Andrew Schlecht and Alex Speers are joined by Mike Zakarian to discuss questions surrounding East teams that remain in the Playoffs and if the Cavs can win it all. They also discuss the eliminated teams including which future would you rather have: Magic or Pistons? Mike then joins the guys in doing their weekly Contender Draft, before discussing the Western Conference Playoffs. Then the boys play a fun edition of Andrew vs. the Beat, a trivia game where Andrew is pitted against a beat writer.Host: Andrew Schlecht and Alex SpeersWith: Mike ZakarianExecutive Producer: Andrew SchlechtAudio/Video Editor: Gonzalo Torres Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Chapter 1: What are the Eastern Conference playoff predictions?
Mike, what's up? Hey, guys. How we doing? We enjoying tonight's NBA action?
It was really fun. I like having the two games. I really enjoy having the two games, which is very fun. We are recording this late, late Thursday. So when you're listening to this on Saturday, you're confused about the two games that I'm talking about. So it's just one game on Friday. Not talking about that, but we are going to talk about the Eastern Conference to start with.
And so the second round of the Eastern Conference is set. Most people are already looking ahead to a Cavs-Celtics conference finals. But I want to ask you the same question about both series. An upset feels unlikely, but what would need to happen for the Pacers and Knicks to make these long series?
the drew holiday uh injury kind of lingering out there where i don't feel like we've gotten an update since that series is wrapped up with orlando i feel like that could actually cause some some issues for boston and jaylen brown already kind of you know limping around a little bit and then lost a finger i think halfway through that series as well so i i think that could be something but i actually like the pacers i i think halliburton uh the the way that
you saw even though I mean clearly they just took care of business against Miami right but Tyler Hero is still putting up big numbers and we saw guards be able to attack the backcourt of Cleveland so I think I think Indy could be frisky but I also think we're I'm putting that energy out there so that we get a long series but it does feel inevitable that it will be Cleveland and Boston
Well, let's talk about some of the teams that are no longer with us in the East playoffs. And starting with the team you just mentioned, the Miami Heat. So they won the fewest games they've won since 2015. It's their second straight first-round exit in the 1-8 matchup after finishing the play-in again. How bad do you think Miami's situation is right now? They're not Phoenix, all right?
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Chapter 2: How bad is the Miami Heat's situation?
We don't think they're Phoenix. But do you see a clear path forward without a rebuild?
Do you know why I feel like it is kind of bad right now is that there's this whole conversation about Giannis maybe leaving Milwaukee. And I haven't heard anybody really say, what about Miami? And that makes me think it's kind of bad because I feel like that would be the first that's anytime anybody wants to go anywhere. They're like, well, the heat could be a pretty good spot.
I feel like we haven't really heard too much about that. So I don't know. I don't really see the path forward to Miami. I feel like they have a lot of nice pieces there, but I don't know what the right move would be that all of a sudden would vault them into the contender conversation.
Yeah, it's tough, especially with Bam's contract. I'm really torn. What team would that contract make sense for? Because when he's the top played player on your team, it's just not going to work. That's not going to work long term. You're talking about a Giannis trade. I feel like it would have to include Bam. And then at that point, what's left when Giannis arrives in Miami? So, yeah.
I don't really know what they do either. It feels like they have one more year where they have to get through some of these contracts with Terry Rozier, and then they can start making some decisions. But it might be another year of just... trying to make the play in as the 10 seed, getting into the 1-8 matchup again. It's hard to see it being something else.
I know it's bad, too, because I was really talking myself into those Davion Mitchell minutes here down the stretch. Yeah, me too. Davion's a pretty nice piece. And he is. He was great. He was great. But that was the point of them. We're not used to talking about Miami like that at this point in the season, I don't think.
Yeah, it feels like we're heading back into the Dion Waiters era of the Miami Heat again.
you know, you would love Andrew.
That's right. Personally love it. I mean, there's a coffee mug. There's a coffee mug above my shoulder right now of Dion waiters and a Miami heat Jersey. So it's actually, I'm very, very excited for the future of the heat. Another team that said farewell this week was the Orlando Magic. The Magic's needs are maybe the most obvious in the league.
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Chapter 3: What does the future look like for the Orlando Magic?
They do have a pretty juicy pick next year, which is the worst of the Wizards and Suns pick. So that's pretty good. That's a nice juicy pick. You know, they have Wendell Carter Jr. I don't know.
So when I start looking at like those types of assets, I'm thinking someone like more on the level of like an Anthony Simons who you might be able to get at a little bit of a discount compared to if you're trading for Trey Young or someone like that.
Is that enough? Is Anthony Simon's enough? I mean, you've watched, you've watched him up close a lot. Yeah. But is that, is that, is that enough for Orlando? You think he's clearly better than like most, most guards on this magic team, which is a pretty low bar. Yeah. But is that enough?
I think he could beat out Corey Joseph for those minutes. I mean, enough for what?
What do you, are you wanting to take the next step enough to take the next step for the magic?
I mean, honestly, if they'd just been healthy this season, I think they would have taken the next step. Like, I think they would have been a top six playoff team and we would have been talking about their season differently. But then they lose Suggs. They have to play Boston the first round. You kind of know it's going to be a first round exit.
But if that had been like a 6-3 matchup against the Knicks and they have Suggs, like, I think that's a lot more interesting. So it's possible that they kind of run it back and just bring in like even the lower tier guard than Anthony Simons.
Oh, well, it was kind of nuts that they they were holding on as strong as they were throughout the season with Paulo and Franz going down. Like, did we learn that Suggs is actually the best player on that team? Yeah. Because they lost Paulo, they lost Franz, they still kept winning games with Suggs out there.
Suggs goes down, the other two come back, and then it was just like a nosedive there for like six to eight weeks.
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Chapter 4: Which team has a brighter future: Magic or Pistons?
And so if you can just tweak it a little bit and stay healthy for an entire season, I feel like it's not out of the realm of possibility. That's a home court advantage team next year.
No, especially looking at the teams in front of them currently, right? Like we saw what Milwaukee just did here. And I know we'll talk about Knicks Pistons, I'm sure, at some point. But yeah, you're absolutely right. They're not that far away at all. Being an Eastern Conference. That's right.
Yeah, it's really nice. The Pistons almost gave us a game seven. It was so close. But in the end, it was Jalen Brunson shaking Asar Thompson, ending Detroit season, hitting a three pointer. What are your thoughts on Cade Cunningham now? You've seen him in his first playoff series. Has your opinion changed on him at all? And, you know, how the Pistons should build around him going forward?
No, I mean, I love Cade. I think he's so fun. And I think like if you were a Detroit fan at the beginning of the season, I think your hope was to just come away from this season knowing what you have with your young core and Cade and Duren. And I know Ivy got hurt and that was an unfortunate injury, but Thompson as well. And I think you come away from this.
You're like, man, you got you played seriously. You honestly could have won five of them. It felt like they should have had a ton of wins in this playoff series. So I don't even think they have to shake it up too aggressively. I think, right, you find some shooting and maybe it's upgrading those spots.
I mean, Beasley was awesome this year, but like of the Tim Hardaway Jr., I don't know what Dennis Schroeder looks like next year. And maybe Ivy is able to step into that role when he comes back healthy. And then Duren just continuing to evolve. Like, I don't think they have to shake it up too much. I mean,
like Tobias Harris as being like the, the wily vet that came in and all of a sudden just completely changed the narrative around Tobias Harris this post season. It was wonderful. Um, so I, yeah, I wouldn't, I wouldn't shake it up too much. I don't think.
Yeah. You also have to, you just have to leave room for growth too, for these guys. Like Asar only played 23 minutes tonight, but had a really big impact. And if he could just get some semblance of an offensive game, you know, I mean, he, he's clearly an impact player that needs to play more. Um, We didn't even see Beef Stew out there this whole series, which was kind of a bummer.
Especially against the Knicks and in a contentious series. The cameras always found him, but he didn't get to play. I'm kind of with you. I don't think that they need to do much. I think that Cade, who's still a young player himself, is still evolving. Now they know what it takes. Now they know what it takes in a playoff series and I think they'll be fine. I think that's a team.
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Chapter 5: How should the Milwaukee Bucks approach their roster?
Let me ask you this, though. If we find out they're wearing those 5280 jerseys again, will that change your pick? It is the worst. We got to we got to do the same. How Milwaukee's investing in T-shirt cannons and mascots. We need Denver to reexamine some some say they were they were amazing in those jerseys the other day.
So I don't know. Yeah, I actually I actually would double down. Maybe I would take them number one, honestly, if I knew they were going to wear them again. For my second pick, it would be logical to take the Clippers here, but I won't use logic. I'm going to take the Golden State Warriors. Okay.
I don't feel good about it, but they just feel... A lot of times, it has felt at times like they were dead, but then they continue to just... They continue to just like become this like zombie version of themselves and they just win basketball games. So I don't know. I'm just not betting against that whole infrastructure that they have in Golden State.
Yeah, I feel similar with them as I feel about Denver, where at some point in these series, I'm just like, these teams are so thin. How is this going to work out? But then they still win.
Denver and Golden State are two teams where the game before has no impact on the game after it. You can see two very different performances. I'm not worried about Golden State getting smoked by Houston in that most recent game. They'll wash it off. They'll be fine.
Well, thank you, Andrew. I'll go ahead and take the Clippers, who I am now favoring in game seven. Well, thank you. Well, thank you. And Mike, you get the great choice of choosing between the Houston Rockets or the New York Knicks, who you just said could only win a game.
in the second round this is this is how this is how strongly i feel against the knicks is that i'm going to take the team that's not even in the second round yet oh i'm going to take the houston rockets over the knicks okay i'm betting on upside here like i i feel like if the rockets make it to the second round then i'm playing your game theory i'll have at least a shot at a western conference finals and i could have done the same thing with the knicks but it won't happen
Okay, so that's the end of the third week of the NBA championship draft. Andrew, you have OKC Denver Gold State. I have Cleveland, Indiana Clippers. And Mike has Boston, Minnesota, Houston. Now, we move on to the Western Conference. So the Clippers, they pushed their series with Denver to a game seven on Thursday night. They beat the Nuggets 111 to 105.
Which of those teams do you think has the best shot against OKC in the second round?
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Chapter 6: What insights can we gather from the championship draft?
Man, I love watching Ahmed Thompson. I think I want to see Ahmed Thompson. And then it's like at least four more games of Dylan Brooks maybe doing something weird. Like, I think that's true. Of course, we want to see Steph as much as possible. I think that's the easy answer. But I want to I'm here for the Ahmed Thompson, the Ahmed Thompson journey.
I love, I love the Thompson twins so much. Like watching that game tonight. I know he got like the last shot was bad with, but the play right before that, where he just like bodied up Jalen Brunson on the perimeter, didn't use his hands like at all until he absolutely needed to. Those dudes are just so good.
There was like a couple of possessions in a row where they kept trying to set some screens up top. And he just was like almost like a worm, like it was just kind of slivering in front of them. Like it was just refusing to be picked. I've never seen a defender do that. Yeah, he's so he's so good. And that, again, only going to get better.
Both of those dudes like this were like the early stages of this.
So back to the Lakers. They're heading in the offseason. The focus once again is on acquiring a center after the Mark Williams trade fell through. Do you feel that this Lakers roster is one center away from being a top tier contender in the West? Or do you still have significant questions about the rest of the roster?
A significant contender, I think, is an interesting choice. I think we're all going to learn again that OKC is very, very, very good. And I think that where the Thunder are right now, it's going to be more than a center for the roster the Lakers have to all of a sudden compete with a team like that. And that's not like I don't want that to be slanderous to what LeBron or Luka are doing.
They're not there. They played five guys. So yeah, if they get a center, they can play six. Like they just don't have, I don't think they're as close as maybe we all thought they were a couple of weeks ago. And again, that could change if all of a sudden Luka comes in in crazy shape and returns to form. But I don't know.
I mean, like what is the center that they could get that like Walker Kessler and we're like, are they in one seat? Like, I don't know if that's going to do it, you know?
Yeah, the muscle watch for Luca is going to be unbelievable this summer. Like when August rolls around and we start seeing photos of Luca, people are going to freak out one way or the other.
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Chapter 7: How do the Timberwolves stack up against the Clippers?
a lot of games in Oklahoma city where he did come off the bench. Um, I guess it was only one year. Nevermind. Um, no, no, no, that's not true. No, that was, that was several years. Um, that was three years.
Um, and if you're hard and lover, I came up with this question after game five, he had a great game game six, 28, six and eight. Congrats. That was one of the games. 27%. Okay, Mike. Wow. Andrew has set the bar at 27% of James Harden's games, playoff games, James Harden's games, that he has scored 15 or fewer points. Would you like to go higher or lower?
I so badly want it to be higher. I'll be honest. I was thinking I was going to guess like if I had to pick a number, I was going to say like 14 or 15%. I was like in that range. I want it to be higher than 27 just for comedy. I'm going to say lower, though. I'm going to say lower.
Andrew, you're within two percentage points. Wow. The correct answer is... Twenty five percent. Mike gets the point, man. Quarter of his games.
So many more than I thought.
Wow. Andrew, obviously, you're a James Harden hater. You were. Did you have to lower your number? Were you originally thinking like 40 percent?
No, no, no, no. I was thinking I was thinking more like Mike to start with, that it would be like 15 ish percent. But no. I don't know why I went with the seven, though. That was my mistake. Is it my pick? Yes, Mike.
I'll go ahead and take six. Question number six. There are two NBA franchises whose last playoff win came prior to the existence of the COVID-19 virus. Who are they? So you get one point per correct answer. So the last time these teams won, COVID-19 wasn't a thing yet. Who are those teams? Wow, it's really only two teams.
I know, isn't that kind of amazing?
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