 What's the word y'all NBA playoffs man? I think we're all in that mindset It's we got like a week left of the NBA regular season and is everybody sticking about seeding everybody's thinking about who's gonna Be the play-in matchups and today I'm doing something a little bit differently You know I'm saying we got all but one postseason spots secured We still trying to figure out whether or not it's gonna be dispersed or the Lakers to take that 10c spot pretty much Everybody else has been eliminated. It's okay Technically technically as of right now as I record this video the Sacramento Kings are still in the race But it's it's unlike they shut down some bonus they shut down DR5s But I mean often I he's been doing this thing all but one spot has been secured and I'm doing something It's maybe not the smartest thing as we keep thinking about the playoffs I'm gonna take some time to talk about the teams that are not in it I guess I'm counting as nine teams because I don't want to talk about the Lakers or disperse because I'm not completely sure It's gonna take that spot So the nine teams there on the outside looking in because when I think about it This might be the last opportunity We have to talk about them until we get to the offseason We're gonna talk about these teams heavily in the offseason because these are all our lottery teams Who are they gonna draft with their picks is gonna get number one But I wanted to take some time to talk about them and and low key is kind of stepping out of a comfort zone I listened to a podcast and it's kind of changed my perspective completely on work and everything But on this channel I find comfort and talking about things that I've seen and and things that I know But in the last month and maybe two some of these teams have got close to zero And I mean zero live watch time Okay, that's an exaggeration because like for example the Detroit pitchers were in a closed game to the Brooklyn That's like a week or so ago I tuned in with like six minutes ago and watch it to the end and Kate Cunningham was taken over But you couldn't I couldn't tell you what happened in the first three and a half quarters And it's pretty much the same across a lot of these teams But I'm not completely void of like what's going on within the organizations because I feel like every single one of these teams Have a few players on their organization or in the organization that I enjoy So like for example, I have not watched a lot of the Houston Rockets recently But what I'll do is after their games I go to NBA comm and I'll watch Jalen Green's possessions I can watch every single time Jalen Green touched the ball in that game without watching a full 48 minute game And no that doesn't give me the full perspective of how these players are playing It's serviceable enough as this team has won a total of 20 games So yeah, somebody seems to get talked about a lot some of them not so much But hey, I just want to talk about some of these teams It's after I talked about a sponsor which is of course prize picks They have been in presenting sponsor for the entirety of the regular season Which is weird to say I feel like just yesterday was doing our first read But they are still here for the now and for the playoffs hit that link in the description down at the prize picks app And use code Kenny because they're matching all deposits for new players up to a hundred dollars join the thousands of people that already use Code Kenny I love prize picks because it's you versus the numbers you pick some of your favorite players You decide whether you want to go over or under on their props And it's just added another element for me as I watch his entire regular season. I'm pretty much taking over I'm an over guy It just gives me an extra element to root for players randomly if you've been around since the beginning of the season You know that me and my homie start an entire league where we started off with $200 on prize picks And we're trying to figure out who's gonna win the most What it was? Hey, it was me and it's not even it's not even close So hit that link in the description down at the prize picks app and use code Kenny because they're matching all deposits up to a hundred dollars How to prize picks are sponsoring? Let's get into the talk on one last thing before we get to actually talking about everything I'm gonna plug my my newsletter one more time Well, not one more time because we're gonna do it a lot the enjoy basketball newsletter It's kind of weird that we started like four days ago officially launched like four or five days ago And we already have like over 15,000 subscribers to the newsletter So if you're missing out hit that link in the description just in case you miss Saturday night's game or Sunday night's game We got some of the best writers in the game that's gonna recap it and everything so hit that link I didn't know where I want to start this is low-key a video I did I had like a year or so ago, which is weird to say But it's true I wanted to talk about all the teams there on the outside looking into the play-in But I wanted to get an expert for all these things because like I said Somebody seems I don't watch nearly as as much as the other one So I think I even got like proof for DMs of like cone from last season I wanted him to be my okc expert give him 10 minutes Well, me and him just talk about okc thunder then we cycle through the next team a cycle through the next team And maybe we'll do something like that when the offseason comes around I think I want to open up talking about the New York Knicks because out of all of the teams on the outside looking in Between them and the Portland Trailblaze. These aren't these are the most disappointing teams this season The Portland Trailblaze is kind of kind of have an excuse having Dylan so many injuries and then Dame got injured and they shut down The Knicks didn't go through that same thing Of course every team was banged up one way another throughout the season But the Knicks were a team that last season surprised the world ended up being in the playoffs The New York Knicks fans were going crazy The garden was bumping and this season was the exact opposite and right now They said at a record of 10 games under 500 and that have been eliminated officially from the play-in race And what happened this season for this to happen I remember going to our podcast after the offseason the free agency and I was just telling people that I expected the New York Knicks to fall off a little bit and I didn't think it was gonna be to this extent I didn't expect them to miss the play-in completely But I just I'd looked at what they did this offseason Which is like bring back everybody that helped us do our thing this year and just add a few other pieces in every for Nie and Kimmel walkable we go run it back And I just saw so many other teams in the conference add pieces to make them better And I was just a little bit afraid that they didn't do enough to make them better And I guess I was right They didn't do anything and the Knicks are going through the Tom Thibodeaux cycle the same thing We saw here in Chicago similar things we saw in Minnesota where he gets the most out of his players But it seems like there's a there's a clock on that thing for the Bulls It happened to be a couple seasons for the Minnesota 10 Bulls happened to be I think just one season two and this time It was just one season This was a team that was top 10 top 5 in defense for the entire year and though they didn't make a lot of Extreme personnel changes they fell off completely from the defensive side of the ball And I don't think I could talk about the Knicks falling off or their defense falling off without mentioning the name Julius Randall because of course Julius Randall was the most improved player last year I'm he ended up being an all NBA player And he was locked in on both sides of the ball that we like we've never seen before Basically this season he revered it back to the Pelicans version of Julius Randall I mean early Pelicans because I know he had that second half stretch in his last year the Pelicans We was elite or like the first year version of him in the New York mix And that's just not enough for them to do their thing the body language from him completely changed He was all smiles. I love New York and then at one point he was giving them a thumbs down And these are our reports will take it with a grain of salt But there was reports like a week or so ago that he might try to force his way off similarly to what James Harden did Right This is a guy that you paid good amount of money to be a star player and just in one season's giving him that paycheck Things have gone south now the report is that they get to the locker room And he's completely secluded from the rest of his teammates just bad locker room etiquette and that can be a lot I mean when you look that to be the star player Be the franchise guy at that point and because that's what he was for the Knicks and all of the things change That's a lot for the organization to deal with so I'm curious if Julius Randall does force his way out What is a return for the what is return for Julius Randall that will be good enough for the New York Knicks? Or is he a part of a bigger package their team out there that sees last year's version of Julius Randall be willing to take a Chance and and as the Knicks try to package this and some pics and some other assets to go above and beyond for some people That might be on the market what we've seen from the Knicks under the Leon Rose era and the Leon Rose era As him being in the front office as they've been ultra conservative, which has not been a bad thing But coming off a season like this Maybe it's time to put your foot on the gas just a little bit If there's any bright signs for this entire season is that in the last couple weeks Tom Thibodeau has for the first time ever by the way has let the young guys play and the young guys might not have won a bunch I think it ended up going on like a five game street low-key They might not have won a ton of games But they've been way more enjoyable to watch and you're starting to see more of what RJ Bear can be if you allowed him to be your number one guy Allowing RJ to be your number one guy of course probably sets your organization back a little bit, right? RJ bear does your number one guy next season's probably not gonna put you back into the place We the four or five seat of the previous year But I think it's all about steps and I think it's all about growth and you want to see the growth of RJ bear because he was a Form a third overall pick and I forgot to say this early on this is a this is from my guys over in the John Boy media talking baseball Podcasts you know your favorite team more than I do so there be there might be some Knicks fans I have a different outlook. I trust you more than I trust me with the Knicks because again I stopped watching them some time ago Let's go out West because this is a team that we mentioned just a little bit earlier Is being another one of the disappointments and that is the Portland shrub lasers now They're disappointments basically ended like a month and a half into the season when Dane was going down with his injured stuff So basically since then this is exactly what we expect They're barely even playing NBA players at this point We're like the Spurs are in the most one situation and they were like, you know what? We I would let Desjante Murray not play because it didn't matter and I think they ended up losing by 40 or something like that The Portland shrub laser trying to bottom out as much as they can be I think that they might have the most interesting off-season of all of the 30 teams The most interesting off-season of all the 30 teams because I know as Fans of the NBA are fans of guys like Damien Lilla. We want to see Dane finally do it request a trade game You've been there for a decade. We want to see you free It's not it's probably not gonna happen So what will the Portland shrub lasers do to try to maximize the last couple years of Dane's prime or whatever it may be? They have so many different avenues that they can go down this off-season that I'm so very curious of what they decide to do And whether or not it'll work. They ended up trade a season McCullum. That was a big moment for them in the organization He had been one of the most beloved players since he's been there But on the bright side of that you have a guy in Anthony Simons that when Damien Lilla went down He was incredible. He was he was shooting 40 percent from three He was playing the pick-and-roll with use of nerk. It's too good a little bit too good And he was like, you know what we see that you got this little nagging injury We don't we don't let you chill out We go we go have mr. Williams take over the point guard dudes because you are actually trying to win up some games here We're not trying to do that the thing that scares me is that they're gonna they're gonna go out there Roll the balls out and say hey Dane Anthony go do your thing and that just is that for me that is just CJ McCullum and Damien Lilla 2.0 What is the ceiling on Anthony Simons? I'm not putting the cap on it because bro looks spectacular But what I've seen is bro looks spectacular with the ball in his hands And and when you have Damien Lillard you probably rather have Damien Lillard with the ball in his hands because he is one of the top players in the League so now you have Anthony Simons playing more of an off-ball guy or getting the touches periodically when in reality He's he's at his best more than just a spot-up shooter and not to mention one of the things that has been the Downfall of that that might be it of this backcourt between Damian season McCullums that they didn't defend nobody And I definitely don't trust a Damien Lillard Anthony Simons backcourt to get any more stops and I trusted Dame and CJ So what do you do? Do you use Anthony Simons is a value because it has grown since we since the rest of the GMs across the league saw that He can actually who use that first round pick use whatever assets you have to try to get the scrunchie star to pair him in Portland But then what is that? What does that do with the rest of the roster? There's so many different avenues and so many tough decisions that this organization has to face and have to decide this this off-season I I don't envy the guy that has to make those decisions I'm trying to look at the teams that are on the outside looking in and try to figure out of these teams Which team do I think would make the most of most significant jump next year? And I guess the easy answer would be the Portland Trailblazers, right? Because Dame will be back to some capacity and they're not gonna roll Dame out with the bare bones roster. They have now My number two would probably be the Knicks, right? I think those are the easiest answers, but my actual answer is The Orlando Magic the Orlando Magic right now are tied for the worst record in the entire league at 20 and 58 But I'm gonna go out on a limb and say this will be a team next season That is at least competing to be a play in roster. I know that might be saying a lot But I do really like a lot of the pieces that they have on their team since the all-star break window Carter has looked like I'm not gonna say a new man because he had been ramping up to this I think he has Increases points per game every single month this season and I trust that way window Carter, Jr. Doing what he's doing right now is the real deal They had this spurt in the last couple weeks or so where they were one of the they were the number one Defense in the league for like a two week stretch. I think some of those things now I'm not expecting them to be the number one defense next season But I think they're a little nuggets that they're dropping this season that you can look and say part of that is real Franz Wagner was a surprise for me because I don't watch miss Caldwell He was surprised to me that he was this Polished as a rookie and I remember doing the scouting reports They were saying he might struggle to score at the NBA level He has not if there's one thing about the Orlando Magic that they might have too many players that might be worthy of PT and well, you know my answer to something like that You got too many players you got to consolidate and get something better You know if it's this team that want to get a little bit younger and we got a ton of young pick of young players Go ahead and make a move or two. I know that will be pushing the timeline and they probably won't do that But that's just my unrealistic mind saying that I'm eventually you're gonna have Jonathan Isaac play basketball again And even if Jonathan Isaac is 50% the overall player that he was two years ago whenever it was and he got injured He's still probably gonna be pretty damn elite on the defensive side of the ball I guess the real question is as I as I believe in a lot of the things they could do in the defensive side of the ball Next season is like which NBA player which player on their roster is gonna step up on the offensive side of the ball to be the go-to Score will it be Cole will it be Franz? Will we have a decent sophomore season for Jalen sucks? I feel like there's just playing with house money right now because even if everything I'm saying right now is false Will be right back in the lottery. Oh and guess what we got an extra Chicago Bulls pick coming up next season I think I can objectively look at that trade and say that they walked out of there with a huge W Because I think window Carter is going to be one of their building blocks and they got him on an absolute steel He signed an extension before the season started early in the season and the way he's been playing since the all-star break That's an absolute steel Franz Wagner and the place He was draft the absolute steel and they still got another pick in the vault from the Bulls, which is amazing Okay, see thunder decide to shut down everybody as well and they're sitting at the fourth the best odds They have a 12% chance in the first overall pick the only thing I really want to say about the okc thunder So I'm extremely impressed with it with trade man and how he's been able to play There was a stretch a couple weeks ago Or maybe a week or so ago where we're day is basely was playing his best basketball of his career I think it was four straight games where he scored 20 plus points and then pocu had I think four straight games We scored double digit points And he he had a bucket that almost sent us over time but they end up losing because that's exactly what they Want to do a couple nights ago of the Detroit pisses tried to outtake them and the Detroit pisses lost You know I'm saying oh well the Detroit pisses won which means that they lost in the grand scheme of things But this is what I want to see from the okc thunder And I don't know how realistic it is for Sam Preston to do something like this right now if I run this sim lottery They actually fell in this one. They fell in this one. I would love for the okc thunder To to find the player that they absolutely love this is out of out of jade and ivy Palo chat Jabbar Smith. This is our this is the one we absolutely love and I would love for them to Package some things up and get that guy They have a million first-round picks and I just think it's it's completely Unrealistic to use all of those draft picks and expect to build a competent roster Just because you're just gonna have too many pieces to develop right now They already have too many if you ask it me they already got too many pieces to develop and you're trying to add Seven more picks in the next two years to that Impossible so if there is a team out there that gets a high pick and looking to maybe drop down a little bit To get to get multiple picks you have to make those moves I don't know how realistic it is for Sam Preston to do it But I would love to see it even if you miss on the pick honestly Just just assert yourself there do it or use those picks to accelerate the timeline because you actually do have Really good players over there and say just giddy was really good in his rookie season Like I said there is Bayes He was turning the leaf and door is door so maybe it's not trading up to get a top three pick But maybe it's trading some of those picks to a team that decide to hit the reset button And now you got a secondary star or a third-tier player on the roster as well because eventually Eventually you got to get your average age over 18 years old right Houston Rockets Jalen Green over the past month has been incredible And I like the fact that it is under the radar because I want to see him jump on to the same next season like surprise Y'all didn't expect me to do this because well He was highly and I guess is the case for every single high draft pick Which is so stupid to me how how criticized they are saying they were Kate Cunningham in the first month when he couldn't do He wasn't playing as up to the stand as the first overall pick I hate how criticized these young players are when they go from college or the G league in Jalen Green's case To to the best basketball league in the world. I Mean, I know it happens where people immediately come in is great But it's unlikely even if it is the first overall pick or the second overall pick so I like that he turned that that leaf and he was my pick for for Rookie of the year coming into the season just because I felt like he was gonna put up a bunch of points And it took some time, but he is to that point where he is putting up a bunch I'm still up in the air about Kevin Porter, Jr. As a long-term guy alongside him But I really love Jalen Green as the piece like me and the guys were talking like if you were to redraft do you think The top four picks stayed the same and I believe that the Houston Rockets even though we still see we see Scottie Barnes being amazing We see Evan Mobley being amazing I still think the Houston Rockets will still take Jalen Green to the number two pick because what we've seen over the last Two months or the last month is that he's he projects to be a number one go-to score, right? So I think the top four picks will probably stay the same if it were to be redrafted and then after that You can have a conversation about a couple different guys But top four is probably solidified number one and top four was the was Kate Cunningham and like I mentioned I mean he he has ramped it up so much that he's making it a real conversation between him Scotty and of course Evan Mobley who's going to be the Rookie of the year Because he is a player that generates so many open looks and I know his counting stats with the assists Don't look too incredible, but you think about who the hell his teammates are they are incredible Eventually, he's going to get shooters around him and people that can finish at the rim and those assist numbers are gonna Are gonna go up and like I mentioned, I don't know if they have that secondary star on the roster I don't know if it's gonna be Sadiq or killing in haze with a career night a couple nights I don't know if it's gonna be them so I'm happy that they're in the position where they are now where it looks like They're going to have one of the top four picks 52% chance to get a top four pick and they can pair K Cunningham one of these these draft prospect if I'm the Wizards, there's no way in hell I give Bradley Biel that super max extension that he's eligible for I love Bradley Biel He's one of he's one of my most favorite shot creators to watch because he's so silky smooth And he can get his shot off at any time. I'm not giving him the biggest contract in NBA history I'm sorry. I think they will Because they don't have any other choice. They had their choice to potentially trade him at the deadline decided not to and I know He was dealing with some stuff around the deadline, but listen He's Bradley he's Bradley Biel if he was dealing with a hamstring at the deadline They were still gonna be teams out that they're willing to trade for him And maybe that doesn't give you your full value But regardless he wants that max contract and I don't blame him if I had an opportunity to set my family up Why would I not do that? But if I'm looking at the overall outlook for the Washington Wizards and their organization giving Bradley Biel that type of money Just pigeon holds us to a playoff team and and maybe and I'm like maybe a playoff team and I and I know there are some organizations and owners that are a okay would just be in a playoff team But but you got you got to think bigger picture You got to think bigger picture and they did the poor zingers deal and they're telling Bradley Hey, listen, we we trying to kid to you to build around you and get better and Przingis has been solid says he's been over there But I think we all understand his limitations as a player the Sacramento King Sat out to off-night because he's making at least them somewhat watchable in the last Hey, listen when you when you're rebuild the team You got to figure out that one thing to attach yourself to when you're watching those games and watching Davion Mitchell progress as a as a primary ball handler says the air and it's a bonus or out for the rest of the Season to watch him develop as a primary ball handler and and continue to try to lock up opposing guards or something You should attach yourself to 100% I am a I'm a bit decent amount optimistic about them potentially fighting for a playing spot I guess technically right now you could classify them as fighting for a play-in spot because they're not officially eliminated But next season when you look at the numbers between Deira Fox is a bonus in that little amount of time I think it's 340 minutes exactly they play together since the all-star break or sister trade that line the numbers aren't terrible They're not great But they're better than any other two-man lineup that they ran this season and that's that's reason for optimism as again They're still missing a bunch of shooting because they're gonna need shooting when you have Deira Fox as a bonus But if they could surround them with decent shooting league average shooting slightly above league average shooting I think this offense can be pretty good. Don't ask me about the defense I think there's too good these two gonna be struggles there But they can just get some solid shooters around on this offseason I think it can be a legit league past team and then the last team to talk about if I'm not mistaken is the Indiana Pacers Who made the trade to get some bonus out and get Terry's Halliburton and Terry's Halliburton as Has always been an up-and-down player in the sense that some games you get him to have the 30-point game like he had against the The the Boston Celtics a couple nights ago and some games He has four because he wants to take two shots his aggression is something that he's still trying to figure out and he's Young right is the young player in his NBA career And I think he will figure it out eventually But I'm I think that they're looking at all the things they had near some people there that they're they're pretty Good they feel pretty good about right? I want to put them on this level obviously because Robert Williams is one of the better defender defensive centers in the entire NBA But Robert Williams struggled would stand on the floor because of foul trouble in his very early stage of his NBA career I jacks can go through the same thing just be a smarter defender and not just so block happy because blocks look good on Stash he's in block blocks look good and highlight reels once he figured that out I think he's gonna be solid and you know even though right now They're going on a little tank slash retool rebuilding. They still have players here that that you really trust Malcolm Brogdon is a player that you're gonna trust They have Buddy Hill now after the trade and then you still have miles and TJ Warren coming back event Well, TJ Warren is a free agent this season So you still have miles here and you got TJ McConnell coming back next season So this can be a team that can you know be an average team next season if they wanted to be I know man I stepped out of my comfort zone a little bit. I'm talking about some teams I have now watching some time like I said, you know your team better than I do So if I misspoke or you disagree with something I said can play the okay man today We got a great slate of games So hopefully you get some time to watch some basketball But if you don't the enjoy basketball newsletter got you you know I'm saying got you bro So hit that link in the description man, and I'm just gonna remind you to enjoy ball