The Zach Lowe Show - Part 1: The 10 Players Facing the Most Pressure Next Season

Episode Date: August 4, 2026

Zach is joined by Kirk Goldsberry for a two-part special looking at the 10 players under the most pressure next season. In Part 1, they reveal the first half of their list and close the episode by discussing whether the Pacers should feel pressure next season. (0:00) Welcome to The Zach Lowe Show! (1:31) Kirk Goldsberry joins the show! (9:12) Players under the most pressure next season (16:19) This season could define Chet Holmgren’s career (30:19) De'Aaron Fox needs to bounce back following his playoff struggles (40:03) How will Jayson Tatum fare without Jaylen Brown? (51:27) Should the Pacers be feeling pressure? Host: Zach Lowe Guest: Kirk Goldsberry Producers: Oscar De La Luz, Billy Gil, and Mike Wargon Social: Keith Fujimoto and Michael Szokoli 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

On the Zach Lowe show, it's July 30th, but you're listening to this much later than July 30th. This is part one of a two-part podcast with Kurt Goldsbury that we're hoping to drop over the next couple of weeks as I'm gallivanting around Europe on vacation. And it's a very simple gimmick. The 10 players facing the most pressure in the NBA for the 26-27 season, we each made lists of 10 and we go in reverse order from 10 to 1. Part one, this podcast right now is the first half of our lists, plus some honorable mentions. We hit the Celtics. We hit the Raptors. We hit the rockets, the magic, the pistons, the wolves, a bunch of teams and a bunch of

interesting sort of pressure-facing players, if you will. And then we end it with a deep dive on the Indiana Pacers. Yeah, remember them? The Indiana Pacers, they didn't have any players on either of our list, although they had several honorable mention pressure players. This team was within a win and maybe an injury. of the NBA title like a second ago, and they're over under is 43 and a half on Fandul.

They have a new center of YitzizizuBats replacing Miles Turner. Otherwise, basically the same team minus Ben Matherin that almost won the championship. What do we make of this team? What should our expectations be? So it's part one, pressure rankings, Pacers. Hope you enjoy it. Welcome to the Zach Lowe show.

It's July 30th, but you will be listening to this sometime in August, what I am in Europe, gallivanting around. Kurt Goldsbury is here. We're going to have some fun. We're going to count down the 10 players under the most pressure in the upcoming NBA season,

given that most but not all of the offseason drama and players changing teams is done. Mr. Goldsbury, how are you doing? I'm great. I'm excited for you and your family to gallivant. Tis the season in the NBA calendar where a bunch of us get to gallivant. So enjoy it, Zach.

The biggest major drama still yet to be decided. at least as we're recording this on July 30th is Gawai Leonard's. The investigation continues or maybe almost ending, maybe about to end into the aspiration alleged cap circumvention scandal. Baxter Holmes reported yesterday at ESPN that this process could, could in a worst case scenario for everybody involved, including me and you, go into 2027. Because you and I talked about this on July 15th when Adam Silver gave us press conference.

It's not like investigation over decision done necessarily. There's an arbitration process to which the union is a party. There's an appeals process on top of that if an arbitration goes one way or another. So yes, obviously, like we talked about that. It could take much longer than Adam Sovers. We hope to have this resolved over the summer timeline unless there is some sort of like, I called it plea bargaining agreement where the investigation is done. Everybody gets together.

They hash out what's fair before going into said arbitration process. I have nothing else to say about this. We haven't heard the end of it. Maybe by the time people listen to this, you've heard the end of it. Like, Pablo keeps coming out with episodes. They're all very interesting. There was one about a Rhode Island soccer team

that came out last night. Awesome reporting. I just, at some point, life will move on. Yeah, it's just, I think it's interesting because the only thing I would add, Zach, is that Adam Silver seemed to take a pretty confident stance throughout the spring, that this was going to be resolved this summer

before the season. To me, that's the most noeworthy thing. I don't think that was ever realistic, given the scope. And as you alluded to, Pablo's continuing to uncover things. And then I thought Baxter's reporting was really relevant because if the Clippers don't like the result or if the Players Association does not like the result, both outcomes, I think, are very likely here.

There's going to be, there will be more things to do. So it's looking more and more so. like I saw Adam speak in New York a couple weeks ago and I texted you right after he heard. He said he's like, Kauai Leonard is a clipper. He said that like very adamantly. And I was like, oh, that's interesting. But yeah, the thing here is like training camp is weeks away. Brandon Ingraham, Grady Dick, they hang in the balance.

Kauai Leonard hangs in the balance. This is just getting to be messy and extended into the fall. I'm excited to take a break from it and it's going to be great. The other offseason drama that did end in time for me to go on vacation. was LeBron James signing with the Philadelphia 76ers after, of course, they famously acquired Jalen Brown from the Celtics while Bill Simmons was undergoing a colonoscopy. We've talked ad nauseum already on this podcast about that trade, the Sixers team, the state of the east.

I just, I will say I'm excited to go on vacation. Again, it's July 30th because I fear, Kirk, that there is another week's worth of inside LeBron's decision coverage coming. Because yesterday, July 29th, albeit only five or six days after the decision itself was made public, there was a Dave McMinn's story on ESPN, which I feel like is like the fourth in-depth story about inside LeBron's decision to go to Philadelphia. Simultaneously, there was Rich Paul and Max Kellerman on our podcast network, had Shams Trani on to talk about the inside story of LeBron James.

And look, LeBron is arguably arguably the greatest player of all time. I have nothing against LeBron. I've loved him following his career. I've interviewed him a few times. He's awesome. Like I have said from before he even chose the Sixers, that I thought it would be kind of cool if he chose the Sixers. I've said he's not ring chasing.

All of that stuff. All of that said, I kind of feel like they're having a little too much fun at the offices of Clutch HQ. Just sort of, it's not a victory lap. It's like, oh, did you guys miss the breadcrumbs? We had this breadcrums. from here, breadcrim over here. Did we tell you that this meeting happened over here?

It's get a little cheeky. It's get a little cheeky for my taste. And the other thing is, all of these stories have fun little details in them that were heretofore unknown, like, oh, the Celtics were interested, or the Clippers had this offer. And they come at the cost of things like this. Anonymous quotes like this. This is from McMedman's story.

He didn't take the easy way, a Sixers source told the SPN. he's comfortable being uncomfortable, which a lot of people aren't. Can we just settle down? Like, he didn't say, did anyone say he took the easy way? Was anyone making an argument that there was a harder way he should have taken?

And why are you co-opting Daryl Morey's comfortable, being uncomfortable, throwing it in his face after you fired him? And then added a source close to James. I gained even more respect for him. Everybody looks at a job as work. But when I saw that, I asked myself, Let's say you worked for this company for 20-something years,

and you know that you're going to retire in a few years. Would I go to Philly? Would I go somewhere that's a six-hour flight and leave everything my family here to go there? It's really the pure story of dedication to his craft. It's basketball. I gained even more respect for him. There's not enough settled-down juice in the grocery store

to pour on top of that quote. Can we just all relax a little bit with this fawning myth-making about a dude who decided to go play on a great East Coast team with Joelle and Bede and Jalen Brown. It's just everything is a little, it's a little much. I don't know if maybe I'm just cranky. It's like a little much with it. And then he talks about saying how he said trust the process at the Fanatics Fest.

He did not say that in any way, shape, or form to drop some kind of Easter egg about the Sixers, a source close to James told ESPN, first of all, why do we have to have anonymous sources about a stupid quote of Fanatif Fanatifat X? quote, he thought it was funny, but also it wasn't conscious. Okay, what the fuck is that mean? It's a little too cheeky. It's a little too cheeky and I'm done now. It's the dregs of content and I think they dropped a bomb in a perfect time to own the new cycle.

They own it. You got to give them credit. You're right. They really played it out perfectly. Yeah. I'm happy about it. I haven't spoken about it. I think the McNamen column that you and I talked about two weeks ago, where we had gone back and forth about, man, this seems like it was realistic.

That actually changed my opinion. I still didn't think it was going to happen. But looking forward, Zach Lowe, beyond this hysteria, I will say this, it makes the Eastern Conference regular season programming a lot more interesting because now those Philly Boston games are juicy. The Philly New York games are juicy. The Philly Miami games. There's like a matrix of great Eastern Conference games and some. in her conference games. But ultimately, I'm glad this happened.

And I can't wait for October because October is better discourse in the NBA than August. That's for sure. You know, Kirk, that was a really good take. I gained even more respect for you from that take. Even more. Thank you. On to the gimmick of this podcast, the dust is settled. And this is supposed to be, this is going to be a two-part sort of evergreen podcast that they can

drop in while I'm on vacation. So this feed does not go dormant. So the gimmick is just this. I said, let's each rank our 10 players facing the most pressure in this upcoming NBA season. Now that we've seen everyone who's changed teams, has gotten traded. And we're going to go in reverse order. So we're going to pick our number tens facing the least pressure of the most pressure group. And then part two will have the guys that we are facing the absolute most pressure for the coming season.

I suspect that some Sixers may come up in this discussion. And so we're just going to go rapid fire. Then I'll have a bunch of honorable mentions. we'll see how our lists overlap. And with that, Kirk, I will let you lead off. Who's number 10 on your list? Number 10 on my list is La Mello Ball, the newest member of the Minnesota Timberwolves,

a player who's now been hoisted from sort of a franchise that's happy to play basketball to one that expects to play basketball into May and maybe even June. I think Minnesota took one of the biggest gambols of this whole offseason sending out Nazreet, the beloved Nasreed, a fan favorite, and importing one of the most polarizing guys in the league,

and you factor in the fact that Minnesota has been to the conference finals two of the last three years, a tough second round loss to the Spurs last year. And then this closing or opening Ant Man window, depending on who you talk to, and it feels like a lot of this falls on the shoulders of La Mello Ball. Will he be able to bring this team to the next level and suddenly level up, Zach Lowe?

and I'm pretty skeptical, actually, but nonetheless, I think he has a lot of pressure, the kind of pressure he has never had on him as a player in this league. Here's the pressure, and he was on my honorable mention list, along with Rudy Gobert from this team. And also, I like to go deep cuts. Again, honorable mention, I had Terran Shannon Jr. Just because there's this massive hole at Power Forward,

because not only did Nasri go out, Julius Randall went out in a salary dump, essentially, to enable this, this move. But the pressure is, now you have expectations that go beyond the play-in. You have expectations of being a 50-plus win team and playing deep into the playoffs, which means going toe to toe against the nastiest, meanest, most athletic, most physical teams. And I think that was the doubt that Charlotte Harbored about La Mello Ball. If we got in a playoff series with Steph Castle or the Army of Oklahoma City wings in your

grill, in your jersey, pushing, shoving, making. every catch at chore. Are you going to wilt? Or are you going to get even tougher and out physical them and fight for the ball and fight for position and fight for rebounds? Are you going to get even more reckless with your passes and your trickery and your highlight reel chasing and all that? I think it's the most fascinating, one of the more fascinating experiments in the league. I'm kind of with you that I'm a little less optimistic about it as a functional move than it was when it happened. I get why they did it. I think it will work to some degree. Like I get I think offensively they're going to be very powerful moving Anthony Edwards into less of a ball dominant role.

I'm just interested. I think the costs, though, when you talk about filling power forward minutes from Randall and Reed to more McDaniels at the floor, Shannon Jr. Trey Lyles is here on a minimum. Jalen Clark. Like that's Josh Green might help a little bit. It's a lot. It's a lot to ask. Yeah.

And I did my homework for this assignment. And I said, you know, there's five types of pressures, Zach Lowe, that we're going to talk about. there's contract pressure living up to big numbers. There's legacy pressure living up to career expectations. There's health pressure, which I'll come back to. And then there's like this foundational pressure when you're the center of an organization. And there's market pressure. I think Minnesota is a market that expects to win.

But the biggest thing we haven't talked about with Lamello is health pressure. And I'm sure you've talked to people around Charlotte since their season where when they talk about this move, they are unfortunately really skeptical that Lamello's ankles and lower body can live up to the grind that the modern NBA puts on these guys. He only played 28 minutes per game last year, and that was no accident, Zach Lowe. That's a number that I think Minnesota fans have to ingest and understand why they were doing that. And it's also a big reason why they were willing to get off of what some people considered to be their franchise player in this. transaction. So can he withstand the health pressure? Are his ankles going to hang on to defend Shay and the spurs dudes? Or is he going to be on the injured list a lot?

Number 10 on my list, kind of a deep cut, but I had some fun with this. This will surprise you, I think. Reed Shepard from the Houston Rockets. And again, like, I could go there. There's a bunch of obvious guys on my honorable mention, but like this is an interesting one to me for a number of reasons. Never quite found his footing to the degree we all thought he would or should have in the regular season even under E. Meo Doca, who is defense first, incredibly demanding, and just would not go all in to start Reed Shepard when they clearly needed a boost on offense with Fred Van Vleet out. Fred Van Vleet is back now. He's back as Reed Shepard comes off a playoffs that can only be described as an absolute catastrophe in almost every possible way.

shot 30% from the field, 30. Mostly threes, so, you know, not as bad as it was on paper. Got picked on defense, committed one of the two absolutely inexplicable, egregious turnovers at the end of game three against the Lakers trying to split a double team at half court that cost the rockets an, like you should never in a million years lose that game and it ended up essentially cost it in the series. And he is the number three pick in a draft where. Steph Castle was the number four pick taken by an in-state Western Conference rival

in an all-time potentially sliding doors moment that the Rockets may just, the Rockets and the rest of the West may not be able to recover from. And this is make or break now for Reed Shepherd. And break means is he a trade asset that the Rockets use in some sort of mid-season move to sort of get a team to, you know, trading picks and future prospects for a veteran kind of player? We'll see. But I got my on Reed Shepherd. That's all.

You want to go to next guy on your list? Yeah, the 2024 draft class. Obviously, it's a key year for these guys to make money, too, Zach Lowe. You have to earn an extension. And when you're drafted number three in your draft, you should be a max extension candidate at very least. And he has a lot to prove to get there this season. I just want to say I agree with that.

He was on my honorable mention. Yeah, all right. So I had Alex Tsar in the same sort of sense. Like, this is a time for you to get. get paid young man. Number, number, next on my list. Nine on your list.

Chet Holmgren. Oh, okay. We have our first overlap. Chet Holmgren is nine on your list. Chet Holmgren is way up at number three on my list. So we could knock off two birds with one stone. You do the honors. Okay, I'll do the honors.

I can't wait to hear what you say. Obviously, this is a young player who had become an all defensive type player, a rim protector, a stretch five, a key piece of a championship team. Things were looking great. A year ago, this was one of the brightest pieces of a potential dynasty, for sure. Then the Spurs series happened. And I think Victor Weniamma just putting one of the ultimate sort of laser sights on one person,

it was a really interesting moment in NBA history for me. They obviously just have this cool rivalry. and Wemby just sort of poetically made that a one-sided rivalry. And that was all culminated, obviously, with the Game 7 performance that'll go down in infamy in Oklahoma, where Chathamondon knows one of two from the floor in 32 minutes, has four points, three rebounds, and two assists in a game where his team needed him the most. And now, and I know this is in your notes too, what happens this year, Zach Lowe, his five-year, $240 million contract kicks in five more years.

He has to rediscover that form that got him that contract in the first place. His defense remained stalwart in that series. But our lasting image of Chet Holgren, when the chips were down in a game seven against the rival that is going to define his NBA life for the next five years, the team and the individual of Victor Wenbanyama, our lasting image of him is. is passing up wide open threes. And one play where he caught the ball, kind of in the triple threat position,

but closer to the baseline on the right wing. And it was like quicksand opened in the floor. He literally just like tried to dribble and fell over. And that was the end of Chet Hongra. And he averaged 11 points a game in the Western Conference Finals. He took 11 threes total in seven games, which is inexcusable. He became a complete offensive zero for most of the series.

And given that the Thunder had to sacrifice, a lot of depth this summer to get under the second apron. It just can't happen again. I don't expect Chet Homegren. He falls into a lot of a bucket where a lot of big guys live. Bam out of bio lives here. Sometimes Anthony Davis even lives here where I think their great offensive games create expectations from people like, why don't they average 25 a game?

No, Anthony Davis has, but like, why don't they have, why does Anthony Davis average 30 a game? They're just, they just don't play that way. They're not built to play that way. It's not the nature of their game. But you can't be a zero. You got to give me 18. You got to abuse a couple switches. You got to screen and roll for some dunks and have just some impact on the game offensively.

And what was really interesting about that Spurs series is their total reluctance to have Chet Holmgren play the five at all. And if you look at what they did in the off season, it looks like they're still reluctant to have Chetonger play the five. They lost a lot of their wing depth. They resigned Isaiah Hartenstein over keeping Lou Dort and others. They drafted another center in the Mara kid from Michigan. They kept big Jalen Williams, but I have two Thunder players in my top 10. He was one of them. And I think he, this is his, Dirk goes to the outback moment after the we believe loss,

where he just like vanished off the face of the earth and came back literally from the Australian outback, a better player. This is the moment that could define Chet Holmgren's entire career. It could go Dirk Novitsky or it could go Ben Simmons. I expected to go closer to Dirk Novitsky, but we'll see. Next on my list, we can be quick on this one. You know, we talked about how the Raptors are in limbo with this collie traded. If it goes through, they will have tons of expectations.

Jako Pertil is honorable mention on my list. I think he's just honorable mention because that contract is already a disaster and I don't see any turning back. Emmanuel quickly. Doesn't it feel like he's barely played for the Raptors? Like, can you remember a single thing, Emmanuel quickly has done on the Raptors. Didn't play at all in the playoffs against Cleveland. And they were better defensively for it because Jamal Shed took most of those minutes.

And Jacoby Walter took a lot of those minutes. They're going to need Emmanuel Huckley to be better on defense. And then you look at his offensive stats. And they're like about what you would expect if you were the Raptors. He's like 17, 6 and 6, 37, 38 percent on threes, shoots a lot of threes. And he played 70 games last year. It's not like he was out the whole year. But before that, the year before he'd only played 30.

68th year before that. It just feels like division was, we're not handing the offense to you, Emmanuel Hookley, but you're going to defend point guards, and you're going to be this sort of like supercharged version of a George Hill where you average 16, 18 a game, you're off the ball a lot, you can set screens for Scotty Barnes and reverse pick and rolls, you punish defenses on closeouts.

And we've seen like a quarter of it here, a quarter of it there. For this team to take the form that it thinks it can take, They just need Emmanuel quickly to be very good for a prolonged period of time. And I feel like people have just forgotten about him. And he makes $32 million for the next three seasons. It's time for them to get the Emmanuel quickly who they thought they were getting in the OG and and Obie trade. And the Knicks already got the OGN and Obie. They just ripped of getting in that trade.

So RJ Barrett's done his job. He's not even on my list. I feel pretty confident about what RJ Barrett brings to the table for better or worse. He's an interesting extension candidate. I've talked about that. Emmanuel quickly, it's like time for this to be a consistent real thing. Yeah, I have no notes. I did not have him listed, but I agree that this person, like I was going to bring up the OG part of this.

Like, don't forget that he was one of the main pieces in that trade. But yeah, dude, I don't have him on my list, but among the issue. You hate Canada. That's all. Do I? My car got stolen in Montreal this summer. So that's a story for another time. But I'm sure.

Yeah. Turns out auto theft is a big deal of Montreal, Zach. We can do a whole podcast on it. Surrey. Surrey. I just like your car. Surrey, but that. Yeah, dude.

Yeah, I don't know what else to say. So pick your next guy. Who cares? We're done with him. I know quickly. Donovan Mitchell. They played in the playoffs. Donovan Mitchell, this is one that I'm like least excited to talk about.

I feel like this has been his. saga for the last two years when I've been on your show. It's now or never. It was an ugly postseason. Technically, they made it to round three or whatever, but it never felt like that was a round three level performance by this team. And Donovan Mitchell's part of that. He needs to be better.

As I said, I think there's five types of pressure on my list. This is what I would characterize Zach Lowe is legacy pressure. This guy's so talented, so good, yet he's never been real close. to the NBA finals. He's too good of a player, I think, to have that legacy. And I still think Cleveland is really good. And I think this team has a chance to put it all together. And we've talked about this on your show for months now.

We didn't see a lot of Mowgli and Allen together this year because of injuries. They got hardened in the middle of the season. They still have a chance in a pretty open Eastern Conference to make a lot of noise. And Donovan Mitchell has a chance to get MVP votes, all NBA considerations. We've seen it for years. But I think time is running out for Donovan Mitchell to be that guy. How about the $75.5 million player option he now has in 2030, one, Kirk.

Does that put any additional pressure on him? Oh, there's God-Roy pressure, yeah, for sure. I had Mitchell, Hardin, and Mobley, all in my honorable mentions, mostly because I'm just kind of like you, bored of talking about the Cavaliers at this point. Like, is Evan Mobley going to make the leap offensively? Let's have that discussion again in October. That'll be fun. And James Hardin, you know, Bill and I did our pre-playoff draft of just different categories

that he makes up before the playoffs every year. And one of them was like, legacy guy. And we got to the end and was like, wow, we didn't even think about Hardin for like a guy who can flip his legacy. And it's like, because I know exactly what's going to happen. He's going to choke in every elimination game. And that's just going to be what it is. He's going to have some big games along the way.

And he certainly did in both their playoff series that they won, not so much against the Knicks. And I don't think they're done yet in the offseason, despite missing out on LeBron James. There's, I think, some tepid comminga interest. Again, it's July 30th is we're recording this. By the time you listen to this, Jonathan Kaminga could be a cab or he could be something else. I think there's also some level of Peyton Watson sign and trade entrance for the cabs. But there's apron issues on both sides of that, and I'm not sure they have enough really to get it done.

But I think they know how big this upcoming season is for them, with the East, you know, having beefed up around the edges at least. I think there are at least 11 good teams in the East. So it's a good pick. All right. I'm going to predict that my next guy, number eight on my list, is also on your top 10. Palo Bancaro from the Orlando Magic. No?

Honorable mention. Okay. But now, dude, honestly, I don't do this month, but I'm like, I think I fucked up. I should put them on there. I think I screwed up. That's fine. Okay. I'm happy to get there with you because this man has a lot of pressure on him for a variety of reasons. 22, 8 and 5 in the regular season, 46% shooting, 31% on threes.

And again, the magic was slightly better with him off the floor than on the floor. I have talked about before that's used as sort of a scarlet letter against him. I don't really believe it. I think that has a lot to do with the structure of their team and all the injuries that have happened to them over the last, you know, X amount of years. in the playoffs 26, 9 and 6 the game. Great counting stats. He always shows up. He always plays tough.

42% shooting, 33% on threes, 46% on twos. And again, why I don't believe in that scarlet letter, the team was decent when Banerero was on the floor, although not offensively. Their scoring margin was about even. And a complete sinkhole when he was off the floor, partly because Franz Wagner missed a lot of that first round series

against the Pistons. And look, I mean, the story remains the same. His best nights, he looks like the number one option on a great team. For him and the magic to advance the next level, he has to bottle more of the efficiency that defines those best nights, which means probably taking fewer jump shots or getting better at shooting long twos and threes because he takes too many of both. And also getting more comfortable, and the shooting is part of this,

not playing the number one option role all the time because you have another really good player in Franz Wagner and you're going to have to learn to play off him a little bit better. And I just keep coming back to, I think people are sweeping on the magic as a top six team of the East next year. I'm not going to say they're going to be a top six team.

I'm going to have to look at the standings and all that. But they also have the Anthony Black question hovering over their head and the money question, because their payroll is huge. But Suggs, Bain, Bancaro, and Wagner only played 19 games together in the regular season. And that quartet was about plus 12 per 100 possessions. I do still want to see more of it together.

Suggs was an honorable mention for me because it's like, okay, man, like what is, is this just every year going to be, you shoot okay to not okay from three and you're injured all the time? Like is there a consistent player archetype that we can tap into? But I'm going, Palo Ban Carroll. I've always been a not fervent believer, but I have been defensive of him against the criticism. He's just an empty stats,

empty calories, a good stats, bad team guy. I think his passing and scoring ability around the rim are pretty interesting. But he's on my list. Let's, I'll put it that way. Yeah,

and here's why I would, you know, I've been hard on them. I got aggregated on this very show because of a palo take last year. Look, sometimes it's too slow. The ball sticks.

it looks like an old Josh Smith tape is the bid I used and got aggregated for. The name you didn't mention, which is why I'm pretty confident about the magic this year, aside from the injury stuff, is Sean Sweeney. I really do think Sean Sweeney is going to change the culture and the vibe there. I think he did a marvelous job in San Antonio, a marvelous job in Dallas before that. He's just one of these guys.

And I think that'll trickle down into, Palo's game, the style of offense, I think the intensity of the team. And he's too talented. I remember the first time I saw Paulo play was the final four. And right out, he's just one of these guys you see in person. You're like, oh, my God, this guy is so talented, so big, so athletic. He's a five tool player. I still think he has a lot of potential to put that together.

Maybe that's why I didn't have him in this list because I'm pretty optimistic. But I'll meet you there. I think he does have pressure. and that team has pressure because this core, this duo of Wagner and Bancaro, it's time for them to put up or shut up. And I do think I'd have to look at it too. I think 4-5-6 is definitely in play for the Allende Magic this year in the Eastern Conference. All right.

Let's take a quick break and then we'll continue on our pressure player list with Kurt Goldsbury. All right. I think it's your pick now. What are you on number seven on your list? Yes, I am on number seven. and I'm going with Deerrin Fox from the San Antonio Spurs. You are overlapping with me again. You had Chet Holmgren at number eight.

I think I had him at number three. You have Deeran Fox at number seven. I have Deeran Fox all the way up at number two on my top ten pressure list. So let's get into it. Well, let me get out of the way because you've obviously, you've got more to say here. You know, when you talk to people around the Spurs, everybody was disappointed in the finals.

They think they had a chance to win. when you tell you we're ahead by with 46 minutes left we're ahead whatever you can roast them for that but dearon fox's performance in the 2026 NBA playoffs was not good enough now they'll quickly say what Zach low he had a devastating ankle sprain he was making it work he was trying his best and i will agree with that that was a six week injury and the dude came back in two weeks a lot of NBA players would not have even tried um that said some of the things we saw i think were just too bad even to say, oh, he's got a bad ankle, like turnovers that were enforced and just mental mistakes.

The defining mental mistake of the entire playoffs was the botch layup over Ananobe enabling the Ananoby tip-in in game four of the finals. 100%. And the greatest comeback this league may ever see in a big moment. And, you know, those kinds of things make me put him on this list. So I will acknowledge the ankle injury with my friends in San Antonio. This man makes a lot of money, and they brought him in to make this team a real championship contender. I thought it looked like he had done that all regular season, but then there were moments in the playoffs where it didn't look like he was made for that.

But you have him higher on the list, so I will turn it over to you, Zach, well, well, I have them higher on the list only for two reasons. Number one, this is obviously a championship contender that needs, at least for some amount of time, as Harper and Castle really find their groove in the league, needs his organizational capability. abilities and probably his mid-range shooting, which deserted him in the playoffs, specifically in the finals with that ankle injury. He's also under pressure because he is starting a four-year, $200-something million contract that is right now untradable. And he's also under pressure because the guys behind him or beside him in the rotation are coming for his minutes if he doesn't produce.

So it's a perfect storm of all kinds of pressure. The finals were bad for him. The playoffs were largely for him. 15 a game, 41% shooting, 29% on threes, and 47.5% out of twos, which is not good enough. Ankle sprain was a big part of that.

He also started the season with the hamstring injury, so he started kind of behind the eight ball trying to build chemistry with Lumbayama and Caslo and Harper and all those guys. And after the finals, there was a lot of defense of Deerrin Fox. And the defense I kept hearing was, well, you know,

the spurs were stooped. better with him on the floor than they were with him off the floor. They need his organization. They were incoherent without him on offense. And I think in the finals, in parts, that was true. They had a slightly positive point differential with him on the floor in the finals and a slightly negative one with him off the floor in the finals. But for the season and for the playoffs, according to cleaning the glass,

when the spurs had Wembenyama, who obviously is the keystone to everything, Castle, Harper, on the floor, and Fox off the floor, it's not a huge sample size. I think it was about 180, 200 minutes in the regular season, something like that, and obviously less in the playoffs. They absolutely wiped the floor with their opponents. And so I get the idea that his skill set is part of what this team needs, that his clutch jump shooting, which again vanished in the playoffs. He shot 43% on mid-ragers in the playoffs, 52, in the regular.

season. I think they, if they want to win the championship next year, I think they need Deerrin Fox. But I think the defense of him was a little over vociferous, given how he performed in the finals and what those numbers show. But I do think they need him. I do think he has a better season in him. I thought, I kind of expected him to shoot better from three, bounce back a little bit to his, his king's highs in this context. He didn't do it. And he's just an okay to good pastor for his position. an incredible playmaker in terms of finding Wimb and Yama and lobs and stuff. Hopefully that comes with chemistry. But he's a no-brainer for wherever you put him on this list.

He's got to be there. Yeah. And the trio you lined up there, obviously Fox Castle, Wemeyama, it feels like, okay, that's the core of this team. Sorry, Darren. Sorry, everybody else. You mean Harper Castle, Wembe Nama. Yeah, sorry.

What did I say? Five. Yeah. That's right. So the two young guards in Wembe is obviously this core trio going forward. one stat to Deeran's defense that I think is really important is when Stefan Castle was the point guard after Fox went out against Minnesota. Stefan Castle logged two of the worst turnover games that we've ever seen in postseason history. Deeran comes back and sort of studies the offense.

Those turnovers went away. And in a related story, the Spurs put away the wolves. So I do think his grown-up maturity as a grown-up point guard in this ecosystem is very valuable. and was proved valuable in sometimes. But then the idea that this guy won the clutch player of the year award, Zach, a few years ago for Sacramento, just seemed like a distant memory watching him down the stretch hobbled on one foot. But playing in those moments in the finals.

All right. I'm going to go to number seven on my list. Jalen Duren, Detroit Pistons. Honorable mention. This is an obvious one. incredible regular season, all NBA. His all NBA, third team appearance

is one of the reasons he has of July 30th and we're recording this is not yet signed to a contract with Detroit Pistons to play next season. And the playoffs were pretty much a disaster for Jill and Duren. He averaged about 10 points a game way down from the regular season,

assist to turnovers about even he looked unsteady, rickety, uncertain to the point he started. started trying his mid-range jumper, which isn't ready for prime time. And the rolls to the rim that he feasted on in the regular season in the first round, Orlando just took those away completely by switching and going under screens on Cade Cunningham. And there was no plan B. And even in the second round, the Cavs defended a little bit more traditionally against the pick and roll. And he could not hurt them at all.

You've seen glimpses of it, even in the playoffs, like a couple times where he would seal guys in transition and dunk on them. There was one game. He had like a three dunk sequence in a row on the Cavaliers in one game. So there were snippets of it. But the idea of him as like secondary offensive option, a guy who can face up and create against playoff defenses, a guy who can be a hub a little bit as a passer. It just wasn't there.

I will say he's still only 22 years old. Like it's incredible how young he is. I'm a complete believer in his defense. It's been a little unsteady at times. His decision making can be a little hazy at times. Again, he's 22. I think he has all the tools and all the will to be a guy who can play pretty much any scheme defensively.

His rim protection in the playoffs was better than it was in the regular season. So I'm a believer. He's kind of tied to Assar Thompson in the sense that like one of them has to develop a little bit offensively on the ball to make this really, really sing in the playoffs.

But I'm assuming he will be on the Pistons next season. Again, it's July 30th. And I just think given what happened to him in the playoffs, he's kind of like Eastern Conference, Chet Holmgren. Not that anyone ate his lunch the way Wembe H had homegren's lunch, but just the playoffs didn't go the way it needs to go for him

and he needs to dig deep and figure out why that is and how not to make it happen again. For a team that, you know, people are kind of hating on their offseason. Like they've swapped out Tobias Harris for John Collins and more or less, you know, they added Isaiah Joe. They didn't do much.

I don't really, I'm not in a rush for them to do much. They still have all their trade assets. I still think they're going to win a shits on it. of games next year and be in contention for the number one seat in the east. But they've now reached the stage where the playoffs are what matters. And he's just got to be way better. Average 20 points a game in the regular season didn't score 20 once in 14 playoff appearances. That's not good.

That pick and roll play with Cunningham and him had become one of the bread and butter actions in the whole league efficient, despite just being spammed game after game after game. It worked. It worked until it didn't. it mattered most. The Orlando series was tough to watch being outplayed by players that I think most of us would have thought are much below his standard coming into that series.

But the thing he said the most that I would put him lower on my list in the honorable mention is the 22-year-old part. He's younger than some guys that just got drafted in the first round. And he deserves some time to grow. But man, like I said, you have to score the ball on that team, particularly Zach Lowe in an ecosystem where offense is not the strong suit, where shot creation is not the strong suit, to lose the offense from Duren in that playoff run

was particularly painful for that team. Let's go, let's do a couple more guys. Now we'll pivot for a bit, but like give us, give me number six on your list. We're getting towards the top five now. Give me number six. It is Jason Tatum, the Boston Celtics.

He is number five on my list. So we are about equivalent on Jason Tatum. Go ahead. Okay. So I'm sure we're going to have some of the same things. Fair or not, I think there's a perception that the Celtics either chose Jason over Jalen or Jason over Jalen and Jason, depending on who you talk to. There's no perception. They did.

That's what they chose. Jalen Brown's not on the Celtics anymore. But like our friends in Minnesota, I think the expectations in Boston remain sky high despite the massive trade of this year. And then that puts a lot of pressure on Jason Tatum. And the thing that I would say is he has this market pressure associated with his team in Boston. He has the contract pressure of a 35% of the cap guy. And he has health pressure, which I wish I wasn't talking about. But that's one of the big reasons I think we're talking about him.

He's failed to finish each of the last two post seasons. His team didn't have him in those big losses against New York, obviously, two years ago. and then last year when he got hurt against the Sixers and couldn't play game seven. So Jason Tatum, what do you have, Zach Lowe? Well, first of all, on my honorable mentions, I had both Peyton Pritchard and Derek White because the Celtics don't expect to go down in the standings in the Eastern Conference. The Jalen Brown trade is a bet against Jalen Brown, but it's also a bet on everybody who's left over from a core who's been hugely successful

in Boston for a decade. now, starting with Tatum, but also Derek White, whose three-point shooting fell off a cliff last year. And no one knows if it was a fluke. You know, remember he came to Boston, and that was the weak spot in his game, the prove-it spot in his game. And he had proved it beyond a shadow of a doubt.

And then last year, slipped back, really cost the Celtics against the Sixers in the first round and cost them all season. And again, was it a fluke? Was it because he had a bigger offensive workload without Jason Tatum? Well, now Jalen Brown is also not here. here. Paul George is here, but he's not the same kind of just like feed that guy and let him cook kind of guy as Jalen Brown.

And then Peyton Pritchard, you know, I've already kind of joked about it. I just like, let's stop with the Peyton Pritchard could be Boston's Jalen Brown, or Jalen Brunson, now that he's getting a higher role in offense. Jailen Brunson is a fine player. I have no doubt he can score 20 points a game in the NBA. Jailen Brunton is a different animal. But Tatum, look, I mean, it's indisputably his. team. He is still coming off an Achilles' stare. I know he played the last 20 whatever games of last season and six of Boston's playoff games. And he played them quite well, 22, 10, and five in the playoffs. Didn't shoot it great. But he looked more or less like Jason Tatum coming back from an Achilles injury. Like he looked really good, didn't get to the rim quite as often, didn't finish quite as well, all to be expected. One of the finest all-around players in the sport still. But again,

this team doesn't expect to take a step back. And that's on, it's his team. And by the way, They won the championship two years ago. The only players left from that team who played any minutes in the playoffs in 2024 are Derek White, aside from Tatum, Derek White, Payton Pritchard, Sam Houser, and Nimi Keda and Jordan Walsh played 24 combined minutes in the title run in the playoffs. So they've just gradually whittled away that nucleus around Jason Tatum. And I think in all of the attention that the Sixers have gotten for putting all these high usage guys together, including LeBron for being the team that did go out and trade for Jalen Brown. And what does it mean for Jalen Brown to not be the number one option on the team he got traded for? And all of this, he's the most, Jalen Brown is the character of the offseason in the NBA.

I don't think enough attention has been paid to like what this leaves for Jason Tatea to take care of. I agree more. I couldn't agree more. I think that Bill brings up the value of durability when he's talking about Jalen Brown a lot. It's like, hey, I know these advanced metrics, yada, yada, yada, but this dude chews up innings. And the Celtics had a choice between a guy with a traumatic lower leg injury and a guy who is durable. And they chose the guy with the Achilles tendon injury and this calf strain issues. And I forget what the actual injury he missed game seven for.

It wasn't a calf strain even though he's icing up his calf. I forget. Regardless, I think there's a lot of that pressure on this dude. Obviously, if he misses touch. in a Jalen Brownless universe. Now we're talking about Derek White and Payton, Pritchard being options one and two on an offense to win games. I think the Celtics still win 50, 50 plus games in a world where Jason Tatum plays 70 games,

75 games. If his number drops like 50 because of his injuries, I just don't see this team keeping up that standard that the fan base has come to expect in the Jason Tatum era. So he has a lot of pressure on. All right. I'm going to reveal number six on my list. So I've revealed 10, 9, 8, 7,

and you have also taken 5, 3, and 2 from my list. So my list is down to the end. Number 6, and I did a deep dive on this guy on a previous episode, so we don't need to belabor it too much. Walker Kessler, the chosen. There you go. Wow, our fives and sixes are flipped just like that. I think it's self-explanatory, right?

the Lakers paid to $130 million and traded two unprotected first round picks to get him on their team. He has, I like Walker Kessler as a player. People can go back and listen to the segment. I did about why I think this will actually work decently for the Lakers on both ends of the floor. There is no question that they overpaid for him and are now trapped with this team and have to figure out either this is the team or is there a way to pivot by trading Austin Reeves down the line or something like that because they're out of tradable assets because of the Walker, deal. All that said, he's played no meaningful games in the NBA, basically, and barely played at all last year. And so, yeah, I mean, for a fairly or not, those assets, much like happened to McHale Bridges, they're going to hang around his neck until he proves that he was

worth it. And that's it. I don't know. People can go back and listen to everything I said before. Yeah. And there's multiple kinds of pressure in this draft. And I think it's fair to say, everything you just said, I would add, these guys don't get compared against each other very often, but a lot with lamello ball and Walker Kessler, both going from these environments where winning wasn't exactly paramount for the first few years of their career being sort of nice stories deep on league pass for years. Oh, that's over now. Now you're playing in Los Angeles. If reports are true, Luca Donchitz lobbied to get you onto this team to the point where the front office gave out two unprotected first round picks and swaps to get you.

And you played five games last year. So he has this market pressure that the Los Angeles Lakers, you know, the marquee franchise in this league can put on you more than any other team. But he also has, I think, this other pressure associated with the transaction that landed him there, fair or not. And he has to fix a defense that sucks. he has to deodorize a stank that is a stank at the point of attack with Austin Reeves and Luca Donchich in a world with SGA Stefan Castle, Dylan Harper, Anthony Edwards, Jamal Murray,

Stefan Curry, there's no shortage of guards that will punish you for having a weak point of attack defense in this conference. They are expecting a better defense in Los Angeles, but really the only piece that that is going to do that for them is Walker Kessler. And that is a lot of pressure for this young man. All right. Before we get to our sort of collective top five, I only have two of my top five left.

I'm going to read some honorable mentions from my list that I'm pretty confident are not going to be in your top five. Darius Garland? Not on my top five. Up for an extension. Let's see how you do with the Clippers. Josh Giddy. You know, young, super exciting Bulls team

Is he a guy or is he just a guy that's going to get traded as the Bulls remake their team under Bryson Graham's vision? Do you have any Pacers on your list, by the way? I have Tyrese Halliburton and my honorable mention category. All right. Table that for a second. John Moran. He was on my honorable mention. Almost cracked in top ten. Obvious.

I don't think it needs to really be explained. Dyson Daniels. He's only on this list because he's, simply cannot shoot that badly from three if the Hawks are going to be viable. It was under 20%. And I've heard some rumblings from the Hawks and people who have been in the Hawks practice facility that he's remade his jump shot or is remaking his jump shot, making tweaks to it, whatever the right terminology is, and that it's starting to look better because Dyson, Jalen Johnson,

Lou Dohert, like, it's cool. It's going to be awesome defensively. Like, it just isn't going to work well enough offensively if he's a complete zero as a shooter. I mentioned the cabs got. Jamal Murray, is he on your list? No, he's not. Jamal Murray and Cam Johnson, just because I refuse to shut the door completely on the nuggets

as long as Yokic is upright and healthy. Kelle Ware, just not on your list, I assume. No. He's a super intriguing player who could go boom or bust, and the Bucks really needed to go boom. Shaden Sharp fell out of the rotation in the playoffs last year. But it always, his playing time always seems to go down when the games matter the most. And was okay offensively last year.

There's always these, these glimpses, these weeks, these quarters where he finds the right balance of shot selection and like making the simple play on offense as a passer. And then it tends to go away and he takes a lot of long twos. Jalen Green, I've talked about a lot. Is he on your list at all? Honorable mention. one of the biggest wild cards in the league has a player option, $36 million for 27, 28 season in Phoenix. The only rookie who is on my list

is Darius Aikov Jr. only because sorry, buddy, you carry the hopes and dreams of an entire franchise and its fan base on your back because there ain't nothing else there for the fans to glom onto, except Keegan Murray, who's also honorable mention on my list. And with that, oh, one more. you know, Gary Trent Jr.'s got a contract to live up to now. Oh, yeah. Yeah, 464, Gary.

I'm comfortable being uncomfortable, are you? Okay, that's most of my honorable mentions. I left off a couple that I think you may have on your list. But let's take a quick break, and we're going to change gears for a minute. I want to save the pressure stuff for the high pressure stuff for the next episode. Let's quickly take a detour. a team that I really want to preview and look at, maybe more deeply in October, but starting now,

you mentioned you had Tyrese Halliburton, honorable mention in your pressure rankings. I have him, Pascal Seaccom, and Avita Zubats, all honorable mention in my pressure rankings. And this, the whole point of this segment is like, hey, remember the Indiana Pacers? Right.

They were in the finals, like a blink ago. They were up in game seven. in Oklahoma City a blink ago. Tyrese Halber and tears his Achilles, Miles Turner signs in Milwaukee, and it's a lost season. And then now they're back, and they're back with the Vita Zubats at the 5

and a very controversial trade with the Clippers. And he takes the place of Miles Turner. And essentially the rest of the team is exactly the same as the team that almost won the goddamn NBA championship. And they're over under on Fandul is 43 and a half. Now, the Pacers team that did almost win the championship was not a great regular season team. They started 15 and 17.

Aaron Neesmith was injured at the beginning of the season. Andrew Nemhart was injured for much of the beginning of the season. And then they went on a run that just never ended. A run of glorious chemistry, fast pace, incredible, legendary, almost like unicorn level clutch play throughout the playoffs and almost won the title. And here they are at four. 43 and a half feels disrespectful to me. But I do have to say the most interesting question, maybe in the Eastern.

Top five most interesting questions is this was like a rhythm team. They clearly, they found, and it happened with the Knicks in the playoffs. Like you see what a team just finds the right vibe. Fib isn't the right word because it's not a vibe, the right pace, the right spacing, the right chemistry. And the game just becomes a feel game for them. And you see when teams have it, and then you see when they lose it and everything becomes a little clunky, a little force, just not as easy as it should be. The Pacers found that gear.

And just like, can you just find it again after a year off and importing a new center and Pascal C. Akams a year older? Can you just find it again? Because Vegas is saying, we don't think you can, at least not in the regular season. And the playoffs you have one of the great strategic coaches of all time in Rick Carlisle and a track record. but can they find it again? What do you think of this team? I would take the over. I'll meet you there for sure.

But I am fascinated by this team. I think Tyrese Halliburton had emerged as one of the most exciting, smartest offensive players in the league in the 2025 NBA playoffs. I don't think that's a controversial statement, but it feels like a long time ago doing what he did in Madison Square Garden, doing what he did against the Oklahoma City Thunder guards defense. The fact that this wide, open, fast-paced, offensive-minded team could go head to head with OKC and just get within,

you know, one game of winning it. They went 15 and 8 in the NBA playoffs. That's as close as you can get to winning a championship without actually doing it. And to have that cruel injury derail it, I think we've all sort of forgotten how good they were. I have them, I think the other reason that over under is lower, though, Zach, is the conference is a little bit better. And no one is tanking anymore, presumably anyway.

That's a great point too, great point. And I think teams like Atlanta and Charlotte are on the come up. I think, you know, Orlando, it's just a deeper Eastern conference, not to mention the heavyweights at the top with the Knicks and the Celtics and the Sixers looming up there and the Cleveland Cavaliers. So the average game in the Eastern Conference is a lot harder now in 2026 than it was in 2024. So that's why I think that overunder is low.

But, dude, I think we would be doing a disservice to the Pacers and their fans if we said this team is anything less than a team to watch to win the whole Eastern Conference. I think I completely agree that they're being slept on. However, if I were to explain that number on why it's solo, number one, Halliburton is coming off in this season. And there's got to be some rust. They played in a pro M game recently with incredible. It's a pro M game. We'll see what that means. but there's got to be some rust.

Siakum is now entering his like not quite mid-30s, but entering the time of his career as he's eligible for an extension, by the way, where some decline should be, you know, thought about. Ben Matherin is not here anymore. And not that I was a huge fan of his. They brought in Kelly Ubre, who on the one hand, I can see as a fit for their team because he wants to play fast and he's a quick decision maker.

Now, his decision tree tends to just have one branch on and it is score. But that's fine. Like Ben Mathrin was similar. And sometimes you need guys who have a different kind of decision tree than the rest of your team. And at least he makes his decisions fast, which is what Rick Carlisle wants. That said, is he going to play in the, like he completely flopped in Golden State because you just couldn't play the read and react style that the Warriors played. We'll see how that fits. And the point is their bench is T.J. McConnell, who kind of showed some age last year.

for the first time after being a playoff hero and a pretty stalwart backup point guard. Ben Shepard kind of hasn't happened. Has had a lot of chances to happen. Hasn't happened. Kelly Ubrey, behind them, Jaris Walker, flashes, flashes of playmaking and, you know, pull-up shooting, kind of hasn't happened. Obie Toppin looks great when they're running and was awesome in the playoffs. And then backup centers like Jay Huff and then Larry Nance behind him. I can see the bench being not as strong.

as it was in their title run. And I could see them getting off to a slow start as they figure out, like I think if VizizuBats is a better player than Miles Turner. I don't even think that's arguable, but he's such a different kind of player offensively that that Halliburton Turner pick and pop, sometimes roll, but mostly pop. With Siakum sort of darting around in open spaces and finding little crevices in the defense, that's a sea change to a guy who's really only going to roll to the basket and roll into the paint.

Seacum and Zubots are both so skilled that I think that will all work eventually. Like they'll have some nice big to big sequences. Sometimes Siakum will screen and roll and like hit Zubots on in the dunker spot. Pascal's a good catch and shoot three point shooter, not a great one, but like mid to high 30s. I think that's good enough for this to work. But I think there's going to be some growing pains. The ceiling to me is still really, really high if Halliburton is 100%. by the end of the season.

Zubats gets back to the form from two seasons ago when he was borderline all NBA. And Siakum has one more great year in him, at least. I'm a believer in the Neesmith, Nemhart, combo as role players. So I think the ceiling is still really interesting and the coach is elite in Rick Carlisle. And really, this is like if you look at their books,

tons of people are eligible for extensions. So this is TBD like Nemhart, Top, and Zubots, Halliburton, Seacom. Right now they're set up to be basically a two-year year team. Everyone but Halliburton and Nie Smith and comes off the books after 27, 28, as of now. So they have that sort of like, this is a clear two year. We're all in. We traded what ended up being the number five pick in the draft. And I just can't wait to see how it works. I think the ceiling is still really, really high. I agree. I think Tyrese Halliburton could be first team all

NBA. By the end of this year, I think he could miss all NBA. I think there's a lot of variance in his performance this year for reasons you already outlined perfectly. But my eyes are on him. That's why he's on this pressure list for me, as an honorable mention. And, you know, one of my favorite things about Rick Carlisle is he is coached effectively in many different ways. When you look at the course of his career, it's really amazing to coach in Detroit one way, in Indiana, another way, in Dallas a completely different way.

I think he's the exact right coach I'd want to go from Miles Turner to Zubach with. he's not going to say, oh, this is how we do it. We're going to run picking pops with Zubach. Like, that's not what's going to happen. If there's a concern for me, it's that the Zubach fit that wide open pace and space we're running up and down that I think really suits Tyrese and Pascal C. Ackham and some of those role players you mentioned. But ultimately, I trust the infrastructure.

I trust I trust Rick Carlisle and I trust Tyrese Halliburton to have some alignment on the floor. I think this will be a top 10 offense, middle of pack defense. And I think that's good enough to be four, five in the Eastern Conference and above that 43 and a half. Yeah, Zhu is a much different player than Miles Turner. And I think the Pacers are, I think a lot of teams are like Sam Pressy talked about this when he kind of had to trade Lou Dort. He said something to the effect, I'll paraphrase of like, you just can't keep playing the same way every year, even if you've been. and successful playing that way. Sometimes you just have to change

because you have to keep the league on its toes a little bit. I think there's a little bit of that with the Pacers going from Miles Turner to a beats his Zubats. Let's get tougher, more physical, more stout at the rim. And I do think despite the fact that he's not a jump shooter, like Miles Turner, that he has better feel on offenses, sort of like when the ball finds me in open space, can I make the right decision quickly?

Miles Turner never really got there and it was exposed a little bit in the finals in that regard. And so I'm optimistic. I wouldn't pick them to win the East. But we'll get back to that in part two of this podcast, which will air at some point soon. All right, that's it for part one of this two-part Zach Lowe show. Thank you to Kurt Goldsbury. He'll be back, of course, for part two. Thanks to Oscar, Billy and Mike on production.

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