Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to full court, full field, full count.
[00:00:06] I'm Leonardo Mejia and today we'll, we have a couple things to discuss. It is draft day, so huge day, especially for me, a Giants fan.
[00:00:16] We, we typically have to put a lot of stock into whoever we draft because we're typically drafting at the top of the draft. Of course the Giants are doing that.
[00:00:28] And before we get into that, the Giants made a huge trade. And obviously this episode is going to be centered on my New York sports fandom. The Knicks are in the playoffs, Yankee season, you know, obviously, like it's just now getting started really.
[00:00:43] And we're still early in baseball season. And then of course today is the NFL draft with the New York Giants having two first round picks now because they traded Dexter Lawrence, who is one of my favorite players on the Giants currently. Probably one of my favorite Giants all time. Like, dude was on the team from 2019 to 2025. So decent, long, decently long tenure with the Giants.
[00:01:08] And obviously he was great. And most memorable is his 2024 season where really he was sexy, Dexy. And he was the best defensive tackle in the league. Arguably between him and Chris Jones that year. But especially with like the sacks numbers, he put up like, like eight and a half, nine sacks that year as a defensive tackle, not even a defensive tackle as a nose tackle. Which was like absolutely insane season from Dexter Lawrence. And he's, he's really great.
[00:01:39] Not only, it's not only about getting sacks, obviously he's great at runs, run stopping as well, but like what he does best. And the reason why like Brian Burns was so good last year was that he just eats up blocks. Like you need to focus like a lot of your attention on Dexter Lawrence. So you know, you gotta focus a lot of attention on him. And obviously Brian Burns too is, it's amazing. Edge. And then of course now at Abdul Carter and Kayvon Thibodeau, like, you know, they, they were rotating last year. Hopefully Abdul Carter's a lot better this year. I mean he was the third overall pick. It takes Edge's time to develop and like watching from like watching the entire season last year, like Abdul Carter, his sack numbers weren't great, but he honestly just wasn't able to finish sacks. And that could be due to just being young, that could be due to just being a rookie, but that he was getting so many pressures and it's like that's what you want to see because as a player like to like developing like a young player like Abdul Carter who's I mean, obviously immensely talented, firm. To get as many pressures as he did last season is so crucial to the team because though eventually a lot of those pressures or QB hits are going to turn into sacks because he's just going to get, he's just going to become more technical. He's just going to become better. And like, I feel like he's going to be better at finishing a sack. And given now I feel like we have a much more competent defensive coordinator and even remember, the Giants had probably the worst offensive coordinator in, in the, in the whole league last year up, at least up there. But yeah, it's going to be completely, completely different for the Giants losing, you know, Dexter Lawrence. But, you know, they're, they're going to have to work with it. They get the 10th overall pick, which if I had to give the trade a grade for both sides, I would give the Giants an A. You don't like to lose a player like Dexter Lawrence ever.
[00:03:39] He's about to go into his age, 29 season, so he probably has a solid like four, like three or four more years where he's really playing at, you know, the level, the levels we've seen him play in the past, like three years.
[00:03:53] But at he, like, for example, we're drafting someone eight years younger and it's with the 10th overall pick, like, that's great value for the Bengals. I think they gave up a little bit too much in this deal. Like the 10th overall pick, they probably should have gotten a bit more compensation back. But Dexter Lawrence is great and like the, the big joke has been the Bengals suck at drafting anyway. So like, realistically with the 10 pick, yeah, they definitely could have drafted someone that, that would be impactful, especially because like, it like in the Joe Burrow error, like, or at least like in the like the Cincinnati Bengals, like, contending era, I guess to say because obviously like in their first, in Joe Burrow's first year, they were bad and that's why they got Jamar Chase. But I believe this is the highest that they've picked at, which is number 10 since Jamar Chase. I could be wrong about that. But like, having a top 10 pick was pretty big for the Bengals, but, you know, like I said, probably weren't going to draft well anyway. And you're getting Dexter Lawrence, who's great, so I will give them a C plus, like, it's really contingent on how well he's going to play next year. If we see 20, 24 Dexter Lawrence, he's absolutely worth the 10th overall pick and It's a win, win, trade for both sides.
[00:05:11] If we see more so 20, 25 Dexter Lawrence, I would say the Giants definitely win the trade, but it's not a necessarily like a really bad trade for the Bengals because he's still a very productive player and he's going to be very crucial for that defense and he's probably, definitely going to be a Pro Bowler and maybe an all Pro next year. So, like, obviously like he's one of the best. He's probably the best, like most tackled in the game, if not one of the best. So, like still decent for the Bengals, but C plus right now and I mean, we'll see how this trade ages.
[00:05:44] With that being said, we're gonna get into my NFL mock draft. We're at number one. I have Fernando Mendoza. Enough said.
[00:05:51] Like I said, draft is today. We, we have known Mendoza is going number one. Everyone knows like Raiders don't need to try to hide it because who else would they pick at number one? At number two, I have the jets and I've been mocking Arvell Reese every single time.
[00:06:08] But. And it could be smoke, but I'm hearing from sources that David Bailey might be the guy for the jets at 2, which I found really interesting because after the jets and Bailey didn't have their like, private workout that was scheduled to happen, they like canceled it. You expected, okay, wait, maybe they're not going to drop Bailey at 2. They're going to draft Reese. But you know, reports are coming out that Bailey might be their guy and I feel like they needed a true edge like Arvo. Reese definitely is probably going to play edge in the NFL, but I feel like why not just drop Bailey at that point? Because like Reese, like, he's more, he's better in terms of versatility, but Bailey probably is going to be a better edge rusher in this league and like at least his ceiling wise. So I feel like for the jets it makes sense to go with Bailey at 2, leaving Reese to the Cardinals at 3. I haven't really had the Cardinals take David Bailey that much, but like, I feel like Arvel Reese would fit their defense better. I mean it's a tremendous athlete. We've talked about this and the Cardinals like they anything they can get on the defense, to be honest. So I, I think they go Reese there at three, but there's a lot of other options they could go with.
[00:07:21] I think he's the honestly the best prospect on the board and it's a position of need in edge rusher slash like linebacker for the Titans at number four, they can go so many ways. It could be a receiver. Don't really see that happening.
[00:07:37] It could be a running back. Obviously with Jeremiah Love, it could be an edge. I mean, Reuben Bain still on the board. I mean even Sunny Styles is still there who's a linebacker who I wouldn't expect to go at four, but he definitely could go out for.
[00:07:52] But I have the Titans drafting Jeremiah Love. I just think with how the board worked out here, it just makes most sense. Like if Bailey or Reese is going to be available at 4, I think that's different.
[00:08:05] But Jamal Love is arguably the best player in this draft. Like talent. Like when talent wise, once you like get rid of, you know, whole positional value, like, like on a big board, you'd most likely have Jamiah Love one. I do personally. So for the Titans, you're drafting the best player in the draf. It's a position of need because I mean, is Tony Pollard and Taj Spears gonna stop you from drafting one of the better running back prospects we've seen in a while?
[00:08:33] Obviously. Like, like Genti. Between him and Genti, him going higher than Genti is. Not really because of.
[00:08:42] Not really because Jeremiah loves a better prospect. Because personally I don't. I think Genti had a bit more height for me. But I think just the way that the board works here, you have a running back needy team at four, I think it could.
[00:08:58] Jeremiah Love could easily end up there and he will. So at number five, we have my New York Giants who will select their first of their two top ten pick. Ten picks by the way. Only team with two top ten picks. Gotta love that.
[00:09:15] And at number five, I got them going. Caleb down. So I've seen a lot of reports that the Giants are between Downs and Love today. And honestly, I'm not a big Jermayah Love to Giants guy, but regardless, I think he'll be gone before then. Whether the Cardinals do kind of reach, not reach on him, but take.
[00:09:35] Take Love as more of a, you know, I mean it would make sense with Leflore going there. Maybe he wants an offensive piece.
[00:09:43] If not, I think he goes for. So I don't think Jeremiah Love will be available at 5.
[00:09:48] But on the other hand, I think Caleb Downs is. Is absolutely the guy here at 5 and honestly I would kind of want to wait till 10 like and maybe go like Sonny Styles here at 5.
[00:10:04] But I feel like Caleb Downs is more of a Giant. Like this is a dude that has an exceptionally high football iq, perfect for John Harbaugh's, you know, style of football, you know, he wants guys that, you know, love the game, study the game. This is the type of player Caleb Downs is not only that, but he's also very versatile in the positions he can play.
[00:10:28] And I think for the Giants, they really need secondary, secondary, and, man, this would really be bolstering the secondary. They could double dip on secondary at number 10. It is possible.
[00:10:40] I don't know if they would do that, but, damn, we could use a corner and a safety, to be honest, at number six. So it's supposed to be the Browns here, but this is.
[00:10:52] I'm gonna predict a trade. I'm gonna predict the Cowboys trade up to number six, and they trade the 12th and the 20th pick, and they'll probably get. They would get a bit of compensation back from the Browns, and maybe they would only have to trade the 12th and, like, two seconds instead of the 12th and 20th, but I feel like the Cowboys would trade the 12th and 20th if it means they could jump Washington at seven and take Sonny Styles at six, given that the Giants don't take him at five, because that's definitely a possibility.
[00:11:26] But Sonny Styles, I mean, you want to talk about an athlete, like, I've talked about it many times, like, how. How great this guy's physicals are.
[00:11:38] Like, people are really comping him to Fred Warner, except he's bigger in fashion friend Warner. And yeah, he probably won't be as good as Fred Warner, but also he probably will be less injury proud than Warner is. And the Cowboys would be giving up a lot. But there's. I just don't think with Sonny Styles stock that there's any chance that he'd be available at 12. Maybe Washington were to pass up on him. Maybe they only have to trade up to eight. In that scenario, you're only jumping up four spots, and you probably don't need to trade the 20th pick, but, you know, I think the Cowboys wouldn't want to take the risk here. They take Styles at 6, leaving the commanders to go with Reuben Bane at 7, who's kind of been slipping down boards. But don't get it twisted. This dude was what probably he was a consensus, consensus number one edge in this class.
[00:12:32] If you look back at, like, during the college football season, it was, you know, whoever that QB was at one, because, you know, at the time, it was Arch Manning, and eventually it became Mendoza. But Ruben Bane was up there the whole time getting drafted at first or second in most mock drafts. And he just. He had a good Season last year, obviously he got measured at the combine. And NFL teams, you know how they are, they see talent like Bane, but they don't like how short his arms are. So that causes him to slip a bit more than he probably should based on how well he played this year and last year. But I think at 77 still pretty high pick. And the commanders could really, could use an edge and it would really. Their. Their defense would kind of be nasty with Reuben Bane getting added in there. Obviously they got away and they've picked up a couple more pieces throughout the offseason as well.
[00:13:30] At 8, got the saints going. Coronel Tate.
[00:13:34] I think they would want to help out their young quarterback. Well, not necessarily the youngest quarterback, but he is a sophomore quarterback in Tyler Shuck, I believe. What Is he now, 26 or 27 or it's about to be maybe it probably is age 26 season, but bit older there for shock, but they need another weapon. Chris Olave is great.
[00:13:56] The last year they traded Raheed Shahid, so they definitely need another, another wide receiver.
[00:14:05] And Tate is the consensus number one wide receiver in this draft class for a reason.
[00:14:10] He's, he's quick. He's not like super fast, but like his game speed's very good.
[00:14:18] He's a great deep route runner and I think he'd just be a great fit for, for the Saints. And Chuck, we're gonna start speed running it a bit more. At number nine, got the Saints going. Francis Maliaga, the tackle out of Miami. I expect the Chiefs to.
[00:14:36] They. They definitely want to go edge or edge corner or tackle. At 9, I believe. I think the Chiefs kind of, you know, like to draft based off that. I mean, those are probably the three biggest position of needs.
[00:14:48] Obviously, you know, they could use a receiver, but not really. But I think bolstering up the offensive line would be great for the Chiefs. And Andy Reid has already said that's what he plans to do, so I think it makes sense. At number nine. At ten, I got the Giants drafting Jordan Tyson. So now that you have two first round picks and defense is definitely a concern, and I expected the Giants more so to go defense at five, but now that you got the defense at five in Caleb Downs, the guy that I mean they most likely really wanted, we'll. We'll see what ends up happening today. Now you can go Jordan Tyson at 10. And Tyson, he's obviously a great prospect that has slipped down boards just because of injury concerns. If it wasn't for the injury concerns, he'd likely be the number one receiver in this draft class. But obviously that's kind of slipped down a bit. But he's been rising back up. He had a very good pro day. I think he'd be a great fit on the Giants pairing up with, pairing up with Malik Neighbors. I just think there's a, there's many scenarios the Giants can do here at 10 and obviously this is my team.
[00:15:58] Like I said, they could double dip at defense with Mansour Delane. I don't expect them to do it. I think they'd rather prioritize getting a really good, a really good wide receiver too for Jackson Dart here given that they already went secondary and just the way the board like worked out. Like yes you can go fo that's definitely possible. Would want some offensive line help but I just think that Tyson's honestly a better prospect and maybe not necessarily at a more premium position but kind of need it more just given that Jermaine or Luminor we resigned whereas we just lost Wandell Robinson. So if we're looking at what happened this offseason, the receiver is definitely a bigger need at 11 got the dolphins going man. Sort Delane. They really need a cornerback and given the Jermad McCoy news where he might require surgery that could keep him out of his rookie year, I think the Dolphins would take Delane here. He's the consensus cornerback number one at 12.
[00:17:04] Now instead of the Cowboys, it's the Browns who in this scenario would have three first round picks by the way, which would be great for the Browns.
[00:17:13] So that's why I think they would love to trade down. Especially because Spencer Fano is someone they absolutely could target at 6 if they stick and pick there. But instead they trade down to 12, he's still available and they pick up extra first. Sounds like a great deal for the Browns surprisingly. But at least in this scenario at 13 got Makai Lemon for the Rams here. Been mocking this a lot. Rams need a receiver.
[00:17:42] I think Lemons out of the ones available he's easily the best available receiver.
[00:17:48] He's honestly he's just a player that's he's not necessarily like fast or big at all but he put like he plays a lot bigger than he is and he kind of plays faster than than like his 40 time would say too.
[00:18:06] And I think on the Rams here pairing him up with Puka Nukua and Devonte Adams who's on a one year deal, it would be a nasty receiving core this season and Stafford could probably go win another MVP with the that sort of receiving core. They also could go offensive line though at 13.
[00:18:26] At 14 speaking of offensive line got the Ravens going Olivia Vague Ione. I'm really bad at pronouncing his name, but he's one of the safer prospects in this draft class and I think the Ravens would benefit with taking him at 14, especially given they lost Linderbald in the summer. They need interior offensive line at 15 got the bucks going Hakeem Mazador who is older, he's 25 but I mean he's still have time to develop. The Bucks are looking to win their division again next year and hopefully, you know, make a run in the playoffs. They don't want to collapse again but their edge, their, their pressure off the edge was just not good last season. So getting a key mezzer door who's a lot more experienced, he's. He had a great season last year from Miami. Wouldn't make sense for a contending team or a team at least trying to contend in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at 16 got the jets drafting Omar Cooper Jr. Just think he's a good fit. Just need a receiver at number two. They address edge with Bailey. I think this would be a great way of utilizing two first round picks and then of course next year they have three and that's where they'd likely pick their QB of the future.
[00:19:42] But you know getting, getting help on the other side of Garrett Wilson would be great because dude led the team in receiving yards with 395 last year. That's utterly ridiculous. At 17 got the Lions drafting Kaden Proctor offensive tackle out of Alabama.
[00:20:01] I I've mocked this a couple times. I just like the fit lines. Really need offensive line and Proctor is the be best available at least in my opinion. At 18th min the safety out of Oregon got him going to the Vikings. Vikings really need safety. Been mocking this one a lot but I think this one's one of those like if Dynam's there at 18 I'd be shocked if the Vikings want anyone else at 19. Kenyon Siddiq to the Carolina Panthers.
[00:20:34] Sadiq is the easily the best tight end in this draft class. It'd be great weapon for Bryce Young as the Panthers look to repeat in the the NFC South. 20 got the Browns going Kevin Conception, otherwise known as Casey Conception from Texas A and M. The Rams would have this pick from the Cat, not the Rams. The Browns would have this pick from the Cowboys and we know they already addressed offensive tackle. They desperately need a receiver as well and just anything to help whether it's Shadur or whether you're drafting these players so they can develop for your future franchise quarterback. Not sure who would that be but whoever they would draft next year and I think that Casey Conception would be a good foundational piece for that. At 21 Steelers going Monroe Freeling they need offensive line.
[00:21:26] I think that makes sense. 22 Chargers they could use O line but I think they'll go edge here with Ken Kendrick, Keldrick Falk who is a player that I could see going a lot higher than 22 as well. But I think he slips down to the chargers here. At 23 Eagles Caleb Lamu this is a really good fit for the Eagles. They need an offensive tackle and Lamu honestly could play guard too. You know the Eagles like versatile offensive lineman at 24 got the Browns drafting J. McCoy. We talked about his injury which I think would make him slip down the board a bit maybe. I guess theoretically if he is out his entire first season and that's confirmed by draft night then he probably wouldn't get drafted in the first round. He'd slip to the second likely but that isn't confirmed. So for now that's just what I'm going to have McCoy slipping a bit because he definitely could get injury and the injury concern. The surgery and the injury concerns are bad. But at the same time the Browns could be looking to take a risk given they have three first round picks in this scenario. At 25 got the Bears drafting Peter woods, the defensive lineman from Clemson.
[00:22:44] He was he was projected to be a top five pick originally in this draft class.
[00:22:51] Obviously that was in the off season. Leading into the year he had a kind of disappointing gear but so did all of Clemson and I think Peter woods has a lot of talent. His freshman season at Clemson was so good and I, I just think for the Bears here they need defensive tackle. Woods makes perfect sense. At 26 bills got them going. TJ Parker the Edge out of Clemson at 27. 49ers Denzel Boston receiver out of Washington.
[00:23:24] 28 Blake Miller the offensive tackle out of Clemson for the Texans there makes a lot of sense. They need offensive line badly. If you watch the playoffs, you'd know what I mean. 29 Colton Hood the cornerback out of Tennessee.
[00:23:40] 30 Got the Dolphins select Chiefs select Colton Hood. By the way, Max Iron anchor the offensive tackle out of Arizona State. 21 I got a trade.
[00:23:55] I have the Cardinals trading up for Ty Simpson with the Patriots. They'd likely just have to give up a day two or three round pick it's only four, three spots. But the whole point of this is just so they can get Ty Simpson his fifth year option. So keep him under control for an extra year. Makes a lot of sense. Cardinals are the highest chance of drafting Ty Simpson, but it could be anyone. I didn't necessarily know if the Giants were going to draft Jackson Dart or not last year, but they ended up trading up for him in the first round. And I think the Cardinals could do something similar here with ty Simpson at 32. Got the Seahawks going. Chris Johnson, the cornerback out of San Diego State and that is all for my first round mock draft.
[00:24:42] Moving on, we will get into this Knicks vs Hawks series and then we'll talk about a bit of the rest of the NBA. But that's, that's all it's going to be for today once we finish talking about this series. So game one. The Knicks won this one 113 to 102. It was a good game. I was watching the the entire thing and Brunson started this one really hot. It was crazy how well he's playing in the first quarter. Dude couldn't miss a shot. He had 19 in the first quarter, ended up finishing with 28 points and really didn't shoot too well outside the first quarter, but still did what he needed to with 28, 7 and 5. Great game from Brunson. Josh Hart, it kind of seemed like he was doing all the things that Knicks needed. He had three steals. I thought those were very clutch. 11 points, 14 rebounds, five assists. Just Josh art things.
[00:25:35] All 14 of his rebounds were defensive, which is interesting that he didn't get a single offensive rebound. 14 defensive.
[00:25:44] And Towns had a great game as well. 25, 8 and 4.
[00:25:48] And it it the free throws help. He went 10 for 10 from the free throw line and that certainly helped him. But he also went 3 for 4 from 3. He was very efficient in this one. He just wasn't that aggressive.
[00:26:03] But it still ended up working out for the Knicks who had it had issues stopping CJ McCollum, which would become a theme. Who had 26 on 11 of 20 shooting.
[00:26:14] Jaylen Johnson, 23 points, 7 and 3n played pretty well in this game. He didn't shoot too well with 17 points, six to 17 from the field. But he definitely was making his impact on defense and he was decently offensive. Offensively at least. He used passing pretty well. But the Knicks come away with a win that they like they had. They were winning all game. And then it got close for a second which was crazy because The Knicks were up by 20 at some point or 19 at some point in the fourth quarter. And then the Hawks go on 11l run and suddenly they're only up by 8. But the Knicks were able to hold it down and win game one. You know what, it would have been great if they were able to hold it down and win Game 2, but they didn't end up doing that.
[00:27:06] And it was one of my least favorite Knicks games I've ever watched.
[00:27:10] It's time to rant. So that last play of the game, and Jalen Brunson had a great game, by the way, 29.7 assists. He hit a very clutch three when the Knicks were down by four to cut the lead to one.
[00:27:23] So like I said, it's. So like I said, Brunson at the 3, 1 0. It's 107, 103. Brunson hits the 3, 107, 106.
[00:27:33] And we foul CJ McCollum with about five seconds left. I'm thinking, okay, he's likely going to make two, and then you're going to be down by three, and you're going to need a three to even send the game to overtime. So this is probably a loss, and it's a sad loss because you choked in the fourth quarter getting, blowing a 12 point lead, which is just not good at all, especially when you're the better team in the series.
[00:27:58] And yeah, we, we, we came back 20 points down from Boston, but that's different in the fourth quarter especially.
[00:28:06] And like I said, Knicks are the better team in the series, or at least they're supposed to be. So they shouldn't be blowing leads like this. But like I said, 107, 106.
[00:28:17] The, the Knicks foul. McCollum, he misses the first, and I'm sitting there and I'm like, all right, perfect. There's a chance we win the game, but honestly, there, we could just send it to overtime. Now. That'd be great. And then he misses the second one and Josh Hart gets the rebound with about five seconds to go.
[00:28:35] And I see a timeout and I hear the commentator saying, why won't they use their timeout? Hello? And they just don't.
[00:28:43] It's because they didn't have a timeout. And that was just kind of a bug, which was unfortunate because it made me even more frustrated in that instance.
[00:28:51] But because it ended up just being a bug, I guess it made sense that they, that they didn't really have a play to run. They definitely didn't expect McCollum to miss both free throws, especially with how well he played. Dude had 32 points on six assists, three rebounds. And now all Hawks fans are like, wow, look at CJ McCullum dominating in the garden just like Trae Young. And it's like, yeah, yeah, he dominated, but that doesn't mean you guys are going to win the series.
[00:29:20] The Knicks are still the better team and I predict the Knicks will win this one in six. I'd be surprised if the Hawks honestly don't take another game. Just given the resilience in this one and how good McCollum is.
[00:29:32] Not had a bad game and he's been shooting bad in playoffs so far, but he's gonna, he's gonna wake up and be better. Kaminga was great off the bench. Jalen Johnson, like he's pro. He's probably going to be better than 17, 8 and 3. So the Hawks are likely going to get another win in this series, but I don't think they get more than one other win. I think the Knicks still win in six, but just a frustrating sequence to, you know, watch the Knicks get the rebound run down the court and Mikel Bridges to miss a shot that wasn't an easy shot. So it's just like, why was that the shot? Why was it a fade away mid range jumper? Doesn't make any sense to me at all. But that's just what the Knicks decided to do and we ended up losing because of it. When we sold a game that we had a chance to steal back and did it now today the Knicks play at 7pm Game three, it's in Atlanta.
[00:30:28] I predict the Knicks will bounce back and win this one and they kind of have to because you don't want to go down two one as the three seed. That'd be bad luck. But hopefully they'll take care of things and moving on to the rest of the NBA. I'm going to give my predictions for these series.
[00:30:48] Well, my original predictions, I'll tell you which ones change.
[00:30:53] So Thunder sons originally had okc in 4. I expect them to still get this done in 4. Maybe it could go to 5. But thunder were looking dominant in the first two games anyway, so still got okc sweeping lakers rockets. So originally I had the rockets winning this one in six games.
[00:31:12] I thought, yes, LeBron, you know, he's great, but the rest of the team really isn't.
[00:31:17] But Luke Canardis shot 72 from three in the first two games. Marcus Smart's averaging 20, 20 points in the first two games and all Of a sudden the Rockets who yes KD missed game one which was very unexpected and he ended up playing in game two where he scored 20 points in the first half and three in the second half trying to be like Jalen Brunson in game one of mixed series. Except that they the Rockets also lost this game because LeBron had a great game. Marcus Smart, like I said, Luke Canard, like it's crazy. No Reaves, no Luka. And the lakers are still up 20 on the Rockets and the Rockets are just incredibly disappointing me. They need to win the two games at home for me to, to have any faith in them and that will be tomorrow that we see game three in Houston. But for now, like I said, really got no, not a lot of faith in this team. And I'm changing my pick to Lakers and six.
[00:32:19] I wouldn't be surprised if Rockets start fighting back. But we're going to get to a point where you know, Luca might be coming back. It might be coming coming back in round two. If the Lakers end up taking 3, 0 lead, they definitely wouldn't rush him back. But the fact they're up 20 is very shocking.
[00:32:34] They easily could blow it. But given from what I've watched and the Luka could come back. The fact that they got up to this 20 lead was exactly what they needed to do if they wanted to win the series.
[00:32:47] Now they got six more chances to win two games. So I think they will and like I said, I think they'll win in six. Now there's Nuggets, Timberwolves games. This was. I had Nuggets in seven and I'm sticking with Nuggets and seven.
[00:33:03] Just such a crazy first round matchup especially given like these like how good these two teams really are and like Denver and Minnesota again.
[00:33:16] Minnesota, you know, in recent years have, or at least most recently was better and they won a series against the Nuggets.
[00:33:24] That's how I mean the Minnesota has been in the last two Western Conference finals and they had to beat the Nuggets to get to the way there. And now they have to beat the Nuggets in this series on the road. But you know, taking game two was great for the Timberwolves. I still think the Nuggets get it done. Like, I mean this, this Nuggets team, especially with Nicole Yage, they really could make a championship run. I just think the Timberwolves are also a team that could make a championship run too. That's very possible. Or at least the conference finals again. It'd be a rough path going through the Nuggets and likely the spurs, but nonetheless it's definitely possible.
[00:34:10] Spurs Trailblazers I got this. I originally had the spurs in five and now I'm gonna have the spurs in six over the Trailblazers.
[00:34:22] The Victor Webanyama injury I'm not sure how long it's going to take for him to recover.
[00:34:30] It's apparently he's gotten some good news. He's going to travel with the team. He's in concussion protocol.
[00:34:37] They should be able to win games without him given how stacked of a roster it is. Like yes, Wemby's the MVP guy, but they shouldn't be blowing games to the Trailblazers like they did in Game two.
[00:34:48] But you know Wemby did go down so there is a bit of an excuse but this spurs team should be a bit better. But given with how the Trailblazers played, I'd be surprised if they don't take another game. Like I said with the Knicks Hawk series, so I expect this one to go to six Pistons Magic Magic shocked everyone when they beat the Pistons game one and extended the Pistons home game home playoff game losing streak, which I believe was like 13 straight games at home or something like that. Maybe I'm exaggerating, but it was the last time they won at home was in 2008. They end up winning game two, but I think the Pistons are still going to advance in this series. But the Magic taking game one that really scared me for the Pistons I got them taking it in six. Cavs Raptors cabs up 20 I I think the Raptors are going to play better especially at home so they'll get they'll make the series a six game series. But I still still think the Cavs come away with it. And my original prediction was Cavs in six.
[00:35:58] They looked great in this first two games so maybe they sweep the Raptors. It's definitely possible.
[00:36:04] Knicks Hawks we already talked about it.
[00:36:06] Got my knicks advancing in six and finally 76ers Celtics. Isn't it crazy? 76ers one game two after looking so bad in game one.
[00:36:16] That's what happens in basketball sometimes. 111.97 in that one after getting blown out 123 to 91.
[00:36:24] If only they had embiid it'd be a lot better. I think the Celtics still get it done in five but it's always nice seeing the Celtics lose. Except the 76ers won so can't even really feel good about the Celtics losing when the 76ers win. But you know, hate the Boston Celtics and the Knicks and the Celtics will likely face off in the second round against each other.
[00:36:48] So we shall see whether or not that be the case to everyone. Happy draft day. Cannot wait to see who my New York Giants select with these two picks and why they're the best two players in the draft. I will see you guys next time.
