# Danny Parkins on Lakers losing to Rockets, Harden Playoff Struggles & Celtics' Red Flags | 04.30

An episode of [The Right Time with Bomani Jones](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/982639043), 30 Apr 2026, 58 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/370fc844-36bd-4f61-8b8f-b4bb010de39a/82380a41-21a8-4d61-8bfb-b4bb01136513/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=919a7cbe-003c-4146-b592-b4bb010de3a5

Bomani Jones and Danny Parkins break down a chaotic first round, starting with the Lakers struggling to close out Houston and the moment everyone’s talking about: Reed Sheppard picking LeBron James clean in crunch time. Is this series slipping away… and are we watching a real regression from L.A.? Plus, Parkins makes the case for something wild: trusting James Harden and the Cavaliers in the East. Is Harden actually underrated in the playoffs—or are we setting ourselves up for the same ending? They also dive into: Why the Eastern Conference feels wide open (and kinda shaky) Whether the Knicks, Celtics, or Cavs can actually be trusted The Thunder’s looming dynasty potential 👀 Why modern NBA playoffs feel more unpredictable than ever And to close it out, Parkins shares details on his “Cubs for a Cure” fundraiser supporting brain cancer research. You can donate HERE https://www.mlb.com/cubs/tickets/specials/cubsforacure Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:09] Speaker 1: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to The Right Time, a Wave original.
[0:13] Speaker 1: My name is Beaumontie Jones. Thanks for listening wherever you
[0:15] Speaker 1: get your podcasts. Thanks for watching us on YouTube.
[0:18] Speaker 2: Subscribe, like, rate us, review us, give us five stars.
[0:21] Speaker 1: You only give us four stars. I'm inclined to believe
[0:23] Speaker 1: you are a hater.
[0:25] Speaker 2: We got Danny Parkins in on Thursday. What's going on, man?
[0:29] Speaker 3: Good morning, Beau. God, these NBA playoffs are a marathon,
[0:33] Speaker 3: my man.
[0:34] Speaker 2: It's a marathon.
[0:35] Speaker 1: We really just got to get through, like, the next
[0:38] Speaker 1: two and a half weeks or so.
[0:40] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[0:40] Speaker 3: Right?
[0:42] Speaker 2: That's a long time. But that's the key.
[0:44] Speaker 1: Like, once we can start getting some teams out of
[0:47] Speaker 1: here in the second round.
[0:48] Speaker 2: Like, we've gotten some help already, right? Oklahoma City. Did
[0:51] Speaker 2: they part? Made quick work. San Antonio. Did they part?
[0:55] Speaker 1: The Lakers had their opportunity to do their part last
[0:58] Speaker 1: night because it's worse with them because they've games could
[1:01] Speaker 1: be way far West.
[1:02] Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying? But they didn't do it.
[1:05] Speaker 2: They had nothing for us, which is raising the question.
[1:07] Speaker 1: I talked about this a bit of goodwill on Wednesday show.
[1:12] Speaker 2: They really did play over their heads in those first
[1:15] Speaker 2: three games, right?
[1:17] Speaker 1: The question is whether or not we are witnessing a
[1:19] Speaker 1: regression to the mean in this case. Because they got
[1:22] Speaker 1: Austin Reeves back, and I don't know if that hurt
[1:24] Speaker 1: or helped.
[1:25] Speaker 3: Yeah, I think Austin Reeves clearly was knocking off some
[1:29] Speaker 3: rust and had some fatigue. A lot of his shots
[1:32] Speaker 3: were coming up short. Obviously, very different players. we kind of,
[1:36] Speaker 3: we saw with Joel Embiid, like Embiid came back and
[1:38] Speaker 3: game one was not good. And then game two, he
[1:41] Speaker 3: was dominant. So I think the Lakers, that might be
[1:43] Speaker 3: like their biggest sign for optimism is that in theory,
[1:47] Speaker 3: Austin Reeves should have fresher legs than the rest of
[1:49] Speaker 3: the squad for game six. And maybe all weird sentence,
[1:54] Speaker 3: maybe Austin Reeves, Dave LeBron James and the Lakers, like
[1:59] Speaker 3: very weird time we're living in, but it is possible. Uh,
[2:03] Speaker 3: But yeah, it was a, I don't think Luke Kennard
[2:09] Speaker 3: and Marcus Smart were going to do that. You know,
[2:13] Speaker 3: just like those guys were, and those first games, it
[2:17] Speaker 3: wasn't just that Kennard went nuts or Marcus Smart went nuts.
[2:20] Speaker 3: They all went nuts early. Like they all had amazing
[2:23] Speaker 3: first quarters. So like LeBron could save some energy for
[2:27] Speaker 3: the end and they could play with a lead and
[2:30] Speaker 3: Houston could get tight. So it wasn't just like, oh,
[2:34] Speaker 3: a random spurt late in the second quarter. It gave
[2:37] Speaker 3: them a cushion for the whole game. And yeah, that
[2:39] Speaker 3: is not happening anymore.
[2:41] Speaker 1: Like, I believe that there was no excuse for the
[2:43] Speaker 1: Rockets to lose this series with or without Kevin Durant.
[2:45] Speaker 1: That was my take in the beginning. Now that it's 3-2,
[2:50] Speaker 1: we're kind of with game six being at the crib, right? Like,
[2:53] Speaker 1: we're kind of in, like, look, man, the thing about playoff.
[2:57] Speaker 2: Series is the Rockets... don't have.
[3:01] Speaker 1: Home court advantage, but they got it back to where
[3:03] Speaker 1: it was supposed to be off the top, right? Like,
[3:06] Speaker 1: it's all just a matter of, can you sneak a
[3:08] Speaker 1: win here and there? Now, of course, what we're asking
[3:10] Speaker 1: them to do at this point is win four games
[3:11] Speaker 1: in a row, which is very difficult to do against
[3:14] Speaker 1: a team that is reasonably in the same ballpark as
[3:18] Speaker 1: you are. But then winning now that it's 3-2, like,
[3:21] Speaker 1: I feel like we have to ignore the fact that
[3:22] Speaker 1: it used to be 3-0.
[3:24] Speaker 2: Now it's 3-2. They have game six at home.
[3:27] Speaker 1: It is reasonable that the following collection of players could
[3:30] Speaker 1: win this playoff series.
[3:32] Speaker 2: Jabari Smith, Tari Eason, whose mama be talking crazy about
[3:37] Speaker 2: him on the Internet. It is the wildest story in
[3:40] Speaker 2: the NBA that like as somebody who has haters, nobody
[3:44] Speaker 2: hates on me like Tari Eason's mom hates on him.
[3:50] Speaker 3: I'm not familiar. What is she doing, man?
[3:53] Speaker 2: Let me look. Let me let me look. I'm sorry
[3:55] Speaker 2: to not be able to. Yes.
[3:56] Speaker 3: And you hear I've missed.
[3:58] Speaker 1: <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL>
[4:01] Speaker 1: Tari Eason, mom, Twitter. Let me get to where this is.
[4:06] Speaker 1: So this is from Reddit 11 months ago. And it
[4:09] Speaker 1: said the title is Bro. Tari Eason's mom posted this. Oh, actually, no,
[4:15] Speaker 1: that was.
[4:15] Speaker 2: Her being very harsh toward the toward the Warriors. Apparently,
[4:19] Speaker 2: she's just like this. With everybody.
[4:21] Speaker 1: But, like, if he has a bad game, Tari Eason's
[4:25] Speaker 1: mom is going to be the one to say that
[4:27] Speaker 1: he's had a bad game.
[4:28] Speaker 3: Oh, wow.
[4:29] Speaker 2: Fun.
[4:30] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[4:30] Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[4:31] Speaker 2: Like, it's that sort of situation. But these are the guys.
[4:34] Speaker 3: I like it.
[4:35] Speaker 2: These are the guys that are out there in this game.
[4:36] Speaker 2: What a weird series this is.
[4:38] Speaker 1: Jabari Smith, Tari Eason, Alprin Shingun, Ahmed Thompson, Reed Shepard,
[4:44] Speaker 1: Dorian Finney-Smith, Aaron Holiday.
[4:46] Speaker 2: And Josh Akogi. Smith, Shingun, Thompson, and Thompson played 42, 43,
[4:51] Speaker 2: and 46 minutes.
[4:57] Speaker 1: Austin Reeves comes off the oak after missing that time
[5:00] Speaker 1: and plays 34 minutes because you had to because he
[5:03] Speaker 1: used to be playing really over 40 and you still
[5:05] Speaker 1: had to play him 37. It's a 41-year-old man playing
[5:08] Speaker 1: 39 minutes. DeAndre Ayton playing 38 minutes for you.
[5:12] Speaker 2: Shit, I should have known you lost just by looking
[5:15] Speaker 2: at that. Marcus Smart in year 12 giving you 37 minutes.
[5:21] Speaker 3: It is a ragtag bunch for the Lakers. And the
[5:26] Speaker 3: Rocket side of it, like, man, that game was weird.
[5:29] Speaker 3: The series has been weird. Last night, the Lakers are
[5:32] Speaker 3: making their comeback. They cut it to three after the
[5:35] Speaker 3: Rockets had seemingly been in control. And Reed Shepard goes ISO,
[5:41] Speaker 3: hits a bucket, and then picks LeBron's.
[5:44] Speaker 2: Pocket and fast breaks the other end. I'm like, what
[5:47] Speaker 2: am I watching? I got it.
[5:49] Speaker 3: Like, it was such a, it's such a strange series.
[5:52] Speaker 3: But to your point earlier, too, like, The Rockets had
[5:55] Speaker 3: a collapse where they're up six with 30 seconds to
[5:59] Speaker 3: go and blow the game. Series very easily could have
[6:03] Speaker 3: been 2-2, but if we just men in black mind
[6:06] Speaker 3: erased ourselves and hadn't watched a minute of the series
[6:09] Speaker 3: and said, okay, there's no Luka, there's no KD, Austin
[6:14] Speaker 3: Reeves is coming off an injury, the Rockets are down 3-2,
[6:17] Speaker 3: but game six is in Houston. I think it would
[6:20] Speaker 3: be totally reasonable to pick Houston to still win the
[6:23] Speaker 3: series because... old lebron old lakers team with one day
[6:30] Speaker 3: arrest between game five and game six and then one
[6:33] Speaker 3: day arrest between game six and game seven like the
[6:36] Speaker 3: younger more athletic team should get stronger as the series
[6:40] Speaker 3: goes and i think that's what we're seeing like i
[6:43] Speaker 3: think houston's defense the last like nine quarters has been
[6:46] Speaker 3: pretty like i think it's 21 or fewer points for
[6:49] Speaker 3: the lakers and like six of the last nine or
[6:52] Speaker 3: six of the last 10 quarters. So I think this
[6:55] Speaker 3: is tilting towards Houston and LeBron could end up being
[6:57] Speaker 3: the first guy ever to lose a series up 3-0.
[7:00] Speaker 1: You remember when LeBron said he don't even like when
[7:03] Speaker 1: he was explaining about how he don't like to go
[7:05] Speaker 1: to Memphis and he was like, I don't even like
[7:07] Speaker 1: to go home no more.
[7:10] Speaker 2: After letting Reed.
[7:10] Speaker 1: Shepard take your cookies like that in front of everybody,
[7:13] Speaker 1: I don't.
[7:13] Speaker 2: Think he's ever going back. I wouldn't personally.
[7:16] Speaker 1: And when I say I wouldn't, I don't mean I
[7:18] Speaker 1: wouldn't if I was LeBron James. I mean that I
[7:21] Speaker 1: comma Beaumont Jones at age 45.
[7:25] Speaker 2: It's hard to explain.
[7:26] Speaker 1: It's not that Reed Shepard shouldn't be able to take
[7:28] Speaker 1: the ball from me.
[7:30] Speaker 2: I'm just not going to be able to explain it
[7:31] Speaker 2: to people.
[7:33] Speaker 3: It was wild. It was a wild moment. And it
[7:37] Speaker 3: happened in the fourth quarter of an NBA playoff game.
[7:39] Speaker 2: I witnessed it.
[7:40] Speaker 3: I'll remember where I was fighting off sleep on my couch.
[7:44] Speaker 2: Let me tell you who's really going to remember with that.
[7:46] Speaker 2: Reed Shepard.
[7:48] Speaker 1: I don't know what Reed Shepard is going to have
[7:51] Speaker 1: to do with the rest of his career for this
[7:53] Speaker 1: to not be the first line in the rest of it.
[7:58] Speaker 3: Right.
[7:58] Speaker 2: Like right there.
[7:59] Speaker 3: You remember that sequence in the fourth quarter, a game
[8:02] Speaker 3: five of a round one game where you got the
[8:05] Speaker 3: best of LeBron James in a 45 second stretch.
[8:08] Speaker 1: Brother, let me tell you something about that one time
[8:10] Speaker 1: I dumped a basketball in a game.
[8:12] Speaker 3: Right? Hell yeah.
[8:13] Speaker 1: And I remember when I worked with Pablo. Pablo would
[8:15] Speaker 1: get on me about that, and he'd be like, that
[8:17] Speaker 1: one time.
[8:18] Speaker 2: I'm like, well, tell me about the one time.
[8:21] Speaker 3: Right? I don't got the one time.
[8:22] Speaker 1: The one time. It never happened again. I don't think
[8:26] Speaker 1: I ever tried. I don't think I ever tried before that.
[8:30] Speaker 1: But you're going to hear about this. I have to
[8:33] Speaker 1: tell you about this.
[8:34] Speaker 2: There's a dude my brother's cool with, and he used
[8:37] Speaker 2: to live in my building. Right?
[8:40] Speaker 1: And this is no lie. he invented the phrase wifi.
[8:46] Speaker 1: That's his claim to fame that he was in the
[8:47] Speaker 1: meeting and they were like, what are we going to
[8:49] Speaker 1: call this? And he throws out wifi and he's kind
[8:52] Speaker 1: of like the dudes who play drums or James Brown,
[8:54] Speaker 1: where everybody sampled your breaks, but you ain't getting, you
[8:56] Speaker 1: ain't get paid for it. Or like in the wire
[8:58] Speaker 1: where Wallace is like the dude who invented the chicken
[9:01] Speaker 1: McNugget must be rich.
[9:03] Speaker 2: But he's not the similar thing.
[9:05] Speaker 1: And so my brother had told me all this time
[9:07] Speaker 1: about the story, about the guy who invented wifi. And, um,
[9:12] Speaker 1: I said, he then one day said who the guy was.
[9:16] Speaker 1: And I was like, oh, I didn't know it was him.
[9:17] Speaker 1: He was like, oh, my bad. I thought you said
[9:19] Speaker 1: you'd had a conversation with him before. Because, hey, man,
[9:23] Speaker 1: it comes up quick as it would come up quick
[9:25] Speaker 1: for me.
[9:26] Speaker 2: That might actually be my nickname.
[9:29] Speaker 3: Bomani Wi-Fi Jones.
[9:30] Speaker 2: Wi-Fi Jones.
[9:31] Speaker 1: That's what they call me, Wi-Fi Jones. So when I
[9:34] Speaker 1: was cooking up Wi-Fi, right? That's what it would be.
[9:37] Speaker 1: If I'm Reed Shepard and I took LeBron's rock, that's
[9:40] Speaker 1: all anybody's going to hear about. Sure, my dad was
[9:43] Speaker 1: the most outstanding player in the 1998 Final Four.
[9:47] Speaker 2: But we're not going to talk about that. That's old news, pops.
[9:50] Speaker 1: Was LeBron James playing in that game or was Michael Doliak?
[9:54] Speaker 1: playing in that oh that's right it was Michael Doliak
[9:57] Speaker 1: that you were playing against.
[9:58] Speaker 3: Got it yeah you and I got to be honest.
[10:01] Speaker 3: I don't have my one-time dunk story. And I don't
[10:03] Speaker 3: even have, for my people and my athletic ability, I
[10:06] Speaker 3: don't have my one-time hole-in-one story. But I promise you, Bo,
[10:12] Speaker 3: when I get that hole-in-one... I'm working it into every conversation.
[10:15] Speaker 3: You got to.
[10:16] Speaker 2: You got to.
[10:16] Speaker 1: And remember, the key is you got to start recording
[10:18] Speaker 1: the video from the tee, not from the shot necessarily,
[10:22] Speaker 1: but you're going to have to walk it all the
[10:24] Speaker 1: way down to be sure that you have gotten it.
[10:30] Speaker 1: And I got to say, that is not just for
[10:32] Speaker 1: your people in the way that you intended. That is
[10:34] Speaker 1: just for a certain class of the bourgeoisie because if
[10:36] Speaker 1: my brother hits a hole in one brother, I'm low-key
[10:39] Speaker 1: hoping he never does.
[10:40] Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, this summer, I am looking forward.
[10:44] Speaker 3: Me and your brother have to get out and finally
[10:46] Speaker 3: put this all together.
[10:47] Speaker 2: Yes, yes.
[10:47] Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[10:48] Speaker 1: Because let me tell you, there's a hole in one.
[10:49] Speaker 1: I don't know when we're ever going to stop hearing
[10:52] Speaker 1: about this. I personally think you guys need to be
[10:55] Speaker 1: glad that I don't talk all the time about when
[10:58] Speaker 1: I got that hole in one on the wordle.
[10:59] Speaker 2: Yeah. Thank you. Right.
[11:04] Speaker 3: Thank you for sparing us with your first guest.
[11:06] Speaker 2: Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. See that
[11:09] Speaker 2: right there. That's the issue.
[11:11] Speaker 1: It take as much skill to get that as it
[11:13] Speaker 1: would to get your hole in one in golf. It's
[11:16] Speaker 1: just a good, pure swing with a little bit of
[11:18] Speaker 1: luck after.
[11:21] Speaker 3: You keep telling yourself that.
[11:23] Speaker 2: You keep telling yourself that, huh? How about that? Right?
[11:26] Speaker 2: There we go. Like, Greg Maddux never threw a no-hitter.
[11:28] Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying?
[11:29] Speaker 3: That's true.
[11:30] Speaker 2: That's true.
[11:31] Speaker 3: There's a certain amount of luck involved. Hell yeah, there's.
[11:33] Speaker 2: A certain amount of luck. Like, I can't believe... Came
[11:35] Speaker 2: in here, poo-pooing all night.
[11:37] Speaker 1: First thing, the first green square, then the second green square,
[11:41] Speaker 1: then it felt like the next.
[11:42] Speaker 2: Three just went all to sprint. And I was like,
[11:44] Speaker 2: wait a minute. Is something broken? Did I get my
[11:47] Speaker 2: hole in what? My brother got a hole in one
[11:50] Speaker 2: on that the other day, but I ain't going to lie.
[11:51] Speaker 1: I'm hating because my brother did the technocratic move of
[11:54] Speaker 1: he just used what they say is the best combination.
[11:58] Speaker 1: So I don't even feel like that counts. You know
[12:00] Speaker 1: what I'm saying? It counts because you got it.
[12:02] Speaker 2: But like.
[12:04] Speaker 3: It's like a hole-in-one on a par-three course. You have
[12:06] Speaker 3: more chances.
[12:07] Speaker 1: I pulled it off with a door. As a Prince fan,
[12:11] Speaker 1: I got a door as my hole-in-one. As what I
[12:14] Speaker 1: was going for was to get three vowels and not
[12:17] Speaker 1: to just go with the most common letters.
[12:20] Speaker 2: Throw a little L1 on it. You know what I'm saying?
[12:24] Speaker 1: And so I got a good little hit. I felt
[12:26] Speaker 1: like I spud it back.
[12:28] Speaker 2: You understand what I'm saying?
[12:29] Speaker 1: I felt like I got it to go past the holes.
[12:32] Speaker 1: And then I hit it with the right kind of speed.
[12:34] Speaker 3: Were you concerned about a Dorn?
[12:38] Speaker 2: You know, I was, but sometimes you got to make
[12:41] Speaker 2: the hard decisions. Yeah.
[12:42] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[12:43] Speaker 2: You understand what I'm saying? And I, and that's, that's
[12:45] Speaker 2: what I did.
[12:45] Speaker 3: Green, green, green.
[12:47] Speaker 1: I went like this right here. I took my tongue.
[12:49] Speaker 1: I put it on my thumb, put it up in
[12:51] Speaker 1: the air. I saw which way it was going, man.
[12:53] Speaker 1: That's what I, that, that's, that's what I did. And so, yes,
[12:57] Speaker 1: this is what it's going to be like to be
[12:59] Speaker 1: cool with Reed Shepard. For anybody that knows him, that's
[13:02] Speaker 1: met him or anything else, this is going to be
[13:05] Speaker 1: your life. But I got to ask you this, and
[13:08] Speaker 1: this is tied to a game from Wednesday night, and
[13:12] Speaker 1: it's this thing that Ryan told me.
[13:16] Speaker 2: And I was like, there's no way. Not Danny Parkins.
[13:21] Speaker 1: Not such a reasonable man with a historical background.
[13:27] Speaker 2: There's no way that this is what's going on, but
[13:30] Speaker 2: Have I heard correctly that you are all in on
[13:37] Speaker 2: James Harden and the Cleveland Cavaliers to win the East?
[13:44] Speaker 3: Let me tell you a story, Bo. Short answer is yes.
[13:51] Speaker 3: In fairness to me, I made this pick before Jason
[13:57] Speaker 3: Tatum came back and looked like Jason Tatum. Okay. This
[14:01] Speaker 3: was a day after the Garland trade.
[14:04] Speaker 2: Okay.
[14:04] Speaker 3: Because I am not a Darius Garland fan. I think
[14:08] Speaker 3: that he is part of a breed of NBA player
[14:11] Speaker 3: that is very exciting to watch, but very difficult to
[14:17] Speaker 3: win with. Like the six-foot fast guard.
[14:21] Speaker 2: Let me put a pin in that right fast.
[14:22] Speaker 1: We're going to get back to this other thing in
[14:24] Speaker 1: a minute, but I want us to maybe not, even
[14:25] Speaker 1: if not now, but it's a discussion to be had.
[14:29] Speaker 1: I would make the argument that Darius Garland, for those reasons,
[14:33] Speaker 1: is a... I am fans of guys that you're not
[14:35] Speaker 1: going to win with because they're fun. But I get you.
[14:39] Speaker 2: As a television analyst with an investment in being right.
[14:42] Speaker 3: That is it.
[14:42] Speaker 2: There you go.
[14:43] Speaker 3: I was like, man, he's a small, fast guy with...
[14:48] Speaker 3: bad toe injuries who you got to give three years,
[14:51] Speaker 3: $ 178 million to on his next contract. You didn't win
[14:54] Speaker 3: anything with him.
[14:55] Speaker 2: Yes.
[14:55] Speaker 3: I thought it was totally reasonable to, yes, you're not
[14:59] Speaker 3: selling high on the asset, but I think that asset
[15:01] Speaker 3: is going down. I was like upgrading him for Harden,
[15:04] Speaker 3: who could take some of the burden off of Donovan Mitchell,
[15:07] Speaker 3: who's a great passer. Like I thought it made some
[15:10] Speaker 3: sense at the time. And I didn't think Tatum was
[15:12] Speaker 3: going to come back and be Tatum 10 months after
[15:14] Speaker 3: the Achilles injury. And then I'd like to think of
[15:17] Speaker 3: myself as the guy, in the Titanic who closes himself
[15:21] Speaker 3: in the captain's room and is willing to go down
[15:23] Speaker 3: with the ship as opposed to the guy at the
[15:25] Speaker 3: end of the movie who's like, I have a child
[15:28] Speaker 3: and gets off the boat. And so I'm not abandoning
[15:31] Speaker 3: my take. And I do think that James Harden, while
[15:35] Speaker 3: he has way too many unforgivable and atrocious game sevens,
[15:43] Speaker 3: People act like he doesn't have good playoff games.
[15:46] Speaker 2: Correct.
[15:47] Speaker 3: And he has a lot of them. Like you would
[15:50] Speaker 3: think he's fourth in active playoff minutes. You would think
[15:56] Speaker 3: he'd be like 11th in scoring. He's fourth. fourth and
[16:03] Speaker 3: made threes like he's he's right in line he has
[16:07] Speaker 3: he has some stinkers and as nick right likes to
[16:09] Speaker 3: point out he has like triple the games of the
[16:12] Speaker 3: next guy with like more turnovers than than made baskets
[16:15] Speaker 3: so he definitely is a ball dominant guy gets a
[16:18] Speaker 3: little careless with the ball but He's not supposed to
[16:22] Speaker 3: be the number one on this Cavs team. That's supposed
[16:24] Speaker 3: to be Donovan Mitchell. And if we're being honest, the
[16:26] Speaker 3: number two is probably supposed to be Evan Mobley. And
[16:29] Speaker 3: Mobley had a good game last night, but has been
[16:31] Speaker 3: very disappointing in these playoffs and I think has plateaued.
[16:34] Speaker 3: And so I think for what they are asking of
[16:37] Speaker 3: Harden at this stage of his career, frankly, he's been
[16:40] Speaker 3: the only one who hasn't looked scared on Cleveland. And so, yeah,
[16:43] Speaker 3: I am a bit of a James Harden truther.
[16:46] Speaker 1: Okay, so I'm going to throw this out here just
[16:48] Speaker 1: as like a pro tip of sorts. And I know
[16:52] Speaker 1: you don't need like full on pro tips. You've been
[16:54] Speaker 1: doing this job for a while, but like it's a
[16:56] Speaker 1: little different on radio. Radio involves a lot more words,
[16:58] Speaker 1: a lot more conversation, right? The volume of what you
[17:01] Speaker 1: do on radio is different than TV. TV, what you say,
[17:04] Speaker 1: it feels like it sticks a little more. hey, man,
[17:06] Speaker 1: don't be holding yourself accountable to what you did to
[17:09] Speaker 1: fill out the rundown that one day.
[17:11] Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying?
[17:12] Speaker 3: Right, right, right.
[17:13] Speaker 1: Just because you took that one for the team on
[17:16] Speaker 1: that day does not obligate you to ride this whole
[17:19] Speaker 1: thing out. Now, you raised, in hearing you talk about
[17:22] Speaker 1: who should be the number one, number two, and number
[17:23] Speaker 1: three on Cleveland, you made me think about that team
[17:27] Speaker 1: in ways that I hadn't thought about, right? Because for me,
[17:30] Speaker 1: my issue with them before the trade was, You have
[17:33] Speaker 1: two small guards and you have two tall guys.
[17:36] Speaker 2: And that is not the same thing as two big guys.
[17:39] Speaker 1: And when you wind up in a situation where you
[17:41] Speaker 1: have to deal with big guys, right? Like if they
[17:46] Speaker 1: mess around and have to go play Detroit, which I
[17:48] Speaker 1: don't think is going to get that far. But if
[17:49] Speaker 1: they had to mess around and go play Detroit, Detroit has.
[17:52] Speaker 2: Big guys, right? Beef stew don't need to be as
[17:56] Speaker 2: tall as these boys.
[17:57] Speaker 1: Because he coming in there just to knock their asses around, right?
[18:00] Speaker 1: Jalen Dura's coming in there to knock their asses around.
[18:03] Speaker 2: There we go.
[18:04] Speaker 3: Yep, 100%.
[18:05] Speaker 1: But I always struggle with the idea of Donovan Mitchell
[18:09] Speaker 1: as your number one because small guard, right?
[18:12] Speaker 2: And then when you talk about Evan Mobley, we get
[18:14] Speaker 2: to that part.
[18:16] Speaker 1: In a weird way, the most reasonable, true number one
[18:21] Speaker 1: option for them in the postseason One.
[18:25] Speaker 2: Would argue is James Harden. Like we've seen James Harden
[18:28] Speaker 2: get teams to the conference finals, right? And I am
[18:30] Speaker 2: not a James Harden truther. I am the opposite.
[18:33] Speaker 1: I just know, I agree with you on the point
[18:36] Speaker 1: and I think that it gets lost. He has a
[18:37] Speaker 1: lot of really good games in the playoffs. You just
[18:39] Speaker 1: know in the last one, he's going to stink. That's
[18:42] Speaker 1: the part that you know. And hey, maybe in line
[18:46] Speaker 1: with your fill the rundown point, the last game.
[18:49] Speaker 2: Might not be the Eastern Conference Finals.
[18:51] Speaker 1: Therefore, you can get by and you can win the East.
[18:54] Speaker 1: But they have such a strangely configured team. where year
[18:57] Speaker 1: 17 James Harden, there is a way in which you
[19:01] Speaker 1: look at him and you say, at least for some
[19:03] Speaker 1: of these games, this is the guy that I want
[19:05] Speaker 1: to have the ball.
[19:06] Speaker 2: Because Donovan Mitchell is so good.
[19:08] Speaker 1: But he's a guy where I feel like Jalen Brunson
[19:11] Speaker 1: is bigger than you think, even though it's like it's there.
[19:14] Speaker 2: He's 6'2. It feels like he's 5'11, right? Donovan Mitchell,
[19:18] Speaker 2: I feel like it feels like he's 6'3, 6'4. Nope,
[19:20] Speaker 2: he's 6'1, 6'2.
[19:24] Speaker 3: Yeah, and listen, I think Donovan Mitchell is like a
[19:26] Speaker 3: top 10 guy in the NBA. And so he's such
[19:30] Speaker 3: an incredible scorer, also has had great playoff moments. And
[19:33] Speaker 3: oftentimes his playoff losses, it's like Donovan Mitchell was amazing
[19:37] Speaker 3: and everybody else was trash. And then the loss gets
[19:40] Speaker 3: hung on him. And so I just try to be
[19:42] Speaker 3: fair about those sorts of things. But there's no doubt
[19:45] Speaker 3: that the ball is in Harden's hands way more than
[19:48] Speaker 3: like I anticipated it needing to be when they made
[19:52] Speaker 3: the trade. He has the ball the whole time. And
[19:56] Speaker 3: I wish that there was a different way for that.
[19:59] Speaker 3: And this is one that bothers Nick when I say
[20:01] Speaker 3: it because it brings LeBron into the conversation. But I
[20:03] Speaker 3: will ask you, do we talk about James Harden entirely
[20:10] Speaker 3: differently if Chris Paul doesn't pull his hamstring it is
[20:16] Speaker 3: a phenomenal question so for anyone who does not remember
[20:20] Speaker 3: that Rockets team is built with the expressed we are
[20:24] Speaker 3: not scared of the Warriors we're going to go after
[20:26] Speaker 3: the Warriors.
[20:27] Speaker 2: The most admirable thing Daryl Morey's ever done.
[20:29] Speaker 3: Correct and they try to beat them at their own
[20:31] Speaker 3: game and they are up three games to two And
[20:35] Speaker 3: Chris Paul, at the end of Game 5, a game
[20:38] Speaker 3: that they were up comfortably enough that he got hurt
[20:40] Speaker 3: at the end of that game, they still win. They're
[20:42] Speaker 3: up 3-2 against the Warriors. But CP3 goes out. Warriors
[20:48] Speaker 3: come back and win in 7. Harden has the bad
[20:50] Speaker 3: game seven, but he's all of a sudden out there
[20:52] Speaker 3: with nobody else. He takes like.
[20:53] Speaker 2: Didn't they miss 28 threes in a row?
[20:55] Speaker 3: Correct. And he took... And.
[20:57] Speaker 2: By the way, literally, I think it was 28. Correct.
[21:00] Speaker 3: And he took like 30 shots in the game. So
[21:03] Speaker 3: he didn't go down scared. He just went down missing.
[21:07] Speaker 3: And then in the finals, Warriors sweep LeBron. It seems
[21:14] Speaker 3: reasonable to say... That if the Rockets would have been
[21:18] Speaker 3: able to beat the Warriors and the Warriors were good
[21:21] Speaker 3: enough to sweep the Cavs, that Rockets team wins a
[21:25] Speaker 3: title that year over LeBron. And all of a sudden,
[21:27] Speaker 3: James Harden has beaten peak of their power, Steph Curry
[21:32] Speaker 3: and LeBron in his prime. And we talk about him
[21:35] Speaker 3: entirely differently. And it was because Chris Paul pulled his hamstring.
[21:38] Speaker 1: I would say that we talk about him entirely differently
[21:41] Speaker 1: simply if they go to the finals. Because every player...
[21:46] Speaker 1: of his caliber, right? Every player with his historical legacy
[21:52] Speaker 1: or a historical record, more accurately.
[21:54] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[21:55] Speaker 2: All of them have made the finals, right?
[21:58] Speaker 1: Even when you start getting into the Carl Malone, Charles Barkley,
[22:04] Speaker 1: Patrick Ewing, right? Like when you get to that tier,
[22:08] Speaker 1: they've all gotten to the finals. And I think that
[22:11] Speaker 1: if Harden simply got to the finals, we would talk
[22:14] Speaker 1: about him a bit differently. there's no way in 18
[22:18] Speaker 1: double hockey sticks that LeBron James in 2018 was about
[22:22] Speaker 1: to lose to some combination of Jim Horton and Chris
[22:26] Speaker 1: Paul in the NBA finals. Cause look, I know the
[22:28] Speaker 1: Rockets won like 65 games that year. I understand everything
[22:32] Speaker 1: that you're saying, but I know for a fact that
[22:34] Speaker 1: James Harden, that lemon booty would have, would have been
[22:36] Speaker 1: overpowering for him.
[22:39] Speaker 2: I listen.
[22:39] Speaker 3: And I get, we're now arguing historical hypotheticals where either
[22:43] Speaker 3: one of us could just be totally convinced that we
[22:45] Speaker 3: are correct. But like, there's got to be some level
[22:48] Speaker 3: of transitive property to the Warriors swept the Cavs. If
[22:52] Speaker 3: the Rockets would have beaten the Warriors, that the Rockets
[22:54] Speaker 3: would have had a fighting shot against that Cavs team.
[22:57] Speaker 1: I think a fighting shot is fair. It's just that
[23:01] Speaker 1: team has had a lot of dudes I don't trust.
[23:03] Speaker 1: James Harden, Chris Paul, and Mike D'Antoni. At the same
[23:09] Speaker 1: damn time.
[23:11] Speaker 3: I get it. But they had the Warriors on the ropes.
[23:16] Speaker 2: They did. They did. You're not wrong.
[23:19] Speaker 1: Everything you say makes sense. But it reminds me of
[23:22] Speaker 1: a meeting I once had with a professor in graduate school.
[23:26] Speaker 2: And I needed some help with my homework. And I
[23:29] Speaker 2: was going through my homework with him. And I was like,
[23:31] Speaker 2: so what you think? And this.
[23:33] Speaker 1: I mean, let's just say I wouldn't be surprised if
[23:36] Speaker 1: this cat was good at jigsaw puzzles.
[23:38] Speaker 2: You understand what I'm saying?
[23:39] Speaker 1: Like if you could throw all your change up in
[23:41] Speaker 1: the air, he could tell you the exact count by
[23:43] Speaker 1: the time.
[23:44] Speaker 2: It hit the ground. You feel me?
[23:45] Speaker 3: I got you. I understand what you're saying.
[23:47] Speaker 2: And I just remember that man did not look at me.
[23:52] Speaker 1: He looked away from me and said, and I quote,
[23:56] Speaker 1: you are off on one thing.
[23:58] Speaker 2: And that one thing is everything.
[24:04] Speaker 1: And that's where it gets to be the idea that
[24:06] Speaker 1: James Harden was going to win a championship.
[24:09] Speaker 2: I would tell you this, though.
[24:11] Speaker 1: I had been saying maybe one day I'll get around
[24:14] Speaker 1: to watching a game in that series. And after it
[24:17] Speaker 1: became clear that Detroit was going to take care of Orlando,
[24:20] Speaker 1: I went over there and watched some of that Raptors
[24:23] Speaker 1: and Raptors Cavs series that surprisingly to me was on
[24:27] Speaker 1: ESPN and not on Amazon Prime as Amazon Prime is
[24:30] Speaker 1: like a souped up NBA TV series. Because that just
[24:33] Speaker 1: seemed like such an obvious NBA TV series.
[24:36] Speaker 2: Hey, man, that was a good game.
[24:38] Speaker 1: Like, I think that series is going to wind up
[24:40] Speaker 1: going seven games. I will now be able to, like,
[24:43] Speaker 1: pick Scottie Barnes out of a lineup. Like, a lot
[24:45] Speaker 1: of things I've been able to do since I went
[24:47] Speaker 1: in there and watched that a little bit. But that
[24:51] Speaker 1: team is, I guess if they get Orlando next, maybe
[24:55] Speaker 1: they could beat them.
[24:56] Speaker 2: But I think Detroit would wax them.
[24:59] Speaker 3: Well, listen, Detroit is pretty one-dimensional. And so I'd be...
[25:04] Speaker 3: I think going into the playoffs, Cleveland was the second
[25:07] Speaker 3: favorite in the East in terms of the gambling markets. Now,
[25:11] Speaker 3: everyone loves... Now, part of that was path because the
[25:14] Speaker 3: Celtics and the Knicks would have to play each other
[25:16] Speaker 3: in the second round. So part of that's the bracket
[25:18] Speaker 3: and some skepticism on Detroit, which I think is being
[25:21] Speaker 3: proven out by how this Magic series is going right now.
[25:26] Speaker 3: But Cleveland is... and it's ridiculous for someone like me
[25:30] Speaker 3: to say this about professional athletes, but like within the context,
[25:33] Speaker 3: relative scale of professional athletes, they're a little soft. Like
[25:38] Speaker 3: you were talking about it. They get big guys who
[25:39] Speaker 3: are not big. That's like the more diplomatic way to
[25:41] Speaker 3: say it. And so I do think that Detroit would
[25:44] Speaker 3: physically impose on them. And by the way, Orlando is
[25:47] Speaker 3: tough too. Like Wendell Carter and Jalen Suggs and those guys,
[25:51] Speaker 3: they play really hard.
[25:52] Speaker 2: Hey man, I'm not a Paolo guy. Paolo had a
[25:56] Speaker 2: game in game five, but.
[25:59] Speaker 1: Paolo seems like the kind of guy where for much
[26:02] Speaker 1: of his career, we'll say, wow, he had a great
[26:03] Speaker 1: game in that loss.
[26:05] Speaker 3: I think that is, I think that is so far
[26:07] Speaker 3: looking to be correct. And the magic are not that
[26:10] Speaker 3: a ton of people care, but they were supposed to
[26:14] Speaker 3: be like the, the odds, the wind total before the
[26:17] Speaker 3: year 54 wind team, mid mid fifties. And then everybody
[26:22] Speaker 3: got hurt. Like Wagner got hurt. Suggs was hurt. Paolo
[26:27] Speaker 3: had weird stuff, weird stuff with the coach. Now all
[26:29] Speaker 3: of a sudden they're healthy. They got Detroit on the ropes.
[26:34] Speaker 3: Indiana made it last year. That's all I'm saying. Yeah, no,
[26:38] Speaker 3: they like Indiana made it last year. I now have
[26:41] Speaker 3: to be open to the pot. This is, this is
[26:42] Speaker 3: not the NBA we grew up in where it's ones
[26:45] Speaker 3: and two seeds, nine out of 10 years. Like it's,
[26:49] Speaker 3: it is, there's so much damn talent in the league.
[26:52] Speaker 3: And the three-point ball is such a variance that, I
[26:54] Speaker 3: don't know, I think we have to be open to
[26:56] Speaker 3: a lot more possibilities now.
[26:57] Speaker 2: That is a fair point.
[26:58] Speaker 1: And we have not discussed enough that Indiana went from
[27:03] Speaker 1: having a legitimate chance to win the NBA championship, game seven,
[27:08] Speaker 1: and were playing pretty well until Halliburton went down, to
[27:12] Speaker 1: immediately saying, we're going to tank like you've never seen before.
[27:19] Speaker 3: And it's smart. And it sucks.
[27:22] Speaker 2: Yeah. It wasn't dumb, right? Yeah, yeah, right.
[27:25] Speaker 3: We've talked about this before. There is a difference.
[27:28] Speaker 1: But it's, yeah, look, like I said on the show yesterday,
[27:31] Speaker 1: I was like, shout out to you, Adam Silver. Losing
[27:33] Speaker 1: should make you feel ashamed.
[27:35] Speaker 3: Right.
[27:35] Speaker 2: And we have to try to do something. But that
[27:37] Speaker 2: is such a huge swing.
[27:39] Speaker 1: And let us not forget, that was the second straight
[27:41] Speaker 1: year that Indiana had been to the conference finals. Like
[27:43] Speaker 1: just like Minnesota went to the conference finals last year.
[27:45] Speaker 1: Like this, like you talk about this being an NBA
[27:48] Speaker 1: that's different than we grew up with. And I think
[27:49] Speaker 1: the most interesting part of it is Minnesota went to
[27:51] Speaker 1: the conference finals two years in a row and there's
[27:54] Speaker 1: no pressure on them.
[27:57] Speaker 3: No, because nobody thinks that they're a top three team.
[28:00] Speaker 3: They're a sixth seed. No one thought they were a
[28:02] Speaker 3: top three team in the West. Yeah. That weren't that
[28:05] Speaker 3: impressive in the regular season.
[28:06] Speaker 2: But nobody's even mad at them for that. Like nobody's like,
[28:09] Speaker 2: hey guys, so when are you guys going to turn
[28:11] Speaker 2: the corner? It's like every year is a new year
[28:13] Speaker 2: in the NBA now.
[28:14] Speaker 3: Yeah. Right. We got seven champions in the last seven years.
[28:18] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[28:21] Speaker 3: We've talked about the problems of the regular season and
[28:23] Speaker 3: they are significant. But if it actually has created a
[28:26] Speaker 3: world where you can't just not watch a series because
[28:31] Speaker 3: the NBA champion or at least the NBA finals representative
[28:34] Speaker 3: could come out of any series, that makes what was
[28:37] Speaker 3: already a great product even better.
[28:39] Speaker 2: Yeah, I love the Dynasty saga, right?
[28:42] Speaker 1: Like, I think there's a bit of unfairness in some
[28:47] Speaker 1: of the people ready to pounce on Jokic, but you
[28:49] Speaker 1: know what? It's supposed to be like that, right? Three-time MVP,
[28:52] Speaker 1: what the end game is supposed to be. No, there's
[28:53] Speaker 1: supposed to be a little weight on this. Victor is
[28:57] Speaker 1: the only guy that I think is in the league
[28:59] Speaker 1: where we're going to, at some point, if it doesn't
[29:01] Speaker 1: happen soon enough, where we're going to be like, hey, man,
[29:03] Speaker 1: so when are you going to pull up and get
[29:04] Speaker 1: that ring, guy?
[29:05] Speaker 2: Right? Everybody else is just get into the tournament and Hey,
[29:09] Speaker 2: maybe we'll just see how it goes.
[29:11] Speaker 3: Well, yeah, I think people think that Victor is inevitable
[29:16] Speaker 3: and they're probably right. I put, put, put me in
[29:19] Speaker 3: that everyone category. Do you, the thunder are in such
[29:25] Speaker 3: an unbelievable spot where like if Victor Wembanyama didn't exist,
[29:30] Speaker 3: I absolutely would think that we were step one of dynasty.
[29:35] Speaker 1: Well, coming up next, let's get to that because there's
[29:38] Speaker 1: a part that's very easy for us to forgive.
[29:40] Speaker 2: About when it comes to the Thunder.
[29:43] Speaker 1: You can predict the playoff action all the way to
[29:45] Speaker 1: the finals with FanDuel Predicts.
[29:47] Speaker 2: All you have to do is sign up to get.
[29:49] Speaker 1: Your $ 25 bonus. Follow all the playoff dishes, swishes, wishes,
[29:54] Speaker 1: and misses. Every move is a potential plot twist. Predict
[29:58] Speaker 1: the spread, the total points, and even the game-winning moments
[30:01] Speaker 1: that make the playoffs, where one run, one rebound, one
[30:05] Speaker 1: shot changes everything. From opening tip to the final buzzer,
[30:09] Speaker 1: stay locked in with every pass, every play, and every
[30:12] Speaker 1: moment that moves us closer to crowning a champion.
[30:15] Speaker 2: Sign up now for.
[30:16] Speaker 1: Your $ 25 bonus on FanDuel Predicts. Offered by FanDuel Prediction
[30:21] Speaker 1: Markets LLC, a registered futures commissions merchant.
[30:24] Speaker 2: 18 plus.
[30:26] Speaker 1: Bonus is non-withdrawable and expires seven days after receipt. Trading
[30:30] Speaker 1: derivatives involves significant risk and may not be suitable for
[30:34] Speaker 1: all investors. Manage your activity with our consumer protection tools.
[30:38] Speaker 1: Restrictions apply. See terms at fanduel.com slash predicts slash bonus
[30:43] Speaker 1: offer terms.
[30:45] Speaker 4: Offered by FanDuel Prediction Market, LLC, a registered future commission merchant.
[30:49] Speaker 4: 18 plus, one per user. Minimum $ 10 deposit required. Trading
[30:54] Speaker 4: derivatives involve significant risk and may not be suitable for
[30:57] Speaker 4: all investors. Manage your activity with our consumer protection tools.
[31:03] Speaker 1: Hey, let's be honest. At a certain age, our bodies
[31:06] Speaker 1: don't feel like they used to. Now, here's what I learned.
[31:09] Speaker 1: Your body makes testosterone, but a lot of it gets
[31:12] Speaker 1: locked up and can't be used. There's this protein called
[31:15] Speaker 1: SHBG that basically handcuffs your testosterone. Even if your body's
[31:20] Speaker 1: making testosterone, SHBG locks it up so you can't access it.
[31:25] Speaker 1: It's like having money in the bank, but your debit
[31:27] Speaker 1: card doesn't work. Mars Men is designed to free lock
[31:31] Speaker 1: testosterone so your body can actually use it. With eight
[31:35] Speaker 1: natural clinically dosed ingredients, Mars Men supports healthy T levels, energy,
[31:40] Speaker 1: and stamina. 90-day money-back guarantee. so there's no risk. Worst case,
[31:46] Speaker 1: you don't absolutely love it and you get your money back,
[31:49] Speaker 1: but over 91% of users report higher energy levels. Thousands
[31:53] Speaker 1: of guys are feeling incredible results. Just check out the
[31:56] Speaker 1: reviews on the website to see for yourself. For a
[31:59] Speaker 1: limited time, our listeners can get 50% off for life,
[32:03] Speaker 1: plus free shipping and three free gifts at mengotomars.com. That's
[32:09] Speaker 1: mengotomars.com for 50% off and three free gifts when you
[32:14] Speaker 1: check out. And it's also available on Amazon. After you purchase,
[32:19] Speaker 1: they will ask you where you heard about them. Please
[32:21] Speaker 1: support our show and tell them our show sent you.
[32:26] Speaker 1: All right, we are back with Danny Parkins. And we're
[32:28] Speaker 1: talking about the idea of like Oklahoma City as dynasty.
[32:31] Speaker 1: The thing about Oklahoma City, and by the way, to
[32:34] Speaker 1: a degree, San Antonio, depending upon how they wanted to
[32:37] Speaker 1: use things, Oklahoma City still has that war chest of
[32:40] Speaker 1: stuff to get better if they so decide.
[32:44] Speaker 2: Like they could have gone and got Giannis.
[32:46] Speaker 3: Correct. They are a perfectly constructed basketball team. And I...
[32:53] Speaker 3: profiled in the book. What is one of the chapters,
[32:55] Speaker 3: Sam Presti pipeline to the pros available now. Um, and he,
[33:02] Speaker 3: you cannot play for the thunder. If you do not
[33:04] Speaker 3: play defense, like that's one of the things like it,
[33:08] Speaker 3: I've never seen a team like that. They don't just
[33:11] Speaker 3: put out the spark plug offensive player, the white three-point shooter.
[33:17] Speaker 3: They go nine deep, and they all D up. And
[33:20] Speaker 3: people are like, oh, no, Jared McCain's not that good.
[33:21] Speaker 3: I'm like, I don't know. He's playing his ass off.
[33:23] Speaker 2: Oh, you're crazy. Jared McCain. David Starr should have stopped
[33:28] Speaker 2: that trade from the grave.
[33:30] Speaker 3: It's crazy. Like, and he's playing like eight minutes. Like it's,
[33:33] Speaker 3: it's not, they are, they are so deep and so
[33:37] Speaker 3: good at both ends of the floor. Chet, Jalen Williams
[33:41] Speaker 3: and SGA are all signed through 2031. And to your
[33:46] Speaker 3: point about all the assets, it's the draft picks like they,
[33:50] Speaker 3: at which the draft, those draft picks, by the way,
[33:52] Speaker 3: might've gotten more valuable in this new model because team
[33:56] Speaker 3: misses the playoffs and you've got just as good of
[33:58] Speaker 3: like a random down year. Maybe you're not going to
[34:00] Speaker 3: get a top pick, but now you got flattened odds,
[34:02] Speaker 3: better shot at doing it. But like they got Alex
[34:05] Speaker 3: Caruso in just a one for one trade for Josh Giddey.
[34:09] Speaker 3: Cause they're like, Josh Giddey is good, but doesn't have
[34:12] Speaker 3: room on this team. So we'll go get Caruso because
[34:15] Speaker 3: he's an unbelievable defensive player on a way below market
[34:19] Speaker 3: value contract who just wasn't valuable to the bulls. So
[34:23] Speaker 3: they'll now be able to go to, cause every team
[34:26] Speaker 3: in the league has a good player that, on a,
[34:28] Speaker 3: on a steal of a contract, but it's like a
[34:31] Speaker 3: closer in baseball on a bad team. It's not that valuable.
[34:34] Speaker 3: They'll just be able to go pluck those guys from
[34:36] Speaker 3: other teams and say, we'll give you a first round pick.
[34:38] Speaker 3: We'll give you this guy. We'll give you that guy.
[34:41] Speaker 3: So people are like, Oh, they're going to lose case
[34:43] Speaker 3: in Wallace or Lou Dort. They'll find the next one.
[34:46] Speaker 3: That's just how they are right now.
[34:48] Speaker 2: Yeah, they are. And then they get, then they're, they're
[34:52] Speaker 2: going to get San Antonio.
[34:53] Speaker 3: Like, well, and that, and listen, that's, that's the thing. Like,
[34:56] Speaker 3: if San Antonio was in the East, it would feel
[35:00] Speaker 3: like we were going to get, and it would obviously
[35:03] Speaker 3: not for the league be Laker Celtics in terms of
[35:05] Speaker 3: like market size and historical, but it would feel like
[35:08] Speaker 3: we were going to get Wemby against the thunder in
[35:13] Speaker 3: the finals four of the next six years. And like
[35:18] Speaker 3: actually like get like a great finals rivalry. And now
[35:20] Speaker 3: it just feels like the Western conference finals is going
[35:22] Speaker 3: to be the NBA finals.
[35:24] Speaker 2: Yeah. Every year. Every stinking year, this is what it's
[35:30] Speaker 2: going to be. But I want to ask you this.
[35:31] Speaker 1: We're going into Denver, Minnesota. I still think Denver should
[35:38] Speaker 1: win this series. I think Denver will win this series
[35:40] Speaker 1: at this point if they don't.
[35:43] Speaker 2: Damn, hands got to roll, right? Like, it's a great
[35:45] Speaker 2: set of game sixes.
[35:46] Speaker 1: Like, we didn't even get to Knicks-Hawks where, I mean,
[35:48] Speaker 1: the Knicks are getting to play home games everywhere they go.
[35:51] Speaker 2: That can't hurt.
[35:52] Speaker 1: But I think it will be very interesting to see
[35:55] Speaker 1: what happens if Denver does not pull this off.
[35:57] Speaker 2: Like, this is one where if.
[35:58] Speaker 1: Jokic is, I know Jokic is not physically well, but
[36:02] Speaker 1: you got to go out there.
[36:03] Speaker 2: And do like 35, 18, and 11, right?
[36:07] Speaker 3: Yeah, he was real good in the last game. And.
[36:12] Speaker 2: I agree with you.
[36:13] Speaker 3: I think you lose Ant and DiVincenzo. I can't imagine
[36:19] Speaker 3: Minnesota having enough to win that series. And I love
[36:24] Speaker 3: what Gobert is doing in terms of he's taking it
[36:27] Speaker 3: very personally that he wasn't a finalist for Defensive Player
[36:30] Speaker 3: of the Year. And he's just like, I am built
[36:33] Speaker 3: to guard Jokic and give him trouble that no one
[36:35] Speaker 3: else really has been able to do. So they're going
[36:38] Speaker 3: to go down with the fight. But I do think
[36:40] Speaker 3: Denver gets out of it. And it's weird, man. We've
[36:43] Speaker 3: talked about it before. We're like, life comes at you fast.
[36:45] Speaker 3: I was going into these finals thinking, is this Denver
[36:48] Speaker 3: team actually arguably better than the team that won the title?
[36:53] Speaker 3: With how Jamal Murray was playing, with Aaron Gordon's health,
[36:57] Speaker 3: and Minnesota's a terrible matchup for them. Christian Brown's been awful.
[37:02] Speaker 3: Jokic was inefficient, which is really weird for him early
[37:05] Speaker 3: in the series. So I think that heads would roll,
[37:08] Speaker 3: so to speak. For Denver, it'd be embarrassing and we'd
[37:11] Speaker 3: knock on Jokic. But the one that would be mortifying
[37:14] Speaker 3: is the Knicks. And I know they're up 3-2 now,
[37:16] Speaker 3: so they're probably fine. But I don't even... You firing
[37:20] Speaker 3: Mike Brown one year after you fire Tibbs? Or are
[37:22] Speaker 3: you just trading Carl Anthony Towns, even though he's been
[37:25] Speaker 3: awesome when you've given him the ball in this series?
[37:27] Speaker 3: What are you doing if the Hawks actually steal this thing?
[37:32] Speaker 1: So let me run this by you as it relates
[37:36] Speaker 1: to Jalen Brunson.
[37:39] Speaker 3: Okay.
[37:39] Speaker 2: And I'm just curious your thought here.
[37:44] Speaker 1: One thing you have to be careful about is I
[37:47] Speaker 1: talk about it as hiring the interim coach.
[37:50] Speaker 3: Right.
[37:52] Speaker 1: So you have a good run with the coach that
[37:54] Speaker 1: wasn't supposed to be your coach. But is that guy
[37:56] Speaker 1: the guy you're supposed to hire as your coach?
[37:58] Speaker 3: Right.
[37:58] Speaker 2: Like, do you hire the interim coach?
[38:01] Speaker 1: I don't think anybody expected Jalen Brunson to be the
[38:03] Speaker 1: player that he proved to be with the historical significance
[38:07] Speaker 1: that this team had.
[38:08] Speaker 3: Right.
[38:10] Speaker 1: I don't, I don't think that happened. I don't think
[38:12] Speaker 1: it ever happened before.
[38:13] Speaker 2: Okay. But he's not supposed to be your number one guy.
[38:18] Speaker 2: I think we'd agree on that.
[38:21] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[38:21] Speaker 3: Listen, I, I, I don't, I don't think this next
[38:24] Speaker 3: team can win. Like I think they are a, It's
[38:26] Speaker 3: a flawed team that eventually will get exposed, but they're
[38:30] Speaker 3: so beloved and he signed that below market value deal
[38:33] Speaker 3: that I cannot see a world, if you're going down
[38:36] Speaker 3: the world of like move off of Jalen Brunson.
[38:39] Speaker 2: Right, and that's what I'm saying.
[38:40] Speaker 3: I think that ship has sailed.
[38:42] Speaker 2: He's the most beloved player they've had since Patrick Ewing.
[38:45] Speaker 3: Correct.
[38:45] Speaker 1: But he's a 6'2 guard and can that guy be
[38:48] Speaker 1: the guy that is the guy? But the guy that
[38:51] Speaker 1: should be the guy has demonstrated to us that he can't.
[38:54] Speaker 2: Be the guy.
[38:55] Speaker 3: Yep.
[38:56] Speaker 2: Right, and that's Carl Towns.
[38:57] Speaker 3: Yep.
[38:58] Speaker 1: They're in a weird place, right? They got to get
[39:00] Speaker 1: Mikael Bridges out of there. That is officially an unsustainable
[39:03] Speaker 1: situation with him. You can't have that guy keep playing
[39:06] Speaker 1: for your.
[39:06] Speaker 2: Team in New York.
[39:07] Speaker 3: Bo, his contract extension starts next year. Yeah. I mean,
[39:13] Speaker 3: like you gave him five first round picks and then
[39:16] Speaker 3: the gave him the deal. The deal starts. Like who
[39:19] Speaker 3: is trading for bridges? Right. Like I just, that one
[39:23] Speaker 3: is to me, that, that is, that is untradeable. um
[39:28] Speaker 3: towns towns i gotta give him credit he's been really
[39:33] Speaker 3: good like yes he he has been good and he
[39:36] Speaker 3: has been trying on defense and like he has been
[39:39] Speaker 3: there was a great line back in the day uh
[39:41] Speaker 3: in the post jordan bulls era when they drafted Eddie
[39:45] Speaker 3: Curry and Tyson Chandler, and Scott Skiles was the coach,
[39:48] Speaker 3: and a Chicago reporter asked Scott Skiles, what could we
[39:51] Speaker 3: do to improve Eddie Curry's rebounding? And he said, jump.
[39:56] Speaker 3: It's like Carl Anthony Towns is jumping. He's playing a
[40:00] Speaker 3: little bit more like a seven-footer, and it's been nice
[40:02] Speaker 3: to see. But I still think with Brunson and Towns
[40:06] Speaker 3: on the court as much as they need to be
[40:08] Speaker 3: on the court, that there is a ceiling on that
[40:10] Speaker 3: team as presently constructed. You could trade Josh Hart, but
[40:14] Speaker 3: Josh Hart's really good. You could trade O.G. Onobi, but
[40:17] Speaker 3: he's really good in his role. I think the answer
[40:19] Speaker 3: is you trade Towns.
[40:22] Speaker 2: What can you get for him, though? I don't know.
[40:27] Speaker 2: I've said this many times on this show. People have
[40:29] Speaker 2: heard me.
[40:30] Speaker 1: I felt like in that trade with Minnesota and New York,
[40:32] Speaker 1: each team traded a guy that they thought you can't
[40:34] Speaker 1: win with to get a guy that they're like, maybe
[40:37] Speaker 1: it'll be different here.
[40:39] Speaker 3: Correct.
[40:40] Speaker 1: But I think Carl's about to make, he's making $ 60
[40:44] Speaker 1: million a year too.
[40:45] Speaker 2: Like there's that, there's that next, like there's, there's.
[40:47] Speaker 1: A lot going on there and you are right. If
[40:49] Speaker 1: they don't win this series, they are up three, two,
[40:52] Speaker 1: they should win this.
[40:52] Speaker 3: They should win.
[40:54] Speaker 2: If they don't though, it's going to get weird.
[40:56] Speaker 1: And then if they do win it, they got a
[40:58] Speaker 1: good chance against Boston.
[40:59] Speaker 2: Like that Boston. Hey man, that Boston, New York series.
[41:02] Speaker 1: Me and you might have to jump in the car
[41:04] Speaker 1: and go to Boston to go check out one of
[41:05] Speaker 1: them guys.
[41:06] Speaker 2: There's two especially to go here.
[41:08] Speaker 3: Dude, the, The tickets at Madison Square Garden are offensive.
[41:12] Speaker 4: Yes.
[41:13] Speaker 3: I can't believe it, but I would love to go
[41:16] Speaker 3: to Boston to go to one of those games with you.
[41:18] Speaker 3: And as we just kind of bounce around the NBA,
[41:20] Speaker 3: which I love, the Celtics are my least favorite team
[41:25] Speaker 3: to watch. Game two, they took 53s and made 13
[41:32] Speaker 3: of them. There should be some sort of shame or
[41:36] Speaker 3: relegation or punishment. It's one thing when Steph Curry, Klay Thompson,
[41:40] Speaker 3: and Kevin Durant were doing it. You're three of the
[41:42] Speaker 3: five greatest shooters in the history of the damn sport.
[41:46] Speaker 3: You have Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum. You're shooting 26%
[41:51] Speaker 3: from three. Get fouled. Go to the rim. And it's just,
[41:59] Speaker 3: I hate watching them, and it gets rewarding. People talk
[42:02] Speaker 3: more like stylistically and complain more stylistically about the thunder.
[42:06] Speaker 3: And I get people don't like flopping, but Luca does it.
[42:10] Speaker 3: Brunson does it. It, that is like a, at least
[42:13] Speaker 3: they are driving to the basket. Like the, the, the
[42:17] Speaker 3: Celtics six out of 10 shots or four. I think it's,
[42:22] Speaker 3: I think 40% of their shots come in the paint
[42:24] Speaker 3: by far the lowest in the league.
[42:26] Speaker 2: It's like, it's, It's not basketball. I hate it.
[42:30] Speaker 1: I agree with you. I don't like the way I
[42:32] Speaker 1: love Joe Missoula. I do not like the way that
[42:34] Speaker 1: he coaches basketball, right?
[42:35] Speaker 3: Well, but so the right, but then like, how much
[42:37] Speaker 3: can we love Joe Missoula when you lost to the
[42:39] Speaker 3: Knicks because you went cold from three and you were like,
[42:42] Speaker 3: this is just what we do. And now you're here
[42:45] Speaker 3: playing with your food against the less talented team in Atlanta.
[42:49] Speaker 3: And when you go cold from three, it extends the series,
[42:52] Speaker 3: which damages your ability to go win a title. Like
[42:54] Speaker 3: you're a great coach. Don't let them play with your food.
[42:57] Speaker 3: Go get fouled.
[42:58] Speaker 1: Remember when I said that sometimes you're a fan of
[43:00] Speaker 1: people when they don't always do the winning thing?
[43:02] Speaker 2: You know, like that.
[43:03] Speaker 3: No, Brazula's a psycho.
[43:05] Speaker 2: He's such a psycho.
[43:06] Speaker 1: I'm a big Russell Westbrook fan, right?
[43:08] Speaker 2: Like, I love the guy. We all have our guys, like,
[43:12] Speaker 2: here and there that we choose.
[43:13] Speaker 1: I think the thing with Oklahoma City is it's one
[43:16] Speaker 1: thing to flop on that end. It's on the other
[43:18] Speaker 1: end where Lou Dort is out here playing left tackle,
[43:21] Speaker 1: and you boys are just out here, like, roughing people up.
[43:24] Speaker 1: I think that's the part. Like, the thing with the–
[43:26] Speaker 1: you know what the Thunder make me– the thunder make
[43:30] Speaker 1: me think that somebody need to give them a free
[43:34] Speaker 1: idea here and maybe not everybody can pull this off
[43:39] Speaker 1: but if you could get you some artificial intelligence you
[43:41] Speaker 1: know what I'm saying that like redoes videos and stuff
[43:44] Speaker 1: and basically do some sort of parody of Matthew McConaughey
[43:48] Speaker 1: in a time to kill where he gets to talk
[43:50] Speaker 1: about what happened and then he ends it.
[43:52] Speaker 2: With now imagine they were white.
[43:56] Speaker 1: Just imagine you just have 15 white boys flopping and
[44:00] Speaker 1: hacking all the goddamn time.
[44:01] Speaker 2: Wouldn't nobody abide by this. Everybody would be down on it, right?
[44:06] Speaker 2: You know what? They play like Duke.
[44:09] Speaker 1: They play like old-fashioned Duke, getting all the calls and
[44:13] Speaker 1: playing defense with their hands. That's what they do.
[44:17] Speaker 2: That's where it gets a little tricky with them.
[44:20] Speaker 3: I can't defend the Lou Dortz stuff. I can't, I can't.
[44:23] Speaker 3: You're right. Yeah, like that's... No, I can't defend the
[44:27] Speaker 3: Lou Doerr stuff. And I never would try to. You know,
[44:30] Speaker 3: it is, of course, it's in the Dylan Brooks, Draymond Green,
[44:34] Speaker 3: and those guys.
[44:35] Speaker 2: But at least Dylan Brooks got a personality to it.
[44:37] Speaker 2: You know what I mean? Like, the game needs a
[44:39] Speaker 2: Dylan Brooks. Yeah, Lou Doerr.
[44:41] Speaker 3: Does have a tendency to hip-check Jokic when he's running
[44:46] Speaker 3: up the court in the backcourt and then be like, what, who?
[44:49] Speaker 3: What happened? What are you talking about? It's like, nah, just...
[44:51] Speaker 3: Just own it. Just own it. Yeah.
[44:54] Speaker 2: They're so good, though.
[44:56] Speaker 1: If we get there. Like, we were talking about being sleepy.
[45:00] Speaker 1: And I just want to mention something. I think this
[45:01] Speaker 1: is a subtle thing, a subtle change with the NBA
[45:03] Speaker 1: rights deal. I meant to mention earlier, but I'm going
[45:05] Speaker 1: to just throw out here and see what you think
[45:06] Speaker 1: about this.
[45:07] Speaker 2: All right.
[45:09] Speaker 1: Having these games on NBC means that games that may
[45:13] Speaker 1: have started at 7.30 now start at 8. Because NBC
[45:19] Speaker 1: doesn't get to remote Until 8 o'clock, which means I
[45:23] Speaker 1: feel like we get some of these games that used
[45:25] Speaker 1: to maybe be like 9.30, 10 o'clock tips, something like that.
[45:29] Speaker 1: They now them 10.30 tips. And the 10.30 tip, that's.
[45:34] Speaker 3: Rough, man.
[45:35] Speaker 2: That's rough.
[45:36] Speaker 1: It's helping the NBA goose them numbers because they get
[45:39] Speaker 1: to go over the air for the NBC.
[45:41] Speaker 2: Games, man.
[45:42] Speaker 1: But it's a tough go with them 10.30s.
[45:46] Speaker 3: 10.30 Eastern announced start. It's just... I'm like in a
[45:50] Speaker 3: bad mood leading up to it. I'm like, okay, all right.
[45:55] Speaker 3: My kids go to sleep like 8, 8.15, whatever. I'm like,
[46:00] Speaker 3: I know, like clockwork, 6.45 a.m., running into the room.
[46:07] Speaker 2: Daddy, I want pancakes.
[46:09] Speaker 3: I want eggs. I'm like, all right. Daddy was up
[46:12] Speaker 3: late watching LeBron. So every day. Uh, and I do
[46:18] Speaker 3: work through the afternoon show, so there's no naps in
[46:20] Speaker 3: my life anymore. It's very, I've got a hard life though.
[46:24] Speaker 3: I've got a, I've got a real hard life doing
[46:26] Speaker 3: this one hour a day television show. You know, I
[46:28] Speaker 3: want people to feel badly for me. How's it going?
[46:31] Speaker 1: It's not too late, by the way, for you to
[46:33] Speaker 1: teach your kids, um, a very important phrase. When they
[46:37] Speaker 1: say they want pancakes, they want eggs.
[46:40] Speaker 2: People in hell want ice water.
[46:43] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[46:44] Speaker 2: You ever thought about running that one by them little jokers?
[46:46] Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying?
[46:47] Speaker 3: I don't know how the six-year-olds may be approaching understanding.
[46:53] Speaker 3: I don't know how four-year-old Eli would just be like, okay,
[46:56] Speaker 3: I don't even know how to make my own cereal.
[46:58] Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's fair.
[46:59] Speaker 3: I got to keep the four-year-old alive, I've been told.
[47:03] Speaker 3: But I will say, Steph, the wife, and I, we
[47:06] Speaker 3: have Saturday morning cartoons. I get why they've been a
[47:12] Speaker 3: thing for generations. Yep.
[47:15] Speaker 2: You know what I mean?
[47:15] Speaker 3: Like, man, I now get it. Date night with the
[47:22] Speaker 3: wife on a Friday night, wake up.
[47:24] Speaker 2: You know what?
[47:25] Speaker 3: Why don't we just give you guys 30 minutes? Just
[47:28] Speaker 3: a little 30-minute snooze for mom and dad to ease
[47:32] Speaker 3: into our weekends.
[47:33] Speaker 1: You just sitting them down, put that bowl in front
[47:37] Speaker 1: of them.
[47:38] Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah. Here's a yogurt. here's a, here's a show.
[47:44] Speaker 3: And I don't think this is a, this isn't neglect
[47:48] Speaker 3: unless I get led to get to like nine o'clock.
[47:52] Speaker 3: I don't think it's neglect for, I think that's, I
[47:54] Speaker 3: think that's the amount that I give myself.
[47:56] Speaker 2: I see the vision. I do. I do see the vision. Um,
[48:01] Speaker 2: I do.
[48:01] Speaker 1: You think Philadelphia has any chance at all? Are you
[48:03] Speaker 1: just thinking that Boston just, we're just going to have
[48:05] Speaker 1: a game or two of this with Boston where they're
[48:07] Speaker 1: just not going to make any shots.
[48:08] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[48:08] Speaker 2: That's what I think.
[48:09] Speaker 3: That's exactly what it is. Uh, our research staff put
[48:12] Speaker 3: the graphic up on the show the other day. It
[48:14] Speaker 3: was like last five years or three years, whatever it was,
[48:20] Speaker 3: the timeframe was short period of time. Win loss record,
[48:25] Speaker 3: just straight up in the playoffs for teams that went
[48:28] Speaker 3: into games as a 10 or more point favorite. Boston
[48:32] Speaker 3: was nine and seven. The rest of the league is
[48:35] Speaker 3: 16 and four. So like if you're a double digit favorite,
[48:39] Speaker 3: you're supposed to win the game outright. But Boston, so talented,
[48:43] Speaker 3: the rest of the league's only been that big of
[48:45] Speaker 3: a favorite 20 times total. They've been that big of
[48:47] Speaker 3: a favorite 16 times, but they only win nine of them.
[48:51] Speaker 3: Because when you shoot that many threes, there's just variance.
[48:54] Speaker 3: You're going to go cold. You're going to have a
[48:56] Speaker 3: night where you miss. And so they'll probably go to
[48:59] Speaker 3: Philly and shoot 40% from three and win the game
[49:03] Speaker 3: by double digits because they're wildly talented. But again, you
[49:07] Speaker 3: play around with your food. anything can happen that even
[49:10] Speaker 3: if you get by Philly, it's still an extra flight,
[49:13] Speaker 3: albeit a short one. It's still an extra game. It's
[49:16] Speaker 3: still an opportunity for someone to roll their ankle. So, yeah,
[49:20] Speaker 3: I do think Boston will get it done and they'll
[49:22] Speaker 3: get to that series with the Knicks, but they should
[49:27] Speaker 3: be just much better at extinguishing these series than they are,
[49:33] Speaker 3: but you want the variance in the games when you're
[49:36] Speaker 3: playing teams that are better than you. or when you're
[49:39] Speaker 3: down 15 at half. You don't need the variance against
[49:42] Speaker 3: the Sixers.
[49:45] Speaker 1: I think something is easy for us to forget about
[49:47] Speaker 1: the Celtics and forget about the Tatum part. And I
[49:50] Speaker 1: include me in this. This is not the same team
[49:53] Speaker 1: of 2024. Like the 2024 team, one, this does not
[49:58] Speaker 1: appear to be the same Derek White.
[50:00] Speaker 3: Well, he's really struggling. No doubt about that.
[50:03] Speaker 2: I think that part is important. I think.
[50:05] Speaker 1: By the time the finals got around, they had healthy Porzingis.
[50:08] Speaker 1: And healthy Porzingis is a different caliber of player than
[50:12] Speaker 1: Vucevic inside. There's a different range of things that he's
[50:16] Speaker 1: going to provide you.
[50:17] Speaker 2: They out there starting, what's his name? Keita? Cueta? Whatever,
[50:20] Speaker 2: how you say that?
[50:21] Speaker 3: Yeah, Keita, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Who? What?
[50:24] Speaker 2: No, he wanted to do is because the Celtics ain't
[50:25] Speaker 2: got that many numbers that they got to give him
[50:27] Speaker 2: like a, like, like a, like a, like a quarterback
[50:29] Speaker 2: number is like 29 or some shit like that.
[50:32] Speaker 3: Yeah. No, that, that, that is, they're, they're not as
[50:35] Speaker 3: good as the, but they were the two seed in
[50:38] Speaker 3: the East and Jalen Brown's going to be first team
[50:41] Speaker 3: all NBA. And then they got Tatum back. Like, so
[50:46] Speaker 3: in the Eastern conference, this is the amazing thing about Boston.
[50:50] Speaker 3: Detroit has one guy who can facilitate his own offense.
[50:54] Speaker 3: Cleveland has a group of players who, as discussed, you
[50:58] Speaker 3: don't really trust to get it done. Who am I forgetting?
[51:04] Speaker 3: Who's the other time? Oh, and then the Knicks, as discussed.
[51:08] Speaker 3: An oddly constructed basketball team with a lot of external
[51:11] Speaker 3: factors going on. In a year where Jason Tatum missed
[51:15] Speaker 3: basically the entire season with the ruptured Achilles, it will
[51:19] Speaker 3: be worthy to criticize them if they don't make it
[51:23] Speaker 3: out of the East. They should make it out of
[51:25] Speaker 3: the East. Do you disagree?
[51:29] Speaker 4: Should.
[51:29] Speaker 3: Yes.
[51:29] Speaker 2: Like bosses by my pick. Right.
[51:32] Speaker 3: And so like, so I think that's why, but, but
[51:36] Speaker 3: normally it's like, Oh, you lost your best player to
[51:38] Speaker 3: an Achilles. You're not as good as your title team. Like,
[51:41] Speaker 3: all right. You're not going to catch much heat if
[51:44] Speaker 3: you lose, but because of how flawed the other teams
[51:47] Speaker 3: are in the East, I do think that they would
[51:50] Speaker 3: catch a decent amount of heat for blowing this thing.
[51:53] Speaker 2: And I, I, The East feels more and more like
[51:55] Speaker 2: the JV bracket every day.
[51:57] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[51:58] Speaker 2: Every day.
[51:58] Speaker 1: And it's weird because we have a team that won
[52:01] Speaker 1: a championship two years ago who Jalen Brown has elevated him.
[52:05] Speaker 1: He has been excellent without Tatum being there. The Pistons, hey, man,
[52:10] Speaker 1: we have a team like this every couple years, right?
[52:12] Speaker 2: We've seen this. But the Knicks... the Knicks, why not? Right.
[52:16] Speaker 1: But I think what makes it bad for the Knicks
[52:18] Speaker 1: and what's got to stink for all those teams in
[52:20] Speaker 1: the East is that we look at Adam and saying,
[52:22] Speaker 1: you should win the East.
[52:23] Speaker 2: Cause the answer is why not? You know what I mean?
[52:27] Speaker 2: Like I don't have, I don't have a compelling why
[52:28] Speaker 2: not for the Knicks.
[52:31] Speaker 3: Yeah. Listen, you made it to the Eastern conference finals
[52:34] Speaker 3: last year and you fired your coach. So it was
[52:36] Speaker 3: been James Dolan went on the radio and said it
[52:38] Speaker 3: was a finals team. It was like, okay, well then
[52:40] Speaker 3: I guess you got to be a finals team or
[52:41] Speaker 3: else it's a failure. Um, And they've been better defensively
[52:49] Speaker 3: than I thought they were capable of being with Brunson
[52:52] Speaker 3: and Towns playing as many minutes as they do. So
[52:54] Speaker 3: I guess they can do it. I still got to
[52:58] Speaker 3: see it to believe it because Jalen Brunson goes cold.
[53:03] Speaker 3: I don't know what their next pivot is. Carl Anthony
[53:05] Speaker 3: Towns took seven shots in that last game against the Hawks.
[53:08] Speaker 2: Crazy to me. He should be scoring 30 a game.
[53:10] Speaker 3: Well, they got to give him the damn ball too.
[53:12] Speaker 2: Right, I'm not even blaming him this time.
[53:14] Speaker 3: Right, this time. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And so it's just like,
[53:18] Speaker 3: I just, I don't trust them. You know, like I just,
[53:21] Speaker 3: I do not trust them to not get in their
[53:23] Speaker 3: own way, lay an egg, forget that Carl Anthony Towns
[53:27] Speaker 3: is seven feet. Like just, until proven otherwise, I just
[53:30] Speaker 3: do not trust that basketball team.
[53:32] Speaker 1: All right, before we go, my man Danny Park has
[53:35] Speaker 1: got a big event coming up that I want to
[53:36] Speaker 1: make sure you guys know about.
[53:39] Speaker 3: Yeah, man, thank you. It's a passion project of mine
[53:44] Speaker 3: that I work very hard on. My brother Brad, three
[53:48] Speaker 3: years ago this April, passed away from glioblastoma, which is
[53:52] Speaker 3: terminal brain cancer. It's brain cancer without a cure. And,
[53:56] Speaker 3: you know, it really shook me up. But I, my
[54:00] Speaker 3: radio background, I've always thought we get to kind of
[54:02] Speaker 3: play in the toy department with these jobs. I like
[54:05] Speaker 3: using the platform for some good some of the time.
[54:08] Speaker 3: And so I had kind of done this radiothon where
[54:10] Speaker 3: I broadcast for 24 hours to fund the construction of
[54:15] Speaker 3: a grocery store on the west side of Chicago. We'd
[54:17] Speaker 3: talked about it in the past called Austin Harvest. And
[54:21] Speaker 3: after my brother got diagnosed, I kind of wanted to
[54:23] Speaker 3: pivot it in his honor and raise money for cancer research.
[54:28] Speaker 3: And so the Chicago Cubs, who I'm very tight with,
[54:31] Speaker 3: top to bottom of that organization, they said, the president said,
[54:35] Speaker 3: what if we combine your radiothon and my ballpark? And
[54:38] Speaker 3: we do this big weekend long fundraiser. So May 21st,
[54:43] Speaker 3: I will go back to the score in Chicago, top
[54:46] Speaker 3: ranked radio station there and simulcast on the marquee network,
[54:49] Speaker 3: which is the Cubs regional sports network. I'll broadcast for
[54:53] Speaker 3: 24 hours. I will bring on athletes, celebrities, doctors, and
[54:57] Speaker 3: then just normal patients. And people will tell their cancer
[55:00] Speaker 3: stories there. high net worth individuals and companies, sponsor hours
[55:05] Speaker 3: for like dollar for dollar matches. So you're like, ah,
[55:06] Speaker 3: what's my 10 bucks gonna do? We have companies that
[55:09] Speaker 3: will double and triple your donations every hour of the broadcast.
[55:14] Speaker 3: And then people can also donate tickets, memorabilia, experiences that
[55:19] Speaker 3: we call them donation incentives, but basically that you can
[55:21] Speaker 3: make a donation and auction off and kind of get
[55:23] Speaker 3: a prize on the backend. And I'm really proud of
[55:27] Speaker 3: it because everybody who works on it, we all have
[55:30] Speaker 3: other jobs. And the Cubs cover the cost of the
[55:33] Speaker 3: fulfillment of like mailing out the autographed baseballs and whatnot.
[55:36] Speaker 3: So you've been involved in charities. I've been involved in charities.
[55:40] Speaker 3: Sometimes you go to one of these galas and they
[55:42] Speaker 3: raise a bunch of money, but then you look around
[55:44] Speaker 3: and it's like, well, you're drinking top shelf liquor and
[55:46] Speaker 3: you're eating steak and there's a band over there. Right.
[55:49] Speaker 3: And there's a ton of costs going into it. We
[55:51] Speaker 3: raised $ 750, 540 last year. And at the end, after all
[55:52] Speaker 3: the accounting, the Cubs Wired, the brain cancer charity that
[56:01] Speaker 3: I'm on the board of directors of, Brain Up, $ 750, 540.
[56:06] Speaker 3: So 100% of the donations go to research. And I'm
[56:11] Speaker 3: really proud of it. Cubsforacure.com is where you can donate.
[56:16] Speaker 3: But in the lead up to the Radiothon, if you're like, hey,
[56:18] Speaker 3: I'd like to sponsor something or send you some tickets
[56:21] Speaker 3: to something or whatever the case may be, my DMs
[56:24] Speaker 3: are open on Instagram and Twitter. And thank you for
[56:27] Speaker 3: letting me plug it, man.
[56:28] Speaker 2: No, no problem, man. And again, a moment to send
[56:30] Speaker 2: a shout out to my buddy Michael Smith.
[56:31] Speaker 1: As some of you know, he lost his wife in
[56:34] Speaker 1: December from this same form of cancer. So my relationship
[56:40] Speaker 1: with Mike and seeing what this particular cancer, what all
[56:43] Speaker 1: this does to people, it was a very moving and
[56:45] Speaker 1: jarring sort of thing for me personally.
[56:47] Speaker 2: So any support?
[56:48] Speaker 1: That you can give, I'll definitely be looking to do
[56:50] Speaker 1: something to help you out as the time approaches. So
[56:52] Speaker 1: I thank you for doing this, you know, more importantly,
[56:55] Speaker 1: and it's my pleasure to be able to, you know,
[56:57] Speaker 1: help you get the word out a little bit.
[56:59] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[56:59] Speaker 3: Thank you very much. And you introduced me to Mike
[57:02] Speaker 3: and he's going to, he's going to come on. He's
[57:03] Speaker 3: going to come on the Radiothon broadcast on May, on
[57:05] Speaker 3: May 21st. And yeah, man. So I really, I really
[57:09] Speaker 3: appreciate it, bro. All right.
[57:10] Speaker 2: No problem, man. Danny Parkins, check him out. First things first,
[57:14] Speaker 2: five o'clock Eastern on FS1. My man, I appreciate you.
[57:18] Speaker 3: Always a good time, man. Thank you.
[57:20] Speaker 2: All right, no problem.
[57:20] Speaker 1: And ladies and gentlemen, thanks so much for joining us
[57:22] Speaker 1: here on The Right Time. We do this four days
[57:25] Speaker 1: a week. Ryan Brumley handles everything behind the scenes. Thank you, sir.
[57:29] Speaker 1: Hit the voicemail line, 323-596-7767. And remember, follow The Right Time. Subscribe, like,
[57:36] Speaker 1: rate us, review us, give us five stars. You only
[57:38] Speaker 1: give us four stars. I'm inclined to believe you are
[57:40] Speaker 1: a hater. We'll talk to you guys in a couple
[57:42] Speaker 1: of days.
[57:43] Speaker 2: Take it easy.

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.