In a mega-Las Vegas episode, Zach talks to Ian Begley of SNY about the Knicks offseason and outlook, crashes Larry Nance Jr. (34:20) to talk Pelicans and Zion, and then visits with the NBA's Evan Wasch (1:07:18) to discuss the new play-in tournament and the craziest ideas the league office has ever discussed.BegleyNo need to rush things (5:38)The big swings the Knicks could take (9:33)Knicks monitoring Embiid (16:05)Trading Obi Toppin and where we are on Randle (20:41)Immanuel Quickley extension coming (25:55)Knicks are in a good place (31:47)NanceLoves seeing the success of former Laker teammates (36:24)clapping back at media report about Zion’s work ethic (38:07)Not crazy to say that Zion is a top 5 offensive player in the league when healthy (43:04)lot of buzz around Trey Murphy (46:32)on his journeyman career (49:21)on how he traded houses with Josh Hart (54:18)stories from the cast of characters on his team as a rookie (57:15)WaschDetails of In-Season Tournament (1:09:31)Tournament nights (1:11:58)Any thought to including G League or International teams? (1:15:05)Figuring out compensation for winning team (1:18:39)Rules, gameplay, and structure questions (1:24:06)Out of the box ideas that have been discussed at the league office (1:27:58)How tanking has been disincentivized (1:31:47)How far are we going to go with automated officiating (1:35:34) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mike Vokunov interviews Evan Wasch, EVP of Basketball Strategy & Analytics at the NBA, about creating the NBA schedule and the challenges of the In Season Tournament. They discuss the considerations involved in scheduling tournament and regular season games, the collaboration within the league, and the metrics used for scheduling. The podcast also features advertisements for NBA 2k mobile and Factor sponsor. They also delve into prioritizing factors in creating NBA schedules and discuss opponent matrices, in-season tournament scheduling, and financial implications of hosting tournament games.