Club 520 Host Jeff Teague Talks NBA Playoffs, Giannis & More with Rich

Jeff Teague is not in the breaking-up-the-Jays camp.

The Club 520 podcast host joined Rich on Tuesday and walked through nearly every storyline left in the postseason, and the Celtics piece was the one he had spent the most time on. With Jason Tatum out and a lingering question about whether Joe Mazzulla's three-point-or-die approach has run its course, Brockman pitched the obvious offseason scenario: trade Jaylen Brown for Giannis Antetokounmpo, salary-match style.

Teague said no. He spent five teams' worth of locker rooms, including a stretch in Milwaukee and a long run with the Hawks, telling Rich he is convinced the issue is around the Jays, not between them.

"I just think JB and JT, it worked. They won a championship," Teague said. "The surrounding pieces were really good. Al Horford made shots. Porzingis made shots even though he was hurt. Jrue Holiday was special for them."

His read: keep Tatum and Brown, move off Derrick White, find a real big.

Teague was less generous about Brown's accusation that Joel Embiid's flopping is ruining the league. He called it sore-loser energy from a series the Celtics had three chances to win. "He's been getting foul bait and doing that forever, his whole career," Teague said. The free-throw-merchant complaint, in Teague's view, is a strategy nobody else has bothered to copy. If Shai Gilgeous-Alexander wins MVP and a title using the same template, Teague said, he would put it in his own game.

The Lakers-Thunder series got a clean prediction. Teague has Oklahoma City in five.

"I think OKC is just a machine right now," he said. "Cason Wallace, Lou Dort, they're going to be picking up full court trying to cause havoc with Austin Reaves and LeBron."

Pressed on what could change his mind, Teague went straight to Luka. With a healthy Luka Doncic, the math is different. Without him, Teague does not see the Lakers outlasting Oklahoma City over a series, even with Reaves playing the best basketball of his career.

The reluctant compliment came when Rich asked about the Knicks. Teague is from Indiana, played for the Pacers, and remembers Reggie Miller against Spike Lee in a way that does not just go away. So when he had to admit New York is playing the best basketball in the East right now, he buried it under three minutes of Pacer-fan grievance.

"They just not playing the Pacers," he said.

Then he gave them the East. If the Knicks can avoid Detroit and pull a Cleveland matchup, Teague said, Jalen Brunson is enough to make the Finals real. The catch: Mitchell Robinson has to make a free throw.

The Anthony Edwards story in Minnesota got Teague's biggest reaction. He did not see it coming, said as much, and called Edwards a "problem" in a way that did not need elaboration. He has the Spurs-Wolves series going seven and refused to pick a side, citing too many friends on both rosters.

The most fun moment came at the end. Brockman asked Teague to confirm he was inside the 2019 Embiid-Towns scuffle, the one where Karl-Anthony Towns had Embiid in a headlock and Ben Simmons jumped in. Teague's defense was honest.

"I ran down there, tried to get Joel Embiid," he said. "I don't know what I was thinking. He's 300 pounds. I'm 190. I thought I was doing something. I wasn't doing anything."

He left the show with a Knicks-in-the-Finals pick, a Giannis-stays-in-Milwaukee read, and exactly the kind of league-wide rolodex that explains why the man has played for nearly every franchise.