The 2nd Annual "NBA Playoffs Total Points Draft" w/ Steve Ceruti of The Ryen Russillo Show

Summary

Green With Envy: A Boston Celtics Podcast

The 2nd Annual "NBA Playoffs Total Points Draft" w/ Steve Ceruti

Date: April 17, 2026
Host: Will Weir & Greg Banakis (Green With Envy)
Guest: Steve Ceruti (The Ryen Russillo Show)

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Episode Overview

This special episode marks the highly anticipated return of the NBA playoffs and the second annual "NBA Playoffs Total Points Draft." Will and Greg are joined by Steve Ceruti of The Ryen Russillo Show for a deep, lively, and stats-driven preview of the postseason. The episode features both Celtics-specific playoff talk—centered around the opening Celtics-76ers series—and a comprehensive draft where hosts and guest take turns picking NBA players they believe will score the most cumulative points this postseason.

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Episode Structure

1. Opening Banter & Playoff Anticipation ([01:04]-[04:06])
2. Celtics-Sixers First Round Mini Preview ([04:06]-[14:05])
3. Orlando Magic Postmortem & Offseason Concerns ([05:49]-[13:28])
4. NBA Playoffs Total Points Draft ([17:02]-[64:34])
5. NBA Finals Predictions ([65:08]-[68:55])

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Key Discussion Points & Memorable Segments

1. Celtics Playoff Energy & Parental Struggles

Timestamps: [02:40]-[04:06]

• Will and Greg reflect on the excitement and sacrifices of playoff season, particularly dad duties taking a back seat.
• Quote (Greg Banakis, 02:40): “How have you been, like slow rolling the lack of attention you’re going to be able to pay to Lorena and Mariana with the playoffs coming in? I don’t know how to break it to Danielle that I’m just not going to be as present the next two months.”
• Steve Ceruti shares his home routine: “I told her this on Wednesday during the first plan: 'Hey, you’re probably gonna have to do like the bath duties tonight because I’m checking out a little earlier here on the east coast…'" ([04:06])

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2. Orlando Magic Season Postmortem

Timestamps: [05:49]-[13:28]

• Ceruti vents about the Magic’s offensive struggles, stagnation under Mosley, and how the season “needs to be put out of its misery.”
  • “Nobody hates the Magic, I think, right now more than Magic fans themselves.” ([07:38])
• Debates about Magic’s future core—Desmond Bane is the only “untouchable,” Wendell Carter Jr. experiment is likely over, and doubts about guard fit.
  • “Desmond Bane is one. That’s why people want to make fun of that trade. … The rest of the team basically, and the coaching staff just did not…” ([09:08])
• Speculation on whether to break up Paolo and Franz.
  • “I would slightly say I would keep Franz and trade Paulo, mostly because … you’d probably get more back.” ([12:19])

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3. Celtics-Sixers First Round Preview

Timestamps: [13:28]-[16:24]

• Universal lack of fear for the Sixers matchup.
  • Ceruti: “I just can’t… I don’t know that Joe Mazzulla will allow this team … to take their foot off the pedal. ... The Sixers, I mean, I love Maxey and I love Edgecomb … but beyond that...” ([14:05])
• Greg on Sixers fan apathy:
  • “A buddy of mine who’s a die-hard Philly fan... he goes, ‘Well, I got Celtics in five.’ I was like, okay, then what are we betting on?” ([15:18])
• Hosts project a “gentleman’s sweep”—maybe Sixers win a game if Maxey or Edgecomb go off.

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4. NBA Playoff Total Points Draft — Rules & Strategy

Timestamps: [17:02]-[18:43]

• Rule Explanation (Greg, 17:02): Draft players who will score the most cumulative points in the playoffs; key factors are individual scoring plus expected playoff longevity.
• Ceruti: “It’s weird because you’re … if you think a team is, like, good, but also know they’re going to be in like a seven, six or seven-game series, that also helps...” ([18:16])

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5. Draft Highlights, Player Debates, and Mini-Team Previews

Timestamps: [18:49]-[64:34]

Early Picks & Reasoning

• First Pick: SGA (Ceruti): “He’s awesome. … They're probably going to be in the conference final.” ([18:49])
• Jokic: (Will): Betting on deep runs plus consistent production, risk if Nuggets lose early but expects "two six or seven-game series." ([23:34])
• Cade Cunningham: (Greg): “I think they’re guaranteed to be in the Eastern Conference finals … 12 games minimum out of Cade.” ([24:45])
• Jalen Brown: (Ceruti): “If I get SGA and Jalen in the finals playing each other, I feel like I’ll win this thing.” ([26:21])
• Intensive debate on Jalen Brown’s All-NBA candidacy, season consistency, and evolution into a paint-attacking metronome ([27:08]-[29:29]).
• Jalen Brunson: (Will): “He always seems to turn up his scoring a little bit because it’s so, so needed from the Knicks…” ([31:15])
• Ceruti on the Knicks: “I’m not as scared of the Knicks as you guys are… I think the hierarchy is... third.” ([31:41])
• Wemby: (Greg): “In the finals, what do I have to say about Victor Wembanyama…” ([32:40])

Mid- to Late-Round Draft Nuances

• Long-term “second bananas” like J-Dub, Jamal Murray, and Duren selected based on projected team longevity and secondary scoring roles ([41:06]-[48:11]).
• Ceruti and hosts debate between upside scorers at risk of early elimination versus more modest scoring “locks” for multiple rounds.
• Banter about the “All-Jalen” NBA team as a meme running throughout the draft ([41:14]-[42:07]).
• Luka Doncic Question Mark: Greg takes a flyer on Luka returning mid-series ([52:15]).
• Spurs choices: Castle and Fox selected as next-man-up behind Wemby ([54:16]-[55:48]).
• Homer picks: Celtic’s Derrick White and Peyton Pritchard—highlighting Derrick White's clutch shooting and Pritchard's playoff readiness ([56:33]-[59:16]).
• LeBron James Drops Far: Ceruti takes LeBron with pick 22, highlighting the era shift ([57:22]).

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6. Finals Picks & Analysis

Timestamps: [65:08]-[68:55]

• Ceruti: “I think it’s OKC over Boston and… that would be a good finals. … How good is Tatum looks is probably the ceiling on that team.”
• Greg: “This year just feels magical. ... [It’s] the movie rights itself.” (Goes Celtics vs Thunder)
• Will: “I'm gonna go Celtics-Spurs. ... If J-Dub doesn't show up, it's not written in stone for OKC.” ([66:58])

Each lays out rationale based on bracket structure, team weaknesses, and narrative momentum.

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Notable Quotes

• Ceruti on Magic’s Flawed Offense:
  • “Nobody hates the Magic right now more than Magic fans themselves.” ([07:38])
• Ceruti on Playoff Points Draft Strategy:
  • “If you think a team is, like, good, but also know they’re going to be in like a seven, six or seven-game series, that also helps…” ([18:16])
• Will on Celtics’ Current Depth:
  • “I love how when people talk about the Celtics right now, they don’t even talk about Tatum and Brown. They mention guys like Garza.” ([15:18])
• Greg on Jalen Brown’s Growth:
  • “He was like a metronome this year, man, just, like, super consistent. … He averaged career high in drives. He was in the paint 19 times a game.” ([28:18])

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Celtics Playoff Dad Struggles: [02:40]-[04:06]
• Magical Season Postmortem: [05:49]-[13:28]
• Celtics-Sixers Preview: [13:28]-[16:24]
• Draft Rules & Setup: [17:02]-[18:43]
• Kickoff of NBA Playoff Total Points Draft: [18:49]-[64:34]
• Finals Picks: [65:08]-[68:55]

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Tone & Atmosphere

• Energetic, banter-filled, often humorous
• Deeply analytical but playful when discussing picks and scenarios (“long-term second banana” meta, “All-Jalen” jokes)
• Openly self-deprecating—no one hides their biases, and “homer” picks are acknowledged with pride
• Collegial, highly informed, great rapport with guest Steve Ceruti

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For New Listeners

What You'll Learn:
You’ll walk away with a deeper understanding of how playoff scoring cumulatively shapes perception, which stars and role players are poised for big postseasons, insight into Celtics-Sixers dynamics, and a range of draft strategies in a fun, fantasy-inspired setting.

Best Moments:

• Steve Ceruti’s passionate Magic rant
• The running “Jalen” joke
• Drafting LeBron James 22nd overall, symbolizing the NBA's changing of the guard
• Each panelist’s rapid-fire pick justifications in the snake draft

If You Only Have 10 Minutes, Jump to:

• Celtics-Sixers preview for the instant playoff landscape assessment ([13:28]-[16:24])
• Opening draft picks for top-tier playoff player analysis ([18:49]-[24:45])
• Finals predictions to get the hosts’ “on-record” takes ([65:08]-[68:55])

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For a full play-by-play reference, check the individual timestamps above for direct context, debate, and highly memorable moments throughout one of the most fun and insightful NBA playoff podcasts to kick off the 2026 postseason.

Transcript

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[Greg Banakis]

This is Mike Gorman and you're listening

[Steve Ceruti]

to Green with Envy with Will and Greg.

[Mike Gorman]

All right, everybody, the first round is set for your Boston Celtics. It is the Celtics and the Sixers in the first round. We'll give you a mini preview of that series which tips off on Sunday the matinee on abc. That will be game one. But on today's show, we're going to go even deeper into the playoffs as a whole. We're bringing it back, our NBA playoff player points draft. Don't worry, we're going to give you a refresher. We're going to break it down. It's our second annual playoff player points draft and to help us get through all of it, we get a special guest here, Steve Ceru. The Ryan Marcillo show is here. It's enough messing around. You guys know the deal. This is Green with Envy. Let's lock in. What up, what up, what up? Welcome into another edition of Greenwith Envy, a return to the playoffs edition. We're back again. It is the best time of the year as always. Boy. Will, we're checking in. How you doing? How you living? Joining me as he does each and every time, my best friend, co host and the coach of our podcast, the one and only Greg Banakis. Greg, another NBA playoff season. We've got one more play in game or two more playing games, one for each conference to be settled tonight. We're recording this here on Friday afternoon and then starting tomorrow, it goes down the best two months of the year, at least in my humble opinion. Greg. I'm Excited for it. I hope you are too, dude.

[Greg Banakis]

I'm pumped. How have you been, like slow rolling. The lack of, lack of attention you're going to be able to pay to Lorena and Mariana with the playoffs coming in. I don't know how to break it to Danielle that I'm just not going to be as present the next two months.

[Mike Gorman]

Well, it's a tricky spot because these first two weeks I've got baby girl's first birthday next weekend and we're doing a pre birthday tomorrow out here. I'm, I'm in, I'm in West Texas right now recording this. So we've got kind of back to back birthday weekend. So it's, it's a bit of a slow rollout but I think if I can, you know, and here's the thing, we're going to bring our guy, our guest in here in just a second. We're talking a little bit about the Celtics first round opponent. least from that vantage point. I don't imagine the Celtics having a tough time with the Sixers. I think I'm set up pretty good to be 80% of a good father for the next two weekends and then it's going to start to decline from there. But I think I'm set up to give as a pretty solid close to 100 effort for the next two weeks and then we'll start to see the decline. So you're 80.

[Greg Banakis]

You're 80 is better than a lot of people's 100. So you're good.

[Mike Gorman]

Thank you, man. I appreciate that. I appreciate that. And you know, I, I think with that let's welcome in a guy here that we've actually talked to speaking of good dads a couple of times. Speaking of good dads, joining us right now from the Ryan Rosillo show, we've got our guy Ceruti, AKA Steve, here to join us and talk a little bit of playoff basketball. What's going on, man? Happy to have you back on the show.

[Steve Ceruti]

Yeah, thanks for having me, boys. Yeah, I just, you know, my, my, I guess advice would be, I've told my wife, I mean the magic you're playing tonight as we're recording this on a Friday. And I told her this on Wednesday during the first plan. Like, hey, you're probably gonna have to do like the bath duties tonight because I'm checking out a little earlier here on the east coast because that's 7:30 bedtimes at like 8, 8:30. So I'll do it on the off nights and you do it on the game nights. And we're. We're good to go. So that's a little. It's, you know, it's 50.

[Mike Gorman]

50.

[Steve Ceruti]

You gotta. You gotta split the parenting in half. So she understands that at least my team's probably get knocked out tonight. So, I mean, people will listen to this and probably know the answer already. So it might not be a problem for me, but that's what I do.

[Mike Gorman]

So we'll get to the Magic here in just a second. But one last parenting thing. So one. One somewhat. Let's put it in air quotes. Hack that Greg and I have. Have used. And Greg, I did steal this. This from you is trying to get bedtime and. Or bath time, whatever we can do out of the way and kind of thank God for like the NBA league pass where you can just kind of skip up and catch up to a game. Do you ever use that strategy, Ceruti? Because there is some games where it's like you kind of got to be in live time for it, but then there's obviously certain times where you can use this feature to your advantage.

[Steve Ceruti]

I did it last night. What was I. I'm trying to think of. Actually, I did. I did the Magic game two nights ago on Wednesday night. But, like, only for, you know, emergency. Like, hey, 60. I got 60 seconds here and then I'll fast forward. But yeah, because I like to, you know, you like to keep up with what Twitter's got going on. I hate that I do that, but I do do that because, you know, I want to know what other people think about certain things. And obviously that there was, like, the prime, like, Paulo sucks situation going on there. So I wanted to see what people were saying. But I do. I try not to use the PA button, because I do. I'm with you. I just. If you. If you're not watching it real time, like, we're still doing this. He'll go back and watch games. But it's one thing if it's like a random Wednesday night during the regular season. You kind of. I don't like doing that during the playoffs.

[Mike Gorman]

Oh, yeah. It makes it a little bit tougher. I'm. I'm with you on that, but let's. Let's unfortunately use that to transition and talk about the Magic. So last time Greg and I podcasted was right after Celtics Magic last Sunday. Disappointing to say the least, for the Orlando Magic playing the main Celtics and not being able to at least give themselves a chance at staying out of the play in they obviously then lose to the Sixers. So now Celtics are set up against the Sixers. Let's just start. Where are your thoughts right now with the Magic security. They're playing tonight. Do you. I think I listened to the last show you did with, with Ryan. Unless you guys dropped one today, I haven't missed. I think you just said straight up, I kind of want the season to be over. Do you feel the same way this morning going into this game against Charlotte where I also kind of imagine most people are probably rooting for a Charlotte Detroit matchup versus an Orlando Detroit matchup in the first round.

[Steve Ceruti]

I don't blame anybody for. I, I, you know, as a, if you're a neutral, like, there's no reason why you would want to watch a Magic basketball game today. It's not like I'm not going to be rooting for them tonight, but I, I just kind of feel like if they, first off, the Hornets are just better than them. They've been better than for, for months now. They have. They're three in one against them this season. Some of those are about Franz, but Franz isn't even fully healthy right now. So I don't even know that it matters. Like, it just is what it is. And I, I did, I did sort of feel like the we did the funeral episode a little bit on the Magic on after Wednesday's game because I just figured if they didn't win that game, I just didn't. I know this game's at home. I didn't think they were going to win this game tonight against the Hornets. So I don't know. They're just a, they're just a horrible watch. Honestly. Like, as bad as it is for the neutral to be like, this is what you, like, how is this offense this bad? Like, why is Paula bricking like, you know, 15 footers left and right? Like, why are they not running any offense whatsoever? Why is Desmond Bain the best three point shooter they have and one of the best in the league, only taking two threes in the first like three quarters? Like, these things. Like, listen, this is the stuff Magic fans have been watching all year. Nobody hates the Magic, I think right now more than Magic fans themselves. So you can't really say anything to us that we don't already or haven't already said to ourselves. It just, this season just feels like it needs to be put out of its misery. And I'm not like, hey, this team is screwed going forward. Like, they're gonna fire Mosley. It's not all his fault. But I also think, like, after three years, if your offense is still this bad and clearly the team doesn't bind anymore. Like, they just, we just, you got to make a change. So I'm, I'm still optimistic about like, the long term future. Although I, I wouldn't, I'd be lying to you if I wasn't worried, if I told you I wasn't worried about Paulo, but I'm still optimistic about the long term future. But this season itself, like, they've got nothing left. That Celtics game, I, I, I, I, I think I tweeted out like, like a tombstone two months ago that the season was over, but it officially died that night. Like, I mean that partially. The good thing about losing to the Sixers is that they were going to get clapped against the, the Celtics anyway, so. And honestly, the Sixers probably get clapped either way too. But like, you sort of avoid the embarrassment of probably losing four games by 20 to the Celtics. So I guess there's a little bit of a win there. But this Magic season, it's been as bad as any season I can remember of, of any team I've ever rooted for, probably because of the expectations, but I'm ready for it to be over and for us to kind of find a new path.

[Greg Banakis]

Yeah, nobody's showing up to that cemetery anymore, man. That tombstone is not being visited. There are no flowers, there's no candy. There's nothing memorializing this season for the Magic. If you real quick, if you had to power rank the dudes that you want to keep going into the off season, what would the power rankings be?

[Steve Ceruti]

Desmond Bain is one. That's why, like, that's why people want to make fun of that trade. Desolate Payne was the Magic's best player by a mile this season. And that's, that's kind of embarrassing. I always like that trade. I, I thought it was the right time to pull the trigger. He was the right guy to pull the trigger on. And he lived up to every single end of the bargain from his end. The rest of the team basically, and the coaching staff just did not like. I was like joking with some buddies. Like, if he wanted to ask for a trade this off season, I wouldn't blame him. So he's, he's one. I, I'm not gonna rank. I guess ranking them would be hard. I don't, there's really nobody that I've given up on. I think, I think Wendell, The Wendell Carter Jr. Experiment has kind of run its course. I think they need to find a new center situation. Go. Gets kind of in that group as well. You know, the. The difficult thing for the Magic is are you traded and obviously have. Are paying Bane a lot of money. He's not going anywhere. You just pay Jalen Suggs, and now you're likely. If not this summer, not probably not this summer. But you're gonna have to pay Anthony Black at some point, too, who did have a really. A really nice year. Can the three of those guys, none of whom are actual point guards, like, can you. Can you build a good team around three guards who. None of them could really run an offense? So that's probably. I. One of those guys. I think it's not gonna be banned. So one of those guys is probably gonna be the odd man out. I don't know if it'll be this summer, but at least at some point.

[Mike Gorman]

Yeah, it's interesting, man. I held out a lot of hope thinking that. And I have a lot of Paulo stock. I. I think it was two years ago, Greg, that I said, I think Paolo is going to be better than Anthony Edwards. That take isn't. Isn't. Isn't aging super 2 years ago now,

[Greg Banakis]

but it was last season.

[Mike Gorman]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It didn't age super well. It's not. It's not doing great. And I did think for a while there was some pretty strong connections between, you know, the Jalen Brown, Jason Tatum, when are we going to break him up? Can these guys work together? And in my mind, it was like, well, friends and Paolo are kind of like a similar. They're slightly different, not exact comps, but there's like, a similarity there. Now it. It does kind of feel like we're getting to that breaking point with them where maybe it is just better to. To break these guys up. If you had to keep one, who would you keep?

[Steve Ceruti]

Oh, man.

[Greg Banakis]

Because he's making you pick, dude. He's making a pick. You just tried to avoid it.

[Steve Ceruti]

I'm not gonna cop out. I'm not gonna cop out. I'll give you an answer. I will say they barely played together this year, though. That, like, I don't.

[Mike Gorman]

I don't understand, like, last two years, kind of. They always got, like, alternatives. Yeah.

[Steve Ceruti]

The last two years, basically, those three guys have just not played a ton together. And when they have. Statistically, when they have played together, it's been good. So I. So I. I don't. And the other thing, too, is, like, if you're going to bring in a new coach, there's no way the coach is going to be like, all right, trade one of The. They're going to want to see what they have and be able to figure it out, because likely, if you're trading one of those guys, you're not. You're not. You're losing. You're likely losing the trade in some way or shape or form. Oh, man, that's. I. I will say this. I. I'm not. I'm not out on Paulo, but this season, and I said this on Ryan's pod of, like, it just feels like he's been in a bad mood for eight months. And you know when your coaching is bad and you're like, feel like you're beating your. Your head against the wall, like, I get why that can be frustrating, but if you're like, the star player and the leader of a franchise who just got a max contract, like, you kind of can't do that. You got to be bigger than that.

[Mike Gorman]

And

[Steve Ceruti]

I think the team likes playing with Franz better. I think the team likes the like because. Because there's. There's two contrasting styles. When. When Franz is the lead guy, they run and they like to run, and Suggs runs and Anthony Black runs and. And they actually tried to. I think that was one of the things Molesy wanted to do more this year was running and. And. And not be as slow on offense. Although it's odd because most of the good teams this year have been slower on offense, so they, like, are zagging at the exact wrong time. So I would slightly say I would keep Franz and trade Paulo, mostly because, like, if. If you told me this summer, like, this has been floated by a lot of people, I don't even know if it's realistic at all, but, like, if you could trade Paulo for Giannis, I would do that. Yeah, if you could trade. Yeah, if you could trade Paulo for the number one pick. I just think Paolo probably has maybe. Although the contract is bad, but if you could trade Paul, you'd probably get more back. So I think I would say I would trade Paulo, but I. I don't want to trade either of them. Like, I at least want to give it another try, another full season with a new head coach. Say you bring in, like, Taylor Jenkins or somebody like that. Before, I was like, hey, this thing has to be blown up because I. I don't think it's impossible for them to play together. I just think they haven't been healthy. And then the easy thing to say is, oh, they can't play together because they haven't had success.

[Mike Gorman]

Yeah. Real quick, before we get into our playoff player points Draft here, which Greg is going to give us a recap on how we're gonna go back and go this. Just want to talk quickly. Celtic Sixers. I heard you say the other day Seruti, like part of losing to the Sixers was the Sixers suck. Those stinks is the Sixers suck. So I, I'm gonna, I'm gonna go ahead and venture to get here. You don't give them much of a shot and I spent much of my flight that I was on yesterday trying to find an angle to even be like, well, and there just really isn't one. But, but just give us some of your quick thoughts on. On Celtics Sixers. Here we go. Which tips off on, on Sunday for game one.

[Steve Ceruti]

I mean I don't know what the odds are for a sweep, but I like, I just, I just can't. I don't know that Joe Missoula like will allow this team, you guys know this to like take their foot off the pedal. And the Sixers, I mean I love Maxi and I love Edgecomb and I, you know, I love some of their role players. I've always kind of like been an uber guy even though I don't know that I could trust him fully. But beyond that, like, you know, Paul George was good in that magic game, but I don't know that I like like him necessarily. I mean who knows on the Embiid thing if I, if I'm the Sixers like and you're down two zero and it's the third quarter and you're down in game three too and like what's the point of playing and beat like I, you. I don't. That just feels like it would be detrimental to him. The season's over at that point really. So I, that team to me is if Maxi just has like a wild game, sure, like maybe they can be competitive and steal one. But that's like, that's asking a lot. I just think the Celtics team is such a, you know, again, I'm telling you guys something you already know. They're such a fine tuned machine and they don't have letdown down moments at all. And they've got you know, like Shireman's now all of a sudden like a dude. Like they've got these dudes Garza like even their backups are, are probably just as good as if not better than the Sixers team and they're hungry. So I, I can't see that series.

[Greg Banakis]

I just, I love how when people talk about the Celtics right now, they don't Even talk about Tatum and Brown. They mention guys like Garza. It's just so great. It's so cool to see. Yeah, man. I think, you know, the, the best way I can put this series is I, I work with a buddy of mine who's a die hard Philly fan, loves all Philly sports. And he, he goes to me the other day, he's like, hey, do you want to bet on the series? And I was like, yeah, let's, let's bet on it. What, what are you thinking? He goes, well, I got Celtics in five. I was like, okay, then what are we, what are we betting on? You bet like, Celtics are Celtics four.

[Mike Gorman]

That's it. That's another option. Celtics in four for you.

[Greg Banakis]

So if Sixers fans feel that way, like, I shouldn't be stressed, and I'm a little bit more stressed just because the Sixers, I, we played them three times in the first two months of the season, obviously all without Tatum, all before we like really got hot and they played us really tough. The last time we played them, I think we beat them by 15 or something like that. But yeah, I, I, I am concerned just because I saw Edgecomb, like, be the best athlete on the court against us in a couple of games and Max, great. But yeah, I don't think they have enough for us.

[Mike Gorman]

No, they'll get one. I, I think this is a gentleman sweep waiting to happen. They'll get one. Whether it's at home, Maxi goes nuts, Edgecomb does something crazy. I think that's kind of it. But there's no pathway here to a long series, I don't think, in my opinion. But let's transition here, guys. And Greg, let's set up the playoff player points draft. We did this last year for those of you that may remember. And then, of course, my daughter was born midway through the playoffs and I didn't get to see it all the way through. So round two, second annual, really the first complete time that we're going to go through all the way with this NBA playoff player points draft. So Greg set it up for us here of how this is, how this is all going to work.

[Greg Banakis]

All right, first of all, shout out to my guy, Brett Hazard and his crew for this is something that they do together as a group. And last year he was just like, hey, you guys should do this on the pod. This is pretty fun. I think it was tracking to be fun before Will had to be a good dad. As I said, you know, Will's 80% is better than a lot of people's 100%. So basically, the way that people will visit that tomb soon, I guarantee. All right. With the. The playoff total point draft, basically all. The best way to think about it is you're choosing guys that you think will be in the playoffs the longest, because those are the guys that historically have score the most points in the playoffs. So, for example, I think last year the number one guy was Jalen Brunson. They made it to the Eastern Conference. They made it to the Eastern Conference finals. They were in a lot of long series. So that, you know, the total number of that Jalen Brunson played despite not making it to the finals was still similar to some other guys like Shay, who maybe had short series earlier on in the playoffs. Right. So you're. You're trying to factor in which guys do you think will score the most points, will play the most games in the playoffs? And likely through this exercise, we're going to talk about the teams that we think will be there in the. In the long run. Does that make sense?

[Steve Ceruti]

I think so, yeah. I mean, you. It's weird because you're all. You're. If you think a team is, like, good, but also know they're going to be in like a seven, six or seven game series, that also helps, too. So, like, it's almost like, it's like teams that are good enough but not great to, like, play enough games too, because you could still lose in the conference finals and play a ton more games than, say, the Thunder, who just, like, sweep their way to the conference finals.

[Greg Banakis]

Exactly. Yeah. It's fun. You got to do some. Got to do some quick math in your head.

[Steve Ceruti]

Yeah.

[Greg Banakis]

Yeah. All right. So with that, Ceruti, since you're the guest man, we'll give you first pick.

[Steve Ceruti]

Well, there's only one pick, so I appreciate this. I mean, it's. It's sga, right? You know, he's awesome. They're probably gonna. They're. They're gonna be in the conference final. Whether or not you think that Wemby and the spurs are capable of. Of repeating their regular season success in that conference final series, you know, that's fine, but, you know, SGA is going to probably average, like, close to 30 a game for this. The only thing is, like, again, they're probably going to sweep just the way the brackets fanned out. Like, they could literally sweep in round one and then potentially sweep the Rockets in round two. So maybe that's. Maybe that isn't the right pick. If you think, like, hey, like, there could Be somebody else. A little bit better out there, but it's a safe pick. I'll take sga.

[Greg Banakis]

Yeah, man. SGA is like the tortoise in the hare, right? He might not get off to, like, a super fast start in terms of the first couple of rounds just because they might sweep the first couple of rounds. But long term, you're just betting on him being at the finish line before everybody else. So I think that's a pretty good pick. What. What were your thoughts on Luca and Cade being eligible for. For awards? Does that change your MVP pick at all?

[Steve Ceruti]

No, I think I'm glad that they did that. I. I, like most don't like. I understand the reasoning behind the rule, but I don't like it because, like, Cade, you know, it's not judging. Intent is hard. Like, he got legitimately hurt, but he deserves to be recognized. And when you look back in the history of like, hey, because people do this, I mean, you look back and you go, what did this season look like? Here's the all NBA team, or here's the NBA, the MVP top five, or something like K deserves to be in all of those things. If not, it's like, legitimately egregious. So I'm more happy for K than I am for Luca, although I think Luca deserved it as well. So I, I, you know, I'm sure they'll change something and tweak it next year, but, like, Cade to me belongs in that conversation. And I've. As a Cade guy. You were talking about Paulo stock earlier. I have. I never sold any of my K stock. I always liked Cade, and, you know, to see him where he is now, like, that's, you know, it's. It's like seeing your child succeed on the field or on the court somewhere. It's like, okay, this is my guy. I've believed in you this whole time. Let's go

[Mike Gorman]

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[Greg Banakis]

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[Mike Gorman]

Yeah, I think overall I definitely agree with you, Sir Rudy. I do think it becomes a little bit arbitrary when it's Anthony Edwards who for the most part plays all the time and gets denied and his, you

[Steve Ceruti]

know, I didn't like that either.

[Mike Gorman]

Yeah, right. So that, that seems where it gets a little bit like you're. I, I don't know. The NBA doesn't really know what they're trying to say because then with Luca it's like, oh, well, just don't whine a bunch of times and like you play the game that you get suspended and you qualify. Right. So they could have drawn a line there. I think for the, you know, for the NBA, it's a bit of a wishy washy statement, but end of the day it's, it's definitely right to have both Luca and, and Kate involved for sure.

[Steve Ceruti]

Right.

[Greg Banakis]

All right, well, I'm gonna give you a second pick. Who you got.

[Mike Gorman]

You can give me second pick. Okay. So I think there's basically three guys that you can go with here. So I think there's five teams that have a chance to be in the finals. Ceru, hit it. You know, the, the OKC Thunder seem the most likely team to be there. And then I think in the west it's also, you're going to get, hopefully we get Spurs, Nuggets in that second round and I think out east we're going to get Celtics, Knicks, second round. Those are the five teams that I think are most likely to end up in the finals. So I think that kind of leaves you with Jalen Brown, Jokic, Brunson and Wemby. I'm going to go Jokic on this one. It's between him and Jalen Brown. For me, I'll go Jokic. It's splitting hairs, but I think those are kind of the four guys that, that you got to look at. I think with Jalen, the only reason I'm not taking Jalen is if Tatum continues ascend throughout the postseason, his points per game might come down a little bit. Tatums go up a little bit. Jokic and Murray are Going to split a little bit as well, but it's a little bit more of a established rhythm as to what it is. And Jokic is the guy that typically scores more. So I'll go Jokic with. With my first pick, but I think it's pretty close and you can make cases for the other guys as well.

[Greg Banakis]

I think that's interesting. You went Jokic for number two, man. I think there's at least a slight chance they lose in the first round.

[Mike Gorman]

There's a slight chance, but I. I really don't think they're going to lose in the first round. Like, I. I'm with you. I think it's. It's a little risky because of that, because it's probably one of two, maybe three series that have a potential for an upset. But I just think yoke. I think it's gonna be a long series and then we're gonna get a second long series. So I'm betting on Joker in this scenario. You're right. Definitely a little bit of risk, but I think at a minimum, I'm getting two six game or two seven game series out of him.

[Steve Ceruti]

I agree. I don't think they lose in the first round. I don't think. I think Jokic is. I think they're. I think Denver is. You know, that's. That's probably one of my favorite bets is Denver. I don't know what the, what the over under on the games and that thing is, but like, I don't believe in this Minnesota team.

[Mike Gorman]

Yeah. It just doesn't feel right for them to. To win the series. Right. Like, just like subjectively, it doesn't feel right. Doesn't mean it can't happen, but it doesn't feel right.

[Greg Banakis]

Yeah, I. I feel that. All right, I'm gonna go to my pick here. I actually am going to go with Kate Cunningham. Where's Kate at?

[Mike Gorman]

Oh.

[Greg Banakis]

So my thoughts on that, I think they're guaranteed to be in the Eastern Conference finals. Right. So I'm getting three rounds out of Cade. I don't see the. I don't see them.

[Steve Ceruti]

Not scared of the Hornets.

[Greg Banakis]

Not scared of the Hornets. I, I think that will be a fun, long series, though. That's true.

[Steve Ceruti]

Yeah.

[Greg Banakis]

You're getting extra games in the first round as the number one seed in the second round. I would imagine they play Cleveland. I think that should be a fun, long series. I don't think by any means. Even though I don't believe in the Cavs, I think you're getting six or seven games out of that. So right, right off the jump, I think I'm getting 12 games minimum out of Kate Cunningham in the first two rounds, which I think is. Is pretty good there. And then, you know, in the Eastern Conference finals, like, do I really feel good about the Celtics against the Pistons knowing that our front line as. As much as they've played well this year, they're just going to be undersized against that Detroit team. So I think there's a real chance the Pistons end up in the finals. And Cade obviously is ahead of the snake, so I'm gonna go with Cade.

[Steve Ceruti]

Interesting. Okay.

[Mike Gorman]

Yeah, that's an interesting pick. I think I probably. Looking at my big board that I made, I probably undervalued the fact that I do think the Pistons are not a lock, but a pretty, pretty, you know, over 50 chance of them being in the conference final. So that guarantees you at least two rounds. But yeah, it's, it's. I'm surprised you jumped over some of the guys that you could have picked, but I think the, the thought process is there for it. I like it.

[Greg Banakis]

All right, do you guys want to snake it or you want to just run it back to Serutti?

[Steve Ceruti]

Yeah, you tell me, you know, yeah, two of us.

[Mike Gorman]

Let's do it that way.

[Steve Ceruti]

Okay. I'm gonna take your guy, Jalen Brown. I, I think there's a really good chance they're in the finals. I still. And I think they're gonna, you know, obviously other than the first round, I think, you know, that Nick series in the second round, I mean, who knows, maybe the Hawks could be a little spicy, but if they're playing the Knicks, I, I still think that's a. That could be a six game series, maybe seven. The Piston series could go long. And then if they get to the finals, like, I just think there's a lot of games that the Celtics are probably going to have to play other than the first round where they'll do a clean sweep. But yeah, I think. I think Jalen's a pretty safe pick. And like, if I get SGA and Jalen in the finals playing against each other, I feel like I'll win this thing.

[Greg Banakis]

What have been your thoughts? Just from afar, watching Jalen Brown this season and the discourse now, especially now that Luke and Kate are back, I see a lot of ballots coming out that now Jaylen Brown is on a lot of people's second team, all NBA. Do you think that's fair?

[Steve Ceruti]

The Jalen Brown thing is weird because, like, there's. There are the numbers that would suggest. Right. That the team is. It's been for, like, five years now where they're just. The team is just better with him off the court than they are on, which I think is flawed. I think there was. I saw some of that with, like, Paolo the last couple years. Like, yeah, like, all right, like, he's having to go against, like, the best versions of every team. And, you know, the match bench was a little bit better. The Celtics bench is good, and they can be a juggernaut at times and just blitz teams, so that maybe isn't fair. I think. I. I think Jalen Brown is, like, the rare player who, like, is both underrated and overrated. I like Jalen Brown. I still think he's a pretty flawed player. I could respect what he's done this season, but I also think, like, the reason that Joe Missoula is probably going to win coach of the year is probably a bigger factor in why I think this team is where they are right now. I mean, again, I'm not trying to, like, take anything away from Jalen Brown, but he still, to me, has flaws as a player. And, you know, at the end of the day, both teams, both guys healthy, like, Tatum is just a better player overall. So I don't know. Like, I. The discourse is kind of weird, I think. I think he deserves, like, he deserves, you know, if you want to put on the first team all NBA bout, I'm okay with it. If you want to put him top five mvp, like, I'm okay with it. But I also think, like, this is kind of, like, a weird season that also we should kind of put into context.

[Greg Banakis]

Yeah, I think with Jalen, you know, in previous seasons, if you caught Jalen Brown, like, every third or fourth game, you'd be like, what the hell am I watching out here? He's, like, turning the ball over, dribbling off his foot, taking bad shots, just like, kind of playing his own game within the. The system of the Celtics. Like, he. He would always kind of operate a little bit outside of that system. I think this year, I mean, we watched all 82 games. He was like a metronome this year, man, just, like, super consistent. He had, like, a handful of games, and unfortunately, a couple of them happened on national tv, where I. I thought he reverted back to some. Some bad habits, but in general, man, he was so consistent. The jumper was there all. All season. He averaged career high in drives. He was in the paint 19 times a game on drives. And if you watch his Celtics team, especially early in the season, they just didn't have anyone that could create off the bounds and could get into the paint. Peyton Pritchard was able to do his thing against second units, but in general I think Jalen getting into the paint 19 times a game, which I think was second to Denny. I think Denny was first this year. That was the whole reason the Celtics were able to kind of stay afloat and have the offense that they had, in my opinion.

[Mike Gorman]

Yeah, it's interesting you mentioned it. Like it has been a weird year. Right. Like I think the all NBA, some of the voting stuff is going to reflect that. And I think Jalen Brown being on first team all NBA is actually a good reflection of man, that was kind of a weird year. Jalen Brown ended up on first team all NBA. So that actually might kind of actually fit, fit that narrative. All right, I'm jump in here and go to my next pick and I'm gonna keep the Jalens rolling. Let's go. Jalen Brunson here in this next spot. Again, I think it's going to come down to I, I like your pick of the, of the Pistons. I think they're getting to the conference finals, their paths easier I think than the Celtics and Knicks who are going to likely match up in round two. But I don't think the Hawks are going to be a walkover. I think that's probably about a six game series with the Hawks and then you get Celtics, Knicks and you know, obviously we're pulling for Celtics here. We saw what happened last year in a six game series so I would expect that series because the Knicks do match up really well with the Celtics. They seem to be to a certain degree the, the Celtics kryptonite, you know, especially in the Eastern Conference. So I think at a minimum that's a six game series. Even if it goes the Celtics way, maybe as long as seven. So you're looking probably about 13 games from a guy I think you mentioned like Jalen Brunson was one of. Either he was the leading point getter in the playoffs last year or was right up there at the top and didn't even make the, you know, didn't make the finals. They made to the conference finals. So I think Jalen Brunson here, he always seems to turn up his scoring a little bit because it's so, so needed from the Knicks that I can expect. I think he averaged like around 26 this year. That wouldn't be surprised if that bumps up to closer to 28, 29 when we get into the postseason. Especially with him getting to the free throw line. So I like Jalen Brunson in, in this spot to pair with my, my Jokic pick, where I think I got at least two guys that I feel pretty confident are getting deep, deep first and second round matchups and could both get to at least the conference finals so far.

[Greg Banakis]

Dude, Brunson's so good.

[Mike Gorman]

He's underrated, man.

[Greg Banakis]

It would be interesting to see. I, I don't put too much stock into the clutch player of the year award, but SGA seemingly is probably going to take that one. But I do think, you know, Captain Clutch in New York, he's, he's a problem. I'm scared of him, man. I don't think the Celtics have, have anyone that can guard him, to be honest with you.

[Mike Gorman]

How do you handicap the Easter? Rudy, what do you think right now? It looks like from, from your vantage point?

[Steve Ceruti]

I'm not as scared of the Knicks as you guys are. I think they're all right. I think they'll, I, I, you know, if you're asking me to pick Celtics Knicks in round two, I feel pretty confident taking the Celtics at this point. I think the, I think I even like the Pistons more than them. So if you're, like, the hierarchy of it, I think they're, they're where their seating is. I think they're third. Yeah, sure. Like, could they get hot for a series and upset you guys? Yeah, I just, I, you know, I don't know. I, at the end of the day, like, Brunson and Cat, I, I, I, I, I don't know that Jalen Brunson's underrated. I know you just said that. I don't, I think he's properly rated. I think he's like, a really good player, but I think he does still have his flaws. And I think Cat is a. Come playoff time, like, it's really boom or bust, and I don't know that this team is better than they were last year with Tibs. They're a little bit different, but are they better? So I don't, I don't, like, dislike the Knicks or anything like that. I just, I just, I'm not gonna, like, stake my trust in them. I'd much rather stake my trust in Missoula and the Celtics.

[Greg Banakis]

Yeah, that's fair. Okay. With my next pick, I feel like I'm getting great value here, but I'm take Wemby.

[Mike Gorman]

Yeah.

[Greg Banakis]

I mean, in the finals, what do I have to say about Victor Wembanyama, like, in the first round? I Do think it will be interesting to see him against that Portland team? I was really hoping for Portland okc. That was a series that I thought would have been like sneaky six games just because of how good Portland's defense can be clinging. Going up against Wemby, I didn't watch any of their matchups head to head this year, so I'm not sure how he's able to guard Wemby. But just thinking about like Mitchell Robinson and his ability to stick Wemby a little bit in, especially in the, the NBA cup, like, I just think there, there are certain guys out there that have to be able to guard Wemby, right? I don't know who they are. I don't know if they actually exist, but I think there's at least a couple guys in the league that might be able to guard him. Clingan, I don't know that he's actually going to be able to do it, but he's huge. He's like a legit 7 1, 72 moves his feet decently. I don't think Wemby is going to be able to push him around. So there's a world in which maybe this pick isn't a great pick because he's going to be going up against a really good Portland team and then Jokic in the second round. But I, I think this is a pretty safe bet getting Wemby with the 6 pick in the draft here.

[Steve Ceruti]

I think that would have been my pick had you not taken him. So I think, I think you're right, right on track there. This is, this is where I think that. Are these all the obvious players? I feel like this is kind of. I feel like all the obvious guys are probably.

[Mike Gorman]

I mean I, I made a board on my flight home yesterday. The top five guys are all gone. I had K probably a little bit lower than, than I should have like two, three spots below that. But this feels like the right group of guys. And Greg, you're reasoning for Kate I think makes. Makes a lot of sense. I think I just still in my head was docking him for, you know, not. He only played two games at the end of the regular season. So how healthy, you know, so on and so forth. But I think I, I Trudy, I do think that these are the guys that make the most sense to be off the board so far. Top six.

[Steve Ceruti]

Right. So I think. I think this is where I have two pretty safe guys and then I'm gonna take a swing on somebody who is in a different part of the bracket. Give me Donovan Mitchell, number six on my big board. I, yeah, I, I think there's a good chance. I, I think they're gonna beat the Raptors. Like, not easily, but, you know, is it six? You know, I was a guy who before the season was like, I actually think this Raptors team could be all right. Like they're not going to scare anybody, but like they can make the playoffs and be a little bit funny. So that series I think will be, you know, could it be a six game series? Sure. And then I think they could even give the Pistons six games. Like, I don't think they're a disaster. I mean, the hardened thing, you know, we know is playoff failures or whatever, but I think there could be a lot of games even if they lose in the second round and then who knows if they end up pulling off an upset and get to a conference finals, which seems unlikely. Like he's, you know, he's almost at 30 points a game. So that's, I'm just, this is just a pure like analytics play. Like, I feel like his upside is probably higher than everybody else right now.

[Greg Banakis]

Yeah, I think they're the nobody believes in US team in the East. You know, they, they, everyone's kind of like, they got James Harden. That's not really moving the needle for anybody. Everyone's down and Evan Mobley, you know, trading Garland was just a, a weird move for them. They traded DeAndre Hunter. They gave up on that. I just, I, I don't know. I don't know what I'm getting with the Cavs. Will was super high in the Cavs two years ago. Will or is it coming into this year ago?

[Mike Gorman]

Yeah, yeah. And now two years ago I was really into them and I'm completely out. I, I don't think the Raptors have any chance. I wanted a Hawks CAB series and I said two weeks ago when it was a potential, I'm picking the Hawks. I don't care if I'm wrong. Like, I just don't believe in the Cavs. Like, if your big move is, hey, Garland's not working out, let's go get James Harden. Like, that just doesn't feel like that's winning you a championship. And, and I get the move. Like, Garland's not available. Harden's at least available despite, you know, all the flaws. Even though ironically Garland was pretty available for the Clippers, but they're out anyway, so tends not to, not to matter the most. But yeah, I, I just don't believe in this team and like for the Last three years, it's been the same story every year. It's like we haven't played enough together or we haven't had Max truce. We haven't had Sam Merrill or Dean. Wade's not in. And there's just like always an excuse with the Cavs, I feel like built in and then they flame out in the second round every single time. So I, yeah, I just got no faith in them.

[Steve Ceruti]

They played nine games in the playoffs last year and he was still 17th in playoff scoring, though.

[Mike Gorman]

So, like, he's great, which is awesome.

[Steve Ceruti]

I think they'll play more than a great playoff. Yeah, let me. Actually, nine's a fine number.

[Mike Gorman]

Yeah, it's a good pick.

[Greg Banakis]

I, I still like, he's definitely going to be in the second round. Right. Like, at this point, we just want guys that, you know, are going to make it out of round one.

[Mike Gorman]

I think we're still there. So that brings me to my, my next pick here. And this is where again, it's, it's interesting. It's like, do you go long term, second bananas? Are there some guys that you feel confident that are lead guys that are going to get to, you know, the second round? And he's technically a second banana this year, but I think again, I'm, I said Celtics, Knicks are going to be the two teams that I think obviously winner of that goes at least to the conference finals. So I already got Brunson. I'm gonna hedge. I'm take Jason Tatum in this spot here. I think he's going to keep getting better, obviously in Cerutty, I want to get your thoughts on just Tatum in the 16 things, either 15 or 16 games that he played coming back. And like, we've been blown away with how he's looked at and it's been a different Jason Tatum. Like Tatum's average 30 points for the last three years, right. As he made all these first team, all NBA's is right around 30 points. And basically all of those seasons he's around 22 for what he's played this year. But his rebounding has been rebounding better, which was. It's. Dude, it's been the most underrated part of his game for the last couple of years. And I think him coming back now. He's been averaging over 10 rebounds per game since he came back. His assist numbers don't. If you just look at the raw number, it doesn't jump out to you quite as much. But if you're watching the passes that he's making, he's making the same passes that, you know, guys like Luca or more like ball dominant guys are making on doubles, like, and he started doing this, you know, back in the finals against the Mavericks and stuff. But so, so it's because this is a player points specific draft. It's the only reason. I probably waited a little bit on Tatum, but, like, his overall game has been impressive, but he's still putting up, you know, 21, 22 points. And as the games get bigger, he's theoretically going to get healthier, going to be building up more stamina. Could see those numbers jump. But yeah, Seroty would just want to get your thoughts on Tatum in this kind of unprecedented comeback we've seen from him.

[Steve Ceruti]

Yeah, he's awesome. Like, he looks like Jason Tatum. My, you know, my only concern with the Celtics is like, is there, is there any, like, weirdness, like, of, you know, in that second round maybe against the Knicks where it's like, hey, who's kind of whose ball is it? But I, I, I, I, Again, this is. I just trust Missoul and the organization and those two guys to kind of figure that out. I do selfishly wonder, like, if, if Jalen. You know, people have talked about this, if Jalen Brown was like, man, can you just sit out the years like this? Can we just run in the playoffs as the guy? But yeah, I, you know, Tatum, whatever the team needs, he's gonna do. It's probably not scoring, especially if they end up playing Detroit. Like, they're gonna probably need him to get a bunch of rebounds, as you guys talked about. So, yeah, like, I think this is a great pick because, like, again, I'd probably pick them to come out of the east, so they'll be, the games will certainly be there.

[Greg Banakis]

Yeah, I just think about with Tatum, what's concerned me a little bit if you're just like, thinking total points. You know, he historically kind of struggles a little bit against OG Anunoby, even though he was like, cooking him and hey, everybody, he got hu. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he's. He's maybe the best wing defender in the league. Right. So round one, going up against Paul George, probably that's going to be the, the guy who's covering him. I'm not really worried about Jason Tatum, you know, getting points. Playoff be and then round two, you know, that's where maybe Tatum's points dip. But also maybe that's where he's like, really starting to feel like Tatum again and he just decides to go nuclear. And then round three, you know, you're going up, maybe you get lucky and the primary assignment against you is Dean Wade on the Cabs. But it's most likely it's going to be a Sar Thompson. Right. So with Tatum, it'll be interesting to see if he gets, like, the best wing defender from the other team. Is that guy going to be on Jalen or is that going to get going to be on Jason? I think that should be pretty interesting to see throughout the playoffs. All right, I think this is the time. Will you. You used a term I had never heard before. Long term second banana. But I think this is where long term second bananas need to come into play. So I'm gonna go with Oklahoma City Thunder. I think they're going to be in the finals this year. And I'm gonna go with J Dub.

[Steve Ceruti]

It's. Yeah. Jw.

[Greg Banakis]

It's Jalen, right? I don't want to pick the wrong Jalen here.

[Mike Gorman]

Yeah, that's the right. The other Jalen's with, like a Y in there, by the way.

[Steve Ceruti]

Yeah.

[Mike Gorman]

So many jails. Very. I wish there's a way to bet on the chances of a Jalen winning a championship. It's very high.

[Greg Banakis]

Guy. Have you seen. Have you seen the guy who made the song, like, why there's so many jailings in the NBA? Has that made it to your algorithm?

[Mike Gorman]

I think I have seen this, actually. Yeah. It's. I. I mean, it all shout out to Jalen Rose. He's the originator of it.

[Steve Ceruti]

Have you seen the, like, within all Jalen team win the NBA championship?

[Mike Gorman]

It's a pretty good team.

[Steve Ceruti]

Like, it's a really good Brunson JDub. I'm looking at it now. Who else?

[Mike Gorman]

Jalen Johnson's on the team.

[Greg Banakis]

I mean, there's already three. There's been three. Jalen's taken. Yeah, the first nine picks.

[Mike Gorman]

Six. Exactly. It's. It's a little light in the front court from what I remember of the jail. Like. Well, so I'm saying it's Duran and like, Jalen Johnson. And then there's like. It's like Jalen Smith is like the

[Steve Ceruti]

next, like, Jalen Suggs. Come on now. Throw my guy in there.

[Mike Gorman]

Dude. It's a. It's a crazy deep team of just. That's a good. That's a good All Star concept. Jalen's first the world. We'll just have that.

[Greg Banakis]

Oh, I like that.

[Mike Gorman]

Yeah. All right, let's go back to you, Serutti. What do you got here?

[Steve Ceruti]

All right. Trying to think if there's a series that's like underrepresented here. So do we have. I think the only player we haven't picked up, the only series we haven't picked a player from I think is Lakers. Rockets. Right.

[Mike Gorman]

Yeah. Which it will probably. That could go long. Well, is what's. What's. I know Luke is probably not playing. I think Reeves is also out.

[Steve Ceruti]

No, I don't think the Lakers won that series anyway. Yeah, it'd be a Rockets guy, but I don't, I don't know that I want to pick KD right now.

[Greg Banakis]

Guess for the live you don't want those vibes on your team.

[Steve Ceruti]

I don't know. I feel like

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[Steve Ceruti]

Man, this is a tough spot to be in. I think. Give me, give me Jamal Murray. I think, I think that first round series has a. Like that could be six games. I feel good about them winning the series, but I think it still could be six games and I still think they could take even if they lose to the Spurs, I still think that's a six game series. I don't think they're like getting run off the. You know, this isn't a gentleman's sweep or anything like that. So I feel like I'm at least getting a good amount of games in rounds one and round two and who knows, if they pull an upset then this is going to be a great pick. So, so I'm, I'm trying to cover all four quadrants of the bracket here. I think I've got us. Give me Jamal Murray.

[Greg Banakis]

I think it's a good pick. I. I would be a Little concerned just with McDaniels coming back and being healthy, you know, hounding him for, for 94ft. But I, right now, I think this qualifies as Will's long term second banana pick. Like, this is the, the area that we're in. So it's either that or you're taking a chance on a guy like KD and maybe a guy like Luca hoping that he comes back. But I think that's pretty good pick.

[Mike Gorman]

Yeah, I'll just, I'll just keep it simple. I'm going with kd. I'll take KD next. I think to your point, Seruti, I, I can't imagine LeBron willing this Lakers team without. You know, it's unfortunate because the Lakers had become at least an interesting team. I don't think they were ever going to make it out of the, out of the west, but at least with Luca and reeves and, and LeBron and like Marcus Smart kind of having a little bit of a throwback moment, you know, I've always liked Ruiz fine. You know, and then Aiden was okay. Like, like there was at least something there that you could say. This could get a little frisky. I, I think that's kind of out the window at this point. And even though the Rockets have seemed dysfunctional, they're a team that like, again, subjectively, the narrative with them and the vibes with them just would feel wrong if all of a sudden we turned, we woke up in, you know, six weeks, seven weeks, and we're like, you know, the Rockets are in the conference finals and two wins away from the finals. Like that just doesn't feel like that, that's. That that should happen to the way this team has played this season. But you know, given that they did end up drawing the Lakers, it feels likely they should get to the second round. And so now you're getting maybe a five, six game series for whatever LeBron gives you against the Lakers. And then I don't think it's gonna be a very long series against the Thunder, even though they, they have played the Thunder kind of frisky this year. Like, it's been decent matchups going back to, to the opening night, but it just feels like so much has changed that. You know, end of the day, it's maybe minimum eight games out of Durant, and that's, that's usually pretty solid for a guy who's gonna, gonna give you close to 30 every night. Yeah.

[Greg Banakis]

It'll be interesting to see if Luca does come back, though. Like, I'm thinking about Picking Luca right now. I'm gonna hold off. Hopefully he swings back around to me.

[Mike Gorman]

But has there been any updates on that lately? Like, I, I haven't, I might be

[Steve Ceruti]

out of the loop, but I'm saying. But I, I, it doesn't sound like he's playing like, it sounds like Reeves is more likely to come back than Luca, like in the first round. And I just don't, I don't, I, I cannot see them winning that series without him. So, like, I don't know. Yeah, if you take Luke, I wouldn't be mad.

[Greg Banakis]

All right. I just want to address a comment in the chat from George. He says, just joined. What are we ranking slash drafting here? So I'll just give for people that are just tuning in right now. We are doing a playoff total point draft. Right. So if you look at the first person that was drafted SGA, he averages 30 points a game and his team's probably going to be in the finals. So by the end of the playoffs, he will probably have accumulated near the most points out of all the players. Right. So right now we're kind of at that range where we're debating do we take a guy who's probably going to play one to two rounds and score a lot of points and maybe average 28 or a guy who will probably be there in the finals but only average about 20. So that's kind of what we're doing right now. All right, so with my next pick, I'm gonna go still, you know, long term second banana here and I like Detroit. I'm gonna go with, with Duran, you know, he's, he's gonna average 20 to 25 points a game. There's not many guys that can handle his, his sheer girth. So I think that Jalen Duran's gonna be getting 20 to 25 points a game. Will he get suspended in the first round? Getting in a fight with Musa Diabas?

[Mike Gorman]

I don't know anything. Anything's on the table with the Hornets Pistons. I can't wait.

[Greg Banakis]

Very possible. But he's gonna like toss those dudes around. Like Keda was just throwing diabate around. And Duran's got like 50 pounds on Keda, so

[Steve Ceruti]

I think that is fair. All right, I'm up again.

[Mike Gorman]

Yep. Back to you, sir Rudy.

[Steve Ceruti]

All right, man. I wanted. Give me Cat.

[Mike Gorman]

That's one, that's one of the two people I was debating.

[Steve Ceruti]

Give me Cat. Just, just in case they. Things like, I'm a little nervous about that first round series, but Give me Cat. Just in case they end up making the conference final. Duran was a great pick there. That would have been my pick if he was still there. But Cat, I feel like is the other second banana that I, that I kind of like here and feel like that's a safe pick.

[Mike Gorman]

What has to happen for the Hawks to beat the Knicks in your opinion, Seruti?

[Steve Ceruti]

I mean, you know, the Hawks are a team where like, if you're talking about small guards in the playoffs and that's, that's the one thing with, with, with Brunson, like they've got the guys to just throw at him and make his life miserable and you know, they're just, I, Jalen Johnson, like, he's kind of taken that next step. I, I, I think that, I think the Knicks were annoyed at how this thing turned out. Like, I think they were like, hey, we could play the Raptors. We'll just, we're just gonna kick their ass and it'll be easy and then we'll, you know, get ready for Boston. And now they're like, hey, we actually have to be in a dog fight with the team. It's funny, before the season I was like, I don't understand all the love for the Hawks. Like a lot of people were picking them to be a top four seed or whatever. And I think I was right up until the, this, the, the trade trade and like basically the last like month, month and a half of the season where they just like kicked it into a whole other gear and become this incredible, you know, defensive team. Plus, you know, Jalen Johnson being probably second team all NBA at, you know, maybe third at worst. So I think, you know, I think that the another pick with my cat pick is like, that this could be like a seven game series followed by another seven game series.

[Greg Banakis]

Right.

[Steve Ceruti]

So the games are probably going to be there. But yeah, I'm, I'm, I am a little worried about the Hawks in the first round upsetting and ruining this cat pick. That pick.

[Mike Gorman]

Yeah, I think, I think that series can go sick. So I don't think you're wrong. I was just curious to, to get your thoughts on it to keep us moving here. I'll go into my pick here and I'm gonna hedge against my first pick, which was Nicola Jokic. And I'm gonna take Anthony Edwards here. I'm gonna go Anthony Edwards just in case here. I think this will still be a six, seven game series potentially. T Wolves just match up really well with the Nuggets. Ant's gonna get his points. He's going to be Difficult to stop. Interesting to see who they put as primary defender on Ant. Whether it's gonna be Christian Brown, whether Peyton Watson's back. Does Aaron Gordon have to go play a little bit on Anthony Edwards? I think that will be an interesting one. And again, you know, my joke is pick is going to look really bad if the. If he loses in the first round. So now I got Anthony Edwards that I can hope goes on one of those magical Luca esque runs from two years ago and maybe takes the T Wolves finally beyond the the conference final. So I think decent value here with Ant. Obviously there's a risk of him playing, playing six or seven games and that's it. But should still get good volume from him in that spot.

[Greg Banakis]

Dude, that's a phenomenal pick. That was the, the pick that I, I probably should have done before Duran just because I do think there's a. Duran's gonna be the, the metronome type. But there's a world Darren's a better pick.

[Mike Gorman]

I mean, Darren's gonna be 20 points times.

[Steve Ceruti]

Yeah.

[Mike Gorman]

Six games. Six games and another.

[Greg Banakis]

Thanks, guys.

[Mike Gorman]

Six games maybe, you know, Right.

[Steve Ceruti]

I don't hate the Ant pick, but I. It just like, like at what point, you know, and this is where the math comes in where it's like, all right, how many games does he have to play to like make it worth like the third guy on a really, really good team that you think is going to make the finals, you know?

[Greg Banakis]

Right. Yeah. And I didn't crunch a whole lot of math. My spreadsheet that I have the. My own copy. It's just like a bunch of different colors for guys I thought would make it to different rounds. Math, Math did not factor into the equation with actual numbers. Okay, I'm gonna go with Luca. I'm gonna take Luca here. I think there's a world in which comes back midway through the series. And I just don't believe in the Rockets. Right. So I think the Lakers could definitely make it to the second round. He just went and he went to Europe and got platelet rich injections or whatever, putting his blood in a centrifuge. So they're trying to figure out a way to. For Luca to play. And he's such a gamer, dude. Like he limped his way to the NBA finals a couple years ago. Like he was not moving at full speed. As we saw fat Luca, you know, fat Luca gets out of shape. That. That is. I have not seen a picture of Luca since he came back from Spain. So I am a little worried he put on £15.

[Mike Gorman]

A lot of Hamon out there.

[Steve Ceruti]

I just don't know he's gonna play. But yeah, like we will see.

[Mike Gorman]

I guess that's a risky bet. All right, Seroty, the. The board opened up for you with that picks. I didn't even have Luke on my board.

[Steve Ceruti]

I don't have him on my board either.

[Mike Gorman]

Damn.

[Greg Banakis]

Okay.

[Steve Ceruti]

But I wish the best for you. You know. Let's see. I. I'd like again. I'm just. I'm. My strategy is guys who I think are gonna go far give me chat.

[Mike Gorman]

Nice chat.

[Steve Ceruti]

17 a game. You know, you're up again. If they make the finals. I feel like I'm. I'm winning this drive.

[Greg Banakis]

That's your boy too.

[Steve Ceruti]

It is my boy. You know, I took a lot of heat for that Magic circles and I'm not trying to like take a victory lap here because I have said. I think both teams were happy with the transaction and all these other people that are like, hey, you know, the Magic. A generational fumble taking Paula over chat. Two things. One, Chet would not be the player he is on this Magic team. Chet would need like, he would be, you know, number two, I guess, and need to carry more of the offensive burden and like it's just not as solid of a structure overall of an organization. I think. I think it wouldn't be as easy to say, hey, Chad's going to be like this third team all NBA guy. If he was at the Magic, maybe he would. I have my doubts and ultimately sound like his agent and him didn't even want to go to Orlando. They wanted to go to okc. So it's kind of a non starter. So I, I don't like that excuse. But yeah, I've always been a check guy. I'm happy for his success and shouts

[Mike Gorman]

out, yeah, I saw something where Chet has been the number one seed. I think for the last eight years of his life. Like all four years of high school, his team was like number one seed in the state tournament. Number one, see with Gonzaga. And then all the years he's been with okc, they've been the one seed. So it's been a good run. That's part of a barber winning culture. All right, I'll go to my next pick here. And I don't love it it but I, I think Greg, you're. You're reasoning on like, you know, who's going to be in the second round and how far they get. Like this guy kind of fits it. Like give me James Harden. I Don't. I don't want to talk much about this. We can kind of skip over it. It's less.

[Steve Ceruti]

Better than that.

[Mike Gorman]

Better, exactly. Like, it's just. We understand why I'm making this pick. I don't like it. I don't want to do it, but I did it. Greg, you're up.

[Greg Banakis]

Oh, that was quick. Okay, let me just check. Let me cross reference my color sheet here on. On my computer. Where we at? Two screens. There we go. Okay, I think I'm in. I'm still in the oranges, so to speak, here. That doesn't mean anything to you guys? Okay, I'm gonna go. Steph Castle.

[Mike Gorman]

Yeah, it's a good one. He's on my list.

[Steve Ceruti]

I didn't know who to take with San Antonio.

[Mike Gorman]

Yeah. Because it's like, all right, they've got a bunch of guys under Wemby that are all kind of like, it's probably Castler, Fox, but it's like Vaselkin, like, just as easily pop for a series probably right as they do.

[Greg Banakis]

I tell you what, I don't believe in Castle. Go ahead.

[Steve Ceruti]

No, I'll tell you what I don't like. Why I didn't. What I take Fox was. I don't. I don't like him against okc, so

[Mike Gorman]

that's fair, I think.

[Steve Ceruti]

Well, I. I don't. I think Castle, like. Like, I just think Fox, like, with the. With the. The perimeter defenders that they have, like, he's gonna. It's gonna be a nightmare for him. So I think Castle actually probably is the slightly better pick.

[Greg Banakis]

We got a comment from George spurs fan here. Big narrative around our season is Fox has stepped back in regular season to help Castle and Harper development. Does he now up his usage, slash shots or keep it going as is? So little argument for de' Aaron Fox here. And Serruti, you're up.

[Steve Ceruti]

Mental note. Yeah, yeah. Do I. Do I just like, like, did I one up you and take the Aaron Fox right here? I'm gonna do it. Shout out to our guy.

[Mike Gorman]

Yeah, it's not a bad idea.

[Steve Ceruti]

Yeah, there you go. One of those guys. You know, I'm basically, you know, second, third, bananas. One. One of those teams is probably gonna be in the finals. I'm happy to have those guys.

[Greg Banakis]

All right.

[Mike Gorman]

Well, it puts me. Yeah. This must be an interesting spot here. I've got a few guys that I could look to take that I think are going to be around a little bit longer. They score probably more in the teens, and there's still a couple guys Here that are in, like the mid-20s. I'm gonna go with this guy that we've talked a little bit about the series and there could be potential upset. Give me Jalen Johnson. I'll take him just on the off chance that we get the upset. I think the. The upside of that is a little bit higher than some of these guys that are going to be in the teens that maybe get two to three rounds. But that. That equation, that math equation starting to. To slip a little bit here. So we'll see. We'll see where you go with your next pick, Greg. All right.

[Greg Banakis]

I mean, homer pick to some degree. I do want to believe the Celtics are going to be there when it matters all the way to the finals. And, you know, there's a world in which Peyton Pritchard has an unbelievable playoffs and averages more points than Derek White.

[Mike Gorman]

Exactly. I was debating in my head it was him or Jalen Johnson was who I was going with.

[Greg Banakis]

Yeah. So I'm going Derrick White, he didn't have a great season this year in terms of shooting the ball, but I think I believe in Derrick White. Like the whole Christian Bale Batman. I believe in Harvey Dent. Like, I'm not being a dick. Like, I believe in Derrick White. And in the fourth quarter, like, I want the ball in his hands. An open three point shot in the corner. We talked about this. Close your eyes. Envision a big shot for the Celtics. Who's going to be taking that shot? Who's going to be making that shot? It's been Derrick White for the last couple of years, so I'm going to take him there.

[Steve Ceruti]

Okay. I feel like this is the spot I'm gonna take LeBron.

[Mike Gorman]

Yeah, man.

[Steve Ceruti]

You never know, man.

[Greg Banakis]

He's definitely playing, right.

[Steve Ceruti]

You never know. Like, he's gonna have to score a ton to win this series. And if they do, you know, all right, then they get another series. It's probably going to be, you know, a short one, but, you know, they get. They get to the second round. So I don't know. This. This is just kind of fun pick to root for us. I'll take the Bronco.

[Mike Gorman]

Yeah. It's funny, man. We're. We're doing any draft just with, like, playoff stats, whatever. It's just been so long. That's like, well, LeBron's going in the top five. Everything you do, no matter, like, what it is, and now we get to pick 22. And LeBron's just like, I guess I'm going LeBron. That's. But when you're 40 plus years old. I guess that's just kind of where you're at right now. But I do think I'm with you. That's a, that's a fun one to root for in that, in that Lakers Rocket series. Greg, I'll take the other guy that, that you already mentioned. That's a bit of a homer pick. Give me Peyton Pritchard. He's a guy that we can just. We've seen him go off. We know it's possible. The Knicks matchup, that was probably Seruti. Honestly, one of the biggest takeaways from the last Celtics Knicks game in which the, the Knicks won. No Jalen Brown for the Celtics was Peyton Pritchard got going and the Knicks have kind of been a team he struggled to, to get off against like he has against other teams. And I think, you know, this year has been big for him that like, he proved to himself like, hey, I can be a starter. I am a starter in this league. And. But then went back to the six man role and has been just killing it even, even more than he was as a starter. But I do think that confidence transference is like, is real with him. So I think for Peyton Pritchard, like, I, I'm. He's gonna have moments. The guy loves buzzer beaters. I saw a five minute reel of him the other earlier today of just him hitting buzzer beaters. So I, I feel pretty confident that he's gonna have a moment or two in this postseason and he'll, he'll have some times where he gets some points. Might struggle a little bit here and there, but I'm pretty happy with Peyton Pritchard at the spot.

[Greg Banakis]

All right, I'm gonna keep it rolling here. I'm gonna go OG Anunoby. I think we're getting six or seven games first round, seven game, second round. I was debating 14, 13 to 14 games of OG Anobi versus five games of Tyrese Maxi. Like, yeah, how much does Maxi have to score in the first round to make this worth it? So I'm gonna go edgy. OG

[Steve Ceruti]

I'm gonna take Maxi. I love Maxi and I think he's gonna have to score 30 a game in the series to even have this be remotely competitive.

[Mike Gorman]

So, yeah, Max is the man.

[Steve Ceruti]

Dude.

[Mike Gorman]

I love watching Maxi. Like from at least an entertainment, I'll be honest. Like from an entertainment standpoint, I'm a little glad we're playing the Sixers. Like, the Magic got tough to watch, man. And I, I picked the Magic to go to the conference finals, beginning of the year. I talked about my Paolo Stock earlier in the, in the podcast. Like, like we played. We played you guys last year. Every game was in like the 80s, scrapping to get to the mid-90s. Like it wasn't a fun game. I was just worried about last year, Porzingis getting hurt. This year, anyone else getting an injury was just going to be my main concern. So I'm kind of glad Celtics end up drawing the Sixers. And you know, Maxi might get one on us, but I don't think it's going to be a super long series. But he will, he will get some points.

[Steve Ceruti]

I'm looking at last year's scoring and the lowest amount of games. So Giannis played five games last year in the playoffs and was 34th in playoff scoring with 100. He averaged like 33 a game. So that's, you know, I take that. That's okay.

[Mike Gorman]

Yeah, exactly, that's. And that's kind of the territory we're at right now. There's. There's probably a few. There's a few guys up here that I think I could pick that will get me a little bit more. But I just had. I think he's interesting to watch. I want another reason to watch the Spurs Blazer series. Give me Denny Avia. Give me Turbo. I wanna, I want to watch a little bit. This is more a selfish pick of. Just like I have an extra. A reason to watch outside of Wemby is let's just see how real Denny is. And I thought he was really good and I caught the second half of that Suns Blazers playing game and you know, Denny was really good, man. Like he out dueled Booker. Like Booker's a guy that has like his whole career been kind of in the same conversation as Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum and Denny obvious first, you know, could be most improved player. We'll see where that vote falls. But like first year as an all star and you know, you put up 40 plus points out duel the guy that went to the NBA Finals and you know he might give. He's gonna have to score to give the Blazers any chance of even making that a five, six game series. And he's the guy that does the scoring for the Blazers. So kind of similar to the Maxi pick, I hopefully am getting five or six games of maybe 30 plus points a game is what I'm hoping for somewhere in that ballpark.

[Greg Banakis]

And we're almost on our last picks here, guys. I do want to address another comment here from cool, genuine Phil 3051. What up? Bills says, wow, no Curry so far. He has to be picked. Is he even going to be in the playoffs though, Phil? We don't know. He's not officially in the playoffs yet. And then from George L9466, he says Amin Thompson averaged 24 points per game versus the Lakers this season. I might, I might just have to jump on that. So shout out to. To George, who has already influenced two picks in this draft. So shout out to George.

[Steve Ceruti]

Interesting. I was thinking about Shangoon there.

[Mike Gorman]

That's all. That's. Honestly, that's probably the better pick. He's. I mean, at least regular season wise, he was second in scoring on their team.

[Steve Ceruti]

Right. And you're like, okay, can that be a six games then? Do they get four, maybe five against the Thunder? That's. That's probably enough games to make it work. So I'll, I'll just go Shingoon.

[Greg Banakis]

I'm very easily influenced.

[Mike Gorman]

All right, so what do we do? We each have what, two picks?

[Steve Ceruti]

No, this is our last pick.

[Mike Gorman]

That was my last pick.

[Steve Ceruti]

Pick. Sorry. My last. Yeah.

[Mike Gorman]

Okay.

[Greg Banakis]

There's a problem.

[Mike Gorman]

And so, so you got sengun. Okay, so I've got a couple guys.

[Steve Ceruti]

Refuses to let you put Shanghai.

[Mike Gorman]

Oh, yeah. Oh, maybe you have to make another pick

[Steve Ceruti]

come back to me. Hold on.

[Mike Gorman]

Yeah, there we go. Now we got him.

[Steve Ceruti]

Who's up? Because, I mean, like whoever's left is. I mean, you're talking like fourth options on teams we think are gonna go far. So, like.

[Mike Gorman]

Right. Yeah. I mean, there's, there's, there's three guys I've got up here. One's a bit of a hedge. Another guy, I think I'm pretty. Both of the other two guys I've got up here, I feel pretty good about getting the second round. I'll go with the guy that I'm, I'm most confident getting the second round. Give me Evan Mobley. I'll take another cav here. That's. Yeah. You know, and honestly, him and I got hardened as well. Him and Harden are probably both going to be right around 20. And then Mitchell will be in the upper 20s to 30 points is probably how that's going to shake out for them. So, you know, maybe this is finally the playoffs where Evan Mobley pops. We've been waiting for it for four years.

[Steve Ceruti]

So we'll see a spoiler alert. It's not going to be so based

[Mike Gorman]

on my Cavs level confidence, I'm not a mobile.

[Steve Ceruti]

I'm just not a mobile Guy. I'm not a mobile guy. Given the expectations, you know, I remember, like, what's fine. I take him on my team at 10 times out of 10. This isn't like, I don't like him. I just think, like, this idea that he's going to be like the next Kevin Garnett is. Is two, three years ago. I thought that was ridiculous, and I think it's insane to look back at now.

[Greg Banakis]

Maybe that'll be Caleb Wilson. Who knows? All right, Last pick in the draft. I'm gonna go someone dark horse candidate to get to the finals. Third option, Aaron Gordon.

[Mike Gorman]

Yeah, I was debating him.

[Greg Banakis]

I think there's a world in which he just goes off in these playoffs. Yeah. It's finally healthy. So.

[Steve Ceruti]

Magic. Love there. Love that word.

[Greg Banakis]

That was fun.

[Mike Gorman]

That was fun. Yeah, I liked it. What'd you think, Seruti?

[Steve Ceruti]

It's great. I'm trying to think, like, I. I love the top of my draft. I think. I'm not sure about some of the guys I took late and how many games are going to play, but I feel pretty confident about where we really landed on this.

[Mike Gorman]

Yeah, it's fun. Little wrinkle to have this little extra, you know, rooting incentive for. For some of these games. Keep this in the back of your mind. Miss a game, check the box score the next day just to see what happened. And I think this means we're just gonna have you back on at the end of the playoffs here, so we can. We can go over the tallies.

[Steve Ceruti]

That's fine. I. I feel if it's. I feel like if it's an OKC Boston final, I'm. I'm. I'm good.

[Mike Gorman]

Yeah, you got a lot of stock in that one. So that's. And based on a lot of our conversation, I would. I mean, it's obviously one of these I want to ask you here is like, what is your finals pick? I'm gonna guess it's OKC Boston. Is what you see the finals being right now.

[Steve Ceruti]

I do. I. As much as I'd like to, I love Detroit and I like everything they stand for. I just. I just would not pick them in a series. And I. The Wemby thing would be fun. I wouldn't be mad if they did it. It just feels like it's too soon, man. It just doesn't feel like. And I'm not like, the. I'm not discounting the regular season record. I get it. But. But I also think, like, okc, you know, they're playing with their food a Little bit at times. I know they, I'm not saying they don't get up for those games but I think like once we get the playoff time it'll still be a competitive series. Six, whatever, maybe seven games. But I think okc, you know as far as just like title defense and like wanting that and again like they're getting J Dub back really for like a stretch run.

[Greg Banakis]

Yep.

[Steve Ceruti]

You know I think it's, I think it's okay see over Boston and you know I think that would be a good finals. Like I think Boston have a shot but I, I, I, you know, just how, how good is Tatum look is probably the ceiling on that team.

[Mike Gorman]

Greg, what would you go with for your finals pick? Let's, let's put our picks on the record here.

[Greg Banakis]

Okay, I'm gonna go Celtics versus the Thunder. I just think the Thunders road to the championship so much easier than the spurs or the Nuggets. So I'm gonna go Thunder and then I think the Celtics. This dude this year just feels magical. It's felt magical since like week two of the season. Tatum coming back. I mean this is the, the movie writes itself, right? So this was the finals that everybody wanted last year that we didn't get because Tatum went down and Celtics are probably not going to win that series anyway. So yeah, last two champions match up in the finals. Doesn't happen very often but let's go

[Mike Gorman]

you, I'm gonna go Celtic Spurs. I'm just gonna go ride the Wemby vibes. I, I totally agree. Like I really hate, hate the way that this shook out with the brackets in the west where it just seems like such an easy path for the Thunder to get to the conference finals. And you got to have, I mean Greg, you pointed out Blazers are going to be kind of a pain in the ass for the Spurs. The Nuggets, we don't even know if they're going to get by the Timberwolves. Like that could be a potential upset and then Spurs Nuggets is likely going to be just an all out brawl. At least based on the game that we saw what two, three weeks ago. Like who knows. But the way the spurs have, they just have like a lot of versatility. What part of that is just provided when you have a guy like Wemby And I think with the Thunder they've just seemed more or less invincible as the season has gone on where I, I just like J Dub never came back and really was fully J Dub. Now if he does become the J Dub, that what do you have like a couple 40, like a couple 30, 40 point games in the finals last year? Like that guy shows up, it's over. Like it's just if they don't even need to stay fully healthy, if that J Dub shows up, like it's probably over. But he just hasn't shown up yet. So I don't know that there's a guarantee for a guy that's in, you know, he's in his fourth year. This isn't like written in stone that J Dub that's always going to be an all NBA guy, right? So, you know, I, I think they struggle to score at times they're touche reliant. If they don't have J Dub to go to, they've got some options. But I just don't think they're as invincible. And I like the way that the spurs have a lot of versatility. Versatility is the name of the game. And so give them versus the Celtics and you know, I, I think then eventually at some point it has to give that they don't have any experience. And so I'm just gonna say eventually by the Finals they get worn down, the path is too tough. That's when it hits them. And the Celtics are able to cap off their, their magical year. Obviously a little bit of bias here on the screen with envy show but, but I, I do think it's realistic. I think it's Celtics and Knicks in the east is, is what I look to and winner of that series I think at least goes to the finals from the east and then we'll see who comes out of it in the West.

[Greg Banakis]

Greg, you got time for a Mediocre Life update or we gotta.

[Mike Gorman]

Yeah, let's do a quick Mediocre Life update and then we will get you out of here.

[Greg Banakis]

I, I kind of want to throw this on the second half of Sunday's pod that we do recapping the game. So you know, I don't know if you want to do like a fake outro here on this podcast, but we'll throw this on the, on the second one. So we have back to back through the episodes for just the pod listeners.

[Mike Gorman]

I like that. I like that. So real quick, for those of you watching us here on YouTube Hangout, we're going to do some, some, some Mediocre Life update. Those of you listening here, get ready for the weekend. Steve Ceruti joining us here from the Ryan Rosillo show. He'll be back at the end of the postseason so we can recap our player playoff point total draft here that we just laid down for you and so we will have that for you at the end of the postseason. Can't wait, another Celtics postseason coming at you guys. We will be back Monday morning likely with our next podcast to recap Game one and set you up for the week ahead. Catch you guys later. My mind it don't take much no

[Greg Banakis]

more

[Mike Gorman]

until I hit the floor Every

[Steve Ceruti]

time I get this high it's you

[Mike Gorman]

I find it don't take much no more until I'm at your dad.

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