Sometimes they're hot, sometimes they're not.
Let's relive the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat in the Zone is back with the best and worst takes from the weekend.
Sometimes we're on the money. Sometimes we couldn't be more wrong. Either way. We come back on Monday to face the music. Best and worst. I We'll start with both. I think I have an all in one here. I said that Game sevens are overrated. I said that playing the game was just a formality and that this should have been wrapped up in six talking about the NBA Finals, of course, but OKC messed around in game six, look their foot off the pedal, and then I said in game seven
it would be a waste of everybody's time. It was a lot of fun in the build up. Yeah, I had the chills as they're doing the OKAC player introductions. I'm all locked in. And my wife, who I had, I had gone on a similar rant with her about Game sevens as I did on the air. She looked at me and she goes, I thought you didn't like Game sevens, and I'm like, all right, just relax, okay, I was all out. The hype of it was you got to you gotta be with a woman that keeps
you honest. The hype of it was there, but the game itself was a waste of time, and it turns out it was even worse than that. Not only did we get the exact result we all truly in our heart of hearts expected, which was a double digit ok See win, but now Tyre's Halliburton's basically out for all of next season. Good for Magic fans, but bad for the NBA. We don't want to see players go down like this, So way to go Game seven, You've struck again.
That is a best and a worst from the weekend for you, yours truly.
Yeah, I can fall into that bucket as well, because we both had Oklahoma City and five or six to wrap this up, and Indiana was able to push it to a game seven. And this game, so Tyree Taliburton goes down seven minutes into the game and it's clear right away that he is going to be out for the remainder of the game, but Indiana stayed pushing. I mean, it wasn't until the third quarters where it kind of
cracked wide open. It was thirty four to twenty in the period to Oklahoma City's advantage, but up to that point it remained competitive, and even in the fourth quarter, Indiana kind of went on some runs and showed a little bit of life and it seemed like they could have used the best finisher that we had in the NBA this season, or at least in the postseason and Tyrese Halburton to aid that attack. So even shorthanded, the Pacers still were able to deliver on keeping Game seven
remotely competitive. It wasn't this twenty thirty point blowout that we've seen in some other Game seven through the postseason in the NBA as well as across the across the sports landscape when it comes to the postseason.
So yeah, it was.
We both had the thunder to win it heading into the series, However, neither one of us thought that it was going to get to a Game seven.
Shout out to TJ McConnell, though, go get yourself a TJ McConnell listening to this. That guy is so good. One of my best of the weekend. We said that Kevin Durant that he would be traded that wasn't exactly rocket science, but that it would be cheaper than the Desmond Bane deal, and we nailed that one on this show. Jalen Green the tenth overall pick and a handful of second round picks, which means pretty much nothing unless you're
really good at taking them. Some teams are not exactly the war chest of firsts that the Grizzlies got from the Magic and I don't disagree with it. It's all about age, contract longevity. Kevin Durant is a better player than Desmond Bane, but there's more that goes into it than that. Both deals to me seem reasonable, but that was the read on the situation going in and we were spot on this show in breaking that down.
So tell me this BK, because I actually have this trade mocked up as a worse for me personally, and not because of the deal itself. I'm not shocked by any of the parts of the deal of Green and Dylan Brooks and the tenth pick in the five first heading over to Phoenix in return for Kadi going to Houston. Houston seemed like the most likely landing spot for Kevin Durant, so we are on the money with that.
But here's where I would maybe call it a worse was I.
Know I said it on the show last week and talking to friends and family the last week or so, it really since that Bane trade, it was going to be, oh, my goodness, Magic Twitter is going to explode when they see this Kevin Durant trade because you just gave up four first round picks for a Desmond Baine, who is an all Star caliber player about twenty points a night, but not an All Star yet in his career. Where you just saw Houston get Kevin Durant in a trade
that involves just one first round pick. Better players being in Jalen Green, a rising star at former second overall pick, even Dylan Brooks. You can't overlook it, and you get another lottery pick with a tenth.
But I thought that magic Twitter was going to explode.
You're telling me that we gave up four first for Desmond Bain and we could have gotten Kevin Durant for one, and I frankly haven't seen that.
I don't know if I've missed it. I don't know if you've seen a BK.
But I thought that magic Twitter was going to be far more upset about the Kevin Durant deal than what it has been.
So I applaud that. I applaud the fans out there.
I think the I think the fans have had enough time where the negative and the positive have all settled. The choppy waters of phantom online has settled to the point where everybody's eventually gonna come around on the team that exists, and there's enough to be excited about with Desmond Bain. And it doesn't hurt at all that a lot of the national pundits that talk NBA, even some that you wish never talked NBA, everybody's been pretty complimentary
of this Desmond bin deal. So I think even for those that were negative about it, they've had time to be convinced of at least softening that stance. I can't say I'm surprised, but let me give the let me give the Magic front office the best of the weekend. If this is true, because this is reported from Locked on Bulls, I have no idea how plugged in these people actually are, but you know they're doing daily work
and this it's not nothing. The report that I read over the weekend was that the Magic offered Cole Anthony, Jonathan Isaac, and two first round picks to the Bulls for Kobe White. Actually now that I've read that out loud. Let me give a best of the weekend to the Chicago Bulls because I like Kobe White. We are big fans of Kobe White on this show. Desmond Bane is a much better player overall, so and that deal would not have allowed you to make the Desmond Bine trade.
So that thank you, Chicago. I like Kobe White, but Desmond ban has All Star potential.
Desim Main has All Star potential. And how about this for sticking on it with Chicago. I think Kobe White has All Star potential, but it wouldn't come with the Orlando Magic. I think Kobe White can be an All Star with the Chicago Bulls and down the line if that does happen, it isn't a knock on the magic that this is a guy that fans were calling for
for so long. And look now he's averaging twenty six at night with Chicago and he's coming off of the bench in the All Star Game and this year, next year, whenever that might be. Because I do think that there is that Kobe White upside. However, it's all about the situation. It's all about does Palo Bank Caro thrive as much as he is in Orlando. If he is elsewhere, I still stand that Jamar Smith Junior would be a heck of a lot better with Orlando than what he is in Houston.
So you can kind of play that game around the league.
Just because you are getting twenty six points from Kobe White in Chicago doesn't mean that it would translate here to Orlando.
So the Desmond Baine deal, it is the better deal. He is the better player.
He is, in my opinion, the better fit of what was available for the Magic. So I applaud everyone involved for the Magic making the right deal, as well as Chicago seeing the potential that they have in Kobe White.
Wait, we turned on Kobe pretty fast, all right, worst of the weekend. I was really buying it in to Coastal Carolina. I was buying what they were selling. The more I looked into this team, I became a big fan of the chant of clears, the winning streak, the bullpen, the recent history of success, their ace. I did end up betting LSU in Game one, but I thought for sure that this one would at least be played into tonight for Game three. Kind of bummed that it ended
as quickly as it did. Because the College World Series final is a ton of fun. But that was a swing an a miss on my part, unintended. Those are my best and worst of the weekend. You got anything, I'm.
Right there with you.
On Coastal, I thought that we are going to get that elimination game tonight for the College World Series. But I mean the fireworks were out even though the chance clears weren't able to get it done yesterday afternoon. How about the headman and the first base manager first base coach both getting tossed in the first inning. I mean that kind of came out of field. I wasn't able to watch this game live. It was all recapping from it and kind of looking looking at what happened after
the fact. But it seemed like something came out of nothing, and boy did it explode. So head manager for Coastal and the first base coach getting toss in the first inning, they certainly put up a fight five three score and the manager's a couple of coaches getting kicked out.
So that was I don't know if that helped. I don't know if that helped the whole situation, but kind of a flop by the umpire to fall backwards the way that he did. Yeah, oh, I was not a fan of that, of that ejection.
All right, I'll pat myself on the back. This is the last thing that I have for best worse. And so Raphael Devers last Sunday hits a home run a member of the Boston Red Sox to extend the lead over the rival, the.
New York Yankees.
The Red Sox go on to win two oh so on to the Red Sox, who to celebrate, they trade Rafael Devers out to San Francisco to the Giants for back of baseballs later that night, and and so then I knew the Red Sox were heading out west, and sure be it, they were heading out to face the Giants for a weekend series. Where Roth failed, Devers was going to be suited up at number sixteen for San Francisco. So we're looking at it at the weekend. How is this going to play out? The Giants got two out
of three on the weekend series. First series of the Red Sox have lost in a couple of weeks. But we were talking about Devers. Is he going to hit a hit a home run? How many will he hit? And when will it come?
And bk nailed it.
It was Saturday, after an for five appearance on Friday night and his debut against the Red Sox, Devers went yard on Saturday off of Brian Bao, which is exactly what I called on the.
Weekend BeO winning.
Bao was the best pitcher that he was going to see. But you look at the splits righty versus lefty.
He has the worst batting average against righties on the season, two eighty eight down to two fifty five. But he's more explosive against those righties. Fifteen more hits, six more home runs, five more doubles, thirteen more RBIs, higher on base percentage, higher slugging percentage. He faced the worst pitchers on Friday and Sunday, but it was written on the wall for him to get a homer in the series, and it made sense that would come against a better
right handed pitcher appost to the lefties. So raphaeled Evers goes yard on bail on Saturday, standing ovation for Tyler Karen.
I'm glad that we saved that one for last, because that was the best of the best and worst right there. Kind of thought his first home run would be out in the Bay I think a lot of boats were docked out there waiting to get that first Giants home run ball. But it was right over the left field porch. That's the way it goes. But good call by you. More in the zone next