Transcript of Boston Does L.A., Honeymoon Harden, a Denver Hiccup, and a Kawhi Deep Dive With Zach Lowe

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All right, live on Netflix, it's Bill Simmons podcast. Zack Lo is here. We're a little bit after Celtic Lakers. We had some technical difficulties, but not difficulties for Zack Lo. We were worried the snowstorm was going to just inundate you with some blizzard, and I would just be soloing for an hour and a half, but that's not what happened.

We're persevering. The worst is yet to come. I'm not looking forward to the shoveling that's going to have to happen here on the East Coast. Another great for life in Los Angeles, by the way.

Don't throw out your back, Shoveling. We need you. This is pod season right now. We're about to hit the best part. March, April, May, June. We need Zack Lo. All right, lots to cover. We're going to start with Celtics Lakers because that just happened. I did not go because I was excited to be live on Netflix right after the game, but I was confident. The body language doctor was watching both teams very carefully. Really a tale of two teams that game, You have a Celtic team that is basically built around these three guys, one of whom is an MVP candidate. The other are two very good guards. Then a bunch of dudes who try hard, and that's the Celtics, but they play well together. There's a spirit to them. You can see they're pulling for each other. They're used to each other. Then you watch this weird Lakers team that when they're bad, it looks really bad. Sometimes you'll catch them some nights where they're on cruise control for three quarters, and then they can flip it on for a quarter and steal a game. But a lot of times it's games like today where it's a bad loss, but it almost feels worse than a loss.

But the fact is it's 82 games. It's a loss. Who cares? You move on. And yet I don't love what I see from them. What is wrong with them if you had to say what's wrong with the Lakers?

Well, it's another double-digit loss, right? And it feels like all of their losses are double-digit losses, which is why it feels so much worse than 34 and 22 or whatever they are. We knew the defense was going to be a problem with LeBron, Luka, and Reeves all together at the same time. Although I thought Luka was the best guy they had on Payton Pritchard tonight. He recooked everybody else except for Luka. He was trying. And then, so that was always going to be a problem and just balancing offense, defense. All right, we need smart for some defense, but he missed a million threes tonight, and they left them open, and they put centers on him when the Lakers took their centers off the floor. I said, All right, Kado, would you just guard Marcus Smart, but don't actually guard him? And then just They're an interesting team to watch game to game, particularly now that Reeves is back in the starting lineup, because they have games. I've seen all their recent games where the three of them are in sync to a much larger degree than they were today. And then tonight, they have games like tonight where it just feels like the three of them minus three or four set plays that happens after dead balls or timeouts and then just vanished.

The three of them just seem like they exist on their own islands within the offense, and they don't really do anything when they don't have the ball. And that's That's when I think the body language doctor probably perks up like, oh, Luke is just standing in the corner. Lebron is just standing in the corner. Where's Reeves? Reeves is invisible for three quarters of the game. And then they have this Aiton thing where his numbers might look good. Today, they didn't. And it's just every other game, JJ is just like, Can I just play none of my centers? Is that okay? We're going to get smoked on the glass and defensively. But it's just a weird... It's not their year. We knew it wasn't going to be their year. It's not their year.

Yeah, and yet their record is good enough that after Denver lost today, they had a chance to ascend into We Have Game 7 at Home in Round 1. I don't fully understand it as I'm watching it. Even Friday night, they beat the Clippers. It held on. It was the same typical Laker win where you never felt good about it the whole game, but you also felt like they were going to win. But it's not like they were playing great. They could just have these little stretches. But I think what's weird about them, and I don't really fully understand it because I think you have three guys that are actually okay at making other guys better as an understatement. And yet I don't feel like they make each other better. And it's a lot of taking turns stuff, which maybe some of that has to do with they just haven't played enough games together. But it just feels really clumsy. And it's surprising to me. But as somebody who can't stay in the Lakers, now we're in March and it still feels rocky and weird. And some of the body language stuff is weird. And I think they're realizing in real-time, what were we thinking, counting on Deirdre Ayton?

Why did we tuck ourselves into this? What were we thinking?

He had a couple missed rebounds tonight where they just... The Celtics only had nine offensive rebounds tonight, but it felt like more than that because every one of them was so demoralizing, and it was just a Celtic guy trying harder than a Laker guy. And a couple of times it was Kata and Ayton, and just Aiden deciding, I'm not boxing out, and Kata being like, I'm just going to rampage over you and get the ball.

Right. Kata It was what they were hoping they were going to get from Aiden. Kata is just having a better season. He's been more consistent. It's not like he's an All-Star or anything, but he's pretty consistently a double-double guy around that, but he tries. And that's what was interesting about as this game went along, and the Celtics can just bring in their Dragons off the bench. It's like, Hey, have you met Hugo González? Hugo.

Everybody met Hugo tonight.

Everybody. He was all over there. Almost through a no hitter for the last five minutes of the second quarter, and then finally fell for a double fake by Reeves. Jordan Walsh, they can bring in. Scheyermann and Hauser, who are both these guys that teams feel like, Oh, let's target this guy. They're always a little better defensively than I think they're going to realize. But everybody in that team fights. Then the big thing, I just think... There's an MVP conversation we want to have a little bit, and I'm not saying Jalen's the MVP of the league, but he's just done this all year. I mean, this was his 28, 30-point game, which is, I think he's played 51 games. Over 50% of games, he's had 30 points. He hasn't had... Sometimes you can goose your scoring average because you had a 63-point game or a 58-point game. He hasn't had those. I think his highest game was 50. For the most part, he's always between 27 and 33. It's games like today he finished, I think it was 32, 8, 7, three steals. But he's been so consistent. There's a really interesting first all-team NBA combo brewing.

Because there's basically- It's brewing. It's bubbling.

Because we have Jokuj and SGA and Luca and Jalen and Cade, and then Wemby if he wants to crash the party. But the way Brunson has a chance to come on here down the show, and I don't know how it's going to shake out, but I think right Now, would you have Jalen in that top five? Would you have him first team?

I would not. I would have him second team.

So who would you have over him?

Well, I mean, the first three are SGA, Jokuj, and Wemby if he qualifies, right? And then I think you mentioned Cade. I would have Cade over Jalen Brown. The two guys who you didn't mention who I feel like I'm going crazy because they're always... It's probably because their teams, the perception of their teams is slightly compared to how the Pistons have obliterated expectations and the Celtics have obliterated expectations. Donovan Mitchell and Anthony Edwards, I would have both of them over Jalen Brown. They've had unbelievable seasons. And yeah, I realized the Cads lost today to the Thunder, and they've been meh, but they are 36 and and they're DOA without Donovan Mitchell for the season. And the Wolves, I mean, what a bad 24 hours for everybody behind San Antonio in the Western Conference because the Wolves are about to kick this game to Philadelphia if they haven't already. But they're 35 and 22, I think, or 35 and 23, maybe after this game. Good solid team. We'll see where they end up. But those guys' numbers are unbelievable, and particularly, Ant is a really good two-way player. But Jalen Brown is right in that tier with all of those guys.

I I'll probably put him a little bit above Brunson, who you also mentioned because of the two-way stuff. But it's a really interesting group of guys below the Jokic, SGA, Wemby trio. And if one or two of those guys falls out because they don't hit 65 games. It's like we're staring at complete chaos, MVP and all NBA.

Yeah. So there's two separate conversations, right? Where we're judging people on the season, but then there's also who are the actual best guys in the league? And that's where Wemby, even though he has He hasn't played enough games yet, he's either the third or fourth best player in the league now, just game to game when you're actually watching it, right? Wouldn't you have him in that somewhere? If you have SJ and Jokuj one, two, he's at least battling for the conversation of that three, four, five area.

Yeah, absolutely for sure. I think five is the floor. I probably would still have Yannis three when healthy because he's just been that dominant of a player this season. Maybe the best.

I forgot about Yannis.

Yeah, but that means the Bucks, they still exist, and Yannis, theoretically, is going to come back. Probably is going to come back. I don't know. But yeah, Wemby is a monster, man. There's just no way around it. I just think he's a little bit above those other guys.

Well, because you have the MVP odds where SGA is still favored. Drop down to minus 150 today on FanDuel because he keeps missing games. Joker is around 3 to 1. Cade went from 14 to 1 plus 6,50. And then Wemby dropped to 25 to 1. Cade and Wemby are the interesting ones because Wemby, they might be the one seating the West for all we know. What are they? 40 and 16 and OKC is 44 and 14. So there's only two back in the last column. It's not inconceivable. They can jump. They want 11 straight. They have the tiebreaker. Yeah, they have the tiebreaker. Cade's case is just we've seen this happen a couple of times in NBA history. The most famous one was Derrick Rose in 11, where it's like, I don't... This doesn't 100% pass I'm going to pass the MVP sniff test, but I can't think of anyone else to vote. And this is a one seed. This guy does everything. He does everything down the stretch. And even though the stats may not totally measure up to some of the other candidates, I'm going to talk myself into this guy because I can't come up with a better candidate.

And the only way you would do that is if SGA doesn't get the maximum, if he doesn't get to 65. I think SGA, if he can get the maximum, is going to win the 65.

Yeah, there's a reason he's the odds favorite. Can I read you a crazy clutch? When we get into these debates and players are super close together like this, that's when I start to look at clutch games, and I realize all the nerds will be like, my clutch is random. It's just a small sample size. Yeah, the This small season is a small sample size. I'm splitting hairs. This is just another hair I want to look at. Cade for the season, last five minutes of close games, 49% from the floor. That's on 75 shot attempts, only seven turnovers, 18 assists. The Pizzeans are plus 49 in those minutes. Monster clutch season. Only one guy has taken more than those 75 shots, and it's Tyrese Maxi, who's been doing everything for Philly all year. Seed 44 of 92. And I kept trying to find Luka. Because the thing with the Lakers is they win all these close games and they lose in all these blowouts. It's like, Luka must have a really good clutch here. Luka has taken the same amount of shots in the last five minutes of close games as Chris Middleton this season. Luka is seven of 16 on shots in the last five minutes of close games.

Chris Middleton is eight of 16. Payton Watson checking in at three of 16. Jose Alvarado jumping in at five out of 16. I mean, that's how few clutch minutes the Lakers have actually played. It's a really remarkable stat.

That's crazy. That's one of the reasons I'm a little cooler on Mitchell. Because I just disagree that he's been more valuable than Jalen because the The clutch stats for Mitchell aren't awesome. I also don't think... Yeah, they had injuries the first, what, 40, 45 games, but they still had him. He still had rebounders and some people to play with. I didn't understand why none of that was his fault, whereas Jalen was basically playing the whole year without Tatum and the Celtics had a better record. I just feel like it's a record thing with that, and the Celtics have been better than the Cavs.

I feel like I'm taking crazy pills on Donovan Mitchell. What am I missing? So he's averaging 29 points a game, same as Jalen Brown. 48. 6% from the field. Jalen Brown is 48. 4 going into tonight. 37. 6% on three He's Jalen Brown is 34. 5. But I don't mean to put the two of them against each other, but you did, so I am. 58% on twos, 53% for Jalen Brown, 6 assists for Donovan Mitchell, 5 assists for Jalen Brown. We'll call it... I just Jalen Brown is a better defensive player, but just because of his size, I don't think it's some enormous gap. I think this season, there are a couple of ways to frame this season for the Celtics. Jalen Brown, Tateum has been out the whole year. He did so much with nothing. And look, I didn't think the Celtics were going to be nearly this good. So I have to half believe that. But I think what we've learned is there's an infrastructure of both talent and coaching and system here that is better than we thought it was going into the season. And in Cleveland, Darius Garland was a total zero, basically.

Even when he played, he did not play very well. Mowbley has been injured a lot. Struce has been injured the whole season. Hunter was poop and they charreded him. Jared Allen has been up and down. Sam Merrill had a broken hand for a while. I do think it's been We can have the more with less debate. But to me, it's just degrees of it. Donovan Mitchell has been the only constant on that team, and now they're starting to click. I just think it's a perception thing. Everyone was pessimistic about the Celtics, and their feel good story. Everybody was way high on the Cavs, and it feels like they're disappointing. I just look at Donovan Mitchell's numbers and I watch him play. He's so explosive. He can get any shot he wants at any time. He's shooting well from all over the place. Even in, did you see the Tim Bontem straw poll? There's seven guys, and then there's a... And Jalen is six or seven, and then there's just a chasm. And then one guy or two guys put Donovan Mitchell third place. But what am I missing?

Can I counter now? Yeah. Jalen has been awesome as a two-way player and as a consistent day-to-day, week-to-week force. No one is disputing that. No, but listen. I feel like this gets lost sometimes when we talk When we're talking about seasons, especially. It's the week-to-week consistency that we throw away. It's just durability. I always value, I think, more than some of the other people that vote for this award. The Celtic startup at 0-3, they are 36 and 16 since, 37 and 16 since. And he's always been there. If he's taking a game off, it's one game and he's back. He's guarded some of the best guys in the league and taking the challenge sometimes. When they play the Pistons, he guards Kade. If this game was, I think they were saving him for the fourth quarter of the night, but I think they would have put him on Luca. When they went against the Clippers, he guarded Kawhi. He's taking that challenge. And I think when you know what you're We're getting from a guy night to night on both ends. We're getting probably 30 from this guy, and he's going to play real hard defense, and he's going to go to the basket.

The part that I never really fully thought that he had until this year was a sense of the rhythm of the game. You could see it today in a couple of spots when he would push the pace because the Lakers, that's their weakness. Sometimes they don't run back, they don't want to do this at all. There were some times when he's just like, I'm getting in the basket. We can go for the kill here. I don't know if he was as smart of a player like that offensively. I just didn't fully think he was there until this year. I just think when I watch everything, there's a mastery to what he's doing game to game that I think is the biggest reason they're successful. That and the two guards that have always one of them seems to get hot for an hour. The stats don't back it up, but it's like today it was Pritchard. He just got hot for an hour. Then the In the next game, it might be Derek White. But I just think what Jalen's doing has been really impressive.

Would you have him over Anthony Edwards?

This is why I brought this up. I think this is really- It's going to be fun.

I would have him over Mitchell. It's going to be a thinker.

To me, Mitchell is not first-team, but I think it's Edwards and Jalen and Wemby, probably for one spot, is how this is going to play out unless somebody misses.

You're just like, Luca is just off first-team. It's going to be interesting, isn't it? It's just someone awesome is not going to be first-team all-MBA if everyone's eligible.

If Luca misses, he has another stretch or he misses 4-5 games, maybe. But There's a level that he goes to. Even today, there was a little two-minute stretch where he's just like, I'm just going to post this guy up, but I'm offended that you're garder me with him. When he misses, it's surprising. But he can have... I didn't think he was good today, and he still ended up with 27. The foul bitching stuff is the worst. It's been in a while.

It's back to peak unwatchability. It's every single play now. It's back to where it was at its very worst in Dallas when it got so bad that the Mavs had to finally call him out publicly.

Yeah, it's so bad that even LeBron is like, Wow. Wow. What's this guy? This guy's really bitching for calls, but I don't think it helps them. I mean, big picture from a Lakers standpoint. Why didn't they get Alvarado? Why didn't they do anything? Why did they think Marcus Smart was somebody... Did they have aspirations to actually be good this year?

Good use of the word aspirations, by the way. Thank you.

Not with the Clippers.

I think they had aspirations to be good. I think that's probably if you caught them in a real moment, that's probably about where their aspirations ended. And their aspirations are focused on this summer when they have three first-round picks to trade. But to your point, the Knicks got Alvarado without giving up a first-round pick. The Lakers got Luke Cunard. And I enjoyed on the broadcast today how the whole NBC crew was agaced that Luke Cunard, percentage-wise the best or second or third best three-point shooter of all time, is only taking four, four and a half threes per game as a Laker. They had something unacceptable. I'm like, Welcome to the Luke Cunard experience. It looks awesome on paper, and then he doesn't shoot enough to justify the lack of deep. This is why he's on the Lakers after being on a million other teams.

You've had a few awesome on paper, don't get too carried away by the signing guys. I think he would be the point guard on the team. I don't know who else is on that team. Aiton has been on there, but it's almost not fair to put him on. But there's just certain guys who look better on paper. Luke Canard. I got sucked in. I thought when they got him, I was like, perfect, perfect trade. But the guy to get was Alvarado, who I don't also know where the Celtics were on that one either. That's where they give a They gave up Terry in two second-round pics and got a guy who played Crunch Time last night in the Rockets game?

I don't think the Rockets played Crunch Time in that game. I think it was just the Knicks 5-0 in Crunch Time. But yeah, so Jose Alvarado was one of the five and had back-to-back steals. A layup that I'm still not sure how he made it over a much larger player in transition. It was an incredible shot. But yeah, and obviously, the crowd loves him already.

And that's the thing. I mean, if I was a GM, I would have traded for him two if I had any playoff aspirations crossed with a home crowd. Because that's just your... We saw it. We saw it in the brief moments when the Pelicans had mattered over the last couple of years. You see what that guy is. He's perfect. The thing that was shocking about Nick's Rockets last night was they actually got away with playing him and Brunson together.

They do it a lot. They played the two of them and Shamet together, too.

But against the Rockets? It's a small group. I was surprised. I was like, whoa, and it worked.

It It was not a good night for the Rockets. I don't know if you want to talk that one out, but another bad crunch time performance by the Rockets who had, I think, nine turnovers in the fourth quarter, and they ranged from Schengen through the ball to nobody. There was a backcourt violation. Durant dribbled the ball off his foot, I think at one point, it was just every manner of, all right, we got nothing. Schengen just ISO from the three-point arc with eight on the shot clock and dribble 14 times, and maybe something good will happen, and something good never happened.

I was on different tech threads this morning with Celtic fans. All of us getting PTSD for the Emei season that the Celtics had when it would go bad and it would just get stagnant and nobody moved and there would be no solutions to a defense, figuring out the offense. Because I've been on this. Legler was on this podcast five or six weeks ago, and he was talking about the Rockets. He mentioned how frustrated he was by how they used Thompson. And he was like, They really only use them like trying to go downhill and beating guys one on one or trying to get to the rim or kicking out. And he was like, I don't understand why they don't post them up. He'd be so devastating around the rim. They never do it. And I think his skill But especially when he's being defended by smaller people, I think his skillset lends itself to that. I don't know why they don't do it. You're watching yesterday, he either had Alvarado or Brunson on him. And it was like the perfect example of just put him near the block and run the offense through him because the Knicks are going to have to double that immediately.

They just get stagnant and then just throw it to Durant and cross their fingers. Seems to be their offense. Unless they throw it to Schengen, same thing.

I'll tell you what I was thinking as the meltdown happened in the fourth quarter is, look, I understand why Eme Oduke may be a little hesitant to trust Reid Sheppard as much as he trusts his core guys who all have the same skillset, big, rangey defense-first players. I just think there are games where Reid Sheppard has got to play more. And when your offense is just going off the rails like that because you're not running anything, I just think you bring him in for Ja'Bari Smith Jr. Or Tarieson, and just, all right, we're going to run some Reid Sheppard, Schengen, two-man game, Reid Sheppard, Durant, two-man game, loosen things up. All of a All of a sudden, boom, stuff opens up and good things happen. And I understand defensively, he's going to get picked on a little bit, but he can guard Jose Alvarado. He's got good hands. He makes plays. I think they're going to have, maybe it was last night, they're just going to have to cross the Rubicon at some point of like, this guy's either a huge part of our team or we're just putting that off for another year because there are games that just scream for with Vanv lead out, we need more of this guy in the game.

And last night, as it was happening, that's all I was thinking. It was like, they should Can you put him back in the game?

Well, I wholeheartedly agree, and I would even one up you. I think if they don't do it, they're a cross-off team for the playoffs. I don't see it happening with them with the way they're built. They don't get transition when he's not in there. They just slow down. They don't get fast breaks anymore. He opens the court for them. Then on top of it, what you just mentioned, they can run two-man stuff with them, but it's like the ceiling of the team, he just makes it higher. If they're not going to get there this year with him, then they're not going to get there anyway. It's certainly not going to happen with the team they have. I don't really understand it because you're just throwing away fast breaks for basically the entire fourth quarter.

And that's one of the... That's not frustrating. It's one of the the built-in dissonance of the Rockets. And every team has some built-in dissonance. But like, Reid Sheppard and Ahmed Thompson are born to play fast. They are born to fly up and down the court. And Reid Sheppard should be shooting a lot to threes, and Ahmed Thompson is a speed demon, and the rest of the team just doesn't play like that. They're more of a just battering ram of offensive rebounding and slow it down, ISO basketball. It's just such an interesting push and pull.

These older guys, you have these old famous superstars who are just used to This is how I play, guys. I like to play this style. We're going to do that. I think as you get older, it just gets tougher to move into a different thing. This has not been a great Kevin Durant week. I'm going to say it was in the bottom five Kevin Durant weeks. Power rankings, probably in the maybe worst three.

It's not been good. It's not been good. Can I ask you a Celtics question?

Yeah.

Since we're coming off Celtics-Lakers. Yeah. How are you feeling two weeks into the Vuch experience?

Today was not good. Today was one of those. They might actually win by 30 if Luca Garza was playing. But it's going to be rocky. It's going to be up and down. There's some nights when he looks 35. I don't mean that as a compliment. It's just like the rebound's over his head and he's a step slow and you just lose athleticism and a whole bunch of stuff. Then there's other nights when it looks great. I think it's certainly worth the experiment. But I haven't been wowed. I won't be bouncing I got my grandkids on my lap telling them about the Vooch Trade of 2026. Probably not happening. But as the two part with Tatum, it still makes sense.

Are you getting nervous that there seems to be a Ramona Shelburn? I talked to Jason Tatum, and he wants to make clear he's not 100% sure he's coming back, or Chris Haynes tweets, Are you starting to get nervous that this may not happen?

No, because if he doesn't feel good about coming back. I don't want them to come back.

Okay, so you're good either way.

You just want them to do what's good. I don't even feel good about it. I just think they're covering all their bases and trying not to get people's hopes up. The Missoula, I don't know if you've seen the Missoula press conferences, but they've been riveting.

What has he said about it?

Well, there was one today where somebody was like, Was Jason out there practicing today? And he's like, Yes, he was. Or he was like, Was he out there for practice today? He was like, Yes. And the follow-up question was, Was he playing with the team? And Missoula just didn't answer and stared at the guy like a fucking maniac and just didn't answer. Their strategy is, We're not talking about it. You can ask us. We're not telling you. But I think he's coming back unless there's some setback. I don't think they make the Vuch trade otherwise. I don't.

Him practicing would seem to suggest that the Vuch trade, no matter how much they try to funnel it through in the media, that this is a trading we were going to make anyway. It's not connected. I don't 100 % believe that. And I believe this. They have the negotiation tactic, who blinks first? Or if you're interviewing someone, you ask them a question, and if they don't want to answer it and they're silent, don't jump in. Just let the silence just live there. Joe Mizzula is going to wait anyone out. Joe Mizzula will win that content. He will stare at that dude until the PR guy is like, All right, I guess we're done, guys. Next question.

You definitely got that feeling. When I look at the minutes today, Hugo played 14, Walsh played seven, Pritchard played 37. You would think 22 of those minutes go to Tatum when he's back. That would be my guess. Basically, González is out, and Pritchard probably loses 10, and that's how you do it. Or Walsh is out, González is cut in half, and that's how you get the minutes. We're going to take a break. We have a lot more to discuss here on the Sunday night pre-Blizzard extravagance. I'll come next. The Bill Simmons podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. The football season may be coming to an end, but things are only getting started on the court, on the hardwood, on the wood, as some people call it. Fanduel, the number one choice for Same Game Parlay is live betting and much more during the NBA season. Don't forget, with FanDuel, you get paid instantly when you win. Download the FanDuel Sportsbook app right now and play your game. 21 plus in present Select States or 18 plus President DC, Kentucky, Wyoming. Get in a problem call, 1-800 Gambler, or visit rg-help. Com. Call 888-789-7777, or visit ccpg.

Org/chat in Connecticut. This episode is brought to you by Venmo. Supporting your team never gets old, but here's something new. You can now pay for your game day wings and rep your team at the same time. How? By getting your college colors on your card. Score more with the college-branded Venmo debit card. Get up to 5% cashback with Venmo Stash. Sign up at venmo. Com/ CollegeCard. The Venmo MasterCard is issued by the Bancor Bank NA. Select schools available. Venmo Stash. Bundled terms and exclusions apply at venmo. Me/stashterms. Max $100 cashback per month. Detroit first in the East, Celtic second right now. One win more than the Knicks and the Cavs. Nobody else is going to crack that top four. Does it matter? Does home court matter as much as it used to with this stuff? Because I feel like last year, we hit the point where it felt like anybody could win on any court. And I don't know how that's changed from when in the '80s, all you wanted to do is get game seven at home, and even maybe in the '90s. But now we've hit a point I don't even know if it necessarily matters if the Celtics are 2, 3, 4, if the Knicks are 3, 4, 2.

Does it matter?

I think it still matters. It definitely matters less than it I used to for, I don't even know, a bunch of different reasons. Everything from the three-point shot to travel conditions. All things considered, I'd still like to have it, but I think it probably gets outranked now by matchups. If there's a matchup that's just bad for you or you want to avoid or whatever it is, if there's a pathway to the conference finals that is easier than the other one that is your alternative, I think that trumps. If you sacrifice home court to get that pathway, I think you would probably do that in some cases. And this may be one of them. I mean, these teams are all unproven in their own ways. I don't think any of them is totally scared of any of the other four or any of the other three. But all things considered, I think Detroit is super happy that they will have game seven of any playoff series at home.

Yeah, and that ship has sailed. If you're the Celtics and you fall to four and you get to play Detroit in round two, a team that you've had some really good games against and that shit pretty nicely with. Then you could have the Knicks and Cavs beat the hell out of each other in round two. I don't think they would be tears if that was how it played out. Then I wonder, who do the Knicks not want to play the most? Would you say Detroit? Well, this is the same thing happened last year with Detroit and New York, where Detroit won the regular season series and New York beat them in the playoffs.

And we all agreed New York was more talented and should have won that series. But Detroit has just enhance them three times this year. And the Knicks can say, well, Towns is out this game and Ananobi was out that game, and Robinson was out with one of them in one of the games. That's all true. But all of them have been blowouts, and Detroit just has out toughed them, outthought them, outplayed them in every possible way. So I think that would be... And the Knicks have enjoyed playing against Cleveland dating to the playoffs three years ago. So they would probably say, We don't care, it's fine. But Detroit has to be in their heads a little bit. Just are we as tough and together as that team is? Because that was the really impressive thing. Watching Detroit up close at Madison Square in last week, they don't have a lot of shooting. We know that. We know that that's the weak spot that everyone expects to be, including me, a little bit more of a hindrance in the playoffs than it is in the regular season. We know they make up for it with cutting and offensive rebounding.

It's smart interior passing. But it's one thing on TV and it's another thing in person. They didn't Duren or Stuart in that game against the Knicks from the suspensions. And even their role players, like Javante Green comes in and just moves the ball. They all make the right pass. They all make the extra pass. They all make quick decisions. Karris Levert is making quick decisions. Duncan and quick decisions. Dennis Jenkins, no one is holding the ball other than Kade. And there's a certain... That level of cohesion and trust and pace within the half-court really does compensate for their lack of shooting compared to the other elite They're really, really polished. They're polished. They're more polished than they have any right to be, given that they're still pretty young and experienced. And I think that will carry over into the play-off. I think they got a lot of the play-off jitters out of the way last year against the Knicks, and they're ready. I think they're ready to make the finals.

It's a little like OKC when they lost that Dallas series, what was that? Two years ago? But it was the best thing, probably got them ready for next year. The Pistons at least had that one series. Maybe my Hornets will have the same thing. They're feisty 1-8 battle against the Pistons in run one.

They won tonight, right? They did. Mele went crazy. So they had- Really hard win against Washington's G League team. Yeah. If they had split their previous day, they'd lost two Cleveland and someone else good.

Two tough late fourth quarter games. Yeah, two really good teams.

I wish they had won one of those because just for entertainment purposes, I want them to butt up into the 7-8 bracket. Yeah. And Philly quietly is slipping down from... They're still six, but they're just a game ahead and actually tied with Orlando in the loss column. If that were a four-team race for six, that would be quite a lot of fun. And if Charlotte could butt their way into that, it would be quite a lot of fun. But that's another thing about... You mentioned home court. In the play-in era, more than ever, I think the number one seed you'd be able to pick its opponent from who comes out of the play-in. I don't want to get stuck with like, Oh, Embiid is healthy, and suddenly the Sixers are awesome, and we just drew them in the eighth I think you should get to pick.

I would not do that, but I would do five home games in round one for the one seats.

I like that, too. Reward. If we're going to have this over long regular season and we're going to pound our fist about, we must care about it. You can't low advantage. You can't tank, we value durability, but then really reward it then.

Yeah. Go two, two, three for round one. If you want to go play in and then go against the one seed, you're going to have to really beat them. One more thing on Detroit, Boston, Knicks, Cleveland. We're about to talk to Cleveland. I think Cleveland has just liked playing Boston for years. I don't know what it is, but it's a matchup they like. There's been some rough Celtics losses over the years. So Cleveland, last 25, 19 and 6, second offensive rating. Honeycoon Harden stage is always great. We'll see how it's doing in round two. But the one thing that I've noticed because they look better, partly because they have more good players, because as you said earlier, Garland didn't play all year. But they always have now somebody good, really good with the ball for 48 minutes. Mitchell comes out. It's like, Harden, stay out there and run the offense for us. Harden is averaging a 24, 10, and 5, and he's shooting 48% from three. It's pretty good as like, Hey, can you run the offense for a few minutes? There's a pressure that they can put on now for two and a half hours that I think just feels a little different.

Then the other thing is the lobs. Harden already in, what's it been, six games? It's like, Hey, Jared Allen. Remember when he used to get lobs? Hey, Evan Mobley. Lobs. It feels like it's opened up, and they're the team. I think they're the scariest team in the East. All due respect to Detroit, I agree with everything you said about Detroit, but the ceiling for Cleveland is the highest, I think.

You might be right on the ceiling because we've barely seen Harden Mitchell, Mowbley, Allen, and the two-way possibilities of that foursome.

With a bunch of shooters, like Struce will be back at some point, Mero.

We're 60 games into the season, and it's like they hope to have Struce back for the playoffs. I'm just so wary of like, we think he'll be back for the playoffs. I'm wary of stuff like that now in my old age of like, I've heard that one before, and it's a lot to ask. But yeah, Merrill is there. They got Kean Ellis, Dennis Dennis Schroeder is a weird fit in some of their lineups, but you might be right. I think they've got a lot to learn just about how to play together. And this Mowbley minutes restriction is like, we just don't see him and Allen play much together. And I want to see a little bit more of them refamiliarizing with that and with Harden. But look, they've got all the tools. They were a 60-win team last year that ran into the Pacers, but I saw and had a bunch of injuries.

Why shouldn't they be the scariest team? Yeah, last 25 games around a 60-win pace again. They turned Hunter, who was just terrible.

And out for the season. The whole king's out for the season.

And then Garland, who wasn't playing, turned them into Harden, who plays all the time. And Schroeder, who We've seen in playoff series, and he's better than almost every team in the league at this point, but he's better than somebody who doesn't play at all. The Harden thing has reached a point because I'm scared of Cleveland, where I just have to keep reminding myself that James Harden is on that team and there will be a playoff series where maybe he can do James Harden things. But Honey Moon Harden is a pretty potent thing.

He's had some of his greatest playoff moments, and there have been some against your team. That Philly Celtic series from a couple of seasons ago, with which Celtics 1 and 7, he had two game 1 and 4, I think, two of his finest playoff moments.

Can I say I'm going to shock you and just be super positive about James Harden?

Yeah.

I mean, He's one of the 40... I forget where he is in my pyramid. I think I have him in the 30s. He's one of the best 40 players of all time. He's also somebody that has been in situations where everything had to revolve around him, which was both the strength and the flaws of all those Houston teams where everything ran through them for better or worse. It's really interesting when he can just jump into different basketball situations and he's like a basketball chameleon, and he just becomes a different version of overnight. He has this very, and we saw it in Brooklyn, too, on your greatest theoretical team ever, where there's this unselfish facilitator, I don't really need the ball, and I'm just fun to play with James Harden. That's like this alter ego he has. It's almost like the name should be like Jimmy. It's like, Oh, it's Jimmy Harden.

Jimmy Honey Moon Harden. That's how he starts on all these. I'm just going to be... I'm just here to help out.

I really like that version of James Harden. Harden. It's easily my favorite version. The I'm just here to make everyone else better and fit in is really fun to watch. I just wish he played like that.

Because of his size and his vision, I think he actually has the ability to make life easier for Donovan Mitchell than Darius Garland did. I think Mitchell is going to get easier closeouts and gaps to attack and easier catching true threes than Garland could give him. Harden is just a different pitch than the Cavs have had, just like a a bulkier slowdown, physical. He's just like, Garland was more part of the system that Kenny Atkinson and Jordan and all them built of all these cuts and ball movement in motion and do this because he was small and more of a shooter. Harden is just, as he would put it, he is the system, and he can be a different system for them, just like a change up when Mitchell is on the bench. I like that. I think, look, these four teams are all really good, and they also all have, other than Detroit, I think moments where you're like, Can I really trust this team? Certainly the Knicks have moments like that.

I think Detroit playing them over and over again for two weeks would eventually be a detriment for them because so much relies on Kate. I think that's going to be their fatal flaw, ultimately. I just don't see a second guy I really trust. It's too hard to just have a one. And this has been what's killed Harden over the years. It's what... Luka has had more playoff success recently than Harden probably has. But same thing where it's just see the same thing over and over and over again. I think teams get used to it in a different way, but we'll see. A team that I didn't think I had to worry about was Denver. What do you think their record is in the last 32 games?

Well, I know they're three and six in their last nine games, and they were, what, nine and six without Jokuj, so I'll go 16 and 16?

That's their answer.

Hey, look at that.

They're a 500 team for 32 games. Now, there are reasons that. Jokuj missed a bunch of games. Aaron Gordon's out. They were getting this incredible out of nowhere Payton Watson season that he got hurt. They don't have Gordon and Watson. They got screwed today by this little known thing that the gamblers love when it's three games in four nights and the fourth game is a day game.

It's like- Cleveland as well.

Cleveland as well. It's like death. It's a really bad thing for the team that's playing the three and four. Their last six losses, they lost to Detroit twice by two and three. I watched both of those They could have won both of them. They didn't. Okc beat them by 10. They lost to Cleveland by two, could have won that. Lost to the Clips by one. I still don't know how they didn't win that. And today, they were handily winning Golden State, beating Golden State. Yoke Jokaj looked like he was on his way to a 35-2020. Then all of a sudden, Golden State had that weird thing where just guys started getting hot. Al Horford left his body for about 20 minutes. Curry was on the bench doing crazy Curry Ls, and all of a sudden, Golden State was up eight, and Denver lost again. Their last win against a good team, January seventh, in Boston, and that was without Jokaj. They do not have a lot of good wins here. And I'm still not going to panic because they don't have Aaron Gordon, and I'm not going to freak out about this. Where are you?

Well, that's where the panic is, is that are they going to get him back? Because even with Watson back and Cam Johnson is now back, and Watson's not, they don't have enough force, I don't think. And that's like, there's no... Right now, with Watson and Gordon out, there's almost no limit to how small you can play against the Nuggets other than Jokić, who you obviously need size for. Because there's just nobody to punish your smaller guards on the block, on the glass, the way Aaron Gordon would seal for post-ups against smaller guys that swung quarters of the important playoff series for them. And I think they just need that level of forcefulness that they don't really have another vehicle for. And their starting five are in their core group other than Valanchunis and Jokić. And their defense just hasn't been good all year. Their 22nd in defense. Today, they were bad defensively against the Clippers. They were bad defensively They just have too many miscommunications. Now, David Adleman, after the game, I was reading Draymon Green was ruled out shortly before the game, and the Nuggets tried to be like, well, one of the reasons we acted like Al Horford had never shot a pick and pop three before.

We had no idea what to do. Oh, my God, this guy's shooting threes, and their whole defense collapses. Guys are running into each other, rotating the wrong place, is they were prepared for Draymon Green to start and not Al Horford. But you shouldn't... A pick and pop three from a 39-year-old center should not send your entire defense into a frenzy of mistakes. It just happened over and over and over again. Then they got back cut left and right. They missed Reece Strauher. As you know, I own property on Strauher Straits. I have for a long time. Still a train wreck defensively staying in scheme. It just wasn't... Their defense has not had the polish. Early in the season, they were playing on a string. They were playing together. They were toggling between zone and man, and they looked every bit like a team that was ready for a championship season. And somewhere along the way, they've become a little incoherent. And it could just be... I actually put this to you as an even more experienced NBA watcher than I am. Is this just to wake us up in the playoffs thing or we've been here so many times?

I don't think it is. The other thing is, I know he got injured and missed a lot of time and got hot after a slow start. I just don't feel Cam Johnson's presence enough in these games. He's reaching your famous Tobias Harris. Like, oh, he was out there status? Tobias has been out there. Tobias has been doing his thing. So forgive me, Tobias Harris. But these games go by and I'm like, Oh, Cam Johnson played. That's right. He was two of seven in the box score, and I forgot that he played.

This is going to be the number one thing I said as my comeback. I don't think Cam Johnson, I saw it in person on Thursday. I had good seats. It was courtside right next to the Nuggets bench for Thursday's game. And Kam Johnson, everyone, I was like, Oh, there's Kam Johnson. And I'm at the game, and I just forgot he was out there for long stretches. His stats are okay. He's shooting 43% from three.

Just doesn't feel like it.

And yet when I watch it, I don't feel like... Porter, who drove everybody crazy, but you always felt Porter in the game for better and worse. And K. M. Johnson had two big threes near the end there where he missed both of them. I didn't think either of them were going in. I just thought he was going to be this plug and play, awesome swing three-point shooter for them, and he hasn't been. That's one issue. Crunch time stats are pretty rough for them, surprisingly, when you have Jokić. Their bottom five defensive rating for 30 games down. Bottom five. You have teams that are tanking in their bottom five. It's a tough one because they have the Championship pedigree and they have the best part in the world, I think. Rich Paul thinks it's Anthony Edwards. We can argue about that later.

I did see that. I was waiting for Max to push back and say Jokuj's name, and Max did. I wanted the discussion to go a little further than that.

I respected that the best thing about a take like that is you have to at least see the take. So he explained it. He's like, I think the best part in the league should play both sides. Two-way guys. That's what I value. And you could make the case with Edwards, like conference finals, two straight years. He's getting better. His stats are up there with pretty much everybody in the league, and he plays defense, and he's better when it matters. But Jokuj is the best part in the league, in my opinion.

Every time I'm ready to trust the Timberwolves, and I do trust them.

They do what they did tonight.

They lost by 27 to the No, Gobert. Gobert was suspended. I forgot about that.

But yeah, with Denver. As you said, I'm an experienced watcher, which is a nice way of saying I'm old. Door A is, God damn it, why did I not realize that when Gordon came back, this team was going to be a championship team? I'm so stupid. Door B is, they were telling us all season what they were, and we were ignoring the science over and over and over again. Why did we think Gordon was coming back to the playoffs? I don't really know the answer, but there are these two doors that are really far away from each other. The big winner to me is OKC. If they can figure out a way to basically avoid Denver completely, which it seems like there's a chance there's a Denver, Minnesota, 3-6, which seemed inconceivable even, or Denver, Minnesota, 4-5. There's some matchup where Denver or Minnesota could take each other out in round one. I I bet OKC is waiting for that, would be my guess.

We need to get some clarity on this AJ Mitchell thing, by the way. I know he's not perceived as a big part of what Oklahoma City does, and they just got Jared McCain to be this spark plug score creator. Aj Mitchell is an awesome player and has not played now for a long time, and I don't really get... The timetable has gotten a little murky.

But yeah, they and the Spurs- It's an injury, right?

It's an injury, yeah. The Spurs have won, what, eight games in a row? No, the Spurs have won 11 games in a row, haven't they? Are they up to 11? I don't know. Those standings on the ESPN say eight. But anyway. How those seedings three to six shake out is going to be really interesting. And that we should at least mention the other big thing that happened in regards to that this week, it was Dylan Brooks broke his hand and the Suns now have a much harder time trying to punch into that group, which I think they were going to be capable of giving it a real run, and maybe they still are, but that's a huge loss given on top of Booker's loss, too.

I went on a big walk I started with my wife and my son. We came back and watched the fourth quarter of Phoenix. Who are they playing?

Orlando.

Phoenix, Orlando. I ended up doing a tweet about it because it was the weirdest game I've watched all season. It was an all-time rock fight. Jalen Green, at one point, was 4 for 24 and was so bad. I almost couldn't believe it. It was to the point where it's like, they got to take them out. This is like watching a pitcher who can't throw strikes. He wasn't just missing jump shots. He was like front rimming. They were going right. They were going left. He was just a complete mess. Then in the end of the second OT, driving crazy basket makes it and then hits a buzzer beater falling out of bounds and finishes 6 for 26. It was one of those games where Phoenix is just because they know they're not going to book it for a couple of weeks. They're just like, We got to let Jalen Green work this rust off because we have no other chance to create a shot. Orlando is playing crazy defense. Phoenix. Phoenix is getting no good shots. Then we go to the other end, and it was just that Palo Ball that is just awful to watch.

Everybody's standing around, and Orlando blows another one. That's the one team I hate advocating for coaching change, but that's the one team where it seems like the coach has taken the team as far as he can take them, would be my expert analysis.

Well, also no Sugs in that game, but no Sugs is a semi-regular condition for the Orlando Magic, and no Franz Votner.

He's a 50 We're coming here player at this point. Yeah, and Franz is hurt for we don't know how long.

But it does. I mean, we've gone over this a bunch, but it does feel like this is the year from hell for the Magic when they had year from heaven expectations. And I just think a couple of seismic things could happen. If they don't get out of the play-in, that's a disaster. If they do get out of the play-in and they just get rolled 4-1 or 4-0 in the first round, and it's just not competitive. I think all bets are off.

Well, Verno texted this to us because Vernon, Memphis has the pick. I hadn't thought of this, but they have a choice. It's the second best pick between Washington, Orlando, and Phoenix, I think.

You know what it is? It's complicated enough where I'm like, just tell me after the season, which pick they get.

Well, whatever the complications are, you thought it was going to be Phoenix's pick. It might be Orlando's pick, although now Phoenix loses Dylan Brooks and Devon Booker, so who knows? Yeah, so then you have the West where you have six playoff teams, and Phoenix was supposed to be the seventh, but could go in a little freefall here. Golden State, I have no idea what to make of them. Then the Clippers, who I was there for the Mather Renaissance. Mather Renaissance.

I'm not sure that's going to catch on, but you do you. You're a big Mather and fan.

I am. There was just a bunch of Clipper fans there who were not familiar with his work, looking at each other going, What's going on right now? As he was just taking guys one on one. I like their team when Garland comes back. We did a bet, me, House and Sal, and Hinch did, Clippers to make the play-ups, Golden State not to make it. It was almost two to one. We did that on Friday because it was like, Yeah, you don't have zoo bots. You can patch together some center minutes, but you're going to have Garland back, hopefully, in two weeks. You have Matherin doing this weird, hardened imitation. You have Kawhi playing as well as anyone in the league. You have a good coaching staff. You have a team that's been winning, and they don't have their pick. So why not? It's not a team I'd be crazy about seeing in the 2-7 matchup. I'll just say that.

Well, they're on the verge of going from 6-21 to 500 by game 60, which is a very hard thing to do. They're just subjectively a pretty solid team. Unfortunately, it would be very hard for them to get out of the play-in. So the drama is, can they catch Warriors for eighth and get into the upper half of the play-in bracket? But yeah, I mean, look, Garland is... I got to see it. I got to see it consistently before I'm like, we just pencil him into the Chris Dunn starting spot and everything's going to be great.

You know what Garland is? An actual point card, which they do not have on the roster. No. That was really noticeable on Thursday. They're just running offense through Matheron and Kawhi. They said nobody else.

It would be great. They have some defensive questions to answer that right now, they just don't play any weak defenders, pretty much. They just played like Dunn and Derrick Jones Jr, who's been awesome, but underrated part of their good play lately is that he's back. But yeah, he'd be a great addition to their team. He'd make them one guy deeper, and they'd be a pretty dangerous team.

You know what surprised me about Thursday night? Denver wanted the game and was really into it. I don't think Jokuj loves the Clippers. I don't know what the genesis of it is, but I try to go every time Jokuj plays the Clippers. Every time he really the game and he's really into it. I don't know. Did they lose to them in the bubble? Was that what it was?

No, it was the Clippers were up 3-1 and collapsed in dramatic fashion.

They beat them in the bubble. I don't know what the genesis is, but Denver was playing super hard, was really into it and wanted it, and the Clippers won anyway. I don't know. It seems like they're five behind Phoenix right now for the seventh spot.

But that's a matchup where you feel the absence of Aaron Gordon because they just don't have anyone to guard Kawhi. He's too big and strong. And you could say Watson put Watson on him when he's healthy. That Watson is a guy who guards guards really well. He guards fast guys really well. He'd give Kawhi some issues because he's paid Watson. But there are just matchups where if you fall into the wrong place, you really feel Aaron Gordon's absence.

Rahim on the Ringer Gambling Show on Friday had this great stat about... Have you heard of the 40-20 roll?

Is that the 40 wins before 20 losses? This is Rahim Palmer.

Every champion since I forget what year, there's only been four times where somebody didn't hit the 40-20. One of them was the post-COVID season. But it was like, I've read the '95 Rockets, I think the '04 Pistons, maybe the '06 Heat. But usually, 40/20, you have to get to 40 wins for 20 losses, and that's who wins the title. And it's like over something like that. And this year, there's only three teams that are 40-20 teams unless the Celtics can somehow- I was going to say, don't short-change those scrappy guys in green.

Come on.

Yeah, the Celtics would be the fourth. They would have to win in Phoenix Tuesday night, conceivable now. They'd have to upset Denver on Wednesday and then beat Brooklyn at home. So they could be the fourth. But the three teams are obviously, okay, seeing Detroit. Then San Antonio, who's been pretty hot. I know you've talked about them on your pod. Is there any part of you that thinks that they could win four straight playoff rounds? Because I am of the mindset that they're too young and they have to have the taste your own blood play-offs before we can seriously talk about them winning a title. But they do fit this thing, and there's only three teams that fit it.

I would generally agree with you that they are young. Wemby is young and untested in the playoffs. Castle, Harper, on and on. The rookie wall is also a thing. Harper has played a lot of minutes to see how he holds up. They had to demote Harrison Barnes out of the starting five because he hit the veteran wall and maybe he'll get promoted back into it.

He hit the old guy wall.

I was trying to be nice. The veteran wall. I don't want to call Harrison Barnes old. I'll call him. They did nothing at the trade deadline. We all thought they have this that's ready to win and they have a bunch of pieces. Can they just get one more good player? They didn't. All that said, I do think they could win three straight playoff rounds in the West just because all of these other teams are The Wolves are trying to figure themselves out to some degree. The Rockets, we talked about Denver. We just did a whole thing on Denver. And they have a thing against the Thunder. And I wouldn't dismiss it as just small sample size theater. I know the last couple of games there were guys out, but those Those were high stakes, high by regular season standards, the teams cared about those games, and the Spurs won them, and they won a couple of them handily, and they had the Thunder a little flustered. I don't necessarily think that means they would beat the Thunder in a playoff series. I would pick Oklahoma City. But I don't think it's inconceivable whether the Spurs could make the final.

They also have one of the five best players in the NBA, period.

That goes back to the MVP discussion. If they went on a real run here down the stretch, they They get the one seed. Wemby goes up a level as all this is happening, and maybe we have an '86 Rockets type of situation. Four rounds sounds excessive to me when you think none of those guys really have any of them been in a big playoff game.

Well, and it's- Daren Fox played game seven. Harrison Barnes is the 10th guy in their team.

Daryn Fox played a game seven against Steph in round one.

Lou Cornet is an NBA freaking champion. Lou Cornet, Kelly O'L Wynick had game seven against Washington?

All right. I have a couple quick things for you, and then we're going to talk about Kauai.

Can I just say one more thing about the Spurs? Because I don't think it's just the young guys thing you're talking about. I think you almost forget it as you get distant. When the playoffs fade away and you're in January and February in the regular season, and it's been a while since you felt the playoffs and all that, Four, it's just really physically taxing. It's not just the pressure and the noise and the big stage. It's just like guys are going down like flies. It's a slog. It's every other day after the first round. I mean, it's really, really hard to win for a playoff series. I know you meant that when you said they haven't been tested and felt blood and all that stuff. But that's part of it is feeling what it's like of this is game 17 for us in the playoff. That hurts.

I got a A couple of mailback questions actually about, are we sure the West is still better than the East? A couple of people all made the same point like, yeah, OKC is the best team in the league. But if you go top four versus top four, are we sure the West top four is better than the East top four? It just got my brain thinking a little bit. If you had to rank the teams right now, we'd put OKC first. Who would you put second? You get either conference, the top eight teams. So who's your second best team right now?

I'm still going to go Denver.

I think I would go Detroit just because I don't know what I'm getting from Gordon yet. But I think it's... Would you go Detroit third?

Yeah.

Yes. Okay. So it's Denver, Detroit, two, three. So who's four? Would you put San Antonio there?

I put San Antonio there.

And then would you put the next three East teams, followed by whoever is number four in the West, which would be Minnesota or the Wakers, whoever?

I would probably have Minnesota over at least one, if not two or three of the East teams.

Well, We just solved it. The West is still better. I have three. I want to do this new little mini segment with you called On the Record. I just want to go on the record. Just want to put my thing down. I don't think LeBron goes to Cleveland next year.

Out of left field, I like that you're just going on the record with it. Okay, so elaborate.

I don't see it. Here's why I don't see it, because I think Cleveland is a team that could win the title this year or next year. I think they have a player that is one of the best six or seven, eight, nine, whatever you want to say, guys in the league who's never made the finals. I think they're close, and they're going to resign Harden. I think they're close. I think just being like, Oh, by the way, we're going to add the LeBron Fairwell tour to this. It just doesn't pass the smell test to me. I might be wrong, but I wanted to go on the record. I think it's going to be Golden State. That would be my bet. If you gave me the bet, Cleveland will be the favorite, the Knicks will probably be the second favorite. Lakers will probably be in the top three, and then there'll be a whole bunch of other teams. Golden State makes the most sense to me because they actually need them. The narrative of, I'm going to finish my career with Steph Curry, the other great player of my generation. We won Olympic gold medals together.

The team needs me. It's a farewell tour combined with the team needs me. I'm going to play with Draymon. Steve Kerr, who's coached me, and this is where I'm going to end it, makes more sense to me than I'm just going to be awkwardly shoehorned into this team that had a chance to win a title who has a best guy in the league candidacy, at least from the guard position, just doesn't add up to me.

It's a big bomb to drop into your team. It's just not simple of like, Oh, he's coming on the minimum or the mid-level, so it doesn't hurt our cap situation. It's free money.

It's like- And he's bringing a 40-person camera crew. It's an aggressive move if you think you could win the title.

He's not just going to stand in the corner and play 25 minutes. He's going to have the ball a lot and play 35 minutes and have to be engaged on defense.

You saw it in the All-Star game. When he's on the court, he's going to be a principal player in the game. That's just how it's going to play out. He's one of the two best players of all time.

I've talked about the Warriors one a bit. I think you're right to flag it as possible. The Knicks, I probably haven't put enough thought into. Obviously, he's talked about Madison Square Garden and what that place means to him.

Why would Jalen Brunson sign up for that?

Well, I don't know why. I mean, it's LeBron, I guess. But I just don't know. I haven't gone through the machinations it would take for it to happen if it's not just him coming on the minimum and the apron issues and what do they do with Kat and is Yana still in play, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

I think he either stays in LA or he goes to Golden State. Those would be my best state. All right, next one. It's tied to LeBron. If they don't get LeBron, I think this is it for Steve Kerr. I have no inside info. This would be the right area for him to be like, You know what? I'm going to take a year. I'll do some media. I'll try to figure out if I want to keep coaching. I'm calling it quits.

Do you want me to say something?

You don't have to say anything.

I mean, Look, he's been coaching without a contract beyond the season the entire year. That's always a red flag. There's always been this notion of, and he has said it publicly, that I'm tied at the hip to Steph. As long as Steph is here, I will be here, period. We all know Steph is going to be there next year. This has been a trying couple of years for the Warriors on lots of different levels. It would not surprise me if he were not the coach next year.

There's a little... Maybe Clomingo would have done better if we'd have... There's a little finger-pointing stuff that's gone on since this draft and some of this stuff. That's a real thing. I just wonder if he's like, You know what? I'm good. I'm going to take a year off.

Well, we saw I mean, we saw Bob Myers just basically like- We saw Bob Myers say, I'm good, I'm going to take you off.

I'm walking away. Yeah.

I'm ready for some time off.

All right. Those are my strongest two I want to get on the record with predictions. I have the right to flip these predictions at a later date. I'm just putting these down. My third one is I'm not sure Darren Peterson is going to go first anymore, which I would have bet anything on two months ago. But there's just too much weirdness with this Kansas thing, with him coming out of games and the cramping and the competitiveness. And unless he's actually hurt, which is now a new theory, I think teams value competitiveness too much. It's the number one thing we've learned about the NBA in the last 15 years is, you know what it's a good idea to have? Competitive guys. And I think this has just gotten too weird with the Kansas thing. And I think there might be better picks. I know you don't care about the draft.

No, I'll tell you this. I do care about the draft. I don't watch a lot of college basketball. I'll do my YouTubeing as we get closer to the draft. By the way, my YouTubeing, I don't know if you remember this from the Zack Loe show last year. I said the number one guy I fell head over heels with based on 15 minutes of YouTubeing was Connick and Hipple. Yes.

But I was also pitching him to you as you're going to love this Connick and Hipple. He's your guy. He moves without the ball and sets pics.

I care to some degree. I don't watch college basketball because I just watch too much NBA. I don't have time. It's a time management thing. But I will tell you this, Nick's Pistons was... What day was that? I don't even know. I think it was Thursday night. I think the night before was when Peterson had taken himself out of a game. I still haven't even seen the video of it. On the pregame, Knicks Pistons, big game, Eastern Conference clash. Detroit's been in the news because of the the Knicks need to revenge. Every scout, front office person, coach at the game, number one topic on their mind was, what in the hell is going on with Darren Peterson? I had so many Darren Peterson conversations, and I remember talking to various people being like, What? He just took himself out of the game? Because I hadn't seen it. They're like, Yeah, he literally pointed to Bill Self. I was like, I'm out. That's it. No one knows what to make of it.

I don't like it. I don't understand it. It gives me Ben Simmons' flashbacks to the OSU thing when he was just like, I'm out. He didn't care if they even made the NIT or whatever he did. Now, I hope that he actually has some physical stuff going on that he's afraid to make worse would be my hope. But I don't know. Just compare it to... Think of some of the great guys we've had even recently. Would Anthony Edwards be like, Yeah, I'm good. I'm going to take myself out? It just makes me nervous. I'd want to have a lot more information on it.

I can tell you this, the scouts in front of people I know, particularly people who are going to be picking towards the top of the draft, a lot of their job is trying to figure out what's going on. And if there were a physical thing, at some point, one of them would figure it out and it would start to get around, and everyone is just completely perplexed.

It's where the band said just becomes an easier pick because ultimately, you just made the key point. You're talking about guys who are going to get fired if they get this pick wrong. And that's when you just gravitate You know this guy? He's 6'8, perfect body. Worst case scenario is going to be a better Andrew Wiggins. This is a safer bet. I'm just going to take this guy. All right, we're going to take a break for the podcast. Keep going on here on Netflix. Kawhi Leonard.

I can't wait for this.

I wanted to do a deep dive. We're going to try to keep this to 30 minutes. Kawhi Leonard, we're going to do deep dives here every once in a while on the Sunday Night Pods where we pick a player and we just dive in. And Kawhi Leonard also I'll start here. I think the weirdest career of anyone in the top 40 for me. And he is top 40. I have him as a level 4. I have the five levels that I created in my book, The Pyramid. Level 4 is the one right below the Pantheon, and He is right there as one of the best 30 guys of all time for me. I think I have number 29. He averaged 12 points a game for the first four years of his career. He was a Finals MVP and a defensive player of the year before he ever made an All-Star team. He's only played 766 regular-season games in 15 years, which averages out to about 50. 5 a game or 51 a game or something like that. He's been the Finals MVP on two different teams. If you only watch the last two months of the season, you would think he was one of the best five players we have.

I have no idea if he's going to be in round two of the playoffs ever again in his career, much less the Finals We know very little about him. He's been the most enigmatic, quiet, strangest player to figure out that we've had. He quit on the spurs. I guess quit is the wrong word, just refused to play for them anymore. Didn't get along with an infrastructure that is pretty beloved where guys all love each other. He was just like, I'm out. I don't trust you guys. I've had it. There's a lot more else to discuss. But at his best was He's right there in the LeBron-Durant vicinity and is one of the 30 best players of all time and has two rings. So I'll start there.

I mean, he's been so good this year and relatively available enough to qualify for all of these awards we've been talking about, I think he belongs in the first-team All-MBA conversation for those last few spots. I don't think he'll play enough to get there, but he's absolutely been that good. It's partly because Jokuj has missed, let's say, half of the last 30 games or half the game since the Kawhi came back around Thanksgiving. He's either been the best or second best player in the league in that time span, given all the games that other guys have missed. But he's been that good. He's been like an MVP level player right now, which I thought, I'm not sure we're going to see that again for 35 out of 45 games in any season. And he's been that good. His career has been so weird that you didn't even get to the Capser Convention scandal that's currently happening.

We have a whole bunch of other shit to go through. He's only been a top three MVP twice in '16 and '17. He was second and third, and he was fifth and '20. It's one of those when you look at the complete resume, it's both not as impressive as I thought it was going to be, but then also more impressive.

In an era where so many of the best players with any longevity are going to crack 20,000 points, which used to be hollowed ground, but is less so because of the three-point shot. He's still chilling around 15,900, 770 games played.

He might not get to 20,000 points.

It's so weird that I would actually ask you, who else is in the conversation for weirdest career in your top 40 or 50 or whatever it was? Is there anyone even in the vicinity?

See, now I'm going to have to dive right into the pyramid. Secret Doc. So I had him 31, my bad. Top of level 4, Scottie Pippen, 32, Kawhi, 31, Dwyane Wade, 30. Have them all in a row. And I think Dwyane Wade is a little more reliable. If you go on weirdo careers, Rick Berry is up there.

Rick Berry is a good one.

He had that hole, goes to the ABA, can't play for a year, blew out his knee, lost another year. Robinson, going all four years in college. That's a good one. Then having to serve for two years and then coming into the league was pretty weird. Bill Walton's thing is super weird.

I guess that's That's kawaii, too.

It's injury-related. Then probably Dr. J, just because the first part of that was ABA. I think those would be the weirder ones.

Walton's a good call because Walton legit had a case of best player alive at his peak.

Which Kawhi got there in 2019, right? I think there was a real case for him after the 2019 playoffs, especially when LeBron went to the Lakers. That season wasn't good. We didn't know at point, but it seemed like, well, LeBron's now going to move into a different phase of his career. We didn't know it was going to keep going the way it did. But I think we left 2019 thinking Kawhi was the best player in the league.

It's the hill that I will die on. I think he should have been the MVP in 2017 when Russell Westbrook won. And you voted for Harden. I voted for Kawhi. I got laughed at for voting for Kawhi publicly. I was one of eight people who voted for him. I thought he was the best player in the league and should have won the MVP.

All NBA three times. His three-year peak from 2019 to '21 offensively, he was basically a 26, 7, and 4. For his career, 50% field goal, 39% three, 86% free throw, 23. 5 PR. And then the play-offs, he's better. 21, 8, and 3. Almost a 50, 40, 90 guy, 24. 2 per, which is 11th. His playoff run from 19 to 21 is the best great player case for him, which includes the title. 48 games, 2019, 2020, 2021. 30 points a game, nine rebounds a game, five assists a game, 51% shooting, 88% from the line, 37% for three.

And a shot that would be the shot if the shot weren't already taken by Michael Jordan.

Right. It's as good as any three-year stretch LeBron had, any three-year stretch Durant had, just statistically. And then you have that game seven he played against Philly in 2019. Which I know you love. Nobody in Toronto shows up except for Abaka. The whole team is in a freezer. Vanvleet is 0 for 5. We're like, is this guy ever going to be playable again in the playoffs? Kawhi takes 39 shots, makes 16. Everyone else on the team other than Abaka is 8 for 40. And he hits probably the most famous non-final shot ever. Right?

Is it more famous than The Shot over Craig Eelow?

Maybe. No. Craig Eelow, that's the beginning of the Jordan. Yeah. Well, it's in the running for that one. Well, a couple of things we got to talk about. First of all, his first four years of the career is 12 points a game, and his next four years was 24. How many players doubled their point total in the second four years? His Clipper's career, which is 309 games, he's basically 25, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 18 field goals a game. He averaged 9. 5 field goal attempts a game, first four years of his career. We had to talk about the defense.

He's a two-time defensive player of the year for a non-center. He's extraordinary.

We've talked about this a lot, and this dates back to our Grantland days when Kauai had emerged. I remember I wrote one of my last pieces for Grantland was about Kauai as a sharkedupus. Was there a sharktupus movie? We did a graphic with Kauai's face with an octopus. For me, it's him and Kawhi as the best perimeter defenders I've ever seen.

Wait, no. Him and Pippin? Did you mean him and Pippin?

I'm sorry. Him and Pippin. It's him and Pippin as levitating above ever and us I've ever seen. I might actually throw MJ in there as number three. I don't know if Ahmed Thompson can get there. He certainly, when you think where his age are and what he's done already, I think it's conceivable. Is Is there anybody else as a perimeter defender that you've seen that can match Pippen and Kawhi?

Gary Payton didn't have enough size. No.

There were certain guys he couldn't... He couldn't have guarded Jokuj. Pippen and Kawhi could have guarded Jokuj or Trey.

No, those two guys, I mean, those two stand alone. I think I would like to go back to watch more Scott. I mean, Scott, he's one of my... I got into verbal fights in college over Scottie Pippen. I was the guy that defended Scottie Pippen. I love Scottie Pippen as a player. So I want to go back and watch a little film. Just defense only, I feel like Kawhi was scarier. Like, Pete Kawhi was maybe a little scarier than Scottie. Just by this much. A little stronger, maybe, a little physically, is this guy a tank? I don't know. I'm immoveable.

He had that thing that the only other guy I've seen do it is Pippin, and you used to joke about it when he would just decide to take the ball.

Yeah.

Somebody would be dribbling the ball up and Kuao would be like, I'm going to take that. And he would just go get the ball and steal it, and that would be it.

You could see him decide, I'm just going to take the ball from you. It's not going to be like a knock away where then we both go chase it and I get it. I'm just going to reach out my hand, grab the ball from you and start going the other way. Thank you for participating in this exercise.

He got the 2014 Finals MVP, I think as the years pass, it's like... And he shut down LeBron in the 14 Finals. He actually didn't shut him down. Lebron's stats were pretty similar to what they always were. But he did shut him down in key moments of games where they would be up by 20 and maybe LeBron will get some stats near the end. But it was really the only time I remember because Indiana would have their reputation of all Paul George gives LeBron everything he can handle. It's not like this, not like Kawhi, who just seemed completely unafraid of him and went at him. This was LeBron at the peak of his powers.

That's the physicality thing, too, is the rare guy who just is a physical specimen could go toe to toe with LeBron.

Duran was the other guy from that era. There was also Blake Griffin from that era. There are all these things to him to go. You have that piece. His 2014 finals, he was 11 for 19 from three, 61%, 18 points a game. So he ends up... That was one of those finals MVP by default. We didn't really know who to vote for. You could make a case, maybe We just vote Duncan because he was the spiritual guy of the team. All right, biggest what ifs before we get to the biggest what if. 2017, game one Golden State. Kauai has been awesome. You voted for him for MVP. 26 points in 23 minutes, steps on Zaza's foot, and the rest of his history.

That entire playoff's, Kauai was insane. The entire playoff's.

Insane enough that I think Golden State was the best team of the century. It was conceived It's believable that he could take them on by himself and maybe give them a run.

That's how well he was playing. That was the Rant year one for people.

That's the best team I've seen all century.

16 and one in the playoffs.

Yeah, that team was unstoppable.

Yeah, I think he's so good that that could have been a 4-2 Warriors series. I don't think he beat him.

He would have landed some punches.

Let's just posit that they steal game one on the road, and then we have two days of like, Oh, are the Warriors in trouble? The Spurs are ready for this. Then the Warriors win game two, probably win game three. But they get another game in there somewhere.

Another what if, 2020, the bubble. We had in a COVID, there's three teams that we think can win the title, the Clippers and the Lakers, then the Bucks, who hadn't really proven that they'd made the Eastern Finals the year before, lost to Toronto. They were probably the team that was going to come out of the East, we thought. Then the bubble happens, and the Lakers get stronger in the bubble, and the Clippers completely cave. They've talked about it since about they just weren't built for the bubble. See, you have that. 2021, the next year, Kawhi is incredible again. 30. 7 rebounds, 4 assists in the first two rounds, gets hurt at the tail end of round 2. Ends up like, sneaking Phoenix into the finals, and I don't know if they were the best team. Do you think they were the best team? I actually thought the Phoenix was better the next year.

Yeah, well, that's when all the wheels came off in the play.

And then the wheels came off, yeah.

Phoenix was a really good team, but yeah, I would have liked to have obviously seen the full strength Clippers. He gets hurt in the Utah series that they end up winning in six.

At the tail end of that series. And then the Phoenix also got to avoid Anthony Davis. So I'm just stating facts. I know Eddie Johnson is going to call us Water Bulls tomorrow on Twitter and fight us. And then honestly, the biggest what if other than this aspiration thing was him demanding that Paul be part of this Clipper situation in 2018? It's a what if that all my Clipper fans talk about all the time. The trade was Paul George for a guy named Shade Gildas Alexander, Galanari, who was still competent at that point, four unprotected first, two swaps, and then another pick. We know what happened with those pics. The question has always been, why don't you just go to the Clippers, have all the picks, have the young players, and just take some time to try to figure it out. You just won the title. It's not like you had to win the title right away. Why didn't you have more patience? Why did you demand to have to gut everything so it's you and Paul George? Obviously, he would do it over again if he could. But It's a pretty good what if.

Now, we didn't know SGA was going to even be an All-MBA player. We knew he was good.

We knew he was good. He was clearly good.

We didn't know he was going to be an All-MBA player, much less a two-time MVP. Knew those pics were going to hurt. I got to say, I defended the move at the time.

I think everybody did. I think everybody still would.

Yeah, because it's like, you can't get Kawhi unless you do this. The question is, could you have gotten Kawhi anyway? What else was he doing? He didn't want to go to the Lakers. We know that now. He was playing poker with the Lakers. Didn't seem like he wanted to go back to... What were the other options?

That's a great question. I think the Raptors thought they had an honest chance at him, even though they knew he never asked to be there. They knew wanted to go to Los Angeles. They felt that winning a title, he had a good relationship with Masai Jiri. Yeah.

Maybe do a one-year deal and then figure it out after that?

I think they thought they had some chance, but you're right. What were the other? There was no other team that was in it at the time. It was those three teams, and it went on and on and on. I don't think he ever wanted to go to the Lakers. The Lakers obviously thought they could have gotten them. And there was Jerry West was worried the Lakers were going to get him. But I think he wanted to go to the Clippers all along. And Should you have called as well? I don't know. I mean, it's hard to know, but clearly in retrospect, they would have been better off just signing Kawhi and not trading for Paul George. Although Paul George was coming off the best season of his career, having finished third in MVP. But It was awesome. Stars want to play with stars, man. I don't know what to tell you. If you're back into that corner, having put so many chips into this kawaii basket where you're following them around during the season, you're at his games, you're letting them know you're watching and all this stuff, it would have been a tough pill to swallow.

Way to hold off making more jokes about following them around and waving carets. You really held back. I was impressed. There's been a couple of stretches in the history of the league that are just earth-shattering to look back at in retrospect. I think one of those stretches for the league was that 2019 season, followed by the COVID season. Just Kawhi sitting there being available, really for anybody, nobody knowing whether they should even trade for him or not. Nobody thinking he'd stay more than a year. All these teams kicking the tires on it, ultimately decided not to. And Toronto just saying, Fuck it and doing it. You had that. You had Golden State with a suddenly, nobody understood why, but maybe unhappy, Durant. Then you had the Kyrie piece, and then the fight with Draymond on court argument. Then Kyrie falling apart Boston. And then it's like, Wait, are these guys headed toward maybe playing together? So you had that. You had the Where's Kawhi going? You had the Anthony Davis basically saying, I want to play for the Lakers midseason and just blowing up the Lakers and all the young players because they couldn't get the trade done.

So that trade is looming. And everything's leading to that weird summer where we had the Kawhi thing, the Paul George trade. We had Houston getting a little rocky. And then we had- Houston traded Chris Paul for Russ. We had that. And then Brooklyn. And then we have this new season that starts with all these guys on these new teams. And then COVID happens. It will never be tough. That has to be the weirdest two years we've ever had.

It's pretty weird. It was a lot. I mean, the Kyrie thing by itself was such an earthquake. The Kyrie basically demanding a trade out of Cleveland. Because that took a long time to resolve itself as well as you lived in Noel. Because if I'm remembering my calendar right, that came after free agency that summer was mostly over and we were into calm mode. Like, oh, there's no big things left to go.

We were having our Ringer MBA meetings. Everything was done. And then it was like, Kauai is now a Boston Celtic. We were like, whoa. We sprung into action. But yeah, so really strange stretch. Kauai and that whole trade moves into it. I think the Clippers would do it again. But there is this alternate universe where they would have had Kauai, SGA in a second year, Zubots, Galanari, Lou Williams, Max Capp space to try to trade for any other guys, Patrick Beverly, Harrell, Schamet, all their picks, and then some other picks that they had gotten.

That's the key because You could live in this world where if you just get Kawhi and you don't trade for Paul George, you're good now and good later and set up to be good for 15 years and maybe really good. But to get the good now part, at some point in the first 18 months, you need another guy.

Yeah, right. Which with the cap space and everything else, who knows? They might have traded for it. It's somehow year '15, 706 games and 146 playoff games. So he hasn't even played a thousand games combined yet. How many more years is he going to play? Would you trade for him this summer? Would the Clippers consider trading for him? And then we haven't talked about the aspiration piece of this yet and the fact that we have no idea if they're going to get punished. We've heard crazy rumors about what the punishment might be or might not be, including there's a voided contract contingent out there that I enjoy. They're like the Kauai Aspiration Truthers that he's just going to be a free agent this summer. I don't think that's going to happen.

That would surprise me, but... What am I supposed to say? It would surprise me. So would the whole Aspiration thing.

I think we're prepared for all of it. Ride me out for the next four Kauai years. What happens? What do you foresee?

I foresee the safest bet, and what I would bet on is he never leaves the Clippers, and they are a good solid team that never breaks through in a big way. But there's also a universe where they do have all this max cast base set up. They're the Clippers, they're LA, they have Inuit Dome. Maybe somebody comes. I don't know who that somebody is. But I I bet he stays with the Clippers, and it's just a marriage that lasts for whatever reason. He rides it out as a very good player on a good team, and maybe that's it.

It's like a true crime series where the couple, one of the couple, had an affair with the gardener, and then they killed the gardener and buried him under the house, and now they're married for life, and they just have to live a secret. I didn't say all that.

I didn't say all that. I just said he stayed with the Clippers. I didn't mention a gardener. That sounds like a good Apple show.

Who's the gardener? John Ham and Diane Lane, and they have a secret. They have to stay together now. I am way in getting involved. I like that. They have to stay now for the rest of whatever. Yeah, the dirty secret is they're actually okay positioned as long as they don't get nailed with some giant suspension thing, right? They were able to get younger with Garland and Matherin, who I think they're going to resign. They'll have Kawhi. They have some flexibility with expirings. They're finally done with this OKC trade. And they're going to have cap space to 27, which is what they seem to care about.

And I think they did well in the Zubats trade. I think they did probably very well in the Zubats trade. And we'll see what the lottery does. If they do land a fifth, sixth, seventh pick in this draft. That's a It was a huge deal for them. And I think they did well in that trade.

Last thing with Kauai. So you see these guys when they come into the league, within a couple of years, they're in the vicinity of where they end up. You have some situations like Jalen Brown, where it's like Jalen Brown, great athlete. There were pieces of it. I never thought he would be as good of an all-around player as he is now and as good of an offensive player. I always thought he'd be a little bit flawed and a little bit... You'd always see the weaknesses with him, and he's gotten to a level higher than I thought. But it's still like if you watch Jalen Brown in 2018, '19, and you watch him now, it's You could see that led to this, I guess, is my point.

You're talking about the Jelen Brown that the Spurs surely asked for in the Kawhi Leonard trade talks.

But you see Durant in year two, and it's going to still look like what we're watching now with Houston. You even see as different as LeBron is now physically, there's still a lot of the same stuff of the head steam down, all that. If you go and watch Kawhi in 2013 and watch the Kawhi now, it's like It's a different human being. He has this dead-eye three-point shot now. His three-point shooting was always good. But now he has this stutter step, line drive in your face shot. He's got that little foul on jumper. His paint game is unbelievable. He's really one of the most gifted scores of this century now. That would have been inconceivable to me going to the 2014 Finals Games. You've never, ever in a million years could have convinced me this guy will eventually be a Jedi on offense. I never would have bought it.

Part of it is being drafted to a good team, right? So you're not just given the keys right away to like, oh, he averaged 27 points in his second year. Part of it is that they worked hard on his shot and he worked hard on his shot, and it went from a potential liability to a massive asset. And part of it is just reps and reps and reps and getting better and better. And it's very, I think, apt that you mentioned Jalen Brown, because during the Kauai thing, I wrote about Jalen Brown for ESPN and about how this dilemma the Celtics faced of, should we trade this guy for a Kauai and age ourselves up seven, eight years, whatever it was. And I wrote, if you looked at a lot of the statistical indicators, and I'm talking the tracking stuff, number of pick and rolls ran pretty low. Number of Isos ran pretty low. Assists out of pick and roll. They were very similar players at that stage. When Kawhi was at Jalen Brown stage in his career, then they were very similar players. And Jalen Brown has not become as good as Pete Kawhi Leonard, but he's developed in a similar...

The breadth of his game has taken them to places where it didn't appear that it could have gone back then. But it was there. It was like it was lurking in there.

My big case for not making that trade, and I did it on Pods back then was the profile of him versus Paul George was very similar, Jalen Brown. It just felt like a pretty good bet that he could be as good as Paul George, barring an injury, right? And that was going to be his arc as a player.

Another guy they could have traded Jalen Brown for.

Right. And the question for me is, why would I trade this for a year of Kawhi Leonard when there's no chance he's going to stay? Made no sense to me. I didn't think they should do it. The other what if we didn't mention how weird that 2011 draft was.

Kauai goes first. What if the Pacers never traded him?

Well, you have that, but you also have Milwaukee takes Jimmer for that 10th. Kueh Thompson goes 11th to Golden State. Alec Birks, 12th to Utah. The Morris twins go 13th and 14th to Phoenix and Houston. I'm actually surprised Darryl passed on Kauai at 14. It felt like he would have fit the model from some of the stuff he was doing at San Diego State. Indiana takes Kauai 15th and then trades him for George Hill. That was one of the first great pieces you wrote for us at Grantland when you did the whole deep dive of a trade that I think both teams were probably happy about because George Hill, they got to the conference finals twice, and you have to give up something to get something to give up Kauai. But there's an interesting alternate universe where they just have Danny Granger Paul George, and Kawhi Leonard. And they're just like, I guess we'll figure out who brings the ball up.

It's a really fun draft all the way down because Jimmy Butler sneaks in at number 30.

It's a drunk draft.

Chandler Parsons at number 38 becomes a weirdly important player because of his contract and the decision the Rockets had to make to restrict him or not restrict him. I can't remember exactly. It was a very fun draft.

Yeah. So the wrap on Kawhi, he's at San Diego State for two seasons. Is The second year, he averaged 16 and 11, and he was 25 for 86 from three. This is the college three, shut 29%. The rap was, great athlete, can't shoot. Then San Antonio was like, We're going to fix him in a month. He's basically been a good three-point shooter, I think, other than his rookie year for most of his career. The other question for me is, in the pyramid, how high can he go? If he could put together a couple more really high-end years, because that's where Dwyane Wade, his career ended pretty abruptly. His peak was from his rookie year in Miami, '04, '05 season. I would say through about with Miami, and then he just moved into a different phase of his career.

He was leaking oil in the 2014 finals.

Yeah, the 33-game winning streak was probably his last great hurrah. Isiah Thomas, I have at 29. His career ended early, and then Coosy at 28. There is a chance he could move into that Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, Kevin Garnett, Bob Pettit. I have from 26, 25, 24, 23. In that range, if he can play three, four more years, I think that's a good range for him. And maybe that's where he ends up.

Can I give you a Kawhi stat?

Yeah.

So I did a little basketball reference diving. These are cherry-picked numbers, to be sure, but I put them a little lower just to make sure I was including. I wasn't just cutting it off right where Kawhi hit. All right, here are the guys who in the entire history of the NBA, ABA, played at least 5,000 minutes in the playoffs. Now, that's where I had to cherry-pick a little bit because Kawhi is at 51 100. So he's barely over that. But so are a couple of other guys.

Five thousand minutes is still a lot for the playoffs.

Five,000 minutes, points per game, at least 21. Kawhi is at 21. 5, I think. Player efficiency rating, at least 23. Kawhi is at 24 and change, 24. 2. So 5,000 minutes, all playoffs. This is all playoffs. Points per game in the playoff is greater than 21. Pr in the playoff is greater than 23. Nine guys in the history of the NBA. Lebron James Michael Jordan, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Shaq, Jerry West, Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard, Dirk Nowitzky, Hakeem Olajuwon. That's the whole list. Wow. That's what we're talking about. That's what this guy is.

It would have been really fun if Detroit said, Fuck it, and traded for him.

I don't think I would have. They have the best record in the NBA.

I would have said, Don't do that. But if they had done that, I would have talked myself into it in two minutes.

It would have been... We would have been exhilarated on the Trade Deadline show. If that had broken at 2: 12 Trade Deadline Day, Detroit to what?

You saw it in the All-Star Game, there's very few guys that can take over a quarter like that on both ends. We're going to look back in the 21st century, and especially at the forward position where we had a lot of good I think LeBron and Durant will levitate above the other ones as forwards, but Kawhi is the one. Dirk had his moment, too, in 2011, especially. I'm probably leaving somebody out, but those would be the four that I think were the most impactful forwards and winning titles on two different teams. I hope he has one more run because he's really fun to watch in person is the other thing. I still feel like he delivers the goods, and there's just nobody like him in the league. I don't even know who compare him to.

I would love him to have one more real run. The problem is, they lost in seven to the Nuggets last year in the first round, so we didn't get to see a long run, but we just haven't had a long run for him since the bubble. It's just every playoff where even when it starts promising, he gets injured.

Kawhi Leonard. Before we go. That was fun. I enjoyed our deep dive.

Yeah, it's a fascinating one.

Before we go. Oh, and by the way, the other thing with Kawhi is if you went around the league and said, Give me your three best off-the-court Kawhi stories, how many could you actually get from people?

I don't know.

Nobody knows anything about him even now, 15 years in.

Except for on the best. What did Harden say? When right before he got traded, there was some piece where he was like, I think I know him probably better than anyone in the league. And I don't really know him. We don't really talk much.

I was googling him and it was like, Kauai's married. I was like, Kauai's married? No idea. Never really seen him in any situation like that. Before we go, Winter Olympics, how much did you consume? Are you just in full basketball?

It was on in the background now and then because my daughter enjoyed it. So around dinner in the evening, we'd have it on. I missed the hockey games. I missed both the gold medal hockey games because I was watching as well. But we saw a fair bit of crawling, figure-skating, looge, bobsled. We saw some of that. Now, I can't name a bobsledder or a looger, or even if I can name a couple of figure-skaters, that's it.

The hockey was incredible. The women's hockey game was outstanding and so much fun. Then today, the US-Canada, which I did not wake up for until the third period. The three-on-three I don't love for the gold medal. I would have gone four-on-four for 10 minutes, then eased into the three-on-three. But as usual with hockey, our goalie stood on his head and stopped everything and was just out of his mind. Hockey is a lot more simple to understand sometimes than basketball which we just talked about for two hours. In hockey, sometimes your goalie can just singlehandedly win everything for you. You're like, All right, couldn't score on our goalie. Now we've won.

That's what happened. I will say it all the time. One of the greatest feats I have ever seen in sports, I only saw because one of my best friends in college is from the Czech Republic. In the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, we got up in the middle of the night, every night to watch the Czech hockey team because he was so into it. They won the gold medal, and they won the gold medal because Dominic Hachik just lost his mind. I mean, he was the best goal in the world. But I mean, in that Olympics, there was a shootout against Canada, I think in the semifinals, where he went five for five, and it was like Lindras. It was just every A plus Canadian player took a run at him in a shootout, and he saved every single one. It was absolutely insane. It was one of the best things I've ever seen.

Well, the most fun thing for me about this, it was awesome. I love this Olympic hockey run, but we had the K'Chuck brothers who were on the US Olympic Hockey team, who, Katie and Keith. Is it Keith? Katie and Matthew. Keith was the dad. Everybody who's ever gone against either of their teams hates those guys because they're like agitator, frustrating guys, and they've had a lot of success. But on Team America, you have to throw it aside. But now we have the Hughes brothers who are the younger versions of them. You don't have the same baggage because your team hasn't battled them. The Hughes brothers were the two of the heroes because one scored the winning goal in one and then the other scored the winning goal in the other day. But their mom, you know I love mom stuff with the athletic jeans because I really think it comes from the mom a lot of the times. The mom was the greatest athlete in the history of UNH. She was a three-sport athlete in college. She was soccer, hockey, and lacrosse. Michael Malley told me this because he went there. He was two years older than I had to go look it up.

Then was this famous college hockey player who was on the first Olympic team, but just this legendary athlete and then goes and has the Hughes kids. There's a third Hughes kid who could have made the team and got hurt, Luke Hughes, who's the defenseman.

I legitimately thought you were going to say that their mom is Sarah Hughes, the Olympic gold medal finger skater from 20 years ago.

No, that would have been exciting, too.

In my head, I was like, it feels like she would have had kids real young if it was that Sarah Hughes. I don't think that I don't remember her doing that. But a better athlete than Jackie McDonald, another UNH great.

Exactly. Then another thing, which a bunch of my Jewish friends were excited about, they said this was one of the great moments in Jewish sports history because the Hughes brothers, the mom is Jewish and they had bar mitzvahs. They're like, We're claiming this. This is one of the great moments we've ever had.

I'm learning a lot about the Olympics right now.

I mean, this mom, three-sport athlete in college It's div one. It's not like it's div three where you can just show up for the season.

Have you booked her for the Bill Simmons podcast?

I have so many more questions. Then she married a hockey guy and they have three kids. We're all major your NHL players. Get her on the pod.

Get her and the sons on the pod. Get her on.

Then the Hughes brothers, guy loses his teeth, scores the winning goal right after. It's like the famous photo. The 1980 Olympic team was the true non-Boston sports I led in my life, so it was fun to get a little umbilical cord. Then poor Connor McDavid, who, I know you don't follow hockey, but has had these tragic come close. He's the best part of the world.

He's the oiler. He's the oiler is one of the good.

He's been the best part of the world for years. Can't get over the hump with the cup now loses in OT, the gold medal game, and now he's becoming this tragic Charles Barkley type figure.

But he's like the Jerry West where no one's holding it against him, right? Nobody's holding it against him.

No, the Jerry West is a really good example. Nobody's blamed him, but at some point, he's going to end up throwing a chair through his window like Jerry West in winning time, although I'm not sure that actually happened. Anyway, that's my Olympic report. I had a great time with the hockey team. Go USA. And then they did the Pat Reilly thing today, which we forgot about. That was cool. They're running out of statues.

There are a lot of statues around crypto, but they did, at least having seen some of our recent statues, At least that one looks exactly like Pat Reilly, and it looks nice.

We're getting better at that. Social media has bullied the statue people into just being better at statues.

Yeah, I still feel for Dwyane Wade. It didn't work out.

Can you catch up on the JFK Jr. Caroline Bissett show with your wife so that when we do a pod next week, we can do five minutes on it?

I don't know anything about it. I know you're obsessed with it. I know everyone else in my life wants to talk about The Guthrie Kidnapping case. I guess I got a lot of stuff I got to catch up on because I don't have a lot to add to these conversations.

All right. Zack Lo. Next podcast for the Zack Lo Show is Tuesday.

Coming off Spurs Pistons.

Hopefully, you don't get snowed in. Good luck with the snow. Good luck to everybody back east, including my poor dad who can't believe it's snowing again, and my daughter who's ready to come back to California. Stay safe on the East Coast there. Good luck with the blizzard. Thanks to Jack Wilson. Thanks to Chris. Thanks to Gehaal. Thanks to Eduardo as well from our end. And I will see you in this feed on Tuesday. By the way, Newbury Watchable is coming tomorrow. We're doing Crazy Stupe love, so stay tuned for that. Thanks, Zack.

Anytime.

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