Zach Lowe
Appearances
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Is John Collins on a beach in Mexico somewhere? Like, it's so embarrassing. The Raptors have been embarrassing for the past month. Like, hey, we're just not going to play any of our guys in the second half of any close games. The Jazz have been embarrassing the entire year. And Phoenix has somehow been more embarrassing than the Jazz relative to expectations. Yeah. I got a lot of takes.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I haven't talked to a microphone. I haven't been able to make fun of the 26 teams with trade places with us. Matt, issue me a statement that's going to be in Springfield one day. That was the best. 26 EuroLeague teams? I think you just meant all the teams.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
How shocked were you when Zion got shut down for the season the other day? Like, was it the equivalent of the Luka trade level of shock that the Pelicans had to shut down Zion for the season?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
That's why all the talk about what happened with Taylor Jenkins, what happened with Noah LaRoche, what happened with Isalo, this Finnish coach that they've hired and now promoted. Why now? Why with nine games left? Well, they're sliding. They can't beat any good teams. Their record against above 500 teams is terrible. They had expectations, blah, blah, blah.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
it shouldn't be the sixth paragraph of that, that you mentioned that John Morant just plays half the games and Brandon, Brandon Clark's injury was a sneaky big blow to their team. He was a big glue guy for them, a lot of their best lineups. And like, if you take out your best, if not your, maybe your best bench player, but certainly your best backup big and your star plays half the games.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Like you're, yeah, you're not going to beat a lot of the above 500 teams in the Western conference. It's going to be hard.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Well, I mean that, that the offense is just fine and fine. Is it going to be good enough? And it's not dynamic enough. It's still not dynamic enough. Um, You can go back and look at the transactions that they've made. We don't even need to get into the Durant thing, but just the Aiton, Toumani, Kamara, who's really good in Portland for Nurkic thing has turned into a disaster.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And then you have to salary dump Nurkic and attach more stuff to salary dump him. And Beal just doesn't play. Beal still doesn't play enough games to get the offense running at full throttle. And then the defense is... You know, the bottom 10 in defense is basically all the tanking teams in Phoenix.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And some of their bad defensive games are the mistakes, the non-rotations are just suggestive of a team that doesn't care. And they have better games than that sometimes. But sometimes it's like, no, no one, no one rotated from the weak side. Like no one even seems angry that no one rotated from the weak side. No one gives the my bad for not rotating from the weak side.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Just like, all right, on to the next one.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I don't want to do the Durant thing now, the Durant what-if thing. But I will say that I have long been so fascinated with Durant that after the Warriors won their second championship, And it was largely anticlimactic. The only piece I could think of to write the headline was, what does Kevin Durant want? And it was a lot about how he had been unfulfilled by winning the first championship.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And I talked to him and I talked to tons of people who had been around him. And literally three nights ago, watching an NBA game with a buddy asking me, he was asking me about Kevin Durant. And I said, man... I don't really want to write a book. It's one of the things I thought about during this time. Not the right time for me, but boy, would I love to write the Kevin Durant book.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I just think his career and the fork in the road of the 2016 offseason and the reverse engineering you could do, the what-ifs, all the paths not taken.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
is just endlessly going to be fascinating because talent wise and statistics wise there's like no question this guy is one of the 10 to 12 best players that has ever played and there's been nobody like him ever stylistically and anyway that's it no more no more kd unless we talk about where he's going to get traded i think it's fair to even though lebron has the most points ever
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Let me... I live about as far from Seattle as possible in the NBA market. Right. The Sonics have not existed for, what, 17 years, 18 years now? Yeah, 2008. I still have a Sonics conversation with somebody in New York or Connecticut that every other week, every month. I see kids who were not alive when the Sonics existed, wearing the green and yellow, just throwback stuff that their parents got.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
The Sonics matter so much to so many people, and Something about that color scheme, the Peyton Kemp teams, the frenetic way they played has stuck in the collective memory and even like outlasted the generation of fans who were there. And obviously we all agree like they need to come back in Seattle. The Supersonics need to exist again.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
It's good to see you too. And yeah, new name, new show, new graphics, new everything. And I've been paying attention to the NBA season as I normally would have, even though I didn't have a job. I've been watching probably even more than usual because I've had no other work to do. I've been meeting people in the city when they've come in and I've traveled to some places.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Yeah, I mean, the Lakers are a big team, and your little guy, your Fred Van Vliet, is either Gargard Reeves, or if Finney Smith's on the floor, maybe Finney Smith instead of Hayes, or maybe Hachimura, who got a couple post-ups last night in that kind of matchup, and...
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
You know, the Lakers are running a lot of stuff where Reeves and LeBron will screen for each other away from the ball while Luka has it. And that cutting is what teams don't want to switch because they don't want to switch a small guy onto LeBron. And they have Luka just waiting for whatever pass opens up. And when they don't switch, someone cuts open or there was a miscommunication.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I think Finney Smith got a three in the second half last night out of it. They're just hard to beat in a chess match, no matter how athletic you are, because they're big. But the Rockets, like if the Rockets could throw speed plus shooting at them, that's a different kind of equation for the Lakers. It's just speed, but not enough shooting, not enough shot making.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
So I've kept my finger on the pulse in preparation for a potential in-season return, which is now imminent.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
You saw what the Rockets last night. They still can't decide. Jalen Green's on the bench in the fourth quarter late in the game. Presumably their quote-unquote best offensive player. I don't think he is. I think Shen Goon is. But then there's minutes in the fourth quarter where Shen Goon's on the bench for a long time. They're playing Jabari Smith at center. They're not even playing Smith.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
They're playing five wings. And I'm sitting there thinking, I think a lot of this offense has just got to run through Shen Goon. But LeBron, they got a takeaway on an entry pass late in that game. We all saw this coming for the Rockets. It's why they're going to be maybe the most interesting team in the NBA over the playoffs. And depending on what happens in the playoffs after the playoffs.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
But I, I don't, I mean, look, I think that would be, that series would be a really, really hard fought series. I probably would, I guess I would probably pick the lake. I haven't thought about it, but I would probably pick the Lakers just based on experience and, and reliability if they, if they stay healthy. Yeah.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Oh, like, well, first of all, it's, it's funny. I was talking about this with somebody yesterday in the league and it's like, you know, look, we, we all know that they've kicked around both of the Phoenix stars. Right. And I think there's some division internally about the Durant question there. Eme Odoka obviously has a history with Durant, really likes him. Um,
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
This person asked me, what do the Rockets do if they lose in the first round? And I think the implication was that would make them even hungrier to go for like a big win now trade. I said, well, let's flip it around. What if they win a round and they lose to Denver in seven games? Like a really hard fought, like I can feel good about this outcome.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And my implication was, does that make you more confident in staying the course? And the scout that I was talking to flipped it around and said, actually, it may make you think we're so close that we still should go for the right kind of all-in upgrade. And it's just going to be interesting to see how they perform in the playoffs and what the implications of that are.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Offensively, I just don't think they're good enough. But defensively, toughness-wise, they have everything. And I don't know. Thank you. Thank you.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
So I was asleep when that happened because I don't have a job. And so I didn't have to be up at 1230 in the morning or 1215 in the morning. I woke up the next day and obviously my phone is just, there's a million notifications that I didn't even look at. I was like, I guess Jimmy Butler got traded overnight. I guess that finally happened. And then like eight more minutes passed.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And I looked, I was like, oh my God. And then I still, I still, I mean, we're going to talk about the Lakers a lot. And I watched their game against the Rockets last night. One of my buddies, Nathan is a huge Rockets fan. I went over and watched with him and we're, almost two months out and I'm like, I just can't even believe that he's on their team.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And having been to a Lakers game recently, like they can't even believe that he's on their team. It's insane.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
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The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Well, let's see. I got laid off on a Wednesday. I flew back on a Thursday and I had several friends meet me at my house along with my wife with alcohol. And two or three drinks into that night, Karl-Anthony Towns got traded to the Knicks in what I would rate as a top 10 most interesting trade that has happened in the 15 plus years I've covered the NBA.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I'm glad you mentioned the NBA Cup because... we talked about this in LA, somebody else mentioned the NBA cup to me 10 days ago. And I was like, that, that happened this year. Yeah. Who won that? Who won that again? And I'm like, it's a bad sign that someone who lives and breathes the NBA has zero memory.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
It took me a second, about minute, 30 seconds to remember exactly who was in the final four and what happened. And I, I don't care at all that the Milwaukee bucks won the NBA cup. It does not matter to me. I don't think it really matters to the bucks. Like I just, I don't know how to, it's a, I guess it's cool. The courts are fun, but I, it, do you care? I don't care.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
The playoffs come and you're like, Oh, this is the real, the real stuff is about to start.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
So Chet Hartenstein, the numbers on those two, which is obviously the midseason curveball they threw at the league when Chet finally got healthy after Hartenstein missed the beginning of the season. Plus 15 per 100 possessions. Elite offense, elite defense, elite rebounding. Hartenstein's passing and floater have fit in about as well as could possibly have been expected.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And it's just another, it's not a curveball. It's the way they start games, and it's worked that well. And I just, one of the things I love about the Thunder, and I wish I'd been at a podcast to talk about it is, There's something old school about it. Again, they're your second or third or fourth in offense or whatever, so it's not an amazing offensive team.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I just love the fact that in this, are there too many points? Is scoring too easy? Are there too many threes? The team at the top of the standings is like, you know what? We are going to win forever. First and foremost, because we are a historically great defensive team that is going to take the ball from you a lot of times.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And when we're not taking the ball from you, we're going to be all up in your shit, all over the floor. Deflections, steals, physicality, size, everything. And when our offense sputters, that was the way the NBA used to be. Like, your jumpers come and go, defense travels. Defense shows up to every game. And the Thunder have that element to it. And I love how...
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
intense they are, how proud they are, how they do not relent at all. And they're betting more than anything else on, hey, yeah, even if worst case scenario happens to our offense, good luck scoring on us more than we score on you.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
All right. So yeah, do you, how does this draft work? Do you now pick your second banana or do you go to any category anywhere you want?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And we were just laughing at the fortune of what timing. You don't see a lot of trades of that magnitude right before the season starts. So that was one. Just, I mean, the all-time... We'll never have a perfect storm of disaster seasons like we've had in Phoenix, Philadelphia, and Dallas. It's just incomprehensible how badly all of those things have gone and all in totally different ways.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
No one's ever been in their zone. There's never been a team... Not with this many assets. ...this good now and this set up for the future. I said this a year and a half to two years ago on the Low Post podcast, which doesn't exist. They are the best present plus future set up in the history of basketball.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And I don't know enough about the history of the other sports to say the history of all professional sports. I just have a hard time believing there's another convincing.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I had him on my legacy list for essentially all the same reasons. A chance to cement his place in not only the current NBA, but to begin cementing his place in NBA history with a dominant playoff run. And, you know, I looked up his stats from the Mavs series last year. And they were way better than I remembered or would have guessed.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
His scoring carried over into that series and his efficiency carried over into that series. He's not an A-plus playmaker like some of the other, you know, like Jokic, like Luka, like LeBron. Yeah. but he's B plus a minus and he's gotten better. And I think that series, the Mavericks size, the way they clogged the lane on him, tested his playmaking.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And I don't think he was quite there yet as a playmaker. And I don't think the thunder supporting cast and shooters were definitely not quite there yet. I think they're there now. And I don't see any reason why, I mean, people talk about you got to put size on him. This guy's a good matchup for him.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
You've talked about Tatum trying to guard him or Brown trying to guard him or Anthony Edwards trying to guard him. No one has been able to really guard him. And I don't see any reason that the scoring is going to... It might slow down a little bit just because the percentages are preposterous across the board. I think the scoring is going to persist. And I think the team around him is more ready.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And I think he's more... The other parts of his game are more ready. And I think he's... just unbelievable and I expected them to continue to be unbelievable in the playoffs.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Some self-inflicted, others not. And I just think... I'm just looking at the standings to jog my memory. I mean, the excellence of the Cavs and the Thunder would have been really fun to talk about all year. And I still, you know, some outlets, including Spotify, Ringer, accepted. I still don't think those teams have been talked about enough.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I mean, I agree. And it's an art. What he does is art. It's beautiful to watch. The level of space he creates when you don't even realize that he's about to create it. is just... He'll have five feet of open space and you're like, wait, did he even do a hard jab step? Like, what move was that that got that guy... Yeah, they were guarding him at midcourt.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
People are so afraid of him getting by them because he has a top gear that he doesn't use much because he doesn't have to use it much that he... Just a little glance forward, guys are like jumping back and he's just pulling up for these wide open 18-footers. And I think the reason...
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
People in the MVP argument, which thankfully I have not had to be a part of this year and hasn't been so ugly like it was the last couple of years either. People will point to the defense and say, SGA is a plus defender. Jokic is not. And I think that's largely been true this year. Yeah.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Jokic is rebounding and just positional smarts and hands at a position where defense really matters, I think is a little bit underrated. But to me, the difference has been teams game plan to attack Jokic. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. The Nuggets are 20th and defense is not good enough this year. We'll see if it tightens up in the playoffs.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Teams can game plan to attack Shea, too, because there's just no one else to attack on Oklahoma City. He's kind of like their Curry in that way, a better defense player, obviously, than Curry ever was. But Curry was the weak link because every other link was as solid as a link could get on those peak Warrior teams. And the Thunder aren't worried about it. He's big. He's stronger than you think.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
He has more blocks and steals than Jokic combined. It's not close. And they are ideally positioned around him to tilt the floor toward him if he needs any help. But they don't have to sit in coaches meetings and think, well, what do we do when this team puts Shea in the pick and roll or when this guy targets Shea?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Sure, when Luka has him, it's going to be, you know, the size advantage is what it is. But they don't have to sit there and think that hard about, oh, we got to scrap everything we're doing defensively because they're going to go at Shea this way or that way.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I mean, the Thunder are 63 and 12 with like the greatest net rating in the history of basketball. Yeah. And I just, you know, so many interesting storylines like, oh, here comes the Chet-Hartenstein combination. How's that going to work? How's Caruso fitting in off the bench? The Cavs and Kenny Atkinson reworking their offense and Donovan Mitchell being sold on a lesser role. And you and me both.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
All right. I'm going to go... In the interest of leaving you some of the categories that are- You don't have to leave me anything.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I didn't know we were actually building a team. I feel like this guy qualifies as either one of the bananas, but I'll take him in the leap category on the other number one seed. Evan Mobley in the playoffs. I just can't wait to see how this Cavs team looks in the playoffs on both ends of the floor. I think their offense is number one with a bullet. Mitchell has done enough in the playoffs.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Now, he's had a couple dud playoff series, but he's also had like three or four, oh my God, playoff series. So, like, I trust him. Garland, I trust. I trust the offense largely despite the spacing concerns. It still, you know, theoretically exists playing two big guys together.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Defensively, I'm very interested to see, depending on the matchups and if they do get to Boston, how they match up in some of those series and where Mobley is on the floor and how, Does he have to guard Tatum? Does he guard Brown? He's guarded all these guys here and there, but how do they utilize him?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
But I think the Evan Mobley thing is... I mean, even against the Celtics last year when Jared Allen got hurt, he played center and all of a sudden everyone's like, oh, he's got to play center. He looked amazing rolling to the rim and dunking and he looks amazing now with the big-to-big passing, with the cutting, with just, oh, you're going to put a wing on me?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I'm just going to dribble from 18 feet out and beat the hell out of him and hit a hook shot. I... I would have him in pen on second-team All-NBA. I actually thought about him for the fifth spot on first-team All-NBA when Mitchell started slumping a little bit. I think Mitchell has now popped out of that slump and reclaimed that spot.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
But that's how good... And I heard you and Rosillo talking about whether Anthony Edwards was coming for that spot. And I was saying, I think actually Mobley given he's averaging 21 a game, what he does on defense, what he does as a playmaker, has a case to be at least in that discussion. But I have him in Penn, second team All-NBA.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And all that said, we've seen what happens to this team's offense in the playoffs. It's a totally different offense. New coach, Garland's healthy. That was the most undersold thing in dumb NBA conversations going into the season is people just not remembering what a miserable season Darius Garland had health-wise last season and what a difference a healthy Darius Garland was going to make.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Um, but there's going to be moments where the floor gets tight and a team really challenges them to, does your, like all your little fancy cutting stuff, which I think they've actually done a little less of lately when I've watched them, all that's going to be scouted. We're going to be totally dialed in on that.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
It's going to get harder and it's going to get harder in ways that test have been mobile. And this team reasonably now has championship expectations that don't ride only on him. But I think he is, uh, the biggest swing factor, along with their, you know, how are they going to defend these big wings when they run into them? Like, is Max Struis really the guy? Is DeAndre Hunter really the guy?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
That DeAndre, by the way, the DeAndre Hunter lineup, like Hunter in Struis' place and the other four starters has only played like 30 minutes. I'm actually surprised how little they've used that lineup. I think they're saving it.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
We're going to be wrong a lot. One of the things we've both been right on is amid all the... Maybe Evan Mobley is a bit overhyped. Maybe he's like, you know, whoever bad big man 2.0, I won't name any names. We were like, no, we're keeping the stock. This guy's going to be awesome. And he's been awesome. And he's been awesome...
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Is he defensive player of the year? I can't decide. I don't have a ballot because I gave mine up last year, and even if I wanted to get it back, I don't think they give them to unemployed people. You're employed. Well, now I am. We'll get you a ballot. I can't decide. I'm starting to buy into the Draymond self-created...
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
hype for defensive player of the year because he has been spectacular the entire year. Jaron Jackson Jr. has missed some games and still gets into foul trouble like once every three games. They just have to take him out constantly because he's in foul trouble. And obviously, Wemby is not eligible.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I think it's possible he's never made an all-defense team. And if that's the case, that's going to change this year.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I think I'd have him as a most improved player, by the way. I know all the smart money is on Cade. I think considering expectations and expectations and prior track record, I don't... I don't think anyone's made a bigger leap than Dyson Daniels. I mean, it's not surprising when he scores 20 points in a game and also does what he does. Dort is a great pick.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Not in the way that people necessarily like the low hanging fruit with him was, well, he's just got to shoot a lot of threes and make more threes. And the Cavs were like, you can shoot some more threes and it would be helpful. But how about we redesign our offense, enable you as a passer? And how about you just beat the hell out of people inside and get super aggressive and physical?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
So the incredible thing about Oklahoma City's defense is... Dort is going to be their all-defense representative. I actually think I would have Jalen Williams on as well. I think I would have two Thunder players on as well.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
You can look at a lot of the metrics and the metrics will tell you the Thunder have three better defensive players on their roster than those two guys. And none of the three, Hartenstein, Holmgren, and Caruso, are eligible for awards because of games played and minutes played. But the statistics scream out that those guys would be in this conversation too.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And it's like, oh my God, how many... Well, you didn't mention Wallace. And Wallace is terrifying. Yeah, Wallace is another one. Wallace is like... He and Jalen Williams, you don't see a lot of guys who will just... I'm just going to swipe at the ball constantly because I can do it without fouling you.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And they just, when they're in the mood or whatever, they're just like, I'm going to go for every time you dribble the ball, I'm going to try to get the ball from you. And it's unnerving.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Uh, okay. I'm going to go, um, I'm going to go crossroads player.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And I'm going to go with Carl Anthony Towns.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Now, to some degree, I think Towns crossed the crossroads, so to speak. Did he? Last year in the Denver series. And I even wrote about it on ESPN about, you know, all of a sudden the turnovers were down. The fouls were down. There was a calmness and a steadiness to his game that combined with his shot making was
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And it's really worked. And I just those those things jump out. Sorry, you asked an open ended question. I haven't talked into a microphone in a long time. I got a lot of takes.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
were like, okay, this is the guy that we've seen in the regular season, and this is the guy we've been waiting for.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
He guarded Durant really well, considering the sort of stylistic differences between them in the first round when Minnesota beat the hell out of Phoenix, despite Phoenix having a roster that only three teams in the NBA wouldn't trade for or wouldn't trade with, according to Matt Ishbia. You love that. I do. And then he sputtered again against the Mavs in the conference finals.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Then he averaged 19 points. He shot poorly. And then he gets traded in this just massive total shift of his life from he found a way to thrive next to a real behemoth center and Rudy Gobert, who could do all the dirty work on defense around the rim that he's not very good at.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And now he is almost a full-time center now for the Knicks, who are living the benefits of that on offense and feeling the pain of it on defense. And Mitchell Robinson just hasn't played enough minutes yet that we can see sort of how that pairing works. And I'm actually surprised Tibbs has not used it much, even when Mitchell Robinson has been available for 15, 18 minutes a game.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I thought we'd see more of it just to see, can we replicate some of what happened in Minnesota, even if that means like, a little bit less of one of the core wing guys who have all been good to great for the Knicks this year. Brunson's got to get healthy. We all know that. The team is dead in the water without him. They're a spectacular offensive team.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
In Brunson's absence, you've talked a lot about this. I've talked a lot about this with people behind the scenes this year. They weren't using Bridges enough. You don't trade all that stuff for Bridges if you're not going to lean into him as a secondary ball handler.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Even when he's the third, fourth, or fifth best guy on the floor, he has that skill set that you should swing the ball for him to do. Hey, do an inverted Mikael Bridges, Jalen Brunson pick and roll.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
swing into a mckill bridges towns pick and roll just involve him more now they've had to he's thrived yeah who could have believed that a guy he used to average 23 24 a game would actually know what to do if you ran a play for him and he's even gotten to the free throw line a little bit he's averaging like three and a half three free throws a game since brunson went out which feels like an avalanche compared to the almost zero he was averaging before yeah um but
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I do think they've been almost written off, I think, as a real threat to Cleveland. Boston is a different story. Boston is a nightmare matchup for them. I think the Knicks are better than... I'm higher on this team than consensus, despite the obvious limitations of Towns in the middle. I think they were the biggest threat to Boston last season.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Obviously, they've completely remade their team since then. Yeah. Now, they might have a very interesting first round. They will have a very interesting first round series, either against an upstart Pistons team or maybe even the remnants of the Bucs. The remnants of the Bucs. I think there's a great team in here somewhere, even as is
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And a lot of that has to do with Towns finding a way to still contribute on offense when teams do what they're going to do, which is put wings on him and put their centers on Josh Hart. And his production in those scenarios has been uneven. And just can he do enough defensively to survive with all the help around him? You could argue he crossed the crossroads last year. He kind of did.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
This is a new team, new setting, new expectations. As good or better, I think, than the Minnesota team he was on last year. And I just, you know, let's see how it looks. And is the Robinson thing still a wild card that we could see a little bit more of in the playoffs? Or is it just too late for that? I'm curious about that, too.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Wasn't that opening night? And it was just like, this is a, the Celtics, I think it was opening night and Missoula came out with a game plan that was like game one of a playoff series between the Celtics and the Knicks. Just let's exploit every advantage we have, including overtowns.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And you think it's surprising that it was so it's, it got to Paul George has to cancel his podcast. It's so bad levels.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
If he doesn't show up in the playoffs, his legacy is tarnished forever.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And if they win the title... Did you waver from he's the best guy on the team at any point? I know Jalen Brown won finals MVP.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
He was number one on my legacy, on my list of guys to potentially take for this category, just because if you are the best player ever, and you win finals MVP, and you break the no-repeat streak that the NBA is in right now, and you do it emphatically, you become a two-time champion, a back-to-back champion on the Boston Celtics.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I think you catapult up into different historical kinds of conversations. I think he's going to get there anyway because he's still so... He's right in the meat of his prime. His career has so many years left. His career numbers, if he stays healthy, are going to be outrageous across the board. He's just become... a better all-around player year to year, every year, in every possible way.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Six assists a game this season in his career. His defense is always good. You never have to ask Jason Tatum to play hard on defense, to play smart on defense, to take tough matchups, to guard up in size, to do whatever the team needs him to do. He's just an awesome player. You don't win the title without being mentally tough. They are mentally tough.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I think there's been periods of this season where... Their offense has not, I mean, Ryan, I've heard him call it hunt happy, where they just kind of settle into old patterns and the patterns are effective, but you feel them just sort of just settling for the sake of settling.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
When they don't do that, when they mix in the hunting of the small guys, which if they get a Halliburton or a Garland or whoever is going to be a huge part of every Brunson of every series that they could possibly be in a Dame, if knock on wood, Dame can get healthy. When they mix that in with, don't forget you have a pick and pop big man.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Don't forget we have all these other off-ball actions that we can run. They become very, very hard to guard and he's at the apex of all that.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
All right. Someone's got to do it. I'll just go to the trade machine category. No. I left this for you. Someone's got to do it.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Haven't talked about Giannis yet. Let's talk about Giannis. Oh!
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
No, I mean, we can do the Durant thing. We can do the what does Boston do with its payroll thing going forward.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Like, that's all fun. We've all done that stuff. The Bucs just exist right now in this purgatory of... I think even with Dame, even with Portis coming back, even with Kuzma integrated into the lineup, it just felt like just not good enough.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And I'm a Damian Lillard true believer. He's been on my MVP ballot multiple times when I've had an MVP ballot on average higher than other than he was in sort of the aggregate voting in those seasons. I think he's one of the greatest leaders the NBA has had in a long time.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I'm surprised when I look at his stats from this year and I see how good they are because I haven't felt that level of terror and impact from him as consistently as the stats would suggest. And maybe that's just me unfairly, not unfairly, maybe that's just my brain watching the Bucs and being like, There's just too much Kyle Kuzma happening. Torian Prince has been awesome.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Just too much Torian Prince happening. They're too dependent on Brook Lopez being awesome. They aren't good enough, I don't think. And I don't think they've been... There's no evidence that they're good enough other than you just don't want to see Giannis ever in a playoff series. And if it just ends up that they aren't good enough, You know, and right now they're sixth.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And so I think that would manifest in Dame, no Dame, whatever it ends up being. They just lose. They lose to the Knicks in six games. They don't have home court. The Knicks have been better than them all year. Whatever. I'd have to look deeper into that series about what the matchups would be and who would guard Giannis and who Giannis would guard and who would guard Towns.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Giannis would probably guard Towns a lot, all that. You know, they don't really have a lot of pathways to just revamp the team completely in a way that makes sense. Thank you. Thank you.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
As a team or as individual players? Individuals. Um... You're springing this one on me. I know. Well, you know I was going to do that.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Yeah, I don't want to spoil our coming talk. Reeves is going to make an all-star team at some point, if not multiple all-star teams. Reeves is very, very good. Um, I've been impressed until, you know, it's been a little rocky the last couple of weeks, but I liked at least offensively how cat has attacked his season in New York. Yeah. Um, I was a Cade stockholder.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I actually think Cade's level of improvement has been maybe a little overblown, but he's been awesome. And he's probably going to make an all NBA team this year. That's been fun to watch. And I know that you are just, I've, I've listened enough to know that you just enjoy the fact that the Pistons, uh,
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
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The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
want to fight everybody every night and including a potentially very dangerous one in Minnesota the other night involving all the usual, like round up the usual suspects. And here we are. So those are some. The fight in Brooklyn Nets were fun for a minute. The Clippers. We're going to talk about the Clippers.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I remember when they were in the finals last year and they were up 2-1, 3-1. You know, I wrote a big for Grantland. I wrote a big profile about Warford back in the day. I remember that. And I just started calling. I thought about maybe I should write something. Maybe I could work it into the Celtics with the championship piece. And it ultimately died on the vine.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
But I started calling just like Joe Kim Noah, Kyle Korver, Billy Donovan, Kenny Atkinson, Mike Budenholzer, suspecting that they were all watching the finals with more of an emotional investment than you would think considering the distance between them. Yeah. and Hal Horford, and they were all dying for him to finally win the championship. I mean, they were all over the moon for him.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Billy Donovan was like texting me from Europe being like, do you need a quote? You know, here's like, like they just love that guy. Every stop on his career, all those people were watching the finals being like, this guy deserves to win the championship. And you just don't see that as much anymore.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Yeah, I'll go crossroads guy. Trey Young, you know... This is funny.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I don't know. I'm going to allow it. I'm going to allow it. No, I could be a trade machine guy. You can't be a feel-good guy. So I don't know. I mean, my feel-good guy... You know what? No, I'm not going to take Trey Young. My feel-good guy, I guess, will be Steph Curry because... This was the best-case scenario for Steph Curry.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
You just don't get... Even when you have the rare chances that the Warriors got as an elite team who had this gap year or gap years where they got to pick high in the draft, and they whiffed on the highest pick they had in Wiseman, you just don't get to contend for this long. And the most likely outcome for Steph... was always going to be he rides out to Twilight and Golden State.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
The most likely good outcome, good outcome, upside outcome, was he rides out to Twilight and Golden State on good, solid teams that don't really have a chance to win the championship, but they're good enough. They're 46, 48, 49 win teams that if they made the conference finals because of matchups and just excellence, luck, whatever, it's not surprising. It's kind of a fun team.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
If you had told me the Clippers are going to be 43-32 in this four-team morass for 5-8, with Kawhi having played less than half the season, and look on a lot of nights like, oh... Like, is this a, do I, do I got to like get back into this again? Like, am I going to fall for the, the not fall for it, but that like, I don't see Ty lose name coming up a lot in coach of the year.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And I think because the Butler trade just fell into the league's lap, they're better than that. It's hard for me to see them winning the championship, but they're a pretty goddamn good team with him, with Butler. And I just think the Warriors are 18-5 with those two guys.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
They're a threat to beat anybody in the West, maybe excepting Oklahoma City because they're just such a giant favorite to everybody else.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I just think it's going to be awesome, assuming they make the top six, which is not guaranteed by any means, that we're going to see them play real meaningful games with real meaningful stakes where it's not just like, oh, this is kind of cute that Steph has a chance to win a first round series and we all know they're going to get destroyed in the next round. Like, it's not that.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
This is a real team.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I loved it for them right from the start. I saw it was completely risk-free.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
One peg down, the Darius Garland situation also could have gone sideways. And the rumblings around that were about his, I won't say unhappiness, but the uncertainty of whether this was really going to be the place for him with Donovan Mitchell having superseded him as the alpha guy in the backcourt. Those were true. And he's figured it out. He got healthy. They figured it out together.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
He's one of my favorite players to watch in the NBA. Deserved all-star. It's a great, great pick. Love it.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
It's like we're both scared. It's a sad conversation to have.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I'll go first. I mean... You know... Mike Budenholzer?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I think he's just sitting in a pool of lava. A, he's a proven good coach. And B... Are you that embarrassing that you're just going to have a new coach every single year? Just going to keep doing this? You're not going to give any coach any time?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And, and I think that he at least should be like in the, in the third place, second place talk.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I mean, I could think of like three names. That's fine. Not even counting the teams that aren't making the playoffs. I'm just looking at playoff teams. Wow. Okay, make the case. I have a feeling I know the case, but I want to hear you make the case.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
You don't think so? You don't think the bench has been utilized enough? There was a game in December. I think it was December where I didn't watch the game. I looked at the box score the next day. They beat the Hornets by 24 points. I think the final score is 125-101. I don't obviously 24 game, 24 point game can be semi close. It's points, whatever.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
McHale bridges. Someone could fact check me on this. I'm going from the top of my head, played the first 46 minutes and 30 seconds of the game consecutively in a game. The Knicks won by 24 points. Yeah. And I was like, how, how is that even, how's that even allowed? Like, I don't like that anyway. Yeah.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Let me defend the offensive creation. Creation is maybe the wrong word because the Bridges thing has been underutilized until now, in part because the Towns Brunson thing is so unguardable. So Tibbs has been, and all the Tibbs backers around the league will tell you, His teams have performed better offensively than his reputation.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
He's had a lot of top 10 offenses in Minnesota, Chicago, elsewhere. And even though he's been pigeonholed as this defensive mastermind behind the 2008 Celtics and other great defensive teams, the Bulls with Noah and Gibson and all those guys. And that's true. They're right. And almost all of those offenses have been of just the complete brute force variety. Like we just don't turn the ball over.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
We're number one or two in offensive rebounding. We're number one or two in free throws. And we just beat the hell out of you. We just we isolate. We play simple basketball, low risk basketball, and we beat the hell out of you. This team still has some of that in, but it's not built to be a great offensive rebounding team. It's not built to be a beat the hell out of you team.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
It is built to have a Josh Hart runs the ball down your throat six times a game team. But I do. I. You can quibble with the Bridges thing, and I think you're right.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
That's definitely right. But I do think it was interesting and smart how... he decided to use towns as a passing hub very early on in the season. They have a lot of artful cutting in their offense because of the way towns lifts the opposing center off. If the center is guarding him, bridge is a good cutter in an OB is a good Carter heart is a great cutter.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And he leaned into that in a way that I think was smart and made their offense a little bit more unpredictable than Brunson pounding the ball and cat pounding post-ups and just spamming pick and pops, which I think they could always run more pick and pops with those guys. I, I, Early in the season, I was like, this is different than I envisioned it. And he's built an elite offense.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Now he's got elite offensive talent, no doubt, but he's constructed an elite offense that doesn't look anything like and doesn't project statistically anything like the other elite offenses that he's had before.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
It's true. It's true.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Well, so I think that's the most likely outcome, right? Is like the Celtics beat them 4-1, maybe 4-2. And is that a failure? Or do you say, well, you know, we made this.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Well, can I just name another coach?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Let me be very clear. I'm a little rusty on this one. Let me be very clear for the aggregators. This coach is not in any danger of being fired. This coach's seat is ice cold. This coach was in the Coach of the Year conversation last year. I think he was number two on my ballot, and he was on pace to be that high this year before injuries struck his team.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
We are long past the point where the Orlando Magic's offense, despite Suggs being out, despite Anthony being out, despite Mo Wagner being out, all of that, it just should not be this bad. It's so bad and so unwatchable and so uncreative that at some point, someone in what remains of the basketball media in Orlando has to gently ask the question of like, So what's the idea for this offense?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And now the idea might be we trade a lot of... Why are we 0.78 points per possession? The idea might be we trade a lot of stuff for a guard that can create a lot of the offense. We don't have that. The idea might be we trade a lot of stuff for a center that is either a threat diving to the basket, a threat popping for threes, a threat as a passer.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
They don't really have a guy who's a really good threat at any of those things. Oh, God. Um... So those are all fair answers, too. But the coaching staff has just got no scrutiny for the fact that this offense stinks and it stinks no matter who's on the court. And it's they're like 27th in offense. And I know their guys were hurt.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And I know that they had injuries that it takes those oblique things for Franz and Paolo. It takes time to recover from them. They still stink now offensively. It's like it's it's they scored 87 points last night against the Clippers.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Can we just, can we just at least have a meeting about it where we're like, Maybe we need to bring in an assistant who does this really well. Can we at least talk about it? When is the expiration date on the Magic or like a feel-good story? Are we done with that yet?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Can we treat them like a real team now?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I would advise Wolves fans to not check his playoff stats, which are in very few games, but still.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I mean, I was just going to pick Luka because it's been the subplot of the fascinating plot of the season is Luka Doncic plays for the Los Angeles Lakers. He plays for LeBron James. He led his team to the finals last year in the conference finals two years ago.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
You know, look, we don't need to get into the trade or the off-court whatever issues that are, you know, just are what they are and have been what they have been. I don't think he's looked like a, a, a plus Luca yet in LA almost at all. Um, he still looks a little slower than usual to me. And he's not a speed guy.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
It was really exciting. And it was really exciting. He shot tons of threes. His two point field goal percentage is down. His turnovers are up. And a lot of that is just learning. new system, new city, new teammates, new world. Like the best player of a generation is over here and I'm on his team. And I think they've all bought into the right things. He's been very good for them.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
He would make an all-star team. He would make an all-NBA team. He would probably make first team all-NBA for sure. I don't know for sure, but he would make first team all-NBA if he were healthy and playing this exactly the way he's played for the Lakers. He's almost a first team all-NBA caliber player, if not definitely so.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I wouldn't have done it from whose perspective I would have done.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
If I worked in the Mavs front office, I think I would be fired. No, I think, I think Nico Harrison would have fired me or I, because I would have just, I would have thrown everything I had against this trade and they would have found me annoying and an irritant. I do. I do think, you know,
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
a robust discussion within the magistrate office occurred at some point, but, but I just, but I thought only three people knew about the trade.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I can't believe he's on the Lakers. And right away you framed it, not you did. A lot of people framed it correctly as like, wow, they've got the bridge, the bridge to the post LeBron era, which they did not have before. They have the best possible unimaginable version of it.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And I think in the shock of the trade and the realization that the Lakers had found yet another generational superstar to carry the generational superstar torch, I think it took like a week or 10 days for people to be like, oh, wow. This team's kind of good. This team's kind of interesting and dangerous, and they can play different styles and different lineups with no center.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
It's like we've all... I think starting with Wade and LeBron, there's just been this overthinking of, well, you just can't pair two ball-dominant guys. Even though that duo obviously succeeded at a crazy level. That's LeBron James. It's a different story. LeBron James in his prime. They're not just two ball-dominant guys. They're two of the five greatest passers maybe ever.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And they're two ball dominant guys with very good to elite post-up games. And that's the kind of thing that Phoenix and all its ball dominant guys does not have. They don't have guys who can change the geometry of the floor in tons of different ways by getting to spots on the floor that with a bully ball game that those two guys have. Let alone the transition game.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Well, and you know what I've loved that the Lakers have done? If you watch their rotations carefully, Luka's the one who gets the solo minutes. Reeves and LeBron will be on the bench together. And almost all the time LeBron is out there, if Luka's resting, Reeves is also playing with LeBron. So LeBron does not have to do the heavy lifting by himself ever.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And I know he's been, by his standards, unproductive as a scorer lately, by his incredible standards. I think that is the only avenue to set them up for short-term success was to lift the burden on LeBron to that degree and unlock all this other stuff that we talked about earlier that they're doing.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I think this is a really dangerous team that if Luka can rediscover a Luka form, I never want to see that guy in a playoff series. And they got a lot of stuff going on right now that's interesting.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Phoenix fans are so mad that their scoring trio just didn't even pop up in either of our brains. Also mad Sacramento Kings fans who are like, well, what about the Zach Levine, DeMar DeRozan, DeMonta Sabonis trio? Can we talk about that?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
What's your next pick? Levine was going to be one of my... I don't know what categories we have left, but Levine was going to be a third banana pick for me as well. Oh, do it right now. Just because...
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
what a what a catastrophic year for a franchise that seemed to have finally veered out of the catastrophe lane and just was like you know what we want we want we want to go right back to it let's just fire the coach did you like what they got in the Fox trade at all They got some okay draft equity.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I mean, if you're going to have to trade a guy to get an all-star, and Zach Levine has been an all-star, and some draft equity is fine. The fact that they fired the coach, the fact that they pissed him off so much, and now he's talked about it on record in a couple of different places.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
He's like, yeah, they fired the coach and they left me to hang out to dry and made it look like it was my fault and I actually liked the coach. And like, what's wrong with our organization? Not great when an ex-player who you just traded who was like a beloved part of your team is like a week later being like, oh yeah, that's a circus over there, basically. And they get Levine back.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And Levine in a lot of these games just feels... like almost an afterthought. And he's averaging 21 a game, which is actually not a lot for him. His assist to turnover ratio has gotten like perilously close to even with the Kings. And it just feels like between DeRozan and Sabonis and now Monk coming off the bench, I realized like for Levine to be worth it
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
he's not a great passer and he's a minus defender. He's got to take a lot of shots and it feels like he is sort of semi predictably, I guess, trying to feel out like, how do I fit in here? Or the coaches are trying to figure out that he just hasn't been the explosion of productivity that the numbers in Chicago suggested he would be. And yeah,
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
You know, don't you feel like the Kings and the Bulls are destined to keep just keep trading these guys among each other?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Oh, yeah. And they end up taking Nick Stauskas. Stauskas, yeah.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Um, think that's fair uh they're actually they've actually been outscored with lebron luca and reeves all on the floor together and yet by the and that's mostly because of defense I think all those guys are bought in to the right kind of style on offense. I've talked to some of their coaches about it.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
He should be flattered to be still in a crossroads given his health situation. And I love Kawhi.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Okay. Unless you have it.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Well, I think the Paul George decision, which looks like a stroke of genius in retrospect, even though they did offer him a three year, 100, whatever, $50 million deal. I remember talking about that and saying like, yeah, it's great. They've signed all these nice role players and, you know, Harden's back and.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
to make that decision signals to me that you don't think the team as presently constructed can win a championship. If you thought it could win a championship, you'd go all in and they didn't go all in. So I don't think they entered this season necessarily expecting to be in this kind of conversation that we're talking about now. It's like they can go toe to toe with people. And here they are.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
They're a really well-balanced team. Like I love, you know, Powell and Chris Dunn go out and in comes another defender and Derek Jones Jr. to replace Dunn and another score in Bogdanovich to replace Powell. I think my hottest Clipper take is that Evita Zubats belongs.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I don't think he's going to make third team all NBA for me, but you need to have him on the list of guys that you've considered for third team all NBA, along with James Harden is making a late push. Is he making a late push for you? He's making a late push.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
uh, that hasn't been picked. Um, you can pick between Amin Thompson and OGN and Obi.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
What else? The guy's an absolute freak. I mean, just the plays he makes are ridiculous. Um, I couldn't like him anymore.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
They're very, very excited by some of the off-ball stuff, by some of the motion that those guys have bought into. And I do... I mean, three to four series is going to be hard for a team with a 40-year-old. And once you get by the first round, it's every other day, relentlessly the whole way.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I had a front office person, not Rockets, just yesterday, literally yesterday, I was talking about it because this is what I do. I talk about, I'm in Thompson, I guess, said he's the best athlete in the NBA, full stop. And his brother might be the second best athlete in the NBA. So they're the best athletes in the NBA. Jesus. And they play the right way.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And he's just... We haven't seen one of those in a while where a guy comes off the bench, another guy gets hurt, he gets elevated into the starting five, and it's immediately clear. He's never coming off the bench again. This other guy's not a starter anymore.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Wild card? I'm going to just zig right away from that and go with related Jamal Murray. Jamal Murray might be the biggest wild card in the NBA the first two months of the season. plus the Olympics, plus the way last season ended, was like, uh-oh. As great as Jokic is, as great as the Aaron Gordon fit is, as steady as Michael Porter Jr.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
jumper is, as improved as Christian Brown, who belongs in the Most Improved Player conversation too, as improved as he is, They can't win four playoff series without Jamal Murray being the Jamal Murray who was the second best guy in a title team two years ago or something close to that. And he's been pretty damn good now for the next two and a half months.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
But they have a level, at least for an isolated period of time, maybe not six weeks, eight weeks, but I wouldn't count it out either. But they have a level... I'm a believer like they're they're a strange team because they're huge. Like they sometimes play three. They basically start three power forwards in a center.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
A little bit quieter lately than he was when he started really rolling and putting up 30s and 40s and even I think he had a 50. They need fully... If they have that guy, 28 a game Jamal Murray, killer Jamal Murray... mid-range assassin Jamal Murray. I wouldn't sleep on these guys.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I don't think they quite have enough to win the championship, even if they get him, because I just think their bench is too much of a wild card and their defense hasn't been good enough. But we know they're tough. We know they have one of the greatest players of all time, if not maybe the best player. I still would rank him the best player right now, even if I didn't vote him MVP.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
If they get that Jamal Murray, I wouldn't want to play them if I were any of these teams, including Oklahoma City.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I mean, Jokic isn't a wildcard. Jokic isn't a wildcard, but I know exactly what I'm going to get from him almost every game. And sometimes I'll get a 30-20-20. Who knows?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
I'm so glad you brought up the Pacers.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Maybe they wear the uniforms.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
There was a traumatized kid in the Wolves crowd. They gave him a jersey and he was like,
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Sometimes when they take the center out, they basically replace him with another power forward to the power forward size. Guys are two of the five greatest passers. in recent, if not all time history of the NBA. Hachimura has been great for them. Vincent has been great in the last month. Finney Smith has been great. Their non-center lineups have been, been tough to deal with.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Love it. He's on third team all NBA for me right now on the ballot that I don't have. He's played even above that for quite a bit of the season now. they're just a really good team. I mean, I don't have their schedule in front of me, but they start, they were under 500, maybe 20 games into the season or thereabouts. And since then have been a legit, very good team.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
The Cavs series would be interesting. The Cavs are a little bigger than they are on the front line. But Siakam's really good. Turner's good. Obi Toppin feels like he hasn't missed a shot in a month now.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Look, they've got Turner's free agency hanging over their head. Yeah. And the tax implications of that someone I've seen it suggested, well, they could just dump OB top. I'm like, that guy's good. He's been good for their team. I would dumping OB top and there's pain. They're just a they're a rock solid team.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And if you're not healthy or you're don't bring your a game, they can beat you four times in seven games. And Halliburton is just a guaranteed good offense by almost by himself.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Covered a lot of ground.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
We talked about him a lot, though.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
We can't call him either of the bananas. He's above a lot of these things.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And they just have those two nasty Terminator passing chess master dudes at the top of it. Like I wouldn't want to, they beat the Rockets last night and like, I wouldn't, I wouldn't want to play them. I would think hard about picking them over essentially the, Any team but the Thunder in the playoffs. And I don't think the Thunder love that matchup either and have not loved that matchup.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
We're workshopping. I'm about to spend the next three hours recording different welcome to's just to make sure I get it exactly right from Monday.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
No, you said TBD. That's good. We'll see. We'll see. It's going to be fun. It's going to be fun. Playoffs are going to be fun. We're almost there.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Much appreciated across the board and look forward to a lot of good content over the next few months before the NBA chills out for a bit again.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And by the way, you mentioned LeBron. A lot of concern about, you know, his up and down play since he came back from another injury. Yeah. A couple of games where like the double digit streak seemed to be in semi jeopardy for a hot second. Like all fair, fine. A, he's 40. B... Like, remember, he guarded Jokic in the playoffs a couple of years ago and guarded him pretty well.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
And it was like a six or eight minute stretch. And that's like all they could ask of him. Last night, JJ Redick can go to this 40 year old dude and be like, we just need you to guard Shingun for maybe the entire game. Can you can you go do it? And he's like, yeah, I'll bang. I'll bang with him the whole game. Like, that's right. Deserves a lot of credit for that.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
if one to eight, if, if the play, if the, if the seven and eight seeds come out of this group of Clippers, Minnesota Warriors, Grizzlies that are all jostling for those places. And one of the Dallas Sacramento Phoenix brigade of losers does not like somehow sneak in to one of those spots. Every round one series is going to be,
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
a battle featuring a team that you could talk yourself into winning other than maybe Memphis, the way Memphis is sliding right now. But they have an upside that's pretty high, too. And by the way, can we just say before we get to it, because I don't know how much time we're going to talk about them. How embarrassing is it that the Phoenix Suns cannot catch for 10th
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Either the Kings, who can't beat anybody right now, or the Mavericks, who finally got some of their players back, but have largely had like no players. And the Suns still can't catch them. And I know you and Russo have talked about how pathetic they've looked defensively in a lot of games, how disengaged they've looked.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
But like these teams are begging, begging to become, these teams have been the equivalent of Eastern Conference play-in teams for like a month, which is a horrible insult to Levy at any Western Conference team. And the Suns are like, we still can't catch you. We can't catch you.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 25 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys With Zach Lowe
Speaking of that, how many emails did the league send Danny Ainge before they finally had to find the jazz. One of the great parlor games of the season has been looking at the jazz box score every night and being like, all right, so who didn't play? And yesterday it was Walter Kessler, Walker Kessler, DNP returned to conditioning. Lowry Mark is Lowry marketing dead.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
You're listening to The Zach Lowe Show presented by FanDuel. America's number one sportsbook is the best place to bet on the NBA because not only does FanDuel have all your favorite player props, but now you can even check out stats and recent performance trends right in the app. Before you make your picks, just download the FanDuel Sportsbook app today to get in on the action.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
I don't think it was necessarily like this –
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
horrible horrible hatred whatever it was just it was just tension about young players veterans directions who controlled what part of the organization but it bled into lots of different parts of it and you could see the nuggets in the middle of the western conference in danger of falling into the play-in if if the end of this season and particularly one critical head-to-head game it's memphis doesn't go their way
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
Yeah, you mentioned the double overtime loss against the Wolves. They haven't won since then. They're on a four-game losing streak. It was a perfect storm of bad events, mostly surrounding Russell Westbrook, who... You know, look, I wouldn't count on him for the level of role he's had to play for them.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
I have to say, like, I think he's probably been even a little better for them than I would have expected. Like, I don't think you can pin this slightly disappointing season on him. Just not my cup of tea as a signing or as like he's started a lot of games for them because he's had to. Yeah.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
they're they are trending the wrong way but to your point the most important reason they're trending the wrong way is their second best player is not playing and you could quibble like maybe aaron gordon's their second best player and all that but jamal murray is their second most important player he is the other fulcrum of their offense to pick and roll dance partner for yokich and when he found his game in the middle of the season and started having some scoring explosions and looking like jamal murray the whole league took notice and said okay
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
Well, last year's playoffs are in the rearview. The Olympics are in the rearview. The beginning of this season is in the rearview when he was struggling. If this guy's back, this team's back, and all of a sudden he's not back, what do we even know? It's the hamstring again. Obviously, it goes without saying, if he's not that Jamal Murray... They just don't have enough to get through the West.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
And even if he is, too many other things have gone wrong this year. They still may not have enough to get through the West. But that's the – if you want to boil everything down to one thing right now, it's what's going on with Jamal Murray.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
Five and nine in their last 14 games. Jamal Murray's health, uncertain. And just – I mentioned in the very first episode of the Zach Lowe Show, just one of those years where it just doesn't feel like things are ever going to lock into place at the same time, which is what you need. You need everything locked into place to do what they did two years ago and just –
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
In every part of the game, too. For guys like Tatum, it's defense, it's offense. 8 of 24, and you'll still feel like he played well, like he helped our team. And you mentioned the separation. Jamal has never been – obviously, he's not an above-the-rim player. He's not explosive in the way that jumps off your television screen. But when he's right –
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
He just has this sort of funky cadence to his game, the stop and start and change of direction, shoulder fakes, half fakes, half spins, where when that stuff is really popping like 10% more, that's where he gets that extra bit of space for his jump shot, for his fadeaway, for the pocket pass to Jokic.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
Which, by the way, part of the thing about the Murray-Jokic pick and roll and why Murray being at peak Murray is so important is... The Nuggets noticed last season, even before last season, more and more defenses just selling out to take away the pocket pass to Jokic.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
Like you're just not going to get that pass because his floater became the most dangerous fail safe shot in the NBA, a 60 something percent fail safe. And so they started loading up on it, the angles on Jokic himself, basically saying, Jamal Murray, you're going to have to beat us with some drives and some jump shots. And for them to win a lot of playoff series, he's going to have to do that.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
And he started to look like he was getting back to that kind of form. And now he's out again. Yeah, I don't know. Everyone, where do they go from here? We'll see who the coaching candidates are going to be if David Adelman gets a chance to go for the job and all that. Roster-wise... I mean, okay, they don't really have extra first-round picks. A lot of their own first-round picks are gone.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
Jamal Murray's extension doesn't even kick in until next season where it becomes $46 million, $50 million, $54 million, $57.5 million. Aaron Gordon got extended. Christian Brown will be extension eligible after the season. Peyton Watson will be extension eligible after the season. I don't – there were all these – at some point there was like a Michael Porter Jr.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
trade rumor where is he going to be the piece to go get Zach Levine. And that was poo-pooed to me a little bit. And I think Michael Porter Jr. has had a good year. He's slowed down a little bit lately. You know, there's some fungibility there in terms of can we shake up the roster in a like for like talent for talent trade. But those are really hard to make.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
It's been one thing, and then that thing gets fixed, and then it's another thing, and then this player pops a little bit, and then that same player regresses. This player gets hurt. That player gets healthy. It's just never quite meshed all together. But this, the timing of this, is absolutely monumentally shocking to me.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
Even in the summer when the apron loosens a little bit, those kind of deals are hard to make, you know, and you do have the best player in the world. And like, I just I don't know where they go.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
Yeah, he has a deep affection for Jamal Murray. A couple of things. Totally agree on Michael Porter Jr. 's first few months of the season. I remember tweeting about it. He's getting to the basketball more. He's a little more comfortable off the dribble. I don't think I would have traded him for Zach Levine in that kind of deal.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
I just – a 6'10 guy who can shoot like that, like if you're going to trade Michael Porter Jr. and you're the Denver Nuggets and you're already the least voluminous three-point shooting team in the league, you better get someone who's an A to A plus shooter back in that trade because you ain't got a lot to lose. Jamal Murray to Orlando, great theoretical idea.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
The challenge that you're going to come up with – I realize we're just spitballing and we're going to wrap up here in a second. It's like you have Jokic – you have to make – every trade has to be a win-now trade. There's no rebuilding trade. There's no Jamal Murray for picks even if that's available. And so you go to a team like Orlando and you're like, all right, what are they giving me?
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
Matt Moore, senior writer of the Action Network, among many other jobs, host of Locked On NBA and Locked On Nuggets podcasts. What, what, what, what, what's happening? What, why, why? Like, is the NBA just determined? You know what? We've, we've reached peak crazy with trades with Luca. We've just got to find ways to reach peak crazy with coaches and now GMs too.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
Because presumably it's not Palo and it's not Franz. Is it Suggs and is that enough? Is it Suggs plus something? And Orlando's got to be sold on Jamal Murray's health and availability and all of that. It's just tricky to make trades that have to be – win now, talent for talent kind of trades. But that's where the Nuggets are going to find themselves as long as, you know, Jokic's prime continues.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
And yeah, I think it's safe to say it's continuing for as long as the horizon is because the guy's the best player in the league.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit rg-help.com to learn more about the numerous resources and helplines available and listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Must be 21 or over and present in select states. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com. Welcome to the Zach Lowe Show.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
Well, it may be, you know, will Peyton Watson's jump shot ever develop again? Will Julian Strother's two-way game ever sort of balance at the same time where both parts of it are humming? That's life with young players. Sometimes those bets don't pay off in time for your incumbent superstars.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
All right, Matt Moore, thanks for popping on to a little emergency reaction podcast to a truly bizarre, bizarre series of events in Denver. Even if the outcome isn't shocking, the timing is beyond shocking. You can read Matt Moore and listen to Matt Moore all over the place, one of the OGs of the basketball internet. Thank you, sir. Hey, thanks for having me, Zach. Welcome back, buddy.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
Yeah, in early September, I made sort of a stray comment on a podcast about how the coach and the GM don't really see eye to eye in Denver. And that got some traction in the aggregation sphere. I just thought it was well-known and had been publicly written about before. And then I wrote a story about the Nuggets centered around their three-point rate and how they were set up to –
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
have the lowest three-point rate in the NBA, and even if you have the best player in the world, which they do, is there a threshold of threes that you have to get to or else you just can't win four playoff series or another? Their offense is incredible anyway because Jokic is just that good.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
And Calvin Booth made some comments in that piece about X's and O's, including about have we become a little bit too dependent on the Murray-Jokic pick and roll? Have defenses at least figured out tolerable ways to guard that? Do we need to diversify it? And I told the coaches, including Michael Malone, about those comments, said, hey, Calvin said this, do you want to comment?
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
Michael Malone didn't want to comment. And then I heard subsequently through intermediaries that Calvin's comments did not go over well with the coaching staff. And I'm like, man, I'm caught in the middle of this. This is how bad it was. And to your point, I've heard lots of stories over the last year of not having a job about –
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
well, this guy has been pigeonholed as a Calvin guy and some people are wary of him. And this guy has been pigeonholed as a Malone guy and some people are wary of him. Maybe that's unfair to the principles involved. Maybe, you know how misinformation can spread through an organization and people are always, always fearful of their jobs in the NBA and any highly competitive industry.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
Two days in and we're already doing an emergency podcast because in another event, the second in, I don't know, 10 days where the timing is the biggest surprise more than the substance, the Denver Nuggets, two years after winning a championship, One year after making the conference semifinals and losing in seven to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
It could all have been bad information, but it's hard to function in that kind of atmosphere at a level that you need to function top to bottom to win the championship, which is still the goal when you have the best player in the world and a roster that's broadly similar to the one that won the championship. And I know I'll get pushback for that. So let's, let's go through that.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
Well, you know what, before we get to that, that all of that said, The most logical outcome was the season's over. Like, it's pretty much over. Let's just say that we've decided we don't want to extend Calvin Booth. We're going to move on from him. You know, you could do that in the offseason.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
And I thought there was a world where they could have kept Michael Malone, who's a good coach, and had him work with the new GM. And they just – for them to decide to do it all at once now – five days before the end of the season is shocking and actually sort of in a bizarre way, a show of faith from ownership in the actual roster of the team.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
It's ownership saying, despite all of this crap that is coming out today and has been coming out all year, we still think this roster, despite the fact that people are going to pick on all the parts we let go in the last two summers, which we'll talk about, this roster we still think can do damage in the playoffs. And, you know, we'll see. But the timing is just...
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
And people in there, it's not like I've heard from a ton of people because they're all still digesting this. This caught people by massive amounts of surprise from what I've heard so far.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
It's a very sharp group of assistant coaches, top to bottom, including David Adelman.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
And five days before the end of the regular season have fired Michael Malone, who had been their coach for a decade, and decided also not to retain Calvin Booth, the general manager. Everybody is out. All the higher-ups are out. And I mentioned...
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
Let's talk about Michael Maloney, Calvin Booth. Because there's going to be a temptation in the media and among fans to paint one or both as bad guys, good guys. You know, this guy had to go, that guy had to go. Michael Malone is the winningest coach in Denver Nuggets history. he won a championship with the Denver nuggets. He's objectively a good NBA coach.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
He's actually my standard for the perfect is the enemy of good coaching decision dating back to the Kings deciding, Hey, this guy's actually having success with our team, but we're going sideways a little bit. Cause DeMarcus cousins is ill and we're losing. And you know what? Let's just make a snap decision. Cause we think we can get a better guy than this.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
And I remember saying at the time, you better be careful. Because you may be on your ninth head coach in 12 years, and you still haven't got a better guy than Michael Malone. They finally undid that by getting Mike Brown, and then they fired him in much the same way. So Michael Malone's a very good coach. And yeah, he is outspoken. He's tough.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
He will call the players out directly, both publicly and privately. And I think that was probably good for the team during their period of growth and coming up to finding themselves. And in fact, this team had and has...
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
a certain level of toughness and resiliency to it, the dating back to like the year they missed the playoffs and they had to win all those games at the very end of the season, 2017, 2018, where they could have thrown in the towel and they fought and they fought and they fought to a winner take all game 82 in Minnesota that they lost in overtime.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
And Jokic gets on the plane after that game and is telling people like, thank you for agreeing, going, Tim Connolly told me this story, going seat to seat saying, thank you for the season. We're not going to be in this position again. And the bubble, 3-1 down, win. 3-1 down, win. He has to get some credit for that sort of level of steel and toughness.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
Sure, you could have your tactical disagreements with him like you could with any coach, but the guy's a good NBA coach. Calvin Booth. is going to get probably more of the score in here because of the idea that he forced his young players on Michael Malone and let veterans walk away. Sure, there's some objective truth to that.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
And Calvin Booth was very proud of his draft picks and very proud of his young players. And like Michael Malone, a strong-willed, some might say stubborn personality who bears some responsibility for the deterioration of the sort of mood within the organization. A lot of those draft picks, Christian Brown's pretty damn good. For where he was picked, Peyton Watson's pretty damn good.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
The timing is the main source of the surprise because, as our guest knows as well as anyone, the tension between the coaching staff and the front office had been an open secret around the league for, I don't know, two years. I had mentioned it very openly on one of the last Low Post podcasts I did at my previous employer. It had spilled over into every part of the organization.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
I still have faith in Julian Strother. His sort of unreadiness on defense and inconsistency on offense was a minor theme of the season even before he got hurt. But he's a young player. They're not always going to be ready on exactly the right schedule that you need them to be. Zeke Nagy is a different story.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
Although there was like a month where the Nuggets were like, hey, maybe this like three weeks ago where maybe the Zeke Nagy thing was finally happening. And then apropos of the kind of
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
something's always going wrong season I described earlier all of a sudden Zeke Nagy can't get in the rotation anymore and obviously hovering over all of this are the specters of Bruce Brown and Jeff Green and Contavious Caldwell Pope and the idea that this cheap ownership group the Cronkies won't pay for a championship roster when they have the best player in the world in his prime and what a sin that is and they didn't pay but let's just be clear on some of the facts the
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
The Nuggets could only offer Bruce Brown, I think, seven point something million dollars a year. The Pacers offered him 20 something million dollars a year. Jeff Green was an important part of their team, is now, let's say, not that important of a part of the on-court product of the Houston Rockets. KCP was a flashpoint. I didn't like it. You may not have liked it. I can't remember.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
Do they miss the skill set that he has or had or still mostly has? They do. And is veteran three and D play and Christian Brown's not the same level three point shooter in terms of volume and all that. KCP has not had a good year in Orlando. And they kind of bet against him going forward. And it's hard to say that they lost that bet watching his performance in Orlando.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
Now, are there missed opportunities to build the roster in other ways? Absolutely. Should Dario Saric have a $5 million player option next year? Absolutely not. All that is to say, like, is the cheap thing a real thing? It is a real thing. They didn't pay, but had they paid KCP, it would have been second apron, second apron, second apron, and all that comes with it.
The Zach Lowe Show
Instant Reaction Pod With Matt Moore: Breaking News in Denver
I guess it's not as easy as just pay, pay, pay, pay, pay, because then all of a sudden you might become the Phoenix Suns.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
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The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
I was in L.A. two, three weeks ago when they played the Nuggets. It was a game that the Nuggets sat everybody. And I was with a lot of the Lakers heavy hitters before the game. And they're like giddy. They're like teenagers. They can't even believe the good fortune that has fallen into their laps. They had to work for it and nurture the deal and make sure it didn't fall apart.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
I don't mean to imply that they did no work for it. But they're like, they can't believe it. their luck and their good fortune to have this player on their team. Did you see any, uh, was security active last night? Did you see any, I mean, obviously the fire Nico chance, the signs, I saw signs, I saw shirts. They, they, they,
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Did they just take a, you know what, this is a night we're just going to let it fly?
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
It's pain, man.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
You've written a lot about the pain. You've written a lot about the gradual erosion of the Luka Doncic support system within the Mavericks organization, including Mark Cuban selling the team and ultimately losing control of the team and Casey Smith, the head trainer's unceremonious departure and many other little drops of like, ooh, ooh, ooh.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
I haven't seen as much about, and I'm curious if you have any intel, there hasn't been a lot about what was the level of debate within, if at all, within the organization? Because there was this narrative that, well, nobody knew. Even Jason Kidd didn't know until the midnight hour. Mark Cuban was obviously on the outside, was told at the last minute.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
was it actually this unilateral or was there, was, was there an opportunity for anyone within the organization to push back and say, Hey, whoa.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
What a moment last night in Dallas. A worst case scenario for Nico Harrison and the Mavericks where the entire crowd is cheering for Luka. Luka is... in a way that actually surprised me. I assume they were showing it on the Jumbotron when they showed the video showing his reaction. He looked legitimately hurt. I mean, vulnerable and hurt and just naked for the world to see.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
No. You know how I know they didn't? Because he plays for the Lakers now. Yeah. Look, I think we're two months distant from this now. There was the whirlwind of crazy conspiracy theories that filled this void of a rational explanation. Those have fallen by the wayside. And I think.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
all along I've said this, I think the simplest explanation is the actual explanation, which is Niko Harrison just didn't think Luka Doncic was his kind of superstar. He wasn't a Kobe Bryant kind of superstar.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
He didn't fit his mold of how a superstar is supposed to conduct himself on and off the court to the standard, the incredibly high standard that flowed down from Niko Harrison's relationship with Kobe Bryant. And there are two ands. And number one is, and was about to cycle on to the biggest contract in the history of the NBA, which only the Mavericks could offer him.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
That was their own sort of golden handcuffs. And he was injured. And the injury perhaps made the Mavericks sink. We have a window right now with Kyrie Irving. We're not sure that this guy is going to be healthy enough to fulfill that window. Let's trade him for a superstar who fits that window and try to win immediately. Now, I have already said...
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
That doesn't pass my personal smell test because Luka Doncic is better than Anthony Davis. You were just in the NBA finals with Luka Doncic winning Western Conference Finals MVP.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
You were just in the conference finals two seasons ago with Luka Doncic as the best player on a completely inferior team to the one that made the finals last year, which you brought the entirety of essentially back for this year. And yes, when they were healthy at the beginning of the year, this part of the season is the one that has just been lost to history because so much has happened.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
and they weren't healthy that often, they looked every bit the kind of team ready to give it an honest run back and defend their Western conference championship. They looked awesome when they were healthy with Kyrie and Luca and everything that they had amassed in PJ Washington and Gafford and all of that. And then they just sort of lit it on fire.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
And the idea that, so I reject the idea that even in the short term, this would have increased their championship equity. I totally disagree. And,
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Even if you posit that it's the same-ish, the reduction in your long-term championship equity is so catastrophic and leaves you so vulnerable to a short-term wave of injuries, which has now happened and vaporized this season and maybe vaporized next season that I still can't believe this trade happened. And that said... And this gets back to the specific return that they sought out.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
You can find people, and you know this as well as I do, you can find people around the league on other teams, smart people, smart front office people, smart scouts, who will say, even now, even in the light of day, even with the 45-point performance in bed, will say, it's not crazy that Nico Harrison decided, I'm not sure that we want to be in the business of paying Luka Doncic $70 million a year.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Like, let's see what we can get for him. What's really crazy, what the real issue that these people have, and this is the crux of it, is just not shopping him around the league and seeing what the real return could be. What are the Nets going to give us? What are the Rockets going to give us? What are these? Can we get nine first-round picks? Now, I wouldn't even have gone that far.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Like, I just wouldn't trade Luka Doncic. That would be my hot take on being a GM, just I wouldn't trade him. But you can find people who would say entertaining. It's not crazy given his off court habits and this and that, but the return is just what it is. And now they're just left. This is a morose fan base now, and I do think we can spin it forward.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
There's a good team in here when Kyrie Irving, if and when Kyrie Irving returns healthy. They're big, they're nasty, they're talented. They have potentially three first-round picks to trade. Their pick this draft, the Lakers pick they got for Luka, and their 2031 pick, they also... Oh, some draft assets we can talk about. Where do you think they go from here?
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Like is, how do you, I don't even like Kyrie has a player option next season. He could opt in and extend. He could opt out and sign a long-term deal. PJ Washington's extension eligible. There's going to be Kevin Durant talk. I'm not sure how realistic that is, especially given the unknown of is Kyrie coming back next season. What condition is he going to be in?
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Where is, where, where, where do we go from here, Mark?
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Like every part of someone who did not want ever to leave Dallas and was indeed ready to buy a house, as you've written, in your newsletter, which everyone should subscribe to, and sign on the dotted line for $70 million a year when the Supermax inevitably hit his agent's Bill Duffy's email box.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
The ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit rg-help.com to learn more about the numerous resources and helplines available and listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Must be 21 or over and present in select states. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com. What's up, everybody?
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
What do you think happens with Kyrie Irving this summer contractually?
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
And he's returning from injury still.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
And then he goes out and drops 45 points on the Dallas Mavericks while Anthony Davis sort of lopes around, looking a little stiff, a little slow, and as he has since he got to Dallas, taking a lot of mid-range jumpers because he's playing a lot of four as we're in year 10 of somehow still arguing what Anthony Davis' best position is.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Well, look, if, if they had done nothing and a similar wave of injuries had struck this theoretical intact Mavericks team, you could have just said, yeah, look, shit happens. Lucas 25, 26. We got a long runway here. Trade happens. And as I've said many times, same wave of injuries happens. And it's,
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
you look at the age of the team and the age of the players, they're not ancient, but they're not 25 and 26. And you're like, We can't afford to lose a season like this, and we can't afford to lose next season. The clock is ticking and ticking very loudly.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
I've heard a little bit of the same pushback on Durant, just the idea that we'd have to think pretty hard about boxing ourselves into three huge salaries like that, given how many players we'd have to trade to make it work, how many guys like PJ Washington are extension eligible. They also... You know, look, how many of your future firsts do you actually want to trade?
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Because you're already out your 29 pick from the Kyrie deal. You're already out a 28 swap to Oklahoma City, which helped you get the pick that you traded for Gafford. You're already out a 27 top two protected pick, which was to Charlotte for P.J. Washington. Thank you. Thank you.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
All along, the fire Nico chants are raining from all over the arena, so loud and so unmissable that even the most polite, positive person in the NBA says, Mike Breen calling the game on ESPN is forced to acknowledge them multiple times. Mr. Stein, you were there. I saw you in your usual perch there sitting right behind Rob Polinka, sitting right behind Bill Duffy.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Thank you.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Thank you.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Thank you. Thank you.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Just I mean, we saw the game on TV. So I saw the game on TV. So I got I have the scenes that were broadcast to me. What are you going to remember from that night that you got from sitting in that seat and walking around that arena that I couldn't have got from watching on TV? What's going to stick out to you?
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Thank you. Thank you.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
All right, it's awards time. I already went through my tentative All-NBA MVP, although I still need to finalize those. I thought I would do some fun ones with you. We're going to do the rookies, sixth man, and coach. Are you ready, Mr. Goldsberry? I am totally ready, Zach Lowe. I put a lot of thought into my all-rookie teams. Second team all-rookie, as always.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Some deep cuts in second team all-rookie. However, I'm very happy with where I am. I'm satisfied with where I ended up. It does make me sad that we have the same amount of teams for rookies, and there's obviously a very limited pool of rookies. It's first-year players. That's it. I think there's only – I have my basketball reference search.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Only 26 rookies played over 800 minutes, I think, is what I have this year. So, like, you know, not that many players. And also two all defense teams for all the defenders in the entire NBA. And like, I'm sorry, Tumani Kamara and Derek White and maybe Bam Adebayo. Like, I can't. If there were a third team, I would love to honor some of you, but I can't. But I'm very happy with my all rookie teams.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
We have not reviewed these with each other. I'm going to predict we go nine out of ten and we have the same first team and one difference on the second team. And I have no idea which it is. So I want you to kick it off. Give me your first team all rookie. And at the end of this, we will do rookie of the year.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Right off the bat, I was incorrect. We are not five for five on the first team. Who do you think you have on your first team that I do not have on my first team? Because we are four out of five. Saar. Saar. Alex Saar is on my second team. Can you guess who I have in his place? And I did not even think about it that hard. Kahlil Ware. Yes. Okay, so at least we're on the same page there.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
So we both have Castle, Wells, Risa Shea, Eadie. I feel really good with Kahlil Ware. He is number two in player efficiency rating, nine points a game, shooting 63% on twos. Obviously, his efficiency edge over Saar is cataclysmically large and due in large part to his role and his team. He is, however, out shooting Saar on threes, which I think matters.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
And I just I just feel like he's been better and he's played in real meaningful games. But make the case for Alexander Saar, who is on my second team all rookie. And I'm going to say nice things about him eventually. I promise Wiz fans, if there are any of you left other than Joe House, I promise I will say some nice things.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Uh, 13 points a game, that's second among rookies. 40% shooting, you are willing to forgive because he's taking so many threes. 31% on threes is, like, bad, but it's actually not that bad considering he's a rookie, he's a center, and he plays for a team that's intentionally trying to lose basketball games.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
And here's, like, all the advanced stats are going to hate rookies like Saar who take a lot of shots on bad teams. They're just going to. They're going to look bad.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
He has passed every eye test to me as a rookie and particularly on a team where he's got mostly young players in Jordan Poole setting him up on offense and and frankly, like leaving him out to dry sometimes on defense as a rim protector. look, he's not great.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
No one should expect him to be great right out of the bat, but I've seen enough in terms of his speed, his agility, his timing to like, okay, that's going to be there. The jump shot looks fine to me for, for a seven foot rookie to shoot 31% from three on high volume on a team that doesn't really bend the opposing defense so much. I like that.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
You know what else I like two and a half assists a game as, as a rookie center on a bad team, like, The DHO game from the elbows, he's picking out cutters. He can bring the ball up and transition some. I mean, you don't want to overdo that, but, you know, he can do it. The all around skill is there. And if you want to reward him with first team.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Now, I don't think top three and rookie of the year I could get there. But if you want to reward him first team and say, look, the efficiency stats are what they are. The shooting stats are what they are. Look at the roster around him. I can't really get mad at that because, again, he has passed the eye test to me. I think this is going to end up being a good draft pick for the Washington Wizards.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
He was sort of viewed as a both consensus top three pick and a like, ooh, this could go really badly if it busts pick. This is not going to be a bust. Alex Starr is going to be a good player.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Honestly, the most important question for the Wizards this entire season – well, the most important one is how does the lottery end? The second most important one is do we come out of the season feeling like we have a stretch five, that we can be a team built in the vision of five-out offense with rim protection on defense and even playmaking at the 5-2? And the answer, I think, is yes.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Going forward, you can assume that, and that's a huge win for the Wiz. Before we get to the second team, do you have any – other Wizards rookies on your second team. Did either of the two candidates make your cut? Yes. Oh, wow. We're going to be way different than you, than I anticipated because I had neither. Bub Carrington, nor Keyshawn George on my second team. You had Bub?
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Second team, I mean, you could talk me into 18 guys almost. It's like I have an almost others receiving votes list that's quite long, but I'm going to talk about who my miscuts were. So I did not have Keyshawn George or Bub Carrington on my second team. So let's just go through your second team now. So Carrington, Ware, who are the other three? Collier, Missy, Klingon.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Okay, so you have, hold on. You have Ware, Carrington, Isaiah Collier from the Jazz. Yeah, Missy. Donovan Klingin and Yves Missy. Yeah. Okay, we're actually not that far off. My second team is Yves Missy from the Pelicans. Donovan Klingin, who I think is going to be a controversial choice, which we can talk about why. I have Matas Bouzelis from the Bulls. Saar.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
And I went with the other Jazz rookie. Kyle Filipowski over Collier. And I realize Collier has become kind of a choice du jour. He leads all rookies in assists. He is definitely on an upward trajectory. The first two months of the season were just a haze of turnovers in every possible direction of every variety. And he's kind of settled in now.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
The assist to turnover ratio is trending the right way. He's averaging almost 10 points a game. The shooting numbers, he's up to 50% on twos, 24.9% on threes. I don't hate it. The advanced stats are massively negative on him, primarily because he has the highest turnover rate among rookies by a mile. I went Filipowski, who's played 400 fewer minutes. I get it. Same amount of points.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
I just like 50% shooting, 60% on twos, 35.5% on threes. And for his position, he's as good of a passer as Collier probably. Maybe not quite, but two assists a game. And he's a very good facilitator if you watch the games. His minutes, Collier's gotten the more consistent minutes, and Filipowski's minutes and position have fluctuated a lot.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
I just think he's been pretty interesting, and I went with him over Collier. I have a feeling Collier will make it. I assume it's just the playmaking and the size and stoutness that got Collier on there for you.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
I think both Jalen Wells and Zach Eaddy have straight-up rookie-of-the-year cases to be made, and I've had a lot of people in the league as I've polled them Who the hell should I vote for for Ricky? I don't have a vote to be clear, but who should who should I pick? A lot of them picked Wells and not surprisingly.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
And by the way, we're coming off a horrific fall last night that Jalen Wells took against the Hornets. The photos from the hospital look like he got I mean, he broke his wrist. I think just get well, Jalen Wells. That was very, very scary.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Coming up on the Zach Lowe Show, we got Mark Stein reflecting on a crazy and emotional night in Dallas with Luka Doncic's return. And then Kurt Goldsberry, my old buddy, helps me pick some more of the NBA awards. Hope you enjoy it. Welcome to the Zach Lowe Show on a Thursday morning coming off a wild and absolutely memorable Wednesday night in the NBA.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
I really like Keyshawn George for the Wizards. I think he's got a chance to be a good role player in the NBA. I should just pigeonhole him as a role player, but you know what I'm getting at. It's a sort of 3 and D-ish template. 32% on threes, I'd like to see a little better, but I like the instinctual nature of his game. I like the way he plays. Ron Holland.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Yeah, and to your point about the shock, I'm sure also hurt. Like, a franchise rejected him. Yeah. The Hawks already rejected him once. The Kings rejected him. The Suns rejected him. But that's all in the rear view before we knew exactly for 100% certainty what this dude is. The team that knew him best rejected him. And... sent him packing.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
You know, the minutes just haven't been there. 1,200 minutes on a team that's obviously trying to win and winning. And, you know, sometimes he's really on the fringes of the rotation, but trending the right way toward the end of the season. And you know one thing when he gets in the game. He's going to defend. You're laughing because you're going to think I'm going to say an altercation goes up.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
The likelihood of an altercation goes up by 14%. Maybe, maybe, maybe 17%. I don't know. You know he's going to defend his ass off, and he's a playmaker on defense. He will take the ball from people. He'll challenge people at the rim. He changes the energy of the game in a good way for the Pistons. He gets them out and running.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
I just haven't seen quite enough, and the three-point shot is like a complete zero for him at this point. But I like him. We should mention that Jared McCain would have changed this entire discussion if he'd been healthy. Yeah, 100%. I like Justin Edwards. I think he's come on nicely for the Sixers, but it's just, again, it was a lot of it late in the season.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Jamal Shedd was maybe my toughest other omission for the Raptors. He's played... You know, he's played pretty well for them, particularly defensively. He's a good passer. He's a hound on defense. I just, you know, couldn't get past – it's just 1,300 minutes on a tanking team is just not that – I'd like to see more minutes from a player of that ilk. Those are my – I felt somewhat bad.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
It's amazing that after all the hype, after all the, oh, man – All those 16 teams, what idiots they are. Dalton Connect fell into our lap. All the victory lap stories in the media that came out a month into the season. Dalton Connect's not going to sniff this. Maybe he will sniff this conversation just by pure Lakers exceptionalism. Good things just happen to Lakers.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
But he didn't really factor into my thought process at all. He's on the fringes of the rotation, sometimes out of it now.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
um but i think dalton has to be in there again he's he's played meaningful minutes for a playoff team so he's he's on my he's on my list he's on my like also receiving votes slash not my vote list um those are all my those are the people i feel guiltiest about along with i guess bub a little bit i like bub kerrigan i think but bub kerrigan The defense is going to get there. 34% from three.
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Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
You know, I feel bad for him not picking him. He's going to be good. I like him. Klingin. Justify the Klingin selection, which I also made.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
And then, I mean, you know, they've gotten a lot of crap for smearing him and talking bad about him. I empathize the teeniest degree with them because when you make a trade like this, well, first of all, the easiest thing to do is just not make it. So you don't have to put yourself in a position in which you have to explain why you made it.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
That's exactly my reasoning. I'm not sure about a lot of things with a lot of these guys. I'm not sure what Donovan Klingon's really going to amount to. I mean, the lack of foot speed is alarming in some matchups. Right. But he does one thing already really well, and it's protect the basket. Teams are shooting 49% at the rim when he's the closest defenders.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
That's like Gobert, like peak Gobert level rim deterrence. DeBlazer's defense is 110 points per 100 possessions when Klingon's on the floor, 115 when he's off the floor. He's number two among rookies in both offensive and defensive rebounding. And if I'm sure of that, he gets on the second team. That's all I need to hear to get him on the second team. Buzellas, I'm curious. He was –
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
I have him. He's on my second team.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
poor matas 11th guy uh eight and a half points a game trending the right way and for me what does it is 35 on threes 54 on twos and i like i like some of the spice i'm starting to see in his game and i'm not just talking about the highlight dunks and the and the and the emphatic nature of those highlights the cross up on luca famously a couple weeks ago that got bill very excited um
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
They're starting to give him the ball a little bit in pick and roll. Not much, but a little bit. And he's got a little craft to that part of his game. Some hesitation, some pass fakes. He's got a nice floater. And he will also, like he had a play against Mark Williams the other night on the pick and roll where he drove. Mark Williams was the help defender.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Put his shoulder into Mark Williams, who's a big dude. Former Laker Mark Williams knocked him out of the way and laid the ball in and you'll see that in the Booz Ellis, you know, shot real quite a bit is he he'll use his shoulder to create space like that. And that's important because I think if the Bulls. in year one had some question about him.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
It was, is he ready for the physicality of the NBA? Is he tough enough for this? And Billy Donovan has been really hard on him. There's been a lot of games where you'll see him make a mistake and Billy will yank him right out of the game. And you can see teammates on the bench kind of trying to pick Booz Ellis up and make sure, you know, Hey, look, this happens.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
But once you have decided to make it, you then have to explain the inexplicable. And I'm not really sure how they were supposed to do that without the
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
You're a rookie, like get back out there. Defensively, he's got a ways to go. Like most rookies, he's a really good cutter. Knows when to cut. Like if he's in the corner and Vuc is picking and popping and his guy stunts toward Vucevic, he's darting across that baseline for dunks. He knows how to relocate into open space. He does a lot of things pretty well. Similar to Risa Shea, actually.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Risa Shea just does a lot of stuff well. a lot of smart stuff really well for a rookie and has shot it like was Ellis 35% from three on, on a good, on a decent team. The Hawks are still decent. The bulls are decent, um, successful seasons for both of those guys. Okay. Without further ado, what would your rookie of the year ballot be?
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
sort of poking at his warts a little bit from their perspective warts because if you could you could say like well we just think Anthony Davis is a great player that doesn't explain why you traded away Luka Doncic so I empathize a little bit but you know look the negativity is out there he's heard it he's felt it and he was hurt like that was a pained human being watching that video and blubbering on national television for the entire world to see and then he came out
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
So here's the anti-Castle case. Shooting 42%. Yeah. 28% on threes. His advanced stats are meh compared to the other two or three or four candidates that you're looking at. And all of that amounts to, again, I'm making intentionally the case against him. He's compiled. He's not that dissimilar from a SAR type who has compiled counting stats because he has the highest usage rate among this group.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
On a bad team that has been a bad team since when Banyama went out, basically has not been dialed in all the way toward winning. That's the case against him. And there's validity to it, I guess. I mean, the shooting numbers are what they are. And I can hear the Collier fans and the Sar fans say, how could you? Anoint this guy while making those kind of nitpicky things about our guys.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
I would also pick Castle for Rookie of the Year. And part of it is, look, he is shooting 50% on twos. And I've just, like, I've seen enough. I've seen enough playmaking from him. As the lead guard on a team that's, like, you know, at this stage of the season, I'm running pick and roll with Bismack, Biambo, and, like, very old Chris Paul is standing over here.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
And, like, Vassell's kind of been up and down. I like Vassell. He's been up and down. And the bench is eh. And, like, I've seen enough playmaking shots from him. The pocket passes. Like, he'll do the thing where he turns the corner and the defense expects him to make the cross-court pass.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
to the corner shooter, and he'll skip that guy in the chain and go to the next guy in the chain, the wing shooter, and the defense will be like, whoa, where'd that pass come from? And he gets off the ball early. When he sees a shooter open, he doesn't overhold the ball. He doesn't hold it too long. I've seen enough passing from him where I'm like, okay, That's a real player there.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Defensively, you talk to scouts and coaches like, what kind of defender is he at this point? You'll get varying answers all up and down the spectrum. I think he's been pretty solid for a rookie. He's obviously got the physical ability to be an elite defender someday, and I hope he becomes one. Does he have lapses? Sure, he's a rookie.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
He's a rookie playing on a rebuilding team and getting to do anything he wants with the ball. I think overall, he's been... pretty good on defense for a rookie. You throw in the playmaking, the two-point shooting.
The Zach Lowe Show
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I've just kind of seen enough that in this field, even with the statistical warts, what I've seen at the best moments is enough for him to beat this underwhelming field of rookies for Rookie of the Year. I think the rest of my ballot... I think I got to reward Jalen Wells with the two spot for just like you said.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
And just did what he always does. Like if there's one sure thing in the NBA. It's that this dude is going to show up in big moments. He might miss some shots. He might not have the most efficient game like in the finals. He might whine at the referees like he did in game three of the finals. As the Celtics got some free fast break points that really annoyed Nico Harrison. I think.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Yeah, nothing spectacular, but he's a double-digit score, 35% three-point shooter, and he's guarding the best guy, the best perimeter guy almost every game.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
on a playoff team hopefully for the memphis grizzlies they do end up being a playoff team um and then the third spot you could talk me into ed you could talk me into where you can talk me into research i just have a soft spot for do it all jack of all trades wings so i would probably throw a research in there he's more matchup proof than ed who is really surging toward the end of the year
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
And has taken to Tuomas Isolo's schemes on both ends of the floor really well. You could talk me to anybody. I'd go Risa Shea. But that's my case for Castle. The stats nerds are not going to pick Castle. It's actually reminding me of when the stats nerds were like, Walker Kessler over Paolo Bancaro. Look at the advanced stats, Bob. I'm like, yeah, okay. I get it.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
You know, one guy has to do a lot for a bad team, and the advanced stats and the efficiency stats are never going to really love that. But I like what I've seen enough. And by the way, let's be clear about this. This is a rookie of the year discussion. Zoom out a little bit. I cannot say this loudly enough. I fucking love Castle. I think Castle is going to be really, really good.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
I think the Spurs have a real player there to put next to Wimbanyama and absolutely hit that draft pick out of the park. Set aside all that stuff about warts and ball dominance and blah, blah, blah. His defense is this or that. I love Castle. I think he's going to be awesome all in.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
He is a— Sars rebounding, by the way, that's an area I should have mentioned. Like, got to get tougher there. But, yeah, Castle for a guard is a great rebounder.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Yeah. His shot actually looks pretty good to me. I was surprised when I checked for his latest three-point shooting numbers that it's that bad because part of it he's taking and he's allowed to take and he has to take a lot of tough shots. He's taking pull-up threes. He's taking pull-up threes when guys go over screens. Obviously, guys go under screens against him.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
And he's going to have to either get his jump shot to the point where that becomes untenable like Tony Parker did back in the day for the Spurs or... Continue to master all the tricks of the trade for guys who have to deal with that kind of defense on a night-to-night basis, which is go back and forth around the same screen that gets set lower and lower as you go.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
But he is always going to show up and play well. And have the courage to take the big shots. And this game he played beyond well. And I actually thought it was striking. Not a lot of sneering toward the Mavs. Or maybe there was some that I had seen. But there was more – he was more demonstrative in Los Angeles, it looked to me, than he was in Dallas.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Fake towards the screen, go the other way. And he's got a lot of that already in his game. Okay, six-man of the year. Short list of candidates. Can I give you my short list of candidates? Yeah, you can give me your short list of candidates. I boiled down. I have five finalists. And then I realized one of my finalists is not eligible. So I have four finalists.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
My five finalists were Peyton Pritchard, Ty Jerome, not eligible. 20 minute a game rule. Goodbye, Ty Jerome. Great season. Thanks for participating. You get zero awards. Malik Beasley, DeAndre Hunter is the rare change teams candidate and Nas Reed. There are lots of other candidates that I could mention. Those were my, I boiled it down to those guys.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Same with most improved player, by the way. I double-checked. I was like, is he also not eligible for most improved player? From playing, like, not any minutes at all to, well, he didn't play enough games of 20. Like, he would get my – well, he wouldn't get – Dyson Daniels would get my vote. He might be – he'd probably be on my ballot, but he's not eligible.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Just the highlights. I watched Lakers-Thunder, Magic-Hawks, and I'm about to watch the fourth quarter of Bucs-Wolves because I really need to see what the hell happened in that game.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Well, he's been pretty open about dealing with the sore knee. And I hate to break it to Jalen Brown, but... I don't think he's going to make all NBA if he gets to 65 games. So if he is really sore and that's why you're doing it, and I'm not saying that's why he is. I don't know that that's true or not true, whatever. I don't think it's going to – I don't think you're making it, buddy.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Well, we're recording this on Wednesday afternoon. the Suns have three games left. I believe one of them is actually tonight. Durant is at 62 games. The Suns have now reached a point where they're almost hopeless to even make the 10th seed because I think everything has to go wrong for Dallas. Everything has to go right for them. Be interesting to see if KD suits up at all the rest of the year.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
There you go. All right, give me your six-man-of-the-year ballot.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Okay. Oh, you're going to reverse order. I like this.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Like there was not a lot of chest puffing and, you know – kind of rubbing it in the Mavs face or maybe I missed it.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
What gave that away? The fact that the Celtics won the championship last year, like half of Team USA placed for the Celtics. Look, it's all fair. And I've been singing Malik Beasley's praises all year. I debated between these two as well for the top spot. I think they are one and two in whatever order you want. I actually ended up at Peyton Pritchard in the end.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Now, you're right that he is less essential to the success of the Boston Celtics than Malik Beasley is to the incredible success of the Detroit Pistons. They need his shooting and his scoring badly. And boys, he supplied it every single night. He's second among my group of five finalists. Well, really for 16 points a game. DeAndre Hunter actually leads them all in scoring at 17 a game.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Peyton Pritchard checks in at 14 a game. Obviously, they play actually the same amount of minutes. Again, a less essential player because the team around him, Peyton Pritchard, is just way better. I do think people within the Celtics would tell you, Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Thank you.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Thank you.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
One thing about JJ, he's a showman. He knows how to be a showman.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
you'll watch games, you know, see, oh, there's the Cleveland cut. There's the Cleveland cut. It crescendoed throughout the year where it have to, and they actually started running it. I think a little bit less because teams were starting to get onto it and they wanted to sprinkle it in, but he's made great use of the bench.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
He's made great use of, he's just balanced lineups with like a coral comes in. Well, he's going to come in with the shooter. Wade comes in. He's going to come in with this kind of player. They've, they've really bet he's staggered the lineups correctly, but the smartest thing he did and his staff did above all else was
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
was resisting the idea that the way to weaponize evan mobley 2.0 the way to help evan mobley take the leap was just to make him shoot more threes spot up and shoot more threes they said yeah sure you can do that like you should probably take a couple more game and we think you'll shoot them better but the bread and butter of your game is still going to be inside it's going to be even if it's outside to inside it's going to be physicality personality
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
playmaking, using your perimeter skills to unlock your interior skills. And yeah, the spacing is going to get clunky. We're going to find a way to make it work without turning you into a stretch four who shoots a million threes because that's not where you're best. And that would have been the low-hanging fruit the tempting thing to do. And they did not do that.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
In fact, they almost went the other way. Like how about you get more forceful, more physical, and it helped unlock the best Evan Mobley. Speaking of which I put you on the spot. I told, I said earlier this week that I'm unsure about defensive player of the year and that I was leaning Mobley. Who would you pick?
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Yes, I think he is. Um, but I will say in all of this happened to me last year too, when I was thinking about Evan Mobley for defensive player of the year, and I don't even remember who I voted for. Um, I think I voted for Gobert in the end. I just have this feeling in my gut when I watch the Cavs that he's really good, but he's not the best defensive player in the NBA.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
And it's the same feeling I have watching Lou Dort. I love Lou Dort, although, boy, the Lakers are so miserable with Lou Dort. They hate Lou Dort so much flopping around the floor. They're complaining. They're asking for flop. I love it. I just don't think Lou Dort's the best defense player in the NBA.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Wemba Nyama aside, we all know Wemba Nyama's better, but even without him in consideration, I think they're really good. They're first-team all-defense level players. I just don't watch Evan Mobley and get the feeling like, boy, oh boy, just impenetrable. Draymond, when he's on, gives me that feeling. Yeah. And I will say in all the coaches and scouts I polled yesterday, his name came up the most.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
His name came up the most often attached to the word reluctant or reluctantly. Like I would have to reluctantly say Draymond because everyone is tired of his campaigning. And the simplest and most convincing take I got from somebody, multiple somebodies actually, was just this.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
to your point about is Evan Mobley the best defender on Cleveland, and I know who you're getting at, is that Draymond has to play center for the Warriors, and there's nobody else in their starting lineup who can even be a facsimile of that, and Draymond is not even a center-sized player, but he has all the responsibilities of a center with no one else to give him a break or foist those off onto.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
He doesn't really play with Looney much anymore, and... with that alignment, the warriors are one of the best defensive teams in the league at that. That's pretty persuasive to me.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
And now I'm leaning back towards Raymond, um, after consulting with a lot of the experts, because again, in my gut, I wanted to vote mobily last year and I just could not get there because every once in a while, I'd watch somebody like bank Carol, just kind of beat them up a little bit. Um, A bigger, stronger, bulkier guy. Move him off his spot a little bit. There's nothing wrong with that.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
But I just – I want that feeling of like, man, there's just nothing I can do with this guy. And I just can't quite get there with Mobley. And I love Evan Mobley. He's in pen on second team All-NBA for me. I actually still think he should be a candidate for the last first team All-NBA spot, that fifth spot that keeps sort of toggling around between – Mitchell and Curry.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
And I haven't heard Mobley's name there much at all. For me, he's in that group. That's how highly I think of him. But that's an all-around award. This is a defense-only award. And I just don't think Evan Mobley's the best defense player of the NBA. Even aside Wemba Nyama.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
is Ahmed Thompson oh he's first team all defense for me he's not my first team all defense so is Evan Mobley by the way I can hear the Cavs fans like what is all this anti-Evan Mobley I love Evan Mobley I'm the original Evan Mobley stockholder never sold first team all defense Ahmed Thompson is first team all defense and he is first team holy shit what the hell just happened in the game
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Jeez, how many season-ending injuries do you think Wemba Nyama is going to have?
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Kirk Goldsberry, it's a pleasure to hang. Hopefully I'll see you in the playoffs, at the finals, at the Draft Combine, somewhere as I get back on the road a little bit in the NBA ecosystem. Thank you for joining the Zach Lowe Show. That's what it's called now, if you didn't know. KG, thank you, sir. Thank you, Zach.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Honestly, I feel bad for Nico Harrison's family. He has kids who have to go to school and deal with this On a day-to-day basis, did you talk to him at all? I mean, obviously he hasn't done anything on the record, but is he even entertaining backroom conversations?
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
All right, that's a wrap on another episode of the Zach Lowe Show. Thanks for listening. By next week, by Monday, we'll have some idea of what the playoff matchups are going to be. Some of them, at least, the play-in games will be all set. We'll have some exciting guests coming on to talk about that stuff, including the boss man might show up. So thanks again. See you next week.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
We had, beware the Spurs, the late season Spurs, just like they did to the Nuggets last year in a catastrophic loss for Denver that cost them the number one seed and upended their entire playoff run. The Warriors drop an inexplicable home game to the Spurs going from, hey, we might get the fourth seed to, uh-oh, we might be in the play-in if we don't get some breaks along the way.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Yeah. I don't, I don't remember, you know, I I've talked to people around it. Like this isn't, this isn't going to stop anytime soon. The volume of it will not be as high as it was last night, but as long as Luke is awesome and,
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
as long as the Lakers are awesome, as long as the Mavericks are kind of middling and they have a better team than this in them, obviously their best perimeter player is injured and will be injured for much of next season.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
And they have a chance this off season to retool a little bit about around what they have in their entire roster, including all their centers have also been injured for much of the Anthony Davis era, such as it is an era. But as long as the Mavericks are, let's just say worse than the Lakers and Luca is amazing.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
this level of negativity and and fan distrust of the franchise i don't think is really going anywhere and i can't remember anything like this this level of we're not even sure as fans are we cheering for the team we're unhappy we want this guy fired with i don't remember anything like this short of like when a franchise relocates i i i can't find a precedent for this can you
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
From your perch last night, You're sitting right behind Team Luca. It's obviously loud, but Palenka's there. I don't remember the last time I've seen a GM sit in that kind of seat at a game. They really rolled out the red carpet.
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
The Suns farted their way out of a fartastic season in Phoenix. Kevin Durant didn't even play. He's not eligible for All-NBA. But we have to start with the main event in Dallas. the return of Luka Doncic, and we are joined by the Hall of Famer, the one and only Steinlein on Substack, podcast for DLLS Sports, one of the greats of all time, my friend Mark Stein. How are you?
The Zach Lowe Show
Luka’s Emotional Night in Dallas: Scenes From Last Night’s Lakers-Mavs Game With Marc Stein. Plus, More NBA Awards With Kirk Goldsberry.
Did you talk to them at all? Did you overhear anything from their conversation?
The Zach Lowe Show
Welcome to The Zach Lowe Show!
Welcome to the brand new Zach Lowe Show. That's right. I'm back to have the same in-depth NBA conversations you're used to. We're going to talk about the games. Yeah, the games, the X's and O's, the drama, the trades, the playoffs are coming up. And now you get to see every episode in full on video on Spotify and on my own YouTube channel.
The Zach Lowe Show
Welcome to The Zach Lowe Show!
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The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
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The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Are we putting Reeves into the top five? Boy, oh boy. Reeves? I mean, I don't even know. Does he belong in the most improved player conversation again? Does Rui? I mean, those two guys have upped their level. And even if the stats don't show it, Rui is a more complete all-around player than he's ever been. And Reeves is...
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
You know, I keep hearing like, oh, he can average 23, 24 on a different team. He's already averaging 21 almost on this team. He's just a really, really good offensive player.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I'm not going to overreact to it because of the shooting data that you just posited. And they play again tomorrow night. That's true. I have a lot of faith in the Thunder defense. Obviously, they're number one defense by far in the NBA. You just said big on an island.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
And that was what was notable to me about that game is I thought the Lakers had a really good balance in where they targeted their offense. The game before that, they played the Warriors and Luka was kind of invisible in that game because the Warriors play Draymond at center a lot and they switch a lot. They don't have a big guy all the time out there that you can just a big center that Luka can.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
That's who he loves to torture the most, whether it's or getting lob dunks for his pick-and-roll center. The Warriors don't always play that kind of player. And Luka kind of got lost in the game as the Lakers are hunting Steph Curry. And, like, LeBron's been hunting Steph Curry for 10 years. Like, that's just how they play.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Against the Thunder, you have Hartenstein, and he just tortured Hartenstein. It's the same movie we've seen over and over again. And they did go at SGA a little bit. SGA is... not a weak link defender by any stretch. He just happens to be like the smallest guy in a lot of Thunder lineups.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
And I thought that sort of balance of where they directed their offense and how Luka was able to participate more than he did against the Warriors was telling and would concern me a little bit if I were the Thunder. And again, I'm looking for like actual signs of concern. Another one would be Cason Wallace, Alex Caruso, Aaron Wiggins,
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
just too small for LeBron and Luca Caruso can put up a fight and he has just incredible hands, but it's gotta be Dort and J Dub on those guys. And, and I think the thunder are smart to sort of see if they're smaller hands, your guys can bother Luca and LeBron. And again, this is a matchup. We may never see this matchup again after tomorrow night.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Like this may be totally irrelevant to Oklahoma city and the Lakers playoff prognosis. But they bullied those guys. And the other thing that was notable to me was the Lakers. It reminded me of the Mavericks in the playoffs last year where they really shrunk the floor on the Thunder. They clogged up the paint. They clogged up Shea's drives. Paint was crowded.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Thunder don't have great spacing, especially when they have the two bigs out there, but they have decent spacing. And they did it without really abandoning the Thunder's best three-point shooters. They just are a very smart, rangy defensive team. And you mentioned their – lack of size. When people say that they mean sort of lack of a true center behind Hayes.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
They, they have a lot of big players on their team. They have a lot of power forward size players on their team. They cover space really in, in really smart ways. They rotate on a string. They don't overcommit one way or under commit the other way. And they kind of had the thunder paused a little bit. And not only that,
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
the Chet Hartenstein double big lineup is one of the biggest wild cards in the league. It's not much of a wild card anymore. It's been going on for a while. And the Lakers were like, we're not afraid of that group. We're not afraid to play small against that group. We'll put wings on both of them. We don't think Chet can hurt us down low. We don't think Hartenstein can hurt us down low.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
And I think that double big group, has given Oklahoma City a different ingredient offensively in terms of Hartenstein's short roll, his floater, his passing. I think that's been more important to them offensively than defensively even. And the Lakers were like, yeah, we're not that scared of it.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I mean, all that said, I'm not going to overreact to it, but all of that was encouraging me if I'm a Lakers fan and a little bit troubling to me if I'm a Thunder fan. And you mentioned Vincent. Lakers have a good nine-man rotation. Their starting five is good. And then off the bench, it's Vincent, Vinnie Smith, Goodwin, who I love. I have a soft spot for Jordan Goodwin. And Vanderbilt.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
And I think one of the underrated little subplots of the AD Luca trade is... One of the benefits of not having a so-so shooting center, traditional center, which AD was for them, much to his chagrin apparently, that is so good that he's got to play 35, 40 minutes a game when it matters. Now Hayes can play 8 minutes, 12 minutes, 15 minutes.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
It allows them to play Vanderbilt a lot more without compromising their spacing fatally. And Vanderbilt's just been good for them. He's a good defense player. He can guard all kinds of different positions. They're becoming a really interesting team. And that game, yeah, it's a shooting luck game. I said the Thunder won it on shot quality, whatever.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
It had some – like that was a playoff formula kind of game for the Lakers. And it had some things that if I'm a Thunder coach, I'm going back to the former. I'm like, let me see how that looked. Let me see how that looked.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Got my Taurasi shirt on today. Got my Taurasi shirt on today, baby. Paige Beckers and the group did it last night. All right, enough. Enough out of you, Howard. Okay? I'm sorry. We're coming down the stretch of the NBA. I missed damn near the entire regular season. You've got a lot of catching up.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Well, and just, you know, they're not scared of any of these other teams. Like the, the nuggets are disarray is too strong of a word, but it's just been one of those years where it just feels like they may not have enough. It may not all come together health wise, performance wise, their defense is a disaster right now. Clippers will see. Warriors, they're hot.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
They beat the Lakers over the weekend. These are all good teams, but the Lakers aren't scared of any of them. And yeah, it turns out adding Luka to your team is really good. I don't even want to talk about... I don't want to do the trade thing. I will just say that... Maybe just Patrick Dumont should just shut it down in the media for a while. Just shut it down. Just don't make any more comments.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
It's not helping. You're not helping. And by the way, they play in Dallas in two days, I think. This Wednesday, don't they play? Yeah.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Trying to get them on the Zach Lowe show on Thursday to recap what what it's going to be like to be in the building in Dallas on Wednesday night.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Yeah, and obviously what has unfolded in Dallas with all the injuries, particularly Kyrie's injury, is an absolute worst-case scenario. It's been interesting to watch AD play a lot of four. He's playing a lot of five, too. He's playing a little bit of both because Lively and Gafford have been in and out and on minutes restrictions.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
You can see it sometimes, you know, like AD and Lively hooked up on some really nice passing sequences the other day, and the size and the rebounding and the athleticism are just – they jump off the charts. And then there are games where it's like, yeah, he's going to have to take a lot of jump shots. He's going to have to ISO a lot from the left wing because he's a four and the lane is clogged.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
And is that really what I want Anthony Davis doing all of the time? I wish we could see the team, right? Like, I think it's an interesting team with Kyrie. We're just not gonna be able to see it. And. Look, this is – who knows if we're going to be able to see it next year. You never know with ACL injuries. Kyrie's at the very least going to miss a huge chunk of next season.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
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The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
And this is, again – I mean, I tweeted this weeks ago, months ago. Like, even if you think – that this trade helped your short-term championship equity, which I would vehemently disagree with because you just made the finals. You were just in the finals and you were awesome in this regular season when you had everybody healthy.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
When Luca and Kyrie and they're the same group that got them to the finals last year. We're healthy. But even if you posit that, even if you posit the Mavericks are right about their short-term championship equity, trading up in age by five or six years or whatever it is, makes you uniquely vulnerable to one injury. One injury. And...
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
You know how long I've been waiting to make fun of Matt Ishpia's 2016s with trade places with this comment again? I can't stop. The Suns just... Just actively, you know what? Just shoot us. Just put us out of our misery. We're done. We don't even want... Anyway, okay. So it was a wild weekend in the NBA, Howard. And we're going to focus on the Western Conference because it's crazy.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
It's like the Nuggets were able to ride out two lost seasons, basically, of Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. going out or in and out. And just sort of their team was in purgatory for two years. And they were young enough that they were like, you know what? We can just ride this out. Jokic is incredible. Hopefully we don't exhaust him in these playoff series.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
And they came back and they won a championship. The Mavericks don't have that. Anyway, I can't. Let's stop. I still can't believe it. Every day I wake up and I'm like,
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I don't have any other takeaways from Oklahoma City. Oklahoma City Lakers is a bad game for the Thunder. Bad games happen. Again, I cannot stress this enough. The Thunder and the Cavaliers have zero to play for. There's a very natural decline in intensity as we get to this point of the season where All right, can we just get the – like, we're the number one seed. Can we just get the playoffs here?
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
The Houston loss, I don't know if you saw that, the Houston-Oklahoma City game on Friday was almost more interesting to me because... Houston just beat the hell out of them. Like, Shen Goon, they started with Chet on Shen Goon, and Shen Goon just feasted on Chet. And they switched the matchup to put Hartenstein on Shen Goon, which they did not want to do initially.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
And offensive rebounding, they had their way. And always the heat against the thunder. If you can win or be equal in turnovers, limit their steals, you have a chance against them. And that's what the Rockets did. That was almost a more interesting game to me. The Lakers lost the turnover battle, but won handily anyway because they shot the hell out of it.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Look, my finals prediction from day one, you can go on X and see it, even though I had no job at the time, was Celtics over Thunder. It was the chalk pick. I almost went Denver, and I was just hearing too much bad stuff from Denver, too much like, eh, a lot has got to go right for you to make the finals. So I went Celtics over Thunder. I'm sticking with that. That's still my finals pick.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I don't know if you made a final. I don't know if they make you make predictions or what it was.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
And I thought Philly Philly really loaded up in the offseason.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
You ready to go? Let's do it. Oklahoma City has lost two consecutive games for the first time in a while. They got bullied by the Rockets on Friday, I think. And then the Lakers... In a game that was... playoff like in the way that the Lakers approached it on offense, but Oklahoma city also obviously has very little to play for, uh, other than health and getting, getting primed for the playoffs.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Well, congrats to the Sixers. They have risen to fifth in the lottery standings, which is big for them with their top six protected pick going out the door in Philadelphia. Lottery's going to be interesting. Lottery's going to be a heavy drama in the draft lottery. Let's do some awards talk. Sure. Start with the big kahuna. This is not a hot take, I don't think.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I still haven't decided who I would vote for for MVP. I... I just – like how am I supposed to even decide? Every time you're like, well, SGA's team is 15 games up in the standings. He's incredible, blah, blah. It's like, oh, what did Jokic have? 37-15 and 11 or whatever. And yeah, Denver is losing and maybe – it's hard to put – it's hard to vote.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
If they're in the play-in, it's going to be hard for people to get there and SGA is probably going to win it anyway. But it's – I have been leaning SGA because I just think statistically – Jokic's dossier is a little bit better, but it's pretty close, and some of the advanced metrics actually favor Shea. But both of them are historically incredible statistical seasons.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
SGA is a better defensive player. Jokic is a better offensive player. And just sort of tie goes to the guy whose team is whatever, 64 and whatever they are right now. That still holds some logic to me, but I just – Every Jokic, every day, I just keep coming back to who's just better. And I just think Jokic is better and impacts every single possession a teensy bit more heavily on offense.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Thank you.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Thank you.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
The rockets are 15 and two in their last 17 games. They have something like a 99% chance. According to most models now of clinching the number two seed, what an accomplishment for the Houston rockets and email Doka. Um, Who cemented that almost number two seed status with a rollicking, and I mean rollicking win at Golden State last night.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
There was copious trash talk, including between Ime Odoka and Steph Curry. And after the game, I don't know if you saw this, Howard, I'm reading the athletics story. This is Eme Odoka to the Athletic after the game on the little halftime as they were walking to the locker room, dust up between him and Steph. When people start complaining about foul calls or crying about physicality, yeah, crying.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
24 points, 6 assists, 45% overall, 39.7%. I'm giving him 40. 40% on 11 threes a game. And per 36 minutes, he's at 27 points a game. So everyone – that's the same as Mitchell because Mitchell has obviously sacrificed. He doesn't play a lot of – there's been fourth quarters where they haven't needed him. So his per-game stuff is lower than his per-minute stuff. But Steph matches it.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
He didn't say whining. He said crying. You've done your job.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
And look, I don't need to tell anybody. That 40% on 11 threes combined with his off-ball movement, he remains – A singular offensive force, the likes of which there has never been, both in terms of impact and style. It's just playing them is just a different animal than playing any other team. And it's all because of him still.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
udoka told the athletic what asked about the exchange with curry that's the first step in winning the battle so i told my team when this team starts crying about it that's two cryings in five seconds up the intensity up the aggressiveness and make the refs adjust to you can we all agree by the way draymond green should have gotten ejected from that game and if you were any other player would have gotten ejected like three different times
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Yeah, I have no problem with that. And in fact, Cat and Jaron Jackson Jr. have been on my second team for the most part in the last month. And I just recently shifted them down for no other reason. I just think LeBron's been unbelievable and Halliburton's been unbelievable.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
cat has been fantastic the entire season um defensively he just is he is what he is like he's he's not had a great defensive season the knicks have not had a great defensive season but i've had him second team most of the year i wouldn't i wouldn't quibble i wouldn't quibble hardly at all with that um And Jaron Jackson Jr., same thing.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I mean, lately he's gotten back into some foul trouble habits that still drive me nuts. But that brings me to third team right now, which is, again, it's all tentative. People can shift around. I don't even have a ballot. Who cares? My third team, like absolute stone cold lock, Cat and Jaron Jackson Jr. They're both on it.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
They're both making it all NBA team on my fake ballot, whether it's second or third. They're both locked in. If Brunson gets to 65 games, I'm putting him on third team. You could make a case for him for second team, maybe in his minutes, or he's still played more minutes than Steph, despite playing in fewer games, because, you know, Tibbs. My fourth guy, so that's Brunson, Cat, Jaron Jackson Jr.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I think Cade Cunningham's got to be there, just to represent the Pistons and the seasons they've had. It got to be strong, but I have Cade Cunningham on. And then that last spot, I've had Kevin Durant penciled in there if he makes 65 games. And people are going to scoff at the Suns. Rightfully so. Scoff all you want. 26.5 points a game. 6 rebounds. 4 assists. 52.7% shooting. 43% on 3s. 57% on 2s.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Like, it's not his fault. I mean, some of it is his fault, but it's not basketball-wise his fault. However, he has not hit the 65-game threshold, and the Suns' finish to the season has become so embarrassing that I'm willing to open that up, which feels crazy considering the statistics I just read. And yes, I think he has a better case than Devin Booker.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I know Book's been hot lately and has been their best passer this year. I think Durant has a better case than Devin Booker. He's not had a great shooting season, particularly from three. I'm willing to open that last spot up. You'll hear arguments that Jalen Williams has got to be there because the Thunder need two representatives. It's not that persuasive for you, but he's in the conversation.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Shen Goon, late run right now, really sort of, if there's an answer to Houston's half-court offense late in games, I think he's got to be a huge part of it and has been. James Harden, like the shooting numbers are eh, like really eh. But he's been the engine for them all year. And let me look them up because he just cracked, I think, 40%. Yeah, 40% for the season. 34.5% from three. 46.5% from two.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I don't know that I could get there with him. But he does deserve credit again for playing every game and keeping them afloat. And he's surging now with Kawhi next to him. Jalen Brown I don't think can get there. And by the way, have you seen Jalen Brown's recent comments about the state of his knee? No, I did not. He's like been talking about how he's playing through some pain.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I think it's a bone bruise or something. I can't remember what it is. It's like not great, not great comments. And you could make Trey young. So bonus, I don't, I can't quite get there with him. It's undecided, but Durant is in pencil. But he might not even be eligible. So give me your third team.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Yeah.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
he's not had a great finish finishing kick to the season or the calves. No, but he was, look, I love Terry Scarlet. The guy's one of my favorite players to watch 20 a game, six and a half assists, 47%, 40% from three could make the case. I just, I can't quite, can't quite get there.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Coming up on the very first episode of the Zach Lowe Show, we've got Howard Beck of the Ringer, my new teammate, on Thunder Lakers, the craziness of the Western Conference, the awards races, and much more. And then Anthony Slater from The Athletic on the Warriors and a crazy Rockets-Warriors game full of trash talk and spice last night. to the Zach Lowe Show.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
He's one of the ultimate gap fillers in the NBA. Just one of these guys, like whatever you need on either end of the floor, he can do some of it. It's he's a very, very valuable player.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Irrelevant? Irrelevant. I like watching the Hawks. I think Trey Young's had kind of a good year. The shooting numbers aren't quite where they need to be given his limitations on defense. But here's one of your fun stat on Trey Young. Yeah. He has diversified his offense in real ways that have helped Jalen Johnson's development before he got injured, that have helped Dyson Daniels' development.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
And here's just one small thing. Again, I don't think the shooting numbers are there for Trey Young to make an all-NBA team, but I believe he does lead the NBA in assists. He has set more ball screens this year, set more ball screens this year, according to Second Spectrum, at least as of last week, than the entire prior career combined, every season.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Like, it's not a ton, but I think it was over 200 when I checked, so it's a few every game. He deserves some credit for that, but I can't get there. I just will not let you come on this podcast, come on the Zach Lowe Show, and call... Quinn Snyder's glasses and Zachary Richachet, one of the few Zachs in the NBA, irrelevant. I just won't let you do it.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
He's been going black more lately. He's been going with the black lenses or the black frames more lately. Yeah. I have a feeling he hears about this when I make fun of the glasses and it drives him. I bet he's mad. I bet he gets mad. I don't make fun. I wish I could be that cool. I can't. I don't wear glasses. I don't need glasses. But if I tried to do that, I just couldn't pull it off.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Draymond, look, he might win defense player of the year. He got a stupid technical for... Like, he baited a ref into a technical, and he dared the ref to call him for a technical by elbowing Shingun in the face. Then he got a flagrant, which... That was a strange play when he went up for a layup and elbowed Shingun in the face. I didn't quite know what to make of that.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
People would laugh at me.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I can see through the television, through my monitor. I can see the pouting every game, not just by him. I can see the in the corner pouting and I see it every game. Now, that team has been a tire fire top to bottom the entire year. The Beal thing has been a disaster. He finally made a basket.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
He came back, he didn't make any baskets, and he didn't make any baskets for like a full quarter and a half. He made a basket. They can't just, like Colin Gillespie starts and he doesn't start. Their whole lineup has been a mess. The fact, I mean, they're not competitive. I was going to say the fact that they're even competitive lately. They haven't won in ages now.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
He has been the best player on their team. Again, like I said, I don't know what to do, and he hasn't qualified yet. I don't know who I would go with. Did any of those other names, were they persuasive to you? I said Harden, Jalen Brown, Zubats deserves a look, Sabonis, anyone else?
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
But just the fact that he's the only player who's allowed to clap in a ref's face for eight consecutive seconds and say whatever he wants and no one does anything about it, it's interesting. But the other headline from that game, you know, Howard, I was going to come on today and say – First-team All-NBA.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
It's every year you get here and you're splitting hairs and then you think like, wow, imagine if these five players were actually eligible. Like Wemby, Luka, AD, we go on and on. Like, oh my God, I forgot Kawhi. None of these players are eligible. I mean, not that you'd expect Kawhi to be eligible, but
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Joel Embiid.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I'd like to ramp down just in general. I just like a ramp down.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
A magic guy would have made it. One of the magic guys. Probably Bancaro would have made it.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
revive the warriors or put them back in the conversation but again it's irrelevant because he hasn't played enough games anyway i'm just saying like there's some really interesting cases to consider two things two two tangents based on what you just said number one jimmy butler has reached the point where like i'm never doubting jimmy butler again whatever decisions he makes in life i just he's got he's a winning player he's always been a winning player
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
He gets paid no matter what he does. If he gave me financial advice right now, like, hey, the market's tanking. I got some advice for you. Buy stock in pumpkins or something like Homer Simpson did in November, obviously. Homer bought the pumpkin stock. Didn't go well for Homer. I would be like, sure, I get it, Jimmy. I trust you. I'm putting all my money in pumpkins.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
My second tangent, I already forgot what it was. I'm in mid-season form.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I don't want to address this. I don't want to go any further than this. The most complicated, and I don't mean that in any sense other than just like the most complicated question in NBA team building right now is what in the hell are the Pelicans supposed to do? What direction is their roster even aimed in now? Are they a win-now team while their best player doesn't play?
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
We've got four spots locked in, I think, between the two MVP candidates, favorites, Giannis and Tatum. That fifth spot has been rotating. It's been Donovan Mitchells for most of the season. Then he's kind of had an eh. Not eh. He had a little bit of a trough relative to his exemplary standard. And the Cavs are only 6-6 in their last 12 games, lost to Sacramento at home.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Are they a rebuilding team while they're picking high in the draft again? Are they, like, a cheap team? No, they're – it's just – I don't – like, the closest thing they had to – it's not a semi-dependable – borderline all NBA all-star player was Brandon Ingram who actually plays and they traded him and he hasn't played for the Raptors.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I mean, you and I might get, I'm surprised the Raptors didn't call me for a 10 day contract or like a fourth quarter contract. Hey, we're winning in the fourth quarter. Zach, get in there.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Anybody, anybody. I'm not positing an answer. I have no idea what the answer is. I just know that I would not want to be responsible for figuring that out. Let's fly through all defense. I have no idea who I would vote for for defensive player of the year. I will make a prediction at some point. I did make tentative all defensive teams.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
And this is very difficult because there are seven guys that I would consider worthy of first team all defense. Maybe eight. Don't know if you're any good at math. You can only pick five. My first seven, two of whom are going to have to be on the second team. are Dyson Daniels, Jaron Jackson Jr., Evan Mobley, Draymond Green, Ahmed Thompson, Lugans Dort, and OG Ananobi.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Who, by the way, OG Ananobi, in the last month, has played at an all-NBA level. That guy is on a heater like he's never been on before. I guess if I had to pick a first team, Daniels has to be on it. Jackson has to be on it. Mobley has to be on it. I think I would put Draymond Green and Ahmed Thompson as the last two spots on my first team.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
And with apologies to the Thunder, put Dort on the second team and put Ananobi just because it's not his fault that the Knicks have the worst defense among this group. They just do. He's deserving of first-team all-defense. I just – I can't fit him. I don't know what – you could make – I mean – I'm not, this is tentative. You could easily make a case that he's first team all defense.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
He's been, there are sequences in every Knicks game that he plays where for like 90 seconds, the whole game is just OGN and OB doing stuff and taking over, like wrecking the game. Block, shot, dunk, steal, pass, dunk by somebody else. Like, oh my God, what just happened? And then they would then, tentatively, then Dort and OG Anadobi would be on my second team, along with Jalen Williams.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
So the Thunder are getting two guys on my all-defensive team. Evita Zubats, who I think deserves to be in conversation for first team as well. He's the other guy there. And that leaves me one spot for either Bam Adebayo or Rudy Gobert, with apologies to Tumani Kamara, Derek White, and a couple of other people who just missed the cut.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
And I don't know who I would pick between those two, but that's what I got right now. I think I would lean Mobley right now. Just the most – he's not the best defender in the NBA. He hasn't been the best defender in the NBA in the last month. I think Draymond has probably taken that crown from him, if not Ahmed Thompson. I think he just has the most complete season-long –
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
yesterday and then you know Anthony Edwards maybe Evan Mobley maybe and I was going to come on this podcast and say hey I've seen what Steph Curry's been doing in the last month or two of the season and particularly in the last three or four games as the Warriors traipse through a gauntlet of teams and then you know what happened to Steph Curry Amin Thompson happened to Steph Curry and Amin Thompson announced himself not only as a first team all defense player if he made a big final sort of statement like hey
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
It's not his fault. It's not his fault. This part is not his fault. And this helps his case as a defensive player. I do think because of his reputation, whatever, he gets more leeway physically than almost anybody else in the league. Like he can play ultra, ultra physical defense and get away with it.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
You got called for that flagrant. Cause he hadn't shut the hell up in like 20 straight minutes. That's why he got called for it.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
All right, go, go, go. Give me your all-defensive.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Who gets bumped to your second team? Dyson Daniels for one.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Same with Obi Toppin for six minutes of the year. Not that he would get my vote, but just as a bookkeeping note.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Bam's going to get punished because the Heat have had a bad season. They're 10th or 11th in defense, and he just remains a stalwart that enables them to play a lot of different ways and deserves credit, too, for playing with Khalil Ware, who... Kahlil Ware, rather, who deserves, I think, to be first-team all-rookie. But that's a different story.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
The rim protection numbers are not great. I think teams are shooting, like, 71% with him – against him at the basket. But that's never been – I mean, he can get up there for a member of the block on Tatum, which is iconic in the bubble, but that's not his strength strength. But if you're forced to sort of pick a weak spot in his case, that's what it is. But I agree with you.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Bam has been, despite carrying a bigger offensive load, and he's done better on that lately than he did at the early part of the season, I think he's been pretty damn like Bam on a bio on defense. Yeah.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
First-team all-defense. Not only that, in this jumbled defensive player of the year race, don't ignore me. I know I'm only a second-year guy. I don't have this great reputation or whatever yet. I'm not Draymond Green in terms of my historical import to the game. But look what I can do. And he just blanketed Steph Curry and made plays as a help defender. Okay, that's the Rockets.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
If I had to choose between him and Bam right now, I think I would probably just reward Gobert based on team success. But I don't feel great about not having Bam on either of my all-defense teams. All right. Those are the only awards. I'll do the other awards later this week probably with another guest on Thursday. Howard Beck, any parting thoughts being the first guest on this silly show?
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Would you say it's the greatest honor of your life? Would you go that far? Where does it rank? Where does it rank vis-a-vis your marriage and the birth of your daughter? Better above those?
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
You might be a SAG member now. You might be able to vote in the SAG Awards. All right, Howard Beck, what do we got coming up on The Ringer from you? I know you're going to be on Real Ones as usual. I've got to get in the habit of promoting Ringer stuff now.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
We can get back to that. Ready to keep going? Let's go. Lakers have won four out of five, including that Thunder win. They are now a 75% bet, according to most markets, to clinch the third seed. That's a big deal for the Lakers. It's a great season for them. We will talk about them as we talk about Thunder Lakers. And then five teams, teams four to eight, all have exactly 32 losses.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
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The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
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The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
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The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
All right. I was deciding what I wanted to tack on as guest number two, and I wanted to talk about a team, specific team. I was like, what team should I really talk about? And I just don't know that any team has had a more interesting calendar year than the Golden State Warriors. The ups, the downs, the developments, the trades. Anthony Slater from The Athletic covers them like no other.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
How are you, sir?
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I'm very good. Welcome to the Zach Lowe Show. Warriors, 46-32, hot start. Started drowning, traded for Jimmy Butler, clarified the roster, and now they are 46-32, 21-3, I believe, with both Butler and Curry in the lineup. Coming off a loss last night to the Rockets, which we can talk about. But it's just been a crazy year of ups and downs, and I think, remarkably...
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
they saved their season they saved i don't want to say saved the end of steph curry's career but they have built themselves a team that i think they can look at and say this is real like to me this is real what they've done i'm not saying that they're the best team in the west the favorites in the west that they can win more than one playoff run necessarily but i remember i tweeted when the butler trade happened really like the butler trade something like i like the butler trade fine for both teams um
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I think he'll fit with the Warriors despite the shooting concerns because of just the IQ, the cutting, the defense, all that stuff. I said I think he could fit with both Kaminga and Green, which we'll talk about whether that's actually true.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
And I think I said something like maybe not quite a true title contender, but why not just sort of try to out-Veteran the Rockets in the first round and then you can win a – Maybe I sold them short. I don't know quite how good this team is, but this feels very real to me. Does it feel real to you watching it up close? And more importantly, it seems to feel pretty damn real to them.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
He's the subplot of all this is like the guy is leveled up from where he was last year and completely left behind whatever the hell was going on with him in the first two months of the season.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Four of them have the exact same record at 46 and 32. And just to give you a sense of how jumbled it is, take the Denver Nuggets. I'm using playoffstatus.com, which is a great site that has mathematical models about who's going to be where in the playoffs.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I mean, winning three series is a tall order for anybody in the West, period. No one other than the Thunder is a smart bet to be able to do that. And they had a rough weekend themselves. But the Warriors... Could do it. I mean, it's in play for them to win three playoff series. Now, the fourth one would be the finals. Let's just leave that aside. Their ceiling has been that high as a two-way team.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
They're plus 10 per 100 possessions since the Butler trade, and that includes the losses that one or both of them didn't play in, Butler and Curry. Their starting five is plus 10 per 100 possessions, plus 45 in 164 minutes. And it just works. It's small. It's small. And that got exposed a little bit last night against the Rockets, who are just ginormous and very, very mean. Very nasty.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
But it's a lineup that makes sense with Pajemski playing like this. I know Moody is not everyone's cup of tea, even within the Warriors. He's a little bit of a polarizing player. I think he's fit great in that starting lineup. And they bring quality guys off the bench. This feels... Pretty real to me. But what was that scene like last night, by the way?
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
A lot of crazy stuff happened in that game last night. Ime Odoka and Steph yapping at each other. Draymond just going full Draymond for like 20 straight minutes and not getting ejected.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I don't know if you or Sam Amick, because it's a cold byline story, conducted the interview with Ime Odoka when he used the word crying twice to describe what the Warriors were doing at halftime about the Rockets' physicality. Was that your interview or Sam's?
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
And he's gone after LeBron, too.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
The Nuggets right now have a, according to this website, and basketball references are similar, 4% chance at the third seed, 15% chance at the fourth seed, 16% chance at the fifth seed, 22% chance at the sixth seed, 26% chance at the seventh seed. Play in! That's the highest number so far, 26%. 18% chance of the eighth seed. That's just like, what is even happening? They've lost four in a row.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I almost wondered if it should have just been a no call. I didn't know what to make of it because it did not look like a wildly unnatural layup motion.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Look, they could be anywhere from four to eight. We don't know. We have no idea who their opponent's going to be. You start saying the word eight, it gets scary. Like, wait, we could still be eighth? I mean, their schedule is fairly forgiving the rest of the way. At Phoenix, home San Antonio, at Portland, and against the Clippers. Their tiebreaker situation is decent. They've won some.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
They've lost others. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Jamal Murray, Michael Malone said before yesterday's game, hopefully he's back before the playoffs. This is becoming a weird one. Uh-oh. Minnesota and the Clippers are both, both 14-3 in their last 17 games. Guess who has the third best net rating in the Western Conference? Number one is the Thunder. Number two is the Rockets. Do you know who has the third?
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
For the whole season, not just in the last 20 games, not just post-All-Star break, the whole season, the third best net rating in the West.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
The Los Angeles Clippers, plus 4.8 per 100 possessions. They are... plus 16 per 100 possessions with Kawhi, Harden, Powell, and Zubats on the floor, plus 167 in 460 minutes. Woolboy. The Wolves, I just mentioned, 14-3, trending well. They're the fourth-best net rating in the West. The Warriors, 21-3 with Butler and Curry, lost last night. And then Memphis rounds out that group.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
They've actually won their last two games. John Morant got fined for making the shooting gun motion. Do we need to address that? I guess there was a lot of... A lot of like, well, everybody does the, you know, it's called shooting. That's what people call it. It's three-point shooting.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I feel like I can compete with anybody in a playoff series.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I wouldn't want any of these teams. They're all... But the one that the Warriors... I think there was some like if we could just avoid Jokic in the first round, that would be great. Like they have so much respect for Jokic. Jokic is the best player in the NBA. The way Denver is just all over the place right now, defensively, health wise, all of it.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
You know, that's I don't think that quite has the same fear factor.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
And everybody does some, tons of players do some version of a mimicking of like, oh, whatever, gun thing when they make threes or something approaching that. Why is Ja getting singled out? My reaction was like, really? You guys don't know why Ja's getting singled out for that? You don't know why he's the only one getting punished? Like, really? That's hard to understand.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Okay, I have two thoughts. Number one, I talked about this with Howard Beck before, that Luka felt a little bit lost offensively in that game in a way that surprised me. And I think the Warriors switching and lack of a slow-footed center for him to attack was part of it. And the game plan against the Warriors is always hunt Steph, hunt Steph. And that's kind of like LeBron's job.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
And even like Austin Reeves did a lot of it. I think that's good for the Warriors if Luka can get lost a little bit in the offensive attack. On the other hand... We have a lot of years of experience that wanting Luka Doncic in a playoff matchup is a bad, bad thing to want. You should not want it. You should want to avoid it. By the way, you mentioned something, gold medals and stuff.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
You mentioned the Olympics. I have a quibble, and I think I'm going to – I don't know if I can blame Steve Kerr, but I'm blaming him for it. I haven't had a podcast in a long time. I got a lot of takes to get off.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I guess that's what we're calling it now. I kind of like the old name. I came up with the old name. But the only constant in life is change. And so we move on. And as we move on, it is time for the first time in a very long time to say the three most anticipated words in niche basketball podcasting. Everybody, what up, Beck? Howard Beck of The Ringer slash Spotify. How are you? Zach Lowe!
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Batum is one of the stars.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
We have locker room footage of Jokic, the likes of which you will never get again. It's absolutely incredible. You know what locker room footage we don't have, Anthony Slater?
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I have. Half-time of the semifinals, we're getting smoked by Serbia. They go into Serbia's locker room. Jokic is on the whiteboard doing stuff. The coach eventually kicks the cameraman out of the locker room. And then you just, like, third quarter, so I said, wait a second. The one thing I want to see is Team USA at their most crisis moment, at the moment of greatest urgency. The game pauses.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Everything's on the line. They got 20 minutes left. And I don't see it. I just... I'm mad. Steve Kerr has to answer for this. Eric Spolster has to answer for this. Sean Ford at USA Basketball has to answer for this. They all have to answer for this, Anthony Slater.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
We didn't get that. All right, Anthony Slater does just a bang-up job covering the Warriors, more than the Warriors, all things NBA. For The Athletic, it's great to see you. Thanks for lending me some time. And buckle up. Buckle up for the end of the season for the West. No Kings questions? They're still alive. They're still alive. They're playing. They are. They're ninth.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
They're ninth with a bullet. I know. Only eight games out of eighth. Do they have enough time to make that up? It's going great for the Kings.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
It's been a rough season for the Kings. 8-38 and 40 is not so bad. All right, Anthony Slater, thank you, sir. All right, thanks for having me. Must be 21 and over and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 and over and present in D.C. Gambling problem? Call the 1-800-GAMBLER or visit fanduel.com slash RG.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut. or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24-7 sport in Massachusetts, or call 1-877-8HOPENY or text HOPENY in New York.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Yeah. I have nothing more to say about it. I mean, it's just like, yeah, maybe, maybe just don't do it would be my, my gentle advice.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
So the West, as I just described is a complete mess. Like who knows who's going to be four or five, six, seven, eight, who's going to have to go through the play in, which apparently Dallas and Sacramento are just going to limp right into that play in Sacramento. Nice one last night again in Cleveland. Cause Phoenix wants absolutely no part of it. Um, And it's just, it's so jumbled.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
And there are so many teams going up and down and sideways. And the records are the same. The tiebreakers are all over the place. And you're tempted to say, well, it looks pretty open. Like the Lakers have a playoff formula. The Rockets, I mean, the Rockets, yeah, their half-court offense is only so-so. It's trended better as the season's been going along.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
They've found something with this Adams-Shen-Gun just beat the hell out of you double big lineup. Yeah, it might be flawed, their half-court offense. Their shooting is so-so. Their spacing is so-so. They are just freaking good and tough. Their defense is legit. And they are going to beat the crap out of you for seven straight games. And you're going to feel that whether you win that series or not.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
They can beat any of these teams 2-7, 2-8. They could win any series. And they reminded everybody of that last night. And then you still have the Thunder that are like a million games ahead of everyone else. So let's start there. Two-game losing streak over the weekend, and that Lakers game, all the eyes of the league were on that game. Let's see how the Lakers match up with this.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
The new-look Lakers, the Luka Lakers match up with the Thunder. What did you take away from the Lakers blowing the doors off the Thunder on the road?
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Like, there's a legitimate case... Except one team has 64 wins.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
What the hell are you?
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
It seems to – it sort of catches you off guard because everything has changed so fast. I read those records. These teams in their last 17, 18 games are just rolling through wins. The Nuggets are 5-9 in their last 14 games. Strother just got healthy. Jamal Murray hasn't been healthy. It's been a weird year for them, just one of those years. And they've fallen back to the pack.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
And, like, the Clippers – there's always going to be some lag time with them because Kawhi took a long time to come back. And then there's just sort of residual, like, why would I believe this? Why would I have faith in it? And then the games and the wins and the numbers pile up, and you're like, I don't know. The sample size is pretty big now that when they have everybody...
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
they're they have the statistical profile of a legit contending team and minnesota same thing both of those teams were 32 and 29 middling middling now in the west middling is tough in the east middling is the bulls who are hot great good congratulations um And they're both 14-3 since being 32-29. The Wolves got Randall back. He's fit back in.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Gobert's playing some of the best basketball he's played in a long time. And Ant is Ant. And they've got through the suspensions with the Pistons brawl thing. And, yeah, like 32-29, you're 60 games in. You're kind of like, okay, I guess those teams are just what they are. And then you wake up. You're like, wait a second. Are they much more than we thought they were?
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
But let's go back to Thunder Lakers. What struck you?