Lakers vs Nuggets, Wemby to Spurs & Wright or Wrong

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in command, Matt Ford. Matt is out either on personal business or on business business. But I do have to say one thing before we get in today. Show me the huge show the Heat beat the Celtics last night, as predicted by me, once again just rolling in correct predictions. I've gotten two things wrong these NBA playoffs. The Warriors beating the Kings I got wrong, and the Celtics beating the Sixers I got wrong, Which is interesting because both of those series I picked them to go seven games.

And the reason it for me to be wrong this postseason it took literally the two highest scoring game seven performances in NBA history, Steph's fifty against the Kings and then Tatum's fifty one against the Sixers. But that's neither here nor there. What I was trying to get to is we're gonna get into that Game two of Nuggets Lakers tonight, the absolutely bananas expectations for Victor win. Minyamo all that, But first a note on Matt Ford. So here's a text I get from Matt Ford a few

days ago, yesterday, actually nine thirty in the morning. Just fyi, Rafa meaning Rafa Nadal is plus six point fifty to win the French on fan duel. Right now, here's the breaking news alert I get from the New York Times. Ten minutes ago, Rafa Nadal said he would withdraw from the French Open because of a core muscle injury. Thanks

for that betting tip, Matt Ford. He gave me an injured player the first piece of gambling advice Matt's ever tried to give me, to try to pay me back for all the great picks I've given him, and the guy withdraws due to injury. However, that is not the story today. The stories, of course the NBA playoffs. But before we get to that, here's what missed the cut. The PGA Championship already underway, Deora, the battle for the Wanamaker Trophy. The probably the least.

the latter. The problem is Delo. Whatever he did in the pregame, he shouldn't do before Game two because he was probably the worst laker in Game one. But we don't want to start out west. We want to start out east with the Heat Celtics game diora go right ahead, okay?

the playoffs. That there is a massive difference between playoff Jimmy and regular season Jimmy and I didn't care that they looked like a mediocre team all year. They could be dangerous. But then they lost their first play in game to the Hawks. Fell to the do or die part of the play in almost lost that one. And then they're playing Milwaukee and even iyes someone that respects

Heat culture and playoff. Jimmy did not think they could beat Giannis for the second time in four postseasons, but then Giannis got hurt, and then even when he came back, Jimmy Butler was absolutely sensational and they beat them. Since then, I've picked them in every round. Now. An eight seed getting to the NBA Finals, we've only seen it once. That was in the ninety nine to fifty game season with the New York Knicks, who actually beat the one seeded Heat to get there. This would be the most

improbable of the Heat Finals runs. But we have to recognize that Jimmy Butler is one of the most unique players in NBA history because we have seen the bizarro version of Butler a ton of times in our lives. The guys who are unbelievable regular season performers and then fall off significantly come the postseason. We are used to those players, and in fact, the Celtics in the previous round played the poster child of that in James Harden and a guy who unfortunately is starting to build that

resume up himself as well in Joel Embiid. Guys that are Harden at his apex was a consensus top three player in the league in the regular season and then was not a top ten guy come the postseason. Embeed in back to back to back years has been first or second in MVP voting, and in none of those

years has been a top ten playoff guy. Jimmy Butler, on the other hand, was not even an All Star this year and has been the best player in the Eastern Conference side of the bracket the entirety of the postseason, so that should not be surprising. Here's the other thing that should not be surprising. Man Joe Missoula is not ready for this. Okay, he just isn't. Maybe he will be, but he's thirty four years old and he was not

being groomed to be the head coach. The Celtics last year had Emi Udoka, who had stepped in for Brad Stevens. Udoka was a rookie head coach. He actually did an awesome job, and they had a deep bench of coaches in Damon Stottemeyer and will Hardy. Well Stottameyer's gone. Hardy gets poached to go be the head coach of the Jazz and then Udoka has to you know, get suspended and then has to essentially resign Slashby fired due to scandal.

So the Celtics are left scrambling. It would be as if don't take this the wrong way, baby, as if we're doing this show and all of a sudden, Demanse, who had been doing it with me for a year, gets hired by the ringer to go host his own show, and then out of nowhere, I have to resign in disgrace. And they're like, uh, Diora, I guess you're doing it

one day, maybe you'd be ready. Maybe well, it's just it would be too much, too soon, it would not And you were like, okay, so I need to just do this thing solo for an hour every you would you would not have gotten the training or the experience to be good at it. And that's the and now what you have is Missoula up against the best coach in the sport. He's varied his postgame press conference yesterday.

It was detached from reality. Yes, the third quarter flipped the game, but the idea that the Celtics that the fourth quarter was not a huge prime to them as well is not true to fact. He kept not on think he was meaning to, but he was by default blaming his players. He's like, we were well prepared, we had a plan. We've sid next few. That's putting it on your players. During the forty six point third quarter by Miami, he called no timeouts. He's not ready for this.

And then there's the Celtic superstar Jason Tatum, who's coming off the best game of his life, the fifty one in Game seven, who takes zero shots in the fourth quarter and has three horrible crunch time turnovers, a pass right to Jimmy Butler and then back to back traveling violation.

the word is used incorrectly all the time. Really no, no, because I don't think people use it to mean one of a kind.

Tatum's not a good postseason performer. I don't know how you could argue there's almost any wing in the league right now you'd rather have than Jimmy Butler in the playoffs. He's a great defender. He plays forty four minutes. He's tough as nails, and he gets buckets, and he's a terrible three point shooter that come the playoffs finds a way to hit him. In the last four years, he's tied with Luca for the most forty point postseason games, with eight of them. He had zero in the regular season.

Last night he had thirty five points was it, six assists, seven rebound, six steals. He is He joins Iverson and MJ as the only guys in playoff history with multiple thirty five, five, five and five games in the postseason. His other one was in the finals against Lebron and then Dior. Lastly, before we do move on, there is there is the issue of your brother here. He's gonna be very, very upset.

a Saturday. He could go and be perfect. You know. He text me back, He's gonna be mad at me here, sorry, pal, text me back like thirty minutes later, He's like, I really appreciate the offer, and I'd love to go. But if you just want to send me the money that that ticket caught would cost instead, that'd be cool too. Like, no, man, I'm not offering you cash, I'm offering you an experience. So I mean, I think he's he was very very confident,

as most Celtics fans were going into this series. The problem is that Heat have the best player in Jimmy Butler, and it's a one versus thirty coaching matchup. All right, now we can move on what's next.

about the postseason. No, there are not moral victories, but there are also not actual victories except for winning the series. It is first to four, and each slice of that pie is harder to acquire than the previous and so early in a series. Yes, of course you want to stack win steel, home court, all of that, But what you really want to do, at least what I like to do, is someone that's going to evaluate and look at it is, say, okay, who has advantages? Where what

adjustments can be made and what is sustainable? What the Lakers succeeded at to me, almost all of it except for shooting fifty percent from three, But they only made eleven was sustainable. They got easy shot after easy shot after easy shot. Lebron didn't have to sweat to get nearly a thirty point triple double ad at the quietest forty. Now, He's not gonna score forty every night that I can remember, and it's because the Nuggets do not have the personnel

to guard the Lakers. Conversely, is what the Nuggets did sustainable, some of it, but not all of it. Jamal Murray is a very good player. He is not going to shoot sixty percent in this series. He is, on the other hand, going to be forced to defend, and I don't think he can. Jokic is great, undeniable. However, through three quarters he had that what Mark Jackson called or Van Gundy one of the two one of the greatest

playoff games he has ever seen. That level of play is not going to sustain over the next four games. It wasn't even able to sustain over the fourth quarter, where he was essentially shut out. Turn the ball over. It didn't make a basket. Jokic. And this is where the broadcast was like, Oh, if you haven't watched jokicic, this is what he does. No, it's not I have watched Jokic and he's excellent, but some context. Game one,

first game of his playoff career. He took multiple threes without a miss career, second most rebounds of his playoff career, second most assists of his playoff career, the highest kind of catch all stat game score, the highest game score in victory of his entire playoff career. So, even by his lofty standards, that was arguably one of, if not the greatest postseason game of his career, and he did it all through three quarters. What else is not sustainable?

The Jokics three at the end of the third quarter and the Murray long two from the same spot at the end of the shot clock. Those are one in fifteen shots, and they made them both. Now you can say Austin Reeves banked in a three, but also Michael Porter Junior hit a stupid one from the corner. Those two cancel each other out. The Jokich Murray those two

shots not sustainable. The Lakers had their worst defensive half of the playoffs, and despite that, had the ball with forty five seconds left, down three, with the ball in Lebron's hands, and he missed. Listen, Lebron at the end of the game, missed about a twelve footer, missed that three and two, the ball over, and so the Lakers could have stolen that game. But I see some replicable

things the Lakers can build off of. And the fact that down eleven with a second left in the third and Jokic hits that stupid shot to put the Lakers down fourteen, the fact that they didn't just say okay, not our night and fold their hand to me is indicative of a team that truly believes we have real edges here. We are going to be able to score at will in this series. And that is not what the Lakers' strength is is scoring. The strength is defense.

So all of that is to me reason for real optimism going into tonight's game and going into the rest of the series.

three that the Calves and Lebron won. At the end of that game, the Warriors figured some stuff out with Iguadala on the court that led to the winning the next three games. And while I don't think that putting Rui on Jokic is this catch all cure all like some of the media does, I do think that is an interesting wrinkle. I think they will put Lebron on Jokic occasionally to let ad roam. And I think the Lakers can throw a lot of different looks at the

Nuggets defensively to try to cause some problems. I do not think the Nuggets have the personnel to slow down the Lakers offensively, and I don't think the Nuggets are gonna score one thirty three more times in the series. All right, next, Okay.

the deal. The Warriors are stuck. They're stuck for a bunch of different reasons. And we are going along today and we've talked a lot about the Warriors, but one of the reasons is this. They do need Draymond back,

but they need him back at a discount. But there is no chance they can ask Draymond to take less than what they're paying Jordan Poole, who was unplayable in the postseason, and they can't pay him more than Jordan Poole at thirty two million a year, So they probably have to trade Jordan Poole, and they will be trading him at his absolute idea when it comes to his trade value. None of that is a recipe for an aging team coming off a bad season to get back

to contention. So listen, all year long, I said the Draymond punch and the fact that he wasn't actually punched, it was as big of a story as one could imagine, and people thought people thought that I was making too big of a deal of it. He and Kerr acknowledged that of course, knocking out your teammate, having the entire world see it, and having the team then say we can't punish the guy because that would mean he misses ring Knight was going to have real impact on a

team's ability to compete for a championship. All right, last.

Set the health stuff aside. The hype, though, has now gotten to an insane place. And this is not me being anti Victor Winbinyama. But when woj comes on TV and says multiple league executives believe by his third year he could be the league's best offensive and the league's best defensive player, what you're saying is there's only one player in league history that that's been true of Kareem. And Kareem played four years of college basketball at UCLA

and was an adult by then. Wimby is nineteen coming from a league in Europe. The idea that they believe he's going to be Kareem that is too much, flatly, And I did this thought exercise on the t Sorry you were I know, I don't mean I didn't like on the show yesterday and I said, okay, let's just go the last thirty years, number the best number one picks. Here's how you would rank them. I'm not going to do all thirty, but the top six Lebron Won, Duncan, two,

Shack three a d four Iverson, five, Dwight. Six of those guys right now, who do you think he'll have a better career than? And Brussard said, forget Ad, Dwight and Iverson. If Win Binyama doesn't have a better career than a Keem Elajuan, he's a disappointment. Well, that's unfair. If the expectations are If he does not become one of the eight greatest players in the history of basketball, he's a disappointment. It's unfair, and people have said, well,

that's what we did. The expectations were of Lebron and that has haunted him. The fact that he has lived up to them does not mean it hasn't been an anvil around his the entirety of his career. Lebron is still twenty years in held to an impossible standard. So yes, of course I would take wimby number one. I do think he profiles as the best prospect since Lebron. Not the best prospect ever, but the best prospect since Lebron.

But if we are saying if Victor Winbinyama wins three rings and two MVPs, we're gonna say that's a disappointing career. Brew on the show yesterday said, if he's Kevin Durant, it's a disappointment. That's crazy. That just strikes me as unfair. Go ahead, No, it strikes me as just an unfair expectation. And I know I said we'll leave the injury stuff aside. That tall. The injury concern is not a well, yeah, anybody can get hurt type of concern. It is a real,

omnipresent concern. Note from producer Matt Ford, who says he was refunded his bet when Rafa withdrew. So while I now withdraw my defamatory comments, I won't, Matt. And here's why you, lovable dufas you thought ostensibly that plus six point fifty was good value for Rafa, instead of thinking, Wow,

why is he plus six fifty? Is it possibly because he's dealing with a significant injury, And the fact that he ended up having to withdraw due to the injury just means we're lucky it was as significant as it was because it was five percent better and he tried to fight through it and gets knocked out in round three because he's hurt. We're out a lot of Come on, Matt, be better, quick break right back? What's right?

Bobby Canavali. Watch Unstoppable now exclusively on Amazon Prime Video.

And because there there is, there is this whole genre of discourse that is just catnip for what I can what I would call at people are gonna get mad whatever what I would call the either the dumbest smart people or the smartest dumb people. I'm not sure which group it is, but they're they're very similar. That, which is things that sound really smart at absolute surface level, but the moment you do, I'll give you a non jaw example, it's it's the same genre of well, why

is it offensive to say all lives matter? Don't they? Of course they do. Are you saying when you say black lives matter? That what if I said white lives matter? Why are they not the same? Why is there a black entertainment television? What if there were a white entertainment television? Like those things, at the very surface level, you might be able to get some and be like, hmm, raises

some interesting points. Hadn't thought of it? And then the moment you did one percent deeper, it's like, oh, the reason we're saying, like black lives matter instead of all lives matter. Is because there is right now a crisis of violence perpetrated by the state against a specific community. Much like if there was a giant uptick in breast cancer, we might, I don't know, have breast cancer Awareness Month and do marches. And that's not us saying, hey, anybody

with colon cancer go to hell. It's like, oh, okay, yeah, that makes more sense. Uh. And the jaw commentary that is folks just out saying what law did he break? Huh? You tell me why he should be in any trouble at all. That's an open carry state. He's broken no rules. Yeah, you are correct that John Moran should not be arrested

for what he did. And you are correct that we have a lot of political figures in this country that flaunt guns as a way to appeal to their constituency, put them on Christmas cards with their kids holding them. And yes, of course you are correct. And we all know that there is a massive hypocrisy in how the general public reacts to people carrying guns depending on if that person is white or black. Everybody knows that that is a real issue that deserves significant discussion and remedy.

But None of it applies to this situation.

Went to a volleyball game where his mother allegedly was disrespected by a high school girl and allegedly threatened her, got in a car with his buddy Deontay Pack and others where allegedly a laser sighted pistol was pointed at Indiana Pacers players, and then most recently, waved a gun at a strip club and apologized for it and said he would not do it again, And then fifty two days later waved a gun in his car both on

Instagram Live and seemingly apologized for that. There are plenty of jobs that would not want the face of their company doing that. Are there jobs where that would get you a promotion is one of those jobs insanely seemingly certain districts of the United States House of Representatives. Yes, does job work in one of those jobs? No, it's not complicated, Go.

the internet. There's billions of views on porn Hub. And you're telling me John did something wrong. What law did he break? You don't have to break a law.

Demanse does not make fifty million dollars a year as the face of the Memphis Grizzlies. Demonse has a good job at Box and is like a partial face of this podcast. Can you imagine if on social media he was riding around in a car playing with a gun, what I would say to him, like, I'm beside myself

and everybody knows that. And the reason it bothers me is because I feel like it is folks taking the easiest road possible on what could be a fascinating conversation if you want to talk about gun control in this country and you want to talk about the fact that the NRA and a lot of the conservative right in this country defend at your right to carry an AR fifteen into a Chipotle, yet doesn't seem to ever ever stand up for the armed black citizen who is killed

by a cop, not because they were pointing their firearm, not because they were wrong place, wrong time cop saw a black guy with a gun and killed him. You want to have that conversation about why those people aren't supported or listen to it. You want to have the actual historical conversation that so many of these dopes don't even aren't even aware of. Do you know who and why initially passed? Like how why does California to this

day have strict gun laws? What got that ball rolling Governor Ronald Reagan with the support of the NRA in nineteen sixty seven? Why because the Black panthers armed themselves and marched on the Capitol and all of a sudden, a conservative governor and the NRA helped pass the Mulford Act, significant gun control legislation. It was scary black guys with guns. We can have those conversations if you want to have them.

They're interesting to me. I ain't. They are important ones to have, but to do it, to not do it, But instead he futs around with it, acting like John Morant is a victim here instead of having a the tougher conversation is ridiculous. Now, last point on this. When I said his say was either forty words too long or foreigner words too short, Here's what I mean. Jah continues to make bad choices in how he's handling this because he is apologizing for his behavior, seemingly with no

intent to stop the behavior. And this is this is something oddly like in not stuff like this obviously, But you and I have kind we've talked about similar, which is, hey, if you've decided I am going I am okay with the consequences of X. So I am going to do it. So you're eighteen now, I've had this conversation with your brother. It's every when you're a little kid, so be it.

Go with God. But if you have decided I am going to do X, because I am going to say I did why and I don't think I'm ever gonna have to deal with the consequences of it. Then it's a terrible decision. Then that means you know you're making the wrong decision, but you just think I won't ever

be held accountable for it. That, to me is what If joh thought what he was doing was fine, he wouldn't have apologized to Adam Silver, and he wouldn't have gone to seventy two hour rehab whatever the hell it was. I don't even know what type of rehab it is, like decision making rehab. I don't know the so Jock could have and I guess before he released this statement, Jock could have gone this route. I've done nothing wrong. I'm a legal gun owner. I can have it in

my car. You guys are only bothered because it's rap music on in the background. I've never been arrested, I've never been in trouble. I dare you to suspend me. I will see you in court. Show me what law I broke, Show me what I violated. He could have gone that tact. I would I personally wouldn't support it, but I know a lot of two A folks who would. I think he would get significant like conservative media, favorable coverage. Who doesn't like the woke NBA anyway? And he could

just say lying in the sand doing it. That's an option. The other option is to cut this stupid shit out. Instead, he chose the worst path. I'm very sorry I let my teammates down. I've got to get better with decision making on and off the court. I've got to mature. And thirteen days later, he's on Instagram live first second time playing with a pistol. It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous again. I'm gonna use a parenting analogy here. You're eighteen. You

and I have different feelings on tattoos. Yeah, and I have a few tattoos. Your mom's got a giant, beautiful tattoo on her shoulder. Your brother's got a few tattoos that a couple of them I think are fine. One of them I think's dumb, but doesn't matter. I'm anti young people getting tattoos because I know when I was eighteen the tattoo I wanted to get, and I'm so glad I'm not. Okay, Well, we all think we're not dumb when we're eighteen, but then we look back. But

doesn't matter. Point I'm making is this. You now could go get a tattoo and there is nothing I could do about it. If you were to do that, with the plan being I'll just make sure I'm always covered up wherever this is when I'm around my dad. Then it's a terrible decision. If you were to do it then and say I'm doing it, I'm eighteen, believe I want it. I'll deal with the consequences. Maybe I think it's a terrible decision, but at least you are doing

it planning to be able to stand by it. Ja apologizing for things that he never intends to stop doing shows to me such an overwhelming lack of maturity. It's stunning. It's just absolutely stunning. Uh So that's it. That was long. They just put overtime on the screen. There. We haven't even gotten to the game. All right, let's do the game real quick. To you are I'm gonna do the game in less than three minutes. We're gonna do thirty seconds of question. Yeah, I'm gonna do the game in

less than three minutes. I don't know if we still can do it, Gabe, you can tell me in my ear if we have to pivot off it. If not, we'll do it real quick to you, or just start reading and we'll go go ahead.

do you want for Bronni? And Savannah is like, I really just want him to be happy and be a good person, and you know, chase his dreams and to just have a happy life and Lebron just do As a matter of factly, I want him PLAYBA like Lebron's But I think Savannah has done a really good job, and I think Lebron is doing his best on making sure that Lebron's wants don't trump what's best for Bronni here.

And Bronni's not gonna be the best player on that team, and I don't think Lebron's gonna be the type to be the helicopter parent. All right? Last one?

Twenty eighteen Chiefs run in the twenty nineteen Chiefs. Twenty eighteen Chiefs just doing the Super Bowl, twenty twenty Chiefs are read in the twenty nineteen Chiefs. They just didn't win the Super Bowl. So yeah, I don't think. I think the robots will come for all of us at some point, but no time soon. Quick break right back, answer your questions in the chat What's right?

But I'm not gonna be part of the crowd that if this guy is twenty points and six rebounds as a rookie, which is about what I think, which would be unbelievable, that we're gonna say he's disappointing. All right.

was a Knicks fan. And then my high school basketball teammates and I were the same high school class as Lebron, and we would watch his games on ESPN, and I just decided, when I was a high school senior, whatever team drafts him That's why I'm gonna go with and then I so I was with the Calves, Heat Calves again Lakers now, uh, which is not the greatest, you know, mark on my sports fandom. But because kansasity never had a team and I didn't have a team growing up,

I feel like it's okay. I mean, I'll roll with Luca. It's gonna I like the Kings because of the family connection. I like this. You know, I like Darryl Mory a lot, so I like the Sixers. But yeah, I think it's hard if you don't have a hometown team to just have one team that's your die hard team. So I have the Chiefs, I have the Royals. I mean, I Jokic is fine, but I'm not exactly known as a Jokic fan, so I don't think I'll be a Nuggets guy.

But Luca. I probably roll with Luca once Lebron's done, all right.

It is an entertainment product, after all. This is an unbelievable fact. Though the Chiefs obviously have seventeen games this year, I bet this will blow Gabe's mind. Of all the people listening, Producer Gabs the one that I think will be most interested in this seventeen games for the Chiefs.

How many do you think are in the traditional one o'clock on Sunday window, the one o'clock or you know what, one o'clock or four o'clock, meaning, how many of their games are not either a night game on National TV or the four point thirty prime spot on Fox or CBS.

The answer to that question is one. The Chiefs have one game all year that is not either Monday night, Sunday Night, Thursday night, a stant like a standalone Saturday holiday game or the four point thirty on Fox or CBS game one game all year, all right, last, okay, So that's a tough name. Anastasios Markopolos, go ahead.