Why Andrew Nembhard is having underrated year | What cap update means for Pacers | Boom season ends

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2:02Happy Friday. Congrats. You made it to the weekend. Welcome in to another edition of the Lecdon Pacers podcast where we, of course, talk about the Indiana Pacers. As always, my name is Tony East. I cover the team for Forbes and Circle City Spin and today much to get to on the eve of Ben Matheryn's return. Eve for me. It's the day of, if you're listening to this, starting with his draft class buddy, Andrew Neymar, who I think is having an underrated season. And I've thought that for a while going back to when I discussed his on officer on Christmas, I'm going to tell you why today and what it means for next season with Tyree's Halberd. I want to talk about some MBA updates that are important to the Pacers, new salary cap for next year, tanking stuff, expansion stuff being discussed by the league. And then at the end, the Mobile'sville boom. Their last game of their inaugural season in Noblesville was last night. I was there. You'll hear from their perspective on their first season, what it means for Noblesville. Why it matters for the Pacers? Okay, let's start with Andrew Neymar. Who I touched on this yesterday, the Pacers played the Lakers. He had 19 assists. That's amazing. And I talked about his passing and what I've seen improvement and I wrote, then wrote,

3:04you know, more about that game today. And I went back and was listening to the press conference about him talking about that game and having, again, a career high number of assists, 19 is a ton of assists for one game. And he was just so like nothing to it about it, you know? And he is who he is when he talks about his own accomplishments anyway. Like I don't expect a big grand bragging. Andrew Neymar and I worked so hard on this, you know, that's not who he is. But I, like, there is a middle ground between what I just described and what he was. And to be clear, he always has a little bit of what I, what he was on Thursday to him. But I was very surprised to see it on a career night. Don't get me wrong. If you think that you got a career high and assist because you have to be playing your natural position that you played your whole career for a little bit, yeah, that's fine. I understand that. But I still think on a night where you have 19 for the first time, I expected him to be a little bit more like, yeah, I was reading the game well. My teammates were making shots, took with the defense, gave me stuff like that. And he was not like that at all. And I don't mean any of that as a negative to him. I mean that to be very complimentary because he has always been like that, right?

4:08Very, you know, self, I don't even, I can't even get the perfect word. Just very aware of who he is and what his strengths are when he played point guard. And he said when I asked him how to point guard, I've always been a good pastor. That's always been my thing. And he has. That's true. And now at this exact moment, he's fifth in the league and assist this calendar year. I've cited that stat like a million times and one of the guys above him's John Miranda played like three games. So he's really fourth. He's passing has been awesome for like almost, it's almost April. Like it's almost three full months of him being a that level of set up man. And now because it's been that long too, his four, the season assist number is 7.6 approaching eight. And so one, I just, I found his demeanor about all this fascinating and two, his numbers keep climbing. And one way to look at an underrated, the underratedness of the accomplishment that he just had is 19, it's just games and Pacer's history. Only four other players have done it at all. And it's Tyrese Halberton, who's obviously the best pastor in French history, Jalen Rose,

5:09Mark Jackson, Jamont Sins, that's it. And then he's now in that group. Like that's a huge deal that he just brushed off is like, yeah, this is who I am. This is what I do. I find that very no worthy in telling about what he believes in himself to be and what he hopes he can be for the Pacers as time progresses. So one that is obviously like an underrated one game that that's only happened to four other awesome other point guards in Pacer's history, who are all also tremendous pastors. Jalen Rose, not necessarily a point guard or thought of in that way, but certainly a good shot creator was an excellent creator and one of their best players, if not number one best at times in that 2000 finals, their first finals appearance as a team. The other thing about Nemhard that I think is underrated is how he's combined it with his scoring 17 and a half points per game, big jumps, seven points per game from last year. Obviously a big usage bumpy is the ballway more he's taking over five more shots per game. Then last game, his raw usage jump from 16% ish first first three seasons, about 24% this year. And his true shooting is almost a career hatch just a little below it.

6:09It's about average for his position. So it's not like he's a huge efficiency value add at the point guard spot, but doing that on much bigger volume is of course significant. And so he's at 17 1.1 points and 7.6 is this per game. Let's tie that up. How many players do you think are averaging 17 and seven? So we're on and down. We're not even giving him the half assist. The answer is 12 and those 12 players are Nikolay Okitsch, a current all start, Lukudán Chich, a current all start, Jamal Murray, a current all start, Kate Cunningham, current all start, Jalen Johnson, current all start, James Harden, all start last year, LeMela Ball, one time all start, Trey Young, multi-time all start, Jomerant, multi-time all start, Kevin Porter, Jr. Josh Gidey, and them hard. Pretty dang good group of players. And you could make the case, let me look at this very hard before I make this proclamation and regret it. You could make the case he is the best to the number. In fact, I don't think Kate Cunningham is a plus defender. Jalen Johnson's a sometimes good defender, but that's it.

7:10There's only three positive defenders here. You could easily make the argument. He's the best defender of that group. Now, granted, he might as the lowest production of that group, but that's the categories he's putting himself in. When I said his on-offs, which were like a 10 point minus, I won't put no this season or bad luck, everybody was like, oh no, it's not clearly it is because it's much closer in number now. It's like a four point difference now, and he's been better than he was during the season, not so much better. He's just really good, and he's clearly showing more playing the position that he's played his entire life and the adjustments have all come in the NBA for him playing off the ball more often. So I've really enjoyed seeing him do this, right? To be coming, the number one option and figure out what's required of him and then slowly showing it more and more often, what he actually is capable of would given that role, which is quite a lot, a very statistically impressive season, culminating in, of course, the most recent game, being his most impressive as a passer, the Pacers are on fire recently, like 50% or more from the field and several straight games, 40% from three and most of

8:11them. That is obviously going to help with assist numbers. But like I mentioned with him last game, there is always a chicken and egg thing where it's like, are you getting more assist because your passes are better? Are you getting more assist because your teammates are making more shots? But your teammates can be making more shots because your passes are better. It's impossible to really know about all that connection. You can just see that he is passing at a good level. He's got to cut down the turnovers. He'll tell you that too. And yet you see the growth that he's had this season. But then the next follow-up part that I actually want to talk to him about a little bit at some point is, what does this mean for next year? Because next year, yes, he is playing point guard a lot in his life. He's playing point guard again this season, improving that he can, you know, do it for an NBA team. Okay, that's great. He's not going to next year. Tyres Halberton is the best guard passer in the NBA or one of the best. I still think the best. We'll see what level he has next season. That's a big question mark. And that's part of this, right? Is there's two ways that this matters for just like, don't even zoom out at all. One is, if Halberton is a lower level player to some extent, which should be expected, but

9:11who knows how much of a lower level, they might have to rely on other players to create shots. Great. There's one right next to him who just had a full season of going against usually very high up options for the opposing team and being forced to create shots against those players. Great. He's doing it against lower options, albeit maybe in higher pressure situations. And the other part of this isn't somebody pointed this out in a comment on yesterday's podcast. They said, you know, one of the most successful ways to guard the Pacers for a while, they saw this at times, but there are a lot of games where it threw him off for a beat, even when Halberton was playing was face guarding Halbert really far from the basket the whole time. Make the Pacers play for and for with the rest of the group. That gets harder. If Nemhart is better at reading the game is a better decision maker and a quicker decision maker and understands how to do that in more space, right? That is obviously valuable for next year's Pacers to me. And that's just like very little change at all. If they change their structure in any way, it's helpful. If they change their rotation in any way, it could be helpful, right? But that's that's just purely fit with Halbert and stuff as he transitions back to a more

10:12on and off at the same time kind of role. And then there's the other part of it is, look, who knows what T. Jim McConnell will be next year. He's playing very well of late. I've talked to the season about some of the signs that he's shown of age and his game. And he's played well enough that I think they can be confident if they are, if he's the back of point guard next year, then he can play back of point guard at an NBA level next year. But if he is not good enough for them to play as much as they have in past seasons or he's just a slightly worse player who knows, great, Andrew Nemhart, they'll change up their rotation patterns a little bit. He is now the back of point guard when they need him to be. They have that rotation. And then there's the other side of the connoisseurs. That's piece like it there's obviously when he's young and talented, there's so many ways that him getting better benefits the team. And without all these specifics about Halbert and him being better is just better obviously. But I think the specific, even the specific skills that he's getting better at, which are coming with him playing a completely different position than he has or will when the team is once again, you know, clicking at their best level will help them next year.

11:14So underrated season for Nemhart, he has gotten more games to potentially boost these stats even more because he's on a passing heater right now. And the fact that I did this segment, he's just going to have like two assists and I'm going to look stupid. But he's having a nice season. He's a great defender. And I think he can even be, you know, closer to his last year level, if not at it, when not asked to create a lot on offense and he can use his energy on the other end. So a lot to like about his season. And I think it's meaningful for the next season. I will talk to him about that as well at some point and include that as color in this podcast as well. Okay, lots of MBA related stuff going on right now that the Pacers are obviously every team is keeping an eye on the cap. Uh oh, going down a little bit, expansion, kind of approved, little, everybody get ahead of themselves there. I talked about that a little bit on here already. And I forget the other thing. Oh, tanking, Adam Silver talked about tanking. We have a lot to discuss here, unlocked on Pacers. But first everybody, a quick break, we've got to talk about two great groups of people. First up is price picks. The plan push is heating up, tournament hoops are here. There's no better way to get it on the action on price picks. It always feels good to be right. Every bucket, every dime, every big moment means more when you are playing on price picks.

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13:18notifications as you go about your day. So relief of walking in and meeting a real person and walking out knowing your taxes are being handled right. Head to your turbo tax.com slash local to find a store new you and book your appointment. And we are back here on Lockdown Pancers. Thanks for being here. It's your first listen today and every single day or second listen, Lockdown Clippers dying all up that you and what's going on in Clipperland, Ben Mathering back on the court. He's not in the injury report. That might be coming tonight. Slash will be coming tonight, looking forward to that return. What that's going to look like as Ajax and obviously a part of this as well. And hey, you can get your first month of the every day or club a new offering here at Lockdown for free right now and use the code March along that very many days left this month. You'll unlock ad free episodes of this podcast entry into a private listener group chat. You can click the link in the show notes or go to lockdownpodcast.com slash every day or to claim your free month. Alrighty. I want to talk about some NBA stuff that is very relevant to the Pacers. And as they were all happening, I got multiple questions about them on social media, people texting me, et cetera, it really interesting stuff in many ways.

14:21So the first one that is it affects every team in some ways, but it affects certain teams who are at a certain spending level more than other teams, but whatever is Shoms Tronny reported on whatever four days ago is that's Monday, Tuesday, that the NBA has informed teams that the league is projecting a $165 million salary kept for next year. You might think that's a big number. I don't know what that means. That's lower than their previous projections by $1 million the tax, which is the critical number for the Pacers. If you ask me down to $201 million, the first day print down to $209, that's the second number. That is important for the Pacers. Hey, the Pacers that does not affect this season, they're spending for this season is fine. They're under the tax. No problem. They probably won't do anything this year. I suppose it's possible. They had a center at some point, but not necessary. They're good. Next year, though, that drop potentially important for them. I've gone through this exercise many times, but now I'm going to do it again with the lower numbers. Right now, they're guaranteed salaries for next season, which only includes 12 guaranteed contracts. And then the half guarantee of Cam Jones, if he's waived and a little under 300K for

15:25Quentin Jackson, if he's waived, would get the Pacers to $194.5 million for 12 players. And that would be less than 7 million shy of the tax and about 15 million shy of the first apron. And so the natural next thing to do is, well, that doesn't include a top four pick. The rookie scale is tied to the cap. The rookie scale every year goes up by the same percentage of salary cap does. So in theory, a smaller cap means the rookie scale is a little smaller, but for the Pacers still, the number one pick, if he gets 120% of the rookie scale, which he would, it's the first pick, is a $14 million player. Right? The fourth pick, the worst one they could get at their rookie scale amount, what it should be expected to be, is a $10.7 million player. If they get their draft pick, they are now going, I mean, they already were, they're going over the tax, right? For sure, how far over depends on what pick they get and what the number actually comes in at because right now it's predicted to be lower, but maybe if there's a great playoffs and or something or there's some other funding that the NBA didn't expect or whatever, it

16:28could go up and could even go down, right? So all of your relevant to the Pacers, if they care about the tax next year, my suspicion would be based on their behavior for years and years that they would, then this matters. This is a big deal, right? If they get the fourth pick, it matters a little less, they might have ways that they could get under without having to, you know, trade a core player for a lesser making money player. If they get the first pick, they might have to think differently about it. Maybe they're just going to be wanting to pay whatever I don't think they'd want to cross the first day for the line, certainly though. And the first pick gets them pretty dang close without a full team. Ham Jones' contract is cheap, Quentin Jackson's is cheap. There are ways that they could be under all the first apron without issue, but the number getting smaller certainly makes things just a little bit tighter for them, but it's impossible to project what it means in terms of other stuff they'd have to do or just seems they'd have to make until they know their pick on May 10th. So that is, of course, of note for them as they head into next season. But again, I've always, I talked about this a little bit already, but I would be keeping an eye on like the McConnell Walker Shepard Salary Trio, as like if they have to make

17:32a salary related move, those are the three guys to keep an eye on and how much shadow they have to move would really depend on which of those players would be in air quotes danger. And then obviously Micah Potter and on Guaranteed, Cam Jones, half Guaranteed, Quentin Jackson, almost completely non-guaranteed. There's some stretching and maneuvering they could do with those guys, Kobe Brown, it's a reagent. So lots of things that could happen with all of this. I said 12 players or I meant to 11 players and they have to get to 14, right? So they have to add two minimums in anyway. So keep keep all this in mind. This is a, it's not a like it hits every team. Every team has the same salary cap. So there is impact everywhere. It's not like some unfair thing, but the Pacers are out of spending part of their cycle where they're paying a lot for their team, right? So as it pertains to them, note worthy, the official numbers will matter where the Pacers pick and the draft will matter. If they pick it all, if they don't pick, that changes their summer in many ways anyway. So that is the thing, the first thing to keep an eye on, but the official numbers will be a huge deal when it comes to that and how the Pacers handle it.

18:35But anyway, getting ahead of that one there. And I did mention some, by the way, of those guys, potentially shepherd, specifically as like a maybe early trade candidate last year when Rhett and I were talking, but we, we were a little early with that for sure. Okay, the second thing that has happened with the NBA officially approved now is the board of governors, meaning that they will explore expansion. I think people took it in random city and the NBA is going to expand. Don't get me wrong. I think that's the favorite is that the 20, 20, 29 season will feature a Vegas team and a Seattle team. They specifically listed those two cities. They still have to get a buyer in those markets who meets the seven to 10 billion dollar projected expansion fee. It seems like Seattle would be very easy and motivated. There's other owners of other teams, things like that. Vegas, who knows what's going on there. I'm not going to guess about that. That's not interesting or well, it is interesting. It's not relevant when I'm talking about today, but assuming that happens, which I think is everybody I've spoken to, it's their assumption, then what what happened is there would be an expansion draft and then there would be cap rules related to that.

19:38So people, when I said last time when I talked about this on this podcast, people said, oh, it's in the CBA kind of. So what is not in the CBA is the expansion draft rules, right? People wanted to talk about, so last time every team had to protect eight players and if you didn't have eight players, you had to leave someone unprotected, right? So it's hard. It's not impossible, but it's hard to game the system. That's where my mind immediately went is like, how many players should you want to have? Should you want to have like just a crappy contract at the time? You know, I don't want to get too far ahead, but you know, that's what I immediately went to, but there were rules in 2004 for the Bobcats to like make it hard to game the system at the time. We'll see if they would set different rules. It's impossible to guess. And that's good because the, I mean, maybe it's not good, but the earlier teams know that they could plan for it in certain ways, whatever. So the rules specifically for the expansion draft are unknowable right now. It's not worth guessing who the Pacers would protect at this stage. Their team is going to look different than it does now. So that part completely irrelevant to me. What does matter is the two new teams have that the cap rules are in the CBA.

20:39There's so many listings in the CBA about like, here's the cap rules and then it's a parent that'll go, it's like, except for expansion teams in the first two years. Because in the first year, an expansion teams salary cap is two thirds of the actual salary cap. And they have to hit a salary floor of 90% of that number. And then the second year, it's 80% and they have to get to 90% of that. They have the same taxes and aprons and things like that. So they do have cap strategy going on. They might want to overpay free agents. They might want to draft an expensive player or two in the expansion draft so they can get to their numbers. But keep that in mind, too, that their salary cap situation is different. So it's not like they're just going to be like, oh my gosh, they're screwed. They have to trade for bad contracts to get to the salary floor. They can be strategic in a way where contracts are different value for them than they are for other teams. So that also makes some of the gaming of the system impossible for teams like the Pacers. That is a problem for the, let's say, I mean, I mean, they'll be thinking about it now every team will, but that's a problem for the future Pacers. The third thing Adam Silver talked about tanking once again and they really want to stop

21:42this. I mean, they should. They should. I mean, it's always been a disaster. It's been a disaster this year. Teams are losing, anyone losing games on purpose is against the spirit of sport. It sucks, right? And the problem is eight teams right now, including the Pacers, are incentivized to do it. And guess what? They should do the thing they're incentivized to do. That's smart team management. And it still, it still stinks for the product and Adam Silver knows that. When he said in his press conference something like getting rules figured out for next season, that would go into effect for 2027, 28, but he wanted to have the rules in place before the draft. And people interpreted that as it would affect this draft. It will not. There will be no rule changes that impact the June draft or the upcoming May lottery for the Pacers. Those rules are set. The season's rules are set. No concern of that. I'll be very curious what rule changes they make because most of the suggestions I've seen seem like they would just change the way tanking is done and not actually get rid of it. But we'll see what they actually do end up implementing.

22:42And it's very surprising to me that with all these traded picks like floating out, they're not surprising. That's the wrong word. It's interesting to me that a league would be like, Hey, guess what? We're going to change these rules right now at this exact moment, even though you guys have all these things you acquired and have perceived value for. But that's just my own opinion. It doesn't matter. I do think they need to do something about this. So I'm glad that they're going to. And that is the latest from around the NBA and what it means for the Pacers. Speaking of the Pacers, specifically the boom, they're doing affiliate their season ended on Thursday night. They absolutely smoked the Cleveland charge. They made a gazillion threes. I was there. And I spoke to their head coach and Jordan Bell after the game. You can hear about the boom and their year one coming up here on lockdown Pacers. But first, everybody, we very quickly have to talk about Fandwell, the tournaments here, one of the best times of the year. Look at the boilers. Look at them go brackets buzzer beaters like the boilers upsets non-stop action from tip to final cut down. And right now, Fandwell is giving new customers a way to stay in the action. I'll turn them along. But best part, you get up to $300 back and bonus bets every day for 10 days. That means 10 chances to stay involved throughout the entire tournament. You can mix it up however you want. Game picks, futures or even same game parlorize.

23:44It's perfect for the tournament because every day there's something new, different matchups, new storylines, more ways to get involved as the bracket unfolds. Visit Fandwell.com. Just sign up today. That's Fandwell.com to get in on the action. Hi, this is Wes Goldberg from Lockdown Heat and Lockdown NBA Daily. Imagine you're watching the game at a buddy's house when you get a call that somebody tried to break into yours. And a second, everything can change. That's why there is ADT. ADT's security system helps keep your home safe 24-7 with the most company operated monitoring centers in the industry. The ADT Plus app keeps you in control the entire time. Don't leave your home wide open during an emergency. When every second counts, count on ADT. Visit ADT.com or call 1-800-ADT-ASAP. And we're back, Karen. Lockdown Pacers. Thanks for speaking to your first listen today. The Lockdown Boilers does exist. Speaking of, if you want to hear about Purdue's crazy win over Texas, I was at the boom game. The boom game ends. They do some fan appreciation stuff. And then the Purdue game, it's like 70-70 or something. It was close.

24:44I can't remember the exact score. And everybody's watching in the back. They're like half the boom team, some staffers. It was very cool. Including, ex-Predue guy, Dakota Matthias. They were all going crazy. For the last shot, shout out to Purdue, what a game. And Iowa, what is going on? Big 10, Rockin' in the tournament. Speaking of the boom, their season ended super weird here. Rick Carlisle talked about this at Pacers Practice on Thursday that the boom where they started off the season super hurt. They signed a hardship contract player before their first game. Crazy. And then they got healthy. They got some, the Pacers got healthy. So the two A guys got to play with the boom. And then they were really good. And then they got Kim Jones for a little bit and they were playing really well. And then at the start of the regular G League season, they had some, sometimes had two A guys sometimes not. But they were playing very well. It's lost and they had everybody. And they were like the third seed, I think, in the G League. And then the Pacers got hurt again and all the guys went up and they never got any assignments. And then the boom got hurt themselves and a couple guys left for other opportunities. And they fell out of the playoffs dramatically. They ended up 16 and 20.

25:44So they just had like four little pocketed seasons where their best was quite good. They could have made the postseason very easily. And their worst level was, you know, a below 500 team. But they ended well on a high note. That's rare in the G League usually. If you're already eliminated, a lot of guys are like who are playing for, you know, other opportunities will just be an individual that didn't happen. They played great in the game. But what I think is interesting about this experience is one. It's in a new location completely. They're in Noblesville now. They have a new setup. They have a new locker. It's really nice to this whole season was chaotic three Jordan Bells back with them. He's been with them a few times before in the past when they were in a fortaway in India, I believe. And he had a terrible injury last season and then returned very recently play like three or four games to close the season. So we talked to head coach Tom Hankins about the season, about the Noblesville part and what it means for them. And then we talked to Jordan Bell and guess what the way that it works is I can just play him on here. So first here is boom head coach Tom Hankins after they're filing in. I had to feel good for everyone given all the circumstances. They're really good.

26:46You know, we talked about before the game in these circumstances a lot of times the teams don't they're done. They don't play together. They play selfish trying to get their own and they're not worried about playing hard and that was just going to play it off to their browser. Just kind of showed the kind of character that these guys have and kind of what we've been dealing with all year this guys are good to do. It's going to play hard. Trying to play the right way. What stood out to you from what you saw from Jordan in his three games here? I mean, after all he went through. Yeah. I mean, we talked about just now in the locker. It's the way he's moving after, you know, complete. Blow out of me in 18 months off. And he had five blocks. You know, he was the arguably the best player on the floor. And it's just to see him. And this is third dance. So I'll see him moving that well. And then his experience in leadership, he's going to have a guy's confidence. I think that was a big huge part of tonight. His him playing well, moving well.

27:47Those guys kind of, you could feel it. You could see this health as they play. At three homes in your time coaching this franchise, whatever. What did you make of the Noblesville experience in the first year? Oh, it's great. I mean, it's the perfect size arena. All right. And in a location, that's obviously in the anus. It's a basketball hotbed. People love it here. Okay. And I think that just as this thing moves on and builds the excitement will continue to grow. If you're still, even if you're around Noblesville and Fisher's, and you're saying the boom, there's a lot of people still that don't know who it is, don't know what it's about. So it's just going to keep growing and growing. What feedback did you get from players about facilities, home arena, all that kind of stuff? Our guys love it. I mean, our locker room is as nice as this is as nice as the Pacers locker room. All the busing teams that come in here just rave about it. And then it's the location of the busing team stays right here.

28:47The hotel, the restaurant, some things that are around here. But there's no one said a bad word about it. And again, they did a great job of building it. I put value in your own season with how much change is roster-wise. I mean, more so than it feels like normal, daily circumstances. We really just look at, we really just look at the growth of the individuals. Like we saw in the sky earlier before the game about the guys that have been here, the core five or six that have been here the entire time, how much they've improved. And then any time guys move, like Jalen Slosson moved up into way, Quentin Jackson went from a two-way. That's why we do this stuff. And then even with Steven Ashworth and Kyle Guy, they'll get great jobs in Europe. That's the growth of things that's kind of what we're here to do, is develop those guys. I want to ask about Cam Jones. Do you have him a few times? What did you make of what he did down here in his rookie season so far?

29:47Cam, he was really good when he was what? Number one, he's super unselfish. He comes in and he actually felt bad for playing, taking, playing time from guys. This shows you what kind of guy he is. But he just showed steady improvement every each game. And he's just getting used to the speed of things. But he definitely has a chance. He's got a really good size, positional size. He passed them all well and shooting is going to be a big market for him. Hope you enjoyed that. And thanks, Tom, for the time. And now you can hear from Jordan Ball. Yes, NBA Champion. Jordan Ball, who played a few games for the boom. And he'll explain to you more about the experience as well. What made you so motivated to come back so late in this season and get back on the floor again? Motivated? I love basketball. I think it's that simple. I love what I do. I don't take for granted like being able to play basketball as a professional. Chris Taylor has really talked a lot about how much he cares about the culture of this program. What have you felt compared to other G-League teams you've been on?

30:48And what kind of way did that maybe want to pull you to come back to play? Yeah, me and Citi are very close. We're in, I was going through stuff this year. My injury, years passed. Me and him were always just being close. It's always been bigger than basketball. Me and Citi. But the coach here is definitely exactly what they say just embrace the grind. And that's all that I'm about. Things aren't always going to be easy in life. You guys embrace it and just keep moving on. What did you learn from these three games or what did you get experienced or answered for you and making this come back this week? I'm still able to play basketball at a high level. I think I don't want to say the mental part because I didn't want to have a mental wall that I thought I had to pass. When I think just, no one, I can still come out here if I wanted to choose and still play. I'm actually going to be up there. And just to know that the work I put in to give back where I'm at is actually paying. How do you experience with other G-League and Pro teams? What did you make of an in-your-one here? The new facilities, the locker room, everything that you guys have?

31:48Oh, it's really dope. It's really dope. I think as far as the G-League teams, this is definitely one of the best arenas we have. The way it is is the best arena that we have out here. And so hopefully it just encourages the other G-League teams to keep improving their stuff. Probably it's travel, arena, whatever it is, just keep improving the players. Tom was just saying a game like this a lot of times when a team's already eliminated. Guys could play for themselves. What did you make of your team playing the way you guys did tonight? I thought this was our best game we played together. And I thought it was great because, like you said, there was nothing to play for. But we came out knowing we weren't going to make the playoffs. I think we put on our best performance. We're probably most in selfish. We've ever been. We played the hardest we've ever had. So it's not been here. And it was great moments to see every player have their own kind of like special moment. I hope you guys enjoyed that and learning a little bit about the G-League experience. What it meant for those guys and things of that nature. Again, I found it all very fascinating. The praise for their facilities.

32:48And it's very nice. I talked to Ken Jones in there after one of their games. It's really nice in their locker room. And I think that's good. Right. For them potentially attracting better talent to their team. And that helps the Pacers and that helps guys on assignment. It's just it's only a good thing to have good. Good facilities and a good setup. That is the end of the boom season. If Jalen Slauson is an active tonight for the Pacers against the Clippers. There's no more two way talk. They can play all those guys the rest of the year. And it's just Pacers the rest of the way. And I'm solo today because I went to the boom game and didn't have time to talk to somebody else. I apologize for that. But we'll be back tomorrow night talking Pacers Clippers. Better to come out there and I say a Jackson back. Toby Brown against his old team. Heck yeah. You can find me on social media at Tony Irish in this podcast. At lockdown Pacers back tomorrow. Talk to more Pacers. Tell them everybody have a wonderful day. The tournament is on. And Fnatic's merch is 30% off with Pays. A fast online checkout offered by Banks and Credit Unions. Snag all your team gear.

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