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Coming up on the Zach Lo Show, the great mode to kill us here,
and we're going to start in the east.
Janus Attenticumpo made his long awaited return to the Bucks lineup
and definitely saved their season and the Bucks are headed for a play.
No, they got destroyed at home by the Boston Celtics,
falling three games behind the number 10 seed,
Charlotte Hornets in the lost column.
We're going to talk about how Janus looked,
the rest of the team.
Doc Rivers is making a lot of changes to the rotation.
Are those smart? Are they not smart?
Is there any hope for the Bucks and is there a chance?
Janus is actually going to play through the rest of this regular season
or will they fall so far behind that that changes?
And then we go through 6-11.
Rapid Fire Phillies, the hold on the number 6 seed
is getting a little tenuous.
We go Rapid Fire through Philly or Lando, Miami, Atlanta,
Charlotte, Milwaukee, which three of these teams
are actually going to make the playoffs.
And then we move west.
The nuggets, they squeaked one out in Utah last night.
Yokech was just falling on people
and getting calls overturned.
But they snuck it out against the team
that's not trying to win.
Great game by Jamal Murray.
But the nuggets, 5-8 in their last 13.
Cam Johnson sat out last night with an injury.
Is this just the year that it's not going to happen for them?
Are they having it?
It's not our year kind of year.
We're going to dive into that
and sort of the bigger picture in the west,
the thunder.
Bill called them villains.
Is that fair?
Talk a little bit more about the ludor thing.
And then Darius Garland made his return
to the Clippers last night and a actually big win for them.
Overgold and saber and talk about how he looked.
And what the tank landscape is with the picks
that Atlanta owns from New Orleans.
And the Clippers own from Indiana.
What are their chances of keeping them?
What's going on with the tanking discussion?
Is this still happening?
All that coming up on the Zach Lowe show with Mode to Kill.
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Welcome to the Zach Lowe show.
We're hearing the fourth quarter of the NBA season.
Yannis is back.
Darius Garland debuted.
Steph Curry is still out.
Zach Edie had surgery.
Trey Young got ejected from the sidelines
of a wizard's game and he's apparently actually going to play
for the Washington Wizards.
I'll set the over under at Trey Young Games played for the season
at five and a half.
The great mode to kill is here to help sort out all of this stuff.
Moa, how you doing?
I'm doing great.
Is that getting thrown out before you've actually appeared in the game
is is pretty impressive.
I think honestly, you know, when they said he's going to come back
and start playing on I think Thursday.
There's next game is maybe.
I was I was thinking boy playing basketball.
It's a good way to get injured.
So it's a good way to get injured and miss
like a little nagging injury could pop up really easily if you play basketball.
I'm setting the over under at five and a half games.
I'm expecting a little a little window into what this could look like with Trey Young.
Some extension murmurs and a a sore ankle
or some kind of oblique muscle or something to take him out for the rest of the season.
But back spasms, back spasms.
Back spasms, that's right.
Lower body, DNP, lower body.
Moa, Yannis came back last night and this was one of the big simmering stories
in the NBA is when will he come back?
Can the bucks sneak into the play in tournament?
If so, can they with the best player in the conference sneak into the playoffs?
If so, could they scare a team in round one?
If so, could they actually get to round two?
If so, could they it just so many ifs that people just kind of got carried away
by the possibility of Yannis sneaking the bucks into the play in?
That would be nice.
It would be a feather in the cap.
They would probably be at least competitive.
If not favored over the glut of mediocrities that are currently in the play in tournament,
not including the Charli Hornets.
Charlotte, you have advanced past mediocre status.
Even though your record is still mediocre, you are above this.
You're floating above the mediocrities.
But there's such a big gap between that and making any real noise.
And then Yannis comes back last night.
Seven of 18 and the bucks lose a disastrous game to the Celtics without Jalen Brown,
still without Jason Tatum, without Nimi Keita.
They get absolutely boat raced at home.
And they are now three games behind Charlotte and Atlanta in the lost column for the
vaunted number 10 seed.
They play four of their next six games are against Orlando, Atlanta, and Miami.
They have a chance to win the tiebreaker still against Orlando, Miami, Atlanta.
And they've already won it against Charlotte.
So I think in the next 10 days, we're going to know if this is anything alive for the bucks.
And if it's not, even if they go 500 in those games,
if they don't make real progress up to standings and up to tiebreakers,
I could see Yannis getting shut down and the bucks deciding we got to get this lottery pick
as increase our chances to get a high pick as much as possible.
We get the least of our pick and pelicans pick.
The better one goes to Atlanta.
I thought Yannis looked okay last night.
Seven of 18, not great.
He had a couple of explosive dunks when he got a running start.
This may be confirmation by his mouth.
I don't know what you saw.
I didn't think his like vertical lift was there in the same way.
Usually it's particularly when he was planning off the right leg,
which is the calf injury that he didn't look as above the rim explosive to me,
particularly like we're so used to him emerging from like a crowd of bodies,
like a superhero under the rim and rising up and dunking.
I didn't see that last night and I got a couple of texts from people who are watching the game
scouts on other teams and stuff and their response was he looked okay,
but why are they playing him?
What is the point of this?
The risk is catastrophic and that's why I'm thinking if they don't do well in the next 10 days,
I think this could go the other way real fast in terms of them shutting them down.
But maybe again, I'm open to maybe this is just me seeing looking for something and then seeing
something that actually wasn't there.
No, it was there.
There's I don't think there's a way to argue it.
I don't know if some of it might be rust.
If it's more just hey, he's been out a long time,
needs to kind of get his wind back.
But I'll say it did not feel his presence really defensively, which was a big point.
I thought his defense was meandering to absent by his standards, by his pretty lofty standards.
And this was a game they need.
They need every game.
If they're going to try to make this play in race on a night when the Celtics rest,
everybody, like you can't, you got to go get this game.
And this game was not very competitive.
Besides a small spurt in the beginning of the third quarter where they cut it, I think nine,
it was a massive blowout by the time the third quarter ended.
And when you looked at Yannis in particular, there were moments like you said, like he had
a couple drives down the lane, you know, and got dunks and stuff.
But there were also times where he drove and you could just see the lift not there.
And he missed layups that would normally be dunks or dunk attempts.
And that would get him to the free throw line.
I think those were the things I kind of saw.
You know, the good news is you did see the gravity of him.
The bucks did get better looks.
They didn't make a lot of them.
But they did get better looks when he had the ball.
And you know, the doubles are coming and things like that.
But that overall for him, that was just like an okay game.
And by Yannis' standards of where he plays that.
And offensively was just okay.
And yeah, defensively just was non-existent.
Yeah, he had one offensive rebound put back attempt in the first quarter,
like in the right dunker spot where he went up with his left hand,
planning off his right foot.
I went back and watched it.
And he kind of couldn't get the ball over the rim.
Now he was in traffic.
And I think he got fouled.
I can't remember, but it struck me immediately as to play like that's a dunk most of the time.
And yeah, look, the team obviously makes more sense around Yannis.
It makes no sense without him, although they held the fort okay.
In the 15 games you missed, I think they were eight and seven.
They had a couple of good wins recently against Orlando.
And Miami big wins for their tie break purposes.
And then they beat like the zombie thunder and the zombie calves.
But you got to beat the zombies and they're the zombies bucks without Yannis.
But you know, 60 whatever games, 50 whatever games into the season.
We saw Kuzma get benched.
We saw Camp Thomas get semi benched in the second half didn't play very much.
We saw the bucks go super big with Portis Sims and Turner and Portis Yannis and Turner.
And like lineups that the kind of lineups they had gradually moved away from with Yannis is like,
I guess the three three and a half something Usman Jeng started Ryan Rollins came off the bench.
I understand like the Rollins AJ Green Kevin Porter Jr combo is kind of small one to three.
Like there's no true three almost defensively at least AJ Greens close in that group.
But less Ryan Rollins just doesn't seem like a good choice to me.
And it's just like they're still just kind of figuring out what if anything this team is.
And like Sims has been really good.
I thought he was decent again last night passing, switching, moving his feet.
And that just highlights how unimpactful Miles Turner has been the entire season.
And therefore what a potential disaster ditch they have dug themselves with this stretch
Dame Lillard and signed Miles Turner with cap space double whammy.
And look, they're three games back and there's always a shot with Yannis.
But last night was like a super dispiriting loss.
And by the way, also, and I don't want this to be taken as a slight to Jalen Brown,
who I have firmly entrenched, firmly entrenched on my second team all NBA ballot.
Meaning I think he has been somewhere between the sixth and tenth best player in the NBA this
season. Oh, wow, the slander on Jalen Brown.
This was another game that kind of chips away at like Jalen Brown's been making do with nothing
around him. Like the Celtics have been awesome with Jalen Brown off the floor of the entire season.
That is not in any way a slam on him.
It's just this idea that while he's carrying a bunch of nothing to all these wins,
just has never really been true. And last night Derek White showed out.
Baylor Shireman has been an awesome attack and closeouts.
Peyton Pritchard's been great the whole season.
Hugo Gonzalez.
You can't even keep him off the glass and he's making open threes.
This is just a professional, hard playing, super smart mistake free basketball team.
And Joe Mizzula at the three quarter mark is my coach of the year.
Yeah, it kind of has to be at this point.
I think, you know, I know that we're going to be talks of should have been,
should be JB Bicker staff.
And he probably should have gotten it last year or whatnot.
And so we should get it this year and things like that.
But when you watch what Mizzula has done with this squad, it's impressive.
And they came out with full force.
They didn't come out with the attitude of like, we don't know Brown, no
Pritchard, no Keta were whatever.
We're kind of throwing this game away.
They came out with like, no, we're going to beat these guys.
And they beat them soundly.
And, you know, I loved watching Gonzalez on the floor.
Like he was guarding.
Yeah, and he was all over the place.
Like, I love the way he played in this game last night.
So I mean, yeah, I know I was kind of a tangent of our discussion.
But yeah, I don't see how Mizzula is not, you know, if he's not one,
he's definitely two in coach of the year.
Hugo Gonzalez, the flying llama.
That's what I'm calling him from now on.
The first of these bucks games, by the way,
Bucks versus Hawks Wednesday, the Bucks lead the season series one zero.
They have two games left.
So like the urgency starts now.
They play Orlando on Sunday Miami two days or four days after that.
And Atlanta two days after that.
So we're and then if it just I could definitely see just Yannis,
this like shut it down.
And by the way, to the people asking, why is he playing?
This is a too risky.
They have nothing at stake.
My assumption based on everything Yannis just said publicly.
Everything Doc Rivers has said publicly.
Everything I've heard privately is he's playing because he wants to play.
And the Bucks are going to do what their superstar player wants them to do.
And, you know, in this, as we're bemoaning,
tanking and guys sitting out in load management,
I'm not going to sit here and like hammer the Bucks for playing Yannis.
Now, if he continues to look and unexplosive and the losses pile up,
then you then it becomes a different decision.
Once the standings make the decision for you,
it becomes a kind of a different conversation.
Much easier conversation at that point.
Because especially if he continues to look,
excuse me, if he continues to look like this,
where it's, this wasn't, this was kind of like Yannis light yesterday in the game we saw.
And I don't, if he continues to look like that.
And it's, you know, his calf is kind of hindering him and things like that.
And they don't have anything to play for.
There's absolutely zero reason to play.
And it doesn't even matter of,
it doesn't matter where he's going to play next.
You could even be in Milwaukee.
But like, you can't risk next year when you have nothing to play for now,
in that sense, if you once you're out of it.
And like you said, we'll know in 10 days.
By next Saturday, I think is, is one they play the Hawks.
We'll kind of know if they're in the mix or not.
You're talking about Jonathan Kaminga's Atlanta Hawks.
He's a lot of tear.
Let's see what they play a real team.
But we're going to get to the Hawks because we're now going to go speed round six to 11 in the east
with Milwaukee as 11 is, is an interesting storyline.
Partly because of Milwaukee, although they're now semi-distant 11 with 20 games to go,
22 games to go, whatever it is.
But six is Philly at 33 and 27 and 10 is Charlotte at 30 and 31.
So four games in the lost column separates six from 10.
Philadelphia is only one game in the lost column,
clinging to that number six seed over Orlando and two games in the lost column over Miami,
whose eighth.
For now, we're going to park Toronto a little bit above this discussion.
There are only two games ahead of Philly.
But I haven't done as much on Toronto as I would like.
And we're going to rectify that on Thursday.
We're going to do a deep dive on the Raptors.
For now, let's park them up here.
Knowing the Raptors, they'll probably lose tonight.
I think they played Minnesota and be right in this discussion.
But this is an interesting set of teams.
All flawed, all trending in different directions.
A couple with different personnel decisions and trades and suspensions.
Let's go rapid fire through them in the order of the standings.
The Philadelphia 76ers, 33 and 27,
a whopping plus 28 total points for the season,
13th and offense, 16th and defense.
And that's going to be a theme.
A lot of these teams are just straight up mediocrities in the truest sense.
They have won the tiebreaker with Orlando, who's right behind them.
They have a massive game with Miami that will decide their tiebreaker with Miami.
The Charlotte tiebreaker is still to be decided.
They've lost the Atlanta tiebreaker and won the Bucks tiebreaker.
They have lost four out of six.
I'm sorry, they have lost six out of the last 10.
They're four and six in the last 10.
But they have won three out of the last four,
including a big win over Miami.
Joelle and Bede is out at least the next two games with an oblique strain.
It's just, I, you know, oblique, just add it to the list.
Like, I don't understand how all of these random things keep happening to him.
Um, what, what have you seen from Miami of, of Philadelphia, from Philadelphia of late?
Yeah, I think kind of the, the thing that sort of
concerns me is the size a little bit, right?
Like Max, he's been awesome.
Absolutely phenomenal.
I heard you and Bill talking about it on, on Sunday with, you know,
where he, where he would rank in your all NBA teams and, and things like that.
He's been phenomenal.
But, and then, you know, VJ Edgecomb has kind of hit a little bit of that rookie wall
in, in, in, in that sense, and it's not as, he's playing his ass off,
but it's not as productive as it was, I think, to start the, the year.
And I think we're kind of beginning to see sort of the talent disparity.
I think kind of catch up to them.
We saw it in that, that Celtics game where like they were in it to the very end.
But it was still not something like you could just, you never felt like Boston was going to lose this game.
And I think that was a big one.
And Kate, I had a monster night and without Joelle and bead, you know,
they really didn't have an answer for being able to stop him, keeping the ball alive
on the offensive glass and getting tippens and how his activity and things like that.
I felt like yours beginning to see kind of the talent disparity for them sort of hurt them.
And then when you look at their schedule, Zach, I, I go to Tankathon to, to see everybody's.
This is my favorite part of the season because then I go to Tankathon and I get to see the remaining
schedule and everybody's, you know, toughest opponents and whatnot.
They, they have the 18th toughest schedule.
So they're pretty good in that sense.
They got a lot of tankers on their schedule.
The East East is magical and that there's really no difference in schedule quality between
the toughest schedule in the East and the easiest schedule in the East because there's just a lot
of mediocrity on the table. Like Portland has a laughably easy schedule in the West and there's
a little bit more diversity. But yeah, they're scheduled and they have played two more home games
in road games and sixes, which every little margin matters at this time of year,
especially when we're talking like season series or making sure you stay ahead,
but they got the pistons twice, they got the thunder, they have the spurs twice, the rockets,
wolves and calves. Like that's a pretty tough group of games right there that they're going to have
to win some of those battles right there as they go through if they're going to try to stay in six
or even by some, you know, catch Toronto, you know, and I think it's going to be really important
for them and no PG, we know with the suspension, no, no in beat for at least two games and you know
how it goes with the beats like okay, but like are we sure we're getting them back in two games or
we sure we know what's going on, you know, I think when he's on the court, he's been really good for
them lately and I think he's been very helpful. But I just worry about them in terms of their size
and everything that they have. And then when I just look at their talent on the roster and look at
who they put out on the floor, they play their asses off. Bona has been great, even though he
wants a stupid college. It's wow. Where did you go? You go to UCLA, right? That's UCLA slander
from a USC guy. That was just you slipped that right in there. You tried to keep going Moe. You
tried to slip it in and keep going, but I'm going to let the brewing people know what just happened.
You could let them know I live in Culver City, which is supposedly UCLA town, except I walk
around with my SC gear on all the time and let them know. So I think more importantly though,
like they don't have a lot after that. And I think it's like it's a lot on Maxi right now.
Edgecomb slipping a little bit as a rookie kind of just and what you expect that he's a rookie.
I'm not trying to be that hard. Grimes has kind of been a bit up and down as of late. Like I think
they got some challenges. I love Edgecomb. I loved his game against Boston. It has felt like the
last month it slowed down for him a little bit in terms of his production and he's had some defensive
games where I didn't think his defense was up to his pretty high for a rookie standards. I
thought he was great against Boston made a little friend in the front row by kicking her in the
face. And then we had a 14 minute review to see whose ball it was is just these endless.
He's endless reviews. Can I can I can I throw in a thing about reviews? Yeah, go ahead. Just real
quick, real quick. No, I just let me hear it because I'm I'm I'm ready to be done with them.
Well, I'm out like all together on reviews. But if you're going to do it, you have to watch it.
It has to be in real time. I'm tired of slowing everything down frame by frame. Let's analyze
every little bit of this or things like this. This is where we're slowing this down and there
has to be a time limit for how long a review lasts. If you can't make a decision after after
watching it four times, you're done. Whatever the call was on the floor stands. That's it. Move
on. Gotta keep these games moving. We can't have that. And that poor lady, she get kicked in
the face and has been broadcast on national TV for the past 10 minutes. Like that poor lady,
just like how many times you're going to watch a clip of yourself getting kicked in the face.
I said this would build. If the reps are going to take that long or Cicacus was all out on a coffee
break, like let her decide who's ball it is. Just show her the monitor. She's going to be on TV
to show her the monitor. I mean, it's 2026. And the last two minutes of close games in the NBA
still take 10 times longer than they should take. And we just we just can't solve this problem
no matter what it's it become if you get the wrong series of events, all the coaches have saved
their challenges for the last three minutes of the game. Everyone's got time outs left. There's
God forbid. There's like we got to check if this is a flagrant foul or a clear path foul.
Just buckle up. Go get a beer. It's going to be 30 minutes for the last two minutes of the game.
Then if it goes to overtime, cancel your morning meetings. We're going to be here forever.
It just still takes it still takes too long on the sixers. I think you nailed it with the talent
disparity thing. They've been pretty good. They've held the four without Paul Georgian. And I
thought they would. I remember telling Mahoney like whatever your win projection is for them in
these 25 games, knock it down one, maybe two. And I don't know exactly what the record is.
And it's been five and there's like 500 in their last whatever games. But the thing that I
underestimated and saying that, and this is something you always have to remind yourself is one
guy out your margin for anything else going wrong is just so slim. And now something has gone wrong
with Joel and bead. And look, Joel and bead, I compared them to Jamie Moir a couple of months ago.
He's a junk baller now. He's gotten a little bit of his burst back gradually over the year. It's
started with like the horizontal burst. The verticality is not quite not nearly where it used to be,
but he did call for a lob at one point in a recent game against Miami and Vijay Edge come through
him a bad lob. But like the fact that he called for it was kind of encouraging. But he's been really,
really good the entire year. They are plus six with them bead on the floor and minus two and a half
with and bead off the floor. And as much dissonance and this has been discusses as there is between
the way the super fast back court wants to play and the way and bead the slower style that
and bead kind of plays. I think they've met more or less in the middle ground enough times for
it to be workable. And they're just, they just need more layers to their offense than they have
without a player of Joel and bead's quality and that sort of second way of playing. So given what
you said about their schedule and in bead's health and Paul George suspension, you know, it'll be
interesting to see if any of these teams other than Charlotte who's the furthest behind can actually
get their shit together enough to chase the sixers. Because if this season ends badly for the sixers
and right now I think 60 games in if you froze it now, I think this season is a success for Philadelphia.
Six games over 500 with all the injuries with the suspension with with like hitting another huge
pick with Edgecom. But if they slip into the play in and then you're no matter where you are,
you're at high risk and they miss the playoffs. I think there's going to be some organizational
angst in there and you just never know what's going to happen when there's organizational angst.
Next team on the list, you ready? Yeah, let's go. Your favorite team to watch. I know you dial up
every Orlando Magic game to see the offensive sets. They remind you of the beautiful game spurs,
peak warriors, 31 and 28. The Orlando Magic are, they are, let's see, a whopping plus eight total points
for the season, the definition of mediocrity, 19th and offense, 13th in defense. They have the same
kind of schedule a very other team in the East has. And let's see, they've got some tie break or
still at stake with the Hawks and the Hornets though. They are currently losing both. They play the
Bucks on March 8th. That game will decide the season series between the two of them. So buckle up
for that one. They have already lost the sixers tie break and swept the heat for zero. The heat
can't figure them out and the Magic can't really figure anybody else out. Recent notes on the
Magic who still have no Franz Wagner, Jalen Sucks plays every other game. Jonathan Isaac is
basically a center or nothing now like spot minutes at the four. That hasn't really worked.
It's just the same old story for me, Mo, but you got anything for me?
I mean, I've railed on them all season with just how bad the offense has looked. It's gotten
a little bit better post all star break. It's, you know, the numbers. It's climbed. It hasn't
looked better, but the numbers have shown that it has improved in terms of offensive rating.
But ultimately, you know, the bigger problem is, even with their offense, Sucks, their defense has
just not been what we're used to. And that's a 13th. Yeah, that's not good enough. Yeah, it's just,
well, I mean, that's just not what we're used to. This is a top five defensive team, you know,
that we've seen over the past few years. And this team now is just, it's gone completely out
the window. That was their bedrock. That was their backbone. No matter what, well, at least get
stops. And that was the thing that made them tough in the playoffs. That was a thing that made them
challenging for everybody else. And they're not even doing that. Their point differential is
plus point two. Like that's a big, you know, for me, that's, that says everything right there,
because at least if they had a competent defense, they'd be all right. They'd be in a little bit
of a better situation. It's, it's, they're one of the more frustrating teams for you. No,
because I text you all the time when I get annoyed when I'm watching a game and I'm just like,
oh my god. Yeah, I mean, look, I don't think either of us believes that Jamal Mosley has
covered himself in glory. This offense is completely aimless. There was a possession. I think it
was in there. Did they play Houston recently? I get all my games mixed up. Yes, they did. Where
there was like 11 on the shot clock, 12 on the shot clock. So time, like halfway through the
shot clock. And Jonathan Isaac got the ball at the left elbow, maybe even like elbow extended.
And just nothing happened. And so Jonathan Isaac, the worst offensive player in your rotation by
like some margin, so bad that his defense as outstanding as it is, he just can't really be on
the floor for you unless you play him in center. Just looked around and was like, oh,
I'm going to create a long two for myself with 12 on the shot clock. Cool. It's the worst shot
imaginable for any NBA team, basically a contested off the dribble. Jonathan Isaac 18 footer.
I guess I'm going to do that. And it missed. There's so much Javon Carter going on.
It's legitimately alarming. And he just joined the team like five seconds ago. And he's like,
I'll take 17 threes. Give me all the off the dribble threes. I'll take them all. And part of it is
the coaching. Just they have not installed any sort of coherent offensive system. Part of it is
just the personnel. Like you look at this team, particularly without fronds with Sugs playing
every other game and missing most of his threes when he plays. There's just no, there's no like
playmaking on like Palo's okay. He's an okay playmaker for his size. Who's screening for him
that's any kind of threat rolling to the rim. He's the best threat screening and rolling to the
rim. When Del Carter Jr. spends half the game parked in the corners where he's a total non-entity
nobody guards him out there. They don't have a traditional point guard like Anthony Black is
kind of a point guard. He's been outstanding. Like he's in by the way, if I'm Anthony Black's agent,
I'm going into extension negotiations this summer. And I'm saying not a penny less than Jalen Sugs.
I've been better than him this season. And I play more than him. And that contract is going to
foist some very tough decisions on to the magic. But they just don't have a lot of playmaking. And I
don't like it's the little things also like watch Palo Bancaro's screen in games when he is the
screener. He misses like 75% of his screens are just there's no contact. And sometimes that's okay.
Like if you're if you're like a Mari Stodemire and you're slipping out and you're so explosive
rolling to the rim that that's the kind of point of you screening. Allos not that. They don't
set good screens. They don't have good passing. Their best player is injured and it's everybody's fault
and yet they're 31 and 28 and they're sniffing a top succeed. So I guess it just still to me this is
the year from hell for the magic. But that Houston loss was a pretty bad one for them, right? Like
they had control of that game and then Houston comes back and beats them. Like that's a game at
home. You got to win if you're Orlando. How about that Detroit loss when they're up by 14 up at half
time and they get just smoked the rest of the game and scored 90 something points. Right. Like
but that's all the stuff we're talking like there's just so many cases where we're watching games
where it's just like God like what are you guys doing like just offensively when you're in a battle
to get out of the playing tournament. And that's huge. Just the fact that the weak rest that you get
when you're not in the playing tournament is massive. And we've seen it over and over again
through these playoffs. You need that and allow yourselves to get get rest prep all that fun stuff.
You got to battle much harder than they are. And I just feel like they're almost kind of
resigned to the fact of like, all right, this is who we are. This would look different.
Obviously if Suggs were reliably available if Franz Wagner were healthy. And I just don't
I haven't seen enough evidence to do it would look so different, particularly on offense that I
would feel great about this team. They're obviously entering a crossroads off season almost no
matter what happens. And and I mean that roster wise coaching wise maybe front office wise
everything wise because this season is not gone to plan. Oh, let's take a quick break. And then
we'll talk about the rest of these teams, including the ones that are a little more fun than the magic.
This episode is brought to you by State Farm on the court. The best players know when to pass.
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Okay, next up in the standings, the Miami Heat currently a 32 and 29. They have three home games
in hand. They are 15th and offense yet. Don't let the pace fool you. All everyone do every Miami
game. They'll tell about how many points they score. And oh my god, the pay their number one number
15 and offense a very strong number four in defense. I don't think they've gotten enough credit for
that. This is a stout defensive team. Bam belongs right in the sub Victor Wemba Nyama defensive
player of the year. Conversation as always. And you know, we talked about plus eight for the magic
plus 28 all these mediocrities. They are plus 174 points for the season. That's actually like this
is a legit freaking team. They have won the tiebreaker. No, they have not won any type breakers. They
have four at stake. Milwaukee. They're one in one and we'll care about that. They're two and
against Charlotte with two games left one and one against Philadelphia one game left. They've lost
the Orlando one. They're two and one against the Hawks who they play on the last game of the season.
Norman Powell is out at least a week with a groin injury, which just continues to put off the
what do we think of this hero norm situation? Both are extension eligible. And do we want to pay
both? Does it make sense to pay both? I suspect the answer to that question is probably going to
be no for the heat, but time will tell. And they're what I projected is they're starting five and
what is one of their potential starting five? I mean, like hero and Powell have only played 158
minutes together the entire season. The lineup of Mitchell, who's been great. Powell, hero,
Wiggins, bam. So the small ball version of their starting five with Wiggins at the four has only
played in eight games the entire season, 98 minutes. So we haven't really seen this team.
What has interested you about the heat lately? Yeah, you know, the thing that really interested me,
if you go back and watch that Houston game and shout out Cooper Morehead, who put this out there on
he's the bad techs. You know, he he dropped out like they played the season high 44 possessions
of zone against the Rockets the other day in their win against the Rockets. And it really just
flumicked Houston all together and how to handle things. And I think just going back to what you said,
it's surprising that they're fourth in defense. And it's and it's not a shot of, you know,
these guys, but look, when you look at the roster, you go, wow, Donovan Mitchell. Excuse me,
not Davey on Mitchell. They would like to have gotten Donovan Mitchell. Yeah, that's a good
slip right there. David's a good rally and slip. Bam, like they have they have some guys there.
Where's been really good? And in that game against Houston, where and bam played really well
together, they were in possessions on together on that zone for I think about half of those
possessions. And they were pretty strong just on that end. And if they could find a way to put
those two on the floor together consistently. And and and have a rock solid defense and be able
to produce on offense, they're really going to be a problem for a lot of teams, you know, going
into it like this is this is one of my favorite teams that's in the play in tournament range for
the the East, you know, it's it's they're one of those that you've they just play their asses off
its bow. So we always know how, you know, how hard this team is going to play, how well coached
they are, all that fun stuff, you know, without Powell, it's it's a little bit less offense of
firepower. But then they unleash Pell and Larson goes nuts in that Houston game to start out.
Like they have a lot of stuff there that's they have random guys that go off and you're all
the suddenly like, wow, like the heat are in this. They're battling. And they I always go back
to point differential plus 2.8 point differential for the season. That's pretty strong right there
for a team that's seventh. Great. Excuse me. And I think heroes played pretty well. 21 a game,
49% shooting 37% on three. He's going to get hunted on defense. We know that that's just life
and he competes and they have a good infrastructure behind him. You nailed it with wear. I mean,
this is my top five most interesting subplot in the league for NBA nerds is the BAM wear
combination because what a rollercoaster year for a collel wear pretty good start shows all the
flashes you want from him in this offense. He's making enough threes when he has to spot up. He's
a good offensive rebounder dives to the rim, a little more disciplined on defense, not chasing
every block, staying down, fighting harder on the boards. Then he goes through a mid season slump
where all of that kind of fades out. And there are games where some of the bigger centers,
like really beat the crap out of them on the boards. There was one where go bear just eight is
lunch in the second half of the game. And suppose trusting him declines, they have kind of a public
tet a tet about it. And there's a lot of noise about like is is spo losing him is suppose coaching
style, the right coaching style for collel wear. This guy's so talented, the heat have to get that
talent out of him, that any path forward, whether it's with BAM and wear or with wear as a trade-aset
this summer in whatever Janus talks happen, whatever the next sort of star who becomes available talks
happen. They need that to happen. And the last 15 games super like I the talent is undeniable.
And the last 15 games here's the stat moment. They are now plus 45 for the season total points
in 325 minutes with BAM and wear on the floor together. I looked at up this morning and I thought
that I know they've been better lately. That doesn't seem right because that was like minus
a significant amount for a lot of the season in six games since February 1st. They've only played
in six games together. They are plus 87 in 59 minutes. Now some of that is just crazy fluke like
that's just insane. And the heat for the season have allowed. I think the fourth lowest percentage on
threes for the season. So their defense may be there may be a tiny bit of look factor didn't there.
But I like where I love BAM, BAM's a winner. They've just got to figure out if that situation is
workable for them long term if those two guys can play together. And or if wear is important enough
to be a trade asset or if he's important and steady enough to make BAM a trade asset. I know the
heat well enough to know that trade they do not want to trade BAM under any circumstances. He's
the captain. He's broken some of the lawns in morning's weight room records like he is heat culture.
So I think it would be much more likely that, you know, wear becomes a trade asset. But as we've
seen with Damien Lillard, you don't always get to trade for the guys you want to trade for it.
And it helps if your own players are good. I just really like to seem if they can stay healthy.
I think they have a lot of pieces. And by the way, at the end of this, I'm going to make you pick
three of these seams that you think are going to get into the playoffs. So that's my that's my
heat spiel. We'll see when Norm comes back and how they handle the Powell hero to some.
And just to just to add in because I real quickly did a over the last 15 games lineup data
between two man lineup on NBA.com. They've only played six games together. So it's a small sample
size 59, I mean, on the floor together, 59 total minutes together in six games. Their net rating
is plus 66.9. I told you plus 87 plus 87 total points. It's it's insane. I mean, it's it's
absurd like in in that way. If they can they can put that together, that's really promising.
Now I do remember one game because I this is like one of the things I do every four days is check
the Bamwear minutes in every game. I check that I don't see every heat game. I don't see I look at
the lineup data. There was one game where they were like plus 22 or some crazy number. But that's
still that they've been like that in a bunch of games. Okay. Next on the list, you're in my
arousing 500 31 and 31 a total point differential of plus one for the season. Congratulations to
the Atlanta Hawks. You are plus one for the season. They have a very good tie breaker situation
in some of these. Well, it's actually not they've they've won the Philly one. They're up to
all against Orlando. They're losing to Atlanta or Miami. They're lost the one to Charlotte and
they have two games left against the Bucks where that becomes relevant or not. Jonathan Kaminga
has exploded onto the scene. They're chanting thank you warriors. The warriors are going to have to
ride out a little embarrassment here as Kaminga sores against bad teams so far. We'll see what it does
on the competition's defense. And Porzinga continues to just not play for a warrior's team that's
falling down the standings. We'll talk about them a little bit lately. Risa Shea now coming off the
bench. That's not great. And the Pelicans pick the Pelicans are still trying to win. And they are
now nineteen at forty three, which puts them in the number six spot in the lottery rankings.
The Kings have a firm regal grip on the number one spot in the lottery rating.
Congratulations to the Kings. After that, the jazz, the Pelicans, the Pacers, the Nets and the
Wizards are all pretty close. Only one of these teams is trying to win. That's the Pelicans.
If indeed the Pelicans finish with the six worst record in the NBA and there is a big gap between
six and seven right now, the Mavericks may do their dampness to close that gap. But it's going to be
tough. That would give the Hawks a thirty seven percent chance at a top four pick and a seventy six
percent chance at a top seven pick. But the odds would be close to fifty fifty. It's number six
or number seven, which is not what it looked like. It was going to be halfway through the season.
Zion is out again though. So we'll see anything interesting about the Hawks other than Kaminga. We
saw the first Kaminga jail in Johnson minutes the other day in a win against Portland. They looked
fine. It was Portland. They turned it over a lot. Transition is very good for John the Kaminga.
Anything of interest here for my sad cacalling Hawks hour sad cacalling Hawks. I was I was on the
bandwagon with you. I will I know all footage has been erased. It was all I've told you I told
I don't remember it was all AI. Like I was never high on the Hawks. If you see a clip of me
circulating saying the Hawks take the over. It's a lock. This team can make the conference
final. That's AI. It's a very dangerous thing. Yeah. Well, I for me it's it there's no way it's
not Kaminga, but it's also watching how this will play out with him and Jalen Johnson and what
that looks like when they're on the floor together and and right now so far it is just transition.
It is just flying up down the court in the way and that's probably how they want to play
it with what they have on their roster and something you want to make sure you get out in transition
and you play in those games. I forget who they played on Sunday. Was it was it the the blazers?
It was that was Portland. Yeah, it was Portland. Like his first quarter run right off the bat
was impressive. He was getting to the line. He was getting you know and again in transition and
flying. But like you said, we got to see what it looks like as they played proper, you know,
talent around them. But for me, I just think this is it's just going to be interesting. It's
being 500 and is a disappointing season for them for what we thought they were going to be, you
know, for for this season. And we weren't alone. A lot of people thought that and I think that's
the important thing to kind of sort of just understand that like this is disappointment for them.
Being in the play in tournament was not the plan this season. Even even that remains so
even with Treyong and Christoppoor Zingas basically giving them nothing in the form of
encore production for the entire season. It's still disappointing. And it's to me disappointing
for everybody for Treyong for Quinn Snyder for the front office that they could not find a way
to blend stylistically with what because that was the ceiling. That was we have this team that's
coming with switching defenders and cuts and off ball movement and random picket rolls and
Jalen Johnson handling and then screening and blah, blah, blah. You mix that in with the kind
of spacing and playmaking that Treyong provides. You might have something and they just couldn't do it
and it's on everybody. It's there's no it's it's on Treyong for being sort of didactic about he
wants to play. It's on the coaching staff and Quinn Snyder for just not being able to coax everyone
in the right directions. It's massive. But even so, even getting nothing from him, this team
should be better than 31 at 31. It's a disappointment. And that Pelican speaking of Bill was on his
pod Sunday. We're saying they should have traded it. They should have got somebody for it.
And we sort of just skirted around it and went on to the next thing. And I wanted to say to him,
like, well, who, like who was available? Could they have gotten Yannis for that? I don't really
think there's any evidence that Yannis was on the table at any real way. Now that asset at that
time was a pretty golden ship. They had already traded Treyong, which was going to be sort of the
salary matching slash, like, hey, we got Treyong. That's kind of cool from Milwaukee. And 37%
at the top four pick. It's not like 5% that if that's where it ends up being, like, that's still a
lot of percent. And do I trust the Pelicans to continue winning at this rate for any extended
period of time, not really, even with the Jante Murray bag, Zion's out. So Jerry will be out on
that one. Also, they can still trade it leading up to the draft, right? Once we get into the draft
and we know what the position is and things like that or on draft night or draft the rookie and
trade him later. So it's I'm with you in the sense of like the trade market wasn't there,
like, who would they have won after with that pick? A lot of teams would have happily taken it,
but I don't know what they would have gotten back in return would have been worth, you know,
worth the move itself. A couple of things I do want to say about the Hawks.
Jack Landill, I said it at the trade deadline. I was like, just sneaky good acquisition for them.
He's been awesome for the Hawks for the Hawks. I don't know how I just said Hawks. My
whole, but the Hawks have broken my whole brain, my body, my soul, everything. And because he can
nominally shoot threes, a kangaroo can really shoot threes, particularly from the corners,
but everywhere. You see, they can make hey, maybe with this Kaminga, Jalen Johnson combination.
Maybe they can even run pick and rolls with the two of them involved, but certainly with one of
them is the screener, the other in the dunker spot, the center space somewhere, like that's kind
of interesting. And I do want, I also want to shout out Dyson Daniels. It feels like he's had a
really disappointing season because he can't shoot threes anymore. He's clearly got it's in his head.
He doesn't take them. He doesn't make them. He has like a very tiny amount of threes for the season.
And he's not, he's not the defensive wrecking crew that he was last year where he had three
steals a game is still averaging one and a half, one point nine. I think steals per game.
I do want to give him a little credit. He's shooting 56% on twos, like he's been really good in the
paint from floater range, all of that. He's one of the best cutters in the entire league. Six assists
and six rebounds of game are both up for him. He's getting better at a lot of stuff that's getting
lost in all the talk about a shooting, which is a real thing and it makes it hard for them to build
sort of coherent lineups with him. And there are plus two and a half with him on the floor per
hundred possessions minus four and a half with him off the floor. It's the, it's I think the best net
rating of all the rotation players on their team. Reese's Shay has been, it's only year two. But
what's happening with him is a far bigger problem than anything that's happening with Daniels. And
I'm just, I'm not going to rush with Reese's Shay. Like I still think he's going to be a productive
wing in the NBA. But this has been a very discouraging season. And obviously like that pick is,
it like we can already write the jury on that, that, that they made the wrong pick at number one.
And you only get so many chances to pick that high. Yeah, it's tough in that situation. And with
Reese's Shay, development's not linear. So like, obviously you wanted to, you'd hope you'd have a
better second year. But okay, this has been a step back type of year for him. Next season,
he can get going, try to get in the lab, try to find himself a little bit more and figure out
what is where his game needs to be, what he needs to be doing more often. I think is going to be
a key thing for him when they get going. I'm not ready to give up on him because we've seen
this from young guys before where they've had a good rookie year, bad, bad sophomore year and come
back. So I don't feel like I'm ready to go out there and go nuts. But yeah, it's like you see
what SARS doing. It's tough to kind of look at it and say like, yeah, we made the right pick.
Well, SARS, Castle, Reed Shepherd, who, you know, the start Reed Shepherd thing
is getting some momentum now because he has been starting Jabari Smith Jr's missed the last two
games for Houston. And I said after that, Nick's collapse that like every game they lose like that
when their fourth quarter offense goes to shit, I'm just watching screaming. Just put Reed
Shepherd in the game because I, yeah, look, he's small. He's going to get hunted on defense.
You can't just build everything around the defense if the offense is just flat lining and
he competes. He's got great hands. He makes plays, steals, blocks, everything like that.
And he just loosens up so much about the offense to have a quick twitch ball handler, good pass
or like, I keep hearing he's not a true point guard. Is he? I don't know. Like he, he throws passes
every game. We're like, that's a fucking laser beam that he just threw left hand and no look
under the, to somebody under the rim. Anyway, it was the wrong pick. I still think Reese's
Shay will be good. Also playing like a guy with no confidence. You know who's not playing
like a team with no confidence? The Charlotte Hornets 31 or 30 and 31, not quite 500 yet,
but almost there. They have three home games in hand, tough schedule by East standards.
Mo, this is the number four offense in the NBA. And perhaps just as pertinent,
the number 17 defense and trending up, if they can get to league average, that's interesting.
Plus 184, the 10th best point differential on the league, number 10 overall. I have sung the
praises of this team. Everyone has sung the praises of this team. Bill and I talked about them
being a 50 win team next year, build throughout the warriors as a comp. I think that, like,
let's hit the brakes on that. But this is clearly something about these three guys, ball,
Miller, Kinipple. And they're almost the anti magic and that the magic are built around two
like size players who teams treat as non shooters. And they're kind of like particularly
parallel slow and deliberate in the way they play. The Hornets are built around three like size
players, six seven, Lamello, six seven Miller, six, six, Kinipple, who two of them, one is an
A minus shooter in Lamello, one is a plus plus in Kinipple, one is kind of B T B D in Miller.
But the way they move and the speed with which they play and move the ball and the variety of ways
on ball and off ball that Charles Lee and his staff pair them together in screening actions
and cutting actions, it's just a freaking whirlwind. And it's very much a three man show.
And now they have Kobe White. I don't have really any notes, Moe, except I did it with Bill
and I'll do it again here. Bill was talking about Miller and Kinipple and that's the foundation
of the team and this duo. I'm like, I know people just love to hate on the mellow.
He does goofy shit every game. The guy is really good. He's always been really good plus or
minus like seven decisions a game. We've now, and that's offense and defense. We're now, if it was
seven to ten decisions that you're like, dude, really, we're down to like three to five.
That's major progress. He's a really good shooter. He's the next level passer. He's playing
harder on defense and they are plus nine and a half with him on the floor and minus two and a
half with him off the floor. It's always been like this. Their offense is always amazing with Lamello
and just for whatever it's worth and I don't think it's worth much with Khan and Miller on the floor
and no Lamello. Their minus 17 and a half per 100 possessions according to cleaning the glass.
Now a small sample size shooting like all that. This is just a legit awesome offensive team and
I'm not sure I'd be scared of them if I were Detroit or Boston because I think those teams are
just polished two way much more experience kind of teams, but I also would not expect an easy
series. I'd expect like a competitive four to like uh oh game five at home. We got to win this
game. It's two two kind of series. Everyone should be rooting for the Hornets to make the playoffs.
Forget all these other teams who are reporting a shit. Get the Hornets into the playoffs.
Any notes Mo the thing I like about them is they have the highest point differential of all the
teams we're talking about. They're good plus plus three, but that taking the account they started
four and 14 for them to still be plus three at this point lets you know how good they've been
since that terrible start. We should note that like plus a hundred of those plus 184 are two
games against Philadelphia and Utah, but even if you took those down to normal levels since whenever
they started winning, they've been one of the six to eight best teams in the NBA. But those count
those count right like those are indicative of quality. Yeah, so I mean you know they came out
there and they kicked somebody's ass like that that that matters to a degree in these things. But
what I love about it is just how fast the offense is right and like just how quickly everybody
kind of responds and reacts to everything and and you know there's there are unsung heroes on
this roster. Moosa Diabate, Diabate excuse me. And there's up baby you know you you you have
guys that are making plays and are doing things you know beyond just those three guys those are the
three main guys and they've been awesome and they've kind of found themselves and and meld well
together like I love Kineples movement with Lamello's passing right because Lamello will find him
as he's working his way around a screen or coming off of stuff. I did a edit for NBA TV and we
went through con Kineples threes and and one of my favorite things that they did was they ran a
screen where he's setting the the the pin down the guy curls around coming off the pin down and
squeeze Kineples guy and Kineples pops back for a three it's like I love the creativity that
you're getting from Charles Lee and all those things and and sort of just smart stuff that they're
doing and using movement and stuff like that when you combine shooting with passing and cutting
like it's really difficult to defend in the way that they play and it puts you on your heels
defensively because it's like okay I got to go here oh I got to oh okay well oh I got to rush
up on Lamello oh no Miller's cutting back door I'm screwed like you're you're in all sorts of
different ways you know when you're up against it and I think they put you in a lot of bad spots
and I think they're that's what's so fun about their offense and it is just high octane and you have
a lot of fun with that stuff there I mean everybody's favorite team like we we can agree like I think
across the board. Lamello will even be like off the ball sometimes now both as a screener like coming
up from the corner or or whatever you have it and Diabate has really developed enough on offense
that if they blitz the Hornets ball handlers and and Miller is the only one who is kind of vulnerable
to the blitz his decision making is a little slower than the other two but that's coming along
if you blitz them a Diabate can catch it and dribble it one time and hit a floater and like
that's a big step for him and also like they're really hard to blitz just because of the shooting
and passing they have on the floor. It's hard to blitz teams who move the ball like that and move
it to guys who are shooters and I'm going to repeat this because it's so stunning. I said it on
bill's pod but Kinniple Cooper flags you have to play to take this from Kinniple. I thought Cooper
flag had knows the head of him like 10 15 games ago. Kinniple now has the lead in the rookie of the
year race because flag isn't playing he's injured and I think he'll start playing soon again
hopefully but Kinniple like he's a good shooter and people gloss it over. I said to some bills pod
there are seven total player seasons six total player seasons in which a player has played
2,000 minutes hit at least 43% on threes Kinniple's at 44 on eight threes or more per 36 minutes he's
above that number two. The seven previous seasons to this are Curry Curry Curry Clay Thompson
Desmond Bane and one Duncan Robinson season that sneaks in in Miami and Kinniple is going to
join that club like that's how good of a shooter this dude is and he moves the ball and all that
anyway the hornets are really fun to watch okay most time I'm trying to think let me just make
sure I have no more hornets notes I don't their defense is up to 17th I talked with bill about
the infrastructure underlying everything they do. We have to pick three of these what six teams to
make the postseason by rule three of them must make it from the eastern conference I have my picks
but I'm gonna let you go first and we'll see if we match and this is not who we're rooting for
this is who we actually think with Philly at 33 and 27 31 and 28 magic all the way down to 30
and 31 Charlotte 26 and 34 bucks who's actually making the playoffs. I'm going with Philadelphia
going Orlando and I'm going Charlotte. The only difference we have is I'm going Philadelphia
Miami and Charlotte and it feels incredible to not say Orlando especially if Franz comes back
and Suggs can stay in and they're they're qualitatively definitely the second to best or maybe
third at worst of these teams and maybe the best I just I just it may just I may not like watching
them but I also don't have a lot of faith that they're going to stay in the ship Miami just Miami's
their way and they just they get in there so I'm going I'm going Philly Miami Charlotte my only
thing the only reason why I'm going Orlando over Miami is just the way it's set up in the standing
because now seven eight and Orlando just has to win one game and they've like you said Miami has
not been able to really figure out this Orlando squad the season and I feel like that's going to be
the the problem for the the heat if it was I didn't factor the floral Orlando advantage in
I don't you know what I don't care Mo I don't care fair enough but I think that's going to be a
and and they just got to win the one game to get in you know and it's it's funny for me to have
picked Orlando considering how much I've I've been on been on them this season but I think they
they find a way all right let's take a quick break and we're going to go discuss some Western
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thinking partner epinnings let's move west the Denver nuggets mo
biggest threat to Oklahoma city i said it full health i've said many times i think they can go
toe-to-toe with the thunder and win the championship squeaked one out in Utah last night
yokech was fallen all over the place falling on top of people there were some wrestling moves
involved a little bit of flopping a controversial overturned foul call on yokech at the end of the game
it's not great even on a back-to-back even in Utah at altitude and Denver should be used to playing
it altitude it's not great when you just squeak out a win in Utah a team that's not trying to win
organizationally when jimal morgue goes off for 45 points this was coming off two straight losses
to other western conference powers at Oklahoma city in over time when yokech did the the mean mug
and luddorf and luddorf but obvious cheap shot i can't believe people were even like trying to
defend luddorf like a very obvious cheap shot i might make you do your best yokech eyes impression
at some point and then a home loss to minnesota where the wolves led wire to wire their defensive
numbers were okay in those games just okay i test was worse than okay for me in both of those games
and there was this idea that their defense had really rebounded since the all star break and
it's really based on two games one against the Celtics who were at a back-to-back at altitude
and scored on the 84 points and one against portland they won by 54 points and portland's offence
things i don't think their defense has leveled up really at all in any meaningful way
airing Gordon is still out cam johnson has been m-i-a and miss last night's game and i said this
with bill i i i will never write off the nuggets with yokech and murry i want to see them at full
health i don't know if it's even fair to assume that airing Gordon can be at full health for any
extended period of time but they were saying at the during the nuggets wolves game that a week
or so we'll see Watson and Gordon both back brown is now back and and looks like himself
cam johnson presumably will be back soon from whether i don't even remember what his injury is
which gives them all kind of options you know we know their core lineups are going to be murry
Gordon yokech and at full health they have a lot of interesting ways to fill those last two spots
last night they were not a full health they actually started valetunis next to yokech but i said this
would bill they are i think five and eight in their last thirteen games they have not played well
since yokech came back yokech is outstanding always looks puts up outstanding numbers i don't think he's
looked i mean it's hard to say he's looked like yokech like the best offensive player of all time
to me his defense has been worse than usual all season and worse than usual in this 15 game stretch
and his offense has been always outstanding but his jumper has been wonky and his turnovers have been
up and they just don't have they need yokech to be p goch i just it's starting to i'm not quite there
yet but it's starting to bubble up in my stomach and i said the sun sunday with bill every great team has
those years or it's just like it's not our year just it doesn't just there's too much stuff going
wrong and none of it really in our control it's not our year and i'm worried that this is a not
our year year for the nugget so i'm not there yet but i've officially i've officially been worried
for like a week now yeah so to just go first to yokech coming back from injuries you know would
i a hundred percent agree with you on the defensive side i feel like he's taken kind of a step back
and it's been more just his effort level defensively on that and i feel like it's not as intense as
it has been in the past but the other thing that really kind of stood out to me his story point
shooting numbers have like his percentage has dropped off a cliff and there's like the risk the
risk to plumblings right yeah like he went from for shooting 43% from three before the injury
where it was like every time he shot the three i was like that's automatic like now everybody's
really screwed whereas now he's shooting 32% like that's an 11 point drop in in percentage
just about the same amount of attempts and things like that but that's a huge drop off for the
nuggets there offensively just on that end of what they had before you know yokech's injury
then on top of that like the cam johnson like i was in on this trade i love the trade i thought it
was smart for them i thought it worked out i thought it was going to work out better and it was
very plug and play and it was just gonna seamlessly work together and i should have been smarter
as that because i should have gone to my own personal experience my first year with the spurs
was Richard Jefferson's first year with the spurs and when i took the job with the spurs and i
say my goodbyes to some of the clipper staffers it was right after that trade and somebody with
the clippers had literally said to me like at right after that trade you're gonna win a ring now
like because that's we all thought it was plug and play at Richard Jefferson Tony Manu Tim
like this is gonna work and it didn't work that first season it actually took rj a full year
came back the second year was was awesome was killing it from three and all that's
i feel like cam still trying to figure out where he fits within this offense and teams basically are
just not guarding him he had a wide open three in the corner against Oklahoma city on a a huge
possession that i'm pretty sure would have given the nuggets to lead missed it and it's some of
its been the injuries that he's missed the time he's missed so he hasn't been able to have that
chemistry to figure out where he goes and then even with Gordon out and for so long like
it's difficult for him to kind of figure out where he's gonna fit in the scheme of things like
there there are a lot of things that i when i start kind of looking at with the nuggets i'm starting
to get like huh like that's not quite where where you want that to be and even with Gordon like
you need to get at least 15 games before the playoffs full health so everybody understands their
roles and understands what they need to be doing and i'm i'm worried would just Gordon in the
sense of like we haven't seen him playing forever at this point it's worrisome um cam johnson
we knew he was not going to be any kind of major defensive upgrade over michael portaginner at
least i knew and only if only because of rebounding michael portaginner is a really good rebounder
he's six ten he's just bigger than cam johnson cam johnson might be more engaged rotationally he
might be in the right place at the right time i think his defense has been worse than it was in
phoenix and brooklyn probably because he's been slowed by injuries often on but teams are just
they're picking on him with their quick guards just like they're pick on you know i mean they pick on
everybody on the nuggets basically other than you know paid and lots in a christian brown and even
christian brown is overmatched guarding like a shea one on one which is his job because they don't
have anyone else he can do it he's just she's just too fast for him and i don't think his point
if it's act defense has been all that going to add a maris has been on this for the nvr sports
too um but guys are just going at cam johnson and shoot like the shooting i i understood the trade
i didn't like it nearly as much as anyone else because i kept i was i felt like i was in crazy
town defending michael portaginner people acted like he was just a fucking nobody because he's
said some stuff on some podcast that was weird and like defensively he can be absent minded he's
got back issues all this i just kept saying like a six ten a plus shooter with yokich is just
so freaking valuable and cam johnson is not six ten he has not been an a plus shooter she's been fine
he's shooting for he's actually shooting a higher percentage than michael portaginner but on
fewer attempts by like two or three per thirty six minutes which is massively important um to the
nuggets offense because they just they don't shoot threes and every little bit of threes that they
lose is exponentially important to them because of how few they shoot and you know right now they're
feeling the lack of size without Watson and Gordon because particularly when teams bring yokich out
to the perimeter he's been not nearly as as like he's just been lost at sea at no man's land too often
and when people get by him there's just no size anywhere behind him and like the whole aggressive
picking roll defense they play with him is based on we got to have size like michael portaginner
airing Gordon rotating to the rim is a real thing cam johnson and Bruce brown rotating to the
rim is not threatening for anybody and it's just like the cam johnson thing is so interesting because
i mentioned if they're healthy or if airing Gordon's 90% healthy they're going to close games with
Murray Gordon yokich and two open slots and right now like if you ask me who i have the most faith
in to to have those two spots it's christian brown and paid in Watson and i just don't think the brown
Watson Gordon combination is has quite enough juice offensively maybe i'm wrong because
Gordon is is a made man is a 40% three point shoot now he's going to be given space but he's going
to make those shots and he's given less space than he used to be paid Watson is shooting 41%
on threes he's not treated as a shooter but if he makes the shots it doesn't matter now he's
50 something percent on corner threes and less than that on above the break christian brown has been
up and down so i is that workable and if it because if it's not those three then you're counting on
cam johnson and if it's not cam johnson then you're going way down in size with tim hardaway junior
Bruce brown they just signed ties jones forgive me if i'm not really going to think that ties jones
is changing the Denver nuggets life after being watching out with multiple teams already this season
i'd rather play jail and pick it frankly the ties jones at this point so even if they get healthy
the cam johnson piece to use bills phraseology worries me a little bit just in terms of like how does
like who's closing games for this team they have a lot of options and it's to the front office
credit that they have like tim hardaway juniors been great Bruce brown is Bruce brown like Watson's
been awesome um i just don't know you know how it all fits together yeah and the scary part is
have you seen their schedule going into the they have a crazy schedule it's it's two games against
the thunder left which everybody sign up and make sure you're paying attention to the the next
time they meet three games against the spurs nicks rockets two against the lakers it's pretty intense
like just the hardest schedule in the NBA yeah by far and it's not like it's insane to me when you
see that stuff so we're going to see i guess what they're going to be but like i just it's like you
said sometimes these great teams just have a year where you just you go into it knowing like
going into the playoffs you kind of feel like they just don't have it and they might shock us all
and and and all of a sudden be phenomenal last ten games of the season and we're all ready to roll
but also comes down to their playoff matchups like they're out right like that's one thing you
watch for in the west and i watch more in the west than anywhere else they're the way they're
slotted they're fit for right now one loss behind minnesota they have the the tiebreaker over minnesota
so you know it's it's important for them to at least tie them there four five and that means
potentially playing Oklahoma city in the second round like that could be pretty tough
right there in that area they're tied with the lakers and number of losses there only two losses
up on phoenix but without Dylan Brooks and you know the injuries have piled up with with phoenix
like i don't think they'll drop into the playing but like kind of crazy like they could drop to six
you know what it and it might actually be smart for them to drugs and say i don't think
i think denver cares less about when they play Oklahoma city and more about who they might play in
the first round that would just be my guess as to like minnesota plays them really i know denver's
three and one against minnesota they just lost them and one of the games is in overtime minnesota
has obviously played them toe-to-toe in the playoffs including winning a game seven in denver
um i i think they probably don't it i think the when do we get the thunder thing is like you're
gonna you're gonna probably have to go through them at some point and by the way one of the other
big x factors now is as the the thunder are going to get healthy and they're going to remind people
like oh this is like this is the full team like Jared McCain is a luxury um
if i have had some people ask me like where was the rest of the league on Jared McCain like if
he was available nobody outbid Oklahoma city Oklahoma city traded legit draft equity a first round
picking some seconds and i don't think the sixers were getting that for a guy who was on the fringes
of their rotation and has played like 50 NBA games this is the benefit of being Oklahoma city
they don't care about overpaying with draft picks they're built to overpay with draft picks
but anyway um Jared jail in Williams that's like i'm gonna watch very careful in when he comes back
because he's barely played the season we have not really seen him at peak level form
because of his wrist injury and other stuff and now he's been out with a leg injury of some kind
and this was a guy who was putting up like like we were through five six games of the finals thinking
is he challenging Shay for finals MVP like masterpiece level games laid in the NBA finals um
he's a big x factor but i i love those matchups with the thunder and the nuggets and a couple of
things have stuck out to me um number one uh let me bring this up to make sure i get it the nuggets
have played the third most zone on defense in the entire NBA this year behind Miami and Milwaukee
that's according to the genius iq second spectrum tracking data the thunder have faced the
third most zone in the NBA this season including against the nuggets the thunder have done quite
well against zone 1.17 five points for a hundred possessions and the nuggets have done quite
poorly playing zone according to the tracking data that's one thing and i like the the thunder's
attack of the zone i loved the way they use the baseline particularly when they have two bigs
in the game they pass to each other on the baseline um and the thunder have gotten a little more
daring uh and it's only for small snippets of games but playing chat as the lone bigman against
yokech and having chat guard yokech and just a yokech thing that i'm watching i'm not sure what it
means that i'm interested in your take yokech this season 10 post-ups per one hundred possessions
that is his fourth lowest number ever and his lowest frequency since 2017 2018 in his best seasons
he's been up around 13 14 15 and the reason i and they're still like wildly efficient plays but the
reason i looked that up is i've watched a lot of these nugget games and thought to myself
play i'd like to see him posted they're averaging 1.46 points per possession like you'll be posted
and i just feel like i'm not seeing it as much and it just feeds into my like
he hasn't been he's still the best offense player in the NBA he just hasn't been quite the dominant
like ultra ultra dominant like i'm gonna do everything at all times kind of forced so those are
i just think it's a fascinating match of puzzle i wonder if some of that has to do with
Murray having such an amazing year and and from start to finish and then they've decided to kind of
let's hammer more the pick and roll between those two guys than anything else and i think that
might play into some of that but yeah like posting up yokech just seems like a good idea that i'd
probably want to do 15 times a game you know and it could just be we're playing the long game we're
saving all this stuff for the playoffs and i will never count them out i will never count them out
especially with jalen william's health being a little bit more of an unknown than the thunder
would like it to be um but the west is is just going to be holaceous um by the way what did you
think of of bill's uh are the thunder becoming villains uh question slash take after the ludor
yokech incident i thought i thought they were becoming villains beforehand i thought that was
kind of been i feel like that's been sort of bubbling up underneath that's why i think so many
people were so excited when the spurs were beating them in december right i felt like people were
were genuinely excited and and you know you guys said it a lot of it's baked in jealousy right a lot
of it that cannot be said enough the envy the envy of their stockpile of picks and the shade trade
and all that do you know how annoyed i'd be if i was one of the other 29 teams i would be but then
it's also the stuff where it's like they go the reports of them complaining to the jazz you know
about the jazz it makes excuse me to the NBA and and things because they own the jazz is pick and
they don't you know it's like all these small things that they kind of do it and they don't care
and i'm happy about that with local homicidie like that whatever they don't care about that
outside noise very san Antonio spurs ish in that sense but and they just go about their business
but it is going to piss everybody else off everybody else is going to be i love bill mentioning the
commercial suck you know like i thought that was hilarious i wouldn't come across my radar yet
so yeah but it's true though there are knowing when you watch those things and it was the whole
what a girl wants commercial and think like it was all those things like they are becoming villains
but you know what that's good i love it it's we need it we need more villains we need more
rivalries the uh listen i'm dirty played by dork you know and no question just
there's no argument there's no argument that it wasn't like it wasn't like it reminded me of
Chris Paul was the master of this when he'd be dribbling up the floor and veer into somebody behind
him to draw a foul and i never liked that and i loved when the league started calling it an offensive
foul but at least it was like a not a basketball play but he had the basketball and there was like
basketball going on that was just like i'm just gonna hip check you and like there's a little elbow
to it too it's like i'm just gonna go out of my way stop and hit you just to be ludorque and but
the funniest thing of all this and this is the thing that drives me nuts about Oklahoma City
actually did a video on offside for it after the uh uh they lost to this person the the playing
tournament game in Vegas dork was shocked the referee called the foul if you go back and watch
reaction as soon as the everybody though but that's everybody but they do but they get away with so much
to me it's like you can't really just complain every time like the whistle blows you know and
it's all that stuff like i just think the the way we're kind of it's just fun i love at their
villains i love that we're having more animosity across the board in the NBA i don't want fights
and things like that but i love that we have rivalries kind of coming back in a way and it's not
so kumbayaish that we get and and and and it's kind of fun to sort of see all of this bubbling up
because everybody's kind of having these sort of little skirmishes dork also one of the elite
extended leg kickers if he sees an opportunity on his three-point shot when he's coming down like
he'll just do a karate kick sideways and see if it hits somebody and by the way i he's not alone
lots people do that and i the the referees should definitely air on the side of those being offensive
fouls like you if it's questionable call it on the offense i'd do the leg kick needs to go by
the way the pushoff is now officially a major talking boy i think thanks to doris berk
who railed about it a little bit when who got aunt got called from one i can't stand for
and then jimal muri didn't get called for i thought a much less egregious one than ant did
and i've heard pride that was sunday before that i had already gotten text from coaches
about pushoffs being an epidemic in the league and everyone's going to think it's shay that's the
reason jalen brown's name has come up quite a lot as a pushoff guy and he got called for one
the other day against i wasn't feeling it was the game before after a couple others that i thought
probably should have been called um so it's it's like a real it's like a real discussion uh what
what are your thoughts on the state of the putt and by the way i told all these coaches
is politely as i could uh spare me because when your guy does it you're going to be like that's
definitely not a foul don't call that a foul that was a legit basketball play so all coaches
are hypocrites i just just just spare me with i said it nicely i was like i'll wait for
player x to do it but what's your where are we on pushoff well one one of the most iconic shots
we've ever had has come off of a pushoff don't you dare don't you dare but nonetheless i think the
for me it's it's one the arm is fully extended right like the way i always kind of thought it was
like if you had your elbows bent and kind of but when you fully extend that's when it's it's
gotta be called in in in that area for me personally i generally wish they'd give the defense a
little more latitude in in in defending like it's it's that those the pushoffs is wild to me
just a offensive player throwing his body into a defender and all of a sudden that's a foul call
and it's i don't know what the defense is supposed to do like we need to kind of find a way
but the the pushoff stuff is to me once you extend your arm that's an offensive foul
and that needs to be called and that needs to be more consistent when you talk about jalen brown
getting away with three and then getting the the pride of the least aggressive one gets called
it's because the coach on the other side who is probably harping on the ref the whole time
and as soon as he finally saw it he blew the whistle i just think we need to just be more consistent
what are we going to call amen on the thunder villains thing when bill said that i was like i'm
pretty sure i've already talked about this and it was on a December 11th i had an episode with Howard
Beck and it was right after they had played phoenix and shet and grace and allen and other great
villain by the way had gotten into a couple of like shoving matches i think so many have gotten
ejected there were definitely technical issue there was like multiple just out of your way to shove
and i talked about that at that point they were like 22 and one or something crazy and i talked
about like i love i love this i love that they're lean they seem to be leaning in if not to all out
villainy because what i said on that pot i think still holds true today if they're villains it's because
the best team always becomes something of the villain the rest of the league begins to root against
them and you begin to find things that you just don't like about them because you're they're the one
everyone is aiming for but they also have played from day one of this season like give us your best
shot we know we know like we know everyone's coming for us now we're champions we know we play
super physical and everyone hates it and thinks the rest don't call enough fouls on us we know
we're going to try to win every single game and this is when they were 24 and 123 and one we want
we're we're like actually they played like a team who was actually chasing 70 wins like we want
68 last year we want 70 not only do we want to beat you we want to take the ball from you so many times
that you just give up running your offense we want to make you basically quit in an NBA game and
just go through the motions for the rest of the game and they have an edge they they mean mug they
then how dorks play was was dirty no question but i i like it and i'm i'm all for a little NBA
villainy it's more fun and and you got to respect the way they attack the season to start the year
like just the way everything you say is right on like there's just no like at some point where
you know there's always the question of like do they take their foot off the gas a little bit now
if they want like no they were full throttle from the beginning and you got to give them a lot of
that kind of like respect in that regard i appreciate that they do that and there are times yes i
get frustrated with the thunder and you know the whole media apparatus around it or sometimes
it feels very propagandist but like i think you know ultimately like they're just they're a good
ass team at the end of the day and you can't be mad at the fact that sam pressty built this team
with not just a bowl load of assets that they can go ahead and make a trade and get Jared and
McCain for and and and basically i think if anybody came to the table with a little bit of a more
offer they'd have just said cool here's another second round pick like whatever they would have
they would have gotten him at the end of the day and then he nailed these draft picks he's nailed
his signings turning giddy into Alex Caruso is a win the heart and sign stuff we haven't even i
mean case on wall as a whole like all these guys a j Mitchell everything wiggins all that stuff
you got to get them credit they've done all of these things right and they were in the position
they were when the clippers needed Paul George and they leveraged it for everything they had and by
the way they the most underrated it's not underrated but they deserve a lot of credit for getting
Paul George people were like Oklahoma City Paul George wow and they they made a good asset play
to keep their team afloat in in the playoffs with Russ post kd and it worked and then they flip
for what they've looked at were anyway Denver lot at stake for Denver very expensive team
Aaron Gordon's 30 you'll catch a 30-something 30-31 they're already at the first
April next year before you account for any Valentinus Peyton Watson Bruce Brown Tim Hardaway Jr
they are out three first future first round picks already including the one they attached
some Michael board juniors so all these teams have all all these the stakes are big last thing
Darius Garland made his debut for the clippers last night the clippers with a huge come from behind
win against the warriors that has major play-in implications the the clippers now lead the
season series to one and are only a game behind the warriors for the seven eight spot I mean they
need the seven eight versus nine ten is huge what did you think of Darius Garland's first 23
minutes is an LA clipper well the first three minutes were an utter disaster like in in the way
he had two turnovers right off well I don't know if it was right off the bat but back to back right
one where Moses Moody just completely ripped the ball right out of his hands as he was trying to drive
and then the other one he gets trapped on the long the sidelines and ends up turning it over finished
with five turnovers I like to go five and a half because he got forced into a jump ball in in that
situation besides that like once he started to find his group after the first stint he looked
much more comfortable a little bit more fluid in the way he was doing it we should mention he
started he came off the bench came off the bench and that's easier to manage minutes because he's
on a minute restriction they're going to work him in slowly with all that stuff he wasn't he didn't
his first stint wasn't paired with Kauai was a matron was he was paired with matron I think
in that first stint and they just didn't have any sort of fluidity with that once he was paired
with Kauai he started to kind of see how this slowly starts to work he didn't have a great game but
he was pretty it was pretty good like I was if I'm a clipper fan I'm encouraged I'm like okay I
like what I saw this after that the turnovers are one thing he missed a couple of clean looks he
had some stuff where he created a good he got the ball on the sidelines off a pass from Kauai
drives middle kicks it out relocates to the top of the three had a great pass from Kauai Sanders
there was a wide open three he missed it but that's like yo that's what you want to see those
are the things you got to like I liked what I saw so far with it I think you know the will be
questions defensively for sure but like offensively I think he's going to little rust find his
way through but I think there's some real promise there and just faster the pace I love you knew
like they they just need a little more juice and transition and he and he brings that
they've never for better and worse they've not had a player like him in a very long time they
have steered away from small guards who are perhaps defensive liabilities and now they've invested
somewhat big in one of them and they'll have to figure that out but they also just haven't had
like a just I mean a passer like shifty small guy step back I mean hard and took a ton of
threes but just played a totally different style than Darius Garland does and even like you mentioned
you came in when Kauai was out just anything first of all those minutes have been just a lot of
piecemeal like all right Jordan Miller go to work and he's been like good enough for sure
but it now they have a little bit more of a okay we can build an offense that's coherent around
Garland and Mathur and when Kauai sits and when Kauai plays just anything to take the load off him
and get him easier shots and not have him have to create everything in the half court is just
given his on again off again health issues is just huge and even I mean Garland wasn't even on
the floor for it last night but he got a rare bucket for him as the screener in a pick and roll and
boy would I like to see a little bit more of that given that small guys are going to defend Garland
and if you switch Kauai just going to take you down into his office I just you know I've talked about
this before but there was all the conspiracy theories when those trades were made when the Zubat
trade was made in Harden for Garland about how oh my god are they preparing for Armageddon are
they preparing for a collise contract to get voided are they doing right by Harden and Zubat
to get them out of town before all hell breaks loose are they acquiring first round picks in
preparation to forfeit first round picks I don't know what's going to happen with with the
investigation is still going on I don't know what their punishment is going to be I don't know
what they're bracing for God knows they're not going to sit there and talk about it with me
I said then and I'll still say now I think both trades made sense on the merits for a team
that clearly had to start pivoting to the next era of itself without
bottoming out because they don't control their picks and they have an owner who won't tolerate
bottoming on anyway I think these were both really good picks for them the Zubat's trade has
unleashed Yanuk Kodin leaderhouser who was awesome last night around the rim on defense and on
offense and it looks like a very interesting prospect and boy that that pick and Garland is
much younger than Harden ten years younger obviously and that pick is just going to be so fun
to watch in the lottery room the Pacers right now are the numbers two seed in the lottery but
it's it's really tight between Indiana Brooklyn and Washington Utah that's going to be super tight
but by win percentage they have the second worst record right now that would be and remember
it's top four protected the Pacers keep it if it's one to four the Clippers get it if it's five
denied right now the Pacers would have a 52 percent chance of that pick landing in the top four
they fall to three it's the same 52 percent they fall to four or rise to four I don't even know
what the proper terminology is it drops to 48 percent that it's in the top four so the odds
shift a little bit to the Clippers if they go to five it's 42 percent the odds now shift somewhat
significantly towards the Clippers God forbid they fall or rise to six which is about the the ceiling
for all these teams it's 37 percent that it's in the top four and major edge to the Clippers and
by the way all the tanking stuff remains ongoing behind closed doors in the league office and I do think
I do think we're going to see if not if not a seismic change that's bigger than all the
band-aids we've talked about if not there were there at least going to get to the goal line on big
big changes and put it to a vote and my guess would be we see something more actually enacted
than just the band-aids we talked about like you can't trade anything but a top four protected
pick and a top 14 percent to pick I would bet on more significant change than that
and and maybe even in time for the 2027 draft this draft they're not messing with it's too late
in the game you could even argue next draft is a little early given that people made trades based
on rules that exist now but I think change is coming one more thing though about that trade
with the Pacers we always talk about the pick we always talk about Zubach we don't talk about
matron getting traded there like that was big for them that he's been huge for them he's
won them in he's won them games he's kept them in games there's there's a when we talk about
Charlotte and having multiple ballhammers and guys that is it's not the same level but now you
have a third guy too that can go drop 30 you know like he can get high and go completely nuts like
there's a you know we're talking about one collis off the floor they're going to have Garland
and matron together you know and there's now matron has to again like it needs to be locked
in defensively and things like that because you can't have those two both being tough positions
defensively but the fact is they've added another offensive player in their their run when we
talk about their trades it matron kind of and I understand why matron kind of gets lost a little
bit in the shuffle but let's not forget this dude was playing big games for the Pacers in the
finals he was a big piece for them in the in in their run and had some big nights like I I feel
like sometimes we do we don't give him enough attention on in that trade scenario totally agree
and in fact this is a great podcast topic for another day even better for building for me but I
would like to do it we need to come up with a name for these guys who are kind of treated as throwins
salary matching throwins whatever like yeah he's intriguing throw them in throwins and are actually
more than that in trades like the classic example is Chris Middleton who just kind of got tossed in
to the branded night brand and Jennings trade and turned into by far the best player in it but like
Markin in in the Donovan Mitchell hoopla when he gets traded to Cleveland all the focus is on the
picks and this and that and like Markin in was it took like a like in the initial write-ups of
those trades he's like yeah it's kind of a fun flyer on Larry Markin he turns into an awesome
player mathoron I don't think we'll ever get nearly as good as Markin is but you know you in all
the focus ends up being on the the best player and the picks and justifiably so those are the most
important but I it would be fun to go through all the history of trades and be like who were I
mean Markin is was probably better than a throwin but at that point he had kind of washed out in
Chicago felick at disappointing lottery pick didn't really fit super well in Cleveland like
and just he and sex didn't both like hey whatever it takes just big whatever you want
and it's just it's a really interesting dynamic of all all these trades by the way Clippers total
point differential for the season mo after what are they they've played 60 games plus zero a total
flat zero very fitting for the Clippers mode de keel tell people where they can find you
offside obviously is is one of them where else yeah so do the videos on offside make sure you're
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lot of crap for that I was just telling you I was just telling you that we're coming we're
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we do it right now once a week we're gonna ramp up as we get going you know close and you'll
be here ramping up yeah ramping up I got to ramp up a little bit and get going there and then
make sure you check out the association weekend edition on NBA TV on Saturday I'm going to be
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league a lot of live look ins and and overall and sometimes you might get annexes and mows at it
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thank you bud thank you all right that's it for today's episode of the Zach Lowe show we are back
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