Dave Dufour (2:52)

You know, I'm happy to drag you away from the exciting college basketball games to talk about Hornets magic, the blowout, which we'll get to the Hornet stuff after the break. I do actually want to start with the tournament. Shout out to the VCU Rams, Richmond's pride for beating the UNC Tar Heel. Tar Heels. I feel like everyone in America had to have been rooting for vcu. Brian, did you get a chance to catch that? The ending. They came back from 19 points down force overtime. Amazing.

Brian Geisinger (3:25)

It was. So I will say, as someone who's flipping channels, I don't have like the quad box set up in part because I'm cutting up TCU Ohio State film from earlier too. So I've just kind of got the one extra screen going. And when that was a 14 point game with about seven minutes to go, I flipped to Michigan Howard and. Which ended up turning into a blowout after Howard played it really competitively for a half. So tcu, unbelievable comeback performance. Tough loss for the Heels and like a pretty heroic performance by a bunch of different players for. For vcu. Obviously, UNC is without Caleb Wilson, but there's still a really good team with a guy with like Henry Vazar who's, you know, going to be on an NBA roster next season. Might. Might even be drafted, you know, come June, too.

Dave Dufour (4:15)

I will tell you that the last two minutes of regulation and that five minutes of overtime is all of the VCU basketball that I've seen this year. So I don't know, they. They look like the best team in the country to me.

Brian Geisinger (4:27)

They can really shoot threes. They got a lot of shooters.

Dave Dufour (4:29)

Yeah, speaking of this, this kid from High point, he made 132 threes in a regular season and was 0 for 4 on two pointers. And he hits a game winner and it's a layup. I mean, that's, I don't know, March Madness, pretty fun.

Brian Geisinger (4:43)

Chase. Chase Johnson, I actually covered. I've done. I was on the call for a couple of High Point games this season and last season and at least one of the games I did last year for ESPN plus he hit seven threes in. So like, he is, you know, he's also in his, like, sixth or seventh year of college basketball too, but he is a roving, you know, three point sniper.

Dave Dufour (5:04)

I mean it's a job at that point.

Brian Geisinger (5:05)

Yeah, he definitely is.

Dave Dufour (5:07)

He's been doing that almost as long as I've been at the Athletic.

Brian Geisinger (5:10)

But a big upset for High Point taking down Wisconsin and look, that's a high Point team. That's like a, a legit, a legit roster. Top 100 team in the country and you know they've got that they had the money to put together a pretty good roster for the third year in a row and you know, in the tournament for the second year in a row too.

Dave Dufour (5:29)

What's their coach's name? I really enjoyed his post game.

Brian Geisinger (5:33)

Flynn Clayman who actually had the chance to meet and interview a few weeks ago before the UNC Asheville High point game and like young coach, I think he's only 37 years old and clearly going places and he was an assistant on staff at High Point the last couple of seasons, became the head coach. They actually play kind of a different system defensively now and he's like really slapped his sort of like stamp onto this team and man, what an upset taking down Wisconsin here in the like a legitimately good high scoring Wisconsin team in the first round.

Dave Dufour (6:12)

Yeah. After all that talk that the, the tournament was going to be chalk and I don't know any difference, I, I'm lucky if I catch five more of these games this month. But man that was fun. It was a fun opening day. Not fun. We gotta, gotta talk about Cade Cunningham here. Sadly, Cade Cunningham is probably missing the rest of the season and who knows about his status for the playoffs. He's been diagnosed with the collapsed lung. We found this out yesterday. Right now the, the Pistons are the one seed. They've got a four game cushion over the Celtics. Theoretically like that's a tough, that's a tough lead for the Celtics to surmount. It's not impossible you know with like 13 games left in the season. So number one, I think that the short term ramifications. Can the Pistons hold on? Like who fills the hole? That is Cade Cunningham. That feels like, I mean that is their entire offense.

Brian Geisinger (7:09)

Yeah. Idol. I mean it's a huge gap between their you know, first and second best pick and roll ball handler, isolation creator off dribble shooter. Like he was having a first team, second team all NBA type season and again was really like the key call, key engine in that offense. I would imagine they're really, I mean they're probably going to need more from Caris Levert in terms of like you Know, creation on the ball and then you probably have to lean into like Jalen Duran five out, right. And just, just try to get, you know, Kevin Herder and Duncan Robinson use their motion and their gravity to you know, set screens and come off down screens and get into zoom action and flares. But like that's, that's tough to do. I have not seen their schedule ahead so maybe they've got some breaks. But my guess would be you have to just lean into your defense, fly in transition, run whenever you get a chance and then like really tap into Duran as like a face up, you know, you know, dribble handoff, hub and passer in the half court.

Dave Dufour (8:10)

Yeah, they have the ninth hardest strength schedule left. So they've got Thunder, Lakers, two games against the Wolves, they've got the Raptors, Magic, Hawks. So it is tough. Boston though, sixth, sixth toughest down the stretch. So with, with 13 games left for Boston and 13 for Detroit. So my guess would be Detroit holds

Brian Geisinger (8:32)

on to that, don't you think? I think so. Four games is a lot. With 13, they would really have to collapse here.

Dave Dufour (8:38)

Yeah, I mean like even if I don't think they're going to lose all of those tough ones, you know, I, I think they beat Toronto even without Cade Cunningham. Like they just have, you know, that, that defense that they can rely on. But yeah, it's going to be tight and if, if for some reason he's not available in the first round, I mean that is nightmare scenario because there's a chance that, you know, like the team that they could face in the eighth seed, I mean it could be the Charlotte Hornets, it, it could be the Atlanta Hawks. These are two good offenses now, you know, I mean these are teams that are kind of riding high. Could be the Miami Heat, you know, as we're looking at the standings right now, it may not be a cakewalk in the first round.

Brian Geisinger (9:21)

Yeah, it's going to be really fascinating to see what they can over the next couple of weeks, try to figure out as sort of like what works for them in terms of like a base offense without Cade and just try to like lean into it as much as they, as they possibly can. And that, you know, this stating the obvious too. I feel really bad for Cade. I mean this is a guy that's missed time because of injuries in his professional career but is sort of like rebuilt himself into one of the top guards in the world and to have what, you know, collapsed lungs, the scary sounding injury, certainly severe and for it to sort of derail what was an unbelievable season for him in the Pistons, at least momentarily, really does. You know, it really stinks.

Dave Dufour (10:06)

Yeah. And, and this season that he's had, you know, the assumption was all NBA first team, probably top five in mvp. Well, that's, that's likely out the window. He's only played 61 games, so he probably is not going to hit that 65 game threshold. I mean, there's a lot of guys basically that. And we've been talking about this all year long. You know, I think Jokic can miss one more game. I think same with Shay. I mean, we're, we're so close to having an award season that doesn't actually represent the season that we had. Like, I mean, it's. There's a world in which, I don't know, it's Tyrese Maxey, you know, second or first in MVP voting because of just eligibility. You know, I do think that. And we've, again, we've. We've kind of hammered this point. I think the NBA is probably going to take a look at that and come to an agreement with the players on this.

Brian Geisinger (10:56)

Yeah, I think you've got to. There has to be some correction to this. And not. I don't want to like, overreact to just like one season, but I feel like even in past years since this rule was put in place, this has been like, you know, there are going to be some concerns with it. There are going to be some guys that get left out. And ultimately that's not correcting for what this rule was put in place for.

Dave Dufour (11:19)

Right.

Brian Geisinger (11:20)

You know, which is now all of a sudden it's, It's. It's sort of like rewriting history accidentally. And that's just. I don't know. There. Something probably needs to happen to be addressed to this. And I'm not sure what the most obvious solution is other than, you know, make. Make some sort of like gray area or wiggle room or get rid of it in general.

Dave Dufour (11:43)

The thing is, we had that with the voting. Right. Like, because realistically, if a guy played 50 games and a guy played 80 games, we're going to weigh those 80, like that extra 30. We're going to weigh that in the vote. I just think they were solving for a problem. That problem wasn't the issue. The issue is just guys don't play and that's tanking and various other reasons.

Brian Geisinger (12:05)

And probably, I mean, so much of this stuff not to be like, so much of this stuff does come down to the season is long. Right?

Dave Dufour (12:11)

Yeah.

Brian Geisinger (12:11)

I mean, it Feels like all of these things that we talk about, tanking, injuries, the games limit for all NBA and MVP considerations. So much of it comes down to like, is the season too long and do they need to shorten it and knock off a dozen games or more, whatever. Something that they, something that would be radical and I'm sure the league and all of its financial stakeholders, a lot of them at least, would be opposed to so that. But it always have to get the

Dave Dufour (12:40)

players there too, by the way, because it cuts into their pie. Now, this is where potentially with the expansion, they add the two teams. You maybe don't lose games, but you can reduce the, the scheduled games for all the teams. I mean, I, again, I hope that when they do this, it's a part of, it's a holistic package. It's like, hey, we're going to not reinvent the league, but we're going to, we're going to rebuild it a little bit like renovate, because I think you can do draft solve, tanking, expand and shorten the season all in one fill swoop. So, you know, that's something hopefully to look forward to. One other little caveat to this is Jaylen Durant with, with the number of people that have become ineligible for all NBA and postseason awards and with the season that he's had, I mean, we were talking about him for most improved. I mean, there's an argument that he's going to make all NBA if he does that. You want to talk about insult to injury for the Pistons. It would make him eligible for the 30% max this summer and he's a restricted free agent. That changes their timetable. It obviously hamstrings them quite a bit as far as, you know, adding to the roster this summer. This is a potential just double whammy, nightmare scenario for them.

Brian Geisinger (13:55)

And it stinks too, because you shouldn't have to be upset about a good young player on your roster playing well and being recognized for, you know, for, for his, for his outstanding efforts this season. But yeah, 19, 19 points per game, you know, almost 11 rebounds. The, the steals numbers, the blocks numbers, the assist numbers will probably go up here the next few games to like. He has an interesting case for it, but certainly if he's all of a sudden is making that much more per year, it's going to compensate.

Dave Dufour (14:24)

Money. Yeah, it, it's $288 million. Five years. $288 million. That's based on next year's projected cap number. That's, that's the third highest salary for a Center in the NBA. It's the biggest contract for a center in NBA history. As far as total dollars, it would put him behind Joel Embiid and Anthony Davis on the centers. I mean it's more. It's north of Jokic by a few million dollars. That is, I mean you want to talk about nightmare scenario for the Pistons, I really think that that's could be a disaster. Before we go to break, there were actually a couple of big events last night. The Lakers faced the Heat and they got a big win. 134, 126. They continue their winning ways. Second night of a back to back and these guys didn't look tired at all. I mean as a matter of fact, Luka Doncic put up 660 on 30 shots. 15 and 19 from the field. LeBron James had a 19 point triple double. Becomes the oldest player to ever record a triple double. Brian, are you, are you buying the Lakers? I mean this 60, I mean Luca just puts that up like it's nothing.

Brian Geisinger (15:35)

Yeah, look, first off, 60 points like big salute. Every time that happens you kind of have to take notice. It's like a seismic thing to happen. And you know, on the heels or how many days removed from Bam out of bio going for 83. And then you have just another monster scoring number for Luca. Incredible performance stretch here for the Lakers, right? They've lost just once since the month of March started. Eight game winning streak and Luca has been just like on another plane ever since that started. So man salute to Luka Doncic and the Lakers. They really do seem to be. OKC is sort of like in its own tier, I think in the Western Conference and just sort of floating above everyone else. But below that, I don't know if they're quite to like the spurs level, but they're. I feel like at this point you have to take them in, you know, just underneath that maybe.

Dave Dufour (16:30)

Yeah. Speaking of the spurs, they also got a win. Victor Wimanyama. I don't know what we're supposed to do with him. Man, when you're 7 foot 5, 7 foot 6 and it's 10 seconds left and you're the dribble ISO guy like Kevin Durant, he hits a pull up jumper with about a second left. The spurs win. They, they're really good. 52 and 18. Now on the season he has 3412 rebounds. Is he the best player in the world yet or are you still making it? Jokic, I think.

Brian Geisinger (17:03)

And what about sga, what about Luca? I mean all of these guys you could probably make. I mean, SGA is probably he. I guess maybe Jokic. I don't think Wemba, to answer your question, I don't think Wembanyama is yet. But a year from now, probably right. Like, I mean, it feels like that's where we're headed. He's the best defensive player in the world and he's obviously a very good offensive player. There's a lot of unbelievable things on that side of the court too. So, I mean, it feels like whomever has it for the Next, you know, nine to 12 months or so, like, don't get too comfortable rent, don't buy. Because this feels like something that when Benyama is going to have for like, you know, the next decade plus, once he. Once he, you know, sits on the throne again.

Dave Dufour (17:45)

What he's doing defensively we have never seen before. I don't know how to account for that as far as like ranking him versus other players. And we're talking about a guy who put up, you know, 34 last night and we're saying, well, his offensive game not fully developed, which clearly is not. But I just don't know what the ceiling is for this guy at this point.

Brian Geisinger (18:06)

I don't know it or what the ceiling is for this team too. I mean, it is obviously he is the sun that everything in that universe orbits around. But Castle, Harper, Bryant, like all of these amazing young players that are like there to rise along with him is super exciting. And yeah, he's still incredibly young. And to think of where this could go, it boggles the mind because it has unlimited potential, in my opinion.

Dave Dufour (18:35)

Guys, stick around after the break. I'm gonna make Brian talk about the Hornets and the magic and the blowout that we just watched.

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Dave Dufour (21:39)

Man, the Hornets looked really good last night against the magic. Put up 130. It was 1311 and Brian like it honestly wasn't really that close. I just thought everything that the Hornets tried to do on offense this team could just shoot and and when you can shoot like this it's scary.

Brian Geisinger (21:57)

Yeah, I think we talked about this the last time I was on with you guys but just like with the con canipple, Brandon Miller, lamelo ball now Kobe white, you know four, four headed, you know, ball handling, shooting unit. They hit 22 threes against Orlando and that it's just hard to keep up with that. And on any night this team can put up maybe not 22 but 15, 16, 17 threes. Like they have that kind of like firepower around the perimeter and I mean obviously the Magic have had a weird season in general but against about any team that's going to be a lot to deal with. So against Orlando, Khan hits four threes, Brandon five threes. LaMelo, three threes. Kobe White has his second big game in a row for Charlotte. He goes five of eight from deep. And all those guys can handle it. They can all play without the ball and they can all really, really shoot. And this just speaks to sort of like the upgrade in Kobe White versus Colin Sexton and why. One of the reasons why they made that move at the deadline this season.

Dave Dufour (22:58)

Yeah. And this has created even more of a jumble. Last night, the standings just got even more compacted. You have three teams tied at 38 and 31 in the standings from six to eight. Atlanta, Orlando, Miami. A game back of them, you have Philadelphia and then a game and a half back, the Hornets. So two and a half back of the six seed with 12 games to play, you give them any chance to actually make the six seed and make the playoffs?

Brian Geisinger (23:29)

I don't think so, but I'd have to look ahead at this schedule a little bit. I can't remember what the type. I'd have to also check out some of these tiebreakers.

Dave Dufour (23:37)

13th hardest remaining schedule. Okay, let's see. Atlanta is seventh.

Brian Geisinger (23:45)

I think they would have the tiebreaker in some of these matchups too, which would be if it's. If it's going to be this bunched, like that stuff's obviously going to come into play. Well, I'm like a little shook because they played so well, like early January through early March, and they basically didn't move like they moved to 10 and then just have been kind of like stuck at 9 or 10 for a while.

Dave Dufour (24:07)

So much ground. Right. Like, they were just so far back in Atlanta.

Brian Geisinger (24:10)

Did too. And. But now all. Now they're up to six all of a sudden. But that largely is because of what you're talking about now. Just like how tightly packed it is, you know, 6 through 9, 6 through 10 in the Eastern Conference. So I think Charlotte. Charlotte can do it. But. But it's. That's a lot of ground to, to, to make up and you know, I guess the last like three to four weeks of the regular season here.

Dave Dufour (24:32)

Yeah, look, it's been a while since you've been on the show. I kind of want to get your opinion on the East. I mean, obviously there have been major shakeups here recently. Cade Cunningham and his injury and his status being unknown for the playoffs. Jason Tatum's return, and that's been really incredible. And then James Harden coming to the Cavaliers at the trade deadline. I mean, the top Half of the east is just. It looks completely different than it did. I mean, two days ago because of Cade, but a month ago, it was nothing like this.

Brian Geisinger (25:04)

I'm sure you guys have talked about Harden a lot on your show and on the. The airwaves here, but forgive me for bringing him up again, but the guy's just shown up and been awesome so far. He just prints good offense everywhere he goes, and we'll see how the playoffs go. Obviously, that. That's got to be said, but man, having him, his size, his playmaking, the drives, the. The deep shooting off the dribble, what he can do for a Jared Allen type like. The Hornets played the Cavs in one of the first games where it was right after the deadline and one of the first games that Harden played with them. And you could see the vision immediately with what James was going to do for. For Jared Allen. And then. I still can't get over Tatum being back. And I'm not the say that I'm sure, but not only is he back, but the way he's played, like, he's been awesome. And I do, as someone who covers the Hornets, I have to feel like they get a little call out here because it did feel like their destruction of Boston on the road there a few weeks ago, or actually that may have been in Charlotte, but regardless, that was the thing that sort of like decided that they needed to summon Jason Tatum.

Dave Dufour (26:15)

We gotta get Tatum back.

Brian Geisinger (26:16)

Yeah. Gotta get Lamelo. Exactly. All this to stop Lamello. But yes, the. It's. It's mind blowing. And as someone. I mean, I live in. In Raleigh, I cover Duke basketball. I'm around a lot of people who. Tatum matters a lot to going back for a decade plus now. And so I think even in my own little corner of the University of North Carolina, you've got a lot of people that are really pulling for Tatum. He actually has. He's the general manager of basketball. He has some unofficial title with Duke this season, too.

Dave Dufour (26:50)

Fake job.

Brian Geisinger (26:52)

You know, it is, but. But. But they were, you know, when he debuted his shoe a few weeks ago when he was not playing, everyone on Duke wore it that night when they beat Boston College. So it feels like there's been some, you know, some pat. Some slaps on the back here going in both directions. But I digress. It's really. It's really, really good to have him back and seemingly fitting in quite well with what is just some of the best infrastructure in, like, North American professional sports. With the Celtics, you know, how.

Dave Dufour (27:21)

How about the job that Joe Missoula has done this year. I mean, number one, the Celtics, I think their roster is just better and a lot of that is because of the way that Missoula and that coaching staff has developed. Those young guys, I mean Keita is just been a revelation this year. And then Walsh and Hugo Gonzalez, this, the energy guys off the bench, I mean they kind of, they, they made up for missing Tatum by having a bunch of dudes who were like 6, 6 to 6, 8 that would just run hard and potentially, you know, break things, you know. And it has gotten them to, to be, I think scarier than they were last year by a lot. Especially just they have a good big man rotation. They had Al Horford and not Kristoff Sporzingis last year.

Brian Geisinger (28:06)

Yeah. To me I think Keda was like hiding in plain sight. Maybe not to be like this good, but to be like a, like a rotational center in the NBA. But obviously he's been, he's been phenome and Missoula has lots of cool ways to use them on both sides of the court. Their stack, you know, Spain, pick and roll game. This season has been incredible. Jalen Brown's gone up a level and maybe that's sort of like the scariest thing. It's like if Tatum is back and he's 90% or whatever, if you expect him to be, but now Jalen Brown is like 120% of what you used to like maybe that.

Dave Dufour (28:40)

Speaking of 65 game rule in all NBA, Derrick White probably should be all NBA.

Brian Geisinger (28:45)

Yeah, it might happen. I mean it's, it's. Even though he's had like not a great season shooting the basketball, he's been just so good in so many different ways. The other thing, and I'm kind of excited, I think I'll need the off season. Sort of like dig into the film on this a little bit more. Maybe ask talk, you know, ask some, ask around for some questions. I kind of want to know sort of like the strategy and the numbers into Boston's like Crash offensive rebound success rate, how they've used that to set their transition defense. That to me is sort of like one of the biggest topics because I've seen a couple of other teams even in college that sort of talked about using the Crash to set their transition defense. And I just kind of want to dig into that a little bit more when I have time.

Dave Dufour (29:27)

So they tag, they box in basically right, like three point shooting. They is with a high volume three point shooting team. Like them, you're Going to get longer rebounds. Right. So rebounding, positioning, like you're not boxing out like you used to. You're really just, you're tagging up. And so if the other team gets a rebound, you're already in front of them, right? You've already, you're, you've got a body on them. This is kind of Ryan Panone. Shout out to Ryan Panone, coach at Arkansas State. He did a great job. Clinics about this years ago. But this has been to me, the way that, that Boston's doing it is it really, it stands out because there's such a high volume three point shooting team. I mean they just let that thing fly, but high energy too. How are you feeling about the Knicks? I mean, the one team that we kind of haven't talked about here tonight in the East. I mean, they were supposed to run away with with the Eastern Conference this year. And I think the results have been. This is a pretty good basketball team, but has some major flaws that I don't know how they cover up.

Brian Geisinger (30:32)

Yeah, it. I know they're in a bit of a winning, you know, winning streak. They, I saw they blew out, you know, the Pacer. It's not much to write home to a couple of nights ago. They, to me, they've been maybe one of the more like vexing teams in the NBA this season. They have played very well against the Hornets, I should say they've, they've been excellent in those games. For them to be a top three or five offense, a top seven to 10 defense, does feel like Mike Brown gets a lot of credit for that too. Having obviously guards like Jalen Brunson, huge, huge deal. And I'm just kind of curious to see how the defense holds up come postseason time. This, to me feels like a team maybe they've underwhelmed a little bit in the regular season, but they've still been pretty good. So like, let's just see. Let's like grade them on how April through maybe May goes. You know, if that to me feels like when we'll really get to sort of like sink our teeth into this team a little bit more.

Dave Dufour (31:34)

If you had to make a pick today, who comes out of the east, who's the Eastern Conference champions this year?

Brian Geisinger (31:40)

I mean, is it Boston now? Like I would have said, I mean the, the Kate Cunningham injury is just like there's everything for a loop. I've really liked Cleveland from the jump too, but I think if I had to pick right now with Tatum playing like this. Yeah, man, I guess I'LL take Boston. I don't really feel great about it, but I think I'll take the Cs. Yeah.

Dave Dufour (32:02)

What just this is shocking development. You know, I bet if we, we go back and we listen to like the first week of podcasts and everybody making predictions probably like me, I thought this was a gap year at like at worst where they were maybe in the lottery play in at best, but here we are. But again you said like the best sports infrastructure maybe in North American sports.

Brian Geisinger (32:25)

It's, it's really, really is that good? I was not. I didn't think they were going to do like, like a full blown gap year, but I thought they were going to be sort of like kind hawks are right now. That was like where I saw them going. Then they got off to such a bad start and then obviously they hit another level. You know, Pritchard, Jalen, everyone knows these guys that just went up a level. What Kate has done for them in the center room. And then I just can't believe Tatum's back, man. He, he tore his Achilles like not that long ago. Like it's crazy how it was, how recent that was. And if that is just like a nine month injury now, I don't know what like it sort of, that scrambles my brain in and of itself. So yeah, they unbeliev team, great coaching staff and they did well bringing even, even sort of like the guys they brought in this past season, they've drafted well at the back end of the first round. Shireman, Gonzalez, like those guys have contributed this season and it's really, you know, bared out.

Dave Dufour (33:20)

Yeah, I think I agree with you. Brian feels like they're going to be the team to beat in the East. Brian Geisinger, thank you so much for hanging out with me. Thank you guys for listening. For Brian Geisinger, Esperahani, Zena Keda, Andrew Schleck and Alex Spears. I'm Dave Dufour and this has been the NBA Daily. Thanks for waking up with us.

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Paige from Giggly Squad (34:19)

Hey, this is Paige from Giggly Squad and you guys, it's here. McDonald's Big Arch Burger. The new Big Arch is here and it's the most McDonald's McDonald's burger yet. It has two quarter pound patties, three slices of cheese, tangy Big Arch sauce lettuce, pickles, crispy and slivered onions, and a poppy and sesame seed bun. It's everything you love about McDonald's burgers. Between two buns, the big arch sauce is tangy, creamy, and it's the perfect pair to the Big Arch Burger. Go grab a Big Arch burger today. But warning, you're going to need both hands to hold it. A participating McDonald's for a limited time while supplies last,

Amazon Prime Ad Voice (35:00)

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