Playoff Positioning Heats Up & Five Ideas To Fix NBA Tanking

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Speaker 1: We're saying I have a chip over he Do you have a chip on your shoulder? Don't have a chip on my shoulders.
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Speaker 2: I'd just like to give him up him him so you can do.
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Speaker 3: You have a chip on your shoulder?
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Speaker 2: Good good morning, sweeper and welcome to the Now Dunks podcast on the Athletic Network. It's Tuesday, April first, twenty twenty five. I'm Jay Skiats here in the Classic Factory and alongside me as always Task.
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Speaker 3: Mellis podcast listeners, this is for you.
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Speaker 2: Next to him, it's the bearded one, my top shot hot boy, treykrby bo bo haha, got us and over yonder making the magic happen. Super producer j Kella. There he is here, we are Trey's really in the spirit of April Fools today. Oh man, Yeah, before you came in, he dropped a banana peel at the doorway to the Classic Factory and got JD so hard, oh big time, nearly broke his back. So you love it, it's your favorite day?
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Speaker 1: Well yeah. Something but not a lot of people know is that the way me and my best friend from back home met was our grandfathers were the original April Fool's day, banana peel slippers. His grandfather was the first person to drop a banana peel, and my grandfather was the first person to step on one, so it's kind of been in our blood for generations at this point.
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Speaker 2: Wait, are you being serious?
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Speaker 1: Yeah?
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Speaker 2: Oh crap, I didn't know if that was no, that one's.
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Speaker 1: True, that one's actually true. I did. I did get frank. First thing when I walked out of the door this morning, walked through a spider web, kids Nature, No Nature's prank, A real spider web.
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Speaker 2: Oh okay, yeah, okay.
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Speaker 3: The banana peel would be perfect for that number one, because everybody's wiping their faces with banana peels, so wipe away a spider ub. That'd be perfect. Okay, great, It seems like everybody else is a little flustered.
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Speaker 2: Know, we had another weggie last night. Yay, not in April Fool's Day prank Weggie number forty two, ken Rich Williams, Kenny Hustle in the corner, beautiful dicking it And yeah, we said we needed a few more before we get to the postseason. Now we got another one last night, so the pace remains at forty nine. The magic number is fifty that's when you know you had a good season for Weggie, so hopefully we can get there.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, the mud Flap stopped flapping hitting that Wedgie Kenrich Williams nickname Mudflap beautiful.
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Speaker 2: Reference though no, not yet, just any hustle.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, there was some great ones thrown at us for his haircut, which is, you know, a little bit of a surfing board at the bottom of his sort of an island of hair. Yeah, that's a weird one unique look.
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Speaker 2: All right. On today's show, we are going to talk about how to fix tanking in the NBA. Popular topic right now as we have the home stretch here, but some games on last night, let's touch on a few of the best ones. The Lakers held off the Rockets one oh four ninety eight thanks to some hot shooting from Dorian Phinney Smith and your guy Gabe Vincent, both those guys hitting a ton of threes. But this really turned into, like I guess, the defensive showcase down the stretch, both teams struggling to score because the defense sort of ramped up a notch on both sides. But Lakers get the victory, and that's huge obviously in the playoff positioning.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, there's no doubt the Lakers were ready for those last few minutes, and they got there because Gabe and Dorian Phinney Smith and they're combined forty points when they're big three of Lebron. Luca and Austin Reeves had to combine forty eight points. Gabe and Dorian with six threes each. Monstrous. But the Lakers defense that stopped the Rockets system of just getting offensive rebound after offensive rebound. They only had ten second chance points in this game, when the Rockets average eighteen. That is part of theirm. They misshots and they go and get them, and they couldn't come up with a fourth quarter scoring system. Late in this game. They put Jayalen Green on the bench the last few minutes, and I think part of that was the Lakers were just going at Fred van Vliet when they saw a nice matchup in that regard, so they said, Jaalen, this is probably not our best idea because they're going to combat both of us, and so Jalen went to the bench. And it's not like the Rockets were extremely bad the last few minutes, but the Lakers were just playing hard. When you see Luca sprint back with four minutes left and Tar Easton had an open three, but Luca prevented that from happening, so Tar Easton gave the ball away. They were just ready to play and the last few minutes, yeah, they just they just scrapped a little bit harder. And he may Dooka said, it doesn't matter if your player of the week Jalen Green, you sit, and yeah, they got it done. Just it was just an ugly game for the Lakers to win a game where their superstars weren't really really really superstars. It was during Phteysmith and as the reason, I mean, excuse me during Phinteysmith and gave Vincent to get it done. It's an ugly win and that's what you wanted playoff time.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, the teams combined to shoot four to fifteen from the floor in the final five minutes, so not a lot of scoring to go around. Yeah, it did feel like it. But what were your takeaways, t.
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Speaker 1: KT, Well, the defense from the Lakers is basically predicated on how hard can you possibly play? Because in the fourth quarter they didn't play a big guy Jackson Hayes on the bench, So Lebron is basically their small ball center. He's guarding shengon a lot of the time. The Lakers force fifteen turnovers in this one, six blocks as well, and since they're playing small ball, it's just all about how fast can you scramble, how quickly can you get into the passing lanes. Lebron was in a ton of actions, but he was also really active on the back line. When JJ talks about him maybe being an all defense type of player, it's fourth quarters like these where he steps up and does the big guy stuff for LA. So I thought that was super impressive, and then I thought on the flip side, Houston's game plan was we're not getting beat by the big three of the Lakers. They're packing the paint. They're going to live with the three pointers. La took forty six threes. That's the sixth most they've taken all season. They couldn't shoot him in the first quarter, went two for fourteen after that, fourteen from thirty two in the last three quarters. That's forty four percent. Tough to lose a game if you're shooting that well for three quarters of the game. Meanwhile, Houston just didn't know where to go on offense. They probably should have put Jalen Green back in. I don't think that guy like gets great shots, but he gets shots up at the very least. Shng Gullin went oh for three in the fourth quarter, Dylan Brooks oh for five, Fred Van Vliet Oh for three. The only guy who was scoring was a Men Thompson, and that was basically broken plays where he was just scrambling and making something happen. So I thought the Lakers just executed their game plan a little bit better.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, Houston's defense, no doubt, it is nasty, but unfortunately, so is their offense at times. I saw Zilla write his newsletter here today. Their clutch offense ranks nineteenth in the league in you know, almost one hundred and sixty minutes of clutch play. That's Houston. They have an eleventh ranked offense overall. That's good. You know, that's not bad. But yeah, dropping there as you get into clutch time. And I'm with you on the Jaylen Green thing because there were two costly turnovers too. So you'd rather live with a shot attempt at least to maybe get a rebound instead of turning it over. You had Van Vliet, he threw a bad low pass to underneath. He just threw it too low. I think he throws it higher. I think ahm. And Thompson goes up and gets it, maybe scores at the rim, but it was picked off by Reeves that one, and then there was another one a little bit later. Sheng Gun's fighting Lebron in the paint. He's trying to get positioned. There's a little bit of an opening and Brooks through a bit of an errant pass. He threw it sort of back too far, but Ruey's smart play helped at the right time and pop that one away too costly turnovers down the stretch, when again teams couldn't score at all. Yeah, at least guy get a shot up though, And those were two backbreakers, and then the Lakers did enough offensively. Fun game, you know, I guess we could see these teams. Yeah, we could see them in a postseason matchup. They're technically on the opposite side of the bracket in the Western Conference right now, with the Rockets holding onto the number two seed, Lakers four seeds. So maybe it doesn't happen. Probably doesn't, but maybe they still switch positions here and we get it in a two three let's.
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Speaker 3: Say, yeah, the Lakers just won a gritty game. Again, the defense getting after it. JJ got through this team. They he has asked him, He has asked all these guys to play harder. And that's what happened the last few minutes. Yeah, it was a Shnggun miss open shots. Who are you relying on when you're the Rockets offense, that's the question. When it comes to clutch time, it's usually Jalen Green just solving something, or it's Fred and that seems to be what's going to be in the playoffs. Can Fred be that miracle guy?
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Speaker 1: This is why they get talked about and the Kevin Durant sweepstakes over the summer because they don't have a reliable go to guy. Jalen Green. I don't necessarily think he figures things out. He drives into the lane and he jumps. There's three guys there. Sometimes he makes these shots. Sometimes he hits wild pull ups. Fred van Vliet, it feels like just shooting bombs. Sometimes they go in, sometimes they don't. And then sheng Gun I don't think is a real reliable fourth quarter option, just because it takes him a little too long to get into his offense. They're playing up against the clock all the time. It feels like Also, I did like seeing Luka Dancic's break out roam scheng Gun's ankles. That was nasty, so nasty that Luca couldn't believe how openly he was. It's like, oh, might as well just drive finds. I think it was Finney Smith and there great pass. But yeah, luk At was playing pretty well. He was moving the ball like he should have been.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, and I should say I mean, I guess the Rockets running back to back here and maybe looked a little gas. And then the Lakers have played a ton of games here over the last I guess call it a month because of their weird schedules. So maybe that was a part of the reason why the offenses were coming up a little blank at the end too. But as we get to the end here, but they're both great defensive units here when they can put out their best players.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, it was weird to see, like that low pass that he said from Fred van vliet I was strange. I had a flashback Raptors Nets when Jose called her on and passed that ball way too low in the playoffs. What was that and that's how their playoff series ended. On that.
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Speaker 2: Jesus what year was that.
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Speaker 3: That's like seven oh seven.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I know exactly what pastors are yeah about Yeah.
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Speaker 3: It's like, how do you do that? As it higher throwing up?
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Speaker 2: Man, let these athletes go and get it, especially on men Thompson. Yeah, all right, anything else on Lakers rockets? Okay, if not, let's pivot to the Celtics. Beating the Grizzlies one seventeen to one oh three. Boston Celtics completed their first six and oh trip on the road in franchise history. Weird.
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Speaker 1: Anytime the Celtics break a Celtics record in twenty twenty five, you're like, come on, yeah, that had to have happened sometime now.
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Speaker 2: Their previous road winds streak was five. I guess you got to go back to February nineteen seventy three, the last time they did that too, which also sounds weird. But this trip, look look at the competition they did take care of. It was Utah, it was Portland, it was Sacramento, it was Phoenix, it was San Antonio, and then the best of that bunch who are struggling right now, just fired their coach was Memphis, but still six and oh is still six and oh. And they also tied a franchise record thirty two road wins here for the Celtics, so they get this done. It was close.
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Speaker 3: They're going for the record too. The all time road record, it was unaware. The best road team ever in NBA history is thirty four and seven. The Celtics can tie that Warriors record in fifteen and sixteen, So I guess that's good. Did the Celtics character the number one see in the East. Now they're great on the roads. They can go beat those guys. They started off poorly in this game, and it looked like John Moran, al right, baby, he's ready six for six to start this game. But in the second quarter, Missoula calls a timeout and says, let's play some freaking d We're down ten, and they just they turned it on and you could really see the double bigs Porzingis and al Horford and what that has made this sort of new offense for the Celtics look like, I mean, this looks like something they didn't have last year. The pick and pop threes, sealing people, transition jams. Obviously, Horford was hot and that just turned that fricking whole game around. Horford six threes and that was it. And did you see this Celtics franchise history record, Derek White has hit the most threes in one season for the Boston Celtics. It's kind of surprising, Derek White. But anyway, I guess it's not that surprising.
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Speaker 2: Well, I saw Celtics blog right leader. Well, when you think of great three point shooters in Celtics history, who do you think of? You think of Ray Allen, Probably Larry Bird, who is even ahead of his time because they sort of had just added the three point line, Paul Piers, maybe even Antwine Walker.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, but yeah, Derek and Ray is not that old. So it wasn't like pre this era when there's this many shots, you know. Yeah, so you think it'd be Ray.
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Speaker 2: Yeah. Derek White two hundred and forty six threes on the season, that was the record. He actually added one more so two forty seven. He actually had a timely one number two forty seven. That's the new single season high.
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Speaker 1: Isaiah Thomas twenty sixteen to seventeen. There he goes the previous record. I guess that was King of the fourth quarter era Isaiah Thomas. But the funny thing is that Jason Tatum this season is third he has two hundred and forty and Peyton Pritchard this season has two hundred and thirty eight.
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Speaker 4: So both of those guys could take this right exactly. It may not be Derek White's record at the end of the season. I know Boston has seven games left on the schedule. Their final two games are against the Hornets, and I bring that up because I gotta imagine Jason Tatum, even Derek White for that matter, probably gets those games off Pritchard time.
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Speaker 2: Yes, I think Peyton Pritrick could steal this year, and so it's in play that whatever it will end up being, I don't know, it's gonna be like in the two sixties, possibly with that many games remaining for one of these guys. But Derek White has it for right now. And they bombed away and again it was a close game, yeah, for a majority of this game. But you know, the Celtics have that where they can crank it up a notch, and they did here. But what'd you think of this one? Boston Memphis?
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Speaker 1: It was all about the three pointers. The Celtics were basically playing with their food because they were able to score at will on the Grizzlies. They took sixty two threes last night Boston did. That's the second most they've taken all season. Started the first quarter very cold, four for fifteen. All of the shots were wide open, though, so no surprise in the three quarters following eighteen for forty seven. I looked at the tracking data on NBA dot Com, forty three of these sixty two shots were considered wide open or open. That's two thirds. You can't give the Celtics two thirds wide open three pointers doesn't make sense. Meanwhile, the Grizzlies hit five in the first quarter six the rest of the way scored a total of one hundred and three points. That's their fewest in two months and also tied for the fewest points they'd scored in the year twenty twenty five. I thought they were trying to fix their offense.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, I think they were going at.
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Speaker 1: Their worst offensive night in two months.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, they started to go way too early in the shock lock for them, like they weren't moving the ball, like the Celtics from moving the ball, And I think that's what two of us. He is Hello, their new coach has got to be saying, now, let's move that thing a little bit. It just felt like they were just just going up every single possession and just shooting one possession, one pass shot. Definitely not too was too much of that.
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Speaker 2: How about head coach Boston head coach Joe Mizzula sort of surprised starting Exavier Tilman for the Celtics because you know, he used to play in Memphis but had like three and a half seasons there, so they gave they gave to start.
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Speaker 3: Now.
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Speaker 2: There was no jail in Brown or Celtics. There was no Luke Cortnett as well, so they're like, yeah, let's keep Horford on the bench and let's give Tilman a start here. He didn't shoot, well, no, I'm not I'm not sure did he score. I know he went over too free he got the line. Okay, but that's a nice, nice touch I thought from from Joey nazy Man.
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Speaker 1: He was like the only guy that didn't score. How Horford gave zach an edycation completely twenty six points off the bench for Horford six threes and Edie was just running around out there. They put him in action every single time he was on the court and it was either a foul or a wide open three for Horford or Porzingis or Tilman. I supposed to miss him, but at least he was taking him thirty assists on thirty nine makes for the Celtics last night, they looked like they're rolling. They had the best offense in March.
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Speaker 3: Yes. Yeah, they're clicking at the right time. Whether this is an easy road schedule or not, they're absolutely clicking. The surprising thing for me was seeing Joe Mizula sitting at one point. I mean, this was like late in the second quarter. It's time to stand up for the coach and call it timeout or whatever. He was chilling. It was almost like his legs were back more than j d I would say. It was just like, it's just real, real chill.
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Speaker 1: Man.
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Speaker 3: Ain't like Joe. It was weird.
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Speaker 1: Think he slipt on a banana.
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Speaker 2: Yeah. The Grizzlies are currently in the fifth spot in the Western Conference, but they're only half a game up on the Warriors, who are in the sixth spot, obviously, and then the Wolves and Clippers are one game back from Memphis. I bring this up to ask you, like, is there concern here that the Grizzlies are gonna be one of those teams that slips all the way down into the play in at this point, and wow, how bad will look considering you fired your coach with nine games to go.
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Speaker 1: It's definitely possible. I would say the Wolves and the Clippers are both playing better than the Grizzlies are right now, and I think kind of disappointing the first two games after firing their coach, they lose them both, Like you're hoping to win one of those after firing your coach. So yeah, Memphis needs to figure something out pretty quickly here.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, you're hoping to win one of those, but you're also playing the Lakers team. Celtic's Yeah, tough Tames, but that's been the story of their season, right, I.
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Speaker 3: Can't beat these good teams, Yeah, They're highlight of this year might be Santie all Dama's wedding. I think Santiel Dama is getting married because after remember after Desmond Baine shoves Santiel Dama into the bench, he was interviewed after the game and said, look, I probably took it too far, but I love santi He was at my wedding. I'll be at his wedding. I guess he's getting.
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Speaker 1: He's getting married and he's a free agent. Big summer for Santio, everything's coming.
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Speaker 2: He's so stressed. Yeah, doesn't know where to go on defense and all that too shaved. His mind is on a lot of things. Yeah, yeah, I think he needs to grow the beer back.
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Speaker 1: You think his fiance asked, I would like to see you queen shape.
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Speaker 2: Maybe, but I think he looks better about a beard, if I'm being honest person, you know, Yeah, true guilty is charged.
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Speaker 1: Also, I didn't know that they were calling Drew Holiday doctor Evil. I heard it from.
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Speaker 2: Drew Carter's dropping in the Pinky Song.
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Speaker 1: He got a mallet finger injury, got a cast and came with a new celebration. I saw in an interview he said this is for the older people. I had to tell Jordan Walsh, who Doctor Evil was.
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Speaker 2: Oh God, don't say stuff like that.
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Speaker 1: I mean, doctor this movie came out on all.
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Speaker 2: I know, but you feel like just something should be passed down upon the generation.
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Speaker 1: And that's one of them. Yeah, a little bit.
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Speaker 3: It's like we had Marvin Bagley on our show. He knows who doctor Evil was.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, but he's like ten years older.
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Speaker 3: Yeah that's bulls. Yeah, well but he was playing yesterday.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, true, he's.
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Speaker 1: Like I remember being on that show. We got Marvin Bagley to wear an eyepatch when he came on. That's pretty cool. Which Celtics do you think of? Seen an Austin Powers movie?
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Speaker 2: Okay a Drew Holliday, Yeah, obviously Tory Craig.
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Speaker 1: I sorted this by reverse birth date, so these are oldest.
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Speaker 3: But he ain't that old.
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Speaker 2: He looks he just like, well, we know Joe Missoula has it because he only watches The Town.
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Speaker 1: Only watches the Town one movie. Derek White, I think, yeah, yeah, Cornett.
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Speaker 2: For sure, God, he knows it by heart.
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Speaker 1: Porzingis great question. Yeah, I want to say yeah, Jalen Brown, I don't think he liked it. Agree with you?
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Speaker 2: He would not like told me like that shouldn't be No, it's just too silly or something.
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Speaker 1: The science doesn't add up. How could they keep him frozen for thirty years and he's the last depete doesn't make sense. Sam haws Er, he's seen it. Peyton Pritchard, yep, Jason Tatum.
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Speaker 2: So we just assume all the White guys definitely seen it.
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Speaker 1: Come on, I agree?
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Speaker 2: Yeah, who just say Tatum?
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Speaker 1: Yeah, Tatum?
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Speaker 3: Yeah, he watched it with what was the name Kuchuk that he went to school.
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Speaker 1: With, Matthew.
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Speaker 3: Yeah and Matthew.
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Speaker 2: Okay, has Duce watched it? Does? Does Deuce snow? Doctor evil?
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Speaker 3: Number two? Yeah? Number two? That's why they called him Duce because they watched it so much to the other Okay, good, all right.
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Speaker 2: We got to the bottom of it somehow. The coach has never seen it, but Deuce has. I like that. All right. Let's move to the Pacers coming back from sixteen down in the second half to beat the Kings one eleven one oh nine. Aaron Smith was pretty good in this game, seventeen of his twenty four in the second half. He was clutch at the line too over the final stretch where you know, the lead was pretty comfortably for the Pacers, but the Kings were just doing the thing where they just kept coming down and banging threes. They kept going close and close. But anyway, he hit six free throws in the final twenty seconds or so. But uh, why don't you get to started here? TK on the Pacers big win.
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Speaker 1: I would have to say this was the most predictable result of the night. The Kings had a lead going into the fourth quarter. But guess what, the Pacers have been awesome in fourth quarters, one of the best clutch teams in the month of March. Meanwhile, the Kings are kind of good at melting down in fourth quarters. They look like just too much DeRozan, Like, you get such clarity seeing your team replicated for another team without the emotional attachment. It's like, seriously, another mid ranger for Deroze ten shot attempts in the fourth quarter, he went four to ten. Did hit a three later in it as well, but it just slows everything down. Man Sabonis looks miserable out there. He just hands the ball to Deroze and goes to the other side. Think, all right, I know you're not passing it back. So enjoyed the pump fakes. Monk was pretty bad, I thought in this one. Then on the flip side, the just went at Sabonis every time with Halliburton and Siakam, and they were getting good shots, either Haliburton getting in the lane and finishing over the top or a pick and pop for Siakam, who would then move the ball. It was just good Pacers basketball, and that looked like the Kings that were used to I thought Kee and Murray played a great game, but otherwise the bench was monstrous for the Pacers. They outscored Sacramento forty six to twelve. Monk went two for fourteen. And I'll throw a little bone here, Jaris Walker fifteen points last night, three threes. He's got three straight games with double digits off the bench. Hasn't had a great season, but he's got some nice flashes that I appreciate.
00:21:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, these Pacers are I mean, they keep on doing this thing where they come back from nowhere. They had the lead, you know, in the second quarter, but then didn't have it until late. That's what they do. Are they miracles? If they keep on doing them over and over and over again.
00:21:53
Speaker 2: I mean, I think it shows how strong their bench is. Yeah, it's a deep team. Yeah, so if the starters are struggling against the other starters, then you bring in that wave of guys and they're all back and healthy. Now for the most part. I know they were missing some guys last night, ironically, no Turner and no Mathron, I think, but they have a lot of guys on that bench for sure.
00:22:09
Speaker 3: Yeah, and Carlisle says, all right, we're gonna match up with the bonus at the five. We're putting Pascal Siakam at the five. They said. Thomas Bryant said, Sakam, Halburton, you do your thing. Halburn had eleven points in the fourth quarter, and then Pascal Siakam hits that three where he kind of pulls out the jazz hands sort of but they're kind of like turned down, so they're like handshack, handshake jazz hands or he shakes them.
00:22:29
Speaker 1: It's a good celebration.
00:22:30
Speaker 2: Yeah. Obie Toppings started at first because he came over and started doing that little dance, and then Suckham got in on it.
00:22:36
Speaker 3: It's a good one. Yeah, it's a good one. It's not seen a lot, not talked about a lot, but yeah, Carlisle just said, all right, we can go small, we can go Topping and seek him at the four or five and we'll get you. And there was a little too much segment basketball for the Kings of this tree said, that's King's ball.
00:22:52
Speaker 2: How about Obie Topping This month of March, he's been really, really good and he changed the energy in this game again. You see it time and time again. At the Pacers scored eleven points in the third quarter alone, hit a bunch of threes in that quarter, had nineteen points, shot seven to eleven from the floor, hit five threes. Guy's a three point shooter, incredibly and just a good month of March. Heah. Thever was twelve four and two in twenty minutes per game, so it's not like you're seeing a lot of time out there. But shot forty six percent from three in those seventeen games in the month of March. That is damn good. Like thirty three is seventy two from three. So he was great. And yeah, Carlo talked about just his energy when he comes in just obviously can shoot here a little bit. Now. Yeah, they went small and it worked and they are now on the brink of clinching a top six seed in the Eastern Conference. The Pacers are. If the Hawks lose tonight to the Blazers, then they've locked it up. So it's very likely they're going to be top six. But Hawks could even make it happen tonight with a loss.
00:23:47
Speaker 3: Hawks hosting the Blazers, what they got to do is call up Jacob Topping from the minor leagues College Park Skyhawks. We got to see up close in personal ol Jacob, who scored a lot of points this year. I'm sure he'll be playing more in the NBA.
00:24:01
Speaker 1: Maybe.
00:24:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, anything else from that one in particular you already brought up, like, Yeah, Haliburton had that big step back three with like a minute twenty to go, and then the in a game where Sucking was not shooting well, was getting good rocks but nothing was dropping. He let that one rip up top after they doubled Haliburton and he let it go. Quinn Buckter was pumped on the call. It was I forget exactly what he said, but he's like, that's that dude, or something like he was like he was like bigging them up because he's like, yeah, man, you gotta shoot that even though you're struggling, like you're wide open and you're a star player, and dragged it home and then the little jazz hands happened.
00:24:33
Speaker 1: Whatever it is, all right, Any Ovens are on the edge of a decision to make here their first round pick is protected one through twelve to the Atlanta Hawks for the Kevin Herder trade. Yeah, Kevin Herder now in the Bulls, of course, not even a Sacramento King. They're currently thirteenth in the ranking, one game up on Phoenix. So it's like it almost behooves the Kings to start losing some games in order to keep their pick, because do you really want to give up a first round pick when your first round pick from this year basically missed the whole season. That hasn't really impressed so far. Like, things are going to be weird for Sacramento. I think during the offseason. I think the bonus is gonna get traded. They're gonna have to figure out what happens with this pick. Darren Fox has already gone like, who's the guy for the Kings? Literally it's de Rozan and Levine without picks. Thank god they got seen that before.
00:25:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's gonna say, thank god they got baseball in Sacramento now.
00:25:24
Speaker 3: No, Yeah, that's right.
00:25:27
Speaker 2: Keep it distracted a little bit.
00:25:29
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a good, good call because the Kings pull off what the Mavericks did a couple of years ago and basically tanked the last couple of weeks so they could get their hands on Derek Lively.
00:25:39
Speaker 2: Yeah, in the draft they said draft too.
00:25:42
Speaker 3: That being said, I mean they are a half game behind the Mavericks that somehow lose games. They get Daniel Gafford back yesterday against the Brooklyn Nets, Anthony Davis doesn't play all that well and they somehow lose that game and they're up on the Phoenix Suns in eleven. So they're who are missing Kevin Durant. So all those teams around him are just losing too. I don't know if you can lose your way out of it, out of the system.
00:26:04
Speaker 1: Right, it almost feels hard to catch Phoenix.
00:26:06
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, no doubt.
00:26:08
Speaker 2: Any other takeaways from any of the other games last night.
00:26:12
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, the Magic Clippers, it was nineteen nineties basketball. Two of the top three defenses, and that's what they were playing out there. James Harden was playing defense man. There was a play in the third quarter where Derek Jones Junior, he fouled Franz Wagner, and so James Harden says.
00:26:29
Speaker 1: Get in here.
00:26:29
Speaker 3: Everybody calls a little team huddle. All five of them come in there and he talks to Derek Jones Junior, and you could see Derek Jones Junior, I got you, I got you to James Harden, who had seven steals in this game, a ridiculous number, and then a couple of possessions later. Derek Jones Junior must have heard it. He must have heard James Harden got encouraged because when Harden missed a shot that guy had he also had just a runway to the rim but had a beautiful put back dunk. So it seems like the Clippers are talking to each other. That's all I got to say about this game. I don't want to get in too much into the l The Clippers look great, but damn do they look great. They had nobody score over twenty one points. But they had four guys you know, they're big three. I'll call them their big three of Norm, Harden and Kawhi plus Zubats who was a monster, all contributing. So they just look like a great team. That's all I got to say about that game.
00:27:19
Speaker 1: Ninety six eighty seven fifteen combined threes, and they both shot under thirty percent from three. If you're one of those people complaining that there's not enough defense and too many three pointers, watch this game and you'll change your mind. I think it's also official that the Thunder won the alex Cruso Josh Giddy trade. Yeah, twenty eight point win for OKC last night forty three point lead, won the previous game by nineteen. Literally the only drama in this game was if Sga was going to be able to continue his twenty point streak. I think he had fourteen at halftime. The Bulls were doubling in like crazy. Had thirteen in the third quarter, finished with twenty seven, did not even play the full third, didn't come back for the fourth quarter as well. Sixty seven straight games for Shay gill Alexander with twenty or more, also finished with twelve assists. Matsis Bozellis, though had four blocks and three of them are on Chat Holmgren, who looks like a guy that's a kid standing on another kid. Oh, I love that, very funny. But Bozillis is good at blocking shots. Man.
00:28:15
Speaker 2: Okay See did improve to twenty eight and one versus the East this season, including fourteen to O at home, and they got one game remaining against opponent from the other conference that's the Pistons. But they've already set the all time record winning percentage wise interconference style. That is unbelievable.
00:28:32
Speaker 1: Did we ever.
00:28:32
Speaker 2: Decide on what we were calling the OKC version of the cavalanche like the Calves have. I know we said thunderclap.
00:28:40
Speaker 1: I like it.
00:28:40
Speaker 2: I think worldwide. Wob was also asking for suggestions. He liked thunderstruck, sure, and then you know, maybe a tornado to go along with the clouds and the lightning and the storm and stuff like that. I like thunderclap the most because that's what they did. In the second quarter. It was like a nine point game, and then it was sixty five to thirty three. It was We're team Thunderclap over here. Yeah, that's weird to say it loud.
00:29:10
Speaker 1: But also the Heat have won five straight games and with the Bulls lost, Miami back up to ninth. Good for the Bulls get back into ten.
00:29:17
Speaker 2: Like it.
00:29:17
Speaker 1: Man, it was weird. It was weird being so good for a second.
00:29:19
Speaker 2: There a wild stat from Statitudes. I saw the Heat became just the third team in NBA history to immediately follow up a ten game losing streak with a five game win streak. You want to hear a crack at the other two teams to have done it. You saw it, Yeah, I.
00:29:34
Speaker 1: Saw, and I and I literally remembered. One of them was the Bulls because of Nikolameritach coming back from getting jacked in the face by Bobby Porters.
00:29:40
Speaker 2: Exactly right, seventeen eighteen, Chicago Bulls did it. And then the other one, for sure. The other one was fairly recent a couple of years ago that I thought maybe, I mean, maybe you saw it. But the other that you could get maybe tasks a team we just talked about that have turned it around, that are gonna maybe win fifty games or very likely going to win fifty games.
00:29:57
Speaker 3: The Houston rock Rocks.
00:29:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, two Rockets. They lost fifteen straight and then they won seven.
00:30:04
Speaker 1: Straight twenty two.
00:30:06
Speaker 2: They were bad, yeah right, yeah, but they had that little stretch there was something like, what the hell's going on?
00:30:10
Speaker 3: Here? Was very strange, crazy stats out there, crazy stats. I got a stat for you, Yeah, this is a weird one. Who has made the most corner threes over the last twelve seasons? Which player has made the most?
00:30:21
Speaker 2: Well, corner PJ Tucker.
00:30:24
Speaker 3: It's PJ Tucker. Yeah seriously.
00:30:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, well he just got signed, right.
00:30:28
Speaker 3: But yeah, that's why that's why that stat came up. According to Second Spectrum, he's made seven hundred quarter threes or the last twelve seasons the most in the NBA. During that spin, I guess that's probably true. That's a lot. That's where he stood for a long time, but he just hasn't hit him in a couple of years. Yeah.
00:30:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, he must add a hugely. Man. I remember back in the day, Brent Barry and the NBA TV offices just strumming the guitar PJ. Tucker's open. That was like twelve years ago. I'll tell you what, I started singing. It wouldn't sing it on TV, but he would sing it in the locker room.
00:31:01
Speaker 3: Yeah, and that's behind the scenes, that's right.
00:31:04
Speaker 2: The fact is stuck with people too, because I was just playing pickup Hoops on Sunday morning and some guy mentioned all I do is shoot corner threes and somebody said, oh, you're a real PJ. Tucker. I kid you not.
00:31:14
Speaker 3: That's right.
00:31:15
Speaker 2: So I guess maybe we were the last people on earth to know that he would have led that. Yeah, the last twelve years.
00:31:20
Speaker 3: I thought it was weird that PJ. Tucker got signed to a contract, But it ain't really all that long. It's just like he's signed two ten days with the Knicks. Then you're around for the rest of the year. That's allowed, and then next year team option.
00:31:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's not that long. That's keep it for trading purposes, right, Like, we might need this contract to throw into something else, so sign you to an option and then suddenly he's getting paid again.
00:31:42
Speaker 2: How great would it be though, in a playoff game here, you know they need a three and just stick them in the corner. Run it back, man, Let's see if he's got one more left. All right, let's go from talking about the games to talking about tanking because the athletics Mike Workinoff had a great article up the other day wondering about, you know, can the NBA fix its big tank and problem here? Even is this a problem? Maybe we could even debate. He wrote, nothing can match the chaotic energy of the NBA's great tank. The race to the bottom is as good as ever. Seven teams jostling with one another for positioning in the lottery. And yeah and yeah, if you fire up Tankathon, you know we got we got some bad teams right now, and they're getting creative even how they're losing these games, you know, especially in the Raptor's case, it's hey, start all the guys league ain't looking in your direction, and then just sit them early in the fourth quarter and maybe try and throw the away a game, throw away the game. But within that article, Vorkanoff had five ideas to potentially fix tanking. I wanted to throw them at you guys, throw them at everyone here on YouTube and the podcast listeners and talk about them. So I'll give you each of Mike Vorkanoff's ideas and we can break them down. And you've heard a lot of these before. But the first one extend the lottery drawn to determine the top eight picks, So the NBA could let the lottery drawing determine the top eight picks in the draft instead of just the top four, so basically flatten the odds even further than the NBA has taken measures to do over whatever it was the last ten years or so. Right now, the three worst teams each own a fourteen percent chance on the number one pick. What if the top four teams each had a ten percent chance and the teams outside the top eight had their odds increased as well. So that's the idea here, just like flattening more and maybe there's less really leaning into being bad because it's not much of an incentive once you're just one of the bad teams. Your thoughts top eight.
00:33:41
Speaker 1: Seemed too punitive to me, where if you have the worst record in the league, you could drop to the ninth pick. That's how you get stuck being the worst team in the league. Ye year after year, Like it was a bummer for the Pistons to keep finishing with the worst record, but at least they were picking fifth. They got Asar Thompson. Yeah, Jaye and Ivy these are both good players. Obviously Ivy's hurt tom And was to start the season, but like, those are good guys. The ninth pick, like you might not even get an.
00:34:05
Speaker 2: All Star, right, so that's your biggest concerne. Yeah, so really bad teams could drop very far.
00:34:11
Speaker 1: Because there's always going to be bad teams.
00:34:12
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I totally agree. If you want to be bad, you'll still drop to the bottom eight. You'll drop you'll be bad enough to get to those bottom eight. So I think when we get further into this article of working on wrote the extension of those percentages, whether we just level it out completely flat between one and thirty, I mean that makes a little more sense about that's spooky. Yeah, that's a little scary. We're getting back into the Sequil O'Neal era where anybody gets the number one pick and lick could literally be handed out to the Boston fricking Celtics, which is a little too scary.
00:34:46
Speaker 2: Okay, well that's why he started with that one first. I think, yeah, that's just how you write an article right now, all right. Second idea here to fixed tanking. Get rid of the weighted lottery altogether, so every non playoff team would have the same odds, a one in fourteen chance. That's a seven point one percent chance at the top pick. That's the idea here. If you are not in the playoffs, you're in the lottery and you got all the same chance. Now, the downside, he writes, is that it may keep losing teams in a position where they can't draw on the top of the draft talent to get them out of this cycle of being bad. Sure, but then people push back and go, well, a lot of these teams are there every year after it is as it is, so it's like they're just bad at running an organization and bad at maybe drafting talent or evaluating talent and then growing talent, so like stop rewarding them so to speak, with these like higher picks, and maybe this's is better for these teams that are like had a bad year, maybe because of injury, maybe not that they might get a chance at the number one pick. Your thoughts on getting rid of the weighted lottery altogether?
00:35:51
Speaker 1: I think it's awesome for TV to watch a lottery where literally any team could win. Bad for ping pong ball manufacturers because you would only need one for each team, right, So that's a problem. My biggest issue though, is that this would encourage tanking from teams higher up in the standings, Like we're talking about the Sacramento Kings. Should they keep tank to keep the twelfth pick just so they'll have a pick?
00:36:15
Speaker 3: Right?
00:36:15
Speaker 1: It wouldn't even be a question if this were the case and lottery odds were flat, Like, why would you want to go into the play in and either play against the Rockets or you might have to play the thunder. You're gonna play a sixty five win team in the first round, or have a chance at drafting Cooper Flag not even a choice, So that to me is the problem is that like the teams that are right on the edge of the playoffs, they would have no incentive to try and make the playoffs.
00:36:36
Speaker 2: That's interesting, Zach Carper disagrees with you wholeheartedly because he thinks that that would not be a problem because to quote him here, to convince ownership groups that they should bail out of potential playoff revenue from a seven point one percent chance of hitting the top pick doesn't sound like the smartest business decision. So that's Harper's reason. He's like, yeah, he hears you, but like more, I'm not they're gonna be like, no, get into the playoffs, and like, we make tons of money with those gates, and that's better than a seven percent chance at a number one pick. Seven point one percent chance. That's that's what he thinks. But I hear you as well, t K. Where are you fall on that? Do you think this would be an issue or do you like it?
00:37:17
Speaker 3: I think it, Like we've sort of been implying here, a lot of it comes down to the gms in the front office whether or not they can make a good draft pick. And that's where where it all what it all boils down to NBA teams and organizations realized, Yeah, top two, top three picks could be extremely great. But then what it comes down to is you're gonna make a nice pick at eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, So it goes hand in hand.
00:37:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, like all of the Hall of Famers are not number picks one, two and three.
00:37:47
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:37:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh absolutely, Zach's wrong. We just saw this happen with the Mavericks. They tanked just to keep a top ten pick, and they like they had the chance. Can we go for the play in tournament or do we try and get the pick? And that's for the tenth pick, So I think obviously Zach is wrong. No offense to this.
00:38:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, and the whole thing is owners do love money, which he's right about that.
00:38:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, but you know what's going to make you more money having Cooper flag next season?
00:38:12
Speaker 2: Yeah? Seven chance at it.
00:38:16
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's the thing. The percentage is wise. And then the matters were fined. May they may like money, but they were fine because they tanked games if I'm not incorrect, and went.
00:38:26
Speaker 1: To the finals with Derekly they get two games, Like, you tell me, it's worth it for the Sacramento Kings to have two home playoff games versus forty one home playoff games with a star The next thing.
00:38:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, and the play in tournament definitely changes the equation of all this too. If if this was like the old ways, the seventh and eight seeds are just the seventh and eight seeds and they're getting two playoff games. Yeah, okay, maybe that's it, But you're right, you know, you're the ninth and tenth seeds, Like you may not even have a home game when it's all said and done. You very likely won't unless you get in like fight your way into actual playoffs. Okay, next one here I did. Number three. The lottery odds are based off multiple years of records, not just the last one. This is at the end the WNBA does. So teams in the lottery have their odds based on their record over a two season span rather than just the immediate season. That changes the stakes of deciding whether to tank for a year, especially if you just made the playoffs the year before or you weren't flat out awful. So while some teams still might commit to the multi year tank, there is a fear of doing that for too many years, of like, you know, losing your fan base. Really because the idea is like people can put up for like one year of like leaning into a tank to take a crack at getting a high pick. But it's like when you start doing it two years, three years, it's like people start tuning you out, and there's a negative connotation to that. So what do you think about this taking the WNBA page from their playbook and sort of doing a weighted thing here.
00:39:54
Speaker 3: I was intrigued at first, but MBA front offices will be smart enough eventually to just start punting multiple seasons. I mean, we basically see it. What the Utah Jazz right now, they're they're they're terrible year after year after year with the idea that we can get a number one pick. So I think you'll see I totally get it's difficult for a fan base to see a team saying we are going to be bad in the following year, Oh we got a renew season. Seas this team is bad and they're going to be bad again. I mean, yes, over and over and over again. To see a team be bad, it's it's painful. That being said, I think organizations will start doing it. I think that's that's the scenario.
00:40:38
Speaker 1: This one was just a little convoluted to me, I don't understand how you get the best odds for the number one pick. Are you the worst team in the league for two straight seasons and then.
00:40:46
Speaker 2: You get accumulative record?
00:40:48
Speaker 1: Oh well, in that case, people aren't going to be changing anything. Like you can deal with two to three years and being the worst team. Everybody does it? Like how long did the Sixers tank for? The thunder went back to back seasons tanking and shutt and shake guilds Alexander down at the end of the season, Like, you'll just commit to it for two to three years.
00:41:04
Speaker 3: Yeah, Like the Jazz are going to lose sixty games this season for the first time in franchise history. Painful stuff. That being said, they could do it, yeah, for a couple of years. Yeah, is it even more painful? Frankly because okay, more bad years than you'd anticipate.
00:41:20
Speaker 2: How about this little tweak which Forkinoff recommended. You could tweak the rules to let teams into the lottery regardless of whether they make the playoffs, which could create positive incentives for franchises like the Detroit Pistons, who turned it around this season, but they're still tied for the seventh worst cumulative record since the start of last season. Right, So if we were taking the WNBA thing, they don't take the play like if you're in the playoffs, like you're out of the running, Like you're not getting a high draft lottery pick. But he's saying maybe a tweak it. It's like you're actually incentivizing those teams that like turn it around, maybe had a bad injury, locked the one year, or maybe just like got good with a new coach and finally some life of that team. I don't mind that tweet, but you guys overall think teams would just lean into instead of a one year tank job, it'd be a multi year tank job.
00:42:08
Speaker 1: Well, aren't all most tank jobs multi year tank jobs? At this point, I think it's more unusual for it to be like the Grizzlies ended up in the lottery last year, the Pelicans are ending up in the lottery this year. This is like one year occurrences.
00:42:21
Speaker 2: Right, The Sixers will be there this year, six.
00:42:23
Speaker 1: Ers year there this year.
00:42:24
Speaker 3: Right.
00:42:25
Speaker 1: Whereas like the teams that are at the top of the draft currently, these are teams that have been bad for years. So wouldn't that continue to be the case.
00:42:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, and they continue to be bad for years until they get a great pick and then their team turns around.
00:42:40
Speaker 2: I guess, yeah, get yeah, And it's a tougher pill to swallow for your fan base and all that. Yeah, like over three, four, five years. But yeah, if you're in that unfortunately you're a bad team. You're a bad team, and you also suck at drafting. You're going to continue to be a bad team. That's the whole part of this. Like we are really talking about teams like the Jazz who two years prior we're good, they were actually decent and then traded away everyone to get into this whole scenario where like you're actually tanking and you know, the Raptors getting crafty. Here, we've seen the Nets trade away guys. It's like it's like, yeah, there are bad teams, and that's one thing, but then there are teams that are like, oh, we want to be bad because we're incentivized to be bad to help our chances at the odds to get obviously a franchise changing player.
00:43:23
Speaker 1: But in this case, like the longer you're bad, the better your odds get.
00:43:26
Speaker 2: Right, Well, it's just two seasons, just the two yeah, yeah, it's over.
00:43:30
Speaker 3: Too, like if you were a bad five three years ago that it has nothing to do with the calculation.
00:43:35
Speaker 2: It's only a two.
00:43:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, But say you get the fifth pick in that draft. The next year, you're like, well we didn't get the number one pick, we better be bad again.
00:43:42
Speaker 3: Well, I mean that's basically what the Pistons have been, you know. And from nineteen twenty they won twenty games. The next season twenty, the next season twenty three, next season seventeen, next season fourteen. When they keep getting even though they're that bad, they keep getting the number five pick over and over again.
00:43:54
Speaker 1: Well they got the number one pick too, yeah, yeah, they were trying to win. The Pistons were trying to win games last year.
00:44:00
Speaker 3: Last year yeah yeah, when they were four, had fourteen wins. Yeah, the unfortunately five straight bad seasons.
00:44:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, idea number four. Then the two worst teams get the number four and number five picks. Okay, hear me out here. It sounds crazy at first. Okay, the two worst teams who are they right now? The Jazz and the Wizards. So they would just get obviously where they would end. Maybe you'd have to do a tiebreaker or flip a coin, but they would get the number fourth pick and the number fifth pick. And here's why. If the goal is to create incentives for teams to not be horrible and to try and win games in March in April, then ensuring that the worst teams don't get the best lottery odds is one way to do it. So if this run place right now, the Wizards and Jazz would be they would be actually desperate to try and win more games right now to avoid getting stuck with one of those worst records to get out of the fourth and fifth if they want to get better odds to win the higher pick. So they would be trying to catch up to the Charlotte Hornets, I believe right now who won last night. I think they have nineteen wins. Now, well, what do we think about this one? This is sort of fascinating because it flips it on its head. It's like, at a certain point, we have the worst teams at the end of the season, trying not to be the worst, like get out of that spot, because otherwise you're just gonna you're gonna have a good pick still, but it's gonna be in the fourth and fifth spot. Tikes started here.
00:45:23
Speaker 1: So wouldn't you just try to have the third worst record every Yearah?
00:45:27
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, isn't that any better?
00:45:29
Speaker 1: The Hornets have nineteen wins to sixteen. I think it would solve tanking for like the last week of the season.
00:45:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what I think this does. But isn't that fine? Aren't we making these games? I guess more exciting in a weird way, and teams would be trying to win these games for a lot of these crap teams at the bottoms.
00:45:46
Speaker 1: So yeah, I mean, like Utah, Charlotte came down to the buzzer last night. Kyle Philipowski had a great run for three, hit it off the glass, Keante George rebound underneath the rim, missed the layup. They were trying to win, but they just couldn't win bad. So I don't know, were you watching Charlotte Utah? Would you have been watching if it mattered for who's getting the fourth and fifth versus the first pick?
00:46:09
Speaker 2: No? But again, come on, you can't deny that teams aren't tanking. There are bad I.
00:46:14
Speaker 1: Chually don't think tanking is that big of a deal. Okay, well I don't think there's that big of a problem. We talk about this during the last like four weeks of the season, right because unfortunately, twenty teams are playing for something and ten teams aren't. Like there's until every team makes the playoffs, Like, there's no way around it. This is more of a basketball problem than it is an NBA specific problem because one player changes things so much. For a franchise, you got to get the one player.
00:46:41
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a star driven league, there's no doubt about it. So dropping to four or five, I mean it just creates a lottery for other teams, Like, yes, you can be top bomb three in this scenario. If you're the worst two, drop to four or five. So then three through fourteen, let's say.
00:46:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, to have their odds off of getting the number one pick.
00:47:01
Speaker 3: Yeah, with the hope it like so you're basically saying they're not racing to be the worst, racing to be very clear games at.
00:47:09
Speaker 2: The end, to actually compete. Yeah, that's the ironic parts. I've never heard this one, so I was at least fascinating.
00:47:15
Speaker 3: I Mean, the lottery odds are all fun. That's that's the interesting part is what you do with these lottery odds, because again, the pistons. Let's say last year, fourteen and sixty eight drop to number five. They get Ron Holland at number five. I hope he's going to be a great NBA player, But they drop off. It's like what becomes of these It's all just about pig pung balls. Because teams want to be teams want to get the number one, So do what I think the only other possibility. I think the interesting thing from Vorkanov is changing the lottery odds, extending the lottery odds to determine the top eight picks, as that first idea was extend the lottery drawing to determine the top eight picks, or go a little deeper, go to the fourteen where everybody sort of has the exact flat numb Yeah right, yeah, because.
00:47:59
Speaker 2: Then you're not incentive to like race to the bottom and have more losses. Yeah, where were got the playoffs?
00:48:05
Speaker 3: You got the equal amount as the other thirteen teams.
00:48:07
Speaker 2: I think that's but like Trey said, then we might have teams actually trying to purposely avoid the playoffs. Sarach Carper doesn't believe that would be the case, but people obviously disagree on that. One final idea, let's get it out here, get rid of the draft, just chuck it out. You can't tank if there's nothing to tank for now. Vork writes that the league just could get rid of it and allow each team a capped amount of money it can spend on incoming players each offseason. That would put agency back into the hands of the players and allow teams to define their rookie classes however they want. So we would basically get like almost like a rookie free agency here, if you want to call it that, and where everybody and how you manage your money and all that, and even the players dictating almost where they would want to go. And I think there's a lot of pros to that, and I think there could be a lot of CONTs to that. But what do you think of just abolishing the draft altogether.
00:49:00
Speaker 3: I think something that would be comparable to this would be shortening the NBA season to solve it all so you don't have getting away from tanking would be a result of just having fewer games to play, because you just can't bomb as many games. You have to actually play harder. I think that's that's a different way of doing this.
00:49:22
Speaker 2: So we lopped off at least a month of the regular I think it diminishes the buzz about it and the talk about it. Yeah, I still think there are teams that are going to get crafty at being bad and be assent advice to get the number one.
00:49:37
Speaker 3: Yeah, a sixty game season is way different.
00:49:40
Speaker 2: I think, Well, we keep dreaming and keep saying it, so I don't know why we keep doing it to ourselves. What do you think I getting rid of the draft?
00:49:47
Speaker 1: I think it's great for workers' rights. I don't think it's very good for small markets because even if there is a cap on how much teams can offer, money wise, there is money to be made off the court, and you're making more money in a place like New York or LA or like Cooper Flag. You think he would maybe want to sign with the Celtics right like, I don't know. I think it becomes the nil era. In college, we got four number one seats in the Final four, and they're saying the mid majors can't compete anymore because their best players get poached by the big teams. You know, they don't have the continuity. I think that's exactly what would happen in the NBA as well.
00:50:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, vork wrote quote it could force teams to be more competitive, not just because there's no need to tank anymore, but because it would want to present itself as a strong landing spot in recruiting incoming players. This slurity goes to what you're saying about. Maybe it becomes the nil. There's a reason top high school recruits don't want to go to losing programs. Would that be so different in the NBA If this entire rookie class gets to pick or want to pick where they go and they're like, I don't want to go play for the Hornets, you know, what have they done or you know the last decade, there would be that Maybe I guess you could argue that's a good thing. Maybe not. Anyway, fun ideas from borkinoff. Are there any other ones you like or anything else from this article you want to touch on? Not dust rules all right, I think are the way to do it. Actually, all non playoff teams after the All Star break, whoever has the most wins get the best odds. Yeah, I've seen this idea. So it's like, okay, so talk that out after the All Star break. We almost like not reset, but it's like now you want to win, yeah, and get the games. You want to get victories in the second half.
00:51:22
Speaker 1: Well, I would argue in the first half of the season, you also want to win, yes, but you'll keep wanting to win. You keep wanting to win, there's no incentive to lose. Yeah, yeah, yeah, flip it on its head. Yeah, yeah, that's a popular one. How do you feel about that one?
00:51:34
Speaker 3: Well, I'm just looking up what Yanni said about European players and how they want to go to big markets like Luca going to la is good for everybody, good for the entire world. Yeah, and that's something that could be a result of getting rid of the draft. Bigger players, bigger markets, that type of thing. So Ya would be happy, I guess, because yeah, it's just said, you know, it's something new for Europe and how they get to see their guys go to big franchises and like people were definitely saying about Yeahestet of Kumbo, why you want to play in Milwaukee? But but he went there and loves it, so.
00:52:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, and he's and this is a per like he's drafted, what do you go fifteenth? So it's like this is the it is the funny part of all this and maybe goes back to what you're saying, Trey, like is it a really big issue when you think about it, Like, yeah, you're gonna want Cooper Flag. Yeah, And these teams are incentivized to help their chances to get it, And if you're a bad team, then you'd be silly right now current structure to not do what the Jazz are doing, to not do what the Wizards are doing, and like, okay, give us a fourteen percent chance, like he completely changes everything if he pans out. But there are also really really good players that you're gonna find two through thirty, I guess, or at least in the lottery that can be changers or outside the lottery, I guess. And honest's case, well it's here for me.
00:52:49
Speaker 1: The best player in the league is not even a first round draft pack.
00:52:52
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, right right.
00:52:54
Speaker 1: So if you're good, it doesn't matter why you're drafting.
00:52:57
Speaker 2: Let's hear from you out there, guys, what do you think isn't an issue? And if we need to fix it, what's the best solution get rid of it? Change the the odds like flat knit, Like we said, just if you're a bad team, you're in the lottery. You got a seven point one percent chance. It could be fun too. That would be great TV, no doubt about that.
00:53:15
Speaker 1: That's the most exciting.
00:53:16
Speaker 2: I mean going nuts right now, like, oh my god, the Raptors could win, but like we weren't.
00:53:20
Speaker 1: We weren't even trying to fix tanking last year, you know, because there was not a number one surefire prospect, so it wasn't even a nast year. Yeah, we got a bad team that like the Pistons just couldn't win last year, Wizards couldn't win last year, and it was just like, Okay, we'll see what happens at the lottery's when the year Cooper flag is available. So yeah, teams want Cooper flag. Imagine the webby year. Yeah right, if you had a flat lottery odds, you would have like maybe five teams trying to win the championship.
00:53:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, good point. All right, let's uh, let's give you a little pick them update because we played our final pick them game last night. We're not going to do it for the month of April, short month in the regular season. We don't do it in the postseason. And uh, you know, we got some spring right coming up here. Basically, what I'm getting that is like the three of us are barely going to be in this classic factory all together for a lot of shows here in April, so it is done.
00:54:10
Speaker 3: To start April, then the playoffs start, will be cooking.
00:54:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, don't you worry about the postseason.
00:54:14
Speaker 3: Or even a play. And we love the play and no tanking, but.
00:54:19
Speaker 2: We're not doing pick them. But I wanted to crunch the numbers see how everybody did this season, and here it is. We were all in the forties. Trey a nice winning record forty nine and forty four overall, I with last night's victory, got above five hundreds. That was huge for me. I had the Celtics to cover. So I'm forty seven and forty six task just under five hundred, forty five and forty eight. And Esh, who yes, has to pay off his march pick Them loss. Thank god he finally lost a month because overall he has the worst record forty two and fifty one for Esh. So if you have an idea for what should do to pay off his march, let us know. But yeah, you see some of our fun uh you know, pick and payoffs there on the screen, Tassa sitting on the can we have a pickle guy. Way back to start season, I had the pumpkin Pie task outside. That was a fun week, and then I did the Interstellar in the bookshelf challenge as well. So yeah, what can esh do? What can beat those? So funny though, when it was all said and done, like three of us were within four games.
00:55:30
Speaker 1: They know what they're doing. I know they're doing with those sports books. Huh.
00:55:34
Speaker 2: Are really quite good at it, all right?
00:55:36
Speaker 1: They keep winning somehow.
00:55:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, three important games on tonight. There's more than three games, but the three important ones Warriors Grizzlies important when you're looking at obviously the fifth sixth seed, as we talked about, that's at eight o'clock Sun's Bucks. Son's gotta win, try and get in the damn playing bucks. Obviously they're fighting for their life. That one's on TNT, and then Wolves Nuggets follows that one on TNT. Those are the three most games. We'll be back tomorrow to talk about them. Appreciate you joining us. Hit the light button, subscribe five star ratings and reviews if you're a podcast listener. Until then, Clipper Bros.
00:56:10
Speaker 1: You heard it here first have a great time. Turn up. Love you guys awesome.
00:56:14
Speaker 3: Thanks for joining us. And remember, I gotta go get that banana peel because I've had a hair You ever get a hair just stuck to your hands, Like if your hands are wet, especially and you find a stray loose hair gets on your hands, it just gets stuck. And I want a banana peel. Just I'm gonna start rubbing banana peel on my hands in the morning so hair doesn't get stuck. Because it's happened two days in a row. It's been very aggravating. I've been at the gym. May my hands a yeah, because my hands are on the floor at the gym, we're doing a match, we're getting after it, and then I all of a sudden there's a hair on my hand. I just can't get rid of it. But my hands are sticky. Well, banana peel. Change that? Well, moving or changing the draft lottery members, changed tanking? Probably not. That's all I gotta say.
00:57:03
Speaker 2: I'm Race. The eight People