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  • But let's talk about who's gonna make the cut in the playoffs, because we know that the Bucks and the Clippers great regular season success we expected and had high hopes for them last year in the bubble.

  • But both had to take those early exits in the second round.

  • If you had to think about this season and who's really built for the playoffs, Jalen, who would you go with?

  • I gotta go with the Clippers because I've seen Koala.

  • Nor do it went to the East in one year, and one of the teams that they beat on their run with the Raptors was the Bucks because he's clutch and one of those places, a game winning shot against the Sixers.

  • They had Joel Embiid in tears.

  • I've seen Koala do it.

  • Yana struggles in close games.

  • The Bucks are three and eight in close close games this year.

  • He struggled shooting.

  • The three struggled at the free throw line.

  • They're still trying to find their identity at the end of game.

  • It's so interesting, cause we're still talking about John is putting up M V P numbers, but still there's a trust factor there in that post season.

  • Uncle P.

  • Who would you go with?

  • Who do you trust more in the playoffs, man?

  • They both have been disappointed, but I have to go with Jana, said the Los Angeles Clippers.

  • I really think they're really prime this year to make a run.

  • I'm looking at what they've been doing offensively.

  • They're one of the great three point shooting teams in the league.

  • They got to shut down defenders when it gets down to it.

  • And so I just feel like the Clippers, you know, they're gonna learn from their past battles and build on that, uh, Milwaukee.

  • I just feel like I just don't have enough trust in them.

  • You know, once the playoffs start, they show me over the last couple of years that they can't close out in the big games.

  • And so I got to go with the Los Angeles Clippers on this one.

  • You know, Paul mentions the Clippers ability to shoot the three this year.

  • How well they've shot it.

  • A big part of that is the way the ball has moved.

  • Guys are open to shoot threes and Tai Lu and his first year as head coach there, I think part of what he really has sold Paul, George and Kawhi Leonard on is We are going to play through you on offense, but you have got to make guys better around you.

  • The balls got to move.

  • It's that's happened this year and, you know, you talk to Clipper players.

  • You talked to management there.

  • They love what Tyler has done with this team.

  • The way one person phrased it to me, he has the ability to hold guys accountable without leaving scars and listen.

  • He his in game adjustments, his ability, Uh, you know, outside of the game as he moves forward and watching film and and really being a very hands on the head coach with this group.

  • Remember, this team has been 18 and five with Paul, George and Kawhi Leonard.

  • Uh, I think for the Clippers the coaching change to Ty Lue.

  • They've started to see the benefit of it, and and remember, this is a head coach who won a championship in Cleveland.

  • Got to the finals three times.

  • Yeah, and remember, he's the only coach in history to battle back from being down 31 in the finals and walk away with that victory against the Warriors.

  • But let's switch or switch and go over to the buck side.

  • And we talked about it.

  • The reinforcements that Janice is gonna get you reported yesterday that Drew Holiday will be back, and that is an important addition for this Bucks team.

  • Yeah, listen, they made a significant deal in the off season to get through holiday from New Orleans.

  • It was a big part of the reason that Yannis attended.

  • Capo felt confident enough in the future of this organization to sign that extension.

  • They've been five and five without holiday, and and now he comes back and you see what this Bucks team could be with the honest with Chris Middleton and obviously holiday.

  • And I think now, uh, you know, this is a team, um that ultimately is going to be judged on how and its head coach, Mike Budenholzer, are going to be judged on how they advance in the postseason.

  • We've seen them great in the regular season, but, like the Clippers will be judged on May June July, and he's a guy that can initiate offense.

  • So as Chris Middleton, that's why I would like to see Yannis be more of a recipient in the half court than an initiator with him not being a three point shooter.

  • They're backing off of him 8.5 ft like they're physically distancing from him when he has the ball.

  • And so when those guys can initiate the offense that he could be a screening mover and cutter kind of like the Pelicans are doing with Zion, I'd like to see John is getting more on the move through holiday.

  • He's on pace to shoot at 50% from the field for the first time in his career.

  • You saw the numbers.

  • They're 15 and eight when he's on the court, so it's going to matter.

  • Um, do you think that adding Drew holiday back into the fold for the Bucks?

  • Uncle Pete gives you a little bit more trust in Milwaukee.

  • I mean, yeah, for the regular season.

  • But check this out when the last time we've seen the team get to the NBA Finals without a second All Star Chris Middleton didn't make the All Star team this year through holiday.

  • He's not an all Star, so, you know.

  • Yeah, they got better at the point guard, drew He's a competitor on the defensive end.

  • He's a distributor.

  • He's somebody you can trust.

  • But I just don't see this Bucks team getting over the hump with just that move.

  • They lack the depth.

  • I think teams are figured out.

  • John is in the playoffs to where he's not going to be effective, Uh, in the later rounds, and he's going to have to rely on his teammates.

  • But all those people, let me ask you guys this over the hump.

  • I want to hear from you and Jalen.

  • What can Yannis do?

  • Then he's averaging 25 10 and five like, What can he do to make you believe in him or get over that hump?

  • Does it just have to happen in the postseason?

  • Is there anything else he can do because it's averaging those M V P numbers?

  • Absolutely.

  • It's not just him, though.

  • It's like, Do you trust his sidekicks?

  • Do you trust Chris Middleton?

  • When it gets tough, who's gonna be that guy down the stretch?

  • We already know that if your star player, who is John is, he's not a great free throw shooter, he can't create his own shot down the stretch is Chris Middleton, that guy that you can trust, and that's the type of guy you need in close playoff games is a guy that could trust, say, Hey, listen, the game is on the line, We're gonna give you the ball.

  • Can you bring us home?

  • Can he be that guy?

  • And we haven't seen that?

  • I think Janice and this Bugs group have one more year.

  • Maria to breakthrough.

  • I'm not.

  • As a matter of fact, it's Paul on that one, just because of the guy that's on the screen and you're right, Paul.

  • He wasn't an All Star because he got snubbed.

  • You okay?

  • If he would have took Julius Randle spot, who, by the way, shut me up yesterday because he bullies the bonus, He earned the spot.

  • It happens on the floor.

  • He got snubbed.

  • He's one of six guys that averaging 25 5 with a 50 40.

  • So Chris Middleton is an All Star level player.

  • Middleton is an all star lover player, and so his Drew holiday Ben in the Western Conference that those three are good enough to help carry this Milwaukee team is the rest of their roster deep enough.

  • Do they have enough?

  • But this is a team that ultimately, I think, for Mike Budenholzer moving forward.

  • He's got a year left on his contract.

  • Listen, the Clippers made a move after getting knocked out early last year.

  • Doc Rivers was out.

  • Mike Budenholzer came back in Milwaukee.

  • I do think his future in Milwaukee is very tied to the postseason success of this team they've got.

  • He's implemented a new system here.

  • They've got time to work through it in this regular season.

  • But I think for Budenholzer future and being being a long term coach for this Bucks team, I think there'll be a lot of judgment on that in these players.

  • Maria.

  • That's the same thing about Janet's M V P candidacy.

  • It's like he's gonna now be judged by what happened in the postseason.

  • He could put up the same numbers, but his regular season narrative won't be there.

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But let's talk about who's gonna make the cut in the playoffs, because we know that the Bucks and the Clippers great regular season success we expected and had high hopes for them last year in the bubble.

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