Knicks vs Spurs - Recap & Reaction | POSTGAME SHOW | Knicks Film School

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1:00and you don't want to miss it. The New York Knicks have ended the Spurs 11 Game Winning Street, a very impressive, madnessy-lacking at the hands of the Knicks. 114, 89, the final, a season low at points for the Spurs at a season high in turnovers. Welcome to the NX Film School Plus Game Show, presented by FnaticSports book. Gotta take him seriously now. You gotta take him seriously. That's just all there is to it. No matter what they've done, no matter how crazy they drive us when they don't show up for games that we would really, really like them to show up for, despite what I would term as manning inconsistency from games game, from week to week, from month to month.

2:04And despite the fact that there are so many occasions that they don't live up to what you would think the talent says they should consistently live up to, there is enough about this team that you just can't write them off. I wrote them off a couple of weeks ago. I said, I couldn't wait to write them off for good, and I was dead wrong. And that's the only way to say it. I was dead wrong because this team that they face today, like I know they're young and this you could argue, and I'm actually curious to get into this discussion. I'm looking forward to having it today about what kind of a matchup the Spurs are for the NX because despite the fact that New York has just given them their second, beating them pretty convincingly for a second time because I thought by the time all was said and done in the NBA cup final, like that was a pretty convincing win. Obviously 25 point victory today.

3:05And oh, by the way, you take away those last eight minutes against the Spurs on New Year's Eve, and the NX were not dominating that game, but they were on track to make it three and oh. Despite the record, I actually think the Spurs can do a lot of things and we certainly saw those things that the Spurs can do and did right out of the gate against the NX or in particular, the NX starters will get into that too. The Spurs could do things, just like they could do things against most teams, they could do things to the NX that really challenged them. And I think you could argue that they're not a great matchup for the NX. I'm sure that this is a matchup thing. The only thing I want to hear about today from anybody commenting on this. And again, I said it after the NBA cup and I'll say it again now because we know what's going to be the case. After the NBA cup, I predicted for you on the spot. People are going to make this about the Spurs and not the NX.

4:08People are going to say, oh, it's a nice win for the NX, but boy oh boy, look at San Antonio. They're on the come up. Are they ready yet? Maybe they're still too young. Maybe they need another year of experience. What great experience this is going to be? Yadda yadda yadda and that was the conversation. And it's going to happen again after this. It's going to happen again after the NX just went into Madison Square Garden and a place that obviously they have a very good record this year, but it's not like when they step foot on their own court. It's an automatic win or even an automatic play good performance. We learned that against Detroit a couple of weeks ago. And they absolutely dominated this team. They dominated a team that had not lost in a month. They held a team to 89 points that have been averaging 125 points a game in February, a month in which again, they had not dropped a single game. This was the sort of performance that makes you believe. I mean, I feel like we've said it a hundred times. I guess this is going to be number 101.

5:09If this team forget even about firing on all cylinders because they weren't firing on all cylinders today, they ended up shooting 35% from three and 44% overall. This is a team that I think you could actually make the argument before this game that they had become too dependent on the three point shot. And if you go, you want to go look and sort their basketball reference game log from lowest to highest, 3.4 percentage. You're going to say a lot of wins up top and a lot of losses at the bottom. Like 35% is okay. But I thought for a lot of this game, they were not shooting particularly well. They were shooting it around 30% at the half. They had a pretty good shooting performance in the third quarter, which over helped them overcome the one portion of the game where it's a little bit inconsistent from them on, again, added a gate. We'll talk about that, we're going to talk about everything. But this was not them coming out there

6:09and just hitting a bunch of shots and beating the spurs that way. They have played the spurs. They have executed the spurs. And perhaps in the most shocking statement that I have made, they're in a positive way at least in quite some time. They out-defended the spurs and it wasn't close. I know this team and I think I wrote about it. I think I mentioned this at the top of the newsletter after the win in Milwaukee on Friday night. We've been waiting for it. We've been waiting for it. We've been waiting for it. It took 60 games, but the New York Knicks were finally a top 10 defense after that winning against the box. So it's not like we're talking about a bad defense. You cannot accidentally trip and fall and smoking mirrors your way into a top 10 defense after 60 games. No matter how many teams there are tanking in the league. And for proof of that, just go look at what the next defensive rating was for that two and nine stretch when they were below all of those tanking teams.

7:13So the 10th and defense is real. But still, this is a spurs team that like, they don't put a bad defender on the floor, really at all. Like everybody that they put on the floor is at least a capable defender. And they have the best, most gifted defender in the sport, although I think the next did a pretty good job not shying away from Victor and Minyama tonight and continuing to try to exploit San Antonio's attempt to their attempt to exploit the personnel that the Knicks had on the floor. And yes, I'm talking about Josh Hart and those lineups. But when he's the best defender in the league and he's backed up by all of these very gifted defenders, including by the way, Stefan Kassel, who absolutely gave Jalen Brunson all that he could handle tonight. And the fact that Brunson still finished 24 points on 16 shots is a testament to him. He's one of many heroes for the next tonight. We're going to go through every one of them. But this Knicks team, for them to go out there and defend like that, where you want to talk about, it makes me think of the words of a former head coach

8:18who I was somewhat fond of. Whenever things weren't working on defense and he would ask the question to himself, no one in particular, is the effort there and is the execution there? And if one of the questions was no, then I'm not going to change it. Well, guess what tonight? The execution was there and oh boy, you better believe it. The effort was there. Now, was this one of San Antonio's better offensive performances of the season? No, absolutely not. And I guarantee you spurs, spurs Twitter, spurs, you know, I don't know if there's a spurs film school out there. But whatever version of this there is in San Antonio, I'm sure they're not going to be happy tonight. And I'm sure they're going to be blaming their own team for this loss. I think they're going to be looking at a lot of things starting with 22 turnovers, seven of which came from Victor Wenmanyama, he who could apparently do no wrong. If you listen to the national broadcasts and the national media. So yeah, they're going to be lamenting that they're going to be lamenting nine of 34

9:19from deep. All of that is fair. And it's fair to point out that the spurs did not have their best game. And yet my favorite two words when I'm talking about this team in particular. And yet this is the same spurs team that ended up scoring 89 points tonight and getting blown out by 25 that got out to double checking it right now. I'm pretty sure it was a 19 to seven lead. Yes it was. 19 to seven lead. So don't tell me that the spurs just didn't have it right off the bat today. They had it. I thought pretty well right out of the gate. And by the way, yeah, they got out to a 19 to seven lead. The defense was great for a New York's part. Just like right out of the gate. The defense was never a problem this entire game was the offense that was a problem for starters. And then they figured out the spurs defense sum. But defensively from New York, again, there's a little bit of, was it the spurs being sappy or was it the next defense?

10:20It's always going to be a little bit of column A, a little bit of column B. I would very soon give the credit to New York's defense for taking advantage of any potential opportunities that the spurs offense gave them. And again, you cannot say that, oh, the spurs just had a brain fart today. They were due, you know, two days off and I'm sure we're going to hear about two days off in New York. Sure, we're going to hear about a 1 p.m. game after two days off in New York. So we're going to hear about all of that. Don't give me that bullshit because you know what? You can't give me that on one side of your mouth. I one side of your mouth. And then out of the other side of your mouth, all of the stories that have been written about and all the podcasts that have been talked about the spurs over the last month, they're ready, they're professional. They take this stuff seriously where other young teams don't. They're more mature than your typical young team. Again, it was everything I was kind of lamenting before about what the talking points are going to be coming out of the cup out of this game. Don't give me all that bullshit.

11:20The next came out there over came that 19 to seven lead and absolutely put it to this team in a way that I really don't think anyone has in a while. I mean, we could look really quickly about the spurs worst losses of the season. I don't think you're going to find many worse than this in any case. So main point got to take them seriously. There's going to be more games where they're not good. We know it. Why? Because this is the team that they are. They are going to give us the mixed bag. But for me, and again, I've spoken about so many times, I really don't want to talk about any more. It was, we know what it was. Like that piston game wasn't so much that I was just frustrated with the performance. It was that that game in my mind and that moment said something about their ceiling. And made me question their ceiling of it, the ceiling of a team that could not get it

12:20up. Sorry. Don't but intended in that game and that spot against that team. And you know what? I guess all that has to say. And I'm not saying it's because Detroit is some unholy bear of a match up that the next can't be because I refuse to believe that. I think what it says about this team is when they get up for games and when they don't, when they execute and when they don't, when they put forth, put forth peak effort and when they don't, there's just no rhyme or reason to it. There's there because what you what you can't say at this point cannot capital C cannot say about this team at this point is that they're incapable of going all the way. Because they have wins, multiple wins against the San Antonio Spurs. They've beaten the Houston Rockets, they've beaten the Denver Nuggets, they've beaten the Minnesota Timberwolves, they've beaten the Los Angeles Lakers. I've just named two through six in the last, the only team I didn't name is Oklahoma City

13:20Thunder and this goes, they haven't played the Oklahoma City Thunder. And then going over to the East, yes, we know the story with the Detroit Pistons, they've beaten the Celtics twice, they've beaten the Cavs twice, they've beaten the Raptors twice, they've beaten the Sixers once, unless I'm forgetting one time, but they've beaten the Sixers, they've beaten them by 51 fucking points, they've been the magic twice, if you still consider them a team to be reckoned with. So they've done it enough, oh, they did beat the Sixers twice, I'm forgetting, maybe the other game was earlier this season. So yeah, they've beaten every notable East team outside of Detroit multiple times. They have the resume, it isn't a perfect resume, we know that, but if that resume includes the sort of performance that we just saw, you can't toss it out, you have to leave it in the pile, you have to have it be one of the final candidates that you're considering for the position of 2026 NBA champion and it's not a big pile, they have to be in there.

14:27And why do they have to be in there and now we could get into some of the specifics of this game and I find it almost perfect because, look, there's been a lot of blame thrown around, but every time we really get in the deep dark depths of our feelings about why this team occasionally is not what we want it to be. We always go back to the same place, we always go back to the summer of 2024 and the decision to remake the team and go all in on this starting five. Part of that decision may have been a result of necessity because part and time was gone, which they knew by the way, when that he was going to be gone, when they made the macabre just trade for anybody still under any misgivings about that. And they went all in on this starting five. And it changed the complexion of the team, it changed the character of the team, it changed the locker room certainly, and it also changed the talent and it added talent and too often

15:32that talent has not lived up to their end of the bargain. And today, today not only did the talent live up to the bargain, they're into the bargain, but the extra stuff, the ethereal stuff that we've, that again, when we really get mad, the stuff that we're really missing. For the talent portion, Macau Bridge is, you don't, you don't always show up to the party, but when you do, man, you make a grand fucking entrance, 25 points on 17 shots. That doesn't, that's that line is deceiving because it was, he had 25 points. It felt like he had closer to the 40 points that he had on Christmas day, a little bit more than a year ago. The biggest numbers for him are five, as in five May three pointers, five steals. And if you want to throw five rebounds in there as well, throw five rebounds in there as well. A team high plus 21, although there were a lot of good plus minuses tonight,

16:40it was as good a game as he's had all season long. And yes, I know that there is something about this matchup with San Antonio. I don't know what it is, whatever it is. He seems to like playing this team. That's fine. It's not that this is the only team he shows up against. But poor, you could count on good performance is from him when they face off against each other. I actually want to go, his whole game was amazing. Defensively he was amazing, shot making he was amazing. He was the best player in the game for the next. I would argue he was the best player of the game overall when you consider victim where Minyama's seven turnovers. I want to go back because the thing that I think I accused Macau Bridges of very often is sometimes when the team needs him to step up in a bigger way that that encompasses more than the little things, right? We know he does all the little things, but sometimes you need more than the little things. As I've been saying lately, sometimes you need the big stuff. And look, no one's going to care about this basket when they see

17:41the final score. And maybe it didn't want to end up mattering that much. But we as Nick fans have watched too many games. And we are too well versed in this team to know a third quarter of doom when we see it. And when they came out there at the top of the third quarter, there was an unease about them on the offensive side that was unmistakable to me. And who scored the first basket of the third quarter? It was none other than Macau Bridges. It was a very quick release. And how quick was this release? All game long, corner three after they had just made a very nice defensive play because again, the defense never led up. The defense never led up. And he made it over the outstretched arms of Victor Romanyama. And if you want to know how difficult it is to shoot over the outstretched arms of

18:43Victor Romanyama, just go talk to Josh Hart. And it'll tell you just how challenging that is. So, you know, it was like a very calming shot for me in the moment. And he had, it seemed like every time they needed a big three, he hit a big three. So that was awesome. And then the next guy that I want to talk about because it's the other side of the summer of 2024 coin is Karl Anthony Towns. And I'm not saying the Karl Anthony Towns was the second best Nick tonight. I'm not saying he was the third best Nick tonight. I'm not even saying, well, yeah, I guess I am saying he was the fourth best Nick tonight. You're not going to know that from the stat line. You're not going to look at five for nine, 12 points. Yeah, 14 rebounds, but we know CAC can get his is rebounds a lot. It's my theme of the season for CAC. And this

19:45is going to, this is what I was referring to when I was talking about that extra something. That's something that can't be quantified. That's something that you know when you see it. There's something that I say a hard and Stein always brought, which is why there are people like me out there who are still, you know, pondering what would have happened if he hadn't played himself into that contract. Whatever that other stuff is, Karl Anthony Towns had it in spades today. Played within himself did all the dirty work that the next needed him to do. Did every little thing that they could have possibly asked of him defensively never let up. I never for one second in this game was like, oh, we got to get Mitchell Robinson in there. We got to get Towns out. It's time to bear down on defense. Cal was awesome by his standards, certainly on the defensive end. And then like you look at 14 rebounds and look, it is Victor Weminyama a great rebounder at this point, even with his height. No, he's not. But to go out and have 14 rebounds, including five on the

20:45offensive glass against a team with that monster out there. And he did a 14 rebounds in 28 minutes. So like, look, yeah, there was the little stretch there in the early in the third quarter with the couple of offensive fouls. You're always going to get a couple of plays like that from Cat. Did he go out there and dominate the game offensively? No, he didn't dominate the game offensively. But if you better believe that the spurs were accounting for him on every single possession, and you know what we didn't get from Cat? We didn't get any periods in which he was actively judgmental by commandeering offensive possessions in a negative way. We didn't see any crazy offensive, you know, or any drives. There was one shot at the rim that I could not believe didn't go down, but that's a shot you want him taking every time. I thought Cat was phenomenal. 12 points in all. I thought Cat was phenomenal. And then in between my best and fourth best players of the game, of course, they're going to go Jalen Brunson and OJ Annobi. And I want to

21:47be brief with talking about JB and OG because there's nothing to say. We know Jalen Brunson could be an incredibly gifted offensive player. And the ways he was, and I thought, again, go back to the first quarter when this thing was a ways away from being decided. What did the Knicks need over the second half of that fourth quarter or first quarter? They needed someone to just get them some buckets because this offense didn't know it couldn't shoot its way out of a paperback. And Jalen Brunson was like, okay, don't worry. I got this. Ended up scoring 11 consecutive points as part of a 15 to two Nick run. I would argue it was the most important 11 points of the game because it really turned the game around. I mean, I had a five point possession thanks to a couple of Dylan Harper fouls. Harper's going to be one L of the players. He's going to be an all star. The whole thing stuck a little bit to learn about defending the very best in the NBA. And then OGN and Obi defensive player of the year level performance from him today.

22:52I thought he was, I thought Macaubridge is needed to do everything he did to overtake OG for me for player of the game because OG was that good defensively to go out there and have to like wrap your mind around for a second. This spurs team. Are they perfectly built? No. They're probably lacking a little bit of shooting. Despite the fact that a lot of guys are having very good shooting seasons. So it's not that they're impossible to guard even though they have average on 25 points game in February. But they have paired the most, the single most devastating matchup nightmare in the sport. Invictorwoman Yama with arguably the fastest guard with the ball on his hands at least in the sport in the iron fox or he's, I don't know, he's top two or three at this point. They can, those two guys can beat you in every different way possible. And OGN and Obi spent time

23:54on both of them tonight. And that's all you got to know about OGN and Obi. So between and it, look, the formula for the next, we're talking about Macau bridges. We're talking about carl and D. Towns. We're going to talk about Josh Hart and Muhammad D. O.R. and Landry Shan, all these other guys in a second, Mitchell Robinson, very good game for Mitch Robinson, all that stuff. Their formula is so simple in some ways. It's Jalen Brunson being with the best offensive players in the sport. No, Jan and Obi being one of the best defensive players in the sport. If those two guys do those things and everybody else, more or less, those their job, the next you're going to win, you know, I don't know, four or five times against good teams. So we got that tonight and that was awesome. And let's finish up with two threatening of Zambia. I'll tell you, Shammett off-night shooting, but I love what he gave them in every other facet of the game. Jose Alvarado, again, both him and Shammett today, proof of the old dibs saying, you don't have to shoot well to play well. Shammett, three of eight, Alvarado, one of four. Both of those guys were awesome. There was zero defensive dropoff in terms

24:58of the intensity. Robinson, peak defensive Mitch, I thought in a lot of ways. And they couldn't keep them off the offensive glass, even though you only got two offensive rebounds. A lot of times what teams put forth that effort to prevent Mitchell Robinson from getting offensive rebounds and opens up other things. And not a coincidence, the next as a team, as a team got 18 offensive rebounds today, Mitch's fingerprints are all all over that. But let's finish up by talking about two guys who are very, very different and had very different games. And that's Josh Hart and Muhammad Dior. The Dior excitement at this point, I'm not sure it has been higher. He had the higher scoring game earlier in the year. I think it was against the New Orleans Pelicans. And if I'm not mistaken, where he came out and he had a bunch of the reason the first quarter and he ran the score up, well, I'll do respect. That's fucking Pelicans. It doesn't matter. Not that it doesn't matter,

25:58but it's the Pelicans. To go out there and do what he did in 15 minutes, all but the last three of which probably I guess were garbage time. We're not garbage time. Excuse me. So, well, real minutes against these spurs and be a plus 18 and score 14 points. And yeah, eat, did he take a few three? Yeah, he took a few trees. But the most impressive thing to me about this kid is that he is a 51st fucking pick. The 50, not the 21st pick, not the 11th pick. Shit, if you're the first pick in the draft, I don't know that you're going out there and attempting 13 threes in 15 minutes against a team that was undefeated in the previous month. The confidence coursing through this kid's veins is absolutely off the charts. And you cannot, to me, have a conversation about his ceiling. Give me all the points you want about

27:03I don't know if I still believe in the shot. And you know, the offensive game is maybe a little, you know, still needs some development. I'm here for all of that. If you give me this level of confidence and you give me the work ethic that based on everything we've seen and heard, the work ethic is absolutely there. You think back to Summer League, when what did he say when he was first asked about, like, oh, you know, what, what are you, what are you thinking about? What are you concentrating on? He's like, yeah, I'm just trying to, I'm going to dive on the floor because, you know, defense is what's going to get me on the court. So, when you have all those things, I'm buying. I'm buying any stock there is to buy. He was an incredible asset for the next tonight. Again, only one five of 14 overall, only one four 13 from deep, but the four three Z hitman, they were important. He makes stuff happen. He makes stuff happen on on on both sides of the floor, which you absolutely love. And that only leaves one player to talk about and that's Josh Hart. So, the first five minutes of this game, six minutes, whatever it was, Josh Hart was in there.

28:07We're probably for me the most painful six minutes of the season for Josh Hart. And he came, it was painful in all the ways that we've come to know it to be painful, where they didn't ignore, they ignored him with Wembee, allowed Wembee to roam, completely cramped up anything else. The next could potentially do on the offensive end. And then when Josh Hart got the ball, he shot it. The shot didn't fall. And then once he very quickly lost confidence in the shot, tried to put the ball on the floor, committed a turnover to attempted a two, I think that was blocked. I thought he came in in the second quarter, played better. He was making more of an impact on the game, but still he attempted a couple middies that Wembee got a piece of one, if not both of them, entered half time, shooting O of seven from the field. And you're like, if it wasn't for Josh Hart having the half that he had, the next would be up by whatever, 16, 18 points in this game. Was Josh Hart's final

29:12stallion any good? No. Well, he actually almost had triple double, 10 points, 10 rebounds, 7 assists. So I guess it was kind of good. One steal, only one turnover. So but four or 14, you don't love that. One of six from three, you don't love that. But you watched Josh Hart go out there in the second half. And it wasn't just all about him. It was about, and I thought my favorite tweet that I saw during this game came from DJ Zulu. And I'm pulling it up right now because I retweeted it, where he said, the next might have to, oh, sorry, wrong, wrong tweet. DJ was on a lot of good tweets in this game. But he's basically saying that the thing with Josh Hart is you have to, he is worth the pain. And the reason he's worth the pain, here we go. Josh Hart is figuring this out as a driver and a passer. Instead of benching the guy, take the gift of not being guarded and weaponize it. And I mean, it made me,

30:14it reminded me why even when Josh Hart has those stints, where he, you absolutely feel like he's killing them in a way he is killing him. You're reminded why he is continued to, or he is worth the continued investment. And that is because he is not Tony Allen. He is not Andre Roberson. Thank you, Andrew Claudio, who I needed the text to remind me what Andre Roberson's name was earlier tonight, he reminded me. But he's not a guy that has no offensive skill. And that when teams ignore him, it's just going to completely devastate your offense. There are times where he loses confidence and he loses poise when he could effectively look like Tony Allen or Andre Roberson. And then you get into the bad periods, but there are other times like you saw in the second half, where he's able to take with the defense and the nicks you're able to take with the defense is giving them and actually use it for the advantages that it should be. If you are completely ignoring a player of Josh Hart's skill, any good offensive team should be able to turn that around and take

31:19that as an advantage. And it's exactly what they did in the second half. And I give them a lot of credit. I give Jalen Brunson, who was the ballhanderer in a lot of those scenarios, if not all those scenarios, a lot of credit. And I give Josh Hart a lot of credit for working through those issues, because the solution is not the best Josh Hart. The solution, they'll always be conversations about the starting lineup as there should be. They are worthwhile conversations. But the notion that burying hard is the answer. That's not the answer. It might be the answer sometimes. There are times where you absolutely are going to want to put that fifth shooter on the floor. But the answer is the answer of Josh Hart can't be part of the solution to this team and a big part of the solution for this team to achieve their goals. That's not it. He's too skilled. He's too valuable. He does too many things, even when teams are defending him the way they are. And when they're defending him the way they are, there is no universe where the next shouldn't be able to figure out how to use that to their advantage, which is exactly what they did in the second half of this game. And I'm thrilled for a lot of guys tonight. I'm thrilled for, I'm thrilled for

32:24Nick fans everywhere. I'm thrilled for myself that I got to experience that win. I'm thrilled for Mikal. I'm thrilled for the whole team. But the guy that I'm most happy for is Josh Hart that it didn't have to go down like it looked like it was going to go down. And then he reminded everybody like, look, I'm not a perfect player, but I'm still going to help this team win. And is it going to be an issue they're going to continue to have to grapple with moving forward? Yes, just because they kind of figured it out in the second half does not mean that the, you know, they've solved, you know, this thing, because other teams are going to do it and teams are going to throw wrinkles. So it's going to be up to the next to continue to roll with it. But they did a great job rolling with it tonight. They did a great job in basically every facet of the basketball game tonight. For them to start off like they did scoring five points in the first six plus minutes of this game and end up with 114 against that defense on a night when they shot 35% from three. And

33:25Jaylen Brunson had a okay game offensively and Karla at any time. I had 12 points and like again, the baro, the baro quote about another popular team in the metropolitan area. You got to believe you have to believe in this team because they keep giving you enough reasons to believe to counteract the reasons they give you an optimal. And that's just who they are and that's who they're going to be. So we'll celebrate this one massive win, massive statement. And also last thing before we get to the next segment here, important for them to start off this really tough stretch because like this is a very tough stretch that they're embarking on right now with the thunder coming up and you know, but like you could argue with how well this has been playing that this was the toughest game of this little stretch right here with all due respect to the Oklahoma City Thunder who obviously are awesome. But you know, you're now two games up on Cleveland

34:33effectively three because of the tiebreaker and you're keeping you know, lost in an arms so you like that as well. I think that's it. Let us. Oh wait, hold on. No. Oh no, yeah, that's what we're doing. Okay. Hey, what one great Sunday matinee performance deserves another. We have next Sunday at Penn Sixth at his Sunday March 8th, our brunch in with Brunson, Nick's first Lakers watch party. You absolutely want to be there. It's going to be an awesome time again at Penn Six right down the block from Madison Square Garden. Make sure you RSVP. It's up here on the screen. I will say it tiny url.com slash KFS brunch. We're doing a $50 bottomless brunch. If you want, you don't have to get the $50 bottomless brunch. You could if you want to, which is an hour and a half unlimited, basically every kind of breakfast cocktail you could

35:36want. And then the first 25 RSVPs receive a free bucket of neutral, which it looks absolutely delicious. So there you go. Brunson with Brunson next Sunday kicks off at 2.30 p.m. for 3 p.m. tip off against the Lakers and LeBron James and look at that. So that's that. Okay. And we got a fan cash, fanatics sports book, super chat, $25 in fan cash. I wonder why they chose $25. Let's find out likable win from a likable team. I will be 99 years old and I won't live this down. Nixon proved to tune one versus spurs this year. Here is $25 in fan cash to celebrate 25 point win over the team that used to be on an 11 game winning streak. Check out the merch store

36:40and get your gear for this playoff run. Hashtag high ceiling. Hashtag so hand revenge game. It's good. We overthought of that. That was good. Hashtag deep breath battery. I got to get that. I got to have a little, you know, people don't have Post-its on their on their computer screen. I got to have a deep breath posted on my computer screen at this point. And then hashtag don't stop believing. I love it. And I know by the way, $25 in fan cash for a 25 point win. And how about also $25 for number 25, right? I'm not good at jersey numbers, but Macau bridges, number 25, number one in your number 25 in your programs, number one in your hearts. So perfect amount. That's pretty fun. 25 point win on an I win number 25 and it and oh my goodness. How many points did Macau bridges score today? You better believe it. 25. Go out and I don't know

37:43well, you got to play more than one number for Lotto. But if you go, I don't know. Play 25 and something to go try and win money. You should you should go do that. Okay. There we go. Let's get to Super Chat. Uh-oh. And we're starting off with a banger by goodness. E.B. the lizard king. Very unlikeable and unspecicated win. I deserve that. Love you, Macri. Well, clearly, thank you very much. The statement game of all statement games. This is the version of the nicks I've always expected to see when the playoffs start. April can't come soon enough. Shout out to my chat BCC guys. Yeah, shout out to all everybody over at chatnicks.com. I've been particularly busy last few weeks. So I haven't been chiming in quite as much. But I always do check in. And then it is the, let's just say,

38:48live list chat anywhere. So yeah, anybody wants to participate in a group chat with, I think we got almost like 600 people in there now. Yeah, just go to chatnicks.com and download that update. Great conversation in there. And the version of the nicks you've always expected to see when the playoffs start. So yes. If I'm going to, if the only thing you could possibly want more of or more from them after a game like this is you would love to see, you know, the, like, I still think this is me. I still think that there is a level that this starting five can get to. That I don't know that we've seen quite yet, where everything is fully unlocked, where they really figure out a way to unlock towns where, you know, you don't feel like you are, you don't

39:51feel like you're overcoming Josh Hart's presence. You feel like you are weaponizing Josh Hart's presence, which they did do later in the game. I will say that. They definitely did it later in the game. That's the only thing left for me. That's the only thing left for me that I haven't seen yet that I guess I still want to see, which is the starting five to reach that level of like, I mean, again, to talk about being greedy, you know, that level of unguardability. Now that said, they came out in the third quarter and they extended the starting five extended delete before the first sub was made. So they did their job in the third quarter for sure. They absolutely did their job. In terms of everything else, like, again, there's no question they have the talent and it's more than the fact that they have the talent. They have all of the pieces

40:52that you need. You know, the one thing that they don't have, which we've obviously talked about and we will probably talk about again, they don't have the traditional second creator, which I do think against some defenses is going to continue to be an issue. And yet, if they are on their peas and Jews and cross their teas and that their eyes, throw two more letters into the party, the lack of a secondary creator does not need to hamstring them even against the best defense. Because I do think when you're talking about the best, best, best, best defenses and the defenses that really, they want to switch. They embrace switching. You know, and this, you know, the Spurs are not that defense. Like you saw the Spurs trying out of zone today because they just couldn't figure out how to stop the next attack. You know, that's the only thing. They have all of the pieces. They have more than enough shooting.

41:52I mean, I said it after the last post game. They're like third or fourth in the league. I think fourth in the league and three point percent. So they have the shooting. They have enough shooters. They have enough defenders, you know, a little small, but like again, I think they're, I think you could argue that their size at times can be a weapon because like again, today, you saw it against the Spurs, their ability to get small and get slithery on screens. Like, their screen navigation today was and their closeouts today. Exceptional. And that's why, you know, you're obviously making a very good joke about the unlikable and unsfiscated win. The reason why this game was so likable and the reason why this was a downright sophisticated win with a capital S is because that's what good teams do when they're facing other good teams. They do all the little things. And man, if the team goes out there and play like this,

42:53like, it's impossible not to like, you know, with how hard they played today and how much they executed and really keyed in on everything. So great win by them. And EB, thank you for incredibly generous super chat to start off our day. I really appreciate it, man. Another one from EB from EB, what happens with Duce returns? Great question. As good as he is, he can replicate what Mo gives us to he can't replicate what Mo gives us defensively. Does Jose get less minutes? Mike Brown is going to be in a tough spot trying to work him back on the rotation mid playoffs. So I agree with what Fred Katz said when he came on the show last week and he said, he thought between Duce and Jose, someone is probably not going to get the number of minutes that you would expect them to get. I agree with that sentiment. I don't think it means one of those guys is all the sudden going to get, you know, play eight minutes or 10 minutes. I think they are both going to be,

44:04I think one of those guys is going to stay, you know, up in the high teens, if not close to 20. And I think another one of those guys might be around 14, 15, 12, 13, 14, 15, something like that. I don't have a prediction about who's going to be in which spot. I think Duce trying to come back off of an injury for this long. You would think just logically, even though he is a better player than Jose Alvarado because of the rust factor. And because he's coming off of that sort of injury, you would think he would be the guy to get the less, less minute. And yet that said, and again, I will sing Mo Dio R as praises from here to to kingdom come. I don't think Mo Dio R is going to be a, you know, significant part of the playoff rotation. I think you're going to see him get a couple of minutes here and there. I know what you're saying about

45:05Duce can't replicate what Mo gives us defensively. It is tempting to say that when you look at the splash plays, when you see the length and when you see his ability to move, he's also a rookie. And he does make rookie mistakes on both ends of the floor, but he makes rookie mistakes on defense. You see him every game again, like throwing zero shade at the kid because he's a freaking 20 whatever, 2020 or no rookie who wasn't supposed to make an impact for like years. And he's making him winning it back right now. I think Duce with pride is, I feel very comfortable saying that Duce with pride is a better defensive player than Mo Dio R right now. Again, it's not to say that there are not certain situations where you would rather have the longer guy in there. You absolutely will have those situations. But I think you're going to see him be a guy that is more of a, you know, we need to throw him in there for three, four minutes here and we'll see how it goes guy in the playoffs rather than, you know, 12 minutes a night guy in the playoffs. And if

46:10that's the case, then you can, you, there are enough minutes for everybody. You could give JB and OG their 35 a night. You could give towns and heart and bridges their 30 a night. And you could give the other four, Duce, Jose, Mitch and Janet their 20 a night. Now it's going to work out exactly that way. No, it's not going to work exactly out that way because you're going to, you know, Brunson, Derrick, he's going to play more than 35. I guarantee you there's going to be games where OG's playing more than 35. Same thing for Macau, same thing for CAD, same thing like all these guys will have games where they play more. And you're going to have, you know, games where, you know, all of the bench guys get a little bit less. You might have games where one of those starters doesn't have it. Maybe it's Josh Hart. Maybe it's Bridges. Um, and you're going to have them in being like the high 20s or mid-high 20s and said. So, but in terms of just like averages, minute averages, I think that 35, 35, 30, 30, 30,

47:172020, 2020 is, I think it's, that's feasible. It's somewhere, something in that range. So, we'll see what happens. Thanks CB. Really appreciate the generosity, man. That means a lot. Another one from EP, he's really getting, getting the post games started off right. Lastly, huge thanks to you and the KFS crew for the amazing content and community you've created. It makes being a fan more fun. When we win it all, I love that. There will be no better place to celebrate than right here on this channel. Well, I thank you. Thank you for that. I am proud to say that everybody that contributes anything on this channel, whether it's in front of the camera, in front of the microphone or behind the camera, behind the microphone. Every single person we have on this faculty is a better person than they are a content creator or producer. And that's saying something because we have some amazing fucking content creators and producers.

48:20On this working tier and doing this and everybody does it out of love. And everybody does it because this community means what it does to them. Just really thankful we all have the platform that we do. Nobody's more thankful than me. The fact that I get to sit here and therapist with what do we got? 1900 people watching. 1900 of my closest friends after a win like, well, this isn't terrifying. Celebrating after a win like this and therapist after a big loss. As I've said it a lot of time. Not to get too sappy, but my daughter had kind of a rough morning because she had a sleepover at a friend's house back by where we used to live in Brooklyn and trying to talk to her about just life and what have you. And she's down because different group of friends, the whole thing. And I'm like,

49:20you got to find, you got to make it a point to find joy in life because no one's going to find it for you. You have to make the affirmative decision to seek joy as opposed to seek reasons not to be joyful. And other than my wife and my two daughters, there's nothing in my life that gives me more joy than being able to do this in this community. So, EB, thank you for the compliment and the kind words. And we'll keep doing what we do. And I agree with you. It's going to be fun when they do finally win it, hopefully in about three months or three and a half months. Andrew, bat out. Bridges being burnt. I love it. Yeah. Play over the game. I hands down. Play over the game. Ron Tequila. What's going on, Ron? Hey, do them in. Love when this team locks in three everywhere on defense. I think by three, you mean Josh Hart. And yeah, Josh Hart was awesome defensively, which is

50:27always a great thing to see when a guy is having a rough offensive game that he doesn't give it back on the other end of the court and heart locked in. Everybody locked in OG locked in, McAll locked in. Those guys, I think led the way, but you know, you don't get a defensive performance style without some really outstanding efforts across the board. Hart was one of those and then credit to everybody, though, that includes Jalen Brunson and Karl Anthony Towns. Most prominently, Karl Anthony Towns. Thanks, Ron. Another one from Andrew, bat out. 7 4 260 out of place as today. We claim our Independence Day, you alien. I love it. I'll wait out 260 out in place as today. We claim our Independence Day, you alien. That's good. I love that speech. I was when was I was. I was 13 when that movie came out. Yeah. I mean, Wembee.

51:32Is he taller than those aliens were? I feel like those aliens were pretty tall. I think they were probably taller than 7 4, but I think he could probably give them a run for their money. Look, I don't want to disparage Wembee too much. Here's why. To beat that, dude, it takes a full team effort and a couple of really special performances. And they did that and he Wembee, I think, should absolutely be in the top five in MVP voting. You know, the games played stuff is going to be make this interesting. So I don't even, if he even gets to the 65, if he gets to the 65, he should be top five. He's really good. But the next you're better today. Thanks, Andrew. Kanye and Pepper, what's going on, man? A lot of y'all owe McAll in apology. Thanks. I'm going to shout out if I haven't already in the past for this. I'm going to shout out my guy, Jonas Plough, who has been writing some bang-up stuff for the next film school newsletter. And also

52:36has his own newsletter on Substack, which I'm going to double check, make sure I got the name right. Yes, the Cap Crunch. I actually just sent out a new one in the last few days, which everybody should go read and subscribe to the Cap Crunch on Substack because it's free. And it's the best cap writing that is out there right now when it comes to the NBA. Me and him have been texting a lot about McAll because he shares your sentiment, Kanye, that people like, I've been little too hard on him. It's honestly a diversion of the cat conversation, I think, where it's just about consistency. Now, cat season this year has been a little bit differently. It's about a little bit more than consistency from cat, but with McAll, again, if you want to be called the best role player in the league, and I think McAll has every right to want to be in that discussion, if not, outgrow that

53:36discussion. Consistency is a part of that now. He does give you the most consistent thing you can get asked for from any player, and that is showing up and playing every night. Even with that, I think you want a little bit more consistency from him. And yet, again, there's my favorite two words. And yet, the little stuff is always there. And it's not that you need the big scoring. You don't need the big scoring game like this all the time. These once in a while, it's more just like filling in the cracks in terms of the physicality. It's just stuff we always talk about. The people who we're going to forget about this game and rail on McAll bridges the next time he has a subpar game are not going to do so because he has gone off shooting night. They're going to do so because they feel like he's not physical enough, because he's not going to let rim enough, and because he's getting beat the pants off in one-on-one defense. I can't say any of those things tonight. He did everything tonight. He was plenty physical.

54:38He went to the rim on at least one occasion that I remember, a couple of occasions actually. And his defense was phenomenal, impeccable game. Thanks, Kanye. Sergio Esquivall was going on Sergio, the next rule. Cap was fired. OG was a dog. Yes, he was. Cat resurrected. Jose, SL, ARMA, secretta. So I think I know what secretta means. Let's see translation. SL, ARMA, secretta. I have the type translation. Translation. Weapon? Oh, he's our secret weapon. ARMA. Oh, arms. Yeah, that makes sense.

55:41Cap, did you know that or you just did you put two and two together? Yeah, I typed it in the chat. Hold on. What'd you say? I typed it in the chat. No, I saw it. Did you know? Did you reason that? No. No, I know a little bit of Spanish. Okay. Yeah. ARMA, secretta. That's good. Like that. I don't know if it's worthy of an nickname. Great. GT GTA 5 is pretty good. Yeah. Thanks, Cap. The finals against the Spurs are going to be so much fun. Man, I hope, I hope, I would love that. We would all love that. Wouldn't we? Thanks, sir. I mean, look, it's, it's not crazy. It's not crazy. They seem to have OKC's number. Although I would pick OKC in a series against them still. Thanks, Sergio. Zyrahem, if we got this more consistently from the Cowbridge, now this is kind of what I was alluding through before, you wouldn't get piled on as much. Side note, seems like you're not

56:42allowed to have any negative comments on him in the sub-stack chat. You know what the funny thing is is so we got chatnix.com, the chat PCC group. We have the sub-stack. You know, obviously, there's next Twitter. All of these different little communities have their own personalities, where they favor some guys more than others and are a little harsher on some guys over others. I think there is a robust defense of Macauberages in some places. Purely because people see him as getting unfairly capped on. And when I say unfairly, I mean, capped on for the same amount of like, if you imagine we had a giant whiteboard.

57:45And on that whiteboard, we put up every player's name. And under each player's name, we listed all of their strengths and all of their weaknesses along with the percentage of time that they gave us those strengths, the percentage of time that they gave us those weaknesses. And then assigned a point value to all of those strengths and weaknesses based on how advantageous or detrimental those specific things were to the game of basketball. Imagine you actually had the capabilities to do this. Now, we don't because we're like, nobody could do that. But imagine we did. I would wager that the final number at the bottom of the scale at the bottom of the tally for Macauberages would spit out a number. Let's call it a helpfulness number that was as least as high as or higher than other players on the roster, like perhaps an OGN and OB, like perhaps a Josh Hart that are criticized less

58:54than Macauberages are than Macauberages is now. There are stat heads out there, advanced stat heads who will tell you, hey, dipshit, we have such a ability to have those numbers. It's called advanced stats. They're out there everywhere you look. I will never believe that advanced stats can capture everything. I think they capture a lot of things. I think they're incredibly helpful. I don't think that they could ever give us a true and complete picture of a player and their impact. And yet, again, there's those words again. And yet, if you look at the advanced stats on Macauberages, you will find a lot of stats that lo and behold, hold him in incredibly high regard. For those reasons, I think the people who are defensive of him are very defensive of him. And honestly, for those same reasons, I think the people that are critical of him are very critical of him because their accusation is like, you guys are relying on these fancy numbers.

59:54I'm watching the game. I know what I'm watching. I'm saying this when Macauberages has a game that leaves you wanting more. And that's why other than Karl Anthony Towns, if Karl Anthony Towns wasn't on this team, we'd be saying Macauberages is one of the most divisive nicks in the history of the franchise. But cats here. So and cats more divisive than bridges, but bridges is very divisive. So anyway, that's my best shot at attempting to explain why this is the way it is. Next up, thanks Zee. By the way, Haitian, my guy, Haitian Ferg, great town all the other night. I always love seeing you. And I hope you could stay around for longer next time. Don't call me crazy or delusional when you play like this. It's clear that there is a switch they can flip. Anything other than this effort is unacceptable. Very proud of what I saw today overall. Look, in the playoffs, anything other than this is unacceptable.

1:00:59You know, give or take a, we're up to oh in the right in the first round and you know, not that I'm predicting that this will happen, but like you're up to oh in the first round in game three, you get kind of, you know, drilled. Other than something like that, only this effort should be what we expect and what we want in the playoffs. Am I going to sit here and say after everything that I've said in this, in this post game so far, that if they go out against, I mean, I'll, we look at their freaking schedule here like for anything ones the next time this could reason. Like honestly, like, let's say they go and drop a dos on the floor in Toronto and the Raptors just run them out of the gym. Am I going to lose my mind? I don't think I am because of what I said before. It is who this team is. They're going to

1:02:07have ups and downs. The playoffs, you got to be, you got to be ready to go on the playoffs. And again, that's part of what left me with a sour taste of my mouth and I, Haitian, I know you share this sentiment. Last season is for as much as they were, you know, a three and a half minute brain fart arguably away from the NBA finals. I did not feel like they brought this consistently in the playoffs, which then informs my reaction when I see them not bring it in the, in the regular season. I think that's the biggest point of contention between the two camps of the fan base, where one camp will say, none of this stuff matters. They just made it to these comments finals. They showed you that when the push comes to shove, they have the button that they could press. And my response, and I think it's similar to your response, Asian, is like, not really because they didn't always press that button in the playoffs. Like not to say they got lucky, but they didn't get lucky.

1:03:08But it was, it was, that was tenuous, more tenuous than it probably should have been. So anyway, playoffs come, you know, you got to go out there and you got to give it some similar to this. I think we could agree on that. Thank you Asian, really appreciate you, man. JDM, Macau's best game is a Nick two way masterclass. So I'm going to give you you, by the way, spurs this season. They're worse law, well, they lose by 25 tonight. They're worse loss before this. I'm seeing 12 13 13 13 12. So they lost by 21 at OKC. So this is the worst spurs loss of the year for them.

1:04:11OK, the Cowbridge's best games is a Nick. Christmas day last year is the first one that comes to mind. I think off the top of my head, I think Christmas day last year was his best game as a Nick. I would also submit to you the game in Portland, where he hit the game winning shot and finished 13 of 21 from the field 33 points. I would submit to you that was a pretty spectacular game as well. And then this season. Oh, he's gay. I forgot. His gaming is gaming. It's Boston that we forget about because they lost the game. Bridges was spectacular in the game. They lost at Boston were Jalen Brown went crazy on them. He had 35 points on 17 shots. He was incredible. What else? Didn't he have another big owner in the cup final? I think he had a really good game.

1:05:23Really good in a game against my end of a land your shaman game. He was really good in that game. So I will go top. I'll go top five for sure. Maybe top three. Maybe top three. Thanks, JDM. Mr. Fabro, what's going on, man? Great win. Somewhat frustrating offensively, but almost flawless defensively. They have not played a better defensive game all season. I don't care in terms of like, yeah, they've given up a few points. Best defensive game of the season. Yeah, frustrating offensively. And yet I actually, that's almost the more encouraging part to me because they came out of the gate and it was dreadful to watch the first six minutes of the game and they figured it out. So yeah, great stuff. Thanks, Mr. Fabro. Robert Cross. I feel like it's been a while since I've heard from Robert

1:06:23in this chat and it's good to hear from him. And thank you for joining us, Robert. First time, long time, it's your boy, John. Parts effort and compete is why he's in the starting line-up. His reluctance to shoot is why he cannot stay in the starting lineup. He can. He could stay in the starting lineup. Now, do the possessions where they leave them wide open and he doesn't take the jumper. Is that frustrating? Yes. Because sometimes they're playing so far off of him that when he, even if he immediately puts the ball on the floor and drives, you're still not creating any kind of an advantage on that. The one thing that I will say is when teams play off of him as blatantly as the spurs did at times tonight, there's only one guy in the league that has the ability to block mid-rangeers, the likes of which Wembee was blocking tonight and it's that, and is that due? Teams that play off him so much, if Hart dribbles, even if he's wide open and he dribbles into a 10-12

1:07:30footer, that's a weapon for Hart, against every other team. So, look, it's about a lot more than that. It's about a lot more than what he does when he's wide open. The thing that I always go back to and credit Benji for this is like, and we talked about this a lot more last year with the center on Hart and how much it was marginalizing towns. And my point was like, the solution is to get Hart involved in actions, which by the way they did out of the gate tonight. And Benji's come back is like, you don't go out and get a Ferrari referring to Karl Anthony Towns to go drive every day in your Honda Civic. And that's maybe a little bit disparaging of Hart, but like, I also don't disagree with the sentiment. So, it's tough. And it's something that they're going to have to continue to deal with. And they're going to continue to deal with for as long as he's on this team. If there was ever to be a change in the starting five, I would be okay with it. But I'm also okay with it if it's the way that it is. Thanks, Robert.

1:08:32Haitian with another one, bread it to Josh Hart flying around. Yes, JB easing into the game. Yes, the Cal hitting open looks. Yes, catfinding his game within the offense. Yes, yes, yes, yes, and OG being OG again, Moe gives wingstop a third look. Yeah, I do want to point out one thing, Haitian. And this is not to counter anything that you're saying. It's actually more in response to Robert's point. Dispersed didn't change their defense when Moe Dio R was in the game. When Dio R was in the game, they were employing the exact same defense, which was we're going to ignore that guy. And we're going to make him beat us. Now, the difference between Moe Dio R and Josh Hart is that Josh Hart took six threes in how many minutes did he play? Josh Hart took six threes in 30 minutes. Moe Dio R took 13. That sounds like funny. Is there been, other than like conca nipple has been, has there

1:09:34been a rookie that has taken 13 threes in a game this year, let alone 13 threes in 15 minutes? So now, but look, Dio R, four of 13 from deep are one of six, who was more helpful to the offense than I think it's an interesting discussion. But that's the difference. As one guy isn't really going to hesitate. The other guy is sometimes and it did not take Hart long to lose his confidence tonight. So yeah, thanks Haitian. Dennis Schewski with a new one. Hey Kevin, how are you? I can't believe I'm saying this because I love quickly, but oh my, I have not been more excited about a Leon Rose draft picked than Mo Dio Wara. He's got everything. May go ahead and save the season Kevin. Save the season. He is a helpful player. I love what he has going on. I'm so excited about

1:10:36what he is going to bring in the future. How we can help this team have a cost control. I know he has no contract behind this year. I still think he's going to be a cost control asset. Have a cost control asset who can give you potentially 25, 30 minutes a night of really strong wing play. Save the season is one step too far for me personally and I would love to be wrong. I'm very excited about what Mo brings to the table right now. I like it when he checks into the game. He absolutely contributed to the win today in a massive way. My excitement is is still far more about where this guy is going to be in two or three years. But he's going to play a role on this team this year like in the playoffs. He's going to play a role. He will have an opportunity to impact winning in the playoffs this season and that is incredibly exciting. Thanks, Kevin. Anthony Sixth, though,

1:11:42game of the year from McAllen, another game of the year vote for McAllen Bridges. I mean, considering the only game where he was like markedly better from an offensive standpoint was a game they lost against Boston. And then the only other game he scored more points was a 30 point effort against Toronto where he was didn't miss a, um, he was 12 of 15 from the field. You know, they won that game by 27 points. Now they won this game by 25, but well, well, different, different feel. Um, cat played a five star game. Okay. I mean, look, it was, it was great. He was great. Favorite game, both ends, death, great defensive rotations, no over helping, great recovery, work through the offensive rots and adapted quickly. What more can you ask for it? Nothing. I can't ask. I mean, I told you the one thing I can ask for a little bit more is, is for that offensive, uh, for that starting five on offense to reach one more level that I think they have. But, you know, again, we're, we're, we're spoiled if we're asking for

1:12:45more today. Um, I love that you highlighted the rotations and the no over helping and the, I'm the great recovery. All of the things that make the difference. Um, and the one last thing the closeouts, a team like San Antonio that has been shooting like San Antonio has been shooting for a month does not shoot. 26% from three without really strong closeouts. It just, it does not happen. Thanks, Anthony. I'm actually looking up right now in February. The spurs were shot from three. I have no idea what this is. 37.4% from three in February. So more than 10% just points below that today. Uh, Robert Cross with another one. First time, long time, uh, it's your boy, John.

1:13:47Modi needs to play as many minutes as possible between now and when the games count, then he needs to remain in the rotation. So the first part, the first sentence you said was, is not unreasonable. I think there is absolutely an argument for Modi or to play 15, 20 minutes a night from here until the end of the season and that minutes from him are immensely more valuable than minutes for Jeremy Sohan, which it seems like Mike Brown may have figured out. That I don't see figured out figured out implies that Mike Brown is somehow like stupid. Mike Brown gave Sohan four games. And honestly, I'm surprised it wasn't longer for his bad as it looked. He had four games and it didn't cause, it didn't cost him any games because they weren't winning Detroit if, you know, goes that and they didn't lose Cleveland because of that. So, um, moving forward, 15, 20 minutes for Diohara any night. Absolutely. Sign me up.

1:14:49In terms of needing to remain in the rotation, again, we're not sitting here talking about Jordan Clarkson or whoever. We're talking about guys like Landry Shammett and Dussup ride and Jose Alvarado. And I understand I just named three very small basketball players. That's what makes it a little tricky. Well, they are three small basketball players who play a lot bigger than their listed height. So I don't envy Mike Brown. Let's just say that. Next by the way, I need to go, I need to go change, I need to go take a shower. Eight. In defensive rating. Eight. And a smidgen behind the spurs for the fourth best net rating in the league. Eight in defensive rating. Point one behind Boston. Point two behind Toronto.

1:15:53Point five behind Houston. Point seven behind the heath who are in fourth. There's a non-zero chance that Dix could have a top five defense at some point before the end of the year. That is insane. Thank you, Robert. Robert was another one. First time, long time. Coach Brown has a lot of chess pieces. What does the rotation look like with a healthy dues? 53 year title drought. No pressure. I laid it out for you. I laid it out for you. I think, you know, again, 35, 35, 30, 30, 30, 2020, give or take a minute or two here, a minute or two there. So if Alvarado is 18 and Duce is 17 and bridges is 32 and cats 31 and you get your three, four minutes for Diawara by begging, you know, borrowing from Peter to pay Paul. But generally speaking,

1:16:58I think that's what it is. I think it's a nine-may rotation and I think it's roughly the minutes that I laid out for you. Thanks, Robert. Matt Nick Scotland, my guy from Scotland, this fucking bipolar team. Yemen, they're one of one. Nobody else like them in the league. You know, maybe Minnesota. Maybe Minnesota. That's really it. Minnesota is not quite as maddening, but they're close. Thanks, Matt. Another one from Matt. Show us how important McAllis. If he plays like that, we're genuine contenders. Yeah, I mean, for me, the if he plays like that, we're contenders, power rankings. OG is number one.

1:17:59OG is number one. I think cat is number two. I might have Mitchell Robinson number three, only because I have seen that in the game. Gentleman win. Playoff series before. Multi-playoff series, plural. But McAll would be in conversation for number three for me. Thanks, Matt. Many campos. I love this already. This team is soft. Cat is cooked. McAllis is worth five effects. Hard can't you too much JB hero ball fire Mike Brown. Oh, wait, wrong post game. That's fucking going next. Listen, but this is who they are. This is the team.

1:19:00This is the team. Everything you're saying has been uttered by me, along with many other people. After many a game this season, and it's not the one thing I'm not going to do. I mean, I'll disparage myself all day long and twice on Sunday. I'm not going to disparage any fan who has said any of those things. Because again, we've seen just like just like the more positive fans after those bad games are like, we've seen too much to be this way. We've seen too much to write off this team. We've seen too much to disparage them to this degree. The flip side can say no, we've seen too much to just blow smoke up their asses. This is who they are. They're everything. They're everything. It's like

1:20:02the only comparison that I can give it to is like, you know, pick your Hollywood director. Steven Spielberg had 1941. The Francis Ford Coppola had a few thinkers. Like, you're very best had movies that didn't hit the spot. It's the same thing with this basketball team, you know, and it's all part of the equation. Thanks, Manny. Dana Sheffsky with another one, also Macau. He shows up when you need him big time. Can I politely request one thing from Macau bridges? One thing not to be the not to be the guy that pees in the punch bowl, but my only request from Macau bridges is this upcoming postseason. Can he please, if he does not mind? Can he please shoot higher than

1:21:07pulling up the numbers? Give me a sec. Can he please shoot? No, this is no, playoff. Why is it not, why is it giving me? Right goes. It's coming. Don't worry. Give me a sec. Shoot better in the playoffs. That's all I want. Can he shoot better in the playoffs? Is it too much to ask him to shoot better in the playoffs? That's it. Because I thought his shooting in the postseason last year, and of course, the NBA stat site doesn't want to work right now. I'll get it at some point, but Kevin, I know you know the numbers. Like he did not shoot it well in the playoffs last year. That's the only thing I need. Thanks, Kevin. Why is this not working? This is so annoying. The NBA stat site does this periodically, and I really don't know why. Anyway, Robert Cross, first time one time at your boy, John, give me five minutes of you praising

1:22:09cat for his effort today and how it is integral to the championship. I gave it to you already. I think I spent at least five minutes on cat to start out. Yeah, I just, I thought he was, he was incredible today. I thought he was instrumental to the win, and I think it is not too much to demand that Karl Anthony Towns gives them this level of effort and engagement in every game, but here's the thing, by and large, he has given them this this year by and large. He has given them this this year. So there you go. Here we go. Bridges last from the field in the in the postseason, he shot 33% from three. That's really the big gripe. He shot 33% from three 45.6% from the field after shooting 50% from the field on the regular season and 35.4% from three. But I just need the shooting to be a little bit better. That's it. Then I'm happy. Thanks, Robert. Rob Delusma.

1:23:12Afternoon, J.M. Great next win and really nice to see them play well as a capital T capital E capital A capital M team. Let's go next. Completely agree. Great team win. All McCalskin a lot of love. Mo D. O.R. is going a lot of love. Catskin some love. Heartskin some love. I could use JB to get a little bit more love. I could use OG to get a little bit more love. But one player did not win this game. Everybody did. Thanks, Rob. Shrewd Clevver Brick. That's the defense has looked yet. Yes. Despite his stat line, the ball went denial on Wembee and keeping him off his spots was the most impressive. Mo D. O.R. keeps shining too. 100% as far as keeping Wembee off of his spots. There was the one alley to Wembee. I think it was. Was it to start the third quarter?

1:24:19Hold on. No, that was a jump shot. It was one alley where towns like didn't lift up his hands and kind of put his ass back. He bent his ass into it to try to like, I don't know. I guess Wembee from jumping and that wasn't going to work. That was the only bucket Wembee had all game that I thought was an easy basket. And everything else was challenging. So they did a great job. Thanks, Shrewd. Mark Frank goes. What's going on? Mark, how you doing, man? Welcome to the post game. The nicks were playing for each other. Yes. I know hard was off. But in past years, he would give up and get in his own head. He made big plays and hit a dagger. Great call in the dagger. I forgot about that three. It was a great shot. I ride or die with Josh and this unlikable team as you should, as you should, as should we all. You know, I like Brunson the most. Brunson is the guy

1:25:28that like the thought of him playing in a different uniform is like painful for me to think about. Brunson is the guy that if I, when I believe the nicks, when I think to myself, do the nicks have a chance to win the title for real? Brunson's the biggest reason why I think the answer, if I think the answer is yes, Brunson's the biggest reason why? Hard is my second favorite nick. Probably by a significant degree. I texted our group chat at, or I think at the end of the first quarter, and I was just like, I feel awful for hard. Like most players, I would just be mad at them. Most guys on this team, I would be mad at them. Part, I watched that happen to him and I'm like, I feel bad for him because I just, you know, I just, I love the guy. Again, though, it's about what you said, playing for each other. If they're going to, if they're going to become a team that we

1:26:31really do fall in love with, they got to play for each other consistently, and they did that today, and I love to see it. Thanks, Mark. Appreciate you, man. Zach, what's going on, man? Great to hear from you, buddy. Efficiency has been huge. Add in diving on the floor for Louis Paul, and he's a bad giddy. We know what you're talking about. So much character and depth now. This, this team can win a title. Everyone doing the little things need, I say, oh, seriously did that. They can, they can win a title. If you beat the spur, if you go on, you play the spurs, like you played the spurs this year, you could win the title. Like, if you've played Denver, like you've played Denver this year, you could win the title. Because I think if it's not OKC, it's going to be one of those two teams. I know we haven't seen them play OKC yet this year, but like, I'm excited for those matchups.

1:27:32I am. I'm genuinely excited for those matchups, first of which we get this week. I don't think the Thunder have shown themselves to be unbeatable. I think they'll be the toughest matchup of those three teams for the next. I don't think they're unbeatable. And then it's about getting out of the East. And you know, we know who's going to be there, and we know what those challenges are like. And it's going to be a battle. It's going to be a war. Can they do it? Yeah, they can. We'll see if they will. Chris Carter, what's going on, brother? Honestly, I can't wait until they blow up this team. Hashtag bring back tips. Oh, man, you would have thought that tips was coaching the way brown left the starters in late. Yeah. Now, we could hold we could hold off on the on the dynamite for one more game, one more, only one more. Maybe that's who we should get the sponsor of the show. Maybe

1:28:34we should get we should have gotten a like a safe for home use dynamite company to sponsor the post game. If there's anybody out there, you know where to find me. Thanks, Chris. Hujzu, what a great win. Walt Perrin, take a damn bow. People doubted you recently, including myself. What a damn hit. The award is the cow was awesome. I think if you look at all of Walt Perrin's picks, like, don't forget, there were a couple of years with an anxious punted on the draft. Like, I'm not going to get on Walt Perrin for fucking Jericho Sims, you know, or even honestly Tyler Colock, who I think they got him for a specific purpose. And they, I don't want to talk about Tyler Colock. I mean, look, Colock may still be a player, but I even saw the logic in that

1:29:34pick. The daddy A thing I think was about money. I always I will always think that that was about money. And then like, what other, what other misses did he have? You know, you know, like, OB, I think OB was a Leon West pick. Um, you know, drafted Grimes, drafted quickly, drafted Duce. Now he's drafted Mo. It's a lot of, it's a lot of good picks in there. Thanks, Hush. Okay, when you start the game, here we go. Jonah Kaufman, KFS intern extraordinaire, Nito, instead of the night, 14, as in 14 field, all attempts from Ahamadiyoara. Of course, 13 of them came from deep, uh, career high and field, all attempts, it led to 14 points, which died for his second most in a game, um, as a Nick. Um, so season high, tying four made threes, uh, one shy of the season high and three point attempts for any Nick player. How about that?

1:30:37Uh, 13 attempted threes in 15 minutes is tied for the highest rate of threes by any player in the league this season, with at least three, with at least five minutes played. That is a stat. Damn. Tied with himself in the New Year's Eve game also against the spurs. That's a great stat, Jonah. Wow. That was really good. Tied for the highest rate of three point attempts by any player in the league this season, in a game with at least five minutes played, and he's tied with himself. God. This guy likes to shoot does he not? Thanks, Jonah. Uh, all right. Uh, can't you want to put me in the mood real quick? I got to think about what, what, what I'm putting, what is going to put me in the mood? Yes. Uh, so if you, uh, didn't know already, now you do that there's an online cannabis company that discreetly ships federally legal THC right to your door. Um, best of all, this company has found a way to combine THC with

1:31:38carefully selected functional ingredients. That's the key. Um, it is the functional high that you want. It is mood. You find them at mood.com. Use that code KFS for 20% off your first order. Again, mood.com order code KFS, get 20% off. What put me in the mood tonight? I'm going to go with the Macau. Got to be one of the Macau pick sixes, right? Let me see here. I wrote all these notes and I haven't really been. I'm going to go, uh, we didn't even mention the small bowl shout out to Mike Brown, uh, playing small bowl. Small bowl didn't didn't put me in the mood. I liked it. What small bowl didn't put me in the mood? Um, you know what it was. This put me in the mood tonight. Uh, Mike Malone, on the broadcast, talking about, uh, they were talking about the Jeremy Sohan, Mo Dio R thing and how Mike Brown was trying to get minutes for Sohan and, you know, Dio,

1:32:42you know, but at the expense of Dio R and this and that and then Malone goes, I got bad news for Jeremy Sohan. That was fantastic. That put me in the mood. Yeah, shout out to mood.com. Again, use code KFS 20% off, uh, functional, uh, the, uh, the functional, um, gummies that you've been waiting for. Oh, we got a Macau bridge's defensive player of the game pick coming up here too. Anybody watch on the old YouTube. Hey, if you're listening on the pod, uh, shout out to you, leave us a nice five star rating, leave us a review. But, uh, you, you're missing great stuff, like, um, right here, this picture of Macau bridges. So it's always interesting when we get a picture of bridges as the defensive player of the game because he is not there to stand next to the defensive player of the game with his classic piece sign, um, taking his place none of the then Jose Alvarado looking like Spider-Man. Um, very nice look for Jose, uh, cat slinging the, the web shooter.

1:33:52That's a good look. Doose is lurking in the background. Is that OG lurking next to doose? I think it is. I think it is. Yeah. OG always lurks. Doose often lurks and then there's Brunson. I don't see Brunson though. No, where Brunson is. Yeah. Great pick. Good stuff. Congratulations, Macau. Okay. My wife told me dinner was at six. So we got to, uh, start to move through these here. Austin Z defense was up in their shit pesky physical dominant. Started to look like some of those super tough physical press defenses that gave us trouble. Yes. Yes. Thank you, Austin. Abs fricking lootly. Yes. Um, we got to look more like that. We got to look more like that because, and here's the thing. They have the personnel, right? They have the personnel to move guys off their spots to be physical. Now they just got to do it. Thanks, Austin.

1:34:54Stevens, Guillame, another team held under 100 points. Are we at top 10 defense now? I just told you they're eight. They're eight. Wingstop showed up. Yes. Uh, this season for the Nix. Let's see what we got here. Nix. This is there. How many times do you think I'm going to guess? This is the seventh time they've held an opponent under 100 points. Holy shit. I'm way off. This is the 12th 12th time. They've held an opponent under 100 points. It is the fifth time that they've held an opponent under 90 points. That is awesome. Those five opponents, the nets, the kings, the sixers, the Celtics, and the Spurs. How about that? Boston number one offensive league. They felt were number two offensive league. They held them under 100 points. And then the Spurs who are, I don't know what they rank offensively. It's very good.

1:35:56Eighth. So they have held the second and eighth ranked offenses in the league under 90 points. That's impressive. And then they held Boston to 95 another time. Pretty good. Thanks, Stevens. Paul McFarlane. What's going on, Paul? This might sound weird, but this game wasn't as close as the score makes it look. Miss free throws, open threes, giving up offensive boards, the one by 25. It's funny. I thought you were going to go the other way. I thought you were going to be like the final margin was 25, but this game had the feel of a game that was much closer. And you were that you were bringing it up to give them a compliment that like this wasn't a cakewalk, like they really needed to earn this one. I guess both things could be true. For me, I will look at this final score. I'll be like, oh, yeah, that was the game that like, it was a close game. And then they kind of took control in

1:37:00the in the in the fourth quarter. Like here's the thing that they was in 11-point game in the third quarter. So and no brunson to start the fourth. So I know for me, I was like, I was very nervous to start the fourth, but I'm always nervous. Thanks, Paul. Joseph Zickle. What's going on, Joseph? How are you, my friend? The McCall game. The give us more Moe game. The soon to me, soon to be 10-man playoff rotation from Hell game. Well, so much to love, but more than anything that defense, we are legit. Now keep it rolling. Let's fucking go next. A lot of people. A lot of people predicting 10-man rotation or want 10-man rotation for the playoffs. Again, I think it's going to be a nine and a half. If Zeus is healthy, I think it's going to be nine and a half. But we'll see. Thanks, Joseph. Manuel, what's going on, Manuel? Let's go. When this team wants to, they could be so, so good.

1:38:0535% from three is now the Claudio winning prediction standard. I need a McCall apology for Moe Moe. Yeah, I mean, just in case you're not keeping up the tabs on like the three point. And this is why, for me, this was such an impressive win. So 35 is like close to the Mendoza line. The real Mendoza line is 34%. Because under 34% from three, they have done under 34% from three is 16 times and they've won three of those games. So 3 and 13 when they shoot under 34% from three. And then of course, when they shoot over 45% from three, they're undefeated. So yeah. Thanks, Manuel. Tom Capuchini, I know, Tom is excited today. Rebounding is their main identity. You know what? That's not a bad comment. What were they tonight?

1:39:14On the boards. I mean, I know they out rebounded to Antonio, but where specifically were they on the boards? Like, guess is they out rebounded them by like eight? 10? Shit, 13. Fuck. 18 offensive rebounds. That's reminiscent of the cup final. Lean into it. And this conference can be their oyster. PS, give a shit like this on defense consistently and it will be their oyster. Let's go nicks. Listen, if they, if they can't, if they played defensively like this, maybe famous less words, but they'll figure out the offensive stuff. If they defend like this, the offense will come as Dante even Shenzhou hits a three. Shout out to Dante. Nice game so far for the wolves. Thanks, Tom. Appreciate you, man. Nick Cali, Euras, Calieros, Calieros, I think you couldn't convince me during the losing streak

1:40:16earlier in the season that the nicks would be top five in opponents points per game after 61 games. Well, here we are. You know, they've been and they've been here's the thing. They've been number one in defense for a little while now. I mean, if you just want to go back to the MLK day, well, since MLK day, which is a span of what now almost six weeks. For best defense league, 103.1, the next best defense, 107.2. So there are full 4.1 points for under possessions clear of the next best defense on the league over what has been an 18 game stretch. 18 games almost a quarter of the season. Thanks, Nick. Ponder taker. What's going on, Ponder taker? Oh, this is Ponder taker. Yes. Oh, Ponder taker.

1:41:25If you're listening to this, email me at nicksfilmschoolatgmail.com. You were the super chat of the night or the chat of the night, winner on Friday. I need an email address from you, buddy. Thanks, Ponder taker. The next or this from David Crockett, my guy David. Hey, do a man. The nicks are a high variance team, you think? In G minor, Opus 239. Any outcome is possible on any night. And it's this game and the indie game. New York is both teams. I'm trying to think what would be my bottom five for them this year. Because we can come up with a top five easily. This, the cup final, the Cavs Christmas game. If you want to go to the Houston game, which is both teams in one night, but like they're fourth quarter against the Houston game, the Denver game. Just for full like end to end performances, it's Denver, it's Cleveland, it's both spurs wins.

1:42:42I'm trying to think what else I would go where else I would. Oh, the Boston game on I know Boston didn't shoot it, but Boston on to Boston day. So those would be your top five. For your bottom five, you're going first pistons game. You're going second pistons game. I think you're going. Kings game. You're going MLK day. I don't know that the recent Cavs game deserves to be in that group. The Pacers game might need to be over the Cavs game, but Pacers need to be in the top five too. Yeah. Yeah. The Cavs game is just ugly offensive game. There was bad offensive. Thanks, David. And 100% agree with your comment, by the way. Neo Marioism. I'm going to say it. Mo has earned playoff minutes. Additive player in every sense of the word. Yes, he's additive. Yes, he does a lot of things. He's also a rookie and he is also going to do rookie stuff, which it's

1:43:46not just Mike Brown. Any coach is going to be scared to put young players on the floor. Eric Spulstra, it's not even the playoffs yet. And you've seen what he's done with Kallell Ware's minutes, you know, over the course of the year. So this is every coach. Every coach is going to be a little trepidation about giving rookies playoff minutes. That said clearly, clearly Mike Brown is very, very high on Mo Dioora. As he should be, he absolutely recognizes what Dioora brings to the table as he should. I just, I want to caution anybody thinking that this, he's going to, Mo Dioora is going to get, you know, 12, 15 minutes in the playoffs if this team is fully healthy. I just, I don't see it. I see him being more of the, again, that nine and a half the half, man. Yeah. Z Raheem with another one from as low as 19th and defensive rating to possibly top eight now.

1:44:48What a defensive turnaround. Mike Brown deserves some credit. Mike Brown deserves all the credit in the world. Mike Brown, the biggest thing for me with Mike Brown is, is, is not anything really we've seen on the court. It's purely the mostly the car relationship, but also to a larger extent, like does he have a full on grasp of this locker room in the way that he needs to have a full on grasp of the locker room? That's been the only question with Mike Brown, and yet you look at how well they've played during certain stretches and you'd say, all right, you know, he seems like he might. I'm going to do you one better for the lowest in defense was 19th. From December 17th to January 20th, so a span of more than a month. The next ranked 29th in defense, 29th ahead of only the Utah Jazz.

1:45:52That was an 18. So what did I just tell you? There's an 18 game stretch now. We're there first in defense. There was an 18 game stretch where they were 29th in defense. Thanks Z. Jason, what's going on, Jason? As frustrating as this team has been the season, when they play their A game, they are a championship level. First, they are a championship level. First time you could say that in over 25 years. If the standard is when they play their A game, they are a championship level. I think last year's team was championship level when they played their A game. I mean, I don't know how you want to factor in injuries into the 23-24 team. I think there's I'd at least like to have that conversation. And then I will give some love to a team that I don't ever give love to. And that is the 2012-2013 team. A game, when that team played their A game,

1:47:02now did anybody believe that they were going to play their A game enough to win four playoff rounds? No. Only one six playoff games, but I think they deserve to at least be mentioned. Thanks, Jason. Good comment. Sam Roth, what's going on? Sam, not sure what Mike Brown put in the Gatorade. The team played at a different speed today. Hashtag, NoMo, Mr. Nice Guy. I don't know how you put anything in there, man. I think this is as David Crockett said, and David always has incredible comments. And Jason, also for the last comment, this is just, they have it in them. It's in there. It's in there. You know, it is all about consistency because, and here's the real truth of it, right? The real truth of it is that on any given year, in any given year in the NBA, I think you could argue there are eight, six, eight, maybe 10 teams that you can see if you catch them during the right

1:48:08two, like two weeks stretch, they're like eight to 10. Like even just look at this season. Just look at this season. This season alone at different times. The piston, Celtics, Knicks, I got to throw the calves in there. Caves, thunder, spurs, rockets, nuggets, wolves, and that's probably where I got to draw the line. All nine of those teams have convinced you at times this season. Again, not one game, but like weeks at a time. If you watch any of those teams for the right stretch of several weeks at a time, you'd be like, yeah, this seemed to go in the championship. And yet, how many true contenders are there in any given season? It's more like two, three, four. What's the difference? Consistency. And I think that's where you have to ask yourself the tough questions with the Knicks. We know they're inconsistent. We know they're capable of some real stinkers. It is really just a matter of, can they weed out some of the truly

1:49:10abhorrent performances once the playoffs start? It's not about playing great every night when the playoffs start. That's not anyone's standard. Nobody plays great in the playoffs every game. It's impossible. It's about weeding out the low energy, low effort, lack of execution performances. That's the question. And I think that's really where the division is in the fan base. Although today is certainly a positive side. Thanks, Sim. Avery Whitehall. What's going on, Avery? The two most important things about the game today. One, the next defense was outstanding. Completely agree. And two, they never let go of the rope. It's a great call. It's why I highlighted that McAlbridge's three to start the third quarter because that three was emblematic to me of so many big baskets that they had throughout the game, where it looked like the spurs were going to maybe think about making a push. And the next, never let them completely agree. Great comment by you.

1:50:11Completely 100%. Yes. Dom Capuchini. Cool Mo 3D. Embrace it, please. Let's go next. He's embracing it. Mike Brown is absolutely embracing it. Freeway hustler. What's going on, freeway? I hate that our wins matter so little. What are losses or so catastrophic? ESPN is rewriting their talking points as we speak. They were expecting a massacre. They got one. Let's fucking go next. Look, if we're going to call a spade a spade, I'm as responsible for that as anyone. You know, it's not, it look in fairness. In fairness. How many normal losses does this team have? And if you want to push back and say, yeah, but like go, go, go, go, go watch any opposing

1:51:16team, any opposing content, any of those nine teams that I just mentioned, right? Any of those nine teams I just mentioned, but keep the Lakers out of it. Lakers are their own thing this year. Any of the nine teams that I just mentioned, you go look at any of their losses. So those nine teams between the nine of them have between them, what? 170 losses this year, whatever, whatever the number is. I bet if you scoped out your your your Joe content creator, you know, post game thing after any one of those 170 losses, like half of them, they're going to make out those losses, those losses to be if not the end of the world, but like a very big deal. And that's just the nature of it's the nature of content creation. If I'm being honest, it's the nature of fandom. It's the nature of expectations when you are a contending team and you do go out there kind of at least hoping

1:52:20to win every game or at least playing well in every game. When you're a contending team, the reality is it's like it's hard to have an acceptable loss because when you're a contending team, by definition, you are very good. And what is an acceptable loss? An acceptable loss is it is it lost where you go out there? You play really hard. The execute really well. And maybe the shots just don't go down and the other team is like a hot night or whatever. That sounds like and you're playing another really good team. That sounds like something that should happen more often. And yet the reality is it doesn't the reality is most of the time like losses are like, oh, the effort wasn't there tonight or oh, they were f***ing around tonight or oh, they didn't take it nearly as seriously as the other team tonight. It does feel like just us sometimes and I do think the next raise it to either even another level that is over and above what you're going to get from a lot of these other teams. But the reality is like it happens a lot and that's just the nature of an 82 game regular season.

1:53:28So to your point, freeway, let this win matter just as much as any of the losses. It should. Anthony Perino, what's going on, man? Is there any scenario in which Diora could hardenstein himself and play so good that we can't keep him? It might be a question for the cap guys, but no. So there is no scenario because the difference is that the nicks were limited to what they could pay as a hardenstein. They could not pay him more than 17 point, whatever it was, million dollars as his first year salary. They can give Mo Diora 25% max to the summer if they want. He's restricted for ages. So it's like if a team is going to come and offer him a big money deal like they will have the opportunity to match. I think the better question is, is there a team out there? You've probably a cap space team. Or even honestly, here's the question. Here's the only question

1:54:33for you with Diora. Is there any team out there that would dip into their tax, sorry, their non-tax payer mid-level exception? And I say dip into it, not give all of it. But is there any team that would dip into their non-tax payer mid-level exception to try to sign Diora away? I suspect that the nicks will bring him back on a deal that is going to surprise a lot of people because I think it's going to be a reasonable deal. Thanks, Anthony. David Krocke with another one. Thank you, David. Appreciate you, man. Cat is experiencing the love. He's always sought by doing the dirty work. Figuring out New York is better with 12 and 19 cat than 25 and seven with five turnovers cat. Yes, they are better with this version of cat than the more volatile one and the one that is a

1:55:34higher ceiling on some possessions but a much lower floor on other possessions and the key to that, of course, is on defense and the boards rebounding as part of defense. It feels like they still need to unlock him a little bit more and yet I would be curious like for a more sophisticated basketball watcher to rewatch today's game and highlight for me all of the instances where cat had an offensive possession where he didn't touch where he didn't take a shot and maybe didn't even touch the ball but his presence in terms of how they were guarding him directly led to something else. I mean, I could probably do it but I trust others eyes more than me. But my guess is that there are probably a lot of those sorts of possessions. So, you know, but there will be other defenses that I think he's just he's

1:56:36going to need to make tough shots against. Did he have to take touch shots tonight? No, but we know we can take him, we know we can make them. So sometimes that's going to be a part of the equation but to your larger point, David, I completely agree with you. Thank you, man. Tony, what's going on? Tony, I would give D.O.R. the Duce contract. My guess is that the next would not mind handing him that contract. Would he take it? We'll see. Bill Peter Friend, thank you for the generous super chat. Most satisfying win of the year. Oh, most satisfying win of the year. Such a specific word. My inclination and it has maybe less to do with the game than the fact that I was hosting Christmas

1:57:41was probably the Christmas game. The Christmas game from a satisfaction standpoint. That was really awesome because it made the whole day like I relaxed and enjoyed the rest of my day so much more than I would have if they had lost. That's number one for me, but again, I don't even know if satisfying is the right word. It's up there. It's up there. Again, in the conversation for best five wins of the year for sure, maybe top three. Thanks, Bill. Good question. Appreciate the generosity, man. D.J.P.K.N.Y. Lots of letters there. Macri, you have now resolved, revoked your right to engage in the, I can't wait for us to blow this up, talk going forward until the playoffs are over. It's right or die of time. No more being sucked into our traumatized past, please, and thank you. I will abide.

1:58:43The due divides. Again, learn my lesson. They pushed the wrong button on the wrong night. It happens. I know now to be better, and I will not let them suck me into that vortex again. Thank you, D.J. Appreciate the generosity. I'm glad this win was a dominant win, and not just a two point win. I needed the reminder to myself, the fan base, the national public, this team deep, deep, deep down is a top three team. I will be interested to see if there odds to win the title change, because we went through it, me and Sean went through it on Weekly Wagers last week, and I think I'm going to be back on Weekly Wagers on Tuesday with Sean. I should be, unless Mentz is on one of us to be on, but anyway,

1:59:43Sean will go through the updated title odds. I would guess they're going to go back to maybe plus 1,300. They've fallen plus 1,500. I bet you they're going back to plus 1,300. Should they be higher? I don't know. Do they deserve to be, I mean, the Detroit part of it's tough, because Detroit, those games have been so one sided. Are they a top three championship contender? I think they're top five. Sorry, I'm really thinking about that. I think their top five, top five is high. No, no, no, they're top five. They should be top five. Yeah, top five. Thanks, Josh. Kevin Dineshewski with another one, 52 win pace with the tiebreaker. I'm confident we hold off Cleveland, and with the cupcake mid March coming up, I also like us versus Boston. Also, can Moe be the best Nick value pick ever? Well, the best Nick value pack pick ever is a gentleman

2:00:50who was taken with the first pick in the second round. Let's see if I remember off the top of my head what pick that was. I'm going to go with the ninth pick. Let's see. I think he was the ninth pick. Why is this coming up? Willis Reed stats. Willis Reed ninth pick? 10th pick. It's off by one. Goddamn it. Willis Reed was the greatest value pick. I know what you're saying. First round picks need not apply for this because then you get into Clyde. Obviously, you get into Willis. I think it also would even be in the conversation, to be honest, guys that were drafted by the team. This is actually a really good, but if we're just talking

2:01:55about second round picks, he's in the conversation. I think, again, second round being what it is now is supposed to second round when Willis played. But like modern second round, like I think Duce has the title, but Moe has a chance to surpass him, sure. Yeah. Thanks, Kev. That's a good one. Greatest Nick value draft pick ever. Really going to think about that. Okay. Another one from Kevin. I think Moe, baby, by Duke Grimes without the crush. Very funny. I can't go back to the fifties for some of these guys. A lot of great players in Nick's history were not drafted by the Nick's. That's the problem. Oh, you know, honestly, who probably has Mark Jackson. Mark Jackson was taken 18 and that dude

2:03:06was rookie of the year and made an all start team for us. So Jackson deserves to be in that conversation. Thanks, Kev. Nickelodeon, sunset matrix, we got Neo, Diorara, or the one. I love it. We got Neo. That's fantastic. I hope, I hope, man, I hope this Diorara thing keeps going. I really do. It's a lot of fun. He's great. He's really good. Thanks, Nickelodeon. Hush to another one. What's crazy about these Moe shots? If the bounce went the right way on a lot of these shots, we're looking at at least five to six three pointers made. Yes. Can't stop breathing about him now. No, no, should you? No, should you? Thanks, Hush. Jay Mems. What's going on, Jay Mems? Huge win. Yes. Was I at the garden today with my kid who is seven and just stellar two-way performance from the end of the first quarter on

2:04:08garden was fired up. Let's go, Nick's one. That's awesome. I would love nothing more than for my either of my daughters at this point to want to go to a basketball game and actually watch the next a last thing I'll be waiting a while for one of those things to happen. Very cool that you got to be there today and it was a huge win and the garden was absolutely fired up. Although I think there was some nervous folks at some points during that game. Second, for anybody wondering why my phone is going off. I have it on Do Not Disturb, but I have my wife as like she can override. She automatically overrides the Do Not Disturb. So she's texting me about when might dinner be happening. So I texted her back. Thanks, Jay Mems. Orkette. What's going on, Orkette? That's stretch in the second when Kat started driving and actually kicking out to counter the collapsing defense might have been transformational. I love to see it. You love to see it. Everything. I wrote it down right here, 25-21. Kat dived to Moe after turnover on the double team. So first possession of that

2:05:15second quarter Kat gets hard doubled in the corner. It turns it over. Not great. Next two possessions the way and DJ DJ was all over this game today. He tweeted about it saying that they used him. It was more in the you know in an action basically and they got him you know they got him going. It was awesome. It was awesome. It shows you you know again. Then this speaks to what I was talking about before. How Kat can have his fingerprints all over a game. Even if he doesn't have a big scoring night and just reminding me to check. Funny, only one assist. I'm not going. That was very helpful to the offense. One assist is a misnomer. Seven Bronson assist. By the way. Nice Bronson. Really nice Bronson game. Can we give some credit to Bronson? Yeah, really good game. Thanks, Orkette. Armand, what's going on? Armand, how you doing, buddy? Josh Hart is this team. Love them. Can't annoy incredibly. Yeah, he's like the perfect avatar.

2:06:19He's the perfect avatar for the next. He is the next in so many ways. Completely agree. Thanks, Armand. Albee Square. What's going on? But Sean said this on after school last week. Getting too high or low during the season is not really beneficial. We'll figure out who the nicks are in April and May. The season doesn't really tell us much in my opinion. I'm not disagreeing with you or Sean. It's just. It's a difficult conversation for me to have because both both are slippery slopes. The season means everything isn't incredibly slippery slope as we have found out recently. The season means nothing though. That's also a slippery slope and I know you're not literally saying the season means nothing and neither is Sean. But it does it does beg the question of like

2:07:25what is the appropriate what is appropriate to take from a regular season of maybe a basketball? Like clearly we should take some things from the regular season. But like where's the dividing line? How big of a gray area is it? I don't pretend to have the answer but I think it's an interesting question. Anyway. Thanks, Albee. Oliver Sykes, thank you for the multiple contributions. Exciting win but I feel like we're a fourth seed. We can beat top teams but not sure about a seven game series, especially with the pistons. We have trouble with top defenses that don't give Brunson space. So I'll push back a little bit for as much as I am with you on. They're trouble with the pistons. They have absolutely had trouble with the pistons.

2:08:26The spurs are top defense. Like the numbers say the spurs are very much a top defense. Like they are hold on one second. I mean, they're ranked third in the league behind only OKC in Detroit. After them, it's Miami, Houston. Like the next they showed you what they could do against Houston. They've shown you what they could do against Miami. Farano is six. They've shown you what they could do against Toronto. Boston's seven. They've shown you what they could do against Boston. And oh, by the way, the next are eight. So like I think really Oliver, and thank you for the very generous contribution man. Like you say the spurs don't really have a dominant back court. I'm assuming you mean I'm not really sure what you mean by that actually. So let me read it. You restate it or comments. Let me read it. So we destroy teams that don't play defense and Brunson can't get spaced operate. The spurs don't really have a dominant back court. Detroit just kicks our ass and cat is just dumb. Cat is not the smartest player in the world all the time. He can be very smart

2:09:32and he can be very engaged and he can play within himself and he can't absolutely be a massive contributor to winning basketball as we saw today. And as we have seen time and time and again since he has come to this team, as he done it as consistently as I would like and as many people would like. No, you can't call him a dumb player. He has given you too much evidence that he's not. He's an inconsistent player, especially when it comes to being in the moment and playing within himself and all those sorts of things. As far as Detroit just kicks our ass. Yes, they have kicked our ass this year. It is a hurdle they need to get over. I do think the pistons are in their heads to some extent. Do I think Detroit has a basket ball team in terms of like the people the personnel that is on the roster to say nothing of the coach is a team that the nicks are like incapable of getting past. No, I don't look at them and as anywhere the same way I looked at Boston the last couple of years. As a basketball team, they are not as good as that.

2:10:34Now they have something going for them and they're clearly playing a special brand of basketball right now and they clearly have confidence against the nicks. That's worth a lot. It is not worth everything. And then the only part of your comment that I don't really get is you say this person don't really have a dominant back court like you could argue that stuff in castle and the iron fox have been as good as all offensive back court, certainly in league as we've seen this year. And then defensively castles a fucking nightmare to deal with. And then they have like they have other guys that throw one you like they're again, you don't get to be the third best defense. Now do they have in a Sar Thompson? Do they have an almond Thompson? No, they do not have those guys. And if you're going to tell me and I'll end on this, if you're going to tell me that the presence of a Sar Thompson buy him that alone is enough to swing it for you. For the nicks could be the team like disperse, the nicks can't be the team like the best defense because the presence of an a Sar Thompson to throw on on Jalen Brunson. I will hear that.

2:11:40Forgive me though. I have too much faith in this basketball player. Jalen Brunson. I have too much faith in this guy. I have seen this guy do too much. I have seen him overcome too much. I have seen him figure out stuff and learn on the fly too much. Nobody processes the game better than him. Nobody problem solves better than him. And a Sar is great at problem solving in his own right. The notion that like we're going to go into a series against Detroit and we're going to see Jalen Brunson average like 22 points of game on a 45 effective field goal percentage. I'm not buying that until it happens. If it happens, I'll be the first person to sit here and be like, you know what Oliver, you're right. But I don't see it. I think Brunson figures it out and I think they figure it out. They can figure it out as a team. They can. We'll see if they do.

2:12:42Thanks, Ben. By the way, I'm terrible with these chats. You got to laugh. But I love the next and don't want to be a downer. No, listen, no one, I, here's what I lost the ability to do. I lost the right to get on anyone this season for being a downer. I lost that right. I lost that privilege. I no longer have that privilege at all. So if you're skeptical of this team and you're not drinking the orange and blue coolay based on this winning and suspers, I'm not getting on you about that. I do think though. And this really is like the, I think the theme of this postgame. You just, you have to consider the whole body of evidence. If we're being fair and I understand matchups matter a lot. They matter a ton. But if we're being fair, this team deserves more of the benefit of the doubt than I probably give it than I certainly

2:13:44have given them and that we a lot of people have probably given them. Thanks, Oliver. Appreciate contributions and the generosity. Danishevsky with another one, JB credit, his end of the first turn the game. Thank you. Somebody for mentioning it. I like that stretch at the end of the first quarter was given the situation and given the opponent. I would argue it was every bit as impressive as his 22 point quarter against the box because the box stink defensively. This defense is a real difference. Thanks, Kevin. Drew Bata with another one facts. We aren't having any of any of that convo without Brunson's first quarter single handedly, single left handy comeback. Yeah, it was awesome. They were down by double figures in the first quarter and they look like they could

2:14:44not do anything. And then Brunson was like, I got this every great team. It doesn't matter who they are. Every great team needs and I got this guy. The next half as good and I got this guy as the original lead. And that's why they're contenders more than any of this other shit that we're talking about. Older respect. Appreciate that, Andrew. And then Jay Mac, when Mo got drafted, most draft experts didn't have him in their top 100. Shout out to the next front office for the find. Interesting conversation that I look forward to taking place over the next couple days, weeks, months. Where would Bahamut D.O.R. go on a redraft? I texted someone else in the next one school faculty. I'll leave this for them to tell if they want to tell it. I texted somebody about like, hey, where do you think D.O.R. goes in a redraft? And my thought was like, is he in the top 15 top 20 conversation, which is my gut feeling was like, he's got to be probably

2:15:50top 20, right? And not the faculty member, but some faculty member who talked to somebody else who knows a lot more about the draft than I do, push back like, hey, I'm not sure he's in the top 30. I think it's an interesting conversation. Would he go top 20? Would he go top 25? Would he be at the very top of the second round? I think that's the lowest. Would be top of the second round. But to me, you look at the tools. You look at the tools that you can't teach. And then the other stuff we're seeing and the confidence. I got hard press to find 30 guys that were taking in this draft that I'm taking over D.O.R. right now. Thanks, Shay. And then another one, Brunson here to series that winning dagger over a SAR. Give JBA full series versus anyone, and you'll figure it out. That's that's kind of where I'm at. It doesn't mean it won't be hard. It doesn't mean you won't have moments. But the other thing as we know in the NBA today,

2:16:54you don't have to, it's not about one defender. You have to defend great, as a wise man once said, you defend great players with your team. So they're going to have to defend Jalen Brunson with their team. And that also means when you defend Jalen Brunson with your team, it means Jalen Brunson's team is going to have to get involved. And I can't be just Jalen Brunson. So, you know, and on and on, now we go. Thanks, Shay. Okay, that is it. It's funny. Somebody was asking me recently, how long the post games go. I'm like, yes, some of them can be like an hour or others go a little bit longer. This was definitely the little bit longer. And I made my dinner time reservation at my living room table or dining room table of 6 p.m. with three minutes to spare. Everybody, thank you for tuning in to another next film school post game show. Please do help us out. We got a lot of kind comments, a lot of very generous super chats tonight. If you're someone

2:17:56that, you know, isn't in the super chat game, the best way you can help us out, take an extra minute of your day and give us a five-star rating wherever you get your podcasts. And if you really want to be kind to write a little review, certainly hit that like button if you're watching on YouTube. And if you're not subscribed to the YouTube channel, go ahead and subscribe to YouTube. You can also follow us wherever you get your social media at Nick Film School. That's SKOOL. Don't forget about that mood mood.com. The functional cannabis gummy company, use code KFS. Help us out in that way too. And bonus content on patreon.com of course. And the next film school newsletter on substack. I can't wait to write a newsletter about this game. It's going to be fun. I think that's it. I'm not going to keep my wife waiting any longer. I love y'all and I'll talk to you soon. Peace out.

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