You're in New York this week. Tell people why. Yeah, I'm in New York. I'm working with the NBA. We are putting on a show for X.

It's called X Live. It is basically a pregame show with me, Alexis Morgan, Zach Harper. We're about two hours before tip off. We go for an hour. We have a lot of fun. Obviously, the three of us are all breaking down things. I have a video segment, Zach. I get to go to the board like Kenny Smith.

Look at that. X's and Mose. I do my whole video breakdown. down. So we have a lot of fun. You're going to learn some stuff. Get you ready for the games. And honestly, like, it's been a lot of fun to do. We're doing this all the way until, I think, game fives of the second round. So make sure you're checking that out. Today will be 530 Eastern. There you go. And the usual double dribble podcast with Jared Dubin, offside, all of that. Well, you're the best. Appreciate your time. Have fun on the X show today.

Thank you for having me, Zach. Enjoy the draft lottery. I know you will. Oh, yeah. All right. That's it. For today's episode, thanks to Mo DeKiel. As always, thanks to Mike, Billy and Jonathan on production. Thanks to you all for listening to and or watching The Zach Lowe Show. We'll be back next week with some post-lottery reaction and, of course, analysis of all the big playoff games that are going on. Check us out.

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