Speaker 1: On this episode of The Eat Jack, It's Eastern Conference
Speaker 1: contender time. Baby, Why do I go Eastern? Why do
Speaker 1: I squeak like that? I'm here to give you my
Speaker 1: take on the four teams that I think are most
Speaker 1: likely to come out of the East. We're talking Boston,
Speaker 1: We're talking Cleveland, We're talking Philadelphia, and of course mulwak
Speaker 1: He No Lord forgive me. I'll even bring on Dan
Speaker 1: Favali to help me break down the East. Papa Beans.
Speaker 1: No time for losers in this episode, So let's get
Speaker 1: right into it. Anthony, drop that motherfucking beat that should
Speaker 1: be Rihanna Kiyanti Kiyanti. We covered the West yesterday, came
Speaker 1: to the conclusion that the Nuggets are gonna win the
Speaker 1: fucking whole thing. So why am I doing this? Well,
Speaker 1: we gotta figure out who's coming out of the East, right,
Speaker 1: Gotta ask the same question, and out west, we're swapping
Speaker 1: out the Denver Nuggets for the Boston Celtics. Can anyone
Speaker 1: beat Boston? Boston is a wagon. That wagon is driven
Speaker 1: not by Drew Holliday, not by Christas porzingis not by Jalen.
Speaker 1: I only go right Brown. This is Jason Tatum's rig
Speaker 1: to drive and Jason Tatum has been incredible Jason regular
Speaker 1: season Tatum quietly amazingly and getting very little credit for it.
Speaker 1: Why because we don't trust that man. He's two pretty
Speaker 1: in his postseason runs, We're still holding stuff against him.
Speaker 1: How good though? Has he been? Twenty eight nine and
Speaker 1: six with two point one stock stock stocks per game? Yes,
Speaker 1: he's playing defense on an astounding fifty thirty five and
Speaker 1: eighty six. Get your fucking three point percentage of Jason Tatum. Those, though,
Speaker 1: are superstar numbers, which you would expect from a guy
Speaker 1: who will very soon beginning the bag the highest paid
Speaker 1: player in the NBA is coming for Jason Tatum. The
Speaker 1: Celtics have the best record in the NBA. They are
Speaker 1: eight full games ahead of the second place Cleveland Cavaliers
Speaker 1: out East, and they are doing this in very unsurprising ways.
Speaker 1: They average one hundred and twenty one points per game,
Speaker 1: that is fifth in the league. But did you know
Speaker 1: that they are second in the NBA in defensive rating
Speaker 1: behind the Timberwolves, who, by the way, are twentieth and
Speaker 1: points per game top five and offense top five and
Speaker 1: defense that's that championship roh run type of statistic. Right,
Speaker 1: that's what you need. Top five D, top five. Oh pause,
Speaker 1: top five D gets you top five. Oh get it.
Speaker 1: You're gonna do some damage with that. Bamit. Closer look
Speaker 1: at the stats shows Boston as the number one net rating.
Speaker 1: I'm proud of myself for that impromptu joke. Number six
Speaker 1: assists the turnover ratio number four, rebounding percentage number one
Speaker 1: in rebounds number five, internal percentage number four in effective
Speaker 1: field goal percentage number four in true shooting percentage number four,
Speaker 1: in three point percentage, number two in blocks. I'm exhausted
Speaker 1: by all the things that the Boston Celtics do well.
Speaker 1: They are the anti Denver Nuggets that we talked about
Speaker 1: last episode. In not being the top eight and almost
Speaker 1: any major offensive or defensive category, you could hardly find
Speaker 1: any metrics that the Celtics are not among the league leaders,
Speaker 1: except for probably coaching. Boston is also facing a favorable
Speaker 1: schedule down the stretch, which should allow them to rest
Speaker 1: their stars and the lead up to the playoffs. They
Speaker 1: played Portland, Washington, Charlotte, and Detroit twice down the stretch.
Speaker 1: Four of the five worst teams in the NBA and
Speaker 1: some historically bad teams in NBA history. Add in two
Speaker 1: games with Atlanta that's who just got waxed by the
Speaker 1: Brooklyn Nets. That's like having ten rest days. So yeah,
Speaker 1: they're the presumptive favorites out East, but they're not the
Speaker 1: only team with the chance. There have been teams. Two
Speaker 1: teams that have been struggling that I think have a chance,
Speaker 1: and another team who has been a goddamn bulldozer. I
Speaker 1: am talking the bulldozer, the Cleveland Cavaliers. They're twenty and
Speaker 1: five in their last twenty five, although they have lost
Speaker 1: four of seven, they were nineteen to one point one point.
Speaker 1: They have been incredibly good as of late. We thought
Speaker 1: at one point, maybe they'll just ride this whole thing out,
Speaker 1: just win every other game. They just win until win
Speaker 1: until April. Mostly this is because of their defense, right
Speaker 1: they only trail the Celtics and the Timberwolves in defensive rating.
Speaker 1: They hold opponents under one hundred points around a third
Speaker 1: of the time. Gross games fun for them over the
Speaker 1: last thirty games. That is the facts. A lot of
Speaker 1: this is because we're seeing the return of Evan Mobley,
Speaker 1: who came back a month ago. By the way, they
Speaker 1: were good without Evan Mobley. Let's be honest. He came
Speaker 1: back a month ago. He's averaging sixteen nine and three
Speaker 1: with two stocks per game. The Calves are ten to
Speaker 1: one in their last eleven Jared Allen is averaging eighteen
Speaker 1: eleven and two with three stocks per game during the stretch.
Speaker 1: Max Streuce, who they got from Miami they plucked him
Speaker 1: and stole him, is healthy and he is playing very well.
Speaker 1: He scored fifteen in the last quarter, including a last
Speaker 1: second game winning half quarter against the MAVs. Jesus Christ
Speaker 1: a game winning half quarter fifty nine feet the most
Speaker 1: meaningful half court shot we've ever seen. The team is
Speaker 1: so deep they'll put your ass to sleep. Sam Merrill
Speaker 1: getting DMPs, but when he's not, he's lighting things up
Speaker 1: from deep. Dean Wade, why isn't he getting more minutes?
Speaker 1: Isaaccorro emerging from nowhere. They've all played very well off
Speaker 1: the bench when they get playing time. JB. Bickerstaff how
Speaker 1: much playing time is he getting them? I don't know.
Speaker 1: Does he know? That's the question, and that means the
Speaker 1: come playoff time, the rotation won't need to be quite
Speaker 1: so tight, meaning Donovan Jared Allen Mobley, they can wrest
Speaker 1: a little more than normal heading into the playoffs. Letting it.
Speaker 1: Looking at the stats, the Cavs are fourth and net
Speaker 1: rating top ten and assist ratio, assists and rebound percentage.
Speaker 1: That's obvious, the rebound percentage component because you have Jared
Speaker 1: Allen and Evan Mobley and they're both beasts. With Donovan
Speaker 1: Mitchell run in the show when he's on, that's the
Speaker 1: key piece. When he's on, they have a legitimate bucker
Speaker 1: getter who can match up with anyone in the NBA.
Speaker 1: So yeah, this is a team that can play defense.
Speaker 1: They have the ability to put up points. They do
Speaker 1: get cold, but when they put up points, they make
Speaker 1: them very dangerous come April, and man, the other two
Speaker 1: teams I fancy in the East might shock people who
Speaker 1: have heard me on the heat check. The first is
Speaker 1: the Philadelphia seventy six ers. What I know, I know
Speaker 1: what you're saying, MB. It's gone Trista. This team's fucking dead.
Speaker 1: They stink. They're seven and seventeen without him, four and
Speaker 1: twelve in their last sixteen Guess what, and guess what
Speaker 1: and guess what. I don't care. I do not care
Speaker 1: what I do care about. Is this from Tim Bontemps.
Speaker 1: Joel Embiid says he hopes to still come back this season,
Speaker 1: said he's feeling good. No timeline for his return, said
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter where the team is at. If he
Speaker 1: can't play, he's going to play. Ooo baby, And now
Speaker 1: that we've got to beat himself, saying that he envisions
Speaker 1: himself coming back by the end of March. I tell
Speaker 1: you what, I'm betting him. Bid will be back by
Speaker 1: the end of the season. And what I'd like to
Speaker 1: see is how he plays with a guy like Buddy Healed,
Speaker 1: who opens up spacing in a way that he has
Speaker 1: not had before. Tobias Harris will emerge from the crypt
Speaker 1: because he has been got awful without Embiid. Tyrese Maxey
Speaker 1: is a star, probably gonna win Most Improved Player. He's
Speaker 1: put up twenty five to five and six in his
Speaker 1: last ten games after he poured in fifty one points
Speaker 1: and that includes a few stinkers. Stinkers, Buddy, Buddy's been
Speaker 1: very good. Average seventeen three and six is a sixer
Speaker 1: forty two percent from three. That is a game changer
Speaker 1: for a team that was the worst in the NBA
Speaker 1: and three point percentage before the trade deadline. They needed
Speaker 1: that buddy healed. By the way, Indiana needs that buddy
Speaker 1: hild We'll talk about that some other time. The big question, though,
Speaker 1: is how far the Sixers will fall in the East
Speaker 1: by the time Embad gets back. The worst case scenario
Speaker 1: for fans of the league, probably Adam Silver, is if
Speaker 1: they the Sixers are a playing team, Embiid is healthy,
Speaker 1: and then they either get the Celtics or the Bucks
Speaker 1: or the Cavs in the first round. Nobody wants that.
Speaker 1: Nobody wants Philly in the playoffs early, especially if Embiid
Speaker 1: has had a ton of time to rest almost an
Speaker 1: entire offseason to get into form. Joel Embiid in October
Speaker 1: is one of the scariest mans in life. Joel Embiid October,
Speaker 1: Embiid in April, fuck you, fuck your life. Add that
Speaker 1: to the fact that Nick Nurse is coaching, and you
Speaker 1: can't count at least two losses directly attributed to Doc
Speaker 1: Rivers steering into the Abyss and making no defensive adjustments
Speaker 1: or offensive adjustments and then blaming everyone Danger Danger, Danger,
Speaker 1: Which is funny because the other team that I like
Speaker 1: in the East, Danger Danger, Danger. Trista are the Bucks,
Speaker 1: which is kind of funny. I actually like think about this.
Speaker 1: I haven't thought about this at all until just now.
Speaker 1: Deer in headlights, fear the deer. Fear the deer in headlights.
Speaker 1: Doc rivers anyway, But trista human cooking dog rivers all month. Yes,
Speaker 1: and he's deserved it. He's been throwing people under the
Speaker 1: bus his entire life, and he's been doing it for
Speaker 1: two straight weeks now. Even though Milwaukee was three and
Speaker 1: seven in their last ten games of Doc Rivers's Bucks tenure,
Speaker 1: he's now put them on their back five and two stretch.
Speaker 1: He's righted the ship, hopefully. The defensive rating under Doc
Speaker 1: is one twelve, which would be good for top five
Speaker 1: in the NBA. This is a team that was awful defensively,
Speaker 1: and he's taken them from the bottom of the barrel
Speaker 1: to the top of the heap, flat out off all
Speaker 1: under ageran Griffin bottom third in the league after top
Speaker 1: five consecutive top five defenses Underbut I think I repeated something.
Speaker 1: Don't worry about it. How is the rest of the
Speaker 1: team adjusted to Doc. Let's just say it's a work
Speaker 1: in progress. Dame has been seventeen six and seven in
Speaker 1: his last seven games, not amazing. I think he averaged
Speaker 1: thirty last year, maybe more, maybe thirty five. But he's
Speaker 1: averaged a plus sixteen point six plus minus in those games,
Speaker 1: which really is all that matters. Win games, beat the
Speaker 1: shit out of their teams, and get in and get out.
Speaker 1: Anytime they need forty from Dame, he can give them
Speaker 1: to them. Also, he's grabbing boards addition out of assists
Speaker 1: like an absolute machine lately. So that's good. Yiannis twenty
Speaker 1: eight eleven and six in his last seven, which is
Speaker 1: kind of what you'd expect from Jannis plus seven plus
Speaker 1: minus average net rating per game in this last seven.
Speaker 1: I think I said last seven multiple times again. But
Speaker 1: it's Brook Lopez who has been flourishing in doc system
Speaker 1: ten to five and two with three blocks and a
Speaker 1: steel in his last seven games, which by the way,
Speaker 1: is lower than his series an average, but it does
Speaker 1: not matter. His net rating during that stretch was plus
Speaker 1: nineteen and then the plus minus before that with Adrian Griffin.
Speaker 1: I mean, he was just tanking his value. So yeah,
Speaker 1: things are much better in Milwaukee if they figure the
Speaker 1: offense out with Dame and Giannis meshing like we all
Speaker 1: initially expected, which has been taking some time. Not he go,
Speaker 1: I go, he go, I go. And then a team
Speaker 1: like Philly or Miami knocks out Boston the first or
Speaker 1: second round. Oh boy, the Bucks are dangerous, baby, and
Speaker 1: now that they share a handicap with the Boston Celtics coaching.
Speaker 1: To help makes sense of all of this malwarkey in
Speaker 1: the East, all of this ambiguity in the East, I
Speaker 1: talked to Dan Favale with a good Kiyanti, who covers
Speaker 1: the NBA for Bleacher Report on my other show at
Speaker 1: MGM The Night, which airs seven to eleven Eastern in
Speaker 1: most major markets and live on Twitch and YouTube and
Speaker 1: on the Odyssey app. A lot of platforms you can
Speaker 1: find us on I think like eighty five different radio
Speaker 1: stations around the country too. I'm joined by my co
Speaker 1: host Nick Ashew. He gave us tons of info on
Speaker 1: what's happening out East. So let's get right into it,
Speaker 1: damn for all.
Speaker 2: What should we think of this Sixers team the rest
Speaker 2: of the way leading up to the playoffs?
Speaker 3: I think you have to look at it from two angles,
Speaker 3: which the first one is if he's going to come back,
Speaker 3: you do want to tread water, like you said, where
Speaker 3: it's not even necessarily staying in that six spot, but
Speaker 3: can you avoid the Boston matchup at least until later round. However,
Speaker 3: the second part of that, as you mentioned, with the injury,
Speaker 3: he's been banged up in every single postseason that he's
Speaker 3: been played in, and so to come back from this
Speaker 3: extensive absence with this injury where you might wonder if
Speaker 3: there's going to need to be any additional work done
Speaker 3: over the offseason. That's going to be in the back
Speaker 3: of your mind, and it does make you wonder a
Speaker 3: little bit if it's worth it, just given how much
Speaker 3: he has struggled in postseasons pass they're clearly better off
Speaker 3: with whatever version they could get of him, as we've seen.
Speaker 3: But if you're not even going to come back with
Speaker 3: enough time to get re acclimated to maybe learn how
Speaker 3: to play with Buddy Heald a little bit more, which
Speaker 3: is the type of floor space or he's really never had,
Speaker 3: I do wonder how much of an impact it ends
Speaker 3: up having. But if you're the six spot, or if
Speaker 3: you can avoid the Boston matchup in the first round,
Speaker 3: I think it's absolutely huge of course to have Joel
Speaker 3: Embiid out there in.
Speaker 1: Terms of betting, because that's you know, what we think about,
Speaker 1: not just the likelihood but the price too. So the
Speaker 1: Sixers to win the East plus fourteen fifty, how would
Speaker 1: you bet a team like the Sixers if you assume
Speaker 1: that Joel Embiid is in form and healthy for the
Speaker 1: playoffs and they're in a top six spot.
Speaker 3: That still just doesn't seem like good enough value to me,
Speaker 3: like covering around kind of that fifteen to one area,
Speaker 3: because we know what a banged up Joel Embiid looks like.
Speaker 3: And given how much how dominant the Celtics have been
Speaker 3: this year, and the Bucks are starting to look a
Speaker 3: little bit better on the defensive end, and the Calves
Speaker 3: are healthier, and if the Knicks ever get healthier, it
Speaker 3: just feels like, even with the Sixers having this version
Speaker 3: of Joell and bid back, if you can tell me
Speaker 3: Joel and Bee's gonna come back and then just be
Speaker 3: the MVP favorite type of talent again, then yeah, this
Speaker 3: is absolutely money or value to smash. But when you
Speaker 3: look at the rest of the East, I just like,
Speaker 3: unless that thing was gonna shift into like seventeen eighteen
Speaker 3: nineteen to one, I would probably steer.
Speaker 1: Clear of it.
Speaker 2: Dan, as a Knicks fan sitting here myself, I've suffered
Speaker 2: a very very very long time in my life. Help
Speaker 2: me feel better about this team. Help me feel like
Speaker 2: not just Jalen Brunson who's playing tonight, og Nanobi, he's
Speaker 2: at least ramping back up to play. We got Julius
Speaker 2: Randall still hurt. You're hoping he's gonna be back this year.
Speaker 2: Should there be any optimism still that this team gets
Speaker 2: healthy in time for the playoffs and can get back
Speaker 2: to you know where they were given how open, like
Speaker 2: you point out how open the East really can be.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think there should be optimism. I mean, the
Speaker 3: Mitchell Robinson and Joyous Randall stuff is the big one.
Speaker 3: Those are two guys that it would not shock me
Speaker 3: if they don't play again this year. But when you
Speaker 3: look at how Ojananobe came over after the trade, very
Speaker 3: little practice time and just immediately had this huge impact
Speaker 3: for them at both ends of the floor because he
Speaker 3: doesn't need to dominate the ball on offense. If you
Speaker 3: can believe that Baion Vagda is going to play a
Speaker 3: little bit better and he will, you probably have enough
Speaker 3: to get by on offense. If you're just getting a
Speaker 3: healthy Og, maybe an eighty percent of Isaiah Hartenstein who's
Speaker 3: been banged up, that's a team that you know, I'm
Speaker 3: not going to pick them to beat Boston. I don't
Speaker 3: know if I picked them to beat Milwaukee, but they
Speaker 3: could win any given seven game series. I think in
Speaker 3: the Eastern Conference right now, it's just a matter of
Speaker 3: getting enough bodies back, and specifically for me, it's Hartenstein
Speaker 3: and Og, and it does look like those are two
Speaker 3: guys that, barring catastrophe, should be available for them by
Speaker 3: the time the playoffs start.
Speaker 1: When you look at the Bucks, because obviously it's been
Speaker 1: a disaster Dan up until really the last like week
Speaker 1: and a half, right you look at what this team
Speaker 1: has done with Doc Rivers in their first ten games,
Speaker 1: three and seven straight up, but defensive rating, and the
Speaker 1: reason that they hired Doc was to fix the defense.
Speaker 1: Top five defensive ratings since the All Star Break, getting
Speaker 1: some quality wins, the offense feels like it's clicking a
Speaker 1: little bit more. How sustainable do you think this Bucks
Speaker 1: play is? Defensively and offensive? When we start to see
Speaker 1: a setting like the playoffs where everything's a little bit
Speaker 1: more condensed.
Speaker 3: I think the defense is absolutely sustainable because you're looking
Speaker 3: at some of the stuff they've cleaned up is low
Speaker 3: hanging fruit, and it's not necessarily a talent issue that
Speaker 3: they're dealing with. In that perspective, the offense is weird
Speaker 3: because we've seen, you know, flickers and glimpses into what
Speaker 3: they could be when Damian Lowd and Jannis Tantakoombo feel
Speaker 3: like they're playing together and cole lacing, but it too
Speaker 3: often feels like they're playing separately still to me at least,
Speaker 3: and we've seen Dame have these uncharacteristic peaks and valleys
Speaker 3: when it comes to his own shot making, and so
Speaker 3: you can just bet on him progressing to his norm.
Speaker 3: But that's something at this point that concerns me a
Speaker 3: little bit more than ken the defense sustained, because the
Speaker 3: whole point of bringing in Dame was the playoff proof
Speaker 3: your offense, and just based off what I've seen with
Speaker 3: the Bucks even since the Doc Rivers higher, I don't
Speaker 3: know that you can say they've done that just.
Speaker 1: Yet with Doc Rivers because we know what his rap
Speaker 1: is on him, right it's like blown three one leads
Speaker 1: like maybe not getting the best out of his players.
Speaker 1: Even you know, Tom Thibodeau is has been seen as
Speaker 1: the reason why he got that championship with Boston. How
Speaker 1: do you factor in the Doc Rivers element of this, considering,
Speaker 1: you know how what their upside could actually be.
Speaker 3: I honestly don't know how to price it in. I
Speaker 3: think at the end of the day, Doc is probably
Speaker 3: a better coach than people credit him for. I really
Speaker 3: think where he has an overinflated track record is when
Speaker 3: you talk about managing superstar egos or these finished products.
Speaker 3: Everywhere he's been with the exceptional Milwaukee's so far, there's
Speaker 3: been these weird behind the scenes locker room stuff. When
Speaker 3: you look at both iterations of the Clippers, both iterations
Speaker 3: of the of the Sixers most recently, it doesn't seem like,
Speaker 3: well the deal with that in Milwaukee, at least immediately,
Speaker 3: maybe if they flame out in the playoffs. I think
Speaker 3: when it comes to pulling some different levers on the
Speaker 3: defensive end, he is absolutely a coach that can do
Speaker 3: that for them. We've seen him do a little bit
Speaker 3: of it where the Bucks have played more aggressively. Is
Speaker 3: he the coach that's going to be creative enough offensively
Speaker 3: to tap in to their full ceiling. I honestly don't know,
Speaker 3: And even that, to me, I don't view him as
Speaker 3: a huge factory. To me, it's more like, is Damian
Speaker 3: Liller gonna be nuclears? He's gonna be able to hit
Speaker 3: those off the dribble jumpers because the driving game has
Speaker 3: been there, those off the dribble jumpers that have been
Speaker 3: all over the place, and that's arguably maybe the one
Speaker 3: the most important shot in basketball when it comes down
Speaker 3: to the playoffs, when you look at the level of
Speaker 3: defenses you'll be facing.
Speaker 1: How real dan are the Calves to you? Because they're
Speaker 1: sitting there at the two spot and I feel like
Speaker 1: no one's really talking about them. Is that is the
Speaker 1: reason why? Because it's just not a sexy market, or
Speaker 1: because they flamed out in the first round against the Knicks? Like,
Speaker 1: for you, what is it that we should be thinking?
Speaker 1: How should we be thinking about the Calves?
Speaker 3: I do think a lot of people have last year's
Speaker 3: postseason in the back of their mind, which is pretty
Speaker 3: fair given the way it ended. I think this Calves
Speaker 3: team is a lot better. They play with more pace
Speaker 3: on the offensive end, even in the half court. The
Speaker 3: bigger issue for me is they still have some front
Speaker 3: court warts to figure out when it comes to Evan Mobley,
Speaker 3: Jared as even George Niang. You know, should Dean Wade
Speaker 3: be playing more minutes over him? Should you make sure
Speaker 3: Sam Merrill's on the court over him? And it feels
Speaker 3: like JB. Bickerstaff is sometimes married to guys a little
Speaker 3: bit too long. But we've also seen him close some
Speaker 3: games without Evan Mobley and roll with Jared Allen, and
Speaker 3: so that front court awkwardness I think accounts for maybe
Speaker 3: why so many people are skeptical, and I honestly do
Speaker 3: think it's fair because we've seen them lose some winnable
Speaker 3: games down the stretch of late and even like that
Speaker 3: near miss against the Mavericks where they should have lost
Speaker 3: lost if it wasn't for Max s Druce's heroics. That
Speaker 3: word I would use is just awkwardness where it feels
Speaker 3: like they're still figuring out some stuff about themselves and
Speaker 3: I don't know if they'll do it by the postseason,
Speaker 3: but sort of hammering out that frontline rotation, the three
Speaker 3: four five, and knowing what combinations you can turn to
Speaker 3: when it matters most. I think that's going to wind
Speaker 3: up being the sticking point for them.
Speaker 1: Dan, if all things are like, all things considered and
Speaker 1: everyone's healthy, who is the second best team in the conference?
Speaker 1: To you? Because Miami it feels like every year they
Speaker 1: struggle in the regular season, we count them out, and
Speaker 1: then when it's winning time, they figure out a way
Speaker 1: to slay everyone. They've beaten the Celtics and multiple multiple
Speaker 1: postseasons Sixers and multiple postseasons Bucks and multiple postseasons. For you,
Speaker 1: are they the second best? And if not, what do
Speaker 1: you think holds them back?
Speaker 3: I can't bring myself to say they're their second best
Speaker 3: team just because all the things I've seen, all the
Speaker 3: data points tell me that they are not. But there's
Speaker 3: that it's not even a logical because they've proven it
Speaker 3: now they're playing better lately. I think the offense still
Speaker 3: is a house of cards feel to it, where it's
Speaker 3: even with Jimmy Butler coming on, even with bam Adebayo
Speaker 3: being more aggressive, we have not seen enough of Terry
Speaker 3: Rozier mixed in with everybody. They don't even know who
Speaker 3: they're gonna start. I think when they're at full strength,
Speaker 3: when the games really start to matter. Their offens just
Speaker 3: feels like it's one, not just a shot creator, but like,
Speaker 3: you know, a nine or ten on a scale of
Speaker 3: one to ten level shot creator, because even Jimmy Butler
Speaker 3: doesn't give you that perimeter level element of scoring on
Speaker 3: on most nights, He's going to be more from the
Speaker 3: outside in. And to miss that player, you're not gonna
Speaker 3: get that from Terry Year. You're not gonna get enough
Speaker 3: of it from Tyler Hero. So I would still pick
Speaker 3: Milwaukee or Cleveland over them. But when you see how
Speaker 3: the Knicks have started to play with their injuries, the
Speaker 3: sixers injuries, the pacers of the Magic being what they are,
Speaker 3: and how Miami started to perk up, and given their
Speaker 3: track record in previous years, it's could they be like
Speaker 3: the third or fourth team and settle into that spot? Yes,
Speaker 3: But to go for number two right now, just I
Speaker 3: don't trust the offense nearly enough to slot them there.
Speaker 2: Dan got about less than a minute here, real quick.
Speaker 2: Who got the Wemby Chet match up again tonight? Is
Speaker 2: there any way the Chet Holmgren, barring injury to Wemby,
Speaker 2: can catch up and win Rookie of the Year over
Speaker 2: Victor Webber, Yama Chet Holmburn.
Speaker 3: I mean, by the odds makers, probably not, But when
Speaker 3: you look at the voters, I could see them pricing
Speaker 3: in how hot he was at the beginning of the
Speaker 3: season and how cold Wemby was. But given the things
Speaker 3: Wemby has done since the Spurs have basically made him
Speaker 3: a center, that award is just his to lose, and
Speaker 3: I really just don't see him loosening his grip on it.
Speaker 2: It's gonna be like, oh, I cannot wait for this
Speaker 2: game tonight, Dan FAVALLEI Bleach your report. Great to have
Speaker 2: you on again, man, appreciate it.
Speaker 3: Thank you guys so much for having me take care
Speaker 3: of her.
Speaker 1: That's all the time that we after this episode of
Speaker 1: The Heat Check, come back Monday with an all new episode.
Speaker 1: Check out the feed for past episodes and many episodes
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Speaker 1: that you need to return and never to be found again,
Speaker 1: except for then your mom calls the manager of the Lows,
Speaker 1: who's not really a manager, he's just the customer service agent,
Speaker 1: and then he emails it to you.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: Technology, do not forget the follow the Heat Check Call
Speaker 1: season long. That means a download, that means subscribe, that
Speaker 1: means tell all your friends, all of them, even that
Speaker 1: guy at Low's who tells you in a hoty tone
Speaker 1: that no, the guy that you talk to on the phone,
Speaker 1: not the manager. He only works at customer service and
Speaker 1: he's wearing a mask telling you, don't you slander David.
Speaker 1: He helped me exchange my wrong side security door for
Speaker 1: the right size one and it's still unclear. And by
Speaker 1: the way, Tristan Crik has a podcast called The heat
Speaker 1: Check and it's lit. Listen to it. Oh yeah, do
Speaker 1: not forget to follow us on at this heat Check
Speaker 1: at Tristan Crik on TikTok, Instagram and Twitter, and we'll
Speaker 1: see you next time.