On this episode, they eat check. Let's look at three Western Conference teams who need to prove that they belong. I'm talking about the Pelicans, I'm talking about the Warriors. I'm talking about the Sacramento Kings. Baby. We also get into ale bit of news from around the league. Nice little interview with CBS Sports Radio and NBA insider Bill Ryder from writer than You. We get a lot to get into. My guy, Anthony, so drop that muther hucking
beat and should be real. Today's Western Conference standings are very tight, and I was looking in the standings and there's one team that my eyes just seemed to glaze in gloss over. Is there a team more easy to ignore than the New Orleans Pelicans, Because unless you're living in the Bayou or watching League past twenty four to seven, good for you, by the way, it would be very easy to miss. Not the buyo part, but the league pass twenty four is also. New Orleans is pretty sick too.
I wouldn't hate living there outside of the humidity. The Pelicans are in fifth place right now in the West, in a very difficult West, and they are chasing down the Clippers for the fourth spot. The Clippers by the way, who just vomited a lead away to the Milwaukee Bucks. They are ten and four the New Orleans Pelicans in the last fourteen games. So the question that I have is why doesn't anybody take them seriously? Why aren't people
paying attention? Why are we saying, eh, Pelicans, I don't know. They've been basically top six in the West the entire season and no one gives a fuck. Part of it might be the fact that they play in New Orleans and their their team name is the Pelicans, and they have eight nationally talized game games this year. Part of it has to do with the fact that this team has been up and down over the past three years. So it's a case of hey, show me state. I
need to see it to believe it. And there's not a lot of believers in those Pelicans, at least not nationally. But there are a lot of reasons to like this Pelicans team. I was digging into the deats and it starts with Zion. For the first time in ages, Zion is healthy ish right. He's played in forty nine games this year. That is like for Zion, that's one hundred percent of the games. We have not been paying attention
to Zion. He's been going below the radar. Nobody's been talking about him, except for Stephen A. Smith when he just lazily decided to use the same old narrative about Zion because Zion is a close representation of the team as a whole. In Zion's last eighteen games, he's averaging twenty three point seven points, four point eight rebounds, and five point eight assists, shooting fifty six percent from the field.
And because of the fact that they don't have a ton of playmakers on this team, Zion has returned to playing the point points Zion points. Zion has responded. In his last ten He's averaged seven assists per game, up for four and a half a game in the last In the first fifty Pelicans games this year, the Pelicans assist rate and turnover rate both on the bottom half of the league, and none of their players are elite passers, so it's very important that Zion facilitate this offense effectively,
and when he does, the Pelicans cook. And of course, Zion, as he always has been when he's healthy, is unstoppable in the paint. He is number two in the NBA in points in the paint this season, and that includes the fact that he's not getting any calls. He's averaging just six point seven free throw attempts per game, which is a career low. Remember when who was it, Stan Van Gundy, David Griffin. There was a whole hullabaloo about Zion not getting calls. There were some calls to the
league office, there were some articles written about it. People were pissed. So Zion just doesn't get calls because he's so big, so strong, it's so powerful that you don't really know how to call his games. There's a short list of players though, who operate in the same amount of physicality as Zion and it does not result in foul shots as much as it should. Shay Gilgis, Alexander Janni, Santa Ta Kumpa Luka Doncic, to name three peers, are
each above eight point nine attempts this season. So what do I like about the Pelicans? The fact that they're so deep, I think is an incredible asset for them. There is any statistic I want to share. In their last fourteen games, the Pelicans have had six different leading scorers of the game, Zions four, Brendan Ingram, four, Jonnis Valanciunis one, Nice CJ. McCollum two, Trey Murphy one, and
Herb Jones one. Only the Boston Celtics number one team in basketball and the Pacers with the perennial all the NBA level assisting Tyrese Halliburton. So the Celtics and the Pacers spread the wealth around almost they're the only ones in the league that spread the wealth around as much as the Pelicans do. And there's not really an easy path home in the West because there's just so many good teams. But at least the Pelicans aren't facing any
tougher road than anyone else. They have Detroit, Brooklyn, and Atlanta out of the East for the six worst teams in their conference. They play against Portland twice and San Antonio once in the West, So that's six teams against grave dwellers, teams that we know are at the bottom in the basement. No Tree, Young, these teams suck. If they finish five hundred against the rest of the league and five and one against the bottom basement dwellers, they will have fifty wins and will be fighting for the
four spot. And I promise you teams like the Suns are terrified, are shook of playing the Pelicans. We saw them take the Suns to seven without Zion. What are they going to be able to do if the Suns creep in and they play each other in a play in tournament, or they play each other in the second round.
I know Sons probably getting to the second round, but I know that this is a team not being taken lightly and a team that no contender really wants to play in the first round, especially a team like the Kings, the Suns, and maybe even the Nuggets as long as they're healthy. The Pelicans could be a problem, but they still have a lot to moving on to a second team that I think has a lot to prove, a team that people have been waffling and wavering on all
season long, including myself. But I have a message as a lifelong fan of our Dubs. I'm here to tell dub Nation, do not panic. Do not panic, dub Nation, It's gonna be okay. I know that the fifty point plus beat down on Sunday at the hands of the Boston Celtics in TD Garden was a tough pill to swallow. I know that the fact that you put together a defensive game plan fifteen minutes before the game. Probably not great.
I realized Steph coming out out after one of the worst games of his career and say in a dejected voice, that's what we used to do to teams. Stings. I know that's stings. I know it's absolutely become a joke on Monday morning radio. I know it sucks. But let's look at this dispassionately. No Pods in this game. No Brandon Perjemski, the rookie, the guy who has found a way to get significant minutes. This game illustrated completely why PODS is so important in this iteration of Golden State,
this part of the timeline. Since February first, Pods has put up eleven seven and six with a plus seven point four per game net rating. The Warriors went eleven and three in those games before you got Sideline two games ago. That's pretty damn good. Eleven and three. Second of all, it was the final game of a very
long ass road trip. Fifth game and eight days. You're down two starters in the toughest building to win against the historic offense at its peak one hundred and twenty seven point rating in our last ten with really bulletin board material. Hey, hey, we fucking hate them. They beat us on our own home court and they won the championship. So fans are probably overreacting to the massacre and saying, oh, Warriors are probably not even gonna make the playoffs. Not me, though,
Warriors ran into a perfect store. They just did long before Steph went O nine in the first half. The team just felt like it took the night off right. Like, of course, no one loves to say that, but Steve Kurz said last week this Steph was already tired. There was a chance Steph wasn't even gonna play in this game until no Boston. Boston had no kristavs Porzingis, and they're like, oh, maybe we go win this one. No, you can't. It was a bad loss, historic loss, fifty
two point loss, was not even remotely close. Ever, the Celtics were up eighty two thirty eight at half. Actually I think they tied. They were tied twenty one to twenty one, and then from there on it was an absolute blood bath. Boston is cruising right now. They've won thirteen to fourteen. One of the highest rating offenses in all of history, the highest net rating sense our dubs in twenty seventeen, So to lose even badly to Boston's not the worst thing. So yeah, I know that the
Warriors have issues. Andrew Wiggins is supposed to be coming back after missing four games for a very serious family emergency. But that ass whipping at the hands of the Seas, you can put that in your rear review mirror. It's like no sense in dwelling on it. As they say and used to say in Golden State, it's next man up, next game up. And if this team can sneak into the playoffs, they're gonna fuck a team up like the
Minnesota Timberwolves. You can just count on that. Let's move on to the third team that needs to get their shit together, a team that we don't know what to make of, a team that can look incredible on one night and absolute buns on the next. What the fuck is happening with the Sacramento Kings, Folks, our Kings. They blew another huge leadership at home and I think it was at home. Kings were at the crib, Yes, if they were in at home at Golden One blew another
huge lead at the crib. Bulls storm back from twenty two, down one thirteen to one oh nine. Kobe White was putting up almost forty. Things are not okay in Sacramento, as Kenny Carroway of Sacramento's Dilo and Casey Show, which I love, I go on there every Tuesday, by the way, so check that out five pm Eastern Standard time Tuesday, he said, plan and simply put this shit is unacceptable. It's true. The Kings were up eighty nine to sixty seven with three minutes left in the third, got outscored
forty six to twenty the rest of the way. Bulls. Let Kobe White, Kobe, what listen. I know Kobe White's good, like I know Kobe WIT's having a great year. But you can't let Kobe White put thirty seven on your dome piece. You let de Margarros and put up nineteen in the fourth quarter alone. De Aeron Fox guarded Ioed de Summu most of the game. Let him go off for twenty. That's just unacceptable. Foxy twice his season average.
He's averaging ten points per game, puts up twenty and according to the NBA, the Kings had a ninety nine point six percent chance of winning the game. And somehow found a way to lose. The Rosen outscored the entire Kings team by him self, just disgusting stuff. The loss to the Bulls follows the Kings blowing an eighteen points second half lead to the Clippers and double deep digit leads to both the Nuggets and the Heat in the
last two weeks alone seventh in the West. Now the Kings are out of the playoff picture and in the play in with the MAVs, Lakers, and Warriors, which is like being thrown into an empty swimming pool with the hungry lion. I tell you what, they don't want to play any of these teams in one game set. MAVs are big, they're strong, to got Luca, Lakers, got Lebron and AD tough matchup. Warriors. We already know what time it is, our dubs, gross, you don't want this. How do the Kings fix it?
Oh?
Time's running out. You gotta get the fuck on. You gotta make sure that the Suns slide down the rankings and they go to the play in tournament and you end up the sixth spot and hope to God that Oka See makes the three spot. Hope to God you don't want to see Denver in the first round. Kings are currently twentieth in defensive rating, fourteenth in offensive rating. I think Kings were number one in the offensive rating last year. A lot of it is that they're very
sloppy with the ball. Kings rate thirteenth in turnover percentage. I mean, this is just not this is just not a team that you really want to back right now, These are not contending stats. They need to turn up the noise right now before it gets early late, before it gets late early, right before it gets late early. You know what I'm saying. Anyway. Bill Ryder also joins us later in the show. He dropped this factoid in
our interview. No NBA team has won a Chip this century without being a top ten defense and a top ten offense. So the Kings have to change a lot. They want a legit chance to do anything come playoff time. The real issue is that the Kings just cannot shoot
at all. They're eleventh per in field goal percent dead last though an NBA free throw percentage, which is an even bigger problem because two of their worst free throw shooters are their marquee guys, the guys that actually have the ball in their hands when it's like, I don't know, brunch time. Fox and sabonas two guys that get to
the line a lot. I tweeted this out. In his last nine games, Darren Fox is shooting sixty two point five percent from the free throw line, and in his last nine Domas is shooting seventy percent from the free throw line. Pretty hard to close out wins when your
two best players aren't good from the charity stripe. NBA guru John Hollinger quote tweeted it with this, hadn't really internalized how much the Kings suck from the line this year, nearly twenty percentage points worse than number twenty nine Toronto cost them about one point one points per game relative to the league average. And there's no shock here. It's just Fox and Sabonis are seventy percent and nobody else draws fouls. That folks is an issue, and it's not
one that's easily solved. It's just not Since two thousand and six, no team has won a chance beian ships shooting free throws below seventy three percent. I'm not saying that we thought that the Kings were gonna win a championship this year because we don't think that, but I mean God got to get better at that along the way to get to be a contender. It is very critical to make free throws in close games that you're bound to play in the playoffs. Remember, like the Warriors,
all those games were close. We're gonna know everything about this King's team. In the next two weeks they played nine games. Only two of those games against top four teams. For those games are against bottom eight teams. The way that the Kings have been doing with bad teams. This is a do or die moment for the Kings. Let's move on just a little news from around the league. Starting in Brooklyn, Ben simmons saga continues to unfold on
the bench, getting his fits off, looking like a runway model. Yes, Ben Ben Simmons has played in fifty seven of one hundred and eighty one possible games in Brooklyn. He has been getting murdered in the streets. Agent has stepped up to the line of the fire and taken responsibility. Yes, right now Ben is being protected by Bernie Lee. Then Bernie Lee also represent Jimmy Butler. At one point, he is definitely seeing the road rising up to meet him
because Ben's Monster contract runs out next year. Bernie Lee basically said, hey, don't blame Ben, play me. Blame me for this. He said this. When I began working with Ben, I made a commitment to him that I would do everything that I could to find the right answers and specialists for him to work with in order to move forward from the issues he has been having. Clearly it hasn't happened, and that's my responsibility. He then, of course went on blah blah blah. Don't you see Ben in
the gym, He's working, he's sweating. Don't you see him in the off season his rehab. He's only taken seven days off in the past calendar year.
Eh.
He then said this, come the off season, we're going to implement some processes and outside input that allow him to finally move forward from this ongoing issue and resume his career at the level he's established prior to being injured. Guys, I just don't buy it. Someone's already laying the groundwork for a new contract bet on Ben to have a monster bounce back here next year. I don't think so. I don't think Ben will ever play meaningful basketball again.
That's that's that's just not gonna happen. Unfortunately for Ben, I'm sorry to hear it, sorry to hear that his back issues continue to flare up. But for Ben, it's a wrap. All right, Let's move on. We got a little breaking news, tiny bit of breaking news out of Miami where the Heat signed Patty Mills. Oh my god, what in the gort drugage is happening right now? He gets bought out by Atlanta and landed on the North Beach. He's shooting thirty eight Really, South Beach, they're shooting thirty
eight percent from three. Another valuable vet off the bench. You can fill in for those Gabe Vincent minutes that they've been lacking, those Kyle Lowry minutes that they were hoping to get. Terry Rosier and Patty Mills, of course, are not damn lollard at all, but they might be enough for the Heat to become real serious threats moving forward. You know what time it is. Eric Spotzer finds a
way to win with the players that he has. Although I have a love hate relationship with Miami, I just hate the Celtics so much more so I'm counting on them I'm counting on them to take the Celtics out in the playoffs, and a sniper like Patty Mills makes it just a tiny bit more likely, even though he is old as me. Moving on a little injury update, Scottie Barnes, who broke his finger last week, underwent surgery to fix the broken digit. Ryan Wollstatt, friend of show.
He tweeted, I'm not doctor Waws, but that should mean his season is done, damn, which is sad. Really, Scotty Barnes was playing awesome. He took another step forward this year. He was an All Star, the team became one hundred percent his after Sakham trade. He goes down for the year. Not a serious injury, but still not a great injury for a Toronto team that was trying to figure out a way to sneak into the play in picture, no reason to watch the Toronto Raptors now at all besides
Emmanuel Quickly, which is pretty sad. Also, Russell Westbrook had hand surgery for a fractured left hand. Unlike the Raptors, the Clippers are gonna be playing for a playoff basketball, so there's hope that he might turn around. But honestly, like, how good has Russell Westbrook really been? He's been turning the ball over a lot. We might seem optimistic in his timetable, but listen, Rusk gets back in record time
because he's such a freak physical marvel. It's not gonna surprise me if he is back by game two, game three. Moving forward, on another injury, Donovan Mitchell. He's had knee issues that have sidelined him for thirteen games this season, and this week Donovan had PRP treatment. Platelet rich plasma treatment is a simple but very painful process. Doctor draws blood which is then put into a centrifuge, which is a spinny thing, and then that makes the PRP. It
spins it really really fast. And then I'm like, because PRP, that's scientific term. PRP contains a mixture of concentrated platelets including cyto kens and growth factors, which helps as an anti inflammatory. Kobe used to do this in Germany a lot. Essentially, it expedites the healing process. He is going to miss at least three more games, which means he's not going to be eligible for all NBA, but more importantly, he might be out longer as he won't be reevaluated for
an entire week. Cleveland without Donovan very beatable, very beatable. Sooner he gets back, the better. Now we turn to an interview with my friend Bill Ryder CBS sports radio show Righter Than You, which airs ten am to noon Eastern. That's seven am his time. Wow, he's getting up early on the CBS Sports radio network. Bill appeared on my radio show bet MGM Tonight, joined by my co host
Nick Ashew. You can find my show BETMGM Tonight from seven pm to eleven pm Eastern in most major markets, as well as YouTube and Twitch and the Odyssey app. Let's jump right into it, Bill, as as sharp as they come and as plugged in as they come. All right, let's get into it. I think you and I are both somewhat cynical about what we see in basketball, and you just know the psychological element's gonna come into play with the Timberwolves. We saw though, Bill, there's been a
lot of anti Nuggets slander this year. Was it a flash in the pan. They don't do anything right statistically, They're like, you know, like only top ten but not top five in anything. But we saw this week against the Lakers, in winning time that when they want to turn things on, nine ozer runs just like that. Celtics they go up against the Warriors, all of a sudden they're up fifty. Who do you like and like, what did you get out of those two games this weekend?
Is it feeling like just a crash course in those two ending up against one another in the finals?
Yeah? Look, I love the Nuggets.
I actually like I have more confidence in Denver making the fire than I do the Celtics. That's probably the wrong take. I just have more skepticism. And we could get into why on Jason Tatum in big games and.
It's a question mark, it's not a certainty.
People had question marks about Joker last year and he answered him And I've got questions about Missoula. For me, Denver is what what did parcels say? People tell you who they are. Listen, Djokovic has told us for forever. He has told us for his entries. I say joke, I was thinking about tennis for his entire career that he doesn't care about the regular season.
He doesn't really want to play basketball in the regular season.
And you said it in those rare moments, they just want an NBA Championship, where he feels frustrated, where he is motivated, where he thinks of Anthony Davis talking smack in the offseason, like we want those guys there. They've shown what they're about. I think Denver is head and shoulders above everybody in the West. I know the West is tough. We can get in some of the reasons. The thunder amazing, the predictive models. Vegas loves them, the analytics, the numbers, the eye tests.
I just think they're too young. The Clippers have injury histories.
The three teams I've betting on, the songs of the Lakers and the Warriors, I think are really interesting to have a lot of upside, but they obviously are extremely flawed. You put it all together, if Jamal Murray and his co star are out there together, if Nikola and Jamal are playing, they're the best team at least in the Western Conference. And I think they Yeah, I think We're going to Denver for the finals, and I guess I'm less sure on Boston.
It sounds to me like, even though they're both very young, teams kind of having taken that next step this year. The Timberwolves and the Thunder. There's definitely more of a confidence that you have in the Thunder than the Timberwolves to actually make some noise in the playoffs.
Yeah for me, I mean, there's a few things here right like one, and this is just a statistical reality with a couple exceptions in the last thirty years. If you're looking for if you like the gamble but you don't want to do the research, a very easy cheat sheet is who's in.
The top ten and offensive and defensive rating?
Bet on make sure whatever team you're betting to go the whole way fits those parameters. In fact, there was one year that I didn't do this and only one team qualified. I thought, ah, the Toronto Raptors aren't winning the NBA Championship this year, and they got some help along the way with injuries in that series against the Warriors, but they still won. I mean, it was a missed opportunity by me. And Oklahoma City on any given night
is fourth or fifth in offensive and defensive rating. They're not just typically top ten and each their top five, so they have that balance. SGA is an absolute MVP candidate and a superstar. Depth isn't quite as important, but they have depth they're obviously young and athletic. The youth is a problem for me. For me on the Timberwolves, they are not balanced. They are outstanding defensively, but they're inconsistent offensively. And I don't know what the numbers are
right now, guys, they're probably fifteen. They're sixteenth or seventeenth right now in offensive rating. And Rudy Gobert in that trade is no longer a joke and it's worked out. But we have seen Gobert in the postseason for a variety of reasons, not be as effective. Teams can attack them, they can pull them away from the rim. There's a lot of things you can do against Karl Anthony Towns, especially the pick and roll. Let's say it's the Warriors
in a matchup. So I just think when you look at how the thunder are built, I buy them for basketball mid April and beyond, and the way Minnesota is built, I don't. And so I'm in agreement. I'm not a Karl Anthony Towns believer. Maybe I'm cynical, maybe I'm candid. Maybe it's all of those things. I don't think he's a reliable star.
So you add it all up.
Yeah, I think the Timberwolves are very, very vulnerable for a team that's got a pretty good record.
Bill, I want to talk about this Bucks team because they're coming back on the lake on the Clippers right now. But after the All Star Break, they've been really good in terms of defensive rating. Offensively, things are still kind of working themselves out, but they've beaten some teams. But when you look at who they've beaten after that Grizzlies loss, the only real quality win that they had was against
those Timberwolves. They beat the Sixers without Embiid. They beat the Hornets twice, and I guess you could call the Bulls a nine seed a quality win because they beat him in Chicago and now they're losing to the Clippers. Have the Bucks actually figured things out to you or is this new thing about the soft schedule that they've had.
I don't think so, I.
Mean, and I want to talk myself in to it, because when MB's healthy and along with Jokichianas is as good and impactful as anybody on earth, and when you have the best player on any given night, you should be able to win.
Now.
Full disclosure, that radio show that I host has a segment at the end of the week where we make somebody the bum of the week. Every week, someone's the bum of the Week on Friday. I think we have had eight weeks and I think I've made it Doc Rivers four or five times. So just so there's a little perspective or bias or whatever you want to call it. I am the world's biggest Doc Rivers doubter, and I really like that Bucks organization.
I know people in the front office. I like them. I'm from that part of the country. I love Jiannis.
When they hired Doc Rivers, a very significant part of me died inside, just shriveled up and went away because I don't believe in doc Rivers. But that's really a postseason level of doubt, not regular season. But I don't think even in the regular season that they have.
Figured it out.
They have not been consistently excellent. They have had some fine wins, and I think there's a lot going on here. They obviously fired Adrian Griffin. Something was wrong there. He had an outstanding record. Damian hasn't worked out and.
He's talked really candidly, and this is human stuff.
But it impacts work for everybody. Including ballplayers, basketball players. The guy's miserable and he's lonely, and he's telling Chris Mannix that he's lonely and he's going through a divorce and none of his friends and family are there. He doesn't like Milwaukee and he wanted to clearly be in Miami. And I think you've got a lot of angst and pressure on this team and organization the front office is I understand, it feels like they're under the gun, even
if they're not the ones who brought in Doc. Doc's got this long term contract, but he's become a walking joke and a meme. So I think a lot of the stress, the pressure of the expectations, the sense that they're a disaster has stayed with this team even as they played better basketball. And when I look at what they're about, they're defensively, especially on the perimeter, they're just they're not good enough. Pap Bev is not the solution.
Doc Rivers is not an offensive genius. We get into the reasons why, but suffice it to say, I think he limits offensive output on teams that are talented, and.
They have not been good enough defensively to make up for that. I'm very worried about Milwaukee.
As it stands now Bill, if this playoff started today and everything remain the same, the Heat, the Heat would play the Bucks again in the first round. And you mentioned the angst and the front office that you've spoken to, and Giannis has been candid about needing to compete for a championship, as has Dame. What happens if they were to draw the Heat and lose in the first round for the second year in a row.
By the way, I look that East has a bunch of land mines, And I know it's sort of a cliche, but I'm in on the Heat at least in a series like that. Who knows what the line would be here the numbers, but I just think they playoff. Basketball is a real thing for a lot of reasons, like the whole Heat culture thing in the postseason.
So I think that's a reasonable outcome if they played each other. What happens? So I think John Horst, the GM.
Who I think is very good at his job, I think he's I think he probably gets fired. I mean, I'm speculating here. I don't know, and it's not like I'm sourced with the owners. I mean that's a really unless you're Asrian Worzanowski, you tend not to be.
But I would. I think the front office would be in a lot of trouble. I think it would be. Really we've seen Damian Lillard.
Force his way out of poor I don't know that that would happen in Milwaukee, but he is already. He's saying repeatedly and I think strategically that he's miserable, which I know some people around the NBA are just interested in. Is he laying the groundwork for frustration? And I think the idea Giannis is going to be there forever is predicated only as you noted, on the idea that they're going to compete for championships. So that's a long winded way of saying it would be a well, my kids
say what's appropriate for a poopstorm. It would be an absolute disaster. It would be an absolute poop storm. I don't know who goes away. I just know Doc Rivers never takes the blame he managed up with that organization's ownership group. As I understand it, I'm not convinced the front office was one hundred percent the force.
That brought him in.
I think Doc has a lot of juice there. Doc is never the guy that's blamed, not in the short term. So I think you see changes in frustrations, and I think you see an organization that's in a pretty tough shape just in terms of their culture and their planning. If they lose in the first round to a team like the.
Miami we're kind of sitting here waiting for that next What star is gonna ask out of what place? If it's not anything in Milwaukee. I mean, what does Dallas need to do this season, this postseason to keep Luca from looking around going like, I guess I got Kyrie, but like at some point you think he's probably gonna be unhappy, if he's not already unhappy.
I know that there are some I have talked to some gns and some front office people who it's speculative, but who are licking their chops at the idea of disaster in Dallas. So that so that Luke would make himself available, because obviously he made that run to the conference finals that was amazing. But that's the only time that Mavericks team has been out of the first round with Luka Dancic. So what do they have to do. It's a really good question, and the West is brutal.
I don't think they'll accomplish whatever the standard is. I think the second round, you make the second round depends on the matchup, right, But if you're I mean, if you're going down against a team like the thunder, who I think, again are really really good. I don't know they go all the way, but a really good or even a healthy Clippers team, and obviously Denver I still think is the best.
Team in the Western Conference.
And you know you're losing six or seven, hard fought it went well, Maybe you got to add some pieces, or you got to make some adjustments.
Next year, maybe things are okay.
I think if you lose in the first round, which is a very very likely outcome, I think for Dallas, I think you're right. I think Luka Doncic maybe this year, maybe next year, who knows, there's at least a concern of the Mavericks that.
He decides he doesn't want to be there. Maybe not.
It's hard to get to crawl into the brain of a superstar, but I think it's a good point. I think both those organizations, and more so Dallas, because they have obviously not won a championship with their current superstar, unlike the Bucks. If they can at least convince Luca that the plan they haven't placed Kyrie Irvering plus the guys that got at the trade deadline, and what they have is a viable path forward.
We know in the NBA anngs can turn the demands pretty quickly.
Yeah, and you mentioned Okay c Bill. Obviously they're fighting to be in the number one seed, but they've got Chet. He seems to be having a real impact. I saw the Wemby versus Chet matchup. Wemby's been very clear he wants to win now. I've I've heard some rumors. I've heard some bubbling about a Trey Young marriage. What are you hearing about Atlanta and what they may do?
So, yeah, it's a great question.
So my understanding, I think we talked about this a year ago and Quinn Snyder got hired at a really weird time at the end of the season. Having done some reporting with folks in that front office and people familiar with their thinking, my understanding was Quinn Snyder had the power when he came in.
Part of the reason he.
Took the job to make an evaluation on anybody, including Trey Young, and that he was.
Going to take that time and if he wanted to move.
On from Tray he would, And as I understand it, that has gone from an academic possibility to a real possibility this summer. Now, the problem I think for San Antonio is you got to convince Trey Young that he wants to be there for the same reason you got to keep Daman Lillard happy or Luka Dancic right or wrong, whatever you think of it.
The reality is the brass tacks of.
Being an NBA GM front office person is if your star wants to.
Leave, they get to lead. That's just the way that then it works. So I think the Lakers and Trey Young make a lot more sense. And I know that is a in Bolk Trey Young and the Lakers. I talked about it, or at least eyed.
I think that, yeah, it's been It's been thrown around a lot, that's for sure. Bill Ryders CBS Sports, CBS Sports Radio soon to be NBA.
Podcast as well. Be on the lookout for that.
Love having you on man. Appreciate the time, good es.
Guys, that's all the time that we have for this episode heat Checked. Thank you to Bill Ryder, Thank you to my bet MGM crew. Come back Friday Thursday for an all new episode, and check out the feed for past episodes and many episodes which drop unexpectedly like a headache in front of an unexpected storm. Gotta watch those barometric pressure, folks. My goodness, it is pounding right now. Do not forget the follow the heat Check as we
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