April 5, 2024 • 45 mins
Episode 167: Arky Shea and Joel C. Cordes break down the race between the Denver Nuggets, Minnesota Timberwolves and Oklahoma City Thunder for the West's No. 1 seed. They also sort out a wild 2-8 finish in the Eastern Conference while discussing Bronny James' future and Rajon Rondo's impactful NBA career.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Welcome into basketball by association. Moneyis our kids. Right there on the
screen, that is Joel c Cordez, Joel. His name's also on the
screen, Joel. How are you, sir? One third of my name
is on the screen. But we'lltake it for today. It's been a
long time. I'm glad to talksome hoops right before the playoffs begin.
We got like eight games to gofor most teams. It's getting crazy now.
(00:23):
Yeah. Well, let me letme There's two basketball slash not on
the court specific things I want toget to. One is the breaking news
Lebron James's kid is entering the draft. Also the transfer portal he gets also
maintained his college eligibility, which isthat's you know, it's an NBA newly
collective, collectively bargained rule that they'reable to do. So Lebron James' kid
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might come join his dad next season. Hut, Joel Cordez, how excited
do you just see father son teamup? Which will definitely happen. I
do believe it'll happen at some point. I don't know that it'll be next
year. They've already both Lebron andBronni have said that that's not a condition
to him coming in. If they'regoing to say that publicly, then for
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it to somehow be like privately underthe radar a condition that's going to get
out there and that's going to bemud on their face. They're smarter than
that. So I do think it'sabout him just trying to get into the
league. And obviously, on theone hand, this is a nepotism play.
Like a kid who's averaging less thanfive points a game, and to
assist, you declare for the draftand everybody goes big deal and you probably
(01:32):
don't get drafted. You maybe geta training camp invite if as a freshman
there was some upside there. It'sthe name that's going to get him looked
at as many times, and it'sthe fact that he's got representation by Rich
Paul and Clutch Sports already. Hehas connections and advantages that other kids don't.
But to be fair to Bronni,the cardiac arrest and the health scare,
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the things that happened earlier this yearnot his fault. He was a
month he was out for five months. Yeah, you do feel for the
kid in that regard, and hewas a higher considered prospect to those things
happening. They robbed him of hischance to really get on the court and
show what he can do. Andso now you're almost treating him like a
(02:16):
high school prospect, a kid thatyou judge based on what he did in
high school and the college experience isirrelevant. So I'll let you go first.
I got a couple more thoughts,but yeah, I was just gonna
say, like, well, firstof all, he can come back to
college, right, like, hecan come back to USC, which I'm
glad they allow. Now I'm gladthey allow that. USC just hired Eric
(02:38):
Musselman, the Arkansas guy who hashad a lot of success in college.
So and he's also developed a coupleof pretty good guards there, so maybe
he come back there for him,Maybe also come back because you can get
a little more in I own money, because you got a big name there
for Cain. Ducane is the otheruniversity that's being mentioned with Brownie, just
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because here again it's a lebron Jamescontact that's been promoted to head coach over
there, and this is the typeof advantage that a normal college kid doesn't
have, and Bronni does because ofhis name. But I appreciate the efforts,
at least the lip service to sayhe's trying to do this on his
own. He doesn't care where he'sdrafted. He doesn't really even care if
(03:21):
he's drafted. It's to find outwhere he might go, and he just
wants to get in on the rightteam. And he's willing to play G
League. That's also a good sign. If he's saying, look, I'm
willing to come in and be ina system for a couple of years,
even if it means I'm in theG League, that there is a humility
there that speaks beyond maybe the initialthe initial nepotism concerns. Yeah, I
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don't want to get too deep moreinto this, just I just wanted to
sort of speaking overall turns. Buthe was a good high school player,
not a great high school player.He wasn't a transcendent type player. He
knew there was a guy that's goingto have to be developed, if he
was going to have to get there. Then you had the cardiac scare,
which took away a lot of histime and ability to be able to develop.
And then you have sort of thisuncertainty with what you're gonna do.
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I mean, this is what alot of kids do anyway, even if
they're I mean, now, mostkids don't come back when they get into
the transfer portal, so he's probablygonna be gone. Although this is an
interesting case because it was a coachingchange that might be interesting to him to
be able to come back. SoI hope the best for the kid,
just because I think anytime you talkabout cardiac issues, that can humble somebody
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real quick, like, no matterwhat level of life you're in. And
he's just starting his life. Soyeah, maybe he had I don't know
anything about him beforehand, so Idon't know if you had a bit of
an ego on him, if hethought he was better than he was.
But maybe some of that humility comesfrom saying, Halo, I almost lost
everything kind of thing. So youknow, if I get a chance to
continue to play basketball at another college, or if I get to play in
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a system somewhere and get to developin the G League, I'm willing to
do it because I'm you know,I'm lucky to be here. So and
and final thought for me on this, I agree with everything you just said.
There's going to be a lot ofhoopla because of the name. There's
gonna be a lot of over analysis, but really, what I see here
is just a kid weighing as optionsright. Tell me where I could go.
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Tell me what scenarios I have infront of me. That includes at
the college level, it includes multiplecolleges, It includes at the NBA level.
Can I even make a roster?And am I going to be in
the G League forever? Just gettingmore information is never a bad thing,
and a player advocating for themselves,regardless of their last name, is a
wise thing to do. He doeshave a few more tools to be able
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to weigh this sort of You know, I want to move I want to
move forward to congratulate Jolsey Cordees onwhat is about to be the coronation of
his Minnesota Timberwolves being the regular seasonchampion. Now, yeah, you may
say it's only you may say it'sonly a half game lead, and yeah,
you may also say that there's sixgames left. I may also say
this including a matchup with the Nuggets, who they're a half game ahead of.
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I will also say that Los AngelesClippers of Los Angeles have been doing
work for you, including last night, to be able to get to that
half game lead again. But alsothis Minnesota team clearly is for real.
So just a quick congratulations to you, that's all, and a quick melancholy
for me since now we get totalk about one of the topics I wanted
to get to that. Julius Randallis going to be out for seizing an
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in surgery on his shoulder. Heapparently, according to reports, rehab like
a mofo, trying to be ableto get back into it, and doctors
told him, if you keep doingthis, it's going to be a very
good chance that you're doing further damage. So he's shutting it down for the
year. And it's really really toobad. Now. Granted, the Knicks,
did you know the Villanova Knicks lastnight did great in their win.
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It's hard to see this next teambeing the championship contender without Julius Randall.
Also, this team, they weretwelve and one right with the with the
NOBI and with Julius Randall on thecourt at the same time, and they
hadn't even got Mitchell Robinson back yet, so you wonder adding him back into
the mix, and that front linedefensively, especially like could have been a
good thing. You can't lose apoor man's MVP like that and just expect
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to come back. I think itbe anywhere near the caliber that you were
thinking. It's really disappointing, uhto sort of have that news because I
always had sort of that carrot.The Knicks have been sort of middling there
around. You know, they gotup to third, like earlier this week
or maybe it was like last week, up in the standings, and then
they get fourth, fifth somewhere aroundthat. They've been sort of playing around
with the kind of picked them forthe two or three seed, and that
was before the Annobe trade. Youknow, preseason we looked at that roster
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and went ooh this is this couldbe good. Yeah, and that's just
such a big piece to be ableto lose. Now. The only positive
I could say really about this isthey've had they've been without him for a
while m hm, like they havebeen able to have cants to be able
to figure out who they are,and they just semi recently got Anobe back
into the lineup in the last fewweeks, so they've been able to sort
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of figure out what that team canlook like with that Julius Randall. It
just me feels like the depth isn'tcompletely there with such a huge loss to
that roster, especially that is aheartbeat kind of guy for the Knicks and
for Tom Thibeau. And then Ijust wanted to say that I'm praying for
you, Julius. I mean,maybe he's still come back. Maybe maybe
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this is all smoke show. Ithink you meant. Mitchell Robinson has been
back for a couple of weeks asAnnonobe. They're still waiting on you know,
he has not been back, orat least has listed out. I
don't know if he made a coupleof appearances and then they shot him no,
no, no, I Nobe cameback for a little while. Okay,
yeah, he's listed as out.Mitchell Robinson is back in Annonobe hopefully
is one hundred percent healthy by thetime the playoffs begin. Surely, like
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you said, he doesn't replace JuliusRandall, but he does give them something
they didn't have prior to all that. And then you've got boy On Bogdanovich,
who the Knicks are still trying tofigure out how he fits that.
That's a little bit concerning because Ikeep seeing him play twelve thirteen minutes a
game, and that's a guy who, especially if you're a dinged up team
looking for some offense, should beplaying twenty four or twenty five minutes or
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more per game as a shooter.But the Villanova Knicks, they're fitting in
that starting lineup. I like TomThibodau's flexibility to go, you know what,
maybe we can play small ball.Maybe we can play with one big
and four guards out there, becauseJosh hart is so rugged defensively and can
guard bigger players. It's just it'sopened up a lot of different things.
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You're going to get that same flexibilitywhen Ananobe is in the lineup. We
don't know if Mitchell Robinson will startor not, but you know, Isaiah
Hartenstein was hurt for a while.I think some of this injury issue has
let them unlock Miles McBride a littlebit more. He's put up some really
productive minutes for them. All thatto say that it's not doom and gloom
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as in this team is for surea first round out. I do think,
especially sitting in the four or fiveseed, we're regardless of who the
Knicks play in that spot, they'vegot a puncher's chance to win around here,
which would still be to salvage something. And you know, if you're
facing Orlando, a team that hasn'tbeen there, and you and I are
both impressed with Orlando. They're aheadof schedule, They've got some wisdom there
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on that team, in addition tothe youth and athleticism. But let's be
real, I would still pick NewYork in a first round if they're playing
Orlando, if they're playing Indiana,yeah, nobody wants to see that,
and nobody wants to see if you'rein New York, you don't want to
see Miami in the first round ifthey climb up. But you still give
the Knicks a chance in either ofthose series. I would still give them
a chance, although maybe less soin a rematch against Cleveland if it came
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to that. But beyond the secondround, you get into the semifinals and
now it's more cream of the croptype of teams or teams that have found
momentum in the first round. That'swhere losing Randall I think takes away the
ceiling to this team. And itis unfortunate because it truly was a roster
and hopefully next year can still bea roster that look conference finals bound.
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Yes, yes, and that lastpart, and I would rather wait to
sort of see what the playoffs sceneswould like to start projecting at that point
because if you if you ask me, essentially no one really scares me.
If you're the Knicks, except forBoston. Boston might run you out of
the gym. I don't know whatI would think about. Milwaukee has tons
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of talent, but Doc Rivers hasa tons of talent before, and this
has not been a great Milwaukee teamthis year, especially since Doc Rivers has
gotten there. They were really badgoing into the All Star break. They
got really hot right after the AllStar Break, and they'd been really bad
again in including like losing back toback games against teams the teams are like
seventy one games under five hundred.Yeah, they're five and five in their
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last ten. They have zero momentumright now. They did not address their
That's what's so odd about that.They're the two seed right now, which
tells you a little bit about theEast, Like it's super top heavy with
the number one team who has beengreat, and then everybody else has just
sort of been trying to find somekind of rhythm throughout the year. They've
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all had their issues, right they'veall had major things. Philly, Miami,
New York now have had major injuryissues. Indiana has had some injury
issues and then a Tyrese Haliburton slumpafter the All Star break. Cleveland has
had injury issues, Orlando has theiryouth, Milwaukee has had some injuries,
and like you said, the coachingstuff. So yeah, every single team
and then Chicago and Atlanta have justbeen met, you know, so inconsistent
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that you can't take them seriously atall. Like, so, you're absolutely
right, every single team is flawed, and the Knicks have a big flaw
right now missing Julius Randall, butthey're not that much more flawed than any
of their other opponents. Yeah,Like so if the Knicks somehow well,
it would depend on where they wentinto the sea. So they'll say the
Knicks got a favorable of seting towhere they were able to get to the
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conference finals. That's gonna be Boston. That's gonna be really hard for them
to be able to win that series. But first and then Semis, I
don't think it's impossible for them tobe able to win. I just don't
think that with Julius Randall, Ithink they could have beat up Boston a
little bit and made it tough forthem to get through them. They'd have
a shot. I agree, they'dhave a shot. They are a more
rugged team than Boston though. Yeah, but let's move on if you don't
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mind for Boston real quick, becauseBoston just went ahead and just wrapped up
the number one seed and everything thislast week. They're just you know,
good to thirty and three at homethat I hear. That's decent these days.
Let me ask you this, wehaven't talked a ton about Boston because
they've really not had a bunch ofstruggles this season, like they've been supremely
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good. And it really hurts meto say something like this. I really
needed them to struggle some more andthey just have it. What are they
right now? Sixty and sixteen andthey're probably gonna win sixty four to sixty
five games. No one's really sortof I feel like talking as much about
this Boston team because I think we'veseen them be good in the regular season
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before and now it's time to moin the playoffs. But as far as
its regular season is concerned, Ijust want to ask you, do you
agree with me in my assessment thatI think the way they have won this
season, it's been one of themore impressive regular seasons Boston's ever had list
since I've been alive that I've beenwatching a regular season. They have crushed
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in the regular season. And we'retalking to me watching since like ninety four,
ninety three, ninety four from midnineties. Yeah, I mean,
that's a franchise that certainly has rackedup sixty win seasons, although a lot
of times when you go back andlook, it's been high fifty win seasons,
even during their their glory days,most recently with Ray Allen and Paul
Pearson and KG. I think,yeah, sixty wins, it's impressive,
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especially given the parody in the Eastand the fact that the West is really
good. That the best team theWest only has fifty three wins and that's
Minnesota, which is it's saying something. So to get to sixty in this
atmosphere, and then to do itwith a nearly twelve point differential, that's
that's the big thing. When theywin in big, and they've won a
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lot big. They clinched the oneseed by being okay, see by like
nearly forty granted, okay, seewas resting. A lot of guys come
in into that game. That wasnot a hard to anybody by forty Like,
these are professional basketball players. Granted, I feel like we've seen a
lot more thirty five and forty pointvictories this year than in the last several
years. But still Boston wasn't restinganybody. I mean, who was it?
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Yeah, uh, Porzingis. Porzingiais the one who goes for twenty
seven to twelve in that game,right, and that's part of a thirty
five point win. What's impressive tome is that, first of all,
Porzingis is upright at the end ofthe season, knock on wood, and
he's taken some He's had to takesome time off as you would expect.
I think it's it's a Joelle thatone, like when they made the decision
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pick them up. Yet it's aJoel Embiid situation. It's a Karl Anthony
town situation. These are bigs whoare going to miss twenty games per season.
You just hope that it's twenty manageablegames and that they're spaced out,
that they're you know, reasonably pricedgames, so to speak, and not
at the end of the season andfinal and so perzingis to stay healthy.
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And then you put him in astarting lineup that has three of the best
defensive players in the NBA, plusone of the NBA's pre eminent scorers in
the prime of his career, anda bench which, while a little bit
shaky still, You've got Al Horford, You've got Peyton Pritchard. Those guys
have been in the Boston system forever. They know their roles. They are
pros pros. Xavier Tillman is aguy that really played some good basketball in
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Memphis as a fill in and asa rugged guy, and I think getting
a body like that like Tillman wassomething that they were severely lacking. If
you remember at the beginning of theseason, I kind of questioned Boston's toughness,
willing to try, willingness to tryto be tough, but just did
they have the right personnel against aNew York or even against the Cleveland teams
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that have really physical front lines,and that's just kind of the way they
play. Boston didn't feel like theymatched up. Getting a guy like Tillman
and then whatever you get out ofl Horford gives them the ability to throw
in some bodies to play that kindof style. And then to me,
the big one is Sam Houser becominga credible NBA player. He was a
guy that they they had in therotation like, Okay, the kid can
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shoot, but can he do anythingelse? The jury is still out about
whether he can do anything else ornot. But he has been passable defensively
and he's been shooting the lights outfor them on a team that already has
three point threats all over the rosterof guys who can knock down shots.
And then Jason Tatum at this pointwe have to consider him a specialist.
I mean, he is a guyat that upper level where he is a
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three point shooter and Sam Hauser isa specialist as well. So they've got
they've got the goods. I mean, that's the thing. It's not,
oh, this is a down yearin the East. Oh, Boston had
two guys who were really playing well. No, they've got good chemistry,
they've got good balance, they've gotability to attack you, and now they've
got that's what's different this year,I think than last year. Yeah,
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this team, this team is incrediblybetter than than they were last year.
And that's what I think makes themthe clear favorite to come out of the
East this year now, especially witheveryone's injuries, I don't know if there
is a team right now currently constructedin the East that could win two games
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against them in a series. Notright now. They are seventeen and four
since the All Star break. Allseventeen wins have been by double digits,
like they are. Just when youtalk about trying to get hot at the
right time, getting through the dogdays of the basketball season, going into
the All Star breaks, that comingout of it, they've come out like
a can Now. Granted they dohave that huge one black guy, it's
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a very small black guy compared toeverything else. When they had a ginormous
lead and blew it against Atlanta,outside of that, I mean, but
Atlanta did that to Minnesota, thetop team in the West too. Minnesota
had a twenty five, twenty sixpoint lead on them early in the season.
Atlanta came back on them too.So the Hawks have shown the ability
to do this against some really goodteams that if you let off the ropes.
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The Hawks are a team that canscore. They have been for years.
They just don't do anything well.What do you think about the East
having basically their entire playoff set.As far as the teams that are going
to be in with a couple weeksto left in the season, it's not
entirely surprising after Brooklyn and Toronto pulledthe plug. I think both of those
teams, had they stayed constituted theway they were, they would have been
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the ones in the mix yet.But they were middling and really didn't see
much light at the end of thetunnel, and so they the whole point
of this was like to keep everybodybasically in as long as possible. And
you know, we still got twoweeks left in the season. Well you've
kept ten teams, and that's stillthat's saying. I mean to keep more
teams, like as a potential,right, Like what was it? Was
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it two seasons ago that like goinginto like the final week, there were
like thirteen or fourteen teams that couldhave gotten in, right, which is
why I look at this as anoutlier. You look at Toronto and Brooklyn
the fact they would have been there, But these are circumstances where both teams
had tried to run roster iterations fora couple of years and we're getting to
the end of the line with thoseroster iterations, and it just so happens
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this is the year where they decidedto cut bait. So I I do
look at the last couple of yearswhere it's been eleven, twelve, thirteen
teams still in the mix, andin the West right now it's eleven teams.
I still see that as a victoryand this is an outlier. If
this keeps happening, then it youknow, then it becomes a trend.
But I don't read too much intoit this year. I don't know if
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I read anything to it this year. It's just more of like it's just
an interesting like, uh, that'skind of like you have the one team
that's been so much better than everybody. Ye to like thirteen games above everybody
else. Uh, and then atthe very bottom it's like, uh,
there's ever it's everybody else, Likeit's everybody else. We've already got them
fire playoffs basically figured. As faras the teams that are gonna begin,
and they're to be frank with you, there's probably with only this much time
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up, we're probably not gonna seea lot of movements seating wise, either,
Like there could be a little bitfor like maybe that nine ten Spy
and maybe you see it. Yeah, the six seven, it's a little
but all these teams have kind ofbeen five hundred ish, a little above,
a little below over the last fewweeks. I don't I don't know
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if we're gonna see a lot ofmovement from where we are now, which
is an interesting thing to be ableto tell you that. I guess the
Knicks are going to go through Orlandoto get to the championship. I guess
that's how we'll go. So that'snot a bad place to start. I
mean, if you have to picka a matchup, Orlando's a good defensive
team too, just like New Yorkis. In fact, they're built a
lot. They're built very similar.Paolo Boncaro actually reminds me of Julius Randall
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in many of the best ways ofa young Julius Randall. Boncaro maybe has
a little bit more versatility to hisgame, but Randall is really good at
what he does, and Vonko cando a lot of that stuff too.
So yeah, they're both two gooddefensive teams, are mirror images of one
another, and you're gonna see Ithink the veteran ship of the Knicks,
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really test Orlando and see what they'remade of, and that's what you want
in the first round. Let meask you this, Let's go to the
West for just a few moments,if you don't mind. There actually is
a little bit more I intrigue there. You know, with three teams battling
for the number one spot within onegame, they've all been flip flopping for
that number one seed over the lasttwo weeks. That's been crazy. It's
been a wild, wild run.Denver sort of gotten hot and gotten up
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to that one seed, and thenobviously they got to the Clippers last night
and lost that game. And thenso Minnesota's back at the top and we've
seen okay, see be up therethis season two, it's gonna be one
of those teams. It's gonna beyour number one seed. And you're probably
those three teams are probably gonna beyour one, two to three in some
order. So which team do youthink has the staying power to end this
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season as your number one seed?Looking at the schedule, and I have
just had that pulled up here early. Minnesota six five and six games left
in the year. So yeah,there's five for Denver. Six Slift for
Minnesota and say for Okay, See, I'm going to try to simplify this,
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and it's probably oversimplifying it, butI think the winner between the upcoming
Denver Minnesota matchup, which is inDenver, both teams are going to be
on the second half of a backto back that's Wednesday, April tenth.
The winner of that, the winnerof that game will be your number one
seed. The Wolves, they don'thave an easy road to go. They've
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got to face Phoenix twice. Phoenixis very motivated to win games right now.
They see the Lakers once. Minnesotahas done very well against the Lakers
when they've been fully constituted. Theonly game they lost was a game that
they had nearly all of their startersshut down and they just kind of had
to play walking wounded. They seeWashington once, they see Atlanta once and
again. As aforementioned, Atlanta beatthem early early early in the season by
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clawing back from a twenty six pointdeficit that the Wolves blue so Intlanta has
well, No, I mean anthey're stuck in the plate. They're stuck
in the plate, so they can'tget one of the top six. That's
Trently where they hit from six.Oh the O they're seventies back. No,
you're fine, Yeah, I seeOklahoma City. They've got Indiana,
Charlotte, Sacramento, San Antonio,Milwaukee, Dallas. It is an easier
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road, but a few of thoseteams have something to play for, and
the Thunder have some games to makeup. You know, they're they're the
ones sitting in third. Minnesota alreadyhas the tiebreaker over Okay See. I
haven't looked to see whether Denver's gotthe tiebreaker over the Thunder, but I
think they might. Denver, onthe other hand, has only five games
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left to go. They've got Atlanta, which is winnable. They've got Utah,
which is winnable. They've got Minnesotaonce, they've got San Antonio then,
which if Wemby is still playing,it's you know, it's a winnable
game, but it's toss up.And then they've got Memphis on the season
closer. So Denver's got the easiestroad to get there, the fewest games
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to ride, and really only onesuper high quality match up left. But
I do think Minnesota has been lockedin. They've been taking care of business.
They're gonna win enough of these gamesto where it really does come down
to that April tenth matchup, becauseif they don't win it, If they
don't win it, Denver's got theclear path, you know, the Nuggets.
If they win April tenth, they'vealready got the clear path to take
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the one again. How surprised areyou to see that this Minnesota team has
been there from moment one to startthe season, that they have been this
good this long and we really haven'tseen elongated lulls from them. They have
been super efficient and effective. AnthonyEdwards has just continued to explode as a
(26:06):
star in this league. They're good, They've been good. We've seen them.
We thought they were gonna have achance to be good last year and
go through and they sort of hadthat moment. We talked about that before
on the show. But how surprisedare you that this year they've been able
to go not necessarily wire to wire, but essentially wire to wire for the
whole year they've been up at thetop. I think they lost a couple
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of really tough games in the openingweek and a half, and they really
they got called to the carpet bytheir veterans. They got called to the
carpet by their head coach, ChrisFinch, and coming into the season,
it was all about being professional,it was about being consistent. They were
one of the two teams that wentundefeated in preseason, so they had been
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talking the talk, but then theygot into some of those early regular season
games and it was more of thesame from last year. A team that
built big leads routinely, clearly hadtons of talent, and then would blow
close games. And I think thathappening early in the season got them locked
in realizing the next level to goto. Anthony Edwards has led by example
(27:11):
defensively. He wants to be thebest defensive player on a team that already
has a three four time Defensive Playerthe Year and Rudy Gobert, and has
got really solid defenders in Mike Conley, in Jaden McDaniels and Nikhil Alexander Walker.
These are guys who are considered inthe top three to five at their
positions as defensive players, or atleast were at various points in their career
(27:33):
in the case of Conley. Sothey've got studs and they've they have built
their identity around being a defensive team. So it was surprising to see how
good they were and consistent and professionalthey were up until the All Star break
to say, Okay, they're walkingthe walk now, not just talking to
(27:53):
talk. The light bulb has goneon. Is this sustainable or not?
But by the time they got tothe All Star break, you're going,
no, this is the identity ofthis team. They're proving that it's not
a young team. That's one ofthe misnomers. Everybody thinks all the Minnesota
timbrels, they're up and coming,they're rising. They've done a really good
job of balancing this team with alot of ben there done that veterans to
(28:15):
support a young guy like Anthony Edwardsor a young guy like Nikhil Alexander Walker.
And again, Carl Anthony Towns isnot a young guy. He is
in the middle of years old atthis point, compared no, comparatively comparatively
speaking, like he's been he's beenout of Kentucky for a long time.
So like, this guy is supposedto have been able to take that next
step eventually, right, and you'resort of just waiting for it to happen
(28:38):
and waiting and waiting, and allyou had to do, Uh, really,
all you had to do was essentiallymake Andy Edwards the man and make
everyone realize that he's the mans toround him with a little more veteran talent,
uh and and experience. And they'vesort of gotten as much as I
think you could get out of thisteam. This is so to their pleasant
(28:59):
surprise, and I was expected teamfor this team. To their credit,
you know when Towns went down,that was something that happened late last year
too, and you know that thathas the same type of impact on the
Timberwolve ceiling. Ultimately as Julius Randallgoing down does for the Knicks, Minnesota
can get the number one seed,their ability to advance to an NBA Finals
(29:19):
is going to hinge on whether Townscan come back, be healthy and slot
back in. But to their credit, nas reed to averaging twenty three points
seven plus boards a game in thestarting lineup since he took over for Towns,
Kyle Anderson has been averaging double figurespoints wise. Those two guys on
the front line have stepped up.Everybody else has bumped they're scoring. Rudy
(29:40):
Gobert has bumped his scoring a littlebit, and they've been looking for him
like this is a team that finallyfigured out overtraining camp how to play together.
I've mentioned this before. The leadingassist guy to Rudy Gobert all year,
despite the fact that Mike Conley islike his guy, they are locked
in. Conley is always thrown lobsto Gobert, But the leading assist to
Gobert all year has been Karl AnthonyTowns. Like they have figured out how
(30:03):
to unlock it. Yeah, Townshas been the leading guy all year,
and Gobert already has a good connectionwith Conley. Kyle Anderson works really well
with Gobert you know too, andAnthony Edwards has been able to set him
up. So they've figured it out. And it's not just allowing Anthony Edwards
to be the man on offense,but they made Rudy Gobert the quarterback defensively.
(30:26):
Instead of him trying to fit intoa scheme, they built the entire
defensive scheme around this guy, whichmakes sense being that he's a multi time
defensive Player of the Year. Butthey also made him the vocal leader defensively
and that has paid enormous dividends fora team that, as I mentioned already
has some really top flight defensive playersin addition to some guys like Kyle Anderson
(30:48):
and Monte Morris who are very soliddefensive players, even if they're not elite.
When you can build a team ateam identity off your defense like that,
it's rare in today's NBA. Butto really see that, to be
able to do that all season long, which they've done, and then you've
got a transcendent superstar who still hassome rungs left to climb in Anthony Edwards,
(31:11):
and you have the best shooting bigman of all time in Karl Anthony
Towns. You got something, butthey need Towns back, They need the
full compliment of players. Or ifyou remember last year too, Towns was
hurt, nas Reed got hurt,was not able to finish the series.
They didn't have Jaden McDaniels because hehad broken his hand at the end of
the season. They were not wholelast year. This year they're a lot
(31:34):
closer. But Towns is the missinglink, and you got to cross your
fingers that nobody else goes down.Okay, so I want to ask you
one more question and then I wantto end on one other topics. So
the question I have for you isnow that we have a couple of weeks
left in the season, sixty fivesix seven games for everybody, what do
you predict that might be of interestto note for the last couple of weeks
(31:59):
of the season, And I willstart if you want to hear sort of
example for me, I think thatmy prediction going for now, this just
for the season. This isn't goingto the playoffs. We'll talk about the
playoffs stuff when when, when it'stime, but this is just for the
season. For the for the endof the regular season, I think we're
gonna see a good shot at Philadelphiagetting themselves into the one of the top
(32:23):
six spots. Getting Joel and beingback is huge for them. He's been
he's played really well since he's beenback. He's gonna be back for a
minute and a half, so likeit's we don't have a ton of data
back on him, but once he'sbeen back, it is a massive get
for Philadelphia, who has been floundering, to be nice to say with Philadelphia
(32:45):
since he's been out. Getting himback with the last couple of weeks of
the season to go is gonna behuge, and I think they're gonna make
up a couple of games and they'regonna be able to be one of the
top six seeds. And do youthink they steal it from Indy? I
mean, they've they're only a gameback of the Pacers. Do you think
that's the team that falls out ofthe top six or is it somebody like
I think Orlando or New York who'sgot a little bit more of a cushion.
I think it's it's gonna be Indy. I think because they only got
(33:07):
basically one game to be able todo. I think it's what three three
and a half games or something thatbetween Orlando and New York, and it's
just not enough time. New Yorkis probably going to go five hundred,
is probably go four and two,three and three or something the way in
Orlando. Orlando's just solid this wholetime. They came out of the All
Star Break hot. So it's oneof those things where I think there's seven
(33:27):
to three in their last ten.Yeah. I think the only big movement
that we're going to see uh isgoing to be a Philadelphia steal that spot
from from Indy. From Indy withJoel and Bib and back, I'll go
in the East as well and say, I think Cleveland steals the number two
seed from Milwaukee. The Bucks arein some trouble now. Granted, the
(33:50):
Calves have been four and six overtheir last ten, dealing with injuriesland to
make that move. Yeah, butthe door I think is wide open.
Milwaukee does not really know who theyare. Damian Lillard has been in and
out of the lineup. There's alot of pressure on Lillard having come in
and the expectations for this team.It's the whole type of pressure that got
(34:13):
Adrian Griffin fired in the first place. Doc Rivers has not been the answer,
which we knew he wouldn't be.They're just so fun to be right
immediately, Like we didn't want tobe right. We wanted the Bucks to
be good. You know, that'sone of those teams that you and I
have had a soft spot for eversince we started. Why did the Bucks
make that decision? If all theteams that are gonna why did the Bucks
(34:35):
have to be the team that madeit? Boston go back and make that
decision? Help me again? LikeMilwaukee, Milwaukee's a likable team, man.
Yeah, yeah, I'm not.I'm not thrilled about their chances.
I'm not thrilled about their mojo.Right now, they'll compete, they'll be
in the mix. All is notlost. But do you think do you
think they could pull up the reinsand not find themselves punched out in the
(34:59):
first tround? Can can they rallythe troops so to speak? Yes?
But right now, the play Miamiin the first round again as a two
seven matchup. If Miami would getout of the play in and stay in
the spot that they're in, thatis not the matchup if you're Milwaukee that
you want to see because there isa psychological edge there that got your coach
(35:24):
fired. And now you're two coacheslater and you're seeing that team in the
first round again. You don't wantany part of the Miami heat. If
you're Milwaukee, if I'm right inyour then if you and I are right,
the Philadelphia or the Philadelphia jumps intothat six butt and you're right to
philadelphiascume me that Milwaukee dropped back tothe three spot and now it's Milwaukee Philly
(35:52):
and now you got another fun rematchthere. It's probably gonna be a weird,
interesting mental moment. Therefore, we'redoc Rivers a company, and either
team that loses that first round.You think about the expectations that Milwaukee and
Philly had going into this year andover the last four or five seasons to
lose in the first round. Yes, it'll be against a quality opponent if
that happens, but it is amonumental disappointment if that goes down, and
(36:17):
if Milwaukee loses to Miami again likethat, that's yeah, yeah, yikes.
Okay, last thing I wanted tomention before we got out of here.
The retirement of Ragion Rondo was madeofficial by Rajon Rondo, who brought
it up on a podcast this week. Hmm. Now, granted, we
(36:38):
haven't seen him on the court ina while. It's been almost two years
since we've sort of seen him onthe court, so it was unofficially official,
but I don't think we've really hada chance to sort of talk about
what we think his legacy will beand what his sort of impact on the
league will be. What's it's allsaid and done? And now it's all
said and done. So for someonehe said that he had a great time,
(37:02):
he loved every moment being in theNBA. I questioned some of that,
but you know, yeah, yeah, did he forget about the Dallas
and Indiana so jurons because he didn'tseem to be having much fun at either
of those spots. So what doyou think now that Rageon Rondo's no longer
got any shata? Coming back tothe NBA, what do you think is
his legacy as the National Basketball Associationalone? His legacy will forever be tied
(37:28):
in part to that Boston Celtics teamthat put the Celtics back on the map.
He was one of the young guys. Him and Kendrick Perkins were in
that starting lineup with three all timeveterans, and there was major questions about
whether these young guys were in overtheir heads, and both Perk and Rondo
(37:49):
acquitted themselves very, very nicely duringthat high point for the Celtics. They
played like veterans. They did theirjobs. It wasn't all always perfect,
but they they they were integral tothose those good years for Boston and those
contending years. And then I thinkthe other thing for me that's a legacy
(38:10):
for Rondo is the peak Rondo,the playoff. He's one of those guys
who's going to be remembered for abouta two and a half year span of
dominance, of brilliance, of somethingthat if you were there and you got
to watch him play, you'll belike, oh man, was he good?
(38:30):
And that will overshadow the fact thatthat was a brief blip in time.
It was a brief moment. Hewas not a guy who played at
that level when he was younger,because he wasn't ready yet and he had
all those veterans in front of him, and he did not play that way
ever again. After he was,you know, traded by Boston, they
(38:52):
were kind of on the down andouts. There was beginning to be some
friction between him and the coaching staff, and he went through he was as
much damdamage goods. Remember, bythe time that he was leaving Dallas,
that whole thing blew apart. Ithought that was going to be a match
made in Heaven with him and Dirknovitsky. But when that blew apart, and
then all of a sudden he's onIndiana and he's bouncing around, he was
(39:13):
as much damaged goods, both asa head case and as a can he
even still play type of question.As James Harden was at his lowest point,
as Kyrie Irving was at his lowestpoint. Rondo was a pariah and
he slowly worked his way back tobeing a good teammate by reputation, a
guy who was willing to come offthe bench, do whatever it takes,
(39:36):
teach the young guys. He writedthat, and to his credit, nobody
will really remember this, but tohis credit, the dude got another ring,
and he got it in La withthe Lakers, of all people,
Like he's one of those rare playerswho got a ring with the Celtics and
the Lakers. I don't think that'spart of his legacy, but it's a
really interesting asterisk and footnote. Andhe was able to not go out on
(40:00):
hot, but go out having resurrectedhimself from that really truly low point where
it went peak Rondo to toilet Rondoand it seemed like it was overnight.
Yeah, he was a guy thatI think early in his career was this
you know, this assistance. Notearly in his career he developed the assistan
machine more a little bit more.He was a defensive maniac for the early
(40:23):
part of his career. One ofour favorite players, both of us our
favorite players do have watched Yeah,love that Tanasium And there were not even
in his early days. And we'retalking his early days are like still what
the mid odds, right, Solike we're not talking about like the early
eighties. We're talking about somebody whoI appreciate it so much because he played
(40:47):
the game like with a fire anda passion, like every play could be
his last play, a Russell Westbrooklevel of intensity. Yes, And he
got on the floor and he didnot like you if you were an opponent,
he was not going to mince wordsabout it. He was not gonna
glad hand you and patch you onthe back. He was going to go
out there and try to rip yourthroat out. And he had like four
(41:09):
or five years where he did likeover eleven assists at a season. Yeah,
Like he was the epitome of whatI thought when I was growing up
a true point guard was. Yeah, and I we just don't get many
of those guys anymore. That thatthat that don't focus on the scory.
(41:30):
I mean he was under ten pointsa game I think in his career average
like that. That just was notwhat he what he did, what he
focused on this welso wasn't a guywho was just bad at shooting. I
mean it wasn't good at shooting,but he like it wasn't his game,
and he focused his game and hetailored his game to being one of the
best court visionaries out there. Andyou know, I've missed him the last
(41:50):
few seasons. I know he sortof lost his mind also in the in
the last few seasons too, ButI am glad that he was able to
end his career sort of on ahigh note. Not necessarily all the stats
and stuff they're out there's like fouror five assistance game or something like that,
like half of what he was doing, but to be able to am
positively where you can have a positivethought on him despite off the court stuff
(42:12):
he's having to deal with over thenext few weeks. On the court,
just a really fun guy to watch. He is one of those players that,
despite all the knocks against him,he deserved to get two rings.
It was unfortunate that that Celtics teamonly ever got the one. Celtics not
for me, well right, forsure, but Rondo is one of those
guys that, based on what yousaid, that tenacity, that talent,
(42:37):
he deserves. I'm glad he gottwo rings and he's he's in that club
and I'll say this sending him off. Rajon Rondo was to me as a
passer, the absolute elite passing pointguard. He took the flash of Steve
(43:00):
Nash and the ability to create crazyangles like Nash did and see Krea's angles
and make those throws. But thenalso the fundamental soundness of a Chris Paul,
of a John Stockton, where itwas it's a machine level, right,
The gears are going up in theirhead, They're seeing everything way ahead
(43:22):
of its development. They are movingthe chest pieces around just with headfakes,
with ball fakes, with all ofthat stuff. You know, the flash
of a magic Johnson, the flashof a Steve Nash. But that that
absolute whatever you want to call it, the fundamental ability of a Stockton,
(43:43):
of a Chris Paul, that wasall in the Rajon Rondo package. But
then you also got the defensive tenacityand chops of a peak Chris Paul,
of a peak John Stockin. ButI'll even go one further. You got
the peak defensive chops of a GaryPayton type of point guard. Rondo had
those flashes when he was that briefmoment of time when he was he was
(44:07):
everything. I look at him inthe same way as Kawhi Leonard, and
Leonard's done it at a higher levelfor a little bit longer. But peak
Kawhi is like the amalgamation of everygreat defender that you ever wanted. Rondo
is like peak point guard minus theshooting ability that somebody like a Steve Nash
(44:28):
or Chris Paul or some of thescoring point guards have had. But Rondo
defensively, as a defensively and asa passer man, he he had it
all. He had it all,he did so it's a goodbye to a
real one. I can't that's officiallysay goodbye, even that he's been gone.
We appreciate you, man, Weappreciate the chance to have been able
(44:49):
to watch. We're big Ragon Rondofans here Basketball by Association. I'm also
a big fan of Joel c Cordis, and that's gonna do it for us.
Joel see Cordos get to say goodbyeto the good people right now,
right now, right nap Joel.Find us on Spotify, Spreaker, iTunes,
wherever it gets your podcast. Ifyou want the audio only version,
if you want the video version,you can find us on YouTube like Share.
Subscribe to all that good stuff.It's been fun, Archie, it's
(45:12):
been real fun. It's been funJelousey Cordus, and it's also been fun.
Mister Rajon Rondo. We'll see youon the other side, buddy,
Welcome into basketball by association. Moneyis our kids. Right there on the
screen, that is Joel c Cordez, Joel. His name's also on the
screen, Joel. How are you, sir? One third of my name
is on the screen. But we'lltake it for today. It's been a
long time. I'm glad to talksome hoops right before the playoffs begin.
We got like eight games to gofor most teams. It's getting crazy now.
(00:23):
Yeah. Well, let me letme There's two basketball slash not on
the court specific things I want toget to. One is the breaking news
Lebron James's kid is entering the draft. Also the transfer portal he gets also
maintained his college eligibility, which isthat's you know, it's an NBA newly
collective, collectively bargained rule that they'reable to do. So Lebron James' kid
(00:46):
might come join his dad next season. Hut, Joel Cordez, how excited
do you just see father son teamup? Which will definitely happen. I
do believe it'll happen at some point. I don't know that it'll be next
year. They've already both Lebron andBronni have said that that's not a condition
to him coming in. If they'regoing to say that publicly, then for
(01:07):
it to somehow be like privately underthe radar a condition that's going to get
out there and that's going to bemud on their face. They're smarter than
that. So I do think it'sabout him just trying to get into the
league. And obviously, on theone hand, this is a nepotism play.
Like a kid who's averaging less thanfive points a game, and to
assist, you declare for the draftand everybody goes big deal and you probably
(01:32):
don't get drafted. You maybe geta training camp invite if as a freshman
there was some upside there. It'sthe name that's going to get him looked
at as many times, and it'sthe fact that he's got representation by Rich
Paul and Clutch Sports already. Hehas connections and advantages that other kids don't.
But to be fair to Bronni,the cardiac arrest and the health scare,
(01:55):
the things that happened earlier this yearnot his fault. He was a
month he was out for five months. Yeah, you do feel for the
kid in that regard, and hewas a higher considered prospect to those things
happening. They robbed him of hischance to really get on the court and
show what he can do. Andso now you're almost treating him like a
(02:16):
high school prospect, a kid thatyou judge based on what he did in
high school and the college experience isirrelevant. So I'll let you go first.
I got a couple more thoughts,but yeah, I was just gonna
say, like, well, firstof all, he can come back to
college, right, like, hecan come back to USC, which I'm
glad they allow. Now I'm gladthey allow that. USC just hired Eric
(02:38):
Musselman, the Arkansas guy who hashad a lot of success in college.
So and he's also developed a coupleof pretty good guards there, so maybe
he come back there for him,Maybe also come back because you can get
a little more in I own money, because you got a big name there
for Cain. Ducane is the otheruniversity that's being mentioned with Brownie, just
(02:59):
because here again it's a lebron Jamescontact that's been promoted to head coach over
there, and this is the typeof advantage that a normal college kid doesn't
have, and Bronni does because ofhis name. But I appreciate the efforts,
at least the lip service to sayhe's trying to do this on his
own. He doesn't care where he'sdrafted. He doesn't really even care if
(03:21):
he's drafted. It's to find outwhere he might go, and he just
wants to get in on the rightteam. And he's willing to play G
League. That's also a good sign. If he's saying, look, I'm
willing to come in and be ina system for a couple of years,
even if it means I'm in theG League, that there is a humility
there that speaks beyond maybe the initialthe initial nepotism concerns. Yeah, I
(03:44):
don't want to get too deep moreinto this, just I just wanted to
sort of speaking overall turns. Buthe was a good high school player,
not a great high school player.He wasn't a transcendent type player. He
knew there was a guy that's goingto have to be developed, if he
was going to have to get there. Then you had the cardiac scare,
which took away a lot of histime and ability to be able to develop.
And then you have sort of thisuncertainty with what you're gonna do.
(04:09):
I mean, this is what alot of kids do anyway, even if
they're I mean, now, mostkids don't come back when they get into
the transfer portal, so he's probablygonna be gone. Although this is an
interesting case because it was a coachingchange that might be interesting to him to
be able to come back. SoI hope the best for the kid,
just because I think anytime you talkabout cardiac issues, that can humble somebody
(04:31):
real quick, like, no matterwhat level of life you're in. And
he's just starting his life. Soyeah, maybe he had I don't know
anything about him beforehand, so Idon't know if you had a bit of
an ego on him, if hethought he was better than he was.
But maybe some of that humility comesfrom saying, Halo, I almost lost
everything kind of thing. So youknow, if I get a chance to
continue to play basketball at another college, or if I get to play in
(04:54):
a system somewhere and get to developin the G League, I'm willing to
do it because I'm you know,I'm lucky to be here. So and
and final thought for me on this, I agree with everything you just said.
There's going to be a lot ofhoopla because of the name. There's
gonna be a lot of over analysis, but really, what I see here
is just a kid weighing as optionsright. Tell me where I could go.
(05:15):
Tell me what scenarios I have infront of me. That includes at
the college level, it includes multiplecolleges, It includes at the NBA level.
Can I even make a roster?And am I going to be in
the G League forever? Just gettingmore information is never a bad thing,
and a player advocating for themselves,regardless of their last name, is a
wise thing to do. He doeshave a few more tools to be able
(05:38):
to weigh this sort of You know, I want to move I want to
move forward to congratulate Jolsey Cordees onwhat is about to be the coronation of
his Minnesota Timberwolves being the regular seasonchampion. Now, yeah, you may
say it's only you may say it'sonly a half game lead, and yeah,
you may also say that there's sixgames left. I may also say
this including a matchup with the Nuggets, who they're a half game ahead of.
(06:00):
I will also say that Los AngelesClippers of Los Angeles have been doing
work for you, including last night, to be able to get to that
half game lead again. But alsothis Minnesota team clearly is for real.
So just a quick congratulations to you, that's all, and a quick melancholy
for me since now we get totalk about one of the topics I wanted
to get to that. Julius Randallis going to be out for seizing an
(06:21):
in surgery on his shoulder. Heapparently, according to reports, rehab like
a mofo, trying to be ableto get back into it, and doctors
told him, if you keep doingthis, it's going to be a very
good chance that you're doing further damage. So he's shutting it down for the
year. And it's really really toobad. Now. Granted, the Knicks,
did you know the Villanova Knicks lastnight did great in their win.
(06:47):
It's hard to see this next teambeing the championship contender without Julius Randall.
Also, this team, they weretwelve and one right with the with the
NOBI and with Julius Randall on thecourt at the same time, and they
hadn't even got Mitchell Robinson back yet, so you wonder adding him back into
the mix, and that front linedefensively, especially like could have been a
good thing. You can't lose apoor man's MVP like that and just expect
(07:13):
to come back. I think itbe anywhere near the caliber that you were
thinking. It's really disappointing, uhto sort of have that news because I
always had sort of that carrot.The Knicks have been sort of middling there
around. You know, they gotup to third, like earlier this week
or maybe it was like last week, up in the standings, and then
they get fourth, fifth somewhere aroundthat. They've been sort of playing around
with the kind of picked them forthe two or three seed, and that
was before the Annobe trade. Youknow, preseason we looked at that roster
(07:36):
and went ooh this is this couldbe good. Yeah, and that's just
such a big piece to be ableto lose. Now. The only positive
I could say really about this isthey've had they've been without him for a
while m hm, like they havebeen able to have cants to be able
to figure out who they are,and they just semi recently got Anobe back
into the lineup in the last fewweeks, so they've been able to sort
(07:59):
of figure out what that team canlook like with that Julius Randall. It
just me feels like the depth isn'tcompletely there with such a huge loss to
that roster, especially that is aheartbeat kind of guy for the Knicks and
for Tom Thibeau. And then Ijust wanted to say that I'm praying for
you, Julius. I mean,maybe he's still come back. Maybe maybe
(08:24):
this is all smoke show. Ithink you meant. Mitchell Robinson has been
back for a couple of weeks asAnnonobe. They're still waiting on you know,
he has not been back, orat least has listed out. I
don't know if he made a coupleof appearances and then they shot him no,
no, no, I Nobe cameback for a little while. Okay,
yeah, he's listed as out.Mitchell Robinson is back in Annonobe hopefully
is one hundred percent healthy by thetime the playoffs begin. Surely, like
(08:48):
you said, he doesn't replace JuliusRandall, but he does give them something
they didn't have prior to all that. And then you've got boy On Bogdanovich,
who the Knicks are still trying tofigure out how he fits that.
That's a little bit concerning because Ikeep seeing him play twelve thirteen minutes a
game, and that's a guy who, especially if you're a dinged up team
looking for some offense, should beplaying twenty four or twenty five minutes or
(09:11):
more per game as a shooter.But the Villanova Knicks, they're fitting in
that starting lineup. I like TomThibodau's flexibility to go, you know what,
maybe we can play small ball.Maybe we can play with one big
and four guards out there, becauseJosh hart is so rugged defensively and can
guard bigger players. It's just it'sopened up a lot of different things.
(09:31):
You're going to get that same flexibilitywhen Ananobe is in the lineup. We
don't know if Mitchell Robinson will startor not, but you know, Isaiah
Hartenstein was hurt for a while.I think some of this injury issue has
let them unlock Miles McBride a littlebit more. He's put up some really
productive minutes for them. All thatto say that it's not doom and gloom
(09:52):
as in this team is for surea first round out. I do think,
especially sitting in the four or fiveseed, we're regardless of who the
Knicks play in that spot, they'vegot a puncher's chance to win around here,
which would still be to salvage something. And you know, if you're
facing Orlando, a team that hasn'tbeen there, and you and I are
both impressed with Orlando. They're aheadof schedule, They've got some wisdom there
(10:15):
on that team, in addition tothe youth and athleticism. But let's be
real, I would still pick NewYork in a first round if they're playing
Orlando, if they're playing Indiana,yeah, nobody wants to see that,
and nobody wants to see if you'rein New York, you don't want to
see Miami in the first round ifthey climb up. But you still give
the Knicks a chance in either ofthose series. I would still give them
a chance, although maybe less soin a rematch against Cleveland if it came
(10:39):
to that. But beyond the secondround, you get into the semifinals and
now it's more cream of the croptype of teams or teams that have found
momentum in the first round. That'swhere losing Randall I think takes away the
ceiling to this team. And itis unfortunate because it truly was a roster
and hopefully next year can still bea roster that look conference finals bound.
(11:03):
Yes, yes, and that lastpart, and I would rather wait to
sort of see what the playoffs sceneswould like to start projecting at that point
because if you if you ask me, essentially no one really scares me.
If you're the Knicks, except forBoston. Boston might run you out of
the gym. I don't know whatI would think about. Milwaukee has tons
(11:31):
of talent, but Doc Rivers hasa tons of talent before, and this
has not been a great Milwaukee teamthis year, especially since Doc Rivers has
gotten there. They were really badgoing into the All Star break. They
got really hot right after the AllStar Break, and they'd been really bad
again in including like losing back toback games against teams the teams are like
seventy one games under five hundred.Yeah, they're five and five in their
(11:52):
last ten. They have zero momentumright now. They did not address their
That's what's so odd about that.They're the two seed right now, which
tells you a little bit about theEast, Like it's super top heavy with
the number one team who has beengreat, and then everybody else has just
sort of been trying to find somekind of rhythm throughout the year. They've
(12:13):
all had their issues, right they'veall had major things. Philly, Miami,
New York now have had major injuryissues. Indiana has had some injury
issues and then a Tyrese Haliburton slumpafter the All Star break. Cleveland has
had injury issues, Orlando has theiryouth, Milwaukee has had some injuries,
and like you said, the coachingstuff. So yeah, every single team
and then Chicago and Atlanta have justbeen met, you know, so inconsistent
(12:37):
that you can't take them seriously atall. Like, so, you're absolutely
right, every single team is flawed, and the Knicks have a big flaw
right now missing Julius Randall, butthey're not that much more flawed than any
of their other opponents. Yeah,Like so if the Knicks somehow well,
it would depend on where they wentinto the sea. So they'll say the
Knicks got a favorable of seting towhere they were able to get to the
(13:01):
conference finals. That's gonna be Boston. That's gonna be really hard for them
to be able to win that series. But first and then Semis, I
don't think it's impossible for them tobe able to win. I just don't
think that with Julius Randall, Ithink they could have beat up Boston a
little bit and made it tough forthem to get through them. They'd have
a shot. I agree, they'dhave a shot. They are a more
rugged team than Boston though. Yeah, but let's move on if you don't
(13:24):
mind for Boston real quick, becauseBoston just went ahead and just wrapped up
the number one seed and everything thislast week. They're just you know,
good to thirty and three at homethat I hear. That's decent these days.
Let me ask you this, wehaven't talked a ton about Boston because
they've really not had a bunch ofstruggles this season, like they've been supremely
(13:46):
good. And it really hurts meto say something like this. I really
needed them to struggle some more andthey just have it. What are they
right now? Sixty and sixteen andthey're probably gonna win sixty four to sixty
five games. No one's really sortof I feel like talking as much about
this Boston team because I think we'veseen them be good in the regular season
(14:07):
before and now it's time to moin the playoffs. But as far as
its regular season is concerned, Ijust want to ask you, do you
agree with me in my assessment thatI think the way they have won this
season, it's been one of themore impressive regular seasons Boston's ever had list
since I've been alive that I've beenwatching a regular season. They have crushed
(14:31):
in the regular season. And we'retalking to me watching since like ninety four,
ninety three, ninety four from midnineties. Yeah, I mean,
that's a franchise that certainly has rackedup sixty win seasons, although a lot
of times when you go back andlook, it's been high fifty win seasons,
even during their their glory days,most recently with Ray Allen and Paul
Pearson and KG. I think,yeah, sixty wins, it's impressive,
(14:54):
especially given the parody in the Eastand the fact that the West is really
good. That the best team theWest only has fifty three wins and that's
Minnesota, which is it's saying something. So to get to sixty in this
atmosphere, and then to do itwith a nearly twelve point differential, that's
that's the big thing. When theywin in big, and they've won a
(15:15):
lot big. They clinched the oneseed by being okay, see by like
nearly forty granted, okay, seewas resting. A lot of guys come
in into that game. That wasnot a hard to anybody by forty Like,
these are professional basketball players. Granted, I feel like we've seen a
lot more thirty five and forty pointvictories this year than in the last several
years. But still Boston wasn't restinganybody. I mean, who was it?
(15:37):
Yeah, uh, Porzingis. Porzingiais the one who goes for twenty
seven to twelve in that game,right, and that's part of a thirty
five point win. What's impressive tome is that, first of all,
Porzingis is upright at the end ofthe season, knock on wood, and
he's taken some He's had to takesome time off as you would expect.
I think it's it's a Joelle thatone, like when they made the decision
(16:00):
pick them up. Yet it's aJoel Embiid situation. It's a Karl Anthony
town situation. These are bigs whoare going to miss twenty games per season.
You just hope that it's twenty manageablegames and that they're spaced out,
that they're you know, reasonably pricedgames, so to speak, and not
at the end of the season andfinal and so perzingis to stay healthy.
(16:22):
And then you put him in astarting lineup that has three of the best
defensive players in the NBA, plusone of the NBA's pre eminent scorers in
the prime of his career, anda bench which, while a little bit
shaky still, You've got Al Horford, You've got Peyton Pritchard. Those guys
have been in the Boston system forever. They know their roles. They are
pros pros. Xavier Tillman is aguy that really played some good basketball in
(16:47):
Memphis as a fill in and asa rugged guy, and I think getting
a body like that like Tillman wassomething that they were severely lacking. If
you remember at the beginning of theseason, I kind of questioned Boston's toughness,
willing to try, willingness to tryto be tough, but just did
they have the right personnel against aNew York or even against the Cleveland teams
(17:07):
that have really physical front lines,and that's just kind of the way they
play. Boston didn't feel like theymatched up. Getting a guy like Tillman
and then whatever you get out ofl Horford gives them the ability to throw
in some bodies to play that kindof style. And then to me,
the big one is Sam Houser becominga credible NBA player. He was a
guy that they they had in therotation like, Okay, the kid can
(17:29):
shoot, but can he do anythingelse? The jury is still out about
whether he can do anything else ornot. But he has been passable defensively
and he's been shooting the lights outfor them on a team that already has
three point threats all over the rosterof guys who can knock down shots.
And then Jason Tatum at this pointwe have to consider him a specialist.
I mean, he is a guyat that upper level where he is a
(17:52):
three point shooter and Sam Hauser isa specialist as well. So they've got
they've got the goods. I mean, that's the thing. It's not,
oh, this is a down yearin the East. Oh, Boston had
two guys who were really playing well. No, they've got good chemistry,
they've got good balance, they've gotability to attack you, and now they've
got that's what's different this year,I think than last year. Yeah,
(18:12):
this team, this team is incrediblybetter than than they were last year.
And that's what I think makes themthe clear favorite to come out of the
East this year now, especially witheveryone's injuries, I don't know if there
is a team right now currently constructedin the East that could win two games
(18:33):
against them in a series. Notright now. They are seventeen and four
since the All Star break. Allseventeen wins have been by double digits,
like they are. Just when youtalk about trying to get hot at the
right time, getting through the dogdays of the basketball season, going into
the All Star breaks, that comingout of it, they've come out like
a can Now. Granted they dohave that huge one black guy, it's
(18:56):
a very small black guy compared toeverything else. When they had a ginormous
lead and blew it against Atlanta,outside of that, I mean, but
Atlanta did that to Minnesota, thetop team in the West too. Minnesota
had a twenty five, twenty sixpoint lead on them early in the season.
Atlanta came back on them too.So the Hawks have shown the ability
to do this against some really goodteams that if you let off the ropes.
(19:19):
The Hawks are a team that canscore. They have been for years.
They just don't do anything well.What do you think about the East
having basically their entire playoff set.As far as the teams that are going
to be in with a couple weeksto left in the season, it's not
entirely surprising after Brooklyn and Toronto pulledthe plug. I think both of those
teams, had they stayed constituted theway they were, they would have been
(19:44):
the ones in the mix yet.But they were middling and really didn't see
much light at the end of thetunnel, and so they the whole point
of this was like to keep everybodybasically in as long as possible. And
you know, we still got twoweeks left in the season. Well you've
kept ten teams, and that's stillthat's saying. I mean to keep more
teams, like as a potential,right, Like what was it? Was
(20:06):
it two seasons ago that like goinginto like the final week, there were
like thirteen or fourteen teams that couldhave gotten in, right, which is
why I look at this as anoutlier. You look at Toronto and Brooklyn
the fact they would have been there, But these are circumstances where both teams
had tried to run roster iterations fora couple of years and we're getting to
the end of the line with thoseroster iterations, and it just so happens
(20:30):
this is the year where they decidedto cut bait. So I I do
look at the last couple of yearswhere it's been eleven, twelve, thirteen
teams still in the mix, andin the West right now it's eleven teams.
I still see that as a victoryand this is an outlier. If
this keeps happening, then it youknow, then it becomes a trend.
But I don't read too much intoit this year. I don't know if
(20:52):
I read anything to it this year. It's just more of like it's just
an interesting like, uh, that'skind of like you have the one team
that's been so much better than everybody. Ye to like thirteen games above everybody
else. Uh, and then atthe very bottom it's like, uh,
there's ever it's everybody else, Likeit's everybody else. We've already got them
fire playoffs basically figured. As faras the teams that are gonna begin,
and they're to be frank with you, there's probably with only this much time
(21:17):
up, we're probably not gonna seea lot of movements seating wise, either,
Like there could be a little bitfor like maybe that nine ten Spy
and maybe you see it. Yeah, the six seven, it's a little
but all these teams have kind ofbeen five hundred ish, a little above,
a little below over the last fewweeks. I don't I don't know
(21:37):
if we're gonna see a lot ofmovement from where we are now, which
is an interesting thing to be ableto tell you that. I guess the
Knicks are going to go through Orlandoto get to the championship. I guess
that's how we'll go. So that'snot a bad place to start. I
mean, if you have to picka a matchup, Orlando's a good defensive
team too, just like New Yorkis. In fact, they're built a
lot. They're built very similar.Paolo Boncaro actually reminds me of Julius Randall
(22:00):
in many of the best ways ofa young Julius Randall. Boncaro maybe has
a little bit more versatility to hisgame, but Randall is really good at
what he does, and Vonko cando a lot of that stuff too.
So yeah, they're both two gooddefensive teams, are mirror images of one
another, and you're gonna see Ithink the veteran ship of the Knicks,
(22:21):
really test Orlando and see what they'remade of, and that's what you want
in the first round. Let meask you this, Let's go to the
West for just a few moments,if you don't mind. There actually is
a little bit more I intrigue there. You know, with three teams battling
for the number one spot within onegame, they've all been flip flopping for
that number one seed over the lasttwo weeks. That's been crazy. It's
been a wild, wild run.Denver sort of gotten hot and gotten up
(22:42):
to that one seed, and thenobviously they got to the Clippers last night
and lost that game. And thenso Minnesota's back at the top and we've
seen okay, see be up therethis season two, it's gonna be one
of those teams. It's gonna beyour number one seed. And you're probably
those three teams are probably gonna beyour one, two to three in some
order. So which team do youthink has the staying power to end this
(23:04):
season as your number one seed?Looking at the schedule, and I have
just had that pulled up here early. Minnesota six five and six games left
in the year. So yeah,there's five for Denver. Six Slift for
Minnesota and say for Okay, See, I'm going to try to simplify this,
(23:26):
and it's probably oversimplifying it, butI think the winner between the upcoming
Denver Minnesota matchup, which is inDenver, both teams are going to be
on the second half of a backto back that's Wednesday, April tenth.
The winner of that, the winnerof that game will be your number one
seed. The Wolves, they don'thave an easy road to go. They've
(23:49):
got to face Phoenix twice. Phoenixis very motivated to win games right now.
They see the Lakers once. Minnesotahas done very well against the Lakers
when they've been fully constituted. Theonly game they lost was a game that
they had nearly all of their startersshut down and they just kind of had
to play walking wounded. They seeWashington once, they see Atlanta once and
again. As aforementioned, Atlanta beatthem early early early in the season by
(24:14):
clawing back from a twenty six pointdeficit that the Wolves blue so Intlanta has
well, No, I mean anthey're stuck in the plate. They're stuck
in the plate, so they can'tget one of the top six. That's
Trently where they hit from six.Oh the O they're seventies back. No,
you're fine, Yeah, I seeOklahoma City. They've got Indiana,
Charlotte, Sacramento, San Antonio,Milwaukee, Dallas. It is an easier
(24:37):
road, but a few of thoseteams have something to play for, and
the Thunder have some games to makeup. You know, they're they're the
ones sitting in third. Minnesota alreadyhas the tiebreaker over Okay See. I
haven't looked to see whether Denver's gotthe tiebreaker over the Thunder, but I
think they might. Denver, onthe other hand, has only five games
(24:57):
left to go. They've got Atlanta, which is winnable. They've got Utah,
which is winnable. They've got Minnesotaonce, they've got San Antonio then,
which if Wemby is still playing,it's you know, it's a winnable
game, but it's toss up.And then they've got Memphis on the season
closer. So Denver's got the easiestroad to get there, the fewest games
(25:18):
to ride, and really only onesuper high quality match up left. But
I do think Minnesota has been lockedin. They've been taking care of business.
They're gonna win enough of these gamesto where it really does come down
to that April tenth matchup, becauseif they don't win it, If they
don't win it, Denver's got theclear path, you know, the Nuggets.
If they win April tenth, they'vealready got the clear path to take
(25:41):
the one again. How surprised areyou to see that this Minnesota team has
been there from moment one to startthe season, that they have been this
good this long and we really haven'tseen elongated lulls from them. They have
been super efficient and effective. AnthonyEdwards has just continued to explode as a
(26:06):
star in this league. They're good, They've been good. We've seen them.
We thought they were gonna have achance to be good last year and
go through and they sort of hadthat moment. We talked about that before
on the show. But how surprisedare you that this year they've been able
to go not necessarily wire to wire, but essentially wire to wire for the
whole year they've been up at thetop. I think they lost a couple
(26:30):
of really tough games in the openingweek and a half, and they really
they got called to the carpet bytheir veterans. They got called to the
carpet by their head coach, ChrisFinch, and coming into the season,
it was all about being professional,it was about being consistent. They were
one of the two teams that wentundefeated in preseason, so they had been
(26:51):
talking the talk, but then theygot into some of those early regular season
games and it was more of thesame from last year. A team that
built big leads routinely, clearly hadtons of talent, and then would blow
close games. And I think thathappening early in the season got them locked
in realizing the next level to goto. Anthony Edwards has led by example
(27:11):
defensively. He wants to be thebest defensive player on a team that already
has a three four time Defensive Playerthe Year and Rudy Gobert, and has
got really solid defenders in Mike Conley, in Jaden McDaniels and Nikhil Alexander Walker.
These are guys who are considered inthe top three to five at their
positions as defensive players, or atleast were at various points in their career
(27:33):
in the case of Conley. Sothey've got studs and they've they have built
their identity around being a defensive team. So it was surprising to see how
good they were and consistent and professionalthey were up until the All Star break
to say, Okay, they're walkingthe walk now, not just talking to
(27:53):
talk. The light bulb has goneon. Is this sustainable or not?
But by the time they got tothe All Star break, you're going,
no, this is the identity ofthis team. They're proving that it's not
a young team. That's one ofthe misnomers. Everybody thinks all the Minnesota
timbrels, they're up and coming,they're rising. They've done a really good
job of balancing this team with alot of ben there done that veterans to
(28:15):
support a young guy like Anthony Edwardsor a young guy like Nikhil Alexander Walker.
And again, Carl Anthony Towns isnot a young guy. He is
in the middle of years old atthis point, compared no, comparatively comparatively
speaking, like he's been he's beenout of Kentucky for a long time.
So like, this guy is supposedto have been able to take that next
step eventually, right, and you'resort of just waiting for it to happen
(28:38):
and waiting and waiting, and allyou had to do, Uh, really,
all you had to do was essentiallymake Andy Edwards the man and make
everyone realize that he's the mans toround him with a little more veteran talent,
uh and and experience. And they'vesort of gotten as much as I
think you could get out of thisteam. This is so to their pleasant
(28:59):
surprise, and I was expected teamfor this team. To their credit,
you know when Towns went down,that was something that happened late last year
too, and you know that thathas the same type of impact on the
Timberwolve ceiling. Ultimately as Julius Randallgoing down does for the Knicks, Minnesota
can get the number one seed,their ability to advance to an NBA Finals
(29:19):
is going to hinge on whether Townscan come back, be healthy and slot
back in. But to their credit, nas reed to averaging twenty three points
seven plus boards a game in thestarting lineup since he took over for Towns,
Kyle Anderson has been averaging double figurespoints wise. Those two guys on
the front line have stepped up.Everybody else has bumped they're scoring. Rudy
(29:40):
Gobert has bumped his scoring a littlebit, and they've been looking for him
like this is a team that finallyfigured out overtraining camp how to play together.
I've mentioned this before. The leadingassist guy to Rudy Gobert all year,
despite the fact that Mike Conley islike his guy, they are locked
in. Conley is always thrown lobsto Gobert, But the leading assist to
Gobert all year has been Karl AnthonyTowns. Like they have figured out how
(30:03):
to unlock it. Yeah, Townshas been the leading guy all year,
and Gobert already has a good connectionwith Conley. Kyle Anderson works really well
with Gobert you know too, andAnthony Edwards has been able to set him
up. So they've figured it out. And it's not just allowing Anthony Edwards
to be the man on offense,but they made Rudy Gobert the quarterback defensively.
(30:26):
Instead of him trying to fit intoa scheme, they built the entire
defensive scheme around this guy, whichmakes sense being that he's a multi time
defensive Player of the Year. Butthey also made him the vocal leader defensively
and that has paid enormous dividends fora team that, as I mentioned already
has some really top flight defensive playersin addition to some guys like Kyle Anderson
(30:48):
and Monte Morris who are very soliddefensive players, even if they're not elite.
When you can build a team ateam identity off your defense like that,
it's rare in today's NBA. Butto really see that, to be
able to do that all season long, which they've done, and then you've
got a transcendent superstar who still hassome rungs left to climb in Anthony Edwards,
(31:11):
and you have the best shooting bigman of all time in Karl Anthony
Towns. You got something, butthey need Towns back, They need the
full compliment of players. Or ifyou remember last year too, Towns was
hurt, nas Reed got hurt,was not able to finish the series.
They didn't have Jaden McDaniels because hehad broken his hand at the end of
the season. They were not wholelast year. This year they're a lot
(31:34):
closer. But Towns is the missinglink, and you got to cross your
fingers that nobody else goes down.Okay, so I want to ask you
one more question and then I wantto end on one other topics. So
the question I have for you isnow that we have a couple of weeks
left in the season, sixty fivesix seven games for everybody, what do
you predict that might be of interestto note for the last couple of weeks
(31:59):
of the season, And I willstart if you want to hear sort of
example for me, I think thatmy prediction going for now, this just
for the season. This isn't goingto the playoffs. We'll talk about the
playoffs stuff when when, when it'stime, but this is just for the
season. For the for the endof the regular season, I think we're
gonna see a good shot at Philadelphiagetting themselves into the one of the top
(32:23):
six spots. Getting Joel and beingback is huge for them. He's been
he's played really well since he's beenback. He's gonna be back for a
minute and a half, so likeit's we don't have a ton of data
back on him, but once he'sbeen back, it is a massive get
for Philadelphia, who has been floundering, to be nice to say with Philadelphia
(32:45):
since he's been out. Getting himback with the last couple of weeks of
the season to go is gonna behuge, and I think they're gonna make
up a couple of games and they'regonna be able to be one of the
top six seeds. And do youthink they steal it from Indy? I
mean, they've they're only a gameback of the Pacers. Do you think
that's the team that falls out ofthe top six or is it somebody like
I think Orlando or New York who'sgot a little bit more of a cushion.
I think it's it's gonna be Indy. I think because they only got
(33:07):
basically one game to be able todo. I think it's what three three
and a half games or something thatbetween Orlando and New York, and it's
just not enough time. New Yorkis probably going to go five hundred,
is probably go four and two,three and three or something the way in
Orlando. Orlando's just solid this wholetime. They came out of the All
Star Break hot. So it's oneof those things where I think there's seven
(33:27):
to three in their last ten.Yeah. I think the only big movement
that we're going to see uh isgoing to be a Philadelphia steal that spot
from from Indy. From Indy withJoel and Bib and back, I'll go
in the East as well and say, I think Cleveland steals the number two
seed from Milwaukee. The Bucks arein some trouble now. Granted, the
(33:50):
Calves have been four and six overtheir last ten, dealing with injuriesland to
make that move. Yeah, butthe door I think is wide open.
Milwaukee does not really know who theyare. Damian Lillard has been in and
out of the lineup. There's alot of pressure on Lillard having come in
and the expectations for this team.It's the whole type of pressure that got
(34:13):
Adrian Griffin fired in the first place. Doc Rivers has not been the answer,
which we knew he wouldn't be.They're just so fun to be right
immediately, Like we didn't want tobe right. We wanted the Bucks to
be good. You know, that'sone of those teams that you and I
have had a soft spot for eversince we started. Why did the Bucks
make that decision? If all theteams that are gonna why did the Bucks
(34:35):
have to be the team that madeit? Boston go back and make that
decision? Help me again? LikeMilwaukee, Milwaukee's a likable team, man.
Yeah, yeah, I'm not.I'm not thrilled about their chances.
I'm not thrilled about their mojo.Right now, they'll compete, they'll be
in the mix. All is notlost. But do you think do you
think they could pull up the reinsand not find themselves punched out in the
(34:59):
first tround? Can can they rallythe troops so to speak? Yes?
But right now, the play Miamiin the first round again as a two
seven matchup. If Miami would getout of the play in and stay in
the spot that they're in, thatis not the matchup if you're Milwaukee that
you want to see because there isa psychological edge there that got your coach
(35:24):
fired. And now you're two coacheslater and you're seeing that team in the
first round again. You don't wantany part of the Miami heat. If
you're Milwaukee, if I'm right inyour then if you and I are right,
the Philadelphia or the Philadelphia jumps intothat six butt and you're right to
philadelphiascume me that Milwaukee dropped back tothe three spot and now it's Milwaukee Philly
(35:52):
and now you got another fun rematchthere. It's probably gonna be a weird,
interesting mental moment. Therefore, we'redoc Rivers a company, and either
team that loses that first round.You think about the expectations that Milwaukee and
Philly had going into this year andover the last four or five seasons to
lose in the first round. Yes, it'll be against a quality opponent if
that happens, but it is amonumental disappointment if that goes down, and
(36:17):
if Milwaukee loses to Miami again likethat, that's yeah, yeah, yikes.
Okay, last thing I wanted tomention before we got out of here.
The retirement of Ragion Rondo was madeofficial by Rajon Rondo, who brought
it up on a podcast this week. Hmm. Now, granted, we
(36:38):
haven't seen him on the court ina while. It's been almost two years
since we've sort of seen him onthe court, so it was unofficially official,
but I don't think we've really hada chance to sort of talk about
what we think his legacy will beand what his sort of impact on the
league will be. What's it's allsaid and done? And now it's all
said and done. So for someonehe said that he had a great time,
(37:02):
he loved every moment being in theNBA. I questioned some of that,
but you know, yeah, yeah, did he forget about the Dallas
and Indiana so jurons because he didn'tseem to be having much fun at either
of those spots. So what doyou think now that Rageon Rondo's no longer
got any shata? Coming back tothe NBA, what do you think is
his legacy as the National Basketball Associationalone? His legacy will forever be tied
(37:28):
in part to that Boston Celtics teamthat put the Celtics back on the map.
He was one of the young guys. Him and Kendrick Perkins were in
that starting lineup with three all timeveterans, and there was major questions about
whether these young guys were in overtheir heads, and both Perk and Rondo
(37:49):
acquitted themselves very, very nicely duringthat high point for the Celtics. They
played like veterans. They did theirjobs. It wasn't all always perfect,
but they they they were integral tothose those good years for Boston and those
contending years. And then I thinkthe other thing for me that's a legacy
(38:10):
for Rondo is the peak Rondo,the playoff. He's one of those guys
who's going to be remembered for abouta two and a half year span of
dominance, of brilliance, of somethingthat if you were there and you got
to watch him play, you'll belike, oh man, was he good?
(38:30):
And that will overshadow the fact thatthat was a brief blip in time.
It was a brief moment. Hewas not a guy who played at
that level when he was younger,because he wasn't ready yet and he had
all those veterans in front of him, and he did not play that way
ever again. After he was,you know, traded by Boston, they
(38:52):
were kind of on the down andouts. There was beginning to be some
friction between him and the coaching staff, and he went through he was as
much damdamage goods. Remember, bythe time that he was leaving Dallas,
that whole thing blew apart. Ithought that was going to be a match
made in Heaven with him and Dirknovitsky. But when that blew apart, and
then all of a sudden he's onIndiana and he's bouncing around, he was
(39:13):
as much damaged goods, both asa head case and as a can he
even still play type of question.As James Harden was at his lowest point,
as Kyrie Irving was at his lowestpoint. Rondo was a pariah and
he slowly worked his way back tobeing a good teammate by reputation, a
guy who was willing to come offthe bench, do whatever it takes,
(39:36):
teach the young guys. He writedthat, and to his credit, nobody
will really remember this, but tohis credit, the dude got another ring,
and he got it in La withthe Lakers, of all people,
Like he's one of those rare playerswho got a ring with the Celtics and
the Lakers. I don't think that'spart of his legacy, but it's a
really interesting asterisk and footnote. Andhe was able to not go out on
(40:00):
hot, but go out having resurrectedhimself from that really truly low point where
it went peak Rondo to toilet Rondoand it seemed like it was overnight.
Yeah, he was a guy thatI think early in his career was this
you know, this assistance. Notearly in his career he developed the assistan
machine more a little bit more.He was a defensive maniac for the early
(40:23):
part of his career. One ofour favorite players, both of us our
favorite players do have watched Yeah,love that Tanasium And there were not even
in his early days. And we'retalking his early days are like still what
the mid odds, right, Solike we're not talking about like the early
eighties. We're talking about somebody whoI appreciate it so much because he played
(40:47):
the game like with a fire anda passion, like every play could be
his last play, a Russell Westbrooklevel of intensity. Yes, And he
got on the floor and he didnot like you if you were an opponent,
he was not going to mince wordsabout it. He was not gonna
glad hand you and patch you onthe back. He was going to go
out there and try to rip yourthroat out. And he had like four
(41:09):
or five years where he did likeover eleven assists at a season. Yeah,
Like he was the epitome of whatI thought when I was growing up
a true point guard was. Yeah, and I we just don't get many
of those guys anymore. That thatthat that don't focus on the scory.
(41:30):
I mean he was under ten pointsa game I think in his career average
like that. That just was notwhat he what he did, what he
focused on this welso wasn't a guywho was just bad at shooting. I
mean it wasn't good at shooting,but he like it wasn't his game,
and he focused his game and hetailored his game to being one of the
best court visionaries out there. Andyou know, I've missed him the last
(41:50):
few seasons. I know he sortof lost his mind also in the in
the last few seasons too, ButI am glad that he was able to
end his career sort of on ahigh note. Not necessarily all the stats
and stuff they're out there's like fouror five assistance game or something like that,
like half of what he was doing, but to be able to am
positively where you can have a positivethought on him despite off the court stuff
(42:12):
he's having to deal with over thenext few weeks. On the court,
just a really fun guy to watch. He is one of those players that,
despite all the knocks against him,he deserved to get two rings.
It was unfortunate that that Celtics teamonly ever got the one. Celtics not
for me, well right, forsure, but Rondo is one of those
guys that, based on what yousaid, that tenacity, that talent,
(42:37):
he deserves. I'm glad he gottwo rings and he's he's in that club
and I'll say this sending him off. Rajon Rondo was to me as a
passer, the absolute elite passing pointguard. He took the flash of Steve
(43:00):
Nash and the ability to create crazyangles like Nash did and see Krea's angles
and make those throws. But thenalso the fundamental soundness of a Chris Paul,
of a John Stockton, where itwas it's a machine level, right,
The gears are going up in theirhead, They're seeing everything way ahead
(43:22):
of its development. They are movingthe chest pieces around just with headfakes,
with ball fakes, with all ofthat stuff. You know, the flash
of a magic Johnson, the flashof a Steve Nash. But that that
absolute whatever you want to call it, the fundamental ability of a Stockton,
(43:43):
of a Chris Paul, that wasall in the Rajon Rondo package. But
then you also got the defensive tenacityand chops of a peak Chris Paul,
of a peak John Stockin. ButI'll even go one further. You got
the peak defensive chops of a GaryPayton type of point guard. Rondo had
those flashes when he was that briefmoment of time when he was he was
(44:07):
everything. I look at him inthe same way as Kawhi Leonard, and
Leonard's done it at a higher levelfor a little bit longer. But peak
Kawhi is like the amalgamation of everygreat defender that you ever wanted. Rondo
is like peak point guard minus theshooting ability that somebody like a Steve Nash
(44:28):
or Chris Paul or some of thescoring point guards have had. But Rondo
defensively, as a defensively and asa passer man, he he had it
all. He had it all,he did so it's a goodbye to a
real one. I can't that's officiallysay goodbye, even that he's been gone.
We appreciate you, man, Weappreciate the chance to have been able
(44:49):
to watch. We're big Ragon Rondofans here Basketball by Association. I'm also
a big fan of Joel c Cordis, and that's gonna do it for us.
Joel see Cordos get to say goodbyeto the good people right now,
right now, right nap Joel.Find us on Spotify, Spreaker, iTunes,
wherever it gets your podcast. Ifyou want the audio only version,
if you want the video version,you can find us on YouTube like Share.
Subscribe to all that good stuff.It's been fun, Archie, it's
(45:12):
been real fun. It's been funJelousey Cordus, and it's also been fun.
Mister Rajon Rondo. We'll see youon the other side, buddy,
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