Playoff Verriables: Finals Picks, Leap Candidates, and More | Group Chat

Hello and welcome to Group Chat. I am Justin Varyer and joining me to perfect modern

journalist. We got Rob Mahoney, we got Jay Kyle, man, gentlemen, the Blazers are in

the playoffs. The player is spectacular. Everything is going right with the world. I feel like

your priorities are in that order. It's Blazers first, amazing NBA basketball. Maybe the

greatest play in we've had to date second for Justin Varyer. Yeah, that was a window to

the soul for sure. Not that you didn't mean to do that. But I definitely think that was

indicative of how you're feeling. You seem giddy. Yeah, I mean, the play in has been crackling.

It's been a good, a really good time. I can't remember the last time this has been that exciting. I

do think like the fall off of the regular season had people anticipating this more. But all four games

as we're recording this on Thursday have been spectacular. Like every single one went down to the

wire. Yeah, competitive down to the wire and not just that, but I think a great mix of what we've

always wanted from the plan, which is young ascendant teams and some of the veteran stalwarts,

all having their say at the same time. It's it really is like everything we could hope for from

this kind of like do or die sort of competition, at least at least for the 910s. Yeah, free

wheeling ascendants versus like raging against the dying of the light with the warriors last night.

The onks, the onks were ballin. It's true. When when when when Al Horthard made what how many

make I mean, I know he made three. I think it was eight. It was eight or nine consecutive three

pointers to basically bust open the game. I got lost in that sauce and I was at one point. Well,

I remember saying to myself at one point around half time in that game, I was like,

Horthard's gonna have to do something. He's gonna do something. And Lord, did he ever? Yeah,

that was fun. In addition to the staff magic, that was just fun, man. I don't know. I was feeling

nostalgic. Yeah, we got a nice blend of everything. Well, don't gloss over it, though, Kyle,

because I think for me, it was honestly Dreymond locking up, Kauai on consecutive possessions. It was

still fucking got it. And if he still got it, maybe we've still got it. We got a few wild hogs

experienced. I got Horthard, Dreymond, staff, all the oldies looking very spry out there.

I know we don't need any more ideas to save the NBA, but I was wondering as the play in was so

thrilling, like, should we not go back to shorter series at least in the first round? Like if

baseball is the example of a league that saw something going wrong and like, righted it with the

correct moves in order to bring some energy back to that sport, like, what if it was like three,

five, seven, seven in the way that baseball was or just like going back to five in the first round,

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I'm not being real. I've never even considered a best of three series. Is that?

That's. Is that the appropriate amount of chaos that we would want in the NBA?

I still think like the best team would win. It gives them enough of a sample where it isn't just

like total cockamay, me like in basketball, where anything could happen. And so you are paying

deference to the regular season, but not doing it so much that you're sacrificing the entertainment

value of like a series with real stakes to every game because that's what's been happening in

these playing games. A lot of teams just want it so bad and like you could feel the energy and all

of these arena because they're really living and dying with every shot, every turnover, etc.

Well, counterpoint as we're doing our hashtag hoop idea on a regular basis around here.

Playoff basketball is perfect and I don't think really needs to be fiddled with too much.

Like we've been waiting for this particular moment in these sorts of stakes because we know when

we get there, the postseason usually pays off. Yeah, I mean the distance between good and great

is usually measured by your personnel flexibility and what the adjustments that you can make in your

ability to make them. I think which we'll get into with these teams in more detail I think,

but if you went to a three game series, I think you're just sort of you're sort of moving forward

the immediacy of the that moment when a team can have like a slow start or the team that is that

maybe has less to lose could experiment and get a little wild with something and you're just you're

moving forward that moment where they can feel the boiling water under their ass basically where

they're like, oh my god, we could lose this. I don't know. I think about like the was the kings

and the jazz when it was like the web the Weber was it the was it Weber and Jason Williams when

they like pushed them to that like fifth game and it was the jazz really needed to win. I just

think that scenario is like that. Like let's say a team comes out and really and really just hit

some with a surprise punch. That's fun. I mean, I do still think that the the better team would win

most of the time. I don't feel like people are going to go for that because I think people want to

see the good teams going further in the playoffs because that's that's one of the downsides about

the college game is right. We we sort of ring our hands about like, man, if we could have just seen

this match up like that's that's one positive of the one game scenario, but in the NBA, I think

people want to see the best teams over several games playing each other. I don't think the NBA would

go for it because if the whole thing of 82 games is that they want the revenue from the abundance of

games. I don't think they're going to cut off playoff games, which are exponentially worth more to the

league. But I don't know. I think it could be cool, but I think we have a pretty good slate of playoff

action ahead of us. And this has been a nice little little appetizer, little little prelude to

what you're whistle there, Rob. I mean, my whistle is sufficiently wet. Like, let's just say it. Let's

just put it in the internet. Let's let's clip that. Longing into social media. But I am who I am.

And ultimately, like, this is the time to be excited about NBA basketball. We can nerd out all

regular season long about the eighth men on depth charts. But this is when all this stuff feels more

real and feels more urgent in a way that just delivers overall like so much of a higher quality of

basketball. So we are knocking on the door of the 2026 NBA playoffs. You know what time that is

Rob Mahoney? What is it? I think it's time for the variables. I heard upward of two to three people

crying in the wilderness, just waiting for this to come back. They're like, where are the very,

we've got a whole season without the variables. I still don't know how to spell it. What even is

the bit that's going on here? Is it just a survey or is it a special kind of survey? And I think

we have to give the people what they want. Do those two to three people? Are they inclusive of Kyle

and I? No, because I don't think you guys carried it. I actually do care. This matters very much to

me. Do you want to put a stamp? Now that we're here yet again on how we're supposed to be spelling

variables. You mentioned it. You and I, I feel like have had just like a religious divide on this.

Uh, no, I think it's up to the audiences and generation. As the artist here, I don't want to really

put a fine point on it. I want to come to their conclusions. Very, very David Fincher of you.

You know, just completely withholding at all times. Two to three people clamoring for this. Maybe

you might call it like an imminent gaggle of people or sort of like thinking. Yeah. I think

an attempted murder of people. Maybe yeah, it's in murder. I like that. Just adding a bulls to your

last name. It's hard to shit to say. But that's part of the fun, I think. So that's why I would lean

towards going towards the clunky version. I don't know. Really, it's fun, right? I think what

else is fun is just rocking out to the various theme song. I think that's the big part of this.

And we have a new one yet again. So Victoria, kick us off. Drop the beat.

Yeah. I think it's one of our best yet. I don't know if I've had many times in my life where I've

seen someone get more white before my eye. That was incredible. The social breakout just to be

Kyle's just absolute non-response stillness. It's just completely like what is going on here.

Do I have to a mo and pretend like this is a thing? Do I have to a mo? Well, my wife's nickname

for me is IJK and Cesson Lee jaded Kyle. So that might tell you something. I don't know. Maybe

you're on something. I think you should open your heart not just to the variables experience,

but to the like Kirkland brand, Daff Punk that were pumping through our veins this morning. So

complimentary complimentary that's an original track from our guy John Rob is again comes from

the John before it used to be just songs that we found on the internet that unfortunately stepped

on copyrights issues and down the road we had to thank some some laid adjustments. But no,

we're we're getting original tracks here. Okay. See those on TikTok. Like you got Joe taken off.

Why can't John? Spent with a D. Let's make it happen. I think the variables is the exact

launch pad that it needs. That's right. All right. So we got five questions here on the docker.

We're going to go through every single series in the first round later in this. But I want to start

big picture because I think that's going to set the table here. Let's start with the East too,

which I think the West has a little bit more juice to it, but the East feels to me Rob a little

bit more white open. I ask you as we are here on Thursday, how many East teams do you feel like

could realistically make it to the finals out of that conference? Not like who will, but how many could?

I think five could. Okay. And it is, you know, we've been talking about Detroit and Boston and the

Nix and the Cavs all season in some variation of this conversation or another. I'm ready to invite

the Atlanta Hawks. I don't know how you guys feel about this, but we have we have crossed the threshold

where the Hawks have been good and like a really quality Eastern conference team for a bigger

portion of the season than either the Cavs or the Nix leading directly into the playoffs with all

this momentum, whether you subscribe to that or not. How can we not take them seriously given all

that they've shown us over the last four months? I would say the lack of depth on the team.

Or a functional big man because I mean, they're back up center Jack Lando. Is he like, is he going to

play at least to start the playoffs? We haven't gotten injury update. And so like, they've been great.

The starting unit unit has been lights out over this. What was it? 19 and five run that they've had?

Oh, back into the season. So there's something there clearly. I don't know. Okay. I wouldn't put

them up into the I had a top four. What did you have? I actually had three because I'm pretty dubious

of the pistons. I had the cabs, Celtics and the six. You think the pistons have no chance to

win the East. No chance. I just think if I'm saying everybody has a chance, obviously like the

Hawks have a chance if you want to hold my feet to that by. Sure. I just think who do I have the

most confidence? There's a clear tier of three teams that I think have more playoff experience,

more versatility in their personnel. And fewer questions to answer. I think then the pistons

right now. I think the pistons are going to be challenged in some ways. It's very possible that

they can be out by round two. I think that could happen. So it's a lot of that is

it's circumstance, you know, if I don't know if we want to launch into the pistons in particular.

Let's let's stay with the Hawks for a second. I think the Hawks, they're

there's schematic questions in terms of the chess game that goes on in a playoff series.

I think that the Knicks are going to have a couple moves that they can make immediately that

could strain them and cause some problems. But you know, the Hawks always are going to have that

spunk of their very athletic. They're going to turn people over. I think that they could do some

defensive alignments that could, but like what if they have Dyson Daniels guard cat? Like I think

that could be interesting. But I just think that the Knicks have a huge offensive rebounding

advantage with Mitchell Robinson who you don't have to run anything forward. He's going to he's going

to hurt them in that way. I just worry about them on that front. But overall, I'm more narrow. I

I just think three is am I am I being incessently jaded Kyle? I don't know am I not being open

and optimistic? I just I feel like these proven teams are way more likely to get it done.

I think you are being quite jaded as far as the pistons to me feel like a perfectly realistic

possibility for how the east could turn out. The Hawks I admit are a long shot.

Their road to get to the NBA finals would be incredibly tough. They would have to come out with

the Knicks as you said out of the gate Kyle. Then they're looking at what probably the Celtics in

round two. And then ultimately maybe the pistons or the calves in round three. That's a that's a brutal

road. I don't know that they're fully up for it. But it doesn't feel beyond the reach of

possibility to me. And I say that in part because they have so many guys who I think can help them

problem solve on both sides of the ball. And they don't have the one answer right they don't have

the LeBron level creator out there who it's like okay we can just put the ball in this guy's hands

and trust he's going to make the right decisions. It's going to take more tinkering and maybe

whether you take the Hawks seriously might be a quince night or conversation as far as his ability

to move all of these pieces around the floor and understand and manipulate whatever advantages

the Hawks have in a given series. But between Jalen and Nikiil and Dyson and CJ and on Yaka

Kongu and his flexibility and then yes the bench is a little bit more of a question mark right

now. But maybe you get just enough Jonathan Kaminga and just enough Mogay just enough Gabe Benson

and kind of select spots and applications. I just think there's something there and maybe it's

just something enough to like threaten the nicks or potentially upset the nicks and then that's it

or maybe it's enough to go on kind of a miracle run on like any of these lesser teams in the East

How many people have died just expecting anything from Jonathan Kaminga just bodies shooting

about net warriors organization at this point but you're right he does have to be an impact bench

player because a lot of their bench is just kind of like the flotsam that they picked up via trade

even like CJ and some of these other guys who are critical components there. It's a lot of just like

one last job sort of energy which I think the team has used to success in the regular season

because they do play free and like without the burden of for instance having to work through

try young and some of the naughty or stuff that happened with him. I just don't know how much that's

going to carry them especially when it seems like the nicks really press on like a pretty

just big disadvantage with the rebounding especially with Mr. Robinson just like we saw last

postseason like he can really just wreak terror just by doing that with his activity and his size

and so I guess here's the question for you Rob just to distinguish between like the Pacers perhaps

of last year like would you see them in a similar thing where like if things go well they can get

going or do you see like Pacers were always team of destiny hawks are more like we'll see what happens.

More of the latter I think it's last year's Eastern conference field felt really formidable

and the Pacers overcame all of it and yeah also got some injury breaks along the way that kind

of served them that felt like more of an achievement over incredible competition. This feels like

the east is good but flawed in a lot of ways all of these teams at the top have caveats including

the ones that we feel most confident about and so is there a world in which the hawks kind of seep

through the cracks of a flawed and broken conference. That's really the only possibility I'm putting

on the board and it is a long shot an extreme long shot relative to these other four teams

but it feels more realistic or at least realistic enough to put kind of in the mix as we're as we're

divvying up the pie of the Eastern conference in this case. But I had four. I feel like I kind of

went in between you guys. I think the top four and now I can see you. You literally did. Yeah.

I can see any of the top four kind of making it there. I just really could just come down to matchups

or what we're seeing for some of these teams to start with like the calves for instance are they

going to be able to play defense or the Celtics is Jason Tatum going to look rock solid especially

he's going to have more time in between games. I don't know where I land. Honestly, I'm hoping within

these conversations I can kind of figure out the East myself but I could see any one of those four

teams pistons, Celtics, calves, Dicks. I could see any of those four making it at this point.

Is that a good thing? Would you prefer to be anchored with a greater sense of oh these are the one

or two contenders that we feel like are on one of these paths of destiny or do you like having

a little bit more of an open field as far as what the top of the East looks like? I think the West

has more juice because we're anticipating the top end just like having a sort of jargon

knot got Zilla versus Mothra sort of like final destiny sort of things. Why is it always Mothra

for you? I'm like going to say a lot of Kaju references. Have you been on a kick lately? What's going

on? I don't think I know another guy in that realm. King Kong dog like no but that one, bro. They

brought King Kong in. I guess it was an original Godzilla person. I mean you could go mecha Godzilla.

You could go there's Rodan. Yeah, it's Rodan is Rodan though. There's one that's like

pollution personified. There's like a small monster. There's a lot happening but all of which is

to say maybe we need to broaden out your Kaju horizons. The top three. I mean the elite elite

transcendent talent is all in the West. I mean it's just reality. The top all the MVP conversation

was out there. I think all of the just confounding how are we going to deal with this person,

their production on their own and the you know playmaking that ripples from them. Those guys

are great adores. They're good examples of that in the East but the elite ones are in the West

and I just think that's that's kind of why the juice feels a little different like what just

was saying. Yeah. I also think the depth of the West just makes the first round a little bit more

compelling where you have a lot of teams like kind of on the come up going again some of the more

established team where it feels like there's a little bit more just like ref ref unfortunately

with the bottom part of the East like raptors are yeah cool regular season but you seem pretty

flawed and I don't expect you to do much there like there just really isn't much juice to the

first round but you see the second round all bets are off. Yeah and it is those top four in the East

they know these teams that you're talking about Justin as your potential contenders like that

is a pretty airtight second round that's some really great matchups on the board that is it like

it is a lesser version of the heavyweight bounce the Kaiju level about so we might be having in the West

but I think it's fully worth locking in and there's so much intrigue even within those particular

matchups as far as like maker break implications for some of these cores you know groups that are

that are kind of trying to take advantage of this one opportunity before next season becomes a

whole different enterprise in the East as some of these other teams get healthier and better and

kind of back to being whole. We're gonna flip to the West now question number two here if not the

thunder then who I think you guys are gonna pick one of two teams but should we start about talking

about the thunder just to start with here yeah how are we feeling overall here because I think the

bracket broke well for them but as I'm looking through I'm like has J. Dub had like a good stretch

of games in like this calendar year at this point I almost feel like the playoffs are set up so

that the opportunity is there for the thunder they have a nice path to get back to the finals

but if I felt better about the the other teams that could perhaps take advantage of that

then I perhaps would pick against them but I don't and so like if anything it feels more thunder

by default rather than like the thunder were the best team in the world and we're just gonna steam

robots that feel fairer how do you feel I mean the two teams you're talking about as far as like oh

if I felt better about these other two teams maybe I'd pick them over the thunder one of them just

won 60 games with a transcendent town we've never seen before and the other one might have the best

player in the world and the best player of his generation on it with a super deep roster surrounding him

and both have their caveats again like I get why we're talking about the thunder's the

prohibitive favorites but I say that to mean what the thunder are doing and the way we're thinking

about them as so likely to make the NBA finals is because they're even even a cut above teams like

that even a cut above a 60 win upon it even a cut above a team in the colioga John it I think the

thunder are that good and I think they might be that good even if jdub is never really himself

all throughout these playoffs yeah I mean this is sort of similar to we were waiting for him

granted he was injured and we were kind of he he had to level up and he I mean his level up came

in the finals he was good throughout the playoffs but he was great and the you know we were waiting

for him to be great it's like can he reach that level of good that he was to propel them to the finals

last year I feel pretty good about that I mean I think that's gonna happen and I think they've had

some guys emerge and assert themselves that that could sort of shore up some of that whatever it is

that he doesn't pick up whether it be you know aging Mitchell or or case and Wallace I just think

I don't know we should get into more that the the specifics of the West like just to circle back

to the broader question here my my initial instinct is Denver but I feel like tell me if you guys

agree or disagree with this I feel like the hinge point of Peyton Watson could be is that the

is that the most critical juncture like do we think that that's the thing where's the swing point

for for them leveling up because we know that the thunder have enough personnel to to scheme

them into a slog I just feel like the the offense that he was going to give them and sort of the

the gaps between what they scheme for he's so far down the scouting report not having him I think

is going to be a big deal am I overreacting to that is it less of a deal than I think it is

well I think that's my big concern with the nuggets and then we can talk about this first

separately there it's like each of these two contenders have something's going for them so well

and the nuggets should mention again but finish the season absolutely blistering 15 and 2 down the

stretch 12 game in a row one going into the playoffs which I can't remember a team with that

amount of head esteem or just like maybe the win like that typically is the type of juggernaut

top contender that typically wins this thing and all we should mention their offense ended up being

the second best offense in NBA history despite losing Nicola Yokic for a month and then they had

that weird month after the fact I just don't know what I'm going to get in terms of the players who

are available Watson as we're recording this I don't think we've gotten any specific yeah details

week to week that is not is he week to here that's the last I saw I think David Adam and it was it

sounded a little more optimistic than that in terms of some of the latest updates like that he that

no one has been cleared yet but as far as who might be available for game one it it doesn't sound

to me like it's off the board yet well and then on top of him like Aaron Gordon has been

available for a stretch but obviously dealt with injuries throughout this season there's just a lot

of ifs there that really give me pause because of like they don't have Gordon like then I'm going

to have to worry especially because their first matchup is against a wolves team that obviously

completely the convobulated this year as they typically are but are going to be incredibly

physical and so like isn't can is that going to stretch into six seven games is the next series

against the spurs going to be an absolute slab or knocker and so by the time you get to the thunder

are you are you diminished and if we're saying like one injury could switch things like that has

me more worried than the thunder that's kind of how I'm looking well especially the I think you're

right to identify paid Watson is such a critical piece Kyle because he gives the nuggets relief

from those Aaron Gordon injury concerns from the like common go shooting with Cam Johnson from

everything that's been so weird and off with Christian Brown this year like he is kind of the

piece you plug in to fill a lot of those different holes and if he's not available to do that even

for one series that's a huge deal but certainly if his injury lingers on it dramatically changes I

think how we should consider them as a championship contender he's a nice offensive spackle you know

and you need that in the playoffs because you know obviously teams go out of their way to take away

your one two and three options on the board and as those adjustments happen if you can when we

saw that with math or in last year you just you need a player like that who can whenever whenever the

holes show up in your offensive wall you can just kind of come along and be like oh yeah I just

pulled 25 points out of my ass tonight I thought Watson was online to do that for them with his

growth this year Justin how's your how's your spackling are you are you a pro spackler I'm getting

better at it I had been using like the patches that you could just buy I didn't realize that well

they're like good for people who don't know what they're doing which I obviously was but there's

like a whole like thing about like how to spackle in the correct way like my Instagram algorithm

is a lot of just like spackles yeah in plumbing and some other stuff that we don't need to get into

but you've been trying it to any joke I was gonna make you headed that off nicely done yeah well

now I look at some walls and I'm like I could see where that was a poor spackle job wow

the eye for the spackle do you feel like now that that grass that glasses yeah well do you want to go

back to the way things used to be like now that the glasses cracked for you and you're noticing these

flaws in the facade of the world around you do you wish you could take it all back I took the red

pill and now I just see the one among others yeah I also think like the Watson return would help

just because the defense has been atrocious like 17th overall this year I think they won the title

when they're 15 so there's like I guess some precedent for it there especially when your

offenses as good as as it is but even during the good times even during like the last season

stretch they were 21st overall and that's when you know it's bad when like the results are all

wins but still your defense isn't performing well on those sort of charts and so like I they need

that balance somewhere and if they don't have Watson and if they don't have Gordon in particular

like then I think that it would be too tough to overcome even if the offense is gonna be as good as it

yeah especially the way that then pressurizes everything that a colioca just can give you on

offense which isn't even fair to ask him for more given what he shoulders for that team or

God forbid Jamal Murray has a single off night would the trade offs offensively if you're giving up

so much on defense be untenable for you against elite competition and that's that's the threshold

that the nuggets are gonna be held to right it's not can you handle it in the regular season as

you're playing these like more or less average teams it's what can you do against this first

well can you do against the thunder for seven games as they're trying to figure you out and

they are gonna have their hands full but I think they are sort of the definitive answer here

where if it's not gonna be the thunder it's hard not to pick the nuggets it's hard not to pick

against Nicole Yokech period in this kind of setting like he does just deliver in games and series

like this and having that kind of given on the board just inspires a lot of confidence

it's certainly possible that the spurs make it make a wonderful run and I'll hear any argument for

it but as far as what feels more likely I think this version of Yokech this version of Jamal Murray

a roster that if Watson is healthy like is pretty deep and pretty flexible that's just something

that I feel comfortable betting on as an alternative to the thunder if nothing else we'll talk about

this first then what's the case for them like how when we look back on it this birds are holding the

title what happened yeah I think their defense I mean clearly is their calling card clearly is

something that is not just like a regular season trick but proves to be unsolvable in the playoffs

their physicality and honestly like the element of surprise we always talk about this on the other

side of things where it's like oh young teams have to come in and figure out these veteran opponents

nobody really knows who Dylan Harper playoff performer is including this first and so maybe there

is like a wild card element for a team that is basically unprecedented as far as a team this young

this successful already with this much like what feels like playoff promise right now maybe we'll

revise that in a month or two if they just completely flame out but it feels like they have all the

pieces it's just going to be a matter of yeah like do you do you think that they can measure up to a

team like the nuggets if they really had to go toe to toe with them for seven games yeah it gosh a lot

of things there I think people have gravitated to the and I think we should talk about this the

the wear and tear on wimby is one of the major on the offensive in what what is he going to be

able to do on the offensive in but the question of you know on the defensive in like taking him away

is a different conversation it's getting him out of the way removing him and I think since this is

the first playoff setting that we've seen him in in the greater annals of the wimby story and you

see this happen for really good players where we haven't seen a team for you know however many games

it ends up being you know let's say it drags out to send we haven't seen a team scheme for him

you know scheme against him like try to find ways to neutralize him even a little bit defensively

and I think these are this is where sort of the narrative of a player's growth gets written

in these types of things it's just like we made this week in this way so I think there's that part

of it going on and then also you know I think you've got the other things kind of in the margins

they traded for a deer and fox thinking that he was going to be this running mate for Victor

women yama I think if anything he's honestly kind of sitting there to the side as like castle has

asserted himself so they've got that but then they've also just got these defensive guys that I

think that you mentioned that are unknowns I would even throw a card of Brian in there as another

guy who's an unknown guy that they could throw out there maybe not for a whole series but for a game

could he come in and have a significant impact that I think that could happen yeah right a lot of

their problem solving will probably by default include a lot of these guys who are young if not

rookies themselves and so that's just like an added variable there I say in order to like add into

this like very confusing stew where you just don't know where you're going to get that's why I think

going against a blazers team which is like particularly physical and it's going to stress some of

those points in particular ways I think is going to be important for the spurs as kind of a

praylutu perhaps and uh second games or second round series against the nuggets because I think they're

going to have to figure things out and I think in particular I think when B is going to have to be

transcendent in a way that like he's going to need to be throughout their his entire room for in

order to get these guys as far as they need to go um I just look at the matchups like the blazers

are going to be absolutely physical they're going to get this in the mud they're going to go downhill

and they're probably going to win a game if not two more than you expect for that reason just a

little preview of what's the come here okay uh and I think that's important for them I think they

need to get punched in the mouth to start with yes so they know what is going on because most of

this roster has not been in the playoff situation I also want to see them use like their lineup

combinations in interesting ways if all of a sudden they need to get bigger and all of a sudden

the Corvette and Wembee have to play together more just i necessity because the blitzers are so big

like that's important for them to figure out from the jump not during the nuggets see I actually

think this is a good matchup for almost the opposite reason which is the physicality that you're

describing and the pace and the like assertiveness of the blazers is going to be there

and yet there's like almost a zero percent chance that the blazers actually win so it's like how

do you deal with those sorts of like terms of engagement with no actual danger it's like just

look at me in the face i'm just saying like you take the x-men you put them in the danger room and

you say like you fight the simulated sentinels for a while and that's basically what's the

hard hard but guess what you're not going to actually die so yeah this is why I think it's a great

launch pad for whatever the spurs could be long-term certainly in this playoff run like get

feel what playoff basketball is and deal with like drew holiday in your jersey for however many

games the series last have many games the series last and then you're on to the next thing and

you're kind of better you know better better position to accept kind of what this is going to feel

like do you guys ever watch Dragon Ball Z of course like that one before every like big battle like

they would just go into zero g like training facilities and it's just like up no i've lost again

i got to go into the zero it has to be super zero g this time we're going to negative 50 g no it's

the opposite you got to crank up the gravity so then you're then you're getting the real gains you

know if it's zero g what do you i mean you're withering away then it's true my gains have been

it's true you got to get a hundred g's dog um i think i think portlands sort of point of attack in

terms of how they create is going to be an interesting like the the drew and the jeremy aspect of

this i think is going to be critical because the spurs for everything that you're talking about them

you know getting bogged down and into a slog with the blazers which i this this series could end up

being really ugly like i i could see that happening um the spurs have a lot that they could throw

at denny um like i i in particular think that that castle i want to speak to another thing that

you said in a second but i think castle is willing and probably looking to take on that challenge

um i don't think that he's going to be bothered by denny's physicality i think that if we

another thing in the windy conversation but it goes for everybody is the physicality changes a

whole lot i mean i think we saw that with the the pistons last year with the pick and roll that

cade killed all year long suddenly he's got Josh heart just beating the shit out of him everywhere

and it's like his turnover percentage shot up his turnovers went up his his shooting percentages

came down because he was tired i think that's something to watch for with the spurs but um i just

i just i just think that like if drew and jeremy have a particularly good series there's a chance

for what you're talking about to happen um but i i just think that the spurs have a lot to sort of

neutralize the already limited sort of dynamism of portland offensively like where where their

points of entry are i know that's a jark jargany talk who can run pick and roll who can get you

know who can just create basically i think the spurs have a lot of options to slow them down well

can we can we circle back to the the actual playoff breakdown here because i think we're kind of

narrowing in on one of my picks for the next prompt justin yes mine as well and that is who's

going to be the leap guy of this purse uh postseason not necessarily like the guy of this post

season but the guy who's like taking a leap or all going to be like oh my god this guy is destined

for something bigger next year and i assume rob you probably have who i have which is steph acid

absolutely like if if the spurs do go to the aisle so i have also a step kiss it's it's easy money

but if the spurs go on a run we're just going to be talking about him so differently on the other

side and i think he's at that tilting point of fun productive up and coming guard to just like

every year all star right like he's he's on the precipice of that kind of leap and all he really

needs is a little playoff validation is some chances to go toe to toe with these other elite guards

to really prove what he's made of and i'm not betting against that guy basically no matter

who's on the other side like i just trust his competitiveness i trust his instincts i trust the

two way play i'm a huge fan of steph castle and this this feels like his moment

yeah i i think in terms of speaking speaking to i think this ties to the thing that you said

Justin that i wanted to comment on which is you know worry i think worrying about the spurs

having that moment where they kind of need to sober up and realize what's going on i don't

worry about that with them i just don't see it i don't because i just think castles a god that has

a lot of history of winning as you well know nausea and then uh winby i think is really is really

serious and i don't i don't think that they're going to have any kind of i think if they do get hit

with problems i don't think it's going to be a matter of like them being having their sense of

the moment calibrated i think it's more just them figuring out things as a team's on the court

i don't i like if that unless that's not what you meant at all i i think they're going to be ready to roll

and i think they have a little more experience than people give them credit for no i mean to be clear

i don't think the blazers are actually going to win that series i think it's going to be harder

than people expect i actually think the blazers are going to force that into a six-gamer just because

they can dig things into the mug very quickly as you saw against the suns just the other night

i just think they're going to stress them in ways that are going to be beneficial to them that

they shouldn't have to do against the nuggets because the finest sort of details and margins are going

to matter more when yoke it's just cutting you up just with like the way that he processes the game

but you're right i just i want to see them work through things on the fly here and i think

staff is a big part of that i also feel like stuff hasn't like the fact that i'm calling him

stuff already is already just like just bad i mean sacrilege frankly yeah a little bit like

me it's distracting i just feel like he hasn't broken through to the mainstream in part because

there's just so many good things to go around with the with this birth but also like he is built for

playoff basketball not necessarily like the clip based regular season things where he's gonna put

up 40 in a given game you're like oh my god that's great it's gonna be that he's gonna absolutely

shut down someone like denny and like limit him to 10 while like still having some nuts passes

offensively like this feels like the stage that he's built for especially because now that we're

getting to the playoffs and you're right just about how he hasn't broken into the mainstream but

you give him that playoff platform and that like ultimately the way to announce himself he's kind

of like an all quadrant appeals player right if you are like a fan of college basketball that you

already have this baked in familiarity and appreciation of his game if you're more of like a real

hooper type he has enough of that going for him if you're like a coaches kid he has all of like

the back door like off ball stuff that you really admire as a in a player and plus he's bringing it

defensively in a way that you know some NBA stars aren't frankly and so it's like there's

something in his game for everybody and if you watch it's just kind of impossible to come away from

a spurs game without really appreciating what he brings to the holistic enterprise of what San Antonio

is trying to do yeah the just speaking quickly to what you're saying about this at this goes for

I jail in Johnson as another potential leap guy we can get into that or not we kind of touched on it

a little bit too yeah I think both of these guys I speaking to the levels of awareness like what

you're breaking through when you make a leap you know there's the winning but there's also the

public awareness that I think goes on where you know there's the league pass demographic of basketball

watchers who know who you know just reference him again Moguei somebody like that you know a little

more in the weeds and then there are the stars that that are pretty good like I think the TV is

TV is sort of a nice barometer for this where if you watch a lot of basketball and you watch ESPN

NBA games I think you have more of an awareness of who's in the league there's a type of fan that

only is going to tune into the NBA during the playoffs and when the game is not even on cable like

when it's on network television and I think Castle and Johnson both have a lot of room to kind of

penetrate that level of awareness and basketball which will be driven by you know their success in the

playoffs yeah but I have jail in Johnson also on my short list here 21 9 and 7 over the final 24

games with which they went 19 and 5 yep obviously going to be a big moment for him what is he going

to do against set playoff defenses that have multiple days in order to gain plan against you then I

also have Denny 41 against the sun's first game pretty awesome called his shot on that last one

Joe made Jordan Goodwin basically reconsider his career options it was an incredible take and yeah

like a wave off of the screen like I am going ISO against Jordan good when he's a very good but in

that situation undersized defender knew exactly what he could get to against him it was a great moment

for Denny along those same lines you know Denny we've talked about from most improved and yet he

could take another jump in terms of playoff visibility I think Nikhil is in that category as well as

far as okay that's really great that you did this for the hawks over 82 but what are you in some of

these big playoff moments not just as an energy defender like he was for the wolves but like if you

have to really create you to really go ISO and this is another area where jail and Johnson can grow

to the hawks are such a collaborative enterprise that it's like when push comes a shove and they do

have to kind of simplify their offense are any of those guys going to be suited to go one on one in

that moment it's not really who they are but somebody's going to have to do it and if anyone does

it well I think they're going to pop as I think Jalen Duren if he gets into some of these later rounds

and it's just like basting the front lines of some of these other really good Eastern conference teams

could elevate himself into a different class I also think there's just like a bunch of downstream

spurs who could become household names in a different way like it would not shock me if a lot of

fans of a lot of different teams are coming out of these playoff being like where do we find our

Julian champ penny you know like where do I think they're going to see where we're going to find

Luke Ernest's latest blog well RSS feeds don't exist anymore unfortunately you'd already know the

answer to that and then I already mentioned Dylan Harper too I think he could just have a couple of

games that he just completely takes over in a second half in a select quarter and kind of shocks

and sort of starts to put a shape around the kind of player that he could become as we talk about

him as a potential star down the line. So something on a quick note on Harper in this series in

particular if you want to look for a player who is good at working with minimal space which I

expect them to pack it in and grab the lane a lot that's Dylan Harper that's just something that's

a little wrinkle just keep an eye on there. I also think like with Jalen and Denny in particular

but with some of these teams that are on the lower level there are nice little offseason long tails

too because these are very much teams still figuring themselves out but they're like right there

and they really need the next move to set up who they're going to be going forward and so for with

Jalen Johnson it's like how the he plays and how the team plays like well that effect who they pick

in the draft if they do vault up into that top three or when Denny does their owner who seems

very quick on the trigger of looking to make something happen if he sees Denny win two playoff

series he's like oh we got to we got to do something now yeah we got to make a big move over the

offseason so so high level guys so high on Denny well I don't you guys don't want to get into this

but I do think like it's not impossible here's the thing I think in addition to the new owner coming

in wanting things to happen yeah also lowballing coaches which is starting to get into the public's

fear which is really interesting and probably not a good thing going forward anyway it's why they're

resorting to gambling they're getting lowball I do think the box in the blazers are becoming more

natural bedfellows for a trade if the flatten lottery odds I don't know if we've talked about

this on the pass I think I mentioned this to you guys though I'm passing like if the odds flatten

and all of a sudden those future box picks don't look as juicy do they only look as attractive to

the bucks now in order to control your own future and are they only going to really see themselves as

like the two obvious solutions yeah with the blazers trade for Yannis just because having an

opportunity to have Yannis is like something they've never had before trading for a super top five

superstar in the prime of this game like it just doesn't happen for small markets but like how do

Yannis and Denny really coexist they would it's the type of thing you figure out yeah I don't think it

would go well it would take a lot of figuring like I think that's one thing where it's not just

the shooting but the ways in which they like to attack and the ways that they both sort of control

the ball it would be an uphill battle but I'm with you that if the opportunity is there they

should take it and I think they will take it and more importantly we've talked about the Yannis

trade options so many times like these other offers are not like blow in the blazers out of the water

I think I think Portland would be able to make a really competitive bid for Yannis would get themselves

into that mix and those conversations if they want to and it it seems like they do it's actually

good tease for our next segment we'll get to that right after this break the ringer NBA shows

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play in paloza token so looking at the play in slate on friday last two games on the docket I don't

know where your sons is an interesting one I know Steph looked pretty good in that one I know

Dremon looked particularly good defending Kui Leonard but I don't know if they have two of these

left in them two games of magic I'm not so sure especially with horror for playing so on the first

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all right number four on the docket here which player or team or executive or anthropomorphic

being has the most writing on this postseason and i mean we're talking kind of around yonness in

the previous segment i do think the rockets are gonna look at this if they do fly them out

first and foremost they're gonna be like hey inia doca like thanks thanks for really building

our culture we could use a little bit something else i think he's very much on the hot sea going

uh... the series especially against a lakers team that's hobble they should win that if they don't

they really need to look themselves in the mirror even if not like i think there's probably changes

that need to happen there and so you gotta look at this team and say like if not they don't get

into the second round and should have a good showing like i think they're gonna be in the mix

looking to change things out very quickly i think changes clearly do need to happen there in a bunch

of different ways i worry that they have enough baked in excuses of like they're just gonna keep

talking about Fred van Vleitz injury until the day that everyone on it involves in this organization

dies as the reason why it didn't all come together and maybe even a reason to bring inia doca back

short of that sort of disaster scenario like if they lose to the lakers all bets are off i'm in

complete agreement on that i think even if they beat the lakers they should consider a you know a

tom tibido-esque coaching change of just like we're getting some results but we're not getting the

process that this group ultimately needs and that's a different kind of hot seat it really is so

temperature dependent really is so owner dependent as far as like what is the mood at that particular

time and can you see through the short term success to what ultimately like fits the vision of the team

better i don't know if i trust the rockets and to them and for teed to do that but i'm hopeful for

their case that they do i mean even if family were there i think you're courting problems i don't

think that that's a like an easy button for them to push because we already know that you know

read for example is going to get mercilessly attacked i mean i need him on the floor so you've

already got an issue there and then you if you think about like breads another small guard coming

off of an injury like i just don't like how could you lean on that i i would think that a a culture

shift would be the move but we're already kind of like clawing for we're we're clawing for steady

footing right now in a way that feels a little scary i could see that series going either way man i

just think like if you get get them into a slog half court game um i i really granted you're

going to be leaning on lebron to be like uh to sort of slow things down and and litigate and get

this really really tedious for them but they struggle to score that i i don't know i i think that

i could see that series going either way um i have them at the top of my list although as we're

talking through this i wonder if changes are going to happen regardless and so maybe they're not

as pressurized maybe that's just inevitable yeah uh i do think it's far more pressurized for the

nicks and the calves if only because their owners have been pretty outright especially the nicks being

like y'all better fucking do this yeah like we're gonna change things uh don't know what's

outright saying it and i think you just look at the books for the calves like they're paying through

the teeth for a team that hasn't broken into the conference finals yeah if they don't get that far

i do think like if you're a second aprin team like you just cannot just stop at the second round

time in and time out i can see them undergoing something pretty significant i think it's a great

call on the finances specifically i kind of felt the temperature turned down for the calves a little

bit just because they already broke off a significant piece of their core to trade for james harden

in the first place so they've already kind of made a preliminary move along these lines but the

nicks are my pick for this just because if they do not put something together this probably will be

the end of this core as we know it and frankly rightly so like that they're going to get too good

cracks at this and they are at the exact team that i was talking about earlier where this is their

opportunity right the pistons are not going anywhere the Celtics are going to be even better next

season the Pacers are going to be back in the mix you have teams like the hawks and the hornets that

are on the rise here in the east if it's not now for the nicks i don't know when it's going to be

and so they have a path to the finals in front of them if they can pull themselves together

consistently enough to take it and if not you have to think pretty seriously about macaque

bridges and car on the town's in oj and anobian anything that's not jalen brunson frankly can't be

nailed down and you have to start investigating those possibilities because they've just had too much

time together now of not feeling like this is a connected group it's all moments it's all flashes

and some of those have been quite timely in terms of some of the past playoff runs but

there's just something like a little off here in a way that i don't think another season together

is going to fix yeah i the nicks down here too i mean if you fire your coach after going to the

conference finals especially in all the litany of things that you just listed off there of just

that the path is open that they've got you know the the Celtics are dealing with things i think they

have to win um there's a lot a lot of questions i think you could get into about you they've painted by

number here pretty well in a in a way that has built uh you know they have a star they have a supportive

star they have wings they have spacing they have a big guy um they have size if it still hits a wall

after all of that i think that tells you that something at the center of the uh at the nucleus of it is

is just eating itself in a way and you know we can i don't know if we want to get into the specifics

anymore about like this team is i think there could be something about the way that jalen plays and the

way that carl plays that can sabotage itself because there's there's an interesting kind of chess

game that goes on in these in the series where you're like you're like oh how are we going to stop this

guy how are we going to stop this guy the nicks have a couple of players that um if you don't load up

against them it's almost like you could get away with letting them sort of get there so yeah an

efficiency that's not super good and that's an interesting mind game that coaches can play sometimes

where they're like we'll let that guy we're not going to tilt towards that guy but we're going to

let him do what he does and it might create the the the mirage that they're torching us that they're

killing us but really the efficiency is kind of a step below whether you know if we had like been

tilting and rotating a lot and not finding solutions and and you know having all these open shots

that are coming as a result i don't know if that makes sense but to me that is kind of the dissonance

of what's wrong at the heart of the nicks does that makes sense do you all what i'm saying here

it does i think it's the difference between like reacting to the idea of a player versus the

reality of what they're contributing and it's like on some nights the idea of carol than he

towns can be really terrifying but if you start over reacting to that and you're giving up

three open threes to four different other nicks in the process like that is bad process right like

that is that is overextending for the sake of containing carol than he towns i think there are a

couple of different guys like that on the nicks right now mcale bridges has had such a weird

close to this season where he has been completely invisible in some games as far as a score he's

not the level defender that he used to be and so it's like if you're freaking out because you're

trying to contain mcale bridges this movement or you're trying to make sure that oj and obia's

under wraps like i think there are a lot of things you have to pay attention to with the nicks but

maybe the idea of them in some cases is more terrifying than the game to game reality of them

i still find it hard to reconcile what the like governing logic was to trade for towns in the

first part was it to take them over the top we are now here and ready to win titles or was it like

this is a talent grab that just makes a little bit more sense than what we have and we'll just

figure it out from there i think it's ended up more of the latter but it probably was designed more

as the former and so it kind of that speaks to the weird dissonance with this where it's like

you you think towns are just going to push you over the top we're going to win titles let's go the

pressure is on let's fire tip it out this is our moment but it really has never been that there has

never been a prolonged stretch where they're like just absolute world beaters and that's where I

find themselves again and so in a weird way that it's like kind of a malaise of their own design

like this was always going to be the same way that dillin brook's kind of like wears himself out

for teams after he's done something well it feels like towns is a version of that where it's like

he takes your team in a certain direction your offense gets juiced in a certain way but he

adds so many complications that two three years down the road you're just kind of focus more on

the things that he can't do or things that make more difficult than the things that he does so

specially so it feels like this is the destiny of a town team and this is the destiny of this

next team and i want to be very clearly they could overcome a lot of those complications like they

could put together a run where they get to the finals i don't know that they're going to be able to

compete with the thunder or the spurs or the nuggets or whoever makes it out of the west but

overall the reason we're talking about the nixon's a pressurized team is because their roster is

good enough to have expectations and it's good enough to be held to those expectations and with that

might mean certain guys being traded away on the other side of it yeah i also have uh oh do you

want i actually also have daryl mori down i feel like uh i noticed last night uh bot mire is

very visible he's on the front row those games i'm just going to say his his sort of blooming present

Josh Harris with the commanders he does yeah yeah i just i just wonder about that um i know i just

feel like this is the sixor's thing just feels like it's at an inflection point no matter what happens

in this right for sure and the jared mccain whole situation has not treated anybody and filly well

as far as like just just the bungling of one player and yes one role player but what it represents

as far as filly's process yeah it's a weird timing for it because i feel like the sixor's have maybe

not overachieved but this was the better of the two outcomes i think they could have either bottomed

out again or just been fine uh and they've been fine and like you can just describe some of their

lack of success overwhelming success to and be just not being there and like i just don't know what

you do about that yeah daryl's the one to sign them to the extension and so like he's going to take

the fall for it no matter what i think it's one of those cases where what you're saying in a vacuum

as far as a basketball team goes feels true right you if you have these two paths bottoming out

or being fine being fine in some cases the preferable outcome for everything the sixors have been

through to come through the tunnel and just be fine when they so aggressively went out of their

way to tank for all those years to not be here it does feel like just an absolute implosion of

right what was this franchise that's inspiring to like we all knew that the ceiling was like the

six seed but is the owner being sold it's like oh if things go right all of a sudden we're going to

be fourth or third or whatever and then that's where the bottom falls like i mean i probably would have

let go derro last year as opposed to this year i don't know what would have happened differently

but yeah i think that definitely could happen well i make that choice on a daily basis between

bottoming bottoming out being fine and you know i just kind of resist i resign myself to being fine

every single day i i thought you bottomed out already i thought you've been like swirling around

it's really unless you really paying attention it's it's hard to know the difference but uh

if you if you're looking at the the sixors i mean there was some pie in the sky i mean if you

there was some pie in the sky thing that you could talk yourself into maybe everything coming

coming together at the last second and we put down just enough train tracks for for us to roll

into the playoffs but imbeid yet again like Paul George i quickly hear Paul George kind of like

Paul George last time pretty good time yeah he looked great i loved him taking on the palo

challenge and uh yeah that was that was fun but the sixors i don't know it just feels like if

they're gonna do surgery that's where i would start but they need some kind of change how many

turnovers did Paul have six it was it was ugly and how many settled free throw line jumpers did he

have you can just add up to the turnover column stuff he looks depressed he looks to like basketball

depressed me when i watch him i'm like there's something's wrong even if even the challenges if

they were still there yeah he's not even the same dude that he was like like there's just no

driving positivity with that team anymore like they're they're and the magic fans are depressed

watching them the world i thought were the magic but i was about to say it's the whole magic team like

if you if you tune in to watch the magic and jalen sugs doesn't have the effervescence of like a

disney world cast member something is fucking wrong like your every everything is broken this is

where we need commissioner intervention like it isn't with the 65 game rule basically like waving

away that luca like had a suspension because he had too many technicals it's that we just cannot

have the magic play basketball beyond friday at this point i can't go through four more games even

if it is against the pistons like they're just so sad to watch it's them it's unbelievably depressing

well do you want to dive into that match up do you want to talk to the hypotheticals of if they

do make it all right well the next question we have here is we're going to predict every matchup

on the board and go through a key to every series i didn't do one for for them because they're not

actually in pen at this point yeah uh if you want to just like well say something quickly you can

how about even better let's pretend it's not even possible let's say that the magic are not

going to make the playoffs the series is going to be pistons hornets which feels more interesting

in a bunch of different ways and a team that we would like to see get into the mix here um

i would like to see it in particular if you just because of the three point contrast and the way

the hornets could almost turn that into a maker miss series right they are among the league they

are no they are the league leader in three pointers made in the regular season pistons near the bottom

of that list it's been a concern as far as they're spacing as far as their execution it's like

kade has to make so much happen within those compines and does

but what happens if the hornets just have enough of these overwhelming shooting games can they make

that into a competitive series in a way that i mean the magic just cannot like they're too stuck

in the mud and the hornets by contrast have this like free flowing nature to them that maybe they

don't drive to the basket enough maybe like they don't execute at the highest and crispest level

in a half court setting but they have enough going for them because of that spacing and i kind of

think they'd at least be able to throw some punches at the pistons as a result any chance i could get

them the hornets there's an outside chance but i don't think they really cover themselves in glory

and the other night against the heat where it just felt like yeah they ended up winning that but

did feel like they were on razor's edge yeah against a heat team without bam i mean lamella

double mill is at the end just like i drove me crazy i can't imagine going through a series like

that if you're trolley well he made some truly bizarre lamella wish decisions as far as like

when he was killing his dribble and whatnot but also came up with you know huge drives some huge

plays it is the full thing i want to sound the lamello front i don't want lamello ball to get

suspended because i want him to play in these games that was a fucking bullshit pull on

band on the game indefensible like the initial the initial thing i saw i don't know if i'd

like to saw it in like at a glance or i wasn't looking like i initially thought bam was just

standing there in lamello casually pulled him i was like jesus is he that strong but then you see

i mean in any in any capacity very very much bullshit i thought in that game i thought in that

game i was thinking about lamellos bulls like like nonsense to brilliance ratio and i was like it

was almost like two to one at one point during that even just be like lamello for real dude look

what what on earth and then do something no one else can do i he had like a he had like a snake

into the lane where he jumped and rotated his hips and threw like a no look pass through an open

but they're shooting variance they're shooting variance is just so insane like in that game it was

like it hurt them if they had made some shots they might have beaten i mean it's possible that they

would have beaten Miami by 10 to 15 points it is but i i think that's what you go into this this

series with if they get super hot um if con can can come back to earth and be himself a little bit

yeah they could they could push it to six or seven i could see that happen yeah i mean in david

stern's mba i think lamello would have been suspended for this play in game would be arrested

and david stern's mba for for sliding that's what i always do yeah uh but i do hope that they advance

just for all the reasons as we laid out i do think that like the pistons toughness especially inside

would ultimately prove the difference here especially the center combination as you alluded to before

rob with dern then with throwing izs steward out there like just feels too insurmountable i honestly

wonder if the pistons would just try to tell izs steward that the games were on different days at

different times just so he doesn't show up because he's probably gonna murder someone in that series

like i don't want to see that but yeah beasts do and moosa like not to stretch the moose metaphor

too much but it does feel like to like elk or moose like locking horns and just being stuck at

half-cord for the course of that series i want it i need it i need i need a little the pistons

animosity in the first round is now becoming an annual tradition and we need to extend it beef stew

and moosa it just sounds like a nice dish i don't know what that would be but uh it's either greaker

russian i can't quite put my finger on it's a blend yeah we've we've we've met these challenges before

on this show and and stricken them down so hopefully we could figure that out seltzix sixers

i mean in b-tell yeah is there anything else he's not gonna be there's no way right i don't know

what the time when it's to come back from a better side is i don't think it's possible it can't be

it you can't do this to him i i i think we'll see him at some point you think so everything

i've seen says no i don't know you can't i don't i don't think there's a lot of shit man he has

played their lotchus might as well let's just if lower extremities are are capable of holding him up

i think he will try to power through anything in order to take advantage of the aperture he may try

to play but yeah it's like the sensitivity and the vulnerability of stitches post-off like that

like i think you're risking a lot i wouldn't do it personally maybe joan beat is made of tougher

stuff and wants to give it a go i fully respect whatever decision he makes along those lines like

this situation at the appendicitis sucks i am assuming he does not play and if he does not play

i'm sorry chris ryan i think this is a sweep like i think this i think the Celtics are gonna kind of

breeze through this thing mostly because without imbued out there my question is like are the sixers

bigs even remotely ready for the challenge of defending the Celtics like larger blender like they

will pull you into the mix they put you into so many different actions you have to be scrambling

around the court i just don't think like adem bona and andrade drumminder up for that and if that

results in like paul george at the five playing a bunch i don't think he's up for bonding with the

mesh keta like they just don't have good answers that first of all they don't have good answers for

like who guards jalen brown like paul george is gonna have to do it a fair bit kelly ubre is gonna

have to do it a fair bit dominic borrow is gonna have to come in and take that responsibility sometimes

like they don't have good answers to that and then to take it a step deeper they just don't have

good answers to combat one of the most explosive offenses that the ambias had in the regular season

yeah i still don't see it uh i'm sure kelly ubre will come up with a new cool hairstyle but

i i think four is extreme though four just means like you don't think anything of this team because

you usually give them five yeah to give them a little little little tip of the cap there i think

maxi's gonna be sick like i think bj edgeko will have some nice moments i just don't think they're

gonna actually win any of these games but the Celtics have some things to throw at those matchups

in particular that don't really go well the other direction like they don't really have anybody to

what you were saying big and strong enough to really combat god help them if tadeum plays well

i know like you know derek wide on maxi and then jalen brown he's guarded ubre throughout the year

for them but he also could guard bj i'd imagine he would take on the ubre i don't know which one

he would go there either he could end up guarding both but um you know even during the games when

that when philly did get them this year it was very they were narrow wins and tadeum didn't play

so i just i'm curious to see what a dim bonus fouls permitted it's gonna be i just feel you're talking

about the blender he is very hit or miss with his flying around where it is thrilling and spectacular

but i just i see this being too big of a problem drum and even even in his prime i think

this would have been a bit much for him uh nicks hawks we kind of already went through it there uh

i still think size and depth is going to be an issue here i have the nicks in six but rob did you

did you get particularly bold with this one not particularly i did go nicks in seven um i think i

mean this feels like a coin flip series to me i'm not so convinced that the size advantages that

the nicks have don't come with other trade-offs and frankly i think if the cocks come into this series

doing the mostly the same things they did in that final regular season matchup but just like

a half step better than they did them before i could really see this turning elana's way

to the point that i think the most important matchup on the board for me the thing i've locked in on

is jalen brunson versus anyeck a congu right like that the hawks were switching so much and a congu

is asked to contain brunson in so many of those situations if he's just like a little bit better

and we've seen him have those stretches and have those matchups where he feels like pretty

oppressive as a switch big maybe then you're you're wearing down jalen brunson enough where the

cumulative effect of dice and daniel's on brunson nikey logs and a walker on brunson in spots plus a

congu like really holding his ground and hanging with him step for step if they could just drag it

out a little more and make things a little harder on jalen i think the hawks have like a real shot

in this series i have nicks in six um i think if the nicks that we're going to hit a point where the

nicks push the get big button and i think that's going to be a problem i think if they transitions one

of the big hints things for me the hawks you always always just keep an eye on this in any post

season and any on any level college or MBA it's just like they love to get out and run they want to

get out run um i just think if the nicks take that away from them um that's going to be an issue so

i i have nicks and six i i think it's going to be interesting but i still think the nicks are

i would also love some proof of life from zackrey resa-shay uh just something just hold up the

newspaper with today's date i it's it's getting a little sad i think you're going to be waiting

along with my ip uh calves wraps this is an interesting one so the raptors didn't fare particularly

well against good teams they were five and twenty two against the top four teams in the west plus

the top six teams in the west and in the midst of those games they didn't play offense well

so they can't really score against good teams the calves unfortunately are a good team that can score

and so while the defense can be in a concerting time it has been even with hardened in there

i just think this even if you get into a track meet like the raptors don't have the firearms in

order to make this this situation so i have calves in five i don't think it's going to be very close

i also have calves in five yeah that that just seems like the way this is going on folds um

i please hurt and they need a shooter yeah yeah yeah that calves in five also yeah

to like to run a shooting around like eat whatever you may think of Brandon Ingram whatever you

may think of scottie barns kind of where their games are at this point in manual quickly in that

group two it's just the supporting shooting is so spotty even the guys that they rely on to really

be spacers to really hold things down it's it can be real feast or famine with them in a way that

makes me pretty nervous about the consistency of their offense to me a lot of their success comes

down to how attuned is like the hyper activity of their defense the raptors like to fly around

fact to really put pressure on you in terms of the passing lanes they can be very good at it they

can also just like go way off the cliff with it sometimes and the calves are a great test for

that kind of style because Cleveland is a team you can freak out a little bit if you're really

jamming up their action and when they're trying to move the ball you're meeting them at every rotation

you're forcing some turnovers you're really kind of making them second guess those passes then

all of a sudden like don of a Mitchell's holding the ball more than he might want to or the cast

my want to James hard might turn into that kind of creator for them and they go from this engine

that creates all of these looks for all these different guys into this very narrow simplified

offense I think the raptors have it in them to make that happen in a couple of games I just

as Justin alluded to don't really trust the offense I am looking ahead though to that second

round matchup with if we assume that the higher sees advanced calves versus pistons I don't know

the post hardened calves on offense have looked mighty good at times if anything like since

that trade they would rank second in the league offensively and so there isn't real identity there

the off the defense has been really bad at times and I do wonder if that's ultimately going to

decide that series but I think that they have the sort of haymaker quality that they didn't have

last posties that we expected them to have and so is hardened going to do enough there to just

stabilize things in a very weird turn of his own personal narrative in order to get them to

the conference finals I I kind of see it unfortunately for the pistons let's take it one step at a time

let's go let's go one series before we're upsetting the pistons and trying to dismiss the best

team of the Eastern conference this season very disrespectful from both of you today I love to

disrespect you know if you have respect white

um all right why don't you break when we come back we'll do the well enjoy more ways to save

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150 years savings may vary by state fuel restrictions apply seaside for details Ryan Reynolds

here for Mint Mobile I don't know if you knew this but anyone can get the same premium wireless for

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fees extra default terms at MintMobile.com all right we don't know who the thunder are planning as

we're recording this I have to assume it's the sun's like but who knows with Steph might have

another one of these in there I don't know if they would be able to last a full series against

a thunder team but the suns might give them a little bit of a shove I only have down here for

the thunder just what I was saying before with Jada I would just like him to like really assert

himself because I do think he's the key to playing some of the better teams they have down the

road here so he only played 33 games the entire season since January 17th he's only played nine

games which is a big yikes and he's only made five three pointers since January 7th it's been two

months yeah five threes have gone down for one of their key players which is a wild thing to

consider that's only five more than us like it's it's really tough they are eight and one in those

nine games I just mentioned and that's the tradeoff with the thunder it isn't a concern in this

first round series I don't even know if it's going to be a concern in the second round but in

the later stages it's just like you know like they need their best players to play because if Jada

isn't in there as we saw last postseason then you're expecting a little bit more from those

catching shoot shooters who by the way like the carusos the wallets is the doors are actually

shooting worse this year from three and so if that was a huge concern about whether they can knock

down shots when they're available to them when you load up on Jay I think it's even more of a concern

in this season so you're saying those shooters are due for a regression to the mean and they're

about to take up well except for Caruso who just makes half of his shots no matter what I mean that

is true I I just don't like I hear your point about Jada in the grand scheme of the thunder's playoff

as far as this series goes I think it's a sweep either way no matter who they play there are no

variables here other than like does the thunder as a team get like a locker room wide case of

norovirus like I just don't think anything is going to happen to them.

No, no, no, like I respect the fight of both the sons and especially what we've seen from

the Warriors lately neither of those teams have the juice to really compete in a series like this.

I've written down here the main variable here I'm not even going to try.

Does the thunder bus start up has it been maintenance?

Is there as are we good on that? How are the spark plugs?

Yeah, we just need to do a hundred point you know check there make sure we're all good to go

and then we'll be good. Okay, what kind of bus we talking about? Are they busing to games?

Yeah, I think prebo preboast from you know from the hotel to the arena or are we talking about?

Are they going to make it to broadband? Who's going to be doing Uber excels?

We're doing like four months now. I think I think like Ben Hammond they have their own tour bus

and they go between Phoenix and Oklahoma City. It's not quite the vibe. Yeah, I think we're just

talking hotels. I was going to say that they're going to walking sick arena but then I forgot

the sons now play at mortgage matchup center. How are these stakes arena?

All right, stuff. Walking stick resort arena and that what it was called. Yeah, walking sick resorts. Yeah,

flows off the tongue. Those were the Halcyon days of Phoenix sons arena, David somehow.

Spurs Blazers, the one to watch here. Yeah, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Justin, it's Spurs in five.

I have Spurs in six. I'm curious how the Blazers deploy their bigs in this one.

Also curious when they don't deploy them. It's a little bit of a tease for you guys.

If Klingin is going to hit shots early on, does it force Wembee out of the paint?

Because what's going to happen is I imagine they might even stick a guard on him but they're going

to allow him to shoot freely to start with. He will have these games where he just makes two or

three to start and then you have to actually go out and guard him. The thing is there are a lot

of big players on the Spurs and the only one to actually contest the shot is Wembee.

If you're going to stick to the starting line up there and so he might be able to draw a

hand out of the paint and all of a sudden getting down hill becomes a little bit easier.

Obviously, Denny is going to do that very well. Shaden coming back, I think, is going to be

key here too because that's his mode too and he saw him have some success there. I'm more

interested though about when they go small because I imagine that they guard Wembee with a wing

because they have an ample amount of them at this point. Maybe it's too money. I think

Batiz is probably going to get some time there. Maybe even a couple of Chris Murray minutes.

They're their most dangerous in that setup and I do wonder if that starts to play to their advantage

because they also have those big wings to go against a lot of those kind of more forceful but

smaller guards. They have some interesting lineup components. I don't think, as I said before,

they're going to win this but I do think they can steal one or two games in this. I think they're

going to make it ugly and when they play ugly, that's exactly where the blazers want to be.

I do think they can make it ugly. I worry about how ugly it's going to be for them though.

And part of the reason I raised that is what I'm watching in this series is like,

how does Danny Ovdia's whole deal work against Victor Webanyama? Because we don't fucking know.

Victor missed all three games against the blazers this season despite the fact that they were in

November or January, April. He somehow missed all of them. And anytime you have a player who's

that downhill. He's ducking him. I mean, honestly, maybe that's it. But Danny is such a downhill

force and yet he's met with the biggest deterrent and obstruction in the league and has no idea to

date of how to navigate it because he hasn't been able to see it this season. That makes me

pretty nervous because if Danny's driving game fades, Portland is toast. If Danny can't draw

fouls, Portland is toast. This is like a zero margin for error series for the blazers. Obviously,

they're massive underdogs and no single player in the sport forces you into more errors right now

than Victor Webanyama does. Yeah, I just think Vic is the kind of guy too that is not going to be

as compromised. But like, you know, Danny loves to hit people first. He loves to bring the

content. And Vic doesn't, he knows he doesn't have to play that way. And I kind of wonder what that's

going to do to Danny mentally when he goes in there and can't get those. I just think it's going to

it's going to be an interesting disruption to his comfort level. But I think just what you were

saying is there's this temptation, I think, and this, you know, we always, we, this has been a

recurring thing when we circle back to this art of war thing. I don't have a direct one line to pull

from the art of war for this situation. But there is this temptation to sort of meet stylistically

your opponent and sort of match them. You were talking about like Carl Towns coming to the

nicks. I thought that move was because at the time they had porzinga. There were these bigs.

There was in B. I don't think that there's, I don't think it's a fruitful avenue for Portland to

be like, we have to play as big as we can. I think, I think you're on to something with that. Like,

I think if they throw Kamara seems like a likely possibility, get physical with him, get under

and make life harder, just make him uncomfortable. I have this spurs in six as well. But Rob also

speaking to what you were saying, I think that the toll that putting it in bringing it into the

mud, the toll that it's going to take on them and their offense is going to be so much that it's

going to be hard for them to balance both in score enough and and steal more than two games. But

I do think they're going to have some Rockus crowds at the motor center. Like I could see that

happening. Still think it's going to be six. I also think you saw in the play in game how well

things can go if they're going to hit their shots and how poorly things can go as soon as they

stop hitting them. A lot of that is comes from Denny creating those paint touches and spraying out.

But like they take the third most threes in the league. Now they also don't make many of them. But

they will be streaky enough where they'll have stretches where they're going and you're like,

oh, this is so great. Like everything is going well. I do think like you could have one or two.

There's a lot of variance within that. I don't even know where to start. And so I think that

plus like the given whistle on a night with Denny. Like those are things that it could just like

throw things off in a way. I think that plays to their benefit. They're not going to win. But

a good showing. Yeah. And we're feeling good here going into the office. There you go. Give

you on is something to see. Nuggets wolves. I'm going to guess we all have nuggets and six. Do we

all have nuggets and six? I do. Yeah. All right. We're just that predict. The wolves are going to

feel disrespected by this podcast. I think because we have moved on. I mean, what do I mean,

do we think there's any avenue for this for them for them to do this? Does they have to become 89

Jordan for this to happen? Like I think that's the key. And I will say it does show up and has

shown up in the past against Denver is two series against them 26 five and five and then 28 six and

five in the 24 like it plays up to the moment. That's the one thing you could always say about him.

Now there are like wrinkles within that where it's like, well, playmaking some of these other

more refined aspects. We'll see. And I don't think the nuggets are the type of team that like gives

you the margin in order to take advantage of that. But like he's a fucking rock star. And like,

this is the sort of stage where he really excels. He's going to be I fully expect them to be awesome.

I fully expect the wolves to be really competitive. And I think if they were pitted against almost

any other component in the West, I would probably pick them to be making it to the next round. But

this is a tough one. And it's been a tough match up for them this year with the state of their team.

The thing I'm kind of watching is.

Yo, Gitch is a given. He's going to put up monster numbers. He's going to give you all sorts of

problems. You kind of have to live with that. And you sort of try to make it as hard as you can on

him and hope that he kind of makes more mistakes than usual as a result. They just have had no

answer for Jamal Murray in the matchups this year in particular. And so like, can the wolves slow

him down at all? Jayden McDaniels has gotten the lion share of those minutes. I think he's been like,

Jayden McDaniels is a really good defender. He's had a really hard time navigating the handoffs

between Murray and Yo, Gitch and staying attached or like making an impact on those plays. And Murray

is getting down hill. He's shaking him in a lot of those situations. They just have to figure out

some way to contain that particular action a little more effectively, whether it's with McDaniels

or otherwise. I'm not super optimistic that that's going to happen. Jamal Murray average 32,

7 and 5 in the regular season series. It just feels like this is going to be a really tough one

for the wolves defense. And this is one area where Rudy Gobert really does not help you

contain Jamal Murray. All you can hope for is that Jayden McDaniels is better than maybe I would

assume who, frankly, who's been, I mean, one of the best acquisitions since the trade of the trade

deadline. Could he do like a little bit of the Nikkei Alexander Walker full court pressure act

when Jayden is in Tontham to help just kind of like grind Murray through a series like this?

That feels like the only blueprint. And I'm not I'm not bullish that it's going to work.

Then we got Aaron Gordon on Randall. Is that worth? I mean beef on beef. You know, what else you

can do? Meat for meat. I love I want to put meat for meat as the tagline for this pod, but you could

do worse KFC double down. Remember that? Those are the days. All right, Lakers Rockets.

I got Rockets in five. Yeah, because I saw the like the projected starting lineup in Luke

Conard is slotted in as the point guard. And now obviously Lebron is the point guard, but like

and Marcus Mark. Yeah, when he's off the floor, like, who's handling them? It's either smarter

Conard. And then like at that point, it's like, yeah, you're very quickly. This is this is going to be

real dire and your shield stuff from Lebron. I think it's going to be 42 minutes a game. If

the games are like those are for the ones that are not. Hopefully not literally dying. Yeah,

that's a lot to ask from a 41 year old man. It's just a lot. I think it's a lot for him in terms of

executing with just like extreme precision in a series like this against a bigger, more athletic

opponent across the board. And I think the way like the Lakers really have to find a way to

overcome the possession advantage. Kyle's been talking all season about hungry, hungry hippo

basketball. I think the Rockets are playing a version of it. They don't always have the shooters

to do it, but they're going to gobble up possessions on the offensive class. They're going to force

turnovers with all the length that they have. If you have Luca Donge and Austin Reeves, you can

maximize your way around something like that. You're making the most of every possession because

those guys are such good creators. Without them, it's like Lebron has to be executing at the

complete peak of his powers. Deandre Aiden has to be getting offensive rebounds to compensate.

Marcus Smart has to be forcing steals to compensate. You're just asking a lot of a lot of different

corners just to make the possession margin feel manageable. I don't really think the Lakers are

going to be able to get there. There are more places to hide, read in this series too, which I think

is a problem for L.A. And did the Lakers just food for thought here? I mean, did the Lakers really

have an answer for Shingoon? You know, I think, you know, Prime Lebron would have been able to drag

this series into the mud as a two-way player that I just don't think he just doesn't.

That they get ridiculous to expect that from him at this point. I wouldn't even, you know,

it's going to be such a strain on him. But Shingoon specifically, I'm like, is Aiden up to that

task? He seems like a problem for the Lakers. I think he's going to have to try. And this is

where losing Luka sucks for many reasons. I mean, I think the Lakers would be poised for a pretty

interesting run if they were fully healthy, certainly to give the Rock as all that they could handle.

But we might have seen that Lebron matchup, right? Like if he was back in his kind of Dremon

capacity with this team, they might have started him on Shingoon and seen what he could do.

I think this is going to be very much a, how does game 1 go? Does Lebron pull off the upset and

can he ride that momentum throughout the series? If not, I could see a very pop of Vichy and like,

this one didn't go well. Let's just abort altogether. Like if things, like we're not going to play

this out even though like we're like within range, like the classic like, oh, it's an A-point game,

but five minutes left. Let's just play for a game period at that point. That feels like the

entire approach to the Lakers. But I mean, the Rockets certainly are in a pair of gone. I'm like

there. Yeah. Just like teamwork and good vibes at this point. We're kind of opening is there.

Yeah, we're kind of giving them a lot of credit. I will say one thing for the Rockets. And I

wanted to flag him earlier when we were talking about the potential leapers in these playoffs too.

Onment Thompson's been really good over the last couple of months. And it's like, I think the

the buzz got so muted out of the gate because their offense was so sludgy and he was such a weird

component of it. But he's really found himself. And this is the exact kind of series he could be

dominant in, not even by dominating the ball, but just working in the margins, being like having

the burst that he does. The Lakers having no answer to contain him when he's cutting back door,

when he's working the offensive glass, when he's out in transition. I didn't say nothing of playing

the Lakers on national television tends to raise your profile. I think they have enough of those

guys to win a series like this, but it's it you're right, Justin. It's not like the Rockets are going

to be playing beautiful basketball. Are we doing finals picks? If you like, what do you want

where do you want to go? So here's where I am. I'm actually kind of not set on this. My I think the

opening is there for the nuggets. And if I really wanted to zag, I would say the nuggets have the

path in order to do so. But if I'm really going hard of hearts, I do think the Thunder probably

have enough here. And so I'll go Thunder Celtics and maybe Thunder in six. I don't feel great about

it. And if the nuggets do beat the Thunder, I'm going to feel bad about it. But we can just clip

this off and bring it like I got down there. So that's the way podcasts work. I mean, I'm definitively

thunder. I feel more resolute about it than you do, I think, less torn about like trying to figure

out how this would go wrong for them. I just don't think it will. The East is I have no idea.

Yeah. My head says Celtics. But that feels wrong. Like it just it doesn't feel like they have

everything they need to stitch together the sort of run that they would need to for as impressive

a season as they've had. And yet I can't believe in the Knicks. And yet I don't think the calves

quite have enough. So I'm just going to lean into it. And I'm going to say the pistons are going to

get there. Oh man. I'm going to say the pistons are going to get there. And then when they do

unfortunately, they're going to get worked by the Thunder and the NBA Finals.

Well, they had trouble with the spurs too throughout the season. So no wonder you you you

recoiled so much whenever whenever I said this stuff about the pistons. I had a hard time with the

East too, man. I went back. The Celtics have this spursy and thing going on where their culture

is so good. Their system is so good. They're coaching is so good. Their development is so good

that their baseline is always going to be high. And on any given night when a team has X, Y,

Z, whatever it is going on, they're just going to be people. And they and they just accumulate

wins. But that's a different game than the playoffs. Like we said, they've got these guys who are

overachieving. And this Celtics team is different than the optionality that they had on their

title teams. And it's like, Tatum's coming back. Are there guys that are going to be asked to step

up? Good as they've been. I wrestle with that where I'm just like, I can't believe I'm doing this.

But I think the nicks are going to make the finals. Definitely could. I think they're going to put it

together. The thunder just they the top part of their bracket is, I don't know, I think they were

going to move through whoever was going to be there. But I think this particular set of teams is

not going to be a big challenge for them. I just think the nuggets and the spurs, if that series

happens, not to disrespect the wolves and assume that they don't aren't going to do anything there

or the or the blazers. Nuggets spurs if the spurs can get by them. If they can get by the nuggets,

I think that's a more interesting. Maybe that's crazy though. I just talking, I'll tell you my

picks. I had the thunder and the nicks in the final. But I you want to go spurs is what I'm yeah,

I'm hearing spurs thunder just that matchup. They just it's been so weird all year. And I just

think that would be a really fun culmination based on the plan based on they clearly there's a

lot of that like competitive blood between those two. But I'm with you Rob. I'm like head heart

where I'm like, I feel like it'll ultimately be you know thunder nuggets in the conference

finals and then thunder nicks and the thunder winning again. I like the way you're thinking about it

though. It's like if we got to script this season based on the narrative beats of what the regular

season has been spurs thunder would be a great way to follow through on so many of the things we've

been talking about. If we were the writers of the sixth man, we could do it. But I guess fortunately

and unfortunately no one has died. But also we don't get to necessarily put in pen who we want in

these series. Did we take enough grief for the for the love and basketball thing? I didn't

I didn't really get anybody telling me. I've been self-flagulating. You know, it's just been

a real exercise in punishment over here. I thought I was going to get owned for that one and

deserve I was like it deservedly. I was going to be just like, please help me with your insult. I

should have known that. It didn't come. Do I do a bonus pod where it's just Rob self-flagulating?

If that's what the people want, we can look into the way. Well, his voice goes up and we

edited it out of the show. That's what it's for. Yeah. All right. Those are our

lock solid picks that are definitely going to happen. We'll be back on Monday to recap an entire

week in a play of basketball. We'll go through every single series. Enjoy the games. Thank you to

Victoria Valencia for producing the video. Thank you to Victoria Valencia for also producing the

audio. Thank you to Ben Cruz. Thank you to John Robinson for providing our new hit theme song,

which we're going to go out on right now. Let's go.

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