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After the Buzzer: Post Lottery + Playoffs Round 2 · The Poi N Soy Podcast

• Keoni McKeague: Welcome back to the podcast. I'm the co-host Kiernan McKee again with me today on this episode of after the buzzers my boy from after the buzzer Jared's who I say was up to the pot Jared Shirai: What's up, I almost forgot what part it was Keoni McKeague: I almost forgot what podcast we were doing. A lot of editing. So I just threw myself off with that intro. But anyway, we are here to talk about some NBA basketball and we're here to talk about playoffs round two, including some, you know, good and bad games by some teams as well as the NBA lottery. We'll get to that in just a second. But before we do that, we have to give a shout out to our partners over at W Energy. Fantastic tasting energy. All of the energy you need to get through your day. Jared Shirai: hahahahah Keoni McKeague: You head on over to W.G.G. or use the W energy app in our promo code, which is boy and soy. That's P.O.I. and S.O.I. for 10 percent off your order book. Let's talk some NBA basketball. All right. You know, I was going to say I was like because before before we jumped on the pot, told Boog that like or I texted Boog like, hey, you want to record or whatever? And then it was like maybe 10, 15 minutes or whatever. But. Jared Shirai: Lazy duties. Keoni McKeague: Sometimes 10, 15 minutes, man, is all it takes for you to just get comfortable. And then you lay down, especially when you work overnight. was just like, I was getting in my bed. I'm like, hmm. And then all of a sudden, yeah. Then you texted me, and I was just like, hmm. Jared Shirai: Yep. have been waiting for this all night and it's just like, it just, comfort is. Keoni McKeague: I just got out of bed. was just like, I was just laughing because I was like, ⁓ my mind was just like, already relaxed already. I did. ⁓ I told Nolan I'll be taking magnesium like a magnesium drink to help me like sleep well and all that kind of stuff. But I hadn't recovered all that way. Anyway, sorry. This is not what we're here for. We do this. You know, that's technically part of why we do this podcast so we can, you know, keep up with our friends and Jared Shirai: slowly shutting down. Mm-hmm. We're here though now. Keoni McKeague: Make sure we check in on our mental health because that should be important. We don't have a sponsor for that I just thought I'd bring that up. But anyway Yeah, we do need that before we talk about any of the NBA playoff stuff We have to talk about the NBA lottery because that did just occur yesterday. The results are in and some Teams walked away big-time losers while other teams walked away, you know big-time winners. So Jared Shirai: We do need it though. Keoni McKeague: First and foremost, we're gonna kinda go through what the odds were. So looking at this lottery odds we had from top to bottom, the Washington Wizards with the number one overall best odds. The Indiana Pacers were at number two. Brooklyn, that's three. Utah Jazz, four. Sacramento Kings, five. Memphis Grizzlies at six. Atlanta Hawks via the New Orleans Pelicans at seven. Dallas Mavericks at eight. The Chicago Bulls at nine. The Milwaukee Bucks at 10. The Golden State Warriors at 11, the Oklahoma City Thunder via the Los Angeles Clippers at 12, the Miami Heat at 13, and the Charlotte Hornets at 14. ⁓ And these are the results. They did not pan out that way. And we had some big time swaps and big time drops. So first and foremost, the big time swap ended up going to both the ⁓ Chicago Bulls and the Utah Jazz, who ended up hopping up into You know, the top four picks, the Utah Jazz jumped up two spots while the Chicago Bulls jumped up five spots and as well as the Memphis Grizzlies. The Memphis Grizzlies also jumped up three spots. ⁓ So the lottery results were as follows. The Washington Wizards end up at one, Utah Jazz end up at two, the Memphis Grizzlies at three, the Chicago Bulls at four, the Clippers at five because the Indiana Pacers lost their pick because it fell out of the top four via that Ivica Zubac trade. Brooklyn net or excuse me. ⁓ yeah, actually the Brooklyn nets at six the Sacramento Kings at seven the Atlanta Hawks at eight the Dallas Mavericks at nine the Milwaukee Bucks at ten Golden State Warriors 11 Oklahoma City Thunder at 12 Miami Heat at 13 of Charlotte Horn. It's a 14 book. I Mean, there's a clear winner. There's a clear loser There's some clear, you know winners and losers and mix ins and all that sort of stuff first and foremost what was your initial reaction to the ⁓ to the Indiana Pacers falling out of the top four and losing their pick to the Los Angeles Clippers. Jared Shirai: Man, for an organization just trending downward, that just like added to it. I mean, the Zubot's trade kind of works out, would work out player wise, but to lose that pick as well in it, I mean, that just... Keoni McKeague: Yeah. Jared Shirai: sabotages the whole trade. mean, Zubosz we knew he's a good double-double guy. He's brought a lot because he did let Miles Turner go, kind of help fill the void. But then went to lose that pick in this draft. I mean, that's huge. Keoni McKeague: Yeah. Yeah. Jared Shirai: because you saw what they did this year without Halliburton with what they needed to shore up and hopefully it was going to be in that draft. And this year they just got snubbed because they fell out of the top four. ⁓ Making that trade probably one of the worst trades in the history of the NBA. It literally turned that trade completely around. Keoni McKeague: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And ironically, the Clippers who ended up stealing their pick were part of the other worst trade in NBA history with the Oklahoma city Thunder trade with SGA going over. ⁓ but I mean, they're also, you know, very lucky that that pick ended up falling out of the top four because like we said, Indiana had top two odds and then they ended up in, you know, in the fifth pick because of two guys jumping up. Jared Shirai: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Keoni McKeague: And then of course they lost their pick already to the Oklahoma City Thunder. So the odds of that happening, like them losing a 12th overall pick and then landing a fifth overall pick, like that's very, very, very lucky. Yeah, you know, to top all that, we have the Washington Wizards with the number one overall pick. Jared Shirai: Lucky. Keoni McKeague: You know, a lot of people are pointing the conspiracy theorists are out there. This is part of the Anthony Davis curse trade curse where, people trade for him or trade away from him and end up with the number one overall pick. Obviously they traded for, you know, damaged goods with Anthony Davis injured and never really actually wearing the uniform for the Washington Wizards. But, you know, they got Trey Young. They have some budding stars over there. Jared Shirai: Mm-hmm. Keoni McKeague: From their young squad in Alexander SAR as well as Bob Carrington as well as County George I mean they got that or is not County George. It's ⁓ Keyshawn. Yeah But yet so they have a to have a few guys that are just Popping off for them at the right time. They now have technically Anthony Davis who is a I want to say he's a restricted free and maybe maybe he's an unrestricted for agent. I can't remember Jared Shirai: Key Shun. Keoni McKeague: His exact contract details. But anyway, all that to say that they now have the first overall pick. Boog, what would you like to see them do here with the number one overall pick? Jared Shirai: Trade Trade Keoni McKeague: ⁓ really? Yeah. I was like that is a rumor out there that both them and the Utah Jazz who have number one and number two are interested in the possibility of trading back. If they do trade back, if they do trade away, what would you like to see them get if they are hoping to keep Anthony Davis? Jared Shirai: I I think if they do keep Anthony Davis, I would like to go see them get probably like unestablished to. Because you already have Alex R who is kind of holding that center row. Davis can play the four, right? Koulibaly's been kind of slated at that three. Keisha and George, I feel like he's a budding star, but he's not quite there yet. You kind of want a veteran out there that's going to play well alongside Trey Young. Not just from a scoring perspective, but from like, ⁓ you know, Trey, he don't play that much defense and he's smaller. So you kind of want that two-way guard. to come in and fill that role for them in that regard. Man, every time I think about two way guards, sometimes I think about like people like the KCPs would be a really nice fit here just to play that defense, that 3 and D and just kind of that blue culture guy, which I feel like this. Yeah, yeah. Keoni McKeague: Yeah. Yeah, but you're obviously not trading number one for him. Like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Jared Shirai: But at the same time, you're kind of thinking in certain ways ⁓ that's what you kind of want to go and get because you have other pieces, you have other assets that you could possibly use to get a veteran guard. And KCP got hurt last year, so it might be a little bit of an easier asking price for them in that regard. Yeah. Keoni McKeague: I was just saying, was like, you definitely don't need to give them a number one. I feel like you could give them a couple seconds for KCP. You don't gotta be trading that much for them. Yeah. Jared Shirai: But trading back to get a ⁓ youth star instead of... You see the conspiracy about it too, like, ⁓ if they stay at number one, number one's gonna go back to college, like... Keoni McKeague: Go. There's that that is an interesting fold about AJ DeBansa possibly withdrawing from the draft. I mean, firstly, I hate hearing that because again, similar to the Ace Bailey situation from last year, it's like. Your rookie player entering into the NBA, I don't understand these kids that are just so completely ungrateful to even be in the NBA. All they want to do is land with these like, ⁓ I want to land with the, you know. Jared Shirai: Yep. Keoni McKeague: LA Lakers or the freaking you know what I mean? Like it's crazy to me because I'm just like remember when people were just glad to be in the NBA now they have to land in like the the Golden State Warriors or the Oklahoma City Thunder like I was just like I mean suck it up you're making millions of dollars to play for whatever team chooses you so yeah I mean on the flip side of that to be completely honest I mean the the top like we've talked about this Jared Shirai: Yep. Keoni McKeague: draft before where this is like ⁓ a ⁓ four player race of like four guys that are supposed to be franchise changing. You have like a very deep draft. I would consider everything past the top four to be very serviceable and who knows? mean, I'm sure there's gonna be at least one star within that, within there because there always is somebody who shows out in the NBA, but the top four is supposed to be the... Jared Shirai: Yeah. Keoni McKeague: 100 % sure fire stars out of this draft and the Washington Wizards have you know kind of no particular need but I gotta say if they do stick to number one and they are interested in making the pick I would love to see them grab Darren Peterson like I know I know AJ DeBonsa is kind of like the number one guy here but what Darren Peterson could do for this team I know Keante George has been Jared Shirai: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Keoni McKeague: has been fantastic for them, all that sort of stuff. But I mean, regardless of if you grab a big or if you decide to keep Anthony Davis, I think Darren Peterson sort of fits the mold of somebody that can be like a three and D that you can slide in between both Trey Young and Anthony Davis. I'm not sure that that's going to happen. Who knows if Anthony Davis ultimately ends up wanting to stay here. He still has a year of contract eligibility with this team before he hits his player option. So. Yeah, it's going to be an interesting time for the Washington Wizards this offseason trying to convince their top overall pick targets to stay in the draft. Jared Shirai: mean for me too, like if they trade back, like I love that shout because I think Darren Peters here would be a great get for them. But man, even at two, I'd take somebody like Cameron Boozer just because like if you don't know ⁓ Davis's situation, right? You kind of have that safety net of like, ⁓ maybe he does want out. So we're out here, but we're going to find that youth that, like you said, the top four picks can be game changers in any organization. And I think Cameron Boozer would be one of them. Keoni McKeague: Yeah, no, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, agree wholeheartedly. Let's look at some of the other teams here. We got the Utah Jazz who ended up staying at number two. Danny Angel is being aggressive. Apparently, he has already stated that he is looking to trade back ⁓ with this number two overall pick. Who knows how much fire that has because as we kind of saw last year, believe, ⁓ they were looking at maybe trading away or trading up or whatever with their pick and nothing ended up really coming to fruition for that pick. Jared Shirai: Mm-hmm. Keoni McKeague: They ended up just ultimately selecting Ace Bailey. Boog, do you foresee them maybe moving out? You know, this is Danny Ainge we're talking about. So, you know, he's usually quite aggressive, but you kind of saw what the team had this year. They they I mean, they really have this really good core of players. have Larry marketing, Jaren Jackson, Jr. Walker, Kessler, Keontae George. mean, this I mean, oh, it is Keontae George, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was just I always mix up the two. Jared Shirai: They have QA, they have QA too, yeah. Keoni McKeague: ⁓ And they have Cali George. So really I mean as things sit right now if they were to sit at that pick and the number one overall pick is AJ to Bonsa and he doesn't try to you know wiggle his way out of number one because Technically speaking Darren Peterson slots in perfectly with this starting lineup I mean he slots in as your number two I mean that's quite literally exactly the type of player you need with this lineup, especially if you're gonna continue to roll out Jared Shirai: Yeah, he does. Keoni McKeague: Larry marketing at the three and then roll with this like kind of weird pseudo lineup of ⁓ the three bigs of him, Jared Jackson Jr. and Walker Kessler. Thoughts, opinions if they don't stay at the pick, what do want to see them do with it? Where you out the Utah Jazz? Jared Shirai: ⁓ For me, we always talk about Danny Ainge and how great he is when it comes to these kind of things. If they don't stay at the second pick ⁓ taking that, would say I would love for them to trade back because you know them, they're so good at trading back for assets. And from there, literally moving on and moving forward with everything because there's going to be that one draft class that is like, okay, we finally made Keoni McKeague: Yeah. Jared Shirai: good decisions for. We saved all these picks. This is where we're going to not just hit the rebuild, but because they're finding a good core that's finally playing together. I mean, a requirement of Jaren Jackson, Ace Bailey kind of coming into his own. And then the core just kind of staying together. Kessler just holding it down as well in that center spot, like we were hoping that he was going to do. ⁓ I wouldn't mind them trading back. ⁓ Keoni McKeague: Yeah. Jared Shirai: Even if they trade out of the top 5, top 10, just for assets because we know there are going to be organizations that literally want to get into that second pick or somewhere in the top 4. Because like you said, those top 4 players are just game changing for any organization. So for me, I would love for them to, if they can't get what they want, then might as well trade out of it and make sure you're getting the greatest deal for it as they move forward because... The more assets that they have, the more dangerous that makes Danny age, which makes it easier for him to bring in bigger, talent to trade away. Keoni McKeague: Yeah, I agree wholeheartedly. And, know, I'll kind of swing this into one of the other teams here that is a big winner from the NBA lottery. And that is the Chicago Bulls. Like, for instance, if the Chicago Bulls were super interested in moving up ahead of the Grizzlies because they feel like they're not going to get the guy that they want to get. I'm not sure who that is. ⁓ My personal preference is, I mean, really, I actually. Jared Shirai: Mm-hmm Keoni McKeague: Honestly, I don't like I as I look more into it and thought about it more. I'm like, I really don't have a preference of the top four. I wouldn't. mean, we kind of need everything. So really anybody following to us would be pretty lucky. But if they, for instance, if they really wanted a Darren Peterson or if they really wanted Cameron Boozer, who might be the guy who ends up getting picked right before them or whatever it might be, I think. Jared Shirai: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Keoni McKeague: That could be a situation where the Utah Jazz do trade back. They might still end up getting one of the top four guys or not. They might still they'll definitely still end up getting one of the top four guys and they might bring in like a, you know, useful asset. Maybe it's one of the young random players on the Chicago Bulls or maybe it's, you know, another pick. Hopefully it's not the pick 15 because I would hate for us to move up using both first round picks to do so. Yeah, I was like. Jared Shirai: Both picks, yeah. Keoni McKeague: I'd much rather it be like a couple of seconds or a future pick or something like that. know, all things told, I don't really want Chicago to do that. But I'm just saying this is that's one of the worlds that we could be living in, especially with them getting a new GM. If he wants to hit it out of the park, you know, maybe that's what he does and moves up two slots to pick the guy that he really, really wants. But all things told, I think the Utah Jazz, I mean, big time winners, they already have a really, really good roster. Jared Shirai: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Keoni McKeague: whether they select or they move back. I mean, they're going to end up ultimately getting something that they really, really need or, you know, really, really want. And. Yeah, and I trust Danny Ainge to make the right move when it comes to how he can build his team. The number three kind of big winner, obviously, we're looking here is the third pick with the Memphis Grizzlies who ended up jumping up three spots book. You know, this is a team that's kind of a turmoil, right? They traded away. Jaren Jackson, Jr. There to star guy in John Moran is causing a lot of headaches. Jared Shirai: Something's gonna really add to the dad to them as well Mm-hmm. Keoni McKeague: They did bring in a few young assets this last year for throughout the last couple of drafts in fact to sort of build around. Of course, you got Zach Eadie there. This is a whole completely different new team organization. Everything there, you know, basically starting over from scratch. What do you want to see them do? Do you foresee them maybe trying to move up or would you rather them just kind of sit, pat, take whatever star falls to them and continue building that way? Jared Shirai: Sorry. I would like to see them actually move up. Like just the one pick. I would like them to go get Darren. I think this is a team that would benefit from Darren Peterson, especially with the whole Jamarand thing moving on. Like you want a guard that you can build around for the future. Like you said, you got Zach Eady, you got your big, right? They have Santi Alza Aldama and like Jalen Wells and KCP and Taj Roemer are still there like for veteran pieces. But you kind of want that back court like. Keoni McKeague: Yeah. Yeah. Jared Shirai: Firepower, I guess you would say if they decide to move on from jump around with all the rumors of the Chaos he's been causing I guess you with I guess that's the best way to put it Yeah, so if they move up one, I would love to see them go get a player like that If they stay, I mean, what would it be Caleb Wilson and Kevin Boozer? Probably one of them which is not a bad Keoni McKeague: Yeah, I wonder too, yeah. Jared Shirai: a bad secondary pick. But I think for me personally, like they moved on to Desmond being bigger, better things for him when he went to the magic, right? We talked about how we had same thing with Jared Jackson Jr. They moved on from that. They want to go younger in that regard. And that's fine. But I mean, and they put all their eggs in this basket for John Moran, who's kind of been ⁓ a bad piece for you or even a bad look for the Memphis Grizzlies. Exactly. like, why not just either trade him away. Excuse me. A, trade him away or B, like just say, hey, if you're not going to be that guy, that's fine. You don't have to play. It's not like you've been playing anyway. We're just going to bring it. We're going to trade up bringing this young kid in who wants to work, who wants to be a part of the NBA, who wants to be grateful for the opportunity. Keoni McKeague: No big time headache piece. Yeah. 100 % Yeah. No, really though, yeah. Jared Shirai: and build around that moving forward. So for me, I would love to see them move out. I think it would be a better piece for them than just selling for another Ford. I think they do need that backcourt of the future that they're looking for and it would be Darren. Keoni McKeague: Yeah, yeah, I'd agree. was like, honestly, you know, it's funny. The other thing that I could see them possibly doing as we're talking about them being at pick three is maybe looking at a trade that sends John Moran somewhere if they can if they can entice one of these like maybe not the beginning part of the lottery, maybe like the end part of the lottery, like the picks 10 to 14 of like guys who are like just at the cusp of competing this last year. If you can if you can convince one of them to give up one of those picks for John Moran, I mean. You look at the Bucks who possibly could need somebody if they do end up keeping Yanis. I know there's lot of rumors around them trading Yanis, but we've kind of seen that play out already a couple years in a row here now. But yeah, mean, if you John Moran is somebody that the Warriors are looking at it, if John Moran is somebody that the Heat are looking at, I mean, there's a few landing spots. Jared Shirai: Yeah. I would say, yeah, you said it perfectly. I Miami. I think Miami. Keoni McKeague: Nah, yeah, I- Because that is a place where he could definitely build sort of this, you know, one-two dynamic with him and Bam out of bio. Yeah. Jared Shirai: Him, him, Bam, Tyler Hero, like that's that's a good three headed horse right there. Keoni McKeague: Yeah, I was like, definitely some some interesting food for thought. think they could definitely. But they're winning just by moving up those three spots and landing themselves in the top of the lottery with, you know, these just franchise changers. So and then, of course, one of the other big winners was, of course, the Chicago Bulls. They move up from pick nine to pick four. Finally, it's the first time in how many ever years that they were able to finally move up. ⁓ As we've kind of seen the last couple of years, know, with them losing ⁓ coin flips and or whatever they want to call it for the tiebreakers. But anyway, the Chicago Bulls move up into the top four. Bug, what do you want to see for the Chicago Bulls here landing in the top four of the lottery? Jared Shirai: ⁓ There's two things so I would love to see you guys move up and because you guys got rid of like the Kobe White decides to stick with Josh Gideon and whatnot things like that I wouldn't mind you guys getting Darren Pearson to fill that guard role and kind of step into that but that's other thing if you guys stay at four and they don't take him I would love to see Kevin Boozer be here because of the whole Carlos Boozer thing like I think it's just such a great family like full circle moment here I also think he'll bring a lot to you guys as far as offensively and defensively ⁓ he's kind of a ready to go Keoni McKeague: Yeah. Yeah. Jared Shirai: that that can you guys can already establish into it the only thing I don't know how him and modest will play alongside each other like that's the one big worry for me with you guys ⁓ they might keep it with the three so don't move that yeah I mean yeah Keoni McKeague: Yeah, supposedly they want to keep him honest at the three. he's just going to be the. Yeah, he's just going to be this 610 small forward for. I mean, which is understandable, he's super athletic, I mean, with the way he can run up and down the court. So I ain't surprised at all that that's the case. Yeah. Jared Shirai: Not too bad about that, but for me, those are like the two things though. Like I mean, I think, like you said, ⁓ you guys being in the top four is one of the best things because A, you weren't technically really supposed to be there and B, any one of these four players, whether they decide to stay, go, whatever, I think any one of them slot into your team really well. Keoni McKeague: Yeah. Jared Shirai: and can hit the ground running to add and not just take time to develop. I think these guys are all ready to just jump into a lineup, make some kind of impact. It's not going to be the most game changing impact, but it's like they'll bring something to the team that can already be established and just buy into the system and moving forward. So whether you guys move up or stay, like I think you guys, whoever falls to you, one of the four will be amazing. I don't really care who the four are, but mean, heart front wise, of course, it's going to be Boozer. Back court wise, mean, it's got to be Peterson, right? Because he's that guy. But any one of the four names, I would say is good. They're good for you. Keoni McKeague: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I'm not I'm not gonna lie. I hope they stay Pat. mean, I don't want to see especially because we're kind of at the beginning stages of this new rebuild, right? We have a new regime. They just got rid of the GM ⁓ and the president of operations here. They started off started over with our new, you know, president of operations, which is Bryson Graham, who, as of right now has been just night and day from ⁓ our tourist kind of Soviets. Jared Shirai: Yeah. Keoni McKeague: Just a lot more charming better at kind of speaking with everybody giving just great answers for every question that people have most importantly somebody who has established relationships all around the league so With that said us landing in the top of the lottery. I mean I low-key kind of Predicted it because I did say there was like a little bit of a you know rumor conspiracy theory regarding Jared Shirai: you Keoni McKeague: How Adam Silver feels about certain teams and them landing? I mean if you look at like the Sacramento Kings for instance They've had like top odds to land top picks how many years in a row and then yet they still can't land up there and supposedly there's like a rumor that like Specifically like big market teams like we saw Dallas win the number one overall pick last year after winning the tiebreaker with the Chicago Bulls which was just this whole string of like Hmm. That's a little fishy Similar with the Chicago Bulls they get a brand new GM in here and all of a sudden we jump up for the first time in how many years even though we've had the odds to land a top pick for forever, but all that to say that you know, I kind of hope they just Let the process, know play out the way it should play out Like I don't need to see them be super aggressive this offseason We're not you know going super far in the east right off the rip Jared Shirai: You Keoni McKeague: I do think that there's still some wrinkles to be had. There's a lot of rumors around whether or not Josh Giddy even remains on this team. ⁓ So that'll be another interesting wrinkle to this entire situation of if they trade him ⁓ because apparently that's not somebody that fits the mold of what Bryson Graham looks for in team building. If that does happen, that's a whole nother like, okay, hopefully we do land like a Darren Peterson. ⁓ If not, and we do end up rolling out with this sort of dual of ⁓ Josh Giddy and Modest Muzelas. I would just love to see anybody land here. And honestly, all four talents are special. All four talents that land here. Either way, I'm more than happy with ⁓ us, just us moving up and maybe us grabbing a center, somebody that falls to us at pick 15 ⁓ later on down the road. So anyway, the final winner and the final team we're going to talk about here before we move on is the Los Angeles Clippers. They moved up. Jared Shirai: Mm-hmm. Keoni McKeague: ⁓ Into the lottery now because the Indiana Pacers fell out of the top four which was just wild to see Boog They traded away Vika Zubach, but as we kind of talked about off pod there's sort of this like New regime new change, but all things positive for the Los Angeles Clippers I mean, you know, they got a little bit lucky with this one, but you know trading away Vika Zubach ultimately netted them the number five overall pick they also traded for both Darius Garland and ⁓ Benedict Matheran during the trade deadline. also got who was the big in that trade was not Isaiah Jackson was Isaiah Jackson. OK, I was like they also got Isaiah Jackson in that tree. I mean, there's just a just a litany of young talent being added to the Clippers. We've talked about them for years being just this old, just well past its prime sort of compilation of players, not. Jared Shirai: I think it was Isaiah Jackson. Keoni McKeague: Not quite lettered because quite learned still amazing when he's on the floor. you know, one of those just injury prone all the time, need to figure things out sort of team. So now they're moving in the right direction. What do you want to see with them at pick five? Do you I mean, is there a type, an archetype of player that you'd like to see them grab here at pick five? Jared Shirai: I kind of want them to find a, like, go get a big. Like, I find a center. You know, they got Brooke Lopez, John Collins. Collins can always play the four two if needed, right, with Derek Jones Jr. But you kind of want a five that kind of plays like how Zubac did. Just because that was a void that you filled, right? Somebody who's going to be in the paint. Keoni McKeague: Yeah. Jared Shirai: cause congestion, whether it's on the defensive side of the ball or even the scoring part of the ball, like be able to bang in the post and literally take whatever comes, just to spread the floor for them. For me, that's kind of what they're missing. They have all these like slashing guards and whatnot, but you don't have that inside post present. Cause I mean like. a brick Lopez. wants to stretch the floor now, right? He wants to shoot that three ball. Derek Jones. Yes, he's ⁓ athletic high flyer, but he's not one that I'm going to say, hey, let's put the ball in the post, kind of like Julius Randall would be, you know, like throw it in there and just let him let him work in the post and then spread the floor, cause a double or whatnot. But so for me, I would love to go see them that that that type of player is the center just because you still have the Kawhi Leonard. You still have like the Garland's. He said you bring in the kind of youth of talent. Keoni McKeague: Yeah Jared Shirai: but I feel like their bigs is kind of where it falls off for me. Keoni McKeague: Yeah, you know, it's funny. This is kind of an interesting draft because they are deep. It's a deep draft in the positions that they don't really need, which is the guard positions, right? ⁓ Because you already have Benedict Mather in and Darius Garland, who I feel is a really good, you know, building block back court for your future. ⁓ And I do agree that there should be a big here. They probably would have to reach. So I feel like the. Jared Shirai: beer. Keoni McKeague: In a way, it almost would benefit them to maybe trade back because it would be weird if they do select one of the bigs this early in the draft considering it'd be like considered a kind of a reach for them. If they do reach, if they do trade back to somebody, ⁓ even even hotter take like if you could somehow I'm just putting this out there and there's no, you know, there's no like. ⁓ Jared Shirai: Yep. Keoni McKeague: Rumored report or anything for this in any way shape or form But I was like if you could somehow convince like the Milwaukee Bucks to let go of Yanis for that number five overall pick and You know some salary filler whether or not that's like a Benedict Matheran or something I mean I'm just saying you should at least try because You still have koi Leonard and kind of in that weird point where you're like well We have new pieces, but we also still have koi Leonard so it's like unless you can find a way to trade away Jared Shirai: Mm-hmm. Keoni McKeague: why Leonard and know recoup even more assets. ⁓ The other guy I would say that I would like to see them try to grab if they are going to stand pad if they are going to look for a big I do really like I believe his name is my gosh I just forgot a die Mara. ⁓ He's a die Mara. Yeah. Michigan. Yeah. Michigan center. ⁓ There's just a lot of I mean obviously. Jared Shirai: Michigan. Yeah, the Michigan Center. Keoni McKeague: When you look at kind of how he plays and what he's known for, there's a lot of sort of that Nikola Jokic vibes when you look at him and the way he plays. He's a big man that has fantastic vision, can pass the ball. He's a rim deter type of guy, not super athletic. Right now, not known for his shooting. So very, very similar to Jokic coming out of ⁓ not college. I mean, coming into the NBA. ⁓ Jared Shirai: Coming into them, Keoni McKeague: I'm not saying he is him, you know what mean? That's a lot to lot on anybody, especially since, you know, a lot of people consider that Jokic to be the best player in the NBA right now. Jared Shirai: Hehehe Keoni McKeague: This kid has a lot of the tools. He's very long, has great vision, very good at passing, can be that sort of post guy, whatever, whatever you need him to be as far as like a playmaker and that sort of stuff, your kind of pivot guy. If they can find a way to not pick him at five, I feel like that'd be better for them if they could somehow find a way to trade back, gain a little bit more assets. Maybe it's with the Kings, because you know the Kings are desperately looking for a way to move up and try to. figure out new ways to acquire more talent. ⁓ I'm also looking at, you know, some of the other teams here we got even like the Hawks could possibly want to move up the Mavericks. mean, this is more than a few teams that probably would be looking at them. I don't see them having a need that they can't fill with like a pick nine as opposed to a pick five. Like it would feel more like a stretch if they try to grab whoever. ⁓ Jared Shirai: Mm-hmm, the maths. Yeah. Keoni McKeague: they want to grab at pick five because truthfully, five through nine are basically projected to be guards. So kind of one of those things where it's like. Jared Shirai: Yeah. And that's why like, and Mara is kind of said to be like picked 14, so you could get away with being like somewhere eight, nine, 10, and still kind of drafted in the right area and still acquire assets in that regard. So I like that. I 100 % agree with that. Keoni McKeague: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. 100%. Yeah, I was like, yeah. anyway, you know, there are a couple of other teams here in the lottery that probably would be interesting to talk about, but we do want to talk about the NBA playoffs. So I mean, let's do somebody. Is there anybody you want a quick hit on from the end of the lottery? I know there's there's a few like obviously the Bucks are there's a lot of interest around the possibility of trading Yonis the Golden State Warriors. We already know they did resign Steve Kerr. that is news. They did resign him to a two year extension. So he will be here. But the notion coming out of the Golden State Warriors camp is that they will be looking to build around Steph Curry. They didn't say Steph Curry and Draymond. They just said Steph Curry. They didn't include Jimmy Butler, just Steph Curry. So there are a ton of possibilities of players that could be moved, that could be traded. know Christoph Spurzingis is a free agent this offseason, so they don't technically have him on the roster. Jared Shirai: Mm-hmm. Keoni McKeague: A lot of different things that could happen with that team. The Thunder, we already know right now they're the number one team in the damn playoffs and they look like the number one team in the playoffs and on top of that they might not even need pick 12. You know what I mean? Honestly, they're probably still drafted because that's the way the Thunder are building right now. Just grabbing young talent and adding to a room of crazy young talent. But Boog, anybody else you want to hit on here? Go ahead. Let us have it. Jared Shirai: Yep. They could trade away with Big 12 if they want. Mm-hmm. I mean, for me, it was like the teams that you talked about the bucks looking to see what they can do, whether they're the honest trade and trading up looking for that nice young talent Golden State, if they are building around that ⁓ man, like this is kind of the the way to do it in this draft, in my opinion, just because you are guard heavy. So you want that running mate for him. I don't think Pudge jumps. He's that guy. ⁓ He's good when Steph's not there when Steph's there like It's I feel like he's useless. He's just another glorified six to eight eighth man on on that roster. So to move past that. ⁓ And like you said, they don't have they want to build around Steph and Steph doesn't have very many years left. So some way to pass the torch to for me is would be would be great for them. I think this is like you said, guard heavy draft where you can kind of get that kid now. mold him to be the ⁓ next Steph Curry, but more than to understand what it what this organization is and like. how the team runs and the chemistry and culture that you're building and then move on from there. And then for me, I think it's Charlotte, because Charlotte is like one of those teams that is kind of a sleeper at the end of the last year. Like they had a really good draft with Khan last year, right? And they're all kind of finding good chemistry because Lamelo is a little healthier. They traded for Kobe White, like all these little things that's adding. I think if you keep adding this nice young talent to it, they could be a team that gets to either get somebody at 14 or they move up in the draft list of a few picks to see what they what what part Keoni McKeague: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Jared Shirai: they want to fill. Who knows, maybe they even steal a Mara in this regard too because they could use another big center out there, not just to facilitate but to just have that presence and defer the heart of the court. Keoni McKeague: Yeah, kind of watching what they did this this season, especially to that. That Charlotte Hornet squad was much improved. A lot of good scoring coming out of them. And obviously, when you have the guy who was runner up for rookie of the year, I mean, kind of feels like you definitely are destined for some great things in the future. I agree with you hardly, especially with the Warriors. That's, you know, it'd be interesting because I feel like there are only so few teams that are going to really want like a Jimmy Butler or a dream on green. Jared Shirai: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Keoni McKeague: With that said, if you do find a team that has, you know, somebody you feel like could, you know. be number two to Steph on this team in a better fit kind of fashion and you could find somebody like that that would want to make that trade. mean, I would do that in a heartbeat. You know what I mean? Even if it costs you the 11th pick, I just feel like the window for this team is now you don't have to. You're not waiting for later. You still have Steph Curry in what is still considered to be his prime like. Jared Shirai: Yeah. Yeah. Keoni McKeague: you do everything you can to make sure that you can build a contender around that man. And yeah, I'd be very interested to see like if they do end up ultimately trying to move off of some of those guys. I don't know who, but it does feel like it has to be Jimmy or Draymond. yeah, I don't even know who they would best fit with, but that would be some interesting stuff to be looking at during this off season. ⁓ Anyway, with that said, Jared Shirai: Yeah. Keoni McKeague: We talked about all the losers. Let's talk about some of the winners because these are the teams that are currently in the playoffs and, battling for. Well, some of them are still battling. We already had one that did end already. I'm not sure where we were. We just that late or was it already in the middle of the series is that way? OK, it was already going. Also, we just missed we missed the sweep for this New York Knicks squad, so. Jared Shirai: was only game one. Everybody played their game ones when we started it. Yeah. Keoni McKeague: We'll start there. The New York Knicks defeat the Philadelphia 76ers 4-0. I mean, there's really no competition. They win this last one by 30 points. ⁓ We did have the sort of the sweet moment of post post battle where Joel Embiid had his son in his arms and was kind of like, you know, at the end of the day, this was a win because he got to be there and be healthy and play at the end of the series, even though they lost ultimately. Book. Thoughts, opinions, what did you see that you liked out of the Knicks and what do you kind of see that the 76ers may need to be working on this offseason? Jared Shirai: I mean, for me with the Knicks, happy they're moving forward. I think this is a way more well-balanced team. ⁓ Everybody's scoring. The minutes aren't like crazy, so they're all fresh and healthy. Like we talked about last year, ⁓ that probably could have been them again last year if they just like minimize minutes here and there from all their stars rather than running them out for 40, 40 plus every single game. And this is the result of it, know, Jaylen Brunson has himself a series like how he Keoni McKeague: Yeah. Jared Shirai: expected to cat filling in and then look you kind of look at like game four game four here all their stars in double digits and the minutes are spread I know they won by 30 but still like the efficiency that they're doing things at whether they're shooting or they're playing defense I'd like more team ball I think that's one of the biggest things they're playing with that that scrap and that chip on their shoulder that we were there last year we ran out of gas this year we're still like half tank three-quarter tank still it's still there for us keep going. And this this week's going to help them because I mean, if you look at the other side of it, Detroit's up on The Cavs 2-1 right now, they play their fourth game today. So they still got a bunch of series to go. So the Knicks have some time to recover, get through it, get to film, whatever. And kind of just have spa days where they can take care of their body over anything else. ⁓ The only hard part is like when you get too much rest, that's where like the game speed kind of gets away from you. But I'm sure they'll be fine. ⁓ Like we said, the healthiness of this team is the reason why they're going far. Keoni McKeague: Yeah. Jared Shirai: And just flip it over to the sixer side. I mean, for me, it's like, yes, and B did and B didn't play all the games, He said, right. He sat out. He sat out a few. What is he played one, three and four? And so for me, it's like when you look at this team, though. Keoni McKeague: No, he did not. No. Yeah. Jared Shirai: The way Edgecomb has stepped up into that two guard role, ⁓ the way he comes out, and I think that's going to be a budding superstar for them. ⁓ alongside Maxey, which takes the a little bit off of Joel Embiid. So he doesn't need to do as much, ⁓ Paul George, same thing, you know, we know Paul George is getting ordered or the career he could have had despite the injury, but he still shows flashes of it. I just don't think he's that third option guy anymore. He's probably their fourth, fifth option. I was like, when you kind of look at it now, which is not a bad thing for him. He just got it. think they have to understand how to utilize him a little more because he still can't shoot the ball. He still can. He still can score. Keoni McKeague: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Jared Shirai: to his spots, but it's like when you're focused with all the Maxi, Edgecombe, and Joelle, like what are you going to do in that regard? So for me moving forward with them, I think there's a bright future. ⁓ Seeing how they can take to the next level is going to be the biggest question mark because I think a lot of that always doesn't... Involve Joel and beads health. I'm not gonna play it back-to-back or you know how to how to play without him Rather than rely on him so much as their quote-unquote superstar I think that's the biggest thing whether it's I don't think it's moving off from him. It's just ⁓ restructuring roles and prioritizing The importance of different different players in different situations. I think for me, that's one of the biggest things Keoni McKeague: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you know, they obviously do not go this far without sort of the young group that they have with Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgeco, kind of leading the way. It'd be very interesting to see if they try to like, let's see what we look like with a regular season or with an off season and us being fully healthy and try to run it back next year. I kind of foresee them being proactive and maybe Jared Shirai: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Keoni McKeague: trying to get in on some of the other like you know there's there's rumors around Jaylen Brown and Jason Tatum there's rumors around ⁓ Yannis Santenta-Cumpo there's rumors around even Kawhi Leonard like there's there's more than a few players that are out there that could be had or could be traded for that you know might look more appealing on this team than they do on their current ones I just don't see them standing Pat but you know if they do stand Pat cool but I'm also under the impression that like Jared Shirai: Mm-hmm. Keoni McKeague: I don't know that they get any better than this finish this year. You know what I mean? Like I don't foresee health just being the number one thing that, you know, skyrockets them up the rankings because as we already know between the health situation of both PG and JoyLimpede and sort of the lackluster production in the playoffs as of late for both of them, it does feel like, I don't know. I don't know. Jared Shirai: Yeah. Keoni McKeague: Maybe they should try to take the big swing and move for somebody else. I would personally love to see a Jalen Brown land here, but not sure how realistic that is. But if they do say, for instance, want to move off of like Joel Embiid and it's a Joel Embiid for Jalen Brown swap sort of situation. Maybe they throw in a pick or whatever to make it work that way. Personally, I feel like Joel Embiid might be better for the Celtics than Jalen Brown, especially with the way that situation has played out in the last couple of years. Jared Shirai: Mm-hmm. Keoni McKeague: And, you know, adding Jalen Brown as the dynamic three guy for this team. I mean, that could be some pretty crazy stuff for the Philadelphia 76ers and project and their trajectory would change drastically. So ⁓ anyway, let's look over at the Pistons and the Cavaliers. This is, know, now the Detroit. How's this to Detroit Lions, the Detroit Pistons ⁓ now lead the series two to one with the Cavaliers taking the last game behind some, you know, Jared Shirai: Hahaha Keoni McKeague: Late game heroics out of James Harden. You know, hit that big three at the end of the game that basically won them this one. ⁓ And now they're heading into game four with some momentum, book, thoughts, opinions. I mean, do you think that ultimately the Pistons do end up winning this one or do you think the Cavs can make a big comeback here? Jared Shirai: and For me, think the Pistons ultimately should win this series. I really do. For me, a lot of it for them is that the grind. The grind. For me, them losing this game, yes, James Harding hits a big shot, but also, know Cleveland's not the easiest place to play in as well with their fan base and whatnot, especially with being down 0-2. ⁓ and having players like Donovan Mitchell go off for 35, James Harden being there before like in the capability of hitting big shots like this is kind of what you wanted and needed the Cleveland Stars to do and they stepped up and rose to the occasion. At the end of the day, is it going to be enough because you're literally fighting a team on the other side that anybody scores, everybody scores. Yes, Cade Cunningham does a lot for them, scores a lot, but there are other weapons there that produce whereas like Keoni McKeague: Yeah. Yeah. Jared Shirai: With this team, you're literally looking at James Harden and Dennis. I'm sorry. I just saw Dennis Schroeder. That's why. But Donovan Mitchell, Donovan Mitchell to do everything for them. Like you have some pieces here and there, but their pieces aren't, I would say, as big in clutch moments. To get them through the like this playoff series. So I think I think Detroit wins the series ultimately. ⁓ Keoni McKeague: Yeah. Yeah. No, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you know, I think sort of the defensive identity that they had a couple years back has been kind of lost. ⁓ Ironically, I thought that they might be sort of this defensive juggernaut heading into the playoffs because they still had Jared Allen, they still had Evan Mobley, but you know, maybe losing Deandre Hunter and Isaac Okoro and sort of your other big defensive pieces was a bigger deal than they thought it might be. And maybe they gave up on the Darius Garland experiment a little bit too early. Jared Shirai: I think they're going to win game four. That's what I'm going to do. Mm-hmm. Keoni McKeague: I mean, maybe that last one was that one was probably not as important because I do feel like the introduction of Darius or sorry, the loss of Darius Garland was sort of just the loss of redundancy and the loss of like having another small, no defense kind of guard. Yeah, personally with the Cavaliers, I just don't think that they have enough as currently constructed. mean, James Harden is still solid, but you know, he's not a number one and he we've seen him this entire career like it's not going to change at the tail end of his career that he's going to suddenly become this guy that just is mega clutch and wins them this playoff series. So personally, I feel like the the attack of the Detroit Pistons again, what you said, the ferocity. mean, I just I disagree wholeheartedly. The Detroit Pistons are going to take this one ⁓ maybe in five, maybe six. I don't know. Who knows? Jared Shirai: Five or six, I would say. Keoni McKeague: Yeah, I was like, maybe the Cavaliers tie this next one and then we have, you know, they have to go back to back in the next two. But anyway, let's move over to the Timberwolves and the Spurs. This one is becoming a series, you know, a rivalry that is definitely budding with the series now tied two to two behind some late game antics from Anthony Edwards. And then, of course, with the ejection of Victor Wemba Nyama during this one with that just crazy elbow to Nas Reed, which I know followed some dirty plays by Nas Reed, but I was like, that was like some just UFC type ish. Like he swung back. He cocked that thing back. That was like Draymond Green or whatever from that. I forgot what series or what player he hit, but I was just like. Jared Shirai: Yeah, that was a wild elbow. ⁓ did he hit James Harden? Was it James Harden? Was it? That's understood. And he just like, the rocket, what is the rocket's one? And then he just like fully, yeah. Keoni McKeague: was it James Harden? Yeah, fake celebration, yeah, or whatever, yeah. All that to say that we had him, we'll see if he gets to play in game five because there's already word that it could end up being something bigger because it ended in a flagrant two foul for him during this game. Oh, he did avoid this, oh, so that already happened, already, gotcha. Jared Shirai: I think it says avoid suspension while playing game five. that they're seeing, yeah. Keoni McKeague: Yeah, of course they did because it's Victor Wiminyama, but whatever. Whatever league. We're not you're not bias or anything. That was a pretty like vicious elbow. I'm just saying like like the standards are ridiculous. Like, oh, now all of a sudden you guys don't need to sit Victor Wiminyama. But ultimately that would probably swing the series. So from that standpoint, I don't want to see it. But from the. Jared Shirai: Yeah. It has a pretty brutal elbow. It has a pretty brutal elbow. I saw it. Mm-hmm. Keoni McKeague: just like the league needing to have some standards that definitely is a little sus. anyway, yeah, ultimately they tied this up. Now it's series two to two, book, thoughts, opinions. Who do you have winning this one and what do you see kind of being the X-Rector for them? Jared Shirai: I mean, I think the X Factor is evident. It is Wemby. If Wemby's there, think you kind of watch how the game... I was very fortunate. We went to eat last night and they had the second half of the game on. And I think I was like ending on the third ish going into the fourth. And you could kind of see the... Keoni McKeague: Mm-hmm. Jared Shirai: San Antonio tried to hold on to the lead as best as possible in the third because behind the iron fox behind Dylan Harper hitting some big shots. But the biggest the biggest thing was when Wembe's not there, they were asking coordinate to do a lot. Cornet was a block shocker, shot blocker. There a difference in the middle of the court and players like Julius Randall and Nas Reid, even Rudy Gobert, they feasted on that. Like they get Cornet in the air. Easy, easy dump off assist. Dude, he bought out, man. Keoni McKeague: Yeah. Yeah, even though shout out to Luke Hornet. mean, you know, NBA champion. I mean, he's been balling out ever since. Ever since the Bulls let him go, which is great. So glad you guys let him go. And then he ended up balling off of the Knicks and then balling off of the Celtics. And now he's balling up for the Spurs. So just a great backup big for all those other teams. Jared Shirai: He's... yeah. Yep. then and he really, he really, he really did his job though. This this one, he and they talked about it through the broadcast of how they were trying to match big for big. So Cornett got a lot of minutes played. He had two block shots. He had a lot of missed like turnovers, forced turnovers just because of his presence and not being able to have him or Wemby and Wemby on the floor at the same time kind of took away from that. And as the game went on, the Timberlake's found out how to expose that. then the game, it kind of just turned into Ant's time. Man, some of the threes that he hit were like. Keoni McKeague: Yeah. Jared Shirai: Dagger 3 is just like, okay, he's getting hot and no answer. And then because they're played at home, he starts scoring, the energy starts changing, the crowd starts getting into it. All the shots that San Antonio was making in the third quarter and like, beginning of the fourth, I would say, kind of started to not fall their way. There was a streak where the like, in a two minute, 15 second span. Keoni McKeague: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Jared Shirai: where they were getting outscored nine to two and the shots that they were getting were just turnovers. was shots they were already making mid-range jumpers, like easy open looks. And that's just the way the game changes, especially when Ant gets hot. So for me, for Minnesota, it's going to be Ant is that X factor. If he gets hot, if he gets the crowd involved, if he gets the team fired up, because then everybody else starts to just do their job. The sumo came in, facilitated well. ⁓ Keoni McKeague: Yeah. Jared Shirai: grinded on the defensive end and then you had the bigs kind of just step in and like go bare and Randall and even Nas Reed, whether they scoring or finding the open man making extra pass. And that was literally the difference in this game. Keoni McKeague: Yeah, ironically, I was going to kind of to bounce off your last point there. I was going to say I kind of have to me. I feel like just as I said, I matchups matter, man. And I feel like it's currently constructed. The Timberwolves are better than the Spurs ⁓ in this matchup specifically, because really the Spurs have no answer for the half court offense of the Timberwolves. And they don't have themselves. They don't have really a half court offense. Their half court offense is get the ball into Wemby, hope we can score. And they don't really have like a, I mean, traditional kind of lineup here. We have three guards who all sort of are perimeter guys, right? You have some of them that can slash and do all that sort of stuff. So you kind of hope that you can do enough actions or you can come off the screens and run them down into the, into the paint and maybe, you know, get Wemby to make a play or whatever it might be. But ultimately I feel like, as currently constructed when it comes down to sort of the slowing down of the game that benefits the Timberwolves and the Timberwolves are doing a great job at doing that. So for me, the X factors for the Timberwolves in winning this series, Ayo D'Sunmu Nasred. Ayo D'Sunmu has been fantastic as an energy guy. We already know this about his personality, but I think what he's been doing as far as coming off the bench and just being a pest to this team, I mean, it's the identity that he is. taken from the leadership of Alex Caruso, who we're seeing in the next years, we're gonna talk about do some just incredible things that are winning plays and all this sort of stuff. But on the flip side of that too, to add to the fire that D'Souma brings, it's that sort of leadership quality that he has. And then of course you have Naz Reid, who I feel like is the X-Factor for this team because Gobert, we already know that dude is getting trounced on by Victor Webonyama, but. Nazri just figured out a way to get under the skin of Victor Webinama. And if that guy can continue to do so and continue to take elbows to the face and the league just not do anything about it. I mean, you know what I mean? Like to me, that says this is a player that can make the biggest difference in this playoff series. So Game five will be very, very important for both of these teams. Whoever wins this one, I feel like ultimately has the upper hand in winning the entire series. Jared Shirai: Hahaha Yeah. Keoni McKeague: But I am predicting game seven. I just think it has to end that way. This seems like a series that's going to end that way. Yeah, much like this next series we're talking about, they're going to go to game seven. Right. The Thunder and the Lakers, ⁓ the Thunder, who are just absolutely trouncing the Lakers three to zero. ⁓ And really, I mean, in every statistical category, it is not even close ⁓ from rebounding to scoring to assist. Jared Shirai: Only fitting, right? Yes, they are. Keoni McKeague: ⁓ Ironically, I know there's a lot of people who are showing highlights and clips of SGA ⁓ and his, you know, flopping antics, but the Lakers are now currently leading in free throw attempts. So there isn't even really that argument. There was also sort of the game two ⁓ situation with the refs and there was a lot of arguing there. There's just just a lot of blame being thrown around in this Lakers organization. And as a whole, it feels like this organization is going to go through some drastic changes this offseason. ⁓ What that ultimately ends up being, I don't know ⁓ if that's LeBron leaving, if that's Austin Reeves leaving. I think Luka Doncic is about the only thing that is bolted down on this team and that they will not move off of. But ultimately, this, mean, just about everything can go for this Lakers organization considering. how things are turning out right now. And as we're seeing with the Thunder, especially with Alex Caruso, which I didn't think was gonna be the main villain for LeBron James, but goodness, that dude is doing everything he can and everything he knows that gets under that dude's skin because that's the first time I feel like I've seen them not like each other on a basketball court. yeah, the Thunder winning this one, Boog. ⁓ Jared Shirai: Hahaha Yeah. Keoni McKeague: How do you like the prospects of a game seven happening in this one? Do you think there's any chance that they make sort of this major comeback heading into a game four? Jared Shirai: Probably not gonna happen, if I'm being honest. Not only major comeback, I think if they win a game it's going to be this game because they're still at home. ⁓ The gentlemen's sweep, right? But when you really think about it, ⁓ we'll start with the Thunder because it's easy. They are shooting a great percentage. Keoni McKeague: Yeah. Jared Shirai: They're out hustling on the boards, on top of on a defensive end. They're just closing out on all the shooters. Like yes, Rui and Cunard had good games finally, right? Austin Ruiz had a good game, game two finally, because I said that first game was trash. You know, the ones that are scoring are scoring, but it's just the ability to cause chaos for them because they can all kind of defend well because they all hustle on defense. mean, behind the play of players like AJ Mitchell, who stepped up offensively, right? Keoni McKeague: Yeah. Jared Shirai: and facilitating wise, but you have like the Carousels, the Dorts, ⁓ those type of players who just cause havoc on the defensive end where it really tires you out while you're playing offense and then have to do it on a defensive end where you have to man up and whether you're switching and whoever you're switching on to, like all those guys can technically score. Keoni McKeague: Mm-hmm. Jared Shirai: And they score efficiently. They don't take dumb shots. They make the extra pass. They play a lot better team ball here for me. ⁓ The hardest part for me with the Lakers is just like, you never know what you're going to get from some of these players. You kind of know Rui is either going to be hot from three and play a good defense. Marcus Smart kind of the same thing. ⁓ The first series against the Rockets when you think about why they won was because they had the defensive prowess, which is great, which they're trying to do. But what did they do on the offensive end? They all scored. Canard scored, Smart scored, Aitin scored, Hachimura scored. And then you kind of look through this series, it's like every, every scorer quote unquote has fallen off. Keoni McKeague: Mm. Mm-hmm. Jared Shirai: And that's the hardest part for me. It's like you can you can hang with them for so many quarters. You can be there in that game. But like we watched in the San Antonio series, if you don't hit shots, if you don't like. You could cause a turnover, you get a defensive stop, but if it transitions into nothing, then that's where Oklahoma City is just going to run you down. because they get stops, get streaks, get like, what was it, that 10-0 streak, I think, to start one of the quarters. Like those type of things that they do is things that you have to contain, especially in the playoffs. Once a team gets hot, we've seen it through series after series, there's maybe like one or two games in this whole playoffs that what the Magic came back or they, sorry, the Magic gave up the lead to Detroit when they were up by like 24. Keoni McKeague: Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah, Detroit came back. Jared Shirai: Yeah, and then it was like kind of the Lakers did the kind of the same thing or at Houston, right? Very few far and few were if you let a team get hot early They're gonna punish you for the rest of the game. And I think that's where the Lakers have to just yes You're gonna take blows you're gonna give up turnovers, but you gotta just Dig in on defensive end and get those stops and when you get the opportunities you gotta hit shots but for me a lot of it is like Keoni McKeague: Yeah. Jared Shirai: A lot of people look at it and I never liked him either. All eyes on DeAndre 18. What are you going to do with the Chet Hogan matchup? What are you going do with the Hartford St. Marzum? Are you going to actually grab boards? What do you what are you bringing to the table here? Yes, he shot for five of nine, but like he had six boards. And he has five offensive boards there, but like you got to be grabbing defensive rebounds here. But I don't care about the offensive boards if you're not like, I think that's the one stat that kills me when I watch. And ironically, they actually want to stat. But how many offensive rebounds that the Lakers give up is ridiculous to me. It's all those second chance opportunities, even though they want this battle like. They give. Oklahoma City that opportunity to score and they take it. Whereas the Lakers get that opportunity and just squander it. That's the biggest differences for me at least when it really comes down to it. Keoni McKeague: I see you left one large name out of talking about talking about why the Lakers are losing there. ⁓ I'm going to it. Yeah, I'm going to throw it back into the same conversation. I've been throwing out. No, I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to take this all the way back to the very beginning of the Houston Rockets series. We had this whole ⁓ he's going to lock into zero dark 30. Jared Shirai: mean, you're asking him to do everything. The last game, game three, I'll give you that one. I'll give you game three, but all the other games. Keoni McKeague: First and foremost, were the higher seed in that playoff game. So why we're talking about them taking out the Houston Rockets as like this, who are the Houston Rockets? The Houston Rockets have done absolutely nothing in the last how many years of the playoffs. Even with Dillon Brooks, they went as far as they went because they had Dillon Brooks on this roster. So they overachieved in that one. Great for them. Cool. You beat the lower seeded team. Awesome. Then you move to this series. Again, we're going through the series and we're talking about Jared Shirai: I'm Keoni McKeague: Austin Reeves comes back. ⁓ now Austin Reeves isn't scoring enough. We're talking about DeAndre Aiden comes in to this team. DeAndre Aiden isn't getting enough rebounds for this team. JJ Reddick had a quote after the game where he was like, this Oklahoma City Thunder team is one of the greatest teams of all time. After one championship, they're one of the greatest teams of all time. Jared Shirai: Here's 20. I'm surprised I see, I'm surprised that didn't pop up on my thing. Keoni McKeague: Okay, JJ. All right, JJ. JJ just riding his boy, riding his boy ridiculously hard. At the end of the day, I said it and I'll say it again. The continuous storyline of all these things are the reason why this team is losing and not talking about the supposed generational star on your team that isn't doing enough to me is part of the problem. And one of the biggest things is you have to hold this guy accountable for not doing enough. He scored 19 points at this one. Why didn't he score 40? This is supposedly the greatest score of all time. I've yet to see him drop a 40 bomb in this entire series because I don't care if you drop 12 assists. We don't win games with more assists than the other team. We win games with more points than the other team. So if the greatest score is on the court, the greatest score should be dropping 40, 50 during the playoff series to win the series. At the end of the day, points are the reason you win the game. It's not how many assists, how many triple doubles, how many whatever you put together. This is losing basketball mentality. So I feel like there's a point in this series where we're trying to talk about SGA and his flopping. Who did he learn flopping from? The 22 years of basketball we've seen flopping out of this kid. Like all this stuff that's coming out of this series, I feel like has been like this full reverse narrative of everything but. the number one guy in the entire series. to me, if he wants to win this next one, if it means that much to him to be in the playoffs, if this is supposedly his swan song, because there's a lot of people talking about this quote of him saying that he doesn't really care about having this retirement season, which is BS, we already know you're a drama queen, you wanna have a retirement season, go out and prove it. drop your 50 point game and really win this series for your team because ultimately deferring and passing the ball and then blaming that these guys aren't hitting open shots or whatever doesn't do anything for making your team win the game. It's the points on the board that matter the most. It doesn't matter if you made a bunch of hockey assists. It doesn't matter if you made a bunch of assists. It just matters how many points are on the board at the end of the game. So I don't know. To me, like this whole situation is being thrown around as like this Lakers team that is failing LeBron. This Lakers team wasn't even supposed to be here. This was clearly a top two race in the Western Conference. We already knew the Thunder and the Spurs were gonna be the two best teams in this entire thing. Now we're seeing the Timberwolves, know, fully healthy. They're coming back and they're becoming one of the best teams, which ultimately I feel like they should have been like a top three team in here. We saw the Nuggets who are also another ascending team get bounced because they had a terrible first round matchup. Yeah. Against the Timberwolves. Exactly. So like ultimately the two worst teams that were even in or excuse me, three worst teams, three worst teams that were in the playoffs to start the playoffs in the Western Conference were the Timber or excuse me, the Portland Trail Blazers or yeah, excuse me. I guess the four, the four worst teams were the Portland Trail Blazers, the Phoenix Suns, the little Jared Shirai: Well, they had to play. They had to play the table of wolves. sons. Keoni McKeague: the Los Angeles Lakers, I was gonna say the LeBron Lakers. The Los Angeles Lakers and the Houston Rockets. like that's, I was like, why are we even talking about any of these teams and why they're not winning championships is beyond me. Like ultimately this comes down to a couple of overachieving teams that are just ultimately not there this year. So I said at the beginning of the season, the Lakers weren't gonna win in the playoffs. Jared Shirai: The Lebron Lakers. Keoni McKeague: They got one great round because KD was off for two games or whatever. And then, you know, they played against this just out of, you know, mismatch, miss podge of Houston Rockets talent. mean, just here we are. You know what I mean? We're here. Probably going to see the Thunder roll them in game four and end the series in a sweep, because honestly, they're just on fire right now. And like, and they really don't look like a team that's going to be stopped. So I don't really blame it so much on like the Lakers. not doing enough, but I mean, the Thunder are the best team in the playoffs right now. Like they... Jared Shirai: No, the Thunder's, they're... They're... They're playing on both sides of the ball. I think that's one of the biggest things. Yeah. Well, I mean, you said it. Keoni McKeague: Caruso is just next level. of his biggest IQ plays during this series have been just the biggest reason why. Like little things, like he knows how to get under the skin of LeBron James and he's like using the rule book to a T. Like sometimes I'm like some of the stuff he's calling out and making, you know, making, you know, all the big wave emotions and like, ⁓ and doing all that kind of stuff. I saw it firsthand with the Chicago Bulls. He's one of the smartest players. Jared Shirai: I mean, we saw it when he was a Laker. Right? He saw it he was a Laker. Keoni McKeague: Yeah, no, yeah, exactly. And like, I think him, him and Drew Holliday are probably the two most impactful playoff players in the entire NBA period, like the two of them together. I hope they never end up on a team together because good Lord. Yeah, if they ended up. Jared Shirai: Bruh, that would be wild. That would be wild if Drew was on that- if Drew was on this team. Keoni McKeague: When Drew almost landed on the Lakers this last trade deadline or whatever and they were talking about the possibility of them trading for him, I thought, goodness, that's the piece. That is the final piece. Woo! Jared Shirai: Mm-hmm Man, having him and Marcus Smart on the court at the same time, like, that would have been. But yeah, like to... Yeah. Keoni McKeague: That's why the Celtics are falling apart. Exactly. Like they lost both of those guys and now look at them like they have zero leadership, zero direction. Now they just have two guys that can do stuff but are constantly fighting all the time. Like that's why I feel like we're going to get. Jared Shirai: And then you have like the Derek White to kind of try and pick up the pieces and like Pritchard. Pritchard had a good season, you know, like. Keoni McKeague: Yeah. In fact, I really hope that now when we're talking about it now, like, Jaylin, no, I was like, Jaylin Brown to the Spurs would be, that might be like the move. I feel like they got too many guards. You know, you can let go of like the Dylan or the, is it Dylan Harper? It is Dylan Harper. Yeah. You can let go of Dylan Harper. You can let go of some other assets like Jaylin Brown would be just peak for this team. I feel like. Jared Shirai: Quite. Yeah. Dylan Harper. I mean, because he plays that type of ball too, right? He plays on both sides and everything facilitates and does a little of everything. But yeah, I I 100 % agree with you and like Caruso, like it's the little things that he does and the energy and the spark plug plays. But yeah, I mean, we knew coming into the playoffs that the Thunder was going to be the team to beat. We knew that they were the best team in the NBA. But I also think like they go out and they play it every game. Keoni McKeague: If that was the case. Yeah. Good Lord. Yeah. Jared Shirai: That's the hard part for me. You knew the matchups. I mean, we watched them just roll Phoenix and they were like, didn't even at some point, it even look like they were trying. Like that was the sad part about it, you know. Yeah. But still, like, I mean, they were literally just rolling up. Yeah. Well, what do you. Keoni McKeague: I, it's like the Phoenix Suns should have even been in the playoffs. Let's keep it a buck here. Shout out to my boy, John. I know you watched the pod and I know you're a big time Phoenix Suns fan, but your team is trash. Coming from a team that is trash, know, we trash recognize trash. Jared Shirai: Yeah, but you don't have like you didn't have like five centers and draft the center, you know. Keoni McKeague: And yeah, that's just how I was like, that's true. was like, even though we did, even though our team did trade for one of their centers, so was like, Yeah, was like, yeah, that's true. I would have taken one of the younger ones, but that's okay. Jared Shirai: Just saying. Yeah, but at least you traded for a good center. You traded for a good center at least, you know, there's a plus sign. Yeah, but still, I feel like at least if you guys are trying to like fix holes now, it was a good trade. Because you guys, you know, but. Keoni McKeague: Yeah, yeah, that is true. Yeah. Ultimately, they the thunder looked like one of the clear favorites. Personally, I would love to see the thunder and the Timberwolves playing the next round. ⁓ That's another one that brewed from last year, even that would be very exciting to see in the Western Conference finals. ⁓ Even though I do really like Victor Webinama, I think he's been just otherworldly to watch. And honestly, if they Jared Shirai: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Keoni McKeague: If they do win, I mean, I know they also have a really good team built around him, but like that dude is 100 % the reason that that engine goes. So if they, if they win with him, goodness, yeah, that'd be also crazy to see. Jared Shirai: Yeah. I just want to watch him, like everybody always talks about like the him and Chet matchup. I just, I love that, that, that storyline because Chet's been kind of killing it here in this series too, like kind of starting to take over offensively and defensively. And we know when we bring to the table. So if you get that, that two big matchup, I think you got the skinny Kings going at it. Keoni McKeague: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's true. The skinny kings. I never considered them that, but yeah, was like, yeah, the skinny kings going at it is a funny way to put it. Yeah, it's ultimately, it'd be interesting to see. What's your prediction for the NBA championship game? Jared Shirai: Literally what it is. Skinny kings, bro. They're both like twigs, bro. When you put them side by side. The championship game, honestly, I want to see. I think I want to see the Spurs and the Pistons. I think, I think though it could be the Thunder and the Knicks. Like it's like I want it. I want to see because I want to see when we there. I want to see when we like take down the juggernaut that is OKC. But I also don't want the Pistons to come out and ball like. Keoni McKeague: Hoo hoo hoo! Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Jared Shirai: If there's a year that they're doing it, were the number one seed, best team in the East, like I want to see them go. And the reason why I don't say I mind the Knicks is because the Knicks were there last year, they just ran out of gas. And now in a new head coaching, new, it's kind of a new regime that I think the Knicks could possibly outlast them. Yeah, they 100 % fix it. Keoni McKeague: Yeah. And definitely they fixed their depth. That's the main thing too. Yeah. I think Jose ⁓ was a Jose Alvarado and then ⁓ what's his name? ⁓ That came from the Spurs. Looks like Dennis Rodman here. What is his name? Goodness. ⁓ Geez. Jared Shirai: I got you, I got you. Jeremy Showtime. Keoni McKeague: Jeremy Solshon, there you go. was like, I think the two of them being on that team is on the bench nonetheless is kind of ridiculous. It's kind of a cheat code. So. Jared Shirai: Yeah. Mm hmm. Yeah, the second the second unit is just crazy when you think about it, because you Josh like Jordan Clarkson still there, too. He's a score for you. Like, you know. Keoni McKeague: Man, you know, it's... Damn, yeah, yeah, I forgot they got him too, yeah. I was like, low key I do. Damn, that's hard. I was like, if I had to pick a championship final that I wanna see, it's the Timberwolves and the Knicks. you know, I would not be surprised if it's the Thunder, because obviously the way the Thunder have been rolling, the Thunder also seem to be the only team in the entire NBA that can counter what the Timberwolves have, which I feel like. Jared Shirai: It's tired when you look at it. Mm-hmm. Keoni McKeague: It's just unfortunate. if the I will say this, though, one interesting wrinkle of this, which I just kind of thought about as I just said, that is if that expansion happens in 28. The Timberwolves are moving to the Eastern Conference, so we may actually end up seeing some Timberwolves Thunder finals matchups, which would be pretty cool to see. So ultimately, I hope it is the Timberwolves, but, know. Jared Shirai: Yeah. Finals Yeah. Keoni McKeague: It's probably going to be the Thunder and the Knicks. So that's going to be a great game. just, you know, I'll just, I'm just trying to kind of rooting for the Timbuktu here, but Jared Shirai: You Yeah. I mean, I like I like your shot with that because I think depth wise, size wise, grit wise, Timberwolves and Thundergate matchup is going to be crazy good. It's going to be crazy good. But we'll see what Webby does in the next game and a half. Keoni McKeague: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, that would be a fun one to watch. Anyway. Yeah, it's probably going to drop like a 50, 50 point triple double and we're going to be like, OK, never mind. Forget what I said earlier. It's like 50, 50, 20 and eight blocks or something like that. OK, forget it. Anyway, with that said, I think that'll do it for this episode of after the buzzer. Boogie, have anything else you want to leave for the people at home before we bounce on out of this one? Jared Shirai: Okay, nevermind, sorry guys. And he's gonna do it in Minnesota. I just hope there's more draft when we get to the draft because we'll have another pod for that. But I just hope when we get there, there's more exciting things that happen. Not like last year where we're expecting the world from all these teams and then nobody did anything, man. ⁓ Keoni McKeague: I'm not even gonna get excited. I know I'm not even gonna get excited. I will say I do think this is finally the offseason because of the way the contracts are structured like we have Anthony Davis on his final year, Paul George on his final year, Joel Embiid. Jared Shirai: I think he has one more year, right? Keoni McKeague: Yeah, I forgot. was like, but I was like, but I know those two for sure. We got like the Golden State Warriors situation. got Giannis in his trading or his camp asking for a trade. So I think ultimately that's that group right there is going to be sort of the probably going to be moved. Big pieces are going to be moving this off season. LeBron, just go to Golden State. You know what I mean? Just do the right thing. Bring Klay Thompson. Sign for a minimum deal like that to me feels like the only way to really make the the conclusion of this era and the conclusion of this timeline and everything that you've done up until this point that's the only way to end your career in like the coolest possible way because I think right now the way Cleveland is constructed with James Harden don't want to see that anymore when it was Darius Garland maybe cool but now that it's the other way like I want to see Steph play Bron Dray and Jared Shirai: I don't want to see him go to clean loot. I don't want to see it. Yeah. Keoni McKeague: Probably Chris stops. Yeah, I was like just throw it all together and make that the final Yeah, yeah Yeah Goodness, they're gonna be sold and they're not gonna be able to run out in transition But the fun of watching that team play together would be something Yeah, that would be some otherworldly type stuff. So anyway, that'll do it for this episode And as always it has been a pleasure. It's been a joy from all of us here Jared Shirai: ⁓ even though even even Al Horford there like cuz you got the great all the Celtics battles right like No, definitely not. Just see all of them together, right? Keoni McKeague: At Poi and Soy. Good vibes and love! Bang bang!