EVALUATE ROSTERS

“But I think Devon's again, it this guy, he's so chaotic, but so strategic about it, willing to take big risks. The thing I loved about his put everybody's business out there. Here's what Jonathan said. Here's what Stephanie said. Here's what I he also said and you know what? I threw Rizzo's name out because, otherwise, it's totally not credible. That's what makes what he said credible. And they were scrambling after that. Stephanie then tried to say, well, yeah. But I I I didn't I didn't start with the name, which is like, come on.”

“Tatum left the game and was having issues with his good leg. And they were like, is it a cramp? Is it, is there a strain? What is it? And he was asked after the game, if he's fine. And he said, yes, I flagged it immediately, and his lift was gone from the moment it happened. And he took a few shots. I'm sure there you could find the clips on social, but he took a few shots, at least three, and was in there. And he just was at a different speed from the moment something was wrong. And then the game got out of hand, so they smartly pulled them. If if he even has a slight strange, I'm sitting him in game seven. That that's a wrap for me. You cannot fuck with the Tatum part of the season.”

“Well, I mean, let's lay it out. Like, the Nuggets had the best player in the series even before Anthony Edwards got hurt. They had an all NBA caliber guard in Jamal Murray who did not show up for this particular game or was smothered out of it by Jaden McDaniels. They had one of the runners up for sixth man of the year. They had a deeper roster in theory, at least versus the version of the Timberwolves that was down four rotation players by the end. I think you could say they wanted it more. I think you could say the Wolves were, like, more committed to the way that they execute and were executing more relentlessly. And we we usually think of that defensively. Right? But when you watch Jaden McDaniels go around every handoff, every ball screen for forty five minutes, when you watch Rudy Gobert and the intensity he played with all throughout this series, call it what you want. They, like, flat out played these guys, and the Nuggets don't have any excuses for losing a series like this.”

“Like, whoever wins a ton of games in the regular season, that's gonna translate pretty seamlessly to the playoffs. Like, the dominant teams are the dominant teams are the dominant teams. Now, I think you, like, really have to pay attention. Like, I think it's it's so much more than who is the first, second, and third seed in each conference. It's where are those meaningful steps forward for a guy like Jaden McDaniels? Where are the literal vulnerabilities where it's like, man, it just seems like when push comes to shove, this team doesn't have enough spacing or doesn't have enough size. Like, when you look at this one matchup, when you look at OKC versus San Antonio, for example, like, what does that tell us about both teams? I just think the lessons of the regular season require more and more of a magnifying glass to find, but they're there. It's just not as, like, big and in flashing lights as it used to be.”

“But, Donnie Baseball was asked before the season if he if he was interested in managing again, and he threw out the generic, oh, you know, I don't have the energy to to keep managing. I'm just, you know, I don't I don't still have it in me. And then Dave Dombrowski said, hey, Donnie Baseball. You wanna manage this team? He said, absolutely. And then they asked him in the, press conference. They're like, hey, what happened there? Because we asked you before the season if you had any interest in managing again, and you kinda hinted at it and said you didn't have the energy to do this anymore. And he's like, yeah. Rob was here, so I didn't wanna kinda ruffle any feathers. So I just kinda said that thing, but I'm good. I'm good to manage. Then he wins the first game, and they're like, did you give any big speeches to the guys? Did you rally the troops? What'd you say? And then he was just kinda like, I just congratulations. It's just another game. Like, we're supposed to be winning things. Like, what do what do you want me to say to them?”

“Because earlier this week, the Reds had one of the more memorable ABS challenges of the season where they're up seven to two in the ninth inning. And there's a promotion where if the Reds strike out 11 batters, the fans in the stands get free pizza. Oh, wow. So they're up five runs, ninth inning, not a close game. All of a sudden, reds catcher challenges a call. So then everyone's just waiting around because they know we're we're sitting on 10 strikeouts right now. What are we gonna do? Yeah. The momentum, the anticipation's building. All of a sudden, the graphic pops up on the screen. The ball comes in, and you see it got a corner. There's a little red circle around the ball. Strike three. He's called out. He has to walk back. The the place erupts. The crowd's going crazy because they get free pizza. Oh, the best of all. I love those promotions in baseball where it's attached to, like, these random things that, I guess, insurance companies or whatever, like, figure out probabilities and, like, yeah. How many times they're gonna strike out 11 hitters in a game? So they do it.”