Zach Lowe
Appearances
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
So I picked Nuggets in seven, which is your tell for don't feel great about it. Went home court advantage and best player in the world. And I listened to you and Ryan after game one. I felt exactly the same way you guys did that. The Nuggets kind of stole that game. And I would feel really good about the series if I were a Clippers fan. And then they won game two.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
Obviously, we're doing this right after that.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
uh i would feel good if i were a clippers fan i'm gonna stand by my pick obviously because you know i don't repick repick series halfway through but um i think clippers have outplayed them and if they're gonna have we're gonna talk about kawaii and if they're gonna have one guy in each game and it was hardened in game one kawaii game two who's essentially like on par with yokich they're gonna win the series right they just need somebody to cancel him out numbers wise in some way um
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
I still can't believe multiple front office people talked to me on the record for that piece about what was going on during the draft. What were they thinking? I'm like, well, maybe that's why. Maybe it was a newish... And they were like, oh, this will be fun. Let's do this interview and reveal what was going on for this crazy trade.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
That's what I'm saying.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
Take it wherever. It worked out well for me.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
Did he make top 75? I think he did, right?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
So there's no question he would be one of the top. He might already be one of the top 50 players of all time. He's a two-time finals MVP. He's kind of like the... No, I said 15. Oh, 15.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
No question. Two-time finals MVP. Defensive player of the year. 50-40-85 in the playoffs. I did a little dig. I did some basketball reference sorting. I got some good stuff.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
all-time two-way wing, most valuable position in the league, has multiple iconic playoff series, playoff moments, and one of the most iconic playoff shots in the history of basketball, the four-bouncer in Toronto against the Sixers. And, like, again... You never know, like, with these guys, like, all the time he's missed.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
If he had played all that time, if he had played twice as many minutes or 1.5 times as many minutes, how does he look right now? Because right now he looks incredible and fresh and all that stuff. But, yeah, I mean, look, he hasn't finished the season healthy enough. since 2020, since the bubble. He has not finished his team season available to play since the Clippers flamed out in the bubble.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
And knock on wood, we're only two games into this and he's playing a ton of minutes and he played a ton of minutes at the end of the season. If he plays like this, like I think we just get, did you just give up on this? Like I just kind of get, like when they lost Paul George in free agency, I was just kind of like, he's going to miss half the season. It's going to be all dependent.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
I just didn't see the Clippers ever reaching this level again in this iteration of them, in part because I just kind of gave up on this. It just seemed like a pipe dream that we'd ever see this level Kawhi in the playoffs every game. And I really, you know how much I love Kawhi. I voted him MVP in the year Russ won the MVP when it was a super controversial vote.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
I think I was one of eight guys to vote for him. I thought he was the best player in the league that year. And I just hope we get to see this because what he's doing and just eviscerating every defender that they threw at him last night, 15 of 19 for 39 points is ridiculous. And the last basket of the game. Yeah, it was to put them up by three.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
And a steal right after that.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
We saw enough in the two and a half quarters of that game to be like, okay, he's going to give them a puncher's chance in all these games. They'll probably lose 4-2 or 4-1, but this isn't going to be like a walkover like everything else they had that year.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
Take me, that's your world.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
I'm going to LA.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
They won 50 something games the next year. They were one of the best story. I think, did Nick Nurse win coach of the year that year?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
It's ridiculous to even suggest this, Bill. Nothing like that ever falls into the Lakers' laps. It doesn't happen. They don't just get stars that go to their team shockingly. It doesn't happen.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
Seven against Dallas and four against Utah.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
Well, can we just stop for a second? Yeah. We shouldn't slow down on it. We should slow down on a couple of things. Yeah. The first one is the bubble and COVID. Because I picked the Clippers to win the championship that year. And we learned pretty quickly even during the bubble and then after that no team wanted to be there less than the Clippers.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
And they just completely... I don't know that I've ever seen a team let go of the rope like that. Like they did against Denver.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
And 2021, he gets hurt against Utah. The series is 2-2 when he gets hurt and they end up winning the series. The end, essentially the end of the jazz of the Mitchell Gobert, you know, iteration. They had one more year after that, but everyone knew it was kind of over. We just like, I, that 45 point game six to save the Clippers season.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
And remember that series against Dallas, they get rolled the first two games in LA. They're down like a million points in game three in Dallas. And it just feels like it's over. They saved the season. They're still down three, two in game six. And he plays one of the best games I've ever seen anyone play. 18 of 25, 13 of 16 at the line, 45 points.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
and the usual defense, and single-handedly wins the game and saves their season. Then he follows it up with a ho-hum 28-10-9 in Game 7. That's one of the best games that's up there with any game I've ever seen anybody play. I just wanted to say that. Slow down and say that game.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
I'm glad you brought up Yao because I want to bring him up later.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
Ralph Sampson?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
Well, there are some. It depends how how what if you want to, I mean, Len bias. Yeah. So I'm glad you brought up y'all because I just did, I just did to, to point to your point about how unique Kawhi's career is. I just did a search on best law reference people in the hall of fame. with player efficiency ratings for their career. PER, everyone craps on it now.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
It's like a useful, like if I just need to catch all, like was this guy good, how was he, right? PER above 22 for their career. Kawhi's regular season is 23.2, I think. Because I wanted to see how many guys, Hall of Fame, that elite level, and how many played fewer than Kawhi minutes-wise. I think Kawhi's are about 23,000 career regular season minutes.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
There's only three guys in the Hall of Fame that meet that PER standard and played fewer minutes than Kawhi. One is George Mikan. Okay, like original NBA dinosaur, but innovator, ABA commissioner, all that. One is Neil Johnston, 50s Philadelphia Warriors player. Probably made your book of basketball.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
And the third is Yao Ming. And so that was a name that I thought of right away. Even before I did that search, he only played 15,818 career minutes. But obviously, unlike Yao, Kawhi is a multi-time champion, multi-time finals MVP. There's just there's and then you go right. And then there's a Neil Johnson played 18,300 minutes. And then there's a 10,000 minute jump to the next guy on this list.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
And it's Dr. J, who obviously played in the ABA, too. So he's got other. Yeah, like there's just there's a 10,000 minute gap between those two guys. And Kawhi is right in the middle of it.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
Wait, is that the one that cuts off Karl Malone?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
Poor guy.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
No, don't be sorry.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
Well, I remember after the first Spurs heat final that the Spurs lose the Ray Allen game and all that. He had moments in that series. I don't have his game log up in front of me now, but he had moments in that series where it was like, ooh, something's interesting is happening with this Kawhi. He's guarding LeBron. Okay, fine. He's a great defensive player.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
Actually, let me bring up his game log as I'm talking, but he's guarding LeBron. he's guarding lebron comfortably by the way yeah and lebron respects him already and now he has games i'm looking at here the here's his last three games of the of uh those 2013 13 or 14 13 the one they lose um to to miami 16 points on six of eight shooting 22 points and 11 rebounds on nine to 14 shooting.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
Game seven, 19, you know, he misses a big free throw in game six, obviously, people remember that. 19 and 16 on eight of 17 in game seven, 45 minutes, 46 minutes a game before. He has double digit rebounds in five of the seven games. And I remember before the next season, I wrote a piece about, for Grantland, this guy is the biggest X factor in the league this year.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
And it was like the only time I think I ever got a one-on-one interview with Kawhi. I called the Spurs. I was like, hey, I'm writing all about this kid. He was a kid back then, whatever. And I remember their PR guy, Tom James, was like... This will be your one for the year. Don't call and ask for pop. He was being polite about it, but you know how the Spurs are. You're not getting popped.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
This will be the one, but I think it's a good idea. You should do it. And then he ends up winning finals MVP, making me look really, really smart. But you could see enough in that first finals where it was like, okay, something different is going on. Something more is here. But again, to be an MVP candidate and a guy who... You know, we'll go through his playoff numbers.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
But even then, even in the 2014 finals, I don't think you could see that coming. He was kind of like MVP by you had to pick a spur. And he was nobody.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
Could have been like Evan Mobley or Cade Cunningham before this year.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
But maybe not even quite that.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
Are you talking about athleticism?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
for defense, I'd have, I'd have to sit and think about it for a second, but I mean, you know, Gary Payton wasn't big enough to, to be in this conversation, right?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
I'll give you this one too. Um, I sound like an old man. It's not that long ago, but he's still a very good defender now. If he were healthy and played the whole year, he'd be in the all-defense conversation. He's still that good. peak Kawhi, like 2016 to 18, 19 defensive player of the year candidate Kawhi was legitimately terrifying.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
Kawhi against Memphis in 2017 in the first round. Like a ho-hum Memphis team. The Spurs should have won that series. He was incredible in that series and did everything for that team. People can go back and look it up. Remember the Ben McLemore thing?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
I think he ruined Ben McLemore's career because Ben McLemore tried to dribble within a 10-foot radius of Kawhi and Kawhi just took the ball out of his hands two possessions in a row and went and dunked on the other end. I wanted to write a story about that. I approached Ben McLemore's people once and I was like, can I write this story?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
And they're like, eh, I don't think he wants to talk about that.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
But he ended up writing something different about him. He was a very sweet guy and had an interesting arc to his career. But like, peak Kawhi, if you were not like an A-level dribbler, you could not dribble anywhere near him. He would just take the ball from you.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
You could see the moment when he would decide, actually, I think I can just get the ball. You're dribbling it like everything's normal. How about I just take it?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
It's actually kind of amazing and speaks to how great he was during that five or six year stretch that he's a six-time All-Star because it doesn't feel like he's been healthy enough in his prime to be a six-time All-Star. It's just when he's minimally healthy, it's so obvious that he's one of the five to eight best players in the league that he just makes the All-Star team every year.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
The Durant one is interesting. Durant's got the height and the quick twitch shooting from any range ability.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
the bulk and defense and just you can't move him at all that Kawhi brings both of them are their assist numbers Durant's probably a little higher but broadly similar in that they're not a primary creator they're more a secondary creator it's I mean it's an interesting they're in the four assist range it's an interesting it's an interesting one well one other thing with both of them there was a little bit of a Swiss Army knife with each where I felt like you could play Kawhi at either forward spot and get away with it right you could play Durant
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
These are great names. Can I just read you another list of things I got from Best Ball Reference? Do it.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
I just did... Playoffs. These are playoff numbers. Again, PER is not a perfect stat. Good catch-all. Kawhi's career playoff PER is 24.3. It's higher than his regular season. Wow. That alone is an accomplishment, by the way.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
If you can maintain your efficiency stat, if you're an elite player and you can just maintain your regular season efficiency into the better competition of the playoffs, that alone is an accomplishment. To go up a mini level is a big, big deal. So I did above... 24 PER, at least 4,000 minutes in the playoffs. Kawhi's at 5,009, I think.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
So you got to have been there a decent amount of time and you maintain a 24 efficiency, 24 PER. Eight guys total have ever done it. And I'll go in order of their player efficiency ratings. Number one, Michael Jordan, 28.6. Number two, LeBron James, 27.9. Number three, Shaq, 26.1.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
Number four, I still think for my money, maybe the most criminally underrated player in the history of the NBA, Akeem Olajuwon, 25.7.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
Number five is a tie at 24.3. And it's just too good that it's a tie. Tim Duncan and Kawhi Leonard. Wow. And then right below them at 24.2 is Barkley. who has the fewest playoff minutes of this group. And right below Barkley is Durant at 24 flat. And that's it. That's the whole list.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
I'll look up his playoff PR. I mean, I know I should have anticipated your level of concern.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
Tough. But he's got a 26, a 24. I mean, it's different. PR is different.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
Okay.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
Per game.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
Hold on. 30 and six in at least 20 games.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
You're making the finals.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
I mean, when you said top 15 earlier in the podcast, I mean, again, you're getting into sacred territory there.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
Yeah, you're right around Dirk.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
It's pretty sacred territory, and now that we're going through these lists, I can't argue against it. The what-if is that severe, and the what-if ceiling is that high.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
You know who's not criminally underrating Hakeem from 1995? David Robinson. Or Shaquille O'Neal. Or Shaq, that's right.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
That's a lot. Yeah, it's a lot. It's a nice one.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
It's Tim Duncan 2.0. It's incredible the symmetry of those two guys.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
So a bunch of Celtics.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
Even, even as you're watching the Clippers finish at whatever, 16 and four, whatever. They've had an incredible last 35 games.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
And he looks incredible. And you are saying out loud what is completely reasonable, which is that, in your opinion, this is the second best team in the Western Conference. And I'm watching it. And I'm like, yeah, that makes total sense. And my brain just can't even, it still puts them over here in like a separate category of the standings. just because I just never believed we would see it again.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
I just, I wouldn't allow myself to. And again, he hasn't finished a season since 2020, but I'm glad he brought it back to this year because I think this is the coolest thing happening in basketball right now. Um, I, I don't know how far this team can get if he stays healthy and plays like this, but it's minimal conference finals. I think they could be, I don't know.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
I don't want to put a ceiling on it. Thunder are going to be favored against anybody. Um, Well, I guess not minimal conference finals because they're in the Thunders bracket. So we'll see where they can go.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
I liked Russillo's idea that if you lose by 50 or more in game one, it counts as two wins for the team.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
But I will say, not only is this about Kawhi, I think I think the Clippers are the team of the year, the franchise of the year almost in the NBA. I mean, the Thunder are the obvious choice because they won 68 games and they're just incredibly well set up for now and tomorrow to a level that no team has ever been. But for the Clippers to win 50 games and be looking like this in the postseason...
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
After they lost Paul George and everyone, including me, just wrote this entire era off is now we're just killing time until we pivot into a rebuild and we get our picks back. It'll be cool.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
And the front office was like, actually, I think we signed some pretty good role players in free agency. And we have a lot of faith in Zubats to make another level. And if Kawhi ever can play and we're doing our best, we feel like we're still like a pretty. And they didn't. I don't even think they expected.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
I think they thought we could be like a cool 46 win, tough as nails, defensive oriented team. And for them to be this is incredible. It's an incredible job by the coaching staff, Ty Lue, Jeff Van Gundy, the whole staff. I think they're like the franchise of the year in the NBA, maybe second to the Thunder, I guess.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
You can't undersell what an incredible accomplishment it is for them to be a 50-win team and going toe-to-toe with the best player in the world in a playoff series in the middle to upper half of the Western Conference bracket. It's ridiculous.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
That's it?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
Concerning first couple of games.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
Can I give you a third? identity teams Pacers Pacers have an identity
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
That's why he's always been an elite postseason player, among many other things, is that there is some truth to the idea that in the playoffs— you need a little bit more than in the regular season, at least.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
Guys who can get those shots. And he can get, like the last shot he made last night to put the Clippers up, 105, 102, I think it was. Yeah, it was the last shot of the game. The last basket of the game. They ran a pick and roll to try and get Jamal Murray switched onto him. And for maybe the first time in the entire game, the Nuggets decided, we're not giving you this switch.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
We're going to hedge with Jamal Murray. risk leaving the screener, who I think was Norm Powell, open and figure that part out. We're just not taking Aaron Gordon off you. And he was like, cool. Aaron Gordon is a tank. I'm totally cool with this. I'm still going to get to my spot. And he made that jumper from the right wing over Aaron Gordon, and it was vintage Kawhi.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
The height, the trajectory, the ease with which he got there against a defender who's one of the only guys in the league who can match his size, strength, and athleticism. And it was just like walking the freaking park.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
And he's getting frustrated too. Yeah. He's getting frustrated with the officials. He's... been pretty demonstrative, not in a bad way, but with teammates trying to point them in the right direction. Seven turnovers, missed some big free throws in both games, including two late in game one, only six of 10 from the line yesterday.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
I'd be worn down carrying it.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
It's funny you say that because in my notes I was taking on the game. I can't remember when it was in the game. But I'm paying very close attention to every Murray, Jokic pick and roll, how the Nuggets decide to guard it. Different ways, different... Their default strategy has been X, Y, and Z. And there were two in a row, I think in the third quarter maybe, where...
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
They didn't need to do anything dramatic. They didn't even need to do their sort of usual response to it so far in this series. Because Jokic didn't pop to three, which is dangerous for them. And he didn't roll into floater area for like a pocket pass from Murray, which is a danger area for them. So Zubac just kind of saw, he just sort of stood there.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
at the point of the screen, like 19 feet from the basket. And Zubats was like, oh, cool, I can just sort of drop back and play this like a normal pick and roll. And the worst case scenario is he gets a 20-foot jump shot. This is a nice reprieve. And I just took note of those because I was like, you don't see him do that very, very often. And I said in my notes, like, maybe he's tired.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
He should be. He's playing 40 gazillion minutes every night on a team that needs him to do literally everything on offense for them to survive.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
But I'm glad we captured this moment because... Can I just add one more Kawhi thing that is too irresistible given that this is a podcast with you? I think about Kawhi 100 nights a year, 50 nights a year for this reason and this reason only. I don't even know if you remember this. After the 2017 season, when Russ wins the MVP and averages a triple-double, you voted for Harden, I believe, right?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
That was one where I just felt it in my gut. But anyway, so you voted for Hardin, and you're so proud of the vote that I believe you had them made. You or someone at Grantland had these shirts made. I should have brought it, but it looks disgusting now. It's a white t-shirt, and it says, 2017 MVP, right side of history.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
And it has a photo of Russ and a photo of Harden and a check mark in a box next to Harden. And now that's been, that's in my pajama rotations. It's one of my pajama shirts. So I look at it and it makes me smile, but it also pisses me off because I have the wrong vote for me on the shirt. I need a Kawhi version of, I look at the shirt, Kawhi's not on it.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
It's the right side of history is James Harden. They're like, well, that's not my side of history, but I wear it anyway as pajamas. So I think about the 2017 MVP and, like a third of the year because it's pajamas.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
Probably. I think so. I'd have to go look it up. I probably did. Yeah. That was the year like LeBron was fourth and you just felt like this is insane or that, you know, this is the way this is breaking. How? Why? But that's how it broke.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
You know, Cleveland... LeBron spent six straight weeks pouting and giving everyone side eyes.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
Because he hated his team and was like, I need you to trade all these people.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
Thursday, we're going to recap everything that happens Wednesday and Tuesday, depending on which series we have time to talk about, and look ahead to Games 3s and Games 4s. I think that's coming right off a Warriors-Rockets Game 2, and it's coming right off Lakers-Wolves. We'll have a couple extra days of rest, so we'll see.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
If the Lakers are down 0-2, it's going to be DEFCON 1 across the airwaves, baby. Let's go.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
I'm going to keep the stock because I'm going down with the ship. I still... Tim Legler and I used to joke that we needed t-shirts made that we could wear on television. And the t-shirts would have just said, John, I think Kaminga is good. Because we were both... We both would just be like, I don't understand. We think this guy's good. Warriors fans, it's incredibly polarizing.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
Some of them just think he stinks. I still think he's interesting and good. But I... You know, if they're not dusting them off now and they're winning games, I kind of think the ship has sailed. But you never know in the playoff, the longer you stay in the playoffs, if they get through this series, you know, the matchups change, someone gets hurt, you never know.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
But I don't even think about him anymore, sadly.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
Thanks for having me.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Ageless LeBron, Kawhi’s Crazy Career and NFL Draft Burning Questions With Zach Lowe and Peter Schrager
100%.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Is John Collins on a beach in Mexico somewhere? Like, it's so embarrassing. The Raptors have been embarrassing for the past month. Like, hey, we're just not going to play any of our guys in the second half of any close games. The Jazz have been embarrassing the entire year. And Phoenix has somehow been more embarrassing than the Jazz relative to expectations. Yeah. I got a lot of takes.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I haven't talked to a microphone. I haven't been able to make fun of the 26 teams with trade places with us. Matt, issue me a statement that's going to be in Springfield one day. That was the best. 26 EuroLeague teams? I think you just meant all the teams.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
How shocked were you when Zion got shut down for the season the other day? Like, was it the equivalent of the Luka trade level of shock that the Pelicans had to shut down Zion for the season?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
That's why all the talk about what happened with Taylor Jenkins, what happened with Noah LaRoche, what happened with Isalo, this Finnish coach that they've hired and now promoted. Why now? Why with nine games left? Well, they're sliding. They can't beat any good teams. Their record against above 500 teams is terrible. They had expectations, blah, blah, blah.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
it shouldn't be the sixth paragraph of that, that you mentioned that John Morant just plays half the games and Brandon, Brandon Clark's injury was a sneaky big blow to their team. He was a big glue guy for them, a lot of their best lineups. And like, if you take out your best, if not your, maybe your best bench player, but certainly your best backup big and your star plays half the games.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Like you're, yeah, you're not going to beat a lot of the above 500 teams in the Western conference. It's going to be hard.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Well, I mean that, that the offense is just fine and fine. Is it going to be good enough? And it's not dynamic enough. It's still not dynamic enough. Um, You can go back and look at the transactions that they've made. We don't even need to get into the Durant thing, but just the Aiton, Toumani, Kamara, who's really good in Portland for Nurkic thing has turned into a disaster.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And then you have to salary dump Nurkic and attach more stuff to salary dump him. And Beal just doesn't play. Beal still doesn't play enough games to get the offense running at full throttle. And then the defense is... You know, the bottom 10 in defense is basically all the tanking teams in Phoenix.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And some of their bad defensive games are the mistakes, the non-rotations are just suggestive of a team that doesn't care. And they have better games than that sometimes. But sometimes it's like, no, no one, no one rotated from the weak side. Like no one even seems angry that no one rotated from the weak side. No one gives the my bad for not rotating from the weak side.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Just like, all right, on to the next one.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I don't want to do the Durant thing now, the Durant what-if thing. But I will say that I have long been so fascinated with Durant that after the Warriors won their second championship, And it was largely anticlimactic. The only piece I could think of to write the headline was, what does Kevin Durant want? And it was a lot about how he had been unfulfilled by winning the first championship.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And I talked to him and I talked to tons of people who had been around him. And literally three nights ago, watching an NBA game with a buddy asking me, he was asking me about Kevin Durant. And I said, man... I don't really want to write a book. It's one of the things I thought about during this time. Not the right time for me, but boy, would I love to write the Kevin Durant book.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I just think his career and the fork in the road of the 2016 offseason and the reverse engineering you could do, the what-ifs, all the paths not taken.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
is just endlessly going to be fascinating because talent wise and statistics wise there's like no question this guy is one of the 10 to 12 best players that has ever played and there's been nobody like him ever stylistically and anyway that's it no more no more kd unless we talk about where he's going to get traded i think it's fair to even though lebron has the most points ever
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Let me... I live about as far from Seattle as possible in the NBA market. Right. The Sonics have not existed for, what, 17 years, 18 years now? Yeah, 2008. I still have a Sonics conversation with somebody in New York or Connecticut that every other week, every month. I see kids who were not alive when the Sonics existed, wearing the green and yellow, just throwback stuff that their parents got.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
The Sonics matter so much to so many people, and Something about that color scheme, the Peyton Kemp teams, the frenetic way they played has stuck in the collective memory and even like outlasted the generation of fans who were there. And obviously we all agree like they need to come back in Seattle. The Supersonics need to exist again.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
It's good to see you too. And yeah, new name, new show, new graphics, new everything. And I've been paying attention to the NBA season as I normally would have, even though I didn't have a job. I've been watching probably even more than usual because I've had no other work to do. I've been meeting people in the city when they've come in and I've traveled to some places.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Yeah, I mean, the Lakers are a big team, and your little guy, your Fred Van Vliet, is either Gargard Reeves, or if Finney Smith's on the floor, maybe Finney Smith instead of Hayes, or maybe Hachimura, who got a couple post-ups last night in that kind of matchup, and...
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
You know, the Lakers are running a lot of stuff where Reeves and LeBron will screen for each other away from the ball while Luka has it. And that cutting is what teams don't want to switch because they don't want to switch a small guy onto LeBron. And they have Luka just waiting for whatever pass opens up. And when they don't switch, someone cuts open or there was a miscommunication.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I think Finney Smith got a three in the second half last night out of it. They're just hard to beat in a chess match, no matter how athletic you are, because they're big. But the Rockets, like if the Rockets could throw speed plus shooting at them, that's a different kind of equation for the Lakers. It's just speed, but not enough shooting, not enough shot making.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
So I've kept my finger on the pulse in preparation for a potential in-season return, which is now imminent.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
You saw what the Rockets last night. They still can't decide. Jalen Green's on the bench in the fourth quarter late in the game. Presumably their quote-unquote best offensive player. I don't think he is. I think Shen Goon is. But then there's minutes in the fourth quarter where Shen Goon's on the bench for a long time. They're playing Jabari Smith at center. They're not even playing Smith.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
They're playing five wings. And I'm sitting there thinking, I think a lot of this offense has just got to run through Shen Goon. But LeBron, they got a takeaway on an entry pass late in that game. We all saw this coming for the Rockets. It's why they're going to be maybe the most interesting team in the NBA over the playoffs. And depending on what happens in the playoffs after the playoffs.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
But I, I don't, I mean, look, I think that would be, that series would be a really, really hard fought series. I probably would, I guess I would probably pick the lake. I haven't thought about it, but I would probably pick the Lakers just based on experience and, and reliability if they, if they stay healthy. Yeah.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Oh, like, well, first of all, it's, it's funny. I was talking about this with somebody yesterday in the league and it's like, you know, look, we, we all know that they've kicked around both of the Phoenix stars. Right. And I think there's some division internally about the Durant question there. Eme Odoka obviously has a history with Durant, really likes him. Um,
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
This person asked me, what do the Rockets do if they lose in the first round? And I think the implication was that would make them even hungrier to go for like a big win now trade. I said, well, let's flip it around. What if they win a round and they lose to Denver in seven games? Like a really hard fought, like I can feel good about this outcome.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And my implication was, does that make you more confident in staying the course? And the scout that I was talking to flipped it around and said, actually, it may make you think we're so close that we still should go for the right kind of all-in upgrade. And it's just going to be interesting to see how they perform in the playoffs and what the implications of that are.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Offensively, I just don't think they're good enough. But defensively, toughness-wise, they have everything. And I don't know. Thank you. Thank you.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
So I was asleep when that happened because I don't have a job. And so I didn't have to be up at 1230 in the morning or 1215 in the morning. I woke up the next day and obviously my phone is just, there's a million notifications that I didn't even look at. I was like, I guess Jimmy Butler got traded overnight. I guess that finally happened. And then like eight more minutes passed.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And I looked, I was like, oh my God. And then I still, I still, I mean, we're going to talk about the Lakers a lot. And I watched their game against the Rockets last night. One of my buddies, Nathan is a huge Rockets fan. I went over and watched with him and we're, almost two months out and I'm like, I just can't even believe that he's on their team.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And having been to a Lakers game recently, like they can't even believe that he's on their team. It's insane.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
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The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Well, let's see. I got laid off on a Wednesday. I flew back on a Thursday and I had several friends meet me at my house along with my wife with alcohol. And two or three drinks into that night, Karl-Anthony Towns got traded to the Knicks in what I would rate as a top 10 most interesting trade that has happened in the 15 plus years I've covered the NBA.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I'm glad you mentioned the NBA Cup because... we talked about this in LA, somebody else mentioned the NBA cup to me 10 days ago. And I was like, that, that happened this year. Yeah. Who won that? Who won that again? And I'm like, it's a bad sign that someone who lives and breathes the NBA has zero memory.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
It took me a second, about minute, 30 seconds to remember exactly who was in the final four and what happened. And I, I don't care at all that the Milwaukee bucks won the NBA cup. It does not matter to me. I don't think it really matters to the bucks. Like I just, I don't know how to, it's a, I guess it's cool. The courts are fun, but I, it, do you care? I don't care.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
The playoffs come and you're like, Oh, this is the real, the real stuff is about to start.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
So Chet Hartenstein, the numbers on those two, which is obviously the midseason curveball they threw at the league when Chet finally got healthy after Hartenstein missed the beginning of the season. Plus 15 per 100 possessions. Elite offense, elite defense, elite rebounding. Hartenstein's passing and floater have fit in about as well as could possibly have been expected.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And it's just another, it's not a curveball. It's the way they start games, and it's worked that well. And I just, one of the things I love about the Thunder, and I wish I'd been at a podcast to talk about it is, There's something old school about it. Again, they're your second or third or fourth in offense or whatever, so it's not an amazing offensive team.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I just love the fact that in this, are there too many points? Is scoring too easy? Are there too many threes? The team at the top of the standings is like, you know what? We are going to win forever. First and foremost, because we are a historically great defensive team that is going to take the ball from you a lot of times.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And when we're not taking the ball from you, we're going to be all up in your shit, all over the floor. Deflections, steals, physicality, size, everything. And when our offense sputters, that was the way the NBA used to be. Like, your jumpers come and go, defense travels. Defense shows up to every game. And the Thunder have that element to it. And I love how...
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
intense they are, how proud they are, how they do not relent at all. And they're betting more than anything else on, hey, yeah, even if worst case scenario happens to our offense, good luck scoring on us more than we score on you.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
All right. So yeah, do you, how does this draft work? Do you now pick your second banana or do you go to any category anywhere you want?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And we were just laughing at the fortune of what timing. You don't see a lot of trades of that magnitude right before the season starts. So that was one. Just, I mean, the all-time... We'll never have a perfect storm of disaster seasons like we've had in Phoenix, Philadelphia, and Dallas. It's just incomprehensible how badly all of those things have gone and all in totally different ways.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
No one's ever been in their zone. There's never been a team... Not with this many assets. ...this good now and this set up for the future. I said this a year and a half to two years ago on the Low Post podcast, which doesn't exist. They are the best present plus future set up in the history of basketball.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And I don't know enough about the history of the other sports to say the history of all professional sports. I just have a hard time believing there's another convincing.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I had him on my legacy list for essentially all the same reasons. A chance to cement his place in not only the current NBA, but to begin cementing his place in NBA history with a dominant playoff run. And, you know, I looked up his stats from the Mavs series last year. And they were way better than I remembered or would have guessed.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
His scoring carried over into that series and his efficiency carried over into that series. He's not an A-plus playmaker like some of the other, you know, like Jokic, like Luka, like LeBron. Yeah. but he's B plus a minus and he's gotten better. And I think that series, the Mavericks size, the way they clogged the lane on him, tested his playmaking.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And I don't think he was quite there yet as a playmaker. And I don't think the thunder supporting cast and shooters were definitely not quite there yet. I think they're there now. And I don't see any reason why, I mean, people talk about you got to put size on him. This guy's a good matchup for him.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
You've talked about Tatum trying to guard him or Brown trying to guard him or Anthony Edwards trying to guard him. No one has been able to really guard him. And I don't see any reason that the scoring is going to... It might slow down a little bit just because the percentages are preposterous across the board. I think the scoring is going to persist. And I think the team around him is more ready.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And I think he's more... The other parts of his game are more ready. And I think he's... just unbelievable and I expected them to continue to be unbelievable in the playoffs.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Some self-inflicted, others not. And I just think... I'm just looking at the standings to jog my memory. I mean, the excellence of the Cavs and the Thunder would have been really fun to talk about all year. And I still, you know, some outlets, including Spotify, Ringer, accepted. I still don't think those teams have been talked about enough.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I mean, I agree. And it's an art. What he does is art. It's beautiful to watch. The level of space he creates when you don't even realize that he's about to create it. is just... He'll have five feet of open space and you're like, wait, did he even do a hard jab step? Like, what move was that that got that guy... Yeah, they were guarding him at midcourt.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
People are so afraid of him getting by them because he has a top gear that he doesn't use much because he doesn't have to use it much that he... Just a little glance forward, guys are like jumping back and he's just pulling up for these wide open 18-footers. And I think the reason...
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
People in the MVP argument, which thankfully I have not had to be a part of this year and hasn't been so ugly like it was the last couple of years either. People will point to the defense and say, SGA is a plus defender. Jokic is not. And I think that's largely been true this year. Yeah.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Jokic is rebounding and just positional smarts and hands at a position where defense really matters, I think is a little bit underrated. But to me, the difference has been teams game plan to attack Jokic. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. The Nuggets are 20th and defense is not good enough this year. We'll see if it tightens up in the playoffs.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Teams can game plan to attack Shea, too, because there's just no one else to attack on Oklahoma City. He's kind of like their Curry in that way, a better defense player, obviously, than Curry ever was. But Curry was the weak link because every other link was as solid as a link could get on those peak Warrior teams. And the Thunder aren't worried about it. He's big. He's stronger than you think.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
He has more blocks and steals than Jokic combined. It's not close. And they are ideally positioned around him to tilt the floor toward him if he needs any help. But they don't have to sit in coaches meetings and think, well, what do we do when this team puts Shea in the pick and roll or when this guy targets Shea?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Sure, when Luka has him, it's going to be, you know, the size advantage is what it is. But they don't have to sit there and think that hard about, oh, we got to scrap everything we're doing defensively because they're going to go at Shea this way or that way.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I mean, the Thunder are 63 and 12 with like the greatest net rating in the history of basketball. Yeah. And I just, you know, so many interesting storylines like, oh, here comes the Chet-Hartenstein combination. How's that going to work? How's Caruso fitting in off the bench? The Cavs and Kenny Atkinson reworking their offense and Donovan Mitchell being sold on a lesser role. And you and me both.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
All right. I'm going to go... In the interest of leaving you some of the categories that are- You don't have to leave me anything.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I didn't know we were actually building a team. I feel like this guy qualifies as either one of the bananas, but I'll take him in the leap category on the other number one seed. Evan Mobley in the playoffs. I just can't wait to see how this Cavs team looks in the playoffs on both ends of the floor. I think their offense is number one with a bullet. Mitchell has done enough in the playoffs.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Now, he's had a couple dud playoff series, but he's also had like three or four, oh my God, playoff series. So, like, I trust him. Garland, I trust. I trust the offense largely despite the spacing concerns. It still, you know, theoretically exists playing two big guys together.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Defensively, I'm very interested to see, depending on the matchups and if they do get to Boston, how they match up in some of those series and where Mobley is on the floor and how, Does he have to guard Tatum? Does he guard Brown? He's guarded all these guys here and there, but how do they utilize him?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
But I think the Evan Mobley thing is... I mean, even against the Celtics last year when Jared Allen got hurt, he played center and all of a sudden everyone's like, oh, he's got to play center. He looked amazing rolling to the rim and dunking and he looks amazing now with the big-to-big passing, with the cutting, with just, oh, you're going to put a wing on me?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I'm just going to dribble from 18 feet out and beat the hell out of him and hit a hook shot. I... I would have him in pen on second-team All-NBA. I actually thought about him for the fifth spot on first-team All-NBA when Mitchell started slumping a little bit. I think Mitchell has now popped out of that slump and reclaimed that spot.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
But that's how good... And I heard you and Rosillo talking about whether Anthony Edwards was coming for that spot. And I was saying, I think actually Mobley given he's averaging 21 a game, what he does on defense, what he does as a playmaker, has a case to be at least in that discussion. But I have him in Penn, second team All-NBA.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And all that said, we've seen what happens to this team's offense in the playoffs. It's a totally different offense. New coach, Garland's healthy. That was the most undersold thing in dumb NBA conversations going into the season is people just not remembering what a miserable season Darius Garland had health-wise last season and what a difference a healthy Darius Garland was going to make.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Um, but there's going to be moments where the floor gets tight and a team really challenges them to, does your, like all your little fancy cutting stuff, which I think they've actually done a little less of lately when I've watched them, all that's going to be scouted. We're going to be totally dialed in on that.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
It's going to get harder and it's going to get harder in ways that test have been mobile. And this team reasonably now has championship expectations that don't ride only on him. But I think he is, uh, the biggest swing factor, along with their, you know, how are they going to defend these big wings when they run into them? Like, is Max Struis really the guy? Is DeAndre Hunter really the guy?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
That DeAndre, by the way, the DeAndre Hunter lineup, like Hunter in Struis' place and the other four starters has only played like 30 minutes. I'm actually surprised how little they've used that lineup. I think they're saving it.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
We're going to be wrong a lot. One of the things we've both been right on is amid all the... Maybe Evan Mobley is a bit overhyped. Maybe he's like, you know, whoever bad big man 2.0, I won't name any names. We were like, no, we're keeping the stock. This guy's going to be awesome. And he's been awesome. And he's been awesome...
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Is he defensive player of the year? I can't decide. I don't have a ballot because I gave mine up last year, and even if I wanted to get it back, I don't think they give them to unemployed people. You're employed. Well, now I am. We'll get you a ballot. I can't decide. I'm starting to buy into the Draymond self-created...
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
hype for defensive player of the year because he has been spectacular the entire year. Jaron Jackson Jr. has missed some games and still gets into foul trouble like once every three games. They just have to take him out constantly because he's in foul trouble. And obviously, Wemby is not eligible.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I think it's possible he's never made an all-defense team. And if that's the case, that's going to change this year.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I think I'd have him as a most improved player, by the way. I know all the smart money is on Cade. I think considering expectations and expectations and prior track record, I don't... I don't think anyone's made a bigger leap than Dyson Daniels. I mean, it's not surprising when he scores 20 points in a game and also does what he does. Dort is a great pick.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Not in the way that people necessarily like the low hanging fruit with him was, well, he's just got to shoot a lot of threes and make more threes. And the Cavs were like, you can shoot some more threes and it would be helpful. But how about we redesign our offense, enable you as a passer? And how about you just beat the hell out of people inside and get super aggressive and physical?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
So the incredible thing about Oklahoma City's defense is... Dort is going to be their all-defense representative. I actually think I would have Jalen Williams on as well. I think I would have two Thunder players on as well.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
You can look at a lot of the metrics and the metrics will tell you the Thunder have three better defensive players on their roster than those two guys. And none of the three, Hartenstein, Holmgren, and Caruso, are eligible for awards because of games played and minutes played. But the statistics scream out that those guys would be in this conversation too.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And it's like, oh my God, how many... Well, you didn't mention Wallace. And Wallace is terrifying. Yeah, Wallace is another one. Wallace is like... He and Jalen Williams, you don't see a lot of guys who will just... I'm just going to swipe at the ball constantly because I can do it without fouling you.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And they just, when they're in the mood or whatever, they're just like, I'm going to go for every time you dribble the ball, I'm going to try to get the ball from you. And it's unnerving.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Uh, okay. I'm going to go, um, I'm going to go crossroads player.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And I'm going to go with Carl Anthony Towns.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Now, to some degree, I think Towns crossed the crossroads, so to speak. Did he? Last year in the Denver series. And I even wrote about it on ESPN about, you know, all of a sudden the turnovers were down. The fouls were down. There was a calmness and a steadiness to his game that combined with his shot making was
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And it's really worked. And I just those those things jump out. Sorry, you asked an open ended question. I haven't talked into a microphone in a long time. I got a lot of takes.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
were like, okay, this is the guy that we've seen in the regular season, and this is the guy we've been waiting for.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
He guarded Durant really well, considering the sort of stylistic differences between them in the first round when Minnesota beat the hell out of Phoenix, despite Phoenix having a roster that only three teams in the NBA wouldn't trade for or wouldn't trade with, according to Matt Ishbia. You love that. I do. And then he sputtered again against the Mavs in the conference finals.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Then he averaged 19 points. He shot poorly. And then he gets traded in this just massive total shift of his life from he found a way to thrive next to a real behemoth center and Rudy Gobert, who could do all the dirty work on defense around the rim that he's not very good at.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And now he is almost a full-time center now for the Knicks, who are living the benefits of that on offense and feeling the pain of it on defense. And Mitchell Robinson just hasn't played enough minutes yet that we can see sort of how that pairing works. And I'm actually surprised Tibbs has not used it much, even when Mitchell Robinson has been available for 15, 18 minutes a game.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I thought we'd see more of it just to see, can we replicate some of what happened in Minnesota, even if that means like, a little bit less of one of the core wing guys who have all been good to great for the Knicks this year. Brunson's got to get healthy. We all know that. The team is dead in the water without him. They're a spectacular offensive team.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
In Brunson's absence, you've talked a lot about this. I've talked a lot about this with people behind the scenes this year. They weren't using Bridges enough. You don't trade all that stuff for Bridges if you're not going to lean into him as a secondary ball handler.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Even when he's the third, fourth, or fifth best guy on the floor, he has that skill set that you should swing the ball for him to do. Hey, do an inverted Mikael Bridges, Jalen Brunson pick and roll.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
swing into a mckill bridges towns pick and roll just involve him more now they've had to he's thrived yeah who could have believed that a guy he used to average 23 24 a game would actually know what to do if you ran a play for him and he's even gotten to the free throw line a little bit he's averaging like three and a half three free throws a game since brunson went out which feels like an avalanche compared to the almost zero he was averaging before yeah um but
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I do think they've been almost written off, I think, as a real threat to Cleveland. Boston is a different story. Boston is a nightmare matchup for them. I think the Knicks are better than... I'm higher on this team than consensus, despite the obvious limitations of Towns in the middle. I think they were the biggest threat to Boston last season.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Obviously, they've completely remade their team since then. Yeah. Now, they might have a very interesting first round. They will have a very interesting first round series, either against an upstart Pistons team or maybe even the remnants of the Bucs. The remnants of the Bucs. I think there's a great team in here somewhere, even as is
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And a lot of that has to do with Towns finding a way to still contribute on offense when teams do what they're going to do, which is put wings on him and put their centers on Josh Hart. And his production in those scenarios has been uneven. And just can he do enough defensively to survive with all the help around him? You could argue he crossed the crossroads last year. He kind of did.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
This is a new team, new setting, new expectations. As good or better, I think, than the Minnesota team he was on last year. And I just, you know, let's see how it looks. And is the Robinson thing still a wild card that we could see a little bit more of in the playoffs? Or is it just too late for that? I'm curious about that, too.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Wasn't that opening night? And it was just like, this is a, the Celtics, I think it was opening night and Missoula came out with a game plan that was like game one of a playoff series between the Celtics and the Knicks. Just let's exploit every advantage we have, including overtowns.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And you think it's surprising that it was so it's, it got to Paul George has to cancel his podcast. It's so bad levels.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
If he doesn't show up in the playoffs, his legacy is tarnished forever.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And if they win the title... Did you waver from he's the best guy on the team at any point? I know Jalen Brown won finals MVP.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
He was number one on my legacy, on my list of guys to potentially take for this category, just because if you are the best player ever, and you win finals MVP, and you break the no-repeat streak that the NBA is in right now, and you do it emphatically, you become a two-time champion, a back-to-back champion on the Boston Celtics.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I think you catapult up into different historical kinds of conversations. I think he's going to get there anyway because he's still so... He's right in the meat of his prime. His career has so many years left. His career numbers, if he stays healthy, are going to be outrageous across the board. He's just become... a better all-around player year to year, every year, in every possible way.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Six assists a game this season in his career. His defense is always good. You never have to ask Jason Tatum to play hard on defense, to play smart on defense, to take tough matchups, to guard up in size, to do whatever the team needs him to do. He's just an awesome player. You don't win the title without being mentally tough. They are mentally tough.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I think there's been periods of this season where... Their offense has not, I mean, Ryan, I've heard him call it hunt happy, where they just kind of settle into old patterns and the patterns are effective, but you feel them just sort of just settling for the sake of settling.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
When they don't do that, when they mix in the hunting of the small guys, which if they get a Halliburton or a Garland or whoever is going to be a huge part of every Brunson of every series that they could possibly be in a Dame, if knock on wood, Dame can get healthy. When they mix that in with, don't forget you have a pick and pop big man.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Don't forget we have all these other off-ball actions that we can run. They become very, very hard to guard and he's at the apex of all that.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
All right. Someone's got to do it. I'll just go to the trade machine category. No. I left this for you. Someone's got to do it.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Haven't talked about Giannis yet. Let's talk about Giannis. Oh!
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
No, I mean, we can do the Durant thing. We can do the what does Boston do with its payroll thing going forward.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Like, that's all fun. We've all done that stuff. The Bucs just exist right now in this purgatory of... I think even with Dame, even with Portis coming back, even with Kuzma integrated into the lineup, it just felt like just not good enough.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And I'm a Damian Lillard true believer. He's been on my MVP ballot multiple times when I've had an MVP ballot on average higher than other than he was in sort of the aggregate voting in those seasons. I think he's one of the greatest leaders the NBA has had in a long time.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I'm surprised when I look at his stats from this year and I see how good they are because I haven't felt that level of terror and impact from him as consistently as the stats would suggest. And maybe that's just me unfairly, not unfairly, maybe that's just my brain watching the Bucs and being like, There's just too much Kyle Kuzma happening. Torian Prince has been awesome.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Just too much Torian Prince happening. They're too dependent on Brook Lopez being awesome. They aren't good enough, I don't think. And I don't think they've been... There's no evidence that they're good enough other than you just don't want to see Giannis ever in a playoff series. And if it just ends up that they aren't good enough, You know, and right now they're sixth.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And so I think that would manifest in Dame, no Dame, whatever it ends up being. They just lose. They lose to the Knicks in six games. They don't have home court. The Knicks have been better than them all year. Whatever. I'd have to look deeper into that series about what the matchups would be and who would guard Giannis and who Giannis would guard and who would guard Towns.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Giannis would probably guard Towns a lot, all that. You know, they don't really have a lot of pathways to just revamp the team completely in a way that makes sense. Thank you. Thank you.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
As a team or as individual players? Individuals. Um... You're springing this one on me. I know. Well, you know I was going to do that.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Yeah, I don't want to spoil our coming talk. Reeves is going to make an all-star team at some point, if not multiple all-star teams. Reeves is very, very good. Um, I've been impressed until, you know, it's been a little rocky the last couple of weeks, but I liked at least offensively how cat has attacked his season in New York. Yeah. Um, I was a Cade stockholder.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I actually think Cade's level of improvement has been maybe a little overblown, but he's been awesome. And he's probably going to make an all NBA team this year. That's been fun to watch. And I know that you are just, I've, I've listened enough to know that you just enjoy the fact that the Pistons, uh,
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
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The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
want to fight everybody every night and including a potentially very dangerous one in Minnesota the other night involving all the usual, like round up the usual suspects. And here we are. So those are some. The fight in Brooklyn Nets were fun for a minute. The Clippers. We're going to talk about the Clippers.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I remember when they were in the finals last year and they were up 2-1, 3-1. You know, I wrote a big for Grantland. I wrote a big profile about Warford back in the day. I remember that. And I just started calling. I thought about maybe I should write something. Maybe I could work it into the Celtics with the championship piece. And it ultimately died on the vine.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
But I started calling just like Joe Kim Noah, Kyle Korver, Billy Donovan, Kenny Atkinson, Mike Budenholzer, suspecting that they were all watching the finals with more of an emotional investment than you would think considering the distance between them. Yeah. and Hal Horford, and they were all dying for him to finally win the championship. I mean, they were all over the moon for him.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Billy Donovan was like texting me from Europe being like, do you need a quote? You know, here's like, like they just love that guy. Every stop on his career, all those people were watching the finals being like, this guy deserves to win the championship. And you just don't see that as much anymore.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Yeah, I'll go crossroads guy. Trey Young, you know... This is funny.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I don't know. I'm going to allow it. I'm going to allow it. No, I could be a trade machine guy. You can't be a feel-good guy. So I don't know. I mean, my feel-good guy... You know what? No, I'm not going to take Trey Young. My feel-good guy, I guess, will be Steph Curry because... This was the best-case scenario for Steph Curry.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
You just don't get... Even when you have the rare chances that the Warriors got as an elite team who had this gap year or gap years where they got to pick high in the draft, and they whiffed on the highest pick they had in Wiseman, you just don't get to contend for this long. And the most likely outcome for Steph... was always going to be he rides out to Twilight and Golden State.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
The most likely good outcome, good outcome, upside outcome, was he rides out to Twilight and Golden State on good, solid teams that don't really have a chance to win the championship, but they're good enough. They're 46, 48, 49 win teams that if they made the conference finals because of matchups and just excellence, luck, whatever, it's not surprising. It's kind of a fun team.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
If you had told me the Clippers are going to be 43-32 in this four-team morass for 5-8, with Kawhi having played less than half the season, and look on a lot of nights like, oh... Like, is this a, do I, do I got to like get back into this again? Like, am I going to fall for the, the not fall for it, but that like, I don't see Ty lose name coming up a lot in coach of the year.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And I think because the Butler trade just fell into the league's lap, they're better than that. It's hard for me to see them winning the championship, but they're a pretty goddamn good team with him, with Butler. And I just think the Warriors are 18-5 with those two guys.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
They're a threat to beat anybody in the West, maybe excepting Oklahoma City because they're just such a giant favorite to everybody else.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I just think it's going to be awesome, assuming they make the top six, which is not guaranteed by any means, that we're going to see them play real meaningful games with real meaningful stakes where it's not just like, oh, this is kind of cute that Steph has a chance to win a first round series and we all know they're going to get destroyed in the next round. Like, it's not that.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
This is a real team.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I loved it for them right from the start. I saw it was completely risk-free.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
One peg down, the Darius Garland situation also could have gone sideways. And the rumblings around that were about his, I won't say unhappiness, but the uncertainty of whether this was really going to be the place for him with Donovan Mitchell having superseded him as the alpha guy in the backcourt. Those were true. And he's figured it out. He got healthy. They figured it out together.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
He's one of my favorite players to watch in the NBA. Deserved all-star. It's a great, great pick. Love it.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
It's like we're both scared. It's a sad conversation to have.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I'll go first. I mean... You know... Mike Budenholzer?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I think he's just sitting in a pool of lava. A, he's a proven good coach. And B... Are you that embarrassing that you're just going to have a new coach every single year? Just going to keep doing this? You're not going to give any coach any time?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And, and I think that he at least should be like in the, in the third place, second place talk.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I mean, I could think of like three names. That's fine. Not even counting the teams that aren't making the playoffs. I'm just looking at playoff teams. Wow. Okay, make the case. I have a feeling I know the case, but I want to hear you make the case.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
You don't think so? You don't think the bench has been utilized enough? There was a game in December. I think it was December where I didn't watch the game. I looked at the box score the next day. They beat the Hornets by 24 points. I think the final score is 125-101. I don't obviously 24 game, 24 point game can be semi close. It's points, whatever.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
McHale bridges. Someone could fact check me on this. I'm going from the top of my head, played the first 46 minutes and 30 seconds of the game consecutively in a game. The Knicks won by 24 points. Yeah. And I was like, how, how is that even, how's that even allowed? Like, I don't like that anyway. Yeah.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Let me defend the offensive creation. Creation is maybe the wrong word because the Bridges thing has been underutilized until now, in part because the Towns Brunson thing is so unguardable. So Tibbs has been, and all the Tibbs backers around the league will tell you, His teams have performed better offensively than his reputation.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
He's had a lot of top 10 offenses in Minnesota, Chicago, elsewhere. And even though he's been pigeonholed as this defensive mastermind behind the 2008 Celtics and other great defensive teams, the Bulls with Noah and Gibson and all those guys. And that's true. They're right. And almost all of those offenses have been of just the complete brute force variety. Like we just don't turn the ball over.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
We're number one or two in offensive rebounding. We're number one or two in free throws. And we just beat the hell out of you. We just we isolate. We play simple basketball, low risk basketball, and we beat the hell out of you. This team still has some of that in, but it's not built to be a great offensive rebounding team. It's not built to be a beat the hell out of you team.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
It is built to have a Josh Hart runs the ball down your throat six times a game team. But I do. I. You can quibble with the Bridges thing, and I think you're right.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
That's definitely right. But I do think it was interesting and smart how... he decided to use towns as a passing hub very early on in the season. They have a lot of artful cutting in their offense because of the way towns lifts the opposing center off. If the center is guarding him, bridge is a good cutter in an OB is a good Carter heart is a great cutter.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And he leaned into that in a way that I think was smart and made their offense a little bit more unpredictable than Brunson pounding the ball and cat pounding post-ups and just spamming pick and pops, which I think they could always run more pick and pops with those guys. I, I, Early in the season, I was like, this is different than I envisioned it. And he's built an elite offense.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Now he's got elite offensive talent, no doubt, but he's constructed an elite offense that doesn't look anything like and doesn't project statistically anything like the other elite offenses that he's had before.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
It's true. It's true.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Well, so I think that's the most likely outcome, right? Is like the Celtics beat them 4-1, maybe 4-2. And is that a failure? Or do you say, well, you know, we made this.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Well, can I just name another coach?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Let me be very clear. I'm a little rusty on this one. Let me be very clear for the aggregators. This coach is not in any danger of being fired. This coach's seat is ice cold. This coach was in the Coach of the Year conversation last year. I think he was number two on my ballot, and he was on pace to be that high this year before injuries struck his team.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
We are long past the point where the Orlando Magic's offense, despite Suggs being out, despite Anthony being out, despite Mo Wagner being out, all of that, it just should not be this bad. It's so bad and so unwatchable and so uncreative that at some point, someone in what remains of the basketball media in Orlando has to gently ask the question of like, So what's the idea for this offense?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And now the idea might be we trade a lot of... Why are we 0.78 points per possession? The idea might be we trade a lot of stuff for a guard that can create a lot of the offense. We don't have that. The idea might be we trade a lot of stuff for a center that is either a threat diving to the basket, a threat popping for threes, a threat as a passer.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
They don't really have a guy who's a really good threat at any of those things. Oh, God. Um... So those are all fair answers, too. But the coaching staff has just got no scrutiny for the fact that this offense stinks and it stinks no matter who's on the court. And it's they're like 27th in offense. And I know their guys were hurt.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And I know that they had injuries that it takes those oblique things for Franz and Paolo. It takes time to recover from them. They still stink now offensively. It's like it's it's they scored 87 points last night against the Clippers.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Can we just, can we just at least have a meeting about it where we're like, Maybe we need to bring in an assistant who does this really well. Can we at least talk about it? When is the expiration date on the Magic or like a feel-good story? Are we done with that yet?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Can we treat them like a real team now?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I would advise Wolves fans to not check his playoff stats, which are in very few games, but still.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I mean, I was just going to pick Luka because it's been the subplot of the fascinating plot of the season is Luka Doncic plays for the Los Angeles Lakers. He plays for LeBron James. He led his team to the finals last year in the conference finals two years ago.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
You know, look, we don't need to get into the trade or the off-court whatever issues that are, you know, just are what they are and have been what they have been. I don't think he's looked like a, a, a plus Luca yet in LA almost at all. Um, he still looks a little slower than usual to me. And he's not a speed guy.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
It was really exciting. And it was really exciting. He shot tons of threes. His two point field goal percentage is down. His turnovers are up. And a lot of that is just learning. new system, new city, new teammates, new world. Like the best player of a generation is over here and I'm on his team. And I think they've all bought into the right things. He's been very good for them.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
He would make an all-star team. He would make an all-NBA team. He would probably make first team all-NBA for sure. I don't know for sure, but he would make first team all-NBA if he were healthy and playing this exactly the way he's played for the Lakers. He's almost a first team all-NBA caliber player, if not definitely so.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I wouldn't have done it from whose perspective I would have done.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
If I worked in the Mavs front office, I think I would be fired. No, I think, I think Nico Harrison would have fired me or I, because I would have just, I would have thrown everything I had against this trade and they would have found me annoying and an irritant. I do. I do think, you know,
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
a robust discussion within the magistrate office occurred at some point, but, but I just, but I thought only three people knew about the trade.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I can't believe he's on the Lakers. And right away you framed it, not you did. A lot of people framed it correctly as like, wow, they've got the bridge, the bridge to the post LeBron era, which they did not have before. They have the best possible unimaginable version of it.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And I think in the shock of the trade and the realization that the Lakers had found yet another generational superstar to carry the generational superstar torch, I think it took like a week or 10 days for people to be like, oh, wow. This team's kind of good. This team's kind of interesting and dangerous, and they can play different styles and different lineups with no center.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
It's like we've all... I think starting with Wade and LeBron, there's just been this overthinking of, well, you just can't pair two ball-dominant guys. Even though that duo obviously succeeded at a crazy level. That's LeBron James. It's a different story. LeBron James in his prime. They're not just two ball-dominant guys. They're two of the five greatest passers maybe ever.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And they're two ball dominant guys with very good to elite post-up games. And that's the kind of thing that Phoenix and all its ball dominant guys does not have. They don't have guys who can change the geometry of the floor in tons of different ways by getting to spots on the floor that with a bully ball game that those two guys have. Let alone the transition game.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Well, and you know what I've loved that the Lakers have done? If you watch their rotations carefully, Luka's the one who gets the solo minutes. Reeves and LeBron will be on the bench together. And almost all the time LeBron is out there, if Luka's resting, Reeves is also playing with LeBron. So LeBron does not have to do the heavy lifting by himself ever.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And I know he's been, by his standards, unproductive as a scorer lately, by his incredible standards. I think that is the only avenue to set them up for short-term success was to lift the burden on LeBron to that degree and unlock all this other stuff that we talked about earlier that they're doing.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I think this is a really dangerous team that if Luka can rediscover a Luka form, I never want to see that guy in a playoff series. And they got a lot of stuff going on right now that's interesting.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Phoenix fans are so mad that their scoring trio just didn't even pop up in either of our brains. Also mad Sacramento Kings fans who are like, well, what about the Zach Levine, DeMar DeRozan, DeMonta Sabonis trio? Can we talk about that?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
What's your next pick? Levine was going to be one of my... I don't know what categories we have left, but Levine was going to be a third banana pick for me as well. Oh, do it right now. Just because...
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
what a what a catastrophic year for a franchise that seemed to have finally veered out of the catastrophe lane and just was like you know what we want we want we want to go right back to it let's just fire the coach did you like what they got in the Fox trade at all They got some okay draft equity.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I mean, if you're going to have to trade a guy to get an all-star, and Zach Levine has been an all-star, and some draft equity is fine. The fact that they fired the coach, the fact that they pissed him off so much, and now he's talked about it on record in a couple of different places.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
He's like, yeah, they fired the coach and they left me to hang out to dry and made it look like it was my fault and I actually liked the coach. And like, what's wrong with our organization? Not great when an ex-player who you just traded who was like a beloved part of your team is like a week later being like, oh yeah, that's a circus over there, basically. And they get Levine back.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And Levine in a lot of these games just feels... like almost an afterthought. And he's averaging 21 a game, which is actually not a lot for him. His assist to turnover ratio has gotten like perilously close to even with the Kings. And it just feels like between DeRozan and Sabonis and now Monk coming off the bench, I realized like for Levine to be worth it
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
he's not a great passer and he's a minus defender. He's got to take a lot of shots and it feels like he is sort of semi predictably, I guess, trying to feel out like, how do I fit in here? Or the coaches are trying to figure out that he just hasn't been the explosion of productivity that the numbers in Chicago suggested he would be. And yeah,
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
You know, don't you feel like the Kings and the Bulls are destined to keep just keep trading these guys among each other?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Oh, yeah. And they end up taking Nick Stauskas. Stauskas, yeah.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Um, think that's fair uh they're actually they've actually been outscored with lebron luca and reeves all on the floor together and yet by the and that's mostly because of defense I think all those guys are bought in to the right kind of style on offense. I've talked to some of their coaches about it.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
He should be flattered to be still in a crossroads given his health situation. And I love Kawhi.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Okay. Unless you have it.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Well, I think the Paul George decision, which looks like a stroke of genius in retrospect, even though they did offer him a three year, 100, whatever, $50 million deal. I remember talking about that and saying like, yeah, it's great. They've signed all these nice role players and, you know, Harden's back and.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
to make that decision signals to me that you don't think the team as presently constructed can win a championship. If you thought it could win a championship, you'd go all in and they didn't go all in. So I don't think they entered this season necessarily expecting to be in this kind of conversation that we're talking about now. It's like they can go toe to toe with people. And here they are.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
They're a really well-balanced team. Like I love, you know, Powell and Chris Dunn go out and in comes another defender and Derek Jones Jr. to replace Dunn and another score in Bogdanovich to replace Powell. I think my hottest Clipper take is that Evita Zubats belongs.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I don't think he's going to make third team all NBA for me, but you need to have him on the list of guys that you've considered for third team all NBA, along with James Harden is making a late push. Is he making a late push for you? He's making a late push.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
uh, that hasn't been picked. Um, you can pick between Amin Thompson and OGN and Obi.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
What else? The guy's an absolute freak. I mean, just the plays he makes are ridiculous. Um, I couldn't like him anymore.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
They're very, very excited by some of the off-ball stuff, by some of the motion that those guys have bought into. And I do... I mean, three to four series is going to be hard for a team with a 40-year-old. And once you get by the first round, it's every other day, relentlessly the whole way.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I had a front office person, not Rockets, just yesterday, literally yesterday, I was talking about it because this is what I do. I talk about, I'm in Thompson, I guess, said he's the best athlete in the NBA, full stop. And his brother might be the second best athlete in the NBA. So they're the best athletes in the NBA. Jesus. And they play the right way.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And he's just... We haven't seen one of those in a while where a guy comes off the bench, another guy gets hurt, he gets elevated into the starting five, and it's immediately clear. He's never coming off the bench again. This other guy's not a starter anymore.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Wild card? I'm going to just zig right away from that and go with related Jamal Murray. Jamal Murray might be the biggest wild card in the NBA the first two months of the season. plus the Olympics, plus the way last season ended, was like, uh-oh. As great as Jokic is, as great as the Aaron Gordon fit is, as steady as Michael Porter Jr.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
jumper is, as improved as Christian Brown, who belongs in the Most Improved Player conversation too, as improved as he is, They can't win four playoff series without Jamal Murray being the Jamal Murray who was the second best guy in a title team two years ago or something close to that. And he's been pretty damn good now for the next two and a half months.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
But they have a level, at least for an isolated period of time, maybe not six weeks, eight weeks, but I wouldn't count it out either. But they have a level... I'm a believer like they're they're a strange team because they're huge. Like they sometimes play three. They basically start three power forwards in a center.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
A little bit quieter lately than he was when he started really rolling and putting up 30s and 40s and even I think he had a 50. They need fully... If they have that guy, 28 a game Jamal Murray, killer Jamal Murray... mid-range assassin Jamal Murray. I wouldn't sleep on these guys.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I don't think they quite have enough to win the championship, even if they get him, because I just think their bench is too much of a wild card and their defense hasn't been good enough. But we know they're tough. We know they have one of the greatest players of all time, if not maybe the best player. I still would rank him the best player right now, even if I didn't vote him MVP.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
If they get that Jamal Murray, I wouldn't want to play them if I were any of these teams, including Oklahoma City.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I mean, Jokic isn't a wildcard. Jokic isn't a wildcard, but I know exactly what I'm going to get from him almost every game. And sometimes I'll get a 30-20-20. Who knows?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I'm so glad you brought up the Pacers.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Maybe they wear the uniforms.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
There was a traumatized kid in the Wolves crowd. They gave him a jersey and he was like,
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Sometimes when they take the center out, they basically replace him with another power forward to the power forward size. Guys are two of the five greatest passers. in recent, if not all time history of the NBA. Hachimura has been great for them. Vincent has been great in the last month. Finney Smith has been great. Their non-center lineups have been, been tough to deal with.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Love it. He's on third team all NBA for me right now on the ballot that I don't have. He's played even above that for quite a bit of the season now. they're just a really good team. I mean, I don't have their schedule in front of me, but they start, they were under 500, maybe 20 games into the season or thereabouts. And since then have been a legit, very good team.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
The Cavs series would be interesting. The Cavs are a little bigger than they are on the front line. But Siakam's really good. Turner's good. Obi Toppin feels like he hasn't missed a shot in a month now.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Look, they've got Turner's free agency hanging over their head. Yeah. And the tax implications of that someone I've seen it suggested, well, they could just dump OB top. I'm like, that guy's good. He's been good for their team. I would dumping OB top and there's pain. They're just a they're a rock solid team.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And if you're not healthy or you're don't bring your a game, they can beat you four times in seven games. And Halliburton is just a guaranteed good offense by almost by himself.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Covered a lot of ground.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
We talked about him a lot, though.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
We can't call him either of the bananas. He's above a lot of these things.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And they just have those two nasty Terminator passing chess master dudes at the top of it. Like I wouldn't want to, they beat the Rockets last night and like, I wouldn't, I wouldn't want to play them. I would think hard about picking them over essentially the, Any team but the Thunder in the playoffs. And I don't think the Thunder love that matchup either and have not loved that matchup.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
We're workshopping. I'm about to spend the next three hours recording different welcome to's just to make sure I get it exactly right from Monday.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
No, you said TBD. That's good. We'll see. We'll see. It's going to be fun. It's going to be fun. Playoffs are going to be fun. We're almost there.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Much appreciated across the board and look forward to a lot of good content over the next few months before the NBA chills out for a bit again.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And by the way, you mentioned LeBron. A lot of concern about, you know, his up and down play since he came back from another injury. Yeah. A couple of games where like the double digit streak seemed to be in semi jeopardy for a hot second. Like all fair, fine. A, he's 40. B... Like, remember, he guarded Jokic in the playoffs a couple of years ago and guarded him pretty well.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And it was like a six or eight minute stretch. And that's like all they could ask of him. Last night, JJ Redick can go to this 40 year old dude and be like, we just need you to guard Shingun for maybe the entire game. Can you can you go do it? And he's like, yeah, I'll bang. I'll bang with him the whole game. Like, that's right. Deserves a lot of credit for that.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
if one to eight, if, if the play, if the, if the seven and eight seeds come out of this group of Clippers, Minnesota Warriors, Grizzlies that are all jostling for those places. And one of the Dallas Sacramento Phoenix brigade of losers does not like somehow sneak in to one of those spots. Every round one series is going to be,
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
a battle featuring a team that you could talk yourself into winning other than maybe Memphis, the way Memphis is sliding right now. But they have an upside that's pretty high, too. And by the way, can we just say before we get to it, because I don't know how much time we're going to talk about them. How embarrassing is it that the Phoenix Suns cannot catch for 10th
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Either the Kings, who can't beat anybody right now, or the Mavericks, who finally got some of their players back, but have largely had like no players. And the Suns still can't catch them. And I know you and Russo have talked about how pathetic they've looked defensively in a lot of games, how disengaged they've looked.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
But like these teams are begging, begging to become, these teams have been the equivalent of Eastern Conference play-in teams for like a month, which is a horrible insult to Levy at any Western Conference team. And the Suns are like, we still can't catch you. We can't catch you.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Speaking of that, how many emails did the league send Danny Ainge before they finally had to find the jazz. One of the great parlor games of the season has been looking at the jazz box score every night and being like, all right, so who didn't play? And yesterday it was Walter Kessler, Walker Kessler, DNP returned to conditioning. Lowry Mark is Lowry marketing dead.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
You're listening to The Zach Lowe Show presented by FanDuel. America's number one sportsbook is the best place to bet on the NBA because not only does FanDuel have all your favorite player props, but now you can even check out stats and recent performance trends right in the app. Before you make your picks, just download the FanDuel Sportsbook app today to get in on the action.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
I don't think it was necessarily like this –
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
horrible horrible hatred whatever it was just it was just tension about young players veterans directions who controlled what part of the organization but it bled into lots of different parts of it and you could see the nuggets in the middle of the western conference in danger of falling into the play-in if if the end of this season and particularly one critical head-to-head game it's memphis doesn't go their way
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
Yeah, you mentioned the double overtime loss against the Wolves. They haven't won since then. They're on a four-game losing streak. It was a perfect storm of bad events, mostly surrounding Russell Westbrook, who... You know, look, I wouldn't count on him for the level of role he's had to play for them.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
I have to say, like, I think he's probably been even a little better for them than I would have expected. Like, I don't think you can pin this slightly disappointing season on him. Just not my cup of tea as a signing or as like he's started a lot of games for them because he's had to. Yeah.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
they're they are trending the wrong way but to your point the most important reason they're trending the wrong way is their second best player is not playing and you could quibble like maybe aaron gordon's their second best player and all that but jamal murray is their second most important player he is the other fulcrum of their offense to pick and roll dance partner for yokich and when he found his game in the middle of the season and started having some scoring explosions and looking like jamal murray the whole league took notice and said okay
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
Well, last year's playoffs are in the rearview. The Olympics are in the rearview. The beginning of this season is in the rearview when he was struggling. If this guy's back, this team's back, and all of a sudden he's not back, what do we even know? It's the hamstring again. Obviously, it goes without saying, if he's not that Jamal Murray... They just don't have enough to get through the West.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
And even if he is, too many other things have gone wrong this year. They still may not have enough to get through the West. But that's the – if you want to boil everything down to one thing right now, it's what's going on with Jamal Murray.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
Five and nine in their last 14 games. Jamal Murray's health, uncertain. And just – I mentioned in the very first episode of the Zach Lowe Show, just one of those years where it just doesn't feel like things are ever going to lock into place at the same time, which is what you need. You need everything locked into place to do what they did two years ago and just –
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
In every part of the game, too. For guys like Tatum, it's defense, it's offense. 8 of 24, and you'll still feel like he played well, like he helped our team. And you mentioned the separation. Jamal has never been – obviously, he's not an above-the-rim player. He's not explosive in the way that jumps off your television screen. But when he's right –
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
He just has this sort of funky cadence to his game, the stop and start and change of direction, shoulder fakes, half fakes, half spins, where when that stuff is really popping like 10% more, that's where he gets that extra bit of space for his jump shot, for his fadeaway, for the pocket pass to Jokic.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
Which, by the way, part of the thing about the Murray-Jokic pick and roll and why Murray being at peak Murray is so important is... The Nuggets noticed last season, even before last season, more and more defenses just selling out to take away the pocket pass to Jokic.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
Like you're just not going to get that pass because his floater became the most dangerous fail safe shot in the NBA, a 60 something percent fail safe. And so they started loading up on it, the angles on Jokic himself, basically saying, Jamal Murray, you're going to have to beat us with some drives and some jump shots. And for them to win a lot of playoff series, he's going to have to do that.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
And he started to look like he was getting back to that kind of form. And now he's out again. Yeah, I don't know. Everyone, where do they go from here? We'll see who the coaching candidates are going to be if David Adelman gets a chance to go for the job and all that. Roster-wise... I mean, okay, they don't really have extra first-round picks. A lot of their own first-round picks are gone.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
Jamal Murray's extension doesn't even kick in until next season where it becomes $46 million, $50 million, $54 million, $57.5 million. Aaron Gordon got extended. Christian Brown will be extension eligible after the season. Peyton Watson will be extension eligible after the season. I don't – there were all these – at some point there was like a Michael Porter Jr.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
trade rumor where is he going to be the piece to go get Zach Levine. And that was poo-pooed to me a little bit. And I think Michael Porter Jr. has had a good year. He's slowed down a little bit lately. You know, there's some fungibility there in terms of can we shake up the roster in a like for like talent for talent trade. But those are really hard to make.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
It's been one thing, and then that thing gets fixed, and then it's another thing, and then this player pops a little bit, and then that same player regresses. This player gets hurt. That player gets healthy. It's just never quite meshed all together. But this, the timing of this, is absolutely monumentally shocking to me.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
Even in the summer when the apron loosens a little bit, those kind of deals are hard to make, you know, and you do have the best player in the world. And like, I just I don't know where they go.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
Yeah, he has a deep affection for Jamal Murray. A couple of things. Totally agree on Michael Porter Jr. 's first few months of the season. I remember tweeting about it. He's getting to the basketball more. He's a little more comfortable off the dribble. I don't think I would have traded him for Zach Levine in that kind of deal.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
I just – a 6'10 guy who can shoot like that, like if you're going to trade Michael Porter Jr. and you're the Denver Nuggets and you're already the least voluminous three-point shooting team in the league, you better get someone who's an A to A plus shooter back in that trade because you ain't got a lot to lose. Jamal Murray to Orlando, great theoretical idea.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
The challenge that you're going to come up with – I realize we're just spitballing and we're going to wrap up here in a second. It's like you have Jokic – you have to make – every trade has to be a win-now trade. There's no rebuilding trade. There's no Jamal Murray for picks even if that's available. And so you go to a team like Orlando and you're like, all right, what are they giving me?
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
Matt Moore, senior writer of the Action Network, among many other jobs, host of Locked On NBA and Locked On Nuggets podcasts. What, what, what, what, what's happening? What, why, why? Like, is the NBA just determined? You know what? We've, we've reached peak crazy with trades with Luca. We've just got to find ways to reach peak crazy with coaches and now GMs too.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
Because presumably it's not Palo and it's not Franz. Is it Suggs and is that enough? Is it Suggs plus something? And Orlando's got to be sold on Jamal Murray's health and availability and all of that. It's just tricky to make trades that have to be – win now, talent for talent kind of trades. But that's where the Nuggets are going to find themselves as long as, you know, Jokic's prime continues.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
And yeah, I think it's safe to say it's continuing for as long as the horizon is because the guy's the best player in the league.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit rg-help.com to learn more about the numerous resources and helplines available and listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Must be 21 or over and present in select states. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com. Welcome to the Zach Lowe Show.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
Well, it may be, you know, will Peyton Watson's jump shot ever develop again? Will Julian Strother's two-way game ever sort of balance at the same time where both parts of it are humming? That's life with young players. Sometimes those bets don't pay off in time for your incumbent superstars.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
All right, Matt Moore, thanks for popping on to a little emergency reaction podcast to a truly bizarre, bizarre series of events in Denver. Even if the outcome isn't shocking, the timing is beyond shocking. You can read Matt Moore and listen to Matt Moore all over the place, one of the OGs of the basketball internet. Thank you, sir. Hey, thanks for having me, Zach. Welcome back, buddy.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
Yeah, in early September, I made sort of a stray comment on a podcast about how the coach and the GM don't really see eye to eye in Denver. And that got some traction in the aggregation sphere. I just thought it was well-known and had been publicly written about before. And then I wrote a story about the Nuggets centered around their three-point rate and how they were set up to –
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
have the lowest three-point rate in the NBA, and even if you have the best player in the world, which they do, is there a threshold of threes that you have to get to or else you just can't win four playoff series or another? Their offense is incredible anyway because Jokic is just that good.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
And Calvin Booth made some comments in that piece about X's and O's, including about have we become a little bit too dependent on the Murray-Jokic pick and roll? Have defenses at least figured out tolerable ways to guard that? Do we need to diversify it? And I told the coaches, including Michael Malone, about those comments, said, hey, Calvin said this, do you want to comment?
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
Michael Malone didn't want to comment. And then I heard subsequently through intermediaries that Calvin's comments did not go over well with the coaching staff. And I'm like, man, I'm caught in the middle of this. This is how bad it was. And to your point, I've heard lots of stories over the last year of not having a job about –
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
well, this guy has been pigeonholed as a Calvin guy and some people are wary of him. And this guy has been pigeonholed as a Malone guy and some people are wary of him. Maybe that's unfair to the principles involved. Maybe, you know how misinformation can spread through an organization and people are always, always fearful of their jobs in the NBA and any highly competitive industry.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
Two days in and we're already doing an emergency podcast because in another event, the second in, I don't know, 10 days where the timing is the biggest surprise more than the substance, the Denver Nuggets, two years after winning a championship, One year after making the conference semifinals and losing in seven to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
It could all have been bad information, but it's hard to function in that kind of atmosphere at a level that you need to function top to bottom to win the championship, which is still the goal when you have the best player in the world and a roster that's broadly similar to the one that won the championship. And I know I'll get pushback for that. So let's, let's go through that.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
Well, you know what, before we get to that, that all of that said, The most logical outcome was the season's over. Like, it's pretty much over. Let's just say that we've decided we don't want to extend Calvin Booth. We're going to move on from him. You know, you could do that in the offseason.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
And I thought there was a world where they could have kept Michael Malone, who's a good coach, and had him work with the new GM. And they just – for them to decide to do it all at once now – five days before the end of the season is shocking and actually sort of in a bizarre way, a show of faith from ownership in the actual roster of the team.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
It's ownership saying, despite all of this crap that is coming out today and has been coming out all year, we still think this roster, despite the fact that people are going to pick on all the parts we let go in the last two summers, which we'll talk about, this roster we still think can do damage in the playoffs. And, you know, we'll see. But the timing is just...
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
And people in there, it's not like I've heard from a ton of people because they're all still digesting this. This caught people by massive amounts of surprise from what I've heard so far.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
It's a very sharp group of assistant coaches, top to bottom, including David Adelman.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
And five days before the end of the regular season have fired Michael Malone, who had been their coach for a decade, and decided also not to retain Calvin Booth, the general manager. Everybody is out. All the higher-ups are out. And I mentioned...
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
Let's talk about Michael Maloney, Calvin Booth. Because there's going to be a temptation in the media and among fans to paint one or both as bad guys, good guys. You know, this guy had to go, that guy had to go. Michael Malone is the winningest coach in Denver Nuggets history. he won a championship with the Denver nuggets. He's objectively a good NBA coach.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
He's actually my standard for the perfect is the enemy of good coaching decision dating back to the Kings deciding, Hey, this guy's actually having success with our team, but we're going sideways a little bit. Cause DeMarcus cousins is ill and we're losing. And you know what? Let's just make a snap decision. Cause we think we can get a better guy than this.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
And I remember saying at the time, you better be careful. Because you may be on your ninth head coach in 12 years, and you still haven't got a better guy than Michael Malone. They finally undid that by getting Mike Brown, and then they fired him in much the same way. So Michael Malone's a very good coach. And yeah, he is outspoken. He's tough.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
He will call the players out directly, both publicly and privately. And I think that was probably good for the team during their period of growth and coming up to finding themselves. And in fact, this team had and has...
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
a certain level of toughness and resiliency to it, the dating back to like the year they missed the playoffs and they had to win all those games at the very end of the season, 2017, 2018, where they could have thrown in the towel and they fought and they fought and they fought to a winner take all game 82 in Minnesota that they lost in overtime.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
And Jokic gets on the plane after that game and is telling people like, thank you for agreeing, going, Tim Connolly told me this story, going seat to seat saying, thank you for the season. We're not going to be in this position again. And the bubble, 3-1 down, win. 3-1 down, win. He has to get some credit for that sort of level of steel and toughness.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
Sure, you could have your tactical disagreements with him like you could with any coach, but the guy's a good NBA coach. Calvin Booth. is going to get probably more of the score in here because of the idea that he forced his young players on Michael Malone and let veterans walk away. Sure, there's some objective truth to that.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
And Calvin Booth was very proud of his draft picks and very proud of his young players. And like Michael Malone, a strong-willed, some might say stubborn personality who bears some responsibility for the deterioration of the sort of mood within the organization. A lot of those draft picks, Christian Brown's pretty damn good. For where he was picked, Peyton Watson's pretty damn good.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
The timing is the main source of the surprise because, as our guest knows as well as anyone, the tension between the coaching staff and the front office had been an open secret around the league for, I don't know, two years. I had mentioned it very openly on one of the last Low Post podcasts I did at my previous employer. It had spilled over into every part of the organization.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
I still have faith in Julian Strother. His sort of unreadiness on defense and inconsistency on offense was a minor theme of the season even before he got hurt. But he's a young player. They're not always going to be ready on exactly the right schedule that you need them to be. Zeke Nagy is a different story.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
Although there was like a month where the Nuggets were like, hey, maybe this like three weeks ago where maybe the Zeke Nagy thing was finally happening. And then apropos of the kind of
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
something's always going wrong season I described earlier all of a sudden Zeke Nagy can't get in the rotation anymore and obviously hovering over all of this are the specters of Bruce Brown and Jeff Green and Contavious Caldwell Pope and the idea that this cheap ownership group the Cronkies won't pay for a championship roster when they have the best player in the world in his prime and what a sin that is and they didn't pay but let's just be clear on some of the facts the
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
The Nuggets could only offer Bruce Brown, I think, seven point something million dollars a year. The Pacers offered him 20 something million dollars a year. Jeff Green was an important part of their team, is now, let's say, not that important of a part of the on-court product of the Houston Rockets. KCP was a flashpoint. I didn't like it. You may not have liked it. I can't remember.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
Do they miss the skill set that he has or had or still mostly has? They do. And is veteran three and D play and Christian Brown's not the same level three point shooter in terms of volume and all that. KCP has not had a good year in Orlando. And they kind of bet against him going forward. And it's hard to say that they lost that bet watching his performance in Orlando.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
Now, are there missed opportunities to build the roster in other ways? Absolutely. Should Dario Saric have a $5 million player option next year? Absolutely not. All that is to say, like, is the cheap thing a real thing? It is a real thing. They didn't pay, but had they paid KCP, it would have been second apron, second apron, second apron, and all that comes with it.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
I guess it's not as easy as just pay, pay, pay, pay, pay, because then all of a sudden you might become the Phoenix Suns.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
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The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
And Bogdanovich has done nothing in the series, and he's going to make some shots eventually. And you just watch Ty Lue's rotation. It's a very simple rule. Like... They start a defense-first non-shooter in Chris Dunn and then an offense-first third, fourth scorer, Norm Powell. When those guys come out, it's always balanced the same way. Dunn out, Jones in. Powell out, Bogdanovich in.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
Just watch Chris Dunn. Because the smart thing that Ty Lue is doing is he knows when we run the Harden-Zubats pick and roll or the Kawhi-Zubats pick and roll, which is those two two-man games operate much differently because of the way Harden works versus how methodical Kawhi is. They know whether Jokic drops back. whether Jokic comes up to the point of the screen, and they'll mix up both.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
They're going to pull in off Chris Dunn, no matter where he is. And so they'll move him around. They'll put him on the weak side. That's the easiest read for Denver's defense, because weak side, that's where the help's coming from. All of a sudden, he'll be on the strong side. And there were a couple times when Michael Porter Jr. had him on the strong side corner and didn't pull in because...
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
That's strong side. You're not supposed to help from there. But when it's Chris Dunn, you are. Then at the end of the game, they set staggered screens with Zoo and Chris Dunn as the other screener. So you're taking the help guy, putting him in the action. It's just like they're mixing it up and keeping Denver just off balance enough. I can't wait for this game.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
We're talking about all-time heavyweight players with Harden, Kawhi, Jokic. And, you know, look, I admittedly am higher on this guy than almost anyone in the world outside of Calvin Booth, maybe. I watch these games and I watch Russ and Peyton Watson getting almost all the bench minutes, two guys who are not going to get guarded on the perimeter. It's fine. We all know this.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
But my God, the physicality in these playoffs. But if you're going to bookmark two things that happened last night for the long term, one is Jalen Brown announcing, I'm good. We're good. No Jason Tatum, no problem. Orlando's offense still stinks. Franz Wagner's jumper still busted. Hitch still present. 2-0 Boston. Thing number two, obviously Jimmy Butler's pelvic contusion. Undercut accidentally.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
This is not to badmouth any of these guys. It's just what it is. And Jalen Pickett comes in and they don't trust Jalen Pickett. He might play one stint, not a second. Julian Strother's injury and inability to earn the coaching staff's trust on defense has been a big little subplot for the Nuggets because they really needed him to become a rotation player this year because of his shooting.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
And he just hasn't been able to earn the trust. The injuries haven't helped. And I wonder if they'll even dust him off a little bit. Forget Zeke Nagy. That's over. They're playing DJ as a backup center in game two. I couldn't believe it. Okay. Any last thoughts on this game?
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
is the headline i think we share that opinion zach you know who we haven't talked about enough because their series has been such a freaking massacre um the winner of this series gets the oklahoma city thunder who are up 2-0 they have outscored the grizzlies by 70 points in two games the 118 99 game 2 19 point win that's a nail biter relative to game one the grizzlies look
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
You know what the Grizzlies look like? They look like a team that has no identity because they fired their coach a week before the season ended, completely scrapped the offense that they had committed to with all the cutting and close-up. And now it's like Jaron Jackson Jr.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
is either going one-on-one against one of 19,000 elite Oklahoma City defenders or standing on the perimeter, spacing the floor for Zach Eady doing nothing. John's just out there kind of having ink. They just look rudderless.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
There's no identity. The identity, they just need the season to be over. They have no identity. It's kind of, well, anyway. But Oklahoma City, I mean, they look like they got shot out of a cannon in this series. Like, they've been saving their legs for months. Caruso, who's been load-managed all season, looks like he just came back from a six-month hiatus and he has no wear and tear on him at all.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
The ball denial... The getting over screens, it's just outrageous how good they are defensively. Look, I picked them to make the finals. Lots of people picked them to make the finals. Actually, not as many people picked them to make the finals as you would expect, but I did. Probably you did. Others did. It's tempting to watch these two games and be like, oh...
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
are they going to go like 12-1 in the Western Conference playoffs? There's going to be – and SGA hasn't even shot well yet. Far from it. They'll get stressed out at some point. It's not going to be this series. Maybe it's next series. But there's going to be a couple games where the half-court offense gets a little tight and a little wobbly, and they'll have to work their way out of it.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
But they look unbelievable, and – We've been saying it all year. The Hartenstein-Schett combo loomed as one of the great wildcards of the season. Would it work? How would it work? I think it's been even more important for their offense than for their defense, although defensively it's monstrous.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
It just gives them another look to go to some offensive rebounding, the Hartenstein floater, the Hartenstein short roll game. Those guys are plus 18 and 30 minutes together. Then they go five out with Chet and set all their guard guard screens or use Chet as a screener. And you can see the defense being like, oh my God, what are we supposed to do? They look so fresh, so fast, so goddamn nasty.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
I was glad no one tried to make a thing out of it. Ahmed Thompson lost his balance. There's a collision. Jimmy Butler falls. plays eight minutes. The Rockets win a rock fight where there are like nine near fights and scrums and Tari Eason threw a towel at Pat Spencer, who was like implausibly involved because Butler was out. Pajemski was saying, Jonathan Kaminga played.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
And again, it's tempting to say, oh, they're just going to roll and they might roll. This might be a 12 and two situation. I suspect there'll be a series where it's one, one, or they have a couple of bad games here and there. But I mean,
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
the playoffs have a way of revealing who you are and revealing the true hierarchy of a conference and i i don't want to belabor memphis because i talked about it already memphis has to be looking at this and saying this is the measuring stick we're so far from this that we don't even know where to go from here that's how awesome oklahoma city is looking everyone including boston
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
who I picked to win the title and will still pick to win the title, particularly Jalen Brown, looking like that has to look at this team and say, okay, that's the level. Like that's what we have to score 110 points against that defense right there. Good luck.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
Could you imagine if they sweep Memphis and Nuggets Clippers is like a six or seven game just slugfest? What game one of that following series is going to feel like? The Thunder with like eight days of rest just coming out, growling. They're also just such a smart team. Just like a small example. This is one of my favorite things in the NBA. Nobody does this. Not enough people do this. Game two.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
By the way, you know it's bad for the Grizzlies when my notes say things like, should they play Jay Huff? We've reached the stage of the where's Jay Huff stuff. So there was a post. They tried to post up Jaron Jackson in the first quarter. I think he had a J-dub on him. Not a mismatch. In fact, it's almost...
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
Getting guarded by Jalen Williams in the post is almost like a misdemeanor assault, and I mean that in a good way. And Santi Aldama had the ball, and he was going to entry pass to Triple J. He picked up his dribble like 30 feet from the rim. SGA was on Santi Aldama. SGA saw that, and nine times out of ten, the player in SGA's spot is just... you know, just it's another game, whatever.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
He's guarding normally. He lets the guy throw the entry pass. SGA saw Santi Aldama pick up his dribble, took three strides back and was like basically doubling Jaron Jackson Jr. from the front. It was just like, you're not going to throw the ball in. Go do something else. And the Grizzlies were like, oh, you're not just going to give us the road entry pass. You're going to be this mean.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
And the whole possession just died. I love watching the Thunder. They're incredible. the Zach Lowe Show is brought to you by FanDuel. The NBA playoffs are finally here and there's no better way to be a part of the action than with FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
After another competitive season, the top teams are ready to battle their way through the playoff bracket in hopes of taking home the championship. And if you think you know how it's all going to go down, well, put your money where your mouth is. Make those predictions pay off with FanDuel and NBA Profit Boosts. Simply make your bet, activate your boosts, and go for even bigger winnings.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
Don't just be a spectator this postseason. Head to FanDuel.com slash low, L-O-W-E, my last name, the name of this podcast, to download America's number one sportsbook and make every Very quickly on the first game tonight, Knicks-Pistons. Again, opening at 7 p.m. I don't want to get too far into it. This feels like a capital M moment in the Tom Thibodeau era of New York Knicks basketball.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
No? Kaminga, get in. And he stunk too, much to my chagrin as a Jonathan Kaminga fanboy. Rockets win, Butler prognosis, TBD. And then in the other game that probably nobody watched, Donovan Mitchell scored 10 points in two minutes to ice. A frisky Heat-Cavs game, which we will talk about. Those are the headlines from last night. 1-1 Warriors-Rockets of all those series is the fun one to watch.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
Like, are you actually this good of a team? Is the cat trade actually going to pay dividends? Is this Hart, Bridges, Ananobi, Brunson, cat thing? Again, gaps emerge, right? The Celtics are the measuring stick in the East. You're 1-1 against the Pistons. Young, hungry, physical, wildly untested, overmatched talent-wise, and you are 1-1 going into Detroit.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
Your offense in Game 2 looked as if you had never seen the concept of centers guarding Josh Hart and wings guarding Carl Anthony Towns. Guess what? You've seen it since literally opening night of the season. That's how Boston guarded the Knicks. And they just sort of like, I guess all we have is Jalen Brunson doing stuff, and it wasn't enough.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
And look, there's a lot of counters they can go to to get Cat unlocked, to get more variety in their offense. But this feels like put up, not put up or shut up because it's game three, but this feels like the next few games of this series, if Detroit can take these guys to seven games, Like we're going to learn a lot about the Knicks. This feels like a time.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
This feels like a statement moment for the Knicks. And I want to come out, mix up some variety, use bridges more. You know what? If, if a wing is, if Tobias Harris is on cat, you can still run Brunson cat pick and rolls. They've run 21 Brunson cat pick and rolls in two games. That's not enough. That's you surrendering to what Detroit wants you to do. And guess what? When you run it,
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
Tobias Harris is staying attached to Cat a lot. And Brunson gets easy driving lanes. You get switches. They just got to make Cade work on defense. Post up Ananobi on Cade. Put Ananobi into pick and rolls as a screener or a ball handler. It's like more stuff. And credit to Detroit. They're so mean and so nasty, and Cade is so ready for all of this. But New York should win this series.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
They should not be having this hard of a time against a strategy they've seen a million times. It's every smart team plays the Knicks this way. I want to show up tonight angry and efficient and calculated. I want to see that.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
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The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
I blame it on coaching. I blame it on lack of creativity. Because, look, when they've put him in the post against Tobias Harris, I bet the efficiency numbers are pretty good.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
tobias harris is making him take tough shots shout out tobias harris who has become kind of like an nba nerd punchline sort of stand-in for boring averageness he's been awesome in this series and he's been like tough and fired up but yeah cat's got to get going they just got like they just have to be better i've seen people say you know um
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
But let's briefly hit tonight's game. It's 9.30 in the morning.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
less Josh Hart more Deuce McBride so that they can't do this gambit of putting a center on somebody other than Cat and clearly they don't want they even took Paul Reed started on Cat and then they're like you know what Paul Reed we're doing the same thing with you you guard Josh Hart like that's a cool idea I get the appeal of it you get much smaller and I you know Tibbs is showing like he put Mikael Bridges on the bench in a bunch of games this season including game one of this series he sat for a lot of the fourth quarter
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
I just don't think it's realistic to say just cut in half Josh Hart's minutes. I don't think that's going to be a solution. He's been too important to their team. There are other solutions that lay within this lineup that they have to unlock. But enough Knicks.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
I don't want to belabor these games because they're coming on tonight but we have to start with the 10 p.m game Clips Nuggets game three first playoff game in Inuit Dome it's going to be rocking this has been the series of the first round and the biggest story in the NBA is Kawhi Leonard you were up close with the Kawhi Leonard experience as it petered out in San Antonio um
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
I saw a graphic that listed all the fouls all the Knicks players have drawn, and it was Jalen Brunson, like maybe 25 I'm going to ballpark.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
That's cool. So his, his foul per falling over ratio is almost 50%. Like he's probably fallen over 46 times and drawn 23 fouls.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
I mean, I get – it's just I'm used to it, right? But I am annoyed. Like he'll get – he'll just get – what annoys me is just when there's nothing happening and he tries to make it look like something's happening. So they'll inbound the ball to him just out of a basket, like a baseline out of bounds. Inbound the ball. His guy will be like pressing him, just totally routine pressure, and he'll –
The Zach Lowe Show
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Just like, can you, how about you just bring the ball up to court, man? Like it's, if you get someone up in the air and a pump fake and you try to jump into them, I hate that shit. I think they should call that an offensive foul for every player every time. But like, I get it. An event has occurred that you've created when you've tried to create something from nothing, a non-event.
The Zach Lowe Show
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That's what annoys me. Let me ask you this though. On the general topic, now we're going to Warriors, Rockets, and Butler got hurt in all of this. That series is insanely physical. I mean, Draymond is in a semi-altercation every five minutes. Every game, the commentators are saying how physical this is and how this is nothing like regular season basketball.
The Zach Lowe Show
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And my question to you as someone who's worked in the league and probably had these discussions, is there such a thing? We all want... Like, hard competition, more physicality, fewer free throws, fewer pauses to the game. Everyone enjoyed last year when the refereeing shifted midseason to allow more physicality on defense, even though the league was like, what? Nothing happened.
The Zach Lowe Show
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We didn't tell anyone to do anything. No one did anything. There was no directive. Yeah. Is there such a thing as too big of a difference between regular season basketball and playoff basketball? Because this is like football on television right now.
The Zach Lowe Show
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What is it like for you to watch this guy look like all of a sudden peak Kawhi is back pouring in thirty nine points, 15 of 19 shooting, getting to any spot, any matchup and just getting steals looking like, oh, yeah, this is the guy that I voted for for MVP eight years ago. What has it been like for you to watch this?
The Zach Lowe Show
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Well, and Orlando, who can't score, and has not been able to score all year. Their only recourse against Boston is a hope. Paolo has a huge game and he has, uh, He's making the shots. Boston is giving him enough of them that if they had any support for him at all, they'd be in these games. And B, beat the shit out of the Celtics. They can't call everything. They can't call everything.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Let's beat them up. And guess what? Jason Tatum's already injured. And luckily, it's just a bone bruise. He was doubtful. Maybe I suspect if the Celtics were down 1-0, he would have played. Or if the Celtics had any fear of this opponent, he might have played. But he didn't play. And to your point,
The Zach Lowe Show
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The regular season probably needs to be a little bit more physical, and the playoffs so far probably are a little too physical. Just narrow the gap a little bit because you said the word dangerous. I'm watching these games, and I was thinking this before the Butler fall. Again, that was an accident of just guys flying around. Someone is going to get injured.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Jalen Green just runs into Draymond Green and just elbows him in the face. Yeah, he got a flagrant, but someone is going to get injured or there's going to be a fight. And that's cool. Like, we all like to watch fights. Fights are cool. Fights are cool right until someone on your favorite team gets suspended for game seven of a playoff series.
The Zach Lowe Show
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That's what's going to happen if they keep allowing just wrestling matches all over the floor. All right, let's talk about Warriors Rockets. 1-1. I think we all expected a long series. I had Warriors in seven. The crowd was chanting F.U. Draymond. Steve Kerr, very offended. Not very. Slightly upset by this. I'm like, you know what?
The Zach Lowe Show
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if there's someone who brings this level of wrath upon himself, it's dream on green, who is flailing and hitting people and getting, he's always tangled up. Right. And sometimes you watch the replay and it's like, I can't really tell whose fault it is that they're tangled up and they all fall over.
The Zach Lowe Show
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And someone gets called for a foul, but when you're always tangled up, like you're just permanently entangled, it's probably your fault. Most of the time. Um, The biggest thing was the Butler injury. Obviously, we don't know as we're recording this what the status is. Tim Kawakami tweeted that there was some optimism that he had avoided some serious injury, but there's an MRI today. Who knows?
The Zach Lowe Show
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Obviously, if he's out for an extended period, the whole series shifts into Houston's favor. Pajemski was also sick. And the other thing that happened was credit Jalen Greene. who took a whole bunch of shit after game one. He was awful in game one. Responded with the most meaningful game of his career in the NBA. 38 points on 13 of 25 shooting. 8 of 18 on threes. His shot selection was better.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Very few, if any, isos where he's just driving at Steph wildly. Much more pick and roll, much more catch and shoot threes. And look, I don't know, again, like it's going to depend on injuries and who plays and who doesn't play. The Quinton Post minutes were a gift for Jalen Green. They were a gift for the Rockets because they gave them a place to attack defensively.
The Zach Lowe Show
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And Quentin Post had no shot in the pick and roll, no matter what he did against Jalen Green. Kavon Looney didn't really have a shot in the pick and roll. And the more those big guys have to play, Golden State can finagle different ways. They can play zone. They can put Post on, you know, whatever, Jabari Smith Jr., just anybody but the main screen center.
The Zach Lowe Show
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They'll find him and they'll punish him one way or another. But Jalen Green played a calm, sound game today. And the Rockets defense is what it is. I want to shout out Tari Eason, who 14 points off the bench. I think they could actually go to him a little bit here and there if Steph is guarding him, which he is. He has a decent power game. He's made his threes. He's a menace in transition.
The Zach Lowe Show
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You could not keep him off the boards. And he's also had to guard Steph a little bit because of cross matches. Like if Steph is on him and there's a stop, he's stuck on Steph. He's done that really well when he's had to do it. Obviously, they want Thompson and Van Vliet on Steph primarily. But Eason's done a really good job. And just...
The Zach Lowe Show
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The Rockets are just going to – it's just unpleasant to play against them. I don't know. Do you have any takeaways? It's hard to have major takeaways from a game where one of the three most important players plays eight minutes and is injured, and they have to go so deep into their rotation. But did you have any –
The Zach Lowe Show
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Any takeaways from this game that's going to make you like, okay, now I'm watching for that in game three as we go to the Bay?
The Zach Lowe Show
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Jabari Smith Jr., one of those guys who lost his starting spot this season. Nobody quite knows what he is. Does he have more ball handling in him? Is he a four? He's playing some three now. He's playing some five. Is he just a pick-and-pop guy? Can he exploit mismatches? He tends to fade away, blah, blah. Just a guy I'm happy to have on the floor. I think he plays winning basketball. He fights.
The Zach Lowe Show
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He plays hard. He makes threes. I think they could post him against Steph when Steph hides on him. A couple of quick things from this game. Jalen Green, 23 pick and rolls in Game 2, up from 12 in Game 1 in terms of what his role was. He shot 41% on catch-and-shoot threes this season, 31% on pull-ups. Redirecting any of his threes that way, which they did last night, is good.
The Zach Lowe Show
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And obviously Steph is going to go at the big guys on Houston on the pick and roll, whether they're on Moody, whether they're stuck on Draymond, whatever. Interesting chess match going forward. Let's quickly go through the other series. Boston-Orlando and Miami-Cleveland. Do you have any thoughts on... Let's start with Miami-Cleveland.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Because Miami made that a game and has actually scored pretty well against the Cavs through two games. Almost 117 points per 100 possessions. Hero was sensational.
The Zach Lowe Show
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And I thought Spoh, you know, I'd mentioned on Monday that too much hero isolation against Sam Merrill and, and guys that this is not really his game, not enough off ball movement, flare screens, pick and roll screening, pick and roll ball handling, total sea change. They had to move it all over the floor, doing all sorts of different things. He was great. Um,
The Zach Lowe Show
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They got it within two late in the game. And then Donovan Mitchell scored 10 points in two minutes and 10 seconds, if my math is right, on two crazy twos and two awesome threes. Put the game away. Cavs are scoring 133 points per 100 possessions. They're going to win the series. it's going to raise a lot of questions about Miami's future and like, where is this team actually going?
The Zach Lowe Show
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Honestly, the best thing that's happened to Miami is that by making the playoffs, they got their pick situation in much better order. So they will give their 2025 pick to Oklahoma city and their 2027 pick top 14 protection to Charlotte rolls over just one year. If they had not made the playoffs, they were facing a scenario where they give unprotected 26 unprotected 28 and
The Zach Lowe Show
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So they got that sorted out and they have the Warriors picked this year. I don't know where they're going long term. They're not going to win this series. But talk about the Cavs. What have you what's what's what have impressed you about the Cavs?
The Zach Lowe Show
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Nikoli Ovech turning into Nikoli Ovech late in the game.
The Zach Lowe Show
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The pace at which they play, and I'm not talking about fast breaks, I'm talking about every cut handoff, redirect is done with such urgency and speed that you can see the heat being like, I can't, we can't even keep up with what's going on. And you mentioned Strews. I think Strews is the poster guy for that.
The Zach Lowe Show
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He does everything at 100% speed and acceleration, every cut, every move, every bolt around the screen. And the passing is so fast that that the ball is just ahead of the defense. They're playing so together, so connected, and the Heat just can't keep up. The one thing that I do think is interesting is Kenny Atkinson has showed this throughout the season.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Until you force him otherwise, he is going to over-index on shooting at the expense of size. And so you've seen Jerome playing a ton of minutes, Merrill playing a ton of minutes, Okoro playing very few and Okoro thankfully made a corner three last night after looking like, uh-oh, is playoff Okoro back in game one? Oh my God. And Dean Wade just six minutes.
The Zach Lowe Show
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It'll be interesting to see if and when they arrive at an opponent and maybe it's not till Boston that forces them to reconsider that and what that does to their rotations. Just small notes on Cleveland. Sometimes I'm like, should they just play their starters more?
The Zach Lowe Show
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And last night there were a couple funky substitutions where they brought Garland or Mitchell in a little earlier than usual to have them play together. Like, should they just play Mobley and Allen together a little bit more? They never play the Hunter at three lineup with the rest in the Struis spot, which is fine. Struis has been so good, it doesn't matter.
The Zach Lowe Show
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One of my favorite plays from the game, and this is where you know you have, this is one of those plays that's a sign of a team with great chemistry. Darius Garland gets a pitch ahead. He's got Kal-El Ware on him on the right wing. He can dance. He can go to work. It's highlight time for Darius Garland. Instead, he's like, I got Kal-El Ware on me.
The Zach Lowe Show
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There's a small guy on one of our big guys somewhere. I'm going to wait for that big guy. And it's Jared Allen. And Jared Allen comes rampaging into the paint. Seals whoever the small guy is on him. Entry to Jared Allen. And one. That's a play... That's a healthy, together, connected, happy team. Heat need much more from Bam, particularly when he's got smaller guys on him. Love Bam.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Didn't do enough last night. Boston, Orlando, I don't have anything else to say other than Boston has gotten... 45% of their shots have been threes. That's a win for them. That's a lot. It's a little less than their regular season rate, but it's still huge. And every time Orlando... does anything but switch. Anytime they get into normal pick and roll rotations, Boston gets a three.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Jalen Brown was sensational. I have nothing else to say about that game.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Southeast Division champions, baby. 41-41.
The Zach Lowe Show
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and playing 40 plus minutes whatever the Clippers need I'm like you I never thought I would see it again I gave up on it even as they finished the season roaring to a whatever record in their last 30 games saying to the world we can compete with anybody in the west maybe even Oklahoma City who we might see in the next round and oh my god the thunder holy crap um
The Zach Lowe Show
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I'll tell you this. I won't go in a bouncy house. I won't go in. If there's more than two people in a bouncy house, you might as well call an ambulance immediately. When I go to children's birthday, but first of all, I was at a children's birthday party once when there was a gust of wind and the entire bouncy house tipped over and there was like screaming children, screaming parents, bouncy house.
The Zach Lowe Show
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When we moved into the burbs, We have a decent sized backyard. I wanted a trampoline. And our insurance guy was like, under no circumstances should you get a trampoline. A bouncy house is like 10 times worse than a trampoline. I won't go in it, Kurt Goldsberry. I will not go in a bouncy house.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Porzingis' rim protection has been awesome. He got to the line a bunch last night because they were switching and they leaned into his postgame again. Drew Holiday, there's always like, Drew Holiday, every one of these games, it's like, Drew Holiday's been kind of quiet.
The Zach Lowe Show
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And then there's like a five-minute stretch where he decides, I'm just going to press someone, take their cookies, make a couple threes, and all of a sudden the Celtics reach a different level. Last thing on the Magic, you know, a lot of the attention, and I think this is true, Priority number one, getting a guard who can shoot and create off the dribble.
The Zach Lowe Show
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And we don't need to go through all the potential names now. And I do think that should be priority number one. I will say the more I watch them, and I've said this before, the more I think they need, like Wendell Carter Jr., I like him. He's just not enough of an anything at center. He's not enough of a roller. He's not enough of a lob threat. He's not a lob threat or roller at all.
The Zach Lowe Show
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He's not enough of a shooter. He's not enough of a passer. Mo Wagner is a nice backup. They need a center. Who's enough of a something. And I don't know if it's a pick and pop center, pick and screen and dive lob threat center. Maybe they should do an aborted trade for Mark Williams. I don't know. Like they just need something from that spot to bend the defense more than Wendell Carter jr.
The Zach Lowe Show
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And Goga, who has fantastic hair, by the way, and Mo Wagner are able to do it. Okay. I want to finish up with you on this. Milwaukee, Indiana resumes tomorrow night. You want to talk about a franchise at a moment of crisis. Doc's got the doc face going. Mm hmm. Where, you know, the duck face. How about the duck? Like, I don't know.
The Zach Lowe Show
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What is it where I've never seen anyone bend at the knees like Doc does. He's like a complete right angle watching the game. I've never seen any. It's one of the that's just his default pose in life. I don't know. Does he see the game better? Giannis is awesome. Dame came back, was fine. Looked a little tired at the end of the game. Kind of went into decoy mode, as you'd expect.
The Zach Lowe Show
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All the rest of the starters have been poo-poo. Mine is a million. The bench, fine. Like, you want to play more Gary Trent? KPJ, Bobby Portis, that's all cool. Like, they've been a little better than A.J. Green. The A.J. Green, Giannis pick and roll with A.J. Green screening. Very effective. They're all good. My question to you is this, Kirk.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Even as that was happening, my brain has just been so conditioned to Kawhi getting injured and bad things happening to the Clippers. And Kawhi has not finished a season healthy since the bubble five years ago. That's the last time he played in the Clippers' last game of the season. And so I just my brain just wouldn't let me consider that this was actually a tenable possibility.
The Zach Lowe Show
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No matter what lineup they play, Milwaukee has been so helpless defensively and so just out of tenable answers that I'm sitting there like, what's the answer? Because I'll tell you what the answer is not. The switch everything thing they did in game two was so bad and so obviously untenable that I couldn't believe Doc Rivers didn't scrap it through one quarter.
The Zach Lowe Show
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You're switching everything with Brooke Lopez guarding Tyrese Halliburton. with Damian Lillard guarding Pascal Siakam, with Bobby Portis guarding Tyrese Halliburton. It's like a freaking buffet for the Pacers. They can get Tyrese Halliburton or Pascal Siakam on any buck of any kind and just simplify the offense and go to work.
The Zach Lowe Show
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And once they get by the first level of defense, it's pass, pass, pass, pass, pass until it's a three or a dunk. And the Bucs just were like, I guess we have nothing. We can try zone. Well, our zone is giving up. Let me look up. 1.26 points per possession. That stinks. TJ McConnell's a zone killer. They've got a bunch of zone killers. They can move Brooke Lopez around defensively.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
All right, coming up on the Zach Lowe Show, Kurt Goldsberry and I react to all the games from Wednesday night. We look ahead to Bucks, Pacers, Nuggets, Clippers, Pistons, Knicks. We hit everything. The physicality, Jimmy Butler's injury, Jalen Green's explosion, Jalen Brown's explosion. And then John Krasinski from The Athletic on the very strange Wolves-Lakers series. A super awesome deep dive.
The Zach Lowe Show
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It's like if you're going to switch everything, the matchups don't even matter. I'll tell you this. Switching everything, not the answer. I couldn't believe they stuck with it. Is there an answer?
The Zach Lowe Show
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Do you know why? It's because they switched and they tried to do the scram switch, which is like the fancy thing where you switch and there's a bad matchup like Damian Lillard on Pascal Siakam. And you scram, you switch so Dame runs somewhere else. And you know what they did? They ran around like the freaking three stooges. They didn't know where to run. They ran into each other.
The Zach Lowe Show
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And you know who guarded Pascal Siakam? Nobody. And that's what happens when you play a kind of defense that you have not played the entire season against an elite offensive team. If they come out switching everything like that in game three, I'm going to throw something at the wall like I did when John Franco used to blow saves for the Mets. I'm going to throw something at the wall.
The Zach Lowe Show
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And knock on wood, it's only been two playoff games. And, you know, we've seen him play two, three, four, six playoff games and then something bad happens. But this is unbelievable. I mean, this is a two time finals MVP, a two time defensive player of the year. You mentioned one point, whatever, six points per shot. 29 isos in this series against the Nuggets. 1.375 points per possession.
The Zach Lowe Show
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You know who got really sad listening to that? Devin Booker. Devin Booker's postseason comments about how what's really frustrating is how close we were three years ago, and now this is where we are with everyone pouting and hating each other and firing coaches like, you know, I drink cups of coffee. Sad times, sad times.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Okay, so you shouldn't fire your coach every year? Every year, fire your coach? I can't believe how common that is. The Suns should try to hire a head coach on a one-year contract. Be like, look, let's be honest. Will you sign a one-year deal? Because you see how this goes. Credit to Matt Ishbia, who dialed down the rhetoric a little bit in his postgame bloviation. Is that a word?
The Zach Lowe Show
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He did not say 26 out of 29 teams would change places as he did a year ago. One of my all time favorite. You love that one. Put that one in Springfield in my absurd quote, Hall of Fame wing. They need we have the wing of absurdity, which I once created for Grantland. And I had a whole series of stuff that was supposed to be in it. Headlined by a sculpture of LeBron gesturing at J.R. Smith. Why?
The Zach Lowe Show
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Why? Why?
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
Joe Johnson saying, it's not that bad here about Brooklyn. That's one of my all-time favorites.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
This is a separate off-season podcast. I can feel it coming. Where was I going with this? Oh, Ishbia. And then he can't help himself. He's going to say, we're going to win championships here. And I said it with an S. How about you just go singular? The franchise has zero championships. You didn't even make the fucking play-in tournament. How about you just go P at the end?
The Zach Lowe Show
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And how about you just say, you know what? We're going to try our damnedest to win a championship. No, we're going to win championships. Plural. Awesome. I hope you do. I hope you do. Okay, Bucks. Here's some of the things I would try. Why are we panicking about Miles Turner pick and pop three-pointers? He's a very good shooter. He's a good shooting center.
The Zach Lowe Show
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I don't think he wants to take 12 in a game. So no matter who's on him, whether it's Brook Lopez... or if I move Brooke Lopez to Siakam or Nesmith, or Nesmith rather, which they've done, whoever it is, drop back, contain Tyrese Halliburton on the pick and roll, force them to kick it back to Myles Turner, and yeah, try to get out there and contest.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
I'm not going to send a third guy flying at Myles Turner and unlock the Pacers passing game, which is exactly what they want. I'm at least going to mix this in. I'm going to mix in, hey – Take a contested pick and pop three. Or what are you going to hand it off over here to Andrew Nembhard? Cool. Like do that instead. Like I don't care. I'm not putting myself in rotation.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
I'm going under on Andrew Nembhard picks. I'm not going over. I'm going under. And I'm just not going to get myself in rotation so readily. I'm definitely not going to switch everything all the time. Sure. Mix it in here. They're mixing his own here or there. And, you know, we'll see. They can play around with, again, who Lopez guards. But those are just a couple –
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
That is just bonkers. And it's like... Aaron Gordon, sometimes if there's an adjustment I'm looking for, not looking for, but I'm interested to see how Denver guards the when Kawhi brings Jamal Murray's guy into the two man action. They've been mostly defaulting to just, all right, we're going to switch. We don't want to get ourselves in rotation and giving him the Jamal Murray matchup.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
a couple of throw in a trap every once in a while. You got to mix up your defenses because if you play the same defense over and over against Indiana, no matter what it is, and especially if it's switching, they're going to roast you. I don't even care who Milwaukee plays. Like none of these dudes off the bench is any kind of like silver bullet. Gary Trent Jr. He's guarding Halliburton.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
He's got no shot on Halliburton. He's a good defensive player. Fine. On the ball against Tyrese Halliburton, it's just barbecue chicken. So I don't know what the solution is, but it's not what they did. And it's a big, big moment. for the Bucks, obviously. Any parting thoughts on... Bucs Pacers. I love Pacers, by the way.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
I can't believe he was a must for me.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
The Bucs have not had any stretch this year in which they sustainably were like a very good team. They had stretches where they were a good team, but there was never a stretch you could point to saying, oh, if they just bottle that 10-game stretch, that's a team that can win two playoff rounds. It's never happened. That's why I picked the Pacers in this series. Dame, no Dame, whatever.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
We'll see, though. Like, if Dame comes back and gets his win, it's a different story. To wit... Giannis as ball screener has only set 26 picks through two games. That's probably not enough because it's their best offense. 1.3 points per possession directly out of those plays. So when Giannis or the ball handler shoots or one pass away, 1.5 points per possession total.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
More Dame Giannis pick and roll. A couple other notes on this one. Indiana has 16 turnovers in two games. I think Milwaukee was dead last at forcing turnovers in the regular season. That's partly their personnel. They're old and slow. It's partly the way Doc likes to play. Indiana is just going to get a shot every possession. That's an 8% turnover rate. That's basically nothing.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
And just keep an eye on how they guard Giannis post-ups. They're hard doubling Giannis in the post. And the Bucs showed some adjustments in game two. They gave them a couple of touches at the nail where it's harder to double. They changed the way their cutters go through and who's one pass away to make the reads easier. But all that's window dressing.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
If they can't find a way to even make Indiana think on offense, they're dead in the water. The Pacers will get a split in Milwaukee and wrap it in five. Kirk Goldsberry, any parting thoughts on all these series before I bring in the great John Krasinski to talk about Wolves-Lakers?
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
And Jamal Murray's got no shot. I mean, Kawhi Leonard is like a tank running over him. And I'm watching these games thinking, man, do you not want to – I know you don't want to get in rotation, but it's like if Norm Powell's the screener – I know Norm Powell can flare out for threes. Throw in some hedges. Make Kawhi pass. Make Kawhi think. Make Norm Powell make plays in space or whoever it is.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
Kirk Goldsberry, I know you're watching all these games. I know you're taking notes and grinding, and just it's a pleasure to talk to you. I love the NBA hat. I like the whiteboard in the background. It's great to be on the same team. Again, I'll talk to you soon, buddy. All right. Wolves-Lakers time, baby. Battle of the Lakers franchise. Battle of George Mikan. All of it.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
I'm so excited that John Krasinski from The Athletic is here. How are you, buddy?
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
Such a wonderful guy. Love hanging out with you. You know, when I went to Minnesota on guy's trip, number one post getting laid off, went to a wolves game. We went out for some drinks after the game. We met for lunch the day after it was what wonderful time the drinks, the drink. What was the name of that bar? Lions Pub.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
We had a couple of memorable experiences at the Lions Pub.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
1-1. Wolves-Lakers. Wolves roll game one. Lakers kind of roll game two. Very low scoring game. Strange series. There's always a series or two where you get to game three, even game four, and you're like, I still don't quite have a feel for this one. I know what it's really about. What's been your big-picture takeaway? Minnesota's plus 13 for the series. Who cares, really?
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
It's been a slow, ugly, whatever series. Have you had a big takeaway through two games?
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
Yeah. I mean, I think you said it organized was the key word you just said. I picked the Lakers in seven and I picked that because I called it the haywire factor. I just didn't have faith in the Wolves to not go haywire like four times for three minute stretches at critical times in the series or even non-critical. It could be first.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
They went haywire in the first quarter of game two and it cost them the game. I at least know the Lakers for the most part are not going to go haywire because they have those two all time geniuses running their offense. To me, the story of game two was the wolves just completely lost the plot on offense. And like, you know what the Lakers are going to do. They're going to switch a lot.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
I'm interested to see that. But this is like – I mean, it's no secret that I love Kawhi as a basketball player. Yeah. I was one of eight people who voted him MVP in 2017, the year Russ won. He's played some of the best games I've ever seen in big stages, including Game 6 in Dallas in 2021, one of the best games I've ever seen anyone play for the Clippers.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
You can get pretty much any matchup you want. Now I thought the Lakers were smarter in game two about not switching all the time. And if they saw like there was a Randall Alexander Walker pick and roll, And the goal was to get, I think, Gabe Vincent switched on to Randall. Alexander Walker slipped a screen and the, and the Lakers were like, we're not actually going to switch this one.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
We're going to read this correctly and not give you the mismatch. Thought their help was a little better, whatever, you know what the bread and butter is going to be. And instead of going at Luca and instead of going at Austin Reeves, there was like Randall attacking Hachimura, Randall attacking LeBron. And he got, he got a lot of stuff out of that.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
Jada McDaniels going one-on-one against Austin Reeves. That's the right guy to go at wrong guy to do it. Just too much of like letting Luca off the hook and, letting Reeves off the hook, not thinking, just thoughtless basketball, which very much surprised me because in game one, they played the opposite. Did you talk to anyone about that? Like, why did that happen?
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
Can we stop and talk about that game?
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
If people have not seen that game, and it's a random regular season game, could have been extremely costly to Minnesota. They're lucky it was not. Milwaukee was down by 24 points, I think, in the fourth quarter?
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
And went to a zone. And the entire league, everybody in the Western Conference in Minnesota's bracket, everyone in the Western Conference should have seen that game and put zone in their scouting report. Because this is not an exaggeration, John. I have never seen a team play worse against the zone in the NBA. If you and I were on the court, we could not have done worse.
The Zach Lowe Show
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They were just like throwing the ball to the other. It was unbelievable. Were you at that game? That was a real game.
The Zach Lowe Show
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I don't understand why it takes so much thought in high-level complexity to be like, where's Luka? Just attack Luka. Or Reeves. Or Reeves. Or Gabe Vincent. Like, Nas Reed is being guarded by Gabe Vincent. Maybe give him a couple touches. Like, it's not that hard. No.
The Zach Lowe Show
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That was for the Clippers, but for any team. And I said this with Bill the other day. I don't remember the last time I was so dead wrong about a team as I was about the Clippers. The Thunder are the franchise of the year in the NBA. If you win 68 games, that's what you are. The Clippers are the co-franchise of the year.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
Now, I understand the Lakers, to your point, their help was, I think, a little bit like a step further into the paint than it was in game one, particularly when there was a non shooter on the floor. We'll get to that. Like Terrence Shannon came in and LeBron's like, I'm just not guarding Terrence Shannon Jr. We're just going to zone up off him completely.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
The Gobert thing we'll talk about in a minute. And I thought Minnesota had less off-ball movement around that stuff to confuse the help, like less flare screens, fewer cuts, fewer confusion, all that stuff. But it's still not that complicated to just find the right, to start by finding the right guy to attack the right guy. And they didn't even do that.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
But the Lakers, to their credit, they're a smart team. connected defense, even when they're small. And that's the thing. Like if you just get by the first layer of defense, Hayes is going to play 10 minutes. The other 38 minutes, there is no shot blocker there. If you even count Hayes as a shot blocker, he's a goaltender. How about that goaltend?
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
Not a great Hayes game. There's no rim protection back there. And I just don't understand why. Like, I get what you're saying. The Lakers made it complicated. They changed coverages. They scrunched in and scrunched out. They rotate on the string. They make you think. But step one is just the right guy should attack the right guy. And that's the part. Like, I don't get why that's so hard.
The Zach Lowe Show
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I'm sure Chris Finch in the huddles is saying this stuff. I just don't understand why it's that hard to execute at least that part.
The Zach Lowe Show
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I'm going to read you some numbers. You ready? Please. Second, second spectrum tracking numbers. This is Luca pick and rolls with go bear as the guy guarding the screener. Let's go. OK, because Gobert is getting flambéed, flambéed, lambasted. Did I just make up a word? I think you did. Because everyone sees it, right? Everyone sees it.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
It's very visible when a ball handler gets Gobert and Gobert is a little stilted. He's a big dude, man. Like those big dudes, it's a lot of limbs to move around. It doesn't always look great. And, you know, you get roasted on a crossover, commit a foul, step back three. Like, it's very visible. It's very obvious. And so it's the talking point after game two.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
Oh, four-time defensive player of the year. Out of his comfort zone. Boy, oh, boys, here we go again. Why is he this generational defender if he can't match up? Here are the numbers. Game one, Luka Doncic against Rudy Gobert, 15 picks. 0.615 points per possession out of those picks directly. 0.77 points per possession overall. That is... Is that good? No, that's horrible. That's not good, is it?
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
For this team to lose Paul George in a move that was clearly like, we just don't think this year is over. We don't know what's coming next, but this year is over. And win 50 games. in the West, not the JV East, like, yay, the Bulls won 37 games in the East, okay? This is the real varsity NBA. And go toe-to-toe with the Nuggets. and be the better team, I think, through two games.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
Game two, 23 picks. 0.561. points per possession directly out of them. 0.632 points per possession overall. If you had that points per possession for a full game, for a full season, you're a G league team. You're a college team. Now, very small sample. Those numbers are somewhat deflated by spot up shooters, two passes away, missing wide open threes that it creates.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
You saw in game two, the Wolves are concerned enough that they're trying to switch Gobert out of that pick and roll while his man is on the way to screen. You'll see him point someone else, get there. So I'm not saying he's been great. I'm not saying it's not an issue. Luka has been, I've been actually very impressed with Luka's level of decisiveness.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
When he gets Gobert on him, he's not pulling the ball out and dancing and taking a million step back threes. He'll do one jab, step back Gobert, lean back like he's going to shoot. And the minute he stands you up, he's blowing by you and drawing a foul. He's been very good about that. I'm just saying the numbers are the numbers.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
There's no argument that go bears defense and all the stops all the times there was a steal. He had all the times where he forces a pass out and the defense isn't compromised. People just don't notice it because they want to notice the bloopers. Basically the numbers are what they are. This has not been a problem. In fact, I will posit this.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
If Gobert is a problem in this series, it's on offense where he's a problem. And he's a problem because the Lakers are going to switch everything. Minnesota is going to pick their matchup. The Lakers are going to zone up. And it's much easier to zone up when one guy is sitting in the dunker spot and the guy who just screened for Ant
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
what let's say it's Jada McDaniels is rolling towards that big guy in the dunker spot and everything's clogged up versus when it's Randall and Reed and Randall at least is going to stand on the perimeter and everyone is going to stand on the perimeter and the reads are much easier.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
And if you look at some of Randall's drives that went haywire or Edwards's drives that went haywire, like there's one,
The Zach Lowe Show
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like around nine minutes of the third quarter you can freeze the screen there go bears in the game mcdaniels is rolling down the lane there's nowhere for him to go i think go bears defense has been fine more than fine i think if there's something to watch it's how is he impacting their spacing on offense just because of the way the lakers are defending that's my hot take john krasinski it's not even that hot it's not a hot take i'm giving you a clap for it because it it
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
And I just, I thought, I took the under. I thought it was over. I'm like, without Paul George, it's going to be like Harden holding down the fort when Kawhi is inevitably injured. This feels just like a nice little cute placeholder until we figure out what the next iteration of the team is. And here they are. And they nailed every free agent signing. Derek Jones, Chris Dunn, on and on.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
It's funny. You mentioned the Randall passes to him and the ant passes to him because, you know, I remember joking midway through the season. Like you could, you could have made a really fun compilation of go bear calling for the ball wide open and Randall not passing to him. Yes. And part of it is because those are tricky passes to make right there. They're thread, the needle lobs, whatever.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
And part of it is like, I bet if you got them, honestly, you know, in a moment of honesty, Ant, Randall, I don't think they trust him to do enough with the ball. I think they intentionally are like, I don't think I want to pass to you right now. It's like watching Kawhi and Ben Simmons right now. You can see Kawhi be like, yeah, they're loading off you.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
I think I'm just going to hold on to this one for now, buddy. Can you just get out of the way? And they did involve him more as the season, particularly the last two, three weeks. But you mentioned offensive rebound. If the Lakers are going to go small, the Wolves have to win that. And we should mention that the entire Wolves team was in foul trouble in game two.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
And I thought the DiVincenzo foul trouble and Reed foul trouble was a big deal. One of the things I like about DiVincenzo in this matchup is they play faster when he's on the floor. And I think... talk about one way to beat a complex zone of pretty big guys that know how to help just get out ahead of it.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
And I thought when DiVincenzo was in the game, they did a good job of just like, we're going to fly up the floor and just see what happens.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
My Randall rule is you don't get to my Randall rule. The Randall rule on this podcast is Julius Randall. You only get to attack when you get a mismatch and he violated it over and over again in game two. And he got stuff against Rui and LeBron. Like he came to play and he did his job.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Ty Lue is as good as it gets in the NBA. But it doesn't work at this level without this Kawhi. And I just never thought we'd see it again for a sustained period of time. He's been unbelievable.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Yeah. I mean, they played super hard. LeBron has been awesome on defense for the last 40, 50 games of the season. Offensively does not look great. I had a bad game one, eight of 19 in game two.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
hasn't been able to find a bully ball groove i think they should hunt conley more than they have like when conley's on the floor they're not going at him enough i expect that to change a little bit but if lebron doesn't play better like reeves missed great shots in game two all six of his threes he missed they were all good shots for the maybe five of them were good shots
The Zach Lowe Show
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I don't worry about Reese. He's going to give you what he gives you as the third guy. If LeBron doesn't play better, I think Minnesota's in good shape in this series. But I honestly, like, I have no clue what's coming next in this series. I have no feel for this series at all. It's been a very strange... It's been a very strange two games. You mentioned...
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
I just think if I'm the wolves, I want to speed the series up. I want to run, run, run. And like, there was one play where they got to stop. I can't remember when it was. And Devin Chenzo just flew up the floor and hit it ahead to Ant and Ant attacked Devin. I think Randall was in the post and Ant just dribbled around.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
They tried to front Randall and Ant immediately was just like, I'm going around you. I'm going around both of you and laid the ball up and in. And it was just before the defense could get set. And DiVincenzo made the play and Ant continued to play. How about that Ant dunk, by the way, on Jackson Hayes? That was like... That was a leap out of your chair, Dunk.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
What are the best ones? There's the John Collins one.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
You know what? Yeah, there are children. Won't someone think of the children? I sound like Reverend Lovejoy's wife on The Simpsons. Won't someone please think of the children? However... One of my rule minus something that obviously crosses a line, right? Minus something that's, that's, we all, we all know where those lines are.
The Zach Lowe Show
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If a fan in like the first three rows is just relentlessly going at you and making it personal. I think you should have carte blanche up to those lines to fire back at them. I have a corollary to that. I call it the Steven Jackson rule. In the 2012 Western Conference Finals, Steven Jackson made a corner three. He was playing for the Spurs. And he made it right in front of the Thunder bench.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
Hope you enjoy it.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
And he turned around and he yapped to the Thunder bench. And he got teed up for it. And he did it because they were all telling him, you can't shoot, it's a brick, whatever. You should have carte blanche to be able to talk to the other bench. I don't care what you say. So if these fans are going, I don't know. Has he been fined a million dollars combined this year? How many are we up to?
The Zach Lowe Show
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Hey, at least it's a career achievement. Fine. And not like, you know, like I have no empathy for the guys who yap at the refs all the time. Like Luca, for instance, like Luca, when he got ejected from that game, who was that in Oklahoma city, right? Was that in Oklahoma city? When he got it, that was ridiculous because he was talking to a fan and not the ref and
The Zach Lowe Show
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The ref is obviously going to think you're talking to him because you talk to him all the time. Draymond getting, quote, unfavorable treatment from the road. First of all, he doesn't because Draymond cannot possibly get ejected for you. You could clothesline someone and not get it. You could hit someone with a DDT and not get ejected. I guess not.
The Zach Lowe Show
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I guess he did get suspended for hitting people last year. But you know what I mean? Yeah. you know, just like John Moran getting fined for the gestures. Like, yeah, no, yeah. That's you brought that one on yourself. Okay. Big picture. Last question. I'm more, I'm most curious about this game three, maybe of all series other than nuggets Clippers tonight.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
And part of the reason is the series feels like a black box to me still, but I mean, it's, it's, it's easy to get into the weeds and, and we've gotten into the weeds, but, Like there's a path to the conference finals here for these teams. They're in the better side of the bracket. The winner will get either the Rockets who are untested or the Warriors.
The Zach Lowe Show
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And we'll see what the Jimmy Butler's MRI shows, but it's not like they're an unbeatable juggernaut, despite their record with Butler and Curry. And Minnesota is kind of this fun, like this funky team where they made this huge town's trade before the season. They kind of have an up and down and they're like three games over 560 games into the season.
The Zach Lowe Show
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They finished super strong and barely get out of the play in like the Warriors do them a favor by dropping a couple games to get out of the plant. And they don't feel like a contender because of the up and down nature of their season, because of the trade, because they're the sixth seed, but they're a pretty goddamn good team.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
And there's a pathway for them to get it together and get pretty far in the playoffs to get as far as they did last year. Like I do like it's the stakes are, are big in, in these games coming up in Minnesota. Yeah.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
They're also facing a legit, very good team with incredible top end talent who made some good adjustments in game two, who ran a little bit more of their sort of pet sets where the three stars cooperate and screen for each other. And they got some good openings that way. LeBron got a three. LeBron got a long two. Finney Smith got a back cut that led somewhere.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
All through them cooperating with each other, simultaneous action on the ball, off the ball, lean into that more consistently. But yeah, it's a big, high stakes, very strange series. I'm excited for game three. John Krasinski of The Athletic, John Krasinski's show, his podcast. I've said it before. There is no better beat writer in the NBA than you. It's an honor to have you on.
The Zach Lowe Show
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It's great to see you. Who knows? Maybe in six weeks, we'll be back at the Lions. The Lions, what?
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
Oh, that's a good invitation. John Krasinski, everybody. Thank you, sir. All right. That's it for today. Enjoy the games over the weekend. We'll be back first thing in the morning Monday to recap what promises to be another crazy NBA weekend full of high stakes games. Thanks for listening to the Zach Lowe Show.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
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The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
Well, OK, start here. I'm fascinated by how Denver responds to a game that was a very frustrating loss for them. There was some tension in that locker room after game two from what I've heard from a bunch of people who were there. And some of it was just normal frustration after a tough loss. Some of it was like, oh, OK. And this is a team whose rotation is very short.
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who plays three guys that the Clippers respect as potential outside shooters. Murray, Jokic, and Michael Porter Jr., Two of those guys run pick and roll together, which is great. It's the best two-man game in the league. The numbers are off the charts for it.
The Zach Lowe Show
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But when they do run two-man game together, that means two of those three shooters are on the ball, essentially, and no one else gets any attention. And so there's this sort of battle there where the Clippers have all these responses to the Murray-Jokic pick and roll. And no matter what it is, it's swarming the most threatening stuff in the middle of the floor.
The Zach Lowe Show
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You take one of those three guys off the floor, Michael Porter Jr., who responded nicely in Game 2, The shooting quotient dials down to an urgent crisis level. And they do it for defense. They do it because it allows Jamal Murray to guard Chris Dunn instead of Norm Powell. But I'm just, you know, I'm fascinated by how they respond. Can Jokic get a little more momentum going in the post?
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He's starting to get, I mean, Zu, Zu's unbelievable on both ends of the floor. I'm so happy for him. He might make all NBA. He might actually make it. Stan Van Gundy mentioned he voted for him, third team. He makes Jokic work so hard, and yet 22 post-ups for Jokic in the series, 1.28 points per possession, or 1.25 points per possession thereabouts. Very good number.
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
He's starting to get a little momentum there. You know, Denver's – this was one of the first games – where I thought Jokic looked tired at points in the game. We played the entire second half, and I flagged a couple of pick and rolls that I think were in the third quarter. And as I mentioned, Murray-Jokic two-man game is a very stressful play.
The Zach Lowe Show
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The Clippers' default strategy against that has been to kind of late switch it, to try to contain it, and then late switch it. And then Jokic can exploit that with post-ups on their guards, etc. A couple times in the third quarter, Jokic did something which he rarely ever does, which is not pop to three and not roll to floater range. He just kind of stood 19, 20 feet from the basket.
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And you can see Zubats being like, oh, awesome. I can just drop back. And like worst case scenario is he gets an open 19 footer or semi open. And so I'm interested in how much gas does he have enough gas to do this over and over again? 43, 44, 45 minutes. Who's going to help him along for the ride? How do they respond? And then. Yeah, I don't know. What are you looking for from either team?
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
Who needs it? Actually, I do. Okay, briefly, last night, here are the most important things that happened. We'll circle back. We'll circle back to all this stuff. Jalen Brown, massive statement. I'm here. I'm healthy. I'm ready to explode for 42 minutes with Jason Tatum out. And massively important sign for the Celtics, bloodied Kristaps Porzingis was a fun thing that happened.
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I mean, what's an adjustment? What's something?
The Zach Lowe Show
Huge Playoff Takeaways With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus a Deep Dive Into Wolves-Lakers With Jon Krawczynski
One of my least favorite chants in the whole league when they do, L-A-C. It's not happening. It's a horrible chant. Don't do it.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
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The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
I was in L.A. two, three weeks ago when they played the Nuggets. It was a game that the Nuggets sat everybody. And I was with a lot of the Lakers heavy hitters before the game. And they're like giddy. They're like teenagers. They can't even believe the good fortune that has fallen into their laps. They had to work for it and nurture the deal and make sure it didn't fall apart.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
I don't mean to imply that they did no work for it. But they're like, they can't believe it. their luck and their good fortune to have this player on their team. Did you see any, uh, was security active last night? Did you see any, I mean, obviously the fire Nico chance, the signs, I saw signs, I saw shirts. They, they, they,
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Did they just take a, you know what, this is a night we're just going to let it fly?
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
It's pain, man.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
You've written a lot about the pain. You've written a lot about the gradual erosion of the Luka Doncic support system within the Mavericks organization, including Mark Cuban selling the team and ultimately losing control of the team and Casey Smith, the head trainer's unceremonious departure and many other little drops of like, ooh, ooh, ooh.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
I haven't seen as much about, and I'm curious if you have any intel, there hasn't been a lot about what was the level of debate within, if at all, within the organization? Because there was this narrative that, well, nobody knew. Even Jason Kidd didn't know until the midnight hour. Mark Cuban was obviously on the outside, was told at the last minute.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
was it actually this unilateral or was there, was, was there an opportunity for anyone within the organization to push back and say, Hey, whoa.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
What a moment last night in Dallas. A worst case scenario for Nico Harrison and the Mavericks where the entire crowd is cheering for Luka. Luka is... in a way that actually surprised me. I assume they were showing it on the Jumbotron when they showed the video showing his reaction. He looked legitimately hurt. I mean, vulnerable and hurt and just naked for the world to see.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
No. You know how I know they didn't? Because he plays for the Lakers now. Yeah. Look, I think we're two months distant from this now. There was the whirlwind of crazy conspiracy theories that filled this void of a rational explanation. Those have fallen by the wayside. And I think.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
all along I've said this, I think the simplest explanation is the actual explanation, which is Niko Harrison just didn't think Luka Doncic was his kind of superstar. He wasn't a Kobe Bryant kind of superstar.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
He didn't fit his mold of how a superstar is supposed to conduct himself on and off the court to the standard, the incredibly high standard that flowed down from Niko Harrison's relationship with Kobe Bryant. And there are two ands. And number one is, and was about to cycle on to the biggest contract in the history of the NBA, which only the Mavericks could offer him.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
That was their own sort of golden handcuffs. And he was injured. And the injury perhaps made the Mavericks sink. We have a window right now with Kyrie Irving. We're not sure that this guy is going to be healthy enough to fulfill that window. Let's trade him for a superstar who fits that window and try to win immediately. Now, I have already said...
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
That doesn't pass my personal smell test because Luka Doncic is better than Anthony Davis. You were just in the NBA finals with Luka Doncic winning Western Conference Finals MVP.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
You were just in the conference finals two seasons ago with Luka Doncic as the best player on a completely inferior team to the one that made the finals last year, which you brought the entirety of essentially back for this year. And yes, when they were healthy at the beginning of the year, this part of the season is the one that has just been lost to history because so much has happened.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
and they weren't healthy that often, they looked every bit the kind of team ready to give it an honest run back and defend their Western conference championship. They looked awesome when they were healthy with Kyrie and Luca and everything that they had amassed in PJ Washington and Gafford and all of that. And then they just sort of lit it on fire.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
And the idea that, so I reject the idea that even in the short term, this would have increased their championship equity. I totally disagree. And,
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Even if you posit that it's the same-ish, the reduction in your long-term championship equity is so catastrophic and leaves you so vulnerable to a short-term wave of injuries, which has now happened and vaporized this season and maybe vaporized next season that I still can't believe this trade happened. And that said... And this gets back to the specific return that they sought out.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
You can find people, and you know this as well as I do, you can find people around the league on other teams, smart people, smart front office people, smart scouts, who will say, even now, even in the light of day, even with the 45-point performance in bed, will say, it's not crazy that Nico Harrison decided, I'm not sure that we want to be in the business of paying Luka Doncic $70 million a year.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Like, let's see what we can get for him. What's really crazy, what the real issue that these people have, and this is the crux of it, is just not shopping him around the league and seeing what the real return could be. What are the Nets going to give us? What are the Rockets going to give us? What are these? Can we get nine first-round picks? Now, I wouldn't even have gone that far.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Like, I just wouldn't trade Luka Doncic. That would be my hot take on being a GM, just I wouldn't trade him. But you can find people who would say entertaining. It's not crazy given his off court habits and this and that, but the return is just what it is. And now they're just left. This is a morose fan base now, and I do think we can spin it forward.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
There's a good team in here when Kyrie Irving, if and when Kyrie Irving returns healthy. They're big, they're nasty, they're talented. They have potentially three first-round picks to trade. Their pick this draft, the Lakers pick they got for Luka, and their 2031 pick, they also... Oh, some draft assets we can talk about. Where do you think they go from here?
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Like is, how do you, I don't even like Kyrie has a player option next season. He could opt in and extend. He could opt out and sign a long-term deal. PJ Washington's extension eligible. There's going to be Kevin Durant talk. I'm not sure how realistic that is, especially given the unknown of is Kyrie coming back next season. What condition is he going to be in?
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Where is, where, where, where do we go from here, Mark?
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Like every part of someone who did not want ever to leave Dallas and was indeed ready to buy a house, as you've written, in your newsletter, which everyone should subscribe to, and sign on the dotted line for $70 million a year when the Supermax inevitably hit his agent's Bill Duffy's email box.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
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The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
What do you think happens with Kyrie Irving this summer contractually?
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
And he's returning from injury still.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
And then he goes out and drops 45 points on the Dallas Mavericks while Anthony Davis sort of lopes around, looking a little stiff, a little slow, and as he has since he got to Dallas, taking a lot of mid-range jumpers because he's playing a lot of four as we're in year 10 of somehow still arguing what Anthony Davis' best position is.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Well, look, if, if they had done nothing and a similar wave of injuries had struck this theoretical intact Mavericks team, you could have just said, yeah, look, shit happens. Lucas 25, 26. We got a long runway here. Trade happens. And as I've said many times, same wave of injuries happens. And it's,
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
you look at the age of the team and the age of the players, they're not ancient, but they're not 25 and 26. And you're like, We can't afford to lose a season like this, and we can't afford to lose next season. The clock is ticking and ticking very loudly.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
I've heard a little bit of the same pushback on Durant, just the idea that we'd have to think pretty hard about boxing ourselves into three huge salaries like that, given how many players we'd have to trade to make it work, how many guys like PJ Washington are extension eligible. They also... You know, look, how many of your future firsts do you actually want to trade?
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Because you're already out your 29 pick from the Kyrie deal. You're already out a 28 swap to Oklahoma City, which helped you get the pick that you traded for Gafford. You're already out a 27 top two protected pick, which was to Charlotte for P.J. Washington. Thank you. Thank you.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
All along, the fire Nico chants are raining from all over the arena, so loud and so unmissable that even the most polite, positive person in the NBA says, Mike Breen calling the game on ESPN is forced to acknowledge them multiple times. Mr. Stein, you were there. I saw you in your usual perch there sitting right behind Rob Polinka, sitting right behind Bill Duffy.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Thank you.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Thank you.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Thank you. Thank you.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Just I mean, we saw the game on TV. So I saw the game on TV. So I got I have the scenes that were broadcast to me. What are you going to remember from that night that you got from sitting in that seat and walking around that arena that I couldn't have got from watching on TV? What's going to stick out to you?
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Thank you. Thank you.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
All right, it's awards time. I already went through my tentative All-NBA MVP, although I still need to finalize those. I thought I would do some fun ones with you. We're going to do the rookies, sixth man, and coach. Are you ready, Mr. Goldsberry? I am totally ready, Zach Lowe. I put a lot of thought into my all-rookie teams. Second team all-rookie, as always.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Some deep cuts in second team all-rookie. However, I'm very happy with where I am. I'm satisfied with where I ended up. It does make me sad that we have the same amount of teams for rookies, and there's obviously a very limited pool of rookies. It's first-year players. That's it. I think there's only – I have my basketball reference search.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Only 26 rookies played over 800 minutes, I think, is what I have this year. So, like, you know, not that many players. And also two all defense teams for all the defenders in the entire NBA. And like, I'm sorry, Tumani Kamara and Derek White and maybe Bam Adebayo. Like, I can't. If there were a third team, I would love to honor some of you, but I can't. But I'm very happy with my all rookie teams.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
We have not reviewed these with each other. I'm going to predict we go nine out of ten and we have the same first team and one difference on the second team. And I have no idea which it is. So I want you to kick it off. Give me your first team all rookie. And at the end of this, we will do rookie of the year.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Right off the bat, I was incorrect. We are not five for five on the first team. Who do you think you have on your first team that I do not have on my first team? Because we are four out of five. Saar. Saar. Alex Saar is on my second team. Can you guess who I have in his place? And I did not even think about it that hard. Kahlil Ware. Yes. Okay, so at least we're on the same page there.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
So we both have Castle, Wells, Risa Shea, Eadie. I feel really good with Kahlil Ware. He is number two in player efficiency rating, nine points a game, shooting 63% on twos. Obviously, his efficiency edge over Saar is cataclysmically large and due in large part to his role and his team. He is, however, out shooting Saar on threes, which I think matters.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
And I just I just feel like he's been better and he's played in real meaningful games. But make the case for Alexander Saar, who is on my second team all rookie. And I'm going to say nice things about him eventually. I promise Wiz fans, if there are any of you left other than Joe House, I promise I will say some nice things.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Uh, 13 points a game, that's second among rookies. 40% shooting, you are willing to forgive because he's taking so many threes. 31% on threes is, like, bad, but it's actually not that bad considering he's a rookie, he's a center, and he plays for a team that's intentionally trying to lose basketball games.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
And here's, like, all the advanced stats are going to hate rookies like Saar who take a lot of shots on bad teams. They're just going to. They're going to look bad.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
He has passed every eye test to me as a rookie and particularly on a team where he's got mostly young players in Jordan Poole setting him up on offense and and frankly, like leaving him out to dry sometimes on defense as a rim protector. look, he's not great.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
No one should expect him to be great right out of the bat, but I've seen enough in terms of his speed, his agility, his timing to like, okay, that's going to be there. The jump shot looks fine to me for, for a seven foot rookie to shoot 31% from three on high volume on a team that doesn't really bend the opposing defense so much. I like that.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
You know what else I like two and a half assists a game as, as a rookie center on a bad team, like, The DHO game from the elbows, he's picking out cutters. He can bring the ball up and transition some. I mean, you don't want to overdo that, but, you know, he can do it. The all around skill is there. And if you want to reward him with first team.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Now, I don't think top three and rookie of the year I could get there. But if you want to reward him first team and say, look, the efficiency stats are what they are. The shooting stats are what they are. Look at the roster around him. I can't really get mad at that because, again, he has passed the eye test to me. I think this is going to end up being a good draft pick for the Washington Wizards.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
He was sort of viewed as a both consensus top three pick and a like, ooh, this could go really badly if it busts pick. This is not going to be a bust. Alex Starr is going to be a good player.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Honestly, the most important question for the Wizards this entire season – well, the most important one is how does the lottery end? The second most important one is do we come out of the season feeling like we have a stretch five, that we can be a team built in the vision of five-out offense with rim protection on defense and even playmaking at the 5-2? And the answer, I think, is yes.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Going forward, you can assume that, and that's a huge win for the Wiz. Before we get to the second team, do you have any – other Wizards rookies on your second team. Did either of the two candidates make your cut? Yes. Oh, wow. We're going to be way different than you, than I anticipated because I had neither. Bub Carrington, nor Keyshawn George on my second team. You had Bub?
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Second team, I mean, you could talk me into 18 guys almost. It's like I have an almost others receiving votes list that's quite long, but I'm going to talk about who my miscuts were. So I did not have Keyshawn George or Bub Carrington on my second team. So let's just go through your second team now. So Carrington, Ware, who are the other three? Collier, Missy, Klingon.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Okay, so you have, hold on. You have Ware, Carrington, Isaiah Collier from the Jazz. Yeah, Missy. Donovan Klingin and Yves Missy. Yeah. Okay, we're actually not that far off. My second team is Yves Missy from the Pelicans. Donovan Klingin, who I think is going to be a controversial choice, which we can talk about why. I have Matas Bouzelis from the Bulls. Saar.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
And I went with the other Jazz rookie. Kyle Filipowski over Collier. And I realize Collier has become kind of a choice du jour. He leads all rookies in assists. He is definitely on an upward trajectory. The first two months of the season were just a haze of turnovers in every possible direction of every variety. And he's kind of settled in now.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
The assist to turnover ratio is trending the right way. He's averaging almost 10 points a game. The shooting numbers, he's up to 50% on twos, 24.9% on threes. I don't hate it. The advanced stats are massively negative on him, primarily because he has the highest turnover rate among rookies by a mile. I went Filipowski, who's played 400 fewer minutes. I get it. Same amount of points.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
I just like 50% shooting, 60% on twos, 35.5% on threes. And for his position, he's as good of a passer as Collier probably. Maybe not quite, but two assists a game. And he's a very good facilitator if you watch the games. His minutes, Collier's gotten the more consistent minutes, and Filipowski's minutes and position have fluctuated a lot.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
I just think he's been pretty interesting, and I went with him over Collier. I have a feeling Collier will make it. I assume it's just the playmaking and the size and stoutness that got Collier on there for you.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
I think both Jalen Wells and Zach Eaddy have straight-up rookie-of-the-year cases to be made, and I've had a lot of people in the league as I've polled them Who the hell should I vote for for Ricky? I don't have a vote to be clear, but who should who should I pick? A lot of them picked Wells and not surprisingly.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
And by the way, we're coming off a horrific fall last night that Jalen Wells took against the Hornets. The photos from the hospital look like he got I mean, he broke his wrist. I think just get well, Jalen Wells. That was very, very scary.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Coming up on the Zach Lowe Show, we got Mark Stein reflecting on a crazy and emotional night in Dallas with Luka Doncic's return. And then Kurt Goldsberry, my old buddy, helps me pick some more of the NBA awards. Hope you enjoy it. Welcome to the Zach Lowe Show on a Thursday morning coming off a wild and absolutely memorable Wednesday night in the NBA.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
I really like Keyshawn George for the Wizards. I think he's got a chance to be a good role player in the NBA. I should just pigeonhole him as a role player, but you know what I'm getting at. It's a sort of 3 and D-ish template. 32% on threes, I'd like to see a little better, but I like the instinctual nature of his game. I like the way he plays. Ron Holland.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Yeah, and to your point about the shock, I'm sure also hurt. Like, a franchise rejected him. Yeah. The Hawks already rejected him once. The Kings rejected him. The Suns rejected him. But that's all in the rear view before we knew exactly for 100% certainty what this dude is. The team that knew him best rejected him. And... sent him packing.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
You know, the minutes just haven't been there. 1,200 minutes on a team that's obviously trying to win and winning. And, you know, sometimes he's really on the fringes of the rotation, but trending the right way toward the end of the season. And you know one thing when he gets in the game. He's going to defend. You're laughing because you're going to think I'm going to say an altercation goes up.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
The likelihood of an altercation goes up by 14%. Maybe, maybe, maybe 17%. I don't know. You know he's going to defend his ass off, and he's a playmaker on defense. He will take the ball from people. He'll challenge people at the rim. He changes the energy of the game in a good way for the Pistons. He gets them out and running.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
I just haven't seen quite enough, and the three-point shot is like a complete zero for him at this point. But I like him. We should mention that Jared McCain would have changed this entire discussion if he'd been healthy. Yeah, 100%. I like Justin Edwards. I think he's come on nicely for the Sixers, but it's just, again, it was a lot of it late in the season.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Jamal Shedd was maybe my toughest other omission for the Raptors. He's played... You know, he's played pretty well for them, particularly defensively. He's a good passer. He's a hound on defense. I just, you know, couldn't get past – it's just 1,300 minutes on a tanking team is just not that – I'd like to see more minutes from a player of that ilk. Those are my – I felt somewhat bad.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
It's amazing that after all the hype, after all the, oh, man – All those 16 teams, what idiots they are. Dalton Connect fell into our lap. All the victory lap stories in the media that came out a month into the season. Dalton Connect's not going to sniff this. Maybe he will sniff this conversation just by pure Lakers exceptionalism. Good things just happen to Lakers.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
But he didn't really factor into my thought process at all. He's on the fringes of the rotation, sometimes out of it now.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
um but i think dalton has to be in there again he's he's played meaningful minutes for a playoff team so he's he's on my he's on my list he's on my like also receiving votes slash not my vote list um those are all my those are the people i feel guiltiest about along with i guess bub a little bit i like bub kerrigan i think but bub kerrigan The defense is going to get there. 34% from three.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
You know, I feel bad for him not picking him. He's going to be good. I like him. Klingin. Justify the Klingin selection, which I also made.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
And then, I mean, you know, they've gotten a lot of crap for smearing him and talking bad about him. I empathize the teeniest degree with them because when you make a trade like this, well, first of all, the easiest thing to do is just not make it. So you don't have to put yourself in a position in which you have to explain why you made it.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
That's exactly my reasoning. I'm not sure about a lot of things with a lot of these guys. I'm not sure what Donovan Klingon's really going to amount to. I mean, the lack of foot speed is alarming in some matchups. Right. But he does one thing already really well, and it's protect the basket. Teams are shooting 49% at the rim when he's the closest defenders.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
That's like Gobert, like peak Gobert level rim deterrence. DeBlazer's defense is 110 points per 100 possessions when Klingon's on the floor, 115 when he's off the floor. He's number two among rookies in both offensive and defensive rebounding. And if I'm sure of that, he gets on the second team. That's all I need to hear to get him on the second team. Buzellas, I'm curious. He was –
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
I have him. He's on my second team.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
poor matas 11th guy uh eight and a half points a game trending the right way and for me what does it is 35 on threes 54 on twos and i like i like some of the spice i'm starting to see in his game and i'm not just talking about the highlight dunks and the and the and the emphatic nature of those highlights the cross up on luca famously a couple weeks ago that got bill very excited um
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
They're starting to give him the ball a little bit in pick and roll. Not much, but a little bit. And he's got a little craft to that part of his game. Some hesitation, some pass fakes. He's got a nice floater. And he will also, like he had a play against Mark Williams the other night on the pick and roll where he drove. Mark Williams was the help defender.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Put his shoulder into Mark Williams, who's a big dude. Former Laker Mark Williams knocked him out of the way and laid the ball in and you'll see that in the Booz Ellis, you know, shot real quite a bit is he he'll use his shoulder to create space like that. And that's important because I think if the Bulls. in year one had some question about him.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
It was, is he ready for the physicality of the NBA? Is he tough enough for this? And Billy Donovan has been really hard on him. There's been a lot of games where you'll see him make a mistake and Billy will yank him right out of the game. And you can see teammates on the bench kind of trying to pick Booz Ellis up and make sure, you know, Hey, look, this happens.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
But once you have decided to make it, you then have to explain the inexplicable. And I'm not really sure how they were supposed to do that without the
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
You're a rookie, like get back out there. Defensively, he's got a ways to go. Like most rookies, he's a really good cutter. Knows when to cut. Like if he's in the corner and Vuc is picking and popping and his guy stunts toward Vucevic, he's darting across that baseline for dunks. He knows how to relocate into open space. He does a lot of things pretty well. Similar to Risa Shea, actually.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Risa Shea just does a lot of stuff well. a lot of smart stuff really well for a rookie and has shot it like was Ellis 35% from three on, on a good, on a decent team. The Hawks are still decent. The bulls are decent, um, successful seasons for both of those guys. Okay. Without further ado, what would your rookie of the year ballot be?
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
sort of poking at his warts a little bit from their perspective warts because if you could you could say like well we just think Anthony Davis is a great player that doesn't explain why you traded away Luka Doncic so I empathize a little bit but you know look the negativity is out there he's heard it he's felt it and he was hurt like that was a pained human being watching that video and blubbering on national television for the entire world to see and then he came out
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
So here's the anti-Castle case. Shooting 42%. Yeah. 28% on threes. His advanced stats are meh compared to the other two or three or four candidates that you're looking at. And all of that amounts to, again, I'm making intentionally the case against him. He's compiled. He's not that dissimilar from a SAR type who has compiled counting stats because he has the highest usage rate among this group.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
On a bad team that has been a bad team since when Banyama went out, basically has not been dialed in all the way toward winning. That's the case against him. And there's validity to it, I guess. I mean, the shooting numbers are what they are. And I can hear the Collier fans and the Sar fans say, how could you? Anoint this guy while making those kind of nitpicky things about our guys.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
I would also pick Castle for Rookie of the Year. And part of it is, look, he is shooting 50% on twos. And I've just, like, I've seen enough. I've seen enough playmaking from him. As the lead guard on a team that's, like, you know, at this stage of the season, I'm running pick and roll with Bismack, Biambo, and, like, very old Chris Paul is standing over here.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
And, like, Vassell's kind of been up and down. I like Vassell. He's been up and down. And the bench is eh. And, like, I've seen enough playmaking shots from him. The pocket passes. Like, he'll do the thing where he turns the corner and the defense expects him to make the cross-court pass.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
to the corner shooter, and he'll skip that guy in the chain and go to the next guy in the chain, the wing shooter, and the defense will be like, whoa, where'd that pass come from? And he gets off the ball early. When he sees a shooter open, he doesn't overhold the ball. He doesn't hold it too long. I've seen enough passing from him where I'm like, okay, That's a real player there.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Defensively, you talk to scouts and coaches like, what kind of defender is he at this point? You'll get varying answers all up and down the spectrum. I think he's been pretty solid for a rookie. He's obviously got the physical ability to be an elite defender someday, and I hope he becomes one. Does he have lapses? Sure, he's a rookie.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
He's a rookie playing on a rebuilding team and getting to do anything he wants with the ball. I think overall, he's been... pretty good on defense for a rookie. You throw in the playmaking, the two-point shooting.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
I've just kind of seen enough that in this field, even with the statistical warts, what I've seen at the best moments is enough for him to beat this underwhelming field of rookies for Rookie of the Year. I think the rest of my ballot... I think I got to reward Jalen Wells with the two spot for just like you said.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
And just did what he always does. Like if there's one sure thing in the NBA. It's that this dude is going to show up in big moments. He might miss some shots. He might not have the most efficient game like in the finals. He might whine at the referees like he did in game three of the finals. As the Celtics got some free fast break points that really annoyed Nico Harrison. I think.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Yeah, nothing spectacular, but he's a double-digit score, 35% three-point shooter, and he's guarding the best guy, the best perimeter guy almost every game.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
on a playoff team hopefully for the memphis grizzlies they do end up being a playoff team um and then the third spot you could talk me into ed you could talk me into where you can talk me into research i just have a soft spot for do it all jack of all trades wings so i would probably throw a research in there he's more matchup proof than ed who is really surging toward the end of the year
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
And has taken to Tuomas Isolo's schemes on both ends of the floor really well. You could talk me to anybody. I'd go Risa Shea. But that's my case for Castle. The stats nerds are not going to pick Castle. It's actually reminding me of when the stats nerds were like, Walker Kessler over Paolo Bancaro. Look at the advanced stats, Bob. I'm like, yeah, okay. I get it.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
You know, one guy has to do a lot for a bad team, and the advanced stats and the efficiency stats are never going to really love that. But I like what I've seen enough. And by the way, let's be clear about this. This is a rookie of the year discussion. Zoom out a little bit. I cannot say this loudly enough. I fucking love Castle. I think Castle is going to be really, really good.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
I think the Spurs have a real player there to put next to Wimbanyama and absolutely hit that draft pick out of the park. Set aside all that stuff about warts and ball dominance and blah, blah, blah. His defense is this or that. I love Castle. I think he's going to be awesome all in.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
He is a— Sars rebounding, by the way, that's an area I should have mentioned. Like, got to get tougher there. But, yeah, Castle for a guard is a great rebounder.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Yeah. His shot actually looks pretty good to me. I was surprised when I checked for his latest three-point shooting numbers that it's that bad because part of it he's taking and he's allowed to take and he has to take a lot of tough shots. He's taking pull-up threes. He's taking pull-up threes when guys go over screens. Obviously, guys go under screens against him.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
And he's going to have to either get his jump shot to the point where that becomes untenable like Tony Parker did back in the day for the Spurs or... Continue to master all the tricks of the trade for guys who have to deal with that kind of defense on a night-to-night basis, which is go back and forth around the same screen that gets set lower and lower as you go.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
But he is always going to show up and play well. And have the courage to take the big shots. And this game he played beyond well. And I actually thought it was striking. Not a lot of sneering toward the Mavs. Or maybe there was some that I had seen. But there was more – he was more demonstrative in Los Angeles, it looked to me, than he was in Dallas.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Fake towards the screen, go the other way. And he's got a lot of that already in his game. Okay, six-man of the year. Short list of candidates. Can I give you my short list of candidates? Yeah, you can give me your short list of candidates. I boiled down. I have five finalists. And then I realized one of my finalists is not eligible. So I have four finalists.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
My five finalists were Peyton Pritchard, Ty Jerome, not eligible. 20 minute a game rule. Goodbye, Ty Jerome. Great season. Thanks for participating. You get zero awards. Malik Beasley, DeAndre Hunter is the rare change teams candidate and Nas Reed. There are lots of other candidates that I could mention. Those were my, I boiled it down to those guys.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Same with most improved player, by the way. I double-checked. I was like, is he also not eligible for most improved player? From playing, like, not any minutes at all to, well, he didn't play enough games of 20. Like, he would get my – well, he wouldn't get – Dyson Daniels would get my vote. He might be – he'd probably be on my ballot, but he's not eligible.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Just the highlights. I watched Lakers-Thunder, Magic-Hawks, and I'm about to watch the fourth quarter of Bucs-Wolves because I really need to see what the hell happened in that game.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Well, he's been pretty open about dealing with the sore knee. And I hate to break it to Jalen Brown, but... I don't think he's going to make all NBA if he gets to 65 games. So if he is really sore and that's why you're doing it, and I'm not saying that's why he is. I don't know that that's true or not true, whatever. I don't think it's going to – I don't think you're making it, buddy.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Well, we're recording this on Wednesday afternoon. the Suns have three games left. I believe one of them is actually tonight. Durant is at 62 games. The Suns have now reached a point where they're almost hopeless to even make the 10th seed because I think everything has to go wrong for Dallas. Everything has to go right for them. Be interesting to see if KD suits up at all the rest of the year.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
There you go. All right, give me your six-man-of-the-year ballot.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Okay. Oh, you're going to reverse order. I like this.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Like there was not a lot of chest puffing and, you know – kind of rubbing it in the Mavs face or maybe I missed it.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
What gave that away? The fact that the Celtics won the championship last year, like half of Team USA placed for the Celtics. Look, it's all fair. And I've been singing Malik Beasley's praises all year. I debated between these two as well for the top spot. I think they are one and two in whatever order you want. I actually ended up at Peyton Pritchard in the end.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Now, you're right that he is less essential to the success of the Boston Celtics than Malik Beasley is to the incredible success of the Detroit Pistons. They need his shooting and his scoring badly. And boys, he supplied it every single night. He's second among my group of five finalists. Well, really for 16 points a game. DeAndre Hunter actually leads them all in scoring at 17 a game.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Peyton Pritchard checks in at 14 a game. Obviously, they play actually the same amount of minutes. Again, a less essential player because the team around him, Peyton Pritchard, is just way better. I do think people within the Celtics would tell you, Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Thank you.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Thank you.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
One thing about JJ, he's a showman. He knows how to be a showman.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
you'll watch games, you know, see, oh, there's the Cleveland cut. There's the Cleveland cut. It crescendoed throughout the year where it have to, and they actually started running it. I think a little bit less because teams were starting to get onto it and they wanted to sprinkle it in, but he's made great use of the bench.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
He's made great use of, he's just balanced lineups with like a coral comes in. Well, he's going to come in with the shooter. Wade comes in. He's going to come in with this kind of player. They've, they've really bet he's staggered the lineups correctly, but the smartest thing he did and his staff did above all else was
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
was resisting the idea that the way to weaponize evan mobley 2.0 the way to help evan mobley take the leap was just to make him shoot more threes spot up and shoot more threes they said yeah sure you can do that like you should probably take a couple more game and we think you'll shoot them better but the bread and butter of your game is still going to be inside it's going to be even if it's outside to inside it's going to be physicality personality
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
playmaking, using your perimeter skills to unlock your interior skills. And yeah, the spacing is going to get clunky. We're going to find a way to make it work without turning you into a stretch four who shoots a million threes because that's not where you're best. And that would have been the low-hanging fruit the tempting thing to do. And they did not do that.
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Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
In fact, they almost went the other way. Like how about you get more forceful, more physical, and it helped unlock the best Evan Mobley. Speaking of which I put you on the spot. I told, I said earlier this week that I'm unsure about defensive player of the year and that I was leaning Mobley. Who would you pick?
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Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Yes, I think he is. Um, but I will say in all of this happened to me last year too, when I was thinking about Evan Mobley for defensive player of the year, and I don't even remember who I voted for. Um, I think I voted for Gobert in the end. I just have this feeling in my gut when I watch the Cavs that he's really good, but he's not the best defensive player in the NBA.
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Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
And it's the same feeling I have watching Lou Dort. I love Lou Dort, although, boy, the Lakers are so miserable with Lou Dort. They hate Lou Dort so much flopping around the floor. They're complaining. They're asking for flop. I love it. I just don't think Lou Dort's the best defense player in the NBA.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Wemba Nyama aside, we all know Wemba Nyama's better, but even without him in consideration, I think they're really good. They're first-team all-defense level players. I just don't watch Evan Mobley and get the feeling like, boy, oh boy, just impenetrable. Draymond, when he's on, gives me that feeling. Yeah. And I will say in all the coaches and scouts I polled yesterday, his name came up the most.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
His name came up the most often attached to the word reluctant or reluctantly. Like I would have to reluctantly say Draymond because everyone is tired of his campaigning. And the simplest and most convincing take I got from somebody, multiple somebodies actually, was just this.
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Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
to your point about is Evan Mobley the best defender on Cleveland, and I know who you're getting at, is that Draymond has to play center for the Warriors, and there's nobody else in their starting lineup who can even be a facsimile of that, and Draymond is not even a center-sized player, but he has all the responsibilities of a center with no one else to give him a break or foist those off onto.
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Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
He doesn't really play with Looney much anymore, and... with that alignment, the warriors are one of the best defensive teams in the league at that. That's pretty persuasive to me.
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Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
And now I'm leaning back towards Raymond, um, after consulting with a lot of the experts, because again, in my gut, I wanted to vote mobily last year and I just could not get there because every once in a while, I'd watch somebody like bank Carol, just kind of beat them up a little bit. Um, A bigger, stronger, bulkier guy. Move him off his spot a little bit. There's nothing wrong with that.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
But I just – I want that feeling of like, man, there's just nothing I can do with this guy. And I just can't quite get there with Mobley. And I love Evan Mobley. He's in pen on second team All-NBA for me. I actually still think he should be a candidate for the last first team All-NBA spot, that fifth spot that keeps sort of toggling around between – Mitchell and Curry.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
And I haven't heard Mobley's name there much at all. For me, he's in that group. That's how highly I think of him. But that's an all-around award. This is a defense-only award. And I just don't think Evan Mobley's the best defense player of the NBA. Even aside Wemba Nyama.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
is Ahmed Thompson oh he's first team all defense for me he's not my first team all defense so is Evan Mobley by the way I can hear the Cavs fans like what is all this anti-Evan Mobley I love Evan Mobley I'm the original Evan Mobley stockholder never sold first team all defense Ahmed Thompson is first team all defense and he is first team holy shit what the hell just happened in the game
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Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Jeez, how many season-ending injuries do you think Wemba Nyama is going to have?
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Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Kirk Goldsberry, it's a pleasure to hang. Hopefully I'll see you in the playoffs, at the finals, at the Draft Combine, somewhere as I get back on the road a little bit in the NBA ecosystem. Thank you for joining the Zach Lowe Show. That's what it's called now, if you didn't know. KG, thank you, sir. Thank you, Zach.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Honestly, I feel bad for Nico Harrison's family. He has kids who have to go to school and deal with this On a day-to-day basis, did you talk to him at all? I mean, obviously he hasn't done anything on the record, but is he even entertaining backroom conversations?
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
All right, that's a wrap on another episode of the Zach Lowe Show. Thanks for listening. By next week, by Monday, we'll have some idea of what the playoff matchups are going to be. Some of them, at least, the play-in games will be all set. We'll have some exciting guests coming on to talk about that stuff, including the boss man might show up. So thanks again. See you next week.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
We had, beware the Spurs, the late season Spurs, just like they did to the Nuggets last year in a catastrophic loss for Denver that cost them the number one seed and upended their entire playoff run. The Warriors drop an inexplicable home game to the Spurs going from, hey, we might get the fourth seed to, uh-oh, we might be in the play-in if we don't get some breaks along the way.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Yeah. I don't, I don't remember, you know, I I've talked to people around it. Like this isn't, this isn't going to stop anytime soon. The volume of it will not be as high as it was last night, but as long as Luke is awesome and,
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
as long as the Lakers are awesome, as long as the Mavericks are kind of middling and they have a better team than this in them, obviously their best perimeter player is injured and will be injured for much of next season.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
And they have a chance this off season to retool a little bit about around what they have in their entire roster, including all their centers have also been injured for much of the Anthony Davis era, such as it is an era. But as long as the Mavericks are, let's just say worse than the Lakers and Luca is amazing.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
this level of negativity and and fan distrust of the franchise i don't think is really going anywhere and i can't remember anything like this this level of we're not even sure as fans are we cheering for the team we're unhappy we want this guy fired with i don't remember anything like this short of like when a franchise relocates i i i can't find a precedent for this can you
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
From your perch last night, You're sitting right behind Team Luca. It's obviously loud, but Palenka's there. I don't remember the last time I've seen a GM sit in that kind of seat at a game. They really rolled out the red carpet.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
The Suns farted their way out of a fartastic season in Phoenix. Kevin Durant didn't even play. He's not eligible for All-NBA. But we have to start with the main event in Dallas. the return of Luka Doncic, and we are joined by the Hall of Famer, the one and only Steinlein on Substack, podcast for DLLS Sports, one of the greats of all time, my friend Mark Stein. How are you?
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Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Did you talk to them at all? Did you overhear anything from their conversation?
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Welcome to The Zach Lowe Show!
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The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
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The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
I do like when there's part of me, even though I try to be a thoughtful analyst, I do like sometimes when conventional wisdom just flies off the screen and is proven wildly true. Like Detroit. We're not going to talk about Pistons-Knicks much because that resumes tonight. And so there's just not enough time between the games. We'll talk about it more later this week.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Detroit just like melting down into a puddle of nothingness in the fourth quarter on the biggest stage in basketball at MSG, throwing the ball all over the place, missing just wide open shots, wide open layups at the rim. And it wasn't only just the young guys. Tim Hardaway Jr. missed a bunch of shots and just they just melted down into just a disaster.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
And the Knicks came back, scored 40 points in the fourth quarter and won that game. You were at that game.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Russell Westbrook had enough wildness in both directions and just like you could not even script anything. A better Russ giveth, Russ taketh away, Russ threw the ball off James Harden's ass at the last possession of regulation for some reason and then made up for it with offensive rebounds. I don't know what's going on. Just a crazy weekend.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Yeah, I don't I don't want to belabor this one with it resuming so soon. Kat was on my list of MVP candidates, which it's not a stat line that jumps off 23, 11 and five for steals. Like maybe it is line 10 or 14 only got off three threes, made one.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
in part because the Pistons scrapped everything they did against the Knicks in the regular season and put Jalen Duren on Josh Hart and put a wing on Cat to try to snuff out his three-point game. And I thought he made all the right adjustments. When the Pistons' centers were on him, they spammed Jalen Brunson, campaign, oh my God, campaign, and Cat picking pops and stuff and exploited the centers.
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The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
And when they had Tobias Harris on him or other forward-type players, He played his bully ball. He got in the post. He made some tough shots. And the Knicks remembered late in the game, hey, just because you have a wing or a fast power forward on you doesn't mean we can't run the Brunson cat pick and roll. How about Brunson runs a little free screen to get Malik Beasley on him?
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The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
And then we have Beasley and Tobias Harris defending this action. If you switch... You're in big trouble because Malik Beasley's on Cat, and they exploited that. Cat had a little roll to the basket drop-off to Josh Hart during the crazy 21-0 run in the fourth quarter. I just thought Cat played it nice, calm, defensively, and I don't love it.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
It'd be interesting to see if the Knicks experiment with putting him on a Sar Thompson or Ron Holland if Ron Holland gets in the game again. But I thought Cat was good. You want to hear some other MVP candidates?
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The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Sunday was a chalk, chalk, chalk, boring day until Warriors Rockets. We have the Lakers pummeled in game one. Lots of stuff to talk about. And it is time. To say the three most anticipated words in niche basketball podcasting, as we will do every other Monday at the very least. What up, Beck?
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The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
We'll get to him. And I'm trying to be it's Monday morning. I'm not I'm on very little sleep. I'm trying to be a little positive to get through this. OK, I'm going to go to the positives first. Let's go. Other MVP candidates. The Jaden McDaniels Nas Reed combo for the Minnesota Timberwolves who just picked apart the Lakers who looked old and slow. We'll talk about that one more later.
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The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Darius Garland, I just thought, played an absolutely gorgeous game for the Cavs. Ty Jerome, both tied. First of all, Ty Jerome, just go off like Ty, Ty Jerome. He's not going to win six man of the year. Cause I don't think he played enough minutes. He is one of the finalists. He did not make my fake ballot just because of minutes issues. I just I can't.
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The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
He is so fun to watch because he legitimately goes out there and he's like, I'm the best player on the floor. I don't like who like Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland, Evan Mobley are going to make an all NBA team. I don't care. I'm tight. I'm tight. Jerome, do you know who I am? I went to the University of Virginia. I'm a national champion. I'm Ty Jerome.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Took over the game, tore apart the heat zone, both Garland and Jerome. Wherever Tyler Hero was, they found Tyler Hero, put him in a pick and roll, and just got whatever they wanted. I thought Garland, just great shot making, beautiful shot making. Giannis, just because no one else came along for the ride in the Pacers blowout. Andrew Nembhard, big ups to him.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Derek White, fantastic game for the Celtics. Paolo Bancaro, one-man band, took everything Boston gave him in terms of jumpers and mismatches and made them all. No one else came along with him. But I think even though they play late tonight, I think we have to talk about Jokic to get a little bit into Denver Clippers because that was the game of the weekend. Jokic would be on my list.
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The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Not a spectacular game by Jokic standards. A game I thought the Nuggets were pretty fortunate to win considering Michael Porter Jr. just didn't do anything and got benched for Russell Westbrook and sometimes Peyton Watson. And I don't think the Nuggets can win four times in this series without Michael Porter Jr. having a couple of big games. But they battled back.
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The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
And here's the stat for you that I just want to highlight this ahead of game two. Murray Jokic, 35 pick and rolls. That's number one in any game this season for the Nuggets, according to Second Spectrum. Number two is 29. So obviously went to overtime and they played a lot of minutes, but six more pick and rolls than they ran in any game this season.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
1.3 points per possession when one of them shot out of the pick and roll or one pass away. 1.4 points per possession when you zoom out for the whole possession. And I thought that was the... We're a little frazzled. The Clippers are big on the wing and switchy. And Zoo plays Joker in the post as well as anyone. I think Joker's going to get into a rhythm, though, in the post.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
He got into a little bit of rhythm when they left Zoo on an island, which they will do. And I think as the series goes, he's going to figure out some answers. And I'm actually curious because of how dominant the Murray-Jokic two-man game was.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Will the Clippers ever experiment with the old Rudy Gobert tactic of trying to put Zoo on Aaron Gordon to get him out of the pick and roll and put like whoever, Kawhi? I don't even know. They're too small probably to do it on Jokic. But their de facto defense on that play was very often start out in a drop and then depending how the Nuggets attack,
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The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
kind of a late switch, like a veer back switch where all of a sudden a guard is on Jokic and a big Zubats is on Murray. And they just sort of picked that apart over and over again. Murray hit a three when he was dancing with Zubats.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
He hit Christian Brown on a backdoor cut when he was dancing with Zubats on a switch and James Harden, who was ball watching a lot in game one and got smoked on the offensive glass because of it was ball watching again. Jokic, they gave him the ball at the nail against Chris Dunn and other assorted undersized Clippers. And he just went to work and found Aaron Gordon on threes and this and that.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
And that's when the Nuggets, the Clippers rather at the end of the game decided, forget all that. We're just trapping. We're trapping Jamal Murray. We're trapping him when he crosses the F court. We're going to force the ball to all these guys who can't shoot. But I just thought it was a very like calm down, calm,
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The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Jokic may not put up all the numbers out of this pick and roll, but we're going to go back to the bread and butter that won us the championship. And we're going to try to steal this game. And I really thought the Clippers have to be kicking themselves for that game because that was there for them. The Harden Zubats pick and roll was picking the Nuggets apart for the first half of the game.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Kawhi was nine of 15. I thought the Clippers is interesting because they were getting hammered, including by Bob Myers. for not running enough Harden Zubats pick and roll. I looked up the numbers. They ran it 24 times, so compared to 35 for Murray Jokic. That's actually the second most they ran it in any game this season, according to Second Spectrum. 1.4 points. Here's the interesting part.
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The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
1.375 points per possession when... That pick and roll produced a shot directly out of it. Either one of them shoots or one pass away. Zoom out to the whole possession. That dropped to 1.18. That's a big drop. It's still a good number, but it's a big drop. And I think it shows you...
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The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
that when the Nuggets could force more than one pass, when it's like you have to pass to Chris Dunn over here or Chris Dunn's in the dunker spot and Jokic sprints from Zubats to him, the finishing is just so-so for the Clippers role players. And if you can force that, that's a win for the Nuggets. But I just thought I wanted to just highlight the Murray-Jokic pick and roll. That was obviously...
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
The game of the weekend. I screamed, Howard. I screamed to nobody in my office when up by one with a three second difference between the game and the shot clock in overtime. Russell Westbrook was just like, you know what? I'm going for it. I'm taking the lead. They're not fouling me. I can probably run the clock almost all the way down or force them to foul me later.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
I'm going for the layup over James Harden. James Harden made a great defensive play. I'm like, oh my God, what is Russ doing? And then Aaron Gordon gets an offensive rebound, makes free throws, and then Russ steals or deflects the inbounds pass and it's over. Unbelievable game. I lost my mind like five times during that game.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit rg-help.com to learn more about the numerous resources and helplines available and listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Must be 21 or over and present in select states. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com. All right. It's the playoffs coming up on the Zach Lowe show.
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The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
It's one of the reasons that Porter is going to be a wild card in this series because Porter's got no chance of keeping Harden in front of him. He's got a better chance of keeping Kawhi in front of him because Kawhi doesn't operate with just sort of like straight up speed. But the Clippers are interesting because...
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
As much as people wanted them to spam even more of that pick and roll, I thought the Nuggets got a handle on it a little bit as the game went on. They sort of settled into, they tried a bunch of different defenses with Jokic up to the level of the screen, Jokic dropping back. They were all just torn apart.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Then they started late in the game having Jokic drop back and pulling in help defenders more aggressively off the non-shooters like Dunn and Derek Jones Jr. That worked pretty well. well enough, but the Clippers are interesting because they have that element.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
You don't want to shove Kawhi too far to the side, especially since Kawhi can also probably pick out his matchup if he wants to and go at Jamal Murray in the post or whoever. And then I thought they left a little bit of money on the table. Not that you want to tilt your offense too much toward Norm Powell, but Norm Powell has Jamal Murray on him to start games. He's got Michael Porter Jr.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
on him at times. I thought they could have ran him off pin downs and some other stuff for handoffs and just high flying Norm Powell. Just get the ball straight line finish. And and they kind of. But but it's a challenge to get all those elements in alignment. Did any of my other most valuable player choices stick out to you? I mean, look. There are three drawing dead series in the first round.
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The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Orlando, Boston, dead. Miami, Cleveland, dead. And Memphis, Oklahoma City, dead. I mean, we can go through my least valuable choices. One of them was he didn't play a horrible game, but Tyler Hero, I just thought, did not do enough offensively. Particularly, he was being guarded by Sam Merrill a lot. And Sam Merrill stood up Tyler Hero and Andrew Wiggins at times one-on-one.
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The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
And I just thought Miami lost the plot on offense. Like, you've got to have Tyler Hero set ball screens for Andrew Wiggins. Use him more in a pick and roll. Maybe one-on-one isn't the answer. Kuzma, you mentioned, just what the hell. And I just, LeBron and Austin Reeves, I thought were both bad for the Lakers by their standards. And then I just wrote the entire Memphis Grizzlies.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Hi, welcome to the playoffs. You lost by a thousand points. Jaron Jackson Jr., I mean, look, he's relegated to spacing duty on offense a lot when Zach Eady's at center. And they didn't play him hardly at all at center. Jaron Jackson Jr. is the only big man. They might want to try that. Not that it matters.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
He couldn't get anywhere posting up the army of just handsy marauding guards and wings that the Grizzlies can throw or the Thunder can throw at him. You know, look, they're not going to win this series. I don't know if they're going to be competitive in this series. But if this goes like... It's not going to go 51 points. But if this goes just like... You're miles away.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
And yeah, you don't have Brandon Clark and whatever. Like, the Marcus Smart thing was a disaster. Okay, fine. Canard didn't play until garbage time. That was weird. If this goes like this, I think we're going to get to the end of this and say... What do we actually have here? Like this Morant, Bain, Jackson Jr., who's eligible for an extension. Like, what does this amount to?
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
One of the things I enjoy about Bob Myers when he calls Nuggets games is just unabashed love of Jokic. He cannot hide, and we've talked about this off-camera, he cannot hide how much he loves Jokic. He was sensational in Game 1 with 29-12-9. Harden was sensational for the Clippers, 32-11, only two turnovers. 20 turnovers cost the Clippers the game. Kawhi had seven of them.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
There are three very good players. None of them, one of them made an all-star team this year. He might make an all-NBA team, Jaron Jackson Jr. Are we trending toward a situation where like we have three guys who are like Bain probably won't ever make an all-star team just because he's in the wrong conference.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
And he's, he's right around that sort of like CJ McCollum, just really good guard, but not good enough to make an all-star team level. John didn't make it this year. He doesn't play enough. Jaron Jackson, Jr. You could see him making like one out of every couple of years, maybe one out of every three years. Like,
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
do we just have three guys who are somewhere around the 25th to 45th best player in the NBA instead of what we hope for, which is top 10 player, top 20 player, top 25 player. And if that's the case, then, and they're all gonna have to make a ton of money. Like what are we doing here? Because this team has talked a lot of shit. They've popped their chest out a lot.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
They've been around now for a while. This is not like a fresh, new, cool, like up and coming team anymore. And they're going to get rocked in this series. And we're going to be four years into this or whatever. And they're going to have one, one playoff series against an inexperienced Minnesota Timberwolves team. And then anytime they've put up against a real team, a veteran team, that's ready.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
They just don't, they, they don't have enough. And again, They had nothing for Oklahoma city, nothing. I mean, at Oklahoma city, the defense was absolutely terrifying, but the Grizzlies had absolutely nothing for them. And I'm just curious as to your thoughts, like big picture, what is getting, they, they get smoked in this series. What does this mean for them?
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Don't suck toward the end of the year. Don't fire your coach. Don't get in a position where you have to fire your coach with nine games left. I didn't say they put themselves in this position. I'm just noting. You know what? They talk shit to everybody. So you know what? Just back it up. Back it up then.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
We're going to talk about we're going to talk about them in a second.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
We will talk about that and whether the Clippers indeed went too far away from the hardened Zubats pick and roll that was tearing the Nuggets apart for the first half of the game. But we're going to go big picture to start with. I gave you a homework assignment. Your homework assignment that I also completed because I am a diplomatic host was to pick an MVP of the first weekend.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
No, I do know. They made me. Are you? Excellent.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Can I say something crazy? Yeah, yeah. And I don't mean this the way it's going to come out. Like peak John Morant is awesome. Okay. Like peak John Morant is awesome. pre all the shit, John Morant was, was awesome. Yeah. Hasn't been the same guy this year as a basketball player, just not as aggressive, a finisher, not getting to the line as much, too many turnovers, et cetera.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
There have been too many games this year where I've watched Memphis and John didn't play or John's resting. Cause it's not resting. Like John's just on the bench waiting to come back in where I'm like, they don't look that much worse with Scottie Pippen Jr. running the offense. And that is not true. Let me be clear. They are worse with Scottie Pippen Jr. running the offense.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
But the fact that I can watch them and feel that now and then is a bad sign.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Dangerous.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
You mentioned that Drunk With Power podcast that you, me, and Rachel used to do. There was one we did. The tiki bar? We're at the tiki bar. We're at beer number three. I almost said a couple of things, and my brain was like, don't do it. And my dumb part of the drunk brain was like, do it. Just say it. And luckily, the smart brain won.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
I'm a real man. I'm a real man, Howard. Okay. I drink beer. People say this about you all the time.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
a most disappointing player or players or franchise of the first weekend and a coach of the first weekend. So I will let you start and we'll go through our runners up because we're going to hit a lot of stuff. MVP of the first weekend. I will let you get first pick Howard Beck. Who is it?
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
The grenade thing is... It's so stupid that I almost admire how stupid it is. Yeah.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Where else can we go? Can we go bazooka? Can we go like... I said...
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Is he going to duck and cover, like lay down, like throw the grenade and lay down on the floor while the game is still going on? Like, where else can we go with this?
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
I'm going to go fast. I'm very excited about this topic. It's difficult because since you have three of them, Trading one. Let's do the contract. Ja, next season, $39 million. Following season 42, $27, $28, $45. Not that bad of a contract. It's going to be 24% of the cap. Bain, $36, $39, $42, $45. Jackson extension eligible after this season. We'll see what happens.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
But the challenge, since you have three of trading one, is... does a rebuild deal, which is what you always, which is the classic star deal. Does that make any sense when you have the other two left over? Like, why am I trading whoever for three first round picks when I have these other two guys making $85 million or whatever it ends up being?
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Number two, and Zach Kleiman did his pound his fist on the podium, like, we're not trading John Moran. All those rival executives can suck it. Okay. I said this with Bill. Like, did I miss the parade of teams who are calling with monster offers for the dude who plays half the games and still is a non-shooter and still struggles on defense? I like job.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
So then I was like, I went through just rapid fire. Here are teams who theoretically, in some stretch of the imagination, need a point guard. Okay, might need a point guard, might conceive of themselves as in need of a point guard or just a shakeup. Washington, too far behind. Charlotte, Bill has mentioned the LaMelo ball, John Morant fake trade. Charlotte's not doing that.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
no um what if atlanta decided to just dump troy young well that doesn't make any sense they're roughly equivalent players roughly equivalent ages whatever the bulls well josh giddy kobe white and is there that sort of combines into being a point guard uh milwaukee clippers down the line if those two teams get old and shake it up that's years well maybe not years away brooklyn in a salary dump because they have cap space i don't see that like brooklyn sean marks came out and said if we're going to
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
go after a max level free agent they got to be a like a real game changer that was code for like it's got to be a top five to top 10 guy wink wink um the pelicans imagine a job for zion just just 2019 by the way here's a job with zion there's a nightmare how about how about this 2019 draft six years later yeah would darius garland be the number one pick Probably.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
The order of the draft was Zion, Ja, Barrett, Hunter, Garland. I mean, that's crazy to think about.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Yeah, I would say. So here are the other teams. And this will lead us into a brief Orlando-Boston thought process. Sacramento. You had two great point guards. Now you got zero. You seem to operate with just unending craziness. Why not? Kangs. Miami. I don't see it. I don't think that's the star Miami will go for when they use their ammo and they inevitably will try to use their ammo.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
But they have ammo in their Miami. I don't see it. Orlando. I think if we're talking about Memphis in the fallout of this series, Orlando is going to get destroyed by Boston. Their offense isn't good enough. We knew their offense isn't good enough. Franz Wagner actually looked a little shook at times during the game. Like, oh, you're closing out short to me and...
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
OK, like I'm not used to being treated this disrespectfully. They're missing Suggs. They're missing Mo Wagner. Like they have pieces that are missing. There just isn't enough there. We have more than enough evidence now that there isn't enough offense there. I don't like Ben Carroll's awesome. Franz is going to make all star teams.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
There just isn't enough around them and they're not close to being good enough offensively. I think there are some things they could do better schematically, specifically in this series against Boston's switching defense. I don't really care to get into it because the series is not going to be interesting. But I think Orlando's reached a point where this summer, now,
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
is the time to go out and get a guard who can shoot and play make and take the burden off of them. I don't think jaw will be that guy, but you watch them against Boston and it's just like Palo is playing one on five and they, you know, I thought again, it doesn't seem like a super high scoring Celtics game. It doesn't seem like they got a lot of threes off. That's because the pace was really slow.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
They actually took 37 threes on 82 shots, I think. That's a 45% three-point rate. That would have been second in the NBA only to them. It's close to their regular season rate. They did a great job saying, you're switching to take away our threes. We're still going to generate threes because of who we attack and where
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
And and where we kick the ball to in the X's and O's of that are somewhat interesting. But Orlando, just there's just not enough here. And it's time. It's time to use the picks. It's time to use the young players. It's time. Like, is Jet Howard anywhere? Like, is he alive? It's time to get a real guy in here.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
The unkind way of putting it is that Corey Joseph is starting for the Orlando magic and playing 26 minutes in a playoff game. And yes, I realized Jalen Suggs is hurt.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
I don't know. Cole Anthony. Jonathan Isaac. Jonathan Isaac. Played 18 minutes as backup center. looked great on defense and the Celtics best offense was actually, I don't, I thought their best offense was not attacking the littler guys like Corey Joseph and the other little guys are not that little Anthony black, Gary Harris. I thought those guys mostly forced Tatum and Brown into tough shots.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
It was attacking the big guys, attacking Wendell Carter Jr. specifically and going at his feet and trying to get by him, get into the rim, start spraying it out for threes. And that's how they beat the switches with threes. Orlando's trying to depress their three-point rate by switching everything. And Isaac is the cure to that because they couldn't beat him off the dribble the way they could.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
He just can't play. I guess he just can't play more than 18 minutes. Like, he just can't. And he's their third-leading scorer. It just... I don't want to be enough. I don't like it's time. It's been a fine season for them. I think they need to look at a total offensive. They've got a lot of good fail-safe stuff, like Paolo attacking Smalls in the pick and roll. That's a good fail-safe thing.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Franz, same thing. I think they got to look at, we got to add layers upon layers to this in the offseason, and we just got to get a big talent upgrade. One more pop quiz before we bring in Steve Jones Jr. to talk X's and O's. What is the more evil camera cutaway currently going through the NBA, Howard Beck? Is it the cutaways to Nico Harrison when Anthony Davis limps off the court?
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Or the cutaways to Nikola Jokic looking frustrated on the bench? Which is meaner camera work? Oh, it's got to be Nico Harrison.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
patrick dumont in a closet somewhere so that he can't get on the podium and say something stupid like to every media availability they do is i look tim mcmahon wrote it today one of the many many many longtime mavs that they jettisoned in this overhaul the franchise is scott tomlin who is their pr guy for a long time and is super close with dirk and is an awesome awesome pr guy great and he's got to be watching this being like
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Y'all couldn't use my advice a little bit because this is not going great.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Yeah, I guess they didn't jettison him, although they probably would have eventually given the way that things are going. But he left on his own accord, along with just a bunch of people that Tim wrote about in his story. And Mark Stein has written a lot about I just think of him every time there's a PR disaster because Scooter, as everyone calls him, is fantastic at his job.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
It was one of the I don't think the Golden State Warriors somewhat self-proclaimed zealots of the beautiful game could play an uglier game than the Rockets had them play last night. And the Rockets, we all knew the half court offense was the problem. It's the reason I picked Warriors and seven. Oh, my God. Like they're Houston's.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
I'll do it. You want to hire me as a consultant? The ringer might let me. I'll do it right now. I was going to say... Don't do what you're doing. Here, give me $500,000.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
All right. On that note, by the way, that's the correct answer to the evil cutaway question. It is that. That's very evil in a Dr. Evil delicious way. On that point, let's pause and we will bring in X's and O's guru Steve Jones Jr. of the Dunker Spot podcast to talk about adjustments in two series that are very interesting. All right, let's bring in an X's and O's expert, one of the best.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Follow him on Twitter. Listen to the Dunker Spot podcast. Steve Jones Jr., what's up, sir?
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Hey. I hate the name. I like the name because it's my name. I just don't like saying my name.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
My dad, when my mom was pregnant with me, came up with various pun names. He could name me Hal, so my name would be Hal-O and things like that. Low-hanging fruit. All right, Steve. Nuggets Clippers is a series of the first round that resumes tonight. So I don't I don't want to get too far into that because it will be will be game two before we know it.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
So the two series that are in the West, both of them that are super interesting and massive game two is coming up. I want to hit you on what to look for in game two, starting with Minnesota Lakers. The Wolves go to L.A., No one's picking them. Literally. I think on ESPN, every single person picked the Lakers, which I picked the Lakers in seven. So it surprised me that no one's the wolves are good.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
And the wolves have been quite good for a long time now. And just destroyed the Lakers in game one, made them look old, made them look slow, got every mismatch they wanted to get blue by Luca, sprayed the ball out for threes, looked bigger, stronger, tougher. What did you see? And what do you expect the Lakers to try to do? You can pick either end of the floor, honestly.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
You know, defensively, the Lakers switched everything. I think the Wolves knew that that was coming and exploited it with just a certain calm and steadiness that I didn't necessarily expect from them. Or offensively, when... Look, the Lakers aren't going anywhere if LeBron and Reeves combine for 35 points on 13 of 31 shooting. Luka with the quietest 37 points I can remember, one assist.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
And we're going to bring in Steve Jones later to talk about potential adjustments in this series, because the big overarching question after game one is what it was after game zero, which is what how is Houston going to score in this series? Because their best offense in this game was missing their own shots. That was the best offense they had was just throw the ball at the rim.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Pick an end of the floor. How do the Lakers get right here?
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Yeah, Howard, one of my other homework assignments for you was to pick a coach of the weekend. Who did you pick, by the way?
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
I liked the choice. He held his own. It was incredible. The claw, the finger strength, and the facial expressions were, yeah, this guy tangled with Zoe a million years ago. He's not afraid for a little arm wrestling with the basketball.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
And Jokic is like, can anyone just let me play basketball? Can I just get the ball and start having fun? Why are all these people, Ishbia, now Jeff Van Gundy, taking the ball from me? What do I have to do? My choice was Chris Finch. And for a lot of the reasons Steve just said, They were super well prepared for everything the Lakers were going to do.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
We sometimes have both centers on the floor, Adams and Shen Goon, even with just one of them, our wings are gigantic. We'll get offensive rebounds. That's the only offense they had. They had 22 offensive rebounds, a 41% offensive rebounding rate that would have led the league by a mile. They led the league by a mile and they still scored 85 points. in the game.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
I thought starting the game with Conley on Rui Hachimura, which is a thing I mentioned in my preview.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
I wasn't sure if they were going to do it was really, really smart because it put their three best perimeter defenders and Jaden and Randall, who passes for a perimeter defender, I guess, in this matchup on the Lakers, three best offensive players and forced them to say, look, if you're going to direct your offense at Conley, You're going to have to do it through Rui.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
And there was one bad Rui post-up, and that was pretty much it. Not only that, Howard, you mentioned the phrase earlier, no sacred cows. 24 minutes for Gobert, 22 minutes for Conley, 31 minutes for Reid, 25 for DiVincenzo, 20 for Alexander Walker. It's clear. He's going to play the guys he trusts to play.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
And if that means less minutes for Gobert because the Lakers are five out, and that's somewhat problematic at times, or just... The Randall-Reed combination is rolling and Nas was awesome. Nas changed the game, not only with the shooting, but bullying switches, bullying Reeves on switches as another place the Wolves could pick at. Like Conley, you're the, like the Lakers want to attack small guys.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Attacking big guys didn't work. Like LeBron got swatted at the rim by Reed and Gobert. Randall held his own. You want to attack small guys? We're going to make our small guys as big as possible. Like DiVincenzo is no pushover. Alexander Walker is no pushover. Conley is at a massive size disadvantage against Luca and LeBron and even Reeves. And he played 22 minutes.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
The other guys are like, they're going to fight and hold their own. And the wolves are going to make you prove that we have to send doubles. But to your point, Steve, I think one of the lowest hanging fruit adjustments for the Good things happen when you put LeBron and Luka in the post. Even when they don't get switches, like Luka got some fouls on Jada McDaniels in the post.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
He can get where he needs to go. Like, good things are going to happen. Like, DiVincenzo and Nikhil Alexander-Walker lean into those matchups and just sort of see how Minnesota responds. Force them to make some decisions. I think that was one obvious one. What about... What about defensively? Because as you said, if this is the game plan, just switch everything.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Minnesota proved in game one, we can exploit that. We know where Luka is on the floor. We can get Ant onto him or Randall onto him. Randall was super disciplined. I had a rule for this series. You do not get to go one-on-one in the post unless you have a good matchup that you've generated via a switch. He followed my Randall rule. Yeah. The Randall rule.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
He followed it very well and made the right passes. And I thought their off ball movement for the most part, guys trading places, little flare screens, like was enough to confuse the Lakers help and pop guys open. So like the Lakers game plan can't be, let's just do the same thing. So what, what defensively are you going to look for?
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Obviously, you have to miss a lot to get that many offensive rebounds, but that's astonishing. 11 of 20 from the line didn't help. Ahmed Thompson, 0 of 4. And look, the Rockets live in terrible spacing when they play their two big guys together, and particularly when Thompson is on the floor. The Warriors' defense was too good for them to live in that terrible spacing in game one.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Can't trust him less than eight minutes or else he's just not playing. So that's like, you got to get something out of him. I, you know, and especially as offensively, they missed a vertical, like just something slicing down the middle of the floor at a fast rate. I thought they missed that.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Now Jackson is, is no great shakes, but he should, you know, if he plays eight minutes a game, the Lakers are not going to win the series. I don't think.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Yeah, I thought to your point about tough twos, you could probably isolate three or four threes in the game where the Lakers helped panic, helped a little bit in the paint when they didn't need to. I mean, there was an obvious one where Nas Reed, you know, got an open three when Randall was posting up LeBron and Nas Reed was one pass away. And you're like, LeBron doesn't need help.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Just stay, stay home on Nas Reed. But Minnesota, like, can I tell you my favorite amp play? Can I tell you guys my favorite amp play from the whole game? He got Luka on him on a switch. Obviously, that's a matchup the Wolves want. And for whatever reason, I can't remember exactly. It was in the second quarter.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
He just didn't have his footwork and spacing where he wanted it to be to attack Luka right away off the dribble. So he passed it to somebody on the left wing, left sideline. And instead of fading out toward half court and just getting the ball back, he suddenly burst to the rim and kind of back cut Luka. And when Ant activates those parts of his game,
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
It really, really just energizes the entire Wolves team. It either got a layup or a dunk out of it. It was awesome. They were just super, super decisive. Howard, what did you take away from this game? Obviously, we all watched that this is one of the matchups of the first round. What did you see?
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Oh, that's right. I forgot that was Saturday.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
There was just too many hands in passing lanes. Draymond was everywhere. Moody was great. Pajemski was great. Butler was great. And they just couldn't get out of their own way on offense and couldn't generate anything resembling reliable half-court offense. And... Lost the turnover battle. Free throws were even. If those things are even or tilt Golden State, the Rockets are in a lot of trouble.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Let's, let's be clear. That trade was a calculated salary dump of Carl Anthony towns calculated in the sense of we've gotten two players for one and a pick and And so we got, we got enough to justify the salary though. We got enough for our future and we got enough for our present.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
And there were times this season when the present part of that bet didn't look like it was going to pay off and it took time. And I think Minnesota probably right now up one Oh, in this series probably feels like we're comfortable with the decision that we made despite the hiccups, despite the lack of shooting that is going to come back. to bite us at some point in these playoffs.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
But look at the bracket we're in. If we can sneak out this series, we get winner of Warriors Rockets and the Clippers and Nuggets and Thunder. You can all hang out there on the other side of the bracket. Like there's a pathway here for us to get back to where we were last year. Long way to go. Lakers have game two at home. Steve, one last thing you mentioned earlier
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
You don't want them... They are going to keep switching the Lakers defensively, and they will. I would like to see them hit Ant with some blitzes.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
I would put two on the ball now and then and test his willingness to make the easy pass, test Minnesota's shooting around him, test their ability to make two or three snap reads in a row, because I think that's been inconsistent this year, and I just don't think they can sit back every single possession and just let them pick out whatever matchup they want. So I will expect...
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
selective trapping, blitzing, aggressive defense that we did not see much of in game one.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Just hit him.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
And they couldn't even decide who to play. Sometimes they played two centers. Sometimes they had Brooks and Green on the bench for quite a bit of the fourth quarter. Jalen Green will come up soon. Don't worry. And they had Jabari Smith Jr., who I thought played pretty well. Sometimes they played him at the three. Sometimes they played him at the five. That's the versatility of the Rockets.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Okay, on to the only semi-exciting and yet gruesomely ugly game from Sunday's Chalk Chalk Chalk Fest until the middle of the night. Howard and I talked about Warriors Rockets a lot already. Now we're going to spin it forward. We talked about Jalen Green and Fred VanVleet missing every shot. We talked about Shen Goon, Draymond Green wrestling match.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
We talked about Steph's brilliance and Jimmy's brilliance and blah, blah, blah. All the different lineups that got trotted out. in game one. My general big picture question for both of you, we'll start with you, Steve, because X's and O's guru that you are. It's the same question that I had coming into the series, only it's more urgent now. How are the Rockets scoring in the half court?
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Like if you're on the coaching staff of the Rockets and you're digesting film from game one and you're trying to pick out possessions where, oh, we actually this alternative over here might have been better than the one we use. Like there's only so many answers on this roster, right? Like Jalen Green isolating Steph, that didn't work. Van Vliet, Shen Goon, pick and rolls.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Jalen Green, Shen Goon, pick and rolls. Like you can get some stuff out of that, but the Warriors of Draymond's in the game are pretty good at playing that semi straight up. And like, they're going to live with Shen Goon floaters from 15 feet and Fred Van Vliet, like 19 footers off the dribble. You can post Shingun and isolate them a million times.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
I just think with Draymond, the math is not going to be good enough, as great as Shingun was, to just spam that and make that our whole offense. And they're not going to start trapping and exposing other stuff. And so I'm watching the game and I'm struggling. What do I do here? What's the place that I go for half-court offense other than miss my own shots and get rebounds?
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
But it also felt like both teams... were sort of struggling to figure out, like the Warriors were using lineup combinations they never used, including a double center lineup. But the bigger story was Houston's just lack of offense. I think Butler's a great choice. Curry was on my list of potential MVP candidates. We might as well talk about him. 31 points, 12 of 19, five of nine on threes.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Yeah. In my notes here, and I take notes in every game, I noted the Dylan Brooks post-up of Steph, and I think they got one more in the second half and got something out of it. Jabari Smith got either an and one or a basket over Steph in the post. I would even like... If he's trying to hide on Ahmed Thompson or Tari Eason, those guys can back him down and just...
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
it's not the greatest answer, but it, it forces the Warriors to make decisions and maybe slide some help toward those guys. I'm in Thompson scored over him in the post, or he drew a foul or scored. I can't remember which I think he scored. Tara Eason is a strong dude. He doesn't have like a graceful back to the basket game, but you can, you can do it. Um,
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
And the only other thing I saw was in the third quarter at some point, they started running some, like they emptied out the left side of the floor and ran a couple of like handoff pick and rolls between Shen Goon and Van or one was Adams and Van Vliet and Adams got a dump off layup out of it.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
One was Dylan Brooks and Adams and Dylan Brooks got all the way to the rim curling around and missed at the rim. Just a little more juice like that. But yeah, this was my big concern. And I just don't, I was sitting there struggling. Like it's, it's my job to try to think of answers and pretend I'm in the coach's room. And like, I just, these are the only answers I can come up with Howard.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
What else did you notice in that game from Houston? Other than again, 22 offensive rebounds, which is amazing. And the warriors are small and that's just going to be a problem. The entire series. I just don't know like how many more off you can, you rebound 60% of your own business. Like, I don't think you can get much more than that.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Let me hit you guys on one more series that we have been derelicted, not talking about, and it does not resume until Tuesday. So we have some time tomorrow. Um, Part of the reason it's difficult to talk about is because we don't know if Damian Lillard is coming back for game two, for game three, at any point. And obviously that changes the whole series.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Three of those threes were absolutely bonkers. Just out of nowhere. One of them falling out of bounds. One of them, a pivotal one in the fourth quarter after a botched out of bounds call that went the Warriors way when the ball went off of there. I think Draymond on the sideline, just an incredible game from Curry. Would you like some Curry stats in this game?
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
The Bucs are drawing dead in this series without Damian. Like they can't win the series without Damian. I don't think I said before I would have picked the Pacers to win the series with Damian healthy from game one. I just think the Pacers are a really good basketball team. Damian obviously changes the series. Game one, just total nightmare for the Bucs.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Total nightmare for anyone who's worried about Giannis looking at the roster and being like, what? Anyone? Kuz? Kuz? Is this thing on, Kuz? Brooke Lopez? Eh. There was an alarming amount of Kevin Porter Jr. going on. He's alarmingly essential to the Bucs all of a sudden.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
And the Pacers, despite a bad shooting game, and I thought a fine all-around floor game from Tyrese Halliburton, but a bad shooting game. I liked every single three he took. He missed all of them. That's not going to happen again. Just blew the doors off the Bucs. Unbelievable Siakam game. Unbelievable Nembhard game. Again, it's hard to talk adjustments without knowing what Dame's likelihood.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Howard, did you catch this game or no?
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Anything strike you before we get to Steve on what to look for in game two? No, go Steve. Go Steve. I mean, I liked a lot of what... Indiana did across the board. I think they could have leaned even more into Halliburton Siakam, two-man game. And Giannis was unbelievable. Like, I just don't know what else he's supposed to do other than shoot better than 8 of 15 from the line.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
But 36 and 12, no one else really coming along for the ride until it was kind of out of hand and AJ Green made some shots. What do you just in general, it could be a Pacers adjustment. Like what's, what are you curious about in game two? Dame, no Dame, whatever.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Second spectrum tracking, 24 pick and rolls for Curry. That's about average for him. 1.385 points per possession when they got a shot directly out of those plays. And I think they could actually go to it more. Obviously, the Rockets are messing around with the matchups. And where is Shingun? Shingun's guarding Moses Moody. to start games, which is what I predicted they would do in my preview.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
And that's Dame is not going to change that. If anything, it will get more comfortable. You know, I just thought it was easy for Halliburton. Like, you know, if Brooke Lopez is on Miles Turner and maybe they shift him to Siakam at some points, we've seen them toggle that matchup back and forth. If he's on Miles Turner, that pick and roll, pick and pop.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
And Miles Turner mixed in, I thought, even too many rolls, like too many short rolls. But he made jumpers from 18, 19 feet. When he pops to three, it's just an easy decision tree for Tyrese Halliburton. If he's wide open... Just give him the ball. And then he gets the ball. And if a third guy stunts at him, he knows where that's coming from and Miles Turner can make that pass.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
If Tyrese Halliburton kind of dribbles and hangs out with it a little bit and he sees that third rotator, that third stunt they're coming, he just skips Miles Turner altogether and hits that guy's guy. Andrew Nembhard, there's a pass that Tyrese made to Nembhard in the left corner in this exact situation that was just...
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
a genius point guard thinking two steps ahead of the defense and saying, I see it, I see it, and it's over for you. And it was just too easy for them. And I don't know really kind of what answer. You mentioned zone, you know, and every adjustment there's a counter for. And, you know, look, the Pacers made some contested threes early in the game.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Siakam, Jairus Walker made one that there was really nothing going on. He just rose up. And if you hit those shots, it's just maybe – you know, not your day, but the other thing is five turnovers for the Pacers. The bucks don't force turnover. So the Pacers are going to get shots every single possession.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
And if you just give them shots, every single possession, they're going to score a lot of points. And the free throws were about even. And if the bucks, if those are even those two categories, the bucks are not going to win this series. Um, I don't know, offensively, anything. I mean, Giannis was awesome. And I thought their best offense was actually using Giannis as a screener.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
They just don't have enough dynamic ball handlers to really do that over it. He set 15, 16 ball screens, 1.55 points per possession out of it. That's a monster number. And if Dame does come back, I think you just got to lean into that two-man game as much as you can with shooting around it because I don't know what else the answers are.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
I like, are you Torian Prince?
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Are you a shooter? Are you Torian Prince?
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
I try. I don't, I don't want to go big picture after one game. I don't want to, but the big picture has been the same for a while now. And the, the Middleton Kuzma trade was obviously like, I tweeted it at the time, even though I was unemployed, just a massive vote of no confidence in Chris Middleton. Like you can like Kuzma is whatever.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Like I, you and I, Steve, both, I think tweeted something to the effect of like the coups that played for the Lakers. Yeah. would actually help this team. Size, shooting, cutting, defense, toughness on the boards. He's not a great defensive player, but he can be. This Kuz is not helping the team.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
But that trade was about, we just have no faith in Chris Middleton being healthy and bouncy and mobile enough. And it just, the atrophy around Giannis and the roster just is what it is. I liked the Dame trade. The Dame trade has not worked. Not the way that I expected it to work. And you just like... Brooke's a free agent after this season. He's old.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Sometimes he's stuck on Draymond Green because of cross-matching, because Draymond's on Shengun, and boy, is that just a wrestling match in the paint. And when they get that matchup, I just go right to it. In semi-transition, just go set a screen, Draymond for Steph, let Steph cook against the big guy. Sometimes it's on Gary Payton. Steph GP2 pick and rolls are pretty good.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
You know... Giannis has two years left after this guaranteed. So there's no rush on any of this. But they better get their asses back in the series one way or another. Because if this is another ugly loss and this time Giannis is healthy... I'm sorry to Bucs fans. The questions are going to be unavoidable, but it's only one game. They haven't played at home yet.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
And as long as Giannis is on the floor playing for the Bucs, you cannot count them out of anything. But I don't know. I like Howard anything. Just I don't know. I don't know how else to like politely address this topic. The roster around him is getting worse and worse and worse.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
And there's not really anything in the young player cupboard coming up because the draft picks have missed and or been traded.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
He's going to get his Jersey retired in Milwaukee.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
And obviously the battle with the Warriors is they're going to trap those Force the pass to Gary Payton or Moses Moody or Draymond Green. Try to force Draymond to pass it at the rim to who's ever in the dunker spot and get the Warriors in this battle of like your small, vertically jumping, vertically challenged guys are going to have to finish over our gigantic athletic guys.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
I will address the Nets only because you brought them up. My question with the Nets and Giannis, and I talked about this on my old podcast before it went away. He's like, that's cool. You got a million picks. You got your own picks. You got lots of extra picks from lots of places. You got, you know, some guys. What's the plan? Who else is coming with Giannis? Because who is Giannis playing with
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
If you have to trade whatever you got to trade, plus your picks to get them in there and they have salary cap space. So it's easier for them to not trade out of their roster. But like, so I'm Giannis, I'm looking around. It's like, okay, it's me and like Noah Clowney and maybe Cam Johnson. If he's still around and Cam Johnson, a nice player. I like Cam Johnson.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
but, and the roster is like younger. It's like drew Timmy is drew Timmy carrying me to, to, to the promised land.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Like it, there's gotta be another shoe there because, and it's not like Giannis is of the age where he has two years for you to wait, to, to wait for you to drop the other shoe, to get me the other guy, to get me to, and he's good enough that he can elevate, you know, cam Johnson plus Nick Claxton. Plus if cam Thomas is still around and, and,
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
you know, doesn't shoot every single time because Giannis is now on the team. He can elevate that team, but I just don't know. Anyway, enough. The Bucs can rally. I hope the Bucs rally. I hope this is a nice long series. You said something else that interests me and I don't remember what it was. Okay, guys, there's only two games today. So we can really dig in Detroit, New York game two.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
My pick in that series was Knicks in five games. And yeah, five. That's right, Steve Jones. What did you pick? Did you make a pick?
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Pistons in six. I don't see it. But the Pistons played well for three quarters. And... And then pooped all over the garden floor in the fourth quarter. And obviously Clippers Nuggets resumes tonight. That is the series of the first round. I picked Nuggets in seven. I don't know if either of you guys made picks in that series. Would you like to share them?
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Logan forced me to make picks, which I hate doing, on the pod last week.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
And I just think the Warriors are going to win that battle enough times, including sometimes it's really hard. There was that one play which proved to be critical. Steph Draymond, pick and roll, I think. Draymond rolls into open space, drops it off to Moody under the basket. Moody looks up like, oh, my God, there's giant guys all around me. What am I supposed to do? Kicks it to Pajemski.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
They're very good. By the way, I picked Nuggets in seven. Clippers in six is still very much on the table. I don't feel confident in the Nuggets after that game, but I cannot wait. I may have to take a power nap today so I can stay up and watch that game because I don't think I have the patience to what I mean. People are laughing at me. First of all, I'm old.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Second of all, the game will end at like one in the morning. So, yeah, that's late for me. OK, that's true. I'm an old dad. That's late for me. I might have to take a pop because I don't it's that one has me tingling with anticipation. OK, Howard Beck of the ringer dot com can listen to him on real ones with Loga and Raja. He writes. He does everything. He's a jack of every trade. Steve Jones, Jr.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
What's your what's your podcast schedule? I've lost track of all in my in my fun employment. I lost track. Every day was the same. So I don't know what days anything happens anymore.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Thank you, guys. Steve Jones Jr., just one of a kind. If you want to know, I always try to bring people on. If you want to know what actually happened in the game and not who's got guts and who shrinks from the moment, this is one of the guys to follow. Howard, I'll see you soon, at least in a couple Mondays. Steve, I'll see you soon. Thank you, guys. Enjoy the playoffs. Thanks, Zach. All right.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
We are going to hit every series MVPs of the first weekend, most disappointing players, things to watch in game two of all the most interesting series. We've got Howard Beck and Steve Jones jr. To help us break everything down coming up on the Zach Lowe show. Welcome to the Zach Lowe Show. It's Monday at 9.30 in the morning. Eight games down. The annual first weekend of the playoffs is over.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Thanks for listening. Enjoy the game Tuesday night and later in the week. I will be back on Thursday and we will update you on everything that's happened. Get ready. The whirlwind of the playoffs is here. Must be 21 and over and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 and over and present in D.C. Gambling problem?
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Call the 1-800-GAMBLER or visit fanduel.com slash RG. Call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut. or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24-7 sport in Massachusetts, or call 1-877-8HOPENY or text HOPENY in New York.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Pajemski, because the defense is in rotation, pump fake, drive, draws a foul. Houston challenges the foul.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
We might as well do my least valuable player choice now so we can dive into the series. I have a feeling we might veer to the same guy here, but... Jalen Green was a disaster for the Rockets. 3 of 15, 2 assists, 7 points, 0 of 4 on threes. And I mentioned with Michael Pina last week that...
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
You know, I don't know what Houston's answer in the half court is going to be other than Shingun has to have a monster series. And Shingun did everything he could in game one, considering the defense he's facing. One of their answers against the Warriors, and they played five times before this game last night, has been trying to get Steph switched on to Jalen Green.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
And I said in my preview, I just don't think that's good enough. He's just not good enough of a one-on-one player. He's not powerful enough. He doesn't slow down and draw help and make productive passes. And that was true last night. Every time he got that switch, it was just a tough shot, a tough two, a tough flailing shot at the rim, a drive to nowhere.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Defensively, I thought he was actually all right. He's the weak link for the Rockets, but he's all right. He didn't get smoked on that end of the floor for the most part. Just offensively, look, Van Vliet was four of 19, two of 13 on threes, had a lot of good looks. The difference is seven assists to two turnovers for Van Vliet.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
And I actually thought a lot of the shots Van Vliet took were just good shots that he missed and shots that he's going to have to take. I thought a lot of the shots Jalen Green took were just... prayers thrown around the general area of the backboard that if you miss, the Warriors are going to run.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
And the Warriors were smart to run against the Rockets when the Rockets were playing double big, when the Rockets were in, were going to try to set up their zone, run, run, run, run before you can set all that stuff up. Obviously, Jalen Green's not going to go three of 15 every game. if he can't get going one-on-one against Curry, I just think they're going to run short of answers on offense.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
I just thought he was overwhelmed by the moment and just a disaster in game one. And I was actually a little surprised that he made Odoka. Congratulations, by the way, Coach Odoka, one of the three finals for Coach of the Year. I was surprised he brought him back late in the game. Just an awful... And Amin Thompson could be a runner-up for this. Like, eight points,
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Just couldn't, they just, the Warriors defense is just too good for them to get enough of like the, he's hanging around the dunker spot. Shangoon finds him on a like little slick interior pass, a back cut here. They just couldn't find any of that. And if he's just standing 15 feet from the basket and no man's land along the baseline, he's not of much use on offense other than rebounding.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
And if he's going to go for it, the line, it's a disaster. Six offensive rebounds, fine. Six assists, fine. was just a net negative spacing-wise. But Jalen Green, oof. The Rockets... By the way, advanced stats in this game. Rockets... Let's see what they managed here. 95.5 points for 100 possessions. By the way, interesting nugget, Howard Beck. The...
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Slowest pace of play in the NBA for any team this year was Orlando at 96 and a half possessions per per game. Ninety six and a half is the magic number through game ones. We have Boston, Orlando, 87 pace. Miami, Cleveland, 87 and a half pace. Lakers, Wolves, 88 pace. Rockets, Warriors, what we're talking about now, 89 pace. Clippers, Nuggets, 91 pace. Bucks, Pacers, 97 and a half pace.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
So almost, that's the third fastest series and it's almost those dead last regular season pace. Detroit, New York, 99 pace.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
almost you know like 20th in the regular season and then memphis oklahoma city 108 and a half of just oklahoma city running them to death a very slow first round anyway that's my end of my jail and green thoughts he was sounds like he was your candidate as well yeah uh the game slows down in the playoffs is that what we are told all the time i guess it slows down the playoffs we'll see how how any of this holds up some of these teams are slow so yeah they're slow to begin with
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
And really, we only had two wild games. Well, two and a half, I would say. Knicks Pistons got wild in the fourth quarter. Warriors Rockets was... Ugly, bruising, kind of wild. Steph went bananas. Jim Butler went bananas. The Houston offense went completely off the rails. And then Clippers Nuggets had enough wildness for an entire playoff series in one game.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
They had some insane ones last night when Jimmy was on the bench. In the second quarter, especially, it was like, have you guys lost your minds? Has everyone lost their minds in the game?
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
You're listening to The Zach Lowe Show presented by FanDuel. America's number one sportsbook is the best place to bet on the NBA because not only does FanDuel have all your favorite player props, but now you can even check out stats and recent performance trends right in the app. Before you make your picks, just download the FanDuel Sportsbook app today to get in on the action.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Are we putting Reeves into the top five? Boy, oh boy. Reeves? I mean, I don't even know. Does he belong in the most improved player conversation again? Does Rui? I mean, those two guys have upped their level. And even if the stats don't show it, Rui is a more complete all-around player than he's ever been. And Reeves is...
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
You know, I keep hearing like, oh, he can average 23, 24 on a different team. He's already averaging 21 almost on this team. He's just a really, really good offensive player.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I'm not going to overreact to it because of the shooting data that you just posited. And they play again tomorrow night. That's true. I have a lot of faith in the Thunder defense. Obviously, they're number one defense by far in the NBA. You just said big on an island.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
And that was what was notable to me about that game is I thought the Lakers had a really good balance in where they targeted their offense. The game before that, they played the Warriors and Luka was kind of invisible in that game because the Warriors play Draymond at center a lot and they switch a lot. They don't have a big guy all the time out there that you can just a big center that Luka can.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
That's who he loves to torture the most, whether it's or getting lob dunks for his pick-and-roll center. The Warriors don't always play that kind of player. And Luka kind of got lost in the game as the Lakers are hunting Steph Curry. And, like, LeBron's been hunting Steph Curry for 10 years. Like, that's just how they play.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Against the Thunder, you have Hartenstein, and he just tortured Hartenstein. It's the same movie we've seen over and over again. And they did go at SGA a little bit. SGA is... not a weak link defender by any stretch. He just happens to be like the smallest guy in a lot of Thunder lineups.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
And I thought that sort of balance of where they directed their offense and how Luka was able to participate more than he did against the Warriors was telling and would concern me a little bit if I were the Thunder. And again, I'm looking for like actual signs of concern. Another one would be Cason Wallace, Alex Caruso, Aaron Wiggins,
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
just too small for LeBron and Luca Caruso can put up a fight and he has just incredible hands, but it's gotta be Dort and J Dub on those guys. And, and I think the thunder are smart to sort of see if they're smaller hands, your guys can bother Luca and LeBron. And again, this is a matchup. We may never see this matchup again after tomorrow night.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Like this may be totally irrelevant to Oklahoma city and the Lakers playoff prognosis. But they bullied those guys. And the other thing that was notable to me was the Lakers. It reminded me of the Mavericks in the playoffs last year where they really shrunk the floor on the Thunder. They clogged up the paint. They clogged up Shea's drives. Paint was crowded.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Thunder don't have great spacing, especially when they have the two bigs out there, but they have decent spacing. And they did it without really abandoning the Thunder's best three-point shooters. They just are a very smart, rangy defensive team. And you mentioned their – lack of size. When people say that they mean sort of lack of a true center behind Hayes.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
They, they have a lot of big players on their team. They have a lot of power forward size players on their team. They cover space really in, in really smart ways. They rotate on a string. They don't overcommit one way or under commit the other way. And they kind of had the thunder paused a little bit. And not only that,
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
the Chet Hartenstein double big lineup is one of the biggest wild cards in the league. It's not much of a wild card anymore. It's been going on for a while. And the Lakers were like, we're not afraid of that group. We're not afraid to play small against that group. We'll put wings on both of them. We don't think Chet can hurt us down low. We don't think Hartenstein can hurt us down low.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
And I think that double big group, has given Oklahoma City a different ingredient offensively in terms of Hartenstein's short roll, his floater, his passing. I think that's been more important to them offensively than defensively even. And the Lakers were like, yeah, we're not that scared of it.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I mean, all that said, I'm not going to overreact to it, but all of that was encouraging me if I'm a Lakers fan and a little bit troubling to me if I'm a Thunder fan. And you mentioned Vincent. Lakers have a good nine-man rotation. Their starting five is good. And then off the bench, it's Vincent, Vinnie Smith, Goodwin, who I love. I have a soft spot for Jordan Goodwin. And Vanderbilt.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
And I think one of the underrated little subplots of the AD Luca trade is... One of the benefits of not having a so-so shooting center, traditional center, which AD was for them, much to his chagrin apparently, that is so good that he's got to play 35, 40 minutes a game when it matters. Now Hayes can play 8 minutes, 12 minutes, 15 minutes.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
It allows them to play Vanderbilt a lot more without compromising their spacing fatally. And Vanderbilt's just been good for them. He's a good defense player. He can guard all kinds of different positions. They're becoming a really interesting team. And that game, yeah, it's a shooting luck game. I said the Thunder won it on shot quality, whatever.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
It had some – like that was a playoff formula kind of game for the Lakers. And it had some things that if I'm a Thunder coach, I'm going back to the former. I'm like, let me see how that looked. Let me see how that looked.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Got my Taurasi shirt on today. Got my Taurasi shirt on today, baby. Paige Beckers and the group did it last night. All right, enough. Enough out of you, Howard. Okay? I'm sorry. We're coming down the stretch of the NBA. I missed damn near the entire regular season. You've got a lot of catching up.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Well, and just, you know, they're not scared of any of these other teams. Like the, the nuggets are disarray is too strong of a word, but it's just been one of those years where it just feels like they may not have enough. It may not all come together health wise, performance wise, their defense is a disaster right now. Clippers will see. Warriors, they're hot.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
They beat the Lakers over the weekend. These are all good teams, but the Lakers aren't scared of any of them. And yeah, it turns out adding Luka to your team is really good. I don't even want to talk about... I don't want to do the trade thing. I will just say that... Maybe just Patrick Dumont should just shut it down in the media for a while. Just shut it down. Just don't make any more comments.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
It's not helping. You're not helping. And by the way, they play in Dallas in two days, I think. This Wednesday, don't they play? Yeah.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Trying to get them on the Zach Lowe show on Thursday to recap what what it's going to be like to be in the building in Dallas on Wednesday night.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Yeah, and obviously what has unfolded in Dallas with all the injuries, particularly Kyrie's injury, is an absolute worst-case scenario. It's been interesting to watch AD play a lot of four. He's playing a lot of five, too. He's playing a little bit of both because Lively and Gafford have been in and out and on minutes restrictions.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
You can see it sometimes, you know, like AD and Lively hooked up on some really nice passing sequences the other day, and the size and the rebounding and the athleticism are just – they jump off the charts. And then there are games where it's like, yeah, he's going to have to take a lot of jump shots. He's going to have to ISO a lot from the left wing because he's a four and the lane is clogged.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
And is that really what I want Anthony Davis doing all of the time? I wish we could see the team, right? Like, I think it's an interesting team with Kyrie. We're just not gonna be able to see it. And. Look, this is – who knows if we're going to be able to see it next year. You never know with ACL injuries. Kyrie's at the very least going to miss a huge chunk of next season.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
The ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit rg-help.com to learn more about the numerous resources and helplines available and listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Must be 21 or over and present in select states. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
And this is, again – I mean, I tweeted this weeks ago, months ago. Like, even if you think – that this trade helped your short-term championship equity, which I would vehemently disagree with because you just made the finals. You were just in the finals and you were awesome in this regular season when you had everybody healthy.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
When Luca and Kyrie and they're the same group that got them to the finals last year. We're healthy. But even if you posit that, even if you posit the Mavericks are right about their short-term championship equity, trading up in age by five or six years or whatever it is, makes you uniquely vulnerable to one injury. One injury. And...
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
You know how long I've been waiting to make fun of Matt Ishpia's 2016s with trade places with this comment again? I can't stop. The Suns just... Just actively, you know what? Just shoot us. Just put us out of our misery. We're done. We don't even want... Anyway, okay. So it was a wild weekend in the NBA, Howard. And we're going to focus on the Western Conference because it's crazy.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
It's like the Nuggets were able to ride out two lost seasons, basically, of Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. going out or in and out. And just sort of their team was in purgatory for two years. And they were young enough that they were like, you know what? We can just ride this out. Jokic is incredible. Hopefully we don't exhaust him in these playoff series.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
And they came back and they won a championship. The Mavericks don't have that. Anyway, I can't. Let's stop. I still can't believe it. Every day I wake up and I'm like,
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I don't have any other takeaways from Oklahoma City. Oklahoma City Lakers is a bad game for the Thunder. Bad games happen. Again, I cannot stress this enough. The Thunder and the Cavaliers have zero to play for. There's a very natural decline in intensity as we get to this point of the season where All right, can we just get the – like, we're the number one seed. Can we just get the playoffs here?
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
The Houston loss, I don't know if you saw that, the Houston-Oklahoma City game on Friday was almost more interesting to me because... Houston just beat the hell out of them. Like, Shen Goon, they started with Chet on Shen Goon, and Shen Goon just feasted on Chet. And they switched the matchup to put Hartenstein on Shen Goon, which they did not want to do initially.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
And offensive rebounding, they had their way. And always the heat against the thunder. If you can win or be equal in turnovers, limit their steals, you have a chance against them. And that's what the Rockets did. That was almost a more interesting game to me. The Lakers lost the turnover battle, but won handily anyway because they shot the hell out of it.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Look, my finals prediction from day one, you can go on X and see it, even though I had no job at the time, was Celtics over Thunder. It was the chalk pick. I almost went Denver, and I was just hearing too much bad stuff from Denver, too much like, eh, a lot has got to go right for you to make the finals. So I went Celtics over Thunder. I'm sticking with that. That's still my finals pick.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I don't know if you made a final. I don't know if they make you make predictions or what it was.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
And I thought Philly Philly really loaded up in the offseason.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
You ready to go? Let's do it. Oklahoma City has lost two consecutive games for the first time in a while. They got bullied by the Rockets on Friday, I think. And then the Lakers... In a game that was... playoff like in the way that the Lakers approached it on offense, but Oklahoma city also obviously has very little to play for, uh, other than health and getting, getting primed for the playoffs.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Well, congrats to the Sixers. They have risen to fifth in the lottery standings, which is big for them with their top six protected pick going out the door in Philadelphia. Lottery's going to be interesting. Lottery's going to be a heavy drama in the draft lottery. Let's do some awards talk. Sure. Start with the big kahuna. This is not a hot take, I don't think.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I still haven't decided who I would vote for for MVP. I... I just – like how am I supposed to even decide? Every time you're like, well, SGA's team is 15 games up in the standings. He's incredible, blah, blah. It's like, oh, what did Jokic have? 37-15 and 11 or whatever. And yeah, Denver is losing and maybe – it's hard to put – it's hard to vote.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
If they're in the play-in, it's going to be hard for people to get there and SGA is probably going to win it anyway. But it's – I have been leaning SGA because I just think statistically – Jokic's dossier is a little bit better, but it's pretty close, and some of the advanced metrics actually favor Shea. But both of them are historically incredible statistical seasons.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
SGA is a better defensive player. Jokic is a better offensive player. And just sort of tie goes to the guy whose team is whatever, 64 and whatever they are right now. That still holds some logic to me, but I just – Every Jokic, every day, I just keep coming back to who's just better. And I just think Jokic is better and impacts every single possession a teensy bit more heavily on offense.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Thank you.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Thank you.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
The rockets are 15 and two in their last 17 games. They have something like a 99% chance. According to most models now of clinching the number two seed, what an accomplishment for the Houston rockets and email Doka. Um, Who cemented that almost number two seed status with a rollicking, and I mean rollicking win at Golden State last night.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
There was copious trash talk, including between Ime Odoka and Steph Curry. And after the game, I don't know if you saw this, Howard, I'm reading the athletics story. This is Eme Odoka to the Athletic after the game on the little halftime as they were walking to the locker room, dust up between him and Steph. When people start complaining about foul calls or crying about physicality, yeah, crying.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
24 points, 6 assists, 45% overall, 39.7%. I'm giving him 40. 40% on 11 threes a game. And per 36 minutes, he's at 27 points a game. So everyone – that's the same as Mitchell because Mitchell has obviously sacrificed. He doesn't play a lot of – there's been fourth quarters where they haven't needed him. So his per-game stuff is lower than his per-minute stuff. But Steph matches it.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
He didn't say whining. He said crying. You've done your job.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
And look, I don't need to tell anybody. That 40% on 11 threes combined with his off-ball movement, he remains – A singular offensive force, the likes of which there has never been, both in terms of impact and style. It's just playing them is just a different animal than playing any other team. And it's all because of him still.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
udoka told the athletic what asked about the exchange with curry that's the first step in winning the battle so i told my team when this team starts crying about it that's two cryings in five seconds up the intensity up the aggressiveness and make the refs adjust to you can we all agree by the way draymond green should have gotten ejected from that game and if you were any other player would have gotten ejected like three different times
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Yeah, I have no problem with that. And in fact, Cat and Jaron Jackson Jr. have been on my second team for the most part in the last month. And I just recently shifted them down for no other reason. I just think LeBron's been unbelievable and Halliburton's been unbelievable.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
cat has been fantastic the entire season um defensively he just is he is what he is like he's he's not had a great defensive season the knicks have not had a great defensive season but i've had him second team most of the year i wouldn't i wouldn't quibble i wouldn't quibble hardly at all with that um And Jaron Jackson Jr., same thing.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I mean, lately he's gotten back into some foul trouble habits that still drive me nuts. But that brings me to third team right now, which is, again, it's all tentative. People can shift around. I don't even have a ballot. Who cares? My third team, like absolute stone cold lock, Cat and Jaron Jackson Jr. They're both on it.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
They're both making it all NBA team on my fake ballot, whether it's second or third. They're both locked in. If Brunson gets to 65 games, I'm putting him on third team. You could make a case for him for second team, maybe in his minutes, or he's still played more minutes than Steph, despite playing in fewer games, because, you know, Tibbs. My fourth guy, so that's Brunson, Cat, Jaron Jackson Jr.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I think Cade Cunningham's got to be there, just to represent the Pistons and the seasons they've had. It got to be strong, but I have Cade Cunningham on. And then that last spot, I've had Kevin Durant penciled in there if he makes 65 games. And people are going to scoff at the Suns. Rightfully so. Scoff all you want. 26.5 points a game. 6 rebounds. 4 assists. 52.7% shooting. 43% on 3s. 57% on 2s.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Like, it's not his fault. I mean, some of it is his fault, but it's not basketball-wise his fault. However, he has not hit the 65-game threshold, and the Suns' finish to the season has become so embarrassing that I'm willing to open that up, which feels crazy considering the statistics I just read. And yes, I think he has a better case than Devin Booker.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I know Book's been hot lately and has been their best passer this year. I think Durant has a better case than Devin Booker. He's not had a great shooting season, particularly from three. I'm willing to open that last spot up. You'll hear arguments that Jalen Williams has got to be there because the Thunder need two representatives. It's not that persuasive for you, but he's in the conversation.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Shen Goon, late run right now, really sort of, if there's an answer to Houston's half-court offense late in games, I think he's got to be a huge part of it and has been. James Harden, like the shooting numbers are eh, like really eh. But he's been the engine for them all year. And let me look them up because he just cracked, I think, 40%. Yeah, 40% for the season. 34.5% from three. 46.5% from two.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I don't know that I could get there with him. But he does deserve credit again for playing every game and keeping them afloat. And he's surging now with Kawhi next to him. Jalen Brown I don't think can get there. And by the way, have you seen Jalen Brown's recent comments about the state of his knee? No, I did not. He's like been talking about how he's playing through some pain.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I think it's a bone bruise or something. I can't remember what it is. It's like not great, not great comments. And you could make Trey young. So bonus, I don't, I can't quite get there with him. It's undecided, but Durant is in pencil. But he might not even be eligible. So give me your third team.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Yeah.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
he's not had a great finish finishing kick to the season or the calves. No, but he was, look, I love Terry Scarlet. The guy's one of my favorite players to watch 20 a game, six and a half assists, 47%, 40% from three could make the case. I just, I can't quite, can't quite get there.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Coming up on the very first episode of the Zach Lowe Show, we've got Howard Beck of the Ringer, my new teammate, on Thunder Lakers, the craziness of the Western Conference, the awards races, and much more. And then Anthony Slater from The Athletic on the Warriors and a crazy Rockets-Warriors game full of trash talk and spice last night. to the Zach Lowe Show.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
He's one of the ultimate gap fillers in the NBA. Just one of these guys, like whatever you need on either end of the floor, he can do some of it. It's he's a very, very valuable player.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Irrelevant? Irrelevant. I like watching the Hawks. I think Trey Young's had kind of a good year. The shooting numbers aren't quite where they need to be given his limitations on defense. But here's one of your fun stat on Trey Young. Yeah. He has diversified his offense in real ways that have helped Jalen Johnson's development before he got injured, that have helped Dyson Daniels' development.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
And here's just one small thing. Again, I don't think the shooting numbers are there for Trey Young to make an all-NBA team, but I believe he does lead the NBA in assists. He has set more ball screens this year, set more ball screens this year, according to Second Spectrum, at least as of last week, than the entire prior career combined, every season.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Like, it's not a ton, but I think it was over 200 when I checked, so it's a few every game. He deserves some credit for that, but I can't get there. I just will not let you come on this podcast, come on the Zach Lowe Show, and call... Quinn Snyder's glasses and Zachary Richachet, one of the few Zachs in the NBA, irrelevant. I just won't let you do it.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
He's been going black more lately. He's been going with the black lenses or the black frames more lately. Yeah. I have a feeling he hears about this when I make fun of the glasses and it drives him. I bet he's mad. I bet he gets mad. I don't make fun. I wish I could be that cool. I can't. I don't wear glasses. I don't need glasses. But if I tried to do that, I just couldn't pull it off.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Draymond, look, he might win defense player of the year. He got a stupid technical for... Like, he baited a ref into a technical, and he dared the ref to call him for a technical by elbowing Shingun in the face. Then he got a flagrant, which... That was a strange play when he went up for a layup and elbowed Shingun in the face. I didn't quite know what to make of that.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
People would laugh at me.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I can see through the television, through my monitor. I can see the pouting every game, not just by him. I can see the in the corner pouting and I see it every game. Now, that team has been a tire fire top to bottom the entire year. The Beal thing has been a disaster. He finally made a basket.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
He came back, he didn't make any baskets, and he didn't make any baskets for like a full quarter and a half. He made a basket. They can't just, like Colin Gillespie starts and he doesn't start. Their whole lineup has been a mess. The fact, I mean, they're not competitive. I was going to say the fact that they're even competitive lately. They haven't won in ages now.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
He has been the best player on their team. Again, like I said, I don't know what to do, and he hasn't qualified yet. I don't know who I would go with. Did any of those other names, were they persuasive to you? I said Harden, Jalen Brown, Zubats deserves a look, Sabonis, anyone else?
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
But just the fact that he's the only player who's allowed to clap in a ref's face for eight consecutive seconds and say whatever he wants and no one does anything about it, it's interesting. But the other headline from that game, you know, Howard, I was going to come on today and say – First-team All-NBA.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
It's every year you get here and you're splitting hairs and then you think like, wow, imagine if these five players were actually eligible. Like Wemby, Luka, AD, we go on and on. Like, oh my God, I forgot Kawhi. None of these players are eligible. I mean, not that you'd expect Kawhi to be eligible, but
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Joel Embiid.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I'd like to ramp down just in general. I just like a ramp down.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
A magic guy would have made it. One of the magic guys. Probably Bancaro would have made it.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
revive the warriors or put them back in the conversation but again it's irrelevant because he hasn't played enough games anyway i'm just saying like there's some really interesting cases to consider two things two two tangents based on what you just said number one jimmy butler has reached the point where like i'm never doubting jimmy butler again whatever decisions he makes in life i just he's got he's a winning player he's always been a winning player
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
He gets paid no matter what he does. If he gave me financial advice right now, like, hey, the market's tanking. I got some advice for you. Buy stock in pumpkins or something like Homer Simpson did in November, obviously. Homer bought the pumpkin stock. Didn't go well for Homer. I would be like, sure, I get it, Jimmy. I trust you. I'm putting all my money in pumpkins.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
My second tangent, I already forgot what it was. I'm in mid-season form.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I don't want to address this. I don't want to go any further than this. The most complicated, and I don't mean that in any sense other than just like the most complicated question in NBA team building right now is what in the hell are the Pelicans supposed to do? What direction is their roster even aimed in now? Are they a win-now team while their best player doesn't play?
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
We've got four spots locked in, I think, between the two MVP candidates, favorites, Giannis and Tatum. That fifth spot has been rotating. It's been Donovan Mitchells for most of the season. Then he's kind of had an eh. Not eh. He had a little bit of a trough relative to his exemplary standard. And the Cavs are only 6-6 in their last 12 games, lost to Sacramento at home.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Are they a rebuilding team while they're picking high in the draft again? Are they, like, a cheap team? No, they're – it's just – I don't – like, the closest thing they had to – it's not a semi-dependable – borderline all NBA all-star player was Brandon Ingram who actually plays and they traded him and he hasn't played for the Raptors.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I mean, you and I might get, I'm surprised the Raptors didn't call me for a 10 day contract or like a fourth quarter contract. Hey, we're winning in the fourth quarter. Zach, get in there.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Anybody, anybody. I'm not positing an answer. I have no idea what the answer is. I just know that I would not want to be responsible for figuring that out. Let's fly through all defense. I have no idea who I would vote for for defensive player of the year. I will make a prediction at some point. I did make tentative all defensive teams.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
And this is very difficult because there are seven guys that I would consider worthy of first team all defense. Maybe eight. Don't know if you're any good at math. You can only pick five. My first seven, two of whom are going to have to be on the second team. are Dyson Daniels, Jaron Jackson Jr., Evan Mobley, Draymond Green, Ahmed Thompson, Lugans Dort, and OG Ananobi.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Who, by the way, OG Ananobi, in the last month, has played at an all-NBA level. That guy is on a heater like he's never been on before. I guess if I had to pick a first team, Daniels has to be on it. Jackson has to be on it. Mobley has to be on it. I think I would put Draymond Green and Ahmed Thompson as the last two spots on my first team.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
And with apologies to the Thunder, put Dort on the second team and put Ananobi just because it's not his fault that the Knicks have the worst defense among this group. They just do. He's deserving of first-team all-defense. I just – I can't fit him. I don't know what – you could make – I mean – I'm not, this is tentative. You could easily make a case that he's first team all defense.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
He's been, there are sequences in every Knicks game that he plays where for like 90 seconds, the whole game is just OGN and OB doing stuff and taking over, like wrecking the game. Block, shot, dunk, steal, pass, dunk by somebody else. Like, oh my God, what just happened? And then they would then, tentatively, then Dort and OG Anadobi would be on my second team, along with Jalen Williams.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
So the Thunder are getting two guys on my all-defensive team. Evita Zubats, who I think deserves to be in conversation for first team as well. He's the other guy there. And that leaves me one spot for either Bam Adebayo or Rudy Gobert, with apologies to Tumani Kamara, Derek White, and a couple of other people who just missed the cut.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
And I don't know who I would pick between those two, but that's what I got right now. I think I would lean Mobley right now. Just the most – he's not the best defender in the NBA. He hasn't been the best defender in the NBA in the last month. I think Draymond has probably taken that crown from him, if not Ahmed Thompson. I think he just has the most complete season-long –
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
yesterday and then you know Anthony Edwards maybe Evan Mobley maybe and I was going to come on this podcast and say hey I've seen what Steph Curry's been doing in the last month or two of the season and particularly in the last three or four games as the Warriors traipse through a gauntlet of teams and then you know what happened to Steph Curry Amin Thompson happened to Steph Curry and Amin Thompson announced himself not only as a first team all defense player if he made a big final sort of statement like hey
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
It's not his fault. It's not his fault. This part is not his fault. And this helps his case as a defensive player. I do think because of his reputation, whatever, he gets more leeway physically than almost anybody else in the league. Like he can play ultra, ultra physical defense and get away with it.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
You got called for that flagrant. Cause he hadn't shut the hell up in like 20 straight minutes. That's why he got called for it.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
All right, go, go, go. Give me your all-defensive.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Who gets bumped to your second team? Dyson Daniels for one.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Same with Obi Toppin for six minutes of the year. Not that he would get my vote, but just as a bookkeeping note.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Bam's going to get punished because the Heat have had a bad season. They're 10th or 11th in defense, and he just remains a stalwart that enables them to play a lot of different ways and deserves credit, too, for playing with Khalil Ware, who... Kahlil Ware, rather, who deserves, I think, to be first-team all-rookie. But that's a different story.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
The rim protection numbers are not great. I think teams are shooting, like, 71% with him – against him at the basket. But that's never been – I mean, he can get up there for a member of the block on Tatum, which is iconic in the bubble, but that's not his strength strength. But if you're forced to sort of pick a weak spot in his case, that's what it is. But I agree with you.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Bam has been, despite carrying a bigger offensive load, and he's done better on that lately than he did at the early part of the season, I think he's been pretty damn like Bam on a bio on defense. Yeah.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
First-team all-defense. Not only that, in this jumbled defensive player of the year race, don't ignore me. I know I'm only a second-year guy. I don't have this great reputation or whatever yet. I'm not Draymond Green in terms of my historical import to the game. But look what I can do. And he just blanketed Steph Curry and made plays as a help defender. Okay, that's the Rockets.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
If I had to choose between him and Bam right now, I think I would probably just reward Gobert based on team success. But I don't feel great about not having Bam on either of my all-defense teams. All right. Those are the only awards. I'll do the other awards later this week probably with another guest on Thursday. Howard Beck, any parting thoughts being the first guest on this silly show?
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Would you say it's the greatest honor of your life? Would you go that far? Where does it rank? Where does it rank vis-a-vis your marriage and the birth of your daughter? Better above those?
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
You might be a SAG member now. You might be able to vote in the SAG Awards. All right, Howard Beck, what do we got coming up on The Ringer from you? I know you're going to be on Real Ones as usual. I've got to get in the habit of promoting Ringer stuff now.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
We can get back to that. Ready to keep going? Let's go. Lakers have won four out of five, including that Thunder win. They are now a 75% bet, according to most markets, to clinch the third seed. That's a big deal for the Lakers. It's a great season for them. We will talk about them as we talk about Thunder Lakers. And then five teams, teams four to eight, all have exactly 32 losses.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
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The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
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The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
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The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
All right. I was deciding what I wanted to tack on as guest number two, and I wanted to talk about a team, specific team. I was like, what team should I really talk about? And I just don't know that any team has had a more interesting calendar year than the Golden State Warriors. The ups, the downs, the developments, the trades. Anthony Slater from The Athletic covers them like no other.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
How are you, sir?
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I'm very good. Welcome to the Zach Lowe Show. Warriors, 46-32, hot start. Started drowning, traded for Jimmy Butler, clarified the roster, and now they are 46-32, 21-3, I believe, with both Butler and Curry in the lineup. Coming off a loss last night to the Rockets, which we can talk about. But it's just been a crazy year of ups and downs, and I think, remarkably...
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
they saved their season they saved i don't want to say saved the end of steph curry's career but they have built themselves a team that i think they can look at and say this is real like to me this is real what they've done i'm not saying that they're the best team in the west the favorites in the west that they can win more than one playoff run necessarily but i remember i tweeted when the butler trade happened really like the butler trade something like i like the butler trade fine for both teams um
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I think he'll fit with the Warriors despite the shooting concerns because of just the IQ, the cutting, the defense, all that stuff. I said I think he could fit with both Kaminga and Green, which we'll talk about whether that's actually true.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
And I think I said something like maybe not quite a true title contender, but why not just sort of try to out-Veteran the Rockets in the first round and then you can win a – Maybe I sold them short. I don't know quite how good this team is, but this feels very real to me. Does it feel real to you watching it up close? And more importantly, it seems to feel pretty damn real to them.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
He's the subplot of all this is like the guy is leveled up from where he was last year and completely left behind whatever the hell was going on with him in the first two months of the season.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Four of them have the exact same record at 46 and 32. And just to give you a sense of how jumbled it is, take the Denver Nuggets. I'm using playoffstatus.com, which is a great site that has mathematical models about who's going to be where in the playoffs.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I mean, winning three series is a tall order for anybody in the West, period. No one other than the Thunder is a smart bet to be able to do that. And they had a rough weekend themselves. But the Warriors... Could do it. I mean, it's in play for them to win three playoff series. Now, the fourth one would be the finals. Let's just leave that aside. Their ceiling has been that high as a two-way team.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
They're plus 10 per 100 possessions since the Butler trade, and that includes the losses that one or both of them didn't play in, Butler and Curry. Their starting five is plus 10 per 100 possessions, plus 45 in 164 minutes. And it just works. It's small. It's small. And that got exposed a little bit last night against the Rockets, who are just ginormous and very, very mean. Very nasty.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
But it's a lineup that makes sense with Pajemski playing like this. I know Moody is not everyone's cup of tea, even within the Warriors. He's a little bit of a polarizing player. I think he's fit great in that starting lineup. And they bring quality guys off the bench. This feels... Pretty real to me. But what was that scene like last night, by the way?
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
A lot of crazy stuff happened in that game last night. Ime Odoka and Steph yapping at each other. Draymond just going full Draymond for like 20 straight minutes and not getting ejected.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I don't know if you or Sam Amick, because it's a cold byline story, conducted the interview with Ime Odoka when he used the word crying twice to describe what the Warriors were doing at halftime about the Rockets' physicality. Was that your interview or Sam's?
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
And he's gone after LeBron, too.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
The Nuggets right now have a, according to this website, and basketball references are similar, 4% chance at the third seed, 15% chance at the fourth seed, 16% chance at the fifth seed, 22% chance at the sixth seed, 26% chance at the seventh seed. Play in! That's the highest number so far, 26%. 18% chance of the eighth seed. That's just like, what is even happening? They've lost four in a row.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I almost wondered if it should have just been a no call. I didn't know what to make of it because it did not look like a wildly unnatural layup motion.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Look, they could be anywhere from four to eight. We don't know. We have no idea who their opponent's going to be. You start saying the word eight, it gets scary. Like, wait, we could still be eighth? I mean, their schedule is fairly forgiving the rest of the way. At Phoenix, home San Antonio, at Portland, and against the Clippers. Their tiebreaker situation is decent. They've won some.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
They've lost others. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Jamal Murray, Michael Malone said before yesterday's game, hopefully he's back before the playoffs. This is becoming a weird one. Uh-oh. Minnesota and the Clippers are both, both 14-3 in their last 17 games. Guess who has the third best net rating in the Western Conference? Number one is the Thunder. Number two is the Rockets. Do you know who has the third?
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
For the whole season, not just in the last 20 games, not just post-All-Star break, the whole season, the third best net rating in the West.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
The Los Angeles Clippers, plus 4.8 per 100 possessions. They are... plus 16 per 100 possessions with Kawhi, Harden, Powell, and Zubats on the floor, plus 167 in 460 minutes. Woolboy. The Wolves, I just mentioned, 14-3, trending well. They're the fourth-best net rating in the West. The Warriors, 21-3 with Butler and Curry, lost last night. And then Memphis rounds out that group.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
They've actually won their last two games. John Morant got fined for making the shooting gun motion. Do we need to address that? I guess there was a lot of... A lot of like, well, everybody does the, you know, it's called shooting. That's what people call it. It's three-point shooting.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I feel like I can compete with anybody in a playoff series.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I wouldn't want any of these teams. They're all... But the one that the Warriors... I think there was some like if we could just avoid Jokic in the first round, that would be great. Like they have so much respect for Jokic. Jokic is the best player in the NBA. The way Denver is just all over the place right now, defensively, health wise, all of it.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
You know, that's I don't think that quite has the same fear factor.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
And everybody does some, tons of players do some version of a mimicking of like, oh, whatever, gun thing when they make threes or something approaching that. Why is Ja getting singled out? My reaction was like, really? You guys don't know why Ja's getting singled out for that? You don't know why he's the only one getting punished? Like, really? That's hard to understand.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Okay, I have two thoughts. Number one, I talked about this with Howard Beck before, that Luka felt a little bit lost offensively in that game in a way that surprised me. And I think the Warriors switching and lack of a slow-footed center for him to attack was part of it. And the game plan against the Warriors is always hunt Steph, hunt Steph. And that's kind of like LeBron's job.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
And even like Austin Reeves did a lot of it. I think that's good for the Warriors if Luka can get lost a little bit in the offensive attack. On the other hand... We have a lot of years of experience that wanting Luka Doncic in a playoff matchup is a bad, bad thing to want. You should not want it. You should want to avoid it. By the way, you mentioned something, gold medals and stuff.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
You mentioned the Olympics. I have a quibble, and I think I'm going to – I don't know if I can blame Steve Kerr, but I'm blaming him for it. I haven't had a podcast in a long time. I got a lot of takes to get off.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I guess that's what we're calling it now. I kind of like the old name. I came up with the old name. But the only constant in life is change. And so we move on. And as we move on, it is time for the first time in a very long time to say the three most anticipated words in niche basketball podcasting. Everybody, what up, Beck? Howard Beck of The Ringer slash Spotify. How are you? Zach Lowe!
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Batum is one of the stars.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
We have locker room footage of Jokic, the likes of which you will never get again. It's absolutely incredible. You know what locker room footage we don't have, Anthony Slater?
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I have. Half-time of the semifinals, we're getting smoked by Serbia. They go into Serbia's locker room. Jokic is on the whiteboard doing stuff. The coach eventually kicks the cameraman out of the locker room. And then you just, like, third quarter, so I said, wait a second. The one thing I want to see is Team USA at their most crisis moment, at the moment of greatest urgency. The game pauses.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Everything's on the line. They got 20 minutes left. And I don't see it. I just... I'm mad. Steve Kerr has to answer for this. Eric Spolster has to answer for this. Sean Ford at USA Basketball has to answer for this. They all have to answer for this, Anthony Slater.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
We didn't get that. All right, Anthony Slater does just a bang-up job covering the Warriors, more than the Warriors, all things NBA. For The Athletic, it's great to see you. Thanks for lending me some time. And buckle up. Buckle up for the end of the season for the West. No Kings questions? They're still alive. They're still alive. They're playing. They are. They're ninth.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
They're ninth with a bullet. I know. Only eight games out of eighth. Do they have enough time to make that up? It's going great for the Kings.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
It's been a rough season for the Kings. 8-38 and 40 is not so bad. All right, Anthony Slater, thank you, sir. All right, thanks for having me. Must be 21 and over and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 and over and present in D.C. Gambling problem? Call the 1-800-GAMBLER or visit fanduel.com slash RG.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut. or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24-7 sport in Massachusetts, or call 1-877-8HOPENY or text HOPENY in New York.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Yeah. I have nothing more to say about it. I mean, it's just like, yeah, maybe, maybe just don't do it would be my, my gentle advice.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
So the West, as I just described is a complete mess. Like who knows who's going to be four or five, six, seven, eight, who's going to have to go through the play in, which apparently Dallas and Sacramento are just going to limp right into that play in Sacramento. Nice one last night again in Cleveland. Cause Phoenix wants absolutely no part of it. Um, And it's just, it's so jumbled.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
And there are so many teams going up and down and sideways. And the records are the same. The tiebreakers are all over the place. And you're tempted to say, well, it looks pretty open. Like the Lakers have a playoff formula. The Rockets, I mean, the Rockets, yeah, their half-court offense is only so-so. It's trended better as the season's been going along.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
They've found something with this Adams-Shen-Gun just beat the hell out of you double big lineup. Yeah, it might be flawed, their half-court offense. Their shooting is so-so. Their spacing is so-so. They are just freaking good and tough. Their defense is legit. And they are going to beat the crap out of you for seven straight games. And you're going to feel that whether you win that series or not.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
They can beat any of these teams 2-7, 2-8. They could win any series. And they reminded everybody of that last night. And then you still have the Thunder that are like a million games ahead of everyone else. So let's start there. Two-game losing streak over the weekend, and that Lakers game, all the eyes of the league were on that game. Let's see how the Lakers match up with this.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
The new-look Lakers, the Luka Lakers match up with the Thunder. What did you take away from the Lakers blowing the doors off the Thunder on the road?
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Like, there's a legitimate case... Except one team has 64 wins.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
What the hell are you?
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
It seems to – it sort of catches you off guard because everything has changed so fast. I read those records. These teams in their last 17, 18 games are just rolling through wins. The Nuggets are 5-9 in their last 14 games. Strother just got healthy. Jamal Murray hasn't been healthy. It's been a weird year for them, just one of those years. And they've fallen back to the pack.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
And, like, the Clippers – there's always going to be some lag time with them because Kawhi took a long time to come back. And then there's just sort of residual, like, why would I believe this? Why would I have faith in it? And then the games and the wins and the numbers pile up, and you're like, I don't know. The sample size is pretty big now that when they have everybody...
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
they're they have the statistical profile of a legit contending team and minnesota same thing both of those teams were 32 and 29 middling middling now in the west middling is tough in the east middling is the bulls who are hot great good congratulations um And they're both 14-3 since being 32-29. The Wolves got Randall back. He's fit back in.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Gobert's playing some of the best basketball he's played in a long time. And Ant is Ant. And they've got through the suspensions with the Pistons brawl thing. And, yeah, like 32-29, you're 60 games in. You're kind of like, okay, I guess those teams are just what they are. And then you wake up. You're like, wait a second. Are they much more than we thought they were?
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
But let's go back to Thunder Lakers. What struck you?