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volume breaking down the playing tournament. I'm gonna make my picks and talk about the games that I find to be most interesting, starting with the Nets at home hosting the Cleveland Cavaliers. Now, one thing that we have heard coming down the pipeline is that the calves are pessimistic about whether or not Jared Allen will be able to play in the game. When he's working out, he seems to only be using his left hand. He's downgraded from a really stiff brace to wearing some tape, but it
doesn't seem to be working. So it looks like Jared Allen is not gonna play. And that's an issue because in a game like this, you have two teams with extremely different styles. Like no one expects the Calves and Darius Garland to be in in like Carriss LeVert to be able to out execute offensively the likes of Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. That's completely unrealistic. But they have massive advantages that they bring to the table, especially on
the on in the paint um. Their ability with their size with Lori Marken in at small forward, with Evan Mobley at the four, and with Jared Allen at the five, gives them the ability to hold opponents with those three on the floor to a hundred and two points per one possessions, specifically only forty one point five points per one possessions in the paint which would lead the league
to give you an idea as just some perspective. The Miami Heat and totality lead the league in paint points allowed at forty two point four, So when they have their guys there are a dominant interior defense, they're a team that would give the Brooklyn Nets a ton of problems on the interior. Another thing that's so important about
Jared Allen is his ability to punish switches. Part of what made Jared Allen suddenly not necessarily worth this full contract but way less of an issue at that big of a salary number is he can do what Rudy Gobert can't when he switches onto a smaller defender and you dump the ball into him in the post. He is capable of consistently punishing those types of mismatches. So I would certainly give the Calves a better chance if they had Jared Allen because they would have a big
advantage that they can bring to the table. But without Jared Allen, and it looks like he's not going to play, I have a team that has Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, a significantly better set of perimeter initiators, and going up against Darius Garland and Karras Laverton. I think They're just in over their heads in a lot of different ways there. I expect the Nets to pack the paint and take away as many of those driving opportunities and dump off
lab opportunities as they can. In the Calves pick and roll and force guys to knock down shots, and I just don't think that they'll be able to score anywhere near consistently enough. Another big thing, Let's say that they go Evan Mobley. Let's say the Calves go Evan Mobiley at center, which I expect them to do for the most part during the game, and they funnel everything into
that and expect Evan Mobley to control the paint. Like I've always said, that has a lot more impact on guys stars in particular, that are obsessively trying to drive to the basket. And that's not the way Kyrie and k D play. Kyrie and KD are at their most comfortable when they're operating in the miss in the mid range, in single coverage, making a move against the defender to get to a pull up jump shot. Those are their bread and butter plays for those two guys. The Calves
are not a good perimeter defense team. Darius Garland is not a great perimeter defender. Lori Markenings got length and size, and he can play some good positional defense from time to time, but he's not a guy that's great at containing in dribble drive scenario. So I expect to see a lot of Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant just getting to their spots and knocking down shots. Also that this Calves team relies entirely on Darius Garland for everything that
they do offensively. This year, they are ten points six points better on offense with Garland on the floor than with him off. That's something that the Nets will be able to game plan around to make up for their limited defense, just by devoting all their attention to that screen and roll action in forcing guys to make shots on the back end. Calves also not a great road team this year. They were only nineteen and twenty two.
One last little interesting note on this game. There's a question to be asked about whether or not Brooklyn would be best served losing. Now, you guys know how I feel about that kind of stuff. I'm a big believer in don't toy with the basketball gods. Play the game the way it's supposed to be. Played, and if you are the best team, things will work out for you. I'm I've always been a big believer in that sort
of thing, so I would not recommend losing. But if you are a Nets fan and they happen to lose to the Calves tomorrow, the advantage there is getting the one getting the eight seed and going to play Miami in the first round. I know for a fact the Nets are going to be favored in that series and be the team that they may not be favored, but I will be picking the Nets for sure to beat the Miami Heat. I do not believe in the Miami Heats offense. I I believe that the Brooklyn Nets will
pick them apart. I saw that happen the last time they played each other. The Nets went into Miami and utterly destroyed them. So I would pick the Nets in that series. Nets Boston that's a little more of a toss up with that. With Rob Williams in the picture, I would absolutely be picking Boston. Without Rob Williams, it's closer. That takes away, like I said, one of those interior advantages that you can bring against Brooklyn, But I like that.
I it's an interesting conundrum because if they do what they're supposed to do and they beat Cleveland tomorrow, they will face a significantly tougher first round opponent. Then if they lose that game and try to make things work against in the second playing game to play against Miami, So that would be an interesting conundrum. I expect them to win and go up against Boston. That's more of a coin flip series. Once we get the final results
of the playing game. There's no games on Thursday, and I will do a breakdown of what I expect in those first round series is. But let's move on to Atlanta and Charlotte. So I like Charlotte better in a
vacuum as a basketball team. They over the last fifteen games of the season war eleven and four, which was tied for the best record in basketball, obviously convoluted a little bit by the fact that so many of the best teams in the league were resting key players in preparation for the playoff run, but still nothing to slou chat. They were second in offense over that span, which is not a surprise. They're a up tempo, high high pace team. LaMelo Ball is one of the best, uh I know,
He's young, I know he's inconsistent. I know he has if he shot selections sometimes. He's not a great defensive player, which we'll talk about in a little bit, but he's already one of the best high pick and role playmakers that we have in the league. I love Terry Rosier's game. I talked about this a little bit the other day when we were talking about potential Russell Westbrook swaps very good polish in the mid range, very dynamic score from
the perimeter. And then the one of the most interesting elements of this team in their future is Miles Bridges. Uh. He kind of coming out of college was this freak athlete. I kind of saw him as more of like a undersized version of John Collins, a guy you'd use as a vertical spacing threat and like screen and roll actions and maybe some defensive assignments that he'd be able to
use his ath loticism in. But he's legitimately turned himself into a really good offensive wing player and the result has been, like I said, what, the second best offense in the league over the last fifteen games. I like Charlotte individually in this matchup. The tricky thing is home court. The Hawks have massively underachieved this year. Very disappointing after what was a very impressive run to the conference finals last year. But this year there and fourteen at home.
When you have a factor in a single game elimination format, how rock is that environment is going to be? It makes it a lot more complicated. Uh, it makes it a lot more complicated than I would have originally thought. Now, the interesting element here is both teams have really bad defensive backcourts. So everyone thinks of Trey Young being a
limited defensive player. And obviously Lou Williams from all the way back when he was with the Clippers has been attacked by really good teams as as frequently as they can when he's on the defensive end of the floor. But the same problem exists for Charlotte. They play Isaiah Thomas as their backup point guard. Now that's a really that's arguably the worst defensive player in the entire NBA. And then LaMelo Ball. I do believe one day he'll
become a decent defender in a switching scheme. He's a little too tall and slender to successfully chase guys over the top of screens. He's too easy to screen so I think his defensive potential is in more of a switching scheme. That said, he right now doesn't have anywhere near the attention to detail on that on the end of the floor to be a productive player gets back cut on all the time, mrs help responsibilities often, and then he can give up a lot of dribble penetration
at the point of attack. So what you have is to backcourts. Obviously they're staggered in a lot of different ways, but at any given moment, both teams have a really really bad perimeter defender on the floor. So so much is gonna come out come down to those two guards. Trey Young and LaMelo Ball are gonna be really comfortable for most of that game, and it's gonna be come down to which guy has the best game. My gut tells me that Atlanta it could win at home off
the strength of their home crowd. But I'm picking Charlotte by a hair because I believe they're better basketball team that's playing a little bit better as of late, and I think that's going to carry them. All Right, let's move on to the Wolves and the Clippers. This one is a really tough matchup for me. To gauge based on what happened in the regular season, not a lot of data. They're from their individual matchups. That's usable. They played three times in November and the Clippers won all
three games, but that's November. Both teams are monumentally different at this point, especially the Timberwolves. They're They've been one of the better teams in the league over the course of the last couple of months, and then in January the two teams played in the Wolves had a convincing win, but a lot of important players from the Clippers were missing, including Paul George, Lucanard, Marcus Morris, and a bunch of others, so not much you could take away on that front.
The interesting wrinkle here is Minnesota is at home there twenty six and fifteen at home this season. I've talked about this a lot on the show. They are super athletic. Everyone thinks of Carl Town's in D'Angelo Russell, but they've got a bunch of athleticism on the wings, and those guys feed off of the energy of that crowd, which
carries them on the defensive end of the floor. The where this game teeters towards the Clippers in my opinion, and the reason why I'm picking the Clippers is one, the Clippers know exactly who they are in this type of setting. The Clippers have a bunch of huge road playoff wins even with this core, even just with Paul George, them going on the road to beat Phoenix in Game five last year, them going on the road to beat the Jazz last year in Game five. A lot of
big playoff wins with that group. They're gonna be comfortable in Minnesota in that environment, They're not gonna be scared away at all. And then, like I've talked about NonStop, I don't trust the Wolves guards to make good decisions enough. The Clippers are gonna do a lot of switching, especially on the perimeter. They'll do drop coverage is when they have their traditional centers on the floor. But you're gonna
see a lot of switching on the perimeter. And there's going to be a lot of moments where it's gonna be Anthony Edwards or D'Angelo Russell having to make decisions against the very good Clippers defense, and I trust Reggie Jackson and Paul George to out execute them. And that sort of setting so interesting matchup on some levels, home court makes it a wrinkled carl Anthony Towns is a huge matchup problem. If carl Anthony Towns goes for forty
and seventeen, yeah, that could swing it. It's certainly close. All of these matchups that we're talking today are close, except for maybe Brooklyn Cleveland. But I'm leaning towards the Clippers because of their playoff experience, their modern approach to the game, and I think their primary decision makers are better and more reliable in the setting. Last, but not least, the Pelicans and the Spurs. Not gonna talk too much
about this one. I don't find this matchup particularly interesting to very young teams with two interesting stars kind of leading the way in Brandon Ingram and then Murray Degonda. Murray killed the Spurs the last time or killed the Pelicans the last time these two teams played when both teams were at full strength, which is shortly after the trade on February twelve. CJ. McCollum played really well in
that game as well. He's gonna be that weird veteran presence in that game that's gonna be the most comfortable. I'm leaning towards the Pelicans because of home court. But this one's a coin flip to me between two really young, talented teams that are kind of just excited to be there, and so it'll be an interesting wrinkle. I would lean towards the home court in an environment like this where Spurs team is super young on the road. So I have the Nets over the Calves, the Hornets over the Hawks.
That means that the Hornets and the Calves will be playing for the eight seed. I'm gonna pick the Hornets there as well. Once again, Jared Allen being out, I just considered to be too big of a of a of a of a of a obstacle for the Calves to overcome. I'm a huge believer in this Calves corps and what they can do going forward, but with Jared Allen being out, I just don't think they can get it done. So I've got the Nets getting the seven seed and the Hornets getting the eight seed. How West
Clippers over the World Wolves, Pells over the Spurs. That means the Wolves will host the Pelicans for the eight seed, and I would absolutely pick the Pelicans, or excuse me, pick the Wolves in that game at home. I think one of the pelicans biggest strengths is all of their length and athleticism on the wings. We talked about this a lot in their matchups with the Clippers, and the Wolves are just athletic enough and young enough at those
positions to match that effort, especially at home. And then it's gonna come down to Karl Anthony Towns trying to uh, just trying to overpower that thin interior from the Pelicans, and I like them in that matchup. So that's gonna end up, in my opinion, with the Nets at the seventh seed in the East and the Hornets as the eight seed, and out West with the Clippers as the seventh seed and with the Timberwolves as the eight seed.
I wanted to talk for just a few minutes about the Lakers because obviously, as is always the case with that particular franchise, it's all drama, but in this case, it's drama that actually is impacting, in my opinion, the end of the season for the NBA. It's impacting who's holding the trophy because not often do you have a brand as big as the Lakers with players as good
as Lebron James and Anthony Davis. Effectively kept out of the running because of the fact that there's so much going on above them that is actively disrupting what they're trying to accomplish on the court. So I wanted to hit on three quick things that were reported over the course of the last few days that I think are beyond discouraging if you're a Laker fan and you're thinking
about how this team can be turned around next year. So, first of all, as a report for major in war Zanowski that he gave on ESPN last night, and he specifically came out and said that the Lakers are expecting to be patient with their coaching search, wait until after this postseason and to see if there's any coach that ends up getting let go from one of these playoffs teams, to see if there's a better option for them before they make that decision. But he also mentioned a couple
of very specific things. He directly implied that the coaching pool, the coaches who would potentially consider the job, are concerned about one how much money and years they would be willing to offer, and two whether or not there would be uh interference or micro management from those coming above.
Specifically mentioned that many coaching coaches that would be potentially considering the job, would never in a million years consider it because of what he said was the front office sitting in on coaches meetings and trying to basically micromanage them, which is we already knew that. We saw a report earlier this year that Kurt Rambis was going in on Frank Vogel and telling him things like you need to play more DeAndre Jordan and so on and so forth.
I did a video yesterday you can see it on my on my Twitter feed where I very briefly was just venting about how discouraging it was that Frank Vogel, even though he did deserve to be fired, that the Lakers botched it the way that they did and let that report get out. Now, I've a lot of people, you know, anytime a report comes out, you immediately have to start playing the game. Who who stands to gain
the most by doing this? Who? Uh this reporter? Are they someone that would report like a source of a source? Are they going to report only like a very strong source? Well, it came from Adrian Warzanowski, and Adrian Warzanowski is only going to report something if he gets it directly from the front office. He doesn't mess around with the source of a source and things along those lines someone who might not know for sure. That's just his stature in
the business. So I think it's pretty safe to assume that it's coming from the front office. Also, they don't deserve the benefit of the doubt. This is not a really well run team where if something weird happens, you can go, well, maybe there's some explanation for it. No, that's not the case here. The Lakers botched this. They reported that Frank was fired before even telling Frank. That's
remarkably unprofessional. Then the next day they sent all their players out to meet the media for a season ending press conference without telling any of them or without resolving the situation with Frank, and basically throwing them out there to have to answer those types of questions open ended, without any sort of resolution from the front office. That's just incredibly incompetent. They are. I said this yesterday. They're
laughing stock and people pay attention to this. We had a report come out from Brad Turner that uh that Quinn Snyder of the Jazz was less less interested in the job because of the way they treated Frank Vogel, and then we have this report for Major and more Zanowski that they're worried about her Rambus getting involved. They're worried about Genie Bust being cheap with the offer that
they make, and they have every right to feel that way. Now, that doesn't mean it's very possible that the Laker brand and the prospect of coaching Lebron and Anthony Davis still brings a quality candidate to the table, and I sincerely hope that is the case. However, they are doing damage in that regard. Your they If the Lakers get that guy, the right guy, it will be in spite of the fact that the higher ups of the Lakers are actively sabotaging the team, and that's a problem. The other thing
I wanted to quick talk about was Lebron. Sam Ammi of The Athletic reported that Lebron would be very satisfied if Mark Jackson became the next head coach of the Lakers. Now, Mark Jackson, to me falls into that category I talked about. I did a video about which coach the Lakers should go after the other day, and I gave you guys a kind of a spectrum. Right, there's the young ambitious,
super smart guy. And then there's like the old established kind of lazy because he's already had some success, but commands the respect of the star players around the league. Right well, Mark Jackson and Doc Rivers are very much on that side, whereas like you're over on this side, you got your like your Kenny Atkinson's your your young successful ambitious coaches that maybe a star player wouldn't listen to. The Lakers have to find something in the middle there.
The two guys that I throughout were like Mike D'Antoni and Quinn Snyder. We're not gonna get into that again, but this suggestion from Lebron from Mark Jackson is one of the worst possible suggestions. I was terrified when I read that report because Mark Jackson is not the guy that is going to orient the Lakers off and the way it needs to be oriented. Never forget that the Warriors offense completely took off after getting rid of Mark Jackson.
Mark Jackson also has a giant ego. He there's we don't have to get into it, but there's a bunch of reports about him. He's kind of a weird guy in a lot of different ways. I understand that he would command some respect from the likes of Lebron and a D. I just don't think he's capable, in strictly in the terms of basketball coaching, to be the right guy to get that franchise on track. So I was
deeply concerned by that. And last on the Lakers front, Russell Westbrook I said many times on the show this year that if there was one silver lining and all of this with Russ, that this seal this season was so humiliating for him that maybe, just maybe it could be the thing that humbled him into making some wholesale change. It's kind of like what happened to Carmelo Anthony when he was kicked out of the kicked off the Rockets
and out of the league for a little while. It humbled Carmelo Anthony in embracing a smaller bench role as a guy that would be more of a spot up shooter and an occasional matchup attacker and more emphasis on the defensive end rather than what he had been doing before that, which was very old fashioned Carmelo, give me the ball, get out of my way. I was hoping that would happen for us, but everything that we heard from that press conference yesterday screams Nope, he hasn't learned anything.
He specifically when he was asked about Lebron James and Anthony Davis letting Rusty Russ, he was like, yeah, no, they didn't actually do that. Then he talked about how he thought Frank Vogel had a problem with him, and then he came out and said that he never felt like he was really given a fair chance this season.
And it screams to something that I've been talking about with Russ all season, which is the lack of personal accountability, the inability to look at what's happening and be willing to accept the fact that maybe, just maybe you share some responsibility for the way things have gone. I released another video yes sor you can find out on my Twitter feed where I laid out some very specific stats involving just how bad Russ was in areas that have nothing to do with the coaching staff are the players
he was playing around. He missed more shots in the restricted area, so layups. He missed more layups than anybody in the NBA this year by a country mile. There were seventy eight players that attempted at least a hundred and fifty shots in the paint outside of the restricted area, So basically any shot in the paint that's not a layup, so push shots, floaters, short jump shots, anything along those lines,
longer layups, all that kind of stuff. He only made thirty four percent of those out of a hundred he attempted, like, uh, I can't remember exactly what it was, but almost two. I think it was one nine, Okay, so only made of him. The only player in the entire NBA out of that seventy eight player list that was worse was r J. Barrett. So that goes to what I've always been talking about. Russ has absolutely none of the short
game that NBA guards have these days. You can't make a floater, he can't stop short and pull up, he can't make scoop shots and other crap. He finishes around the basket. Every single one of his peers can. How can you blame that on Frank Vogel? How can you blame that on your basketball situation? That strictly your skill set is not at a competent NBA level anymore. He attempted a hundred and eighty nine wide open threes this year. Wide open meaning defender was at least six ft away
and he only made sixty of them. That means that you are probably the worst wide open jump shooter in the NBA at volume. That's on you, man. That's not on Frank, that's not on Lebron, that's not on Anthony Davis. And so again I've said this a million times. I can't wait for this whole thing to be over, and I believe it will be very soon. Here in the next couple of months, Russ will no longer be a Laker, and we can all pretend this whole thing never happened
or try our best to move on. But what I had said earlier this season that I thought that maybe, just maybe Russ could learn a lesson from this year and translated into something that could transition him into being a productive role player in the future. The guy to
watch is Drew Holiday. That could be you, man, a power guard who plays in a tertiary role alongside two stars, who embraces all of the dirty work, the defensive responsibilities, the rebounding, every little detail involved in winning basketball games. That could be you, and you could be winning a championship one day in a key role. But no because you never blame anybody. You never blame yourself. You blame everybody around you for everything that has happened to you.
And as a result, you're one of the least skilled guards in the NBA who's no longer athletic enough to finish around the basket. And it's causing you serious problems. Man, you gotta wake up. I don't know what else to tell you, man, but I mean to put a bow on this whole thing. We're not gonna talk Lakers for a while. We're getting into the NBA post season now. This is just a reaction to their exit interviews yesterday. And the reason why I talk the Lakers is they're
one of the biggest brands in basketball. This season has been an all time catastrophe one will remember for a very long time. And you know, I've covered the Lakers for the last two years and I'm just gonna be an authentic basketball fan. So in this case, it's going to result in me talking about the Lakers good amount. Alright, guys, that's all I have on the Lakers. As always, I appreciate your support and I'll see you guys next time.