Guaranteed Leader! Jonny Athletic - Bumper to Bumper 5/24/24 Hour One

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Leader. Mother. There's too manyof you, brother, brother, there's

(00:30):
far too many of you that Ithink. Anyone who puckers up their lips
and presses it against their bosses buttocksand then smooches, it's an ask kiss.
I seem to think and at everythingexcept my work. I'm good at
my work. I confine myself tothat. All I want out of life

(00:53):
is thirty shid and of twenty rating. The man's enlarged my mind. He's
a poet boy, or in theclassic sense, I'm a little man.
I'm a little man. He's agreat man. Think of it as colors.
There's black and he's white, andin between is mostly gray. That's
us now. Gray is a toughcolor because it's not as simple as black

(01:15):
and Mike, and for the media, it's certainly not as interesting. But
it's who we are. This isyour Gaolteed Leader fan Fan Radio Network,

(01:42):
Well played m k fa N dotcom. One minute, eighteen seconds past
three o'clock Central daylight time. WelcomeBack Friday production Friday edition of the Bumper
Bumper Program on a well for mea little bit too moist Friday afternoon here
in this of Minneapolis and Saint Paul. My name is Dan Barrero. I

(02:04):
am the a Hole in the Afternoon, the Sultan of Snark the Afternoon Ardvark
former ing Stine Retch newspaper the TwinCities Guardsy is the producer of the broadcast
guards. You'll be with us partof the way. It's going to be
Max the rest of the way downthe stretch. Is that correct? He
told me he was coming fair.I know he's got to be here by
six thirty. He's a very busyman. He's got a lot going by

(02:25):
the day. More, Yeah,by the day. Every day that goes
by, He's got who has moreon their platter right now? Part time
guy Max or Kevin Garnett. Becauseyou reminding me that KG keeps saying it
must be KG. I can't dropeverything, Yeah, to go to a
game. I got a lot ballsto jog. That's what he keeps saying.

(02:45):
Yeah, so it must be KG. But Max has a lot.
But Max is the only one that'scoming all these games. That's what I
know. It's very true of thetwo of them. Belly of the Beast
is our location, as you mightexpect, the Target Center Skyway location where
we expect the activity to pick upfairly quickly for the obvious reasons. Game
two of the Western Conference Finals thisevening. The regular pregame will be at

(03:08):
seven, and the opening tap justpassed seven thirty tonight as well. We
are very excited about the lineup today, which we believe will include Kevin Harlan,
the well legendary play by play voiceof the Timberwolves for how many years?

(03:29):
I think they said nine? Whenthat years the first nine, I
felt like more yeah, because it'snot like anybody who's listened to him has
forgotten that. And of course he'sgone on to bigger and better things,
and he'll be broadcasting on tonight's numberone crew with TNT Harlan. I tweeted
out of tweet believing we were goingto get him here at four thirty.
It looks like now that might bemore likely closer to five o'clock. We're

(03:52):
trying to accommodate other people's schedules becausealso from the Cage, Lavelle Neal the
Third will join at some point thisevening, and he will join right at
four thirty. He's accommodating. Goodfor him, as I think he feels
guilty that he blew by us onWednesday and didn't even say should he should.
It was like he was way toolike watch I'm Lavelli, Neil the
third, We're happy for you.Also, Johnny Athletic will join at the

(04:15):
bottom of this hour. That's theplan, as is customary from the So
we got three cage related guests today. I am hoping for a fourth.
I am holding out. I hopethat Tim Conley might give us a minute
or two later in the broadcast sometimebetween five and six thirty tonight. You
can tweet at me Dan Burrero kfeIn if you've got some things on your

(04:39):
mind, if you're on your wayto downtown Minneapolis for tonight's game number two.
I know people hate when I dothis because they assume that anytime I
do it, it means the oppositeis going to happen, even though that's
not really accurate. I get thebit, but I am guaranteeing victory.

(05:01):
Wow. If you're Minnesota Timberwolves tonightand I wish I didn't step on that,
can you say it again? No, I but see if I say
it again, it won't feel assincereous fairst time authentic. All right,
I will I am guaranteeing the MinnesotaTimberwolves will win Game two tonight to send
the series to Dallas deadlocked one andone, and I even think there's a

(05:25):
good change. I'm not going tosay it's like a laugher, but I
think it's going to be. It'snot going to be a nail bier going
down in the last couple of minutes. I first of all, I think
part of it is human nature.These are, I believe, fairly evenly
matched teams. Actually, I don'tthink there's a huge gap between them.
I do think the Wolves are better. I do think because they lost the

(05:46):
opener, they did get the properattention or the coach, you know,
sent the stern messages that you wouldexpect for a home team losing the opener.
So I do think the Wolves.You could say, well, why
didn't you know they should have startedthe series earlier, and I wouldn't disagree,
But that's where we It doesn't matter, it's where we are now.

(06:08):
So my sense is you are goingto get a much more focused defensive approach
and a much more disciplined offensive approachas well tonight. I think you're going
to get the best the Wolves haveto offer. Now again, the X
factors are really good players. TheMavericks have two prime time closers. We

(06:30):
get that who By the way,not only are they closers, they are
perimeter players, which means it's prettyhard to deny them the ball. Yep,
And so that's always in the mix. But I really, I mean,
we have named yesterday when you wereout. You were out yesterday,
weren't you? I was. Idid the list at the top you know
about Okay, here's five things thathave to change. And at the end

(06:54):
of the list, I'm thinking,based on the exhaustive nature of this list,
you'd have thought the Wolves by thirtyor twenty two. And they didn't.
It was a one or two possessiongame across the board. They didn't
deserve to win it. I'm notsuggesting they did, but the point is
that it wasn't. There is Andone of the other things we talked about

(07:15):
I want to get into a Johnny, is that part of what the best
coaches do after losing a game likethis is they thread the needle on not
underreacting, but not overreacting. Notokay, we got to reinvent the wheel
here. They tweak or they say, no, no, no, this
is big. This is the prioritythat we have to change dramatically. But

(07:38):
we're not gonna We're fine with theseother things. We gotta let this thing
play out before we go away completelyfrom what we thought was our best plan
to move forward. And so itwasn't that kind of a game. And
we're in the analysis business, soyou end up running the risk of overanalyzing
everything, like, well, god, how many bad things did they do?

(07:59):
But if you believe they did thatmany bad things? And you say,
but they were up four with wasit four minutes? Three minutes minutes?
Yeah, so how bad could ithave been? So I fully expect
that they're going to win tonight,and I do think, like a lot
of people, that you don't wantto Sam Mitchell said yesterday, you you
know we're not gonna say must win, but you do not want to get

(08:20):
down again, No the way Denverdid down two to oh no going to
Dallas, this is pretty much agame you need to win. It is,
and I agree with you, Andwatching back that game yesterday morning,
you kind of forget like they wereup one oh two ninety eight I think
it was with three minutes left,and then a couple back to back threes.
He had the terrible Jaden McDaniel's turnover, which still bothers me two days

(08:41):
later, the Conley turnover, theConley turnover where he's trying to throw it
to Rudy, Like you just thoseare the margin, Like, you can't
get five turnovers in the fourth court. You can't get away with that at
this level, in the Western ConferenceFinals, you can't get away with it.
And so I wouldn't dramatically change anythingeither. Obviously, you can't let
Kyrie go crazy early. You weresitting closer than me. He must be
amazing to watch at that level,Like how quick he is just blowing by

(09:05):
everybody, even at this state inhis careering. Anthony Edwards multiple times was
twelve just going right past him.But I can't as I watched it back,
I'm like, I understand why theylost this game, but it's a
little surprising that they lost this gamebecause they had various points of control pretty
much the whole way through. AndI've been puzzled by the did they come

(09:26):
out flat where they fatigued? Maybelate in the game they were, but
they started the game pretty well.I mean, they were up whatever they
were up at the end of thefirst quarter, they were ready to go
eight or nine. I think they, yeah, their biggest lead. And
let's remember we're back to the detailsmattering. They should have been up ten,
nine or ten at the half.Yes, and in fact would have
been if on the last possession.They go into the last possession up six.

(09:50):
Yea. So shot clocks off,they get a three, it's nine,
they get a two, it's eight. Yep. Aunt turns the ball
over. Yep. The Mavericks turnthat into a three point play for Irving,
and it's three at the half.Yeah, by by by rights.
And this is where you got todo it when you're when you're dominating.
That wasn't like if they're nine up, it's over. But there's a huge

(10:11):
difference between being up eight or nineand three. How much do they lose
by four? Whatever? It was? Yeah, So all those things.
Absolutely, we we were and Ithink part of maybe what the head coaches
point was to the team was,Hey, as you get further along,
it's gonna get harder, and presumablythe teams might even be better, and

(10:31):
so you gotta you gotta buck upfor this, and you there can't be
these sorts of lowers and that,and that end of the quarter almost bothered
me. End of the half almostbothers me more than the Denver one,
because the Denver one was such afluky deal and it was weird and it
was scattered. Yes, but you'reup. I think you had just gotten
the stop. Correct, You've gotthe shot. You might have even gotten
a steal. You gotta I thinkyou got to turn one. And so

(10:52):
every ant's got the ball in hishands. Everything's feeling good. He airmailed
it for a second straight time becausehe had an earlier air mail into like
row five. Yes, did.He had a lot of juice. I
mean he was ready. And then, by the way, everybody that's happened
like three twice in this game,once in the previous series, and every
time whoever has had to catch theball has caught it on the We're locked

(11:15):
in, Okay, we're right therewith the team. We're a lot of
usher guy. And then other timesI think it was just defense. Everybody's
locked in, And then I'm sittingthere and I'm going, why are they
crowding Kyrie? Well, give hima little bit what he's gone. Three
point plans like just mental stuff likeyou're not going to pick him up full
court with five seconds left or whateverit is, and just think you're gonna
lock him up there, come on, And so that was a very frustrating
way to end that happen. Yougot to be smart. Yeah, and

(11:37):
he look again, he's he's playingman. He's the first one in the
building, Chipskogin's per usual. Thatdoesn't surprise you, doesn't. No,
No, he's probably been in theparking garage since about new just in case
that would not surprise me at all. Let's do this. Let's get our
first pause in. I got acouple of other strategic flourishes. I want
to ask you about Johnny Athletic asI said at the bottom of the hour.

(12:00):
But let's try to put a grantin somebody's hand on this Friday.
Yeah, let's do it. Thefanom big tech dot com, I wanna
give you a shots. Put thatgrain in your hand at the National Cash
Contest. Head to Cafe dot commentor the keyword cash. The keyword is
cash for this hour, Cafe dotcom keyword cash. Target center is our
location back in just moments American RockersData, remember are bringing the least anticipated

(12:22):
album tour to the Ledge Amphitheater Junesixth, with special guests, The Story
So Far and four Years Strong.Tickets are on sale now with mortfo head
of to Cafe dot com keyword calendar. All right, here's the sixty four

(12:48):
thousand dollars question for me going intotonight. Is it sacrilegious to suggest to
wonder about whether the Wolves would bebetter served for at least chunks of the
game, not demanding that Anthony Edwardsguards Kyrie Irving. And if your answer

(13:13):
is no, it's not sacrilegious,well, then who you put nom to
me? That's the rub because Ihave come to the conclusion already that as
much as we love it and welove that Aunt wants the matchup, the
fact of the matter is of thethat you could say the three megastars if
you want to consider Edwards a megastarat this point, along with Luca and

(13:37):
Kyrie, he's the only one that'sbeing asked to do everything to wait both
sides of the court. And whatwe've already seen is Kyrie. I don't
know how old he is, buthe looks like he's twenty two. Yeah,
he's the guy who looks like he'stwenty two. He was, but
er, he was fresh exactly.So there's a part of me that says,

(13:58):
no, if you can find away to get him off of there,
that would be perhaps a little liberatingfor Anthony Edwards, who absolutely was
out of breath by the end ofthat game. He was tired. I
don't I'm not sure I buy thenotion that the team was fatigued because of
the leftover emotion front, right.I think what made him tired was chasing

(14:20):
that guy around, And I dothink there's something to be said for if
you can find someone else. That'sthe question. To give him opportunities to
not have to always have that biggerresponsibility on the defensive end, to focus
more on what he can do offensive. I do not think that will make
him look bad, even though he'sconsidered a two way player. I think
you have to do it. Butthe second part of the question is the

(14:43):
important part. What do you do? Because if you just say, well,
Jaden will guard him, okay,well, then who guards Lucas exactly
because I heard some people say,well, maybe aunt guards Luca. For
a minute. You see what happenedwhen Luca realized anmazon him. You bully
balled him right down to the block, and I think got an an one
like Ant can't guard him either.I think slow Moo can some on Luca.
Yes, I do. I thinkthat, And actually, to be
fair to Aunt, I mean thatwas like one possession, like I'd be

(15:05):
yeah, I'd want to see I'dgive him another crack at it. Well,
second half I don't think. Ithink Kyrie's number second half are awful.
They did for nine. I thinkit worse. But the problem is
the twenty. The first half wastranscendent and then Luca did what Luca did,
so you had those issues. Iwould say, it's not I'm fine
with them starting the game out therewhen you start mixing in the bench and

(15:28):
all of a sudden, okay,here comes slow Moo and so maybe he
guards Luca for a second, soJayden can do it, or here comes
Naw Knock can guard when Knock comesin for Conley, then Knock can guard
Kyrie and Aunt can go with theyou know, maybe a lesser offensive player.
But I think it's malpractice if youjust line them up again and it's
not like you can't guard him forhalf the game or yeah, selective to

(15:50):
go in and out of it whenyou can give him a couple of minutes
off, you have to. Andthat's really what they did against Denver.
And I know Kyrie is even moredangerous in Jamal Murray, but right now,
when Murray was going off in thefirst half of Game seven, he
was not being guarded by Aunt,and then second half Aunt jumped in on
him and you saw what happened.Everything changed. So you have to do

(16:11):
it just because of the because theyneed Aunt to score tonight. I don't
think you can count on another,you know, really good shooting game for
McDaniels where he carries a load.Are we going to count on Hey,
didn't get a great bait, butI got a beer after the game at
the Loon. Yeah, well greatbait maybe tonight same time. He's on
fire. So I don't like,you need Aunt to play better, you
need Carl to play better. AndI don't think you can count on those

(16:33):
offensive explosions from SloMo and Jayden tonight. So you definitely if they happened,
great, but you need your yourbest two offensive players to be there locked
in tonight. So I'm perfectly onboard. I don't think he loses his
man card if he doesn't guard Kyriefor the entire game. Kyrie's not doing
that right. Kevin Nyatt wasn't doingthat, see Mitchell when I when I
talked about this with Sam yesterday,he pushed back because he said, well,

(16:57):
kolbey Obe guarded the best guy allthe time. Michael guarded the best
guy all the time, which istrue, but there are a couple of
asterisks there, especially in the caseof Jordan. Believe it or not,
there were times when Scotty Pippen guardedthe best wing player on the other team.
Michael was a great two way player, but it wasn't bad having Scotty

(17:18):
Pippen man to occasionally say, hey, I'll take this guy and we'll have
Scotty on that guy. And theproblem, like you say, is who's
the logical second guy for the Wolves. I mean, there's a part of
me that wants to say Nikiel potentially, But the problem there is, you
know, he's shooting so poorly.You know they may have to scale back

(17:38):
his minutes. Now. They don'thave that many other people to go to
on the bench. I don't thinkwe're going to suddenly see Ronte, I
don't think, but I think theyneed to be creative about that. Yeah,
and not for the whole game,as I said, but for stretches
of the game so that he canIt is legal to allow your score to

(17:59):
have a stretch with We're going toput you on their third or fourth score
for a while, and we're gonnagive you a little more of an opportunity
to make some stuff happen offense.It just get a break where you're not
chasing a guy around for the entirepossession, because that's where because Kyrie is
so unique, because he never stopsmoving, that doesn't seem like and all
of a sudden he turns the cornerand he's gone, and he's a maestro
at the rim as we all know. There's ways to steal it. Because

(18:21):
Anthony I thought, actually, youknow, the slow most stretch in Game
one, if I remember correctly,he actually got some rest in Game one,
more than he had later in theDenver series. You're probably hard pressed
to try to keep doing that againstthis Dallas team. He needed to play
forty five minutes the last you know, four or five games against Denver.
But there's ways that you can makeit easier for him during the game,
so he doesn't have to do everything. The other thing that we you and

(18:45):
I have been on for actually awhile, going back to the last series
at least, is no the factthat that Finchy, for whatever reason,
still is willing to tamp the basketballguy. I'm not having either Cat or
Anthony on the court at all times. I don't for the life of me

(19:07):
understand. And again, I'm surewe'll talk to Johnny about that. It's
not like all the time they're goingto be able to take over, but
the whole calculus of the court andeven the way defenses play changes obviously when
either of those guys are out therefor reasons it should be very should be
abundantly clear. And he keeps doingit, and I don't know if he's

(19:29):
got analytic charts to back. Yeah, but I don't like the feel of
it because this looks again, morelike a series where one two minute stretch.
Yes, you might not it mightnot like be like it was against
Denver, where it's like ten totwo, but it might be six to
two. Believe it or not.It sounds weird to say it might be
ten to four. And and don'tI just don't think they can, especially

(19:55):
if Naw continues to shoot as poorlyas he has. I just don't think
you can mess with that any longer. Well, the what do we call,
you know, Pablo Lopez for theTwins, we call them the stopper,
right, you know, every rotationhas a guy who can stop a
losing streak unless you're willing to calla time out at the first sign of
trouble with that group, which forme would be two possessions literally, two

(20:15):
possessions where they don't score and twowhere where you know Dallas does, whether
that's four or five six points,because that's what bothers me is. So
they don't have anybody that can go, all right, well they just got
two buckets. Well, we'll justrun a set for this guy and we'll
get it right back. They don'thave that when they do those lineups and
then all of this and then thatbuilds like and again. It can be
ninety seconds or two minutes. AgainstDenver, I think it was two minutes.

(20:36):
I think it was literally two minutes. It was a ten or ten
to two run, twelve to tworun, and it just put them in
the meat grinder. I'm fine,with trying the lineup as a change up
to see if it works, andmaybe they get a steal and maybe they
get a bucket in transition or oneof those guys hits a shot. But
like first sign of trouble, yougot to be willing to take the l
and call the time out and getback to whatever you know, whether it
is Aunt, whether it is Carl, you just can't afford that type of

(20:59):
run. So if they do itthat way and they mitigate the damage,
fine, But for me, that'sliterally two possessions where it doesn't go your
way before you pull the plug.If perish the thought the Wolves do lose
tonight and go down two games tonone, is there a way for us
to blame it on Caitlin Clark?Right now, She's get blames for everything
else, So can she be blamedfor that? By the way, apparently

(21:22):
was it? Did I see somethingabout the Chicago What are they the sky
that they didn't have a charter fora flight or they're still catching up?
Can Caitlyn be blamed for that?Well, maybe the plane that was supposed
to go to Chicago went to Indy. They took care of Caitlin first,
and that was it. They stillhaven't won. I thought they played last
night. They win last night.I don't remember. I thought, I

(21:44):
know they're playing better links. Iwas watching and then at the moment of
truth, my Bally feed went outon direct TV. That was gone.
That's a shot. They went totechnical difficulties and then there was never an
explanation. And when they came backfrom this longest commercial break ever, it
was out the next outdoor show.There was never an explanation for any of

(22:07):
it. So did they win orlose? They lost and they got jobbed
by the officials. I heard theFISA, Collier or the clean block and
like everything. Did they review it? I don't think they do the same
type of review. We don't havean appeal system. Yeah, they must
not have because they didn't get it. How did Cheryl take it? I
didn't see how Cheryl took it,but I saw how Fee took it and
not well it was Anthony Edwards levellanguage. Was that right? Yeah?

(22:29):
A little BS meter was put outthere, Yeah, which was great,
which she was right. It wasa bad call call. We expect Johnny
Athletic any minute from our target centercage location. Kevin Harlan's going to stop
by our spot. Lavelli, Neilthe third is and maybe even a little
Tim Conley before we are done.Very good program today leading you into Game
two Western Conference Finals. Back ina minute, Johnny right now, indeed,

(23:07):
Johnny Athletic back with us from theI was about to say, the
great Minnesota get together. Wow,God, we're almost there. It's not
that far off. Man right aroundthe corner. Think about that, yep.
I don't want to think about that, because then the leads are turning
in the circle. I wonder atthe State Fair this year, what the
chances are that the Wolves will becarrying around the trophy from spot to spot

(23:32):
after winning the National Basketball Association crimebring their ass to the State Fair with
the trophy with the Larry ob Wouldn'tthat be something that would be something that
would be very interesting, that's forsure. Yeah, Johnny, who's sponsoring
your fine segment? RBC Wealth Management. So thanks to the good folks there.
We do appreciate to the folks atRBC for sure, and we hope
this uh lasts for a while thisparticular run. Okay, it's Game two.

(23:56):
I at the start of the show, Garan to victory. Oh,
I do feel strongly about it.I may regret it. Guarantees you know
how much they're worth. Sometimes itworks out, sometimes it doesn't. I
was encouraged to take that position byyour guy, Brian Scalabrini, who,
by the way, I think pickedthe Mavericks to win the series. Okay,

(24:19):
but he said that he fully expectsthe best the Wolves have to offer
tonight, and that he thinks it'seven likely to be a double digit victory.
Is that getting too far ahead ofit or what does your gut tell
you we might see tonight in Gametwo? Well, I mean, you
know, all season long, everytime that this team has tested, they

(24:41):
respond well. I do think thatso far, both in the Denver series
and now caring for it in thisI think they need a little desperation.
I think they need the wall attheir backs, and they have it there
now. So I do expect themto play much much better tonight than they
did in Game one. But Ithink Dallas can play better as well,

(25:02):
so I would not feel confident insaying double digit win anything like that.
I do believe that, yes,that they will play much better, and
I think that they can win andsince I picked them to win the series.
I do think they will win tonight, but with the element of Luca
and Kyrie, you just never knowif that is just going to be too
much to overcome. So they havea lot to change, they have a

(25:25):
lot to improve upon, and Ithink they will do it. But I
think this is going to be aclose, long series and there's going to
be a lot of back and forthin it. Much better means what where
specifically do you expect them to bemuch better? Where where do they need
to be much better? Yeah,I mean I think, first of all,
I think they will have a lotmore intensity defensively, especially on the
glass. You know, I dothink that they were shell shocked a little

(25:49):
bit by Dallas's activity, by theMavericks athleticism there, and I think that
that shook them a little bit.They had to adjust. It's very different
from Denver, just title an entirelydifferent opponent, So I think they would
be better there. I also thinkthat offensively, you will see a more
engaged Anthony Edwards, and I thinkyou will see maybe even a little more

(26:12):
assertive Karl Anthony Towns as well.And so if you can get all of
those elements to come together that shouldreally bode well for the home team.
Is there a formula by which theWolves can can rationally take Anthony Edwards off
guarding Kyrie, not for the wholegame, but for sections too. Yeah,

(26:37):
for want of a better expression,give them a little rest in a
series in which their two stars arenot asked to constantly guard one of the
other team's best offensive players. Yeah. I mean it is a challenge because
you would say, well, hey, maybe Mike Conley could could survive for
a couple of minutes on Kyrie,but with his calf the way that it

(27:00):
is, I don't I don't thinkthat's a real option. Then you would
say, well, how about NikiAlexander Walker and very ideal to have him
take a bunch of those minutes,but the way he's shooting right now has
been tough. So if you canget a bounce back shooting night from Nikil
which would allow you to play himmore than twenty four to twenty five minutes
and match him up with Kyrie,I think that would help a lot.

(27:23):
The other thing that I think thatthey can try to do is be a
little bit more strategic with the rotationsand substitutions to where if Anthony Edwards is
on the floor and in there's youknow, the stretch with just Kyrie,
then you move him off of himand give someone else the job. And

(27:44):
if you can kind of line upthings a little bit more that way,
maybe that's a way to do it. But it's, you know, that's
what makes Dallas so good. Theyare. They're very a real challenge with
that backcourt to try and devote enoughresources to even slow them down. So
in situation in which you have KyleAnderson and Jayden both on the floor,
can you consider sliding Jaden to Kyrieand having then SlowMo spend some minutes on

(28:11):
Luca, you can, yep,I mean that would be one way to
kind of play with the rotations andand try that a little bit. You
got to be careful with the bigsthat you pair with with that with with
those two guys, because I mean, is Jaden gonna hit six threes a
game? I don't. I don'tthink so much, so, so yeah,
you have to be careful offensively.But if you can line it up

(28:33):
so that is the case and youhave Kyle checking Luca a little bit,
and then or you know, Theother thing that maybe you look at a
little bit is, you know,do you just sort of decide that Kyrie
is the guy that you have totake out, and you put Jayden on
him more and then you put someoneelse on Luca and he scores forty,

(28:56):
you know, and and you weatherthat storm. Kind of that They've done
that with the a few times inthe Denver series, and try and take
away just the playmaking from Luca.That might be another option that they I
thought that the Game one was Conley'sworst game of the playoffs. Yes,
so what do we attribute that tojust an off night? Because the shooting

(29:18):
comes and goes with Mike, weknow that, but just in terms of
running the offense and decision making,it was not at that level? Am
I not? Is it a mistakenot to give the Mavericks some credit for
that? Did they take some stuffaway? What do we think happened to
Conley? Yeah? I mean Ido think that you know, Dallas is
very good defensively, and so Ithink they bothered him a little bit that
way. But I also think weall looked at Anthony Edwards and you said,

(29:41):
boy, that guy is exhausted.Yeah, I think there's a little
bit of that with Mike Conley aswell. You know, he played a
lot of minutes in Game seven inDenver. It was certainly an emotional victory
for him, and he is limitedby the calf. And to what degree
is he limited, I'm not sure. I'm not sure or if he's seventy
percent or eighty percent of whatever itis. But I think that you saw

(30:07):
a little bit harder movement for amobility for him was not quite the same,
and that hindered his ability to getgood looks and clean looks in it.
Also, I think the most disappointingthing was that it seemed to play
with his decision making a little bit. There were some a turnover there's you
know kind of some of the lobpasses to Rudy were not quite what they

(30:27):
normally are as floater was not lockedin and so it was just all in
all, an uncharacteristically sloppy performance fromhim, and so they definitely need a
sharper game from him tonight. CanWade do we need to get to the
free throw line, especially involving thebig two more than I think it was

(30:47):
four times between Anthony and Cat Yeah, I mean yeah, I think that
will be a product of what kindof offense they run tonight, because forty
nine to three is you're just notgoing to get many free throws. You'll
play in that way. And soI know Chris Finch said that actually,
you know, I thought we couldhave taken more. There were more in
that offense. But that is uncharacteristicof this Timberwolves offense. It's they were

(31:11):
playing out of character that they're hittinga bunch of them. But I do
think they weren't. Yes, Ido think it sapped some of the aggressiveness
from Anthony Edwards and from the groupin particular just when they were falling early
as to the rate that they were, And so I would expect that the
diet of threes will not be quiteas lopsided tonight as it was in Game

(31:36):
one, and with the emphasis ongetting to the rim, getting fouled and
getting to the line. Kat washe six for twenty six for twenty Okay,
so what do we think about theshots he got? Were they good
shots that he just missed or doesthe mix of kind of shots, the
variety of shots he's getting, doesthat have to change? Cause I didn't
go back in charting. To behonest with you, what do you know

(31:57):
about that? I mean, Ithink he was two for nine from three,
so a lot of them were goodlooks that didn't go down. And
then I think that the six fortwenty sort of ballooned in the fourth quarter
when everyone was getting desperate, andso they were higher degree of difficulty shots
in the fourth quarter than you wouldwant him to be taking a lot of

(32:21):
the time. So you want himto be aggressive because he's such a good
shooter, but when it gets intothe one legged falloways and when it gets
into kind of forcing things, he'snot. That's not his strength. Strength
is not forcing things. It's muchbetter to get him in the flow of
the offense a little bit more.And so I do think that there will
be adjustments made and you might evensee more post ups against PJ. Washington

(32:46):
and just like, hey, man, use your size, use your strength,
go to work and see what wecan get out of that. So
you're vindicating Charles Barkley. Yes,I'm sick of those three pointers. Now,
Charles doesn't get it for what theseteam wants, yes, and really
demands that Cat does. But Ithink in this case it would be helpful
if they have certain advantages because ofthe mobility of some of their big men.

(33:09):
Then I think we talked about thisbefore the season. You got to
a series, you got to makethem pay a little bit. On the
other end, the cat bulk shouldbe used against the lack of bulk for
the Mavericks to get those kinds ofshots, which are basically you know,
the old low post shots. Well, yeah, and then the one thing
that I loved from the Wolves offensein Game one was the four or five

(33:31):
pick and roll with Cat and Rudywas effective, and so I think you
might see more of that as welluntil the Mavericks figure that out. Because
certainly Towns has great chemistry with Rudyon the lob and if you can get
him kind of turning that corner andgoing downhill, he also has a great
floater in the middle of the lanethere, and that can be very good

(33:51):
an efficient offense for the Wolves.And if that isn't there, if they
try to step up and take thataway, Rudy's coming to the rim for
a nice easy lob pass. Andthere are times where you get nervous with
some of the passes that Cat makes. That's not one of them. For
me, I feel really good whenhe is letting that thing fly right towards
Rudy. I think he's maybe thebest lobb thrower on the team to him,

(34:13):
and so I think that trying tofind more of those opportunities for easy
offense that way would help the Wolves. You're connected with everybody, and so
when you talk to the to Dallassources that you have, reporters who've covered
this team all the time, haveyou gotten to the bottom of what?
To me is the most interesting thingabout the Mavericks that it looks like Kyrie

(34:35):
Irving is a different guy mentally.He's playing with the term I like to
use when guys just seem to bealmost Jedi nightlike is serenity. He's just
playing as if a lot of thehe's shed a lot of the baggage.
Now Mitch Lawrence thinks it's all aruse. Ultimately, he's just trying.
He doesn't really want to stay there, but he finally has figured out I

(34:57):
can't keep screwing up the way Ihave. Other people, though, say
no, they've discovered electricity there.What do you hear about that? Yeah?
I mean, like, certainly Ido think there is a little bit
of Okay, I've kind of likeburned some bridges in Boston and Brooklyn,
and I don't have a whole lotof equity built up in the league anymore,

(35:17):
and so maybe there was just alittle bit of self reflection in that.
But I do think more what youhear people talk is Nico Harrison,
the Mavericks GM was hired away fromNike to do the job so unconventional higher
but he had a lot of reallygood relationships with a bunch of players through

(35:39):
Nike, and Kyrie Irving is oneof them. And I think that that
relationship and Nico Harrison's ability to appealto Kyrie Irving's common sense or whatever it
was, certainly at least helped Kyriefeel more comfortable than he had been.
You know, that we haven't hadanother pandem with some you know, imaccination

(36:01):
issues that come up or things iscertainly probably helpful as well. But I
do think that he just does seemmuch more at ease with everything in Dallas
than he did in Brooklyn. Maybeit's a media market as well, maybe
it's maybe it's all of that,but the outside stuff that has always been

(36:22):
a thing with Kyrie Irvinger certainly hasbeen for the last five or six years,
has subsided and now he's just nowhe's just playing basketball, and that's
a very good thing because when hedoes that, he's a breathtaking player to
watch. Guy Athletic is with usfrom the target center cage location. We
should be joined by Lavelle at aboutfour point thirty. We think Kevin Harlan
is going to stop by as wellsometime around five o'clock. And I'm still

(36:45):
hoping against hope for Tim connleiothough he'sgot a lot of kids and he's got
a lot of responsibility, So we'llsee how that works out the rest of
the way. So one of thethings Guardia and I were talking about early
is that because these games are magnifiedbecause people so many people are watching them,
you can't overanalyze a result that ultimatelywas a four or five point game

(37:08):
and yeah it was three, whateverthe final was, and so you can
end up demanding that people throughout thebaby with the bathwater and that. What
the best coaches do is they don'toverreact, but they also tweak, maybe
even extensively, if they feel like, I don't care what the score was
I don't like this in this Sohow does Finchy thread the needle there?

(37:30):
Where do you think they believe we'refine? And where do you think he
says? No, no, no, but we do have to do this,
this and this. Yeah. So, I mean a lot has been
made over Finch's comments yesterday about thehard film session, and doubt did he
say it as emphatically as it soundedwhen I read it he did? Ok.
Yeah, it was very much amessage sending thing. It was,

(37:50):
you know, hey, the WesternConference finals have started. I don't know
if they got the memo, butthey got it this afternoon, and so
there was very much a sternness tothe message that we don't often see from
Chris Finch, and I think itwas less about that that implies to me
this it's less about we need tomake major changes to what we're doing and
more about you need to start playingbetter, and we are harder and harder.

(38:15):
Yes, all of that, likeenergy, execution, attention to detail.
There's a lot of game plan mistakesthat happened in Game one that he
was very upset with. And soI don't anticipate grand changes to what they're
doing tonight, I think that everythingyesterday was built toward you. Guys did

(38:38):
not hold up your end of thebargain here, and if you would have
played even you know, eighty fivepercent of your of your capability, get
you to won that game easily andwe'd be up one nothing. Now we're
now we're in a hole, andyou better not let that happen again.
Tonight is essentially the message. SoI think that yet everything is focused on

(38:59):
play harder, play with more intensity, and pay attention to the details of
the game. And if things stillgo wrong in that case, then maybe
you look at making a whole lotof wholesale adjustments. But until until he
sees them play, you know,up to their capabilities, he doesn't want
to mess with the game plan.To me, can you be strategically speaking,

(39:22):
more physical with Kyrie Irving and orLuca. We're not a goon team.
I'm not saying bad boys it up, but uh, you have to
knock him around a little bit.As weird as that sound, you know,
it's an interesting point, but it'salso what you ask for. There
is like, who would do that, right? Jaden McDaniels is not that

(39:43):
kind of a defender. Neither isNikil Alexander Walker. Ant can get physical
with you, but he's not gonnabe that guy you don't have, you
know, Dennis Rodman, you don'thave PJ. Tucker, you don't have
you know some of the really youknow, just fighter hydrant dudes that are
gonna they're gonna throw a shoulder intoyou and send a message that way.
And so I think that if youasked to do that, that would be

(40:06):
out of character for the team andprobably throw them a little bit more off.
Now. I do think there areways to bump and to off the
spots, yeah, and to kindof get their earthly, you know,
beat them to their spots and don'tgive any ground that that is that those
there are those opportunities to do betterat. But I don't think the antidote

(40:29):
is let's go Jordan rules on it. And anytime Luca's in the restricted area
were knocking down, first of all, he's like two hundred and fifty pounds
on that, Yeah he is.That's not an easy task for sure.
The news that the Pistons apparently aregoing to hire is it Langdon Trajan Langdon
Langdon? Does that take all thepressure off on you know, any possibility

(40:50):
that the Wolves might lose their presidentof basketball operations are not so simple.
Well yeah, I mean I thinkit takes the most obvious threat away for
sure. Now, I think thatlet's say that they win this series,
they go to the finals, oreven if they don't, but if they
do, I mean, Tim Connelly'sresume goes even higher up the food chain,

(41:13):
and so then maybe a team thatis not thinking about making a change
all of a sudden says, hey, this guy is available, and he
built it last year's champ and hebuilt the team that got to this year's
championship, and if they win whatever, let's just change course and let's throw

(41:34):
everything we have at him because heis available. Right now. I think
that's a possibility of happening. There'snot an obvious threat there that way,
but I would not rule it out. So while the Detroit situation being resolved
is certainly I think you take asigh of relief a little bit in that,

(41:55):
but I still think that given allof the things that have happened so
well here, there's still the opportunitylingering out there that we may not know
about that could come and upset theApple cart. Do you believe that ultimately
what happens with Conley depends in anymeaningful way on how this ownership squabble is

(42:16):
resolved. I mean, do youthink, I don't know if he's got
somebody he'd rather have, or whetheryou think one thing has nothing to do
with the other, because it wouldseem logically that it could if there's a
feeling of well, this might createeven once we get to that other place,
maybe it's not the status quo isno longer the status quo. Well,
I mean, I guess we justlook at the facts this way.

(42:39):
Tim Conley put the option in hiscontract for this very reason of insurance if
things fell apart, because Alex andMark were the ones who recruited him,
who kind of said, hey,you're going to be our guy going forward.
We're with you now. In thelast two years, has gotten to

(43:00):
have a good relationship with Glenn Taylor. He works well with him. I
think all parties enjoy each other.But what I would say is that right
now, certainly the uncertainty surrounding thesituation is affecting everyone in the organization.
And if it was tranquill either,if it let's even say you know that

(43:23):
Glenn was the one who hired himand and Alexa Mark weren't involved. Or
let's say that Alexa Mark completed thetransaction and it was and it's their team.
I think that removes all of thedrama on this and he sticks around
without any any question. The trickypart is going to be that he's probably
going to have to make a decisionbefore there is resolution to this. Like

(43:47):
I think there's only like a weekafter the season is over is when his
yes. So he's going to haveto look at that and say do I
do this? Do I not doit? He's going to do it regardless.
Isn't he right to get more money? Yes? Right in that would
make sense, But you know,do you do you do it just as
a negotial Yeah? Do you doit as a negotiating employee and so you

(44:07):
can get more money and all ofthat, or do you do it and
say, you know what, Ijust I can't deal with all of the
uncertainty here. I'm just going toto go somewhere else because of that.
So I think it is a realissue not just for Tim Connolly, but
for many many people on the businessside and in the basketball front. Office

(44:28):
to try and figure out, becausethe uncertainty is the worst thing you can
have in the NBA. Good updatethere, the last one on this.
Give us the update on the bindingarbitration sessions that's coming up soon. So
soon. Yeah, I haven't,I don't. I'm not aware of a
date being set yet. But everythingI continue to be told is that this

(44:50):
will not be resolved quickly. Soeven if I think, even if they
have a date set for an arbitration, there's still going to be you go
through through that, yeah, likeone session and it's all yeah, yeah,
and it's going to be Nope,you're right or you're wrong, and
that's it, and and it goesforward. It's going to take a while
for this whole thing to play out. And so I don't, you know,

(45:12):
from everything I've been told, obviouslynothing will happen before the season is
over. And the deeper the seasongoes, then you're getting into draft and
free agency and and summer League andall of that stuff, and so,
uh, the clock is ticking here. But I do not think we're you
know, imminent on anything getting toa point where you're going to have any

(45:32):
resolution on it. Is it fairto say that if we in a you
know, a couple of months arecelebrating the first NBA title in the history
of the Minnesota Timberwolves. That thenext day on his podcast, Draymond Green
Green will still say that the firstoff season priority of the Wolves has to
be trading Rudy Gobert. Yes,yes, you will find a way to

(45:53):
explain, explain it away, torationalize it. I just it's really unfortunate
it like it is. It isso good for it is so clearly personal,
and it's so clearly agenda driven.It is beneath that show. I
mean, as the it brings itto a halt too many times, no
question that this cultural significance of thatshow cannot be overstated. And to be

(46:20):
lowering themselves to that level, itis unintelligent discourse. It is it is
petty. It is everything that theyare not, and it's just and to
have why I don't understand, Well, here's my thought is is that I
think that they know eventually they're goingto have to have someone other than Charles
Barkley to do it. And thebelief was is that Draymond Green, this

(46:45):
unspoken tough guy, is the nextin the rule and we're going to groom
him so that we can have himfor the next thirty years after whenever Chuck
is gone. And what we areseeing right now is you're not Charles Barkley
man like, not at all.And and and Charles can can criticize a

(47:07):
player, but it's never comes offas that kind of tone and mean spiritedness.
And he's not jealous. Yes,that still play against the guy choked,
Yeah, exactly, And so it'sit's all, yeah, it's just
and and now unfortunately like they're they'rethey're live on Target Center and and you're
getting Draymond sucks chance like in thebackground, and Shaq is trying to tone

(47:30):
it down. It's just like,it doesn't make any sense that this is
happening, right. It bothers memore than it should, but it does.
I We've talked about it almost everyday, and it's just it's bizarre,
especially like you say, when it'sthe it's the the perfect example of
a show that no, you yougot the mix. This is the magic
of it. And I can evensee maybe occasionally bring in a guest person,

(47:51):
but it should be that a oneshot deal. There. This commitment
goes on and on and on,and it brings them down every single time.
We'll see it downstairs. Yeah,great stuff as always, man,
Thank you. Thanks Johnny Athletic helpingus out. A reminder, we're we
expect Lavelle at what time? Fourthirty? That's the plan also from our
location, and we hope, uhexpect in fact guards I think he's gonna

(48:13):
escort Kevin Harland to our spot.Well, he's Kevin Harlan. You know
what I'm saying. What are yousupposed to do? You gotta do what
you gotta do. Uh, whattime is Charles Barkley? Oh, that's
might be at the same place I'mgoing to. Oh that'd be good if
we could get them both. MaybeHarlan will bring Barlance twist like he's gonna
say no to Kevin Harlan is avery good point, and maybe Tim Conley.
We're hoping, but no confirmation there. Back in a minute here in the fan