Celtics-Bucks, Forecasting the Thunder, Anthony Edwards' Leap, and Coach of the Year Contenders
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And now, The Low Post. Welcome to The Low Post podcast on a Thursday morning. The first day, the first real day of March Madness because what's already happened is fake other than my blood feud against the University of Virginia took another good turn for this guy right here. Never happened to a better school. I don't even know who they lost to. I don't know what happened. I just know they were embarrassed and it was great.

Tim McMahon, we're going to talk about the NBA even though it's March Madness. Do you have a team in March Madness this year? I don't. The Mean Green, the North Texas Mean Green are back in the NIT trying to defend their title. I'll be honest with you, Zach. Not only did I not fill out a bracket this year, which is the first time in a long time, I haven't actually looked at a bracket other than a quick glance. So I'm probably glad that we're not going to have a whole lot of March Madness players

I do know, though, that Virginia lost to Colorado State in what looked like a score from a bowl game, not a March Madness play-in. Well, the 30s, I know UVA has been this like under, what's his name? Bennett has been this like defense, slow it down. We're going to make this completely unwatchable. They did win a national championship with DeAndre Hunter, among others. I think Ty Jerome was on that team. There's a bunch of NBA guys, a couple NBA guys at least from that team.

Yeah. I don't know the exact score. I just know it was not much on the Virginia side, a tough day for the university that just refers to itself as the university is if it's the only university, what it is is not in the final field of 64, uh, Tim McMahon, 6742 Dan says, there you go. 6742. That is a blowout and not a lot of points for the team that got 42. Uh,

Okay, let's go around the league for a bit. Last night was set to be one of the games of the season, and then it wasn't when Giannis Antetokounmpo had to sit out with a hamstring in the Bucs. Kind of exciting toward the end, three-point loss in Boston. That's the third time the teams have played this year. I love this matchup, despite the fact that Boston has lapped the field with everybody in the East this year. I think with Chris Middleton back, Bucs fully healthy,

This is a really interesting matchup strategically, schematically, and I guess part of the upside of... So they've had three games. One was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. It was a fun game. Boston pulled away and won at home.

Second one was Boston in Milwaukee. Second half of a back-to-back after an overtime win against the Wolves. They get absolutely mauled in the first half. Sit everybody in the second half. You don't throw it away. It just was half a game. It's just like 24 minutes of useless. The second 24 minutes of like, we can't learn anything from this. And then last night, Giannis doesn't play. And so it's still kind of a mystery. There are still a lot of cards to play in this matchup. They play one more time. I kind of hope we get...

Like, we don't know if they're going to face off in the playoffs. Obviously, the Bucs and the Celtics have some work to do to get there. But there's an air of mystery about this. This game got a little hairy for the Boston Celtics in the fourth quarter. They had a bunch of sloppy turnovers. The Bucs went zone. I thought they passed out of a couple shots near the rim before Jason Tatum put his head down and kind of righted the ship. And even so...

Bobby Portis missed an and one free throw with 34 seconds left. I think that would have cut the lead to one. Boston got the ball back up to Jalen Brown after missing two free throws about two minutes earlier, made two and Boston just kind of played the free throw game out. And so anytime this happens to Boston, big lead chipped away, uh,

Bucks had a couple shots to tie the game, I think, in the last couple minutes. You can feel the anxiety in New England. You can feel it like, oh my God, we've seen this movie before. Late game offense. Are we going to have to win 16 blowouts to win the NBA title? Is this how it's going to have to be?

I didn't quite know what to take from the game because you never know what intensity letdown you get if, A, we're up like 15 to 20 most of the second half. B, we know there's no Giannis.

C, they're junking it up with the zone. Like, Brooke Lopez isn't even playing. Chris Middleton's in and out because of his minutes restriction. It's a weird game. Did you take anything from this, Mr. McMahon? Not necessarily, because obviously there were key guys missing. Giannis, Drew Holiday, et cetera, et cetera. If anything, what I would take out of it is

Boston was able to close it out. And like you said, that was in serious, serious doubt. When Bobby Portis made that little floater and won, you're thinking, oh boy, this is going to be a...

a Celtics collapse. They're going, you know, this is going to be like what everyone's yelling and screaming about for the next 24 hours. I was about to email you and be like, we got to do the postgame podcast that we said we were going to do. And then we said we weren't going to do it because Giannis is a plane. Maybe we got to do it. Yeah. And then, you know, the Celtics kind of found a way to,

Like you said, it wasn't like they – it wasn't like, hey, Jason Tatum ended up making some spectacular shot. Like you said, they just found a way to take care of their business down the stretch, get a stop here or there, make some free throws. But that – really that – the health, how healthy will the Celtics be and can they –

win those close or really can they avoid losing close games? Those are really the only two questions about the Celtics as far as their March through the Eastern Conference. And as there's a huge spotlight on the Celtics,

Clutch issues because there's not a whole lot else to nitpick. Because they are a team that statistically has been historically dominant. And we talked about this on the Hoop Collective. They haven't been awful in those situations. No, they've been decent. Right. Overall clutch, their numbers are actually very good. What I call nut-cutting time, which is one possession in those last three minutes, they've been awful.

okay. They've been a little bit above average, but again, a little bit above average for a team that

Otherwise, the numbers are telling you is historically dominant is the one thing you can focus on and nitpick. And I do like even last night, there's a possession and I'm just watching them like it's just going to be four guys standing around and Tatum dribbles at 22 times and jacks up a tough contested jumper. So there's some of that stuff.

But they were able to close it out. And no Giannis, but Dame Lillard was out there. And let's be honest, in those situations, the fear is, uh-oh, one of the best closers of this generation is on the other side. He's going to rip our hearts out. And he wasn't able to do it last night. So you said the F word, fear. And one of my takeaways from that Bucs almost comeback last night was it was the first time in a while where

where you felt a palpable sense as Dame kind of danced around like I'll go around the screen one way give me back a hand off the other way just trying to get space trying to get Jalen Brown off him and by the way I love that the Jays took the assignments of Dame and Chris Middleton respectively between them they're doing that more and more but you can see him he's bobbing and weaving it was one of those few times in the last couple months where you could feel the fear of

of, oh my God, we can't give him an inch. We can't give him an inch because he's on one. He's making threes. He made six threes last night. They were high degree of difficulty threes. And that, he's got great chemistry with Brooke Lopez. A lot has been made of the Damianis pick and roll, including by me. And Doc is using it more. And I don't want to hammer that point. He's going to have to use it more. That's fine. Dame and Brooke Lopez have insanely good chemistry and had it from day one. And

That's the Dame they're going to need to beat Boston if they get... They're probably going to need him to get to Boston and to beat Boston four times. They're going to need the Dame that is...

a little more sort of he was in rhythm last night whatever that whatever that sort of ineffable rhythm that he has seemed like just a tiny bit 5% off kilter he was on that rhythm last night bobbing and weaving searching out spaces and when he got space you felt in your soul like uh-oh uh-oh and that's the fear factor of of Giannis of a game and going back to the Tatum one against everybody thing you

Part of that is the zone, right? I just think the zone threw them off. And you can win a five-minute game, mini-game within the game with that. Boston knows when we stick with our stuff, we get good shots. And they know that. I think they've now absorbed it. So those stretches puzzle me. I'm going to chalk last night up to a big lead.

Kind of like air out of the balloon game because Giannis didn't play and Drew Holiday also didn't play, as you mentioned, and all of that. But there was one possession with like three minutes left where Tatum cut open into the middle of the zone. Somebody found him with a really good pass at the dotted line.

He had what would have been a contested layup with Portis coming at him, and he kicked it out to Porzingis in the right corner. I don't know if you remember that. Porzingis missed a three, and I thought to myself, you have the lead.

You're trying to bleed out the game. Just go for the layup, get fouled, maybe get an offensive rebound. And right after that, that's exactly what he did. He got Malik Beasley at the top of the zone twice in a row and just said, you're too small for me. I'm too good for you. I'm taking you to the rim. One drawn foul, shooting foul, two free throws, one layup. The game wasn't quite iced by them, but Boston kind of got control back of the game. Going forward, you remove Giannis from this matchup. It's just...

It's hard to really take anything from it. Starting with this.

Porzingis guarded Jay Crowder last night. Um, and they put Horford on Brooke Lopez. And when they went small, they tried to put wings on Brooke Lopez if, if they could, or, or, or mostly Horford quicker bigs. That's not available to Kristaps Porzingis when the bucks are at full health and Giannis is in the starting five. He's got to guard Brooke Lopez or in the past he's had to guard Brooke Lopez. That's an interesting sort of wrinkle. Um,

And they've been afraid to put him on Giannis. They're like, we can't put you on Giannis and invert the matchups that way. And then on the other side, that's where it's really interesting to me.

The who does Giannis guard question when Boston starts one big, not two, you know, they'll be, they'll play Horford more in this matchup because they like Horford guarding Giannis. But when Boston has Porzingis and the four wings are guards on the floor, who is Giannis guarding? And it has generally been like Drew Holiday or Jalen Brown. And,

And I wonder, and that means Brooke Lopez has to scramble around with Porzingis. And that's sort of the dialectic of the Celtics. Everything flows from you got no place to put your center. We can move our center around a little bit. And what's interesting about this matchup is the Celtics have a little less flexibility to move their center around against Milwaukee when Milwaukee's healthy than they do against most teams. And Milwaukee hasn't really tried to

The strategy we've seen some teams try, which is let's, should we sniff around with like Brooke Lopez on drew holiday, like Denver did with Yoke, which like some other teams have done and, and sticky honest on Porzingis. They'll stick you on us on Porzingis when it's a double big lineup for Boston. And then Brooke Lopez can go over and guard Horford or Portis can go guard Horford or whatever. I just think there's a lot of little machinations left to play here.

And I think this would be a way more fun and a way more competitive series in the playoffs than the split in their records with Boston 11 games up in the loss column indicates. Yeah, and look, the Bucs obviously have had a funky year. I mean, they hired and fired a head coach. You know, it's been a strange year. They've been...

trying to get Dame and Giannis not on the same page, but to the point where they're enhancing each other instead of just being kind of independent contractors. But the Celtics, I mean, basically what you're getting at is this with the Celtics.

It's not that you want to hide Giannis, but you want to put Giannis in a position where he can be one of the most dominant help defenders that we've seen in the league in a long, long time. Like when he was defensive player of the year, it's not because, and this was like the criticism when Harden

was criticizing him. Hey, he's not a stopper. He's not a guy you put on the other team's best scorer. No, he's a guy who mucks everything up because he's all over the place, getting deflections, getting steals, blocking shots, all that sort of stuff.

So you want him to be able to roam. And there's just not a good... When Drew Holiday is the best answer of, hey, who do we give a guy an assignment that we really want to be playing free safety? And Drew Holiday is the best answer?

that's a tough test man the answer used to be marcus smart who's a good an okay to good offensive player but a much less dangerous shooter than drew holiday and that's sort of part of the remaking of this team is it took the best facsimile of that answer away and also in the process forces brooke lopez to a lot of times guard one of the most dangerous stretch fives in the

It's a tough matchup. Go ahead. You wanted to say more about Giannis on defense. No, I mean, that's just it. You want him to be a help defender, and it's really hard to put him in a position against that team. Porzingis' stretch five is interesting because he definitely is a threat. He definitely impacts spacing, but statistically, he's not a great three-point shooter. I think the threat of him as a three-point shooter is

is better than the numbers. You know, his biggest impact is just the way he spaces the floor. Although, look, we've seen games where he gets hot and he'll hit three or four in a row, but...

I'm not sure you wouldn't rather live with Porzingis getting decent looks at threes than, uh, you know, some of those other guys. And, and Hey, the, the Warriors tried sacking off of Jalen Brown. That didn't work. Jalen Brown didn't like that very much. Um, no, he liked it a lot. He loved it. Oh, he liked, he liked the open shots. He didn't like to district. Maybe he did like the disrespect. I don't know. Um,

It was never quite clear whose idea that was. My theory would still be it was Draymond's idea, and they all agreed to it. To your point about Porzingis, I don't disagree with you. He's shooting just okay from three this year. You just face a tough choice of, like, you mentioned some games he'll make four out of five. When that happens, you're just done. It's over. Like, the game is over. They're not going to lose the game at that point. Are you really going to let him just take wide open catch-and-shoot threes?

Most teams have concluded no. And even when they'll play a guy like Lopez on them and play drop defense so that he's got that space, they'll send a third guy rotating over to at least kind of wave at Porzingis to distract him. And that's where he's really advanced as a passer over the last couple of years actually started in Dallas is he'll immediately swing the ball to that rotating defenders guy. And then Boston is in gear from there. Um,

And we also saw Drew Holiday. Like, when you put Jokic on me, like, I'm going to work. Like, you can't hide your centers on me. I'm Drew Holiday. Like, I might be the fifth option here, but I'm still Drew freaking Holiday. Right. And then, obviously, the other thing about Porzingis is the guy who was the

primary reason for Rick Carlisle's anti-post rant has become the most lethal. And I'm not going to say the most lethal, statistically the most lethal post-up weapon in the league. And a guy who just absolutely has, like, if you want to switch, he's been absolutely punishing that. And it's funny because when Rick went on that rant,

which was after Chris Weber and Charles Barkley and the whole TNT crew basically spent an entire broadcast ripping Porzingis for not posting up when it was the exact thing the Mavericks had been trying to get him to stop doing. At that point in that season, he was averaging 0.54 points per post-up possession. That's not very good offense, as you know. Right now,

He is averaging, and I'm looking at the side. It's actually dipped a little bit, but it's 1.32 points per point stub. And that's dipped a little bit. So I think it's – and if you talk to Porzingis about it, and he's being honest, he'll tell you, hey, a lot of that is just feeling empowered and feeling like –

You're allowed to get in your rhythm down there. We want you taking, you know, we want you posting up. We want you taking those shots. But, you know, he's clearly put in the work. Like, because the problem used to be he'd get on a switch and he'd try to post up and it'd end up being he'd get pushed out to 16 feet and take this stiff little,

Turn around, contested, you know, contest with a guy who can put his hand in his face, but not actually challenge a shot, but contested mid-range jumper that just wasn't a high percentage play. And that's not the case anymore. I mean, he gets deep position and he's burying guys.

I just think this is a really fun matchup. He did bury some guys last night. Peyton Pritchard was like burying Pat Connaughton under the basket over and over. I don't know what's gotten into Peyton Pritchard in the last couple weeks, but he looks angry. He's angry at life. He's angry at the world. It's translating quite well. And Bobby Portis...

Bobby Portis is like, don't you all forget about me and six man of the year voting. I'm going to just go on a heater and take one old school, like 1980s fadeaway jumper from the left block over and over and over. I'm going to make enough of them that you're like, okay, Bobby Portis, I see you. Yeah. And obviously he's been huge in this little stretch that Giannis has missed. I mean, my goodness, he just scorched.

The sons. I still think the six, man, I know the Cavaliers have been doing some, some pretty vocal lobbying for Karis the vert. I still think that's Malik monks award. I do too. I, I did that segment earlier this week. I picked, I picked him a leak monk team lobbying.

I just, I think team lobbying backfires. That's, that's my theory on team lobby. It's, it's like, it has no, it has, when I'm a voter, I just ignore it completely. It has no effect on me. I think too much team and agent lobbying can backfire, but that's a different story. No, no, no, no. When it's, when it's,

Team mate lobbying, you know, like when it's so I saw there were the old minivan, George Niang. I forgot who else was, but they were hooting and hollering in the locker room talking about Karis Laverde, six man of the year.

I don't even necessarily think it's about actually lobbying voters. Look, when you've got a teammate that's up for an award like that, you've got to be his hype man because it's a chemistry thing. It's a locker room vibe type of thing. So I don't... I respect the public teammate who...

hooting and hollering sort of lobbying. That's fine. And Karis LeVert is this, he's in my column tomorrow. It's the best passing run of his entire life. He's leveled way up as a playmaker. He had 12 more assists last night. He's got like five double digit assist games. I think in the last 10 or 12 games,

he is essential to them and is really bought into i know he's starting now because of injuries but he's really bought into like all right my skill is more useful my ball handling playmaking skill is more useful coming off the bench when one of garland who quietly by the way darius garland has not had a very good season um um and and i think his numbers look okay i think his impact has felt worse than the numbers are um but when one of those guys on the bench he takes over anyway um

This feels like a fun competitive series. What I just keep coming back to, if we ever get to see it, is both teams have some cards left up their sleeve. I just feel like Boston has more cards than anybody else. And just fundamentally, I can't get past the reality of

Who is guarding Tatum and Brown on the Bucs? And just too many possessions where one of those guys is going to have a matchup where they can physically brutalize one way or another, whether it's getting a switch or whether it's just like, oh, Dame's on you this possession. Middleton kind of can't hang with those guys. Well, he looks very good offensively. That's what I keep coming back to. I think I would pick like Boston and six, but like a competitive fun six where like you're not surprised if it flips the other way necessarily or we go seven.

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Let's go west.

I'm going to have John Krasinski, not from the office and of quiet place fame of the athletic to talk about the Timberwolves at the top of the West. Uh, we have this three team race for the number one seed between the thunder, the nuggets and the wolves. We've talked about the nuggets a lot lately. Haven't done a thunder check-in in a while. I know you've spent a lot of time around that team this year. I saw, I've seen a couple of their recent games, including they beat what is left of the jazz last night. Um,

Everyone just, you know, look, the Thunder are for the season third in offense, fifth in defense, second in net rating.

28-7 at home, 20-13 on the road. I keep hearing, like, what's their record against good teams? They don't seem to play well against good teams. They're 25-14 against teams above 500 for the season. I was going to say, I saw them beat the Celtics in OKC. I think that really translates to they haven't played well against the Lakers in some spotlight games. The Lakers are 3-1 against them. But you said good teams.

Well, people think the Lakers are a good team. Oh, okay. I was confused. The Lakers are fine. They're fine. Their point differential for the season is still just a bit below the equator. Tim Bontemps, the USWB, has instituted a Lakers-Warriors ban on the hoop collective. So I feel like I'm getting away with something right now by even discussing them. The only thing to discuss is there's now –

I mean, I've been saying it for two months. They're going to play in the 9-10 game. Like, just like we have to get used to this reality that when we ask the question, which of these teams is going to make a longer playoff run or is best positioned to make a longer playoff run? The answer is one of them is not running anywhere at all. The starting gun is going to go off and they're going to fall on their face or like trip on the first hurdle and they're out. That's it.

Jalen Green and the Houston Rockets might have a say. We're going to talk about them. I said earlier this week, 8-1 in their last nine games. And if you look at the playoff odds, they have like a 15% chance of snagging that number 10 seed. Woo!

I'm sorry. We were talking about the Thunder. I got you all. This is what happens. But the point of this is the discussion that I keep hearing about the Thunder, at least on our airwaves, frankly, and elsewhere, is like what first-round opponent should they be most worried about? How big of a detriment is their size going to be in matchup X, Y, and Z? Are they, because of their youth and inexperience, are they just prey for an upset? We have not seen teams this young go very far.

I understand that. And look, if you draw... So I mentioned 9 and 10. They're three games out now, the Lakers and the Warriors of Phoenix and Dallas who have 29 losses each.

It looks like the race for six is going to be a three-team race between the Kings, who have quietly kind of righted the ship. I think they're 6-2 in their last day of games. The Mavs and the Suns. One of those teams will be sixth. One could be seventh. One could be eighth. Now, again, the Lakers are in the words. You go on a run, you change this whole equation. Right now, the math will tell you that's like a 90% likelihood, 80% likelihood the sixth seed comes down to those three teams.

If you're telling me Oklahoma City at one or two, wherever they finish, it's kind of like a coin flip right now with Denver for one. Draws Dallas in the first round? Yeah, that's scary. That's scary for anybody. That's not shade at the Thunder to say they could lose that series. Draw Phoenix in the first round with those three dudes? That's scary. It's not shade at the Thunder to say that they could lose that series. But right now...

I tend to default to like the teams have told you about their quality for 82 games. The Thunder are who they appear to be, which is a damn good team on both ends of the floor.

I don't think they're like more or less vulnerable to upset than the typical number one or number two seed who faces a higher level than usual number seven or number eight seed. I'd pick them in any of those series. I think I'd pick them right now in any of those series. You name Dallas, Sacramento, Phoenix, Lakers, Warriors. I think I'm picking the Thunder.

in all those series because they have told us who they are all season long, which is an elite team. You can pick apart their weaknesses to me. By the way, Tim McMahon, they're 16th in defensive rebounding since February 1st. They're 28th for the season, but they've cut. Hey, look, if they can be average, if you take one of your weaknesses, one of your red flag weaknesses, and you turn it average, and I think Chet's gotten better on the glass. I think Hayward has actually helped their gang rebounding with the focus.

If you can turn it into neutral, that's a huge deal because let me tell you, they don't have many weaknesses. Now, they still have the giddy question looming about what to do with him and when teams put their centers on him, which is basically every team now is putting their centers on him and a four or a three on Chet Holmgren. But I'll tell you, they've figured out some answers to that. I just think this team...

is just who they are. They're a great team, and I think they'll be favorites over anyone they play in the first round. I think I'll pick them to win that series, and if they get the right opponent, i.e. not Denver, I might pick them to win the next series too, although the Clippers are a problematic matchup for them. Yeah, the Clippers need to get their stuff straight. James Harden's trying to help that cause by challenging his own teammates' open three-point attempts. I don't know if you saw that contest in it. But

As much as we kind of joked about the Lakers, I think the Lakers might be the most concerning matchup for the Thunder, and it's simply matchup specific. It is because the biggest concern for the Thunder is a big physical team, and Anthony Davis has tended to feast. And look, I agree that Chet is getting better, and Chet's a stud. And I think one thing that over time, Chet's going to become –

a better rebounder because he's going to get stronger. I don't think he's ever going to be like 260 pounds or anything, but he's naturally going and through work is going to get stronger. He's going to gain some weight. He's going to gain strength in the weight room, but that's not going to happen before the playoffs. Giddy quietly has been playing pretty well.

But the problem with Giddey, obviously, is just a simple spacing thing. And nobody is going to guard him on the three-point line.

He can come out and hit a few threes in the first quarter, and they're still not going to guard him because they're like, hey, we're going to play those percentages. I think he could hit 10 in a row, and I don't think they would team. And that's a tribute to the rest of the team. The rest of the team is so dangerous that the only answer you really have is like, oh, I'm not going to guard this guy. Right. And then it's the whole thing of, okay, they can't play him in the playoffs. They've got to change the starting lineup. Number one.

When you are the number one or two seed in the Western Conference, the one thing you don't want to do is panic, panic, panic. We're not good enough and send that message to your team. And then the other thing is like, what's the solution?

You know, you don't want to plug in Isaiah Joe or Case and Wallace because then we're talking about what's one of the biggest concerns. Man, the Thunder are pretty small. They've got a skinny seven foot center and then they're like six, five and under. Aside from Giddy. Well, dude, you don't want to plug in six, two. And then Hayward.

Hayward, the numbers aren't going to wow you, but he has been effective in March, which is potentially significant development. Obviously, he'd been out since right around Christmas when they got him. His first six or seven games in a Thunder uniform were ugly. But if he is a...

legitimate alternative, not in the starting lineup, but more so in the closing lineup. I think that is a potentially major development for them. He hasn't played well enough for me to put him

Like, oh, this is the favorite to be the giddy replacement in the closing lineup necessarily. His usage rate with the Thunder is 12%. That's like not quite P.J. Tucker levels of non-involvement shooting-wise. But he's making unselfish plays. He's starting to shoot more threes. And he's just easing in. He's starting to shoot threes, period. Period, true. In his first seven games, he shot a three-pointer.

He's not playing major minutes, but still he's playing. You got to get him up. You know, 15, 18 minutes. And he shot a three-pointer over a seven-game span. And yeah, he's starting to at least shoot the ball. He made a couple trail threes last night and they need him to shoot. And like, look, he's been kind of...

infected with this like weird passivity almost since the injury really he just has never been the same guy but when he's you can see him get in his own head and just stop drives where he has momentum and space to go not shoot when he should shoot and they're gonna need him to be aggressive but if you look at it so like so so here's where if you're looking at head-to-head thunder like okay what what does this team have that threatens the thunder the thunder is one of their biggest strengths

I mean, they have strengths all over the place. One of their most extreme strengths is their number one enforcing turnovers. Yeah. One of their most extreme weaknesses is their 28th and defensive rebounding. Although, as I mentioned, that is a little bit less of weakness. So let's look at those teams that they could play in the first round. Some of them anyway. And,

Who is an elite ball protection team? Like who can take all those turnovers five a game, maybe that the Thunder get and turn into fast breaks and just vaporize them and or a really good offensive rebounding team who can punish the weakness that the Thunder have. So take away a strength, exploit a weakness. None of these teams are good at both of those things.

The Suns, the Thunder are 2-0 against the Suns. They play them one more time. Suns are eighth in offensive rebounding. Pretty damn good. Nurkic is a brute. That's a problem. They're only 25th in turnover. They turn the ball over a lot, so that plays into the Thunder strengths. Nurkic, by the way, had 31 rebounds the last time they played each other. Chet Holmgren still has a black eye from that game. I forgot that that was against the Thunder, the 31. When your stat...

non-point stat when you get 31 rebounds it starts with a three that's like wilt chamberlain like what happened 30 i think about 10 of them were on his own misses but still i mean he that's fine that's fine look if you're gonna be he's never been a good shooter at the rim someone's gotta get the rebound might as well be you

The Mavericks, the Thunder are 2-1 against the Mavericks. What scares you about that matchup is they're an extreme low turnover team, always have been with Luka, so they can protect the ball, but they're only 25th in offensive rebounding, so they're not a big second-chance team. Maybe that changes with Gafford there and having a rim runner on the floor all the time. The Warriors, the Thunder— Real quick on the Mavericks, they're 2-1 against the Mavericks. The 1 was the first game after the trade deadline.

It was a low alley. It was a molly whopping. And then Luka didn't play in the second one. But the Mavericks are –

fourth in the league as far as lowest turnover rate so that's that's the threat there and gaff like you said if the gafford lively tag team there's at least the chance now that the mavericks like they just did to the nuggets can really uh beat you up on the glass the offensive warriors warriors they went three and one against the warriors um

Two of the games were in overtime, including one of the best wins of the entire season when Holmgren made the crazy left corner three with his heel over the line. Heel over the line, I think, not on it.

not on it lebron uh the warriors throw the ball all over the gym um so the thunder should be able to get out run against them but they are third in offensive re-run array my point is like neither of these teams is a dual threat none of these four is a dual threat i didn't include sacramento just because i think sacramento well maybe i should include sacramento they have sabonis who's a brood like that's somewhat of a problem i just think sacramento is not as good as the thunder um

I don't know, man. I think this seems really good. What, what the only, what I just wish they had a little more pop off the bench. Like Isaiah Joe's good. Case and Wallace is good. He's a rookie. Hayward has not provided a lot of pop until lately. Kind of that bench glue guy, but yeah, I haven't seen him in a bit. Aaron Wiggins is shooting like 50% from three. That's, that's a thing. Um,

And they have in their back pocket the Chet Holmgren, big Jalen Williams, double big lineup where both of them are capable shooters. They've only played 67 minutes together the whole season. They don't want to play that way. I do feel like that is something they will break out if they are pressed for size and just sort of figure out the rest of the rotation from there. I think I just think.

I think this team is awesome. Like we haven't even talked about the guy who might finish second in MVP voting and the other rising star they have with J-Dub. I just think they're awesome.

Yeah, no, they're, they're a really, really good team. They're obviously going to be a great team for a long time. Um, I'm curious to see how Sam Presti attacks the summer. Um, because I do think they are a modern power forward away from being maybe the best team in the NBA. Um, and they've got a lot of different avenues as far as how they might be able to go about getting that guy. Um,

Or Presti might continue being patient and say, hey, we're going to try to draft and develop that guy, and we're pretty damn good as it is. So we'll see about that. So we've talked about the three things that always come up as far as concerns, the giddy fit and how that impacts pacing, the size slash rebounding issue, and then the other one's the experience issue. And I don't know, man, I'm not sure how much –

weight put into that. This kind of intangible of

playoff experience. The one thing I will say, this is an even keel team. This is not a team that's going to, you know, like the other team that's been inexperienced, that's been near the top of Western Conference recently, certainly not this year, but over the last couple of years has been the Grizzlies. Well, the Grizzlies are just an up and down emotional type of team. You know, that's not the Thunder. They are a very

even keel type of team I don't see them being rattled and SGA doesn't have experience as the go-to guy but he's been in the playoffs a couple times he's hit a playoff game winner and I think this team really takes on his personality so I guess what I'm saying is if the Thunder lose in the playoffs I don't think it's a lack of experience will be the reason why I don't I because again I've

I think there is some, like, obviously you can benefit from experience as far as like learning. But I think when you talk about a lack of experience, you're talking about how are you going to handle the pressure as much as anything. And I don't see this as being a team that's going to be impacted by that. So I've been saying all year,

The thing that strikes me most about the Thunder is their collective maturity. And I don't mean, oh, they don't go out off the court or anything like that. I mean, like, in stressful games, they play like they've been there before. They play with a calm and a smart level of decision-making, extra passes, snap reads that you just do not see from a team this young. And it's not just Shea. It's everybody. They all play like veterans, and it's really remarkable. On the Giddy thing, A, they have –

answers. B, they have schematic answers too. They can use them as a screener. Just like you're not going to guard him, we'll have him screen for Shea.

Or you're going to put a wing. One of the things I've liked about Holmgren lately, you're going to put a wing or a small power forward on him. Like we're going to activate the big man parts of his game. We'll have him screen for Shea and dive to the basket and you can deal with that. We'll even call like they opened the game last night. The Jazz had Taylor Hendricks on Chad Holmgren and John Collins, who has somehow recovered from the Anthony Edwards dunk guarding Giddey.

And they immediately ran a cross screen for Chet Holmgren under the rim to post up Taylor Hendricks. And he, the screen got him some daylight and he scored. That's one of the other things I like about the thunder. When they see a matchup, they like, they waste zero possessions getting right to it. When they see you adjust in a way that opens up this kind of matchup, they go right to it. Um,

The interesting comparison, if you want to go about the experiencing, I think would be last year's Cavs. If you're looking for like a downside comparison of a team that got to the playoffs and by their own admission was like, oh, we were not ready for the physicality, the noise, the pressure. Like we kind of crumbled. This team doesn't strike me as a team that's going to crumble. Shea doesn't strike me as a guy that's ever going to hit a slump ever. And the Cavs...

As much as Giddy is kind of a baked in quote unquote issue, he's the only non-shooter really that they play that

and he's the only non-shooter in their starting five, and he's such a clever passer that he compensates in his own way for a lot of it. The Cavs had this built-in simmering issue of two non-shooters clogging up the lane. We got to work around it all year long, and the Knicks exposed it. I just don't see this team...

I don't see the experience being that. I might be being naive. I don't know. I'm not saying I'm picking them to win the West. I'm still picking Denver, but I don't see the experience thing. It doesn't bother me. The casualty was three non-shooters because they didn't have threes who could shoot it last year either.

I mean, you're obviously referring to their bigs in Allen and Mobley, but there's a reason they went out and got George Niang and Max Struess because the lack of wing shooting was also a killer. They tried a Coro with those two, which you just can't really do, although Coro's been great this year. Yeah, he's been much better this year for sure. No, the Thunder, they've got a chance, but I'm with you. I'm not picking anybody to beat the Nuggets.

Nobody has an answer for Joker. And I just watched two kind of pretty uncharacteristic performances for Joker where, one, he only had two assists, which is amazing. But I watched that game against the Wolves. I didn't think he had a poor passing game. He just wasn't getting assists. No, it's funny you say that because I watched that game too, and the commentators were talking about, well, he has no assists. He only has one assist. And I'm sitting there thinking like,

What are they doing? Because you want to, particularly when it's your team, you want to give causality to that team. Like they must be doing something to deflate his assist tools. Are they not doubling? Are they not helping? They're helping. Like, I kind of think it might've just been a random, like weird thing that happened.

Yeah, and then, by the way, when they really needed a couple of assists, he came in there, dribble handoff, Michael Porter Jr. three, back cut by Michael Porter Jr. layup, and those kind of got things right for the Nuggets. And then the other game that I watched, obviously, was in Dallas. And I give the Mavericks credit. They threw a lot of different things at them, and a lot of the game, they had one of their rim protectors kind of

roaming and either maxi cleba or pj washington at the four and being very physical with them uh so i think the mavericks did a good job uh but i think the mavericks can play that well against him again instead of six to 16 he can be 11 to 16 you know there were like joker has the best paint touch in the league and it wasn't and a lot of those aren't ridiculously tough like

taking contact you know those little six foot hooks or 10 foot floaters or whatever uh those weren't falling for him and he got frustrated he uh tyler ford i think if you gave joker some truce him he'd say tyler ford played really good defense on me in that game little five foot eight tyler ford was uh was a defensive stopper on seven foot joker um

I picked Denver to win the West all year. I have no notes. There are no answers. The touch is... Every scout I have dinner with or drinks with or coach or whoever, I ask them, like, can you explain to me how the ball just dies on the rim? I just have never seen anybody...

Where every shot, it doesn't matter what angle, what trajectory, what distance. It's like, oh, just died on the rim and kind of sat there and went in. And hit the rim at the backboard, hung out for a bit. I just have never seen anything like it. No. And he has the best hands in the league.

Well, the most terrifying sight in the NBA is if your center goes for an offensive rebound and doesn't get it, and he does, and he's off to the races, it is death. Just close your eyes and hope that Michael Porter Jr. misses an open three or something else happens because they are getting a great shot and it's probably death for your team. Speaking of the Thunder, who would you vote for for Coach of the Year right now? I've been doing a rapid fire awards thing. Let's do Coach of the Year. Is it Mark Dagnolz to lose?

He's absolutely in the conversation. Look, the Thunder made a 16 win jump last year and nobody expected him to make another 16 win jump. That's possible. You know, that is definitely within the realm. I believe he did. He finished second last year.

I'll be honest with you. I don't have the coach of the year ballot right in front of me. Mike Brown won it unanimously. And Dagenau was up there. So, no, he's absolutely a candidate for that. I think Chris Finch should be a candidate for that.

You know, obviously it was a tough year last year in Minnesota with the expectations that came along with everything they gave up for Rudy Gobert. All the questions about just how does that fit work. The other thing, he's clearly...

Figured that out. As great as Gobert is, Ann McDaniels and Ann Edwards defensively, like a lot of defense, you have to also give credit to the coach. The other thing I give Finch a ton of credit for is the continued ascension of Anthony Edwards. And look, Ann obviously has superstar talent.

Right. But he is he's a guy who is like, you know, like the all state running back, who is also the best player under under high school basketball team. Right. Because he's just the best athlete. He's becoming better and better and better at the thinking parts of the game. And that is an absolute massive part of Finch's impact. And, you know, and he'll be the first one to say that they've got a great relationship. It's kind of rare in this league.

where Finch coaches Ant hard, like,

Direct, wild conversations, often in film sessions in front of the team. And credit to Ant for being able to take that kind of coaching as a superstar and embracing it. But again, I think you have to look at Finch. And then a couple guys in the East real quick. J.B. Bickerstaff, who there was rumblings about his job security midseason. All the injuries that the Cavaliers have had.

Donovan Mitchell's missed a bunch of times, not all NBA eligible. Evan Mobley's missed a bunch of time. Garland, et cetera, et cetera. They're third seed in the Eastern Conference. He's at best, at best, the third best candidate in the East, and I'm not even sure I'd go there for J.B. Bickerstaff. So I'm hoping you say one of my other two names next. All right, Jamal Mosley has to be on your list. That's it. The Magic are 41 and 28. They might get the fourth seed.

If they get the four seed and home court advantage in the first round, Jamal Mosley made damn well win. They're third in defense. They got a shot at second in defense. Like that's crazy. And I will say with a young, with a young team,

When they have Isaac and Suggs on the floor at the same time, it's like they have nine guys on the court. You cannot—it's just arms and, like, people yelling at you and growling in your face and, like, 17 arms swiping at the—like, who the hell are all these people? They've allowed 101 points per 100 possessions with those two guys on the floor together. That's, like, eight points below the number one defense in the league.

And what they did, I watched this game randomly the other day. What they did to the Charlotte Hornets two nights ago in Orlando. Now, the Hornets are no great shakes, I realize. The Hornets had 31 points at halftime. They trailed in the second quarter 67 to 26. That was a real score in the second quarter of the NBA game.

What they did to the Hornets offense for like a five-minute stretch when Suggs and Isaac were on the floor, it should have been illegal. Like even in Florida, it was like just stop the game. One team can't even do anything. Like just mercy rule the whole game. So Jamal Mosley is on my list, as is Joe Mazzulla, who gets no love at all because like all the Celtics, it's championship or bust.

I think Michael Malone gets no love at all because he has the best player in the world. They've already won the title, so everyone's kind of moved on with life. Those would be my main. And I think Willie Green in New Orleans, if they really come on, finish strong, keep coming on strong and nail that fifth seed, figuring out that is not an easy equation. And I know you wanted to talk about the red-hot Houston Rockets, so have at it.

Listen, here's the Red Hot Houston Rockets, 8-1 in March, and they're not quite breathing down the neck yet of those glamorous 9-10 seeds, but they are a threat to get there. Yeah.

They are three games out of the 10 seed right now, having won six straight. And I think the most exciting thing for the Rockets is –

They're going to... Looks like they're going to have a chance to play in meaningful games down the stretch, which when you are a rebuilding team, and they're phase two, but it's phase two of a tear-it-down rebuild, there's huge value of that. And they are being led by youngsters. And, you know, look, everybody, when Shingun went down...

Um, first everybody breathed a sigh of relief that it wasn't a major injury. There was going to be like a surgery required, that sort of thing. But there was kind of an assumption. Well, okay. You know, that, that's it for, that's the last time we need to pay attention to the Rockets this season. You know, we'll see him again next year, so on and so forth. Um,

They haven't lost since then. And obviously, I'm not saying it's cause and effect by any stretch. No, no, no, no. Their schedule has helped, but they also have a good win against Cleveland and a good win against Sacramento in that stretch of games. What's really helped is Jalen Green is on the heater of his life. And I think playing qualitatively a little better. Some of it is just random shooting and stuff happens in March. Some of it is I think he's playing...

Just a cleaner, simpler game. He's shooting 71% at the rim in his last 10 games. It started on leap year, by the way. It's the leap day, leap day rather. It's the leap day leap for Jalen Green. I like that. And, and Ahmed Thompson is like essentially functioning as their center on offense and is a complete terror on defense. Yeah.

Yeah, so Jalen Green is playing. Obviously, he's making shots, but he's playing the smartest and toughest basketball of his career. And look, this is a guy who you heard a bunch of, hey, they're dangling Jalen Green in the trade market type of stuff. I don't think it's breaking any sort of news to say that there was uncertainty about Jalen Green's long-term fit

in Houston and it's a great term long term would be the key word for me there I'm not not really sure what happened at the trade deadline to be honest with you right his name was in rumors that's the to say the least um and it's a great time for him to be playing the best basketball of his career and if he can keep this rolling uh you know the rest of the season then

there will be interesting discussions with him come extension time this summer. You know, I don't know how that's going to play out. I'm just saying he's, he's definitely has improved his, his, his positioning there, but I'm in Thompson, you know, this is a guy who obviously they love. That's why they picked him number four overall. But,

Wasn't really in the rotation early. Missed a bunch of time because he had a pretty nasty ankle sprain. But they are super excited about this kid. And I think probably the best comp for him is like an early career Ben Simmons. Because, look, he can't shoot. Oh, God. Oh, God. No. Early career being the stress point there. Just in terms of like feel for the game.

High, high, high level athleticism. Instagram account?

I don't know about all that IQ, but they love this kid's motor too. And, you know, he's been a massive factor. He's averaging like 17 and eight, making all kinds of plays defensively since he's been plugged in the starting lineup after Shingun went down. He's a very good passer. Well, this is not, it's not a problem. It just, it's, it's an awesome puzzles to solve. They have seven legit,

good to great prospects on their team. I mean, Shen Goon is now above a prospect, obviously. Probably Jalen Green is too. Like, Tari Eason's not even playing. He's going to get leg surgery. I love Tari Eason. I hope he fully recovers and is fine. Cam Whitmore's out right now. That dude is a freight train coming at you and can shoot too. And Amin Thompson, you know, is this, you just comp them to the player who shall not be named.

He only runs like 12 pick and rolls per 100 possessions. It's a very small amount. He hasn't been able to function as a point anything because he can't shoot at all. He's 8 of 51 on threes. He doesn't really have a jump shot. But they found all these other ways to use him. And you can see his vision in those rolls. Like he's a really good interior passer. He cuts in from the dunker spot and makes little slick bounce passes. And he's a monster on defense. I'm not going to lie.

This young core is so exciting. I know you got to go. I told you I had one basketball dilemma for you. It's going to become a talking point soon. Are you ready? I'm ready. Let's say, for the sake of argument, that the Lakers missed the playoffs.

Okay, they're ninth and tenth, but they don't get out of the playoffs. They don't get out of the play-in. So they go in the lottery, and nothing interesting happens to them in the lottery. They end up with like the 13th pick or something like that. Whatever they go in, that's where they come out. If you're the New Orleans Pelicans, one of the juiciest little soap operas in the league is you own the Lakers 2024 pick, but you also have the ability to say, we don't want it this year.

We want it next year. You only get this one time. It's this pick or next year's pick. Unprotected both ways. So let's just say, obviously, and the deadline I've been told is June 1st. And Bobby Marks looked into it too. June 1st. So they get to see the lottery. They get to know where the Lakers pick is before they decide to kick it or keep it. So let's just say nothing crazy happens. The Lakers have the 13th pick or they make the playoffs. It's the 15th pick, whatever it is.

Are you taking that pick now or are you saying I'm kicking it to next year? Let's see what happens. Defer. And I, you asked me this earlier and I thought about it, but it didn't have to think very long because number one, obviously I'm no draft expert, but everybody who is says next year's draft is a hell of a lot stronger. And I think you take, especially when there's a potentially, you know,

franchise changing type of talent at the top of the draft, which apparently Cooper flag is, even if it's a 1% chance that I think you take that 1% chance. And look, is Anthony Davis going to be as healthy next year as he's been this year? Is LeBron James, as he turns 40, going to still be playing at an all NBA level? The answer might be yes, but I think you take those chances.

I'm deferring. I thought about it like 11th, 12th. Like, that sounds interesting. It's a lottery pick. It's still a good pick. I'm deferring. The only the reason I thought about it was, well, the Lakers are going to try to make a trade this summer. They have all this trade ammo. So like, am I risking that like they trade for Star Guard X and then they're like a 50 win team next year and I'm picking five spots lower. But you know what? The risk of that is worth it to me.

Because even if they trade for Stargardt X, they might have to trade somebody good from their team to get him. Maybe not. I don't know who that would be even. And like you said, Anthony Davis might get hurt. LeBron's 40. Like even if they get that guy, I'm not sure how many more wins it's going to like guarantee them if other couple of things go wrong. If they don't get that guy, a lot of stuff could go wrong. So I'm deferring June 1st. It's,

It may not even end up being interesting, but I just think it's like people kind of forgot about that. That's a big – that's a juicy little morsel sitting out there. Tim McMahon, you got to go. Thank you for your time. You got to – the Mavs play somebody tonight, right? You got a game in Dallas? They play the Jazz, baby. You can't get away from the Jazz. Salt Lake City Stars are in town. I'll tell you, Taylor Hendricks –

Thank God he's finally getting minutes. That dude can play. He's going to be an interesting stretch tweener forward, but he makes like four highlight plays on defense every game, and he got dunked on last night by Chet Holmgren, but that's a whole other thing. Tim McMahon, thank you, sir. Appreciate it. Adios, amigos. So, you want to be a marketer?

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All right. The other team at the top of the West's

Kind of a forgotten team. Not forgotten, but Carl Anthony Towns got hurt. Rudy Gobert is hurt. Nas Reed is hurt. Suddenly they're like the Phoenix. Remember the Phoenix Suns had a million point guards and then they had none? The Wolves had a million centers and then they had none. Everyone's like, are they now the team that people want to play in the first round? The Minnesota Timberwolves are 4-3 without Carl Anthony Towns. Tough.

as hell, took the defending champs to the wire to an Anthony Edwards missed game tying three at home the other night without any of said centers. John Krasinski from The Athletic, how are you? I'm great, Zach. And yeah, four and three could have been five and two were it not for the Rudy Gobert infamous technical at the end of the Cleveland game that allowed the Cavs to win that one. So yeah, it's been a wild...

A couple of weeks, but a wild existence on this Wolves beat. So good to be back. Well, that's 20 years. And by the way, the new ownership thing, it took a little hairpin turn at the end. But A-Rod and Mark Lurie and now Eric Schmidt's involved, the new financing. Apparently it's going to go through the longest. Glenn Taylor's on again, off again attempts, dalliances with whatever selling the team finally appear to be at an end.

We'll see. Yeah, I mean, it's still got to go through the approval process and all that. I think there's still some dots to eyes the dot and T's the cross. So you never know until it's over. But yeah, Mark Lurie and Alex Rodriguez got to a spot here.

in the last 24 hours that many people did not think they were going to get to. And so now the real fun starts. Are they going to be approved and go forward? But yeah, this is the Timberwolves way of doing business. This is just how it has to be. Yeah, nothing can ever be normal with the Timberwolves, including their cap sheet next year is very abnormally huge, which put a lot of pressure on this year, which made the town's injury even more sort of pressing. What are we going to learn without him?

How far can they get without him? What condition will he be when he comes back? But first, but first, forget all the real stuff, the meaningful stuff, people's legs and how they feel and people's ribs and how they feel, people's whatever. The dunk, the dunk might be the most violent basketball play I've ever seen ever. Literally both the dunker and the donkey were injured by the dunk.

I haven't gone through all the best in-game dunks ever. I think it's Ant's best in-game dunk. It's better than Wananabi. It's just more violent than Wananabi. I still am partial to the dunk of death in the Olympics. Vince Carter literally jumping over a seven-foot Frenchman and dunking. I think the dunk de la mort. I don't speak French. They call it the dunk de la mort. I think that's the best in-game dunk I've ever seen. This might be number two.

And I think they've only played once since then. They play again, I think, in about seven hours tonight, the Wolves. Even in that game...

That follow-up game, the Denver game. There was like a buzz you could hear. Like when he got the ball and when he got the ball with the runway, there's like an air of impending violence now that I think is going to last for like a couple of weeks. Like you can feel it like, uh-oh, uh-oh. It's excitement because everyone's excited about the possibility of the highlight. But there's also this like ominous like who is going to get smashed by the hammer of God tonight.

Um, what was your angle on the dunk? Yeah, I mean, it was, I was actually, um, I had to watch from home. I had a family situation to get back to. So I was watching from TV. Um, but you're right in terms of the combination now of Anthony Edwards becoming, um,

pure electricity and excitement combined with impending doom. Like that's what this player is right now, whether it is the dunk or if you want to talk about the block against the Pacers. The very first game without Towns when, you know, oh my God, what's the injury going to mean? Anthony Edwards is like the,

I'm going to score 44 points and hit my face on the backboard and we're going to win the goddamn game is what it means. Yeah, that's exactly what it is. And so he, he has mayhem on his mind on a minute by minute basis. And you do feel Zach in the arena, a crackle with him when the ball is in his hands or people are starting to see like LeBron when he, when he's going down the court and sizing someone up to block, uh,

block someone at the rim and transition the anticipation that is starting to build with his reputation of being this game wrecker. Uh, it's palpable. Like, so you feel that energy, you see his teammates respond to it. Uh,

And you also see opponents looking over their shoulder all of a sudden. Where is this dude? I have to be aware at all times. That's what Anthony Edwards has become. And I think I said it the other day on Twitter, but I do think he's the best show in the NBA right now. When we talk about players and skills and stuff, he's the best show just because you never know

when that moment is going to hit. And when he delivers that moment, there are very few that can reach the heights literally and figuratively that he brings. Shout out to Nikhil Alexander Walker who threw the pass, which was not like an obvious pass necessarily. Mm-hmm.

to put him on that runway for that dunk. He's such a show, John, that he rose up for a putback dunk against Denver two nights ago, where again, as he's jumping, there was like both in the crowd and in my soul, this combination of like anticipatory excitement and

And shrieking fear. Like, is he going to hurt? Is this going to hurt? And then it was just like a normal emphatic put bite, put back Duncan. It was almost like, well, that's it. Like there's no carnage. There's no, there's no wreckage anywhere. Um,

Remember the old sports science segments where they used to do that? I want a sports science segment. I need to know the velocity of his right arm as it's coming down on John Collins' entire being and life. That was...

I mean, it was so good. I watched the game on delay because I had some stuff to do. So I watched the first quarter, I think, and then I left to do some stuff. And the dunk happened. And I see on Twitter, I get some notifications, there's a dunk. There's an Anthony Edwards dunk. That's all I know. I don't see it. I didn't watch it. I was like, I'm not watching the video. And watching the game, knowing it was coming,

I don't know that I've ever had any, like every time he was near the ball, I was like, is this it? Is this it? Is this it? And then it was like, is it going to live up to that? He was like, oh my God. Yeah, it was. And you talked about the Nikhil pass, which was great. But

But even before it, as it originated, the ant hit a head pass to Nikhil. Like, because he grabbed the rebound. There's been many times he's just gone coast to coast, tried to draw a foul and do it that way. He hit a head and then kept it going. And when Nikhil threw the pass and he elevated like he jumped off of a trampoline.

My kids have trampoline in the backyard of the neighbors and they just fly off of that thing. It was exactly like he hit a trampoline right at the restricted area and flew. And Nikhil Alexander Walker, the reaction was,

He said it. I talked to him before the Denver game. I said, what was it like, dude? What was it like? He's like, I wanted to fight somebody. It was like watching... I would imagine a 19-year-old Italian kid going to watch Rocky Balboa, a movie back in the day, and walking out of the theater just wanting to get in the ring. And that's what...

The reaction was from him, from Kyle Anderson, who is just going to have be a meme for the rest of his life with the, you know, hands on his head kind of reaction to it. And I think that one thing that is different for the Timberwolves is you saw that dunk

matter for 36 hours. It dominated the ESPN broadcast, SportsCenter, ESPN Today. And that's not an area that the Timberwolves are used to being in. Now they have their guy who can put them there at any moment. And it's intoxicating for this market, for sure.

People talk about business decisions like on dunks. And Ant made a business decision in that Nuggets game when Jamal Murray was coming at him. And he was like, you know what? My chances aren't so great. I'm just going to let him throw this one down. It's not a business decision with Anthony Edwards coming at you. It's like a life-saving decision. It's like a health decision. Look, I said when Towns got injured –

I understand that the numbers that they are lucky in a way that they have this ready-made template to play without him. Okay. We have Gobert. Gobert is the keystone of our defense. Our defense will be fine. Now we just sort of simplify the offense. There's a bunch of high pick and roll with Gobert screening for Ant, for the guards, for Conley, whatever, whatever.

Work around that. Yeah, maybe our shooting isn't quite as good, but we can figure that we have a way to play. And the numbers were outstanding. If you sorted them and on the floor, go bear on the floor towns off the floor. There's a foundation here. And yet I said, that's all cool.

I don't think they can win two playoff rounds without Karl-Anthony Towns. I don't know when he's coming back. I don't know what his condition is going to be. I just think their offensive ceiling isn't going to be high enough. I think I still think that they could win a first round series depending on who they play, even without Towns. I don't know who they'll play, who I'd pick, whatever. They can win that series. The next one, if it's one of the other juggernauts, I just don't think their game-to-game ceiling is high enough on offense. But I'll tell you,

In situations like this, you learn stuff about a team and about some players. And we've learned that this team's toughness is absolutely legit. There is no wobble in this team, no matter how many guys get hurt. They're tough. They play together. They play with heart. And we've learned that Ant is ready for any situation. Like, just let him soar.

We'll talk later maybe about his playmaking lately, which I think has been massively encouraging. But there's something in the fiber of this team that I don't know has been there since Garnett. Like, even in the Butler year, there was a lot of – there was, you know, this, like, rumor. There was this fracturing, the old guard and the new guard. And does Jimmy really trust the Wiggins and Towns? Like –

That game against Denver, they lost. But to your point, almost 5-2, almost 6-1. They gave Denver a hell of a scare without any of their centers missing.

Yeah.

Yeah, they definitely have a backbone that you didn't expect, really, especially last year where, let's face it, they had trouble incorporating Gobert. I don't think they were the most connected team at all times.

And they have found it this season. And it wasn't just the Denver game. I remember earlier this season, they were in Boston on the second night of a back-to-back. Gobert and Conley did not play. They took the Celtics to overtime. Like that's, they are the only team in the NBA, I think,

so far that has not been down by at least 30 in a game this year. They are in every game. The other landmark game from this stretch, I just want to mention it before I forget, is going down 22 against the Clippers on the road. And yeah, sure, Kawhi leaves at halftime of the game with back spasms or whatever. They come back and they don't just win. They've

blow the doors off to Clippers without Towns. Like you didn't have Kawhi, we didn't have Towns. We went on the road, we outscored you by 40 points in 29 minutes of play or whatever it was. Yeah. And I do think some of it comes from Chris Finch in terms of right before the Denver game, you know, no Nas, no Rudy, they're shorthand, no cat. And he was asked in this pregame press conference, you know, hey coach, what do you expect tonight? You're playing the defending champs. They've been awesome after the all-star break.

You guys are so shorthanded on the second night of a back-to-back road home. What do you expect? And he said, I expect to win the game. And there's this sort of like no BS attitude.

stuff with this team in general emanating from Finch and Tim Conley in terms of they expect to compete every game. They don't rest guys like all their guys play when they're healthy all the time. And I think they take pride in that. And they're also doing it defensively. Like that's their identity. And so they feel like they are

fighters. They feel like they, they, they are tough and they want to show you that they're not winning games. Flashy. Their offense has been 16, 17, 18, 19 all season long. And it's like, yeah, we're not the prettiest, but when you step in the ring with us, we're going to find a way to be in this the whole way. And our fourth quarter offense is a little, little questionable or this or that, but, but, uh, they're resourceful and, and, and they want

The smoke like ant and that starts with ant he believes every single time he steps on the floor. He's the best player on the floor and it doesn't matter who he's going up against and everyone kind of feeds off of that energy and says, let's fight these guys and that's what it is every single night.

There is a sense, I mean, you see it even with the younger Spurs, with Wemba Nyama, of we have this dude on our team. This is awesome. Like, there is this sort of, like, belief element of, like, this guy is fighting for us and doing this stuff for us. This is awesome. You mentioned, you know, offense up and down. Fourth quarter offense, they've been bottom 10 all season. Crunch time offense, they've been bottom 10 all season. That's the sort of weak spot of the team, but...

They're tough as hell. Well, let's just do the basics. Like, what do we know about Towns? Has there been any update from the team about, what are we, two weeks since he got injured? Yeah, not an official update. He's had the surgery, and they said it went well, and he'll be evaluated in four weeks from the surgery date last week. And so I think we're essentially three weeks away from that or so. But talking to people around it, I believe that there is real optimism that Towns

it's going to be on the shorter end of the window for him coming back, provided that everything goes okay. And according to plan with the rehab process. So I don't think he's not going to play the rest of this regular season, but I think that there is optimism that early on in the playoffs, he can be ready. Now, what does he look like when he comes back and all of those things? Those are question marks that will have to be answered and see what happens. But yeah,

By all accounts, people seem to be pretty optimistic that he's going to get through this and get back relatively soon. Is that game one of round one? I don't know about that, but I do think that they're looking somewhere in that first series and to have him back on the court and that would be big for them.

Nas Reed is a, is a head injury, correct? What do we know about him? So they have not labeled it a concussion. Um, he was listed as questionable against Denver the other night and came to the arena, went through some pregame stuff and just examination and stuff then, um, then went home. Um,

He, I think, will be listed as questionable for the game Friday night against Cleveland. I can see him. I think it's presumable that he could play in that game. He may need another game. The Wolves play on Sunday against Golden State in the rematch.

with Draymond. So I would think that sometime in the next two games is probably a reasonable expectation for him to get back. I don't think it's a, it's a severe concussion or, or head injury like that. So the window is pretty short for him and for Rudy Gobert. Yeah. Gobert is a rib and like a rib pain tolerance kind of thing. What do we know about that? He, uh, went through a full workout before the Denver game. Uh,

And wasn't quite ready to go. But yeah, it is a pain tolerance issue. They had Wednesday and Thursday off. And so I think Friday is, again, reasonable. Maybe it would take one more to come back on Sunday. But he's very close to returning. So he was a game time decision, essentially, for the Nuggets game. So I think that real soon he'll be back on the court.

I mean, obviously they need these guys, but like the level of resourcefulness that they've shown, I mean, against Denver, they're, they're splitting center minutes between Kyle Anderson and

and Luca Garza, basically. And Luca Garza will shoot. Like the guy is out there to shoot threes. He's going to shoot. He's going to shoot his jump hooks. He's going to keep shooting. He does not care if he misses eight threes in a row. He's going to shoot. And they're playing, you know, two point guards together a lot of the times with Nikhil Alexander-Walker as like a three in these like super duper small lineups. There's like Amani Morris, Mike Conley, Jordan McLaughlin. We need all of you. Everyone's got to play. And they're super resourceful. What else have you learned recently?

What else can we take from this stretch so far? I mean, it's a small sample. I get that. But it is always interesting. Like, what are some of the talking points you hear around the team or just from your own watching of the games? Like, what's been interesting to you? Yeah, I mean, I think that it really has been interesting to see them adapt on the fly. Now, they are sort of

Returning to the smoke and mirrors fly around team with Patrick Beverly and that team and Vanderbilt and all those guys that went to the playoffs two years ago, that was an undersized kind of scrappy, you know, get into the passing lanes and create turnovers and get out and run type of a team.

Um, and so for most of this season with Rudy, with Kat, they have been a hold our water, uh,

protect the rim, you know, contest shots type of a defense. And it's been great for them. They've been number one defense all year. It's really worked well, but in these past seven games and especially the past few without Rudy, they've had no rim protection. And so they have turned much more into, we are going to get into the passing lanes. We're going to create turnovers and they did not run at all with, with the bigs. And, and now they are getting out in transition a little bit more and,

And that's been an impressive thing to watch them quickly return to that team they were two years ago. And you've seen Jaden McDaniels now sliding down to the floor a little bit and blocking shots at the rim. And they're just doing whatever it takes to get stops. And there was a sequence in the Denver Games, Zach, where you want to talk about

rotate, fly around, cover, recover, and force a Jamal Murray heave late in the clock. I mean, that's as good as you could play against the Nuggets. And so they've just found ways to do it by making those things happen. And then it's one night it's Nas Reed scoring a bunch of points. One night it's Nikhil Alexander-Walker hit a bunch of threes.

One night's Jordan McLaughlin. Jordan McLaughlin is shooting like mid 40% from three right now. So finding just those little heaters and then getting behind you hit on it earlier. And as a playmaker has been the key to the whole thing. Like he, you know, Rosillo talked about it the other day. He's not just having these highlights, right?

He's not just throwing down dunks, blocking shots. He is making plays for his teammates and showing a maturity in his game that unlocks everything here. You hate to be the nerd guy who's like, oh, the dunks are cool, but let me tell you the thing that's actually cool. Because the dunks are cool. The dunks are the best thing.

But I just think he... Look, he's only averaging 5.1 assists a game. That's up recently. So it's not like amazing, but it is a jump from last year and the year before. Qualitatively, I just like when he makes the easy pass early. And it just...

gets the offense flowing it keeps the offense flowing the ball often comes back to him in a better position um but i you know i would point to i think he's had a couple of games lately of eight assists one of ten maybe you have 10 assists in one game yeah i think yeah just a few games though yeah there's a sequence against the jazz in utah on march 18th so what is that three days ago two days ago three days ago end of the third quarter

That I think people should look at as illustrative of what he can do when he just does the simple stuff and how, and how dominating he is because he's,

There's a fear factor with him, not just as a dunker, but as a scorer that we can't let this guy get a rhythm. Even if the numbers say he's a good jump shooter, but not a great one. Like you just don't want to let him get open and get up in the air and get easy looks. They run the same play three times in a row at the end of the third quarter, starting like two and a half minutes to one minute.

It's a left side pick and roll between Ant and Luka Garza. And they often run a little like Iverson cut for Ant across the foul line to get him going. Three plays in a row. I don't know. I can't remember the exact order, but the outcomes are different every time. First one is they drop and Ant just takes one dribble. Oh, Luka's open. Pop, pop, pick

pick and pop three. Here you go. Luca makes a three second one. They drop again, but Ant's got kind of an angle splits the defense and just explodes. Like you guys have no shot layup. Third one. He drives again, left side help comes. He pauses for just a second to read the defense sees. I think TJ Warren cutting into the slot immediate to cut TJ Warren, TJ Warren gets a layup, just three simple plays over and over and over again. There was another play, uh,

I wish I could remember what game it was. It was somewhat... It might have been that Clippers game, actually, where they ran a left side pick and roll between Ant and whoever the center was, Gobert, and they blitzed. And rather than hold the ball or force a drive or force a pass, he saw how the defense was rotating and he swung it directly to his right to...

some perimeter player who was like the release valve player, like immediate, just what, I don't know if he took more than one dribble, immediate. And that guy, as the defense scrambled toward him, threw a skip pass to Nikhil Alexander Walker in the corner for, maybe it was Monte Morris in the corner for a three.

Yeah, it might have been Alexander Walker to Monte Morris. But the point is he gets off of it early and just good stuff happens. Even in that Denver game, there was one where he isolated at the left elbow and they doubled him. And he just immediately slipped this little bounce pass through the double to Kyle Anderson. Because he can get 30. No one's stopping him from getting 30.

What you don't want is every possession devolves into it's me against the world for one step back 20 footer after another because when those go in, they're sexy and it's cool. You can't win every game. You can't win four playoff games against the same great team like that. You can win four playoff games against anyone making the kind of plays I'm talking about. And it seems like he is in real time digesting like I'm better this way.

were better this way and yeah there are going to be times for me to cook and that's cool and like when I'm on it when they just feed me feed me the ball but like this works and it's like proof of concept almost

Yeah, there's two things on that. One is it has been a work in progress. Like he is 22 years old. He has the exuberance that he wants to take over these games and he's athletic enough to be able to get to his shot whenever he wants it. Now, he may not always make it, but what they had been working on with him for months now is...

Earlier on in the season, when it went bad, it was dribble, dribble, dribble, drive into three guys. Maybe you get a call, but a lot of times you don't. You yell at the refs and you're slow going back and then you're in all sorts of problems. But now they have tried to tell him that, Ant, if you get off of it early in the clock, you are going to get it back.

in a more advantageous position for you. And I think that took a little bit of time for him to really digest and realize. And so now he does do that and he has seen it work for his advantage and it's working really well. But the second part of that is the reason that he has emerged as such a great leader for this team is that he is trusting

Jaden McDaniels, who hasn't shot very well all year, he just keeps passing him the ball. If Luke is missing shots, he keeps passing him the ball. And there is a belief in the locker room that our number one player believes in us, in me. And so they get hyped from that. And it makes the whole thing work to a greater degree. Mike Conley told a story just the other night after the Denver game that...

he has been working with Ant a lot on don't force it, don't force it, simple play, simple play. And Ant took a couple of rush shots in the middle of that game and then came back to Mike and said, hey, my bad, I got to get off of it. I got to get going on it and did that the rest of the game. And Mike said, I was so proud of him because I didn't have to tell him this time. He's telling me. And that kind of shows that

a proof of concept that he's absorbing the information just as the playoffs are getting here. And so all of the lessons that Finch and Conley and Kyle Anderson and these guys have are trying to embed in him are starting to take root. And that is going to just make him even more of a monster because he's already had two good playoff series. Zach, he's not been the problem. He's ready for them. He's ready for that. So, and look, and that's why the town's injury, uh,

I mean, it's sad on a number of reasons. I say that, like you said, he could be back for the first game of the playoffs. So what's to be sad about? But you just hope that that's the case because, you know, he's been on this team nine years now waiting for a team like this. And his playoff record is not good. It's filled with bad fouls and bad turnovers and single-digit scoring games and 12-point scoring games until the last three games of that Denver series last year where that –

was a real thing that was a proven ground for them they proved something to themselves even in losing and i think he for the first time settled into the playoffs and started playing like carl towns and you hope he gets the chance to do that again but on ant that's why that utah sequence of pick and rolls that i'm talking about same play over and over again none of those are highlight plays like none of them are going to make the highlight reel it's just a player he he

There's barely... There's no wasted motion. There's no wasted time. Cut, catch, pick, go. Oh, you're defending me this way this time? Here's the read. Now you're defending me this way the second time? Here's the read. Third time, oh, you did this instead of that? Here's the read. And it's just instant...

Quick read and react, making the right play every time. Can we talk about the step through moves? I was just going to bring it up. I was just going to bring that up. Are so insane that I'm, I'm like zap rooting them. Is that a travel? Right. I don't think it's a travel. Cause it's like one step from the pivot and then plant and rise. Yeah.

He is. And this is what's so cool about him is he's this insane athlete. But this year he's developed one of the silkiest bank shots, like a classic old school Tim Duncan bank shot. And these step through footwork pivot moves like there's no one has that same step through almost in the entire NBA. And he is roasting dudes with it.

and I haven't heard anyone say it's a travel on the broadcast. I haven't heard anyone in the legal office say we've got to look at this. It looks like a totally legal step through. It looks like it, yeah. He really anticipates, and he has a great feel for space and time to execute something like that. And, you know, it started, it germinated, you know, back earlier in the season when he was caught in one area, and then he threw the ball off the backboard to himself and dunked.

And you saw like he did step through right there to get the space to make that play. And I think he whether a light bulb came on with him in that moment or the coaches and everyone started to build on that.

We have started now see it regularly in the last four or five games even. And, and it is becoming a real weapon for him. And the, the other part, Tim McMahon was just in town for the, for the Denver game. And we were talking about it as well. The other part is like,

He can explode past you or he can play really slow. The Euro step, the step through, these are timing plays. These are I'm going to play at a slower tempo and use my strength and everything against it. The decelerations at the rim in the last – it's been the last three – I mean he's always been good at it. But the last three weeks, he's got one or two every game where I'm like –

It's like he's going backwards all of a sudden. He's gotten so good at it that, and this is what I mean, it's like this insane athleticism and verticality and power, but he also clearly invests a lot of time and pride in like Mike and drill level fundamentals and craft.

Yeah, he works. I mean, that's the thing. He came in as a rookie, and there were these questions. Does he love the game? Will he put the work in? That was the thing that made it controversial, if you want to say, for the Timberwolves to take him. Number one was, what does this guy do? Does he have an aptitude for it? And from the minute he arrived, and it's only gotten better and better as these years have gone on,

coaches, teammates will tell you he puts in, he watches film, he puts in work, he is very coachable and listens. He doesn't do everything right all the time right away, but if he makes a mistake or two, they will coach him through something in a practice, in a film session. He's not making that mistake the next time. They will show him some avenue he can exploit. He does it. He can apply what he is learning very quickly. So he's a really smart

smart person. I think that his basketball IQ is increased exponentially over the last couple of years, but he puts the work in because he, he really wants to be great at it. And, and I think that that's, that separates him from some of the other players out there of just wanting to get into it and, and wanting to do whatever it takes to,

to make it to the second round, the third round of playoffs and really kind of take, take the league over, which is what is his ultimate goal in this. He also defends. And that matters on a number of levels. One of which is his teammates can't sit there and say, okay, well, our leading scorer, he just wants to play offense and he wants us to do all the heavy lifting on defense. And that can demoralize the team he defends. Now he's talked about being the best defensive player in the league and making an all defense team. I,

I think he's not far from that. He is an incredible on-ball defender, and he has shown that when he cares, he can pretty much take any assignment. He's taken big guys. He's taken point guards down the stretch of these games. Like, just give me that dude, and I can show. What was the big guy he took in a recent game? I was just trying to think that, and it's escaping me right now. I have to look at the schedule. But, yeah, he had somebody. It wasn't Jokic. No, no, no.

No, it was... It might have been Anthony Davis at one point. I can't remember who it was. But anyway, Markkinen maybe. In any case, he'll... And he gets into those guys because he has this combination of strength, good hands, and speed.

speed that is very, very rare. Off ball, he's still, like a lot of young players, is a little inconsistent in his attention to detail. But what I like about him is he knows that and he cares. So there's a sequence in that Denver game where he's on Jamal Murray because I want the Jamal Murray assignment. Give me the Jamal Murray assignment. And he misses a box out. Jamal Murray sneaks in front of him and gets an offensive rebound and Denver scores. And

And he is so visibly angry at himself. He's chastised. Like you see his face. He threw balls up his fist. He's angry. He's not angry at his teammates. He's not blaming anybody else. Not blaming that guy for not picking me up over here. He's pissed at himself. And that's what you want to see. And that's why he will develop into an all-defense level, all-around player. And he'll clean up some of these mistakes because he cares. And his teammates care.

see that, oh, he's not just relying on Jada McDaniels and Rudy Gobert to carry the defense and, like, I want to do all the fun stuff. He's in for all of it. Absolutely. He wants it all. And the thing, like, what we see, what is a regular occurrence...

is he finds the spots in a game where it's all right it's time to shut this down and you look at it and um it'll be hey uh jayden mcdaniels you've had vieron fox for most of this game i'm taking him for this sequence um yeah you like jayden

I think if they were to see the Pelicans in the playoffs, I think he would want Zion for some stretch. Which, by the way, allows Jaden McDaniels to be like a 6'10 roving help defender instead of the guy smothering the point guards. He's good at both, but there's trickle-down effects. Totally, yep. And so...

You know, we saw in the Clipper game when Paul George, he had him lined up, just took his candy, went right to the basket and scored. Like he has the ability to sink his teeth into someone right in front of him. And I also really believe it's that I don't know many two guards in the league that are better shot blockers. Like he, there are very few that can get in challenge at the rim with

the way and with the ferocity that Edwards does and not just on little guys on big guys like he will go hunt for those and again he likes that you know the first time I ever interviewed him was over the phone but I was asking a bunch of questions and I got to it's like hey you know you seem to have a real like a knack for rim protection like rim protection from a guard or a wing is like a really it's not super rare but it's a really huge thing for your defense just like rebounding from out of position rebounders is huge but

And he lit up and he was like, which block you want to talk about? I love all the, like, it's, it's, he, he loves it. Now look, I don't like, I think he's going to make an all NBA team this year and deserves it. Right. Which has financial implications for the wolves, but he deserves it. No question. That may be some question, but I, he'll make it. He's got another, another,

to make to be like a top, like if you start talking about the top like seven or eight players in the NBA right now, it's a pretty high bar to get to. I think he's a little bit below that, but not too far below. If he's making all NBA and he deserves it, and I think he does, it's not too far below. And,

And that leap is really just about the sort of simple plays judgment calibration stuff that we're talking about, which is, you mentioned he's not 23 years old. Like he's way ahead of the curve on all that, but there are games where he forces a little bit and gets him out of rhythm. And that's the stuff when he cleans that up, he's going to be a top five player, top eight player, whatever it is in the league. And the sky's the limit for him. Um,

Last question.

that's the next step for him as well. He's got to get onto those big stage moments and have success there. And that's what I wanted to end with, which is like, how are you, how is the team, how are fans there? Like, it's almost like there's been this pause on, you know, this is a team that based on its record, it's point differential, everything it's goal should be to make the finals. Like I'm not, I've never picked them to make the finals. I think they could be vulnerable in the first round if they draw the wrong matchup and, and towns is not healthy, but yeah,

before this Towns injury, like, yeah, we're trying to get the number one seed because it's a finals team. And these kind of ill-timed injuries to a star and the return is uncertain, the condition of return is uncertain. They put this weird pause in expectations. Like, I guess we've just got to wait and see. But what is the mood? Both among the team and among fans. Like, is it...

Is it gravy if they win a round? Does it depend on how Towns looks? Is there fear that this is like a lost season? I don't even know what to think.

Yeah, no, I'll say, first of all, from the team perspective, Tim Connolly made a statement at the start of the season that he said, it's time for this team to win a series. And at the time, when you follow this team for 20 years, you're like, holy, like that's a bold statement for this franchise. So that was the bar that was set early. I think that they raised that bar.

with how they have played for most of this season. And I know, I can tell you, like Rudy Gobert, Mike Conley, Ant, Cat, all of these guys, they believe that they have the talent to win and go to the Western Conference Finals or the Finals. They truly believe that. That has not changed since Carl went down. Like, they still believe that they will get him back early enough and that they have enough left

that the goal is a deep playoff run for this team. I will say from the fan standpoint,

This is maybe the most tortured sports fan base in the country when you talk about all of the men's sports continuously failing over and over again. So there is a psychosis in the fans that they want to get excited. They do get excited. Target Center has been sold out every single night this season. It's been great crowds, but they are waiting for the other shoe to drop.

And so when Towns does get hurt, you know, it's like, oh, here we go again. When Rudy gets hurt and Nas is hurt for the Denver game, they all just kind of like, why can't we have nice things? That sort of thing. But then they go out and watch a team battle with the Nuggets the whole way. And some of that belief comes back. So until any team in this market breaks,

breaks through and has real success in the playoffs. There's always going to be fan base bracing for the punch in the gut to come. But from a team standpoint, they're all in on this. They believe that, you know, that they can they can go as far as you want them to go.

I'm of the opinion, Zach, they can win in the, they can, they can go to the finals. They can lose in the first round. That's the variance that this team has going to the playoffs. There's probably a lot of West teams that can say that right now.

They have to be healthy to go to the finals. But that's – For sure. I think that's accurate. Maybe this is why – maybe this is why Ant keeps coming out of the tunnel late for – he was late for one game, then he was late for the second half of another game. Maybe he's trying to steal the fan base for –

Look, there's this air of mystery for a few minutes and everything's fine. Maybe he's like, that's bizarre. It's only happened twice. Like, can we not have it happen a third time? Yeah. There's those are the moments where you're like, yep, this guy is 22 years old. And oh, by the way, he just had a baby. And like he everything is swirling around him because I've never seen it in 20 years.

a player miss opening introductions and not get on the court in time to start the game, or he has to actually sit at the scorer's table and wait to check in. So there's that. And then the other really enjoyable thing, you'll enjoy this, Zach, if you want to just get a chuckle, find a time when Ant, when they're up by like 15 points,

third quarter, he will shoot a try and shoot a bank three to mess around and have fun. And just watch Chris Finch's expression. Just watch the color drain out of his face and the hair go everywhere. And, and just kind of soak that in for a coach who knows this is my number one guy. And without question, I believe in him.

entirely and he has the franchise on his shoulders and we can go as far as he takes him but he still does these things every once in a while that will just absolutely make him pull his hair out it's it's hilarious first of all chris finch does have great hair yeah if we did if we did a coach hair rankings it's up there he i mean i would without going through all the coaches i he's got to be a no-brainer top five yeah he's first team all nba coach here i mean i don't it did hair coach um

And you see Ant will occasionally make one and he'll let you know that he called it. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And he'll let everybody know I called it. All right. John Krasinski from The Athletic. Nobody does it better on the beat than you. Thank you for lending us some of your time. The shoe is not dropping. The shoe. There's no shoe. OK. OK. The shoe is already dropped and Carl's going to take it and put it back on. Everything's going to be OK.

is going to be fine. Thank you for your time, sir. Read John at The Athletic. Listen to him at The Athletic. And he's got his own podcast, too, about Minnesota sports. You should rename the podcast The Psychosis of the Fans with John Krasinski. Thank you, sir. I'm well-versed. I'll see you for beers in June in Minneapolis. Whoa, I love it. Thank you, John. For the first time, Monday Night Football streams exclusively on ESPN+.

Jim Harbaugh makes his long-awaited return to the Monday Night Lights. Touchdown, LA! And the Chargers add to their lead. As the Chargers meet rookie Marvin Harrison Jr. and the Cardinals in the down. Murray scrambling. Harrison! 60 yards, touchdown. Chargers-Cardinals. Monday, October 21st at 9 p.m. Eastern. Streaming exclusively on ESPN+. Sign up now at ESPN+.com.