Cavs and Thunder should be worried | Morning Shoot Around

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Athletic NBA Daily – "Cavs and Thunder Should Be Worried | Morning Shoot Around"

Release Date: May 7, 2025
Hosts: Dave DuFour, Zena Keita, Esfandiar Baraheni
Regular Contributors: Andrew Schlecht, Alex Spears
Platform: YouTube Live

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Introduction

In this episode of The Athletic NBA Daily, hosts and contributors delve into the current NBA playoff landscape, focusing on teams like the Cleveland Cavaliers, Oklahoma City Thunder, Golden State Warriors, Minnesota Timberwolves, Denver Nuggets, New York Knicks, Boston Celtics, and the Indiana Pacers. The discussion centers around team performances, coaching decisions, player injuries, and strategic adjustments as the playoffs intensify.

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Key Discussions

1. Cavaliers and Thunder Concerns

Andrew Schlecht initiates the conversation by highlighting the vulnerabilities of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Oklahoma City Thunder.

• Andrew Schlecht [02:01]:
  "The Cavaliers didn't have really any concerns in Round one. The Timberwolves just handled the Lakers. No concern at all."

Dave DuFour and Zena Keita echo these sentiments, emphasizing injuries and strategic missteps that could jeopardize their playoff runs.

• Guest Speaker [02:36]:
  "No lead is safe in the NBA."

2. Coaching Decisions and Strategic Fouling

A significant portion of the discussion revolves around Mark Dagnall's coaching decisions, especially his handling of late-game fouling.

• Guest Speaker [05:50]:
  "The fouling thing was odd to me, especially when Jokic was out of the game."

• Andrew Schlecht [05:44]:
  "A lot of people are very critical of Mark Dagnall."

Zena Keita and the guest speaker debate whether these decisions are strategic or detrimental to the game's excitement.

• Guest Speaker [06:21]:
  "It seems to me like it would be obvious that they need to burn clock."

• Zena Keita [06:50]:
  "But you need to burn clock."

3. Team Performances and Adjustments

The hosts analyze recent game performances, particularly focusing on the Warriors and Wolves' shooting woes.

• Guest Speaker [04:33]:
  "But they're both quite bad."

• Andrew Schlecht [05:27]:
  "It was done for the Thunder."

They discuss how teams like the Warriors can adapt despite injuries, with Steve Kerr's tactical prowess coming into play.

• Dave DuFour [17:10]:
  "Steph just said that having had the series go to seven, and basically at the end of that series, click, right. They're clicking now."

4. Worry Meter: Ranking Teams Based on Concerns

A "Worry Meter" tier list is introduced to categorize teams based on how concerned their fan bases should be.

• Andrew Schlecht [32:08]:
  "We're saying the Cavaliers should be most worried... The Warriors, although they're up in this series, you lose Steph, and you should be worried."

Tier Breakdown:

• S Tier (Super Duper Worried):

  • Cavaliers: Facing significant injuries with key players like Darius Garland questionable.
  • Warriors: Star player Steph Curry's injury status puts them at high risk.

• A Tier:

  • Minnesota Timberwolves: Troubling offensive performances and lack of energy.
  • New York Knicks & Oklahoma City Thunder: Baseline concerns with strategic execution and player performances.

• B Tier:

  • Boston Celtics: Mixed feelings about their defensive strength versus offensive inconsistencies.

• C Tier:

  • Indiana Pacers & Denver Nuggets: Least concerns, positioned to advance with steady performances.

Andrew Schlecht [83:03]:
"Here's our tier list. Cavaliers should be most worried... Warriors are up but lost Steph, and you should be worried."

5. Player Performances and Injuries

The hosts examine individual player impacts, such as:

• Buddy Healed: Praised for his defensive prowess despite shooting inefficiencies.

  • Dave DuFour [40:06]:
    "Buddy played tremendous last night... He was really good on defense."

• Jimmy Butler: His ability to pressure the rim and maintain high energy is crucial for the Warriors.

  • Dave DuFour [42:44]:
    "He can always trust he's not going to be like this for long."

• Kristaps Porzingis: Concerns about his health and performance affecting the Celtics' offensive capabilities.

  • Guest Speaker [67:48]:
    "Porzingis has been weird for the last couple months... Drew Holiday's been banged up."

6. Team Dynamics and Future Projections

Mark Dagnall's ability to adjust strategies and the Thunder's potential for improvement are discussed, alongside the stability and coaching acumen of teams like the Nuggets.

• Dave DuFour [55:03]:
  "I don't feel like they should be concerned... They have the personnel to fix them."

• Andrew Schlecht [70:03]:
  "They should not be worried."

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Notable Quotes

• Guest Speaker [02:36]:
  "No lead is safe in the NBA."

• Guest Speaker [05:50]:
  "The fouling thing was odd to me, especially when Jokic was out of the game."

• Andrew Schlecht [32:08]:
  "We're saying the Cavaliers should be most worried... The Warriors, although they're up in this series, you lose Steph, and you should be worried."

• Dave DuFour [40:06]:
  "Buddy played tremendous last night... He was really good on defense."

• Dave DuFour [55:03]:
  "I don't feel like they should be concerned... They have the personnel to fix them."

---

Conclusions and Final Thoughts

The episode wraps up with a recap of the "Worry Meter," categorizing teams based on their current playoff performances, injuries, and strategic executions. The Cavaliers and Warriors top the list as teams to watch with concern due to their reliance on key players and recent strategic decisions. Meanwhile, the Indiana Pacers and Denver Nuggets are positioned as strong contenders with minimal concerns, having demonstrated consistent performances throughout the playoffs.

Andrew Schlecht [83:03]:
"Here's our tier list... Let us know what you think."

The hosts encourage listeners to engage by sharing their perspectives on the tier list and team performances, fostering an interactive community discussion.

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Additional Notes

• Engagement: Audience participation through YouTube live chat is emphasized, with contributors addressing viewer comments and questions in real-time.

• Future Episodes: The conversation sets the stage for upcoming playoff games, with anticipation for how teams will adjust strategies and manage player health in subsequent matchups.

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Disclaimer: Advertisements and non-content segments were omitted to focus solely on the substantive discussions and analyses provided by the hosts and guests.

Transcript

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[Andrew Schlecht]

Welcome to the morning shoot around here on the Athletic NBA Daily's YouTube feed. We've been doing this for a couple weeks now. It's just a time for us to get together and chat in a more long form way. Engage with the chat and just to just hang out. Honestly it's just a good hangout time here every single Wednesday. You can join us here on YouTube live. We would love to chat with you. So with me I'm Andrew Schlex. With me I've had Dave Dufour. Dave, how you feeling after last night?

[Guest Speaker]

Good. You know I thought we were gonna have like, I don't know, weird game two for Pacers, Cavs and Then I mean, obviously the injury thing really threw. Threw a wrench in the night because, you know, you go into it thinking, okay, well the Pacers should just blow them out.

[Zena]

Right.

[Guest Speaker]

The talent advantage was so clearly on the Pacer side. Yep. And then they come out so flat, and it allows us to get just an absurd finish. I mean, had the Pacers come out serious for the first half of that game, we don't get the epic conclusion. So thanks to the Pacers, we're coming out flat but finishing strong.

[Andrew Schlecht]

I still can't believe it. I still can't believe that happened. I mean, that's, that's two nights in a row. Like, you have the Aaron Gordon shot.

[Guest Speaker]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schlecht]

AC that happened right in front of my face. And then you have that.

[Guest Speaker]

We had the Knicks comeback the other day.

[Andrew Schlecht]

The next, you know, was insane.

[Guest Speaker]

This has been an extremely. It. Well, no lead is safe in the NBA.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Guest Speaker]

But now it just seems like we have more guys that. That, that step up. Yeah, right. Like more clutch players right now, which.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Hard to argue against that.

[Guest Speaker]

Man, I can't remember a time where we had this many. Like, it feels like March Madness.

[Andrew Schlecht]

It kind of does.

[Guest Speaker]

That's the parody.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah, it kind of does. The beginning, the first half of the Wolves game definitely felt like March Madness.

[Guest Speaker]

Oh my God.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Well, I call it basketball, man.

[Guest Speaker]

I mean, they wound up over 16 from three. They were what, five of 29 for the game after going seven of 47.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Guest Speaker]

The other night, just the shooting.

[Zena]

Oh, man.

[Guest Speaker]

Between them and the Celtics, I don't know which was worse.

[Zena]

Right.

[Guest Speaker]

Like.

[Andrew Schlecht]

But they're both quite bad.

[Guest Speaker]

At least the Timberwolves, like, they, they only shot 29 of them last night. Yeah. And the thing is, they were good looks. The Celtics were some trash looks that they were throwing up. I mean, Drew Holiday had one where it looked like he was just, you know, I don't know, twirling to the three point line on an offensive rebound and he just kind of flicks it up.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Guest Speaker]

No good reason.

[Andrew Schlecht]

One felt like math, which was the Celtics. It's like this is calculator ball. And then the Wolves kind of like bad luck.

[Guest Speaker]

Yeah. Two games in a row of really like someone put a lid on the basket physically.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, no question. Yeah, I was talking to Alex Spears about this just a little bit ago, but also like the Pacers game felt like the ball just bounced the way of the Pacers at the end of the game.

[Guest Speaker]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schlecht]

That it was done for the Thunder. It felt like self inflicted, you know, the whole Thing felt self inflicted with just what happened there as from a coach's perspective. You know, a lot of people. I want to hear your perspective on this, but a lot of people are very, very critical of Mark Dagnal. You know, the last.

[Zena]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schlecht]

A couple days. I just want to hear a little bit more of your perspective on like how he handled the end of that game.

[Guest Speaker]

Well, okay, so the big. One of the big things, I mean, people bring up the challenge, right? Yeah, I don't. That's a tough one, I think. I think it's. It's hard to really pin that on him.

[Zena]

Right.

[Guest Speaker]

Like, yes. Shay tries to stop him when he realizes that they're not going to win it. But I mean, he's already called it at that point. You know, it's someone else's job. It's not Mark Dagnote's job. Obviously, the buck stops with him. So the mistake, he has to eat it. The fouling thing was odd to me, especially when Jokic was out of the game.

[Zena]

Right.

[Guest Speaker]

Like you have to be. That is your job. You have to be aware that Jokic is not on the court and you need to try to keep him off the court. Court. But also instructing your players to foul. I mean, it seems to me like it would be obvious that they need to burn clock. Yeah. This is something that you do practice. So I. I mean, it could be. I mean, his instructions. He's doing the right thing, right. Buy the by the book, you're up three, you foul. Okay, now I hate it personally, I think.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Tell me why you hate it. Because I don't mind the strategy.

[Guest Speaker]

Well, okay, so I hate it just from a perspective of somebody who wants to watch awesome plays.

[Zena]

Right.

[Guest Speaker]

Like it takes away an opportunity to have, you know, like Tyrese Halliburton hitting a game winner.

[Zena]

Right.

[Guest Speaker]

You know, now they were only down one, but it takes that away. When you, when you follow up three, we don't get exciting finishes. So it's. To me, it's. There's the basketball, like watching brain that wants to enjoy what I'm watching. And then there's a coach brain that. Yeah, absolutely. You foul. When you are up three, you foul. But you need to burn clock. So you should be trying to do it. I don't know. They found with. Was it 13 seconds left?

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah, it was about 14 seconds left and he found the backcourt in the back court. That's the thing that's killing everybody today.

[Guest Speaker]

You want to burn that down, you know, at least let him cross half court.

[Zena]

Right.

[Guest Speaker]

So that's going to burn three or four seconds. I mean, defending the whole time too, right? Like you are the most disruptive defense to ever play in the NBA.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Guest Speaker]

Nothing wrong with guarding. It's just you can just guard so, you know, guard the guy down the court, try to foul at seven seconds. Right? Like you just want as little time as possible to play the free throw game because things like Chet missing two free throws can happen.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Right.

[Guest Speaker]

The idea is you want to take that away and, and honestly, like, you get to a point where you miss the first one and you got to start thinking about how to burn clock and, and missing the second one. You almost want to do it on purpose in a way that, you know, allows you to get a chance at the rebound. You know, I, I just, I don't know that there's too much you can do when you've left all the, all the time on the clock, right? Like you're, you're giving them possessions by doing that. And so that's the, the major mistake as far as criticism goes. Look, teams, experienced teams have messed this up for a long time, Coach. Look, Greg Popovich, right, who's just, he just is announcing his retirement. Go back and look at the teams that he coached in the playoffs, the last few playoff runs they had, and go look at their end of game fouling mistakes. I mean, this was a constant theme for the San Antonio Spurs. Teams mess it up all the time. So, you know, it's one of those, it's highlighted by it happening in the playoffs and they were the best team. And you know, obviously we've all been singing Mark Dagnaut's praises now for a couple seasons. And this is the first time that we've seen him make a high profile mistake like this.

[Zena]

Right.

[Guest Speaker]

Like. And I think that, you know, the criticism is warranted.

[Zena]

Right.

[Guest Speaker]

You're the coach and you made the decision. But I don't know, I, I want to put it on the players, but as a coach, like, you just can't do it. I just can't imagine a scenario where they haven't practiced this properly. Yeah, yeah, but the spurs did. They struggled with this. And Greg Poppins is the best to ever do it.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Glad you said it. Glad you said it. Makes me feel a little bit better. Walsh in the chat, why foul up 3 instead of up 2 if they hit a 3 to make ot good on them, that strategy should be to take away an instant loss. OT isn't that bad if you hit the shot.

[Guest Speaker]

I, I guess I see. I kind of go this way. I say that your defense is so good. The other thing is though, referees in the NBA being whistle happy.

[Zena]

Right.

[Guest Speaker]

Okay, so let's say you hit the three and the guy falls down. Like, you know he's gonna do, you know, like Jalen Brunson, he's gonna hit the floor on every single three point attempt because if he misses, he wants those free throws and the referee wants to reward him with those free throws.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Guest Speaker]

So now you got a scenario where you're risking losing the game on a, on a three and one.

[Zena]

Right.

[Guest Speaker]

Like so I, I don't know. I, I think that there's got to be number one. I mean the, the free throw rules probably could, could use an overhaul just because of the television product.

[Zena]

Right.

[Guest Speaker]

Like, yep. The three point foul is, is way too turbocharged. Like it's too powerful.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Guest Speaker]

To get the three shot file. So if they did something around that, maybe you'd get more teams. Like if, if a three shot or if a foul on a three pointer was only for two shots. But then teams would, they would find a way to game that because yeah, there's too many finance guys and lawyers in the NBA. Not enough basketball people that actually care about the spirit of the game, huh? That's my rant. I mean, you know, way to wake.

[Dave Dufour]

Up on a Wednesday morning.

[Guest Speaker]

Here, look, I'm going to the gym after this. This is like my pre workout.

[Dave Dufour]

Did you take, I was just gonna say you just took some pre workout or this is your pre work workout.

[Guest Speaker]

No, I wake up, I have pre workouts in my blood. There you go.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Zena, how's it going?

[Dave Dufour]

What's up? It's going well. It's going well. You know, I, the Bay is happy. Last night they got.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Can you believe that that happened?

[Guest Speaker]

It's crazy.

[Dave Dufour]

It was, it's one of the craziest things I've ever seen. Someone wrote on one of my tweets about, I basically said like, you know, great job, Warriors. It is going to be uncharacteristic or just unrealistic to believe that that will happen again for the Minnesota. And someone was like, you know, did you, you do know that the warriors beat them four times, right. I'm like, I do, I do. And I also know that at the time that the warriors were beating them, this was early in the season, earlier in the season at least, they still hadn't really clicked yet. Minnesota was still trying to figure it out. They were still bickering on the court. Right. Like you guys remember those moments where they, like Rudy Gobert would be giving up on plays because he wasn't getting the ball inside. Julius Randall, Anthony Edwards didn't know who should get the ball at the last second or in the clutch minutes. Like, it was still early days for them. It wasn't until the third part of the season that they really started to be like, okay, this is what Julius Randall looks like on this team. This is what the. The two of them, Julius and Rudy look like together as a power forward, center duo. Even though, you know, Julius is basically their point guard. It was. It was still early days. And I also know that the Minnesota Timberwolves have been averaging at least 107 points in these playoffs and 114 in the regular season. So 88 points. 88 is crazy. 31. Was it by halftime, like 31. That's not real.

[Guest Speaker]

That's.

[Dave Dufour]

That's not. Those aren't real numbers. I don't think that the warriors can. There's to a degree that, yes, the warriors defense was great because it's been great all season.

[Guest Speaker]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Dave Dufour]

But there's also a factor that Minnesota lost this game.

[Guest Speaker]

Like, yeah.

[Dave Dufour]

Period.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah. Mike. Mike Weisberg in the chat says that they score 29 in the third.

[Guest Speaker]

Right.

[Dave Dufour]

That's not my point. That's my point is like, give all the credit you want to the warriors, but warriors fans, let's be like, let's just be real. Minnesota couldn't even pick up the ball yesterday. It was weird. It was weird. Yeah.

[Guest Speaker]

Three point shot defense is. Is kind of like. It's like the force.

[Zena]

Right.

[Guest Speaker]

Like, you don't really see it. It's not like a real thing usually. It's about teams. It's about teams making or missing, which is funny.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Right?

[Guest Speaker]

Like, because we say all the time it's a make or miss league.

[Dave Dufour]

They had open shots.

[Guest Speaker]

They were open shots. And I think the, the expectation that the lights are too bright, like, are going to stay too bright, because I do think that that's what happened with Minnesota. Game one.

[Zena]

Right.

[Guest Speaker]

Like, the way they looked in the first half. Yes.

[Dave Dufour]

Like, I almost feel like it wasn't light. I feel like they were just too comfortable because they had, I think they.

[Guest Speaker]

Maybe work themselves up too much.

[Zena]

Right.

[Guest Speaker]

And then they come out flat.

[Zena]

Right.

[Guest Speaker]

Like, you're too hyped before.

[Zena]

Right.

[Guest Speaker]

You've got all this time to anticipate, oh, it's Steph Curry. You know what I mean?

[Dave Dufour]

Yep.

[Guest Speaker]

I think that they just. It was almost like they. They revved the engine too hard in pregame, you know, and they just came out lifeless. It was different than the Pacers.

[Zena]

Right.

[Guest Speaker]

The Pacers came out and they looked lackadaisical. The Timberwolves did not. The Timberwolves just looked like they were, like, tired. It was. It was an odd way to start the game. Pacers were just throwing the ball away and, you know, just didn't have good process. And I thought in the first quarter especially, but with the Wolves, that everything was fine. It just was like, there just wasn't a lot of verve behind it, you know?

[Dave Dufour]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schlecht]

About this. So both the Nuggets and. Well, really, all these, like, the lower seeds just came off of, like, series where they were highly competitive. They had to be completely engaged. They're turned up to 11. And these other teams, like the Thunder. I have a theory, one concern, not one concern about the Memphis Grizzlies ever winning that series. Yeah, they were never going to win the series. The Cavaliers didn't have really any concerns in Round one. The Timberwolves just handled the Lakers. No concern at all. I just wonder about these teams that have had to have, like, real playoff rounds versus teams that did not.

[Dave Dufour]

Right.

[Andrew Schlecht]

And then in Game one, it's the teams that have already met that level of competition. Like, they're still there.

[Guest Speaker]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Everybody's like, oh, the Nuggets are going to be exhausted. They're going to get killed in this game. No, they actually, like, came out and had that same level of competitiveness. Like, I thought the Thunder were actually the better team the whole night. It's just that, like, that edge and that level of physicality and competitiveness was not there for the Thunder, but it was there for the Nuggets.

[Guest Speaker]

You know, you talked about execution that night after the game. And this is the thing. I wonder if these teams that had time off, I wonder how hard they practiced.

[Zena]

Right.

[Guest Speaker]

Like, what was the intensity like in practice?

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Guest Speaker]

You can't replicate the games. Right. So the Nuggets just had how many clutch possessions over the course of seven games against the Clippers? A ton.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Ton.

[Guest Speaker]

A ton. So for them, they're just in it every day now.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Right.

[Guest Speaker]

They're practicing every single night. And with the Thunder, like you just mentioned, they haven't played a real game since February.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Guest Speaker]

Right.

[Zena]

Really?

[Andrew Schlecht]

And you can't stress yourself. It's almost like, I, I. Yeah. Make this.

[Dave Dufour]

The moment has to come.

[Guest Speaker]

Maybe too chill.

[Zena]

Right.

[Guest Speaker]

Like, I mean, maybe the thing about Mark where he's so steady. It worked again, he gets.

[Dave Dufour]

I feel like he's. Yeah, I feel like I could see him being intense. But here's the thing.

[Andrew Schlecht]

In the right moments, in the right.

[Guest Speaker]

Moment, the thing about it is from a, from an edge standpoint, in practice, like, no, NBA teams don't practice anymore. Right. That's just. Yeah, they're not practicing. And right now, like, there's a, there's a fine line. Like, how much do you want to work versus rest? And can you risk injury and all these other. I, I, but you are right. Like those guys. And it's, it's because you can't really practice for what the Nuggets just did.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Well, I just don't think, like, I, I, I would draw a comparison to, like, my physical therapy I'm going through right now. Like, you can't, like, your knee, like, when you're trying to bend it whenever you, like, have this new acl, you can't move it past a particular point. Like, your, your body won't let you. And like, when you're practicing with your own team, you can't stress yourself.

[Guest Speaker]

Right.

[Andrew Schlecht]

You know, you need, like, somebody on the outside to stress you. Like, you need therapist to come in and move your knee. You need another team to come in and actually push you. You can't. Like, you could practice 100 days in a row.

[Guest Speaker]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schlecht]

With your own team, and you won't be stressed. Like, you will be against an opponent.

[Dave Dufour]

Steph just said this. He literally said on, I think on Sunday night after they finished with the Rockets, or excuse me, maybe it was on Monday morning on pr, I can't remember. But either way, Steph just said that having had the series go to seven, and basically at the end of that series, click, right. They're clicking now. They're in.

[Guest Speaker]

They know who they are.

[Dave Dufour]

Right. But, but they, they do to some extent. But they still had a lot to figure out because, let's just be real. Buddy hadn't been playing the way he played in game seven, Right. And Moses Moody has been in a scoring up and down kind of funk or whatever. So there's been a lot of factors where they don't know who they are outside of maybe Steph's contributions and Jimmy's contributions. But in those two, particularly those last three games, they had to get in a rhythm of how do we fix our defense? How do we ensure that our defense doesn't, you know, kick us out of the series? And so they roll with that same rhythm and that same momentum into Minnesota. And to your point, Dave, I don't know if it's about practice, but it's definitely from a Perspective of like, we have, we haven't been playing in rhythm.

[Guest Speaker]

Yeah.

[Dave Dufour]

And to your point, in Andrew, we haven't been playing in a, in a circumstance, you know, in a petri dish of tension. Right. Everything, anything we've been doing has been walkthroughs. It's been film, it's been, you know, four on four, shell drill, like, against each other. But it's not the same as Steph Curry just walked through the door, or Jimmy Butler just walked through the door, or Draymond Green just walked through the door. So I do agree that, you know, there's benefits to be able to rest. But all of these teams that we thought would be tired, New York after Detroit, Nuggets after Clippers, warriors after Rockets, we thought would be exhausted because they just went up against some defensive powerhouses, literally all three of them, if anything, they just got practice right. To get into the second round and start strong.

[Guest Speaker]

Yeah, I, you know, I'll give you a couple of examples. Like, coaching, wise one, like, coach, when I coached high school, we would do scrimmages right before the regular season. This is, this is common. But I would talk to the opposing coach before the game. I'd say, hey, look, this is practice. Here's the stuff I need us to work on. And, and then I would say, is there anything you need us to do to help you, you know, get ready for the season? That was the one way that I could crank things up. Like, I, I, it was the best way to install a press because it's hard to do in practice because, you know, the guys on your team that can't dribble, right, it's hard for you to actually work around that.

[Zena]

Right?

[Guest Speaker]

Then the other is international stuff. You go and do friendlies against other up and coming, you know, countries or teams or whatever, and those guys want to win those friendlies. Like, those are real matches. Like, you'll see this as the soccer World cup rolls around. You know, we've got Eurobasket coming this summer. Like those smaller countries that don't make the competitions, they see these as real, real games. And that's a great way to ratchet yourself up to get ready for, you know, for playing in group play and elimination. But there is no mechanism because I don't even think, like, NBA teams would be allowed to say, hey, college All Stars, Oklahoma City. You guys all played in college, now you're doing whatever in Oklahoma City. We're going to keep you around as a practice squad for when we're going to have 10 days off. In the playoffs. I. I don't think that there would be a mechanism for that. But if any team was going to pull something like that off, it feels like OKC would be high up on the list.

[Dave Dufour]

Yeah, that's smart. Do you know if they do that, Andrew?

[Guest Speaker]

No, they don't. No, they definitely don't.

[Andrew Schlecht]

No.

[Dave Dufour]

Yeah, that makes sense.

[Guest Speaker]

But I don't think they can. Is it?

[Dave Dufour]

Oh, yeah.

[Guest Speaker]

There are a lot of rules about practice, too.

[Andrew Schlecht]

They have coaches that they practice with. Like, they have a lot of guys on the coaching staff that are able to kind of practice with them. But yeah, there's no substitution for.

[Guest Speaker]

The spurs use their player development staff for that. That's why they. They kind of have an issue.

[Dave Dufour]

I thought you were alluding that that is something that you can do. I was like, oh, I didn't.

[Guest Speaker]

Oh, no, no, I don't think you can. But it would be an interesting idea, right? Like, hey, it's like the Stay Ready Crew, you know?

[Andrew Schlecht]

This is an interesting question from YouTube user in the chat. Is the west really that much better than the East? The two and three seeds are gone and didn't look very impressive. Everyone said Boston, Cleveland were a tier above. I think New York and Indy are as good as Golden State.

[Guest Speaker]

Yeah, I mean, I. I would say I understand that, like the top four in the east are as good as the top eight in the West. That's kind of the thing.

[Dave Dufour]

I think that. Yeah. And I think that's. And the reason to. Your point of how you breaking that down is they've been dealing with this all season. All season. Right. It's like the west has just been consistently put through the grinder because everyone's been really good. And so it kind of naturally raises their capacity for tough games, clutch moments, you know, being able to have to adjust or whatever it is. There's. There's also more superstars to have to handle in the west in comparison to.

[Guest Speaker]

Look at the teams that just didn't make the playoffs, you know, or look at like the Grizzlies. Like, what would the Grizzlies have done in the East? I don't know. 55 wins.

[Andrew Schlecht]

I was gonna say that they would probably be a team that doesn't have to go through the play in, I would assume, right?

[Dave Dufour]

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. The bar is just. I. I mean, that's a weird thing to say, but the bar is higher in the West.

[Guest Speaker]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Dave Dufour]

Period.

[Guest Speaker]

Yeah. But the top, you know, at the top, it's. It's basically anybody's. It's going to be a matchup thing, right?

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah. I would say this. The two and three seeds being gone in the west actually shows its strength.

[Guest Speaker]

Exactly.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Rather than its weakness.

[Guest Speaker]

Well, because, I mean, hell, I mean, look at the. The Nuggets were the fifth seed and there's a strong argument they've been the second best team in the west all year.

[Dave Dufour]

Right, right.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah, that's a good point. And like, you also have to like, get rid of like this like you're like seeding brain a little bit.

[Guest Speaker]

Yeah. And.

[Andrew Schlecht]

And like just look at what the records were for these teams in the Western Conference because The Lakers had 50 wins. The Golden State warriors, who were the seventh seed, had to go through the plane, had 48. It's like, it's not like we're talking like, oh my gosh, the, the Lakers were so much better than the warriors in the regular season. It's two games. Like, we're talking about a two game difference between those teams. And so it's not, it's not like it is in the Eastern Conference where like between the 3 seed and the 7 seed is 10. It's literally 10 games. So like there is like a difference there. I just think that there's. The middle class of the west is just much bigger than like the middle class of the east is like, like two or three teams.

[Guest Speaker]

I mean, the spurs were potentially going to make the playoffs before. Yeah, yeah.

[Zena]

Right.

[Guest Speaker]

Like, I mean, it would have been even more crowded.

[Dave Dufour]

I know.

[Guest Speaker]

It's just the west is kind of. I. This is, Is this gonna be the thing that, that drives the, the non conference playoff seating Parody is here, man.

[Andrew Schlecht]

I know it's here, but you can't do that. Like, like Adam Silver's like, you know what? Use the all star game as your playground to just make sure.

[Guest Speaker]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Like, don't use the actual league to do that.

[Guest Speaker]

How do you feel about. Is Memphis when they expand? You think Memphis gets to. Gets to move to the. The East?

[Andrew Schlecht]

I. I think so.

[Guest Speaker]

We assume they're going to be two west teams, you know.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah, yeah. It's got to be. It's. It's got to be.

[Dave Dufour]

What about.

[Guest Speaker]

No, wait, I'm sorry. Mark Dagnold is the Pete Buttigieg of basketball. Wait, explain in the chat. I'm sorry, I just.

[Dave Dufour]

Wait, wait, wait, wait. No, I want to break this down. I want to break this down. I don't know. Now, Pete Buttigieg is incredibly steady.

[Guest Speaker]

I was gonna say.

[Dave Dufour]

And one thing he is also good for policy. Great, great policy. But also One thing he is good for is very calmly reading you for filth and just, like, completely, I don't know, exploding whatever concept you have in your mind. He does it in a very clean, very sharp, very snarky way, but also very politically savvy and correct.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Dave Dufour]

Is that Mark Dagnold?

[Guest Speaker]

Maybe.

[Dave Dufour]

Andrew, Maybe. I feel like it could be funny comp. Like, he doesn't need to. He doesn't need to raise his voice to do his damage.

[Andrew Schlecht]

He raises his voice, though. He raises his voice.

[Dave Dufour]

Okay, okay.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah. He.

[Guest Speaker]

He is actually yelled at. Referees.

[Dave Dufour]

I see that. I do see that. I do see that.

[Andrew Schlecht]

One of my favorite things. I got to sit. I got to sit at the scores table on Monday, and it's the thing I've missed most is just hearing him berate the officials and, like, he'll, like, really lose it. It's great. I did want to. I did want to bring this up because someone told me this recently about, like, what team should. When we do have expansion, what teams should move.

[Guest Speaker]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schlecht]

The east from the west. And so I'll pull up a map here. Tennessee touches states that are bordering right here at the. At the Atlantic Coast.

[Dave Dufour]

I'm sorry, Nola, to me, Nolan needs.

[Guest Speaker]

The argument, you know, the line of demarcation, the Mississippi river, you know, like, is that where we seem like it?

[Zena]

Right.

[Guest Speaker]

So then I. But so Tennessee, Memphis, and I would say, you know, New Orleans stays in the west, but I think. Is it two teams that have to move? Is that right? Just one.

[Zena]

Okay.

[Guest Speaker]

To balance it out.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah. Just wanted some.

[Dave Dufour]

I'm sorry.

[Guest Speaker]

I mean, the. The truth is, like, you'll get, like. Like, Minnesota geographically would make a lot of sense for them to be in the same division as maybe the Bucks and the.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah, you can see. You can see that. Like, you have. You have these teams that are all, like, they're geographically quite close.

[Dave Dufour]

I'm. I'm looking Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana. Everything over there is east.

[Guest Speaker]

Yeah.

[Dave Dufour]

Going straight down all the way down to the boot to the east.

[Guest Speaker]

Everything else over there kind of agree with you there.

[Zena]

Right.

[Guest Speaker]

Like, if you're to the east of the Great Plains, you're in the east.

[Dave Dufour]

There you go. The Great Plains.

[Andrew Schlecht]

I think geographically. I think that the Grizzlies have the best case, though.

[Guest Speaker]

Probably. But. But if you were doing this from a logistics standpoint.

[Zena]

Right.

[Guest Speaker]

We're trying to cut down on travel. It's Minnesota, maybe.

[Dave Dufour]

But here's the thing. I mean, yeah, I'm looking at Tennessee. I mean, I'm actually. I'm getting more and more upset as I looked at, look at this map because how the hell is Indiana and Tennessee stacked on top of each other? And one's in the east, one's in the West.

[Guest Speaker]

Well, that's, you know, that, that moving the team from Vancouver really did mess with the conference alignment. I mean, for instance, the Thunder being in the, in the Northwest Division.

[Dave Dufour]

That makes a lot more sense.

[Andrew Schlecht]

This team, they weren't diagonal, these teams up here. Which is bizarre. Yeah.

[Guest Speaker]

How would you realize. Look, would you realign and do okc, the Texas teams?

[Andrew Schlecht]

Absolutely. You should.

[Guest Speaker]

Pelicans.

[Andrew Schlecht]

What makes the most sense. Right?

[Guest Speaker]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Guest Speaker]

Just call that the Texarkana division.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah. Might as well. Might as well.

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[Andrew Schlecht]

I do have a gimmick today.

[Guest Speaker]

Ah, yes.

[Andrew Schlecht]

I think we're going to do a. A worry meter for. For these teams. What team should be the most worried right now? So the top tier. The S tier is the most worried. D. Not worried at all. We. I want to.

[Dave Dufour]

What is. What do these stand for? What does S stand for?

[Andrew Schlecht]

S tier.

[Dave Dufour]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Super Duper, I think.

[Dave Dufour]

Got it. Okay. I was like abcd and then there's S. Okay.

[Andrew Schlecht]

That's the super duper tier. I want to start with Indiana because I think this should be the team that should be. Not be worried. This should be the team that was like, this is all gravy, you know, like no one really expected them to get to the conference finals again. And now they're up 20 and heading back to Indy where the crowd is great and they should be feeling good. Also.

[Dave Dufour]

The Cavs have so on the opposite end then. Yeah, Cavs are in the Super Duper.

[Guest Speaker]

I mean, you.

[Dave Dufour]

I feel like whoever they're going up against, whoever you're so comfortable with, whoever they're going up against should be absolutely super Duper. Actually. S is for Super Duper. So Cavs, you are super duper worried.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yes, super duper worried. Because 1. You have the injuries.

[Dave Dufour]

Yes.

[Zena]

Right.

[Dave Dufour]

Yes.

[Andrew Schlecht]

That's. That's the scariest thing is that is seven mobile playing. Is he playing again?

[Guest Speaker]

I don't. I don't see how. Look, they're talking on the broadcast about how he can't put weight on his leg.

[Andrew Schlecht]

It's very concerning.

[Guest Speaker]

Darius Garland's got an injury that they said he would be out for a couple weeks if this was the regular season.

[Zena]

Right.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Like, I mean, logic into this. He said that the S tier or sometimes S class represents the highest class, indicating something.

[Dave Dufour]

Mike, do you.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Powerful, rare.

[Dave Dufour]

Do you drive a Mercedes? Is that. Are you driving a luxury car? That's the only thing that could come up in your mind with S class. Look at you. I like it.

[Guest Speaker]

My Vanagan is. What's the bottom one there? It's a D. Yeah. Class. Yeah.

[Dave Dufour]

Definitely not worried. Okay. For. Absolutely worried. On the same breath or in the same breath of injuries, the warriors should be absolutely worried, not because of where they are in the series, but because their star is Questionable.

[Andrew Schlecht]

If they lost and they lost, Steph, we'd put them. We'd put them in the Super. Yeah, because they won.

[Dave Dufour]

Correct.

[Andrew Schlecht]

We'll put them here.

[Guest Speaker]

They bought some time by winning, but, I mean, obviously we'll find out today. I don't. I don't know what I'm more excited for, the. The Papal Conclave or the Steph MRI result, but if Steph is gonna miss, I. I'm not ready to chalk it up as a loss. By the way, that. That he's just going to be out. I know. That's a crazy thing.

[Dave Dufour]

I agree. I don't. I don't want to either. Hamstrings.

[Guest Speaker]

Listen, we've watched too many teams just totally crap the bed when they should win the game. Right? Like. Like the Pacers almost did.

[Zena]

Right.

[Guest Speaker]

Like the Pacers all year we've seen them blow games that they're supposed to win. We saw them. They should have lost to the Cavs. It took an incredible turn of events. It took Aaron Neesmith making, I mean, just one of the most awesome free throw put backs I've ever seen. Halliburton getting his own rebound on the free throw and then making that shot. I mean, there was a lot of stuff there, right?

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Guest Speaker]

So I'm not ready to chalk it up as a loss because the warriors defense can get you into a rock fight. And it's obviously like the Wolves have a hard time throwing the rock into an ocean, so I don't know. But winning that game, winning that game gave them a nice buffer, right? If they go. If they lose the next one, we all say, hey, you know what? They don't have Steph. Of course they go back. Maybe the role players go off in game three. Like, maybe you get like one of those 30 point Pajemski nights.

[Dave Dufour]

Or Jimmy.

[Guest Speaker]

Or Jimmy. Well, Jimmy's got to shoot. And this is the Jimmy Butler conundrum, right? It's time for Jimmy to shoot.

[Andrew Schlecht]

He took some shots. He's got to make it.

[Dave Dufour]

He took a lot of shot. That's the difference. Exactly. He took a lot of three point shots. And I would say that the. The. Not the Bucks, the Timberwolves were very happy with the fact that he kept probe dribbling all night long yesterday, going into the trees, not finding anything, and then coming back out and finding a way to get it to Buddy, get it back, and then put up a three at the end of the shot clock. So, yeah, he's gonna have to not only take those shots, but also make.

[Guest Speaker]

Those shots well, let's just start with the taken. Like if he just takes them, that's half the battle. But yeah, so I'm not ready to chalk it up as a loss for him. But I, I'm with you, Andrew. I think that that's. I mean you maybe can put them down one tier just because. No, Steph. Right. Like they are gonna potentially be down 2 to 1. Let's say if he comes back, best case scenario, he's back for game four.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah. Okay. Mike in the chat again says that we'll see a lot more Jonathan Kaminga.

[Guest Speaker]

What do you think? Xena.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah, I was gonna say Xena.

[Dave Dufour]

I mean in comparison to what he we saw in round one. Absolutely. I mean he had meaningful minute minutes yesterday. I think that he's going to get more comfortable in these environments and there's a lot less pressure on him. I mean there were some really interesting lineups that Steve Kerr threw out there last night to, to combat what was going on. And Jonathan Kaminga I think should feel very confident that he, he's going to be a part of those very strange lineups. And all he has to do is go out there, try to get somebody to foul him, cut to the basket when he should and hit his outside shots, which he literally did all three things. So yeah, absolutely. Expect to see more JK and someone to pressure the rim. Ask someone.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah, he's got to play. What's up with Pods? What's going on with him?

[Dave Dufour]

Oh, don't get me started. I was, I was in the green room yesterday being like Festus and I. Festus, Aeli and I were just watching like what, what's happening? What is. What's going on. But the thing about Pods, you can always trust he's not going to be like this for long. He's going to. He always has some sort of big bounce, bounce back game, whether it's offensively or, you know, offensively in an assist, distribution, rebounding type of way. He's going to show back up again. So that. I'm not gonna say it was weird because he's capable for that. It's definitely on track for him. But yeah, he's gonna have to show up big time. Big time.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah. Yeah, I thought, I thought that kind of gets buried just because they won, you know, but I'll think a lot of people talking about him today. But yeah, this should be worried and like you're right, Dave. It's like it's all about those in my MRI results today. Like, yeah, if he misses one game I think you feel pretty. Honestly, I think you feel pretty good. Like, if he. If he's gonna miss one game, I put him. I put him here.

[Dave Dufour]

Yeah, right, right. I would change that, too. But if it's.

[Guest Speaker]

Yeah.

[Dave Dufour]

The thing, what's interesting about this is that there's not ton of time between games. Right. They literally play tomorrow.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Dave Dufour]

But it is enough time for one, Minnesota to be like, well, I don't know what we were doing the other day. Let's get our back together. Oh, sorry. And two, also the warriors to figure out how do we score inside the arc? Because Minnesota cat pushing them out and they could not find anything in the paint. So it'll be interesting to see, regardless of Steph, the adjustments made by both teams. I mean, this is a word for the warriors to have a Minnesota team that's adjusted as opposed to the other way around.

[Guest Speaker]

It's where Jimmy Butler needs to put pressure on the rim. He's got to get go bear in foul trouble.

[Zena]

Right.

[Guest Speaker]

Like, he's got to try to get Gobert out of the game, basically, and to give him a chance. And then if you look at how the warriors rebounded last night, like, I actually think there's a lot of hope that they can stay in this series, you know, because of that. I mean, Jimmy Butler is probably not going to have seven offensive rebounds again, but I don't know. Buddy healed. Could probably get four again.

[Dave Dufour]

Yeah.

[Guest Speaker]

Like, just with the way he can crash and I mean, he's big, you know, big body.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Guest Speaker]

I don't know.

[Dave Dufour]

Buddy played tremendous last night. Not even. I wouldn't even say his offense was mean. Yes. Huge.

[Guest Speaker]

Right.

[Dave Dufour]

Ends up being the leading score for the Warriors. But it was really his first half. Like, I said this yesterday on Dubstalk Live. If I looked through the play by play, and I literally, like, did control find Buddy? He healed. And I looked at that first half and I kept seeing, you know, the missed, be healed. Missed, be healed. But every little bit between those shots, be healed, assist, be healed, offensive rebound, be healed, steel, like, he kept producing despite not shooting well. And that's what you really need in the playoffs is f your game. If you're off your. Your game in your, you know, capacity of what you're supposed to bring to the game, what else can you bring? What other intangibles. And he did well on defense. He was really good on defense. So I, I agree with you and I agree with Walsh. The, you know, the comment we just saw because Steve has to play chess now and you Know, I called it a desperation game of chess. He's still one of the best schemers in the NBA, and he went through 12 players to find a way to win that game. And so, yeah, I absolutely think they could do something a little crazy.

[Guest Speaker]

Talked about this on the show today. I secretly. Right. You hate to lose a player as a coach, and Steve Kerr definitely hates when Steph Curry's not out there. Yeah, secretly. There's a little bit of, like, you know, that. That coach enjoyment, right? Where you're like, I bet Pat Spencer he's got a hook shot. Let's put him in there. I bet he. You know, there's. The Pat Spencer stuff is just hilarious, though. I mean, it just. If he's playing big minutes, not too much, that is a serious problem.

[Dave Dufour]

No, no, but if he's has to.

[Guest Speaker]

Play big minutes, it's a serious, serious problem for the Warriors. Right?

[Dave Dufour]

Like, I mean, it might be, but if you ask anybody in the warriors organization who shows up in practice on the same level of consistency in terms of, like, playing it. Pat. Pat and I, you know, we were talking about this too. Pat Spencer could go somewhere else and be a solid two guard. I mean, a solid backup point guard. Like, not somebody that's sitting on the bench. Not somebody that records DNPs. Like, he could legitimately, legitimately play. And every time he comes in, he attacks. Guess who was pressuring Rudy. Yeah, Pat, you know, no fear. That's enough.

[Guest Speaker]

And it's important also. I mean, he's got fouls to give, right? Like, go in there and muck things up.

[Zena]

Right?

[Guest Speaker]

Like, those players are useful. I. I recruited. When I coached high school, I recruited soccer players to be Pat Spencer. Go run hard. Go set screens. Go rebound. Don't shoot.

[Dave Dufour]

There you go.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Okay. Yes. You guys know how many playoff games Buddy Healed has played in total?

[Dave Dufour]

I don't.

[Guest Speaker]

No idea.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Try to guess. Let's try to guess. After last night.

[Dave Dufour]

17.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Okay.

[Guest Speaker]

10.

[Andrew Schlecht]

It's 12. Isn't that weird? He's just been in the league for forever. He just played for so many bad teams.

[Dave Dufour]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Mark Jones tweeted a picture of Tyrese and Buddy together in sack, and he was like, it hits different. And I was like, yeah, that makes sense.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah, that is. That does feel very strange.

[Guest Speaker]

You know, Let me ask you guys, is the. If we go back, the Halliburton Sabonis trade? Man, that's an awful trade.

[Dave Dufour]

That.

[Guest Speaker]

In hindsight, I mean, it was an awful trade at the moment.

[Andrew Schlecht]

It was a bad one today.

[Dave Dufour]

That aged Poorly. Yeah.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Especially, especially with the hindsight of, like, what's going to happen with Darren Fox? You know?

[Guest Speaker]

Right.

[Andrew Schlecht]

You just have. Now you're left with no point cards and you're like, okay, what is this? Wait, now we have demar Derones, Zach Levine carrying the offense. Like, what's happening? How do, how do, how do we get here? You know? Gotta be how it feels. Okay, next team, Minnesota. How worried are you? If you're the Minnesota Timberwolves, you lose game one. How worried are you at this point?

[Dave Dufour]

I think I'm, I'm trying to come up with the, the tier names as well. We have Super Duper. Absolutely. Bed Shirt. No, I'm joking. I don't know what would be, Be baseline worried. I would say baseline worried.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Okay.

[Guest Speaker]

That's just like normal, normal worries. They're, you know, they're worried, oh, did I pay the electric bill?

[Andrew Schlecht]

This, Did I pay the electric bill? My phone at home.

[Guest Speaker]

Yeah, right, right, right. I gotta answer these emails.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Guest Speaker]

That I stopped checking.

[Dave Dufour]

Yeah, yeah. It's just so out of character.

[Guest Speaker]

By the way, this comment from Mike Weisberg, I'm glad this came up. BJ Armstrong is, is now the assistant gm. The, the, the prevalence of, of agents getting into front offices. Okay. It has happened a lot. I don't think this is a good one to do. Just, I'll let everyone do their own research on this. Not, you know, not scientific research, but just go and look. This is, this is not a great move. Oh, man. I almost called them Minnesota Kings for some reason, but the Sacramento Kings are going backwards. They're going backwards. Monty McNair, Wes Wilcox, I mean, those guys were, they're basketball people. They know their stuff. Wes Wilcox especially, who made a great move.

[Andrew Schlecht]

I, I, this is, it's, it's another story of, like, ownership matters.

[Guest Speaker]

Yes.

[Andrew Schlecht]

In the NBA, if you have an owner that has, like, a clear vision and they allow the leadership of the basketball operations to run the team, then you're probably in good shape. Especially if they hire somebody, that's good. But if you have an owner that's got basketball opinions and they got basketball friends, that's it.

[Guest Speaker]

It's a basketball friend.

[Dave Dufour]

I'm wondering if there was an emphasis from the ownership to get an agent or someone with an agent background, because they know how hard it is to recruit players to Sacramento. So they needed a GM with that knowledge of how to communicate to athletes that this is a destination spot. This is a good landing spot.

[Zena]

It could be.

[Andrew Schlecht]

I mean, like, some of those guys have done well in the past, like, there's, there's a handful of guys that have that.

[Dave Dufour]

Myers, I was just gonna say Bob Myers is one. And that's what the thing is. People talked about Bob Myers being a player whisperer in the way that he was able to massage some of these big egos into one place.

[Guest Speaker]

Look at what the Knicks have done. It's all caa, right? Like Leon Rose, you know, I mean, and, and all their players, right. I don't think that that's a good way to operate. And it has sort of worked out for the Knicks, but they're, they're not going to win a title, you know, not that way for sure. And. But the thing is, Andrew, you nailed it. The basketball friends, man, the. These guys, you know, they want to also keep their buddies around. This is why when you see a front office go through changes, they, they clean house and everyone brings in their own guys. It's. It's poor leadership, honestly. Like, if you look in a real world, no, no organization would run that way. You would never dump all your organizational like infrastructure and knowledge. But yeah, NBA operates in, in different corporate.

[Zena]

It's more like a corporate takeover when.

[Guest Speaker]

These GMs come in. And you know, it's. I would say that if the Sacramento Kings and you know, this is actually like Mike Weisberg is, is dropping some stuff in the chat that's pretty good. The teams that do well at recruiting players win. They don't hire the guy who's the head of, of whatever agency to run their team. They win and they win. Right? Like, you know, it's just. Or they draft well. Like, you have good basketball people in there who understand, hey, like, look at Oklahoma City. Sam Presti is basically operated that team with his hands tied behind his back. Financially. They're in Oklahoma City. It's not a market that people want to be in. So you look at the way that he's built that team, Sacramento could have easily operated like that.

[Zena]

They are not a free agent destination.

[Guest Speaker]

They have more money though. They could have been. They could be a marquee franchise in the NBA. As far as the small markets go, you can be successful in a small market. And by the way, Sacramento is not even that small of a market. Like, it's still a pretty large market.

[Andrew Schlecht]

They got a brand new beautiful arena too.

[Dave Dufour]

It's amazing.

[Guest Speaker]

Great fans, right?

[Dave Dufour]

Great fan base, right? Yeah.

[Guest Speaker]

Miami Heat. If the Miami Heat had that fan base, right, like, we would talk about how, wow, they're a powerhouse. But you know, yeah, this is the thing. But Ownership just can't get out of its own way. And a lot of this, you know, I don't want to get into how so much of basketball business is a grift, but a lot of it is, you know, so much of it is people just trying to make money off of it. And when you have a guy like Vivek run a dive that apparently we'll listen to, you know, a couple of people, I just feel like you're just basically, you're on the treadmill of mediocrity. Xena, right? Like, you're never. And. And by the way, they just got on that treadmill because they were on the bad one before, right? Like, they were stuck.

[Dave Dufour]

Oh, right, right.

[Guest Speaker]

And so you get a couple of years where you taste mediocrity, where you're, hey, you know what?

[Dave Dufour]

But it was, for them, it wasn't mediocrity, right? The light the beam era was, like, amazing. Even though incredibly short, it felt amazing. It felt like, I don't know, just enlivening. And then they were like, how do we sustain this? And instead of how do we elevate this? Because I think that if you look at their NorCal, you know, comparison, the warriors are the best comparison in terms of. In the 2014 year, right? And Steph is. Is coming up and. And coming up behind Monte Ellis. And they're, They're. They're feeling it a little bit. Don Nelson, eventually, I think it was 2015 season, goes towards Steph, right, And says, you're gonna be our guy. That's elevation, right? Like, that is. We're not gonna just stay here because it's cute and it's fun and we're winning a few games. Like, we are going to make the jump to change whatever we're doing. But I don't know if that's a Don Nelson thing. Was it Larry Neil that was a gm? Like, I don't know if it was dawn or Larry that made that decision in, like, how they're going to elevate past the success that they were finding.

[Zena]

Right?

[Dave Dufour]

But that's where you found sack is stuck. And you can't really make that decision if you fired your head coach multiple times, right. The last five years. And, you know, you can't really make that decision with the same thing with your gm. Like, it just feels as if there's not enough stability in SAC to understand what elevation means as opposed to sustainability.

[Guest Speaker]

Look at what they did by bringing in DeMar DeRozan, right? It didn't. It didn't Necessarily. Like, it didn't raise their ceiling, really.

[Dave Dufour]

Yeah. Elevation didn't do it.

[Guest Speaker]

Yeah, it kind.

[Dave Dufour]

It made them fun.

[Guest Speaker]

It made. Yeah, it made their floor a little bit more stable, I would say. Right. Like, you had a guy that could get shots, but they didn't.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Really low.

[Guest Speaker]

Sure. Well, again, the treadmill of mediocrity.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Man, I. I don't know. I don't know. I'm. I'm out. I'm out on all of it. I'm out of the Kings. Yeah, I'm out on talking about the Kings too. Let's move on.

[Dave Dufour]

Fair.

[Guest Speaker]

Look, DJ Armstrong is very, very good.

[Andrew Schlecht]

What about the Nuggets?

[Dave Dufour]

I mean, I don't say any. They're at it at a D. I think they're definitely not worried. Like, they stole that game.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah, you're the lower seed. You're not expected to. You're not even expected to win. I mean, I think that they. I mean, the odds of them winning the series before it started were very, very low. And so now if you still. Game one, you've got to be chilling.

[Dave Dufour]

And you still have Nicola Jokic. If you've got that guy, you're really not worried. Um, because at the end of the day, he will carry you to the, to the water and help you drink and then also teach you how to take it back. You'll do it all until, you know, and then shout out to, you know, Russell and Aaron. People just playing hard in general to kind of COVID up the. The gaps. Yeah, I think they're not worried. I would not be worried.

[Guest Speaker]

Yeah, they're sitting pretty. Andrew, did you see anything in that, in that game to make you think that Jokic can't just do 40 and 20 every game of the series?

[Andrew Schlecht]

So the thing that pushed him to 40 was that the Thunder put him on the free throw line so much. And so I do think that there is a way to defend him without fouling him as much as they did.

[Guest Speaker]

Now when he goes into foul baiting mode, like he did, like 6 minute mark of the fourth quarter, he's only looking for contact. I mean, he's.

[Andrew Schlecht]

I know you can do a better job than the Thunder did, though. He didn't have to earn that many fouls, in my opinion. Yeah, I thought a lot of them were just, like, handed to him throughout. He took 10 free throws in the fourth quarter.

[Guest Speaker]

I thought they were late, like the double, like the rotations on the double. I thought they were late. And. And Jokic is always going to take advantage of that, you know, they're not supposed to be calling this rip through, but I don't know if you notice, but Jokic, when the double comes, he starts this rip through.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Zena]

Into the double. Right.

[Guest Speaker]

Like it's, it's actually kind of genius.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Guest Speaker]

Because he's not doing it in space, but he. I feel like OKC's just got to be faster to the spot.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Guest Speaker]

They almost got to meet the ball there.

[Andrew Schlecht]

They just have to be smart.

[Dave Dufour]

Yeah. They have to move on the flight of the ball.

[Andrew Schlecht]

I. I don't know. I think that they did a good, A relatively good job on him, really, until the last six minutes. He scored 16 points in the last six minutes of the game. You know, that's why. Some big problems. There were some really big problems.

[Dave Dufour]

Well, let's go OKC next. Would you put them at concerned or baseline? Worried?

[Andrew Schlecht]

I think they should be concerned. I don't think that there should be. Like, really?

[Dave Dufour]

Maybe then. Okay, okay. Just a little concern.

[Andrew Schlecht]

I. I know I'm. I'm here to listen to you guys too, about this.

[Zena]

Sure.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Maybe I'm too close to it.

[Dave Dufour]

So I, I said I would not be too worried if I'm okc. Because the issues that they had in game one are fixable and they have the personnel to fix them. Like one. Mark Dagnall is one of the most reflective, self aware coaches I've seen in the NBA. He's capable of being able to see the mistake that happened in calling for the foul and how it was executed. Right. Because he didn't think calling the foul was the issue. It was just, you know, the execution of it was the issue. So that's something that is fixable with his team. To be able to communicate that the players now see the end result of that they hadn't been through that situation. As Dave said earlier, they haven't played a real tough game since February. Right. And so this is an opportunity for them to be like, oh, okay, the playoffs got it. This is what it looks like.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Let's.

[Dave Dufour]

Let's adjust, ensure that we're in the right positions at the right time. We're talking about moving on the flight of the ball. Who has the personnel to do that incredibly well? Okc. And who is definitely watching film to adjust for that the next game through. Absolutely. I'm looking at the minutes that the Nuggets put up in order to even get that win or even to be in that game. Yes. The Nuggets came back from A what, a 20 point something deficit? 14. Excuse me. Thank you.

[Guest Speaker]

14 point there have been seven other games with the 20 point comeback.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Why you even think that it was more than 14? Is that because it should have been right? Because.

[Dave Dufour]

Right.

[Andrew Schlecht]

The other thing that killed the Thunder was second chance points, is that the Nuggets were just. They were more physical and they were ready for second efforts.

[Dave Dufour]

Yeah. 21 offensive rebounds, 63 to 43 rebounding count is like, that's a problem, but I just feel like all of that is. Is. Is adjustable. Be more. Be more physical. Box out, send more guards. Expect long threes like. Or, you know, rebounds off of long threes like. I think all of that feels like something that OKC can handle, and that's why I feel less. I don't feel like they. They should be concerned, but not super concerned. And I want to see the longevity of these vets in Denver because it's a long season and OKC is younger.

[Guest Speaker]

I think the biggest question marks for game two is how do Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren.

[Dave Dufour]

Right. And they didn't play well.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Absolutely.

[Guest Speaker]

Alex Caruso has this crazy game off the bench that you can't expect to replicate. Okay. Like, you got the Caruso game in game one. That's a game that you want to win.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Energy, defense, all of that, he'll replicate.

[Guest Speaker]

Yeah, yeah. But the scoring, like, you didn't expect him to have 20. You know, you don't need him to. You don't need him to do it.

[Andrew Schlecht]

That's the thing about it is that you don't need him to be the second best player on the team. He should not be the second best player on the team. You just wasted it, though, because Thunder fans should be very excited to talk about Alex Caruso. Instead, they're very mad talking about fouling up three.

[Guest Speaker]

You know, we had this whole.

[Dave Dufour]

I know. That was such a waste.

[Guest Speaker]

We were working up like, all right, let's talk Caruso. We can. You know, we started seeing the picture of him and Mark Dagnaut. You know what I mean? Like from back in the day. But, yeah, I think that it's. It's all about. It's all about Jalen Williams and it's all about Chad Holmgren. And look, they. They put up 28 combined. That's. I think they need to be at 40, right? Like, they. They need to be at 40, if not 50. It's the playoffs. They. These guys are supposed to step up and they just have to be better.

[Dave Dufour]

There were several. There were several players that didn't off the bench. I mean, Isaiah Joe had a quiet night like, there was. There's players that you can expect. That 20 point game that Caruso had that did not show up. And I can't imagine that's going to be all series. I said it's a long season earlier. I meant a long series.

[Guest Speaker]

Yeah.

[Dave Dufour]

So. Yeah, well, both. Yeah.

[Guest Speaker]

But, yeah, I think that's it. And I mean, look, for the Nuggets man, Michael Porter Jr. Is done. I. I don't know. I mean, you know, like, he just. He looks awful out there. I, I think that their depth is. That they don't have. Is disappearing.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Guest Speaker]

In front of our eyes. So, you know, to. To Zena's point, you look at these minutes and it's going to be when. And I do think game two, that the Nuggets are probably going into it. Lower energy is be my guess. Like, if I. If just knowing this team the way I know them, expect the Thunder to win game too, period.

[Dave Dufour]

If they're running off the adrenaline from the Clippers. So that's going to wear off eventually.

[Guest Speaker]

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's just one of those.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Tonight we're, We're. We're throwing them up here.

[Guest Speaker]

Well, yeah, I mean, you said.

[Dave Dufour]

What did you say? Oh, absolutely, absolutely.

[Andrew Schlecht]

I'm super worried. You know, I mean, let's just be honest.

[Guest Speaker]

Look, at this point, if you're down O2, I mean, the Cavs are maybe even a worst case just because they've lost so many guys. But you go down O2 and you were the home team, you should just expect that you're about to go home.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah. Yeah. I think we ran the number. Somebody on Reddit ran the numbers. I think in the history of the league, only four teams have gone down O2 as the home team in one.

[Guest Speaker]

Yeah.

[Dave Dufour]

Wait. First of all, I am dying at you putting yourself in the Reddit family. We ran the numbers. Somebody on Reddit.

[Guest Speaker]

Somebody.

[Dave Dufour]

My Reddit family. My Reddit.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Are you not. Are you not part of the Reddit family?

[Dave Dufour]

I. I tried to be, and they won't let me comment on anything, so I just let it go.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Really?

[Dave Dufour]

Yeah. I don't even know. Like, I have literally tried and I. I can't comment. Like, I guess I haven't been on Reddit long enough. Sorry.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Wow. Well, one day. One day you'll be able to say we as well.

[Dave Dufour]

One day.

[Guest Speaker]

Don't do it, Xena. Don't do it. Don't do it.

[Dave Dufour]

Reddit is so legit, though. I. I do appreciate the fact that anything in your entire life, any situation you could Talk, pop that stuff in Reddit and someone else.

[Guest Speaker]

Somebody's into it, experienced it.

[Dave Dufour]

Somebody's experienced it, and they'll tell you exactly what happened. So anyways, that's.

[Andrew Schlecht]

I love, I love NBA Reddit. I love it. It's chaotic, but it's great. Missing something. You can go to NBA Reddit and they'll help fill you in.

[Guest Speaker]

It's actually, I'll be honest, it's. It's a good place when you have to do this every single night.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Guest Speaker]

To see stuff.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Absolutely.

[Guest Speaker]

Twitter used to, you know, Twitter used to be great for it because people would drop clips and, and you would get some discussion here and there, and you could really get your finger on the pulse of what was happening. And now it's. Watch all the games that you can and occasionally see what's popping on Reddit.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah. Let's go to the New York Knicks.

[Dave Dufour]

I kind of like how we've done this in the pairs. Okay. If I am the Knicks, how worried.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Are you based on, like, do you, do you think that they now, the Knicks feel now that they can win this series?

[Guest Speaker]

I mean, they kind of dropped a huge weight off their back, didn't they, by. By beating the Celtics? They were 0 and 10 in the regular season. Right.

[Dave Dufour]

Yeah, I'm, I'm gonna say I'm, I'm concerned. What do you think, Dave, with the Knicks?

[Guest Speaker]

Oh, I mean, I, I think that they're probably happy, but you got to be concerned with the way that you got there.

[Dave Dufour]

Correct. I'm looking at. The Knicks probably are like, oh, feels nice to win that first one, but my goodness, Boston Celtics going, what, 15 of 60 was. It is not, not realistic. So I think that they're probably like, yeah, that, that probably can't happen again, but we'll see. Yeah, I don't. Same thing as the same, Same thing as the Nuggets. The Knicks put up some crazy minutes, crazy numbers. I mean, Josh Hart, what, 5,000, 153 minutes. I'm not doubting that he has the ability to do that. But my. I don't know if that's. That's sustainable. That's crazy.

[Guest Speaker]

Yeah. Mikhail Bridges. Mikhail Bridges playing 50 minutes. I mean, it's not. I, I will say I think the Knicks learned some stuff in game one, and I expect we'll see more. Mitchell Robinson and Carl Anthony Towns together.

[Dave Dufour]

Yeah, that was nice.

[Zena]

We'll.

[Guest Speaker]

We'll see because I. They need to stretch the floor. Boston, on the other hand, I don't know about.

[Dave Dufour]

Is Chris healthy?

[Guest Speaker]

That's what I was about to say. So Kristaps Miss misses, what, two and a half quarters of that game. Drew Holiday is banged up. Their shot selection was just absolutely gross. Like they weren't even willing to go through the motions on some of this stuff they went away from. And, and this is a Celtics habit that they've had for a few seasons now. They go away from what's working, which is their game plan and their offense, and they just start running up and down the court, chucking. It happens in the third quarter of games that, that they're winning. They just go away from it and then they have a lead. If they have a lead later, they let teams come back because they go into a prevent offense. They just. We're going to dribble down. It's going to be an isolation. We maybe make one pass to Derrick White, like we're going to give him a grenade in the corner and he's going to launch. And when those shots drop, I mean, they look amazing, but when they don't, they look purposeful. But when they don't, then, you know, it looks like this. And I think that they have this, this tendency to fall into that habit. I think game two, they'll be okay. Right? But, and this is a great point from Walsh, the Celtics like to fall asleep, literally. They go into cruise control and they, they get a little bit, you know, I don't want to call it lazy because like, they're the. On defense. They're absolutely still at the same level. It's the offensive end where they kind of just. All right, your turn. My turn. Jack up this shot. I, I just. That sort of stuff. Like, I would love for them to get rid of it because it would make them a more consistent, great team. But, you know, they go 15 for 60 from three, they could just as easily have gone 30 for 60. Right. Three. And that's why they do it with that.

[Dave Dufour]

I, I would put them at baseline worried.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Oh, you would?

[Dave Dufour]

I would. I would put them at baseline worried because as Walsh mentioned, pretty sure they're awake now. Adjustments are going to be made, and I cannot imagine one that they'll shoot as poorly as they did.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Dave Dufour]

I think you can count on Jalen Brunson going off the way he did.

[Andrew Schlecht]

For sure.

[Dave Dufour]

OG Anunoby should not have been as free and, as, you know, productive as he was in that first game. And I feel like they're going to account for that if Kristaps comes back, that spreads your floor way better than what the Knicks were giving them because if you saw, and I said this on the show with Dave, the Knicks shrunk the floor. They made the Celtics feel as if they didn't have space to operate inside the paint. And so all they were doing was jacking up shots. And I really do feel as if Chris stops coming back if he does, will help them spread things out a little bit more. Will pull potentially. I guess. Cat would be on him. Would we expect. Expect that?

[Guest Speaker]

Yeah. Or, I mean, it depends, right? Like, you know, he likes to post up, so you can't. You could do og but he likes to post up on the smaller guys.

[Zena]

Right.

[Guest Speaker]

I think that maybe there's a, there's a world in which Tibs guards him with og. I, I, I don't know. I think that you need OG for Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum, either.

[Dave Dufour]

Yeah. Either way. I feel like very similarly to okc.

[Guest Speaker]

Yeah.

[Dave Dufour]

Boston is going to make adjustments, they're going to wake up, they're going to play better. And again, the difference, though, with OKC is that Boston's been here, right? They know what it takes and that I'm, I'm learning even how valuable that is at Game 7 of the Rockets and Warriors. I, I ain't gonna lie to you. I did not expect that.

[Guest Speaker]

Missoula's gonna hit the shoot. Better adjustment, right? He's gonna play that card. Mike Weisberg here in the chat, by the way, mentioned something that I think is, is worth bringing up. Whatever's going on with Porzingis. Didn't he have mono at some point in his career?

[Zena]

Is that right, Andrew?

[Guest Speaker]

Am I making that up? I, I'm just. Look, he has, he has been off for like, the last couple months, right? So he hasn't been great. He's not been great, especially rim protection. So that is actually a real thing for them. They, they as lucky as they were.

[Andrew Schlecht]

It was not mono, okay?

[Guest Speaker]

It wasn't mono before, okay? I don't know. Someone in the league had mono. I can't, I don't know why it was Porzingis.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Some kind of viral illness.

[Guest Speaker]

He's been sick before. Okay. I'm not saying that he's immunocompromised or anything, but I don't know. But, yeah, he has been weird for the last couple months. Drew Holiday's been banged up. Jaylen Brown's been banged up, obviously. Tatum banged up with the wrist. As lucky as the Celtics were last year to have avoided all of the injury, you know, the, the negative injury luck this year, it feels like they're Getting just like, they're being nibbled. You know, it's a little. It's a little thing here. It's a little thing there. It's. And the whole thing needs to. Needs to work together. I think Peyton Pritchard all of a sudden becomes one of the most important Celtics.

[Andrew Schlecht]

He's important.

[Dave Dufour]

X factor.

[Guest Speaker]

I mean, yes.

[Zena]

If.

[Guest Speaker]

If Porzingis is not available, I think Pritchard is the guy who has to, like, step up and give him.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah, they won without poisonous last, sure.

[Guest Speaker]

But the other guy. But the other guys are not 100. I. I do think that that's a real thing.

[Andrew Schlecht]

That's fair. That's fair. Here's how worried I am. I'm not worried at all about the Celtics. Like, I'm just not worried.

[Guest Speaker]

Listen, don't let them drop this game. Don't let them drop this game, Andrew.

[Andrew Schlecht]

They won't. Here's the deal. The. The biggest opponent for them in their conference is down 02 right now. This is why I'm not worried. It's like, when I look at the rest of the field, I don't. I do not think. I actually think they should be. Even though they're not in the position they want to be in today, I think they should not be worried.

[Guest Speaker]

I. I don't know, Andrew. I think the Pacers match up with the Celtics really well.

[Andrew Schlecht]

We'll see.

[Dave Dufour]

I think so, too.

[Andrew Schlecht]

We'll see about that. You think the Indiana Pacers are going to be in the NBA Finals?

[Guest Speaker]

I don't know if they're gonna. If they're gonna make it, but I do think they match up.

[Andrew Schlecht]

And I. I think the Pacers are very good. I have underrated them all season. However, I have a hard time, and maybe this is a me problem.

[Guest Speaker]

Maybe you're overrating the Celtics.

[Andrew Schlecht]

I can't imagine them. They just won the title. I just can't imagine. I just can't imagine them actually getting there. And you know what? I. I sometimes.

[Dave Dufour]

Finals, but Eastern Conference, you don't see that at all.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Oh, Eastern Conference finals. Yes, absolutely.

[Dave Dufour]

I think. Okay.

[Andrew Schlecht]

The. The NBA Finals, though, is. Is where I just can't get there. And sometimes I lack imagination. I could be guilty of that.

[Guest Speaker]

It does feel weird that the Pacers might make the final. I mean, when.

[Dave Dufour]

When does it feel like the. The year that Phoenix went up against Minnesota? Because that's. If Indiana makes it. That.

[Guest Speaker]

Oh, against Milwaukee.

[Dave Dufour]

I mean.

[Guest Speaker]

Milwaukee.

[Dave Dufour]

Sorry. Milwaukee. I feel like the Milwaukee Phoenix series was kind of like a weird year, and I feel like if The Pacers make it. That would be a weird, weird situation.

[Andrew Schlecht]

But that would be much weirder to me. It would be much weirder. I mean, again, I don't. I'm not trying to hate on the Pacers. I think they're.

[Guest Speaker]

Imagine.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Good.

[Guest Speaker]

Imagine the pageantry of the Indiana Pacers hosting an NBA Finals game. Rick Smith will be there. I don't know. Reggie Davis's. Reggie Miller.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah, I.

[Guest Speaker]

Mark Jackson.

[Andrew Schlecht]

I just. I just have a hard time left.

[Guest Speaker]

Shrimp.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Panda'S friend, run our test.

[Guest Speaker]

I. I look, I think. I think the Pacers match up with Celtics really well. And I actually. And I. And I think that the most likely outcome of the entire thing.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Oh, my gosh.

[Dave Dufour]

Oh, hey. Yes.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Finally.

[Mike Weisberg]

What is this tier list?

[Guest Speaker]

You guys are beautiful.

[Andrew Schlecht]

This is the. This is. Okay. It's actually a good time to recap it, so I'll recap our tier list. So this is our worry meter. What teams and fan bases should be the most worried? So we're saying the Cavaliers should be most worried on the next. That's. They're in their own tier of worry right now when it comes to injuries in the position that they're in down O2. The warriors, although they're up in this series, you lose Steph, and you should be. You absolutely should be worried. Minnesota a little bit below them. I have the Knicks and the Thunder in a tier. The Celtics are between the three of us kind of floating in between tiers here. Again, I'm not worried if I'm Boston, but I think it's fair to put them here. And then Indiana and. And the Nuggets are just playing with house money here. Like, they're. They're doing great. No worries whatsoever.

[Mike Weisberg]

Yeah, I. I like that list. Although I feel like Minnesota should be lower.

[Dave Dufour]

They.

[Mike Weisberg]

They don't have to worry at all. I feel they had, like, one of the worst offensive games I've ever seen. You know, like, there's just. I doubt they play that bad. I mean, we talked to John K. Last night. He was like, there's no way that they're gonna play as bad as they did in game one again. So I. I wouldn't worry. I honestly wouldn't worry. Even though they're down one nothing, I feel like it's unlikely they lose this series. I mean, we haven't got an update on Steph yet, but is he. Is he back in a week, you know, with hamstring strain? He's got.

[Guest Speaker]

I don't know.

[Dave Dufour]

I don't know. We were talking about s. How There are certain teams that lose the games that they're supposed to win, like the Indiana Pacers almost losing that game despite Cleveland having three stars sitting out. We've seen this all season long where, you know, even. I mean, look at the warriors, even having played against the Brooklyn Nets of and this and the ilk of that sort of team and still finding ways to lose or finding ways to get it to clutch minutes. And I feel like Minnesota could be one of those teams that despite the warriors not having Steph, they'll find a way to kind of walk through it a little bit too comfortably and end up trying to get Edwards going late as opposed to punching first and then winning, you know, and being consistent throughout the game.

[Mike Weisberg]

The. The issue that comes across with Minnesota.

[Guest Speaker]

And I agree with you, it's like.

[Mike Weisberg]

Are they going to end up losing another game just because they fall asleep? And does that provide the warriors the window to creep up? And it's like, you could be. After game four, it could be two, two. Just because Jimmy Butler has a great Game three, right? And they get some contributions from Buddy Healed and Brandon, and it's all right. Now you're two.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Two.

[Mike Weisberg]

And Steph is back and that's where you start to worry.

[Zena]

Right?

[Mike Weisberg]

But I. I don't know, man. I think, like, Jimmy looked tired last night.

[Guest Speaker]

He said it on the bench.

[Mike Weisberg]

Yeah, he did.

[Zena]

We.

[Guest Speaker]

We're forgetting that Jimmy Butler is hurt too, you know, like, he's playing through.

[Dave Dufour]

Coming back from that.

[Guest Speaker]

That pelvic injury. Right. But they can slow everything to a halt.

[Andrew Schlecht]

I.

[Guest Speaker]

This is the thing about the warriors defense, right? They can make every single possession very difficult for the Timbers. And then. And then their ability to grind offensive possessions with Jimmy Butler, I think, is. Is another feather in their cap. Again, I'm not willing to write the warriors off even without Steph. I think that they can pick up a win if, if he's out for three games, they can win one of them.

[Mike Weisberg]

Hey, can I ask you guys one last one question here? Because me and Dave were talking about this last night, and I'd love to get at Andrew and Zena. Your thoughts. Like, would you guys be shocked if the Pacers made it to the finals?

[Andrew Schlecht]

We were just talking about that.

[Guest Speaker]

Andrew would be shocked, apparently.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Absolutely shocked. I would be floored. I would. I would be in disbelief. Yeah.

[Guest Speaker]

Wow.

[Mike Weisberg]

I feel like a team of destiny right now. So many things going.

[Guest Speaker]

Right.

[Mike Weisberg]

I don't know.

[Dave Dufour]

Well, as I'm gonna throw it back to you, since we both were like, I mean, Andrew and I Also thought it was strange, but I told Andrew and Dave, I was like, does this kind of feel like the year that Milwaukee and Phoenix went to the Finals? If Indiana makes it, it's just kind of like a. Oh, not to, you know, crap on you. I don't think I realized you were that good. Didn't realize that things were going that well for you, but it just feels like they do. I mean, we, all season long, we've been talking about two teams, three teams, really add Boston to that mix. But we've been talking about OKC and Cleveland just being dominant. Dominant, dominant. And why has Cleveland specifically been dominant? They've got a great backcourt and they got a great front court, and they are balanced, really well balanced. And what have we seen as of late, really, all season, but really we're now starting to see it and paying attention. Tyrese Halberton, Aaron Ne Smith, Andrew Nemhard, Pascal Siakam, even. But I'll call him the front court. But really that back court. Solid add in TJ McConnell off the bench. Like, solid, solid backcourt play from Indiana and then their front court. Pascal, Miles Turner. Like, we're seeing some OBI toppin even off the bench. Like, we're seeing really great performances and a balanced team. I'm feeling like we could interchange Cleveland and Indiana in the way that we've talked about why they're so good, at least so far in these playoffs. And so guess what? Cavs don't have the things that have made them good all season long. A balanced backcourt. They don't have that anymore. Darius Garland is sitting on the bench. A balanced front court. They don't have that right now. Evan Mobley is sitting on the bench. Even their peripheral players, we talked about Okoro and, and, and Sam all season long. Merill, like, Hunter's on the bench. Hunter's on the bench. So all the things that we've talked about for Cleveland can literally take all of that and transfix it onto Indiana and it wouldn't be crazy.

[Guest Speaker]

Yeah, I, I, I just like, I.

[Mike Weisberg]

I love the idea of timing in the playoffs, and I think timing is everything for some of these teams. Certain years you have to get more lucky than others, and luck is just a part of it. I, I know people like to do the asterisk thing. They do it a lot with the 2019 wrapped in, and I've experienced that a lot. But it's just part of going through a long playoff run. Things have to break right for you. And for Indiana, things are breaking right and they're doing it at a time where Boston feels a little bit more fragile.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Right.

[Mike Weisberg]

Jalen Brown isn't getting lift on his shots. The. Oh, look a little, I don't know, weird.

[Guest Speaker]

It's a throwback stream. Andrew.

[Andrew Schlecht]

I know we're losing s here.

[Guest Speaker]

Yeah, here's.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Here's why I would be surprised. Preseason title odds. Here are the teams that had better odds before the season started, and the Indiana Pacers, Grizzlies, Heat, Suns, Lakers, Clippers, Warriors, Sixers, Bucks, Mavs, Thunder, Wolves, Nuggets, Knicks, Celtics. That's why I'd be surprised. I just, we just haven't had them in that bucket at all. Even before the playoffs started. I don't think anybody really put them in that bucket. I think it was, I think, like, it's, it's surprising that they're, you know, they're in this spot.

[Guest Speaker]

I don't know. I will say this. I mean, I like the Pacers against the Cavs. I, I like the matchup for him. And I felt like they could win the series. I thought it would be a six or seven game series, but I felt like the Pacers could, could beat them. And the Pacers have matched up against the Celtics team really well the last two seasons. Yeah, I mean, the Celtics are a much better team.

[Andrew Schlecht]

They're a much better team. They should win.

[Guest Speaker]

I just think that there are enough things going on with the Celtics that there's some weaknesses that can be exploited. And, and with the Pacers, everything's kind of going right for them right now.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Guest Speaker]

You know, I mean, there, a lot of people. Look, there are injuries every single year during the regular season and every single year during the playoffs. If I have to qualify every good thing about a team by saying, okay, they've had injury luck, then we would be here all day. But the Pacers are also, they're experiencing some great injury luck as well. They're going to have an easier path. Like, I think the Knicks are going to put up a little bit more of a fight than the Cavs just because the Cavs are going to be down a few guys.

[Zena]

Right.

[Guest Speaker]

Like, it feels like the Pacers should be able to get this done in five games if, if it's going to go like this. Yeah, Mobley's not going to play.

[Andrew Schlecht]

If Mobile's not going to play. It's going to. There's. There's going to be. So.

[Guest Speaker]

Whereas the Knicks picking up that, that game one win. I mean, it. We're gonna go six. It feels like.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah, yeah. I still don't think they won the series. I still think the Celtics.

[Guest Speaker]

Right, I agree with that.

[Andrew Schlecht]

I still think that the Celtics will be the team in the NBA Finals.

[Guest Speaker]

So, I mean, I like Boston, so I'm down. I mean, you know, I'm. I love a good walkable city. It's gonna be great weather there in June. So, you know, that's literally. I'm like a one issue voter right now as far as the teams making the finals. It's kind of like. Like I haven't been to, to Minneapolis. I think that would be a lot of fun. I. I've got a lot of friends there. It's on. Yeah, I'd love to go there. I do like Denver quite a bit. Obviously Oklahoma City. You know, I got a lot of buddies over there. Yeah. So that's what I'm thinking. I like on the list of places, I think, you know, probably the Knicks. I would hate it if they made the Finals just because. Not a big New York guy.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah, it'd be kind of fun though. The Finals at MSG would be kind of amazing.

[Guest Speaker]

Insane. Insane.

[Zena]

Look.

[Guest Speaker]

Which one's crazier, the Knicks making the Finals or the Pacers making the Finals?

[Andrew Schlecht]

I mean, at this point, I think it would have to be the Knicks.

[Guest Speaker]

Because they have to be Boston first.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah, I think you have to be the Knicks. Also. Just the way the, the vibes around the Knicks have been so weird for a while.

[Guest Speaker]

Yeah. That they don't feel like as good of a team as the Pacers.

[Andrew Schlecht]

The Pacers feel more steady at this point is what I would say.

[Guest Speaker]

Every single shot for the Knicks feels like. I don't know. It's the Odyssey. Right. It is just you have to do these 12 tasks in order to get to get a shot off Jalen Brunson. It just. I don't know how that's. I don't know how they've been doing it for the last two seasons. Much less to do it and beat the Celtics for.

[Andrew Schlecht]

Yeah.

[Guest Speaker]

You know, out of seven.

[Andrew Schlecht]

So true. It's true.

[Guest Speaker]

Been a great playoffs, though. I love it. It's unpredictability has been great.

[Andrew Schlecht]

It's been great. Let us know about our tier list if how. How worried, you know, these teams and fan bases should be. Again, the most worried teams. The most worried team, actually, that we have, and it's a tier of its own, the Cleveland Cavaliers. The next tier, we have the Golden State warriors, mostly due to Steph's injury. The. The tier below that, we have the Minnesota Timberwolves. Who just looked horrific against the warriors and then and the second to last year OkC, Knicks and Celtics and then in the not worried at all tier the finals bound Indiana Pacers and the Denver Nuggets. So let us know what you think. Let us know in the chat. Let us know in the comments section please. If you would just comment on this video. Not necessarily the chat, but on the video would be great. And then if you would like the video as well if you're watching on YouTube. We appreciate you guys listening and we'll talk to you guys again next time.

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