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The Off Season For These Teams Are Make or Break · Small Ball with Kenny Beecham

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: He said the house is not on fire.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: I think the sparks.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: The sparks in the kitchen.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: Now, now will it spread throughout the entire house?
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: I don't really know yet.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: That kitchen is flaming.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if he got a fire extinguisher under the sink or what, but it's it's very close to the house being completely on fire.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome, welcome, welcome back to the Kenny Beach and podcast.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: On today's episode, we gotta talk about the ending of one of the best first-round Easter conference series, maybe of all time.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: I haven't been around that long, but at least as long as I can remember, Knicks versus 76ers gave me everything I could have wanted in the series.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: I also want to talk about some of the teams that have been eliminated.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: What's next for those?
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: The exit interviews tell you a lot.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: The Pelicans, the Suns, the Bucks just got eliminated today.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: The Heat.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: What is next for all of these teams?
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: Leave a like, subscribe, let's get into it.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm filming this episode minutes, just minutes after the Knicks versus 76ers series has wrapped up.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't know what the post-game interview is going to look like for Joel Embiid or Nick Nurse or anybody really, but I just want to talk about the series because it was everything.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: We got uh a scramble for a game winner with Dante DiVincenzo.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: Tarry's Maxi in the 76ers in the game number five were down by six points with 40 seconds to go, seven points with 40 seconds to go.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: He brought it all the way back and helped them win an overtime game.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: And today, we saw the battle of the stars for about three quarters.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna start off there with the Philadelphia 76ers because today Jordan B's final stat line was 39 points, 13 rebounds, two assists, he fouled out.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but but boy, just looking at the stat line, watching this game through the first three quarters, he was exactly the Jordan B you wanted.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: Because in game number five, he put up a stinker, and luckily Tyrese Maxie turned into Superman slash Reggie Miller slash Tracy McGrady and helped them win that game.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: And you wanted to, I wanted to see Jordan B go out in game number six and showcase why he's one of the most dominant players in basketball.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I do want to say this I am not a Joel Limbi fan.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not a 76er fan.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: I am very neutral here.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: I try to be as objective as possible.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: This fourth quarter, well, not just this fourth quarter, let's talk about the fourth quarter of game number five or game number four or game number three.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: You get what I'm saying?
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: The fourth quarter for Joel Embiid has been awful.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I want to give him a little bit of the benefit of the doubt because he only played, what, eight games after his meniscus injury before we got to the playoffs?
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: We found out after game number three that he has been dealing with Bell's palsy.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Hell, every single one of these games, it feels like he left the court to go back to the locker room for whatever reason.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: He obviously was not 100%.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: But this is the same story for every single year.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, he cannot control his health.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: Like, there's only so much he can do, right?
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: He he's eating right.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, then once upon a time, didn't he drink like a bunch of Shirley Temples a day?
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Like he's done everything that you want from your player to maintain their health.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: And his body just continues to give up on him.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: Where through the first three quarters, he was phenomenal.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: He was dominant.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: He was everything Jordan B usually is.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: And that fourth quarter came around, and I thought he became so very passive where he didn't want the ball, where there were times where he would get a post-touch, and instead of him facing up or even looking like a threat, he immediately put the ball in his right hand and Michael Jordan looking for somebody else to pass it to, time and time again.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: I think in this game number four, the stats have not updated, but if by my own, oh, it has updated.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: Let me just double check this.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: In the fourth quarter of this game, Joel Lin B was two of four with two main free throws, six total points.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: Three of his six fouls came in this one.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: One of them was again them attentionally fouling, whatever.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: But one of those two buckets was when the 76ers had this of the New York Knicks have decided to concede a two-pointer.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't want a three.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: So he didn't have to work for that one.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: Every other time, he said, Tyrese, this is for you.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: And again, Tyrese did not have a phenomenal game.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: I thought he had a good fourth quarter, but the first three quarters was a struggle.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: But after what he did in game number five, I mean, I'm giving him a pass.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: There is no game number six if he doesn't do what he does in game number five.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: And this is where I want Jordan B to take over.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: In game number four, uh, Nick Nurse opted to not play or not to pull Jordan B the normal three minutes, four minutes in the beginning of the fourth quarter and let him ride the rest of the game.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: Because historically, throughout the entirety of Jordan Bede's career, and I guess is the case for, I would say, majority of superstar players, but I don't know the stats on this.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: When Jordan Bede was on the floor, his team was good.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: His team was winning the point differential.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: Anytime this man went to the bench, it tanked in the minus, right?
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: So Nick Nurse is thinking, man, this game number four is as important as any game.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: We do not want to go down 3-1.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: So let's just think about the statistics and say when Joel Lambi is on the floor, we're just a better, better team.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: But because he didn't get that three to four minute break at the beginning of the fourth quarter, he was he didn't do anything in the fourth.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: He was didn't do anything.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: He was gassed, he was walking up the court, he wasn't even contesting shots like he normally would.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: And in this one, he had to opt to go back to the normal routine where Joel Lambi played nine minutes in the fourth quarter versus the 12 that he played in game number four.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: And you would have hoped that that would have been enough to get him the juices that was necessary for him to help his team go over the top.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: And it was not.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: I don't, I don't know.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so this team has what 64, 60 something, 56 million, 56 million dollars in cap space.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: 64 is actually the Detroit Pistons.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: And um, they're going to try to use it, obviously.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: This team needs some more help.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: It can't just be Tyrese Maxie and Joel L for three quarters.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know who's next on the hit list?
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: Tobias Harris.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: He did it again.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: Last episode, we talked about how non-existent Tobias Harris had been in this series.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: Today's stat line.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: Are you ready for this?
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I know you watch this game, so you know the stat line.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure if I go into Twitter right now, this is one of the main talking points after you talk about Joel Lemb giving a stinker in the fourth quarter.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: 29 points or 29 minutes.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: Zero points.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: Zero.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: Over two from the field.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: I don't even remember his first shot, but the second shot was a pull-up mini jump shot late in the fourth quarter.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: Over two.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: The 30 plus million dollar man over two in a closeout game.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: I just don't know what else to say.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: He was a minus 10 in a game where his team lost by three.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: I I just lost.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so was he.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so is he.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I made a tweet after game number three, I want to say.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: And it was the the thing said, Has anybody lost more money this offseason than Buddy Heel?
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: But he'll get traded to the Philadelphia 76ers to just be one of those guys that he's off the books at the end of the season, but maybe he can give you enough of an ump off the bench.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: Or I in my mind, I thought he was actually going to be starting for the second half of the season.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: Could he give you a little bit of ump off that bench or starting as a one of the best three-point shooters of all time, right?
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: And um, he opened up his 76er tenure really good.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: He had like a 20-something point double-double.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: He had like 10 assists, like Buddy Heel just hitting the A button.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: Buddy Heel's fasting the ball.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: And then it slowly slowed down.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: And in my mind, I was like, oh, don't worry, when Jordan B comes back, it'll all work a little bit better because I mean Jordan B just alleviates all the pressure on pretty much everybody on the team.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: But through the first couple games of this series, Nick Nurse had to come to the realization that Buddy Heel was unplayable.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: He was unplayable till tonight, where he had 20 points and 21 minutes.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: He had big shot after big shot.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I know we're going to talk about the last shot that he attempted with 2.7 seconds left.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, he had more time to get up a better shot than that.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: But he had a game that I thought if they won that game and potentially won a game seven, we remember the random 21 minutes from Buddy Heel.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: But back to the original tweet.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: Has anybody lost more money than Buddy Healed?
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: I want to say Tobias Harris has.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: But then again, the Detroit Pistons have$64 million in cap, and I don't know who else would really consider going there.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: So I think Tobias Harris is going to walk into this offseason and still make a shit ton of money, regardless of the fact that he has been awful.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: Jordan B went down with his injury a few months back, and in your mind you would think, okay, there's more shot attempts, there's more points to be had for a guy like Tobias Harris.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: Why do his numbers go down across the board?
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: It makes no sense.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: And now Jordan B comes back for the playoff run, and you have a game six where you give us zero points.
• 8:12
  unknown: Zero.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: And the problem is they didn't have another wing guy on the team to replace those minutes, right?
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: Nicholas Patoom gave them 16 points again.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: Nicholas Batum averaged like two points per game in the regular season.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: He had the big play-in game, he had 20-something, and then now he gave them 16.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: So you got 20 from Buddy Healed, who was unplayable the last two games.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: You got 16 from Nicholas Batum, who only averaged two-some points per game.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: This is a game you should win.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: But Toby gave you zero, and Jordan B was a zero in the fourth quarter.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: And because of that, you lose.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: Kelly Oubre had a good game.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: He had a couple things down the stretch I didn't, I didn't love.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: But for the most part, I think he had a great series.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: He guarded Jalen Bronson as good as somebody could, given the circumstances.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, the first two games of the series, I'm on first take.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: And Stephen A is asking me, should we be worried about Jalen Bronson?
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's how Kelly Oubre, Nicholas Watum, and all these guys were defending him so well.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: I think he's gonna get paid.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what pay really is for Kelly Ubre because he's had a couple decent sized contracts in his career.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: And he came here on the bet on myself.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, he was one of the last people to sign a free agency this year.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: So that's maybe a good sign.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: But I don't know what happens next, other than them trying to go out and get some guys.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: Paul George is like the top free agent name outside of LeBron who might opt out.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: And then it's like DeMar DeRozan.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: I just, this is not one of them free agency class where you think that we have a max spot, so we're gonna go out there and get a guy.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: Now, free agency for the 76ers could be a trade.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: They have two tradable first-round picks, if I'm not mistaken.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: Neither of them are like some good first rounders, but their first rounders nonetheless.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what star player will be available.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: But it's what what scares me is that they're gonna they're gonna sign somebody, right?
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: It could be Paul George, it could be Damar, it could be Klay Thompson, it could be somebody of that caliber.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: A good name, right?
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: To just be that third guy that can provide more than zero points in 29 minutes.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: But this is a story that we've seen time and time again with the 76ers slash Joel Embiid.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: There are certain teams across basketball that we keep saying to ourselves, well, if they could only get healthy.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: Joel Embiid, throughout the last four playoff runs, in my mind, I think if he can only stay healthy.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: And he hasn't.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: They can only stay healthy.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: Kawhi's not playing for the rest of the series.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: Same thing about the Pelicans.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna talk about this in a minute, but Brandon Ingram and Zion Williamson have played zero playoff minutes together if they can only get healthy.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: Eventually, you have to throw that in the back out the back pocket and just say, hey, we tried.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: In the Joel and B era, we've seen him team up with with Ben Simmons.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: We've seen them eventually trade for Jimmy Butler, and then they uh pick Tobias Harris over him, and then they traded for James Harden.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: Like they they've been very good about attempting things.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: Some teams out there are just very okay with not doing anything.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: At least the 76 can say that we have tried so many different versions of a team built around Joel Lambi.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: And there are times where the team is built well, and then he gets injured.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: So, in my mind, next year could be potentially the last year of the process.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: If we if you we sign Paul George, we have another phenomenal regular season because I'm gonna remind you before Joel and B were down in this injury, the Philadelphia 76s were one of the top three season basketball, right?
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: We have another phenomenal regular season, and then we get down to game number 81 and Joel Lambiat is hurt, or we get to game number two of the first round of the playoffs, and Joel Lambi walks off the court to go to the back room.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: Can we say that we're gonna run it back again after year after year after year of doing this?
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know how you can.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: Right, Joel Lambi is one of the best players in basketball.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: Ain't seen the conference finals.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: Look at every other player that we say best player in basketball.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: Matter of fact, top NBA players.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just I'm just googling top NBA players.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: No conference finals appearances, right?
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the best player in basketball we know is Nicole Jokic.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: Luka Dontis has a conference finals appearance.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: He was super young.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: It was what, three years ago at this point?
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: But at least he has one.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: Giannis has a championship.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: Shea does not, but this is Shay's first playoff run as the guy, and he has a series coming up very, very soon.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: Jordan Bede is here at number five, and I'm looking at the ringers' top one, top 100.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: I ain't saying I agree with the ranking, but I'm just giving you the guys.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: Kawhi Leonard, obviously, champion.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: Jason Tatum, been to the finals.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: Steph Curry, obviously champion.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: Kevin Orange, champion, and Davis, champion.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: Devin Booker, champion appearance.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: How far do I have to go?
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: Jalen Brunson is at 13.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: He's he doesn't have one.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: Or does he?
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: Jalen Brunson was on that team.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: They went to the conference finals, wasn't he?
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe I'm bugging.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's young Jason Tatum or Jalen Brunson.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: Either way, I'm gonna put, I don't remember.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: Anthony Everett's got none.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: But this is his what second playoff run ever.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: Jimmy Butler.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, the list goes on and on.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: And then we start to get to like Wimbayama and Tyres Halliburton, who's playing his first playoff minutes ever.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: But every other guy that we've we've talked about has had a conference finals appearance.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: And Joel Embiid right now is going into his 30-year-old year.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: His body's broken down for the last four of these years.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: He's a seven-foot big.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what's the track record of a seven-footer going to the year number uh the 30-year-old year?
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what's the track record of a seven-footer going to the 30-year-old year that's also had seven knee surgeries?
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, a bunch of knee surgeries, a bunch of this, and a bunch of that.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a good track record.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to see Jordan B get that monkey off his back.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not even a fan.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: But if I'm the 76ers and I see this young, this young felon Tyrese Maxie and how great he is, and there's objectively gonna be teams out there interested in Jordan B regardless of the injury history.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: I just have to think to myself, at what point do we just shift it?
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: That's all.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: Now, let's talk about the team that won the series.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: Because I, you know, this is the Enjoy Basketball Network, but I have to pop, I gotta talk some shit sometimes, right?
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: The New York Knicks um gave us a game where you knew this is a time through it away where he knew that the momentum has shifted in the series, right?
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: Specifically after game number five where Tyrese Maxie came out and just went supernova.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um he did not want it to go to game seven.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: I think, I mean, obviously that's that's the obvious thing.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: You don't want your team to lose a basketball game, but the way he coached this game, um where all of his guys played pretty much all the minutes.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: There's at one point, I think we were into the fourth quarter until we saw one of the bench players on the Knicks get a bucket.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: Miles McBride hit a big three, and I think that Mitchell Robson had a layup at one point.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: That was it.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: Dante DiVincenzo had been a guy that had Miles McBride take his minutes in the fourth quarter over a few games in this series.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: Tonight, he was great.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: 23 points, seven assists.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: And the thing that they dominated the entire series on was on that offensive glass.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: You saw it to start off the game, and eventually the you had a run, right?
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um second quarter, buddy healed at 17 points.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: That was the run that they needed for the 76 to get back in this game.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: But the entirety of this series, the Knicks were punching them in the mouth.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: And as no surprise, because we saw them do the exact same thing to the Cavaliers last year in the playoffs.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: But you would just think with the 76ers being a more experienced team than that Cavs team, that they'd be more equipped, more prepared for a punch in the mouth where they were not.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: Because in this game, Mitch Rob has six offensive rebounds.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: Josh Hart is just a rebound in a machine and he closed out the series.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna talk about Josh Hart in a second.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Isaiah Hardenstein, five offensive rebounds.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: This team is just gonna go after it and they're never gonna leave a loose ball left.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: They're never gonna let anything happen.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: One thing, and I don't have high-leverage basketball experience, right?
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: So, so you know what I'm saying.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's not like this is a college coach that told me this.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: But um, one of my coaches, and I don't even know if it's good advice, but one of our coaches when we were younger, when it came to the rebounder drills, um, he used to say, I don't want the ball to touch the floor.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: If the ball touches the floor, and and we're talking about as a defensive team, like defensive rebounder team, right?
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: Uh uh, you don't want the ball to touch the floor because that opens up the opportunity for the offensive team to just go in and get it.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: So we would have drills where we just go up and hit each other hard in the air.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: And luckily, I was a guard, so I ain't had to be down there with the little fellas.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: It felt like time and time again, that's how the Knicks played the game.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: Where like if the ball hit the floor on a rebound, they were the one that picked it up.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: Like vertically, I mean, Josh Hart was up there a bunch.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: But anytime, I don't got no stats.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe I should go back and look at the offensive rebounds that they got.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: It felt as though when the ball hit the floor first, they were there.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: And Tom Thibodeau coasted his ass off.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: I honestly think that Nick Nurse coasted his ass off too, but Tom Thibodeau coasted his ass off.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: And then in the last play of the game, you knew that the obvious thing when you re-watched that is that he didn't want Jalen Brunson to beat them.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's the same thing that they ran for the first two games of the series, and eventually Dick Nurse went away from it because Josh Hart had three straight games in the series where he had four threes.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: I want to remind you that before the playoffs started, Josh Hart hadn't hit four threes in the game since January.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: So it was an out-of-body experience for him to hit this many threes.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: And then today he hit three.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: And with the last, when the game is on the line, they say, hey, anybody but Jalen Brunson, actually, anybody but Jalen Brunson and Dante DiVincenzo, where when they swung it to Josh Hart, you saw Tyrese Maxie kind of jump at Josh Hart just a little bit to throw him off his game.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: But ultimately, his goal was to stick to Dante.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: And if Josh Hart hits this shot, we go home.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: But least we can say we gave it to a 30% three-point shooter in this series.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: Josh Hart was amazing.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: He hit the one game after they changed the scheme, right?
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: After uh the first two games, Nick Nurse and company decided, okay, we're kind of neutralizing Jalen Brunson, but the others are just playing out of this world.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: And now we're already down 2-0.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: So we can't have another Josh Hart game.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: We can't have another Dante DiVincenzo game.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: We need to kind of not play it straight up, but we need to play, we gotta be honest about these things.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: And then eventually they neutralized Josh Hart as from a scoring perspective, but I also opened up the game for Jalen Brunson to do what he wanted to do.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then this one Josh Hart was all over the place, he had the biggest three, and I mean, uh, he he was great.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: Ojanninobi was great everywhere, offensive, defensive side of the ball.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, another underrated thing about this series was the oh man, which game was this?
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: Game number four, I want to say.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: Is that the game where uh Isaiah Hartenstein had five five thousand the third quarter?
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: I think it was.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: And then Mitch Robb didn't play in this one.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: So um, it was like President Chouya had to check in for Isaiah Hartenstein.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: And you would just think that President Chuya being a big on the team, his assignment would be to to guard Jordan B, where it wasn't.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: It was OG Anobi's assignment.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: Now uh uh President Chuya came over to help a ton.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: Like they weren't sending individual buys to Jordan B.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: That would be you would be an idiot to do that, especially with a small ball lineup.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: But a lot of that is OG Annobi and then President Chouya coming in and digging at the ball time and time again.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: Where I don't, again, talk about Jordan B's fourth quarters.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think he scored in that fourth quarter.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: Tonight, he was great.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: Hit some timely shots.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: He had the big poster dunk, and I can't wait to see exactly what the next series looks like for them.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: They got the Pacers who also won their game.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna talk about that in a minute.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: But the one thing I'm thinking about, and I'm gonna do an entire preview of this.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: I actually want to go back and watch some of their games because I don't have any memories of these two teams playing against each other from this season.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to go back and watch some of this.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: And hopefully they didn't play all their games in November or something crazy like that, because that happens in the NBA occasionally.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: But the idea of crashing the glass so very heavily worked against the 76ers because other than Tyrese Maxi, this is a slow-paced team.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: The Pacers will make you pay if you crash that glass and you don't get an offensive board.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: So there's one thing I'm looking for.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I again, I gotta go back to watch the footage because maybe that's not even the reality of the thing, but I gotta go back and watch it.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: If you go to FanDuel Sportsbook, the odds are already up of the series.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: The Knicks are a minus 265 favorite to win it.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I honestly, I thought that was um a bit high for the New York Knicks.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like I do, I do favor the Knicks.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: Do not get me wrong, I do do favor the Knicks in this series, but I do think the Pacers showed me a little bit in their last series.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: Now, granted, there was no Damian Lillard for a few of the games and no Giannis for the entirety of the series.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: That team has some fight.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: They got a good bench, they got some hoopers over there.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um so I don't know if the Knicks should be that heavily favorite, but that's where they are right now.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, I think I would ride with the Knicks, but again, I'll give an official, official prediction down the line.
• 20:05
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• 22:00
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• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: I kind of want to talk about some of the teams that have been eliminated.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: Starting off with the New Rose Pelicans, I think that the uh the the end of the season interviews, the exit interviews are some of the most telling things every single season, where a lot of the times a general manager or a coach will go out there and they'll say some stuff, and then you look back on it a month later and be like, oh yeah, he kind of warned us of this.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: And the first one uh comes from the Pelicans.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and and it was a David Griffith over there.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: And this was his quote In the past, we have we erred on the side of continuity.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: We needed to see this group healthy.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: I think we've seen enough.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: This will not be a summer of complacency.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's time to get better.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: Whew.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I'm excited about this.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: As a as a nerd that loves when players jump around teams, and that's one of the reasons why the NBA is my baby and not the NFAO or the MLB or some of these other major sports, because I love to see players on new teams and see trades.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: Team building in general is just something I fell in love with when I was a kid.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: So to see the Pelicans say this is refreshing in a way.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: Because as I mentioned earlier, there are certain teams that are just okay with say, like, ah, we had the injury bug this season.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: Let's see what it would look like next season.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: And over the last couple of years, they've been a playing team.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: They've got a few playoff appearances under their belt, but they continuously lose.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: And part of that is Zion not being healthy when it matters the most.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: And then in this one, uh Lou Dort had Brandon Ingram in the Deutscher chamber, but I'll also Brandon Ingram only played one game before the playoffs started.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: So they also just had a bunch of injuries.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: But I thought on paper, even this is a team that won 49 games this year.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: So objectively, a really good team.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: Somehow they end up top 10 in offense or top 10 in defense.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: But I don't think that the pieces work very well together.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, obviously the wins say otherwise.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: The numbers say otherwise, but when you just think about the team, you watch the team specifically, you get down to the nitty-gritty, the fourth quarter of the clutch time.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's just a team that hasn't been well constructed.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: The one thing that they can benefit on is that they have one of the deepest teams in basketball from Jose Alvarado to Dyson Daniels to Trey Murphy the third, to Larry Nance Jr., these are all very, very quality.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: Even Najee Marshall, who doesn't play a ton, those are five quality players off your bench.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why when Zion misses some time, they can, for the most part, be okay.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: Brandon Ingram missed some time.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: They, for the most part, could be okay.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: Now, those dudes can't fill the shoes of the star players, but they have that depth.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: It'll be very easy for them to say, hey, Zion and Brandon Ingram, we ain't seen him in the playoff series just yet.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: I think when he says this, that they're not getting complacent, that it's time to get better.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: The only way in my mind you get better is you have to switch you have to switch up or make a decision between Brandon Ingram and Zion Williamson and try to optimize that asset.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: I think they're going to steer on Zion Williamson because he's a stud, he's a star, if he can say goddamn healthy.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: You saw that in the playing game.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: He had 40 points on LeBron James and Anthony Davis's head.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: He's that.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: I can understand why people be hesitant about that because, again, he cannot stay healthy.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: But Trey Murphy III has been so good.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: Y'all know how high I am on Trey, that I think that he has he has earned himself a starting spot.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: And if you keep Zion and Brandon Ingram together, that starting spot will never materialize.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: You're not taking Herb Jones out of the lineup for that.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: You can't take CJ out of the lineup for that unless you go completely all in on point Zion, which I personally am not completely against.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: But I do think it is time because I don't think these two dudes mesh well together.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: The on-off stats say that they're good.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: Like when Brandon Ingram and Zion are together, I think they're a plus 5.59 on the court.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: When all three of their players together, including CJ Brandon and Zion, they're negative.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: Like I don't, I don't know if a big three that's negative, that's a playoff tier.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: So they have to make some decisions.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: I think Jonas Valentinous is probably not back on his roster.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: I think guys like Val and guys like Nurkic, as we continue to see the game evolve, are gonna become more obsolete uh just be just because you can't really play them against some of the smaller lineups.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: And when the the team goes small, they're not punishing them enough.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: Like the OKC Thunder, they didn't play small, but they're a smaller team, right?
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: Chet is a buck 45 soaking wet.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: And Val had some good quarters.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: He had 11 points to start a game once upon a time.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: But guess what he did?
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: He gave up 12 because he was letting Chet shoot three pointers and stuff.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: Like he's just not the archetype of a center that exists in basketball and is effective in basketball.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: Unless you are a hub, one of the guys that the offense is running through, that archetype does not work anymore.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: So Val probably has to go and you probably want to bring in a guy that can hit some jump shots with some consistency or maybe just a straight up run protect.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: I like the idea of clax in there a little bit.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know how to get there.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: Again, I'm just spitballed, but I don't know how to get there, but it is refreshing to see their front office say, hey, we will not bring the same roster back.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_00: We will make some changes.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: Now, hopefully those changes are right.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: You know, every change you do is not gonna be a good one.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll see.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go to the Suns because the Suns one was even crazy.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: Where James Jones, uh, the guy that's orchestrated this team over the last five years or so, came to the podium of his ex interview and he said, Hey, nobody in Kevin O'Rant's career so far has been able to optimize around him.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: We think that we're in the best.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: This is not verbatim.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_00: We believe that we're in the best position to put Kevin in the best position.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: Huh?
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: What?
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: No team's been able to optimize him.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: Did you not see the 17 Warriors?
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: Now, yeah, that's the greatest constructive team of all time.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: But like you can't say no team has optimized him when he we he did that.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: That was the perfect two seasons for him.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: Even the year where they get to the conference finals and lose to the Golden State, eventual Golden State uh Warriors, the team he would sign to, they were up 3-1 or whatever, but that team optimized Kevin around.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they lost three games in a row at the end of series, but like that was a very great team.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: Even his championship team, like they were all super young.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, his uh his MVP team, they were they were super young, but they got the most out of Kevin.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: So for you to come to the podium and say nobody's been able to do it.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: I'm if I'm Kevin, I'm like, the hell?
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: I just gave you 28 points per game on some of the best efficiency of my life, and you saying that I'm not optimized yet?
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: What more can I do?
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: Just confuse him.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_00: And you know who's next up to the podium?
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: Matt Ishbia, the guy that made everything happen, the guy that traded Mikhail Bridges, Cam Johnson, DeAndre Aiden, Chris Paul, the guy that traded away Jake Rowder, the guy that traded away all the first round picks for the next five years.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: This is his exact quote.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: Ask the other 29 GMs, 26 of them would trade their whole team.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_00: For our whole team, our draft picks and everything.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_00: The house is not on fire.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_00: We're in a great position.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's not hard to fix.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: They also said that their starting lineup is coming back.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I talk about how Houston Norkins might be obsolete in the current basketball.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: Well, he's not.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_00: He's starting next season.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: Same thing with Grayson Allen.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: 20, if you ask the 29 GMs, 26 of them will switch teams with him.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: So that obviously that's delusion.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I was like, okay, what teams are he thinking about, the ones that would not switch positions with him?
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: I know that he definitely don't think that the Denver Nuggets will want to switch possessions with him.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: I definitely don't think he thinks that the Boston Celtics are going to switch possessions with him.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: So who's at 13?
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: Is it the OKC Thunder who have 17 first-round picks plus the number one seed this year and going into the second round matchup?
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: Is it the team that just beat you?
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: The team that's beat you, swept you.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: One of those two teams he thinks in his mind would switch rosters with him.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: Think about that.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: Do you think the Knicks are switching rosters with him?
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: Like, like it's delusing.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's delusion.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: I hey, I bet, I bet very good money that the San Antonio Spurs would not switch positions with him.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: If you trade a 15 for 15 in all the draft picks, the Spurs are like, nah, that's not enough for Wimby.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: He thinks that there's only three teams in basketball that wouldn't trade everything to be a team that have an untrade, a literal untradeable contract and no first-round draft picks until 2031.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_00: Does he mean that those teams would take that and then trade Devin to recoup some draft capital and trade Kevin to recoup some draft capital?
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if the house is on.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: He said the house is not on fire.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: I think I think the sparks, the sparks in the kitchen.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_00: Now, now will it spread throughout the entire house?
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: I don't really know yet.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: But that kitchen is flaming.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if he got a fire extinguisher under the sink or what, but it's it's very close to the house being completely on fire.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: But you know what's the the reason that scares me so much is because this is the guy that's gonna be in charge of the team for the next foreseeable future.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: He's not getting he's not leaving anytime, too.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: He's just got there two seasons a season and a half ago.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: So if he don't think that the house is on fire, if he says we're in a great position, I don't know how you let me go back to this top top list, right?
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: Devin Booker is the 11th best player in basketball according to the ringer.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: Kevin Runson, ninth best player of basketball.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_00: We have two of the top 11 players in basketball, and we didn't win a single playoff game this year.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: We're in a great position.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: We're in a great position.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_00: We have an untradeable contract.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_00: Don't worry, we're in a great position.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: This is not hard to fix.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_00: We'll see.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_00: We'll see.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's not hard to fix.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_00: We'll see.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: Because I don't know what else you could do if you have no tradable first-round picks, buddy.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_00: And you just told us that the starting lineup's coming back.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: So what are we moving?
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_00: How are we getting better?
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_00: You told us the starting lineup is coming back.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about the Miami Heat, who just got dominated um in every game except for the one that hit 23 uh threes.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_00: And it's such a hard team to really look at, honestly.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, for for most of my life, the Miami Heat have been this pillar of consistency from the weight years to uh let's let's forget about the non-weight years.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_00: From the weight years and then the next regime, they've only had a few seasons where they did not make the playoffs.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: They're always a team that's competing.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: They're so well coached.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_00: Eric Sposter's the best coach in basketball.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what happens next.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_00: I saw uh Dan Levitard, a guy that I really respect in this in this space, say that the 70s, the Celtics just closed the Jimmy Butler era.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think I believe that myself.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_00: I understand his talking points.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: I just don't think I agree.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason I don't agree is Jimmy Butler's up for an extension this season.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if I would give that if I'm Pat Riley.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_00: I think I would probably wait.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and maybe that rubs Jimmy the wrong way, whatever.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_00: But I still think there's one move to be done.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I've said this over the last couple of seasons for the Miami Heat.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_00: Hell, Tyler Hero's been in trade rumors since he signed his contract.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_00: Let's be real.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: I think there's still another trade to be done.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_00: I think this heat team is okay.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_00: I know they just got they lost in five.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: I think this heat team is okay.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, there was no Terry Rozier.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_00: There's no Duncan Robinson.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_00: Holly Hockey As was the last game of the season, no Jimmy Butler.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_00: But the last two seasons, this is a team that lost the most amount of games to entry, right?
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's a team that just was in the NBA Finals last year, and a year before that, they were the one seed.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that the team is decently, decently built on the foundation.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_00: But I there's still something missing.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I do believe that Tyler Hero might be the odd man ultimately.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't know how they go into this offseason after the last two years of not trading Tyler Hero and say that we're not doing it again.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't know who's even available, first of all.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_00: If the Cavs lose this series, maybe uh Donovan Mitchell becomes available, somebody.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: But I just feel like there's something else to be done.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_00: I actually saw on first take this morning, Yodannis Haslam said something that I said uh last year in the playoffs.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: Moving down uh moving Bamma de Bayo to the four.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: I've been saying it.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_00: I want it.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_00: I want to at least see it.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_00: I want to see some minutes of Bammabayo at the four position.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_00: Now I don't know who that guy is to come in and take that five position from him.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: But sometimes I feel like the heat just runs so small because Bam is what, six to eight, six, nine.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_00: He's one of the he's the most versatile defender in basketball to me.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why I'm not concerned about him moving over to the four position because he can guard one through five and switches.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_00: I I hate when people say somebody can guard one through five, but they can't do it for full game.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if I trust Bam to play a full game, a full series of him guarding a good one, a really good one.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: He can definitely hold his own.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_00: Don't get me wrong.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_00: But he can guard many, many positions.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_00: And we've seen his offensive game uh develop a little bit more, and he's actually taken some three-point shots toward the end of the season.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_00: I think that if you told him, Bam, we're gonna bring a big next alongside of you, we need you to focus on that jump shot a little bit more.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_00: I think he would.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_00: I think he has a good enough touch to be able to run the four position.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_00: So if we bring in somebody to run the four, again, I don't know who that is.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_00: I don't even think it has to be necessarily just an amazing guy that can run the four.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_00: I kind of just want somebody that can be a rim protector and let Bam kind of do similarly to what Giannis did his DPOY season, where Giannis was the best free safety in all of basketball.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_00: I think Bam Ataba has the potential to do that, right?
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_00: So just bringing another center, don't ask me who, but bringing another guy to let Bam have the opportunity to run some four.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_00: Not full time.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you're still gonna have a lot of lineups and a lot of minutes of Bam running the five, but just letting him uh run some four.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_00: I would love to see what their backcourt like I like the idea.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't know, I don't have the numbers to prove if this is a good lineup or not, but in my mind, the idea of a starting five of Rozier, who it just sucks that he had his injury right before the playoffs and everything.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_00: Rozier, Robinson, Butler, bam, center to be named, I feel good about that, right?
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_00: Or maybe it's something different.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's Tyler Hero getting traded for another wing and now uh Duncan Robson just coming off the bench again.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_00: I don't really know.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm not, I'm not ready to close the door on the Miami Heat just yet.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's premature.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if next year, if they don't do something this offseason, Pat Riley sleep at the wheel again, and they don't do something this offseason, and they continue to be the eighth seat, like you cannot go through the playing every year.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_00: It is exhausting.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_00: You did it once, and you were the best playing team of all time, but you can't do it time and time again.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_00: The last table I want to talk about today when it comes to elimination, and I know there's some more series to potentially talk about, but I'm gonna hold off on that um for the next episode because tomorrow, or I guess today as you're watching this, it could be the end of the Cast versus Magic slash Clippers versus Nuggets or uh uh Mavericks.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um the Bucs.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_00: The Bucs got eliminated today to the Pacers, and again, the Pacers played a great game.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_00: I I said this in the other podcast, I was giving superlatives and um kind of in like a jokey way, but I did uh it was a little grain of truth in there.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_00: The most feared man off the bench in basketball is not Malik Monk, it's not Nas Reed, it's TJ McConnell.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_00: And today he had 20.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_00: Obi Toppin had 21 bench production.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_00: I think that um one point they showed a graphic that the bench production was like 41 to 6 for the Bucs.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought that in game number four, game number five, the Bucs put up a really good fight without uh Dame and without Giannis.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, okay, this is this is really good.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_00: And then tonight, Dave comes back, he puts up 28 and everything, but they just they get ran off the court for the most part.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_00: And anytime it felt like Pacers' brand of basketball was being played, you just knew that the Bucs had no chance, and they just really didn't.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_00: They're the oldest team of basketball, they cannot run with Ty Reese, they cannot run with Aaron E.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_00: Smith and Obi Toppin catching lobs and all of this stuff.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_00: So shout out to the Pacers.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_00: First playoff win in forever.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like, this is why I want to say, Pacers fans, don't let nobody on Instagram, on Twitter, and all these places take away your your your win, your series win, because this is important.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_00: This is huge.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_00: It don't matter if the other team dealt with a ton of injuries.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_00: A win is a win.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_00: You can only play the team that's in front of you.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_00: So enjoy the next round versus the Knicks.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_00: And again, I'm gonna do some previews on that.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_00: But I do want to talk about the Bucks and their future because I don't, I don't think this is a failure of a season.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_00: I saw a tweet that was like, which, which was a big of a failure, this Bucks season versus the Sun season.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_00: I I don't even think they're on the same level.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't think it's close, if I'm being honest with you.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, well, because Giannis didn't play a single game in this series.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_00: The second, the third best player in basketball did not play a single second of this series.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_00: I can't call this a failure.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_00: I think that if Giannis plays this series, no disrespect, Pacers fan.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not taking this away from you.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_00: I think that the Pacers lose this series if Giannis plays.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_00: We'll never really know.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_00: We'll never really know.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_00: I know in the regular season the Pacers had their number.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_00: We'll never really know.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_00: I can't look at this and say this is a failure of a season.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_00: Now, there are a lot of things in this season that I do not like.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_00: Do not get me wrong.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_00: But I don't think this is a, oh my God, I hit the panic button.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_00: What Matt Ishmius say, uh, the house is not on fire.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think the house is gonna fire him at walk either.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_00: Unless Giannis walks to the front office and say, hey, I want to be traded, the house is not on fire.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_00: I thought Chris Middleton was great in this series.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_00: The only thing that scares me, the only thing that scares me about the Bucs and their potential to come back next season, because for the most part, I'm assuming that they're gonna come back, but they are not afraid.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_00: They showed us last year they're not afraid of trading one of their fan favorites if that means they can upgrade their roster.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_00: The thing that scares me is this team is getting older and older every year.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_00: The last two years, their playoff has been stunted, right?
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_00: First round exits.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_00: Last two years.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_00: Dame is 33, Middleton's 32, Giannis is 29, he's in the ripe age of 29, Perk Lopez is 36 years old.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's four of their five starters.
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_00: That is old, man.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_00: And every time you have a season that doesn't end the way you want it to end, that is a that is a loss season.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_00: Again, not a failure of a season, but a loss season in the grand scheme of your careers.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_00: Chris Middleton, Dane, Brooke Lopez, even not Giannis.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_00: Boston, not on Giannis.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_00: But these guys may not be the same players they were this year.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_00: And and it's not like Chris Middleton was this amazing player this year, at least until we got to the playoffs.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_00: But every single year you tack them to your career.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's just progression is not linear and regression is not linear either.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_00: But Father Time don't lose no battles, man.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_00: He just don't.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_00: So you bring back this roster, this core, and it's just old.
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_00: And you lost to a team, again, with no Giannis, but you lost to a young team that just plays this fast brand of basketball.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_00: I just don't love the idea of how old they are.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's all.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_00: That's all.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_00: I would they be what's the oldest NBA finals team?
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_00: Oldest, let's do some Googles on the fly.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_00: Oldest NBA team to to win a championship.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the 87-88, uh the 97-98 Bulls had an average age of 32 and some change.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_00: And that's weighted age, that's just like um the people that played real minutes.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_00: Like the uh Andre uh Ajax.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_00: Ajax is not changing the average weighted age because he plays a little bit, but he doesn't play enough.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, this is from a website that I can't pronounce.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_00: So I was gonna give it a shout out, but I can't.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the youngest team is the 77 Portland Trailblazers.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay, okay.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and of our life, our lifetime, the youngest team is the 2015 Warriors, and of our lifetime, the oldest team is the 2011 Dallas Mavericks.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_00: But if we do if I'm doing some math right here, 33 for Dane, 32 for Middleton, 29 for Giannis, 36 for um for Brooke, that weighted age is that weighted age is higher than the the 98 Bulls.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's not impossible.
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_00: Don't get me wrong, it's not impossible.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_00: But it just scares me a little bit.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so we'll see what what John Hors and them are drawing up.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_00: They've been a very uh progressive team trying to make the decisions earlier rather than later.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what those decisions are because even the last couple games of the series, Brooke Lopez looked great.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_00: You know, he decided to go back to New Jersey Nets Brook, or I guess Brooke, a little bit both, Brooke Lopez uh from Brooklyn, where it's like back to the basket.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna hit zero threes, but I'm gonna hit score 20 points.
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_00: And this guy had a back surgery, what, two years ago?
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_00: I thought he'll never look the same.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_00: And here he is looking good again.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so I don't think it's a failure of a season at all.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_00: If I'm ranking it one through 10, it's probably like a four, a three, maybe a three.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_00: A three is a failure.
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, if you enjoyed today's episode, leave it a like, um, subscribe to the channel, and let me know what you think about the playoffs so far.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we'll be back on Sunday night.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_00: And by that time, I think no matter what, every single series would be wrapped up.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, Saturday.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_00: We got game one of Minnesota versus whoo.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_00: All right, so next time we talk, we'll know every single matchup and we'll do some previews.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_00: I talk to y'all there.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_00: Peace.