Celtics BLOW OUT Knicks, Ant & Wolves ELIMINATE Warriors, NFL schedule release | Nick Wright NBA

Celtics BLOW OUT Knicks, Ant & Wolves ELIMINATE Warriors, NFL schedule release | Nick Wright NBA

Welcome in what’s right with Nick Wright. Episode 331 in what could be something of a frenetic episode because we have the NBA playoffs from last night. Demons Celtics stay alive. The Timberwolves after making one conference finals in their franchise history have now made consecutive conference finals. an unbelievably important game six on deck between Thunder and Nuggets. And despite all that, one could argue the biggest story in the sports world right now is the NFL schedule release, which is why actually we are going to lead the show with none of those topics. I’ll explain that in a second. But the other reason Damonte Today’s show is frenetic is because there is a chance and I hope you’re ready that at some point during the show I have to get up for a few minutes and you just have to take over. So, we have we have um we are in the process of I don’t need to get into all the details, but someone is coming by the house today and the window of time they gave us is 9:00 a.m. to 300 p.m. and we just need someone here at all times and if they if they show up and we don’t answer the door then they won’t come for another few weeks. So, I I don’t think it’s going to happen, but it’s on the board. So, just be ready for that. All right. I just just just let you know. You look good. You sound good. Um here’s what miss missed the cut in what looks like it’s going to be awesome. Nick Cage is going to play John Madden and Al Davis is going to play Christian Bale in a new movie. And that one still image, those guys looked unbelievable. The WNBA season tips off tomorrow and the Portland Trailblazers are for sale. The producers have asked me if the Trailblazers moved to Kansas City, which I they won’t. Um, but if they did, would I become a Trailblazers fan? And the answer is yes. Absolutely. If Kansas City got a basketball team, that would be my team. The reason I’ve been able to be a NBA free agent my whole life is because the Kansas City Kings moved to Sacramento before I was born and I never had a team. But yes, I absolutely would become a KC Trailblazers fan. Reminder for everyone out there, like, rate, subscribe, review. And today is a great day where we reward those that have liked, rated, subscribed, and reviewed that are watching us live on YouTube that are spending their time with us because we are going to start the show talking about math. Damonz, go ahead. Oh, all right. So, the draft the draft lottery was on Monday. We open the show up on Tuesday talking about it and here we are again today. You want to discuss it again? Is it more conspiracy stuff? What? No. I So, this is So, listen, I won’t spend a ton of time on this. I will get to the basketball, I promise. But I I feel I honestly feel a responsibility in this moment because this is everything that is going on surrounding the draft lottery is just either a microcosm or an uh metaphor for so much of the conspiracy [ __ ] that has pervaded every aspect of our lives. where it is folks asserting things that are just simply untrue combined with folks total inability to do simple math. So, I won’t spend 10 minutes on it like I did Monday or Tuesday, but I am going to address because I made the mistake of reading some of the comments on our video when I said everyone who believes the draft is rigged is an idiot. And there are two or three kind of overwhelming comments. One of them is this. Listen, I don’t want to believe it’s rigged, but it’s awful fishy that they won’t let us see the lottery balls get picked and the process. And the reason that is so upsetting is because they do let you see it. It’s on the NBA’s YouTube page. You can watch it right now. In fact, when we if we tweet out this clip, let’s then also tweet a link in the replies to where everyone can watch it. And so the reason that is irritating is that is you see this in life and in politics and on the internet all the time, which is why have they been hiding this from us? And it’s like um it was on page three of the budget that was released and has been on the the US government whatever uh excuse me website all year. The idea that because you are unaware that something exists for you to see it doesn’t exist. the idea that something is being hidden when simply because it hasn’t been posted to your idiot Telegram group chat or any of your Facebook groups. It’s not hidden. You just haven’t looked for it. That’s the first thing. The second thing is, and this is really in my sweet spot, people’s inability to understand how math works. And I one of the reasons and sorry guys, we’re going to nerd for a moment. One of the reasons math is great is because it is unambiguous. It is there is no other side to the argument. It’s just the numbers. And one of the most common comments we got after it went Mavs, Spurs, Sixers, one, two, three is the odds of those three teams getting those three picks were, you know, 0.0001%. How do you explain that? And now set aside that the fact that when people were crunching those numbers, they were actually not doing that math correctly because what they were doing was taking the odds pre-draft of those teams going one, two, three, and then doing the math there when of course the odds reset slightly once the first pick has been off the board and that the Mavs chances of getting the second pick are now zero. Their odds of getting the second pick are distributed amongst the rest of the teams. But don’t worry about that because that’s at least a understandable and a marginal error. But here’s what people don’t understand and this is what I’m going to explain quickly and then we will move on. If the lottery stayed perfect, if no one jumped anyone, it would have gone Jazz, Wizards, Hornets. That would have been the chalk outcome. And this is where people don’t understand math or probabilities. Do you guys know the most likely one, two, three, Jazz, Wizards, Hornets? What the odds of that being the exact one, two, three that we got were? It’s the most likely. What are the odds of it? And the answer to that is 0.2%. one in 500. What the most likely? Because again, what you need is a 14% chance to come in for the Jazz and then after that a 13% chance to come in for the Wizards and then after that a 12% chance to come in for the Hornets. And again, we’re going to we’re doing the rough calculations here, but 14% of 13% of 12% gives you 0.02%. Which is to say this, every single outcome was incredibly unlikely, but we were guaranteed one of them. And I am only focused on this because I actually think this is I can’t call it a canary in the coal mine because the the whole world already has black lung on this. It we are so far down the road. The canary in the coal mine on all of this was actually when like sports conspiracies and was it a a warning signal for the rest of us of other conspiracies? Was it the Kyrie Irving flat earth stuff? That was the uhoh. If you’re willing to say that’s debatable, then what you mean is there is no objective truth in anything. But when you have a monitored, videoed uh authenticated process who no matter what because no team has better than a 14% chance of getting the number one pick and because of the way the NBA has rejiggered the odds when when you that those are the facts that we all can see and it is still an overwhelmingly held opinion that the [ __ ] is rigged. It is further evidence that as a collective, our ability to have a agreed upon set of facts that we all then understand our reality and then operate or debate or move, you know, according to how we feel that we should in that reality. It’s fraying and it’s dangerous. So, we can be done with it here. But I am I’m not overreacting and I’m not wrong and I’m not trying to just like be like look at me I can do math. I am saying that there is a real cost to be paid for all of us if we as a collective just start to feel like anything that happens that isn’t what I expected to happen There must be an invisible hand guiding why it happened. And it is doubly dangerous when it is very very easy to see. Watch the process yourself and see how unriggable it is. crunch the numbers yourself and see how even though this was very unlikely, every single possible outcome was very unlikely. And even under those circumstances, you’re like, eh, feels fishy to me. It’s dangerous. All right, lecture over. Adam Silver, thanks you for your service. Well, I you know, so can I tell you one other thing on that and then we’ll be done. Speaking of Adam Silver, this was tweeted and this is what really set me off. I am going to read you and describe to you the tweet and then I’m going to tell you who tweeted it. after making big trades just months before the NBA draft lottery, these teams ended up winning it and it was like a the exploding head emoji like wow that you I you know the my mind is blown emoji and it talks about uh LeBron signing with the Heat, Chris Paul traded to the Clippers, AD traded Lakers and Luca traded the Lakers. um which is just stoking the conspiracy nonsense flames. The account that tweeted that was the NBA on ESPN, the official account. Adam Silver should have been I Bmani text this text me this and I the and I don’t want to I I don’t want to read per I’ll just Bmani won’t care he didn’t butman texted I’d hit the roof about this if I was Adam Silver you’re damn straight it’s so it’s it is it is so much worse ban the conspiracy stuff about the chiefs and the officials because that at least people could convince themselves, well maybe, you know, it’s one person’s bias, one referee or an individual decision rather than a multi-deade, multi- dozen human being conspiracy. to what end? And so, and again, it I keep saying I’ll leave it like the Mavs winning the lottery was only slightly slightly more unlikely or less likely than the Hawks winning it last year to get Alex Sar. And and nobody cared that that team jumped from 10 to one because it was Alex Sar. But it g like it’s so stupid. It’s just so stupid. Um, all right. We’ll get to the actual playoffs and the schedule release now. But first, let me tell you guys, NBA’s 82 game grind is done, and the real fun has begun. The NBA playoffs are here. Time for all the high stakes drama, clutch moments, jaw-dropping plays. I know you can’t wait. You’re looking to make the playoffs even more exciting. DraftKings Sportsbook has you covered. is an official sports betting partner of the NBA. From the playin games all the way through to the finals, now’s the time to back your favorite players and teams as they chase glory. All season long, DraftKings been the go-to spot for NBA player props. That doesn’t stop now. Want to make your player playoff experience even more intense? Try placing a bet on your favorite players performance. Will they drop 30, 40, maybe more? Your call. Ready to place your first bet? Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app now. Lock in your bets and let’s make this playoff run unforgettable. Something special for first timers. New DraftKings uh customers bet $5, get $200 in bonus bets instantly. Again, make it a playoff run to remember with DraftKings. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app. Use code right. That’s code right for new customers to get $200 in bonus bets when you bet just five bucks only on DraftKings. The crown is yours. Also, my mistake. The the Hawks got Rhysa Shay, not Alex Sar. It was such a relevant draft. I forgot who went first. You guys understood the point. All right, Deonz, now we can get to your Celtics. Yeah, my dogs. They won last night. Got that 25 point dub over there in Boston without Tatum. Let that be noted. So, who do you think is the biggest winner here? Boston staying alive, New York having a chance to win it in their building or the Pacers who’s just like sitting outside while these guys are dueling it out. All right, before I say what I think, I a little birdie told me you now think the Celtics are going to complete the comeback. Is that correct? They got to 100%. They got to win the next game. They got to win game six if Well, obviously they have to win game six to win the series, but but I’m just saying if if the Knicks lose this next game, the Celtics aren’t going to lose game seven. Um we’re obviously built to to lose a player. It’s our best player, but I think we’re we can definitely deal with the Knicks without Tatum as we showed last night. Okay, that’s going to be a very common opinion today that sometimes Deontz and I do this show and Demanz who has no didn’t go to school for sports broadcasting really it was never like it’s not people maybe don’t know this but like and maybe they’ll be surprised by it it’s not like Deontz growing up with me was like oh man I want to follow in my dad’s footsteps and do sports media like that’s that’s not what this was ever. So, um it was just kind of a happy accident thanks to our friends at Blue Duck that you and I ended up trying this together and now we’ve done it for at what four years. I was supposed to just be setting up the cameras. Exactly. Right. Um and um but sometimes Demz has a take despite that last that lack of what we would call classical training that is then almost the exact same take I hear on TV or sometimes I hear from Brew or Wilds later in the day and it always makes me happy. Um, it makes me happier when I think it’s a a good take, unlike this one, which I think is like, where are we going here? A very commonly held um misspotten take. So, I think there is going to be a considerable overreaction to last night, a game where the Knicks understandably were going to be a little less feel a little bit of a less sense of urgency, a game where Boston was going to have the energy of the crowd and a game where it was tied at halftime. time and then Brunson gets five fouls in eight minutes and the game’s over. Like there. And so here is why I listen. Good for Boston. Here is why I think you are overstating how well Boston is built to handle the loss of Tatum. Okay. Now, it is good they got Sam Hower back yesterday and you know his his injury in game one of this series was significant and you know not having him available to come off the bench hurt them in the middle part of this series. It’s nice they got him back. But the Celtics obviously don’t have Jason Tatum. They also for all intents and purposes don’t have Chris Taps Forzing. Listen, happy for Luke Cornett that he had that game last night. That is not duplicable on any level at any time again. Derek White’s awesome. I don’t think he’s got another 34 point game in his future. That’s more duplicable though. I could I could Well, certainly certainly more than Luke Cornet. damn near having having a triple double. Um and and so I look at game six and the other thing was a Towns was kind of got himself out of it with foul trouble. OG was horrifying in this game was one for 12. Male Bridges who I thought was going to play really well. He didn’t. He was 4 for 14. So all of those things conspired to where the Knicks and then the Knicks also, you know, let go of the rope a bit. So I think the Knicks will win Friday. But here is maybe the more controversial opinion or not controversial but unconventional opinion. Even if they lose Friday, I think they absolutely can win a game seven in Boston. I think that the Boston Celtics, the idea of the Boston Celtics is very different than the current reality of the Boston Celtics, which is the Boston Celtics right now are a team whose best player is Jaylen Brown, whose second best player is Derek White, whose third and fourth best players are guys in their mid to late 30s in Holiday and Horford who have not yet shown at any point in this series. They can in back-toback games give you highlevel impactful minutes and then we’re down to the Pritchard Cornet tier of guys because Chris Staps is out. T he’s not out but he might as well be. Chris Staps is not giving you anything. Tatum is out and I just don’t think Holiday and Horford are going to be as effective in game six with a day rest as they were in game five. And so for all those reasons, I I think that the and throw in the rundown. What are the draft kings? Okay, you already did. Good job, guys. Boston is down to plus 225 to win the series. So, the Knicks are probably like minus 260. Um I I think that the Knicks take care of business in six and even if they don’t I minus 275 for New York. Um I think that Jaylen Brunson in a game seven is not going to be intimidated by a place where he won games one and two. Now, I will say this for the Knicks chances of making the finals, game seven is or avoiding a game seven is super valuable to them. And having a little more time off, especially because the Pacers play at such an insane pace and because the Pacers are so deep. Now, I want to ask you, this is one of those things that just don’t clip this. If someone else clips it, it’s fine. Let’s say you’re right, Deonz. This just a theoretical question and it’s and by the way, there is no value judgment here. Okay, we all agree last night Jason Tatum was rooting for the Celtics and we all agree that in game six he will be rooting for the Celtics. If they pull this off, will there is there any point in these playoffs where what you would call I guess those intrusive thoughts in his head. It’s like okay now we can we can All right. It’s like I’m just I and maybe this is an indictment on me, but like if if I all of a sudden if I got if I had to have some type of like medical procedure and I was and they’re like, “Man, Nick’s going to be out for First Things First for the next three months.” In the beginning, I would be like, “All right, fellas, keep it rolling. Let you know what I mean. Keep it rolling.” I’d be really happy if like three weeks in I got like a I saw a PR alert and it was like first things first record setting ratings and then like a week later it was like Emmy nominated at some point I might be like all right we can we you know we can have some rough shows here like and so the there there go ahead uh I I I could see that being a thought process. But yeah, man, I think um Tat it’s not an indictment and that’s not Tatum specific that is like it’s a human characteristic, right? And I would be saying that same thing if you know let’s say Steph’s injury instead of being one Steph obviously really wanted the Warriors to somehow pull it out because he was coming back and he’s like if you could just stay alive I can come or maybe he was coming back, right? But if Steph’s injury was like where he’s out three months, may like I feel like there’d be a point where even where Steph would be like, “Okay, you can beat the Timberwolves, but let’s not get a ring here.” I don’t know it the All right, so let’s do a Celtics followup before we get to the other stuff. Um, yeah. So, now that Tatum’s injury is officially official and he’s likely to miss all of next year, you’ve had more time to think about it. Which dominoes have been affected the most? Well, did we talk about like I think one of the first nonseltics related dominoes is what does this mean for Giannis? Yeah. Does Giannis decide I’d give it one more year? Does Giannis decide I still want to be traded, but staying east if I can sure seems attractive to me. Like where you know what does what does Giannis does does how does Giannis look at this as far as what his decision should be? Because, and this was the thing I might have said on Tuesday, if we are if Giannis goes west and Tatum is out for the year next year, the AllNBA teams, I would imagine the East has three guys that have like would be all NBA is the wrong way to do it. Just of the 15 best players in the sport, the East has three of them. Jaylen Brunson, Donovan Mitchell, Tyrese Hallebertton, and everyone else is out west. And so the other major domino that this impacts obviously is Celtics related, which is they were already going to trim salary somewhat. Now I think they probably have to trim it massively. And I would, if I’m a Celtic fan, I am just kind of at peace with the fact that the next time Tatum plays, the team is going to look very, very different. And I tr I trust Missoula and I really trust Brad Stevens. What I am hoping for is the next time Tatum plays, Jaylen Brown is still his wingman because we have proof of concept that that works. And I would be a little nervous if I were Boston at um I would be a little nervous if I were Boston at Eme Udoka and the Rockets poking around my team this off seasonason. And I guess nervous is the wrong word because it’s all via trade. But I do if Celtics are going to come available, I would think Eime Odoka and the Houston Rockets, if they don’t get Giannis, would be the team that is potentially most interested there and what that, you know, what that means. Now, again, you trust Brad Stevens to make good trades and he’s been very, very good. So, those are those are my biggest kind of takeaways now that we know. We talked a lot about this on Tuesday because we didn’t know, but we kind of knew that it was going to be what it was. Um, all right, let’s talk about the other game last night. And and the Timberwolves are headed to the Western Conference Finals for the second year in a row. We mentioned that earlier. Um, Tuesday’s show, you said that you were unamused with what Minnesota’s been doing. Um, have you seen any you see anything in that last game maybe convince you that they’re going to turn it around next round? All right, so here is here’s the optimist’s view on Minnesota playing I don’t know a total of 45 good minutes in that entire series. like the third quarter of game four moments last night and you know a few other various spots is after running out of gas by his own proclamation in round by by the end of round two last year. Anthony Edwards learned from it and was like, “You know what? We I can I can save some of the nitrous tank for this next round because I’m I don’t need to I don’t need to deal with this. I I I don’t need to go all out in this round. What I will tell you is Minnesota has to play drastically better in the next round to have a champ to have a chance against Oklahoma City or even to beat Denver and and I think Denver we’ll talk Denver OKC in a minute. So, I I think that there was an understandable uh intensity letdown once it was clear Steph was out and once it was clear that the Warriors simply did not have any offensive punch. But they do they absolutely need to be much much better. But what I will also say is this already has been a successful season. I know that Timber Rules fans don’t want to hear that like no we we’ve never been to the finals. We want to make the finals and of course and you could make the finals but you it was pretty shocking that they made the conference finals last year because nobody thought they were going to beat Denver. Certainly after they won the first two against Denver and then lost three in a row. and certainly not during game seven. They were down 20 points in Denver. And then this year, it looked like that trade was a mistake and that they were going to take a major step back. And now they’re in the exact same spot. And so I I think that they you are you have to be incredibly optimistic about the next half decade right now if you’re Minnesota. But you also has have to feel like man I know ants young but the bracket might not break better than this for us again particularly about who you potentially could be seeing in the NBA finals. So, this is a huge, huge moment obviously for the Timberwolves and they just need to be better than they were really in this entire series. I don’t think the Timberwolves have played an A+ game or even an A game start to finish since game four against the Lakers. And it is like really surprising and impressive, I guess, that they were able to close out the Lakers and then win five of six against Golden State despite not playing their best. Uh, all right, Damonte, what what I know we have a bunch of follow-ups here. Um, Indiana, do you think they’re in the same boat as Minnesota? You know, they made it to their to the Eastern Conference Finals last year and they’re both kind of showing it’s not a fluke, you know. Yeah, I mean I Yes. I think that both for both of those teams, we looked at their conference finals appearances and put them in the same bucket that we put the Blazers like six years ago and the Hawks a few years ago. Like, ah, I mean, that’s cool, but it’s probably not, you know, really indicative of who they are. and the fact that they both responded by not only getting to the confer back to the conference finals, but getting back there in dominant fashion. I mean, neither of those teams have played a game six in these playoffs. Is that right? Yeah. Neither have played a game six in these playoffs. That’s really impressive. Um, all right, let’s keep going. Um, uh, who do you think Minnesota’s rooting for in this series? Denver or Oklahoma City. Well, they’re definitely rooting for Denver tonight, right? That’s unequivocal because they want that thing to go seven. And then if I were them, I would be rooting for Denver because Denver would be backto back sevengame series with a five and a halfman team. And so I would I would just feel like we’re gonna have the rest and the youth and the legs. They they wouldn’t have home court over either one of them, but they are definitively rooting for Denver tonight. And then I would think probably as terrifying as Joker is, you guys beat him in the playoffs last year. And I think you feel better about that matchup. All right, let’s keep going. Are you uh are you surprised by Julius Randle popping off in the postseason? I’m shocked and it’s really impressive and he deserves a ton of credit. He was a historically bad postseason performer in it, granted a limited sample, but he it also him being a bad playoff guy to meshed with how I viewed him as a player, which was kind of empty calories at times, kind of a played a selfish style of basketball. And he was unbelievable last night. He then had, I thought, a really good postgame interview where he was like, “That was number eight. We just need number nine. You know, I’m not worried about myself.” And it seemed he seemed like just much more adult and mature, which maybe is what you like that’s what happens as you age. And he’s been excellent, like really excellent. He has been better these playoffs than Cat has been. What? And oh, on that note, one thing the Timberwolves really need in this next round is Dante to get rolling again. Like a lot of us thought Dante was a sneaky huge part of that trade and Dante has not been in this postseason what we saw him like for the Knicks. But I am listen ton of credit to Julius Randall. a ton of credit and he like I didn’t see that coming and he’s been excellent and that’s really impressive. All right, next. After the game, Curry had said if Curry hadn’t got injured that he saw them the Warriors going the distance. Um, how do you feel about that? Okay. Um, people are going to get mad again. But now this is where I again sadly have to again I’m just here to create balance in the sports media ecosystem. And if at times that means I have to, as I said, play the razal ghoul role, I’ll do it. I was wrong when I laid out the different ways. Steph Curry, one of the 12 greatest players ever, a face of the league for the better part of a decade, one of the most likable, unique, impactful players of any era. I was wrong when I laid out how the narratives go with him, which is when he has a great game and they look awesome, he’s better than Magic, and it’s do we need to put him in the GOAT conversation and when they miss the playoffs or get bounced early, it’s we just move on to the next thing. I didn’t realize there was a third branch of that tree. And that branch Deon is if they lose without him, it actually helps his goat case. Look at like look at what that team looked like without Steph Curry. Wait, why are you sounding like this is BS? like this is like that’s like it it it I mean does it not make him look better that he’s winning like that they they did what they did against Minnesota without him like it would have looked a lot different if they had Curry Yeah. Um again I I guess I’m just you know a caveman. I of course they would have looked better without with Curry obviously. I just don’t think that getting clocked in round two uh helps your historical hierarchy case. I’m weird like that. I the I understand. I’m not saying it should hurt his case. I’m not saying you ding him, but I am not going to do what folks are doing already this morning, which is Well, now actually what Steph was able to do was even more impressive. Steph carrying this team, this team was below 500 before they traded for Jimmy Butler. Like Steph was Steph was carrying them to the playin again, which is where they did end up. and and like that. Again, I like Steph Curry. There’s no way not to like Steph Curry, but the the Calvin Ball of his historical greatness discussions being heads you win, tails, his opponent loses is just a sight to be seen. Because at the end of the day for the and and here is the other piece of it that nobody I think everybody knows but nobody wants to bring up injuries like Jason Tatums. forget the severity of it just the way he suffered it are just horrible awful luck like there’s no you know what I mean that there’s nothing could have been done right it was like Paul George in the Olympics or you know like oneoff flukes like damn Steph Curry’s injury was one of the catalyst s of that was that the Golden State Warriors, when Steph Curry was playing, needed seven brutal games to beat Houston. And because of that, at age 37, at that workload, at that responsibility, game one of this series, he suffered a soft tissue injury. If the team had played better in round one, I don’t think he suffers that hamstring injury. So, it all is connected. And so, like that’s that’s not some like hot take. That’s just obvious. And it’s why you don’t want to need to go seven in round one. It’s why you don’t want, and this is on the Warriors, to have such a heavy offensive burden on Steph, all of that. But I what I’m not going to do is be a party to the conversations of man oh man, if Steph didn’t get hurt, the Warriors could have won the championship. When we saw that at 37 years old, given the way the Warriors are built and what is asked of Steph, that he was he had a hard time getting through two and a half weeks of playoff basketball, much less two months. That’s not That’s not mean. That’s not unfair. That’s just aging basketball players. Just like it’s not mean or unfair to say playoff Jimmy is what I worried it was going to be, which is, you know, make he makes surprise cameo appearances and then oddly goes back to being a guy who looks totally disinterested in shooting the basketball. And the idea that playoff Jimmy next year, next year when Steph is 38, when Draymond is 36, when Jimmy is 36, that this Warriors team is all of a sudden going to be in a drastically different spot than it was this year, which is what were what spot were the Warriors In this year, the only path they had to competing at the highest levels was a Steph Curry save us path, which is a testament to his greatness. And at 37, that is a path he can only walk for a couple weeks at a time. And at 38, we’ll see how long. So that’s that is the fair reading of it. The fantastical makebelieve reading of it is man oh man if Steph stayed healthy they could have won the championship. They weren’t a good enough team. Like they needed to be a better team. So, they didn’t need to ask Steph to do so much. So, they wouldn’t likely run into some type of Steph Curry either fatigue. Two years ago, we saw this. It wasn’t in the form of an injury. It was in the form of the team’s not good enough. Therefore, Steph has to do everything. Therefore, once we get to round two, he’s not fully functional. Steph Curry. Two years ago, they needed seven to beat Sacramento. Steph in that game seven scored 50. It’s when he’s 35, not when he’s 37. And it was like, oh my god, look at what Steph Curry did. But the fact that he had to do all of that just to get to round two put him in a position where in round two he was fine. He was 27 a game on 44% from the field and 34% from three, which is fine, but not going to be good enough cuz he fired all his bullets going 34 a game on 49% from the field and 38% from three to get out of round one. So, is Steph Curry still good enough to be the best player on a championship team? Yeah. similar to his his old guy brethren LeBron. Does that team need to be incredibly well constructed and incredibly deep? Because it otherwise he’s going to run out of gas. Yeah. Should any of this what happened this season change in a positive or a negative way how you view Steph Curry historically? Obviously not. Are there going to be a lot of dopey folks that use getting beaten in his team being beaten in round two in a wideopen postseason as evidence of he’s better than Magic Johnson? Yes. And those people are out of their minds. Agenda, man. What agenda? I have an agenda. Go ahead. No, tell me. No, man. I I honestly I don’t think they can be like I really don’t even think those two players can be the the best player on your team. I think probably it’s best off for Steph Curry to be the second best player on his team and they probably better chance of getting a championship. Well, same with LeBron honestly. Well, I mean it’s here’s the thing. In a way, what you’re saying is being has been proven out in these playoffs, right? Um, the point I’m making is I think that if you what’s the right example of the team like if you put Steph or Braun on the fully healthy, fully functional Celtics in place of Tatum, I think either one of those I I think they with Steph or with Braun, they could win the championship and they would be the best gun. Clear. I see. Yeah. You see what I’m saying? Like you you’re right that the the easiest way would be to just like add Giannis or in the Lakers case they did add Luca but Luca didn’t play like Luca is supposed to in the playoffs and the Lakers roster was screwed up. But you like that’s the point I’m making. I do think those th though Steph and Braun you didn’t used to have perfect roster around them and you just knew they were you know what I mean going to two months of highintensity playoff basketball no problem see you at the finish line it’s just a different spot now and that’s the that’s the reality of it. Um all right let’s do one more NBA before we do schedule stuff. Um, yes. After choking in that fourth quarter, the Nuggets, they went seven minutes without a without a basket. Uh, they are now down 3-2. Playoffs are wide open and OKC can capitalize tonight. Do you think they’ll do that? No. Listen, I think that um I think I think Denver’s going to win tonight and then we have a game seven and I’m super excited to see I’m really excited to see what Joker has in store for us over these next couple games. And I this is this is I don’t want to say it’s unfair. Uh but it is it’s a high standard. Let me put it like that, which is and Daniel, this is another massive compliment I’m about to play pay to Nicola Joic, but I want [Music] to I want to I will for the second time when talking about Joker evoke evoke invoke LeBron James and what LeBron LeBron’s last year in Cleveland. So that means it’s 28. He’s 30 at the time. He’s 33 years old. So a little bit older than Joker, but you know, peak LeBron. They are playing the Celtics in the conference finals. And that Cavs team, when I say that Cavs team would make this Nuggets supporting cast look like all stars, that Cavs team was starting Kevin Love. More on him in a second. Very good player. Jr. Tristan and George Hill. They were playing a Pacers team that, you know, young, but the Pacers were Jaylen Brown, Jason Tatum, Al Horford, who the youth for Al is a good thing because, you know, he was peak Al or close to peak Al Horford, Terry Roier, Marcus Smart, uh, and then, you know, they didn’t go Marcus Morris, Aaron Baines, the Cavs found themselves down 3-2 in that series. In game six of that series, Kevin Love got hurt five minutes in. And LeBron goes 46 119 3 and 1 playing 46 minutes as the Cavs win by seven. And then in game seven of that series with Kevin Love out with a concussion, LeBron goes 35159 and two and they win. He scored 35, the team scored 87 and they win. Now they ended up then getting the very next game LeBron played was probably the best game any basketball player ever played in the history of the league. the 518 and8 game one of the finals the JR Smith game I tell that story for these for this reason I think and this is why it’s about Joker and this is why it’s a compliment I think it’s on the board Joker does something similar I think it’s on the board that Joker’s next two games are just I’m just [ __ ] better than everybody and role players. You’ll play better in game six and then I will will us to the finish line in game seven. Now, that doesn’t guarantee you a championship. The the Cavs then got clocked by the uh KDF Warriors in the finals, but I am I’m open to that being a possibility. And that is the highest of compliments that I can pay Nikolai Joic. Um, all right, Damonte, let’s go to uh the schedule release if we could. NFL released a 2025 schedule last night. Um, starting off with your Chiefs. We have a league high of seven prime time games. Um, what sticks out to you with the schedule releasing? So, there’s so many schedule related things and I was I told the producers I was going to do a lot on the schedule, but it’s almost like there’s so much on the schedule that it’s going to be uh that it’s going to be overwhelming to do. I So, I want to do it like this. I want to go through the nationally televised games and then I will dive deep into individual teams who I feel like have either got lucky or unlucky and maybe we’ll do more of it next week because I do want to do more NFL stuff. So, our Sunday night football slate, we can just go through it. You guys don’t have to worry about this Chief schedule right now. Um, and if it helps you guys, I should have given you guys a a heads up on this. If you go to uh the Twitter account my sports update, uh, which is Ari Myrov, he has the image of the three like the night schedules because that’s what I’m looking at and people can watch along. Uh, I don’t even know if we have the capability to pull this up. I I still don’t really know how production works, but the first Sunday night football game of the year to Monz is Ravens at Bills. And I’m here to tell everyone that I think for the second straight year to Monzone the Ravens real dirty. Yeah, you agree. Um I’m I I see it as an opportunity again. Same way I saw it last year. Um but it is it is kind of an opportunity that the Bill like it could have been another good team against the Ravens other than the Bills. I I want to make sure the audience knows what we’re talking about. For the second straight year, the NFL is sending the Baltimore Ravens to the location of their gutting postseason defeat, obviously, against the team that beat him. And because it’s not a divisional matchup, no chance for a get back. So last year the two years ago the Chiefs host or I guess the it’s not to the location two years ago because the Ravens hosted that game. But two years ago the Ravens beat the Chief the Chiefs beat the Ravens in the AFC Championship game and then week ones against the Chiefs. The Chiefs beat him and I don’t care what the Ravens said. In the back of their head all year had to be, can we beat this team? They’ve beaten us twice. And now the Bills beat him to end the year. And week one, they play the Bills. Now it is a great opportunity and that is a kick-ass game. Like a really a kick-ass game. But I don’t I don’t I don’t get it to like be totally honest with you. Um all right, week two, Sunday Night Football is uh it’s almost as if the schedule makers Oh, good job producers. They got the graphic. um forgot that Kurt Cousins lost the starting job because the only reason I care about Falcons at Vikings is if Kurt Cousins is starting for the Falcons. Otherwise, like I guess pinnix McCarthy, but I’m not that into it. Week three, Chiefs and Giants. I got to tell you, I’m into it and I might go to that game Sunday night life. see the Chiefs. Maybe the world is not the I can’t imagine the world is super into that game. Um, week four, this is again, this is the Sunday night slate. Week four, Packers at Cowboys. Good early season kind of measuring stick game for both teams in this regard. I think both of these teams kind of bestase scenario is they are fighting for one of those wildcard spots. So, this could have real postseason implications if the Cowboys are better than people think and may if the Packers are about what people think. Week five, Patriots Bills. I think the Patriots are going to stink. Vegas thinks the Patriots are going to be fighting for a playoff spot. So, that becomes a huge game. Uh, week six, Lions at Chiefs, one of the games of the year. Like, just objectively, one of the games of the year. And here is a here’s a little known fact. Jared Goff, I do believe, is the only quarterback in the league that Mahomes has played more than once and never beaten. So he lost to him in the 5451 Monday Night Football Epic Chiefs Rams seven years ago and lost to him the season opener two years ago uh Lions Chiefs. Week seven, Falcons ners again. I I feel like we’re being a little overserved the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday Night Football. I gotta be honest with you. Week eight, one of the most exciting games of the year theoretically. Aaron Rodgers taking on the Green Bay Packers, assuming Aaron Rogers signs up to play. So, I’m into that one. Are you into that one? I’m in I I wish it were in Lambo, but I’m into that one. I’d love to see Jordan Love put it on him. Awesome. Yeah, I think it’d be great. Um, week nine, Seahawks commanders. I I think the Seahawks might be really bad. Commanders should be fun, but I think the Seahawks might be really bad. We’ll see about Sam Darnold. Week 10. Week 10, if these seasons go the way I think they’re going to go, might be uh Sunday Night Football’s a second screen. I don’t know what HBO has on at that point of the year. But Steelers, Chargers, I’m not as high on the Chargers as everyone else is. Um, and I think the Steelers, it’s not going to work. We’re getting, wow, two out of three weeks, we’re getting Aaron Rogers theoretically in the Steelers on Sunday Night Football. Week 11, awesome game. Lions, Eagles. Massive implications for tie breakers and playoff seating, everything. Week 12, I think that’s an awesome game, too. Bucks Rams, two of my favorite quarterbacks, two of my favorite teams to watch. Week 13, Bo Knicks against uh Jaden. Nah. Nah, might be a week. Yeah. Yeah. See about the Broncos. Yeah. Week Week 14, Texans Chiefs. Awesome. Texans try to get some get back for the playoff game last year. Week 15, Vikings Cowboys. Okay. Week 16, Bengals Dolphins. Eh, week 17. I like it a lot. Bears niners. I will say Sunday Night Football. I feel like this is probably good for my employer, Fox. I think I think America’s game of the week, the Giant Fox 4:30 game on Sundays, stole some of the best matchups from Sunday Night Football. Monday Night Football, we can go through much quicker. If if I’m ESPN, I am a irritated is the wrong word, but there’s only a few jump off the page on you. Week one, Vikings Bears. Listen, I’m excited to see Caleb. I am not as into the Vikings as maybe the schedule makers are. Week two, double header. Pretty good, actually. Bucks, Texans. I like it. Chargers, Raiders. I’m high on the Raiders. And week three is unbelievable. Lions, Ravens, that’s another game of the year. Then it gets a little lean. Jets, Dolphins. Ah, Bengals, Broncos. H Chiefs, Jags. I love that matchup. I I don’t know if America does, but Travis Hunter, even if you don’t care about the Prince, Travis Hunter. Week 13, Bills Falcons, Bears. Oh, Bears Commanders. That’s an awesome game. Jaden and Caleb, that’s awesome. Maybe this is a better schedule than I thought actually now that I’m actually diving into it. Uh, Bucks L. This again, Monday Night Football. Bucks Lions. Great with a double header of Texans Seahawks. And then the very next week, Jaden takes on Mahomes for the first time ever. That’s sick. Cardinals Cowboys. The storyline there will be or just make this prop bet. Now, there is going to be a highlight package of Kyler Murray as a high schooler winning state championships in Cowboys Stadium that we’re going to get that be like, “This guy’s unbelievable in this stadium.” Week 10, potentially really good one, Eagles, Packers. Week 11, Cowboys, Raiders. Again, I think the Raiders are going to be good. Week 12, Ner hosting the Panthers. November 24th. That’s a date night. I’ll tell you right now. That’s a Monday night date night. Um the next week, uh Giants, Patriots, we might have back-to-back date nights. Yeah, back-to-back Monday night date nights. I’m put it on your calendar, honey. Uh week 14, Eagles, Chargers, good. And then week 15, Dolphin Steelers. and then ners Colts and then Rams Falcons. So, Monday Night Football kind of ends with a bit of a whimper. Uh, but it has really I I think the first half the schedule’s better than I thought. And now we go to Thursday night. Thursday night, week one, Packers uh Commanders. Love it. Week two, Dolphins Bills. Oh, so this is what we’re when we do this more scheduled stuff next week. This is the things that are where because we are obviously already know who’s playing who. So, it’s more about when they’re playing for the schedule release, not more about exclusively. The Dolphins getting their game in Buffalo in September is a huge win for them. Them not having to go to Buffalo in November or December is very helpful for the Dolphins. Then we get Seahawks, Cardinals, whatever. Niners, Rams potentially really good. Eagles, Giants, ah, Steelers, Bengals, always good. Vikings, Chargers, again, lot of Vikings. Maybe JJ McCarthy is going to be awesome, but I can’t figure that one. Ravens, Dolphins. See if two is healthy, but that could be good. Bears, Br or I’m sorry, Raiders, Broncos, Jets, Patriots. No thank you. November 13. No thank you. Bills Texans, awesome game. And then the Black Friday game, Bears, Eagles, awesome. Then Cowboys, Lions, really good. Falcons, Bucks, fine. Rams, Seahawks, and then the Christmas Day game, Broncos, Chiefs. So, so that’s your exclusive Sunday, Monday, and Thursday night schedule. I’m just glad it’s here and I really I’m gonna lean on Warren Sharp to do a lot of the tough work for Rest Edge and stuff like that. And I’ll dive into more fully like did you you know did you fade are you a warm weather team that got your cold weather opponent in September like the Dolphins did with their annual game to Buffalo because that’s important if you ask me. Um Sneaky little note. I know the schedule’s coming out. I think you can get the Jags to win the division at nearly 3 to one right now. Just wanted to put that out there. I like that. Pretty good bet. Travis Hunter, Prince Redemption, Liam Cohen, fading your um fading your guy CJ Strad. Excellent. Yeah. Uh all right, let’s get to some of the listener questions that we had uh from Tuesday and then we’ll get to today’s. And reminder everybody, like, rate, subscribe, review please. It really helps us out. YouTube, Spotify, iTunes, all of it. Um, Trent asks, “Nick, is there a trade package that the Bucks would actually entertain and would also work in the second apron to get Giannis to Boston?” Um, okay. Uh the answer to that question is is there a trade I’m thinking no there isn’t that the the Celtics are trying to trim salary the I don’t think the like if you called them up and you offered them the answer is no there is there Giannis going to Boston Porzingis Porzingis and Brown see you No. Well, that’s the thing is because of Boston salary. No, because of Boston salary stuff, they can’t combine. They can’t combine guys. So, it would have to be basically Jaylen Brown for Giannis straight up. And I just even if he had picks, that’s not going to be enough for Milwaukee. All right. Next, uh Grayson Justin for Tibs. I like this. Justice. Just Justin. Yeah, I actually Justice for Tibs. He played his starters big minutes all year and was criticized, but now in the fourth quarter they’re clearly better conditioned than their opponents cuz they’re used to it. Hey, right now it’s looking good. That part’s true. Now Deontz is banking on this being wrong and that they’re just going to fall apart at the end of this series, but right now it’s true. Um, all right. Next. Uh, Joel says, “Love’s first things first. What’s the process for for selecting topics on the show? And is Wilds really the leader of the show? All right. So, for selecting topics, like we have a group Google doc. Our producers put in what they think the topic should be. Then we have a call where we make sure we all agree. I mean, it’s usually pretty straightforward, you know. But, uh, so that is selecting topics is easy. Finding the right question to ask about the topic takes a little bit of time, but not much. And while Wilds is really the leader of the show, like yes, of course, Wilds is the leader of the show. There’s no question about it. And it’s just like, what’s the right example of this? Have you ever been playing a video game and there’s like a toddler around and they want to play too? So you give them a controller that’s not plugged in and they sit next to you. It’s kind of the same thing. Uh below the belt. Um Apex says, “I love that you guys have a fatherson show.” Oh, thanks Apex. See, I like I like the show, too. I like it a lot as well. Um, go ahead. Um, Noah asks, “If Giannis goes west and the East gets even worse, would you support a one and one through 16 playoff seating, ignoring conference conference? I don’t know. I I don’t know what you would do. I I like the traditional conference setup. Here is a sneaky thing. I was actually So, Nick, who owns his family, de Damonte knows this. I’m telling the audience. Next to my wife’s boutique is an ice cream shop called Sugar Hill Crearyy, which is is the best ice cream in New York City. The uh and it’s a husband wife business. And uh it’s also a very it it the the coincidence of this is very unique. Like they it’s a husband wife business. The husband’s name is Nick. He’s a white guy from the Midwest. The wife is is a black woman who is has a lot of the same kind of what I would call almost like charisma. Yeah. She reminds me a lot of your mom and she’s like a very similar kind of ethos also both maybe a little like supernatural powers like it’s very you know it’s a very they they have they they have an 11-year-old daughter like they just a lot of odd coincidences there. It’s rigged. Um we used to live we used to live like two blocks from them right. Well we used to live one block apart. Yeah. Um, but regardless, so Nick is a huge Timberwolves fan and they were actually over at the house last night to watch the game and one of the things he and I were talking about is if the NBA adds, which they will, Deon, a Seattle and a Vegas team, both of those teams will have to be in the Western Conference, which means one team currently in the west will be moved to the east and that the teams that make the most sense Houston right there no so I mean I’m sure they would love it but the furthest east teams that are in the west are New Orleans Memphis and Minnesota makes the most sense because they’re Minnesota is so close to Milwaukee, Chicago, and you and those teams are in the East, but that is going to be if you own New Orleans, Memphis, or Minnesota, you desperately want to be moved to the Eastern Conference. And if you’re the NBA, I know this is a long-term decision, but in the short term, you kind of want moving New Orleans to the East is not helping anybody. You want it to be an awesome team. So, like it should you would think it would help everyone for it to be Minnesota. Um, all right. Go ahead. Next. Um, Isaiah says, “Would you guys ever o would you guys ever be open to calls from fans with questions?” huge fan of First Things First and Nick Style of debating. Uh the LeBron of debate shows. Oh, that’s very nice. Uh I don’t know the tech on having callers. I know some shows do. Yeah. I mean, I’d be open to almost anything. We could see some stuff happening there, man. Yeah. No, I mean, we could try it at some point. I don’t know. Um All right. And do the last one, Deonte. Yeah. So, you know, LeBron had mentioned that the draft was rigged and you haven’t said anything about that. And also, but hold on. We Lit says that because I I was thinking of that in my head, but we lit was the guy that asked it. So I So here’s the deal. When I did the rant on the TV show, we led with LeBron’s tweet and the laughing emojis. I And so I I’m not like ignoring it. Yeah. I I think it is. So we led the show with you calling LeBron a bonehead basically on I mean indirectly. Sure. Yeah. On this topic. Yeah. I I think this is I think it’s beneath him. And I it’s I think that I think that if he actually spent time looking at it, he’d come to the conclusion of, oh, it’s not. But yeah, I don’t I I I’m like that he has fanned the flames on that. I don’t I mean, that just is what it is. Um, all right. Reminder everybody, like, rate, subscribe, review. Oh, next week, next week our show will be on Monday, not Tuesday. Just so everybody knows. Um, next week the whole schedule’s going to be weird, and I’m not even sure exactly what it is. What I do know is we are doing a show Monday, not Tuesday. Uh, and maybe we’ll do maybe we’ll do a bonus show over the weekend. I’m not sure. Uh, all right. Like, rate, subscribe, review. Thank you, DraftKings, Blue Duck, Volume, everybody. Talk to you guys soon. We’ll trade. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Yeah, you got back.

Nick Wright weighs in on how the Boston Celtics responded without Jayson Tatum with the series on the line against the New York Knicks. Then, Nick reacts to Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves advancing to the Western Conference Finals again after taking care of the Golden State Warriors in Game 5. Later, Nick previews Game 6 between the Denver Nuggets and Oklahoma City Thunder, and Nick digs into the NFL schedule release. Finally, as always, Nick and Damonza answer your questions.

Timeline:
0:00 – Intro/Missed the Cut
2:50 – Draft lottery revisited
16:38 – Celtics survive, Knicks
30:04 – Timberwolves headed back to WCF
37:45 – Steph GS
50:02 – OKC-DEN Game 6 preview
54:47 – NFL schedule release breakdown
1:08:11 – Nick and Damonza answer your questions

#WhatsWright #NBA #Knicks #Celtics

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