SLEEPER: Which Eastern and Western Conference Team Could Be A SURPRISE Championship Contender

0:00This is the Lockdown Podcast Network celebrating 10 years of your team every day. This is Jake from Lockdown. When the game's on the line, the best no end to pass. Because the right assist can change everything. And off the court, it's no different. That's where your State Farm agent comes in. Whether it's protecting your car, your home, or helping you prep for the unexpected, they'll help set you up with a game plan that works for you. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Rejections are selected by the customer, availability and eligibility, vary by state. In today's episode, locked an NBA game that we're picking one surprise team from the Eastern Conference and one surprise team from the Western Conference that could be contenders or will be contenders this season. Stay tuned. Today's episode again, locked on NBA Game Night. When that final buzzer rings, you know it's time for a Lockdown NBA Game Night. All the post game reactions to every game across the league, every single night. The Insights only the hosts that locked on can provide.

1:02It's the true NBA fans. One stop for all the action. Every game, every night. It's locked on NBA Game Night, tipping off now. Deal. Welcome back to another episode of locked on NBA Game Night. I am your host, Cooke Hill. That is my co-host, John Corralis. You guys can check us out together every Tuesday for locked an NBA Game Night in. In today's episode, we will be discussing an Eastern Conference contender that could be a surprise and a surprise from the West as well. But before we begin to any of that, I have to let you guys know that today's episodes brought to you by Fandall, College Football Saturdays are already packed with reasons to get excited and this season Fandall's giving fans even more ways to get in on every matchup during all the action at Fandall.com. All right, John. And obviously, to wrap up Tuesdays, if you're a new listener, returning listeners know at the end of every Tuesday episode, we do, are you drinking the Kuwait? So stay tuned for that. That would be a fun one. But John, I'm going to kick it to you. I'm going to let you start this one off with a surprise team from the East that could be

2:02contender and we laid some ground rules. Go ahead and let everyone know what the ground rules were. Yeah. Because we had a little bit of a, you know, picking a little bit of a problem two weeks ago because I, I, yeah. That's right. So we're not allowed to pick our own teams, Cooke. Okay. So we cannot pick what we determined to be the top four teams in the East, New York, the champs, Philly with all the buzz around them. And we just threw in our own two teams, which are also considered among the contenders for top four teams. So Boston, New York Philly, I mean, yeah, Boston, New York, Philly and, I say, Detroit, that's your team are out. So we can't make the obvious pick of the Indiana Pacers to make the Eastern Conference finals because everybody's going to say that as, as they're kind of team. Okay. So that leaves a lot of contenders. That leaves the Cavaliers. Now the Raptors, I think are in the mix or Lando would be in the mix.

3:06Obviously my amy with Janis is in the mix. But if we're going outside the box, complete surprise, who could make it? We'd be like, really? This team, the Atlanta Hawks, the Atlanta Hawks, they have obviously they've leaned in on their defense by getting Lou Dort. They've got some high level defenders. They've got Jalen Johnson, who can handle the offense. They've got CJ McCallum, who we don't know how good he's going to be for how long. But we're talking about a best case scenario. They've got some place for the offense to come from. We know that they can be lockdown defenders. They've got a little bit of potential off the bench. Jack Lainedale is not horrible. You know, Aaron Wiggins, Cory Kispert can hit shots. You can squint and be like, well, if everything goes right for this team, the Hawks could actually

4:14make some noise. So I'm picking the Hawks as the surprise. I don't think they're a contender, which makes them a surprise. I think if everything goes right, they could actually be a really good team. I think the Hawks are definitely one of the like surprise, definitely a surprise out of the box pick. The reason why I did not go with the Hawks is because I think they lack, I mean, I think there's one of the reasons why we just don't consider them contenders right now. But I don't think I don't feel like they have the top echelon talent from a singular player for me to think that, oh, they could squeeze it in. Jalen Johnson, I'm a little bit lower on than a lot of people. So I just don't know if they have that. So I went with and can I have the caveat that Toronto gets Kauai? Is that like a part of this or? Sure. Yeah. Yeah. That's why they would be in the mix. Yes. OK. So I'm picking Toronto because if they get Kauai, then they have two guys that I think could be leveled up into that top tier status. I think Scotty Barnes is right there. I don't think he's quite there yet, but I could very much see him getting to that spot

5:17this year where he's just a top 15 player in the NBA. Kauai obviously is a guy that we know has had a great playoff resume. We know that he's someone in the playoffs can be the best player on the floor at any moment for a long stretch of time if he's healthy in the playoffs, which he was really healthy this past year. And he had an absolutely insane season, despite the fact that the Clippers just weren't very good this past year. It actually was crazy at the one time. Kauai is actually healthy and playing absurd. The Clippers decided to go ahead and blow it up. It was crazy timing. But I think I think Toronto with adding Kauai and having Scotty Barnes, who I think is on the verge of being like a top 15 player, if not already there. They also have a lot of defensive infrastructure. I really like Murray Boyles as well. Some of the lands that can throw out there with a Scotty, CMB and Kauai. I think that could just be absolutely hell for teams to have to deal with. RG Barrett, you got it quickly. I liked the fact that they moved on from Brandon Ingram, Brandon Ingram, which is not a good fit for them this past year. They were just really rough with him on the floor.

6:19So I think that's a good move. Toronto without Kauai, I think this won't be able to get quite to that point. But if they do get Kauai, they need health. They need some development. But I think it's certainly within reality that if they get Kauai Leonard, they could be a team that we see in the Eastern Conference finals. Like, oh, God, they have a chance to get to the finals here because that's how good Kauai I think is and how good I think Scotty Barnes could eventually be the next season. Obviously, I don't trust Kauai to make it. I don't trust. Like he had, yes, yet last season, he was healthy. Great. And he was more aberration than anything to me. So yeah, I get why Toronto would be in that mix because again, I think you got to look at it like if everything goes right, can this team have like one of those magical seasons? And there are teams where if everything goes right, the best they can do is the middle of the pack, right? The Brooklyn Nets are not becoming a contender necessarily.

7:21Coggle bulls could have the absolute perfect season and be like a 500 team. So yeah, I get it. And again, like the Raptors, I think we can say the calves, we can say Miami. I want to just throw in in the last couple of minutes that we have here. Can we just for just a couple of minutes, can we just say nice things about the Orlando Magic, about their potential to be a contender? They're supposed to be. They're supposed to be good. This was supposed to be a year where like, all right, here comes, here they come that Palo is is figuring things out. And Franz Wagner looks great and Desmond Bain is more fluid part of the offense and everything that they have the depth. They I don't want to say adding Nicola Vouchavitch is like a massive move, but it gives them a, you know, stretch kind of guy off the bench that can help them. They've got players on the team. They have gone through so much bad luck, but they've also had less than stellar performances

8:29and subpar superstar performance from Palo Bancaro that they are kind of their own worst enemy sometimes as well. But I just want to put out there, just throw it into the universe that maybe Palo this summer kind of looked at himself and said, okay, I do have to play a little bit different. And maybe the basketball gods smile on them a little bit and they don't get hurt every other game. So just kind of just just to say this is not my pick at all. Obviously I picked that Atlanta first, but I'm almost like rooting for Orlando. Come on Orlando. You can't go out like this. And I'm more hopeful than anything that they could be in the mix this year. Yeah, I mean, I think removing some of my like personal opinion on Palo Bancaro, I think the biggest reason or the biggest concern with them is that they just always hurt. Everybody's just hurt on their team nonstop. If it's not Palo, it's Franz, if it's not Franz, it's Sugs, if it's not Sugs, it's

9:32Palo, it's they just get hurt nonstop. Like for the last two, three years, they really are able to even play everyone together. So that's a big concern for them. They are very talented. They are a team that they think they thought that they were going to be in this conversation last year. They thought that they went out and got death and they spent all those picks to go after them. Anthony Black showed some improvement, even he got hurt this past year once he started to look pretty good. So it's just like they've had such a bad injury bug. And obviously they were three one of my pistons and then Franz gets hurt. So it's just like they've had just terrible injury luck. But along with that, you mentioned like I'm just not very high on Palo at all at this point until he completely changes how he plays. I don't know if they can win at the high level until he just changes how he plays. Now if he's able to do that, they do have a lot of talent. They have a lot of young guys. And if they can just be healthy, they probably would be better than last year. They can just be healthy. Like they have, I feel like they have a high floor if they're healthy. They should be fine. But I think they need a few things to go. They're like you mentioned for them to sneak into this kind of conversation here.

10:32But coming up, we'll talk about who from the Western Conference we are picking to be the surprise contender. This upcoming year, talk about it coming up. Today's episode is brought to you by Fandall, college football, Saturdays are already packed with reasons to get excited. And this season, Fandall's giving fans even more ways to get in on every matchup. Back your favorite team, build the same game, Parley, Bet team props, or make your picks on the biggest games of the weekend. And throughout the season, keep an eye on the Fandall app for an even more ways to get rewarded this upcoming season. With a full slate of cops football every Saturday, there are plenty of opportunities to follow the games and find new ways to get involved. For me, it's having games on all day and finding different ways as they engage with the slate. Fandall gives me options whether I'm watching my team, Go Blue, University of Michigan, following a big matchup or looking at a same game, Parley. Visit Fandall.com to get started. Today again, back your favorite team, build the same game, Parley, Bet team props, whatever

11:33it is. So, we want to thank you guys again for checking into locked on NBA game night. We appreciate you guys. If you haven't already, hit that subscribe button. Leave us a five star review, whatever you're listening to this. But John Lutz, now get into the Western Conference. Who do you have from the West? That's a surprise team. We did have some ground rules, but they weren't as strict as it was in the East. Yeah, yeah. So no OKC, no spurs. That kind of leaves a lot of choices. The thing with the West is there's a lot of the teams that are not, I cannot talk myself into, hey, if everything goes right, the maps or the pelicans or Sacramento or any of these other teams. I feel like my choice is a little bit of a cop out, but here's why I'm picking the Denver

12:35Nuggets as a surprise team for the Western Conference finals is because everybody's so down on them right now that the cronkeys are being just decimated rightfully so what they've done around Yokech has been just bad. I know there are aprons involved and I'm the first person to say, hey, the apron spares nobody. The second apron, era spares no one. So the nuggets are for sure involved in that, but they're also, they've also been historically cheap. Matt Moore was talking about like they have a practice facility inside their arena that has one full court. It's like a college court. They don't have the two full courts with all of the hoops. You know, I walk into the Boston Celtics practice facility and there's hoops for everybody. You can do all the player development, all that you want and like the nuggets are stuck in like the 1990s. And so it's they they are getting all the grief for legitimate reasons, but at the same

13:39time, you got Nicola Yokech and you got your mom, Murray. And I'm just saying, hey, listen, if Christian Brown, whose contract has been deemed one of the worst in the league now, if he can find something again, not hopeful, but if he can find something that was why they gave him that contract. If Aaron Gordon, I know this is never going to happen, but if he can stay healthier, if his hamstrings can stay together a little bit, you bring in DeMar de Rosen, who's going to give you something you get, you know, you got Cam Johnson, who can give you something. They have guys on this team that can still give them something. And Nicola Yokech raises everybody's sliders like a cheat code by like five points. So I'm calling Denver a surprise. I understand that this is probably a cop out kind of choice, but because everybody's so down on them, I picking this more to be like, yeah, the cronkeys are wrong.

14:41But also the reason why they do this stuff because they have Yokech and he just makes his team good enough where the supporting cast that they have, while it could be better, is still good enough to me that they can go on and run and they can make they can make the conference finals. I think Denver definitely could end up in the conference final. That wouldn't be shocked if they ended up in the finals. And when you have Yokech, I'm not picking them. I'm not, you know, that's not who I was going to pick. But like I don't think it would be, you know, I don't think it's out of this world at all. Yokech is arguably still the best player in the NBA. He may say, when be at this point, so may say SGA, but he certainly, it like has a real argument to be the best player in the NBA still. When you have that guy, I say it for sure. Well, yeah, he's, I flip flop every day between those three. They're so close. I don't, I'm not mad at anyone who has them as the best player in the league still. But like when you have that, you always have a chance, especially if you have just a competent roster around them. And for what it's worth, when those guys were healthy this past year, their offense was

15:41just like humming nonstop. It was just over and like nonstop easy looks, good offense created nonstop because you have Yokech. When him, Jamal and Aaron Gordon all in the floor together, they are going to be very, very difficult to deal with. Now, you mentioned the injuries have really screwed over Aaron Gore over the last few years. Can he stay healthy at this point? Who knows? But if those guys are healthy, they're definitely as a pathway for them. And Christian Brown, like you mentioned, they didn't give them the contract like for no reason. They'd really well that season got the contract. If you can just get back to closer where he was this season when they gave him the contract, that would be much better for them. Cam Johnson's a fine player. Denver could definitely be one of these teams that surprises people because they are, there's a lot of people that are very low on Denver right now. And like for many reasons, like you said, they deserve a lot of criticism or the owners, I should say, deserve some criticism. But I mean, when you have Yokech, anything is possible. I had two answers that I was going to go with.

16:41I couldn't figure out which one by I'm going to pick one. I'm just going to go with one. I'm not going to be a coward. I will shout out the team I was thinking about. The team I was thinking about was Houston. Very much almost picked Houston, but I'm deciding not to go with Houston. I'm going with Minnesota. I think Minnesota could get to the finals this year. I am very much love the mellow ball. I've always liked watching him. Obviously, I was a fan of him as I was as a kid in high school, watching his highlights. It was like, I've always been a fan of his. And I thought this past year really saw him grow in a lot of areas. I compared this past season for him in Charlotte, kind of like how Steve Nash just completely led an offense just by himself. The offensive engine in which Lamello was his past year for Charlotte was absolutely absurd when he was able to do for their offense. And you bring that over to Minnesota who already has Anthony Edwards, one of the best players in the NBA, who's had some really bright spots in the playoffs over the last few years. He was also really young. They've needed another guy that can put the ball on their hands and create some offense for the rest of their team.

17:43This is a team that's been to the conference finals before already with some of those holes. Guys have obviously gotten a little bit older since then, but they still got Rudy Gober, who is still one of the best defensive players in the league and is capable of like carrying that side of the ball and making you just at very least like respectable and probably even better than that just by himself still at this point of his career. You combine that with Anthony Edwards, you combine that with Lamello ball, who I think is just ultra talented. And if he can stay healthy for back to back seasons, that would be huge for him. That's obviously been a big question for him, both of my picks rely on health in the East relies on health, the West relies on health. So it's a big if, but Lamello's ultra talented. I think him and Anthony Edwards could really fit together. I'm just thinking about all the like off ball looks that Anthony Edwards could get for himself because of Lamello creating, you know, open catch and shoot threes for him. I'm thinking about the transition play they could get how much easier offense they could generate instead of just relying on and to really create a lot of it.

18:45They move on from obviously Julius Randall. I think I think this could be again, this is a team that's made the conference finals before. If Lamello can stay healthy throughout the season, I think they're going to be one of the most exciting teams to watch. And I think they could be a very, very good team if everything can click right. Rudy stays healthy, Lamello stays healthy and stays healthy. I think they could be really good. Well, I mean, look, they were my number one league pass team and we did that show for a reason because a lot of the things that you said. I liked what I would assume who gave them at the end of last season. So I do think they have a nice supporting cast. I'm in a soda. Again, this is where you look at up and down the West standings. We eliminated two teams, but I don't think either of us is going on on a limb picking Denver, picking Minnesota. Because like we actually, if we wanted to go for deep on our don't pick these teams, we probably could have included them.

19:46But it's funny because I also had Houston on my list. So I think Minnesota is a legit Anthony Edwards is a prime time performer and all of that. So yes. I was looking at the Houston Rockets as my like real, real surprise. No one's really picking them. Any team with Marcus smart, you know, back from my, you know, when Marcus was in Boston days, I love me some Marcus smart. And you know what? Let me know what's, I mean, people are talking about the Lakers, but the Lakers, the Lakers are all in on this team. And hey, if Walker Kessler works out, you look at Don'titch, Austin Reeves, Walker Kessler, you know, so I mean, that's, that's a team that you can easily pick too. So one thing when we were, I'm going to end by saying this, when we were crafting the show, one thing I said was with parody, it's hard to pick a true, true surprise because

20:47this is what the league wants. The league wants everybody to be like, well, no, they can have a chance too. This isn't what we used to like look at very clear top end teams and teams at the bottom, like, ah, maybe if you squint an in, but there are a lot of teams with legitimate chances in both conferences that we're calling surprises, but wouldn't be massive surprises. I, I want to just real quickly, I'm going to name these Western conference teams. Tell me, tell me when you hear me name a team that you don't think is like in the real, like in the universe in realistic where like if it happened, you wouldn't be shocked that they made the conference finals over a campaign for the finals, like just that's in, you know, possibilities. You got Denver, Minnesota, O.K.C. you got the Lakers, you got the Houston Rockets and you got the Spurs. So that what was that? I named one, two, three, four, what was that four, five, six, right?

21:48Six teams, 16 out of the West. Yeah, so 16 out of the West that I think have a, whether it's a, it could be a smaller, it could be like two percent chance, but like a future where if it happens, I'm not saying here like, oh my God, I can't believe that just happened. I just just insane. And then if you go to the east, you got Boston, you got New York, you got Philly, you got Toronto, you got Cleveland, you got Detroit, you got Indiana, you got Atlanta, you got Miami, and you brought up even Orlando. What was that 11 teams I just named? What was like, it's like everybody. Yeah, so it's, it's the party that makes the playoffs. Right. But the eighth seed in the East, as of right now, I would say would have a legitimate chance, depending on matchups to get through. It's, it's going to be crazy. I can't wait for it's going to be a lot of parity now. It may, it, because of that, it may be a little upsetting for maybe one of our favorite teams, but you know, it, it's going to lead to, it's going to lead to, it's going to

22:52lead to some good fun basketball season long. But coming up, we're going to play another edition of Are You Drinking the Kool-Aid? Short break coming up here. Stay tuned after the break. So, well, thank you guys again for checking into locked and NBA game, man. So let's go ahead and get right into the game of Are You Drinking the Kool-Aid? This week's edition, John, are you ready? My wife, my wife heard this. So just to be transparent, my wife usually watches all of the locked on piss in the episode. Every morning, once you're getting ready for work, she turns on locked on piss and she likes watching. But she doesn't watch the game night episode as much because she doesn't know the exact days I do as much and they don't drop in the morning, whatever. So she doesn't tune them into a lot of them. But I told her like two weeks ago, I'm like, Megan, you're going to love this. They came up with like this intro, but you have to go listen to this.

23:54And she went and listened to it. And she was like, oh my God, that is the funniest thing ever. We need to get that down. I need to save that and make it your ringtone. We need that. I was like, yeah, yeah, it was good. It was clever. I love it. I love it. I love it. Let's get started. First example here, John, kind of play off of what we're already talking about today. Are you drinking the Kuwait of the idea that there actually are 11 teams in the Eastern Conference that believe they could make the conference finals? Hmm. That's some good Kuwait. Yeah, man. Like this is this is a this is a deep east that has like again, things have to go right. And like last year until Jason Tatum came back, everything was going right for the Boston Celtics. They were going to be that team. They were the surprising team. And then Jason Tatum came back and things kind of went a little, you know, it was okay. And what happened in Philly, happened in Philly. But that type of kind of run is possible for a lot of these teams because of the talent

25:00that we've been talking about. They do have high end talent. There's a reason why people look at the Orlando Magic and go, come on. It's just like my coach always tell me you should be upset when I'm not yelling at you because when I'm not yelling at you, that means I don't think you can do it. So when we're not yelling at teams, it's because we don't think they have a chance. And we're yelling at a lot of these teams at the east. And like you said, with Kauai potentially theoretically coming to the Raptors, you know, the hawks making the moves, you know, Orlando's potential, even Charlotte, I know that they've taken a little bit of a step back, but the way they came together, there's a lot of teams out here that you can say, man, these are potentially good teams. So yeah, I think there's no one team that you could look at and be like, that is the absolute favorite to come out of the east. Even the mix got worse because they lost Mitchell Robbins. So the sixers have questions.

26:01There's no one team where you look at and go, that's it. So a lot of teams have a chance. Yeah, I agree with you. This is going to be an absolute war in the east. It's going to be absolutely crazy. So I don't think we're going to see really any teams. I'd be shocked if we see any team win 55 wins in the east. Like I think you might win this conference with like 52 wins just because of how close and evenly spread like the wins are going to be across so many teams. But yeah, now we're going to go to opposite direction here. And the fans of this team are probably happy that I found a way to include them in episode eventually. So obviously we know about the new lottery reform, the new lottery rules, right? And there is a relegation zone. You finish bottom three, you like you get more shots than everybody else, right? And that's not something that's been talked about a lot of people talking about like the in between teams, a lot of talking about how much that helps them. But we haven't I haven't heard many people talk about, you know, the teams trying to avoid that bottom three, you really get screwed being that bottom three. Yeah, so my question. My question, John is the team that everyone has penciled in 100% will be in that bottom three

27:07is the Sacramento Kings. Are you drinking the coup a that the Kings could find a way this season to avoid bottom three? I think I think I think what you don't know if you drink it. I think what you look at the team. I don't think you'll drink the good because I was trying to be optimistic that I went and looked unlike man. I don't like this. I don't know. Listen, I think. Okay, so avoiding the bottom three isn't necessarily about who is on the Kings as much as it is. Who are these other teams? So who are the other contenders in the West Memphis is in there? You say New Orleans is in there? Yeah. I don't know. I don't know. I think Utah is going to be better. So, so, okay.

28:09Oh man. I think Memphis is definitely bottom three. It's tough. It's tough. Right. Memphis is definitely bottom three. New Orleans. They get a new coach. They got a new kind of like, yeah, I'm good. All right. I can't. I think Sacramento should be better than the bottom three. But I think all these other teams are going to be better than them. And so I can't I can't drink the Kuwait. I can't say they're going to avoid the bottom three. I can't I want to let me tell you something. Sacramento. I don't dislike the city. I've been there. It's nice. It's not it's not as bad as people want to make it. I like Sacramento. I like all of the people who cover the Sacramento Kings. I've liked their players. I just I'm sorry.

29:10I want to I want to say you're going to avoid it. But I can't. I'm not hitting on the king. I don't want to be good. I want the Kings to be good and to be good for a while. But I don't know. I think they're going to end up. At this point, just end up leaning into it. They're going to end up probably you got to trade some bonus. You got to figure out a way to. But even what do you even get for some of these guys? Like that's the hard part. Yeah. I don't know what the market is for anybody anymore with these aprons and these contracts and knowing that subbonus is like really good in the regular season, but the playoffs are a problem. Who's going to pay him that kind of money? Who's going to make that kind of trade? So the Kings are just. So who would have. Who would have thought on a national national show? We would find six minutes, five, six minutes to talk about the king. And then we're going to be able to do that. We're going to find six minutes, five, six minutes to talk about the Kings.

30:12A Kings fans. You're welcome. We found. I know I'm sure they probably rather us not sail. We just said. But we at least gave. They're happy about this. We gave some time. We gave some shine. But that's it. We're wrapping up there. Only two questions this week. For the future in the Kuwait. But the Kings man. Look. I don't know, man. It's. I was talking with my friends the other day about them. My friends, my friends that were. I think they probably didn't. Have been. Have been doing locked on it. We did a. Best future of the next five years maybe like draft everybody. The King's. Last and. I asked my friends. Like would you also like. With the Kings also finished last and they were just like. My friends said to me, it's like. I do not only think it be bad this year, what is what did they have to look forward to? Like they have old people on bad contracts? They don't can't trade nobody here. They can't get good pigs What is it? Matt George, my guy, formerly Lackdon Kings. I'm sorry, man. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It's all we could say for Sacramento.

31:14We're just saying here being like, I'm sorry, man. I want to be nice. This is like, I don't know, like a breakup. Like, I'm sorry. I just, I wish we could, but it's just, I cannot see a future with you in my life. It's the harshest like, I want, I don't want to do this, but I kind of have to. It is what it is. Hopefully they get sorted together somehow, somehow and give them some time to look forward to. We appreciate you guys checking it out. You guys can find John over on Lackdon Celtics. You can find me over on Lackdon Pistons. Thank you guys for tuning in. Hit that subscribe button if you enjoyed today's episode. Also leave us a five-star review, whatever pockets platform you're listening to us on. And until next time, we will see you guys there. Stay safe out there and peace out of everybody.