LaMelo Fine Not Enough? + FULL Playoff Preview & NBA’s Year Awards Ruling

Summary

Podcast Summary

Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective
Episode: LaMelo Fine Not Enough? + FULL Playoff Preview & NBA’s Year Awards Ruling
Date: April 17, 2026
Host: Brian Windhorst
Guests: Tim Bontemps, Tim MacMahon

Overview

This episode is packed: the panel unpacks the fallout from LaMelo Ball’s controversial fine (and not suspension), dives into the NBA’s year-end awards eligibility drama, and proceeds through an in-depth, lively preview of every first-round 2026 NBA Playoff series, East and West. Mixed with personal stories, honest critique and plenty of trademark banter, the crew frames the current NBA landscape, key player storylines, and burning questions for the weeks ahead.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. LaMelo Ball’s Flagrant Foul and the NBA’s Disciplinary Response

• Background: LaMelo Ball received a fine (not a suspension) after a retroactive flagrant-2 call for a “dirty” play, leading to discussion about the appropriateness of his punishment.
• The Play-In "pocket dimension": Flagrant and technical fouls accumulated in the regular season don’t carry over to the Play-In or Playoffs.
  • Quote (Bontemps, 04:18): “It just doesn’t seem fair. He makes this play, it’s universally seen as a pretty dirty play... and it’s no big deal. Like, either have the flagrant points go into the playoffs, which would be a good change.”
• Historical Precedents: Retroactive flagrant fouls sometimes have led to suspensions in the past (see: Lou Dort, LeBron in 2007), but not here — leading to frustration, and a sense the Heat have no remedy.
  • Quote (MacMahon, 06:43): “Lamelo got off really light... Eric Spoelstra was right. He should have been kicked out of that game... the league acknowledged that by ruling after the fact that it was a flagrant 2.”
  • Windhorst, 07:10: “I did not believe he should have been suspended. But I wavered...when I saw multiple instances of him doing this exact same thing.”
• Consensus:
  • Flagrant/technical points should carry into the Playoffs.
  • LaMelo’s history makes his light discipline questionable.
  • League should consider suspending ‘repeat offenders’ regardless of Play-In/Playoff distinctions in the future.

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2. NBA Awards: 65-Game Rule, Appeals, and the Cade Cunningham Precedent

• Cade Cunningham and Luka Doncic both won year-end award eligibility appeals, stirring confusion and talk of inconsistent rulings.
  • Quote (Bontemps, 17:31): “If we have a 65-game rule ruling out a guy because he has an unusual injury, what’s the difference between an unusual injury and an injury?”
• The crew agrees a minutes threshold could solve ambiguity (suggested: 2,000 minutes), not just games played.
  • Quote (MacMahon, 18:32): “As long as you play, I’d say, 2,000 minutes, then you’re eligible... you’re trying to get load management out, you’re not trying... Guys are going to get hurt.”
• Subjectivity in NBA Decisions:
  • The league seemingly ‘waves through’ injury appeals if the player is “deserving,” triggering questions (and a bit of annoyance) from those seeing it as arbitrary.

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3. Full First-Round Playoff Preview: Series-by-Series Breakdown

Eastern Conference

• Play-In: Detroit vs. Charlotte/Orlando

  • Detroit energized to break long playoff drought.
  • Cade Cunningham’s return and eligibility are huge.
  • Noted history of volatility between Detroit and Charlotte.

• Boston Celtics vs. Philadelphia 76ers

  • Celtics picked as favorites (“best team in the East”), but Embiid’s possible late-series return could swing things.
  • Quote (Bontemps, 23:15): “I don’t think Philly is winning the series…but with all those wing players, they can at least be ‘frisky.’”
  • Largest questions for Boston: Can their center rotation (Nimias Queta, Luka Garza, Nikola Vucevic) hang with elite bigs in later rounds?

• New York Knicks vs. Atlanta Hawks

  • New York’s interior advantage (Karl-Anthony Towns, Mitchell Robinson) highlighted; the Hawks’ lack of size a big concern.
  • Quote (Windhorst, 32:10): “This is crying for Mitchell Robinson to go in there and wreak havoc on the offensive glass.”
  • Atlanta’s athleticism and three-point marksmanship are their weapon; Knicks’ defense and rebounding are the counter.

• Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Toronto Raptors

  • Contrast in styles: Cavs slow and half-court; Raptors run-and-gun, athletic.
  • Key rivalry: Evan Mobley vs. Scottie Barnes.
  • Quote (Windhorst, 41:09): “It feels like the pressure is on the Cavs’ backcourt...but the Mobley-Barnes battle is a big one for this series.”
  • X-Factor: Emmanuel Quickley’s hamstring (Toronto) could swing things.

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Western Conference

• Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Phoenix Suns or Golden State Warriors

  • Thunder expected to breeze past either opponent.
    • Quote (MacMahon, 48:58): “If you’re not a title contender, you’re getting smoked by the Thunder.”
  • Play-In result swings potential draft lottery spoils due to owed picks.

• San Antonio Spurs vs. Portland Trail Blazers

  • Hot Take: “Stats Williams” (producer) predicts a Portland upset (“Blazers in 6”).
  • Spurs seen as inexperienced: “The Spurs have had no adversity all season...what happens when they get punched in the mouth?” (Bontemps, 73:01)
  • Key tactical question: How will Portland scheme defensively on Victor Wembanyama? (Bigs don’t match up well; need to force others to beat them)
    • Quote (Windhorst, 58:32): “Victor averaged more blocks per game than fouls per game... he can defend the rim without having to be physical.”

• Denver Nuggets vs. Minnesota Timberwolves

  • Denver’s “actions over words”: They’re healthy, but Wolves’ strategy is to limit Jokic’s passing, force him to be a scorer.
  • Key player health questions: Can Anthony Edwards perform at “bionic” standard?
  • Quote (Windhorst, 63:31): “The Wolves game plan…was to defend Jokic’s pass… make him a scorer.”

• Houston Rockets vs. Los Angeles Lakers

  • The Lakers are “less than a 4” seed without LeBron or Austin; need to extend the series for a chance at healthy reinforcements.
    • Quote (Windhorst, 66:04): “They need to extend the games and extend the series so that you can [maybe] get your guys back at some point.”
  • Schedule “stretched” to favor Lakers’ recovery (Sat–Tues–Fri).
  • Matchups: Amen Thompson will try to neutralize LeBron, but LeBron has a major experience edge.

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4. Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On LaMelo Ball’s Questionable Punishment:
  • “Lamelo got off really light here and Eric Spoelstra was right. He should have been kicked out of that game.” — MacMahon (06:43)
• On NBA’s Award Rule Subjectivity:
  • “It’s not a 65-game rule. It’s a 65ish game rule.” — MacMahon (17:42)
• On Celtics’ Center Rotation
  • “[Their] biggest question…is their three-headed monster at center… are they good enough to hang with those guys in the playoffs?” — Bontemps (26:08)
• On Thunder as Emerging Dynasty:
  • “There’d be interesting storylines with Thunder–Warriors… the fading dynasty versus potentially the next dynasty in the NBA…” — MacMahon (48:58)
• Producer Stats Williams’ Hot Take:
  • “The Portland Trailblazers are going to win this first round series against the San Antonio spurs in six games.” — recounted by Bontemps (54:21)
• On the Spurs’ Inexperience:
  • “Spurs have had no adversity all season... when they do get punched in the mouth, how do they respond?” — Bontemps (73:01)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [03:35] – Would you have suspended LaMelo Ball?
• [16:21] – Cade Cunningham’s award eligibility and the “extraordinary circumstances” clause
• [23:15] – Celtics–Sixers preview; Embiid’s possible impact
• [32:10] – Knicks–Hawks preview: why interior play matters
• [36:40] – Raptors–Cavs tactical breakdown and the Mobley–Barnes rivalry
• [45:45] – Thunder’s playoff and draft outlook
• [53:01] – All-NBA 3rd team dilemma: Deni Avdija, Scottie Barnes, Kevin Durant?
• [54:21] – Stats Williams’ hot take: Blazers to upset Spurs
• [61:28] – Nuggets–Wolves preview; Minnesota’s tactics vs. Jokic
• [65:47] – Lakers–Rockets preview; how schedule helps LA, and necessary adjustments

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Tone and Style

As always, the show blends sharp analysis with a playful, conversational tone. The panel is candid about the NBA’s quirks, their own “soapboxes,” and even insert some self-deprecating humor (e.g., Windhorst’s “gray hair” stories and routine stat corrections). In-depth, but friendly and accessible—ideal for fans who want more than just the box score.

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Final Thoughts

This episode is a comprehensive, entertaining setup for the NBA Playoffs—deep dives, lingering controversies, and thoughtful predictions, with some hot takes sprinkled in. For NBA fans wanting the full context, historical flavor, and tactical trends for every first-round series, this is the episode to queue up or, with this summary, to be fully caught up on.

Transcript

[A]

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[B]

Hello everybody.

[A]

Good vibes in Xfinity Mobile arena on

[B]

Wednesday there were good vibes in Xfinity Mobile arena and I have a comment about it. But I'll wait till we introduce our co host here.

[A]

Well, that's joining us from Los Angeles, California where he did not attend. What could have been the last great moment of Steph Curry's career is bad. McMahon.

[C]

Howdy partners. I could give a band sleep update, but you know I don't want to.

[A]

By the way, I wouldn't have gone either. Just for the record. I would.

[B]

It's all right. Just flat out laziness. It's good.

[C]

Yeah. 3:15 Wake up call. Also actually I hit snooze 3:25 also. I have faith that old Wardell is going to have some more moments.

[A]

I do too. I do too. I'm just. That was a hell of a moment

[B]

for him and it was an incredible game. That was not the comment I was going to make. The comment I was going to make was we are through the first four games of play in tournament. We have the eight nine games on Friday. And what did all four games have in common? Everybody was trying to win and the games were awesome. The game I was at was. The game I was at was less awesome, but it was still a good game. Close game in the fourth quarter. The other three games are all awesome. And as the NBA decides what to do about tanking over the next six weeks, I would again strongly say that we need to make sure the incentive for teams over the final two months of the regular season is to want to win the games, not just play the games, not just show up for the games, actually try to win the games. Because guess what? When the teams are trying to win, the product is really, really good. So hopefully the NBA watches Adam Silver, watches his creation this week playing tournament, sees how great these games are and remembers that when they come up with these solutions they're going to have. Because so far all the ones we've talked about or seen and talked about have all not included winning as an incentive. Just wanted to say that off the top. So I don't know if we're going to get to it.

[A]

Just be careful stepping down from that soapbox. It's. It's a bit.

[B]

Hey, listen, I. If we're going to actually do.

[A]

Of course, you know, I of course agree with you.

[B]

I know. But it's worth emphasizing it's not a soapbox.

[C]

He's auditioning the future commissioner, the uswb.

[B]

Hey, listen, I'll sign up for that job.

[A]

Talk about disciplinary changes.

[B]

I mean, I'd sign up for that job.

[A]

Would you have? I was going to have it for

[B]

a long time though.

[A]

You're right about that. Let me ask you this. Let's say you were the commissioner for a day. Would you have suspended Lamelo Ball?

[B]

I mean, do you want me to get my soapbox again right now?

[A]

I do.

[C]

I have pardoned on my take on that since we last potted. Would you have suspended him?

[B]

So two things. One, yes, I would have suspended him for Friday's game. Two, part of the reason I would have suspended for Friday's game is one of the weird quirks of the play in tournament is that the whole thing exists in its own like pocket dimension where none of the stats or anything comes out of the play in tournament or goes into the play in tournament. So flagrant foul points at text don't carry over to the play in tournament from the regular season. I guess if you get. You get your flag points.

[A]

Got a tech last night.

[B]

He.

[A]

He will not, he will not go towards any suspension. I'll just call.

[B]

No, it doesn't count towards the playoffs. Like to me, if you're either like the NBA doing this flagrant two for LaMelo and then finding them, it. It just doesn't do anything because he can play in Friday's game. There's really no, it's. It's like a free punishment for him. Like yeah, he loses 60 grand. Between that and cursing after the game, but he's making $40 million. I think he'll be fine with the 60 grand.

[A]

And that's one auto insurance premium.

[B]

Yes. And it just doesn't, it just doesn't seem, it just doesn't seem a fair. It doesn't, it doesn't feel great at the end that he had.

[A]

He.

[B]

He makes this play. It's universally seen as a pretty dirty play. McMahon. I think in our group text you compared it to the Lou Dort play when he thought about it more, which on Nicole Okic, which is, I think, a good comparison. Now, Lou got thrown out of that game. We all agreed he should have been thrown out of the game. This was a weird thing. The refs didn't have a chance to do it at the time. They couldn't go back and look at it. That's all fine. It just feels weird that the, the end of that is, oh, he just plays in the next game, he pays a fine and it's no big deal. Like either have the flaggered points go into the playoffs, which would be a good change. Like the Texan flagrants carry over, which

[A]

add up and I think they will, I think, examine that. Having said that, they couldn't change that.

[B]

No, you can't. No, I know you can't change it immediately, but it, the whole thing just feels, it just doesn't feel great that this is the outcome of it.

[C]

The simple fact of the matter is Lamelo got off really light here and Eric Spoelster was right. He should have been kicked out of that game. And the league has acknowledged that by ruling after the fact that it was a flagrant 2. It was every bit as dirty as Lou Dort's trip, you know, bump and trip of Nicole Jokic. This one actually caused an injury that knocked Bam out for the rest of the game. And listen, I'm going to admit that I was probably viewing things through the. Lamelo is the, is the Hornet star and I don't like seeing stars get ejected. But that's not a fair way to assess an ejection, a suspension. If it's a, an injection for Lou Dort, it's an injection for LaMelo ball if it's, you know, or whoever else. If Nicole Jokic does the same thing to Jaden McDaniels, just throw out a example of somebody he'll see in the first round. Then Joker should be suspended or, I'm sorry, ejected. Having said that, man, it would have been really bad for business for Lamello Ball to be suspended for Friday's game.

[B]

So this would feel better if there was some sort of long term repercussion of it whether he was suspended Friday or the flagrant points counted said it's neither. So it just feels kind of empty, that's all.

[A]

Here's the thing. There's no remedy available to the Miami Heat.

[C]

Nope.

[B]

No.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

I believe to be fair to them, like Eric Spalscher did exit interviews today and was like, look, I'm not looking back on that. It should have, you should have been thrown out. It is what it is. We're, we're moving forward.

[A]

I believe he should have been ejected from the game at the time. He was not ejected. Okay, I, I, I did not believe he should have been suspended. But I'm going to tell you I wavered on that when I saw multiple instances, incidences of him doing this exact same thing. Not just the bam at a bio game, you know, two years ago where he thought he got fouled and tripped. Bam. But in February he did this to Jabari Smith Jr. In the Rockets. Almost the same type of play, was driving. Thought he got bumped and he actually got called for a flagrant one. In that situation, I will tell you that I researched. I didn't have complete records and it was hard to search, but the couple of instances that I found where a player was retroactively given a flagrant two, a lot of times they were given a suspension. You know. So this is a rare now story time Brought to you by Sofi More

[B]

Hoop Collective Podcast after this.

[A]

This message is brought to you by Apple Pay Checking out Online Apple Pay makes it simple. Apple Pay is accepted on millions of websites and apps and counting. Just look for the Apple Pay button almost anywhere you do your online shopping. When you tap the Apple Pay button to check out, you don't have to worry about filling out any forms with your shipping address or payment method. Instead, use your pre saved information and checkout instead. Seconds need to make a change. You can easily review and change your credit card information and shipping details right in the payment sheet. Once you're ready, just double click the side button, authenticate your purchase with face ID and you're done. Whether you're shopping online for everyday needs or treating yourself, skip the hassle. Shop with Apple Pay terms apply. Harry Douglas here to tell you about Confetti Craze five Hour Energy. It tastes just like the best birthday cake ever. Vanilla buttery frosting vibes. It's basically a party in a bottle. And here's the best part. All cake, no sugar. And you know I love my cake so I get that big birthday energy without any sugar guilt. The bottle's small, easy to Toss in my bag and perfect. When I need a quick tasty caffeine boost to cake a fi my day. The funfetti flavor is back on five hourenergy.com or Amazon. Crack open a confetti crazed five hour energy shot today. Hey, it's Wendy here. Are you looking to rebound from your high interest credit card debt? A SOFI personal loan could help consolidate your debt with a SO loan into one low monthly payment. And you could save money on interest over time. And with as soon as the same day funding, you could hit the ground running ASAP. Apply today with no fees [e-mail] DebtRebound loans originated by Sofi Bake NA member FDIC terms and conditions apply. NMLS 696891 fast funds terms [e-mail] DebtReborn. Did you know that LeBron James once got a retroactive flagrant two foul in a playoff game?

[C]

No. Do tell. I don't recall this.

[B]

Yes, I don't remember it either.

[A]

This actually happened in 2009.

[C]

Is this when he fouled Draymond's knee with his cajones?

[A]

Draymond, by the way, let me just say that was a flagrant one foul that they went back and assessed, not a flagrant two. And I know that this is one of those things where you hear Draymond Green in suspension and people immediately close their brains and they spit out their opinion. I've said this before, I will say it again. I'll probably have to say it for another decade. Draymond was not suspended for that hit on LeBron. He was suspended for an accumulation of flagrant foul points. That was a flagrant one.

[B]

That's right.

[A]

He was assessed for that.

[B]

He was suspended just as much for the body slam of Michael Beasley one second ago in the first round as he was for that, which is fine. Which is why if they're gonna. If you're gonna have this play in tournament, have the stuff carry over. That would at least be some sort of justice to come out of this. That there could be some long term ramifications instead of on Friday if they win or lose. It just disappears into the ether. Yeah.

[C]

Also it was ruled a flagrant one because he only got one of them. He didn't get both of them.

[B]

Anyway, we interrupted story time.

[A]

Yeah, I was gonna say, having said that about the Draymond Green play, the league obviously knew when they issued the flagrant one that it would trigger a suspension.

[B]

So of course they knew what they

[A]

were doing in 2009, I believe the 2009 playoffs. First round Cavs versus Pistons. Okay, LeBron, Michael Curry, coach, Pistons. Yeah, yeah, that's correct, Michael. Or yes, LeBron actually flagranted Chris Weber on offense. So I believe it was in game two. I actually searched for this yesterday and I couldn't find it, But I am 100% sure LeBron took a shot and Webber, like, challenged the shot. It was on the baseline. And after the shot, LeBron, like, flung an elbow and hit Weber right upside the head. And the officials never saw it. And so I went to the off day press conference or off day interview, and Chris Weber, like, sort of in a toss away line says, you know, I'm. That was pretty ridiculous. LeBron didn't get called for blasting me in the side of the head. It was pretty bad call. And I was like, I don't even. I mean, this is 2009. Like, I don't even think Twitter was. I mean, it existed, but it wasn't like people were, like, reviewing stuff on Twitter. I don't even know how I saw the play. But so I. The next day was the game, and I go up to Tim Frank, the very, very important, highly ranking Tim Frank from the league office. I was admonished for not acknowledging his importance on the podcast.

[C]

Highly ranking. We can debate importance after story.

[A]

He's. He's got some sort of highfalutin title like senior vice president or something.

[C]

Also, he cries about Notre Dame football all the time. Oh, we go screwed. Go on.

[A]

Anyway, he. I said, hey, did anything ever happen about that LeBron play with Chris Weber? Weber mentioned it yesterday, and he's like, oh, let me, let me look into that. So, you know, it goes on. And just to show you how things were different back in 2009 versus 2023, 2026 and 2023. Tim walks up to me before the game, is like, yeah, we gave him a flagrant two foul for that. I was like, oh, really?

[C]

Whereas now, now they tweet it out and you're trying to scoop, you know, get scooped before they tweet it.

[A]

Yeah, I mean, like, it was like. He's like, yeah, flag was a flagrant too. Okay. You know, and you just, you know, write your little notebook up. By the way, LeBron was issued a flagrant two foul.

[C]

It's like the third item.

[A]

All right. What? Yeah, I know. It's just different. So, yes, LeBron actually got a retroactive flagrant foul in a playoff game. And it was a weird play. It was on offense after a shot. So anyway. But I I. I do agree.

[B]

Pistons, just to be clear, did play in 07. So I don't know if it was.

[A]

It was 09 because it was against Chris Weber and I don't think Christopher

[B]

was out of the league by 2009. That's what I'm trying to tell you, so.

[A]

Oh, really?

[C]

Listen, don't hold him to all the details.

[B]

I was trying to find the games because I went and looked at his.

[A]

Maybe it was 07. You know what?

[B]

He was playing one year with the pistons. It was 2007. He played the Cavs.

[A]

I'm pretty sure it must have been 07 because why would Tim Frank be there unless it was the conference finals.

[B]

Conference finals. There you go.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

He wouldn't have been there for the first round.

[A]

All right, I take it back. It was 2007.

[B]

I was honestly trying to find the. I was honestly trying to just find a game.

[A]

It was. The game was in Cleveland. Maybe it was. The game was in Cleveland where he did it. Must have been game four. And this must have been before game five.

[C]

Was this before or after you were slammed in the face when you were sitting courtside in Seattle?

[A]

After.

[B]

All right.

[C]

That's kind of erase some of the memories.

[A]

Yeah. By the way, I feel like there's no remedy to the Heat anyway. So if they suspended Lamelo, I guess that, you know, gives some sort of justice, but it doesn't help the Heat at all.

[B]

The Heat.

[A]

The Heat. There's nothing that can be done that can. That can change the fact.

[C]

Well, and the Heat. The heat were a 10C that was not destined for anything special.

[B]

And it's not like they were not relevant.

[A]

I would just say this James Jones or somebody needed to needs to tell Lamelo don't do it again.

[C]

Yeah, seriously. I didn't realize how much of a

[A]

history there was here considering as Bontem said, that the flagrant foul points don't carry over if the Hornets make the playoffs or what have you. I would just say that he's on double secret probation with this. If it happens again, I would just told them. If it happens again. I don't care if it's in the preseason, you're getting suspended.

[C]

Well, and you see guys like histories are considered suspension. That is completely fair. There's a precedent for that.

[A]

Yeah. All right, so let's take a look at. Let's go through the series and take a look at what we think. Let's start in the Eastern Conference. The Pistons will play whoever is winning against Orlando and. And Charlotte on Friday. Cade Cunningham is back. Cade Cunningham Bontemps wins his case. Kind of a surprise that Cade Cunningham wins his appeal and is now eligible for awards.

[B]

On the soapbox one final time already.

[A]

Yes. Get back up there.

[C]

Do you ever really get all.

[A]

He's worn a pass.

[B]

Luka Doncic had a very open and shut case under the extraordinary circumstances clause to be on ballots this year. As someone who's in the middle of writing my ballot up for.com for Friday and filling out my ballot that we got sent this afternoon by the league. Now that the. This stuff is all settled, I'm thrilled Cade's on the ballot. Personally, he deserves to be on the team. He's gonna be on my MVP ballot. It's going to be first team, all NBA. Like, I'm glad. Glad he's eligible, but if. If we have a 65 game rule ruling out a guy because he has a unusual injury, like, what's the difference between an unusual injury and an injury?

[A]

He got injured playing basketball.

[B]

Like, I feel bad.

[A]

It's like in A Few Good Men. I object. Overruled. I strenuously object. Oh, you strenuously object.

[C]

Just be real creative with your injury list. Oh, we haven't had this one in, you know, forever. Our guys should be eligible. It's not a 65 game rule. It's a 65ish game rule.

[B]

Well, and the other thing, it's weird. So the. The NBA agrees on Luca. Hey, we don't need to do a grievance. You win. They also do that with Kate Cunningham. Like, I'd have been fine. I mean, I. I mean, whatever. It's fine either way. But I'd have been fine if the NBA, if it went to an arbitrator and an arbitrator said, hey, you know what? It's a weird circumstance. We're going to let Kade or let Kate be on the ballot. Okay, fine. This is what the arbitrator's there for. The fact the NBA was just, like, cool, all good. Like, I can understand why. I mean, Anthony Edwards. I had an even weaker case, obviously, in my opinion. But, like, I can understand why the Anthony Edwards camp was like, wait, you're just waving this for Cade. Why aren't you waving it for me? It's like, what do you like? I don't know. It's just strange.

[C]

I hope there are tweaks made this off season to where you don't have, like, I do think there should be a minutes limit. And if there is a significant injury, then as long as you play and I'd say 2,000 minutes, then you're eligible. You know, if you had a significant injury that caused you to miss the time that, that made you miss the

[B]

65 injury, I do think adding. I do think adding a minute's total would be good.

[C]

You're trying to get load management out. You're not trying. Guys are going to get hurt. You're trying to get load management out.

[B]

Yeah, but. But yeah, it's.

[A]

It just.

[B]

That was just strange that the NBA was like, yeah, no big deal.

[A]

Well, I remember when they came out the 65 game rule and I was reading the fine print and it said that there was this appeal process you could make. And I was like, boy, I feel like that's going to end up being a squishy area here. And it didn't end up happening the first year. Maybe. Is this the third year or the second year of it? Third.

[B]

Third or fourth year? I think it's the third.

[A]

We didn't have this the first couple years. So I was like, oh, you know, so. But I remember reading this going, boy, there's, there's some gray area that.

[B]

Well, again, whether you, whether you agree with it or not, like the Luca case was open and shot like he missed two games because he had a kid. That's an extraordinary circumstance. Like he was going to win an arbitration.

[A]

Now that's a non basketball reason.

[B]

Yeah, like that, that just there again, like you could say, well, Luca shouldn't have got technical fouls and missed a game before. That's fine. That's. That's not part of the legal argument. I just, I think it's odd that they have this rule and then just said, yeah, no big deal, we'll have K make it. But again, personally, I'm thrilled Cade's on the ballot. He'll be first team. He'll be mvp. He'll be on the MVP ballot. Like, that's great. He had an awesome year. It's well deserved.

[A]

Detroit will be, I think, pretty keyed up for this. This is something that they've won a

[B]

playoff series since 2008.

[A]

Right.

[C]

Either right before or right after LeBron's retroactive flavor.

[B]

Sometime around when LeBron got a retroactive flavor.

[A]

Well, LeBron played the next game and boy, could that have been the night. Could that have been the night that he had the 48 special.

[B]

I will try to find this in the thing while you're talking since we can figure out what game it is.

[A]

That would be fascinating, if true. That would really be fascinating.

[C]

But no, Detroit's going to be keyed up, especially if it's the Hornets. Because we all recall by NBA standards there was a massive brouhaha between these teams this year. Multiple suspensions, haymakers thrown, all that good stuff. And let me tell you this. If Lamelo tries to do a little ankle swipe in Detroit, he gonna have to deal with old beast. Do you don't want to do that.

[A]

I will bet that they will be on Lamelo watch for this one. You know, if they. If the Charlotte's able to get one more win. And I will tell you who do we. Let's just be real about where the Magic are. Who do we think's given Detroit a better series here?

[C]

Oh, Charlotte. I mean, Charlotte, the Magic, it's. The Magic are a team that just needs to go their separate ways for a little bit, if not for a while.

[B]

I mean, listen, Paolo, Ben Carroll was abysmal in this game Wednesday night. Seven, 22, six turnovers, 0 for 5 from 3. Frankly, Andrew Drummond's jumper looked better from 3 than Paolo's. Like.

[C]

But it's true.

[B]

It's true. Like, I'm not. I'm not trying to be mean. Like, it's. He. I. He was awful. He was really. I mean, he's why they lost the game. Like it was a competitive game.

[C]

He admitted. He admitted as much post game, but that doesn't change the fact that he is a guy who is on a max extension as a number one overall pick as a face of a franchise and still has a lot to prove in terms of his ability to drive winning. Doesn't mean he won't ever be able to do it. You know, Lamelo, we've talked about how he's kind of been able to flip that perception just this season, just over the last few months, but, man, the Magic have been better with Paulo off the floor in terms of net rating every single year of his career. And he's yet to have an efficient offensive season. As gifted as he is, he's. He's the worst volume jump shooter in the NBA and he shoots a lot of jump shots.

[A]

Yeah, that's not great. Okay, so we'll have a better feel for that once. Once we see what happens in Orlando on Friday. Okay. Philadelphia will be getting ready to head up to Boston. Bontemps, I believe you will be on this series in your i95 corridor. You and I have both covered some 76 or Celtics series. Some of them have been super competitive. Joel Embiid did show up to the game on Wednesday night, which I think Nick said was a surprise, wasn't it?

[B]

Sort of. I mean there had been some talk that he would maybe be at the game. It's obviously today is just a week out from this appendectomy. Everybody was very happy to see him. I don't think it's impossible he's back at some point in this series, depending how long it goes. Obviously it's very hard to know how recovery from an abdominal surgery is going to go, but you know, it was certainly a good sign to see him there and we'll see if he can get back. Hopefully he can at some point. Would certainly be a fun twist in the series. And look, I don't think Phillies win in the series, but I do think with the way their team is built, with the amount of shooting they have and the amount of wing players they have, it's at least a matchup where I think they can be frisky even without Joel and not get run off the court. Like if they'd had to play Detroit, even though I don't think Detroit's as good with Jalen Duran and Isaiah Stewart without Joel, I think that would have been a tough ask. But as we know, the Celtics are my pick to win the East. I think they're the best team in the east, but as we've seen in the past, they can get three point happy, they can get isolation heavy and they can sort of shoot themselves into trouble in games. And with Tyrese Maxey, Paul George looking pretty good, BJ Edgecombe was certainly not afraid. He was pretty wild in the game Wednesday, but made a lot of good plays with some bad plays like got Quentin Grimes, they got Kelly Uber. Like they've just got a lot of wing players who can make plays that I think that's at least an argument that this could be a competitive series to some degree, though I certainly don't expect anything other than a Boston victory, especially if Embiid does play off.

[A]

Last week you and I did our sort of intelligence file that came out. We asked some questions that some scouts and executives have about some teams going into the playoffs and one of the things we asked about was the Celtics role players who as the season went along were just better and better and better. I'm talking about Al Sharman, baby. Omaha's own Is Peyton Pritchard considered a role player at this point? No.

[C]

Now he's considered a the best six man in basketball.

[B]

Not eligible. Yeah, he played start too many games. I suspect he'll be starting in the playoffs too. But yeah, I mean we're talking outside of.

[A]

So anyway, Derek White, Peyton Pritchard and

[B]

the two star wings.

[A]

Yeah. So you know, Neemikeda, Baylor Shireman, Jordan

[B]

Walsh, Hugo Gonzalez, a rookie forward.

[A]

Hugo Gonzalez, Sam Houser. I mean, Saad Hauser's more of a proven player I guess at this point,

[B]

but so, but he's a reasonable player.

[A]

But all their roles have expanded in the last year since the Celtics basically retrofit their below star level players. And you know, they were great. You know, as the season went along, they went, they just got better and better. Luca Garza, did we, did one of us say.

[B]

I didn't mention him. I mean the biggest question about the Celtics I think going into the playoffs is their three headed monster at center of Nimus Keda, Luka Garza and Nicola Vucevic. Like how are they going to hold up when they go up against teams with real impact players there? Obviously without Joel Embiid, it's a Dembona and Andre Drummond and Dom Barlow, like the Celtics can handle that. But if they win, they're probably playing the Knicks in the next round. That's Carl Towns and Mitchell Robinson. How's that going to go if they get to the conference finals? They're probably singing either Jared Allen and Evan Mobley or Isaiah Stewart and Jalen Duran. Like, how's that going to go if they get to the finals? Maybe they're seeing Victor, maybe they're seeing Jokic, maybe they're seeing Chad Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein. Right. Those, those teams all have big time players inside. I think the biggest question for the Celtics outside of just, you know, can Jason Tatum continue to keep getting better is will those centers be able to hold up against some of that elite competition? Because, you know, they're, they're solid players and Kate is probably going to be on my most improved ballot. He's had an amazing season. But are they good enough to hang with those guys in the playoffs? I think that's a real open question.

[A]

Yeah, well, that's one of the things we're going to be watching in the first round as we learn about the Celtics as we watch them, you know, having to play bigger series. Now I know that, you know, the real question is, do we think there's any possibility that Embiid could come back? Um, it's abdominal surgery and he would have to ramp up, don't you think? Bon temps, like, I mean, I don't

[B]

think it's impossible he plays but again, it's a question of a, is he able to play at all and if so, how much is he able to play? Like, you know, I mean, look, from a storyline standpoint, if the Celtics can steal one of the first two games and make it 1:1 and just extend the series out, you know, like it leaves open. It leaves the door open for an interesting story down the road. But I, I'd be very. I mean, I think Boston's winning the series. I think it's probably going to be a five game series and you know, if they hit some threes and win one of these early games, maybe they get you all back. Maybe it gets interesting. But I mean, I'm picking the Celtics to make the finals, so I'm not picking them to lose to Philly and run.

[A]

All right. The three six allegedly. Three six. Because I've been saying I don't really think the Hawks are a true six seed because they started always. I think they were maybe eight games under.500 at one point.

[C]

I hear you. But we also discussed a lot of.

[A]

You're rejecting, you're rejecting.

[C]

They are, they are succeeding. We discussed like I give the Hawks credit for getting a rolling in the second half of the season after they really did a lot of stuff to renovate the roster during the season. But they got rolling with a pretty sweet schedule. There was a lot of cupcakes that they were consuming.

[A]

Well, everybody gets to play the same amount of tankers in the Eastern Conference generally, don't you think?

[B]

Yes, but they also played a lot of. They also played like they played Philly twice in that stretch without any of their guys like, you know, they won. They won. Look, they, they had a really strong end of the season. I, I am happy the way the series lined up because I think both Cavs, Raptors, which we'll get to, and Knicks Hawks, which obviously we're talking about now, are both more compelling series than the vice versa would have been. The Knicks had beat beaten the Raptors a million times in a row to beat the brakes off them at the Garden the other day. I don't think that series would have been competitive. And the Cavs are, I think, a more difficult matchup for Atlanta probably. I think that one's less of a sure thing. I think that they're probably roughly the same, but they're two fun series and you know, we'll be at the Garden for the first two games of this series too. And I'm interested to see how the young Hawks do at the Garden, which we've seen mess teams up before mess the Cavs up a couple years ago. Did not mess up Detroit last year. Ironically, he won two games as a first time playoff team at the Garden and couldn't win at home. But it'll be interesting to see how the Hawks handle that and how the Knicks handle any pressure if they. This gets into a bit of a dogfight with all the pressure that's on them to make a very deep playoff run this year.

[A]

I will say, you know, Jalen Johnson is, you know, he has great size and he, you know, is a real offensive, you know, centerpiece for them. He triggers a lot of their offense. His he was against the Knicks this year in the three games. His numbers were a little bit depressed below his averages because the, you know, I don't, you know, I not, you know, I'm not going to say I analyzed, you know, each possession, but I did notice that. And you know, the, the Knicks do have big strong wing players, you know, like OG Anunoby.

[B]

OG Anunoby in particular.

[A]

OG Anunoby can physically move people off their spots. So you know, they have a great perimeter. That's what the Hawks are built around. I think that the Nick's interior needs to have. Needs to take advantage of the Hawks lack of size on the inside. You know, the Hawks had an injury late in the season that really upset them. Jock Vaughn got or Jock Vaughn. Jack Vaughn gave him nothing down the stretch. Nothing. I couldn't Jock Landale.

[B]

Where did Jack Vaughn come from?

[A]

Don't know. How many jocks can there be? Totally different spelling, by the way. Completely different spelling. Different spelled.

[B]

Like different spellings, different positions.

[A]

Absolutely. There's a lot of differences about him. There's about a foot difference as well.

[B]

That's right. Different sizes too.

[A]

Anyway, so they're just down at the bigs. And this is crying for Mitchell Robinson to go in there and wreak havoc on the offensive class especially.

[C]

And how about a big time Carl Anthony Towne series? How about Karl Anthony Towns making sure, and this is a coach issue and a cat issue and a guard issue. Making sure that he's a primary focal point. Aneka Kongwu is a solid player. He's six eight.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

He's six, eight.

[B]

Yeah. The Hawks have little size inside that. That. That's really going to be one of the battlegrounds in the series is, you know, Atlanta's got some interesting guys to throw at. Jalen Brunson, they've got Nikki Alexander Walker who's got experience, Garden, obviously high scoring volume guys in the playoffs. You got Dyson Daniels who's a very good perimeter defender. You know, they've got Gabe Vincent, who's a proven playoff defense. Like, they've got several guys that could throw a Jalen Brunson. You know, in the last game of the regular season that they played, Brunson did not have a great game. The Hawks shot the ball great from three in that game. It went 16 for 42. Brunson in that game, he was 11. He ended up 11 for 26 from the field because he had a big fourth quarter, but, you know, he had struggled at times throughout it. It'll be interesting to see sort of where Atlanta tries to go. Do they try to load up on Carl and try to take him out of the mix, or do they really throw guys at Brunson and say, hey, if Carl Towns wants to go crazy and shoot a bunch of shots, that's fine. It'll be interesting to see what they do because with the lack of size the Hawks have, they don't have the ability to really stop both. And with the lack of size they have, too, and their speed and athleticism. The Knicks have not done great against athletic teams this year. They struggled the times with Charlotte that the Hawks have to get out and run and get in transition and score. That way, if they get in the half court with the Knicks, with Brunson and Towns, they're going to have a really hard time scoring enough to keep up in the series.

[A]

Carl Towns, in two of the three games he played against the Hawks, 29 points, 14 rebounds, 63% shooting.

[C]

Yeah. So he's a matchup problem for the. For a lot of people, but especially for the Hawks.

[B]

This is Mitchell Robinson, too. I mean, even in the earlier game this year, Ariel Hookurdy came in off the bench at 18 rebounds. I believe in the game. Like, I mean, he's. He's not going to play in the series, but my point is he's a big, physical center who can grab a lot of rebounds inside. Like, Atlanta is not a great rebounding team. That. That's a place with Towns and Mitchell Robinson where the Knicks can really make hay in this matchup for sure.

[A]

One, one thing I want to point out, we all remember that last year in the series with the Celtics, Joe Missoula played hack of Mitch to get Mitchell Robinson. Well, I think it's for, you know, they liked the, you know, just the analytics of it, but also to force Mitch Robinson off the court. Mitchell Robinson had his worst free throw shooting of the year, worst free throw shooting of his career. This year he barely cracked 40%. And I'm not saying you're doing this in the first quarter of game one, just to be clear.

[C]

No. But there will be times. You see it.

[A]

Yes. Could you see that?

[B]

And they can't really match up with them. So if it's a way to get him out of the game, like that could be a pretty significant advantage for the Knicks if they could keep Mitchell Robinson limited or for the Hawks if they can keep him limited in his availability because they just. If Mitch is able to play 20, 25 minutes a game in the series, it's going to be really hard. I mean, you mentioned that last game they played. It's. It's just obviously the most recent one. 12 rebounds for Mitch, 12 rebounds for Karl Anthony Towns. Like they're going to be able to get both double digit rebounds probably every game. That's going to be a hard thing for Atlanta to keep up with.

[A]

For sure. Yeah. And there were, you know, I went back and looked at how successful Boston was in that, you know, the one game that the. He went 3 of 10 at the line. Another game he went 4 of 12.

[B]

You'll take that.

[A]

And then the one game he was 6 of 6. So, you know. But again, he shot 40% this year. It was last year. He actually was more respectable, although we didn't play that many regular season games.

[B]

Yeah. And it's less about the misses than it is again, like, can you get him out of rhythm and potentially off the court. That's the bigger question with it for sure.

[A]

All right. Four, five. Cleveland versus Toronto Cavs corner. It's a matchup that developed late. Like, I know it was always a possibility, but I think the Cavs thought they were playing the Hawks. They played them twice in the last week of the regular season. The Raptors and Cavs haven't played since Nov. 24. The Raptors swept all three games. But if you went back and looked at who played those games, it was not really.

[B]

It couldn't be less relevant that they won the three games. James Harden wasn't on the team. So many things have changed for the Cavs since then.

[A]

Yeah, the Cavs a couple of games had like almost nobody available. That said, this is a matchup differential. The Cavs are one of the slowest teams in the league. They were already a slow team and then Harden got there and they slowed way down. The Raptors want to play high tempo. The Cavs are one of the league leaders in dribbling. The Raptors are one of the league leaders in passing. And so very different styles here. I will Just say that there is a five year little secret border war between Scotty Barnes and Evan Mobley. Oh yeah, you know they were neck and neck for rookie of the year that Barnes got that Barnes made the all star team first and Mobley came back, made the all star team, got defensive player of the year, made all NBA. Then Barnes, Barnes didn't make all star last year, then last, then this year they come back, Barnes has a bounce back year, makes the all star team. Mobley has a bit of a step back here. Doesn't make the all star team when they've had head to head competitions. Not that they're always guarding each other, but they do, you know, they both start a power forward so there's some natural part of that. Scotty Barnes has had some big games. You know, Mobley's had some games too. But it's like in my watching it, in my informal watching, Scotty Barnes takes it more seriously than Evan Mobley which kind of matches their personalities. You know, Mobley doesn't exactly play with emotion too often. But that is a very big for this series. That's very important, you know, matchup and you know the Raptors play very big with their front line. You know, Jakob Pearl did not have a great year, but they have really good size between Brandon Ingram, you know, Ingram, Barnes and Purdle. And they're going to, you know, they have. Darko is going to play, Mahmoud coming

[C]

off the bench, Mahmuk.

[A]

I was on the radio in Cleveland this week preparing the Cavs fans for having to, you know, Mamu could drop six three pointers on you in a game. You know, you have to be advised to that one asterisk is that Emmanuel Quickley is day to day with a hamstring injury. And you know, he's obviously a very important player and obviously affects their, their speed at which they play. So whether he can play and additionally his level of play will be a key to look forward to early in that game. Bon temps.

[B]

Yeah, no question. I mean I think this is a lot like the last series if the game is in the half court. Huge advantage for Cleveland. Cleveland is an excellent offensive team. James Harden, Donovan Mitchell dicing up a defense. They can really score if the game slows down. Cavs are not a good transition defense team. They're not a good fast break team. The Raptors are not a good half court offensive team. They are not a good shooting team. But they have a ton of athletes. They fly up and down the court. With Purdue healthy now, he is a big physical Body Jared Allen, not the most physical player. You mentioned the Scotty Barnes and Evan Mobley thing. Evan Mobley is also not the most physical player, although a very good player. So the Raptors can get on the glass, get out and transition and run. That is their path to making this a competitive series. But can they score enough? Where is Emmanuel Quickly at health wise. And it will be interesting to see what the Cavs do with Brandon Ingram. They don't have a ton of big wings. He's a tricky matchup. Do they want to start, say, Dean Wade? They kind of need Dean Wade to play at the four coming off the bench, especially with, like you said, Sam. With Mahmu coming off the bench, that's a tricky matchup for the Cavs too.

[A]

I took photos of the Cavs practice the other day and I, you know, I don't know how much I'm going to look at this, but it looked like Sam Merrill had the starter on. But I mean, that doesn't mean anything.

[B]

I mean, they could try that too. They could try that. Like, they could try Max Stru. They could try Sam Merrill. Like, they could. There's not a, there's not a great matchup that they have for the big wings.

[A]

That could be like subversion too. That could be a misdirection.

[B]

But that'll be an interesting thing to watch too. But certainly, you know, I, if the Cavs, the Cavs should win the series pretty comfortably. But that's the path for Toronto, I think, to make it competitive.

[C]

It's interesting you put, you put the spotlight on Mobley and that the Mobley Barnes rivalry or, you know, whatever you want to call it, because certainly, like I think when you look at the Cavs and talk about the Cavs, it feels like the, the pressure is on the shoulder of their backcourt. You know, James Harden, 17 years, this is his 17th postseason. But when you talk about James Harden in the playoffs, the thing that stands out are the really nasty flameouts that he's had on repeated occasions. And then Donovan Mitchell's had some spectacular playoff performances, but he'll be the first

[A]

one to play seven, seven 40 point games and three 50 point games in his playoff career. Never passed zero conference finals appearances.

[B]

And he also tends to wear down as the playoffs go along. So this is a situation where, like, it is imperative that the Cavs don't mess around in this series and take care of business.

[A]

And let me just say I am flagging game one as a mild trap game for the Cavs. That is a one O', clock.

[B]

Cavs corner is panicking about the first game of the playoffs.

[A]

I'm just. I've been around too long and I've covered these series that start I in my memory. Didn't they start. You start at noon? I guess.

[B]

Used to start at noon. Yeah.

[A]

You know, this actually used to happen to Toronto all the time. Toronto would play, you know, how many years in a row they, like lost like 15 straight game ones and like

[B]

year always play this game sat the

[A]

first Saturday game and they and Messiah would mf the other opponent on Mike and you know, like, everybody would be fines and they'd lose. And the Cavs haven't played, you know, full power in 10, 11 days because they sat the last weekend, basically. Whereas the Raptors played full power to the buzzer because they were going from the play into the five. Brandon Ingram was player of the week. It's a different style of play. The Cavs play slow, the Raptors play fast. I'm telling you, like, and, you know, I said this on Cleveland radio earlier this week, and I had some Cavs people like, you know, say, you know, back office, bro, and I was like, okay, win by 20 and tell me that I'm dead wrong. But I'm just flagging that as the

[B]

goal's been thrown down. McMahon. Cavs corner is on.

[A]

Old Kajer with the growing mound of gray hair says, back in my day, I watched a lot of home teams blown noon games on Saturday.

[C]

So when you've been around the game as long as Wendy has.

[A]

That's right, McMahon.

[B]

Do we need a new. Do we need a new sponsor for talking about gray hairs for window? I haven't seen any gray hairs.

[A]

Do I have any?

[B]

Well, you've got plenty, but I'm saying we got some product. We got some product going on in Omaha.

[A]

Oh, natural. Oh, natural. Oh, natural.

[B]

Are you sure about that?

[A]

You can, you can, you can test me, bro. Go ahead. You can take some stuff.

[C]

How you want to test that?

[B]

I don't either. I don't want to know.

[A]

You can, you can, you know, so you can examine it.

[B]

We're not going to do that either.

[C]

No carpets and drapes here, buddy.

[A]

We're not examining. All right? We're going to the west now after that, over those shenanigans,

[B]

more Hoop Collective podcast after this.

[A]

Thrivent believes money is more than numbers. It's a way to care for the people, causes and community you love. That's why Thrivent brings together a unique combination of financial services and generosity programs, offering advice, investments, and insurance to help you plan your finances while creating opportunities to give back along the way. Through generosity programs that offer resources to fund service projects or to direct charitable funds, Thrivent makes it easier to turn your values into action and support what matters to you. With more than 120 years of experience and as a Fortune 500 company, Thrivent continues to serve individuals, families and communities across the country. To learn more, visit thrivent.com thrivent where money means more hey sports fans, the

[B]

ESPN app has all of ESPN all in one place. The ESPN app is your home to thousands of live events, ESPN shows and originals across every ESPN network and service. And now you can check if you already have ESPN Unlimited as part of your TV package for no additional cost, visit activate espn.com to learn learn how to access your account or sign up, then start streaming in the ESPN app. It's all of ESPN all in one place. Sign up or activate now.

[A]

The Oklahoma City Thunder will play the winner in Phoenix on Friday between the warriors and Suns.

[C]

The Thunder, now proud owners of another lottery pick, thanks Clippers.

[A]

They will. And so there's a whole bunch of the lottery. The lottery order can change a bunch depending on who wins on Friday. Bobby Marks sent around the scenarios. It made my head hurt. I'll just wait till it's over.

[B]

But applies the Thundercat for the Thundercats, it's very simple. They're going to be rooting hard for the warriors to win. Not because they want to see Steph Curry or anything like that, but if they win, blocks clippers into the 11th spot in the lottery. And we know what happened last year, the 11th spot in the lottery. That was Cooper Flag going up to the number one pick for the Dallas Mavericks. And by the way, if they stay in the 12 spot, that's been pretty good to the Thunder in the past. They drafted a certain guy named Jalen Williams a few years ago at 12.

[C]

Thanks to the Clippers on that one, too.

[B]

That's right.

[A]

I will just say just for the chaos, because the most interesting three minutes in the well, one of the most interesting three minutes in the NBA every year is the three minutes of the commercial break between when the top four teams are established and when they're announced. The amount of reaction and conspiracy theory, you know, origination that happens in those minutes.

[C]

Yes.

[A]

When they find out who's in the top four is.

[B]

And by the way, if the Thunder get the fourth pick, it won't that it ain't gonna matter. Like if they get if they get into the top four, it's like, oh,

[A]

just imagine when Mark Tatum opens up that envelope, number 11, if whatever it is. Or 12.

[C]

Were there any conspiracy theories last year? I didn't recall any.

[B]

There are a couple.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

I thought the Mavericks were moving to Las Vegas. That's what I'm saying.

[B]

By the way, the Clippers are the Clippers and we haven't even talked about the game last night. The Clippers are in a situation now where they could get the fifth or sixth pick in the draft from the Indiana Pacers if the Pacers don't stay in the top four. Or they could be in a situation where they see their pick go to the Thunder in the top four, which is definitely a real possibility based off where it's going to land. And they could also have the Pacers stay in the top four and they could get to that commercial break and be like, oh, instead of being in the top six, fifth or sixth pick in the draft after trading Zoo, we now don't get that pick and watch our pick from the trade going to the top four. That could be a real double win.

[A]

Or it could be because they need the Pacers to get knocked down at least two spots. Right.

[B]

Pacer just need to not get picked in the top. They just have to not get selected.

[A]

A lot of them. But they need teams from outside the top four to get in there to push the Pacers pick down.

[B]

True.

[C]

So their own pick could. Their own pick.

[A]

That's right.

[B]

If they see their pick, if they

[A]

see their picks up like that's right. That's an unquestioned. The Clippers fans should root for their pick to move up. They can unite with the Clippers.

[B]

They could have a lot of other picks go up too.

[C]

But a little red and blue bandanas tied together like the Crips.

[B]

Wrong.

[C]

Wrong shade of blue.

[A]

But still, do we see either of these teams getting the Thunder to six games? Forget about five. No.

[C]

And listen, Phoenix is a scrappy team, but I was also in the building when Phoenix was full strength and I think I don't remember the final score, but it was like a 50 something point win for OKC. There'd be interesting storylines with Thunder warriors, you know, the, the fading dynasty versus potentially the next dynasty in the NBA. But it's not going to be a competitive series. We got to see glimpses of greatness from Steph and Draymond. I watched it via streaming Miracles and some folks got to go to the Intuit Dome and see it. But seriously, this is a 10 seed. That was, that was the stage for them to have that kind of performance as a 10 seed, it's not a title contender. And if you're not a title contender, you're getting smoked by the Thunder.

[B]

There's a reason Steve Kerr was so celebratory after the game last night. It was a big accomplishment for the warriors to win that one game against the Clippers on, on a Wednesday, on Wednesday night. It they. If they can do it again 48 hours later against the Suns with all these old guys having played all these minutes on a short turnaround, that'll be another feather in their cap. And everybody there, I think is very realistic about the situation at play and is not going to be thinking, hey, we're going to go in there and beat the Thunder. Obviously they're going to do their best to try to be competitive in the series, but it's just not. It's not going to be competitive.

[A]

That's one verse eight. Portland got the seventh seed by virtue of winning in Phoenix the other night. Excellent win. They go on a was I think 17 to 5 to close the game. Just awesome. We talked about the other day, I just want to say, you know, at the trade deadline, the, the blazers had lost six games in a row, were five games under.500. I think they were in 10th or 11th and you know, there was the opportunity there to sell. They could have traded, I know like there was robust market for Jeremy Grant, but they could have just sold them for nothing. They could have traded Jrue Holiday. They didn't. You know, there was sort of. They were in this, you know, period before the new ownership had taken over or whatever. And they play strong basketball down the stretch, win their way over the last week to 10 days of the season into getting to the 78 game, then go down to Phoenix, they're behind and come back and win that game on the road. They've really achieved really well. You know what, as I'm watching them win the game and I'm seeing Dame Lillard standing over there on the bench. Yeah, it was about a year ago this week, right. When Dame and tore his Achilles and Terrible, terrible thing.

[B]

It was a couple weeks later because it was during the playoffs, but still.

[C]

I thought it was.

[A]

Yeah, I thought it was game one of the playoffs.

[C]

Don't make us look.

[B]

Yeah, either way. Either way. It was right anyway. Right around roughly a year for sure. Yeah.

[A]

And obviously that was a terrible turn of events and everything like that. Things have gone as I'm watching Dame like celebrate the team going. I would say things have gone Pretty well for Dame Lillard. Like he gets waived so he's getting all of his money.

[C]

Granted when he was miserable in Milwaukee, by the way, just gets to come

[A]

back to Portland, come back home, they give him a three year $42 million deal with a no trouble. That's a no trade clause in the deal other than LeBron, the only no trade clause in the league so that you know, he can't get traded to Milwaukee or wherever again. All right, so by the way, he gets all of his money from Milwaukee. That's 42 million over and above what that guarantee was going to be. God bless America. And the Blazers end up having a really good step forward season and when he comes back next year, he's going to be joining a team that's on the upswing.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And they've had an on ball star emerge. Denny Abdia.

[A]

Yes.

[C]

An on ball point forward Star Bondemps. Wendy, I don't have a ballot.

[B]

Hi, can I, can I make, can I interject just because I have a question specifically about this. So I went through this with Stats Williams who we're about to talk about in a second. Our dear friend. I went through the ballot earlier today. The final outstanding thing on my ballot is the final spot on the third all NBA team where I'm trying to decide between.

[A]

This is tough every year, many years.

[B]

Well, and I will say the fact that two more two guys got players added means that the two of these guys are not going to now make it. So Denny is one of them. Scotty Barnes who we talked about before is another one. And Kevin Durant is the third.

[C]

Wow. Durant is that far back under ballot. That's interesting. And you say there's one spot for those three, huh?

[B]

Well, I can, I can rip through my teams really fast. The first team was the first team was the five guys. The first team was the five guys on the ballot.

[C]

Wendy was trying to save that for later.

[B]

Well, if you want, we'd say for later if you want.

[A]

It's not going to be on this podcast. We're already too long.

[C]

So I just think let's just leave it at this. Denny Abdia had an all NBA caliber season. We can, we can say that.

[B]

I was trying to ask for, I was trying to ask you guys who I should pick of those three guys.

[C]

You're not going to get me to commit to that in 30 seconds. I'd have to think about it.

[B]

Okay, that's fine. You can think about it.

[A]

What else does Stats Williams say?

[B]

Well. Oh yeah, Stats Williams Wild. All right, so as part of our discussion today, Stats Williams declared that he had a hot take. And so I said, okay, what's your hot take? And his hot take is that the Portland Trailblazers are going to win this first round series against the San Antonio spurs in six games.

[C]

He gave you permission to say this

[B]

out loud on a podcast? He gave us. He gave his permission. So here is his. Here's his elevator. I said, give me the elevator pitch on why Portland's going to win this series. So this is his pitch. To be clear, Stats Williams are our brilliant friend. This is his pitch. Obviously, they've got a bunch of very good defensive players. They could throw a lot of different looks at Victor. You've got to Mahdi Kamara, fantastic defender, Drew Holiday. They've got the two different bigs, Donovan clinging and Robert Williams. They could throw at him. I understand Donovan clinging's not hanging with Victor on the perimeter, but they've got a different options they could throw at. They shoot a ton of three pointers, not always accurately, but they get up a lot of threes. So if they get into a series and have two or three games where they go 20 for 50 from three, which is very possible, that's a lot of points. And as we've talked about the spurs, one of the questions about them going into the playoffs is how real is their three point shooting. They've got a lot of guys. They can also throw at the guards. They don't have to, so they can sort of neutralize them. And finally, you just mentioned how good Denny Avi is. He's one of the best foul drawers in the league. And if he can get Victor in any kind of foul trouble in any games of this series, that dramatically changes the complexion of the game. So there's the Stats Williams pitch on why Portland can win and why he's picking them to win the series. Okay, I've got a pitch on why I'm picking the first win they have to win.

[C]

Awesome. He's by far the best.

[B]

That's a good series. That's a good answer. That's a good answer.

[A]

Well, here's the thing. Wemby didn't play against the Blazers this year. In the three games, he missed all three. He missed the last, I think two games that they played last year because of the blood clot. He hasn't actually played against the Blazers since December of 24, which is the

[B]

other thing Matt said is it's without that, it's hard to know what the actual contours of the matchup will look like.

[C]

Well, and I am very, I'm curious to see how they'll defend Wimby because he, he's a nightmare matchup for Donovan Clingan, who is a really, really good young big, especially on the defensive end. But you know, we've talked about how Wimby like these bigs. When Wimby brings them out to the perimeter and he's raining threes, then attack and close outs, they've got to challenge the three like it's foul trouble waiting to happen.

[B]

And so I would guess, I would guess Tiago Splitter is going to do something akin to what Joe Missoula did in the past against Nikola Jokic and against Victor. I think where he would have Jrue Holiday or because of the matchups, I think Tomani Kamara or Jrue Holiday is my guess will start out on Victor Wembanyama. And I, if it was me, I would do that and I would put Donovan Klingon on Stefan Castle and I would, I would dare. Listen, Stefan Castle may go six for six. That's fine. But like I would dare him to make shots and show he's going to make shots and then adjust off of that. Because look to your point, if you put Donovan Klingon on Victor Wembanyama, that's not going to go well. So, like that's.

[C]

Yeah, it's just a really, really tough

[B]

matchup for

[C]

a big who is a great defensive anger, but not defensive anchor. But not. I wouldn't say he's fleet footed.

[A]

Let me just say now, granted, Victor averaged less than 30 minutes a game this season. And we'll watch the minutes as they go. In the playoffs, Victor averaged more blocks per game than fouls per game. Okay? He only averaged 2.4 fouls per game this year. And the reason is, is because Victor's arms are so freaking long that he can block and challenge shots without having to be near the player. And so this is.

[C]

And he can just be vertical. He doesn't have to get blocks.

[A]

He can challenge a shot from the lane. He can challenge a three from the lane. Like it's crazy, but it's true. So I'm sure that Denny will look to go into Victor to try to get foul. He looks for contact every waking second he's on the court. And that's actually one of the reasons why I think that at some times Victor could be very effective against Shea because Victor can defend Shea's get to the elbow and operate without actually having to come in contact with Shea therefore drawing fouls. Now maybe there will be ways to. You know, there's always counter counters that you can do in basketball. It's part of the game. But that is something to keep an eye on. Is that Victor, one of his great advantages is that he can, he can defend the rim without having to be physical.

[C]

And I just want to, I do want to point out the. When I say careful on the Sagov Castle plan the last three months of the season, so roughly it's roughly half the season, it's 38 games played for him. He shot 39.8% from three point range.

[A]

So the idea that their whole team after the All Star break was top five and three point percentage missed a

[B]

shot, which is part of why they went whatever it was, 32 and 2 until they lost the last game. And by the way, what happened when they played in the last game against the Denver Nuggets. They. I'm going to look up the numbers right now, but they're the reason. A big part of the reason they lost that game was with Victor out. And obviously Victor's going to play. I'm not obviously it's a different thing. He's going to draw a ton of attention. But they went 15 for 47 in that game from 3. Darren Fox went 4 for 14 from 3. Like, yes. Castle went 2 for 3. Which, like. And he might go 6 for 7, that's fine. But I would be daring Stefan Castle to make shots in the playoffs and then adjusting off it rather than assuming he's going to make shots.

[C]

I'd say a bigger reason he lost that game is because they gave up 128 points with Victor and Luke Cornett out while God bless Bismack Biombo.

[B]

But yes, that's fine.

[C]

Him and Plumly aren't what you want

[B]

to have on the floor, but they're, they're. The biggest question about the spurs going into the playoffs is their perimeter play around Victor and is it going to be good enough and are those guys going to make enough shots? Because de' Aaron Fox is not a great three point shooter. Stefan Castle, who is a great player is not a great three point shooter. Dylan Harper, who I absolutely love as a player is not a great three point shooter. So like you're gonna have to. Those guys are gonna have to prove they can make shots. Like and they, and they might make shots, you know, like that might be what happens. But I, I think if you're Portland going into the series, your way to come close to making stats is very bold. Prediction act. A winner is you've got to win the three point contest pretty heavily. And some of that's going to require de' Aaron Fox and Stefan Castle and those guys to miss shots.

[A]

All right, in the 3. 6. The Denver Nuggets, try as they might to not be the three. I mean, protect their players from injury. Sorry.

[C]

Oh, listen, don't start that. I've been chastised for suggesting that they.

[A]

Me too. Me too.

[B]

What do we say on the pod, fellas? Actions over words.

[A]

Well, they arrive after everything they've gone to. You know, Peyton Watson is still dealing with the hamstring, but they arrive mostly healthy. Most important, Aaron Gordon is healthy. The Wolves arrive with their team was banged up late. Jaden McDaniels, Ant and Edwards. We'll see exactly how healthy Ant is. You know, Ant has been bionic, but he has had this knee thing that, this swelling thing in his knee that he's had trouble getting rid of. And you know, earlier this year he, you know, he's never missed. I feel like he's missed more games this year than his whole career combined. The guy never missed games, so we know it's bothering him, but still, he's a difference making force. I looked this up two years ago when the Wolves upset the Nuggets. In seven games, Jokic averaged just a little bit under four assists more per game in the wins and the losses. He averaged about 10 assists in the wins and a little over 6 assists in the losses. The Wolves game plan at that time was to defend Jokic's pass. They put Carl Towns, I mean, obviously there was different rotations and what have you, but their basic strategy was put Carl Towns onto Jokic and have Rudy Gobert play center field to defend that pass. And then the games where they were able to make him a passion, a passer or keep him or make him a scorer. They had success in Game 6, which Minnesota won. Jokic had two assists. In Game 7, which Denver obviously made the blue the big lead on, he had seven assists and I think only had one or two in the second half. So that will be, I assume, the game plan again. I, I guess we're going to see maybe Julius Randle.

[C]

It'll have to be Randall and, and you know, talk about a massive challenge for Randall, who is a big, strong, physical guy, but cat's 7ft tall. Julius Randall, 6, 9. That's a pretty massive difference, especially with Joker's ability just to turn around and knock down shots over guys. And I think the other big development for Denver Offensively since then when you talk about taking away Joker's pass, you're really specifically talking about with Rudy and that center field role being able to take away the lob or the, the dump off to to Aaron Gordon coming out of the dunker spot or cutting. Gordon since then has developed into a 40/3 point, 40/3 point shooter over the last couple years. His injury interrupted as they are. So you know we talked about who was the big shot that. Oh, it's the big shot against the spurs that Gordon hit where he's in the dunker and he reads it and the space that was available was backing out to the corner three and boom. So that just adds a whole new element for the Denver offense and for just that chemistry between Gordon and Joker.

[A]

Yeah. Also the other way, the other way around in that series I pretty much think that Denver just didn't really guard Jaden McDaniels. Jaden McDaniels had a 41% season from three point range last year. He shot 33%. So you know when you talk about Steph Castle a minute ago, well, you know, you see who you leave open. Maybe you can't leave Aaron Gordon open and maybe you can't leave Jaden McDaniels open either. Like.

[C]

Well and you know the spurs in that game left Christian Brown open and he made him pay for it.

[B]

Yep.

[C]

So Christian Brown is not a high volume three point shooter but he got a bunch of, you know, invitation threes and he stepped into him was knocking them down.

[A]

All right, the 4, 5 is Lakers, Rockets. I think if I'm going to say that the, that the Hawks are something more than a six, I have to say that maybe the Lakers are something less than a four.

[C]

That's consideration for sure.

[B]

I mean without, I mean come on,

[C]

points and 15 assists or whatever. Sit on the bench.

[A]

Yeah. So the Lakers, the word I've been using for what they need to do is they need to extend. They need to extend the games and extend the series so that you can

[B]

same situation the Sixers are in. Just try to keep it around as long as possible and hope you can get your guys back at some point.

[A]

Well, the games themselves. You want to make the Rockets play in the fourth quarter?

[C]

That too.

[B]

Yes. Get to clutch time with the Rockets and you like your chances.

[C]

If you can keep it close, it gives you a chance to steal games and extend the series. The league office has done all they could do. You've got two days, two full days.

[B]

Explain what. Yeah, I was going to say Explain what you mean by.

[C]

I mean, there's some real recovery time and extending the series in terms of days between games, some recovery time for LeBron and Katie, for that matter. Katie's not a spring chicken, but it's a Saturday, Tuesday, Friday for the first three games.

[B]

Series starts on the first day it can start. It ends on the last day it can end. So it's extended out as long as it possibly can.

[C]

Yeah, Saturday, Tuesday, Friday, Sunday, then from Sunday to a Wednesday. I mean, they. They really. There's some. And then, I don't know, Ken Luca.

[A]

And it is common for there to be the first round drawn out, but this is, you know, this is.

[B]

It's. Listen, it's. We're just calling us. We're just calling it like it is. It's drawn out as far as it possibly can be. It's got an extra two days in the schedule. They, you know, it is what it is. Like, doesn't. That doesn't mean it's some grand conspiracy.

[A]

Yeah, and I would just say that the 45 is always going to start on Saturday because the. They.

[B]

I don't know if that's always necessarily

[C]

the case, but do you know what other series has some rest time built in? OKC's got a Sunday, Wednesday, Saturday. And I appreciate that because I will be going home for one night as a series shifts. Now, who might the. Who might the Thunder be playing in the first round? A team with some older fellers that are the Warriors. Oh, okay. Just saying. It is what it is.

[A]

The first round covers three weekends and they want the games on the weekend. So as a result, the first round is always drawn out. Maybe there's an extra day in there and frankly, you need the rest in the back of the series more than you needed in the front.

[B]

I mean. Yeah, I mean, that's fine. The fact of the matter is it could be two days shorter than it is, so it's not.

[A]

It definitely is mildly favoring the Lakers. I do not think that they purposely did.

[B]

Doesn't matter. It's just whether they did it or whether they meant to or not. They did. And it.

[C]

My point is there's rest and recovery time.

[B]

That's right.

[C]

The longer it goes, the better the Lakers odds.

[B]

Yes, that's right.

[C]

To get one or both of their stars back. And the. The rest days early in the series. You know, LeBron's got, at 41 years old, just a massive load like Marcus Smarts, their secondary playmaker, or Luke Canard, a guy who's never been in that role. I don't know, maybe since high school, I don't know.

[B]

I mean he can make, he can handle the ball a little bit, but I mean look, they need LeBron James,

[C]

Thompson and Tori Easton.

[B]

Well, well, and that's the thing. To me, it's not Only the need LeBron James to have a throwback few games to keep them afloat until they get potentially some of these, either Austin and, or Luka back. There's. There are few players in the league better equipped to guard LeBron James than a men Thompson and he's 20 years younger than him. So that, that is a awfully big challenge to not only have to do this, but doing it against one of the biggest and strongest perimeter defenders in the league, that is a, that's going to be a real challenge. And the only way the Lakers can be competitive is if he can win that matchup until those guys get back. And that's I think an open question.

[C]

Well, here's the thing. Yep, go ahead.

[A]

Something to point out for the Rockets and I don't want, I don't want to change this topic, but I want to point something out for the Rockets. So go ahead, McMahon.

[C]

No, I was just going to say they also need Deandre Ayton to deliver big time. And I like 41 year old LeBron's odds of having a big time playoff series much more than.

[A]

Yeah, this is what jj this is what JJ said. He said that we are two most important things we have to do in this series. One, rebound. Two, box out. I'm like, well that's not the same thing. Like, like they're related. Number one is the most important thing is rebounding. Number two most important thing is rebounding. And that is targeted at eight. And one of the things that you need to do to extend a game is to not give up so many offensive rebounds. That's basic analysis, especially against that team. After the All Star break, reed shepherd averaged 15 points on 40% 3 point shooting average, almost 5 more minutes a game started 15 games. So Reed shepherd, you know the Lakers, when he's out there, the Lakers have to try to target him defensively. Yeah, but it's harder, it's harder to target Shangun and Reed shepherd out there when you're missing two of your three best offensive players.

[C]

And I'm fascinated to see if there are games that are close down the stretch if Reed Shepherd's on the floor to close and you know, he may as has made it clear that's a case by case, you know feel type of situation in terms of his decision making. But you remember the Rockets had that clutch meltdown where KD basically I probably just got to get off the ball. Like we're really not handling the traps at half court against me. Well number one, Shingoon didn't play in that game. Two, you know Shepard, that's when pretty soon after that's when Reed got some run in the starting lineup and and you know there are some closing situations like the game against the Heat where he was the primary initiator and Katie played in the corner and you know knocked down a couple of big corner threes.

[A]

Okay, well I think we're ready. I think we're ready.

[B]

Did you guys be a fun weekend?

[A]

Yeah. Did you guys make. I know McMahon, you've opted out of making predictions.

[C]

No, I just don't predict the series that I cover.

[A]

Oh, okay. Do you want to reveal the predictions

[C]

that you although I did kind of say I thought OKC might win this one.

[A]

Did you bond temps? Did you opt out like I do?

[B]

I haven't sent them in but I'm trying to think.

[C]

Just got an email from the editors.

[B]

Celtics the top four seeds in the East I think all win and then the only one that's really I mean I guess Houston's the five seed but Houston should certainly beat the Lakers pretty handily and then I'm going to pick Denver probably to win at seven if and is healthy. I, I think that's a toss up series. I'll, I'll give Denver the edge but you know certainly not a big certainly a nice psychological boost for the Wolves to go into that series at least whether it's whether Denver wants to admit it or not feeling like they were running away from them.

[C]

Do you have Portland beaten San Antonio in five or six?

[B]

I, I, I love I, I love my guy stats when he's death but I will let him have that hot take.

[A]

It's all funny games go up 1 0. I'm just going to say that hey

[B]

spurs have not the spurs have had no adversity. Here's the only thing I'll say about the spurs playoff run. It's going to be amazing to watch Victor in the playoffs. See how this goes. The spurs have had no adversity all season. They've basically I mean I don't make Victors miss a little time but they've, they've basically been healthy. They've been in cruise control for months. There'd been no pressure on him really first time there's any kind of pressure on them is that last game of the regular season against half the Nuggets. They couldn't win the game. They didn't shoot the ball great. They didn't play well. It will be interesting whether it's in the first round or against Denver Minnesota in the second round when they do get punched in the mouth. How do they respond? Not saying they won't respond, but it has been a charmed life they've had. And that's part of this whole thing is seeing how young teams respond to that. It's part of what makes the next couple of months so awesome. So DraftKings going to be a lot of fun.

[A]

We'll give you 10 to 1 in your money if you let the Blazers to win the series.

[B]

Ten to one, that's all.

[C]

If you win, you got to give

[A]

stats a cut plus 1001.

[B]

I mean, no, I'm saying I'm surprised it's not higher than that.

[A]

Maybe. Maybe the computer thinks along the lines of stats. Williams. I don't know.

[B]

I don't know. We'll see.

[A]

Is that right, Jackson? It's plus 1,000. That's 10 to 1, right?

[B]

Yes.

[A]

You got it.

[B]

That is 10 to 1.

[A]

All right.

[C]

You screw up various betting things, but that one you've got, right?

[A]

I screw up various things in general. Snake IO Dasumu's last name. All right.

[C]

Oh, look at you showing off now.

[A]

For now. This is like when I play golf. Everything's good on the range and I'm sometimes the first tee but then goes to hell.

[C]

Listen, I've seen you putt. Pretty impressive.

[A]

Yeah, I do. I can putt. All right. With that, we usher in the beginning of the playoffs. We will be talking to you after all the game ones on Monday, Sunday night. And thank you to Tucker and Jackson and John who are producing this. And thank you to McMahon and Bontemps and thank you for listening and watching.

[C]

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