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00:00Pick number 10 will be made by the Houston Rockets.
00:06Houston receives this pick from Phoenix due to multiple previous trades.
00:10Yeah, see, that's the thing.
00:11When you don't win the lottery, then the whole thing is just a big popcorn fart.
00:15You don't move up in the lottery.
00:16Just a stupid event.
00:16It's a stupid event, and it was funny.
00:18Yesterday, Amy texted me, and she's like,
00:20hey, you want to get some wings tonight and just sit and watch the lottery?
00:24I'm not even joking.
00:25She texted me that, and I'm like, yeah, that sounds great.
00:28Wings sound delicious, and the lottery could be a lot of fun
00:31if the Rockets move up like they did last year.
00:34We had the wings out.
00:35We had our TV trays ready to go, and then 18 seconds into it,
00:39the Rockets have the 10th pick in the draft.
00:41I'm like, well, that wasn't fun.
00:43These wings better be good.
00:44Yeah.
00:45You know, salvage the evening.
00:46That went last night.
00:47You missed it.
00:48The Rockets were in the lottery last night because they have Phoenix's pick.
00:52If the lottery went just according to the odds,
00:55the Rockets would have been picking ninth.
00:56Unfortunately, one of the teams behind them in the lottery
01:00was able to move up into the top three.
01:02In fact, this particular team moved all the way up into the top one,
01:06and that is the Dallas Mavericks.
01:08So the Rockets –
01:09They had a 1.8 percent chance.
01:12Now the conspiracy theories are flying,
01:15and we'll get into those here in just a second.
01:16But in case you missed how it all laid out,
01:19the Rockets very early on we found out they would be picking 10th.
01:23We'll see if they hang on to that pick or they mix it into a trade.
01:26And then you get to the final four,
01:29and the final four teams were Charlotte, Philly,
01:31who was in tank mode last year after Joel Embiid got hurt.
01:35It was looking – Daryl Morey looked completely like stress.
01:38He has head on the table.
01:39Like he couldn't bear to watch.
01:43Daryl Morey is now the GM in Philadelphia, former Rockets GM.
01:47And then the other two Texas teams, the Spurs and the Mavericks,
01:50those were the teams that had moved up into the last four teams.
01:54When they started unveiling those
01:56and it got down to Dallas and San Antonio in the last two,
01:59I'm like, all right, this sucks
02:01because the other two Texas teams are now picking first and second.
02:05This is a draft where there's a big difference between first and second.
02:08Cooper Flagg is viewed as maybe not Victor Wimbayama level generational,
02:12but a clear number one overall pick in this draft.
02:15For me, Seth, the only saving grace in this thing
02:17is that the Spurs didn't get that pick.
02:19I don't need to be here for yet another Spurs lottery win
02:24in a year where they were planning on actually improving and being good.
02:27The only reason they're in that mix to get up in the lottery
02:30is because Victor Wimbayama got hurt last year,
02:33and they're like, all right, well, screw it.
02:34We don't need to make –
02:35I don't even know if they're going to make the playoffs anyways,
02:37even with Wimbayama, but we know David Robinson,
02:40lottery win back in the day.
02:41They got Tim Duncan in the lottery the one year David Robinson gets hurt,
02:45and they win that lottery for definitely a generational top ten player of all time.
02:50They win the Wimbayama.
02:53I didn't need to see Cooper Flagg and Victor Wimbayama on the same team
02:56for the next 15 years.
02:57That's facing issues.
02:59And what have you –
03:00not to mention, it would be all too convenient that, oh, Popovich retires,
03:05and now you're moving forward with a new number one overall pick and what have you.
03:11The – I don't know.
03:13I guess I'm going to be unpopular, but there's just no way around this.
03:17I just – I cannot buy into conspiracy theories about the NBA draft lottery
03:22without actually having evidence of there being some kind of weird conspiracy
03:26that the Mavericks would be the most favored nation status
03:30and that all the league owners around the league,
03:34all these hyper-competitive billionaires decide every year,
03:37well, hey, who should we just go ahead and give the number one overall pick to this year?
03:41It doesn't make any sense.
03:43It doesn't make any sense.
03:44I'm sorry.
03:44I'm sorry.
03:45Sometimes things are random and they happen and circumstances are just –
03:49this is the way it works.
03:51I think the NBA could actually maybe by being a little bit more transparent
03:56and get rid of the ping pong balls and just go old school with –
04:01Envelopes?
04:01Slip – not even envelopes, slips of paper or whatever it might be.
04:06The key is how do you – and you've got to do it like right out in front of everybody,
04:10like write the name down on the paper, put it in.
04:13But even that wouldn't work.
04:14There's no way in hell that people won't be accusing the NBA of vast conspiracy theories
04:19every year after the lottery.
04:20There's no solution.
04:22It's just – yeah, there is no solution.
04:24Now, the conspiracy theory – the point you brought up at the end there is the best point,
04:29which is all the other owners would have to agree.
04:33That's the silly thing.
04:34I put down $2 billion of my own money to buy this team.
04:37But, yeah, sure, let's just go ahead and give it to the Mavs this year.
04:40The conspiracy theory is more about the Lakers than it is the Mavericks that I've seen, Seth.
04:45Yeah.
04:45That at the behest of Adam Silver, the commissioner of the league,
04:50the Mavs agreed to send Luka to the Lakers to put him in a big market with LeBron,
04:55you know, one of their top stars, put him there in exchange for the NBA fixing the lottery
05:00in the Mavericks' favor.
05:01Right.
05:01Yeah, so –
05:02And, well, yeah, Nico Harrison, the GM, was just all part.
05:05He was playing five-dimensional chess the whole time.
05:07And making himself look like a moron in the process.
05:10Yeah.
05:10You know what I mean?
05:11Like, he – in this conspiracy theory, he would have to sacrifice his reputation
05:15as a moderately intelligent human being.
05:19And say things like, I didn't realize how popular Luka was in Dallas.
05:25Oopsie.
05:26You know, in the 30 years they've been doing it this way, we have yet, as far as I know,
05:30please, somebody forward it to us if you have – like, any actual evidence of anybody
05:34doing anything like that.
05:36There's just – it's just – people don't like the results, and they're – they point
05:42out a potential motivation, and in this day and age especially, as long as there's motivation,
05:47then it definitely happens.
05:49Oh, yeah.
05:49Sean, I am terrified of the day that I am wrongfully accused of murder, because – especially
05:57if it's an unpopular person, because if that person gets up and they point out my motive
06:01for why I would have killed him, the jury would be like, yeah, he totally would have
06:05wanted to kill him.
06:05It's totally plausible, man.
06:06It's totally plausible.
06:07Yeah, the – in the hour after the night rigged was trending – the word rigged was trending
06:17on Twitter.
06:19Will Kunkel of Fox 26 put up a – put up a poll last night.
06:24Yeah, I haven't looked at the results, I'll guess.
06:26This is why – but I know – I saw your reaction to the poll.
06:29I just said he was – those all.
06:30So, yeah, you can – yeah.
06:31What's the – what's the question?
06:33The question is very simple.
06:34Do you believe the NBA draft lottery was rigged?
06:37Okay.
06:37I'm just – I'm guessing – you said yowza.
06:41I'm guessing it's 87% said yes.
06:44Okay, I'm going to give you – I'll give you a ding for that.
06:4690 – as of right now, there's still 11 hours left to vote.
06:49Yeah.
06:4991% said yes.
06:53Nine –
06:53Yeah.
06:549% no.
06:55I just – yeah, I know.
06:56Oh, Seth, you're a schmuck.
06:57You're a sucker.
06:57Oh, you're so naive.
06:58You don't know the way things work.
07:00Yeah, I get it.
07:00I get it.
07:01You seem –
07:02I'm just a patsy.
07:03You seem as disgusted about this as anything I've seen you disgusted about in a long time.
07:08It's just – it's honestly the conspiracy – it's become the new form of logic.
07:14It's that – just as long as – as long as there's a plausible motivation for somebody
07:19to do something, then they totally did it.
07:21And I 100% agree.
07:22And that's – and you can't – that's why I don't take in anything political on social
07:27media, because it's 98% that.
07:30Yeah.
07:30Like, oh, they did this, so obviously that's why they did it, and they're all guilty.
07:34So your frustration with this is beyond – it sounds like well beyond just a few ping-pong
07:40balls in a lottery.
07:40Yeah, that's – okay, so yeah.
07:42That's what I'm saying.
07:43And I'll be unpopular for it.
07:45Our ratings will plummet for this.
07:46I'll probably get death threats.
07:47Yeah.
07:48It's just –
07:49Yeah.
07:50Yeah.
07:52You start giving up –
07:53Who's been Seth Payne?
07:54Obviously Adam Silver.
07:55Right.
07:56Obviously Adam Silver has already sent the check to Seth Payne.
07:59They got to him.
08:00They got to him.
08:00I need to see his Venmo account.
08:02The reactions on this – the reactions on this are interesting.
08:07Someone says, when will the Rockets catch a break?
08:09And I don't know if that's sarcastic or if it's real.
08:12They have not – other than Reed Shepard last year and them moving up with Brooklyn's pick,
08:18the Rockets have probably – for where their record was all those recent years they've
08:22been in the lottery, they probably wound up on the wrong side of where they should have
08:25been.
08:25They were the worst team in the league a couple of times and they never wound up with the
08:29number one overall pick.
08:30I will remind people – and maybe you're a young listener and you need a history lesson
08:35here.
08:35The Rockets are one of the major reasons that the NBA lottery even exists.
08:40The Rockets went into total tank mode back in 1984.
08:44They had drafted Ralph Sampson in 83.
08:47They went into tank mode in 84 back when the version of the lottery then was the two worst
08:52teams.
08:53There was a coin flip between the two worst teams and the winner got the number one pick
08:57and the loser got the number two pick.
08:59And the Rockets are like, well, if we just finish in the bottom two, we're going to have
09:03a 50-50 shot at Hakeem Olajuwon.
09:05And so that was the very next year was the first ever NBA lottery with the non-playoff
09:10teams that immediately the conspiracy theory started because Patrick Ewing wound up in
09:15New York.
09:15Well, plus the Rockets have overperformed versus probability in the last four years.
09:22They've had –
09:22Have they?
09:23Yeah.
09:24They've had – no, you don't get the tie.
09:25They've been winning the lottery.
09:27They've been doing very well in the lottery.
09:30So –
09:32Well, they were the worst team in basketball and they've never been picking first.
09:36That's –
09:36Right.
09:36But they haven't been picking first, but it's still –
09:38Right.
09:38But they're still overperformed by probability of them getting the number three pick or number
09:42four pick or number three pick or number two pick.
09:44Yeah.
09:44I mean, they've been in the top four the last four years.
09:47That's true.
09:47They're not Utah who got – who was the worst team and is picking fifth right now.
09:52Right, right.
09:52No, they've – like, the Rockets have had very good luck in the lottery.
09:56They've had a top four pick for four years.
09:58Yeah.
09:58So, yeah, I just – so I guess the league is helping out the Rockets.
10:02If you're a conspiracy theorist that 100% believe that it's rigged, then you are also – you
10:08have to concede that the league, for whatever reason, is giving it to their darling, the
10:13Houston Rockets.
10:14Yeah.
10:14Yeah, yeah.
10:16Let's see here.
10:18Someone says, Seth, I will protect you.
10:19Don't worry.
10:20Seth, after hours hearing you out, it was rigged.
10:26Oh, after hearing you out, someone says dot, dot, dot, it was rigged.
10:29It was – I know, I know, I know, I know.
10:32I'm not going to fight it anymore.
10:34Yeah.
10:34I'm going to go live in my hole in the woods.
10:35I started digging it a couple weeks ago.
10:37Oh, yeah?
10:38How deep?
10:38Yeah.
10:38I haven't told Brandy about it yet.
10:40Hopefully, she's not listening right now.
10:41She's got a hole – what's that?
10:42How deep do you need to go for a proper hole in the ground?
10:46I need to – I don't know.
10:47Somebody with military experience or one of our oil and gas people tell me, how deep
10:51does my bunker need to be for people – for ground troops not to be able to discover it?
10:55Yeah.
10:55But, like, from above with some kind of a scanner?
10:58Yeah.
10:58Like, 15 feet deep?
11:0020 feet deep?
11:00I'm not sure.
11:01Text in.
11:02But then you've got a hole – Sean, I've done the research.
11:04You know, I've got to have my air holes put up in strategic locations far away from
11:08the bunker, but then have a self-exploding mechanism that I can't follow it back to the –
11:15This wasn't a joke.
11:17Seth has a long list of things that are going into this bunker.
11:20Brandy asked for – Brandy wanted me to make a list of improvements I wanted to make to
11:24the landscape this year, and I sent her back a series of explosive perimeters and charges
11:33around our house.
11:35That's cute.
11:36We've got to clear all the landscape for at least 300 yards.
11:39Okay.
11:40So I can have my sniper rifle on top of our roof.
11:43Someone is –
11:44You're ready.
11:44Just a full 360 degree.
11:46Someone is ready for end of days.
11:47Yeah.
11:48I'm a prepper.
11:48I'm a prepper.
11:50The other story with this – I mean, obviously, we're focused on the Rockets' side of it.
11:54And honestly, to me, the worst part for the Rockets isn't that they got the 10th pick
11:58in the draft.
11:59I wasn't expecting them to win the lottery or even get into the top four.
12:02It's that the two Texas teams got the top two picks.
12:05It's that Cooper Flagg is now in your division.
12:08The Mavericks kind of get a get-out-of-jail-free card with this lottery.
12:12I'm putting the conspiracy theories aside and assuming that this was random luck that they
12:16got this, okay, for the conspiracy theories.
12:19Look, Cooper Flagg's a choke artist.
12:21I was not impressed with him.
12:22Yeah, he doesn't have it in the clutch.
12:24All kinds of flubs in the fourth quarter during the playoffs.
12:28And yeah, no, not – screw Cooper Flagg.
12:31But this is where I'm going with this.
12:33And I think he's going to be good.
12:35And I know you're like half-joking.
12:38But you're right.
12:39Like, he wasn't great in the tournament.
12:40But the fact that I think the Mavericks kind of get a reprieve with their fan base.
12:46So, like, that was a fan base that was totally out on that franchise.
12:50Like, they were protesting.
12:53They were not showing – they either didn't show up to games or would show up to games
12:57to yell at people who made these decisions.
12:59Fire Nico, they were chanting.
13:01And if I were the Mavericks, I would still fire Nico Harrison.
13:04I don't think you can have him anywhere near any of these decisions.
13:07And it's easy to make the decision to draft Cooper Flagg.
13:10He'll be the number one pick.
13:11It's all the decisions that subsequently need to get made over the next few years
13:14to build a team around him because he traded for aging, injured superstars.
13:22So, that's the part for me.
13:24I'm like, oh, Dallas was feeling bad as a city about their basketball team.
13:29And now this gives them something to feel good about.
13:31And I don't want those people to have things to feel good about.
13:34That's the thing for me is that, you know,
13:36Cooper Flagg does re-inject some hope in their franchise.
13:40I want a hopeless Dallas.
13:41It's more fun when we have hope down here and they don't have any hope up there.
13:44That's how I feel about it.
13:45Yes, yes.
13:46No, and I think 87% of Mavericks fans are convinced that Nico Harrison will trade away
13:52this number one overall pick.
13:53Or draft a baseball player.
13:55That's what I said on Twitter last night.
13:57He's going to accidentally draft the wrong sport.
14:00It's kind of like with the Browns when they do anything well in the drafts.
14:03I'm just expecting them to completely blow it up anyway.
14:07Yeah, great.
14:08If they had taken Travis Hunter, sure.
14:12Good.
14:12Let's see what the Browns would have done with Travis Hunter.
14:15They'll screw it up.
14:16They'll screw it up.
14:17Yeah.
14:17Look, don't get me wrong.
14:19I hope they keep Nico Harrison from now until the end of time up there.
14:23But, yeah.
14:24So, that part kind of sucked.
14:27And now San Antonio has a nice asset.
14:33Presumably, it seems like San Antonio and Houston are the two.
14:37I don't know if they're the most likely landing spots for Giannis, but they're the ones.
14:40Those are the two teams that, if they want Giannis, have the wherewithal and the assets to go do it.
14:46And San Antonio, the number two pick in the draft, is a really, even in a one-player draft,
14:51is a really, really nice dangling chip there to get a Giannis trade done.
14:56So, there's that, too.
14:58All right.
14:59Payne and Pendergast with you.
15:00We'll get back to the Rockets a little later in the show and their offseason.
15:03Kelly Eco of The Athletic had a really good piece kind of laying out some of the,
15:07where the Rockets are on some of these potential superstars that could be available.
15:11And Giannis may be available.
15:13Giannis has been given, I don't know, given permission, but he's looking around.
15:18For the first time, he's open to maybe leaving Milwaukee.
15:20The Rockets are absolutely going to factor into that as well.