← The Herd with Colin Cowherd
The Herd with Colin Cowherd
Hoops Tonight - GAME 4 REACTIONS: Edwards & Wolves beat Spurs w/ Wemby ejected + Brunson & Knicks SWEEP 76ers
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This is an iHeart podcast.
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Jason
Guaranteed Human.
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Today we're talking about how you don't have to earn more when you can save more. Okay, so you brought me this stat. T Mobile customers had the lowest wireless bills versus Verizon and AT&T over the past five years. That seems surprising.
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Surprising but true. Which, honestly, is what people need right now.
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Affordable wireless service isn't a perk, it's a difference.
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Based on Harris X billing snapshots from Q3.21 to Q4 25 compared to average AT&T and Verizon bills. Comparison excludes discounts, credits and optional charges. From more details, see harrisx.comT Mobile Bills
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Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes.
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Jason
The volume. Buddy. Hope all you guys are having a great end to your weekend. We are coming to you live from downtown Chicago because Tomorrow I will be in studio with Colin Cowherd on the Hurt. Very big moment for me. Very, very excited. We're going to be going on on Monday and on Thursday, so I'll be in Chicago for most of the week. But tonight we're breaking down both of tonight's games from the perspective of both teams. Victor Weyama gets ejected. The New York Knicks just flat out beat the living out of the Philadelphia 76ers. We're going to break down both those games and then we'll bring Jackson up. We're going to talk a little bit about the draft lottery, which was tonight kind of a somewhat boring result, but a couple interesting things to get into there. And then we're going to kind of attack the draft from 30,000ft. And then tomorrow morning's show is going to be more of a granular, like, detailed look at the draft lottery and some specific targets for some of these teams. You guys know the drill. Before we started, subscribe to the hoops and that YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. We are on the pathway to 150,000 subs. Would mean a lot to me if you guys would take a second to scroll down and hit that subscribe button if you're already subscribed like this video. Sign up for post notifications. That helps us a lot. All right, let's talk some basketball. So I got to start with this Wemby ejection because that was kind of more or less the story of this game. Everything gets really difficult with talking about, like big picture. You know, what this means for the future of the series. When a player that I would argue there is no more game breaking individual talent in terms of how he shifts a game plan in the league than Victor Wembanyama. Like if Shea Gilders Alexander missed a game for the Thunder. Obviously Shai is this unbelievable player, maybe the best player in the world right now. But like playing the Thunder still feels like playing the Thunder even when Shea is not there because of what they do defensively. You take 1B off the spurs, they become a very different basketball team. Right? And so looking forward in the series, it becomes more complex because of how different the Minnesota attack is when Wemby is out there but within this game. First of all, like, Wemby did get fouled before he threw the elbow. And so I want to start by saying, like, I sympathize with every basketball player who's ever played any level of basketball for any significant amount of time will tell you that you have times where you feel like you're getting fouled and you're frustrated. And one of the things you want to do in those situations sometimes is lash out. Everyone is. Everyone who's ever played for a significant amount of time is, like, shoved a guy before, like, you know, grabbed the ball and kind of swung their elbows around to kind of create space. Everybody's done it. So, like, the frustration element you sympathize with and, like, is there. I was like, kind of on the 50 yard line with the call because it was like a nasty elbow to Nasrid's neck. And, like, if you would have told me that, they came out and they said flaggart one, because, you know, flager one, because he got fouled beforehand, he was frustrated. It was clearly a frustration foul. Like, it wasn't like this deeply malicious thing. I think that would have been defensible, but it also is, like, completely defensible to me to eject Wemby in that situation because he, like, straight up, like, seemingly, like, made eye contact with his target and just came high with that elbow and hit Naz Reed right in the neck. And so while I sympathize with the. The emotion of the moment because you're frustrated, you feel like you're getting fouled. And why, while I see how it could have potentially been called differently in terms of maybe being a flagrant one, we've seen some nasty stuff get ignored. Deandre Ayton threw a pretty nasty elbow in the last round that got turned into a flagrant one, right? I. It was bad enough that it could have resulted in an ejection. And that is where, as a growing up moment for Wemby, as a learning experience for Wemby, and it's so important to this team that he's out there that he can't afford to make decisions or make mistakes that run the risk of him getting ejected. That's a risk that he can't afford. There are a handful of guys in this league that are so incredibly important to their teams that it's. That they really can't win without him. And Wemby is one of those guys in both of these games. This one and then the game where he ended up leaving early with the. The concussion kind of followed a similar flow where you saw the spurs depth of talent. We're going to talk in a minute about how, like, you know, in this modern form of basketball, just having so many dudes who can create a play off the bounce is so valuable, and it gives you a great chance to win. Every single night. But ultimately when a really good defense kind of tightens the screws on some really young guards and de' Aaron Fox, who's a very, very, very good player but not a truly great player in this league, all of a sudden them having Anthony Edwards and you not becoming becomes a big problem. And Wemby's the antidote for that situation. And that's why specifically for Victor, it's a learning experience for him. Like I understand the frustration you're getting fouled. A lot of stars in this league are getting fouled right now. Your team desperately needs. You got to keep your emotions under control even when you're frustrated. And for the record, I think Wemby gets it. I we're recording right after the final buzzer, so I'm not going to hear any sort of post game quote, but I would be shocked if we didn't wake up tomorrow with a quote from Victor Webanyama saying that he let his team down and I expect him fully to have learned his lesson from the situation. He basically gave Minnesota a much easier opportunity to tie the series and they did. Digging into the basketball, I was actually thinking throughout this game tonight about how much this game to me resembles what modern basketball looks like compared to what I was watching 10 years ago, 15, 20 years ago, and obviously previous eras that I wasn't even watching. The increase in ball skill meaning like just the amount of players who can make a pretty high level play with the basketball in their hands. Like whether it's a dribble drive to the basket, a dribble drive into a counter, the ability to run ball screens in a sophisticated way, the ability to score from all three levels like short range scoring and mid range scoring as well. Like there's a such a ridiculous amount of skill on the floor in these games and you're watching between like Dylan Harper having these runs where he's running a high level ball screen into a pull up jump shot around the left lane line or he's getting all the way to the basket attacking Mike Conley over and over again. Keldon Johnson is finding little windows and transition to attack and get something up off the glass. Devin Vassello can make a tough jump shot off the bounce here and Fox had runs in this game where he scored the ball effectively and you look over on the other end like I didn't mention Steph Castle. Steph Castle made some plays off the bounce in this game and you go over to the other end and like Julius has a brutal night but he makes a couple of big plays late. We'll talk about him in a minute. But like, shading can put the ball in the floor and make the play. IO can put the ball on the floor and make a play. Anthony Edwards is one of the top five or six players in the world, right? Nas Reed and his ability to put the ball on the floor and make a play just, oh, big possession late. I'm just going to attack Luke Cornett off the bounce and get him dislodged with my shoulder and just create a little angle for a bank shot. You know, Terence Shannon Jr. As well, Mike Conley. Like, there's just so much skill on the floor and so much athleticism on the floor between these two teams that, like, at any given moment, it's like these mini runs from individual players that catch a rhythm. But ultimately what ends up happening is you get up into a fourth quarter situation and San Antonio's playing well, dear. And Fox hits a couple of shots. They're up, you know, seven, eight points, and, you know, the teams both just really tighten the screws and a lot of those opportunities become harder to come by. And the increased physicality and the increased intensity. Minnesota is fighting for their entire season. And all of a sudden it's like, oh, yeah, Anthony Edwards in a setting like this where a bunch of dudes are trying to make plays off the bounce, like, he elevates a little higher on that pull up three against the drop coverage, they're off the right wing. He can get separation even when the guys are really, really locked in defensively. And, like, he's better at this than Deer and Fox at getting to his spots and rising and firing and getting all the way to the rim for opportunities with his size and his strength and his athleticism. And, like, it just was the difference maker. It really was that simple. If you look through this game, the. The gap between ant and his ability to create his own shot in this environment was kind of a chasm between him and the other guys on the floor. And, like, that's where, you know, obviously not having Victor Wembanyama out there, the talent kind of shifts irrevocably towards Minnesota in a way that becomes too much for San Antonio to overcome. And just with each passing game has got a little bit more rhythm. Obviously he was a little off with his jump shot in game three, but, like, with each game, he's just looked a little bit more like himself, a little bit more explosive. And, you know, I thought one of the key, key plays of the game, Julius Randall, brutal. Like, he has great first half and he comes out and he's really struggling in the third quarter when the spurs take control and he, you know, he has the sequence late where he gets an offensive rebound and then he shoots like a little elbow jumper off the right elbow that he leaves way short. And you could tell he's just like frustrated and he's having a rough game and he had a really bad game three. And one of the things I always talk about this on the show for like, like help for young basketball players is sometimes that's how basketball goes. Sometimes your shots not falling, sometimes you make a couple mistakes in a row and all you have to do is just keep your head in the game and find a way to make a play. And if you make a play to help your team win, no one's going to give a damn about what happened in, in the first three quarters. And like him just like sitting in his stance in the late fourth quarter or mid fourth quarter and like getting a stop on Keldon Johnson and like swiping the ball off of his leg out of bounds. Actually did that a couple times to him in the second half. Applying pressure way out to half court to force the spurs working late into the shot clock to like a key offensive rebound late that ends up getting kicked out to Nasrid who missed the three. But that led to the offensive rebound to where Anthony Edwards ended up getting the little scoop shot layup at the basketball. He had a beautiful drop off feed. I think it was the Rudy on an action, a little ISO right around the right lane line or he just made a good move, Drew a second defender, dropped it off to Rudy and it's like, you know what I remember about this game? I remember Julius making some huge plays late to help him win it, even though he was brutally bad during some other stretches of the game. And if they, you know that you're, you always just have a chance to make a play. And if you make a play late, it can do a lot to rectify the mistakes that they had earlier in the night. But one thing, the only thing that stood out to me that I think is worth kind of examining on the spurs side of this is like this is probably not the last time that we're going to see a game turn into. You know, maybe Wemby doesn't have his jump shot like when we had his jumper in game three. And so he was able to kind of go to a couple of things like that turnaround jumper over Go Bear or the flare screen at the top of the Key to where he was really orchestrating the offense down the stretch. But like, we know when, when Wemby loses his jump shot, it turns into a ball screen game. And once again tonight it became kind of the Deer and Fox show. And like, I'm not entirely opposed to that because Fox is a pretty good player, but I thought he got a little too much dip on his chip on those last couple possessions after he had his hot streak where he kind of rushes into a tough step back three. That's like 26ft off the right wing with plenty of time on the shot clock. And it's like Steph Castle has the ability to get into the paint. Dylan Harper has the ability to get into the paint. Like it needs to be more of an equal opportunity approach with those guys. Especially since Dear and Fox. I think Darren Fox is the most reliable shot maker and he's the most reliable like guy to orchestrate an action in a key spot for this team. What he's not is the most reliable athlete. Harper and Castle are the guys that when things really get tight, are going to have the best ability to get separation and to actually create like a pretty good shot for themselves in those situations. I do want to see a little bit more diversity from San Antonio, but like, ultimately, if you're a Spurs fan, you kind of have to crumble this game and throw it away because Victor Wembanyama is the guy that is the game breaking talent in this matchup. He got himself ejected by making a silly mistake, a mistake that he's going to learn from and hopefully never do again. And in game five, you have an opportunity in San Antonio to take control of the series. And you should feel really good about what the shot quality dynamic looks like when Wemby is on the floor on the Minnesota side. Like same. If you're trying to drive confidence, you're looking back at game three and what it looked like with Wemby and Wemby did you in with jump shots and if it wasn't for that, you had a good chance to win that game. So you still have a shot to go in on the road and and to get that job done. It's just a totally different type of assignment. It's so much more about engaging Wemby at the rim and then kick outs and forcing defensive rotations towards the perimeter and with with Wemby and secondary attacks when Wemby already rotated to the perimeter. One of the things that I noticed when I watched some of the film from game three in particular was when wemby closed out to the perimeter on a shot. Say he closes out to Nas in the corner. There's actually a little window in there to crash the offensive glass and try to get something up around the rim before Wemby gets back into the play. And so there's a lot of like, like additional refinement that's needed for Minnesota to score when Wemby's on the floor. Totally different challenge, but when we left a window open, you got yourself in there. Series tied at two. Game five is going to be probably whoever wins Game five is going to end up winning the series. I'm still lean in San Antonio at this point, but I said coming into the series I expected San Antonio to win, but I expected Minnesota to compete and then I thought they had an upset shot. And that's exactly how I feel at this point. After four games, today's show is brought to you by presenting sponsor Hard Rock Bet, Florida's sportsbook. The second round of the NBA Playoffs is here where the lights are brighter, the pressure is higher, and every possession can change a series. And a Hard Rock Bet every night is your shot to score a major bucket with win or go home energy on the hardwood. I love building same game parlays. You might like the hot hand to drop 30, the big man to control the glass with a double double and the point guard to dish out five assists. However you draw it up, Hard Rock Bet gives you tons of ways to stack your picks into a same game parlay built for the playoffs. 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Jason
all right, let's move on to that Knicks Sixers game. Remember, if you guys want to get questions into the chat, drop them. Jackson's coming up on the tail end of the show and we'll take some questions. We'll talk a little bit about the draft lottery as well. So this was an ass kicking of rather epic proportions. I was in the air flying to Chicago during this game, so I ended up watching the film just over the course of the last couple hours. And that actually ends up being I had a mailbag question in the YouTube comments a long time ago, like last couple of weeks. And we just haven't had like a slow down mailbag like we did in the regular season. So I haven't had a chance to address this. But I've had people ask me about my process and the difference between like, what it's like covering a game right after the final buzzer versus when I can like really dig in to the film. And in the film it's just with synergy, I have these like hotkeys that I can use to go back and forth two seconds or back and forth five seconds. And so I can rewatch a possession three times really fast or I can speed through some of the slush and allows me to like really efficiently capture a lot of the specific details of a game in a way that's more challenging when I'm watching a game live. Like, the truth of the matter is, is when you're watching a ball screen with Ant, how can I really be aware of like an off ball defender and how well he's doing his job unless I re watch that possession and just watch that guy, right? Like it's. There's just a lot of moving parts in basketball and it can be difficult to, to track all at the same time, especially when you're watching a game live. And that's why, that's why NBA teams have such extensive film room staff, right? So that they can constantly be on top of that kind of stuff. But I really enjoyed pouring over the film from this Knicks game tonight just with the quality of shots that they were generating. They generated 22 catch and shoot threes just in the first half and 14 of them were unguarded. And it really comes down to a couple of things. The playing with pace, the, the consistent like accentuating of their foot speed, which is one of their biggest advantages as a basketball team. And this against this particular Sixers team, they fly up and down the floor. There is a consistent willingness to make the extra pass, which I think was missing in years past. Like, Mike Brown deserves so much credit for the amount of like turnover in like just their overall offensive style. Between like the amount of time that Jalen Brunson is spending off of the ball, the amount of time that Carl Anthony Towns is just perusing the floor while guys are moving and screening and cutting off the ball. The amount of off ball movement, just like when they're running ball screens, guys aren't standing still, they're cutting, they're relocating, they're whirling the spacing around in a way that continues to generate openings. And then the ball is just on a string with the way it's popping around. And so they just get these Wide, wide, wide open shots in high volume. And it's not a coincidence that they can go on these hot streaks. Like they end up hitting a ton of threes, right? I can't remember. It was like 17 or 18 threes in the first half, which is like some, some kind of crazy record. But of those 22 catch and shoot threes that they generated in the first half, 13 of them were classified as unguarded. They were wide open, and they made 14 of those 22 catch and shoot threes. And like, that's just. If you give a really good shooting team that many good looks, they can catch a rhythm, they can get hot, and they can burn you. And I wanted to zoom in on Brunson in particular for a minute because do you guys remember the debate between Damian Lillard and Steph Curry and this idea like, oh, if you just pick up Dame and you put them on the warriors and they win the same amount of games. And like, that was obviously not the case. Dame was smaller, not as good defensively. And the big one that we harped on during that debate, if you guys remember, was Steph has a willingness to work off the basketball, which has a ton of value in a bunch of different ways. The way it opens up stuff for his teammates, like just when he's running action and both guys run at him. But it also puts him in a situation where he doesn't have to face as much ball pressure and it allows him to get looks in a bunch of different ways other than just, okay, I'm running a ball screen, here's a drop coverage three or I'm spotting up, Here's a drop coverage three or here's an ISO. I'm taking like a scissor dribble and do step back three, right? Which is like basically what you were getting from Damian Lillard on every single one of his shot attempts, right? Whereas with Steph there's, there's just such this deep variety of ways that he could get his own shot. There was off ball movement. And one of the things we talked about is like, that is low hanging fruit that is there for everybody in the league. Every guard in the league can get in really good shape and run around a lot off the ball. There's just a lack of a willingness to do it. And Jalen Brunson has been the next great guard to really make that effort to become a useful off ball player. And like a lot of these cat actions when he's standing at the top of the key, you know, yes, they will run dhos with Brunson and like they're, they get shots a bunch of different ways. Like, you know, there was one tonight where Cat has the ball at the left elbow. Brunson curls around him and as he curls around and we've seen Brunson score on that cut a bunch of times, but what it does is it brings low man help and so he'll cut around and come through and then the dude sinks in off the left corner and it's an easy swing to the left corner and it's a wide open three. I think it was for Deuce McBride who knocked it down and it's like that's a wide open three for Deuce McBride off of a two man game, but where Brunson's off the ball and all he's doing is cutting through to the other side off of that like kind of shoulder rub screen with Cat there is, he's setting back screens for guys. He's part of three man action off the ball. Like Brunson is constantly operating off the ball and he's getting clean looks for himself and generating clean looks for everyone else. This is a crazy stat. I tweeted the stat out earlier and it really is. There's so many stats that really demonstrate the difference in the the offense last year versus this year. Like we talked about two days ago, we talked about Cats assists. Like and by the way, 10 more assists tonight. Two turnovers. So now he has 66 assists in this playoff run in 10 games. I think he had 24 in 18 games last year with 40 turnovers. He's got 28 turnovers this year. That's a crazy stat. Last year the Knicks literally had the lowest assist percentage in the entire NBA in the postseason, just 50%. Just half of their shot attempts that were makes were assisted. This year that number is 61%. That's dramatically different. But this was the crazy one to me. Last year in the postseason, Brunson made 181 shots. 128 of those made shots were in on ball situations. So like on ball, ball screen, you know, pull up three floater, something at the rim, post up or ISO. That's 71% of his makes last year were literally on the ball. This year just 55 out of his 98 makes. Just 55, just 56%. Like he's not, he's not even posting up anymore. Last year in the postseason he made 10 shots out of the post. He's made one so far. This year. Like he is completely simplified his approach to These like specific, you know, break glass in case of emergency. Like we, we're going to run a ball screen here or there, we're going to run an ISO here or there. Like late clock situations now and again to keep my rhythm. Bits of aggressive. Like you have to like guys, you have to stay aggressive because that's what allows the off ball action to work. If they don't view you as a scoring threat on the ball, then you're not going to draw two, you're not going to dictate the coverages that you dictate. So there's certain like Brunson has to stay aggressive on the ball, but by having better balance, he's getting himself a lot more easy shots. At various points during the game, it's allowing the assist percentage for the entire team to be higher. Cat is operating with a level of like confidence. Like Cat has been other than the foul trouble, he's been like legitimately awesome in this playoff run. Like it's the best basketball he's ever played. And a big part of that is like he feels great about himself because he's at the top of the key hanging 10 assists in a game. He's done, he's had a 10 assist game in the postseason zero times before this year. He's done it three times in this postseason run. This whole style is like contagious and it's, it is leading to these, these like legitimate, just consistent blowout victories against good playoff teams. Like basically since Game 3 against the Hawks, the Knicks have won by blowout every time. They are operating at a higher level in this environment than they have ever operated and just Mike Brown deserves a world of credit between getting this high level out of Cat, between turning Jalen Brunson to the first guy since Steph to like really, really work off the ball as much as he is as a skill guard to the getting the highest play that we've seen out of Josh Hart offensively. Josh Hart was killing the Knicks tonight with like spot up threes, picking pop threes, pull up threes and pick and roll. Like just like, like heart soup in his ass off. Mikhail Bridges recovered from his early slide against the Hawks and has been literally amazing. Like they, he's digging into the bench more than ever. They're getting more system than ever. Like this team is he, Mike Brown has found a ceiling within the Knicks that I didn't think existed and he just deserves a ton of credit. And like I, I, like I said in our episode, whether it was last night or the night before Like, I'm done putting a ceiling on this team. I'm done putting a ceiling on the Pistons. There's several of these teams that, like, I was going into this playoff run thinking like, oh, yeah, good team. But, you know, this is where it probably ends for you. I. I don't. I'm not putting a ceiling on this Knicks team. I think they absolutely can get it done this year on the Sixers front. Really just want to keep it short here. The reality about the Joel Embiid thing is he's too slow to guard certain types of teams that can put him in space. And I understand that he was a shell of himself in this series physically, but that has been the case for him even when he's been healthy. And chances are for the rest of his career, he's only going to be less so. Do you guys remember the AJ Mitchell conversation we had last night? It was really cool what he did to the Lakers last night. Best player on the floor in an important playoff game, but the Lakers have sucked against quick guards all season. And so what I said was, this is great. Really want to see it in the next round against San Antonio. Really want to see how well he can get to his spots in that matchup. Because the truth of the matter is, is like in the playoffs, you face four different types of teams if you're lucky enough to compete for a championship. And when you face four different types of teams, you're going to face teams that are fast, teams that are big, teams that are super skilled, teams that beat the out of you physically, teams that dominate the class, teams that dominate in transition. You're going to face all these different types of teams and you have to be able to handle all those different kinds of challenges. And Embiid really is the latest example in the sense that the Celtics did not have speed guards. They just don't. The Celtics don't have speed guards. They attack through their small forward and power forward position shot creators. And they primarily play ISO and they primarily settle for jump shots. They're not a team that generates a lot of shots at the rim. And their centers were completely physically inequipped to handle Joel Embiid. And Embiid looked like maybe the best player in the conference against those guys. Now, again, I want to acknowledge he was banged up, but he gets into this matchup against a spacing five and he gets another five that's actually big enough and strong enough to really make him work for his stuff. And a ton of speed attack talent between, you know, Jalen Brunson's more of like the shifty, quick, shifty kind of thing. But like with how fast Mikhail Bridges plays in transition, with how fast Jose Alvarado plays, with how fast tooth McBride plays, there's a, a foot speed attack that constantly had him working in space. And like, once again tonight, we didn't even get to it because we're talking about all these other things. But the Brunson pick and rolls fried Embiid again. Either him too far back, Easy pull up 3, or him too far up, go right around him, little lefty scoop off of the opposite side of the basket before Embiid throws the ball and bounds right to the other team. And then Brunson pays it off with a three. The it's very clear that with Joel Embiid, he can be a very good defensive player if the circumstances line up just right. And it's very clear that he can be arguably the best player in the world on offense if the circumstances line up just right. But if you tweak those circumstances, it just becomes more difficult for him to impact the game really, and sometimes can be damaging on the defensive end of the floor. And what sucks about that specifically for Philly is they do have a ton of speed at guard. And, you know, this has been something I've been keyed in on between AJ between tonight's game, between, you know, just in general, the Thunders build what we talked about with Boston after they lost and how they needed speed at guard. Like, having somebody who could beat someone off the dribble and get two feet in the paint is one of the most valuable things in the sport right now. And they have two guys in Tyrese Maxey in and Vijay Edgecombe who are awesome at it. But like, that identity needs to tilt further in that direction for this team. And what Joel Embiid represents is almost like an anchor from the past. And yes, I firmly admit that we saw a version of this story in the Celtics series where it kind of came together and you're like, whoa. Like, this kind of works against the team that has no talent at center and doesn't have a fast guard. And, you know, I gave them a better chance to compete in the series than I did or than they actually did. And I was wrong about that. I think if Embiid was in better physical condition, maybe it's a little more competitive. But the truth of the matter is, is they looked outclassed and they looked way too slow. And the Knicks got 22 catch and shoot threes in a single half on your home floor to. To win the game. That's because you're in rotation constantly. That's because you're open, in transition constantly. And so I don't know what the solution is. Embiid is basically an immovable contract. And, you know, Embiid talked after the game about how he kind of figured out his knee this year and how he thinks, like, he can manage the schedule, and that's great. But, like, to me, everything about playing with them beat on both ends of the floor is antithetical to what I view the future of the Philadelphia 76ers to be. And I'm not sure how Daryl More and Nick Nurse addressed that, and I'll be really curious to see over the course of the rest of this summer. All right, let's bring Jackson up. Let's take some questions from the chat. Let's talk about the lottery a little bit.
- [35:13]
Co-host or Analyst
Let's do.
- [35:14]
Jason
Let's do it.
- [35:14]
Co-host or Analyst
Before we get to the lottery. Before we get to the lottery, we got a super chat question from Chase as well as a lot of questions in general about the Wemby play. And if you think he should be suspended. There's been people talking about comparing it to your. Well, not comparing it to your sort of perspective on Lou Dort, as well as a couple people in the chat. We're talking about on our Test, getting suspended seven games for eBoing James Harden, which I think is a completely different situation. Um, but do you. Do you think that Wemby should be suspended at all or not at all?
- [35:40]
Jason
For two things. First of all, no way he gets suspended. There's just. There's literally no way he gets suspended that, like, I would be completely and totally stunned if he got suspended. You know, I had people, you know, because I had people, like, talk about, you know, dirty plays post the Dort situation. And I don't want to call out just the Thunder fans here because, like, it always amazes me how, like, just over the years, because I try my best to be fair, and I have openly criticized every team in the league and openly praised every team in the league, I will find people that think that I'm unfair about their team with all 30 fan bases. So that, to me, is kind of par for the course. But I. I am amazed at how people can't put together the simple fact that, like, your history matters here. Like, guys, Lou Dort. When I was watching the footage of the. Of the Lakers regular season matchups, there was a play where Lou kind of took an awkward side step that tripped up Austin, and he went flying into the out of bounds stanchion. If it wasn't Lou Dort, the play literally would not have even registered for me. It wouldn't even have registered for anybody. Like, if that. If that was just like, IO d sunmu, you wouldn't even have thought twice about it. But because Lou Dort has a history, it's like, oh, this is the latest time. And then you watch the step again. You're like, that step was really unorthodox, and he tripped Austin. And the same thing goes for, like, you know, the Draymond Green thing. Like, let's take Iota sun moo again. And let's say that there's, like a tripping, falling, leg grabbing play, and he, like, stomped a dude on the chest. Like, you'd be like, that was weird. But then you just kind of keep it moving, but because it was Draymond, you're like, whoa, this was something different, you know? And the same goes for Dylan Brooks. Same goes for any player has a reputation. Like, the whole thing with Wemby is like, if this was the fifth time that I had seen him do something borderline dirty on the basketball court, then I would have been leading this show talking about how he's dirty. But that's not. That's not the story here. The story here is a generally well behaved NBA player lost his cool and made a mistake. And by the way, if he does it again, guys, like, if he gets himself ejected from another game doing something dirty in the next year or two, I will mention that, hey, this is the second time. This is starting to get a little weird here. Wemby, you know that people didn't target Grayson Allen. He made a bunch of dirty plays, and it was like, grayson, what the dude? Like, what are you doing? Like, the history does matter here, and it's amazing to me how often that just gets looked over.
- [38:33]
Co-host or Analyst
I agree. I. And I also think the Draymond Green is a. Is a situation with the. With Sabonis, is a perfect compare or a close to perfect comparison, because both situations, to me, are situations where I do think both Draymond and Wemby were probably being fouled in awkward environments where they're trying to, like, get loose from a situation where they were probably being fouled. And then they both reacted in a way that was beyond the scope of how they should have reacted. And when Draymond. When the Draymond play happened, it was in the fourth quarter of a game, and the suspension was one game, and it Specifically cited because of the past history of, of acts of Draymond Green.
- [39:11]
Jason
Right.
- [39:12]
Co-host or Analyst
And on top of that, when they think about suspensions, they do think about when in the game it happened. Wemmy's happened in the first quarter of the second quarter. So he missed or more than.
- [39:21]
Jason
That's a great point.
- [39:22]
Co-host or Analyst
That is part of the, that is part of the calculus. If it happens with one minute to go, there's a much higher chance he gets suspended in my opinion that then it then went that compared to when it happened in the game. And then on top of that I think the fact that it was in the playoffs versus like if it's the, if it's in the regular season, it wouldn't, maybe one game wouldn't surprise me. But it takes a lot to suspend people from playoff games and it usually requires.
- [39:43]
Jason
That's a great point about when it happened in the game. Like this series is tied for the most part because Wemby got ejected. You know, that's not to say that Minnesota couldn't have won but like you know, this first had a, like a pretty big lead late in this game. Even without him like the spurs appear to be the, the slightly better basketball team on both ends of the floor. So like I 100 agree with you. I just would be especially too since I think like I think the league deep down knows as well like that San Antonio versus OKC is their, their ticket. Like and that's, I'm not a conspiracy theorist but like I also don't think the league's going to shoot themselves in the foot either. Makes sense.
- [40:24]
Co-host or Analyst
Yeah, I think, I think I would be surprised if he gets suspended. Okay. Moving on draft lottery. Huge biggest draft lottery. I mean at least since the Wemby draft lottery, arguably even more because of all the, the high level teams that could have theoretically jumped up. Big picture, 30,000 foot view was your takeaways from the draft.
- [40:42]
Jason
So we avoided catastrophe for the Thunder. Moving up. That obviously is a big one. I think when it comes to the Thunder, I think one of the things that we'll see is I think they'll target Jaxel Lindenberg. It's the most obvious thing in the world because by all indications he has a great work ethic. By all indications he is essentially like the way I, I did a deep scout for him because he used to play at Arizona Western and Arizona Western is currently, currently has an assistant coach who was my former assistant coach back when I was playing in Utah and him and I were talking and he asked my opinion on a player and he almost never does. And so I did him the due diligence of doing like a deep scout on Yaxel just to give my my $0.02 because he was communicating with NBA teams about him. And when I did my deep scout on Yaksa, what I thought was Rui Hachimura, but much better at defending on the perimeter, much better read and react player, much better rebounder, much more consistent motor. And so Rui obviously has become this knockdown three point shooter and that will be kind of the the point of demarcation for Yaksel and whether or not he can become that kind of reliable player. But he's this textbook big bodied multi positional forward who can rebound and play alongside another big and but also be a little bit of a small ball type of big and has really good read and react skill and all these things that I think are really important within the Thunder system at a position that the Thunder don't have. And so I think what you'll see is the Thunder do a lot of research about whether or not Yoxel is going to go early and if he goes early I think the Thunder will probably try to move up a spot or two to grab him. But this is the best case scenario because where it could have gotten terrifying is if they got someone like Caleb Wilson. So let's just like let's thank God that, that the best that the Thunder can do is probably a guy like Yaxel. AJ DeBonsa to the Wizards is fascinating on a couple different levels. And now the Wizards did their due diligence and put out that they are considering trading back. And I guess theoretically every team in this top four should consider trading or top two or three should consider trading back if they get just overwhelmed because you can still get a really good player in it later on. But I just don't think anyone, I don't think the Wizards or Jazz will trade out of one of those guys. I think that would be something that can you imagine the fan base if you like traded out of AJ debonsa
- [43:11]
Co-host or Analyst
like that would be just you'd have a.
- [43:14]
Jason
Exactly. I think what's far more likely is oh, DebonSA and SAR are front court of the future. Let's trade AD&&& you know Anthony Davis is like one of the main trade targets that we see get moved this summer. I think that's the far more likely outcome there with the Wizards. You and I talked a lot about Darren Peterson with the Jazz earlier in the year. That's like the dream and so for every like just kind of nerdy basketball fan, that should be the one thing that happened tonight that you get like kind of stoked about. Because the Jazz are this like super fun new build in the sense that they have like this three guard or three big look where you have, you have Jaron Jackson Jr. And you have Laurie Markkanen and you have Walker Kessler but like Walker flashed a little bit of shooting ability this year. Jaren's become like a pretty reliable high volume three point shooter. Lori is one of the best shooting bigs in the league. And then Counte George, like you're not going to find a bigger Keonte George fan than me right now. I love that dude and I specifically love the idea of him playing alongside a lot of size in the front court so that he's not as dependent on defensively. And if you had to literally with all that that I just broke down, if you had to put together a single type of player that would be the perfect two yard alongside those guys. It would be a big athletic two guard that can really defend which Darren is, and it would be a movement shooter that can get to a three point shot out of different types of off ball action. You know the, the funniest thing about watching the Jazz this year is like early in the year when they had like Nurkic and they were like running more of their off ball action. They were literally like one of my favorite offenses to watch in the league because they just ran all sorts of really sophisticated off ball stuff to get good looks for, for Lori slipping out of screens and, and like I just imagine Darren and Lori and Jaren just constantly popping and slipping and popping and slipping. And then they have the ability to default to Keonte as a pick and roll ball handler as well. Like that team is just really weird and unique. And now I think Darren too is like probably going to be a better immediate pro than AJ. I think AJ's ceiling is higher because he just has this otherworldly potential as a three level score who can also attack the basket. AJ's got all defense potential deep in there as well. But like Darren Peterson is going to be able to guard at the NBA level right away. He's going to be able to shoot at the NBA level right away and he's going to be able to play in that system right away. And so with that being the case like I think that's the most fun like basketball fan like result tonight is we got Darren Peterson on the Jazz and that's going to be, that's going to be a really fun one. Carlos Booze or excuse me, Cam, Boozer on the Grizzlies is kind of weird because you imagine him and like Zach Edie and you're kind of a little slow footed in the front court and the Grizzlies right now are just kind of a bizarre collection of talent. So I don't really. I need to marinate on that one for longer. Caleb Wilson is a super interesting and exciting player for the Bulls because he is your textbook. Like his ceiling is off the charts and his floor is definitely lower than all three of these guys. So like for the Bulls who have so desperately needed like a legit franchise altering talent, like the, the most interesting outcome for the, for, for this like situation is Caleb Wilson just turns, it turns into like a legit star. Did you see the workout video from Caleb that was going around today? So you have to track it down. It's insane. He obviously he's this athlete but the jump shot looks great. The form looks really good. Yeah, the release is really crisp. He's repeating it every single time. The. He's got a little bit of that like ball comes off his fingertips a little bit like dame right as he's like coming back into his release. But it's like really crispy in the video he makes, you know, I think right around like a dozen in a row. But if the jump shot comes around for Caleb Wilson and like, if some of like the natural like scoring instincts kind of come around because that always to me is a little bit trickier than just what you can do in a shooting drill. But Caleb with the Bulls is really fun. Once you get after that though, it's all these guards and that's where it gets weird because like, so for instance, like the Clippers with Darius Acuff, what are they going to do with Darius Acuff at number four? So what I was looking at there is like, what if like the Hawks at number eight, who like I think desperately need a really good scoring guard, were to try to work something out with the Clippers to trade up to get a guy like Darius or if they were to find out that Darius was slipping to move up to somewhere in there in that range because like they have enough speed and defensive talent around him to I think make him a little bit more useful on the defensive end as well. But again, I'm going to dig more into this stuff tomorrow morning. And like, do you have any particular preference at the warriors pick yet?
- [48:21]
Co-host or Analyst
No, I, I've seen a lot of a Couple different mocks say LeBaron Phylon, the Alabama kid, and he is really good. So, like, I could definitely see that one as just they need more people who can handle the ball and, yeah, basket, but nothing beyond that.
- [48:34]
Jason
Yeah. So do you have any thoughts on any of those other guys that I mentioned?
- [48:39]
Co-host or Analyst
I think I actually like Boozer to the Grizzlies. I'm not even like, a super Boozer fan. That's like, relative to the other guys. But I actually think he's. I. I would just imagine that it's like, okay, Zach Eddie, like, if it doesn't work, you're out of town. Like, I don't. I just. I just don't think there's any real allegiance to Zach Yee there. I think Booze. I think they need kind of a culture reset. And it does seem like Karen Boozer is just like that type of guy. Just culture guy, winter guy. He's just going to do everything right, it seems like. So I think him and Cedric Coward is kind of a fun 22 player.
- [49:08]
Jason
I agree with you there. Like, I think with Edie is the one thing that I get a little tripped up on just because to your point, like, the. I don't think Edie is the type of guy that if you shipped out of town, like, the fans would be super, super, super upset. But I. I just. One of the biggest things that's been dawning on me in this playoff run is just how important speed is. And I mean, like, who were the two finalists last year? OKC in Indiana, you know, and like, the two teams that made it to play against them in the conference finals were Minnesota and New York. You know, two fast teams. Like, Speed is just winning in the modern NBA right now. And yeah, like, I. That is honestly, the one thing with Boozer that I'm not a huge fan of is, like, I just view him as a guy that is a matchup. Attacking forward who's good at it but not amazing at it. The playmaking talent is there, but it's not. Like, I think he's closer to being like a Shangoon than he is to be. And I obviously plays a different position. But what I mean by that is, like, a guy who, like, on some nights you'd be like, holy, he's kicking that guy's ass. But, like, there's going to be a certain ceiling defensively and a certain ceiling offensively that worries me with him. But I'll. But also, a lot of the draft guys that I talk to are, like, super high on Boozer.
- [50:17]
Co-host or Analyst
So, like, every draft guy in every advanced metric is like, this is, this guy is the absolute truth. And I'm similarly kind of just like, I'm not sure if I quite see the NBA super, super, super upside, but I think he's going to be really good.
- [50:29]
Jason
Yeah. And in little disclaimer, like, guys, I, I freely admit that I work my tail off when it comes to covering the NBA. And I watch a ton of games and I do a ton of research. And so when I speak on it, I speak from a position of, like, preparation. I, the draft is an area that I only dip my toes in during the regular season and during the playoffs. And, like, I've done it more this year than previous years, but it's not something that I spend a ton of preparation on. And so, like, it's important for me to disclose that, like, I'm kind of just giving you guys my, like, initial take on some of this stuff. And yes, when we get out of the finals, I dive deeper and I do some deep dives on some players, but, like, I, I will freely admit that I'm a draft amateur at this point.
- [51:20]
Co-host or Analyst
Someone in the chat just threw out a Domas Sabonis, but, like, a little better version than Sabonus for Boozer Comp, which I think, I actually think is, I do think the upside's higher than Sabonus, but it wouldn't surprise me if we were like, oh, yeah, he made three all star teams and he didn't, he didn't. He made one third team all NBA and like, that was, and that was the sort of the highest of this.
- [51:38]
Jason
Yeah, I'm with you.
- [51:40]
Co-host or Analyst
Okay. Super chat from Kangar Mike. He said, Jason, you mentioned last time that when, okay, C is hitting shots that JJ should adjust, like in Game 3, since it, since it throws Shay off rhythm and then he stopped doing the double teams and that sort of, like, threw him off. Is it possible that when Shea figures that out, the adjustment is to just go to turn the doubles back on? Like, is it sort of like a plane, like an on off? Like, once he gets used to a coverage, sort of flip back to the other coverage? Or do you think that doesn't really work?
- [52:04]
Jason
I think that's an option. I, I, I think we might have seen a little bit of zone at the tail end of last night's game. I think the next step is actually going more towards zone. I'm pulling it up right now for you guys, but I think, like, one of the things that you have to keep in mind Is that when you run? Yeah, the Lakers have run. Wait, that was actually a Golden or Oklahoma City. Let me pull it up. The Lakers ran quite a bit of zone versus OKC in the playoff or in the regular season, but they've only run two possessions. So we've seen two total two points scored. Let me run it for possessions. Yeah, two possessions, two points allowed. So they've only run zone for two possessions in the entire series. So like to me the, the next step is not go back to a coverage they've kind of already figured out, it's go to a new coverage. And my guess is we do seque quite a bit of zone in game four. Like that feels to me like the next thing that they haven't really attempted in this series. But for the most part like I didn't think their defense was bad on Shea in the first half. Like frankly I thought shaded most of his damage after the game was kind of out of reach again. And it was the AJ Mitchell stuff in the two man game that was killing them. And if you go back and you watch Shay's 3 for 13 first half, there were some good looks in there, but there were a lot of like pretty good contests and pretty broke rhythm looks. So like I think we'll see them start in the man to man again, start with single coverage and then audible to zone if it doesn't work. But like I think that mostly what has happened in the series is a similar flow. They compete for a half, they compete for a little bit in the third quarter. The mistakes start to pile up. They give up defense to transition sequences, they find themselves down 10, then they start to let go of the rope a little bit defensively. Then Shay piles up the points when it's, when it's over at that point. And like that's not an insult to Shay because the Lakers entire defensive scheme, even in their single coverage because they're loading up on him on drives like once in their single coverage. Look, as soon as he breaks the first layer of the defense, they're then throwing bodies at him. So he's facing really difficult coverages. But like the point is, is like I don't think guarding Shea has been the fail point of the series. I think the fail point has been the bigs. I think the fail point has been defense, transition and turnovers.
- [54:22]
Co-host or Analyst
A couple Knicks questions from our boy Kaylin. He said try not to get carried away with the Knicks, but it is feeling very 2025 Pacers. Like are the Knicks straight up the favorites to win the east slash. Out of the two possible, you know, opponents, Detroit or Cleveland, who do you think is the better matchup for New York next round?
- [54:38]
Jason
If I was the Knicks fan, I would want Cleveland. That Detroit team would scare the hell out of me. If I was a Knicks fan, they struggled against him in the regular season pretty bad. Now, I wouldn't, I would take that with a little bit of a grain of salt, because the Pistons, you know, outwork everybody in the regular season, and this Knicks team is going to meet that effort, and they're playing really good basketball right now. I, I Kalin, the Pacers were magical in a very, very different way. The Pacers felt to me like a team that was playing far better than their cumulative talent. The Knicks, to me in previous years, felt like a team that was very talented on paper, but that just didn't really mesh because of their weaknesses and because of their, like, play style on both ends. This feels to me like an actualized, very talented basketball team. Like a team that has a lot of really good players, that Mike Brown is finally getting, like, real cohesiveness. And, like, now we're finally seeing the better than the sum of their parts kind of play out of these guys, because I'd argue like, like, OKC has a talent advantage, but they also have, like, this greater than the sum of their parts thing where, like, everybody plays hard all the time. Their connective, their connective tissue on both ends is really good. They, they're, even when they're up 20, they're, like, still guarding hard and running hard and cutting hard and screening hard and, like, that. That is such an important piece of it. Like, if you're gonna win, you need to have both talent and that, like, magical quality where a basketball team comes together and becomes something more than what they are on paper. And I think the Knicks have accomplished that. I, I texted our mutual friend Paul Farrington today, and I was just like, hey, dude, how are you feeling about the Pistons if, if you end up in that matchup? And he was, like, not good. Didn't go well in the regular season. And I, you know, it's so funny. So much time has passed. I, like, vaguely remember some of those games, but I really need to dig back into the film. So I'm not ready to sit here and give some sort of, like, dramatic op on a potential Knicks Piston series, but I do remember those games going poorly. And so if I was a Knicks fan, I'd be rooting hard for another James Harden heater over Tobias Harris in game 4.
- [56:51]
Co-host or Analyst
I agree a couple questions or one question and then I'm gonna give an update before we get out of here. First we'll do the update. Someone in this chat. Thank you to. To Casual Sheep Gardener in the chat for letting us know what Mitch Johnson said about the Wemby ejection in his press conference. I think he, I think my opinion is Mitch Johnson gave a great answer. He said that he's. He thinks it's a reasonable ejection. He does not think women should be suspended. And part of the reason for that is he does not believe the refs have done a good job sort of managing the physicality on some of these rebounds throughout the course of the series. But I think. Which I think is a perfect way to approach.
- [57:24]
Jason
Totally agree. And I would say in general, the. This series has been the one that's gone the most off the rails with the officiating. I actually had another thing I wanted to say too, that's on the same lines, but I'll address this first. Like, like we talked about last night, me saying that I don't want grifting in the league or that I think flopping is bad to watch doesn't mean I don't think fouls should be called. We talked about this last night. Like if a dude is getting fouled, the foul should be called, especially when it's egregious and especially in the postseason because these games can get off the rails. And there have been moments in this series in particular where I'm like, what the hell are we doing? Like, there was a two, a two man possession with, I think it was Julius and Rudy. It was either Julius and Rudy or Julius and Nas in game three where I was like, this looks like when you're playing pool, basketball and you're beating the out of each other underneath the basket, like, like, literally, like guys were two hands shoving each other and like it was just a physical altercation. It wasn't even basketball. And then we saw those like hedges out at half court that Steph Castle was facing. Like, this has been the series that I think the refs have lost control of the physicality. Second point, though, for all of the complaining that I've done about flopping and I stand by everything I said. I do think for the most part in this postseason run through almost two rounds, that the refs have done a pretty good job of not rewarding that sort of thing and in some cases even flipping it the other way and calling offensive fouls. And there was another example of that tonight where Steph Castle did one of his little janky things to try to grift a foul and he picked up an offensive foul. Yep. And again, like, my thing is like, if you're going to get it out of the league, because it the like. So for instance, in game one of the Lakers series, Shea had all these egregious flops, but they weren't called.
- [59:18]
Co-host or Analyst
They weren't called.
- [59:19]
Jason
So the refs are doing their job. But that needs to be a consistent thing through the 82, because what we do every year is we let them do that and we call it and then we get to this environment and we don't. And so it kind of ends up in this like weird dynamic where we get the worst of both worlds because they're still doing flopping. They're still doing it, but it's not actually amounting to anything for any team that's doing it. Like last night we had the Austin Reeves low grift. And by the way, I had Lakers fans in my mentions all day about that one today.
- [59:48]
Co-host or Analyst
Dude, they're tearing us.
- [59:50]
Jason
I just, I literally don't like Jackson. Tell me if I'm insane. Like, if you're like, if you're trying to get back middle there, it's a euro or a spin. You wouldn't deliberately throw your arms into the guy.
- [60:04]
Co-host or Analyst
And there's a way to do it with contact. Like Nemar does that bump euro, that's like his signature move. And like a shoulder bump with the Euro is totally viable in that situation. But the low, the low gather is. There's a way. First of all, the low gather, there's. I think it's fair to say there's a way to do a low gather while just trying to not get stripped and not be like reaching your arms into players arms. But most of the players do it the hard. I think Harden started it. Kind of rip your, your arms directly vertical. It's like that's not. You're not trying to keep the ball away.
- [60:35]
Jason
Yeah, he could have done the pound dribble into a euro low, like a low gather. But the, the, the fundamentally, if you were playing pickup, you'd be trying to not hit the guy if you're doing the log. Now to your point, the nem hard one's a really good example. But in the nem hard one, it's not a low gather. It's almost like a tuck, like a running. You tuck it like a running back and you bump the dude with your shoulder. Then you euro and you come over. So like. But the Whole point is what is Nemhard trying to do there? He's trying to shed the defender to get separation to take a shot. Right? Or if I go to the Euro with the low gather, I'm doing like a slow down step left, right. I'm trying to, I'm trying to get Hartenstein to go too far forward so that I can step over and find space for a floater. Or if I pound dribble my left hand, I'm spinning over my left shoulder and I'm shedding Hartenstein out of the picture. The whole point is, is like I want to see basketball shift back towards the dynamic being the one on one battle between an offensive player and a defensive player. I'm trying to put the ball in the basketball. You're trying to stop me from putting the ball in the basket and instead going both ways. Now it's, I'm trying to manipulate the refs. You're trying to manipulate the refs. And that's the thing I'm trying to get rid of. And I thought Lakers fans were shameless today with the way that they were pretending like that wasn't a non basketball play.
- [62:00]
Co-host or Analyst
I did too. It's just a good reminder that everyone's going to be mad about something. Like we have had so many Thunder fans being like, you never call out other teams for this. And then the moment that we tried to do that, it's. It doesn't matter. But I, I thought it was pretty. I thought Doors just absolutely nailed it on the call. About, about it being not about it being like sort of a playoff non call. And I thought everyone complaining about that as if that was like a marker of why the game turned.
- [62:25]
Jason
Oh my God. That's the other thing too. Like, I have complained about the officiating both ways in this series. I've complained about OKC's officiating. It is not why the Lakers lost the series. Like, guys, this is. These are big picture conversations about the NBA, but do you agree with me that they've done a pretty good job not rewarding?
- [62:42]
Co-host or Analyst
I think they've done a very good job for the most part. There have been some. I think there's been more missed calls that are bad than Griffs given.
- [62:50]
Jason
Totally agree.
- [62:51]
Co-host or Analyst
Like if you're complaining about the, if you're going to complain about the officiating, I would say it's more missed calls elsewhere than like cheap Griffin.
- [62:58]
Jason
I totally agree. But, but like, yeah, to the, to the original question, like, I do think that Mitch Johnson makes a fair point that in this series, they've gotten away with murder on Wemby and I think him addressing that gives them a better chance to get out of Game 5 with a win.
- [63:17]
Co-host or Analyst
Agreed. Last question. Super chat from super Anthony. He said been wrestling with my buddy about the Knicks offensive transformation. He is convinced they must have been hiding this or it wouldn't be this sharp. What do you think explains this seamless transition to this sort of new style of offense?
- [63:33]
Jason
You know, I remember when I was watching the Hawks footage in the regular season, the counter for Brunson that really got him going down the stretch of that game was attacking off ball against Dyson Daniels. And sometimes something just clicks and then you just keep working with it and then it takes off. And like, I really think the Dyson Daniels matchup was a perfect like first matchup for the Hawks or for the, for the Knicks because between that and between how bad Jonathan Kaminga and Jalen Johnson are as off ball defenders, it kind of turned into this situation where the best way for the Knicks to attack the Hawks was to go through off ball action. And it kind of just sparked like this. Well, it's working, let's stick with it kind of thing. Because remember game four, like, Brunson barely worked on ISO at all in that game. It was like all off ball stuff. And then he had that random game five where he did a bunch of one on one work. But like, for the most part, this, the offense has just kind of been in this groove and I think they're just rocking with it. And like, at a certain point, like when the results look the way that they look, everyone buys in. You want to know how Brunson ends up hijacking the offense is if this stops working. And that, by the way, like, if, if the Knicks end up losing, that's probably what it looks like at some point. It looks like that kind of off ball movement style of offense not working for a 5, 10 minute stretch and then Brunson being like, it, give me the ball. And then that kind of getting them out of whack. But like, to me it's just been working so well and everyone's bought in. And like the other thing with Brunson too is like, he, I think his efficiency has been higher than usual in the big picture in the postseason. And so like, at a certain point, like, Brunson's even got to look at this and be like, this is best for me. I'm pulling it up right now just because I was curious. But he, like, he, he's also got to think that he's got a better chance to win under the circumstances and to the point that you made so many times over this postseason. Like that's their pathway to beating okc. Because if it's Jalen Brunson trying to score in case in Wallace and AJ Mitchell over and over and over again, it's just. It's just not gonna work. Give me one second here. I just was curious to see if the. It's taking too long to look. We'll get into it another time. But anyways, guys, that is all we have for tonight. As always, we sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting us and supporting the show. We'll be back tomorrow with a deeper dive into some of the details surrounding the draft lottery and some of the guys that I like going to certain places. And then tomorrow night live on YouTube after the final buzzer of Lakers Thunder. That's a late one. I think it tips off at 7:30 Pacific time, so it's going to be a little late here in Chicago. But we will see you guys after the final buzzer of that game on YouTube.
- [66:28]
Podcast Host
This is an I heart podcast.
- [66:31]
Jason
Guaranteed human.