The 30 Most Intriguing NBA Playoff Guys, With Zach Lowe

21:04Bill Simmons:The flip side, Orlando. I think Mosley, I don't think he wasn't on the hot seat before, but this is a borderline catastrophic Orlando loss I mean they actually went backwards in the standings they now have to play a playing game as the road team

21:30Bill Simmons:inexplicable the Bain thing and we'll talk about Atlanta in a second but this whole thing about just not taking game 82 seriously enough because the other team is going to rest some guys the league is too good now like we saw it with Denver we saw it with the Celtics. Like, when guys play scrubs, they're not scrubs anymore, you know? No. The only thing I would say is all it cost them, and I think they understood that it was the most likely scenario by far, all it cost them was home court in the 7-8 game against a Philly team that's not going to have Joel Embiid. So let's just not, like, pretend that it cost them, like, the fifth seed or the sixth seed.

22:06It cost them, and it's certainly embarrassing. The Bain thing was extremely unusual and also kind of embarrassing. but it didn't cost them that they're like i they should still they should still be able to beat philly on with no mb on the road and if they can't and their season ends then jamal mosley's seat has been hot all year it then erupts in flames i think it was a horrific coaching job

22:30Bill Simmons:and i will say this as somebody who watched that entire game and was talking to people about it as it was happening being in disbelief that they weren't pressuring a team that had no point guard the Celtics had no point guard in that game they had Banton dribbling the ball up and Shireman and Ron Harper Jr. and Orlando has all these dudes that could pressure you and people that can you try to trap just try to get some turnovers and they're just letting them walk the ball up I thought it was incredibly confusing but the team that was probably the most furious was Atlanta who can also look at themselves in the mirror because they decided not to care about game 82.

23:13Bill Simmons:And now they have to play the Knicks because they basically tanked away. Instead of the Cavs. But here's my question. But now they have to go Knicks round one, Celtics round two potentially, which I'm going to guess wouldn't be ideal. My question for you is, it seems like the Hawks were cool with that. I think they were cool with that. I think even mapping it to round two kind of misses the point of what their season is. If anything in round two for them is gravy, and sure, it would be nice to get an easier round two. I don't think they cared. Knicks versus Cavs. They've played both. I mean, they've had good games, both of them, and in the last week of the season, they lost to both, but good games.

23:56And I think they also probably wrongly assumed that Orlando would win, which would create a three-way tie, that they would then win and keep the fifth seed, and Orlando messed up Orlando's plans. It messed up Philly's travel plans. Philly got to cancel some travel plans, and it messed up part of Atlanta's plans. But in the end, I just don't think they really care. Yeah, well, I watched them play the Knicks on Monday,

24:21Bill Simmons:and I watched them play the Cavs on Wednesday. I saw the second half of that one. I watched the full Monday game. And Alexander Walker was great against the Knicks. I mean, he probably had one of his best games of the season. Knicks end up winning at the end. Brunson made some plays. That's the game McCollum makes the crazy half-court shot that doesn't count by a fingernail. The Hawks looked really comfortable against the Knicks. And if I'm the Knicks, I'm fucking bummed. I would have so much rather played Toronto than Atlanta. Atlanta has dudes to throw on Brunson. Brunson's going to get his points and do all his stuff anyway, but they could throw Daniels at him and Alexander Walker at him.

25:03Bill Simmons:That's not nothing, right? They could even put Jalen Johnson on them if you want to go big. It's just a weird matchup for them because their team's kind of built to stop the other team's awesome wings, but the Hawks have just weird guard stuff. They get points in bunches. And if you look at what the last... I had this written down. Last 31 games, both teams are 21 and 10, and they're right next to each other in ratings. So for 40 % of the season, they've basically been right next to each other. I don't know. I thought Atlanta Cavs would go seven. I would say six or seven for this. It's just like not having done any of the studying yet.

25:48Bill Simmons:But this just at least feels like a longer series to me. What do you think? Yeah, I can't wait to dig into the film and everything over the next couple of days. But yeah, I don't think it's going to be a quick series. Atlanta's ceiling is just higher than Toronto's. Like Toronto can hum along at an okay level because their defense is always pretty steady. They just can't hit the heights that Atlanta can hit because their offense is just pretty, is pretty limited. To your point about Brunson, it'll be interesting to see. I'm going to go back and watch who, you know, who they would have put, who Toronto would have put on Brunson in a playoff series.

26:21Can you put Scotty Barnes on him? Do you need cap? But these are things that we don't care about anymore. And the Knicks dominated Toronto in the regular season. So I'm sure the Knicks would have rather had that matchup. It's a comfortable one for them. Atlanta is like this new team used to be like a pretty direct as, as tricky as Trey was to game plan against on defense. It was a pretty direct game plan. Like Trey's coming at me on one end. And on the other hand, we can direct our entire offense to wherever Trey is. And now it's, they're just a hard team to grasp and plan for and, and a tricky team to play against.

26:52Bill Simmons:The problem is they're like a bench guy short. And it was funny watching Portland tonight. Cause Kretzky was playing for Portland who they, they gave away I guess for tax reasons but I think that one of the games I think it was the Knicks game they got 8 points total from their bench they just got like nothing and Kaminga is going to be you know Kaminga is going to be hit or miss he'll have 21 game might have 2 the next game Toronto to your point and this is Cleveland had to be another one of the happiest teams today because Cleveland I think Cleveland Atlanta would have been a kind of a bloodbath Toronto went 500 for the last 75 % of the season.

27:33Bill Simmons:They started out 14-5. They went 2-16 against the top three seeds in each conference. They got swept by the Celtics. They got swept by the Knicks. So to your point on the ceiling, yeah, they finished with the 5 seed because of what happened with Orlando. But I just don't feel like there was any difference. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. Even you go all the way to Miami. me like I just all those teams could look good on the right night you know and out of all all those teams I think my favorite is probably Atlanta if you go from five through ten I think I thought Atlanta was playing the best at the end of the year yeah Charlotte has has not stumbled but they've come kind of come back to earth a little bit in the last ten games ended up ninth which is great it's a great it's a great season for them anyway it's certainly they can still get into the playoffs Atlanta's been the highest level team in Toronto this has been a huge talking point in Toronto all year.

28:27They can't beat good teams. They haven't been good enough at home. They've actually been decent on the road. Just a weird team whose offense on the wrong night just looks clunky and gummed up. And we'll see how they do against the Cavs.

28:40Bill Simmons:It's a team that has a good bench, which can go a long way over the course of a regular season. But in the playoffs, I don't know if it necessarily matters that much. Atlanta and the Cavs. what which actually you know what let's take a break because i want to find out from you which one just first glance is feeling the most upsetting to you but we're gonna take a break come back and answer that the bill simmons podcast is brought to you by fanduel the nba postseason is here and fanduel knows the only thing better than watching your favorite team win is winning along with them fanduel the best place to bet the teams players and plays during in their playoff run, build the same game parlay or try live betting and jump in after tip-off.

29:24Bill Simmons:Don't forget with FanDuel, you get paid instantly when you win. Download the FanDuel Sportsbook app now and play your game. 21 plus select states are 18 plus DC, Kentucky or Wyoming. Game problem call 1-800-GAMBLER. Call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut. This episode is brought to you by Expedia. Family vacations are great. My favorite family vacation than ever. I went to cover the 2012 Olympics in London and I brought my family. My son was five, my daughter was seven and we were in London for three weeks and we went to Paris for another week and it was just awesome. Our kids were the right age to travel.

30:06Bill Simmons:That's my number one family vacation I've ever had, but we've had plenty of those trips where everyone's excited, but you hit the planning part. Suddenly it feels like there's too many movie pieces. You start talking yourself out of it. can't find the right flight, can't find the right hotel. That's why Expedia is a total game changer. Flights, hotels, vacation rentals, cars, activities, everything's in one spot, which makes the whole process way easier. And the bundle and save feature is huge. The more you bundle, the more you can save because you can book what you need now, add more later, keep saving on the way, book your flight today, attach your hotel tomorrow, and you're still good.

30:43Bill Simmons:So if you're thinking about your next family getaway, bundle your flights, cars, hotels, vacation rentals, and save. Savings vary, members only. Book your next trip with Expedia today. All right, playing games. We're going to do the upset conversation in a second. Philly Orlando is one of the games. That's Tuesday night. No Embiid. Mosley in the hot seat. Orlando trades all that stuff for Desmond Bain and wins four more games. And I don't think their fans are doing backflips about how the season went. Do you think, if you're Detroit, do you think Detroit has a preference out of Philly, Detroit, Charlotte, Miami for who they want to play?

31:33Bill Simmons:Or do you think they just feel like they're good against all those teams? Yeah, I think if you ask Detroit, they would say, dude, we won 60 games or whatever. We're tough as shit. We play defense. We rebound. Like, we're going to beat the hell out of all these teams. We're not afraid of any of them. Realistically, I think you would have to say Charlotte would be the one that you would say. They've demonstrated a very high level of play for a very long time, been competitive against us. Although we beat them in the brawl game because they could not handle our size and our physicality. That's what kind of triggered the whole Diabate, Durin, Stewart brawl.

32:05So I don't think they'd really have a preference. But if you're telling me I get to choose between like fully healthy Charlotte, Philly without Embiid, Orlando like a half-broken team, Miami kind of just like stumbling around for the last 20 games, I'd at least want not Charlotte. But I bet they don't care. And they shouldn't. They're the number one seed.

32:24Bill Simmons:Yeah, I would say Charlotte as well, except I watched that game Friday and the Pistons really big-boyed them in that game. which has happened to Charlotte you know the more and they've been an amazing story especially when you think they started 4-14 or whatever it was but they're a little small and those the bully teams seem to really enjoy going against them and I'm starting to wonder if Detroit would just be a bad matchup for them I might have been too low on Detroit I especially like we did our scariest playoff like scariest ceiling of a playoff team I feel a little differently about Detroit than I did a couple weeks ago.

33:04Well, the way they weathered the Cade injury was tremendous. And they're just, they're just, I think everyone is focused, rightfully so, on the outside shooting. And do they have enough? Do they have enough secondary creation? All that. Jenkins has potentially answered at least a bit of like the, can anyone but Cade create some offense for us off the dribble? We'll see how he holds up in the playoffs. but they just get by with just cutting toughness size rebounding and their defense is legit top to bottom they're really good and like they they to your point about where they had where we had them in the scariest draft like their offense may never reach scary levels but you're just not going to beat them in a short series like even if they lose to boston or lose to the knicks or it's going to be like a long nasty series and that tends i think that just favors them because they're just bigger and meaner and tougher than a lot of these other teams.

33:55And they wear you down.

33:57Bill Simmons:I think one other thing happened with them. So I was thinking about it Friday night because I really thought Charlotte was going to show up Friday night. And I didn't bet on it, but I just felt like, you know, coming off the fight, it's in Charlotte. This would be a nice little test for the Hornets. Like they're playing for stuff and Detroit really big boydom. I wonder like in the last month or so, because this happens in, This is more of a football thing than a basketball thing, but in football, there's always the nobody believes in us team, especially when we get toward the playoffs and there's this team that gets a chip on their shoulder because they feel like they're not being respected.

34:33Bill Simmons:Basketball, it's a little tougher because I think for the most part, it's really tough to, if you play like shit, you're probably going to play like shit in the playoffs. And if you're really erratic in the regular season, you're probably going to be. Miami's really the only team that's been able to pull off the nobody believes in us thing over the last 10 years. and a real chip on their shoulder and a switch. I think Detroit has that now. I think they just seem pissed off to me. I don't know if you read or heard any of this stuff from the Charlotte game, but Duren didn't want to do any sort of post-game anything like handshakes.

35:08Bill Simmons:The game ended and we're off the floor. They were still mad about the fight stuff. I like that. I like it. And then Cade goes out and everybody's like, well, Detroit's done. Cade's out. They're going to lose the number one seed. They didn't. I just think there's... I've been reading between the lines, reading stuff on them, and I think there's an edge to them now that I'm not sure they had at the start of the season. Yeah, I mean, they are the nobody believes in us team, which is ironic because they're the number one seed. I felt like J.J. Redick tried to nudge the Lakers into that when he was like, everybody wants to play us.

35:41It's like, yeah, man, with no Luka and Reeves, you can probably get why that is. You don't get to be the nobody believes in us team, But Detroit, Detroit has a point. They have a point. People think they're young. Shooting challenge, all that. Cade got hurt. I thought they were safe for the number one seed. I didn't think they were going to lose that at all. But they have a point. And I'm very excited to watch them in the playoffs. If they roll in the first round and come like guns blazing in the second round for Cleveland or whatever, that's going to be a lot of fun.

36:11Bill Simmons:They have a great crowd at home. They're going to have home court. they got something with Jenkins that they didn't have before the All-Star break where they've turned Jenkins now into a real asset. You know, those Cade minutes. Cade, they got to play a couple games here heading into the playoffs so he's not just coming in flat. I will say though, I want to mention this. As you know, I'm the unofficial czar of professional sports. I think this is another great case for the one seed in each conference, it should be five games at home. 2-2-3. Because for Detroit, so let's say Philly loses to Orlando and now they have to play Philly in round one.

36:58Bill Simmons:But maybe Embiid can come back. I'd wonder who they would want to pick out of the Philly-Orlando-Charlotte-Miami. Or what if Charlotte ends up being the 8th seed and they're like, fuck, and Boston gets Philly and Orlando's out. It just feels like there should be some advantage toward being first that I don't think we have. You're preaching to the preacher. I think the number one seed, you get to pick its own opponent. I think I'm fine with the 5-2 home court thing in the first round. If you play the whole 82-game season in an era where teams are not really playing the whole 82-game season for good reasons, for bad reasons, and you come out number one, and in Detroit's case, number one, by a pretty hefty margin in the East, you should get a bigger reward than you get.

37:41By the way, Detroit played its guys every game down the stretch. They didn't have to do that. They did it because I think they pride themselves on we want to stay in rhythm. We want to stay in peak physicality and we want to deliver, like we want to go in the playoffs feeling like we didn't leave anything on the table and we're going in like full blast. And I was fun.

37:59Bill Simmons:You know, I wonder at the end of the year if a team should get a trophy from like the Adam Silver trophy or something for just like, I'm just proud of you guys that you gave a shit for every week. Thank you. Thank you for being a role model of how the league should work. You guys really cared the entire time. Here's another reason why they should get a 2-2-3. It's actually better for Boston the way the setup is now because the 7-8 game happens, and Boston's going to know from that point on who their opponent's going to be, right? They have four days. But if you're Detroit, now you have to wait for the 8-9.

38:34Bill Simmons:It could be like, let's say, Charlotte versus Orlando for the 8-9, and you're not going to know until Wednesday game, Friday night? Something like that. And then we go on Sunday. So you have the number one seed, allegedly with a huge advantage, not knowing who they're going to play on a Friday morning, having to scout two teams. It seems stupid to me. Phoenix, Portland is the other 7-8. And as we said before, genuinely think Portland could win this. Scootstock, by the way, my accountant just called like a half hour ago, asked if I saw the crossover in the first half when he just went right to the rim and looked like Derrick Rose.

39:11Bill Simmons:I said I did. But Scoot, again, looked pretty good. Avdia looks great. The team has a nice vibe. Not like, you know, if they are able to win the seven seed and put them against San Antonio, it's not nothing. I don't think they'd win. But if I'm San Antonio, I'm like, all right, this kind of sucks. I thought we were going to play Phoenix. is either team that pleasant to play against i mean it's kind of a rock fight between two mediocre offenses and tough physical defenses lots of turnovers lots of fouls san antonio is above should be above caring about this and should wipe out either of those teams in a playoff series but portland's frisky i've also held on to some scoot stock over the years not as much as you so i've been happy to see that and i'll pick all the play and all the play and games on my pod either tomorrow or Thursday or whenever, whatever's left, I'll pick them.

40:12And I, because it's folly to pick one game, but it's also fun. I very well might pick Portland to win that game in Phoenix.

40:19Bill Simmons:I have a FanDuel line. You were correct. Suns four and a half. You claim you're not a gambling guy and you're just picking lines exactly. Look at me. Portland is plus 152. I don't know what that means. I like it. that means if you bet$100 on them, you'd win$152 if they win. Okay. So, and then the Magic Sixers, Sixers are one-point favorites. And then the Clippers are minus three and a half against the Warriors. Magic Sixers may be the play-in game I'm least excited about in the history of the play-in that doesn't involve the Chicago Bulls. Interesting. Didn't we have an Atlanta-Charlotte play-in game at one point?

41:03Bill Simmons:I feel like that was worse. But any game involving those two teams is just going to be, there's going to be goofy offense. Somebody might score 145. Lamello will take some crazy shots. There's always fun stuff going on in those games. Well, the 9-10 Charlotte-Miami, which is really one of the worst rivalries we have. That would be a fun thing. Top five worst rivalries. Charlotte-Miami. How many times do you think they played in a playoff series? They're in the same division. I mean, they played once. It was a seven-game ugly, ugly series back in the day. They played three times. 2001, Charlotte won 3-0.

41:44Bill Simmons:2014, Miami sweep. LeBron's last year. And then 2016, the aforementioned ugly 4-3 battle that Miami won. I think that was... Nobody won. Somebody just lost. I'm going to say Stephen Jackson still there on Charlotte. No. Who was there in Charlotte? Al Jefferson? I think Big Al Kemba's certainly there. Gerald Henderson's probably involved. How sad is it that this was 10 years ago? I don't remember anything about this series other than it went seven. I had an idea for this. Winner, Charlotte, Miami. Winner advances to the 8-9. Loser has to take Terry Rozier back. That's it. he's actually at the game.

42:31Bill Simmons:He's hanging above the arena like the world wrestling when they do the WWE, when they do the money in the bank belt. Terry Rozier is just in a strap hanging over the arena and then after the game gets lowered down and rejoins one of the two teams. That's my idea. I don't know if you're into it. I mean, Rozier, the Rozier booby prize game. Look, if we're trying to gin up interest in the play and it's got, it's not the worst idea you could come up with. it's certainly the most controversial and probably Adam Silver is going to listen to this and be like, why? Why did they have to say his name? Why?

43:05Bill Simmons:Miami waved him two days ago. I know he's in the news. You can't hide from the news, NBA. You can't hide from the news. We'd come back from commercial and they'd cut back up to him hanging over the court again. There's Terry Rozier. He's an hour away from finding out where he goes. Why is he on his phone? What is he doing? I thought we disabled his wireless. and then Clippers Golden State is the definition of an awesome playing game Steph versus Kawhi 2017 we're back baby the rematch Kawhi's revenge no probably not you were so excited you texted me so excited that you were going to get a Los Angeles home Steph Clippers game I'm legitimately excited as if this was like 2014 Blake Griffin the Sterling controversy, Chris Paul, Young Warriors rising up.

43:56And I'm like, this might be the least exciting possible Clippers Warriors postseason matchup of the last 50. It is the least exciting. But it's still Steph Curry and it's still Kawhi Leonard who's going to make second team All-NBA. Steph would have been right in that conversation too if he hadn't got hurt.

44:14Bill Simmons:You know, it's sad because I knew you when you were an impressionable pup. You had wide eyes. You really loved basketball. Just the thought of Steph and Kawhi in a do or die game. Would have delighted you did no end. Now you've been on some studio shows. You're hanging out with Dwayne Wade. Okay. All right. And now it's like you're too good for Steph versus Kawhi. Guess what? I'll tell you what, Zach Lowe. I'm showing up at like 5.30 for warmups. I'm going to get there as soon as doors open. I'm in. I'm watching. And I will expect if you are there at 5.30, I will expect at least one tweet. from the body language doctor about Derek Jones Jr.'s pregame warmup.

44:55How's Guy Santos? How's Guy Santos high five game in the warmup? Like, just give me something. Give me some insight.

45:02Bill Simmons:I'm going to do multiple IG posts getting ready. I want to watch Steph do the full court heave shot, whatever he does. If you're two questions off this game really quick, can Golden State win two in a row? I think it is conceivable as lousy as they've been this year. Could they just beat the Clippers in Portland or Phoenix back-to-back? I think they could. Yeah, absolutely. If you're the Clips, do you wish you had Zubats in this game and you never made the trade or you still love the trade? Love the trade. Good value. And we'll see how the lottery unfolds. I think that's also the right answer.

45:40Bill Simmons:And part of that trade was they thought they were getting Niederhauser, who was a badass for like a week and a half and then got hurt. But I think that was part of the reason they did it. That's your guy now. So, Matherin slumped to the finish line. He did. Has hurt both that trade for now and also his value in the offseason. It'll be interesting to see if the Clippers even re-sign him if the number gets to a point where they are not comfortable with it. I mean, it depends on what LeBron is going to want when he switches teams. Okay. All right. How much money are they going to have to have left over?

46:12I'm not... I'm just... I'm not... I mean, do you really think there's a chance LeBron goes to the Clippers? I've always been told through the years, hard no on the Clippers.

46:21Bill Simmons:I've said that as well. I'm just trying to torture the Clipper fans. Sorry. They've been through enough. My God. I remember when I threw my Warriors theory at you with LeBron a while ago. I don't know, six weeks ago. I'm starting to become convinced that's going to happen. And I think it's the Expendables. Remember when Sly Stallone did the action movie when he got all the older action heroes back together. Yeah. And it was like... Never saw it. Kind of an all-star team of older Dolph Lundgren and a bunch of people. I'm really convinced that that's how this plays out. Look, they're looking at everybody, right?

46:59Like Stein, I think, broke the news that they looked at Kawhi at the trade deadline, which is true. I've now confirmed that that's true. And like, if they're just like, whatever, who can help Steph? Who's gettable? If we can't get Giannis, who can we get? heard some yana stuff too you did it's been all over the but with the warriors or just how much

47:19Bill Simmons:the situation is trade preferences heard this he doesn't want to be on the west coast which rules out my portland theory that i was really excited about okay that's what i heard because and i looked at a map to back up the information i was getting greece really is far from america it turns out that's what the map said not close as it turns out greece far away um but when you're going from greece to america uh the east coast turns out closer to greece than the west coast do you want to talk portland portland really far away portland's like you're talking 19 hours from greece i don't know it's it's 19 but it's it's long i'm glad that this is dawning on you i was gonna this is great right Right away.

48:07I was going to talk. I was going to ask if you want to talk about the Hungarian election today, if you really just want to get into some geopolitics or do you want to just, just keep that over to the side.

48:17Bill Simmons:Yeah. So, um, but on the flip side, suddenly a team like Charlotte, not that far from Greece. Oh my God. Hey, look, they have, look, okay. We're not doing this. I'm not doing this. We're not doing Giannis. We're not doing it. Look at the map and go down the Eastward Eastern seaboard. You know what I want? First of all, the Bucks probably shouldn't care and don't care anymore. And number two, give me the guy who's like, you know what? I want Midwest. I like it here. Give me another Midwest team. Deal, deal me to Chicago. Let me go save the bulls. Someone has to save the bulls. Someone has to save them from themselves.

48:48I'll do it. It's a hundred miles away. I'll do it.

48:51Bill Simmons:I'm glad you mentioned the bulls. One of five American cities with direct flights to Greece.

49:00My least favorite major American airport, by the way, O 'Hare. I hate O 'Hare.

49:08Bill Simmons:I think mine is probably Atlanta. It's just too big. I don't like when I have to get on a tram to go from one terminal to another. I don't like trams. I just want to land. You know what's an amazing airport? Burbank. Never flown into Burbank before. Burbank. We did San Francisco Burbank. Amazing. You're like out and you're like in your car in a second. Round one. Okay. So Boston versus Philly or Orlando, those are the two choices. If we go upset watch, let's cross up OKC or San Antonio because no round one team is beating either of them. Upset teams. Minnesota beating Denver. Who is even favored in Lakers-Houston?

49:55Bill Simmons:I better look at that. Lakers have home court. I think Houston should be favored personally. Houston is giant favorites, minus 900. So Lakers would be the upset in that. Cleveland, Toronto. So Toronto beating Cleveland. Atlanta beating the Knicks. Or Detroit or Boston losing to the hodgepodge of teams. What is your most upset-y... Where is upset watch going, in your opinion, for you? I mean, I think of all those series... I'm going to just park Lakers-Rockets over here because we'll see who's healthy, who's not.

50:34I'm tempted to say Minnesota. I just don't have enough confidence in the state of their team over the last month. I guess Knicks. I guess Knicks-Hawks, because I think the Hawks are interesting. I will pick the Knicks to win that series. But I think the Cavs, who have had their playoff bugaboos over the years, kind of lucked into a good matchup for them in the first round, that they should be able to just, no matter if Harden comes out and has a bad game, or Jared Allen gets pushed around on the boards, or whatever usual stuff happens to them, that should just be a series they should win. So I guess I would say the Knicks.

51:08Bill Simmons:I would as well, because I just don't think Toronto has it in them to beat Cleveland. I think that would have to be a real collapse. I will say, Cleveland fits a lot of the recipe you would want for a playoff upset because of their defense. That's just a great way to lose a series, not being able to guard anybody and giving up a bunch of threes. Yeah. I'm trying to think which team would have a better chance of upsetting Detroit. And I think it's probably Charlotte, even though we just litigated how small they looked in that. But just the Charlotte three-point shooting, the longer that series goes, if they just got hot, I would start to get scared after a while.

51:46Bill Simmons:Plus, you're in a situation where LaMelo, I don't think he would be, but it's conceivable he could be the best player in a series, right? I'm not saying he would be. I'm saying it's at least in play. It's in play. I keep trying to talk myself into what I thought the magic would be in the preseason. Like Franz is back. Anthony Black is back. They've got their full complement of players. They have a scary upside. Their defense has been top eight in the last couple of years. Not this year. It slipped backwards. Their offense is actually better, but it's still kind of a mess. But they have all these guys.

52:20They're all healthy. And it's just too much has happened. Too much has gone wrong. There's just too much there. And they should be the answer to this question. even with as well as Charlotte has played, the fully healthy Magic, who had a 50 and a half over-under before the season, should be the answer to this question. And they just aren't.

52:40Bill Simmons:We did bad on the over-unders. It was the worst I've ever done. I'm glad that you have... No, but here's the thing. And I'm not making excuses. I think all the tanking really screwed up some of the record stuff. Like, some of the stuff that normally works, even like one of... I had the unders for Washington and Brooklyn, I think, because I just thought they're trying to tank. I think we all did. The problem is with this many teams trying to tank, they end up playing each other a bunch of times. So you had teams getting wins that didn't even want to win. That happened. The Milwaukee-Dallas-Golden State, those situations being weird.

53:21Bill Simmons:It was just an awful year. But now I'm really motivated to make a comeback. I have some playoff odds for you on FanDuel. Knicks minus 255 for the series over Atlanta. So that's a little low. I would have said three to one, but minus 255. Atlanta plus 215 to win that. And then Cleveland is minus 480 against Toronto. Toronto is plus 370 to take that. And then Minnesota-Denver. What do you think the, you know nothing about odds, but what do you think the odds are for that? Minnesota-Denver. Based on all the numbers you just threw out on those other series, I'll say like Denver minus 500. Denver minus 330 okay so faith in faith in the wolves my stealth contender who first of all stealth means stealth right like low chance but possible stealth is a key word and also matchup dependent and they've just walked into a nightmarish path to get anywhere in the playoffs 330 is a little lower than I expected given ants up you know in and out of the lineup Jaden has just come back.

54:28And that's a little lower than I would have thought. I agree.

54:31Bill Simmons:I think there's some pedigree stuff with Minnesota, just the two conference finals, which I think is meaningful. This episode is brought to you by Michelob Ultra, the official beer partner of the NBA. With playoffs around the corner, now's a good time to create a tournament of your own. Compete to see who can predict the best playoff series or put your own basketball skills to the test. And the prize? A crisp Michelob Ultra. Plus, they're giving fans a chance to win courtside tickets, prizes, and more. Michelob Ultra. Superior is worth playing for. Enter now at MichelobUltra.com slash courtside.

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56:30Bill Simmons:Okay, enough foreplay, it's time. Okay. 50 minutes of foreplay. Last year we did it. This'll go faster this year. Our 25 most intriguing people in the 2026 playoffs we did this last year and somehow picked 28 oh highlights of last year we did categories so it's basically a draft we're going back and forth to drafting but you have to draft a player for a specific category and here are those categories America apex superstar beloved bench guy crossroads guy meaning somebody who is at the crossroads of his career crossroads with his team whatever Defensive stud. Feel good star. Hot seat coach. Hot seat wild card.

57:23Bill Simmons:Could be coach or player. Legacy guy. I didn't know that could be a player too. It could be a human being. Okay. Could be an owner. Oh my God. Legacy guy. Second banana. Third banana. The leap. Last year I took Tyrese Halliburton as my leap guy. And he made a huge leap. Trade machine guy. somebody were coming out of the playoffs like that guy's getting traded weak link and then we each get a bonus guy who has to be mentioned so I gave you the first pick you have to pick somebody and then stick him in one of those categories so it's your most intriguing player assigned to a category so you're expecting me to come in here and get Wemby or Jokic or SGA because you know I guess I want to win this right I don't know how one wins this, but you think I'm going to take one of these names, and I'm not.

58:17I am going to for the crossroads category. I'm starting here. I am taking Donovan Mitchell in the crossroads category. And I just think he's had a fascinating career. He's made the playoffs every year of his career and has never made the conference finals. And it's not on him. People say he's never made the conference finals. His teams have never made the conference finals. He's had some great series. He's had some clunkers. His teams, particularly in Utah, and both Utah and Cleveland, have had some pretty epic flameouts. I think he's been in the playoffs eight times already, eight for eight. His teams have won, I think, just one series where you could say they beat a team as good as them or maybe a little bit better.

59:03And that was his rookie year when they beat the Thunder with Paul George and Russ in the first round in six games. They had the same record that year. other than that they've lost to their peers they've lost to a couple teams who are worse than they haven't been anyone who's better than them and look Cleveland's obviously had a kind of a checkered history with this core they exchanged one member of it Darius Garland for James Harden Donovan Mitchell's the guy I trust the most of Cleveland's best players like I expect him to be great in the playoffs he's been great in the playoffs he's been at times like the only cavalier you felt you could count on in the playoffs but it's just like I kind of want to see him make, make a run longer than he's been.

59:46Cause he's been such a consistently great player. And it's a crossroads pick for me also, because like if they, if they disappoint in the playoffs again, they've already traded one of these guys. I just don't, he's not like up for, you know, he's not a flight risk anytime soon. I'm not saying that I'm just saying like, there just comes a point. You've seen it with the Clippers, the Chris Paul Blake Griffin Clippers were like, if you just lose too many times too early in the playoffs for what your pedigree should be, it just starts to go sideways a little bit. And I think Cleveland is kind of nearing that point and Donovan Mitchell, it just I want to see a deeper playoff run.

1:00:21That's all. And he's

1:00:24Bill Simmons:had some bad losses. I think the last couple years were bad, but the Clippers-Utah one where didn't Kawhi, I can't remember because that was during COVID. Kawhi got hurt halfway to that series. I got hurt halfway through the series and they still lost. They were up 2-0. They lost four games in a row and the sixth game is Terrence Mann having like an out-of-body experience and hitting a million threes and just... And the other... The next year when Utah limped out of the Gobert Mitchell era, Luka was hurt for part of that series and they still couldn't beat the Mavs. That was the Brunson... Hmm.

1:00:59Bill Simmons:Maybe he could be have his own team. I thought that was a really good pick. Thank you. I had a... I ironically had Mitchell third on my list, not first, but I had him third and I saw the case. I don't, I don't have for that category or for just your whole list. Um, but just make your, I would have, no, I would have put him either legacy or crossroad. Here's the thing with Mitchell. We've, we've gone through this a couple of times with players. How far can we go with this guy? Chris Paul, you mentioned him. He got in there. I think Dame was in there too even though Dame did get to the conference finals in that really weird Golden State Houston year when Durant got hurt and all that and then they got swept but I don't think anyone felt like that was a conference finals team Westbrook I think was another one we're like what how far are we going with this and I think Mitchell is certainly a better higher upside player than Westbrook was on paper he seems like somebody who should be able to be the best guy on at least a conference finalist.

1:02:06Bill Simmons:I also think if it doesn't happen this year, I wouldn't be surprised if he's on another team next year, which is why Crossroads, I think, was the right pick for them. I think we both agree if something bad happens to this team in one of the first two rounds, I'm prepared for any outcome with any guy in that roster. Absolutely. Nothing would shock me if they lose. I mean, God forbid they lose in the first round. I expect them to win that series, but if Detroit just... We've seen different versions of Cleveland, but with this same front line, we've seen them get out-physicaled and out-tuffed in the playoffs before by big burly teams, notably the Knicks.

1:02:41If that would happen again in a Detroit series, all bets are off.

1:02:45Bill Simmons:Yeah, because you could even see... I don't know. I noticed the luxury tax bill came out. Seven teams paid the luxury tax. The Cavs had the highest luxury tax bill. I think it was$68 million. I don't think they're doing that again. And then you look at some of the desperate teams around the league that would want to make a big splash. And we'll see. Mitchell always, like, it always seemed like he was supposed to go to the Knicks, went to school in Greenwich, like famously wanted to be in the East Coast, and then just kind of ended up on Cleveland. I've always been suspicious of that. And maybe Brooklyn, how many years in a row are the size just going to be like, yeah, we're going to suck again?

1:03:25Bill Simmons:Like at some point, they're going to have to make a real run at having a team. Well, they don't control their pick next year, which makes him kind of a wild card in the offseason. Look, I expect like Donovan Mitchell has resigned with Cleveland at the, at the moment when he could, he's got multiple years left on his deal. We know that doesn't mean anything though. No, but he's also like, I don't want to make this too much of a panic thing. He's got a lot of years left on his deal. He said all the right things. He's been happy there. Um, who people tend to get less happy when their teams, he's got, he's actually, he's only got, um, next year in a player option left on his deal.

1:03:57Um, he's also showing up for them in the playoffs when other people on their team were injured or didn't show up so you got to give him credit for that but yeah this is a big a big moment for

1:04:06Bill Simmons:him and for the calves he had a really good season if luca is ruled ineligible which we're just never going to find out if he's eligible or not he is ruled ineligible i think mitchell's going to be my fifth guy on that team how about this if we're going to take forever to make these rulings and we're going to have to litigate this well i remember the nba award show when they tried to make that a thing and kept all the awards secret for this big award show. Red carpet. And then they pretend like that just never happened. We never tried that. Let's never talk about it. Bring it back. If it's going to take forever, let's all get together again in July and give us some awards.

1:04:38The lawyers can come out like the Ernst and Young guys and announce it and talk. Who knows?

1:04:46Bill Simmons:I'm going to take in my

1:04:52Bill Simmons:in my Apex Superstar spot. I'm going to take Wemby. And I do think, I liked your Mitchell case. I had Wemby first on my ballot. I think he is by far the most intriguing guy in these playoffs. I wrote down in my notes, this is 1975 Jaws moment. It's just the moment when we are releasing a summer blockbuster and it's going to make a kajillion dollars and be known as one of the best films of its kind. and we're always going to remember this was the year it came out. Or we're going to wait a year or two years. Who knows? I'm old enough to remember when it seemed like Samson and Olajuwon were going to be around forever and that lasted a year.

1:05:39Bill Simmons:I never trust any sort of long-term anything when big guys are involved. And I know right now he has a really good team that's been kicking ass since January 1st. He was the best player I saw in person this year. I'm not voting for him for MVP, but he was the best single performance I saw in person this year. My questions are, can he play 35 to 37 minutes a game in the playoffs, which I think he's going to have to do for this team to win. And you're going to have to rip through this Denver OKC, whoever comes out of the East gauntlet, win four in a row. My question for you, if they make the finals and he's age 22, but they lose in the finals, is that season still a huge win for him?

1:06:25Bill Simmons:Because I would say it is. Oh my God. Yeah, absolutely. Even though you talk it out and you think they lost to an Eastern Conference team in the finals, they'd be favored. To get to the finals with this young group of guys and a couple of veterans would be a massive win. Great pick. I'm jealous you got Wemby. He also doesn't really fit any other category. He's too young for the legacy guys. He's too good for the defensive stud category. he's already made the leap. I'm going to, there's probably another leap coming, but that it just, this is the only category you can really, maybe feel good star could be, but he doesn't feel right for that.

1:06:58So you got him in the right category.

1:07:00Bill Simmons:The other thing that we should just mention really quick and why, you know, I'm always excited for the NBA playoffs. Trying to think of the last time a new guy was in the playoffs. That was kind of can't miss. I don't care who San Antonio plays every round. I'm not missing a minute of the Spurs in the playoffs. And I think the last guy was probably Curry out of the new guys. Obviously going back to the 2000s, there were others. But when Curry and we were working together at Grantland, I think it was your first year when Curry had kind of his breakout that year when they upset Denver and then they lost to San Antonio.

1:07:34And at some point during that, it became like, I'm not missing a Curry playoff game anymore.

1:07:40Bill Simmons:Just period. And I feel that way about Wemby. I think Wemby, out of all the guys that are in the playoffs, I don't want to miss Wemby or Jokic one minute of any playoff game with those guys. I felt that way about Luka when he first cracked the playoffs with Dallas, and he lived up to the hype immediately. That's good. I should have mentioned him. Yeah, you're right. That's good. Luka, but was it in the bubble? First playoff in the bubble. Yeah, in the bubble. You're right. That's a good call. My apologies to Luka. All right, you have the next pick. All right, I'm going to pick Jokic, and I have him in the legacy category.

1:08:14Bill Simmons:That's the right category. And I think it's the right pick and for just this reason only. And I was hoping the seeds would fall this way for this pick because he is a three-time MVP. He probably should be a four-time MVP. I don't think he's going to win this year. He's going to get closer. He's going to get second again, probably. You, I think, before the season said he's already one of the 10 greatest players of all time. I don't think that's premature. to say that. And I went over this on my pod last week. If you look at all the guys who have won three or more MVPs, it's a very short list. Every one of them, but Moses Malone has more than one ring.

1:08:52And I think that's one of the reasons why Moses Malone doesn't get mentioned enough in these all-time great conversations. And that's nothing against Jokic. If you replayed the 21 and 22 seasons with the fully healthy Nuggets, it feels like they get one of those titles potentially, like one of those may have belonged to them. You can make the same argument about the Clippers, but at some point he's going to, I don't know if he's going to have to get a second ring to enter that kind of stratosphere because he's just been this good. I just think if he does, and if he does it this season by running through this gauntlet of teams, the entire conversation about him goes even up another level where some of the most hallowed names in the league begin to not only be mentioned alongside him, but maybe a little bit behind him.

1:09:42But that's if, right? That's if. And at some point, I do think he'll make another run to the finals. And if it's this year, we're going to be having some pretty high-level conversations about him after the finals.

1:09:57Bill Simmons:Yeah. I think I'm nailing this draft through two picks. No, you made all the right points. I would have made all the same ones. Moses is a great comparison because he was the best player in the league for five years and had some bad luck with the teams he was on only won one title only won finals, he made the finals with like a 40-41 team but for five years he was the best guy in the league Jokic has been the best guy in the league for this entire decade he's either been one or two depending on who got super hot that year or whatever else was going on, I did a tweet this week about, this weekend about if he's second in MVP, if he finishes number two, which I think is conceivable, that he'd be the third player ever to be first or second in MVP for six straight years.

1:10:45Bill Simmons:The other two are Russell and Bird. There's only, he would be, I think, the sixth guy ever to just have six top two MVP finishes. And I think MVP finishes are super important. It's a good way to look at who actually had real impact. It's easy to be like, oh, this guy was amazing. but go look at where did they stay in the season? This is the thing that is probably the worst for Curry's top 10 case is he kind of doesn't have enough like top three, top four MVPs if you're really putting him against everybody. It's the one thing you can ding him on. And for Jokic, it's the finals. We're 30 years from now.

1:11:23Bill Simmons:You look back and you go, he only won one title. What happened? And you weren't there to see how devastated the Murray injury was because it took two playoffs away from him. And the other thing I will say, I was out to dinner with some guys in Denver last night, Nuggets fans, they wanted the third seed and they wanted the gauntlet. And I thought it was interesting why. I don't know if the team probably doesn't care about this, but they are so sick of hearing about how Denver had an easy road to the first championship, how they got to face two play-in teams along the way, including in the finals, that they now want, they're not getting greedy.

1:11:57They're like, if we're going to win it again, I want to win it the hardest way possible. And it just got me thinking about not only Jokic and the MVP in history, but if they actually did this against these teams, what it would mean for the whole franchise.

1:12:13Bill Simmons:The gauntlet's good. I mean, my favorite Celtic team ever was the 87 team the year after they won in 86 when they had to, they basically had a seven-game war against Milwaukee, a seven-game war against Detroit, and then they had to play the Lakers. And then he beat the Lakers, but it was like, just that pulled the most out of them. They're almost broken down at the end, and it was a real championship run. You know, this Nuggets team's a little younger. I think they could survive other things. I think there's more chances here. But Jokic's just had the best year of his career and he's probably not going to win the MVP.

1:12:47Bill Simmons:The offensive stats, I was doing all the work this weekend trying to figure out a vote for. And the offensive stats are just like, you just can't even believe it. You're just like, oh my God, like true shooting. Just pick any stat. like oh my god this guy's created over what he 28 points a game and 12 a seat created like over 50 points a game of offense and i'll say it i'll say it again the defense was the best rebounder their defense has not been good enough in the last 20 games whatever problematic maybe it's a wait till the playoffs thing maybe whatever like if you're if you're just focusing on that what you're missing is like they're making it look so easy on offense no matter who they play that it's actually a little bit scary.

1:13:33Some of these games, it's like shooting fish in the barrel. It's just too easy for them that if they actually ramp up their defense at all, like Peyton Watson gets healthy, whatever, they can absolutely win the title. It's just a hard road. So that's my pick.

1:13:48Bill Simmons:Denver 12-1 to win the title. OKC is plus 125, San Antonio is plus 480, and the Celtics are plus 550. Cleveland is 10-1. That was the other one. Cleveland's odds dropped because of how the playoffs played out with Toronto, which I thought was interesting. Okay. Really good pick. You're doing a great job. Thank you. Your scouting department should be proud.

1:14:12Bill Simmons:I have to take Tatum here because it's the most intriguing draft. Okay.

1:14:22Bill Simmons:And I'm going to put him in the feel-good star category. He was my number one pick for that category. I was actually going to take, I might have, Luke is going to take him next round. We don't need to talk about Tatum. Everybody knows the stakes. This was one of the craziest comebacks I've ever seen. And in some ways, he's even better than he was before he left. In other ways, he's not. Like I thought that Knicks game, he had a lot of trouble going by and around Dan and Obi, which I thought was notable. Like there's a certain way to defend him that I just don't think he's 100 % comfortable with the first step yet.

1:14:58Bill Simmons:everything else is back. The rebounding's back, the passing's back. And he's just so much better than I thought he was going to be. I was like, boy, it'd be nice if he was a rich man, Sam Hauser. And it's like, this guy's one of the 10 best rebounders in the league already and playing defense and the passing and, and, you know, just is a really meaningful athlete to Boston fans and Celtic fans and at the games and everyone's just really invested in this. So the longer it goes, I think it can be pretty special. It's the right pick. He would have been a good second banana pick maybe the way this year has gone, but it's the right category for him.

1:15:37I was going to take him next round, but you taking him in this round allows me to make the most obvious pick, but load up my roster. Apex superstar, because I took Jokic for a legacy guy. Apex superstar. I'll just take SGA just sitting there low hanging fruit. I'll take them. Everything I said about Jokic it legacy. What happens to him? If he levels up, he's a, he's probably, I would say going to win his second MVP. If he finishes that with back-to-back titles, breaking the leagues, no repeat streak and back-to-back finals MVPs. We're talking like I saw some tweets today. He's already one of the 25 best players in the league.

1:16:13That conversation is going to go zoom in in a different or is zoom in higher than that. If, if this postseason goes that way. so look I got Jokic I got SGA I'm taking SGA and there's no other category for him this is the only category I think where he fits so I'm taking him here

1:16:30Bill Simmons:I just did my pyramid I just updated it for the playoffs and I have him in level 4 and I have him 30th okay and I think that's the right area but I think if they win a second title and he's two times back-to-back MVP, back-to-back titles, back-to-back finals MVPs, he's in the top 25 and that's it. It's not arguable. That's just where he ends up because now we're talking about some real shit that only a handful of guys have done in the history of the league. Good pick. I have no notes. I also think he could have been, if there's a category of who could be dinged by these playoffs, that would have been an interesting one.

1:17:19Bill Simmons:Like if he just sucks in the San Antonio series or, you know, there's some other outcomes. So then we're like some Ivan Drago, the Russian cut outcomes, which you could feel a little bit in December when they played the Spurs a couple times like, huh. But Dan, so if we have a 7 '5 alien, we can stop this guy. But that's the only time you felt that way. Only time. I just never worry about him having a bad game and even his bad games were like, Like, oh, he shot eight for 21 and still got 10 free throws and finished with 29 points. And then, you know, the next game he's going to play. He just never has two bad games in a row.

1:17:59Defense is a constant. Anyway, that's an obvious pick.

1:18:04Bill Simmons:I changed my mind on my MVP pick 230 times this weekend. Forgot to tell you. Are you going to finish that story or are you just going to leave it hanging there? Still haven't decided. Okay.

1:18:24this is for my weak link pick oh boy you're getting negative no you know what i'm gonna go hot seat wild card oh i'm jealous because i i have i'm gonna i have two guesses for who you're gonna pick and i'll just pick the other one later de 'aron fox oh you He went not coach. Okay.

1:18:44Bill Simmons:Went not coach. Okay. Hot seat wildcard, De 'Aaron Fox. I have talked about this on the pod in the past. Don't need to belabor it. But this is the guy to watch on the Spurs team as we start climbing levels and seeing how high they can go. Somebody who used to be one of the best clutch guys in the league who had the offense running through him in the Kings who now has to figure out when to pick his spots. on this team with a seven-foot-six alien on it. And there's been some signs, some uh-oh signs for me watching them. If I'm a Spurs fan, the ball seems to find him a lot in big moments. And I'm not always sure he's going to deliver.

1:19:29And I'm just really interested to see how it plays out.

1:19:34Bill Simmons:Because ultimately, when you go in these playoffs and you'll see it when it's Hawks-Knicks, ultimately that game's going to come down to CJ versus Jalen Brunson, right? And if you're a Hawks fan and you're in these tight games with three minutes left, you're going to have this epiphany where you're like, fuck, we have CJ who's a good player and they have Jalen Brunson who's second team on NBA. We're kind of at a disadvantage here. If Fox is the guy deciding offense for them, but now I'm going against Jokic or SGA, I just don't like my chances as much. And I think it's a lot of pressure for him.

1:20:07Bill Simmons:And he could be the lightning rod if things don't go well in a series. especially when we have 48 hours, 72 hours between games. And he has like a three for 16, 0 for 6 from three. Game four, start of SportsCenter, start of all the shows, start of all the pods. What's up with Darren Fox? Should they bench him? Just interested to see how it goes, if it goes wrong. And it might not go wrong. Yeah, should we bench him feels a little far-fetched to me. In the podcast era? What are you talking about? Okay, fair. In the hot take studio show era, that will absolutely be a topic. I'll just say this. I had him on the list for my candidates for the trade machine pick.

1:20:53The problem there being he has four years left on his contract after this at a gigantic number. I've actually been completely fine with how he's played this year. Dipping down to 33 % from three is a little disappointing given he started higher than that. I think he's just done a good job at fitting in and not forcing anything and gradually developing a better chemistry with Wemby. I don't think he's ever going to be tasked with, okay, man, now we need to run every offensive possession through you. It's crunch time. You were clutch player of the year two years ago, three years ago, whatever. I don't think this team is built like that, and that's fine.

1:21:25But he's being paid a salary of that level of player for many years going forward. And the Spurs, although they're thrilled to have this sort of present all-star, De 'Aaron Fox, now two young guards rising up behind him. Nobody's overtaxed. The young guys don't have to do too much. At some point, that equation starts to wobble when the young guys get ready and expensive, and it's only natural. And you just never know when the time is going to come. So he was on my list for that category, and I don't disagree with a lot of your reasoning. I also just don't worry about him much in terms of underperforming.

1:21:59Bill Simmons:Yeah, and from an aggregation standpoint, I'm glass half full on Fox with this team. I'm just trying to look at if things start to go wrong, what would people point at? And that seems to be the one. But I actually like him on this team. And I think if they didn't have him, you would still want a guy like him, somebody who's a little older, somebody who's been in some situations. He's competitive. I think he's a legitimately good point guard. And this is an awesome spot for him. They actually need him. They need him at the end of games. He's just got to figure out how do I pick my spots and how much do I take over?

1:22:39Bill Simmons:How much do I defer? And it's, I don't envy him because he'll be the lightning rod if it doesn't work out. All right, you're up. I'm deciding if I want to make a good pick or just an annoy you pick. And I think I'm going to just annoy you and take Peyton Pritchard as my beloved bench guy, just so you can't have him. And, and, uh, and obviously he's been phenomenal all season, whether he started or come off the bench. His paint game, one-on-one game, is reaching Paul Bunyan level proportions at this point. And he's massively important to arguably the best team in the Eastern Conference. So I will take him off the board for you.

1:23:18Bill Simmons:I was delighted that he had a really good Knicks game against a team that he has always sucked against. I thought that was weirdly important that he finally put one on the board because they're going to definitely see him. All right, let's get crazy. My next pick is Jalen Williams. Which one? J-Dub.

1:23:49Bill Simmons:You know what? I'm not going to get that crazy. No, fuck it. I'm going to take him as my trade machine guy. I like it. Just for fun. Just for shits and giggles. It's not just for fun. Don't do that. You got something brewing in your head. OKC has a lot of money to spend over these next couple years. And I just sometimes I wonder, like, if it doesn't work out for them this year, how does that play out? And I also couldn't think of another place to put him because I didn't want him as my second banana.

1:24:26Bill Simmons:Look, he's looked good lately. I don't think there's a lot to worry about here. but I also think it's going to be really hard to have three max guys plus case on Wallace plus all these draft picks and I do wonder like if you're going to take a huge swing what what is what does that look like now if they win the title again they're not trading anybody but who knows I'm just trying to loosen the draft look there's a reason why I have a stool softener pick I'm just loosening things up my there's a reason my trade machine list is loaded with guys on the thunder that are not J-Dub, but are like Dort and Wallace and A.J.

1:25:03Mitchell, just guys that they can fling around the league. I'm not going to go to that category now. I'm going to go chalk in my second banana category for reasons that need not to be elaborated on at all. I will pick Carl Anthony Towns as my second banana, intriguing for the playoffs. Team is built to win now. Team fired its coach despite its first conference finals appearance in forever. Up and down season, he seems to be the subject of a team-wide existential crisis every two weeks. Has actually finished strong enough that I would put him third-team All-NBA right now. His defense has been a pretty solid defensive couple of months for him.

1:25:43And you just know that by game, maybe by game two of the first round, we will have an existential crisis of like, why did he only take four shots in the last three quarters of that game? or why are they not running the Brunson Towns pick and roll enough, which they've been running a lot lately. And we shall see how it goes against the Hawks. But he's had ups and downs in the playoffs, to say the least. I think he's turned some corners in that regard over the last couple of years and got a little more consistent, made some huge shots last year along the way. But he's still one of the more enigmatic second banana types in the league, and I'm proud to have him on my roster.

1:26:24Bill Simmons:you and I both know a lot of Knicks fans and you live in Connecticut so you're around them probably 50 % of texts I get from Knicks fans are about Towns but sometimes like positive like excited that they think Towns good things are happening with Towns he's figured it out I think this Atlanta matchup I think this Atlanta matchup is a good matchup for him I don't think it's a great matchup for the Knicks relative to what they could have drawn but it'll be interesting to see how the Hawks guard him but if they guard him like they guarded him the last time they played last week it's a good matchup for him and the Knicks should lean into his offense more so I'm optimistic this is an optimistic hopeful pick of Cat I need to get this guy off the board before you take him it's a little early and I'm taking him for third banana but I also think he's super intriguing for these playoffs because I think he's a ceiling changer I think you're going to take my guy.

1:27:24Bill Simmons:Yeah, I sure am. You can say hi to him in Denver right now. Oh, it is? Oh, no. Yeah. Yes. He's the superpower of this Denver team. He looks like he's back. And you could, and Jokic physically looks like he's back. And I think this might be the most healthy they've had all three of those guys at the same time playing well. That I can remember. since they won the title. So for, that was three years ago. He's just, it feels like he just gets slightly better every year. And there's been guys like this over NBA history that just as they get older, they age like a fine wine. And he's one of them. I just feel like every year he's gotten 5 % better.

1:28:13Bill Simmons:So that's my third minute pick. I mean, needless to say, he was my number one choice for this category. And I've almost already taken him twice and I'm angry that you took him. I'm glad I got Peyton Pritchard. Maybe I'll just make a run of Celtics despite you. Maybe just get resentful. Maybe I'll take Ugo now as my defensive stud just to spite you. I'm not going to do that. I'm not doing that. Let's see. Let's see. Let's see. I'm going to go back-to-back bananas. Okay. And for my third banana, I will go back to back Knicks. I guess one could argue if he's the true third banana, but the other noisy Knick dialogue is all about McHale Bridges because of the five first round picks because of the like last six weeks where it's like, did he not crack double figures again?

1:29:11And just, they need him to be not only a more reliable scorer, but a more when they're flowing, he's just more involved in the offense, both as a secondary ball handler, as like a playmaker in open space. He's just more involved. And they're going to need that version of him. And just like Cat, if they don't get it, like just in general, if this playoffs goes poorly for the Knicks, if they lose to the Hawks in the first round, which is not impossible, if they lose to Boston in the second round, there'd be no shame in that, right? Like Boston's been the best team in the East for the last 40 games.

1:29:46It's a good matchup for the Knicks, but there'd certainly be no shame in it. However, there would certainly be like an organization-wide stain of, we fired the coach and did this really dramatic stuff and took a round earlier. And we traded five first-round picks for this guy. And Giannis is still sitting out there. I just feel like there's going to be a lot of Mikael Bridges noise. And so he's going to be, you know, Ananobi could be a third banana for them. I'm taking Mikael Bridges.

1:30:13Bill Simmons:Interesting. I feel like Ananobi is their third banana. but maybe in the playoffs it becomes Bridges. I don't know. I guess they're both third bananas. Maybe they're on that team. They're both third bananas. I guess that'd be fair. That's the sometimes real and sometimes theoretical strength of the Knicks is they just have a lot of very good players. And he's one of them. He's certainly given the ball handling load he showed he could take in Brooklyn is sort of more tailor-made for like a banana 2.5 kind of role that he just hasn't played enough for them. So you can tell that I'm just, the Knicks are just the most interesting puzzle to me in the NBA.

1:30:49Them are the Cavs. And so it's not a coincidence that I've drafted two Knicks.

1:30:53Bill Simmons:Well, there's also, there's storylines with them that include, they haven't won the title since 1973. They are looming as a semi-blow-it-up team. They're looming as a Giannis possible destination. They're looming as a possible Donovan Mitchell destination. they're looming as just the destination I'm prepared for anything with the Knicks if they lose in round one or round two listen you started out really well in this draft and the board has just been breaking for me perfectly ever since and you don't like my Knicks picks no I do I'm just excited that you left this guy on the board for me for the hot seat coach category Ime Adoka

1:31:44Bill Simmons:I have not been impressed by the coaching of this team this year the chemistry doesn't seem great I think the offense has just been bizarre I don't understand why they have why Imei hasn't just said I have to sink or swim with Reed Shepard because I don't have Fred VanVleet and it's going to be impossible to win even two straight rounds without a real point guard and he's just doing it his way. They put a staggering amount of miles and minutes on Ahmed Thompson, who led the league in minutes this year, and Kevin Durant, who's 37 years old, who I think was like seventh in minutes. No, they were one, two.

1:32:27Bill Simmons:And they're hard minutes. They were one, two the last time I checked. Oh, Jesus. Hard minutes. Like total minutes. Right. It's not like Kevin Durant's running to the corner and just setting up shop, watching other people run the play. He's dribbling the ball up against people like Jaden McDaniels and shit like that. I don't understand half the shit this team has done all season. And I don't understand the Reed Shepard thing at all. I don't care if he's weak for you on defense. You're putting miles and unnecessary crunch time issues on your team. And it's like you took Reed Shepard third. Either he has something or he doesn't.

1:33:08Bill Simmons:But you have to find out this year. You're not winning the title. So I just don't understand it. And I would be very unsurprised if he was not their coach next year. Remember, for this category last year, I took Tom Thibodeau. You did. And you did a triple take backwards. And I was proven correct. I think they've backed into it. Not that they've won 9 out of 10. They haven't backed into anything. But they have a good first-round matchup. And I think if they win a playoff series and play a pretty honestly competitive second round playoff series, despite all the offensive infrastructure stuff that we spent all year talking about the crunch time disasters and whatever, with Van Vliet injured and Finney Smith being a complete nothing, I think they would walk him.

1:33:52I think they'd be fine giving Yimei another year. It's not a completely off the wall pick.

1:33:59Bill Simmons:What if they lose to LeBron and the Lakers in round one in a series that Luka Doncic plays two games? Or no games. And by the way, would there be... I mean, Emei has trash-talked LeBron multiple times in games. I feel like he kind of wants to fight LeBron. There's something there. And if they're losing, who the hell knows? It's not... Yeah, that could be the first... If he came off the two guys that could come off the bench and actually get into a fight with a player, him and Joe Mazzulla. I think Joe Mazzulla, anytime there's any sort of an altercation, I always worry. But this happened in 1975 in the finals when Al Adels came off the bench and fought Mike Reardon and got ejected, by the way.

1:34:50Bill Simmons:Okay, you're up. I'm so excited. The leap. The leap. Hmm. I could take this guy in multiple categories. I have a feel-good star that I want to take in that category, but you've already filled that category, I believe. So I'm strategically shoving this pick down the road. I know you wish you had this guy on your roster, so I'll take him in the leap category. Steph Castle will be my leap guy, and I'll just pin him in. Damn it. I don't even need to explain it. He might be like my favorite non-top-10 player in the league to watch. Everything about him is insanely entertaining to watch. And I know one thing.

1:35:35Can nitpick his shooting? Nitpick his turnovers? Can't nitpick his passing? Can't nitpick his assist passing? Can't nitpick his paint scoring? One thing I know for sure is that dude is not afraid of anything that's about to hit them in the playoffs. He wants all of it. He's not afraid of any player. He's not afraid of any opponent. He's not afraid of any scheme. He's not afraid of having a, oh, he started 0 for 8 in his first career playoff game. Is he going to get rattled? No. No, he's not. So he's my leap guy.

1:36:04Bill Simmons:I spent a half hour making sure it wasn't absurd to put him on third team All-NBA, and the answer was it's not. I would encourage anyone questioning whether he should be on an All-NBA team with all the guys that are now missing. See him in person once. it all makes sense if you see him in person I didn't and I'll count league pass too because I watched a lot of Spurs this year because of Wemby I never saw that guy take a split second off even today in that Denver game there was a stretch where he was just getting offensive rebounds they were surrounded by all these taller guys and he just kept jumping up over people and getting offensive rebounds and giving them the people I love Steph Castle that's a really good pick I did have him Um Hmm

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1:38:10Bill Simmons:Okay. Gonna have to do it. You did this last year, so I don't feel like I'm cheating. and if you want me to just confine it to one player, that's fine. No, do what you want to do.

1:38:27Bill Simmons:This is for the Crossroads guy. And again, they might not even be in the playoffs for all we know, but I'm taking Palo and I'd like to really take him with Franz.

1:38:43Bill Simmons:Just because I feel like if this week goes badly for Orlando, I do not think these two guys will be teammates next year and they will just have to make some hard decisions. I think this is a stealth Giannis team. I think it's a stealth, hey, Sacramento, you give us the fourth pick in the draft and we'll give you Paolo, let's dance. I'm just prepared for anything with this, but I think they would have to take a hard look at whether it makes sense to build a team around these two guys together. I think they already probably have. and are doing it pending, not even pending the playoffs. I had him, I was going to take him in my trade machine pick for all the reasons you outlined.

1:39:27I'm fine with, you can have both him and Franz. He was a little too young for me in the crossroads category. And it's always, by the way, Paolo has always shown up big in the playoffs. And I think that's one of the good, that's one of the interesting reasons to take him here after a pretty spotty regular season. The last couple of months have been better than the ones that came before it fit with Franz is still kind of TBD, but on undermanned teams, that dude is always showing up and not just in a, like, Oh, he had to take 30 shots and he got a pretty inefficient 35 points. Like he's showing up on both ends of the floor and play pretty well.

1:39:58And that guy is still in there. Obviously. So it's, it's a good pick. And I had him on my, my trade list. Yeah.

1:40:06Bill Simmons:Cause they could lose to Philly and they could lose to Charlotte and be out of the playoffs on Friday night. And at that point, the wheels and the trade machine will come off. All right, you're up. it's time for another spite pick. I contemplated him for leap. Okay. Defensive stud. I will take Derek white.

1:40:31Another one of my favorite players to watch in the league. Unrelenting. Makes every decision correctly. Would have been in my all NBA conversation. Had he shot the ball a little better. I saw Pina put him on. I just don't think you can put a guard who takes this many threes and doesn't make enough of them on an all NBA team, even with all these guys missing. But he's on the fringes of the conversation. And I think if he shot 39 percent from three or something, I think he's that good at everything else. And just an all time great defensive guard for a team that, again, has legit finals ambitions.

1:41:04Do you have him first team all day? I do not. I have him second team.

1:41:08Bill Simmons:Yeah. It's funny because this is an intriguing draft. And I think he belongs in the draft for the reasons you just mentioned, but also because much like the Aaron Fox on the Spurs, he could be the guy that sinks the Celtics if he can't make a shot. Because it'll hit a point a little like 2022 where teams are just going to leave them open if they don't think it's going in. It hasn't been that bad, but it's been veering toward the vicinity of, hey, we're going to actually have to see you make two before we start flying out at you. I heard you talking about this with legs and I am on like Team Missoula about this.

1:41:47I'm not worried. And if you want to leave him open, I'm thrilled that you're going to leave him open. I want him to take all the shots.

1:41:56Bill Simmons:I'm not worried either. But I'm a tiny bit worried. Just a little bit. A little whiff worried. All right. He's still on the board. I can't believe I can get him with this kind of value this late as my legacy guy. I'll happily take Jalen Brunson here.

1:42:22Bill Simmons:So this broke. It's a fantastic pick. This broke pretty nicely for them. They get to play Toronto round one. Which No, they play the Hawks. Atlanta. They play the Hawks. Yeah, that part didn't break. Like that part didn't break nicely for them. Actually, it didn't break nicely for them. I take it back. I recant that comment. But they go Atlanta round one and then Boston round two. He's got a ton of confidence against Boston. He's got a ton of confidence against everybody. He's a beloved New Yorker. He's done a lot for the team. They came within two wins of the finals last year. I don't know how many more swings at the Apple you're going to get.

1:43:03Bill Simmons:You have a one seed Detroit team that's pretty young. you have a two-seed Boston that you feel like you can beat because you beat them last year. And this is about as good of a chance as you're going to get. San Antonio, not quite San Antonio yet. Wembe next year is going to be more frightening. OKC will be the same. Denver, probably the best they're going to be. It's a really nice moment for him. He's second team All-NBA. I don't think he will be a top five MVP. Do you? No. Do you think he could sneak fifth play? I don't think he will. No. And I think he's kind of settled into people have an opinion on him and they think he is what he is.

1:43:46But I think he's somebody that can go toe-to-toe

1:43:49Bill Simmons:with every great player of the league. And we'll see. Legacy guy. I think it's a great pick. And it's a great pick particularly because he's a Knick. And because of what conversations he's already in. Like every week there's a new, is he already the greatest Nick since X or could he be the greatest Nick ever? Is he already a better Nick than this guy? If he takes them to the finals, there's going to be Ewing compared. There's just going to be a lot of like, Ewing obviously had incredible longevity. You got this guy's from the 70s and all that. But like, there's just, because he's a Nick, all the legacy talk feels like doubly important and noisy.

1:44:29Bill Simmons:Well, especially because they're all sitting courtside at the games. he's had a taste of it because they've had success in the playoffs the last couple years and you can see how the entire city mobilizes behind the team when they're playing well and he's the focal point of it so there you go okay you're up i have a lot of the negative categories yet and i'm not i don't want to go there yet um especially since you've left me a guy who doesn't fit anywhere else other than has to be mentioned and so you know who has to be mentioned jalen Brown has to be mentioned. The guy who is going to be in the top five of the MVP and probably be first team all NBA and set the tone for a Celtics team that was not going to accept pessimists like me saying gap year under 41 and a half, whatever.

1:45:12And has been all too happy to talk about that. And now the playoffs are here and Jason Tatum's back. And I'm just fascinated to see how Boston continues to evolve with the guy who was their undisputed best player. Now back in the lineup with Jalen Brown coming off an incredible regular season where he leveled up to degrees in different categories that, as you've said, you don't normally see guys in year 10 leveling up this much in his passing, this much in his dribbling, this much in his steadiness, this much in his decision-making. Now the bigger stage is here, and there's going to be not scrutiny, but just sort of curiosity of like, okay, now you're facing the best teams, the best defenses, game planning for you.

1:45:53Jace Davis is back. How does it all look? And so I don't have another category to take him in. He's got to be taken. I'll take him in my must-be-mentioned category.

1:46:02Bill Simmons:So you're taking him in bonus guy who must be mentioned? Yes. Okay. Because I don't have any other place to take him, and I get to steal him from you. It's interesting. I thought you might take him in the leap. Well, I took Castle already. Yeah. The leap already, the leap kind of, I mean, I don't know. I don't know where else to take him. so I'm going to take him here. And boy, does he deserve to be mentioned. He's been one of the half dozen best stories, biggest stories, most important stories of this entire season. I'm going to take a... Oh, my feel-good star is gone. Damn it. I already took a feel-good.

1:46:43Well, that really complicates things for me. Well... Oh, man.

1:46:53Bill Simmons:looks like I have to do second banana and I get to take one of my favorite guys this season somebody I've really thoroughly enjoyed you took Steph Castle for me that I would have put in this category I'm going to take Jalen Dern of the Detroit Pistons who I think I'm going to vote for second team on NBA I think he has been you mentioned Jalen before and I think Jalen Dern's like this too I think when we only go stats and advanced stats when you're looking at somebody's case for whatever and you're not also talking about the stuff you can feel when you're watching a season the nuances of a season I think to me that Jalen Brown Jalen Dern are the two guys I think are for this and Castle to some degree too.

1:47:49Bill Simmons:Jalen Brown, there's all kinds of stats where you can be like, the on-off, it's not as good. And if you didn't actually watch the season, you'd understand how important it was that he scored, Jalen Brown scored 35 points, I think 35 times this year. And he repeatedly guarded the other best guy on the other team and just showed up night after night after night where this weird team that they had with no Tatum and you never knew if Pritchard was going to show up offensively or of white or one of the wings, but you always kind of knew Jalen was going to be there. There's 30 points and there's 12 free throw attempts and there's nine two points.

1:48:23Bill Simmons:And there's something to be said for that. Duran is the same thing for me. It's night after night. This guy is 20 and 10. He's one of the physical most scary guys in the league. There's an intensity to him that he has that I think the team feeds off. And I think other than Cade, he's the guy on this team that they, he's the emotional fulcrum. And I think he's gotten better as the year went along too. Do you feel that way? Do you feel like he's gotten a little better offensively as the year has gone? Well, especially without Cade when they needed him to get 20 every night. Some nights he got 25, some nights he got 30.

1:49:02I think he's a very intriguing player because he's still so young. I think he's still 22 or 23 years old. There are still occasional hiccups with him on defense in terms of his positioning and his angles, but he can make up for a lot of it with just sheer athleticism, that's going to be tested. I've had a couple of scouts kind of just say, I have a little skepticism of his offensive game and how it will survive in the playoffs because he seems to sometimes operate on the knife's edge of risk, of turnovers, of thread-the-needle passes, of is that dribble move really going to work? And they're curious to see how it holds up against elite defenses who are a little bit more focused on him.

1:49:40I would be optimistic. I think he should be an absolute lock for all NBA. I'd have him third team. I wouldn't really argue too strongly if you put him second team, but he should be like, he should be a lock and he'd be a lock. Even if Luca and Ant were both eligible, he would still make my third team. So he's a great pick.

1:49:57Bill Simmons:And the thing, the reason why both Jalen's are fun for the intriguing draft, because they're both intriguing. Jalen's going to be intriguing for all the, who's going to have the ball at the end of the game. Can he continue to stay at this level? Jalen Brown. And then Dern, and it's like, okay, you guys are number one seed. You looked awesome in the regular season. Can you now go up like 8 % in the playoffs? Can you now be like a 20 and 14 guy, 22 and 14? Can you do this night after night? Can you stay out of foul trouble? Can you keep that physicality without losing your temper and shit like that?

1:50:32Bill Simmons:All right, you're up again. We're running out of categories. Yeah, I'll just take the low-hanging fruit and be quick. I'll just take Mosley for hot seat coach. We already talked about it. It's an obvious pick. Someone has to do it. I like it. Oh, I put that in the hot seat wildcard. Okay. I got rid of both of my hot seats already. Man, there's some good guys that we haven't taken yet, including this next guy. Let me see if I have a spot for him. Oh. Yeah.

1:51:13I'll put him here. I'll put him in my bonus guy who has to be mentioned.

1:51:21Bill Simmons:Anthony Edwards. He defends mentioning. That's for damn sure. It's just, I didn't even really expect to take him here, but I just, we've gone too far without him being in there. A couple of intriguing things about him. Is he a hundred percent healthy? Can he beat Denver again? and have this crazy, fairly successful run against a pretty great Nuggets team over the years. What happens if he can play OKC in a series? What happens if he's going against Wemby in a series? Every sort of outcome with Anthony Edwards in any round is intriguing and fun. We'll see if he's 100%. I've heard he's close to 100%, but not 100%.

1:52:06He was also sick. That was part of the reason why he missed a couple of these games. He was quite ill, and it wasn't just the knee soreness or whatever he was at with. Yeah, I know one thing that'll happen. If there's one guy who's actually going to try to dunk on Wimbanyama, it's him.

1:52:19Bill Simmons:And talk shit. And talk shit about the French. God only knows with him. Okay, we're almost done. Trade machine guy. I've got a number of candidates. I could go boring, like Cam Johnson, salary dump to re-sign Payton Watson. I could go whatever. I'll go Julius Randle as my trade machine guy. I like it. has had a shaky last six weeks or so. The world knows they were going through whatever machinations would have been necessary to try to get involved in Giannis. I mean, there's just almost no way he wouldn't be part of some multi-team trade in that scenario. He was awesome in the playoffs last year, played the best basketball of his life in the playoffs last year.

1:52:59And if they are going to be the team that they think they can be, they got to get out of their own way in a number of ways. And one of those things is him. And if not, who knows? So I'll take Julius Randle.

1:53:11Bill Simmons:I have no notes. I'm going to go right to my weak link. And I make this pick. I'd like to make the point. This is not a character assassination. I've been really impressed by how he's played this year. I'm just judging it based on history, reputation, and whether he can shed some of that reputation. but also some of the situations he's been in this season where his team, which is really good, has really needed him to all of a sudden, like, uh-oh, our lead's down to one. Can you create a really good shot for us? And that man is Tobias Harris. Oh, wow. Wow. Yeah. Will he remain a playoff weak link or will he shed the weak link label?

1:54:00Bill Simmons:Because all I know is watching this Pistons team, the ball seems to find him in big spots. And we've seen in the regular season, that's fine. In the playoffs, it's usually not. But I can promise that if you're a Pistons fan, you've had this conversation with yourself. Like, man, we really needed that 17-foot fall away from Tobias on the baseline to squeeze out that win. Is that going to be happening in round one, round two? We'll see. Well, he's especially important during the non-K minutes for them. He plays almost all the non-cade minutes for this reason. Like, hey, at the very least, the floor of our possession is a 15-foot turnaround in the post from Tobias Harris.

1:54:40Bill Simmons:Not a lot of shot creation on that Pistons team. Although Jenkins has gotten better. All right, you're up. He's been great. Tobias has been one of the heart and soul guys on that team. A vet. They love him. I just, saying all that, I didn't think he was high profile enough to fit that category. Oh, a critique of my draft. I mean, look, weak link. I could go. This is the number one seed, the third best player, the guy who takes big shots for them. Is he the third best player? He's not. I guess Asar Thompson is. So fourth best player. All right, fine. I mean, weak link, I contemplated a whole bunch of guys.

1:55:19Your guy Vucevic. Are you going to take one? Yeah, I'm going to take a loop. I'll do weak link.

1:55:23Bill Simmons:You're ragging on me on Tobias Harris. You're taking Vucevic? I contemplated. Of course I contemplated Aiden, as we all would. No, he doesn't. He's just a permanent weak link. He's not intriguing. I'm not intrigued to see if he won't be a weak link. I'm going to go intriguing and weak link. A more high wattage player could have been a trade machine player. I'd like to see Jalen Green again in the playoffs. And can we just get a redo on the Warriors disaster from last year? He hasn't played much this year. They plugged him right back in as a full-time starter, and he's basically just being Jalen Green, which has taken a lot of shots and not making enough of them.

1:56:05And decision-making is a little bit better. He's had a few nice passes on the pick and roll lately that I think are level-up passes for him, but it's just very inconsistent. His contract is super tradable, and I could see him shooting them out of a play-in game or a playoff game, and also the one game they won. I'm sorry, the one of the games they won, the one game he played really well last year against the Warriors. He was, was because he just went crazy. I just think we haven't seen if that is this really the right fit for him with Booker and, and maybe we'll learn a little bit more in the playoffs.

1:56:42Bill Simmons:That was pretty good. Thank you.

1:56:47Bill Simmons:Oh man.

1:56:51Bill Simmons:There's a guy I really want to take here, but I feel like it's a waste of a pick.

1:56:57Bill Simmons:I'm going to do it. I feel the same way about this guy that I did about the guy I took last year. I don't think it's going to work out the same for his team. For the leap, Tyrese Maxey. I don't know if this will happen, but if you're just looking at the playoffs and saying, which guy could completely change his narrative in a month and a half? I took Halliburton a year ago because I thought the Pacers had a legitimate chance to win a round or two and I liked how he was playing and I liked that team I don't like the Sixers team as much but if they're in a 2-7 matchup against the Celtics I think he would go toe-to-toe with the Celtics for two weeks and all the Celtic fans would be terrified of him and relieved to get rid of him by the end of this series.

1:57:54Bill Simmons:If he goes against Detroit, same thing. I actually think he has another gear in him. He's great at home. The fans really believe in him. He's a guy that could just go for 36 a game in the playoffs or some crazy thing. I could see it. So I had to have him somewhere in this draft and I'm taking him. He was sensational the last time we saw him in the playoffs two years ago against the Knicks. 30 a game, 7 assists. A bunch of huge dagger shots, including one that, I believe, won game 5 for them. I can't remember if it's off my head what game it was. On the one hand, I want to say, can a guy who almost averaged 29 points a game make a leap?

1:58:37But without Embiid, it could definitely make a leap in terms of just his standing in the league if he has a series like you're describing. Which is totally on the table.

1:58:48Bill Simmons:Yeah, this is an, I'm carrying a team by myself to a giant upset. And I think this is the right point in his career. I also like, there's something about that dude. You're up 10 against Philly, and he'll just score 10 points in like 90 seconds. It was just like, oh my god, what just happened? We're up 10. He and Donovan Mitchell are like that. They might be the two scariest guys in the league when their teams are down 12 with 90 seconds left and you're about to check out of the game. They just go insane. Okay, feel good star. I'll do it. I'll just take my feel-good star. Easy pick. I've been just biding my time on this one.

1:59:25Lomelo Ball.

1:59:27Bill Simmons:I almost took him for leap, and I didn't have the balls. No pun intended. He is a textbook, central casting, feel-good, the narrative turned all the way around. And let's capitalize on it now in a playing game or two. And let's get him a Waymo.

1:59:49Bill Simmons:beloved

1:59:54Bill Simmons:at what point are the mellow driving jokes going to expire are we almost there never it's the hard part is that driving is a part of his game and so you're just going to say it all the time and it's going to always conjure up that image

2:00:11okay

2:00:14Bill Simmons:I have to bang up beloved bench guy, I have to bang out defensive stud. And those are my last two categories.

2:00:28So, beloved bench guy.

2:00:33Bill Simmons:I had him in Boston once upon a time. I think he's going to play an important role in a long Spurs playoff series because I am dubious of Wemby staying completely healthy for 10 straight weeks. And this team's pretty good when he plays. The one and only Luke Cornett. I thought one of the best signings of the offseason. They obviously lose a ton when Wemby's not in there. but it's not a catastrophe. And if anything, it's kind of fun when Luke Cornett's in there and he gives them a different look. And I wonder if they would even play him and Wemby together from time to time against a big lineup.

2:01:14Bill Simmons:Would you ever see that happening? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, French Vanilla was a thing for a while. It hasn't been much of a thing lately, but you need all your things in the playoffs. I wonder if there's a moment. That's the great thing about the playoffs. If you're going to go a long way, you need every tool in the toolbox to come out at some point. All right, so you have one pick left, and it is your hot seat wild card. Okay. I just want to mention, we've done this entire draft, and nobody took Curry or LeBron. Okay, I mean, Derek. Or Kawhi. I mean, LeBron is... Or Devin Booker. Or Luka Doncic.

2:01:55It's a deep league. What do you want me to... Luka's hurt. LeBron's carrying a team that is not quite drawing dead, but is in major trouble with all the injuries. Curry's on the 10th seed. I mean, it's intriguing. I'm not, I know exactly who Steph Curry is. He's amazing. I just don't think there's going to be a lot of, like, Golden State Warriors playoff games. Here are my candidates for wildcard hot seat. For coaches, Chris Finch and Kenny Atkinson. I think they're wonderful coaches. And I don't think anything bad should happen to either of them. but I just know how owners are when bad things happen in the playoffs and we'll see on both of them.

2:02:36I think they're awesome coaches. I'll go off the beaten path though for this. And I just want to say their names. I'll go off the beaten path for this off the beaten because this is the off the beaten path, hot seat category. I'm going to go Zachary research a who was recently benched by the Atlanta Hawks and is the former number one pick in a draft that happened not that long ago and would be potentially a must-have ingredient in any massive the hawks did what where who's on the hawks now kind of trade and it's like hey look man reed shepard's come along alex sar kind of played fake basketball for 50 games he's pretty good castle's a stud clinging is becoming a stud like like there's a lot going on in your draft class you any can we get something and you're young you're 21 years old it's it's not fair but whenever a team is like, you know what?

2:03:28I think we're just better off with Corey Kispert getting some of your minutes and you're just not going to play. It's not great. It's not great. So I'll go Reese O'Shea.

2:03:39Bill Simmons:Who did you make fun of me for? Because I took Tobias Harris. Off the beaten path. Off the beaten path. Who was your off the beaten path hot seat guy? De 'Aaron Fox. Okay, that's a better pick than mine. Last pick. Like, this is the last pick of the draft. I only have defensive stud left. Apologies to Donovan Klingin. I did think about you here, especially if it's somehow... It could potentially be Portland, San Antonio, right? Yeah, he's on my list for defensive stud. A Donovan Klingin-Wemby battle would be really fun. I thought about Dyson Daniels here, trying to chase around Jalen Brunson. And I'm not taking either of those guys.

2:04:27Bill Simmons:And I'm not taking Rudy Gobert either because I don't want Rudy on my team. Wow, that was talk about uncalled for. Oh my God. Just don't want him on my team. This guy, I think, is the most intriguing guy left that we haven't taken because I think they would need him to beat Boston in round two. and I thought what he did to Tatum the other night alarmed me a little bit as a Celtic fan because I thought Tatum had a lot of trouble with him I have him as a second team all defense I think you can make a case if your life depended on the game and you wanted five defenders out there he might be one of the five OG and an OB there's a certain type of guy that he's just awesome at guarding and if he's really locked in and it's basically any scoring wing it's Durant, it's Tatum, it's Jalen Brown he's just he's big he's physical he knows all the moves he gets right in your chest and I think if they beat the Boston Celtics in round two I think it would be him and I think it'd be Jalen Brunson would be the two reasons he was definitely on my my list for a defensive stud I kind of took Derek White just to be mean to you I love OG Ananobi I flip-flopped him on first and second team all defense four times in the past two weeks I think I'm gonna end up with him on second team all defense but like you said his physicality and his strength the combination of strength and quickness is extremely rare he can guard every kind of player he's guarded and beat in playoff games before like he's just that special um a lot all the good way to think about all defenses right got taken yeah um i was gonna say a good a good way to think about all defense is if you're a guy in the other team, how high on the, oh, shit, this guy.

2:06:18Bill Simmons:How high are you on that ranking for the different players in the league? Like, I think point guards are like, they see OKC and they're like, Kaysan Wallace, fuck. Ugh. How about the whole team? Caruso? Caruso didn't get drafted for Dista Dort? I know. Yeah. Apologies to all those guys. we also didn't draft Curry, LeBron. I thought there was a CJ McCollum case. He was in my feel-good star category. Kawhi Leonard, Devin Booker did not get drafted. Mike Brown, Luka Doncic, and Jalen Johnson. And Durant. I almost took Durant for legacy just because we've almost talked it to death over the years of just like the coda to his career, all the twists and turns post-leaving OKC, what a Houston playoff run would mean.

2:07:17I just don't think this particular team has a long playoff run in them.

2:07:21Bill Simmons:You know what? It's not like there are rules for this. Let's add a category. Coda guy. You want Durant? I'll give you Durant. Yeah, you just made it up and I already took a guy, so I'll take him. All right, so you have Kevin Durant as a coda guy.

2:07:41Bill Simmons:Durant. And that means I can take, just so we can have him in the draft, Steph Curry. And by the way, LeBron would have been an acceptable pick here as well. Steph Curry, winning two straight play-in games, going against OKC, and doing the Denzel Washington last 40 minutes man on fire. I'm just going to take on an entire drug cartel and see if I can survive. and I'm going to die, but you're going to have a good time as this is happening, I think I would be in there. All right. Recap of the draft. Okay. Yeah, let's hear it. Then the people can vote. The people can vote. Apex superstar. I have Wemby.

2:08:21Bill Simmons:You have SGA. Beloved bench guy. I have Luke Cornett. You have Peyton Pritchard. Crossroads guy. You have Donovan Mitchell, which was a great pick. I took Palo. Franz as a little dotted line. Defensive stud. I have O.G. Ananobi. but you have Derek White. Feel Good Star. You have LaMelo Ball. I have Jason Tatum. Hot seat coach. Jamal Mosley for you. Eme Adoka for me. Hot seat wild card. Zach Richaché for you. I have De 'Aaron Fox. Legacy guy. I have Brunson. You have Jokic. Second banana. You have Towns. I have Jalen Duren. Third banana. The best pick of the draft for me, Aaron Gordon. You took Mikael Bridges.

2:09:01Bill Simmons:The Leap. Steph Castle for you. Tyrese Maxey for me. Trade machine guy. Julius Randall for you. J-Dub for me. And I got to be honest, you weren't, I thought that would get a reaction from me and they didn't really react. Weak Link, Jalen Green for you. Tobias Harris for me. Bonus guy who has to be mentioned, Jalen Brown for you. Anthony Edwards for me. And then Koda guy, Kevin Durant for you and Steph Curry for me. And I have bad news. We've both been fired from ESPN because we didn't draft LeBron. So pack up your bags. We're done. Again? Actually, this can be a first take segment. LeBron doesn't go in a 32-person most intriguing draft.

2:09:40Bill Simmons:What's going on? That's it for the draft. Should we make up a category, best encore dad? You know what? I think we have 32 right now. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14. Now we have 30. We'll just give LeBron special achievement. LeBron, he goes to both of us. special achievement, LeBron. We share LeBron. Please keep your speech to fewer than three minutes. We both take LeBron because he's been that important to the league. Zach Lowe, Denver tomorrow night, sold out show. You're going to have the one and only Chris Ryan, even though it's not CR month anymore. You're going to have Tim Hardaway Jr.

2:10:30Bill Simmons:Who else is going to be on? You have one more person. Adam Morris from DNVR, who knows Nuggets better than anyone in the world. we're going to do a lot of different stuff and then you're going to be you're going to be doing Tuesday Thursday pods this week well we'll see if the Denver one is the Tuesday one I don't know but because we're doing it Monday night but Thursday for sure I will do my annual 8x8 6x6 rapid fire preview of every first round series that we know about and I have to I have to thank New Era for helping us out with the live stream. They're also sponsoring my show tomorrow. So double thank you, New Era.

2:11:16Bill Simmons:Also sent some really good stuff that I've broken out a couple of times. Thanks to Gahao and Eduardo and Chris and Jack Wilson as well on the Ringer side. Thanks to everybody who watched and listened. I hope the draft infuriated you or made you mad or anything. I'm going to be back on Tuesday and Thursday this week. New rewatchables coming tomorrow. Basic Instinct. Get ready for Legata on Tuesday. And this was really fun. Good to see you, Zach. Well, always fun. Thanks for having me. Thanks, Netflix.

2:12:02Bill Simmons:or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut or mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelpline ma.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24-7 support in Massachusetts or call 877-8-HOPE-NY or text HOPE-NY in New York for Louisiana. Call 877-770-7867.