March 8, 2024 • 49 mins
Episode 166: Why is Anthony Edwards already being linked to Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan? Arky Shea and Joel C. Cordes have answers. They also weigh the Minnesota Timberwolves' ceiling after Karl Anthony Towns' meniscus tear. Additionally, they predict which teams are positioned for strong finishes to the 2023-24 NBA Regular Season while also lamenting franchises that have yet to host an NBA All-Start game.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Welcome into basketball by association. Thisis the association of all things basketball.
And so I we're talking Australian basketballtoday. I sure hope. Well we
better be. Those are the topdraft picks coming from that country. I
think, so we better started tothink about them eventually. Uh arkishe here?
(00:20):
That's Joel c Corda's Joel. Ireally only have one question to start
off this whole podcast since we've lastchatted, and you are the perfect man
to give me the answer. Areyou ready for this question? I think
I know what it's gonna be,but I'll brace myself anyway. Okay,
all right, then let me knowif this was it, If Karl Anthony
(00:41):
Towns is going to be out witha surgery, why would Anthony Edwards knock
his own head purposefully against the backboardand rim an attempt to save a silly
basket in a game against the IndianaPacers. What say you, mister Cordas,
because this spells like sabotage. Yeah, Ant took a hard fall,
(01:04):
a hard fall on that block,but that was the second hard fall he
had taken like that in that game. He also was out after the first
I think it was ten seconds ofthe game, maybe seven seconds because he
rolled his ankle. So there wasthree different moments in that game against the
Indiana Pacers where you're looking at thisgoing please please, no, no,
(01:26):
no, no, no no,and somehow he bounces back. But yeah,
dangerous, dangerous, you know,a couple of sequences for Edwards the
player, and then also for theWolf's chances because obviously, as as much
as it hurts to lose Karl AnthonyTowns and we can talk about that,
to lose Anthony Edwards would be catastrophic. And he is a young kid,
(01:48):
and you're seeing that fire that it'sbeen rumbling around all season there, and
it sounded like crass, wishful thinking, hyperbole at the beginning some Kobe comparisons,
even some MJ comparisons. It's partlythe position he plays, it's the
body type he has, it's thegame he has. But there's also this
drive on both ends offensively and defensively, and a ultra competitiveness that continues to
(02:16):
grow and develop. And people arebeginning to talk about that outside of Minnesota,
and yeah, it's way too premature, but you're seeing some traits there
that are definitely reminiscent he said lastnight after the game, but he doesn't
think he ever jumped that high inhis life. And if the backboard wasn't
(02:36):
there and the rim wasn't there,which is where he first hit his head,
I'm not sure if he ever stopsfloating in the year that was like,
did you see how he just keptgoing like it just kept going up
and up. I don't know.It's kind of kind of magical in a
way. That was some elite athleticismthere from Anthony Edwards. So anyway,
(02:57):
your team seems to be still inthe first place that I write with you
for now, I mean half agame counts. It's the whole season in
the West has been half a gamemore a game here or there. That
that is absolutely true, you know, And Minnesota has held that number one
spot for almost the entire duration.I think Oklahoma was in first place for
(03:19):
like one or two days, andDenver was there for a little teeny bit
too. It we're sixty three gamesin the season's near what we're in March.
We're in March. This season isclose to done, and Minnesota has
been out the gate hut and nota not a little thing flower like out
there now. That's it's been prettyimpressive see this team after what they started
(03:43):
with two years ago, where itseemed like they were on the ascend a
little bit of a you know,back to back to Earth sort of a
year last year and now this yearto sort of just catapult up and just
sort of stay in the top spot. Yeah, you still have to deal
with Denver because they're the champs andstuff like, you still got tough teams
out that they're gonna have to dealwith, But like, come on,
that's really impressive for this Minnesota teamwith all the sort of what we thought
(04:06):
could be individual player issues as faras like how they saw the game and
if they took it seriously, soon and so forth, it's been a
kind of a really nice thing tosee them do this year. The mantra
from training camp was to be ultraprofessional this year. It was to take
all of those games seriously. Theystruggled in their first three games. I
(04:28):
think they lost the first two outof three this season, including to a
Toronto team in Toronto that they hadno business losing that game to. They
also allowed Trey Young against the AtlantaHawks and other not bottom feeding team but
sub five hundred team. In thosefirst couple, Trey Young went bonkers,
de Jante Murray went bonkers, andthey blew a huge lead to the Hawks.
(04:49):
So there was the mantra and thenthere was seeing it not work early
on that a lot of the playersand the coaching staff have talked about as
the makeup call to make those adjustments. And they really have been locked in
most of the year here with acouple of exceptions, and I think the
couple of times that they have notbeen locked into where they should have been,
(05:10):
those have been close games that they'velost. So you really do see
that difference with this group. Andthe loss of Karl Anthony Towns is big
and second leading scorer, but Ithink also as the floor stretcher, he
has been the leading assist guy toRudy Gobert all season. So think about
that for a second. It's notMike Conley, it's not Anthony Edwards,
it's not Kyle Anderson, it's KarlAnthony Towns playing the co center position,
(05:33):
has been the leading assist guy toset up Rudy Gobert, who needs to
be set up if he's going toget anything besides garbage buckets. So it
is a big loss for them.I'm not exactly sure right now, They've
plugg Kyle Anderson into the starting lineup, and they signed TJ. Warren off
the waiver wire. TJ. Warrenhas been around the block. He's a
veteran who can score a little bit, but has dealt with injury issues his
(05:54):
whole career. I would kind oflike to see them give Luca Garza some
run. You know, Iowa's finest. He has shown in the G League
that he is a twenty five tothirty point per game scorer. Against that
competition. He has shown that inlimited minutes he can come in and get
eight to ten points in just again, a couple of minutes flat. The
guy can score. He's not agood defender, though he may not be
(06:15):
ever an NBA defender. That kindof sounds like Karl Anthony Towns. Though
you have another big in Garza whohas some range. And again, I'm
not in practice every day with theWolves. I don't see what the dynamic
is with him with starting guys orwhatever. So I'm sure Chris Finch has
a reason for not doing this.But if I was coaching the Wolves,
(06:36):
I give Garza a look here withnineteen games left to go. As a
limited minute starter, all he's gotto do is come in, knock down
some shots, continue spacing the floor. For that group, you keep the
second unit intact. Instead of bringingKyle Anderson into the starting lineup, you
keep that second unit together and theycan play increased minutes. We're gonna see
(06:59):
more of Nasri, which is agreat thing for the Wolves. He is
a starting caliber player, but itworks best to have him in that second
unit where you have a designated scorea little more Kyle Anderson, a little
more n a Khille Alexander Walker.Maybe it's some TJ. Warren in the
mix. That's all fine, butwe'll see right now they're going to go
with their veterans instead. And Iget it, as you're in the playoff
hunt, I do think that Garzashould get a look here at some point.
(07:24):
I think that is okay with whereyou're saying that at this point for
you with the you've watched this Minnesotiana lot more than I do, so
I'll just say this, they can'trely on Anthony Edwards to score forty four
points every game to get knocked downout of the ceiling. You know,
two three times during that game andlanding on his back on his hip,
(07:46):
hitting his head against the back.For all that stuff, that's not going
to be sustainable. As much asAnthony Edwards and his young superhero body and
mindset thinks that it is, that'sprobably not a recipe for success. Yeah,
but that's the kind of stuff thatlike takes you from level one to
two or two to three in likethe greater public's mind. Like when you
talk about what John Moran did,like the kind of the kind of plays
(08:09):
that people know him were not justbeing a really good scorer and playing some
defense. They know him for justthis crazy athleticism and that's sort of what
elevated him. And I think that'ssort of what you sort of where is
he now? He's hurt? Where'sDerek Rose? Now? You know?
Where are those guys off that thatuber athleticism, in that reckless abandon doing
(08:30):
unsustainable things. Yes, it capturedthe imagination and now it's a could have
been instead of still is, althoughMorent hopefully can come back and recapture that.
But yeah, well some of thatmarine, you know, John Moran
flashing around pistols, So you knowit's not all injuries. You know.
Uh, speaking of hot teams,how about the Milwaukee Buccaroos since the All
(08:50):
Star break six and one? AndI mean, but now they are on
a one game losing streak, theirice cold. So all the grief that
we gave to Doc Rivers and thisMilwaukee Bucks team going into the All Star
break for you know, making achange that we didn't necessarily see is necessary,
still don't not gonna change my mind. They did bring down Rivers at
(09:13):
that point, but they've righted theship some, including right out the All
Star break beating your Minnesota Timberwolves.But they've got good wins since then.
They've beaten Philadelphia of course, theybeat Charlotte twice in a row, which
is well. They also beat theClippers, who are still are playing basketball,
and uh, Golden State wanted teamto just beat them recently beat the
(09:37):
breaks off of them actually a coupleof nights ago. It's pretty tough,
uh, but they do have stillwhat is a a I would say,
a fairly difficult next part of theschedule coming up. I wanted to briefly
talk about Milwaukee because I don't thinkthere's really anything new about Milwaukee other than
their coach, and he's not newwhere I think If you I'm okay,
(10:01):
we move on to the next topic. If you sort of agree with me
that really we're just going to judgehis team in the playoffs with Doc Rivers,
right, it has to be.Although you look at the rest of
the Eastern Conference and the Bucks aresitting in second, but they're only a
half game ahead of the Cleveland Cavaliers, who were really really hot just like
a week or two ago and noware five and five in their last ten.
(10:22):
And you called this archiche, Iwant to give you a little bit
of dapt the Orlando Magic hot hothot here over their last ten games,
And you said, looking at thatschedule coming out of the All Star Break,
they were the team you thought wasgoing to be able to capitalize and
really bounce on that, and theyare. So Milwaukee is not going to
catch Boston down the stretch, butyou don't want to see them lose to
a Cavaliers team that as good asthe Cavs are, we have to still
(10:46):
claim and believe that the Bucks arethe better team. We have to still
believe that the Bucks are the betterteam than the Magic. So it would
be a massive disappointment to lose outon that second or even that third seed
to either of those teams at thispoint, but yes, by and large,
it still is going to come downto the playoffs. Chris Middleton remains
in and out of the lineup,available some games and then not others,
(11:09):
and you just wonder whether he's goingto ever be fully healthy this season.
And that's a big deal for thembecause not only as a shot maker,
which they have some of, butas a guy who can hold his own
defensively, which the Bucks have beenshort on all year, even with the
changes that Doc Rivers has made,and they've become a much better defensive team
under Rivers scheme and Rivers teams havealways defended pretty well. We'll give him
(11:31):
credit for that. You know,they're shoring up that defense. But they're
gonna need Chris Middleton if they're goingto do anything in the playoffs, and
they're going to need a relatively healthyone. So there's a lot of question
marks surrounding this team, whether it'sthe coaching staff, whether it's the first
opportunity that we'll see of Dame Lillardand Yannis in a playoff series together,
and how that's going to go.You have a new shooting guard in Malik
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Beasley who's been hot and cold allyear, as is usual with Malik,
and they're down defenders, you know, Jay Crowder is really and Patrick Beverley,
I guess at this point, butboth of those guys are on the
tail end of their careers, soa lot of talent there. Puncher's chance,
But you're right, it's gonna comedown to You can't lose to the
Miami Heat in the first round likethey did last year. You cannot get
(12:16):
upset. You better be showing upin the Eastern Conference Finals, and you
better be giving a good account ofyourself there in an Eastern Conference finals,
much less going to the NBA Finals. Does it can't though, if he
goes up three to one and stillloses the series, it's a good accounting
like you would make it. Yougo to seven. If it happens again.
If it happens again, you firehim on the spot. You fire
him on the spot and rehire AdrianGriffin and give him a training camp with
(12:41):
this team and just go, yep, we done screwed up heron We've done
screwed up speaking that defense on thatsame point, of the seven games,
they've allowed teams under one hundred pointsfour times. Yeah, two were Charlotte,
uh and one with Chicago, butwhat was Philadelphia? So you know,
minus Joe ell Embiid. But yes, point taken. The defense has
(13:05):
looked statistically better so far. That'sall the matter is the stats. The
Man of Lakes is what's gonna getus. I mean this next run though,
you look down the list, theygot the Lakers coming up today,
They've got the Clippers, after that, the Kings, the Sixers, the
Suns, the Celtics, the Nets. That might be their only like quote
unquote easier game here for a while, but the Nets aren't terrible. Oklahoma
(13:28):
City after that, back to theLakers, then the Pelicans, and then
you finally get Atlanta, Washington,Memphis, Toronto for a little bit of
a respite before down the stretch youget the Knicks, who should be healthy.
Yeah yeah, by that point,the Knicks should be healthy. Then
you get Boston, Orlando, OklahomaCity and Orlando again. This is not
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an easy schedule to round things outfor the Bucks. No, they won't
be a second by the end ofthe year. I don't think they will
be. I think I want totalk about more just a minute. Let's
let's uh stay on teams that arehot, uh not the Celtics, screw
those guys. But although they didloose to the Nuggets, the Nuggets beat
them last night. It was theNuggets swept them. This year, have
(14:11):
anybody that's been been able to beBoston, It's literally been only the Nuggets
of bills like this year Orlando.Just briefly want to mention that, as
you say, I did call.I was sort of looking at the schedule,
what this what this sort of teamlooks like, and what they could
take advantage of. They still hadto take advantage of it. There's seven
to one out the All Star break, so they're they've done really really nicely
for themselves, taking care of thespots that they need to be taken care
(14:33):
of. And as you mentioned,they are a half game up on my
knicks for that last play for thelast home spot here for the UH for
to get into the tournament, andwe're not the whole big giant tournament.
I think I think I kind ofwant to believe in Orlando, like I
I I I did not feel likethat at the beginning of the year.
(14:54):
M m I'm not saying the schedulesmade me want to believe in it,
but it's it's a lot like whenwe were talking about Dallas early on in
the season, where like their schedulewas super favorable to them, and we
didn't know whether like that team wasthat much better than everyone else or the
teams they were playing were actually justreally bad. It turns out it was
a little bit of both in thatcase. But I think this Orlando team
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is like a win around kind ofteam this year. I kind of really
want to believe in them. Here'swhy I think you can believe in them
is that as a young, developingteam, they're sitting third right now in
defensive rating and points allowed. Minnesota'snumber one and has been number one all
year by a good three point marginover everybody else, And that's a huge
(15:43):
margin. Just just stretch all outof that break. Yeah, Cleveland is
second, but Orlando is tied withthem for a second. Right behind them
are the Knicks who have that defensivereputation, the Celtics, the Heat who
have that defensive reputation, the Nuggets, the Pelicans. Then you get the
outlier, which is the Memphis Grizzlies. They got to be good at something
(16:07):
this year, so they've been okayat points allowed and then the Clippers.
So you're talking of those ten teamsnine being pretty darn legit overall and Orlando
being in company as part of thosenine. So that's why I think you
can believe in them again because weare sixty three games into the season.
This is a track record now certainlythat youth could come back and you'll see
(16:32):
the limitations of that in a toughplayoff series on the offensive end. Yeah,
they're not gonna go deep young teams. She's no, for the most
part go deep. They'll had totake their lumps, but they does it
keep them from winning as round?Yeah, and it doesn't keep them from
potentially snagging home court advantage, whichas a young team that has been sitting
either on the play in bubble andgetting swept year after year, that they
(16:56):
actually get in or not even beingclose to getting in, this would be
a massive step forward in what seemslike it's been a twenty year rebuild in
Orlando. It does kind of feellike, well, what have we seen
since Shack? We saw a littlebit of Dwight Howard and we've Yeah,
they made the finals. So I'mtalking since then. No, I'm saying
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like, like what we've seen overallsorts since that franchise, it literally existed,
like we saw Shack he left,then Dwight Howard came on. They
got to the finals against the Lakers, they get swept to they losing five
in that one. I think theylost some five. I'm pretty sure it
was five. And then essentially it'sbeen hey, Aaron Gordon, Nick Vussevich,
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you know, as a middling middlingteam that was at best a middling
at best, we sort of willsee the team like, hey, why
aren't these guys better? Why isit this a better team? So yeah,
this team, you know Ben Carroand the Wagners, Like I,
I don't want to say this becauseokay, you already said it. So
(18:02):
I'll let this light mainly because there'sa big matchup tonight that I don't want
to jinx but I can't imagine whoit's against. I think it's a Toronto
something like that. But outside oftonight, I find them pretty enjoyable to
watch, Like I think that thatthey are dangerous with the right matchup and
(18:30):
listen, who knows what they endup beginning to four or the five or
the six somewhere around there. Idon't think they follow any further than six.
I think they got the horses becausethe rest of that schedule is fairly
doable too. From from the groundthat they've already made up into where they're
at. You know, it's uh, New York, it's Indiana, but
Brooklyn, Toronto, a couple oftimes, Charlotte, New Orleans, Sacramento,
(18:52):
Golden State, Los Angeles, andMemphis, Portland, New Orleans,
Charlotte, Chicago. Like that's adoable schedule. Yeah, verydoable schedule to
maintain where they're at or to notdrop very far because what is the where
am I on the statings? Howfar are they off from just making sure
that they stay six? Because I'mI'm fairly certain that they're not dropping beyond
six. There are five games aheadof Miami and Philadelphia, who are sitting
(19:17):
in the six seven spots. Indianasitting in the A spot at fourteen,
So a little bit of breathing room. But with nineteen games left to go,
Oh no, no, they onlythey're only a game and a half
up on the Miami of Miami andthe six Yeah, sorry, I was
I was looking at Cleveland's numbers abovethat. You're right, so it is.
(19:37):
It's a game and a half onMiami and and a half games on
India. I was looking at thewrong people. Yes, I love you
know what. Now now I'm notnearly as certain because those are two.
Yeah, they're half game up withthe Knicks, a game and a half
up on Miami and Philly, whoare tied right now or at six seven,
and Indiana is one game back ofthat. Okay, I don't know.
(20:00):
It's gonna be a tough phrase.Never mind, it's gonna be a
tough phrase. But they got avery doable schedule to be able to guarantee
themselves one of the first six spots, very very doable. So I don't
know, we'll we'll just sort ofkeep monitoring these, uh these there Orlando
magic and see if we get Savaknermagic. And you know, I'd like
to not see Paalo ben Gero becauseuh, you know, he got a
(20:22):
certain award in the college game thatsomebody from my favorite team in the college
game should have gotten. You know, that's too veiled and I'm not gonna
explain it. You can go lookit up on previous podcasts, We've talked
about it, but let's just sayI forget though, I forget who is
who is the guy that should havegotten it. There is a young man
that was the first pick for theHouston Rockets that should have been the first
pick for the Orlando Magic. Heis a young man who went to Auburn
(20:49):
uh and Paalo bank Gho went toa fantasy duke. But you think Smith
Junior still should have gone to oneover from what you've seen. That's a
fan thing, That's all I'm saying. Look, what what history does Auburn
have in basketball? Right? Likeit's Charles Barkley and then nothing like a
(21:15):
long time I think Chuck person playedin the NBA. But seriously, Charles
bark And that's a great thing tohave. But like it's essentially like you
got a couple of Marquee Daniels playedin the legue for a long time.
You know, there are some guysthat have kind of I shouldn't say some
a few guys that have played inthe league and I just wanted Auburn I
have a number one pick. Thatis that so much? Ask Joel?
(21:36):
Is that so much to ask?I? Mean, in hindsight, it
absolutely would have been the wrong pick, Like there's no there's no question now
that Boncaro has been the better playerand that chet Holm Grin has been the
better player. It was between thethree of those guys over who it wasn't.
(21:56):
I was a Jabari Smith junior fantoo, and I still think he
fits in really nicely with the HoustonRockets for what it's worth. But he's
got a lot of rough edges topolish out in the game, and the
Rockets, despite adding veterans this year, are sitting six games out of the
final play in spot. So it'skind of a disappointment. None of that
matters for that that My only singularargument literally was for the guy game.
(22:21):
Just to have a number one pickever, would have been kind of cool.
So Auburn's had them in the NFL, not in the NBA and baseball
who cares like Frank Thomas and TimHudson stuff. This is one of those
those shows. Okay, another teamI just wanted to briefly mention, because
how can you not. The Celtics, although until recently just seem like they
don't lose, they have built themselveseasily the biggest lead in any of the
(22:48):
in the conferences at the seven anda half. I think right now I'm
with the only thing I am withon the Celtics is the same as we
will but that the same I amwith Doc Rivers in Milwaukee, which is,
Yeah, we've seen them play reallywell in the regular season before,
We've seen them behind at the righttime at the back end of the regular
(23:10):
season before they have to be NBAFinals or busts. It has to be
at this point and we've seen that. We've seen them do that during the
Jalen Brown, Jason tatumro like right, there is nothing that's acceptable with how
this East looks for them than theNBA Finals. Now, I would suspect
(23:33):
if I was a boss a Celticsfan, and that would be the worst
day ever of my life that everhappened that it's NBA title or bust,
because it's a literally it's out there. If you look at the West,
who's unbeatable in the West right Ifyou want to look at the very best
team in the NBA right now,it's probably the Celtics. So the Celtics
right now, going as you know, early into March, have to be
(23:56):
thinking this is NBA title or bust. I'm a Knicks pay haven't been to
the NBA finals and forever, soit'd be cool to the EBA B Finals
for Bus. But for the Celtics, it's a whole different munch. It's
a whole different thing. This teamis win now because they've got all the
pieces to be able to do it. The best team in the Western Conference,
which is the Minnesota Timberrolser at least, has been sitting in first place,
(24:19):
has beaten their opponents by six pointeight points per game on average.
And this is a metric that overa full season. There's a lot of
NBA stat heads who will look atthis one in point differential. The Oklahoma
City Thunder, who have been sittingin second place for most of the season,
are actually better in their differential sevenand a half points per game.
(24:40):
The Boston Celtics, sitting in firstplace, ten point nine points per game
is what they have beaten opponents onaverage. So it's not just a lot
of wins, it's a lot ofconvincing wins. It's a lot of big
wins. It is head and shouldersabove the next two best teams out of
that Western Conference, and the nextbest team in the Eastern Conference is Cleveland
(25:03):
sitting in sixth right now. Fourand a half points per game has been
their margin of victory. So yeah, I mean, Boston, Boston just
be Golden State by fifty two.Come on, a fully constituted well yeah,
like not the nineteen ninety three GoldenState Warriors. Not the Golden State
(25:26):
Warriors without every player that they hadwhen they had was two years ago.
Stretch A really not really good youknow where I say at this point?
Yeah, A, yeah, you'reright fully constituted. The whole team was
on the round, beat their brainsin. Now Cleveland did beat them by
one right right after that and thendidn't wins at home. But also Denver,
(25:51):
I should say Boston was at thatgame at the very end obviously,
So hmm, yeah, you're right. I mean, the the expectations are
there for a reason, not onlybecause of the money spent and adding Drew
Holliday and Kristaps Porzingis and all thatstuff, but because the expectations seem realistic,
(26:12):
right, They seem very realistic basedon what we've seen all season long,
and the numbers are backing that up. Like this is the team to
be. It's maintained. Just likewith with the teams we talked about in
the West, with Oklahoma City andwith Minnesota, those teams have been at
the top essentially all season long.Boston's not only been at the top,
(26:33):
but they've been crushing it all seasonlong. You think they would cool and
do they even have the if I'mnot mistaken, I'm not gonna be.
Yeah. This was the just thesecond time this year they've lost two games
in a row. Just the secondtime, by the way, the first
time. This is our through linefor this podcast November with Minnesota in Philadelphia.
(26:55):
Two times this year have they losttwo games in a row. They
haven't lost three games in a rowentire season. They're the only people in
the NBA they can say that.It's kind of crazy, right. I
know Minnesota has lost too in arow? Is that three times? Now?
Four times? So Minnesota has notlost three in a row all season
long either. I'm looking at theirschedule, but they have lost too in
(27:18):
a row four times? Okay,just me being right, just yeah,
you are just by comparison. WhatI what I mean is the best team
out west is in that range,right, but still not as good as
what Boston has done. Okay,let me ask you this. If Boston
Minnesota lit it up for the forthe Larry o' brian in June, mm
(27:40):
hmm, how many games that seriesgo. If Minnesota can actually get there,
it's going to be because Karl AnthonyTowns was healthy. They they will
not get there without Karl Anthony Towns. And I've been, you know,
a detractor of Towns throughout throughout thisyear because of his limitations, but he
(28:00):
still is the guy who can scoretwenty five thirty points a game and knock
down threes and set up Rudy Gobatand he does a lot of really valuable
things for them, even as theknuckleheaded plays are there sometimes. So if
he's healthy, Boston probably in six. But Minnesota has a shot if they
(28:25):
got that far. But I'm goingto say the same thing about any of
the top three Western teams. Ifthey get there, it's gonna have been
because of an absolute blood bath toget out of the West. So you're
talking about the Nuggets or the Thunder. You could maybe throw the Clippers in
there, and certainly a dark horseveteran team like the Lakers could be capable
of making a run again, butwe'll keep it to the top three teams.
(28:52):
Any of yeah, yeah, absolutely, any of those three that make
it to the finals will have realhad to prove themselves and gain some momentum,
so I give any of them apuncher's chance against Boston. But if
Boston has made it that far,then they've been legit all year, from
wire to wire, So betting againstthat is just stupid. And yeah,
(29:14):
I would say six games probably againstwhoever they play. I'll say this though,
what we usually think of the Eastas far as being the top three
or four teams and then to messat the bottom, it's a mess at
the very very bottom right when you'retalking like ten to eleven, twelve,
that that that area. But arethe teams that are probably gonna be the
(29:36):
final eighth playing in the tournament.It's gonna be the tough, it's gonna
be the most demanding for whoever comesout that's been in a few years.
Like the it's the Indiana is youreight seed right now? Mm hmm.
I mean Indiana, Indiana could pullan eight one upset over Boston, like
(29:59):
it is possible. It is possible, for sure. A healthy Philadelphia,
it's seven right Well, they're nothealthy nowt but a Philadelphia right now is
a seven. Miami's a six,of course, the giant New York Knicks.
Yep, we'll eventually get some playersback. New York, Miami,
(30:19):
and Philly all need to get healthy. Like they're all hanging around that same
spot with major injury issues, butones that theoretically can be resolved by the
playoffs. You're right now, Idon't believe anything in Chicago or Atlanta at
this point. No, but thoseother eight teams, it's gonna be tough.
Anybody's capable of winning around there.You throw in Cleveland and Orlando.
(30:41):
We already talked about Milwaukee. Anyof those eight can win around And I
I don't, for offensive sakes,in the West, I don't feel like
it's eight deep as far as whocan sort of, I think it's like
six deep. That the teams thatI believe in, like, you know,
I'm not, I don't. I'mnot gonna say anything good about the
Warriors just because that you know whereI am at. They're done. It's
(31:04):
fine. It was a historic run, you know, and they're still battling
to be able to get into theplayoffs, and now with Steph Curry and
the rolled ankle, we don't knowhow long he's gonna be out and whether
that opens the door. Although Idon't think Utah actually wants to catch up,
and I've said that a few times. I think Golden State is locked
into the play in But what doesthat mean if they've got zero momentum or
(31:26):
stuff's not fully healthy? Yeah,the nine ten spots are five and a
half games up on Utah, Andyet you said, I'm I don't think
Utah is interested in doing any morewinning at this point. They lost eight
of the last ten. Dallas Igot nothing but lukewarm feelings about as far
as being able to sort of win. Dallas could win around. They could
(31:48):
win a round against just about anybodyin the West. Just about anybody,
just about anybody in the West.I think they can win a round.
That doesn't mean they're going to doit, but they're one of those teams
that's a big wild card because ofLuca, because they're still working in an
even better supporting cast now and it'sbeen a little bit rough since the All
Star break defensively trying to make thatwork. But he's got better weapons and
(32:10):
the Kyrie. Luca Paring has actuallybeen more than passable this year, so
I'm not gonna bet against Luca.I could see them beating the Pelicans or
the Clippers, depending on with thematchups into being what are they separated by
their three and a half and sixgames back, respectively, Pelicans and Clippers.
(32:30):
I could see them beating the Thundertoo, and that Dallas has been
there now a few times and okay, see, you know really hasn't as
good as the Thunder have been.It would make it weird in a playoff
series when you're that young. ButI'll tell you what, that's gonna be
a tough place to go play.That's gonna be the same place for like
it's good during the season, it'sa completely different place in the playoffs.
(32:53):
And I don't know if there's anotherarena that's that really good in the regular
season can be and it's just offthe wall insane during the playoffs. That's
what Like I love to sort ofput the volume on as loud as possible,
really only for OKAC home games,Like I really don't like to list
(33:15):
the commentary. But the weird thingis some of these some of these broadcasts
like to put the commentators so muchlouder over the crowd, and that's not
what I'm not there for the commentators, to be honest with you, I'm
not I'm I'm looking to go seeShay Gilgess, Alexander Uh make the crowd
good nuts. I'm looking for I'mlooking for a dort signing. You know
what I'm saying. That's what Iwant. Okay, I want to ask
(33:38):
you about one one other thing.If you got a minute, you got
a minute. Well before we takethat minute, you were talking about teams
in the Western Conference that you didn'treally believe in. I don't think any
of us, like truly believe theKings are a threat this year, which
is unfortunate, but people have seenthem coming two years ago. I thought
I thought that was a chance tosneak up on people, and then they
ran right into the Golden State.Can they win around maybe? But you
(34:02):
really talking like a huge, hugeseries and it would be an upset Phoenix
if they ever get healthy. Namethe one team, just one that you
think Sacramento could be if they werematched up against that Sacramento could beat.
Yes, I think any of thetop three teams in the Western Conference can
(34:24):
be beat. I think the leastlikely team to get beat is actually Denver,
and that's because of the championship pedigree. Minnesota has not been under that
type of pressure yet. They've gotthe towns question. Oklahoma City has the
youth issue. So I think anyof the top three can be beat.
(34:45):
But Sacramento, again, it wouldbe a massive upset to do that.
Sacramento's talented, They've got good players, they've got good coaching, They've been
a decent team all year. NewOrleans is capable of winning a series against
anybody. Phoenix, if fully healthy, could do it. But when has
Phoenix been fully healthy? You know? I think the only team that I
feel like Sacramento could beat is NewOrleans right now. And I don't even
(35:08):
believe that. I believe that's probablythe only one that I would be like,
Okay, this probably be a prettylong series. It could be a
long series. But also see NewOrleans winning that in five games. So
mhm, right, Sorry you Iinterrupted you with another question for you.
No, I mean it was justsaying I agree with you that the Eastern
Conference is tougher, you know,at top eight. I think the West
(35:30):
will still be tough ish. Butyou're right, there are some teams in
those bottom four, and really ifyou throw in the Warriors and the Lakers
the bottom six, where you go, yeah, they could be capable of
winning around. I can see it. I can see how it could happen.
But I don't really feel like threatenedbadly by any of those teams.
(35:52):
If you face them, you're like, we should beat them, and if
they don't that then we had aterrible series and they had a great one
in the Eastern Conference. You lookat any of those matchups and go,
we better show up to play rightaway on day one, because this is
going to be a dogfight in thefirst round, and if we go down
two despite having home court advantage,we could be in a world to hurt.
(36:12):
So I agret it. I cansee any one of those teams getting
a couple of early games at homeand then feeling like that they're never going
to lose again, you know,or even you know someone like you know,
someone like Orlando going into into Bostonstaking one of the first ones and
all of a sudden, Boston doesn'tknow what to do with themselves. You
know. Okay, last one thingI really wanted to mention because it is
(36:37):
newsworthy, and also had sort ofa rank up question for you in this
in the same vein, Joe,we now know where the twenty twenty seven
All Star Game is going to be. That's right. You may have forgotten
that there is an All Star Gamecoming up every single year. We know
(36:57):
where it is next year and theyear after that at in fact, one
of those years in the stadium thatdoesn't exist right now. But twenty twenty
seven, we're going warm weather oncemore. Jill, let me ask you
this. Uh oh wait, weshall probably mentioned where they're going where they
actually going for the yes, please, because I don't know. I went
(37:20):
some paid attention to hold on,do you know? Do you know where
the next two are? No?No, no, that was one thing
ask you, But do you know? Uh what was that to say?
Do you do you know? Uh, forget it. I'll think of it
anyway. So one of them,one of them has to be the Clippers
stadium. If you're saying it's notbuilt yet, then I would assume it's
(37:40):
the Clippers new So next year itis the Sweet and Tidy wherever they are
for the for the Warriors, Idon't know they in San Francisco or then
Inglewood or something in San Francisco.No, Uh, the Inglewood's the next
one where you go to the thethe house that, oh god, what
(38:01):
is his name? Yes, it'sSteve Balmer, the House of Steve Balmer
built, you know, the onethat's got so many toilets. That's gonna
be the next year. And thenyou're going to Phoenix the year after that.
So apparently there was a trend.I did not notice this until sort
of it was pointed out in anarticle I was reading, uh that there's
(38:22):
been a little bit of a runon colder weather areas. They were in
Charlotte's which is not cold cold,but as the East Coast during that time,
in Chicago, in Atlanta and Clevelandand Salt Lake City in Indianapolis,
and now we're getting some warm weatherones. So Joe, my question is
who cares about whether the things arewould be? My question is if you
(38:43):
were to attend an All Star Game, which would be the stadium you would
most want to go to the AllStar Game for and you know, I
gotta do it, which would bethe stadium you would least like to go
to for the All Star Game.Remember you have to go m H.
I really would like to see theKing's Arena Golden One Center. I've heard
(39:07):
and I've never been there, butI've heard from a lot of people that
that is that is the state ofthe art, gold standard as far as
buildings go. For somebody else,then I the worst one. It's probably
got to be somewhere non descript.I think the easy one that first comes
to mind for me would be Washingtonfirst of all, because there's no real
(39:30):
history in that building. They mightnot even be in that building now.
They're in the land fight with whetherthey're moving to Virginia or not and whether
they're going to get a stadium approvedover there. So obviously it's an older
building. Obviously people are wanting tomove out of that one and maybe even
move out of the district, whichthat I don't agree with. But yeah,
I would think I would want tosee Sacramento. There's a lot of
(39:52):
other interesting buildings too, but Sacramentois the one that I keep hearing from
people who have been where it's it'sthe place to be. Do you know
Sacramentos never hosted that is, butnot surprising. There are four cities that
have never hosted Can you name theother three? We know? Minneapolis has
(40:13):
hosted one, Milwaukee ever hosted one. Milwaukee has hosted one. Okay,
let me find that. Ye haveit up here in front of me.
As Washington ever hosted one. Washingtonhas hosted one. That's that's ridiculous.
I would sink Milwaukee hosted in nineteenseventy seven. Oh okay, that counts
(40:37):
right, yeah, back when theMidwest was cool. First of all,
Julius Irving was the MVP of thatgame. Let's just relax. Oklahoma City
can't have hosted one, right cityis one of those? Right? All
right? That that would make sense. Oklahoma City is not. Neither has
Who is Salt Lake City? SaltLake City has hosted one. They just
(40:57):
recently hosted one. Oh that's right. That's right. That was like twenty
twenty three. That's here last year. This year, I say you're right,
I don't know since I'll say Iget one more, guess I'll go
with either Toronto or Portland. Portlandis one of them. Portland is one
of them. So now you've gotone more to get. I'll give you
(41:21):
a hands in the South and itwasn't Toronto, all right? Toronto's not
in the South. You would thinkthat Atlanta, New Orleans, New Orleans
has, New Orleans has I don'tknow, get give it to me Memphis.
That makes sense too. I mean, we're talking about the smallest of
small markets, but there's no Sacramentois a small market, but you do
(41:45):
have an owner who shelled out allthat money for that stadium. I think
it is time to get there.And the Kings, like Oklahoma City,
have had a long reputation of beinga great place to play, great fans,
very invested in the team, sinkor swim, like, it's time
to get the Kings on that list. I think so. So if we're
gonna put them in order, let'sput them in order of the next ones
(42:06):
that they should get, the thethe the Nons, which will be at
the earliest twenty twenty eight. Yeah. By the way, these stadiums aren't
getting younger NBA's so let's go we'reboth agreen. Let's go Sacramento number one.
That should be the next one toget. Then I think Oklahoma City
should be number two. I agreewith that. Again, to reward the
(42:27):
fan base. Just people are justgonna go to it anyway, Like it's
an event, right like you Youcould host it in like Argentina and people
are gonna go to it locally ornot. Yeah, that can get thoughts
up between them and Portland. Imean, Portland's been around longer. That's
also an incredibly loyal fan base.But I I can see that one too,
and then I would go, okay, yeah for me, Memphis would
(42:47):
be last, so I think,okay, see, then then Portland.
I agree with that list overall.I could see flip flopping Portland and okay
see, but yeah, I'm finewith it. I think Memphis, unfortunately,
is probably lowest on the list there. Yeah, but they should still
get it right. It's twenty twentyfour and there's still four teams, four
(43:07):
cities in the NBA that haven't gotthat rant in. Milwaukee's been a long
time. Okay, Yeah, Iagree. Let's just run through them all.
Let's get them all four out ofthe way, and beginning in twenty
twenty eight, let's get the listcleaned up. And then yeah, if
you want to throw in Milwaukee inyear five, do it. I'm trying
to think of what so see twentytwenty two is Cleveland. Before that was
(43:27):
Atlanta, Chicago, Charlotte, LosAngeles, New Orleans, Toronto, New
York. Then there was New Orleans. The Smoothie consider did two in like
four years. That's kind of well. Houston, Orlando, Los Angeles,
Oh, no, that was wasthat one of those. There was something
controversial happening, like they had tolike said a year that like North Carolina
(43:52):
couldn't have a game because they weredoing some something with the law, and
they moved it just because you know, yeah, they packed the law.
That may have been I mean Houston, Orlando, Los Angeles, Arlington.
Oh, that's right. I don'teven know why they ever did that.
No, I know, because it'sa big giant stadium. Everyone wants to
do it. Oh, but Idon't want to see them do. What
(44:15):
I don't want to see them dois permanently place it in Las Vegas,
because that's that's always been talked aboutas the way to do it. Since
they put the Summer League there,they're not sure if they're ever going to
get an NBA team situated in Vegas. That is a risky economic bet.
I know Vegas has attracted other prosports teams over the last couple of years,
but they've talked about splitting the differenceof just making that kind of the
(44:37):
center for a lot of these kindof league wide events, that sort of
thing. I forget. They wentto Paradise, Nevada for the Thomas and
Max Center in like two thousand andseven for one of those. Yeah,
you went to Paradise, Nevada overOklahoma City, Which Paradise is Vegas.
That's Vegas, I understand you andLB right, that's where they are,
(45:00):
That's where they do summer league.I can't believe. I can't believe that.
I guess I can't to do CowboysStadium, Vegas. Both those teams,
both those areas don't have teams.I mean the areas do, but
both those stadiums don't host NBA teams. Before you got Portland, before you
(45:21):
got Sacramento like that. Whatever.Yeah, but that's disrespectful the two of
your most loyal fan bases. Itreally is not only that, but also
the there are owners are governors ofthis league who are parts of teams who
are like, why don't we getone? Like we're literally bought into the
league and bought our franchise. Whycan't we have one of these teams or
(45:43):
one of these weekends, they'd belike, no, let's let's go to
Los Angeles one more time. Andin the case of Sacramento's owner, you
know, bought into the league andimmediately poured in just an ordinate amount of
money into the stadium, into theteam, like revamped them. He's done
a lot to try to position theKings as a very popular team, accessible
(46:04):
team in India, much like theRockets kind of positioned themselves in China in
years back. So he's done alot for the international game. It's yeah,
it's it's almost disrespectful at this pointnot to give them a shot.
Just once I found I note thatsaid the NBA requires six thousand hotel rooms
in the area to be able tohave the All Star Game. Nah,
(46:30):
you need six thousand hotel rooms?You know, Sacramento hosts an entire franchise
with less than six thousand. Doyou really need six thousand? How many
people are sitting on the court.I know you wanted to be a big
gentleman. Go to the Marriot tenmiles out, Okay, right, Sacrement
knows how far away from the BayArea? Not much, right, it's
not super far away. No,just drive uber whatever. Like the people
(46:57):
that you talking about are trying togo to these games, likely having a
couple of funds to be able toUber or to be able to do whatever
they need to get the game,or to go glamping. Just go glamping
in the Sierra Nevada, outside ofoutside of Sacramento. I'm surprised that there
are franchises who literally never had achance to host it, Like Portland's not
new. That's the thing that blowsmy mind. Like the Blazers and the
(47:21):
Kings, And I know the Kingshave not been in Sacramento as long,
but as far as franchises go,they're not original franchises, but they're now
among the older generation of franchises,right, they didn't neither of them came
in with the ABA. Like youask anybody on the street. They're telling
you that the Kings were one ofthe original teams. They don't know.
It's been so long. It's beenso long and people don't know, so
(47:44):
was it. Plus they get thecool laser in this guy. Come on
now, alright, that's gonna doit for us. Jill, I'm sorry
that you're gonna have to hear theAll Star Game next year, we're gonna
send you there. Wor things havehappened to me. It's fine. Have
you been an All Star Game?I have never been to an All Star
Game yet. Of the of theones that are coming up, which one
(48:04):
would you most like to go to? San Francisco, Inglewood or Phoenix.
I would like to see the Clippersin new Stadium, So yeah, it
would be it'd be an agree.Yeah, because that's the year it opens.
So you're like, you're getting itopens not next season, but the
season after they're hosting our game.So because the Warriors Stadium is supposed to
(48:25):
be cool, the no shade onthat. But you know that Steve Balmer
is going to spend a crazy amountof money and they're going to try to
do it right. It's gonna it'sgonna be flashy. Just see all the
toilets, you know. I justwant to see all the all the commodes
out there, That's what I wantto see. Like how many peeing units
are out there for me to lookat? Needs to be over six thousand,
(48:46):
I would imagine. I hope youget enough of those in your you
do. I appreciate Steve Balmer.I don't know. I like him,
but I appreciate what he's what he'sdoing, he can't. It's better than
you know, like James Dolan.Right, So enough, all right,
Chelsea Cordas, that's gonna do itfor us. You say good about it
(49:07):
to good people. Yeah, goodbye, good people. You can find us
on Spreaker, Spotify, iTunes,wherever you get your podcast. If you
want the audio only version, ifyou want the video version of this year
podcast, we are on YouTube likeshare, subscribe to all those good things
over there, Doctor Cords. Thankyou for your time.
Welcome into basketball by association. Thisis the association of all things basketball.
And so I we're talking Australian basketballtoday. I sure hope. Well we
better be. Those are the topdraft picks coming from that country. I
think, so we better started tothink about them eventually. Uh arkishe here?
(00:20):
That's Joel c Corda's Joel. Ireally only have one question to start
off this whole podcast since we've lastchatted, and you are the perfect man
to give me the answer. Areyou ready for this question? I think
I know what it's gonna be,but I'll brace myself anyway. Okay,
all right, then let me knowif this was it, If Karl Anthony
(00:41):
Towns is going to be out witha surgery, why would Anthony Edwards knock
his own head purposefully against the backboardand rim an attempt to save a silly
basket in a game against the IndianaPacers. What say you, mister Cordas,
because this spells like sabotage. Yeah, Ant took a hard fall,
(01:04):
a hard fall on that block,but that was the second hard fall he
had taken like that in that game. He also was out after the first
I think it was ten seconds ofthe game, maybe seven seconds because he
rolled his ankle. So there wasthree different moments in that game against the
Indiana Pacers where you're looking at thisgoing please please, no, no,
(01:26):
no, no, no no,and somehow he bounces back. But yeah,
dangerous, dangerous, you know,a couple of sequences for Edwards the
player, and then also for theWolf's chances because obviously, as as much
as it hurts to lose Karl AnthonyTowns and we can talk about that,
to lose Anthony Edwards would be catastrophic. And he is a young kid,
(01:48):
and you're seeing that fire that it'sbeen rumbling around all season there, and
it sounded like crass, wishful thinking, hyperbole at the beginning some Kobe comparisons,
even some MJ comparisons. It's partlythe position he plays, it's the
body type he has, it's thegame he has. But there's also this
drive on both ends offensively and defensively, and a ultra competitiveness that continues to
(02:16):
grow and develop. And people arebeginning to talk about that outside of Minnesota,
and yeah, it's way too premature, but you're seeing some traits there
that are definitely reminiscent he said lastnight after the game, but he doesn't
think he ever jumped that high inhis life. And if the backboard wasn't
(02:36):
there and the rim wasn't there,which is where he first hit his head,
I'm not sure if he ever stopsfloating in the year that was like,
did you see how he just keptgoing like it just kept going up
and up. I don't know.It's kind of kind of magical in a
way. That was some elite athleticismthere from Anthony Edwards. So anyway,
(02:57):
your team seems to be still inthe first place that I write with you
for now, I mean half agame counts. It's the whole season in
the West has been half a gamemore a game here or there. That
that is absolutely true, you know, And Minnesota has held that number one
spot for almost the entire duration.I think Oklahoma was in first place for
(03:19):
like one or two days, andDenver was there for a little teeny bit
too. It we're sixty three gamesin the season's near what we're in March.
We're in March. This season isclose to done, and Minnesota has
been out the gate hut and nota not a little thing flower like out
there now. That's it's been prettyimpressive see this team after what they started
(03:43):
with two years ago, where itseemed like they were on the ascend a
little bit of a you know,back to back to Earth sort of a
year last year and now this yearto sort of just catapult up and just
sort of stay in the top spot. Yeah, you still have to deal
with Denver because they're the champs andstuff like, you still got tough teams
out that they're gonna have to dealwith, But like, come on,
that's really impressive for this Minnesota teamwith all the sort of what we thought
(04:06):
could be individual player issues as faras like how they saw the game and
if they took it seriously, soon and so forth, it's been a
kind of a really nice thing tosee them do this year. The mantra
from training camp was to be ultraprofessional this year. It was to take
all of those games seriously. Theystruggled in their first three games. I
(04:28):
think they lost the first two outof three this season, including to a
Toronto team in Toronto that they hadno business losing that game to. They
also allowed Trey Young against the AtlantaHawks and other not bottom feeding team but
sub five hundred team. In thosefirst couple, Trey Young went bonkers,
de Jante Murray went bonkers, andthey blew a huge lead to the Hawks.
(04:49):
So there was the mantra and thenthere was seeing it not work early
on that a lot of the playersand the coaching staff have talked about as
the makeup call to make those adjustments. And they really have been locked in
most of the year here with acouple of exceptions, and I think the
couple of times that they have notbeen locked into where they should have been,
(05:10):
those have been close games that they'velost. So you really do see
that difference with this group. Andthe loss of Karl Anthony Towns is big
and second leading scorer, but Ithink also as the floor stretcher, he
has been the leading assist guy toRudy Gobert all season. So think about
that for a second. It's notMike Conley, it's not Anthony Edwards,
it's not Kyle Anderson, it's KarlAnthony Towns playing the co center position,
(05:33):
has been the leading assist guy toset up Rudy Gobert, who needs to
be set up if he's going toget anything besides garbage buckets. So it
is a big loss for them.I'm not exactly sure right now, They've
plugg Kyle Anderson into the starting lineup, and they signed TJ. Warren off
the waiver wire. TJ. Warrenhas been around the block. He's a
veteran who can score a little bit, but has dealt with injury issues his
(05:54):
whole career. I would kind oflike to see them give Luca Garza some
run. You know, Iowa's finest. He has shown in the G League
that he is a twenty five tothirty point per game scorer. Against that
competition. He has shown that inlimited minutes he can come in and get
eight to ten points in just again, a couple of minutes flat. The
guy can score. He's not agood defender, though he may not be
(06:15):
ever an NBA defender. That kindof sounds like Karl Anthony Towns. Though
you have another big in Garza whohas some range. And again, I'm
not in practice every day with theWolves. I don't see what the dynamic
is with him with starting guys orwhatever. So I'm sure Chris Finch has
a reason for not doing this.But if I was coaching the Wolves,
(06:36):
I give Garza a look here withnineteen games left to go. As a
limited minute starter, all he's gotto do is come in, knock down
some shots, continue spacing the floor. For that group, you keep the
second unit intact. Instead of bringingKyle Anderson into the starting lineup, you
keep that second unit together and theycan play increased minutes. We're gonna see
(06:59):
more of Nasri, which is agreat thing for the Wolves. He is
a starting caliber player, but itworks best to have him in that second
unit where you have a designated scorea little more Kyle Anderson, a little
more n a Khille Alexander Walker.Maybe it's some TJ. Warren in the
mix. That's all fine, butwe'll see right now they're going to go
with their veterans instead. And Iget it, as you're in the playoff
hunt, I do think that Garzashould get a look here at some point.
(07:24):
I think that is okay with whereyou're saying that at this point for
you with the you've watched this Minnesotiana lot more than I do, so
I'll just say this, they can'trely on Anthony Edwards to score forty four
points every game to get knocked downout of the ceiling. You know,
two three times during that game andlanding on his back on his hip,
(07:46):
hitting his head against the back.For all that stuff, that's not going
to be sustainable. As much asAnthony Edwards and his young superhero body and
mindset thinks that it is, that'sprobably not a recipe for success. Yeah,
but that's the kind of stuff thatlike takes you from level one to
two or two to three in likethe greater public's mind. Like when you
talk about what John Moran did,like the kind of the kind of plays
(08:09):
that people know him were not justbeing a really good scorer and playing some
defense. They know him for justthis crazy athleticism and that's sort of what
elevated him. And I think that'ssort of what you sort of where is
he now? He's hurt? Where'sDerek Rose? Now? You know?
Where are those guys off that thatuber athleticism, in that reckless abandon doing
(08:30):
unsustainable things. Yes, it capturedthe imagination and now it's a could have
been instead of still is, althoughMorent hopefully can come back and recapture that.
But yeah, well some of thatmarine, you know, John Moran
flashing around pistols, So you knowit's not all injuries. You know.
Uh, speaking of hot teams,how about the Milwaukee Buccaroos since the All
(08:50):
Star break six and one? AndI mean, but now they are on
a one game losing streak, theirice cold. So all the grief that
we gave to Doc Rivers and thisMilwaukee Bucks team going into the All Star
break for you know, making achange that we didn't necessarily see is necessary,
still don't not gonna change my mind. They did bring down Rivers at
(09:13):
that point, but they've righted theship some, including right out the All
Star break beating your Minnesota Timberwolves.But they've got good wins since then.
They've beaten Philadelphia of course, theybeat Charlotte twice in a row, which
is well. They also beat theClippers, who are still are playing basketball,
and uh, Golden State wanted teamto just beat them recently beat the
(09:37):
breaks off of them actually a coupleof nights ago. It's pretty tough,
uh, but they do have stillwhat is a a I would say,
a fairly difficult next part of theschedule coming up. I wanted to briefly
talk about Milwaukee because I don't thinkthere's really anything new about Milwaukee other than
their coach, and he's not newwhere I think If you I'm okay,
(10:01):
we move on to the next topic. If you sort of agree with me
that really we're just going to judgehis team in the playoffs with Doc Rivers,
right, it has to be.Although you look at the rest of
the Eastern Conference and the Bucks aresitting in second, but they're only a
half game ahead of the Cleveland Cavaliers, who were really really hot just like
a week or two ago and noware five and five in their last ten.
(10:22):
And you called this archiche, Iwant to give you a little bit
of dapt the Orlando Magic hot hothot here over their last ten games,
And you said, looking at thatschedule coming out of the All Star Break,
they were the team you thought wasgoing to be able to capitalize and
really bounce on that, and theyare. So Milwaukee is not going to
catch Boston down the stretch, butyou don't want to see them lose to
a Cavaliers team that as good asthe Cavs are, we have to still
(10:46):
claim and believe that the Bucks arethe better team. We have to still
believe that the Bucks are the betterteam than the Magic. So it would
be a massive disappointment to lose outon that second or even that third seed
to either of those teams at thispoint, but yes, by and large,
it still is going to come downto the playoffs. Chris Middleton remains
in and out of the lineup,available some games and then not others,
(11:09):
and you just wonder whether he's goingto ever be fully healthy this season.
And that's a big deal for thembecause not only as a shot maker,
which they have some of, butas a guy who can hold his own
defensively, which the Bucks have beenshort on all year, even with the
changes that Doc Rivers has made,and they've become a much better defensive team
under Rivers scheme and Rivers teams havealways defended pretty well. We'll give him
(11:31):
credit for that. You know,they're shoring up that defense. But they're
gonna need Chris Middleton if they're goingto do anything in the playoffs, and
they're going to need a relatively healthyone. So there's a lot of question
marks surrounding this team, whether it'sthe coaching staff, whether it's the first
opportunity that we'll see of Dame Lillardand Yannis in a playoff series together,
and how that's going to go.You have a new shooting guard in Malik
(11:54):
Beasley who's been hot and cold allyear, as is usual with Malik,
and they're down defenders, you know, Jay Crowder is really and Patrick Beverley,
I guess at this point, butboth of those guys are on the
tail end of their careers, soa lot of talent there. Puncher's chance,
But you're right, it's gonna comedown to You can't lose to the
Miami Heat in the first round likethey did last year. You cannot get
(12:16):
upset. You better be showing upin the Eastern Conference Finals, and you
better be giving a good account ofyourself there in an Eastern Conference finals,
much less going to the NBA Finals. Does it can't though, if he
goes up three to one and stillloses the series, it's a good accounting
like you would make it. Yougo to seven. If it happens again.
If it happens again, you firehim on the spot. You fire
him on the spot and rehire AdrianGriffin and give him a training camp with
(12:41):
this team and just go, yep, we done screwed up heron We've done
screwed up speaking that defense on thatsame point, of the seven games,
they've allowed teams under one hundred pointsfour times. Yeah, two were Charlotte,
uh and one with Chicago, butwhat was Philadelphia? So you know,
minus Joe ell Embiid. But yes, point taken. The defense has
(13:05):
looked statistically better so far. That'sall the matter is the stats. The
Man of Lakes is what's gonna getus. I mean this next run though,
you look down the list, theygot the Lakers coming up today,
They've got the Clippers, after that, the Kings, the Sixers, the
Suns, the Celtics, the Nets. That might be their only like quote
unquote easier game here for a while, but the Nets aren't terrible. Oklahoma
(13:28):
City after that, back to theLakers, then the Pelicans, and then
you finally get Atlanta, Washington,Memphis, Toronto for a little bit of
a respite before down the stretch youget the Knicks, who should be healthy.
Yeah yeah, by that point,the Knicks should be healthy. Then
you get Boston, Orlando, OklahomaCity and Orlando again. This is not
(13:50):
an easy schedule to round things outfor the Bucks. No, they won't
be a second by the end ofthe year. I don't think they will
be. I think I want totalk about more just a minute. Let's
let's uh stay on teams that arehot, uh not the Celtics, screw
those guys. But although they didloose to the Nuggets, the Nuggets beat
them last night. It was theNuggets swept them. This year, have
(14:11):
anybody that's been been able to beBoston, It's literally been only the Nuggets
of bills like this year Orlando.Just briefly want to mention that, as
you say, I did call.I was sort of looking at the schedule,
what this what this sort of teamlooks like, and what they could
take advantage of. They still hadto take advantage of it. There's seven
to one out the All Star break, so they're they've done really really nicely
for themselves, taking care of thespots that they need to be taken care
(14:33):
of. And as you mentioned,they are a half game up on my
knicks for that last play for thelast home spot here for the UH for
to get into the tournament, andwe're not the whole big giant tournament.
I think I think I kind ofwant to believe in Orlando, like I
I I I did not feel likethat at the beginning of the year.
(14:54):
M m I'm not saying the schedulesmade me want to believe in it,
but it's it's a lot like whenwe were talking about Dallas early on in
the season, where like their schedulewas super favorable to them, and we
didn't know whether like that team wasthat much better than everyone else or the
teams they were playing were actually justreally bad. It turns out it was
a little bit of both in thatcase. But I think this Orlando team
(15:20):
is like a win around kind ofteam this year. I kind of really
want to believe in them. Here'swhy I think you can believe in them
is that as a young, developingteam, they're sitting third right now in
defensive rating and points allowed. Minnesota'snumber one and has been number one all
year by a good three point marginover everybody else, And that's a huge
(15:43):
margin. Just just stretch all outof that break. Yeah, Cleveland is
second, but Orlando is tied withthem for a second. Right behind them
are the Knicks who have that defensivereputation, the Celtics, the Heat who
have that defensive reputation, the Nuggets, the Pelicans. Then you get the
outlier, which is the Memphis Grizzlies. They got to be good at something
(16:07):
this year, so they've been okayat points allowed and then the Clippers.
So you're talking of those ten teamsnine being pretty darn legit overall and Orlando
being in company as part of thosenine. So that's why I think you
can believe in them again because weare sixty three games into the season.
This is a track record now certainlythat youth could come back and you'll see
(16:32):
the limitations of that in a toughplayoff series on the offensive end. Yeah,
they're not gonna go deep young teams. She's no, for the most
part go deep. They'll had totake their lumps, but they does it
keep them from winning as round?Yeah, and it doesn't keep them from
potentially snagging home court advantage, whichas a young team that has been sitting
either on the play in bubble andgetting swept year after year, that they
(16:56):
actually get in or not even beingclose to getting in, this would be
a massive step forward in what seemslike it's been a twenty year rebuild in
Orlando. It does kind of feellike, well, what have we seen
since Shack? We saw a littlebit of Dwight Howard and we've Yeah,
they made the finals. So I'mtalking since then. No, I'm saying
(17:17):
like, like what we've seen overallsorts since that franchise, it literally existed,
like we saw Shack he left,then Dwight Howard came on. They
got to the finals against the Lakers, they get swept to they losing five
in that one. I think theylost some five. I'm pretty sure it
was five. And then essentially it'sbeen hey, Aaron Gordon, Nick Vussevich,
(17:38):
you know, as a middling middlingteam that was at best a middling
at best, we sort of willsee the team like, hey, why
aren't these guys better? Why isit this a better team? So yeah,
this team, you know Ben Carroand the Wagners, Like I,
I don't want to say this becauseokay, you already said it. So
(18:02):
I'll let this light mainly because there'sa big matchup tonight that I don't want
to jinx but I can't imagine whoit's against. I think it's a Toronto
something like that. But outside oftonight, I find them pretty enjoyable to
watch, Like I think that thatthey are dangerous with the right matchup and
(18:30):
listen, who knows what they endup beginning to four or the five or
the six somewhere around there. Idon't think they follow any further than six.
I think they got the horses becausethe rest of that schedule is fairly
doable too. From from the groundthat they've already made up into where they're
at. You know, it's uh, New York, it's Indiana, but
Brooklyn, Toronto, a couple oftimes, Charlotte, New Orleans, Sacramento,
(18:52):
Golden State, Los Angeles, andMemphis, Portland, New Orleans,
Charlotte, Chicago. Like that's adoable schedule. Yeah, verydoable schedule to
maintain where they're at or to notdrop very far because what is the where
am I on the statings? Howfar are they off from just making sure
that they stay six? Because I'mI'm fairly certain that they're not dropping beyond
six. There are five games aheadof Miami and Philadelphia, who are sitting
(19:17):
in the six seven spots. Indianasitting in the A spot at fourteen,
So a little bit of breathing room. But with nineteen games left to go,
Oh no, no, they onlythey're only a game and a half
up on the Miami of Miami andthe six Yeah, sorry, I was
I was looking at Cleveland's numbers abovethat. You're right, so it is.
(19:37):
It's a game and a half onMiami and and a half games on
India. I was looking at thewrong people. Yes, I love you
know what. Now now I'm notnearly as certain because those are two.
Yeah, they're half game up withthe Knicks, a game and a half
up on Miami and Philly, whoare tied right now or at six seven,
and Indiana is one game back ofthat. Okay, I don't know.
(20:00):
It's gonna be a tough phrase.Never mind, it's gonna be a
tough phrase. But they got avery doable schedule to be able to guarantee
themselves one of the first six spots, very very doable. So I don't
know, we'll we'll just sort ofkeep monitoring these, uh these there Orlando
magic and see if we get Savaknermagic. And you know, I'd like
to not see Paalo ben Gero becauseuh, you know, he got a
(20:22):
certain award in the college game thatsomebody from my favorite team in the college
game should have gotten. You know, that's too veiled and I'm not gonna
explain it. You can go lookit up on previous podcasts, We've talked
about it, but let's just sayI forget though, I forget who is
who is the guy that should havegotten it. There is a young man
that was the first pick for theHouston Rockets that should have been the first
pick for the Orlando Magic. Heis a young man who went to Auburn
(20:49):
uh and Paalo bank Gho went toa fantasy duke. But you think Smith
Junior still should have gone to oneover from what you've seen. That's a
fan thing, That's all I'm saying. Look, what what history does Auburn
have in basketball? Right? Likeit's Charles Barkley and then nothing like a
(21:15):
long time I think Chuck person playedin the NBA. But seriously, Charles
bark And that's a great thing tohave. But like it's essentially like you
got a couple of Marquee Daniels playedin the legue for a long time.
You know, there are some guysthat have kind of I shouldn't say some
a few guys that have played inthe league and I just wanted Auburn I
have a number one pick. Thatis that so much? Ask Joel?
(21:36):
Is that so much to ask?I? Mean, in hindsight, it
absolutely would have been the wrong pick, Like there's no there's no question now
that Boncaro has been the better playerand that chet Holm Grin has been the
better player. It was between thethree of those guys over who it wasn't.
(21:56):
I was a Jabari Smith junior fantoo, and I still think he
fits in really nicely with the HoustonRockets for what it's worth. But he's
got a lot of rough edges topolish out in the game, and the
Rockets, despite adding veterans this year, are sitting six games out of the
final play in spot. So it'skind of a disappointment. None of that
matters for that that My only singularargument literally was for the guy game.
(22:21):
Just to have a number one pickever, would have been kind of cool.
So Auburn's had them in the NFL, not in the NBA and baseball
who cares like Frank Thomas and TimHudson stuff. This is one of those
those shows. Okay, another teamI just wanted to briefly mention, because
how can you not. The Celtics, although until recently just seem like they
don't lose, they have built themselveseasily the biggest lead in any of the
(22:48):
in the conferences at the seven anda half. I think right now I'm
with the only thing I am withon the Celtics is the same as we
will but that the same I amwith Doc Rivers in Milwaukee, which is,
Yeah, we've seen them play reallywell in the regular season before,
We've seen them behind at the righttime at the back end of the regular
(23:10):
season before they have to be NBAFinals or busts. It has to be
at this point and we've seen that. We've seen them do that during the
Jalen Brown, Jason tatumro like right, there is nothing that's acceptable with how
this East looks for them than theNBA Finals. Now, I would suspect
(23:33):
if I was a boss a Celticsfan, and that would be the worst
day ever of my life that everhappened that it's NBA title or bust,
because it's a literally it's out there. If you look at the West,
who's unbeatable in the West right Ifyou want to look at the very best
team in the NBA right now,it's probably the Celtics. So the Celtics
right now, going as you know, early into March, have to be
(23:56):
thinking this is NBA title or bust. I'm a Knicks pay haven't been to
the NBA finals and forever, soit'd be cool to the EBA B Finals
for Bus. But for the Celtics, it's a whole different munch. It's
a whole different thing. This teamis win now because they've got all the
pieces to be able to do it. The best team in the Western Conference,
which is the Minnesota Timberrolser at least, has been sitting in first place,
(24:19):
has beaten their opponents by six pointeight points per game on average.
And this is a metric that overa full season. There's a lot of
NBA stat heads who will look atthis one in point differential. The Oklahoma
City Thunder, who have been sittingin second place for most of the season,
are actually better in their differential sevenand a half points per game.
(24:40):
The Boston Celtics, sitting in firstplace, ten point nine points per game
is what they have beaten opponents onaverage. So it's not just a lot
of wins, it's a lot ofconvincing wins. It's a lot of big
wins. It is head and shouldersabove the next two best teams out of
that Western Conference, and the nextbest team in the Eastern Conference is Cleveland
(25:03):
sitting in sixth right now. Fourand a half points per game has been
their margin of victory. So yeah, I mean, Boston, Boston just
be Golden State by fifty two.Come on, a fully constituted well yeah,
like not the nineteen ninety three GoldenState Warriors. Not the Golden State
(25:26):
Warriors without every player that they hadwhen they had was two years ago.
Stretch A really not really good youknow where I say at this point?
Yeah, A, yeah, you'reright fully constituted. The whole team was
on the round, beat their brainsin. Now Cleveland did beat them by
one right right after that and thendidn't wins at home. But also Denver,
(25:51):
I should say Boston was at thatgame at the very end obviously,
So hmm, yeah, you're right. I mean, the the expectations are
there for a reason, not onlybecause of the money spent and adding Drew
Holliday and Kristaps Porzingis and all thatstuff, but because the expectations seem realistic,
(26:12):
right, They seem very realistic basedon what we've seen all season long,
and the numbers are backing that up. Like this is the team to
be. It's maintained. Just likewith with the teams we talked about in
the West, with Oklahoma City andwith Minnesota, those teams have been at
the top essentially all season long.Boston's not only been at the top,
(26:33):
but they've been crushing it all seasonlong. You think they would cool and
do they even have the if I'mnot mistaken, I'm not gonna be.
Yeah. This was the just thesecond time this year they've lost two games
in a row. Just the secondtime, by the way, the first
time. This is our through linefor this podcast November with Minnesota in Philadelphia.
(26:55):
Two times this year have they losttwo games in a row. They
haven't lost three games in a rowentire season. They're the only people in
the NBA they can say that.It's kind of crazy, right. I
know Minnesota has lost too in arow? Is that three times? Now?
Four times? So Minnesota has notlost three in a row all season
long either. I'm looking at theirschedule, but they have lost too in
(27:18):
a row four times? Okay,just me being right, just yeah,
you are just by comparison. WhatI what I mean is the best team
out west is in that range,right, but still not as good as
what Boston has done. Okay,let me ask you this. If Boston
Minnesota lit it up for the forthe Larry o' brian in June, mm
(27:40):
hmm, how many games that seriesgo. If Minnesota can actually get there,
it's going to be because Karl AnthonyTowns was healthy. They they will
not get there without Karl Anthony Towns. And I've been, you know,
a detractor of Towns throughout throughout thisyear because of his limitations, but he
(28:00):
still is the guy who can scoretwenty five thirty points a game and knock
down threes and set up Rudy Gobatand he does a lot of really valuable
things for them, even as theknuckleheaded plays are there sometimes. So if
he's healthy, Boston probably in six. But Minnesota has a shot if they
(28:25):
got that far. But I'm goingto say the same thing about any of
the top three Western teams. Ifthey get there, it's gonna have been
because of an absolute blood bath toget out of the West. So you're
talking about the Nuggets or the Thunder. You could maybe throw the Clippers in
there, and certainly a dark horseveteran team like the Lakers could be capable
of making a run again, butwe'll keep it to the top three teams.
(28:52):
Any of yeah, yeah, absolutely, any of those three that make
it to the finals will have realhad to prove themselves and gain some momentum,
so I give any of them apuncher's chance against Boston. But if
Boston has made it that far,then they've been legit all year, from
wire to wire, So betting againstthat is just stupid. And yeah,
(29:14):
I would say six games probably againstwhoever they play. I'll say this though,
what we usually think of the Eastas far as being the top three
or four teams and then to messat the bottom, it's a mess at
the very very bottom right when you'retalking like ten to eleven, twelve,
that that that area. But arethe teams that are probably gonna be the
(29:36):
final eighth playing in the tournament.It's gonna be the tough, it's gonna
be the most demanding for whoever comesout that's been in a few years.
Like the it's the Indiana is youreight seed right now? Mm hmm.
I mean Indiana, Indiana could pullan eight one upset over Boston, like
(29:59):
it is possible. It is possible, for sure. A healthy Philadelphia,
it's seven right Well, they're nothealthy nowt but a Philadelphia right now is
a seven. Miami's a six,of course, the giant New York Knicks.
Yep, we'll eventually get some playersback. New York, Miami,
(30:19):
and Philly all need to get healthy. Like they're all hanging around that same
spot with major injury issues, butones that theoretically can be resolved by the
playoffs. You're right now, Idon't believe anything in Chicago or Atlanta at
this point. No, but thoseother eight teams, it's gonna be tough.
Anybody's capable of winning around there.You throw in Cleveland and Orlando.
(30:41):
We already talked about Milwaukee. Anyof those eight can win around And I
I don't, for offensive sakes,in the West, I don't feel like
it's eight deep as far as whocan sort of, I think it's like
six deep. That the teams thatI believe in, like, you know,
I'm not, I don't. I'mnot gonna say anything good about the
Warriors just because that you know whereI am at. They're done. It's
(31:04):
fine. It was a historic run, you know, and they're still battling
to be able to get into theplayoffs, and now with Steph Curry and
the rolled ankle, we don't knowhow long he's gonna be out and whether
that opens the door. Although Idon't think Utah actually wants to catch up,
and I've said that a few times. I think Golden State is locked
into the play in But what doesthat mean if they've got zero momentum or
(31:26):
stuff's not fully healthy? Yeah,the nine ten spots are five and a
half games up on Utah, Andyet you said, I'm I don't think
Utah is interested in doing any morewinning at this point. They lost eight
of the last ten. Dallas Igot nothing but lukewarm feelings about as far
as being able to sort of win. Dallas could win around. They could
(31:48):
win a round against just about anybodyin the West. Just about anybody,
just about anybody in the West.I think they can win a round.
That doesn't mean they're going to doit, but they're one of those teams
that's a big wild card because ofLuca, because they're still working in an
even better supporting cast now and it'sbeen a little bit rough since the All
Star break defensively trying to make thatwork. But he's got better weapons and
(32:10):
the Kyrie. Luca Paring has actuallybeen more than passable this year, so
I'm not gonna bet against Luca.I could see them beating the Pelicans or
the Clippers, depending on with thematchups into being what are they separated by
their three and a half and sixgames back, respectively, Pelicans and Clippers.
(32:30):
I could see them beating the Thundertoo, and that Dallas has been
there now a few times and okay, see, you know really hasn't as
good as the Thunder have been.It would make it weird in a playoff
series when you're that young. ButI'll tell you what, that's gonna be
a tough place to go play.That's gonna be the same place for like
it's good during the season, it'sa completely different place in the playoffs.
(32:53):
And I don't know if there's anotherarena that's that really good in the regular
season can be and it's just offthe wall insane during the playoffs. That's
what Like I love to sort ofput the volume on as loud as possible,
really only for OKAC home games,Like I really don't like to list
(33:15):
the commentary. But the weird thingis some of these some of these broadcasts
like to put the commentators so muchlouder over the crowd, and that's not
what I'm not there for the commentators, to be honest with you, I'm
not I'm I'm looking to go seeShay Gilgess, Alexander Uh make the crowd
good nuts. I'm looking for I'mlooking for a dort signing. You know
what I'm saying. That's what Iwant. Okay, I want to ask
(33:38):
you about one one other thing.If you got a minute, you got
a minute. Well before we takethat minute, you were talking about teams
in the Western Conference that you didn'treally believe in. I don't think any
of us, like truly believe theKings are a threat this year, which
is unfortunate, but people have seenthem coming two years ago. I thought
I thought that was a chance tosneak up on people, and then they
ran right into the Golden State.Can they win around maybe? But you
(34:02):
really talking like a huge, hugeseries and it would be an upset Phoenix
if they ever get healthy. Namethe one team, just one that you
think Sacramento could be if they werematched up against that Sacramento could beat.
Yes, I think any of thetop three teams in the Western Conference can
(34:24):
be beat. I think the leastlikely team to get beat is actually Denver,
and that's because of the championship pedigree. Minnesota has not been under that
type of pressure yet. They've gotthe towns question. Oklahoma City has the
youth issue. So I think anyof the top three can be beat.
(34:45):
But Sacramento, again, it wouldbe a massive upset to do that.
Sacramento's talented, They've got good players, they've got good coaching, They've been
a decent team all year. NewOrleans is capable of winning a series against
anybody. Phoenix, if fully healthy, could do it. But when has
Phoenix been fully healthy? You know? I think the only team that I
feel like Sacramento could beat is NewOrleans right now. And I don't even
(35:08):
believe that. I believe that's probablythe only one that I would be like,
Okay, this probably be a prettylong series. It could be a
long series. But also see NewOrleans winning that in five games. So
mhm, right, Sorry you Iinterrupted you with another question for you.
No, I mean it was justsaying I agree with you that the Eastern
Conference is tougher, you know,at top eight. I think the West
(35:30):
will still be tough ish. Butyou're right, there are some teams in
those bottom four, and really ifyou throw in the Warriors and the Lakers
the bottom six, where you go, yeah, they could be capable of
winning around. I can see it. I can see how it could happen.
But I don't really feel like threatenedbadly by any of those teams.
(35:52):
If you face them, you're like, we should beat them, and if
they don't that then we had aterrible series and they had a great one
in the Eastern Conference. You lookat any of those matchups and go,
we better show up to play rightaway on day one, because this is
going to be a dogfight in thefirst round, and if we go down
two despite having home court advantage,we could be in a world to hurt.
(36:12):
So I agret it. I cansee any one of those teams getting
a couple of early games at homeand then feeling like that they're never going
to lose again, you know,or even you know someone like you know,
someone like Orlando going into into Bostonstaking one of the first ones and
all of a sudden, Boston doesn'tknow what to do with themselves. You
know. Okay, last one thingI really wanted to mention because it is
(36:37):
newsworthy, and also had sort ofa rank up question for you in this
in the same vein, Joe,we now know where the twenty twenty seven
All Star Game is going to be. That's right. You may have forgotten
that there is an All Star Gamecoming up every single year. We know
(36:57):
where it is next year and theyear after that at in fact, one
of those years in the stadium thatdoesn't exist right now. But twenty twenty
seven, we're going warm weather oncemore. Jill, let me ask you
this. Uh oh wait, weshall probably mentioned where they're going where they
actually going for the yes, please, because I don't know. I went
(37:20):
some paid attention to hold on,do you know? Do you know where
the next two are? No?No, no, that was one thing
ask you, But do you know? Uh what was that to say?
Do you do you know? Uh, forget it. I'll think of it
anyway. So one of them,one of them has to be the Clippers
stadium. If you're saying it's notbuilt yet, then I would assume it's
(37:40):
the Clippers new So next year itis the Sweet and Tidy wherever they are
for the for the Warriors, Idon't know they in San Francisco or then
Inglewood or something in San Francisco.No, Uh, the Inglewood's the next
one where you go to the thethe house that, oh god, what
(38:01):
is his name? Yes, it'sSteve Balmer, the House of Steve Balmer
built, you know, the onethat's got so many toilets. That's gonna
be the next year. And thenyou're going to Phoenix the year after that.
So apparently there was a trend.I did not notice this until sort
of it was pointed out in anarticle I was reading, uh that there's
(38:22):
been a little bit of a runon colder weather areas. They were in
Charlotte's which is not cold cold,but as the East Coast during that time,
in Chicago, in Atlanta and Clevelandand Salt Lake City in Indianapolis,
and now we're getting some warm weatherones. So Joe, my question is
who cares about whether the things arewould be? My question is if you
(38:43):
were to attend an All Star Game, which would be the stadium you would
most want to go to the AllStar Game for and you know, I
gotta do it, which would bethe stadium you would least like to go
to for the All Star Game.Remember you have to go m H.
I really would like to see theKing's Arena Golden One Center. I've heard
(39:07):
and I've never been there, butI've heard from a lot of people that
that is that is the state ofthe art, gold standard as far as
buildings go. For somebody else,then I the worst one. It's probably
got to be somewhere non descript.I think the easy one that first comes
to mind for me would be Washingtonfirst of all, because there's no real
(39:30):
history in that building. They mightnot even be in that building now.
They're in the land fight with whetherthey're moving to Virginia or not and whether
they're going to get a stadium approvedover there. So obviously it's an older
building. Obviously people are wanting tomove out of that one and maybe even
move out of the district, whichthat I don't agree with. But yeah,
I would think I would want tosee Sacramento. There's a lot of
(39:52):
other interesting buildings too, but Sacramentois the one that I keep hearing from
people who have been where it's it'sthe place to be. Do you know
Sacramentos never hosted that is, butnot surprising. There are four cities that
have never hosted Can you name theother three? We know? Minneapolis has
(40:13):
hosted one, Milwaukee ever hosted one. Milwaukee has hosted one. Okay,
let me find that. Ye haveit up here in front of me.
As Washington ever hosted one. Washingtonhas hosted one. That's that's ridiculous.
I would sink Milwaukee hosted in nineteenseventy seven. Oh okay, that counts
(40:37):
right, yeah, back when theMidwest was cool. First of all,
Julius Irving was the MVP of thatgame. Let's just relax. Oklahoma City
can't have hosted one, right cityis one of those? Right? All
right? That that would make sense. Oklahoma City is not. Neither has
Who is Salt Lake City? SaltLake City has hosted one. They just
(40:57):
recently hosted one. Oh that's right. That's right. That was like twenty
twenty three. That's here last year. This year, I say you're right,
I don't know since I'll say Iget one more, guess I'll go
with either Toronto or Portland. Portlandis one of them. Portland is one
of them. So now you've gotone more to get. I'll give you
(41:21):
a hands in the South and itwasn't Toronto, all right? Toronto's not
in the South. You would thinkthat Atlanta, New Orleans, New Orleans
has, New Orleans has I don'tknow, get give it to me Memphis.
That makes sense too. I mean, we're talking about the smallest of
small markets, but there's no Sacramentois a small market, but you do
(41:45):
have an owner who shelled out allthat money for that stadium. I think
it is time to get there.And the Kings, like Oklahoma City,
have had a long reputation of beinga great place to play, great fans,
very invested in the team, sinkor swim, like, it's time
to get the Kings on that list. I think so. So if we're
gonna put them in order, let'sput them in order of the next ones
(42:06):
that they should get, the thethe the Nons, which will be at
the earliest twenty twenty eight. Yeah. By the way, these stadiums aren't
getting younger NBA's so let's go we'reboth agreen. Let's go Sacramento number one.
That should be the next one toget. Then I think Oklahoma City
should be number two. I agreewith that. Again, to reward the
(42:27):
fan base. Just people are justgonna go to it anyway, Like it's
an event, right like you Youcould host it in like Argentina and people
are gonna go to it locally ornot. Yeah, that can get thoughts
up between them and Portland. Imean, Portland's been around longer. That's
also an incredibly loyal fan base.But I I can see that one too,
and then I would go, okay, yeah for me, Memphis would
(42:47):
be last, so I think,okay, see, then then Portland.
I agree with that list overall.I could see flip flopping Portland and okay
see, but yeah, I'm finewith it. I think Memphis, unfortunately,
is probably lowest on the list there. Yeah, but they should still
get it right. It's twenty twentyfour and there's still four teams, four
(43:07):
cities in the NBA that haven't gotthat rant in. Milwaukee's been a long
time. Okay, Yeah, Iagree. Let's just run through them all.
Let's get them all four out ofthe way, and beginning in twenty
twenty eight, let's get the listcleaned up. And then yeah, if
you want to throw in Milwaukee inyear five, do it. I'm trying
to think of what so see twentytwenty two is Cleveland. Before that was
(43:27):
Atlanta, Chicago, Charlotte, LosAngeles, New Orleans, Toronto, New
York. Then there was New Orleans. The Smoothie consider did two in like
four years. That's kind of well. Houston, Orlando, Los Angeles,
Oh, no, that was wasthat one of those. There was something
controversial happening, like they had tolike said a year that like North Carolina
(43:52):
couldn't have a game because they weredoing some something with the law, and
they moved it just because you know, yeah, they packed the law.
That may have been I mean Houston, Orlando, Los Angeles, Arlington.
Oh, that's right. I don'teven know why they ever did that.
No, I know, because it'sa big giant stadium. Everyone wants to
do it. Oh, but Idon't want to see them do. What
(44:15):
I don't want to see them dois permanently place it in Las Vegas,
because that's that's always been talked aboutas the way to do it. Since
they put the Summer League there,they're not sure if they're ever going to
get an NBA team situated in Vegas. That is a risky economic bet.
I know Vegas has attracted other prosports teams over the last couple of years,
but they've talked about splitting the differenceof just making that kind of the
(44:37):
center for a lot of these kindof league wide events, that sort of
thing. I forget. They wentto Paradise, Nevada for the Thomas and
Max Center in like two thousand andseven for one of those. Yeah,
you went to Paradise, Nevada overOklahoma City, Which Paradise is Vegas.
That's Vegas, I understand you andLB right, that's where they are,
(45:00):
That's where they do summer league.I can't believe. I can't believe that.
I guess I can't to do CowboysStadium, Vegas. Both those teams,
both those areas don't have teams.I mean the areas do, but
both those stadiums don't host NBA teams. Before you got Portland, before you
(45:21):
got Sacramento like that. Whatever.Yeah, but that's disrespectful the two of
your most loyal fan bases. Itreally is not only that, but also
the there are owners are governors ofthis league who are parts of teams who
are like, why don't we getone? Like we're literally bought into the
league and bought our franchise. Whycan't we have one of these teams or
(45:43):
one of these weekends, they'd belike, no, let's let's go to
Los Angeles one more time. Andin the case of Sacramento's owner, you
know, bought into the league andimmediately poured in just an ordinate amount of
money into the stadium, into theteam, like revamped them. He's done
a lot to try to position theKings as a very popular team, accessible
(46:04):
team in India, much like theRockets kind of positioned themselves in China in
years back. So he's done alot for the international game. It's yeah,
it's it's almost disrespectful at this pointnot to give them a shot.
Just once I found I note thatsaid the NBA requires six thousand hotel rooms
in the area to be able tohave the All Star Game. Nah,
(46:30):
you need six thousand hotel rooms?You know, Sacramento hosts an entire franchise
with less than six thousand. Doyou really need six thousand? How many
people are sitting on the court.I know you wanted to be a big
gentleman. Go to the Marriot tenmiles out, Okay, right, Sacrement
knows how far away from the BayArea? Not much, right, it's
not super far away. No,just drive uber whatever. Like the people
(46:57):
that you talking about are trying togo to these games, likely having a
couple of funds to be able toUber or to be able to do whatever
they need to get the game,or to go glamping. Just go glamping
in the Sierra Nevada, outside ofoutside of Sacramento. I'm surprised that there
are franchises who literally never had achance to host it, Like Portland's not
new. That's the thing that blowsmy mind. Like the Blazers and the
(47:21):
Kings, And I know the Kingshave not been in Sacramento as long,
but as far as franchises go,they're not original franchises, but they're now
among the older generation of franchises,right, they didn't neither of them came
in with the ABA. Like youask anybody on the street. They're telling
you that the Kings were one ofthe original teams. They don't know.
It's been so long. It's beenso long and people don't know, so
(47:44):
was it. Plus they get thecool laser in this guy. Come on
now, alright, that's gonna doit for us. Jill, I'm sorry
that you're gonna have to hear theAll Star Game next year, we're gonna
send you there. Wor things havehappened to me. It's fine. Have
you been an All Star Game?I have never been to an All Star
Game yet. Of the of theones that are coming up, which one
(48:04):
would you most like to go to? San Francisco, Inglewood or Phoenix.
I would like to see the Clippersin new Stadium, So yeah, it
would be it'd be an agree.Yeah, because that's the year it opens.
So you're like, you're getting itopens not next season, but the
season after they're hosting our game.So because the Warriors Stadium is supposed to
(48:25):
be cool, the no shade onthat. But you know that Steve Balmer
is going to spend a crazy amountof money and they're going to try to
do it right. It's gonna it'sgonna be flashy. Just see all the
toilets, you know. I justwant to see all the all the commodes
out there, That's what I wantto see. Like how many peeing units
are out there for me to lookat? Needs to be over six thousand,
(48:46):
I would imagine. I hope youget enough of those in your you
do. I appreciate Steve Balmer.I don't know. I like him,
but I appreciate what he's what he'sdoing, he can't. It's better than
you know, like James Dolan.Right, So enough, all right,
Chelsea Cordas, that's gonna do itfor us. You say good about it
(49:07):
to good people. Yeah, goodbye, good people. You can find us
on Spreaker, Spotify, iTunes,wherever you get your podcast. If you
want the audio only version, ifyou want the video version of this year
podcast, we are on YouTube likeshare, subscribe to all those good things
over there, Doctor Cords. Thankyou for your time.
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