00:00 I am not going to bet against the Celtics.
00:04 We have seen them make it to the Eastern Conference finals.
00:06 How many years out of how many years in a row?
00:08 And--
00:09 Five out of seven.
00:10 Yeah.
00:10 And so-- and what we haven't seen either team--
00:16 the Street happened yesterday.
00:18 And I know that is our job.
00:19 But on the floor, I want to see them on the floor.
00:22 I understand the thought process and the excitement
00:25 of Giannis, this generational player working
00:28 with Damian Lillard and the pick and roll possibilities
00:30 and all of it.
00:31 It is intoxicating.
00:33 But we have not seen anything.
00:34 We haven't seen anything from them.
00:35 We haven't seen anything from the Celtics.
00:36 We haven't seen anything from the Suns.
00:38 So it is a wonderful time of year.
00:42 Everyone is a contender.
00:44 There is so much possibility out there.
00:46 But the NBA-- and it's one of the things
00:48 that I love about it so much--
00:50 is that you just have absolutely no idea what is going to happen.
00:54 I mean, was it just last season that we
00:57 walked into the year that the Nets, with Kyrie Irving,
01:00 Kevin Durant, and James Harden--
01:02 wasn't James Harden.
01:03 He had been traded away at that point.
01:05 But I mean, 18 months ago, the Nets
01:07 were bona fide championship contenders, the team to beat.
01:11 And that just completely disintegrated
01:14 in front of our eyes.
01:15 And so I am not going to pick a favorite.
01:22 I want to see it on the floor.
01:25 Call me wishy-washy.
01:26 No, it's fine.
01:27 I mean, listen.
01:28 Also, I'm not convinced that we have a finished product
01:30 in terms of these rosters either.
01:32 But go ahead.
01:33 I know, Ev, on our text thread that I'm sure Abby
01:36 is so grateful to not be part of this particular group thread.
01:39 Ev, you expressed concerns about the Bucs.
01:43 Well, I just don't think--
01:45 it's not a slam dunk.
01:46 Not to make it a basketball pun.
01:48 But yes, on paper, the Bucs are very formidable.
01:51 But I don't think this is a given that they're
01:53 going to make the NBA finals.
01:55 I definitely don't.
01:56 I think, look, when you have a smaller point guard,
01:59 as we found out firsthand, it's very hard to win an NBA
02:04 title with a small point guard.
02:06 And Dame is fantastic.
02:08 I'm not saying Dame isn't amazing.
02:10 He's incredible.
02:11 I just have a little fear because I've
02:14 watched enough Celtics basketball
02:16 and their small guards over the years
02:18 to know that it's not always a guarantee
02:21 that an offensive scoring threat from the point guard position
02:24 is diminutive is going to guarantee you a final spot.
02:27 Dame is one of the best modern day guards
02:32 that we've seen in the past 30 years.
02:34 But the thing is, again, I'm not convinced
02:37 that Lopez has had some injury issues.
02:40 Chris Middleton has had some injury issues.
02:43 I'm not totally sold on the Giannis/Dame pick and roll
02:45 being this ridiculous thing.
02:48 I think you could make the same argument for Tatum/Porzingis
02:51 because Porzingis can actually shoot it.
02:54 And Giannis isn't really a jump shot threat to me.
02:56 I know he brings other problems to the table,
02:58 but I'm just not totally convinced that that's
03:00 going to be this huge problem.
03:02 But again, you've got to roll the ball out and see.
03:04 I mean, again, I think the problem that Milwaukee has
03:09 is a similar problem to what the Sixers have.
03:12 There's just not a lot of guys on those teams
03:14 that can guard Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum collectively.
03:18 There just isn't.
03:18 So it might solve one problem, but it might create another.
03:22 So I'm not convinced.
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03:39 Win or lose.
03:41 And then the Bucks have a first year head coach.
03:45 Again, I know the roster's talented
03:47 and things can happen, but we've never seen him
03:49 be a head coach before.
03:50 So that's Adrian Griffin.
03:52 It's not like it's going to be the slam dunk thing.
03:54 He's got to figure out other things on the fly.
03:56 A lot of expectations.
03:57 So what do you want a first year head coach
03:59 to take a team to the NBA finals?
04:01 That doesn't happen.
04:02 I mean, it might have happened, but it doesn't happen
04:06 all the time, Cotman.
04:08 No, of course, doesn't happen all the time.
04:09 But if your roster is talented--
04:10 I mean, it probably happened more than once
04:12 with LeBron or Steph teams, because if you
04:15 have enough talent, if you have enough talent, which clearly
04:18 the Bucks do--
04:19 and listen, I love the trade for them.
04:22 I love the team.
04:23 I do, obviously, root against them,
04:24 because I root for the Celtics.
04:26 But I do love the team.
04:27 I love a lot of the personnel.
04:28 Love Dame already.
04:29 It's great to see him be in an environment where he has
04:31 an actual chance to win, because it just never really
04:34 came together in Portland.
04:35 One area that I will absolutely applaud or golf clap
04:41 the Bucks' management is you had to do something, maybe not
04:46 even at this grand a scale, but you
04:47 had to do something in this direction
04:51 to appease Giannis, because he was just--
04:54 he was at the point where he was starting to hint.
04:57 If he was going to win another one,
04:58 maybe it was going to be somewhere else.
05:00 He was starting to give the help me out.
05:02 Not to-- he wasn't going full-blown Joel Embiid,
05:04 I can't do it alone.
05:05 But he was teetering a little bit.
05:08 And so if you can make a move like this
05:10 to ensure that you're keeping Giannis
05:12 Atentacumpo still the best player in the NBA in Milwaukee,
05:15 great, awesome, good for you.
05:18 I mean, two times, Giannis, who does not speak out often
05:22 and certainly does not degrade his franchise, the two times he
05:27 held his front office accountable, they, I mean,
05:30 almost immediately made a move.
05:32 The last time when they had to re-sign him,
05:34 his contract was coming up.
05:35 They gave away a bunch of picks for Drew Holiday.
05:37 And that worked out.
05:38 It turned into a championship.
05:40 So I mean, more power to Giannis and to that front office
05:43 for being able to step up.
05:45 I think Miami getting so much criticism in all of this
05:48 and all the guards that they let it go away.
05:50 But the thing is, they didn't have the assets
05:52 to get these deals done.
05:54 And it's a matter of working with other teams, right?
05:56 You got to find--
05:58 Danny used to say that all the time.
05:59 It takes two.
06:00 And in much of these blockbuster superstar trades,
06:03 it takes more than that.
06:04 It takes three teams to get something done.
06:07 And I think that this is one of the unique blockbuster deals
06:10 that we've seen that everybody kind of gets something.
06:14 And I do think we have to give credit to the Blazers for not
06:18 catering, pandering to their superstar Joe Cronin, who--
06:22 I mean, virtually an unknown to many casual fans in the NBA,
06:27 holding out on his superstar, but still landing him
06:30 in a place that--
06:31 well, it's Milwaukee-- is a bona fide championship
06:35 contender and will be for the length of Damian's contract
06:38 that's still there.
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