Latest / Small Ball with Kenny Beecham / Anthony Edwards Insanity, The Clippers Championship Window, and Donovan Mitchell Takeover

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Anthony Edwards Insanity, The Clippers Championship Window, and Donovan Mitchell Takeover · Small Ball with Kenny Beecham

0:00
SPEAKER_00: Steph Curry, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, the guys that have been carrying face of basketball for the last decade plus 20 years, we need that next face of the league.
0:11
SPEAKER_00: And Luca is obviously a candidate as he continues to dominate.
0:14
SPEAKER_00: He's been dominating the entire career.
0:16
SPEAKER_00: Wiman Yama is an obvious choice because he's about to get his signature shoe at Nike and everything.
0:21
SPEAKER_00: But to have a guy like Anthony Evans, the face of the league conversation is gonna be great.
0:31
SPEAKER_00: Welcome, welcome, welcome back to the Kenny Beecher podcast.
0:34
SPEAKER_00: We are officially in the second round of the playoffs, and I got a lot to talk about because we saw the Minnesota Timbows go into the toughest place to play Denver and get a win because Anthony Everest might be Michael Jordan.
0:46
SPEAKER_00: 3.0, 3.0, because Kobe is 2.0.
0:49
SPEAKER_00: We'll talk about that.
0:50
SPEAKER_00: I want to talk about the end of the Cavs and Mags Magic series and what the offseason could look like for the Magic.
0:55
SPEAKER_00: And we got to talk about the Clippers because their championship window shut this year.
1:02
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, let's get into it.
1:03
SPEAKER_00: Leave a like, subscribe, go over to the audio platforms, give us five stars.
1:06
SPEAKER_00: It goes a very long way.
1:07
SPEAKER_00: Tell a friend to tell a friend that if they need some NBA playoff conversations, the Kenny Beach Podcast is the way to go.
1:13
SPEAKER_00: Let's get into it.
1:19
SPEAKER_00: Of all the second-round matchups, the Wolves versus the Nuggets is the one I was anticipating the most.
1:24
SPEAKER_00: I think these two teams match up very well against each other, with the Denver Nuggets being one of the better offensive teams in recent history.
1:30
SPEAKER_00: You think about them having the best offensive player in the league, with them having so many pieces around him that just fit like a glove, and them coming off a championship.
1:36
SPEAKER_00: Well, we all know how great they can be.
1:38
SPEAKER_00: And the Minnesota Tim Wolves have the best defense in basketball.
1:41
SPEAKER_00: And not only do they have the best defense in basketball, they match up so very well.
1:45
SPEAKER_00: Last year, if you saw in the first round, Bruce Brown, um, Mike Malone, Nikola Jokic all said that of all the teams they went through in that playoff run, the Minnesota Timberwolves, the team that played them the best.
1:56
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:56
SPEAKER_00: And that was without Nas Reed.
1:58
SPEAKER_00: That was without Jaden McDaniels, and both of those dudes are back.
2:01
SPEAKER_00: A lot of this game, and I've been feeling this way for the entirety of the playoffs so far.
2:06
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's only been five games for the guys because they they can't lose at this point.
2:09
SPEAKER_00: But Anthony Edwards being able to be better in the postseason than he was.
2:14
SPEAKER_00: In the regular season, he was on my All-NBA second team, right?
2:17
SPEAKER_00: He was second team and he was very firm there.
2:20
SPEAKER_00: Right now, I don't even know if there's an argument for anybody else in the playoffs being better than him.
2:25
SPEAKER_00: In the playoffs emphasizes, forget about everything else.
2:27
SPEAKER_00: Just the playoffs.
2:28
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if there's anybody else that's even close to having a conversation that Anthony Everett has been worse than.
2:32
SPEAKER_00: 43 points in this one, 16 in the first quarter and 12 in the fourth.
2:35
SPEAKER_00: And to be able to start off the game this hot and then finish the game with 12 points, including that turnover jump shot over the right side or the right shoulder where he told Carnegie Towns a clear out because he had KCP on him.
2:46
SPEAKER_00: He wanted to look like Jordan.
2:48
SPEAKER_00: Come on, man.
2:48
SPEAKER_00: It was everything you could have imagined.
2:50
SPEAKER_00: And in this series, um, just to be candid, I picked the Denver Nuggets in seven.
2:54
SPEAKER_00: That was my prediction.
2:55
SPEAKER_00: Y'all know I just because I make a prediction don't mean I'm rooting for that.
2:58
SPEAKER_00: I'm just saying that this is what I think might happen.
3:00
SPEAKER_00: If I'm wrong, I'm wrong.
3:01
SPEAKER_00: It's just the way basketball is.
3:02
SPEAKER_00: Hell, I picked against the Suns.
3:04
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I picked up against the Minnesota Timbins the first round, the Suns.
3:07
SPEAKER_00: Look how that how that went.
3:09
SPEAKER_00: Um, and one of the reasons why I picked the Denver Nuggets in this one, because it was so close.
3:13
SPEAKER_00: And again, I loved everything that the Minnesota Timbs has done and how good they have been over this last stretch.
3:19
SPEAKER_00: The thing, the one thing that put it over the top for me was Nicole Jokic is the best player in the series, and that might be all that matters, right?
3:26
SPEAKER_00: Then you watch game one.
3:28
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not saying that Jokic is not the best player in the series, do not get me wrong.
3:31
SPEAKER_00: But my mind quickly shifted from Jokic is the best player in the series, Barnon, to how many games can Anthony Edwards be the best player in the series, right?
3:39
SPEAKER_00: Jokic had a good game.
3:40
SPEAKER_00: It was tough.
3:41
SPEAKER_00: It was tough as hell.
3:42
SPEAKER_00: This is one of the toughest 30-point games I've seen from Nicole Jokic in his entire career.
3:47
SPEAKER_00: But this game, Anthony Edwards was the best player on the court.
3:51
SPEAKER_00: How many times can he do that?
3:53
SPEAKER_00: Because if you're saying it's four out of seven, then the boys might win this series.
3:58
SPEAKER_00: Because all it takes is a game.
4:01
SPEAKER_00: They have just taken home court advantage away.
4:03
SPEAKER_00: It didn't matter what they were really doing.
4:05
SPEAKER_00: And I do want to say I expect the Denver Nuggets to guard him so much differently because in this first game, he didn't really see many double teams.
4:12
SPEAKER_00: He didn't really see many different actions.
4:14
SPEAKER_00: They didn't really make him become a playmaker.
4:17
SPEAKER_00: And we saw that he can do that.
4:18
SPEAKER_00: We saw that in the Lakers series when they did start to send multiple bodies at him.
4:21
SPEAKER_00: He made the right play time and time again.
4:22
SPEAKER_00: Oh, not the Lakers series, I'm sorry, the Sun series, time and time again.
4:25
SPEAKER_00: The game that he had 40 late in that game, it wasn't just about him getting buckets.
4:28
SPEAKER_00: It's about him finding Mike Conley in the corner in that left corner.
4:31
SPEAKER_00: It was about him skip pasting the Caranthony Towns in the right corner, like he made all the right decisions.
4:35
SPEAKER_00: But if you Denver, you'd rather him have to do that and say Jaden McDaniels, who had a good game but didn't score much.
4:41
SPEAKER_00: We want Jaden McDaniels to hit these shots.
4:43
SPEAKER_00: We want Mike Conley to hit these shots.
4:44
SPEAKER_00: And he he did in that third or fourth quarter, Mike Conley was incredible.
4:48
SPEAKER_00: Because in this one, he saw a lot of single coverages and he was hunting.
4:52
SPEAKER_00: And that's one of my favorite things.
4:54
SPEAKER_00: When I see a player, specifically a perimeter player, no disrespect to the bids and the wings, but I mean like a perimeter player, a guard, when they're hunting, it's some of my favorite stuff.
5:03
SPEAKER_00: When Anthony Edwards is saying, Jamal Murray, get your injured ass over here and come guard me, that was so incredible.
5:10
SPEAKER_00: Because it was nothing that Jamal Murray could really do.
5:12
SPEAKER_00: Even KCP, the guy who has the best chance against Anthony Edwards, was just not strong enough.
5:18
SPEAKER_00: This guy's 22 years old.
5:20
SPEAKER_00: And I know Twitter and all these other places are going to talk about where he could be, because he's only 22 right now, and who knows could he could he actually end up being the next Mike?
5:27
SPEAKER_00: That's like real conversations.
5:29
SPEAKER_00: Like when it first started and you saw the Photoshop of one of the half of the faces Anthony Harris, the other half is Michael Jordan.
5:34
SPEAKER_00: It was it was everybody's memeing.
5:36
SPEAKER_00: And now I was like, hold on.
5:38
SPEAKER_00: He's 22, he's 22.
5:41
SPEAKER_00: They mic'd him up, and you hear how he's leading his team?
5:44
SPEAKER_00: Or you look at a post-game interview in game number four versus the Phoenix Suns when he's telling Carlton Towns, damn, bro, you gotta stop fouling.
5:50
SPEAKER_00: Like he has all the charisma in the world.
5:53
SPEAKER_00: He is uh a ridiculous leader for somebody that's only 22 years old, and he's got all the game in the world.
6:00
SPEAKER_00: And I think that what makes him different than some of the other players, and and this is not just exclusive Anthony Edwards thing, but the fact that he is he is so hell-bent on taking the best offensive matchup and sitting in that chair.
6:12
SPEAKER_00: That was the one play.
6:13
SPEAKER_00: Oh man, I've this was third quarter, um, nine minutes ago.
6:17
SPEAKER_00: Third quarter, nine minutes ago.
6:18
SPEAKER_00: He is guarding Jokic.
6:20
SPEAKER_00: How did they end up getting here?
6:21
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
6:21
SPEAKER_00: Some switches or something.
6:22
SPEAKER_00: I don't even remember.
6:23
SPEAKER_00: He's guarding Jokic and on a cut, Michael Porter Jr.
6:27
SPEAKER_00: cuts through.
6:27
SPEAKER_00: Anthony Ericts gets off of Nicole Jokic and recovers enough to block the shot.
6:33
SPEAKER_00: One of the craziest defensive possessions you can ask for a guard.
6:36
SPEAKER_00: Like that is what he is right now.
6:38
SPEAKER_00: We're in the regular season, he was a good defender.
6:40
SPEAKER_00: Hell, his rookie season, he said that he has potentially the best defensive player in basketball.
6:43
SPEAKER_00: Andy Ewards is a boisterous guy.
6:45
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
6:46
SPEAKER_00: He said he can play any, he can play any sport and be great at it.
6:48
SPEAKER_00: He was the foreheader back when he played baseball.
6:50
SPEAKER_00: You know what that means.
6:52
SPEAKER_00: But for him to say that his rookie season, and then show us that he can be a great defender.
6:56
SPEAKER_00: Don't get me wrong.
6:57
SPEAKER_00: This Minnesota Timbulls defense is not just Rudy Gobert, even though he was phenomenal in this game and has been phenomenal for the last season.
7:02
SPEAKER_00: It's not just Rudy Gobert.
7:04
SPEAKER_00: He did it great in the regular season, but in the playoffs, for everything to go to the next gear, it's just so exciting to see.
7:10
SPEAKER_00: It's just so exciting to see.
7:12
SPEAKER_00: Um, and you want to think about how much of a luxury it is for the Minnesota Timbows to have Carl Anthony Towns in the third quarter come out of halftime and drop 11 points on perfect efficiency.
7:22
SPEAKER_00: Didn't miss a shot.
7:23
SPEAKER_00: He was he was phenomenal when they needed a run.
7:25
SPEAKER_00: Him to check out and Nas Reed to come in and drop 14 points in the fourth quarter.
7:30
SPEAKER_00: That is so much of a luxury.
7:32
SPEAKER_00: And listen, Nas Reed was not very good offensively in his last series.
7:35
SPEAKER_00: He just wasn't.
7:36
SPEAKER_00: And it had me thinking, like, okay, in this series, how much can he really play?
7:39
SPEAKER_00: You know?
7:40
SPEAKER_00: Like, I know they want to go to big man as much as they can in this series.
7:43
SPEAKER_00: They want to overpower, be bigger than the Denver Nuggets, especially when the best player on the Denver Nuggets is a big.
7:48
SPEAKER_00: But if he wasn't making shots or he was turning the ball over or whatever, or in foul trouble, because I think he had more fouls in this series, in the last series, than it wasn't field goals, but it was something like crazy.
7:58
SPEAKER_00: He had more fouls than something, something.
8:00
SPEAKER_00: How much can he play?
8:02
SPEAKER_00: And that's when he was like, Don't worry.
8:03
SPEAKER_00: Because in the first half, I thought that he was kind of brutal.
8:05
SPEAKER_00: That's our guy, Najreed.
8:07
SPEAKER_00: But in the first half, he looked kind of brutal.
8:09
SPEAKER_00: But for him to go into that fourth quarter and give them a nasty 14 points to not allow the Devon Knights to get back in this in this game.
8:17
SPEAKER_00: The one thing that surprised me the most about what the Wolves have done through the first five games of this playoffs, in the regular season, they were the 27th ranked clutch team in basketball.
8:28
SPEAKER_00: We talked about a lot on this show, on my other channels, that when it got down to the last couple minutes of a game, if it was relatively close, the the decision making from Kat, the decision making from Anthony Edwards was something that I did not love.
8:41
SPEAKER_00: Bro, through five games, they have been a perfect clutch team.
8:46
SPEAKER_00: Is it sustainable?
8:47
SPEAKER_00: I don't really know.
8:48
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
8:49
SPEAKER_00: How do we have an 82-game sample size saying that y'all are off with this?
8:52
SPEAKER_00: And then and then when it matters the most, you turn it up.
8:54
SPEAKER_00: Is this just them hitting the next gear?
8:57
SPEAKER_00: Is it real?
8:58
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
8:59
SPEAKER_00: But the way that the Denver Nuggets played last series against the Lakers, it was like we're gonna be high.
9:04
SPEAKER_00: When the fourth quarter comes around, we'll be okay.
9:06
SPEAKER_00: We're one of the best clutch scenes of basketball.
9:08
SPEAKER_00: Here, I think they were number two in the league last year.
9:09
SPEAKER_00: They have the best player in the league, and y'all know Nikola Jokic's bread and butter is unguardable.
9:14
SPEAKER_00: If he gets within six feet of the realm, GGs get back on offense.
9:17
SPEAKER_00: There was nothing you could really do.
9:19
SPEAKER_00: I thought that that might be the case.
9:21
SPEAKER_00: Game number one.
9:23
SPEAKER_00: The Wolves never let it happen.
9:25
SPEAKER_00: They never let it happen.
9:27
SPEAKER_00: And that's just amazing to me.
9:29
SPEAKER_00: A big part of the Denver Nuggets' identity, and part of the reason why they won last series and won the series that they played, all the series last year, was their offensive rebound.
9:38
SPEAKER_00: This regular season they were six in offensive rebound percentage in the regular season.
9:41
SPEAKER_00: They were just six.
9:41
SPEAKER_00: They were top top ten in that.
9:43
SPEAKER_00: Um last night or a couple nights ago, they had three offensive rebounds in the entire game.
9:48
SPEAKER_00: The Minnesota Timbs said, no, no, no, no, no, no.
9:51
SPEAKER_00: You're not gonna play, you're not gonna play Denver Nuggets basketball.
9:54
SPEAKER_00: You're playing Minnesota Timberwolves hoops.
9:56
SPEAKER_00: And they set the tone early.
9:58
SPEAKER_00: And eventually, yeah, they started to turn the ball over and the Divin Nuggets got back to that game, but they set the tone early and they didn't look back for the most up, most part of it.
10:06
SPEAKER_00: I thought it was so very interesting to see how many defensive looks they threw in Nicole Jokic, because he's not a guy.
10:11
SPEAKER_00: There are certain players in basketball that you can't decide this is the thing we're gonna do against him because he has a computer in his hand.
10:19
SPEAKER_00: You do the same thing for two possessions in a row, that third time down, he's finding an open shooter.
10:23
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna get to his spot and hit his shot.
10:25
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna run, he's gonna make something happen.
10:27
SPEAKER_00: But in this one, they did so many different things.
10:30
SPEAKER_00: Where when they were doing the two-man game between him and Jamal Murray, sometimes you straight up saw Carl Anthony Towns, who was the primary defender on a lot of this, not really give a damn about Jamal Murray.
10:39
SPEAKER_00: Jaden McDaniels, who's one of the best screen navigators in basketball.
10:41
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if I guess there's a stat that proves that.
10:43
SPEAKER_00: I I'm not thinking about that.
10:44
SPEAKER_00: Just like the eye test, he's one of the best screen navigators in basketball.
10:47
SPEAKER_00: And what Carl Anthony Towns did, or I guess the team collectively decided, we're gonna let Jaden McDaniels fight through these screens every single time.
10:54
SPEAKER_00: Because the last thing we want to do is for is to allow Jamal Murray to get that pocket pass to Jokic because who knows what happens from that.
11:00
SPEAKER_00: It could be a Jokic shot, it could be a backdoor cut or a baseline cut from Aaron Gordon, it could be a corner three-point shot from one of the shooters.
11:08
SPEAKER_00: We don't want him to see that ball then.
11:10
SPEAKER_00: And Jaden McDaniels' fault, and Carnthony Towns denied, and that allowed Rudy Gobert, who we knew he was gonna be guarding Aaron Gordon for a lot of this series, just roam.
11:18
SPEAKER_00: Well, sometimes Jamal Murray did get downhill because Jaden McDaniels couldn't fight through a tough screen.
11:23
SPEAKER_00: And guess who was there?
11:25
SPEAKER_00: It was Rudy Gobert.
11:27
SPEAKER_00: Reggie Jackson got caught like three different times in this game.
11:30
SPEAKER_00: And it's one of them he made.
11:32
SPEAKER_00: Where two-man game, Nicole Jokic, he gets past his defender, he leaves his feet.
11:37
SPEAKER_00: Oh, snap.
11:38
SPEAKER_00: This is seven foot-one defensive player of the year right here.
11:40
SPEAKER_00: I gotta go up.
11:41
SPEAKER_00: And then one time he bounced it off his knee, and one time Rudy Gobert contested the shot so much it was damn near airball.
11:47
SPEAKER_00: That is just great defense.
11:48
SPEAKER_00: And then they said, oh man, we did this a little bit too many times.
11:52
SPEAKER_00: Let's switch it up.
11:53
SPEAKER_00: Aaron Gordon is on the bench now.
11:54
SPEAKER_00: Um, so is Car Anthony Towns.
11:56
SPEAKER_00: Rudy, you're one-on-one with Nikola Jokic.
11:59
SPEAKER_00: And Jokic did his thing, don't get me wrong, there was like maybe four different possessions where Jokic saw the one-on-one he said it's feast time.
12:05
SPEAKER_00: I mean, Rudy Gobert is a DPOY, but damn, Jokic is the MVP.
12:08
SPEAKER_00: So he did get that.
12:09
SPEAKER_00: But there were so many different things that they ended up doing that changed things up.
12:14
SPEAKER_00: Nikola Jokic in this game shot nine three-pointers, nine of them.
12:19
SPEAKER_00: That is the most three-pointers he's attempted all season long.
12:21
SPEAKER_00: All 82 games of the regular season plus the playoffs.
12:24
SPEAKER_00: The nine three-point attempts is the most he's taken this whole season.
12:26
SPEAKER_00: And hey, I ain't go back that far.
12:28
SPEAKER_00: It could have been last season, too.
12:29
SPEAKER_00: I don't really know.
12:30
SPEAKER_00: They forced this man to take the jumper.
12:32
SPEAKER_00: And last year, throughout their championship run, he hit a shot, he hit his three-pointer.
12:36
SPEAKER_00: It was huge.
12:37
SPEAKER_00: You you couldn't leave him over.
12:38
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you got the one against Anthony Davis, you know, the one-legged on the right wing.
12:43
SPEAKER_00: Um, but him hitting his three-point shot was super important.
12:46
SPEAKER_00: Where like that really means he's on guard.
12:48
SPEAKER_00: He's already unguardable.
12:49
SPEAKER_00: But if he's also hitting his three-point shot, he is really, really unguardable.
12:52
SPEAKER_00: And this one they forced him to take nine of the nine threes.
12:54
SPEAKER_00: He hit two.
12:55
SPEAKER_00: And it's gonna be very crucial.
12:56
SPEAKER_00: If he's gonna end up settling for those three-point shots, he's got to knock it down like he did last year.
13:01
SPEAKER_00: And I don't, I don't, I don't know.
13:03
SPEAKER_00: Jamal Murray's injury scaring the hell out of me through the first part of this playoffs.
13:08
SPEAKER_00: They talk about in the broadcast that in game number five versus the Lakers, they didn't even want him to go.
13:11
SPEAKER_00: He hit the game winner eventually.
13:12
SPEAKER_00: But they didn't want him to go.
13:13
SPEAKER_00: That injury is that much of a nagging injury.
13:15
SPEAKER_00: And if he's not to his full potential, I know he has 17 points in the second half, but if he's not to his full potential, it just makes it even more tough because Reggie Jackson is obviously not the same option as Jamal Murray is.
13:24
SPEAKER_00: Like you still have to guard Jamal Murray as if he is healthy and everything, but he was not moving very great.
13:30
SPEAKER_00: And to think that Anthony Elitz and them were just picking on him on the defensive side of the ball, it's just, I'm not gonna overreact to game number one.
13:36
SPEAKER_00: This is a long series.
13:37
SPEAKER_00: Again, I said Nuggets in seven.
13:39
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if I hey if the Wolves can get this done before seven, whew! I mean, give them the championship right now.
13:46
SPEAKER_00: But I think this is a long, long series.
13:48
SPEAKER_00: Um, objectively, this is this is the toughest team that the Nuggets have faced in the playoffs over the last couple seasons.
13:57
SPEAKER_00: Objectively.
13:58
SPEAKER_00: The entire run last year.
13:59
SPEAKER_00: I'm not I'm not discrediting the ring because the championship is a championship.
14:02
SPEAKER_00: Hell is one of the most dominant performances we've seen for a championship run.
14:05
SPEAKER_00: But this Minnesota Timburs team is better than every single team they went through to get to their finals last year.
14:09
SPEAKER_00: So this is a real true testament to who you are.
14:12
SPEAKER_00: I don't have any, I mean, I don't have really questions about it because I've been watching it for the last couple seasons.
14:17
SPEAKER_00: But like, yeah, this is a tough, tough matchup.
14:19
SPEAKER_00: Mike Malone's a great coach.
14:20
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna have to change his defensive scheme on Anthony Elriss's next uh game.
14:24
SPEAKER_00: Aaron Gordon has to make them pay.
14:26
SPEAKER_00: I know he only attempted one three in this game, number one, but because they do not guard him from three, and they make it work in Denver because he's so much of a vertical threat where he semmies down that baseline to get a lob or he's an offensive rebounding machine in most cases.
14:39
SPEAKER_00: He makes it work with his jump shot being iffy, but all season long, his jump shot's been ass.
14:43
SPEAKER_00: And he's got to make a couple to just make them think about it.
14:46
SPEAKER_00: I don't, I he can't, he can go seven for seven for three, I think.
14:49
SPEAKER_00: And I don't think the Minnesota Timbows don't care too much.
14:51
SPEAKER_00: I mean, yeah, they might lose that game, but they're like, okay, in game number three, he's not gonna do that.
14:55
SPEAKER_00: So he has to hit a few of those to just alleviate some of some of the pressure that Nicole Jokic and Jamal Murray are playing well.
15:01
SPEAKER_00: But boy, was that game incredible.
15:03
SPEAKER_00: Boy, was that game incredible.
15:05
SPEAKER_00: Anthony Everts is um just a different kind of beast.
15:09
SPEAKER_00: When you when you're drafted with the first overall pick, this is the type of player you want.
15:14
SPEAKER_00: Hell, you want this any place.
15:15
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
15:16
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you get him at number 13.
15:17
SPEAKER_00: But to get a guy like this at number one, he is kind of like the perfect archetype of a guy that I would want to lead my team.
15:26
SPEAKER_00: He can create for himself.
15:28
SPEAKER_00: We've seen his playmaking ability just get higher and higher and higher every single season.
15:31
SPEAKER_00: He cares.
15:32
SPEAKER_00: And that is one thing about, and it's gonna make me sound like an old head as I go on a little rant, that sometimes I feel as though some of the younger players coming into the league just don't really care enough.
15:41
SPEAKER_00: They just don't.
15:42
SPEAKER_00: And I guess that was one of the biggest question marks about Anthony Elritz, and that was why the Warriors decided, well, they didn't have a chance to draft him, first of all.
15:48
SPEAKER_00: But I just remember a report that was like the Warriors don't want to draft Anthony Ewers because they question his competitiveness and love for the game.
15:54
SPEAKER_00: He's an ultimate competitor.
15:56
SPEAKER_00: He wants to win every single night, and he's got the skill and the work ethic to make him be the face of the league eventually.
16:03
SPEAKER_00: Like after the Lakers series, um, the Minnesota Timberwolves uh social media accounts created this graphic that was just a picture of Anthony Ellis that said face of the league.
16:16
SPEAKER_00: They're not too far off.
16:18
SPEAKER_00: As we rapidly approach Steph Curry, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, the guys that have been carrying face of basketball for the last decade plus 20 years, as they start to feather out and miss the first round of the playoffs or miss the second round of the playoffs, we we need that next face of the league.
16:39
SPEAKER_00: And Luca is obviously a candidate as he continues to dominate.
16:42
SPEAKER_00: He's been dominating the entire his entire career.
16:44
SPEAKER_00: Wimbanyama is an obvious choice because he's about to get his signature shoe at Nike and everything.
16:50
SPEAKER_00: But to have a guy like Anthony Everetts, I'm just saying, the face of the league conversation is gonna be great.
16:58
SPEAKER_00: You know, obviously it's hard to find a LeBron, a Cole, a MJ, right?
17:04
SPEAKER_00: Those guys end up being top 10 all time eventually.
17:06
SPEAKER_00: Anthony Everett could potentially end up being the face of the league, which is great.
17:12
SPEAKER_00: Shout out to the guy.
17:13
SPEAKER_00: Shout out to the guy.
17:13
SPEAKER_00: I want to talk about the Mavericks destroying the Clippers the last two games of their series.
17:19
SPEAKER_00: I just cannot believe how the Clippers just lay down and just let the Mavericks win this series.
17:26
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I think they ended up losing gain number five-o at 30.
17:29
SPEAKER_00: Maybe they didn't finish at 30, but at one point it was 30.
17:31
SPEAKER_00: And and luckily for the Clippers, Drake and Kendrick were throwing haymakers.
17:36
SPEAKER_00: So nobody gave a damn about y'all losing this playoff series.
17:38
SPEAKER_00: Nobody cared.
17:40
SPEAKER_00: But now I'm gonna talk, I'm gonna talk about it.
17:42
SPEAKER_00: I care now.
17:42
SPEAKER_00: I care now.
17:43
SPEAKER_00: I didn't I didn't care when it was happening.
17:44
SPEAKER_00: I was listening to these dudes just keep rapping about each other.
17:47
SPEAKER_00: But now it's it's your turn to catch these bars because I believe that the window is closed.
17:52
SPEAKER_00: I don't think I'm in the minority here.
17:54
SPEAKER_00: I think most people probably agree with this one that the window has closed for the the LA Clippers.
17:59
SPEAKER_00: And this one, um, Paul George, non-existed.
18:04
SPEAKER_00: He had the few games where I think he had a 27-point game and a 33-point game where he was phenomenal.
18:09
SPEAKER_00: Um, James Harden hit the one game where he was phenomenal.
18:11
SPEAKER_00: But other than that, everything else was trash.
18:13
SPEAKER_00: They got destroyed so much in game number five that Tyron lose like hell.
18:16
SPEAKER_00: We got to do something.
18:17
SPEAKER_00: PJ Tucker, you didn't play like five games for us this last two months.
18:20
SPEAKER_00: Please start and please help us because we just need another big body that can go in and look like he cares about us winning basketball games.
18:27
SPEAKER_00: One of the most infuriating things for me as a fan of the sport of this league is when a team with a lot of talent just comes out and looks like they do not give a damn.
18:37
SPEAKER_00: We saw the same thing with the Phoenix Suns when they were down 2-0, 3-0, and they just act like they have six more games left for the season.
18:44
SPEAKER_00: That's what the Clippers just did.
18:45
SPEAKER_00: P.
18:45
SPEAKER_00: J.
18:45
SPEAKER_00: Tucker was and Terrence Mann are like the only two that looked like they cared about their season being over if they lost.
18:51
SPEAKER_00: They lost this.
18:52
SPEAKER_00: And again, no Kawhi Leonard for the majority of this, but I don't really give a damn about that this moment in time.
18:56
SPEAKER_00: Luca Dodgers did not have a good series.
18:59
SPEAKER_00: He his counting stats are pretty damn.
19:01
SPEAKER_00: It's like I think it's like 29, 9, and 8.
19:03
SPEAKER_00: He was he shot 40%.
19:05
SPEAKER_00: He said before game number five that if it wasn't for it being the playoffs, he wouldn't even play because he had the nagging injury and he had a code and everything.
19:12
SPEAKER_00: Like, this is a winnable series even without Kawhi Leonard.
19:15
SPEAKER_00: Hell, how about we just make it competitive?
19:17
SPEAKER_00: How about we just make it competitive?
19:19
SPEAKER_00: Those last two games were so infuriating to watch, and I don't even care what the outcome was.
19:25
SPEAKER_00: That's the Clippers.
19:26
SPEAKER_00: That's Clippers brand of basketball.
19:28
SPEAKER_00: In the last, in the last, since 2021.
19:33
SPEAKER_00: Remember, we're in 2024, our Lord and Savior, the year of our Lord and Savior, 2024.
19:36
SPEAKER_00: Kawhi Leonard has played a total of four playoff games.
19:39
SPEAKER_00: And two of them I shouldn't even count because it was this series where he didn't he didn't look good.
19:44
SPEAKER_00: He's played four playoff games since 2021.
19:49
SPEAKER_00: I they already paid him.
19:52
SPEAKER_00: They paid him in January, gave him a big old bag.
19:54
SPEAKER_00: Kawhi Leonard, stay here.
19:55
SPEAKER_00: This is your home.
19:56
SPEAKER_00: We're building this new dome, this new arena, whatever, whatever.
19:58
SPEAKER_00: We need you to stay.
19:59
SPEAKER_00: I do not know how they can how they can change the fact that that window is completely closed.
20:05
SPEAKER_00: He's 32 years old.
20:06
SPEAKER_00: And this is not a shot of Kawhi Leonard because he's fucking amazing when he plays, but that's just the thing.
20:09
SPEAKER_00: When he plays, it's always the question.
20:11
SPEAKER_00: He's 32 years old.
20:12
SPEAKER_00: Paul George, older guy.
20:14
SPEAKER_00: James Harden, older guy.
20:15
SPEAKER_00: What makes us believe that another year in their body is gonna be good enough for them to go raise the Larry O'Brien trophy?
20:21
SPEAKER_00: Because let me go ahead and go through this this Western conference again.
20:24
SPEAKER_00: Just remind you how ridiculous it is.
20:26
SPEAKER_00: Denver Nuggets, the defended champion.
20:27
SPEAKER_00: That's the hard team to beat.
20:29
SPEAKER_00: The Minnesota Timbus showing us that, hey, our time is now and our future is ours too.
20:33
SPEAKER_00: The OKC Thunder were the best team in the Western conference yeah, we ain't seen what they look like as Dallas just yet.
20:38
SPEAKER_00: But that's the team you're gonna.
20:40
SPEAKER_00: I need to keep going.
20:41
SPEAKER_00: The Lakers are gonna do something.
20:42
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what the hell it's gonna be.
20:43
SPEAKER_00: The Lakers are gonna do something.
20:44
SPEAKER_00: The Dallas Mavericks just tore you up.
20:46
SPEAKER_00: There are teams like the Houston Rockets should be better.
20:48
SPEAKER_00: The Minnesota Timbull is gonna be back in the frame.
20:51
SPEAKER_00: This team's window is shut, y'all.
20:53
SPEAKER_00: It just is.
20:54
SPEAKER_00: And you want to know what's just gonna cement it.
20:57
SPEAKER_00: If Paul George looks in the mirror and says, I can't be a number two.
21:02
SPEAKER_00: In my age, with my production, I can't be a number two.
21:06
SPEAKER_00: So hell, I'm gonna go to Philadelphia where I can be number three behind Joel Embiid or Tyrese Maxie.
21:11
SPEAKER_00: When he does that, if he does that and he decides to switch teams, which I don't I don't know the likelihood of it, he's a California guy.
21:16
SPEAKER_00: He's got his podcast studio.
21:18
SPEAKER_00: They've been doing it virtual over the last month or so while he's been in the playoffs.
21:21
SPEAKER_00: They don't hit the same.
21:22
SPEAKER_00: So, do we want to be a media guy?
21:23
SPEAKER_00: Do you want to be a hooper?
21:24
SPEAKER_00: I don't really know.
21:25
SPEAKER_00: Um, so I don't know the likelihood of him re-signing or going to his next team.
21:28
SPEAKER_00: But if he decides that what's best for my career to compete for a champion, if he really wants to compete for a championship, leaving the Clipper is probably the best way to do that.
21:35
SPEAKER_00: Because he just can't be the number two.
21:38
SPEAKER_00: He's just too many highs and lows and inconsistencies in Paul George's playoff resume.
21:42
SPEAKER_00: Hell, regular season resume too.
21:44
SPEAKER_00: And I love Paul George.
21:45
SPEAKER_00: I'm a I'm a fan of Paul George, but I gotta keep it honest.
21:48
SPEAKER_00: So if he is also if he's inconsistent when it comes to one game, he has 33, and the next game he has 12, and Kawhi Leonard can't play, and James Hardy continues to give us duds when it's a closeout game.
21:59
SPEAKER_00: How Can we say that we're gonna compete with the Denvers, the OKCs, the Minnesotas of the world?
22:05
SPEAKER_00: Hell, we get there.
22:06
SPEAKER_00: We got Boston.
22:07
SPEAKER_00: We got we got other teams.
22:10
SPEAKER_00: Like it's close.
22:12
SPEAKER_00: And with Luca not having the series that we know he can, because I'm gonna remind you when they first played each other, the first two times they played against each other, Luca Doncic was on this whole nother level.
22:21
SPEAKER_00: Again, he had a good series, not a great series in this one.
22:24
SPEAKER_00: You can't handle that.
22:25
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
22:27
SPEAKER_00: What's next?
22:29
SPEAKER_00: What's next?
22:30
SPEAKER_00: You want to know the most damning part about all of this.
22:34
SPEAKER_00: And I kind of mentioned it a second ago.
22:37
SPEAKER_00: The team that blew itself up in order for you to help you build this team, the OKC Thunder, right?
22:44
SPEAKER_00: Kawhi Leonard said, I'm coming to the Clippers, but I need some help.
22:47
SPEAKER_00: Go get Paul George.
22:48
SPEAKER_00: They say, Hell yeah.
22:49
SPEAKER_00: We got this uh going into year number two guy and shake your size in the he good, but we don't know if he's ever gonna be great.
22:53
SPEAKER_00: I mean, never mind.
22:54
SPEAKER_00: Doc Rivers and everybody else in the locker room said they knew he was gonna be great, regardless.
22:57
SPEAKER_00: No, none of them could tell me with honesty that they thought he was gonna end up top three in MVP one day.
23:02
SPEAKER_00: I would tell them straight to their face that they're lying.
23:04
SPEAKER_00: But we're gonna trade him away.
23:06
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna trade three first-round picks and three swaps.
23:08
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna trade Galinari, right?
23:10
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna we're gonna trade this package to break in Paul George.
23:13
SPEAKER_00: Now in 2024, the OKC Thunder have passed them.
23:18
SPEAKER_00: Straight up past them.
23:20
SPEAKER_00: That team, when you made the trade to get Paul George, that team was starting their rebuild, if you will.
23:26
SPEAKER_00: And now they passed you.
23:29
SPEAKER_00: Now I don't want to act like this era is completely without without success, right?
23:33
SPEAKER_00: Getting to the conference finals is hard.
23:35
SPEAKER_00: There are a lot of players, a lot of teams that build themselves to be great and never touch the conference finals.
23:41
SPEAKER_00: I can never take that away from them.
23:44
SPEAKER_00: But that's not the ceiling that you wanted on this team.
23:46
SPEAKER_00: That's not why you're in the luxury tax.
23:48
SPEAKER_00: That's not why you're at the second apron to make the conference finals a few years ago.
23:52
SPEAKER_00: We want to consistently be contenders and contenders and contenders.
23:55
SPEAKER_00: And I talked about on this podcast, or maybe it was my other podcast, that there were two teams.
24:00
SPEAKER_00: This was uh two months ago.
24:01
SPEAKER_00: Actually, I know it was on my other podcast.
24:02
SPEAKER_00: Numbers on the board if you want to check it out.
24:03
SPEAKER_00: Tuesdays, two o'clock Eastern time.
24:04
SPEAKER_00: We on ESPN2.
24:06
SPEAKER_00: Um, two months ago, I watched a game where the Clippers played against the Sacramento Kings.
24:14
SPEAKER_00: And in this game, Keegan Murray went nuclear, and the Clippers end up losing.
24:20
SPEAKER_00: I was hot.
24:22
SPEAKER_00: Because it was the same thing I mentioned towards the top of the segment where they it felt like they didn't care.
24:26
SPEAKER_00: It didn't matter.
24:26
SPEAKER_00: 82 game season.
24:27
SPEAKER_00: I mean, maybe it maybe a dozen the grand scheme.
24:29
SPEAKER_00: You might have had home court advantage in this series.
24:31
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if that is gonna change the outcome, but I was hot.
24:36
SPEAKER_00: And I go to the podcast, I say, hey y'all, before the show starts, this to my guys for the cameras are on.
24:41
SPEAKER_00: I have like a four-minute rant, just a four-minute rant.
24:43
SPEAKER_00: Just let me get this off my chest because I'm I'm pissed right now.
24:46
SPEAKER_00: And in that, I said there are two teams in basketball that we are giving respect to that haven't done a damn thing for us to get there for them to warn our respect.
24:57
SPEAKER_00: Those two teams, the Phoenix Guns and the Clippers, both first round exits.
25:04
SPEAKER_00: We look at the big boat name.
25:06
SPEAKER_00: Oh my god, in 2019, Kawhi Leonard hit one of the clutchest shots of all time.
25:11
SPEAKER_00: That was five years ago.
25:13
SPEAKER_00: Paul George in 2017 was top three in MVP.
25:18
SPEAKER_00: 2017, damn near a decade ago now.
25:22
SPEAKER_00: James Harden was the MVP of the league.
25:25
SPEAKER_00: How long ago was that?
25:28
SPEAKER_00: We gave them the respect, and I don't want to disc again.
25:31
SPEAKER_00: They went on a run where they were for a month and a half, they looked like they were unbeatable.
25:36
SPEAKER_00: And then they also had the same sample size of them being sub-500.
25:41
SPEAKER_00: So which one do we believe in?
25:42
SPEAKER_00: Do we believe they're the team that was unbeatable for a month and a half?
25:45
SPEAKER_00: Or do we believe that they're the team that was sub 500?
25:47
SPEAKER_00: The answer was they were somewhere in the middle, but it still wasn't good enough.
25:51
SPEAKER_00: So much respect for the Kevin O'Reilly, Devin Booker team, and Bradley Beal team, just because they have the names of Kevin O'Reilly, Devin Booker, and Bradley Beal.
25:57
SPEAKER_00: Nothing to do with what they're actually doing in the court.
25:59
SPEAKER_00: We see the names, we see Hall of Famer, Hall of Famer, Hall of Famer, and hell.
26:02
SPEAKER_00: The Clippers have Kawhi, Paul George, uh James Harden, Russell Westbrook, Zubotch.
26:08
SPEAKER_00: They got five future Hall of Fame.
26:10
SPEAKER_00: They got four future Hall of Famers on their team and a great coach in Tyron Lou.
26:15
SPEAKER_00: But all of those dudes are past their prime.
26:17
SPEAKER_00: Not saying that they're bad.
26:19
SPEAKER_00: Don't misinterpret.
26:20
SPEAKER_00: They're not bad.
26:21
SPEAKER_00: They're still great.
26:22
SPEAKER_00: But they're past their prime.
26:24
SPEAKER_00: And to see them get dunked on and them to look slow, old, and sluggish against the Dallas Mavericks should be eye-opening for the entire organization.
26:34
SPEAKER_00: But I'll tell you, it won't be.
26:36
SPEAKER_00: You know why?
26:37
SPEAKER_00: They got a whole new arena.
26:38
SPEAKER_00: They got to put butts here.
26:40
SPEAKER_00: They're not about to do nothing dramatic.
26:41
SPEAKER_00: Hell, Paul George, please come back.
26:44
SPEAKER_00: We can't open up a brand new arena and win 37 games.
26:47
SPEAKER_00: No way.
26:47
SPEAKER_00: No way, no way.
26:49
SPEAKER_00: But the Dallas Mavericks was like, hey, um, Derek Livell, here's a lot.
26:53
SPEAKER_00: Daniel Gaffer, here's a lop.
26:55
SPEAKER_00: Maxi Kleber, here's a corner three.
26:56
SPEAKER_00: Dear Jones Jr., catch a body for us.
26:59
SPEAKER_00: They just look slow and unathletic.
27:03
SPEAKER_00: And now basketball, every other team that I mentioned has athletes that are significantly better than what the Clippers have.
27:10
SPEAKER_00: And I do not believe you can win a championship without any athletes.
27:13
SPEAKER_00: And I mean like bounciness.
27:15
SPEAKER_00: I mean all of that.
27:17
SPEAKER_00: I mean the defense, the defensive aspect of like Darren Jones Jr., shout out to my guy.
27:22
SPEAKER_00: When he was here in Chicago, he was one of my favorite players on the team because I could tell that he cared offensively, defensively.
27:30
SPEAKER_00: Couldn't shoot for shit.
27:32
SPEAKER_00: But he he he tried.
27:33
SPEAKER_00: And now he's shooting best of his career.
27:35
SPEAKER_00: It's not nothing crazy, but best of his career.
27:38
SPEAKER_00: And he's gonna compete on both sides of the floor.
27:41
SPEAKER_00: He's not gonna be afraid to take a shot.
27:43
SPEAKER_00: You let him put the ball on the floor.
27:44
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna jump out the gym.
27:46
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna jump out the gym for a block.
27:48
SPEAKER_00: You need me to guard him.
27:49
SPEAKER_00: All right, I'm gonna do it.
27:49
SPEAKER_00: Even if it's not a great matchup for me, I'm gonna do it.
27:51
SPEAKER_00: Those are the type of players these type of teams need.
27:53
SPEAKER_00: And the Clippers don't have anybody other than Terrence Mann that feels that.
27:56
SPEAKER_00: And Terrence Mann is not this bouncy guy.
27:58
SPEAKER_00: He just's a competitor.
28:00
SPEAKER_00: But he's not this super athlete.
28:02
SPEAKER_00: Every, again, every other one of these teams has at least one super athlete.
28:07
SPEAKER_00: You got the Aaron Gordons, you got Anthony Anthony Edwards.
28:11
SPEAKER_00: You have Derrick Jones, obviously there's level six.
28:16
SPEAKER_00: The Clippers don't have none of that anymore.
28:18
SPEAKER_00: There was a time when Paul George was a freak athlete.
28:22
SPEAKER_00: Not anymore.
28:25
SPEAKER_00: Not anymore.
28:26
SPEAKER_00: Um to my guy Brody.
28:29
SPEAKER_00: Horrific, horrific series from him.
28:33
SPEAKER_00: He was the only guy out there that was trying to pump the crowd up.
28:37
SPEAKER_00: Um and I mean, like, I mean, when they were winning, don't get me wrong, they were pumping the crowd up.
28:41
SPEAKER_00: But back against the wall, Brody was the only guy that was trying to get the home court into home fans into it.
28:46
SPEAKER_00: It was the biggest Clippers playoff home loss in their existence the other day.
28:51
SPEAKER_00: It's not good enough.
28:52
SPEAKER_00: Dallas Mavericks move on to play against the OKC Thunder.
28:55
SPEAKER_00: And this matchup, I don't know how to feel about it, Jashette.
28:59
SPEAKER_00: I hope that this little bit of time that they have allows Luka Dantis to heal up a little bit.
29:03
SPEAKER_00: Because again, like I mentioned, he was laboring a lot of this series.
29:06
SPEAKER_00: He's still a monster and one of the best in basketball, so he still takes advantage of his defenders.
29:10
SPEAKER_00: But in this one, he shot one of ten for three.
29:13
SPEAKER_00: And a lot of those were settled step back threes.
29:15
SPEAKER_00: And Kyrie Irvin was phenomenal in this one.
29:17
SPEAKER_00: This is gonna be a really, really good matchup.
29:20
SPEAKER_00: I I think that my initial um prediction was OKC and seven.
29:25
SPEAKER_00: A lot of people are gonna go with Dallas because Dallas has Kyrie Luca and the experience over OKC.
29:31
SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to, and maybe this is just stupid by me.
29:33
SPEAKER_00: Again, my prediction doesn't matter at the end of the day.
29:35
SPEAKER_00: I'm not rooting for that to be true.
29:36
SPEAKER_00: But I'm kind of I'm starting to look away from the lack of experience with OKC.
29:41
SPEAKER_00: I just think they're so damn good that that lack of experience thing might matter again with most teams.
29:48
SPEAKER_00: I think this team might be different.
29:49
SPEAKER_00: I think they also have some defensive players on their team that are not gonna hold Kyrie or Luka Donchis, but just gonna do a better job than what the Clippers had defensively with Ludort and J Dub being.
30:00
SPEAKER_00: I think that we're gonna see uh this series for a lot of people that have not been paying a lot of attention, gonna realize how good of a defender J Dub is, like especially as a secondary defender.
30:08
SPEAKER_00: Um, but I also think that Shakers Alexander is gonna have to go out there and have a phenomenal series too.
30:14
SPEAKER_00: So uh I mentioned how the other Western Conference series is my favorite.
30:17
SPEAKER_00: This is undoubtedly my second favorite one.
30:19
SPEAKER_00: Um, and I can't wait to see it tip off.
30:21
SPEAKER_00: We had a game seven, for whatever reason, tipped off at noon central.
30:26
SPEAKER_00: And I don't like that NBA.
30:30
SPEAKER_00: I understand it's Sunday, right?
30:31
SPEAKER_00: It's Sunday.
30:32
SPEAKER_00: This we we usually have a matinee game, but because there was nothing else else left on the schedule, I know we had some hockey stuff, hockey playoff game seven, I think, um, and some F1 stuff later in the day.
30:43
SPEAKER_00: You shouldn't be afraid to compete with those things.
30:45
SPEAKER_00: And I think it did a dis disservice to help growing some of the smaller markets and the younger team in basketball to not have this be like a real primetime thing.
30:54
SPEAKER_00: I know, again, National TV for sure is I think it was only SPN, right?
30:57
SPEAKER_00: Only SPN slash ABC or whatever.
30:59
SPEAKER_00: But I think it would have been cool for them to be like, oh my God, there's one basketball game on tonight.
31:03
SPEAKER_00: It's a seven o'clock tip-off.
31:05
SPEAKER_00: Watch Don Vinci versus Palo Benquera.
31:07
SPEAKER_00: I feel like we didn't get that.
31:08
SPEAKER_00: We didn't get that for this entire series, and part of me understands it, right?
31:10
SPEAKER_00: It was a dogfight of a series where I think only a few times in it, both teams scored 100 points, right?
31:15
SPEAKER_00: It was one of those type of series.
31:17
SPEAKER_00: But I did enjoy it.
31:19
SPEAKER_00: Um, the Orlando Magic, let's start off there since their season is over.
31:22
SPEAKER_00: It was a phenomenal year for y'all, man.
31:23
SPEAKER_00: You destroyed your over-under by a ton.
31:26
SPEAKER_00: Nobody really saw y'all, other than like some of the super diehards definitely believed that they could be a playoff team.
31:30
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if they thought they could be all the way up to the five seed.
31:32
SPEAKER_00: Like, that's incredible.
31:34
SPEAKER_00: Um, but what a phenomenal season.
31:36
SPEAKER_00: You have Palo Bencaro blossoming into a star.
31:39
SPEAKER_00: Um, the one thing about Palo that I can't wait to see what he does in the offseason, I'm watching game number seven in pretty much this entire series.
31:45
SPEAKER_00: And there are so many times where I would have loved to see Palo Benquero use his size more.
31:50
SPEAKER_00: And he got to the free throw line a million times today, right?
31:53
SPEAKER_00: So that's part of him using his size, but he's bigger and stronger than his defender in a lot of cases.
31:58
SPEAKER_00: So I just want to see him when he does go to the post quite a bit, but a lot of times, like this turnaround jump shot, like Anthony Everett does a bunch.
32:05
SPEAKER_00: I want to see him just straight up bully kids.
32:07
SPEAKER_00: And I think he has the NBA body to do that.
32:10
SPEAKER_00: And with another uh offseason of experience, I think he'll do that a little bit more.
32:13
SPEAKER_00: Um, there's a lot of conversation about Franz Vogner in this first playoff series, especially a game number seven where he didn't do he didn't do anything.
32:20
SPEAKER_00: Let me see his actual stout counting stats in this one.
32:23
SPEAKER_00: I'm afraid to look at it.
32:24
SPEAKER_00: One of 15.
32:26
SPEAKER_00: Yikes.
32:27
SPEAKER_00: I didn't I I was watching the game, I didn't realize it was one of 15.
32:31
SPEAKER_00: Um, so there's some conversations about, you know, how can he fit a long palo long term?
32:36
SPEAKER_00: And I think it's a bit premature.
32:38
SPEAKER_00: That would be my opinion.
32:39
SPEAKER_00: It's a bit premature.
32:40
SPEAKER_00: This is their first playoff series.
32:41
SPEAKER_00: All of these guys, oh, Gary Harris is playing the playoffs, obviously, but Jalen Suggs, Wendell Carter, Paolo, Franz Wagner, uh uh John Isaac did play in the playoffs in the bubble.
32:50
SPEAKER_00: Um, but Anthony, uh Cole Anthony, these guys have never played playoff minutes before.
32:55
SPEAKER_00: And it's hard to play in the playoffs.
32:57
SPEAKER_00: It's specifically a team like this that all season long they struggle to score.
33:01
SPEAKER_00: And now you're telling me we have another team that's great defensively that can game plan against some of our stuff.
33:06
SPEAKER_00: It makes sense that Franz Wagner, for the grand scheme of the series, would struggle.
33:09
SPEAKER_00: I'm not surprised by that.
33:11
SPEAKER_00: I I'm not married to the pair, don't get me wrong, but I do think it's a bit premature for us to start thinking about, oh my God, can they fit together?
33:17
SPEAKER_00: Let's just see what this offseason looks like because it's apparent that this team he's shooting today.
33:21
SPEAKER_00: They were 10 of 31 from three.
33:23
SPEAKER_00: At one point, they had missed nine straight threes.
33:25
SPEAKER_00: Um, and they hit Gary Harris hit one with like a minute ago, and that was the end of the streak.
33:29
SPEAKER_00: The game was already over.
33:30
SPEAKER_00: So they desperately need to go out there and use the uh crazy amount of cap space that they have to just bring in more shooters because Palo in this one had 38 points again.
33:37
SPEAKER_00: He got to the free throw line 18 times, which is phenomenal.
33:40
SPEAKER_00: The game will open up so much more for him if he had respect to shooters.
33:44
SPEAKER_00: This draft goal, this phrase class is not anything too ridiculous, right?
33:47
SPEAKER_00: You got some names up there that could potentially be that.
33:49
SPEAKER_00: Paul George, Clay Thompson is a free agent.
33:51
SPEAKER_00: You got some shooters, buddy healed.
33:53
SPEAKER_00: Uh, he did have that one game in game in game six.
33:57
SPEAKER_00: Um, but there they desperately need somebody out there that's like not just a good three-point shooter because Jalen Sucks was a good three-point shooter this regular season, not so much in the postseason.
34:06
SPEAKER_00: Um, Gary Harris is a good three-point shooter, but there's a difference between a good three-point shooter and a respected three-point shooter.
34:12
SPEAKER_00: There are a lot of players in basketball that are good three-point shooters.
34:15
SPEAKER_00: Lou Doris shot 40% from three this year.
34:17
SPEAKER_00: He's a good three-point shooter.
34:18
SPEAKER_00: He's not a respected three-point shooter.
34:20
SPEAKER_00: Other teams allow him to shoot that shot.
34:22
SPEAKER_00: And though Jalen Suggs had a 10% increase on the three-point shot this season, other teams allow him to shoot that shot.
34:29
SPEAKER_00: Gary Harris, people allow him to hit that or shoot that shot.
34:32
SPEAKER_00: They need some dudes that are feared.
34:34
SPEAKER_00: They need some feared three-point shooters.
34:36
SPEAKER_00: Um, a feared three-point shooter on the other team, Max Struce struggled this whole series long.
34:40
SPEAKER_00: And then in the what is this fourth quarter of this game?
34:43
SPEAKER_00: I I felt it, y'all.
34:45
SPEAKER_00: In the fourth quarter, um, sorry, not the fourth quarter.
34:48
SPEAKER_00: It was the third quarter of this one.
34:49
SPEAKER_00: Um, he had 11 points.
34:51
SPEAKER_00: And as somebody that had Max Struce destroy his favorite team in the play-in game last year, just like that, I felt that pain that the uh that the Magic fans were feeling because he hadn't hit a shot for most of this postseason.
35:04
SPEAKER_00: Him and George Yang at one point were like JB Biggersath didn't even play George Yang.
35:10
SPEAKER_00: Jordan Yang played 82 games in the regular season.
35:12
SPEAKER_00: 82 games.
35:13
SPEAKER_00: We got to the playoffs, he missed a bunch of shots, and JB was like, no, you're not playing in this one.
35:18
SPEAKER_00: Like, that's how bad it was.
35:19
SPEAKER_00: And for Max Joseph, three threes in this third quarter, it's just demoralizing.
35:26
SPEAKER_00: 33 to 15 uh third quarter for them.
35:28
SPEAKER_00: And Donovan Mitchell, let's talk about Donovan Mitchell, because in game number six, he put up 50, a 50 piece and lost, and lost.
35:34
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, man, hey, bro, if I'm putting up 50, all the points in the fourth quarter, and my teammates are going 0 for 6, and we lose this series.
35:49
SPEAKER_00: How do I put my trade request in?
35:52
SPEAKER_00: But they win.
35:52
SPEAKER_00: They win, they win because eventually, I think on this this podcast we talked about how through the first couple games in this series, um, Donovan Mitchell could not find a shot.
36:00
SPEAKER_00: And honestly, throughout the entirety of the series, he couldn't find a shot today.
36:02
SPEAKER_00: He was two of eight from three.
36:04
SPEAKER_00: But the last two games of the series, so much pressure on the rim.
36:07
SPEAKER_00: So he shot 17 free throws today.
36:09
SPEAKER_00: In that 50-point game, he only shot six.
36:12
SPEAKER_00: All of that was him putting his head down, getting to the rim, magnificent layups and dunks, and so many different things.
36:17
SPEAKER_00: It was like he realized that hell, I'm one of the better finishing uh wings in basketball, guards in basketball.
36:22
SPEAKER_00: So let me just do this time and time again.
36:24
SPEAKER_00: And uh Darius Garlis struggled in this one.
36:27
SPEAKER_00: He hit that one corner three, and that was like a big one uh for the momentum.
36:31
SPEAKER_00: But he struggled, luckily, not struggled enough to have them lose.
36:35
SPEAKER_00: I question now the Celtics are the better team.
36:38
SPEAKER_00: The Celtics win within that series.
36:40
SPEAKER_00: I wonder what's going on with Jared Allen, because he didn't play in the last couple games of the series.
36:45
SPEAKER_00: Um Porzingis, the Celtics are kind of vulnerable in their their interior.
36:50
SPEAKER_00: Um, Jared Allen would definitely help that.
36:52
SPEAKER_00: But if we're saying that he can't play or he won't go for the first couple games, again, the Celtics are the better team.
36:56
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if it even matters, Grant's game, whether or not Jared Allen plays or not, if they would have a real chance to win the series.
37:02
SPEAKER_00: Um, but a successful, successful win.
37:04
SPEAKER_00: The crowd was really into it.
37:05
SPEAKER_00: I love that arena.
37:06
SPEAKER_00: I've been to it twice now.
37:08
SPEAKER_00: Um, and the crowd always packs out.
37:09
SPEAKER_00: So shout out to the Cavs for moving on to the next round.
37:12
SPEAKER_00: And the Orlando Magic, man, I'm very excited to see what you do.
37:15
SPEAKER_00: I pray, I absolutely pray, pray, pray that they do not take the Sacramento Kings approach of continuity come off season.
37:23
SPEAKER_00: Because I do believe continuity matters, especially with a younger team.
37:26
SPEAKER_00: But I think we saw, we saw the holes in his roster.
37:30
SPEAKER_00: We already saw it.
37:31
SPEAKER_00: We need, we see it, we see it.
37:32
SPEAKER_00: We don't expect Jalen Sugg to jump up another 10%.
37:35
SPEAKER_00: We even if he does, I don't feel like people still gonna respect it.
37:37
SPEAKER_00: We know I I hope that Franz Vogner get his jump shot back, but we can't just run it back and think that, you know, we probably will be better just because we're a young team and even though progress is not linear, it's close to it, right?
37:48
SPEAKER_00: Um, but I do want them to go out there, just make something, some type of smooths, go get a guard, another guard that can shoot a little bit, they can play make a little bit, and make the game just easier for Paolo and Franz.
37:57
SPEAKER_00: Um, I think that's all we got.
38:00
SPEAKER_00: I saw a report earlier today.
38:03
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and the floodgates are opening about the Phoenix Suns, where it was like other teams are monitoring the Devin Booker situation.
38:10
SPEAKER_00: I put my hands up and I sit back and watch.
38:13
SPEAKER_00: I don't the way Mac Ishbier was talking last week.
38:16
SPEAKER_00: I don't think he will think of, would think about it.
38:18
SPEAKER_00: But I don't think he would think about it.
38:23
SPEAKER_00: But if Devin is the one that's making you think that you gotta do what you gotta do.
38:26
SPEAKER_00: If you enjoyed this episode of the Kenny Beecher Podcast, be sure to leave a like, subscribe, and next time we talk, we will have a one-game sample size of every single series so far, and we could dive into what we're seeing, what we like and what we not, who's the favorite.
38:40
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
38:41
SPEAKER_00: I'll see y'all soon.