The Zach Lowe Show - Zach Lowe Show LIVE From Minnesota With Rob Mahoney, Jon Krawczynski, Chris Finch, and Donte DiVincenzo

Episode Date: November 13, 2025

Zach ventures to Minneapolis, Minnesota, for his FIRST live show ever (0:00), and he begins by power ranking the Western Conference with Rob Mahoney (2:23). Where did the hometown team come in? Next, The Athletic’s Jon Krawczynski (20:18) hops onstage to go through the most pivotal moments in Timberwolves franchise history: everything from big draft picks to the big-balls dance. Then, Chris Finch (37:03) and Donte DiVincenzo (58:28) join the show before they close it out with some Q&A from the audience (1:14:25). Host: Zach Lowe Guests: Rob Mahoney, Jon Krawczynski, Chris Finch, and Donte DiVincenzo Producers: Mike Wargon, Jesse Aron, Jonathan Frias, and Billy Gil Social: Keith Fujimoto The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Rob Mahoney. How's it going, y'all? Thanks for coming out. Thanks for coming out. We good? Can hear me? Thanks, everyone, for coming out to the first ever live show. I've already told them if this is a failure, we're never doing it again.

If it works, we will go on a tour and go to other places. We're going to go rapid fire through a few segments. We're going to have some fun. Rob is here the whole time. He flew in from Los Angeles. Thank you. And look at you guys. You have a really good Western Conference basketball team.

How does that feel? Like it's just you guys are just a normal, good team. It's kind of a novel thing. Oh, completely. How does it feel for you, though? Now that there's a straight line from Prince to you playing this venue. Do you feel the pressure of that? There's lots of other people, too.

There's lots of other people. I had no idea there. Like, this is a famous place. Prince recording? All right, okay. Now we're going to do Western Conference power rankings. That's what the people want, though. All right, you ready to go?

We're just going to get into it. No prelude. There's no prelude. There is a prelude. There is a prelude. Welcome to the Zachlo. Show live from Minneapolis. You're listening to the Zach Lowe show presented by Fandul.

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lists we thought this would be a good way to um kind of address where the wolves are in the hierarchy of the western conference we have some wolf we have some wolves higher ups here so this will be exciting um okay we're just going to go we're going to go 15 to one we have not seen you touch list yet, rapid fire. The worst team in the Western Conference right now. Rob Mahoney, slap it on. Is there any doubt? Yes, there is now. It's got to be. General rule, if you have to install new mobile staircases to let your GM exit the arena in shame, you get to the bottom of the list and then you fire him. I'm just going to spoil this right now. You guys submitted a bunch of questions for a Q&A at the end if we have time. I think five of the last, I think five of the

of you submitted the same exact question in different words which was, is Nico Harrison the new David Khan? Five of you. Five of you. One of you and something that it would made Simmons proud actually used the championship belt

metaphor. Is he taking the bad GM championship belt from David Khan? I went to Pelicans because do I even need to explain they're hopeless so they don't own their first round draft pick? It's not going well for two phones, Dumars, over in New Orleans. I can't

believe. I didn't even have Dallas 14. I'm going to spoil my 14th pick. You've been keeping up with current events, though. We'll get there. We'll get there. Okay. Okay. Your number 14 team, stick it on. That's got to be the Pelicans. So who do you have the Kings? The Sacramento

Kings. This is the nexus of bad vibes in the NBA right now. Yeah. The Pelicans, we get, although I like Derrick Queen. Derek Queen's kind of fun. You enjoyed the Derek Queen experience? Completely. That's why I'm a little surprised you've been at the bottom.

At least there's some good energy there, if not good basketball. Is there? The Mavericks, you are, is the fandom dead in you? It's unfortunately. And if it wasn't dead, it's like, how could it live on after all this? You guys, this was your team for so long. Like the mocked, dumb team, which we will get to the history. And look at all of these incompetent teams.

This team, if we all got together in a room and we're like, let's go from Deerran Fox and Tyrese Halliburton and try in two years to build the stupidest possible basketball team, we could not do any worse or any better, I don't know, than the Sacramento King. What a miserable team to watch. I'm personally, I'm shocked it doesn't work, you know? All the pieces just seem to make sense to me, Zach. All right, 13. I already spoiled my 13. Yeah, so we have a variation of the same. There's no other way to go. There's no escaping it.

I got to refresh my memory before. All right, 12. Let's do 12. Boom. Yeah, it's going great. It's going great in Memphis. Memphis, you have lower than the Utah Jazz. I do.

I mean, it's not going great. You know what? I'll just put up my 11 right now. You put up your 11, because my 11 is the Memphis Grizzlies. You guys want John Moran? The Clippers. That didn't That seems strong.

The Clippers! You have the clippers? I grip. All right, I'm just going to go. I think we have different interpretations, Zach. Like, this is all vibes. These are power rankings. This is astrology for dudes.

Like, we're supposed to do it this way. Okay, let's just address all three of them. You guys, we're not even close to Minnesota yet. This is so, this is so good news. This is good news. I don't know. Just young and, Not that. I mean, Ace Bailey is a little bit fun.

Markinen's really good. Markin is averaging 29 points a game. Yes. They know what they're doing. It's a little bit of like turning a ham bone and gummy bears into like a chopped basket for Will Hardy, but like he makes it kind of work. Do you guys remember the Memphis, Minnesota playoff series from three years ago when it was just Jaron Jackson Jr.

And Carl Anthony Towns committing stupid fouls against each other the entire time? I'm happy to report that Jaron Jackson Jr. fouled out in 30 minutes last night and yet another loss for the Grizzlies and I think Morant was like 3 of 16 or something with eight turnovers. It was horrible. No one wants to be there.

It's not going great. No. It's not growing great. And the Clippers, I'll just, you just talk about the Clippers. They're the slowest team by choice. Like they wanted to be this way. I don't understand anything they're doing. They don't seem like they could be really troubled to jog back. They have to be low. Do you not have them coming up soon? I grandfathered them in a little bit.

Did. Grandfather them. A little higher, out of respect for they won 50 games last year. Fair. Took the Nuggets to 7 in the first round. Yep. Still have James Hardin, guaranteed to shit the bed in game 7 of any important playoff series. Still have Kauai Leonard.

Still my MVP from 2017. I'm still clinging to that vote. Russ didn't deserve to win. Well, and you're an aspiration investor. We know. And what? You're an aspiration investor. I actually have an aspiration hoodie.

I almost wore it tonight. No, seriously. Someone made me a fake. A friend of a friend of a friend made me an aspiration hoodie that I feel like it's too mean to the clippers to wear it. Bradley Beale's out for the season. Rob, are you emotionally devastated? Are you, do you dock them five wins just based on that? I mean, I had a visceral reaction to hearing that someone broke their hip. It sounds very painful.

He was barely a part of this team, did not register at all. We wish him the best? We do. It doesn't. They had already concluded that Hardin plus Beal was untenable. defensively. Like they were just getting blown by, blown by, blown by. I guess I've got to find who I have 10th. Did you put a 10 yet?

No, yeah. This is where I'm coming back to the Utah Jazz, who you love so much. Boom. Phoenix Suns. See, that's mean. Again, look, it's early. It's early. But they're frisky. Phoenix Suns. Someone tweeted at me this week saying, someone in the national media has to be the one to write the piece about the Phoenix Suns are actually kind of good. I don't write anymore, so it can't be me. And they are kind of good, as evidenced by the fact that you have them in your top 10.

I think they're over 500. They're just like a normal playing team as well. It turns out if you get rid of the bad vibes express that was last season's collection of stars, there's a normal thing under there that kind of works. How is it working? Jordan, that's a good coach. He's a good coach. A lot of guys playing real hard.

It's not interesting, but it's good. Dylan Brooks is fun. I enjoy Dylan Brooks. Did he, yeah. Wow. Wow. He deserves it, honestly, sometimes. He, like, second game in, they played the Clippers, and he was just like, I'm going to make James Harden mad the entire night.

Just chest to chest all the way down the floor. It was great. I can't, I just, can I see it for a little longer before I go higher than this? These are power rankings. We're reflecting the moment. See, I go in with my prior, my Bayesian prior, I think the nerds call it, and I adjust from that. Okay, number nine. We're up to number nine already. This is where I have these guys.

If your star players are getting into fights on threads, you got to move down a couple spots. Wait, is that happening? Oh, yeah. That's a real thing? Check Draymond Green's action today. He had a lot of stuff to say. Well, I saw he was kind of defending Nico Harrison somehow.

He was like, I'm sticking, I'm putting my flag on that. A historically great take, yeah. They need a vacation. We're like three weeks into the season. These guys seem to hate each other already. Yeah, did you guys, as people who have first-end experience, Did you have like the under on the over under 10 and a half months before Jimmy Butler made some controversial public comments? Because the comments after last night's lost, which I watched that game, I watched Thunder.

Warriors or Warriors tried. And the Thunder, they tried for a little bit. It was close for a little bit. That's admirable. The Thunder have a way. The spoiler, the Thunder are going to be very high. They have a way of like. Sorry, sorry.

They just demoralize you to the point where you could see teams be like, I don't even want to, like, I don't want to cut anymore. This is a lot of work for absolutely no payoff against this army of just mean guys with long arms. Ninth is aggressive, Rob. I can't co-sign. That's okay. Eighth. Maybe the same team?

The Portland Trailblazers. There we go. We got some synergy. Our first match, it looks like. Is that possible? That's the first match? The first match. They deserve a middle-in-the-pack ranking.

Like a young spry team we can all believe in. They run and gun. Yeah, they're fun to watch. I have no fun comments about the Blazers. Well, there's lots of fun stuff going on and their coaching staff. There's a lot happening. Number seven for me is the aforementioned Golden State Warriors.

And this is where I'll put the Phoenix Suns. So, again, we're closing the loops on various tiers here, I think. So you think the Suns, can they sustain this? This is a real thing? I think they can sustain this, which is like a play-in-team caliber season, and the Warriors, again, like, badly need a vacation or a spirit journey or something already. Okay, so we have the same top six, which I think is interesting. I thought, you know, if you could, you can't really make an argument for any of these teams. I thought maybe Warriors optimism, you know, they started out so well might get them in the tops.

We have the same top six. I'm guessing we have the same top two. Three, four, five, and six was a very tricky exercise. to rank these four teams. So without further ado, I'm going to put up my six-place team. There we go.

How can we justify 8 and 3? No, LeBron. LeBron's got sciatica. Yep. Is anyone here had sciatica? It's all dudes that look too old to play in the NBA.

How can we justify having them solo without LeBron? Luca missed some games. Reeves is on fire? How could dare you? How would you justify this? Because these teams are all pretty fucking good. I think this whole rank is all worthy of contention, all going to be really high-level teams.

I'd have the most questions about them, even still, because we've seen so little of them all together. And LeBron is very old. He is very old. And age is tough. It's a young man's game. It's a young man's game. All right. Now it's getting tricky. Number five. That's gross. Basketball is a younger man's game, but as an old

person. I am inherently skeptical of all young people, including Victor Webbenyama. Really good team, still figuring a lot out. Also, my most boomer take is, like, I just don't understand why double teams work on him at all. Like, how could someone a foot shorter than you really disrupt you that much? I don't understand it. I mean, look, I'm just going to say, I thought about putting them at three. I thought really hard about putting them at three. I think this is like pretty real. They're really good. Fox is really good. Castle is a monster, and he's, Hassel has actually very quickly figured out the just throw it really, really high, and there's nothing anybody can do about it.

This dude, Wembe is so beyond anything we've ever seen before. It's absolutely terrifying. Absolutely terrifying. He's nuts. But fifth, like, got to show me a little bit longer. Got to show it to me a little. I mean, the fifth best team in the West is basically the fifth best team in the league. So a lot of respect being shown to the Spurs.

Unnecessary. Is it? I live on the Amtrak corridor, man. It's tough times on the Amtrak corridor. than the Knicks right now. Unless you believe in Philly. Do you believe in Philly? Believe meaning what? Like it's all, this could be the year.

This could be the year. And B's going to stay healthy the rest of the year. Paul George is almost coming back. He is almost back. Did you remember Paul George was on the team? I did. Okay. All right.

Number four. Yeah. I think this is where the crowd turns against us a little bit. Oh. Okay. Do you want to just do four and three together? since I'm assuming we have the same four three. Sure, yeah.

Like, if you want to do that. There we go. I couldn't go any higher. I couldn't go any higher. Couldn't go any higher. 3.5 is pretty good. All right, so here, I'll just go. Old, young, weird, proven.

That's what I'm going with. I like that. While we are in a room of our closest friends, Zach, I need to tell you something. I've never told anyone else before. I am addicted to watching Julius R. Randall play basketball. It is becoming a problem.

I do hear the goosebumps every single time. Every time. I feel like it's one of the one things in life I've been waiting for, which is Julius Randall to get it for basically my entire adult life. And all of a sudden I have everything I ever wanted. I don't know what to do with myself. When he was on the Lakers, when he was on the Lakers, you know, Bill has his islands. And now he's now misconstruing.

Well, he can afford an island. But he's misconstrued. He tried to posit that he was on Janus Island, and I was like, that's not, you're now missing the point of what the island is. But for a while, I called it Julius Randall Hill. I was alone by myself. I was trying to make fire with sticks on Julius Randall Hill. I was eating acorns.

Now everybody wants to be a part of it. He's always been good, just waited for the right. But seriously, old, young, so weird. Like, can this actually work? can an NBA offense built around missing shots actually, actually work. I mean, they have, I think, the number one or two offense in the NBA. Maybe this has been a great plan.

I don't know. It's just weird to me. This I know, you know what I know? Conference finals two years in a row. That's what I know. All right. I respect it. However, I'm sorry.

I had breakfast with a bunch of people from the Timberwolves this morning, and we concluded by saying, talking about expansion, potential expansion. I said, look, you guys need to put every resource, every legal dollar you have into moving to the Eastern Conference if it ever comes up. Because these two teams, I know one of them you got their number, but it's just tough sledding against number two and number one. Yeah, sorry, sorry. If we're being honest, Zach, number one is the Thunder.

Number two might be like the Thunder missing three guys. and then number three is the Denver Nuggets. This, this, well, first of all, the Thunder have been the Thunder missing three guys, and they're 11 and 1, and they have a net rating of 14 and a half and the number one defense. I'm out. They're terrifying. Shea gets better and better every year.

The Chet Leap is happening. That's what should scary one. The Chet Leap. I think he's shooting 70-something percent on twos, so something like that. This, barring injury, this is the NBA finals, and you guys have to, to hope that somehow something befalls the nuggets and they fall to fourth and have to play the thunder in the second round because going through both of these teams. I know, look, the wolves have played the nuggets well.

Completely. Really, really well with Randall and with Kat. So there's something, there's definitely something there. And we, I can't talk about enough, Jada McDaniels, you guys. It's all happening for Jada McDaniels. He rules so hard. happening, the pump and spin and lay it up, it's all happening. He's so good.

I mean, I think these two, ultimately Houston and Minnesota, like these are the disruptors to your beautifully laid plans. Like if Oklahoma City and Denver is the proxy finals, these are the two teams who could really muck it up. Okay. Before we bring on our next guest, most depressing situation among all of these teams, who is the most? The Dallas Mavericks still.

I think that's pretty depressing. I think it has to be the Mavericks. You know what, though? They had Cooper Flag. It was all part of the vision. It was part of the vision. But now they have to trade Anthony Davis, basically. They have to keep doing stuff.

Do you guys want Anthony Davis? No. No. Gobert, Gobert, Conley, throw in Dillingham. No? All right. Who do they want? Yeah, who do you want?

You don't feel like you need another guard? Wow. I just heard, I heard lots of noise, and I thought I heard Gerald Wilkins. And I'm like, I don't think that's possible. Somehow I don't think so. So those are our power rankings. I think they're pretty good. Yeah.

I feel bad for the suns. I should have had the suns higher. I think you were very mean to them. All right. Timberwolves. Yeah, easels are going to go away now. Thank you guys. This episode is brought to by eBay.

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It's been a checkered, how many years now for the temporal? It's a lot of years. And there's nobody better to guide us through them. You guys are so lucky to have him covering all. for sports teams from the athletic my buddy John Krasinski. Elizabeth, I think I lost my phone by the way, so if you're texting me I'm not going to get it. What's up y'all? He's very handsome. All right, John Krasinski, how you doing? I'm doing great. Look at this.

I know. It's all for you, Zach. Thanks for coming. This is awesome. This is awesome. Vikings mediocre. Twins, bad. Mad. Soccer team exists. I don't know much about it. about it. Nice little story. Nice little story.

Oh. Gophers? Good. On the rise, but they got a ways to go. Timberwolves toast to the town right now? Top of the mountain right now, right? Top of the mountain. All right.

So I gave John a job, and it was also an excuse for me to go down a lot of, like, crazy rabbit holes. Because you guys, if the Timberwolves have done one thing really well, their entire existence, it'd be really crazy. We used to have a running joke that every time he appeared on my podcast,

we would wrap the segment and Twitter would we'd check Twitter and it'd be like Gerson Roses has been fired for an un like and it was like god damn again like how did this keep happening and I asked John I want you to go back and pick I said the five most pivotal moments in the history of the Timberwolves franchise so I will and he could define pivotal however he wanted so I'm going to just leave it to you you're going to go in chronological order we'll for a little bit so first of all as I thought about this I'm going to go five pivotal not the most every one of you all in here and knows about how they almost moved to New Orleans and they didn't, about how they drafted KG and a few of those things. So we're going to go a little bit deeper but still very pivotal moments. Honorable mention, number one, this show is a pivotal moment. How about that? No, I'm not pandering. I am not pandering.

Like all of these people in here have been waiting for people like you and the National Media to pay attention to the wolves. And it's been a long, long time. And so this is a really cool thing that you're doing, Zach. So I didn't, I didn't, I, I, no honorable mentions, just get to the list. No, here we go. All right. Number one, number one.

In chronological order. Chronological order for me, number one. 2004, game two of the Sacramento Kings, Minnesota Timberwolves series, Western Conference of semifinals. Why am I bringing up game two and not game seven? Because in game two, Sam Cassell hits a three from the corner. Got to do it. The big balls dance.

If you listen to Flip Saunders, he says that's when the evulsion fracture on the hip happens. That team. That's what Flip claimed, the late-grave Flip Zenders. Sam denies it, but that's what Flip says. And so that team would have won the championship. I'm convinced of it, had Sam Cassell been fully healthy into the Western Conference Finals and then into the final. So a very pivotal moment. So is the problem of celebrating or that his balls were that large?

I think both. Okay. I think it was a two-pronged problem, literally. I did go back in research somewhere in my Google search engine is like, did the big balls dance injure Sam Cassell? Yes. Like, there's a whole Reddit thread about this. All you have to do is Google Sam Cassell, big balls dance,

and injury comes right up with it. So you think they beat the Lakers? I think they beat the Lakers. Yep, and I think they beat the Pistons. Because I think that team was just really well-equipped. to match up with what the Lakers were doing, and then to handle the pistons pressure. And then the next level is like,

well, what does that mean for Kevin Garnett? Exactly. Did everybody traded? Did the Celtics never won in 2008? Do you guys never experienced Theo Ratliff and Gerald Green? Alexei Petcherov. Or Marco Yarech? Doesn't Kassel turn into Marco Yorich?

There's a lot of Marco Yorich. So many tentacles to that dance. I didn't know it was game two. I knew it was that series that Flip had this theory. Who knows if it's right or not? But, I mean, if you were Sam Cassell, I think you would deny that that's how you injured yourself. You'd have to. You can't say I lost my chance of the championship because I did this.

Even as iconic as that celebration is, you just have to like deny. I guess you could injure yourself doing that. I'm not going to get up and try it to do it as aggressively as possible to see if I can injure myself. There's now a Surgeon General warning on that dance, so please be doing it. I watched the video in preparation for this, and I will give it to him. He went full big balls. Like he did not half-asset at all. You also Googled Big Balls?

I did. Yeah, that's going to be a problem. So you just went right to 2004. So forget KG, forget the Marbury trade. Yeah, everyone knows about that. Forget KG's contract causing a lockout, et cetera, et cetera. Okay, go to your number two one. Number two, May of 2009, the Timberwolves decide that they're going to hire a new general manager.

Who was that? God! At the time... Never watched Star Trek one time. by the way. I have no idea what con is, who he is. So you're just doing an impression of other people doing the con basically. At the time, Glenn Taylor is in poor health, so he empowers his son-in-law, Rob Moore, to do the search.

And during that search, Rob Moore asks all of the candidates to fill out a basically like a personality survey, like a long test that tells you all about the personality, all of their, the way they think about wife, in general and all this stuff. Dennis Lindsay was one of the candidates, very well thought of at the time and continues to be. And so you're thinking, oh, Dennis Lindsay might be the general manager of the Timberwolves. That's great. And when he was told that he had to do this test, he's like, no, I'm out of here. I am not doing this at all. David Kahn did do that test.

Oh, yeah, he did. Passed it with flying colors, apparently, because he got hired, and then a little while later passed on Steph Curry in the draft, and here we are. I'm going to tell my David Kahn story. Please do. I don't know if I should, but I will. I think you should. They paid to hear this story. So Bill, you know, I started at Grantland, or I started at Sports Illustrate that I went to Grandland.

Bill was my boss for a long time. Made glorious fun of many people, including David Kahn. Some of those people took it well. Others did not. And some of those others would like to take out their rage against Bill on Bill's subordinates. And at the Board of Governors meeting one year in New York, I was there, and David Con was there representing the 10.

Timberwolves. And Glenn Taylor was also there, but David Kahn, I guess, was an alternate governor. Maybe, I don't know. I said, you know, there's David Kahn. I'm going to go, never met him before. I'm going to go introduce myself. Walk across the room. Hey, David, Zach Lowe, Granlin, just want to put a face to a name, all that. I don't know if I'd probably had made fun of it at some point. He just looks me dead straight in the eye. Tell your boss he's a fucking asshole. And walks away. And I was like, okay, that's how it's going to be. All right. Like, if that's, that's...

Now he's killing it in Europe, though. Killing it in Europe. Things are going well. You know, he figured it out, stabilized himself. All right. So something else happened in 2009 in the spring. Is that going to be on your list? It is not.

So let's get into it now if you want to. Well, 2009 draft. We can't, we can't. We just, we have to at least mention Johnny Flynn. David Khan being hired, then begat that, which is why I went with the David Khan hired. Okay. Go to number three. We'll just keep going.

Number three is going to be a little more obscure. February 1st, 2012. The Wolves put out. this press release, and you're going to say, why are they putting out of this press release? Why are you talking about this? It was to announce that they are going to honor the 1967, 68, ABA Muskees by wearing their uniforms this year. They spent one year in the ABA, and then they moved.

And it's like, why are we honoring these people? Why is this important? Because those uniforms were cursed. And Ricky Rubio is wearing the Muskees uniform in March of two of the, of 2012 they go into that game on fire they are they are coming up they're in the eight seed in the west they are 21 and 19 they lose to the lakers rickie rubio tears his acl that whole electrifying rookie year of rickies down the toilet he's never the same what would have been if he never got injured because he was wearing that uniform that's on my list brutal it's a flashbulb moment for me

because that was one of those like you could see it coming together for a guy that everybody loved and everybody rooted for there's a rubio jersey in the the front row right here. There he is. I was texting with Ricky the other day, so he's doing well. Everybody loves Ricky. Everybody loved watching Ricky play. Everybody wanted to play with Ricky because all he wanted to do is make his teammates

better. And it was like a smaller, lower level version of when like Jamal Moriator is ACL, right, when the nuggets were like trying to start to really figure it out. It was just like, it broke your heart. Terrible. The worst. And Ricky had a tough run of it for a while. Okay, go to the next one.

All right, we've had three kind of rough ones. Let's finish on a high and number. with a couple here. Number four, 2020 draft preparation. Gerson Rossos is leading the front office. They are working around the clock because at the time, if you remember, there's three guys at number one. It's Edwards. It's James Wiseman. It's Lamello Ball. And you're like, I don't know what the right pick is. These guys are all, you're trying to figure this out. You're trying to get to the bottom of it. So we know they picked Edwards, but that's not my little nugget that I have for you all. It was, why did they pick Edwards? A million different reasons in their evaluation. But one of them was

that they had an interview with Lamello Ball during this process trying to figure out, hey, is this the guy for us? And Lamello did not interview very well. And one of the questions that was asked of him is, hey, Lamello, like, okay, after you're done playing, like, what do you see yourself doing when your career is over? Like, what kind of, what do you things do you aspire to? And Lamello said, I want to be president in the United States. And yet And yet Perhaps not as implausible as it might have seen At the time

At the time it seemed implausible But tell me he wouldn't have your vote He might now And so That goes down And lo and behold Anthony Edwards is the number one pick And now here they are

contending for Western Conference Championships Every year Similarly the James Wiseman pick kind of ruined the Warriors two timelines experiment. Yes, absolutely. All right, one more. One more, and we're post-2020. We're post-2020 now.

I am hoping for a little audience participation in this last one, because if you're talking about pivotal moments in this franchise's history, you have to say what is the greatest sequence that has ever happened on the court in this franchise's history? Big room?

Game 7, 24, Western Conference Finals, in the House of the reigning champions. The wolves are down 20 in the third quarter. It's over, right? Minnesota sports, everything goes bad, falling flat again.

They start chipping away, and they start chipping away, and they start chipping away. Ant hits a three at the end of the third quarter. They're in range. They're down nine, and Nazreid comes in, tip dunk. It's now 89, 82, I believe it is. And now, let me see you guys.

Kevin Harlan is on the call, the first Timberwolves play-by-play radio guy ever. They're wearing the throwback uniforms. This is destiny all of a sudden is happening in front of us. This is all happening. And what happens? It's stolen by Conley. He pickpockets Murray.

He gets it off to read. Corner Edwards. Fire. Their aims, fires, score. They're up 10. The whole place goes crazy in ball arena. And it's for the Timberwolves. And they finish that off.

And that is the number one moment. Timberwolves is. I thought. How about John Krasinski on the call, ladies and gentlemen? I thought you guys were all going to help me out here. That's what I was waiting for. So Denver, Minnesota, Game 7 is on my list. I thought you were to go with the Big Rue.

When Big Rue hit that turnaround. When Big Rue hit the turnaround. That's a moment that changed history. That's where you thought it was going to happen, but then when Reid, stolen from Jamal Murray, and Ann hits it, and he's talking trash to the person in the corner. Like, that was it. It's like, all right, they are going to the Western Conference final. All right, just to check the boxes.

Let's go. Yeah, please. Please. We're not commenting on it. We're just going to say these things that happened. Marbury trade. KG trade. 2011 draft underrated Timberwolves moment.

Derek Williams at number two. and if you look at the next here are the next like eight picks in that draft because you no it's the it's the opposite Ennis Freedom

Tristan Thompson Jonas Valenchunis Jan Vesely Bismack Beambo Brandon Knight Kemble Walker finally Jimmy Fredet and then Clay Thompson and Kauai

like five picks later it's not it happens it's that but that's the same draft if you You would take three, need three hours to go through all the trades con made on that night, trading down and down and down and down and down and down. And somehow trading the rights to Nicola Miratich, Chandler Parsons, Norris Cole, and somebody else good for nothing.

And then drafting a guy who was so old, it turned out, he was ineligible to actually be drafted. The immortal Tang guy Nagumbo, I think his name was. And they found out after the fact, or I guess they found out after the fact, that he was 27 years old. Yep. And you can't be drafted at age 27. That was a con special. I would have taken DeWill at that time.

I was in it. I was in the DeWill camp. He had just beaten Duke. Like it was like, all right, this is great, and it did not work out. Joe Smith. DeLuca shot. O.J. Mayo for Kevin Love. Brilliant.

Huge deal. Which was unpopular. Yes. It was unpopular. I've heard stories from their draft party that night I was there. That team officials had to get up and be like, hey, I know you guys are all excited about O.J. Mayo, but this is the trade we made.

And people were, like, mad, right? They were furious with it because O.J. Mayo's name is fun to say, apparently. That was all I could think about. And then Kevin Love was Doey. And, like, who is this big white guy? And it was the right pick, for sure. Kevin Love signing a 3 plus 1 instead of a 5-year max, precipitating its trade to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Not great.

Crumbling the contract and throwing it in the trash after, you know, when it was first offered to him. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah. Yep. Okay. The whole Jimmy Butler experience we don't need to get into. Wally Zerbiak getting beaten up by Kevin Garnett in the locker room. And the time I ate dinner at a restaurant next to Nicole Apekovich and two of his friends

and had never seen a human being eat so much food at one time and looked stone-faced and terrifying the entire time. Do you know who his friends were? He's got some friends. Shady. Yes. Guys I didn't want to mess with. Which is why I wanted to Flip's all-time favorite stories

was when KG came back late in his career. It was first practice with the team. Peck was being lazy. And KG. Mother fucked him. No question. And everyone stopped. When after the biggest guy in the prison yard.

And everyone stopped. I don't think anyone's ever talked to Peck like this before. Like, what's going to happen? And I asked Flip, so what happened? He's like, Peck put his damn head down and started running back faster on defense. Absolutely right. And Pett was the nicest guy in person in that locker room that you could ever ask for.

Turns out his career's taken a little turn since that. John Krasinski, thank you so much for showing up. Thank you. This episode is brought to you by Amazon Prime. Ever get hit with a plan out of nowhere and need something ASAP? Maybe it's an impromptu basketball game, a last minute trip with the crew, spontaneous date. That's when Prime same-day delivery comes in. Get whatever you need.

Deliver to you fast so you can say yes to the moment. same-day delivery, it's on Prime. Visit Amazon.com slash Prime to find millions of items delivered fast. Available in select areas, terms apply. This episode is brought to you by ServiceNow. Look, I have my dream job. I get to watch basketball, think about basketball, talk about basketball, but even dream jobs have the stuff

that nobody dreamed about, the busy work that gets in the way of the actual work. Service Now's AI specialists tackle that work, request handled, cases closed, the whole thing done. So you have more time for the work you actually want to do. for me that's breaking down SGA film whenever I want and then talking about it into a microphone to learn how to put AI to work for people visit servicenow.com. I still have no idea what time it is, but I do know we have another guest. Another guy you guys are lucky to have, nothing but success has followed him. The head coach of the Minnesota Timberwellups, Chris Finch, he's in the house.

I didn't even, my name is there. I didn't get a standing ovation. Thank you for doing this. Thanks. Hey, so after a year off, this is what you're doing now? First of all, six months off. And it was a glory of six months. Yeah.

My wife was worried about me. She's like, you're such a workaholic. What are you going to do? I was like, watch how amazing I am at doing nothing. It was great. I mean, I bet you have three quarter of these people are going to go home and do a podcast tonight, you know? You're going with the anti-media tropes right out of the gate.

I mean, it'll qualify you to coach the Lakers, you know. It's fair. Can't argue it. It's fair. How are you feeling about the team? Seven and four, beat a bunch of bad teams. But, you know, up and down, but all good? You did beat a bunch of bad teams.

Stop yelling at me about the schedule. Appreciate the left-handed compliment. I feel good. I mean, for some reason, we started the season flat. I don't know why that it was. We found our juice now, and, you know, we're beating teams in the manner that we should. And if you follow the timber wolves at all, which I know you probably don't. But if you followed us, we always struggled against the bad teeth.

I know, you played down. You played down. Yeah. So, anyway, it's good to see right now. But, yeah, we'll see. It was a long way to go, yeah? You like the group? Good group, good personalities?

Yeah, yeah. It's been a great group to work with. Good, good guys. I think they're really comfortable with each other, with who they need to be right now. Everyone's kind of expanding in their own role a little bit, which is fun to see. and, you know, we have some moodiness to us, like all NBA teams, but generally it's a great group to work with every day. Before I ask you the actual fun questions,

we had a Jada McDaniel's shoutout earlier. Oh, nice, yeah. Have to. Yeah, we like Jayden. Did you think he could get this good, like with the ball in his hands in particular, this fast? Yeah, you know, listen, the question, the answer is not that simple, I'll give it to you the best I can.

Okay, yes, you know, he has, he had this game in, I mean, and you could see it coming, you can see it coming. It's more of a usage puzzle, right? Like how much usage is on the floor at any one time. You have aunt, you have Julius, et cetera. So no matter what, you're going to have all the talent you want, and that's what happens with these three-star teams. There's just not enough usage to go around. So it was how do we figure out how to increase his usage, you know, maybe shuffle the rotation a little bit, break up his runs with Anthony. And all that.

But the real thing is the real, I think, catalyst to it all has been just, we felt coming into last season that he would be able to take this type of jump. But when we made the trade, it was kind of we had to scrap everything, just kind of get Julius and Dante situated, comfortable. That took a long time. We had some injuries in the middle of last season, and then we saw Jaden take the step forward. when those guys weren't on the floor

and it's just continued really from there. When you say the trade, it strikes me you could be talking about like three different things. Do you ever want to tell Tim Connolly like just settle down a little bit, like throwing stuff around? He's really playing on my G-League experience. You know, he changed the roster every 48 hours.

Okay, so trade number one. Yeah. How do you remember finding out that Gobert was a potential option and what was your first reaction? Well, the great thing about working with Tim and his team is that, you know, it's super collaborative and transparent. Everything's out. He wants your input. He knows that from a coaching staff point of view that you've got to have the buy-in or it's not going to work because if you don't believe in something as a coach, you know, you're not going to be all in.

And we were all in right away. You know, when we found out it was a possibility very, very bullish on the trade, thought it would make a way. thought it would make us different. We were kind of zinging when the league was zagging, and it makes us sound like we were trying to outsmart the room. That really wasn't the case. It was like, how do we incorporate one of the best players available who gives us everything that we need,

rebounding, defense, presence at the rim? We felt there's no basketball reason why he and Kat wouldn't fit well together. Defensively, we knew we'd have to figure out some things with Kat at the four. you know, Kat's a super gracious person and he's going to kind of figure out a way to make everything work.

So, you know, kind of, everything just lined up for us to say, let's go for it and see if we can make it work. Look, I mean, I wasn't as harsh as some of our colleagues. Why are you looking at me? No, I'm just... I came here to write a big feature about how this would work. How this was interesting.

That's right, you did. But I did have to go. on TV, my former employer, about five minutes after the trade, and I did say, I am in shock. I think I said disbelief. I'm in disbelief at how much the Timberwolves gave up for

Rudy Gobert. And I kind of still am, and yet you can't argue with the results. For a team that has been mired, they did make the playoffs from like 2004 until the Jimmy Butler year, two straight Western Conference Finals. The guy's a one-man defense. Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, you know, and he's a walking top five defense all by himself, you know, at times. And with Rudy and all that in the beginning, like, yeah, it was super bumpy. Like all these massive trades are. You just have to have the patience to work through him. But, you know, he was been part of the turnaround. What? One of my favorite things is all the times that Rudy calls for the ball and doesn't

It doesn't get it. I feel like Julius Randall was intentionally not throwing him the ball for like the first three months. But when he got the three second violation, I think it was in Toronto that Rudy got. Like, how do you handle that as a coach? Do you guys remember this? He did. He was so, okay. I have no idea what you're talking about.

No, but you're good. Like you've talked to me before about how like you've sat aunt during crunch time of close games. because he was injured or flow in the wrong way, what the game wasn't going well for him, and, like, you deal with it and he's fine with it. Like, that's another one where, did you guys lose that game? I think you did. We did lose that game, yeah.

Like, that's not a great loss. No, not a great loss at all, and it was a tough moment. You know, anyone who knows Rudy knows how pridefully can be, and, like, and he's, you know, is a bit out of character for him. He's never wanting to hurt the team in any way. And by the time I had gotten to the locker room when I was ready to rip into some souls,

they were police in the locker room themselves. So that was a good thing. And we talked it out the next day when we got to Boston, and we turned around, and we played our tails off and lost at the buzzer in Boston. But, yeah, I mean, listen, he also punched somebody in our team. So, you know, there's levels to these things. That is true.

I consider it a step forward. There we go. Okay. You did have a wall punch during one of your playoff runs. The wall punch and the Kyle Anderson punch, same game. Okay. Same question for the cat trade. I may never get another job, by the way.

So my cat trade story is I got laid off from ESPN. I was in Los Angeles doing television. I was not on television. I was ironing my suit to go on television. And I flew back two days later, and a bunch of my buddies met me at my house with alcohol. And I'm three beers in and the alert comes out two days before training camp or the season or whatever, whatever it was, October or September 28th or something like that. That cat gets traded and A, I'm drunk and B, and really tempted to tweet stuff. And we get my takes off on the trade.

And B, I'm like, this is actually like a top five most interesting trade that has happened in my entire career doing this. And I can't say anything. When did you learn about that? and what was your first reaction to that? Because that is, because Kat had been here so long and it was so beloved, that's like almost more of an earthquake than the Gober one.

I mean, that was a hard one personally. Of course, you know, again, conversational through all these processes. And the night that the trade was actually executed was a Friday night. And I was actually just talking to Dante in the green room about this. You just spoiled that Dante's here.

It could be any Dante. Dante Cunningham coming back from the green room. Yeah. Sorry. That's okay. I was at a, I was at a, this is, I was at a Nick Nurse fundraiser at Paisley Park where he had a Prince, Prince tribute band with Sheila E.

and the new power generation. It was a private concert. This is a real thing. This is a real thing, yeah. It was a Friday night. He was there. He had flown in, and he had some of his players there. Some of us were there.

And, you know, Nick and I go a long way back, so I was there to support him. And then in the middle of that, I got a phone call from Tim, and I had to run, and we ran to Cat's House. Oh, you were at? I know Tim has talked about to. Tim beat me there by about a half of vodka bottle. But, but, no. So, yeah, that one was painful because, you know, I, I have, I'll always have a soft spot for Kat. I mean, the way that he welcomed me here when I came, how I came, he called me at three in the morning the night that I, you know, that was coming on board.

And he didn't have to do any of that. He had been through a lot of trauma here, and he didn't have to be that. And then when I got here, he was one of the most coachable superstars I've ever been around. So, yeah. All right. Some rapid fire fun ones. Okay. Do you still have the scooter?

No. No? Okay. That was during the 2024, right? Was that 2024? Yeah. Just for fun, I rewatched the Patrick Beverly play in-game celebration. Because I wanted, some of the best questions come from like, what was happening with this person I'm interviewing during that crazy thing that happened?

And I discovered he almost ran you over on the way to the score. But like he kind of hip checks you. Yeah. Were you startled? Do you remember this at all? No, I only remember Mike Connolly running me over. Oh, well, that was, yeah, you've never forgiven him for that. No, I don't remember that.

I do remember, you know, some of the, you know, some of the silly commentary and stuff like that that came about that. But you have to understand, like, what it meant to this franchise at that moment in time. And I, it's not just, that's the beauty of the playing tournament. It creates a one game means everything situation, which we don't often see in the NBA. And we were fortunate enough to put ourselves into that position.

And we had a team that, and this is mostly down to Patrick Beverly. I'll give it. When he stepped into our locker room on day one, he made a team full of young guys believe they could be good. And that is what he brought to our team, more than anything else. He brought a lot of other.

I was going to say. And then. Technicals, delay of games. Interesting film sessions. And then he wasn't on the team again the next year. Well, we traded him for Rudy. That's true. It's good trade.

It was a good trade. Krasinski brought up Game 7 Nuggets, Wolves, 2024. You guys are down 15 at the half, 20 earlier in the third quarter. Is there something you remember from halftime in the locker room? from a huddle early in the third quarter when it's like oh it's now up to 20 like a moment a conversation where like we're still in this or or a moment of despair like maybe we're not in this uh half time went into the locker room it was very calm uh some of the things that were said were exactly the right things that needed to be said by the players there was a tremendous confidence

that we were going to still win the game and we probably played one of our worst halves of basketball in the entire season like we didn't look anything like ourselves the moment looked too big we were kind of all over the place I think Kat was like the only one was able to maybe maybe throw in a basket here and there was just the calmness about us in the locker room that felt like we're gonna win this game and and I remember walking in feeling the exact same way and you know sometimes as a coach you go in there you're trying to sell something and but it there was just this like connection and it's like we're gonna win this

game if we do X Y and Z and part of that was just getting back to who we were and we were able to do that and it was a crazy game and it was a crazy, even crazier series. There was an, it was. I'm not going to ask you about the Lucas shot. I'm just, I don't have it in me right now. The what? The Lucas shot, because I watched that one too.

Yeah, what do you want to know? I mean, you were in the back, back of the bench because you were recovering from your injuries, but you were standing. Yeah. I was trying to say, get up, don't let him shoot. And if you watch this clip, I mean, this is, this is one of the moments we should have talked about because this is potentially one-one in a winnable series. Like against a team that was kind of ahead of schedule in Dallas.

And then against the team in Boston, that was beatable for you. And I watched that shot and you're in the back, arms crossed, it goes in, you just look up at the scoreboard. It's like you're just, it's stoic. Yeah. But inside you're going crazy. For sure. I was also, if you go back in. look at the Lillard shot.

I was an assistant in Houston. I probably had the same reaction. So I've been there a few times in my life. Yeah, I mean, sometimes you get beat by a great player, making a great shot. Okay, so sometimes I have to ask, I have to be a steward for the fans and ask the fan question. All right. What does Rob Dillingham have to do? Hey, listen, it's all about consistency, right?

And, you know, it is for young players, when they come into, the NBA, they come into two situations. They come into situations where they play a lot of empty minutes and can develop over a period of time, or they come in and they play high leverage, meaningful minutes. I think that the second is the best way to develop because you're playing meaningful basketball and you've got to play in a manner that doesn't hurt your team. And this goes to all young players, not about Rob. I'll come to Rob specifically. Rob definitely has the the skill set to help us, you know, create some pace, get to the paint, make the right reads and get the ball to his teammates, and fight his tail off on defense. And we see some of that.

And it's just the consistency. That's all it is, you know. And with our young depth, whether it be Rob, T.J. or Jalen Clark, and, you know, hopefully soon we'll throw in Johan Barrenger in there, too. Wow, just, every young guy just, just, they're so excited. Yeah, exactly. And they should be. because they're good players. But, you know, the good thing about it is, like, we have really experienced six, seven guys, and those guys, you know, are good minute eaters and produce at a high level. And, you know, we don't feel married to anybody right now. We're 11 games in. You know, we're still feeling our way through players and through rotations and through possibilities. And if they have a good stint, great. If they don't have a good stint, maybe we don't go back to

them. But it doesn't mean that we're giving up on them moving forward. So, Zach, if I can the stewardship for a second, for the fans, for the city, for the community, for the basketball world at large. What do you actually think of the Green NBA Cup court? I think this is a very important subject that we need to the bottom of.

Well, you know, I said it went to work the other day. I played on a green court with dark lighting in the stands. I had no idea where I was. I was like not Target Center that I'm used to. The Green Court, after a while, I guess you kind of get used to it, you know?

it's better than the red courts. I mean, the red courts are unwatchable. I actually think the league's doing a disservice because some of these courts are unwatchable. Yeah? Why don't we just put the big trophy on the court and call it a day? Let's go a full old man yelling at clouds. Why do the Celtics have a jersey with no green on it?

What are we doing? I don't know. Gold jersey? Like, there are too many jerseys. The courts are ugly. Yours is not great. No, it's not great. Sometimes you'll turn on the NBA and you'll see two teams you'll be like,

who the heck's playing out there? I have no idea, you know. It's a highlight league anyway. Yeah, it's a high-lily. All right, last one. One of the reasons I always like talking to you is Chris Finch being year five or six for you here? Five and a half? Yeah, COVID is like threw everything off.

This five and a half, six-year coach of a winning NBA team is such an awesome story and an unlikely one in a lot of ways. I mean, you guys probably know his story. He coached in England. He coached in Belgium. He went coaching the G League. And like, now you're like the guy. And you still carry yourself like someone who came up through the G League and through England. So in preparation for this, I was like, everyone who's been through the like the minor, minor

leagues has the story where they're like, man, this isn't the NBA. Like whether it's a bad flight, a bad trip, an incident at a hotel. I said, give me your best like, what the hell am I even doing here in Belarus for instance? instance stories. So share the one you shared with me. Okay. So I've coached all over. I think the greatest part about my job is taking me to places that you would never

choose to go. And you get to spend real time there in real cities with real people. Not including Minneapolis in that. Oh, no, no, no. I have minyazzo. So I was coaching a team. We played a game in Minsk, which is in Belarusia. and I got a phone call in the middle of the night, about three in the morning,

and it was the hotel manager, and he said, you come down here, we have a problem with one of your players, which is not something you ever want to hear. And so I get dressed, I go down, I walk out, and there's one of my guys, he's there with a girl that he had come friendly with over, you know, at the club. Yeah, right. And then there was a big kind of Russian-looking guy,

there and I said what seems what's the problem and he says well he's trying to go up to his room I said yeah we're staying here and she's she's not allowed to go up with them and I said um okay is there a problem with that he says yeah if he wants to take a girl to his room he has to choose one of ours so in the bar was a selection of women for the evening and I said this has got to go in the book. You're like, I'm drawing up pick and roll coverages for tomorrow night. Like, what am I doing here? You guys are lucky to have Chris Finch. He's a great coach. He's a great guy. Thanks for coming out.

Good luck. I had to ask you about Dilley. I'm sorry. All right, all right, all right. Last guy, and then you guys can get out here and go have some beverages. Two-time college national champion one-time NBA champion. He wins everywhere he goes.

Dante Divencenzo. Got a little surprise for you, man. Our jerseys come out. We're playing them on Saturday, so we got you a little surprise. What is it? Oh, look at that. My wife is going to be so exciting to have more NBA memorabilia hanging in our house. Zach, are you not going to complete the jersey swap?

You got to give them yours. I did not bring a Grady Dick jersey with me to complete the swap. Thank you for doing this. You're a good sport. Do you feel at home here now? Yes, absolutely. Very much, though. Obviously, the Nova Knicks were a thing. You have said, we just talked about it.

It happened so close to the season starting. And I was reading back, you know, what was his reaction to this? And you were said, there's some quote that I read probably by Krasinski, saying I was home chilling and the next thing I knew, I was flying to Minnesota. But like who actually called you? Who do you hear from? My agent. And I was actually visiting.

So we were leaving for training camp that Monday after Media Day. So that weekend, my fiance and I decided to go see her family before the season kind of kicks off. And I was up there and I got a call, I want to say around noon, 1 o'clock. Like, hey, this is stuff I'm hearing. nothing really gaining traction but just keep you posted and then later on it was like hey I think this is going to happen

and then like 30 seconds later it's already out so I was getting called so who's the first Nova guy you hear from the first Nova guy it was Josh of course Josh Josh is glued to his phone and were you guys all like shocked sad I mean this was like such a fairy tale

thing yeah you were in commercials together you know that was after that was after that was After the fact, yeah, so I still went back and did the commercial. But no, I was kind of just shocked. It was kind of like you didn't really believe it just because, you know, we had a great year. Individual had a good year. And you're going into the season.

I think the timing of everything was the real shock behind everything. Like, I know. I've been traded before. But I haven't been traded the day before the season started. Like, that was a shock. But, you know, once you get the initial emotions out, then it's like, okay, where are we going to live? What are we going to, you know what I mean?

Like all those logistics of everything, that's where my mind, like, initially went. Is it weird to not be moving around like that? Because you've now had like four or five years where you've just constantly been going new places. This is the first, I think this is the first year going to the season in the last four or five seasons that I've been on, like this is the first time I've been on the same team. Yeah. Which is insane.

So you talk about home. You guys have seen the commercial, right, with DeNovinax? So I heard that commercial almost didn't happen. Yes. And because of your participation. Can you shed light on this? So do you guys remember it was, I hurt my toe in that one game? The commercial was the next morning.

So I had this messed up toe, didn't really know what was going. on, went there, filmed this, it was like four, four and a half hours. And my foot was huge. I was like, but if you notice, I don't do much walking in a commercial. Hey, listen, they're really good at hiding. I watched it knowing this. Yeah. And I'm like, he doesn't look like he's moving great.

Because I was waddling down the hallway, so they had to cut it. But it was a lot of fun. It was kind of weird at first, just, you know, being back for the first time. I was so excited to play against them and not get that opportunity. And I'm like, hey, let's shoot the damn commercial, I guess. Who were you actually talking shit to on their bench the first time you guys playing? We need it. We need it. I knew this is coming.

I knew this is coming. I wasn't. All right. First of all, we, everyone was rooting for you. rooting for you in that moment. You were the spurned one. Everyone can relate to that. Listen, I, um, Tibbs and I had friendly banter and somebody jumped in.

So then that is what escalated everything. It was going absolutely nowhere with Tibbs and I. Then what the cameras caught and all that stuff and ESPN and how it went crazy. That was someone jumped into an argument. or a banter that wasn't there necessarily. And they'll remain nameless? They'll remain, you can assume. You remember this, right?

It rhymes with... Yeah. All right, let's go through some of your fun moments in your career, some of your big moments. That is a fun moment. What do you mean? It's fun for me. I'm glad it was fun for you.

Game two, Sixers, Nix. Crazy. This is the crazy Knicks comeback. Jalen Brunt, you're down five with like 30 seconds left. Yeah, Jalen hits a three. And then you have two shots at a three and you make the second one. Jalen and Josh got a steal, kick it to me, and I missed that shit bad. Which I had forgotten, and I was like, oh, there's another offence of rebound.

Yeah, I saw Isaiah go get the ball and like, you can see me the whole time. I'm going to, like, clapping and shaking my hands, like, please give me this ball back. and OG swung it and as soon as it left my hand I knew it was in because I was like I need another shot of this. Your post game interview in the arena at MSG is one of the rare moments where an athlete looks, I don't mean this in a bad way,

like overwhelmed by the noise, the emotion. It was insane. The floor was shaking. I didn't get off to a good start in that series so that kind of just gave me, like, you know, you're overwhelmed with emotions. You're finally like, you get that shot to fall. You get another win in the series, and you can kind of finally like, all right, now I'm into the series. Let's, you know, kick it off. Game six of that series, you guys win the series, four games in two.

You're up one-14, 113 by 1, with 11 seconds left. They foul you because they're losing. Is it in Philly? Philly. No, it was in, I think it was in Philly. Yeah, it was in Philly. Yeah, it was in Philly. They foul you intentionally to stop the clock.

And then there's like a 45 second stoppage for some reason. Their reps are talking to the review table. And you're just waiting to take these massive... I made them. You made like... Hell yeah. Nothing but that. I don't.

I don't. So there's like a 45 second stoppage and then Buddy Heald starts talking to you. Buddy He'll plays for the sixth. And he's literally up in your business and like talking shit to you. He's touching the ball. What's he saying? It's friendly banter. Friendly banter.

So you're like, you're totally unfazed. Yeah, he was just saying like, give me one, like give me a miss. Like he wanted to, you know, just get in my head to try to make me miss a shot. So they had an opportunity. And you're 100% stone cold confident. I'm going to do two for two. I think I ended up smiling or something or laughing. You did between shots you smiled.

Because buddy is just a funny dude. So like I said, there's friendly banters. It's fun out there. I had also forgotten you were injured when Chris Jenkins hit the shot to win the national title. and I was looking for you. This is the Villanova National Title. Archie Diakano pitched to Chris Jenkins. And there's this redhead in a full dress suit,

like suit and tie coming off the bench. You must have been healthy because you sprinted out there, man. I was going to tell you know the funniest part about that is my foot was supposed to be broken. Yeah, yeah, that's what I'm saying. I was like, I guess he's healthy. I was recovering. So I was just, I was able to move at that point.

Is there, is there any such thing? on this Timberwolves team as like a slump for you. You have the greenest green light, and you should. That's your job. But like I feel like you give us five, six threes in a row. You're like, I don't care. I'm taking the next four contested or not. Is slump like out of your mind vocabulary now?

Yeah. I think it comes from my teammates and the coaching staff. The nose, I mean, the game that I actually broke my nose, like I started the game like one for seven. And it was just not just not feeling great. And all the coaches are like, just keep, they're good looks. Just keep firing them and, you know, play your game. And I think Ant is the, you know, the main one.

Ant's the main one behind me. Like, yeah, you better shoot that every time. So when you have that next to you, it's like, and I think I rattled off like four or five in a row to finish game. Like, percentages are always going to equal out. Like, I'm not worried about that. I'm not worried about any of that in the initial. Because I know everything's going to work out as long as I can keep my mindset straight of just like keep letting it go, keep letting it go. How did you keep playing in that game after the elbow from Collins?

I'm wincing just thinking about watching it. I didn't know it was that bad looking. So we didn't have a mirror in the back. So I went back there and it's all bleeding and they stopped the blood. I was like, hey, like, is it broken? Like, yeah. just kind of broken. I'm like, all right, so can we break it back?

Well, there was like dilemma of when to do it, timing of when to do it. So I was like, all right, I'll just go finish the game, come back, and then we'll, you know, put it back in place. I went out there and I went up to the assistant, Mike, and I was like, yeah, I'm ready. He just, like, looked at me. And I remember Joe In was like, dude, what, though?

And at this point, I had still not seen my nose. Oh, no. So I didn't see my nose until after. after the game. Yeah, I imagine you got some texts with that screenshot. Yeah, it was a bunch of different photos and videos of me and I was like, that thing was like this. Outside looking in West Finals last year, 4-1, chalk prevails, thunder is supposed to win,

they win, short series. How did it feel from inside your experience? Did you feel like, man, we're a couple of breaks away from this being 2-2, we're not that far away? How do you come out of that series? I think we learned from about like all the little things throughout the regular season. Take that series out of it. We played catch-up last year, and I think that's kind of what we want to avoid.

And that's our mindset of doing all the little things, becoming, making those habits early. Because if you look at the, you know, the seeding last year, it's like a game away from playing, but you're a game away from home court. So to have that understanding in the regular season, then, you know, creates those habits. So when you get to those moments, it's second nature. I think just they had done the little things, you know, another possession more than us for a full 48. And I think that's the only thing that we learn from it. Like, talent-wise, roster-wise, coaching-wise, top to the bottom, like, we're right there. Like, it's not like we're chasing something that is not attainable.

It's just the little things that put us to make us a great team. We were talking about that before the show, because before you got here, we did power rankings in the Western Conference. He had the Warriors, like, 10th. I had him 7th. And we were talking about, I don't know if you saw last night, Jimmy Butler and Jeremy Green had some comments after their loss. Like, you know, I don't know if we're basically like we've got to get back to being serious about winning.

And the clippers are obviously struggling. And I mentioned Rob, like, they're kind of playing like a team that feels like it's above the regular season. And if you do that in the West, like, you're ninth. That's life in the West. Yeah. I mean, you look at a, we started off in Portland, and you look at that team, and that team's like, you think Portland's going to be, like, going, oh, they're not going to be that good. They're a good team. They're a long, athletic, can play defense, pick up full court, and they're going to surprise a lot of different teams, and that's the West every single night. Where are you right now, like, 11 games in, what's your grade for the Timberwolves? Like, where are you, and what's, like, the next phase for you guys?

I think the next phase is just to do what we've been doing against the teams that, you know, the teams that we're supposed to be keep doing them. And then the teams that are the good teams in NBA, the OKCs, the Denver's, the Lakers, the NICs. Those are the teams that we need to do the exact same thing that we did against Sacramento, against, you know, Utah and do those, against those good teams as well and not have, it's a consistency factor, I think, just being consistent every single night, having the energy every single night is what separates, you know, the top two, three teams in each conference. Yeah, you had a quote about how you guys are like a sometimes team on defense.

Yeah, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, a fucking bar, first of all, but also, like, how do you become that? Oh, no. I mean, right? I don't know which game that was, but it's, I mean, it starts with, you know, the head of our snake defensively is, is Jaden and, Rudy. And then you throw in and there, their ability to affect the game is, it's kind of crazy to witness sometimes of how, you know, Jaden can guard every single position. And what he's, you know,

yeah, like he is unbelievable. And to see what he's given us offensively as well, it's hard to do. So I think it starts there with that energy, but also it's like, those that head us think defensively, but everybody else has to bring it up a notch. And when we bring it up a notch and you have a full 48 minutes of guys coming off the bench. You have Jalen Clark coming off the bench picking a full court. The dude is like a pit bull. So he usually is the one that like gets the game jump start. So we have to do it from the jump ball.

Yeah. Can we talk about the Jalen Clark, Jaden McDaniels thing happening like that pairing on defense? It's scary. It's really clicking on place. Yeah, yeah. It's a really good deal. Jaden goes out and Jalen comes in. It's like hell.

Nuts. Look, why not? right? Like, why not the Minnesota Timberwolves? Someone's got to push the thunder and the nuggets? Why not you guys? All you guys do is win. You mentioned the Lakers before is one of the teams on your list. And one of the fun subplots for me the last couple years is back-to-back first rounds, Suns, glamour team.

Like, that's before you got here. And then Lakers, the ultimate glamour team. I picked against you guys both series. I think most people did. And it's been fun just like not only did you guys win those series. Again, one before you got here. You kicked the crap out of them. And it's like, oh yeah, no, we're just really, really good. Why don't you stop doubting? And like stop falling in love with these big, and like, I regretted the Phoenix pick like five minutes into game one. I was like, oh my God, I totally blew this one. So anyway, Dr. Devincento, thanks for coming out, man. Yeah, thank you for time. We have some time for questions. Oh, please. We were, we were fast.

We didn't waste anyone's time. Okay. Rob, you feel free to take any of these. You guys think I was kidding. First no card. Did Nico end up taking the worst GM belt ever from Khan? Rob, we can both field this. If you could pair Ant with anyone in the league, who would it be?

What do we want with Ant? What do we want for, Ant? There's only one answer to the question. You can overthink it if you want. Go ahead. What is the easy answer? Wemby. Wemby?

Wemby. I mean, Nicole. Okish would be pretty cool. Wemby. No, Wembe, Wembe. It's got to be Wembe. He's 22 years old or whatever. Yokech? I mean, that seems like a pretty great combination to me.

They would be a lot of fun together. It would be a good, like, comedy duo. See, this is the angle we really need to be harnessing. Any other candidates, even? It's got to be a big. I mean, because Ant's basically a point guard now. I don't know if you heard. So, yes, a lead guard.

I'm sorry. Apologies to Chris Finch. So it's got to be a big. and if it's going to be a big, it's one of those two. Janice? I don't mind it. We already heard not Anthony Davis, we've been told. Not Anthony Davis.

People don't want to raise. That was emphatic. That's not bad. I like that. I like that. Hopefully that wasn't Tim Connolly. Rob, you guys think I was kidding. Should Nico Harrison be federally prosecuted?

You know, I've heard there's indict. On the way, you know? Okay, this is a two-parter. Whoever wrote this, kudos. Part one is not the reason for the kudos. If Ant makes an all-defense team, does he win MVP? No. Not necessarily, no.

I'm sorry, I'm just sorry, like, the top four guys are so good. Shea, Yolkich, Janus, who am I forgetting? I mean, Wembe might be in there now. Oh, Wembe, duh. And Luca, thank you. It's just like... It's a tough field. It's a tough field.

If he makes a... By the way, I think I'm actually... I think he's overdue to make an all-defense team. I thought he would have made one by now. Yes. He has all the tools. If he just dials in, particularly off the ball... When he would like to make one, he has the ability to.

I'll never forget when you guys played the Grizzlies in the playoffs. And he was like, give me... I want John Moran. I want every bit of John Moran. I want to beat him up when I have the ball, and I want to beat him up when he has the ball. And it was like, okay, all right. I like this guy.

Rob, this is a very much. important one, the second part. I was going to say knows his audience. He knows his host's boss. How does this live show affect LeBron's legacy? Well, where did we put the Lakers in the power rankings again?

The Lakers were sixth in both of our power rankings. I think we're pushing LeBron down. I think in the legacy talk, I mean, the wolves have been the talk all night. You said, why not the wolves? So then it can't be the Lakers. Why not? LeBron's legacy, should be talking.

Does LeBron play for the Lakers next season? No. No. The answer is no. Does he play for them this season? He just got assigned to the South Bay Lakers. I guess that counts. Which, I guess he's going to play for the Lakers.

We both can answer this. From Jordan. Nobody signed their name. So if you sign your name, I'm going to say your name, Jordan. What rewatchables movie would you pick to do if you curated an episode? Curated. It's so fancy. and with whom would you do it from the ringer?

I'm contractually obligated to not answer that question. Do you have a dream rewatchables? Aliens. But I think they've already done it. What was it? Aliens? Aliens, plural. Yeah, there are multiple aliens in it.

I don't know the resurrection is good, but we'll take it. What's your pig, Zach? First of all, people talk about scary movies a lot. Like, now there's all these jump scare movies and, you know, I don't know. What was scary they came up to jump scare movies for the most part? Was sinners supposed to be scary? No. Was weapons supposed to be scary?

Ish? I watched aliens at a sleepover when I was 12 years old, and it was the most cowardly I ever felt in my life. I wanted to go home. I was absolutely scared shitless. It is so scary. And there's no, it's not, it's just, it's a slow, methodical build. This is why it's perfect for the rewatchables,

because what are we harnessing on that podcast, if not 12-year-old sleepover energy? That's really what we're trying to tap. into. So Bill has asked me this question because I want to do a rewatchable and he wants me to do one and I submitted 10 movies. Okay. They ranged in scope and theme from Ace Ventura Pet Detective. You're not a nature calls guy. No, the first one. Spaceballs is on my list because Spaceballs 2 is coming out in a couple years. Yeah, the news plague. And ultimately, I think we settled on Dog Day afternoon.

Deep cut for the cinemophiles. 70s, Pichie. you know, can't be beat. Any of those. But they've done all of them. Everyone I look up, I'm like, you already did this one. How many movies are there? They've done heat five times. I think they could do one again for you. Is heat two? Is that happening? It's kind of a thing.

Are we sure heat's good? I'm going to put, let me let me do, let me do Simmons. Is Michael Mann having a moment? Never stopped. This one requires some thought. What is the, first of all, the handwriting on this

is just pristine. What is the best starting five you can build of a current NBA players who have never made an all-star team excluding rookies? Okay. Never made an all-star team.

Austin Reeves probably has to be on it at this one. Jaden? I think Jaden is the reason for the question. Denny Obdi is up there? We're talking about Jamal Murray. Jamal Murray. Jamal Murray. Jamal Murray is the starting point card.

team. Who's the big is the question? The big. Who's the center that hasn't been rewarded? Someone said DeAndre Aiton. I feel like we've reached, I feel like we've already reached the bottom of the conversation, and I'm a DeAndre Aten optimist.

I like the Jalen Duren option. He might make it this year the way he's playing. This question's expiring very quickly for Jalen Duran. Other bigs. I think O. Not. Naz, yeah.

It's hard to make it also a team coming off the bench. O.G. and an O. Sure Yeah, Hartinstein I don't know if that was a joke Shoutout He's playing like really really well Chet

Chet I mean you could pick basically The Thunder's like Bench Chet's got to be on here Who are we missing I feel like we're missing somebody obvious Aaron Gordon Now we're speaking of my language

Thank you Aaron Gordon's a great one Aaron Gordon Is he Did the Denver series make people not like Aaron Gordon here? Is he respected? Grudging respect? Yeah. He's a beautiful basketball story. He wanted to be one thing. He was kind of in a dysfunctional place to let him explore being that thing.

It didn't go well. Then he got traded to like Nirvana. Basketball Nirvana. He became the player he was destined to be. May we all be so lucky for that kind of evolution in Life, Zach? Another Nico Harrison, David Kahn. Okay, well, we're transitioning right into this from Andrew and Ryan. It took two people to write this question. Do you think Jaden McDaniels will make an all-star team and when? I mean, when is a lot, Andrew and Ryan. When?

I think the answer might be yes now. Like, he is an honest-to-goodness creator in a way he wasn't before. We already know he's one of the best defensive players in the league, especially at his position. What would be holding him back other than, you know, Ant and Julius being on his team, for example? And if the wolves are very good, they probably get rewarded before him. I want to be the bad guy and go, no, just to be a jerk about it. You realize where we are? I'm going to say yes, but if you gave me over under one and a half all-star appearances, I'm taking the under.

I could see one year where he sneaks in as like the co-second best guy on a 60-win-paced wolf's team. I can see that. Could that be this year? Because we're introducing this new All-Star game format, American players versus international players. I'm going to be honest with you. not that many of American players. And it's a round-robin tournament of how many games? It's all very complicated. But basically, Adam Silver has the executive power very strong in this country right now to plug Jaden McDaniels on that roster if he so chooses.

Wait, why? He does? Yeah. Like, basically, if the, if the All-Star votes created imbalance of international players to American players, they just get to decide, we want this American guy on the team. No, see, that's when Trump has to come in and make the decision. I did start DJ to McDaniels for Team USA 28 bandwagon on my podcast because every team USA needs a guy like that

doesn't need the ball, just wants to defend the hell out of everyone, can make open threes, get out in transition. I'm going to say yes and he will make the all-star team in 2028. Dear Zach Sean, that's very sweet. from Sean. Dear Zach, did you buy your Mets jersey? Circle, yes or no. Sean, you're not getting the card back, man. It's not the way this works. I have not purchased my Mets jersey yet. I can't decide which player has speaks most deeply to my soul. I want it to be Wonsoto, but I just can't like something,

it's like there's a wall there and I just can't get past, I can't get past the wall. I can't, I look into his eyes and there's nothing there but I want to hit the baseball and look cool which I love like keep hitting the baseballs I love it I mean sometimes they're the right match on paper but you just aren't feeling it's I think it's okay my what my daughter

wants Lindor my daughter absolutely loves Francisco Lindor no it has to be a current Matt I have a Piazza I have a Hunley who no come on who is the Timberwolves equivalent of Maricio it might be Rob Dillingham I hate to break it too

Lots of potential ends up not playing. If Pete Alonzo resigns, it might be Pete Alonzo. I was at the Minneapolis Miracle, parentheses, humble brag. What is the coolest best live sports experience you've been a part of? I think for me it is Clay Thompson absolutely obliterating the Oklahoma City Thunder. You were at that game? Game six. Oh my God, that's a great one.

It was an act of God. I don't know how else to describe it. Unbelievable. Were you like courtside in the good media seats? Sadly not. Too much media at that one. I watched that one on TV. That was a heartbreaker for the Thunder.

I mean, it imploded a franchise. I'm trying to think, for work, for work, it's 1,000% Cavs Warriors Game 7. The most intense thing I've ever been a part of professionally. I mean, like, I could feel

my blood pressure reaching unhealthy levels. And I didn't care who won the game. The four minutes when it just didn't stop, like there were no stoppages and everybody missed every shot before the Kairi shot is the most intense thing I've ever seen live. The LeBron's Chasedown Block happened,

like I was eye to eye with the block. And apologies if you heard me tell this story before. I was on press road, like one level up, eye to eye, and I was a thousand percent sure it was a goal tend. Like there was absolutely no way a human being. and could have made that play. And as the game was going on, I got up from my seat and ran,

almost tripped over, like, laptop cords and ruined people's days to a monitor that I knew was like 10 seconds behind the real action, because I had to see, did this guy actually do this? And I was like, God damn, that's a good block.

I don't know. What about non-MBA? Non-MBA sporting events. See, I only care about the NBA. That's a sad. Oh, they get it. What was the adjective? Is it the greatest sporting event?

Coolest slash best I mean I was there for Luca Donchich's return game to Dallas Which was one of the most surreal Oh yeah how was that? That's timely I've never seen a building like that A lot of anguish a lot of booing obviously A precursor for everything that's happening right now

I don't know that we're ever gonna see anything like that again He put up 40 something in that game didn't he He sure did He might That might be a mistake that trade I mean what gives you that idea though There's still time. I was at the Halliburton Knicks game last year.

That was... The high bounce? That was absolutely... I don't think I'll ever go to a game that crazy again. That was absolutely insane. How did you feel about the aping of the Reggie choke? I didn't see it happening because I was way up in the stands, and I thought the game was over, and I was like, where's the elevator?

What happened? So I only saw it on TV. Is anybody anti that? That's awesome. I mean, I think the question is, like, should you... just come up with your own celebration? Not in Madison Square. Not in Madison Square Garden and not with Reggie there.

Fair. By the way, that's got to be top three if I could rewind and change history for a single game seven of the finals last year. Everyone asked, I get asked all the time, would Indiana have won that game? I say, I don't know, but I'll know this. That was a coin flip.

Like, they were there to win that fucking game. They were not scared at all. If anything, the Thunder were a little bit like, oh, I thought playing at home we might roll here and we're not going to roll. I went to a couple of good Mets games. I don't know what other. I'll tell you, I almost, when soccer, Croatia soccer, 2022 World Cup, when they beat Brazil in penalty kicks, they went down one oh an extra time, tied the game, went to penalty kicks.

When Brazil's last kick hit the post and the game was over, I kind of thought I was having a heart attack. Like actually for I was on the floor and I kind of couldn't get off the floor and I really thought it's finally happened. I've become the sports guy who's so crazy that I'm actually having a heart attack from a game and I would then I was okay. Then you just got up and you were fine. I don't know is what's the what's the, I mean the Minneapolis miracle what's the best what's the best there's a twin like a Kirby Pucket Twins game right? I have a Homer Henkee by the way at my house. The 1987 original Homer Henke. Do you even know what that is?

Zero idea. You could tell me anything. I would believe it. When they played in the Metrodome, they won two World Series? Yeah. 87 and 91, is that right? Now you are pandering. I do remember exactly, I do remember exactly where I was in my college dorm room lounge when Gary Anderson missed the Fugel. I do remember that. One day it's going to happen. This is, I'll conclude by saying this. People are like, one of the questions was, why are you here? Like, why did you pick Minneapolis? So I've never done one of these before. And I just didn't feel comfortable doing it at ESPN. It wasn't the right fit. And I was like, you know what, I'll try it. And we wanted to check, like any L.A. in New York, those are obvious. It's like, let's find, let's test drive it, see if anyone actually cares. rabid sports fans

great city probably feels a little bit underserved by the national media I bet people will come out and my best buddy from college lives here and he's here tonight we went to a wild game last night three on three and overtime and hockey

I didn't know that was the thing, it was great so that's why I'm in Minneapolis because it's awesome and the fans are awesome and it's always the one people forget when they do the trivia of like name all the cities that have every major sports team. It's like, blah, blah, Minneapolis is really? It's a great city.

So anyway, first time, live show. Thank you guys all so much for coming out. Thank you. Thank you to Rob Mahoney. Thank you to Chris Finch, Dante DiVincenzo, John Krasinski.

Thank you to all of you. I'll be hanging around for a little bit. We're done. Go wolves. 21 or over in President Select States for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 and over in President D.C., Kentucky or Wyoming gambling problem. Call 1-800 gambler

or visit RG-Helphelp.com. Call 1-88-7-8-9-7777 or visit CCPpG.org slash chat in Connecticut or visit MDGamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit Gamblinghelpline, MA.org or call 800-327-50-50 for 24-7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-8-787-8-Hope-NY. or text Hope and Y in New York.

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