Clipper Concerns, Red-hot Mavs, Wemby is here, and 6th Man Candidates
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And now, The Low Post. Welcome to The Low Post podcast. It's Monday afternoon. A wild, weird weekend in the NBA.

Full of playoff implications. We're going into the stretch run to help us break down the playoff races. A couple of Western Conference juggernauts, would-be juggernauts that are starting to worry me a little bit. And then some other stuff. You see him in the athletic at Bleacher Report in his One Mo' Thing video series. Former video coordinator for the Clippers who will come up later in this podcast. Mo' Tequil, how are you? I'm doing great, Zach. How are you?

I'm good. So here's what happened among other things over the weekend. The much awaited Lakers Warriors. Oh my God. Can one of us get up to eighth showdown occurred at crypto.com. The Warriors come up with a win in an absolute embarrassment and a debacle for the NBA when the shot clock stopped working and then it stopped working again. And then it kept not working. And then Lawrence Tantor,

Maybe the best PA announcer in all of sports had to count down the shot clock like some dude emceeing a junior varsity high school game. And then they had a LeBron three wiped away, which actually looked like the right call to be. I like how LeBron just insists.

despite copious video evidence that on this shot and the one in Minnesota, his foot never touched the line is like, dude, what are they showing you different video? Like, I don't know. I don't understand how you're so definitive about this, but the reviews took forever. It just took forever. It was completely embarrassing to the NBA, which should be embarrassed about a few things of recent, of recent. No. And then the next day, Kyrie Irving,

related by the way because this is a team that the Warriors and the Lakers one of many teams that they are hoping praying would slump and let one of them at least escape the play and losers bracket of death Kyrie Irving not only does he hit

Frankly, one of the greatest shots I've ever seen ever, period. A running lefty, like 17-foot semi-hook at the buzzer. Not only does he win a game, he wins a game against the Denver Nuggets, which when you start parsing out likely wins and likely losses, even though the game's in Dallas, is not a likely win. And it turns into a win. And you add it all up, Moe.

They're both going to play tonight, the Lakers and the Warriors, so I'm not going to belabor it. Right now, basketball reference playoff odds, Lakers, 85% chance of 9th, 10th, or out. Warriors, 7%.

71% chance of 9th, 10th, or out. Playoffstatus.com, another site I like. Very intuitive. People should use this site, playoffstatus.com. It's awesome. Both of them are about 75% chance 9th,

10th or out. So that eighth hope, forget six, that eighth hope is fading. I'll never forget six. The West is so topsy-turvy and the Kings are so unreliable. I can't just forget six. The Kings are currently six, but forget six for now. Eighth is looking unlikely. And I mentioned the word out Mo because the Houston Rockets have won seven of eight to just sneak, sneak,

Sneak up on the Lakers. Three out of the Lakers in the losers bracket. They currently have the tiebreaker over the Lakers by virtue of conference records, just in case.

They do not have the tiebreaker over the Warriors. They've lost that season series already, but they have one game left against the Warriors. They're playing good ball and they're making these teams sweat now from both directions. So that's where we are. I don't want to belabor it, but what if anything other than Anthony Davis leaving the game because he looked like a boxer who had lost a fight, that poor guy with his eye closing shut and he's questionable tonight against the Hawks. What else, if anything of note,

Just headline most thoughts on Lakers-Warriors. Well, first, I was at the game with my fiance. And so the whole shot clock debacle was kind of comical because we had a guy sitting behind us after the second attempt to restart.

go like i'm just gonna go to the restroom they're not gonna be done in time like he called it and then it came back and it still wasn't uh ready to roll and it's also important to note was there was a critical possession in that game i think it was in the fourth quarter where the shot clock actually malfunctioned and nobody noticed and it reset and the warriors had like a 36 second possession and and scored and then you know the lakers bench is going nuts but that's

They noticed. They noticed. They noticed for sure because they're not used to having to play defense that long. I just want to be clear. It's you and your fiancé and Ben Affleck and J-Lo, equivalent experiences at this game being discontented by the delays. Exactly the same. It was exactly the same. Both of us had the same expression, both couples, on our face. The game itself was great. I just felt like the Lakers –

just couldn't keep up shooting-wise. And once Curry got going, Clay had an unbelievable first half, and then Curry got going, and then you had Kaminga rolling, and then Draymond with just a vintage Draymond night. You know, I forget, double-double in assistant boards. Like, it was just impossible for the Lakers to kind of keep up, especially once AD went out. You know, one of the reasons I really like J.J. Redick on the broadcast is because he's lived this era of the NBA as a player,

He has a very good sense of recent history. So you're at the game, you're not listening to the broadcast. Draymond hits two of those just patented Curry-Draymond pick and roll, trap Curry, slip pass to Draymond, lob to the baseline cutter. And the first one is to Kaminga for a dunk. Kaminga! Every time I mention him, I say it like that because I've been on the Kaminga bandwagon for ages. And I'm watching the game from home thinking, man...

I can close my eyes and see Andre Guadalla with that dunk, Kevon Looney with a much less vertical version of that dunk, and on and on and on. It is...

Might be the defining play of the last 15 years in the NBA. And JJ, on the broadcast, immediately starts talking the same thing about how that play, you close your eyes, you see so many different versions of it. Here we are in 2024, and we're seeing new versions of it with new guys. And you're right, the Lakers' defense couldn't keep up. I was just struck by, although the Lakers scored well and LeBron had 40 points,

They just, it's so hit or miss with them possession by possession on offense. Some of their possessions are so stagnant. Nobody is moving at all while somebody just dribbles and dribbles. Do you notice that too? Yeah, no, it drives me nuts. It's that and then it's the pace. Like I think this team plays better when they're attacking an early offense and getting going before a defense is set because I think that's where they end up becoming stagnant.

Cause it's then just watching LeBron. Then it's just watching Russell with the ball on, in those instances. And now you're just hoping that you're going to, you're playing against a six defender, which is the shot clock. Now you're playing and you have a tough shot. You know, the defense gets to kind of chill for a few minutes where nobody's cutting no movement. And you'd think you'd get more movement from a guy like Rui Hachimura, even Reeves from time to time. Like I get excited when they cut, this is a team that needs to be just constant movement in general.

Well, and Reeves and Hachimura have stretches, particularly Austin Reeves, where he does this by screening for LeBron. And they activate their pick and roll game like that. And they activate rotations on defense to get the ball moving. But at his core, Austin Reeves is a ball handler. At his core, Rui Hachimura wants to have the ball and go one-on-one in the post and in isolation.

At his core, Anthony Davis is a mix of a dive man who doesn't have enough spacing to be a great dive man right now and someone who wants to go one-on-one in the post or face up. They just don't have anyone with off-ball juice

D'Lo is like their best off-ball player, but that's purely because of his shooting. He's not moving around doing anything. And so when they are focused on like, let's get our pick and roll game, our mismatch game, you know, the movie we've seen with LeBron against Curry specifically a hundred times. Let me try to get him in a mismatch against me. Or...

rotations, doubles, switches, we start moving the ball around, they look good. When they don't do that, they look stagnant. They just start getting nothing from the bench, and that's partly because Vanderbilt's hurt, Reddish missed the game, Vincent's missed essentially the whole season, Christian Woods started just getting... Jackson A's actually had a good game

but they're just not getting much from the bench. Tough loss for the Lakers. Nice win for the Warriors. And you just hope that Anthony Davis gets healthy soon because the Lakers margin for error is shrinking and AD has had a first or second team all NBA level season. Any other takeaways from being there? It's a good thing they didn't have any, like a giveaway item because it would have been, and here come the pretzels from the old Simpsons episode. Would have been one of those situations.

Yeah, no, I think the other takeaway was, you know, LeBron was on another level and just nobody could rise up with him on that team. Like he really did try to put them on his back and get going. And I think that was just a...

One of those things. It's fun watching him. Like, I'm going to miss him when he retires in that sense. And I don't know if we necessarily give him enough love in a way or appreciation in the way we should. But, like, hopefully that will come afterwards. But he's just it's just impressive watching him and carrying that at this point, you know, dropping 40 in a game that felt like especially in the first half, like a heavyweight match.

Like I was juice. I was getting ready. I was like, this is going to be a great one. I'm ready. Oh, I was, I was psyched for the game. I couldn't wait to start it. And then, and then the finish was what it was, which is just like, you know, it's easy for me to say like, that just can't happen in a game of this magnitude. It can't happen. Like,

happens like it happens the clock the hawks were the league leaders in clock malfunctions for years and years and years it happens i don't remember it happening in a lakers game i don't exactly know what happened i don't know if they ever explained it but like it's a tough look it's a tough look with the world watching the harder thing though i think that took the the wind out of the the arena was when they they took away the lebron three though

It went to a review. We're thinking it's a side out of bounds. Like, whose ball is it coming out? And then all of a sudden, Larry comes on the speaker and just says, got some bad news. That three is not going to count. And you just hear everybody go, what? No, it was pretty – the stoppage was pretty quick after the shot, right? How many possessions, like, happened between the shot and the – because that's one where you got to get it –

right away or else it screws up the game. Yeah, I want to say it was LeBron hits the shot, Warriors get a possession, ball goes out of bounds, and the Lakers call for a review. So there's a full stoppage. And I think that's when it happened. So I think it was just one more possession, but it went from a four-point game to a seven-point game. Just at that point, you're just like, wow, I immediately go like, oh, there might not be enough time now.

I don't even know how I feel about reviews. Like as they happen, I hate them. I hate them like anybody else hates them because I just want the game to go on.

Like I want basketball to be a continuous game, which by the way is one of the reasons why fouls are down. I think it's, it's not, we're going to get into that later, but I think the NBA does not want so many stoppages in the game. They want to flow. And I hate the reviews. Some of them take so long that you're like, what are you, why is this taking four minutes? We all see the video. It's pretty obvious that,

If there's one dissenting voter in Secaucus, just throw that guy off the boat and move on with the game. But then I will... Like, everybody who hates reviews, including me, the minute you miss a massive call in a massive game, people are going to be like, well, that's inexcusable. That's a reviewable item. You didn't review it. You got it wrong. So I don't quite know how I feel. I just...

I wish some of them were faster or there was a clock on them because like some of them just take – and if, God forbid, there's like a shoving match and I've got to look back and review every player on each bench and every – it just takes forever to –

Yeah, I'm anti-review. Perfection is the enemy of good. I think we're striving for something that's... There are still times where I don't even agree with the review. You know, and how did you call that? And whatnot, and things like that. If we're going to have reviews, need to speed it up. I think you got to make it that they got to watch it in real time. Can't slow-mo it. And they get just three watches at it. It has to be so obvious that after watching it a third time in real time,

You see the mistake. I like that proposal. No slow-mo. I got to see it, how it happened.

But if you frame by frame stuff and like some of these things are wildly close and we'll talk about it, I think, down the phrase where I'm going to talk about how great it was. But the the element of it is just like we just got to live with it. There's going to be this stuff happens. I think we just have to accept it. Yeah, there's going to be a game if we don't have review and I'm going to go completely ballistic. You can't call that foul or whatnot. That's a terror. You didn't even touch him.

Just got to move on from it. I just think it takes too long and the flow of the game is more important. You know, also something, there are a lot of people who feel this way, by the way, that we should just ditch the whole thing and just say it evens out over time. Now, over time may not be one game, but over and one game may be and end up

being all that matters for the purposes of this discussion like you're talking about. But there are a lot of people who feel this way. Let's just go away from it. Human error is human error. As technology improves, things like Goal 10s will just be robot calls because the technology will be there to call them instantaneously. Probably foot on the line calls could be the same thing someday. I don't know. I'm just speculating on that.

And it's sort of actually in a bizarre way bolsters your case that some of the most egregious missed calls are not reviewable. Like the one that comes right off the top of my head is the ref watching, was it a Sar Thompson get tackled out of bounds by the Knicks and not calling anything and the Pistons go on to lose the game. It's like, well, we can't review a non-call. It's like, if we can't review a non-call game,

Do we need to review? I don't know. I'm getting off track. Let's talk about the Mavs game because the Mavs are now 39-29 after a massive win in seventh, chasing that sixth seed as the Pelicans, who we are definitely going to talk about, put some distance between themselves and sixth Sacramento. Massive win for the Mavs. Again, it already happened. I don't want to talk too much about it. But that shot, I mean, that's as great. It's like...

So I watched the Clippers game this morning because I wanted to see, like, how did they just get rolled at home by the Hawks? And the Clippers game was after the Mavericks game. And Jim Jackson, who I think does a great job on the Clippers broadcast, said...

And inadvertently followed the old Daryl Morey rule of cross-cultural and cross-racial player comparisons. That was one of his old demands. Like, you can't compare this guy because he looks like that guy to that guy. Said it reminded him of Larry Bird. And I thought that was a – Larry made weird lefty –

release point, weird angle shots like that. It's one of the greatest shots I've ever seen. I jumped out of my chair when it happened. It was actually so good that I called my fiance over and be like, no, no, you need to watch this. You need to see this game winner right here. It's wild. And it was a nice little action that Jason Kidd set up coming out of the timeout, you know, and bringing Kyrie along the baseline, you get wildness.

One switch, you get a second switch where you have him versus Jokic, and Jokic did about as good a job as you can do defending that. I don't have any qualms with it defensively. That's just a hell of a shot, the running hook with the left. Clearly, it's just something where, did you practice that? Is that a part of your warm-up routines? I'm just going to throw hooks with my left here. That is a wild, wild shot to hit.

you know, for a game winner, let alone like just out of a timeout in general, like with the game on the line coming off full speed like that, like it was an impressive play. Like I was really kind of just,

In all, really, it was a hell of a shot. Now, as an 80s kid, the shot I immediately thought of is the junior hook shot from Magic in Game 4 of the 1987 Finals, which won the game for the Lakers. Obviously, the stakes are not the same. The shots don't look the same because Magic is much taller and can have sort of a natural hook release, whereas Kyrie's just throwing it up there. Just an absolutely crazy shot. I do think it's interesting on the same day,

I just, I want your video coordinator, your coach, I want your opinion on this. On the same day, we have Jamal Murray in a tie game. He released a go-ahead shot with the shot clock off. Denver can hold for the last shot. He releases his shot. I looked it up again today. 5.8 seconds on the clock, he's releasing the shot. So by the time the shot hits the rim, Karim's off the rim and goes, luckily for the Mavs, right to Tim Hardaway Jr. Timeout. There's 2.8 on the clock.

Kyrie then punishes them by winning the game. Same day, Cade Cunningham in a tie game against the Miami Heat who need every goddamn win they can get in the East and the shot clock off after a Duncan Robinson turnover gives Detroit the ball back releases a three, a pull up three off the dribble one-on-one over Caleb Martin. I think well-covered. Was it Hawkins? Yeah. With 10.9 seconds left. So five more seconds left.

Plenty of time for the Heat. Bam, bam, comes down and hits his fourth three of the season to win the game for the Heat. I just thought it was interesting. Two teams, same situation, two guys shot early.

What did you think of the respective shots? Start with Murray because they're very different, obviously. Different shots. I said the moment Murray shot it and the Mavs got the ball, I said that's too much time. He left too much time on the clock. And it's very fitting with Patrick Mahomes sitting courtside winning a playoff game with I think it was 13 seconds left in a game. I think it's just along those lines of

it you have to make sure you get the last shot tied ball game it does not matter you you're almost better off not taking a shot and just going into overtime in that sense you control your destiny in that instance you have to take the very last shot unless it's a absolutely gimme wide open layup the seas have parted for you and you can go i'll take it but if this is just anything where it's up in the air

You can't give that up. And I think that was a huge mistake from Murray. Like I expect him and, and really the Denver nuggets as a team is as vets as they are to know that and, and, and nail that. I think Jokic came up a little bit too early to set the screen. I think they set the screen at about nine. You need to come up at about six, five seconds and then come off the action. I thought that was a, a,

A pretty blatant mistake there from Murray. And I think, you know, if you're going to do that, you better make sure you make the shot. So the Cunningham shot with 10.9 left is just objectively horrible. Like there's just no way around it. It's a horrible shot. Cade Cunningham's had a nice last six weeks of the season. I don't mean to pick on him, but this is one of the reasons your team stinks is because you make bad young guy mistakes like this over and over. And like at a certain point, the bad young guy mistakes have to go away. If you're ever not going to be a stinky team, just an absolutely horrible shot.

I don't know if people were yelling at him not to shoot it. If Monte Williams was yelling last shot, last shot. Everyone needs to be on the same page in that situation. You got to let the you got to take the last shot. I mean, that's the thing. You're screaming that from the bench and they better be. They slowed it down like he slowed it down. The possession wasn't like a rushed possession and then he pulled up.

up, slowed it down, was dribbling out the clock and then took that shot. I just, I wish Monty was on, was in the camera view because I want to see his expression. Sometimes Zach, when I watch these things, I go back and try to see the coach's expressions and,

Cause I think it's sometimes you get beautiful gems from coaches in terms of their, their facial expressions. I would have just loved to have seen Monty's. Cause I just think you got to just bend over going like, Oh man. So the funniest thing would be if it were like the inverse of when Steph shoots a three and starts running back on defense because he knows it's going in. If Monty Williams saw Cade Cunningham pull that three and just started walking to the locker room. Like, I don't even, I don't even want to see what's going to happen now. Like it's,

Kate Cunningham is a below average pull-up three-point shooter. It's not like he's Steph Curry where you're like, look, you've earned the right to just do whatever the hell you want, even though the clock management is dumb. Like, come on. The Murray one. So the coaching community and the analytics community would, I think, almost universally agree with you that it's better to almost let the clock just expire than to shoot with 5.8 seconds left.

and risk leaving two point eight on the clock for a guy like Kyrie Irving, one of the great closers. And I've teamed with one of the other great closers over the last 10 years in Luka Doncic. So that's probably right. That's probably the right view. In real time, I must admit, the shot was such a clean look from such a sweet spot for him that I did not mind him saying, you know what? I'm making this shot. We're going for the lead and we're going to trust our defense to...

to hold for whether I make it and it's four seconds or I miss it and it's 2.8 seconds. And by the way, it might not be 2.8 seconds. It's one tip up and the clock is over. So that one, even in the light of day, I'm like, that was an open shot. Like Jokic got him open. It was clear. There was no help anywhere.

I still kind of don't mind it. I am confident that I am analytically incorrect in not minding it and that you should hold for the last shot come hell or high water. And boy, did Kyrie make him pay. There was one other play from that game that I know you were dying to talk about. So you take the floor.

there's a play or first off the passing of this game was we have Luca and Jokic in these games. It's you're just like, okay, there's going to be great passing. And I was going to send you even more cliff sack. And I was like, ah, this is too much, you know, but there's a play. Luca's coming off of a screen. He's driving down and he has Derek Jones jr. In the, the strong side corner. And it just looks like,

Lucas dribbling looks like he's about to throw up a shot and just throws the ball just straight over his head. Two hands just right over his head. Perfect pass right to Derek. He doesn't make the shot, but it was one of those things where like if he makes that shot, we're watching that play over and over again in terms of that. I mean, just the impressive level of passing that you get from these guys and in Jokic as well. Like,

When you don't expect there to be a pass, like it's, you almost feel like it's a glitch in NBA 2K. Like, oh, that was supposed to be, that ball was supposed to go that way, but he took it there. It's just amazing in that sense. And their ability, both of those guys throw these kind of awkward looking passes and deliver it perfectly. It never gets tiring for me. A couple of quick math thoughts. Number one, it made me laugh that pass in real time.

Luka is the best overhead passer ever. It's a niche thing. I don't think anyone ever did it this often. It's like once every other game. And usually it's like from the basket directly out to the top of the arc. And you're like, that's not even physically possible for someone who's not like plastic man or something. Elastic man to throw that pass. Derrick Jones Jr. had like four passes.

Almost highlights in that game that weren't quite highlights that would have brought the house down. And I want to shout out our colleague, Ryan Rucco, who I don't remember the call exactly word for word, but he nailed that Kyrie buzzer shot call because he was exuberant and enthusiastic, but in plain language without screaming and using words. And I remember exactly what he said that put the absurdity of the shot in

in proper context. His surprise at how it looked and that it went in and where it ranked in shots that he had seen was properly conveyed. It was a great call. The Mavs are really interesting. I also want to shout out David Thorpe, who we text now and then about basketball stuff. And after the trade deadline, he loved the trades that the Mavs made. Risk be damned. I was a little less enthusiastic about it because I think the risk of all those picks being out the window for so many years...

For just okay guys in P.J. Washington. P.J. Washington is going to start making some threes at some point, by the way, for Dallas. And that will change the look and feel of their team. And Gafford, who initially was not playing much at all for Dallas to the point where people like me were asking, why did you even trade for this dude? How could you give up a first-round pick? And David Thorpe said to me,

I think Gafford's going to start. I just think they're going to supplant Lively and he's going to start and this trade is going to bear fruit. And it really has to the point that with a couple of exceptions here and there, a couple of game exceptions here or there,

They've minimized the minutes they're playing Kleba at the five as a stretch five. As you remember, that is the look that got them to the conference finals two years ago. That was like the pull Dwight Powell after five minutes. We're going five out the rest of the game and they still have that in their back pocket and they still use it. But if they're not going to play Kleba at the five, they either have to not play him at all.

or play him at the four. And we saw him play at the four a lot against Denver and a lot in other recent games. He's not really making any shots this year and not really doing much of anything. Defensively, he's not the same guy, but they still trust him to be in the right spot at the right time and eventually hope he'll make some shots. They don't play Washington and him together much at the three and the four, which I think is interesting. This is my long way of saying,

When things get tight, I know Kyrie is going to be on the floor. I know Luke is going to be on the floor. And I know one of the rim running centers is likely to be on the floor. How they fill those other two spots is really interesting to me because you can tell they're not quite sure how to do it. And we don't quite have two guys that

that a fit and b provide both enough shooting and enough defense that we think those lineups can sing and so you keep seeing kleba out there and it's like all right maybe hardaway in washington that's defensively not good enough maybe xm in washington well is dante going to shoot today or is he going to pass up a bit it's it's just interesting to watch them solve this puzzle because as they showed in that game and have shown in other games they're back on a strong stretch now

This is a very dangerous team. I know they're up and down. Their defense is average or worse, and it's got to be better. But in a series, one series, they're a very, very dangerous team. Any given series, and you want to say, well, except for Denver, they just beat Denver. I don't think they can win Denver.

three playoff series. I think they're unlikely to win two just because of the consistency issues with their defense. But as long as they have these two dudes and can figure out the puzzle pieces around it, they are dangerous enough to beat anyone. Yeah. And I mean, to go back to your Cleva at the four, you know, there was a lot of times where he would have Jokic

in the post, and then you just have Gafford kind of floating at the rim ready to come over. They went to that scheme that a lot of teams use, and it worked well for them, actually. Tell me more about what you saw there. I thought Gafford did a great job because the danger thing about that is when you do that and Aaron Gordon's on the floor, you're getting that –

Jokic is going to shoot or throw a lob to Gordon who's crashing in. I thought Gafford did a great job kind of cat and mousing it and sort of like, I'm coming, I'm not coming. I'm coming, I'm not coming. I'm showing and retreating back and whatnot. And it's almost like a little bit of the 2.9 dance to stay out of the illegal defense, but it's more just kind of just making Jokic have to hesitate for a split second.

I don't know if that's something you can do long-term in a series, but I felt like that had a strong effect for them in this game and really helped the Mavs defensively. Nobody saw Zjokic, but just kind of like just a fraction of a second slow him down and be able to give them enough time. And Cleve was strong enough that he's just not going to get completely run over.

right away. It'll be a few bumps and a few dribbles, and then Jokic will be at the rim, but there'll be some bumps. And I think that's kind of the important thing for them in this series. And now when you, or if they get to the series and when you look at possible like closing matchups, I think this is going to be one of those things. That's going to be just a carousel. Those two spots, who's going well, that game who's playing well, what do we need? Do we need more offense? Do we need more defense? I think it's just going to be

None of those guys are good enough to cement a spot of like, I'm definitely in the closing lineup. So we know they're closing three. I think after that, their next two is going to just have to be a game-by-game dependency and decision by a kid. And that's just tough to live on.

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The most notable game, and maybe the one with the most long-term impact from the weekend,

Was the New Orleans Pelicans going to 3-1 for the season against the Clippers? Now, the Clippers were on the second half of back-to-back in this game on Friday. James Harden did not play. And they have been missing guys throughout this entire mini swoon that they're in. However...

It was notable for two reasons. Number one, the Pelicans are now only one game back of the Clippers in the 4-5 bracket. And the Clippers, as much as they are just like, let's stay healthy, stay healthy, stay healthy, stay healthy, stay healthy, and may the chips fall where they may, would like to have home court for one playoff series. After running roughshod for two months in the league and proving yourself a contender and being number one in the West for 24 hours, you'd like to at least get home court. Number two...

I think it's safe to say this is a problematic matchup for the Clippers. Now, that doesn't mean I would pick the Pelicans to win a series. I don't know who I would pick. But the very fact that I don't know who I would pick suggests that this is a problematic matchup. You know when it gets real problematic? When Zion decides, as he has not just this game, but when they played in February on the 7th, I'm taking the Kawhi assignment.

It would be very easy for the Clippers between Herb Jones and Brandon Ingram to split the Kawhi assignment between one of those guys and put Zion on Terrence Mann and say, you just hide out over here on their least threatening starter who's not Zubats. And that's what they did the first two times they played. Since then, Zion has said, I can do it. He said it again in the fourth quarter. Trey Murphy III mentioned this during his postgame remarks.

And I will continue to say the last six weeks that people are not paying attention. This is a new Zion on defense. He has never defended like this before, both in team concept and rotation and one-on-one he hung with Kawhi and his greatest Herb Jones is, and as long as Brandon Ingram is, neither of those guys is quite strong enough for Kawhi over 48 minutes. I think it's a big deal to the Pelicans internally, but,

to Zion and to the Clippers that he's decided for at least stretches, I can handle this assignment because the Clippers have no one to guard him other than Kawhi, which means Kawhi's taken a pounding on that end. Or when Larry Nance is in, they like to invert the matchups and put Zubats on Zion and hide, not hide, but put a wing on Nance. It's a little dangerous to do that against Valanchunas, but Zion likes the Zubats assignment. Look again, Harden was out back to back.

The Clippers are 8-10 in their last 18 games. Their defense in that stretch ranks 28th in the league.

Now you can sit here, Mo, and I will do it. Harden has missed two games. Paul George has missed three of those 18 games. Norman Powell has missed two, including they're getting shellacked at home by the Hawks yesterday in a just totally demoralizing loss where the Hawks ran and leaked out and ran and leaked out again and again and again over maybe the worst transition defense team in the league,

Now that Milwaukee is not the worst transition defense team in the league. Russ has missed nine games in a row. Kawhi missed two games and left the Minnesota loss early with back spasms. Zoo has missed two games. So they've been totally out of rhythm rotation wise. They're playing guys that will not play for them when their rotation is complete and healthy if it gets back to that point. But I'm at the point where...

As much as I would like to give this veteran team the benefit of the doubt, and part of me does, because that two-month sample, 35-game sample, was powerful as hell. And it's hard to get a rhythm when you're missing different guys every game. It's not the same guy. It's not like, all right, this guy's out for two months. We can replace him this way and lean into this identity. It's all today these two are out, today these two are out, tomorrow those two are out. You were a Clipper. This franchise means something to you.

How worried are you about them? Are you not, are you dismissing this as just doldrums injuries or is, is, is something meaningful happening here, both either in general or in terms of the new Orleans matchup specifically, which looks like a lot, a very likely to happen in the first round. I want to answer both those questions, but I just want to start with how worried I am. I'm very worried. Like this is, I was at the Minnesota game. We're sitting in the press room, press row, excuse me. And, and watching it. And when Kawhi steps out,

This thing that worries me the most about them is just they're playing very apathetically, it looks like, and very – the game yesterday, a lot of times it's like where's the energy, where's the juice? And at times when they had those kinds of problems in that 35-game run that we're talking about,

Russ would come in and change the energy. They don't have that. And they don't have a guy on the bench that's going to come in and change the energy and good or bad might just be pure chaos, you know, whatnot, but create some sort of juice. You don't, I don't see them playing with a lot of the juice. And then I'm watching just every one of these games.

sloppy turnovers after sloppy turnovers, lazy passes that get picked off, you know, and not being on the same page and things like that. Like there's something that's just not connecting with these guys in a way where you just don't feel like they're,

As locked in as you would hope at this point. And it's hard. Like, look, when I was with the Clippers under Vinny Del Negro, we had an entire month of December. We went undefeated. We killed it. We were going nuts. It was awesome. We felt really good. Calendar changed.

We lost our defensive intensity, and then we never really got it back all season. And I think that's what I'm worried about with the Clippers. Was this 35-game run their peak? And now are they not going to be able to ramp up that intensity? And what scares me even more is I feel like they think they can just flip the switch and get that intensity back.

But to be a flip the switch team, you have to have done it before. And yes, Kawhi has done it, but the rest of these guys haven't. And I think that worries me in a large level. So when I watch these games that I want to see them more play, it's fine if they lose, but play forceful, play, play aggressive in that way. We're watching it with Denver coming out of the all-star break and, and, and they're one team. We could just be totally flip the switch. They can lose every game here on out to the playoffs. And I'll be like,

Don't care. Denver still, nobody's got an answer for Jokic. And when they want to go, they go. And that's what worries me with the Clippers. And then to that matchup you're talking about, that should really concern the Clippers. If Zion can take Kawhi, now the advantage the Clippers are banking on was no team can guard Kawhi, Paul George, and James Harden.

Pelicans can if Zion can take Kawhi because now you have Trey Murphy and Brandon Ingram and Herb Jones, all those guys to be able to deal with Paul George, with James Harden. That's a concerning thing for them to keep an eye on. And really, they're going to have to figure out how would they be able to attack Zion if he's on Kawhi. What are they going to do? It creates a lot of problems for them. Well, and that's where the Harden missing that game –

Because they're going to default to bring Zion into the pick and roll with James Harden. Because without Harden, they just don't have enough passing to make Zion move around the floor as much and make as many rotations as they would if they can at least trigger start possessions with, okay, this play is going to get the ball and players moving. And that's what they've lost.

I think it may have started maybe in not this specific game, maybe a couple games earlier that I don't remember.

But that loss to the Lakers when they blew that gigantic lead and LeBron made a million threes was the first loss where a red flag came up for me that they're walking around on offense again. They're just going through the paces. And when they were humming, they weren't the most dynamic offensive team. These are deliberate offensive players for the most part by nature. There's no Steph Curry running around off picks. Terrence Mann's not deliberate. He's an engine. Russ is an engine. Those guys have motors strapped to them.

But these are deliberate guys, but they had found the right blend of, okay, hard and pick and roll, drive the closeout, drive the next closeout, see where that leads us. Maybe Kawhi has a mismatch because of the rotations. Now we play mismatch ball while we play mismatch ball. Maybe there's a split screen over here. It's not the greatest, most dynamic offense, but there was a pop to it.

The pop has not been there for a while now. And look, I think they can clean up the transition defense, which has been hideous and be a solid defensive team. That may be a switch flip. That's just effort based and matchup based. Having not played basketball at a level near the NBA, I don't really know how a flow works.

gets lost and gotten back. And that's, it's the offensive flow. Although their offense has been okay during their eight, during this eight and 10 stretch, their eighth and offense. So it's not like they've fallen apart. The snap isn't there. And, and also two other things.

They can't get rebounds. And that's another area where they miss Russ. And when Kawhi's off the floor, they're just small. They're 23rd in defensive rebounding for the season and 26th in this 18-game stretch. They can't get any rebounds right now. Yeah, and that's a huge, huge issue. I mean, I thank Oklahoma City for that all the time. And it's a playoff problem for...

For both of these teams. It's a matchup problem. Like you might get lucky and dodge the great offensive rebounding teams, but you also might get unlucky and be like, oh my God, we drew this team. Right. And just the size and everything that comes with it. And it's, they are, it's funny. It's they, they feel small. And at the same time, it's, you know, they have a long guys like Paul George needs to be on the boards a little harder. They, I mean, they have Tice on the bench, uh,

They have Plumlee, obviously Zubach. That's their big man center rotation. But they got to get more rebounding from the wings. Honestly, I also think you need Terrence Mann to take more of that rebounding energy that Russ had and really bring it. It's small, but that loss of Russ is a big one.

I don't think we really discuss it enough when we look at them in that that guy does so much for you. And I'm not even a huge Russ fan. I know what his limitations are on offense.

But what he can kind of just bring the mentality and the energy and crashing the glass and get you an extra possession for an offensive rebound and things like that. Like it's so valuable and they just don't have any way to recreate that. And I think that's a big issue for them. By the way, speaking of this New Orleans Clippers matchup, I feel like New Orleans is training the opposite way where they have locked in that flow and that just that feel that every really good team has.

Um, not only that, I think there are players on this team who are eager to prove themselves on the biggest stages. This is a team that has not won a playoff series together. Zion has not played in a playoff game. I think they're hungry and I think there's like a cycle going on with them where they're confident and they're hungry and they're winning and they're winning against good teams for the most part. Although they actually, their schedule has been soft, but like a couple of good wins against the Clippers, for instance, um,

And it's starting to build on itself where they're like, oh, we got something going here. We're feeling even better about ourselves. And if there's a moment, another moment I'll remember in that game...

So when Paul George was open for three, yes, the top of the arc and wide open rose up, took his time. Like I'm going to set my feet. I'm going to take my time. And Herb Jones came flying from 20 feet away, blocked it almost right when it got out of Paul George's hands and went the other way on a fast break. Antonio Daniels, who does an incredible job on the Pelicans broadcast. I,

I thought was going to jump onto the court and hug Herb Jones. He was so excited. It was a play that, and this is hyperbolic, I get it. It felt like a statement play, like a, we are here. We are going to be in your face. We're younger than you. We're more athletic than you. And we like this matchup. Let me take this shot and shove it down your throat. It was an unbelievable play if people have not seen it. It's just a great momentum one. It's just one that kind of just brings that sort of,

And it was in, I think it was the third quarter, right? Like when the Pelicans really kind of built out a lead a little bit. I think that's one of those things where it's like everything you said is right on. And it's just like now, next time Paul George gets it, he's going to rush the shot.

he's good enough to make it, but now he's not going to slow. He's not going to be patient about it. He's it's in his mind. And that's something now that they've planted. Right. And I think, you know, maybe it's a small thing. Maybe it's a big thing. Who knows? But like, I think that's going to be something that, Hey, we're going to be aware of. And you have to be ready. If you're the Clippers and you're playing the Pelicans in the playoffs and you're putting your playoff tape together, you know, that needs to be a clip. You show Paul going like, Hey man,

Can't be slow. This team has that energy and that juice. You can't be slow. Got to be ready. The Clippers are also a low foul team on defense. And it's everyone around the league. And I hear from people on teams across the whole league is trying to digest how the officiating has changed in the last. However, you want to two months, one month, six weeks, eight weeks, two months, whatever.

And they're all self-interested because their team's trying to win. Does it help us? Does it hurt them? Does it hurt our rival? And one facile way to do it is like if the Clippers are a low foul team, they teach not fouling, they're good at not fouling. Well, if everyone's going to be a low foul team because no fouls are going to be called, that loses a little bit of value. And I just want to read an excerpt from –

I actually typed this out and printed it out. And Tom Ziller in his great newsletter printed out the same excerpt from what Monty McCutcheon, who's the director of whatever he is for the NBA. I can't remember anyone's titles. They're like nine words long. Said to me on my podcast last week when I called him and Joe Dumars, I said, can you guys come on and tell people what's going on here? This is literally almost word for word. See if you can keep up with this, Mo. This is Monty McCutcheon.

In any year, and I'm going to read it slow because it's not easy to keep up with. In any year, there are points where we are not as consistent as we need to be. I most certainly in my role coach up what our rule book says.

If a dribbler has a straight line path to the basket, they cannot be crowded off that pathway. The same is true for a defensive player's pathway. If you are both on parallel pathways, neither party is allowed to take someone off their pathway. There most certainly has been some coaching this year and teaching this year

about making sure we remain consistent from Monday night to Tuesday night to Wednesday night. We had some work there that we had slipped in. And so we most certainly have been teaching what our rulebook states is good basketball so that there is a balance for competition.

Good competition isn't score-based. It's based on an equitable situation for offensive and defensive players to reasonably expect to be able to compete so that neither party is placed at a disadvantage. We most certainly have done that coaching this year, 30 seconds later. What I will say is much before February,

We were within our work already recognizing the need for consistency in this area. We have absolutely worked on that consistency. I think that we've done a better job at it. So that's gobbledygook. That's bureaucratic gobbledygook. It's intentionally obfuscating from the league office. But if you actually translate that into plain language, he is saying it's all in there.

We told the refs, you're messing up this call and giving offensive players the benefit of the doubt on drives to the rim where the defense is in position. You got to call it differently. He's saying that. He's just saying that in a block of text this long because he doesn't want you to realize that he's saying the refs were missing this call. What they're pushing back on is we...

We don't care about scoring totals. We care about fairness. So the idea that people were yelling about Lucas scoring 73 and Booker scoring 60 and Kat scoring 60, that's not why we did this. We were already doing it before. Offense is fine. And the other idea they're pushing back on is this is Adam Silver putting his finger on the scale and saying, do this. I don't like it. Change it this way. Even though Joe Dumars in the same podcast told me the pendulum may have swung too far in the past to offenses.

But that's Monty McCutcheon on the record in bureaucratic gobbledygook saying we told the refs over time, maybe before you guys think we did, that they were missing this call. Now, do I think there's a little bit of the Lady Doth protest too much going on here from the league office? Probably, having listened to it again, because the bottom line is no matter when they started teaching or coaching or pathways and consistency and this and that,

Starting two months ago, the game turned from Game A to Game B. And the difference is Stark...

And I find it hard to believe that it just sort of randomly happened at that time that dramatically. But at least Manny came out and said, without slamming the refs, without saying it was too heavy handed, that we've been coaching and teaching this play and kind of admitting that, yeah, midstream, we told the refs because like we always do, we try to make it seem like we do it every year. It's just part of our ongoing, you know, best practices to use an HR term.

that they changed. So that's that. Can I talk about the other team that I want to talk about from the West? Or do you have any other Clippers thoughts? Just real quick on the, my wish the NBA would just come out and just, whether they did it or not, just say they did.

Because it's a good thing. I think it's a good thing. I think it's a good thing. And I think they need to be a little bit like... I just watched A Few Good Men the other day, and I think they need a little Colonel Jessup in them. Are you going to randomly watch A Few Good Men? I love that movie.

If it's on and I just see it, it's there. You know, I'm turning it on. It's the courtroom scene where Tom Cruise is grilling Colonel Jessup and yelling at him, you know, did you order the code red? And he finally breaks and he's like, you're right. I did like, like, just, just say it. Like, it's a good thing. I think that's the, the, it's a good thing for the league. I think it's good that they, whether they adjust, they, they clearly tweaked something. It's pretty obvious.

But I'm okay with that. They're admitting that they did. Yeah. But the manner and the timing and the identity of the tweaker and the whatever is obfuscated, I think, intentionally so.

But don't we want adjustments? Hey, this isn't really good. Let's tweak this and let's change this stuff up. I've loved it. I've been tweeting out stuff where like there's plays where there's clear guys thinking it's a foul because they're used to it being a foul and the referees make a no call. And then the guy gets, no, that's the basketball I want. And I'll tweet out those clips and tell them like, that's the right no call.

There was one with Luca shooting a three. I think Gordon might've gotten him on the high five, but the contact was in the leg and it was Luca kicking out the leg and Luca was upset for a possession and a half. I was like, no, that's the right call. That should be a no call. And I think that I just like what the leagues, I like what it is now. And hopefully we can kind of keep it going and hopefully it'll pertain for a while. The other West team I wanted to talk about is now eighth. The Phoenix suns are 39 and 29 big threes back.

They're two and three in their last five games, which sounds unremarkable, except the losses are to Boston twice and Milwaukee on the road without Giannis. Now you can just say Milwaukee hit 24 threes. That'll never happen again. Bobby Portis had an out of body experience for a half of a game and excuse it away if you want. And they did end up scoring 120 something points, whatever the sun's final score was. So their offense mathematically had a good game. Their defense was nowhere to be found and,

I don't like the way this team looks. And the later it gets, the more worried I am that I'm just never going to like the way this team looks this season because they're not going to have time to get it right. Their next four games are Philly, Atlanta, and Spurs times two.

They better get right soon because they're eighth. They're in the play-in, which I have said many times. If this team is in the play-in, it's a disaster. If they lose in the play-in, it's a colossal disaster. If they get out of the play-in and lose in the first round in some sort of weak, you know, dull fashion, 4-2, 4-1, it's a disaster.

They're looking at disaster right now and they have the ability to fix it. They have the talent to fix it. They have the talent to get into the playoffs and beat Minnesota or Oklahoma City or whatever in the first round. Denver, I don't think so, but at least push Denver hard. That's how talented they are. But the talent, something about the talent is not translating. Tiebreaker wise, Moe,

They are 2-2 against the Kings, but the Kings have the upper hand due to conference record. They have lost the season series to Dallas already. They have lost the season series to the Lakers already. They have won the season series against the Warriors already. So they're tiebreaker-wise, they're not in great shape. I'm just going to be vague. I don't like how it looks.

Do you disagree with me? And if you do, please shout and yell that you disagree. If you don't zero in on something that the next three games that you watch a Phoenix, you're going to be looking at, like, I'd like to see that better. I agree with you. And I think the, the thing I want to see them better is, you know,

I want to see KD more involved in the offense to a degree. Like, he only got 10 shots against Milwaukee. I know that's an aberration. I know normally he's getting more shots and more looks and whatnot. But there are just too many possessions where I feel like there's no real –

True understanding of purpose. And it's not so much your turn, my turn, but it's more just these two guys go, this one stands in the corner. Like I want to see the three of them play together and Booker Beal and Katie. I want to see some three man action between those guys. Like that's crazy to cover. And then with how well Grayson Allen is shooting, he can space and it makes it creates more opportunities and more difficult for the defense to really crash down. Cause you got to watch out for one of the best shooters right now in the league. And Alan, I think there's a lot of problems, uh,

With their, it's funny, their offense is potent and they're scoring big numbers. And at the same time, I'm looking around going like, what's the playbook?

Like, I wish there was a playbook and I know each coach has packages for their guys and whatnot, but I just don't see besides a random, besides a pin down to start the game, to bring Katie to the elbow. And then again, at the start of the third quarter, I don't see a lot of stuff. I don't see anything where they don't run some Iverson action and things like that. I think there's a lot of stuff there. I think they're, they can do a lot more offensively and maybe part of the problem is Beal's been out for so long and they haven't had time to figure that out.

But there's stuff I think they're leaving on the table to make them better offensively because their defense isn't going to be good.

I don't think their defense is going to be good. I don't think they have much of a chance. There's a lot of miscommunications. This guy thinks they're switching. So many. It's at the point where I'm like, nope, you just have to lean all the way into your offense because you're not going to be able to defend. And I think that's just their issue. There's no way to fix it defensively in season. I just don't see them having anybody that can really –

be the guy where you feel like okay now they'll start to find a defensive way so for me lean into your offense but that leads to you having to be more creative with your offense and i'm not sure if vogel has that yeah i sound like charles barkley but they're too small defensively and they're the worst kind of too small where you can move them all out of the way it's not like they're kyle lowry small you can move them out of the way they're not a good rebounding team

Defensively, they're actually 13th for the season. That's about as good as they can possibly get. And against good competition, I don't know if they can sustain that. I think that's actually a success story for them. Average defense is a success story. Offensively, again, the numbers are fine. KD can't take 10 shots. But it's more that...

They seem to have lost the plot a little bit on like the whole reason they put these dudes together, which is the way they can amplify each other. Like, all right, I've got, I've got Damian Lillard on me. There are multiple possessions in this Bucks game where Damian Lillard is

who I think we all agree is not a good defender, is on Brad Beal. And Brad Beal stands in the right corner. And if you put the spotlight on Brad Beal, and I'm not blaming Brad Beal, this just is. It could be Durant on the next five possessions. He stands in the corner. When I say stands, I mean hands, arms drooped to his sides,

Not moving at all for 15 consecutive seconds. Bradley Beal is me, but with the jump shot, like it's just, he does literally nothing with Damian Lillard on him.

And the whole point of pairing these guys together is to bring Brad Beal up and have him screen for Kevin Durant. So Kevin Durant can have Damian Lillard on him or the Bucs get in rotation and this offense turns into something that's greater than the sum of its parts. The sum of its parts is really high. And they showed you that against the Bucs when they came back and Beal had maybe his best game of the season or one of his best games, putting his head down, getting to the rim. But I also wonder...

The degree to which this lack of connection on offense, and by the way, they've been better earlier in the season at cooperating in actions. I do wonder how it's bleeding into their defense because their communication on defense and their coherence on defense has gotten worse. And that game, although they credit them, they fought and got back in the game.

not in the manner that I would have liked to have seen. I would have liked to have seen them play so hard defensively. Like you've probably been with a team, you know, when a team is just comes out and is like, we're going to be in a frenzy on defense for eight minutes. We know it's unsustainable. We can't play this hard for much longer than that, but we're going to be in a frenzy and just see what happens. It was more just like, eh, we're going to get some points and they're going to go with some points.

But they made it a game. That's fine. I wonder how much the offense is bleeding into the defense and what the sort of disconnectedness they must feel on offense if that's infecting their defense. Because yesterday was maybe their worst defensive performance of the whole season.

I mean, they gave up 43 points in the second quarter and I know Bobby Portis went completely nuclear. And just a side note, it is fun when he goes nuclear in Milwaukee. It's like a, I'm not a wrestling guy, but just, you just feel the crowd chanting Bobby. It's like a wrestling crowd, like WWE. And you have the, the vibes with that stuff, but there's just too many times. Like there's an example. I was watching rewatch the game this morning in the fourth quarter. And you know,

KD and Aaron, Eric Gordon mix up a switch and KD is literally just throwing his hands up and like, what are we doing? And then to your point in terms of it bleeding offensively, a couple of possessions later, Bradley Beal's driving down the lane. He has a double team on him and he kicks it back to Nurkic, but he has KD wide open on the wing. It's, and you know, KD does one of those things with his hands up. It's, it's a, there's a level of frustration you can feel building.

And I can really feel it with KD, but you can feel it within the team. And it's something that you begin to kind of worry about.

Going going forward in the play into the play in and playoffs and how it kind of plays out, because, again, there's not a lot of time. What, 15, 16 games left. I think this is their easiest stretch of games right here. These next four games that you lined up, I think the schedule gets increasingly tougher for them. Like they got they got to really figure this thing out. And like you said, otherwise, it's going to end up looking like a failure.

I'm at the point where it's just starting more and more to feel like it's not going to happen this year. Like if it's going to happen, it's going to be next year, but I'll never count out Kevin Durant and Devin Booker completely. To your point, their schedule is the second hardest in the West. Those projection systems I mentioned have them as 80 to 85% likely to be in the play-in. They have like a 15% chance it's at sixth or higher. The other thing is,

I can't tell if Frank Vogel thinks Yusuf Nurkic is essential to their team or an impediment to their team or both in the same game. I just know these KD at the five lineups are, they're just not going to work. And I say that knowing that,

With KD and Booker on the floor and no big man on the floor, 126 offensive rating, which is ridiculous. 123 defensive rating, which is almost equally ridiculous. You put Beal in, so the big three and no big man on the floor. 133 offensive rating, 126 defensive rating. So they're plus seven or plus three or plus five, however you want to calculate it.

So they're quote unquote working. Their offense is obviously deadly. I just don't think that's actually workable because of the defensive figure and their defensive rebounding rate in those minutes is about 57%. So almost half the opponent misses. The opponent is getting back. I just don't think it's sustainable. And I just, I continue to say this. Vogel is going to those lineups when they're behind and they just need points or

Or it just feels to me like he's like, I'm not even sure this is a good idea. I just don't have any better ideas. Like, let me let me try this thing. This is not like a calculated death lineup kind of thing. It's just like, all right, I guess it's time to try this thing again.

I mean, he's clawing for answers, like, you know, a bowl bowl getting run at at center positions and things like that. You know, Eubanks also trying to get some time like it's it's they're just he's clawing for answers here at that point. And when it's it's hard with Nurkic, you know what?

there's a situation where Nurkic can help, and I think his passing is really nice and helpful for the team, but you saw it in this game. Even with Lopez out there, they would just run pick and roll, and there was no way for him to get out back to Lopez for the pops. No way to get out to Bobby Portis when he would pop out. It became a huge issue for them, and that's part of the reason why they got to pull him in the fourth quarter, and I just feel like I don't know

Again, like, I just don't know how you answer it. This is a team to me that's kind of out of answers. And that's why just lean all the way in the offense.

You know, defense to be damned. I just hope you can just outscore those guys. I don't think you can win multiple playoff rounds that way in the West. I just don't. They've also, the other thing they've tried with Nurkic in multiple games that I've mentioned before is, all right, if they have a pick and pop center on the floor, because there's somewhere else we can put you. Isaac Okoro won game. Pat Beverly for a stretch yesterday against Milwaukee. The other thing that happened in that game was Chris Middleton came back and looked very good. And that is put a pin in it.

Let's hope it continues. Let's see it with Giannis back. Because with those four dudes, Dame, Middleton, Giannis, and Lopez, they got a chance against anybody. And as rocky as this season has been on just about every possible level, those four guys are healthy.

That's a scary team. I'm not picking them to beat Boston, but I would say they have the best chance in the East of beating Boston pending Nick's health and other things. But that could be a great team. Awesome Chris Middleton. Big fan. Wrote a big profile of him five or six years ago. Still love watching him play. Church's original recipe is back. You can never go wrong with original.

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Okay, fine. It's a lot of sweat. But with HubSpot's AI-powered marketing tools, launching benchmark-breaking campaigns is easier than ever. Get started at HubSpot.com slash marketers. The other thing that happened over the weekend that I wanted to talk about was Victor Wimbanyama was just like, I'll put up a casual 33-15-7-7 with assists in blocks game. Five steals short of the 5x5, which again, he's going to break all the 5x5 records.

I saw the stat line. I was like, all right, I'm watching an extra game. Like I want to see, I want to see this game, but I got it. I got to see it. And since December 27th, I will just continue to reiterate this.

23 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 blocks, 1.5 steals, 49% shooting, 36% on threes. The Spurs are plus 23 in almost 1,000 minutes. The Spurs, who stink, are plus 23 since December 27th with Wemba Nyama on the floor. This guy is a star right now. Right now. And he's a superstar very, very soon. Like, maybe next year. Um...

And every game, I don't know how much of this game you saw Mo, every game there are just again five plays where I have to remind myself like that's not a normal thing and it's getting more frequent and it's getting scarier every game. Like this guy is, it's really unbelievable the degree to which he has exceeded the hype considering what the hype was.

It's wild. It's wild. And in the way of just every night, there's something. You don't want to miss the Victor Webinyama games because it's something in terms of like, he's just going to do something that you're just like,

No, no. 7'4", 7'5", shouldn't be able to move like that. Shouldn't be able to do any of that stuff. Like, it doesn't make sense. You highlighted the clip, and I went back and watched a lot of his minutes this morning. The clip you highlighted, you were like, hey, pay attention to the third quarter drive on Nick Claxton.

He goes in between his legs once, crossover in front, in between his legs again, turns Nick Claxton three different times, and then finishes with his left. And a nice little layup. Not like a dunk or anything forceful, just a nice little lefty floater kind of deal. And I was just like,

Holy crap. Like, this is unbelievable. You know what I thought of when I saw that play and the reason I wanted to talk about it today? So he goes through and over Nick Claxton with a smooth set of dribble moves between the legs, crossovers, hits him with the shoulder to dislodge him somewhere around the foul line, and then goes through him the rest of the way. Doesn't beat him, like doesn't get around him.

There's no pick and roll to get to defense and rotation. It's me against you starting 30 feet from the hoop. And he just takes him all the way lefty layup off the glass. My first thought was,

that's like Giannis if Giannis was 7'5". Like, that's what Giannis does. He's like, I'm just going to go into you, spin and be quicker, longer, bigger, and stronger than you, and finish at the rim. That was like a, oh my God. Does that comparison make any sense to you? No, it does. And I think it gets even scarier if he gets the Giannis body.

Right. Like, listen, he's he's only 20. Like he's going to put on weight. They're going to put him in a training program and a regiment and all those things. I don't want him to get jacked. But if he gets kind of just muscular in a way like it's it's it's scarier because then that little bump that doesn't really knock you that far back.

puts you back and really kind of creates that space. And he did that all game, Zach. Like when I went back and watched those clips, I was like, oh wait, there's another drive. There's another, and I was just like, this dude's unbelievable, man. Yeah, Nick Claxton sits back, says, look, I'm going to dare you to shoot a jump shot, even though you're shooting like pretty well from three lately, which is another scary thing.

I'm going to defend you this way. I'm going to dare you to eat up the space and you got to eat up the space and go through me. And Victor was like, okay, the other play, I urge people to watch this. It did not even make the NBA's highlight package. I watched the highlights from this game that the NBA has like a three minute highlight package or every game did not even make it two minutes left in overtime. By the way, the nets were the other, the nets were like Homer Simpson when he goes to box, Frederick Tatum and his robe just says opponent on the back. It was the nets. Sorry. I didn't mention the nets. Um,

the Nets have a two-on-one and it's like a textbook two-on-one. Mikael Bridges is on the right wing dribbling the ball fast. On the left wing, diagonally from Mikael Bridges and closer to the rim at the elbow, basically, Mikael Bridges is behind the three-point line, is Dorian Finney-Smith. In between them is Victor Wembenyama. Dorian Finney-Smith is already behind Victor Wembenyama, already has the inside track.

Picture-perfect bounce pass from Mikael Bridges across the lane, on the run to Dorian Finney-Smith. Victor Weminyama is beat. He's toast. It's over. He's above the foul line, straddling the foul line, when Dorian Finney-Smith catches the ball at the edge of the paint. There's no universe in which this is anything but a dunk or a layup. Victor Weminyama pivots around, jumps, and blocks the shot perfectly.

As it's about two inches from going into the cylinder and still in the dude's hand. It did not make the NBA's highlight package. It didn't go into the stands. It was one of seven blocks. It is an absolutely remarkable basketball play that doesn't seem remarkable because there's no emphatic pin it off the backboard or no. The game just continues going on.

I watched it and I was like, did I just see what I thought I saw? Did he cover that much? Am I overstating this? No, no. It goes back to some of those passes I was talking about. It's a glitch in the matrix. It's one of those things where you're like, that's not supposed to happen. Like, that's the weird, like, how is everybody just acting calm and normal about this?

Like everybody should be going ballistic in this instance. And you're mind blown. And we should talk about one of those blocks, game saving block on Dennis Schroeder. Right. Like that's a huge, huge play. And it's just it's just we have to get used to this type of line from him.

You know, I did a I did a NBA Twitter spaces, excuse me, a few weeks ago. And we're talking about Victor Webber and they combined his line from two nights in a row. And it was like fifty three points, 20 something rebounds, you know, just stuffed everywhere. And I'm like, guys, we're not far from that being a game line for him.

Like we're not, it's just at one point, we're just going to get these absurd lines. We have to adjust ourselves for the fact that we're going to get this stuff. The five by five Zach might be just a regular thing for him. Might be something he gets six, seven times a year. Like it's, we have to adjust. And I mean, last time I was with you, he got it the next night. Yeah. We talked to him. That's right. It was me and you.

I hope someone on X, like maybe the block went viral last night. I just don't know because I'm not engaged anymore on Twitter. I hope people like put this block up. It's like an absolutely incredible play for the season, for the whole season, not December 27th, the entire season. This 15 and 53 team is plus 90%

In 980 minutes that Trey Jones and Wemba Nyama have been on the floor. This 15-53 team is plus 172.

in 709 minutes that's winning a 48 minute game by 12 points with trey jones devin vissell and wim benyama on the floor and the vissell wimby two-man game is starting to become a thing some not starting it's a thing and now they're adding layers to it like they'll run a little empty side pick and roll dribble handoff thing where he's hitting wimby on lobs now um it's happening uh

Last thing I wanted to very quickly, I'm doing my one-by-one awards stuff. And I said, let's do six-man of the year. Let's give six-man of the year a little love. I don't know if you realize that has a special place in my heart because when Jamal Crawford won six-man of the year when I was with the Clippers, he gave me a specific shout-out in his speech afterwards. Did he really? Yeah, it was –

He thanked all the coaches, all that stuff. And then he told a specific story and gave me a specific shout out in his speech. So for me, the six man of the year award. Wait, what was the story? You elaborate because I don't remember. It was one of those times where he was talking about how everybody works so hard at behind the scenes and whatnot. And it was amazing.

Jamal and I used to be, that's who I'd go rebound for after practice. And we would play a fun game of one-on-one where he would score a million points and I would just kind of be like, I'm never going to touch the ball. And one day after practice, I had just pulled an all-nighter. Like, I think we had just arrived late and I was like, the practice facility is closer than my place. I'm just going to drive to the facility, work there for a few hours, take a nap, and then be ready for practice the next, we're getting ready for playoffs and things like that.

So he sees me the next day and I'm dead. I'm half asleep. I'm a zombie of all this stuff. And he just looks at me and he's like, OK, I'm like, no, I'm fine. He's like, no, you're OK. I'm like, I didn't really sleep last night, you know, working and all that stuff. And he gave me a nice little shout out in his speech. So for me, six man of the year always means something for me. Let's do the field quickly, because this is an award that isn't quite one of the headliners, but it's always fun.

I'm going to so I have I think I have like a clear top. The ballot is three spots. I don't have an official ballot this year, but I'm going to write my column anyway. And the ballots got three. I think it's going to be three of these four for me. But let me start by saying here are some names that are either not eligible or going to not be likely to not be eligible because the rule is you can't start more games and you come off the bench. Once those lines cross like that, you're out.

Also, there's no 65 game limit for this rule. You don't have to play 65 games. I didn't know that. In the CBA, I double-checked with the union and the league. The 65 thing doesn't apply here. Okay, unlikely, not or unlikely to be eligible. Josh Hart, Isaiah Hartenstein, Cam Thomas, Grant Williams, although that could flip depending on your taste in Grant Williams. I like to say guys' names. Aaron Neesmith, Andrew Nebhardt, Kelly Oubre, Gary Trent Jr., DeAndre Hunter, Rui Hachimura, Pajemski,

Keontae George, Trey Jones, and Io Dissoumnu are all either started too many games or will have started too many games. Now I'm going to give my very long honorable mention. You ready? Yeah, go for it. And if there's anything, if there's one word you want to say about any of these guys, go ahead. So my congratulations, you're not going to be on the ballot, but you did nice things this year. Isaac Okoro. Yeah.

Trey Murphy III, who if he keeps playing like this, this is just a minutes thing for him. This is just the games and minutes. He's played 42 games. If he keeps playing like this, I might say, damn the torpedoes. Maybe it's just Trey Murphy III. He deserves it the way they're playing and whatnot. I think there's definite possibility right there. Chris Paul, Jordan Clarkson is shooting 29% on threes. He is charging 17 a game. Karis Levert, 32% on threes, 48% on twos. Not good enough to crack my top four. He's passed it very well.

Chime in anytime you want. If there are any of these people are passion projects for you, Cole, Anthony, Mo Wagner. I just got to always support him. Oh, fair point. Caleb Martin. Uh, because I think he's the second best candidate on his team. Oh, Duncan Robinson. Duncan Robinson is also on the list of people who will likely not be eligible. Um,

I think the thing with Caleb Martin that probably will hurt him is a lot of times this does go to guys who score. And I think what he brings to the heat defensively is really important that sometimes gets missed in this award. Obi Toppin, Ben Mathurin, Patrick Beverly, Andre Drummond, Onyeka Okonwu. Just congratulations on nice seasons.

Isaiah Joe, who might be one of the most important bench players, but isn't quite prolific enough. You're nodding. I'm at the point where I want him to start. I just think I'd start him over Giddy. I think that's the first playoff

If they're in a situation and they need to make a playoff adjustment, I think that'll be one of the first ones. And that's something we saw when they played the Clippers halftime. They started him over Giddey. And coincidentally, on with you again the next day. And I thought, like, that might be something that stays. I think he should start. Now we're getting into some deeper. I just like these guys. I don't want to say their names territory. Corey Kispert, Peyton Watson, Nikhil Alexander Walker, Russell Westbrook. Yep.

Larry Nance Jr., Eric Gordon, Royce O'Neal. Now my low minutes, but I just like them, keep an eye on them. They're not candidates, but they are coming off the bench. Walker Kessler. I'm in Thompson, currently starting for the Rockets, but watch out. Man, I'm so excited. And I actually love him being teamed with Imei. I think Imei is going to be able to do so many amazing things for him in his career, just kind of developing him. And not nearly enough minutes, Jonathan Isaac.

is just is up to like 35 on threes he's getting up to back up to like 20 minutes in some of these games this if it's ever gonna like happen it might be kind of happening now i i don't know what you see from him but i love when they put him at center or bank harrow at center depending on how you slice it i like when they go ginormous and put franz paulo isaac and carter all on the floor i

I've said before that I think per minute he's the best defensive player in the NBA. What have you seen from him? No, I think that's a... I think when you say that, I continue to nod my head when I'm listening to the pod. Like, I don't think it's close. I mean, we've been robbed by it with injuries. And

In terms of seeing, you know, he could have easily been a defensive player of the year type guy over the years. And I think the thing that's more interesting about it is you were talking about frenzy defensive lineups like, hey, we're going to play just unbelievable defense for eight minutes or whatever. The moment he's on the floor, that's that time for Orlando. We're playing lockdown defense guaranteed when he's on the floor for however long he's on that stretch.

And Trey Lyles, who just gives the Kings a little bit of a mean streak but is hurt right now. They miss him or has been hurt recently. So I've got nine names left, and I'm pretty confident who my top four would be. Where do you want to go? I now give the floor to you. Do you just want to say who your top three would be or top five, or what do you want to do? I have my top three. Let me just run through quick with my top three. I have Bobby Portis at three.

I think, and you know, I think a lot of it, just the juice again, he brings a lot of juice off the bench and really kind of bring some, some fire and, and, and real just different energy vibe. If they need it for the bucks, I have Malik monk at two. And I think, again, I loved his, I think he's improved as a playmaker and making plays off the bounce and things like that, where I think it's just, again, watching that game grow even more and more. I think it's very deserved. And, and,

I'm going Norman Powell as my sixth man. I think, you know, he does come in, and when he subs in for one of those big three guys, they don't drop off that much offensively. And I think maybe more in that 35-game stretch. I think now, again, we know they're struggling. But I think the way he plays, he adds another element for them. You have to account for him defensively. And he's a guy I...

pretty confident he's going to be playing clutch crunch time minutes for them in the playoffs and i think that's one of the more important things for the the six man of the year award type guys this is a guy that's not just going to be sitting when we come to end of game situations he's going to be involved so here were my top four i mentioned i had four guys that i like a hair better than the rest and they don't include bobby portis who's in my next who's like fifth or sixth but i don't really i mean it's all fungible at this level

I think if I had to vote right now, and listeners should just assume these votes are not final, there are 18 games or 15 games left, I think I would vote for Malik Monk. 16 a game, he's going to get to 2,000 minutes, 37% on threes. His playmaking, he's essentially their backup point guard. And sometimes co-point guard, I guess they have three point guards on the floor when it's Sabonis, him, and Fox on the floor at the same time. His playmaking...

feels more essential to his team and to a good team specifically, which is going to separate him from one of my other final four, then I think anybody else's individual discrete skill, including Norman Powell's shooting, which is, I'd probably vote him second,

44% on threes, high volume, snap release, 54% on twos, downhill drives. They don't miss a beat with him on the floor. Those are my top two. I think I would lean Monk. I might have Bogdan Bogdanovich number three.

16 a game, 3 assists, 3 rebounds, 37% shooting, shoots a million threes. The Hawks are plus 3 per 100 possessions with bogey on the floor and minus 9 without him. The fourth guy on my tier 1 is Nas Reed.

13 points, five boards, 41% shooting from three, 55% shooting from two. And I think we'll make a push now without Towns as his minutes and responsibility grows. Those are my tier one. Tier two is Bobby Portis, Tim Hardaway Jr., 16 a game, kind of slumped in the middle of the season. I just don't think he's been quite as good as these guys.

Jaime Jaquez Jr., down to 32% on threes. Very good. Love Jaime Jaquez Jr. He went to a stupid college. That's not very nice. I know. It's personal for you. Yes. Someone aggregate this and say potential NBA awards voter disqualifies UCLA alum. For some reason, and I actually don't disagree with it, Kelden Johnson gets no love in this discussion. 16 points, five rebounds a game, 45% shooting, 35% on threes, 53% on twos.

It doesn't feel like that. Like there have not been a lot of games this year. I'm like, man, Kelvin Johnson, like change that game impacted that game. The numbers are good though. What do you, I can tell you have thoughts. It's, it's kind of a little bit like empty calories at times, you know, and you feel like, and part of it is the team is bad. Like, let's just be honest. And it's, and it's hard in that sense, you know, and like, look, McDonavich is on a bad team, but also that team's still possibly in the planter. And we're talking about a team that's like,

bottom third of the NBA to the point where it's pretty, some nights unwatchable. And I think there's an element to where I think sometimes I get frustrated with it too. Sometimes I'm like, just, just pass the ball. Like this isn't, you're, you're not the guy here. And I think that's kind of what dings him is it's not so much in the system sometimes.

It's also one of those things where one of the reasons you don't feel it is, okay, you were the number one option a couple years ago, averaged 20-something a game, got a deal that I think is a fair contract. I heard it got picked in the worst contracts draft podcast on the Bill Simmons podcast. You know, there are not that many bad contracts anymore, so whatever. He now lives in a world where it's like, all right, this isn't your world anymore. You're coming off the bench. So you're whatever best player on the team. You're not one, you're not two.

Not a great three-point shooter. Not a great playmaker. Not a great defender. So, like, what are you bringing to the table that amplifies the best guys? Like, Devin Vassell, who's a starter, I can see how he amplifies the best guy. So, I think that's part of it. Portis, I mentioned. And this, just...

Kind of in a tier of his own where I'm just like, I like this guy. Kind of like late career, kind of big man Andre Iguodala on the Warriors, but maybe not as essential, but kind of essential. Just shout out Al Horford. Eight points, six and a half rebounds, shooting 40% from three, 64% on twos. If someone really wanted to make like a...

just a really strong adamant case for Al Horford to be like number two on their six man of the year ballot. I'd be, you know what? Have fun. Put Al Horford there. I don't care. That's my, that's, but right now I'm going Malik Monk. Yeah. And I think Monk and, and pal, I think it's just a hair close. Like he could, I love your reasonings for Monk in that sense. And he also qualifies in my same mindset of like, he's going to be playing in the games and for the Kings. And I think that matters as well. So I think it's just, it's easy one way or the other with both of those guys.

Moe DeKeele, what are we going to see from you this week? I read your X's and Moe's last week, last Friday came out, I believe. What are we going to see this week? What should we be looking for? This week, I'm actually going to be doing some Twitch streams. I'm going to break down some games on Twitch, kind of running through the end of games. If you don't catch them live, you can watch a video on demand. Going to have some fun with that stuff. So I think that's the main thing to keep an eye out for.

If you want to know about basketball, follow everything this guy says and does and writes and twitches and says and speaks into microphones and all that. Moe DeKeele, thank you for spending some time with us, and I look forward to seeing you in Los Angeles maybe in a couple of weeks. Maybe we'll be at the same game again. Maybe we can grab a beverage after or something. That would be great. I'm looking forward to it. Thanks for having me. 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.