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NBA Basketball 🏀 Playoff Preview (SGA/Thunder, Jokic/Nuggets, Wembanyama/Spurs)
21 Plays1 month ago
NBA Basketball 🏀 Playoff Preview ft. Sports Professor + NBA Insiders:
Audible Sports' Bobby G on YouTube @TheAudiblePodcast
+ @19mediagroup NBA Baseline Podcast's Cal Lee (IG @NBA_Baseline)
& NBA Mid-Post Podcast's D. Powell (IG @MidPostPod)
🔥 Click LinkTree for ALL @BALLandBUDS Social Media Profiles 💯
https://linktr.ee/BALLandBUDS
#sports #nba #basketball #nbabasketball #nbaplayoffs #nbafinals
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Transcript
Introduction and Guest Welcomes
00:00:00
Speaker
You can't pretend. Now get ready for the show.
00:00:17
Speaker
Yo, yo, yo, what up? Friends, yes, indeed. Ball and Buds back at it again. I am your host, Omar, the sports professor Fonseca.
00:00:31
Speaker
And as always on my and NBA shows riding with me, my brother from the Audible Sports Podcast, Bobby G. What's good, brother?
00:00:43
Speaker
What's happening, man? and Once again, i have to live up to the legend that is. So, you know, now appreciate the invite as always, man. Anytime you need me, I'm here. I'm the
Bobby G's Social Media and YouTube Promotion
00:00:52
Speaker
tribal chief around here. Yeah, you see me, the tribal chief. here That's right. The tribal chief of podcasting. Tell them where they can find you, my brother. Hey, right there. you If you want to get ah get at me on X, not that X, this X at audible underscore Bobby G across all sorts, but that's IGN and ah X, aka Twitter, whatever you want to call it. And of course on YouTube, you know, at game time underscore Bobby G that's a game time 216 Cleveland sports show with me and the homie, big Mike from the man cave.
00:01:21
Speaker
And of course, audible sports podcast with the homie wildcard Mark, who we'll see you later. You know, we'll be talking a little wrestling and that's a, Hey, Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. zo i you know I appreciate the amazing segue you just did there for me. We are having our wrestling show right after this one. Yes, we had a doubleheader last night. You had me for four hours. You get me on another doubleheader tonight.
00:01:46
Speaker
We will do our WrestleMania preview with AP, with Wildcard Mar, with Shane Peach, with Hot Take Jake, and with Bobby G and myself at 9 p.m. Eastern. So look for that right after this show. and Without a
Introduction of Desmond Powell
00:01:57
Speaker
further ado, though, we do have a new addition to the NBA round table and from 19 media group. He represents the mid post podcast. Yes. He be banking in those floaters like Dirk Nowitzki. He be hitting them with the dream shake like Hakeem Olajuwon. And he's everywhere in the mid post.
00:02:24
Speaker
My brother, Desmond Powell. Hold on. There we go. What's good, brother? Oh, man. I love that intro, man. I got to say that's up there, man. No, but no, i'm I'm so appreciative to join the show with both of you, Bobby G, Omar. I'm excited. This is the most exciting time of the year for NBA fans, so I'm excited to get all into it, man. This is what we do. Let's get it.
00:02:47
Speaker
Yes, sir. No, you're completely right. Super exciting time of year, basketball starting us off. It is a ah pleasure to have you on. Thank you for joining us. um You'll be back on
NBA Playoffs Excitement and Desmond's Insights
00:02:57
Speaker
in the future, but for now, please let them know where they can find you.
00:03:01
Speaker
ah Yeah, a little bit of everywhere. ah I'm on ah the 19 Media Group ah podcast networks. You can ah find all things with my podcast, The Midpost, on the 19 Media Group YouTube channel. Search up 19 Media Group. You will find all the playlists there and find the midpost. You can follow the social medias ah at...
00:03:20
Speaker
mid post pod on all platforms uh at desmond pile underscore for the personal side of things and that's also where my uh what my tick tock handle is as well where i can post all my announcements and and clips from the pod and in the show and whatnot so a little bit of everywhere man youtube socials you can find me
00:03:38
Speaker
Boom. I love it. And there you go at the bottom of the screen. You will as well find those socials for our people joining us today. So make sure you tap in with 19 media group, man. They're, they're awesome partners.
00:03:50
Speaker
With us here at ball and buds, obviously with Cal Lee Warren Shaw and now Desmond Powell, we really appreciate 19 media group tapping with them on YouTube and as well, the mid post pod on I G yeah, that's why I like to introduce people. Cause I like
Discussion on NBA Tanking
00:04:01
Speaker
to give people their own little solid introductions that, uh, that get people hyped up, you know what I mean? So, all right, cool. Let's kick this bad boy off, shall we? Hey, as you said, the greatest time of year for NBA fans is the playoffs. And wow, what a season we had. I mean, fantastic.
00:04:24
Speaker
From all the different storylines, and that's going to be my first question to both of you gentlemen, um that we had this year from the tanking to the 65 game rule to, ah you know, the Kawhi Leonard and aspiration to all of these other things that went into the season. ah What was our...
00:04:45
Speaker
favorite storyline, most important storyline. Now, Desmond, usually i would let people give their own answer to this, but because you are new to the show, I have to give you the topic because you weren't on the last show and didn't get to answer this when we all did last time. And I need to know your opinion on how do we fix tanking in the NBA? Yeah.
00:05:10
Speaker
oh That is a doozy, man. ah i I have to admit, I am I when it comes to tanking, I tend to lean towards ah the players. and And that's usually how I operate with my and NBA commentary. i I can't help it. And I wish I could speak a little bit more on that business side. I've just always been of the notion that at the end of the day, I think as fans, we have to remember that players don't want to tank. and even coaches don't want to tank the reason why they tank is so they can keep a job and i think somebody like david fisdale if you've heard a lot of his interviews as of late where he reflects on his time with the new york dicks he's straight up says like that's the biggest regret of my career not necessarily the fact that i took that job But the fact that I took a job where tanking required that I would have a job.
00:05:55
Speaker
and And so when when it comes to tanking, that's always what I gravitate to towards. And I have to say, as somebody, you know, as a Bulls fan, being from Illinois, like, I had to hear a lot of a lot of commentary and banter from fans and and voicing their opinions and whatnot. And I totally understand it. The the reason why you become a OKC Thunder in the San Antonio Spurs is so you build through the draft and the Bulls have not made that deliberate effort. But at the same time, when you have a management that takes pride in, I would say.
00:06:28
Speaker
Going about the the the rebuilding process in a more integral way ah and and having players that take pride in competing just on a human level, it's very hard to force those franchises to tank. um So personally, i i don't really have an answer to that question. I hate to to dodge the first question you give me, Omar. I mean, it sounds like you're dodging my question on question, Desmond. What's going on?
00:06:53
Speaker
I know there's talks of of flattening the draft odds and things of that nature. I mean, I guess it it doesn't hurt to try. The one thing I respect about Adam Silver, him being more of the cool uncle opposite of David Stern, he is going to at least try everything. He's going to throw everything on the board and try it, whether it's a tournament or, you know what? Okay, you guys don't like tanking. Well, let's flatten the draft odds. Let's take out the draft. I don't know how well that's going to go.
00:07:19
Speaker
um But yeah, i I just tend to lean more towards whatever the players are are thinking. Now, Bobby G, so everybody can hear what you said last time because there may be new people watching this program today that they didn't hear it last time. And so Desmond can hear it and analyze your proposition, please.
00:07:37
Speaker
Yeah, let's go ahead. And I added an extra caveat since then. But ah essentially, my idea was ah was Desmond, screw the players. I don't care what they think. ah It's about the people who who buy the tickets, who pay the salaries ah that allow you to do what you do right.
00:07:53
Speaker
So my my solution was ah we're going to hit the owners. You're already finding teams for not playing players in certain games. Right. All right. So let's take that further. Let's let's now hit the owners. So ah and just going by this year's scale, my original scale was thirty five games. if If I believe with Omar, thirty five games, your threshold.
00:08:12
Speaker
OK. Yeah. If your team cannot win thirty five games ah and this is what ah this is the part that I added. This year, i think the only team who didn't win 40 games made the playoffs was Golden State Warriors.
00:08:26
Speaker
But they did win 37. So they hit the 35-win threshold. yeah So from 35 wins to a five hundred record you don't have to decrease your ticket sales, but you can't increase.
00:08:41
Speaker
So you're at the start, whatever you were at that season, you're there. If you don't win 30, if you win 35 games from 35 to 30 games, you have to decrease your ticket sales the following season by 5%.
00:08:52
Speaker
If you win between 30 to 25 games, you have to decrease by 10%. If you can't win 20 games, you have to decrease your ticket sales next year by 30%.
00:09:04
Speaker
ah And for every subsequent year, just like they do with the salary cap, you know, your, ah your, your tears, your penalty tears. So every subsequent year, you you're below the threshold. We're going to tack on 3% to your decrease. So let's say we'll take, who am I looking at? The Dallas Mavericks won 26 games.
00:09:25
Speaker
So right now they they'd be at a 10%, 10% decrease in ticket sales. Next year, if they don't win, they'd be at 13. ah thirteen If they do it again, 16%. Every year they're going to be at 3% to that decrease.
00:09:42
Speaker
Along with that, no more protection on draft picks. You know no more protection. if i protect you your draft trade your draft pick. The way you get out of your out of the ah ah your penalty for decreasing ticket sales, two seasons above the threshold.
00:10:02
Speaker
That's 36 wins two years in a row. no hard That's not a hard shouldn't be a hard thing to do, especially if your goal is to get better. So that was my solution as far as taking it. If you go by that model this year, you would have 10 teams, 10 teams in the NBA who are below that threshold, who would be decreasing their ticket sales between, let me we' take a quick look, between 10 and nobody hit the 30% threshold.
00:10:30
Speaker
So no team won. And so who would who who know would be last on that list? I'm sorry. Two teams won less than 20 games, Pacers and the Wizards. Okay. So let's take the Wizards because I'm from D.C. How many games did they win? 17.
00:10:43
Speaker
seventeen Now, we don't know ticket sales for them, but let's just but spit out a round number of a million fans just to make it easy. um So they sell, and obviously they have more than that, but let's say they had a million
Debating the 65-Game Requirement for NBA Awards
00:10:58
Speaker
fans over the season. You're 30% or you're, sorry, what was it? Yeah, 30%. No, 30 for losing less than 20 games. You have to decrease by 30%.
00:11:09
Speaker
So, wow. Yeah, that's like, I mean. If your average ticket cost is $100, then next year it's going be 70. And for every, oh, okay, got it, got it. So not the oh okay so not the number of tickets sold, but the price of the tickets. Why am I paying to come see a losing product? Got it, got it, got it. wow I mean, it's ving it it's very punitive, but Desmond, what do you think? Hey, I see it. That is better than a lot of the things that I've seen, like just scrolling the timeline, like it's well thought out, it's hurting their pockets, so it's making them make decisions, you know? I dig it.
00:11:43
Speaker
mean, how long did the NBA let Donald Sterling operate impunity in just owning the Clippers, collecting money while they just lost year after year? And they weren't even tanking.
00:11:54
Speaker
He just didn't care. And they lost year after year, never re resigned any talent. He was basically a farm system for the rest of the NBA. Like, let's not repeat that. Like, like learn learn from your past.
00:12:06
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Yeah, no, I i agree completely. um I think it's a really good proposition. Do I think it is a a bit punitive? Yes. But I mean, like you said, if your if your goal is to you know light a fire under their ass and be like, hey, you know if we are going to be very punitive and make sure that you at least try your best, then that that would pretty much make me try to do better if i know that i'm gonna lose you know 30 off every 100 of a ticket sold so yeah so all right cool all right where wabi g what is your storyline
00:12:47
Speaker
um original question but i know we got way away from that but i need these agents to calm down man um Kay Cunningham's agent, I need you to have a whole seat.
00:12:59
Speaker
ka um You're making the case for your client. One filed petition and he needs... didn't it get ah I'm sorry. ah Victor Wimby-Yana missed out on defensive player of the year. Where was your Superman cape then?
00:13:12
Speaker
Oh, that's not your client. You don't make any money off of Wimby. If you're not speaking up for for for for the whole, don't speak up for the one. By the way, like and by the way Your client, who's part of the Players Association, signed off on that to be in the CBA.
00:13:30
Speaker
So, yeah, listen let's let's calm down on that. o And I think we need to look at, and Desmond will pass this to you for your your ah thoughts on this, but with, and we might as well stick on this because this is ah one of the storylines we're going to touch on anyways.
00:13:47
Speaker
But this 65 game rule has been much maligned this season, to say the least. um A lot of people like the agents, some players, even Luca now appealing to get his games back for the birth of his child, which, OK, I can understand that. But once you start giving those little bits away, then everybody else starts to want to apply. Like then Cade Cunningham says, okay, well, I had a collapsed lung. That's extraordinary. And yeah, it is. But injuries happen all the time in sports. So that shouldn't necessarily give you an advantage. And again, i said this last time, and I'll say it again. If you can't play
00:14:28
Speaker
in 69%, like 69.3-something percent of your team's games, you weren't valuable enough to be the league's most valuable player. Could you still have been valuable to your team? Case in point, Jason Tatum, yes. He only played the last two months, but he played really well and helped the team.
00:14:48
Speaker
did Was he the most valuable player? No, not even on his own team. Jalen Brown was. Thoughts, Desmond?
00:14:55
Speaker
ah Yeah, it's an interesting thing for sure, because it it and we're seeing it right now. It's already affecting how we talk about the game, how it's already affecting the discourse of the NBA. The thing I said on my show is like and and not to say that this is an example that would happen this season, but just randomly. Yeah. imagine if if somebody like Jalen Johnson who's having an excellent year this year gets an all-nba spot that probably could have went to somebody like Kawhi Leonard then the conversation becomes oh well that should have been Kawhi's or that wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for Kawhi as opposed to just simply congratulating Jalen Johnson on receiving that accolade like I love the again i love the thought process that Adam Silver at least tries to bring ah solutions to the things that fans care about and
00:15:42
Speaker
but But the thing with that is it's really going to affect how we talk about these guys down the line, not even just in the present, but down the line. So so I think in in the beginning, it was a nice way to, I guess, influence or I should say de-influence. ah load management, which you could kind of understand. But I think to your point, Omar, you can't control injuries at the end of the day. And and something like this is is trying to do that. And especially when you have players, like you said, trying to appeal a lot of these decisions is going to turn into a real like injury circus kind of thing. So Yeah, I don't think this is going to stay around long term. I do think this going to be something that Adam Silver is going to think about long term because while he had great intentions, it's not really turning out the way that it should.
00:16:29
Speaker
No, I agree completely. The intentions were great. Trying to get away from what you mentioned was that load management that Kawhi started and trying to get you know players to incentivize their players to play more. Got it. Great. Good. But if you're going to do it, a You've got to be able to be malleable if there is a need for you to change, like you said, which he probably will do if not remove completely. But at the same time, you've also got to stick to your guns. Like if this is what you want to do and you want to incentivize the players to play more and it's, I mean, clearly they want to win these awards if they're complaining about it, um then there needs to be something in there. And I think personally me, 65 games is easily achievable.
00:17:15
Speaker
for an MVP of a team. now Now, how do you guys feel about, because I know Victor Webin-Yama just came out and said that it should be about minutes as opposed to games. How do you guys feel about that? I i think if they're going to keep the rule, that would be the way to go. Not necessarily do 65 games, but make a minutes threshold instead.
00:17:35
Speaker
um I didn't hear that. So there I'd have to look into it. But um yeah I mean, it sounds... It sounds better than the the games per se, I guess, but then they would just be taking full games off at points, though, again, and it would be the low management. You know what I mean?
00:17:49
Speaker
Yeah, but it's also like this. how many How many minutes do you think Shea Gill just gets to sit out because he plays on a monster squad? Because they're by 30 the the fourth quarter and he doesn't have to play. So see, it doesn't really balance you and you're going to reward somebody whose numbers could be slightly better. but Oh, because he plays 36 minutes a game. Like Donovan Mitchell had one of the best years of his career. He played 30 minutes a game.
00:18:14
Speaker
He played less minutes. It was actually more productive. So it's like going to the minister. So not a fan of that either. It's like, okay and you're going to be judged regardless.
00:18:26
Speaker
Dikembe Mutombo, one of the best centers of all time. You know many all-NBA teams he has? Three. Like, you would think he'd have more. But I'm sorry. Well, he played in very, very good era. Exactly. Exactly. I played against Shaquille O'Neal, Kim Lajuan, Patrick Young. Kim Lajuan, David Robinson. Right. But in a debate, he's going to get pin lines because, oh, he only made three.
00:18:51
Speaker
And Mutombo was an 80-game-a-year player. This was like, you're
Charlotte Hornets' Surprising Performance
00:18:56
Speaker
going to get penalized regardless, but it's like you say, if you can't come to work 70% of the the time, you don't des deserve it.
00:19:04
Speaker
I mean, if I told you that you were running a business and you had a company and your best employee only came in 70% of the time, would he be your best employee or would he be on the way to being possibly fired and getting the hell out of your organization? Because if you're only coming to work 77, sorry, you ain't making me pay for 70% of work. I'm a fire. yoa
00:19:27
Speaker
and So um any other storylines, gentlemen, that y'all can think of Desmond, you got anything else for us? ah Yeah, two came to mind, but I think the main one I want to roll with is the Charlotte Hornets. I mean, this was a team that I said before the season, like, if they can stay healthy, they're probably going to creep back to the play-in, which they did, but there have been a lot of games this season where they play a lot better than their record just because they have such a high-octane offense. I mean, and and I think the biggest thing that you you want to look at is that
00:20:00
Speaker
Charles Lee does a lot of interesting things with with that with the personnel they have out there. Like the way that sometimes they'll they'll give it to Musa Diabate around the nail and let LaMelo Ball come set a screen. three times And like using it using pick and rolls in inverted ways that just you wouldn't think to do, but it works for them because of the personnel they have. They control the glass. They take and make threes.
00:20:23
Speaker
And, I mean, they're they're incredibly valuable on ah offense. the The crazy thing is I remember that I believe it was the ESPN game on MLK week, I want to say. They faced the Cleveland Cavaliers. Low-scoring game. But the wildest thing about that game is that the Charlotte Hornets were down almost like 25 or something like that early in the game. And there was no rattle.
00:20:45
Speaker
there There was no, like, fire. um lost confidence or anything like that they fully believe that our offense is going to put us right back in this game and it did and even though they lost I think moments like that showed them this season like okay we're ready we're ready yes we still have more leaps to take but as of from where we were the last few seasons we've made a lot of strides and I think they've easily been one of the most impressive stories of the season I mean, you are spot on. And that was one of the things in my notes that I wanted to talk about because tonight we actually have. And starting here in about seven minutes, the Hornet and Heat will tip off in the play-in tournament. Bobby G, you called this last offseason when we had our review show. um You called the the Charlotte Hornets.
00:21:37
Speaker
I need a pat to should pat you on the back, my brother. How do you feel about the Hornets season? ah Went according to plan. And ah second pat on the back. also told everybody that Khan Kanepo was the most NBA-written rookie of the year. Khan Kanepo, yes, you did. We'll get to that later. real don't Don't bury the lead. We'll talk rookie the year. Don't bury it.
00:21:57
Speaker
But just this season. um Yeah, I agree 100% Desmond. And only thing I can add is they they're that team that doesn't know.
00:22:08
Speaker
They don't know that they're they're supposed to there're lose to this team. They don't know that they're you know they're supposed to not be in this game with five minutes left. like they You just don't know what you don't know.
00:22:20
Speaker
The only thing for them, I hope they learn the lessons that they need to learn in the in the postseason should they win tonight. And I would love to see them win tonight because I want to see them get that experience. I want to see that growth, and I want to see what happens next.
00:22:36
Speaker
I'm right with you. And i I agree with that. Oh, good. Oh,
Should Pat Riley Step Down from the Miami Heat?
00:22:42
Speaker
that's all I got. You want to say something? Oh, okay. ah Well, thank you. ah Yeah, no, I agree with you as well. um I think that the Hornets are on the rise and... They need it right now more than Miami does. Miami needs a leading man. They need a a star. Not that Bam Adebayo is not great, but they need another you know another lead horse there in order for them to get back to greatness. They know what they need. They know the formula there. Question for you. so Yes, please. e For both of you, since you say that, is it time for Pat Riley to step down?
00:23:20
Speaker
No, that's blasphemous. I can't believe you. Is it? I mean, if I'm him, I'm telling you to shut the hell up. If I'm him, it's my team, man. Who going to make me step down? No, I mean, i look,
00:23:36
Speaker
are you firing Pat Riley, the GM? Are you firing Pat Riley, the leader? Are you firing Pat Riley, the legend? um There's a lot of things that go into that. All of it. Do these do these players to today's players respect Pat Riley is that?
00:23:50
Speaker
Hmm. Okay. Like he culture seems like it's it's it's coming to an end. Like the players look at the way you treated D Wade on his way out. Players look at the way treated Jimmy Butler on his way out.
00:24:02
Speaker
pleasure You know, players look at the fact that you that you had Kevin Durant in the palm of your hand and you missed that opportunity. Like Pat, what's going on, man?
00:24:15
Speaker
Yeah, I've had similar questions ah to Bobby. i thought about that I thought about that the past year. i won't lie. I thought about that within the past year. Like, is it is it time for just somebody else? it's it's kind of I actually compared it a little bit to Jerry Jones. Like, is it just time where there just needs to be a new face? They've done their... They have all the lore in the world, but now it might be time for somebody else. I wouldn't...
00:24:38
Speaker
Yeah, that that' it's interesting though. I'm also with Omo. Yeah, it's just hard to get away from that though sometimes. Yeah. I mean, because it's also his presence and his leadership is important. People, I don't know that I can wholeheartedly agree with you, Bobby G, because I think even the younger players realize the legend that is Pat Riley, just the name alone is in the hallowed halls of basketball.
00:25:02
Speaker
I think any player would love to play under Pat Riley just to say, I played under Pat Riley. Now, does that mean he can um still construct a roster like he used to be able to, that he still has the golden touch?
00:25:17
Speaker
Maybe, maybe not. we we We won't know unless he can turn his team around in the near near future, the next couple years. and Because if not, yeah, he is going to be gone. um Because at some point you get pushed out ah no matter who you are and no matter how legendary um you are. But I think that Miami is lot closer than than most people think. I think they got a decent roster.
00:25:38
Speaker
So um shout out to 19 Media Group. says Shout out to the Young King, Desmond Powell. Hey, yeah we appreciate y'all. Shout out to people, man. I love and having Desmond on today.
00:25:49
Speaker
There you go. Thank you, guys. Shout out my
The Spurs' Playoff Potential
00:25:51
Speaker
boy, T-Roy. Say what up. Hey, my brother. Hey, I'm going to Vegas. I'm going to see Bobby G in Vegas with Wildcard Mar. We're going to go watch WrestleMania this weekend. It's going to be a tremendous time. and i will be there.
00:26:04
Speaker
Hey, I appreciate it. Thank you for the birthday wishes, my brother. I'll see you when I come home. Happy birthday to you well, bro. Thank you, my friend. Thank you. This weekend coming up, I am super excited. It's pat time for Pat to go, says T-Roy. So he agrees with you.
00:26:18
Speaker
Okay, cool. So we'll see what happens. I guess I'm in the minority here. People that think Pat Riley needs to get the hell out of the way. All right, we'll see what happens. Cool.
00:26:29
Speaker
All right, well, i do you said you another storyline. Desmond, I wonder if it was something else I wanted to talk about. What was the other storyline yet? ah Yeah, I did want to show the San Antonio Spurs some love.
00:26:40
Speaker
ah That was a team hey there you go that before the season, I had them fourth, I want to say, in the West. And and most people didn't have them have them there. Most people had them as a play-in team.
00:26:52
Speaker
to be complete Exactly. Exactly. And even, and I went and I was scrolling through the Twitter ah search and I'm looking at Spurs fans like, yo, like everybody else got to chill out. Like we, yeah, we know we have Wemby, but whoa, we not that good. But over time, I think that's, that's what I believed in at the end of the day. When you have somebody like Wemby and you got junkyard dogs, like Stefan Castle, and you got somebody like Dylan Harper, who is, is such already happy.
00:27:19
Speaker
possessing a veteran presence to get to the rim at will. You have De'Aaron Fox, who in a lot of ways this season redeemed himself from just the small sample size he gave last year with his team.
00:27:30
Speaker
I was like, oh, this is nice. You you got shooting in in Julian Champagne. You got... a great shot maker opposite of of Fox and Wemby in Devin Vassell. If he can come through in the playoffs the way that he has in the regular season, that it should be no surprise that the Spurs get get to a deep run. and And as I think most of us would like to see, face a team like OKC in the Western Conference Finals. So I definitely wanted to show them some love as well.
00:27:55
Speaker
For sure. Man, you are not wrong about that. i'm coming right to you, Bobby ge You're not wrong about that at all. i also wanted to talk about that because, like I said, most people had them as a play-in team. And Wemby just making astronomical strides as the alien that he is. um ah You like what I did there, pun intended. ah So when you when you look at the rise of the Spurs, it really is, Bobby G, about that roster. That roster is immaculately constructed. They have really good players up and down in the depth is tremendous. What are your thoughts?
00:28:28
Speaker
ah Yeah. Three hundred percent with everything he does on the set Literally the only, I can't remember where I had him. I know I had him in the playoffs, but I can't remember where where I had him. But the only question mark I have about this team is if it's not Wimpy's night, who's number two like that. They have not figured that out. Like,
00:28:50
Speaker
The thing OKC didn't have to worry about, they learned was, hey, if it ain't SGA's night, Jalen, we coming you. Oh, Jalen ain't got it? Check. We coming to It's a pecking order. What's the Spurs pecking order?
00:29:02
Speaker
It's like they don't know in the in the games that they lost down
NBA Storytelling and Documentaries
00:29:06
Speaker
the stretch, that seemed to be the issue. When when the Nuggets clamp down on women, it's like, oh, we're going to deny you the ball who Who is going to step and be like, I got it?
00:29:16
Speaker
So that's the only question I have them. Stefan or De'Aaron, one of y'all got to decide. One of y'all got to decide I'm number two.
00:29:27
Speaker
Yeah, and on that point, a what a perfect time for our other brother to come in, also representing that 19 group life from the Baseline and NBA po podcast, or NBA Baseline podcast, my apologies, our brother, Cal Lee. What's good, brother?
00:29:49
Speaker
What's good, fellas? Y'all can hear me? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Oh, yes. Absolutely. Hey, man. See, that's the but that's the beauty of sitting in the green room, man. You can hear Bobby G starting up trouble already, man. Cue me up for you to start our starts me and him to start going at it, man. What's going on, brother, man? How you been? yeah once Once again, hey, man, doing good, man. And once again, you know shout out to the sports professor, you know i'm saying? And the Ballin' Buds podcast, you know what I'm saying, for for extending the ah the the red carpet.
00:30:26
Speaker
you know perfect time best time of the year shout out to my man Dez you know um so yeah man we're let's get at it man let's get it we we are we are repping from the mid post to the baseline you see Desmond he gonna kick it out to Cal for the open three uh Cal let them know where you they can find you my brother Oh, man. So Baseline MBA podcast available on all the major platforms. ah You go to www.thebaselinemba.com. That's our home website.
00:30:59
Speaker
But you know we rocks with the 19 Media Group family. So if you want to catch us on the YouTube channel, go to www.19mediagroup.com. Or if you're on YouTube, just go and look up the Baseline NBA podcast. And through the 19 Media Group channels, you'll catch out our episodes and stuff like that, man. So, yeah, man, we've been we've been we've been riding on a pretty pretty nice wave, man. um You know, covering a lot of great content in the basketball ethos.
00:31:26
Speaker
You know, just just as a... you know, for people who are trying to pique their interests into, you know, what it takes to get into the and NBA, we've we've had some really, really great guests on who have been able to do some tremendous work in storytelling um that's covering the basketball culture. And I think anybody who appreciates you know, what it takes, you know, to get to this stage, you know, basically being in a spotlight with an opportunity to help lead their team to a possible and NBA title.
00:32:00
Speaker
When you see some of the stories that have kind of come out recently, ah we just finished, we're dropping an episode with Sasha Gardner, who was part of the Netflix and so Untold series.
00:32:13
Speaker
And he just covered, you know, why and the Trailblazer teams of the 2000s, AKA the Jailblazers. And it was really a fascinating conversation that we had with him.
00:32:25
Speaker
And i you know I encourage people who are Netflix or people who are into Netflix or wanting to be in Netflix, you know, check it out. Whether you're a basketball enthusiast or just somebody who's just kind of interested in documentaries, definitely check out this this upcoming release by Sasha Gardner covering the 2000 Portland Trailblazers um and why they were being named as the jailblazers. It's a really fascinating conversation. But our interview with him is even more fascinating. So that just tees you up.
00:32:54
Speaker
If you ah you know need a little bit of a teaser for you to to incentivize yourself to go out there to check that out, you know, say definitely do that. And then we just recently had a really great interview um with Corey Colvin and Carlton Sobs, who put together the Prime Video documentary series that covered the McDonald's All-American game and the history of how it came about. And, you know, it's just a really fascinating story, a really fascinating move documentary to check out as well, too, because people ever understand, you know, why it was important for kids to grow up and be McDonald's All-Americans.
00:33:32
Speaker
look at how they cover it and the people that they had a chance to interview. And you can tell, you know, every single one of these guys are probably going to be watching in this year's playoffs at some point or another were considered a McDonald's All-American.
00:33:45
Speaker
And therefore there was almost what a 70, 80% chance you were going to likely see these guys in the NBA. But out of all of those people that we're talking about, there's only a small percentage that actually do make it into pros and succeed.
00:33:59
Speaker
So there's the the glory, ah the greatness of it. And then there's also the other end of it as well, too. Some really great stuff going on. i don't want to, you know, say take up too much of that time. But that's what's been kind of going in the in the hopper right now on the baseline side of things. And we we haven't even scratched the surface of our autopsy reports, you know, saying covering the teams that are dead and dusted.
00:34:18
Speaker
And then, ah you know, obviously doing our coverage covering the NBA playoffs, man. So a lot of stuff going on. It's great time.
00:34:25
Speaker
As Fotiwada would say, dusted and disgusted, my friends. Desmond,
65-Game Rule and Player Performance Considerations
00:34:33
Speaker
you will find out that Cal, myself and Bobby G love to talk hip hop. So we try to work that. Oh, come on. That was my former show, man. now That's my former show. okay yeah Oh, yeah. no man that's you You must have triggered you miss triggered that word. Now here comes the Winter Soldier right now.
00:34:50
Speaker
Dez going to turn Winter Soldier on us. Watch out now. Hey, let's go. We'll all be dropping bars in a second. Hey, yes, we will. No, I love that, though. Dez Powell, turn it to Dez Prez real quick.
00:35:05
Speaker
Dez Prez. That's good. i like that. um That's awesome, man. Congrats. Congrats to you and and Warren on the big things y'all are doing over there at the Baseline m NBA podcast. Obviously, you know, we love having y'all on and giving your knowledge and expertise here on Ball and Buds. So thank you very much, as always, for coming on. Really appreciate it. Y'all make sure you tap in with 19 Media Group, Baseline NBA, Mid-Post Pod, and Audible Sports as well.
00:35:32
Speaker
All right, cool. So give us your thoughts. We were just talking about our storylines of the year. As you heard, ah two of the last storylines we talked about were the Hornets and Spurs, um you know, getting better. We talked about tanking as well, but we already got your thoughts on taking last time. What we did not get your thoughts on and what we talked about earlier and what I want you to answer is what are your thoughts on the 65 game rule for these awards?
00:36:00
Speaker
I don't have a problem with the 65 game rule if the intent of it is to properly use it to measure out the numbers of how you know players who are participating in it receiving these awards um operate. I think there's a lot of tweaking that still needs to happen if you still have it. In other words, guys that are obviously injured, you know, and yet when they're here, if there are I don't even know so much as ah it's as a specific number as much as it is a percentage.
00:36:34
Speaker
I think if you have participated at least 60% of the games in the and NBA season, I think you should can you should be considered you know um in whatever awards that you qualify for. I think when you start putting numbers on, it becomes very dicey um because we've seen windows of players go go balls out right in a 15 20 game stretch and then they pull a hammy and they're gone for you know i'm saying almost a quarter of the season because of it so it wasn't as if like that window should just be completely dismissed just because he fell to an injury performing at the highest level that even most people would have said oh this person is is deserving of winning an mvp now does that mean that he automatically should get the mvp no i mean in totality of work you look at everything
00:37:22
Speaker
But I just don't like the idea of saying, if you don't meet this game minimum, then you're suddenly out of consideration or out of of contention. And I think the NBA has to tread very carefully in the way that it it kind of touts that. Because from a marketing perspective, it dismisses what those super superstar players were doing in that stint.
00:37:41
Speaker
It helps drum up the conversations of who you're considering as MVP worthy or rookie of the year worthy or whatever the case may be and then by suddenly saying oh well that person didn't meet the 65 game minimum they become an afterthought everything about their resume for that season becomes an afterthought at the expense of a hardened rule that you're enforcing because it's more so about not just the players but also the franchise and the way that they conduct themselves with load management right i look at it like this imagine if you will michael jordan
00:38:16
Speaker
right, basically electing to not play 15, 20 games but still giving you the kind of performances that he gives you night and night out.
00:38:27
Speaker
Right? Are we still not saying Michael Jordan was still considered the best player during that season or at, you know, completely, especially having the most successful basketball team during that year. And it doesn't matter what year I'm just saying in general, the reason why it resonates is because Michael Jordan never said that he's never said, going to take games off or, you know what Cause that was the mentality. That was the environment. So you have to change and adapt with the environment as well, too. And I just think I understand the intent of of of putting this rule in place, but you also have to make sure that you outline it properly so that when people understand why a person has been disqualified, you're not lump summing guys who really did give you an excellent season given the circumstances and then get caught with the
00:39:12
Speaker
you know i'm saying the injury bug, and suddenly we're dismissing them just simply because our eyes are fixated on the guys that still are playing basketball games. I'm not saying don't don't don't count it or do count it, but what I'm saying is is you have to be careful on how you kind of set that narrative because it just kind of undermines the whole idea of a person in a window who actually was the most dominant player at that time, and we're dismissing it simply because we got to the end of the season, and instead of having five or six MVP candidates, now we're down to two or three.
00:39:41
Speaker
Interesting.
MVP Debate on Jalen Brown vs. Jason Tatum
00:39:43
Speaker
um So I hear your take. i I hear you saying you want to lower it to 60%, which I did the math, would give us 49 games out of 82 that you would have to play in to reach a 60% plateau. um i will I will argue, and I used our team as a barometer, ah Jason Tatum didn't play most of the season. Now, granted, I get that you know he played only 30 games, so he wasn't even close but to that.
00:40:14
Speaker
you know, benchmark, but I'm just using him as an example. He played really well when he came back. You could say if he were on a team with no Jalen Brown, he would have been the MVP of that team, even only playing the last two months of the season. That being said, he wasn't.
00:40:30
Speaker
He is on a team with Jalen Brown, and Jalen Brown is the MVP on that team um for this season because Jason Tatum did miss so many games. And so my thing is what I said was,
00:40:43
Speaker
I feel like 70% or 69%, which is what that, you know, 65 games is. If you can't play in that, How can you be considered an MVP of the league? Sure, you could be the MVP of your own team, but how can you be the MVP of the league when you didn't even play in, you know, 30% of the games?
00:41:03
Speaker
And so to even lower it 10% further, now we're looking at you not even playing, you know, barely over half the games and being considered. And I think that would be a little too far-fetched for me.
00:41:15
Speaker
Probably, but I think you're answering my question in that, okay you know what I'm saying, SP, in that, so we're so you're saying that it's more than just the games, right, that we should be using to determine whether or not a person should be considered as an MVP candidate. Because my counterargument to you would be is During these last few seasons, while Jason Tatum put up impressive numbers, do you really think that he was actually the MVP?
00:41:44
Speaker
Right? Like in the NBA finals, he wasn't the MVP to help them win that title. Ultimately, that was Jalen Brown. And this has always been the question, you know I'm saying, that we've said about the Jason Tatum, Jalen Brown dynamic.
00:41:59
Speaker
who really is the heart and soul of that team. Now I'm not dismissing the importance of Jason Tatum. Jason Tatum, by all stretch and imagination from a numbers perspective, is the MVP on most teams. What I'm saying is, is that when you need to galvanize and ultimately make your team better, you're now beginning to see why Jalen Brown was that much more important.
00:42:20
Speaker
And I think because of the injury, it's allowed that now to resonate and step up and shine. Now he's gotten to do this over the scan over the span of a full NBA season, right? Like he played about 90% of the games played. And I will say, while you know, he was it was questionable into the beginning of the season because of the meniscus tear that he suffered last season that he he still came out and he put the numbers that he put. So Just in that ah and in that conversation that we're having right now, I would never be considering Jason Tatum as an MVP candidate because Jalen Brown, by his numbers and also by the by what he's done and displayed and the story around what that meant to the Boston Celtics and what the Boston Celtics did,
00:43:08
Speaker
in and of itself exemplifies someone that should be talked more about as an MVP than worrying about whether or not Jason Tatum in this small window coming back and putting the the numbers that he's putting up is saying that he should have been or would ever be considered as an MVP candidate. What I'm saying is is that the criteria can actually be um relegated in a way that it doesn't only strictly look at the minimum games and you're looking at everything in its totality. I think
Linking NBA Awards to Player Contracts
00:43:37
Speaker
the other reason that this becomes important too is remember
00:43:41
Speaker
players who don't meet those minimums in their contractual agreements are going to wind up on the short end of the sticks for supermax contracts because of circumstances that may be out of their control simply because what's been mandated about the minimum games being played, they no longer get access to those incentives. because they're no longer considered for all and NBA. They're no longer considered for other incentives that their contractual agreements allow for. So that's the reason why I'm saying that we have to tread carefully or and I'm not saying we, I'm saying the NBA has to tread carefully because I don't disagree with you. You want to, you You want to up it?
00:44:16
Speaker
No problem. Go ahead and up it. But what I'm saying is is that that shouldn't solely be the reason why you're you're mandating this because there are there are other things that are at play that is going to impact the whole circumstance of why we're even considering some of these players in the award of categories that we're talking about.
00:44:36
Speaker
Right. Okay. No, that makes sense. That does make sense. Gentlemen, anybody, any thoughts? No. Absolutely. Um, I agree with a lot of what he said and let's all, let's all raise a glass to Derrick Rose. Cause he's the reason we're in this conundrum, right?
00:44:50
Speaker
Uh, had Derrick Rose not won MVP at 22 years old. Not the Derrick Rose shots. Jeez Louise, man. It's not a shot. right It's a fact if he had, if, if the voters, because just just like Lee said, more than there's a lot that goes in MVP.
00:45:10
Speaker
And a lot of people believe LeBron James should have won MVP that season. But because they gave it to Derrick Rose, because the the Bulls were a surprise team, you know, he got good story the surprise team votes.
00:45:23
Speaker
ah And because he had he was on a rookie deal, now all of oil all this money is tied up into postseason, you know, end of year awards and your Supermax contracts. It all goes back to Derrick Rose.
00:45:38
Speaker
Disconnect that stuff, man. disconnect I mean, you could also you could also you could also you could also, you know, have the same conversation about Steve Nash and Shaquille O'Neal. Yeah. Right. The thing is, you know, is how how many conversations do we have about a games threshold prior to them connecting the Supermax contract?
00:45:58
Speaker
to end of year awards. We never had that conversation. It was who deserved MVP and who didn't. Who was first MVP and who didn't. Nobody cared how many games you played. It was just, did you deserve it?
00:46:10
Speaker
But once they attached that, oh, if you get this award, it's a super mascot. Then it became all about the qualifications, just like you said. um Just, yeah.
00:46:21
Speaker
Stop making the answer to every issue. Put money on it. like actually come up with real solutions just not trying to you know what put money on it they'll do it and you want to get into your put money into the pocket that's not to your point bobby to your point sometimes the NBA winds up making issues of situations that really don't deserve issues. Like that's what does they're they're actually they're they're actually you know they're actually feeding into the feeding frenzy just because you know some media outlets you know bitch and complain about you know why their favorite player isn't being considered or is is not gonna win the MVP. It suddenly causes a brouhaha because you know again,
00:47:07
Speaker
In football, which is ultimately one of the most team oriented sports you can think of, baseball, team oriented sports, however, there's an individual aspect to the marketing style of it, right? And the and NBA is the ultimate individual marketing aspect of this type of thing. So when people start complaining, you know what saying, end about one singular player, it suddenly then creates this chain reaction of fervor that you know the NBA feels like they gotta cave in to every single time somebody complains. Like this whole thing with the tanking stuff and how we've had these conversations. you know The NBA doesn't necessarily have to sit here and address every single thing.
00:47:47
Speaker
What they had going prior to what you were talking about, Bobby, was good enough. Now, you know, you want to implement and add little certain you know nuances into it. No problem. But you also have to recognize that when doing it, you've got to make sure that it's airtight, like everything is on point with it, because then again, we come back to the same conversation. It's not about satisfying me. It's about making it make sense. And at times that's what doesn't happen once they start implementing these things. It just doesn't start making sense.
00:48:17
Speaker
you know and And that's just the unfortunate circumstance of it. So maybe it's good because they want this kind of you know upheaval and fervor and and and banter and chat. But I think in the end of it, to anybody who's following the NBA, we don't want to be sitting here second guessing people who we know outright deserves to be in the conversations of MVP. And yet we're still trying to figure out what that criteria is, right? Like, you know we don't have to worry about that when it comes to baseball.
00:48:44
Speaker
right? We don't have to w it comes to the NFL. In most cases we clearcut c see who really should be the mvp of of their respective leagues or their respective conferences and it usually it takes a neck and neck, you know, guys like literally going at it toe to toe. in most cases It's pretty much clear cut.
00:49:03
Speaker
as in the past, about who the MVP would be in the and NBA. But now because we've implemented all of these little nuances and and you know little tricks in there, you know so we can start drumming up.
00:49:13
Speaker
The problem is, is now we're starting to throw people in there who really have no business being in there, right? Like it's it's basically an act of attrition. you know, while guys are back during their way into the MVP conversation because the other guys who typically would be considered MVP, we're sitting here worrying whether or not they're going to meet a minimum game threshold, you know, even though their numbers by leaps and bounds are going to run laps around whoever it is we're still considering is MVP worthy. Like that makes absolutely no sense.
00:49:42
Speaker
Okay. I do. I do like what you did there because i do agree as I, I keep track on basketball reference for the MVP tracker throughout the season. And as we got closer to the end of the season, you,
00:49:56
Speaker
You started to see people like Jamal Murray and Chet Holmgren and other players start to move into the top ten of the basketball reference MVP. And you're like, well, are they really an MVP or are they just good players? It's like they had a like they had a they had a conversation with FanDuel and DraftKings and be like, you know, what what can we do to kind of you know what saying, up the...
00:50:19
Speaker
you know up up the up the uh the uh the the the betting numbers the betting lines you know i'm saying because they need somebody to drop you know i'm saying a hundred dollars on the plus one of plus 1500 if we're saying jamal murray is going to wind up you know maybe taking the mvp we need somebody to push those prop numbers so that's something why are we doing this know i'm saying like this is nuts Just for the sake of the threshold, think since the 82-game schedule has been introduced, there's never been an MVP play less than 65 games.
00:50:51
Speaker
so Okay, so that that's probably where they got that number from to start with then, I'm assuming. They probably looked at past MVP candidates and said, okay, wow how many games did we let them play? Again, i see where you're going, ah Cal, and you're starting to get me to come over to your side a little bit, especially with that last argument about people that are not really worthy you know being on those lists near the end of the season because of the attrition that we see with people
Current MVP Race: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander vs. Nikola Jokic
00:51:18
Speaker
like Kate Cunningham and Luka Doncic not being on there because you know birth of a child, a collapsed lung.
00:51:24
Speaker
um But I also said earlier, About Cade Cunningham, well, you know, a collapsed lung is very unfortunate and prayers up that you get well soon. But that's an injury that caused you to miss games and injuries are a part of the game. And if you have an injury, sorry, you're just not able to be up for the award, even your statistics were good enough during the time that you were playing.
00:51:46
Speaker
Desmond, what are your thoughts? Even if the statistics are good enough, I'm not saying that your point, you know, SP is ah is not a valid point. And I'm sorry, Desmond, were you going to chime in? ah No, nis it's all good. You got it.
00:51:58
Speaker
I was just going to say the the thing about the mv the the MVP and a lot of these awards really is, and all of you really alluded to it, is that it's it's always been a a how award, not necessarily a what award.
00:52:12
Speaker
No matter what happens, we're always going to look at the narrative. We're always going to look at the story. If somebody's story looks better than, i guess, somebody's legitimate case than what the numbers say, we're always going to gravitate towards that person. I do think in a lot of ways that is what happened with Derrick Rose, and I don't want to get too deep into that, but you know I had to represent for for Illinois, man. Like, I...
00:52:33
Speaker
Obviously, somebody from there seeing the impact he had on the city like that was one of the most obvious choices in recent memory. um I think those things are always going to happen regardless of what happens, what the and NBA chooses to do with the criteria.
00:52:48
Speaker
Yeah. And i think. Yeah, I i was good. I was just going to quickly say, as it pertains to like the situation with Kate Cunningham again, Kate Cunningham put up impressive numbers, no doubt, but he was a long shot.
00:53:03
Speaker
You look at, you look at what SGA has done this season. You look at what Nicola Jokic has done. You look at what v Victor Weminyama has done. um If K Cunningham isn't putting up numbers, you know, just numbers, I'm just saying the numbers in similarity to where those three guys are, I'd be hard pressed, collapsed along or not, that he's going to be considered one of the top three top two three people to be MVP. The people who are probably going to be shooting for him to be MVP are either going to be diehard,
00:53:34
Speaker
um Pistons, diehard Cade, Oklahoma State. you know I'm saying? Like all the people who've been following this kid, they're going to be pushing like, oh, he should be considered the MVP because we'll go back to the very narrative. If Cade Cunningham wasn't on that Detroit Pistons roster, would the Detroit Pistons win 60 games this season? And of course the answer is to that is hell to the no, right?
00:53:57
Speaker
But you can make the same argument for guys like SGA, And guys like Nicola Yogi. And I'm saying, so you move to the next narrative of what the definition is of what the MVP is. And I think, again, if as long as we don't allow a game minimum to undermine the point of what Des and Bobby G have been talking about, what the story speaks to, then I think we'll be fine. But when you incidentally stumble us into that conversation, because that's the thing that's standing out there, that's the elephant in the room.
00:54:28
Speaker
It only aggravates the situation. It doesn it doesn't you have say it doesn't um accelerate the situation and antagonizes the situation, which is what you don't want.
00:54:39
Speaker
No, you're completely right. And that's what has happened. All the ah the buzzing up from different agents, as Bobby G talked about, the players themselves, the fans, the Cade Cunningham stands in Oklahoma State, which you would have to be a real fan to know that Cade Cunningham even went to Oklahoma State. But... um They are definitely cheering for him. I see what you're saying.
00:55:00
Speaker
And I am starting to come over to your side, war ah Cal. I really appreciate you. It's cool, man. I want you to agree to disagree, man. You know what I'm saying? No, I'm hearing what you're saying, though, and it makes a lot of sense that – You know, maybe whether there's a game threshold or not a certain number, it needs to be more about, OK, things need to be put in their proper context. that Things need to be, you know, if Cunningham did have a collapsed lung and did miss it by a game or two games. OK, well, maybe we do let them appeal.
00:55:33
Speaker
and But the only thing with that is, as Desmond and and we were talking about earlier, is then you open the can of worms for more and more people to try for these different appeals and and sort of things to try to get these awards. So we'll see what happens. It's going to be a ah a can of worms for sure.
00:55:49
Speaker
I don't know how Adam Silver is going to fix this, but Desmond did say that he's probably going to remove it or change it distinctively. So we'll see what happens. But thank you for the good segue. NBA. Let me get ahead of the haters real quick, though.
00:56:02
Speaker
Go ahead. get a On my MVP comment. yeah okay lebron LeBron James and Karl Malone both played less than 65 games and won MVP. Okay. People keep digging.
00:56:13
Speaker
Both of those seasons were shortened by strikes. So they were not fully two game seasons. Look at Bobby hedging hedging his bets there, making sure that they can't. Yeah, you know how to hedge. couldn um um You Hey, shout out to Roy. It says Spurs have found something. Y'all see how they've been against OKC. Momentum and confidence is a dangerous thing. And for a young squad like that, you're not wrong. That's what they need is that momentum and that confidence. So um speaking of NBA MVPs, let's go ahead and get right into it. The race on basketball reference.
00:56:46
Speaker
i has turned around ah somehow in the last week. I don't know why, but Shade Gilgis-Alexander, SGA, was the leader in the clubhouse last week.
00:56:57
Speaker
And now on basketball reference, they have Nikola Jokic. So um I don't know why that changed over the past week, but it did. In my opinion, you're looking at the same kind of race we've had over the past couple of years with these dudes, um both playing prime, prime time basketball. I mean, elevated skills. SGA, obviously, you know, as much as Bobby G will lament his push offs with the wrist. SGA is a great player.
00:57:26
Speaker
He's lethal in the mid post. Desmond needs to get him on the podcast there. um And so... when you see that and you put it up against a Jokic who is a, an anomaly, right? He's a center that can do everything. We haven't seen something like this since maybe, you know, a, a, a Kareem or a wilt where they could really, you know, pass the ball as centers. So,
00:57:49
Speaker
so You also have the other end of that, though. And shout out to Man Down Sports, Mel, who's been a participant with us here on and NBA here before. He pointed out that he thinks that a lot of it is just stat padding and that Jokic has been stat padding pretty much the whole second half of the season, even going so far as to make the team put him at point center so that he could bring the ball up to have more assists.
00:58:15
Speaker
I'm not in the Nuggets organization, but I can see how that possibly would be true. So we'll see. Bobby G, we'll start with you. Who is your NBA MVP? Oh, man, it's kind of like. what What is snap adding?
00:58:30
Speaker
The entire NBA is trying to snap at. I mean, that what I guess. You think the 12th dude on the bench is on purpose averaging two points a game?
00:58:40
Speaker
No. No, I'm good. I'm good. I'm making enough on the end. I got my bucket. Keep making my bucket. We'll be good as long as I'm on the roster. oh But to your to your first point, I'll tell you exactly why I changed 136 134 40 points 13 rebounds eight assists three blocks and a plus 12 over another MVP candidate. That's why I changed.
00:59:04
Speaker
Okay. So you think that that performance that he had against them is is what gave him the MVP over his job? yeah. And it was on national television. It was. i ah and and and And another first, right?
00:59:18
Speaker
The first player in m NBA history to lead the league in rebounds. Hmm. Yes. Okay. Correct. And, you know, look, no disrespect to people who assume that what these guys do is stat padding, but what exactly do you expect to do? Like, what do you expect you'll get you to do? Right.
00:59:36
Speaker
I mean, maybe putting yourself, maybe putting yourself in point guard is a little audacious, but but it's not, that but it's it's not, they don't put them there. He can do it. He can do it. Yeah, like exactly.
00:59:48
Speaker
As a matter of fact, Take a look at some of the teams that we're even talking about right now in the playoffs and how many are positioned to have a point forward or center forward operate in a space of what Jokic has already started.
01:00:05
Speaker
Victor Wimbenyama is doing it, right? The Atlanta Magic has been trying was thinking about doing it or that was what they were supposed to be doing when they had Boncaro. right what a disappointment saying you've got lebron james like this is what we're talking about this doesn't happen i'm not saying that that that um that yokich did it before lebron but what i'm saying is is that there is that comfort level in the execution of whatever system you're doing to put the ball in the hands of a person who's sure-handed you know i'm saying jamal murray is a is is by a trade supposed to be a point guard but he's actually a shooting guard and that means that adelman is more confident
01:00:41
Speaker
and yokich's ball handling skills than jamal murray you'd say it that's true think about what that is that's a lot about jamal murray but yeah you know ah listen the road for them to win the championship won't be because jamal murray knows how to handle the basketball or is going to guide everybody into their sets and get them their shots That's all that's Jokic's responsibility. That's always been the responsibility. What the Nuggets need, right, is for Jamal Murray to be 22, 23 Jamal, Jamal Murray, who is f freaking just blazing people. And to do that, you have to take that pressure, that burden off of his shoulders, which is why to me, and I'm not saying that this is what's indicative of Jokic winning the MVP. What I'm saying is, is that doing it, in in clutch situations, doing it and still rebounding to basketball and still getting shots to, you know what I'm saying, through his teammates, that that resonates, that speaks volumes, you know what I'm saying? So, ah you know, stat pad away, bro, if you're gonna if you're gonna if your team is going to look like what they're looking like right now,
01:01:44
Speaker
i'm not I'm not saying that I don't agree with that. I do agree with that. I didn't think i didn't necessarily agree wholeheartedly with the stat padding reasoning, but I did understand where he was coming from because a lot of things that Jokic does seems like he's intentionally, you know, when players will, um Jason Tatum does this a lot.
01:02:02
Speaker
And he'll try his hardest to get a defensive rebound over all of his teammates, no matter if he throws an elbow and hits him in the head. And it's like, bro, you don't really need to do all that. Just get the rebounds as they come to you naturally. So maybe that's kind of where they were going. But yeah, go ahead. But the issue with that is, and this is now not the fan, this is the coaching me. Mm-hmm.
01:02:23
Speaker
I don't coach my no, don't sit there and wait on the rebound. Go get it. But I mean if you're if you're a teammate already has it, if I see you wait on a rebound, you're going to be sitting next to me. Like, so again, it comes with like, it's not that day my two points. playing the win I'm good. It's playing ball.
01:02:41
Speaker
right. You know, an interesting, an interesting point to an interesting point to what you're making, Bobby, like this to me is the thing that scares me about this Boston Celtics team. Everybody's got the Boston Celtics peg to go to the finals. You know what i'm saying? Because we got back Jason Tatum. The reason why i can feel at least a little bit better about the Celtics getting to the Eastern Conference finals and maybe getting to the NBA finals is because Jason Tatum is addressing a problem that the bosses Celtics have, which is their ability to rebound the basketball.
01:03:13
Speaker
And arguably Jason Tatum is your best rebounder. So he helped set the tone. A couple of years ago, it was a lot easier that Jason Tatum didn't have to be the best rebounder because you arguably had the four best rebounders in the Eastern Conference in Drew Holiday, Derek White, Jalen Brown, and Jason Tatum. And it even incentivized Chris Stapps Porzingis to look like he could give you a double-double every now and again, right? That's not the same roster that the Celtics are working with. and going into this situation are going to be can the celtics get a up this many thre someone reliable to go down there and go get that basketball and even though Kata is a su gotten contributions from Garza and all the guys. Again, it's all about the players that are out there that are executing to the highest level of what they're good at doing. and Jason Tatum coming back shows that joke itch you know i'm saying the reason why we're talking about the denver nuggets being the most dangerous team in the west next to the spurs you know what i'm saying challenging the oklahoma city thunder is because we're seeing yokage take things to another level in areas that ultimately we're going to be question marks for the denver nuggets like if this is the only thing that the nuggets are going to be good at doing which is relying on on yokage it's saying is it relying on you'll just score the basketball Or is it relying on Jokic giving that team more opportunities for Murray to shoot, for Gordon to shoot, for Johnson to shoot, for those guys to get, you know more shots. And he's playing at a level like that. And he's also playing defense. know what I'm saying? think you alluded to like three, four blocks. He's playing defense. Something that Jokic was never, you know I'm saying, great at doing, but that's something that that got SGA over to getting his his MVP. You know what I'm saying? So...
01:04:55
Speaker
these all It all matters. it all It all matters. There's a reason why Jokic is kind of leapfrog SGA in these standings because timing is everything.
01:05:08
Speaker
You're doing this, and you've positioned the Denver Nuggets to be the third seed. There have been years where the Denver Nuggets wind up being a 4-5 seed because they backdoored their way into the playoffs, and you don't have as much confidence. is The reason why people picked the Minnesota Timberwolves, you know what i'm saying, and this is going to be the first year that people will be like, man, Timberwolves, like Anthony Edwards is going to need a miracle.
01:05:30
Speaker
He may come out and show up and show out, but it still ain't going to be enough with the way that the Nuggets are playing right now. And that makes the Nuggets dangerous. e No, that makes sense. Okay, so Jokic is your pick, I'm assuming, from everything that you said? I think he's going to take it. it It's going to be very close.
01:05:48
Speaker
I think SGA, his inside track is his clutch fourth quarter gene ability. The fact that you know he is the guy, um he does everything, again, with brutal efficiency. um he has he has solid defensive numbers as well too um he you know basically is logged in about you know i'm saying as as many minutes as the other mvp candidates that are out there but again he does a lot of the damage you know i'm saying in the earliest part of the games and then when the games are close he is the go-to guy and he's proven time and time again he can be that guy so but i i just think that to bobby's point to me it was a wash going in because both of them
01:06:29
Speaker
had and had been injured to the point where they were both meeting that minimum threshold of games. So now you have to look at the back end, the stretch of games. And while, you know, OKC, I didn't they didn't necessarily take their foot off the gas, but it's just like they look at their strength of schedule and meaningful games that they did wind up having to play. And you look at what the Nuggets wound up having to do and their schedule and their strength of schedule.
01:06:51
Speaker
To me, that gave opportunity for Jokic to kind of really kind of sneak in there and put up some really phenomenal numbers to give them the edge.
01:07:00
Speaker
Okay, so let's talk about the numbers real quick. Jokic led his team to a 54-28 record, SGA 64-18. A lot of times that does you know make a difference is is the ability to have more wins in a playoff race. So head-to-head, obviously SGA would have the lead there. And Desmond, we're going to come to you in just second. ah thirty Points per game, SGA 31.1 points per game. And I'm about to put this up here in a second. Here we go.
01:07:31
Speaker
Get that up there. So Jokic, 27.7 points per game, 12.9 rebounds, 10.7 assists. ah Forget the numbers on the end, but those are like blocks and steals and stuff that I clearly did not know how to format properly on these comments. um For real, wouldn't he? I know I hit the space button. Anyways, SGA, 64 and 18, 31.1 points per game, 4.3 rebounds per game, 6.6 assists. So Jokic leads, as you mentioned, the whole lead league, excuse me in rebounds and assists per game, which we've never seen done by any player in history, much less a center. So granted, that is valid. Again, you got to talk about the efficiency. And, you know, SGA at 31 points a game, he's shooting, you know over
01:08:17
Speaker
What is he shooting? What's his shooting percentage? Effective field goal percentage of 60% for a guard is crazy. That's crazy work for a guard. Now for Jokic, 61%, 62%. You expect that he plays a lot well.
01:08:32
Speaker
Not as much as most centers, but he does play in the post a lot too. So those are your numbers. Desmond, who is your NBA pick, MVP pick? ah Yeah, so for me, the now the funniest thing about this MVP race is that first off the terminology, right? MVP race, I want to reiterate, is not just wordplay.
01:08:52
Speaker
A lot of times it's facts. and And both of you guys alluded to that earlier. There are small pockets throughout the season where somebody's hurt. and somebody takes first place, somebody that person gets hurt and somebody else takes place. And we've seen that with all three, Jokic, Shea, and Wemby.
01:09:08
Speaker
There have all been pockets throughout the season where they either missed time or didn't play a lot for whatever reason. Now, even with that in mind, I've just always gravitated towards Shea Gilgis-Alexander.
01:09:20
Speaker
And i think it's a lot of what you just said, Omar, the obvious dominance, the Jordan-esque, at least advanced stats that he's been putting up the last couple seasons now. I mean, his team fully takes on his identity, fully takes on his his his approach to the game. and And that's why they're able to play like that even when he's not out there. And I think you can make that argument with the other guys. But I think at the core of my belief, though, is that I feel like Shea Gildas Alexander has a little bit extra to prove in a sense that you could say that last season he got a little bit of a sympathy award because they didn't give it when he actually should have got it the year prior.
01:10:05
Speaker
And then on top of that, he wins the NBA finals, regardless of how you think it went. He wins the NBA finals and holds finals and MVP trophy. And people are still can't help but say, well, if Tyrese was out there,
01:10:17
Speaker
there's a I feel like Shea Gildas Alexander did not get that automatic respect that we like to give players who check the boxes that we feel like they should check.
01:10:27
Speaker
He won the championship at the end of the day. He got the finals MVP as the cherry on top. he's He's won a scoring champion. He's led his team to to the best record in the league. He's checked a lot of boxes. And I feel like this year, I would love to see him get that MVP again to kind of show people like, all right, it wasn't a fluke. And even with guys like Jokic and Wemby and whoever, I'm still up there. I'm still up there and I still do what I do. Even though he didn't, again, I know he missed a lot of time this season. There was a little stretch there, but man,
01:10:58
Speaker
I don't know. I love me some Shea, man. I think that's what Cal said, too. The clutch gene, the the ability to put the team on his back. I mean, I love all of that. Yeah, I'm right along with you. Everything you said is spot on of where I was going in my argument. Jokic, hell of a player, once-in-a-lifetime player. um I don't think we'll see something like this again, where you have a big man that can just so effortlessly score the ball. And I don't even know. I think sometimes he might have sold his soul to become an m NBA basketball player because some of these shots he'd be making, just throwing them shits up, and they'd be going in. I'm like, that don't even make sense. Why?
01:11:34
Speaker
How? He made deal with the devil. If he has some secret, you know, Robert Johnson type master guitarist, the devil, and ba the devil in the country. s p you're basically calling him Ghost Rider.
01:11:47
Speaker
yeah Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly. um But he's also won it. And I know this comes back to the, you know, the fatigue of voters when people win multiple times. We want to see other people get it. The storylines come into play. um I have them pretty, pretty even neck and neck the whole season. As Desmond said, ah the thing that really puts me over the top and I'll go back to this wins matter, wins matter.
01:12:12
Speaker
And sga had 64 wins. um with a team that, okay, slightly better roster, I agree. um But I still think that that extra 10 wins is what puts me over the top. I'm not going to change my answer based on, you know, just last week's one game when I had SGA as my MVP before that.
01:12:33
Speaker
so SP, I'm going to help you with your argument, right? I'm going to with your argument. You can make the argument that if you give SGA the MVP award,
01:12:44
Speaker
He did not have his number two for most of the season. He's actually been playing with a very jaded roster because it was not the, you know, they're legit starting five.
01:12:56
Speaker
And, you know, if you're Jokic, you actually had a very healthy Jamal Murray playing with you throughout this whole season. well Which again, another another detriment to Jamal Murray. Like, come on, bro. it's What happened? Well, no, I wasn't saying that to be a detriment to him. i It's ironic. No, but ironically enough, you know, they're just some guys, man, that just naturally are great scorers in the
Nuggets' Playoff Chances and Key Players
01:13:25
Speaker
game.
01:13:25
Speaker
And we try to catapult them or elevate them in a space where maybe their game doesn't translate to what we consider is MVP-like or should be MVP-like. You know what i'm saying? um and and And in this particular instance, the reason why the Denver Nuggets have been relevant the last five years, and you know our focus has been on Jokic because Jokic is doing amazing things, but Jokic doesn't become this amazing if he doesn't have a guy who's putting that ball in the basket and showing you the the the symmetry, the the the beauty of the two-man game
01:13:58
Speaker
You know what I'm saying? that Better than what you see with Murray and Jokic. And for that to happen, Murray's got to be on the basketball court. And listen, um when i say murray's when I say Murray is injured, I'm not saying, well, Murray just disappears and he's gone for 70 games. What I'm saying is Murray has never been 100%.
01:14:16
Speaker
He's never, I don't know if it's kind of like the donkage effect, right? He's never done what he's needed to do in the offseason to get himself fully ready to play a full 82 game season and be 100% healthy, ready to go when playoff times happens. It's only happened maybe a couple of years.
01:14:34
Speaker
right But he's always had nagging injuries, and this is probably the first year that we're going to see Jamal Murray at about as 100% as you could possibly ask of him to be for the Denver Nuggets to make this serious run. And it's going to be needed because the gauntlet that is the Western Conference is not going to allow them to be able to get past even the first round if both Jokic and Murray are not at at optimal level, right? Like even this series against the Minnesota Timberwolves, I don't know why people are dismissing the Timberwolves and how the Timberwolves tend to play the Denver Nuggets. I think this goes seven games.
01:15:07
Speaker
I think that if it motivated Anthony Murray, I'm sorry, Anthony Edwards, a motivated Anthony Edwards can consume a whole NBA playoff series.
01:15:18
Speaker
Okay? And he is he himself alone can push this Denver Nuggets team. Even though when you look at the roster, the Denver Nuggets should get past the the the Minnesota Timberwolves. Nobody has any confidence that the Minnesota Timberwolves are going to get out of this first round because they think they think that the last two years of them getting to the Western Conference Finals are a fluke. But I keep saying, it this is why I had Anthony Edwards pegged as my preseason MVP candidate, and it just never played out that way. But man, listen, if the Timberwolves are in the playoffs, they're about as dangerous as other teams that we've been talking about already in this playoff chase.
01:15:53
Speaker
So... Facts.
NBA Rookie of the Year Debate
01:15:55
Speaker
Big facts. I agree with that completely. I have the ah Wolves actually having, I mean, playing two tremendous series against them in the past, having them on upset alert, possibly. So we'll see what happens there. 19 Media Group says Aaron Gordon missed most of the season. Peyton Watson, Nuggets had injury concerns too, but SGA got it. Okay, so 19 Media Group agreeing with Desmond and myself.
01:16:19
Speaker
That's three for SGA, two for Jokic. Either way, it's going to come down to the wire. I'm excited to see who they vote in. I do think anyways, even if, again, we look at voter fatigue and things like that, I think SGA does get it a second time because Jokic already has, ah you know, his. but We're not supposed to say that that happens. It does all the time.
01:16:38
Speaker
um and So that being said, very quickly, because we do got to get to the playoffs before we got to get off at nine. Very quickly, I do want to get, because you do, you deserve your props on this, Bobby G, for your con caneple. NBA Rookie of the Year. So very quickly, let's just go ahead and give our picks. It came down to Dallas's number one pick who they got in the...
01:17:00
Speaker
NBA's cheating conspiracy by trading Luka Doncic to the fucking Lakers, ah making my life a living hell, and then making the Dallas Mavericks fans want to hurt themselves. Either way, they ended up getting Cooper Flagg, who played.
01:17:16
Speaker
Pretty well, becoming the first teenager to score 50 points. You know, just a scoring machine able to score from all levels of the court. And then you have Concaneple Hornets. I mean, i know Bobby G, you're going to extol his virtues for a second, but he's led the league in threes there with his buddy LaMelo Ball in second place. So go ahead, um Cal. We'll start with you on this one.
01:17:43
Speaker
I have no problem with giving it to conch and nipple, but I think the the the rookie of the year should go to to to to Cooper flag. I just think that conch and nipple has, you know, by but by leaps and bounds, he has helped definitely elevated the Charlotte Hornets team to be one of the most dangerous seems and to be one of the most surprising teams. And I think that should count.
01:18:03
Speaker
Right. I just think it's neck and neck. I just think that Cooper flag showed a lot given the circumstances of a roster that just was not a good roster.
01:18:16
Speaker
um Just wasn't a good roster. um And you know people want to talk about, you know well, he had Anthony Davis. They never even had kari Kyrie Irving. this This team,
01:18:28
Speaker
recognizes the versatility of of of Cooper flag. I don't know if whether or not the dynamic of Cooper flag and Jason kid may have probably stymied that level of aggressiveness that we started seeing now in the second half of the season.
01:18:42
Speaker
But Cooper Flagg unleashed. He can easily be one of the more dominant players in the game of basketball. I guess if we want to give the award to the next Steph Curry, I have no problem with you giving it to Conn Canipple. You know, it's not that he didn't he he didn't earn it.
01:18:56
Speaker
But I think if Cooper Flagg is going wind up taking it, not because, you know, the the NBA wants to have egg on his face by, you know, the number one pick not getting the award. I think Cooper Flagg on his own.
01:19:07
Speaker
made sure that he was going to at least, you know, have people understand, Hey, there's a reason why I'm the number one guy. Right. And he showed that numerous times during that the year. And I just, I just think he's going to want him taken.
01:19:21
Speaker
Okay. And just let everybody know right now, um you said Cooper flag con knipple is the leader in the clubhouse looking at the betting odds. He's at a two 50 favorite Cooper flag is at a one 90 underdog Desmond. Who do you have as your rookie year?
01:19:38
Speaker
ah Yeah, I'm actually right with Cal. um I think Khan Knipple has had one of the most seamless transitions to the NBA that we've seen in a minute. um and And, you know, when I say that, it's not just like the surface level, like stats or impact. It's like literally how he fits with the Hornets, the way they ran their offense, his ah efficient three-point shooting. Like,
01:20:02
Speaker
that That to me is really impressive. alert but At the end of the day, I do believe that Cooper Flagg has been the best rookie ah for this this NBA season. I think from top to bottom, when you look at his willingness to defend as much as he plays on offense, his mid-range game grew a lot this season. ah Rebounding, even playmaking. you know Some of these things I think we'd...
01:20:25
Speaker
figured that cooper flag was going to be able to show but some of it came a little bit faster than at least i thought it would and so i've been really impressed with cooper flag and i you know again for him to be the number one pick it's not like he put up some dud of a season like and especially with jason kidd putting him at the point guard early in the season and we didn't know how that was going to look like the the kid found his way and and i think you know he deserves his his credit for that and i think you're right i think that um You know, with Kneppel, it's been a historic level of efficiency for him. As you mentioned, from, you know, the three-point land especially, no rookie ever averaged less than 18 points with, you know, that high of a true shooting.
01:21:07
Speaker
ah percentage. Sknipple is just, he's outshined most rookies in most years. The problem is that his former Duke teammate is in the same year that he is, and he's out here balling, dropping Wilt Chamberlain's stats, 96 points in two games. Only Wilt Chamberlain has done that other than him. There's your sports pressure stat that. So when you When you look at that, it's like, oh man, I really want to vote for Knipple. And in most years, I would because of that efficiency and because of that maturity and because, yeah, you're right.
01:21:37
Speaker
He came in into the league, and next thing you know, he's a he's already a star. And and he's he hasn't even been here for you know a few months. But I just think that Cooper Flagg, even if Hot Take Jake says he's going to be better than Magic Johnson when it's all said and done, which I completely think is blasphemous, I do think Cooper Flagg will be one of the greatest players of all time when it is said and done at the end of his career, as long as he can stay healthy.
01:22:00
Speaker
Bobby G, I think we all know where you're going because you wouldn't want to ruin your beautiful before season predictions. Who is your rookie of the year? I don't have to ruin it because the NBA is going to congratulate me and celebrate my choice.
01:22:15
Speaker
It is what it is. It's con can nipple. The thing that proves it is con can nipple is exactly what these gentlemen said. I agree with everything they said. You notice how they said Cooper got better as the year going on. He did this as the year going on.
01:22:30
Speaker
Conk Nipple was that game one. He can. that's That's why he's the rookie of the year. There was no buildup. It was game one, 25. twenty five Oh, this dude can play.
01:22:42
Speaker
ah We look at him. he He doubles Cooper flag in winchairs. 8-4. Oh, really? Okay. Wow. Yeah, that's a big. Doubles.
01:22:53
Speaker
now rat He's leading the Charlotte Hornets in win shares. And the Hornets are the better team, clearly, 43-37, making the playoffs. The Dallas Mavericks are 25-55. Yeah, but win shares, it doesn't matter how good you're team. It's what the wins you add to the team.
01:23:07
Speaker
So that's regardless of how i' good the team is. Conkin never could have eight win shares on the Mavericks. Sure, sure. now he's just been solid all year and the reason i thought he would be the most pro pro ready coming in is because he was a blue guy like you looked at the hornets last year you were like man mellow is it's you know it's this and brandon miller and brit they just like something's got to bring him together i thought he could be the connector to hold all the pieces together and he's he's done exactly that and i think we're at a point where they'll be rewarded there's there's this
01:23:43
Speaker
Nobody cares if the number one pick is rookie of the year as long as they eventually live up to the hype, right? like i just I disagree completely. i want i want to I want to go with your choice. I want to pick the nipple now that you've you've convinced me so, so efficiently here on this program, all of us changing my mind because I was going to go with Cooper Flagg. I'm still thinking about the fact that, no, that is a thing. Like, they are going to want their number one pick to be, ah and we know the NBA will cheat and conspire as we saw Cooper Flagg go to Dallas in the first place after the Dutch's trade. So will they make him choose the flag? See how Bobby back, see, Bobby, you you are incidentally, accidentally. see But look at look at, aside from Wimby, who was clearly going to be,
01:24:30
Speaker
like the rookie of the year, it's not been a number one pick thing. Like Anthony Edwards didn't win rookie of the year. um Sure, but i think if I think if you have these two players that are in a pretty neck and neck race, I think that theyll they will they will push for that is what I would say.
01:24:46
Speaker
Well, the beautiful people at the sportsbooks in Las Vegas disagree with you, sir. And that's why they have Concanipo as the betting favorite. They surely do. And look, ah if again, great season by Knipple.
01:24:59
Speaker
You know, 18 points, 19.5 rebounds, three assists, 64% true shooting for a guard is...
01:25:05
Speaker
four percent through shooting for a guard is astronomically outrageous. So a really, again, historic efficiency level flag.
01:25:15
Speaker
ah there Had 21 points a game, seven rebounds a game, five assists. So counting stats are a little better there. um And, you know, he didn't have that bad of a true shooting percentage, either 55%, 0.5 more steals per game, 0.7 more blocks per game, about the same amount of turnovers. Again,
NBA Finals Predictions: Celtics vs. Thunder
01:25:36
Speaker
right there on the edge, I just think the NBA will go flag. I think what this is going to come down to, and you know you alluded to this a little bit earlier, Bobby G, with the MVP awards, it's going to come down to those primetime games. I'm ah i' a believer of the fact that when when we're trying to give these awards, you do need to factor in when these guys are playing primetime games or playing against what's going to be your proposed rivals you know for years to come. right like If we're talking about Victor Wimanyama, and we're saying that we're going to try and give him the MVP, I'm going to be looking at those games that women Yama performs against the Denver Nuggets and against the Oklahoma city thunder, because if this is what the race is going to look like and and we're determining on, you know, wins, um you know, wins within the season against your, those opponents, those guys and the performances you're putting up, that's going to speak volumes. So I look at what the reason why I'm saying that, and you know, maybe, cooper flag is going to wind up winning this is because i'm looking at some of the performances that cooper flag has had on on prime time and has had against you know i'm saying guys like he has to play against the victor women llamas the chet holmgrins isaiah harton steens and he's putting up those type of numbers that's going to say something i'm not saying that it's to diminish what con canipple is doing What I'm saying is, is that I haven't seen enough of a resume and maybe this is a reason why it's important that the Charlotte Hornets now be taken seriously. And this is a great, you know, testing ground, so to speak, on how they perform in the playoffs that going into next year, you I'm saying con can nipple and how he performs in the bright lights and prime time and what he does with this Charlotte Hornets team.
01:27:15
Speaker
we will never have this kind of mistake because we're now saying that Khan can nipple against, you know, the Boston Celtics, Khan can nipple against, you know, the Orlando Magic. Those conversations are going to elevate him in those reward conversations a lot further now. But I'm not, yeah again, if he gets it, I'm not disappointed whatsoever one bit because the numbers speak to it. But I think that that is another thing that we should take into consideration when weighing these awards.
01:27:40
Speaker
Well, you know, that that's I'm sorry. That's just really funny that you said that, though, because think about their first meeting against each other. That is the epitome of what this race is. That game conca nipple was on pace. I was tweeting like, hey, he needs to go for 12 threes. I want to see it from a rookie. Like, at least give me 12. I know that's not the record anymore, but at least give me the Don Yale Marshall Kobe Bryant special, you know, and the same time.
01:28:06
Speaker
at that At that same time, Cooper Flagg is nearly getting 50. And who won that game? The Hornets won that game, unfortunately, for Cooper Flagg. But he went at his boy. You know, there is the thing about sports. Nobody is going to guard you one-on-one like your homeboys. And Cooper Flagg looked at Con Caniple and said, look, I know what toothpaste you use. I'm getting 50 tonight. And he went at him every night. So so it's it's funny in that way. I think that is perfect imagery to what Cal just said. Like, it's that close, even just down to that meeting is is the epitome of what this race is.
01:28:40
Speaker
I mean, and that's what we and that's what we want to see. Right. Like, I understand that, that you know, the way that we situate and strategize, you know, when we're especially looking at the playoffs. But listen, man, there's a reason why we we market and promote players individually. And I think if the expectation is that you want these guys to win these awards, they got to position themselves to go out there win those awards. and Like, look, we're to be watching this Lakers rocket series. i know we're going to do the playoffs real quick, but, uh, uh, uh, you know, previews, um,
01:29:12
Speaker
predictions excuse me real quick but listen we're we're not talking about the the rockets and the lakers as teams right we're talking about lebron james and and kevin durant we're talking about whether or not this is the last time that these guys are going to actually play against each other in postseason basketball and what we want to see from them and i think we want that across the board for any of these games and matchups you know what i'm saying like that's the for us to be saying that we want to give awards to some of these dudes, a lot of it comes down to, yeah, you put up numbers, right?
01:29:42
Speaker
Against, you know, a guy, a coach who's putting his smallest guard on you is trying to be cute. But if that superstar is on there and he knows that for him, to have the last say on whether or not I'm the best player in this game, in this series, in this season, in this legacy, in this career, whatever. I got to guard you up. I got to bowl you up. I got to get up on you and stuff like that. And I think that's what we want to see more of. So I'm hoping that that's what we get more of because of these situations.
01:30:12
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, no, you're
Orlando Magic's Coaching Struggles
01:30:15
Speaker
completely right, and that's a great segue to our last topic of the day. Yes, we are going to pick our NBA Finals matchups and our champions. Let me go ahead and bring up the ah bracket here.
01:30:29
Speaker
um and Let me get my face in there somehow as I'm blocking myself. There we go. All right, so... Looking at this playoff, the play-in has already started.
01:30:41
Speaker
Right now we have the Heat versus the Hornet. Let me give you a quick scoring update. It is tied 41-41 with five minutes left in the second quarter. um So you got a good game there between Tyler Harrow and Colin Canepo that we just talked about. ah is So when we look at this this bracket here, starting from the left to the right,
01:31:05
Speaker
We're going to skip the play in teams because I'm assuming that no one has any of these playoff teams going very far. ah But I do want to say what a disappointment both the Magic and the Clippers were.
01:31:18
Speaker
um and And shame on Paulo Banqueiro for throwing Jamal Mosley under the bus because he's going to get him fired as the coach for blaming him for their failures, even though it's Banqueiro's fault when it comes on down to it. So um anyways, moving it into, I don't like when players throw coaches under the bus, bro. They're there to help you. i don't either.
01:31:41
Speaker
But Jamal Mosley does not, has not helped himself either. No, yeah. He's not. But he doesn't deserve to be fired either though. He kind of does. Well, you don show you think he does? Okay. Let's go like this.
01:31:55
Speaker
This, this game between the heat. I'm sorry. This game between the Sixers and the, and because the the magic have two cracks at it. Magic go out and win this game.
01:32:06
Speaker
right They got to deal with um you know the the the likes of you know the Detroit Pistons or whatever. But um yeah but if if If in these games they do not look like a team that can offensively get it together, they don't look like they're collectively all in and feeling whatever Mosley is trying to strategize and implement, he's not going to be the head coach come next season.
01:32:35
Speaker
You can't have this
Playoff Chances of Cavaliers and Pistons
01:32:36
Speaker
kind of talent, this young kind of talent, and this kind of – disorientation taking place. And again, it just, it it speaks volumes. now And I agree with you. I don't like when a player does throw up a, you know, head coach or whatever under the bus, but let's remember Boncaro is a kid still, right?
01:32:56
Speaker
And, and he, he came from a successful program in Duke and he's coming to a situation where he sees that these guys can be better, play better, compete better.
01:33:08
Speaker
And, The best way for me to tell whether or not this is going to work or not going to work is if whether or not the head coach recognizes the roster and is trying to bring the best out of them instead of basically looking at them with this level of disappointment like they're still not ready to compete, like they're still not ready to to play with the big boys and things of that nature. And then that tells me that he's not – that's not the team he wants to coach.
01:33:33
Speaker
Yeah. I don't want to go on his tangent. I know this is about the at the playoffs. No, no, no. like you're yeah You're good. That makes sense. the magic don't look If the Magic don't look good, Mosley's going to be out. I can tell i definitely tell you that.
01:33:45
Speaker
And you're completely right. Yeah. yeah Yeah. And you're completely right, though. The head coach does always, you know, usually take the fall ah first for these sort of things. And you're right. When you have as good as a team as they have, or at least the roster that they traded for and tried to construct last offseason, then, yeah, you want to be expecting your team to be a 50 win team at least.
01:34:08
Speaker
trying to make the playoffs so all right cool well like I said we're gonna go ahead and give our and NBA finals and champion picks so hey Desmond you are the new guy we are gonna give you the honorary ah duties here so who is your NBA finals pick and your and your champion right, so my- you can give some backstory too.
01:34:31
Speaker
Yeah, because i've mine from the East has changed, I'm i'm sure, for for for obvious reasons. ah Most of the season, I was preparing for a Knicks and Pistons conference finals. um And I was leaning towards the Knicks to come out of that because of the fact that the Pistons don't necessarily have that secondary shot creator that they need consistently for the playoffs. Shout out Tobias Harris. I know he's had a really good year this year, but it's just not at that next level that a guy like Cade Cunningham needs to win a championship. um So initially I was thinking Thunder and Knicks because I was rolling with the Thunder the minute the... the
01:35:12
Speaker
2025 finals was over. I, you know, I just, I just gave them that respect up front, but, um and and there's also a little PTSD, you know, I'm big on the playoffs is different. You know, I know the Spurs have done their thing versus OKC this year, but I just have PTSD from being a Bulls fan.
01:35:29
Speaker
I watched the Miami Heat in 2011 win five straight games, or excuse me, the Chicago Bulls in 2011, win five straight games versus that new look Miami Heat team. And then the minute an adjustment was made,
01:35:42
Speaker
it was over. And so I'm i'm i'm still giving OKC their respect. I still expect them to come out the West. um And now my change of heart has has ensued and I'm leaning a little bit towards Boston. ah For some reason, I'm just a little nervous about the Pistons. Like I said, I'm a little nervous about the Knicks, whether or not they're I guess going to learn from last season, learn, learn how to utilize the depth that they have acquired, utilize. And again, they, they fire Tom Thibodeau for some of his rotations and whatnot, which wasn't totally his fault. that That's kind of a GM coach kind of thing there. But yeah, I just, I kind of lean towards the Celtics, even with their flaws. And part of me is just thinking thunder and Celtics and I would pick thunder and six.
01:36:31
Speaker
Damn, man. Hey, we have been ah we have been on point together all episode long, Desmond. So we're definitely going to have to bring you back because you and I obviously picked a lot of the same same things here today because i completely agree with you. That's exactly what happened to me. Bobby G and Cal know that at the beginning of the year, I had picked the...
01:36:51
Speaker
ah Excuse me, I had picked up the God bless. I'm sorry. I had picked, I'm sorry, Celtics. I had picked the New York Knicks. I did, I'm so sorry, my Celtics. I'm so sorry, I did.
01:37:03
Speaker
But I promise you, we're back. We're back, baby. Jason Tatum is back. And there is no one in the Eastern Conference that can beat us. Y'all better get used to the best white boy bench in the NBA. You got Hugo Gonzalez. You got Luke Garza. You got bayylor charman whoda dee and Baylor is Baylor Shireman? I don't know, but he's hitting three pointers from logo in half court. So screw it. I love him. Let's go Celtics. But I do agree. I think the Thunder, this is a Thunder versus all kind of vibe to me. And I do not think that the Celtics, I have to be realistic here. I do not think that our team can beat the Thunder when fully, fully healthy. So I would take the Thunder in probably six as well, maybe seven, if I want to help my Celtics out.
01:37:48
Speaker
All right, there you go. I almost threw up, Cal. Stop laughing at me. What you got?
01:37:55
Speaker
Oh, man. You got to – listen, just take those last two minutes and just send that to our peoples up here in New Jersey that are New York Knicks fans. send that to I mean, seriously. It's just crazy. I hate the Knicks. So my my my preseason predictions – were that the Cleveland Cavaliers were going to figure out a way to finally get this done.
01:38:20
Speaker
And then they had to go the desperate route of of getting James Harden, which I kind of knew something was something had to happen, right? Like something just was not clicking with this Cleveland Cavaliers team. They needed yeah needed something. and and and But I've realized that even with that trade with James Harden, this isn't about – you know, him or Donovan Mitchell. It's about Evan Mobley.
01:38:43
Speaker
And until I see Evan Mobley basically turn into a Jokic, into an SGA, and into a Jalen Brunson, until he turns into that killer,
01:38:55
Speaker
I, you know, again, I was in over my head. I probably thought more about the Cleveland Cavaliers doing it more so than me and and the way I appreciate what the Denver, the Detroit Pistons have been able to do. Detroit Pistons have that do in Kay Cunningham.
01:39:10
Speaker
um With that being said, I don't know if the Detroit Pistons have enough on their roster and enough firepower to deal with either of the teams that are on the bottom part of that bracket in the playoffs being either the New York Knicks or the or the Boston Celtics. Even if they didn't, if the Celtics didn't have Jason Tatum, the emergence and how Missoula has been able to utilize this roster to me speaks to that these guys, they're ready. They don't, they have not lost so much from what their finals team gave you.
01:39:45
Speaker
right? Because even with those replacement parts, right, the replacement killers, so to speak, you know, you got Vucevic, Shireman, Peyton Pritchard, again, he's that guy.
01:39:55
Speaker
He's that guy that can end souls in in in quarters. You know what i'm saying? And then now you do also have Jason Tatum back in the fold. I think the
Celtics vs. Knicks Series and Strategic Advantages
01:40:04
Speaker
Boston Celtics represent the deepest team, the best team to come out of the East. It becomes a question of do they stop?
01:40:12
Speaker
Will they stop playing with their food? That's what that comes down to. They stop playing with their food. They should be better than the rest of the the pack in the playoffs. But at times they play with their food and they allow teams when they go through all the trouble of looking like they're gonna beat them, you know, beat their brains in.
01:40:30
Speaker
They allow them to hang around and then they make games in series that shouldn't even be happening. And then they wind up not executing down the stretch or coughing up games that they shouldn't be coughing up. So.
01:40:41
Speaker
With all that being said, I have the Celtics coming out in the East. And the West, I think, is a completely different situation because you can make the argument that whoever is coming out of that lower bracket will have beaten each other up so much that it may seem like it's easy peaking pickings for the OKC Thunder to get themselves to the conference finals, right? To get through the conference finals to get to the Western – to get to the to represent the West.
01:41:06
Speaker
um i think that if it comes down to denver and san antonio that's still going to be like a seven game bloodbath that'll wind up you know you know pushing the the limits and okc is just going be picking at parts um so with that being said okc boston in the finals i'm going i'm going i'm gonna let you know this right now man i let's go does the do I like in this NBA finals, bro. oh I really do.
01:41:37
Speaker
i know I know that this is going to come down to the better team defensively, and that really is OKC. But I've seen in stretches where the Boston Celtics have exhibited the kind of defense that gives OKC problems. And if this is the same kind of roster OKC messed around and allowed the Indiana Pacers to to to create havoc,
01:42:00
Speaker
in the finals and push them to seven games. I can't imagine when the Boston Celtics just start jacking up threes all over the place and start stretching that OKC Thunder defense. What's going to happen when OKC now has to run that game up 130 points. OKC likes games in the 115s, 120s, and their defense takes over and shuts down teams. The Celtics are just they just don't know how to stop.
01:42:24
Speaker
And if they get things going, they get things cooking early, OKC is going to start being desperate. And I'd love to see what happens when their their back is against the wall and they have to make that necessary adjustment. I think the Celtics are the best team to represent. I think the Celtics take it at six.
01:42:38
Speaker
What? oh Let's fucking go. I agree, though. When the Celtics, was telling my dad this the other day, I said, you know, when we get hot off the three at the beginning of the game, we will blow you out just like we were blowing out whoever that was the other day when we hit the record or the tied the record for 29 threes. We came out and had like 31 in the first like first like nine minutes or some shit. I was like, man, if they if they hit their threes, they are unbeatable. But it's when they are off on three pointers, which happens at least at once a series. they're gonna And I want to give back I want to give a SP. I want to give a quick shout out. i know Bobby j you're going to give your predictions a second. I want to give a quick shout out to my man Shaw, because we had this conversation the other night when we were doing our playoff predictions and and previews in the in regards to the first round. And he brought up an excellent point.
01:43:31
Speaker
The Boston Celtics have managed to win this many games and be able to be where people see them. And Derek White has arguably had one of his worst seasons as a Boston Celtic.
01:43:42
Speaker
but So can you imagine if Derek White actually enters the conversation playing at another level and playing at that playoff, you know, a two years ago level?
01:43:55
Speaker
that helped the Celtics win that and NBA championship if he enters into the chat as we say. This is going to be a different conversation about how good the Boston Celtics can truly be. And it doesn't even have to be about Derek White scoring 25 points or anything like that. It could just be about how Derek White is impacting the game on all facets like he was doing a couple of seasons ago. He has not done it consistently this year, but the Celtics have never had to worry about that because of all the contributions they've been getting from other players as well, too. But I think this is the opportunity for Derek White you know to come in here and turn to Mr. White.
01:44:30
Speaker
Yeah. yeah play ah And play a little Casino Royale on the Eastern Conference playoff picture. I like it. Mr. White and Mr. Pritchard, if you're nasty.
01:44:41
Speaker
um Bobby G. Bobby likes that one. Welcome. Walcar Mar tunes in. Our boy says Celtics scare me. Walcar Mar, we'll see you in just a few minutes on the WrestleMania preview show. Y'all tune in at 9 p.m. Eastern here in couple minutes on Ball and Buds.
01:44:56
Speaker
Stay tuned. Thank you, Walcar Mar. Yeah, Celtics are a scary team. And look, I just wanted to be realistic, and I just think that the Thunder, I think – They're the better team and and in my eyes. But now that you're saying all this talent does give me a lot of lot of faith and a lot of hope. So I'm looking forward to it. ah Bobby That's all I wanted to do, man. That's all that I wanted to do for you, SP, is give you faith. Thank my friend.
01:45:21
Speaker
That's why you're my friend. That's why I bring you on. all right, Bobby G, what you got? Who's yours, brother? I'll do my best essay impersonation. I appreciate the comments you guys have made, but you're wrong. Here's why.
01:45:33
Speaker
he um No, I'm still a little more information. It was, but you know, uh, I'm still little mindset that you have to take your loss before you win.
01:45:44
Speaker
With that being said, San Antonio Spurs disqualified. Uh, not that they haven't had a great season and not that they don't have a bright future, but you gotta take those lumps in the playoffs. You gotta earn it. think the last team who really didn't go through anything and just won a championship was what the Warriors for, uh, 15.
01:46:00
Speaker
fifteen Every other champion has kind of you know had their share of disappointments in the playoffs. um
01:46:10
Speaker
I got the Nuggets coming out of the West, and I'm changing. I mentioned yesterday I had OKC since then. I'm not mad at you for thinking that, bro. I'm not mad at you for thinking that. Same. i can see it.
01:46:21
Speaker
I don't like the fact that, again, the big three from OKC kind of haven't they haven't played together. How many games have they played together? Like less than 10 all season? um And for team that's really built around that chemistry,
01:46:35
Speaker
and
01:46:40
Speaker
I can't confidently stay stand behind them. ah I like the way the Nuggets closed out the season. I like the way Jamal Murray has attacked this season.
01:46:52
Speaker
And, yeah, I think I'm going to with the Nuggets to get the job and come out of the West. In the East. Yeah. And sorry to disappoint you, Omar. Don't you dare.
01:47:05
Speaker
um ah First, I agree with her everything Cal said about Evan Moby. um And earlier in the season, I said the winner the winter East would be whoever won between the Cavs and the Pistons whenever they played.
01:47:19
Speaker
don't still not feel that way, but I need to see which Evan Moby I'm going to get in the playoffs. The last month and a half of this season, Evan Mobley has been amazing.
01:47:30
Speaker
And if I get that Evan Mobley in the playoffs, oh the Cavs are going to be a problem. But as it stands with the unknown,
01:47:39
Speaker
I'm going with the Knicks. You're not even picking your Cavs. Oh, no. going with the Knicks. I think we make it to the Eastern Conference Finals. But I'm going with the Knicks. I think the Knicks take you guys out.
01:47:50
Speaker
This is not the experienced bench that won the championship for the Celtics. I'm sorry. Charming, yeah. they've They've done great things. They look good. They've been surprises in the regular season. But you guys, this is the playoffs.
01:48:02
Speaker
plant to whole that animal yeah That ain't Al Horford going out there. it ain't You know, Chris Dapps, that ain't. bobbi know Bobby, to tell you this, though, man. Nick's probably going to wish that that that the Celtics have to get taken out by whoever. does Oh, they don't want to play. yeah there Here's why I'm telling Y'all were on the way out last season.
01:48:27
Speaker
They had all 3-1 before Tatum got hurt. I think we could have came back won that championship. The Knicks had us 3-1 because we coughed two games in which we had 20-point lead. We should have won of those games. Thank you. Whose fault is that?
01:48:45
Speaker
You need to build a little bit of luck to win the championship, right? No, no, Bobby, I completely agree with you. But this is exactly, listen, this is exactly the reason why I think the Boston Celtics want the that the the New York Knicks. They are they are elated that the Knicks are bracket. Oh, we want our revenge. They are elated that the Knicks are in their bracket. I'm telling you right now.
01:49:04
Speaker
I just don't know if, my question is, is do you have that much confidence in Mike Brown coaching up this Knicks team and making sure that they understand the assignment here?
01:49:16
Speaker
Because let's let's keep it a let's keep it a buck. I have more confidence in Joe Mazzulla coaching that team the Celtics have than Mike Brown coaching that Knicks team. You know what I'm saying? I agree with that.
01:49:28
Speaker
If the Celtics were in the bracket of the Pistons or anything else, I would feel more confident about the Knicks getting to the Eastern Conference Finals. But my question is is, do you have that kind of confidence on the roster or do you have that confidence collectively with Mike Brown coaching that they're going to be able to get the job done to get to that part? And I just don't.
01:49:47
Speaker
None of the above. I don't have the confidence in Jason Tatum. That's wild. That is wild. ja has showed it. No, he know he didn't.
01:49:58
Speaker
Jason Tatum made a point. They were going to arrest him against the Dicks. He made a point said, I need to go into the garden. And he yeah he played like shit. That's okay. He had to get over the fact that he tore his ankle. Exactly, which means mentally his playoffs don't start in the first round. His playoffs don't start. It doesn't matter the Celtics have home court. It does matter because the Celtics also lost that game.
01:50:24
Speaker
And he played bad. His playoffs don't start in round one. His playoffs here start against the Knicks, and that could be a problem. See, that that to me is where I think you and I differ, Bobby.
01:50:37
Speaker
I don't disagree in that aspect of it, but I don't think that this is about Jason Tatum. And if if if if that is you know what you're riding it on, it's it's is whether or not Jason Tatum is like he's the X factor when you look at the rosters and how the Knicks are set up,
01:50:53
Speaker
again my x factor is not jason tatum as much as it is derrick white i think derrick white if he is locked in and playing in playoff derrick white form the knicks are not going to have an answer for him they are not going to have an answer for him they don't have an answer for him and the celtics can put as many bodies as they would like as they want to they could put baylor shireman on on jalen brunson if they want to you know what saying Because they know that it's Jalen Brunson that they don't want beating them, right, in the fourth quarter.
01:51:26
Speaker
So they will do everything in their power to force everyone else on that roster to beat the Boston Celtics. And that's the reason why this is more about why I don't have that kind of confidence in the New York Knicks getting the job done in that regard because there's a lack of consistency in their ability to get shots the way that they're supposed to.
01:51:44
Speaker
unless Jalen Brunson is the person taking those shots. And that's Mike Brown's responsibility. And they still haven't figured it out. you know so that But again, i agree I get where you're coming from.
01:51:56
Speaker
You know what I'm saying? i just I'm just not putting it on Jason Tatum. is why That's the reason why I feel the way that I feel in that in that regard. and shout out to ah And shout out to your brother, your partner in crime, Warren, coming through with a Peyton Pritchard-like clutch basket at the end of the quarter. No Jalen Brown that game. I completely forgot. We didn't have Jalen Brown. So if Jalen Brown would played, we would have easily won that game.
01:52:22
Speaker
Get out of here. don't want hear that. Anyways, so do you have the do you have the nuggets over do you have the Nuggets over the Knicks? Is that have? Yeah, I got the Nuggets beating the Knicks. No, well, thank God. i was like, oh, okay.
01:52:35
Speaker
You did all of that. like I couldn't like the but i couldn handle it if he said something else. Oh, my God. What are we doing here? No. Yeah, absolutely. i was like, do we really want Mike? i was like, we really want Mike Brown to win this chip. that's like And so as an update here, I will show you who we got.
01:52:54
Speaker
NBA champions. Cal Lee has our Celtics beating the Thunder. Desmond and myself have the Thunder over the Celtics, although I reserve my right to change that since I am a Celtics fan and Cal kind of changed my mind there. And Bobby G, way off the board, nuggets over the Knicks. But it could if it if if that comes true, though, wow, you will get all the props in the world, Bobby G. That being said, Bobby G, you don't need to give your channels because you're going to be on my next show and you can give them there.
01:53:23
Speaker
no I'm just joking. There's a different crowd. Go ahead, Bobby G. Let them know where they can find you. I didn't know what it is, man. Mondays and Wednesdays, you catch me game time 216 with the homie Big Mike talking on cleve all things Cleveland. And on Thursdays and Fridays, you catch me with Wildcard Mar and April D. Jets girls on a Audible Sports Podcast. Thursdays all football, and Fridays a little bit, it gets crazy. So, you know, be careful what you tune in for. Then, of course, on Thursdays from 4 to 6 Eastern, you catch me with the with the with my guys over from Rec Room Sports Hub on ESPN Radio 690 Jacksonville AM.
01:53:56
Speaker
So, there's that. Big time. i cannot i can I will continue to say congratulations to you and the crew for getting ESPN. that's That's big time, homie. That's huge. So congrats. um Another huge get for us on this podcast. Shout out Cal and Warren for helping out.
01:54:13
Speaker
Desmond, man, you brought the heat today. You brought the energy, my brother. You brought that knowledge, that expertise, and it was an amazing show to have you on. Can't wait to have you on in the future. Go ahead and let them people know where they can find you.
01:54:27
Speaker
ah Yeah, likewise, man. I mean, it was a pleasure to talk to you, Bobby G, Kyle, as always. I caught the baseline episode this morning. Y'all already had me hyped. So when I knew I was doing this, I knew I had to come correct and match the energy like we do on 19. Of course, you guys can catch the Midpost every Tuesday, ah weekly show, weekly podcast. Again, the socials at MidpostPod on all platforms, Twitter, Instagram, at DesmondPowell underscore, same platforms, as well as TikTok. to catch more announcements and clips from the show.
01:55:00
Speaker
Murray, appreciate that. Cal, my brother, let him know. Hey, Baseline NBA podcast. Be sure to check us out. 19 Media Group. Go on the YouTube channel. You'll catch us. You'll also be able to catch Midpost. You'll catch all of the great content from, know what I'm saying, the 19 Media Group family, sports, culture, entertainment, music. You got it. 19 Media Group has it. And again, at the Warren Schar at Game Face Lee.
01:55:25
Speaker
um Yep. Man, we got a lot going in the hopper, man. Autopsy Reports is on is already underway. And obviously we're going to give our predictions throughout the NBA playoffs, um second round, going all the way up into the finals and stuff. So a lot happening, man. And again, man, just always grateful to be on and, you know saying, continuing to chop it up with you fellas.
01:55:45
Speaker
Yes, sir. And I was supposed to be going out of town for the month of May, but I'm going to be here. So we're going to probably do this here again in a couple of weeks. Get an update on the playoffs, maybe right before the fight maybe before the finals, maybe maybe before the Eastern Conference, Western Conference finals.
01:55:59
Speaker
We'll get back together here in a couple of weeks. so Sound good, gentlemen? Well, hey, I really appreciate y'all as always. Thank you for blessing my stream. Thank you for blessing the Ball and Buds family. Y'all can find Ball and Buds at B-A-L-L-A-N-D-B-U-D-S on YouTube. Make subscribe. Also follow on Instagram, handy QR code up there at the top. We'll take you to our link tree. You can find all of our social medias there. Please make sure you tap in with everybody here, 19 Media Group, Audible Sports, Audible Podcast. NBA baseline and the mid post pod. We are all on IG. And until two minutes from now, when we come back on for WrestleMania, probably five minutes, give me time to go use the bathroom. We'll be right back on with WrestleMania. Wildcard Mars, Shane Peach, Hot Take Jake and AP will be joining us. So tune in in just a couple of minutes for WrestleMania. That being said, for all of my fantastic special guests here, I am your host, Omar, the sports professor Fonseca, and we will see you next time.
01:56:56
Speaker
Holla. Awesome buds by side, the crowd.