Colin Cowherd Podcast - Luka For MVP? NBA Playoff Picks, Warriors Dynasty Is Over, Will Celtics Run Through The East?

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a great job. Has grown a wicked mustache since she's been at the volume, as well a confidence mustache, which if you have a guitar and you can play, you gotta have a mustache. So first of all, it's great to have you back. So here's what was established in the regular season and we know more than any sport because of the duration of it, the regular season doesn't

quite have the intensity of the postseason. I always say there's about a dozen regular season games that I go okay, that one mattered, that you get them occasionally, a Saturday night game, a big TV game. So what's been established. Wemby's phenomenal and could be a top five player in the league by next year. Jalen Brunson is a bona fide star. Ok Se is the best young team and for the next six to eight years, those draft picks and those players, they're going to bear the top of

the West. Boston's the deepest team in the league. Nice mix, mostly of veterans. Porzingis has really become a different player than he was five or six years ago. Denver's probably the best team, best starting five. And then there's a bunch of questions, you know, one of the I pushed back a lot on this and I've covered round. If I had an MVP vote, Jalen Brunson gets consideration. Jokich

could be the favorite. But I was thinking about this watching him this past week because I already started zoning in to all the top teams on Luca so statistically insane could be your MVP. Arguably, of all the fifty plus win teams, he has the weakest roster. He solved, at least for the time being, the Kyrie issue and the mavericks of the hottest team in the league at

the most significant time of the league. Right. We know the playoffs mean more, but the last fifteen games of the regular season, you really you can feel who's playing uphill and who's playing downhill. If you had an if I had an MVP vote, I think I would think long and hard about Luca. Let's start with that. To you, who's the regular season MVP.

to win the title. And you're right, I think they do have the most limited supporting cast of the group of teams that we kind of consider seriously at the top of the league. Now, the thing MVP's tricky because typically there's a large gap in the standings between Dallas and Denver. It's like six games if I remember correctly.

Typically when you see a team that's not in that like super high end record area of the league, like fifty five plus wins, typically it's because there's not a traditional MVP candidate there for some reason, like it's a Jason Tatum that's leading one team, or it's a you know, like there's usually a limitation there. And so then you look below that and you find your guy who's leading a limited squad, whether it's a Russell Westbrooker, it's a

or it's a Luka Doncic. In a case like this, the thing is is like as much as Lucas had to deal with Jamal Murray's miss more than a fourth of the season, Yea and Nicole Yoka just kept them right in the mix there. Jokicchen just about every major national TV game this year, as clearly demonstrated he's still the best player in the league. So for me, like, even though I view Lou, I put him second, I

put Luca second. I just can't justify the gap in the standings and the fact that I think Jokic is playing at a similar level, if not a touch higher anyway. But I think Luca has a legitimate case, and I think you got to throw Shay in there too. I think Shane is a legitimate case as well. But I think Lucas gonna win it, and I think he deserves it. Yeah, and actually Luca this Kic, I mean, excuse me.

kind of demanding I need the effort. I will say this about Luca that I don't know in my life. It took Kobe a few years that he was a more efficient score. It was a wild He was like Josh Allen is a rookie quarterback. You knew it was there, but he was wild. I don't know in my lifetime if anybody has ever walked into this league and thirty games into it, you said to yourself, and I'm maybe it was Kareem. This is before my time, right, I

don't really remember when he broke in with Milwaukee. I didn't watch sports till like seventy two, seventy three, seventy one the Bucks won the title. I don't know if I've ever seen a player walk in and by the All Star break of the first year, I remember saying, like, is he going to be a top five score? Ever? Like he reminds me like, obviously he's not highly vertical. I don't know if he I'm talking Jordan Lebron everybody is he maybe the greatest score, the most unstoppable score.

He gets any shot he wants, every time down the floor. It's almost his girth, his lack. You know, he's not d Wade when you look at him, he's at times puffy. I don't know how to describe him. He is just an automatic bucket, always gets it shots. I don't even know what his comp is.

that plays right into their advantage. Like if you get physical with me and I have a size advantage on you, I can pivot, use angles to go right around you because I'm just bigger and I'm stronger, and so a lot of times, like if you ball pressure Luca, He's just going right around you and getting to the basket. And so, really, what's kind of taking his game to the next level this year is he used to be

kind of like a mediocre pull up three point shooter. Yeah, he had some hot streaks against the Clippers in the postseason, but for the majority of his career he was a low thirty percent guy on that little step back three that he likes to take. Right this season, he's shooting just shy of forty percent on that shot. He's hitting that at an extremely high rate, and so you can't press him because he's too big and he'll just go

right around you. But if you play off of him, he almost like tricks you by just leaning back a little bit and he can get just enough separation to get that three point shot over the top of you. And he's hitting it at damn near forty percent. And so that just put everybody in a bund And so we're getting career high points per game, career high assist per game, career high pull up three point shooting percentage,

career high pull up jump shooting percentage. Like he's just hitting these marks that he wasn't hitting early in his career in terms of scoring efficiency to match his volume. And that's just put him in a different stratosphere as a player.

next six years. It's gonna be in your prime. It's like twenty three to twenty nine when you can put in these insane numbers. But do you worry about that because we do have a history that like players that came into the league like Kobe had to be like they had to figure it out, Like you just can't play like this all the time when the ball usage numbers are through the roof.

was good when he was with Dallas. He was actually one of the few guys that was kind of reliable in that twenty twenty two playoff run when they want to the Western Conference finals, but they Kyrie's the first guy he's played with that's like a legitimate number two, and so he's getting more spot up opportunities. They're playing with more pace he's operating off the ball more, they're running more sets to get guys into advantage situations. They're

kind of playing a more team style of basketball. Kyrie just missed a lot of time this year, and while he was out, Luca bumped up his usage the way that he typically does. But like, the truth of the matter is, like I've I've always looked at Luca as a guy who's just a winner and a savage competitor and a guy that would make the requisite adjustments as time goes on, He'll play on more talented teams in

his career. Like you just mentioned at the start of the show, this is not necessarily the most talented offensive roster in the league in terms of ball handling. So like there will be a point in his career where he's going to have to legitimately share the load, and I expect him to do that. Well, a lot of times we put a circumstance on a player when really the player's just doing what he has to do to thrive in a certain place, right right.

Steph and Draymond play. Although Clay is he's going to earn some money somewhere, he had a really good April. And you know, it really hit me watching them, is that when the Lakers made that Russell Westbrook move and had to get out of it. You can't get everything. When you're desperate, you can get something. So they got size, but they didn't get any shot creators. Austin Reeves was already there, Lebron was already there. And I tend to give coaches a little pass on their rotation, much like

a defensive coach in the NFL. Sometimes Darvin ham Is is a little tone deaf offensively, like when you don't have Lebron and Austin both on the floor, there's not a lot of shot creation. You just need ad to be great. And so the game I went to, he did that. He had eight. He didn't play. Austin and Lebron at one point were off the floor. And it's say, bro Dlo kind of waits for you to get him

a shot. That this this roster has no shot creators, and I do think that will be the Lakers undoing is that Lebron at this age, you can't ask him to play forty minutes of shot creation and there this team is long, They're good. It's a good basketball team. I mean, like the first half against the Pelicans, they were all playoff focused, like they were all playing playoff basketball. You're like, okay, they aren't taking the Pelicans to I mean it was just a physical mismatch. They made New

Orleans work for every shot. They would get great passing, great ball movement. But when I do look at the Lakers, I think to myself, you can't ask a guy in your twenty one to be the shot creator, the playmaker, and to me, it won't be Darvin Ham. It's just it's a roster reality, isn't it.

I like Toryan Prince. I think he's a solid rotational wink. He's like their eighth best player, and Darvin Ham was playing him massive minutes and starting him every single game over Ruy Hachimura, who's a better basketball player. Cam Reddish, there was never ever a case for him to be used the way he was, and in a league where everyone's talented and the margins are pretty small, and the Lakers were kind of a little relaxed post winning the

N Season Tournament. They toasted some games off in that span when they probably shouldn't have because Darvin Ham's kind of galaxy branding the rotation. But you're right, the limits of the Lakers are the limitations of the Lakers. That was a standings related issue. They should not have to go to New Orleans on Tuesday and win a game,

but they do because of that stretch. As far as the playoff setting goes, like, the main issue is when they run into specific types of matchups, specifically teams that bring real perimeter strength and length. And by the way, the Pelicans are one of these teams. Yep. They they can handle d Lo, they can handle Austin. Just Lebron is too big for all of those dudes. And when we talked about it earlier, you ball pressure Lebron. He

can handle that because he's strong. And then the Pelicans are a turnover forcing, aggressive like forward attacking defense and so if you can get the ball behind it with high level playmaking, you can pick them apart. The Lakers won the first half points in the paint battle fifty to twelve in that game. That goes to show you just how crazy Lebron and Ad shutting down Zion and then on the other end of the floor, Lebron picking apart their aggressive attacking defense just allowed the Lakers to

kind of pick them apart. But those specific types of matchups, those lankier wings, they can give d Lo and Austin problems, and then that puts too much on Lebron because the Lakers are actually a very good offense. They're third in offense since January seventh, that's a forty six game sample size. They're a very good offense, but it's very much everyone's involved. They get a ton of assists, it's lots of ball movement,

a ton of us yeah today. Yeah, it's so bizarre watching them compared to last year, because like, there's a good chance they faced Denver in the first round again, and we're gonna pick Denver, but they could not be more different. Last year, they were a four out, one in brute force, spread, pick and roll, post up offense that was very defensively minded. Now they're actually this super high powered, spread, five out offense and they can't defend.

So it's like a completely different Laker team that we're running into. But they have the same problem. They keep the Nuggets close and then the Nuggets out execute them at the end of the game. So they're more or less than the same situation, but they are a different team than they were last year.

is some duplication in the offense. But it's years ago. I've said this before, years ago when people were saying Katie's better than Lebron. This is when he was with the Warriors winning MVPs, and I said, you got to add context to this. Like he's playing, it's just go hit buckets. They don't ask him to lead talk. He defended pretty well. He's always been a willing defender. But I'm like, they're not asking him do anything. He didn't have to talk after the game, before the game, he

didn't have to be the soul of the team. He didn't have to be the the bouncer. Hey, you don't have to do anything, just get and that's what Katie does. By ways. He's a shot maker. He's great all time. But and I felt this with Kawhi, if you ask him to be a foundational piece, a leader, the barker in the clubhouse. I mean, I go to the Warriors Laker game and Draymond and they're out by twelve. Late is barking at players. Lebron's a coach and you watch

KD and this is the difference. And I've said this with Kawhi. When the culture is set and you add somebody like Kawhi and Katie and they just get buckets and stops. They're all time players. But when you have to build something around that, because Booker clearly is not overly verbal. He's a scorer. That's okay. He's a scorer. And I look at this Phoenix situation and I'm like, they would be better with Lebron. This is just a guy to get a basket, and this team needs more

than that. They've got guys Beale and Booker that can get a basket. They need they need this reservoir of Lebron's sort of vision leadership, this foundational personality. And so I look at Phoenix and I think, yeah, I just saw points. But all the good teams in this league, there's a there is there's a soul. Curry's a soul piece, yokiches you do. You don't even have to be overly verbal.

But I look at Phoenix and I say, it'd be easy for me to just say, hey, Katie's been great, but this is sort of if you're a top eight player in the world, this is your team. And I don't care if Booker was here before. Booker wasn't winning for years and years before they brought Chris Paulan, he wasn't winning or a bad team. So I do look at Phoenix and say, some of this is just on KD. At times in your career, you have to be more than get a bucket guy, don't.

physically gifted guard in the league. But like when I watch Suns film and they're good on defense, it's usually because Booker is engaged and he's talking, and he's like the communicator of the defense, like calling coverages out and that sort of thing. Kevin Durant like, for the record, I'm much higher on the Suns than most people. I had them. I had them fifth, I think in my contender rankings coming into this postseason run, and I specifically

love them for the Denver matchup. I think that Nurkic is a big body that can make things tougher on Jokic than some other people. Another key part of the Suns is they have the best, in my opinion, the best spread driving kick type of team in the league. Grayson Allen on that week side has been the best three point shooter in the league. He's great at driving closeouts.

Because of the three star build, you constantly have Bradley Beall off the ball or Kad off the ball or Devin Booker off the ball with an advantage, and so they can really spread teams out, and so teams like Denver that are like load up defensive teams that always defend pick and roll three on two and kind of load up on the strong side that skip passes open and Phoenix can pick you apart there, which is a big part of how Phoenix has had success against Denver

this year. But to your point, they've been inconsistent there where it's like I watch them. I watch them today and they kick Minnesota's ass physically from the opening tip. I watch them against Denver and they kick Denver's ass physically from the opening tip. And then I watch them against the Clippers the other night and they get punched in the mouth and they've wilt, and it's like, so that's been. That's been very much their identities. They've been.

They're they're like probably the widest range between floor and ceiling of all the teams that I've seen this year, because like, when you watch them on the right night, they look like a bona fide top tier championship contender, and then you watch them on another night and you're like, these guys aren't made of the right stuff, and so like, honestly,

like the truth is probably somewhere in the middle. But I thought they demonstrated a lot of grit coming back and winning in Sacramento the other night and then going into Minnesota with a chance to get out of the plane and killing them the way that they did, and in the process sparing them from a Denver matchup as well. Like I thought that was a big time win for them.

I'm generally higher on Phoenix than most people, but they've If there is a limitation, it's just they don't quite have a ton of like physical alpha dog in it, if that makes sense.

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pound law pound five to nine. That's for the people dot com slash Colin or pound law five to nine from your cell. Winning in the NBA is hard submitting an injury claim with Morgan and Morgan it's easy over in the East. I think I think the Knicks facing either the seventy six ers or the Heat, Now, who are you going to take in that play in game April seventeenth? Would you take Philly or Miami?

and total toss up. Give me Eric Spolstra in a toss up game like that.

and it's like, oh, your numbers will go up. So we all knew Jalen Brunson could play in the last month and a half. And I think this is a lot of pro athletics. Is you know, Carl Anthony Towns got hurt for the t Wolves, and actually their pacing got better. Their three point shooting got better, which is not surprise because they had two bigs. Now you're down to one and go Bear's not a gifted offensive player.

Karl Anthony town some times can take the air out of the ball like a lot of bigs, like you nump it down to So the pacing got better. So Julius Randal gets hurt for the Knicks, and to me, it's like when I watch him, it's like, oh, they they always feel like there is something in this league about you know, you got to get Julius's touches. You

got to get certain guys their touches. You're paying him twenty four million, twenty eight million, Well, they don't give Julius Randall's touches, and that's more touches for Jalen Brunson. And I'm sitting there watching them and I'm like, I don't know. Like when I went and watched him in person, he is so much quicker than the TV gives him credit for. Like he you cannot stay in front of him. You know, I don't care about Villanova's second round or grinder.

He's not a grinder. It's way more than that. He gets great looks. And I kind of look at the Knicks and I think to myself in and I don't trust Milwaukee. I'm I kind of like Philadelphia. But again, what is mbat he had twelve games? Is at what he played off the injury, I wouldn't be shocked. I look at the Knicks. I think in the East, a red hot star, a good coach, and a lot of be guys that defend and play hard. I don't know, I don't think they'd get to the conference finals. In

the West. I mean, hell, Milwaukee's a five hundred team against the West. What do you make of the Knicks over the next three weeks?

about them as a team. And there is something to be said about Julius Randall coming out of the lineup and that leading towards less of some of the ugly things we've seen from the York Ard the years, because Julius Randall, he has a tendency like things don't go asway, misses a couple shots, he'll take defensive possessions off, He'll pout like that's that's something Julius Randall's been known to do at times. Right, So, like there's been a lot of upside in a regular.

it's this simple. In a playoff setting, you can really throw the kitchen sink at a team that all operates through one star, and there's only so much that effort and energy and focus and basketball character can make up for. And the main stat to kind of like drive that point home is that as good as the Knicks have been this year against teams in the top ten in point differential, they are seven and seventeen, and they have

the fourteenth worst point differential themselves in those matchups. So like, they play really hard, they win all the games they're supposed to win, and then they run into the teams have more firepower and they lose. That's pretty much the issue with the Knicks. So spectum, I have a ton of optimism about the future. They're super well positioned for a trade if they want to make a trade this summer.

They're in a great spot. But like, do I think they're gonna go on some sort of magical playoff run? Not necessarily, And honestly, Colin like, there's another question should we should be asking, is Boston just gonna murder everyone in the Eastern Conference?

but they're not always great. Whereas Denver feels like every big TV game that's close, they end up winning the game, like every I watched the Minnesota on the other night and I'm like, man, this is like the hell of an effort by Minnesota.

the kid. So they're old. They have no first round picks. The Damiannest thing is not terribly efficient. You've got it. I've got it. They're a worse defensive team. And so my takeaway, and now they've run through coaches now they're on Doc, so you can't you can't go back to blaming the coach. My take is, what if they lose to Indiana. I mean, they got a first round picks, they don't have a lot of tradable pieces. I mean, you could move off Dame and again Dames somebody that

has a market. You know, Dame is still an excellent late shot clock score. But Milwaukee's fascinating to me. What if they lose to Indiana and that'll be a good series much. You know, a younger an athletic, younger team. What does Yiannis do I Adrian Griffin, he ran him out of town. You can't run Doc Rivers out of town. I mean owners at some point that dead coaching money. It's like at some point they lose patience. Where is Milwaukee if they lose? What do you do? Well?

It's a bad matchup for them. The Bucks are probably the slowest team in the league and the Pacers are probably the fastest team in the league. So like it is a complete foot speed mismatch. They kill them in rotation, they kill them in transition. They it's just a nightmare for Milwaukee. So I'm gonna be picking Indiana. But let's just say, for instance, that somehow Dame goes crazy, they keep it at two to one, Giannis comes back in

Game four, they somehow managed to advance. Did you know the best lineup in basketball this year to play at least five hundred minutes is the Milwaukee Bucks starting lineup, So Brook Lopez, Damian Leather, Chris Middleton, Yannis, and Tenna Kumpo Malik Beasley in five hundred and ninety nine minutes this year outscoring team outscoring team is by fifteen point one points per one hundred possessions. Awesome on both ends of the floor. They've been literally the best lineup in

the league. So like, now there's some context there. They've struggled in specific matchups. They beat the crap out of some of these bad teams in the Eastern Conference at the bottom of the East is really weak, which kind of pumps up a lot of these kinds of numbers. But like, it's not the door. There's just a tiny little crack in the door there for Milwaukee that they might be able to swing through this year. That set

I am. I'm a big believer in like when you've got superstars, it creates small achievable roles around them, So you've got a superstar guard. And I for the record, you were talking about Brunson. I think Brunson's probably leaped left Dame as probably the second best small guard in the league behind Stephan. Now you just go Stephan then Dame. I think it's probably Stephan then Brunson now at this point,

but like Dame is still really really good. Yeah, and then Yannis obviously still top five player in the league. So it's not completely outside of the realm of possibility that you couldn't make a couple of smart trades this summer to try to bring in some speed and then try to run this thing back. I think they'll give

it one more shot. Now. If it fails after that, then you're in crisis mode because you better come up with something or Jannis is gonna be asking for a trade and they don't have a lot in the way of assets. But again, like for the same reason that Jared Vanderbilt is just kind of a cast in for the Lakers, but because they desperately need a perimeter defender, all of a sudden, he looks awesome, Yeah, ruey hotcha Murau.

They don't have any forwards, so they finally get a forward, and Ruin looks awesome, Like you find some speed, a guard that can defend next to Dame, you find a legitimate front court athlete who can defend next to Giannis, so that you can go back to Giannis at the five lineups and have some success. Like if they find some speed this summer, I think they could be right back in the mix.

And you start watching them in person, and they run a lot of plays through Clay a lot, and it's like coaches don't have to. And I thought Clay was washed last year. But when I watched the Warriors, my take is when I came out of that game, I thought their their core, that they don't want to move is Steph Claye Raymond and Pods and they would, they would move all their size for a big even if it was Karl Anthony Towns. Is that they've tried to.

I mean, Chris Paul was effective. He's been effective despite you know, mid range guy limited. I kind of look at Golden State where I think they experimented this year and Steph was remarkable. But Kaminga doesn't have a closing package. He's just really long and twitchy and athletic. But you put him around the rim, you give him the ball, he's got somebody behind him. He doesn't have any package. He doesn't really know what he's doing. He's just talented,

right like. And so I think Golden State thought this year. My take is they thought this year was going to be better. And I look at him now and I'm like, not only is the dynasty over, it needs a huge swing. To me, like a huge swing. Do you view it that way?

Like that's the type of potential I think he has. But like, no matter what happens this summer, whether it's Clay goes to Orlando or Clay stays, or they decide to trade this guy, or do they decide to trade that guy, regardless, what we cannot do again is do the whole Steph is the only guy on the team who's a high level offensive player. We can't. We can't do that anymore because, like, like to give you an example, like in twenty twenty two, Andrew Wiggins and Jordan Poole

kind of combined to be that guy. Yeah, and then they both kind of fell apart and then traded Jordan pool away. Andrew Wiggins has shown bursts of being capable of doing some of that, but not really. And again it was both of them. It was always both of

them that kind of put that together. So like, if you're gonna go with Steph Clay, which I think is doable, you absolutely have to somewhere in that starting five, closing five, whatever your five best players, there has to be another guy who can be a reliable night in, night out shot creator. It has to happen. It's been way too long. Yeah, at the beginning of the dynasty, it was Clay because he was more springy and he could do more moving

than Kevin Durant came in. Then when Clay got hurt and Kevin Durant left, Andrew Wiggins and Jordan Poole kind of filled that void. Those guys are not in that void anymore. And it's been a huge issue, and like the book is out, like part of the reason that Golden State has struggled this year. Teams have figured out Steph's the only guy. Throw everything at him, ball pressure him all game long, wear him down, blitz him on ball screens, do everything you can to wear him down.

The other guys will probably fall apart at some point, and that's been what's happened. And like that Pelicans game was a great example. It's like, you know, Tray Jackson Davis had a really nice season and he's been a really useful rookie. Brandon pa Ziemski has been a really useful rookie. Klay Thompson's had a great year. But it's like when push comes to shove, it's like, if Steph isn't making everything, they just they don't have an option.

It's even at the end of that game, the only reason it was close was Steph was sinking bombs from twenty five feet with three hands in his face. So like, at a certain point this summer, they've got to go after somebody, and the guy that I think they should be going after, Let's imagine Luca starting on Saturday or Sunday next week, just eviscerates the Clippers and puts them to bed five games, six.

the guy. If you're Golden State, that you throw the kitchen sink at and you bring in Paul George and you make a run at it with Steph Clay, Paul George, Draymond Green in a center, and then I think that team is Like, I think that team is easily in the mix at the top of the Western Conference, wouldn't you?

a refined player. He's been in so many big Spot and Pods is just you can tell he'll see things and you're like, oh, he's never seen that before. It's kind of like he's like a kid that had like too many skittles. He's got a lot of energy, a lot of it's productive, but you're like, slow down, you know, he's just not quite there. But I think he's been a really nice pickup for them, and I do think he is what they view as like the replacement for Clay. Yeah,

I think. I think Paul George. I've always been a Paul George fan. In fact, even the playoff p where he gets crap, his playoff numbers are solid. I mean this idea that he plummets like he's a Roden baseball, where it's a different player, or Bonds in Pittsburgh when he was a pirate and he go to the playoffs and he was a different player. Paul's a good playoff player. At the bottom line, he's an a minus player regular season B plus player in the playoffs. For the record,

you play better players, so very few guys are. You know, Jordan's the classics. Oh he's better. Now Lebron's done that. You're like, oh, Lebron cares, he's more focused. So I think that would I think that would work. I want to go back to what you talked about Boston. So Boston is and this is a trend that I'm noticing in the league. So they just signed Drew Holliday to a pretty pretty big deal considering his age. Jalen got a big deal, Tatum's getting it, and Porzingis's life for

two years. So if you look at what Boston's doing, Denver's doing kind of feels like Golden State's going to do eventually. Lakers to some degree, is that because the draft. There's two ways to look at the draft. It either gives you a lottery ticket Houston. Okay, see it's not about now, it's you're playing the lottery. Or if you're a really good team like Denver, let's go get Christian Brown from Kansas, multiple year starter, come in productive day one,

lower ceiling. We know what he is, but we need eighteen minutes a night. He has to play in the playoffs. So I kind of look at Boston and what they're doing is they're like, we don't really care about our bench. If Derek White's our fight, We're just going to keep these guys for the next two years. If we win a title, we all keep our jobs. Denver the same thing.

Phoenix doesn't have much of a bench. Golden State, you know, and I think it's a trend in the NBA is where we look at the NBA maybe ten years ago, we thought, oh, the draft is about getting the next blank, and the good teams are like, no, let's just diversify our portfolio. Let's get a Villanova guy. We know what he is. He's eleven a night, but he's a grown up. He's been coached hard, and so I do think that's where college basketball and the NBA have an interesting symmetry.

And that's when I'm watching Boston last week signed Drew Holliday. I'm like, they're doing what Denver's doing is we just don't really care about our bench. We're just gonna draft an old college guy at the end of the first round. And your thoughts on it looks like that's what's happening in the league, is that bench. You know, we're just gonna load up on stars and go draft guys from Villanova or Gonzaga that we don't think I have huge ceilings.

That's what it looks like Boston's doing is we're gonna go three years on this thing, and if we end up not winning, we have to blow this thing up. But we don't really care about our bench.

for the most part because they're way less expensive. So for instance, like let's say you wanted to go after Dorian Finney Smith from the Nets this deadline, you had to include a first round draft pick. You had to include salary ballast. He's coming back, he's making you know, I think he was making like somewhere between ten and twenty million. I can't remember the exact number off the top of my head, but like you have to factor

that into the cap sheet. There's all these different machinations that come into play when you're trying to bring in a player that's a veteran to upgrade a roster. Whereas if you've got a good scouting department and you can find guys in the late first round, second round that

can be contributors you can get them cheap. You don't have to use salary ballast, and it's the same use of the pick, right and so, and then there's always the flexibility of like, hey, if we want to turn around and trade Christian Brown day, we can and we can get something back from people are gonna view him as a prospect that's no different than you know, like Bruce Brown or like or guys like that, Like you

sign him as Indiana, then you could trade him, right. So, Like there's I think that that's a big part of team building now is like you got to find out what your strength is and if you have a good scouting department, then trust those guys to make the picks right. As far as Boston goes, I love what they're doing too, because you know you and I talked about this a lot last year and the year before after Boston's flameouts, like,

well they keep Tatum and Brown together? And I still to this day get questions from fans like, hey, should Boston keep Tatum and Brown together if they don't win the title this year? And what I've consistently said is with them being where they're at in their careers, you are more likely to experience a gain through their own individual development into their late twenties than you are through some sort of trade. And so honestly, I love what

Boston's doing. Boston is saying we're gonna get one in these next few years. Give me Drew, gim me Derek, gim me Tatum, Brown, gimme Porzingis. We're gonna get one in these next few years. Might not be this year, might bet not be next year, but like, these guys are still getting better. Jaylen Brown could not score out of the post until this year. Now he's one of the best post up wings in the league. Jason Tatum every year has struggled with pull up three point shooting.

He's shooting better with this pull up three point shot this year. Guys are getting better. They're going into their prime of their careers, and Boston has basically said, we're betting on continuity. We're betting on these older vets. They're gonna get at least one. Let's lock everybody in. And honestly, I think it's the right strategy and as long as they make sound moves on the margins to bring it. The other thing we didn't even mention for the young

players that you get in the draft. They're high motor guys. There's not really a whole lot better you can do over the eighty two than a twenty two year old who's gonna play his ass off every night, as opposed to the twenty nine year old who's on a twelve million dollar deal, you know what I mean, or an older veteran guy. So I do like that strategy.

Dallas today. I have Dallas and six. You're picking paragraph.

I watch them play. They're highs lows. I kind of feel like I get effort, I get rim protection, I get ants production, I get Conley's brain power. I always feel they're prepared and well coached. With Phoenix, there's good nights and then they trail thirty five to four at home to the Clippers, and so I think Minnesota is a consistent team with a little bit of a ceiling. I think I take Minnesota in six picking a paragraph.

They got one point seven to six points per catch and shoot jump shot and that win over the Wolves today, so they definitely shot really, really well. Here's why I'm low on Minnesota, though. It's really simple. They are one of the worst offenses in the league when you get into late game situations because Anthony Edwards is twenty two years old and nobody else on the team can really consistently generate great shots, and so it's a lot of if he decisions, it's ant settling for pull up jump shots.

And then weirdly enough, their defense falls apart. For as good of a defense as they've been, their defense falls apart in clutch situations. Because of the fact that Mike Conley's on the floor, Carl Towns is on the floor, you can find entry points to get their defense in rotation, and then it doesn't matter if Rudy go bears at the rim, if he's chasing some guy off the three point line in a driving kick situation, I think the Suns are going to spread him out and get better shots.

I think they'll be able to slow down Minnesota's offense in the half court. I'm picking Phoenix and six.

with just an incredible individual defender on him. So all the personnel stuff points me towards Orlando. But Orlando is super young, and Cleveland got embarrassed last year and they know what the playoffs are like now, so I expect a lot of fight from them. I'm gonna go long series in gut check, I'm just gonna say magic. But we'll see after I watch some film.

the Clippers will be good in these situations. I'm gonna take Milwaukee in six. What's your thought?

bet is Indiana. But if like Yannis plays and he's healthy, like I think, I would probably lean slightly towards Milwaukee, I'd pick Milwaukee in seven.

guard forever. He actually lubricates things. It's in cole. When Kawhi is like trying to generate offense, It's like, no, it's not what he does. He can do it, but it's not what he does. And the hardened things sort of work. But you get James's weird personality again. He's he's an odd player. He's an odd, quirky guy. I think, much like the Bucks, if the Clippers flamed out, I think Balmer was an inpatient investor and impatient at Microsoft.

Am I supposed to believe as a sports fan. Now you know he's suddenly going to be one of these long tarmac guys Like I think. No, I think the Clippers lose, and it's they don't get a lot of consistent effort. You think they blow the team up.

go to Denver and just get killed. You don't think the Lakers are gonna be sitting there looking in the mirror like we just got swept, or the gentleman swept two years in a row. We got to rethink this. What if Phoenix loses to Minnesota. They just went all in on Kevin Durant, Bradley Beal, and Devin Booker and they had an iffy regular season, and what if they get smacked by Minnesota. Right. The Clippers, if they go

out in flames, that could be a problem. The Bucks, if they go down in flames, that could be a problem. What about Miami. What if Miami loses to Philly and don't forget, Atlanta beat Miami in a playing game last

year because they couldn't rebound with them. What if, like Chicago or Atlanta gets in there and knocks out Miami, Miami could be looking at this like, are we really going to run it back with Bam and Jimmy again when we struggle every regular season and then we just barely squeak by an upset peak in the postseason, Like this could be because of how deep the field is, because there are so many good teams, We're going to have a bunch of pissed off general managers and owners

this summer. That's like a guarantee. It's just a question of who. There's going to be a lot of really unhappy fan bases in ownership groups this summer, and then all hell could break loose and we could have a bunch of trades and stuff should be fun.