Knicks Up 2-0! Plus, Spurs Even the Series, Lottery Thoughts, and Fake Trades!

coming up on the Zach Lowe show Motoculus here. We're going to talk everything second round react to last night's Nick's win over the sixers without Joelle and bead. OGN and OB pulled up with some hamstring issue or leg issue later in the game. We'll talk about the impact of that. San Antonio blows the doors off the Timberwolves in game two to even up that series. I owed to soon we got hurt again. Ant was not quite Ant and we'll talk about you know how that series moves forward back to Minnesota for games three and four. Who do we like in that series? I picked spurs and six. I'm sticking with spurs in six and that one. Quickie previews of tonight's games. Caves pistons show me game for the calves. Show me something because your offense was a mess in game one and Detroit kind of eaked it out at the end. Good effort, of course, by the pistons and then Thunderlakers went a lot like Thunderlakers was expected to go in game one. Do they have any hope? And then it's draft lottery week. We're going to talk about who has the most at stake. What would be the funniest outcome? What would be the saddest outcome? Trade possibilities and all of that stuff. Jalen Brown, Twitch stream, Jalen Brown, fake trades, Yannis, the box owners said some stuff about Yannis. The offseason is about to get into full swing. We'll talk about all of that and more with mode to kill. Coming up on the Zach Lowe show. The Zach Lowe show is brought to you by Fandall. It's been a wild playoff run, but it's not over yet. And Fandall wants to bring you closer to the court to make more of all the action to come. Fandall is the best place to bet the teams, the players and plays during the NBA postseason, build the same game, parlay for a shot at a bigger payout or try lie betting and jump into the action after tip off. Download the Fandall sports week app now and play your game. Twenty one over and select states. Eighteen or over in D.C. Kentucky Roy Oman gambling problem. Call one 800 gambler. Call one 888-789-7777 or his at ccpg.org/chat in Connecticut. Welcome to the Zach Lowe show. It's bright and early on a Thursday morning. The New York Knicks are up to. Oh, in the conference semi finals, did they suffer a big loss? We'll talk about that. And the Spurs absolutely destroyed the hapless turnover prone. Just not quite there, Minnesota. Terminals even that series of one one. We have two more games tonight. We have the lottery coming up. We have Jalen Brown saying more stuff on Twitch and me learning what Twitch is and how it works. We have the bucks owners saying interesting yet somehow also crazy things about yannis. There's a lot going on. More to kill. How are you? I'm doing great. Zach, I'm on your side of the country. I'm on the east coast. It's nice. Welcome. Welcome. We like Avenue. Welcome to the worst sports time zone of all four time zones. Oh my god. This is wild. Yeah. I think everybody who lives in L.A. should have to do like two weeks in New York watching sports that you feel like what we feel. It's not good for sleep. All right, let's start Nick Sixers. Well, I hope the Sixers fans enjoyed the like 72 hours where they got to see their team playing to its full potential because Joel and bead was out for game two with a malady. An endless series of malady's linked to he got hit. It's lots of stuff. He got nailed on the screen after having appendicitis. I'm not blaming him. He's just out. And this was the fear all along. Obviously that could he hold up for two series, three series, particularly once we got going every other day, gutted it out in game one. I suppose there's a case to be made that the Sixers should have just punted that game from the beginning. That's, that's an easier case to make in fantasy land than it is in real life. It's hard to look your team in the eye and be like, you know what? We're just not going to really try that hard to win this game. And then they did punt it when it got out of control. Good showing. I thought for the Sixers last night, Maxi came out with the right mentality that guy was just hunting every kind of opportunity. There was the score he understood. He needed to spark his team played pretty good defensively. The whole team did. They had great minutes from Dom Barlow as a stopgap center when all of their centers got in foul trouble. Everyone was in foul trouble. Mitchell Robinson was also out in this game. There was a lot of huck party. I just, I do wonder if it's, it's 9 30 in the morning right now. We won't know about OGN and OB's hamstring thing. He pulled up with about three minutes ago, sat on the left the bench for the rest of the game. Obviously he had hamstring issues in the playoffs two years ago. This is not then totally different next team. Everybody on that team was hurt by the end. Everybody else is pretty healthy. I mean, Mitchell Robinson was an illness last night. But I do wonder, Mo, if the single most important thing that happened last night was depending on the MRI results, OGN and OB's hamstring injury because not a stretch to say he has been the best player on the Knicks in the playoffs and like one of the five to 10 best players in the NBA in the playoffs. 21 points, seven and a half rebounds, three stocks per game on 62% shooting, 54% on threes, 67% on twos. And you saw in this game, if cat continues to commit dumb fouls and illegal screens, we're going to see OGN and OB as a backup center. He's a wild card. If M.B. gets healthy in this series to guard M.B. Now and then every time the sixers and it hasn't been very many times have tried to put their centers on him and cross match like that. He has burned them with pick and pop threes and drives to the rim. He beat V.J. Edgegum on his switch, just bullied him so he's beating mismatches that way. Just like the Knicks have a lot of really good wings. No one quite like him. And we'll see how long he's out for. If it were Mimo, I'm the luxury of a 20 lead. I'm soft pedaling this and giving him as much rest as possible. I should feel pretty confident that I can win one of two and Philly, particularly with M.B. status uncertain, even if he plays like let's go out one of two and try to wrap this up in five or six. I actually think they could plausibly win the East without OGN and OB. The way that Cleveland and Detroit have kind of had to gut out their respective games. But boy, would they miss his size against Cleveland who plays two bigs to start and finish a lot of games, so less so finishing. And Detroit, who absolutely kicked a shit out of the Knicks in the regular seasons, you need all the physicality you can get. So I just think any analysis of game two has to start with like knock on wood for OGN and OB because the Knicks are looking like a worthy finals team right now. Could still make it without him, but if he's out for like the playoffs, which I hope not and you just never know what these things could be like a game. It could be two weeks. It could be a month. I do think the finals, if they were to get there, that's when you would just be like, Oh, okay, now it's we're upping a level and we really do need him. The thing that's brutal about it because like you lay out the numbers, even when he comes back, what is he going to come back at? Right. And that's something that's really concerning because he's been not just, he's been the most consistent Nick player. He's been the guy you could count on every night on both ends of the floor and the way that he's provided for this Knicks game and being able to spread the floor like you said with the shooting numbers are just absolutely absurd. And it's such a killer sort of situation when you when you saw him pull up. And to be honest, like I missed it at first, I had to go back and catch it. But when you saw him pull up, it was just like, Oh, man, that's not good. Is he tried to gut it out for the rest of that possession? I mean, he tried to dunk on, it was drumming. Who was he was trying to dunk on right there? He misses the dunk, but it was a, and then it comes back down and then he just immediately knew I've done. I got to get out. And I think that's a brutal possession and position to be in with the Knicks because you said they don't have anybody like him off the bench. I mean, just even body type, right? Like they become immediately a smaller team. The moment he's not available, you know, honestly, the closest guy they have is Diora, who had really nice moments for them in the regular season. I, if I'm like Brown, like I'm not averse to giving Diora a shot to just like put him on the floor, see how he looks. He's got size. He shot the three pretty well. But yeah, I mean, he's a rookie, unproven, whatever. Like, yes, and very few teams have anybody like OGN, it'll be that's why the Knicks traded so much stuff to get him. Yeah. And I think it's, it's really going to be an important one going through. I'm with you. I actually don't think, I think they can pull out one of the next two games in Philly, you know, with, with what they have. I don't need to worry about them for the next two games. Like get, get yourself right. And let's see where we're at. And if I can win the series without him, like that's a massive win for them, right? Obviously, they get to kind of rest him a little bit more. It's the next round. And where I'm worried, because of the physicality is going to ramp up even more, especially if it's the pistons that move on. And you have to deal with their sort of just bruising mentality. I, that's where I'm concerned. It was the biggest story of the night. Like, there's no way to look at it when you, you see his importance and his value to this team. It just crushes you when he's not going to be available. And you, your chances are lower because like they did look like a champion contender, not like they look like, yo, this is a team that legitimately has a chance to take on anybody in the West with the way they've been playing the past few games. Like they were blowing everybody out the door at the ship. You know, before game two, like I'm pretty bummed that he went down. Yeah, you know, it's interesting. I've been thinking a lot about this guy. picked the nicks to make the finals before the season. And you are, I am, many of us are trapped in this mental thing of like, well, you know, you get to the finals from the East and then it's like, oh, here comes the varsity conference champion and it's going to be ugly from there. And I don't think it's like, I agree. If it spurs or thunder, you know, the nicks did beat the thunder in a high profile. Kia Sprite, Poolyan Weedier, Taco Bell, Emirates Cup, finals game. That was a big spotlight game. But if it's one of those two teams that nicks, even at full health would be underdogs, particularly against the thunder defending champion still haven't lost the game in the playoffs. But like matchups are funny things. And you get into a series and maybe you find something that you didn't anticipate that's an advantage that the other team didn't even anticipate. And you start yanking on that a little bit and like you steal one of the first two games. So short series, like you get one kind of random fluke win. One win when you play out of your mind and like all of a sudden you're two wins from the title. The pages were a huge underdogs last year. They almost won. It's just it's one series. Anything can happen. And I think the nicks have shown enough and they're strange enough matchup with cat at the five. If he can ever stop fucking fouling everybody versus the and then they can flip to the double big and they throw the Mitchell Robinson ingredient out there. Brunson's a strange player undersized sure, but he's like a tough he's he's tough to grasp defensively. And their defense is like a proven thing now. I mean, this has been a top eight defense for a long time. They've been sensational on the playoffs. They've been sensational in this series. I don't think that's an impossible hill to climb for the fully healthy nicks. Obviously they have to get there. But they would find a way to be in those games. And so you just knock on wood like I would love it by the end of today. It's whatever the lowest grade of the lowest thing is. It's 10 days to two weeks. Take it slow. Get out of this series and move on. Because I do think even if NB plays the rest of the series. Which we don't know four out of five is going to be a tall order for Philly, even with three of the five games in Philly. I don't know. Go ahead. Like if the one thing I kind of thought, put the nicks in a tough position in this game. Part of it was the nature of finding out day of that and beads out. It took a target off the floor for them, right? Like they went the way Brunson attacked them in game one. Like he absolutely killed it. My podcast partner, Jared, do have sent me this from game one, you know, 27 picking a rolls and bead was involved in. And the nicks had a 1.62 points per possession, you know, including past passes on those on that. Like that target kind of was taken off for the nicks a little bit. And I think, you know, if and bead comes back, it's almost like cool. Like you can just see Brunson sort of just rubbing his hands ready to go back to work right off the bat in that instance. So I think that's going to be something that even if and bead comes back, I'd be worried about if I was Philly. At the same time, like I had this discussion with Bill after him beads first playoff game back where it was like a little tough integrating him and Max, he got lost and he floated the way. Are they better without him bead thing? I'm like, no, they're not. And and I think yes, they attacked him be to ton in the pick and roll and had great success in the first game. You saw last night that without that segment of their offense, the nicks can just load up on everything else. So they're blitzing every Maxi pick and roll where he tries to hunt Brunson and saying to the sixers, go ahead. Like Kelly Ubra, you want to play four on three and then bonas under the rim. We don't think you can beat us and their rotations were like wildly on point last night, the nicks defense. Even when they just ran straight pick and roll with like Barlow or Bona at center blitz and like, okay, Dom Barlow, you're just like fresh into the game. You want to play four on three? Good luck. And he fumbled one pad, he like fumbled the ball and then threw a pass out of bounds and the nicks were flying everywhere. And if you freeze those, it does look like, oh, there's a sixer over there open. But when you freeze it, you're you're missing the speed of what's going on in real time and how that nicks defender is already starting to run to the open guy and where that nicks defender is going to be when the ball actually gets to that open guy. And even, you know, one thing that I talked about after game one was when Maxi gets a favorable matchup, namely Brunson, I would just not even send a pick up for him. I would just let him go one on one and try to go to the rim. And the nicks were like, no, no, we're not going to let you do that. We're just going to double you at half court and take the ball out of your hands. All of those things become much harder for the nicks to do with Joel and beat on the floor instead of the centers who are on the floor, not to mention the post up option, the pick and pop short to's all of that. So I think it goes both ways. I just don't I set it against Boston and I'll say it now. I don't think the sixers can score enough points to be competitive in a seven to win a seven game series against a good team without Joel and beat even if he is at times a little lost in space defensively. And I thought the nicks. Yes, maybe they lost the place to hunt when they had the ball, but they became predators on defense because in beat was not on the floor. The one thing to do about those rotations when they did blitz was the Brunson didn't do particularly a great job of sprinting to the opposite corner. Right. Like it was almost funny. There's one possession I was watching, rewatching this morning where like it happens and it's almost like he stopped every time the pass was the swing, swing pass was made. And it was it was the one where I forget who I think Ubray attacked from the corner and found a Barlow for a for a bucket and a dump off, but it was like he stopped at the first pass, looked real quick. Where's the ball going? And it was cover cool. Goes to the next pass, stops there to say, Oh, okay. And then runs over where Ubray's immediately able to attack. Like there are small things where their rotation. I thought they could have been sharper with that. And that's just me nitpicking the way, you know, I do as a nerd. But I think that's the the stuff that they need to be a bit sharper going into it because that actually really opened up Philly's offense quite a bit. Not Philly did a great job moving the ball off in those double teams and getting a lot of swing, swing, swing, three, swing, swing drives, swing swing, you know, rip and go and all of those different opportunities. It was that was the stuff that I think most impressed me with the six of offense. I when they were I thought that was a really good battle. I agree that the sixers moved the ball really well. And sometimes when you move the ball really well, the rotations are not going to be perfect. Two guys are going to pause for a second. Like who's shooting over to the corner who's coming up to the wing. They had even one possession where they this and this is like really getting into the weeds. It was a Maxi Ubrei pick and roll kind of in the middle of the floor. And they blitzed it and Ubrei flared out and he flared out, I think in a very calculated way to the side of the floor where the sixers only had one shooter and not two. And when you do that and he caught the ball, suddenly there's one guy that has to guard a ton of space and two sixers Ubrei and Paul George and Paul George Ubrei kicked it to Paul George and Paul George made a three. But the nicks were fast enough that Brunson got there and made Paul George pump fake take a dribble and go to the side step three, which is like all you can ask for the sixers and this is a tech. This is a very important technicality to me. They even achieved on one possession, the rarefied air of what the Zach Lowe show and formerly the low post would call would turn a spurs gasm credited to the 2013 spurs who took ball movement and the next season to a new level. And if this was a again, this is a technically a spurs gasm blitzed a pick and roll. And instead of hitting the roll man, Maxi hits VJ edge comb on the wing as a release valve. And in like two seconds, it goes Maxi to edge comb edge comb. It's I think Barlow on the roll. Barlow swings it to Grimes at the wing. Grimes passes it to someone in the corner. All five sixers touched the ball. It doesn't touch the floor in so much use of three. That's a spurs, guys, but that's to go to the wing to the roller to a shooter. They achieved it. And it was a tough shot. I think they actually missed the shot. But I agree they they they moved it well. They made the right passes. I just saw for the most part, the next did a B plus a minus job of rotating and like sometimes you're going to lose those battles. Sometimes you're going to win. I'm just not sure how relevant all of that is if in beat is is actually playing game three. Yeah, I think that's a that's a big one there for that. And you're right. Like for the most part, the Nick's handled it really well in terms of that. I just found that really kind of the most interesting part of the game for me was watching the Nick's rotate out of that was really the the thing that got me geeked up each time just seeing like, OK, where's the who's coming from where are they going to handle it? And you know, like you said, they handled it well for the most part, but there were moments where I thought the sixers were pretty smart in the way they attacked. I was pretty impressed with that. Yeah, it was I think there's Nick nurses in a good job in the playoffs. I said that after game one when they look so lifeless against Boston, I thought that they were baiting Boston's defense and their Boston tendencies and leveraging them against them in a smart way. It's just they just didn't have the talent at that point to win those games and then beat games back. I thought last night they played. I mean, it was a close game until the end with Dom Barlow playing the five instead of Embed and Grimes not really bringing that much off the bench. And I think they're going to need more grimes just because of his shooting and the way that when they play him instead of Uber, now Uber has been essential for them. But when they play the three guards plus Paul George, it just becomes harder for the next to hide Brunson. The only other note I have on this game is this not the only other one, but we're going to get out of this game soon. The sixers had a window in the second quarter when cat picked up his third foul and was of course astonished that they dared call a foul on him. and Brunson was resting and so both of them were off the floor and I think the nicks were minus two in about four or five minutes and they were really and like they were minus it was even and and then Max you made free throws off off of a foul when Brunson was coming back into game. You just got to win those minutes by more by hooker by Croft like those are minutes that are gifted to you got to win them by more and the nicks did well to manufacture buckets and and I'd like Josh Hart has been I mean I think he wanted to have like five points last night. He's getting like two and three steals every game. He guarded Maxi well when he got switched on to Maxi. He's just been sensational. McCale bridges has continued to come to life. He played very well last night at both ends of the floor. So you just hope like let's get everybody let's get in and only healthy and beat healthy and Mitchell Robinson healthy and like maybe restart the series but the nicks are up to oh yeah. I think that's the right way to go about it and that's the big thing you got to take advantage of those minutes when those guys when Kat and Brunson are off the floor and for just you said it earlier but just for the love of God cat please stop out. Like this. He's playing he's playing amazing on both ends of the floor is playing really well. This has been his this has been my favorite cat playoffs run that we've had and it's really frustrating when it we it gets cut short by just dumb fouls and then it's that face he makes afterwards words like kind of get squished and like like what do you talk it like you you fouled him like it's a foul. Just stop it. Who is who is more astonished who wins the astonishment competition in this series on calls against their team is it it's cat versus Nick Nurse in a battle of like one seeds across the NBA. Nick Nurse I love Nick Nurse. I feel I've been thinking about him because of his brother. I've known Nick for a long time. He really though has rocketed up the jaw. I mean he's been like even there were memes of him with the raptors making astonished faces but it's it's like every call he's astonished like you can't be that astonished every time. It's too close to call between those two like it really is. One thing on bridges. A little thing I did I love that the next did and the reason why Bridges is more involved in the series and he has been from the get goes because Maxi's guarding him and the nicks are smartly being like we're going to involve you a lot at the very least to try to make you tired. And so the nicks have gotten so much credit from running this simple little screening action down in the corner when Brunson goes and screens for an in OB and like people are reacting to it like they've reinvented the wheel. It's like a pretty elementary thing and like great it's working and it's like not rocket science. They did twice or three times last night Brunson started jogging toward the corner like heat that's where he was going to go. And then we're both to diagonally up to the wing to set a screen for bridges to try to involve Maxi and the sections were not ready for it and they messed up the coverages bridges got a layup I just I love the entire idea of we're going to counter what you're expecting and involve Maxi at the same time. Just good coaching just smart action right there. Yeah. All right. Well get everyone healthy I guess. I don't know. Get everyone healthy and stop failing. Let's take a quick break and we'll go to the Western Conference where not a competitive game last night in San Antonio. The Zach Lowe show is brought to you by Fandole. The NBA playoffs are hearing everything's online. Every possession matters. Every bucket swings the game. And tonight is your shot to boost your bet. That's right. All customers get a profit boost tonight. So when the moment hits, your win hits bigger and Fandole is giving you better payouts on same game parlays. All NBA playoffs long lock in your bets. Boost your odds and make the playoffs pay off with Fandole official sports betting partner of the NBA head to fandole.com/low to get started. Fandole play your game 21 or over in select states or 18 and over in DC. You can tuck your Wyoming opt in required bonus issued is not withdrawalable profit boost tokens gambling problem called 1 800 gambler call 1 8 8 8 7 8 9 7 7 7 7 or visit ccpg.org/chat in Connecticut. This episode is brought to you by Warby Parker. Spring is here. More games more being out and about and yeah, photos and if you wear glasses there and all of them. I have a lot of friends. I don't work glasses, but my wife does, my sister does, my brother-in-law does. I have tons of friends who have used Warby Parker. They find it super consumer friendly you can see how all the frames look on you. They're affordable, they're stylish. I've been hearing about Warby Parker for 15 years because of people in my life who wear glasses. 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This would be gravy, but it doesn't seem to be going our way. So other alarming signs and continues to be on a minute's restriction and just isn't really as involved in the offense as the wolves are going to need him to be his pick and roll volume is down. He's taking a lot of threes. He's playing decoy a lot while guys like Terence Shannon who's been great like run the offense and Randall runs the offense. He had one drive last night where he blew by the cell and I think finished through coordinate at the rim left handed. That was the only time really where it was like, oh, Anton, Anton the building ants here. And between that and IO leaving the game returning and leaving the game, I think they said with a heel injury and obviously Dante's out. You just start to feel again the sort of critical threshold of injuries hitting Minnesota. And I mean, I picked the spurs in six. It just it just seems unfathomable to me. Maybe that even with home court now in their back pocket that the wolves could win three more times with Ant looking like this. And it's like we can do the X's and O's and all of that. But if Ant is a 25 minute a game half decoy half ant, I just don't see a pathway for Minnesota. Yeah, no, it's brutal that way. And then on top of that, like the spurs are bouncing on that, you know, anytime he gets the ball, it's an immediate double, you know, half court. It's not they're not waiting for the pick. So I want to get I want to get into that because it actually kind of surprised me that they they didn't do that at the beginning of the game. They started doing it like the second quarter. He hadn't really done anything like he hadn't done anything to scare them. And so I ask you like, why do you think they did that? Like do you why do you think they plan? They clearly had it in their game plan. And then they broke it out. And it was like, Oh, okay, normally that happens when it's like, it's Shay against an overmatch Lakers team. Or it's a guy who's just gone bananas for the first two quarters of the game. Yes, 30 points. You just got to take the ball out of his hands. Why do you think they did that? I think part of it was just we want to force you guys to play faster. We want you to play fast. Speed you up as much as possible and be frenetic. And then on top of that, we want to force the turnips. We want to put you in bad positions with that. So as soon as Ant Cross has half court, we're not going to let him just bring up the ball and be relaxed with it and go one on one. We're sending the double right away and immediately into denial. There's a great they had it on the broadcast, you know, with Mitch Johnson, Mike Duck, like telling the guys like, come, come, come, come, come, okay, now stay, stay, stay, stay, you know, after he gives up the ball. They're going into full denial. We're going to try to speed you up because if you watch that game, this was like the spurs were so freaking fast in this game. And I mean like it was turnovers, boom, transition, miss basket. We're looking for the outlet we're in transition, made basket. We're looking for the outlet. We're in transition. We're even getting into the half court, you know, with 20, 19 seconds on the shot clock. We're trying to speed up the process. And I think that was part of it. It wasn't so much that Ant was killing them, but it was more just like, hey, we want to make the walls, we want to put them on their heels when they're on offense, even, and have them kind of backpedaling. And I it worked in such a way. I think it caught even them off guard. And I think that was kind of a smart sort of tactic with what they did. And then the other thing, they just didn't want Ant to get going. If you go to game one, that started the fourth quarter to the four minute mark. He was awesome. You know, I did an X's and modes segment on the X lives stuff I'm doing right now. And that was my segment yesterday was just looking at what Ant did in that run. And they didn't want to have any of that. He torched Kelton Johnson and switches in game one. They were not going to switch. We're just going to double it, get out of his hands. And let's see if the other guys can do it. And then it was IO out with Dante out. Like there's less guys out there yet. Tara Shannon's been awesome. McDaniel's is really stepped up, but it's like, can you do that enough? And I think those spurs are betting they can't. Yeah. So obviously my first thought was they're trying to generate turnovers and just see if they can just freak the wolf. out and get eight free points and run away with the game. My next thought was, um, they're fine letting Minnesota's other players play four on three because when Vinyama's on the backline and good luck to you, like, and there was one play where they doubled off I/O and hit I/O. I/O drove in a four on three, when be guarded, all four guys by himself and blocked I/O at the rim. But then my last thought, the more holistic one was, I think they're just like, you know what, Anthony Edwards, we're not letting you get in a rhythm at all. We're not even going to let you, your Minnesota one is at their best. And maybe they can't quite get there with without David Chenzo, who's like roving three point shooting is so important for them. But they're at their best when Ant runs pick and roll would go bare and they get teams in the blender. Teams put two on the ball and makes the right pass. The ball starts moving around. Everyone's touching it. They get a lot of threes. Their three point volume is way down in this series. Obviously Dante being out as part of that. But I just think this, I think the Spurs proactively, we're like, we're not even letting you get there. You're not letting, you're not, you're not even getting a screen. We're not letting you run a pick and roll because we don't even want you to feel that kind of rhythm and that kind of flow. And I thought that was really smart. I would keep doing it. You can't do it every possession because if you do anything every possession, good teams figure it out. I thought it was really smart. And like, they just didn't let them get any kind of flow. And then after that, the game just completely unraveled for Minnesota. Yeah. And I think the, you know, when I was with the Spurs, like we would, we would save that for the end of games. We'd call it fire and it would usually be for Kobe, right? And they just immediately went into fire early in the second quarter and just said, we're going to go with it. Because I think that was a big part of it, man. I think they just saw what was coming. And they're just saying, we're not going to, we know what happens when he gets hot. We saw it. We're not going to let it happen again. Minnesota's transition defense off and on a bug-a-boo for them over the years was awful. Peaking with the very rare ant takes like a Minnesota shooter. It was an takes a corner three. So his defender is way down at the bottom of the floor. It was Steph Castle. The corner three defender leaks out the guy all the way down to the corner, leaks out and gets a dunk while Julius Randall was on the opposite wing. It's his job to get back and just sort of watching everything unfold. I will say I have a bone to pick with Steph Castle. He had a dunk in this game. He was fantastic in the game. He got to the foul line nine times. He just beat the shit out of everybody in a way that he does. He had a dunk in this game where he caught the ball in the left corner against Mike Conley and blew by him and dunked. And I just want to say is a 48 year old man. That hurt me personally. That's going to be like me playing soccer against my daughter in two years. It's ageism. It's not fair. And I think the referees after Mike Conley has been a good citizen in this league for so long. I think you call it off. Call it travel. Call it offensive foul. It's not fair what he did to Mike Conley. That's all elder elder elder abuse is really what I did love about Castle was when he tried to go I go there. Like oh he didn't he went for it. He kind of wound up and it was he was like leaning and I was like I don't know. I just don't want in midair my brain was like I don't want anyone to get injured because this is really good. It looked like also what he was like trying to go for it. Like he wasn't anywhere near like a line with the rim being straight ahead. It almost looked like he was off completely. But we talk about you know the wolves trying to go at Wembee. Like it was fun to see Castle go at it. And the funny thing too just that after game one all the talk from the wolves players was like we know he's going to when he's going to block shots. We're going to keep going. They didn't really attack Wembee that much in game two the way they did in game one. There's one I posted it on X where Terrence Shannon drove and I call these U-turns. Drove saw Wembee turn right around and then took a mid-range jumper. Like that was you know that was the thing where in game one those drives were were challenging Wembee. They did not do that nearly as much in game two. And I thought Wembee look we all knew he would do it. But he came out with a much more aggressive mindset. You know he he went to the post more. He got that one play against Randall where he got the ball at the nail and just kind of burrow it in there and all of a sudden if he burrows in one foot he's at the basket. And then he had another pick and roll where they switched and they switched McDaniels onto him. And he kind of put McDaniels on his hip and rolled into the post caught a ball pretty deep spun baseline roasted McDaniels miss and then put back his own miss. And it's like all right that's just a mindset thing. Like Gator McDaniels is not a small guard that switches like there are a lot of times where Victor or any other big guys not going to take that switch down to the post like that. That was just a guy being like in game one I didn't do this enough. I am asserting my will in this game. It might not pay off on this possession. I might miss. I might fall over. It could be awkward. This is a great defender. But I'm taking you down to the block and I'm going to see what the hell happens and what happened was good. To me the most interesting battleground in this series so far has been when Victor is on the floor and go bear is off the floor. Now the wolves have been their minus 21 with go bear on the floor minus 15 with go bear off the floor. So there's minus across the board. But I find these minutes interesting because when go bears on the floor, when Banyama is going to guard him. It's very simple and he's guarding when Banyama. Both teams have kept it simple. We're keeping our bigs on the big. We're going to have size in the middle. If you put us in a pick and roll, our bigs can guard both guys at the same time. Stay home on shooters. We're not messing around. When Rudy's out of the game and Victor's in the game, we've seen a lot of different things and it boils down to the spurs for whatever reason. Do not want to put him on Randall. So they have Victor sometimes on Jalen Clark, sometimes on Jaden McDaniels, sometimes not really on anyone just sort of whoever is in the corner. He's going to hang around that area and toggle between guys. And the wolves are sort of digesting that and figuring out ways to attack it. But I find those minutes very interesting. And what would like either team? Do you think either team has some low hanging fruit to pick there? Well, I think it becomes a bit challenging for the wolves in terms of the defensive opportunities. I think it's Randall being more physical with Wendy. But like you said, we saw really one that happened. Wendy kind of handled it. He's kind of figuring it out as he's going in real time. So I'm worried about them there. I think for the spurs, it's also more of just like this is full on attack the paint time. Right? Like this is just go straight at the rim. You know, whether it's not a lot of lives for Wendy, I know they got the first one in this game early, but like this is just keep this is let's not settle for shots. Let's just put the pressure at the rim. If they're their number one shot blocker is not going to be there, let's go to work. And I think picking roll every time. Yeah, just get downhill and you have the guys to do it, right? So just go to work with that. And that's going to open up opportunities, because that's going to open up the lobster, Wendy. If not, it's going to open up offensive board opportunities for other guys. Like I think that's that's going to be the focus for the spurs. And it's the other way around, right? When Wendy's off the bench, I mean on the bench, but the other thing too is Kornet has actually held up pretty well as a rim protector all season and did pretty well in this game on top of that. You know, you talked about the one where and got it. There was another one where he got in at the rim. And I think it's really important that that continues for the spurs, because that's a thing where it's like at least we don't lose all our shot blocking when he goes out. I almost feel bad for Kornet because every time when Banyama goes out of the game, the announcers are like, well, now you got to attack the rim. Victor's not there. And it's like, well, Kornet poor guy's not a serious pretty good, but all the announcers are like, well, now you can see their eyes are wide, and they're going to attack the rim like Luke's all right. Anyway, I'm more thinking about the other end of the floor. Wolves offense versus spurs defense. And they're obviously each team can adjust. But if I'm the Wolves and they don't want Wembee on Randall, and they want Wembee hanging around the corners. I'm just keeping it very simple. I'm going to put shooters in both corners. Nas Reed's going to be in one corner. Someone else who can shoot threes is going to be another corner. And if Jalen Clark, if he's in the game is going to be up on the wing somewhere or setting flare screens, and I'm going to give the ball to Randall, and I'm just going to let him attack. And Victor's either going to come all the way from the corner on the shooter or Randall's going to get to the rim or something else is going to open up. Obviously, there are counters to that, namely putting Victor on Randall or putting Victor on someone else or not having Victor near the corners, whatever it is. But when they had non shooters in the corners and just let Vic hang out on the baseline, like you're just not going to be able to score that way. When they had Nas Reed in the corner and another shooter in the other corner, they got good looks out of it. Mike Conley got a corner three hanging out in the corner on those plays and Jalen Clark set a flare screen. I just think that's an interesting sort of game within the game. And and just again, notable to me that for whatever reason, the spurs don't want Wembee on Randall physicality, probably as part of it, staying near the rim is part of it. But I just think those those numbers, those minutes are interesting. And shout out to the you know who the other big winner in this series is so far, Mo. No, who you got? Marchion Gortot has just never been more famous. Like he's more famous for this Gortot screen than he ever was as a player. he should be monetizing this somehow. This is wildly unfair that everyone, Doris Burke is now screaming, Gortach screen, the Gortach screen was so critical in game one. I wonder what percentage of the viewers even know what a Gortach screen is. I'm not saying that insultantly, it's just so in the weeds. And she's right. It was critical in game one. And actually you can see it's a funny little game within the game. You can see the wolves ball handlers on a pick and roll slowing down because they're, they're been told wait for Rudy to screen and get back down towards the paint where he can blockade Wembenyama a second time. Don't go too fast. And you can even see on drives. It's not even on a pick and roll. Someone just winds up in drives from the wing and go bearing Wembeny under the rim. Go bear like tries to start getting in front of Wembenyama and block him out of the way. And Wembenyama is like, no, no, no, you're doing battling for a spot in line at the movies or something. And Wembeny is trying to get in front of him. But March and Gortach, if you're listening to this, get an attorney, like a good IP attorney because it's like Darvin Ham all over again, like the hammer played is named after Darvin Ham. It's the most, I mean, I, Darvin Ham became a head coach with the Los Angeles Lakers. So this is facetious. But like playing wise, the most notable thing is there's a play named after him. He should get some credit for that. March and Gortach, world famous now because of the Gortach screen. I would, I would like him to not get an attorney because I, when I used to do my one, both thing videos, it was definitely Gortach was one of them was a focus on that one. I'll, I'll probably have to go find it and put it back out there for everybody. I've used it many times myself and in describing that action. So just I'm more afraid if there's a retroactive bill that I won't be able to afford it because he gets the IT of this. So I prefer he not. Hey, look, man, there's a whole generation of league pass, league pass nerds like me, like you, like a lot of other people and like 17 Washington, DC area residents who can wax poetic about the John Wall March and Gortach pick and roll and the Gortach screens. When he had a mole hockey, look like somebody straight out of Mad Max. I was always a big, he was a great backup center in Orlando. I was always a big fan of his and now he's just, you know, I just wonder his phone must blow up every single, every single game, but this is mentioned. It's like he just phone just must go crazy. I have another important center note for you related to this series. You know that Cornette can test, obviously, right? Big, big jump, the Cornette, just wherever he is on the floor of his guide shoots, not wherever he is, but he'll be 10 feet away from the shooter and he'll just do like a straight up jump, like he's almost looks like he's doing calisthenics, just to try to get in your line of sight. Deodre Aten is doing this now. Obviously, JJ Redick has talked about the Cornette contest. Deodre Aten is doing it in a way that I've never seen anyone do it before and I'm actually afraid makes no sense and might be hurting the Lakers. He'll be in the paint, like under the rim and somebody, his guy, some other guy, will shoot a three and Deodre in the paint, like not even in the guy's line of sight. We'll jump and clap his hands. He'll do like his version of the Cornette contest and I'll be like, what are you? Is JJ telling you to do this? Why are you doing this? You're under the basket and I'm like, I'm certain to think, is he hurting his rebounding position because he's so committed to this bit of doing his version of the Cornette contest from under the rim? I've never seen anyone do this before and I'm like, why are you doing this? Stop doing this, just box out, man. Anyway, I wonder if he got like the instructions, like not fully fleshed out, right? Like he's like, yeah, when your guy is going to shoot a three, jump, no matter where you are and his response is like, okay, I'll just jump, no matter where I am. And then he's added the clap to it. Before we move on though from this game, we got to talk about Dylan Harper. Oh my God. Yeah, please do. He's been, I mean, as a rookie, he's been absolutely phenomenal through these entire playoffs. Like the run he had in game one was amazing. Yesterday, just all the smart plays in transition, getting that big, the tip dunk off of a miss, like all the small things that he's doing, defensively finding the outlets. He's the one that makes the kick ahead past the castle to get the dunk in transition. There was one play. It was a deflection, but it was ambient double. He was trying to swing it to an open shooter in the corner. And you know, there's Harper knocking that one out of balance as he's at there. Just all the small things that you're saying. Stop with the blink 182. I'm not even trying to. I wasn't even trying to. You're almost going to make me sing it. Nobody wants to hear me sing. But I think just he is doing all the little things. Thank you. You're welcome. He's doing all the little things where it's like you're watching this as a rookie. And he's just coming to the playoffs completely unfazed. And I love every bit of it when I'm watching him and just going nuts with with with this stuff and watching. And I'm just like, man, God, two or three years from now, like this dude's going to be unbelievable. You know what blink 182 was right about. What's that surprise? Surprise is really do let me know she cares. Like the surprise is just it really does just do the trick. Okay, let's very quickly just like two minutes on each of tonight's games because we there's not a lot of lag time between when this post and the games. Lakers under. Is there anything here to talk about going into game two. I liked what the lakers did in terms of how they defended Shay. But they need to figure out how to rotate out of that and how to kind of like go from there into everything. They can't let guy like chat one off. I think was a big thing. And I the strategy is sound, but you got to execute it. So like they did a good job with Shay, but it's being able to fire out after that is going to be the other thing that's really important. It's important piece to that strategy that I just don't think the lakers really did it. And I don't feel like the thunder were threatened at any point in this game. No, obviously they're throwing two and three guys at Shay almost amenity crosses half court. My one nip pick where is like if you're going to do that, you have to do it properly. And there were too many times where Shay's defender would open up his hips and like open up a driving lane and be waving for someone like you're supposed to be here now. And if you open up like that and someone isn't there now, it's over. The possession is toast for you. I do think I would love to have a real conversation with JJ about this because I wonder if like a third of the reason they're doing this because it's not just that they're trapping Shay. If you like look at the matchups who's guarding who it's completely random sometimes from possession to possession. Like eight and will be guarding Coruso. And then on the next possession, he'll be guarding chat home grand. And I it just like people are just and I do wonder if part of the hope is if we do get a stop, the matchups are going to be so jumbled that yeah, this team is an unbelievable defensive team. They can match up anyway possible. But maybe there'll be a moment of confusion. Maybe the smallest guy on the floor will be on the brine, even though our small guys can do like a passable job at times on the brine. And I mean, the only other thing I have notes is like Reeves obviously has to make shots and play way better. And I think they're going to have to lean even more into the Reeves LeBron two man game because they're only consistent offense is Reeves high pick and roll. And he missed every look he got and LeBron hunting what passes for small guys, whether it's Wallace who he can put in the basket, but we'll put up resistance or Shay or whoever. And the thunder not giving them giving LeBron those matchups, they're blitzing and doubling and like making the Lakers pass it around. But if you put your two best players and actions, maybe that becomes a little harder. It's just like, it's just sucks that Luca is injured and continues to be injured. It sucks that Joe Williams is injured because I'll say it again. Luca at full strength plus Joe Williams out to Lakers have a chance to make this a competitive series. And right now, it doesn't feel like they do. Maybe they went tonight and this all sounds foolish. The game I am more interested in is Cleveland Detroit. I think this is a show me game for the Cavs tonight. And I'm saying this, it's now 10 20 Eastern. Maybe they win by 20. Maybe they make this look foolish. I thought their performance for 40 minutes of game one was disgusting and unserious. And I thought their offense was a complete mess. I can't believe what a mess the offense is on a team that has four guys who have made recent All Star teams, including two of the best guards of the last 15 years. They look like they have no plan, no identity, no cohesion, no flow. And Harden looks old now. And that's not like a new thing. He can't get by anyone. And he doesn't like what when Durin or whoever the screener defender is comes up to the level of the screen or, or pretty high. Harden just pulls up like I don't, he does not want to attack that match up at all. And the pistons know it. They know they can stop him in his tracks. They know they can stay close to home ish on the other guys. They know they can help off Moby. If he's on the floor and not screening and Wade and they'll dare Tyson Tyson was a good shooter this year and shooter. And they're scrunching all the way in on them. And I mean, they got on a little bit of rhythm when they started running hard and mowbly. Pick and rolls in the second half with Alan in the dunker spot. And I do think that's their simplest offense is just get into the pick and roll like that. But they looked, I mean, we're talking about Don of the Mitchell caught a pass out of bounds. James Harden committed the rare self back court violation. More two or three instances of guys throwing the ball to players who thought the ball was going to be in another place. Or the pass or thought the player was going to be in another place. What is Thomas Bryant? doing on the court. Like, why is he playing? And why is he shooting threes with 18 on the shot clock? I think the single most depressing possession of the playoffs so far was Dennis Shooter ran a pick and roll with someone. I don't remember who it was drove down toward like the Steve Nash spot under the basket and tried to skip this little skimmer pass to the corner. And I'm like, oh, there's a corner shooter. Who's he passing to in the corner? It's Thomas Bryant and the passes low and Thomas Bryant drops it. I'm like, let me hold up for a second. Donovan Mitchell is on the floor. You have at your disposal, Evan Mobley and Jared Allen. Now, Sam Merrill was out in the second half, and I think they need his shooting in this series. But you still have like real guys. And I'm watching a possession in the second round of the playoffs for a team that traded Darius Garland for James Harden, aging themselves up 10 years in one trade. And I'm watching Dennis Shooter. God bless him. He's fine. He actually played pretty well. Try to throw a contested corner skimmer pass to Thomas Bryant with the idea that maybe Thomas Bryant will take a corner three. What am I watching? What's happening right now? And to me, if they lose this game tonight, yeah, they haven't lost the home game yet. The series doesn't start till the row team wins what? Yada, yada, yada. I don't know, man. Can this team win four out of five? They haven't won a road game yet in the playoffs. Detroit is beatable. Like they're good. Detroit's good. And they won that game and they out physical them. They'll play them. They have no good matchup for Cade. Like if their answer to Cade is more Dean Wade, that's just going to help Detroit's defense. And I wonder if even Struse starts tonight and they just take a chance on we just need more shooting on the floor. But this is a show me game for the Cads. If they melt down in this game and it's a ugly Detroit win, people are going to start asking some pretty ugly questions about the Cads. And like, is this James Harden trade potentially a disaster even if you think Darius Garland is overpaid and hurt all the time? They they I picked them to win this series. I picked Cads and seven based on kind of sheer talent alone. Detroit obviously didn't blow anyone away in the first round of the playoffs. I'm just I'm calling it out now at 10 30. We would only talk about it more. I was their their offense was gross from most of the first round. I thought it would be less gross, extricated from the switchy weird Toronto team. And it was just as gross and just as incoherent. And I don't know how we get to game like 95 or whatever. And you're just this incoherent on offense. I don't understand how you go into a playoff game that way. Like the watch and the way they played this game that there are two things that stood out to me. One they played with zero intentions, right? Zero sort of how we this is what we do. It's a lot of dribbling up on the court. We're going to we're going to bounce around and then we'll we'll find our way, you know, in essence and to zero force, right? Like and I know the business are a big physical team, but you have to meet them where they're at sometimes and have to bump them and fight them. They're a little bit. The only person that really showed fight to me in the game for the cast was Maxter's. He had a great run for them when he was on the floor. And I think it's it's everybody else was shocking. Like watching Duncan Robinson get worse turnovers on James Harden should never how about the one where James Harden just fell over. Like just just was dribbling and just kind of fell. I was like, Oh, okay. It's it was it was it's and I don't want to hear the game seven. Excuse because both teams were coming off of the game seven, you know, both teams were in that situation. So it's like this is a massively huge game for everything for the calves. This game too. For people who are going to say, Oh, you're hating on hard and hard and brought them back in the game in the fourth quarter. He he salvaged that game for himself and for the team in the fourth quarter. And they had a chance to win it. And again, I picked the calves in seven because I'm like, they have these two star guards and they should be able to create functional offense because of it. So I don't want to hear that. But I just thought their performance was so disappointing. And you mentioned force and Kenny Atkinson good for him mentioned it after the game. It's a boring topic. But he mentioned like, can we set some screens? Their screening was so bad in game one. There was a pick and roll. Grant Hill has now talked about this a lot of the Spain pick and roll where it's a pick and roll. And then somebody else sets a back screen on the screeners defender. So there's like a lot of screens involved. I think it was even like a staggered screen into a Spain pick and roll. So at least three screens are involved. They went over three. They completely whipped on every screen. Nobody made contact with any Pistons player. Everybody got off Scott free. No one had to switch. No one had to rotate. There was absolutely no stress on the defense because the screens whipped completely. Now sometimes and we saw this with Kat last night. Bigs who are in foul trouble are kind of like a little cautious setting screens. And Kat started to kind of set, you know, he whipped on a lot of screens because he got as skinny as possible. For the calves there was just no excuse and they played with no force. And this is a team like, look, if they are down to oh, it's going to be calves con one. If they lose the series and it's decisive, it's a complete disaster. And the off season gets very, very interesting for the calves from top to bottom. Speaking of the all season, let's take a break because you know, where I'm headed in a couple days mode. The cargo, the lottery is here. Let's talk about that when we come back. Okay, three off season storylines that kind of call a lesson to one. Jalen Brown's Twitch stream. And then a follow up Twitch stream trying to clarify the first Twitch stream saying, I love Boston. I want to be in Boston for the rest of my career if it's up to me. He's extension eligible this summer. You might have heard they were illuminated in the first round by the Philadelphia 76ers called it his favorite season of the year of his career rather. Double down on that saying, it is my favorite season in the in the Twitch follow up saying it is my favorite season. I think he was trying to say like I was I cut it was my favorite season because we were underdogs, idiots like me, Zacklow predicted the Celtics to go under their wind total. It'll be it's just more fun to play without the expectations and to exceed expectations and prove people wrong. I don't think he meant it necessarily is like, well, Jason Taden wasn't there and I got to cook, but he sort of sort of emphasized the underdog angle that we have the honest thing and Jimmy Haslam, the Bucks owner said yesterday that they would like to clarify the honest situation before the draft, which is like, Oh, okay, Yannis. Yannis can't sign his extension to October. Obviously, they can discuss it and he get an indication of whether he's going to sign in or not. But the Bucks, this feels like the Bucks trying to win a PR battle a little bit of like, hey, it's up to him we're going to make it up to him. Yannis has always been like, it's actually up to them. It's up to everyone. But to say before the draft is, okay, I mean, that means we want this transaction cycle, the Bucks do to move on if Yannis indicates he wants to move on. And I just want to applaud Jimmy Haslam at the end of this article and reading on ESPN.com. I'm just going to quote him because these owners, they just can't just can't put a microphone in front of them without something embarrassing happening. Yannis has brought me a walkie at second championship in the first and 50 years Haslam said, we're off to a good start. Well, we're doing well. You could just stop, just maybe stop there. He's a phenomenal player. He's a phenomenal person. Great. We're doing well. He's arguably one of the best basketball players. Oh, he's arguably one of the best basketball players in the world. What happens in your brain as Jimmy Haslam to stick arguably in there? It's a small thing. It's stupid that I'm overemphasizing it. He's not arguably one of the best basketball players in the world. He's one of the best basketball players in the world. It's a less egregious version of when Patrick Dumont, after the Luca trade, was listing off all the great players, all the great two-way players in their commitment to being in shape and and committed to their teams. And he listed Shaq notoriously not in shape and not committed to his teams and didn't list lifetime Maverick champion finals MVP, Dirk Davidski. And everyone was like, can we stick this guy in a closet and never have him talk again? So the Yannis stuff, the Jalen Brown stuff, whatever it is, and I don't think the Celtics want to trade Jalen Brown by any stretch, but we will see what happens. And then the lottery is here. And all of these things are obviously intertwined because teams are going to move up and teams are going to move down and does Atlanta. Atlanta between the Milwaukee pick and the New Orleans pick has about a 40% chance of landing in the top four. Does a top four pick make them more likely to go all in for a player like Yannis or Jalen Brown? I would argue it should actually make them less likely to go in for such a player and just take the pick and be happy and move on with life. You have lots of stake for lots of teams. So let's do some lottery fun. Let's start with the actual series conversation. Who has the most that stake in your opinion in Sunday's ping pong extravaganza? I really think it's actually the Indiana facers. I think when you look at where they're at, if they can get one of the top four picks, like this is going to take them to another level. Like I love the way they're set up with Tyree's Hallibur and with the trade for Zubach, you know, what they have with Pascal. Let's clarify for people just before you start. Indiana traded its pick to the Clippers. Top four protected and protected from tenant, meaning the Pacers keep it if it's 1, 2, 3, or 4. And the clippers get it if it's 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9. Yeah, and I think this has a chance to really set them up to be a true power in the East. It can only be 5 or 6, by the way, so the clippers get it if it's 5 or 6. They can go in that sense of like finals last year, lottery this year, right back into the thick of things in the Eastern coffees, they're going to be right there already. But then also have a young caliber player, regardless who they pick, that they can kind of set up to sort of almost work their way into the system. Like for me, that is such a massive opportunity for them. It's like, I know all the low franchises, the Washington's Sacramento's all that it would be game-changing for them to have a franchise player, but this is a team that's already set to be kind of in the running to be a contender next year, to be able to add a top four pick would be so just it would just set them up for so long. Assuming Halibur and his healthy, both from the Achilles and the shingles stuff that's been troubling him, and like that's, you know, I had shingles, by the way, when I was like 22 years old, and it was just itchy for me. I got it on my side, and it's like it's, I got very lucky. Like if you get it when you're older or like Tyree's got it on his face, that's nasty stuff. My pick, I had four candidates for this honor of most at stake. Both Indiana and the Clippers were among my top four. This is just a huge swing moment for both of these franchises. If the Pacers keep this pick, which they have a 52% chance of doing, so it's almost a coin flip, they add an A plus draft prospect to their core. They also add a big trade asset. I just don't think it's in the Pacers DNA to take an opportunity like that, like a franchise that has really never tanked or very rarely tanked, and they tanked this year, obviously, to bring a player like that into a core that is actually like not even that old. I don't, I think they just keep that player and are thrilled about the bridge that they built themselves for many years going forward. If the Clippers don't get this pick, it rolls over into a 2031 unprotected Pacers pick, which could be a good asset, 2031, who knows what the hell is going on in the world. And if the Clippers do get it, they get not a top four pick, but five or six in a pretty deep draft. And again, a rare chance for them having traded so much stuff to Oklahoma City, including their own pick in this lottery. To get a blue chip player that they just haven't had this chance in a long time, and they just went younger with Garland as well. And so I think it's a huge swing moment for both. Ironically, the thunder moving up in the draft with the Clippers pick would help the Clippers get the Pacers pick, would embarrass the shit out of the Clippers, but still. I have two other candidates. Can you give my two other candidates for most at stake? Yeah, I go for it. Number one is Atlanta, which I already mentioned. And I think, again, if it were me running the Hawks and I get a top four pick, I'm just keeping the pick. And I'm building around Gianna Johnson and a Kong Wu and the Kellogg's and a Walker and Dyson and maybe Kaminga stays whatever. I'm just like, I have a good team, resigned CJ, not going to speed it up. If I fall to eighth or ninth, or I mean, where can I really, there's a lot of scenarios in play for them. But if I fall somewhere else, I might be a little bit more open to that pick plus Reese's Shay plus a lot of stuff for somebody could be honest, could be, again, they have the Milwaukee pick this year and some part of it next year. It could be Jill and Brown. It could be some sort of Atlanta. And just the other team, is anything good ever going to happen for Sacramento? Like at some point, you got to make your own luck. I understand it. And the Kings have done nothing to get the lottery guides on their side. We all know that. But at some point, this team has moved down in the lottery a bunch of times. Then they miss the picks that they pick in the lottery, shout out Marvin Bagley and many, many others. I don't mean to pick on Marvin Bagley, but Luca was just sitting there for them and they said, yeah, you know what, we like this guy from Duke. They even lost the coin flip with Utah for the fourth spot in the lottery. By the way, Utah went from that coin flip went from, I think, 99.6% chance of keeping their pick to 100% chance of keeping their pick for the jazz, the top 8 pick, they owed Oklahoma city. So there was even a little bit of sweating for the jazz to do. So those are my four. I mean, like you could argue Washington is the other sad sack or Brooklyn having just picked five picks. Brooklyn's got a big market. They'll get a free agent at some point. Maybe they'll trade for a big guy this summer. I don't know. Washington, like enough, you got a lot of bites at the apple. You got some interesting young players, Sacramento. It's like, Nick Clifford's all right. I've actually kind of liked the way Nick Clifford finished the season, Ray No, I put on first team all rookie. I just don't really know what his upside is, given his defensive limitations and Devon Carter, they don't play very much and Keegan Murray's fine. He's overpaid. Just it would be nice for King's fans to get something. I feel for the King's fan, but I'm so worried about this organization ruining another young player. Right? Like drafting high a player where it's like, I don't understand their development philosophy. And you know, like a lot of young guys got minutes at the end of the season this year. And there are some guys that are promising, like you talked about, we both like Ray No. There's Nick Clifford. There's a lot of that stuff, but it's like, I just, I don't want to, I don't trust them to get to actually develop and get the most out of a player. So for me, I'm kind of don't want them to get the lottery because of that. I don't want them to win the lottery because of that. What is your funniest possible lottery outcome? Okay. My funniest possible lottery outcome was I actually think it'd be kind of hilarious if Dallas wanted to get. Okay. That's not a bad candidate. You know, the odds like look, 6.7% overall number one, you know, top four, 29% before the tanking rules all change and everything that goes into it. Like, I think it'd be kind of at what I like. I like that they got inside, run their front office now. I like the way they're kind of set up with Cooper. Why not get him another running me? Let's go. I think it'd be pretty funny to me if they got the number one pick. My pick was for funny a spousal outcome is New Orleans pick being the number one pick in the draft in Atlanta, getting it would be the would be to me, the apologies to New Orleans fans. One of my favorite cities on the planet, it would still be funny. I don't know if I texted you this in time, but I wanted, I wanted to pick what would be this year's Dallas where a team wins it and people are like, really, they deserve that after what they did. Who would be, do you have a pick for this? Who would be this year's they win the lottery and you're like, oh, why, they got it. I think the, I think the answer to me would actually be Golden State, but not for throwing like the why, but more just like, really, they're going to win the lottery like this. And we're going to, they're going to get the, the, the, the hall pass going forward now after they've, you know, the last few drafts were there in the lottery, they, they, they botched, you know, with everything, James Wiseman, Jonathan Camingo, all that stuff, we rehashed that a million times, but like, to me, they would be, it would be kind of the moment where it's like, really, they're going to win the lottery. My pick for this year's Dallas, and I'm not going to step on, Bill did his karma ranking, just say, which are delightful with Nick Wright, awesome podcasts. So I'm not going to do the karma. I'm just speaking, this year's Dallas, for me, would be Chicago, Chicago wins the lottery and I would be like, we already saw this move with Derek Rose, like no plan. Now, they just hired Bryson Graham, well, I think it's really good and we'll do a good job there. But completely rudder lists for so long, about to enter a period where being, if the lottery rules change, where being in the middle is suddenly like more profitable after years of they were in the middle, and it was not profitable. And they shoot up from number nine to get the number one pick. I think that would be this year's, this year's Chicago, do you have a worst case scenario? Like most feared possible outcome for the lead? It's the, you already touched on it. It's the clippers pick. Yeah. There's no other. There's no other answer. And it's happened before to the clippers, right? This is the clippers number one pick. And then it went to Cleveland, because if we're Kyrie Irving, when they, it was the Baron Davies trade that they had made, so it's happened before to them. So it's kind of in one way, the whole league does not want this. And at the same time, it might actually be the funniest outcome. I don't think it would be funny. I think it would be, I think it would be like, like a horror movie villain got more powers or something. Yes. I honestly, it would be funny in the room, because I'm going to be in the drawing room again. Someone might weep in that, like either the clippers representative or just someone on a Western conference team might just be like, might weep. So I could see someone maybe just going up and did you watch the show? I think you recommended the show to me, Platonic. Yes. Solid show. And one of my favorite running bits in the show is Seth Rogen just kicking the e-scooters. down every time he sees them, because he just finds them annoying. I think someone might do that with the ping-bong ball machine. If it spits up Oklahoma City, like some disgruntled person might get banned from the league for just knocking the thing over and fleeing the scene. Okay, let's talk about Jalen Brown. I drop my notes. I don't know if this is going to be a thing. It's too early for me to know if it's going to be a thing. I do know that the Celtics just lost in the first round of the playoffs. That Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown make $112 million give or take between them next year, and that only escalates. That Jalen Brown is extension eligible now, after what once the summer starts. Despite having three more guaranteed years left on his deal at 57, 61, and 65. So if you're extending him right now when he's eligible, that extension doesn't even kick in until 2029, 2030, when he's 32 years old, he's 29 and a half-ish now. And it's presumably Jalen Brown's not going to be like, I'll sign a cheapo extension now. So you're looking at his $70 million plus extension. And it raised eyebrows around Boston when he said, "This was my favorite year of my career, not the championship year, not the finals MVP year, all that." So who knows if there will be any movement on this? Again, I don't think Boston wants to trade Jalen Brown. And Jalen Brown too, his credit came out yesterday and said, "I want to be in Boston." He has really embraced Boston, the community, the fans, if we will talk about the Celtic tradition. It seems to really matter to him. That's awesome. It's still a cold business. And who knows what will happen. Did you watch the Twitch stream? You're a Twitch veteran. I'm a Twitch veteran. I used to have a Twitch channel. I did not watch the Twitch stream. I did have a Boston friend of mine send me some highlights. It was during the playoff game, so I didn't want to lose my attention too much. So I did not lock it on the Jalen Brown Twitch stream. I dove in yesterday. I was like, I just want to see the first the raw document. That's impressive. You picked up Twitch. Well, I don't have a Twitch app. You can just watch it, apparently, or a Twitch account or whatever. I'm not a Twitcher. And I expected to just watch the main part where he talks about how it's his favorite year and just get out of it. I watched like 40 minutes of it. I was totally mesmerized. I have never felt more out of touch in my entire life than I did for those 40 minutes. I just had no idea what was happening. I was mesmerized. And I like, by everything. So I was mesmerized by he really thinks there's an officiating conspiracy against him. Yeah. Which he does get called for a lot of offensive fouls. Like to push off thing is very simple. If your whole arm comes out, you're probably going to get called for an offensive foul. If you hold it like this, and only the forearm is there, you're not going to get called for it. He puts his whole arm out a lot. He talked a lot about how about people who turn their brains off because of anal, I think because of analytics and people turn their brains off and analytics and the media. I'm like, I don't, he's on to something because he's right. He talked about how people don't watch the games anymore. And I think there's something to that. I don't think analytics is the reason why people, less people watch the actual games now than they used to. And not everyone in the media is like that. Some of us do watch the games. He seemed mad that expectations for the team changed when they became, when they exceeded expectations. Which, like, that's what happens. People had low expectations for you, then you won 57 games. And so, yeah, it's going to be disappointing when you lose in the first round. But he was, it's obviously Jalen is a super smart guy. He's spoken at Harvard and MIT, he does tons of community work. He's a very engaging speaker. But I did feel like I was watching a portal into a different universe that I did not know existed. And in that universe, Jalen Brown is friends with like dudes from Celtic's Twitter who are in his house or in his studio. They come in after game seven. They all sit with him. And he's like, here's this guy. Here's that guy. Hey, you want to sit and give your thoughts on the season. And they sit there and they pontificate about the season, almost talking like they're part of the team. And I was just like, so this is, I'm so old and out of touch that people really do make friends with Twitter people in real life and including superstar basketball players and fans. And they're at his house. It's not like they're DMing on some street or something. They're at his house. I was absolutely mesmerized by everything. I have no notes. I now want to watch more Jalen Brown. There's a whole world out there that I didn't know existed of people doing this. It's an amazing way. One, it's an awesome way to actually get a look into his thoughts and credit to him for his candor. I personally, if I was part of the team, I personally wouldn't want. The people who said it was loser behavior to blame the reps are right. It was loser behavior to blame the reps. You blew it through one lead. It's fine. The sixers were awesome and bead flops. Yeah, we know and bead flops. Lots of people flump. It's fine. But beyond that to me, like, I don't mind this stuff. I liked that he came out and said, no, this is what I meant by those comments. Yeah, just just just just a defendant a little bit too. He was criticizing him. I'm just saying I was mesmerized by the whole thing. Not you, but others who are criticized. He was an MVP candidate this year. Like, yeah, it was a deservedly so. Yeah, like it's a fun ass season for him. Yeah, it didn't go the way he wanted, you know, fine. But like, he gets to say, like, yeah, this was one of my favorite seasons. I got to have a lot of fun doing this. Like, there's nothing wrong with that. That I don't have any qualms. And it is, it is fun proving people wrong. It absolutely is. And it's fun doing it with a bunch of guys who have been cast off and written off in their career. Even Peyton Pritchard three years ago was like, is he even going to be on the Celtics? But you throw Kada, Garza, Hugo, Jordan Walls. Like, it's probably fun to be to spearhead all of that. Yeah, so I think there's a lot a lot of that stuff there. I like the switch street. I like that he did it. Does it? I personally don't I'm not going to partake in it. I'm not a big I'm not going to jump in and I'm just going to focus on the basketball side. But it is amazing. The friendships he's developed with with with Twitter Boston Twitter fans and things like that. And that shows him ingrained in the community too though. And right like, yeah, no, I just big. I just was not aware that this was happening. And they're all they're clearly like, no, I'm well, they're all in there. He's not checking all of them. They're sitting down as part of the stream. I think it's just maybe I need to make more friends through so maybe I'm I've missed the boat on this. It's like I can't wait for the next time I'm on the pod with you. And there's going to be people that are on the Zacklow Reddit that are going to be hanging out in your office there and telling me what's what you're going to be telling me this is so and so and this is so and so. Honestly, it's either that or my daughter's hot take on the meds or actually my wife and I have a running bit. She's probably overhearing this from the living room where she doesn't follow the NBA at all. She wants she wants to come on my podcast for two reasons. Number one, to make fun of me and tell the world how actually insane I am. And number two, we have a running bit where all ask her like, hey, so what do you think about Timber Wolf's spurs? Game two and she'll give analysis without any knowledge and she'll be like, you know, I mean, it's like Minnesota. It's been a rocky year for them and like like, you know, they need to step up under pressure and the spurs, you know, they're favorites here. Like they got to even up the series and I will actually tell her like, you're 80% of the way you're nailing it. You're nailing it. That's awesome. Or my daughter's hot takes on the meds since she has a lot. Okay, can we do Jalen Brown fake trades just for fun? Yes, I just a caveat. I have a couple but I am I am not nearly a trade machine Picasso like I met like you and there's only one trade, there's only one trade machine Picasso. And this is just a thought exercise just because I think it was notable that he said the thing that he said and it's going to certainly like teams are going to pick up the phone when things like that happen. I'm not saying that teams have called. I don't know if teams have called. First, the obvious one that people have already talked about is Jalen for Yannis. Whether it's straight up, whether Boston throws in picks, whatever, I mean, we don't need to belabor Yannis is amazing. He brings a rim attacking element that Celtics don't have. He's only two years older than Jalen. What do you think about that trade notably from the Bucks perspective? For the Bucks perspective, it's bringing in a piece in terms of like, okay, we can go win right now. Not a champion. But we can go win. We're in a situation where we're going to go win games. We're not going to tank. We're going to build around Jalen. It's going to be interesting to see how him and how it works with him and Miles Turner in the pick and roll and how that can kind of develop there's still, you know, I'm assuming they're still just going to have everybody else with them. But this is a Jalen. This is your team. Go to work now. We just saw, you know, what he did for this past season, you know, obviously he's not going to have quite the same amount of talent around him. I think that bugs team still has a lot more work, but I think giving him an opportunity to kind of just blossom as just this is solely your team. Go I think it's interesting. I think pairing him with Taylor Jenkins. I think Jenkins. We'll be able to do some good stuff with him and put him in good situations and good spots. Like I kind of like that for Milwaukee. We know that they can't really tank. Knowing their situation with draft picks. So I think this is one of those things where when they're going to make a young and straight if and when they got to find a way to make it so that we're not just going to be absolutely terrible because unless we're getting our picks back from portal. It's a relevancy trade for them for sure. It's a we don't want to bottom out, particularly when the lottery rules are going to change the way they might. Small market. We get a we get a guy who might make first team all NBA this year. And again, deservedly, I put you in brown first team all NBA to be clear. Jalen Brown. I still I'm and again, they'll get a good pick in this draft because they get the lesser of the their pick in the Pelican's pick. So they'll get a top whatever pick. And like, yeah, you start to this is there going to be their case. The honest like another we maybe we nailed this draft. Blah blah blah. Like it's not I don't I don't hate it for the bucks. It's fine. If you're goal is to stay relevant and stay afloat. I don't know that I would necessarily aim that way. I do worry. And this is more an indictment on the NBA financial structure and anything else that Jalen Brown's next contract is going to be a complete albatross. And that sucks. That's just a reality of the seniority scale, the cap, the tax, etc. And it's why I keep lobbying for things like If Boston were to extend him and keep him homegrown superstar. Yeah, what it on a max or super max you should get some kind of cap apron tax relief. If if you have player like that on your team or maybe two players like that on your team, because it just it shouldn't be a detriment to draft well, play well, win and keep the players that your fans have grown to love. It shouldn't be like crippling to do that. Now if you get traded to the bucks. He's not on the Celtics anymore. It's a different story. There are multiple three way trades. You could do if the bucks want to aim differently than that. People bill and Nick Wright talked about Atlanta. Atlanta gets jail in Boston gets honest. The bucks get it picks from everybody, including their own stuff back from Atlanta. I think Atlanta is an interesting just straight up trade partner Atlanta Boston straight up, depending on what kind of pick state like to move what Boston, how, how rehabilitative Boston things reshashay is as a prospect. I don't love the salary that would have to go to the Celtics in that deal from either perspective, like I don't love it if I'm Boston and I don't love how many core players I'd have to give up if I'm Atlanta, whether it's Daniel's plus coming up plus reshashay plus on and on, but there could be something there. I like, I think there's a fun three way trade where Yannis goes to Boston, Jalen Brown goes to Portland and Portland sends both salary and picks notably Milwaukee's own picks and Boston sends picks and stuff back to Milwaukee and it's a full rebuild mode. I could keep going. Well, aren't you give me one of your favorite ones. So one of my favorite ones that I focused mainly on Western Conference teams, and I was trying to make sure Boston had some pieces back in that way. And so I'm going to start with I what with the New Orleans Pelicans. Okay, they're on my list. I have, I wanted to figure out a way to get them Zion, but didn't really figure that one out, but I want with Dejante Murray, Trey Murphy, the third, and they get the Pelicans first round pick next year, 2027 for Brown. It's that's one you have to think about because Trey Murphy, the third is that coveted around the league. I also played around with Zion possibilities. Again, if I'm New Orleans, I just, I'm not, I'm not sure what the point of that is, but it does get me a better best player. It's an interesting one. And again, if you're Boston, you're talking about not only turning Jalen Brown into multiple pieces that help you win now, it's resetting your finances a little bit going forward and hoping to nail the balance of we're still going to be very competitive in the Eastern Conference, if not one of the probably probably one of the favorites and have a little bit more financial flexibility and pick up some youth in a picker, whatever in the process. I have one more crazy one. No, go. There's no such thing as to crazy kind of kind of kind of not who could don't just got traded for Anthony Davis. There's no such thing is too crazy. It really sucks that Nico Harrison has removed the ability of us having just crazy wild ones. But do we finally get a coiliner Jalen Brown trade? I don't think that's, I don't think that's crazy at all. That's on my list. And I have the, and I have the, I threw the clippers have to throw in a 20 31st round pick. Oh, yeah, you gotta, you gotta attach something to Kauai with Kauai's, with Kauai's contract expiring after next year, they can kind of say, want to just, hey, let's get out of cap hell after that. I think it's interesting. For me, that's that's one where I would take a hard look for the clippers. Garland and Brown has my core for the next few years, like I kind of like where they're set up. I, it's on my list. If I'm Boston, I just think he's too much of an injury risk. And I just, I can't do it. But the word you use there was finally because obviously Jalen Brown was the piece that would have moved in any number of theoretical Dianne age era Boston trades for Paul George for Jimmy Butler for Kauai Leonard and also notably post any age for Kevin Durant. And the rockets are on my list. And it's interesting how the tables have turned in 2022 when Durant issued a trade request to get out of Brooklyn. The Celtics were one of the hot names. And I wrote back then that I would not trade Jalen Brown and other, it would have been other stuff for Durant. And part of the reason is I, there were many reasons, but number one, it's I hate trading up in age and it was from 25 to 33 at that point Jalen to Katie. I wrote about how there's a very good possibility Jalen Brown has not peaked and particularly that he's developing as a playmaker a little bit later in his career. That turned out to be right. And I wrote that at that time, the Celtics were coming off a finals appearance and we're already one of the favorites. If that the favorite to win the championship next year. And so yeah, Durant, like, make me more of a favorite now because of his fit with Tatum, his malleability, his, his Kevin Durant four years ago. But I'm not sure he bumps my odds up today enough for the damage to tomorrow. And so sure enough to Celtics didn't do it. And they won the championship two years later. Now you're aging up from 29 to 37. So Jalen Brown is now approaching age 30 instead of right in the meat of his prime. It's much more likely that he has peaked that this year is his peak, which what a peak. You have won the title with this score. You've achieved that. And you are now in position where you get the extra stuff from Houston for Kevin Durant. It's in Houston just gets to get out of the Durant experience reset. It's, it's age roster a little bit, but still have a superstar talent coming in. I think multiple picks probably have to go to Boston. I don't know if I can get that net swap next year, which is super valuable. Probably not. Ultimately, I think. I think Durant has reached an age where I'm just not going to that's not the guy I'm going for from a boss is too old and there's just too much noise ever where he goes now. So, but it's it's interesting to think about. Yeah, it's a tough. It's tough to kind of bank on that and just again, like the way the the past few teams would Durant have gone as well. It's a bit frustrating like I don't know if you really want to sign up for that if you're Boston in that way. And you know, although it would be podcast goals for us. With, with Bill and talking about Katie and Boston, that'd be a lot of fun for the podcast world. But I don't think that's something you're, I think the KD run is him being the most sought after guy is probably coming to an end pretty quickly. Okay, some other ones just for shits and giggles as they say. The obvious, not obvious, but like the teams that have assets in the ability to win. For jail and brown, not for the honest, Toronto can get into any conversation they want. I don't see a jail and brown trade happening there for various reasons. I don't think he's their type. I don't think he's their guy that they're going to go all in on at that money. And they also just have the contracts they would trade are just contracts. No one is really itching to get right now. To me, again, we talked about already, but if Cleveland loses this series, they're just anything's on the table for them. I don't even know what the trade would be. Like do you start? I mean, mobility, I think they would be very hesitant to do, but like I just don't know what I, maybe there is no trade for that reason, but Miami. always has to be mentioned with Yannis and or Jalen Brown. Same kind of packages, you know, picks, young guys, hero, Wiggins, blah, blah, blah. Just to do it, sign and trade Austin Reeves plus all three plus all the picks for Jalen Brown. Just to mention the Lakers, they'd have to throw in more money. Don't see that one. Celtics and Lakers don't trade with each other. Warriors have four first round picks. I just, the salary, getting to the salary is very, very hard. The one wild card that I kind of thought was interesting. I'm just making this up out of whole cloth to be clear is would Brooklyn ever do something with Michael Porter, junior plus salary filler plus they have a, I mean, I don't know how many picks it would take, but they have like nicks picks up the wazoo. They have a big nuggets pick in 2032. Michael Porter junior makes less money. He'll be on an expiring contract. He brings a plus three point shooting. He's younger than Jalen Brown. He's the injury prone, maybe. And the nets get, hey, we have a superstar. He's not very, he's 29. Maybe we can get another star in the door with some of our other assets. I don't think that's crazy. I do feel like Michael Porter, junior is game and just general Michael Porter, junior is maybe a little volatile for a team that's moving off a tent pole. The love to superstar finals MVP. I tried with Sacramento. I just, I can't do it. You keep trying, don't banish him the Sacramento. I tried with Charlotte just because I do think Charlotte has, they've just got a ton of stuff and they're clearly ripe for a little bit of a win now move. But again, like I'm just not parting out of my, I'm not doing Kinniple. I'm not doing Miller. I mean, Lamello, I don't know that Paulson is going to be interested in that. And I'm not doing, I'm not messing with what happened in Charlotte. Leave, leave Charlotte alone. I have one more little wild one, but how about Jamal Murray for Jalen Brown? I thought about that a little bit. Like if, I mean, not salary has to be sent, you know, the nuggets have to send a little more, but I'm wondering if that's something you actually have to have the conversation about it. Both teams do. I mean, for Denver, you're going to lose a primary ball handler for a team that doesn't really have a ton of actual ball handlers. And, you know, for the Celtics, you're defensively, you're taking a hit with Jamal, but you're adding a lot of offensive firepower as well. Like it's going to make up a little bit for what Jalen does offensively, but you can't do obviously the defense side of it's going to take a hit. But you're hopefully Tate, I'm coming back ready to go all next year. You're got to think about it. What does C change that would be for both teams in terms of style, personnel? Obviously with Denver, you have this sort of wing defense thing that they don't, I mean, they did not have because of injuries, but you have, you'd have to resolve the cam Johnson, Peyton Watson, Constra, like all of that would have to be resolved. And then if you're Boston, like, do a Murray, Pritchard, White, it's a lot of point guards, ish, I mean, Derek White kind of flamed out at the end of the season, but he's still Derek White. It's interesting. It was on my list. I just still think the most likely outcome by a lot is that Jalen Brown is on the Celtics next year. And Jason Tatives on the Celtics next year, they tweak around the edges a little bit. They have a repeater text issue that they have to deal with. I'm interested to see how they navigate that because in the end, shedding all that veteran talent did hurt them, particularly on the front line. Once the playoffs got going and Joel and Bede came back. It's going to be interesting. Well, look, in four days, when I get out of that ballroom in Chicago, the landscape of the league will be a little clearer for the next couple of months. And given what Jimmy Haslund said about Yannis, buckle up because the offseason of fun officially starts at the combine when all the agents are there and all the teams are there. And I will be there too. And everyone's going to be whispering and huddling and having conversations and meetings at the fancy hotel. It's a fun time mode to kill work. You're in New York this week. Tell people why? Yeah, I'm in New York. I'm working with the NBA. We are putting on a show for X. It's called X Live. It is basically a pre-game show with me, Alexis Morgan, Zach Harbor. We're about two hours before tip-off. We go for an hour. We have a lot of fun. Obviously, the three of us are all breaking down things. I have a video segment, Zach. I get to go to the board like Kenny Smith. Look at that. X is in modes. I do my whole video breakdown. So we have a lot of fun. You're going to learn some stuff. Get it. Get you ready for the games. And honestly, like it's been a lot of fun to do. We're doing this all the way till I think game fives of the second round. So make sure you're checking that out. Today will be 530 Eastern. There you go. And the usual double dribble podcast that you're a doobin offside. All of that. Moe, you're the best. Appreciate your time. Have fun on the DX show today. Thank you for having me, Zach. And enjoy the draft lottery. I know you will. Oh, yeah. All right. That's it for today's episode. Thanks to Moe to kill. As always, thanks to Mike, Billy, and Jonathan on production. Thanks to you all for listening to Andor watching the Zach Lo Show. We'll be back next week with some post lottery reaction. And of course, analysis of all the big playoff games that are going on. Check us out. Thank you for listening to Andor watching the Zach Lo Show. 21 or over in president select states for Kansas, in affiliation with Kansas, Starkis, you know, or 18 and over in president DC. You can tuck your way home and gambling problem. Call 1 800 gambler or 1 800 My Reset. Call 1 8 8 8 7 8 9 7 7 7 7 7 7 or visit ccpg.org/chat in Connecticut or is it md gambling help.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gambling helpline ma.org or call 800 327 5050 for 24 7s important Massachusetts or call 1 8 7 7 8 hope and why or text hope and why in New York for Louisiana. Call 1 8 7 7 7 7 0 7 8 6 7