Game on! Are the Lakers staring at the wrong side of history?

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[00:01:02] It's the order we shout. Mic check, lights flash, game time, stay ready. Two vets in the zone, keep the pressure real heavy. Big hits, big plays, yeah, we breaking it down. Truth rings in your speakers, every word is the crown. From the north side hustle to that southern flame. Midwest grind, west coast of the game. Sports talk kings, yeah, we wear that crown. Turn it up, let them know it's about to go down.

[00:01:24] Sports Reports As Ordered, no gimmicks, no clowns. True five, Mr. Logical, we run this town. We'll talk only. No chaser, no doubt. From the east to the west, it's the order we shout. It's about to go down.

[00:01:49] Yes. Here in about 45 minutes, the Lakers and Rockets game six about to get the computers pewting. You know, right now, Detroit is on the brink of elimination. Scotty Barnes is having a coming out party. There's so much going on in the NBA, and you are listening to the sounds of Sports Reports' order. He is the world famous, world renowned Mr. Logical.

[00:02:16] I am the unorthodox statistician 2-5. Like, review, subscribe, share, rate, do all the free things, do all the good things. Liquid Death in hand. We're everywhere you get your podcasts. Say less, say more. And look, we got some NCAA tournament expansion to get to. Mr. Logical is going to crap all over the 3-2-1 lottery proposal that Adam Silver is presenting. And we're going to have a fun time yelling at each other. So, you know what I'm saying?

[00:02:46] Let's get right into it. So, Mr. Logical, here's a question for you. All right. How, so, of course, like I said the other night, no team has ever come back from 3-0. How ironic would it be for the one man who led a 3-1 comeback in the NBA finals that had never been done before to give up this side of history? And do you think Houston can actually do it?

[00:03:17] I mean, if Luke Kinnar can't get you 14 points, 14, 15 points when he's getting wide open looks. Like, some of these guys are getting wide open looks and just missing them. I don't think that'll happen. Like I said, this was the first time LeBron, like, lost a closeout game at home. Mm-hmm. 18 years of the playoffs. So, that's a lot.

[00:03:46] I don't know. I just think that the problem that I first saw for L.A. is kind of coming to fruition in these last two games where it's like, who can get a bucket without LeBron's involvement? Like, LeBron's going to do his thing. Like, he's, I think he hit, like, double digits in the fourth quarter. But can somebody else, can someone go off like Kinnar did game one and then how Marcus Smart helped him essentially steal game three?

[00:04:14] Which is a, that bad pass in game three? Like, this is a totally different series if they don't throw, if Jabari Smith doesn't throw that one bad pass. Because the one bad pass led to the three-point play. Mm-hmm. The steal was the steal. Like, that just was a good defensive play by LeBron and it, like, it kind of rattled around. But the lofting of that bad pass, that really, that changed everything in that, you know, the final 25 seconds. Right. I think they close it out tonight.

[00:04:45] I don't know what J.J. Reddick's rotation is going to be. Maybe you, like, I think DeAndre Ayton, you got to give him some more, you got to give him some more to the hoop action. Between him and Jackson Hayes, just put Shingun in a position where he has to defend someone. Because if you run Ayton at the rim, Jabari Smith is your only, like, I think he's your other tall guy near the rim. I know Thompson, but he's more of a wing guy. Mm-hmm.

[00:05:13] Maybe you get a couple of cheap fouls off of just, you know, guys being out of position. Just get, get somebody in foul trouble and then make Shingun have to, like, defend anybody. And I think they win. Treat him like Jokic. Yeah. Treat him. He's a lot like Jokic, but Jokic puts so much pressure on you on the offensive end. And I think he's probably a little bigger than Shingun. So it's like, yeah, I can make Jokic work.

[00:05:42] But he's going to catch the ball at the three-point line and, like, body you and post you up to the point where, like, he's going to beat you up on the offensive end. So, like, he'll exhaust you that way, whereas Shingun I don't think will do that. Yeah. So DeAndre Ayton, to your point, 18 and 17 the other night. But a lot of his points come off of putbacks, you know, like just a pass where nobody else can score on a particular possession.

[00:06:11] Let's throw it into the big guy. Not necessarily a, hey. That's probably a lead for a guy like that. And I would imagine. And I would imagine, and I'm not trying to call J.J. Redick out per se, but I would imagine that you should come into the game saying, hey, Shingun can't keep you off the boards. But what he can do is foul you. And you get DeAndre Ayton the ball and you get a couple of quick, cheap fouls on Shingun trying to keep Ayton off the boards.

[00:06:40] And then game over. Because the problem with Houston when it comes to coming back from 3-0 is that I don't know how consistently I can trust their offense. You know what I mean? And Jabari Smith, we're talking about a former number three pick in the draft who had a great game the other day. But we don't see that often enough. Because my biggest thing about him was, why is he not KD, for lack of better words?

[00:07:10] You know what I mean? Like, why does he not mirror Kevin Durant? And granted, granted, granted, Kevin Durant is one in a million. But I'm just saying, like, he should at least be, if we're talking about Walmart, at least be great value Durant. So, from that standpoint, Amin Thompson, he hit a big three the other night. That's not typical of the Houston Rockets.

[00:07:34] Now, the other side of that coin is that the Rockets' defense is good enough to pull this off. And to your point, you know, Marcus Smart, if you're relying on him to get buckets, I like your chances a little bit better. Luke Kennard had one point the other night. Like, you know, Rui, you brought it up before the series even started. Is Rui going to be timid? You know, is he going to put the ball down? Is he going to take that shot?

[00:08:01] If he can fire that three from the corner, if they close out on him and he has to put it on the floor, it's a dribble, bounce pass. Yeah, so I think the Rockets win tonight. I don't know if they can complete the full comeback. But I think they win tonight. You know, I think the building is going to be jumping.

[00:08:18] And the only thing that would give me a little, as Stephen A would say, a little cause to pause is I think that Shingun and LeBron having that little interaction at the free throw line the other night. If this was five years ago, I would have been like, hey, LeBron's coming out games. Yeah, this is 45-15-8 tonight. Yeah, exactly. But it could be 27-10-8. Like, I think it could be something like that.

[00:08:47] But this is the other thing. Remember a couple of years ago when the Lakers played the Nuggets in the Western Conference Finals? They were down 3-0. And then LeBron came out and scored 31 in the first half or whatever it was. And then he couldn't really do much in the second half. So I started having flashbacks of that this week because I thought to myself, these games are every other day. So he could get in whatever – yeah, he could get in whatever chamber he want. But he can't take years off.

[00:09:17] You know what I mean? So, like, I wonder how fatigued he is. We've been doing this show together too long because when I was talking, I was thinking he got a couple of days. I don't know what – I was thinking the same thing. Like, I don't know what chamber he could have, like, rejuvenated himself in. I know there's, like, expensive ones, like $30,000 or $40,000 ones that, like – and I've talked to people who – you know, because Rachel Hurt, one of her –

[00:09:43] because she does home health aid or she was a home nurse or whatever, and one of the patients had one. And she was like, it works. It's like you go in there. You do feel better when you come out, but it's like – Yeah, it might make his knees – well, it might make his knees feel better. You know what I mean? It might make his shoulders feel better. But is it going to help with the fatigue? I think what you do if you're J.J., you figure out a way to get Shingun guarding LeBron in a post.

[00:10:12] You know they're going to call it superstar calls or just physicality. I think LeBron – I think LeBron can create contact with Shingun, and you get one or two fouls there. Maybe that's the case. I don't know. Like I said, we armchair quarterback all of these things. We're hindsight 2020 because we're just fans who watch the game on 55-inch TVs and 65-inch TVs. And if you were to Costco, you get one that's 97 inches, whatever size TV you want. And that's what we do.

[00:10:41] We watch the game, watch the highlights, and then we kind of have these conversations. But I think getting the other big – like their centerpiece to their offense in foul trouble is probably key to this game. And getting on and running. And like these guys who shoot, just fire it off. Because I think if they get down like 14-8, like if somehow Houston gets up five or six points in the first, it's going to make all the role players on the Lakers timid.

[00:11:12] And guys aren't going to shoot that shot when it hits their hands like they should. Hello, stranger. How you doing out there? You know, it's one of those things, right, when you look at the NBA – and I've obviously never coached in an NBA game before. But I don't – like these things just seem obvious to me. Get him – get somebody in foul trouble. You know what I mean? You have these guys.

[00:11:38] You know, the Lakers are over – year over year, they're one of the most shooting free throw teams in the league. Usually they lead the league. So I don't understand why we don't see that more often. But from the standpoint of a game seven, do you feel that – because obviously the pressure would be on the Lakers to close it out if it got to game seven. Do you feel that getting to game seven would be a death knell for the Lakers?

[00:12:07] No, because you can still win and move on to the next round. And they're matched up to play – OKC. They're playing OKC the next round? Yep. Yep. And it looks like Luka wouldn't be back until possibly game three or game four of that series. Yeah, so seeing you get past the second round is probably unlikely.

[00:12:33] But you can't blow a 3-0 lead with the team as they're constructed with the options they have because I don't think you can, like, do much in the offseason to make the team better. I think winning this round and losing to OKC, you run it back healthy. I don't think you make drastic changes, even if you get swept, just because that team is markedly better than – like, they just have more weapons.

[00:13:02] They have more of a centerpiece on offense that kind of – he's like the straw that stirs the drink, and their role players just play better than the Lakers role players. And especially if you don't have Luka for the first two or three games, and then when you get him back, like, what's – no. He's still going to be, depending on who you talk to, number one or number two all-time, maybe number three on my list.

[00:13:30] But, you know, that doesn't change. Like, LeBron's legacy is cemented. Like, you know, he's the all-time lead. And what I've noticed is, like, the conversations online and the conversations on TV, I don't know, maybe – I left a few of those groups, but I think the conversations kind of died down. It's like, all right, we get it. It's only so many critiques you can have, and there's only so much praise you can give. I think you just got to appreciate the fact that, like I said, this guy's three years younger than we are.

[00:13:59] He's still out there competing with guys our children's age. So it's like, that's all you can really do. Like, you look at his career, look at everything, how his shape's out. I think blowing the 3-0 lead to a team that doesn't have KD, that should have KD, that is just a bigger indictment on the Lakers holistically. Because we said it before, there's only so much that one guy on any team can do. Yeah, Giannis ain't in the playoffs right now.

[00:14:28] Yeah, so it's like there's only so much that one guy can do. And if LeBron was, this is 2018 LeBron, and he ended up with a 3-0 lead in blue, and I'd be like, ah, that's a little odd. Because he looked like a man amongst boys that entire season. This season, he just looks like the guy. He's like, listen, I'm still that much better than you. I'm just as good as you physically now, because you guys basically caught up to me, because I got old.

[00:14:54] But I'm smarter than all of you, and I'm still going to get my 25 points no matter what. You know where I'm going. You know how I'm going downhill. You know I'm going to look at my hand and shoot the three. Either way, I'm going to get my buckets. But losing to a team that doesn't have KD, and it's not like they have, like, Russ as another guy that can score the basket and kind of lead the offense with this tenacity. Like, they have Shingun, who's pretty easy to defend. You know where he's going to be. You know what he's not going to do.

[00:15:23] So I think that's the bigger problem. That might be more of an indictment on JJ. Well, see, like, I would feel a lot better about Houston's chances if they had Stephen Adams. Because, you know, remember last year, that was what kind of geared their run to the two seed, was Shingun and Stephen Adams on the floor at the same time. You couldn't grab any rebounds. Like the Gold Bear, Carl Anthony Towns. Yeah, and you had to grab the rebounds because Houston was missing. You know what I mean? So this year, you don't have Stephen Adams out there. Houston's still missing.

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[00:16:45] The Lakers, you've got to try to jump on Houston early. Treat them like a football team, right? You tell them, like, let's get out there and get a 14-0 lead. And let's see if this offense can come back. Let's see if that triple option can spring a big run when they're down 14. And that's how I'm looking at Houston if I'm the Lakers. Like, let me jump out to a 17-6 lead early. And now I'm putting the pressure on you.

[00:17:12] That crowd is going to get uneasy because they've been watching you all year. They know what they're going to get from you. So if I could put that pressure on Houston early, and we know Emei isn't going to make those type of adjustments or come up with design plays that are going to get people open for better shots. So you're going to have to hope that Reed Shepard goes off, for example. You know what I mean? And, you know, so I like what I see from Reed Shepard, not because he went to Kentucky.

[00:17:39] But, you know, he came back with the steal on LeBron to kind of steal it the other night. Austin Reeves is back, you know, 3-for-12. But as I was saying earlier, 12-of-13 from the free throw line, you know, he looked like he was in a little bit of rhythm. He was just missing shots. I don't think this was a – like when Embiid came back in that first game against Boston – But you want to knock down those shots at home. No, you do. You do. But when Embiid came back, I felt, oh, you just threw everything out the window. You know what I mean?

[00:18:08] Like you slowed everything down. You're in the way. I didn't feel like Austin Reeves was in the way. He just didn't hit shots. I don't think Bronny got that many minutes last game. He rarely does. But in a tight game, like I don't think any of those guys get minutes. And that's the problem with role players is that in those tight – shoot the shot. You're an NBA player. You're probably one of the best shooters in the world.

[00:18:37] You're better than 99.999% of earth. Why are you passing up these opening shots? It's because it's a pressure game. Like shoot the ball. And I think that's where you got to have a lead. That's where you got to get out to that – Ooh, Orlando. Better stop playing around, Orlando. I'm at 1047. Yeah, that's where I'm at too. Yeah, Wendell Carter about to go to the free throw line.

[00:19:07] I'm a little bit ahead of you. So I tried, Mr. Logical. I promise I tried. I searched the Alamo long and wide, and I couldn't find any crow to eat. So this microphone is going to have to do. The Denver Nuggets, you know, the team that I was heavy on this season. And look, before I even get into what I'm about to say, this is what y'all better not do.

[00:19:34] Y'all out there in, you know, viewer land and everything, I'm not being a hypocrite. What I'm doing is I saw some shit, and now I got to update my thinking. Okay? So Denver is still a better team than they were last year. Sometimes in sports, another team just has your number.

[00:20:00] And, you know, before the series started, I told you, even though I picked Denver to win, I said, hey, all these pundits are talking about a sweep. They're talking about 4-1. You know, uh-uh, not Minnesota, because I know the history of Denver and Minnesota. You know what I mean? Now, with that being said, there is no excuse for the effort that Nikola Jokic put out there in this series.

[00:20:27] And Jokic is in that young LeBron space right now where the numbers are always going to look good. So you can't criticize him if you're just going to look at performance. Now, his field goal percentage was bad. You know what I mean? But I'm just talking about the stats in a given game. You know, for this series, he shot 7 of 36 from 3. You know what I mean? So unless you look for that three-point number, you see that he averaged 26, 13, and 10.

[00:20:55] And you're going to go, Jokic did his job. He did not. This is a team that he averaged 36 and 11 against during the regular season. Did he have Aaron Gordon in those games? No. In the games where he averaged 36 to 11? No, because Aaron Gordon didn't come back until the last month of the season. You know what I mean? So I mean, I'm sure he probably played in one of them. But, you know, he didn't play in most of them.

[00:21:20] You know, and I can't even say, hey, just like last season, Aaron Gordon was out. Because then I got to look at Minnesota and go, Ant was out. Devin Chinzo was out. Ayo DeSumo didn't play last night. And for that matter, if you're talking about depth, Kyle Anderson didn't even play last night.

[00:21:43] So there's no reason for the Denver Nuggets to have lost this game outside of Minnesota just wanted it more. And I know that's cliche. You know what I'm saying? But, hey, I'm telling you, Jaden McDaniels has won me over. You know what I'm saying? Like, I'm probably going to get me a Jaden McDaniels jersey because he walked that walk. He talked that talk. And he put him away with his career high 32 and 10 last night.

[00:22:10] So, yes, I did pick the Denver Nuggets to win the title. Yes, I was awfully wrong. Jamal Murray, Mr. Logical, Jamal Murray. Four for 17 last night. You know, 11 for 42 from three in this series overall. You know who was guarding him? Jaden McDaniels. They were, yeah. He was harassing them. He's playing with confidence.

[00:22:40] Julius Randle was like the dark-skinned Michael Pittman Jr. It's like, that ball was get to him and that was it. It was going in a hoop. Right. It was going in a hoop. It was a crazy pass. Yeah, it was definitely, if I'm Adam Silver, I'm like, I really wish I had the stars out there playing like stars. But a team that, I'm going to give Julius Randle his problem.

[00:23:09] Like, I'm going to call him a star. He's definitely. Don't. He's option one when Ant's not there. That makes him a star. Like, if you're option one on a basketball team, no matter how podcasts feel about you and your years with the Lakers and the Knicks or whomever else, you are, he's an option one on a team. I don't think Julius Randle is a star in his backyard. I think he's a star.

[00:23:35] I don't know what, I don't know where the animosity comes from, but I think he's a star. I think he, I think he played like a star. Shout out to Gobert out there just really doing his thing. I just think like the team, I mean, maybe it's just they are, maybe the West was so good and team just kind of strategize. I was like, listen, we can beat any of these four teams, four or five teams.

[00:24:06] So no matter if we end up at four or five or six, we think we can compete with any of these teams any given night. Like I said, seven games in 11 or 12 days. I think teams probably felt that way. So we look at the seating. Like, I think the three is going to beat the six. I like the home court advantage. I like the MVP candidate starting. I like, like I said, I like Ant as an energy guy and like a superstar. But when he went out, I was like, this is going to be tough.

[00:24:36] But like I said, McDaniel step up. But Denver didn't do themselves any favor. I think they were shooting free throws late in the fourth and it popped up on the screen. They had one field goal in seven minutes, the last seven minutes and 42 seconds. I'm like, as a coach. I've seen so many easy back cut layups. The Knicks scored 197 points. Hold on, we're going to get there.

[00:25:03] I'm saying like, I'm saying like, so for you as a team to not score for eight minutes. When you get the ball, worst case scenario, every 40 seconds. Every like, because you get a freak, you get 24 seconds. They get the rebound. It goes back to 14. So best case scenario, you're getting the ball like every 40 seconds. And you mean you went seven minutes, almost eight minutes without a field goal in a closeout game.

[00:25:32] Well, one of the things that I told you. That's partly coaching in my opinion. Well, one of the things that I told you before the series started was Minnesota uses the regular season as one big practice. And then in the playoffs, that defense ratchets up. And I know how great Anthony Edwards is, you know, but when you really peel it back,

[00:25:56] it's their defense the last couple of years in the playoffs that have been their calling card to get to the Western Conference Finals. You know, so from that standpoint, I wasn't surprised by the energy that Minnesota put out. Now, I would be lying if I said I wasn't surprised Minnesota won last night, but I'm not surprised that it was a fight. You know, the problem is, is that Denver, you know, and this is one of those Joe Budden lines that I love.

[00:26:22] You know, when him and Saigon were going back at each other and he said, how are you the godfather when I dictate where the graves go? So, so how is Jokic, so how is Jokic the guy, how is he the puppeteer? How is he the maestro when I'm telling Jokic where he can and can't go? And the last couple of years, people have been all over Rudy Gobert. Because the one thing Rudy Gobert can do is play defense.

[00:26:53] But people have been saying he's overrated as a defender. He shouldn't have won defensive player of the year last year. All that stuff. He told you to shut up. You know what I'm saying? Because he guarded Jokic one-on-one. You know what I mean? He guarded Jokic. He told Jokic, oh, you think you're getting that hook shot off? Not today. You going around me? Nope, I'm quicker than you. So Denver never adjusted to, because when we see games, right?

[00:27:23] Like, if we're watching Orlando in Detroit right now. Yeah. And you have Asar Thompson trying to defend your best player. You start screening. You start picking, rolling. You start trying to get away from Asar Thompson. Yeah. You want to be. Get the best defender off of your best player. Right. And Denver, like, honestly, and look, I'm not saying this just because I'm upset at the Denver Nuggets right now.

[00:27:52] I mean this with my whole heart. I would fire Adelman today. I would fire him today. Because the reason why, the reason why, not because of last night per se, but look, you get to a point where you know you hit a ceiling. You know, like, I got rid of Mike Malone for you. You know what I mean? And this is a coach that won a championship.

[00:28:20] Now, last year, you got thrown into the fire. You know what I mean? Like, we fired Mike Malone with, like, I think it was, what, nine games left or something like that. Then the playoffs started. We went seven games. So you're learning on the fly. You play OKC. You go seven with OKC. Maybe if Aaron Gordon is there, you win. You know, but what I saw in this series, and this is one of those new words that I've learned

[00:28:48] from the new generation, Mr. Logical, Jokic spends so much time trauma dumping on the refs. And when we're talking about football coaches, we say the teams that come back, the teams that fight, it's a reflection of their coach. Because if the coach doesn't panic, then the players don't panic. Correct. In this situation, Adelman was in, he was imitating Jokic.

[00:29:17] So it wasn't the players picking up on Adelman's aura and however that goes. He was reacting to Jokic because he's still, to some degree, starstruck by his own players. Like, he has that look like, I can't even believe I'm here. This is a dream come true. Which it might be, but don't act like it. Like, act like you're trying to win.

[00:29:41] Listen, when you get hired for a job you're not qualified for sometimes, that is a result. If you want to talk about DEI and nepotism and things of that nature, sometimes that's the case. Yes, sometimes that's just the case. Even though, like, people's arguments for DEI isn't, like, the correct one. But, like, he just got hired because he was in the building. Yeah, I'm looking at the... We got a tie game in Orlando. You might be a little ahead of these, man. I had a feeling that was going to happen. 18-1 run.

[00:30:09] Hey, you know, we got a Game 7 on tomorrow. You know, we'll get to that in a second. But there's a chance, if everything goes crazy tonight, we can get three Game 7s on Sunday. But, no, Minnesota gets San Antonio next. So, you better get Anthony Edwards ready by Game 3 at the latest, you know, because you're probably going to be down 2-0 anyway because San Antonio is not going to give up. Like, here's some stuff.

[00:30:38] I didn't even get into it yet, Mr. Logical, because I was so damn mad. But, like, listen to this. You know, Minnesota and Denver last night, right? Minnesota outscored Denver in the paint. 64-40. They out-second-chanced them 20-4. They won the boards 50-33. I told you about McDaniels with the 32-10. Shannon.

[00:31:08] You know, like, Terrence Shannon Jr. 24 points. And he doesn't even play that much regularly. You know, then you had Jalen Clark, you know, coming off the bench. And, you know, you ain't got to spoil it. I'm a man, Chris. I'm going to stand up here and take mine. You know what I'm saying? Because, you know what? We all get predictions wrong. You show me somebody that's batting 1,000, I show you a damn liar because he ain't got no mansion. You know what I'm saying?

[00:31:37] But from that standpoint, though, Denver just, they almost acted like they didn't want to be there. Like, you saw the heart. Let's be honest. Buying cannabis shouldn't be complicated, sketchy, or low quality. That's why I want to tell you about Mood.com. That's M-O-O-D.com. Mood ships federally legal cannabis straight to your door. No medical card, no hassle. And here's the kicker.

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[00:32:37] That's M-O-O-D.com to get started. Leaving their bodies. You know? Like I said, it's a matter of, well, you know what it looks like. And you know when you're losing it. You know when the energy is. Like I said, you talk about Shannon not playing that much. He was driving past anybody defending him. He was getting to the rim, creating, fighting the rim with knocking the ball. Like, it's a different energy.

[00:33:04] Like, you have Anthony Edwards is not there. So, Jay McDaniels got to take more shots. Shannon got to take more shots. Mike Connery, you know he's going to be a steady presence. So, he's going to get guys available. You said Kyle Anderson didn't play last night. Yeah. Because Shannon was going off. So, it was like, I can leave you out there because you're high energy defensively. They fought and scrapped for every rebound. The crowd is wearing all black t-shirts. The arena looks super dark.

[00:33:30] Like, the whole vibe of the arena was like, yeah, we're winning this. And Denver, you can tell every possession. Like, you can kind of see it now with Orlando. It's a desperation. But it wasn't like, it wasn't desperation where you would like scrappy. It was like, I'm arguing with the rest because I really thought that move I pulled on McDaniel was going to work and he filed me and it didn't.

[00:33:56] And now, Shannon's going back up the court, getting the ball to Randall. He's firing off the shots with confidence. So, it was just like, all of that stuff kind of just snowballed. You can see it in their faces. You can believe you're going to come back. You can believe you're going to win. But once you lose that belief and no one's making shots, like, the ball's not going through the hoop at all.

[00:34:19] I think every possession, like, every, you know, 24, 30 seconds that the game was going on and on and on, it was like, yeah, we are not winning this. Yeah. If that was the case, Chris, you would have a house in Calabasas. Like, so, like, so, Denver looked like they were the underdog. They looked like, let's get to the fourth quarter. Let's hang around and then we can make our move.

[00:34:46] And then when Minnesota hit a couple of threes early in the fourth quarter, it was like, danger! You know what I'm saying? It was like, well. The crowd went nuts. Yeah. The crowd was on their feet probably the entire fourth quarter when it was getting, when I think Denver was getting it to, like, four. I think they got to three at one point. I think it was, like, 95, 98.

[00:35:13] And then Minnesota just stayed the course defensively and just kept coming down, putting up shots, playing with energy. Mike Conley got a block at the rim. They called a foul. I thought it was a good block. That's another thing that had the crowd loud. I think the guy missed his first free throws off that. You know, so it was like, sometimes that home court advantage matters. And then, let's be real, man. These guys aren't machines.

[00:35:40] You can't just keep programming and saying, like, hey, you're going to be a winner. You're going to be a winner. It's like. Well, when you got to rely on Cam Johnson, you already know you in trouble. So, then, you know, I mentioned it. We got a game seven tomorrow because the Boston Celtics will not stop shooting threes. They will not. The Boston Celtics have no one. And 2-5 means no one that can stop Joel Embiid.

[00:36:09] You know, like, if you put Vucicic on him, he's too slow. He's too soft. You know, he fouls too much. And the other two are small. So, this is where you miss Cornette and Al Horford. Because Al Horford was the Embiid stopper. You know what I mean? And this is a 180. Because, like I said, when he came back in game four, it was like, hey, he took all the mojo away from the 76ers. I mean, from the Celtics. And Mr. Logical, we got to do better. Because we laugh every single year.

[00:36:39] We talk shit every single year. Because Paul George believes in himself. And all Paul George has done in this series is play good basketball, defend well. But then something happened last night, Mr. Logical, that got me a little nervous. I saw Jason Tatum take his talents to the locker room. And, you know, he came back in the middle of the third.

[00:37:08] This happened in the third quarter. The game got a little bit out of hand. But when Jason Tatum came back to the court, that game was still in reach. So, I said, hey, maybe he needed to go stretch or something like that. Maybe he had to go to the bathroom. And, you know, so Missoula got up there and said, well, he went and got some treatment and stretched his calf.

[00:37:32] Oh, you mean the same calf that played a part of him missing the first four or five months of this season? That calf? That calf? You know, Mr. Logical don't like these calves. You know how I feel about calf injuries. So, is Boston in trouble tomorrow? Boston, yeah. They're in trouble because we talked about the three-point shooting.

[00:38:00] They're guys that you can rely on to knock down threes off of good basketball action. Good pick and roll, screen and roll, pick and pop. Guys like, you know, Hauser just kind of waiting on the ball at the elbow or at the wing. They were missing no shots. It wasn't like they were coming down, taking bad threes, like off the dribble. Guys who were shooting shots that wouldn't normally shoot. Derek White's in the corner. He was three for four.

[00:38:26] And then when Philly started to kind of pull away, he started missing his bet, that corner three. Hauser, same thing, started missing that wing three. Jason Tatum went out. Jalen Brown, we know his handles are, you know, I think they pressed him harder in the Orlando. Orlando? Hey, I told you. The Cleveland Browns are the NBA. So, they just could knock down the three.

[00:38:56] I think no matter how good Embiid is, if they would knock down their threes at a rate that they normally do, I think the game would have been, I think they would have had a better shot to win. And the problem is, they have these kind of games every series. And they've had, like, the last three or four years, where it's like, they go four for 23 for three or four for, or, like, six for 30 or something like that.

[00:39:24] But they've had two bad games like that, where they just didn't knock the three down. Hey, so, I'm on Harden watch right now. Three field goals, four turnovers. Four turnovers. So, you know, Boston, I want to believe they're going to win tomorrow just because you talk about a crowd. That crowd is going to be humming, you know.

[00:39:51] But there's something that Boston needs tomorrow that they haven't got since the playoffs started. Where the fuck is Derek White? He was, like I said, he was, he was, I think he had, like, 13 points. He was three for four from three. He had, like, 13 points in the third. But what happened was they, the team collectively had to shoot threes every possession. And then Tatum went out.

[00:40:20] So, it just, the shots weren't as easy to come by. And then Philly was just taken into the cup. So, that lead went from four, six, eight, ten. Like, the lead for Philly kept going up. And Boston does that thing that Boston does. Like, yo, we can shoot ourselves back in the victory. But, yeah, it's going to be tough sledding because, you know, Boston also has a problem because Derek White's strength is his defense.

[00:40:49] And he's been playing great defense in this series. So, don't take it that way. But, game seven, Maxie and Edge come. They're going to try to run every time they touch the ball. You know, they're going to transition, get easy buckets. Like, Boston has to be disciplined. That's why. Who's the ref? Is it Scott Foster? I'm not sure. But that's where you get counterproductive with all those threes. Because if you're not making them, you get those long rebounds. You can run out. Outlet.

[00:41:18] You know what I mean? You're not catching Edge come or Maxie in the open court. So, I think Pritchard is the key because the game where he dropped over 30, he was getting everything he wanted. And then in game six. Like, he was getting the matchups that he wanted. Just the shots weren't falling. And they weren't falling for everyone. So, I think. Like I said, we'll talk about the Knicks and all.

[00:41:45] We think about these games where, like, teams score 140 points in regulation. That's because everyone is like, you know what? We up 12. I'm going to let this fly. Now we up 15. We up 17. I'm going to let this fly. Now we up 20. But when you're down four, you're down seven, you're down nine, that same thing doesn't happen. Speaking of being down and up and shooting threes and so forth and so on, you should see the.

[00:42:19] I should see the wow, y'all. Wow. Y'all heard it here first. Wow. Like I said, wait until you see it. Well, I just got a missed free throw and Cade's bringing the ball up the court right now. Okay, yeah, on the next, on Detroit's next defensive possession, you'll see it. But yeah, so Boston, Philly, and it's another thing. We talked about the West being close to three to six seed.

[00:42:51] Edgecombe, Maxie, Paul George, and Embiid. They are not a seven-seeded team healthy. Right. Right. So getting them in the playoffs and all four, because I didn't think Embiid was going to play. I just felt like if he was going to play, I felt like they would have tried to get him in. Because he came back game four, right? Mm-hmm. When he didn't play game three at home, I was like, okay, he's probably not expecting to play.

[00:43:20] Because I figured if you picked a target game in a series like that with, you know, the Celtics, a team that, you know, you're the underdog and your star can come back. I would have him, you would think for energy, try to get him back for the home game, your home opener of the playoffs. Right. But when he didn't play then, I thought it was like, I didn't think he was going to come back. But when he came back, you know, it just, like I said, they're a matchup nightmare and healthy. They're probably a three seed.

[00:43:50] So here's the question. All four of them play the games. Those suspensions, no missed games or limited missed games. And that suspension helps because Paul George got fresh legs too, relatively speaking, you know. But here's the question. So before we bury the Atlanta Hawks, if you're the Knicks, who do you want? If I'm the Knicks, if I'm the Knicks.

[00:44:20] I'd take Philly because they're, I think they're, I think they're best. I think they're best players injury prone in Embiid. I think their highest paid primary, I don't know, I think Max might get paid more. But like, I think Paul George kind of sees himself as like the 1A. He's kind of injury prone.

[00:44:50] Maxey is your guy. But if he's not getting, you know, getting to the, getting to his spots, there's a problem. And then Edgecombe is a young guy. I think if I'm the Knicks, I'd rather take on that unit versus the Celtics unit where everyone's kind of cemented in their roles. And I think if you had to grade them in their roles, I think they're, I think the Boston role players, like the way they play their roles is on par with how OKC role players play their role.

[00:45:20] Like guys don't get out of, guys don't get out of, you know, guys don't get out of character. Hauser's not out here trying to do all this extra stuff. Shireman, when he comes in off the bench, he's trying to get a simple, you know, trying to get his shot off or reset. You know, I just think like those guys play their role a little bit better than the Philly guys. See, if I'm the Knicks, I think I want Boston from the standpoint of they're just out of whack right now.

[00:45:45] You know, Philly coming through winning a game seven at Boston, you know, they're going to, that confidence is going to be brewing. I mean, Boston gives you the same kind of thing that Atlanta gives you from the standpoint of not having anybody that can guard cat the size advantage down low. Obviously, you've got Tatum and Brown on the wings to cause some problems, get their hands in the lane, that type of thing. But cat will have a feast, I think, on the Celtics.

[00:46:15] But I think you can adjust to that because that's your only real mismatch. Like on the defensive end, if you're Boston or Philly, I think you're only, you can defend Jalen Brunson. Oh, what a shot. I think Adenobi and Mikael Bridges are good enough to harass Brown and Tatum to look like them at times, to look like Mikael and OG at times. Yeah.

[00:46:43] But I think, like I said, with Cat, the defensive liability that Boston may present trying to defend Cat, I think you could just run a guy at him. Because if he kicks it to Josh Hart, that's probably not a spot up three. Adenobi, maybe. Mikael Bridges definitely is not shooting that three. Like, so you're basically going to, you're going to force him to reset the ball and he's going to get back around to Brunson. Maybe if Grimes is in there, I think he shoots it.

[00:47:11] Um, but I just feel like, I don't think Philly, New York. Like I said, I would take Philly just because there might be just knee soreness where MB can't go. Well, it depends on, well, we got to see what's up with Tatum's calf too. Um, you know what I mean? But I would love Philly, New York, just because I listened to the Joe Budden podcast, but you know, and that would be fun.

[00:47:40] But, um, but no, I, I think as fans, we deserve. Let's be honest. Buying cannabis shouldn't be complicated, sketchy, or low quality. That's why I want to tell you about mood.com. That's M-O-O-D dot com. Mood ships federally legal cannabis straight to your door. No medical card, no hassle. And here's the kicker. The quality is better than anything you'll find at your local dispensary. Yeah, I said it.

[00:48:07] Whether you're into edibles, concentrates, flour, or just looking to explore, you'll find it all at Mood. And it's not just the variety that makes them stand out. Every product is sourced from small American-owned family farms that care deeply about what they grow. It's cannabis you can trust, delivered discreetly, and ready to elevate your mood. And because you're a listener, you get 20% off your first order. Just head to mood.com. That's M-O-O-D dot com to get started. Knicks in Boston.

[00:48:36] I think as fans, we deserve the right to kick the Atlanta Hawks while they're down. Like, I don't know what the hell that was. Like, you talk about giving up. Like, they didn't even get started to be able to give up. Listen, man, these shots start falling for these professionals. There's only so much... Well, shit, they're professionals too! You talk about, like, in the NBA, we talk about defense a lot. And I get it.

[00:49:06] But there's this saying, like, there's no defense for a good shot. Correct. If a guy gets to his spot, and he gets a good shot off, and he goes in, you can play the best defense that you want. But the ball can still go in the hoop. They talked about Luka. Like, Luka's defensive rating because it was like, he'd be next to a guy that would shoot a shot that would, like, miss it. But it's like, but you know, when you watch Luka, Luka's not causing Anthony Edwards to miss his jump shot.

[00:49:34] Like, the shot just doesn't go in. But when a team is on, like I said, layups start going in, jumpers start going in, everyone starts shooting the ball. We're up six, we're up nine, we're up 12. I mean, we're up 14. And then it just snowballs because there's no fear. Orlando, on the other hand, if we're watching this game, those guys played the game like, we're going to blow this lead. Yeah.

[00:50:03] And guys didn't shoot the ball with confidence. Detroit, in the second half, guys were shooting the ball with confidence. Like, Orlando just got, you know, into this mode where they're shooting a lot of threes this game, and it's nothing you can do about it, shots not falling. Atlanta just got blitzed. I think by the time I turned the game off, they were already down 40. Yeah, like I literally was, I went to go check the mail.

[00:50:32] And then, you know, I started talking to somebody. And then I came back in the house and it was 61 to 19. And, you know, you do that thing, you rub your eyes. And then I looked up again, it was 72 to 22. And I said, you know what, no more. You know what I mean? So then I saw like the video of Dyson Daniels and Mitchell Robinson. And, you know what I'm saying? I'm tired of these dudes not throwing a punch. Like, don't be doing all this if you ain't going to throw a punch. Listen, man.

[00:51:01] You got to pay for these private schools. At least throw an elbow. You know what I'm saying? Something. But, no, the Hawks, you know, I still like them. You know, they have a lot of young talent. You know, we'll see what happens. So I was going to ask you. Hold on. You know. Listen, I'm just doing some math real quick. 53 to 17? The run that Detroit's on right now? 53 to 17. Nuts.

[00:51:32] So if you're Atlanta, do you have to make a move as far as – because obviously you need to get a big man in there, maybe two. But are you looking at your coach now going, what the hell was that in the closeout game at home? Or do you just say, you know what, I'm happy that we were here? You can't base everything off of that considering you spent half the year.

[00:51:59] You spent – before the trade deadline, you spent most of that time trying to figure out where you're going to trade your best player. Okay. So it was like – so you obviously weren't, as a team and an organization, you weren't thinking about how successful can we be. It was like we're trying to reset something. Now that he's gotten that reset, they got in the playoffs, they got a taste, they won a couple games,

[00:52:26] allow guys to get better, let him be there to do that. And I think you get like a big – like a role-playing big, like the bigs that Boston gets. I don't think you go out here and try to get like a – Anthony Davis! Because apparently he's on the trade block. Like the Wizards haven't played a game in a month, but apparently he's on the trade block. The Wizards need to be sold. Like they need to be forced to sell their team. You know what the Wizards need to do?

[00:52:57] As a punishment – and I can only say this because I'm from there. As a punishment, the Wizards need to be sent to Baltimore. Like that's how you do that. But you ready for this, Mr. Logical? I got a little mini gift for you. All right. Because you know I take pride in my banners. You know what I'm saying? So as we transition here, we're going to talk about the new NBA draft lottery proposal. So Mr. Logical would say, you say anti-tank.

[00:53:25] I say anti-logic. That's what Mr. Logical would say. Have you studied this? Have you seen this? I haven't studied it, but I checked it out a couple times. Sometimes the problem that I'm having with the tanking conversation is that I'm not convinced

[00:53:50] that the problem is as big as they're making it seem this particular – the latter half of this season and this coming offseason. And I feel like they're only making a big deal about it because there's some potential blue-chip stars in this draft. There's like four or five guys that people I think are like believing are franchise changers.

[00:54:20] So that's my biggest problem. It's like this is the type of year where a team would want to get in the lottery. So essentially talking about them and punishing them, for lack of a better word, for trying to get one of these players because the NBA does not do a good job of picking up their teams from the bottom. They set it up to where they – like, yes, the NFL, you get less nationally televised games. That's a fact.

[00:54:50] But you get some. And you get some primetime games and stuff like that. I just don't like the fact that the NBA, all your stars, all the legendary coaches you've had over the last 25 years got that way because that team tanked and they got Tim Duncan. They got LeBron James.

[00:55:17] When Philly, trust the process, that's how they got Embiid and Ben Simmons. They could have had Jalen Brown and Ben Simmons and Embiid and Jason Tatum that have done it right. So like that would have worked. So all of these teams that you're seeing in the playoffs and the guy who's playing out in L.A. was a result of a team tanking. It is what it is. It isn't like you're making them any better. I'm just – you knew I was going to go off on this little – No, no, no.

[00:55:44] So you know, I have to admit, y'all, and I'm not proud to admit this. I actually rehearsed this. So you remember a couple of weeks ago when you told me it ain't LeBron James' damn job to make Memphis better and take care of Memphis and to do – it ain't Adam Silver's job to do an owner and a GM's job for them. It is not. It is. It is not. It is your job.

[00:56:13] It is your job. You brought the team – no, no, no, no. I'm not talking about promotion. No, I'm not talking about the individual players. I'm talking about you brought the team. I'm talking about Adam Silver's job. You take care of your team. You said this in a pre-media that we would go after this argument. It was going to run on. I knew it was going after. What I – my response – Damn it. When I talk about responsibility as far as the team, I don't think an individual player on a team should be picking other players

[00:56:41] and picking coaches and things of that nature. But when it comes to the NBA, the NBA for years have been notoriously bad at creating environments to where teams can get better. The trades are bad. Like the trade – like the making the money match for a trade is – that's a setback. I don't think the NFL make you match the money.

[00:57:10] You just got to fit under your salary cap or I'm pretty sure some kind of financial penalty that comes along with that. But if you want to trade right now, Patrick Mahomes wants to get traded to – they want to trade Patrick Mahomes to like in Atlanta for Atlanta's next five first-round picks. You just got to make it legal, get everybody to sign off on the documents, make the trade. In the NBA, you got to get a third, fourth team involved. You got to make the money match.

[00:57:40] You got to get the – like there's so many roadblocks and pitfalls that come along with that. And I think the one thing that they do in the NBA is they allow your current team to be a team that can offer you an extra year on your max deal. But if you're not keeping any max players because you're consistently at the bottom of the league, players are like, I don't want to stay here. I don't want to stay in this team that's terrible.

[00:58:06] But let me get an opportunity to draft a rookie, develop him. Like these other teams that made the playoffs, they don't need to be anywhere near the lottery. They're good at least for right now. They are a top 16 team in the league right now. Let us bottom eight guys, bottom 10, let us get our opportunity to get our guy maybe and get out of the dumps.

[00:58:29] Because right now with all these methods, 16 teams potentially getting number one pick, Brooklyn might end up five, six, seven. We saw what happens with New Orleans when they got one and the Knicks had the worst record, thought they were going to get Zion. It didn't happen. But New Orleans – You think the Knicks are mad about that today? I mean, I don't know. Maybe the pizza dough and the water would have kept them healthy in New York. Well, no.

[00:58:58] Yeah, like I feel you as far as like the players are obligated to be good and the GMs got to make their teams good. But the NBA also has to set up a fail safe to where you're not just squashing these teams down and keeping them at the bottom of the league. Right. But it goes back to – so, okay, let's back up for a second.

[00:59:18] Do I think that the tanking conversation is overdone, overanalyzed? Yes. Do I think tanking is a problem? I don't know. But what I do know is that sports is about competition. You're supposed to step out onto your field, your court, whatever you play on, and try your best, try to win.

[00:59:47] So from that standpoint, right, in the NFL, you know, the worst team is going to get the number one pick and so on and so forth. It goes – in the NBA, if you had that rule, then tanking would be out of control because then you would just try to lose as much as you could to get A.J. DeVancho, whoever your flavor is.

[01:00:09] But with the NBA, I think the issue is – and the issue – because I'll get to this now – part of the issue with this that I do have is that you're just taking the tanking from one place and putting it somewhere else. Because think about this scenario. I'm an eight seed, right? The loser of the seven, eight gets put into this lottery now if this passes.

[01:00:35] I could lose that eight seed game and win the second game and still make the playoffs and get the lottery pick. So that's where I have a problem with it. That's what I'm saying. But – hold on, hold on. But – but – but – but just like we talked about with the 65-game rule, this had to happen – not this.

[01:01:00] The 65-game rule had to happen because y'all didn't want to do your job or y'all – whatever. You weren't playing the game. But the 65-game rule doesn't hinder a team. It doesn't – it – that is incumbent upon the individual and their awards. Like, listen. And their money. You as an individual have to come here and do your part.

[01:01:28] Now, the offseason is where the NBA is responsible for growing their league. They do a poor job of that. The NFL – when was the Super Bowl? February. First week of February. Hey, this year it's on Valentine's. The next one is on Valentine's Day. So plan accordingly, fellas. How many weeks have we still talked about the NFL?

[01:01:58] We talk about the NBA during the offseason. It's just LeBron. That's what I'm saying. But we talk about – we talk about this draft pick. We talk about the college. We talk about college football, which is a – you know, obviously a precursor to the NFL. The conversations surrounding football. Football players are – they send them on – they put football players on TV all the time. They're in commercials. Right now, you got Blake Griffin in commercials. And that's it. Well –

[01:02:28] It was like the NBA has to do a better job from April through – like right now, we should be seeing every top NBA draft pick on every one of these pre- and post-game shows with all these NBA pundits. Hell, they should be sitting in the crowd at a playoff game and you interview them during the game. Right now, you got Taylor Rooks, Dirk Nowitzki, Steve Nash, Blake Griffin, Udonis Haslam on TV.

[01:02:57] You can have A.J. DeBonce in there right now. Hey. Just have his face – have him here. Then have Darren Peterson at the Laker game where he can get interviewed. Have Cameron – have the Boozer twins. Have them – Well, the – well, Kaden – They're in commercials already. Kaden going back. He's going back. What I'm saying? But just have them – just have their names and faces out there so people are talking about it. But the NBA – they just – they hold up to nostalgia too much. See, I think those are two different things.

[01:03:27] I think those are two different things though because you're talking about marketing and preparing the public for the future. I'm talking about – You're talking about more good in general. I know, but I'm talking about you got a job to do. Like we put Sam Presti in a shitty-ass city that nobody wants to go to. He didn't say, hey, I'm in a small market. I can't make this work. I don't know how this is going to go. Prior to like the complaints about – like the level of complaints about the small markets.

[01:03:57] But to my marketing – my marketing piece for the NBA, if you put playoff teams into the lottery, that means A.J. DeBonsa could potentially end up on Charlotte right now. Charlotte's already rolling with those guys. All of those guys – LaMelo Ball is probably one of the most popular basketball players and he has been for like 10 years and he's like 25 years old. And you know what? When he gets on that team – He should be out there.

[01:04:25] Him and LaMelo on the break, you're going to forget all about this conversation. No, not really. You are. You're going to be caught up in the moment. Look at that. Like, oh, that alley-oop. Did you see that? You ain't going to come back and be like, A.J. DeBonsa shouldn't even be with Charlotte. Because the Wizards – because like the Wizards are still going to – the Wizards are still going to be bad next year. Yes. And that's why they shouldn't be rewarded with getting the number one pick. But it's not a reward. It wasn't a reward for the Raiders to draft Mendoza.

[01:04:54] It's not a reward. Yes. They were able to get – well, it wasn't a reward because they got to pay him now. But you know what I mean? They need the quarterback. You know, if this was next year's draft and the Raiders got number one, yes, it would have been a reward. But that's circumstantial. I'm talking about if you sat out here and purposely sat your players off a team that was already bad.

[01:05:19] But, okay, with that being said, how many times – how many times did we – like that we can count on our own hands that we noticed a team? We talk about the Jazz did it and they got fined for it. Mm-hmm. The Pacers were going to suck anyway. Not that bad. I don't think they sat that many guys. No, they didn't sit that many guys. But they were – Carlisle refused to call timeouts.

[01:05:48] They were turning the ball over just randomly. It wasn't even like the defense was doing anything. And that's where – and that's where because, you know, because think about this. I don't think guys are here. Think about it this way. Hold on, hold on. Think about it this way. Think about it this way. For the last, let's call it five to seven years, fans have been complaining about the NBA.

[01:06:12] Whether it's they're shooting too many threes, they're too soft, whatever it might be, the fans have been complaining. Then we talked about this. You turn on the TV and you got people like Shaq talking about – You really think I watch Detroit? And all that kind of stuff. So the people that are supposed to be – Detroit number one seed. You don't say – I know, but the people that are supposed to be selling the product – That's the marketing piece. I know, but hold on, but hold on, but hold on. They are doing it. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Now they're leaning into the TV. Hold on, let me get there. Let me land the plane.

[01:06:43] Let me land the plane. You know what I'm saying? So like you got all this going on, right? And it's bad. You know what I'm saying? And it turns people off to your product. Now, with that being said, that's one problem that you got to fix. But I can't turn on the TV here and see G League players playing games in February

[01:07:10] when your best players are completely healthy. And from the standpoint of there's no injury, you're not suspended, there's no disciplinary reason that you're not playing outside of the team just giving away a game. Now, you brought up the play-in from the standpoint of you like it because it makes that last couple of weeks competitive. They're trying to secure, stay away from the play-in, all that kind of stuff.

[01:07:38] I don't like the play-in, but that's a valid point. You know what I'm saying? But on the other side of that, now I got the rest of the league because that's three or four teams that we're talking about. Now, I got the rest of the league trying to purposely lose because they know that the more lottery balls I have, the better chance I have to get that number one pick. That's not good for the product either.

[01:08:05] And yes, it can be overblown. But overblown just means it's a problem that we're making a bigger deal out of. It's still a problem. I think the – but I don't think the tanking is the problem. The problem is the owners. That needs to be addressed to this level where the commissioners come up with plans. I think the real problem is simply this. You need to limit teams so they can't manipulate the cap

[01:08:35] to where you cannot have Derek White making probably over $100 million and Hill Brown and Tatum making $700 million combined. Limit that to where now Derek White has to play. But see, but that's where they got the aprons though. You can only do this for so long. I'm not even talking – I don't want lofty economic terms. I want a simple thing.

[01:09:04] You cannot have more than two guys on your team that are making the max deal. A third guy counts – a third guy counts as – like if you have two guys making the max deal. That ain't American. You can go to Brooklyn and get the max deal. But if I have – so like look – okay, look at Philly. Philly has Maxie, Paul George, Embiid, and Edgecombe. Edgecombe's going to be due for a contract in a couple of years, right? Yeah, and by then Embiid's going to be gone. Paul George is going to be retired.

[01:09:35] Everybody should be gone. But right now you got three guys that are like bringing us $700 million. How good would Maxie and Derek White be right now on Brooklyn? Just the two of them just on the team. Just not – I don't know. They might win 35 games. I don't know. I don't think the tanking's a problem.

[01:10:02] I think it's a fact that they're allowing the teams with the money to just basically hoard, for lack of a better word, the top-tier talent. Luka, LeBron, Austin Reeves are about to be – like granted LeBron's manipulating his contract. I don't think the league is letting them hoard these people. I think these people don't want to play for some of these teams. Well, if you put a rule in place saying you can't have – like salary – like you can pay max salaries to your players.

[01:10:32] You can pay them good money. You just can't have three guys making $160 million. We need – if a guy's worth $160 to $180 million, $200 million on a three- or four-year contract, you could call him a star. We need that star in Utah. We need that star in Brooklyn. I wish you had that opinion when the Heat was not together instead of wanting your boy to win a championship. You know what I'm saying? I didn't like it. I didn't like that.

[01:11:01] And granted, but they were getting like $100 million each. That was the precedent. But I told you then when we had conversations, I didn't like that deal because I – I didn't like it because it was like you're stacking a team. But also didn't like the Boston trade. Well, I think – I think that the NBA has a lot of problems. I think tanking is a symptom of a bigger problem. But let's actually get into this new change that is being proposed. So they call it the 3-2-1. You know what I'm saying?

[01:11:30] Of course, as a rap fan, you know, I would have preferred – 9-4-3-2-1. Yeah. Yeah, I would have preferred that. You know what I mean? But okay. So 37 lottery balls, 16 teams. So currently we have 14 teams in the lottery. The bottom three teams would only get two balls. You know, teams 4 through 10 get three. 9 and 10 in each conference. So the play-in teams that are 9 and 10 would get two. So that's four teams right there.

[01:11:57] And then the loser of the 7-8 play-in game would get one. Now, this kind of goes back to my thoughts – well, a thought that – because last year we saw the Mavericks, who were the 10 seed, end up with the number one draft pick. You know what I mean? And that was all for the lottery. You know what I mean? So from that standpoint, that's where I don't fully disagree with you because the lottery is already there that it's a game of chance anyway.

[01:12:26] So from that standpoint, that's where I think it's a little overblown. You know what I mean? But if I want to make y'all play – and that's why I said, are you just changing where the tanking happens? Because now you're just making 4 through 7. You're making them play hard. But 8, 9, 10, you know, they don't really care to some degree. Like, because they're going to make – one of them is going to make the playoffs more than likely.

[01:12:54] Or two of them are going to make the playoffs more than likely. And potentially the playoffs and the lottery. You know what I mean? So from that standpoint, you do hurt your Washingtons, your Brooklyns, your Utahs. But the problem is, is that they hurt themselves by the product that they put out on the floor. Hire a better head coach. Hire, you know, a better GM. Whatever the case may be. Remember when we were deployed to Coonson? Yes.

[01:13:23] We were deployed to Coonson. And we're like, why the hell is everything so shitty down here at Coonson? And we go up to Osan, and they got towers that people are literally living in. They were called, like, something, kombucha towers or some shit like that. All this base housing. Their NCO club could fit our NCO club in there stacked on top of each other. I'm like, yo, we're getting the same money. We work for the same government. Why do you have a Chili's on base?

[01:13:50] Why do you have a 24-hour restaurant that delivers? Like, why do you have more taxis? Like, why do you guys have more stuff than we do? The same reason the Dodgers got stuff that the Brewers don't got. But that's the thing. But the Dodgers and the Brewers have different owners. We were both run under the Department of Defense. We were both under USFK. Like, so why are we out here getting a short end of the stick? Our chicken was always dry to chow hall. Like, it was ridiculous how much stuff we weren't getting.

[01:14:18] And we were just an hour and a half away from this other base. The NBA is treating teams like that. Like, some teams are Osan and some are Kunsan. Where you just say, hey, you got a plate, right? You got forks. Make a salad with that old-ass chicken. It's like, yo, come on, dog. Give me some flavor of the chicken. Go get a salt pack. But you know why that is, right? Then there's somebody serving you food at the chow hall. But you know why that is, though, right?

[01:14:46] Because there were fans. And I'm using air quotes here because there were fans that were like, oh, LeBron ain't in the playoffs. The Lakers ain't in the playoffs. Not watching. Oh, Milwaukee and Phoenix in the NBA Finals. Not watching. No Golden State Warriors. Not watching. That's why. You know what I'm saying?

[01:15:09] Because the Golden State Warriors had KD, Steph Clay, and Draymond, Steve Kerr, and a bunch of other people on that same roster. But this is the fans' fault. You're either a sports fan or you're not. Like, I don't make my determination of watching sports. That's what I mean. That's why I don't think it's that big a deal. Because I don't think the fans – the fans aren't watching the teams that win. The fans aren't – like, I was thinking about this. It's like the fans like the first couple of rounds in NCAA tournament, to be surprises.

[01:15:39] They like – uh-oh, Scott Foster's reffing the Lakers-Rockers game six. Oh, shit. Oh, shit. They didn't call that. And we got a one-point game in Toronto with about five minutes left. Yeah, so that's – like, I don't think fans give a damn about tanking. Because the teams that are tanking, the fans aren't watching that game anyway.

[01:16:02] And then when teams get to the NBA finals, last year, Oklahoma City, Indiana, all seven games, incredible. There was a one point where, in game four, Indiana had a real opportunity to go up 3-1. And then Shea brought them back, tied up 2-2. They went back and forth. Tyrese Halliburton tears his Achilles game seven early in the first quarter. They still go into halftime in the end.

[01:16:31] I think down 2, like 50-48, something along those lines. Yeah, we're still close, yeah. Those – that was great until the end, until, like, the last six, seven minutes of the NBA season where Oklahoma City pulled away and won the championship. Fans just didn't want to watch it because of the titles of the cities. That's a different issue. But see, I think – I don't give a damn about tanking. So this is one of those moments. So, you know, you were trying to teach me a word.

[01:17:00] That's how you – word, word, word. Hey, I need another liquid death. No, I'm just playing. No, but, like, but I think – So you taught me about a year ago, you taught me this technique of not you're wrong, but yes and, right? Yes. So, yes and, I don't think you're wrong. That's the thing about this conversation. I don't think either one of us are right or wrong.

[01:17:29] I don't think that you're wrong, but I think that you're looking at it from the wrong vantage point. Oh, yeah, I'm completely ignoring tanking as a problem. So, I'll be honest. I don't think tanking is a problem. So, like, every single one of my conversations about tanking, I don't have tanking as a problem. So that's the band's group that I'm speaking from. I don't think it's about the fans watching or not watching. You know what I'm saying?

[01:17:56] I think it's about – it's my job to put out the best possible product that I can, no matter who's watching it or not watching it. I need to have a good product. So, if I'm up in here trying to open up, you know, my version of Kroger's or Walmart or something like that, I can't say, hey, you know what? Only 68 customers come here compared to their 100.

[01:18:24] So, I shouldn't fix anything because nobody's coming here anyway. Like, I still have to put out the best product. And once the product improves, then you'll get more people to show up. You know what I'm saying? I think that's the way to kind of look at it. But anyway, let's continue. So, teams cannot get the number one pick in consecutive years or be in the top five for three consecutive drafts.

[01:18:50] Now, you know, the three consecutive draft thing, that was one of my brainchilds. You know what I mean? Where it was like, hey, you know, and like, because even if you don't get the number one draft pick, there's going to be a draft like this year. Where you got your A-cuffs and your Wogglers and your, you know, Kingston Flemings and people like that that are desired that aren't necessarily top three.

[01:19:16] So, you still might luck into something if I keep giving you bites at the apple. So, okay, you got the number one draft pick now. You know what you do now? It's called development. That's what you do. Versus trying to hang on like Hinky did and be like, oh, I got Embiid. What can I get this time? Like, you're at the candy store or like you're trying to buy Christmas presents or something like that.

[01:19:42] Yeah, trust the process was like, I didn't like trust the process because you're still asking fans to pay for 41 home games. And then every team you're playing on a row, they know you're not trying. See, so if we skip down, because the next sentence says teams could not protect 12 to 15, we'll skip that. Commissioner would have increased powers to punish perceived tanking.

[01:20:10] And that's where they lose me because like the Pacers we were talking about, right? We just kind of argued about them. Halliburton was out. So, they're going to lose games. Now, do I think they should have been as bad as they ended up? No. But at the same time, who am I? That's what Boston might be anywhere near as bad when their star went out. Right. But at the end of the day, who am I to say that you should be winning games with Jay Huff?

[01:20:40] You know what I'm saying? Like, I can't make that determination. But, you know, so the good news here is that he did. Yes, and good dunk highlights, though. He did. But I can't expect like, oh, they got Jay Huff? Oh, yeah, they're going to win 46 games. You know what I mean? But. And hearing lies, and that's my logic. Or like, hey, did you put anti-logic?

[01:21:01] Yes, and I agree with you that if you're going to correct the tanking, what you perceive as a tanking problem, you need a process to resolve that. Uh-huh. I just feel, you know, feelings like, I don't think that the average fan cares about tanking this much, considering you and I've been doing this show for three years. I don't think we've ever had a conversation, not more than one in one offseason about tanking.

[01:21:30] I think we talked about the lack of talent. I think we talked about lack of development and like while the foreign players, we've had those conversations. But I don't think we've ever had a conversation to this point, but it seems like that dude travels every time he gets the ball on a run. There you go, Kennard. Four-point game for the Raptors. Minute 53 left. Lakers up 1-4-16 left in the first.

[01:21:54] And for those of you still tracking, real quick, for those of you still tracking, Harden, three field goals, four turnovers still. So it's going to be game 45? Might be game 45.

[01:22:07] Yeah, like I said, I just think the, I think the conversation around tanking has just been ramped up, but I don't believe it's, I don't think tanking is a bigger problem in the NBA over the player development and just overall team building expectations. I believe the NFL has expectations.

[01:22:35] Expectations that come down from all the owners. Because if I'm, if I'm Jerry Jones and I have a game on the road in like Arizona. Okay. Watch this. We go Arizona. Arizona has had some up and down years. Jerry still expects you to advertise the hell out of that game. Make sure you sell it out. And make sure you put a good enough product on the field so your fans show up.

[01:23:05] So when we go split this check at the end, when I brought my team all the way out here, I spent this money on these planes and this equipment and all these people that come out here to play this game. You're going to give me a proper cut. So I think we need to. The NBA doesn't put the onus on the, they don't put, I don't think they give the opportunity to the teams that are bad to just get better. I think they, they demonize them for being bad.

[01:23:33] And then now they want to throw in all these other teams. They're going to steal their potential draft. Well, because like. Teams with the worst, worst records could pick no lower than 12. So I'm picking 10, 11, like 9, 10, 11. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I don't agree with like every plan, every course of action, every idea theoretically can have flaws. So I'm not, so I don't think that.

[01:23:59] And I think this has flaws because I don't think the problem is as big as the reason it has flaws is because I don't think the problem is as big as they want you to believe. That's why there's no easy shot selection, you know, but, but at the same time, like, I think that, like, like, like, like I said, like this conversation could go on for like four hours, but, but, but, but, but I just, I just think that it goes back to the disrespect conundrum.

[01:24:28] Like you can't disrespect me and then tell me I was too harsh with my reaction. That's the way I look at this. You're disrespecting my game, not me as in two five, but if I'm Adam Silver, you're disrespecting the game that, that I'm appointed over. Now you can't call me harsh because you brought this on yourself, but Mr. Logical real quick before we, before we pivot here. And that was CBS that I was using for that. Let me give them credit.

[01:24:57] That was CBS sports.com. And then, you know, I'm a pull up something else real quick. So, you know, this is from Sportico, you know, by way of Instagram. And I hate that my screen doesn't just save at the size that I had the other screen, but this is the current, how it is currently versus how it will be going forward. If they approve this. If they approve this. And the other good part about this is.

[01:25:28] See what I'm saying? See what I'm saying? No, I don't. You don't say you. I don't know what you're saying right now. Second to worst record. Third worst record. All right, hold up. Let me just say this one thing real quick. You say it and I get my point. So the good news about this thing is if it comes together, it doesn't work.

[01:25:52] Then when the CBA is up in 2029, they can scrap it and go back to the old system or try something. How can you introduce something in the middle of whatever CBA being agreed upon? That's a good question for a lawyer or somebody. But Adam Silver is a lawyer. So there you go. Go ahead. Yeah. All right. So this. The problem that we're going to run like this, all new plans, like I'm not.

[01:26:21] I'm not opposed to change. OK, I just want you to really be realistic about what you're changing, what you're looking at. So right now. The teams with the worst record, second worst record and third worst record. So teams 28, 29, 30 in the NBA have a 14 percent chance to get the number one pick. Yeah, that's today's rules. Yes. So the new odds, it'd be 5.4 percent. Yes. Because you're punishing tanking.

[01:26:53] What if you just suck? Because no matter if you tank or not, someone's going to be 30th. Right. And that's what I was saying. That's what I was saying a couple weeks ago. But that's where. But see, this is the issue. So they said that Adam Silver has the power to subjectively. So you can play your heart out. Do you have the ability to subjectively take injuries into consideration? Once again, that's what I mean.

[01:27:20] They are creating a problem and trying to levy a solution against it when it's not a real problem. You're creating a bigger one. Because there's always going to be a team that's 28 or 28, 29, and 30. No matter if it's tanky or if everyone played every single star player they had assigned to their organization for all 82 games. There's going to be three teams at the bottom.

[01:27:47] So you can play your heart out and end up 30 and 52. And the three bottom teams could be 31 and 51. 30 and 52. 31 and 51. And 30 and 50. But see, but the thing is, is that what you're saying is. And end up not getting the number one pick. And not necessarily.

[01:28:11] But having a less opportunity than a team that potentially could go 41 and 41. But the thing about it is. So how do you get a better chance at getting the number one pick when you make the playoffs? Even if I play, like I said, even if we play as hard as we could play. Like Brooklyn can play as hard as they could play. And they were never going to win the season series overall with the Celtics. See, but the thing about it. They were not going to win. But that goes back to. And this is the last time I'm going to say this part.

[01:28:41] But this is where you get to the chicken or the egg. Because. If y'all were playing your hearts out. You still could lose. There would be no need to change anything. But you're not playing your heart out. But what I'm saying is that. I get what I know. I know exactly what you're saying. Because it's the argument that I made two weeks ago about the Kings. The Kings are just bad. I understand that. But there's more than one team in the league than the Kings.

[01:29:11] Like, you know what I mean? Like, for every King, you have a Wizard. For every Pelican, you have a Jazz. And the Jazz are even more disrespectful. Because y'all just went out and got Ace Bailey in the draft. You got Laurie Markkinen. Keontae George just had a career year. And then you decided we're winning too many games. You know? That's the problem.

[01:29:37] So you're talking about, like, the logical stuff that will happen on the backside. I'm talking about the illogical stuff that got us here. Because this never happens. And that never happened. Cause and effect. That's all it is. And you're going to get it wrong sometimes. Because you are overreacting. Like I said, you are overreacting. You are reacting probably just to react.

[01:30:04] Because people criticize you and say you don't do enough. I think they're reacting to a conversation that somebody brought up. But I don't think it's as detrimental to the NBA. I don't think tanking is the problem in the NBA. No. All their solutions are trash. That's why I told you. I don't think tanking is the problem. It's a problem. I don't think that the promotion that you're talking about is necessarily the worst problem. But it is a problem. You got to fix something. You know what I'm saying?

[01:30:34] Like you can't just do the status quo. And then 10 years from now when less people are watching, you're upset. You wouldn't watch an episode of NFL Live where Mike Greenberg, Greeney, is the host. He's a Jet fan. He'll never get on that panel on Get Up and say, I don't watch the Jets. Shaq will. Charles Barkley will.

[01:31:02] But Adam Silver doesn't have the ability. I mean, he does to a degree. I ain't going to say why. I ain't going to say why. But he has the ability to get people removed if he needed to. Promote the league. Promote the games. Promote the players. Because we've all watched through tanking. We've all watched all these players. We like them. At the buzzer! Overtime. So we got overtime in game six at Jurassic Park.

[01:31:32] You know, the Scotiabank Arena. So here we go. Let's see. You know, let's see if James Harden can finish this game with more field goals than turnovers. He's still three for ten from the floor. Still with his four turnovers. But yeah. So we'll put that one to bed. And I'm sure we'll be revisiting that here in the... No. Oh, okay. Well, actually. Yeah, yeah. Let's stay there, Chris. I like that, Chris. Let's have a mini conversation real quick. A friend told me the NFL should do this. No.

[01:32:03] No. Not enough games in the NFL. Well, not only that, but I got a different reason. But go ahead. Go ahead. And the NFL has their version of tanking. It's week 18. We've already locked in our playoff spot. We're the Kansas City Chiefs. We're not playing anyone against Denver. Denver beats them. Denver gets into the playoffs. The NFL has their version of tanking. They have a version of where when Houston was supposed to... When Lovie Smith was supposed to lose that game to Indianapolis. And he didn't.

[01:32:31] Football players play differently. When football players... Football players have to play... They're literally fighting for their job. They have to fight every single week because... In a basketball game, if you're out of position defensively and a guy shoots a shot, he could still miss. If you're a guard and you don't feel like blocking, somebody's getting hurt. You're losing yards.

[01:33:00] It's going to be a turnover, a fumble, something like... Remember the Titans? Yeah. Football players have to work. So they give them... I think they give them that week 18. Like, hey, your guys are... You're already locked into the playoffs. They do it. I think the NFL system is perfectly fine. So I think... Be it as is. I think of it from a different perspective. Like, I do agree that it shouldn't be a thing.

[01:33:28] But the reason, Chris, that I think that it doesn't work because it doesn't have to work. Because if I'm in the NFL, right? The Giants still got Arvell Reese at number five. You know, Dallas got Caleb Downs at like 11 or 12. Ruben Bain went 15. You know, so I don't have to... Like, Jadarian Price, he went 32 to Seattle. Aaron Rodgers went 24. Yeah.

[01:33:55] So I don't have to tank in the NFL. I don't have to use the lottery in the NFL because the talent is more spread out and there's more positions. So in basketball, obviously, you only have five players on the floor. So one person can make a crazy difference. A lot of difference, yeah. Right. Whereas in the NFL, you know what I mean? I could go get Fernando Mendoza. As an agency can't rush for 1,400 yards without three...

[01:34:23] Two or three upper tier offensive linemen. Right. And Fernando Mendoza... I feel blockers right in. Fernando Mendoza could come into the league and theoretically, he could be one of the best quarterbacks in the league in the next three years. But if he ain't got nobody to throw the damn ball to, you know what I'm saying? Like, it doesn't really make a difference. If he ain't got the line, like Mr. Logical was saying, if Ashton Gentry can't pick up a block, it don't matter how good Mendoza is. You're trying to use the play action and the RPO, but you can't run the ball effectively.

[01:34:52] Your offensive line is terrible. Yeah. Like... You're just not there just showcasing nothing. And we were talking about, in our draft reaction, we were talking about how the last three, four days before the draft, you know, Sonny Stiles became the hot name. You know what I'm saying? We got him at seven. You know what I mean? So, like, you don't, in the NFL, you don't necessarily need the number one draft pick unless, because realistically, going into this year, right?

[01:35:21] Now, this year was obviously low on quality quarterbacks. But looking at the first round, how many teams actually needed a quarterback? You know, there was, you know, the Cardinals, you could argue. Miami. The Raiders. Miami starting Malik Willis. But you could argue that they could get a quarterback. They could have got a quarterback. And then maybe, maybe one more team that I had in my brain, but just the Jets. The other team.

[01:35:51] The Jets could have got a quarterback maybe. The quarterback didn't need one. Yeah. But also... The quarterback didn't need one. So, like, if the Rams, you know, like, yeah. But also, go look at the draft next year. Go look at the quarterbacks that are due to be in the NFL draft next year. You know what I'm saying? So, you didn't need to reach for the quarterback this year. And guess what? You might want a particular quarterback. I might want Arch Manning. Right? I don't. But I might want Arch Manning. You know what I'm saying?

[01:36:19] If I don't get the number one pick and he goes number one to somebody else, then I can get Julian saying maybe. You know what I mean? I can still get Darian Menta. You know, I can get Sam Levitt if he stays healthy. I don't need to be the number one pick. You can get top-tier talent from one of, call it, 30, 35 schools. If you're thinking, like, what's the power? So, if you go Big 10, Big 12, ACC. Yeah, Washington.

[01:36:48] You're at 50 schools right there, right? At least. Yeah. You get the best player from Texas, best player from Texas, best player from Wisconsin, best player from Michigan. Yeah, you're like at 50 teams. So, listen to this. Think about it this way. Cade Klubnick came out of high school, ranked the number one dual threat quarterback in the country. Correct. You know what I mean? He got hurt last year.

[01:37:17] Clemson had a bad year. He went in the fourth round this year. So, I say all that to say, from a developmental standpoint, I know he got talent. Now, I just got to get him in here and get the talent out of that potential. I don't need the number one draft pick to do that. You know what I'm saying?

[01:37:38] But the NFL does a better job of creating a scenario to where you can develop players. Like, we talk about the worst of first. Right. Let's think about NFC East. Think about the Carolina Panthers last year. Yeah. So, Philly won the division last year, right? Right. And who was second? Was it Washington or Dallas? It was Washington. I'll tell you that.

[01:38:08] It was Dallas. Dallas. And then Washington. And then the Giants. The Giants. Yeah. The Giants get Arville Reese. They have the stacked defensive line. They have potential. They got Jackson Dart starting out. They, I think they grabbed a couple, like, wide receivers. Malik Nabors is coming back. They can easily go 10 and 7 and be in the playoff mix. Just off of drafting two or three players and, you know. And free agents and so on and so forth. Yeah. The NBA.

[01:38:39] The NBA, you're already counted out. The Lakers have Luka and LeBron. Like, LA has Luka and LeBron on the same team. Like, if you're in the NBA, if you're the Sacramento Kings, you know Giannis ain't coming to you. Like, if he was a free agent, he ain't coming to you. In the NFL? Like, Aaron Rodgers. Like, not this version of Aaron Rodgers, but MVP Aaron Rodgers. If he was a free agent, he would have signed with Arizona if they had the money.

[01:39:08] And if Patrick Mahomes was a free agent, I don't think he, I don't think Philly has the money to sign him. Because the NFL sets it up to where you can't do all of that. Right. Like, Philly's teams right now, maybe if they could have moved Jalen Hurts or whatever the case may be. But I don't think they have the money to trade for Patrick Mahomes and have him on the roster to make this super team.

[01:39:33] Whereas, there's a means for LA to probably get Giannis because of the way that the NBA is structured. Because the NBA. There's no way for Sacramento to get him. The NBA had to punish Sacramento for tanking. It's like, yo, dog, I can't even pay people to come here. And then the guy I can get from college for free, you won't let me get him either? How am I going to sell out these 41 home games you want me to sell on Amazon Prime? The NBA had to put their money where it was best spent.

[01:40:02] David Stern said something very profound at one time. I mean, he said a lot of profound things, but this thing in general. He said, if it was up to me, it'll be Lakers against Lakers in the finals every year. You know what I mean? So that is to say that he knew, and it was partially his fault because they marketed players versus teams, but he knew that nobody's going to tune in to watch the Sacramento Kings. People aren't.

[01:40:32] But if Luka Doncic was on the Sacramento Kings because the Lakers were unable to pay him and Austin Reeves this max deal, then people would watch the Sacramento Kings. Maybe, because I just told you. You have to build it into the rules to where, like I said, the NFL has it. Well, I just told you, people didn't want to watch the finals, and it had Giannis in it. Yeah. But we'll talk about the regular season. Okay.

[01:40:57] But I think you would be able to get – I think – I know we're going to get back to this conversation, but that's my only piece. The way the NFL treats their player development, their product development, and their marketing, whatever the NBA office is in New York City, I imagine it's probably pretty close to the NFL office.

[01:41:27] Adam Silver needs to bring his board of directors with him and meet Raj Goodell somewhere in the city and sit down and say, hey, how do you do it? How do you keep people talking about your league with all – think about all the criminal stuff. The NFL has way more players getting in trouble than the NBA does,

[01:41:55] but yet we don't stop watching the NFL, whereas the NBA, people literally will turn it off. All right. Let's figure out how do you guys do it because the stuff that he's coming up on his own, BS. All right. So we're at 33.7, Donovan Mitchell with a layup, 110-108 Cleveland. So one bad idea to another.

[01:42:23] 76 is the new 68, the NCAA tournament. The way that they worded this, quote, is at the one-yard line, unquote. So not official yet, but it's happening. You know, so the NCAA tournament. So the Pac-12 is back. So now we're going to have 32 automatic bids. You know, so, you know, that's going to leave 44 slots left.

[01:42:52] So the auto bids and the at-large bids. So we can keep it symmetry and go 32 at-large and then 32 auto and go back to 64. Ain't that something? Ain't that something? Crazy how that works. Crazy how things like that just kind of work out. So, right now, you know, obviously, and, you know, I apologize for talking to y'all like y'all dumb. I'm just doing my job here. You know what I mean? You got 68 teams. You got the first four. And then you end up with 64 in the bracket. I hated the first four.

[01:43:22] You know what I'm saying? So now you're taking the first four. I hated that profusely. I hated the way it was meant. I don't necessarily hate the concept. I hate how they did it. What is it? Two 11 seeds playing for their life? Yeah. Like there's 16. So usually it's the 16s and it's usually the 11s or the 12s, like one of the other. Yeah. But meanwhile, you got 13s, 15s, another 16s already in the tournament.

[01:43:51] Not anymore. But I'm an 11. Not anymore. So now we're getting rid of the first four. And we're going to the opening round. So Dayton is still going to host the games. But now they're going to pick somewhere west of Dayton to host another set of games. So there's going to be 12 games total.

[01:44:13] So the way that this is going to be split up, and this is from Bleacher Report by way of Matt Norlander of the I Own College Basketball Podcast. So all 16 seeds are going to play for their life. Half of the 15s. So that's your Tuesday, Wednesday. Then the other half is going to be a mixture of your 11, 12s, and 13s. So I don't know how you're going to determine if it's the 11, 12, and 13s.

[01:44:43] Then go with all the 16s and the 15s. You know what I mean? How does another 15 not have to deal with this process, but as an 11, I do? It doesn't make sense. That's what I'm trying to tell you. But you know why? You know why? Because it just goes back to what we were just talking about. So I might be able to put Vermont against Lafayette on TV.

[01:45:06] I can't put that on, you know what I'm saying, and then Ann have, you know, like East Tennessee State and Southeast Missouri State. You know what I mean? I think you can because if you believe in the – yes, Ann, but if you believe in a tournament, then that's what you do because you have the tournament. We watch the games for the tournament.

[01:45:35] I don't know if St. Mary's or St. Helena or St. Joseph or St. John's is in the first round if I don't really watch the basketball season at all. I just know that at work, that TV that's normally off, we're going to turn it on. We're going to connect someone's HBO Max to it so we can watch some of these tournament games and do our office pool. Oh, what an awful turnover, Cleveland. What an awful turnover.

[01:46:05] Do you see this lie that I highlighted? Funny story. I'm going to say something about money here in a second in the NCAA tournament. Then I'm going to say it after I say this piece. So Brandon Walker, Barstow Sports, since a couple of videos in our group chat that like I'm starting to agree with him more and more. He said – Oh! R.J. Barrett got the Halliburton bounce.

[01:46:36] You know, with 1.2 left, he got the Halliburton bounce where – Straight up bounce? Yeah, where it went straight up like a – I'm getting a score to top court. I got the Lakers game on right now. Yeah, so we got 1.2 seconds left. So Cleveland will have a chance here to tie or win. But go ahead. So Brandon Walker, what he said, he was like, college – He said the NCAA, they're the only entity to where they don't give a damn what the fans want. They just do it anyway.

[01:47:05] He was like, the NFL tends to listen to their fans. He's like, for the most part, the NBA listens to their fans. He was like, the NCAA? He was like, if they expand the college football playoffs in 2014, that would be silly. And then expanding – he's like, I don't think people really wanted 12. Right. But they did it. He was like, the NCAA is one of the only organizations where they say, well, just do it anyway. So this phrase here, it could be different. He's like, the driver of this move hasn't been money but rather access.

[01:47:37] I talked to a guy today in my office, a pilot. He played lacrosse at the Air Force Academy. And I was like, so are you guys good? He was like, yeah, we're pretty good. He's like, the problem is when you are – because lacrosse doesn't generate a lot of money. And when you make a tournament, the NCAA is paying for your move. So the NCAA pays to get you from wherever your school is to wherever your first-round tournament game is.

[01:48:06] So he said, what would end up happening to them was, he was like, we would probably be a 14 or 15 seed in the playoff of 20 teams. But they would just seed us at 20 because the Air Force Academy is in Colorado so they can play the University of Denver who won like back-to-back national championships. He's like, so while I'm in college, my first three years of college, he's like, we played the University of Denver because it was just regional.

[01:48:35] It just made the most sense to the NCAA because it's like, listen, we can put you on a bus to Denver to play this game. He's like, oh, we played Notre Dame because Notre Dame was popular enough that they could play any school. He's like, so we end up playing the defending national champions three out of four years I was in college because the NCAA didn't want to spend any money. So when they say money is not the drive, it clearly is. That's the same thing that the Syracuse coach said when she had to play UConn because you play – you don't play at a regional location.

[01:49:05] You play – he's like, we would play at the University of Denver. He's like, they were back-to-back national champs and we played them both years in the first round when we should have been like 12, 13, or 14 seed. But they just put us to 20 so we could just play. And I was just – like I said, that was the same thing to coach at Syracuse. She was like, we got to go to UConn. Like, I'm sick of going to UConn and try to play these first-round tournament games. It's like – it's almost unfair, but that's the nature of NCAA.

[01:49:33] So they'll tell you it's not about money, but it clearly is because there's no need for the additional eight teams. So we got a game seven tomorrow, and as of right now, we have two game sevens on Sunday. It don't look like we're going to get a third if this keeps up because, like I said, Lakers just got to jump on them early in the Houston show that you can score enough to come back. But after what Detroit did – Listen, number 48 on the sidelines is a different character. But after what Detroit –

[01:50:03] Number 48 is, right? Number 48. You know who wears 48, right? No. Who wears 48? Your man is Scott Foster. You know, but yeah, so like this is the thing, right? Access for who? Because, you know, when you think about it, we were talking about this, and I'm going to repeat it again. You know, if you – and I'm talking to the mid-majors and the low-majors.

[01:50:27] If you win your regular season title, you are the best option to represent your conference in the NCAA tournament. We keep talking about how Cinderella is fading away because of NIL. Well, Cinderella definitely going to fade away if I'm sending my sixth best team from a low-major conference because they got hot for a weekend, you know, and they're probably going to get blown out once they get to the tournament. You know what I mean?

[01:50:55] So like from that standpoint – and the problem with that is money because then your conference is going to lose money by not having that conference tournament. You know what I mean? And especially, like I said, the American East schools like Vermont, my UMBC Retrievers, you know, you got UMass Law, you know, like all that kind of stuff.

[01:51:21] Those teams aren't going to get into the NCAA tournament as an at-large if they don't win their conference tournaments, even if – and we've seen this in the past. Do they just eliminate inviting them and just put them all in the NIT and then just invite all your Power 5 schools to be one of the 76 teams? No, because that's a lawsuit. I mean, let's be honest.

[01:51:49] That's – we follow the money. A team goes from not being good to very good really fast. They didn't do it all for just grit and grinding. It was some, you know, a great amount of cash was flowing into their possession as well.

[01:52:14] The NCAA tournament, like I don't understand because it's not even the same format as the heart of your tournament when you're adding all these extra games. Like it doesn't even fit to the – like the – like the sanctity of your actual tournament. Your tournament is the bracket, one and done. But you have all this ancillary stuff just as filler for no reason.

[01:52:44] It just takes away from like the overall value because you're going to get the viewership just even if you got – went from 68 back to 64. That first round is still going to drive the same numbers. Yeah, you'll probably get some more people in this set. But it's like if you don't have your bracket done with the 68 teams, people don't care.

[01:53:10] Long as you get it in by the time it's 64, that's where a real count starts. So this is CBS Sports again. This is what – these are the teams that would have got into the tournament last year or this past season if we had the 76 teams. I see two SEC teams, two ACC teams. You know, I see a Big East team, a Big Ten team.

[01:53:39] Both Mountain West teams have over 22 – have 22 or more wins. And they weren't even invited. Now, so this is the other problem here. You know what I'm saying? And now, look at these records. You know, you don't even necessarily have to look at the overall record. You got Oklahoma 7-11 in the SEC, same as Auburn. Congratulations, Auburn won the NIT. Indiana, two games under .500 in their conference. Seton Hall, .500 in their conference. Stanford, .500.

[01:54:09] Virginia Tech, two games under .500. What are we doing? Look at the two Mountain West schools, 14-6 and 13-7. How are they behind? Because of strength of schedule and net rankings and things like that because it goes back to what we were talking about with the NBA, right? Setting teams up for success. So back in the 1900s, schools like Notre Dame and Michigan decided to have football, decided to do sports or whatever the case may be.

[01:54:39] Hey, we created these conferences like the Big Ten, and then we fast forward today, you know, and we didn't make any changes. The teams that were there are still just there. Like Northwestern is still in the Big Ten. Vanderbilt, I know they had a great football season this year. Shout out to Diego Pavia, friend of the show. But you know what I mean? But they're still in the SEC along with Kentucky football.

[01:55:04] So now when you flip it over to the basketball side, and this is the thought, Mr. Logical. So we always do the percentages, right? We talk about there were 135 or so. There's 136 now. So back then there was 132 or so FBS teams, and only four teams was making the playoffs. You know what I mean?

[01:55:29] Like you look at college basketball at one time, and it was 64 out of 352 or something along those lines. Now we're at 363. So if you just look at it from a numbers standpoint, 76 isn't so bad because it's only 21% of the sport. But at the same time, when those are the teams that I just pulled up on that screen, under 500 in their conference, I don't want you a part of the party. I don't want you at the party. You know what I'm saying?

[01:55:59] We're going to tell you that the party's tomorrow, but it's really tonight, just so you don't show up. You know what I mean? And that's where we are with college sports right now. And they say it's not about the money, but how could it not be? You know what I'm saying? That's extra TV revenue. You know, we talked about how they're adding another site besides Dayton. So I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that they're at least going to consider Vegas. Yeah, that site won't be free.

[01:56:29] You know, and they do want it west, so it won't be an East Coast town. It's going to be west. Yeah, imagine. Maybe you could do T-Mobile in Kansas City. Maybe you could do Kansas City if it's not Vegas. But I would definitely try to make Vegas happen. You know, easy airport. I mean, it's a shitty airport as far as walking around it, but it flies everywhere at least. But there's like slot machines when you get off the plane. That's the greatest part about landing in Vegas. Yeah.

[01:56:57] Especially if you got a gambling problem, like some people. Shouts to Brendan Sorsby. You know, so that's why I think we're doing things. We're just doing things just to do it. And, you know, the problem is, is that the fans aren't going to reject it. Because even, you know, me, I'm talking about this right now. I'm still going to watch it. We'll watch it. Yeah, we'll watch it. But that's why they do it. Because we won't turn the channel. Yeah, because it's like it's sports.

[01:57:25] We love, like people love sports. Like I said, like, you know, there's girls sports. Like my daughter plays softball. My son plays football, basketball, lacrosse. He used to wrestle. My other son wrestled and played football. My other son loves volleyball. Like it's like sport is what we do. Like we love sports. You and I have a sports podcast. We can talk about more stuff than sports. But we're talking about sports podcasts. So, like people love sports. I just think like the logic and reason behind it is it's just lacking.

[01:57:54] Other than just like because you think team. If you believe that 76 teams need to be represented, that means you believe that teams like 50 and higher have a chance to win it all. Like you think teams that are ranked past 50. I got to say this real quick.

[01:58:22] So, you know, the other day I was talking about Orlando is the NBA version of the Cleveland Browns. Yes. You know how you were talking about the Denver Nuggets went seven minutes in the fourth quarter without a field goal. Correct. This is from George Sedano, so I can't take credit for this. In that Detroit-Orlando game, Orlando went 45 real-life minutes without a field goal.

[01:58:53] So, they last scored at 846. They didn't score again until 931. They scored 19 second-half points. 23 consecutive field goals they missed. They scored 60 first-half points at home and then scored 19 in the second half. Yeah. Yeah. So, is it over? Like, you can't come back from that in game seven on the road, right? Nah, you shouldn't. You shouldn't be able to come back from that. What are they reviewing in this game? What are they reviewing?

[01:59:22] They called a foul on Thompson, reviewed it. They determined that it was all ball and they jumped ball and that Lakers. So, what do you think? What do you think? Good call, bad call? It was a good call. Like, he got all ball. Like I said, I'm a couple minutes ahead of you. So, like, they called it all ball. Lakers have the ball still. Same score. Okay. But, yeah. So, you know, that's where I stand on the tournament expansion.

[01:59:48] And at the very least, like I brought this up too, like bring back the bracket busters. You know, that was a week in February, a weekend or so. I think it was a full week. But basically, you would have things like Mary State against Gonzaga, you know, Bradley against Vermont. Like, you would have these low major, mid-major teams showcased on ESPN. Don't have the mid-major teams play the top-tier teams throughout the season. That way it's a surprise. And see, and that's why, like, you know what I mean?

[02:00:18] Like, if we get into this mid-major or this 76-game format, you know, and you get these 11, 12s, 13s mixed in, are we going to see, like, Auburn, you know, against UNC Greensboro? So, you're giving them the access to play that game, but you're implying and wanting that brand to win the game and get into the tournament. So, like, so you can give them access.

[02:00:46] Is Auburn going to beat Drake if Drake's a 7 seed and Auburn ends up as a, was that a 10 or something like that because of this new format? Yeah, like I said, they will try to tweak it as much as they can to get the most bang for their buck. I just feel like, how many more games would it be with the 76 versus 64?

[02:01:14] It's 12 more, and, you know, 24 teams basically are fighting to get in. Okay, yeah. That's the math. That's all it is. Because not one of those teams will make a run to the Sweet 16. Yeah. They're just there as cannon fodder to get a few shekels, especially if they play them in two stationary locations. Like, they play them in Dayton, they play the other one in Vegas.

[02:01:45] That's just money hand over fist. Yeah. So, all right. And, you know, and if the NCAA don't get the money, guess what? The SEC, Big Ten, and all of them are going to get the money because, you know, it's another tournament win. You know, they get their certain shares or whatever. So, you know, haves and have-nots. That is America. America. So, ladies and gentlemen, we will be back on Tuesday.

[02:02:13] Thank you so much for your support. Thanks for joining us. Thanks for watching. Thanks for everything you do. You know, he is the world famous, world renowned, cool, calm, and collected. Just in case you were wondering, he was born in Texas, raised in VA. He represents new Jerus, and he likes walks on the beach. He is. Mr. Logical.

[02:02:38] And down here in the Alamo, your unorthodox statistician going left so much you thought I was Southpaw. We got Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano. I'm going to keep saying it until it happens. I'm so excited. You know what I mean? I go by the name of 2-5. This is Sports Reports' order. Like, review, share, subscribe, rate, do all the free things, do all the good things. Guess what I got in my hand? Liquid Death, you should have one too. Yes, sir. Severed Live. You know what I mean? We love y'all.

[02:03:08] Enjoy your weekend. You know what I mean? We got one game, seven tomorrow, two on Sunday. And if the Rockets could ever figure out that you're supposed to put the ball in the basket, we might get three. We might get three. But we'll see y'all in a few days. Y'all be good. Sports Reports' order. Out. Out. Sports Reports. No gimmicks, no clowns. 2-5. Mr. Logical. We run this town. We'll talk only. No chaser, no doubt. From the east to the west. It's the order we shout.

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