Season 3, Episode 27- Past and Present

In this week's special edition episode of "Diehlman at Halftime," Larry and Chris look back on their power rankings predictions from October and compare them to the actual standings.

All music written by Larry Diehlman

Release date: Monday, April 20, 2026

Transcript

Introduction

Overview of the NBA this Week

SPEAKER_01 0:15

Hey guys, and welcome to episode number 98 of Dielman at Halftime, the NBA podcast that tops all others. I'm your host, Larry Dielman, joined by my co-host Christy Pietro. If you're joining us for the first time, it's great to have you. And if you've been a regular listener, welcome back. We have a lot to cover today and not a lot of time to do it. We'll look at a general overview of the NBA this week and then discuss some important topics across the association. Let's get to our content for the week. With the NBA playoffs underway, we got the plan tournament started last week, and there was a lot of great action in both conferences. The Eastern Conference playing, we had the Sixers and Magic for the seventh seed, and the Hornets and the Heat battling out for the 9-10, but they were trying to get to that eighth slot. The Sixers beat the Magic 109-97, and they will take on the Boston Celtics in the first round as they have already started that series. The Hornets took down the Heat 127-126 in overtime in Charlotte. So the Heat were eliminated at the last second. The Hornets live to see another day.

SPEAKER_00 1:40

An incredible game.

SPEAKER_01 1:42

Brought to you by technical difficulties at the worst possible time.

SPEAKER_00 1:45

Yes, uh, shout out to Amazon Prime. They're still trying to get their feet under them, uh, having some technical difficulties in overtime in that one. But yeah, that was such an awesome game. Uh Lamello Ball and Con Kanipple both shot horrifically, but Lamello played really well inside the arc, and the Hornets were able to kind of pull one out from their tail there. Um, just a super entertaining game, as they unfortunately went on to get absolutely pummeled by the dejected Orlando Magic in the game for the eighth seed. I mean, what a surprise that was. I mean, uh, Larry, were you expecting that? Don't say yes. You'll be lying.

SPEAKER_01 2:23

It was definitely not the expected outcome. Not at all. The Magic taking down the Hornets 121 to 90 over in Orlando. So the Magic drew the Pistons in the first round. So with the Eastern Conference, everybody, and even the Western Conference, too, everybody won at home in game one, but not the Orlando Magic, taking down the Pistons in a road game one to start that series off with an upset. And they always say the series doesn't start until the road team wins. Well, guess what? That series has officially started.

SPEAKER_00 3:02

Yeah, that was a that was a wild game one, too. Another result we weren't expecting. The Magic looked like their season was over after that Sixers game, and then they absolutely pummel the Hornets, who just about everybody on Earth thought were gonna beat them for the eighth seed. They pummel them and then they walk into Detroit and and bully the Pistons. The Magic are one of the few teams in the in the NBA, I think, that can hang with Detroit physically. Um that's Detroit's game, being physical with you, being being strong, dominant with you, just from a frame standpoint. And and Orlando is just as big, just as strong, you know, maybe not as good of a team all around, but you know, Orlando showed us in that game one that that they're not going to back down to the Pistons, um, especially down low. Paulo Bancaro and Michael Carter had great games. Um, so yeah, shocking game one result there.

SPEAKER_01 3:51

Meanwhile, for the Sixers going against the Celtics in game one, I unfortunately had to watch that massacre happen in Beantown.

SPEAKER_00 4:00

The game was I was glad I was working.

SPEAKER_01 4:02

The game was over in Chris. You did not miss anything. The game was over in the first like like five minutes.

SPEAKER_00 4:08

I was watching on my phone and and um I saw us go down 20 and just just just turn my phone off and said, you know, let me actually do my job.

SPEAKER_01 4:16

When you're starting when you're starting a Dem Bona in a playoff game, that's usually not a good thing.

SPEAKER_00 4:21

Dude, he was awful. I mean, it was it was just an all-out.

SPEAKER_01 4:25

The problem is the Sixers were just leaving people open. Joe Mazzo knew what plays the Sixers were running, and it was it was just bad. It was embarrassing. We'll see if they can get that bounce back on Tuesday. Meanwhile, in the Western Conference playing tournament, some other great games as well. The Trailblazers took down the Suns 114-110 and grabbed the seventh seed, and they are currently in a battle with the Spurs, currently down 1-0, but a tight one yesterday. The Warriors took down the Clippers 126-121 in an upset to go to the second play-in game. The Clippers got eliminated at home. You think the Clippers were going to win? And Steph Curry told them absolutely not. And Al Horford turned into Celtics Al Horford at the best time for the Warriors. And then in the second playing game, the Suns grabbed the eighth seed, take the Thunder. In the first round, the Warriors are done. That was 111.96 was the final for the Suns. So, Chris, Blazers back in business in the postseason. The Clippers and Warriors, the Unk teams are no more, and Phoenix got their tires kicked off yesterday against the team that I think everybody has winning the championship this year.

SPEAKER_00 5:45

Maybe, maybe. Um, them in San Antonio, who didn't look too bad themselves against Portland. Although Portland kept it a lot closer than I think people initially thought they would. I think the most surprising result in the West so far was the Lakers Rockets game. The only series we have yet to talk about is the Nuggets who took down the Timberwolves in game one. And a pretty good game, uh, but Nuggets got it done pretty handily. But the Lakers-Rockets, Lakers take the 1-0 lead. Rockets were missing Kevin Durant. Um, he was a game time decision and then was ruled out with a knee injury he sustained in practice during the week. Um, and man, Luke Nard. I found out that Luke Kennard was a five-star recruit, and it showed in this one. Um, it's just an unreal performance from him. You know, I I think people think of him as as a purely 3nd player, and and you know, that I can't be further from the truth. Um, especially when you put on that Lakers Rockets game one. I mean, he was doing everything. He had the ball in his hand for like maybe just as much as LeBron James did. Uh LeBron also played great. He had 10 assists in the first quarter, which is just ridiculous seeing what he can do with the ball in his hands at this stage in his career. We didn't see much of it this year with uh Austin Reeves and Luka Doncic handling most of the load. But uh LeBron and Luke Kennard, Ohio basketball legends, uh get it done in game one against the Rockets. So that about wraps up every every uh game one. But uh yeah, we we we've had some great games in these uh playoffs and also great games in the play-in. Shout out Adam Silver. We don't commend him much on here. I don't think anybody does, but he cooked with that play-in tournament, man. We got some great games uh out of that little wrinkle in the playoff race.

Power Rankings Predictions: Top Tier Teams

SPEAKER_01 7:28

Yeah, Adam Silver cooking with that play-in tournament. I know it might be one of his redeeming qualities. I know he's had some one a few. Yeah, he's had some interesting decisions in the last couple of years, especially. And, you know, we'll see how these work out. First round, I had Rockets in four. I guess that's not happening anymore. So oops. So as we just said, the play-in tournament, Eastern Conference eliminations, the Miami Heat and the Charlotte Hornets, and the Western Conference eliminations, the LA Clippers and the Golden State Warriors. So we are down to 16 of the 20 playoff or play-in teams at this point. This is a special edition of Dealman at halftime, as we did last week. Last week was our playoff bracket, and this week Chris and I will go over our power rankings predictions from October, the first episode of the season. We'll compare them to the actual standings from best to worst record. I got the rankings from ESPN in terms of winning percentage. Chris had different sections than I did last time, so we'll go by them roughly again and we'll see how bad or good we did. And I'll say that there were some uh yikes. Uh, there might be some ones that we're a little bit embarrassed about, but we'll see how that goes. This episode is entitled Past and Present. So, who's raising eyebrows at the moment? All right, so let's go to our power rankings review. And yeah, there were some interesting ones here. So we'll start with the top teams. Now, I, as I've always done, have just split it into three sections with the top 10, middle ten, and bottom ten. I went on ESPN, looked up the winning percentages, the top ten teams in order, so working our way down. The Oklahoma City Thunder, of course, take the top slot, San Antonio Spurs, Detroit Pistons, Boston Celtics, Denver Nuggets, LA Lakers, New York Knicks, Cleveland Cavaliers, Houston Rockets, and the Minnesota Timberwolves. The section was called the Elite Teams, and my original predictions in order were Thunder, Cavs, Knicks, Nuggets, Rockets, Bucks, Timberwolves, Lakers, Pistons, and Magic. Now, from my original predictions, I did pretty good. Eight of my teams from this section resurfaced in the actual standings. Oklahoma City for me was the consensus number one pick for obvious reasons. I was one spot off for the Denver Nuggets. Probably my biggest whiff in this section, I had the Milwaukee Bucks at number six. Yeah. Holy six? Who thought Milwaukee would fall this hard?

SPEAKER_00 10:11

Giannis and friends at six.

SPEAKER_01 10:13

Yeah, I think you probably clowned me for that back.

SPEAKER_00 10:16

I probably did.

SPEAKER_01 10:18

I hope you did.

SPEAKER_00 10:19

That's unbelievable then and unbelievable now. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 10:22

In my original, I had the Bucks over the Timberwolves, Lakers, Pistons, and Magic. That was the rest of the top ten, by the way. But just looking at some other ones, I clearly underestimated the Spurs. I don't know what I was thinking, not putting the Spurs up here. The Knicks were going to be solid. And the Celtics, I don't think anybody thought this was going to be a good year. This was going to be a punt year for Boston, and nobody knew that their role players were just going to turn into the second coming of KP and Horford and Drew and you know whoever else. And they've just filled those roles beautifully. So the Oklahoma City Thunder were the only team that I actually lined up correctly. The Lakers and the Knicks, by the way, were tied as well as the Cavs and the Rockets, both had the same records as each other. Not the four of them together, but two and two separately. So that was the top ten. Some good, some bad.

SPEAKER_00 11:17

I'll run through my top three tiers here, which is going to add up to my top nine teams for my power rankings. My tier one of my power rankings titled There's to Lose, uh, insinuating that I held a strong belief that these teams were going to be the champions at some point. Those are still uh yet to be decided, obviously. So I still could very well be right about these two teams. At number one of my power rankings, I had the Oklahoma City Thunder. A bit of a layup, you know. I I I I think we both probably uh nailed our our our spots with the Thunder there. But at two, I had the Denver Nuggets. I thought they were again a tier above the other 28 teams in the NBA, which proved to be wrong. Um, the Nuggets, they're obviously still a great team. They finished third in the West, won 54 games. But they they were a bit shaky this season. It was not the Nugg we've seen over the last couple years where they're just consistently dominant, a consistent top, top, top-tier contender. Um, they had their lapses this season. A pretty significant injury to Nikola Jokic caused him to miss about a month of play. That was pretty significant. I think the big reason I had the Nugg up so high was um I was such a huge fan of the Cam Johnson trade. Um they traded Michael Porter Jr. for Cam Johnson and a pick, I believe, is roughly how the deal was structured. And and I was a huge fan of this. I I thought you were kind of getting the same-ish player, maybe with slightly less shooting talent and significantly less bone-headed plays. And honestly, when you saw the Nuggets have their lapses in other seasons, which were very sparse, a lot of them were kind of caused by Michael Porter Jr. Obviously, he was a great rebounder, a great shooter for them, but the Nuggets play a very structured brand of basketball, and that's not exactly how Michael Porter Jr. always wants to play. He loves to take his own shot. And I thought getting him out of there for Cam Johnson um would be a huge plus for them. And honestly, for the season as a whole, I think it ended up being a bit of a subtraction uh for them. I I thought they kind of missed Michael Porter Jr. a little bit. Cam Johnson really started to heat up towards the end of the season, but um the beginning of the season was pretty mediocre and and and definitely not what the Nuggets expected to get when they traded for him. Um he really was not shooting too well and was kind of in and out of the lineup um with injuries. But I thought that move was really going to take them to the next level um or at least sustain them, and that wasn't really the case. But Cam Johnson has come around. He's playing a lot better as of late. So the Nuggets, well, maybe not the second team in the second best team in the NBA. Uh they were the number two team in my power rankings. Still a great team, obviously. My tier two, um, titled The True Threats, these are teams that, you know, while I believed were a tier below the Thunder and the Nuggets at the time, these are teams I really believed um could still make a run at the championship. I had the New York Knicks at three, I had the Houston Rockets at four, I had the Cleveland Cavaliers at five, and I had the Minnesota Timberwolves at six. The Knicks at three, they ended up finishing as the three seed in the Eastern Conference. I had them as the best team in the Eastern Conference. You know, still definitely up there, still definitely a team that could make a big conference final finals run potentially, but not third best team in the NBA good. The Houston Rockets, I thought were gonna be so good this season, and and you know, there was just too much inconsistency there. Um, I th I think I maybe expected too much out of Amen Thompson, Alper and Shangun, because while they both had good seasons relatively to what we were expecting, I really just don't think this group meshed as well as I thought they would. Uh Shangoon and Amen Thompson both have pretty significant limitations on on um both sides of the ball. Amen Thompson just can't shoot the basketball right now. And Alper and Shangon, not only is he a bit of a liability defensively, but his offensive game is centered around his paint touch, and that really has not gotten a whole lot better. Um and it's been really streaky. He was three for thirteen at one point against the Lakers and missing a lot of those kind of baby hooks he loves to shoot. And that was kind of representative of their whole season, but still they had a good season. They finished as the fifth seed in the west. And the Cleveland Cavaliers is my fifth best team in the NBA. They finished as the fourth best team in the East. Again, also a good season. These I I haven't had any dramatic misses yet. Cavaliers had a had a had a pretty rocky season. They started out really rough, but they kind of started to come into their own as the season went on. Um, obviously traded Darius Garland midseason for James Harden at the trade deadline. I think that made them a better team, even though I like Darius Garland a lot. Um I thought it was a good trade. The Cavaliers, we'll see if they can get it done in the playoffs. They've looked really good so far against the Raptors, who I thought were gonna give them a really tough challenge. So the Cavs up at five, not the fifth best team in the NBA this year, but but still a solid team who could make a potentially conference finals run. I had the Timberwolves at six, they finished in the sixth seed in the Western Conference. So not the sixth best team in the NBA, but they were the sixth in the Western Conference. Also a solid season from them. Anthony Edwards dealt with injuries, um, just did not do as well as I thought. As we slide up to my tier three of teams, the Sleeping Giants. These are teams I believed before the season could make some really big divots in their conference that maybe we weren't quite expecting from them. These are teams that I expected to kind of really explode and break out this season. I had the Orlando Magic at number seven. That's that's pretty rough. That's pretty rough to look at. The Magic finished as the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference and had a severely disappointing season. Um, although they really might be turning that around as of late after some massive wins against the Hornets and Pistons in game one.

SPEAKER_01 17:12

Yeah, don't use them, don't use them in the past tense. They're still going.

SPEAKER_00 17:16

Yeah, they are I mean, they are absolutely still in this thing, but um the season as a whole, uh 82 games, we're talking regular season. They they had a they had a massively disappointing regular season. Uh there was tension between Paulo Bancaro and Jamal Mosley, their head coach. Paulo Bancaro just had a really inconsistent season, and I think a lot of his flaws as a player offensively were exposed. But the teams were letting him shoot, and he just could not punish them for it. That was the main route of his game. He loves to play downhill, and they weren't letting him. They were forcing him to shoot the basketball, and it was working for the other teams. Yeah, definitely not as good as I thought that they'd be this year. But um, again, if these last two games have anything to say about their season, uh who knows? They might end up finishing as the seventh best team in the league because they have really spun a 180 here. Um, I had the San Antonio Spurs at eight. Higher than Larry, so so that's nice. Um, but they they actually did it much better than I thought they would, even though I had them at number eight, which is pretty dang good. They finished as the two seed in the West, and the number two team in the NBA record-wise beat Oklahoma City three times during the regular season. There's an argument that they were the best team in the NBA this season, in the regular season at least. Man, I mean I was expecting Wemby to take take a huge step up, and and and he did, but it reflected even more in the rankings than I maybe thought. Um, I I think the rest of the team around Wemby Nama surprised me. Dylan Harper played really well. Um De'Aaron Fox played really well. Stefan Castle really broke out, became kind of a triple-double machine late in the season. Um, Castle and Dylan Harper, who both had concerns about their jump shooting, shot the ball really dang well, especially in the second half of the season, which I was concerned about um before the season had started. They just meshed really well together, which I wasn't really expecting. Yeah, so the supporting cast for Wembenyama uh was was really good this season, and I wasn't expecting them to be, and that's why I had them at eight. And I had the Atlanta Hawks at nine here. And you know, this might not have ended up being such a bad prediction, but I I think I got there the wrong way because I was expecting Trey Young to be carrying the Atlanta Hawks here to the to the ninth best slot in the NBA. Uh, but that was not the case. The Hawks were off to a a pretty rough start uh there with Trey Young. Trey Young being injured most of the season, and they end up trading him mid-season for CJ McCollum, among other assets, and and they they did a 180 after that trade as well. I mean, you know, Trey Young came into the season with a great supporting cast around him. I expected them to really kind of take off and be a legit playoff contender um with Trey Young spearheading the team offensively, and and it it turns out that CJ McCollum and Nikhil Allen Alexander Walker would actually be doing that for the Atlanta Hawks. So um I don't think nine in the NBA was such a bad prediction, but I I got there the wrong way because I I sure as hell didn't expect CJ McCollum to be leading the Atlanta Hawks here. They they had a tremendous end of their season. I mean, they they were winning three out of four games for like the last two months of the season. Uh they fall down to an 0-1 deficit against the New York Knicks here in the first round, but they had a great season, I think, relatively to their expect expectations. And I had them pretty high, so I won't complain. I think my worst miss here was the Orlando Magic at seven, or maybe the San Antonio Spurs at eight. Uh, the Magic being much higher uh than they should have been, and the Spurs being lower than they should have been. But that about rounds out uh my top three tiers here.

SPEAKER_01 20:52

So let's transition to the middle section of the league. For me, it'll be the middle ten teams. I'm calling the you're getting there, but not quite teams, and Chris will have his sections as well. My original 10 in the middle were oh boy, the Mavericks, Clippers, Sixers, Celtics, Pacers, Bulls, Warriors, Heat, Spurs, and Trailblazers.

SPEAKER_00 21:18

Oh golly. I mean, San Antonio.

SPEAKER_01 21:22

The actual where were they?

SPEAKER_00 21:24

18?

SPEAKER_01 21:24

19.

SPEAKER_00 21:25

Oh my god, Larry.

SPEAKER_01 21:27

The actual standings, according to ESPN, were the Hawks, Raptors. I got the Sixers in the correct spot. They were 13th in my rankings and 13th on ESPN. Yeah, you got the Sixers there. Yeah, hell yeah. 13 unlucky. The Sixers are unlucky anyway. So then we have the Magic at 14, the Suns, Hornets, Heat, Trailblazers, Clippers, and Warriors. In the ESPN rankings, the Hawks and Raptors were tied for the same record as were the Sixers, Magic, and Summer. And the Blazers and the Clippers were tied for each other. My analysis of this section: I had five teams that were in the correct section, just not obviously in the right order. The Sixers at number 13 was spot on, and they were bound for number 13. Obviously, Joel Embiid at this point throughout his career. It's not a question of if, it's a question of when he'll get injured and to what extent. Every year it's something new, whether it's you know, a knee injury, an orbital fracture, Bell's palsy, or now we have appendicitis. It's something, something new every year. And I I've told a couple people this as Embiid's injury came out recently. I I probably would put money on the fact that people probably didn't even know what Bell's palsy was until that injury was made public a couple years ago. So Embiid has had some really unfortunate injuries in his time in the NBA, and you can't really rely on him at this point in his career. The Sixers have so much to offer to the league, and the fans are just, you know, chomping at the bid to try and get into the playoffs and go deep past the second round. And every year, Embiid's injury history catches up to him at the worst possible time. We saw that on display yesterday at Boston. Looking at some of the other teams in this section, I was one spot off for the Miami Heat. In my original predictions, they were 18, in the actual, they were 17. The Heat are just they're they're just kind of built for this section, honestly. You know, they're usually built for this middle ground. I don't know why they kind of just float around in here. The Jimmy Butler era, too. It's like they awaken the beast in April, but October through March is just like free-falling, I guess, or just kind of doing whatever it is the Miami Heat do. The Dallas Mavericks, I might have been a little too high on them. I had them at 11. I was. And I just think that Cooper Flag being a rookie, despite him being a great talent, he still is a rookie. Anthony Davis getting traded, all the injuries. Kyrie Irving has been out this entire year recovering from an ACL tear last year, and there was obviously no point in bringing him back this year. You know what? We're not making the playoffs this year. We're not making the plan tournament. Save yourself. Come back next year, Cooper Flag year two, and we'll do it then. So the Mavericks, I was maybe a little too high on. When Cooper Flag is being compared as one of the greatest prospects of all time, you kind of have to put them maybe in a higher spot than you wanted to. The Trailblazers really put the league on notice this year. They were 20 in my original predictions in the actual rankings by win record. They were actually number 18 in the league. And, you know, it's it's been a good step. They've usually been a bottom feeder, and Damian Lillard left and then came back after two years with the Bucks. Didn't play this year because he's recovering from an Achilles rupture or tear when he was in Milwaukee. But he will be back next year. He's been mentoring those young guys, and ever since the Chauncey Billups crap with the organized crime, which I have been seeing on the news there. Damon Jones, I think, just pled guilty in that case, by the way. So they might be starting to crack down on that case. We'll see what Chauncey Billlops has in his future with uh potential mob ties and all that. But the Blazers bounced back nicely from all that. Shaden Sharp is a good player. Scoot Henderson, you know, made an impression yesterday against the Spurs. And all these young guys, uh Kamara and I saw Robert Williams getting time, and I kind of forgot he existed low-key because he's been in the show.

SPEAKER_00 25:50

Shout out Time Lord, bro. He's still a stud, man.

SPEAKER_01 25:53

Drew Holiday getting on that action.

SPEAKER_00 25:55

Drew Holiday's been great.

SPEAKER_01 25:57

Being that veteran. Yeah, a lot of great action from Portland. And I don't know why the hell I had the Indiana Pacers at number 15 with no Miles Turner and no Tyrese Halliburton.

SPEAKER_00 26:09

I had them around there too, bro.

SPEAKER_01 26:11

Well, the coming off a finals run, one went away from a championship that no one saw coming. But with no Halliburton and Turner going to the Bucks, I don't know how we were expecting that. They should do something next year. Halliburton will be back. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:28

They're getting right for next year.

SPEAKER_01 26:29

They have Evita Zubots now at center, so that combo should be fun. They got rid of Benedict Matherin, who I was watching the Clippers the other night, and I was like, oh yeah, I forgot he's on the Clippers now. After the trade deadline, you kind of like forget where everybody is, and you're like, he's where now, or you know, you look at the roster and say, who who's number four? And you have to look at like Bleacher Report or you know on Google, and you're like, oh, right, right, right. And you kind of just have to reset your brain to see where everybody is. But once you get that, you're okay. So this middle section got a little ugly uh with the Spurs. Sorry, Spurs fans. I don't know what I was thinking that day. And Blazers definitely moved us a couple spots up. The Mavericks, Yikes, Sixers, as we expected, the Celtics, you know, we'll see. But section not too bad. Five teams that were in the right section. And see what Chris has to say about this one.

SPEAKER_00 27:27

Okay, so my team's in the middle of the pack here. I suppose I will chop it up. I'll do my next three tiers, which will take us to number 20 in my initial power rankings. Um, we'll start in tier four, titled The Scrappy West. Now, my tier four, the scrappy west, and tier five, the scrappy east. Um these were the teams in their respective conferences uh that I believed were, you know, capable teams, um capable of winning big games, potentially making a run, but I I didn't quite expect as much out of them as I did the prior teams. Um these were teams I kind of expected to be fighting for maybe three through seven seeds in their respective conferences. Um and I decided to take all these teams and uh to kind of kind of towards the middle and and rank them. Um and it just so happened um that the four teams in the west I had higher than the six teams I had in the east. And I felt like there was a pretty sizable difference um between my my worst west team in this tier and my best east team um in the following tier. So I split them up into east and west because I mean that's actually just what I believed about these teams in in these two tiers. Um so at number 10, I had the Dallas Mavericks Yikes. Um at number 11, I had the LA Clippers yikes. At number 12, I had the Golden State Warriors Yikes, and at number 13, I had the Los Angeles Lakers, uh, which really was so L's.

SPEAKER_01 29:13

Holy L's.

SPEAKER_00 29:14

Okay, all right, dude. All right, dude. Where where were the Bucks again?

SPEAKER_01 29:18

Touche.

Power Rankings Predictions: Bottom Tier Teams

SPEAKER_00 29:19

Yeah, yeah. Okay. So um, so Larry's gonna watch his mouth from now on, and I'm gonna talk about the Dallas Mavericks, um, who definitely did not have the season we were expecting. Um I was expecting Nico Harrison's grand plan to come into fruition here, and Kyrie Irving and Anthony Davis and Cooper Flag making uh making a sick Western Conference playoff run, but uh that was not the case whatsoever. Uh Kyrie Irving ended up getting held out for the whole season. I was expecting him to return around January, and he definitely did not. Um Anthony Davis was traded at the deadline, leaving Cooper Flag all by his lonesome um on a team that was definitely not capable of being a scrappy Western Conference contender, uh, as the tier they were in would have suggested. Uh so I had them at 10. I had the LA Clippers at 11. And honestly, if you're just looking at the last 50 games of the season, I mean, I I pretty much nailed that. The Clippers were a great team after their 6-21 start. They were great. I mean, they I think they they were they were roughly um 35-20 over those over those final games, and and you know, they snuck into the play-in tournament after being one of the worst teams in the NBA um over over the first two months or so of the season. Um uh so really I'm gonna defend this Clippers take here. I really don't think it was too bad, but um still definitely higher than I would put them today. Um and I had um the team that ended up knocking them out of their season, the Golden State Warriors here right behind them at 12. Uh this this was also quite a bad prediction. The Warriors finished 10th in the West. Um Stephen Curry was dealing with injury throughout the entire season. Jimmy Butler tore his ACL. Um it was just a rough season from Golden State, and and maybe the final season we'll see from Steve Kerr, Stephen Curry, and Draymond Green here. I I think that core might finally be dissolving this offseason. Uh, we'll see. What we do know about that core is that they are definitely nowhere close to near to winning a championship, and and they they they won't be any more. Um, you know, I I think it's safe to put them in the grave there, even if they don't fully split up this offseason. Um, and 12 is absolutely too high for them. Um, but I had the Lakers at 13. I thought the Lakers I thought that was not a bad prediction. The Lakers pr finished fourth in the West, but I I think if you were looking at um the you know the the grand picture of things and how they looked in comparison to these other western conference teams. I think they were maybe the fifth or sixth best team in the West this year, um, which which would you know track with 13th overall in a power ranking. I I thought that that's that spot was pretty good. Um yeah, the Lake the Lakers, they won 53 games. I I I think by based on pure record, they did better than we expected. Um I think Luke, I think we weren't quite expecting LeBron to take as much of a step back as he did. Um, definitely not in his like playing quality. Like LeBron is still playing great basketball, um, as we've seen as of lately, because of the injuries to Austin Reeves and Luka Doncic, but I don't think we were quite expecting to see Austin Reeves be handed the keys as the second option so quickly here. Um, but it worked for them. Austin Reeves had a tremendous season. Luka Doncic had a great season, um, dealt with injuries. Um, their entire big three was dealing with injuries uh throughout the season, and uh unfortunately uh Luca and Austin Reeves um getting knocked out for the season um right before the playoffs started. We we might see a little comeback from Luca, but I'd say this was a pretty apt placement. Uh as we head into the scrappy east, I had the Detroit Pistons at 14, uh I had the Miami Heat at 15, I had the Milwaukee Bucks at 16, the Pacers at 17, the Celtics at 18, and the Raptors at 19. Uh this might be the ugliest here to look at in this in this whole prediction here. Um I had the Detroit Pistons 14th in my power rankings. Uh they ended up finishing as the third best team in the NBA and first in the Eastern Conference. Um, I think they blew about everybody's expectations out of the water this season. Um and, you know, I I think I think we were justified to think the Pistons weren't going to be this good coming into the season because, again, they really hadn't made too many grand additions coming into the season. Um, but we just saw an establishment or maybe a further development of their identity as just trying to be the most physical basketball team in the NBA. Um, and and that showed up all season long. They showed up in big games, they looked great in big games, and they were just bullying teams around. Jalen Durrin had the best season of his career, Isaiah Stewart had the best season of his career. Um they had enough shooting um for them to kind of establish themselves as an elite team in the NBA. And Cade Cunningham, um, best season of his career so far. Um he he's just unreal. He he took a huge step up defensively this season, and and he is just the heart of that team. If if he were to go down for another extended period of time, um was just knocked out with a collapsed lung, but but he's back. Um the the the Pistons that they would be done. Um they held their own in the regular season without him. Um, but I believe in that first playoff game against Orlando, again, Orlando being a team I think can really hang with Detroit physically, and I really don't think many teams in the NBA can. I believe Cade Cunningham's plus minus in game one was minus one. And if you look down the box score of just about everyone else on the Pistons, you see minus 15, minus 22, minus 20, minus 14, minus 19. Like in those Cade minutes, they've lost, they lost by one point in Cade's minutes, and he played most of the game. And it's those non-Kade minutes and a playoff atmosphere against a team just as physical as them, they were horrendous and and completely turned the game um in favor of the Orlando Magic. Um so Cade Cunningham is a superstar. Um, and they had a tremendous season, way too low here at 14. I had the Miami Heat at 15, I feel like that was pretty apt. Um I I feel like the Miami Heat coming into the season were a team we weren't expecting much variance from. I feel like everyone kind of expected the Heat to be around here, and they ended up finishing around here, um, middle of the pack in the league. I had the Milwaukee Bucks at 16, which I thought might have been too low for a Giannis Ante de Cumpo led team. Um, but it but it proved to be um better than me. Much better than Larry's prediction at number six. Um you know, Larry expected a ton from a a Giannis Ante de Cumpo led team, which I don't blame him. Um but looking back on it, yeah, just a rough prediction. Giannis missed a lot of the season with with injuries, um, lower body injuries, calf injuries, scary injuries. Um, you know, you don't want to see those in a in a 31-year-old player who relies on his athleticism. Um, but yeah, the Milwaukee Bucks were really bad this year again. They they have essentially no supporting cast around Giannis Asikupo. It's it's Ryan Rollins, um, it's AJ Green, it's Ujman Jang, and then those might be the only three quality players on that roster. You have Miles Turner, you have Bobby Portis. I don't really love those guys just as assets, honestly. I don't I don't think they're players you really want on a contending team. Um, so I had them a bit too high. Larry had them um let's not talk about it. All right, let's let's just let's just let's just not talk about it. Um, yeah, the Bucs probably were maybe maybe a definitely a bottom 10 team this season. I had them at 16. Uh speaking of bottom 10 teams, the NBA had way too high. The Indiana Pacers I had at 17. Um, like Larry said, I don't know what we were thinking, honestly. Like well, I do uh I take it back. I do know what I was thinking. I thought that Andrew Nemhard and um you know this deep team they had in NBA Indiana and a coach I really like in Rick Carlisle would at least be able to stay afloat in the Eastern Conference. And and and that was not the case. I thought Pascal Siakam would be enough as a as a number one option to you know at least be a sufficient team in the East. And no, not at all. They they lost a ton of games, but um I don't think we saw anything troubling out of some of their important role players we saw this season. I thought I thought I don't think I don't think anyone had like a bad season necessarily. Um so I expect Tyrese Halliburton and Ivica Zubots and potentially a top four pick to come back into Indiana, and I expect them to be contending next year. Um I had the Boston Celtics at 18. I mean, I was just really uh not liking their odds here um without Jason Tatum for most of the season. Um but at the time of Jason Tatum's return, they were the two seed in the East, and that's where they finished um after Tatum's return. Um I doubted Joe Mazzo. I doubted his player development, I doubted his ability to put guys in winning positions, and that's exactly what he did. He took a broken roster, and I mean, I mean, he made them spin, and they were really good this season. Um, definitely a championship contender. I had the Raptors at 19. I don't think I was wrong for thinking this, but they ended up finishing fifth in the East, definitely higher than what I was expecting. Um, and I don't really think anything too groundbreaking um came out of the Raptors this season. Um, you know, it's not like some player broke out that I was completely sleeping on. Um, they really just I think the thing is, I think they just gelled better than I thought they would. I remember talking about before the season how it was a talented team with with plenty of solid players, but um, I really just did not like their fit. Um, but but they they they fit well this season. Brandon Ingram um was their kind of go-to um scoring option, and and he played well in that role. Definitely. He shot very efficiently this season. He had maybe his best season in a while. Um, Scotty Barnes was Scotty Barnes, he was a defensive player of the year candidate. Um, he had a great season, um, even on the offensive end. Um they had guys like Jamal Shedd, um step up for them. And yeah, they had it, they had a solid season uh better than I was expecting. And in my tier six, all alone, the scratch ticket Philadelphia 76ers, I had them too low. Um they they they finished better than the 20th team in the NBA uh for sure. They won 45 games this season as the seventh seed. Um, I think we saw a better season out of Paul George than I was expecting. I um you know I'm kind of surprised Embiid played as much as he did, even after only playing, I don't even know how many games he played this year, maybe like half the season less than 30-something games. Um but it was enough. It was enough. The the Sixers um the the Sixers have been short-handed for two years in a row now, and they look better this season in the in the regular season. Um you know, I I said they were a boomer bust team, and they ended up kind of finishing around the middle of those outcomes at the seventh seed in the east, and that about wraps up the middle of my power rankings.

SPEAKER_01 41:06

By the way, Embiid played 19 last year, he played 38 this year, so literally double double of last year.

SPEAKER_00 41:13

And that that that certainly helped out their record. He he was great this season when he played.

SPEAKER_01 41:18

And he gets injured the worst possible time, too.

SPEAKER_00 41:21

Because of course he does. He's Joel Embiid.

SPEAKER_01 41:24

Yep. Well, yeah, so I don't think um what was I gonna say? Yeah, you could probably stop this episode here. Every everything I I say will probably go right back to the Bucks being in number six. They'll probably it'll just be the the theme for the rest of the season.

SPEAKER_00 41:43

Unfortunately.

SPEAKER_01 41:44

Well, I don't know what I was thinking, but uh we had some similar we had some similar teams in this section. The Mavericks and the Clippers back to back. We both had that. Yep, you know, the Warriors being in here, Pacers, Celtics, so a lot of a lot of good stuff there. And finally, let's go to our bottom sections for me. The bottom 10 teams, as always, code red. This is not a drill, and this section, again, pretty pretty favorable. Um, nothing too outlandish. There might be there's one team in here that did a lot better than I don't know what I was thinking in October, but here we go. So my original bottom 10 were the Memphis Grizzlies, Phoenix Suns, Atlanta Hawks, Sacramento Kings, Toronto Raptors, Brooklyn Nets, Washington Wizards, Charlotte Hornets, Utah Jazz, and the New Orleans Pelicans rounded out my predictions. And I think they rounded out Chris's predictions as well. The actual standings for the bottom ten teams, there are those Milwaukee Bucks again. Chicago, and then we have a tie in the standings with the Pelicans and the Mavericks. The Grizzlies, another tie with the Kings and the Jazz, and the bottom three, Nets, Pacers, Wizards. The Washington Wizards win the um win the worst record award this year. Doesn't mean they're automatically getting the first pick. This is not the NFL where that automatically gets you the number one pick. We'll see which one of Adam Silver's crazy concoctions of lottery choices will get this year. And uh so I had six teams in this section that were in the correct section, but not in the right order. I did not have a team in the right spot this time, darn it. Uh as we said earlier, the Mavericks Cooper Flag being a rookie, injuries killed them. Anthony Davis getting traded to the Wizards was the nail in the coffin for the Mavericks season. And we'll have to see in the offseason, Anthony Davis. There were rumors that he wanted to kind of have a discussion with the Wizards front office to. See what their future was and what their plans are because he's at this point in his career, he's not really interested in a rebuild. He wants to contend. This is a man who won a championship with the Lakers. Oh god, is this six years ago already? Um, six years ago in the the bubble, Anthony Davis does not want to play for a um rebuilding Wizards team, but Trey Young could also sway that opinion in the uh the right direction. And with all their young talent, maybe another tie draft pick. We'll see how that works out. The Pelicans actually weren't the worst team in the league. They did have some bright spots. Zion Williamson, when he's healthy, is a great player. Um, we saw some great play from Jeremiah Fears and Derek Queen. They have some great young talent down in the bayou. Of course, the Pelicans just need to get some consistency. And um, you know, uh DeJounte Murray, I think he he was back, wasn't he?

SPEAKER_00 45:01

Yeah, he came back and played.

SPEAKER_01 45:03

I was gonna say, because he was he was coming off like an Achilles terror or something. Yeah, so DeJounte Murray getting back in the fold as well. Uh the Suns and the Hornets proved me wrong. I I know I had the Hornets pretty low, but nobody expected Khan Knipple to ignite the league as he did. It was kind of just a safe bet as we're coach of the year, Charles Lee. Yeah, yeah. Well, hey, hey, it only it gave him a uh a better, a clear cut. Um it gave him a uh oh my gosh, what am I trying to say? It gave him a better chance, like it gave him a better, better like resume to to win that award. Yeah, for sure. Going from 28th to what are they, my actual um one, two, three, four, five, to sixteen, twenty-eight to sixteen. That's that's a pretty substantial leap for the uh across the entire league. So the Hornets proved me wrong, and the Suns, I think, just after blowing up that experiment with Kevin Durant, and you're getting Jalen Green, who was coming off a horrible playoff series last year with the Rockets, and he has definitely turned into a nice piece. Dylan Brooks had a cur has had a career year this year. Devin Booker is Devin Booker, and Jordan Ott has turned that franchise around and hopefully doesn't get fired after one year, as his three predecessors have had that same fate. Um, a healthy Jaron Jackson Jr. will do wonders for the Jazz. We've talked about that. It was good to see the Grizzlies gift the Jazz a former defensive player of the year, and hopefully he'll be a foundation for Will Hardy's Utah Jazz as they try and rebuild. Uh some other teams in this section, the Brooklyn Nets just re-signed Jordi Fernandez to a multi-year deal, getting some consistency in Brooklyn as Michael Porter Jr. leads the Rucker Park uh experiment. So yeah, so he's leading up. That's a great way to put it. As Michael Porter Jr. leads the Rucker Park five. Um, so that'll that'll be a fun experiment. No more Cam Thomas, though. That's a that's a tragedy.

SPEAKER_00 47:21

Yes, screw passing, screw rebounding, just get buckets, dude.

SPEAKER_01 47:25

Yeah, so uh the Chicago Bulls, they're trying to, I believe, rebuild their front office. Josh Giddey is a great cornerstone.

SPEAKER_00 47:33

Thank God. Thank God they finally, finally, finally, finally, finally, finally exterminated that front office. I mean, congratulations to all the Bulls fans. I mean, that that that is truly so amazing. Uh, I'm I'm really happy because I mean that they probably had one of, if not the worst, management situations in the league.

SPEAKER_01 47:55

So the Jaden Ivey, the Jaden Ivy thing supposedly was the last straw with that situation. We already talked about Mr. Ivey and uh how that saga went down. And you know, just just the usual suspects in this section, honestly. The Pacers, you know, we talked about how coming off a finals run, they really had a uh finals hangover. The Wizards are always here, the Brooklyn Nets, Jazz are always here. God help the Sacramento Kings. They're they're just they're terrible.

SPEAKER_00 48:26

Well, hopefully they're next to sell the team and wipe the front office.

SPEAKER_01 48:30

The Memphis Grizzlies, when John Morant goes from a number two pick to negative trade value, you know that franchise is screwed uh more in more ways than one. So that pretty much wraps out my bottom teams. Hopefully, some of these teams can get out of the basement starting next year in the 26-27 season. And there's still plenty of season to go as we have just started the first round of the playoffs. And Chris, what are you what do you have cooking over in your bottom tier teams?

SPEAKER_00 49:04

So my tier seven of nine, my play-in Powerball teams, these were teams that kind of had low expectations coming into the season, but I thought they had um at least the personnel, if nothing else, to make a bit of a run um to the to at least the play-in tournament, be it be a fun team, um, kind of around the middle bottom of the of their team standings. Um at 21 in my power rankings, I had the Portland Trailblazers. At 22, I had the New Orleans Pelicans. At 23, I had the Phoenix Suns, and at 24, I had the Charlotte Hornets. Three of these four play-in Powerball teams ended up making the play-in tournament. So um I guess that's a win, but I I I think some of these teams may have been a bit too low. Um, definitely the Phoenix Suns and the Charlotte Hornets at 23 and 24, respectfully, were better than I predicted. Um I don't think I was too wrong on my analysis on these teams. I just had them too low. Um they were better than I was expecting. I I really loved the Jordan Ott hire for Phoenix, and he ended up being great for them and kind of lifting them um into the plan tournament and the seven seed. They were the seventh seed for roughly the whole season. Uh there's the there's this funny graphic video of um it's it's a chart and it has all the 15 teams in the Western Conference, and it goes um it kind of goes through time throughout the season, and um each team has a line and it goes up and down depending on um how their spot in the rankings changed. And in this video, the Phoenix Suns were at seven for the entire season, and there was like a week where they were like the eighth seed. And and it was just it was kind of funny just sort of watching them just because all these other teams you see them you know jumping up and down all over the place, and then the Phoenix Suns are just chilling at seven. Um, and that seven seed in the Western Conference was definitely more than I was expecting out of them. Uh, they had a great season, as did the Charlotte Hornets. Uh I also loved you know Charles Lee. I love Charles Lee as a coach. Um, and I really love this young core, and and they definitely exceeded my expectations. I think Lamelo Ball took a big step up this season um and definitely proved his worth as a as a franchise leader. Um I I'm not I'm not a hundred percent sure he's he's like a number one option on a championship winner. Um but I am definitely sure he's a great winning basketball player. Uh, I mean some of the stuff he does is unreal and he really kind of gained a better control of his capabilities this season. There was a lot less boneheadedness from him. Um he he played a lot more controlled um with a lot better pace and a lot better decision making this season. And obviously Khan Kanipple was a as a was a revelation for them um leading the league in three-point makes. Well, Melo Ball, by the way, at number two, they had the two leading three-point shooters in the NBA um by total makes. Uh Khan Knipple is amazing for them. He is already no doubt one of the best shooters in the NBA, and he's definitely more than a shooter. Um, he's great for them. Brandon Miller had a good season coming off injury. Their center rotation, which was my biggest concern coming into the season, played a lot better than I thought. Ryan Kochbrenner was solid, and Musa Diabate was really good for them. Um unfortunately got babied um by the Detroit, uh, or not the Detroit Piston. They got they got babied by the um by the Orlando Magic. Sorry. They got babied by the Orlando Magic physically, um, just dominated. Um, and it was unfortunate because I think the whole world was rooting for the Hornets there. But um again, they had a great season. The Pelicans I had at 22 here. Um, I think this might be maybe a bit higher than they should have been, but but you know, around that area. The Pelicans, like you said, definitely had some bright spots this season. Um, their rookies, Jeremiah Fierce and Derek Queen, who I thought they idiotically gave up an unprotected first-round pick this season to go get. And I really still believe that was an awful move. But we can independently think that Derek Queen is a good player and ignore the trade. And I think Derek Queen's a solid player with some potential there. And Portland at 21. I thought this was a fair enough rating on them. They were the number seven seed in the Western Conference. Um they went above 500. Um, so going off that, I think my ranking might have been a little lower than they ended up finishing. But again, they're they're really just they they don't have a high ceiling as a basketball team, I think, right now. Uh Denny Abdia, he had a great season as the number one option, definitely better than I was expecting. Um but I I don't think he's an he's a one on a true contender. Um, but they do have a lot of great pieces there, and they definitely had a better season than I was expecting. I definitely had them too low. Uh as we move on to T T as we move on to tier eight of nine here, um titled Identity Crisis. These were teams that um I I just thought had a really confusing outlook on this season, and uh not only confusing but a bad one. I expected them to be bad. I had the Sacramento Kings at 25, I had the Memphis Grizzlies at 26, and I had the Chicago Bulls at 27. Um, all of them definitely proving to be pretty apt ratings here. Um Kings, just a directionless basketball team, just full of aging players on big contracts, and they really don't have a ton of assets. Um, thank goodness they have their first round pick this season, because if not, I mean it would be looking really grim over there. They definitely to um wipe out that front office.

SPEAKER_01 55:04

Um but but Chris, but Chris, light the beam. It's the beam, my dude.

SPEAKER_00 55:09

Dude, the dude, the beam, the beam's been uh turned off now for a couple seasons, as much as I hate to say it. Um maybe, maybe win the lottery this season, go get you a uh an AJ Debonsa or Darren Peterson, go get you a new coach, send Doug Christie out of the door, uh, get a new front office, then we can start lighting the beam again.

SPEAKER_01 55:35

Too late, Doug Christie's staying another year.

Conclusion

SPEAKER_00 55:37

That's what I read, and that is so ridiculous to me. I mean, come on. Like, are we like are we serious? I mean, if that doesn't prove they're an unserious organization, I don't know what it will. Um, I had them at 25. I had the Memphis Grizzlies at 26. Um, absolutely a bad season from them. Um, but I do kind of like their future outlook. They they they they have some young players that I do really like. Um, notably uh rookie Cedric Coward had a really good season for them, super efficient, um and and a and a big wing who can really defend too. Um I I think he's got a pretty high ceiling as a player. I mean, I'm not saying this guy's Kawhi Leonard, but I mean, like, he's built like Kawhi Leonard. He's a great shooter, he's a great defender. Um, they have Zach Edy, who I really like, and they have a boatload of picks um from the Jaron Jackson Jr. trade and the Desmond Bain trade. So I I kind of like the direction that they're that they're taking on here. Um, despite having a bad season, um, I'd say my ratings are pretty fair. I have the Chicago Bulls at 27. Um, maybe an equally as miserable season to the Sacramento Kings. Um, but they're saving grace. They actually did end up clearing the front office, so good for them. Um, but 27, I feel like was pretty fair. As we go into my tier 9 of 9, my three worst teams uh in the NBA I had before the season. This tier was titled Debonsa, Peterson, and Boozer. And I remember when I made that tier, I remember thinking it's gonna be really funny if one of these dudes just has a terrible season, and we look back at these power rankings, and I'm looking at two great prospects and a dude that just fell off the the the plane of the earth. But but no, um, these three guys a season later are still most likely gonna be the top three picks in the NBA draft. Um so I think I get some points there for my my my scouting nuance, uh figuring that these guys were gonna be the top three picks, and they probably will be. So um at 28 I had the Utah Jazz, at 29 I had the Washington Wizards, and at 30 I had the Brooklyn Nets. Um definitely safe to say those were all fair ratings. Um and I I don't hate the outlook of these teams moving forward either. They they they all hold their their picks, um, which hopefully will be high. And um I say hopefully because uh Adam Silver continues to make it harder for bad teams to get better through the draft, which makes absolutely zero sense um with these new proposed uh lottery odds changes. Uh it's truly horrible and sickening for the league, honestly, and I hate it. Um but I hope one of these three bottom teams, um I hope just one of them with these horrible odds they have now, even worse than they were prior. I hope just one of these teams with their bad odds can get an AJ Debonsa, a Darren Peterson, a Camboozer to really change their franchise around. Um, but that rounds out my power rankings. Um I'd say my worst placements were let's see, Celtics at 18, uh Pistons at 14, Warriors at 12, Clippers at 11, Mavs at 10, those were all bad, magic at 7 was bad. Um Spurs at 8, you could argue that's pretty bad. Um but but you know I'd I'd say it was about for for what people were expecting. I I'd say I I would guess my power rankings probably finished around average compared to to some others. Um I I did have some solid predictions. Um like the um what solid predictions did I have? I mean now that now that I'm now that I'm looking at it, like okay, Hawks at nine, like that was solid. Um I I mean I I just had a bunch of like I had a bunch of like okay picks. Like like I had a few bad ones and then just a bunch of like okay, like I probably nailed it within five spots. Like uh there there wasn't I didn't make too many bold statements, and and when I did they ended up being bad, maybe besides Atlanta. Um so yeah, I I think I had a painfully mid um power ranking. Um Larry, um I'd say probably more more of your ratings were accurate overall, but you did unfortunately um I'm sorry to tell you this, but you did have the Milwaukee Bucks at six and the San Antonio Spurs at 18. So I'm really sorry to inform you about those, but but you know those bring it down a bit, just a bit.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:42

So I hey hey, I had two out of thirty in the act in the exact correct spot, the Thunder being the obvious one, the Sixers at 13. Um, I had 19 of 30 in the right section from my original predictions, whether it was the first, second, or third. The bad ones, yes, the Bucks and the Spurs were horrific uh predictions. The Pacers and the Celtics, I think nobody saw that coming. Uh let's see. Like the top teams, it was pretty much the right ones. Just a couple that were out of order. I think I I really had the Pistons. Uh I had the Pistons in the top ten. Years were where?

SPEAKER_00 1:01:27

I had the Pistons at 14.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:29

Okay, I had Pistons at nine, so um had them a little higher than that. Putting the Suns and the Hornets, you know, down in the bottom was expected, but after what they did, definitely was a were they were they next to each other in your power rankings? I had the Suns at 22, and I had the Hornets at 28.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:50

Okay, I had the Suns at 23, the Hornets at 24.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:54

So a lot of good predictions on both sides. And since we were just talking about some really bad ones, ladies and gentlemen. Since we were talking, since we're talking about uh one of these bad teams, I have good news for um anybody that's a Utah Jazz fan. So apparently the Jazz won the tiebreaker drawing with the Sacramento Kings. Unless there's some unlikely scenario, the Jazz will be keeping their first round pick, and the Oklahoma City Thunder will not be given a top pick. Well, at least that top pick. We'll see what the we'll see what the Clippers do. Thanks a lot, thanks a lot, Clippers. But the Jazz will not be forfeiting their pick to the reigning champions. So Utah fans rejoice you might have a shot at AJ DeBancer, um, one of the top three picks. But yeah, I think overall we had a lot of hits, a couple misses that were quite bad, but overall, some great choices between us going from October to now here in April. I think a lot of these held up, and hopefully the bad teams will improve for the future. And the ones that are in the top sections, maybe we'll see them in the later rounds here in the playoffs or even the NBA finals. Onward of the playoffs. Well, that's all the time we have for today. If you haven't already, make sure to follow the podcast accounts, Chris and me on social media. The three podcast accounts on Instagram, TikTok, and X or Twitter are under at Dialman at half. My personal ex and Instagram are at LarryDialman, Chris's personal ex and Instagram or at Chris Dippy. All seven handles are in the description on Buzzsprout, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Remember, although you can find Dialman at Halftime on major podcasting platforms like Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, and YouTube, the main podcast website is on Buzz Sprout. The website URL is dealman at halftime.buzzsprout.com. Feel free to send a comment by using the send us a text button located in each episode's bio. With the exception of Apple Podcasts, the text option is available on Buzz Sprout and all the major platforms. Your comment could end up in the fan mail section of the Buzz Sprout website. And don't forget to spread the word about Dealman at halftime. With today's episode being number 98, we are two episodes away from number 100. Episode 100 will be on Monday, May 4th. Mark your calendars now. Tell your friends it is going to be on May 4th, episode 100. We can't wait to hit that century mark with you guys, and we will definitely plan something big for that. A lot of stuff happening here at the podcast. A lot of stuff happening in the NBA playoffs. What a time indeed. See you next time, fellow hoops fans.