May 3, 2024 • 29 mins
Marc Stein goes solo on a new edition of #thisleague UNCUT reacting to the Lakers parting ways with head coach Darvin Ham after 2 seasons and who the potential candidates are to replace him. He also dives in on the offseason approach for the 76ers and the Bucks as they were both eliminated from the playoffs and what they can do to keep their superstars happy and return to title contending form.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to this league. I'm cutting in the rule of
twenty four hour NBA news. This's you, Chris Haynes. It's
so time, work's time, It's so time. This league uncut
is underway and on fire. This should be a good one. Hey, everyone,
(00:26):
welcome in to the latest addition of this league uncut.
An instant reaction addition to some breaking news in hashtag
this league. Because the Lakers on Friday, they have made
the expected official formally parting ways with their coach, Darvin Ham.
(00:49):
I am coming to you in solo audio dispatch form
in the wake of Ham's dismissal Friday, because Chris Haynes
and I we've both been running around all over the
place on playoff assignments. Chris has been working the Eastern
Conference in Round one. I've been going back and forth
(01:10):
between Dallas and LA covering the Mavericks Clippers series, so
between travel, time zone clashes, we just haven't been able
to connect since we recorded Monday's pod the way we
had hoped. We will rectify that. I promise you we
will fix that asap. But in today's pod, doing it
(01:34):
this way, solo essay style, hopefully we can catch you
up on everything happening, starting of course, with the Lakers
firing of Ham, and the signs were building that this
is where it was heading, given the Lakers inability to
get out of the first round, given the Lakers inability
to hold several leads in the Denver Series, even after
(01:58):
a trip to the Western Conference Finals last season, winning
the n Season Tournament as recently as December, pressure had
been mounting on him four weeks now. He certainly had
no shortage of detractors this season regarding lineups, rotations, and
(02:19):
more recently, how he was connecting with Anthony Davis given
some of the stuff that we heard a d say.
But look, the Lakers, not unlike Phoenix. They've got roster
issues to address, not as many as Phoenix maybe, But
a coaching change is only going to fix so much here.
(02:41):
And that's especially true because the list of established championship
coaches out there available to the Lakers, it's very, very short.
You're already hearing tons of talk about ty Lou as
a potential Lakers coaching candidate. Tylu is still under contract
to the Clippers. No matter what happens later tonight in Dallas,
(03:04):
Tylu is not available to the Lakers as we speak,
and don't forget that the Lakers passed on the chance
to hire Taran Lou in the first place, back when
they ended up hiring Frank Vogel, offered the job to
ty Lou, couldn't come to terms with Tylo, and Tylu
ended up coaching the Clippers. Mike Budenholzer, three years removed
(03:26):
from steering the Bucks to a championship, he is available,
and what the Lakers will ultimately have to decide here
is do they narrow their focus to coaches who have
not just experience but title experience like Budenholzer, or would
(03:47):
the Lakers Fresh off these last two seasons with Darvin Ham,
are the Lakers prepared to seriously consider another first time
coach like JJ Reddick. The ESPN broadcaster Lebron James podcast partner,
I've been writing about JJ Reddick's potential candidacy in Lakerland
(04:10):
since Tuesday, but again, we don't know yet whether the
Lakers would be willing to hire another first time coach
after moving away from Darvin Ham so quickly, even a
first time coach like Reddick, who, obviously, by virtue of
their new podcast, he's already got a working relationship with
(04:33):
Lebron James and wherever and however this thing goes. The
NBA off season coaching carousel just got its first significant nudge.
The pre existing openings before this one, we know Brooklyn
has already hired Jordi Fernandez from Sacramento staff to be
the next new coach. So the only other openings at
(04:55):
the moment are Charlotte and Washington. Those teams, of course,
at the bottom of the East standings much lower profile
jobs than the Laker job. And when we talk about
the Laker job, we are talking about one of the
hottest seats in professional sports. You heard Darvin Ham the
other day, right after the Lakers were eliminated with a
(05:17):
game five loss in Denver. Two straight seasons the Lakers
are knocked out of the playoffs by the Denver Nuggets.
You heard Darvin Ham say that his two years in
that seat had been quote a hell of a time.
He was already speaking like a coach, like a man
who knew what was coming. And Ham's dismissal it's just
(05:42):
the start of what I expect is going to be
a pretty frenzied off season because we had so many
teams We're going to talk about this next. So many
teams came into the season with big expectations and lost early.
And just think about what we've already seen here as
(06:03):
the first round of these playoffs dribbled to a close.
Let's go through it. Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, Clay Thompson
and the Golden State Warriors, Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, Bradley
Beal and the Phoenix Suns, Lebron James, Anthony Davis and
(06:23):
the aforementioned Lakers, Jimmy Butler, bam Adebayo and the Miami Heat,
Janna Santetokumpo, Damian Lillard and the Milwaukee Bucks, and finally,
last night, Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and the Philadelphia seventy
six ers. Now, you guys know, I am no Vegas expert,
(06:44):
so I'm not quite sure how to calculate this, but
just imagine the odds you could have gotten in Vegas,
Let's say around Halloween if you had made a six
way bet, assuming that's even league. I really don't know
if it is, but let's assume that you made a
six way bet. Did I get that right? One? Two, three, four, five,
(07:08):
six teams that none of those Star Layden six teams,
not a single one of those six teams would reach
the second round of the NBA playoffs. That's where we
are in this league. After a pretty chaotic Thursday night,
you had Milwaukee and Philly the latest marquee teams to
(07:31):
be ushered straight into an early offseason. And yeah, it's
going to be wild, stressful, complicated when you look at
all those teams and the difficult pathways almost all of
them face to really improving their rosters. I really should
(07:53):
include New Orleans in this conversation. After Pelicans GM David Griffin,
he came out after the Oklahoma City inflicted sweep of
the Zion Williamson lists Pels. David Griffin all but promised
that the Pelicans are going to be very active in
the trade market this offseason, so that instantly as you
(08:15):
start asking questions about who is likely to be moved
there brandon Ingram, is that a trade scenario that the
Pelicans are going to look into. There are so many
significant and tricky decisions that will have to be made
by all of these teams leaving the playoffs early. And look,
(08:37):
we cannot forget and we shouldn't forget, we should never
put this to the side. Injuries have absolutely overwhelmed the
whole league in the first round of these playoffs. You know,
I mentioned Zion there not being available for New Orleans,
and we know what's happened in Milwaukee. Game was able
(08:58):
to play in Game six, but Ya was not for
the Bucks. And we can go on and on and
on because there are that many injuries and they're really
you struggle to find a first round series or any
team in the postseason that has gone unscathed here. I mean,
(09:19):
not even coaches are safe right now. I am absolutely
sick for Minnesota's Chris Finch about the knee injury he
sustained when everyone's favorite Timberwolf, the newly minted the NBA's
newly minted teammate of the Year, Mike Conley, plowed into
Fitch on the sideline in the wolves sweep clinching win
(09:44):
over Phoenix, and it inflicted a serious knee injury that
required surgery. It will absolutely suck if Finch's ability to
coach against the Nuggets in the Tim Connolly Bowl is
comp and it almost surely has to be given how
serious this injury was. It is so brutal and unfair
(10:08):
to Finch and look cruel as this is. We will
have time to come back to that series to laser
in on the second round and discuss the Wolves matchup
with the defending champions from Denver that is to come.
(10:31):
The immediate focus this week is what's been happening with
all these headliner teams that have been ousted. And we
got our answer in terms of Darvin Ham in Lakerland.
But again, I'm not sure that a coaching change is
going to drastically alter and raise the Lakers overall ceiling
(10:58):
Lebron James is affected at this point. All the signals
suggest that he will stay with the Lakers. We don't
know yet what the contract structure will be. But the
real curiosity, yes, the Lakers have a coaching search to
conduct right now, but the real curiosity what kind of
trade can the Lakers make to upgrade their roster. Remember
(11:21):
they didn't do a deal at the trade deadline in
February with the one first round pick they had available
to move at that time. But I thought that was
the right call, and we're seeing exactly why now because
they have to do something significant now and now they
will have three first round picks at their disposal to
make a significant trade at the June draft or is
(11:44):
it early July. Atlanta's Trey Young. We've been talking about
him as a potential Lakers trade target since February. But
will that list expand I suspect that it will. I
think it's too early in the postseason for the trade
market to really have crystallized in terms of potential players
(12:04):
the Lakers can go after. I think in the next
four to six weeks there will be another name or
two or three who emerges as a potential Lakers trade target.
So and honestly, we could have started this rundown this
portion of the discussion with Phoenix because Frank Vogel is
under no shortage of pressure in terms of his job
(12:29):
security in Phoenix. And that's because, unlike the Lakers, the
Suns don't have easy pathways to improving their team. And
that's why there's been so much talk already about Frank
Vogel after a forty nine and thirty three season in
(12:50):
which he only had his three star players Booker, Durant
and Beale. They only played together in forty one of
the eighty two games. That's why you're hearing so much
about Frank Vogel's job status because meaningfully changing this underachieving
roster is going to be incredibly difficult for the Suns
(13:14):
because of all the restrictions they face as a second
apron luxury tax team. With apologies, of course, to Sons
owner Matt Ishbia, who had the temerity to proclaim the
following at a news conference Wednesday.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Oh, it's extremely fixable. I mean, let's just be real.
Although this isn't a cool narrative and the national media
really won't want to play it out there, but like
ask the other twenty nine gms, twenty six of them
would trade their whole team for our whole team, and
our whole in our draft picks and everything as it is, Like,
the house is not on fire. We're in great position.
It's not hard to fix it. It's not like we're like, hey,
we don't have enough talent to win a champion. We
(13:51):
have enough talent to win a championship, right, Do we
have enough continuity? We have time together, Like, there's a
lot of things we can look at. Do we have
like the right leadership in place? Do we have to
add some pieces around? It's not like we don't have
people that can score the Babel not that play defense
and have one chance, like we have all the things,
and so how fixable is it? And I mean, if
I read the media, I would think we have a
lot of problems. But luckily I get to spend time
(14:14):
with you know, the best players in the world. In
my opinion, the best coach is GMS see all these people,
and I get to spend time with our people and say,
we're in really great shape. And I wouldn't trade our
team or our situation for anyone else's except for I'd
like to be playing right now. But besides that, for like,
how going into the offseason, I feel great about it.
It's not like there's a lot of other teams that
have good players that have to resign them or they're
(14:34):
going to lose them, or that they might they're unrestrict
your free agents. Like our starting five's coming back.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
I feel very good about it. Some truly impressive and
fascinating defiance there from matt Ishbia, But no, dare I
say that twenty six of twenty nine teams would not
trade situations with the Phoenix Suns, And no, the Sons
of Phoenix are not regarded to be in a great position,
(15:00):
as he also claimed there, and I would also suspect
that Ishbia will soon be able to confirm all of
this for himself once this offseason gets going in earnest
and the Sons try to make roster changes if they
don't want to trade Kevin Durant or Devin Booker, and
I strongly doubt they want to do either. Can they
(15:23):
trade use of Nurkic? Can they trade Grayson Allen after
they just extended him? That couldn't even happen until October.
Grayson Allen is not trade eligible until next season starts,
So just very limited options for the Suns going forward
roster wise. Miami, the Heat's response to an early exit
(15:46):
will start with extending Jimmy Butler's contract or not extending
Jimmy Butler's contract after a season in which, yes, Butler
only appeared in sixty regular season games, but he all
so performed absolutely heroically in the play in Tournament. Remember,
(16:06):
he played out the opening game of the play in
Tournament against Philly on a badly spraying knee, and he
nearly led Heat culture to a win over Philly in
that one. The Heat don't have to extend Butler. He
turns thirty five in September, But what will it do
to the relationship if they don't extend him after For
(16:29):
so long now, Butler has been the central figure of
the whole heat culture movement post Dwayne Wade the Bucks.
I am absolutely relieved for them that Jannis Antetokumpo did
not try to play in Game six. Hearing Yannis speak
(16:51):
to reporters in Milwaukee on Friday on the day after
the Bucks elimination, he really didn't sound close, But I
have to say I was also I was flat out
frightened for Milwaukee that Chris's guy, Damian Lillard did insist
on playing in Game six with a less than pristine achilles.
(17:14):
I'm super relieved for Dame on the Bucks that there
was no apparent further damage. And I mean, look, I
understand they had a shot to if they could have
won Game six in Indianapolis. This thing is now a
Game seven decider in Milwaukee, but man, that I felt
like they were risking a lot just to have Dame
(17:35):
on the floor. And now that it's over, this was
an absolutely nightmarish season in Brewtown. It began with such
promise no, there will be no comeback from three to
one down for Doc Rivers. And now that they're heading
into the offseason, I wrote about this as well earlier
(17:56):
in the week, teams are already hope, crossing their fingers
tightly wishing, praying that Yannis is moved to rethink his
future as a Milwaukee Buck, even though it was just
last October that the Yanas response to the Damian Lillard
(18:17):
trade acquisition was to immediately sign a three year max
extension with Milwaukee. But that's not gonna stop potential Yannis
trade suitors from lusting after the idea that he is
somehow unsettled. There anew and then the Sixers. I mean,
(18:46):
it's been more than twenty seasons now since we've seen
Philadelphia in the Conference finals. This time they didn't even
get the chance to slam into their usual second round wall,
losing to the Knicks in six games. But when we
look at Philly, first of all, this does not have
(19:07):
the feel of another playoff face plant, a feeling that
the Sixers and their fans know all too well. I mean,
this time Philly lost a series filled with haymakers and
bonkers endings. Okay, they lost it to the Knicks, but
they did so with Joel Embiid rushing back from a
(19:28):
knee injury, probably faster than he should have, and that
knee injury it dropped Philly from second to seventh in
the East. And unlike pretty much every other team we've
talked about here so far, the Sixers really do have
some tangible hope for the future because they're gonna have
more than fifty million in cap space this summer to
(19:51):
try to find that third star to pair with Embiid
and the rising Tyrese Maxey. And look, the free agent
market is not teaming with wonderful options. But when you
have cap space, you can also make trades. You can
trade players into cap space. And I think we know
that Darryl Morey loves to make a trade or two
(20:14):
when he has the chance. And so I think all
of Philadelphia right now is trying to work out how
Tobias Harris could go scoreless in twenty nine minutes, everyone
naturally concluding that this will be the last time we
see Tobias Harris in a Philly uniform. But look, the
(20:36):
Sixers as we speak, Yes, their season is over, but
they are seen as the foremost threat on the NBA
map to swipe Paul George away from the Clippers. The
Orlando Magic also have to be in that conversation, but
(20:58):
it's the Sixers who have the clip most concerned here,
and I'm talking about long term concerns, of course, the
immediate concern for the Clippers. Just in a few hours
after I finish recording this, I am headed straight to
the American Airline Center for Game six in Dallas Friday night.
(21:19):
The Mavericks will have another opportunity just hours after this
episode drops to bring the Clippers season to an end
and finally avenge those first round playoff losses to Kawhi
Leonard and Paul George and the Clippers in both twenty
twenty and twenty twenty one. And I have to say
it is this is such a wild night in Dallas
(21:41):
because Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever are in town
for Caitlin Clark's first WNBA exhibition game. That's happening here
in town or in the Greater DFW area same night
as the Maverick's chance to close out a playoff series
(22:03):
at home for the first time in twenty eleven. Unfortunately,
these two massive games are in completely different places. It
would have been wonderful if somehow this could have been
a doubleheader at the AAC with Caitlin Clark playing in
her first exhibition game in the WNBA, followed by mas
(22:28):
Clippers game six. How amazing would that have been to
have both of these games in the same place. There's
no way to be in the same place. And I
will be at the playoff game again as the Mavericks
try to close out a playoff opponent at home for
the first time since they're run to a championship in
(22:51):
twenty eleven, and if it happens tonight, then the Clippers
concerns they immediately shift fully to trying to hang on
to join Origin free agency and trying to do a
new deal with Tron Lou because they need to extend Tylu.
Tylu should not be in the last year of his deal,
(23:11):
and Kawhi Leonard he was only healthy enough to play
in two games of this series. This is the Clippers
third series against the Mavericks in the space of five years,
and Kawhi is the only member of that Clippers corps
who is signed for the long term. Paul George, James Harden,
(23:33):
Tylu all of them need new deals as LA's other
team prepares to relocate to Inglewood. Of course, next season
they'll be playing in the new and two at Dome.
And basically now Orlando has to win a Game six
at home against Cleveland, or the Clippers have to find
(23:54):
a way to steal another win in Dallas without Kawhi.
That's the only way we're going to get a Game
seven in this first round. It did look like the
Knicks and Sixers might be heading to go the distance
after Maxie and Philly found a way to steal that
crazy Game five at the Garden. But now we're just
(24:16):
down to two outstanding series. Calves lead the Magic three
to two, Mavericks lead the Clippers three two. Those series
could be wrapped up by end of business tonight, and look,
soon enough, Round two will be here the Tim Connelly Bowl.
We will be talking about that a lot Timberwolves Nuggets
(24:40):
in the second round. We know we're getting Nicks Pacers
in the East second round, and that one, of course
serves up a delicious subplot of Jalen Brunson. Remember he
only played ten minutes in a Game seven in the
last game he ever played with Rick Carlyle as his
coach in Dallas, and now Jalen Brunson will be leading
(25:03):
the Knicks, although they are still the banged up Knicks.
He will be leading the Knicks against the Carlisle led
Pacers in round two, the Thunder and the Celtics. They
still await the identities of their second round opponents. But
before we go, we do need to point out that
the Celtics, after months and months and months of anticipation
(25:27):
that Boston would potentially reunite with Milwaukee or Philadelphia, or
maybe even both in the playoffs, the Celtics now have
to beat neither to get to the NBA Finals again,
which is probably a good thing given that Christops Porzingis
is now out indefinitely with a calf strain, because of course,
(25:48):
we needed yet another injury. I do think the Celtics
can win two more rounds and get back to the
finals without Porzingis, so they can play it safe and
give him as much time as possible to recover, because
they do need something close to a full steam poor
Zingis if they're matching up with Denver in the NBA Finals,
(26:13):
or even if Minnesota gets there with all of its
size in the NBA Finals. Boston's gonna need Porzingis and
the length and versatility he brings both to their offense
and their defense. All Right, I think that will pretty
much get us caught up for the week that was
(26:37):
heading into Friday nights games. As I mentioned, been kind
of a whirlwind for Chris and I. He's been traveling.
I've been traveling. But Sunday night or Monday night at
the latest, we will reconnect and we will dive further
into all of this. The coaching carousel, the offseason chatter
(26:58):
about potential player moves. You watch, this stuff is going
to start to really spark up now that so many
of these teams that were expected to do big things
this season, now that so many of them have been
sent home. And I mentioned the Warriors in there. We
didn't even get a chance really to touch on the
complicated decisions they face when it comes to trying to
(27:21):
enhance their roster. Let alone, the Kings and the Bulls
and the Hawks, the other three teams that exited this postseason.
In the Play and Round, it's about to really start
getting busy again on the transactional front. And I know
you guys love hearing that the draft lottery is fast approaching.
(27:43):
We know six first round losers, many of them prominent.
They have to start plotting their next moves immediately because
of what happened this week. And you're gonna want to
stay dialed in with us to stay on top of
all the activity that's going to take place over the
next two months and change. The Darvin Ham dismissal is
(28:05):
only the start of it. That is going to do
it for this edition of This League Uncut. As always,
please follow the show via Apple or Spotify or wherever
you get your podcasts. Please rate the show, review the
show for Chris Haynes and producer Ryan and for me
Mark Stein. Your support is very much appreciated. We will
(28:29):
be back together again very very soon. Thanks everyone for listening,
and that'll do it for us. See you next time.
This League Uncut is and iHeartRadio production Chris Haynes and
(28:49):
Mark Stein. I didn't
Welcome to this league. I'm cutting in the rule of
twenty four hour NBA news. This's you, Chris Haynes. It's
so time, work's time, It's so time. This league uncut
is underway and on fire. This should be a good one. Hey, everyone,
(00:26):
welcome in to the latest addition of this league uncut.
An instant reaction addition to some breaking news in hashtag
this league. Because the Lakers on Friday, they have made
the expected official formally parting ways with their coach, Darvin Ham.
(00:49):
I am coming to you in solo audio dispatch form
in the wake of Ham's dismissal Friday, because Chris Haynes
and I we've both been running around all over the
place on playoff assignments. Chris has been working the Eastern
Conference in Round one. I've been going back and forth
(01:10):
between Dallas and LA covering the Mavericks Clippers series, so
between travel, time zone clashes, we just haven't been able
to connect since we recorded Monday's pod the way we
had hoped. We will rectify that. I promise you we
will fix that asap. But in today's pod, doing it
(01:34):
this way, solo essay style, hopefully we can catch you
up on everything happening, starting of course, with the Lakers
firing of Ham, and the signs were building that this
is where it was heading, given the Lakers inability to
get out of the first round, given the Lakers inability
to hold several leads in the Denver Series, even after
(01:58):
a trip to the Western Conference Finals last season, winning
the n Season Tournament as recently as December, pressure had
been mounting on him four weeks now. He certainly had
no shortage of detractors this season regarding lineups, rotations, and
(02:19):
more recently, how he was connecting with Anthony Davis given
some of the stuff that we heard a d say.
But look, the Lakers, not unlike Phoenix. They've got roster
issues to address, not as many as Phoenix maybe, But
a coaching change is only going to fix so much here.
(02:41):
And that's especially true because the list of established championship
coaches out there available to the Lakers, it's very, very short.
You're already hearing tons of talk about ty Lou as
a potential Lakers coaching candidate. Tylu is still under contract
to the Clippers. No matter what happens later tonight in Dallas,
(03:04):
Tylu is not available to the Lakers as we speak,
and don't forget that the Lakers passed on the chance
to hire Taran Lou in the first place, back when
they ended up hiring Frank Vogel, offered the job to
ty Lou, couldn't come to terms with Tylo, and Tylu
ended up coaching the Clippers. Mike Budenholzer, three years removed
(03:26):
from steering the Bucks to a championship, he is available,
and what the Lakers will ultimately have to decide here
is do they narrow their focus to coaches who have
not just experience but title experience like Budenholzer, or would
(03:47):
the Lakers Fresh off these last two seasons with Darvin Ham,
are the Lakers prepared to seriously consider another first time
coach like JJ Reddick. The ESPN broadcaster Lebron James podcast partner,
I've been writing about JJ Reddick's potential candidacy in Lakerland
(04:10):
since Tuesday, but again, we don't know yet whether the
Lakers would be willing to hire another first time coach
after moving away from Darvin Ham so quickly, even a
first time coach like Reddick, who, obviously, by virtue of
their new podcast, he's already got a working relationship with
(04:33):
Lebron James and wherever and however this thing goes. The
NBA off season coaching carousel just got its first significant nudge.
The pre existing openings before this one, we know Brooklyn
has already hired Jordi Fernandez from Sacramento staff to be
the next new coach. So the only other openings at
(04:55):
the moment are Charlotte and Washington. Those teams, of course,
at the bottom of the East standings much lower profile
jobs than the Laker job. And when we talk about
the Laker job, we are talking about one of the
hottest seats in professional sports. You heard Darvin Ham the
other day, right after the Lakers were eliminated with a
(05:17):
game five loss in Denver. Two straight seasons the Lakers
are knocked out of the playoffs by the Denver Nuggets.
You heard Darvin Ham say that his two years in
that seat had been quote a hell of a time.
He was already speaking like a coach, like a man
who knew what was coming. And Ham's dismissal it's just
(05:42):
the start of what I expect is going to be
a pretty frenzied off season because we had so many
teams We're going to talk about this next. So many
teams came into the season with big expectations and lost early.
And just think about what we've already seen here as
(06:03):
the first round of these playoffs dribbled to a close.
Let's go through it. Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, Clay Thompson
and the Golden State Warriors, Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, Bradley
Beal and the Phoenix Suns, Lebron James, Anthony Davis and
(06:23):
the aforementioned Lakers, Jimmy Butler, bam Adebayo and the Miami Heat,
Janna Santetokumpo, Damian Lillard and the Milwaukee Bucks, and finally,
last night, Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and the Philadelphia seventy
six ers. Now, you guys know, I am no Vegas expert,
(06:44):
so I'm not quite sure how to calculate this, but
just imagine the odds you could have gotten in Vegas,
Let's say around Halloween if you had made a six
way bet, assuming that's even league. I really don't know
if it is, but let's assume that you made a
six way bet. Did I get that right? One? Two, three, four, five,
(07:08):
six teams that none of those Star Layden six teams,
not a single one of those six teams would reach
the second round of the NBA playoffs. That's where we
are in this league. After a pretty chaotic Thursday night,
you had Milwaukee and Philly the latest marquee teams to
(07:31):
be ushered straight into an early offseason. And yeah, it's
going to be wild, stressful, complicated when you look at
all those teams and the difficult pathways almost all of
them face to really improving their rosters. I really should
(07:53):
include New Orleans in this conversation. After Pelicans GM David Griffin,
he came out after the Oklahoma City inflicted sweep of
the Zion Williamson lists Pels. David Griffin all but promised
that the Pelicans are going to be very active in
the trade market this offseason, so that instantly as you
(08:15):
start asking questions about who is likely to be moved
there brandon Ingram, is that a trade scenario that the
Pelicans are going to look into. There are so many
significant and tricky decisions that will have to be made
by all of these teams leaving the playoffs early. And look,
(08:37):
we cannot forget and we shouldn't forget, we should never
put this to the side. Injuries have absolutely overwhelmed the
whole league in the first round of these playoffs. You know,
I mentioned Zion there not being available for New Orleans,
and we know what's happened in Milwaukee. Game was able
(08:58):
to play in Game six, but Ya was not for
the Bucks. And we can go on and on and
on because there are that many injuries and they're really
you struggle to find a first round series or any
team in the postseason that has gone unscathed here. I mean,
(09:19):
not even coaches are safe right now. I am absolutely
sick for Minnesota's Chris Finch about the knee injury he
sustained when everyone's favorite Timberwolf, the newly minted the NBA's
newly minted teammate of the Year, Mike Conley, plowed into
Fitch on the sideline in the wolves sweep clinching win
(09:44):
over Phoenix, and it inflicted a serious knee injury that
required surgery. It will absolutely suck if Finch's ability to
coach against the Nuggets in the Tim Connolly Bowl is
comp and it almost surely has to be given how
serious this injury was. It is so brutal and unfair
(10:08):
to Finch and look cruel as this is. We will
have time to come back to that series to laser
in on the second round and discuss the Wolves matchup
with the defending champions from Denver that is to come.
(10:31):
The immediate focus this week is what's been happening with
all these headliner teams that have been ousted. And we
got our answer in terms of Darvin Ham in Lakerland.
But again, I'm not sure that a coaching change is
going to drastically alter and raise the Lakers overall ceiling
(10:58):
Lebron James is affected at this point. All the signals
suggest that he will stay with the Lakers. We don't
know yet what the contract structure will be. But the
real curiosity, yes, the Lakers have a coaching search to
conduct right now, but the real curiosity what kind of
trade can the Lakers make to upgrade their roster. Remember
(11:21):
they didn't do a deal at the trade deadline in
February with the one first round pick they had available
to move at that time. But I thought that was
the right call, and we're seeing exactly why now because
they have to do something significant now and now they
will have three first round picks at their disposal to
make a significant trade at the June draft or is
(11:44):
it early July. Atlanta's Trey Young. We've been talking about
him as a potential Lakers trade target since February. But
will that list expand I suspect that it will. I
think it's too early in the postseason for the trade
market to really have crystallized in terms of potential players
(12:04):
the Lakers can go after. I think in the next
four to six weeks there will be another name or
two or three who emerges as a potential Lakers trade target.
So and honestly, we could have started this rundown this
portion of the discussion with Phoenix because Frank Vogel is
under no shortage of pressure in terms of his job
(12:29):
security in Phoenix. And that's because, unlike the Lakers, the
Suns don't have easy pathways to improving their team. And
that's why there's been so much talk already about Frank
Vogel after a forty nine and thirty three season in
(12:50):
which he only had his three star players Booker, Durant
and Beale. They only played together in forty one of
the eighty two games. That's why you're hearing so much
about Frank Vogel's job status because meaningfully changing this underachieving
roster is going to be incredibly difficult for the Suns
(13:14):
because of all the restrictions they face as a second
apron luxury tax team. With apologies, of course, to Sons
owner Matt Ishbia, who had the temerity to proclaim the
following at a news conference Wednesday.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Oh, it's extremely fixable. I mean, let's just be real.
Although this isn't a cool narrative and the national media
really won't want to play it out there, but like
ask the other twenty nine gms, twenty six of them
would trade their whole team for our whole team, and
our whole in our draft picks and everything as it is, Like,
the house is not on fire. We're in great position.
It's not hard to fix it. It's not like we're like, hey,
we don't have enough talent to win a champion. We
(13:51):
have enough talent to win a championship, right, Do we
have enough continuity? We have time together, Like, there's a
lot of things we can look at. Do we have
like the right leadership in place? Do we have to
add some pieces around? It's not like we don't have
people that can score the Babel not that play defense
and have one chance, like we have all the things,
and so how fixable is it? And I mean, if
I read the media, I would think we have a
lot of problems. But luckily I get to spend time
(14:14):
with you know, the best players in the world. In
my opinion, the best coach is GMS see all these people,
and I get to spend time with our people and say,
we're in really great shape. And I wouldn't trade our
team or our situation for anyone else's except for I'd
like to be playing right now. But besides that, for like,
how going into the offseason, I feel great about it.
It's not like there's a lot of other teams that
have good players that have to resign them or they're
(14:34):
going to lose them, or that they might they're unrestrict
your free agents. Like our starting five's coming back.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
I feel very good about it. Some truly impressive and
fascinating defiance there from matt Ishbia, But no, dare I
say that twenty six of twenty nine teams would not
trade situations with the Phoenix Suns, And no, the Sons
of Phoenix are not regarded to be in a great position,
(15:00):
as he also claimed there, and I would also suspect
that Ishbia will soon be able to confirm all of
this for himself once this offseason gets going in earnest
and the Sons try to make roster changes if they
don't want to trade Kevin Durant or Devin Booker, and
I strongly doubt they want to do either. Can they
(15:23):
trade use of Nurkic? Can they trade Grayson Allen after
they just extended him? That couldn't even happen until October.
Grayson Allen is not trade eligible until next season starts,
So just very limited options for the Suns going forward
roster wise. Miami, the Heat's response to an early exit
(15:46):
will start with extending Jimmy Butler's contract or not extending
Jimmy Butler's contract after a season in which, yes, Butler
only appeared in sixty regular season games, but he all
so performed absolutely heroically in the play in Tournament. Remember,
(16:06):
he played out the opening game of the play in
Tournament against Philly on a badly spraying knee, and he
nearly led Heat culture to a win over Philly in
that one. The Heat don't have to extend Butler. He
turns thirty five in September, But what will it do
to the relationship if they don't extend him after For
(16:29):
so long now, Butler has been the central figure of
the whole heat culture movement post Dwayne Wade the Bucks.
I am absolutely relieved for them that Jannis Antetokumpo did
not try to play in Game six. Hearing Yannis speak
(16:51):
to reporters in Milwaukee on Friday on the day after
the Bucks elimination, he really didn't sound close, But I
have to say I was also I was flat out
frightened for Milwaukee that Chris's guy, Damian Lillard did insist
on playing in Game six with a less than pristine achilles.
(17:14):
I'm super relieved for Dame on the Bucks that there
was no apparent further damage. And I mean, look, I
understand they had a shot to if they could have
won Game six in Indianapolis. This thing is now a
Game seven decider in Milwaukee, but man, that I felt
like they were risking a lot just to have Dame
(17:35):
on the floor. And now that it's over, this was
an absolutely nightmarish season in Brewtown. It began with such
promise no, there will be no comeback from three to
one down for Doc Rivers. And now that they're heading
into the offseason, I wrote about this as well earlier
(17:56):
in the week, teams are already hope, crossing their fingers
tightly wishing, praying that Yannis is moved to rethink his
future as a Milwaukee Buck, even though it was just
last October that the Yanas response to the Damian Lillard
(18:17):
trade acquisition was to immediately sign a three year max
extension with Milwaukee. But that's not gonna stop potential Yannis
trade suitors from lusting after the idea that he is
somehow unsettled. There anew and then the Sixers. I mean,
(18:46):
it's been more than twenty seasons now since we've seen
Philadelphia in the Conference finals. This time they didn't even
get the chance to slam into their usual second round wall,
losing to the Knicks in six games. But when we
look at Philly, first of all, this does not have
(19:07):
the feel of another playoff face plant, a feeling that
the Sixers and their fans know all too well. I mean,
this time Philly lost a series filled with haymakers and
bonkers endings. Okay, they lost it to the Knicks, but
they did so with Joel Embiid rushing back from a
(19:28):
knee injury, probably faster than he should have, and that
knee injury it dropped Philly from second to seventh in
the East. And unlike pretty much every other team we've
talked about here so far, the Sixers really do have
some tangible hope for the future because they're gonna have
more than fifty million in cap space this summer to
(19:51):
try to find that third star to pair with Embiid
and the rising Tyrese Maxey. And look, the free agent
market is not teaming with wonderful options. But when you
have cap space, you can also make trades. You can
trade players into cap space. And I think we know
that Darryl Morey loves to make a trade or two
(20:14):
when he has the chance. And so I think all
of Philadelphia right now is trying to work out how
Tobias Harris could go scoreless in twenty nine minutes, everyone
naturally concluding that this will be the last time we
see Tobias Harris in a Philly uniform. But look, the
(20:36):
Sixers as we speak, Yes, their season is over, but
they are seen as the foremost threat on the NBA
map to swipe Paul George away from the Clippers. The
Orlando Magic also have to be in that conversation, but
(20:58):
it's the Sixers who have the clip most concerned here,
and I'm talking about long term concerns, of course, the
immediate concern for the Clippers. Just in a few hours
after I finish recording this, I am headed straight to
the American Airline Center for Game six in Dallas Friday night.
(21:19):
The Mavericks will have another opportunity just hours after this
episode drops to bring the Clippers season to an end
and finally avenge those first round playoff losses to Kawhi
Leonard and Paul George and the Clippers in both twenty
twenty and twenty twenty one. And I have to say
it is this is such a wild night in Dallas
(21:41):
because Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever are in town
for Caitlin Clark's first WNBA exhibition game. That's happening here
in town or in the Greater DFW area same night
as the Maverick's chance to close out a playoff series
(22:03):
at home for the first time in twenty eleven. Unfortunately,
these two massive games are in completely different places. It
would have been wonderful if somehow this could have been
a doubleheader at the AAC with Caitlin Clark playing in
her first exhibition game in the WNBA, followed by mas
(22:28):
Clippers game six. How amazing would that have been to
have both of these games in the same place. There's
no way to be in the same place. And I
will be at the playoff game again as the Mavericks
try to close out a playoff opponent at home for
the first time since they're run to a championship in
(22:51):
twenty eleven, and if it happens tonight, then the Clippers
concerns they immediately shift fully to trying to hang on
to join Origin free agency and trying to do a
new deal with Tron Lou because they need to extend Tylu.
Tylu should not be in the last year of his deal,
(23:11):
and Kawhi Leonard he was only healthy enough to play
in two games of this series. This is the Clippers
third series against the Mavericks in the space of five years,
and Kawhi is the only member of that Clippers corps
who is signed for the long term. Paul George, James Harden,
(23:33):
Tylu all of them need new deals as LA's other
team prepares to relocate to Inglewood. Of course, next season
they'll be playing in the new and two at Dome.
And basically now Orlando has to win a Game six
at home against Cleveland, or the Clippers have to find
(23:54):
a way to steal another win in Dallas without Kawhi.
That's the only way we're going to get a Game
seven in this first round. It did look like the
Knicks and Sixers might be heading to go the distance
after Maxie and Philly found a way to steal that
crazy Game five at the Garden. But now we're just
(24:16):
down to two outstanding series. Calves lead the Magic three
to two, Mavericks lead the Clippers three two. Those series
could be wrapped up by end of business tonight, and look,
soon enough, Round two will be here the Tim Connelly Bowl.
We will be talking about that a lot Timberwolves Nuggets
(24:40):
in the second round. We know we're getting Nicks Pacers
in the East second round, and that one, of course
serves up a delicious subplot of Jalen Brunson. Remember he
only played ten minutes in a Game seven in the
last game he ever played with Rick Carlyle as his
coach in Dallas, and now Jalen Brunson will be leading
(25:03):
the Knicks, although they are still the banged up Knicks.
He will be leading the Knicks against the Carlisle led
Pacers in round two, the Thunder and the Celtics. They
still await the identities of their second round opponents. But
before we go, we do need to point out that
the Celtics, after months and months and months of anticipation
(25:27):
that Boston would potentially reunite with Milwaukee or Philadelphia, or
maybe even both in the playoffs, the Celtics now have
to beat neither to get to the NBA Finals again,
which is probably a good thing given that Christops Porzingis
is now out indefinitely with a calf strain, because of course,
(25:48):
we needed yet another injury. I do think the Celtics
can win two more rounds and get back to the
finals without Porzingis, so they can play it safe and
give him as much time as possible to recover, because
they do need something close to a full steam poor
Zingis if they're matching up with Denver in the NBA Finals,
(26:13):
or even if Minnesota gets there with all of its
size in the NBA Finals. Boston's gonna need Porzingis and
the length and versatility he brings both to their offense
and their defense. All Right, I think that will pretty
much get us caught up for the week that was
(26:37):
heading into Friday nights games. As I mentioned, been kind
of a whirlwind for Chris and I. He's been traveling.
I've been traveling. But Sunday night or Monday night at
the latest, we will reconnect and we will dive further
into all of this. The coaching carousel, the offseason chatter
(26:58):
about potential player moves. You watch, this stuff is going
to start to really spark up now that so many
of these teams that were expected to do big things
this season, now that so many of them have been
sent home. And I mentioned the Warriors in there. We
didn't even get a chance really to touch on the
complicated decisions they face when it comes to trying to
(27:21):
enhance their roster. Let alone, the Kings and the Bulls
and the Hawks, the other three teams that exited this postseason.
In the Play and Round, it's about to really start
getting busy again on the transactional front. And I know
you guys love hearing that the draft lottery is fast approaching.
(27:43):
We know six first round losers, many of them prominent.
They have to start plotting their next moves immediately because
of what happened this week. And you're gonna want to
stay dialed in with us to stay on top of
all the activity that's going to take place over the
next two months and change. The Darvin Ham dismissal is
(28:05):
only the start of it. That is going to do
it for this edition of This League Uncut. As always,
please follow the show via Apple or Spotify or wherever
you get your podcasts. Please rate the show, review the
show for Chris Haynes and producer Ryan and for me
Mark Stein. Your support is very much appreciated. We will
(28:29):
be back together again very very soon. Thanks everyone for listening,
and that'll do it for us. See you next time.
This League Uncut is and iHeartRadio production Chris Haynes and
(28:49):
Mark Stein. I didn't
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