บทถอดความฉบับเต็มของ What's at stake for the Nets + how the Pelicans and T-Wolves have made things scary

same way they're running sets. They're running the running plays to get open the nets. Just don't do that on either end of the floor. And what I mean by that is you just see a lack of cohesion. You see a lack of chemistry, you see a lack of just like ball move, you see just a lack of togetherness that you just that I just don't get with other really great teams. The Warriors have this mentality, this system. The Suns have this mentality, this system. The Celtics have this culture, this mentality, this system that has now been ingrating in them after one great season of basketball, and I don't see that in Brooklyn. Brooklyn is every possession down the floor. And this is why I partly blame Steve Nasher this series. Carsons. It's just like, this's been two years and I know that you have two of the best isolation weapons in basketball. There's no flow, there's no women's basketball, and this is not a distant Brooklyn women's basketball has more flow, more set offense, more plays then the Brooklyn Nets. Like, I guess what I'm just getting at is I think you have to I think you have to move away from the superstar formula. What I mean by that is just you gotta play as a team, and it feels so cliche, it feels so stereotypical. I feel like that's what's been the biggest difference thus far that I mean, this is the most flustered that I've ever seen Kevin Rant. We'll get into that in a minute, But I don't know, dude, this Nets team does not play as a team. And I don't know if you can put that on KD on Kyrie, I don't know if you put it on Steve Nash. You've got to build a culture here in Brooklyn and make this a unit thing. I don't do you feel the same way. That's interesting Framming. I think certainly it's a very weird culture. And obviously it has been so overwhelmingly dictated by the players, and they are two very distinct NBA personalities who I think a lot of people would probably describe as a bit volatile and unpredictable at times and perhaps overly emotional in their own And obviously James Harden was a third introduction to that dynamic and that just didn't work out. Ben Simmons, whenever he sees the floor, will be another guy who sort of fits that archetype. And so when you talk about establishing culture, that is a unique dynamic because Steve Nash is there. But when Katie and Kyrie openly talk about, well, we don't really need a coach, I think it's pretty clear what the hierarchy truly is. At the same time, I wouldn't sit here and say, well, Kevin Durant is not a good basketball leader, because I don't think that's necessarily true. I mean, obviously he has been the guy on some all time great teams and consistently year in year out for his prime at least a contender. Now, has he always been the primary leader? Probably not. I mean, it's tough to speak to those things because you're not on the locker room. But I don't think anybody viewed him as the emotional leader of the Warriors. I don't think you could have even argued he was top two. I think that's clearly Stephan Draymond, but best player. And so there's obviously a dynamic of leading by example. But it's tough here because I do think you look at a lot of the role guys around the two lead stars, and those guys commit to their jobs and I think that they do them pretty well. And that's been something I've liked about the Nets all year and last year, even if the supporting cast names didn't live up to other teams, the guys went out there and they played really hard, and they were smart and versall. When you look at what Bruce Brown has done, He's been phenomenal in this series, and you get good production out of Seth Curry and dragicch and I don't think anybody questions how good of a role guy Patty Mills is when he's playing his best, and you look at what Cam Thomas can grow into. I think that really an important dynamic to explore here, and something that is tough to do when again you're looking at consecutive seasons of such disappointment is that the Nets have played three highly competitive games against what is probably the best him in the East right now. I mean, I would say that the Celtics are playing at the level of the best team in the East when they have thirty something million dollars of CAP just not on the floor. I mean, that's a devastating actually fifty because Joe Harris isn't out there, and Joe Harris is so valuable as truly one of the greatest shooters we have ever seen play this game. He is such a release valve within an offense it makes it so hard to help off of other guys and so like that just has to be put into context here. Right If you are losing very tight games and Kevin Durant is shooting thirty six percent from the field, and you don't have two of easily your top five players and guys who feel incredibly valuable roles just towards winning basketball. Harris again fitting into the flow of an offense so easily Simmons in theory will see whenever he actually gets out on the floor. But the value of the perimeter defense and the playmaking and just sort of the ability to fit in as a score offensively and not demand a ton of touches if he embraces the right role, like those things would be so valuable to winning basketball. The Nets are still pretty close in some ways without playing their best and missing big guys, That's what I'm saying. So it's such a strange dynamic because I don't think people will look at this situation and say, you can stand pat when you are on the back half of the primes of Katie and Kyrie. But at the same time, it's like, what are they really gonna do? I mean, they have no cat flexibility. I think they're top five players fully healthy, are outstanding and can go to tow with just about any top five in the league. And then you look at the value of bench guys like Patty Mills and Bruce Brown if they can bring him back and Cam Thomas on that rookie deal as he continues to progress, and it's like, why couldn't the Nets next year be right back in that contending conversation. They

can. It's all about the continuity, what I mean. It's talk about getting these guys actually on the floor. Like I feel like that's something that people really underrate about the NBA today, And like in terms of just like I was getting at, like cohesion, working together. They need Ben Simmons out here, and that's what makes this situation so difficult, Like you already outlined Carson, a guy like Ben Simmons. They personally like Kyrie, personally like KD. It's hard. It's really hard to balance personalities, emotions like that and personality types like these guys. But they just need to be on the floor, like next season, if the Nets commit to this core, if they commit to Ben Simmons, and Ben Simmons is out there on the floor and this team plays together, like I don't see why they couldn't, But they need to establish that report. They need guys to be healthy because I mean, think about this man, all the injuries that they're just saying to the stars too, like that mattered Katie missing time out, Kyrie missing time out to the COVID this year, Like they need them to be fully healthy. They just need to build report and I think this team can do it. Let me ask you this, do you think that I don't know how like rules work with him already being moved this season, Like if you're the Nets, would you explore moving Ben Simmons? Do you think there's anything on the table that you could get for Ben Simmons. I find that really hard to imagine. I mean, it seems to me like they are committed to making that work. He was the centerpiece of the hardened deal at the end of the day. I mean, obviously they got the picks and they got Seth and they got Drummond, but like Ben Simmons was the major selling point there, and he apparently is still committed to trying to play with them. Obviously, the reports are ever confusing. Now we have the reintroduction by Wog of mental hurdles here after it was like supposedly a physical setback with his back when he was supposed to come back for Game four. It's so strange, But I still look at this team and I think yes, they are not constructed like most other groups. Right, what he's gonna say something brutal about Ben Simmons, can feel it is Ben Simmons Beta. Listen, man, he doesn't have the most Alpha tendencies or Sigma tendencies. Yes, are you guys familiar with Sigma males? They're sweeping the nation. I'm not gonna call Ben Simmons a beta. I don't know you can if you want you hate him. I think Ben Simmons is a little all right, Well, anyways, I was making a basketball point before we took our Ben Simmons Beta break, and the point is like, yeah, the Nets are obviously gonna give. They're gonna make certain basketball sacrifices, right, Like, this is never gonna be a great defensive team. They're never gonna have a really high caliber big, right, given their current personnel, They're not going to have like a smaller guard who is a really high level defensive player. But I still think you take this healthy team next year. They have unbelievable isolation shop making. They have unbelievable pure shooting. Two of probably the five best three point shooters to ever live, in my opinion, genuinely, if you're talking about just off the catch Joe Harris and Seth Curry, a do it all guy like Ben Simmons, good depth, and so it's just like with the outstanding perimeter defensive Simmons with the combination of pretty good perimeter defense and some helper in protection of Katie with good effort from the role guys, with just solid play from their bigs, which I do think they can get, it's like the offense is going to be overwhelming. And so I'm okay with some of their weaknesses because I think they overcome it in other areas. The problem right now is I mean, maybe you would look at this and say they need another shot creator because it's like so much attention has been dedicated to Katie and Kyrie, but it's been by such a great defense, and I don't know, man, I don't really think that's true. Like this offense when Katie and Kyrie played during the regular season, an offensive rating of one twenty something. I mean, just to add on that point, I have another number courtesy of Sean Grande. Dude, the Celtics are the NBA's best defense, allowing one point zero six points per possession all season long. The Nets have blown past that every single every single game in this series and they're still up. Like I just think that accentuates the point about the defense, Like if they were just slightly better on that end, I mean, this could be a dramatically different series. Like it's not like the Celtics are shutting down Brooklyn. Brooklyn is still getting off good offense and getting buckets against a really dominant defense, like they were playing maybe some of the best offensive basketball we've seen against Boston all season long. They just have not been carrying it on that end on defense, and it's not good enough. I mean, it's not overwhelming. Right, Katie has legitimately struggled over a three game fretsh in a way that we have rarely seen from him and the Nets offense overall. It's just it has to be overwhelming. That has always been the equation, and that's why when it came to the Harden Simmons deal, my approach was, it's worth it to just be the most overwhelming offense ever and hold on to James Harden if there were not just insurmountable personality differences, which it seems like there were, and that was just a totally broken relationship because that's always been their formula. Like even with Ben Simmons, it's just gonna be like can we eke out being a back half of the top ten defense? Like right there, just like a solidly above average defense, and then can we be the best offense in basketball? That's their formula and that remains it. So they've needed to be better, There's no doubt about that. Kevin Durant has needed to be a lot better. And go ahead, well, just he's playing he's playing hesitant. This is the most hesitant and scared I've ever seen Kad like I alluded

to earlier, and what I mean by that, it's like he's Katie's the best shooter, one of the best shooters ever. Right, So when he takes these tough pull ups with guys in this face and he pulls up quick, it's like it's never a bad shot. But he does look rushed. He looks like out of rhythm, out of flow in this offense, and I mean, you fully credit Boston for that, and he just like he's rushing into shots. He's Katie is not a value ever really got down hill at a super high level. Right, but even now he's settling for that, you know, like ten to fifteen foot jumper instead of like getting down to the rack. He's Katie is like, I don't know if somebody used this before from stealing this, Katie doesn't, like you see, Hi, ghosts a little bit bit out there, like the Celtics genuinely have him plustered. He didn't take a shot in the final eleven minutes of Game three, like yeah, after making one field goal in the second half of Game two, exactly like the Celtics fully flustered KD in a way that I never thought. I never thought Katie was effectable like this as a score, ye, I mean, I guess another big picture question. I don't want to get up a big tangent, but like, do you look at this as a stain on Katie's resume? Man? I mean, it's probably the worst playoff series of his career up to this point, right that I can think of. I mean, twenty two a game on thirty six and a half percent shooting, with more turnovers than assists, and having kind of just disappeared when his team has needed him most. That's pretty much completely unprecedented for a guy who I think is arguably the greatest score ever and I think the most skilled score ever, most versatile score ever. It's really hard for me to say that this is not like pretty damning. I mean, obviously, people are so prone to overreacting, right, Like people will look at a three game sample size and say that it disqualifies somebody from a given discussion, like, oh, Katie can't be the best player in the world. Now, that doesn't make sense to me. Charles Barkley comes out and says that he's never been the guy on a team that has won it all, and it's like, okay, well, he was the best player on those two Warriors teams. Like, I just think that although it was close, it tended to become pretty clear in the biggest moments. Last year. He put on an absolutely superhuman effort. I mean, he averaged thirty four a game throughout those playoffs on just mind blowing efficiency with a team that was completely outmatched, didn't have Kyrie, had Harden, who was pretty much useless off of one leg. And so it's like, are we gonna look at a four game sample size and say, well, Kevin Durant isn't who he thought he was. Of course not, but there is still a way to acknowledge that by his standards, this is really really bad. This is really bad. And when you are thirty three years old and you are possibly in the waning years of being on a contender caliber team, yeah, that reflects poorly on you. At the same time, Kevin Durant is the reason this is a contender caliber team. Nobody else would look at this roster whose third and fourth best players are Seth Curry and I mean, who do you think is four? Like I would say Patty Mills. He hasn't had a particularly impactful series, but during the regular season, I would say it was Patty Mills. I mean, Bruce Brown has actually been the third best player in this specific series. Yeah, I'd probably say Seth and Patty. I mean, so that's just like again, Katie is the reason that we view them as we do, and he's the reason that they were thirty six and nineteen when he played this year, and nine and eighteen when he didn't. All those things can be true, though, and you can still say you have not played up to your expectations at all. I don't want to get again copy and Pacemill Carson just said about the Katie situation. How people will take a three game size or take a one game sample size and blow it out of proportion. I'm not gonna get hyperbolic. I'm not gonna get blasphemous. But people stephen A came on and lambasted Kyrie, you know, saying you just just not dependable. Again, I hate when people overreact like that. Katie did have a really bad game in game three oh seven from Deep. If he doesn't go with seven from Deep, they likely win this game. He also had a poor game. We need to recognize that it hasn't been in a glowing series for either of these two guys. Again, full credit goes to the Boston defense and how they've been playing them overheaging on screens, double teaming them, just playing relentless. I mean, I think this is a stain on Kyrie too, Like I don't want to just let him off the book, like it just stained on both of them. But I don't think it disqualifies them from everything. If you had asked me coming into the playoffs, I may have said that Katie was the best player on the planet. I may have said that Kad was the guy that I would have wanted genuinely over any other player in these playoffs. I may have said that I would have wanted Kevin Durant coming into these playoffs more than any other player in basketball. It's a stain, for sure, it's a condemnment. But so are you saying that this has changed your outlook? Like? Would you no longer is Katie the guy that I would want? Yeah, that's a really good question, I think. I mean, honestly, I think I might say Yannis. Now, I mean, I know the bucks have been up and down. I might go Yannis. I might say Embid, those are probably one and two for me. Yeah, I might still go Yokich. It's been a bad series, but Yoga just love it for me. Yeah, I mean, Yoga's has had thirty five plus in the last few games. Are you in agreement? Is this changed? Well? I Katie wouldn't have been my choice before I had Katie three when I did my best players alive TikTok, And I do think there's an argument for a handful of guys. Is the best player alive right now? Honestly, it's crazy because even though we're seeing it, we're seeing Katie legitimately affected, it still feels like if you extend the

sample size and like in a vast majority of matchups, he's still just so so so incredibly difficult to take away offensively, and it's like everybody has a way in which they can be exploited. I mean, we saw Janis humiliated in consecutive postseasons, and I still think his issues creating half court offense for himself. I mean, obviously these guys are unbelievable basketball players, right, but that to me feels bigger than any basketball issue that Kevin Durant has. I mean, he's going up against the best defense in basketball that has an unbelievable one on one matchup and is willing to dedicate multiple defenders and apply a ton of ball pressure, and it does seem like they're in his head right now. He's not comfortable, like it's just stuff that we've never seen out of him. But at the same time, it's very telling that we've never seen that stuff out of him, and he's still walked in and completely changed this team's dynamic throughout this year and scored twenty nine a game on mind blowing efficiency and had a career playmaking season and totally elevated the offense and was a plus defender. So it's like, this doesn't change how I've view Kevin Durant. I guess is what I'm saying. This is a bad moment for him. This will be acknowledged as a bad moment for him and probably one of the ugliest postseasons of his career. It doesn't change, though, where he stands among the best players in basketball to me, because there's a reason that we watch these guys play eighty two games over years, and of course a regular season in playoff basketball are different. But good luck convincing me that Kevin Durant's game somehow doesn't translate to playoff basketball compared to others, because we have very consistently seen him step up overperform his already ridiculous regular season production. I mean, his last two postseason runs. Twenty nineteen with the Warriors was some of the best basketball I've ever seen any individual person play. He ended at averaging thirty two a game, but that's with two different games in which he didn't play full minutes because of injury. I mean, he was up at like thirty five through that Clippers series, and he averaged thirty four last year and was just unbelievable, not just as a score but as a facilitator and was the complete offensive engine for that Nets team that very well could and maybe should have beaten the Bucks team that then won the title. So what I'm saying is Kevin Durant is great. This doesn't change how I view him permanently, but you can still hold him accountable for this. Yeah, I will said, and I mean again, this against the best defense in basketball. I'm not saying that you should have expected this out of Katie, but they're more well equipped to do this. Damn. This is probably the worst matchup they could have drawn in round one, and I hate beating this dead horse. But Kyrie and Katie have been doing I know the turnover are high. I have been doing a pretty decent job of dissecting double teams and finding

open guys like Katie and Kyrie are playmaking their asses off. And I still do feel if I keep Bruce Brown out there whatever, if Joe Harris is healthy, I mean, it just makes it that much harder. You can't you cannot throw doubles and Kyrie and Kad the way that they are. If Joe Harris is out on the floor. I fundamentally believe that you have Curry, Patty and Joe Harris alongside them. I don't mean in the same lineup at the other two spots that you have opened on the floor, you run those two guys with another big Maybe in LaMarcus it's an unstoppable offense, genuinely, because then the Celtics are not able to throw all these doubles out. That's another thing that I haven't got. If the nets get wiped, this is a mute point. If they're done after to night and you're listening to this is a mute point. I do not know why LaMarcus, aldrig and Blake Griffin have not played more minutes. I just feel like Drummond is so inept offensively, Like I like the guy. He's right on the glass, He's a good defensive big Nick Laxon is cool. I just feel like Blake and LaMarcus are so much more offensively in klined. I do not know why they're getting pt. LaMarcus is still good from mid range. He was still effective this year. He was pretty good defensively. Blake was awesome in some of the defensive minutes that we've seen in this series. That is. That's another head scratching I had scratching moment from me from the series from Steve Nash. I think Blake and LaMarcus should be getting more ptee. They're also playoff, tried and true, and I just like you said, man, if we're going overwhelming offensive, I don't feel like they do anything. Clackson's been good. I don't want to slander Clackson. I just don't know why they've been getting as many big minutes as I'd be giving Blake and LaMarcus some more burned just because I feel like they're better offensively. Yeah, I mean this was a pretty rough season for Blake offensively, I will say, just because he really doesn't have any ability to create his own shot anymore, and his outside shot has just been pretty ugly all year. He was twenty six percent from deep. But LaMarcus just being effectively removed from the team midway through this year was really interesting and surprising to me because I thought in the early goings, I mean, he was phenomenal and he provided an offensive look for them that was just really valuable. I mean, the short pickin pop game where he's coming out to sixteen seventeen feet and was the most efficient midrain shooter in basketball. I believe that's pretty darn good. And he was still giving effort, and I guess there are the defensive issues, but it is surprising to me because he is very, very clearly the best offensive big man on this roster. I mean, I don't even think that there's a debate to be had. Let's talk about where Ben Simmons figures into all of this, because obviously, the Simmons Harden trade was one of the biggest in season moves, maybe the biggest in season move that we've ever seen in

the NBA, it felt to be at the time, and yet Ben Simmons has not set foot on the basketball floor for the NETS. So I know how you feel about him, but I mean, how does this make you feel about that move? Overall? I think is the more interesting lens because you make an investment for this season, right. I mean, the updates were always so confusing, but it never seemed like Ben Simmons is gonna miss an entire year because of physical stuff. And yet here we are, so I could have guessed that, Like I'm not trying to say I told you so. Physical stuff. I mean, it's bull. The physical stuff is boll. I've called Ben Simmons card and any all every part of the way. I just have no respect for Ben Simmons. I mean, you know what, the question he boils my bet. I hate Ben Simmons more than any other basketball player that has maybe lived. How do I feel about the trade now? Well, the Sixers won. It's not even close. The playmaking and over commitment, and just like a terrifying factor of James Harden being on the floor even when he sucks. Even when he sucks, he and he can't score. Even when he can't score, he is still a damn effective player. Because people are afraid of that step back. People are afraid of Hardened. They feared the Beard still to this day. Yeah, I mean, like I'm genuinely I'm disappointed that we didn't get to see these three guys run it back once more, because I still think the Nets would have made a deep run, would have made they would not be down three zero in this series right now. I mean, you just chalk up the fact that you're talking about the dead cap just not having a guy out there on the floor that's super talented. Harden won Hardens playing chess dude, like the Sixers in Celtics maybe the two best teams in the East. No disrespect to the Heat or the Bucks. I just think there's different offensive ceilings there. I'm still picking Milwaukee out, but I think offensively, I think Philly, and I think Philly and Boston maybe on different levels. Really maybe not Boston. Philly I just think is the best offensively equipped team in the playoffs anyway. But like, yeah, I mean, you needed Ben Simmons and he didn't show up, And like stephen A went on that big rant. He quit on LSU, he quit on Philly, he quit on Philly, he's quitting on Brooklyn. I don't know, man, I I want to know what the guys in the locker room were thinking. Carson, how does this guy show up? First of all, goofy fit homie pulled up. I mean, dude, that's just goofy like, and that's that's a like not driven. I don't mean to like nitpick something as little as that. Carson, Sure, but it's like you're gonna put all that energy into your outfit, Ben, so you can sit on the sidelines so you look all cute and dolled up to not play ball. I just think it's all bs, and I don't like to make light of people's mental issues stuff like that. I do think it's all cap It's like, dude, Ben, what are you afraid of? Probably spiders? It's shut up? What are you? You're afraid of basketball? You're afraid of playing and getting booed? And what the people are gonna think about? You been getting the gym? Shoot some free throws. I became an eighty seven percent free throw shooter very recently. It's not that hard. You can also become a great shooter, Ben Simmons. I believe in you. Um, I'm disappointed. The Nets just got hosed because they bet on the wrong guy. I'm not saying that they could shouldn't have done it, because I think they made the right decision. Yeah, this is not gonna work. James Horden did not want to be there. They needed to get valid you back for him, and they did. They got two damn good role players in Seth Curry and Andre Drummond. But you needed Simmons to play him. It's so me and Carson said all every single time you brought up the Nets on the way back. They need Simmons. They need Simmons, they need Simmons, and here they are in an OH three hole. Ben Simmons has not played and he's still the biggest what if of this postseason? Right? I just I don't know, man, I don't know how this does not I don't know what he's gonna look like when he gets back on the court. I don't know what kind of player he is. I don't know what his teammates think of him. He's a he's a drama queen. He's a baby, and I wouldn't want him on my team. And he's getting paid way too much money to not be on that basketball court. He's still mashing buttons in his house though. You want to watch him callin duty Modern Warfare stream, I'm sure you can go on twitch and watch him ball out, check him out. I mean, what are your updated thoughts on the trade, Like, would you still done it? Is there any alternative route to have been explored? Like I think the Nets did the right thing. Yeah. I always thought that if we were able to exist a vacuum in which personalities didn't matter and the dynamics of the locker room didn't matter, then they should have had James Harden obviously got toxic there. But I will say one of the things that I expressed trepidation about in the moment was that you are exchanging a better basketball player who makes you potentially the best offense ever, who has yes, these emotional issues and questions and whatnot, for another guy who has as many, if not more questions about his emotional stability and character and all these different things. And so it's like, yeah, he isn't part of this currently existing toxic dynamic, but it's still a big question. And I mean, I feel like now we've seen that at least play some role in the fact that Ben Simmons has not played a basketball game for the NETS. So I mean, I guess something probably had to be done if they really couldn't resolve that dynamic. And they did get good value. I mean, the Seth edition again was massive, but it's tough to really feel great about things right now. But then again, if they run it back next year, I mean, it's just not going to be that tough to retain most of this core. They're not really dishing out any money except for to i mean, their top five contracts. Yeah, I

mean it is it's gonna be tough to get better though. Yeah, no, it'll be tough to get better. And maybe like they can't bring back Bruce Brown. I don't know. We'll see how much he demands on the open market. But for the most part, they just have role guys who just kind of do their jobs. But yeah, I mean, this is tough for Ben Simmons. I really don't know that I have a ton to add. His name has been dragged through the mud sufficiently, I think, and I'm gonna keep going and you're gonna keep doing it. Let me assue this completely irrelevant to the situation. It's been Simmons, a top one hundred guy that you would start off franchise with today. You're joking, right, I don't think I would. I think i'd leave him off. I don't even know if he'd see the floor. I'm not joking. Isn't a joke. I take DeAndre Unter over Ben Simmons today. I'd probably take herb Jones over Ben Simmons today. Okay, would you take Let's think about who's around the one hundredth best basketball player on the planet. I guess it's not just straight up best, because you're building a team too but it's like, would I take nas read over Ben Simmons. Let's be a little bit too deep. Hold up, let me come up with a really good please please do RJ Barrett for Ben Simmons. Oh that's good respect. That's a great pul RJ. Yeah, I'm taking RJ. Wow, that's crazy for future for future stock, that's interesting. I still do believe in the basketball skill set of Ben Simmons. I do not know about the mentality of Ben Simmons. I do not know about the physical status of Ben Simmons. Ben made nextellent. I mean. Ben Carson made an excellent video on Ben Simmons on YouTube. Check it out. Please, great breakdown on how Ben could become a winning player. Ben, if you're listening, you bade a B word. Watch it. Learn something about yourself, become self away, becomes sentient, and do exactly as Carson said, Maybe you can too be a winning player. Yeah, a souped up Draymond is Carson alluded to, maybe can be a winning player? Yeah, dude, I just Carson, I just wouldn't want Ben Simmons on my team. And then a conclusion that I've reached after this season, I just would not want him on my roster at all. I think he's a cancer. I think he is I think he's a distraction. And I don't think Ben Simmons loves basketball, And that is my biggest gripe with Ben Simmons is someone who just I love playing pickup basketball. I have no Certainly I'm not I'm not super skilled. I'm not super talented, but you're an eighty seven percent free thresh. I am an eighty seven percent free though shooter. But I like playing, and I just Ben Simmons is not a guy that I feel like loves the game, and that disappoints me. So it feels like we've basically treated this as a Nets eulogy because I don't see them coming back, I mean, especially without Ben Simmons. And that's not to say that they won't win Game four, especially because Scott Foster is there and he is perhaps the series extender called in by the league office. Obviously, you can win any individual basketball game when you have Katie and Kyrie on the floor, and they've been close in all three games, but they're not going to win four straight, and so things are going to end ugly here. Do you have any final thoughts on the status of the Nets before we move on. Yeah, I mean, I mean to summarize, like, Yeah, I don't think they're dead in the water. I think they have a genuine shot next year. A lot of things have to go right. I think they've got to be healthy. I think they've, like I said, they've got to build a culture. They've got to get cohesion, they've got to play as a team. Yeah, it's doable. That being said, Steve Nash's goose is cooked. They don't do something next year. You gotta win a playoff series. I think you've got to make an ECF run and you gotta do something big. The Nets aren't dead in the water. This season is over though. Yeah. I know a lot of people are laughing at Katie for his decision to leave Golden State and whatnot and try to build something else where. He hasn't accomplished anything significant yet. I also feel like though those same people have done a great able to discredit everything that he did accomplish in Golden State, and he felt like, Okay, well, I do need to go somewhere else from the unquestioned top guy and build something that is my own. And he tried to do it, and it hasn't worked out so far. But really none of that has been his fault up to maybe these last three games of basketball because Katie went healthy. Has been pretty much perfect for two years in Brooklyn, and now we are seeing some lackluster performance out of him. But I mean, if we're dishing out blame here, it's really tough to isolate. I honestly do think it ultimately comes down to James Harden effectively forcing his way out and then two of their top five players not being on the floor. I put it on hard Harden got them. Yeah. All right, let's talk about Sons Pelicans now, because obviously we knew that the dynamic of that series completely changed when Devin Booker got injured and Boat said that we thought it was going to be a really tight series going forward. The Suns did win Game three, and then we saw the Pelicans take game for comfortably honestly towards the end. So what are your thoughts on that series as things stand currently? I'm scared if I'm the Sun's still We've said that before. I want to touch on that first game, dude, because I feel like CP thirteen to get his name dragged through the mud once more. Refter that four point performance, I mean what he didn't score for like forty minutes. It was it. I mean, yeah, something crazy like that, Like had four points early and then just didn't score again. It was a masterclass that first game, dude, genuinely, like I have. That was some throwback Chris Paul stuff. And we've seen a few flashes during the season. He hadn't really needed to hit that extra gear. CP three looked hungry, dude, like he was getting into the lane with ease. He was knocking down everything.

That was a such a beautiful closing job, and the Pelicans crawled and clawed back. Dude, B I was hitting big shots late in that game, really big shots. BI has been playing some great basketball here in this series. I didn't realize that even he had the scoring seals of the d is. BI is a very special player. Um. CP had a great game. But then he turns around and just credit dude, mad, Credit to Willie Green, Mad, credit to the Pels speaking of like guys not getting flustered like I haven't ever seen before. I haven't seen Kati get flustered like that. I've never seen CP flustered like that, like Chris Pole was just out of rhythm, out of focus, and always as great at facilitating this offense. Knocked up eleven assists, knocked up Wow, racked up eleven assists. Um, they just they played him hard, dude. They they played him physical, they played him title game, and I just kind of didn't never expect that, dude. And again, I mean we said this already. The Pelicans have the two best scorers in this series. And that is what is so scary about this is inclosing, like dude, even when they lost, CJ hit that fade away three that may did a three point a game to close out, like it didn't matter, but it made it closer on the scoreboard. Brandon Ingraman, c J McCollum have been elited closing these games down and getting late game isolation buckets, and that is terrifying when you don't have your best isolation score. Chris Paul can do this one game out of six, one game out of seven like he did, I don't know if we can expect this out of CP three again, like him turning that, turning back the clock so to speak, and just killing them out of midrange I don't know if we can expect that again. And that's what's terrifying, because they needed There are no other great isolation scorers on this team. You need campaign to have a great game. I'm not on I still can't pick the Pelicans. Also, this is a very minute detail. Tangent has nothing major du about the series. Larry nance Junior should not be closing minutes for the Pelicans. They were collapsing a lot and giving him open threes. I think Herb Jones or Trey Murphy should be out there in late game scenarios and just don't think Larry does anything exceptional for you except miss opens. I think that's a change of Pelicans could do in late games. I'm scared for the Sun's Carson. I think that they could very well lose this series and would be honestly, I think the most devastating I mean elimination evert like maybe next to the Dirk's MVP year when we believe Warriors took them out. I mean, I don't know if they'd be more upsetting than the Lakers missing the playoffs, Like I mean, this would just be such a huge disappointment because the Suns have been the best team in basketball, but it is a very real possibility. Still, what are your thoughts, man, Yeah, I think that this is kind of what we talked about when Book went down, is that the Suns are an incredibly well oiled machine and they have so many complimentary guys

and such a stellar two way identity, and CP is such a great captain of the ship, but their actual shock creation without Devin Booker is a problem, and they do become extremely reliant on Chris Paul because outside of that, the guy who I would trust the second most to run offense is Campaign, which is just not typical for a a team that was used as the title favorite coming into the playoffs, because that's obviously not how things normally are for them. And if CP is off, then they're in trouble. Now. I don't think he has to go off for thirty every time, and I will say I do have faith in him consistently asserting himself in fourth quarters for the most part. I mean, I think that we have seen enough of that. I do still think out of the pick and roll, he's pretty exceptionally difficult to keep from getting to that mid range spot where he can make stuff happen. But massive credit to the Pelicans just swarming defensively, and they continue to be so impressive on that end and obviously causing some real frustration with CP as we saw towards the end. But like, I just don't think that this is that surprising that we sit here now. The Pelicans are a good basketball team. They have two easily of the three best shot creators in this series, and the two most consistently assertive shot creators, and their depth has come a long way, and they're fiery defensively, and so it's like you put all those things together against a team it was really rely on on Devin Booker to go out there and get them twenty six a night within the flow of the offense and getting buckets for himself and his playmaking, all the different things that he brings just not surprising me. I mean, the Suns are in very, very real danger. I'm not sure if they should be the favorite the remainder of the way. Honestly, it's no ridiculous, It's not ridiculous to say that. Yeah, Like I don't know, man, I guess that they still have the edge defensively, but do they buy how much pells are dialed in. Many they are dialed in, so that's scary. And I mean the level BI has been at is obviously unbelievable and you don't normally see that kind of efficiency out of him, but the difficult shotmaking with him has always been so spectacular, and that's where you know the Kade comparisons come from. It's just like his ability to rise up and get a bucket on anybody is tremendous and we've consistently seen that and CJ has certainly done enough. And this is scary. I mean, I have no reason to view the Suns as a significant favorite over these final three games, no reason at all, Like I completely I don't know why. I I don't know if I can call them the favorite and again, man and playoff basketball. It just comes down to guys who can fill it up genuinely, like, yeah, I don't know if I would. I'm actually thinking about this now. I mean, home court is something. Yeah, Book's not going to be back in this series. No, he won't. And so it's like, yeah, shocker. You take a top twenty guy on the planet and it teams overwhelmingly leading scorer off the floor and they're in trouble against the scrappy team that has been playing its best basketball for the last thirty games since they added CJ. McCollum. Really, they've just been a very good two basketball team. I do wonder if we sold the Pells short coming into this because I felt like the Clippers were going to be a better first round matchup and with PG on the floor, I actually think of that probably still would have been true, But I feel like maybe I drew a bit too much of a line between those two teams. Even though we acknowledge that, yeah, they've been really good as a lad, it still felt like there was a bit of a personnel deficiency. But when BI is this a lead as a lead scoring, he's giving you a thirty game on fifty one fifty splits and the role guys are playing at this level, I mean, I don't know if the Clippers would have been better. I think a lot of people would just immediately write off that possibility because the Pelicans have been so impressive. I would still remind people of how good the Clippers were defensively, how good they're shooting is, and what they can accomplish when PG is on as that lead offensive engine. But regardless, there is no doubt that the Pelicans deserve to be here right now. I mean, yeah, they caught a break with PG being out and the play in format and all these different things because they were a thirty six win team. But regardless, they have lived up to the moment every step of the way and one belong on the same floor as the Suns. Of course, they would not win this series without Devin Booker, but that is not the world that we're living in anymore. So you talk about all time playoff disappointments, this would be right up there. I mean, it really would. And in some ways it's more devastating because it's like, you have this unbelievable team that doesn't get a fair chance, is sixty four win powerhouse that starts to finish. Was the best team in basketball pretty much this year. To have that stripped away by injury, it sucks. And looking at that on a bigger scale, the Sun's already survived right without Chris Paul. Devin Booker ascended to that MDP level was putting up like twenty seven, eight and five carried the team through without CP three. If we're looking at this on a bigger scale, it's even more devastating for Chris Paul. Right, Like this seems that to me was kind of the big story about not only just Phoenix, just this is the year that the Chris Paul finally gets over the hump. You know, for a while it was he can't get to the Western Conference Finals, he can't do that. The Clippers, they finally get there, Rockets finally get their crumble, uh, injuries derail them. Yeah, and I still I still think the twenty eighteen Rockets may have pulled that series out last season, All that work, gets to the finals, lose like it's legitimately cruel. It's the basketball gods for some reason hate Chris Paul. It's really mind boggling. And I feel like Carson, I thought

you did an excellent job follow us on TikTok ad Nerds. As Carson did a top five video on his point guards or his top five video on his top five point guards of all time, put Chris Paul on there, I didn't um initially we did a podcast a while back. I don't know Chris Paul's in my top ten. And that was a very big overlook on my on my eyes because I wasn't thinking critically enough about the game, like you know, like you said, man, why would I take a guy like John Stocking over Chris Paul. Chris Paul has been drastically underappreciated, and I feel like you did never get that hardware that people may look at his career as a failure, they may look down on him as a point guard, and I just don't think that's right. I think Chris Paul is one of the best point guards to ever live. He needs to be appreciated, and I just so badly want him to win a ring because Chris Paul deserves it more than I think anybody else in the league that his ring was. I think Chris Paul is the Dan Marino of basketball. I agree, and I mean, even within this series, the guy's averaging twenty and twelve on damn good efficiency. As we look at things in basketball terms here, I've talked about like Campaign being that second creator who I would sort of trust with the keys. Campaign has sucked in this series, and like there really is nobody else to fill that role. I mean, obviously Aiden has stepped up and produced offensively, but he's not a perimeter initiator creator and so there's just such a glaring hole there. But I mean, what do you think are the keys down the stretch of this series for Phoenix just overall like to determining this outcome, and like, are you leaning either way in terms of who you would take? I don't really want to answer this. Yes, I am leaning. I'm leaning New Orleans. Like Phoenix does not have an advantage in this series, they don't bro. The key is Campaign needs to step up and have some big games like that is the only option they played a lot of. I expected them to play a lot of Shamut. We did get a lot of sham at minutes his last game, Yeah, he shot well. He had some decent attempts. Campaign has to be the guy. He missed five threes in this game, like Phoenix went cold from deep sha't excuse me. Campaign has to shoot better and they need him to step up and be the number two. And we've seen that, dude. I think we can expect I don't know if we can expect this in the series. I expect that out of Campaign night in night Out, because I know when Campaign gets hot, he's a damn good point guard. Who is He's great in transition He's great at getting downhill into the rack. He's super shifty, He's just not the best shooter. And again, playing along CP, he's gonna have more open looks. He needs to hit those looks. He needs to take advantage of the touches he gets. That to me is the key, and I play him even more minutes because I think you always need to have that second guard out there. I know the value of having a Cam Johnson, a Jay Crowder. I want Campaign out

there also to not tire out Chris Paul like I think that is my key for Phoenix is just campaign needs to step up. I don't think there's anything dramatically different that you can do with the construction of the roster. Maybe throw some work doubles at BI and CJ and let these other guys kill you, like I don't trust the supporting cast here. I think those are my two keys for Phoenix is try to get campaign going and throw doubles their way because BI and CJ, if they do not, they're gonna impose their rule. And they have not. The Sons have been throwing ones at the guys, and they've been trying to let their team defense work it hasn't does far. Those are my keys. I don't know about New Orleans keep trying to win the rebounding battle. I don't know what are your keys moving forward. I mean, one thing that I do think is worth noting is just the pure three point shooting differential in this series, because the Pelicans have been thirty nine percent the Sons have been twenty nine. And you do think that the Sons would progress to the mean a bit there and the Pelicans would regress to the mean a bit. And I mean, obviously, this is still a tremendous defensive team. They're athletic, they're long, they're really smart, they do play together really well. And CP can lead good team offense without scoring twenty five obviously, like he can just set the table really effectively, but he does have to kick into that gear. I do completely agree with you on the campaign point. And yeah, I guess the question is just really to me, do things just fall off from the Pelicans, Like does that shooting fall off? You know? Can they maintain this level defensively? Bi has been so great, but it's like just because of the nature of how he scores, you know, it's always po psible that there's an off night, right if he's not getting downhill a ton, if he's not getting to the line a ton, although he has gotten to the line a lot in this series, and like, if that happens, you know, do they have the creation elsewhere beyond CJ. I don't know, because like the depth is still so weird, right, I mean, it's crazy that Jose Alvarado has played you know, legitimate, legitimate minutes in this series, and that obviously Trey Murphy is playing twenty plus minutes a game. Like it's just a wild construction of the team. And so I do wonder if like the talent deficit comes into play, but it's so diminished when Devin Booker is not on the floor because the Pelicans have again very clearly two of the three best offensive players on the floor, like by far so Valentcionists versus aid and I think is debatable. I mean, Aidan's been really good in this series. But yeah, I do think that Valentcionist is a more skilled player offensively. I think he is a much more developed post game. I think it's better touched. He's a better shooter at passers on the glass. I would rather have Valanciate just Aiden is a significantly better athlete. Yeah, and so what's your what's your take, Carson, I'll put you on the spot. Who are you taking? The rest of the way. I'll go ahead and now, Philip, I I love the Sons. I do not want to see this happen to my friends and my brothers in christ In Fields. I think I picked the Pelicans in seven, and I don't it's going seven. I feel pretty confident about that. I think I'm going to lean on the Suns and the ability of CP to get it done in the biggest moments, and the defensive structure of this team, and just having to trust It still feels like so much going right for the Pelicans that has been going right for a minute now. But I don't know, It's just a lot. It's a lot of guys in really big spots where it feels like they have to overplay what their role has been historically and their level has been. But then again, they've been in it for a minute now, so I'm extremely conflicted. I will just give a bit of the benefit of the doubt to the Suns, but I could not say with any confidence that they are the better basketball team right now, and I am extremely tempted to pick New Orleans there. Okay, let's talk about t Wolves Grizzlies, where we are also even at two a piece. Pretty fun, man, the one in two seeds out West, both really being challenged. Obviously, we had the historic collapse from the t Wolves. They came back and had a nice win in Game four, and that is just a dogfight of a series right now. So what's your take on that series at this moment. I want the t Wolves to win, dude, I do. I was preaching the t Wolves. I was giving them a whole lot of praise coming into this. I thought that this would be a really good series. First off, I just want to give a shout out to them. I mean, we talked about how resilient the Timberwolves were gonna be. I thought they were gonna come out flat. That is one of the most demoralizing and just heart crushing losses I've ever seen in a playoff series. And I thought they were gonna come out flat. I mean, all these games have been great, this last one was won by obviously one point, comes down to the wire. Shout out like that. It takes a lot of fight in the dog and the Timberwolves have got a lot of fight in him to keep going. I was I was ready to write wipe him off, and Kat heard heard the noise came out way better in this game. We're just more aggressive, man, and that's that's what the Timberowls have needed. They can't have passive Cat. It's kind of one of my big takeaways is, you know, Kat just needs to be better, and he was a lot better. Pet Bev shot his ass off, Anthony Edwards shot his ass off. They needed that, and Kat went big dog on him. Dlow did not have a great game. Nobody else really did like Kat stood out. George McLoughlin had a crazy He swung this game. Honestly. I was talking to a friend of the show, Michael donnihue, and I asked him, It's like, why the hell was Chris Finch throwing McLoughlin out there, And he told me Finch just does that if the offense has just hit a lull and he says, uh, yeah, I got a lot of Timberwolves lower from front of the show, Michael

donohue. When Timberwolves hit these lulls and offense he called it voltage. And I said, there's a lot of voltage on the floor, Chris Finch will just throw somebody out there. And it was the right call, dude. McLoughlin stepped in and I literally went, well, first, I had to like wipe my contacts and go who the hell is because I couldn't remember Jordan McLoughlin was on this team. I said, who is this fifty year old man on the Court's hilarious? And McLoughlin swung this game four or four from deep, sixteen points. I had a big night, and so shout out to Finch, Shout out to McLoughlin. That was just a great decision in putting him on the floor and swinging this game. There's a lot of things that like in this series. I think from memphisis side. I think that Jaren Jackson Junior just has to be better. He's got to be more aggressive. Jaw I had a bad game. Timberwolves are really physical with Jah in this series, dude, and I don't know if he's wearing down, but it's tough every night playing this hard man. I think this series goes seven too, Carson. I think this is a dog fight to the end, and I want to see the t Wolves pull it out. But I think every game is going to be hyper competitive. This has been my favorite series of any by far. I mean, every game has been so competitive. Both of these teams are so young, they play so hard, so physical. I've loved every second of it. I'm rooting for Minnesota, but I'm I'm just kind of been happy going along for the ride. Dude. This has been an awesome series thus far. It has man and I mean, I think that we discussed the potential for the t Wolves to really make this a series, and that their advantage was kind of that high end offensive talent and shot creation and when they're dialed in defensively obviously you know they do have impressive athleticism and some fights to them. But credit to you because you pick this to go seven, and I mean, it is certainly feeling like a very even series right now. I do think it's really really impressive that we were able to see this out of the t Wolves, just because it's like it was a monumental lapse, like you said, and I was like, there's some dogs on this team, and we'll see if they can come back. But the cat response was huge because you go from just the humiliating four field goal attempts performance to being legitimately assertive and you watch it and it's like there's no answer for him in this series. You know, a vast majority of the time, he's not being guarded by what you would remotely consider a true big, right. I mean, you just go possession by possession and it's Xavier Tillman, and like Dylan Brooks has switched out there and Kyle Anderson. It's just like those guys are food to him. And I mean the way that he goes about it is not like a traditional big man, right. He doesn't go back to the basket bully, but he attacks off the bounce. He has more than enough skill, he's strong, and you have to respect him from everywhere on the floor. So I just think that was really impressive seeing that bounce back from him, And that was a big storyline I thought, because obviously, I mean, it just was inexcusable the combination of the play in games two and three for him. He could not afford another game like that, certainly, and to be the lead guy in such a big win was pretty massive. Yeah, I mean, we've never wavered from the cat love. Yeah, but it was. But game three sucks three. I'm just saying that people inexcusable. Again, they took the first three games and they run with the narrative, and it's Yeah, Ket is still one of the most offensively talented bigs in the game. And I do want to ask you, Carson, like, if you're Memphis, how are you defending Kat moving forward? Who are you sticking on him? How are you trying to slow him down? Like again, I think it worked in these first two games when Cat is like this, what do you do? How do you defend them? I mean, it's really tough because obviously you look at Triple J, but Cat is just so difficult because it's like, you want Triple J to be protecting the rim as much as possible, but Cat's canna initiate from the perimeter a ton, and so he's taking away that help in a lot of situations, and nobody can really single cover him, in my opinion, on this team. So I would say, put your best defender who positionally does make sense on him, But I don't think there's a particularly good answer. If Kat's going to be consistently aggressive, and I mean, sending doubles is honestly probably the answer. Yeah, it's, you know, as good of a passer as he is, make him playmake make the guys around him beat you by hitting big shots, make him uncomfortable as much as you can apply that pressure. Because other than that, you know, I think that they should be pretty concerned about actually stopping him in this series at all, I will say. I mean, it's been a rough series for Jah just in terms of actually putting the ball in the basket. And obviously he always has the free throw element that allows him to still get his buckets, but forty percent from the field of eleven from deep in the series, it's been tough, and it's just like the offense, I don't know it. It's been pretty good for the Grizzlies, but there are just times where you think the lead creation, as we've talked about before, isn't great, and it honestly isn't at the level of the Timberwolves. So I think this is a dog fight, like the t Wolve should be up three to one in this series, yes, and that doesn't feel wrong. They didn't have a protest or that game. Yeah, well that was a bummer, and I think that we obviously need need to make some calls about that. And by the way, you mentioned Michael Donney, who friend of the show. I think we need to get him involved in Game six. He's gonna be there, We're gonna hit the Mikey button. Well, I just think we need to initiate a little protest. Maybe he could tar and feather himself genius it rolls around in the middle of the quarter. Yeah, that'd be great. But I really don't feel like the

Timberwolves are at all outmatched, and I think that this is an immense opportunity for them to catch a Grizzlies team that was really, really good throughout the regular season. But we did consistently express questions about how some of it would translate. And there is value in just having the best guys on the floor, dude, There always is, Like on the top end, there's an ability to take over the game in the playoffs that is extremely important, and I do believe that the t Wolves have those options because I mean, we've seen moments where it was Kat and we've seen moments where it was Aunt, and we could in theory see moments where Delo like just really is firing offensively, and that just feels like more options than the Grizzlies have. You know, obviously they had the massive Desmond Baine performance in game three, but so much of his is just like pure shot making, you know, and it's not bucket getting, it's not physical assertion in the same way or playmaking and all these different ways that the t Wolves top guys can really impose themselves offensively. Yeah, I mean, Bain had a massive game in game four two, was carrying that load. But I you're exactly right, And when Kat is engaged like this, when Kat is in score takeover mode, what they've got the top three of the top four offensive would you take bayin over Aunt or Delo? I think Desmond Bain is probably a better offensive player than Delo, but he does not have a higher offensive ceiling, and he doesn't have the same ability to impose his will on the game because I mean, you know, Delo can run pick and all to death, and he can just control the tempo of the game, and he can really facilitate and score on all three levels. It's just overall efficiency. Who would I want if I'm trying to build a really good offense. Desmond Bean is so valuable because He's so easy to fit in anywhere, and you know, efficient and smart. But yeah, I mean Delo can take over a game, I think in a little bit of a different yeah. And I also I want to give credit to Delo for what he's been doing on the defensive end too. Like Delo is a really smart defensive leader. He's been stepping up all year long. Like DeAngelo, Russell doesn't really have the tools to ever become like a high impact, like, you know, one of the best defenders in the game, just because you know, he's not super loudly quick. He's not. He doesn't have you know, crazy long wingspan. He's not super quick in defending, but he's Delo is super smart, man, and he's an important cog in this defensive machine in Minnesota. I know they've got a lot of talented defenders. McDaniels, Vanderbuilt, Pat pat Bev shout out, dude. Pat Bev is a guy that I wanted to playoff series. I know a lot of people hate Pat Bev. I would take I would take pet Bev overall lot of point guards in the playoffs. Man. I just think that when he steps on the floor, man, there's like a mentality change, dude, and it's important scenarios like this. I also think he does a lot of things pretty well. He's been getting downhill in this series, playmaking, knocking down, catching, shoot threes. Game two was kind of a stain on him. But I don't know, I like. I guess I like Minnesota in the defensive end is what I'm getting at Delo. And Delo is a real defensive leader for this team, whether he's making plays or not, just in like terms of sending guys around the court, making sure matchups are in line. And uh, yeah, dude, I think Minnesota and Memphis are just so evenly matched. Yeah, I want to pick Minnesota in seven, dude, I want to get for I want to go minute. Oh bro, yes, this is just this would just be the wildest playoffs every if. Somehow, I don't want to see what happened knock on wood Pell's Timberwolves win. Oh we get seven eight in the second round. I mean, yeah, I think until you see it, I don't know. I feel like i'd be kind of upset because well, not the timber Wolves. I'd be upset if we saw Phoenix go out, but just for I kind of Loant Chaos Carson. Yeah, that's interesting. I don't know. Man, if Devin Booker can get back out there, I would really like to see him. But I would not be like, oh my god, we got robbed of seeing more of the Grizzlies. Like, to me, the Grizzlies have to actually go out there and prove hey, yeah we can do this, you know, because there have been questions. I will say also just on Delo defensively, I mean, he does have legit length. I think he is like a six ten wingspan, so there is a positive, positive physical trait there. But as a team, dude, I agree. I mean they have moments when they're really good on that end, and if they had home court, I would pick them in seven. You always do see the value of the depth of Memphis and whatnot, but I just don't know if it's enough right now. I mean, this series is very very much up in the air. The one thing that we could see is just the jaw takeover moment where he totally physically imposes his will in the game and just gets the bucket over and over again and is finishing consistently, and the playmaking feeds off of that and it's just like, oh man Jaw had forty five and ten tough. You know, it's really tough to win a game like that. But at the same time, Kat and Aunt are liable to have just monster games at any moment. So it's a real toss up and it's been a very fun series. All right, A couple more to get through here, Bulls Bucks first two games of the series were very odd. Game one was just ugly. Bucks were able to sneak out, but it was kind of like, well, that wasn't great. And then Game two they lost. Middleton went down with the mcl sprain and so it looked like he was gonna be out two to three weeks all the stuff. That was just not looking good for the Bucks at all. And now last two games they have won convincingly without Middleton, So I mean, how have they been able to do that? What does it say about them as a team. And then on the flip side of that, you know, how does it reflect on the Bulls that like they are given this seemingly golden opportunity

and just ran out the gym at home? Also, yeah, were missing Lonzo. I still think that matters, of course, I still think that's a big part all of this. I don't know the shooting, and I mean, this is just something that we touched on all year with the Bulls, like they were dead last and three pointers made, not very high in three point percentage, like they just didn't take a whole lot, didn't make a whole lot the Bulls made or the Bulls attempted nineteen open corner threes in this last game against Milwaukee, they made five. Like we we identified all the weaknesses before the Bucks are gonna allow the Bulls to shoot on them. Do they have the personnel to knock down threes? No, DeMarco's all five. Vuchevic goes cold, which voot bro. Yeah, just such a brutal year for him. And just remember who the most anti Fooch guy in America was last year? All right, here's this guy. Everybody else this is a podcast, Oh well, this guy is me, Carson Breber. Everybody else was sucking his toes and saying that he needed to be a bona fide All Star. And I said, yeah, all right, I don't know about that, man, I don't know about that. How about we talk about the defensive issues I talk how about we talked about is on Offswitz and his efficiency as a score I mean, should be a really good offensive players. This has been a bad year for him, I mean, and they're letting this man. He said he's had a few good games. He's had one good game in this series. Won a six from deep in this game, five or four teams from the field. It's just inexcusable. Vooch is supposed to be the third star here, and if he was pulling his weight as he did, should have done all year, this would be a competitive series. It's not. The Bucks have an elite defense. As we preached all year long. The Bucks had the highest three in d ceiling of any team in the East. Actually, I said the heat for a while as we moved on through the season, though I thought it was pretty clear that it has. I mean, I think Milwaukee's defensive rating, I don't know if it's changed. Before last game, the defensive rating was like ninety four point three for the playoffs. Again, they are going up against an ineptibules team, but still that's a crazy number. Drew Holliday pulls is waiting this game. Grayson Allen has been a Bulls killer twenty seven point six to seven from deep in this last game. Did you hear the story about his teammates booing him? Carson Drew holiday no so um during the Bulls game, right his teammates start booing him, and he just starts turning up and a reporter asked Drew, they were like, you know, when did this start? If you guys always boo Grayson and they said that, uh, in practice, they would just boo Grayson relentlessly because they thought it was funny. It was like, way more, way better than cheering him. I love it because Grayson Knox he does suck. Grayson Allen deserves to be booed. He's got a basketball, but he's not likable. He's got one of the most punchable faces in all of America. Horrible personality. He went to Duke. Yeah, he had this one buzzer beater against Uva this one time. Shouldn't accounted. He like his foot came down before he got the shot off. Anyway, it's just scars on me as a UVA fan. Grayson Allen is really talented. I mean they're just they're deep. If it's Jordan warrigetting minutes, I know that Craiger hasn't scored. If it's Wesley Matthews, Bobby Portis, Yannis is the best defensive collapser in basket ball, and there's a lot of three point shooters here and he may be the best defensive player on the planet versatility wise, like, the Bucks have the easily the most the easiest, most replicable formula in basketball. That's why we picked them out of the East. The question is I think moving forward from Milwaukee, is someone going to be able to expose this drop coverage because they still allow a shit ton of open threes. Yeah, and the Bulls, we just knew we're not going to hit them. They're always susceptible to be getting shot on. But the Bulls just don't have the personnel to exploit that. They've been letting to Mars shoot. DeMar has not been knocking down shots from deep. I mean, it's kind of where it is. And then if you just want to talk about the effort side, like it was kind of abysmal from Chicago. They just kind of like keeled over and died in this last game. Yeah, and you're you're at home, you just don't want to see that. So yeah, I mean this series is done. I'm glad Chicago got here. I thought we kind of expected this. I had a little hope after Game one that was just kind of flukey. Yeah, I mean, I think the Bulls are dead in the water. I want to see what this team looks like, fully healthy. I kind of want them to move off Voots. I don't know, I think I do think Chicago needs to make some changes in this offseason, add some more depth, maybe look at shopping Voots around. I just don't think he's the guy can be the third guy shout out. I mean this is I mean, you wouldn't consider this a loss of a season for Shot. I mean, there's a good year, right, like, I don't know, man, it's started as a really good year. It's just a really disgusting finish, like since the beginning of the calendar year. I mean, obviously injuries were so devastating for them, and I do totally agree on the importance of Lonzo, but it's just like they started the year exceptionally well and then it was just an absolutely hideous finish and this is a pretty embarrassing playoff showing. And I completely agree on the VOTs thing. I mean, he just has not shot the ball well enough this year. I mean, like for him to drop from forty percent from deep and leading the league and above the break threes and like being a toll weapon from there to thirty one percent, and he's been, you know, pretty brutal in this playoff series. And I will say the Bulls overall as a team, like they were an effish and three point shooting team this regular season, they just were not a super willing three point shooting team, and that's not really how they prefer

to generate a lot of their offense. And Lonzo being off the floor is devastating there because Lonzo is a super high volume guy from deep and yeah, I mean, you know, you're trusting middling three point shooters like Patrick Williams and Caruso to knock down those open looks and they haven't done it. And then you know the other guys. It's just like Levin hasn't had a particularly good shooting series, and Vooch hasn't made his and Kobe White's been off. So it's just all these things sort of coming together there. But I think it's tough to look at this season as a success just because it's like what did you accomplish? You know, I think you ultimately just built up expectations to a point where people were genuinely excited, and then they were just like, oh, this is pretty gross. Actually this team is not very good anymore. So I do still think the role players regress, I mean press, I like a lot of what Chicago has Io is so good, you know, hasn't had an impactful series, but like we saw it throughout the second half of the regular season, and love the versatility of Crusoe of course, and you bring a Lonzo back in and it's like the top seven here is really really good, but there's a clear ceiling and you know, this isn't a team that can contend for a title. I will see if they can reach the defensive ceiling that they had early in the year. Again, I'm not totally sure on that, and just kind of an ugly finish. So I don't feel great about things for Chicago right now. And it's like this was always the dilemma. It's you're going so all in and what's the upside is it being a pretty good basketball team? And yeah, that's kind of what the upside has ended up being. I mean, now, that Milwaukee has kind of ran this thing, especially in the last game without Middleton. I mean, if your opinions changed like they are they your title favorite? Now with all the uncertainty out east? Are you more confident Milwaukee? Are you feeling the same way? Nah? We got to get healthy Chris Middleton, man, I mean they're still getting ran by the Celtics of Middleton is not out there himself. I mean, how many are you taking? How many you taking Ballistan him? Five or six? Oh? Really? Yeah, dude, I just think, like, sure they can execute this formula against a team that they're significantly better then, and when Jannis can just impose himself so easily physically and create so many good looks for so many good shooters and all that. And I do love the Bucks role players, but like you need multiple really good shot creators to beat the Boston Celtics. Man, that is a great defense, and they are going to come out with something for Yannis. They have a bunch of really athletic wings. Robert Williams is back out on the floor. Horford is such a valuable defensive piece. Like they have bodies and athletes and smart guys to throw and you need a release valve, and you need a closer, and you need another facilitator. I would not give them a chance without Chris Middleton. And Middleton should be back at some point during that series, I would think, in terms of the timetable. But is he gonna be one hundred percent? Is it going to be early enough? I mean, is he gonna be back at all? We don't know. Like so no, I'm not willing to say anything. This has been really impressive. They totally shut down the Bulls. I thought the Bulls were gonna, you know, make them sweat a little bit, given that their second best players and out there, and they did not at all. So Boston is your favorite out East? Yes, now that Rob is back. I mean, I don't know, man. I think they're the best defense in basketball. I think they're shot creation from the wings is stellar. I think they have really good complimentary offensive pieces. I think they're very well coached, and I think they have the least holes of anybody right now. And the Bucks conversation may change if Middleton's out there, But as things stand currently, I think the Celtics are the best team out East. But there's another team that maybe belongs somewhere in that conversation, and that is the Miami Heat, who you early in the year were really big on, and then your confidence in them really fell off, and it got to the point where before the playoffs you were like, they can't win the title. They've looked pretty damn good through four games against Atlanta. They're up three one, and they really could have swept this thing. I mean, if not for some pretty big time stuff, just in terms of that floater at the finish from Trey Young in Game three. So have we sold them short as title contenders? Do you think? Yeah, a little bit. And the biggest thing that I didn't expect was Jimmy Butler getting back to this level. I know it's against the Hawks, so I don't overreact to this. Jimmy's been playing at an MVP level, dude, like thirty one, eight and five nearly three steals a game on fifty four forty four, seventy nine splits in this series. He's getting to the line, he is getting downhill, he is forcing, he's imposing as will in the game. He's finding open shooter. This is the Jimmy Butler that we got in the bubble locked in Jimmy Butler, Like, I didn't expect this, and I don't know. I do think I oversold them in their regard. Again, this is against Atlanta, this is with Tyler Hero not pulling his weight whatsoever. Thirty seven percent from the field, twenty one percent deep. Kyle Lowry has not had a good series. So Jimmy playing this level of basketball and then playing solid defensively is a recipe for success. Guys are gonna have to start pulling their weights in these later rounds though. Yeah being said, if Jimmy is at this level, Fuck yeah, fuck yeah, Miami, he can win. This can win the can win the whole damn thing. Like I don't. I don't think they're on Boston's level defensively, but they're really close. I think they've got the personnel to combat anybody they come up against. I liked them against Milwaukee, I liked them against Boston, I liked them against Philly. If Jimmy is at an MVP level,

Hero gets back up to where he was at the end of the season. Throughout this year, guys are hitting open looks one hundred percent. Miami can win the title. I think it's still an outside shot. And honestly, most of my critiques of them as a team remain, and I think this has been impressive. The thing is, I don't trust Jimmy to consistently play at this level offensively. I mean, we just haven't seen that dependable, like elite lead guy output from him this year, and his assertiveness as a scorer does often kind of come and go. I mean, he's been shooting the ball exceptionally well from deep in the series, just like a bunch of things where it's like, I don't know if that's totally sustainable. Defensively, they are unreal. That I think is the key to this series is they are unbelievable. We knew that, but it's like seeing what they have done to Trey Young has been unbelievably impressive. Like I said, hey, I think the Hawks can make this a series. Take this six because Trey Young is such an incredible offensive engine. They have held him to sixteen and six on thirty five twenty one splits like they've been phenomenal, and they have taken away what makes the Hawks offense go because the other guys just aren't able to step up as creators like that. I will also say the Hawks defense, I think is just not good. And you know, it was so bad for so much of the year, and then I was optimistic because like it was okay for their last fifteen games or so, and it's just not good enough. But I still look at this Heat team and I'm like, I worry about all the same things that we talked about previously. In terms of the consistency of the half court offense. Jimmy's not going to score thirty a game over a playoff run. Max Struss is their second leading scorer in this series because Hero hasn't had it. BAM's assertiveness is just not there consistently at all. He's taken thirty one shots in four games. You know, Lowry has been a non factor as a scorer and so and now obviously has the injury thing. So I don't really feel that differently about the Heat. I honestly feel more like they balled out defensively. There will not be another opportunity for them to so singularly focus on one player throughout these playoffs, and I don't trust their offense enough. The only thing I do I think Jimmy can sustain this level of player. Really, I don't mean thirty a night. I think Jimmy can give this team consistently twenty five to seven and six. Is that going to be enough? We'll see. The three point shooting is kind of an anomaly. It's not on a massive sample size, right. He takes them when they're open. Yeah, I believe. I believe in Jimmy Butler. Also side note, dude, DeAndre Hunters like leading the Hawks and Sea and they're doing great. Maybe he'd be like the fourteenth guy you'd take to start your franchise with. Yeah, do you have anything else you want to say? Because I need to use the bathroom, maybe as badly as I have in my entire life. Middle of the pod. The pod is nearing a conclusion. Guys. I think that's why I asked if you have anything else to say? Guys, I think the podcast is about to end. No, do you think so? I'm utterly devastated. Wait, well, you know what's good? There's so many places to find us. I mean you guys heard of TikTok. Find us there at nerd session, Instagram, saying Twitter, Twitch at nerd Underscore Session. That's where you go live Baby Mondays sometimes Tuesdays, sometimes Mondays and Wednesdays talking about the NBA. Check that out. You can find us on YouTube nerd Sess. You can find us on our website nerds dot com. We've got big things in the works, always more stuff coming. Stay tuned in. Find the podcasts on all audio platforms, Spotify, Apple, etc. What am I gonna do with this time? Now we're not gonna be shooting the podcast? What do I? I don't know how long were you planning on going? Logan. I don't exist outside of the podcast. Oh I forgot that you get zapped back to the nether realm. Yeah that sucks because I just keep on living a normal life of a cool college student. You just evaporate. Can we please keep the pod? No? Sorry, it's actually over with that. As always appreciate you guys. I've been Carson Brober, I've been Logan Camden, and this was nerd suf