A (75:57)
all right, it was a very newsy early week in the NBA. Just want to give some quick analysis takes whatever on some of that news. Orlando Least surprising news of the week has fired Jamal Mosley after five seasons head coach the Magic have not won a playoff series since 2010. Their offense completely fell apart against the Pistons. They may, and I would say probably would have won that series had Franz Wagner not gotten injured. And so you know, I don't know how you look at that if you're Jamal Mosley or the Magic. Like are we pessimistic? Are we optimistic? Obviously I think this was the kind of decision that had been pre made before the playoffs barring a run and barring a run that almost happened. And I think game six tells you why the team just does not have a coherent offensive identity now. They were missing Franz Wagner, their best or second best player. And they don't have the type of personnel that lends itself well to constructing a coherent offensive identity. They don't have a lot of shooting outside Desmond Bain. Their two best players are cut from similar cloths. Banchero in particular. I said this with Bill on Sunday. He he has the game of like a number one option. Like a big ball handler who can run a bunch of inverted pick and rolls who can ISO who can post up. But he's just not as good as you need your number one option. He's not as good at that stuff as you need your number one option to be if you're going to be a real, real contender. He's not a good enough shooter, he's not quite a good enough passer and and he is not built to be a number two option because no one is going to guard him on the perimeter now. He was on fire in Game 7 early on and all of that. And Franz is, is sort of broadly similar. I think Franz is better at the second option stuff than Bankaro is. He's sort of more creative, faster cutter, screener. All of the stuff that, you know, you wish Bankero would be a little bit better at. He's okay at it. So, like, it's, it's a, it's a tough puzzle piece. And it's going to be a tough puzzle piece for whoever the next head coach is, whether it's Billy Donovan or Tom Tho or Dusty May or whatever hot rumored coach is going to try to rework this offense because that game six, I mean, you watch them just miss a thousand shots in a row. They scored 19 points in a half of a playoff game. Like, I'm almost impressed. What was the joke in Anchorman like when the dog eats the cheese and it's like, I'm. I'm kind of impressed. Baxter, 19 points in the second half. I would hang a banner somewhere for that. Maybe in Springfield, in my wing of absurdities in the hall of fame. 19 points and a half of basketball is almost insane. And they just had no plan. Like, it was. Everything was station to station. Paolo runs one pick and roll. It's not aimed at the right matchup. It's not aimed at Duncan Robinson. It's a pick and roll that's just going to be switched. And then everyone stands around for six seconds like, so what are we doing with the rest of the shot clock? Anyone have plans after the game? Are you going to set a screen? No, you are. Nobody is. And then Paolo just has to jack up a shot. And it's like this has plagued them the whole season. You can't get to game six of a playoff game with a 20 whatever point lead and just have that kind of meltdown. You've just got to have more answers than that. And the Magic never did. And again, the personnel is tricky. Another reason the personnel is tricky is, you know, this is a team that has $210 million of salary already on the books next season. Like that's first apron level salaries. Anthony Black is eligible for an extension after the season. And Jalen Suggs has four years. It declines. But 32 million, 29 million 26 and 26 ish. And they just, I mean, Bane is their best pick and roll handling guard at this point. And he's. That's really not his main job. And it never has been plus or minus. Some times when Ja was hurt in Memphis. Suggs just falling apart in this series is maybe the biggest single takeaway for the Magic. He could not make a shot. I liked the glimpses of the Suggs Banchero pick and roll with Suggs as the ball handler because it just unlocks a different kind of bankero option as a roller, as a screener, as a mismatch hunter in that sense, like a big guy sense. And we just didn't see it much because Jalen Suggs is not a good enough shooter to do that very often. He's just an okay passer and driver. It's just not his game. And I think the Magic hoped it would be more of Anthony Black's game. And before he got injured midway through the season, he certainly was making a leap. He was in the most improved player conversation. He ended up shooting 33% from three better from the corners, like people are going to go under. He's a tremendous athlete. Does he have the vision for that kind of job? Does he have the passing chops for that kind of job? I think he's an interesting player. I expect them to come up with some sort of long term deal with him. Now, I'm not sure that it'll be an extension and in fact, if I were the Magic, I expect this to be a tough negotiation because if I'm Anthony Black's agent, I'm like, I'm not taking a penny less than Jalen Suggs. And if I'm the Magic, I'm like, well, the Jalen Suggs contract doesn't look great and if that's what you want, we'll take it to restricted free agency. I would expect them to come to an agreement somewhere, but I'm just not sure what the guard future of this team is other than Bain, who cost you four first round picks. Underrated story from the fall that they declined their fourth year team option on Jet Howard, who was a lottery pick. That's a disaster. Jace Richardson gave you nothing. De Silva is hit or miss. Wendell Carter Jr. Is fine as a center, Jack of all trades, master of none, not really a threatening roller on offense, not a threatening shooter, not a great sort of power post player. And I always find it to be sort of an indictment over Orlando's team structure. Not necessarily its coaching, but it's team structure and it's coaching both. How often Wendell Carter Jr. Is in the corner on offense because they just don't know what else to do with him, where else to Put him. They can't use him as a screener because Paolo and Franz are doing that and they're like, all right, I guess our center, who's whatever three point shooter that no one's going to guard is in the corner. All this to say they probably would have won their first round series had Franz been healthy. That's fine. The future of this team around Paolo and Franz, I just wish I would have known a little bit more about it, particularly at the guard spot other than Bane after this series. And financially they just can't pay Black and Suggs and Paolo and Bane and Franz what they're going to have to pay them. I just don't know how they build a functional like top 10 offense out of this team. But there's some like I don't expect them to do anything crazy, but it will be interesting and they need an offensive genius coach. Chicago hired Bryson Graham as their whatever, top decision maker and good luck to you Bryson Graham. You have an uphill battle in every possible sense. Bryson is very well regarded. He's an A plus scout. That's exactly what they need. They have, they are slated for the 9th and 15th pick in this draft. They have Matas Puzales, Noah Senge didn't really play this season because of injury. We'll have to see what he brings. I'm fascinated to see how Bryson approaches what is one of the biggest challenges in the entire NBA. Figuring out whatever is left on this roster that's worth keeping around other than Bouzelis and how to build it into a competitive Eastern Conference team. There are a lot of teams that are quick turnaround teams in the NBA right now. We're going to talk about Dallas in a second. I'm not sure that Chicago is or that they should even want to be. The irony of course, being this team has lived in the middle slash back of the lottery, the play in gods, the 39 win gods for so long under a system that doesn't really reward teams in the middle. And now the NBA is poised to transition to a system that actually awards teams in the middle. So I don't know how the Bulls will react to this. They have a bonanza of cap space. They're not really like I was thinking about the Rockets when they made their. All right, we're just going to make. We have cap space. No one else does. Dylan Brooks, Fred Van Vliet, we'll try to get Brook Lopez. We're going to try to be competitive even if the timelines don't line up. I'M not sure that the Bulls have enough young interesting guys in the cupboard who are ready for that. So I'm just not sure kind of what I would even do if I were Bryson Grandma then. This draft is very important. Buzz Ellis has to pop even more. He was really good this year and Giddy is fine. Like his contract is fine. He lit it up for a couple months, got injured and faded away. His defense has never really come around. His three point shot is better. Like he can take a little bit more of them off the dribble. Baby steps there. He can hit him above the break. His catch and shoot percentage was fine. I think we know enough to know and luckily he's not paid like this salary wise that Josh Giddey is just not going to be the number one engine on a great or good NBA team. Like maybe a mediocre one. And so I don't. It's just good luck. Bryson Graham but he's very good. I know Bryson a little bit. He'll do a good job. Good luck to the Bulls. Masai Ujiri is back in the NBA as the head basketball executive of the Dallas Mavericks. Patrick Dumont wanted to make a splash. He did. Patrick Dumont wanted to get a guy who is well spoken and fun with the media and inspirational because Patrick Dumont is the opposite of all of those things. Every time he talks I just want to throw him in a closet and lock the door and take away all technology so he can't talk to the media. Masai. I mean from fuck Brooklyn to we're going to win a championship in Toronto and all this stuff. Like he's a plus at that. I think this is actually a quick turn kind of team. I expect Kyrie to be on the team next year going into the last guaranteed year of his contract and he has a player option after that. The. The prior front office. We'll see how many of them hang around. Have just been raving all year about Kyrie and his relationship with Cooper Flag. Obviously they have the rookie of the year who I picked for the year too. Derek Lively presumably will be healthy next year. That's a big deal. They have two first round picks in this draft. Their own pick and the Thunders pick which is obviously going to be 30th. They opened up some cap flexibility with the Anthony Davis trade and Flag is awesome. And I, I don't expect like Messiah Jury to come in and hit the gas and like we're going to try to contend next year and we're going to do all this trade whatever Pick equity we have. We don't own tons of our future picks because of all the trades we made to build our team around Luka Doncic before inexplicably trading Luka Doncic. We don't have to go down that road. But I think this is a good job. Like, I understand why Misajeri took it. First, they paid him a shit ton of money, I'm sure. Second, you have a potential generational superstar and a long Runway with him in a big market and just sort of infinite flexibility for how to build the team. And Masai, look, people nitpicked the decision making after the Raptors championship fair. It's hard to stay in the middle and build from the middle. Some things hit, some things certainly did not. And people nitpicked how long he hung on to the Lowry DeRozan core when it was pretty clear like you're just not going to unseed LeBron as long as he's in the east and the ceiling is just not high enough. Although they won a lot of games, he's, he's very patient. Do not mistake his patience for a lack of creativity or a lack of tenacity. Masaya Jiri is a shark. He's going to hunt every opportunity. He's going to hire a great staff around him and boy, what a time. For any members of the Raptors front office whose contracts are up right now. This was a big year. Approve it year for the Raptors and I do think they proved it. Darko Rajakovic certainly proved it, but they suddenly walked in to a whole, a whole lot of leverage. You know, he was patient with the Carmelo Anthony trade. He played the New York teams against each other. He pounces on opportunities and he's willing to wait for those opportunities to come up. I, you know, I once asked Messiah in his office in Toronto early in his tenure, like, I'm interested to hear, like, what is your, what is your player development philosophy? Like what, what kind of players do you want? Because in Denver he had this sort of feisty post, mellow team, fast, tenacious. In Toronto, he inherited this middle of the road team and he made a big Rudy Gay trade to get out of that contract and get them more depth. And he was like, I'm not going to tell you. I'm not going to answer that question. I keep that stuff pretty close to the vest. I don't know if that meant there is some secret sauce I look for. Anybody can say character, toughness, whatever, everybody wants that or it's just, I'M going to be adaptable to whatever the circumstances. But look, I know this. It's a great hire for the Mavericks. I feel for the holdovers from the Nico Harrison regime. I hope some of them get actual fair opportunities to stick around. Sometimes that happens, sometimes it doesn't. But it's a good day for the Dallas Mavericks, who are sneakily, I think, well positioned to both get into the play in conversation next year at least and and beyond that be pretty opportunistic. So big, big news around around the league and there'll be more big news the more teams are eliminated and the playoffs are now we're getting down to the real stuff. Second round. That's it for this little solo segment. And enjoy the games tonight. Second round ongoing. Let's go. All right, that's it for today. Thanks to Tim Legler of ESPN for his invaluable analysis of all the playoff series. Thanks, as always to Mike, Billy and Jonathan on production. And thanks to you all for listening to and or watching the Zach Lowe Show. We'll be back on Thursday morning unless something crazy happens in between now and then. Enjoy the games. Enjoy the second round. Thank you for listening. 21 or over in President, select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 and over in President, D.C. kentucky or Wyoming. Gambling problem. Call 1-800-GAMBLER or 1-88-00, my reset. Call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org chatincut or is it mdgamblinghelp.org and Maryland Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24. 7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY in New York. For Louisiana, call 1-877-770-7867. You can't reason with the sun. Trust us, we've tried. This summer, it's time to put that angry ball of fire on mute. 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