NBA Lottery Karma Rankings, Jaylen’s Future, and a Blistering Wolves-Spurs Series With Nick Wright

The Bill Simmons podcast is brought to you by Fando. We're also brought to you by the Ringer podcast network where I put up a new rewatchables on Monday. We did there's something about Mary, which is also on Netflix. It was me and CR and Sean. The, uh, the OG crew had a great time. A lot of fun discussions. You can go check that out on Spotify and Netflix, wherever you get your podcasts for next week. Just giving you the heads up now. We did Tropic Thunder. So that is coming on Monday. I think it's on Netflix. I'm pretty sure that's why, why we want to do it, but pretty easy movie to find, uh, almost 20 years since it came out and a really fun one to revisit. So that's happening. If you like narrative podcasts, we put up the last episode of legata. Uh, that went up on Tuesday. If you missed it, please go check it out. Great one to power walk, driving the car with, uh, really, really good, really proud of this one. So, uh, check that out whenever you have a chance coming up on this podcast, the one and only Nick right is here. We're going to talk about the San Antonio, Minnesota series. We're going to talk about my Celtics and what that will happen and what's happening with Jaylen Brown does even want to be a Celtic. We're going to talk about, uh, LeBron. Are we evaluating him correctly in the ringer? Nick was upset that we, we probably weren't a lot on the San Antonio, Minnesota series, which we both feel like something really crazy might be happening there. And then last but not least, I do this every year. Usually we do it on a Sunday, but the latter is on a Sunday this year. Zach Lowe is going to be at it. So instead we're doing the lottery karma rankings today. And that was the last part of this podcast, uh, trying to figure out who should win the NBA lottery just for make karma standpoint. So that is all coming up next or take a break. And then Pearl Jam. The Bill Simmons podcast is brought to you by Fandle. It's been a wild player friend, not over yet. Fandle wants to bring you closer to the court to make all of that action come to life for you, the basketball fan. Fandle, the best place to bet the teams, players, plays during NBA post season, build the same game parley for a shot at a bigger payout or try live betting and jump into the action right after tip off, whatever you want. And that's the whole point of live betting. Download the Fandle sportsbook app right now and play your game. 21 plus select states are 18 plus DC, Kentucky, Wyoming game, probably caught 1 800 gambler call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat Connecticut. All right, we're recording with Nick right about an hour or so after you did first things first. I like when you're a little groggy. I feel like I have an advantage. You know, you've, you've basically played a whole game. Now you're doing a double header. This is good for me. With it, correct. Which is why, you know, I, I have a light rule that if I'm potting after 6pm Eastern, I drink red wine while I'm doing it. But I really, I need to be, have, you know, all my sensibilities to be able to combat whatever stuff you throw at me. So I have a big glass of pink lemonade, a backup bottle of water. I'm going straight sober to deal because I don't know how you're, I don't really know the state you're in. This is your, the Celtics who I picked to win the title. And I know now you're like, ah, they weren't ever going to win the title. You thought they could maybe win the title. They're out. And so I don't know how you're doing. Terrible. Yeah. Yeah. Excited. I mean, the Lakers are still playing the Celtics are at home. It's a catastrophe. It's a total catastrophe. I woke up at 4 in the morning and I was just lying in bed staring at the ceiling and I just woke up. I went for a power walk at like 7.30 in the morning. I was walking around, I was talking to my dad two days after the game, still furious at everybody. My dad, this is the maddest he's ever been after a series. I mean, Ron Harper Jr. not going to save the season, it turns out. I, I, so I'm, here's the thing I think I'm most stunned by. You could argue of every... I know we're leading with this. Sorry, well, you, sorry. No, it's all right. Go. You could argue of every contender in NBA history. There was not one better prepared for, oh, shit, our best players out for game seven. What are we going to do? Then this year, Celtics. Yeah. Who had 65 games of that scenario. So I don't under, I didn't understand that from Missoula starting lineup. And I, how do you grade four years of Missoula, year two, crush everyone en route to a championship and every other year, horrifying defeat as huge favorite. Yeah. Did you see the numbers? It's like plus 500 plus 900 and plus a thousand, I think we're the three or something like that. Yeah. I mean, it's really, it's, and so I don't, you know, and, and then, and you, and you did a very, I feel like you don't want them to break up Tatum and Brown, but you acknowledging that it might happen really helped the conversation get going. So it was journalistically, I respect it, even though it caused pain for you. But I think Jalen Brown, I think Jalen Brown, I think there is a very interesting trade where Atlanta sends a bunch of stuff, including Milwaukee's own pick back to Milwaukee. Atlanta gets Jalen Brown, who would fit with them perfectly. And Yannis goes to Boston. That probably makes more sense than Yannis for Jalen Brown straight up. Cause why, why would Milwaukee necessarily want to do that? That I think for Boston's a really interesting possibility here. I have it in my notes. I mean, we, we hinted at it on, on the Sunday pod as we were doing the Sunday pod, Zach and I, Jalen was doing this Twitch stream. It did not go over well with the fan base. I'll just say that. Look, he's, it's a free country. You do what you want, but over and over again, the theme from him this year has been, this has been the most fun season he's ever had. Time of my life. And even the game seven stuff of that was the pace we should have played all along. I liked how I liked the style we had that game. And it's just very, it's becoming very clear to me and I think to a lot of other people that he wants his own team. And that's fine. But I think we can accommodate this. The trade you mentioned is the most logical trade because you left out one thing. They also have a almost $28 million trade exception. So they can trade with Milwaukee and they can also take a contract back and actually save Milwaukee money because they got under the tax this year. They can actually go over the tax, right? So they have Kuzma for one year left, like 22. You could just take that as part of the trade and absorb it. Or you could take my, hey, did you not like the Miles Turner experiment? We'll take them off your hands. He fits in that thing too. The trade, who has the trade exception? The Boston or Atlanta? Boston. Boston. Okay. So Boston could basically get Yannis and a year of Kuzma, send Jaylen out, send a pick to Milwaukee, and then Atlanta sends, you know, Risa Shay, Dyson Daniels and the whatever that pays. Well, so yeah. And the thing is it's super valuable in this regard because we'll see what that Atlanta pick, you know, we're going to, I know talk a lot of related. They have potentially a really good pick this year, but since they have Milwaukee's 27 pick, Milwaukee being able to get that back and be like, all right, next year we're going to suck and reap the benefits of it before we get going. And I think Jaylen would be great with Atlanta. I think that would, I think that would. Yeah, if you have him and Jaylen Johnson, you bring McCollum back. Yeah, that's something. Were you a wire guy? Yeah, of course. So I used to do this thing when I had McCollum. Back when my fingers worked about Durant and Westbrook about wondering if, if the stringer, Avon thing was going to happen and bring them down. Right. And I was writing about this and it really did not go over well with, I think either of them or anyone in O.K.C. But the whole point was like the balcony scene in the wire where Avon comes back, but stringers kind of been running the show and they start side-hying each other a little bit. My fear with the Celtic season was that they were, it was a little like the wire thing where stringer was running the show, in this case Jaylen. Tatum comes back like Avon. It's like, okay, guys, we're a partnership again, but stringer got a taste of running the show. I didn't really fully think until that Twitch stream that this is kind of what Jaylen wants. So I want them to stay together, but maybe this is just how the league goes. So I want to talk about the Twitch stream for a minute. Yeah. Okay. So because I find Jaylen to be both of these guys, Tatum, I find, I found Tatum's openness and vulnerability in his recovery process. One of the most remarkable and endearing things from a star athlete I've ever seen. Him flatly saying before the New York game, yeah, you know, I, it's in my head, but I need to get over it. Like being back on the court, like I thought it was stunning his approach there. And I thought his recovery that obviously hit a wall here at the worst time was remarkable. So, and then I would also add just him traveling with the team everywhere and being kind of needing to be on the team and to be involved and watching them and being a part of it. Other guys just would disappear. He didn't. He's the blueprint now, I think, for how you deal with something like this. I agree. Jaylen, I find fascinating because I truly believe if all 450 NBA guys took an IQ test, I bet Jaylen's in the top couple percent. Yeah. I think Jaylen is a very thoughtful and guy and a guy whose off court causes, I think are really important and does, like he does, is a smart, thoughtful guy. Well, and also the stuff he does in the city of Boston is the highest possible level of an athlete's relationship with the city. That's another thing you have to think about after trading. Right. So all of that is like true. And here's what's also true. He has some of the like wildest takes I've ever heard. Like the, the part of the Twitch stream where it was, yeah, there was basically a conspiracy against me from the league because I've criticized the refs. Like, are you serious? Yeah. And where he's like, yeah, the refs confirmed it to me because before the game they said, we're watching like, buddy, that's not because you criticize him. It's because the other team's like, hey, he pushes off. So they're letting you know they flagged it to us. Him, the fact that he is that smart and yet thought it would go over well to be like, yeah, I know I've won a championship here and been to six conference finals. But the year where my running mate was out with the Torna killies and we flamed out of three, one lead in round one best year ever, even if you feel that way, that ain't going to go over well. And then the decision to do it and to do it with those three dudes just standing, like none of it made any sense. It was, and so I'm like, I know he's a smart, thoughtful guy, yet he's doing this, which is, well, so, but you have to flip that around. So why is he doing it? Correct. And he is a smart guy. And I think that's my takeaway after that was he's probably okay with moving on. And you forgot to mention with that thing about the best year of his career. This is my dad. I was talking about my dad was like angry for my dad, but then started talking about how the NHL ladder is tonight. And if the Maple Leafs fall to six, we get their pick. So he's moving on. But my dad was like, we won the title two years ago, we were on a statistically the best teams of all time. We ran through it. He was a huge part of it. He won finals MVP and conference finals MVP. How is that not the most fun year of his career? My dad was like, I just don't understand. Like, I would love for him to explain how this was. And I, Jaylin was saying like, look, everyone counted us out. There was this adversity. They were calling us the gap year Celtics and we banded together. But the way the season ended, there's no way that could be your most fun year. Correct. And it'd be one thing if, you know, if Scotty Pippen said, Hey, 94 was the most gratifying year of my career. I was always number two. Jordan won every award always. And in 94, we overachieved. We had a great season. We won a round. That'd be that'd be one thing. I think that would also be insane. I, well, it would, I understand that that you probably wouldn't say it, but I would get it more than if Scotty had in 93, won finals MVP. And people thought he was awesome. Like it was, well, how about, let's say you get hit by a bus tomorrow and you're recovering for nine months. And as this is happening, the first thing's first has to resolve. And all Wilde's is doing is like, this is the most fun I've ever had doing TV. He must hate Nick. Right. What's going on? That is, that's the exact comp. I said, I said, I do the podcast I do. What's right? I would say that by the way. Yeah. No, well, I, so I do the, that podcast with my son. Yeah. And I said to, I said that to him this morning. I was like, if I got, you know, pneumonia and was in the hospital for two months and you're in a yacht, you're in the Hantavirus, you're on a cruise ship. We're stuck at a cruise ship for six months. And you're doing the pod without me. And I keep seeing these clips of you saying to the producers, boys, I don't think the show's ever been better than right now. I'd be like, what the fuck? Like, buddy, I'm trying to get back. And so, but that's what it was. And you said throughout the year, and I think it's right, he was like 10% too happy about how it was going. Yeah. And when he needed that, he almost needed like a crisis consultant to say, Hey, every three weeks, don't forget to talk about your brother JT. How great it's going to be when he comes back. But you could feel it in the playoff series, because they did slow down. They did play a different style. I was talking about on my podcast, everyone I did, I was like, I don't really like how they look. I don't, something's different. We're not using the bench. And this is, you know, some Missoula stuff. But like I said, on Sunday, I think they were using that Sixer series as a tinkering lab for the next series, not realizing Philly was going to blossom into this. I mean, Philly might not win another game in the playoffs. This might, this might have been a five day Philly run that is just this crazy blip. Right. Yeah. I mean, that's game one was obviously a disaster. Yeah, you know, you're gonna lose. Right. That's the thing. I think they can win the series, but they were drawing dead to win that game after three one comeback. We'll see what they look like in game two. They also might be when if Embiid's healthy, that's a legit really good top four guys. Like Paul George playing the way is Embiid, Maxi and Edgecomb. That's legit. They don't have a bench, but they have those guys. Here's my question for you on Boston before we get to the stuff you wanted to get to. Well, I have a, and I have a honest thing we should talk about too, but go up. Okay. Let's do, because obviously the hot button thing is the threes, all the threes, all the threes. Yeah. Do you think that, that while when our pal Daryl did that against the Rockets and did it, or did, I'm sorry, did that against the Warriors with the Rockets, what was underlying all that was, we're the underdog. We need, we are not, they have more talent. We need to add more variants to the equation. Are the Celtics underselling their position in the Eastern Conference by adding so much variance to these playoff series? Should that be the strategy if you make the finals against the Thunder, but not the strategy in round two last year against the Knicks or round one this year against the Sixers team without Embiid? Like it fit, it felt like an underdog NFL team that's like, we're onside kicking every time back in the day or we're going for trick plays, but you're not the underdog. Right. They're doing five wide receiver every down, never running the ball ever. And so that's my question for Missoula. Like, can you throttle it down when you have the better team and then throttle it up when you do need to add the variants because the other, because you're over matched and he's just never done it. It's just all gas at all times. In 24, it made more sense because the players they had were so good. And they had Horford and Przingis and Drew Holiday. Yep. Three guys who weren't on this team. They, it felt like they had to do it a little more with the math before Tatum got back. But when Tatum got back, I think they were trying to change it a little bit and yet the habits and the games didn't reflect it. They shot in game two, they shot 53s, I think that was with no Embiid. I was just the coaching strategy stuff. And it's weird because like, I think Missoula is a really good coach. I just think he kind of whiffed on the series, but I don't think it was, doesn't make me think they should fire him or anything. I just think he, I think he misread it because I think the way to beat the Sixers, especially those first couple games of that Embiid is like, you just got to stop Maxi. Like we have all these wings. You have, you know, Hugo, Yvosh, Shierman, let's throw Derek White on him. Let's just not let him go get going ever. And instead they're like, Hey, I wonder if Vucevich can hop out in time on these threes. It's like, I can tell you right now, I can't. Yeah, definitely not happening. So yeah, but your bigger question is, do they need to game the math like this? We saw it in San Antonio, Minnesota last night, we're taping this on, on a Tuesday. You know, it's really nice sometimes that are like 12 foot Julius Randall, you know, banging to the body shots just to keep going. You know, it's really nice for Philly, like Embiid just getting nice easy eight to 10 footers and you need to balance that and they lost the balance. And there is one last thing for we do your honest thing. Three is worth more than two. But a one point lead, the difference between trailing by one and leading by one in a playoff game is 10 miles wide. And the difference between leading by one and leading by two is six inches wide. So when you when you had six possessions in a row down one point in the fourth quarter of a game seven, I don't give a shit if I can be up to I just want to be up. I just want Philly to have the ball. Yeah, I want Philly to be like, Oh, no, did we blow it? And, and it's what we have seen. And I just think teams have screwed that up. And I think I am I'm stunned Boston lost the way they did. And it does make you wonder, like you said, that Yanis would fix a lot of this just by virtue of the fact he ain't shooting threes. He is giving you that point. Fast breaks. The problem I went back and I watched that fourth quarter again. And the shots were actually good shots. No, I can see like Jaylin had a couple of two pointers that he just made all year. They were like 12 footers. Now the one where I forget who someone falls down. Yeah, he's shooting it inside the line. Yeah, Richard in the corner. I would bet my life on that shot. He missed it. So you can go to the summer and be like, Oh, we usually make those shots, but they lost the series in game two and game five. That was when their style went sideways. So the honest piece, which I did a whole thing about it. I don't know, maybe six weeks ago talking about my fears for trading too much for him, because I think he's going into his 14th season. The track record is terrible. It's basically like just even guys doing 23 and 10, there's like four of them ever. Not to mention he's been injured in some capacity, I think every year for the five of the last six, something like that. Since the title, at least three of the years major in a lot of miles. And then you think about big guys with you think about Dwight Howard, the second part of his career, you think about Shaq, the second part of his career, like big guys, they don't necessarily age in the greatest ways. So I don't think he's worth as much as we thought a year and a half ago, where it was like, Oh my God, you trade everything for that guy. I don't think that's the case. I don't think things are going to approach it that way. But you would trade Jalen Brown's trail. I think that my point is I think the Celtics have enough to get him without gutting the entire whatever, because I think his value is dropped. Especially because here's the other thing, the reason why I think the Celtics have enough to get him because a shingoon package looks less attractive today. No question. How about Evan Mobley looks less attractive than it did a year ago. He's the same guy it was a year ago. Right. And so like who you're competing with and how that now Atlanta putting together the package we're discussing and cutting Boston out, I guess is interesting if they decide that's the move that's going to be this Sunday. And we're talking a little bit later Sunday. If Atlanta gets into that top four, they're out of the J. I'd rather have the top four pick the Jalen. I think it has more trade value. Oh, interesting. Yeah. There's no question. Jalen's making 60 million a year and you could have Cam Booser or I love Kayla Wilson. I actually have Kayla Wilson higher on my board. I'll show. Wow. I have a board. No, I don't. But my fake board, you have those guys for 10 million a year on a rookie contract versus paying Jalen 60. They'd be irresponsible to trade that pick for Jalen. I think. So yeah, I mean, I feel like four is where it's interesting. I think top three definitively has like this intense value. I don't. No, you are going to get on board with Kayla Wilson. Okay. All right. I think he's higher than four on multiple teams boards already. No, but that's what I'm saying. It's I'm what I'm I agree with you on that. I don't. I'm not as in love with Booser as everyone else. I think if the draft goes, do you do the thing I do when you're watching the playoffs and you try to imagine the guy in the game you're watching? I was trying to imagine him in the San Antonio, Minnesota game last night. I was like, well, all right, I could see him guarding Randall. I mean, I know this is going to sound pretty dumb or obvious. You know who Cam Booser reminds me of? Guy named Carlos Booser, his dad. That is going to have a really solid 12 year NBA career. I think he's a better passer. Sure. The game's changed. But my point is a guy who I think of all the top prospects, Cam probably has the lowest bust potential, like the least likely to be a bust. But I think he's also the least likely to be an MVP. Like, and so that's why I'm not as high on him. Maybe his other guys. I would take Caleb second. Now I'm I reserve the right to change my mind. So you'd go to Bansa, Caleb Peterson. Yeah. Peterson's I think Caleb's going to be unbelievable. That guy, the same thing with Castle was similar, where it's just like the guy's too competitive. He's too athletic and he's too competitive. Those guys always win. We see it doesn't matter what team it is, what draft, like he's got that. I know what that is. And he's like a combination of like Sean Kemp and Chet. I think he's going to be really special. So I'd be careful passing on him. But yeah, for the honest thing, if I'm in Atlanta, now if I'm in five, six, seven, eight, nine, now I could really think about the Jalen thing. Because you think like now I could have, because Jalen Johnson, as much as I like him and I voted for him all NBA, he's kind of a 1B. I'm not sure he's a 1A. You could feel it in that playoffs series. It's not like, Hey, clear out guys, I got this. He's not, that's not the type of player he is. No, he's, his ceiling is like a better offensive iguadala, right? Yeah. Like he's in like a better Jalen Williams, like that's like, Yes, a guy who can do everything is a winning player, you know, can definitely be a key part of a championship team. But if he's your best player, you've got no shot. No shot. Just no, no shot of winning a title. So what would you give up? How, how much would you, how crazy would you get for Janus? For, if I'm what team? Pick a team. All right. I mean, I think if you're Miami, would you gut everything you had and all your picks and I just wouldn't know. I know, because I don't know what that achieves. If I, now all of a sudden, Janus is just in Milwaukee, South. Like I, I mean, the Knicks would have been the one that were like, fuck it, we have a window. We got to do this. But the Knicks are going to make the finals, I think. I don't, I don't see anybody stopping. And also, I don't love any of the Knicks trades, right? Like the, because they traded their picks. No, I, if I were Detroit, would I give up a, you know, I haven't done the trade. No, it's that's, you're looking at Durin and all your picks, basically. Did I give up Durin and all my picks? And I don't even know if Milwaukee, if that, if that's changing my destiny. Right. If that, if Milwaukee wants it, I think the easiest trade is going would be the reason I think the Celtics are very live here is because it's so easy. Jaylin and Janus make the same amount of money. You can, you have a third, if you need a third team, Atlanta makes a ton of sense at like, there's just- By the way, you can't cut out New Orleans. New Orleans might be like, we've always loved Jaylin and all of a sudden they're in it. Like they're capable of anything. That's when we do this lottery karma thing. I've got something on that. So I, but no, I agree with you that Janus is right now the fifth best player in the league and oddly- Does not have the fifth trade value. No, not at all. And I think there's teams that are would maybe be like, we're good. Like, okay, see San Antonio, I don't think those teams would trade for him. Well, let me hold on. So that's an interesting, San Antonio is an interesting one. I think they're, they're, they love their culture and their young guys. I don't think they, I think that obviously loved to win the title this year, but I don't think they'd feel like the season was a failure if they lost and they're looking at the long runway, you know? Not the season's a failure, but let's just, let's just say Minnesota beats them in six and Fox struggles and get the way he didn't game one throughout the series. Then Fox is the fall guy after the series. Yes. And added bonus, Wimby gets pushed around a bit like he didn't game one. You mean Wimby shoots five for 18 and, and short arms every big shot down the stretch? Like, right? And, and gets, you know, physically pushed around. Like that's the thing for Wimby is a, he was exhausted at the end of that game. Falling down all over the place. He's not used to playing big minutes and, and he's, so he's doing all that. B, go bear is strong as hell and Nasri and Julius Randall are strong as hell and they were pushing them around. If I do wonder if San Antonio loses in bad fashion, if they feel like we're, listen, we're not abandoning our future or our plan and we're keeping Harper, Castle and Wimby, but De'Aaron Fox, another contract and a bunch of our picks for Yanis. So, you know, so there isn't such a heavy offensive load on Wimby and oh yeah, by the way, we just become, you know, a better defensive team than O.K.C. like that. That's something I would think about. I would. I'd be more excited to just play Carter Bratt or next year and ride this out. And I would, Yanis feels like a panic move to me. Like that, like same, Presti to me, I always say, what would say impressed to do that as a same Presti would not do that. He would probably, he would probably look at the Harper situation because we all love Harper. We were going to expound on him, but as like, okay, Fox, Fox was our training wheels. Now we got to send Fox off. Let's get like another score in that spot. Maybe somebody with a little more size and think about it that way. We got to take a break. I want to talk about San Antonio, Minnesota. And I think you and I are feeling similar about this series. Perfect. The Bill Simmons podcast is brought to you by Fandall. Fandall give you better payouts on same game parlays, all NBA playoffs long with more ways to build and more value every time you play. You can stack your picks your way, every game, every matchup, every single moment from spreads to player points to threes and more, build it on to one same game parlay and go for bigger payouts. So if you're betting same game parlays this NBA postseason, bet them on Fandall, more options, better payouts, all NBA playoffs long head to Fandall.com slash BS to get started. Fandall official partner of the NBA player game. 21 plus select states are 18 plus DC, Kentucky, Wyoming, restrictions, Ply C terms at sportsbook.fandall.com, GameProb.com, 1-800-Gambo, or call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat Connecticut. This episode is brought to you by PayPal, on the court, the pitch, the track, even the pool. Professional athletes show extraordinary physical flexibility. For us normal people, we've got PayPal's flexible monthly payment plans. Pay nothing a check out, then enjoy a flexible monthly payment plan that works for you with no sign up or late fees. And it's available in millions of stores. Pay monthly with PayPal. Subject to approval, pay monthly consumer loans made by Web Bank, available through PayPal, Inc, and MLS 910457. Learn more at PayPal.com slash Pay Monthly. The Minnesota Timberwolves, who were such giant underdogs for the series and for the finals that Nick Wright has a story for us from his trip to Vegas. Well, okay. So I went to Vegas to see the Benavidas fight. Who is one of the scariest boxers we've had in the last 20 years. Unbelievable. He broke the guy's face on Saturday night. No, he destroyed it. He broke his orbital. The guy who he fought, Zerto, had never been knocked down. Much less knocked out was a total warrior. And Benavidas just annihilated him. And I, by the way, I had Benavidas by knockout. Nice little ticket with my buddy Nick Shulman, the world's greatest poker player. So no brainer. That's like an automatic bet. And, but so I'm in Vegas Saturday morning. And I'm on my way to the sports book, or I'm at the sports book to bet Benavidas. And I see the championship odds. And I see the, you know, okay, C minus one 25, whatever they were at the time, Spurs, right? The Lakers at 28 to one. And then 28 to one. Well, that's the California people come and they bet the Lakers. But that's still important context for what I'm about to say. Then I see beneath the Lakers, the Lakers who play okay, C and Luca is injured. Yeah. 28 to one. Minnesota is 200 to one Saturday morning. Orlando was 400 to one. This was 12 hours after Orlando played the worst half of basketball in television history. There's never been a televised half of basketball worse than what they did. They're not even going to make. Can we count fictional shows for that? Four of 37 is worth anything. I think they by the bell probably had a word. Yeah. Save by the bell or fresh prince. Fresh prince. Yeah. We need a fictional basketball. So I'm like, Orlando is 400 to one. Yeah. I'm like, what the, I was like, so I'm staring at it. I'm like, hold on. I watched speaking of Giannis. Giannis suffered this same injury Anthony Edwards did. He missed seven days, came back for game one of the finals and average 35, 13 and six. I was like, I think Anthony Edwards might come back sooner than people think. I think that there is just always this weird specter of injury looming over Wimby. I was like 200 to one. He mentioned he's seven foot seven. At any point he could get hurt. Correct. I was like, it's 200 to one. So I'm like, I had won in poker the night before. So I'm like, I think I'm going to put like a thousand bucks on this. Yeah. I'm texting my buddies. All of a sudden, couple of my buddies want in, want in. And they're like, Hey, see if they'll take $10,000 on it. And I'm like, okay, my guess is they, This is an amazing story. I was like, my guess is they won't, but I'm not sharp action. Like, you know what I mean? It's not like they're like, Oh, this, like I come to Vegas to play cards. They see my history. I went a little in poker. I, I, I spill it off playing blackjack at four in the morning. They don't think all of a sudden I have like, you know, I have inside info. Yeah. Vacuum, vacuum blackjack when they're vacuumed. Yeah, exactly. Give your buddy away. They see on their cards. They're like, my God, we've got, we've got this guy, $1,200 in packs of new ports over the last year. And he's in the vacuum hours. So, so I walked to the window and I'm like, Hey, oh, and the Derby and I, and people are betting the Derby. It's a couple hours before the Derby. Yeah. And I say, I'm like, Hey, I'd like $10,000 on the Timberwolves to win the title. And the lady pulls it up and she's like, Oh, she's like, I'm going to have to get a manager. You should say 9,000. I don't think, I think once it gets to five figures, they get freaked out. No. Well, what she said was any ticket that'll pay out more than a million, which 5,000 would have paid out a million because it's 200 to one. We have to get permission. Oh, Jesus. I'm like, okay. So I'm just sitting there. People are betting the horses. Ladies like, I think they'll, she's like, I'm sure they'll take at least 5,000 of it. So I'm texting my buddies because we're going to split this ticket four ways. Like, I, you know, here's what it is. No, no, five minutes later, a guy comes. He's like, you're good. They printed the ticket. So I have in my possession on the Minnesota Timberwolves, 10,000 to win 2,010,000. They were 200 to one. It's been three days. What are they on fan duel right now, Bill? They're 35 to one. 35 to one. 35 to one. It's a great investment. The ticket right now, the ticket's worth $65,000. I mean, I would never hedge. I'll never sell it. And it'll probably lose, but that's, it was just mispriced. It's like, it's just a mistake. Yes. It's just a mistake. You could at least try to hedge that with okay, see like there's moves you can make. I'll tell you another thing that you will laugh at me about. I have not from Vegas, but from, you know, a gambling app. The day before the playoffs started, $1,000, just of my own money, 150 to one on the Los Angeles Lakers type. So I just need a Lakers, the Lakers T-wolves, Westergaard's finals, and I am free rolling. But I, I was watching last night and I swear, like the watching Minnesota play so well and then almost blow it. And then Champagny have a shot. Cause I now think Minnesota is going to win the series. And had he made that shot, I think they would have lost in five. Right. I think it would have been such a stomach punch. Yeah. Um, yeah. So look, the South, I had an awful loss on Saturday. My daughter turned 21. I don't like to apologize to my listeners that often. I really regret not studying the Minnesota, San Antonio thing way longer. The Edwards thing's a great point. He, it was basically the same. He came back in nine days. They said it was going to be 14. He was really only on paper, probably only missing game one. But the thing I realized last night, I was watching and I was kicking myself. I was trying to think of 21st century Hall of Fame, fuck you, basketball teams, just teams that just have, fuck you. All of everything they're doing, the way they're carrying themselves, everything. And I think the three I had were the pre-May-Lay Pacers, which ended up the fuck you spilled in the crowd. But that, the way they carry that first month before the fight, they looked like they were going to win the title and they looked like a more dangerous, scarier version of the 04 pistons, the 07 Warriors in the, in the, we believe season. Ironically, Stephen Jackson on both of those teams. And I think the 2020 heat had it too. And it was interesting because when that was the series, I screwed this up a pod before where Draguch got hurt. But there was something about that heat team that they were just, they carried themselves like dragon slayers. Like, do you watch Survivor? No. Oh, there's a Survivor contestant coach who tries to, he calls himself the dragon slayer, and he tries to carry himself like a fuck you guy and it always backfires on him. There's certain teams that actually carry it and can do it. Yeah, the Great and Grindy Grizzlies. The stuff they said after the game where Shannon's like, I'm going to fucking drive to the basket and when he might block some of them, I'm going to keep coming and he can either block them or I'm going to score, but I'm never going to stop coming to the basket. It's like, I think that's exactly how you have to play San Antonio. Keep coming. Right. And you can't, because here's the thing, a blocked shot does not kill a possession as much as a shot clock violation because you won't put anything up. Yeah, you might get the ball back. One of the biggest shots of the game last night was after a blocked shot. I think it was Conley, the corner three. Shout out Mike Conley, by the way. The Rockets could have had him. They probably saved their season. I am, I would add maybe to your list, the Great and Grindy Grizzlies who one time- That's another great one. They didn't have their best player for a game. No, they had Tony Allen. He punched someone in the head. Right. And then game six of a series. That's a great one. So the- Yeah, the 2011 Grizzlies. I apologize. That's the perfect ad for this. And so I, here's the thing why I feel so good about Minnesota. I don't think they played great yesterday. They were awful from the free throw line. Yeah, he was mad after the game. They were awful from the free throw line. McDaniels was in foul trouble the whole game, so he couldn't do all his shit. Ant was just getting back into the flow of it. You could see it, but he ran out of gas at the end and almost blew it. And he only played 25 minutes. Right. And they still, and by the, at some point, I think, I.O. is going to take those Bones Island minutes. And Bones Island, he hit the one three. They took it off, but he's 0 for six. Like, I just think- And he left out two other things. They have nobody believes in us energy. Like, they're like a football team. This is like watching an NFL playoffs. They finch what he said after the last series, where he's like, they wanted to play us. Like, that's, this is what they wanted, and that really made us mad. And now this series, same thing where the Spurs, huge favorites, the darlings, that's one. The other is, you don't really realize that sometimes, so you're watching it. The Spurs are going to need Carter Bryant to come back and actually play real minutes, or they're going to lose the series. Because Minnesota has a physicality advantage with Randall and with Edwards. And, and to me, San Antonio last night, three guards, Fassell and Wemby, it's not going to cut it. They're not big enough. Well, and, and there's, there's two, there's two other kind of, and I'm not like a X's and O's guys guy, but there's, it's very obvious. There's two things that jumped out to me before the series, and now after watching game one. When, when Go Bears on the court, he really is going to give Wemby trouble on offense. However, him being on the court, fully unleashes Wemby on defense. Because Go Bears never going to be anywhere but by the basket. So Wemby can just play for safety and block everything. However, when Go Bears off the court, they can mitigate Wemby a bit, because they can go five out, and they can go five out, and because everybody can shoot. So that's the first, well, and then also multiple physical guys that can come in. You just want to beat him up. He's 22. He's never been in played 10 straight weeks of playoffs like this. Zach, I listened to Zach today. Zach said last night was the third most minutes he's ever played in any game in his career. It was 40. What in 46? It was 40. And at the end, he looked a little, the final possession, Derek Harper gets the rebound, gives it to Wemby. Wemby gives it right back to him. Like I know, and he was gassed and they didn't. Remember the Denver, the Saturday game against the back and forth with Joker? Same thing happened. He got gassed in the OT. Right. The game of the year. And by overtime, he's out. He's just out of it. And you are, how many elbows to the ribs, and he had those bruised ribs, which at the very end of the year, is he going to have from Gobert Randall and Nasri? How about how many guys going full speed, driving into him, knees hitting his legs, elbows, push-offs? I think their whole game plan is to beat the shit out of him. Which is why winning, which is why they couldn't blow that first game, Minnesota. Like they couldn't have done all that and then lose. Well, that's my five game role where it's like, if you lose that game, now you basically have to win five games in the seven game series, you're not going to win. You have to win. Correct. And so I, and I just think, and that you, I'm going to say one other thing that I think is like psychologically just true. And this is a problem probably for a lot of Kevin Durant teams, to be totally honest. The best teams take on the personality of their best player, whether he wants them to or not. Like the, my team, the Kansas City Chiefs, you know why there's never any bulletin board material? Because Mahomes is the most boring press conference there's ever been, and everyone just falls, falls in line. Brady was like this too. Right. Very, very, there's the thunder. Shay is kind of a unique personality. I don't want to say corny, but whatever it is, he's got his own thing. Everybody's like, you know what, we're doing group photos, we're doing group commercials, we're, we're, we're doing that. Ant is so goddamn fearless and confident that not only does the whole team take on the personality, you know who I think it is great for is GoBear, who GoBear is just like, man, I've just been a fucking punchline. Everybody make me, my own team, when I was in Utah, it seemed like sometimes my own teammates didn't like me. The, the, the inside the NBA makes fun of me. Dreymon chokes me. I don't get the respect. And now, I started COVID. Yeah. Well, that was, I mean, that wasn't great. That was, that was not great. And now I like, it's like, I've got the toughest crew and guess what? Joker, come deal with me. Wimby, this is, this is for, GoBear is going to be in the hall of fame. And this is the, Everyone's in the hall of fame. Could be the, what'd you say? Everyone makes the hall of fame though. Right. I understand. But four time defensive player. No, he's going to make it. This is the moment where he can really puff his chest out and doing it against, like, I don't know if Wimby's his protege, but you know, this, they're both French. Like he's known him since he was a kid. Like, I don't know. I don't know. Minnesota's dangerous. There's a little big brother, a little brother thing to that. Like, when you know somebody when, you know, when, when they were 12 and you were 25 or whatever it is, like you're always going to kind of see them that way. What you just described with the GoBear thing with Ant, it's one of my favorite basketball things. The best one ever for this was Bill Lambert, who ends up on a team eventually with Mahorn. And then Isaiah, who was probably the toughest guy of the eighties, even though he was six foot two and that whole team. And then all of a sudden Lambert is like, by 1990, Lambert is like, I think I can fight Charles Barkley and gets like, he's throwing actual punches with Barkley. He's clothes lining dudes that, that, you know, when you, you could do that when you have those guys around you. And then in the early nineties, those guys weren't around him. And what happened? The Knicks, they come in the Riley Knicks and they basically just snatch their souls like a boxer. But it's, it's so authentic from Ant, Jaden and Julius Randall. Those guys are like, we're bad asses and we're going to beat you up. That it is infectious for everybody. Randall and the Joker fight, it seemed like Randall was going to, or their near fight seemed like Randall wanted to fight everybody in that. Yeah. He definitely had to. It's a tough team. Yeah. And so I just, I don't know, man, I am. So here are my concerns. Yeah. Can they ramp up Edwards's minutes enough? They're relying on zombie Mike Conley who played a good game six and played decent minutes from them yesterday, but old guys in a series always makes me nervous. What's going to come as I am going to be able to come back and actually play. The Shannon thing, what he brought to the table in Defence Enzo's place, I kind of liked like just, it just felt like another relentless guy who just, all he wanted to do was ball and get to the rim. San Antonio, three point shootings always going to make me nervous with them. The youth and the inexperience, including the coach. And then the fact that they need Carter Bryant, who's a rookie, I don't even think he's 20 yet, but they're actually going to like genuinely need him in this series. And then the big thing is Fox, because Fox killed them yesterday. And I felt like they didn't want to bench them because they didn't want it to become a story, but they should have. And they should have played Harper down the stretch. I don't, not going to say Harper's better than Fox, but Fox was so bad in that game. And it's going to be a story now because he knows he'll be the fall guy if they lose. Yeah. The Fox thing's really disappointing. I lived in Houston when he, we've talked about this a bit. My son was a big time high school and then college basketball player. And so they, I was in a lot of the same AU events as De'Aaron Fox. And he's just a little bit older than my son. I mean, I watched him score 40 points in the first half of a running clock AU game. I've never seen anybody like him on the court. And so I've always, I rooted for him in Sacramento. Yeah. I've always liked him. But he is the fulcrum of this series because I don't care about Harrison Barnes experience. Harrison Barnes is not a key part of the rotation. Luke Cornette has experience. He's a backup center. The only guy with playoff experience that should be on the court and crunch time is Fox. They would trust. Yeah. And if he's not, if he's not up to it, it's such, you're going to have you're going to have moments like the end of last night. Can we spend a minute talking about the very end? Also, he's going against Mike Conley instead of Io. What happens when the IO comes back? Like this should be, that should be the easiest game in this series for you. What did you make of the final possession for San Antonio? Young team, I'm calling time out. A lot of times I like to let the clock go in that situation. I think you do it if you have an older team, experienced team. If you're the Knicks young team, I'm calling time out. Here's the other reason. And I didn't think Champagne shot was going in, even though it was wide open and it was the best possible shot they could have gotten in that Harry Carey situation. I would have called time out, but it's like staying on 12 and Blackjack. You have to decide, is this who I am with this moment? You can't just be like, every time I do something differently. So that's apparently what they do. So I, so I have two takes, I guess. If I'm Mitch Johnson and I see Harper get the rebound and throw it to Wimby, the moment I see that, no, the moment I see that Wimby has now just passed it back, time out. Yeah. Like if he threw it to him and Wimby's ripping up the court, like, all right, you know what, win or die with what this guy decides to do, either way, it's an important moment for him. But once he gave it back, I'd be like, okay, let's talk it over. My other, I normally think down to go for the three because over time, like try to get the win. It felt to me like, because the one time I am a bigger fan of playing for overtime is when the other team has just absolutely melted down. Well, it also has a guy in a minutes restriction who's their best guy. Oh yeah. That's the other thing. I know Castle had fouled out, which works against it. But it just like when LeBron hit the three and game three against Houston, it was 100% that if Houston did not win in regulation, they were losing in overtime because it was such an emotional devastation that you were there. Minnesota was a seven with a minute. But the standards say their momentum doesn't matter though. I don't give a shit. There are certain things that you just, you know, you know it every time, especially if you're in the building for that. Right. If you blow it, if you're a big underdog that had a game one and then lost it, but and it goes over time, it was pretty much missing the three in the corner. I knew we were going to lose. Game was over. And so I just, I wouldn't have hated a timeout draw. And the other thing is this, here's the thing that timeout allows for you to have. If you are like you're saying, San Antonio, trying to win and also trying to win next year and like develop something, a good moment for Wimby either way. Right. Hey man, drawing this up for you, win or lose. We know you're five for 18 and they're going to put Rudy Gobert in now that we call timeout. All right. So that's fair point. That's fair point. Keep and go bear off the court. But this is the issue with them is who is your, I'm going to create a good shot going downhill for us on our team. And the answer is it's Dylan Harper who's 19 years old. Even in that moment when he got the rebound, five years from now, he's going to know in his head exactly how much time is left and he's off. He gets that. He doesn't throw it to Wimby. He's just going because he knows like I have eight seconds. I gotta go. He's 19. He was like, Hey, oh shit, there's seven seconds left and you can see it the way that's the problem with relying on your way. I think I've been calling Dylan Harper, Derek Harper. You did it once. Listen, blisters of this podcast are used for, used to old guy things like that. So it's fine. I have a really important question for you about this series. Yeah. Who do you think? Okay. So you want us to play after they watch that first game? What a great question. I was thinking about this all day and I don't even have an answer, but I think they would want to play Minnesota because San Antonio was such a weird matchup for them. But after watching that game, I think I'd be afraid to the fuck you with the Minnesota team. Man, it's going to feel, if Minnesota wins this series, it will feel a little team of destiny-ish and we assume Aunt will be by the end of it in the best, like the healthiest he's been. That team, I would want nothing to do with. How about the run of beating Joker and beating them to the point that Shams is on sports center next day going, they'll take calls on everyone on the team except Yolkic. That's round one. Round two is we've cut the legs out of this, when be juggernaut that everybody was just assuming it was going to be. Then round three, you beat the back-to-back potential champs who've just won, I think 140 games in two years or whatever it is. And then round four, you beat the Knicks. It's about as good of a run as you're going to have. It certainly would be as good of a run two of finals as we've had since Dirks. Dirken 11 or Hakim in 95. Hakim in 95 is the all-timer. Oh yeah, because they're at 60, but this team's at 62. By the way, Hakim in 95 also ended with the Knicks. Well, here's the other question. Well, answer that one and then have a second. Hakim in 95 ended with the Magic. Sorry, go ahead. So who do you think they're rooting for? I think they, as crazy as it sounds because San Antonio owned them, I think at this point, they'd rather play San Antonio. Who do you think the NBA is rooting for? Because I think you could make the case. It's better for the NBA if Minnesota wins this series because Wemby's already going to happen. Wemby's inevitable. It makes Minnesota elevates Ant. Yeah, and it gives, I think that is true. And I think there is, there is a authenticity and charisma to Ant that is just infectious. And that is impossible not to be drawn to. And it is, I also feel like Minnesota winning it gives a lot of fan bases hope. Because Minnesota is not a, like considered, they're just smartly put together. Like it's like, They didn't get a number one pick in the draft. Yes, Ant's a great, great player. Don't get me wrong, but they don't look at him like an alien like Wemby. It's not like OKC. It's like, oh, well, yeah, they have a billion picks and pulled off this heist. It's like, no, actually we had a smart GM. We just lost the most improved player in the league. We left our team. We lost him and had to replace him in Nikila Alexander Walker and we were fine. So I think that is, I think Minnesota winning it. I also, again, as your audience, as I just told them, you know, I have a half a million dollars worth of equity in it. So I guess maybe I'm a little. It's an awesome story. I could not believe sometimes I watch, like, you know, right away with a playoff series, Orlando, Detroit, it was just clear they were even. Yeah. And you could watch Game One and I'm like, oh, shit, this is going to be a good series. Boston Philly Game Three was the game that worried me. Then MB came back and messed them up for a game. But Game Three, even though the Celtics won, it's like, ah, they seem really comfortable against us. Like this is a bad, bad sign. And I think that game yesterday, I don't think it was a flu. Castle fouling out, you could point to Fox was terrible. No Carter Bryant. Those are three things they can fix. But I agree with you. I think Minnesota could absolutely win the series and it gun to my head. I think I would pick them. Listen, I think it is Minnesota was like plus 800. And then the Ant News came down and they were down to like plus 400. And then right before tipoff was down to like plus 350. Yeah. And now right now I think they're like plus 160. And the only reason I don't think it is even is because it's all red. If they started as such dogs, it hasn't totally fully overcorrected. But I, I think plus 176 right now. Okay. Plus 176. So that's fair considering they have three home games left. The guys come back. We got to take a break and we have two more big topics. All right. Pretty good NBA playoffs so far. In case you didn't know, all playoffs long, I'm looking at the Slates sharing my favorite picks on Twitter. I almost hit everything last Friday and ended up Tatum gets hurt in the third quarter and doesn't hit his points rebounds over, which he was very close on everything else hit. This is what happens, but this is also why same game parlays are so excited to do. I'm posting my picks on Twitter, usually on for the Wednesday games and then maybe or Friday over the weekend. So I'll be looking at San Antonio, Minnesota, putting some sort of pick. I really think Minnesota every game is a live underdog because they are absolutely convinced that they can beat San Antonio. So stay tuned for that pick. When I bet, I bet with Fandle, a brand I trust easy to build your NBA bets on Fandle. You know, you're getting great odds, payouts on your parlays, many boost options, and you're going to get your winnings instantly. Fandle, play your game. All right. I want to do lottery karma rankings with you, but you wanted to do LeBron and the ringer 100 quick. So go ahead. You have the floor. Yeah. Well, I don't know how quick you're going to have to cut me off. Yeah, make it kind of quick. I know where you're going with it. I just have a request to the founder, CEO and president of the ringer to convene an emergency ranking session and be like, Hey, real quick, everybody. I just want to do a status check. Do we still think all the old guys are better than LeBron? Because all fucking year I've had to look at this and see, oh, Steph Curry is better than LeBron. That's cool. Kawhi, he's obviously better than LeBron. Kevin Durant. Oh my God, he's clearly better than LeBron. James freaking Harden better than LeBron. I'm looking at it. And I don't know. I live in New York City. I saw Steph Curry yesterday at the Met Gala. Kevin Durant. I didn't see him, but I know what he's doing hanging out somewhere, ruining a locker room via Twitter. Hey, Kawhi Leonard is winning your, our buddy, Pablo Pulitzer. James Harden's going three for nine in the game seven and LeBron's throwing goddamn alley-oops to his son in the same game he hit a series clenching three. And I got to say, he's not a top 20 player in the league. Give me a break. Can LeBron please be the highest ranked old guy, please? Well, we do the list every month and it's a snapshot of where everybody is at that moment when we do the list. And I'm sure he'll be much higher when we do the list again. I think we need to add another list though, which by the way, is always great content, but we have the ringer 100 that's over here. So somebody like Embiid's not going to do well in the ringer 100 because he plays 30 games a year. Like at some point you got a durability has to become a huge part of the ranking. I think we should start a list of best guys. If I know I'm getting them 100% healthy for one playoff series, what's your list? And then LeBron moves up really high on that list. I think by that metric, first of all, I hear what you're saying about durability really matters. Not for the ringer's favorite child, Steph Curry. He can miss 35 games. Nobody cares. He's got to be top 10. Not neither in or there. Fair. If that were the list, what you said exactly, I think LeBron right now is still a top eight guy. What you said, you get fully healthy. I think he's 14 to 15 range, but you could talk me into 10, 11, 12, just because how fucking smart he is. Yeah. Like that Houston series, and I should have probably talked more about it in this pod, but Houston was so disgraceful with the whole everything. It was also brutal. It was, I mean, it was so mad about this. It was the two critical moments in the series were Friday nights, which are terrible for TV shows and pods. Yeah, you're right. Game three, the steal in game time three is a Friday night, and then the masterpiece in game six is a Friday night. So it's just bad for content, but it was, I understand Houston. But how many times have we seen him just do that to a team where it's just like, Jordan would do it with like his prowess. LeBron kind of will do it with his prowess, but his brain, and he just kind of unlocks the other team, and you give him a team like that messed up Rockets team with no point guard and a weird coach, and I'm not sure the chemistry was great. And it's like fucking red meat for LeBron. No, yes. And that's why, and so that's why I like, is Cade Cunningham better than LeBron right now? Yeah, sure. Of course, he's Cade Cunningham, his first team all NBA, got it. But Cade Cunningham and Jalen Brunson and Tyrese Maxie, all these guys who are better than LeBron, even I would say so, could not have after a game and a half just been like, oh, here are the fatal flaws of Houston, and now you can't win. And I am going to, I am in, I'm going to be in such full control. I'm creating memes with little kids on the bench. I'm mortifying Shingoon in front of his teammate saying, everyone else can complain about me flopping, but not you. All your teammates can, but not you. I'm doing all of this, and it is juxtaposed to one of his primary rivals of the era, the story around him being, wait, he's on an underwater treadmill during game three. Yeah. Wait. It's tough. The team, and I like Cade a lot, but oh yeah, as it turns out, him, you know, him shit talking his team actually bad for chemistry, and it did kind of hurt the locker room. No, we learned, we learned on ESPN.com feature today that the young guys on the team are used to criticism, so didn't bother them as much as you'd think. In that same feature, I would have fucking hated him after I read that, and I'm playing basketball with him, and I've been like, fuck this guy. Dude, of course, but also that feature was wild because that feature also said, internally the Rockets view Reed Shepard with Steve Nash upside. You know what Steve Nash could do early in his career? Dribble and pass. Like, yeah, like even, and so I, so yeah, I mean, I'm glad I got that off my chest. I'm glad you did too, and I do think we should have a, I know I'm getting 100% healthy for this playoff series list. Yeah. I think it would be good. I don't know what number he'd be, but he'd be, I don't think I would have him as high as eight, but he'd be okay. Okay, Ladder's Karma power rankings. Let's go. I first wrote this column in 2007, back when my fingers worked. I had more things on there. The, basically the concept is who should win the lottery, and we have four chances. They do the lottery for the first four picks. Yup. The big questions, I used to have more questions, but for Karma, number one, is your team overdue to win the lottery? Great. So like Utah has never moved up. That's a team I would say is overdue. Indiana, I don't think has ever had the first pick. That would be another one. Has the team's big picture game plan made any sense? So Sacramento, for instance, paying the luxury tax for one of the worst teams in the league and not having a future, they would count as not making sense. Like the Bulls. The Bulls. It's not making. Well, the Bulls actually makes sense because they're like, we just, we just want to cheap out every year and our fans are going to pay for checking. Yeah. I don't know if IO was that expensive. He probably could be useful. Seven million a year was too pricey. Got to cut that out. Obi-Wai had a playoff moment, but go ahead. Sorry. This one's a big one. Did they handle last season with dignity? Oh, that's going to be a tough one for teams this year. With tough ones for a few of these. Number four, did they ever make you say, why can people divorce their spouses, but they can't divorce their teams? If any of these teams that we have made one of their fans say that to another fan, we have to measure that in the Karma rankings. Then finally, do you honestly believe the Karma gods would feel bad for this team? Is our fifth one? That doesn't happen all the time. But I think Indiana would be a good case of, oh man, they were in game seven in the finals and their best guy blew out as Achilles. So is that the full list of rules? Because I have a question. Those are just five questions, kind of thought starters to think about. Is there any factor of it would be catastrophic for the league if this team won it? It's a good add. I think I used to have it. Catastrophic in the, so you're talking OKC specific. Yes. Yeah. Normally would not apply. So we have that covered. I'll give you the categories because we have that covered. And I'll just give you my list and you can be my conciliary for the list. Love it. First category is no Karma points whatsoever. So Big Goose egg. OKC is our first team. They're in the 12th spot right now. They have a 1.5 chance to win. There's also scenario where OKC gets in the top four and Indiana stays in the top four, aka the Clippers apocalypse where they would follow up by some sort of ruling the next day. But yeah, OKC's had the, in the last 20 years, second, second, fourth, and third. So they've had some lottery. I give them no Karma points at all. They're really good. They're probably going to win the title again. They don't deserve to get a top four pick. The other one I have in there and tell me if I'm right. And I say this with advanced apologies to the Maverick fans who love Luca and did not want to trade him. They got Cooper flagged last year. And I think that was the makeup call for the horrible trade. Nico got fired. They just brought him a side, you Harry. Things are OK. Kyrie's going to come back. I think they used up all their Karma points last year with the flag thing, but I'm willing to accept other arguments. No, it's, I have no other arguments, but I think, I don't think they used up the Karma points for the flag thing. I think they had Karma points even after winning the flag. So you think they have residue Karma points? I think they did. What happened? And then I think Nico Harrison said, and I quote, I hope people are seeing the vision now. Oh, that extinguished the Karma points. OK. And then they were like, you got to be kidding. This guy, so I'm with you. They're out. All right. So they have the eighth spot. They have a 6.7 percent chance to win 45.2 for top four. No Karma points for them. By the way, they're going to, they'll get the seventh. They picked they're going to get a great guard. They'll get somebody really good. All right. Next category is a small vial of Karma points. Charlotte, who's in the 14 spot, 2.4 percent chance to move up. But they've picked, Khan was the third pick, Miller second and Lamello's third. They don't really need another top four. They don't need another top four pick. You do give them credit though for the dignity of the season. They really put together a smart team. And the smartly constructed roster. Yes. Yes. Try to set me up. Yeah. And also the fact that those guys, if you redrafted, they made smart picks. Yeah. They went three for three. You could argue Halliburton for Lamello, but nobody would have taken Halliburton third. Nobody would have taken that at the time. That's a different type of thing. So yeah. So they made the right pick in those spots. So they get a little karma for how well they've run the team, the last couple of years. Yeah. Next one is Miami, who's in the 13 spot. They're not going to win anyway. They haven't picked higher than 10 since 2008. They did get the decision and all this stuff with LeBron. I think they're still dining on the karma points from that. I had them at zero karma points just in general. But bam, scoring 83 points on the tanking wizards. I think they won karma points for that. So I'm going to give them a little vibe. That's what I was so hoping you were going to go there. Yeah. That is correct. They get points for that. So if they get in the top four, it'll be like, oh, it's because of the bam 83. It is because they said, oh, you're going to shamelessly tank, are you, Washington? Yeah. Well, we're going to scarlet letter you. Yeah. We're going to show you there's a penalty for trying to lose basketball games. And then unapologetic afterwards. Unapologetic. And the penalty is roughly, and again, this off the top of my head, the 374th best scorer in the history of the NBA is going to score 83 points on you. And you're just going to eat it. So I'll give them a little karma for that. Memphis in the sixth spot, 9% to win 37.2 for top four. So Jawa's the second pick and triple J was also the top five pick. They also took Kevin Love five and the beat two from 95 to 2002. They picked 6, 3, 4, 2, 2, 2, 6, 4. They've had 12 top six picks in the last 30 years. The Grizzlies franchise. 12 top six picks in the last 30 years. This is their second tear down slash rebuild in seven, eight years. Sorry, Chris Vernon. It's true karma points for wasn't their fault. Joflamed out. Everyone would have taken them second. And I don't know what they really could have done differently. So they get points for that. They're one of five teams that have never made the finals. And recently LeBron crapped on their city. And I think they get points for all three of those things where if they won one of the top four picks, I don't think people would be that upset. So I'm going to give them a little vial. Can I give them a little extra? Yeah. Okay. We can move them into the next category if you want. I would like to rep for Memphis for a moment. Let's hear it. So my sister-in-law lives in Memphis. I go there a lot. LeBron's comments really, really like hurt the feelings of folks in that city in a way that I thought was a little too much, but it really bothered them. There is a it's a very, yes, it is a very tough city, but it is a prideful city. And they did everything they could to really support and love the jaw grizzlies. And through no fault of the, in my opinion, the organization and certainly the fans just screwed the whole thing up. And so you're going to, we'll move them higher. Okay. You're selling me. Yeah. I would like Memphis to have another shot at this. And so yeah, I would like to move up. So we'll revisit a little bit later. So that list was just Charlotte of Miami. You know, the thing about the LeBron comments, it was like the, it was almost like a sucker punch. It was like somebody punched them from behind as they're just walking down the street and they just woke up the next day like, what happened? LeBron punched you in the back of the head, but what, why did he do that? Like there was no warning at all. And listen, as it turns out, because I then, you know, followed that story probably closer than most, man, NBA guys really do hate that hotel. That's it. And it all comes down to the hotel. That's all that matters. Just build a forest or a Mandarin and you're good. It's just the hotel. Yeah, that's it. But LeBron, he was golfing, he was trying to make people laugh. He should have just really focused his critique on just the hotel. It wouldn't have hurt as bad. So yeah. I didn't mind it because I think LeBron's, one of his issues over the year is like, I don't feel like we see the real LeBron and some of this stuff. Like authentic LeBron that I'm sure he's actually like versus what's presented to us. And I thought in that golf video, it's just, I think that's what he's like. So I was like, this is, I wish he did more of this, but then he ended up, you know, making the entire city feel terrible for a week. Everybody got mad at him. All right. Next category is soup cup of karma points. So Milwaukee is in the 10th spot, 3.0%. Top four would be 13.9. Ironically, they get the worst of their pick or Atlanta's pick or the pelicans pick that goes to Atlanta. Yes. So I don't even know how to do the karma points here because if they go into the top four, Atlanta takes the pick anyway. I'll give them a little though. They need two teams to jump. I do, both of them to go in. Yeah. They need both picks to go in. So they need both. So they, so they need a lot of help. Here's, yeah, I'm fine with them not having a ton. Yeah. And here's why. Let's go. Everyone in the media has landed on, geez, Yannis enough already. Ask for a trade, move on. All the pressures on Yannis, when everyone I think acknowledges, yes, it's best for Yannis to move on. It's also best for Milwaukee to move on from Yannis. It's best for both parties. And there is it. So there should be just as much if not more pressure on the party that actually has to execute the trade to be like, you know what, Yannis, we're going to move on from you. But they don't want to be a bad guy. And everyone's like, well, of course you don't want to trade Yannis, but I'm demanding it. And Yannis is like, well, I don't want to be a bad guy either. So I just think, pardon me, the organization hasn't been great. Also, Jimmy Haslam bought into the team. Karma's not coming his way anytime soon. So yeah, they don't need any extra credit. I forgot about the Jimmy. So we could move them back then. That's fine. Yeah, put them where you had Memphis. Yeah, the Yannis-Mawrki thing was like the benevolent version of the Justin Baldoni, Blake Lively lawsuit that finally got settled. Neither one wanted to admit that they were the one that wanted to settle it, which is basically where we are with the bucks. Okay, next one is Sacramento. I was very curious where you were going to have it. Fifth spot, 11.5%. They had the fourth pick in 22, Murray. They had second and 18, Marvin Bagley, one pick ahead of Luca. Luca. And then, uh- The squad I said, Luca's a big market guy. Can't do that. He was Sacramento's biggest market. Can't take them. Got to take them over to Loyola, worst player. One of the craziest takes I've ever heard. He's like, how could Sacramento fans feel worse about this? How about this podcast interview from eight years later? Then Fox was the top five pick. So from 2009 to 18, they picked four, five, seven, five, seven, eight, six, eight, five, two. And I'm just tired of this team and this franchise. But the Karma points, and this is why they're in the soup cup, they're fans. This 20-year run for them, just for the fans only, there has to be a significant amount of Karma points. And they've 20 years of just, uh- They've never had the number one pick, right? Never had it. Oh, and- No, they had it once. Never nervous perverse. Oh, okay. So yeah, that was late 80s. 89. Um, so they haven't had the number one pick in 35 years. They've certainly been bad enough to get it. Um- There's six teams that haven't had the pick. Denver, Miami, Utah, the Hornets, the Lakers, and the Pacers. The Lakers not having ever had the number one pick and having had nine number one picks on the team in their history is just bananas. Right. Um, yeah, I'm fine with that for Sacramento. Okay. Now for a special part of today's episode where we unpack a six pack, or rather six of the biggest things happening on and off the court during playoff season brought to you by Mikal Obelta, the official beer partner of the NBA, and a superior light beer. I had a couple of them last weekend and uh, it really is superior. Let's get started. Here's my six pack. Six possible trade candidate fall guys for round two, as round two evolves here over the next two weeks, who not only um, might take some of the blame for a playoff loss, but also it would open the door for them to potentially uh, be trade bait to improve the team. I'm going to rank from one to six for the six pack. Number one, Jared Allen on Cleveland, because if Cleveland cannot get by the trade, that will mean they probably have to decide between Mowgli and Jared Allen as they're quote unquote big. Maybe you could trade one of them to either um, change the, change the team, get somebody like Giannis, if you put Moby on the table, or just trade Jared Allen for somebody who's a little bit cheaper. But I think Cleveland would have to decide between those two guys, because over and over again, it would have been the same story with them. That's one. Number two, De'Aaron Fox, which Nick Wright and Ty talked about on the Tuesday pod. If he just cannot rise to the challenge against a Timberwolves team that has zombie Mike Conley and I had a soon move who's um, battling injury. If he can't figure out a way to really impact that, he would be a potential guy. Maybe they turned him into a shooter or somebody with more size. Number three, Nas Reed. I don't know if anybody on the Nobody Believes in Us Timberwolves would even be on the trade block, but this would be the one guy you would maybe think about because for what he's making and doesn't play a ton of minutes and you have Go Bear and you have Randall and maybe you could flip him into more guard help or something else, but I'm not even sure I really believe in this one. Number four, Evan Mowley, for all the same reasons I mentioned with the Cavs. Number five, Carl Towns on the New York Knickerbockers, just because if they somehow blow this Sixer series, I assume there will be a fall guy in the Knicks and Giannis trade rumors and he's the logical person that would be in a trade. I actually like the way he's playing in the playoffs, but I had to mention him. And then number six, I have Isaiah Stewart on the Pistons who reasonable salary is making like 15. Relicate advanced stats could probably be the starting center for somebody. And maybe you see that his usage gets yanked around on Detroit with Durin. Sometimes they get smaller. Maybe that's a piece they would want to put in a trade to get the much needed second score they have. So Kate Cunningham does that to shoot 35 times. Honorable mention Austin Reeves as a sign and trade. Sad to throw him out there in case the Lakers decide maybe we do want to keep LeBron. Anyway, that's it for today's Six Pack. So now you can go grab your own Six Pack of Mikkelow Ultra. Plus, Mikkelow Ultra has given you a chance to win exclusive prizes, including court side tickets and more. Enter now at mikkelowultra.com slash court side, Mikkelow Ultra Superior is worth playing for. Mikkelow Ultra court side 2526, no purchase necessary, open to U.S. residents 21 plus. Begins on October 1st, 2025, ends on June 30th, 2026. Multiple entry periods, see official rules at mikkelowultra.com slash court side for free entry, entry deadlines and prizes and details. Next one is Brooklyn. I didn't really know where to put Brooklyn. 14% there in the third spot. Top four 52.1. They've only had one top three pick, really in the last 20 years. Derek Favors, number three. Karma points for building the 2024 Celtics inadvertently. Karma points for really trying to make a legitimate run with Capspace and KD and Kyrie. They trade everything for hard and they get hosed. I'm going to give them demerits for, I just think they're incredibly poorly run. I don't understand just about anything they do. I put them here. I'm going to be talked out of it. Listen, man, Sean Marks, he just needs a 13th or 14th year and he'll nail it. What? This could be the year. He might have figured it out, Father. So I agree with you in that I do want to give credit for the fact that Brooklyn twice in the last 15 years has been like, we are going. Yeah, we're going all in. We want to win the title. We're brazenly going after the title. So I want to give them credit for that. I want to give them non-credit for the fact that they had five first round picks last year and I don't know who any of them are. I live, I want to, I, You're not a Nolan Traiery guy? I want to give them non-credit for the fact that the first year that they had Kyrie, KD and Harden, I got pretty good season tickets to the Nets and midway through the year. They were a good team and midway through the year, my wife said to me, next year, do you think it'd be better if we just spent the money on 10 good Knicks games? And I was like, really? How come? You could say five good Knicks games. And it was, and it's not like she's a huge fan of anyone on the Knicks, anything like that. And she was like, it just feels so much more fun there. Here, nobody's really into it. They had KD, Kyrie and Harden, they had no fans. Well, you know when it even gets worse? The Liberty games are fucking awesome. They're awesome. In the exact same arena. In the same arena. My daughter and I went to. When the Liberty, the clinching game for the title, it's electric. So that does work against them. It would though, they do have to get a superstar to have any chance of getting any type of attention there. So yeah, a little bit. I mean, they've gone for it. I just don't, I don't think. All right, so I'm going to keep them in this category. Yeah, we'd all be better off if they just moved to Seattle and we didn't have expansion. Next category is a salad bowl of karma points. You might, you might disagree with this. I have golden state here, 2.0%, 11 spot, top four, 9.4%. They did have Weisman as the second pick six years ago and Kominga number seven. Those were their last two really good picks last 15 years. This is just about, this is where you're going to get mad. Yeah, I don't want to see Steph just be on shit teams for the next three years of his career. I'm not going to get mad. I totally agree with that. Let's get him a more good guy. So I, I'm Steph. So I don't know what the category is bigger than salad bowl. There's two more categories. There's, Okay. Oh, no, this is, this is the second or last category. Okay. Steph individually, his karma deserves the biggest. What works against him and brings it to this just second tier is the team. No, no, the team being so smug in that we've got one of the 12 greatest players of all time. He's still awesome. Let's try to win while also preparing for a two-time life. Yeah. It was the same shit. Oh, never forget, never. The calves in 2018, when Kyrie wanted out and they could have had Paul George and the, the owner, Dan Gilbert was like, well, no, we need a post LeBron life and so we need a pick that turned into Colin Sexton and they got little Isaiah Thomas. So that trade they did with Boston. That was, that was your guy though, LeBron. What do you mean? Because he was going to leave after the year and they're like, we'll do the trade if we know you're staying and he would come in. I understand. And guess what? Whether he was leaving or not, you know what you should try to do when you have Pete LeBron James win the title that year. Instead they were like, no, we have to be okay afterwards. He could have waited one more year and then gone into Lakers in 2019. He could have done all those things. He's been like, I'll sign a one year extension if you do this trade. Yeah. He could have done all those things or the calves could have just made the better. First of all, it would have been the better trade. Second of all, planning for a post, a future post, your all time legendary players dumb. So I hated what the Warriors did with Kyrie. Like this, not maximizing those young players for win now guys. So he deserves extra karma. The organization deserves less to leave it where it is. Also a little, a tiny douse of negative karma for Draymond having the audacity to be like, yeah, you know, Steve Kerr held me back. What? What? Are you, are you now that's Austin Rivers? He only did that to get talk show segments out of it. Well, he got it. He got, there was content all over the place. River favored Austin Rivers and Draymond, they might, they might be meeting in Temecula soon. There, they're going after it, but it was, but so go ahead. So you're fine. I'm fine where they're at. Next one, Chicago. Top four for them is 20.3%. They're in the nine spots. So 4.5 to win it. They've picked fourth in 2020. They had a stretch from 99 to 08. 1, 4, 4, 2, 7, 3, 2, 9, 1. They've been the cheapest big market team in any sport. If you think the three biggest markets are New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Yes. They've been the cheapest of anybody other than the Sterling Clippers. It's been 28 years since Michael Jordan retired. Their fans deserve better. And all of those are reasons they should have karma points. Conversely, do the Ryan Storffs deserve the top four pick? Where do we put this? This is way too high for Chicago. But can you blame the fans though? So you would put them where Sacramento is basically. Yeah. All right. I'll move back. I don't blame the fans, but listen, bulls fans, they're also bears fans. You just got Caleb Williams and Ben Johnson. You got hockey team. You got two baseball teams. That's their attitude. They've just moved to the Cubs and they've moved to the bears. And the bulls, they just assume are going to go 42 and 40 every year. And that's the NBA team to have. Yeah. And so the Ryan Storffs don't deserve it. All right. So we have Golden State, moved Memphis into this category. Utah. Thank you for that. Fourth spot, Utah, 11.5% top four, 45.2%. Last 15 years, they picked fifth last year, fifth and 14, took Dante Exum and canter in 2011. They have never moved up in the lottery ever. And they bastardized the sport to the point that they finally had to actually change the latter rules and do this three, two, one thing. I think they got karma points for that. They're the catalyst. Why? Yeah. They're the catalyst for changing the lottery in a good way. It took them before the Ulster break to do it. This is a little bit of you love Danny Ainge and want good things for him. I mean, this is they were. No, they deserted us and took our, took our best assistant. All right. So maybe they, I mean, here is why they, the fans of the jazz deserve, do deserve good lottery luck. The fact that the team that quite literally for all of NBA past, present and future is going to have the hardest time signing free agents in perpetuity has never moved up in the lottery seems like a sick joke. Although some like, some likes red hot right now. You know, I, I do believe in like a baseball team. It's really cool to go there. I believe, you know, there are reality shows. Wyoming is sick, is super hot right now too. You know where, you know what demographic it's not super hot. I'm up around NBA players, NBA free agents, 27 year old NBA superstars, not very often being like, Hey, guess where I just got to spread Salt Lake. And so I, they need some luck there. Okay. All right. So keep as is. So Golden State, Memphis, Utah in this category, I have Atlanta via the New Orleans pick. So they had a good season. They did win the lottery two years ago. So they lose points for that. Top four, 29.3% chance to move up. 6.8 for the seventh spot. And the case for them for karma points, they built a really fun team. They did a good job for the most part. They have fun nucleus. It would be fun if they got one of these guys. And I think this is around the right area for them. So when you first told me we were doing this, my gut was I was going to say Atlanta should be number one. Oh, well, let me give you the other two teams then. Well, no, but I'm going to, but I know I think you have it right. I know because so my gut was it was such a savvy trade with Joe Dumars and New Orleans, just to get this pick. It them having the guts to finally move off tray young, the fact that they, you know, CJ had this moment, all that worked for him. And then what kept sticking in my head was, yeah, but they took Zachary Rieses, a number one overall. So they probably third is a good spot. So we have two teams left, two karma teams left, two karma teams. One is in the same category. The Washington Wizards. All right. First spot Joe house, 11.5% to win. No, that's not right. They're in the first spot, 14% chance to win. Yes. 52.1 for top four. They picked SAR two years ago, number two. They got the six pick last year with Johnson. They've had 12 top six picks in the last 35 years. Since they made the 1979 finals, they have five playoff series wins in 47 years. And they've never made the conference finals. And their fans are in about as dark of a place as it gets. And they're probably upset that they couldn't even win this. So I have them second. And Anthony Davis is talking as if he's never going to play a game for. Yeah. He's on redfin in every NBA city. Look at it. They have a poor, a better place in Portland. Figuring out where he's going to be. They're also about to have the Trey Young experience, which I don't think is enjoyable. Can I tell you something about Trey Young? I think we've all blocked it out of our mind. I was just looking this up randomly the other day because I was looking at Yana stuff. The Hawks won two games in the 2021 conference finals. Yeah. That series was four to two. Now Yana is the cup of them. But if you go back and look at the box scores, they look like two eight seeds compared to now. It was two. Yana's got hurt in game four. So it was two to with Yana's out for the rest of the series. Atlanta, it was going to be, Chris Paul was going to be a champion is what was going to happen. If Atlanta wins that series. Yeah. It was two to in the conference finals. It's remarkable. I think the 2020 and 21 seasons, 50 years from now, people are going to be on basketball reference like, wait, what? What's going on here? Yeah. I mean, 20. Sway what? I think people will probably remember 20 is probably the final title for the greatest player of all time. It's neither here nor there. Atlanta, what's working against Atlanta is, or I'm sorry, what's working at Washington, pardon me, the shamelessness, the embarrassment of being scarlet lettered by BAM. I mean, they have, they have just been, but their fans don't deserve. It's not on their fans. All right. I'm fine with them being there. I there, there's Atlanta over them. Yes. Okay. I would put Atlanta in the second spot. Okay. And I love who you have. Number one. Yes. So this is the last category, a swimming pool of karma points. Indiana, 14% there in the two spot, top 452.1. An amazing wrinkle where they only keep the pick if it's top four, they could drop to five or six. Otherwise it goes to the Quippers. Little similar to, I don't know if you watch Survivor, but Devon's flipping the coin to basically try to stay in the game is kind of what they did with that pick. They, they flip the coin and if it comes up heads their way and they get a top four pick, and they get Zubats and they get Tyrese Halliburton coming back. Yeah. Like they're, they're probably going to be like the number two favorite in the east. Well, yeah. And they, if there is ever an acceptable reason to throw a season away, it was them. It's like, hey, we, they, we made a finals the year before that they made the conference finals the year before they made the finals. We made the finals and our best guy risked everything to play in game seven, took a chance and the worst possible outcome happened and ruined our next season. Ruined our next season. And so we snap recalibrated. We're not, we didn't tear it down. We just took a gap year. And we also, also didn't they, they had their pick only because of a trade. They made a trade. During the finals. During the finals to get their pick back. So they, they had, they did that with like a little, maybe a little premonition of what was to come. That came across conspiracy bills desk last summer. What, why did they make that trade during the finals? Was it like Halliburton protection, like getting protection in blackjack or something? It's, it was, it's crazy how it happened. It was days before the guy gets hurt. Yeah. Um, they're well run. They, they have a plan and it, it is, it's not quite the O three lottery where Jerry West is sitting there. I either get LeBron James or nothing. It's the all time. It's the all time either or. Although now we, now we know LeBron would have been out of there in 07. Maybe they know. Can I tell you something? Not only would LeBron not have been out of there, they would have a 30 foot, a 30 story, seven star hotel with what that's downtown would have been if LeBron was there. The Memphis montage. Indiana being like, all right, they're going to be watching the lottery just knowing if three teams move up. We're sure. Yeah. If they come like five or six, it's over. And then if you're, so the best thing they have going for them is the clippers would benefit from this, which would, I don't know if the league would be doing backflips that the clippers got the fifth pick in the draft. So, and then could, if let's say a ruling came down, they decided the clippers did all this stuff. Could they then just say you don't get the fifth pick that's going to be part of the penalty? I don't know. But so I think Indiana, Indiana, I don't, they don't have to get the number one pick. But they've got to stay in the top four. So I like them. I like them being number one on this. All right. So I'll recap. From no karma points to a swimming pool of karma points. OKC, Dallas, Charlotte, Miami, Milwaukee, Sacramento, Chicago, Brooklyn, Golden State, Memphis, Utah, Washington, Atlanta, Indiana, having the most karma points. That's a good list. It's a good list. Congratulations, Indiana. Congratulations, Indiana. Good luck, Atlanta. Memphis, I hope this made Chris Vernon everyone happy that there was, you know, some somebody repping for Memphis. What does conspiracy Nick think would be the fishiest outcome? Last year we hit the fishiest outcome when Cooper Flag went to the Dallas Mavericks. I think it's Golden State getting a top four pick would be the one that would make me go, oh, yeah, if I was running the league, that's what I would have done. All right. So let Golden State. Golden State certainly is the one that's best for the league. There's no doubt about that. It's like them just getting the Bansa. The who could play right away for them. What about what about this one? And I don't know again, I don't know if they would do it, but maybe they would. What about Brooklyn getting a top four pick and using that for a young trade for Yonis? Like that is. Well, here's the thing with Brooklyn. They don't have their pick next year because Houston can swap it. Oh, yeah. It's part of that weird deal they made. So they actually have to be good next year. So yeah, Brooklyn be another one. I'm not sure they're anxious to help out Brooklyn. No, that's probably true. Dallas could be the other one. It's like, hey, you owe us for the rest of the Luca trade. We know you promised us one lottery, but it was actually two. Two lotteries to send Luca to Los Angeles. Just so you know, I just clicked Sim lottery on Tankathon and the result was Milwaukee moved up to one. So that goes to Atlanta. Wow. And the Clippers moved up to two and that goes to OKC. That would not be great. That's what just came up. In the one that I just did. Oh my God. Milwaukee goes to Atlanta's one. The Clippers, which goes to OKC at two, Washington three, Utah four, poor Indiana drops to five and it goes to the Clippers. Gambit of emotions for the Clippers. Gambit of emotions. OKC moving into the top four of this lottery would enrage people. It would be a catastrophe. I was on the air when Cleveland won the 2014 lottery and I kind of melted down for like a minute. Yeah, I remember. I remember. I was like, you had to be kidding me. This is the third time in four years that they won the lottery. Real quick, is it weird to you that it's on a Sunday? Yeah, I hate it. I hate it. It's supposed to be Tuesday night or Wednesday night. I hate it. Well, they're going to have so it's a 1230 game lottery after the or 1230 Pacific, 330 Eastern game lottery and then the next game. And I don't like that at all. I don't like it either. I liked when it was the middle of the week and we could get content out of it. But yeah. All right, Nick Ray, it took enough for your time. This was a true pleasure. Thanks for doing the karma rankings. Thanks for talking basketball with me. It was great to see you as always. You know what? You as well. I'll tell Kevin Wilde. How about this? I'll tell Kevin Wilde you say hello and you tell Joe House who I've never met, but in my head were friends. I say hello. All right, we'll do that. Great to see you. Thank you. Yeah, bye. All right, that's it for the podcast. Thanks to Nick Wright. Thanks to Gehow and Eduardo as well. Don't forget about the new rewatchables we put up. There's something about Mary. Don't forget about Legata. Finally ended the conclusion. The last seventh episode of the series is up and you can rip through all of them now. I'm going to be back on Thursday with one more podcast. Can't wait. You. Must be 21 plus and president select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas start casino or 18 plus and president DC, Kentucky or Wyoming. Game problem called 1-800-GAMBO or 1-800-MY-RESET. 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