The Zach Lowe Show
Zach’s Mega-Playoff Preview! Reaction to Breaking News, Plus All the Action Out West With Bill Simmons, and Eastern Previews With Mo Dakhil.
Wed, 16 Apr 2025
Zach is joined by Bill Simmons to begin his playoff preview, but not before reacting to breaking news in New Orleans and Phoenix (0:52). They then talk Western play-in games (18:58), Clippers-Nuggets (45:18), and Wolves-Lakers (58:47). Afterwards, Mo Dakhil hops on to talk the Eastern play-in games (01:12:41), Pistons-Knicks (01:32:07), and Bucks-Pacers (01:48:14). The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What breaking news was discussed in the NBA?
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Moe DeKeele's coming on to talk about the East. And a guy you might know, Bill Simmons, is coming on to talk about the West. Welcome to the Zach Lowe Show, because that's what we're calling it now. And we got the podfather on the line to preview the Western Conference playoffs in play. And that's what we were supposed to do. But we got some breaking news.
I know you're excited to get to Bill Simmons live from the man cave with the Boston stuff in the background. How you doing?
It's like half-hearted breaking news. I don't think it was breaking news that made any of us go, oh my God, and drop the coffee cup, you know, Kaiser Soze style. These were two we expected. My question is, is there going to be more after this? Two coach fires, Boone Ulzer, New Orleans Queens house. Is there another one we're not expecting?
Oh, there's always something we're not expecting. Okay, quick take on Bud getting fired after one of the three disaster seasons from hell in this year's NBA. Remarkably, one of them, the Mavericks season, is still going.
The others are long over as the Suns trudge sadly to loss after loss after loss with Bradley Beal's no trade clause hanging over their head or attached to them like the stonecutter's stone on Homer Simpson, the stone of shame. Bud's out. I mean, look, did he do a great job? No. Did he annoy Devin Booker, according to The Athletic and Chris Haynes, apparently by telling him to tone down?
It wasn't great. You know, is it embarrassing that we're now on a fourth head coach in three years for the roster that 26 other teams would trade for? It's a little embarrassing. The Suns are officially embarrassing. Who's fixing this team? I mean, did Bud do great? No. I think Bud's still a good coach. What did he do so? I don't know. It's like, look, it didn't work. The locker room was bad.
It's always bad. I don't know what else. What else are you supposed to say?
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Chapter 2: What are the key insights on the Western play-in games?
I'm talking like a guy who's like a top 12 to 15 at worst all-time NBA player. Oh, all-time.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
I'd never liked the Beal trade. I have learned, as I know you have too, to really trust people that I trust their basketball when they're watching somebody day in and day out and they're saying whether the guy is truly a winning player or not. And for what they gave up, I thought they were doing the Wizards a favor. It was one of those contracts.
It was a great deal for the Wizards right away.
they were delighted. They were like, really, we get to get out of this Bradley bill thing. Look at what happened with Zach Levine, you know, recently with the bulls where the bulls had to like take on contracts back just to kind of get out of that deal that they had. So I, you know, I, I think the big sin was that summer with the Chris Paul expiring and,
with Aiton when they basically tried to make a title team and they went all in. And I remember saying at the time, like, I just never like moves where there's no way out. Once you're past a certain point, if you don't have any outs, that's the most dangerous place you can be in basketball. We've seen these teams just get paralyzed for years and years.
The Sixers with the Embiid and George contracts, they left themselves no outs. And yet somehow they got an out because now they have a chance to have a top six pick And they have some collateral. They might be able to move out. There's no way out for the Suns. And that's, you know, I talked about this on my pod. I went to see them in that Austin game against the Spurs. You were alarmed.
Yeah, it was a 10 out of 10 for the body language doctor. I just couldn't believe it. So, you know, Bud clearly didn't connect the team at all. I couldn't have been more wrong. I love their over. Their over was 47 and a half. I thought they were going to be like one of the better offensive teams of the last 10 years. And it was just off from the get-go.
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Chapter 3: How do the Clippers match up against the Nuggets?
Yeah, is that... I think three other guys we can think of for Houston that would be more interesting and younger than Durant.
Stein and I talked about Dallas. You know, I saw I think Perk went on and said, you know, the only way Nico Harrison can save his job is getting Durant. And that buzz has been out there. And I've heard that, like, it's again like Dallas. It's three fifty million dollar contracts and you've got to aggregate a million players to get to it. Like, I'm not really sure. We'll see.
Anything's anything's possible.
You know, it's not like Dallas has a ton of picks either. So in that one, you're almost looking at Kyrie, who's not playing next year anyway. Maybe he's in the trade and you give an asset or two. But that's just not enough for Kevin Durant. I'd rather keep him at that point.
They have three they can trade because they got that Lakers pick in the Luka trade. Well, it's so clutch to get that Lakers pick. They really rung a lot. Yeah, he's only about to hit his prime. It'll be great to have that one. All right. I don't want to spend too much time on the also rants. We should just talk about the Pelicans who fired David Griffin today.
I said last week, this is the toughest riddle in the NBA that now a new person will have to solve is like, what the hell are you supposed to do as. the GM of the Pelicans. Now the lottery may just answer that riddle for you. And boy, would that be a dose of good luck for a team that already got a dose of good luck getting Zion all those years ago. Now Zion doesn't play enough.
Obviously we know that you have like 30 games a year. That's great. You have C.J. McCollum, who just doesn't fit this timeline, is just here for some reason earning $35 to $40 million and getting mad at you for putting him in fake trades. Sorry, C.J. You've got DeJounte Murray, who is going to miss a huge part of next season, presumably, you know, after his injury.
Yeah, that's a year and a half injury.
And that's a veteran win-now player. You have Trey Murphy, who made a huge leap this year. He's awesome. And Herb Jones on the wing, who are just perfect complementary players for whatever direction you go to.
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Chapter 4: What are the expectations for the Wolves vs. Lakers game?
Yeah, it's weird. I remember when we were at Grantland, Denver was like this. But Denver was more successful than New Orleans. But Denver had all these assets, but the roster didn't totally make sense together. And there was no real trade for them to make because they're basically just slightly upgrading every position they had where they had solid guys. But you also knew it wasn't a title team.
And New Orleans was a version of that. But they just, you know, they got decimated by injuries. The Daniels trade is really, really rough. You know, and maybe it made sense because they had Herb Jones and they had Trey Murphy. But they're in this weird spot that happens sometimes where you have a lot of assets, but the assets don't make sense together, right? And what do you do at that point?
Well, you keep your fingers crossed that Zion's going to play. Well, there's no more unreliable playing risk in the league other than Joel Embiid. And they kind of tied themselves to him. And combined with the Danos trade, that was it for Griffin. But you go back. Rossell has always talked about this. You go back and look at all the drafts they've made, the drafts.
They've drafted probably as well as any team in the league. Misi is going to be a good pick.
every like they've had like seven of them so you know but the team collectively doesn't make sense i didn't understand the mccollum extension i just didn't and they well and again they from a value perspective they did well in the ad trades and the drew holiday trade so those are easy kind of trades to do easier kind of trades to really nail because you're selling and someone is very hungry to buy and you have a lever you have some leverage and
The other one that didn't work out was as part of that AD trade, they got the Lakers pick that you remember was DeAndre Hunter at four. They flipped that one for Alexander Walker and Hayes, who are now contributing to other teams, but not them. It's just a strange situation.
And then Daniels, they got at nine. That came from the Lakers trade. But the big one, the big... carrot in that trade was like, we're going to be able to have this pick in 24, 25. LeBron will be gone by then. Nobody's played that long. The Lakers are going to be irrelevant. So then they have the choice last year to keep it or not. They roll it over, which I think was the right move.
It's like, I thought the Lakers, I didn't think they were going to be a playoff team this year. And if David, if they hadn't made that Luca trade and Davis had gotten hurt, like he did midway through the season, I don't think that would have been a playoff team, but I think the bets were right. And it just didn't work out. And then the Lakers get Luka Doncic.
And now, you know, they're the third seed. So you had this pick that you were like, this would be one of the best parts of the Davis trade. what's it going to be like 23rd?
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Chapter 5: What are the Eastern play-in game predictions?
We have no wins in New Orleans, really, ever. And from a money standpoint, from the money they pull in compared to some other cities, and the fact that they're so Saints heavy, and the owner owns the Saints and saved the Pelicans just because the family felt bad and didn't want them to leave, but it's clearly not a big priority for them.
And big picture, it's like, does basketball work in this city? And if it doesn't work, why?
The arena is bad. It's awful. I went to a couple games there this year, and it reminded me, like, oh, boy. And the players feel it. It's like, I know. I've heard from agents. I've heard from players. Like, they feel that they are not, let's say, in a premier NBA organization in terms of all the bells and whistles. And I just don't know what the hell they're supposed to do.
All right, let's talk about... Well, you're in an organization... Probably a D minus or below. City, one of the least five appealing small market cities for people wanting to stay there as free agents, for being able to spend money, for the money you're getting from the arena, all that stuff. And then you're in the West where over and over again, all the good players are, you know?
And it's just, it's a tough one. This is a team... I hate saying like, man, it would be nice if New Orleans won the lottery because they've had a lot of luck with this stuff and they won the Zion one. But this is one where flag, they need like a culture changer and Zion is not the culture changer. We've at least learned that.
let's talk about the play in and the playoffs real quick. Go rapid fire through these games. You got to start with warriors, grizzlies, and just the fallout of the warriors losing a Spurs game to Harrison Barnes of all people, their revenge of Harrison Barnes, which ends up costing them the tie break with Minnesota, which was your favorite game in 2015.
That Spurs game. when they blew it. And now all of a sudden they're playing the Clippers in round one, somebody got hot or something stupid happened.
It was a, the Pelicans were involved on the last day of the season, like 14 crazy things happened on the same day. And all of a sudden the Spurs and the Clippers had to play each other in what we were still working together at that point.
Yeah. I remember just like, it felt like, Oh shit, this is significant. And then they were out in round one.
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Chapter 6: How will the Pistons face off against the Knicks?
in terms of team player relationship, but there's always a coming back because there's always the next game. And there's always a limited restricted free agency market that the warriors might win. But that was, even though the rumblings were starting and Steve had kind of laid the groundwork for a rotation change of that nature. What'd you think of that?
Here's what I thought. We didn't even talk about it on my pod last night. Cause I thought he was hurt. I didn't, Him not being out there, I just thought he wasn't healthy. And then came to find out, reading all the stories this morning, that it was just a benching and Kerr was going with his guys. I was like, first of all, I disagree. And I see it like you. Kaminga has something...
especially in bigger games. I like how competitive he is. Like there's something there. I still feel like there's something there. And that sounded like Joe Lacob, but in that specific game with how, how important Kawhi was for the Clippers. And now he was like bullying Peyton and Butler on some of those plays and just physically seem bigger than them.
Like to me, that's the perfect coming to spot. Because he has the size and physicality to at least make Kawhi work a little bit. And he just threw it out the window. So I'm with you. I honestly thought he was hurt. I didn't realize that was just the coach's decision. And I'm a little more on the I don't know if you come back from that one. That was the biggest game they played this season.
And they're like, you're not one of our best players.
It's no secret that coming as people and the coaching staff have not seen eye to eye for years. The front office has sort of been this intermediary between those two parties higher on coming than the coaching staff, I think. But, you know, they respect Steve Kerr's Hall of Fame coach. They're not going to sit there and tell him what to do. I think they just have a blind spot.
I think this happens sometimes where coaching staffs just you're too close to it and they see all the warts and he's not their kind of player traditionally on offense. And they just I don't know. I disagree with the way they've handled it. It's been a slow burn leading leading to this. Yeah. They might need them again.
And by the way, everyone's already doing the thing where it's like, oh, well, this could work out for the Warriors. Like, you know, they win this game at home against Memphis. They get the second seed. They get the Rockets like Rockets can't score the half court. That's terrible for them. First of all, I know the Grizzlies are sliding and they can't beat any good teams anywhere of any kind lately.
OK, fine. if they have Moran Bain and Jackson, they're, they're dangerous. Now the Wells injury really hurts them. And it hurts them in this matchup because he was the only guy who had any chance guarding Steph. And they, they didn't really have much of a chance guarding Steph anyway, particularly when Edie and Jackson are out there and they're just this behemoth team against the smaller warriors.
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Chapter 7: What to expect from the Bucks vs. Pacers matchup?
It's like, it's never happening, never happening. And he didn't fit there. He did it with Tatum last year. Like he doesn't give a shit. He's has, what does he have? 10 rings? What did he win? Five as a player, four as a coach. Like he's just going to do what's best for the team. And he's not going to care that coming as agent is going to be mad at him the next day. But I thought,
The fact that Kaminga didn't play in that game tells you how important that game was to them, where it's like, they know they can beat the Lakers. That's just small ball versus small ball. That's a good matchup for them. Now they have this dumb Memphis game. They're going to put miles on themselves. And then this Houston team, that's just a pack of pit bulls with some real size.
And the chance to, um, uproot an older team, but it's your classic, classic, classic older team, younger team game. This is one of the better versions of it. Right. I was thinking about it last night. Like this is the textbook. Do you like experience? Do you like having the best guy in the series? Or do you like just this team that's coming?
And sometimes we've seen versions of this where the young team just sweeps. You're like, oh my God. And then other times you see the 6-7 game version. But I do not think it would be a short series.
Well, look, the Warriors are a small team. They're a horizontal, not a vertical team. They get a little shot full of it at the rim sometimes when they see people coming at them. And... Houston is going to be bigger and more athletic across the board. And that's a challenge.
The Warriors have solved going on 10, 15 years now of being the less athletic, but smarter, more ball movement, more motion offense team. It's still, it's still a challenge though. And by the way, Steph was fantastic against Memphis in the regular season. He put 50 something on him the last time they played. He was fantastic in the finale against the Clippers. He had a mislay up late.
That was a tough shot and then a turnover, but it was largely fantastic. And we're not going to do too many awards, but I'll tell you this. I'm putting him first team all NBA on my ballot over Donovan Mitchell. He has the fifth spot for me. And I'm not really sure what the case is that it should be Donovan Mitchell other than the Cavs have a much better record. Steph has him in points per game.
Points per 36 minutes is identical. 27 and a half apiece. The shooting numbers are edge Steph across the board. The passing numbers are edge Steph. The advanced stats are edge Steph. Defense probably edge Mitchell. Yeah. And I just like we saw it. This is like not a very good offensive team. The Warriors have even with Jimmy Butler, just an OK offensive team to good on some nights.
Just the power of his shooting 40 percent from three on 11, 12 attempts a game moving all over the floor. It's just a complete one-of-one in the history of the NBA in terms of just the ever-present impact, all the eyes on him, all that. I just think he's had a better season than Donovan Mitchell by a teensy, teensy, teensy bit. And if you disagree, that's fine. The Cavs were the story of the East.
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