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NBA Panic Meter for Eliminated Teams · Small Ball with Kenny Beecham

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to another episode of Small Ball with Kitty Beecham.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Guess what, y'all?
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: Just like that, the first round of the playoffs is over.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: And you know what?
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: Straight up A from almost everybody involved.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: I think that every series, except for one, no disrespect to Thunder vs.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Sons, but godly Thunder vs.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: Sons went exactly the way we expected, and they gave us no wild cards.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: Every other series ended up giving us something.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: You know, a new narrative to play around with.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Great games, game winners.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: The future of a team being in jeopardy.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: It ends up being a phenomenal first round.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe I'm just living in the moment, but it feels like one of the best first rounds we've had where we had, you know, top seeds in multiple conferences looking on like they were on the brink of elimination in the first round.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: The one-seeded 60-win Pistons had to go to seven to get rid of their eighth-seeded Orlando Magic.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: The two-seeded Boston Celtics is straight up out of the tournament, y'all.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: The Denver Nuggets, a team that many of us believe to be contenders, is straight up out of the tournament.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: So it ended up being really, really, really fun.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: And hell, instead of just being the first round series, let's go back to the play in.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: That was a banger too.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: So I just felt like since the turn of regular season versus postseason, we've got everything.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: And all the O heads.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: They've been talking trash about our league, not playing defense, being too soft, being this, being that.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: This first round of the postseason was for you.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: Because I thought defense was amazing.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: I thought the physicality that the refs let you play with on the day-by-day basis, maybe it varies a little bit.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: But the physicality we were allowed to see was different than a regular season, which I appreciate.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: Even in the back of mine, I was like, hmm, I just I can imagine how difficult it would be for a player to see that the physicality in the 82 game season is called this way, and then in the last day of the regular season, you gotta switch it up to play a little bit more physical.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, so it has been great.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: And over on my Kenny for Real channel, you should be following that channel if you're not already.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: It would be weird for you to be actually watching this episode without watching Kenny for Real because that is my biggest of all my channels.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: Either way, on my Kenny for Real channel, I have been dropping, I don't want to say daily, but near daily recap videos where I'm talking about the games that I saw that night, giving my predictions and opinions on said games.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: And because I've been doing that since the end for the entirety of the postseason, I wanted to take a different approach for this episode of Small Ball and look at the teams that were eliminated.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, like Kenny, we got so much time to think about off-season.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: You're right.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: You're right.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: But guess what I am?
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: The internet general manager.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'm always thinking about off-seasons.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: I'm watching games live and thinking about off-seasons.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what we do around here.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: So what I decided to do on today's episode is on a scale of one through ten, I decided to give a number to the teams on how panicked they should be going into the off-season.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: Again, based on all of the teams that have been eliminated.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: Before we do that, I am filming this right after we saw Cavs versus Raptors and right after Pistons versus Magic.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: So let me give you my quick, quick hit of how these two games get went.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: Let's just go backwards because the Cavs game just wrapped up.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: Shout out to Jared Allen, by the way.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's like the main takeaway you can have for a game like this for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: Jared Allen, 22 and 19.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: I really was hoping he was gonna get that extra board because 20 and 20 in the game seven just sounds better than 22 and and 19.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: But regardless, um, this is a series where he had a ton of ups and downs.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: One of the games they lost in Toronto, I vividly remember him and Evan Mobley combined it for like 11 total points.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: And it was like, man, the Raptors are definitely a fire hydrant of a team defensively, even though they're not the same size as you.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: I can understand how how physical they can be and how much they could take you out of your rhythm.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: But at the end of the day, you still are the bigger two players on the court right now.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: So let me see that.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: And in this game, he was aggressive, not even just aggressive on the glass and finishing at the rim.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: He had a couple steals that led to breakaway opportunities for him.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: And at the end of the game, there's a little bit of scuffle because this is game seven.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: These teams have been going against each other for two weeks straight.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: Think about that.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: Imagine going against the same dude two weeks straight.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my god, I'd be so annoyed with seeing that person's face.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, we got a little squab up a little bit.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: And even Jared Allen missed the I'ma Bill Joe PC.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: He missed the same fit, no logos.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: He even is telling the Toronto Raptors, go home.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: What?
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: Is this the game we've been waiting for for Jared Allen?
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: I think it was a great time to have your best playoff game ever.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: And listen, I ain't go through the box score of his playoff appearances, but I remember when the lights are too bright.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: I remember last year.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: I remember the year where he was injured and didn't want to play, and they were making, not making fun of him, but they were making articles about him not wanting to get the injection in order for him to be ready to play.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: I remember all of that.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: So for him to come out in this game seven and have his best playoff game matters a ton.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: Because I think that he really did save them from us having like a 40-minute episode of strictly talking about the Cleveland Cavaliers in a negative light, but they advance, and that's all that matters.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: Because there's parts of this series where my goodness, James Harden look like the James Harden that people make fun of, as far as like him being a playoff dropper.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: There was times of the series where Donovan Mitchu looked like a guy that gets similar thing.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: Donovan Mitchu has a great third quarter.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, they have the momentum going into halftime, but have a great third quarter, propels them to the big lead that they eventually just kept the entire time.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: So it was cool to finally see Sam Maru and Max Struce also have like solid shooting nights overall.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: They hit some big time shots, they played great defense and made uh turnovers.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: How many turnovers to be exact?
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: Turned 14 turnovers and some points, and just like that, they advanced to the next round.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: Which like, even though they did not look good, but first of all, both of the teams that advanced, talking about the Pistons and the Cleveland Cavaliers, did not look good in very big parts of their series.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm I again these games just happened, so I didn't even thought about their matchup because I wanted to let the games in before I start thinking about it.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: But off the top of mind, I don't know.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: Is that crazy?
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: I think with the way the Pistons ended their last series, right?
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: Let's let's transition over to their games.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: The way the Pistons ended their last series gives you some of the hope back from that 60-win season they just had, being down 3-1 and coming back.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: And granted, one of the part of that comeback is the opposing team missing 23 straight shots, but the Pistons get credit defensively for a lot of those misses.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: And then in this game seven, it was just great to see the others show up.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: Because there have been times in the series where it was like, K, do this, and if it ain't K it ain't nobody.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: And unfortunately for Palo, he was the guy that was dealing with that today.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: Where it was him, I mean, he scored like 14 out of the first 16 points.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: At one point, the team had 60 and he had 30.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: So like he was really backpacking this team.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: And there were times in the series where that was K Cunningham doing all of the work, creating every open shot and getting downhill, getting to his mini.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: And in today's game, he was phenomenal as well, 32-12 and very efficient with it.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: But Toby came to play.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: Danis Jenkins, who has some parts in the series, was like, here's five minutes, and that's all you got.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: So to see those guys come out and play, and then the best uh Jalen Duran game of the series, it's a good way to get the momentum going for the next series.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: Three straight wins is something you can feel great about.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: I want to talk about Tobias Harris, though, because I obviously remember some of the stuff about him and closeout games from just a few seasons ago, before he gets into Detroit, right?
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: Then he had a zero-point closeout game, his last appearance in Philly, if I'm not mistaken.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: So for him to come out and have 30, 30 in a game seven is huge for him, for the Pistons.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: And all season long, we've been talking about man, Tobias Harris Loki is a second offensive option.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: What can that take you?
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: And what we just found out is at the bare minimum might be able to take you to the second round.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: So shout out to Toby or Sar Thompson flying around all series long.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: I thought he was really effective as a defensive player today.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it is no coincidence that when you hit your three-pointers, which is what the Detroit Pistons did today, you win basketball games.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: 48% from three on 16 makes.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I didn't realize Chaz Lanier got a minute in, and guess what he did?
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: He hit a shot.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: So shout out Chaz Lanier.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: I can't wait to see exactly how both of these teams match up in the next round because I don't know.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: I could see some of the some of the things that hurt the Cavs in the original series versus Toronto Raptors hurting them in this series versus the Detroit Pistons.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: The one thing is the Pistons or the Raptors don't have like interior size in the sense that they don't have a seven-foot guy other than Yaakka Purder that you really are scared about.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: But every other position is either super long and super big, or it's like Jamal Shea, who's a smaller guy, but also as a hound.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that, you know, the Pistons are as physical, but maybe not as big overall as a team.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: But then again, I say that I'm like, okay, I'm sorry, Thompson, Kay Cunningham, Duncan Robinson, those all like 6'67 type of guys.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe they can do some of the things that, you know, scared the Cleveland Cavaliers in this series.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: I'm also wondering of how much of what we saw from Jalen Duran in in this series versus the Orlando Magic is the is just the Orlando Magic having the perfect defensive scheme against him versus him just not being ready for true playoff basketball.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I think we're gonna we're gonna see because uh other than today, a lot of these games end up being really bad.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: You think about the games that they lost, the three games, the three games that they lost.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: Some of them games is like, man, Jay Lenduran, nine points.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, he's averaging nine for the series.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm I'm curious to see because the Cavs have bits and pieces where they do look like an elite defensive team, but they're not nearly as as great defensively as like what the peak of the Orlando magic can be.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm that's those are some of the things I'm thinking about for this upcoming series.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: Kay Cunningham versus Donovan Mitchell.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: It should be a really good matchup.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: Who's gonna have their shooting come to play is always gonna be a big one.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I wonder how much, because the Cavs win that game, but I I don't feel great about them.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: But maybe I'll shoot it.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: When we come back, we'll get into the scale.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: How much should this team be worried going into the next round?
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: All right, so eight teams have been eliminated from the postseason.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: How much should they be worried starting off with the first team that got eliminated?
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: It didn't take them much time.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: The Phoenix Suns.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: Phoenix Suns get swept by the OKC Thunder.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: I do think it's so interesting to hear, like, obviously, Twitter is a whole different place.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: NBA fans are a little bit different than the people that are like playing the games and stuff.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: But JJ Reddick gave such great praise to the OKC Thunder ahead of their series, you know, saying that they are one of the greatest teams ever, which is like something that I might see on the podcast, right?
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: As a as an outsider of a viewer that maybe has only been around the NBA for 24 years.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: But for JJ Reddick to say that, who's been around the NBA for a very, very long time, who actually got to see the 90s Bulls and so on, for him to say that, um, it's pretty interesting.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: You know, some of the teams he compared them to were teams like that 90 Bulls that won hella championships, and obviously OKC has yet to win two.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and maybe they maybe this is year.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: To get it back to the Suns, I don't think the Suns should be panicked much, right?
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: On a scale of one through ten, I got it at a two.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: And the only reason it's a two and not a zero is that one of the things that is in the back of my mind when I think about this Phoenix Suns team is how much of what they did this.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: This is a question I'm asking myself.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: How much of what they did this season is replicatable for next.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: We've seen it a lot over recent history where you have that team that jumps onto the scene, that has super low expectations, that defy those expectations, go so much deeper into the to what people believe.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody really believed in his son's team being the postseason, other than a few people that tweeted me before the season started, and they ended up doing that.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: They ended up really being in the playoffs after trading away Kevin Durant.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I ask myself, how much of that could carry over in year number two?
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: Whether it be that Sacramento Kings team from a few years ago that jumped onto the scene as a three-seed and then have fallen from grace since then, or you know, there's there's many options of a team saying, hey, we're alive, we're here, and then year number two, it just is a little bit tougher.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: And it's nothing about their team that proprietary is not the right word.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: I've been maybe seeing too many clips of Shark Tank when I'm doom stroller, but it it's it's nothing about their team that makes you feel like, like, okay, here's an example.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: People thought that the Detroit Pistons of last year would have been a team that would have struggled coming into this year, right?
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: They did do the jump on the scene thing, and actually they lost some people in free agency.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: They lost a guy to some controversy.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: How could they replicate what they did?
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: But one of the reasons, one of the ways they replicate what they did is a guy that showed us last year that he was one of the top players of basketball, hit a whole nother level, right?
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: A guy that was a decent center ended up being an all-NBA caliber center, at least in the regular season.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: And it's hard for me to look at that Suns team and feel like there is jumps in there for other players.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: Devin Booker, as good as he is, it feels like this Devin Booker is the Devin Booker he he's gonna be, which is like top 15, top 20 player, which is not a bad thing.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: But is there anybody else on this team that you feel like you can hang your hat and say, hey, he's got another step in him and he's gonna show that?
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: They may have already seen the other step in Dylan Brooks, right?
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: We may have already seen the other step with Colin Gillespie.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: This was a year where Royce O'Neal basically had career numbers.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: Mark Williams was, I was gonna say relatively, you know, I still give him relatively healthy.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm I think that's the reason why it's a two, is like, hmm, okay, so what's next?
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: And the Suns team does not own the rights of their own pick, if I'm not mistaken.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: So they have to figure out exactly how they can win along the margins, which is something they did in the Kevin Durant trade.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm not putting them past them, but they have to be thinking about continuing to make the team better.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and maybe that's internal development, like uh Rashir Fleming, who I wish was playing more in the OKC series, or Malieu Watch, who was what, a top pick um last season.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: So the panic meter, just a two for them.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: Next team, and I'm just going down the line in elimination in the Western Conference.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: The Houston Rockets I have at a nine.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: One of the reasons I enjoyed the Kevin Durant trade when it first happened was because in my mind, trading for Kevin Durant and the pieces that you gave up in Dylan Brooks and Jalen Green, there was a world where you didn't necessarily expedite the timeline.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: He he comes into this team, we try to compete with him, and if it doesn't go well, well, guess what?
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: We still do have one of the best young cores in basketball, and so on and so forth.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the season plays out, and I think a lot of this starts off with, of course, Frev and Vlee getting injured before the season started, where like if you remember the episode of this show, the moment we found out Frev and Vleet was out, I said, Yeah, this team is no longer contender because they just don't have point guard play.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: But all of this happens, and I'm watching for this entire season, I'm like, hmm, I'm just not in love with a lot of the things that's going on in Houston right now.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: And this is regular season and postseason, where I'm like, I really drank the Shingoon um off-season hype mixtapes and overseas play.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, hmm, he's about to hit that next step.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: He did it.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: I think for the most part, he was pretty underwhelming by my own personal expectations of him.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: I thought the last month or two of the season, he did look like the last year's version of him, but we got to the postseason, and there were times versus DeAndre Aiden and Jackson Hayes, where it's like, hmm, he should not only be the best big on the court, he should be dominating those other guys, and it just didn't really happen.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry, um, I'm in Thompson, was basically who I expected him to be, which is not a negative thing, right?
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: If you live up to the my it's not like my expectations mean anything, but if you live up to my expectations, that's good.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: But maybe, maybe it would have been cool if it was a little bit better.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: Ree Shepard was was very, very cool for the season, basically when you think about him not playing much last season at all.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, he got almost no playoff minutes last year, and then this year he's starting and maybe close to playing 48 minutes.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: I know he ended up shooting 30% from the field, 29% from three.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: And this is so like a lot of the stuff that I really liked about that young core has died down a little bit, and also the Kevin Arant thing was a bit was a bit weird.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: We obviously have the burner allegations, burner allegations.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: So I think there is a level of panic here.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: Because I do think there is a world where you you, as if you're Rafael Stone or whatever, we they already told us that Stone is standing around, they already told us that Ima Yudoka stand around.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: Cool, okay, whatever.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: So, what's next for this team?
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: Do you believe this is this is a question that you have to ask teams that are thinking they're contending in the NBA, right?
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna ask the same thing for the next team we talk about.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: Do you believe that Fred Van Vliet being healthy, bringing back Kevin Durant?
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: Let's say we bring back Tarieson and restrict the free AC.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: So let's just say our roster is basically the same way, other than Steven Adams, who's probably gonna miss a lot of next season, if not the entirety of next season.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: Do we believe the unit that we have right now could be San Antonio in a seven?
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: Could they be OKC in a seven?
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you have any hesitancy in saying that, then maybe this team ain't good, like good enough for us to continue what we're see what we're doing right now.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: I would not be surprised with no sources.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: I would not be surprised if we saw some some rumors about the Houston Rockets picking up the phone to call about the Greek fella in Milwaukee.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not even saying that would be the right thing to do, but I'm just saying when you look at the landscape of the NBA with OKC being as young and as dominant as they are, and you look at the Spurs, who right now young and dominant as well, with they only got one playoff win under their belt or one playoff series win under their belt.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: But if they get a let's say they get eliminated in the second round to Minnesota, I would expect them to be even better next season.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: Very similarly to the OKC Thunder, who made it the one year.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: Did they get eliminated in round number two to Luka Doncic?
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: And the next season after that, boom, we're NBA champions.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: So do you believe that that core, the young core that you have, plus Kevin Durant, plus Fred Van Vliet is enough to beat OKC in seven.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: If it's no, then I think you have to really think about some bigger and better things.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: Or go the opposite direction.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: I don't mean like break it down to the studs, but be like, hmm, we we gonna we gonna do what we do with our young core and we're gonna hope for eventual luck.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: I don't really like that option though.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: So I got it like a nine.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: I will say we've had this conversational numbers on the board a few different times.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: In the hypothetical world where you are picking up and calling about Giannis Deta Kumpo, and you had to pick between the two of I'm uh Amen Thompson or Shingoon, who would you rather keep?
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: I am trying to keep Amin Thompson by any means.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um I would not be the guy, though, to give him 250 million, like it's rumored.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: I would not want to be that person, but I think that there has to be some level of value.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: I think that I'm just gonna say straight up, I think that the value that Amin Thompson can bring as a a tertiary player is better than what Al Prince Shagun can bring you as one of the main guys, and that might be the reason for me to want to keep him around.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you you ask about fit between him and and Giannis in this hypothetical world.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not even thinking about that.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just thinking about the asset and the player that I believe in the most heading into the next couple seasons, and I think that is Amin Thompson.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I'd be curious to see if they were picking up phones.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: What do they think about Reed?
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like, Reese Shepard obviously can't be untouchable, but like, what is the overall value if you are picking up phones called to upgrade the roster?
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: If you are Milwaukee, because I'm just using Milwaukee as in Bucks fans.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'm only using Milwaukee because that's the one guy that we know might be available.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure more star players will be available post the playoffs and everything.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: But like, boom, if the Cavs would have lost, because I feel like the Bucs fans have already had enough of this, right?
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: So if the Cavs would have lost and Donovan Mitchell was available, how would the Cavs view Reed Shepard as the asset?
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, he's not the centerpiece of the trade, but like, you know, those are the type of things that I'm really interested in.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: Because just last year, he was a really valuable potential asset, top three pick, shoot it.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, people saying he kind of like Mark Price out there.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if I get that.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: But he struggled in this first postseason run.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't know.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: So I got the Phoenix Suns at a two, and the Toronto, nope, the Houston Rockets at a nine.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: When we come back, we got the Nuggets, we got the Blazers, and all of the Eastern Conference teams.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: Before we go any further, we want to say thank you to our partners over at DraftKings.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: You may know all about DraftKings pick six by now, where you can pick more or less the different players' stats for the upcoming games.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: What I've been doing is picking some of my favorite players, the guys I like to root for, looking at points, rebounds, assists, three-pointers made a lot of different options.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: Put them into my pick set and deciding to go more or less tonight.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's the start of the semifinals.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: We got 76ers versus Knicks in New York.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: We got San Antonio versus Minnesota, and that is in San Antonio.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: Both of those games are here on NBC slash Peacock.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: So be sure to check it out.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: Here's what my pot, I'm always gonna say potential pick set, because as I mentioned earlier, I am filming this right after the end of the games on Sunday night.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't have exactly what the what the pick set is right now.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: So just again, I'm I'm gonna talk you through my process, right?
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: I was really impressed with what we saw in that closeout game from Mikhail Bridges, y'all.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: If you watch numbers on the board, at once upon a time, Pixet had him at eight and a half points.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: I would assume that going into the next round, it wouldn't be an eight and a half.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: I would guess maybe ten and a half, maybe eleven and a half.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: And if it is in that range, if it is 11 and a half or less, I would think about putting that into my pick set.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: I think he's gonna ride the momentum.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: I think the one thing that mattered a ton to me when I was watching him in that game is that he remembered, oh, snap, layups exist.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of it just being that that seven footer, seven to fifteen foot mid-range pull up, he got to the basket sometime in transition, sometimes in the half court.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: And that is really interesting to me.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, he's gonna have his hands full defensively as well, but I think that he will have the the energy to play both sides of the ball and be pretty solid there.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: Speaking of the opponent, though, Tyrese Maxie, I think he is, even though I love Mikhail Bridges, OG and Noby Deuce McBride.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hell, even Jalen Brunson.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: I love all of those guys.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: I think he is a matchup nightmare.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: Absolute matchup nightmare for the New York Knicks.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: So if his number is about 26, 25, 26, 27 and a half, that is something I would think about putting into my pick set and going more on.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'd also look at Joel Embiid's rebounds and see what that number is at.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: And if I like it, if it's like a seven and a half, eight and a half, I might think about that.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: I think there's a lot of different options in this game.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: I can't wait to see what Big Pearl can do against Joel Lambiad.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: As y'all know, Joel Lambi is a guy that loves to draw fouls, and Cardinal Towns is a guy that loves to foul the opposing team.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's a little rematch after a couple years ago, they saw each other in the playoffs.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: Next, like I mentioned, the West Coast semifinals, the Spurs versus Wolves.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: I did see a video of Anthony Avery shooting around at the gym.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: He been updated the questionable, and I think that does change what I think about for the pick set.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: I would guess he probably won't play.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: But because of that, because it is still a question mark attached to it, I'm actually just going to ignore the Minnesota Timberwolves completely in my pick set right now because obviously the lines will be changing whether or not Ann is playing or he's not.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um so moving on to the San Antonio Spurs.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: Victor Womenyama versus Rudy Gobert is such an interesting matchup.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, now to think about it, I wouldn't be surprised if he saw a lot of Julius Randle trying to get like the, you know, underneath him and use the physicality.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: Only time will tell with Chris Finch and Mike Adori.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: Shout out to my guy.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, what they're deciding to do.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but overall, I think Wimbanyama's of a tone-setting type of player.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: First game at home in the second round of the postseason.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'm looking at his points and I am going more.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm also looking at Stefan Castle's assist.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: If this assist is about, I don't even know, five and a half to seven and a half, I think about adding that to my pick set and going more on that as well.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: As I said earlier, you can go more or less, but around here, I like to root for the players that I'm watching.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: So a lot of the times I end up going more during the regular season.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: We did do something where we were going against each other, right?
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: Me and the numbers on the board cast.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: And the two times that I picked less on a player, it didn't go the way I liked it to.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm going, um, I'm a more, more, more guy.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: All right, when we come back, we'll get into the panic meter for the rest of the playoff eliminated teams.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: For those of you who haven't checked out DraftKings Pick Six yet, there's an exclusive offer waiting for you.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: Right now, new DraftKings customers can play$5 to get$50 and bonus picks.
• 24:28
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• 24:32
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• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: So don't be afraid to get in on the action.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: Right at the upside with Pick Six.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: Next, we got the Denver Nuggets.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry, guys, this is a full 10 out of 10.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: It boils down to that question I asked about the Houston Rockets.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe the Houston Rockets get a little bit more wiggle room because they still do have that young core attached.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: The Denver Nuggets are an older team in the sense of, you know, Jokic being 30, Jamal Murray being late 20s, Aaron Gordon being in his 30s, Cam Johnson about to be 30, if I'm not mistaken.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: This is an older team, Tim Hardaway Jr.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: being in his 30s, even though he's not like a huge, huge piece of the court, but you get what I'm saying.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: Older team.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: And you ask yourself, hmm, if we can't get through Minnesota, when Minnesota's missing Anthony Edwards and Dante DiVincenzo and eventually Iodesumu and eventually Cal Anderson, do we believe there's a world we can get through OKC?
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: Is there a world we get through uh the San Antonio Spurs?
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: And the answer to that is just kind of fine and in my mind, just to just a know.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: And you have one of the best players in the world actively in his prime.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: This cannot be a season where offseason where the different nuggets sit on their hands.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: But the problem is, in order to make this team better in the ways that they need to make it better, they kind of have to think about Jamal Murray trades, man.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I hate to say that because Jamal Murray and Jokic have been have been one of the best duos in the NBA for quite some time now, one of the best two-man games in the NBA.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: They're so damn good that it's become somehow a crutch to the offense that we have to run this exact thing over and over and over because both of these guys are so dynamic.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I understand that.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: But a guy like Christian Brown, who's guaranteed over a hundred million dollars over the next couple seasons, is not an asset.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: So you can maybe try to dump him to another team, but you don't even have assets to attach to him other than the pick so far out in the future that I don't even know if you should be thinking about it.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you should, because you got Jokic on the team.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: But it's gonna be hard to flip him, even just this clear salary.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: So let's just act like Christian Brown has to be on the team next season.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: Cool.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: So who's that leave?
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: Cam Johnson.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: Cool.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: I think that Cam Johnson played his ass off in that game's uh game six and one of his best playoff games ever.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: Shout out to the boy Cam.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: But I wouldn't be surprised if we did also see him in some rumors.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: I think he is more likely to be salary dumped because there are teams this offseason with some with some open cap um spots that actually would be in contention for trying to win ball games.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: And can't I think Cam Johnson helps you win ball games at the end of the day?
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a crazy amount of time left on the contract.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I think Cam could get dumped in order to retain Peyton Watson.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_00: But okay, lose Cam.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_00: Retain Peyton.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_00: Do we now feel like we can beat the San Antonio Spurs or the OKC Thunder?
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: Probably not.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_00: So what is the next thing?
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: Who is the next player that we can move?
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_00: You gonna move Mr.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: Nugget, Aaron Gordon?
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: Even though Aaron Gordon is like the perfect fit on many, many teams, I think that will there will be teams willing to trade for him.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: Let me not let me not let you misinterpret my words.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_00: But the fact that the man has struggled to stay healthy down the stretch in two straight seasons and he's 31 years old is gonna cause some level of pause for opposing teams.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: That, yeah, they'd be interested, but maybe not at the evaluation that he is for your team.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: He may not be an asset worth trading for for me, for as important as he is for you, if that makes sense.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: So Aaron Gordon's got, let me look at this really quick.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: He's got 26-27 at$31 million, he's got$27-28 at$34 million, and he got a club option, I'm sorry, player option at$37 million and 28-29.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: So let's just say he's got two years, two years in the possible left.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: And that that last year, if he takes that player option, he's sitting free agency again at 34 years old.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: That's 19% of the cap, which is not bad for Aaron Gordon type, but when you think about again the postseason games played when a team needed them, it's a struggle.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I I commend him because even in the game that he tried to play, I think he ended up playing like 23 minutes.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: He was laboring, but he tried to play for his guys.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: At game seven last year, he tried to play for his guys on one leg.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's admirable.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: But it also is not the asset that maybe it once was.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: So if we go down his list, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, who does that leave us as a true asset?
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: Jamal Murray coming off the best year for his career is a true asset.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying they should trade him, but I think the conversation should be happening.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: Now it's hard for me to look across the association.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: I read some articles of people trying to make the fictional trade, and I can't get there.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_00: But it's hard for me also to look across the association and say, hey, this team, like, okay, here's the teams that might be interested, but also you have to remember the Denver Nuggets are not selling him, and that's the problem.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_00: They're trading him in order to get stuff back to help them compete today.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I think that in the hypothetical world where the Detroit Pistons may lose in a second round or conference finals or whatever, that they need another creator.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: Jamal Murray has proved in his career that he can play on or off the ball.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: I think the Detroit Pistons might be interested.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: I think Toronto Raptors might be interested.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_00: I think the Atlanta Hawks could potentially be interested.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: I think the Orlando Magic could be interested.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_00: Like, that's I think the Miami Heat should could be interested.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_00: That's how dynamic of a player he is.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: That I don't know, out of the 10 teams that made the postseason, I just named six of them maybe that would be interested in the services.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_00: And if we go out west, it's a little bit tougher.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Jamal Murray slash Houston Rockisson could be interesting.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_00: But like, if I'm the different nuggets, I don't want Kevin Durant.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: I I don't know.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's a that's a me thing at this point.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_00: I love me some KD.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: I love watching KD, but it's something about him on the team that I'm just like, I'd I'd rather watch Kevin Durant as a as a fan of Kevin Durant, not as a fan of the team that he plays for.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: Is that making any sense?
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's not making any sense.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um other teams.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: I think that might be it.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's for like I'm looking at the Western Conference, not a lot of these teams.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, Dallas Mavericks might be interested, but what the hell do they got?
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_00: So I think you gotta think about it.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: And then maybe you have to be willing to take take a loss for future flexibility.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: Like in my mind, there's also a world where like you just exist as a team again and say, hey, we know that maybe we're not a top-end contender, but if the bracket breaks correctly, if so-and-so team deals with an injury, we could be right back into that mix.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: And if we just wait an extra year, maybe we have a little bit more flexibility to do some things.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's a possibility too.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_00: But one of the best flip top two, top three player in the world is on my team, and we can't get out of the first round right now.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's a little tough.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: Last team we have out west is the Portland Trailblazers, who I put at a measly JK.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_00: I got it at a three.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: In my notes, it says one, but I just thought about something that made it a three.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_00: Uh this season WFL money for them, right?
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_00: Uh they trade for Damian Lillard.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I'm sorry, they re-signed Damian Lillard after he gets waived.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: And they look and say, hey, we got an interesting core here.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_00: Denny, the end of last season showed us that he might be heading towards all-stardom.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_00: Cool.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we got Donovan Klingon, who's had a lot of ups and downs.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: Well, he ends up having an up, even though he took a ton of threes in the postseason this year, way too many.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, quickly on that.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'm starting to feel like an O head.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I hate that about me because if you watch my channels, you know I am not an NBA traditionalist.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_00: I am so cool with changing our league as long as it makes sense.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_00: As long as it makes sense.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm I'm kind of over five men that shoot threes.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: Not not not like not in a sense that, you know, so-and-so won the best.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: Not that Carnegie Town should be taking less threes, because he's him when it comes to three-pruss shooting, if the even if this season was one of his worst.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: But Donovan Klingan shooting as many threes as he did in that series, really opened my mind to the fact that, hmm, I don't really like this right now.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_00: And listen, it's a team that needed spacing for their star player to potentially cook, and if I could provide an ounce of spacing, sure.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_00: I understand that.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_00: But I think it might be more valuable for for Donovan Klingan to get closer to the basket than to become an okay three-point shooter.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_00: Is that a good take?
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm just seeing, I'm just seeing way too many centers that's just out there and it's like, hey, bro, I know you're going against Wimby, so you're not the tallest on the court, but you're second in command, my guy.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_00: I just want to see a drop step, spin move at the post.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_00: Top of the key threes.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_00: It actually got to the point where he took three in a row at one one time in their series.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, nah.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_00: I said I said it on numbers.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_00: One of the worst things about Draymond Green when he shoots threes is if he makes that first three lock in fans, he's gonna take four that game because that first one went in.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_00: If he missed that three, maybe he only takes one more for the rest of the game.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_00: Don McClingen fake got that a little bit.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_00: Where if Don McClingen hits that first three, I'm expecting him to shoot five tonight.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_00: And he might hit two, but I'm expecting him to shoot five tonight.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_00: And hey, two out of five, pretty good statistically.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: But those other three misses sometimes lead to anyway.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I uh anyway, I think this is a season was foul money.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason why it is a three and not a one or a zero is that I am I am truly concerned about what's the direction of their team, not the locker room, not the team construction, but the the owner and the way he's trying to run things as an org.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like Tiago Splitter had done enough to be in contention to truly, truly be the head coach of that team next season.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_00: But the reports are saying that they straight up disrespected him all season long, and they're not offering what would be normal wage for an NBA coach.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what I'm thinking about.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_00: Your coach next season might be Kenny Beacham and his guys as the assistants.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's the type of money they're trying to give out.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_00: They're not trying to give real NBA coach money, they trying to give random guy that it would change his life money.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_00: And best believe, Portland, I would come into your team and just not on purpose, but I would mess that team up for that type of money.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_00: Not on purpose.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_00: But I just don't, I just don't know basketball like that to go to team at the NBA level.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_00: But boy, I take that paycheck and I go into every postseason and act like I know what I'm talking about when I don't.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_00: Which is kind of like what podcasting is, ain't it?
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_00: Think about that.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_00: Think about that message.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_00: All right, we will come back.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_00: We'll get to the Eastern Conference teams and what their panic meter should be after getting.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_00: Moving on to the Orlando Magic, who were up 3-1 on the one seed at Detroit Pissers.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_00: Where were you when they went up 3-1?
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_00: Where were you?
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: We dropped our video talking about how trash Detroit has looked.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_00: Where were you when the Detroit Pissers came all the way back to win the series?
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_00: I know where I was at.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_00: I was right here.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_00: I was just sitting right here watching it.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, this is this, I can understand the hardship if you are a fan of the Orlando Magic.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_00: This season you're hype.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_00: We trade for Desmond Bang.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_00: Boom.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody in NBA meetings in love with our roster.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna do some things.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_00: Regular season goes, we don't do some things.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: Then we sneak our way into the postseason, we start to do some things.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_00: You make me a believer, and then you get up 3-1, and something happens that has only happened 15 more times in NBA history.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_00: We were a team that blew a 3-1 lead.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_00: Before the series started, or before all of this started, I was saying here in the plan, I do not want to see the Orlando Magic in a postseason series.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_00: That team is hard to watch, so on and so forth.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_00: And then they got there and they played with so much energy, so much um, so much fight that I said, hey, I was wrong.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_00: I think my panic meter would have been nine or ten in the in the world where this series goes exactly the way it was projected to go.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_00: But because they did take three games off the one seed, the Detroit Pisses, I have lowered that number down to a smooth six, which is like respect respectful.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_00: I do think there's a lot of things on this roster that you can be in love with, which is one of the reasons why we were in love with them before the season started.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_00: I do wonder in the in the world where the Orlando Magic do win this series against the 1C.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_00: And then let's say they lose in the second round.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my god, the Cavs are just too much for us.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_00: We're beat up from the last series.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_00: Is there a world where Jamal Mosley stays the coach in that world?
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_00: Because I think that even though they were up 3-1 and it was pretty cool, I think that Jamal Mosley still ends up getting fired in a couple days.
• 37:07
  unknown: Right?
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a crazy amount of great coaches out there, but Billy Donovan's out there and it's not that many of vacancies, and he feels like Billy Donovan, Orlando Magic, boom, boom, boom, boom.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's the number one thing that's making me have it as a six, because I think that Jamal Mosley is or should be maybe not the head coach anymore.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_00: But the way Palo played in this postseason, again, this is the second postseason where Palo has been the better version of himself.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_00: He had a 45-point game, and in the closeout game, he was phenomenal as well.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_00: His team was better with him on the court for the first time in the postseason for y'all.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_00: Statsy guys.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_00: They were like a plus zero two with him on, and like a minus 17 when I'm off.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_00: It was kind of nuts.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_00: I do worry about Jalen Suggs.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_00: Jalen Suggs' last couple games, as far as just scoring, just shooting, just those things was really, really tough.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_00: I think his energy, I mean, one of the was it the first game of the series, the energy that he provided defensively, flying all over the place, that is super, super valuable to the team.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I think you can all agree to that.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_00: But because the jump shot has wavered so much, I remember, you know, he wasn't a good shooter.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_00: And then the year before his extension, I think he had a 39% from three.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_00: Let's see what it was.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_00: He shot 39% from three the year before he was eligible for an extension.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_00: Perfect time to be a breakout player, makes all defensive.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_00: And then the year after that, 31% from three.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_00: And then this year, 33% from three.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_00: And again, in these postseasons, uh, he had a game leaves one for 11 from three, he had a game leaves one for six from three.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you know the vibes.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_00: And not only just that, the guys guarantee$32 million next year, 29, 26, and then a team option at 26.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_00: So basically, three more years guaranteed.
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_00: And it is descending, which is a good thing.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_00: But I do wonder because of Anthony Black's emergence as a player, even though you know the last when he came back from his injury, it maybe wasn't as good as a time where Jalen Suggs was out with his injury.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_00: With his emergence, you do have to question, like, hmm, is Jalen Suggs truly a part of what we're building for the future?
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_00: Can we afford to have him on that big old contract, Palo on that big old contract, Franz on a big old contract?
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't think Anthony Black is worthy of a big old contract, but bringing him back as well, hmm.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_00: And though Suggs is, again, a wishy-washy shooter and guarantee$32 million next season.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_00: If he became available, I do believe he is a player that teams would be calling for.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_00: In my mind, Matt Lloyd and Micah Nori come in and they say, hey, Chicago's got$60 million in cap with nobody nobody to really spend it on.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_00: We'll trade for Jalen Suggs if it's not a high cost.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_00: We could use somebody with that defensive identity even if he can't shoot on a night-to-night basis.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to make about the Bulls, but I got that.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_00: Toronto Raptors! Oh, their number's like a one or a two.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna say two.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna say two.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_00: In my notes, it says two.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna stick to two for the notes.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason why it's a two and not a zero, this is another team that had a found money season.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_00: I am so proud of this team.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_00: Before this has started, I did not think this team had the ceiling to be in the game seven versus the Cavs.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_00: I did not think they had that ceiling.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_00: As the postseason or the off-season goes on, I start to open up to the idea a little bit more, and then the regular season happens, and you saw them have their streak in November, where it's like, oh yeah, this is a true team.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_00: I know that they ended the season for the last half of me as like a 500 team, but you they showed us, you know, after game two that it's a team with talent, with a good coach that can make necessary adjustments, and like an emerging superstar.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_00: Like I truly, based on the way Scotty Barnes just played last season, I can't wait till we do our ranking players things that we do every single offseason.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_00: But off the top of my I don't I don't know if I can name 15 players that are better than Scotty Barnes.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's just off the top of mind.
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_00: So to have the emerging superstar like that and have a rookie that was so great in his first postseason series, I think that the future about the Toronto Raptors is good.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_00: The only reason it's a two and not a one or a zero is that, like, yeah, two, I'm sorry, three of their top most paid players outside of Scotty Barnes, Brandon Ingram was disappointing until he got injured.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yaka Purdle was disappointed in the game.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_00: It started to play a little bit better until we got to game seven.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_00: The email quickly didn't play.
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_00: So like you had three of the top paid players either not playing or not being effective.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_00: And some of those, some of those contacts would be tough to move.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_00: Brandon Ingram can be really good regular season-wise, but I don't, I don't, if Brandon Ingram became available, I don't see 2019 picking up the phone and say we want Brandon Ingram's services, especially not at the evaluation that he's getting paid, which is 40 million next season.
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_00: And then a player option for 41.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know why I thought he had four years on their contract.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so maybe not the worst, but it also is not the best either.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_00: And then you already know you mean quickly's contract,$32 million a year forever.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_00: And then Yaga Purdue's contract is bad as well.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the only reason why it's higher than a zero because some of those contracts are going to be tough to move if that's the idea that you have for this team.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_00: But overall, Jacoby Walter uh coming in and playing those type of minutes and being there productive, even after two games where he had zero.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um again, Colin Murray Boyos and Scotty Barnes looking like two of the best wing to everything defenders in the game right now.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_00: Shout out to him.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_00: Next team we have is the Atlanta Hawks.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_00: I have them as a one, y'all.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_00: Another team, the Easter Covers kind of got a lot of found money teams.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_00: Another team that is similar to the Orlando Magic in a way, that we really bought in on them this season.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_00: Trey Young, Porzinguez, Jalen Johnson's emergence, Dyson Daniels just won most improved player.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_00: Hell, Resha, I say a year or two.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_00: Who knows?
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there's a team that we had high expectations for, and then they traded away those top two guys I mentioned.
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_00: They traded away Porzinguez, they they traded away Trey Young, and then they brought in CJ and some other dudes, and right after that, they didn't look like a good team, and then they won 14 out of 15, or whatever the hell the number ended up being.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_00: So they ended up having a foul money team, and actually, until those last two games really made you think, hmm, about the Knicks.
• 43:04
  SPEAKER_00: This offseason, of course, they got that Pelicans pick that is going to be a juicy, juicy pick, we all know.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_00: They have the youth of their team too.
• 43:14
  SPEAKER_00: Like for it to be, I'm gonna put in quotation on Jalen Johnson's first postseason series because he technically has played a couple different, but he was not really playing in those series.
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_00: For him to be his first postseason series, he wasn't pretty, for sure, but it's nothing about what I saw that makes me feel like he can't be better next time they make the postseason.
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we all knew that he needed to continue to evolve his half-court game, and you saw that in this series, right?
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so it's not it's not very high on the list.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_00: If that I mean, if it's a two, it's probably has to do with Rich I say, who was the first overall pick and couldn't play.
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_00: Straight up couldn't play.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_00: He got a little bit of burnout.
• 43:45
  SPEAKER_00: I want to say game one or game two.
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_00: He came in air ball to floater, and that was kind of GG's.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_00: He killed the offensive glass a little bit, which is a plus, because my one of my biggest criticisms for him as a ball player is that the man never, never got rebounds for a dude that's listed as 6'9, 6'10.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_00: So Crass the Glass there.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_00: And then they were down by like 60 points before he finally actually played in that last game of the series.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_00: So that's that's bad.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_00: But I do believe that that like he's an NBA player.
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_00: He is an NBA player in there.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_00: We just have, he's just at 6'8.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_00: We just have the expectation of first overall picks to be what Paolo and Cage just did in their series.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_00: And he's just not that, which is fine.
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_00: So I took the lens, I took the lens off of Richass being a traditional first overall pick a long time ago.
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_00: So now let's look at him on the lens of hey, that's a real NBA player who, as of right now, just turned 21 years old.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_00: There's a there's something in there.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't know if something in there is just like a starter for 10 years.
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if it's the sixth man or seventh man on the team for 10 years, but there is a ball player in there somewhere that I don't know.
• 44:53
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get back to the bull.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_00: If I was the Bulls, um, I'd be calling to trade for if he was available.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_00: If it y'all need y'all want Trey Jones, I got so much love for Trey Jones, but I would I would trade Trey Jones for Reek to take the flyer or reach, I say, if that was what if that was what Atlanta wanted to do.
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_00: They needed some more creation.
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_00: And Trey Jones said it's best game for his career.
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_00: Don't sleep.
• 45:15
  SPEAKER_00: When we come back, we got the last team in the Easter Conference, the Boston Celtics.
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_00: Stay tuned.
• 45:25
  SPEAKER_00: The Celtics won is the hardest one to grain.
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_00: Another team that felt like found money, right?
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_00: I was a guy that went on the over-under podcast.
• 45:35
  SPEAKER_00: I went under on the team.
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_00: I did not think they had a 50-win season in them, and then they did it.
• 45:41
  SPEAKER_00: In the last month of the season, because Tatum was back, they went from a team that was a really good story under Jalen Brown being really good and the team finding guys like a Shire Man and so on and so forth.
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_00: They went from a team that was just a good story to like, oh, they should be the top team in the Eastern Conference going to the postseason.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_00: And then they lost.
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_00: And then they lost.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm trying to figure out where I put them on the panic meter because this season wasn't supposed to be a great season anyway, but then it turned into one.
• 46:12
  SPEAKER_00: And now we have, do we have to what do we grave it on the curve?
• 46:15
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_00: In my notes, I have a seven.
• 46:19
  SPEAKER_00: In my notes, I have a seven.
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_00: Because the offseasons they had leading into it definitely led us think that it was a bridge year.
• 46:27
  SPEAKER_00: Drew gone, Horfer gone, Cornet gone, Porzinga's gone, here comes Luca Garza, here comes Hugo Gonzalez.
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_00: Eventually, here comes Vooch.
• 46:39
  SPEAKER_00: You can't play in the playoffs.
• 46:42
  SPEAKER_00: So I wonder the guys up top, Brad Stevens, who just won executive of the year, I think.
• 46:48
  SPEAKER_00: I wonder what's next.
• 46:51
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_00: If this is the second year in a row where you lose for last year you lose in the second round, this year you lose in the first round after three years ago you were the or three seasons ago you were the champion.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_00: You keep second round to first round, uh oh, we're going in the wrong direction.
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_00: What could or what should Brass Sievers be thinking about when it comes to the offseason?
• 47:13
  SPEAKER_00: Now the big doomers that I know in Boston Celtics fandom are saying, hey, it's finally time to cash in on Jalen Brown.
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what that looks like.
• 47:26
  SPEAKER_00: But he has his best season in the postseason he struggles.
• 47:30
  SPEAKER_00: Struggles so much that 24 hours after being eliminated, after blowing a 3-1 lead, he goes onto Twitch and tells you, hey, this is what this is my perspective on things.
• 47:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I only I've only seen one clip of that, by the way.
• 47:41
  SPEAKER_00: So I only have an opinion about what he says.
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_00: I only saw the one clip about the the push-off, which I thought was a hilarious clip.
• 47:46
  SPEAKER_00: But I I'm sure there'll be more to cross the timeline when I leave the studio.
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_00: But the Eastern Conference is still one of them conferences.
• 47:55
  SPEAKER_00: Like as you just saw, you just saw, right?
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_00: The one-seeded all one seed almost went down.
• 47:59
  SPEAKER_00: You as a two-seed just went down.
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not like there's a super crazy juggernaut on this side of the bracket.
• 48:03
  SPEAKER_00: You do still have the two teams I mentioned out west.
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_00: But I do wonder if this if this feels like a season where the Boston Celtics, who have been, they they ran a certain way, they get out of their body just a little bit.
• 48:16
  SPEAKER_00: They make a move that none of us are really expecting them to make.
• 48:19
  SPEAKER_00: They try to acquire a top-end name.
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_00: Or they go the opposite way.
• 48:24
  SPEAKER_00: Where they try to reformulate themselves around the Jays or one of the Jays.
• 48:30
  unknown: I don't know.
• 48:31
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what I think the panic meter should be for the eight teams that have been eliminated in the first round of the postseason.
• 48:37
  SPEAKER_00: You let me know what you think.
• 48:39
  SPEAKER_00: Uh what what team was too high, what team was too low.
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I'm not sure.
• 48:45
  SPEAKER_00: I I can say I've been absolutely loving everything I've been seeing in the postseason so far.
• 48:50
  SPEAKER_00: This next round hopefully gives us many bangers, just like the the the first round did.
• 48:56
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a little bit skeptical though, right?
• 48:58
  SPEAKER_00: Because I I look at I look at the uh the playoff and I say, hmm, just off the top of mine, the Thunders should take care of business against the Lakers.
• 49:07
  SPEAKER_00: Off the top of mind, pending Anthony Edwards' health, the the Spurs should take care of the Minnesota Timbulls.
• 49:14
  SPEAKER_00: I think the Knicks should take care of the 76ers, but they just showed us they could compete with anybody.
• 49:19
  SPEAKER_00: But a lot of my shoulders with the first round ended up going six or seven games.
• 49:24
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm open.
• 49:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm open to good comebacks.
• 49:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm open to upsets.
• 49:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'm open to everything.
• 49:29
  SPEAKER_00: If I were to quickly rank these four series based on my excitement level, I think my number one most exciting series is that Knicks versus 76ers series.
• 49:37
  SPEAKER_00: I think number two is going to be Spurs versus Wolves, because that Wolves scene just showed us a lot.
• 49:43
  SPEAKER_00: I think my number three is going to be Pistons versus Cavs.
• 49:45
  SPEAKER_00: And then lastly, I think Thunder versus Lakers is number four.
• 49:48
  SPEAKER_00: Because that Thunder team, my goodness.
• 49:50
  SPEAKER_00: And listen, Braun, if you can somehow, if you could boy, I don't think he can.
• 49:58
  SPEAKER_00: But if he can but if he could somehow, I don't think the likelihood is that high.
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_00: But if he could some.
• 50:05
  SPEAKER_00: Shout out to Braun Braun.
• 50:07
  SPEAKER_00: Shout out to Braun Braun.
• 50:08
  SPEAKER_00: Hopefully, this has been another great episode of Small Ball with Kenny Beach.
• 50:12
  SPEAKER_00: And as I said, we're open to conversations.
• 50:14
  SPEAKER_00: You can catch me all over the place.
• 50:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'm dropping content left and right.
• 50:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'll see y'all next week.
• 50:19
  SPEAKER_00: Peace.