Welcome in to the newest edition of the Justin
Time Sports Podcast. I am your owner and host,
Justin Jackson. In this week's episode, we'll
be discussing the NFL Draft as it has just concluded.
We will also be talking about the NBA Playoffs.
And of course, we will have our best for last.
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Welcome into the show. will admit it has been
far far too long and for those of you who are
shrek yes i from shrek fans yes i said it like
uh shrek tells the donkey they're going to the
land of far far away donkey it has been far far
too long people that i have been away from you
guys uh in the audio format so you guys have
had the youtube show on a fairly regular basis
But you have not had the audio show in about
a month. So hopefully that is rectified. Two
months, actually. So hopefully that is rectified.
That's a bunch of scheduling problems and all
kind of stuff was going on. So it was, you know,
a lot was happening. However, enough of that
jazz. We are back. The Justin Towns Sports Podcast
is back on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you get
your podcasts. And I think perfectly in time
to try to pretty much get you through the NBA
playoffs. And you guys know after the NBA playoffs,
we take about a couple of weeks off, and then
we come back for the crunch time of the NBA season,
right into the NBA training camp, NFL training
camp, rather. So you pretty much know how that
goes. But the NFL draft happened just last weekend
in Green Bay, Wisconsin. First of all, shout
out to Green Bay for the amazing turnout they
had. They broke actually Nashville's record for
turnout. Now, Green Bay, Wisconsin itself only
has about 100000 people in the city. It is the
smallest American sports city in the smallest
professional American sports city. The very oddity
of the stadium literally being in a neighborhood.
So you're driving in this neighborhood, and then
out pops Lambeau Field. So players, you know,
role players have said that before, that, you
know, one of the things like not knowing where
you are in situations, head down or whatever
on the bus, and you're in this neighborhood,
and your head's to the left, and then you turn,
and you're staring at the side of Lambeau Field,
you know, and it's just one of the weirder scenes
in the league. It's cool and it's weird and it's
individuality. It's like stadiums more and more
being placed in major parking lots and their
own metropolitan areas are being created around
them and so on and so forth. It was like enough
space was carved out in this area to build Lambeau
Field in the parking lot. And that's it. Because,
again, regular houses, we're not talking mansions
like literal regular houses are just. You know,
across the street from Lambeau Field. Again,
one of the cooler environments in the NFL. But
shout out Green Bay for breaking Nashville's
record of the most people to attend the draft.
North of 200 ,000 for sure. I think it went north
of 300 ,000 in order to break the record. So,
again, huge, huge shout out to Green Bay. And
the draft was an interesting one. The draft was
definitely an interesting one from start to finish.
You know, like it was even drama with Mr. Relevant
because the Patriots end up trading into the
last spot of the draft to get Mr. Relevant. That
was drama all over the place. And we came into
this draft looking at the fact that, hey, odds
are this draft will have a lot of trades in it.
The reason why is for the first time in. So many
years, everybody came in owning a first round
pick. All 32 teams had a first round pick in
the NFL draft. And it's not like the later rounds
where there's compensatory picks or whatever.
The NFL draft, the first round is the only round
that's guaranteed to have 32 picks. Now, you
know, there's never. you know the exact amount
of picks it should be because the nfl hands out
compensatory picks for loss of free agents and
so on and so forth so they begin to add picks
um so it's never 224 picks like it should it's
how you end up north of like 270 and stuff like
that because and the number changes every year
because the amount of compensatory picks that
are handed out for that season so The top four
of the draft went pretty. The names were standard.
How we got there was different. So Cam Ward to
the Tennessee Titans was set in stone for months,
so much so that at an introductory press conference,
Warren Moon unretired the number one and going
to allow Cam Ward to wear it. Part of Warren
Moon's reason was the Oilers uniforms that the
Titans wear every so often to honor their Houston
pass will no longer be worn. So Warren Moon was
kind of like, okay, since technically no oiler,
it would never be worn by an oiler again. He
would un -retire it for Cam Ward and allow Cam
Ward to wear one who's been wearing one. As far
as I mean, since I know this is in the car and
we're definitely in Miami, he's been the number
one. And so Warren Moon blessed him and allowed
him to wear the number one for Tennessee. And
then the big drama happens at number two, or
the first of the initial big dramas happens at
number two. In which case, the Jacksonville Jaguars
say screw it, throw caution to the wind, and
they go up and get Colorado two -way star Heisman
winning Travis Hunter with the second overall
pick. Now, Mel Kiper and others have lamented
the Jaguars' decision to give up so much capital
to go from five to two. I am a believer. that
Travis doesn't make it past four. He doesn't.
He doesn't get past us. I feel like if he's at
the fourth pick with New England, he's going
to New England. I think New York picks Abdul
Carter either way. So it would have been on Cleveland
to either stick and pick Hunter or to pick Mason
Graham. So I ultimately think that that move
was going to have to be made anyway. to an extent
to get Travis Hunter. Plus, if he's going to
play both sides of the ball, he's worth it. And
according to Travis Hunter, he himself was put
on the phone with both coordinators after the
draft, and then the Jaguars put out media saying
he has special plans, that Travis has a special
plan for himself, and the Jaguars have a special
plan for him, which leads me to think he'll play
both sides of the ball substantially. Now, does
that mean he's 100 snaps? Is he 130 snaps a game
in the NFL? No. Also, the NFL game doesn't really
have 130 snaps. You might get 45 to 50 snaps
in the NFL either way it go because the NFL game
is notoriously slower. And that's where a lot
of the players, he can't play in the NFL. And
the young guys are like, yeah, he could. First
of all, it's not nearly as physical as it was
25, 30 years ago. Second of all, the game is
slower than the college. So he was averaging
120, 130 snaps in college. If he could play every
snap on both sides of the ball, then he wouldn't
get to 120 snaps. He would play both sides of
the ball and get to 120 snaps, as opposed to
that fast -paced college -style ripping and running
with that snapping every 20 to 25 seconds. You
know, some people as low as 15 seconds. He's
still playing all those snaps. If he can do it
there, he can do it in the NFL. I think he'll
end up playing probably 90 % of the snaps at
receiver and probably 75 % to 80 % of the snaps
at corner. I don't see him being a first down
corner. So if you're playing Baltimore and they're
in twins, I don't see Travis Hunter being on
the field or they're in, you know, 20 -inch personnel.
I think he'll be in 11 personnel, 10 personnel,
zero personnel type corner. I don't think he'll
be a 31 personnel guy, 13 personnel guy, a lot
of 12 personnel depending on the pass tendency
because that's a snap you can steal. Instead
of him getting blocked and being on the field,
he could be sitting down, getting gated or getting
treated. So I think it'll be very team dependent
how much he plays on defense. But I do think
that he will greatly be used on offense. I think
he was primarily drafted on offense, trying to
give a boost to that offense led by Trevor Lawrence.
And also, I believe that the Jaguars also drafted
a running back. So they're trying to give Trevor
Lawrence a chance there. But it is definitely
an interesting move there by the Jacksonville
Jaguars and one I completely agree with. And
then it gets kind of boring again. Abdul Carter
goes number three to the Giants. His biggest
controversy was he wanted to wear Lawrence Taylor
to the Six. Lawrence Taylor told him, heck nah.
He was cordial about it, but hell nah was the
message. And then Will Campbell, a .k .a. Baby
Arms, a .k .a. T -Rex, goes fourth overall to
the... New England Patriots, and then Mason Graham
goes to the Browns. So the Browns pick up an
additional first -round pick in 2026, which could
be huge in a very quarterback -rich draft, also
a very talent -rich draft. That draft is supposed
to be especially special at the quarterback position,
but there's supposed to be a lot of talent there
outside of receivers. He's supposed to be awful
in 26, really great in 27. But, you know, receivers
come out of nowhere all the time, so who knows
who pops out, who stands out. But, Of course,
the NFL draft story is the Shador Sanders story.
He came in as a top 10 consensus pick by most
people's estimation. He was only given a 5 %
chance of not being a first -round pick. I mean,
he was all but decided of being a first -round
pick, whether that is somebody's initial pass,
those first 9 and 10 picks, or it's a spin back
and someone trades him to the end of the first
round and grabs him to secure that fifth -year
option. while saving $20, $25 million on the
front end, you know, that was what a lot of,
that was what a lot of analysts, myself included,
had him going. And if you watch the YouTube show,
the YouTube mock draft, Chris from CL Smooth
Gaming had him as a ninth pick. You know, I had
him as a ninth pick, especially when Derek Carr's
shoulder results, it's easily Shador saying as
a ninth, maybe even sixth. I mean, he was as
high as two to Cleveland. People like Skip Bayless
say he should have been number one over Cam Moore,
but he was as high as two to Cleveland. Three
was a possibility to New York. Six because of
the Tom Brady connection. And no one really thought
he would get past nine, which New Orleans, who
needed a quarterback, Kellen Moore needed his
own guy. Derek Carr is not going to play anymore
for the Saints. And that is the perfect opportunity
to get a relatively cheap quarterback. Four years,
less than $40 million. And it's relatively cheap
per year. And that was going to be how it went
down. And then the drama started. Cleveland,
like I said, works out the deal with Jacksonville.
And he got the fifth pick, pick Mason Graham.
Okay. Vegas decides to go with Ashton Genting.
Cool. New Orleans decides to draft Kelvin Banks.
When New Orleans drafts Kelvin Banks, there's
a video of Deion Sanders just kind of shaking
his head. Because I don't know if that's a shake
my head if I was promised certain things and
that's not true. I don't know if that's a shaking
of the head that's saying my son's going to be
here a while. I don't know what that shaking
of the head was about. But whatever it was, he
clearly was affected strongly by New Orleans
picking Kelvin Banks Jr. It's almost to the point
of whether like was he told we're going to get
you at nine. There's obviously, to me, some sort
of back -channel discussion between Deion, you
know, Deion and Shador and anybody else that
steps in his way. Like, to me, there's obviously
something going on with that situation. But regardless,
I just think when he could pass nine in New Orleans,
he did. He continued to fall and fall and fall.
So then the New York Giants trade up 25, and
everybody in the world is going, math included.
Oh, that must be Shador. Because there's nobody
else worth trading up to 25 for. They came about
10, 12 spots. So we're like, oh, that must be
Shador. And they must be jumping before anybody
else could jump. It was Jackson Dart, quarterback
from Ole Miss. Now you can sell me Jackson Dart.
I may not buy it. I may laugh it out the building.
But I will attempt to have you sell it to me.
The next three quarterbacks off the board are
as follows. Louisville's Tyler Shaw, Alabama's
Dylan Murrow, and Oregon's Dylan Gabriel. Under
no circumstance will I allow you to attempt to
soil the reputation of my brain and the internet.
I mean, that was an absolute travesty when those
three were in the front end. Like I said, you
could sell me Jackson Dart. I wouldn't necessarily
buy it, but I'd have the argument. There is no
argument for... There is no argument for anything
else. You know? Like I said, we can discuss it
if it comes down to Jackson Dart, but Shaw, Milrow,
and... What's his face? Shaw, Milrow... Oh, and
Gabriel? There's no conversation to be had there.
But the overarching question is true. What happened...
to Shador. How did we go from potentially the
number two pick in the draft? Skip Bayless at
number one. I'm not going to go there, right?
Ken Wood's been the number one pick for months.
How did we go from potentially the number two
pick in the draft to fifth round? Okay. It's
going to start off with some precedent here.
Quarterbacks are rarely picked in the second
round. Tyler Shaw is like, There may be one a
class because usually if you draft the guy at
40, specifically a quarterback, you do what the
Giants did. You're going to say, forget picking
40. We're going to get that fifth year option.
We'll trade 40, 118 and 170 something or a fifth
next year to go from 40 to 30. and pick up the
fifth year option so that way we have this guy
under our control for five contracts for four
contractual years team option two franchise tags
he's 30 by the time he even has a legit chance
at real free agency or he's 28 23 now it's a
quarterback all right cool but we have him on
the team for seven years at least that's had
worse two coaches you know i'm saying so you're
having that stability at the position in your
mind for at least seven seasons minimum, and
no one has gone the full Kirk Cousins ran the
gambit. He did the four years, then he got franchise
tag, then he got out and went frenzy. He's our
only quarterback in recent memory to run the
full gambit of the contract, and even he did
it from a six -round pick perspective. He didn't
have the franchise tag. That is what was interesting
about Deion Sanders. Not Deion Sanders. Shador
Sanders. Once you get out of the first round,
second round picks being unlikely because that's
skill, guys. Third round picks are usually dual
players. Fourth round, fifth round is where quarterbacks
return. So people are like, well, I was doing
second round pick. That rarely happens. Okay.
Image issues. It is clear to me, at least from
what was presented back to us, that no teams
thought he was an NFL starter. At least nowhere
early. Now, maybe he ended up one. Maybe they
could project in the perfect system with the
right acquisitions, blah, blah, blah, that he
is a starter for a few years, not amazing, blah,
blah, blah, and go on and so on and so forth.
Cool. I have to do with saying it's the ability
to start his rookie season. However, Once you
get to the point where you're saying he's a backup
for us, now what is the worst thing to be in
the NFL? It's a celebrity backup quarterback.
When Tebow left Denver, Tebow struggled to find
a job. Not only because he wanted to start, but
number two, you couldn't just bring Tebow in
because as soon as the quarterback plays bad
one series, you're hearing, we want Tebow. We
want Tebow. We want Tebow. Or you go up 13, 14
in the fourth quarter, and you hear Tebow, Tebow,
Tebow, Tebow. And that is the literal last thing
you want. You do not want a celebrity backup
quarterback. So now that begins to work against
him heavily. You also have the fact that he had
a tendency to hold the ball way too long in college.
I'm also the believer of I'll watch them play
in college. If Shador didn't hold the ball and
run around from sacks, they would probably not
win a game. The fact they won as many games as
they did, including one where he literally dodged
multiple sacks and was still fading left, flicks
it through the rain in overtime right into the
corner of the end zone. Yes. Are there flaws
in the game with Shador Sanders? Absolutely.
I wonder how long it's going to take him to break
out of the tendency of trying to scramble and
run around for everything. Because Caleb Williams
struggled with that his rookie year where he
was able to dance and dodge and prance and prod
his way around blockers and around defenders.
And that's just not possible at the NFL level.
Not really. Not for a non -special athlete because
the guy who's 6 '5", 280 is as fast, if not faster
than you. He's used to moving laterally and changing
directions quickly. I think that Seattle goes
with Milrow because they are looking at Milrow
as a day one instant dual threat guy. I don't
understand Tyler Shaw. I don't understand Dylan
Gabriel. I just don't. Both of those guys were
picked in front of Shador Sanders. I don't understand.
There is almost a collusion. If it was collusion,
it was designed to humble him. If there was collusion,
it was designed to make sure that people watched
day three. If it was collusion, it was designed
to sell a lot of tickets to Cleveland. And again,
I am a proponent of conspiracy theories to an
extent. That was not a conspiracy theory. There
was no one against them, so on and so forth.
So, I mean, absolutely a wild day. Crazy, crazy
day. But the main question is why Cleveland?
Cleveland is the perfect spot for him. You saw
what they did, was able to do with Deshaun Watson
when healthy. I love Kevin Stefanski. Joe Flacco
ripped off a lot of games last year. And so,
you know, I enjoy the fit they have in Cleveland.
They're going to continue to put offense line
together, continue to put weaponry together.
Defense is going to be vital. So it is going
to be very interesting. interesting situation
in the dog pound. They report that Shador is
not the starter. It's going to be very hard to
be in Cleveland for a while if they tell you
that Shador is not the starter. And what now?
Now, simply, he has to go to training camp and
ball out. He's the fifth -round pick. He'll get
an invite to rookie minicamp, so on and so forth,
but it's completely up to him now. how we feel
and what we think is irrelevant because now he
is a NFL player with NFL talent, NFL GMs, NFL
scheme, and it is entirely and totally up to
him. And I'm sure I'll keep an eye on whatever
team he plays for, but it is entirely up to him.
All right, but quickly, who won the draft? When
there's a winner, there's got to be a loser.
So who won the draft? The Patriots won the draft.
The Patriots drafted incredibly well. I think
one of the sneakier great picks in the draft
is Stevenson. He's going to be a guy who's going
to run the ball in the committee. He's not going
to be every down back. You know, Kansas City
is not going to see him 30 times a game. Kansas
City might see him 15 times a game, 12 times
a game with three passes. And so you get situations
like that where you don't necessarily have. You
know, you don't have to have a stable of running
backs, have a quartet, triple that minimum quartet
of running backs. You can constantly rotate in,
especially with that system. And New England
did that when they got Trevion Henderson. They
also picked up Will Campbell. Like I said, they
also picked up multiple guys who grayed out to
either starters or near starters their first
year on campus. So that is huge for us. And then.
That's it. I thought I had a – oh, wait, no.
I'm sorry. And Philly also won the draft. They
didn't rebuild. They just simply reloaded. So
Philly was able to win the draft there, picking
in all their spots, all big names, which gives
me a lot of cause to pause at times that they
will indeed behave. And then, of course, again,
as a winner, it has to be a loser. So the first
loser in the draft is Atlanta. I'm not mad at
Atlanta for picking – Trudeau Stewart, he's a
combine warrior. He's one of those guys where
if you're a D -line coach in D .C., you can say,
Coach, I can fix him. I mean, then you just kind
of blindly draft and pick. I mean, you don't
want to acknowledge you did it, so you're going
to blindly draft and pick. I mean, that's just
the truth. All right, and then the Philadelphia
Eagles. Need to stand up for their team as well
in the good section. But in the bad section,
we have the Atlanta Falcons. I don't know. I
got a little off rails there, but we have the
Atlanta Falcons. Again, I don't mind what they
did in the draft position -wise. They needed
DBs and they needed edge rushers. They picked
both up. The problem is both edge rushers and
they were both safeties. So not necessarily the
position group in the DB room that you need.
And also, the Falcons traded a good amount of
draft capital. for the right to draft another
player at a position he already drafted. So that
was highly frustrating there. So I can only imagine
how Falcons faithful felt seeing the amount of
capital you gave up for an edge rusher. And then
the Bengals, everything about it depends on Shemar
Stewart. The Bengals tripled down. I mean, the
Falcons tripled down on having good safeties,
but the Bengals, everything depends on Shemar
Stewart. They went out to fix their edge problem
as well, along with potentially replace Trey
Hendrickson. And again, every single thing revolves
around Shamar Stewart. Shamar Stewart is average
to be average class. If Shamar Stewart is exceptional,
it's to be an exceptional class. It's just that
simple for the Cincinnati Bengals. Now, you need
to find an offensive tackle. But they did a great
job all around by the NFL GMs. Nobody was made
to look dumb. Now, there was a couple of things,
decisions that I wouldn't have made just because
of the future. because I don't know how heavily
stacked up that QB class is. Having a high pick
in that class could mean ransom from somebody.
So that is definitely, definitely important and
what a great draft, what an amazing draft it
was. Kind of our taste of football until August,
or at least if you want to see the NFL. But up
next, we're going to have our NBA playoffs and
talk about what's going down there. Welcome back
into the show. As now we jump into the NBA playoffs,
which last time we talked wasn't even on the
near horizon. As we are still in the first round
of the NBA playoffs. We're going to talk about
this more on the YouTube show as well with T
-Mail and Jai on the JTS After Dark show. We
are also going to talk about it right now. So
just want to look at all the standings and we're
going to get into in -depth stuff with a little
bit of the series stuff, series by series. So
we're going to start off with the West. We have
our first person in the conference semifinals,
and that would be the Oklahoma City Thunders.
They wipe away the Grizzlies 4 -0 in a sweep.
Actually, not that shocking of a sweep. Now,
people say, oh, that could have happened to anybody.
No, the Grizz were a bad matchup for the Thunder.
Because Shea played horrible, like most of this
series. And I think that if the 8C was the Warriors,
if the 8C ended up being the Timberwolves, because
in that last game, they were all like a game
apart, weird tiebreakers everywhere. If the 8C
ended up being somebody other than the Grizzlies,
I believe that Oklahoma City is probably 2 -2
with them. Because Shea played absolutely god
-awfully terrible. But ultimately, the Grizzlies
were without Taylor Jenkins as their coach. John
Morant gets hurt in game three. And again, the
Thunder had beat the Grizzlies by 19 plus points
in the regular season again. So them blowing
them out in the playoffs was not shocking because
it was the same exact matchup. And now you get
a less good coach. No offense, but it ain't it
ain't Taylor Jenkins. And whoever I think Adelman
or whoever the name is of the of their coach.
You clearly get a not nearly as talented coach.
And especially given the time situation, you're
not really installing your own stuff. You're
kind of running new stuff they're not used to,
so on and so forth. So, again, it's a situation
where Oklahoma City had the perfect first round
matchup. It's almost, in the words of Nick Wright,
it's better than a bye. The reason why it's better
than a bye is you were able to play on the court.
You were able to. Those are probably. The four
worst games that Shea will play all playoffs.
And you won all four of them. Because you played
one of, if not the worst team in the playoffs.
I mean, the only team probably worse than them
right now is Cleveland. Not Cleveland, Miami.
Because Miami was a Tennessee that literally
played their way in. So that's probably the worst
team in the playoffs. But they were easily the
worst team in the West, probably the second -worst
team in the playoffs. And you were able to, like
I said, get basically all of Shea's bad games
out of the way without it costing you anything.
So now they get a week off before the second
round, and the team they're going to play is
in an absolute dogfight because it's the winner
of the Nuggets and the Clippers, who are currently
tied 2 -2 in a war as it heads back to Denver
for game 4, a pivotal game 5. You're going to
hear the stat over the next few days because
it's... Well, the only series 2 -2 going into
tonight. So I'm recording this on Monday at about
630. So you guys, by the time you guys hear this,
summer's also be decided. It may be different.
But right now, as it sits, only one series is
2 -2, and that's Nuggets Clippers. Actually,
outside of Warriors and Rockets, they're the
only series that could be 2 -2. But the Nuggets
Clippers get into it 2 -2. And you're going to
hear the stat, of course, 71 % of the time or
something like that, the team who wins game five
of the 2 -2 series goes on and wins the finals.
Goes on and wins the series, right? And that's
going to be a popular thing you're going to hear
over and over again. This game is valuable beyond
belief. It is a very vital game for the Clippers
and the Nuggets. And I say this because if you're
the Clippers, you're like, dude, we could have
been 3 -1. And if you're the Nuggets, you're
like, dude, we could have been 3 -1. Both of
them could have easily been 3 -1. And honestly,
Denver could have swept. Because Denver, one
of the games Clippers won, Denver had them down,
really down, and they came back. But vice versa,
the Clippers had Denver down really well one
game, and Denver came back. The Aaron Gordon
buzzer beater dunk was insane. That's a game
where the Clippers look back and go, damn, that's
how we lost? But also, if you're the Clippers,
you're probably going, well, we probably should
have lost the game anyway. We were down a lot.
And if you're Denver, that's a game to me that
makes you nervous because it's a game you put
in your title like, okay, we won it. But also,
we probably shouldn't have been that close to
them. So that's a situation where if you're,
you know, it depends on your perspective there.
If you're a half full kind of guy. If you're
a half full, you're like, hey, we got the win.
We got the win. We're out of there. And if you're
a Clippers half full person, you're saying. Well,
we charge back from 20 -something down, and if
it's not for the luckiest play in NBA playoffs
history, we go into overtime and probably win
that game. If you're half -empty on both sides,
you're Denver going, it took the luckiest play
in NBA history for us to survive after blowing
this massive lead. And if you're a half -empty
Clippers fan, you go, my God, man, are we just
supposed to lose the series? We're .2 seconds
away from legitimately probably having a really
good chance of being up 3 -1. And now we go into
their building 2 -2. So it's a plethora of, you
know, it's a plethora of things in that series.
To me, this is the best series going right now.
It is a war down there. You've got historic performances
on both sides. Kawhi Leonard looks to be in form.
If you haven't seen this, Kawhi Leonard is probably
the Toronto Raptors championship. And Nikola
Jokic just showing why he's the best player on
the planet. Shot after shot after shot, play
after play after play. I mean, he's injured.
He's wearing a brace and a sleeve. He doesn't
care. He's going. So just absolute kudos all
around in this series. It's interesting to watch.
And it's especially interesting because. Denver
doesn't have their coach. They're running with
an assistant coach as well because they fired
Mike Malone after years of him battling with
the GM. They finally fired them both. And so
it's interesting watching this chess match between
Ty Lue and the Nugget assistant coach because
it's kind of you have no tendency. you know,
you're kind of learning what he wants to do kind
of as you do it. And it's very Jokic -led, which
throws even more monkey rings because Jokic is
playing kind of off feeling, you know, because
he's kind of coaching. If I could return coaching,
leading, and playing off feeling as opposed to
a strategist, and there is no such strategy.
So it's incredibly interesting watching them
go back and forth as far as chess piece. To me,
the most shocking series right now is the Lakers
and Timberwolves. And the Lakers are down three
games to one. They split. I mean, for the Timberwolves,
it is as beautiful of a series as you can possibly
imagine. You split it on the road. You win both
games at home. I mean, that's the underdog. That's
the lower seed manual. Split, hold home court.
Because you go back in game five, up 3 -1. That's
what Minnesota is. They had three. The Lakers.
They could be saying, damn, we could have swept.
Because you win, you get blown off the floor
in game one. You could be up 3 -1 because both
games in Minnesota, you had good second half
leads and you let Minnesota win both games. So
instead of being up 3 -1, heading back to L .A.,
ending in a 5, you're going to L .A., down 3
-1. You're probably going to win game five. I
don't see the Lakers going out in five. I don't
think the NBA will allow the Lakers to go out
in five. Why don't the Lakers go out in five?
Game six of the game. It's back in Minnesota.
It's put on a show. Both second halves in Minnesota.
It is a situation where if you are the Lakers,
that is the game. If you're the Timberwolves,
that is the game. I'm saying it now because we
won't talk before the series ends. The winner
of game six wins the series. Again, I don't believe
the Lakers lose game five. I don't think it's
possible. I do, however, think what is very possible
is that if the Lakers win game five, it comes
down to game six. Whoever wins game six wins
in LA in game seven. Because either the Timberwolves
are going to win it in six or the Lakers, you're
going to tell LeBron and Luka you're 48 minutes
away from the second round against either Golden
State or Houston. Both of which, if you're the
Lakers, You're feeling pretty good about beating.
Golden State don't have the offensive firepower
to outside of Steph and Jimmy. You would also
look at that series if you're the Lakers and
go, man, Dre gets LeBron, Jimmy gets Luka. Who's
guarding Reeves or Rui? You know what I'm saying?
If you make it out. Also, if you look at if you
end up being Houston, if you're the Lakers and
you made the comeback. who you know saying amen
thompson goes to lebron brooks goes to lebron
amen goes to luca who's got reeves it's kind
of but who's got reeves has been his self over
these past couple of games he's been checked
he's been not himself and so that's allowed minnesota
they are wing defender short but the problem
is that wing defender is doing a decent job on
reeves who's just not looking like himself right
now and they're also in need of a big i mean
this series proved they need a functional center.
Jackson Hayes is not functional. Do they need
Anthony Davis at center? No. Do they can have
somebody as dysfunctional as Jackson Hayes? No.
If they have somebody in the middle like Clint
Capella, the Lakers are probably up 3 -1. It's
just that simple for the Lakers. I mean, they
are a functional center away from being up 3
-1, but they can't make a center. They can't
create a center. That center is going to have
to be Jackson Hayes or they're going to have
to play small. And so JJ Redick went a very bold
strategy of not subbing in the second half. And
I think it cost him in the fourth quarter. And
Kendrick Perkins kind of said what I said. When
you went up 10, that was your moment. You know.
When LeBron sat for a minute and 38 seconds,
you could have done two minutes and 38 seconds.
You could have done the old calf sub. About 30
seconds, right around a minute, whatever. A minute
and 30 becomes he subs out the next whistle.
He subs them out. You get them back in right
around 10 minutes up in the fourth. So it only
may be two and a half minutes of game time max,
but it's 10 minutes or 15 minutes of real time.
Because you get TV timeouts, you get breaks,
you get... Probably free throws at the end of
the half. You get a quarter change. And so it
ended up being 10 to 15 minutes of real time.
And the clock only lost two minutes. So that's,
I think, J .J. Redick, that was a rookie coach
mistake and a big moment. His lineup was rolling.
He trusted those five. He probably could have
asked him, Luke and LeBron, are y 'all good?
They both kept telling him yes. And so he's kind
of rolled with it. That was a rookie moment from
J .J. Redick. So the Lakers are down 3 -1. And
then Rockets and Warriors are playing a pivotal
game four tonight. Jimmy Butler comes back after
missing game three, a Warriors win, which could
come back to haunt Houston after a pelvic contusion
of the Warriors. Jimmy Butler comes back to play
for the Warriors in game four as the Warriors
take a commanding 3 -1 lead over the Rockets.
So it could very well, the bracket could end
up being the one seed, the five, the six, and
the seven seed. in the West. I mean, like that's,
it's very much on the table right now of how
the West could look. Oklahoma City could wake
up as the only top four seed in the West. And
then Clippers, I'm sorry, no, Clippers would
go to Oklahoma City. So then the Timberwolves
are hosting a second round or have home court
advantage in the second round. I mean, that's
like, it's crazy, but that's very realistic right
now that Oklahoma City could wake up in five
days as the only top four seed left in the West.
which is the total opposite of the East because
in the East, the guy was about to finish off
the Heat. There's not much talk about here. Very
similar to Oklahoma City. They're blowing the
Heat off the floor. Even if the final score doesn't
say it, at no point do you feel like the Heat
were ever going to win any of these games. And
I feel like that's what matters. Like at no point
did it feel like the Heat was ever going to win
these games. And so that's what matters there.
They're blowing the Heat off the floor. They're
going to get rid of them tonight. It's going
to be a sweep. Okay, Pacers and Bucs. Pacers
and Bucs. First of all, I want to say my condolences
to Dame. Damian Lillard popped his Achilles tendon,
his left Achilles tendon, at this stage and age
of his career. And Chris Haynes already saying
Dame's going to attack rehab. And Dame is, you
know, determined to come back and be a great
player and contribute to winning and blah, blah,
blah, blah, blah. Right? Damian Lillard as it
sits right this second like today as I'm recording
this is 34 years old by the time next season
starts he will be 35 years old the Achilles injury
is typically what is known as a 12 to 24 month
injury 12 months to get active again another
12 months to feel like yourself that would place
him after around his 36th birthday. Sorry, Damian
Lillard. It's over. Now, could he come back and
be 17 tonight? Sure. But coming back and being
a heavy contributor to a title team, unless he
just, like I said, signed some cheap little deal
with the Lakers. If he's out 12 months, that's
next playoffs. He's not going to start in the
playoffs. So your best bet is to do it in nine?
Come back around January and do a three -month
ramp -up, basically, to be ready for the playoffs.
I mean, that's the only way, rationally, I think
he pulls it off. To be honest, I don't think
he pulls it off. I just don't. It was one of
those moments where it was like, dang, that's
how it ends for Dame. You know, it was like instant.
And so when he saw him sitting on the floor and
then he got up and did the drop and did the dead
foot walk, it's like, dang, that's how it ends
for Damian Lillard. And it was especially sad
in the moment because he just sat on the floor.
And it was a timeout for him. None of his teammates
came and got him. Like one teammate came and
picked him up. And he was sitting in the middle
of the floor for like, It felt like an eternity
by itself. And just sitting there. Both teams
were at the bench, like cleared away, and he
was just sitting there. And then one teammate
came and picked him up, and he did the dead foot
walk to the sideline, and he was carried out
from the sideline from there. But it's just like,
dang. That's how it ends for one of the best
point guards of a generation. So, yeah, Damon
was injured. He won't be the same. It's sad to
say, but he won't be. But then that leads into
the series itself. So the Pacers have been controlling
this series, and Dame just came back from deep
vein thrombosis. Fought back quickly to get into
the series and pops the Achilles, but the Pacers
have been in control of this series, and it kind
of goes into the Bucs' missed window. And they
want to chip in this window, but they made a
series of poor personnel moves, namely the Drew
Holiday situation that gave them Dame. Because
by sending Drew Holiday to Portland, Portland
immediately redirects Drew Holiday to Boston.
And now Boston's the big roadblock in the East
that Milwaukee couldn't get by. And Boston has
a title with Drew Holiday. You see what I'm saying?
So it's like if they sat with Drew Holiday, I
think they would have traded Damian Lillard.
Not Damian Lillard. They would have traded Chris
Middleton instead of Damian Lillard. Because
then you end up using Chris Middleton on the
first to get Kyle Kuzma, who has been absolutely
useless. It was just mistake after mistake after
mistake by the front office. They've been spending
a ton of money. Ownership has been spending a
boatload of money. I'm sure they're spending
hundreds of millions of dollars in luxury tax
trying to keep this thing competitive. And I
think they need to just go ahead and let it wrap,
basically. Start it over. It's okay. And I think
it can be a situation where you have no assets.
You have control of one first round pick until
2031. You have control of one second round pick
until 2031. The Pelicans have more of your picks
than you do. Portland has your picks. Portland
has your picks. Washington has your picks. New
Orleans has your picks. So if I'm them, I'm either
trading Giannis to get my picks back. New Orleans,
Washington, or Portland. Screw what Giannis wants.
Or I'm trading Giannis to a place that's going
to net me a lot of picks on there on my own.
Where that place is, Brooklyn. Now, really, Brooklyn
became the heavy favorite. He's like minus 200
right now to go to Brooklyn last I've seen. So
if Brooklyn wants to give their draft back because
the Brooklyn bought their draft back from Houston,
so if Brooklyn didn't want to turn their draft
over to Milwaukee in exchange for Giannis, I'm
sure the Bucs will do it because that's going
to be a high lottery to pick this draft. If I'm
the Nets, I don't give you this year's pick.
We can start to count next year. or we do swaps
or something. But, again, it's going to be very
interesting to find out, to look at how Milwaukee
figures this out because, to me, the Giannis
era is over. It nets you a championship, but
that's it. The last great big to be in Milwaukee
was one championship, and that was it, and that
was Kareem Abdul -Jabbar, then known as Luau
Sindor. So if I'm Milwaukee, I repeat history.
For lack of a better term, sell them to the highest
bidder. If it's Brooklyn, I want your drafts.
All of them. I either want swaps or picks every
year until 2031. Because then I get my own stuff
back. You know, and that's where I would start
it. We're either going to do a picks or an outright
picks or a swap rights from here until 2031.
And if you don't want to do it this year, we'll
do 2022 or 2032. While I get an extra pick. I
mean, that's the only way I can see you redoing
it. And with Dame, we just kind of go, yeah,
nah, buddy, we're going to suck. And you look
at a boozer boy that starts to rebuild with.
So that is the interesting case there in Milwaukee.
Knicks and Pistons has been a war. Both of the
next series, two series, I'll kind of talk about
them together. Knicks, Pistons, and Celtics Magic
have been wars. They're just 3 -1. Celtics and
Magic have been a very competitive series. Magic
are one star away. If I'm Kevin Durant, I look
at Orlando. They are one bucket away. Like, they're
just not talented enough. Paolo's a grown man,
but they're just not talented enough. They're
a bucket away from causing hell. If I'm KD, if
I'm Giannis, I may look at Orlando to be the
spot that's like, yo, I can show up, be 28 at
night, and we could roar into the conference
finals. Because they've been damn competitive
with the Celtics. They just don't have enough
talent. They're fighting them every scrap of
the nail. They're playing great defense. They're
all in their face. They take leads. It's just
they're just not good enough. Boston rolls off
Peyton Pritchard as the ninth man, and you're
like, well, fuck. You know what I'm saying? He's
with the sixth man. But I'm saying you're rolling
off Derek White and Peyton Pritchard and Drew
Holiday and Porzingis and JB and Tatum and Horford.
It just keeps coming. and Orlando don't have
that yet. It's a lot of Paulo Banqueiros and
guys. And then the Nixon Pistons have been a
very competitive series as well. Shout -out Kenneth
Anthony Towns for what he did in the game four.
Shout -out Jalen Brunson for having a mini Willis
Reed moment where he sprains the ankle and then
comes back and puts up north of 30. So, hell
of a job by Jalen Brunson and the Knicks as they
go up 3 -1, as they head back to the Garden,
and Boston's up 3 -1 as they head back to the
Garden. Oh, wow, that's crazy. So, Madison Square
Garden for the Knicks and the Boston Garden for
the Celtics. But that is a quick update on the
NBA playoffs. Not a quick, not so quick update
on the NBA playoffs. Up next, we will have our
best for last, which is going to be talk about
the WNBA. Welcome back into the show. And now
we're going to talk about the WNBA and our best
for last segment as they are in their training
camp. Now, the WNBA, women's basketball in general,
we spoke about this last year, has one of the
crazier turnarounds ever. Paige Beckers won a
title. And then she was drafted a week later.
And one week later, she was in professional basketball
training camp. Like, that turnaround's not even
as fast in the NBA, and the NBA has a pretty
crazy one, too. The NBA goes from you win a title
in, like, April, you get drafted in June, and
you don't play somebody until, like, July. You
know what I'm saying? So even that turnaround's
not as crazy. There's no sport like that where
you can literally, and Candace Parker did it
one year, you can win the college championship
and your first pro championship within three
months of each other. And in that time, you've
done training camp, you've won awards, you've
had a particular Olympic break, you've gone overseas.
Like, you've done all kind of stuff in three
months. There's no other schedule like that in
pro sports. And now the next class is filling
that, led by Paige Beckers. Paige Beckers, Anissa
Morrow, Georgia Amor, you know, so much talent
in this draft. Isaiah James, Kiki Irafan. You
know, there's so much talent in this draft, so
much talent in this class. Haley Van Lith, you
get a lot of star power in this class. Next year,
class is going to be insane. Flavie Johnson,
Lauren Betts, Raven Johnson, potentially Malaysia
Fulwali, potentially Michaela Williams. You look
at Samaya Smith. You look at the girl who just
transferred to... I can't think of her name right
now, but the girl who's trying to fight for South
Carolina who scored like 23 -9 at Florida State.
Juju won't be in that class. AZ Fudd's going
to be in there. So that's going to be a loaded
class next year as well. But this guy is going
to be a very, very talented class. And again,
they're going through this crazy transition where...
You can win a college title in April and be cut
from the pros in May because the WNBA has to
make cuts. You can only have 12 players. Luckily,
the Valkyrie came in this year, so it kind of
opened up a roster spot around the league, maybe
just one. So instead of a team having to cut
five, it's four. But then you go to training
camp, and it's like the Aces have 11 players
that they're not going to move. So five rookies
are maybe showing up for one spot. you know,
and there's no WBAG League. Like, if you get
cut, you're now on your agent going, get me overseas.
Either get me overseas or get me to Unrivaled.
And with so many stars enjoying Unrivaled and
the way it was set up and the training facilities
they had and so on and so forth, like, there's
only 36 Unrivaled spots. So, you know what I'm
saying? So there's a lack of availability with
a growth of ability in the women's game. I think
Unrivaled is going to expand. I think Unrivaled,
I think they're going to do centralized Miami
one more year, and then they're going to start
traveling or representing markets and cities.
Honestly, I think they would do better just being
a summer league, like an in -house league, where
for eight weeks you live in Miami. Because a
lot of times, look at the names they had. Those
women have endorsements. They have set homes
somewhere else. For two months, lock the door
and fly to Miami and play 303 and then fly back.
And you would have made $150 ,000, $200 ,000.
Hell, you got to say it all week. They don't
practice much. I noticed that pretty early. They
didn't practice much in arrival. I mean, they
showed up a week in advance, maybe two weeks
in advance, maybe a week in advance. They did
a couple scrimmages, and then they played. And
they only played on weekends. So you would see
Chelsea Gray in New York with Asia Wilson on
a Tuesday. You know what I'm saying? Because
she didn't have to be down back to arrival until
like Thursday. So it was pretty loose as far
as how they were operating the schedule. So I
think that's going to be a very popular thing
that's going to go on continually. But again,
the WNBA with this crazy schedule. Good luck
to the ones who are trying to make rosters. It's
hard. It's the hardest league to make. And I
just hope that we have a great WNBA season. But,
of course, we'll talk about them a lot more as
they get closer and get actually rolling. But
up next, I'm sorry, my bad, not up next. Thank
you guys for joining me. My bad, I was on a roll
there. Thank you guys for joining me. Again,
it's been two months -ish. since the last time
I did a show. So I'm glad to be back. I'm back
in the booth. Look out for the JTS After Dark
YouTube show, which I'll be recording in about
30 minutes. So I'll be getting off the audio,
jumping right onto the YouTube show. But this
is your host, Justin Jackson, signing out.