All right, everybody. Welcome in Season 2, Episode 19 of the Switchless Podcast. Roman, I tried to tell you. I tried to tell you. The Timberwolves, we really are that team. We are that team. We are 6 0 in the postseason. Charles Barkley just said we're gonna sweep the Denver Nuggets. We have the face of the league. We have the face of the league, Roman. And, and I could, I could go on and on about what we just watched on television. Um. Not 20 minutes ago, but I want to give you the chance to tell us, what did you see today out of the Minnesota Timberwolves? I'm genuinely curious. I saw a master class from the entire team missing their defensive anchor. Um, I was just sitting there just thinking, well, this is right. This is right. Unfortunately, I hate to say it, but they dominated from start to finish. so much. They pissed off the entire Nuggets team. They had Jamal Murray throwing things. Uh, their coach probably should have been ejected, but not, um, because the refs are in their pockets. But anyways, it was just, it was the, the worst thing I've seen from the Nuggets before. Have you ever seen a championship team absolutely dismantled in this fashion the following year? I mean, maybe this is just one game though. We can't act like this series is over. Okay. We're up to, Oh, it's over. No, no, no. Listen, listen, listen, just, just, we did this last time when we were playing the sons and we were up to, Oh, and I said, yeah, this series, Moses, this is. The defending champs. Okay. Did you have winning? Go to all that have gone to six, seven games. Wait, didn't you have the sun's winning? I think you did. I did. Okay. So, and you have Denver winning. So, okay, listen, we're up to, Oh, the numbers are on our side. We punked the Denver nuggets without Rudy go bear. We punked them. We punched them in the freaking mouth and they cried like babies and nobody came to help. Nobody came to help. And this is the thing about Denver, man. This is the thing about Denver, when they start getting clowned, you can pretty much tee up a dirty play from Jokic and, uh, he starts swinging on people a little bit, starts to get a little chippy and Jamal Murray just loses his mind. He just, he just unravels, falls apart completely. And the best was Aaron Gordon making shots. I was like, Oh, he's going to keep shooting. I knew it too. I knew it. It was beautiful. It was, it was so good. Like, we stripped Michael Porter Jr. We were blocking Yoko Ono's little goofy hook shots. Like, they had nothing. They really had nothing. Nas Reed came in, delivered. Karl Anthony Towns delivered. And didn't even have a great game. And in the second half, he turned up a little bit. We beat them so bad. The crowd was chanting MVP for Anthony Edwards. I couldn't believe that in a playoff game MVP in the Nuggets arena. We got that in their house out there. Yeah, that's how quiet it was. Okay. Yeah. People leaving at the end of the third quarter. We, we, we got home game. We pumped him. I don't even know what to tell you. I don't like, uh, I just, I think I just checked on my phone. They put our logo on their court. Like, it's our, it's our floor now. It's our floor now. I'm sick of hearing this. I need Friday to come sooner. So do I, because we're going to win again. Okay. So I'll give you, I'll give you a reprieve from talking about the Wolves. Let's talk about Rudy Gobert. He missed today's game because he, him and his girlfriend, they had their first child today, early in the day. And I have to ask you this, Roman, It's a playoff game. You're up 1 0 on the defending champs. Do you miss the birth of your child to play in a playoff game? Gilbert Arenas was talking about this today. We have to talk about it. He said, you can't miss that. Your baby will still be there. Um, oh man. I mean, it's basketball, but. There's things more important than basketball. And of course, one of those things is your family. So I'm I'm not mad at him missing it. You shouldn't miss that. You shouldn't miss that. I mean, now it doesn't matter. But there was a narrative prepared if they lost that game that people were going to go after go bear. So. Here's here's the thing. Here's what's interesting is it's not like people just started having babies in the last like 5 10 years What's what's weird is that we've never really seen Players miss playoff games for having children in the past, but I think generationally this is just different This is a different generation. We just do things different if it were me First of all, if I tried to miss anything, my wife would literally end me. I wouldn't even make it out of the hospital. I would be in a hospital bed somewhere else. That aside, I wouldn't miss the birth, but I might try to play If the birth was at like 10am, I might try and catch a PJ at like 1 or 2. Fly. Get to the game, fly back, and I'm, I'm there, I'm there by the evening. I might try to swing that, and I'm gonna, and I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna drop 35 or like 40 points and, and shout out my son at the end of the game, you know what I mean? Yeah, I'm gonna amp up, the locker room doesn't know I'm coming, and then I just walk in the door and everybody just, just gets fired up. We might have won that game by 50, if Gobert was there, I'm just saying. Oh, you can't say that. Because then it changes, you see these numbers, some teams perform better when they're star players and they're, you know, it's different. The thing to keep in mind though, is that the two rules have been used to playing without one of their signature seven footers. They missed carl anthony towns for a large part of the season. And so it's not Abnormal for that team to run that lineup and to have that rotation. In fact, like you can even make an argument for some of those guys. It felt a little bit better. The one player I really don't want to see in the series anymore is a Monte Morris. He's, he's. He's bad. He's really bad. He's an NPC out there. He's your my player. If you didn't buy any VC that first game, um, but you only get a couple of minutes and you just are breaking shots. Yeah. He, he just, um, he hasn't been great, but literally I think every other person has, um, I mean, we were laughing at them while we were playing defense. It's just, it's just, so good. I I'm not an old, I'm not an old man. By any stretch of the word. Uh, I might, I mean, I might be old in comparison to some in, in my mid, in my late twenties. Never in my life have I gotten to see the timber wolves be this good. Like it's, uh, I have to enjoy this moment while I can, while I can. So what can we expect from the series moving forward? What do you expect from the series moving forward? Uh, probably back and forth. I mean, this Timberwolves team is, is. They're no joke. It's not like they're just gonna drop off all of a sudden, so I'm assuming it's, uh, Nuggets take game three, and then Timberwolves take game four, and then it heads back to, uh, Denver, they win one, and then Timberwolves probably win in game six. There it is. I was, I was assuming this series was gonna go game six. It depended on How the first two went. I thought maybe it was gonna go back and forth, back and forth, but Timber will taking both games from them, and now they have to go to Minnesota. All the timber wills really have to do is just win one game on their home. Home court. That's all they gotta do. Let's just play four in Denver. I think we could just, that's our home floor now. We could just end it there. Let's just stay there for three and four. We don't even need to go back. What we gotta go back for? I think it's a tragedy the NBA put the game on Friday though. Of course they did. That delay is crazy. Especially in the middle of the series. Like you play two games and then get five days off. Yeah, it's ridiculous. That's excessive. That's too much. Kat said it in the Post game interview, he was like, We'll see them Friday, and I was like, He's gotta be wrong. That's not what he's talking about. I go to ESPN, and they go Friday. The delay is way too long. Yeah, but I think it's pretty safe to assume that OKC Dallas is gonna be a pretty decent series. It's gonna take some time for that one to finish. And if somehow the Timberwolves put Denver away in five, They very well may have this stretch of rest right now and then a back end stretch of rest if that series goes to six, maybe even seven games. Like if you're the Minnesota Timberwolves, you've gotta be, you've gotta be on cloud nine. How happy they were on that bench at the end of the game. We're all on cloud nine. Some teams, it's not good. Uh, it's, it's going to be good for this team. Anthony Edwards is a dog. Okay. He, it doesn't matter. This is your team. I'll trust you on that. It does not matter that that man is, he's looking to kill everything in front of him. He said it himself and he will. And, and, and. I tried to explain this. We just, we just, we're one of the only teams that matches up against Denver. There's not a lot of teams that match up against Denver because we have multiple seven footers and we're extremely athletic. Our, and our players coming downhill at Jokic, he can't defend the rim against Anthony Edwards. He's just not quick enough. He doesn't elevate high enough. There's just no way he's not athletic enough. And then our guards are six, seven and above. Right, so outside of Mike Conley, we're going like 6'6 6'7 6'9 across the board on Jamal Murray. And we're giving them different looks constantly. Constantly giving them different looks. We'll pick him up full court, we'll pick him up at the half, we'll stunt, we'll double team. He'll be guarded, like Jamal will be guarded by Anthony Edwards, then all of a sudden Jamie McDaniels. Like, we can give them so many looks right now, it's just too much. It's overwhelming. Now, if, when you look at the Lakers, the Lakers didn't have bigs that could stop Jokic. They just didn't have bigs. And they also didn't have guards that could defend. And so, like, it was, it was a complete mismatch. And I think with most teams, it's a mismatch. Like, Chet Holmgren's not going to be able to defend Jokic. Not a chance. Not a chance. And so the Timberwolves are just one of the only teams uniquely positioned to beat that team. And you want to know why? It's because the GM that built that Denver team, the GM that drafted Jokic, is the GM for the Minnesota Timberwolves. He literally built the Kryptonite. He built their Kryptonite. It's, it's, it's, I don't even know what to say. That's a tweet that said, uh, I love that Tim Conley. he had to, the thinking was he had two ideas for two systems that could potentially work. And he was like, why don't I try both of them? Why not? We'll match up against each other and we'll see which one is better. So, and you start to look at the coaching and it makes a lot of sense because the head coach who has, who's dealing with the, the, the knee injury and the assistant coach who's stepping in his interim head coach, they're both Mike Malone guys. Who were, who were in that system when the GM was there. So, so it kind of brings everything full circle that our coaching staff knows Mike balloons, offense, our GM built that team. Like this was the team. built to beat that franchise. Genuinely. I don't know. Like I'll say the Timberwolves are going to go to the finals. You don't hear me saying they're going to win a championship. We got a lot in front of us to before we, you know, can make that type of a decision. But we are uniquely positioned to win this round. And that is Everything for this franchise Before we start talking about some of these other series I want to address some of uh, pat riley's comments today on social media Saying that jimmy butler should probably stop trolling because he wasn't on the floor and that uh, tyler hero Is fragile missing too many games. Uh, I think Pat Riley is probably the only guy in the league that can get away with these comments, like the mafia boss of the NBA. Uh, what does this actually mean in your opinion? Is this something that we're like looking into a little bit too much or what can we expect given Jimmy Butler's looking to make a hundred something million on a two year deal? I think it's. It's just Pat Riley. I don't think there's too much to look into it. It's Jimmy Butler is going to overstep his boundaries always. I mean, he was doing it in the middle of the playing tournament, telling Kelly Oubre that they need to fight immediately. Um, it's, it's, it's just talk. Jimmy Butler is going to say his things. Pat Riley is going to, going to come back. I feel like it's just a little banter just to keep them in conversation. Uh, I mean, he's not wrong about Tyler hero. He needs, he needs to be healthy. He needs to produce more and they expect more from this guy. So I think it's, I wouldn't say it's an overreaction or anything, but it's just something that Pat rightly said. But this is what, how, how Pat Riley operates. I think, I think that this iteration of the Miami heat is done. I think it's over. I think they're not signing Jimmy Butler to a two year, a hundred something million dollar deal. I think he's probably walking out the door and playing somewhere else. I'm not sure what that place is, but I think that he has overstayed his welcome. And Pat Riley knows that they're not going to be able to climb the mountain again, given where they're at. I don't think that they're a team that necessarily wants to try and do a full rebuild necessarily, but I just don't believe. That this is all smoke. I think there's some truth to it. A little tiny bit. I think Pat Riley's kind of tired of Jimmy Butler. Word on the street is that Jimmy was kind of picking and choosing when he was going to play. That he was letting everybody know, I'm playing tonight. It wasn't necessarily a team decision or a doctor's decision. Uh, it was more Jimmy Butler's decision. I think he believes he's kind of the king of Miami. And, that ship has sailed. So look to see Jimmy Butler playing for a new team. And if you're listening to this right now, comment below where you think Jimmy Butler's playing next season. Do you believe Roman? Is he playing in Miami? Or are you going to side with me who has been right about just about everything? Oh my gosh, I'm so sick. This post season and he's going to play somewhere else. One of us will be right. We gotta go with this little load management stuff because showing up Jimmy Butler, Paul George, Kawhi Leonard, Giannis, Dame, these guys who are resting and have missed significant amount of time. Are coming back and are getting injured. So you want to have this discussion? What do we, who do we, what team do we talk about first? What stars do you want to talk about first? Out of those stars? Yeah. Clippers. We got to talk about clippers. Yeah. I mean, the clippers are dodging, like literally being the focal point of so many means because of the Drake beef. With Kendrick Lamar, uh, I understand them bringing Kawhi back because they're opening a new stadium next year, but do you bring Paul George back? I'm not even sure. I just don't know if it makes sense. Russell Westbrook was so awful. I mean, there's a clip of him shooting a fade away from the paint and it hits, it goes over the backboard. I don't even think the worst player in high school. shoots a shot that bad. I don't know how you shoot a shot like that functionally as an as just a grown man. I can't understand it. Uh, and and so it's hard because I like this Clippers. I like Terrence man. I like Zubats. I like Paul George. I like Kauai, even though I never get to see him play in the postseason. I just don't think that this team is We're never going to see it. Like we're not going to see healthy Kawhi play for the Clippers. We may never see healthy Kawhi period in the post season. I think it's over. It's been too long. I mean, this goes back to the bubble, which was so long ago. Like, yeah, you've had, you've had your chances. It's not working. Like, yes, there's a small chance it could work out, but I mean, you've got Russ. Having to go to social media to talk about that. He was okay with this post season that he's, that he's all right. Like if you have to make a statement like that, you know, there's something wrong. That's that's what I got out of it. The old guys are cooked. Guys are cooked. The old guys are James Harden, Kawhi, PG, LeBron, Steph, KD. They, they're all out. They're, it's all out. They're, they're cooked. They're cooked. When I, okay, so, so, so I want to hear your answer to this. If you're the Bucks GM and you look at the history of that team, won a championship, then out in the second round, and then now back to back years out in the first round, Giannis injured, either barely plays or doesn't play in the series, what are you saying to Giannis? Like, what are you asking him to do this off season so that he can play in the postseason next year? I, I don't know what you say to him. I mean, how, how do you just control how healthy this guy is? Mm. I have some ideas. What, what, what do you have? I think if I am, just wanna make sure I get my notes here. Let's see if I'm the gm, I go to Giannis and I say, listen, your attack the rim relentless basketball works. It just doesn't work for 82 games anymore. You're too old. Your body can't sustain that many hits on a nightly basis. So in the off season, you need to learn how to shoot a 15 foot jump shot. You need to, you need to spend the entire off season with Chris Middleton. You need to spend the entire off season with his team. You need to spend the entire off season working on nothing but jump shooting, lose five, six pounds of muscle and get a better jump shot. And I promise you. We can focus on the jump shot early in the season, and we can transition to more of an aggressive style as we get to the end of the season. And what you're going to find is you'll be playing in the post season. I think that's the solution. Giannis's inability to shoot a consistent jump shot is his biggest problem. Biggest liability right now. And it's what forces him to be overly aggressive. And we're getting into the territory of he's just going to be injured every season at the end because his body can't sustain the hits like it. But it's, I don't know if it's realistic. I don't know if it is either, but Blake, okay. Okay. But Blake Griffin developed a jump shot. Okay, valid. Blake Griffin developed, he developed, he was a, he was an extremely athletic dunker. Now he didn't have his ball, ball in the hands the same way that Giannis does, slightly different, but that's a guy that developed a very serviceable jump shot. I think over a few years. Brooke Lopez, Brooke Lopez developed the jump shot. Yes, maybe that's also who needs the words. He has two elite shooters on his team, three elite shooters and it's not approved. I mean, maybe it's even just. A minutes restriction type of thing, like throughout the season, like not game restriction, but like first half of the season, like, we're stopping you with that at 35 minutes. You're not playing over 35 minutes and. Is that what we've come to in the league? I mean, it's kind of looking like it is because like we mentioned before, all these stars are just going down in the playoffs because they're not even playing 60 games in the season. It's just the old guys. If you're going to do that with the old guys, that's one thing. The other piece for Milwaukee is they probably need to get younger. I might even move a Chris Middleton. I think his trade value is extremely high after hitting a lot of those clutch shots against the Pacers. I would probably move Middleton and try and get it. Two or three young players and a couple of picks. I, if there's a team I would target, it'd be a team like Orlando. Go try and get like a Jalen Suggs, a Wendell Carter jr. And a first round pick. That way you get young and athletic at the guard position. You get a very solid, versatile, big who's, who's fast and can hit the three and can hit the three. And you, you maybe try and get one or two picks. That's what I would do. I would try and target a team with some solid young role players. And I would see if maybe they need an all star level player with championship experience. Plus Orlando's looking into Paul George. They're interested in Devin Booker. They're interested in Clay Thompson. They're interested in like they're, they're hunting for a veteran right now. So it's kind of like a match made in heaven. The only thing that's tough is they're in the same conference. And so you have to take that into account, but you, you find a Western conference counterpart that's in a very similar situation and you might find something solid. So, uh, that would probably be how I would address Milwaukee. Yeah, Spucks probably need to switch something up once again. Yeah, Rome, why do you think the Knicks series is drowned out by the Timberwolves? Ant. That's, that's all, that's all it is. And I don't know the, I wouldn't say the Knicks are the, they're not the exciting type of basketball like other teams are like, they're more of a gritty that we're going to beat you on the defensive end. And we're going to get a bunch of offensive boards. Like, if you're in New York. You love the Knicks, but I mean, outside of that, it's like Jalen Brunson takes 30 shots a game. Josh Hart is just out there running around. Dante DiVincenzo puts up 15, three pointers a game. Hartenstein with his little float shot. Yeah. Hartenstein putting up left handed floaters. It's they're, they're not the, the entertainment that other teams bring, but I, I think they're exciting. Like this, this game tonight. Oh, fun. Watch dude. This is great. So much. I love it. Runcin, it's not getting talked about enough, like, the dude has had back to back to back to back 40 point playoff games, and it's not like he's just shooting the ball like 35, 35 and 10 for a lot of these games. Like, the guy is amazing. He's been the best playoff player in the playoffs. Like, he has been the biggest performer as of right now. I mean, Anthony Edwards exists, but okay. Yeah, but Brunson's putting up better numbers. Yeah, we, we, we're 6 0. Yeah, but Brunson's putting up better numbers. We're 6 0, but just saying. Go ahead. Okay, but, um, yeah, Ant's just extremely entertaining. I mean, he's got everything to his game, and He's kind of a different superstar. Uh, he's, he's more, he likes to trash talk a little bit more. He's more of a funny guy. He's younger. Uh, a lot of these superstars try and stay like very professional and all that kind of stuff. But Ant's really just being himself. And I think it's, it's shining through and it's making him very unique to the league. Yeah. And there's one thing I'm afraid of with the Knicks. Uh, pigs get fed, hogs get slaughtered. And I think that the Knicks have something really good going. I think they've got a solid core of Villanova guys. Their chemistry is high. This is the best they've been in such a long time, and they have a, they have a legitimate chance to make it to the conference finals. And, and maybe that's why people don't really care about Indiana, even though this is kind of a battle between Halliburton and, and, Jalen Brunson, you know, one guy made Team USA, the other didn't. But the fact that we're seeing rumors that they're willing to trade anybody but Brunson to go and get a guy like Kevin Durant, it just makes me wonder, like, you know, pigs get fed, hogs get slaughtered, like New York. Don't let your eyes get too big. Like, don't, don't trade the entire core because you, you're one, you think you're one piece away, and then you have no future. Like, build on this. Move the Julius Randall contract and find a star that fits, right? Don't just get Donovan Mitchell because you, you like Donovan Mitchell. Devin Booker might be a better fit, but don't liquidate all of your assets to do it. Look at what happened to Phoenix. Phoenix made it to the finals. And then liquidated the team, got Kevin Durant, and they've progressively gotten worse every year. So, I, I, as much as I hate to say it, I don't want to see the same thing happen in New York. And so, that's kind of like my caution. Uh, I do also want to make a note about Joel Embiid. Wow, what a dirty player. Like, can we actually just say that Joel Embiid's a dirty player now? This series was bad, bad for him, bad for him. It was horrible. It showed through, and Yeah, everybody was watching. I mean, yeah, he had his dirty plays, but it was just a lot of foul seeking, too. Yeah, he's a teacherable. You see it from teens, but it was, it was just him. Like, it was him the entire time, flailing, and Bumping into people and throwing opponents to the ground. Like he, he was playing extremely dirty. Yeah, he's, he's not a good watch. It's not fun to watch him on television. It's just not an enjoyable game. We need a healthy Mbeat. It's like, it's like when we used to watch James Harden. I mean, the step back was nice, but you're watching him shoot like 25 free throws. It's just not fun. He is the newer James Harden. He, he might be a worse version of James Harden. He's never made it to a conference finals in his life. There's never been an MVP that's missed the conference finals in their career, like Joel Embiid. He's one of one disaster, not a winner anyways. Let's talk second round predictions. Now, we've kind of talked a little bit about a, a little bit about a few batch up. Uh, I'd love to hear who are your picks for the second round, which series you wanna go first, let's start with Min Minnesota. Yes. Uh, after these two games, Timberwolves will win in six mm-Hmm. You concur? Yeah, I called, I called wolves in six. Early on I didn't expect to be two. Oh, at this point, to be quite honest with it with you, that this is not what I anticipated. I figured we'd win the two home games, but I am very confident in my pick and, and once again, even though I am a delusional. Timberwolves fan. I do expect Denver to make this a series. When I do, I do not think they're a team that's just going to lie down. Uh, they might end up, you know, injuring one of my players in the process. Yoke, it's also low key, dirty player. Uh, shouldn't be surprised. His brother punched a fan recently. Uh, so it's, it's kind of in the DNA, but, uh, and Jamal Murray cry baby flopper throwing stuff on the court, they'll probably win a game or two. Um, but, uh, yeah, to rules and six. Yeah, my original prediction was, let's make this clear, my original prediction was nuggets and six, but yeah. to, it's, it's uh, becoming clear what this is looking like. And like I said, I don't think this Timberwolves team is team is just going to lay down now. It's not like they have any injuries or anything and they're headed back home. So I expect this to go three one and we know what happens with three ones usually. So game six, Turn out the lights parties over. I don't think it's going to be a sweep. Like Charles Barkley said, moving on in the West, we've got the Oklahoma city thunder, the Dallas Mavericks, your pick. Young team. Um, I try not to doubt OKC, but they're just. Extremely young, uh, Lucas got some playoff experience. Now he's got Kyrie on his team. This team is deep now with their, the moves that they made. So I'm going to go Mavs in seven. I'm going to take Mavs in seven as well. The, but the main reason why is because in the same way that we're the kryptonite for the Nuggets, I really think Dallas matches up incredibly well against Oklahoma city. Incredibly well against Oklahoma City. The biggest, there's, there's two main reasons and they both have to do with Luca Donchic. His pace is going to be difficult for Chet Holmgren and his size is going to make it difficult for Shea Gildress Alexander. Shea wins because he's so much bigger than who's, Then the guard that's defending him. He's got size shiftiness, all the ability in the world. And it's, it's not that he's just like this incredible three point shooting threat. It's when he gets in the paint, it's pretty automatic, but when you're going against Luca, who's bigger than you, it changes the dynamic of the way that he gets to play offense. And I just really, I don't know if there's a team that had a better trade deadline than the Dallas Mavericks, the acquisitions that they had, the athleticism that they've been able to acquire at on the, how cheap those deals were for like Derek Jones jr. For example, they are a team that I, I believe is confident, you know, they've, they've, They play against the Clippers. They, they, they know they can beat the Clippers, but I believe they match up incredibly well against the Thunder. Just thinking about match ups here now, because they, are they going to put Lou Dort on Kyrie or Luca? It doesn't matter. That's the thing we go Luca. But then, cause I don't think Shay's going to guard either Kyrie or, or Luca, he's going to be off probably guarding Derek Jones jr. On defense, because I think they'll probably put Derek Jones jr. On him. I don't know how they're going to match up. I think that they'll, I think they're going to show Shea a lot of different sets. I think that at times it'll be PJ, I think at times it's going to be, it'll be, um, Derek Jones Jr. And I think at times it's going to be Luca and you got to mix it up. You got to show them different looks, but I think those people are going to take the challenge and if it were me and I'm Luca, I'm trying to get a foul on Shea as quickly as I can. We can't go in the other way. Whoops. This, this matchup will be interesting. I'm interested to see who's guarding who's guarding. Okay, but how do you not put Shay on Luka to start? Because in the pick and roll, if he's, if you put Shay somewhere else, they're just going to run the pick and roll with PJ. He's going to pick and pop and they're going to put him in the action. And then they're going to have Shay guarding Luka off of the pick and roll. Yeah, it's, I'm very excited to see what these matchups look like tomorrow. Game one's tomorrow. Dallas is always one of the most interesting teams to get to watch on TV. And, and, and this series is, is going to be just as exciting versus the young coach of the year and just wait till Dallas has to play against my timber wolves, man. They're going to get cooked just like the league is moving over to the east. We have the Knicks and the Pacers in incredible game one. The Knicks end up winning out due to some flopping from Jalen Brunson and some flopping from Dante DiVincenzo. Uh, that's right. They flopped to, to, to win that game, to ice that game. Do who do you have winning that series? So, I mean, this, this is my Pacers team that I talked about at the beginning of the season that I thought was going to surprise people. And they have. But I, I don't know. It's just the Knicks. The Knicks look good. They look, they look like a unit as much as the Pacers look really good. Um, I'm assuming that the Knicks take game two as well and they steal one. Uh, they still won in, they still won in Indiana. And then I'm thinking it goes to five. I don't, I don't, I like my Pacers team, but this Knicks team just looks really good. Yeah, I struggle to think that what Miles Turner did tonight is going to happen consistently. That's like my biggest fear. And also Pascal, Pascal Siakam can't learn how to shoot a free throw, but he doesn't stand up to the free throw line. He was standing further back and then shot it short. I don't, I can't understand it. Um, Yeah, I'm going to go Knicks and six, the Knicks are susceptible to just a dud game. I think the Pacers will legitimately win a close game and then I think the Knicks will also have a dud at some other point in the series. And it's going to be 4 2 New York Knicks. Now, Boston Cleveland. We know how the Celtics are, like, they're probably going to end up blowing a couple games. Uh, Donovan Mitchells will probably have a game where he goes off for 50, another game for 45, so. I mean, I can't believe I'm saying this, but this series feels like it could be a little bit closer than the Nick Spacer series to me. So I'm going to go Celtics and Six because they dropped a game to that, to that Heat team. It's true. And it just, it's so annoying to watch. There's no reason they should have dropped a game to that Heat team. I don't care how well they shot. It's predicted, but They shouldn't lose that. So I'm gonna say Celtics in six. I'm gonna go Celtics in five. I think that the Orlando series really got to Cleveland. Uh, I don't, I think it's great that they came back in that game seven, but even just the fact that they were in that position in the first place or losing a game when Donovan scores 50 points, I think it's in their head. I've got Boston in five winning in pretty convincing fashion. And they don't have a lot of break too. I think that series starts in two days. So yeah, like it's coming off game seven. Boston's had over a week of rest now, so it's, it's going to hurt. But again, I, I've got a little bit of faith in this. In this Celtics defense that they can win a couple of games. The thing to keep in mind, the thing to keep an eye on is the Chris Stapps Porzingis injury. What is it? How long is it going to take for him to be back on the floor? That's what you have to look for, for the chink in the armor for the Boston Celtics. Looking like he's, he's out for what the series as of right now, I'm pretty sure, correct? They're not going to need him this series. So I'm okay with that, but it's a injury reports in the post season. It's hard to know what's real and what's fake. Jared Allen's out too. With the, the rib injury. I don't know, I don't know how long he's out too, but I mean, it could be Al Gore for getting, getting a lot of minutes. So could be interesting for a few of those games could be. Let's talk about this face of the league. A lot of people want to annoy Anthony Edwards face of the league right now. I don't know if I want to go that far, but I believe whoever wins the championship this year is the face of the NBA. It seems like the turn of the, with all of our superstars going out early, it definitely seems like a changing of the chapter. It's Jokic, Tatum, Luka, Brunson, Shea, Ant. I know the league does not want it to be a foreigner. They're not going to want it to be a foreigner. And I think the fans don't want it to be a foreigner. I agree. It's an American league. So they're going to try and make the face of the league, of course, an American, but I mean, the Europeans have just been so dominant for so many years in a row. Now it's. It's going to be tough to take it away from a Luka, a Jokic. Giannis is a little bit too old now. I don't know, but it's, uh, the, the chapter is changing in the NBA. The guy's Anthony Edwards, man. He's the guy dude, when he wins, if he wins a ring this year, if it's him versus Boston, like he's 22 years old. Roman wins a ring this year. He will be the, he will be the face of the league. He will be the only topic over the summer. If he wins a ring at 22 years old. I don't even know. I can't even picture it in my mind that happened territory to be that young and winning. That's people. And here's the thing is like, that's the, that's the runway, right? That means he has the runway to win 3, 4 championships. Whereas a guy like Giannis. Maybe some of these older guys, like they don't have the same runway. They don't have the same, they don't have that same timeline. You gotta just get a few in your first like eight years. If you want to catch one of the all time greats, you gotta win a ring at like 22, 23 years old, period. You gotta have that deep playoff experience once you get to your, your prime, which is crazy. And it's not even close to what his prime could be if he stays healthy. No, but the leap he took from last year to this year. Okay, where do you think his game improved most from last postseason to this? His post game, like slash mid range, I mean, it's kind of collective, but I mean, before it was just explosive, uh, he would have like spurts where he could shoot the ball, but yeah, his most game this year is incredible. He's shooting the turnaround jump shot at 50, 50 percent plus. Right now in the postseason. I think you're right. He, it's, he's, he's able to get to shots that put Denver in compromising positions as a defense. Like they have to send a double when he looks for the turnaround jump shot and he's willing to pass the ball. When he makes decisions, because he's a streaky three point shooter. He's not a consistent three point shooter, but he can get to the rim at an elite level and finish at an elite level. And his passing out of the double has been solid. That's so special. He's become really good to like, yeah, around the rim. Oh yeah. He's not missing. He is not missing. No, he's that that MF don't really to somebody that played. In a red jersey about 25 years ago, I don't know. Yeah, and he's MJ's son, dude. He's playing like it for sure. Like, he's really on that trajectory right now. He just has to, he just has to finish. You gotta put the, uh, you gotta put Denver away as soon as you possibly can. But I think it's him, and then I think it'll be him in here, and it'll be Wemby internationally. I think it'll be, uh, Anthony Edwards will be our guy, and Wemby will be the world's guy. And I think what we're gonna see Don't, when I tell you the names, dial it back like 50, 40%, but I think it's going to be a Larry Bird Magic Johnson in the, in the, like with the idea that it's two guys are the face of the league together, but it's kind of the U. S. versus the world and it's Anthony Edwards versus Wemby, Nike versus Adidas, like it's those two guys. Over the next who knows how long I see it like 20. Yeah, 2028, 2029. Uh, we, we've been seeing these guys battle with each other for who's the face of the league. Yeah. I, I, I could definitely see that. That's how I think it's going to go. Now there is something that I do want to highlight. This is the big miss on my part. When the Timberwolves made the trade for Rudy Gobert for first round picks, I thought it was one of the worst trades in the history of the league. I really did. Um, Here's the thing, though. If the Timberwolves win this series Just the series alone. Roman, those picks are not good picks. Those picks end up being like the 28th overall pick, or the 31st overall pick in the first round. Like, that's 31st. The, the, the 28th or like the 30th. Somewhere between 26, 27, 28. Like, they're not good picks. And so it makes that trade look even better because the team itself is performing that on yourself. They really did. They really did. And it's paying off. Like those are, those are low first round picks that were not going to be of high value. They got the player they felt that they needed to anchor their defense, to give them that defensive mentality, and it's paying HUGE dividends, even though it broke trades in the league forever. It's HUGE for that team, so I just wanted to point that out. That was a space that I was completely wrong. I thought that going for Gobert was going to be an awful decision given how much they traded, how much in assets and capital they gave up. Um Outside of that, the only other thing Timberwolves have to pay attention to is the fact that their owner doesn't pay the luxury tax. And you need to see if he'll keep Karl Anthony Towns or if he's going to blow the team up, even if they do win a ring. Some owners, some owners just Are not about it. I don't care if you win, you're done. Yep. Yep. So maybe Alex Rodriguez has a different opinion, but given that kind of fell apart for a while during the middle of the season, who knows what's going to happen. But if you're a Minnesota Timberwolves fan, you got to be happy right now. It's prime time around. It's the prime time. All the cat fans who have been waiting almost 10 years. It's finally paying it off. And all it took was to go get another center. Let's get two of these guys. One that can shoot and one who plays defense. Everybody thought it would be an awful idea, but look at it now. And Lakers fans are, are just like, the Lakers fans are just as happy as anybody. They're already talking about Kyrie wants to still play with LeBron potentially, but it got ruined. And all this stuff is coming up about stuff that happened on the sideline. And. It's just classic. Regular season's over. Let's dive into what happened during the radio season that we missed. What a time to be alive. Lakers fans, Timberwolves fans, I know we're on the same side. We both want to see Denver lose. Only time will tell, and we have so much basketball in front of us. So if you're listening right now, enjoy the fact that you get to see a basketball game every single day. Because this is one of the last weeks that we get this. It falls off very quickly. So enjoy it while you can, ladies and gentlemen. And with that, I'm going to have Roman send us off before he does, please, if you don't already hit the like button, hit the follow button, uh, share this episode with somebody that you know, that that needs to learn about the game of basketball. We appreciate it and leave us a comment. Let us know what you want us to talk about or pay attention to this week for next week, week's episode, Roman. Take it away. It is prime time. We are in the second round of the playoffs. We are on all your favorite favorite platforms. Let us know what you want us to discuss. Interact with us. We are here for you guys. You want to know about next season? You want to know about potential series? If you disagree with us, just just let us know. Let us hear it. We could be completely wrong. We have been completely wrong. Me a little bit more than this guy this year. So to quote Darvin Ham, Salute, salute, probably the worst speech I've ever heard. But yeah, we're here for you guys. We just want to talk about basketball with, with other people. So if you have any ideas, anything that you disagree on, let us know. Uh, season two, episode 19 swish list podcast. We are out.