Trivia Host
Appearances
The Athletic NBA Daily
Contender Draft + Playoff Preview | Slam N Jam
It's so good. That's almost too good.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Contender Draft + Playoff Preview | Slam N Jam
Welcome to the Saturday Slammin' Jam here on the Athletic NBA Daily. On today's show, we're going to give an update on the surprise teams. Dan Devine of Yahoo Sports stops by to discuss the playoffs, and we do a contender draft. But before we get to all of that, Alex, tell me about the top stories this week.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Contender Draft + Playoff Preview | Slam N Jam
All right, let's move on from these losers and talk about some playoff matchups.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Contender Draft + Playoff Preview | Slam N Jam
See you later, Dan. Since you're not as good at baking as I thought you were, please get out. So let's talk about these four matchups that we know about. Nuggets, Clippers, Lakers, Wolves, Pacers, Bucks, and Knicks, Pistons. Is there a series that you have changed your mind on over the last week or one that you're just going back and forth with?
The Athletic NBA Daily
Contender Draft + Playoff Preview | Slam N Jam
You have now cornered me into being the homer, which is great. I knew you were going to do this. I knew you were going to do this after I decided to go second. I was like, oh, no, I'm going to have to be the one to say it. Oklahoma City Thunder plus 12.7 net rating.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Contender Draft + Playoff Preview | Slam N Jam
68 games i mean there's like so many they've got the mvp they have one of the deepest rosters in the nba uh the bracket if you look at it has broken pretty well for okc too um so yeah i think you got to go with the thunder and it's a bold pick it's
The Athletic NBA Daily
Contender Draft + Playoff Preview | Slam N Jam
There's still some good names. I think I'm going to take the Lakers. Yeah. with this spot. One, you have LeBron James and Luka Doncic on this team. Two of the better decision makers. And you just see this very often. Teams are going to pack the paint against this team and it's about finding the corners.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Contender Draft + Playoff Preview | Slam N Jam
And you have two of the best minds in the game that will get all the way to the rim and they will make a move that looks like a shot but then they will just zip it to the corner. And It's so impressive. And now it's on the shoulders of these guys to hit shots from the corners for sure.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Contender Draft + Playoff Preview | Slam N Jam
But if they can get hot, similar to what the Mavericks did last year, then you're going to have a chance to make a run. I do worry about their size on the interior and they've done a really good job of packing the paint with lots of guys and doing a lot of recovery stuff similar to OKC. I think that JJ Redick has talked so much about how he's such a big fan of Mark Dagnall.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Contender Draft + Playoff Preview | Slam N Jam
And you start to see like some of the stuff that Mark does and some of the stuff the Lakers are doing. And so I wonder about the sustainability of their defense. We've seen it like wax and wane over the last like stretch after they got Luca has been really strong. And then they've had weeks where that's not look good at all.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Contender Draft + Playoff Preview | Slam N Jam
And so I just wonder for a sustained playoff run, can they actually keep it together for that long? Because it's so taxing on all these guys like Jared Vanderbilt is going to be just completely worn out by the end of this thing. But I do wonder about that. But if they can keep the defense up, You obviously have two guys that can deliver and clutch moments.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Contender Draft + Playoff Preview | Slam N Jam
I think that this, to me, is the next best team. And they also don't have to play OKC until the conference finals. And so you just never know. If you can get there, you just never know.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Contender Draft + Playoff Preview | Slam N Jam
Yeah. Yeah. there's some rough ones left I think and I feel I do not feel confident about saying these next words but I think I'm going to take the Milwaukee Bucks if only because of Giannis Antetokounmpo who has had a ridiculous season he has been so good and with the good news of Dame returning to the lineup sometime soon I think that
The Athletic NBA Daily
Contender Draft + Playoff Preview | Slam N Jam
you just have a puncher's chance, I think, out in the Eastern Conference. And we know that if you get Giannis to the finals, even if he gets severely hurt, he's just going to somehow come back and be amazing. So I'll go with the Bucs. I do not have any sort of true conviction about this Milwaukee Bucs team or the way that they've been coached this year. But when you have a guy who has...
The Athletic NBA Daily
Contender Draft + Playoff Preview | Slam N Jam
Clearly been the third best player this season in the NBA and probably in a normal season would be the best player in the NBA. I have to I have to give it to him. So I'll go Milwaukee.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Contender Draft + Playoff Preview | Slam N Jam
Let's talk about maybe the biggest snub from our little draft here, the Knicks. The Knicks did go one and three against Detroit in the regular season. Mitchell Robinson did not play in any of those matchups, however. How big of a factor do you think that he could be in this series?
The Athletic NBA Daily
Contender Draft + Playoff Preview | Slam N Jam
Discuss the Warriors, but we really didn't talk about Houston, who is one of the weirdest teams. And like that might be why we don't want to talk about them, just because they don't have like the formula that most like winning playoff teams have. But they're the number two seed. They've had a great season. They have clear identity.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Contender Draft + Playoff Preview | Slam N Jam
If you were to give Houston, let's say Houston makes it through round one, what gets them there?
The Athletic NBA Daily
Contender Draft + Playoff Preview | Slam N Jam
Crap. I know. That's how I feel.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Contender Draft + Playoff Preview | Slam N Jam
Wow, what a week. What a week right before the playoffs. Just so many unnecessary things happening from NBA owners this week. It was almost it's almost too good. Al, let's let's give us a prize team update. And this surprise team update is brought to you by our good friends at Bet MGM.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Contender Draft + Playoff Preview | Slam N Jam
I don't readily have the answer to it. I was very excited when there was only one guy who did it. A hundred dunks is a lot of dunks. It's a lot of dunks. A lot of dunks.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Contender Draft + Playoff Preview | Slam N Jam
There's no way he had enough dunks. Now that I'm thinking about it, I don't even remember him dunking this year. Lefty push shots. Yeah. The limit does not exist. Do those count as dunks?
The Athletic NBA Daily
Contender Draft + Playoff Preview | Slam N Jam
I bet you he had a very low number of dunks. I felt really dumb after saying it. That's okay, Andrew. Don't feel bad.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Contender Draft + Playoff Preview | Slam N Jam
Eastern Conference team with not many dunks.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Contender Draft + Playoff Preview | Slam N Jam
Andrew, any guesses? I don't feel good about anything right now, if I'm being quite honest.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Contender Draft + Playoff Preview | Slam N Jam
Dang it. I only know that because my buddy Fred Katz is obsessed with it, and I've had many conversations with him about it.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Contender Draft + Playoff Preview | Slam N Jam
No made free throws. Yeah. So you both need to get on the court. There's no minimum amount of minutes.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Contender Draft + Playoff Preview | Slam N Jam
I am thinking about Isaiah Hartenstein not making a three, but I'm not sure that I have memory.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Contender Draft + Playoff Preview | Slam N Jam
I have been so obsessed with it. I might be the only person in the arena that is like fist pumping when he takes and misses a three. Like I... I wanted him to get to 23 so bad. It's the volume. Yeah, did not have the volume. This is me stalling because I have no answer to this question. No answer?
The Athletic NBA Daily
Contender Draft + Playoff Preview | Slam N Jam
Did not make a free throw. He's been a G League stud this year. Old upside down. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Contender Draft + Playoff Preview | Slam N Jam
I'll go higher. Correct number was...
The Athletic NBA Daily
Contender Draft + Playoff Preview | Slam N Jam
Well, now Dan does three things. He's a writer, he's a podcaster, and he's a trivia winner. So go check him out at Yahoo Sports. Dan, thanks so much for coming on. My pleasure, guys. I had a blast. Thanks for having me. Huge thanks to Dan Devine for coming on the show today. Hey, if you leave us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts, we will read it on the show.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Contender Draft + Playoff Preview | Slam N Jam
We don't have any to read, so please get after it. Leave us five-star reviews on Apple Podcasts. You can also comment on the show on Spotify. And please, please, please, please subscribe to our show on YouTube and leave comments on the YouTube page. You can watch this show.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Contender Draft + Playoff Preview | Slam N Jam
So if you really just want to watch me in agony this week with Dan Devine on trivia, you can watch it on your TV if you'd like. I hope you guys have a great day. Enjoy the playoffs. And we'll talk to you guys again next week.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Contender Draft + Playoff Preview | Slam N Jam
In hindsight, they all make sense. But at the time, like at the time, there wasn't a ton of confidence that Josh Giddey was going to turn this ship around, you know? Right. Yeah, absolutely. But yeah, looking at it now, you're like, how can I be so dumb not to pick him? You know, that is definitely how it felt. OK, we are going to take a quick break.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Contender Draft + Playoff Preview | Slam N Jam
And after this, we're going to talk to our guy, Dan Devine from Yahoo Sports. We'll be right back.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Contender Draft + Playoff Preview | Slam N Jam
All right, Al. It is my pleasure to welcome Dan Devine onto the show from Yahoo Sports. He writes, he does podcasts. That's it. Really excited.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Contender Draft + Playoff Preview | Slam N Jam
No more. Do not expect anything else.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Contender Draft + Playoff Preview | Slam N Jam
Baking, okay. You mentioned it as if you were slightly insulted that I didn't mention it.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Contender Draft + Playoff Preview | Slam N Jam
Yeah. So let's keep it angry and talk about these two nine seeds who were both convincingly beaten at home by the 10 seeds for Chicago. They beat their preseason over under by 11 and a half games. Was there anything that you saw this season from the Bulls that gives you hope that they can get off this treadmill of mediocrity anytime soon.