Speaker 1: On this episode, they eat check. Let's look at three
Speaker 1: Western Conference teams who need to prove that they belong.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about the Pelicans, I'm talking about the Warriors.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about the Sacramento Kings. Baby. We also get
Speaker 1: into ale bit of news from around the league. Nice
Speaker 1: little interview with CBS Sports Radio and NBA insider Bill
Speaker 1: Ryder from writer than You. We get a lot to
Speaker 1: get into. My guy, Anthony, so drop that muther hucking
Speaker 1: beat and should be real. Today's Western Conference standings are
Speaker 1: very tight, and I was looking in the standings and
Speaker 1: there's one team that my eyes just seemed to glaze
Speaker 1: in gloss over. Is there a team more easy to
Speaker 1: ignore than the New Orleans Pelicans, Because unless you're living
Speaker 1: in the Bayou or watching League past twenty four to seven,
Speaker 1: good for you, by the way, it would be very
Speaker 1: easy to miss. Not the buyo part, but the league
Speaker 1: pass twenty four is also. New Orleans is pretty sick too.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't hate living there outside of the humidity. The
Speaker 1: Pelicans are in fifth place right now in the West,
Speaker 1: in a very difficult West, and they are chasing down
Speaker 1: the Clippers for the fourth spot. The Clippers by the way,
Speaker 1: who just vomited a lead away to the Milwaukee Bucks.
Speaker 1: They are ten and four the New Orleans Pelicans in
Speaker 1: the last fourteen games. So the question that I have
Speaker 1: is why doesn't anybody take them seriously? Why aren't people
Speaker 1: paying attention? Why are we saying, eh, Pelicans, I don't know.
Speaker 1: They've been basically top six in the West the entire
Speaker 1: season and no one gives a fuck. Part of it
Speaker 1: might be the fact that they play in New Orleans
Speaker 1: and their their team name is the Pelicans, and they
Speaker 1: have eight nationally talized game games this year. Part of
Speaker 1: it has to do with the fact that this team
Speaker 1: has been up and down over the past three years.
Speaker 1: So it's a case of hey, show me state. I
Speaker 1: need to see it to believe it. And there's not
Speaker 1: a lot of believers in those Pelicans, at least not nationally.
Speaker 1: But there are a lot of reasons to like this
Speaker 1: Pelicans team. I was digging into the deats and it
Speaker 1: starts with Zion. For the first time in ages, Zion
Speaker 1: is healthy ish right. He's played in forty nine games
Speaker 1: this year. That is like for Zion, that's one hundred
Speaker 1: percent of the games. We have not been paying attention
Speaker 1: to Zion. He's been going below the radar. Nobody's been
Speaker 1: talking about him, except for Stephen A. Smith when he
Speaker 1: just lazily decided to use the same old narrative about
Speaker 1: Zion because Zion is a close representation of the team
Speaker 1: as a whole. In Zion's last eighteen games, he's averaging
Speaker 1: twenty three point seven points, four point eight rebounds, and
Speaker 1: five point eight assists, shooting fifty six percent from the field.
Speaker 1: And because of the fact that they don't have a
Speaker 1: ton of playmakers on this team, Zion has returned to
Speaker 1: playing the point points Zion points. Zion has responded. In
Speaker 1: his last ten He's averaged seven assists per game, up
Speaker 1: for four and a half a game in the last
Speaker 1: In the first fifty Pelicans games this year, the Pelicans
Speaker 1: assist rate and turnover rate both on the bottom half
Speaker 1: of the league, and none of their players are elite passers,
Speaker 1: so it's very important that Zion facilitate this offense effectively,
Speaker 1: and when he does, the Pelicans cook. And of course, Zion,
Speaker 1: as he always has been when he's healthy, is unstoppable
Speaker 1: in the paint. He is number two in the NBA
Speaker 1: in points in the paint this season, and that includes
Speaker 1: the fact that he's not getting any calls. He's averaging
Speaker 1: just six point seven free throw attempts per game, which
Speaker 1: is a career low. Remember when who was it, Stan
Speaker 1: Van Gundy, David Griffin. There was a whole hullabaloo about
Speaker 1: Zion not getting calls. There were some calls to the
Speaker 1: league office, there were some articles written about it. People
Speaker 1: were pissed. So Zion just doesn't get calls because he's
Speaker 1: so big, so strong, it's so powerful that you don't
Speaker 1: really know how to call his games. There's a short
Speaker 1: list of players though, who operate in the same amount
Speaker 1: of physicality as Zion and it does not result in
Speaker 1: foul shots as much as it should. Shay Gilgis, Alexander Janni,
Speaker 1: Santa Ta Kumpa Luka Doncic, to name three peers, are
Speaker 1: each above eight point nine attempts this season. So what
Speaker 1: do I like about the Pelicans? The fact that they're
Speaker 1: so deep, I think is an incredible asset for them.
Speaker 1: There is any statistic I want to share. In their
Speaker 1: last fourteen games, the Pelicans have had six different leading
Speaker 1: scorers of the game, Zions four, Brendan Ingram, four, Jonnis
Speaker 1: Valanciunis one, Nice CJ. McCollum two, Trey Murphy one, and
Speaker 1: Herb Jones one. Only the Boston Celtics number one team
Speaker 1: in basketball and the Pacers with the perennial all the
Speaker 1: NBA level assisting Tyrese Halliburton. So the Celtics and the
Speaker 1: Pacers spread the wealth around almost they're the only ones
Speaker 1: in the league that spread the wealth around as much
Speaker 1: as the Pelicans do. And there's not really an easy
Speaker 1: path home in the West because there's just so many
Speaker 1: good teams. But at least the Pelicans aren't facing any
Speaker 1: tougher road than anyone else. They have Detroit, Brooklyn, and
Speaker 1: Atlanta out of the East for the six worst teams
Speaker 1: in their conference. They play against Portland twice and San
Speaker 1: Antonio once in the West, So that's six teams against
Speaker 1: grave dwellers, teams that we know are at the bottom
Speaker 1: in the basement. No Tree, Young, these teams suck. If
Speaker 1: they finish five hundred against the rest of the league
Speaker 1: and five and one against the bottom basement dwellers, they
Speaker 1: will have fifty wins and will be fighting for the
Speaker 1: four spot. And I promise you teams like the Suns
Speaker 1: are terrified, are shook of playing the Pelicans. We saw
Speaker 1: them take the Suns to seven without Zion. What are
Speaker 1: they going to be able to do if the Suns
Speaker 1: creep in and they play each other in a play
Speaker 1: in tournament, or they play each other in the second round.
Speaker 1: I know Sons probably getting to the second round, but
Speaker 1: I know that this is a team not being taken
Speaker 1: lightly and a team that no contender really wants to
Speaker 1: play in the first round, especially a team like the Kings,
Speaker 1: the Suns, and maybe even the Nuggets as long as
Speaker 1: they're healthy. The Pelicans could be a problem, but they
Speaker 1: still have a lot to moving on to a second
Speaker 1: team that I think has a lot to prove, a
Speaker 1: team that people have been waffling and wavering on all
Speaker 1: season long, including myself. But I have a message as
Speaker 1: a lifelong fan of our Dubs. I'm here to tell
Speaker 1: dub Nation, do not panic. Do not panic, dub Nation,
Speaker 1: It's gonna be okay. I know that the fifty point
Speaker 1: plus beat down on Sunday at the hands of the
Speaker 1: Boston Celtics in TD Garden was a tough pill to swallow.
Speaker 1: I know that the fact that you put together a
Speaker 1: defensive game plan fifteen minutes before the game. Probably not great.
Speaker 1: I realized Steph coming out out after one of the
Speaker 1: worst games of his career and say in a dejected voice,
Speaker 1: that's what we used to do to teams. Stings. I
Speaker 1: know that's stings. I know it's absolutely become a joke
Speaker 1: on Monday morning radio. I know it sucks. But let's
Speaker 1: look at this dispassionately. No Pods in this game. No
Speaker 1: Brandon Perjemski, the rookie, the guy who has found a
Speaker 1: way to get significant minutes. This game illustrated completely why
Speaker 1: PODS is so important in this iteration of Golden State,
Speaker 1: this part of the timeline. Since February first, Pods has
Speaker 1: put up eleven seven and six with a plus seven
Speaker 1: point four per game net rating. The Warriors went eleven
Speaker 1: and three in those games before you got Sideline two
Speaker 1: games ago. That's pretty damn good. Eleven and three. Second
Speaker 1: of all, it was the final game of a very
Speaker 1: long ass road trip. Fifth game and eight days. You're
Speaker 1: down two starters in the toughest building to win against
Speaker 1: the historic offense at its peak one hundred and twenty
Speaker 1: seven point rating in our last ten with really bulletin
Speaker 1: board material. Hey, hey, we fucking hate them. They beat
Speaker 1: us on our own home court and they won the championship.
Speaker 1: So fans are probably overreacting to the massacre and saying, oh,
Speaker 1: Warriors are probably not even gonna make the playoffs. Not me, though,
Speaker 1: Warriors ran into a perfect store. They just did long
Speaker 1: before Steph went O nine in the first half. The
Speaker 1: team just felt like it took the night off right. Like,
Speaker 1: of course, no one loves to say that, but Steve
Speaker 1: Kurz said last week this Steph was already tired. There
Speaker 1: was a chance Steph wasn't even gonna play in this
Speaker 1: game until no Boston. Boston had no kristavs Porzingis, and
Speaker 1: they're like, oh, maybe we go win this one. No,
Speaker 1: you can't. It was a bad loss, historic loss, fifty
Speaker 1: two point loss, was not even remotely close. Ever, the
Speaker 1: Celtics were up eighty two thirty eight at half. Actually
Speaker 1: I think they tied. They were tied twenty one to
Speaker 1: twenty one, and then from there on it was an
Speaker 1: absolute blood bath. Boston is cruising right now. They've won
Speaker 1: thirteen to fourteen. One of the highest rating offenses in
Speaker 1: all of history, the highest net rating sense our dubs
Speaker 1: in twenty seventeen, So to lose even badly to Boston's
Speaker 1: not the worst thing. So yeah, I know that the
Speaker 1: Warriors have issues. Andrew Wiggins is supposed to be coming
Speaker 1: back after missing four games for a very serious family emergency.
Speaker 1: But that ass whipping at the hands of the Seas,
Speaker 1: you can put that in your rear review mirror. It's
Speaker 1: like no sense in dwelling on it. As they say
Speaker 1: and used to say in Golden State, it's next man up,
Speaker 1: next game up. And if this team can sneak into
Speaker 1: the playoffs, they're gonna fuck a team up like the
Speaker 1: Minnesota Timberwolves. You can just count on that. Let's move
Speaker 1: on to the third team that needs to get their
Speaker 1: shit together, a team that we don't know what to
Speaker 1: make of, a team that can look incredible on one
Speaker 1: night and absolute buns on the next. What the fuck
Speaker 1: is happening with the Sacramento Kings, Folks, our Kings. They
Speaker 1: blew another huge leadership at home and I think it
Speaker 1: was at home. Kings were at the crib, Yes, if
Speaker 1: they were in at home at Golden One blew another
Speaker 1: huge lead at the crib. Bulls storm back from twenty two,
Speaker 1: down one thirteen to one oh nine. Kobe White was
Speaker 1: putting up almost forty. Things are not okay in Sacramento,
Speaker 1: as Kenny Carroway of Sacramento's Dilo and Casey Show, which
Speaker 1: I love, I go on there every Tuesday, by the way,
Speaker 1: so check that out five pm Eastern Standard time Tuesday,
Speaker 1: he said, plan and simply put this shit is unacceptable.
Speaker 1: It's true. The Kings were up eighty nine to sixty
Speaker 1: seven with three minutes left in the third, got outscored
Speaker 1: forty six to twenty the rest of the way. Bulls.
Speaker 1: Let Kobe White, Kobe, what listen. I know Kobe White's good,
Speaker 1: like I know Kobe WIT's having a great year. But
Speaker 1: you can't let Kobe White put thirty seven on your
Speaker 1: dome piece. You let de Margarros and put up nineteen
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter alone. De Aeron Fox guarded Ioed
Speaker 1: de Summu most of the game. Let him go off
Speaker 1: for twenty. That's just unacceptable. Foxy twice his season average.
Speaker 1: He's averaging ten points per game, puts up twenty and
Speaker 1: according to the NBA, the Kings had a ninety nine
Speaker 1: point six percent chance of winning the game. And somehow
Speaker 1: found a way to lose. The Rosen outscored the entire
Speaker 1: Kings team by him self, just disgusting stuff. The loss
Speaker 1: to the Bulls follows the Kings blowing an eighteen points
Speaker 1: second half lead to the Clippers and double deep digit
Speaker 1: leads to both the Nuggets and the Heat in the
Speaker 1: last two weeks alone seventh in the West. Now the
Speaker 1: Kings are out of the playoff picture and in the
Speaker 1: play in with the MAVs, Lakers, and Warriors, which is
Speaker 1: like being thrown into an empty swimming pool with the
Speaker 1: hungry lion. I tell you what, they don't want to
Speaker 1: play any of these teams in one game set. MAVs
Speaker 1: are big, they're strong, to got Luca, Lakers, got Lebron
Speaker 1: and AD tough matchup. Warriors. We already know what time
Speaker 1: it is, our dubs, gross, you don't want this. How
Speaker 1: do the Kings fix it?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 1: Time's running out. You gotta get the fuck on. You
Speaker 1: gotta make sure that the Suns slide down the rankings
Speaker 1: and they go to the play in tournament and you
Speaker 1: end up the sixth spot and hope to God that
Speaker 1: Oka See makes the three spot. Hope to God you
Speaker 1: don't want to see Denver in the first round. Kings
Speaker 1: are currently twentieth in defensive rating, fourteenth in offensive rating.
Speaker 1: I think Kings were number one in the offensive rating
Speaker 1: last year. A lot of it is that they're very
Speaker 1: sloppy with the ball. Kings rate thirteenth in turnover percentage.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is just not this is just not
Speaker 1: a team that you really want to back right now,
Speaker 1: These are not contending stats. They need to turn up
Speaker 1: the noise right now before it gets early late, before
Speaker 1: it gets late early, right before it gets late early.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. Anyway. Bill Ryder also joins
Speaker 1: us later in the show. He dropped this factoid in
Speaker 1: our interview. No NBA team has won a Chip this
Speaker 1: century without being a top ten defense and a top
Speaker 1: ten offense. So the Kings have to change a lot.
Speaker 1: They want a legit chance to do anything come playoff time.
Speaker 1: The real issue is that the Kings just cannot shoot
Speaker 1: at all. They're eleventh per in field goal percent dead
Speaker 1: last though an NBA free throw percentage, which is an
Speaker 1: even bigger problem because two of their worst free throw
Speaker 1: shooters are their marquee guys, the guys that actually have
Speaker 1: the ball in their hands when it's like, I don't know,
Speaker 1: brunch time. Fox and sabonas two guys that get to
Speaker 1: the line a lot. I tweeted this out. In his
Speaker 1: last nine games, Darren Fox is shooting sixty two point
Speaker 1: five percent from the free throw line, and in his
Speaker 1: last nine Domas is shooting seventy percent from the free
Speaker 1: throw line. Pretty hard to close out wins when your
Speaker 1: two best players aren't good from the charity stripe. NBA
Speaker 1: guru John Hollinger quote tweeted it with this, hadn't really
Speaker 1: internalized how much the Kings suck from the line this year,
Speaker 1: nearly twenty percentage points worse than number twenty nine Toronto
Speaker 1: cost them about one point one points per game relative
Speaker 1: to the league average. And there's no shock here. It's
Speaker 1: just Fox and Sabonis are seventy percent and nobody else
Speaker 1: draws fouls. That folks is an issue, and it's not
Speaker 1: one that's easily solved. It's just not Since two thousand
Speaker 1: and six, no team has won a chance beian ships
Speaker 1: shooting free throws below seventy three percent. I'm not saying
Speaker 1: that we thought that the Kings were gonna win a
Speaker 1: championship this year because we don't think that, but I
Speaker 1: mean God got to get better at that along the
Speaker 1: way to get to be a contender. It is very
Speaker 1: critical to make free throws in close games that you're
Speaker 1: bound to play in the playoffs. Remember, like the Warriors,
Speaker 1: all those games were close. We're gonna know everything about
Speaker 1: this King's team. In the next two weeks they played
Speaker 1: nine games. Only two of those games against top four teams.
Speaker 1: For those games are against bottom eight teams. The way
Speaker 1: that the Kings have been doing with bad teams. This
Speaker 1: is a do or die moment for the Kings. Let's
Speaker 1: move on just a little news from around the league.
Speaker 1: Starting in Brooklyn, Ben simmons saga continues to unfold on
Speaker 1: the bench, getting his fits off, looking like a runway model. Yes,
Speaker 1: Ben Ben Simmons has played in fifty seven of one
Speaker 1: hundred and eighty one possible games in Brooklyn. He has
Speaker 1: been getting murdered in the streets. Agent has stepped up
Speaker 1: to the line of the fire and taken responsibility. Yes,
Speaker 1: right now Ben is being protected by Bernie Lee. Then
Speaker 1: Bernie Lee also represent Jimmy Butler. At one point, he
Speaker 1: is definitely seeing the road rising up to meet him
Speaker 1: because Ben's Monster contract runs out next year. Bernie Lee
Speaker 1: basically said, hey, don't blame Ben, play me. Blame me
Speaker 1: for this. He said this. When I began working with Ben,
Speaker 1: I made a commitment to him that I would do
Speaker 1: everything that I could to find the right answers and
Speaker 1: specialists for him to work with in order to move
Speaker 1: forward from the issues he has been having. Clearly it
Speaker 1: hasn't happened, and that's my responsibility. He then, of course
Speaker 1: went on blah blah blah. Don't you see Ben in
Speaker 1: the gym, He's working, he's sweating. Don't you see him
Speaker 1: in the off season his rehab. He's only taken seven
Speaker 1: days off in the past calendar year.
Speaker 2: Eh.
Speaker 1: He then said this, come the off season, we're going
Speaker 1: to implement some processes and outside input that allow him
Speaker 1: to finally move forward from this ongoing issue and resume
Speaker 1: his career at the level he's established prior to being injured. Guys,
Speaker 1: I just don't buy it. Someone's already laying the groundwork
Speaker 1: for a new contract bet on Ben to have a
Speaker 1: monster bounce back here next year. I don't think so.
Speaker 1: I don't think Ben will ever play meaningful basketball again.
Speaker 1: That's that's that's just not gonna happen. Unfortunately for Ben,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry to hear it, sorry to hear that his
Speaker 1: back issues continue to flare up. But for Ben, it's
Speaker 1: a wrap. All right, Let's move on. We got a
Speaker 1: little breaking news, tiny bit of breaking news out of
Speaker 1: Miami where the Heat signed Patty Mills. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: what in the gort drugage is happening right now? He
Speaker 1: gets bought out by Atlanta and landed on the North Beach.
Speaker 1: He's shooting thirty eight Really, South Beach, they're shooting thirty
Speaker 1: eight percent from three. Another valuable vet off the bench.
Speaker 1: You can fill in for those Gabe Vincent minutes that
Speaker 1: they've been lacking, those Kyle Lowry minutes that they were
Speaker 1: hoping to get. Terry Rosier and Patty Mills, of course,
Speaker 1: are not damn lollard at all, but they might be
Speaker 1: enough for the Heat to become real serious threats moving forward.
Speaker 1: You know what time it is. Eric Spotzer finds a
Speaker 1: way to win with the players that he has. Although
Speaker 1: I have a love hate relationship with Miami, I just
Speaker 1: hate the Celtics so much more so I'm counting on
Speaker 1: them I'm counting on them to take the Celtics out
Speaker 1: in the playoffs, and a sniper like Patty Mills makes
Speaker 1: it just a tiny bit more likely, even though he
Speaker 1: is old as me. Moving on a little injury update,
Speaker 1: Scottie Barnes, who broke his finger last week, underwent surgery
Speaker 1: to fix the broken digit. Ryan Wollstatt, friend of show.
Speaker 1: He tweeted, I'm not doctor Waws, but that should mean
Speaker 1: his season is done, damn, which is sad. Really, Scotty
Speaker 1: Barnes was playing awesome. He took another step forward this year.
Speaker 1: He was an All Star, the team became one hundred
Speaker 1: percent his after Sakham trade. He goes down for the year.
Speaker 1: Not a serious injury, but still not a great injury
Speaker 1: for a Toronto team that was trying to figure out
Speaker 1: a way to sneak into the play in picture, no
Speaker 1: reason to watch the Toronto Raptors now at all besides
Speaker 1: Emmanuel Quickly, which is pretty sad. Also, Russell Westbrook had
Speaker 1: hand surgery for a fractured left hand. Unlike the Raptors,
Speaker 1: the Clippers are gonna be playing for a playoff basketball,
Speaker 1: so there's hope that he might turn around. But honestly, like,
Speaker 1: how good has Russell Westbrook really been? He's been turning
Speaker 1: the ball over a lot. We might seem optimistic in
Speaker 1: his timetable, but listen, Rusk gets back in record time
Speaker 1: because he's such a freak physical marvel. It's not gonna
Speaker 1: surprise me if he is back by game two, game three.
Speaker 1: Moving forward, on another injury, Donovan Mitchell. He's had knee
Speaker 1: issues that have sidelined him for thirteen games this season,
Speaker 1: and this week Donovan had PRP treatment. Platelet rich plasma
Speaker 1: treatment is a simple but very painful process. Doctor draws
Speaker 1: blood which is then put into a centrifuge, which is
Speaker 1: a spinny thing, and then that makes the PRP. It
Speaker 1: spins it really really fast. And then I'm like, because PRP,
Speaker 1: that's scientific term. PRP contains a mixture of concentrated platelets
Speaker 1: including cyto kens and growth factors, which helps as an
Speaker 1: anti inflammatory. Kobe used to do this in Germany a lot. Essentially,
Speaker 1: it expedites the healing process. He is going to miss
Speaker 1: at least three more games, which means he's not going
Speaker 1: to be eligible for all NBA, but more importantly, he
Speaker 1: might be out longer as he won't be reevaluated for
Speaker 1: an entire week. Cleveland without Donovan very beatable, very beatable.
Speaker 1: Sooner he gets back, the better. Now we turn to
Speaker 1: an interview with my friend Bill Ryder CBS sports radio
Speaker 1: show Righter Than You, which airs ten am to noon Eastern.
Speaker 1: That's seven am his time. Wow, he's getting up early
Speaker 1: on the CBS Sports radio network. Bill appeared on my
Speaker 1: radio show bet MGM Tonight, joined by my co host
Speaker 1: Nick Ashew. You can find my show BETMGM Tonight from
Speaker 1: seven pm to eleven pm Eastern in most major markets,
Speaker 1: as well as YouTube and Twitch and the Odyssey app.
Speaker 1: Let's jump right into it, Bill, as as sharp as
Speaker 1: they come and as plugged in as they come. All right,
Speaker 1: let's get into it. I think you and I are
Speaker 1: both somewhat cynical about what we see in basketball, and
Speaker 1: you just know the psychological element's gonna come into play
Speaker 1: with the Timberwolves. We saw though, Bill, there's been a
Speaker 1: lot of anti Nuggets slander this year. Was it a
Speaker 1: flash in the pan. They don't do anything right statistically,
Speaker 1: They're like, you know, like only top ten but not
Speaker 1: top five in anything. But we saw this week against
Speaker 1: the Lakers, in winning time that when they want to
Speaker 1: turn things on, nine ozer runs just like that. Celtics
Speaker 1: they go up against the Warriors, all of a sudden
Speaker 1: they're up fifty. Who do you like and like, what
Speaker 1: did you get out of those two games this weekend?
Speaker 1: Is it feeling like just a crash course in those
Speaker 1: two ending up against one another in the finals?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Look, I love the Nuggets.
Speaker 3: I actually like I have more confidence in Denver making
Speaker 3: the fire than I do the Celtics. That's probably the
Speaker 3: wrong take. I just have more skepticism. And we could
Speaker 3: get into why on Jason Tatum in big games and.
Speaker 2: It's a question mark, it's not a certainty.
Speaker 3: People had question marks about Joker last year and he
Speaker 3: answered him And I've got questions about Missoula. For me,
Speaker 3: Denver is what what did parcels say? People tell you
Speaker 3: who they are. Listen, Djokovic has told us for forever.
Speaker 3: He has told us for his entries. I say joke,
Speaker 3: I was thinking about tennis for his entire career that
Speaker 3: he doesn't care about the regular season.
Speaker 2: He doesn't really want to play basketball in the regular season.
Speaker 3: And you said it in those rare moments, they just
Speaker 3: want an NBA Championship, where he feels frustrated, where he
Speaker 3: is motivated, where he thinks of Anthony Davis talking smack
Speaker 3: in the offseason, like we want those guys there. They've
Speaker 3: shown what they're about. I think Denver is head and
Speaker 3: shoulders above everybody in the West. I know the West
Speaker 3: is tough. We can get in some of the reasons.
Speaker 3: The thunder amazing, the predictive models. Vegas loves them, the analytics,
Speaker 3: the numbers, the eye tests.
Speaker 2: I just think they're too young. The Clippers have injury histories.
Speaker 3: The three teams I've betting on, the songs of the
Speaker 3: Lakers and the Warriors, I think are really interesting to
Speaker 3: have a lot of upside, but they obviously are extremely flawed.
Speaker 3: You put it all together, if Jamal Murray and his
Speaker 3: co star are out there together, if Nikola and Jamal
Speaker 3: are playing, they're the best team at least in the
Speaker 3: Western Conference. And I think they Yeah, I think We're
Speaker 3: going to Denver for the finals, and I guess I'm
Speaker 3: less sure on Boston.
Speaker 4: It sounds to me like, even though they're both very young,
Speaker 4: teams kind of having taken that next step this year.
Speaker 4: The Timberwolves and the Thunder. There's definitely more of a
Speaker 4: confidence that you have in the Thunder than the Timberwolves
Speaker 4: to actually make some noise in the playoffs.
Speaker 3: Yeah for me, I mean, there's a few things here
Speaker 3: right like one, and this is just a statistical reality
Speaker 3: with a couple exceptions in the last thirty years. If
Speaker 3: you're looking for if you like the gamble but you
Speaker 3: don't want to do the research, a very easy cheat
Speaker 3: sheet is who's in.
Speaker 2: The top ten and offensive and defensive rating?
Speaker 3: Bet on make sure whatever team you're betting to go
Speaker 3: the whole way fits those parameters. In fact, there was
Speaker 3: one year that I didn't do this and only one
Speaker 3: team qualified. I thought, ah, the Toronto Raptors aren't winning
Speaker 3: the NBA Championship this year, and they got some help
Speaker 3: along the way with injuries in that series against the Warriors,
Speaker 3: but they still won. I mean, it was a missed
Speaker 3: opportunity by me. And Oklahoma City on any given night
Speaker 3: is fourth or fifth in offensive and defensive rating. They're
Speaker 3: not just typically top ten and each their top five,
Speaker 3: so they have that balance. SGA is an absolute MVP
Speaker 3: candidate and a superstar. Depth isn't quite as important, but
Speaker 3: they have depth they're obviously young and athletic. The youth
Speaker 3: is a problem for me. For me on the Timberwolves,
Speaker 3: they are not balanced. They are outstanding defensively, but they're
Speaker 3: inconsistent offensively. And I don't know what the numbers are
Speaker 3: right now, guys, they're probably fifteen. They're sixteenth or seventeenth
Speaker 3: right now in offensive rating. And Rudy Gobert in that
Speaker 3: trade is no longer a joke and it's worked out.
Speaker 3: But we have seen Gobert in the postseason for a
Speaker 3: variety of reasons, not be as effective. Teams can attack them,
Speaker 3: they can pull them away from the rim. There's a
Speaker 3: lot of things you can do against Karl Anthony Towns,
Speaker 3: especially the pick and roll. Let's say it's the Warriors
Speaker 3: in a matchup. So I just think when you look
Speaker 3: at how the thunder are built, I buy them for
Speaker 3: basketball mid April and beyond, and the way Minnesota is built,
Speaker 3: I don't. And so I'm in agreement. I'm not a
Speaker 3: Karl Anthony Towns believer. Maybe I'm cynical, maybe I'm candid.
Speaker 3: Maybe it's all of those things. I don't think he's
Speaker 3: a reliable star.
Speaker 2: So you add it all up.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think the Timberwolves are very, very vulnerable for
Speaker 3: a team that's got a pretty good record.
Speaker 1: Bill, I want to talk about this Bucks team because
Speaker 1: they're coming back on the lake on the Clippers right now.
Speaker 1: But after the All Star Break, they've been really good
Speaker 1: in terms of defensive rating. Offensively, things are still kind
Speaker 1: of working themselves out, but they've beaten some teams. But
Speaker 1: when you look at who they've beaten after that Grizzlies loss,
Speaker 1: the only real quality win that they had was against
Speaker 1: those Timberwolves. They beat the Sixers without Embiid. They beat
Speaker 1: the Hornets twice, and I guess you could call the
Speaker 1: Bulls a nine seed a quality win because they beat
Speaker 1: him in Chicago and now they're losing to the Clippers.
Speaker 1: Have the Bucks actually figured things out to you or
Speaker 1: is this new thing about the soft schedule that they've had.
Speaker 2: I don't think so, I.
Speaker 3: Mean, and I want to talk myself in to it,
Speaker 3: because when MB's healthy and along with Jokichianas is as
Speaker 3: good and impactful as anybody on earth, and when you
Speaker 3: have the best player on any given night, you should
Speaker 3: be able to win.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: Full disclosure, that radio show that I host has a
Speaker 3: segment at the end of the week where we make
Speaker 3: somebody the bum of the week. Every week, someone's the
Speaker 3: bum of the Week on Friday. I think we have
Speaker 3: had eight weeks and I think I've made it Doc
Speaker 3: Rivers four or five times. So just so there's a
Speaker 3: little perspective or bias or whatever you want to call it.
Speaker 3: I am the world's biggest Doc Rivers doubter, and I
Speaker 3: really like that Bucks organization.
Speaker 2: I know people in the front office. I like them.
Speaker 2: I'm from that part of the country. I love Jiannis.
Speaker 3: When they hired Doc Rivers, a very significant part of
Speaker 3: me died inside, just shriveled up and went away because
Speaker 3: I don't believe in doc Rivers. But that's really a
Speaker 3: postseason level of doubt, not regular season. But I don't
Speaker 3: think even in the regular season that they have.
Speaker 2: Figured it out.
Speaker 3: They have not been consistently excellent. They have had some
Speaker 3: fine wins, and I think there's a lot going on here.
Speaker 3: They obviously fired Adrian Griffin. Something was wrong there. He
Speaker 3: had an outstanding record. Damian hasn't worked out and.
Speaker 2: He's talked really candidly, and this is human stuff.
Speaker 3: But it impacts work for everybody. Including ballplayers, basketball players.
Speaker 3: The guy's miserable and he's lonely, and he's telling Chris
Speaker 3: Mannix that he's lonely and he's going through a divorce
Speaker 3: and none of his friends and family are there. He
Speaker 3: doesn't like Milwaukee and he wanted to clearly be in Miami.
Speaker 3: And I think you've got a lot of angst and
Speaker 3: pressure on this team and organization the front office is
Speaker 3: I understand, it feels like they're under the gun, even
Speaker 3: if they're not the ones who brought in Doc. Doc's
Speaker 3: got this long term contract, but he's become a walking
Speaker 3: joke and a meme. So I think a lot of
Speaker 3: the stress, the pressure of the expectations, the sense that
Speaker 3: they're a disaster has stayed with this team even as
Speaker 3: they played better basketball. And when I look at what
Speaker 3: they're about, they're defensively, especially on the perimeter, they're just
Speaker 3: they're not good enough. Pap Bev is not the solution.
Speaker 3: Doc Rivers is not an offensive genius. We get into
Speaker 3: the reasons why, but suffice it to say, I think
Speaker 3: he limits offensive output on teams that are talented, and.
Speaker 2: They have not been good enough defensively to make up
Speaker 2: for that. I'm very worried about Milwaukee.
Speaker 1: As it stands now Bill, if this playoff started today
Speaker 1: and everything remain the same, the Heat, the Heat would
Speaker 1: play the Bucks again in the first round. And you
Speaker 1: mentioned the angst and the front office that you've spoken to,
Speaker 1: and Giannis has been candid about needing to compete for
Speaker 1: a championship, as has Dame. What happens if they were
Speaker 1: to draw the Heat and lose in the first round
Speaker 1: for the second year in a row.
Speaker 3: By the way, I look that East has a bunch
Speaker 3: of land mines, And I know it's sort of a cliche,
Speaker 3: but I'm in on the Heat at least in a
Speaker 3: series like that. Who knows what the line would be
Speaker 3: here the numbers, but I just think they playoff. Basketball
Speaker 3: is a real thing for a lot of reasons, like
Speaker 3: the whole Heat culture thing in the postseason.
Speaker 2: So I think that's a reasonable outcome if they played
Speaker 2: each other. What happens? So I think John Horst, the GM.
Speaker 3: Who I think is very good at his job, I
Speaker 3: think he's I think he probably gets fired. I mean,
Speaker 3: I'm speculating here. I don't know, and it's not like
Speaker 3: I'm sourced with the owners. I mean that's a really
Speaker 3: unless you're Asrian Worzanowski, you tend not to be.
Speaker 2: But I would. I think the front office would be
Speaker 2: in a lot of trouble. I think it would be.
Speaker 2: Really we've seen Damian Lillard.
Speaker 3: Force his way out of poor I don't know that
Speaker 3: that would happen in Milwaukee, but he is already. He's
Speaker 3: saying repeatedly and I think strategically that he's miserable, which
Speaker 3: I know some people around the NBA are just interested in.
Speaker 3: Is he laying the groundwork for frustration? And I think
Speaker 3: the idea Giannis is going to be there forever is
Speaker 3: predicated only as you noted, on the idea that they're
Speaker 3: going to compete for championships. So that's a long winded
Speaker 3: way of saying it would be a well, my kids
Speaker 3: say what's appropriate for a poopstorm. It would be an
Speaker 3: absolute disaster. It would be an absolute poop storm. I
Speaker 3: don't know who goes away. I just know Doc Rivers
Speaker 3: never takes the blame he managed up with that organization's
Speaker 3: ownership group. As I understand it, I'm not convinced the
Speaker 3: front office was one hundred percent the force.
Speaker 2: That brought him in.
Speaker 3: I think Doc has a lot of juice there. Doc
Speaker 3: is never the guy that's blamed, not in the short term.
Speaker 3: So I think you see changes in frustrations, and I
Speaker 3: think you see an organization that's in a pretty tough
Speaker 3: shape just in terms of their culture and their planning.
Speaker 3: If they lose in the first round to a team
Speaker 3: like the.
Speaker 4: Miami we're kind of sitting here waiting for that next
Speaker 4: What star is gonna ask out of what place? If
Speaker 4: it's not anything in Milwaukee. I mean, what does Dallas
Speaker 4: need to do this season, this postseason to keep Luca
Speaker 4: from looking around going like, I guess I got Kyrie,
Speaker 4: but like at some point you think he's probably gonna
Speaker 4: be unhappy, if he's not already unhappy.
Speaker 3: I know that there are some I have talked to
Speaker 3: some gns and some front office people who it's speculative,
Speaker 3: but who are licking their chops at the idea of
Speaker 3: disaster in Dallas. So that so that Luke would make
Speaker 3: himself available, because obviously he made that run to the
Speaker 3: conference finals that was amazing. But that's the only time
Speaker 3: that Mavericks team has been out of the first round
Speaker 3: with Luka Dancic. So what do they have to do.
Speaker 3: It's a really good question, and the West is brutal.
Speaker 3: I don't think they'll accomplish whatever the standard is. I
Speaker 3: think the second round, you make the second round depends
Speaker 3: on the matchup, right, But if you're I mean, if
Speaker 3: you're going down against a team like the thunder, who
Speaker 3: I think, again are really really good. I don't know
Speaker 3: they go all the way, but a really good or
Speaker 3: even a healthy Clippers team, and obviously Denver I still
Speaker 3: think is the best.
Speaker 2: Team in the Western Conference.
Speaker 3: And you know you're losing six or seven, hard fought
Speaker 3: it went well, Maybe you got to add some pieces,
Speaker 3: or you got to make some adjustments.
Speaker 2: Next year, maybe things are okay.
Speaker 3: I think if you lose in the first round, which
Speaker 3: is a very very likely outcome, I think for Dallas,
Speaker 3: I think you're right. I think Luka Doncic maybe this year,
Speaker 3: maybe next year, who knows, there's at least a concern
Speaker 3: of the Mavericks that.
Speaker 2: He decides he doesn't want to be there. Maybe not.
Speaker 3: It's hard to get to crawl into the brain of
Speaker 3: a superstar, but I think it's a good point. I
Speaker 3: think both those organizations, and more so Dallas, because they
Speaker 3: have obviously not won a championship with their current superstar,
Speaker 3: unlike the Bucks. If they can at least convince Luca
Speaker 3: that the plan they haven't placed Kyrie Irvering plus the
Speaker 3: guys that got at the trade deadline, and what they
Speaker 3: have is a viable path forward.
Speaker 2: We know in the NBA anngs can turn the demands
Speaker 2: pretty quickly.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you mentioned Okay c Bill. Obviously they're fighting
Speaker 1: to be in the number one seed, but they've got Chet.
Speaker 1: He seems to be having a real impact. I saw
Speaker 1: the Wemby versus Chet matchup. Wemby's been very clear he
Speaker 1: wants to win now. I've I've heard some rumors. I've
Speaker 1: heard some bubbling about a Trey Young marriage. What are
Speaker 1: you hearing about Atlanta and what they may do?
Speaker 2: So, yeah, it's a great question.
Speaker 3: So my understanding, I think we talked about this a
Speaker 3: year ago and Quinn Snyder got hired at a really
Speaker 3: weird time at the end of the season. Having done
Speaker 3: some reporting with folks in that front office and people
Speaker 3: familiar with their thinking, my understanding was Quinn Snyder had
Speaker 3: the power when he came in.
Speaker 2: Part of the reason he.
Speaker 3: Took the job to make an evaluation on anybody, including
Speaker 3: Trey Young, and that he was.
Speaker 2: Going to take that time and if he wanted to move.
Speaker 3: On from Tray he would, And as I understand it,
Speaker 3: that has gone from an academic possibility to a real
Speaker 3: possibility this summer. Now, the problem I think for San
Speaker 3: Antonio is you got to convince Trey Young that he
Speaker 3: wants to be there for the same reason you got
Speaker 3: to keep Daman Lillard happy or Luka Dancic right or wrong,
Speaker 3: whatever you think of it.
Speaker 2: The reality is the brass tacks of.
Speaker 3: Being an NBA GM front office person is if your
Speaker 3: star wants to.
Speaker 2: Leave, they get to lead. That's just the way that
Speaker 2: then it works. So I think the Lakers and Trey
Speaker 2: Young make a lot more sense. And I know that
Speaker 2: is a in Bolk Trey Young and the Lakers. I
Speaker 2: talked about it, or at least eyed.
Speaker 4: I think that, yeah, it's been It's been thrown around
Speaker 4: a lot, that's for sure. Bill Ryders CBS Sports, CBS
Speaker 4: Sports Radio soon to be NBA.
Speaker 2: Podcast as well. Be on the lookout for that.
Speaker 4: Love having you on man. Appreciate the time, good es.
Speaker 1: Guys, that's all the time that we have for this
Speaker 1: episode heat Checked. Thank you to Bill Ryder, Thank you
Speaker 1: to my bet MGM crew. Come back Friday Thursday for
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Speaker 3: We'll see