Mavs Win Lottery, Tatum Goes Down, What Now For Raptors?

Mavs Win Lottery, Tatum Goes Down, What Now For Raptors?

The NBA’s balance of power shifted in more ways than one on lottery night. The most obvious ripples will be felt in Dallas and San Antonio, both of whom defied the odds to jump into the draft’s top two. The Mavericks fell ass backwards into a generational prospect. Hello, Cooper flag. Just three months after sending another one packing in what might have been the worst trade ever. Meanwhile, whether it’s Dylan Harper or an in his prime superstar, the Spurs moved a step closer to putting Victor Wayyama in position to win now. But the most consequential thing that happened may have been when Jason Tatum crumpled to the court in New York. The shock waves will be felt around the association. First and foremost, it’s a damn shame for Tatum, a 27-year-old Iron Man who’s logged,500 more minutes than any other player since his NBA debut. He’s the best player on the defending champions, a two-way force who’s been the backbone of this decade’s most consistent contender. Without him, the Celtics will fall off. And there were already questions about how long Boston’s new owners would stomach massive luxury tax payments and second apron penalties. The champs will look much different by the time Tatum returns. The Knicks and Pacers are in the driver’s seat for Eastern Conference supremacy right now. But Tatum’s absence and the havoc itres on Boston also means the East is wide open going forward, which could inspire an under the radar team to seize the opportunity with a blockbuster deal. And with that, welcome to the Unfiltered Show presented by Under Armour from the Score Studios. In studio with me is Scott Campel. My name is Joseph Kosaro. You know all that. You also know what happened on lottery night by now. If you don’t, you’re living under a rock. Uh Scott, we’re going to get into the winners and losers from actual uh from the actual lottery. But just real quick off the top, anything to add to uh what I had to say about Jason Tatum there? I mean, just uh fair warning for the people watching this. We’re recording this at a time when we don’t know for sure what the injury is. I know a lot of people are speculating. Achilles, you know, that’s the worst fear for everyone, but technically we don’t know at this time we’re recording. It just looked bad. Terrible. I mean, uh, a lot of great points you made up top. Honestly, the first reaction is that’s just brutal. You know, the Knicks and Celtics are having such an interesting series and I thought last night like we really got back to something. Um, you know, where the game was close kind of into the the last few minutes there. Um, so hugely disappointing I think just from like general basketball fans perspective who wanted to see something there. Um, and then I think also Boston obviously in such a such a difficult spot now that it is a bummer that this is how they’re going to end up going out in likelihood. Um, you know, that’s sort of my initial reaction. And then obviously what you brought up up top, I think the sort of, you know, the ripples from this we’re going to see. And I think especially this off seasonason where there are a handful of guys that I’m sure we’re going to talk about that will become available. Um, you know, this really could change everything in the Eastern Conference. man, like if you look at it like the Celtics are going to be without Tatum for a while and probably after now, I don’t want to say blow up that team, but things are going to happen there because of the, you know, tax and apron related restrictions they were going to be facing. Even if they were a contender, let alone now if they’re not going to be a contender for a little while. Um, Giannis, I don’t want to say most likely, but 50/50, he’s going to leave the East. Okay. Um, Cooper Flag’s headed west. Maybe Milwaukee gets some young star back in whatever happens to be honest, but for the most part, there is more power heading west than coming east this offseason when the West was already, you know, the the much stronger conference. The Cavs, yeah, they won 64 games, but they’re also on the ropes right now as we record this against Indiana and just had one of the most embarrassing performances by a one seed in playoff history. The Knicks, you know, they’ve built a really good team, but this is their team. They’ve spent pretty much all their bullets to build this team and they’re not even if everything broke right and they won it all this year. Like this is far from some unbeatable juggernaut. The Pacers, very good team on the precipice of a second straight conference final experience, but again a solid yet unspectacular team. Look at the rest of the East playoff like the Pistons. Like some okay intriguing young teams. There is like nothing close to a juggernaut in this conference. When I say it’s wide open if Tatum’s out for it is wide open. So, I’m really fascinated to see if yeah, some team that like I don’t know, the Pistons or even a team we’re not even thinking the Raptors, someone in that next tier, do they just see it as like, hey, the doors randomly open, we didn’t get the lottery luck we were hoping for. Let’s just go all in on trying to take advantage of this wide openen east and see what happens. Uh, we could probably get a little more into that when we talk winners and losers from the lottery. But where we get to start when it comes to the lottery is the like Dallas really Dallas. Dallas, they I mean I mentioned it in the monologue that you know they completed probably the worst trade ever. They made the worst sports decision of my lifetime and three months later hit the absolute jackpot with a 1.8% chance to do so. Never speak to me of basketball gods again or karma or ethical tanking or whatever. There is no justice in this world. I’m sickened by this result. But hey, you know, I guess good for Mavs fans. Like the fans didn’t deserve what they got this year with the Lucas stuff and they’re rewarded. I mean, Nico Harrison definitely deserved bad basketball karma to come to him, but fans didn’t. So, good for them, I guess. Um, and then yeah, I mean like uh even our guy Joe Wolfon, NBA feature writer here at the score uh has a great feature up on the app right now about this situation and I believe the way he deemed it is fortune favors the foolish, right? It’s like like seriously we could talk about how deserve doesn’t matter, but if there was a team that did not deserve this, right? Talk me off this ledge. Like uh listen, number one, I will not talk you off this ledge. I think my initial reaction was just like there is no God. Nothing matters. The universe is random. Um I I I just like this guy, anybody with a mouth that even looks at basketball has been talking crap about this guy for five months and then all of a sudden it’s like guess what? We got Cooper flag now celebrating winning the lottery. Ass backwards. Like ass backwards is a phrase that was invented to describe how this situation happened. you know, all of a sudden it’s like like you you got to talk me into this team in any like they’re in such a fascinating situation now if you want to just go straight to the basketball of it. if we move past the nonsense of it and also just as a lottery like the karmic es and flows of this lottery are so fascinating which I think we’ll get into when we do uh you know wins and winners and losers a little bit more but you know from a basketball perspective all of a sudden they kind of find themselves in a situation where like you could pivot rebuild you’ve got assets to trade that you could pivot rebuild you could pivot big star or you could just go for it with the guys you have and I think that is insane considering where we or I don’t know hours ago, you know, it’s insane and unjust. It is. You know what? It is unjust. The world’s not fair, man. Um, okay. Well, let’s talk about some of those options in front of Nico Harrison and the Mavs. Um, they draft Cooper Flag. Yep. How ready to win are they with what you expect Cooper Flag to be as a rookie as a sophomore in his first couple years with AD say at the end of his prime and potentially with Kyrie either coming back late next season or even if he misses a whole year like couple years from now you have year two Cooper flag you’ve got AD you’ve got Kyrie is that a team that you can see winning in the next couple years or you think there’s still like too much they would have to depend on everything going right for Cooper Kyrie coming back on time AD not falling off or getting hurt? I think the latter is an excellent point. I think a team where AD and Kyrie honestly are your cornerstones. I think he’s always going to be a everything’s got to break right for us. But I mean I think you you you saw very a few glimpses of it when you saw those two guys healthy at the same time which was like again almost never. Um but like that there’s a solid basketball team there. I think Cooper Flag coming in um with Kyrie out is gonna really let him kind of stretch out his, you know, ball handling and offensive skills, which is a part of his game that he has. And I kind of low-key think, uh, you know, letting him get more reps at that, which then he would have had had Kyrie been there, I think will be good for his development. Completely agree. And I think that’s going to be interesting. I mean, on the other hand, it’s just impossible to guess what Nico Harrison is thinking at this point. There’s a non I would say there’s a nonzero chance they trade fly like they won’t they’re not going to I would put it very low I don’t know would I put it less than 1.8% 8%. I’m not sure, but I there’s a nonzero chance they could play for like an immediate superstar, pair him with AD, maybe Kyrie, and and try to win immediately. I think the way I would go, and I will say this, too, like I hate that. What’s that? I don’t hate that. It’s not the best choice, but I think if it’s like a Giannis and you don’t really have to give up much else, like there’s a conversation to be had. Um, if they keep things as is, the one thing they’ll have going immediately is that a front court featuring Flag and Anthony Davis will be insane defensively, and that’s before mentioning either Lively or Gaffford, etc. A lot of shooting issues there, spacing issues. The offense will be a problem. It will be um, you know, a big adjustment for Cooper Flag to be a lead ball handler in the NBA with zero spacing around him. Ask Kate Cunningham about that. Um, but defensively that team, that front court will be nasty. However, and defense wins championships. Nico Harrison only said it 35 times in the span of 35 seconds. Um, but I think if I were running the Mavs, and you know, I I promise you I could do a better job than Nico Harrison. Um, but if I were running the Mavs, I would look at this and be like, look, we just got the lifeline of all lifelines, and we didn’t deserve one when like, you know, when we had botched it. And yeah, it’s tempting to say, can we pair this young star and older stars and try to win immediately? I think you’ve just got this glorious opportunity handed to you. I say you pivot the other way. And I don’t mean, oh, they they should now tank and try to get another guy next. No, I just mean you explore the trade market for AD. Kyrie, it’s it is what it is. He’s probably not coming back next year. He’s going to pick up the player option because he’s not going to get a new contract this summer. whatever happens with him happens, but you try to you see what you can get for AD on the market and you start building this team around Cooper Flag and building it in a way to maximize his strengths to make it easier for him from a spacing perspective than it was on Kate Cunningham like I mentioned and and you just go forward from there. Whereas before, you know, 24 hours ago, Nico Harrison would have said and every mass fan would have said like the only way that you can even come close to salvaging the disastrous decision you made is if you win immediately in the next two years like Nico Harrison talked about. Now that’s reset, right? Like you’re never going to make that trade look good, but you have Cooper flag. All of a sudden, it goes from we need to win immediately to like, oh no, we’ve got this foundational piece that replaces the guy we gave away and we’ve got him under team control for four years plus then, you know, restricted like they’ve gotten for like eight to nine years now. Yeah. Okay. And that’s what you have to be building around. Forget trying to win immediately with a 19 or an 18-year-old and a 30ome year old. I mean, I think that’s smart the smart move for sure. And I think especially considering that kind of to me like Kyrie’s a little bit of the pivot point there too. Um like you said player option and then a free agent after that. So he’s basically gonna be injured if he comes back next year. Uh you know he it’s not going to be for the long haul and he could be out completely. So he is neither he is not a trade asset for this team nor is he someone you could kind of depend on being there long term. And I think that’s kind of what to me that is like even if you were going to earnestly say let’s just go for it. let’s be the team now. I think you’re essentially operating with AD as a single star and I think that’s super limiting obviously. Um so I think that makes what you said I think the move forward. That’s the smart play. It’s like you know you’ve you traded away a generational star for to try to I guess go for it now. I don’t know the logic is still difficult to track. Um but they gifted you you know the basketball gods in so far as they exist gifted you uh you know a generational talent like I think you should build around that guy. It’s like don’t, you know, don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Just be smart, you know? I like it. Be smart. Nurs don’t know if they go together, but we’ll see. Um, all right. Let’s get to those lottery winners and losers outside of Dallas. Um, we can show how the uh lottery breaks down here for our viewers. But just to kind of like go through a couple things. So, flying under the radar because of who won the lottery is the fact that the Spurs already boasting Webby and a good amount of trade capital now add the number two overall pick in the 2025 draft. to that trade capital. Um, you know, we can talk about how Dylan Harper fits with um, I guess, you know, Stefan Castle and Darren Fox, but mostly with Victor Wmanyama, but I’m almost going to say it doesn’t matter because look, I I don’t want to like rush the Spurs into things, but at the same time, again, you talk about being handed this golden opportunity there. There are teams where trading the number two overall pick when it’s a guy that will in Dylan Harper I have so much faith in would be, you know, equivalent to a disastrous short-sighted decision. The Spurs are in the unique position where that’s not the case because they’ve got the generational prospect of all generational prospects. So, you can trade the number two overall pick to get a Giannis to get an in his prime superstar, a veteran superstar without mortgaging the future because you have literally the cheat code of the future already in your system. So, are you are we in agreement here that the Spurs should absolutely trade this pick and help Victor Romanyama like be ready to win immediately next year? Okay. So, I I’ll push back a little bit here because I think for the same reasons you listed, I think having the generational star at this stage of his career gives you the flexibility to be like, why don’t we take Dylan Harper and see what happens? Is he a great fit next to Fox and Castle? Not necessarily. But this is a guy that can score the basketball. He can he’s tough in the paint. He was a 36 or 37% shooter on catch and shoot threes, which means he can play along with those guys. And I think if the playoffs have told us anything, it’s that you need a guy that can do that. They ostensibly have a few guys that can do that. And I think if you’re the Spurs, as much as I am fullon into the chaos, trade for Giannis, let me see. We wi and Giannis play together. I think you can be smart and kind of wait on it. The biggest front court ever. Oh my god. I mean, like that would be unbelievable. And I obviously want to see that. I was a guy last week said he wanted to see Giannis on OKC. So obviously I also want to see this. Um but the one caveat to that I would say is unless you can get someone who is a shooter because I think if they can get an elite shooter on that team and add them to this, you know, mix. So we’re talking like if Devin Booker becomes available and you like don’t have to trade everything you have, like if you can get him for like Dylan Harper couple honestly. Yeah. Honestly, if you give both of them and you get de Devin Booker to pair with Oh, with WBY. Like he’s a younger player. I think he’s 26 or 27. Like he’s on that sort of uh you know, he’s he’s in he’s more in line with WBY. So, it doesn’t feel like you’re going all in on Giannis or something like that. Um I think that fits better and I think shooting shooting shooting will be the priority of their off season. you know, obviously if they keep the pick and they uh uh they take uh Harbor, um you know, they’re going to be looking around the, you know, margins for shooting, but um to me, that’s kind of the outlook there. I think they have earned, you know, by drafting WBY, they now have this kind of, you know, grace where they can kind of sit and wait and see what happens. Agreed. Okay, speaking about a team that got a lifeline, the Philadelphia 76ers, who were only kept their pick, that landed top six. We know the way they tank down the stretch with Embido with Georgia out with Maxi out. Uh, so they end up top three, they get the third pick. Is this the lifeline that saves the Embiid era that keeps this thing going? Or you think this is just, you know, rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic here and it’s just like, you know, it’s something to be excited about, but it’s not Flag. It’s not Harper and it’s not going to move the needle. I think it’s nice. I think it’s it’s uh it is a little bit of light in absolute darkness, but I just have a hard time like to me if on the Sixers I’ve got Maxi, I’ve got McCain, and I, you know, Ace Bailey seems to be like a guy here that, you know, I mean, he’s a little polarizing, but I do think he’ll end up being the guy here. Um, that’s a nice little guard guard rotation. Those are guys you can build around. I am them. This is the beginning of my rebuild and I am looking to see like, you know, I don’t think Embiid is has the trade value now that you’d like him to have. But if you can get him back healthy and show and you can trade him and rebuild, that’s what I’m doing if I’m the 76ers because I just don’t feel like this is going to work for them. They were the oldest team in the league last year. Um, you know, my did come out, I think earlier this week on a radio show and say like that was a huge mistake of his. He needs to go younger. You know, I think they were average. got an opportunity to be younger now. Absolutely. But to me, it’s like an ace Bailey is great to have, but I how much better does that make the Celtics in the short or the 76 in the short term? Like I’m going to say it doesn’t make much better short or long term because I don’t think Bailey’s the right I listen I just I mean it’s it’s always hard when we get too critical of like prospects for we see them in the pros because one they’re literal teenagers and it’s like feels you know weird hating on them. But from a basketball perspective I just don’t like Ace Bailey. think he is uh inefficient chucker which like those two things do not go together. Uh to me he’s a bigger Jaylen Green and if you’ve watched the show you know how I feel about Jaylen Green also the one thing that he had going for him is that oh he’s this big shot maker. He’s 610. Uh so it came out he’s actually 67 and change. He Ruters had him listed like two and a half inches too tall. So, you know, a lot of people were doing the Michael Porter uh compar like, “Oh, he’s MPJ. You know, if you can get that as a shooter at that size, it’s like, well, he’s not that size.” And also, he didn’t shoot like that in college. Like, there’s no evidence he’s actually a good shooter other than the fact he can get them off and takes them, right? So, okay, fair. I mean, listen, Ruckers had a pretty rough season for a team that had two big stars on it. Um, they can’t even measure, right? Yeah. Well, it’s professional wrestling. You know, you always bump up your guys. You know, the Big Show doesn’t weigh 500 pounds. Um, uh, Undertaker, not really from Death Valley. Yeah, I don’t think him and Kane are brothers. I hate to burst your bubble. Um, always got to squeeze in some wrestling talk. Um, but yeah, you know, fair enough. Uh, but even to your point, like I think that that number three pick, regardless of who you pick in there. I think there’s a couple guys that might be up for conversation. I don’t think that’s changing your game if you’re trying to win on Joel Embiid’s timeline. Like that dude’s 31. Injuries are what they are. Like if you’re you’re picking a guy here that I don’t think is going to be like big impact for at least a year or two. So we’re talking 33 34 which is kind of the tail end of most guys primes especially a guy that big. So to me this is your golden opportunity to rebuild tear it down and start it all over again. However, if they took this pick and were like let’s go all in again that would not surprise me in the slightest. Yeah they they’ve got at least they have more options but they have more options now. Um so I guess it’s a bit of a lifeline. Okay, let’s get to the losers now or some of the losers. So, uh, some notes here. Mavs, Spurs, Sixers, that combination finishing one, two, three. There was a 1 in 10,000 chance of that happening. That’s per, uh, John Hollinger in the Athletic. Um, the four worst teams ended up fourth to seventh. The two worst teams, Utah and Washington, both moved back the maximum four spots to land at fifth and sixth. New Orleans moved back three spots. Look, obviously better odds are still better odds. like you’d rather have better odds than not. But um this should be a reminder or a warning to like blatantly tanking teams, teams that want to do a multi-year tank. Um teams that might already be looking past the 2025 26 season at the promise of another loaded draft class in 2026. This should be a warning to them that like, man, you’re putting a lot of eggs in a very flimsy basket, okay? Because it’s a lottery at the end of the day. Um, last year the ninth worst team with a 3% chance won it. This year what, the 11th or the 12th worst team that won 39 games, won a playin game, won a coin toss with the Bulls. Like that’s what it ended up taking to win the lottery. So, I understand why you want to position yourselves that the best odds possible, but stop punting on seasons before they even begin. At least see what you have going into every year and then, you know, play the cards as you’re dealt them. If you’re a quarter of the way through the season, you’re already 15 games under 500. you wanted to rebuild anyway, that’s different. But to punt on seasons like months before they even began, I teams should be warned by this. The last thing I’ll say, the last place team is now 0 for7 since the NBA flattened the lottery odds in 2019. And this is the third consecutive year that the last place team moved back the maximum of four spots to fifth. So, I stand by a bunch of things I said a few weeks ago. I don’t know if people remember when I did a whole rant about how to address the tanking issue or at least how to further disincentivize it. I still stand by all that stuff. I think they should further flatten the odds. I think they should make it so you can’t win the lottery two years in a row. And I think they should draw all 14 picks rather than the top four so that guess what? Not you can’t just fall to fifth. You can fall as far back as 14th of your team. You want to tank for that. I stand by all that. Having said that, Adam Silver, the NBA, they can point to this lottery and say, “That’s why we actually don’t have to fix anything because our system’s already good enough to curtail tanking.” Teams should look at this and say, “Well, we’re not going to throw whole seasons away for this.” Oh, yeah. Like, it’s just an absolutely fascinating end result for a lottery. Like to get three teams like the Mavs. I mean, say what you will about the Mavs, but I guess in theory they did try to win, you know, like that wasn’t a tanking attempt by them. the Spurs before WBY got hurt. I think we’re making a relatively honest attempt to win games. The 76ers tried to win games and that didn’t go great. But like, you know, and then like you said, the worst teams in the league all sitting at the back and it’s just like, you know, imagine being a fan of the Jazz right now, like sitting through what you sat through and then to just end up don’t forget, again, I I know I mentioned this a bunch of times. It’s not even just that like they sat through what they sat through this year. The Jazz the two years before this season were actually like the this kind of feisty young team that was in the playin mix that was ahead of schedule that had Lowry Markin in who like very much looked like and still can be you know not maybe the guy on a champ but like a foundational star and both years they punted midway through because like no no no we got to prioritize lottery odds not the playin and you know whatever happened happened and then this year where they came in from the beginning and said we’re not even risking being in the playin mix a month or two into the season we are going pedal to the metal taking from the beginning. Well, guess what? Enjoy the fifth pick or no six. What? They end up with fifth. Yeah. Yeah. Like Yeah. And and and they were like, “Oh, we’re resting our 23year-old guards in January.” Like legitimately just listing them out as rest. So, it is like I mean, if you were going to taunt the the ba the basketball gods, again, they don’t exist, but if you were going to, they really went out of their way to and it’s uh I don’t know, it’s just like it’s a bummer. I think uh you know obviously you and I have covered many a tanking team in our in this city in our lives and it’s just like it’s a bummer. It’s a bummer for everybody especially when you’re like at the bottom and there’s no way up. The only way up is Cooper Flag and it’s just he’s not coming. So sooner or later you got to start to make moves which is why I admire some of the a team that we’ll talk about soon. Um why I admire some of those teams in the middle that are not just trying to tank. They’re you know looking to you know remain solid. Um, yeah. I don’t know, man. That’s just uh just what a bummer for fans of any of those teams is really my takeaway there. Okay, team you were kind of hinting at there. Uh, as we move forward here on the unfiltered show presented by Under Armour. Let’s talk about the Toronto Raptors, the hometown Toronto Raptors for us, team that we, uh, cover a little closer than any other just because we are here. We’re at, you know, every Raptor home game with credentials. And we did see how this season unfolded where it was the first time uh in his tenure that President Messiah Jiri came out and admitted they were rebuilding. Dark Oroyakovic went out of his way multiple times over the course of the season say this is year one of a rebuild. Like really trying to sell it to the fans like hey guys like let’s not get ahead of ourselves. It’s going to be, you know, it might be a longer rebuild. That same team also traded for an extended Brandon Ingram in the middle of the season. Um they caught a hot streak at some point. Didn’t end up as bad as people wanted them to be. They also had the third best defense for half the season. Scotty Barnes emerged as a defensive force. Like there there are things I think you can see on both sides where fans we could be frustrated but also see some promise. So let’s talk about them because there’s no way to sugarcoat the fact this was a gut punch. Like yes, they’ve got Scotty Barnes. They have some intriguing young talent. They’ll see what Brandon Ingram does. They’ve got all their first round picks. I’m not saying they’re dead in the water. They don’t have options. But the biggest option for them if they wanted to find another foundational star was the 2025 draft and it didn’t go well for them. Like the ninth pick, say what you will about, hey, they’ve drafted Tracy McGrady there, they drafted Demar traded, sorry, drafted Demar D Rozan there. That’s fine. And like maybe they find another star, but statistically speaking, they probably won’t. And it’s a big drop off from Cooper Flag or Dylan Harper or whoever nine is. So at the very least, you have to admit this was a huge punch in the gut for the Raptors. Absolutely. I think um I mean they’re in such an interesting spot. I think as you mentioned like sort of tanking sort of I mean like rebuilding straight up tanking to a weird degree kind of half in half out um and then to just uh end up at nine is tough for everybody because I think um you know once you fall out of that top five I don’t really think you’re looking at guys that are going to come in and like make a huge difference. And again, if you look at the way the roster is constructed, I like don’t see a lot of room for anything but attempting to compete. Um, so you just like the pick could have been something that could have changed this team dramatically and instead I think you’re looking at like who’s a rotation player we can kind of add to this group of guys we have. Okay. So, how does falling back two spots in the lottery, getting punched in the gut like that change your outlook for this team or how do you think it should change what they do? because basically now with the you know the draft part of the franchise saving equation out of the win like out the window now you’re looking at okay two options the run it back option which is like hey you look at and say hey we did have an elite defense for the second half of the season Barnes did lead the way in that regard we haven’t seen what it looks like with Brandon Ingram in the mix and if nothing else shot making secondary playmak is foul drawing will help our bad half court offense you put those things together the young guys take a app in that wide openen east we talked about. It’s like we could run it back if you’re the Raptors could look at it and say, “Hey, we can run it back and be this next year’s Detroit. We can very much be in the mix for court in the first round, play a tough first round series and then see what we have a year from now and then maybe some of our in-house assets will actually be more attractive then we’ll know a little bit more of what we have and who we are and then we can make that move.” Option two is you say, “No, no, the East is wide open. We had a lot of eggs in the lottery basket and it didn’t work out. Let’s completely pivot. Trade assets, trade draft picks, consider putting Barnes, like whatever it takes to get a Giannis to get a Deon Booker. Which camp are you in? That’s exactly right because there are there was a third option. I think that was kind of on the table, but to me like trying to tank again is impossible. I think this was your season. I think clearly um you know you do what you can when you’re trying to trade you know OG and and and Pascal and and those guys and they ended up trading them I mean mostly OG for guys that can play now. So that puts you in a position where in order to tank again, you in my mind, you’d have to trade at least one of the core five guys, you know, Yak and IQ, RJ, probably more to be honest. Honestly, exactly. So to me, tanking off the table, not an option, would be too difficult to pull. Um, if I if I know anything about covering living in the city, covering the B like the Raptors for the last, I don’t know, 10 years, it is that Mousai Juri Messiah Jerry is going to make a swing. I think there’s no way he doesn’t explore the Giannis trade. Um, you know, KD’s probably not on the timeline. I don’t think he’s in there. But if there’s anybody else that becomes available on the fringes, I think option one for him is to swing for the fences. I think barring that, uh, you know, maybe you go and try to get a little shooting. I think this was, I think they made the second least threes in the league last year. Um, you know, like eighth worst percentage, fourth worst in attempts. So clearly that is an area of, you know, that they’re going to look to build on. Um, but I don’t see Yeah. like I it really is one of the two. I think going and making a trade to try to bring in uh you know a star like Giannis I think you do have to make that move like regardless of well we added Brandon Ingram we haven’t seen we don’t know what that is yet just because you’ve already kind of put a ceiling on your team like I think this is really I know a lot of fans are not necessarily psyched that they went to get Ingram and are kind of like building this like semicompetitive but also not championship caliber team but like that’s kind of been Messiah’s mo the whole time like if you look back at his whole time here there hasn’t been a ton of rebuilding and the rebuilding has come in the way of like let’s get an asset here, let’s get an asset there. Exactly. Retooling and it’s like these assets will play for the team. It’s like yeah, I’ll let you kind of take No, I listen I think in my immediate in the immediate aftermath of the lottery and like my most emotional visceral response to that was like honestly screw it. Go all in. Go get a Y. It’s like do what you have to do. The East is wide open. The draft is like off the table. Free agency off the table. just go do that. As I’ve slept on it and thought about it, as you know, attractive as that would still be and as exciting as that would be in the city, I think the most prudent course of action, as unsexy as it is, is to just run it back and see what you have with this core. And no one should be fooling themselves into thinking it’s going to become a championship core, but they should be a playoff caliber core next year, all things being equal, if they’re relatively healthy. And again, it’s it’s more so about you build the competitive team that you can with the cards you’ve been dealt. Uh you hold on to your assets. Like I said, they control all of their first round picks. They do have a bunch of young guys on rookie skill contracts. They’ve got some guys on nice midsize contracts. They’ve got Barnes. Like they’ve got options. They’ve got pieces. See what you can do next year. Become a playoff team. Hope that your in-house development goes well so that guys you already have are more attractive a year from now. And then you see if there’s a big swing you can make. But as attractive as it seemed to me a night ago, making that big swing at this point so that that star can come and then not be surrounded by enough talent, I think would be a really short-sighted move and too emotional of a response to that gut punch of a lottery. Interesting. I think uh I see your point. I don’t necessarily disagree. I think to me it is all about exploring like what it would take to get the honest right like I think they have an interesting mix of like guys that you could you know like an RJ Barrett like quickly even if you want to trade him I do feel like he probably fits a little bit better you probably don’t want to give him up however there are you know a mix of veterans and uh I would say we didn’t learn a lot about the team this season because quite frankly the players that matter just didn’t play together that often but what we did learn is like they have some like bonafide young guys that can And I think, you know, to your point, another season maybe they’re more attractive, but I think there’s a handful like you’ve got shed, Bobo, um, Walter, and Battle are all guys that can can play. You know, for sure these guys can play. And I think those are as attractive as anybody because to me, this the offseason is going to look something like you’ve got teams like San Antonio, Houston, potentially OKC that have the assets to make a big move, however, are also good teams and young teams in their own right. and they could all simply just say, you know what, we’re good with our guys or we’ll make a smaller move. And if that happens, like uh you know, outside of those few teams, like Toronto’s right up there in terms of assets and I just think Mai’s the guy that’s going to pull the trigger on a move if he can. I think that’s fair knowing his reputation and his track record. Uh last note on the Raptors is and another thing that kind of complicates things is considering that they are a lottery team. They were the seventh worst team. And considering the fact that we’re saying, you know, I think we can think they can be a playoff team next year, but not a championship contender. They are butdding up against the luxury tax already. They are uh last I checked only about 6 million under the tax, 14 million under the first apron. That’s before factoring in the rookie scale for the ninth overall pick, potentially filling out the roster. So, we could be talking about a team budding right up against the luxury tax, if not the first apron. ownership has gone into the tax before for a contender. I’m not convinced they’re doing that for a team that’s ceiling is like the six seed or something. So, it will be interesting to see how that is um navigated. Um, but yeah, I think that’s that’s a good place to leave the Raptors conversation. And I think we can finish this episode of the unfiltered show presented by Under Armour with a segment we will call Let Them Talk. And that’s when we’re giving the fan, we’re giving score users, score social media followers a chance to be on the show without them even realizing that they were contributing to our show today. So, let’s pull up some of our favorite comments from the scores social media channels. Actually, all of them coming from the scores Instagram channel. Make sure you’re following that if you’re not already. I’m sure you are. Uh cuz why not? Um some of our favorite comments from the two posts related to the Mavs winning the lottery. And I figured we could pull up these comments and then use them as a springboard to get into a conversation about this. So, I’m going to go on a bit of a rant myself. I’m just going to let you know this. I might steal hog the mic for a couple minutes. So, baby, clear out because the first comment I want to highlight and it’s something that a lot of people, friends, family included, have messaged me about, talked to me about in the 24 hours since the lottery. And that first comment is by Maddie Sneaks on Instagram, who wrote, uh, trade Luca to LA and we’ll give you the the first overall pick. So, rigged, lol. And this I the reason I wanted to highlight this is because it allows me to go on the rant I want to go on about how foolish it is to actually think this is Rick. And listen, I completely understand how fishy this result looks and how coincidental looks and how insane it looks. Okay, but we are talking about a lottery at the end of the day. Yes, it was a 1.8% chance to get for for this to happen, but it was still a 1.8% chance to win. People win cash lotteryies with far worse odds than this. Like someone has to win the lottery no matter what. And like the team with the highest odds still only has 14% chances of winning it. So this idea that like oh this is too crazy. Put that to bed right now. Another thing I want to say is I get the feeling that a lot of casual fans or a lot of people who think the NBA’s draft lottery is rigged don’t actually understand what the lottery is. Maybe they think that the televised portion when they’re unveiling the picks is the actual lottery and they’re thinking this is fishy. Why don’t we The actual lottery drawing, okay, which the NBA then publishes for all to see once the lotteryy’s over happens in a room with NBA executives there. Ernston Young uh account is overseeing the matter. 14 team representatives, a representative from each team taking part in the lottery and 14 media members. The way the lottery happens is there are 14 ping pong balls put into an air pull whatever the heck it’s called a lottery machine. Okay. Four of those numbers are pulled to create a fourdigit combination. There are a 101 potential four-digit combinations which are assigned to the 14 teams based on their odds. So the worst team gets the most combinations and so on and so on. when they pull that four-digit combination the first time, they see which team has this four-digit combination, that team gets the number one pick. Literally, the only possible way someone could rig that process with all those people in the room not being, you know, any the wiser would be if they messed with the weight of the balls so that they could look at and say, “Okay, we want this team to win, so we’re going to alter the weight of these four balls that we know will give them the winning combination.” Here’s the problem with that theory. They don’t only draw for the first pick. They draw for the top four picks. The balls go back into the machine to for the second drawing, the third drawing, and the fourth drawing. So, if they waited four balls, those same four balls would come up again. And that’s not the case. So, look, I understand how fun it is to go down rabbit holes of conspiracy theories. I understand why if your team got screwed by the lottery, you want to say it was rigged. How can you not see this was rigged? But there is actually no fathomable way to rig this. Okay, I’m not up here just caping for the NBA. I’m just up here from a a reasonable standpoint trying to explain to people that they need to understand how the actual lottery works and how basically impossible it would be to rig this specific lottery. Having said all that, before I seed the mic to you, if the NBA wants to put this to bed once and for all, just televise the actual lottery. the N the NHL who does not do TV uh things the as well as you do ever just prove that you can televise the actual lottery drawing. Do that next year. Heck, weigh the balls to start it in front of everyone on TV so that everyone can have this put to bed. Although, I’m sure people will still find a way to say it was fixed when their team gets screwed. Scott, please save me for myself here. Boy, I don’t know. I just feeling the heat blow back off of you now and I’m just trying to cool down. Uh, man, took me to school. Uh, I think a couple of things there I learned just now. So, that’s pretty great. Um, also just like the only contribution I have is just like if they were going to rig it, this is the most stupid way to possibly rig it because it looks incredibly rigged. So, I mean, not not that that’s a reason they wouldn’t do it, but like come on, you know? Yeah. Um, okay. Let’s highlight another comment here. And I promise we’re not going to go that long on all the rest of the comments. Sorry to everyone else’s comments that I’m not going to get that passionate about. Um, but Matty Sneaks really got me going. Shout out to you, Matt. Shout out Matty Sneaks for uh giving us a great topic on the show. Okay, comment two from uh MC Beats on Instagram who wrote, “Still ain’t Luca to Dawn in respect with respect to Cooper Flag.” And this prompted me to come up with a question for you, which is inspired by MC Beats, who would you what would you rather have going forward? Luca Donuch or Cooper Flag/ the 2025 first overall pick? Anthony Davis, Max Christie, and a 2029 Lakers firstrounder. It’s a great question, honestly. And and you could say this the the latter, right? Yes. The package instead of Luca without giving Nico Harrison his flowers because when they made that trade, they had no idea they were going to have the first pick. Here’s the thing. On paper, the latter sounds better. But I also would not want to have anytime I go in public, someone goes, “Look, that’s the idiot that traded Luca Donuch for a bag of pennies.” So, I it’s it’s weird. It’s It’s weird to be on both sides of those things, but I think I would take the package and I think I would Yeah. I don’t know. Honestly, you’re not losing either way, but I think now, unfortunately, I have to sit here and be like, well, it seems like Dallas is doing pretty good. Yeah. Which I don’t It pains me to do. Yeah. No, I think I think you could reasonably say the package is probably a better starting point right now, but it’s through no um it’s through no effort of the Mavs that that happened. It’s because of their incompetence that that happened. Like I said, it’s they fell ass backwards into it. But yeah, you can reasonably make the argument now that that package is a more attractive starting point for a franchise than just Luca Donuch at this point of his career. Having said that, Luca Donuch has as many AllNBA first team selections at 26 years old than uh Charles Barkley and Dr. J had in their entire careers and has won more than Kevin Garnett and Dirk Nitzky ever had. Luca Donage against the world. There’s like maybe three players in the entire world you’d rather have before him. So, I can also understand why MC Beat said still not better than Luca. I think honestly if this is going to sound like it doesn’t make sense, but I would prefer to have the package, but I would not I would still not trade Luca. Agreed. Agreed. Okay. Comment three from the Royal Tannon Bomb 902 on Instagram. Um, now they going to trade him for a washing machine or something. This I love this one because we were we were making the not really joke like talking about how it’s a nonzero chance they could trade flag. I just want to see it from the perspective of I want to see how Mavs fans react. Like oh if they get a Giannis or something, it’d be hard for them to be mad at that. But the roller coaster of of emotions the Mavs fans would go through if like after get not well not getting over the Lucas stuff and still being mad about it, they kind of get this lifeline. And it’s like, okay, well now at least we can cling to Cooper Flag and then within like days or weeks that is turned into another veteran superstar. Like I would genuinely be fascinated to see how Mass fans take that. Oh, I just like I would love I would just want to see the press conference when he explains why he traded Cooper flag for Kevin Durant. Yeah. You know, like just like uh well, you listen, this gives a defense wins championships. like this gives us like I I’m like rooting I’m sorry Mavericks fans but I am rooting for this trade to happen and for it to be not Giannis for it to just be something absurd. We’re rooting for content. Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay. And then finally, we will end uh the Let Them Talk segment and today’s show with a fourth comment here from Gonzalez, spelled with a 1 nine instead of an L E. Um on Instagram, who said, “Should have been the Bulls pick, but a weak ass coin toss cooked us.” Also love this comment. Um yeah, listen. So for people that don’t realize, the Mavs and Bulls finished tied with 39 wins for the 12th and 13th worst records in the league. Both lost in the playin. So, the way it works is in general in the standings for playoff seating and and to generally break ties in the standings, there are things the NB, you know, there’s head-to-head record, there’s division record if they’re in the same division, there’s all these things. However, when it comes to the lottery, when it comes to the draft, the NBA does not use those tiebreaking procedures. they flip a coin to. Now, the way it works is if say, and I’m just using these numbers as examples, but say if usually uh team A in this position would get 10 combinations and team B would get five combinations and they finished tied in the standings, what the NBA would do is instead of 10 and five, they would share those odds. So, one would get eight and one would get seven and the team that gets eight would be the winner of the coin toss. So, the Mavs won the coin toss with the Bulls to end up with a 0.1% chance greater than Chicago and the set of combinations that ended up assigned to Dallas included the winning combination. So, you talk about a gut punch. We talked about Toronto earlier and other losers. The Chicago Bulls who have been like maybe the worst run or one of the worst run franchises like the ultimate mediocrity chasers and they were again this year. their uh Arturus Carnosovas who’s running their team has come out and admitted that he had a green light to do whatever he wanted including rebuild if he wanted to and he chose not to and you know to go all in on the Vevich and D Rozan and Lavine teams then they still didn’t really fully commit to a tank this year after trading Lavine which all they got back in that deal was their own pick by the way and then and then the 1.8% 8% chance hits, but it’s not them because they lost a coin toss. Anything to add, Scott? Oh boy. Yeah, never mind. We should have opened the show just apologizing to Bulls fans. That’s brutal. Oh my god. Uh yeah, it doesn’t get any worse than that. It’s professional sports, billiondollar industry, and you don’t get Cooper flag cuz you lost a coin flip. Yeah, that I have no words for that to be honest with you. None of us do. Uh thanks again to all of our followers on social media and users and stuff who like I said didn’t realize they were contributing topics to the show but did so very well uh for this week’s episode. We appreciate all of you. I think that’s a good way to put a bow on this episode. Uh so to recap, the world is unjust. The NBA’s lottery is not rigged, but the basketball gods do hate all of us. We can at least agree with all of that. Um anything anything to add here, Scott? Yeah, that’s a great point. Just, you know, nothing matters. just enjoy your lives, try your, you know, following sports apparently is just painful. So, uh, yeah, it’s a tough day for a lot of people to be honest with you. Uh, but we had a great show and that’s all that m the content was great. Content was hot and that’s all that matters. All right, so for Scott Campell whose time we always appreciate. We’ll have him on soon. For Zack and Adrian in the control room, my name is Joseph Cashero. This has been the unfiltered show presented by Under Armour. Don’t forget to like and subscribe and we’ll see youall next week.

This episode of the Unfiltered Show is presented by Under Armour.

On this week’s episode, Scott Campsall joins host Joseph Casciaro to discuss Jayson Tatum’s injury, the Dallas Mavericks winning the draft lottery against all odds, lottery winners and losers like the Toronto Raptors, and whether the lottery can actually be rigged.

0:00 – 4:29 – Celtics Lose Tatum
4:30 – 6:15 – Flagg To … DALLAS?!
6:16 – 12:19 – Mavs’ Next Move?
12:20 – 23:44 – Lottery Winners & Losers
23:45 – 33:06 – What Now For The Raptors?
33:07 – 34:04 – Let Them Talk
34:05 – 38:25 – The Lottery Is NOT Rigged!
38:26 – 41:41 – Doncic Or Flagg?
41:42 – 45:01 – Heartbreak For Bulls

Hosted by: Joseph Casciaro (@JosephCasciaro | X)
Special Guests: Scott Campsall (@ScottCampsall | X)

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