Dave McMenamin(@McTen) on NBA Draft Lotto, Round 3 playoffs, NYK-BOS game 6 + more

All right, we are ninety minutes away ish from Nick's Celtics in Midtown Manhattan, New York. Tried to advance to their first Eastern Conference finals in twenty five years, where they last played the Indiana Pacers, who are awaiting the winner of this series. A Porter, were you awarded your weekly bonus by our textures? Were you you were giving the unanimous thumbs up that you deserve your weekly bonus?

I was, so. We have people texting that have not listened to the show this week.

I think so. I think that's the case here.

Were there any dissenting votes? There was one that said, I, you know, maybe might need it. One said I deserve your bonus also, well, then he's not going to see Matt ry for going to play golf the Mountain.

Dell. Yeah, he didn't.

He didn't get chosen.

It's a very exciting weekly bonus. It is an uncrustable sandwich. So porter will be rewarded for his hard work. Dave Mcammittiman, Friday afternoon, David, how are you, sir?

I'm dooing wonderful. How are you guys?

I'm good, I'm good. Are you a fan of Uncrustables? I've asked you this before, not that I'm.

Aware of you asking me. Yeah, I am. Absolutely.

They have them at Laker games actually in the uh like the fridge where they put the food for the people that can't eat whatever they're making in.

The hot bar.

However, you gotta go and grab one early because as soon as the Lakers dance team comes in, they descend upon that collection of the crustaballs like rabbit animals, and they clear it out. So if I come to the arena early, I'll grab one, put it to the side, having a little snack, usually postgame while I'm writing. But if I can't, if I don't beat the Laker girls there first, there's no chance to get the one.

The biggest question is which flavor did the Lakers girls girls prefer.

Is it grape, is it strawberry? What's what's the preference.

So they clear it out of both.

My preference is great. You know, my mom made Peter butter and zelly sandwich, just put it in our sack lunches growing up. It was never there was no other jelly flavor other than great. It was Concord great from Welch's. There's no other choice to get something else.

This is true.

So porter's weekly bonus if he does a good job as an uncred stable Sandwich. So I need to know did he communicate with you in a professional manner and did he call you on time?

I would venture to say that he may deserve too excellent communication this week.

Up that bonus.

Hey, we're working on a budget here, Dave. One uncrushable per week, buddy, is all you get?

All right, Dave? The lottery is fixed. It is rigged. The NBA hates the Jazz and everybody hates salt Lake.

Your reaction, Oh, man, I thought about it, you guys, almost immediately.

You know.

First I was fielding text, you know, just the remarkable turn of events for the Mavericks. But yeah, my thoughts turned to the Utah franchise out listen.

Obviously not rigged.

As crazy as it may seem, life is stranger than fiction.

So Kennedy had a.

Secretary named Lincoln, Lincoln had the secretary named Kennedy, and they were assessaly one hundred years apart.

That's crazy, right, That's actually crazy.

What happened in the NBA draft lottery where even the teams with the best chance of ending up in the top three, only had what two teen percent chance of getting there, Like that still means eighty five percent chance you're not going to get those picks. We want to,

Yeah, And look, ultimately, you know me, I'm teasing to bring you in that way, but we do have a lot of very frustrated jazz fans in the market. And you know, Dave, the bottom line is the one team that could not win the lottery in order to dissuade folks from putting on their tinfoil hat won the lottery, right, Like, That's how that went down. So the fact that Dallas gets one, I think has a lot of people wondering, like, what's going on?

You know, it's absolutely wild to comprehend, and I get it, I absolutely get it. However, it's just the way things went, and the NBA is not discouraged by the fallout, if you want to call it that or the speculation, because the real goal of the lottery was to discourage teams from tanking.

And the two teams that I think you could.

Say, we're not judging at all, but let's just be realistic. The two teams in the lottery that clearly tank this year. I guess there was three, right, so Charlotte, Washington, and Utah. None of those teams ended up with the top two picks.

You know, it's interesting your guy Tim Bond TAM's Timmy good time Bond tem says he's known around these parts. Sided a couple of front office sources celebrating the fact that the Jazz and the Wizard specifically did not get the number one overall pick. Do you feel like that's a consensus from teams around the league that actually are serious about winning when they're looking at teams that are clearly unserious about the endeavor that they're glad that that approach does not get rewarded.

Yeah, I wouldn't speak to a consensus, but I can say that I spoke to a smattering of folks that look at it the same way.

And but you know, listen that I can say this without revealing my sources. They aren't in that cycle of their team currently that the people that are sharing that opinion. It's easy to look your nose down on someone when you have the good fortune of being on a competitive team at the moment. But even the most competitive teams generally will go through some sort of downturn that I mean, listen, it's a reminder of the stakes.

Of choosing to go that direction.

And again, like the best case scenario when it comes to your percentage chances is like fifteen, just below eighteen percent, I think, is what you can.

End up with. The Jazz end up with a fifth pick, their most likely pick they were going to get going into the lottery, and you know, the odds are published and there for everybody to see is that they were end up with a fifth pick. So like that was it actually was.

It didn't buck the information that the team or the fan base had going into last week's lottery.

One more thing.

If Mike Pence did the right thing, would the Jazz have the number one overall pick?

Next Crutch?

I knew it. I knew it.

I knew you wouldn't take the bait. I've tried for years and you won't do it. All Right, Dave, are you ready for my super crazy Jazz Spurs trade idea?

Yeah? I love it.

So san Antonio at two finds themselves in a really interesting spot because I think everybody feels like Dylan Harper is the second best prospect in the draft, But you look at san Antonio's roster and there's redundancy there if they decide to go Dylan Harper. Now, look, the problem with this trade scenario is there will be a lot of teams lined up to make an offer for two if san Antonio is willing to move it.

But they make the trade for Darren Fox.

They have Stefan Castle, who's rookie of the Year, and the Jazz could very much use Dylan Dylan Harper. It fills a need and if he's as good as everybody says, do you think san Antonio entertains the notion of the Jazz sending five and Lowry Markeden in exchange for two fourteen, and then Keldon Johnson and Harrison Harrison Barnes to make

We're keeping it. We're drafting Cooper flag.

Right.

I actually really liked the idea, mostly because if you're going to go to with Harper the redundancy factor Castle rookie of the year, you want to build there, and why wouldn't you want to build off of him versus like even if he was to continue his development with Harper There there's the idea of like second guessing in about your mind. Or let's say Harper does take off, and now you have a distressed asset in Castle because he's you know, starts wondering, you know how valued am I?

Was ever offered.

So how much of the and you just named a few and Boston is an interesting situation to consider.

And we'll get to the game in a moment.

But even if Tatum stayed healthy, they were going to have some decisions to make with a new ownership group that probably did not do the luxury tax calculations until the papers were signed, and then they were like, wait, what it's going to cost me? What just to keep the roster? I mean, Bobby marks I think calculated it's a five hundred million dollar luxury tax bill. As this team continues to become expensive, So maybe they have a decision to make.

Maybe it's Jalen Brown. I don't know. Tatum is going to be on the show for an entire year.

The Shams report about Giannis, There's Phoenix and Durance. How real do you think this kind of alleged reported big time player movement in pro basketball will be this offseason?

Well, I'll start with Boston.

You pay a premium to get them six point one billion dollars. Yeah, I think the number that Bobby reported is just under five hundred million, which is a wild additional expense to take on in an annual basis.

Normally, when you see.

People extend themselves to make a purchase like that, they want to start recouping their investment. Drew Holliday has two years left on this deal. Chrisferzingis is an expiring contract. I expect them both to be moved absolutely one hundred percent.

Does this caused him to say.

You know what, this is probably my time to go pursue what else is out there for me and I would like to be moved. And then when you start to see those type of dominoes fall, that's when it becomes a crazy summer because you're like, Okay, Boston's going to be moving two players.

That's interesting, Chris SUPs and Drew Holliday. And Drew Holiday has proven to be a.

Difference maker for two different teams now in terms of being a championship level team.

That's interesting in itself. But then if it becomes.

Okay, Jalen Brown wants out, and then if Nasachcoopo wants out and Kevin Durant wants out, now you're talking about like.

Three or four franchise changing players.

On the market, and yeah, that can lead to all sorts of chaos beyond it. So I do think that we have a potential for a pretty busy summer with the landscape to lead changing a bit.

All right, moving on to you know, the playoffs, because they're going on. I'm gonna ask you about a couple of teams that already have stamped their ticket to the conference finals. Then we'll get to the action tonight and over the weekend. Let's start out east where Indiana just and you know, it was really interesting listening to Kenny Atkinson after the game that you know, sealed the deal

I mean, they're going to be a tough out for anybody.

What stood out most about the way the Pacers dispatched to the Calves, Yeah.

I mean they controlled that series. And listen, you can say there was un apportunate circumstances with Darius Carland and Evan Mobley DeAndre Hunter all missing time. Of course, I'm not so sure though.

Had they been healthy the entire series, they would have beat the Pacers.

That the Pacers played with morm edge, they played with certainly more off defensive organization, and then they have wings.

That get into you.

And Kendrick Perkins, my friend and colleague you know, did a hit earlier this week basically saying that the Calves weren't tough enough, and sometimes like that's hyperbolic and that doesn't really tell the story.

But I do think that's part.

Of what this Calves team was missing, is there's not enough grit there.

You have basically a bunch of nice guys and.

You need some sort of mix to that group of guys who want to mix it up or guys who you know.

Are going to player than the other team.

And I don't think that's means that this Caves team should be dismantled, but yeah, I do think you look at like Jared Allen and Evan Mobley both are gentle giants.

Can you have two gentle giants on your team or do you it's you.

Know, it's kind of hard to play two bigs in the playoffs as it is.

Do you split them up?

All these there's a handful of contenders that are looking for a big that would you know, offer you up a lot for someone like Jared Allen and then use those assets that you get from that trade either to find a guy with more of an edge or make that trade about finding the guy with more of an edge. I think it's a tweak that they are that they need,

Moving over to a series that you covered covered well, a really good piece about Anthony Edwards. You know, Minnesota and you and I talked about this after OKAC kind of established themselves as the best team in the West with a historic net and with the way they were playing, we would kind of revisit the topic every week, like who is their peer out West? And seemed like every week that would change. You know, the Golden State gets Jimmy Butler? Is it Jimmy Butler?

Of course?

The Lakers get Luca Can the Lakers make Okay See uncomfortable. But over the final few weeks of the season, we did start to hone in on Minnesota a little bit. Obviously, the Steph factor is the Steph factor, and we'll get to Boston and New.

York at a minute.

But as connected as Boston looked in Game five without Tatum, Golden State is just lost without Steph. They just are Spacing's completely different. I was waiting to see playoff, Jimmy. We never really did. That's probably more of a credit to Minnesota than anything, as in a diamond on Jimmy Butler, But what did you make of just how easily it seemed for Minnesota to take care of the Golden State Warriors sands of course Stephen Curry.

Yeah, I mean, listen.

I think there was the actual basketball blow to the Warriors of playing without Steph, which is significant because even at this stage of his career, you're talking about a guy who is going to draw a double and triple team attention. He's a great playmaker. He can set other guys up, and he can just shoot over the defense a lot of times, So that's a major part of it.

You can't be proffing the ball.

Up that many times expected to win the playoff game, and even in the closeout Game five, it was a blowout and had seven turnovers like that, that type of stuff is going to hurt you as you get further along the ride against the more disciplined team. And that's why their story could end in the Western Conference Finals against Denver, OKC.

Because I think.

Both those teams that have a little more structure to what they do. At the same time, though they're deep, they're big, they're physical, they have a little bit of the ship on their shoulder from them flaming out last year against the Mavericks and the conference finals, and like I think I'm kind of biased as I evaluate them because I have covered each of their games the last two rounds like they look really good, and I covered them last year in the playoffs in the second round

The next round.

If Denver somehow beats Okay see, then you're probably talking about the best player in basketball and Jokic thinking that he has another chance to get a ring and that could be pretty tough. Plus tenverll have the revenge factor because they lost last year to the Wolves.

Which combo of cities would lead to the most whalien and national teeth from media members that are mad that they have to travel to both cities.

It's it's Indiana, okay. See.

I do have some Race young as a friend of mine, and I'm friends with some folks on the Indiana staff, and I feel bad about some of the texts I've already sent about that scenario to some folks in the media. It's just one of it is like, actually a huge part of it, I should say.

It's not the city themselves.

It's literally both of those cities I won't be able to fly direct to.

So you know, that's kind of tough.

Every single flight you're taking is a connecting flight for duration of two weeks.

It wears in you a little bit.

It does, no, it does.

I just always enjoy the yearly airing of the grievances from media members that don't enjoy travling to certain places.

But anyway, all right, a couple of things left before I set you loose.

Let's start out this way where we do have a game seven on Sunday.

Man, this has been such a fun series.

I don't know, man, I just feel like Denver's out of gas and I just feel like Sunday could get ugly for okay, see, But I do not want to bet against Nicola Jokic.

What do you think happens Sunday Game seven?

Dave, I'm leaning okay Seed just because.

It goes into enter was terrible in game six, and you figure he will. I respect him as a player. He's knocking on the door of his prime right now. He'll have the home crowd behind him with something to prove. I just think he'll have a much better game. And you know part of Denver winning in game six was Julian Strawther comes out of nowhere to have a game of his life.

Like those type of role players, they do that at home, they don't do it on the road. So that's said.

I mean, listen, like I expect should be great. Aaron Gordon, we'll see. You know, there was some talk about his calf bothering him last game. He's another guy. Generally I would say, I know what I'm gonna get out of him. He's going to be great. It's kind of like the swing players Jamal Murray. Jamal Murray is capable of coming and dropping thirty five and winning the game and making

Finally, David, the unbiased media member, basketball and analyst in me believes the New York Knick should win a close game at.

Home tonight in Mintown, Manhattan.

The long suffering New York Nick fan in me, as this team has let me down multiple occasions since I was ten years old, has visions of Charles Smith missing three layups and Patrick Ewing missing a finger roll and John Starts shooting three of eighteen and pat Riley refusing to just even take Rolando Blackman off ice, and I could keep going. Anthony Mason's inbound pass to Greg Anthony

In an hour from right now.

What happens tonight at MSG, do my next finally get it done.

I'll say that they're better get done tonight. But if it goes seven others, they're gonna win. I actually think they're gonna do it. This is a very confident group. They will have obviously have Event Square Garden on fire. I think they're gonna do it. Like they they recognize that they wasted.

The opportunity in Game five, but you got to give credit to Boston again. They had guys step up. Like we're talking about Strawther for Denver at home, right, Cornette's not gonna have that game on the road. If he does, God bless them, but he's not.

And so I think we get and then Nick's also recognized like last year they probably should have been in the conference finals. It's not for everybody get injured at the same time. Like right now, they have house on their side. So I say, go to New York, Go New York, go and and hopefully you know, with talk about traveling to New.

York for the final.

You know what, now I'm cheering for the Pacers just so you have to go to Indiana. I'm just playing, Dave. Always a pleasure, my friend. Enjoy the games and have a great.

Weekend, all right, yeah, show you too.

Thanks us I Dave mcmanamhon covers the NBA for ESPN. You can see him on all their TV coverage, then writes about a myriad of different things at mc ten is where you find Dave on on Twitter. Stop spot today courtesy of our friends at the Daybreak Home and Garden Show right around the corner.

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