Nico Harrison
Appearances
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
The Big Suey: The Buck Stops Here
Stadtärzte waren in ihren Zwanzigern. Genau.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
The Big Suey: The Buck Stops Here
Ja. Ich habe bemerkt, dass in deinem Journalismus das Heatgear aus dem Trash rausgekommen ist. Jetzt, dass Janis sagt, er ist wieder interessiert in den Heat.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
The Big Suey: The Buck Stops Here
Was ist denn da falsch? Independent Journalist. Ist das Shirt so wie... Sie verkaufen jetzt vintage-gewarnte Kleidung. Es ist nicht so, dass es so aussieht. Du hast das gekauft. Das ist neu. Da ist wahrscheinlich noch ein Tag drauf.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
The Big Suey: The Buck Stops Here
Du versuchst, es so zu sehen, als hättest du einen Wetter-Heat-Fan. Und du bist so ausgeworfen, weil du es so viel trägst. Es ist so vintage-gebracht. Das klassische 2017-Shirt, das du gestern rausgebracht hast. Es heißt vintage.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
The Big Suey: The Buck Stops Here
Warst du hier am Tag, an dem er seine fünf Top-5-Shirts hatte und sie waren alle aus 2019?
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
The Big Suey: The Buck Stops Here
Nein, ich mag diesen. Das ist ein 2023-Shirt.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
The Big Suey: The Buck Stops Here
What does gas mean? What does any of what you said mean?
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
The Big Suey: The Buck Stops Here
Scott Hamilton ist ein unglaublicher Beispiel. Er ist die Stimme von Figurescape. Ich war dankbar. Du kennst ihn nicht. Ich war dankbar.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
The Big Suey: The Buck Stops Here
I mean, is it the sign that he's aging though, that he went to the MLS?
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
The Big Suey: The Buck Stops Here
Also, die Leute schauen Shrinking in Argentinien?
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
The Big Suey: The Buck Stops Here
Tom Brady also said he never ate strawberries. I mean, I don't know long-term studies on strawberry health.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 1: The Matthew Kugler Dance Video (feat. John Amaechi)
They obviously spent a lot of money on his recruitment and paying this NIL deal, which, of course, we don't have any of the contract deals in front of us, so we're just going off of what a lot of the reporting is saying about the details of the number and how much he was owed this year and how much he was asking for, etc., etc., but...
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 1: The Matthew Kugler Dance Video (feat. John Amaechi)
The fact that a quarterback who took a team to the playoffs, obviously with a lot of help, with a great running back, good coaches, great defense, would ask for more money and basically not have any leverage to get what he was asking for because of some of the underperformance issues like you mentioned, Dan.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 1: The Matthew Kugler Dance Video (feat. John Amaechi)
And then would just leave and enter the spring portal, which really, really limits your options because a lot of teams already have allocated money for who their quarterback is going to be next fall. A lot of administrators are operating under the fact that the house settlement is going to come through and they're going to have this $20 million cap, soft cap, or maybe it's a hard cap.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 1: The Matthew Kugler Dance Video (feat. John Amaechi)
We don't really know. There's an NIL clearinghouse that we don't have details on. They're operating under the auspices that we already have decided this is who our quarterback is and we've set aside money for him. And to have to all of a sudden be interested or maybe be interested in Nico and $4 million is what he's asking for this late in the game. It's going to be hard for him to find a spot.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 1: The Matthew Kugler Dance Video (feat. John Amaechi)
That being said... it could end up working out for him. He could end up finding a place to play. He could end up getting more money than he would have made at Tennessee. And financially, maybe it works out. I just think that the whole thing is kind of sad.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 1: The Matthew Kugler Dance Video (feat. John Amaechi)
And instead of being mad at him and maybe some bad advice that he could be getting, I think this is one of the reasons why five years ago, 10 years ago, 15 years ago, when all of this stuff was arising as an issue in college football, the NCAA sat on their hands and they didn't really try to come to any sort of conclusion, proactive conclusion, about how to prevent things like this from happening.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 1: The Matthew Kugler Dance Video (feat. John Amaechi)
And so here we are with a 20-year-old who's made a really drastic decision early in his career that's going to stick with him for the rest of his life and certainly change the trajectory of his career and a lot of the careers of his former teammates, his former head coach, his future head coach, and et cetera. So it's just a really strange and kind of crappy situation.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 1: The Matthew Kugler Dance Video (feat. John Amaechi)
No, I think it's a good question, Dan. I don't know for sure if they would have let him walk away if he played an outrageously great season last year and they can't afford to see him go, quite literally, because it's going to set them back in a year where they thought they were going to be better and make a playoff and make all the millions of dollars that comes along with it.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 1: The Matthew Kugler Dance Video (feat. John Amaechi)
I don't know if we can answer that, but... I think this is, if you're talking about it from a leverage standpoint, he certainly would have had more leverage had he played to the level that I think was expected of him before the season started. But that's just something we'll never know.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 1: The Matthew Kugler Dance Video (feat. John Amaechi)
And also, yeah, worth mentioning, a lot of drops. His adjusted completion percentage is like 72%, something like that. The drop rate was higher than a lot of other top teams. But yes, certainly not his best games against Georgia, certainly Ohio State, and the teams that you would have liked to see him play well against. Yeah.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 1: The Matthew Kugler Dance Video (feat. John Amaechi)
I had a wild weekend, okay? So I had a bunch of singles that I found in my nightstand. Hell yeah. Like $30, probably from the fine bucket, probably from when I won the fine bucket. And I was like, what am I going to do with like 30 singles? I don't know. I don't use cash that much. Let's buy some scratch-offs. So Lehman and I went and we bought some scratch-offs.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 1: The Matthew Kugler Dance Video (feat. John Amaechi)
You can get a lot of scratch offs for $30. So we ended up with like a stack of like 15 scratch offs and I won $50. And one of the scratch offs, every single thing that I scratched off was a winner. That one alone was 15 bucks. And I got a little hooked and I was like, should we go back? Should we get $50 worth of scratch offs now?
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 1: The Matthew Kugler Dance Video (feat. John Amaechi)
Exactly. So then we went back. We got $50 worth of scratch-offs. I got another huge stack. And there's this crossword scratch-off game where you scratch off the letters and then you cross off in the crossword the letters. If you get enough words, you get more money. So if you get three words with your letters, you get $20. If you get four, you get... 30 bucks, whatever. I got four words.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 1: The Matthew Kugler Dance Video (feat. John Amaechi)
So I won $30 just on that ticket alone. And then I did like 10 Monopoly scratch offs and I won another $27. So I ended up with $47 now. I think, yeah, I don't know. I just said the math wrong, but it was $47. So we went back and we got more scratch offs. So now I'm like 30 scratch offs deep on Sunday.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 1: The Matthew Kugler Dance Video (feat. John Amaechi)
Yeah.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 1: The Matthew Kugler Dance Video (feat. John Amaechi)
Milums?
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 1: The Matthew Kugler Dance Video (feat. John Amaechi)
What?
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 1: The Matthew Kugler Dance Video (feat. John Amaechi)
I mean, I feel like I'm single-handedly paying for the education system in Florida. I assume that's where the lottery winnings go, but I really have no idea.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 1: The Matthew Kugler Dance Video (feat. John Amaechi)
Like Tallahassee. It says it on the back. It's like if you win more than $500, you have to mail this to Tallahassee. I'm like, what?
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 1: The Matthew Kugler Dance Video (feat. John Amaechi)
No, we went back and we were like, well, this was found money. Let's just keep going. Why not? So we got $47 worth of scratch-offs back at the store, came home, scratched them all off. No winners.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 1: The Matthew Kugler Dance Video (feat. John Amaechi)
What do you use to scratch? Are you a Kiwi? It was a lot of fun. Lehman has this BCS National Championship pin from the last BCS National Championship game when he was covering it at Sports Illustrated. It's got the perfect little hard metal edge. Nice. Yeah, it was really nice. Although we were fighting over at one point. I like took all of them and I was like, I started going.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 1: The Matthew Kugler Dance Video (feat. John Amaechi)
He's like, I want to do some of these. I was like, but I want to do them. And then we were fighting over who's going to do.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 1: The Matthew Kugler Dance Video (feat. John Amaechi)
No, we took them home, Roy. This was an event. We were taking our time. We were enjoying ourselves.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 1: The Matthew Kugler Dance Video (feat. John Amaechi)
A BCS National Championship pin from the 2014 game.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 1: The Matthew Kugler Dance Video (feat. John Amaechi)
It's not.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 1: The Matthew Kugler Dance Video (feat. John Amaechi)
I'm going to go talk to Amici.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 1: The Matthew Kugler Dance Video (feat. John Amaechi)
And do you mean soccer?
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 1: The Matthew Kugler Dance Video (feat. John Amaechi)
Cuervo.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 1: The Matthew Kugler Dance Video (feat. John Amaechi)
I think the whole thing is honestly kind of sad. I feel bad that people are going to now, like Tennessee fans especially, are going to be really angry with him and blame him for this. And I also understand why you would if you were a fan, because this is someone that Tennessee went to bat for.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
The Big Suey: The Age of the Curmudgeon
Well, I think the long term is the time frame. I think he fits our time frame. If you pair him with Kyrie and the rest of the guys, he fits right along with our time frame to win now and win in the future. And the future to me is three, four years from now. The future, 10 years from now, I don't know. I don't think they're probably burying me and Jay Budden. Or we bare ourselves.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
The Big Suey: The Age of the Curmudgeon
Ten years from now, I don't know. I don't think they'll probably bury me in J-Buddy, or we bury ourselves.
The Zach Lowe Show
Play-In Reaction, More Playoff Previews, and Final Awards Ballots With Michael Pina
Like, you bounce it off the floor. You pass it to someone who does something with it. And they're only 22 and 21, respectively, but they just don't do anything. So I look at that core, and I'm like... Kobe White, his next contract will be very interesting. Mm-hmm. Giddey, obviously free agent this summer, his contract will be very interesting. Buzelis is a cornerstone.
The Zach Lowe Show
Play-In Reaction, More Playoff Previews, and Final Awards Ballots With Michael Pina
Those two guys, White and Giddey, are like... good players. I don't know how good they are as, as like building a championship level team. Are they second and third, third and fourth, fourth and fifth. So I don't know the answer to that question yet. The rest of it is like, I like IO fine. I think IO could be a fifth starter on a team. That's just loaded with offensive talent around him.
The Zach Lowe Show
Play-In Reaction, More Playoff Previews, and Final Awards Ballots With Michael Pina
More likely like a six, seventh, eighth, ninth kind of guy who comes in and gives you really good minutes. Um, The rest of it, I'm like, I don't know what any of these guys amount to. And I guess what the Bulls really have going for them is potential max cap space in the summer of 2026, owning all of their first round picks, including this one, wherever it may fall.
The Zach Lowe Show
Play-In Reaction, More Playoff Previews, and Final Awards Ballots With Michael Pina
And just sort of giant question mark of what do all those young players actually add up to going forward? What's the biggest void on the team? And if they can't fill it via insane lottery luck, which is always in play, how are they going to fill it? Are they really counting on free agency? Their record as a free agent destination is not great. Although it's Chicago, it should be better.
The Zach Lowe Show
Play-In Reaction, More Playoff Previews, and Final Awards Ballots With Michael Pina
An honor. Let's take it easy with the honor stuff. Okay, so Pina, we got a lot happening. We only have the tail end of the play and left the eighth seeds to be decided. We've got awards ballots due. I read your ballot. Did you have a ballot?
The Zach Lowe Show
Play-In Reaction, More Playoff Previews, and Final Awards Ballots With Michael Pina
They've gotten some guys. They've got Pau Gasol. They've gotten meetings with lots of big guys before. Yeah. Is anything interesting going on here?
The Zach Lowe Show
Play-In Reaction, More Playoff Previews, and Final Awards Ballots With Michael Pina
I had him on. I don't have a ballot. He was on my – I see you smiling. He was on my second team. I had – the last first spot came down to Colel Ware and Matas Pizzo. We're going to sprinkle in my awards. I've made my official choices, which are not official because I don't have a ballot.
The Zach Lowe Show
Play-In Reaction, More Playoff Previews, and Final Awards Ballots With Michael Pina
Okay, nice. Congratulations. That's a big deal. And we have the playoffs starting, so we're going to hit the ground running. We've got a lot to cover, and we are going to start with the results of yesterday's play-in games. And Michael Pina...
The Zach Lowe Show
Play-In Reaction, More Playoff Previews, and Final Awards Ballots With Michael Pina
Let's just do rookies right now since we're on the topic. We're going to do rookies. Put the rookie of the year and the all-rookie graphic up. My first and second team have not changed since I did this on the pod last week. First team, Castle, Risa Shea, Wells, Edie, Ware. Second team, Saar, Filipowski, Buzelis, Klingin, Misi. Apologies to lots of people that I've already apologized to.
The Zach Lowe Show
Play-In Reaction, More Playoff Previews, and Final Awards Ballots With Michael Pina
And my rookie of the year ballot, after much thought, would go one Castle, two Wells, three Risa Shea. I've already done the podcast. I am not going to justify it any further. That's my choice. Not particularly excited about it. But on Buzelis... Let's say he hits his absolute ceiling, which we don't even know what that is now because he had such an intriguing last part of the year.
The Zach Lowe Show
Play-In Reaction, More Playoff Previews, and Final Awards Ballots With Michael Pina
But I'm just going to posit that his absolute ceiling is like a plus number two option on a great team. Like, like... That's an all-star player, like an A-plus, do-it-all, power-forward option on a great team that needs a number one option ball handler type on his level or slightly above if you're really going to contend. That's an amazing outcome for the 11th pick if that's happening.
The Zach Lowe Show
Play-In Reaction, More Playoff Previews, and Final Awards Ballots With Michael Pina
Let's just posit that. I still don't really know what the rest of this or like if we reach sell high point time on Kobe White. I don't even know because his next contract, frankly, scares me a little bit. He's eligible for he's going to be extension eligible in a year, I think. But he's not maybe even now. I can't remember what the exact rule of next season, I think.
The Zach Lowe Show
Play-In Reaction, More Playoff Previews, and Final Awards Ballots With Michael Pina
Yeah, but but the money doesn't make any sense for him to be extended. He makes too little now for the extension rules to really apply to him.
The Zach Lowe Show
Play-In Reaction, More Playoff Previews, and Final Awards Ballots With Michael Pina
um giddy's contract is going to be big i know they have all the leverage of restricted free agency the bulls have not been a team that has used any kind of leverage particularly effectively in any of their negotiations with their own players or acquiring players which is fine like it's just i remember people hammered them for paying to rosen when he appeared to have no market it's like
The Zach Lowe Show
Play-In Reaction, More Playoff Previews, and Final Awards Ballots With Michael Pina
Guys just get paid. Guys of a certain stature just get paid. It's sort of the politeness of the league. It's just like they're not going to just lowball Josh Giddey ridiculously because they can. They might squeeze a little. But, I mean, I don't know. We'll see where they go.
The Zach Lowe Show
Play-In Reaction, More Playoff Previews, and Final Awards Ballots With Michael Pina
I just – the questions obviously outnumber the answers because the best answer they have is Buzellas and whatever comes of White and Giddey, and I don't know exactly what that adds up to quite yet.
The Zach Lowe Show
Play-In Reaction, More Playoff Previews, and Final Awards Ballots With Michael Pina
sometimes by accident the sports world the nba world provides just a delectable bit of poetry just a delectable little delicious bit of of narrative symmetry that you just can't resist it might be low-hanging fruit but it's delicious low-hanging fruit you must pluck it and one such bit of poetry
The Zach Lowe Show
Play-In Reaction, More Playoff Previews, and Final Awards Ballots With Michael Pina
It is a ballsy move, but it's not a bullsy move. Any interest in Zion Williamson? If you're the Chicago Bulls, make a couple calls.
The Zach Lowe Show
Play-In Reaction, More Playoff Previews, and Final Awards Ballots With Michael Pina
But whatever happens, the Bulls will always have the first 35 games of the 21-22 season when Lonzo was healthy and the team was 26-10 and everything looked great. They have clung tenaciously to those 36 games. Not as tenaciously as Nico Harrison has clung to two and a half quarters of basketball where Kyrie Irving and Anthony Davis played at once against the Houston Rockets.
The Zach Lowe Show
Play-In Reaction, More Playoff Previews, and Final Awards Ballots With Michael Pina
And boy, you could see it. You could see it in those two and a half quarters of one game. You could see it. We must address the no cameras thing. No recorders. You can only write with your weak hand in an old school reporter's notebook. Media roundtable, according to Shams, orchestrated by Patrick Dumont. The rules, at least, orchestrated by Patrick Dumont, which, again, I would just reiterate.
The Zach Lowe Show
Play-In Reaction, More Playoff Previews, and Final Awards Ballots With Michael Pina
is the Sacramento Kings and the Chicago Bulls getting drilled in the play-in tournament on the same day after essentially like almost trading mediocre rosters with each other over the last couple of years.
The Zach Lowe Show
Play-In Reaction, More Playoff Previews, and Final Awards Ballots With Michael Pina
Just no more PR for Patrick Dumont. Just immediately you are setting the whole thing up to be lambasted as a humiliation and a failure. Like nothing has even been said. And by setting these insane rules, you have already shot the thing in the foot to the point of no return. A bunch of media were there.
The Zach Lowe Show
Play-In Reaction, More Playoff Previews, and Final Awards Ballots With Michael Pina
Nico Harrison said a lot of things about the Luka Doncic trade centering around the mantra of defense wins championships, which is what I said to the 11 to 13 year old water polo team I coached in the mid to late 90s when I was trying to get a bunch of 11 to 13 year olds who only wanted to score goals to play defense. Defense win – offense sells tickets. Defense wins championships.
The Zach Lowe Show
Play-In Reaction, More Playoff Previews, and Final Awards Ballots With Michael Pina
That went over amazingly with the middle school crowd. They're like, that's it. Oh, yeah, I like that. And did not really answer Tim McMahon's pointed questions about – so you traded 25 for 31 age-wise to set up a short-term –
The Zach Lowe Show
Play-In Reaction, More Playoff Previews, and Final Awards Ballots With Michael Pina
contention window, yet you keep saying this is also a long-term move, and yet to build the team that already went to the finals, you traded all our draft picks from 2027 to 2030. But when we get there, Kyrie's going to be older, AD's going to be older, Luka's going to still be in his prime. Luka was the insurance policy against those picks spotting him out.
The Zach Lowe Show
Play-In Reaction, More Playoff Previews, and Final Awards Ballots With Michael Pina
He is now the insurance policy for the Lakers. Just reading these quotes... Anything resonate with you?
The Zach Lowe Show
Play-In Reaction, More Playoff Previews, and Final Awards Ballots With Michael Pina
Quotes come out from the Mavericks about this trade. And I have to... I'm like, is it fake? Is it real? Is that a real thing? It really peaked with the Babe Ruth comparison being really, quote, really cool or kind of cool. It's not cool. Like... It's a lot of things, but it's not cool. And then yesterday, I saw this Rick Welts, who, God bless him, has been a lifetimer in the NBA, a Hall of Famer.
The Zach Lowe Show
Play-In Reaction, More Playoff Previews, and Final Awards Ballots With Michael Pina
He is, I don't even know what he is, the CEO of the Mavericks or something now. He was with the Warriors forever and ever. All-time legend in the business. He's a CEO. And many, many people have made the same joke to me in the last two months, three months, whatever, since the trade. Being like, well, it's a good thing Rick Welts got paid a crap ton of money to go be the CEO of the Mavericks.
The Zach Lowe Show
Play-In Reaction, More Playoff Previews, and Final Awards Ballots With Michael Pina
It's presumably his last lap. This quote comes out where he's comparing the trade of Luca to when the Warriors, when he was with the Warriors, traded Monte Ellis for Andrew Bogut. And it was wildly unpopular. And Joe Lacob and Chris Mullen got booed on the court right after the trade. And look how that turned out in the end. And my assumption, I saw it on Twitter and like, well, that's fake.
The Zach Lowe Show
Play-In Reaction, More Playoff Previews, and Final Awards Ballots With Michael Pina
Please visit rg-help.com to learn more about the numerous resources and helplines available and listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Must be 21 or over and present in select states. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com. All right, coming up on a new Zach Lowe Show, it is a loaded Thursday morning with Michael Pina of The Ringer.
The Zach Lowe Show
Play-In Reaction, More Playoff Previews, and Final Awards Ballots With Michael Pina
Like there's just no, there's 0% chance that could be real. And I'm Googling it now. That appears to be a real quote. That appears to be an actual comparison that Rick Welts, who knows more about the business of basketball in one brain cell than I do in my whole brain said, even if that thought entered my mind, At the very conjuring of the word Monte, I would have been like, no, no, no. I can't.
The Zach Lowe Show
Play-In Reaction, More Playoff Previews, and Final Awards Ballots With Michael Pina
Luka Doncic is a five-time first-team All-NBA player who has been to the NBA Finals. It's just really unbelievable. Look, there are multiple championships. Nico's right in this sense. There's multiple ways to win an NBA title. I kind of like the idea of tripling down on defense.
The Zach Lowe Show
Play-In Reaction, More Playoff Previews, and Final Awards Ballots With Michael Pina
in an era where we're not far removed from the whole discussion is like have the nba made defense impossible is defense even important anymore i love that the thunder are going all in on that end too i don't mind like sort of stamping that is that's what we're going to be about we are zigging in that direction when the league is zagging in the other direction the reality is
The Zach Lowe Show
Play-In Reaction, More Playoff Previews, and Final Awards Ballots With Michael Pina
You need to be good at both to win an NBA championship. And you generally don't get to decide to this degree which you are elite at. If you can't be absolutely elite at both, you got to be elite at one and good at the other, right? And you don't generally get to decide, go to the team building grocery store and pick out whatever model fits you.
The Zach Lowe Show
Play-In Reaction, More Playoff Previews, and Final Awards Ballots With Michael Pina
You generally just step one is get the top five guy in the NBA and just build what makes sense around him. And what makes sense around Luca is, elite offense, good enough defense, much like the Denver Nuggets when they won the championship around Nikola Jokic. And they had that model down. They had it. It was already there for them.
The Zach Lowe Show
Play-In Reaction, More Playoff Previews, and Final Awards Ballots With Michael Pina
Their defense was very good in 2022, and they made the conference finals. Their defense was quite good again in 2024 when they made the NBA finals. like not far from defense wins championships. The last word of that is championship. Three games away from championship. That model is a proven model. It works.
The Zach Lowe Show
Play-In Reaction, More Playoff Previews, and Final Awards Ballots With Michael Pina
And to swap it out in chasing this other model, which would presumably be good on offense, great on defense, is just needless when you consider the cost and the return of this particular trade. There is a very good chance that if healthy, with Kyrie, with AD, with lively, with the burgeoning young cast of interesting players around them. That does not include Quentin Grimes anymore, by the way.
The Zach Lowe Show
Play-In Reaction, More Playoff Previews, and Final Awards Ballots With Michael Pina
Um, They could have absolutely landed on a team that is, let's say, eighth in offense, second on defense, championship worthy, near championship worthy if everything goes right. Well, everything hasn't gone right. And as I keep saying, this trade squeezed your timetable so narrowly that you can't afford really anything going wrong to the level that it is going wrong.
The Zach Lowe Show
Play-In Reaction, More Playoff Previews, and Final Awards Ballots With Michael Pina
And, you know, we'll see when Kyrie comes back and in what condition he's in. But this year is a wash. Next year is TBD. The history of ACL tears would not make me super duper optimistic about it, but we'll see. But that's that. I just I can't believe it. The Zach Lowe Show is brought to you by FanDuel. The NBA play-in tournament gives some teams one last shot at making the playoffs.
The Zach Lowe Show
Play-In Reaction, More Playoff Previews, and Final Awards Ballots With Michael Pina
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The Zach Lowe Show
Play-In Reaction, More Playoff Previews, and Final Awards Ballots With Michael Pina
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The Zach Lowe Show
Play-In Reaction, More Playoff Previews, and Final Awards Ballots With Michael Pina
Bonus issued is non-withdrawable bonus bets, which expire seven days after receipt restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com. All right. Should we talk about some playoff series?
The Zach Lowe Show
Play-In Reaction, More Playoff Previews, and Final Awards Ballots With Michael Pina
We're going to preview the two set series that I have not previewed yet that have become set in stone. since Monday's podcast with Bill and Moe DeKeele. And we're going to start with the headliner. The Golden State Warriors win the play-in game against Memphis, and they draw the Houston Rockets.
The Zach Lowe Show
Play-In Reaction, More Playoff Previews, and Final Awards Ballots With Michael Pina
A lot has been said, Michael Pena, that, boy, the Warriors may have actually lucked in to a good playoff route for them. They get the inexperienced, sometimes offensively challenged Rockets in the first round. Although you wouldn't guess, but Houston had a higher offensive rating this year than the Warriors, just FYI.
The Zach Lowe Show
Play-In Reaction, More Playoff Previews, and Final Awards Ballots With Michael Pina
Chicago trades Zach Levine actually thinking OK trade because what they really got was financial relief. They could not get off that contract and they got off of it without having to include a pick. They had to take the Zach Collins and Kevin Herter salaries. Fine. Those expires after next season. They got their own pick back contract. the 11 to 30 portion of it that was the unprotected part.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Although they were 21st, I think, in half-court offense, which is quite pertinent now.
The Zach Lowe Show
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They are on the opposite side of the bracket from Oklahoma City. The red-hot Los Angeles Clippers, the team close to your heart, and the Denver Nuggets. So that's good. And I can squint and I can see that, actually. But this ain't going to be no picnic against the Houston Rockets. These teams played five times in the regular season, twice after the Jimmy Butler trade.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Overall, it was an absolute defensive slugfest across the board. 104 offensive rating for the Warriors, 103 for the Rockets, both of which would rank dead last in the NBA. There is a ton to unpack here. These are both great rebounding teams. That's going to be an interesting battle to watch.
The Zach Lowe Show
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We have the Warriors offense, which takes the second most threes in the NBA against the Rockets defense that gives up the third fewest. I think Warriors role player threes are going to be a bellwether in this series. They need Pajemski and Moody and Payton and Buddy Heald, if he can survive defensively, to make enough shots because shots are going to be funneled in those directions.
The Zach Lowe Show
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There's a lot to unpack here, but I would start here.
The Zach Lowe Show
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um i think this is gonna be a tough series it's gonna be an exhausting series regardless the warriors against length athleticism and youth has always been a challenge for them that they have to puzzle solve with their you know veteran guile and shooting and skill big picture question number one how do the rockets score enough to win four games in this series
The Zach Lowe Show
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Just saying those four names in a row in the context of offensive rebounding. My spine, I felt a shiver down my spine. Like how unpleasant would that be? Again, I always think it's at Summer League. They should have these challenges for media, like get around a screen from Steven Adams would be a challenge. And like box out Tari Eason would be another one.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Just forget Adams and Shingun who are huge and mean and Adams will just beat the crap out of you. Just how about Tari? Tari Eason's coming from half court. Box him out. I would I would did no chance. I'd be helpless.
The Zach Lowe Show
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It was top 10 protected via the DeMar DeRozan trade. They got it back, and boy, wow.
The Zach Lowe Show
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I mean, the first answer is obviously they need to defend the Warriors as well as they did in the regular season to give their offense a chance to just score enough points. You nailed it with the double big lineup. They intentionally avoided Steph with it completely. We'll see if they do that in this series. Look, I think for Houston to win this series, a number of things have to happen.
The Zach Lowe Show
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One of which is they take care of the ball, as you mentioned. Another of which is they need to win the rebounding battle. The Warriors are actually a sneakily really good rebounding team on both ends of the floor. Yeah. And I think hovering above all that is we'd get to the end of the series and there would have to be a debate about was Shengun the best player in the series?
The Zach Lowe Show
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Because I just think he is the... He's going to have to be the answer to this question of how do the Rockets not even just generate buckets late in games? How do the Rockets bend the defense late in games? How do they draw two on the ball late in games? And that's been tough sledding for Shen Goon against Draymond Green. The Warriors have mostly let Draymond guard him straight up.
The Zach Lowe Show
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They'll like surprise attack with a double or a half help here and there.
The Zach Lowe Show
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um and this season shangun post-ups against the warriors 0.6 points per possession when he shoots out of the post or passes to a guy who shoots right away 0.89 points per possession overall those are horrid horrid numbers draymond's been very physical with him has stood him up he can't back him down that's a little bit worrisome to me and beyond that
The Zach Lowe Show
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They need some luck on the last day of the play-in to have a shot at keeping that pick. Bobby Marks has a tweet up now. They need Dallas and Miami to win, I think, in the last play-in games to jump them in the lottery. Just a sad state of affairs. So I will put this question to you. Which of these two teams is saddest right now, the Bulls or the Kings, two years removed from the beam team?
The Zach Lowe Show
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Like the pick and roll with Jalen Green and Shen Goon and Van Vliet and Shen Goon, the Warriors just kind of dropped back on that. And Draymond is as good as it gets at playing two at once defensively. They haven't gotten a ton of traction there. And then the next place they go is... Well, if Heald's on the floor, if Steph's on the floor, can we hunt him at all with our guards?
The Zach Lowe Show
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So you'll see like Jalen Green. Steph will often guard Dylan Brooks. Sometimes I'm in Thompson. Dylan, come up, set a screen for me. I'll get a switch. And then it'll be Jalen Green or Fred Van Vliet trying to attack Steph one-on-one. And they'll have moments. I just don't think that's good enough in the half court situation. without a massive Shen Goon series.
The Zach Lowe Show
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One thing I noticed from Jalen Green is like when he gets that switch with Curry, if there's an angle, if Steph switches in a way that gives an angle even slightly, Jalen Green has success when he just goes right away. See the angle, go to the rim. The minute you start dancing with the ball, it's a win for the Warriors. It's going to be a tough shot.
The Zach Lowe Show
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And so I just, I do worry about their half court offense in this series, but I also worry about the Warriors half court. Oh, one thing about Shen Goon, by the way, I mentioned Draymond on him. He's often, Shen Goon, is often not going to guard Draymond Green on the other end of the floor, even though they are matched up at center.
The Zach Lowe Show
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they will put him on Moses Moody a lot and sort of dare the Warriors say, okay, you want to involve Shingun in the pick and roll? You're going to have to use your least dangerous starting offensive player to do it, your least creative starting offensive player.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Now I think Moody's had a nice season, but if I have my choice, I'm going to choose Moody to have to play make in the pick and roll and all of this. And the result of that, there are lots of trickle downs of that, but one is if they ever catch the Warriors –
The Zach Lowe Show
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on defense with moody stuck on shangun or anybody but draymond and kavan looney stuck on shangun the whole possession has to whatever your plan was scrap the plan and give the ball to shangun because you're not going to have many opportunities to do that but look the rockets have a lot of answers against the warriors defensively we know what the warriors answers are going to be they're going to lean into their split actions their off ball movement um you know you might see like
The Zach Lowe Show
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some Steph pick and rolls to hunt Jalen Green and try to go against him one-on-one. But the Rockets don't have a lot of weak points to pick at. Amin Thompson is as good as it gets defending Steph, and Fred VanVleet is as good as it gets after that. And we saw that in the last game they played. Steph couldn't even get the ball, basically.
The Zach Lowe Show
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What else are you looking at when the Warriors have the ball?
The Zach Lowe Show
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The Zach Lowe Show
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Well, I mean, he's going to have to play. And I think he's made strides defensively enough that I trust him to play heavy minutes in the series. But sometimes someone is the weak link almost by default. Yeah, the matchups, Ahmed Thompson's going to guard Steph a lot and Dylan Brooks is going to guard Jimmy a lot.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Part of the benefit of that is if you even try a two-man game on or off the ball between those two players, you are size-wise programmed to switch. Now, Ahmed Thompson was clearly instructed, don't switch, don't do anything, just stay on Steph at all times, disregard everything else.
The Zach Lowe Show
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And he did that excellently, which is another reason why I just think they're going to have to use every trick in the Warriors book to get space for Steph individually. Sometimes that's just going to be like, you know what, we're not a heavy pick and roll offense, but Shangoon is on Draymond dispossession. Like, let's run a Steph Draymond pick and roll, see what they do.
The Zach Lowe Show
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If there's two on the ball, boom, we know how to play out of that. Our guys are just going to have to finish. And like, that's what I mean about shots being funneled to the shooters and to Gary Payton II, who is going to get a lot of those moody minutes, I think is the fifth guy out. in that starting lineup or closing lineup or whatever.
The Zach Lowe Show
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They ran a couple of plays against the Rockets where they essentially cleared a side of the floor for Steph pick and rolls against the Rockets center to create easier passing angles, easier four on threes. Run a half court pick and roll for Steph when he's bringing the ball up. Just spring a few of those every game. Get him going downhill.
The Zach Lowe Show
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And Jimmy was quiet in the two games he played against Houston for the Warriors. I don't expect him to be quiet in this series. By the way, we should mention off the bat, bigger picture stuff here.
The Zach Lowe Show
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First of all, it's a renewal of one of my favorite rivalries in the NBA of the last 15 years, Rockets Warriors, which during the height of the James Harden, Maury Gate about the officials releasing the report and the mathematics behind it and all that was just one of these rivalries that elevated beyond just Warriors Rockets and somehow became like a battle for the soul of basketball and how it should be played and what was the right way to play.
The Zach Lowe Show
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And then just two weeks ago,
The Zach Lowe Show
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Who would you pick to win this series? You don't have to make a pick. I'm going to make a pick, but you don't have to.
The Zach Lowe Show
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I can't abandon the old heads yet. It's entirely understandable. I'm going Warriors in seven. And they have a history of gut punch eliminations of the Rockets on the Rockets home floor in both 2018, the 27 consecutive missed threes.
The Zach Lowe Show
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In 2019, the late game meltdown where Steph went insane in the second half and made three after three after three on the same exact play in the same exact spot, right wing, time after time. I see a third one coming. No disrespect for the Rockets, and we know the implications of that. Will that accelerate the Rockets' team building if indeed they do lose in the first round? We'll see.
The Zach Lowe Show
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We'll see how it goes. All right. You want to do an awards interlude?
The Zach Lowe Show
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All right. I mentioned we started doing all defense. So I've changed my all defense and defensive player of the year. When are ballots actually due, by the way? I don't have a ballot. They were due yesterday, I believe. So they're due. Great. So what I say has no impact at all. Defensive player of the year. I flipped back to Evan Mobley at the end. I went Mobley, Draymond Green, Lou Dort.
The Zach Lowe Show
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I don't think Mobley is a perfect defender. I don't think he's an A-plus defender yet. I think he's a solid A. And with Wemby not eligible, I think start to finish, he had the cleanest campaign beginning to end. I went with Mobley. Again, I did all these awards previously. So if you want deeper analysis, you can find it on earlier episodes.
The Zach Lowe Show
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First team all defense, I went – there was a couple agonizing ones here. I went Mobley. Draymond, Dort, my top three on the ballot. Ahmed Thompson and Dyson Daniels. I shifted Jaron Jackson Jr. to second team. The fouling in the late season slide started to irritate me to the point that I put him on second team. And I moved Dort to first team as a deserving Oklahoma City representative.
The Zach Lowe Show
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The heartbreakers on my second team were I badly wanted a first-team spot for Evita Zubats, and I badly wanted a first-team spot for OG Ananobi, whose name I have not seen mentioned enough in the first-team all-defense debate. Just an incredible defensive season, steals, blocks, taking on whatever assignment, playing a ton of minutes, obviously, as a Knick.
The Zach Lowe Show
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That's sort of job description number one. Who am I taking off? For those guys, I can't take off the top three on my defense player of the year. I feel like I should reward a Thunder player. And Amin Thompson is just like a phantom on the court. I can't take any of those guys off. And so my second team was Jaron Jackson Jr., Zubats Anunobi, Rudy Gobert, and Jalen Williams from the Thunder.
The Zach Lowe Show
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That's where we are with that. Sixth man of the year. Peyton Pritchard, Malik Beasley, Nas Reed, unchanged from when I did this on my prior podcast. Most improved player I have not done yet. Who was your most improved player ballot?
The Zach Lowe Show
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All defensible. There's a million guys that you could pitch for this award. First, second, third, fourth, fifth, whatever. I went Dyson Daniels one. I just think the offensive improvement is what swung it for me. The fact that he's a reliable 15-point-a-game guy who, when he scores 20, 22, 23, it's like, oh, wow, his floater was really on today. Now,
The Zach Lowe Show
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The three-point shot isn't quite where they want it to be, but he's just become a very artful bully ball. Get it to his spot, elevate, and the defense speaks for itself. I just didn't see that level of two-way play coming, even in an elevated role coming from New Orleans to Atlanta. It's legitimately shocking some nights to me how effective he is as an offensive player.
The Zach Lowe Show
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So I went Daniels, Zubats, and then third place, I just – you could have gone a million different directions with Ty Jerome not eligible – I went with Quentin Grimes. I think his late season stuff in Philadelphia, I don't think he's going to score 25 points a game. But it didn't feel to me watching those games like it was ball hoggy or like out of regular NBA context improvement.
The Zach Lowe Show
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He looked like a real player doing real stuff. His passing, he was like averaging six, seven assists a game. I'm just going to give him the nod for like making the most. He was already starting to play better in Dallas. And what he did in Philly felt real to me. So I'm giving him the nod. I knew Cade Cunningham was going to be good. I always thought Cade Cunningham was already going to be good.
The Zach Lowe Show
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You could see this coming. So I wasn't, he's not on my ballot. Okay. Coach of the year. I went Kenny Atkinson, JB Bickerstaff, Ty Lue. Apologies. I already did all my apologies to Ime Udoka, many others. All right, let's get to the big one. I took this one to the wire. You voted for Jokic, right?
The Zach Lowe Show
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I legitimately couldn't decide. Like, legitimately. I've texted 40 people in the NBA who I really trust-ish in the last 48 hours. Nobody can decide. I mean, the amount of responses I've gotten from GMs, coaches, scouts, whoever, that start with, well, it's 49-51, 51-49. Or one person said to me, this is not a Russ or Derrick Rose situation. Anyone, either of the two you pick is fine.
The Zach Lowe Show
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I thought that was a little disrespectful, even though I didn't vote for either of those guys in those particular years. I would say the response is leaned Shea, but more is just a shoulder shrug of like, well, they won the most games. This is the rare time when I think both choices are right. And I think both choices are okay.
The Zach Lowe Show
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And when you really, we can get bogged down in the numbers and this and that, and who's got the edge here. I would say the stats are relatively equal. Jokic has a slight edge, I think, in the aggregate. If you take all the counting stats, all the advanced stats, all of it, like, tedious edge to Jokic, but such a small edge that I don't really care all that much.
The Zach Lowe Show
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These are historically two of the best seasons I do find it ironic that the thunder of all franchises are arguing against a guy winning who averaged a triple double in an NBA season when all those years ago was like, well, it's simple. It's all it's just it's just reductive. Triple double equals MVP. So in the end, it comes down to if you zoom way out, my brain goes to two different places.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Two different arguments, one for each player. Just the dumbest zoom out arguments that are not dumb, actually, that resonate when you get to it. Over here is we all know who the best player is. Every one of those 40 people who I polled, everyone, even the 28 who were like, we're leaning Shea, would say Jokic is the best player. Every one of them. I don't think there's one that would not say that.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Maybe one. One said, one gave me the cop-out of Jokic is the best offensive player, Shea's the best two-way player. I guess that counts as saying Shea's the best player. I don't know. So that's over here. Over here, on the other side, is 18 wins. That's a lot. That's the gap. Yeah. Between Shea. and the Thunder, and Jokic, and the Nuggets.
The Zach Lowe Show
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And I know the Nuggets are plus 10.5 with Jokic on the floor. That's an elite number. That's first, second in the NBA most years among teams, like on the team level. And minus 9 when he's on the bench. Catastrophic. The Thunder are plus 5 with Shea on the bench. That would be top 5 in the NBA for teams most times. They're plus 17 with him on the floor.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Obviously, his supporting cast is better, more reliable, more stable. And you just get into this endless sort of spiral of what is the appropriate amount, if any, to quote unquote reward Jokic for stabilizing what has been a not functional team with him. I mean, just call it what it is. It's not a functional team with him off the floor.
The Zach Lowe Show
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And are you therefore punishing SGA for the sin of having a functional team when he's off the floor? What's interesting about Denver is we know their bench stinks. Jamal Murray's numbers like you net out this Jamal Murray season. It's just like a kind of another Jamal Murray season.
The Zach Lowe Show
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It feels like it hasn't been a great season and it was a bad it was a bad beginning and an injured ending and the middle was sensational. He ends up at 21 a game on 47 percent shooting 39 percent from threes like that's a normal Jamal Murray season. It's like even a little better than normal statistically didn't feel that way.
The Zach Lowe Show
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And again, I don't care. I don't care who wins. Like, I can't. I am Team Jokic all day long, every day. He's been my favorite player ever to cover, probably. I think 68 wins needs to be respected. It's not the 18. It's not the 18. It's the 68. This was a 70-win team, almost. with a net rating that is flirting with the best ever in the regular season.
The Zach Lowe Show
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I know it's all meaningless if they shit the bed in the playoffs, and we'll see if they do or not. I don't think they're going to, but we'll see. I think 68 wins needs to be respected. And I think when you look at the on-off numbers...
The Zach Lowe Show
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they suggest to you that A, this team still has no viable offense without Shea Gilchrist-Alexander, and B, he is the reason that they are not just a good regular season team, not just a great regular season team, but an all-time great regular season team. He is helping them on defense. Helping them. He's not surviving because of everybody around him. He's actively helping them.
The Zach Lowe Show
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We don't need to talk about the offense. It's incredible. And I think what has kind of been missed in all the rigmarole of, you know, Aaron Gordon played 51 games. Jamal Murray wasn't himself at the start of the season. The bench was bad. And then Julian Strother got hurt and it got worse. Zeke Nagy had a hot second where he was productive and then he's gone. Like Chet played 32 games, I think.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Hartenstein played 57 games. Caruso just, I guess is on just permanent load management, played 50 something games and just like eight minutes here is 16 minutes there. Like when you take Chet and or Hartenstein out of that group, it's not like they're loaded with incredible offensive talent in Oklahoma city. He is making those guys better by getting them easy shot after easy shot after easy shot.
The Zach Lowe Show
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And I say that knowing that he's not as good of a playmaker as as he might need to be for this team to go all the way. Now, maybe he proves that wrong this coming postseason. I will say this. Look, the Thunder had 111 offensive rating with Shea off the floor. That would be like 25th in the NBA. That could be your case.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Just interestingly, with Chet and J-Dub and no Shea, they scored 121 points per 100 possessions, about 90th percentile of all lineups, according to Cleaning the Glass. That would seem to be like, huh, does that undercut his argument a little bit? And maybe it does if those guys had played more. That's 180 minutes about for the full season. So in the end, I don't feel good about it.
The Zach Lowe Show
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I never feel good not voting for Jokic because he's the best player. I think they've been close enough. The best for this 82 games is close enough. Like, best player to build a team around, best player in the world, best player for Game 7, it's Jokic, Jokic, Jokic. For these 82 games, who was best is close enough that I am going to go with Shea because I just think 68 wins need to be respected.
The Zach Lowe Show
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If they were 59-23, 60-22, 57-25... I think it's Jokic, Jokic, Jokic. 50 wins, by the way, for Denver, considering their turmoil is a shit ton of wins in the Western Conference. There's no wrong or right answer as long as you have these two guys first and second on your ballot. I just think 68 wins is so many goddamn wins, and he's the reason they win that many games.
The Zach Lowe Show
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I would vote Shea 1, Jokic 2, Giannis 3, Tatum 4, Mitchell 5, and then I throw this away forever and never have to think about it again as Jokic runs roughshod through the playoffs. I am scarred from voting Embiid two years ago. You are? I mean, I think it was a defensible choice, right?
The Zach Lowe Show
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That season and the way that Jokic kind of tanked the end of the season, almost as if he didn't want to win the MVP. I think, gave it to Embiid, who was sensational and the best scorer in the league that year. But you knew as you were voting it, playoffs could really go the other way. But I think I would feel fine voting SGA. And I think there's just something to 68 wins, the story of the season.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Tie goes to 68 wins.
The Zach Lowe Show
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I think the Kings is the correct answer, and it's my answer as well. You just really... You really have to sit back and admire the unbelievable own goal of having De'Aaron Fox and Tyrese Halliburton and spinning forward three to four years and having neither of them. And having in their place a very good player in DeMontis Sabonis.
The Zach Lowe Show
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enamored with the season that Jokic had and I wrote it in depth about it so I don't want to go long here at all but I just think they're both yeah this is a one of a kind season from Jokic and I feel queasy in my stomach yeah where else would I feel queasy do you feel queasy anywhere else not voting for him you know you mentioned winning with defense and this is this gets back to like Harden's all NBA case I ultimately put Harden on 13 it's like the Clippers are winning
The Zach Lowe Show
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If you had to boil it down to one reason, it's because their defense has been sensational all year. Is James Harden really contributing to that? How much credit are we going to give him? But they had to survive on offense, and he trended the right way, and he trended the right way when Kawhi came back, and I think he ended up in a place where I had him on my ballot.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Thunder, you're making the same kind of argument in terms of like, well, the reason they have 168 games is because of their defense. How critical is Shea in that? I would say he's actually important enough. that I'm giving him a chunk, some size chunk of the credit for the fact that they're number one in defense. And I say that because when you're,
The Zach Lowe Show
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weakest or second weakest defender is a good defender who's helping your defense and not and you're not like working around him in any way sure i think that's like massively valuable and again their offense was bad without him and their offense overall was in a virtual tie with boston for second in the nba so they may be winning with defense
The Zach Lowe Show
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hashtag defense win championships they're also winning with what in the regular season is an incredible offense like if i told you they were roughly equivalent with boston i think people would be like whoa that's it the three-point shooting machine in boston and so i i i look i went back and forth bill and i discussed this all the time there were days where we were both yokich i don't know where he ended up i i was yokich yesterday i just at the end settled on his shape that's all
The Zach Lowe Show
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Speaking of the Celtics, last thing we got to do. Boston-Orlando, round one. Not a lot of relevant footage between these two teams this year. Only played three times. One was the season finale where Boston sat almost everybody. Other guys missed games. Paolo, Franz, Tatum along the way. I even watched footage of last season's Celtics-Magic matchups to prep a little bit for this.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Obviously, Celtics second in offense, fourth in defense, plus 9.4 second net rating. Magic 27th in offense. Second in defense, flat zero net rating, 17th. There's an interesting contrast in styles here. both in free throws and turnovers, most sort of dramatically. Boston never gets to the line and Orlando fouls the hell out of everyone. Boston is dead last in free throw rate on offense.
The Zach Lowe Show
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The Magic are dead last in free throw rate on defense. I don't know who that helps or hurts. Maybe it helps the Magic because their weakness is irrelevant. Maybe it helps Boston because, hey, there's like seven extra points that we normally don't get because they're hitting us all the time. Orlando's offense is second in free throw rate. Boston's defense is first in free throw rate.
The Zach Lowe Show
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That would seem to obviously help Boston to me. Not that they need any help to win this series. I mean, I think we'd all agree this is a 4-1 type gentleman sweep. Maybe something less than that. I'm just trying to help Orlando. Can I make this interesting? And then the most interesting one is Boston takes the most threes. Orlando allows the fewest threes.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Can they coax the Celtics at all into settling for mid-range shots? Basically, the only way the Magic compete is bad offensive series for Boston, some of which is foisted onto Boston by the Magic's great defense. Win the offensive rebounding, take care of the ball, which is a weakness for Orlando, but Boston doesn't force any turnovers, and get insanely lucky.
The Zach Lowe Show
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By the way, if you think DeMontis Sabonis is watching all this happen and be like, yo, I'm cool. I'm just like so super happy to be a Sacramento King. You are crazy. Not going to be correct. I don't know what's going to happen there, but there's going to be some conversations this summer between his camp and the Kings. Like, what's happening here?
The Zach Lowe Show
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And some of those things are plausible, some not. I don't really know that, you know, they have a chance here, but... Boston is ideally suited to defend almost every team, and they are certainly ideally suited to defend Paolo Bancaro and Franz Wagner.
The Zach Lowe Show
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They have guarded them with any combination of Drew Holiday, Jalen Brown, Jason Tatum, Al Horford will chip in, and they will switch a ton and put Derek White on Paolo or put Kristaps Porzingis on Paolo. And do you know why they do that? Because they don't care about...
The Zach Lowe Show
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if they have to send help towards Paolo Bancaro in a bad matchup because they are happy to let everybody else on the Magic shoot threes, particularly with the injuries that the Magics are facing. I just don't know how Orlando scores enough to make this a competitive series. Can you talk me into that at all? Besides Cole Anthony's, Cole Anthony's back, baby.
The Zach Lowe Show
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What are they doing to limit Boston's threes?
The Zach Lowe Show
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And Zach Levine and DeMar DeRozan, who I didn't mind that as a talent bet, but it just hasn't really worked in terms of meshing with the identity that they had and then voluntarily gave up. Yeah. And, you know, they've got other stuff for Levine. They got a fake first from Charlotte that's going to be second. They got a Spurs first and a Wolves first in 27 and 31, respectively.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Well, and what you really have to hope for is that through some combination of malaise, disrespect, whatever's going on with Jalen Brown's knee, if anything, still, Ramona at ESPN reported that he had gotten painkilling injections. That was since confirmed. He's talked openly about the pain he's felt through combination of all those things.
The Zach Lowe Show
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They just get into a pattern of, Oh yeah, we're going to, we're going to settle for step back 20 footers. We're just going to, we don't respect you. We're having fun out here. And all of a sudden, like the magic is stolen, the game stolen, the quarter stolen, the half stolen, the game, whatever it is. You mentioned Anthony black.
The Zach Lowe Show
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You know, the absence of Suggs is huge for the Magic all the time, but particularly in this series, because they have used Suggs on Tatum, and they've used Suggs on Brown, and... You know, look, he's giving up size in those matchups, but he's a fire hydrant. He's unmovable. He's an incredible defender. And that has allowed them to play around with. Can we put Bankaro on Drew Holiday?
The Zach Lowe Show
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Can we can we mess around with matchups in different ways without him? They have a little bit less flexibility that way, and they don't quite have the answer unless it's Anthony Black. of a fifth guy in their starting lineup who helps you on offense without hurting you on defense. If they're continuing to start Corey Joseph, Boston has a place they can pick at every single possession.
The Zach Lowe Show
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If Cole Anthony's got to play 35 minutes a game because no one else can score, Boston has a place they can pick every single possession. Anthony Black... has been playing really well, including on offense the last couple of months. He's big, he's tough, he's an incredible defender. If they get enough offense out of him, it could be a big series as the sort of Suggs replacement in that sense.
The Zach Lowe Show
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I'm just skeptical that they're going to get enough out of him, nearly enough against this defense. Gary Harris maybe helps you a little bit. I don't think more Gary Harris is a hugely productive answer for them. So I don't know sort of how they stop Boston in that regard. It will be interesting to see the matchups because they've Like you said, they switch a ton. Even Wendell Carter Jr.
The Zach Lowe Show
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So we'll see how those turn out. But to have, I mean, the Kings, it's hard to say they run away from success because they've had so little since the Weber, Divac, Stojakovic, Bibby era, one of my favorite teams of all time. Yeah. But the minute they taste any kind of success, it's like they do everything possible to sabotage it. Like, how quickly can we fire our coach?
The Zach Lowe Show
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will switch. So maybe the matchups don't matter. They have toyed in the past with putting Wendell Carter Jr. on Drew Holiday and a wing on Porzingis and trying to take away the Porzingis pick and pop game that way. Again, if you just start doing the math, okay, if Wendell Carter Jr. is on Drew Holiday, who's on Porzingis? If that's Ben Caro, then where's KCP? Oh, KCP's on Jalen Brown.
The Zach Lowe Show
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That's not terrible, but that's a size advantage for Jalen Brown. Bottom line is this. I just don't think the Magic can score enough to make this a competitive series. I'm going 4-1. I'm giving them a game. And that's it.
The Zach Lowe Show
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In the East, when we recorded, Dame's status was unclear. It has since been reported that he is going to miss the start of the playoffs. I was going to pick Indiana either way, as I said on the podcast. With Dame's status uncertain, I will go Pacers over Bucs in six. What about you?
The Zach Lowe Show
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We're like three years into that. It's just it's been DEFCON somewhere between DEFCON 1 and DEFCON 3 forever. Knicks, Pistons, Detroit. Great story. Very good team. Very bright future. I'm going Knicks in five.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Oh, I love it. I hope you're right. And now the two hardest ones to predict and the two most anticipated ones, probably Lakers, Wolves, Clippers, Nuggets. Previewed them extensively with Bill. Not going to get into the X's and O's and all that. I'm going to start Lakers, Wolves. I'm going to go Lakers in seven. I just can't pick against Luka and LeBron in the first round.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Can we fire the first coach since the one that we fired before, Michael Mullen, the first one to give us some stability, Mike Brown? Can we fire him out of nowhere? Maybe not out of nowhere, but rather abruptly. And can we do so in a way that pisses off our franchise point guard to the point that he's no longer on the team.
The Zach Lowe Show
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I can't do it with the extra rest, with home court advantage. Don't feel good about it. I went through it with Bill. Minnesota scares the hell out of me. They can absolutely win this series and multiple series if they draw the right matchups. Luka hasn't been like a, a, a Luka since coming to the Lakers with the exception of a couple of games, including the vengeance game in Dallas.
The Zach Lowe Show
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I'm going Lakers in seven.
The Zach Lowe Show
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All right, now the big kahuna for me, the most interesting series, the one I'm most excited about, and the one I'm least decisive on. Clippers, Nuggets, the 4-5 series. Nuggets have home court as the fourth seed. Wish we had seen more Jamal Murray toward the end of the season coming back from yet another hamstring issue. We all saw the Clippers, man.
The Zach Lowe Show
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You want to argue the Clippers have been the second-best team in the West for the last 40 games? Awesome. I don't disagree with you. Kawhi's been unbelievable. as a longtime Kawhi Stan slash MVP voter back in the 2017 MVP race, couldn't be happier. I'm picking the Nuggets. Denver in seven. In seven. Game seven at home. They have the best player.
The Zach Lowe Show
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They seem pretty hungry to galvanize around David Adelman and get out of this organizational chaos that they've been in. I will reluctantly pick Jokic at home in Game 7 against the Clippers. Almost no outcome would surprise me in this series, though.
The Zach Lowe Show
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By the way, Sam Amick reported today, Monty McNair did not want to fire Mike Brown. I've heard the same thing. That's probably why Monty McNair didn't do any media about firing Mike Brown and the whole organization left De'Aaron Fox out to dry and answer the questions about it. And it just begs the question, like who, to your point about who would take this job, who's going to have the juice?
The Zach Lowe Show
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Yeah, look, the West is going to have minimum one first-round series every year, often two, where you feel like, well, this sucks that these two teams are meeting in one. These are two teams that could easily make the conference finals and maybe the finals. And that's just life in the West.
The Zach Lowe Show
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And there is no way to fix that unless you want to totally realign the league, not realign the league, but do the one to 16 in the playoffs. And that is an issue that I don't feel like debating in depth right now. It has a lot of interesting sides to it, a lot of interesting arguments on both sides. But that's just life in the West.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Okay, those are my predictions for all the series and my awards, my breakdowns. Michael Pina, I know you're watching the film and really diving into these matchups, so it's been really fun to have you on. I'm glad to be teammates in the world of Spotify slash The Ringer. What do we got coming up from you? What do we got to look for?
The Zach Lowe Show
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Michael Pina checked out the playoff matchups X's and O's preview at the ringer. It's one of those things where like, if you want to know what's going to happen in this series, like what's actually going to happen and not who's clutch and who has guts and who rises to the moment like that. Some of that stuff is real, but if you want to actually know what's going to happen, read that column.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Thank you, sir. All right, hope you guys enjoyed that. Buckle up. A big weekend of playoff games is coming up. We've got the two play-ins tomorrow, hurrah, and then eight playoff games Saturday and Sunday. Say goodbye to your loved ones. Enjoy the games. We will catch up on Monday reviewing all the weekend action and looking ahead to some of the best game twos on the Zach Lowe Show.
The Zach Lowe Show
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The Zach Lowe Show
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Who's going to have the decision-making power? I've heard Calvin Booth's name. Calvin Booth, look, his reputation has taken a major hit with all negativity in Denver. As a talent evaluator, I would stand by Calvin Booth. I think he's pretty good at his job. I think he's a creative thinker who's not afraid to take risks. But he's going to go in there and be like, so what's the deal?
The Zach Lowe Show
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Who do I have to talk to about making moves? Is Vlade's around again? You know, it's... It's been a rough couple of years since that feel-good team that I still would say, if De'Aaron Fox does not hurt his finger, I think they win that series against Golden State. I was super impressed with their general sort of demeanor in that series, their introduction to the playoff crucible.
The Zach Lowe Show
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And then here we are, and it's like, yeah, they have a couple extra picks. That's great. I just don't know. They went from an identity in a direction... With Fox, after the Halliburton trade, and again, Sabonis has been good enough that you don't just rue that trade every day anymore. But now I just don't know. I don't know what I just don't know. I mean, I don't know where they're going anymore.
The Zach Lowe Show
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We're previewing Rockets Warriors. That's spicy Celtics magic. We're giving out awards. We're talking about fallout in Sacramento, Chicago, and yes, the closed door, no recordings meeting in Dallas with Nico Harrison. That's all coming up on the Zach Lowe Show.
The Zach Lowe Show
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So I will be the Sabonis defender. I get why people say, what value would he have? Because he's a known commodity in that you know your defense is going to have a ceiling with him in the middle of it. Offensively, now he stretched his range out this year, 42% on threes, shot two a game. Not much, but a little bit.
The Zach Lowe Show
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But you're going to have to play a certain way offensively to maximize him, and you're going to have to play defensively on defense in many different ways to sort of minimize his lack of rim protection. But he's a very good basketball player. He's a very good floor raiser in the regular season. And I think in the playoffs, he would be a very good floor raiser too.
The Zach Lowe Show
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I mean, his durability, his physicality, his creativity as a passer, I think there would be a market for him. I'm not sure you're getting, you know, three firsts, whatever, two swaps and a great young player or two. But I think there would be a pretty strong market for him. And honestly, like I brought up the Chicago theoretical, not by accident, just like I could see those two teams.
The Zach Lowe Show
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I'm just making it up out of whole cloth, to be clear. I have no...
The Zach Lowe Show
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sourcing on this but chicago's biggest long-term question is who plays center for us who are our big men and i i just could see them looking at a number of different directions including calling the kings with whom they have great familiarity but sabonis has four guaranteed years left on his three guaranteed years left on his contract with 43 million 47 million 49.9 million i mean it's a lot but he's he's pretty well respected around the league it's just you know
The Zach Lowe Show
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It's just I can't believe that the Kings are here in complete organizational chaos. I guess I can. They're the Kings. They live in organizational chaos, but it has descended quickly.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Well, I mean, look, he's going to be ballpark 25% of the cap. As the cap raises up, it's not it's one of those contracts that looks expensive and is expensive. It isn't quite that expensive. But let's go to the bulls. The bulls. Traded Zach Levine already talked about that. Did not trade Nikola Vucevic, who has one year left now in his deal. It'll be an expiring deal next year.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Had a nice flurry of fun, fast-paced play and winning play. Finished the regular season on a 15-5 run before crapping out in the play-in tournament to the Heat, who don't mess around in the play-in tournament, baby. They're not there to just play in the play-in. I like how Tyler here after the game was like, the job's not done.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Job's not done. Did you think anyone thought the job was done? Good game by the Heat. So the Bulls have the following players age 25 or younger. Kobe White coming off a career season on a cheap, cheap contract. I would assume who missed most of the last part of the season. He's actually almost exactly the same age as Kobe White, believe it or not. Both of them are 25. Josh Giddey.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Coming off a nice season for him. That trade is okay for the Bulls. You can quibble with should they have gone a different direction and look for picks and all of this. But Josh Giddey is a good player. He's only 22 years old.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Shot 38% on threes this year, which if that is sustainable on even medium volume, begins to answer the question of can Josh Giddey exist as a second or third option on a great team? Because I don't think he can be the first option on a great team. given his limitations as a finisher, as a shooter, and all of that, and his defense. Pat Williams, 23. I think I'm about done.
The Zach Lowe Show
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I think... Extremely tough. He is making $18 million a year. Matas Muzelas, 20. Immediately the most important and most interesting player on the team. Fantastic close to his rookie season. Jalen Smith signed for some reason, four years, $36 million, doesn't play. 25 years old. Dale and Terry, 22. Julian Phillips, 21.
The Zach Lowe Show
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I call them the do-something twins because, look, I love a good 3 and D role player who kind of does nothing but those things. I watched those guys, and I'm like... So I watch them. I'm like, oh, the outline of something interesting is here. Like, oh, okay. That was like a nice 16 minutes last night for Dale and Terry. He didn't play the game before. That was 16 minutes.
The Zach Lowe Show
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It's like an orgy of basketball. We have a lot to get to with the ringers. Michael Pina, how are you, sir?
The Zach Lowe Show
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Julian Phillips, hey, he got in for eight minutes and looked the part of a player. And then... I get into, like, caveman box score guy mindset, and it's like, oh, 0.0 rebounds, one assist, dribbled the ball, like, four times. At some point, you, like, have to do something. You have to do a thing with the ball. You have to put it somewhere, either in the basket or on the floor.