In The Zone: NBA Preview!

The FAN's Dave Sinykin and Trent Tucker are back talking all things NBA ahead of the start of the season.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:29):
Don't do. It's eight oh one on a Saturday morning,

(01:18):
and now you are officially in the zone. I'm the fan.
I am Dave Sitekon, joined as always by the professor
of Hoopology. You know him affectionately as Double Tea. He's
a Gopher legend and NBA champion, a world class hockey dad.

(01:41):
Trent Tucker, Good morning, partner, Good morning, David. Say hello
to Max. Sitting in for a breath to day Max.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
What's up, Double Tea?

Speaker 1 (01:47):
Max? A million over there, Good to see him. It's
just you know, we love Brett blakemore and it's a
rare Saturday that he's not sitting across the glasses. His
grandma's turning ninety this weekend, so he's down in Atlanta
celebrating you. But if we could ever ask for mister
Max Fuller to join us. It's on the morning where
we're going to celebrate the return of another NBA season.

(02:08):
There are a lot of hoop heads on this station.
H three of the biggest star are right here today,
so we'll enjoy incorporating Max into the festivities today. When
we start talking some round ball in the second hour,
how are you I'm wearing the Colors today. Do you
know what I said? Yeah? Yeah, Well, well we'll get
to the soon to be second ranked Oh my goodness,

(02:29):
Indiana Hoosiers. Just a second, but we do start with
college football because of your Gophers. How about your Gophers?
A field stormy night at Hunting studio. They gave up
no touchdowns last night. I don't know if beating Nebraska
qualifies necessarily, but kids will be kids. Let's have some fun.
Let's let's trample the grass nice exactly under the lights.

(02:51):
That was a impressive win. Yeah, it was dominant. You know,
PJ does dominate Nebraska. That's sixth straight over the Huskers.
But they came in feeling very good about themselves. Nebraska,
right they ranked, they went, they were the same exact
spot a year ago. They were ranked twenty fifth and unbeaten,
and everybody thought or maybe one loss, and everybody thought

(03:11):
this might be the year. And so they thought, okay,
now this is the year. Matt Rules getting all this
talk about the new Penn State job. A big win
for him against the Gophers would maybe get him a
step closer. Yeah, the Gophers had other ideas. I don't
know what was more impressive seeing Darius Taylor breaking free
and that running game finally getting unlocked, or nine times

(03:34):
Dylan Rayola getting planted for a sack by that punishing
Gopher's defense. Yeah, I think so too. That was dominant, man,
I mean that was not I mean, not shocking, but
what's the word that's right? Short of shocking, it was
close to shocking how much they dominated the line of
scrimmage last night. Nice to see. Huh.

Speaker 3 (03:55):
Well, I mean, you know, any time you can beat
a ranked opponent and and you can, as you just mentioned,
you know, dominate the game from pretty much start to finish,
it's very impressive, you know, you know, losing that coming
off the Ohio State laws exactly. You wonder if if
the kids would be able to, you know, to pick

(04:16):
themselves up off the mat and bounce back. Then they
knock off Rutgers. You know, it was a very good
football team they had to play against. And now you go,
very good, I mean they're pretty solid. I'll go, it's solid.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
I mean, it was a game that could have gone
either way. They're not terrible, but very good, I mean
very good. Yeah, they're not. You're be very kind, They're
not very very very good. They're not Ohio, stay in
Alabama and Georgia and excuse me, okay, are you putting
in that class? Excuse me? And Georgia? How about the
second to be second? I was going to get that. Okay,

(04:47):
I'm a little touchy right now. It's all but uh.

Speaker 3 (04:51):
And then he bounce back and you beat the rank
upon it last night, and you control the game from
right from the from the start of the game, and
then you keep them out of the end zone.

Speaker 1 (04:59):
It's pretty impressive on the defensive end, no question. And
as you said, the big thing is you come off
that Ohio State game where you're playing a team that's
just so talented and very very good, exactly qualify for
that for sure. You know that can obviously hurt your confidence,
like who are we? What are we doing here? How
far away are we from that team? Like where are

(05:20):
we in? The big score? At three points right away?

Speaker 3 (05:22):
Nice first opening drive against the buck asked something, right,
you know this could be this could be Otoba nineteen
seventy seven.

Speaker 1 (05:29):
You know you're you're daring to dream very early. I
was most impressed by the drive early in the third
quarter at seven six at halftime, right Gophers are up
seven to six and Nebraska gets a coffin corner punt.
So the Gophers are starting at their two and you know,
Drake Lindsay was great, you know, on a couple of

(05:50):
third downs where he needed six seven yards, you know,
he got the ball out of his hands, quickly, got
the first down, moved the chains. They go ninety eight
yards on that drive to take the fourteen to six
lead and never looked back. I thought that was the
drive that kind of broke the Huskers back, don't you. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (06:05):
I mean anytime you you were able to flip the
field like they did and with confidence and patience and
not turning the ball over and executing your game plan.
You know, from from start to finish, it's a huge
confidence booster. And they say, you know, Nebraska is a
good football team. They came in feeling very good about themselves.

(06:26):
But you know, but the Gophers, like you said, you know,
they had you know, they had another thought process that
this is a game that we can win, is going
to put us in a better position, spotlight in terms
of how you look at us we get towards the
end of the season, in terms of bowl selection here
or there.

Speaker 1 (06:43):
But it was it was. It was a good win
for PJ. Fleck and this team last night. Yeah, in correction,
it was Purdue that that the Gophers knocked off after
a house and they're not a very, very very good team.
But it was a game that that we tried to
give to Purdue. Yes, there are the opportunities are there
for sure? Well, we beat Rugs before Windhouse State, that's correct,

(07:03):
I believe. So Nebraska came into this game last night
averaging forty one points per game, wow, and did not
sniff the end zone at Huntington Banks Stadium last night.
As we mentioned, nine sacks, I think that's a Gopher record.
Darius Taylor one hundred and forty eight yards in the ground.
What a site for sore eyes to finally see the
Gopher running attack. When you have a seventy yard run

(07:23):
knockdown just short of the goal line and Lindsey eighty
percent completion percentage last night, you know, kind of dinked
and dunk, didn't take any deep shots, didn't hit with
any explosive plays. But sixteen for twenty a buck fifty
three to go with that running game, just up and down.
A solid performance against a marginally ranked team, but taking
care of business at home and proving to three and

(07:45):
one on the Big Ten and setting up the big
rivalry game and Iowa sitting next week for Floyd of Rosedale.
And it's nice to play on a Friday night because
now that the Gophers can sit back and watch Iowa
Penn State and see if if Penn State gets a
bump by you know, losing their coach, do they play better.
Does Iowa just take care of that lost team that
was top five a noto a month ago and now

(08:07):
seems like their season is completely dead. Does they get
to sit back and watch Iowa and get ready for
a big game in Iowa City next week?

Speaker 3 (08:14):
Yeah, I mean going to Iowa. No matter what sport
it may be, it's always a big game. And I
can remember, you know, my last game in Iowa City.
It was it was, you know, fighting for the Big
Ten championship, and it was a game that we had
to win to put ourselves in a position to win
the Big Ten championship.

Speaker 1 (08:33):
You know, we go into.

Speaker 3 (08:34):
The last four games of the Big Ten season, and
two of the last fours on the road. Michigan is
was the place that we hadn't had no success over
about fifteen or twenty years. But they were a young
team and we blow them out and the line I
do us a favor. On that Thursday night, they knock
off the Hawk Eye. So now we're one game out

(08:54):
going to Iowa City, and I don't think there was
one go for Bass football fan and then the arena
other than us, And that was the first time I
saw Jim Dutcher in a very cool calm and always
under control. You know, he has some he had a
few colorful words that that avenue. And I said, when

(09:16):
when he's speaking like that, this is a game we're
going to win for sure. And you know, Darryl Mitchell
steps up and knocks down critical free throws and triple
over time, you know, to get to win. And and
that allowed us to go in and win the Big
Ten championship.

Speaker 1 (09:29):
Yeah, whenever we bring up Iowa City, you could just
see your brain going back to the early eighties.

Speaker 3 (09:34):
So going to Iowa City for any sport that you
play as a gofriend is always going to be a big.

Speaker 1 (09:39):
Deal, no question. Yeah. I mean the state of Wisconsin
football right now is so dead that Iowa, Iowa feels
like the much more important and difficult game in this
series right now. And certainly that trophy is right there
with the acts, right Yeah.

Speaker 3 (09:53):
And and you know you should have a great deal
of confidence, you know, going into Iowa City. But you
know you talked about, you know, how you fish in
the quarterback was last night, and he just a good
game plan making sure that you continue to move the
ball down the field and you pick your spots here

(10:14):
and there to see if you can make a big play.
But good coaching at certain point in times will always
put players in good situations to define success. But now
it's up to the players that go out there and executing.
And the golfers were able to execute last night from
start to fence.

Speaker 2 (10:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (10:28):
Sets them up for a big week of practice getting
set for a big matchup at Iowa City. There was
one other game last night involving the ranked team. The
number two ranked Hurricanes of Miami got beat by Louisville
at home last night. I watched a good chunk of
it flipping back and forth because my brewers were basically dad.
We'll get to that a little bit later. So Miami

(10:49):
drops drops their game. They're the number two team in
the country, which means if Indiana knocks off Michigan State
today and they are four touchdown favorites to do it,
they'll be the number two team in the AP pole.
It'll be Ohio State Indiana one two, potentially until the
Big ten Championship game. I don't want to get ahead
of myself, but over the national championship, well, we'll get

(11:12):
there too. The ten comes first. What a week for
my alma mater. We were sitting here a week ago
wondering how they would handle a trip to Eugene, Oregon,
trying to you just hope they stay closer. Yeah, that's
all I wanted was in the fourth quarter. I want
this game to be one score in doubt, show that
you belong against a top five They were number three
team in the country.

Speaker 3 (11:32):
This team exactly some way they got and they got
lucky and made their way to the top.

Speaker 1 (11:37):
But hey, indi en has shown that, hey, we belong.
They dominated that game and a thirty to twenty win,
led a good chunk of the game most of the game,
and when their quarterback for Nanda Mindaz Mondoza threw a
pick six, you were like, oh boy, here we go,
right because you're up twenty thirteen with the ball all right,
and that pick six, so unlike him, ties the game

(11:58):
of twenty and now all the bad thoughts come in.
You have, Well, it was a good run. They held it,
you know, for forty eight to fifty minutes. They were right.
But then Mendoza comes right back and takes them all
the way down the field and scores.

Speaker 3 (12:08):
Well, they're coached in panic, you see, and and and
there are times when when players are going.

Speaker 1 (12:13):
To make mistakes.

Speaker 3 (12:14):
And as a head coach, if you panic on the
sideline and you take him out right away, or you
change how the game has gone throughout the let's say
three quarters, get more conservative now all of a sudden,
Now see, you have just taken his confidence away from him.
And I think a lot of coaches, you know, at

(12:35):
whatever lever it may be, from from you sports all
the way up to the professional level, if you have
a guy who's playing well for you and he makes
a mistake here there, you're the first guy to camp panic.
You can't go yanke him out of the game. You
can't go take his minutes away. You can't change how
how he approaches the game from an offensive standpoint, you know,
go back to him say hey, okay, so down, so down,

(12:58):
and we're going to put you right back in the fire.
And I thought Indiana's head football coach did a great
job of making sure that his quarterbacks stay very confident
over the course of that game.

Speaker 1 (13:08):
Yeah, he knows what, butons to push. It was the
biggest win in program history. Man, with apologies to the
rosebull team in the sixties, I mean that was the
biggest win in program history. And what a week it
was for Indiana fans because that was just you go crazy,
what an amazing win. You moved to number three in
the rankings. And then penn State fires James Franklin, and
now you know Signetti's from Pennsylvania, and you know Penn

(13:31):
State's going to come calling. How long are you going
to keep your coach? Florida might come calling. You're not
going to keep him long. Enjoy the ride. That's what
Indiana fans we're dealing with. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and then
Friday the news drops that they tear up Signetti's contract
and make him the third highest paid coach in college
football behind Kirby Smart and Ryan Day. Number three is

(13:51):
the Indiana coach. I'm like living in bizarro world. I'm like,
what world am I in? Where Indiana is second in
the country this week and their coach is being pid
eleven point six million dollars. He says he wants to
retire a Hoosier eight years ninety three million dollar deal.
He's going to get a chance to do that well, right,
and you know, you know two three years from now.
Obviously who knows. Right, he starts to wonder about some

(14:14):
of the administration and some other school. I mean, he
can't swear he's gonna end up at EU, but you'll
be there for a little bit, and this program is
going to be there for a little bit. And it's
just again, as an IU alum and a dad with
two kids, there the idea that that they've got maybe
the number two team in the country. I just can't
wrap my head around it. When my kids were signed

(14:35):
up to go to Indiana, my whole thought was, God,
I hope the basketball program can turn itself around so
you could enjoy what I got to experience in the
early eighties, where they want a championship that's nowhere near
coming to fruition. But obviously the football team has defied
all odds and become a dominant Dare I say powerhouse?
I mean it might be too early to say that,

(14:55):
but they are on that road to becoming a real
solid college football rapids. What I mean, you know, it's unbelievable.

Speaker 3 (15:02):
As I was talking, and see, the one thing you
don't want to do as a as a head coach
is to it's to hurt someone's confidence. And you don't want,
you know, a kid or high school or college or
pro player to believe that you don't believe in me
no more. And all of a sudden that self doubt
begins to creep in. And when that self doubt begins
to creep in, I don't care what level you play at,

(15:24):
sometimes it's hard to get it back. So and for
you know, for coaches, you know, if you are looking
to improve up on something withinside that player, I think
this sometimes it's how you deliver the message. And there
are some kids who are motivated by fear, but there's
some kids who are not. And and I think when

(15:45):
you put yourself in that seat, you have to become
that philosopher sometimes understanding what buttons to push and what
words to use at a certain time to get the
best out of that player.

Speaker 1 (15:55):
Yeah, it's a talent that that not everybody has it obviously.

Speaker 3 (15:58):
Yeah, I mean, and I see it across the and
I you know, even times when I've coached you know,
kids here or there, and my message has always been
you know, if I was saying I was coaching you, David,
and I said, hey, I would say, Dave, you know
you are very very good at doing all these things.
You know, you're a fantastic player. But now if you
would just add one or two more things to your game,

(16:18):
if you add this to your game, you know, just
imagine how good you could be as a player. All
of a sudden, Now that player may not see this
as you being critical. He can take a look and
see it from a different light. And all of a sudden,
now you have a whole different player on your side,
and he's he's willing to soak up all the information

(16:40):
that you can give him.

Speaker 1 (16:41):
Yeah. Got to be fulfilling as a coach to make
that connection with the player.

Speaker 3 (16:44):
Right, I mean, And in this day and time, it's
all about the message. And I whether you know, anytime
you are a leader of young people, it's all about
some days, how you deliver your message to make sure
you can get your point across a loud and player.

Speaker 1 (17:00):
But our advertisers deliver a couple of messages. We'll take
our first break. When we come back, we'll switch gears
to talk NFL Giant game at US Bank Stadium. We'll
dive into Week seven of the NFL season and a
lot of NBA conversation. The NBA season tips off this
coming week. It's our annual NBA preview show. We'll do
plenty of NBA conversation. Double t, Max Fuller and me

(17:21):
glad to have you along for the ride in the
zone on the fan. Back with you A twenty three

(17:53):
on a Saturday morning. You're in the zone, Tucker and
sinnecon We're with you till ten. Fantasy Football Weekly follows
us as always, coming off a night where you're in Minnesota.
Wild dropped a five to one game to the Washington Capitals.
We can't score in five on five, only a power play.
You need power plays to score.

Speaker 3 (18:11):
Yeah, we got to figure out how to you know
to put the puck in the back of the net
on in a five on five situation.

Speaker 1 (18:16):
That would be helpful. I only got two power play
chances last night. And did not cash in on them.
You know who did cash in on a goal, Alex
Ovechkin eight and ninety eight. Yeah, how about career goal
is first of the season. I'm very impressed that you
that you know that, well, Blake Bore is not here.
I can't count on Max to give you a minute
of hockey talk, so I figured I should do a
little digging. Yeah, and check out what happened in DC

(18:38):
for your Wild last night.

Speaker 3 (18:39):
Well, you know, it's hard when when you can't when
you can't put the puck in the back of the net,
and you can, you know, goal attending and good defense
here or there, but but you know, offense has to
help about your defense and your go attender. And we
all know that in certain situations a goalie can win
a game for you, and sometimes they can't. They can

(19:00):
win a playoff series for you. But with this season
being so long as it is, and you can't ask
them to be great every night, at some point in time,
the offense is going to have to step up and
help them out. And right now it seems like that
the Wild just cannot find their offensive punch.

Speaker 1 (19:16):
Two and three start for your Wild, and last night
not very competitive. You know who else was not very competitive?
My hometown Milwaukee Brewers, who reached the National leagu Championship
Series after being the best team in baseball record wise
all season, but knowing they had to face the gauntlet
that was the Dodgers, a team that they had beaten
all six times they played them the season or something.

(19:37):
And the pitching was just lights out. The Brewery bats
could not wake up in this game. It went silent
at the wrong time. Correct. And despite the fact that
you know, the greatest player in baseball going into last
night's game, Choheyo Tani was just three for twenty nine,
fourteen strikeouts. He was staring. He couldn't do a thing.
They said. He actually took outdoor batting practice the last

(19:59):
couple of days, first time he's done that. Apparently in years.
He may want to just make that, make that a
part of his daily routine. Now. He had a game
last night, no hyperbole here, greatest game in Major League
Baseball history by any player ever, and it will never
be topped. I agree with you. Is that hyperbolic or no,
that's the truth. How do you top what did last night?

(20:22):
He leads off the game with a home run I'll
become in the first pitcher in Major League history to
lead off a game with a home run. He goes
on to pitch six scoreless innings against the Brewers, striking
now ten. He was unhittable, and then, by the way,
he had two more home runs, including one that I
think left the stadium in center field, like I think

(20:44):
it went out of the stadium. It was I think
they measured at four hundred and seventy feet. Double team
this guy. I know he was struggling and he was
a non factor for the first three games of this series.
But oh my goodness, what up? Four Orman's last night?
Greatest baseball player ever? Correct? I mean, how do you

(21:07):
mean were you were you around for baby Ruth? I
don't think you were. It's hard to iron you against it. Yeah,
it's stunning, you know.

Speaker 3 (21:14):
And again, I mean somebody may come up with something
and post an argument, but his performance last night, I mean,
how can you top that?

Speaker 1 (21:24):
No, you know, we understand that, of course the Dodgers
are going to win. They spend more money than God
they buy their team. We all understand the economics of baseball.
But let's set all that aside for a second and
just marvel at a talent that we have never seen
before in baseball, let alone pro sports. A guy to
I mean, it would be like the equivalent there is

(21:44):
no equivalent in basketball. It'd be the equivalent football of
being the MVP quarterback but also being the best cornerback
or the best linebacker leading the league in tackles. And
even that, to me, would pale in comparison to a
guy that can pitch at that level and also hit.
He leads off for the Dodgers, like he's not just
a power hitter, like he's a base runner too, Like

(22:07):
he's just he's a baseball player. He's remarkable. He's just remarkable.

Speaker 3 (22:10):
And maybe back in the day, there could have been
someone as a pitcher, you know, who could have hit
the ball, maybe not as well, but very good. But
pitchers were never allowed to really hit, you know what.
They were just there to pitch. But in today's game,
here's a guy that comes in and we allow him
to do what he does best, and that's everything exactly exactly.

Speaker 1 (22:36):
Just a remarkable performance by Otani. The Dodgers now await
the winner of the Mariners and Blue Jays. Quite a
dramatic game. Also in Seattle.

Speaker 3 (22:45):
Last night, Seattle wins this game would be the first
time in team history to get to the World Series.

Speaker 1 (22:52):
I believe that's correct. They got a Grand Slam home
run in the eighth inning to US to break it
to two tie, and despite dropping the first two at all,
they salvage Game five to take that three two lead.
But now they go back to Toronto for games six
and perhaps seven. But yeah, they're very well in Toronto.
Yeah they sure did. But all you had to do

(23:12):
was when a couple at home and you're around to
the World Series. So I'm sure Mariners fans are a
bit no, wait, well you had to get game five
for sure, you know, to not be in a one
game elimination type situation. So they know that going back
to Toronto game six will be tough. You know, we've
had some success that before, so we can we can

(23:34):
hang out had on that, and the mindset has to be,
you know, okay, we're not going to lose this playoff
series in game six, but we can get to the
World Series in game six. And and that was a
and that's the mindset sometimes that you have to have
as a player. And I knew going into you know,
some of the situations that I've been in. And even

(23:55):
though with some of my kids when they play sports,
I tell them, I said, look at this moment here.
You know you won't lose the game or the match
on this whole, but you can win.

Speaker 3 (24:06):
So and look at this from a different standpoint and say, Okay,
how can I play this situation to the best. That's
going to put me in a good situation to be successful.
And I think that's what Seota has to do going
back to Toronto for game number six and.

Speaker 1 (24:20):
Just pay no attention to what the Dodgers just did.
That that all their pitchers were lights out. I mean,
chances are that can't be necessarily repeatable, and it may
not be so right now.

Speaker 3 (24:29):
The Dodgers is somebody that you don't even know. Yeah,
if you don't win one of these two games, you
know you're not going to see the Dodgers anywhere into
next year maybe maybe, So you know, the only thing
that c Alo is concerned about now is that how
can we get through nine innings with a one run lead.

Speaker 1 (24:53):
That's all we're looking for.

Speaker 3 (24:54):
If we can win this game one, nothing, two, one,
ten to nine, however, and whatever it takes to get
to the to the end of the end of this
baseball game with the one run League.

Speaker 1 (25:04):
That's what we're looking to accomplish. PostScript, great season for
the Brewers, one of the best of all time. Obviously,
ninety seven wins, a payroll that's similar to the Twins.
You know, to see an organization able to identify talent,
get a great manager in there that knows what buttons
to push. They just didn't have the starting pitching. When
when Brandon Woodruff got hurt and was forced to miss

(25:26):
the playoffs, they lose their number two guy, and they
just didn't really have the studs to compete with the Dodgers.
And they are going with you know, bullpen, rotation games
and all but one except when par all to pitch.
And obviously it's really tough to compete with the Dodgers
when you don't have solid starting.

Speaker 3 (25:43):
Dodge is a tough I mean, you know, even though
the Brewers may have beaten them, you know, all six times,
but anyone that goes into a matchup against this team
with that talent and as you mentioned that payroll, the
Dodgers on paper would always be the best team in baseball. Yeah,
they they may not accomplished that on the field, But

(26:03):
when you look at the money they spend and the
players they bring in, and you put those papers side
by side with any other team other than the Yankees
at times in terms of spending money, the Dodgers will
always be the best team in baseball.

Speaker 1 (26:16):
Yeah, there's no question that lineup is insane. Text from
nine to four nine, guy, I had to look up
where nine four nine area code is. Any ideas that
theydy't jump out at you? I could guess, but I
don't want to. Okay, you don't have to. Nine four
nine is Orange County, California. So I appreciate him or
her getting up early to listen to us, and he
or she texted it all caps OMG, can you guys

(26:39):
please talk more hockey? That was so good? You guys
appreciate that. I'm tapped out. That's all I got. That's
all I got now two minutes or so. I'll do
my best, but it'll be out there. Contell you.

Speaker 3 (26:50):
I think the New York Rangers may have been the
first team in history to open up with three games
on their home ice and not score a goal.

Speaker 1 (26:58):
Is that right? Yeah? I believe they couldn't like summon
that from the for the first three games. That's not
a good sign, right it started? Yeah, yikes, all right,
So I think I read that somewhere. I won't go
with it. I'm not going to dispute it. Obviously it
works for me. He's talking about college football. You know,
I was watching last night, uh Bill Belichick in California.

(27:20):
Oh yeah, California.

Speaker 3 (27:23):
Carolina is driving the last three or four minutes of
the game and they connect, you know, with the crossing
pass guys on the two yard line. Got from California
makes a great play, punches the ball out the nice
Bill Belichick a chance to win the game on the
rolling and I guess in his first a SEC victory
as well. And I had to be a heart It

(27:46):
was a heartbreak loss for them because they did everything
right on their dry except get the ball into the
end zone and Got made a great play from California
and they recover the ball in the end zone and
then they run the clock out from there.

Speaker 1 (27:58):
I just saw that play. We have span up in
the studio and they just when the last ten minutes
showed that play, I hadn't seen it. I was sound
asleep when that game was going on. It's been a
nightmarish start for Bill Belichick, and in Chapel Hill that
would have been a really nice road victory. It's weird
just to think of cal and the acc But that's
the way where we are right now. Yeah, heartbreaking, right

(28:20):
because you did everything right. You found the guy, he's
going in and the defense makes a great pace, great
and knocks the ball out. Yeah, so sorry, Bill. So
you know we know we span, you know, we expand
the globe with our sports knowledge every once.

Speaker 2 (28:33):
In a while.

Speaker 1 (28:34):
You think we don't, Yeah, you think we don't. We'll
pause here. I promised you. NFL conversation that is up next.
The hated Eagles are in town, shuffling, stumbling on a
two game losing streak. Can the Vikings, as Trent does
the skull chant, make it three in a row for
the Super Bowl champs. We will chat NFL Week seven
when we come back in the zone. We are back

(29:30):
eight forty on a Saturday morning, Tucker sinekon Max Fuller
in the Zone on a Saturday to tomorrow, the Minnesota
Vikings will host the defending world champion Philadelphia Eagles.

Speaker 3 (29:43):
I think at the Minnesota great get together. When we
looked at this game on the schedule, we said this
could be one of the games that Okay, we think
that based on what the Eagles the had a year ago,
this is a game they probably would come in here
and win.

Speaker 1 (29:57):
One of the scarier games on the schedule.

Speaker 3 (30:00):
But now how things have shaped up over the last
two ball games for the Eagles, I say, my Vikings
are in a good situation, you know, to win that
third game, not forced the Eagle to lose that third.

Speaker 1 (30:13):
Correct, Vikings are just one and a half point underdogs.
They are three and oh as home dogs the last
couple of seasons, so that's good history. I'm just curious, A.
Will you be at the game? And B if you're there,
will you be sporting a number one Eagles jersey because
your bff jail It Hurts will be on the field. No.

Speaker 3 (30:32):
And like I said, I'm a Jalen Hurts fan, I'm
not an Eagles fan. Okay, you know it's a different distink.
You didn't ask him for tickets, you didn't reach out
and say you're my guy. I'll be a fair ball
Washington hockey during the game.

Speaker 1 (30:46):
During the game, yeah, getting set for a big weekend
tournament in Chicago.

Speaker 3 (30:49):
Yeah, boys have to be ready for that next way.
So I think the Vikings are in a good situation.
You're not talked talked about the other last game over
over the Big Pond. It was a game they had
to win against the Cleveland Browns. Yep, they were able
to do that. No, Cleveland has a very good defense,
and how the Vikings are able to put their last
drive together to win that football game should give them

(31:12):
a great deal of confidence as they face the Eagles tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (31:15):
Yep. And coming off the buy, you got a healthier team,
not completely healthy, because you've still got Carson Wentz at quarterback.
JJ McCarthy still not right with that ankle, and with
a Thursday night game looming in La, I think it's
safe to assume he won't play next week either. So
we're gonna get to a point where out of twenty
five games where McCarthy was eligible to be quarterback, he's

(31:38):
played two of them, two out of the first twenty
five of his career. You know, he's need to rush.
I mean, there is there any level of concern that
will be at the midway point of the season, and
we still have no idea what JJ McCarthy is.

Speaker 3 (31:53):
Not because he's still young, and you know, and Andrew's
some things that some players just cannot avoid. And now
if this ling is into year three, four five, then
you're like, Okay, now you're begin to have some major concerns.
But I think at this stage there's no need to
be concerned for Carson Wentz, a kid who grew up
in North Dakota as a Viking fan. For him to

(32:15):
be wearing that Vikings jersey against the team that drafted
him number two overall seven eight years ago, he's just
got to be so excited, doesn't he. I mean, he's
played Philly before a few years ago when he was
in Washington, they lost and he said, like, there's nobody
on that defense that's still there from when he was
in Philly. So it's not like he's like rubbing elbows
and shaking hands with a bunch of X teammates.

Speaker 1 (32:36):
But still, you know, for a guy that led Philly
almost in an MVP season on a Super Bowl charge,
gets hurt and on the way all know what happened.
Then you know, the backup becomes the star and then
his days are over. This has to be something a little.

Speaker 3 (32:52):
Special to go up against this team, yeah, I mean,
and also it's for him, Yeah, it's a bounce back
game to have a chance to show, you know that
he still can play against some of the better football
teams in this league at a very high level. And
this is an important game, I think for both teams.
You know, the Eagles are trying to get themselves back
on track. The Commanders gave them a huge boost dealing

(33:15):
other night by losing to the Chicago Bears, and they
kept Philadelphia in first place in the other vision. But
also you know, from a Viking standpoint, you know the
key pace with the other teams and the other vision
as well, this is a game that they need to
win one hundred.

Speaker 1 (33:28):
It's a big one. It's you know, you come off
the buy, you should be recharged, you should feel good about,
you know, the health of your team, and I think
the Vikings have to feel pretty good. There's certainly a
couple of players where have our eyes on. You know,
is Brian O'Neal going to be back at right tackle.
It looks like Donovan Jackson's back left guard. The offensive
line is getting healthier. You certainly would love to have
O'Neill back. I don't know if they're going to count

(33:51):
on him tomorrow. It sounds if he they will not
have Andrew Van Ginkle back. He is still out, but
Blake Cashman listed the questionable with that hamsterring that blended
him on ir He. I think there's a good chance
he's back, and I think that's huge because Philly knows
if they are going to win this game, they have
to get Sakwon Barkley on track. They have been terrible.

(34:14):
I mean, offensively, they have been an absolute disaster. We
know Kellen Moore left the offensive coordinator run on the
show in New Orleans. They have not gotten that offense
go on. The rushing game is twenty fifth in the league,
ninety five yards a game. Wekes have not been good
against the run twenty fourth and success rate against the run.
Now a lot of that is fat Cashman's been out.
But yes, the Eagles know that to win this game,

(34:38):
they got to get Saquon Barkley unlocked, and they feel
like the matchup's probably favorable. And that's job number one
for this Vikings defense is to make sure Sakwon Barkley
doesn't find himself become the guy that was the offensive
Player of the Year last year. Because right now, this
offense basically it's Jalen Hurts looking for Dallas Goddard and
that's it. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (34:58):
So, and you talk about the egos out, how many
different coordinators offensively have Jayden Hurst hand throughout his career.

Speaker 1 (35:07):
Yeah, it's like they changing every other even. Yeah, they're
getting jobs basically.

Speaker 3 (35:12):
And for and for the Eagles to to be able
to do what they have done when you are changing
offensive coordinator this year and then year out, it has
been remarkable. But this is a situation where if the
Eagles don't find their balance on offense, it really sets
up the vikings and a good situation, you know, you know,
to get this win, and they understand that, Hey, if

(35:33):
we don't want say Kwan Barkley to find his confidence
and we don't want the egos to figure out things
offensively for sure tomorrow after no it, maybe they can
figure it out two weeks from now, but let's keep
them in a situation where they're you know, where they're
second guessing themselves on the offensive end.

Speaker 1 (35:49):
Yeah. As a fan, I hate facing a team like
this in this situation where they drop too in a
row of proud team with the Super Bowl aspirations. They're
coming in desperate and angry. It's kind of like I
was root for Pittsburgh Thursday night because I didn't want
the Green Bay goes into Pittsburgh next weekend. I didn't
want to face a team off kind of an embarrassing
loss with extra rest. I mean, that's just not the
best time to face a team like that that certainly

(36:11):
their defense was shredded. They're gonna be much better. Same
thing with phillip You know, you're coming off two straight losses.
Now they're coming in here knowing that they can't lose
three in a row. I mean, not their divisions terrible.
They're going to win their divisional matter if they win
or lose tomorrow, I think. But they're coming in focus desperate,
and the Vikings have to match that desperation a little bit,
just like I think. You know, Green Bay has Arizona tomorrow.

(36:32):
Arizona's dropped four in a row, most of them in
heartbreaking walk off fashion. Yeah, and you hate to face
a team that knows that kind of seasons on the line.
So can the Vikings mass match the urgency that you
know Philly's gonna come in and bring to them tomorrow.

Speaker 3 (36:48):
Where they have to have the same sense of urgency
because they're trying to keep pace with the teams in
their division as well. As you got the Lines, you
got the Packers, and all of a sudden, now the Bears,
you know, have creeped into that conversation as well with
a huge win Lash three in a row.

Speaker 1 (37:00):
I think, and and.

Speaker 3 (37:03):
And so it's it's important for both of these teams
and to come out and play well. And you talk about,
you know, going to this Pittsburgh. I mean, if Cincinnati
can protect Joe Flacco, they're a different football team because
they may have the best two the best duo in
the league football. Yeah, I mean if and if you

(37:25):
give Flacco time to so to stay up right, I mean,
his his arm is as good as any quarterback in
the league still, and he can find those guys. And
when he can pitch and catch with those guys, you
know they can they can rehabit on any defense.

Speaker 1 (37:38):
Yeah. Watching them light it up Thursday night made me
feel a little bit better about the Packers' performance against
them the week before. And granted, Flacco had only been
with the team three or four days, but still, you know,
the Packers shut them down in the first half. They
had like one first down in the first half, they
did nothing sixty five yards of offense, and then all
of a sudden, Flaco caught fire. Then they come out
in the second half on a ten minute drive and

(37:59):
score and then and the Packers didn't stop them in
the second half, And I'm like, what's with the Packers
defense of the second half? All of a sudden the
last couple of games, well, maybe you know, things are
starting to click for flat going that offense, and they
certainly showed it throwing thirty three on the board against Pittsburgh.

Speaker 3 (38:13):
The other because you know, for the way that that
Flacco plays, he has the right pieces around him. Now
it's all about the offensive line, Reno. Cincinnati's defense is.

Speaker 1 (38:24):
You know, is not the best, and they were without
their best guy Thursday.

Speaker 3 (38:27):
And but if the offensive line can can dig in
and give Joe you know, three to five seconds to
find those guys down the field, all of a sudden,
Cincinnati is is in the conversation of being a different
football team before this aw sitting down.

Speaker 1 (38:42):
Yeah, and their schedule the next two three weeks is
very favorable they might look like a different team. Back
to the Vikings. I think we talked about Philly needing
to run the football because they have not done it
very well. The Vikings also must rely on Jordan Mason tomorrow.
This is an Eagles team that's allowing the seven most
rushing yards per game. That's because in part that Jalen

(39:02):
Carter has not been out there. First, he got suspended
tomorrow right where he's questionable. I think he's coming back.
I think the last thing I read was it looks
likely that Carter's back and that changes everything as far
as their run defense goes. So that's something to watch. Also,
watch their best cornerback, Quinyon Mitchell, is questionable with a
back with a hammy. I've seen reports where he's back.

(39:23):
Maybe he's not back. We'll watch the when the injury
report comes out at ten thirty. If if Quinnon Mitchell's
back again and Jalen Carter's back, it becomes a lot
more difficult. The thing about Mitchell is he doesn't like
he's not going to follow Jefferson and just be the
guy that tries to lock up Jefferson. He plays on
one side of the field, so if he is out there,

(39:44):
look for KOC to move Jefferson around to keep him
away from Mitchell. Maybe that makes Addison less of a
factor if he's locked in against that cornerback. But injuries
and the questionable status of key guys are kind of
the storyline right now. I think it changes everything, you know,
if Carter and and Mitchell are out, if Brian O'Neil

(40:05):
is out, if Cashman's out. I mean, I think all
those guys might be trending. Maybe not O'Neil so much
to play. Everything's different now. Yeah, it's it's a really
it's the only really interesting game to me on the
noon slate tomorrow. There's a lot of kind of lousy
matchups early. The better games are late and at night
this weekend. But that noon game, you know, you have
a chance to focusing in some things here. Yeah, for me,

(40:26):
if the Packers aren't in the window, I'm usually red
zone mainscreen, you know. But tomorrow it's Vikings Eagles for me.
That that game is very It's fascinating, isn't it. It's fun? Yeah,
that's It drives my wife crazy, like, how can you
not just focus on one game? How do you know
what's happening, too many games being played. Yeah, you got
to have an eye on everything. That's just the way
it goes. Mentioned Packers are in Arizona. Don't know if

(40:48):
Kyler Murray is going to play. That's obviously a key talker.
Although Jacoby Brissett threw for over three hundred yards for
them last week in a game where they almost won
an Indy. I mentioned they've lost four in a row,
devastating you know, walk off to San Francisco last second
to Seattle, the blow up against Tennessee where they were
almost up three touchdowns on the fourth quarter, and then

(41:09):
last week they had the lead three times in the
fourth quarter in Indy against a banged up defense, but
still so desperate Arizona team. The Packers are touchdown favorites.
They need to if you jump on go on the
road and win a game five. If you jump on
them early, and you might be able to keep them
keep their confidence down. But if you allow them to
get off to a good start, even though they've lost

(41:29):
four in a row in heartbreaking fashion, you know they say,
he okay, you know, we just need to make one
more play. We just need to make one more play.

Speaker 3 (41:36):
And you and you allowed them to stay in the
game mentally, So I think for your team, demark coming
out and get enough to a very good start would
be critical.

Speaker 1 (41:45):
Yeah, the one concern I have Josh Jacobs popped up
on the injury report yesterday. Questionable now with a calf
injury out of nowhere and an illness. Now he was
sick last week, apparently vomiting throughout the game despite one
hundred and fifty yards of offense and looking like the
Josh Jacobs of last year. You know, sometime guys pay
play better than this. Sometimes we've one of your buddies.
MJ has been going to do that. I'd like Jacob's

(42:08):
out there, please. Emmanuel Wilson's fine, you know, but to
make him the workhorse is going to be a bit
of a problem. But green Bay needs to win a
road game. Then they've got the game in Pittsburgh next
Sunday night against Aaron Rodgers, which will be the game
of the week. They need to, uh see the Linemant
tackle Aaron Rodgers. He was not happy about that. Are
you kidding me right now? Forty years old? You can't

(42:29):
be doing this. Dude was excited, man, he was excited.
Little too exuberant, but it was too much Joe ku
As the end of the game, though, yes there was,
they left him a little too much time. Best game
of the weekend is Tampa Bay at Detroit. The Buccaneers
have just one loss. Baker Mayfield finds a way to
win despite not having his best running back, not having
his best two of his top three receivers. Somehow Tampa

(42:51):
Bay figures out a way to win.

Speaker 3 (42:52):
The week after week right now after what week six? Yeah,
five and one? I did the best team in NFC
at the stage. Yeah, I think I think you have
to say, Tampa Bay. I mean, let me get back
to you tomorrow night, because I don't think they're going
to win in Detroit. Thomas, Yes, yes, I think I
think you have to say. Baker Mayfield is an MVP
candidate for what he's able to do. No Bucky Irving,

(43:15):
no Mike Evans A, Bukah's banged up. Now, Godwin's just coming.
I mean all of his weapons are either out or
a shell of themselves, and somehow he just ohowed tes
whatever rookie receiver. I'll just find you a couple of
times down the field, Well, who are you? You're out there,
I'll find you.

Speaker 1 (43:30):
He's you know, again we talk about the resurrection of
quarterbacks that we're seeing now. Daniel Jones is the latest.
You know, Wentz will see the story. He writes as
much time as he gets. Baker Mayfield's kind of the
poster boy for being the number one pick. Couple teams
quit on him, you know, is he ever going to
be anything? And suddenly you know, oh, by the way,
he's an MVP candidate.

Speaker 3 (43:49):
Well, I mean when when you go to tough situations
as a number one overall pick and they're asking you
to change this franchise pretty much by yourself, and you
don't have the other guys alongside of you that can
get you to the next step, that quarterback is going
to struggle. And you know, even though he had some

(44:11):
brief moments with the Browns, then he goes to Carolina
and things weren't good there, and now you're starting to
question whether this guy has it or not. But all
of a sudden, he lands in Tampa Bay and you
have the personnel that fits his style to play, The
coaching staff puts a game plan that works for him,

(44:31):
and all of a sudden, he's a you know, he's
a different player. And it's not that he wasn't a
good football player at the beginning. He was just in
the wrong and a bad situation. And most high draft picks,
especially guys who are taking number one, they're going to
find themselves in more bad situations that the start of
their careers than good ones.

Speaker 1 (44:53):
Koc said it what a year ago, I think, when
when Sam Donald was getting set to get his chance,
his third or fourth chance, Like organization failed quarterbacks more
often than quarterbacks fail organizations. It's a brilliant line. It's
so true, and you can point to time and time
again where teams pin their hopes on the latest greatest
quarterback and rush them out there, and it just shows

(45:14):
if you're patient, if you get the right thing around them,
and you just take time and see talent.

Speaker 3 (45:18):
I mean, you need players around you that can do
the things they are supposed to do so that you
can do your job.

Speaker 1 (45:25):
And take the pressure off the quarterback to be the savior.

Speaker 3 (45:28):
If you're running for your life every single on every
single snap, it's not your fault. I mean, you just
your team is not good enough at this stage to
perform at this level. And the guy who is going
to take all the heat for it. Isn't number one
guy drafted, Well, he's not that good.

Speaker 1 (45:44):
No, look at the people around him, because no good
quarterback or great quarterback has been able to achieve a
certain level of success without having other good players around.
No question, Baker will be challenged tomorrow against the Lion's
team coming off a lot. They are outstanding and bouncing
back from losses, and I expect Detroit to handle Tampa Bay,

(46:07):
knock them down to peg or two. Tampa Bay goes
into Detroit and wins that game tomorrow, then they are
the clearcut NFC favorites, There's no question about it. But
I will be very surprised. As banged up as they
are and Detroit off a loss. I like the Lions
to take care of business. And then I'm with you.
Let's pause here and turn our attentions to the National
Basketball Association. It starts next week. Wolves open up in

(46:29):
Portland Wednesday night. Our long national nightmare is over. The
NBA is back, and we'll spend the next hour diving
into our twenty five twenty six preview. Stay with us
our number two after this. The NBA is back, NBC
is back. That's true. We get the music back. It's
a whole new era. The NBA has been all over CBS,
sometimes on ABC back to NBC. Texter CBS ed from

(46:55):
Saint Paul text in David Trent with the new NBA season, Donnie,
I'm excited for the NBA on NBC Peacock and Prime,
along with the return of the Inside the NBA crew
now on ESPN. Hopefully they're good presentations. Basketball will be
presented differently. It's going to cost you more money. You've
got to stream if you want to watch everything. The
Wolves are on I think on Prime Friday night in

(47:16):
l A against the Lakers, you got to have Peacock.
You gotta have Prime. So we can't watch the ideal.
We can't listen to it. You could listen to Jim
any guys on TV, not when they're on local TV,
not when they're on Prime. No, it'll be a national Prime, correct,
but maybe it'll be a Grady presentation because Michael Grady
will be doing a number of Prime slash if what

(47:39):
if we're don't doing Peacock at NBC, I for I
can't keep up. Whether you don't have Prime, you can't
afford to get Prime. You listen to the Wolves on
the radio home of Timberwolves Basketball, KFAM one hundred point three,
iHeart Radio, the app Timberwolves App. There's there's ways to listen. Yeah,
it's not idea. We're not going to go down that
rabbit hole. Let's just agree that were excited that basketball

(48:02):
is back. The Wolves closed out the preseason schedule last
night in Philadelphia. Well, they didn't play their top eight guys.
We can say they didn't play nine guys because Joe
Ingles didn't play either, But they didn't play I guess
who they could consider their top eight. TJ. Shannon did
not play, nor did Dante or Nas or any of
the starters. So you had Leonard Miller leading the way

(48:25):
with twenty three points. You had Johnny Juzang starting trying
to grab that last roster spot, Rob Dillingham at the point.
Baron Jay I believe started in the middle, and they
were down six after the first quarter. I mean they
stayed in the game against the Sixers starters, which did
include By the way, Joelle Joel MB who played eighteen minutes,

(48:46):
ended up with a pretty nice statch. She'd fourteen points,
seven rebounds, eight assists, three steals, two for four from deep.
He hadn't played since February. And you know, for a
Philadelphia team that's been just the biggest dis appointment the
last few years, despite a lot of talent. Uh, they're
starting to start feeling good that maybe Joel can be

(49:07):
somewhat reliable and with Maxi and if Paul George gets
healthy and their rookie, the number three pick vj Edgecomb
from Baylor, was magnificent and that has been in the preseason.
Maybe Philly has turned the corner that remains to be seen.

Speaker 3 (49:20):
Right, it's all about It's all about Joel if he
if he doesn't stay healthy, they can't win. Yeah, and
and and they are crossing their fingers in Philadelphia that
he can play sixty five games.

Speaker 1 (49:34):
If you can play sixty five.

Speaker 3 (49:35):
Games, you know they have a chance with you know,
maybe to win you know, their division, they can compete
against the Knicks because he's a handful with the Knicks
to deal with. And now with the uncertainty with Jason
Tatum not knowing that he's coming back this year, all
of a sudden, the Boston Celtics are a different basketball team.
And if Joel i believe he can play sixty five

(49:56):
games for the seventy six is and be consistent with
his talent. He pushed them into good situation to win
that division. Yeah, we'll talk about the East. It appears
wide open. It's been in Boston's conference the last couple
of years. Obviously, Tatum's injury changes everything, and they unloaded
a lot of great players. Philly also gets back Jared McCain,
the former Duke star who was on track to be

(50:16):
Rookie of the Year last year and got hurt.

Speaker 1 (50:19):
So if he's back and Edgecombe's the real deal with
MAXI I mean that team actually could look a lot
different and might start to make some waves in a
wide open Eastern Conference. Meanwhile, we'll get to the East.
Your Timberwolves are coming off back to back Western Conference
final appearances. The fan has learned. They're stressing continuity, no
major trade shake up. This is the same roster the

(50:40):
end of the season with minus Nikhil Alexander Walker. Other
than that, everybody's back. We know this. We're hoping for
not only continuity but growth. And my take is I've
got one hot take for this team. Okay, I think
by the time the season's over, we're going to say

(51:02):
that Jade McDaniels is the clear cut second best player
on this team. Oh now, I'm not gonna dismiss anything
about Julius Randall's game. I'm excited about Ranald. He's signed
for the long term. I'm barring a trade. He will
be here for the next four years. And the Randall
that came back from injury in February last year was
an entirely different animal. He looked like a different guy.

(51:22):
He was comfortable. They put the ball in his hands.
Everything flowed better, and I expect that to continue. I
don't think Randall's taking a step back. I think Jaden
McDaniels is taking a major step forward this season. I
think we got a taste of it in the postseason,
right when suddenly he's not standing in the corner. You know,
maybe he'll get the ball, Oh God, maybe he's gonna
shoot to like he's going to get the ball at

(51:44):
the elbow and he's gonna just take it to the hole.
He got aggressive, he got confident, and I think that's
going to leak over into this season. I think we
finally get that Jaden McDaniels leap this season. We know
he's a great defender. He's not going to be counted
on to shoot the ball twenty times a game, but
I think he is going to be a much bigger
part of this offense and he's going to make it

(52:05):
much more difficult for teams to defend this team. Well,
you know, if all of those things come to fruition, Hey,
I take, He'll take. I take. I mean it might
be spicy. Maxwell. We'll weave you in lots to talk
about with your Timberwolves. But how are you feeling about Jayden?
Do you think we kind of know what Jaden is
or do you think there's another gear or two that

(52:26):
can be unlocked Like I do.

Speaker 4 (52:28):
I think there's another gear to be unlocked because we
saw him a little bit more consistent offensive presence from
Jade McDaniels throughout that playoff run leading up to the
Western Conference Finals.

Speaker 2 (52:38):
I thought he did.

Speaker 4 (52:39):
He's one of the few people that played pretty well
in the Western Conference Finals. And if we can get
that Jade McDaniel's and I know we've been saying this
for years now, but if we can get that Jade
McDaniels night in and night out, that this Timberwolves team
is going to take a whole nother step forward. And obviously,
like we were talking about a little bit earlier, he
got some work in with Kawhi Leonard.

Speaker 2 (52:58):
That's never going to hurt.

Speaker 4 (52:59):
Obviously, he's not going to just improve overnight and be
like this this wizard offensively. But if we can get
i don't know, a solid fifteen to nineteen from Jade
McDaniels every night, this Wolves team is going to take
it up another notch and they're going to need it too.
Like we talked about, with the absence of Nikhil Alexander Walker,
who certainly brought some scoring and a three point threat
coming off the bench there.

Speaker 1 (53:20):
How much do you think the Wolves will miss Alexander Walker?
Because there were Max and I were talking about this
when we started a bit early before eight that there
were a number of times last year where he was
the best player on the court for this team. He
carried this team at sometimes when everybody else was kind
of shuffling. Does this team, in your opinion, really miss
Nikhiel or do you think there's an opportunity for other

(53:40):
guy Maybe Dante gets a bigger role, maybe Shannon or
Clark or Dillingham step in. How much do you think
this team.

Speaker 3 (53:46):
Misses knaw Well, you always miss a guy that has
been a glue guy for you over the last two
or three years, and the things you just talked about.
You know, he plays some important minutes in big games,
and he was able to read and help this team.
So the overall confidence and belief from his teammates were there.
All of a sudden, Now you look and that guy's

(54:07):
not there, and you're hoping that there's someone on your
best that can step in and play that role and
do a consistent job, especially at playoff time, and you
know you're talking about you know, Jayden taking the next
step is very important. But also I believe that tweaking
the offense a little bit here or there. You know,

(54:27):
I know Anthony I was put up a lot of
three point shots a year ago. He improved his three
points shooting and from from a distance standspoint and an
average standpoint. But I just believe for the Wolves to
take the next step, you're going to have to tweak
the offense a little bit at playoff town to allow
him to be in a much more comfortable position where

(54:50):
he can play one on one basketball with the game
on the line for this team to be more effective.
And by that you mean maybe taking the ball out
of his hands a little bit and letting him move
around or what.

Speaker 1 (55:00):
In different spots on the floor.

Speaker 3 (55:03):
And I think you and I have talked about this,
you know, some of the things that he has talked
about that he's gonna he worked on this summer. He studied,
you know, some of the videotape of Kobe Bryant and
Michael Jordan and see how as they got past year
four five and what were they able to do to
change and make some changes in their games to allow

(55:24):
them to be the best players on the floor, especially
when the games were on the line. They were good
doing certain things for four or five years. They got
them to the to the conference finals. But what elements
do they add to what they do best on the
floor that allowed them to get to the NBA Championship
round and then become NBA champions And I think that's

(55:46):
the next phase for Anthony Evers is how do we
tweak the offense just enough to put him in better
situations to execute when the game is on the line.

Speaker 1 (55:54):
And if you think back to moments last season that
stick out about and and ninety percent of them are positive.
He's you know thirty other twenty nine other teams would
take him in one second and all that, but you know,
some of the inability to finish at the basket. You know,
he's going on the basket with that physicality and not
finishing some of the turnovers laid in closing moments. The

(56:18):
clutch time was a struggle. This team just didn't seem
to fire on all cylinders. And maybe Ant tried to
do a little bit too much from his game. You know, Yes,
the post up game, he's working on that, whether it's
the low post, mid high. That's a big thing for him,
is that mid range game making. Sure he's got that lockdown.
But I think a Wolves fans, a lot of Wolves
fans are thinking, be the guy that dominates at the rim.

(56:43):
I mean, you've got to finish better. You there were
so many misses at the basket. I mean, is exhausted?
Is he tired? I mean? And that's a big part
of it.

Speaker 3 (56:52):
I mean, because when when you have to consistently beat
the double in the trip or team through a long
playoff run, at some point in time, it begins to
wear you down. And so that's where when I talk
about tweaking the offense here there, you know, how can
we make it more accountable for my best player, our
star player in the fourth quarter, in the last four

(57:15):
or five minutes, where now he doesn't have to exhaust
himself trying to beat the double or the triple team.
And what was so effective for Kobe Bryant and Michael
Jordan as they as the offense changed for them when
the game was on the line. We knew that mj

(57:35):
was going to catch the ball in a certain spot
with ten to twelve seconds on the shot clock, where
all of a sudden, now he's playing one on one
basketball from fifteen to seventeen feet. Well, he's not under
the physical stress now to have to beat three guys.
He can beat one off of one bounce and the
one bounce pull up jump shot here or there. Game's

(57:56):
over one bounce off the dribber to the rim. He's
going to finish and get to the free throw line.
And if you come with the quick double team, all
of a sudden, now bj Armstrong and John Paxson are
in a much more comfortable position to take a wide
open shot or trend Tucker yeah, and so when Kobe
Bryant was in that same situation, all of a sudden
that he had Shaquille O'Neil and the offense change for

(58:17):
both of them and they were able to go in
and win championships for all of a sudden. Now, Derek
Fisher was in a different situation. Rick Fox is in
this situation, Robert Rorry and Glenn Rice and then they
get Palacas saw. But what change for the Lakers and
the Chicago Bulls was how they used their most talented
player where he could function and execute when the game

(58:38):
was on the line.

Speaker 1 (58:38):
Now always hated to watch see what this coaching staff
does with Ant. We welcome your Wolves related text to
the branch on Brian Cafe and text line six four
six eight six. Like Mike from New Richmond did, his
concerns are how we've seen the last couple of years
in the Western Conference finals. It feels like the Wolves
run out of gas. We saw it against Dallas. It's
felt that way against Okay see, but they may have

(59:00):
just been that much better, he writes. Finch has been
renaissant to extend his rotation beyond eight. Wouldn't play more
players during the season, conserve energy for our starters in
order to get them through the playoffs. Tibbs always had
a famously short rotation. Doesn't seem Finch as far behind
and just proclaimed he's in the best shape ever. But
wouldn't the simple solution to hitting this wall every year
be to have a ten or eleven man rotation During

(59:22):
the season. Finch is mentioned he wants to go nine
or ten deep, and if you do the math, you've
got your seven quote unquote starters right, your five guys
plus Reed and Defincenzo Dota Devincenzo. That's seven. We know
Naw is gone. He was number eight, So that means
you know, Terrence Shannon, Rob Dillingham, Jalen Clark are all

(59:43):
fighting for that eight, nine, ten, And I don't think
they're going to go ten deep necessarily unless injuries or
matchup causes Finchy to go a little deeper. Maybe Baron
Jay gets a run if the big guys are banged up.
But Finch has said he expects this team this year
to go, you know, nine to ten deep throughout the season.
Do you believe him? I think that you've got to

(01:00:06):
see what you have in those three guys Shannon, Clark
and Dillingham and see if any of them can't step
into that role, so that come playoff time when the
rotation does maybe tighten up just a little bit, that
you feel good that you have a really good eighth
guy and maybe in ninth, although in the playoffs it
doesn't really feel like you go nine deep too often.

Speaker 3 (01:00:24):
Well, you would like to be able to extend your bench,
but with the Western Conference being as strong as it is,
you may not have the luxury to extend your bench
because you don't want to file out. You don't want
to fall far behind.

Speaker 1 (01:00:39):
Right, but don't you want to make sure you those
top eight guys are fresher because you've seen what happens
if you've got to play into late May or even
early June. Well, yeah you will.

Speaker 3 (01:00:47):
Like I said, you would like to be able to
extend your bench. But if other teams are getting better
and they are not extending their benches, and all of
a sudden, you're going to play you know, you know, eight,
nine and ten or nine, ten and eleven. I guess
some of the other teams frontline players, you may find
yourself in a different position as to get toward the

(01:01:09):
end of the season fight for a playoff spot. I
think he's going to make his decision based on what
the Western Conference looks like from top to bottom, because
all the other teams are making they're making moves, they
have better themselves, and you have to make sure that
you stay paced with the Western Conference so you don't

(01:01:32):
fall so far behind and don't have enough games.

Speaker 1 (01:01:35):
To make up at the end of the season. We'll
pause here much more on the Wolves as they look
to make it three straight to the final four, maybe
beyond stress and continuity, a lot of familiar faces. Back,
more Wolves conversation and who she will be worried about
in the Western Conference. Trent just mentioned it's stacked. They're
probably eleven teams that feel that they are playoff teams.
It's going to be a nightly grind. We'll chat about

(01:01:57):
the competition in the West and more NBA conversation right
after these on the fan. Back with you at nine

(01:02:27):
twenty three, we're talking to NBA. The season resumes this
coming week Tuesday night doubleheader Rockets at the Thunder, Warriors
at the Lakers minus Lebron, and then the next night
your Wolves tip off their season in Portland against the Trailblazers,
who won't have Damian Lillard but will have Drew Holliday,
and that could be that could be a tricky opening

(01:02:49):
game for thee I agree. I agree. You don't think
of you think of the top ten or eleven in
the West. Portland's not going to be in that mix necessarily,
at least as we think now.

Speaker 3 (01:02:58):
But yeah, they came along at the end of the year,
play some good basketball to finish off the season, and
they have to feel pretty confident, you know, with some
of the guys they brought in throughout throughout the off season.
I say, hey, things might be different in Portland for
the first time in a long time.

Speaker 1 (01:03:15):
Yeah, I mean, you look at the schedule and you
go all right at Portland at the Lakers without Lebron.
That might be a nice runway for the Wolves to
kind of get ready for the home opener against the
pesky Pacers who they always struggled against. But yeah, we
don't know what to expect from from Portland. We're going
to get to the Western contenders in just a moment.
Just a little more on the Wolves and what we
need to see for them to take that next step,

(01:03:36):
and a lot of the talk this pass this offseason
has been pace of place. It was a slow team
that walks the ball up the court, wants to believe
in their defense, but they want to get out and
transition more. And they've looked at how they do that
when Rudy comes down with the board and Anton and
Randall take off and don't stay back to get the pass.
Let Conley or whoever's in get the pass and get

(01:03:58):
out there and get ready to receive the ball. Well,
it's all easy to say that, but that has not
been their m O. And how from your standpoint is
the guy that played for a decade plus in this league,
how easy it How easy is it for a team
that's coming back pretty much intact from a year ago
and has played the same way now with these guys
for a couple of years. And allow of this is
because Rudy is on the court and it's not as

(01:04:20):
easy maybe to get up and down the court with
a big, lumbering guy like that. How easy is to say, yeah,
we're gonna get out and run more ready, go out
in transition and become more of a fast paced, fast
break team. Is it as easy as that? Or no,
we need to see how they adapt to something. Well,
you have to you have the personnael to play that way.
And the coaches who wanted to shoot the ball within

(01:04:40):
six or seven seconds, they had the personnel to play
that way. You know, Mike d'An toni when he came
into the league, the Phoenix Suns with Steve Nash and
Aamars style and Mars stalem I was one of the
best running big men in the game.

Speaker 3 (01:04:52):
Sean Marry and those guys, that's how they played. They
played no ninety four feet of basketball. If you don't
have the personnel, I understand the thought. But if the
personnel doesn't fit the thought, but then you then this
is this could be this could be a struggle for
for certain guys to lead to you know, poor decisions
on fast break and need the turnovers and these are

(01:05:14):
lost possessions. You know, when I look at how the
Wolves are constructed, I don't see, you know, them being
a team that wants to race up and down the floor.
It's because their their main rebounder is a guy that
can't play transition basketball. So unless you're want to take
him off the floor for a large portion of the
game and you're going to change your whole philosophy and

(01:05:37):
your thought process on how we want to play.

Speaker 1 (01:05:39):
But then really, Rually Gobert may not be effective. Yeah,
this might be a function of this team a few
years down the road. You know, if you're want Bearonja
becomes that guy that can be the next Ruti, the
next Frenchman in the middle, a guy that's built to
run the floor, and that might change their style.

Speaker 3 (01:05:55):
But by you asking that question, I can give you
an example of when I first got into the league,
I played for Huey Brown. Well, we were a half
court team, Jeg Robinson, Bill Coyle, rightb and our King.
We still scored, you know, close to one hundred points
a game, but we were in the fast paced team.

(01:06:15):
Rick Patino comes in. He has a whole new philosophy.
He wants to press and trap, he wants to get
up and down the floor, he wants to shoot three
point shots.

Speaker 1 (01:06:23):
And you still have Truck and Robinson. Oh they are gone,
They're gone down.

Speaker 3 (01:06:26):
So he had to get new guys, and he had
to scrap the whole team to bring in Mark Jackson,
Rod Strickland, Johnny Newman, Gerald Wilkins. But Patrick Ewing was
the best big running man in the game, so he
was a perfect fit for that style. And then you
had guys like myself who went three point shooters, so
we fit the stout. If you are looking to play

(01:06:49):
much faster for a large portion of the game, then
you're going to have to change a personnel. You have
to change some of the lineups on the floor, and
that means that you're going to have to subtract some
things you do well to put this game into play.

Speaker 1 (01:07:02):
All right, So you've poured cold water on the idea
that the Wolves can now be a transition team and
use and I get it, but they might take a
little more opportunity to take some chances now and the
need some transition baskets. Don't get me wrong. But when
you said I want to improve my pace of play,
what does that mean. Do you want to be a
team that all of a sudden now just trying to
score one hundred and twenty five hundred and thirty points

(01:07:24):
a game, Because if you're looking to do that, but
then you have to have the personnel can play that way.
So as you just mentioned a few minutes ago that
this is the team we got, and if you look
at this team that's on paper right now. Do you
see this team playing the fast paced game for forty
eight minutes? No, I do not, Brooklyn Park Guy. Brooklyn

(01:07:46):
Parkye text in the Wolves need to raise their basketball
IQ individually and collectively. Roster's good, but the little things
matter to get into the finals. For example, they were
twentieth and turnover percentage per one hundred possessions. A lot
of that is poor decision making. The thunder was number one.
That's not the only reason the thunder one. But if
the Wolves can do the high IQ winning plays better,
that alone can raise their ceiling. Long time listener love

(01:08:08):
the show. Appreciate that, Brooklyn park Guy. How much do
you buy into the fact that the team's IQ needs
to be raised? Just play smart and don't beat yourself.
Oh smart, smart plan is critical. It is because us
a veteran team. You should be a smart team at this.

Speaker 3 (01:08:26):
You have to be able to think, I mean, especially
when the game is on the line, and execute, and
you have to be able to read and react. You know,
understanding how the play is is a huge value in
any sport. And when you count on guys, especially when
the game is on the line, you know do they
have the mental capacity to make the right play.

Speaker 1 (01:08:48):
You know, where you take a bad foul, where you're
in the free throw line.

Speaker 3 (01:08:52):
Okay, I understand that you may not have a good
free throw shoot in a certain situation and you want
to try to get into a position maybe to get
the offensive rebound. But you can't go jump on somebody's back.
That's not smart basketball. And if you're supposed to cover
your position, and this is what you're supposed to do,
you can't go chiat and try to do something else.

(01:09:14):
You can't go play hero basketball. You got to stay sound.
You got to stay fundamental. And that's what you know.
Smart basketball or smart football, baseball, hockey is all about.
You're doing what you're supposed to do in those moments,
and some players can do it much better than others
for a long period of time. I want to ask
both of you guys the same question. I want you

(01:09:35):
to finish this question with your answer. If the Wolves
get past the Thunder and all the other contenders and
reach the NBA Finals this season, it will be because
because they have tweaked the offans for Anthony Edwards to
be much more effective when the game is on the line.

Speaker 1 (01:09:53):
That's the biggest thing for you.

Speaker 3 (01:09:55):
Yeah, because we're good enough to get to the Western
Conference Finals. So when so and and and the reason
I say this, and I'm gonna say this again, I
played with the guy. I played for a coach that
took another kid, and Anthony Edwards from a talent standpoint,
is in that window.

Speaker 1 (01:10:15):
He's in that window.

Speaker 3 (01:10:17):
From a talent standpoint, he has gotten his team to
the Western Conference finals two years in a row. Now,
sure you got some talent around him, So how can
we help him now when those critical moments where we're
seeing him starting to fatigue or make bad decisions or
the team just can't function, they can't find a shot. Well,

(01:10:37):
I saw those same two guys struggle in those two
situations as well. But somebody tweaked something and changed their
position and on the floor when the game was on
the line in the fourth end and in the Western
in the Eastern Conference, in the Western Conference finals, all
of a sudden, now you're a best player, is more
effective and he could make a play for himself much

(01:11:00):
where he can make a play for somebody else. But
when you have to drive from twenty eight feet.

Speaker 2 (01:11:05):
So.

Speaker 1 (01:11:07):
You look at the Wolves that come down. They set
up picking roll the twenty eight feet with Rudy Gobert
not exactly a threat on the pact.

Speaker 3 (01:11:16):
Okay, I can run two guys at Anthony Edwards. He
doesn't have the confidence that Rudy Gobert can make a
play from twenty eight feet.

Speaker 1 (01:11:23):
Not in the world does. So what does his So
what does he try to do?

Speaker 3 (01:11:27):
He's got to try to drive it between two or
three guys and what's going to happen all over and
off a course of a long playoff run that starts
to show where and tear, especially if you're going, you know,
deep into the playoff playoff matchups. When you win in
the first round in six games, win the second round
in seven games, now you get to the third round.

(01:11:51):
I mean, you've played a lot of basketball, and you're
playing against some of the best and you get playing
with some of the best players and the best teams
in the league. At this stage, you don't have the
teams at the bottom of the barrel that can give
you a little reprieve. So when every round you go to,
the competition gets better. So how do we make it easier?

(01:12:11):
When talent makes talent? And I think when you talk
about what he's studying doing the all season, Kobe Bryant
and Michael Jordan. From a talent standpoint, Anthony Das is
in that window.

Speaker 1 (01:12:21):
Age twenty four. He's entering that prime window everybody talks about.
And I don't think Michael was twenty six twenty seven
before he won a title. Max. From your standpoint, if
the Wolves are to jump to the top of the
Western Conference and reach the NBA Finals this season, it
will be because.

Speaker 4 (01:12:38):
I think mine kind of goes hand in hand with
what Double t was talking about, is because the collective
playmaking of the team has risen up to another level.
Because I think we've seen in the Western Conference Finals
back to back years the wolve's worst habit when it
comes crunch time is basically devolving into hero ball, devolving

(01:12:58):
into one on one basketball and any Edwards versus the world.

Speaker 2 (01:13:01):
Kind of like Double Tea was just talking about.

Speaker 4 (01:13:03):
There, it's Julius Randall or in the past, Karl Anthony
Towns versus the world. Whereas like the best teams like
the Oklahoma City Thunder, everybody's getting involved, everybody's it's complimentary basketball.

Speaker 2 (01:13:16):
It flows. We saw it with the Golden State Warriors.

Speaker 4 (01:13:18):
They played some of the most beautiful basketball we've ever
seen during their dynastic run. But it wasn't just Steph
Curry and Kevin Durant taking matters into their own hands.

Speaker 2 (01:13:27):
It's the complementary nature.

Speaker 4 (01:13:28):
I mean, that's some of the best teams we've seen
over the last twenty years are able to constantly, consistently
as a team find ways to playmake whether that's Anthony
Edwards raising his playmaking ability and his ability to play
off the ball, like double T's talking about, whether that's
the progression of Rob Dillingham, possibly inserting Dante DiVincenzo maybe

(01:13:49):
even in that starting role and having Mike Conley come
off the bench. Whatever they have to do, they have
to collectively raise the playmaking ability because that's what the
best teams do. And this Wolves team has found struggles
scoring consistently against the best of the best.

Speaker 2 (01:14:03):
And it's fine.

Speaker 1 (01:14:04):
You can.

Speaker 4 (01:14:05):
It's when you're playing the Lakers that don't got nobody
that can guard Anthony Edwards and you can Julius Randall
can kind of bully them.

Speaker 2 (01:14:11):
That's fine. When you're playing the Golden State Warriors, it's fine.

Speaker 1 (01:14:14):
It works, especially if Steph is out exactly.

Speaker 2 (01:14:16):
It works even better if Steph is out.

Speaker 4 (01:14:19):
But when you start playing teams like the Oklahoma City Thunder,
who are I mean young, even younger than the Minnesota Timberlels,
they're deep, exactly, and they're gonna be around, and they
have players that have yet to take steps and progress forward,
like chet Holmgren, who I think also has room to grow,
like Jalen Williams, who's scary enough can get even better,

(01:14:40):
and even Sga as well. So you have to start
evolving at the rate that these other teams are evolving,
and even quicker, because the Oklahoma City Thunder clearly there's
a huge chasm, not a huge chasm, but a sizeable
chasm between them and the Timber Bowls right now. And
part of that is doing the little things, like the
Texters said, cleaning up the turnovers. But I think offensively,
you have to raise the collective playmaking of everybody and

(01:15:04):
make sure that there's no there's no droughts, that these
consistent kind of droughts.

Speaker 2 (01:15:08):
That happen in these big playoff matchups.

Speaker 1 (01:15:10):
We've grown accustomed to reaching the Western Conference finals. That's
not an assumption obviously, and It's not going to be
easy this year. The competition has only gotten tougher in
the West. Who will be the Wolves biggest challengers? Let's
come back final segment and look at the loaded West
and who scares us? And who are we not worried about?
Where do we see the Wolves falling when all the
dust clears? That's next final segment after the air foller

(01:15:44):
back final segment. Today's edition of In the Zone. Stay
tuned at the top of the hour. Fantasy Football Weekly
takes over at ten to get your lineup set. Four
Week seven in the NFL season, Vikings Eagles on the
Fan Tomorrow ten o'clock pregame, twelve o'clock kick. As usual,
your NFL Sunday on the Fan begins with Packer preview
at seven o'clock. Packers are getting set to face the Cardinals.

Speaker 3 (01:16:06):
You know you're and now we're talking off the air
about you know, players and guys being comfortable. And when
you look at the Wolves personnel and you talk about Devincenzo,
how can Devincenzo be more effective when the game is online,
not playing one on one basketball, but getting his shot

(01:16:29):
where he can catch and shoot or ball fake and
take one step on there and make a shot. See,
that's what you want from guys like that, especially deep
into a playoff run and the last two to three
minutes of a game is because you want the other
guys to be able to function on the things that
they do well. And if you're asking shooters who are

(01:16:51):
not one on one players to have to create something
with the shot clock running down, that's the recipeople disaster.

Speaker 1 (01:16:57):
Yeah. Agree, And speaking of Dante, I do believe he
and Randal are their games are going to look substantially
better this year. A year into this system, especially Dante.
I think we saw it from Randall as the season
progressed toward the end, and certainly in the playoffs, I
think we're gonna see a different Dante. He's going to
understand his role. He's going to feel more comfortable and
maybe get more minutes as they shaved.

Speaker 3 (01:17:16):
But the offense has to provide, yes, you know, that
conference zone for you, and I think they'll figure that out.
And if they do that, you know, just maybe maybe
we can dream.

Speaker 1 (01:17:27):
When when Tim Connolly started changing this roster around a
couple of years ago, his first priority was how do
we compete with the champion Denver Nuggets. How do we
play on the same playing field as Denver? And clearly,
when this team took that major step, it was the
shocking Game seven in Denver a couple of years ago
where they came from way back and blew out Denver

(01:17:47):
and took down the champs and sort of established themselves
as a team that's on the rise. And we saw
them get obfositly to the conference finals. We know what
happened against Dallas, and then they repeated last year. Meanwhile,
Denver has tried to figure out what they need to
do to get back and make the most of Jokic's prime.
He is still, for my money and I think most
people's money, the greatest player in the game, in one

(01:18:09):
of the all time greats. And as we look at
the odds in the West this year, okay See is
still the overwhelming favorite. Denver is right there next, and
then Houston, although the big injury to Nvliet has knocked
them down a bit, but bringing Kde into the fold
and the roster and the coach and the defense they play,
and Minnesota is generally considered the fourth best team in

(01:18:30):
the West. Obviously, they finished sixth last year as you
remember in the regular season. I don't think any team
has done more for their superstar than what Denver has done.
And now David Adelman is the coach to start the season,
and I know you are worried about what Denver might
be this year with what they have done, what in

(01:18:50):
your mind makes Denver a title contender again? With the
moves they made in this offseason, I.

Speaker 3 (01:18:55):
Think they have better I think they would have better
balance offensively, and I think Cam Johnson gives them a
nice two way player and by Adam Valatunas to their team,
it also gives them a better rent protection.

Speaker 1 (01:19:10):
And when when Jokic went out last year, I mean,
Denver was an entirely different They had nothing. And even
with him on the floor, he's not a defense He's
not a rent protector.

Speaker 3 (01:19:19):
And I think for Denver to to get back into
being a championship a real championship contender, they're going to
have to become better on the defensive end. We know
they can score. You know, Jokics is one of the
premier offensive players they ever played. This game, and we
talked about IQ and understanding how to play. You know,
he's right there at the top Jamal murph Is. If

(01:19:42):
he's healthy, they have a lethal pick and roll game
because they can function, you know, twenty eight feet away
from the basket. But collectively becoming better defensively, I think
is the is a major stay for the Denver Nuggets.
And also they bringing back Bruce Brown, you know, a
guy that defense got to help them win the championship.
You know, he was a critical guy off the bench

(01:20:03):
a few years ago. All of a sudden, now he
just doesn't bring a spark offensively, but he can get
up defensively and enforcement turnovers and es going to lead
to some amusing baskets. And you need guys who you
can count on that you believe they can get a
stop here or there. But for the Denver Nuggets, they
have to become a better team that can protect the rim.
And the Wolves exploited them a few years ago because

(01:20:27):
is as good as he is offensively, you know he
you know he he could be that bad defensively.

Speaker 1 (01:20:33):
Who outside of Denver worries you the most? Obviously we're
taking okay, see out of the equation. Is it Houston
with KD or you know, the Clippers, the Mavericks, the Warriors,
Luca I mean, who who worries you the most? Does
the Wolves try to stay up top in the West.

Speaker 3 (01:20:51):
I think the Clippers. You know, when you look at
how they have kind of reconstructed their roster. I think
Bradley Bell will play a key role for them, and
he's going to give them an offensive punch that can
be consistently good every night to help out Kawhi Leonard,
and that's going to balance off what they do offensively.
They picked up Brooke, they picked up Broke lop Pass.

(01:21:13):
I think he's going to give them a big guy
that can stretch. You know, they can stretch the defense,
but also you know he'll help with the rebounding party
in defense as well. When you look at the Clippers,
if if Kawhi leon is another key, if he plays
sixty five to seventy games, you know they ease. They
could slide into that four spot.

Speaker 1 (01:21:31):
It's all about health. It seems that the Clippers always
have these injuries, whether it's Kawhi or somebody else that
same way.

Speaker 3 (01:21:38):
Yeah, you know they have two of when they're healthy,
two of the better players in the league. And the
Pelicans have perhaps the most dynamic player in the league.
When he's healthy, but he hasn't been healthy throughout his
young career. As you mentioned to me during a break
that he might be in the best shape of his
life at the stage, but if he can't stay on
the floor, the Pelicans can't win. But if it's Zion

(01:21:59):
william Is up a sixty five to seventy games and
he's feeling good about himself from a physical standpoint, then
he becomes the most dynamic offensive.

Speaker 1 (01:22:09):
Player in the game. I think when this season's over,
there will be no question in anybody's mind that Victor
webbin Yama is a top five player in this league.
Now he's coming back from the blood clot and another guy.
I mean, I don't think we've seen a guy well,
we haven't seen a guy at seven four seven five
with the skill and the talent level he's got, So
I think he's turned to corner health wise. I think

(01:22:30):
the Spurs have a three headed, three headed guard do
a trio that is as good as just about anybody
right now. I mean, they've got young guys. Stefan Castle
was Rookie of the Year, the Aaron Fox just got paid.
They drafted Dylan Harper number two, so they're young. They're
a year or two away, probably, But I think Wemby
establishes himself as an MVP contender and they have to

(01:22:51):
win enough games to be in that conversation. But as
an NBA fan, I love watching him play on both
ends of the court, and I just hope he's out
there because I just think the NBA is a better
product when Wenby's outgrowing. Yeah, that's not a team I'm
necessarily worried about. Yet they're certainly coming.

Speaker 4 (01:23:09):
They say Wenby seven seven these days. I'm not joking.
They said he's talking. Bob Ban said he was looking
up looking at oh my wey.

Speaker 1 (01:23:21):
Yeah around there. Yeah, I didn't quite have the athletic
ability that Wemby has. However, No, that's true.

Speaker 4 (01:23:27):
Wemby also trained with Monks literal like Shaolin Monks and
Kevin Garnett and the Dream this offseason, so he that
was scary.

Speaker 1 (01:23:35):
Are we talking Malilik Monk? Are we talking like actual regious?
How does that make you a better basketball? Is about
between the years, maybe like have a Dali Lama has
giving him some pointers on how to maintain spiritual whatever
you say. Wenby trained with the big ticket.

Speaker 4 (01:23:52):
That's what I saw pictures of him training with the
Big Ticket and uh and keep the dream as well.

Speaker 1 (01:23:57):
That was the big Barket was was the first ten
position player in the league. Are we going to see
the Big Ticket at Target Center finally? Now with a
Rod and Lowie running the show, I think we will,
I mean, we'll see him. Kevin Garnett was was was was?
He was really good. Now you know again the timing right,
I mean we started, we started this show a month

(01:24:19):
before the Wolves drafted Kevin Garnett, So this show took
off watching what this kid. He was the kid back
then we started May of ninety five. I've told the
story off and I was pounding the table to draft
Ed O'Bannon and not some high school kid out of Chicago.
And I don't even know if that O'Bannon lasted two
years in the league. The Wolves didn't listen to in

(01:24:40):
the zone in ninety five. Uh so we kind of
grew up along with Kevin Garnett and the Wolves back
in the late nineties. Is the Ticket as he brought
this organization to respectability and beyond. And of course the
big story then was could never get out of the
first round. You know, I always got there, but never
favored in that first round and never could pull the upset.

Speaker 3 (01:24:59):
But and you talking about how tough the Western Conference
is now, Yeah, back then it was a beast. I
don't think Max, even Maxwell you around. Back now, Max
wasn't he was around. He's an old dude, Max.

Speaker 1 (01:25:11):
Thirty. He was a kid. He was little though. I
don't think Max, you know how much he remembers.

Speaker 2 (01:25:15):
I mean, yeah, I was definitely a youth, you know,
but I was. I was locked it on Timber for sure.

Speaker 1 (01:25:20):
That's that's that's let's give a kind of a little
review to the young people how good the Western Conference
was during that time. And I'm just gonna throw out
two or three players that most guys that knew about Wallace,
Chris Weber and uh Karl Malunge, you know, Sean Kimp. Yeah.
Kg had to go up against stud players basically every night.

(01:25:43):
Dirt Novisky, Tim Duncan, he has Shaq and Kobe. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:25:47):
I don't know if you have many guys with that
resume planning in the Western Conference today. Yeah, it's gonna
be tough to compete with that, no question. Quickly, in
our final minute or two, the Eastern Conference is wide open.
Austin has kind of imploded.

Speaker 1 (01:26:02):
Right now. Who do you think comes out of the East.
Is it Cleveland who had the best record? Is it
the Knicks now with Mike Brown and uh, you know,
Atlanta Orlando are teams that are feisty. I still think
Indiana is going to be a factor. The Bucks hope
that they can make you honest, happy enough to contend.
Who do you think might come out of the East
this year? I'm gonna go with your pick. You have

(01:26:26):
a pick, you win that. You know. You had the
name on your shirt Indiana. Interesting by Indiana. But this
is not a Pacer sweatshirt. This is a Roosuer sweatshirt.
But but you got to stayed on you. I love
how you said that because I also think they are
going to be way better than people think. No Miles Turner,
no Tyreese. What are they? They're well coached, They're deep,

(01:26:47):
they run, they they play a brand of basketball day
boys can't figure out. I see now they have now
they have the person now to play that way they do. Chicago.
We saw Chicago the other night. They're trying to be
that way too. They're trying to become Indiana there is
who Yeah, oh yeah, yep, he's still there. Indiana is
a great call. I'm going with Orlando. I just I

(01:27:08):
have a feeling that they got Desmond Bay now to
take care of the outside shooting. Jalen Suggs is back,
Boncaro is a superstar. They got the big guys. Franz Wagner, Yeah,
I think Orlando is the surprise, maybe not that big
of a surprise. I think they come out of the East. Cleveland,
I think is your favorite with their talent. They got
to get Garland back. He's still not healthy. Uh. I

(01:27:30):
like the fact that that conference is completely a mystery. Right.

Speaker 3 (01:27:33):
I'm picking Indiana along with you, But I think the
best team, if they're healthy, would be the Philadelphia seventy six.

Speaker 1 (01:27:40):
Really yeah, if they're healthy is the key phrase there.
Cefmb can last through a season. But he takes any
jabs when he.

Speaker 2 (01:27:46):
Came to him.

Speaker 1 (01:27:46):
Uh yeah, he had. He's shot four threes last night.
He made two of them. It's you're a big soy
so down vat dude. The NBA is back. We got
Wolves basketball Wednesday night. They're in LA Friday night. I
know Max is just hype that the Wolf is our back. Yeah,
I can't wait. It's as good as it gets.

Speaker 2 (01:28:02):
Watch up for Detroit in the East now too.

Speaker 1 (01:28:04):
That's a good call too. That's a young team on
the on the rise. Enjoy your time in Chicago next week.
Hopefully we'll catch up with you just a little bit. Max,
you are always welcome in the zone. I think you
know that, especially when basketball season's great to have you
around for double T For Max Fuller, I am Dave Sinnecon.
Enjoy your weekend. We both like the Vikes tomorrow to

(01:28:25):
spring these small upset on Philly. Enjoy that twelve o'clock
your coverage on the fan tomorrow. Have a great weekend, everybody,